This thesis examines the major thoughts on anthropology
and selfhood from Plotinus in the third century and the
Cappadocians in the fourth, situating the anthropology
of the Cappadocians in the much broader context of
their culture and their major works. It argues that:
i) The inherent unity of all things, intelligible and
material, provides the basis for radically intuitive
categories such as synchronity, telepathy, and even love.
ii) The ontological essence of expressed particularity in
the divine or the human is an ekstatic relationship, i.e.,
it involves the transcending of the boundaries of self,
a self identified as hypostasis or person.
iii)Truth consists in apprehending that true being alone
possesses existence in its own nature, participated in by
all without being lessened and knowable only as and in
relationship. Human being is participation in existence by
an experience of communion.
iv) The most essential activity of historical self is to use
one's inherent capacity to form one's own identity in relation
to the other -- both external and within -- as incarnational
and dialogic beings.
The findings of this thesis are that the relational notion
of authentic human being grounded in open-ended divinity
provides both a useful framework and the distinctive
characteristics of human beingness for rethinking what
it means to be a human being in the twenty-first century.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:USASK/oai:usask.ca:etd-09132003-135433 |
| Date | 17 September 2003 |
| Creators | Neufeld, Gladys W. |
| Contributors | Still, Carl, Reese, Alan, Crossley, David, Corrigan, Kevin, Tataryn, Myroslaw |
| Publisher | University of Saskatchewan |
| Source Sets | University of Saskatchewan Library |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://library.usask.ca/theses/available/etd-09132003-135433/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Saskatchewan or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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