In 1908, two Canadian women published first novels that became instant best-sellers. Nellie McClung's Sowing Seeds in Danny initially outsold Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables, but by 1965 McClung's book had largely disappeared from Canadian consciousness. The popularity of Anne, on the other hand, has continued to the present, and Anne has received far more academic and critical attention, especially since 1985. It is only recently that Anne of Green Gables has been criticized for its ideology in the same manner as Sowing Seeds in Danny. The initial question that inspired this dissertation was why Sowing Seeds in Danny disappeared from public and critical awareness while Anne of Green Gables continued to sell well to the present day and to garner critical and popular attention into the twenty-first century. In light of the fact that both books have in recent years come under condemnation and stand charged with maternal feminism, imperial motherhood, eugenics, and racism, one must ask further why this has now happened to both Danny and Anne. What has changed? The hypothesis of the dissertation is that Danny's relatively speedy disappearance was partly due to a shift in Canadians' religious worldview over the twentieth century as church attendance and biblical literacy gradually declined. McClung's rhetorical strategies look back to the dominant Protestantism of the nineteenth century, in contrast to Montgomery's, which look forward to the twentieth-century's waning of religious faith. Although there is enough Christianity in Montgomery's novel to have made it acceptable to her largely Christian reading public at the beginning of the century, its presentation is subtle enough that it does not disturb or baffle a twenty-first-century reader in the way McClung's does. McClung's novel is so forthright in its presentation of Christianity, with its use of nineteenth-century tropes and conventions and with its moralising didacticism, that the delightful aspects of the novel were soon lost to an increasingly secular reading public. Likewise, the recent critical challenges to both novels spring from a worldview at odds with the predominantly Christian worldview of 1908. The goal of the dissertation has been to read Sowing Seeds in Danny and Anne of Green Gables within the religious contexts of a 1908 reader in order to avoid an unquestioning twenty-first-century censure of these novels, and to ascertain the reasons for their divergent popularity and recent critical condemnation.

This case study was unique in its focus on an environmental education curriculum for older adults. It followed from previous studies in exploring the instructional and research potential of metaphor and environmental orientation. Environmental orientations towards water were examined among a group of retirees before, during and after a workshop which incorporated instructional metaphor as a teaching strategy. The study demonstrated that, at least for some participants, the use of metaphor from a variety of orientations has the potential to increase participants’ appreciation of alternative ways of relating to the environment. Overall, the use of metaphor appears to have contributed positively to most participants’ understanding of water issues. As an educational tool instructional metaphor was useful in group discussion as a catalyst for conversation about how participants view, understand and relate to water. As a research technique metaphoric interviewing was useful to help draw out the accumulated knowledge and experiences of older adults.

The sufficiency of Jesus Christ in the African Church is challenged by the widespread spiritual insecurity in African Christians, prompting them to hold on to ATR. The wholistic securing power of ATR challenges the sufficiency Christ's salvation to Africans. Proposing African Christological motifs alone is inadequate to induce confidence upon Christ. The African worldview must further be transformed inline with the implications of the victory of the Cross over Satan. Indeed, Christ has fully liberated African Christians from Satan's authority, placed them in his kingdom, and transformed them into a glorious state. However, because of the Fall, salvation, before the eschaton can never result in the utopian order envisioned in ATR. Suffering does not necessarily indicate satanic harassment. It is a fact of the fallen world. African Christians stand secured in Christ; therefore, they must hold on to their faith. / Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics / M.Th. (Systematic Theology)

This dissertation lays out some of the current attitudes and understandings in the Reformed Church in America in regards to the ministry of deliverance. The arguments laid out are supported by what is currently happening in deliverance ministry across the United States and in-depth interviews with Reformed Church in America pastors. Differences in how we understand the terminology involved in this ministry were also briefly looked at. Deliverance ministry within the Reformed church is hampered by issues of fear and uncertainty, lack of knowledge or understanding and issues of world view. Many RCA pastors are open to this ministry although very few have actually engaged in deliverance with a person. RCA pastors tend to lean more toward psychological answers than they do spiritual ones. / Thesis (M. Th. (Practical Theology))

Despite decades of development efforts to combat desertification processes in southern Zimbabwe, a development deadlock occurs. Using the local knowledge systems as a basis, and making an effort to strategically facilitate the revival of their capacity for checks and balances as a development approach, endogenous development could become more realistic. The actor-oriented RAAKS.methodology offers relevant tools for a case study'in which an insight into the processes of innovation is obtained in order to confirm this. The Charurnbira case study shows that many local interfaces hinder development. Although the facilitation of platform processes could enhance endogenous development, the external environment provides a serious constraint. The method employed did ndt permit broad conclusions, but a deeper examination of recent experiences suggested that by giving local people a greater say in natural resource use, local knowledge could be utilized more effectively and better use could be made of traditional management structures. / Development Administration / M.A. (Development Administration)

For centuries humans and animals have shared their lives. However, it is only in recent decades that the phenomenon of the human-animal bond and the possible therapeutic implications thereof has begun to be explored. Due to this exploration, many research programmes have sprung up around the world, investigating the implementation of animals as an intervention in various institutions. These programmes have produced overwhelmingly positive and encouraging results. However, the research remains sparse where the significance of a naturally occurring human-animal bond is concerned. From within an ecosystemic worldview, the relationship between humans and animals in the wider family system has not been extensively investigated. This dissertation explores such a relationship, investigating the meanings and experiences within the relationship, and how this relationship and significant systems around it impact one another. The implications and possible therapeutic nature of this type of relationship will be considered. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

This study sets out to analyse the relevance of cultural values and perceptions, which form the basis of the "local knowledge" of grassroots people, in the natural resource management of the Laka of Mapela who live in the former Lebowa homeland in the Northern Province of South Africa. Due to the fact that political transitions affect the traditional authority system, it further explores the role of traditional leaders regarding control and decision-making over natural resources as well as the activities of oppositional groups at local level, and their attitudes towards land tenure issues. Natural resource management is approached holistically because, in grassroots perceptions, the natural world does not "stand on its own" and is not dissected into manageable units but forms part of a wider cosmos which is made up of human beings, nature and the supernatural. A happy life of people, fertile soils and rich botanical resources are inseparable from harmony in the cosmos. Misfortune, natural resource degradation and scarcity are consequently explained with a state of flux, or imbalance, in these cosmic relationships which have to be restored by people in order to survive. The general conclusions suggest that these local perceptions of natural resource management cannot be ignored from the development arena as well as by outside scientists and practitioners. Rather, in order to develop more progressive approaches for sustainable management in the former homelands, policies and plans have to be compatible with the worldview of local people to enhance their acceptance and implementation. / Anthropology and Archaeology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Anthropology)

This study is about the identity of Coloured Pentecostals living in Retreat, Western Cape. It concerns the effects which social change has upon boundary markers and worldview. It uses Robert Schreiter's semiotic approach to culture. Schreiter says that social change along with boundary markers and worldview are the basis for changing identities. This study applies Schreiter's approach to a case study to see if it will work. The study considers the traditional Coloured Pentecostal Culture's identity represented by the older generation of Pentecostals in Retreat. It then considers some responses to those traditional boundary markers and worldview given primarily by the younger generation of Pentecostals. It then suggests some possible solutions to the problems which have been identified as the reasons for the changing cultural and religious identity of the Coloured Pentecostal Culture . / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M.Th. (Missiology)

[pt] Urge, em um mundo onde a pluralidade é percebida com mais intensidade, discutir novos parâmetros para a prática missionária. Os contextos indígenas, que veem de um longo processo de resistência aos modelos tradicionais de evangelização, despontam no novo cenário religioso, não mais como destinatários da salvação, mas como portadores da revelação, reivindicando critérios baseados na alteridade, diversidade e diálogo. É preciso repensar como comunicar a fé em Jesus Cristo e sua salvação em uma cultura específica, dado que o tão aclamado processo de globalização é ambíguo, pois, pese a tentativa de produzir uma homogeneidade cultural, tem gerado, paradoxalmente, movimentos identitários organizados e pulverizados, de distintos matizes. É o caso da cultura quéchua, que, para alguns, está em processo de desaparecimento, e, para outros, está se reinventando. Como estabelecer um diálogo entre essas minorias e a fé cristã, com vistas a um amadurecimento do processo de inculturação em curso? Quais seriam os elementos revelacionais na cultura quéchua e como enriqueceriam o cristianismo como expressão da fé cristã? Essas foram algumas perguntas que nortearam esta tese. Não temos a pretensão de resolver todo o processo de inculturação da fé entre os quéchuas. Mas buscamos contribuir para o diálogo e a missão entre os quéchuas, aprofundando a reflexão sobre as consequências do encontro entre o Evangelho e as culturas, no sentido de reconhecer as riquezas da cultura e da religião local como provenientes de Deus e torná-las comum a todos. Esta tese busca ser uma contribuição e reconhecimento ao esforço da teologia índia, refletindo sobre a inculturação entre os quéchuas, ao mesmo tempo em que se revela uma defesa e uma valorização das culturas autóctones indígenas. A tese foi organizada em três grandes capítulos com subdivisões demarcadas. O primeiro capítulo gira em torno do eixo histórico-cultural quéchua. Apresenta a riqueza da cultura e as especificidades da religião quéchua, tendo a festa Inti Raymi como pano de fundo e expressão de fé. Expõe as categorias do pensamento andino e como os quéchuas estruturam seu Cosmos (Pacha). O segundo capítulo, propõe uma teologia cristã que favoreça o diálogo e o reconhecimento revelacional de Deus nas culturas e nas religiões. Gira em torno do eixo teológico. O terceiro, gira em torno do eixo dialógico-missionário. Analisa como seria missionar entre os quéchuas a partir dessa matriz dialogal, evangelizando e sendo evangelizado pelo outro. Inculturar é, também, dialogar com as bases religiosas de outra cultura. / [en] It is urgent in a world where plurality is an intensely perceived reality, to discuss new standards for the missionary practice. The indigenous contexts, fruit of a long process of resistance to the traditional models of evangelism, generate in the new religious scene new modes of presence - not anymore as receivers of salvation but as vehicles of revelation, claiming new standards based on alterity, diversity, and dialogue. It is necessary to think over the ways to communicate the faith in Jesus Christ into specific cultures. Necessity still more urgent in a world which faces a ambiguous globalization process that, on one side, offer a kind of cultural homogenization and, on other side, generates new identity movements – so diverse, fragmented and plural. That is the case of the Quechua culture. For some interpreters it is on the verge of disappearance and, for others, it is reinventing itself. How to establish a dialogue between these minorities and the Christian faith? How to perform it in a new mode of enculturation and maturity? What would be the revelation elements in the Quechua culture and how would they enrich the Christianity as an expression of true Christian faith? These have been the questions asked all along this dissertation. We do not have the pretension to solve and present the whole process of enculturation among the Quechuas. Instead, we intent to contribute to the dialogue and mission among the Quechuas by deepening the reflection about the consequences of the encounter between Gospel and culture, trying to recognize the riches of native culture and religion as originating from God himself and trying to make them manifest to all readers. Therefore, this dissertation is a contribution and a token to the efforts of Indigenous theologies, by reflecting on the enculturation among the Quechuas and, at the same time, offering a defense and pledge to their autochthones cultures. The dissertation structures itself around three chapters with several subsections. The first chapter deals with the cultural history of the Quechua people. It presents the riches of their culture as also as the peculiarities of their religion, whose main expression and background is the Inti Raymi Festival. It describes the categories of Andean thought and the ways the Quechua organize their Cosmos (Pacha). The second one proposes a Christian theology that promotes the dialogue and the recognition of the presence of God’s revelation in all cultures and religions. The third one revolves around the dialogue-mission axis. Presents modes of mission among the Quechuas based on dialogue, understanding the evangelism as a give-and-receiving process. It understands enculturation as a formal dialogue with the religious foundations of the culture of the other.

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No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Andréa Wahlbrink Padilha da Silva_Dissertacao.pdf: 1252068 bytes, checksum: b9b4939fe744af9b4a95255aa6003a24 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-05-30 / Sem bolsa / Nesta dissertação, foi desenvolvido um estudo sobre o fenômeno do letramento, tendo como foco o letramento dos professores alfabetizadores. O objetivo dessa pesquisa foi contribuir para pensar/refletir os processos de letramento que ocorrem nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Buscou-se analisar os limites e possibilidades da utilização do letramento em seu sentido forte/radical, no desenvolvimento das práticas letradas, no cotidiano de uma escola do campo. Esse estudo de caso foi realizado em uma escola pública do campo, no município de Pelotas/RS. A orientação foi a partir das contribuições do Materialismo Histórico Dialético, como base teórica metodológica,para compreender o conceito de letramento, no sentido de ampliar o debate acerca da importância de sua utilização no trabalho pedagógico, de maneira crítica e reflexiva.Para tanto, foram utilizadas as técnicas de observação, análise de documentos e entrevistas semiestruturadas. Algumas das categorias, como ideologia, consciência de classe, emancipação humana, visão social de mundo e conscientização, permeiam esta análise, enquanto possibilidade de resgatar o letramento em seu sentido „forte/radical?, na direção da construção de processos educativos críticos, como componente essencial para a ampliação das possibilidades de novas relações sociais no campo e de uma educação voltada aos interesses das classes populares do mesmo, na conquista de uma vida digna e de possibilidades. No decorrer da análise e nas considerações, buscou-se refletir sobre os limites e possibilidades de sua implementação nas escolas públicas do campo. Conclui-se que o letramento trabalhado nessas escolas está distante da concepção forte/radical. O que foi possível de ser constatado é de que os professores utilizam e compreendem o letramento enquanto uma ferramenta de auxilio, um recurso metodológico para o desenvolvimento do processo de alfabetização, porém, restrito a uma boa habilidade com o código escrito, estando ainda distantes da concepção forte/radical de letramento. / This dissertation. It was developed a study on the literacy phenomenon, focusing on the literacy of literacy teachers. The aim of this research was to contribute to think/reflect the literacy processes that occur in the early years of elementary school. It sought to analyze the limits and possibilities of the use of literacy in their strong/ radical sense, in the development of literacy practices in the daily life of a country side school. This case study was conducted in a country side public school in the municipality of Pelotas/RS. The study was guided from the contributions of Dialectical Materialism History as a methodological theoretical basis to understand the concept of literacy in order to amplify the debate on the importance of its use in educational work, in a critical and reflective way. Therefore, the observation techniques, document analysis and semi-structured interviews were used. Some of the categories, such as ideology, class consciousness, human emancipation, social world view and awareness permeate this analysis, as a possibility to rescue literacy in your direction 'strong/radical', in the direction of construction of critical educational processes, as essential component to the expansion of the possibilities of new social relations in the field and an education geared to the interests of the working classes of the same, to conquer a dignified life and possibilities. During the analysis and consideration was sought to reflect on the limits and possibilities of its implementation in the public schools of the field. It was concluded that the literacy worked in these schools is far from strong/radical design. What was possible to be found is that teachers use and understand literacy as an assistance tool, a methodological resource for the development of the literacy process, however, restricted to good ability to with the written code and is still far from strong/radical literacy design.