The purpose of this study was to describe and classify the stages of contemplative mystical development in the major world religions. To accomplish this task, a sample of five major world religions was chosen from the total population. From each religion, a contemplative author who was regarded as an authority by the members of that religion was chosen. The major work of each author was described in order to make explicit his/her conceptualization of the stages of contemplative development. These conceptualizations were then compared together, resulting in two models of contemplative development. The first model was composed of those stages where there was agreement between four of the five authors. This model described the necessary and sufficient conditions of contemplative development and had five stages. The second model was composed of those stages where there was agreement between three of the five authors, and was postulated to address the information loss of the first model. This expanded model had thirteen stages. The implications of this taxonomy for the scientific study of religion were then explored.

This study is about one of the most ubiquitous and yet little studied aspects of ancient Greek religion, the offering of so-called ‘first-fruits’ (aparchai) and tithes (dekatai) in Archaic and Classical Greece (c.700-300 B.C.). A widespread and traditional custom all over Greece and the Greek Mediterranean, the offering of ‘first-fruits’ and tithes entailed using a portion of the proceeds from a diversity of human activities (such as craft-work, fishing, trade, military expeditions) to present something to the gods. I look at the different kinds of aparchai and dekatai offered to the Greek gods by individuals and states under various circumstances, the various contexts in which the language and practice of making such offerings were used, the deployment of this religious custom in politics, and the transformation of a voluntary practice into a religious obligation. Ultimately, however, my major concern is with questions of religious psychology: why people should bring aparchai and dekatai to the gods, and what motivations and expectations they might have had. Because it was such a commonplace practice, the custom has been taken simply as a given in both ancient and modern scholarship; and no attempt has been made to explain its religious significance. By drawing on current anthropological studies of gift-giving, I argue that that aparchai and dekatai do not merely give to the gods, but give back to the gods some of the benefits granted by the divinities in the first place, reflecting first and foremost a sense of dependence on the divine. I suggest that the offering of aparchai and dekatai may be thought of as a means of settling men’s debts to, and thereby maintaining good relations with, the gods, who were considered the sources of both goods and evils. I challenge the emphasis, common in modern scholarship, on material returns as the central motive behind the act of bringing gifts to the gods. Instead I suggest that the study of gift-giving between humans and the divine should embrace the possibility that psychological feelings of dependence on and gratitude to the gods might also have been involved.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-03-07T18:20:28Z No. of bitstreams: 1 luizguilhermekochemmathias.pdf: 1911585 bytes, checksum: 8b57ae0f128a44103c68e42b54fe9fea (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-04-24T02:02:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 luizguilhermekochemmathias.pdf: 1911585 bytes, checksum: 8b57ae0f128a44103c68e42b54fe9fea (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-24T02:02:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 luizguilhermekochemmathias.pdf: 1911585 bytes, checksum: 8b57ae0f128a44103c68e42b54fe9fea (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-28 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / A partir da segunda metade do século XX a pluralidade do fenômeno religioso, no Ocidente, se tornou um locus legítimo de reflexão teológica, e não poucos teólogos têm buscado, desde então, contribuir para a construção de uma reflexão sistemática sobre o tema. Entre eles, o teólogo teuto-americano Paul Tillich desponta como um dos mais significativos, por ter sido um dos primeiros teólogos protestantes a cogitar a possibilidade e necessidade de uma teologia cristã capaz de considerar positivamente outras tradições religiosas e tentar dialogar com elas. Sustentamos, a partir da pesquisa, que as religiões mundiais, de uma forma ou de outra, sempre estiveram presentes no desenvolvimento de seu pensamento. Poucos, porém, são os trabalhos que atentam para e aprofundam tal questão. Recorrentemente, o apontamento está direcionado para o interesse tillichiano pela temática da pluralidade religiosa como algo preponderante nos anos finais de sua vida, devido às experiências por ele vividas no período, a partir da viagem ao Japão em 1960, como o contato pessoal com representantes de outras tradições religiosas, um seminário conjunto com Mircea Eliade e a percepção, da parte dele, de uma nova “situação” do mundo. A presente pesquisa, defende a tese de que a pluralidade religiosa sempre esteve no horizonte interpretativo tillichiano, fazendo-o mesmo buscar romper, em sua atividade teológica, com aquilo que ele chamou de provincianismos. Mesmo que não se possa negar a importância que a pluralidade religiosa nos últimos anos de suas reflexões adquiriu, pretendemos apontar e analisar como ele abordou as tradições religiosas não-cristãs e em que medida as aproximações às mesmas refletem em sua produção teológica sistemática. / During the second half of the twentieth century in the West, the broader range of religious phenomena and experience emerged as a locus of legitimate theological concern, with numerous theologians seeking to contribute toward the construction of systematic reflection on the topic. Among them, the German-American theologian Paul Tillich emerged as one of the most significant, being that he was one of the first Protestant theologians to reflect upon the possibility and need for the creation of a christian systematic theology capable of take other traditions in consideration and capable of entering into creative dialogue with them. We maintain, from the research that the world religions in one form or another, have always been present in the development of his thought. However, a little number of works pay attention to this issue and deepen the task. Recurrently, point to the Tillich's interest in the subject of religious plurality as being predominant in the final years of his life, due to the experiences that he lived in the period from the trip to Japan in 1960 as the personal contact with representatives of other religious traditions, a joint seminar with Mircea Eliade and the perception of him, of a new "situation" of the world. This research supports the idea that religious pluralism has been at the Tillich's interpretive horizon, making him look even break in his theological activity, with what he called provincialisms. Even if one can not deny the importance of religious plurality in the last years of his reflections acquired, we want to point and analyze how he approached the non-Christian religious traditions and to what extent the approaches thereto reflect systematic theological in its production.

World religions should be taught at the secondary level of education. In this, a pragmatic approach is superior to the traditional approach, because it shows not just the history of this topic, but it also lets students experience the everyday life of those who believe. It is not in any way a method to convert anybody to this or that faith or tradition. It is a pedagogic method for critical thinking and both making and challenging interpretations of the facts before each student. In my thesis I showed my own method and I made my own version of a better textbook that utilizes the basic points of pragmatic pedagogy. I studied the works of John Dewey, John Gatto, Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner. And I propose a method that takes no more than 4 lessons, if needed, which is the most time teachers can give to such topic. I looked at the educational programs of the Czech Republic and found that world religions are a very small portion of the subject Education in citizenship. Since John Dewey was an atheist, it is not common for people to think of religion as a topic to teach with his methodology. Most of the social sciences are still taught as history lessons and not as the fun and interesting lessons they can be. I think it is not just the natural sciences that should have their laboratories at...

Syfte – Denna studie undersöker hur verksamma lärare i årskurs 1–3 undervisar i religionskunskap om världsreligionerna, kristendom, islam och judendom i mångkulturella och homogena klasser i svenska skolor. Syftet med studien är att undersöka om det finns skillnader i undervisningen mellan de två olika elevgrupperna, samt vilka faktorer som påverkar lärares val av undervisningsinnehåll. Ur ett lärarperspektiv ska denna studie dessutom öka insikten över hur lärare påverkas och utformar sin världsreligionsundervisning utifrån olika elevsammansättningar. Metod och teori– Undersökningen genomfördes med hjälp av en webbenkät som innehöll 26 frågor med varierande svarsalternativ. Enkäten består av två delar, bakgrundsfrågor samt frågor om religionsundervisningen och besvarades av 103 respondenter. Den insamlade empirin undersöks utifrån ramfaktorteorin. Resultat – De huvudsakliga resultaten visar att skillnaden mellan mångkulturella och homogena elevgrupper är liten. Det finns dock en skillnad i hur mycket uppmärksamhet högtiderna gavs i de olika religionerna mellan elevgrupperna. Läroplanen anses vara den faktorn som styr religionsundervisningen i högsta grad då resultatet visar att lärarna utgår från den när de planerar sin undervisning. Avslutningsvis diskuteras resultatet i relation till den tidigare forskningen och ramfaktorteorin. / Purpose – This study examines how active teachers in grades 1-3 teach religious studies about world religions, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, in multicultural and homogeneous classes in Swedish schools. The purpose of the study is to examine whether there are differences in teaching between the two different groups of students, as well as the factors influencing choice of teaching content.  From a teacher's perspective, this study will also increase insight into how teachers are affected and thereby designing their world religious teaching based on different student compositions. Method and theory– The survey was conducted using an online survey that includes 26 questions with varying response options. The survey consists of two parts: background questions; and questions about religious education and was answered by 103 respondents. The collected empirics is analyzed based on the framework factor theory. Results – The main results show that the difference between multicultural and homogeneous groups of pupils is insignificant. However, there was a difference in how much attention the religious holidays were given in the different religions between the student groups. The curriculum is considered to be the factor that governs religious education to the highest degree as the results show that teachers start from it when planning their teaching. Finally, the results are discussed in relation to the previous research and framework factor theory.

The aim of this thesis is to analyse and discuss the ways in which the world religions are presented in Swedish upper secondary Religious education [RE] textbooks. The result of the study is the following: The RE textbooks have similar ways of presenting the different world religions. Nevertheless, Christianity is offered more space in the books, and is also more personally presented that the other world religions. This implies that upper secondary students may not be given opportunity, through these RE textbooks, to depict and to understand all world religions in an equal way. The result is being discussed through two theoretical concepts: religious pluralism and an agentic perspective. Taken together, the theoretical interpretation of the result stresses an ‘outside’ secular perspective, grounded in descriptions of religious life and experiences from an outside perspective of the world religions. While a perspective from inside or from within the world religions is rare, and if at all most prevailing in the RE textbooks’ presentations of Christianity. This may have didactical consequences for the upper secondary RE teachers, in terms of which textbooks to use in the subject matter teaching, when religious diversity as knowledge content and objective is at the fore of the RE subject in the Swedish syllabus for upper secondary RE. A religiously diverse and agentic RE teaching, it is assumed, needs to balance the didactical space through choices of RE textbooks that convey equally distributed perspectives from both an outside and an inside depiction of every world religion.

The aim of this thesis is to examine changes in the status of traditional Egyptian religious culture during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, from 331 BCE to 313 CE. Four distinct categories of material culture are examined: monumental construction of temples and civic buildings, traditional hard-stone sculpture, Alexandrian tombs, and Roman coins. These bodies of evidence were chosen because each offers a unique perspective, reflecting respectively the personal inclinations and official attitudes of both the culturally Hellenic and indigenous elites, which have not previously been studied in this context. Examined together for the first time, these categories reveal commonalities that show clearly the progression of the status of indigenous religious culture. From this, it is argued that, despite being economically disadvantaged by the Roman administration, the high status of this culture persisted in Egyptian society under both the Ptolemies and the Romans. Patterns of Egyptian temple and classical civic building show that Egypt's indigenous elite controlled the resources allocated for temple construction under the Ptolemies, but that the Romans gradually transferred this land into the management of the culturally Hellenic elite. This resulted in a decrease in Egyptian temple building after the first century CE and a corresponding increase in classical construction from then on. The production of hard-stone statues is shown for the first time to reveal that the indigenous elite had the resources and cultural confidence to continue and develop their traditions under the Ptolemies, while the sharp decrease at the start of the Roman period reflects their diminution in autonomy and prosperity under Roman rule. New analysis of traditional elements and motifs in the tombs of Alexandrian elites shows that this group respected and adopted indigenous religious customs and beliefs, with a higher incidence of indigenous imagery in the Roman period compared with the Ptolemaic period. In a similar way, well-informed Egyptian religious iconography rendered in a classical style on Alexandrian coins demonstrates the respect of the Roman authorities for Egyptian religious cults and institutions at an official level. In sum, it is argued that indigenous religious culture largely maintained its privileged economic and social status throughout the Ptolemaic period, despite political upheavals. Under Roman rule, the individuals and institutions representing Egyptian religious culture were disadvantaged economically; however, its social importance and standing were preserved and it continued to enjoy respect.

It is felt by some historians that Joseph Smith was a product of his environment; that his teachings were the amplifications of religious doctrines surrounding his life experience in early America.Some writings which have been published show similarities between Joseph's "Mormonism" and contemporary religions.It should be rememebered, however, that if Joseph Smith's call, as restorer, were all that he professed it to be (and he was not alone in that profession), there would, indeed, exist paralleling truths surrounding his "restored" gospel. For, as Joseph tells us, the gospel was preached from the beginning. If that is true, we should then be able to find remnants of its existence throughout the world at practically any time and at any place that we might look. The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is to explain parallels, throughout the history of the world, to Joseph Smith's doctrines.

This research sought to investigate the impact of a belief in witchcraft as an explanation for all the ills in the Hlubi community and South African societies in general - which becomes a good tool for inadequate governments. Our approach in this study has been interdisciplinary and the utilization of comparative analysis and a combination of phenomenological and qualitative research models. Economic problems create social tensions and are manifested in various ways, including witchcraft craze. The Hlubi scenario found parallels in Europe and America. Witchcraft and ancestors are considered to be the main causes of diseases but nature and ecological or environmental dangers are other factors. Pragmatic and obvious response to such phobias is seen in the protective and preventive devices provided by isangoma, amaqhira, amaxhwere, inyanga and faith healers. It is hypothesized that as long as all existential needs exist in Hlubi society witchcraft will continue to be with us, perhaps forever. / Religious Studies & Arabic / DLITT ET PHIL (REL STUD)

This research sought to investigate the impact of a belief in witchcraft as an explanation for all the ills in the Hlubi community and South African societies in general - which becomes a good tool for inadequate governments. Our approach in this study has been interdisciplinary and the utilization of comparative analysis and a combination of phenomenological and qualitative research models. Economic problems create social tensions and are manifested in various ways, including witchcraft craze. The Hlubi scenario found parallels in Europe and America. Witchcraft and ancestors are considered to be the main causes of diseases but nature and ecological or environmental dangers are other factors. Pragmatic and obvious response to such phobias is seen in the protective and preventive devices provided by isangoma, amaqhira, amaxhwere, inyanga and faith healers. It is hypothesized that as long as all existential needs exist in Hlubi society witchcraft will continue to be with us, perhaps forever. / Religious Studies and Arabic / DLITT ET PHIL (REL STUD)