Interpreter la spiritualite de la liberation chez Gustavo Gutierrez, au moyen de la symbolique de la convivialite, tel etait le but de cette these. Le vocable convivialite semblait traduire le mieux les deux composantes majeures presentes dans la spiritualite de la liberation: la redecouverte de l'amour de Dieu et l'engagement pour la liberation de l'autre. Dans le premier chapitre, nous avons identifie l'etymologie du terme "convivialite" et nous avons retrace son histoire. Il ne restait plus qu'a verifier notre hypothese: ces deux elements de la convivialite se retrouvent-ils dans la spiritualite de la liberation telle que presentee par Gustavo Gutierrez? Cependant, avant d'entamer l'interpretation, il nous apparaissait important de saisir de fond cette spiritualite en sa terre natale. Le deuxieme chapitre rapporte donc les evenements fondateurs de cette spiritualite. Dans le troisieme chapitre, nous avons etudie l'axe de cette spiritualite: l'option preferentielle pour les pauvres. Nous avons examine chacune des composantes de cette expression. Les pauvres, ce sont ceux et celles qui manquent de biens economiques necessaires a une vie humaine digne de ce nom. Dieu a manifeste une preference pour les pauvres. Jesus aussi les a aimes et il a centre sa mission sur l'annonce de leur liberation. Enfin, opter pour les pauvres signifie se solidariser avec eux, vivre un engagement reel avec leurs souffrances et leurs joies, avec leurs luttes pour la justice et leurs aspirations a la liberation. Apres avoir recueilli un certain nombre d'interrogations que soulevent les propos de Gutierrez, nous avons mis en lumiere les traits de la convivialite que nous avons retrouves au coeur de cette spiritualite. Apres avoir approfondi et interprete cet amour de preference pour les pauvres, nous avons decrit le cheminement de ceux et celles qui ont fait et font cette option. Ainsi, le quatrieme chapitre devoile le Dieu rencontre sur cette route d'engagement avec les pauvres: le Dieu de l'Exode, le Go'el d'Israel, le Dieu de la vie, Jesus le liberateur, le Jesus de l'histoire, l'Esprit de vie. Avant de proceder a l'interpretation, il important de repondre 'a deux interrogations si souvent adressees a Gutierrez. La premiere porte sur l'importance accordee a l'evenement de l'Exode et la seconde, sur le retour massif au Jesus de l'histoire. A la fin de ce chapitre, nous avons presente les liens qui emergent entre cette presentation des traits de Dieu et le theme de la convivialite. Une nouvelle maniere d'etre homme, d'etre femme, d'etre croyant, d'etre croyante est en train de germer en Amerique latine, de meme qu'une nouvelle maniere d'etre Eglise. Le cinquieme chapitre relate cette marche a la suite de Jesus qui se presente a l'interieur d'une aventure collective. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

On peut envisager cette problematique sous deux angles. (1) La foi chretienne est-elle vraiment "capable", a-t-elle la force de s'inserer dans les medias sans se trahir, sans se pervertir? ne risque-t-elle pas de se fausser en se lancant dans le monde du spectacle? (2) Les medias se revelent-ils a l'usage vraiment "capables" ou "incapables" de porter tout vecu de foi chretienne? Notre hypothese se precise alors. Contrairement a ce qu'expose Jacques Ellul, nous affirmons que l'image possede des capacites rhetoriques et metaphoriques remarquables, qui ouvrent au monde poetique; qu'a cause de cela, l'image mediatique peut, en principe, deboucher sur le symbolique et devenir alors capable d'exprimer le vecu de foi chretienne sans qu'on tombe necessairement dans l'idolatrie, quoique le danger demeure toujours. Notre methode se developpe en consequence. Dans une premiere partie, nous pretons une oreille a la fois sympathique et critique au point de vue de ceux et celles qui doutent, et a titre exemplaire a Jacques Ellul. Pour denoncer l'image, cet auteur travaille en deux temps: il recourt a une description qu'il appelle "intuitive" de l'image et de la parole, grace a laquelle il peut disqualifier l'image de toute capacite metaphorique parce qu'elle serait purement referentielle (ch. 1); puis, il tente de demontrer la necessaire idolatrie de toute image (ch. 2). Les deuxieme et troisieme parties de notre recherche questionneront a tour de role ces deux affirmations fondamentales d'Ellul: l'image peut-elle etre reduite a une fonction purement utilitariste, referentielle, sans debouche metaphorique? Toute image est-elle, par definition, toujours idolatrique? La deuxieme partie creuse le role propre de l'image en culture mediatique. Nous avons recours a notre propre experience pratique en medias, ainsi qu'aux ressources des sciences de la communication, pour expliquer, a travers l'exemple de la television, en quoi l'image "reproduit" la realite, et ce en la situant dans l'ensemble de la culture mediatique, specialement dans ses fonctions rhetoriques et de "reconstruction sociale" (ch. 3). Puis, pour montrer comment elle peut deboucher sur le connotatif, nous elaborons, exemple du cinema a l'appui, la capacite metaphorique de l'image, qui--comme tout langage humain--peut ainsi devenir le support de visions du monde, de valeurs authentiques et meme des plus hautes expressions spirituelles (ch. 4). La troisieme partie de notre recherche s'interesse a l'idolatrie possible de l'image mediatique. Apres avoir rappele les enjeux bibliques, historiques et theologiques de la relation image-Incarnation (ch. 5), nous nous aidons des sciences psychologiques en vue de mieux comprendre ce que signifie l'idolatrie, nous nous arretons a discerner ses expressions actuelles et nous degageons une voie de "salut" pour l'image a travers la communication symbolique, qui permet de depaser le danger d'idolatrie (ch. 6). Enfin, nous appliquons ces conclusions aux medias et a l'image mediatique (ch. 7). Nous en profitons, en fin de troisieme partie et en conclusion, pour ouvrir des pistes de reflexion pour de futures recherches. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This dissertation addresses the question: what is the matter of strict juridical obligation incurred by one who professes the fourth vow in the Society of Jesus. Only one "grade" or group of Jesuits profess the Society's "fourth vow" which promises "special obedience to the Sovereign Pontiff with regard to the missions." Since the investigation concerns a vow of obedience, Chapter One considers the emergence of the phenomenon of religious obedience as it was understood and developed through the customs, the rules and the "proper law" of various religious communities which grew in the Church. Chapter Two probes the influences working in the life of the founder, Ignatius of Loyola, the birth of the Spiritual Exercises and the events and documents which led to the establishment of the Society of Jesus. Chapter Three examines The Constitutions of the Society of Jesus, especially those Parts which deal with the two vows of obedience. Specific attention is given to the manner in which the notion of "mission" was understood and carried out by the first Jesuits. Various general principles recognized by the Church which place some limitations on the juridical obligation incurred by one who professes a vow of obedience are also cited. In Chapter Four a review of the historical development of the juridical understanding of the fourth vow is undertaken and then reconsidered in the light of the renewed legal context brought about by the Second Vatican Council and the revision of the Code of Canon Law. The Chapter then looks to the future and suggests possible developments which may occur regarding the evolution and the application of the Jesuit fourth vow. It is the primary conclusion of this study that the fourth vow is to be understood as follows: the vow highlights and focuses the essential missionary end of the Society; it legitimately amplifies the commitment of the third vow with a greater intensity and it extends that commitment with elements of obligation not strictly required by the third vow. The Constitutions specify the matter of juridical obligation over and above that which is legally required by the third vow: a professed Jesuit is not to seek (directly or indirectly) but to accept, immediately and without excuse, missions from the pope even to go to non-Christian countries without requesting provisions for the journey, nor causing a request for anything temporal to be made. It is also concluded that doctrinal matters are not part of the proper object of the fourth vow. The fourth vow, even though it is a special obedience to the pope, does not compromise the ordinary, proper power of the superior general over the institute which he governs. By analogy to canons 332 and 333 which deal with the pope's relationship with bishops, any personal papal mission can be understood to strengthen and safeguard not only the proper, ordinary and immediate power of the superior general, but also the essential nature of the Society itself. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

This thesis examines how Stanley Fish presents an apologia for his theory of reader-response by privileging the notion of "faith." Although Fish ultimately rejects the interpretive approaches of Saint Augustine and John Milton, his own conception of "faith" is itself drawn from a conflation of Augustinian and Miltonic theological discourse. Fish argues that because all readers (as members of interpretive communities) must always employ some kind of interpretive strategy which actually constitutes their perceptions, the notion of an objective "fact" or "text" is illusory. Part of the strength in Fish's position derives from structuring each of his arguments in such a way that all attempts to challenge his specific literary or historical claims only serve to support his more general conclusion that such issues are always debatable. As a result, his arguments consistently end up making claims that are somehow independent of their specific literary or historical content. This thesis attempts an extremely "slow" reading of Fish's use of Augustine, in order to understand precisely how Fish extricates his position from any dependence upon the actual content of his own interpretation of Augustine. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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This thesis will investigate, by means of the historical-critical method, Augustine of Hippo's understanding of the Manichaean idea of the Good, and how this understanding affects his own related notions of summum bonum and personal evil, and, as a corollary, his doctrine of predestination. The question of a possible Manichaean influence is particularly pertinent because Manichaeism is at heart a dualistic solution to the issue of good and evil. The focus is not on Manichaeism per se but on Augustine's perception of it, as more directly affecting his thinking. Augustine's treatise De natura boni (399) in part summarizes his treatment of "the nature of the Good" in earlier polemics. From his first writing, De pulchro et apto (380), to that point, Augustine understands the Manichaean concept as equating the Good with the Beautiful, the latter taken to mean that which engenders tranquil pleasure. Conversely, evil is thought of as a disturbance of this state, whether spiritually or physically. Wickedness and mortality are deemed to be both spiritually and physically evil in Manichaean terms because they disturb a person's tranquil existence. In his non-metaphysical theory he designs to explain intrinsic personal evil developed in De uera religione (390), Augustine redefines these two notions as "sin" and "penalty," hence imposing on them a casual relation that makes the conception of a vicious circle mechanism possible. Augustine's development of the idea of predestination reveals the Manichaean concept of the Good at work in three ways: on the framework of that development, in the implication of determinism, and on the context of the doctrine. Despite the presence of evil, he believes that the whole cosmos is in harmonious beauty so long as evil is assigned to its proper place. God is to preserve this order in both the physical and the spiritual (moral) creations, an order portrayable with a two-tiered frame. Initially (around 388), Augustine thought that an individual person, as a spiritual creature, should have self-determination by the exercise of the will. But gradually, due to his conviction that personal evil is inevitable, Augustine assigned determination of one's destiny to the jurisdiction of God. Determinism, however, is not the only characteristic feature of Augustine's version of predestination. The cosmological and eschatological contexts of his doctrine demand the notion of summum bonum to warrant the beauty of the cosmic order as well as to assure the elect's eternal tranquil beatitude. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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The issue of pedophilia is receiving increasing public attention and is presented today as one of grave concern. From the literature and from my clinical experience as a Registered Nurse within a psychiatric institution, two facts emerge. Fact. (1) The scientific literature indicates an historical movement in the understanding of pedophilia--from an accepted institution, to criminal offence, to immorality, to, for some, an alternative lifestyle, to psychopathological disorder. Fact. (2) Paradoxically, people working in health care institutions where pedophiles should especially be considered as needing treatment and care (a) generally lack "understanding" and (b) view pedophilia as immorality and criminal offence warranting punishment and death. Thus there exists a problem which raises questions: (1) Why this paradoxical attitude? and (2) What can be done about it? My intent is to address these two questions. Therefore, to provide a clear understanding of the historical perception of pedophilia, I examine in chapter one the successive constructions of pedophilia and summarize the development of attitudes towards pedophilia and pedophiles in the course of Western civilization. In chapter two I circumscribe the current problem in health care institutions by (1) reviewing literature on professional caregivers' attitudes toward the pedophilic client to establish which of the diverse constructions of pedophilia analyzed in the historical research are assumed by such attitudes and (2) clarifying the notion of "attitude". Next, in chapter three I present a framework, specifically the constructive-developmental theory of Robert Kegan, which (a) proffers a view of what it means to be a fully human being and (b) I believe is relevant to caregivers' reconception of attitudes toward pedophiles in their care. In chapter four, I demonstrate this relevance by comparing and contrasting different views of human "being" as conceptualized by developmental theorists such as Kegan and as presumed from the empirical evidence of caregivers' attitudes. To adopt a medical construction of pedophilia may require ethical sophistication: namely, an interindividual ethic by Kegan's standard. Finally, in chapter five, with the knowledge gained from the analysis of caregivers' ethical models and attitudes, I outline the role of theology, the ethical implications of theology, and how caregivers can be helped to develop more-sophisticated moral attitudes toward pedophiles in their care. Thus the first four chapters of my dissertation constitute a "pre-text" for theological and ethical reflection and for illustrating how living-out a faith perspective, an ethic of care, and spirituality of compassion would mean that both the good of the person who is pedophilic and that of the community would be effected. The problem which I address in this dissertation project belongs to practical or applied ethics since it involves human action. My work is primarily a study presenting--from a particular angle--certain concerns and conclusions arising out of the scientific literature and my clinical experience in a psychiatric institution. It is a problem incident to a new realization of the role of theology and ethics. Within the literature, there is no evidence of attempts to seek a framework or to create a theory which (1) critiques a punitive response, (2) encourages ethical development of professional caregivers working in the area of treating pedophiles, and (3) guides more sophisticated moral attitudes and practices. Such a framework is the essence of my thesis. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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