Log in

Relevant bibliographies by topics / Christianity in literature / Dissertations / Theses

To see the other types of publications on this topic, follow the link: Christianity in literature.

Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Christianity in literature'

Author: Grafiati

Published: 4 June 2021

Last updated: 29 July 2024

Create a spot-on reference in APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and other styles

Select a source type:

Consult the top 50 dissertations / theses for your research on the topic 'Christianity in literature.'

Next to every source in the list of references, there is an 'Add to bibliography' button. Press on it, and we will generate automatically the bibliographic reference to the chosen work in the citation style you need: APA, MLA, Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, etc.

You can also download the full text of the academic publication as pdf and read online its abstract whenever available in the metadata.

Browse dissertations / theses on a wide variety of disciplines and organise your bibliography correctly.

1

Sanders, Adam K. "Mimetic Transformations of Sacred Symbols: Christianity in Appalachian Literature." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2005. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/1009.

Full text

Abstract:

Though many representations of Appalachian religious practices describe conservative, stagnant, xenophobic, and backward traditions, some authors present Christian practices in Appalachia as a potential source of social and individual progressiveness. Denise Giardina in Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth, Jim Wayne Miller in "Brier Sermon: 'You Must Be Born Again,'" and Lee Smith in Fair and Tender Ladies all represent "mountain religion" practices that offer relevancy not only to the characters in the novel but also to the reader. Analysis of these works through their symbolic representations of uniquely Appalachian religious traditions reveals the authors' commitment to sacralizing social and individual struggle through the sacred and mimetic transformations of characters and communities. By reusing and reinterpreting sacred patterns, both biblical and more contemporary regional patterns, the authors associate their works with sacred and regional traditions, demonstrating the viability, the flexibility, and the vitality of regional religious practices.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

2

Duff, Michelle. "Albert Camus's Ethical Condemnation of Christianity as Expressed in his Literature." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.529467.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

3

Scharper, Stephen B. "The Role of the Human in Christian Ecological Literature." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp02/NQ37021.pdf.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

4

Staton, Maria S. "Christianity in American Indian plays, 1760s-1850s." Virtual Press, 2006. http://liblink.bsu.edu/uhtbin/catkey/1364944.

Full text

Abstract:

The main purpose of this study is to prove that the view on the American Indians, as it is presented in the plays, is determined by two dissimilar sets of values: those related to Christianity and those associated with democracy. The Christian ideals of mercy and benevolence are counterbalanced by the democratic values of freedom and patriotism in such a way that secular ideals in many cases supersede the religious ones. To achieve the purpose of the dissertation, I sifted the plays for a list of notions related to Christianity and, using textual evidence, demonstrated that these notions were not confined to particular pieces but systematically appeared in a significant number of plays. This method allowed me to make a claim that the motif of Christianity was one of the leading ones, yet it was systematically set against another major recurrent subject—the values of democracy. I also established the types of clerical characters in the plays and discovered their common characteristic—the ultimate bankruptcy of their ideals. This finding supported the main conclusion of this study: in the plays under discussion, Christianity was presented as no longer the only valid system of beliefs and was strongly contested by the outlook of democracy.I discovered that the motif of Christianity in the American Indian plays reveals itself in three ways: in the superiority of Christian civilization over Indian lifestyle, in the characterization of Indians within the framework of Christian morality, and in the importance of Christian clergy in the plays. None of these three topics, however, gets an unequivocal interpretation. First, the notion of Christian corruption is distinctly manifest. Second, the Indian heroes and heroines demonstrate important civic virtues: desire for freedom and willingness to sacrifice themselves for their land. Third, since the representation of the clerics varies from saintliness to villainy, the only thing they have in common is the impracticability and incredulity of the ideas they preach. More fundamental truths, it is suggested, should be sought outside of Christianity, and the newly found values should be not so much of a "Christian" as of "democratic" quality.
Department of English

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

5

Moore, Richard. "Christianity and paganism in Victorian fiction." Thesis, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, 1994. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.683121.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

6

Jedrzejewski, Jan Pawel. "Hardy's church imagery as an expression of his attitude to Christianity." Thesis, University of Oxford, 1992. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.334945.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

7

Awano, Shuji. "Paradox and post-Christianity : Hardy's engagements with religious tradition and the Bible." Thesis, University of Sussex, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.361295.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

8

Gau, Nathan S. "An investigation of both of the cultural phenomenon of the Da Vinci code and the evangelical responses to it." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN) Access this title online, 2005. http://www.tren.com.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

9

Reed, Annette Yoshiko. "Fallen angels and the history of Judaism and Christianity : the reception of Enochic literature /." New York, NY [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press, 2005. http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0514/2005018156.html.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

10

Laird, Benjamin Paul. "The formation, publication, and circulation of the Corpus Paulinum in early Christianity." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 2016. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=230961.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

11

Pollard, Jacqueline Anne. "The gender of belief: Women and Christianity in T. S. Eliot and Djuna Barnes." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/10333.

Full text

Abstract:

x, 175 p. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.
This dissertation considers the formal and thematic camaraderie between T. S. Eliot and Djuna Barnes. The Waste Land 's poet, whom critics often cite as exemplary of reactionary high modernism, appears an improbable companion to Nightwood 's novelist, who critics, such as Shari Benstock, characterize as epitomizing "Sapphic modernism." However, Eliot and Barnes prove complementary rather than antithetical figures in their approaches to the collapse of historical and religious authority. Through close readings, supplemented by historical and literary sources, I demonstrate how Eliot, in his criticism and poems such as "Gerontion," and Barnes, in her trans-generic novel Nightwood , recognize the instability of history as defined by man and suggest the necessity of mythmaking to establish, or confirm, personal identity. Such mythmaking incorporates, rather than rejects, traditional Christian signs. I examine how, in Eliot's poems of the 1920s and in Barnes's novel, these writers drew on Christian symbols to evoke a nurturing, intercessory female parallel to the Virgin Mary to investigate the hope for redemption in a secular world. Yet Eliot and Barnes arrive at contrary conclusions. Eliot's poems increasingly relate femininity to Christian transcendence; this corresponds with a desire to recapture a unified sensibility, which, Eliot argued, dissolved in the post-Reformation era. In contrast, Barnes's Jewish and homosexual characters find transcendence unattainable. As embodied in her novel's characters, the Christian feminine ideal fails because the idealization itself extends from exclusionary dogma; any aid it promises proves ineffectual, and the novel's characters, including Dr. Matthew O'Connor and Nora Flood, remain locked in temporal anguish. Current trends in modernist studies consider the role of myth in understanding individuals' creation of self or worldview; this perspective applies also in analyzing religion's role insofar as it aids the individual's search for identity and a place in history. Consequently, this dissertation helps to reinvigorate the discussion of religion's significance in a literary movement allegedly defined by its secularism. Moreover, in presenting Eliot and Barnes together, I reveal a kinship suggested by their deployment of literary history, formal innovation, and questions about religion's value. This study repositions Barnes and brings her work into the canonical modernist dialogue.
Committee in charge: Paul Peppis, Chairperson, English; Suzanne Clark, Member, English; John Gage, Member, English; Jenifer Presto, Outside Member, Comparative Literature

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

12

Etzkorn, Timothy M. "How freud explains the tudors psychological motivations and historical understanding of tudor England's religious schism /." [Denver, Colo.] : Regis University, 2009. http://165.236.235.140/lib/TEtzkorn2009.pdf.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

13

Koppel, Kirsten. "The Grand Inquisitor and the problem of evil in modern literature and theology." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2012. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/3680/.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis is concerned with the parabolic relationship between evil and salvation. In this thesis I argue that only through recognising evil as inescapably woven into the fabric of our lives, can we construct a theology of hope. I further argue that this identification of evil in the individual is always necessarily something that is achieved through the workings of the apophatic, and can therefore only be realised through the address that reaches exclusively the individual through the unsayable in language. This study centres upon the Parable of the Grand Inquisitor in an inter-textual, literary context and the apophatic tradition. The context in which my discussion of this parabolic relationship operates is the literary environment that allows for the parabolic and the paradoxical. My primary concern is therefore not with the question of theodicy, but with what happens when, through the intellectual struggle, we encounter the boundaries of our understanding in the beginnings of learned ignorance. In the first chapter I have set out to establish the narrative of the thesis, starting with Ivan Karamazov’s articulation of the problem. In this conversation with Alyosha he problematizes the fact that when we accept God’s world, we ought, at the same time to acknowledge the suffering in that world. In this way he exposes the paradox that is inherent in reconciliation itself. However, in the middle of this exchange with Alyosha, Ivan tells the story of the Grand Inquisitor, where the question of reconciliation is addressed in the kiss; suddenly possible in the literary space of the parable. In the chapter that follows I explore our relationship with evil within the space of a literary context. Starting with the fall as the moment at which the human being has put on self-awareness; separating the inner from outer part of the person. With Milton in Paradise Lost, and Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov and The Idiot as my main conversational partners, I offer a reading of the story of the fall in Genesis as a narrative about our alienation from the divine. I argue that this alienation has also become an estrangement from ourselves where the spirit can no longer get to know itself through the body and the body can no longer know itself through the spirit. I argue that this inability to recognise what is other closes off the possibility of a hermeneutical encounter with the Other. The third chapter examines the relationship between the inability to recognise what is Other and responsibility; in conversation with Kafka in The Trial and Kierkegaard’s discussion of Abraham in Fear and Trembling. I argue that Joseph K's inability to engage hermeneutically with the world is the reason why he cannot recognise his own guilt. Abraham is in that respect his opposite; he embodies the parabolic and the asymmetrical, and so becomes a fully responsible individual. In the last chapter I discuss the relationship between the unsayable in language and the coincidentia oppositorum. Here my main conversational partners are Meister Eckhart, Thomas Altizer in The Descent into Hell, and Nicolas of Cusa. I argue that the language of the unsayable is what addresses us in the detached self, as Christ addresses the Grand Inquisitor in his detached self. The kiss, as the climax, is the instant of initiation when the inner and the outer self again become one. At the same time this is the moment of betrayal when all command of our identity seems lost. This disintegration of the self is the descent into hell, and simultaneously the moment of salvation. It is also fundamentally apolitical and through its unsayability can address only the individual.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

14

Holder, Laura L. "Common Christs| Christ Figures, American Christianity, and Sacrifice on Cult Television." Thesis, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3687688.

Full text

Abstract:

Shifts in social attitudes towards American Christianity have resulted in a changed representation of Christ figures, specifically in their representation on television. Traditional Christ figures, those who believed in unconditional love and self-sacrifice for the greater good, clung to the church view and were figures of virtue and innocence. Modern Christ figures have become what I call "Common Christs"—people who are less likely to be the image of sinless perfection and more often violent and profane saviors. These modern stand-ins are usually from blue-collar or lower class backgrounds; they are the Christs of the common man. Generally, these Common Christs are in opposition with the dogmatic authority of the Christian church. The storylines that have Common Christs as their heroes often depict the organized religion of the church as an enemy, a negative institution trying to prevent the salvation of the common man by the common man. The purpose of my dissertation is to examine Common Christs as they appear in cult television shows that embrace and make strong use of Christian mythology without being considered Christian television, specifically The X-Files, Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, and Supernatural, to show how this changed image works as evidence of what I call the development of a textual religion. Ultimately, I hope that my discussion of Common Christs and textual religion will lead into a larger discussion between the academic camps of religious studies, pop culture studies and literary criticism about the importance of cross-disciplinary focus.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

15

Liu, Lixia. "Zhongguo Jidu jiao wen xue de li shi cun zai Historical existence of Chinese Christian literature /." Beijing Shi : She hui ke xue wen xian chu ban she, 2006. http://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/76793558.html.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

16

Martinelli, Deena A. "Fundamentalist Christian literature and the perception of womanhood /." View abstract, 1999. http://library.ctstateu.edu/ccsu%5Ftheses/1533.html.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (M.A.)--Central Connecticut State University, 1999.
Thesis advisor: Dr Norton Mezvinsky. " ... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." Includes bibliographical references (leaves [79-82]).

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

17

McLaughlin, Eleanor. "Unconscious Christianity : a neglected element in Dietrich Bonhoeffer's late theology." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2015. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:18cc7914-ce11-4743-aec9-e9eb0a7be7de.

Full text

Abstract:

In this thesis I argue that unconscious Christianity (unbewußtes Christentum), referred to by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in several of his later writings, is a significant idea in his late theology. There has as yet been no in-depth study of this theological concept as it appears in Bonhoeffer's work, and I therefore aim with this thesis to begin a new conversation in Bonhoeffer studies on this important topic. Bonhoeffer does not offer a definition of unconscious Christianity, but by analysing the ways in which he uses the term in his writing, I offer a constructed definition of unconscious Christianity as used by Bonhoeffer. The first three chapters of the thesis build towards this definition with a close analysis of each relevant text. By examining unconscious Christianity alongside other theological ideas in Bonhoeffer's prison writing, I show how an awareness and understanding of unconscious Christianity adds depth to readings of Bonhoeffer's late work. This thesis also clarifies the differences between unconscious Christianity and religionless Christianity, and shows how unconscious Christianity fits alongside the other, more widely-studied, concepts present in the later writings, such as the world come of age. This work demonstrates that there is movement within Bonhoeffer's thoughts on unconscious Christianity and points to Bonhoeffer's readiness to allow his personal circumstances to inform his theology. It also shows how unconscious Christianity represents a shift within Bonhoeffer's theology. This thesis also makes the subsidiary point that Bonhoeffer's prison fiction should be considered as theological writing. Through it Bonhoeffer addresses not only unconscious Christianity as discussed in this thesis, but many other issues that reoccur in his theological prison letters. I conclude by showing how an understanding of unconscious Christianity is beneficial not only for Bonhoeffer studies, but for contemporary theology more widely.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

18

Porter, Daniel F. "God among the gods an analysis of the function of Yahweh in the divine council of Deuteronomy 32 and Psalm 82 /." Lynchburg, Va. : Liberty University, 2010. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

19

Ford, Paul Karl. "The later W.H. Auden as a Christian poet." Thesis, University of Aberdeen, 1986. http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=130737.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

20

McLauchlan, Richard. "Poems from Holy Saturday : encountering divine and human silence in the poems of R.S. Thomas." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2014. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.707923.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

21

Wolfe, Sarah E. "Get Thee to a Nunnery: Unruly Women and Christianity in Medieval Europe." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2017. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3263.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis will argue that the Beowulf Manuscript, which includes the poem Judith, Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum, and the Old-Norse-Icelandic Laxdæla saga highlight and examine the tension between the female pagan characters and their Christian authors. These texts also demonstrate that Queenship grew fragile after the spread of Christianity, and women’s power waned in the shift between pre-Christian and Christian Europe.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

22

Prager, Valerie. "Comparative analysis of the Christian theme in Soviet literature." Thesis, McGill University, 1993. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=67518.

Full text

Abstract:

During the 70 years of the Soviet regime the officially approved Soviet literature consistently reflected an exclusively materialistic world view. As a result, there were very few critical works, published in the West, dealing with the Christian theme in Russian literature of the Soviet period.
Surprisingly, literature with the Christian theme did exist in the years of militant state atheism. Such literary works raised questions about the purpose of life, about truth, moral courage and the person of Christ. These books were published during the 60-s, the time of the "thaw", and became a focal point of public discussions. Two of them--Bulgakov's "Master i Margarita" and Pasternak's "Doktor Zhivago" were internationally acknowledged as major literary works.
This study will examine in detail and compare five literary works with christian content, published in the Soviet years of Russia. Two of them were mentioned above. The other three are "Plakha" by Aytmatov, "Dzhvari" by Alfeeva and "Fakul'tet nenizhnikh veshchei" by Dombrovsky.
The existence of such literature proves that all the efforts to suppress the human spirit and its longing for the Absolute have failed.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

23

West, Melissa Ann. "Hauntings in the church counterfeit Christianity through the fin de siécle Gothic novel /." Lynchburg, Va. : Liberty University, 2009. http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

24

Evans, Roger Steven. "Soteriologies of Early Christianity Within The Intellectual Context of The Early Roman Empire: Barnabas and Clement of Rome as Case Studies /." The Ohio State University, 1996. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1487931993468974.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

25

Zotwana, Sydney Zanemvula. "Literature between two worlds : the first fifty years of the Xhosa novel and poetry." Doctoral thesis, University of Cape Town, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/18253.

Full text

Abstract:

The main preoccupation in this thesis is to illustrate that, although there is no doubt that the missionaries deserve all the praise that they have been showered with, for their role in the development of Xhosa literature, there is a sense in which they can be said to have contributed as much also to its underdevelopment. It is my view that Xhosa literature has had a very unfortunate history, because of having an origin that is located in the history of Christianization. This history has haunted Xhosa literary creativity from its early beginnings to the present. The success of the mission to convert them to Christianity was anchored on the principle of total alienation of the Xhosa from their world-view: from their culture, from their religion, from their chiefs, from their literary art, and even from their homes. The intention was to turn them into new beings - Christian and loyal subjects of the British Crown - and to make them not only reject, but also despise their past. Therefore Western-style education for the Blacks in South Africa did not come out of any sense of altruism on the part of those by whom it was introduced. It was the interests of its initiators and their country that had to be served by the education of the Blacks. It was in this context that Xhosa literature was born. It was produced to promote the interests of the Christian church and therefore those of the British Crown. Its production was controlled by the missionaries, the owners of the publishing houses, but it was produced by the Christian and literate Xhosa most of whom had studied in mission schools. It was produced to crush the past and any aspirations that were in conflict with those of the Christian church and the British imperial designs. In short, it was a literature against its people. However, the Christian and literate Xhosa was never accepted as the equal of the other British subjects who were White. He was excluded from all law-making mechanisms and was affected by the many Native Laws that were passed, as badly as his non-Christian brothers and sisters. He witnessed land dispossession and all the other atrocities perpetrated by White rulers. His literary art had been harnessed to legitimize and perpetrate this situation and he dared not use his art to change it. It is in the light of this context that this thesis contends that Xhosa literature is between two worlds. It is argued that Xhosa literature, because of the writers' dilemma created by their position between these two conflicting universes, has been forced to be mute in the face of the Black people's experiences of oppression, and therefore to be indifferent to the Black people's struggles to resist colonization and to liberate themselves from this oppression. It is however, pointed out that some works are characterised by the writers' attempts to grapple with this dilemma. Finally this thesis advocates complete liberation of literary artists from state control, indirect though it may be, and also a change in the teaching and analysis of Xhosa literature.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

26

Brändli, Adrian. "Inimica amicitia : friendship and the notion of exclusion in early Christian Latin literature." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2016. https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:39da4c95-9dfe-4d97-9ecf-eed19d0c5c06.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis discusses the notion of amicitia in early Christian literature. By examining letters and normative texts ranging from the third to the early fifth century, the study illuminates not only how contemporary authors shaped friendship conceptually but also how these concepts relate to the actual social practice. Typically, scholars confine their reading of Christian friendship to the late antique period. In so doing, they approach amicitia either as a particular kind of relationship performing crucial social functions or as a subject for theorization that followed the example of a longstanding ancient philosophical tradition. Particularly influential has been the view that links amicitia with affection and love. Hence, scholars tend to stress the inclusiveness of friendship. By contrast, my own study focuses on the aspect of exclusion as the necessary by-product of social inclusion processes. Along these lines, amicita is described as existing in a dialectical opposition with its antonym, inimicitia. This approach yielded a number of insights. First, as the study moves into uncharted territory, the examination of third century texts highlights a tradition of amicitia-related thought that reached further back than has previously been assumed. From this, a more nuanced picture of friendship emerges that is not constrained by scholarly established boundaries between different fields of study. Second, the principle of inclusion and exclusion, dividing the world into amici and inimici, has been revealed as a powerful tool in church politics and religious controversy that established sharp boundaries between competing Christian factions. This view, which posits the truth of faith as the necessary prerequisite for friendship, is set off against other contemporary voices that did not make amicitia dependent on a particular religious group affiliation. Third, while disentangling friendship from the question of love, the character of Christian amicitia is viewed against the backdrop of the divine household. Though the conceptual overlap between friendship and kinship is not unique to the Christian tradition, such thinking ties in with an idea of community that builds on the paternity of God. These findings have implications for both the study of ancient friendship and the history of the early church. They improve our understanding of the relation between the conceptualization of amicitia and the actual social practice and moreover offer a deep insight into the social dynamics of contemporary religious controversies.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

27

Hobaugh, Gregory Charles. "Reformed apologetics and American literature a dialogue of worldviews /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 2000. http://www.tren.com.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

28

Wilson, Ashley Nichole. "Adopting the orphan's God : Christianity and spirituality in nineteenth- and twentieth-century girls' books." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2015. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.708956.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

29

Dove, Bryan T. "Theology beyond reason : an interdisciplinary study of the fantastic in British literature." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2010. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2292/.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

30

Rigge, Emily Kate. "The concept of the hidden God in the works of Montaigne and Charron." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1999. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.313462.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

31

Ijams, Clay D. "Pre-evangelism in the novels of Walker Percy the apologetic method of a writer /." Online full text .pdf document, available to Fuller patrons only, 2004. http://www.tren.com.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

32

Haji, Mohd daud Kathrina. "Creative : Jongsarat Critical : Christianity and the Canon : reading the Chinese American Canon through the sacred." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2011. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/creative-jongsaratcritical-christianity-and-the-canon-reading-the-chinese-american-canon-through-the-sacred(975edb1f-faae-422e-8bb2-904759bb8de8).html.

Full text

Abstract:

Creative: Jongsarat is a full-length fictional novel set in Brunei. It follows the lives of two cousins as they struggle with the same decision over the course of one summer. Rijal, the black sheep of the family, must try to come to terms with his fears and his troubled past when he finds out his girlfriend is pregnant. Hana, the family's golden girl and hope for the future, fights to keep her own sins a secret as she faces losing her boyfriend to his growing love for God. Set against the backdrop of a country in which reputation and religion are inextricably intertwined, and in which traditional values are struggling to stay alive, Rijal and Hana must find a way to understand the future that they are fighting for. Jongsarat is fundamentally an exploration of the challenges traditional social and religious structures are facing as they struggle to shape modern-day Brunei. It is a study of how, when traditional culture is uninformed by the heart of religion, it leads to disenfranchisement and the hollowness of ritual. It is a story about the ways in which everyday families have to cope with the hopes and expectations each generation places on the next in an ever-changing world. Critical: By exploring the reasons why study of the religious trope has been so neglected in Chinese American literary study, this thesis seeks to understand the critical paradigms which have dominated and shaped Chinese American literary discourses. This thesis will do this by looking seriously at the history of the formation of Chinese American literature and critical study, and the ways in which it has been influenced by American social and political movements such as the feminist and civil rights movements. Having established the state of Chinese American literature and literary discourse, the thesis will then go on to examine the ways in which these external influences have caused grave misreadings which have severely limited the scope and understanding of critical discourse. This thesis will then correct these misreadings by using Amy Tan's works as a case study for performing a critical reading of the religious trope in order to open critical discourse up to new and alternative readings that will ensure the continuation of fresh, relevant and vibrant dialogue within Chinese American critical study.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

33

Schmidt, Claire. "Sleeping toward Christianity the form and function of the Legend of the seven sleepers in medieval British oral tradition /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5645.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 12, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

34

Scott-Coe, Justin M. "Covenant Nation: The Politics of Grace in Early American Literature." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2012. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/45.

Full text

Abstract:

The argument of this dissertation is that a critical reading of the concept of "covenant" in early American writings is instrumental to understanding the paradoxes in the American political concepts of freedom and equality. Following Slavoj Zizek's theoretical approach to theology, I trace the covenant concept in early American literature from the theological expressions and disputes in Puritan Massachusetts through Jonathan Edwards's Freedom of Will and the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, showing how the covenant theology of colonial New England dispersed into more "secular" forms of what may be called an American political theology. The first chapter provides an overview of recent attempts to integrate theology and theory, specifically comparing Jacques Derrida and Zizek to better understand the latter's theology of materialism which relies on as well as informs the Reformed Protestant covenantal dichotomy of grace and works. The second chapter establishes the complicated architecture of the covenant concept within seventeenth-century New England Reformed Protestantism, and uses church membership transcripts along with Ann Hutchinson court trial documents to demonstrate how this inherently unstable theology created unintended slippage between God's grace and mankind's works, resulting in a theological formulation remarkably open to Zizek's analysis of political ideology. The third chapter demonstrates how Jonathan Edwards, through his ingenious counter-argument in Freedom of Will, provides a theoretical foundation for an uneasy but necessary alignment of the covenants of works and grace, releasing the subjunctive potential of grace to operate through history as a predeterminer of meaning and, potentially, freedom. In the last chapter, I argue that Emerson finally converts the covenant from a politically conceptualized theological framework for radical grace into a personal institutionalization of grace itself. Stanley Cavell's exploration of Emerson's "constitution" in light of the covenant motif demonstrates the political (im)possibilities inherent in America's self-conceptions of personal liberty and civic equality. In the end, complexities inherent in the concept of the covenant, especially its creative failure to control the radical nature of "grace," are determinative factors in our contradictory American egalitarian ideals.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

35

Wright, Margaret S. "Private vs. public conscience the contradiction between George Eliot's atheism and her use of traditional Christianity in her fiction /." Diss., Online access via UMI:, 2007.

Find full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

36

Bittner, Robert. "Queering Christianity : the journey from rigid doctrine to personal theologies in a selection of YA literature with LGBTQ content." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/37866.

Full text

Abstract:

Young Adult (YA) novels are quickly becoming an ever more influential and prominent part of the book publishing world. At their best, YA novels not only provide mirrors of self as well as windows to culture and opportunity for readers to see their world, themselves, their society or to see a different world in which they would rather live, but YA novels can also provide a mirror for young people to see a reflection of themselves, that is, to gain affirmation that they are not alone: they are represented (Bishop, 1990). With this view of YA fiction in mind, I have undertaken to analyze three novels—Nothing Pink, The God Box, and Thinking Straight—that each reflect the experiences of a group of teens underrepresented in fictional narratives: Gay Christians. Utilizing a Queer Theology framework informed by the work of Goss (1999), Loughlin (2007), Althaus-Reid and Isherwood (2009), and others, I seek to explore the nature of the interactions between the teenage protagonists in each novel and the Christian institutions—family, school, ministries, churches—that seek to hold them in a heteronormative grip. With each chapter of my thesis exploring a different aspect of this interaction, I follow a progression that begins with the protagonists rebelling against Christian dogma and assumptions, to queering and reclaiming that dogma, and ultimately, to finding acceptance and peace within the new theological framework. I go on to explore the place of these novels in the queer YA canon and examine the ways in which each book attempts to queer theology and expectations; I argue that is difficult, if not impossible, to fully escape dominant heteronormative assumptions when writing about Gay Christians for contemporary audiences. I found that the authors of the three novels were successful at creating, through their protagonists, queered Christian dogma that counters Protestant Christian expectations, but from within the confines of a heteronormative frame. While not destroying all the work of queering Christian dogma that the authors undertake, their inability to work outside of a heterosexist framework does complicate the notion of queering the novels overall.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

37

Dare, Jennifer K. "Throwing the book at him : feminist counter-narratives to evangelical apocalyptic theologies 1973-2003 /." Connect to title online (ProQuest), 2009.

Find full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

38

Bullman, Carol. "A Drop of Oil." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2005. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4739/.

Full text

Abstract:

Many Christian writers point to God through their fiction without openly evangelizing. The images their words evoke lift their secular and religious readers' heads, for God is reflected in their use of language, the emotions they describe, and the actions of their characters. The preface and short stories in this collection aim to show that God's presence can be felt even when people are suffering due to human decisions and mistakes. He is with His creations in the midst of their pain to impart hope when they need it most.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

39

Todorov, Boris Atanassov. "The Bulgarians between the two Romes the discourse of power in medieval Bulgaria /." Diss., Restricted to subscribing institutions, 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1397899921&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=1564&RQT=309&VName=PQD.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

40

Mason, Emma Jane. "Religious intellectuals : the poetic gravity of Emily Brontë and Christina Rossetti." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2000. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/4370/.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis examines the writing of Emily Brontë and Christina Rossetti in terms of its expression of religious culture and belief. It is my argument that Brontë and Rossetti experienced religion as intellectuals, questioning and exploring doctrine and dogma neither as sentimental lady Christians nor dismissive, secular critics. I contend that by close reading their poetry, the genre both women privileged as most appropriate for the consideration of religious matters, the reader may trace the sermons and theological works they read. Moreover, their writing, I suggest, evinces their intellectual response to theological, ecclesiological and ecclesiastical developments that took place in the nineteenth century. I thus label Brontë and Rossetti 'religious intellectuals,' a phrase suggestive of their intense understanding of, rather than their mild acquaintance with, religious debate. Many women writing within the nineteenth century found that religion granted them a field within which to freely read and research, but were denied the professional title of 'theologian.' Brontë and Rossetti are thus examples of a wider phenomenon wherein women encountered religion like scholars, one disregarded by current criticism unable as it is to categorize a female activity simultaneously religious and intellectual. I use Brontë and Rossetti as examples of what I call the 'religious intellectual' because they represent different sides of this classification. Where Brontë struggled away from her Methodist background, serving as a cultural commentator on its enthusiastic belief-system, Rossetti forged a scholarly identity as a late member of the High Church Oxford Movement. Both poets, I contend, wrote about religion in order to signal their intellectual ability. I conclude that Brontë's interest in Methodism and Rossetti's fascination with Tractarianism reveals the poets to be both independent of family pressures and false consciousness, and fully engaged with a subject central to their age.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

41

Reek, Jennifer Lynn. "From temple to text : reading and writing sacred spaces of poetic dwelling." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2013. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/4537/.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis inhabits the space between the art of poetry and the conditions of faith. Its concern is threefold: women, Church, poetics. It undertakes a journey from institutional Church into more radical and textual spaces, beginning with an examination of the state of the Roman Catholic Church today as revealed in Tina Beattie’s critique of Hans Urs von Balthasar, whose disturbing theology has contributed to a misogyny she argues has poisoned the body of the Church. Beattie’s critique is a point of departure into a potentially transformative poetics that she hints at but never fully pursues. I attempt to articulate such a poetics through multiple, spiraling approaches that are interdisciplinary, invitatory, performative and creative. In my reading and writing practices, I seek to trace the contours of this poetics through the delineation of a series of alternative poetic ‘ecclesiological’ spaces. These spaces will be shaped mainly by engaging the work of five poet/thinkers, a seemingly disparate group of authors, who, whether strictly poets or not, exhibit qualities of ‘poetic being’: Ignatius of Loyola, Gaston Bachelard, Yves Bonnefoy, Dennis Potter, and Hélène Cixous. The latter will further assist me in defining this poetic geography through her philosophical and fictive investigations of the interrelationships of gender, writing and spirituality. The readings I undertake are relational, conversations in which reading is a careful listening to texts and writing becomes an organic outcome of that listening. I ask essentially what happens when we, man/woman, stand in the clearing with Heidegger to share his wonder at being? With the help of my poet-companions, I respond that we are transformed after a full engagement of poetic thinking itself. I conclude that we are brought by this engagement to a sacred space of poetic dwelling.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

42

Smith, Allen Permar. "From pulpit to fiction : an examination of sermonic texts and their fictive qualities." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2006. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2064/.

Full text

Abstract:

This thesis will argue that the authority and power of a ‘sermonic text’ is found in its fictive qualities. The term ‘sermonic text’ is chosen in preference to ‘sermon’ to indicate the distinction between the singular occasion of a preached sermon, and the consignment of this singularity to the permanent condition of a written text, that may be read on many occasions by readers separated by time and space. A sermonic text functions in the manner of a work of fiction and creates an event and space that forces a decision upon the reader. Within the text the reader is in a place where the Kingdom of God is about to happen and is happening. Consequently, the reader is forced to make a decision. Will he or she, “Go and do likewise,” or reject the Kingdom of God? This is possible because the sermonic text has what I describe as ‘fictive qualities.’ These qualities include setting the context in which the sermon is proclaimed which in turn creates a space and event for various ‘worlds’ to meet. Necessarily, a sermon, whether historical or in fiction, must be ‘preached’ in a particular place and at a particular time – e.g. Capernaum, the Rolls Chapel in London or the Whaleman’s Chapel in Moby-Dick. At the same time, the ‘sermonic text’ opens up a ‘space of literature’, which is universal, and of no specific time or place, but entertains the various worlds of the reader, the biblical narrative (e.g. the Jonah narrative in Father Mapple’s sermon) as well as the historical setting. Other fictive qualities include a dialogical relationship between the reader and the text and the capacity of time and place to be both specific and universal, temporal and eternal. Finally, the voice of the sermonic text has authority and authenticity because it is at once familiar in the human experience and, at the same time, set apart and distinct through a particular relationship with the divine.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

43

Omuro, Jonathan. "Signifying the Childish Adult of Horus Gilgamesh’s Awkward Moments of the Children’s Bible." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/23824.

Full text

Abstract:

This project focuses on Horus Gilgamesh’s Awkward Moments of the Children’s Bible, Vol. 1 (2013), an adult picture book that parodies the Bible by illustrating biblical scriptures with child unfriendly images of gore, sex, and God’s sexy ass. Using semiotic, religious, and queer theory, I read this text as not only a satirical one, but one that is life affirming to “childish adults”—those individuals who don’t quite fit into the heteropatriachichal standards normalized by religious right ideologies.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

44

Anthony, Patrick. ""Adam's task" the poetry of Derek Walcott and Caribbean theology (A study in the relationship between literature and Christian theology) /." Theological Research Exchange Network (TREN), 1987. http://www.tren.com.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

45

JUSTI, DANIEL BRASIL. "LITERATURE AND POPULAR CULTURE ON THE EARLY CHRISTIANITY: THE BELIEF AND PRACTICE OF THE EVIL EYE IN GALATIANS 3,1-5." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2011. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=18134@1.

Full text

Abstract:

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
CONSELHO NACIONAL DE DESENVOLVIMENTO CIENTÍFICO E TECNOLÓGICO
Literatura e cultura popular no cristianismo primitivo são apresentadas como temas com o objetivo de analisar, a partir da literatura, cultura e práticas mágicas no Mundo Antigo, a inserção das comunidades cristãs nesse ambiente vital, no geral e, da comunidade de Gálatas, no particular. O objetivo é, através da transdisciplinaridade (teologia, história, antropologia e arqueologia) reconstruir o contexto mágico originário da comunidade gálata, entender as tensões em seu interior e perceber que implicações existem em vincular essa comunidade com o ambiente da magia. O elemento mágico observado é a crença e prática do mau-olhado (baskaíno) que, por conta de processos históricos, como o Iluminismo Europeu, foi obscurecido nas modernas traduções bíblicas e comentários exegéticos. Desvelar, pois, esse filtro de leitura construído pela Modernidade, consiste em redimensionar as frágeis fronteiras entre magia (primitivo) e religião (civilizado), de acordo com a leitura racionalista do século XIX em diante.
Literature and popular culture on the early christianity are presented as subjects and aims to examine, from literature, culture and magical practices in the ancient world, the participation of Christian communities in this vital environment, in general, and the community of Galatians, in particular. The goal is, through transdisciplinarity (theology, history, anthropology and archaeology) to reconstruct the original magical context in Galatian’s community, understand the tensions among them and realize that there are many implications in this community link with the environment of magic. The magical element observed is the belief and practice of the evil eye (baskaíno) that, because of some historical processes, such as the European Enlightenment, was obscured in modern Bible translations and exegetical commentaries. Unveiling, therefore, this filter in built by modernity, is to resize the fragile boundaries between magic (primitive) and religion (civilized), according to the racionalist reading of the nineteenth century onwards.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

46

Colledge, Gary. "Revisiting the sublime history : Dickens, Christianity, and 'The life of Our Lord' /." Thesis, St Andrews, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/422.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

47

Schweers, Ellen H. "Moral Training for Nature's Egotists: Mentoring Relationships in George Eliot's Fiction." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2001. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2868/.

Full text

Abstract:

George Eliot's fiction is filled with mentoring relationships which generally consist of a wise male mentor and a foolish, egotistic female mentee. The mentoring narratives relate the conversion of the mentee from narcissism to selfless devotion to the community. By retaining the Christian value of self-abnegation and the Christian tendency to devalue nature, Eliot, nominally a secular humanist who abandoned Christianity, reveals herself still to be a covert Christian. In Chapter 1 I introduce the moral mentoring theme and provide background material. Chapter 2 consists of an examination of Felix Holt, which clearly displays Eliot's crucial dichotomy: the moral is superior to the natural. In Chapter 3 I present a Freudian analysis of Gwendolen Harleth, the mentee most fully developed. In Chapter 4 I examine two early mentees, who differ from later mentees primarily in that they are not egotists and can be treated with sympathy. Chapter 5 covers three gender-modified relationships. These relationships show contrasting views of nature: in the Dinah Morris-Hetty Sorrel narrative, like most of the others, Eliot privileges the transcendence of nature. The other two, Mary Garth-Fred Vincy and Dolly Winthrop-Silas Marner, are exceptions as Eliot portrays in them a Wordsworthian reconciliation with nature. In Chapter 6 I focus on Maggie Tulliver, a mentee with three failed mentors and two antimentors. Maggie chooses regression over growth as symbolized by her drowning death in her brother's arms. In Chapter 7 I examine Middlemarch, whose lack of a successful standard mentoring relationship contributes to its dark vision. Chapter 8 contains a reading of Romola which interprets Romola, the only mentee whose story takes place outside nineteenth-century England, as a feminist fantasy for Eliot. Chapter 9 concludes the discussion, focusing primarily on the question why the mentoring theme was so compelling for George Eliot. In the Appendix I examine the relationships in Eliot's life in which she herself was a mentee or a mentor.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

48

Urbano, Arthur P. "Lives in competition : biographical literature and the struggle for philosophy in late antiquity /." View online version; access limited to Brown University users, 2005. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3174686.

Full text

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

49

Ubisi, L. L. "Nkucetelo wa vukriste eku vumbeni ka swimunhuhatwa swa vavasati eka matsakwa ya asavona hi D.C. MARIVATE na ri gile hi S.B. NXUMALO." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/1446.

Full text

Abstract:

Thesis ( M.A. ( African Languages)) --University of Limpopo, 2013
The main aim of this study is to examine the way in which women are explored and explained by authors with special reference to Xitsonga novels, Ri xile by S.B. Nxumalo and Sasavona by D.C. Marivate. The first chapter reveals the general outline of the study, the problem statement, the aim, the importance and its methodology. The most important terms of the study has been explained in this chapter so as to reveal what is expected to be analyzed. Chapter two gives short summary of the novels Sasavona by D.C. Marivate and Ri xile by S.B. Nxumalo which have been examined together with the history of their authors. The definitions of the word characters and characterization have been included and defined in this chapter. In this chapter, the novels which have been selected to be analysed have been analysed. Chaper three explains, defines and analysed the themes of selected two novels. The definitions of theme has been given in this chapter. This definitions will make readers to understand what theme is. Chapter four deals with the setting or milieu of the above mentioned novels. Chapter five deals with the general summary of this mini-dissertation. The recommendations and recommendations for further research have been indicated in this chapter.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

50

Grossnickle-Batterton, Stephanie Ann. "“Ye shall know them by their clothes”: women and the rhetoric of religious dress in the United States, 1865-1920." Diss., University of Iowa, 2019. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/6953.

Full text

Abstract:

This dissertation examines discourses surrounding religious dress in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly how various forms of religious dress were deployed by women. Analyzing the rhetoric used by women wearing distinctive religious garb as well as outsiders writing about religious dress, I show how religious dress not only held a variety of spiritual meanings for people of faith, but also served as a visual critique of a dominant Protestant paradigm that constructed religion as invisible, containable and private. I also show how discourses around religious dress were touchstones to negotiate larger cultural issues of the period between the end of the Civil War and the first two decades of the twentieth century, including consumerism and fashion, public education and secularism, and cultural imperialism. I position this project as an interdisciplinary cultural study in dialogue with scholars who engage with a wide variety of sources to trace developments in U.S. culture between the end of the Civil War and the first decades of the twentieth century. Yet, I intervene by drawing more attention to religion, and more specifically women’s religious dress, a category of analysis that has been virtually ignored by interdisciplinary U.S. cultural historians. Primarily using methods of literary and rhetorical analysis, I examine a variety of relevant primary sources, including novels, short stories, newspaper articles, denominational periodicals, promotional brochures, and legal documents such as court rulings and legislative proceedings. This project also intervenes in religious studies scholarship on dress. Most scholars who study religious dress focus on one religion. By examining discourses of religious dress across multiple groups, I illuminate how religious groups in the United States did not operate in vacuums, either apart from each other or from U.S. culture. Although religiously clothed persons may wear very distinct garb from each other, they share a commitment to wearing a visible marker of their faith. This opens up possibilities for a deeper understanding not only between groups, but also by outsiders. Thus, this project takes a more expansive approach than single-group studies, seeking to place multiple discourses in conversation with one another, especially within a context of hyper modernization, secularization, and imperialism at the turn of the century.

APA, Harvard, Vancouver, ISO, and other styles

We offer discounts on all premium plans for authors whose works are included in thematic literature selections. Contact us to get a unique promo code!