<p>This document is missing page 162. </p> / <p>The prime purpose of the thesis is the assessment of the development of Christian theological education in the context of historico-ideological changes after the disintegration of Marxist hegemony in Eastern Europe with the objective of developing and proposing a model of good theological education for a concrete setting, - a model which may be adaptable in other countries with similar conditions.</p> <p>The thesis delineates with a concise history of Christian theological education and the different methods and models of education have been used and developed. Eleven distinct models of theological education are identified and analyzed.</p> <p>A chapter deals with present status of theological education in Post-Marxist countries. It outlines the historical background of Evangelical Theological Education in Baltic states and the neighboring countries - Russia and Poland. In these countries theological education has been for decades interrupted and hindered by atheistic governments. There follows an analytical survey on the present status of theological education in these countries based on data supplied by twenty three representative institutions of theological education in Eastern Europe. The results are compared with two institutions of Western Europe. The survey includes a variety of pertinent topics, such as the dynamics of founding schools, the general profile of schools, analysis of the student body, economics, governance, faculty, libraries, and course offerings.</p> <p>A substantial chapter is devoted to elaborating the concept of a good theological school in Eastern Europe. The need for a solid philosophical foundation is emphasized. Attention is directed to practical dimensions, such as a balanced course of study; human, financial, and information resources; administration and governance. The section closes with the description of applicable methods for the teaching/learning process, incorporating some innovative approaches.</p> <p>The concluding chapter delineates a proposed model for the Latvian setting, integrating programs for students of specialized streams of study: theological and pastoral, youth and children, evangelism and mission, Christian social ministry, Christian writing and translation.</p> <p>The thesis is written from a Baptist perspective, yet it is Evangelical in its content and, as such, embodies issues pertinent to theological education of related denominations.</p> / Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

This research is premised on Armstrong's (1990:7) argument that „every interpretive approach reveals something only by disguising something else, which a competing method with a different assumption might disclose.‟ This statement indicates that preference or marginalisation of some literary theories impedes progress in African-language literary criticism because different literary theories tend to focus on one or a few selected aspects of a work art. This flows from the assumption that no literary theory can unearth all aspects and meanings of a literary text. This research comes against rigidity, conservatism and narrow-mindedness of those literary critics and scholars who refuse to open up and embrace literary theories which they are opposed to. The research is an attempt to demonstrate the benefit of flexibility and ability to accommodate even those opposing literary views that can make positive contribution in the field of African-language literary criticism. The research further calls for pragmatism, tolerance and co-existence of opposing literary views for the benefit of progress in the field of African-language literary criticism. This research is an acknowledgement of the fact that no literary theory is infallible because all literary theories have their own strong and weak points. In this research, a survey of literary approaches commonly applied in African-language criticism is conducted. This is followed by an analysis of a Tshivenḓa novel (i.e. A si ene) from different literary angles to prove that every literary theory can help to unmask a particular meaning of a literary text which no any other literary theory can do. For example, the intrinsic literary approaches will, most certainly, unlock the meaning of a literary text differently from the way the extrinsic literary theories do because diverse literary approaches focus on different aspects or elements of a work of art. This research is an endorsement of the argument that through multiple-reading of a literary text, readers‟ understanding of the same literary text is broadened and deepened. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil (African Languages)

The dissertation explores how quality-judgments on works of art are created within the contemporary art world. The research starts with the examination of modernist art theories supported by the museum, and continues with the exploration of the impact of the art market on quality-judgments. Although the art market had already distorted the idea of quality, further contradictions and difficulties have risen within judgment-making after the 1960s due to the dematerialisation of the work of art. Art criticism should have been able to deal with this complexity, but it is demonstrated that art criticism is a subjective field and even if there is a universal theory on quality, it often fails when applied to the particular work of art. Throughout the dissertation it is demonstrated that although ‘good art’ is a subjective, power- and discourse-dependent concept, all art professionals seek something that is an inherent quality of the artwork. However, regardless of the existence of such inherent value, judgments on quality are constructed by and subjected to power-struggle. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

With the rise of the Popular Front during the 1930s, the American Left came together under the symbols of the “people” and “America,” and as its ranks swelled with modernity’s disenfranchised, radicals utilized the structures and discourses of modernity in the name of political struggle against exploitive American capitalism and fascism abroad. Science fiction and its devoted fan community were among these structures and discourses. Though both were largely conservative, entwined with American corporate capitalism, one group of fans embraced Communism and hoped to politicize science fiction and its fandom. The Michelists, as they called themselves, worked through the established channels of science fiction and fandom advocating a unique Marxist understanding of science fiction. This report situates them within the Popular Front, particularly its discourses of science and popular culture, and highlights how the particularities of the genre and its fandom shaped their political beliefs and actions. / text

This thesis traces the ‘New Moment’ in Pauline reception in the writings of Alain Badiou, Terry Eagleton and Slavoj Žižek. It explores how the Pauline epistles are read and feature in their thought. An answer to the question, 'why Paul?' prompts reflection on what it is to read and understand the Apostle. An introduction sets out the writers of this ‘New Moment’ [Jacob Taubes, Giorgio Agamben, Stanislas Breton, as well as Badiou, Eagleton and Žižek] before isolating the figures of this study. The reception of this ‘moment’ by mainstream New Testament studies is considered, and with it the charge of ‘appropriation’. The concept of ‘appropriation’ is explored, and a definition arrived at, for the purpose of evaluating the readings we will go on to discover. As part of this notion of ‘appropriation’, the turn to Gadamer in recent New Testament study is surveyed. We suggest another potential hermeneutical approach that derives from Gadamer is possible. Thus, the object of this study is both an instance of, and means by which to critique the understanding of, New Testament Wirkungsgeschichte. Each of our thinkers is then considered in turn. The outline for each chapter is the same. A brief introduction to the figure with bibliographical background salient to his Pauline reading precedes some textual examples indicative of that reading. We then move to analyse the manner of that reading and certain conceptual problems which are revealed in the course of the engagement with Paul. The conclusion analyses the approaches, and reasons for turning, to Paul on the part of these thinkers. Salient differences between each thinker's reading are noted and the charge of appropriation is evaluated afresh. The implications of such readings for conventional biblical criticism are considered, and the success of an approach which explores a Gadamerean-inspired interest in reception in the manner adopted by this thesis is judged.

Student Number : 9400560N - MA research report - School of Social Sciences - Faculty of Humanities / This research report critically analyses – through qualitative content analysis – how the Sowetan and the Mail&Guardian newspapers reported the alleged corruption in the arms deal in November 2001. The analysis includes a contextual discussion of factors shaping or influencing media coverage of important political topics in a transition to democracy. Theories of the role of the media in democratic transition inform the analysis of media coverage of the arms deal. ‘Transition’ in the context of this research report is used to refer to the process of South Africa’s ‘conversion’ from an undemocratic apartheid system based on unfair prejudices and practices grounded on class, race and gender to a ‘fair discrimination’ and application of remedial measures (political, social and economic) to correct the imbalances caused by apartheid policies. The research applies liberal pluralism, gatekeeping, public sphere, as well as Marxist-related media theories, including the critical political economy of the media approach and notes that it is not possible for a single approach to offer an absolute analysis of the role of the media in a transition to democracy. In addition, the research employs theories of news, language and society to show how social relations affect language used in news and ultimately affect notions of ‘bias’ and ‘objectivity’. The study observes that complete ‘objectivity’ as an ideal is unattainable, especially when one considers that news making processes are complex and influenced by diverse factors, some of which allow for anticipated processes of selection and inevitably, bias. This applies to the two publications under study. The report observes that through their reportage of alleged corruption in the arms deal during the month of November 2001, these newspapers attempted to open up, create and democratize the space for free inquiry. At the same time, however, it is noted that this space was dominated by certain voices and not representative of all civil society organizations and interests that had a stake in the arms deal. The report concludes that media should be encouraged to promote genuine diversity of voices. Diversity, within such a scheme, should be measured by equal and participatory dialogue from all the voices of all civil society institutions.

Estudo da evolução estética e política na obra de John Silas Reed (1897-1920) a partir de, fundamentalmente, duas de suas obras: seu primeiro livro, Insurgent Mexico (México Insurgente 1914) e seu último livro publicado em vida, Ten Days that Shook the World (Dez dias que abalaram o mundo 1919). A partir da crítica materialista-dialética a dissertação aborda o percurso de John Reed e procura demonstrar, numa leitura comparada entre as duas obras, como a transformação da visão política de seu autor se expressa na transformação estética de suas obras. Também se procura fazer uma leitura crítica da recepção de John Reed e a interpretação de sua obra nas décadas posteriores à sua morte / A study regarding the aesthetical and political development within the work of John Silar Reed (1897-1920) based upon, fundamentally, two of his books: his first one, Insurgent Mexico (1914), and the last one published in his lifetime, Ten Days that Shook the World (1919). From the dialetical-materialistic standpoint, the study approaches John Reeds life and tries to demonstrate, through a compared Reading between these two books, how the transformation in the authors political view is related to the aesthetical transformation in his writing and literary composition. John Reed works reception and criticism is also critically regarded

Desde seu nascimento, há quase trinta anos, o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) tem se destacado pela perenidade de sua organização e disposição de estimular uma diversidade de vínculos capilares com a sociedade civil o que constitui uma das maiores novidades da história política contemporânea do campesinato brasileiro e voz mais expressiva da questão agrária na América Latina. Diante dessa constatação, o objetivo desta dissertação é apresentar e analisar como a dimensão internacionalista do MST enquanto elemento real e ativo de construção de um lócus político constitui-se historicamente, a fim de destacar as diversas influências políticas e ideológicas e a composição heterogênea de seu ativismo transnacional, que foram desenvolvidas (e assimiladas) tanto por circunstâncias políticas e econômicas em que o país enveredou quanto pela atuação das lideranças do MST. A hipótese central é de que, a partir da metade da década de noventa, o MST alcança o auge de sua projeção no exterior, não apenas pela referência mundial simbólica e política da luta camponesa, mas pela percepção de que o internacionalismo está enraizado nas condições materiais da luta de classes na agricultura mundializada. Desde então, inicia-se um processo de redefinição de sua estratégia política que passa a ser ampliada internacionalmente, na busca de convergência de linhas políticas e agendas em comum, principalmente com a Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC) e Via Campesina. Todavia, a política internacionalista do MST não nasce, cresce e amadurece politicamente apenas como reflexo passivo do avanço do capitalismo internacional do campo. O desenvolvimento desigual do capitalismo no campo brasileiro e a trajetória internacionalista do MST não constituem duas retas paralelas que podem ser relacionadas ponto a ponto. Na verdade, ambas adquirem configurações espaciais e temporais mais complexas e são estabelecidas em um constante encontro e desencontro. Por exemplo, a dimensão ética-moral e religiosa principalmente da fonte da Teologia da Libertação e da pastoral da terra é um fator essencial na motivação subjetiva de uma consciência humanista e universal latino-americana e de uma cultura política de solidariedade internacionalista permanente que o MST desenvolve a partir da própria formação específica que aqui se propõe estudar. / From its birth, almost thirty years ago, the Landless Workers\' Movement (MST) has distinguished itself for the continuity of its organisation and its disposition to stimulate a variety of capillary links with the civil society. This characteristic represents one of the major news in the contemporary political history of the Brazilian rural population, so that the MST has become the most expressive voice of the land reform in Latin America. Starting from this consideration, the purpose of this dissertation is to show and analyse how the internationalist dimension of the MST considered as a real and active element of constitution of a political space took form historically, in order to highlight the different political and ideological influences, and the heterogeneous composition of its international activism, which were developed (and assimilated) both by the political and economic circumstances in the countries where it took place, and by the MST leadership\'s action. The main hypothesis hereby presented is that, beginning from the mid-nineties, the MST gets the peak of its projection towards the exterior, not only for the symbolic and political worldwide relevance of the peasants fight, but for the perception that internationalism is rooted in the material conditions of the class struggle in globalized agriculture. Since then, it begins a process of re-definition of its political strategy that spreads world-widely, in search of a convergence of political lines and common agendas, mainly with the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC) and Via Campesina. Still, the internationalist policy of MST does not begin, grow and mature politically only as a passive mirroring of the progress of international capitalism of land. That is, the unequal development of capitalism in the Brazilian land and the internationalist trajectory of the MST do not constitute two parallels that can be related to each other point-by-point. Actually, the two of them get more complex spatial and temporal configurations, and are formed in a constant dialectic of agreements and disagreements. The religious and ethical-moral dimension principally from the liberation theology and the pastoral of land, for instance, is an essential factor in the subjective motivation of a humanistic and universal Latin-American awareness and of a political culture of permanent internationalist solidarity that the MST develops starting from its own specific formation, which is the object of the present study.

O tema deste estudo é a relação entre o Direito Coletivo do Trabalho e o sindicalismo. Caracterizamos a institucionalidade sindical brasileira, seguindo os estudos de Armando Boito Jr., como estrutura sindical de Estado: um sistema de controle do movimento sindical dos trabalhadores pelo Estado capitalista. Rediscutimos as determinações de classe da ideologia que ela encerra: o fetiche do Estado protetor e a ordenação capitalista pelo Estado. Para a discussão do Direito Coletivo atual, parte-se da constatação de que a Constituição de 1988 passou o controle do sindicalismo das mãos do Poder Executivo para o Judiciário. Diante disso, defendemos a tese de que se manteve a função geral de desorganização, moderação e controle do movimento dos trabalhadores. Na dimensão organizativa, a partir de estudos de dois casos concretos, apontamos que a gestão judiciária da estrutura interveio de modo particular, mas para fixar os limites do enquadramento oficial. Na negociação coletiva, entendemos que houve a modificação da função do Poder Normativo, que deixou de garantir reajustes salariais e direitos mínimos, ao passo que manteve seu caráter repressivo e limitador. E quanto ao direito de greve, demonstramos a continuidade da linha jurisprudencial anterior à novidade normativa trazida pela CF/88 na matéria. Nesse percurso, defendemos a coerência entre a crítica do direito em geral e a crítica da estrutura sindical de Estado em particular. / The subject of this research is the relations that exist between the Labor Law System and the workers movement. We treat the Brazilian corporatist labor law system as a system of controlling unions by the capitalist state. The text also discusses the class determinations of the ideology that this system embodies and reproduces: the fetish of a protective State and the ordination of capitalism by the State. The current labor law regime was redesign by the Constitution of 1988. Our thesis start from this point: the charge of the state´s controlling of the unionism was transferred from the Executive to the Judicial Power. However, we claim that the general role of the collective labor system has been preserved: role of disorganization, moderation and controlling the worker´s unionism. First, at the organization matter, we part from two cases which show that judicial management has been successfully on intervening into unionism to fix it in the fragmented official framework. Second, at the collective bargaining sphere, we point that it has been a change on the role of the obligatory judicial arbitration of collective conflicts. It doesn´t function anymore as a way of guaranteeing minimum wages corrections annually, although it has continued to be an instrument to repress strikes and so to impose medium wages increases. At least, about unions power to strike, we say that judicial management of the collective labor system has not take advantage of the legal innovations generated by the redemocratization process, as to say, it kept its traditional jurisprudence. Along this way we advocate the coherence between the struggle for the union freedom and the Marxist´s critique of the law itself.

Desde seu nascimento, há quase trinta anos, o Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) tem se destacado pela perenidade de sua organização e disposição de estimular uma diversidade de vínculos capilares com a sociedade civil o que constitui uma das maiores novidades da história política contemporânea do campesinato brasileiro e voz mais expressiva da questão agrária na América Latina. Diante dessa constatação, o objetivo desta dissertação é apresentar e analisar como a dimensão internacionalista do MST enquanto elemento real e ativo de construção de um lócus político constitui-se historicamente, a fim de destacar as diversas influências políticas e ideológicas e a composição heterogênea de seu ativismo transnacional, que foram desenvolvidas (e assimiladas) tanto por circunstâncias políticas e econômicas em que o país enveredou quanto pela atuação das lideranças do MST. A hipótese central é de que, a partir da metade da década de noventa, o MST alcança o auge de sua projeção no exterior, não apenas pela referência mundial simbólica e política da luta camponesa, mas pela percepção de que o internacionalismo está enraizado nas condições materiais da luta de classes na agricultura mundializada. Desde então, inicia-se um processo de redefinição de sua estratégia política que passa a ser ampliada internacionalmente, na busca de convergência de linhas políticas e agendas em comum, principalmente com a Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC) e Via Campesina. Todavia, a política internacionalista do MST não nasce, cresce e amadurece politicamente apenas como reflexo passivo do avanço do capitalismo internacional do campo. O desenvolvimento desigual do capitalismo no campo brasileiro e a trajetória internacionalista do MST não constituem duas retas paralelas que podem ser relacionadas ponto a ponto. Na verdade, ambas adquirem configurações espaciais e temporais mais complexas e são estabelecidas em um constante encontro e desencontro. Por exemplo, a dimensão ética-moral e religiosa principalmente da fonte da Teologia da Libertação e da pastoral da terra é um fator essencial na motivação subjetiva de uma consciência humanista e universal latino-americana e de uma cultura política de solidariedade internacionalista permanente que o MST desenvolve a partir da própria formação específica que aqui se propõe estudar. / From its birth, almost thirty years ago, the Landless Workers\' Movement (MST) has distinguished itself for the continuity of its organisation and its disposition to stimulate a variety of capillary links with the civil society. This characteristic represents one of the major news in the contemporary political history of the Brazilian rural population, so that the MST has become the most expressive voice of the land reform in Latin America. Starting from this consideration, the purpose of this dissertation is to show and analyse how the internationalist dimension of the MST considered as a real and active element of constitution of a political space took form historically, in order to highlight the different political and ideological influences, and the heterogeneous composition of its international activism, which were developed (and assimilated) both by the political and economic circumstances in the countries where it took place, and by the MST leadership\'s action. The main hypothesis hereby presented is that, beginning from the mid-nineties, the MST gets the peak of its projection towards the exterior, not only for the symbolic and political worldwide relevance of the peasants fight, but for the perception that internationalism is rooted in the material conditions of the class struggle in globalized agriculture. Since then, it begins a process of re-definition of its political strategy that spreads world-widely, in search of a convergence of political lines and common agendas, mainly with the Coordinadora Latinoamericana de Organizaciones del Campo (CLOC) and Via Campesina. Still, the internationalist policy of MST does not begin, grow and mature politically only as a passive mirroring of the progress of international capitalism of land. That is, the unequal development of capitalism in the Brazilian land and the internationalist trajectory of the MST do not constitute two parallels that can be related to each other point-by-point. Actually, the two of them get more complex spatial and temporal configurations, and are formed in a constant dialectic of agreements and disagreements. The religious and ethical-moral dimension principally from the liberation theology and the pastoral of land, for instance, is an essential factor in the subjective motivation of a humanistic and universal Latin-American awareness and of a political culture of permanent internationalist solidarity that the MST develops starting from its own specific formation, which is the object of the present study.