The purpose of this thesis paper is to investigate womanist theology and method, along with restoration practices involving spirituality and healing within the context of the visual arts. The thesis exhibition will attempt to create new visual possibilities that inform womanist theological scholarship in terms of promoting contemporary female religious imagery within a metaphorical language. While womanist theology is steeped in interdisciplinary practices, it has yet to consider seriously the studio arts as a means to explore and develop the womanist language. This study will investigate how essential and natural the visual arts assist our understanding of spirituality, especially through a womanist context.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-168).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-168).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 163-168).

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-02-28Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:15:16Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 moriya_tk_me_assis.pdf: 501928 bytes, checksum: 184bca929388b15cb10c3f08f3aaad4d (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Com a descoberta dos escritos gnósticos, popularmente conhecidos como biblioteca de Nag Hammadi, os estudos do cristianismo primitivo encontraram uma nova fonte de informações, e principalmente, de idéias. A concepção de um cristianismo homogêneo no séc. II acabou sendo ultrapassada, tendo em vista a diversidade de pensamento que o gnosticismo cristão traz em si. Formas diversas de se vivenciar a fé cristã foram encontradas em tais escritos, como é o caso do evangelho de Maria, que leva o nome de uma figura enigmática do movimento cristão, Maria Madalena. O presente trabalho procura verificar os elementos que constituem esta nova forma de se viver a práxis cristã, inclusive com a possível participação feminina. O papel social da mulher no cristianismo traz em si uma história de lutas e silêncios, vivência e exclusão. Com o auxilio do movimento feminista e seus desdobramentos nas ciências humanas, nos estudos de gênero e na teologia feminista por exemplos, procura-se reconstruir esta história, trazendo à superfície as vivências de mulheres cristãs no caminho para a realização de sua fé. / With the discover of the Nag Hammadi´s library and the gnostics writings, the Early Christianity studies had found a new information source, and specially, of ideas. The conception of a monolithic christianity in the second century, has been overpassed, in face of the variety of thoughts that the christian gnosticism brings on itself. Different ways of living the christian faith, has been found on this writings, like the gospel of Mary, who takes the name of a enigmatic character of Eartly Christian moviment, Mary Magdalene. This work intents to verify the constitucional elements of this new way of living the christian praxis, including the possibility of feminine actuation. The social role of women on christianity, brings on itself a history of silences and contests, exclusion and participation. With the assistance of the feminist moviment and it´s development on the human sciences, gender studies and feminist theology, we search to reconstruct this history, bringing to the surface, the christian women´s experiences on their path to the achievement of their faith.

abstract: “The Moral Sense of Touch: Teaching Tactile Values in Late Medieval England” investigates the intersections of popular science and religious education in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the project draws together a range of textual artifacts, from scientific manuals to private prayerbooks, to reconstruct the vast network of touch supporting the late medieval moral syllabus. I argue that new scientific understandings of the five senses, and specifically the sense of touch, had a great impact on the processes, procedures, and parlances of vernacular religious instruction in late medieval England. The study is organized around a set of object lessons that realize the materiality of devotional reading practices. Over the course of investigation, I explore how the tactile values reinforcing medieval conceptions of pleasure and pain were cultivated to educate and, in effect, socialize popular reading audiences. Writing techniques and technologies—literary forms, manuscript designs, illustration programs—shaped the reception and user-experience of devotional texts. Focusing on the cultural life of the sense of touch, “The Moral Sense of Touch” provides a new context for a sense based study of historical literatures, one that recovers the centrality of touch in cognitive, aesthetic, and moral discourses. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2016

Orientador: Ivan Esperança Rocha / Banca: José Adriano Filho / Banca: Andrea Lúcia Dorini de Oliveira Carvalho / Resumo: Com a descoberta dos escritos gnósticos, popularmente conhecidos como biblioteca de Nag Hammadi, os estudos do cristianismo primitivo encontraram uma nova fonte de informações, e principalmente, de idéias. A concepção de um cristianismo homogêneo no séc. II acabou sendo ultrapassada, tendo em vista a diversidade de pensamento que o gnosticismo cristão traz em si. Formas diversas de se vivenciar a fé cristã foram encontradas em tais escritos, como é o caso do evangelho de Maria, que leva o nome de uma figura enigmática do movimento cristão, Maria Madalena. O presente trabalho procura verificar os elementos que constituem esta nova forma de se viver a práxis cristã, inclusive com a possível participação feminina. O papel social da mulher no cristianismo traz em si uma história de lutas e silêncios, vivência e exclusão. Com o auxilio do movimento feminista e seus desdobramentos nas ciências humanas, nos estudos de gênero e na teologia feminista por exemplos, procura-se reconstruir esta história, trazendo à superfície as vivências de mulheres cristãs no caminho para a realização de sua fé. / Abstract: With the discover of the Nag Hammadi's library and the gnostics writings, the Early Christianity studies had found a new information source, and specially, of ideas. The conception of a monolithic christianity in the second century, has been overpassed, in face of the variety of thoughts that the christian gnosticism brings on itself. Different ways of living the christian faith, has been found on this writings, like the gospel of Mary, who takes the name of a enigmatic character of Eartly Christian moviment, Mary Magdalene. This work intents to verify the constitucional elements of this new way of living the christian praxis, including the possibility of feminine actuation. The social role of women on christianity, brings on itself a history of silences and contests, exclusion and participation. With the assistance of the feminist moviment and it's development on the human sciences, gender studies and feminist theology, we search to reconstruct this history, bringing to the surface, the christian women's experiences on their path to the achievement of their faith. / Mestre

Judas Iscariot has been and remains to this day one of the most hated persons in human history. The goal of this project is to examine the evolution Judas as he appears, first within the pages of the Christian canon, then moving over to literature outside the canon, into Apocrypha. Moreover, consulting ancient and modern sources allows for the ability to raise questions regarding the possibility of redemption for Judas as well as an analysis on whether this person was real or simply a literary construct by ancient authors in order to strengthen the core of the Christian belief system. With the inclusion of a clear and present villain in the narrative, the early Christians or proto-Orthodox were able to separate themselves from the initial Jewish community and labelled Judas as the ultimate example of what not to do when it came to being a “true” Christian. The discovery of the Gospel of Judas and its subsequent publication brought mainstream attention to the early years of Christianity, with its many different structures. The exploration of its pages reveal an entirely different message in which Judas Iscariot is a central figure, amidst a more “gnostic” tradition. The character of Judas Iscariot has since travelled through the centuries and it is this project’s mission to demonstrate the evolution of this character, showing how he first appears as merely one of twelve men who follow Jesus to a personification of evil. The project will also demonstrate how a possible misunderstanding of literature could have created a literary scapegoat, resulting in Judas Iscariot’s use as a tool to foster hatred and animosity towards the Jews. The end result leaves the reader with the question of whether Judas deserves absolution for his actions, who may have been an important part of God’s plan for humanity’s salvation.

The present study examines the figure of Mary Magdalene in the poetry of Lope de Vega and Richard Crashaw. I propose that while setting Mary Magdalene as the perfect example to convert, both authors could also express their conversion through the composition of two different poems: “Las Lágrimas de la Magdalena” by Lope de Vega and “Saint Mary Magdalene or, The Weeper” by Richard Crashaw. Each poem is centered on the idea of Mary Magdalene’s copious tears as the performative mark of her repentance which will effect her conversion. These two conversions are placed within two European literary traditions, Spain and England; as well as two different processes: on the one hand, Lope de Vega would go from a licentious life in his early years to becoming a priest at the end of his life, thus, devoting his life to religion. On the other hand, Richard Crashaw’s conversion would take place in between two conflicting religious beliefs, i.e., his transition from Protestantism to Catholicism. The other main goal of this work is studying these poems through the Baroque movement developed at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Hence, Lope de Vega’s poem is full of Baroque characteristics typical of the Spanish conceptism despite his reluctance consider his poetry Baroque. Crashaw, on his side, presents a poem which differs from the literary production in England in the first part of the seventeenth century. His Baroque sensibility would be, accordingly, influenced by his readings of the Spanish Golden Age authors. Therefore, anomaly, exaggeration, tempus fugit, conceptism, contradiction, paradox, and binary oppositions are Baroque characteristics both authors have in common in regard to their own particular description of both Mary Magdalene’s biblical stories and tears. Lastly, both poems will lead us to draw parallels with the Song of Songs in terms of spiritual conversation, and feminine identification.

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