This dissertation presents a hermeneutical framework within which an interpretation of Juan de la Cruz's Cantico may be undertaken. I call this framework a Global Hermeneutical Method. The phenomenological hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur are used to construct this framework. Ricoeur's phenomenological hermeneutics of texts is based on a theory of mimesis. In following the hermeneutical arc constructed in the pre-understanding of the Cantico (mimesis$\sb1$), its configuration (mimesis$\sb2$), and then its reconfiguration (mimesis$\sb3),$ a number of significant methodological issues for the interpretation of Juan's Cantico are reflected upon. These are examined to show how Juan's poem can be meaningfully interpreted for the contemporary reader, culturally and historically removed from sixteenth-century Spain. In a particular way this dissertation examines the split-reference of metaphorical discourse which accounts for the legitimation of the noetic content of the Cantico as well as the emergence of new meaning. The dogmatic content of the Cantico can therefore be accounted for without excluding the possibility of new readings of the Cantico. Metaphor, which uses ordinary language to construct linguistic models of reality, is seen as the tool, par excellence, which produced the what-is-not-yet in the world. A hermeneutical interpretation of Juan's Cantico helps us understand the originality of the text of the Cantico, even though, intertextually, the Cantico interacts with the Song of Songs, as well as other texts, in the production of meaning. The hermeneutical interpretation of Juan's Cantico suggests that neither Cantico A nor Cantico B be given priority in interpretation. Each of these two texts constructs its own meaning since the dramatic structure of each is different. The suggestion that CA be considered the poetic text, while CB be considered the theological text, becomes irrelevant in this approach. Both texts are unique poetic texts which open up unique text-worlds as is suggested by the difference in the dramatic structure of each text. There is also the possibility that the original poem, which I refer to as Cantico O, may also construct a different world-of-the-text than either CA or CB. Although I outline an analysis of the dramatic structure of each of these three texts, I suggest that a more thorough structural analysis needs to be done in order to surface more clearly the unique text-world which each constructs. The poetry-prose relationship is reassessed within the hermeneutical approach to Juan's Cantico. Poetic discourse (the poem) and speculative discourse (the commentary) are two radically different forms of discourse. The Cantico is, therefore, freed from an overdependence on the commentary which tends to interpret the poem allegorically. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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The sanctorale of the Ruthenian (Kyivan) Catholic Church, as represented by the 1929 Lviv Liturgicon of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsy counted six saints of ancient Kyivan Rus' (tenth-eleventh centuries), three Lithuanian martyrs of the later medieval Kyivan Metropolitanate (fourteenth century), and Josaphat, martyred in 1623 for the cause of Union with Rome, canonized by Rome in 1867. In addition, there were Cyril and Methodius, and Parasceve (of Tarnovo, Bulgaria)---without the geographical identification. Previously there had also been authoritative Ruthenian Catholic calendars with only Josaphat. At the same time, the Ruthenian Orthodox calendar developed in the seventeenth century a Slavic sanctorale of many dozen, sometimes close to a hundred Slavic saints. In the course of a general revision of the Ruthenian liturgical books---the Recensio Ruthena (RR) editions (1940-1952), performed by the Congregation for the Eastern Church at the request of the Ruthenian bishops---the RR Commission admitted that from the historical perspective, and in the eyes of the Orthodox, this was a severe distortion of the Ruthenian sanctorale, and resolved to "restore to the Ruthenians their ancient saints." The present study investigates the deliberation process behind the RR Slavic sanctorale on two levels. First, it researches the motivations, the principles, and the sources of the work of the RR Commission on the basis of hitherto unpublished archival material---the two principal source documents of the Commission: the Osservatzioni, or preliminary commentary and suggestions prepared by Korolevskij, and the Minutes of the sessions of the RR Commission. Second, in order to fully appreciate the choices and the work of the RR Commission, the present study surveys both the Western theological discussion on the question of Eastern Slavic saints, and the development of diverse positions in the Ruthenian (and Russian) Catholic Church to these questions, whether in theological speculation or liturgical practice. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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Nous nous proposons d'étudier dans cette thèse la question de la sorcellerie, plus précisément celle de la «kindoki», qui se pose avec acuité à l'environnement de l'évangélisation missionnaire de l'Église de Kikwit au Congo-Kinshasa. L'étiologie de la «kindoki» chez le peuple kwilois est complexe. Elle est le mcde d'interprétation le plus populaire de l'énigme de la souffrance humaine, qui intervient souvent fois lors de décès inopinés et fréquents, lors de maladies et d'autres épreuves. Au dire de beaucoup d'acteurs socio-historiques, elle représente le défi majeur et incontournable sur le plan de l'évangélisation comme sur celui du développement humain. Longtemps abandonnée au domaine de l'ethnologie, de l'anthropologie et de la philosophie 1 , notre thèse l'aborde du point de vue de la réflexion théologique et missiologique. La nécessité d'une telle réflexion sur le plan théologique s'imposait à partir du moment où la «kindoki» s'avère comme une négation de l'amour et de la vie et, par conséquent, comme une perversion du plan de Dieu. De fait, quelle que soit la prise de position théorique sur l'existence ou non de la «kindoki», celle-ci constitue, d'une part, un véritable drame de souffrance humaine englobant tout ce qu'il y a de maléfique et de destructif aux plans psychologique, social et économique; d'autre part, elle lance aux Églises d'Afrique le défi de la question du salut. Comment expliquer la persistance et la résurgence de cette croyance en dépit des efforts et des progrès dus à l'évangélisation et à la civilisation occidentale? L'Église catholique a-t-elle suffisamment présenté l'Évangile comme une Bonne Nouvelle à vivre qui marque vraiment l'existence même des Kwilois et des Kwiloises? Et finalement Jésus-Christ est-il le Dieu vivant, sauveur et libérateur des Kwilois et des Kwiloises? Telles sont les questions qui nous ont guidé tout au long de cette étude. En vue de répondre à ces questions, il nous a semblé utile d'examiner à sa jute valeur la praxis de l'Église de Kikwit. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) 1 Voir à ce sujet notre bibliographie générale. Signalons, entre autres, les travaux de Buakasa, de Massamba et de Diafwila par exemple.

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