Tesi sul tema "Christian authors on Seneca"

This project interrogates how religious performance, either authentic or contrived, aids in the quest for freedom for oppressed peoples; how the rhetoric of the Enlightenment era pervades literatures delivered or written by Native Americans and African Americans; and how religious modes, such as evoking scripture, performing sacrifices, or relying upon providence, assist oppressed populations in their roles as early American authors and speakers. Even though the African American and Native American populations of early America before the eighteenth century were denied access to rights and freedom, they learned to manipulate these imposed constraints--renouncing the expectation that they should be subordinate and silent--to assert their independent bodies, voices, and spiritual identities through the use of literary expression. These performative strategies, such as self-fashioning, commanding language, destabilizing republican rhetoric, or revising narrative forms, become the tools used to present three significant strands of identity: the individual person, the racialized person, and the spiritual person. As each author resists the imposed restrictions of early American ideology and the resulting expectation of inferior behavior, he/she displays abilities within literature (oral and written forms) denied him/her by the political systems of the early republican and early national eras. Specifically, they each represent themselves in three ways: first, as a unique individual with differentiated abilities, exceptionalities, and personality; second, as a person with distinct value, regardless of skin color, cultural difference, or gender; and third, as a sanctified and redeemed Christian, guaranteed agency and inheritance through the family of God. Furthermore, the use of religion and spirituality allows these authors the opportunity to function as active agents who were adapting specific verbal and physical methods of self-fashioning through particular literary strategies. Doing so demonstrates that they were not the unrefined and unfeeling individuals that early American political and social restrictions had made them--that instead they were intellectually and morally capable of making both physical and spiritual contributions to society while reciprocally deserving to possess the liberties and freedoms denied them.

The orans, although a gesture with a long ‘pagan’ past, was easily adopted by Christians for its symbolic meanings of prayer and piety and quickly attained a number of other more nuanced meanings as it was refined and reused. By restricting the scope of this thesis to the orans in the Christian catacombs of Rome, it becomes possible to approach the figure from a multi-directional perspective, not merely concerned with what the gesture meant to the Christian, but with its literary and material pedigrees, its transition to Christian art, and its cultural significance. To this end, chapter one examines ‘pagan’ precursors of the Christian orans through an examination of coins, sculptures, inscriptions, and reliefs, as well as by looking at the two figures whose appearance most influences that of the orans – the goddess Pietas, and the Artemisia-Adorans funerary portrait type. Chapter two addresses the importance of the orans in the Christian literary community, and examines not only the actual usage of prayer with raised hands by the Christian faithful, but also examines the aesthetic and theological reasons for the popularity of the gesture – the parallel between the spread arms of the orans and the posture of the crucified Christ. Finally, chapter three presents a spatial-thematic analysis of the usage of the orans in the Roman Christian catacombs, using a corpus of 158 orantes. This chapter enables the reader to draw conclusions about the veracity of the academic theories presented in the previous chapters, as it compares the usage of the orans against its scholarly interpretation.

This thesis explores the relationship between Creation and the saints Cuthbert and Guthlac in their Anglo-Latin and Old English vitae. It argues that this relationship is best understood through received theological exegesis concerning Creation's present state in the postlapsarian world. The exegesis has its foundation in Augustine's interpretations of the Genesis narrative, though it enters the textual tradition of the vitae via an adapted portion of De Genesi contra Manichaeos in Bede's metrical Vita Sancti Cuthberti (VCM). Both Augustine and Bede argue, with slight differences, that fallen Creation can be restored into prelapsarian harmony with humanity by way of sanctity. Each individual vita engages with this understanding of the Fall in distinct, though ultimately interrelated, ways, and the chapters of this thesis will therefore explore each text individually. Chapter 1 argues that the anonymous Vita Sancti Cuthberti (VCA) unites Cuthbert's ability to restore Creation with the theme of monastic obedience, linking the ordering of a monastery to the restoration of prelapsarian harmony. The VCA also seeks to create sites for potential lay pilgrimage in the landscapes of Farne and Lindisfarne by highlighting the present efficacy of Cuthbert's miracles. Chapter 2 argues that Bede's VCM not only reveals his early attempt to fashion Cuthbert into the primary saint for Britain, via a focus on Cuthbert's obedience to the Divine Office, but also that the restoration of Creation functions as a ruminative tool. Chapter 3 argues that Bede transforms the nature of Cuthbert's sanctity in his prose Vita Sancti Cuthberti (VCP) from static to developmental, influenced by the Evagrian Vita Antonii, and that Creation is adapted to function as the impetus for, and evidence of, Cuthbert's progression. Chapter 4 argues that Felix's Vita Sancti Guthlaci (VSG) unites the development of Guthlac with a physically delineated Creation, and that the restoration of Creation is elevated to an even greater degree here than in Bede's hagiography. Chapter 5 argues that the author of the Old English Prose Guthlac (OEPG) grounds his vita by utilizing a landscape lexis shared with contemporary boundary clauses, so that here the relationship between the saint and Creation has greater force; it further argues that Guthlac A uniquely connects Guthlac with the doctrine of replacement, consolidating links between his arrival to the eremitic space and the restoration of prelapsarian Eden.

Since the publication of the book The Screwtape Letters in 1942, ‘C. S. Lewis’ has been a widely recognized name in both Britain and the United States. The significance of the writings of this scholar of medieval literature, Christian apologist and author of the children’s books The Chronicles of Narnia, while widely recognized, has not previously been investigated. Using a wide range of sources, including archival material, book reviews, monographs, articles and interviews, this dissertation examines the reception of Lewis in Britain and America, comparatively, from within his lifetime until the recent past. To do so, the methodology borrows from the history of the book and history of reading fields, and writes the biography of Lewis’s Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia. By contextualizing the writing of these works in the 1940s and 1950s, the evolution of Lewis’s respective platforms in Britain and America and these works’ reception across the twentieth century, this project contributes to the growing body of work that interrogates the print culture of Christianity. Extensive secondary reading, moreover, permitted the investigation of cultural, intellectual, social and religious factors informing Lewis’s reception, the existence of Lewis devotees in America and the lives of Mere Christianity and The Chronicles of Narnia in particular. By paying close attention to the historical conditions of authorship, publication and reception, while highlighting similarities and contrasts between Britain and America, this dissertation provides a robust account of how and why Lewis became one of the most successful Christian authors of the twentieth century.

Tous les peuples et toutes les cultures célèbrent leurs morts. Les rites funéraires président à la quête de sens face à la mort. Nous sommes intéressé par la question des rites funéraires dans les premiers siècles de l'Afrique du Nord chrétienne. D'où la formulation de notre sujet qui nous guidera tout au long de notre réflexion: "Les rites funéraires dans l'Afrique du Nord chrétienne du 3e siècle au 5e siècle. A la lumière des œuvres de Tertullien, Cyprien, Lactance et Augustin". Comment les chrétiens célébraient-ils leurs morts aux premiers siècles du Christianisme dans un environnement à dominante païenne ? Quel regard les premiers écrivains chrétiens de l’Église d'Afrique ont-ils eu sur les funérailles des païens, et quelle contribution ont-ils apportée face au culte rendu aux morts par les chrétiens ? Concernant l'Afrique du Nord au début de notre ère et pendant l'Empire romain, les célébrations funéraires étaient d'abord l'affaire des familles. Avec Augustin, nous assistons à une évolution du culte des morts que Tertullien, Cyprien et Lactance attestaient déjà
All people and culture celebrate the death for peace of the dead persons and the living one. We are interested in the question of the funeral rites in the first centuries of christian Church of the North Africa. That is why we entitled our subject :" The funeral rites of Early Christian North Africa of the 3rd in the 5th century. In the light of Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius and Augustine's works". We try to understand the contents of the funeral rites which presided over the Christian celebrations in honor of the dead in the christian environment of the North Africa. How did the Christians celebrated the death in the first centuries? What are the points of view of the first christian writers in the Africa Church on the pagan funeral that the Christians went on celebrating, and what is their contribution about the cult of dead in the Christian area? About the North Africa at the beginning of our era and during Roman Empire, the funeral celebrations first concerned the families. Thanks to Augustine, at the end of the 4th century and at the beginning of the 5th one, we can notice an important evolution of celebrations in honor of the dead that Tertullian, Cyprian and Lactantius had already initiated.They also acquire at this moment an ecclesial dimension, especially with the cult of the martyrs and their relics. To throw light on the funeral subject in the north Africa, it is necessary to understand the history of the pagan cult of the 3rd to 5th century

The decades before the Scottish Reformation Parliament of 1560 witnessed the unprecedented use of a range of different media to disseminate the Protestant message and to shape beliefs and attitudes. By placing these works within their historical context, this thesis explores the ways in which various media – academic discourse, courtly entertainments, printed poetry, public performances, preaching and pedagogical tools – were employed by evangelical and Protestant reformers to persuade and/or educate different audiences within sixteenth-century Scottish society. The thematic approach examines not only how the reformist message was packaged, but how the movement itself and its persuasive agenda developed, revealing the ways in which it appealed to ever broader circles of Scottish society. In their efforts to bring about religious change, the reformers capitalised on a number of traditional media, while using different media to address different audiences. Hoping to initiate reform from within Church institutions, the reformers first addressed their appeals to the kingdom's educated elite. When their attempts at reasoned academic discourse met with resistance, they turned their attention to the monarch, James V, and the royal court. Reformers within the court utilised courtly entertainments intended to amuse the royal circle and to influence the young king to oversee the reformation of religion within his realm. When, following James's untimely death in 1542, the throne passed to his infant daughter, the reformers took advantage of the period of uncertainty that accompanied the minority. Through the relatively new technology of print, David Lindsay's poetry and English propaganda presented the reformist message to audiences beyond the kingdom's elite. Lindsay and other reformers also exploited the oral media of religious theatre in public spaces, while preaching was one of the most theologically significant, though under-researched, means of disseminating the reformist message. In addition to works intended to convert, the reformers also recognised the need for literature to edify the already converted. To this end, they produced pedagogical tools for use in individual and group devotions. Through the examination of these various media of persuasion, this study contributes to our understanding of the means by which reformed ideas were disseminated in Scotland, as well as the development of the reformist movement before 1560.

At the end of the fourth century A.D. an anonymous Christian author wrote fourteen letters, in Latin, in the form of a correspondence between St. Paul, Apostle to the Gentiles, and the Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger. This work of fiction was inspired in part by perceived similarities between Christian belief and Seneca's version of Stoicism. As far as Seneca is concerned the similarities are coincidental. The letters of St. Paul display evidence of Stoic influence, but that influence stems from Greek sources rather than from Seneca. Anonymous might have gained his knowledge of Seneca's thought directly from the philosopher's own works or from the works of earlier Christian authors writing in Latin who referred to, or quoted from, Seneca. The creator of the apocryphal correspondence between philosopher and apostle was not the first Latin Christian to note the similarities between Stoic and Christian beliefs. He was, however, the first to suggest that Seneca and St. Paul had been on friendly terms. An unexpected aspect of this correspondence is its portrayal of Seneca as the teacher of Latin style to St. Paul rather than, as might have been expected, Paul as Seneca's instructor in Christianity. The letters also depict Paul, a Hellenised Jew, as abandoning Judaism by converting to Christianity. Such representations of the principals require an explanation. Why, when the Empire was officially Christian, did the author feel a need to show that Seneca, a pagan philosopher who had died more than three centuries earlier, had been at least sympathetic to Christian belief and perhaps a secret convert? The answer suggested by this thesis is that despite the official triumph of Christianity, pagan ritual had not been obliterated. Many of Rome's traditional aristocratic families tended still to adhere to the old ways. These families were too powerful to be coerced, they had to be persuaded. Seneca, a member of the senatorial aristocracy, who had lived at the time of the birth of Christianity, provided the perfect example for such families to emulate. An answer is also proposed to the question of why the author of the correspondence thought it was important to portray Paul as a Christian. At the time the correspondence appeared Judaism was still a force to be reckoned with. It continued to attract converts, some of whom were Christians. There were still Jewish Christians who continued to obey Jewish Law, yet insisted that they were Christian. Too many Gentile Christians, in the eyes of church authorities, maintained old links with the Jewish community and even forged new ones. Some Christians regarded the synagogue as an alternative source of authority. All these groups had to be shown the error of their ways. The portrayal of Paul as a Christian who had abandoned his Jewish heritage could only assist in this ambition.

Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 2004.
Thesis advisor: Gilbert Gigliotti. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English Literature." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-74). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Text in Afrikaans
Die boek Jona in die Ou Testament fassineer sowel geleerdes uit verskeie dissiplines, as gewone Bybel-gelowiges al vir eeue lank. Ten spyte van die beperkte lengte en verhaal-inhoud, bestaan daar 'n ongekende aantal uiteenlopende interpretasies van die Klein Profete-boek, as gevolg van die verskillende benaderingswyses waarop dit gedurende verskillende eras en in 'n verskeidenheid van intellektuele kontekste benader en gei:nterpreteer is. 'n Sinvolle ondersoek na en beoordeling van die verskillende interpretasie-benaderings, met die oog op die uiteindelike formulering van die universele boodskap van die verhaal van Jona, behoort te begin by die logiese beginpunt, naamlik die vroee Kerkvaders. Hierdie studie konsentreer daarom op die interpretasies en toepassings van die verhaal van Jona deur die vroee Latynse Kerkvaders van die derde tot die vyfde eeue nC. Vanwee hul hoofsaaklik nai:ef-realistiese kenhouding, het hulle oor die algemeen nie die historiese akkuraatheid van die Jona-verhaal betwyfel nie. Onder die invloed van sowel die Hebreeuse interpretasie-tradisie as die vroee Griekse Kerkvaders, het hulle Jona hoofsaaklik op tipologiese en allegoriese wyse geinterpreteer. Die uitgangspunt vir die tipologiese interpretasie, waarvolgens Jona beskou word as 'n tipe ofvoorafskaduwing van Jesus Christus (die anti-tipe), is die sogenaamde "Teken van Jona" in die Nuwe Testament. Vir die doel van hierdie studie is die Kerkvader Hieronymus se kommentaar op die boek Jona in geheel vertaal en bestudeer, as verteenwoordigend van die interpretasie-benadering van die Latynse Kerkvaders. Daarna is korter fragmente bestudeer uit die kommentare van Hilarius van Poitiers en Ambrosius van Milaan oor Bybelpassasies waarin Jona self, of aspekte uit die verhaal, figureer. Vervolgens is daar ook ondersoek ingestel na die toepassing van die Jona-verhaal in geselekteerde fragmente uit die vroeg-Christelike poesie en epistolografie. Die gevolgtrekking waartoe hierdie studie gekom het, is dat die belangrikste bydrae deur die geselekteerde outeurs tot die corpus van Jona-interpretasies, gelee is in hul be grip en formulering van die universele genade-boodskap van Jona, en in hul toepassing van sekere kernaspekte uit die verhaal, as exempla of illustrasies, waardeur bepaalde waarhede aan die orde gestel is en spesifieke boodskappe oorgedra is. Gesien binne die bree konteks van gesofistikeerde interpretasie-benaderings tot en literer-wetenskaplike teoriee oor die verhaal van Jona, het die vroeg-Latynse outeurs tog ook, ten spyte van hul eenvoudiger werkswyses, die kernboodskap van Jona korrek gei:nterpreteer en treffend weergegee, en deur middel van hul tipologiese interpretasies van die verhaal, 'n sinvolle bydrae gelewer tot die eeue-lange geskilpunt rondom die historisiteit van Jona.
For many centuries the book of Jonah, one of the collection of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Old Testament, has fascinated both scholars from various disciplines, as well as ordinary laymen. Due to the various ways in which it was interpreted during different eras and in different intellectual contexts, there exist a plethora of divergent interpretations of this book, in spite of its limited length and contents. With a view to formulating the universal message of the story of Jonah, a meaningful review of all these approaches should start with the early Church Fathers, the most logical startingpoint. This study therefore concentrates on the interpretations and applications of the story ofJonah, by some of the Fathers of the Latin church from the third to the fifth century AD. Owing to their mainly naive-realistic cognitive approach, they in general did not doubt the historicity of the Jonah-narrative. Influenced by both the Hebrew tradition and the Greek Fathers, they mainly interpreted the story of Jonah allegorically and typologically. Their typological interpretation, based on the so-called "Sign of Jonah", depicts the prophet Jonah as the type or prefiguration of Jesus Christ (the anti-type). For this study Saint Jerome's commentary on the book of Jonah, was translated and studied in its entirety, as a useful representative of the interpretative framework of the early Latin Fathers. Some shorter fragments from Saint Hilary of Poitiers' and some of Saint Ambrose's commentaries on Biblical passages, in which Jonah or specific aspects from the story figure, were also studied. Finally some fragments from early Christian Latin poetry and epistolography were selected with a view to studying the different applications of the Jonah narrative in patristic literature. The study arrived at the conclusion that the most important contribution of the selected Christian Latin authors to the corpus of Jonah-interpretations is in their understanding and formulation of Jonah's universal message of grace, as well as in their application of the narrative, in the form of exempla, with a view to illustrating and emphasising certain aspects or truths. Seen in the broad context of sophisticated interpretative approaches to and literary theories on the story of Jonah, the Fathers of the Latin church did interpret the message of Jonah correctly, in spite of their more simple approaches, and they conveyed this message in striking ways. In addition to this, their typological interpretations added yet another interesting perspective to the age-long dispute about the historicity of the Jonah-narrative.
Classics & Modern European Languages
D.Litt. et Phil. (Latin)

This thesis is an analysis and examination of the concept of Faith as understood, experienced, and held by John Wesley: Throughout this study, the question, "Is this Faith possible" lingers, depicting the serious quest of heart and mind to understand Wesley's theology and his empirical view of Faith, as found in the eighteenth-century Revival in England and in Methodism. The problem of the usage of Faith, and the confusion of Freedom, in the life of the "true Christian" in Society, forms the basis of this discussion. The concepts Faith, Freedom, and Society are each examined in this work: The Spirit of the Age, as depicted by the thought of Kant the "transcendentalist" in Europe; of Locke the English empiricist; and of Edwards the Calvinist in America, give insight into the struggle in the pursuit of Freedom. These difficulties are met by the unique ministry of Wesley, who would not compromise man's "unalienable right" to be Free, especially in the light of "salvation by faith." In this analysis and consideration I look at Wesley's concepts of Faith, Freedom, and his understanding of Society, in the light of his theology and ethics, as well as the milieu of the eighteenth century; the implications of these are considered, taking note of, the influence and the impact of Wesley's ministry and writings upon almost all of the eighteenth-century English population, as well as the overflow of the same into the wider world. What happened through his ministry stresses the truth that, what he knew as Faith, was very different from the orthodox and traditional views. More than ever, this needs to be understood today. Wesley's experience of Faith, in his Freedom with regard to Society, is as relevant today as it was then. This thesis sets out to clarify some of the problems: What Wesley had found, history cannot deny.
Philosophy, Practical & Ststematic Theology
D. Th. (Theological Ethics)

Text in German with summaries in German and English
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 350-377)
Die Doktorarbeit hat die Absicht herauszufinden, was Jonathan Edwards unter dem Begriff „Sündenerkenntnis“ verstanden hat und dabei die Frage nach der Bedeutung dieses Verständnisses für die Erweckungsbewegung zu beantworten. Während Jonathan Edwardsʼ Theologie und Philosophie im Allgemeinen gut erforscht ist, wurde dieser Aspekt noch nicht genauer untersucht. Zunächst wird auf der Grundlage einer chronologischen Einordnung seiner Werke Jonathan Edwardsʼ Verständnis von Sündenerkenntnis aus seinen wichtigsten Schriften erarbeitet, wobei eine Entwicklung in seinem Gedankengut deutlich wird (Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse). In einem zweiten Teil wird Jonathan Edwardsʼ Verständnis von Sündenerkenntnis mit der Theologie seiner Vorläufer, Zeitgenossen sowie Nachfolger und Gegner verglichen, wobei sich die Untersuchung auf die Bewegung des Puritanismus, die Epochen des „Great Awakening“ und des „Second Great Awakening“ beschränkt (Diachronischer Vergleich). In einem dritten Teil wird Jonathan Edwardsʼ Verständnis von Sündenerkenntnis systematischtheologisch und theologiegeschichtlich eingeordnet. Mit dieser Studie soll ein weiterer deutscher Beitrag zur internationalen Jonathan Edwards-Forschung geleistet werden. Der Ansatz dieser Forschung ist dabei historisch ausgerichtet, da er den systematisch-theologischen Begriff „Sündenerkenntnis“ auf der Grundlage der Biografie Edwardsʼ und einer chronologischen Einordnung seiner Werke zu ermitteln sucht, um ihn dann in einem diachronischen Vergleich mit Verständnissen aus verschiedenen zeitlichen Epochen zu vergleichen und so den Begriff „Sündenerkenntnis“ in einem theologiegeschichtlichen Kontext einordnet und versteht.
The thesis tries to answer the question, how Jonathan Edwards understood the term “conviction of sin”. The intention is to find out the significance of his understanding of this term for the revivalmovement of his time. While numerous studies have been done on his theology and philosophy, this aspect has not been thoroughly examined yet. Based on a chronological assessment of his works Jonathan Edwardsʼ understanding of conviction of sin is established from his major works (qualitative content analysis). This reveals a development in his thought-system. In a second part Jonathan Edwardsʼ understanding of conviction of sin is compared with the theology of his predecessors, contemporaries and opponents. This examination is limited to the time of the Puritans, the “Great Awakening” and the “Second Great Awakening” (diachronic comparative analysis). In a third part Jonathan Edwardsʼ understanding of conviction of sin is assessed in a systematictheological way and classified historically. The author intends to make another German contribution to international Jonathan Edwards Studies. This research is historically focused, because of the fact, that the term “conviction of sin” is analysed by means of the biography of Edwards and a chronological classification of his works to compare it with meanings of different historical epoches and classify it in its theological historical context by that approach.
Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology
D. Th. (Church history)