This paper attempts to explore the creation of Satan as an embodiment of evil in Early Christian theodicy. I use Greco-Roman myth and the Old Testament Book of Job to explore "duality," a system in which good and evil are encapsulated in gods or God. I attempt to trace the trajectory of a shift from this duality to a system of Christian cosmic "dualism," in which good and evil are separated as opposing forces. This shift is explored through the intertestamental Pseudepigrapha of 1 Enoch and Jubilees, towards the New Testament story of the Temptation of Christ in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Finally, exploring post-New Testament Christian ideas with Origen's seminal work On First Principles and the martyr text of Perpetua to investigate the Early Christian community's ideas of good, God, evil, and Satan.

An exercise in applied Christian ecotheology, this thesis focuses on a community of Lutheran church bodies (ELCA) in North Central Pennsylvania as they grappled with natural gas hydraulic fracturing in the summer of 2012. In the paper, I employ a combination of theological, environmental, historical, and ethnographic research methodologies to ground my analysis of how this synod of Lutherans to date has approached the fracking boom. My primary research question is: How might the Upper Susquehanna Synod of the ELCA--as a representative body of 131 Lutheran churches that are steeped in tradition--use its history, community involvement, theology, and church structure to address an ecological quandary like fracking? I answer this question in four sections, with each chapter focusing on a different thematic sub-question. Though I borrow techniques from the social sciences, I have written this thesis as a narrative, in order to draw the reader into this fascinating community. Instead of separating my literature review from my ethnographic data, I blend the two together in each chapter, weaving together quotes from synod members with secondary source material. Embedded throughout the report are also maps that I have produced using a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technique to give the story a spatial dimension. Additionally, I use photographs of the synod counties to enhance the reader’s understanding of the region’s ecological and cultural landscapes.

La thèse questionne les conditions d’écoute des témoignages des personnes ayant vécu une expérience sectaire, ainsi que les enjeux éthiques et méthodologiques qui découlent de la manière dont la littérature propose de comprendre le dire de ces personnes. Une revue de littérature permet de montrer que les principaux cadres théoriques utilisés pour expliquer le sectaire (aliénation, manipulation mentale, addiction) déterminent la manière dont est entendu le dire des personnes. De cette façon, le sens du sectaire n’oriente pas seulement la compréhension que nous avons des personnes. Il trace aussi les conditions de l’écoute. Le postulat de base de la thèse est que l’introduction de la « dit-mention » du croire comme carrefour interprétatif permet de développer une écoute qui concerne à la fois le sujet parlant et la dimension de l’être. À partir d’une théorisation du croire comme mouvement du vivant distinct de la religion, de la spiritualité, de la croyance et de la mystique, la thèse déplace la problématique de l’expérience sectaire de sa structure polémique pour donner pleine valeur au dire des personnes. Ainsi, en situant l’écoute sous le versant symbolique, soit dans un rapport qui prend en compte le rapport du sujet à l’Autre, le sens produit par un acte d’écoute du croire ne prend plus appui sur un sens extérieur pour expliquer et rendre compte d’une expérience sectaire. Il est produit par la liaison des signifiants entre eux, ce qui ouvre un espace de recherche pour que du sujet puisse advenir. L’hypothèse d’un sujet à croire sur parole se présente alors comme fondement d’un acte d’écoute différentiel, dans la mesure où il permet l’élaboration d’un savoir efficace, soit un savoir qui déplace, qui surprend, et qui relance le sujet. / The thesis questions the conditions of listening concerning the testimonies of people who lived a sectarian experience, as well as the ethical and methodological issues arising from the way literature proposes to understand the telling of these people. A literature review shows that the main theoretical frameworks used to explain the sectarian (alienation, mental manipulation, addiction) determine the way the telling of these people is listened. Thereby, the meaning of the sectarian directs not only our understanding of people, but it also outlines the conditions of the listening. The premise of the dissertation is that the introduction of the « dit-mention » (the mension of the telling) of the believe as an interpretative intersection leads to develop a listening concerning both the speaking subject and the dimension of the being. From a theorization of believe as a movement of the living distinct from religion, spirituality, belief and mysticism, the dissertation moves the problematic of a sectarian experience from its polemic structure to give full value to the telling of people. Thus, by setting the listening on its symbolic side, that is in a way that takes into account the subject's relation to the Other, the meaning produced by an act of listening to a believe does not rely anymore on an external meaning to explain and report a sectarian experience. It is produced by the binding of the signifiers together, which opens a research space where something of the subject can happen. The hypothesis of a subject « à croire sur parole » (which words must be believed) then offers a basis for a differential act of listening, since it allows the working out of an effective knowledge, a knowledge that moves, surprises, revives the subject.

This thesis examines how lay members of the Jain and Quaker traditions understand and navigate ideals of non-ownership. The tenets of aparigraha (non-ownership) and the testimony of simplicity are explored to show how interpretation of sacred texts leave open the possibility for financial success. Through interviews with members of Jain and Quaker communities in the US, and textual research, I assert that proper methods for earning, maintaining and using capital in each tradition transcend prohibitions against excess accumulation. Following Foucault and Weber, I show that proper ethical ways of earning and spending money depend on community-based interpretations and self-policing. My research suggests that lay members focus on ethical ways to earn and spend money rather than the amount of wealth they possess. Due to these foci, transgressions of ideals are viewed within community-established norms, which maintain high levels of engagement with both the capital world and their own religious tradition.

The Islamic State continuously, and successfully, recruits new members from all over the world. Although portrayed by the media as poverty-stricken, ranging in lonely individuals lacking education, these members are individuals who often lead normal lives with good economic and social standing as well as a high level of education. This thesis take us on a new recruits journey from conscription to warfare. Trying to discern the core reasons behind why someone joins, conforms and fights for a modern day Caliphate produce the concept of a typical Islamic State recruit. Among the findings is the revelation that the recruits, self-perceived socio-economic status, is a major factor when combined with the possibility of great social rewards and a sense of importance and belonging. An individual who has been recruited, then, chose to stay in the organisation based on loyalty, dependence and conformity. Finally; the thesis uncover the reasons why the incumbents take up arms to defend the prescribed ideological beliefs. Beliefs that rests on a solid religious foundation. The member feels his or her ideology to be under attack — and anew — will take up arms to defend that what is believed to be true. Based on the study we can conclude that the final stage of the individual members journey is based on a kind of nationalistic view of the Caliphate and the importance of Islamic supremacy.

The emperor Justinian's religious policy has sometimes been characterized as haphazard or incoherent. This dissertation examines religious policy in the Roman Empire from the accession of the emperor Justin to the inception of the Three Chapters controversy in the mid 540's AD. It considers the resolution of the Acacian Schism, Justinian's apparent ambivalence with regard to the Theopaschite formula, the attempt to court the anti-Chalcedonians in Constantinople in the period leading up to the Council of 536, and the relationship between the genesis of the Three Chapters and Second Origenist controversies. Even during these seemingly disparate episodes, this dissertation argues that it is possible to account for the apparent incoherence of this period. To do so, we create an account which includes and appreciates the embeddedness of imperial policy within a social context with two key features. First, we must bear in mind the shifting interests and information available to the individual agents through and over whom the emperor hoped to project influence. Second, we must identify the shifting and hardening symbolic and social boundaries established through the interactions of these same, competing agents. These form the basis for in- and out-group categorization. The individual interests of individual people—whether Justinian, Vitalian, Dioscorus, Leontius, Eusebius, Theodore Askidas, or Pelagius—within complex networks must always be accounted for to give a complete picture. When this social context is accounted for, Justinian's approach appears as that of a rational actor, having incomplete information, with consistent policy goals, working within inconsistent constraints to achieve those goals.

This thesis aims to explore the political, social and religious opposition to Liberation Theology in Latin America during the 1960s to 1990s, and the transformation of Christianity. During this period, most Latin American countries underwent social struggles and political repression in which opposition and persecution arose from dictatorial and military governments who labeled those committed to the poor as communists. Liberation Theology emerged as an ecclesial and theological trend committed to the poor, in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s in Latin America. This thesis traces the origins, development, expansion and repression of Liberation Theology. This work maintains that under the Cold War context and the National Security Doctrine, Liberation Theology became a target of political repression because its commitment with the poor placed it as subversive and communist. This research reveals how it was repressed with violence and the promotion of counteracting religious groups, leading to changes in Christianity.

No description available.

The following study is designed to look at one religious group and assess some of the social service needs as seen by the study participants. Since social services cover such a broad spectrum, it was decided to limit the study to marital counseling needs and related issues as seen by individual church members.

Within the Mormon culture, women are expected to marry, raise children, and be a "helpmeet" to their husbands. Both men and women are taught that they cannot attain the highest degree of heaven unless they are married in a Mormon temple, where they have been "sealed for time and all eternity." Although neither one can achieve this lofty goal without the other, and although there are some aspects of the Mormon culture in which there is a fair degree of equality between men and women, there is no denying that this is a patriarchal culture. Men hold the priesthood and they preside in their homes. The woman is the man's companion and counselor. Kathy Haynie converted to Mormonism when she was just eighteen, and she met and married her husband only two years later. She is committed to her religion and to her new family, and so she is as surprised as anyone when she begins to chafe under a manipulative and controlling husband. She is naive and credulous, and so she assumes that she needs to pray more, keep her mouth shut, and endure to the end. All of that changes when she attends a week of outdoor training for Boy Scout leaders, where she is one of only a handful of woman, and the only woman in her training patrol. Near the end of the week, Kathy realizes that she has been ignoring a self she has held within for fifteen years. Torn between her love of her children and her commitment to stable family life, and the increasing need she feels for genuine companionship, Kathy navigates the uncertain realm of friendship with one of her scouting friends. We watch her blossom as she gains confidence and skills to take her family out into the wilderness at the same time that she is deluding herself about her involvement with her friend. Family, faith, and friendship collide in this memoir of a Mormon wife and mother.