Thesis advisor: Mary Ann Hinsdale / The aim of this dissertation is to demonstrate why the theology of Edward Schillebeeckx provides a worthy and valuable resource for negotiating the question of how Christians can maintain their unique Christian identity and uphold the core tenets of their faith, while recognizing the need for and benefit of dialogue with non-Christian religions. In a world where interaction with religious others is inevitable, a perilous sense of superiority that excludes non-Christians from the possibility of imparting wisdom must be avoided. Yet, as this dissertation illustrates, a theory that all religions are equal and that absolute claims that contradict the beliefs of other religions (such as Jesus as God incarnate and the universal savior of humankind) must be given up, is equally as dangerous. I show that Schillebeeckx, although he never identified himself explicitly with one of the three paradigms of the theology of religions (exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism), maintained an inclusivist position but one that is more radical than that of some of his contemporaries. He upheld the unique role of Jesus Christ in human history while regarding religious pluralism, rather than a problem to be solved, as an opportunity for Christians to learn from and expand upon their conceptions of the humanum, or what human wholeness entails. This dissertation critically examines the three major paradigms used to understand the relationship of Christianity to non-Christian religions. It argues that the adoption of a pluralist position that regards all religions to be equal, and relinquishes any absolute claims, is not necessary, and can, in fact, be detrimental to fruitful interreligious dialogue. It traces Schillebeeckx's development of the negative contrast experience and illustrates how it can serve as a universal starting point for interreligious dialogue that does not attempt to essentialize human nature or tie all positive responses to human suffering to a latent Christianity present in every person. This dissertation describes the major components of Schillebeeckx's soteriology: creation as the starting point for soteriology; the unbreakable relationship between fragments of salvation in this world and final, or eschatological salvation; the role of Jesus as the assurance of final salvation; and the communal nature of salvation. It shows how the implication of Schillebeeckx's soteriology, which starts from the premise "there is no salvation outside the world," is "no salvation apart from religious others." This means that our ability to experience fragments of salvation in our everyday lives is dependent on learning from and collaboration with human beings who do not share our religious beliefs, but does not require us to erase religious differences, or tailor our beliefs to "fit" neatly into others' religious views. Finally, this dissertation applies Schillebeeckx's soteriology to concrete struggles faced by Muslim women and Catholic women in order to illustrate how interreligious dialogue can bring persons toward the fullness of the humanum. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Theology.

Orientador: Maria Dolores Aybar Ramirez / Resumo: Ao nos decidirmos, inicialmente, por um levantamento arqueológico de mulheres escritoras árabes/muçulmanas para uma escolha posterior de obras que nos levassem a um maior conhecimento dessa literatura, deparamos com a escassez de traduções e publicações no Brasil, em comparação com o grande número existente em outros países, principalmente da Europa e da América do Norte. Acreditamos que isso se deva a maior presença dessas mulheres escritoras em tais continentes, gerando um fascínio pelo exótico, mas também um misto de atração e repulsão, sempre acompanhado de estereótipos, já enraizados pelo orientalismo. No Brasil, no entanto, salvo raras exceções, as editoras voltaram-se quase que exclusivamente para as autobiografias de mulheres que tecem duras críticas aos seus países de origem, às suas leis, à situação e normas de conduta para as mulheres, na maioria restritivas e opressoras, reafirmando uma imagem já impregnada de preconceitos. Vemos assim que a oferta de publicações em nosso país também nos impede uma visão mais abrangente e nos força a ratificar impressões essencialistas que em nada contribuem para o conhecimento e possível fruição da literatura produzida por essas mulheres, agora veladas, inclusive, por questões mercadológicas que camuflam e perpetuam as mesmas visões engessadas. Na tentativa de fugir desses relatos, sempre carregados de perseguição e dor, priorizamos para o nosso estudo o romance Meu nome é Salma, da autora jordaniano-britânica Fadia Faqir pois su... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: When deciding, initially, for an archaeological survey of Arab/Muslim women writers for a later choice of works which would lead us to a greater knowledge of this literature, we faced the scarcity of translations and publications in Brazil, in comparison with the large number which exists in other countries, mainly in Europe and North America. We believe that this is due to the greater presence of these women writers in such continents, creating a fascination with the exotic, but also a mixture of attraction and repulsion, always accompanied by stereotypes, already rooted by Orientalism. In Brazil, however, with a few rare exceptions, publishers turned almost exclusively to the autobiographies of women who harshly criticize their countries of origin, their laws, the situation and rules of conduct for women, most of which are restrictive and oppressive, reaffirming an image already steeped in prejudice. We thus see that the supply of publications in our country also prevents us from taking a more comprehensive view and forces us to ratify essentialist impressions which in no way contribute to the knowledge and possible enjoyment of the literature produced by these women, now veiled, by marketing issues which camouflage and perpetuate the same plastered visions. So as to escape these accounts, always laden with persecution and pain, we prioritized the novel My name is Salma, by the Jordanian-British author Fadia Faqir because her narrative, written in English, involves other di... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This paper is a case-study on a group of American students, who spent a four- month period in Oman on a semester abroad program hosted by Al Amana Cen- tre. This paper examines the changes that have occurred in the students concep- tual thinking, their attitudes towards Muslims, Arabs and Islam and their personal theology, and identifies causes of those changes. In the first section, I will introduce the interfaith work that Al Amana Centre does, and lay a summary of the history and theory of Christian-Muslim dialogue. I will also explain the concept of Theology of Religion, which is central in examining the students’ own theological views. I will also introduce transformative learning theory that I use as a theoretical framework in this study In the last section of this paper, I analyze the research material which includes program curriculum, student interviews, student essays and students’ answers to questionnaires and surveys. From this material, I have identified repeating ideas and patterns and compared them to the framework offered by transformational learning theory. This paper seeks to answer to the question: what kind of effects does the Al Amana semester abroad program, infused with cultural immersion, have on the students in this particular case study. In the conclusion part of this paper, I con- clude that the semester abroad program facilitates opportunities for deep reflec- tion and extrarational experiences that work as a catalyst for transformation. It is hoped that this study can offer guidelines for other programs that aim at transforming attitudes and believes, and that work with cultural immersion and interfaith dialogue. It should be noted though, that the conclusions and outcomes of this study are tied to the specific context and people who attended the semes- ter abroad program, and should not be taken as universal or context-free.

Aim: The aim of this thesis is to examine how the homosexual character Isak Valtersen and muslim character Sana Bakkoush are represented and stereotyped in the popular norwegian webbseries Skam. This is to be interpreted based on Stuart Halls representation theory and stereotyping theory. The three research questions are as follows: (1) How is the main character Isak Valtersen portrayed in connection to his sexuality in the norwegian webb-serie Skam. (2) How is the main character Sana Bakkoush portrayed in connection to her Islamic faith in the norwegian webb-serie Skam. (3) How does the stereotyping in the representation of Isak Valtersen and Sana Bakkoush differ from one another. When analysing the webb-serie we identify the stereotyping by using observation points from Stuart Halls stereotyping theory. The four observation points are (1) Tropes, (2) Essentializing, (3) Reductionist, (4) Exclusion.  Method/Material: The method of this study is a narrative analysis through a holistic content reading. The narrative analysis is based on Seymour Chatmans model of narrative structure. The points researched in the narrative structure are characters, settings, actions and happenings. These are summarized as the form of content.  The material further consists of two seasons of the norwegian webb-series Skam, season three and four. Out of these seasons a selection of scenes are furthure analysed. The selection of scenes is based on the observation points (1) Tropes, (2) Essentializing, (3) Reductionist, (4) Exclusion.  Main results: The character Isak Valterssen is opposing the process of stereotyping almost completely according to Stuart Hall's theory of stereotyping. The character Sana Bakkoush on the other hand does fall into a few categories of stereotyping. Sana is stereotyped on a larger scale than Isak yet both characters are portrayed as multifaceted and therefore contribute to breaking stereotypes according to Stuart Hall.

This dissertation asks how Muslims in north India today understand four paradoxical aspects of Sufi saint shrine traditions. The shrines of Sufi saints are sometimes regarded as apolitical, sacred, all-inclusive, and anti-elite religious spaces. At the same time, they are sites that are politicized, illegally bought and sold as commercial real estate, fuel for Islamic sectarian divisions, and often controlled by upper-caste Muslim elites. Based on the analysis of historical archival materials and twelve months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), this dissertation argues that shrines are sites that straddle the dīn-duniyā distinction in Islam. Dīn (understood as “religion” in the modern period) is the atemporal, immaterial domain of true spirituality, whereas duniyā (“world”) is the realm of this-worldly material concerns and temporal impermanence. As sites imbued with the ethereal barakah (love of God manifest as the power of a blessing) of Sufi saints that aid individuals in drawing near to God by transcending “worldly” desires and also material commodities that are aggressively competed over by adversarial stakeholders (e.g., the state, real estate mafias, sectarian rivals), these shrines are paradoxically both of dīn and of duniyā. When asked how one can differentiate between dīn and duniyā—for example, when a Sufi politician is acting a religious manner or in a worldly manner—many of my interviewees explained that one can distinguish between these two domains based on the material presence of money. In this dissertation, I argue that the concept of money (paisā; also, “money” in English) acts as a symbol to help Muslims in Lucknow navigate this paradoxical quality. By attributing to the materiality of money those aspect of shrine operations associated with duniyā, interviewees effectively identified the boundary line dividing dīn from duniyā, thereby resolving the ostensibly contradictory nature of, for example, the politicization of an apolitical space. As a key signifier in the broader neoliberal context of Lucknow and the global politics of Sufism, money is an important concept by which Muslims make sense of the social, economic, and political complexities of Muslim life in the north India.

This dissertation investigates trends in Muslim women’s religious authority within and beyond the US context by examining the Women’s Mosque of America (WMA), a women-only mosque in Los Angeles. Muslim women across the globe occupy various positions of authority across different religious networks, including as educators at Islamic institutions, board members at mosques, khateebahs (preachers), and prayer leaders. Shifts in Muslim women’s religious authority result from uneven processes of privatization and individualization of religion, resulting in the decentralization of established religious authorities. In the global Islamic context, scholars theorize this process as a fragmentation of authority and its expansion to a wider range of lay actors. This privatization of religion in the US context shapes religious congregations as civic institutions through which religious actors acculturate to American norms, including women’s increased participation in public religious life, and engagements in interfaith dialogue. This dissertation, which analyzes the WMA at the convergence of these two contexts, intervenes in scholarly conversations on the fragmentation of religious authority and the racialized nature of American religious institutions. Through my analysis of WMA sermons, participant observation, and ethnographic interviews, I argue that the WMA produces new forms of Islamic authority based on women’s experiences and individual relationships to scripture, rather than traditional religious training. This study brings together the Religious Studies methodologies of textual analysis and ethnography with feminist epistemological frameworks that privilege experiences as a valid basis for knowledge. My analysis of the WMA speaks to ongoing debates on Islam and gender, American Islam, and the role of the mosque as a center for religious community. This study situates Muslim women’s authority at the intersections of gender, religious space, and national belonging. I demonstrate how WMA preachers assert themselves as meaningful religious actors in the US in and beyond Muslim communities. Through their interpretations of scripture, the WMA represents an American branding of Islam that privileges individuality, civic engagement, and social and gender justice. / 2026-07-31T00:00:00Z

Under the new Vision 2030 national transformation plan, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia seeks to increase number of annual pilgrims from eight million to thirty million. If oil has certain limits, then pilgrimage is framed as lasting “forever.” But this exuberant claim of “forever” belies a more subtle transformation unfolding at the level of knowledge, technology, and hospitality as Mecca and its crowds are made and re-made into a resource for a national economy. This dissertation examines the Saudi state’s efforts to manage, and ultimately intensify and optimize Mecca’s pilgrimage through new sciences and technologies of crowd management, logistics, and secular hospitality. I demonstrate how these new forms of knowledge production operate in tension with older and decidedly more Islamic ways of knowing, managing, and belonging in the holy city. Instead of approaching religious knowledge and secular knowledge as discrete spheres, my research explores their entanglements and aporias across a range of techno-political practices: navigation, hospitality, urban planning, systems thinking, crowd management, and optimization. Ultimately, I explore how in this moment of ritual intensity, the cosmopolitan logics of the holy city come to be blunted.

Magister Educationis - MEd / The aim of this study is to investigate ·and outline the importance and significance of Arabic in the South African context. The study investigates inter alia the part played by the early Muslim settlers, political exiles and the pioneers who made possible the preservation of Islamic faith and culture. This study demonstrates that the period from 1652 to date had been a period of considerable development, expansion and _enlightenment of Arabic. The study revealed inter alia that only Indian schools under the Department of Indian Affairs (now Department of Education and Culture) offered Arabic which fully satisfied the Muslim Community's demands. 1975 marks the beginning of Arabic as a language in Indian secondary schools. The Muslim pupil is given the basic grounding in the understanding of both the Quran and the Hadith. Some suggestions regarding aspects of an effective didactic approach concludes this presentation.

In recent years in Europe, the veiling of the muslim women has become a political issue. Various laws were passed in order to regulate the appearance of the islamic veil in public. Such policies caused several protests and led to many debates over the meaning of the veil. In this thesis I focus on academic contributions to these debates. My aim is to find out what veiling stands for in the academic literature that deals with the situation in Europe (including Turkey). Both books and articles concerned with islamic veil are examined by means of the qualitative content analysis. Building on the principles of the feminist research, I also evaluate the methodologies of selected works. Another pursued aspect of the analysed texts is the use of the concept of gender.

Young Muslims growing up in the West face dichotomous narratives that fragment their being, creating internal divisiveness. Islamic spirituality, especially the notion of tawheed, promotes oneness and unity of being. In this thesis, I explore the spiritual development of young Muslims in the West through literature amidst these dichotomous narratives. Using sociocultural theory and narrative inquiry, I first explore the threads of dichotomous narratives throughout history that create a binary of Muslims and the West, proving them insubstantial. Then, I explore the lives of two young Muslims, a male, and a female, growing up in Toronto. I story their lives, rooting their spiritual development in the literature they read, which is socioculturally embedded. Finally, I reflect on the harmonies, and tensions that exist within the stories. Tensions signify third spaces of productive growth, in which young Muslims can contests meaning and open pathways for creative becoming(s).