<p>As its central purpose, the thesis outlines the Buddhist conception of human omniscience as developed by the philosophers of later Vijnanavada Buddhism, i.e., DharmakIrti, Prajnakaragupta Santarakita and Kamalasila. It attempts to show how those philosophers dialectically established the possibility of human omniscience and the omniscience of the Buddha. The concept of human omniscience was introduced into Indian philosophy because of the religious controversies between Heterodox (Nastika) schools, such as Jainism and Buddhism, and Orthodox (Astika) schools, especially Nyaya-Vaiseika, Sankhya-Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. The Mimamsakas began the argument with claims for the omniscience of the Vedas; the Naiyayikas followed with the attribution of omniscience to God. When the Buddhists, in turn, maintained the omniscience of the Buddha, the Mimamsakas raised objections to the concept of human omniscience, the omniscience of the Buddha, of God, and of any human religious teacher. In order to refute these objections and to assert once again the superiority of the Buddha and his teachings of Dharma, the later Buddhist philosophers sought to dialectically established the concept of human omniscience. The Buddhist argument was the product of constant interaction and debate with other Indian religious and philosophical schools, and it is clear that omniscience was and continues to be one of the pivotal topics for all schools of Indian philosophy. The Buddhists have used logical arguments to support the concept of human omniscience. They have established the omniscience of the Buddha using the logical methods of presumption and inference. They have provided the answers from the Buddhist point of view to the Mimamsakas' objections against the concepts of human omniscience and the omniscience of the Buddha. The Buddhists maintain that an omniscient person perceives all objects of the world simultaneously in a single cognitive moment. They have also argued that only an omniscient person can teach Dharma. The aim of the Buddhists was to prove the superiority of Buddhism among all religions, because it is based on the teachings of an omniscient being. In brief, this thesis outlines the development of the concept of omniscience, which the Buddhists hold to be the necessary and sufficient condition for perception of supersensuous truths such as Dhatma.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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“Savage Saints” historiographically reconfigures “Muscular Christianity.” It studies the close and positive relations of martial arts and combat sports to Muscular Christianity, and it argues the central importance of the concept of “human nature” to Muscular Christian theology and practice. Many have shown that the Muscular Christian movement took shape as a critical reaction against the perceived unhealthy and enfeebling ways of American culture. Decrying the physical stagnation of indoor life prompted by urban environs, the poor dietary customs of American foodways, and the general lack of play among both children and adults, the movement solidified as a large-scale Protestant “commitment to health and manliness.” My work refines this understanding of Muscular Christianity. Muscular Christianity was a response to various rumored cultural “crises”—particularly regarding health and manly vigor. More fundamentally, Muscular Christianity was (and continues to be) a rejoinder to America’s supposed divergence from Creation’s Purpose and Nature’s Laws. Muscular Christianity, then, was a natural theology that sought to correct unnatural modern ills by discerning and following a designed human plan. And the human design that Muscular Christians revealed was a violent one, wherein fighting was integral to “human nature”—an instinct placed within us that was both original and good. Fighting was uniquely foundational for Muscular Christians. Cast as a natural act prior to and outside of an unnatural American civilization, fighting occupied a privileged place in Muscular Christian theory and praxis. Opposite the perceived “overcivilizing” trends of the nation—i.e. the culturally inflicted threats to health and manly vigor—fighting showcased “human nature” and God’s Creation in its purest form. Languid, impotent, and chronically ill Americans, so it went, had neglected the value of rough-and-tumble action. Combat sports and martial arts gave wayward Americans a rare glimpse into what was and what should be. Finding the Divine in the bellicose, Muscular Christians looked to the fighting arts as a socially curative and individually salvific countermeasure to American “overcivilization.” Filling a historiographic void, then, “Savage Saints” accounts for the Muscular Christian attraction to and use of combat sports and martial arts in the 20th-century United States. Muscular Christians readily advocated and took up Japanese jiu-jitsu at the turn of the century, boxing during and immediately after the First World War, judo, karate, and other eastern martial arts in the second half of the century, and mixed martial arts (MMA) from the 1990s to the present day. If sports and a newly emboldened physical culture defined Muscular Christianity’s restorative and revisionist program, fighting was clearly an essential component. In the overall saga of Muscular Christianity and fighting, “human nature” was the primary protagonist and the praiseworthy hero. Pugnacious human nature was the God-given guide inside us. Physical aggression was the natural instinct created within. Employing the exemplary practices of martial arts and combat sports, Muscular Christians vested “bare life”—a life outside and before American civility—with a masculinized sense of primal bellicosity and theological meaning. As God created it—and as evident through fighting—human nature was virile and potentially savage. The Nature that American culture forgot was the Nature that Muscular Christianity sought to remember. Fisticuff knowledge was not lost to all, however. Muscular Christians often looked to culturally untainted youths, and more naturally attuned foreigners for ideas for living rightwise. Physically aggressive children and combat proficient eastern cultures were valued as those less subject to the detrimental effects of American overcivilization. Looking to children, eastern cultures, or within themselves, Muscular Christians fabricated a forceful instinct—the Word in the flesh. Americans, so it went, simply had to remember who they were—aggressive and physical—as they were made. By enabling special access to “human nature” through fighting, Muscular Christianity popularized masculinized notions of persons as originally, purposefully, and virtuously atavistic. With fighting as an instrumental practice, and with the quarrelsome Word as an inner guide, Muscular Christians constructed persons as godly barbaric selves, as savage saints. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2017. / May 1, 2017. / boxing, evangelicalism, gender, martial arts, masculinity, United States / Includes bibliographical references. / John Corrigan, Professor Directing Dissertation; Joshua Newman, University Representative; Amanda Porterfield, Committee Member; Michael McVicar, Committee Member.

Though previous scholarship has placed emphasis on the anti-familial rhetoric employed by ancient Christians, Christian discourse on motherhood was actually quite mixed. I demonstrate this point by examining specific representations of motherhood in fourth-century Latin sources. In the first and last chapters, I look at the use of motherhood in figurative language, especially as it was used to understand the nature of God and the character of women's asceticism. Though one might expect some Christians to have excluded motherhood from their frame of reference, even the most strident proponents of asceticism used motherhood to "think with," suggesting the appropriation of motherhood as a Christian means for signification. Other chapters address representations of specific mothers, including Helena, the mother of the emperor Constantine; Monica, the mother of Augustine; and Melania the Elder and Paula, two aristocratic mothers devoted to asceticism. In each instance, Christians offered qualified praise – and, sometimes, qualified criticism – of motherhood as a vocation for Christian women. The result of this study is a more nuanced understanding of Christian motherhood in the fourth century, one that shifts the focus from the repudiation of reproduction and the evils of parenthood to a greater emphasis on the ambiguity of the family. Finally, this provides important insights into the negotiation of the ascendance of asceticism and the melding of Roman and Christian values. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2017. / April 5, 2017. / Christianity & the family, late ancient Christianity, motherhood / Includes bibliographical references. / Nicole Kelley, Professor Directing Dissertation; Laurel Fulkerson, University Representative; Matthew Goff, Committee Member; David Levenson, Committee Member.

This dissertation consists of two parts. The first part is a compiled Syriac text and English translation of a fourth-century document from Edessa known as the History of John, which appears in the appendix of this project. This original Syriac narrative traces the acts of the apostle John the son of Zebedee in the city of Ephesus. I have combined all extant Syriac witnesses and have updated the old English translation from the nineteenth century. The second part—which is the main body of this project—consists of the first detailed analysis of the text since its publication in 1871. I argue that the narrative originated in fourth-century Edessa and is a product of a Nicene Christian community in a struggle with other religious traditions in the city. Using Bruce Lincoln’s theories of myth, I argue that the History of John should be understood as an ideological narrative that attempted to establish the primacy and authority of Nicene Christianity as the only true religion at Edessa. In particular, the narrative targets groups like Manichaeans and the cult of Atargatis in establishing the dominance of Nicene Christianity over these groups and their traditions. The authors of the History of John sanctified early traditions about the apostle and invented a new history for Edessa, situating themselves and the Nicene community at the center. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester 2018. / June 22, 2018. / Christian Apocrypha, Edessa, Fourth Century, History of John, Syriac / Includes bibliographical references. / Nicole Kelley, Professor Directing Dissertation; Svetla Slaveva-Griffin, University Representative; David Levenson, Committee Member; Matthew Goff, Committee Member.

Robert Douglas was a Church of Christ missionary to Libya, Egypt, and Lebanon during the 1960s. Traveling during this period introduced Douglas to the reality of post-colonial context of the countries. He and his family lived as foreigners and missionaries in these countries, interacting with the American oil industry in Libya, Egyptian and Arab nationalism, and the impact of the Cold War on the Arab World. Although Douglas did not notice the Cold War around him, it impacted his time there in important ways. In all his travels, the United States and the Soviet Union struggled to gain influence over the young countries in which he resided. His religiosity encouraged him to travel to these countries under false pretenses. In Libya he could come in as a preacher to the American and British oil workers in Benghazi, but desired to be a missionary, while in Egypt he and his family came in as tourists and had to renew these visas but created a steady congregation of converts through missionary efforts. Both actions were illegal, due to laws in Libya and Egypt, and these laws led to the retraction of he and his family’s visas. He made his way to Lebanon where he constructed a missions’ school for recent converts. The Six Days’ War led to his leaving Lebanon and returning to the United States. Upon his return, he attended Fuller Seminary and the University of Southern California and became regarded as an expert in Muslim-aimed evangelism among Protestant evangelicals. His career challenges standard missionary narratives through his independent missionary activities, highlights American understandings and misconceptions of Islam, and the reality of the Cold War in the Middle East. All of this makes his journey into a historical narrative to challenge and address the larger macrohistories for American Christian missionaries abroad. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester 2019. / April 12, 2019. / Christianity, Cold War, Islam, Missionary, Modernity, Nationalism / Includes bibliographical references. / Will Hanley, Professor Directing Thesis; Nilay Ozok Gundogan, Committee Member; Catherine Elisabeth McClive, Committee Member.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-103).

Thesis (M.A.)--Denver Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [99]-107).

Thesis--Munich. / Includes bibliographical references (p. xv-xxxiv).