Despite recent scholarship, critics have yet to offer a sustained, interdisciplinary interpretation of John Milton's engagement with millennial ideas that takes into equal account the historical context of seventeenth-century religious and political controversy, the ways in which the pending apocalypse transformed how people imagined and experienced time, and how we see evidence of this cultural shift in Milton's poetry. This dissertation opens new possibilities of understanding Milton's relation to apocalyptic belief in the Revolutionary and Restoration era through an investigation of how millennial thinking cut across a variety of discourses including theology, politics, and science. At its most basic level, my dissertation argues the seventeenth-century anticipation of the apocalypse fundamentally altered the way people imagined time; this new way of conceptualizing temporality changed early modern religious beliefs, conceptions of history, the scientific imagination, and practices of reading philosophy, politics, and literature. My project proposes that the poetry of Milton helps us better understand these extensive cultural transformations. I explore this new understanding of time that is both reflective of discursive changes in the seventeenth century as well as characteristic of Milton's aesthetics, by offering an understanding of Milton's relationship with millennial ideas and their constitutive temporal structure. I argue that, in response to the inevitable and immanent "end of time" suggested by seventeenth-century apocalyptic temporality, Milton's poetry creates an alternative temporality, opening up an experience of time that is not necessarily unidirectional, closed, and speeding towards its end. I suggest that this different experience of time can best be understood through the framework of a temporality explored by contemporary philosophers Walter Benjamin, Jacques Derrida, and Giorgio Agamben--messianic time. Put in its most basic terms, messianic time is a way of thinking about temporality differently, of calling into question our narratives of how time and history function. The messianic invites us to interrogate the notions of closure, certainty, and inevitability that are implicit in our linear, apocalyptic notion of time. Milton's texts continually constitute the possibility of a messianic temporality that can be read as a response to changing conceptions of time in the seventeenth century, millennial anticipation, and the belief that the apocalypse was close at hand. Entering a recent critical conversation regarding Milton's engagement with millennial and apocalyptic thinking, I suggest that we can understand this involvement through the alternative temporality his poetry creates. Each chapter of this dissertation fuses a formalist close reading of the temporality and uncertainties opened up by generic revisions, literary allusions, and rhetorical devices in Milton's poetry with a reading of how ideologically-conflicting interpretations of millennial time are articulated in the text and are reflective of contemporary discourse. I demonstrate how messianic time functions in each text and I prove the importance of this experience as it relates to historical and ideological questions about the millennium. This dissertation contributes to an ongoing conversation regarding how political, religious, scientific, and aesthetic texts are interconnected, and explores the plurality of Milton's ideological positions as they emerge out of the ambivalence and tension in the language of his poetry. In my reading, Milton's texts articulate a way of being in the world--both structural (created through language) and historical (tied to seventeenth-century millennial thinking)--that suggests uncertainty is the condition of knowledge and truth. / English

This dissertation is a study of the most important Greek patristic commentary on the Book of Revelation, composed in 611 by Andrew, "Archbishop of Caesarea, Cappadocia. The dissertation consists of two parts: Part 1, Studies on the Apocalypse Commentary of Andrew of Caesarea, and Part 2, Translation of the Apocalypse Commentary of Andrew of Caesarea. Part 1, Studies on the Apocalypse Commentary of Andrew of Caesarea, consists of an analysis of the commentary and an explanation of the Book of Revelation in the history of Eastern Christianity. Chapter 1 is an introduction to the commentary and to the historical context, audience, purpose and motivation for its composition. Chapter 2 discusses the Book of Revelation in the canon of Eastern Christianity through an historical overview of the place of Revelation in the canon of the East from the second century through the present day. The chapter considers which factors accounted for the early and immediate appeal of Revelation, examines the attitudes toward it as revealed in primary sources, and demonstrates that the Apocalypse was consistently recognized as an apostolic document from the second century through the early fourth century. Revelation eventually came under attack due to its association with controversies such as Montanism and chiliasm. Doubts about its authorship were raised to discredit it in order to undermine the controversial movements which relied upon it. It remained in an uncertain canonical status until relatively recently and is now presumed to be part of the New Testament by most Eastern Christians but the question of its status in the canon has never been "officially" resolved. Chapter 3 explains the importance of the commentary from a text-critical perspective and for the purpose of studying the history of the Apocalypse text itself. A large percentage of Apocalypse manuscripts contain the Andréas commentary, which has preserved a text type of its own, and the study of the Andréas text type facilitates the analysis and evaluation of other text types by comparison. This chapter also discusses the dual textual transmission of the Book of Revelation, unique among the books of the New Testament, since manuscripts of Revelation are found both in scriptural collections as well as bound with a variety of spiritual and profane writings. Chapter 4 discusses Andrew's commentary in the context of the trajectory of other ancient Apocalypse commentaries, East and West, and how the interpretative history proceeded along a dual stream of tradition. The first commentators greatly influenced those who followed them, but only those who wrote in the same language. The Latin tradition did not influence Greek interpreters, nor vice-versa, and commonalities between Greek and Latin writers can be traced back to the earliest Fathers and to the perspectives, Scriptures, exegetical techniques and traditions common to both East and West from the first centuries of Christianity. Chapter 5 commences an evaluation of the commentary itself, including Andrew's purpose, motivation and orientation, as well as a discussion of the structure, style and characteristics of the commentary. This chapter also explains Andrew's methodology, techniques and use of sources. Chapter 6 explores Andrew's theology, including his doctrine, view of prophecy, history, eschatology, angelology and salvation. Chapter 7 reviews Andrew's influence on subsequent Eastern commentators, the translation of his commentary into other ancient languages, its impact on the reception of the Book of Revelation into the Eastern canon and the commentary's lasting pre-eminence and importance. Part 2 of the dissertation, Translation of the Apocalypse Commentary of Andrew of Caesarea, is an English translation of the commentary with extensive explanatory footnotes.

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This essay aims to explore the tradition of visionary experience as expressed through the 4th century apocryphal text The Apocalypse of Paul. Emerging motifs from The Apocalypse of Paul is studied alongside those from the 1979 study on near-death experience, To die is gain, by German Lutheran priest Johann Christoph Hampe. A general enquiry it seeks to answer is; are the motifs in The Apocalypse of Paul of contemporary relevance, as testimony of neardeath experience? Further, this thesis aims to study possible correlations of emerging patterns through the theology of death and afterlife developed by the late Karl Rahner, as an attempt to re-cast traditional eschatological teachings of the church to modern sensibilities. Basic narrative characteristics in The Apocalypse of Paul is put in relation to the interpretation of NDE-characteristics in To die is gain. Correlations and/or discrepancies are put in relation to the eschatological thought of Karl Rahner. The study is structured around a disposition of The Apocalypse of Paul divided in seven subgroups. Each subgroup is analysed using Hampes’ tripartite division of the NDE-phenomenon.Further, granted the grouping based on Hampes’ systemisation, each section will provide a basis for study of Rahnerian theology of dying.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:52:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 fabio.pdf: 9228335 bytes, checksum: 01c6b3ae9e5dee3177e967b0a9a6838c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-10 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Assuming that the contemporary puppet theater hybridize to other artistic forms, it is necessary to reveal the co-existence of borders in this language. The research covers mainly the multiple relationships and intersections between contemporary puppet theater and plastic/visual arts, relying on the concepts of hybridity by Nestor Garcia Canclini and polyphony by Mikhail Bakhtin. These concepts were used to analyze the path of Alvaro Apocalypse, plastic artist and theater director, founder of Giramundo Teatro de Bonecos, in Belo Horizonte - MG, specifically in the conception of three plays: Cobra Norato, Giz and Pinocchio. Giramundo is one of the most important groups in brazilian puppet theater panorama, and these relationships with other arts are strongly visible along its course, developing a poetic that highlight the plasticity in the scene / Partindo da premissa que o teatro de animação contemporâneo hibridiza-se com outras linguagens artísticas, torna-se necessário desvelar a co-existência de fronteiras nestas linguagens. A investigação aborda fundamentalmente as múltiplas relações e cruzamentos entre o teatro de animação contemporâneo e as artes plásticas/visuais, apoiando-se nos conceitos de hibridismo de Nestor Garcia Canclini e de polifonia de Mikhail Bakhtin. Esses conceitos foram utilizados para a análise da trajetória de Álvaro Apocalypse, artista plástico e diretor de teatro, fundador do grupo Giramundo Teatro de Bonecos, de Belo Horizonte - MG, especificamente na concepção de três montagens: Cobra Norato, Giz e Pinocchio. O Giramundo é um dos mais importantes grupos no panorama do teatro de animação brasileiro, e essas relações com as outras artes são fortemente perceptíveis ao longo de seu curso, evidenciando uma poética pautada na plasticidade da cena

This dissertation attempts a Bakhtinian analysis of the polyphonic dialogue between Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Karel Schoeman's Na die Geliefde Land and Jason Xenopoulos' Promised Land. Specific Bakthinian concepts are employed to determine whether the films are "apt" adaptations of the literary texts; how the stylistically hybrid texts engage in conversation with different movements, genres and trends; how the polyphonic conversations between different texts and discourses, such as literature and film, or colonialism and postcolonialism, can provide insight into the variety of discourses, textual and ideological, of a postcolonial, post-apartheid South Africa; and how identity crises experienced by key characters can be explained using the notions of hybridity, "The Marginal Man" and liminality. All four texts have key characters that experience identity crises that spring from cultural hybridity; their cultural hybridity has the potential to either render them marginally stagnant or lead them to liminally active participation within their imagined communities. This dissertation argues that even though there are major differences between the films and the literary texts they are based upon, they are relevant to a specific target audience and therefore enrich the ur-texts. Salient characteristics of realism, symbolism, impressionism, modernism, postmodernism, postcolonialism and the apocalyptic dialogise one another within the four texts, thereby liberating the texts from one authorial reading. The dialogue between the discourses of literature and film supplement an understanding of the dialogue between war, imperialism, colonialism, postcolonialism and the Will to Power. / Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006

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À partir de l’étude de deux romans européens et de deux des Amériques, la présente thèse de doctorat examine la manière dont la maladie contagieuse sert de métaphore à la crise. Elle poursuit un triple objectif. Au niveau individuel, on démontre le rôle actif de chacun face à la maladie, puisque tant les médecins que les malades font appel à l’inventivité afin de lutter contre le fléau. Au niveau social, on prouve que la contagion sert d’argument pour stigmatiser et discriminer l’Autre que l’on considère comme menaçant. Au niveau politique, on souligne l’importance d’un compromis individuel et collectif dans la gestion des risques car les fictions illustrent les effets catastrophiques lorsque les États sont incapables d’assurer la protection de la santé des populations (vols, pillages, recherche prétendue de coupables et mise à mort des innocents). / The aim of this doctoral thesis is to examine how the contagious disease serves as a metaphor to the crises by comparing two novels from Europe and two from North and South America. It pursues a triple objective. First, we demonstrate, at the individual level, that each person plays an active role when confronted with a disease, both doctors and patients fight against the plague through inventiveness and resourcefulness. Second, we prove, at a social level that contagion can be used as an argument to stigmatize and to discriminate those who are considering threatening. At a political level, we emphasize the importance of individual and collective compromises when facing the risk. The novels illustrate the catastrophic consequences when states are unable to manage risk and to protect populations from danger. Some of these consequences might be: thefts, looting, scapegoat designation and killing innocent people.

Thesis (M.A. (Applied Language and Literary Studies))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

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