Magister Artium - MA / Imāmah, (imamate) literary means leading, and khilāfah (succession) means representative. but, in the terms of "Islamic concept", the medieval theologian and jurists has termed it «Religious–Political leadership».1 the major dispute concerning the imamate surrounding the question of investiture to exercise the prophet’s comprehensive authority (Wilāyah‘āmah), as the temporal and spiritual leader of the ummah (community). From demising of the prophet, the matter of imamate, between Ash‛arī and Shī‘ah (twelve) there are two main opinions. Ash‛arī’s views are prevalent among the early Muslims headed by Abûbakar and his associates regarded the imamate to be right of the ummah (nation), and they chose Abûbakar. The Shī‘ah implicitly rejected the previous opinion, and maintained that the leadership was passed on through a special designation. This regarded the imamate divinely invested in ‘Ali ibn Abī Ţālib, the prophet cousin and son-in-law. Therefore, controversy between Ash‛arī and Shī‘ah on the question of leadership arise after the prophet returns and coherences to the two fundamentals central points: First: The nature of the relationship of the prophethood to the political leadership. The Shī‘ah regarded political leadership as an extension of the prophetic mission after the demise of the prophet: «Meaning that political leadership is not simply political rule but it is the corollary of the interpretation of religion, and takes imamate in depth interpretation»2. Other hands, Ash‛arī consider and include it in the matter of masāliħ Al ‛āmah (public interest). The Islamic jurists definite the masāliħ al ‛āmah (public interest), any issue whether it is religion or matter of world that could not fixed with fact proof from holy Qur'ān and prophet’s tradition. Therefore, the matter of caliphate emerges it in the masāliħ al-‛āmah (public interest) which, relies on human agency. Second: The contract of political leadership and authority between the problematic of mutual consultation and divine appointment. This point focus on ‘aqd (contract) of khilāfah (repress- entative of God) between leader and ummah (nation) and evolves around the problem of consultation, mainly in the Ash‛arī’s view, which is based on "selection system". So, in the historical experience, it can be noted that the consultation as mechanism in the choosing the ruler was not achieved as an "organized system" neither in the period of the rightly guided caliphs, nor in the periods of dynastic rulers. The imamate as a «supreme leadership» had a major problem issue in the contemporary scholars, both the Islamic and secular, since it was announced in the modern context Dawlah (government), which based on nationality and separated from religious hegemony. Its dialectic, in the present article, is to deal with theological and judicial theory. Therefore, in 1979, the Islamic council of Europe published a «concept of Islamic state». Most of the figures shaded are based on the Khomeini's thought (the founder of Islamic republic revolution of Iran), and Karāchī’s Muslim council scholar (they constituted Ash‛arī view). In the Islamic state, the Khomeini thought based on «the Islamic state is constitutional; Government is based on law and the Paramount legislative authority resides on God himself». On the other hand,«the Islamic state» shaped as «the principals of an Islamic state which centers on the supremacy of God, citizens rights and proper government» 3 Therefore, caliphate it is difficult to separate or detach from prophethood in the perspective of the commentary and interpretation of equally the Qur'anic and Sunna texts. So, difference between Ash‛arī and Shī‘ah around immāmah (leadership in Islam) are based on the theological principles which rise from the problem of cosmology, divine justice and human destiny. Therefore, the difference can be based on the idea (thought) about these theological principles.

This thesis attempts to compare the feminist principles of two American Christian women, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) and Rosemary Radford Ruether (b. 1936-). Although separated by one hundred years, they are both considered to be Christian Feminists in the sense that they have both tried to extend women's voice into the male world of religion. Further they compliment each other in the struggle and opportunity they see for Women in the Church. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, was dedicated to "equality" of the sexes in her Church. . Despite Eddy's insistence on "equality", she was more interested in her Church as a healing institution rather than in a Church that was known for its Feminist principles. Rosemary Radford Ruether is a contemporary academic whose writings have become the standard texts for female theologians. She has written with outstanding scholarship on the androcentricism in the Christian Church. / Christian Spirituality, Church History & Missiology / M.Th. (Church History)

This thesis submits Luigi Giussani’s theological writings to philosophical analysis. Giussani (born in Desio, 1922; died in Milan, 2005) was a prominent Italian author, public intellectual, university lecturer, and founder of the international Catholic lay movement Communion and Liberation (CL). My enquiry is motivated by the experience of readers who find Giussani’s texts marked by vagueness and seeming inconsistencies despite his attempt to respond decisively and sensitively to real human problems. It also presents ideas from those works available only in Italian to an English-language readership for the first time. Rather than criticize the author’s style of exposition, or restate his arguments in a manner more suited to my audience, I treat the texts’ burdens as symptomatic of the author’s deeper, unarticulated concerns. I reconstruct Giussani’s implicit concerns using history, intellectual biography, sources, and the logic of enquiry itself. I then re-read his texts in the light of the explicit rendering of those concerns and, where the texts’ burdens still persist, I suggest repairs corresponding to those concerns and to the errant behaviours his writings were generated to correct. Three themes are examined: judgement, freedom, and beauty. These were prominent in Giussani’s dialogue with students from the 1950s onward and integral to his idea of the religious education of youth. My analysis is conceived as a contribution to philosophical theology, rather than to the philosophy of education. The areas flagged for repair, however, may nonetheless serve educators. I conclude that Giussani’s account is indeed shaped by his implicit concerns; that their nature provokes the essentialist arguments he mounts; and that his attempt to expound intrinsic, universal, and timeless claims runs against the pragmatic thrust of his writing. My repairs call for a better account of 1) practical deliberation, 2) discursive reason, 3) obedience in relation to autonomy, and 4) habits related to the formation of virtues. I argue that the practical grounds of his project are best anchored in robust solutions to the problems of ordinary life formulated from the deepest sources of repair from Giussani’s tradition (sacred scripture and sacred tradition, including the liturgy) rather than what he calls the “needs and exigencies of the heart,” which address a different problem (namely Enlightenment rationality or Neo-Thomism).

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

This thesis attempts to compare the feminist principles of two American Christian women, Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910) and Rosemary Radford Ruether (b. 1936-). Although separated by one hundred years, they are both considered to be Christian Feminists in the sense that they have both tried to extend women's voice into the male world of religion. Further they compliment each other in the struggle and opportunity they see for Women in the Church. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, was dedicated to "equality" of the sexes in her Church. . Despite Eddy's insistence on "equality", she was more interested in her Church as a healing institution rather than in a Church that was known for its Feminist principles. Rosemary Radford Ruether is a contemporary academic whose writings have become the standard texts for female theologians. She has written with outstanding scholarship on the androcentricism in the Christian Church. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Church History)

This dissertation seeks to understand the idea of a boundary between humans and non-human creatures in the early modern era. The idea of a boundary between people and non-people, while implicit among most sixteenth-century theologians, is still an important feature of early modern history. However, the boundary, while rhetorically very important and static, did not match with the reality of the boundary in theology and culture as fluid. Theologians argued at length that humanity, being made in the “image of God,” retained a fundamental difference from animals and other nonhuman creatures, in which that boundary could not be crossed. However, they also allowed for animals to possess positive traits and even moral and legal culpability. They also accepted creatures that challenged the boundary, whether monsters (including exotic creatures and misbirths) or humans who were not thought to possess all of the constituent characteristics of the “image of God,” such as those with mental or cognitive deficiencies. Thus, they struggled to reconcile the experiential reality of a fluid boundary with the theological conviction of an anthropocentric hierarchy of creation. This dissertation will address the inherent tension between these two views and assess the ways in which theological and cultural figures helped to resolve the tension. Using early modern commentaries on Genesis, we will first examine the rhetorical insistence on a firm boundary articulated by figures both mainstream and heterodox. Then, we will examine the popular perception of a fluid boundary, in which nonhuman creatures could be addressed and understood morally in bestiaries, saints’ lives, and trial records. Finally, we will examine how proto-scientific thinkers of the sixteenth century, like Conrad Gessner, Andreas Vesalius, Johann Weyer, and Ambroise Paré, actively challenged existing authorities and helped to resolve the tension to a state in which humans and nonhuman creatures were different, yet both existed within the broader sphere of nature. By the end of the sixteenth century, violations of the boundary between people and non-people come to be rejected more for their natural than theological implications.

L’affirmation de l’Église « Une » comme une réalité présente dans l’histoire fait partie de la tradition catholique. Après la naissance du mouvement œcuménique, Yves Congar (1904-1995) introduit dans la théologie catholique le principe ecclésiologique de l’œcuménisme. Il s’agit de penser la vie chrétienne des autres baptisés à partir de leurs Communions. Pour mettre en évidence ce principe herméneutique, cette thèse étudie sa portée théologique dans l’œuvre congarienne (1931 à 1954), se penche sur sa réception dans le décret sur l’œcuménisme Unitatis Redintegratio (1964), dans l’encyclique Ut Unum Sint (1995) et dans quelques documents récents, avant de proposer son inscription dans une théologie de l’ Église structurée à partir de l’institutionnalité de la grâce, située dans une perspective eschatologique. / The assertion of the Church as “One” present throughout history is part of the Roman Catholic tradition. After the appearance of the ecumenical movement, Yves Congar (1904-1995) introduces the ecclesiological principle of ecumenism in catholic theology. The idea is to think of the Christian life of the other baptized based on their Communion. To emphasize this hermeneutics’ principle, this thesis studies its theological impact on the congarian work (1931-1954) and ponders over its reception within the decree on ecumenism Unitatis Redintegratio (1964), within the encyclical Ut Unum Sint (1995) as well as in recent documents. It will also lead on to suggesting its recording in one theology of the Church structured by the institutionalization of grace in an eschatological perspective.

This thesis contributes to the literature on the history of the transition from colonial to post-colonial in the Pacific. It explores the contribution of an individual to this transition, Rev. Dr. Alan Richard Tippett, as a focus for illuminating the struggles in the transitions and the development of post-colonial theory for mission. Alan Richard Tippet sailed to Fiji as an ordained Methodist missionary in 1941. He was a product of a Methodist parsonage and heir to the evangelical and revival tendencies of the Cornish Methodism of his family. He began his missionary career steeped in the colonial visions of the mission enterprise fostered by the Board of Missions of his church. He was eager to study anthropology but was given no chance to do so before he left Australia. He pursued his study of anthropology and history in Fiji and began to question the paternalism of colonial theory. Early in his time in Fiji he made the decision to join with those who sought change and the death of colonial mission. In his work as a circuit minister, theological educator, writer and administrator he worked to this end. He developed his talent for writing and research, encouraging the Fijian church to take pride in its past achievements. He became alienated from the administrators of the Australasian Methodist Board of Missions and could find no place in the Australian church. In 1961 he left Fiji and began a course of study at the newly formed Institute of Church Growth in Eugene, Oregon. This led him into the orbit of Donald McGavran and the newly emerging church growth theory of Christian mission. Although his desire was to enhance the study of post-colonial mission in Australia he could not find a position to support him even after he gained a PhD in anthropology from the University of Oregon. After research in the Solomon Islands he returned to the USA to assist Donald McGavran in the formation of the now famous School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena. While at Fuller he exercised considerable influence in the development of missiological theory and especially the application of anthropological studies in post-colonial mission. Although he contributed to both the ecumenical and evangelical debates on mission, he found himself caught up in the bitter debates of the 1960s and 1970s between them and, despite all efforts to maintain links, lost contact with the ecumenical wing. Retiring to Australia in 1977 he found that his world reputation was not recognised in his native land. He continued his work apace, although he was deeply saddened by the ignorance he found in Australia and by his continued rejection. He finally donated his library to St. Mark???s National Theological Centre. He died in 1988 in Canberra.

This thesis contributes to the literature on the history of the transition from colonial to post-colonial in the Pacific. It explores the contribution of an individual to this transition, Rev. Dr. Alan Richard Tippett, as a focus for illuminating the struggles in the transitions and the development of post-colonial theory for mission. Alan Richard Tippet sailed to Fiji as an ordained Methodist missionary in 1941. He was a product of a Methodist parsonage and heir to the evangelical and revival tendencies of the Cornish Methodism of his family. He began his missionary career steeped in the colonial visions of the mission enterprise fostered by the Board of Missions of his church. He was eager to study anthropology but was given no chance to do so before he left Australia. He pursued his study of anthropology and history in Fiji and began to question the paternalism of colonial theory. Early in his time in Fiji he made the decision to join with those who sought change and the death of colonial mission. In his work as a circuit minister, theological educator, writer and administrator he worked to this end. He developed his talent for writing and research, encouraging the Fijian church to take pride in its past achievements. He became alienated from the administrators of the Australasian Methodist Board of Missions and could find no place in the Australian church. In 1961 he left Fiji and began a course of study at the newly formed Institute of Church Growth in Eugene, Oregon. This led him into the orbit of Donald McGavran and the newly emerging church growth theory of Christian mission. Although his desire was to enhance the study of post-colonial mission in Australia he could not find a position to support him even after he gained a PhD in anthropology from the University of Oregon. After research in the Solomon Islands he returned to the USA to assist Donald McGavran in the formation of the now famous School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena. While at Fuller he exercised considerable influence in the development of missiological theory and especially the application of anthropological studies in post-colonial mission. Although he contributed to both the ecumenical and evangelical debates on mission, he found himself caught up in the bitter debates of the 1960s and 1970s between them and, despite all efforts to maintain links, lost contact with the ecumenical wing. Retiring to Australia in 1977 he found that his world reputation was not recognised in his native land. He continued his work apace, although he was deeply saddened by the ignorance he found in Australia and by his continued rejection. He finally donated his library to St. Mark???s National Theological Centre. He died in 1988 in Canberra.