Academic literature on the topic 'Reborn in Christ'

The Incarnation of Christ, known by the eastern fathers as Christological perichoresis as a theological idea becomes experienced ecological reality, if we realize its kenotic, Christological, relating cosmic dimensions. It shows how we can bring together different entities, such as God and nature, look at them in unity, as the one person of Christ, and acknowledge the perichoresis between divine and human and nature. Christ lived as one person: both God-Creator and creature. If ecofeminist theologies need a place in the Christian church, they must seek a Christological salvific foundation. Our encounter with God in Christ is a transformation and a renewal of ourselves so as to discern the will of God and follow it; a kenosis of our egocentric self so that Christ to be reborn in us. Paul sees the encounter with God as a rebirth, not as intellectually gained knowledge.

The Christology in the Hymns of GrundtvigBy Jakob Fløe NielsenThe intention of the paper is to show the coherent and complete Christological conception that lies behind the many specific christological expressions in Grundtvig’s hymns, a christology that was never thoroughly elaborated by Grundtvig himself. The superior christological scheme is the descent and abasement of the Son of God from heaven to the land of death and the following exaltation to divine glory. Grundtvig’s strong emphasis upon man’s preserved image of God in spite of the Fall has, however, the consequence that the exaltation mentioned becomes a threefold presentation: 1. the resurrection and ascension of Christ in person repeating itself in history, 2. Christ passing through the seven leading churches of Christianity in his Word (especially in the words of the sacraments) towards the final transfiguration of the world, and 3. at the same time Christ fulfilling his own exaltation in the form of "the hope of glory" (Colossians 1.27) within each baptized. The background to this third aspect is Grundtvig’s concept of the fact that Christ offers himself to the faith in the words at baptism and Eucharist. In spite of the fall he here melts together with the preserved image of God within the believer. So at the same time as the fallen human being is reborn through baptism as the child of God, Christ is born as the tender hope of glory in the believer in the meeting of the word of the Holy Spirit and the human faith. The growth of Christ within the believing baptized is identical with that person’s transfiguration, as man’s destination from creation is realized: to be in the image of his God.In this process the Eucharist plays a decisive part. Where the words of institution are heard and believed, it signifies Christ’s victory over Satan within the baptized, and is also an expression of Christ inspiring his heavenly love into man to strengthen and glorify his earthly and powerless love. Thus, the christology in Grundtvig’s hymns in addition to being a description of a past event also becomes the rendering of the ongoing struggle between God and Satan in history and within the life of each Christian.

Georges Bataille and Hubert Aquin both explore a mystical experience displaying strong similarities, related to what Roger Caillois called « left sacred », that is the impure, malefic sacred, which is accessible by transgression and corresponds to the privileged moment of unity between people. For Bataille, God is absent, even dead: Lamma sabachtani is no longer a question but an assertion in his essays. The object of his new mystical theology is not God, but « the unknown». The divine is reduced to the human, transcendence to immanence. The goal is to free the mystical experience from its religious background and to make ecstasy accessible to every-one. It is precisely by communicating that men can break their isolation and unite themselves with others. « Eroticism of bodies » and « eroticism of hearts » are two of the experiences proposed by Bataille which lead to the sacred. Hubert Aquin is also fascinated by the « left sacred », by eroticism in particular, but it represents for him a temptation which eliminates from the « right sacred » Jesus Christ and perfection He is, for Aquin, the absolute corresponding to the communion between the human being and the Son of God ; it consists in being reborn and in living in “the Christ of the Revelation”.

Rembek’s conviction of Polish “chosenness” is expressed in the characterizations of the Jewish protagonists in his fiction. While Rembek’s diaristic writing reveals his antiSemitic prejudices, in his novella Dojrzałe kłosy [Ripe spikes], and novel Nagan [Revolver] he portrays the Jews as patriotic officers fighting for Poland. These characterizations of the Jews highlighted Poland’s democratic open-mindedness toward its Jewish citizens. Nonetheless, as Jews they were excluded from the nation’s Christian destiny. Time and again, the Jewish officers in Rembek’s fiction articulate their despondency over their failure to accept Christ despite their irresistible attraction to the Christian faith. The failure points to their inability to achieve grace. Their sense of religious inadequacy elucidates a theological perspective which posits that a Jewish presence was indispensable to Poland’s redemptive destiny; the Jew as an affirming witness sanctioned the Polish claim to a messianic calling. To achieve legitimacy, the Polish national messianic mission needed to be acknowledged by Jews. The perspective in Rembek’s fiction illuminates an important facet in the complexity of the Polish-Jewish relationships in reborn Poland.

Separateness and InteractionGrundtvig’s Ideas on the Character of the People and ChristianityBy Professor Theodor Jørgensen, DD, CopenhagenSeparateness and interaction are central concepts in Grundtvig’s definition of the relationship between the character of the people and Christianity. He makes a sharp distinction between the two to ensure that the relationship between them remains a free one. It is important for Christianity, which does not want to rule but to serve the people. But this sharp distinction does not mean that Grundtvig understands the character of the people as a purely secular quantity. He sees it as spiritual, where spiritual contains the human spirit, the spirit of truth and the Holy Spirit. Regarded in this light the character of the people constitutes the prerequisite for Christianity, because it contains, albeit in broken form, the God-created humanity that is reborn in Christianity. At the deepest level the life-source in the character of the people and in Christianity is the same, i.e. God; or rather, God the Holy Spirit. And the interaction between them is God’s meeting with Himself in His creation. It is important to insist that the interaction works both ways, a fact often forgotten through a one-sided interpretation of Grundtvig’s basic principle: First a Man, then a Christian. The character of every people adds to Christianity a new faceting of its content through the gospel being preached in the native language and becoming concrete in its natural imagery. In return, Christianity adds to the character of every people the living hope in Christ, making it through Him a reborn character. Grundtvig’s view of the relationship between the two corresponds to the relationship nowadays between life-philosophy and faith. Faith receives a concretion from lifephilosophy. On the other hand there are fundamental human values, originally existing free of Christianity, which today are best defended by faith. Here faith acquires a political perspective.

The article examines the text-forming role of biblical images-symbols in Valentyn Terletsky's novel «V.I.N.». The analysis of the text reveals the peculiarities of the poetics, the creative personality of the author. It is stated that the writer actively uses biblical symbols and motifs in his novel that allow him to go beyond the scope of the investigative detective. The presence of Christian motifs in the work increases the number of possible interpretations, enables to depart from its literal explanation and gives the reader the opportunity to speculate events. The very title of the work contains hints of biblical parallels. In this way, the author creates a multidimensional space in which reality receives philosophical and religious reflection. Numbered symbols, which are endowed with biblical semantic connotations, also contribute to this. The article focuses on the fact that the life of the characters of the novel is «related» to such numbers as ten (the symbol of the beginning and the end of the case), forty (related to the completeness of the trials, a turning point in human life) and more. Special attention is drawn to the main character's sleep. It is known that dreaming is a technique often used in fiction. Sleep becomes a source of thoughts and analogies. It contributes to the decoding of the novel and the use of such a symbol as a circle that most readers perceive as an element that has magical protective content. In the novel this symbol is polysemantic, and the characters try to break the circle in order to «find» themselves, to play their vital role. It is stated that the work can draw clear parallels between the protagonist of the novel (He) and Jesus Christ, but such a comparison is rather conditional, since the focus of the writer is not «action», but the spiritual beginning of his characters. The use of biblical allusions in the novel enhances the meaning of the story. It helps to understand the characters who are trying to find themselves, to understand themselves, to believe in themselves. The investigation into the disappearance of the main character leads to an unexpected open finale, where everyone has a chance to be «reborn» to become themselves. It can be stated that the use of biblical symbols and motifs by the writer is characterized by freedom and flexibility. The biblical images in the work are ambivalent. In the novel «V.I.N.», Valentyn Terletsky abstracts biblical motifs and images from their theological understanding, that makes them universal. This enables to reveal writer's interest in Christianity solely as an aesthetic concept.

Gudbilledlighed og syndefald. - Aspekter af Grundtvigs og Kierkegaards menneskesyn på baggrund af Irenæus.[The Image and Likeness of God and the Fall of the Human Being. - Aspects of Grundtvig's and Kierkegaard's Conceptions of the Human Being in light of Irenaeus]By Niels Jørgen CappelørnIn his account of the human being, the early church father Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyon (in the second century, C.E.), makes a distinction between imago dei and similitudo dei based on the Genesis account of the creation of human beings in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27). It is the thesis of this article that this distinction can be traced in the works of N. F. S. Grundtvig and Soren Kierkegaard and that this distinction opens possibilities for finding and demonstrating new and parallel elements in Grundvig’s and Kierkegaard’s respective conceptions of the human person, particularly concerning the relationship between the image and likeness of God in human beings and the Fall.Grundtvig studied Irenaeus for the first time in 1823 and produced a translation of the fifth and final book of his apologetic work, Adversus haereses, in 1827. Kierkegaard seems not to have studied Irenaeus’ own texts, but a good ten years after Grundtvig’s translation he read about the theology of Irenaeus in Johannes Adam Mohler’s Athanasius der Große und die Kirche seiner Zeit from 1827.Irenaeus’ conception of the human being with regard to both the Fall and the rebirth in Christ can be summarized as follows: The human being consists of body and soul, which is its substance, and this substance must become united with the Spirit of God if the individual is to become a complete spiritual person. What was lost in Adam is won in Christ. But not all was lost with the Fall. The image of God is still within the human soul while the likeness of God, which resides in the human spirit, has been lost and must be reborn of the Holy Spirit.The image of God in the soul is freedom, and this remains with human beings. At times, this freedom assents to the flesh and falls into earthly desire, at times it follows the will of God and submits to His Spirit, which is granted anew in Christ.The account here of Grundtvig’s conception of the human being - specifically with regard to the consequences of the Fall for the image and likeness of God that was endowed to human beings at creation – is based on Den christelige Børnelærdom, [Elementary Christian Doctrine], which was first published in a series of articles in 1855-61 and which was later republished in book form in 1868. Additionally, it is based on a series of hymns and spiritual songs from the same period, especially “Hvor skal jeg Guds Billed finde?” [Where Shall I God’s Image Find?] and “I Begyndelsen var Ordet / Gjenlyds-Ordet i vort Bryst,” [In the Beginning Was the Word / The Resonating Word in Our Breast] together with a sermon from 1839 on Mark 7: 31-37, and finally, ‘Christenhedens Syvstjeme’ [The Pleiades of Christendom] (1854-55).The corresponding account of Kierkegaard’s conception is based on several sources: The Concept of Anxiety (1844) where the author engages in a critical rejection of the Augustinian-Lutheran understanding of inherited sin; “An Occasional Discourse” and “What We Learn from the Lilies in the Field and the Birds of the Air” from Upbuilding Discouses in Various Spirits (1847); and his discourses for Friday Communion in Christian Discourses (1848), in Three Discourses at Communion on Fridays. The High Priest - The Tax Collector - The Woman Who Sinned (1849) and in Two Discourses at the Communion on Friday (1851). Additionally, a series of other texts is consulted, including passages from Philosophical Fragments (1844) and Journals EE (1839) and HH (\ 840-41).These two respective accounts reveal that the thesis of the article cannot be comprehensively applied in every detail and for every text; the constmction is too schematic and static to do justice to Gmndtvig’s dynamics and Kierkegaard’s dialectics. But as a backdrop to a reading and comparison of their respective conceptions of the human being with regard to the Fall and its consequences for the image and likeness of God in human beings, it has been helpful to treat essential aspects of their respective anthropologies.Both Gmndtvig and Kierkegaard agree with Irenaeus that human beings consist of a triad: body, soul and spirit. And they share the conviction that human beings possess an original divine stamp, established in creation, in the form of the image and likeness of God.This stamp has not completely perished with regard to the image of God, but with regard to the likeness of God, it has been lost – though Grundtvig and Kierkegaard do not make the distinction between imago dei and similitudo dei as sharply.In Grundtvig, one finds first and foremost that despite the Fall, a positive element of God’s image survives in the soul as “the resonating word” which can both hear and utter God’s creative Word. In Kierkegaard, one finds first and foremost that because of the Fall a negative element of God’s image is left behind as a cracked and split freedom which is, however, manifest positively as a consciousness of sin and a desire for God. For both of them - insofar as Irenaeus’ distinction can be sustained - a remnant of God’s image in the soul remains while the likeness of God in the spirit has been lost. They likewise agree that God’s Spirit is the driving force for both the renewal and reunification of the image and likeness of God. For Grundtvig, this renewal of the image of God and the rebirth of the likeness of God takes place through the Holy Spirit in Baptism. For Kierkegaard, where Baptism does not have the same signifying meaning, it takes place in the interaction between Confession and Communion.Grundtvig maintains a clear axis between Baptism and Communion, with an emphasis on Baptism as the place where human “sin-guilt,” which is a consequence of the Fall, is forgiven and erased once and for all. By contrast, Kierkegaard inserts a third element, Confession, so that the schema appears as follows: Baptism, Confession, Communion, but with an emphasis on Confession as the place where human beings confess their sins and God grants His forgiveness. Grundvig underscores first and foremost that Baptism is a spiritual bath of rebirth and, secondly, that it is a covenant. To be sure, they are in agreement that Baptism must be appropriated in faith but Kierkegaard, more than Grundtvig, insists that human beings constantly fall away from and break the covenant. It is here that the confessee’s admission of sin and the absolved one’s reception of God’s forgiveness in Confession receives decisive significance as a preparation to and precondition for going to Communion worthily and for accepting forgiveness at the Lord’s table.In neither of them is there a mention of a “creation anew” in the form of a second creatio ex nihilo (creation from nothing) - at least not as the dominant theme - but rather a renewal, a rebirth, a redemption, a restoration, a repetition, and a reunification in spirit and truth. While Grundtvig, who thinks especially dynamically and metaphorically, places emphasis on the homogeneous quality of the states before and after the Fall or, more specifically, before and after renewal and rebirth, Kierkegaard - who thinks more dialectically and conceptually - points to the heterogeneous quality. For both of them, one can speak of a growth: in Grundtvig, a growth in faith, hope and charity; in Kierkegaard, a growth in faith and especially in following Christ as truth which brings about a sanctifying fellowship of love and suffering in Christ.

Abstract Richard McGuire's Here (2014) and Chris Ware's Lost Buildings (Glass et al. 2004) are discussed as examples of graphic novels that demonstrate a synergistic relationship with architecture. The synergistic relationship is examined through its use of decorative forms and the use of architectural reference as a narrative device and a signifier of space and time. The article goes on to explore the potential for architectural structures to function as graphic novels. The late medieval frescos attributed to the architect and painter Giotto, that decorate the chapels at Assisi and Padua, are used as examples of illustrations that rely on their architectural context. Giotto's work is explored as a model to inform the development of the graphic novel into an architectural form. Laura Jacobus' (1999) and Jenetta Rebold Benton's (1989) analyses of Giotto's works at Padua and Assisi provide us with an understanding of Giotto's work and the importance of decorative features in relation to the audience's perception of real and pictorial space, experienced time and narrative time. Jacobus' and Rebold Benton's analysis is then applied to two of London's Art on the Underground projects by Wallinger and Trabizian and also The Factory, Hong Kong. At these contemporary architectural sites, images have been installed to rehabilitate mundane structures and enrich the users experience. The installed imagery allows users to become immersed in narratives by eroding barriers between real and pictorial space, experienced time and narrative time. These contemporary examples describe the graphic novel's potential to be authored and read as an architectural form.

A few years ago in the town where I lived a man predicted the end of the world. He had a time and date in October that year when Jesus was going to come back and end history. He put leaflets on people's cars to warn us all to be ready. The day after the big date one of the local clergy went around to chat with him about the follies of prophecy. The guy's response? He did his sums again, concluded that he was out by exactly one year and told us all that the world would end at the same time, same date, one year later... As we head for the year 2000 I see two kinds of expectations. Some people are getting ready for the 'party of the millennium' or booking seats at the spots with the best view of 1 January 2000. Others have started getting ready for the Y2K disaster. In the church we have a bit of experience with the 'get ready for disaster' crowd and I want to write about that here. I have been listening to people like that guy predict the end of it all for nearly twenty years now. Sooner or later maybe one of them is accidentally going to be right. In the church the 'get ready for disaster people' are both provoked and constrained by Scripture. Apocalyptic1 texts like Matthew 24 promise the return of the Christ and describe the signs that can be expected to precede that return; the desecration and then destruction of the holy place and disorder in the cosmos. This text claims that the intractable chaos of the world as we know it ('wars and rumours of wars') is a 'sign' that the world is temporary, that it will be started again by Christ. The text instructs the reader to 'read' these signs but also warns that the final event is unpredictable ('of that day and hour no one knows'). In the church the 'get ready for disaster people' are both provoked and constrained by Scripture. Apocalyptic1 texts like Matthew 24 promise the return of the Christ and describe the signs that can be expected to precede that return; the desecration and then destruction of the holy place and disorder in the cosmos. This text claims that the intractable chaos of the world as we know it ('wars and rumours of wars') is a 'sign' that the world is temporary, that it will be started again by Christ. The text instructs the reader to 'read' these signs but also warns that the final event is unpredictable ('of that day and hour no one knows'). People have been constrained by texts like this, because Jesus is quoted as saying "of that day and hour no one knows" which I would read as saying that no-one knows when the end of the world will come. The Late Great Planet Earth actually had a time-line of expected events before the end based upon reading the 'signs'. That author was wrong. Most of us have taken Jesus's word for it and not said anything falsifiable. People have found hope in texts like this because it is the intractably chaotic things in life (wars, disasters and betrayals) that turn out to be the signs of hope (they are called "the beginnings of birth pangs"). When faced with problems like environmental damage, violence in East Timor or increasing state incursions upon personal liberty we have a couple of options. Most people ignore them most of the time. When they do pay attention they want someone to fix them, that's what we pay taxes for, so that stuff can be fixed. A few people actually work on solutions themselves. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the list of stuff that needs fixing getting any shorter. The apocalyptic tradition says that the intractability of this stuff is the sign of hope for the world to be reborn. The apocalyptic tradition is not the only way the church has faced 'the end of the world'. Implicit in it is the view that the world is so broken that the only solution is the final solution. Others within the churches have been more positive2. Friends of mine believe that they can live the life of Christ in unresolved tension with the needs of modern life (so for example believing in an ethic of compassion but still maybe sacking a non-performing employee). Others believe they can see signs of Christ's presence in the renewal of society (South American Liberation theologians of the 70s and 80s often believed they could see renewal happening despite the brutality of their regimes). This reading of Matthew 24 then has not produced something called "the church's belief about the end of the world", just one strand which those of us who are involved in church have to take into account, live with and learn from. What can be learned from this way of looking at the world about getting on with the 'get ready for disaster' approach to Y2K? I think there is a realism in the acknowledgment that all our attempts at 'solutions' fail to deliver the final answers. Some things can be improved, but the list of stuff to fix will just go on growing. It's OK to be humble about the real value of the solutions we work on. The apocalyptic tradition says there is a way to live in hope anyway. We can learn to hold in tension different models of reality and different expectations for the future. In my religious view of the world the key to holding it all together is God. We can learn to live with focus now. If the apocalyptic view is right in hoping for a future beyond the end of it all then our personal future depends on being on task now. A secular take on this might be the old advice to 'live each day as if it could be your last'. The world probably won't end on 31 December but if it does... Live with dignity. Footnotes Apocalyptic is one of the forms Judeo-Christian prophesy took in the Greco-Roman period. Often apocalyptic texts use vivid imagery to describe the presence and defeat of evil. The symbols used usually had a reference to the author's situation but can be read to refer to the reader's situation (Rowland, C. "Apocalyptic." A Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation. Eds. R.J. Coggins and J.L. Houlden. London: SCM Press, 1990. 34-6). The classic statement of the different stances thinking Christians take towards the modern world is H.R. Niebuhr. Christ and Culture. New York: Harper & Row, 1951. If culture is the symbols a society constructs to make sense of itself, express its values and encourage members to behave then people can respond to that in various ways. In the terms Niebuhr uses -- Christ against Culture, The Christ of Culture, Christ above Culture, Christ and Culture in Paradox, or Christ the Transformer of Culture -- the different stances towards the ordinary realities of life produce different hopes for the future. Citation reference for this article MLA style: Geoff Hoyte. "Why 2000?" M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.8 (1999). [your date of access] <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/why.php>. Chicago style: Geoff Hoyte, "Why 2000?," M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2, no. 8 (1999), <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/why.php> ([your date of access]). APA style: Geoff Hoyte. (1999) Why 2000? M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2(8). <http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9912/why.php> ([your date of access]).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-03T12:21:02Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Williani de Almeida Carvalho.pdf: 1389671 bytes, checksum: e8f5f8e11393f155843482dce95e5309 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-04<br>Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico<br>This research analyzes the body as part of a process of social construction and seeks to understand the implications of the relationship between the social construction of body and evangelical religious practices. Chooses the Congregation Christian Churches, Presbyterian and Reborn in Christ in the neighborhood of Rudge Ramos, Sao Bernardo do Campo, as an investigation of this issue. This relationship is shrouded in intentions and physical manifestations involving religious practices and lifestyles of people who attend these names in the neighborhood in question. The study developed a mapping of physical techniques that mean the way people are "worth" of their bodies. When assessing the social, cultural and economic factors related to the neighborhood in question, and inserted it to the churches, we seek to understand how these three gospel traditions develop differentiated body techniques. Also, if people who attend these churches suffer any influence of the "model" of embodiment of society today is to claim that the quest for social mobility and the conditions of consumption linked to the body.(AU)<br>A presente pesquisa analisa o corpo como parte de um processo de construção social e busca compreender as implicações da relação entre essa construção social do corpo e práticas religiosas evangélicas. Elege as Igrejas Congregação Cristã, Presbiteriana e Renascer em Cristo no bairro de Rudge Ramos, em São Bernardo do Campo, como objeto de investigação dessa questão. Essa relação está envolta em intenções e manifestações corporais que implicam práticas religiosas e os estilos de vida das pessoas que freqüentam as referidas denominações no bairro em questão. O estudo desenvolve um mapeamento das técnicas corporais que significam a maneira como as pessoas se valem dos seus corpos. Na apreciação dos aspectos sociais, culturais e econômicos relacionados ao bairro em questão e às igrejas nele inseridas, procuramos compreender a maneira como essas três tradições evangélicas desenvolvem técnicas corporais diferenciadas. Também, se as pessoas que freqüentam essas igrejas sofrem alguma influência do modelo de corporeidade da sociedade atual que tem como pretensão a busca pela ascensão social e por condições de consumo vinculadas ao corpo.(AU)

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:48:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 3 71050100662.pdf.jpg: 16335 bytes, checksum: 4e90463f2fd6b8004714ca3ad2b27933 (MD5) 71050100662.pdf.txt: 666930 bytes, checksum: 02eb4c5a86c3d81814ac4d0d57e3172b (MD5) 71050100662.pdf: 2694106 bytes, checksum: b5c9ff629ce055c1a11850a7cbb1afd4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-02-22T00:00:00Z<br>With this work I intended to approach the following research problem: In which ways do the religious organizations promote the entrepreneurship among their members and how they support the enterprising follower in Brazil? The research has the economic sociology approach and the strategy I employ in my research is a qualitative and comparative case study of two religious organizations. The first one is of the Catholic Church, called Focolare Movement. And the other one is of an Evangelical Church, locally denominated “Renascer em Cristo” (Reborn in Christ). The data were collected through observation, interviews and documental research. In general, the religious structures of the investigated organizations form a special type of social capital, denominated of spiritual capital – through closure of social networks, appropriable social organization, obligations and norms, information channels and religious networks of mutual aid – capable to create and support organizational resources, which are cultural/symbolic resources, formation, information and spiritual support/motivational spaces, and that are mobilized in a way that facilitates the entrepreneurs’ actions. These resources give relative advantages to the entrepreneurs, such as: religious technologies; psychological support; reduction of the costs of the collection and access to the information, of negotiation and of the establishment of contracts; specific information and interpreted in agreement with the religious world vision; a system of meanings that creates that world vision and sustained by the plausibility structures, giving them larger subjective degree of certainty, hope and faith concerning their businesses; services rendered technicians by members of the organization; development of the human capital due to the continuous learning through courses, seminars, lectures, and congresses; changes of experience; and possibilities of businesses, including possible partners, suppliers and customers.<br>Com esse trabalho me propus a abordar o seguinte problema de pesquisa: como as organizações religiosas incentivam o empreendedorismo e apóiam o empreendedor-adepto. A estratégia de pesquisa adotada foi o estudo de caso qualitativo e comparativo de duas organizações religiosas: uma evangélica (Igreja Renascer em Cristo) e outra católica (Movimento dos Focolares). Os dados foram coletados por meio de observação, entrevistas e pesquisa documental. Viu-se que, de modo geral, as estruturas religiosas das organizações investigadas formam um tipo especial de capital social, denominado de capital espiritual – por meio de “fechamento” de redes sociais, organização social apropriável, obrigações e normas, canais de informações e redes religiosas de ajuda mútua – capaz de criar e sustentar recursos organizacionais – quais sejam, recursos culturais/simbólicos, espaços de formação, informação e apoio espiritual/motivacional – e que são mobilizados de modo a facilitar as ações de seus empreendedores. Tais recursos dão vantagens relativas a esses empreendedores por oferecerem benefícios tais como: tecnologias religiosas; apoio psicológico; redução dos custos da coleta e acesso à informação, de negociação e do estabelecimento de contratos; informações específicas e interpretadas de acordo com a visão de mundo religiosa; um sistema de significados que cria essa visão de mundo e sustentada pelas estruturas de plausibilidade, dando-lhes maior grau subjetivo de certeza, esperança e fé acerca de seus negócios; prestações de serviços técnicos por parte de membros da organização; desenvolvimento do capital humano devido à aprendizagem contínua por meio de cursos, seminários, palestras, congressos; trocas de experiência; e possibilidades de negócios, incluindo possíveis parceiros, fornecedores e clientes.

The fifth chapter asks whether Augustine’s view of the relationship between judgement and grace, as it had developed until 396, returns in his theological autobiography, the Confessions. The conclusion is affirmative. Augustine’s life between the deferral of his baptism and its reception is described as God’s lawsuit with him, which finally leads to his surrender to God as Father. It is further argued that Augustine does not regard his conversion in the garden of Milan as the central moment of his conversion, but rather the moment of his baptism. After his conversion in the garden of Milan, he still had to learn at Cassiciacum—by divine chastisement—that the reign of sin in the Christian life is rather broken through the death of Christ (of which baptism assures the believer) than by the inward, spiritual strenght of the reborn heart.