Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA(DVS) / In a country like South Africa, with a history of racial discrimination and man-made social inequalities, many NGOs and FBOs play a crucial and important role in socio-economic development and in narrowing the gap between the haves and the have-nots. As one of the nongovernmental organisations, The South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF) development projects/programmes have played an important role in the areas of poverty alleviation, skills development, education and disaster relief. In line with the participatory/people-centred theory of community development and conceptual arguments, this study was used to examine the nature of participatory community development at the South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF) in Cape Town, South Africa. Qualitative research methodology was applied and measurement of the level of community participation was done using a variety of instruments. This study is focused on the SANZAF's community development project in the Manenberg area in the Cape Flats. The analysis involved examining the nature and level of community participation in the project needs, planning, implementation and decision-making phases. Thereafter, the results of the research prompted general observation and provided some recommendations to SANZAF and other FBOs involved. The research findings show that the SANZAF's development projects/programmes have played an important role in terms of community development. They have been developed in response to the needs of local communities and are implemented to mobilise local resources to support the poor and needy. The study also indicated that SANZAF enjoys a strong linkage with local mosques and other development actors at the community level. However, the results of the study also indicated that the level of community participation in planning, decision making and implementation is low in the case study area. Meanwhile, the beneficiaries did not show a clear understanding of aspects such as participation, empowerment and ownership. Finally, a recommendation is made for genuine community participation at the grassroots level as this will contribute to beneficiary's empowerment, capacity building and the core ingredients for selfreliance and project sustainability in community development activities.

Notre travail porte sur la théorisation de la nature et du mécanisme de la foi en milieu franciscain, de 1230 à 1330. Le corpus comprend des questions disputées issues d’œuvres théologiques écrites par plusieurs auteurs franciscains et ceux qui les ont influencés. Nous avons cherché à comprendre quelles instances psychologiques sont mises en jeu pour assurer la fermeté de l’assentiment de la foi et de quelle façon nos auteurs justifient le fait même d’avoir une foi, par opposition par exemple à une connaissance, et le fait d’avoir un assentiment de foi donné, catholique, par opposition à un autre. Selon nous, il existe deux courants historiques : celui qui mène d’Alexandre de Halès et Bonaventure à Olivi et celui qui mène d’Henri de Gand et Godefroid de Fontaines à Duns Scot. D’après nous, ces deux mouvements se caractérisent par la combinaison de deux tendances. La première consiste en une naturalisation de la foi : le rôle de l’action divine surnaturelle dans la production de l’habitus et de l’acte de foi se réduit. La seconde consiste en une « volontarisation » de la foi : la volonté joue un rôle de plus en plus crucial dans l’accomplissement de l’acte de foi et intervient d’une manière de plus en plus large dans la production des croyances humaines en général. Ces tendances se perpétuent au XIVème siècle, par exemple chez Ockham et Holkot. Les justifications de la foi suivent ces deux mouvements : les modèles volontaristes appellent des justifications pratiques plutôt que spéculatives et la naturalisation implique que rien dans le processus de production de la croyance ne puisse, pour le croyant, différencier l’assentiment propre à la foi catholique des autres. / We have chosen to study the theories of the nature and mechanism of religious belief put forward by Franciscan thinkers, from 1230 to 1330. Our corpus is comprised of disputed questions from a diversity of theological works written by Franciscans and those who influenced them. We tried to understand what psychological acts and faculties come into play to ensure the firmness of the assent of faith, and in what way our authors justify the very fact of having faith as opposed, for example, to knowledge, and the fact of having a given faith, the catholic one, as opposed to another. According to us, there exist two historical movements: the one which leads from Alexander of Hales to Bonaventure to Olivi and the one which leads from Henry of Ghent to Godfrey of Fontaines to Duns Scotus. We show that these two movements are characterized by the combination of two tendencies. The first one consists in a naturalization of faith: the role of supernatural divine action in the production of the habitus and act of faith is reduced. The second tendency consists in a “voluntarization” of faith: on the one hand, the will plays a more and more crucial role in the carrying out of the act of faith and, on the other hand, the scope of its intervention in the production of human beliefs in general is ever larger. These tendencies still exist in the 14th century, for example in Ockham and Holkot. The justifications of faith follow these two movements: voluntarist models demand practical rather than speculative justifications while the naturalization of faith entails that nothing in the process of production of belief can, for the believer, distinguish the assent of catholic faith from others.

This thesis provides an analysis of one of the leading twenty-first century media-evangelists: Joel Osteen. His popularity is worldwide and has only increased over his seventeen years of ministry. His preaching and teachings enjoy sustained popularity resulting in book sales, internet downloads, radio listenership and television viewership in the millions. He has also created arguably the largest interracial congregation in the United States, boasting around 50,000 members, the Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas. Due to his celebrity he is simply known to many of his viewers and listeners as Joel. This is primarily due to his expert use of new and social media, promoting his distinct version of Christianity. For all his success and many followers, Osteen himself remains something of an enigma. Decoding this enigma is at the heart of this thesis. Section 1 (chapters 1, 2, 3, 4) outlines the pertinent literature and methodology used in this dissertation to examine Osteen’s various contexts anchored in the spiritual media marketplace. This is followed by a discussion on the different critiques of Osteen as well as his followers’ emphasis on his expressive theology. Critics vilify Osteen, particular the New Calvinists who chide him for his lack of theological knowledge. By contrast, his followers commonly celebrate his ministry crediting him with life changing insights that have blessed their religiosity and reaped healing, fulfilment and a deepening relationship with God. Section 2 (chapters 5, 6 and 7) places Osteen in both historical and theological contexts that include the dawning of televangelism and Osteen’s theological background. Both shed invaluable light on Osteen. Section 3 (chapters 8, 9, and 10) takes into consideration Osteen’s expressive theology in his preaching, writing and media use, and provides insights into the heretofore-ignored strands of his theology present in both his online and offline communication. This section demonstrates how Osteen’s teaching on self-improvement, faith, and what he terms as ‘God’s favour’ are integrated into his works in relation to his approach to historical Christianity. This thesis therefore takes a more comprehensive and nuanced approach than previous interpretations of Osteen. The conclusions of this research provide rich insight into Osteen’s enigmatic theology and approach, while also interpreting his import in the on-going narrative of media-evangelicalism in American religious culture.

This thesis uses a model of honour to make sense of Paul's response to the situation in Galatians as he describes it in Galatians 6.12-15. We argue that the use of εὐpieροsigmaωpieέω at 6.12, and its close proximity to kappaalphaυχάομalphaι in the following verses, highlights that honour concern is present in this situation. We assess this by considering face, a term used by social theorists to describe the 'self as it appears to others', and facework, the strategies for maintaining and managing such - this is considered both as a social-scientific model and as a concept within ancient Mediterranean culture. This argument holds that Paul contradicts the opponents' seeking of 'good face' (εὐpieροsigmaωpieέω) as it is in direct contrast to what we term God's 'prosopagnosia' - pieρόsigmaωpieον [ὁ] θεὸς ἀνθρώpieου οὐ Gammaalphaμβάνει (2.6), and to his own position, which is to 'boast in the cross' (6.14). We read the idea of the boast in the cross as Paul's attempt to reconfigure honour within the Christian assemblies of Galatia, a reconfiguring that centralises Christ's disregard for common perceptions of honour, exemplified in his crucifixion. This approach then makes sense of Paul's autobiographical data as his own attempt to model Christ's 'prosopagnosia' and similarly reads the data in 5.13-6.10 as Paul's exhortation that the community live in this manner.

Thesis "Christian faith in relation to disabled people" is about the life of the physically or mentally disabled people and their position in society throughout history. Displays a change of view on them, which occurred with the advent of Christianity, when Jesus's miracles of healing and love for your fellow man was a charity activity of the Church and its institutions. The work is also focused on the relationship of people to the Christian faith as a potential resource recovery. Listed are the characteristic species of folk belief, which may change in superstition. Mentioned is the current view of the Church on disability and mental illness from the point of view of Canon law and practice and the role of religious communities in the healing by faith. Listed are the personal views of the affected by the religion

Diploma thesis Nestinars in southeastern part of Bulgaria focuses on the material and spiritual culture of Nestinars, a small group of people living in region of Strandja. The body of work describes in detail the specific phenomena of spiritual culture, which cut across the structure of traditional and contemporary Bulgarian folk customs. It describes ceremonies that are part of the clan, family, annual festivals and church calendar. Nestinars as a subculture, whose socio-cultural negotiations and ideas to some extent differ from the majority of the Orthodox population, they are perceived externally as part of it. In this work we meet with traditional clothing, folklore music and holy sacrifice. The parallel with the Greek rite anastnaria is mentioned in the work as well. Both groups represent a traditional ceremony where believers show their devotion to the saints by dance and walking on burning wood charcoal. Keywords nestinars - social group tradition - the transmission of customs and beliefs from generation to generation usually in framwork of certain culture or social group ceremony - a formal religious or public occassion, typically one celebraing particular event or anniversary; or ritual observances or procedures performed at grand and formal occassions to keep group's norms and values of...

Dentro do domínio teórico da Semiótica da Escola de Paris, o crer e o saber são concebidos como modalidades que se articulam em um único e mesmo universo cognitivo e que encontram distinção pelo modo de relacionamento e valorização que estabelecem com o objeto cognitivo. Inicialmente abordadas sob uma perspectiva eminentemente categorial, como a de Greimas (1983), que descreve o ato epistêmico por meio de termos alocados nas categorias previstas no quadrado semiótico e de operações juntivas, elas passam posteriormente por certa reformulação teórica, notadamente a feita por Zilberberg (1988), que privilegia os aspectos tensivos aderidos aos termos. Com base, de forma central, nessas noções, este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar as oscilações tensivas associadas às operações cognitivas do sujeito, o funcionamento, a distinção, a hierarquização e o intercruzamento do saber e do crer no interior do fazer interpretativo humano, a incidência do crer no âmbito da produção de conhecimento e as condições de verdade na ciência enquanto prática discursiva. Para tanto, procuramos fomentar uma discussão teórica acerca desse tema, reunindo, além dos textos paradigmáticos de Greimas e Zilberberg, formulações de outros semioticistas que também se debruçaram sobre a questão do crer e do saber, como Fontanille (1982) e (1987), Pottier (1983), Landowski (1983), Coquet (1983) e Geninasca (1983). A fim de ensejar tais reflexões, empreendemos a análise, munidos dos procedimentos metodológicos e das ferramentas de investigação textual providas pelos autores supracitados, de três objetos que põem em jogo as modalidades crer e saber, exploram-nas tematicamente e extraem alguns efeitos de sentido de sua oposição, sobreposição, exacerbação, atenuação e falta: o conto Funes, o memorioso (1944), de Jorge Luis Borges, o longa-metragem Doubt (2008), de John Patrick Shanley, e um breve poema recitado por Antonio Abujamra no programa televisivo Provocações. Ao realizarmos este estudo, buscamos ainda fazer face à previsão de Greimas e Courtés, encontrada em seu Dicionário de Semiótica (1979), que aponta o crer, por sua centralidade no fenômeno humano de produção discursiva, como tema pertinente para a pesquisa semiótica dos anos a virem. / In the framework of French Semiotics, knowing and believing are conceived as articulated modalities at the same and unique cognitive universe and that can be discriminated by the type of relationship and valuation they establish with the cognitive object. Initially treated by a categorical perspective, as Greimass (1983), who describes the epistemic act by means of the semiotic square terms and junctive operations, they suffer a theoretical reformulation by Zilberberg, who privileges tensive aspects associated to the terms. Based on these notions, this study aims to investigate tensive oscillations linked to subject cognitive operations, understand in each way knowing and believing operate and cross each other in the cognitive dimension, and also how they can be discriminated and placed on hierarchy. We also intend to discuss how believing takes part in sciences and the conditions of truth in science as a discursive practice. Keeping this in mind, we promote a theoretical debate about these modalities, resorting to, besides Greimas and Zilberberg, authors that also thought and wrote about knowing and believing, as Fontanille (1982) e (1987), Pottier (1983), Landowski (1983), Coquet (1983) e Geninasca (1983). In order to give rise to those reflections, and based on the methodological procedures and approach text tolls provided by the aforementioned authors, we undertake the analysis of three objects that thematically explore the modalities knowing and believing and extract some sense effects from their opposition, overlap, exacerbation, attenuation and lack: the short story Funes the memorious (1944), by Jorge Luis Borges, the movie Doubt (2008), by John Patrick Shanley, and a brief poem recited by Antonio Abujamra at a television show named Provocações. By the fulfillment of this study, we also aim to tackle Greimas and Courtés prediction, at their Dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du langage (1979), that points out the concept of believing, for its centrality at the human phenomenon of discursive production, as a relevant theme for the semiotics research of the years to come.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:34:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Cristina Pereira.pdf: 1063922 bytes, checksum: 7f49b66af7a0ef3a99401d190108be93 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-26 / In search of the upturn in the economy, six years ago the State and the financial institutions have encouraged the granting of credit to consumers from all economic classes, eager to enter the consumer Market they have been induced by the loan offers, credit cards and overdrafts. Thus, household debts have grown steadily and, consequently, default rate has increased. In this sense, the present work aims to determine the liability of financial institutions regarding the default because they offer easy credit in an unrestricted manner, stimulating the consumer to consume increasingly to take on huge debts which often become unpayable. The choice of this theme is based on the importance of itself, given the risk of unrestricted credit and rising consumer debt, beyond the actuality of the topic in recent years. The growth of the supply of abusive credit, lack of risk analysis by financial institutions, the lack of information with regard to contractual terms ( interest rate , loan amount ) , led consumers to consume and borrow even more . So based on these dictates and on the guiding principles of the Federal Constitution, we must highlight the responsibility of the banking sector in this matter, since the consumer cannot be solely responsible for taking the credit and also for the default rate of this obligation. / Já há seis anos, na busca pelo aquecimento da economia, o Estado e as instituições financeiras têm incentivado a concessão do crédito para os consumidores de todas as classes econômicas que, ávidos por ingressar no mercado de consumo, foram induzidos pela oferta de empréstimos, cartões de crédito e cheques especiais. Assim, o endividamento das famílias tem crescido paulatinamente e, nessa esteira, tem aumentado a taxa de inadimplência. Nesse sentido, o presente trabalho tem por objetivo verificar a responsabilidade das instituições financeiras no tocante à inadimplência, pelo fato de ofertarem crédito de modo irrestrito e facilitado, estimulando o consumidor a consumir cada vez mais, assumindo dívidas enormes, muitas vezes impagáveis. A escolha deste tema baseia-se na importância do mesmo, em face do risco do crédito irrestrito e do crescente endividamento do consumidor, além da atualidade do assunto nos últimos anos. O crescimento da oferta abusiva do crédito, a falta de análise dos riscos por parte das instituições financeiras, a falta de informação no tocante às cláusulas contratuais (juros, taxas, valor total do empréstimo), levaram os consumidores a consumir e se endividar cada vez mais. Assim, com fulcro nestes ditames e baseado nos princípios norteadores da Constituição Federal, há que se destacar a responsabilidade do setor bancário neste assunto, vez que o consumidor não pode é o único responsável pela tomada do crédito e adimplemento desta obrigação.

Submitted by PPG Teologia (teologia-pg@pucrs.br) on 2018-12-03T12:05:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o - AODOMAR JOS? WANDSCHER.pdf: 1084155 bytes, checksum: c199f79710e81c4cc382133c3138ef4e (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sheila Dias (sheila.dias@pucrs.br) on 2018-12-03T16:44:51Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o - AODOMAR JOS? WANDSCHER.pdf: 1084155 bytes, checksum: c199f79710e81c4cc382133c3138ef4e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-03T17:38:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Disserta??o - AODOMAR JOS? WANDSCHER.pdf: 1084155 bytes, checksum: c199f79710e81c4cc382133c3138ef4e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-27 / The processes of secularization of the Western world have, in their wake, had several implications for the Christian faith. The present research proposes to make an analysis of the secularization and the faith in the current contemporaneity, in order to lay the foundations for a New Evangelization of the Church. For this, the work of the Spanish philosopher Jos? Casanova, a sociologist of the religion, and the German Joseph Ratzinger, theologian and emeritus pope, is analyzed and put them into dialogue. Casanova's approach elucidates the phenomenon of secularization in its different facets, noting the emergence of public religions and the emergence of a globalized religious pluralism. Ratzinger's reflection (Benedict XVI) urges us to understand the faith as adherence to truth, in a context which he considers a "dictatorship of relativism". Although they are two very different paradigms, it is understood that this interdisciplinary relationship makes it possible to find elements to better understand the transmission of the faith in theological perspective / Os processos de seculariza??o do mundo ocidental trouxeram, em sua esteira, diversas implica??es para a f? crist?. A presente pesquisa prop?e-se a fazer uma an?lise da seculariza??o e da f? na atual contemporaneidade, a fim de lan?ar bases para uma Nova Evangeliza??o da Igreja. Para isso, se analisa a obra do espanhol Jos? Casanova, soci?logo da religi?o, e a do alem?o Joseph Ratzinger, te?logo e Papa em?rito, colocando-os em di?logo. A abordagem de Casanova elucida o fen?meno seculariza??o em suas diferentes facetas, constatando o surgimento das religi?es p?blicas e a emerg?ncia de um pluralismo religioso globalizado. A reflex?o de Ratzinger (Bento XVI) incita a compreender a f? como ades?o ? verdade, num contexto que ele considera uma ?ditadura do relativismo?. Embora sejam dois paradigmas bem diferentes, entende-se que essa rela??o interdisciplinar possibilita encontrar elementos para compreender melhor a quest?o da transmiss?o da f? em perspectiva teol?gica.

Percorrendo um pensamento em que a ontologia, assistida pela fenomenologia, fornece inteligibilidade suficiente para a elaboração de uma ética existencialista, este trabalho pretende demonstrar como a acepção sartriana acerca da subjetividade é indissociável, para ser devidamente compreendida, do fenômeno por ele intitulado como má-fé. Essa demonstração busca evidenciar ainda como a empreitada sartriana em descrever a realidade humana como ser-Para-si, cuja existência precede a essência exaustivamente analisada na obra de que mais nos servimos (O Ser o Nada) opera uma reconfiguração no significado das noções comumente empregadas nas tentativas filosóficas de explicar a subjetividade, a saber: cogito, Eu, indivíduo, pessoa, identidade, si e sujeito. Assim, investigamos em que medida a noção particularmente sartriana de subjetividade necessariamente comporta o fenômeno da má-fé, numa consonância tal que a compreensão de ambos é reciprocamente iluminada. E se assim é, por fim, averiguamos a possibilidade (ou não) da existência autêntica, avesso da má-fé, para concluirmos com a imperiosidade do impasse que aí se instala. / Tracing the thought in which ontology, supplied by phenomenology, offers enough intelligibility for the construction of an existentialist ethics though not entering there this work aims to demonstrate how Sartrean sense of subjectivity is inseparable, to be full understood, from the phenomenon he entitles as bad-faith. This demonstration aims also to make evident how Sartre´s efforts to describe human reality as being-For-itself, whose existence precedes its essence exhaustingly analyzed in the work we based ourselves most (Being and Nothingness) functions a reconfiguration in the meaning of notions commonly used in the philosophical attempts to explain subjectivity, that is, cogito, I, individual, person, identity, self and subject. This way, we investigate to what extent Sartrean particularly notion of subjectivity necessarily holds the phenomenon of bad-faith, in such a consonance that mutually elucidates the understanding of each other. And if that is so, we finally inquired the possibility (or not) of the authentic existence, the reverse of bad-faith, to conclude with the predominance of the impasse that settles down there.