Using the methodological frameworks of relational form criticism and ecoanthropology, this dissertation argues that the shift from lament to penitence in the voice of the character Job is attributed to a shift in the character’s worldview, evidenced in the shift in the book’s creation language. Negative creation language and imagery is abundant in the human speeches and frames the self-understanding of these characters. This is especially true for the character Job, when he employs creation language in his lament found in Job 3, and in doing so reveals a particular self-understanding that remains prevalent throughout the human speeches. As the book of Job progresses, the divine speeches subvert the creation imagery and metaphor present in the human speeches and, in doing so, shift the perspective of its main character to such a degree that he repents in his final response. The dissertation is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the topic by surveying the research to date. Chapter 2 establishes the methodological framework and specific steps of analysis. Chapter 3 notes the specific markers of the lament and penitential forms before proceeding with the analysis of form and eco-anthropology of Job’s opening lament in Job 3. Chapters 4 through 7 continue the analysis of the book of Job up to the end of the prologue. Finally, chapter 8 concludes the dissertation by providing a summary of the preceding analysis and some final thoughts that arise from the study. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Repentance is the first message of Jesus Christ, but the doctrine of repentance has been corrupted by the legalistic-penance doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, Arminianism, and synergism. The desire for the restoration of true repentance was the cause of the Reformation and Reformed theology has tried to build true repentance in soteriology. Calvin’s doctrine of repentance is balanced between subjectivity and objectivity, and repentance is a requisite element of salvation. Calvin made a connection between repentance and Practicus Syllogismus to emphasise the necessity of good works in salvation. K. Barth’s doctrine of repentance, which sees repentance as being the work of God alone, can be defined as forensic repentance. Genuine repentance only takes place in Christ. Christians can participate in the repentance of Christ, which then becomes their repentance. G. C. Berkouwer used the term ‘correlation’ to explain the balance between faith and repentance and to overcome the problem of subjectivity and objectivity in his doctrine of repentance. Faith and repentance are not interdependent, but are closely connected in the grace of God in Christ. By faith the sinner knows that he is a sinner and understands the necessity of repentance. Repentance is a means of strengthening faith. In the Roman Catholic Church penance is a requisite element in soteriology. There is no salvation without penance, and forgiveness of sins and salvation cannot be accomplished without a priest. This is a legalistic-penance theory which converts repentance through the righteousness of Christ into penance by man’s co-operation, changing the Christo-centric focus to include, partially, the merit of the Church and the Priest. Hyung-Nong Park called repentance a ‘co-operative’ work between God and man, but this does not imply synergism. He assumes that repentance is only given to the regenerated and to the Christian who has the sign of God’s children in regeneration. Repentance itself becomes a sign of redemption. With the exception of Barth, Reformed theologians tried to pursue the balance between subjectivity and objectivity in the doctrine of repentance. Calvin, Berkouwer and Park each tried to overcome the problems of the doctrine of repentance, Calvin with ‘Duplex acceptio hominis” or ‘Operum Justitia,’ Berkouwer with ‘Correlation’ and Park with his own term, ‘Co-operative’. True repentance is not declarative, forensic or human speculation. It is neither purely subjective nor purely objective, nor is it legalism or the result of synergism. Repentance is the action of man, but is provoked by the action of God, and by the power of God, man turns to God. This is a product of the grace of God; by His grace man has the opportunity to repent. Repentance requires good works, but neither man’s righteousness nor his merit save him from death; rather, it is man’s obedience and gratitude to God. True repentance, as well as true faith, is a sign of salvation and must be regarded as the heart of the Gospel, along with ‘justification by faith.’ When repentance has a proper role and position in Reformed soteriology, ‘justification by faith’ will not be human speculation or antinomianism, but will have the position of the heart of the true gospel in Reformed theology. / Thesis (PhD (Dogmatics and Christian Ethics))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Dogmatics and Christian Ethics / unrestricted

De 1580 à 1640, la poésie française connaît un remarquable essor grâce au génie de la mélancolie. La confrontation de nombreux poèmes avec les textes savants éclaire les liens profonds qui unissent alors l’écriture poétique et les savoirs scientifiques et philosophiques. L’imaginaire de la mélancolie détermine les différentes figures auxquelles s’identifie le sujet lyrique – rêveur solitaire, amoureux transi, pécheur pénitent, poète inspiré et désargenté. Il informe une vision du monde, conditionnant la perception de la nature à travers l’invention du paysage maladif, la représentation de l’amour par l’analyse de ses causes, de ses effets et de ses remèdes, l’expression de l’inquiétude métaphysique par la description des affres de la culpabilité, ou encore l’image du poète et de sa condition précaire. Placé sous le signe de l’ambivalente mélancolie, le sujet lyrique est voué à des destins contradictoires – plaisir et douleur, damnation et rédemption, fulgurance et impuissance. A ces contrastes thématiques répond la binarité de l’écriture mélancolique, tour à tour tragique et élégiaque : le style de la langueur et celui de la fureur donnent lieu à deux types de discours qui recouvrent les poétiques baroque et maniériste. Soumettant le langage de la science à leur science du langage, nos poètes puisent dans le modèle traditionnel du mal noir une riche topique et un double registre qui leur permettent de traduire un sentiment pessimiste de l’existence. / Between 1580 and 1640, French Poetry soared impressively thanks to the Spirit of Melancholy. The comparison of poems with medical or moral texts sheds light on the tight connexion of poetic writing with scientific and philosophical knowledge. Melancholy’s imagination generates a variety of figures the lyrical subject may identify itself with – solitary dreamer, enthralled lover, penitent sinner, inspired and penniless poet. It presents a particular conception of the world thus influencing the perception of Nature through the invention of the morbid landscape, the representation of Love through the study of its causes, effects and cures, the expression of metaphysical agitation through the depiction of the spritual torture fathered by guilt and finally the image of the poets and their precarious situations. Under the influence of double-faced Melancholy the lyrical subject is bound to contradictory destinies – pleasure and pain, doom and redemption, power and weakness. Those contrasted themes echo the binary rhythm of melancholy writing which is alternately tragic and elegiac. The opposite styles of languor and fury produce two kinds of discourses consistent with the Baroque and Mannerism. When the poets use their science of language to fashion the language of science, they draw an elaborate theory and a double register from the traditonal theme of the Black Mood which allow them to express a pessimistic vision of existence.

Devant la mort qui s’impose comme fin inhérente à tout être humain, le message hermasien, dans la neuvième similitude, évoque une vie après la mort dans une démarche qui séduit son lecteur et l’interpelle en vue d’une conversion immédiate et ponctuelle. Tout en travaillant sur des données préexistantes, Hermas monte une thématique eschatologique, avec un vocabulaire propre : il christianise ses données, en mettant en lumière, la prééminence du Fils de Dieu, déjouant ainsi les difficultés liées, à cette époque (IIe siècle), aux expressions « Messie », « Christ » ou « Jésus ». Il voudrait démontrer aux chrétiens, en général, et aux saints qui sont tombés (lapsi) qu’une possibilité est à nouveau donnée. Ils doivent sortir de la conception de damnation pour enfin bénéficier, de manière ultime, d’une metanoia (postbaptismale) qui favoriserait leur purification, et la grâce de vivre dans la félicité, quand reviendra (d’ici peu d’où parousie imminente) le Maître de la tour en construction en Sim. IX (en Arcadie). Ainsi se dévoile toute la pensée hermasienne : la metanoia ne se réalise pas pour elle-même, elle a un but qui est essentiellement eschatologique. Elle prépare les chrétiens à la venue du Fils de Dieu, à la sunteléia définitive, et leur promet (après l’acquisition du Nom, par le baptême et la vie vertueuse) une place dans la tour, symbole du royaume des cieux dans la Sim. IX. / In front of death which imposes itself as inherent end to all human beings, the Hermasian message (of Hermas) in the ninth Similitude suggests a life after death in an approach that appeals to the reader and calls him for an immediate and timely conversion. While working on existing data, Hermas mounts an eschatological theme, with a proper vocabulary : he christianized its data, highlighting the rule of the Son of God, and thwarting the difficulties related to this time (second century), to the expressions « Messiah», « Christ » or « Jesus ». He would demonstrate to the Christians in general, and the Saints who have fallen (Lapsi), that one new possibility is given. They must depart from the conception of damnation to finally benefit, in an ultimate way, a metanoia (post baptismal) that would favor their purification, and the grace to live in bliss, when will return (shortly where imminent parousia) the Master of the tower under construction in Sim. IX (in Arcadia). Thus reveals all Hermasian thought: metanoia does not occur for itself, its purpose is essentially eschatological. It prepares Christians for the coming of the Son of God at the final sunteleia and promises them (after acquiring the Name, by baptism and virtuous life) a place in the tower, symbol of the kingdom of heaven in the Sim. IX.

[pt] O sacramento da penitência requer uma reflexão teológica que enfatize o que lhe é específico dentro do conjunto da teologia sacramental católica. Requer também que se redescubra o seu potencial evangelizador. Nossa dissertação faz uma abordagem teológico-pastoral desse sacramento ressaltando o seu núcleo fundamental: o perdão de Deus; e dando ênfase à sua dimensão sóciocomunitária. Analisa a importância da relação indivíduo-comunidade nas diversas configurações históricas que este sacramento já assumiu. Propõe uma reflexão teológica que fundamente a necessidade de configurar o sacramento da reconciliação eclesial a partir do contexto em que se encontra a Igreja hoje. O fio condutor de nosso estudo é a distinção entre penitência como virtude e como sacramento. A primeira, deve ser considerada como conatural à vida cristã. A segunda, como uma mediação específica para a concessão do perdão de Deus ao cristão em estado de conversão. Em ambos os casos, é tarefa urgente para a teologia e para a pastoral redescobrirem a Igreja como comunidade do perdão e da graça e o sacramento da penitência como uma mediação para a remissão dos pecados e para a reconciliação em todos os níveis. / [fr] Le sacrement de pénitence demande une réflexion théologique qui souligne ce qui lui est spécifique placé dans l ensemble de la théologie sacramentelle catholique. Cela demande aussi que soit redécouvert son pouvoir évangélisateur. Notre dissertation se veut un abordage théologique pastorale de ce sacrement, faisant ressortir son noyau fondamental qui est le pardon de Dieu et veut aussi souligner sa dimension sociale-communautaire. Nous analysons l importance de la relation individu-communauté aux diverses caractéristiques historiques assumées par ce sacrement. Nous proposons une réflexion théologique qui prouve la nécessité de caractériser le sacrement de la réconciliation éclesiale a partir du contexte où se rencontre l Eglise d aujourd hui. Le fil conducteur de notre étude est de distinguer entre la pénitence comme vertu et comme sacrement. La première doit être considérée comme étant co-naturelle à la vie chrétienne et la seconde doit être considérée comme une médiation spécifique pour l attribution du pardon de Dieu pour le chrétien en état de conversion. Dans les deux cas la tâche est urgente pour la théologie comme pour la pastorale. Il s agit de redécouvrir l Eglise comme communauté du pardon et de la grâce et le sacrement de pénitence comme une médiation pour la rémission des péchés et pour la réconciliation à tous les niveaux.

This work deals with Christian tradition in Ireland and northwest Scotland in period from 5th to 12th century. The work is divided into two parts. The first one is an introduction into historical and cultural context. In the second one I used a religious model of Mr. Ninian Smart who distinguishes religion into seven dimensions. That dimensions are doctrinal, mythological, ritual, social, ethic, emotional and artistic. In each of these dimensions I deal with about four topics which are typical for Celtic {--} Christian tradition and on them I illustrate the uniqueness of that tradition. That uniqueness is in high ability for enculturation of Christianity together with ability for new innovative approaches. Some of these new approaches are introduction of new penitential practice, phenomenon of pilgrimage or interconnectedness of monasticism with apostolate.

Images of the Mater dolorosa, the weeping Mother of God mourning over her dead son, are plentiful art of Northern Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and often foreground the shedding of effluvia—blood, sweat, and tears—in their depictions of the holy pair. This paper explores the visual themes of tears, blood, eyes, and wounds as vital actors in images that require close, meditative, and affective looking and engagement. Such image formats include small-scale pairings of the Man of Sorrows and Mater dolorosa as well as books of hours. In these contexts, the holy fluids and their bodily sources expand the images' narratives and allow for greater exegesis of their devotional prompts. This phenomenon of expansion via effluvia occurs throughout Flemish devotional culture of this period; this paper uses Albrecht Bouts's diptych panels of the Mater dolorosa and Man of Sorrows, produced between 1490 and 1525, as the chief case study to encapsulate and ground those ideas while still acknowledging that they also apply beyond this image. Considering the widespread commonalities between blood and tears in visual and textual representations of the early modern Flemish devotional culture and the visual similarities between weeping eyes and bleeding wounds, this paper argues that Mary's eyes act as the external manifestations of her internal wounds and become locus of her Compassion for Christ. Furthermore, pictorial blood and tears function as metonymic devices that, like the Man of Sorrows type, invoke the entirety of the Passion and Compassion. The multivalent functions of the blood and tears in Bouts's diptych expand it beyond just a representation of Mary and her son and allow it to become a window and mirror into which viewers could look to engage in penance and communion with Mary and Christ.

La confrontation du théâtre et de la liturgie est un lieu commun de la pensée. Il est un motif rhétorique récurrent chez les pères de l’Église pour définir a contrario et par surenchère le bon ethos du chrétien à l’Église. Ce tour de pensée ecclésiastique, typique de la synthèse augustinienne de la rhétorique antique et du christianisme, n’est pas seulement un héritage livresque au XVIIe siècle. Il est particulièrement pertinent à la vue des enjeux auxquels est confrontée l’Église catholique : elle doit répondre aux accusations protestantes, qui traitaient la messe de farce ; le théâtre renouvelé de l’antique se rétablit grâce au soutien du pouvoir, se sédentarise et devient un divertissement régulier. Cette banalité nouvelle fait de la Comédie, aux yeux des augustiniens, le lieu d’une « représentation vive » et continuelle des passions du monde, particulièrement de l’amour et de l’honneur : le théâtre apparaît comme une liturgie inversée. Là où les pratiques de piété sont censées amoindrir les passions et nourrir la foi, le théâtre excite les passions et étouffe l’esprit de prière. La querelle de la moralité au théâtre montre non seulement une concurrence morale, mais aussi psychique et affective. Les deux représentations prétendent susciter la présence d’esprit et « toucher » le cœur, voire lui « imprimer des mouvements ». La messe est qualifiée de « représentation vive du sacrifice de la croix », pendant laquelle le fidèle doit se remémorer vivement le sacrifice christique et sa signification grâce à une lecture allégorique, et se l’appliquer à lui-même. Par la considération et l’accomplissement de cérémonies, par la vocalisation des psaumes, le fidèle est invité à produire des « actes » du cœur pour s’unir à Jésus-Christ. Ce rapport au texte comme trace à suivre, et ce rapport au corps et à la voix comme media pour s’auto-exciter, expliquent pourquoi les comédiens professionnels sont condamnés par les dévots : ils excitent en eux les passions contraires à l’Esprit saint, ils rappellent des sentiments qu’un pénitent ne pourrait pas se remémorer sans « horreur ». La « représentation » est alors conçue comme un effort de remémoration.Le rétablissement du théâtre à l’antique nécessitait un discours pour en éclairer les visées et en légitimer l’existence dans une société chrétienne et monarchique. Traduire la mimesis aristotélicienne par « représentation » plutôt que par « imitation » rendait le théâtre beaucoup plus proche de la liturgie et lui ajoutait les connotations de vue, de présence et de mémoire. Le débat entre plaire et instruire est un débat entre théâtre-divertissement et théâtre-cérémonie. Incomber au théâtre la fonction d’instruire, c’était le rapprocher d’une prédication et de la messe, car instruire, signifiait instruire chrétiennement. L’échec de sanctification du théâtre des années 1640 fit conclure à une incompatibilité du théâtre avec la folie et la modestie chrétienne, mais la possibilité d’une instruction civique par le théâtre émerge à la fin du siècle. Le théâtre participe de la construction d’une morale laïque. / The confrontation between liturgy and theater is a topos of the discourses which reveal deeply-rooted issues of representation in the seventeenth century. This commonplace had been a recurrent rhetorical device in the patristic sermons, where it emphasized the differences between Christianity and paganism. It is vigorously reactivated in seventeenth-century France as the Catholic Church faces its Calvinist critics, who accuse mass of being a comedy. Profane theater becomes a regular and professional kind of entertainment in the city and at the court, thanks to the protection of the royal power. This is why it is seen by Augustinians as a recurrent “lively representation” of the values of the world, such as love and honor, which are contradictory to the celestial Christian spirit. Treatises against Comedy written by Christian zealots reveal not only a moral, but also an emotional and psychological competition between liturgical practices and theater. Both “representations” try to force the presence of the mind and to touch, or even to print, the heart. The mass is then qualified as the “lively representation” of the Passion of the Christ, during which Catholic prayers must commemorate the mystery of divine sacrifice. By considering and acting out ceremonies, by vocalizing prayers, the believer is invited to produce certain acts of the heart and to unite with Christ, applying the Christ’s sacrifice to himself. Thus, the believer can be assimilated to an existential comedian on the divine stage : he actively involves his sensibility in the imitation of the great Christian model, by entering into the spirit of the psalms. This relationship to the text as a vestige to follow, this use of the voice and the body as mediums to excite devotion, explain the condemnation of the professional comedian by the Christian zealots (dévots). Indeed, the comedian is seen as someone who excites his own passions, playing a dangerous game with his heart and reminding himself of former worldly passions which can only lessen his faith.The reestablishment of theater questions the legitimacy, the definition and the goals of this art in a Christian society. Translating mimesis by “representation” and not “imitation” brought the theater closer to the liturgy. The discourses on theater in the 1620s and 1630s show that the authors tended to see a memorial, reiterative and visual dimension in theater that was not present in Aristotle. The debates finally conclude on the definition of theater as an honest form of entertainment rather than as a living form of instruction, namely because the latter was the responsibility of predication and mass. Saint Thomas could justify theater as a way of merely releasing the mind without interesting the heart or touching the soul ; at that time, indeed, instruction meant Christian instruction. In the 1640s, to please the devout Spanish queen Anne of Austria, several playwrights did attempt to call back the theater to its former institutional position by assimilating it with religious ceremony and creating sanctified tragedies. But this attempt failed for both poetic and political reasons. The disposition of the spectators in the city was not to be instructed. The theater was finally recognized as incompatible with Christian folly and modesty, but slowly participated in the formation of a secular morality in a new civic sphere.