As a neologism for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the modern construct 'Abrahamic religions' is as ubiquitous as it is contested in the study of the monotheistic religions. Some have argued against the use of the concept on both historical and theological grounds. In particular, the concept is often interpreted as ecumenically motivated in the thought of Louis Massignon. This understanding arises from a parochial interpretation of its origins, in which Massignon's reflections on the subject over time, as well as its varied uses in recent times, have not been fully considered. This thesis calls for a more extensive historical analysis of its genealogy with the aim of discussing its intellectual and cultural backgrounds. In doing so, it seeks to shed light on how the interrelationships between the three religions had been historically examined prior to Massignon, and how the birth of the concept in his thought and its subsequent uses offer a richer understanding of the concept that goes beyond ecumenical significance. To this end, this thesis unpacks the concept by probing into its antecedents, examining its birth, and reflecting on its future. The first chapter aims to show the historical basis for considering a genus for the three religions, by surveying perspectives on Abraham in historia sacra, and thereafter, discussing works in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that explore the connections between the three religions. The second and third chapters introduce Massignon and discuss his Abrahamic thought from both its socio-religious and intellectual perspectives. The main text examined here is his Les trois prières d'Abraham. The fourth chapter traces the different trajectories of the concept after Massignon and highlights its nuanced meanings as derived from these variegated uses. The fifth and concluding chapters explore the ways in which the concept can profit the study of religion.

M.Litt. et Phil.

D.Litt. et Phil. / This thesis combines Targum studies with Judaic studies. First, secondary sources were examined and independent research was done to ascertain the historical process that took place in the compilation of extant Pentateuchal Targums (Fragment Targum [Recension P, MS Paris 110], Neofiti 1, Onqelos and Pseudo-Jonathan). Second, a framework for evaluating Jewish exegetical practices within the age of formative Judaism was established with the scrutiny of midrashic texts on Genesis 1: 26-27. Third, individual targumic renderings of Genesis 1: 26-27 were compared with the Hebrew Masoretic text and each other and then juxtaposed with midrashic literature dating from the age of formative Judaism. Last, the outcome of the second and third step was correlated with findings regarding the historical process that took place in the compilation of the Targums, as established in step one. The findings of the summative stage were also juxtaposed with the linguistic characterizations of the Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project (CAL) of Michael Sokoloff and his colleagues.The thesis can report the following findings: (1) Within the age of formative Judaism pharisaic sages and priest sages assimilated into a new group of Jewish leadership known as ‘rabbis’. Under the direction of these scholars, Pentateuchal Targums were collectively and purposefully redacted for use in liturgical, educational or halakhic contexts. This finding counters the alternative view that priestly groups remained distinct from rabbinic circles until the fourth century C.E. and that priests alone were responsible for the compilation of Targum Pseudo-Jonathan. (2) The analysis of midrashic literature revealed different modes of exegesis used by Tannaim and Amoraim, thus providing information on the time and context wherein midrashic passages were compiled. When midrashic passages were then juxtaposed with individual renderings of Genesis 1: 26-27, it became possible to obtain more specific information on the dating and purpose for which extant Pentateuchal Targums were compiled. (3) The comparison of targumic renderings of Genesis 1: 26-27 with the Hebrew Masoretic Text and each other challenges the assumption that all extant Targums were compiled for the Synagogue. In Fragment Targum and Neofiti 1, haggadic rendering goes together with the popular Aramaic dialect used in Synagogue services, while the use of Standard Literary Aramaic employed in the context of halakhic decision-making characterizes the literal rendering of Targum Onqelos. The use of different dialects in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (PJ) in conjunction with an expansive rendering of Genesis 1: 26-27, which concurs with rhetorical arguments of Palestinian Amoraim in the Palestinian Talmud and Genesis Rabbah, may be an indication that PJ was used for educational purposes.

The subject of this thesis is Jewish conversion to Christianity in medieval England. The majority of the material covered dates between 1066 and c.1290. The overall argument of the thesis contends that converts to Christianity in England remained essentially Jews. Following a discussion of the relevant secondary literature, which examines the existing discussion of converts and conversion, the principal arguments contained in the chapters of the thesis include the assertion that the increasing restrictiveness of the laws and rules regulating the Jewish community in England created a push factor towards conversion, and that converts to Christianity inhabited a legal grey area, neither under the jurisdiction of the Exchequer of the Jews, nor completely outside of it. Numerous questions are asked (and answered) about the variety of convert experience, in order to argue that there was a distinction between leaving Judaism and joining Christianity. Two convert biographies are presented. The first shows how the liminality that was a part of the conversion process affected the post-conversion life of a convert, and the second shows how a convert might successfully integrate into Christian society. The analysis of converts and conversion focusses on answering a number of questions. These relate to, among other things, pre-conversion relationships with royal family members, the reaction to corrody requests for converts, motives for conversion, forced or coerced conversions, the idea that a convert could be neither Christian nor Jew, converts re-joining Judaism, converts who carried the names of royal functionaries, the domus conversorum, convert instruction, and converting minors. The appendix to the thesis contains a complete catalogue of Jewish converts in medieval England. Among other things noted therein are inter-convert relationships, and extant source material. Each convert also has a biography.

This thesis offers a development of work on and with L. J. J. Wittgenstein by R. Bambrough (1969 etc.), S. Cavell (1979 etc.), J. C. Edwards (1982), P. Hacker (1986 etc.), F. Kerr (1986), N. Lash (1988), N, Malcolm (1960 etc.), D. Pears (1987 etc.), D. Z. Phillips (1965 etc.), R. White (1982), P. Winch (1972 etc.) and others. It is argued that all Wittgenstein's philosophical work coheres with his inclusive spirituality, Jewish and Christian, in seeking to express the dialectics of the sublime in the pedestrian. The most important chapters (one, seven and eight) cannot be fully understood without the others. Wittgenstein's inclusive concern with transforming philosophy, himself and all friends within reach, expresses his sense of responsibility for the language that we use and have, share and actively are. This intensive and comprehensive responsibility, with eschatological and apocalyptic affinities, shows in his ethics of descriptive grammar. Since languages and concepts are ways and means for procedural knowledge, his ethics of description is also an ethics, aesthetics and theology of perceptive equilibration in understanding, interpretation and family-resemblances. Inclusive spirituality involves Anselmian transcendence. Wittgenstein's inclusive spirituality is maintained to be a revised and radicalised version of Augustine's regulative dialectics of inclusive grammar, free from his exclusive theories of language-development and predestination. Wittgenstein's simplest and potentially most powerful presentation of Augustine's grammar is the third "great difficulty" in his ethics of 1929. This integrates Wittgenstein's work as a vital open system, akin to eastern trinitarianism. His dialectics of the sublime are related to William James, Tolstoy, Emerson, Pascal, Hamann, Kant, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Kraus, Weininger, Dostoevsky, Barth and others. Convergences between Wittgenstein and Barth are considered, particularly with regard to the letter's lecture on ethics, published in 1924 (1928 in English), and the beginning of Church Dogmatics (1932 onwards). Wittgenstein's theological and religious reticence is finally argued to be his way of leaving his gift before the place where sacrifice was once offered, as he works on his remembering of unreconciled others. (Matthew 5:23-24). His "third (greatest) difficulty" is the greatest difficulty.

The Book of Ben Sira, written at some point between 198 and 175 BCE, is a Second Temple Jewish wisdom text which regularly echoes or quotes the Hebrew Bible. A recent area of study in biblical scholarship has been that of scribal culture, written sources and physical remains left behind by societies with manuscripts and a scribal profession. While scholarship on Ben Sira has centred on his use of texts and on his sociocultural background, these issues might be better understood by examining Ben Sira through the lens of scribal culture as understood in biblical scholarship. This thesis proposes first to study the primary data of Ben Sira closely in order to discern characteristics of Ben Sira's individual scribalism or personal compositional style. This can then be compared to other evidence of ancient scribal culture. The central argument of the thesis is that the lens of scribal culture tells us more about the complexity of this ancient composition. Chapter One introduces the thesis and covers scholarship on Ben Sira and on scribal culture. Chapter Two examines the portrayals of Noah (Sir 44:17-18) and Phineas (Sir 45:23-26), exploring how Ben Sira uses one major biblical source in each. Looking at the portrayals of Hezekiah-Isaiah (Sir 48:17-25) and Josiah (Sir 49:1-3), Chapter Three highlights the harmonization of multiple sources. Chapter Four examines Ben Sira's lines on weather (Sir 43:11-19) in order to evaluate the relationship between quotation and literary model. Chapter Five approaches the sociocultural and textual spheres on the subjects of death and the body (Sir 41:1-15). Chapter Six investigates Ben Sira's perspectives on physicians (Sir 38:1-15) in the light of ancient medicine. Each of the selected passages shed a slightly different light on the scribalism of Ben Sira.

This research was conducted to determine the extent to which Jewish adults perceive themselves ethnically and/or religiously Jewish and how a range of personal characteristics, attitudes and practices related to the importance of ethnic and religious identity. A random sample of 540 individuals was taken from the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver's mailing list comprised of Jewish individuals in the Lower Mainland that identify with the Jewish community This sample completed a survey on the importance of Jewish ethnic and religious identity. There were significantly more people who felt it was very important or somewhat important to be ethnically Jewish than felt it was very important or somewhat important to be religiously Jewish: 92.1% versus 59.8%. Three hypotheses were tested to examine the relationship between the importance of ethnic and religious identity (dependent variables) and the importance of ethnic and religious identity and certain personal characteristics, attitudes and practices. Cross-tabulations and analysis of variance were done to test these hypotheses. A fourth hypothesis was tested with logistic regression which was used to build a model to predict whether a subject would rate "ethnic" Jewishness as "very important" vs. "not very important" and "religious" Jewishness as "important" or "unimportant" based on a set of predictor variables. The findings indicate a significant relationship between the two dependent variables, very few personal characteristics were related to the dependent variables, and a significant relationship was found between all the attitudes and the majority of the practices and the two dependent variables. The most important predictor of whether a subject would rate "ethnic" Jewishness as "very important" or "not very important" was the global attitude score. The most important predictors of whether a subject would rate "religious" Jewishness as "important" or "unimportant" were global attitude and attitudes and practices reported as important because they are divinely ordained. When global attitudes were taken out of the logistic regression model due to their high degree of overlap with the global practices, the most important predictor of whether a subject would rate "ethnic" Jewishness as "very important" or "not very important" were the global practices, proportion of Jewish friends, and attitudes and practices reported as important because they provide a connection to the Jewish people. The most important predictors for whether a subject would rate" religious" Jewishness as "important" or "unimportant" were marital status, global practice, denominational affiliation and attitudes and practices reported as important because they are divinely ordained. The individual's sense of identity and the factors that contribute to that identity are important aspects in the psychological functioning of members of ethnic, racial and religious minority groups. The information gathered from this study aids those in the helping profession in understanding the important and unique role religion and ethnicity plays in individual lives as well as identifying ethnic and religious priorities for community services. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

Orientador: André Leonardo Chevitarese / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T12:23:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Barroso_AndreLuisdosSantos_D.pdf: 3297366 bytes, checksum: 822956442c0407880288e8e72a1076cb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O presente trabalho pretende repensar a datação estabelecida para o surgimento de comunidades cristãs na costa norte-africana, mais especificamente nas regiões do Egito e Alexandria, comumente estabelecida entre os séculos III e IV, com algumas ponderações para a segunda metade do século II. Tal perspectiva conta com um intenso trabalho de construção de uma teoria de análise metodológica que visa estabelecer um padrão a partir do corpus paulino e do conhecimento da documentação que estuda os centros de populações judaicas fora da região da Palestina conseqüência dos sucessivos processos de dominação. É importante notar que a perspectiva deste trabalho se ancora no fato de que quando se trata de cultura e religião antigas, em geral e de cristianismo e judaísmo antigos, no particular, só é possível um tratamento no plural, tendo em vista que estes processos comportam todas as ambigüidades que podemos pensar e, que a tentativa de homogeneizar está intimamente ligada às relações de poder que se estabeleçam na política, nas relações de gênero, estasservem à construção de práticas e posturas intolerantes e fundamentalistas. Esta pesquisa buscou baixar a cronologia de experiências "cristãs" com base na documentação,dialogando-a com a teoria de Carlo Ginzburg (1989) que trata dos paradigmas indiciários aplicado ao material neotestamentário, canônico e não canônico, bem com cartas e textos advindo do mundo politeísta / Abstract: This work intends to rethink the dating established for the rise of the Christian Communities on the North African coast, specifically in the regions of Egypt and Alexandria, commonly established between the third and fourth centuries, with some considerations for the second half of the second century. This perspective has an intense work of building a theory of methodological analysis aimed at establishing a pattern from the Pauline corpus of knowledge and documentation centers studying Jewish populations outside of Palestine region consequence of successive processes of domination. It is important to note that perspective of this work is anchored in fact that when it comes to ancient culture and religion, in general and ancient Christianity and Judaism, in particular, is only possible treatment in the plural, given that these processes involve all ambiguities and we think that the attempt to homogenize is closely linked to power relations that are established in politics, gender relations, these practices serve to build intolerant and fundamentalist attitudes. This Researchsought to lower the chronology of experiences "Christians" based on the documentation,talking to the theory of Carlo Ginsburg (1989) theory dealing with evidentiary paradigms applied to the New Testament, canonical and non-canonical material, along with letters and texts coming from the polytheistic world / Doutorado / Historia Social / Doutor em História

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Submitted by Caroline Falcao (caroline.rfalcao@ufpe.br) on 2017-06-14T18:59:27Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) 2012-dissertacao-MarjonesPinheiro.pdf: 10880625 bytes, checksum: ab7f8090087031a4325915a4e941d8d8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-14T18:59:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 811 bytes, checksum: e39d27027a6cc9cb039ad269a5db8e34 (MD5) 2012-dissertacao-MarjonesPinheiro.pdf: 10880625 bytes, checksum: ab7f8090087031a4325915a4e941d8d8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-02-29 / “Morte e Judaísmo: transformações ao longo do tempo em Pernambuco” apresenta os resultados encontrados durante a pesquisa para produção desta dissertação de Mestrado em Antropologia da Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. O trabalho começou antes mesmo da pós-graduação e durou quase três anos. Foram visitadas cidades da região metropolitana do Recife, zona da mata, agreste e sertão de Pernambuco, bem como várias cidades de Israel, no Oriente Médio. O objetivo foi identificar os costumes e rituais fúnebres praticados pelos judeus em Pernambuco desde o século XVI até os dias de hoje, observando o que ainda é mantido como tradição e o que foi transformado com o passar dos anos. Apresentado em quatro capítulos, o produto final deste estudo se aproxima de uma etnografia, mas também tenta entender as práticas à luz do pensamento de diversos autores que escreveram sobre o tema proposto ou assuntos correlatos. Longe de querer encerrar em si as discussões ou propor um levantamento completo de ritos, costumes e tradições, o trabalho surge como uma contribuição para aqueles que guardam algum tipo de interesse por essa área de pesquisa, ainda pouco explorada nos meios acadêmicos. / "Death and Judaism: changes over the time in Pernambuco" presents the results found during the research for the elaboration of the Thesis for a Master Degree in Anthropology at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco. The research began even before the post-graduation started and took about three years to be accomplished. Some cities were visited in the Greater Recife Area (Pernambuco, Brazil), and a number of cities in Israel in the Middle East. The aim was to identify the funeral rites and traditions practiced by Jews in Pernambuco from the sixteenth century to the present day, observing the traditions that are still preserved and also those that have changed over the years. Presented in four chapters, the final product of this study is close to an ethnography, but also tries to understand what many authors wrote about the rites, traditions, and related issues. The purpose was not to cover the subject entirely or to be a complete survey of rites, habits, and traditions, but to contribute to those who have some interest in this area of research, yet not well explored in academic circles.