The post-secular event within which we live is occasioned as the limit of the secular project. The secular project meets its limit in attempting to separate a religious private sphere from a public sphere while at the same time repeating as a demand a religious subjectivation of the public sphere: demanding conformity to a simple subjectivity, producing a world of simple subjects through a theologically determined metaphysics of conversion. In this latter demand secularism enforces a simplicity of its subjects and its world. Yet this simplicity cannot be taken up into or as life. To genuinely live and think the post-secular requires, then, not simply a resistance to the secular but a resistance to simplicity, developing ways of becoming otherwise than simply and of producing a world other than that which conforms to a metaphysics of conversion. This dissertation proposes to meet the requirements of the post-secular event by developing a post-secular political ontology drawn from the work of Judith Butler and Alfred North Whitehead. Read through and out of these two philosophers of becoming is a post-secular political ontology that is embedded within a metaphysics of creativity, a metaphysic that is itself already infected by the political. At the intersection of the work of Butler and Whitehead a metaphysic arises that is a systematic discourse of the political. From this metaphysic a political ontology is developed. This political ontology begins with a suspicion of grammar as a suspicion of a subject-predicate form of thought that grounds ontologies of substance. With this suspicion, being is allowed to unfold as its becoming, particularly as a becoming material, so that actuality is a becoming materiality. This is also a relational becoming of feeling, becoming as a process of intensive feeling that can never be finalized for itself, always suffering its own continual downfall. Finally, but without finality, actuality is a becoming of creativity, opened by a divine violence that ruptures history by the possible, leading to a post-secular political ontology of the future.

Thesis (M.T.S.)--Catholic Theological Union of Chicago, 1989. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-88).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2006. / Supervisor: John C. Robertson, Jr. Includes bibliographical references (p. 313-323).

Thesis (M.A.)--Kent State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Oct. 5, 2009 ) Advisor: David Odell-Scott. Keywords: Whitehead; Hartshorne; Thomas Aquinas; mises; process theism; immortality Includes bibliographical references (p. 67)

Zugl.: Greifswald, Univ., Diss.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 1932. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis centers on three children’s novel, “Sex gånger Lucas”, “Min Vän målaren”, and “Den gula väskan”, written by the very appreciated and much awarded Brazilian Author Lygia Bojunga. All three of these novels discuss masculinity in young boys and men. In “Sex gånger Lucas”, the centerpiece of this thesis, the essential conflict in the novel is played out in the interchange between Lucas and his authoritarian father. The father, throughout the text, showcases toxic masculinity and its concurrent traits, such as verbal abuse and serial infidelity. This tyrannical parenting attempts to mold Lucas’ personality to what is deemed in the culture as acceptable masculine behavior. Lucas narrative journey finds him firstly internalizing this belief system, but, as the novel progresses, Lucas learns to accept himself, in all his gendered guises, and reject the father's binary opinions. “Min vän målaren” follows the tale of the sensitive young boy, Claudio, who struggles against an environment that doesn’t support him, in his many and varied attempts towards personhood. In “Den gula väskan” the protagonist Rakel confronts an open and oppressive sexism in society, community and the many dismissals of the family. “Den gula väskan” utilizes, at many junctures of the narrative, a fable structure as a means to discuss political oppression as well as the oppressive binary masculine norms. This Fable sub-tale focuses on the character Alfonso, a talking rooster. Alfonso rejects the expectations put on him as a rooster, but his cousin Skräcken is not as fortunate. The cousin, who it is heavily implied is the victim of masculine brainwashing, is unable to stop himself from fighting, even when it ends up killing him. Throughout these three novels lies an illustration of the downfalls of an oppressive and toxic masculinity (that men must be stoic, aggressive and in control) as well as highlighting the freedom for a more fluid gender expression. Lucas, Claudio and Alfonso give subversive, alternative depictions of masculinity, where it is acceptable to feel, be vulnerable, reject violence, and have healthy relationships built on companionship. This thesis explores how Bojunga's novels, through her characters struggles and triumphs, give the young male identified readers alternative ways to be a man. In other words, these novels liberate the male gender from a binary performance. / Denna avhandling bygger på tre barnromaner, "Sex Times Lucas", "Min Vän målaren" och "Den gula väskan", skriven av den uppskattade och prisbelönta brasilianska författaren Lygia Bojunga. Alla tre av dessa romaner diskuterar maskulinitet I relation till unga pojkar och män. I "Sex Times Lucas", den centrala verket i denna avhandling, är konflikten mellan Lucas och hans auktoritära far det centrala handlingen. Faderns beteende genom hela romanen skildrar en obehaglig uppfatning av maskulinitet, med att psykisk misshandla Lucas and vara ständigt otrogen mot modern. Genom hans tyranniska föräldraskap försöker han att forma Lucas’ personlighet till vad han anser acceptabelt maskulint beteende. Lucas först internaliserar dessa normer, men sen genom romanens växling lär Lucas att acceptera sig själv som han är och avvisar faderns översträngda idéer om manlighet. "Min vän målaren" visar en känslig ung pojke, Claudio, som kämpar mot en miljö som inte stöder honom. Trots detta motstånd försöker han inte förändra sig själv. I "Den gula väskan" diskuterar Rakel öppet sexismen som hon möter. Boken använder också fabel som ett medel för att diskutera politisk förtryck samt strängda genus normer genom Alfonso, en talande tupp. Alfonso går emot vad man förväntar av honom som tupp, men hans kusin Skräcken däremot går med på förväntningarna. Kusinen, som det är starkt underförstått, är offer för hjärntvätt, kan inte stoppa sig från att slåss, och tillslut dör på frund av det. I alla dessa tre romaner ligger en gestaltning av en kritik mot manlighetsnormer (att män får inte visa känslor, vara aggressiva och dominanta) samt framhävda friheten för ett mer flytande könsuttryck. Lucas, Claudio och Alfonso ger subversiva, alternativa skildringar av maskulinitet, där det är acceptabelt att känna, vara sårbar, avvisa sig från våld och ha jämställda relationer byggt på vänskap. Denna avhandling forskar i hur romanen, genom att skildra dessa karaktärer och deras kamp och seger, ger de unga pojk-identifieranda läsare alternativa sätt att vara en man. Med andra ord befriar dessa romaner det manliga könet från en binära normer.

The Intention of this thesis is to develop a Process christology which is valid and coherent with respect to the principles of Whitehead's Process philosophy and adequate with respect to Christian faith. As indicated by the title, the study moves from Whitehead's vision to the christological adventure. Although this necessitates that the criteria are essentially philosophical, it is stressed that the discussion finds its inspiration in faith. For that reason the second chapter describes the Process christologies of Norman Pittenger. John Cobb, Schubert Ogden and David Griffin. That discussion isolates the major questions and issues which arise. Chapter three is an examination of the philosophical principles of Whitehead's vision. A central thesis of the work is that the theory of "initial aims" is inadequate to account for the idea of a Divine purpose relevant to human beings. I illustrate why this is so and, after presenting a Process theory of the "self", describe how the notion of purpose mediated in history is Intelligible. Chapter four is a synthesis between the issues raised in the second chapter and the philosophical themes of chapter three. This chapter presents the christology which is valid with respect to Whitehead's vision. The following chapter observes that the Church is an essential aspect of Process christology, and then evaluates Christ and the Church with respect to some of' the themes of Biblical and traditional christology. The intention is to justify its status as an appropriate expression of faith, although it is accepted that the essential subjectivity of faith renders an objective evaluation impossible. The final chapter offers some concluding remarks, noting particularly how Process christology is a theology of liberation : freedom and responsibility.

Three contemporary authors – Suzan-Lori Parks, Natasha Trethewey, and Colson Whitehead – within the African American Literary Tradition explore relationships to history in light of a dominant rhetoric that represents African American history through a white, hegemonic lens. In Parks’ The America Play, Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia, and Whitehead’s The Intuitionist, these authors comment on historical representation through such symbols as iconic figures like Abraham Lincoln, photographs, and elevators as starting points to explore the possibility of an independent space for African American history. Rather than remarking on just the representation of the artifact, however, the authors enter a conversation on how history is remembered and experienced. Parks, Trethewey, and Whitehead each form their own expression on historical representation; in each case, their works address the ability, or inability, to achieve historical intimacy amidst a push back from hegemonic narratives in the public eye. Historical intimacy, as the leading concept of the dissertation, refers to developing a close proximity to history not as a mere representation but as lived experience. Parks sees historical insight developing only through brief moments of intimate contact, if at all. Trethewey imagines personal, even sensual, familiarity with the subjects of her poems as a way of breaking through social frames and learning to connect with the past. Whitehead works through paradoxes to dissolve representational patterns of discourse, like verticality, and reach for a post-rational space wherein both open historical possibility, which stresses self-reflexivity, and a foundation in a “real,” experienced history unlock the opportunity for the construction of an intimate history. Although no author presents historical intimacy as an achieved goal, their works suggest varying degrees of potential and connection.

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