Bibliography: pages 71-76. / This dissertation seeks to make a critical assessment of the Muslim doctrine of taḥrīf (the charge that the Jews and Christians corrupted their divine scriptures) via its most vociferous protagonist, the Spanish Muslim scholar, Abū Muhammad 'Ali Ibn Hazm (d.1064). The dissertation uses Ibn Hazm's monumental five volume work, al-Fizal Fī al-Milal Wa al-Ahwā Wa al-Ni~al (An Analysis of World Religious Communities, Ideologies and Sects) as the primary source of reference. It consists of an introduction of four chapters and a conclusion.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis sets out to investigate Muslim women’s marital experiences in Accra, Ghana, West Africa. In particular, these experiences had to do with negotiating marriage and divorce. It included the broad marital relations like decision-making, roles and responsibilities, and the management and responses of marital disputes and abuse. I used a qualitative method in this research. I interviewed twelve Muslim women in Accra who provided me with their perspectives, experiences and responses of socio-religious norms concerning gender roles. In addition, they shared their experiences and perspectives on wife abuse and their consequent reactions and management of wife abuse.

The novelist Orhan Pamuk rose to prominence as a writer in the midst of the westernized, secular Turkish community in the late twentieth century. Pamuk has insisted that he has attempted to depart from the overtly political style of other writers in his generation. Instead, he strives for his work to appear more poetic and personal. Pamuk's fiction is widely categorized by his experimental, sometimes postmodernist literary techniques. Pamuk's style is a stark departure from the more typical socio-political motifs that have characterized much of contemporary Turkish literature. Edward Said' s critique in Oriental ism and his later theory that the relationship between culture and empire is depicted in the novel in Culture and Imperialism forms one portion of the theoretical model which is used in this dissertation to analyze Pamuk's literature. Said's theory is appropriate because Pamuk's search for identity is strongly characterized by concepts of "East" and "West." Importantly, these concepts are often inextricably linked to other binaries such as .. religious/secular" and '·traditional/modem." The second portion of the theoretical model used for exploring Pamuk's literature is taken from Charles Taylor's essay Two Theories of Modernity, and his book Sources of the Self Alternative, or multiple modernities, in his view are inextricably linked to culture. Taylor also claims that the novel is a modem cultural form which relies on individual experiences in order to locate notions of the self. This forms an appropriate framework for exploring the way in which the concept of modernity influences Pamuk' s identity project in his novels. In a Turkish context, the ideology of equating '·West" with "Modernity" has had a profound effect on the way Turks view the process of modernization, which can be traced in the history of the novel in Turkey. The idea that the novel is a modern cultural form used to narrate identity is the common ground that Said and Taylor's theories share. Two of Pamuk's novels, namely The Black Book and The Museum of Innocence are analyzed in this dissertation in order to illustrate Pamuk's inclusion of religious/spiritual experiences as a central aspect in his search for identity. The ultimate conclusion is that the writing of novels for Pamuk is a kind of unique spiritual experience which is brought about by his use of Sufi motifs.

Bibliography: pages 248-262. / The study investigates children's religious and moral reasoning in relation to situations in literature. Theoretical examination includes evaluation of both psychological and literary perspectives on morality and religion. Chapter 1 outlines and evaluates the cognitive-developmental approach to moral development as developed by Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg. The validity of stage categorization is questioned and it is suggested that consideration of types of moral reasoning contributes more than the idea of fixed moral stages to the understanding of moral thought processes. Chapter 2 outlines a literary perspective on religion and examines the emphasis in orientation towards religion as expressed by fantasy and moralistic literature. Although literature has not been categorically designated moralistic literature, passages which contain moralistic emphasis are isolated for discussion. Evaluation of the discipline of reader response theory integrates the theoretical and practical aspects of the study.

This thesis traces the use and abuse of genealogy, from Friedrich Nietzsche to Edward Said. After elucidating Nietzsche and Michel Foucault's coherent configuration of the genealogical method in their own philosophical projects, it critically deconstructs and rejects the claim that the post-colonial thinker in Edward Said's book 'Orientalism' is a genealogy in a similar sense to Nietzsche and Foucault. The rejection of Said's texts and Orientalism's status as a genealogical history is premised on a critical analysis of Said's misreading and negation of key Nietzschean and Foucauldian concepts such as power, discourse and the body. Following a rejection of the post-colonial appropriation of genealogy, this thesis concludes by suggesting some revisions for a more coherent deployment of genealogy in post-colonial theory through a closer reading of the relationship between the body and power, with regard to the question of subjectification.

Includes bibliographical references. / This research thesis is a critique of the main explanations of regional integration in West Africa. In critiquing West African regional integration, this research introduces and integrates the growing literature on the concept of warlords with theory of regional integration. The main explanations of West African regional integration are functionalism and federalism respectively. The critique in this study is informed by the practical lack of successful regional integration in West Africa, i.e. the failure to merge West African states and establish regional co-operation through regional integration. With regards to West African regional integration, the conventional, also known as the traditional view, argues and maintains that on practical and theoretical levels, integrationist approaches are inherently inappropriate to such integration because they ignore complex realities faced by states that are integrating or wish to integrate. According to the conventional argument, these realities include forces such as globalisation, the nature of North-South trade relations, the colonial experience, which today is responsible for the chaotic social-political and economic landscape in regions such as West Africa This landscape is characterised by economically, politically and institutionally weak countries.

Word processed copy.|Includes bibliographical references (leaves 82-87) / Mircea Eliade has made meaningful contributions to the academic debate in the field of religion and comparative religious studies. As much as he had scholastic opinion that would find synthesis with, support and defend his thought patterns and argument, so too he had, of almost equal proportions, those who would criticize his scholarship, accusing it of being, amongst others, biased and "revealing uncritical unverifiable generalizations". The scope of this essay is to enter that debate, with the intention to specifically focus on and unpack some of the most important concepts that underlie Eliade's thinking and deliberations, rather than focusing on the holistic theory of religion as purported by him. These concepts will be measured against the African Religious experience, to see if it finds resonance or stands in conflict with it. In the process, this study attempts to reveal some aspects of Eliade's theory of religion that could be saved to fit an African religious perspective. It also attempts to identify some aspects or conceptions of Eliade's theory that are lacking if read through an African lens. The focus in this study will specifically be on conceptions such as the hierophany, the sacred, symbolism, and myth, and how these interact and show themselves within the African context.

Bibliography: leaves 100-108. / This thesis is in search of voices from the margin in biblical hermeneutics. Firstly, biblical hermeneutics in the third world (Korea and South Africa) is marginalized by European biblical hermeneutics. However, their biblical hermeneutics plays significant roles in a political and cultural context in the name of the same God. Therefore, from a historical viewpoint, this thesis compares and analyses ’contextualized biblical hermeneutics’ in Korea and South Africa. in the process, this thesis reveals that their voices have significance. From a cultural aspect, Koreans’ unique Christian religious practices, which were characterized by ‘early-morning prayers’, ‘audible prayers’ and ‘rice contribution’, induced Christianity to be transformed into Korean Christianity. Similarly, Africans interpreted the Bible without losing their traditional cultural assets such as ‘ancestor worship’, ‘polygamy’, ‘music & dance‘, and ‘healing’. Furthermore, they developed and transformed Christianity into the African Christianity through their own agencies, AIC (African indigenous Churches). On the other hand, from a political aspect, whether Europeans (Afrikaners) or black South Africans; whether Japanese or Koreans; whether oppressors or oppressed, the Bible was the object of political interpretation for strengthening Bible readers’ political power in each context. in other words, Bible reading was contextualized given political context of each Bible reader. if Bible reading was important to Europeans, so it was also vital to Koreans and South Africans. This is because the Bible has been interpreted on the basis of Bible readers’ context in history, whether in European, Korean or South African cultural and political contexts. On this ground, there is no reason why Korean and South African biblical hermeneutics should be disregarded by European biblical hermeneutics. In the name of Korean Christianity or South African Christianity, they must have their voices. Secondly, biblical hermeneutics of Jehovah's Witnesses (JWs)' is marginalized in the name of heresy by Christendom, which includes mainline churches in Europe, South Africa and Korea. However, their biblical hermeneutics plays important roles in unifying people of different contexts on the basis of the same Bible. Therefore, this thesis reveals the significance of their ‘decontextualized biblical hermeneutics’ through exemplary biblical interpretations. In the process, their voices have significance. From a cultural aspect, JWs' missionaries arrived comparatively later than mainline church missionaries. Accordingly, they did not have to get through cultural conflicts between traditional cultural norms and biblical norms. On this ground, their biblical interpretation could be applied in a global dimension, which reveals a sur-cultural aspect. In particular, their ‘house-to-house preaching work’ and ‘abstaining from blood transfusion’ are their representative religious practices, whether in Korea or South Africa. From a political aspect, .JWs have not participated in wars, military service or military training. Therefore, they have been persecuted by governments and military authorities. Worse still, they have been branded as heretics by Christendom. Nonetheless, on the basis of ‘decontextualized biblical hermeneutics’, this thesis puts an emphasis on various biblical reasons why they consistently have rejected and continue to reject military service. Central theme of their Bible reading is based on God's Kingdom beyond their political and cultural context. Nonetheless, this theme of God's Kingdom provides JWs with great strength, with which they are able to live in global unity. On this stance, they did not take part in the past tragic political history, whether in Korea or South Africa. Lastly, even though diverse and pluralistic biblical interpretation was a threat rather than a productive challenge to church authority, this thesis reveals that a dichotomous category could be the first step in reading the Bible for contemporary Bible readers in the name of ‘contextualized and decontextualized biblical hermeneutics.’

Bibliography: leaves 167-187. / The present thesis begins with an identification of the fact that numerous academic commentators on the mystical experience debate misrepresent the epistemological position of the traditionalist school; and this, through a confusion of the mystical experience with metaphysical intellection.

Bibliography: leaves 80-83. / This dissertation explores theological methodology. The objective, within the methodological genre of the hermeneutical circle, is to see a method emerge that is fundamentally balanced; in other words, a theological method that is able to engage with immediate context, wider history, current theologies and classical theologies. Holland and Henriot's notion of the hermeneutical circle - the pastoral circle - emerges as just such as appropriate methodology. There are some minor additions to the pastoral circle that in no way detract from its fundamental methodolgy. In fact, I would argue, they enhance the given methodology of the pastoral circle.