My dissertation, "Voiding Distraction: Simone Weil and the Religio-Ethics of Attention," was motivated by my recognition of our contemporary culture of distractedness, which I thought was largely enabled by our idolization of technology and the attendant media delivered to the masses. Through examining Simone Weil's writings on attention, I came to realize that our distractedness could not be divorced from a fundamental misunderstanding of attention as well. A Weilienne conception reveals that attention is not just an intellectual capacity to be analyzed only in frameworks of psychology, sociology, or neurology, and something simply threatened by competing stimuli, but it is an ethical issue at base. Under this revision, to be attentive is to empty the self of attachments, expectations, and any self-satisfying consolations that preclude openness, patience, and humility. The resultant ethic is an asymmetrical one, involving an orientation to an impersonal order of love, justice, and self-renunciation--what Weil calls a "supernatural" orientation--that transcends the relative, personal, and "natural" ethics of competing rights, benefits, and duties, usually writ in the language of the marketplace. This radical ethic is inherently pedagogical, too, as an orientation that is the exemplification and socialization of a quest for truth characterized by humility. Therefore an effective antidote to a distracted culture will be found in coming to terms with this revised notion of attention through the impersonal exemplarity of it.

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This thesis explores the work of the director Guillermo del Toro. In a career that spans 20 years working in feature films, del Toro has directed the Spanish-language art Cronos (1993) in Mexico, and The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) in Spain. Del Toro has also worked extensively in Hollywood, wherein he directed Mimic (1997), Blade II (2002), Hellboy (2004), Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008), and, most recently, Pacific Rim (2013). Amongst these, del Toro regularly blends generic elements, and in doing so questions the boundaries dividing genres of: horror, sci-fi, fantasy, anime, melodrama, and the superhero. Making use of auteur theory, this study discusses the entirety of del Toro’s feature films in order to position the director as an auteur. As such, the motifs del Toro repeats in and across these 8 films are of central concern, as well as any biographical information to contextualize del Toro’s personal and aesthetic concerns. In particular, this thesis looks at del Toro’s stylistic and diegetic invocations of certain features of fairytales—the relation between reality and fantasy (Pan’s Labyrinth and Hellboy II), the fairytale trope of the curse (as in Cronos, Mimic, and The Devil’s Backbone), and the hunter archetype (which is emphasized in Blade II, Hellboy, and Pacific Rim). In addition, this study finds that the sacred and the profane constitute a central dialogue woven throughout del Toro’s films. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that del Toro can be considered an auteur in that he appropriates genre, fairytale motifs, and the sacred and the profane in order to explore bodies—human and nonhuman (that is, bodies of monsters, machines, and the divine)— as works of art that challenge the possibility of defining the body in singular terms (that is, as human, male, adult, white, etc.).

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While throughout the ages prominent thinkers have denounced for various reasons mistreatment and killing of animals for food or sacrifice, the dominant western view has been that only rational beings merit moral respect and value. Augustine developed, from Aristotle‘s thought of a hierarchy of souls as well as from the Stoic concept of animals‘ irrationality, the idea that animals share no fellowship with humans and thus are to be excluded from moral consideration. In Aquinas‘ thinking the difference between rationality and irrationality became the difference between immortal and mortal souls. This view furthered the development of an instrumental view of animals. The perception that lower species are created to benefit the higher species has become a dominant part of western Christian thought. The main aim of this study is to investigate whether a respectful attitude towards animals, as lived by Francis of Assisi and Albert Schweitzer, has a mystical basis (following the model of Evelyn Underhill), and subsequently to consider whether and how mystical qualities as lived by Francis and Schweitzer may contribute to an animal spirituality. In this thesis I explore the moral valuation of animals in the Christian biblical and spiritual tradition, and further present the outcome of this exploration as an alternative to an anthropocentric tradition and as a contribution to contemporary protectionist approaches. Franciscan sources and Schweitzer‘s oeuvre have been examined while applying Underhill‘s concept of various characteristics and stages of the mystic way. I conclude that both Francis and Schweitzer in their own unique ways qualify to be categorized as ‗mystics‘. Not through rationality, but through experience and feeling, both have achieved real contact with other beings and attained to the Mystery of life. Through their purified view they have been able to perceive animals in a non-instrumental way and through their mystical experiences of union they have sensed the common ontological basis and kinship between humans and animals—our interdependency, utility, aesthetic value and theophany. On the basis of scrutiny of biblical texts which touch upon the relations of humans and animals with God I observe that an animal-inclusive moral concern, as demonstrated by Francis and Schweitzer, finds biblical support. Each creature, as created and animated by God‘s rûaḥ (‗Spirit‘) is transparent to God‘s glory and therefore able to reveal something of the Creator. The Bible proclaims animals as God‘s property, with their own relation with their Creator, not as created to satisfy human wants and wishes. A non-instrumental understanding of animals, as found in biblical texts and as realized by Francis‘ and Schweitzer‘s awe for life, has ethical implications for human-animal relations. Francis‘ and Schweitzer‘s views call us to question our use of animals as our property, therewith sacrificing animal interests for our own. A spirituality in which animals are contemplated as God‘s creatures, with their own worth and their own relation to God, may lead to a different attitude towards animals. To the various elucidated positions in the contemporary animal debate, with its emphasis on rights and reason, Francis and Schweitzer may contribute through their example of an approach calling for empathy, sympathy and compassion as an alternative point of departure. / PhD (Dogmatics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in cooperation with Greenwich School of Theology, 2015

While throughout the ages prominent thinkers have denounced for various reasons mistreatment and killing of animals for food or sacrifice, the dominant western view has been that only rational beings merit moral respect and value. Augustine developed, from Aristotle‘s thought of a hierarchy of souls as well as from the Stoic concept of animals‘ irrationality, the idea that animals share no fellowship with humans and thus are to be excluded from moral consideration. In Aquinas‘ thinking the difference between rationality and irrationality became the difference between immortal and mortal souls. This view furthered the development of an instrumental view of animals. The perception that lower species are created to benefit the higher species has become a dominant part of western Christian thought. The main aim of this study is to investigate whether a respectful attitude towards animals, as lived by Francis of Assisi and Albert Schweitzer, has a mystical basis (following the model of Evelyn Underhill), and subsequently to consider whether and how mystical qualities as lived by Francis and Schweitzer may contribute to an animal spirituality. In this thesis I explore the moral valuation of animals in the Christian biblical and spiritual tradition, and further present the outcome of this exploration as an alternative to an anthropocentric tradition and as a contribution to contemporary protectionist approaches. Franciscan sources and Schweitzer‘s oeuvre have been examined while applying Underhill‘s concept of various characteristics and stages of the mystic way. I conclude that both Francis and Schweitzer in their own unique ways qualify to be categorized as ‗mystics‘. Not through rationality, but through experience and feeling, both have achieved real contact with other beings and attained to the Mystery of life. Through their purified view they have been able to perceive animals in a non-instrumental way and through their mystical experiences of union they have sensed the common ontological basis and kinship between humans and animals—our interdependency, utility, aesthetic value and theophany. On the basis of scrutiny of biblical texts which touch upon the relations of humans and animals with God I observe that an animal-inclusive moral concern, as demonstrated by Francis and Schweitzer, finds biblical support. Each creature, as created and animated by God‘s rûaḥ (‗Spirit‘) is transparent to God‘s glory and therefore able to reveal something of the Creator. The Bible proclaims animals as God‘s property, with their own relation with their Creator, not as created to satisfy human wants and wishes. A non-instrumental understanding of animals, as found in biblical texts and as realized by Francis‘ and Schweitzer‘s awe for life, has ethical implications for human-animal relations. Francis‘ and Schweitzer‘s views call us to question our use of animals as our property, therewith sacrificing animal interests for our own. A spirituality in which animals are contemplated as God‘s creatures, with their own worth and their own relation to God, may lead to a different attitude towards animals. To the various elucidated positions in the contemporary animal debate, with its emphasis on rights and reason, Francis and Schweitzer may contribute through their example of an approach calling for empathy, sympathy and compassion as an alternative point of departure. / PhD (Dogmatics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus in cooperation with Greenwich School of Theology, 2015