This research is a historical-exegetical analysis of Hegel’s reformulation of Kant’s regulative principle of teleology into a constitutive principle. Kant ascribes teleology to the faculty of reflective judgment where it is employed as a guide to regulate inquiry, but does not constitute actual knowledge. Hegel argues that if Kant made teleology into a constitutive principle then it would be a much more comprehensive theory capable of overcoming contingency in natural science, and hence, bridging the gap between natural science and theology. In this paper I argue that Hegel’s defense of the transition from natural science to theology is ultimately unsuccessful because it is built upon on an instinct of reason, which is the instinctive feature of human rationality to transition beyond the contingency remaining in our empirical understanding of nature, to a theological understanding of nature, in which all aspects of nature are necessarily related.

The problem of this study is to determine the religious attitudes of the people of Escalante, Utah, according to age groups, with an idea of determining whether the opinions which are held by the people are different for various age groups and to determine if possible, the causes for this difference, if there be any.

The dominance of the White Christ in Latin America has been used to lend “theological” support for social, racial, and colonial hierarchies of the Spanish in Ecuador. The rhetoric used to justify the blanqueamiento process continues to play an enormous role in Ecuadorian social mobility, and also determines how various ethnicities in Ecuador are governed and treated. The Indigenous and Afroecuadorian populations of Ecuador are subjected to significantly higher rates of violence, poverty, and disease than their Mestizo and White counterparts. Against the tide of this theological distortion, I will argue that the Black Christ of Daule subverts the dominant image of a White Christ along with its implied oppressive hierarchies, instead paving the way for a vision of liberation for Ecuadorian Catholics.

A field survey was conducted to investigate differences in attitudes toward religious changes in a population of church-going Roman Catholics. An attitude scale comprising twenty items referring to changes in the Catholic Church was prepared during pilot studies. Half of the items referred to changes already occurring, and half to proposed or possible future changes. The attitude scale was administered to a sample of parishes in the Roman Catholic diocese of Baker, Oregon. It was administered during regular Sunday services to take advantage of the saliency effect of group membership. A response to an item of the scale indicating the subject's agreement with the change was operationally defined as a liberal response. A response indicating disagreement with change was considered a conservative response. It was hypothesized that churchgoing Catholics would be more liberal or accepting of changes already instituted in the Church than they would be of merely possible changes. The results supported this hypothesis. Total scores on the scale were correlated with the age and education of the respondents. The results support the hypothesis that attitudes toward religious changes covary with age and education much like other social attitudes, as the younger and more educated respondents showed more liberalism or acceptance of change than did older and less educated respondents. A detailed analysis of several items shows a wide divergence between parishoners' attitudes and ecclesiastical dogma. The results of the research also indicate that in the population surveyed there was a great deal of intragroup variation in attitudes toward religious changes.

The fundamental thesis of the analyst is that the ills or humanity are due to ignorance and more particularly to self-ignorance and that the way to self-healing is the way to self-knowledge. The purpose of this thesis is to show how these Yoga sutras of Patanjali contain the methods for the regenerating and recreating factor in human life; and that these methods can be carried into present-day, practical living.

Is John Locke a philosopher or theologian? When considering Locke's religious thought, scholars seldom point to his Paraphrase and Notes on the Epistles of St. Paul. This is puzzling since the Paraphrase is his most extensive treatment of Christian theology. Since this is the final work of his life, did Locke undergo a deathbed conversion? The scholarship that has considered the Paraphrase often finds Locke contradicting himself on various theological doctrines. In this dissertation, I find that Locke not only remains consistent with his other writings, but provides his subtlest interpretation of Scripture. He is intentionally subtle in order to persuade a Protestant audience to modern liberalism. This is intended to make Protestantism, and specifically Calvinism, the vehicle for modern liberalism. This is seen clearly in Max Weber's The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Though Weber concludes that Protestant support for capitalism in the late 19th Century is due to its theological foundation, I find that Weber is actually examining Lockean Protestantism. Locke's success in transforming Protestantism is also useful today in showing how a modern liberal can converse with someone who actively opposes, and may even wish to harm, modern liberalism. The dissertation analyzes four important Protestant doctrines: Faith Alone, Scripture Alone, the church and family, and Christian political life.

In one of his letters to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul sets forth as one of the basic facts of the primitive Gospel that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. "l In the same passage, he asserts that it is by this Gospel that men are saved - that is that there is a definite relationship between the death of Christ and the salvation of men. To define this relationship has been a task that has occupied the thinking of some of the greatest minds of the ages since the day that Jesus of Nazareth hung on the cross on Golgotha's hill. The writers of the New Testament deal with the question from a Variety of viewpoints. Consequently, practically every theory of Atonement that has been developed during the centuries since the close of the apostolic age can find some Scriptural support. In the consideration of this subject, we shall begin with a consideration of the subject-matter which, at least in theory, lies at the foundation of all the views of Atonement that have been developed: the New Testament teaching. We shall then devote a chapter to each of the three main types of theories of the Atonement. These we may define as the classic or patristic theory, the satisfaction or Anselmic theory, and the subjective or exemplary theory. A fifth chapter will deal with some of the modern views that have been expounded by modern scholars. We shall endeavor in the concluding chapter to draw from our study some pertinent conclusions regarding the significance and the understanding of that bedrock truth of the ChristIan Gospel - that Christ dIed for our sins according to the Scriptures.

The paper explores historical positions on suicide and philosophical, theological, and moral positions on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. In 1900, most people died from infectious diseases, which have relatively short periods of morbid decline. With advances in the biomedical sciences, people are living longer, and most people die from chronic diseases, which are usually accompanied by prolonged periods of morbid decline. In addition to living longer, people today are generally more individualist and seek methods to control many aspects of life. While assisted death is rarely used, it represents a means to control end-of-life suffering. The paper demonstrates that there is substantial opposition to assisted death among philosophers, theologians and bioethicists. The paper also argues that improved education about end-of-life palliative alternatives would alleviate fears about end-of-life suffering. The thesis is that the use of palliative alternatives is morally and ethically superior to physician-assisted suicide or euthanasia.

The purpose of the study was to determine what degree of understanding third year graduates of the SLVN Seminary District had of the nature and mission of Christ.The study was composed of a random sample of 200 third year seminary graduates. Each participant answered a questionnaire designed to test his understanding of the nature and mission of Christ. The responses were tabulated and presented in written and illustrative form.The students met the minimum established standard of 75% in four of the five concepts which they were questioned concerning the nature of Christ. The students met the minimum established standard in five of the eight concepts testing their understanding of the mission of Christ.Overall comprehension of both the nature and mission of Christ were considered adequate as the students averaged 80% correct responses to all questions.

This thesis cites many of the parallels and differences between Mormonism and Transcendental Meditation (TM) philosophy as it is expounded by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Areas explored include the following: (1) the technique of Transcendental Meditation as compared with notions of meditation within the Mormon tradition; (2) the issue of whether Transcendental Meditation is a religion; (3) reports of physical transformation as a result of TM and Mormonism; (4) a comparison of L.D.S. Church leaders' and Maharishi's views of America, the laws of the land, social order, modesty, drugs, and strict morality; (5) the ideas of inner and outer morality; (6) the idea of pure Intelligence in TM philosophy as compared with the doctrine of the Spirit of God in Mormonism; and (7) teachings concerning the purpose of life, evolution, and concepts of God.