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The study sought to establish the implementation of the policy on religious equity in public schools in the East London Education district in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. Underpinned by Van Meter and Van Horn (2015) with implementation and conceptual theory and also a theory on opportunity to learn and school performance by Van Der Grift and Houtveen(2006), the study was located in the pragmatist research paradigm and followed a mixed methods approach and concurrent triangulation design. The research sampling technique was random for high school learners in selected schools and purposeful for principals, heads of departments, teachers and provincial education officials. Three methods were employed to collect data from selected public schools and from the provincial office namely; semi-structured interviews, individual interviews and observation. Quantitative data were analysed statistically and presented in the form of descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed using the thematic content analysis technique. Major findings of the study are that teachers and principals understood the concept religious equity and had a fair understanding of the policy on religious equity. Schools were predominantly Christian-oriented in terms of religious practices and there were no recorded cases of religious conflict. Learners of minority religions were not compelled to attend Christian religious functions in schools and were allowed to attend their own religious functions outside school. This was established from the fact that participants cited freedom of religion as being exercised in schools. However, it was further established that there was no strategic monitoring and support for teachers in the implementation of religious equity. There were also no deliberate measures and strategies for the implementation of religious equity suggesting challenges and inconsistencies in the implementation of the policy. While there were notable challenges in the implementation of the policy, due to resistance of stakeholders to change, schools had great opportunities which could be utilized to enhance the implementation of the policy on religious equity. The study concludes by noting that, while key policy implementers had an understanding of religious equity, the situation on the ground revealed challenges and inconsistencies in the implementation of the policy which resulted in a Christian-dominated school environment at the expense of minority religions The study recommends, among other things, that that religious equity be adhered to as enshrined in the Constitution of South Africa of 1996 and the South African Schools Act of 1996. The teaching and learning environment should include Religion Education as per prescription by National Policy on Religion Education of 2003, that monitoring and support of teachers be done, and that community involvement with policy development be considered crucial as well as moral education teaching in schools. A framework for enhancing implementation of the policy on religious equity is also proposed.

Bibliography: pages 264-277. / This thesis outlines a proposal from an explicitly religious standpoint of the key dimensions of peacebuilding, focusing particularly on mediation and facilitation as a primary task. What is the value of such a study? My initial responses in the paragraphs which follow are made at the broadest possible level: the desperate need for effective peacebuilders in a world torn by violence and the potential for religiously-based peacebuilders to fill that need. I then support this response by examining other reasons for the study: the current inadequacy of religious response to conflicts, the danger of manipulation of religious leadership by other actors, and potential for the insights of religiously-based actors to contribute to the over-all practice of peacebuilding and diplomacy. In addressing the latter question I outline my own understanding of the meaning of "religion", an understanding whose impact on the broad question of peacebuilding I explore throughout the chapters which follow.

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A profissão de policial militar e a religião são temas que, aparentemente, têm pouca interação entre si. Comumente, imagina-se haver uma incompatibilidade entre essas duas categorias, uma vez que a violência cotidiana a que são submetidos profissionais da polícia se confrontaria diretamente com o preconizado pelas éticas religiosas, principalmente aquelas mais pacifistas. Disso decorre que as interpretações das especificidades do religioso em um contexto militar acabam por enfatizar o discurso dos envolvidos nessa dupla identidade, furtando-se de tentar compreender as disputas envolvidas nesse cenário. Neste trabalho, proponho uma alteração nas escalas de observação desta realidade, tomando como objeto de pesquisa os grupos religiosos que atuam na Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo: os evangélicos PMs de Cristo; os PMs de Axé, adeptos das religiões afro-brasileiras; os PMs a Caminho da Luz, da vertente kardecista e o serviço de capelania católica. Minha intenção é analisar e compreender quais as estratégias utilizadas por esses grupos na disputa por seguidores, credibilidade e legitimidade junto ao comando da corporação e da instituição policial como um todo. / The military police profession and religion are subjects that apparently have little interaction with each other. Commonly, there is a mismatch between these two categories, since the daily violence to which police professionals are submitted is directly confronted with the religious ethics, especially those more pacifists. It follows that the interpretations of religious specificities in a military context tend to emphasize the speech involved in this double identity, not seeking to try to understand the disputes involved in this scenario. In this work, I propose an amendment on the scales of observation of this reality, taking as object of research religious groups working inside the military police of the State of São Paulo: Evangelicals PMs of Christ; the PMs of Axé, adherents of Afro-Brazilian religions; the PMs in the Path of Light, formed by Kardecists, and the Catholic Chaplaincy Service. My intention is to analyze and understand the strategies used by these groups in dispute over followers, credibility and legitimacy from the command of the Corps and the police institution as a whole.

A profissão de policial militar e a religião são temas que, aparentemente, têm pouca interação entre si. Comumente, imagina-se haver uma incompatibilidade entre essas duas categorias, uma vez que a violência cotidiana a que são submetidos profissionais da polícia se confrontaria diretamente com o preconizado pelas éticas religiosas, principalmente aquelas mais pacifistas. Disso decorre que as interpretações das especificidades do religioso em um contexto militar acabam por enfatizar o discurso dos envolvidos nessa dupla identidade, furtando-se de tentar compreender as disputas envolvidas nesse cenário. Neste trabalho, proponho uma alteração nas escalas de observação desta realidade, tomando como objeto de pesquisa os grupos religiosos que atuam na Polícia Militar do Estado de São Paulo: os evangélicos PMs de Cristo; os PMs de Axé, adeptos das religiões afro-brasileiras; os PMs a Caminho da Luz, da vertente kardecista e o serviço de capelania católica. Minha intenção é analisar e compreender quais as estratégias utilizadas por esses grupos na disputa por seguidores, credibilidade e legitimidade junto ao comando da corporação e da instituição policial como um todo. / The military police profession and religion are subjects that apparently have little interaction with each other. Commonly, there is a mismatch between these two categories, since the daily violence to which police professionals are submitted is directly confronted with the religious ethics, especially those more pacifists. It follows that the interpretations of religious specificities in a military context tend to emphasize the speech involved in this double identity, not seeking to try to understand the disputes involved in this scenario. In this work, I propose an amendment on the scales of observation of this reality, taking as object of research religious groups working inside the military police of the State of São Paulo: Evangelicals PMs of Christ; the PMs of Axé, adherents of Afro-Brazilian religions; the PMs in the Path of Light, formed by Kardecists, and the Catholic Chaplaincy Service. My intention is to analyze and understand the strategies used by these groups in dispute over followers, credibility and legitimacy from the command of the Corps and the police institution as a whole.

The author employs research skills from law, history and religion in order to present an account of the relations of law and religion in Oregon's history from its earliest days to the present.

This dissertation investigates the relationship between religion and the state in Enlightenment Europe as articulated by John Locke, Benedict de Spinoza and Jean Jacques Rousseau. I conduct the study focusing mainly on the primary texts of the above-mentioned theorists. Locke and Spinoza conceived of toleration to be the best way in which religion and the secular state could peacefully co-exist, even though they differed considerably in their respective understanding of the concept. Locke conceived of toleration using a moderate theological framework, predominantly paying attention to freedom of worship and the separate spheres of influence for religion and the state. On the other hand, Spinoza was radically secular in his interpretation focusing mainly on the freedom of thought, speech and even the press. Rousseau provided the main alternative to Locke and Spinoza's ideas on toleration. His understanding of the most effective relationship between religion and the state revolved around the implementation of a civil religion. This would be a religion based on civil principles. Rousseau argued that good citizenship, a good lawgiver, patriotism, the doctrine of separation of powers and an elective aristocracy were important for his ideas on civil religion to function effectively. Given the context of Enlightenment Europe, this dissertation concludes that toleration, or more exactly Locke's version of it, now forms the foundation of most Western secular states. This is because it did not digress from the most important aspects of contemporary religious doctrine. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

As a debate over the legitimacy of the liturgical use of images, the Byzantine Iconoclastic controversy (ca. 726-843) had important political and theological implications, which modern scholarship generally tends to treat unconnectedly. The primary object of this study is to explicate the relationship between the political and theological dimensions of the controversy and to reconstruct the debate over images in a comprehensive approach that accounts for both its political and theological dimensions. / The main argument of the thesis is that the question of images was a politico-theological problem and the prospects of 'political expediency' and 'theological propriety' were correlated in the minds of both the Iconoclastic reformers and their Iconodule rivals. Indeed, it was through their respective soteriologies that the two parties gave meaning to the theological and political dimensions of the debate in relationship with their respective theological first principles. Therefore, the Iconoclastic debate is explained as a soteriological dispute where the worldview represented by the traditional Byzantine religio-political ideology and the worldview represented by the proponents of images were set over against each other. / The main contribution of our thesis to modern scholarship of the Byzantine Iconoclastic controversy is to reconstruct the debate in the light of the contending theological paradigms of the two parties, which shaped not only their attitudes towards images but also their political stands in relation to the Byzantine Empire's involvement in ecclesiastical politics. This new synthetic reading explains the debate in reference to two essential theological cornerstones of the Byzantine tradition---the Eusebian "Imperial Theology" and the Christological definition of the council of Chalcedon---both taken as key reference points, against which the political and doctrinal stands of both parties were constructed and interpreted.