Thesis (B.D.)--Western Evangelical Seminary, 1958. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [108-110]).

Thesis (B.D.)--Western Evangelical Seminary, 1958. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [108]-[110]).

This thesis studies the literary genre of pastoral between 1559 and 1647. The first of these dates is that of a work that changed the course of early modern pastoral, Montemayor’s Diana; and the second marks the English translation of Gomberville’s Polexandre, a pastoral romance which exemplifies the shifts in cultural values that re-shaped Montemayor’s model over the century that followed its publication. My study focusses on the significance for this genre of the ethical quality known to classical moral philosophy as otium, and translated in early modern English by words such as peace, leisure, retirement, ease and idleness. Otium has strong historical associations with the tradition of Virgilian pastoral. Its significance in early modern pastorals, however, has been largely overlooked, despite the fact that early modern interest in otium had been revitalised by the rediscovery of some of its most important classical discussions. This renewed interest in otium, I argue, was essential to the development of early modern pastoral. My argument challenges both old and new critical perspectives on pastoral, and engages with key issues in early modern culture which literary scholars have neglected. Older studies understood pastoral otium simply as idyllic retreat; newer ones accept this view, but argue against its privileged and quietist political implications, preferring to concentrate on the tradition of interpreting pastoral as political allegory. Otium’s principal connotations, however, were neither quiet nor idyllic. Though its restorative qualities were sometimes cautiously acknowledged, otium’s potential to corrupt was ever-present, and affected a range of areas including privacy, politics, moral psychology and medicine. When people wanted to imaginatively explore those effects, I argue, pastoral was the genre to which they were most likely to turn. Listening to what pastorals say about otium can play an important role in reconstructing this crucial and misunderstood aspect of early modern culture.

Univ., Diss.--Heidelberg, 2002.

At present and in this country, the concept of spiritual support, pastoral support, or spiritual rehabilitation of the sick is not entirely clear, both in terms of the content and form. Despite this vagueness, spiritual support of the sick forms an inseparable part of so-called holistic, i.e., comprehensive approach to care for human beings. In any case, this type of care is not linked to any religious denomination; rather, we have to understand it as assistance in the area of finding one{\crq}s way (orientation) in the sense of valuating one{\crq}s reality. Namely, patients often seek a spiritual person, be it s professional or layman, who specializes in spiritual rehabilitation. Even patients who claim to be atheist or agnostic need to discuss problems of existential or philosophical nature, which they are unable to find the answer for by themselves. Sometimes, they wish to address issues that had been hidden, while they were enjoying good health, as supposedly "superfluous issues", but due to their sickness, they came to the surface and the patients are short of answers and unable to deal with them. The Master{\crq}s Thesis is divided into two parts: The first, theoretical part focuses on forms and solutions of spiritual rehabilitation, whereas the second part contains statistical comparisons of approaches, opinions, and attitudes on these issues on the part of medical personnel working in hospices and other facilities. In this Thesis, the above can be summed up into three basic factors: 1) Pastoral medicine offered as one of the options for those who are gravely ill or dying and seek "spiritual rehabilitation" and fulfillment of their spiritual desires; 2) Facilitation of access to information on the interaction of medical fields of specialty and psychology with spiritual guidance; 3) Documentation of the spectrum of opinions and experience that individual medical workers have about spiritual rehabilitation.

Philos.-Theol. Hochsch., Diss--Vallendar, 2007.