Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Church Trials'

Bibliography: leaves 120-126.
The perspective of this dissertation is one grounded in taking an option for the poor and the oppressed in the South African context. Ultimately, this perspective is a theological belief. The perspective is thus that of an explicit choice against apartheid and for social justice. This choice is made on the basis of a social analysis of the South African context. The attempt to write this dissertation from the perspective of the poor and the oppressed is unlikely to succeed completely. As a privileged white, the perspective of the author cannot be fully identified with that of the poor and the oppressed in South Africa. Nonetheless, the attempt is made to write this dissertation from a liberating perspective.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1999.
Title from title page screen, viewed July 20, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Elizabeth Lugg (chair), Dianne Ashby, Amee Adkins, Andrew Lugg. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 236-245) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2008.
Title from electronic title page (viewed Feb. 17, 2009). "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a degree of doctor of philosophy in the Department of History." Discipline: History; Department/School: History.

My thesis seeks to examine the relationship that exists between queer selfidentification and heterosexual hegemonic/heteronormative power in three works of and about the AIDS era. Working from feminist and queer theory perspectives, I first chart the way in which a problematic identity—be that identity a non-identity of utter invisibility, a sick identity, a dangerous identity, or (most commonly) an identity of utter hedonism disconnected from any notions of attachment, affection, or love beyond the physical sexual act—has been and is still wholly adopted by some. I do this principally with a close reading of Renaud Camus' 1981 novel Tricks, as well as with substantial historical grounding. I assert that this is not just a problem in queer literature, but in queer life which queer literature deeply reflects. Through a close reading of Tony Kushner's play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, I seek to illustrate the consequences of accepting entirely and without question a constructed and problematic identity for gay men. Historical examination also comes strongly into play through correspondence and personal narratives of men who lived through (and died in) the AIDS era, casualties of war of queer self-definition. Employing a close literary analysis of Larry Duplechan's 1986 novel Blackbird, my thesis seeks to chart a way to a stable, holistic, queer identity negotiated from a position of strength. In a larger sense my thesis explicates constraints upon queer identity intended to limit queer people to a heteronomous, damaged, vulnerable social position. I raise awareness of these constraints in attempt to navigate a way around them with the ultimate destination of this navigation being a perpetually increasing humanization of a historically and institutionally dehumanized population.

In this thesis I explore the emergence of the Christian triad with reference to two contemporary movements: Middle Platonism and Gnosticism. The earliest Christian writer to enumerate the three constituents of what would become the Christian Trinity is Justin. In addition to his three extant works, Justin’s triadology can be diagnosed from those he directly influenced – Tatian and Athenagoras – who I have (somewhat artificially) grouped under the heading the “school of Justin”. The ontological triad adopted by these Christian thinkers is compared with the triads of Middle Platonism and Gnosticism, both in terms of their structure and in terms of the function and ontological status of the individual constituents of these triads. In this thesis I propose that a liturgical triad of primitive Christianity, the trine baptismal formula, was conflated by the “school of Justin” with the ontological triad of Middle Platonism, resulting in three referents of the baptismal formula being embued with new functions and ontological status. Whilst emerging as a hierarchical triad, the logic of Platonic ontology when combined with Christian tradition required the sharp distinction between God, as Being, and all other things resulting in a Christian triad that was also a unity. This new triad became fixed as a central tenet of Christianity. I find no plausible connection between any known Gnostic triad and the triad of the “school of Justin”. There is some interaction between Gnostic and Platonic thought during this period. It is possible that the Triple-Powered One pre-empted the Being-Mind-Life triad of Neoplatonism.

In 1563, the publication of the Heidelberg Catechism marked the conversion of the Rhineland Palatinate to a stronghold for Reformed religion. Immediately thereafter, however, the Palatinate church experienced a deeply unsettling surge in the popularity of antitrinitarianism. To their Lutheran and Catholic opponents, this development revealed a toxic connection between Reformed theology and the tenets of antitrinitarianism. As early as 1565, for instance, the Catholic Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius argued anonymously that the Reformed principle of sola scriptura was indistinguishable from the biblicism which had led heretics to reject the doctrine of the Trinity on the grounds that it was nowhere explicitly justified in the biblical text. Seven years later, the displaced Italian theologian and Heidelberg professor, Girolamo Zanchi, countered this argument in his De Tribus Elohim (1572). This huge landmark of this early theological crisis in Heidelberg sought to oppose the biblicism of the early antitrinitarians by arguing that the doctrine of the Trinity was explicitly taught within the Hebrew divine names Jehovah and Elohim. The following year De Tribus Elohim received an Imperial Privilege from the Catholic court in Vienna, a distinction virtually unheard of for a Reformed theological text. Zanchi’s argument was then widely promulgated in the marginal notations of the tremendously influential Biblia Sacra of Franciscus Junius and Immanuel Tremellius, and became a staple of refutations of antitrinitarianism thereafter. Yet Zanchi’s confidence that trinitarian theology was contained within the Hebrew of the Old Testament was not shared by many of his own Reformed colleagues. John Calvin’s exegetical works had explicitly rejected this argument; and theologians like David Pareus (Zanchi’s younger colleague in Heidelberg) and the Dutch Hebraist Johannes Drusius preferred a more historical-grammatical reading of the Old Testament and dismissed Zanchi’s reading of the name Elohim despite the danger that this might sacrifice a valuable defence against antitrinitarianism. Complicating the picture further, the Lutheran polemicist Aegidius Hunnius directed Zanchi’s arguments against Calvin in his Calvinus Iudaizans (1593). This variety of responses to Zanchi’s argument demonstrates the diversity of assumptions about the nature of the biblical text within the Reformed church, contradicting the notion that the Reformed world in the age of “confessionalization” was becoming increasingly homogenous or that the works of John Calvin had become the authoritative touchstone of Reformed orthodoxy in this period.

The research conducted was done on the basis of providing an initial platform or starting point for insight and discussion into what a strategic transcultural model of leadership might look like which was relevant to the early 21st Century Christian context in the cities of Southern Africa. A strategic transcultural leader is essentially a transformational leader who exhibits an ability beyond the norm in being able to cross socio-political barriers and thus inspiring the multicultural dynamic, while also honouring the individual cultures represented. In order to study strategic transcultural leadership models a strong leadership angle was taken, which employed investigating six leaders, three political and three Christian as to the structures, styles, values, transcultural abilities and Christian/political beliefs and/or philosophies they employed. The thesis poses the problem of urban unrest in the cities of Southern Africa. The problem of an influx into the cities, of the many different ethnicities and tribes from throughout Southern Africa and the pressures this has caused is briefly alluded to. This problem has been further exacerbated in South Africa by the arrival of many peoples from throughout Africa, south of the Sahara seeking their fortune without having to leave the African Subcontinent, and in Zimbabwe by the political policies of the Zimbabwean government, over land and in clearing away her unapproved urban high-density housing, and her informal business and white farming sectors of the economy. With these issues in mind, there is a need for strategic transcultural leadership to address these and other issues of unrest. The examples of Mandela and De Klerk as transformational leaders, inspire hope, that the vacuum of strategic transcultural leadership seen in Africa at large and specifically in relation to Southern Africa can be met, as is noted by the progress made in recent years in the arena of transformational leadership which the Group of eight and the United Nations and others allude to. While this is true, there are still problems in relation to the political decision-making within South African, as seen by Mbeki’s stance in the past on HIV-AIDS, and Zimbabwe’s woes. The stage is set from a missiological and historical perspective by looking at multicultural models of leadership in the Early Church with specific reference to Paul and the Antiochan model he used as a prototype. The Jerusalem Church is mentioned as a bi-cultural model, which has significant use outside of large urban environs. However it was the Pauline-Antiochan model that provided a platform, in the later use of a synthetic-semiotic model, to deduce or synthesis a transcultural model. Paul’s model of leadership was analysed specifically in relation to the five elements already noted (structures, styles, etc.) and is particularly useful as a model as Paul himself provides firstly an insight into a man of bi-cultural heritage yet someone who was empire-conscious. Paul was able to uphold both the cultural distinctive or uniqueness of both the Greek and Jew (noting Paul’s use of both Hebraic and Hellenistic styles of the diatribe for example) as well as the universal, in that he was empire-conscious which played into his Kingdom perspective. Secondly he provides a reasonable grounds for understanding that if the belief system of the individual is changed on one of its most fundamental levels – allegiance – then given time the macro-cultural identity of a nation, even empire can be significantly altered. He was able to do this primarily because the Graeco-Roman Empire had a common linguafranca in Greek, and the Christian community – as the followers of the Way became known as – had an ethos of reconciliation, enhancing the multicultural and one also of inclusivity (for example a worship style that encompasses both Jewish and local expressions) enhancing the particular. In declaring the One God of Israel and Jesus Christ – Messiah, as the only true Kyrios, Paul replaced the Emperor and the whole Greek pantheon of the Gods with the one true God and Father of us all, and his one and only Son.< /p> The three political leaders – Moshoeshoe, Smuts and Mandela – and the three Christian leaders – Mutendi, Cassidy and Tutu – are investigated in terms of the five elements (structures, styles, values etc.) that comprise the model of leadership. Each of these leaders in turn made a lasting contribution to national and/or tribal change. After looking at the six leadership models an initial conceptual framework for a multicultural model of leadership is outlined. However, in order to bring significant current postmodern/neo-African/tribal/multicultural paradigms of thought and the associated socio-political forces and philosophies of the day, to bear on the evolving model, these were specifically highlighted and brought into the process of synthesizing a model. Lastly once all these inputs are brought together in a tabulated framework, and the evolving multicultural model is screened against three known working scenarios, and further synthesized such that the refined model was then called a strategic transcultural model of leadership. Before this can be achieved however, various North American multicultural models posited were looked at in a literary review, which served to reinforce the understanding of the need to balance the universal and the particular aspects of culture. In refining a strategic transcultural model, the thesis next attempted to address the problem of developing a national macro-cultural identity. A strict delineation in a postmodern era between Church and State was considered to be not only unnecessary but a modern myth, also noting that the State mirrors the Church in many of the problems of community and identity. Thus the meso-level of the Church provided key insights into the macro-level of the State. An argument all along was posed for not just orchestrating a macro-culture based on multiculturalism, nor in just upholding the micro-cultural individual identities at the expense of participation in a national framework and beyond this the global village, but an argument was made for a both/and scenario. In doing this the thesis sought to address both the macro-cultural and individual cultural identities at every level and in every element of the model of leadership. The plausibility of the argument for today was based on the prevalence of a language of choice – in most cases English – and an ethos of reconciliation and inclusivity for which Madiba and Tutu among others have set the standard. A final picture of a community based on both was posited for reflection, a picture that John paints where the great heavenly host (mirroring the macro-level of the Kingdom) is contrasted with the micro-level of a people made up “from every tribe and language and people and nation” (Rev 5:9).
Thesis (PhD (Science of Religion and Missiology))--University of Pretoria, 2007.
Science of Religion and Missiology
PhD
Unrestricted

This dissertation re-examines trials for heresy in England from 1382, which saw the first major action directed at the Wycliffite heresy in Oxford, and the early Reformation period, with an emphasis on abjurations, the oaths renouncing heretical beliefs that suspects were required to swear after their interrogations were concluded. It draws a direct link between the customs that developed around the ceremony of abjuration and the exceptionally low rate of execution for “relapsed” and “obstinate” heretics in England, compared to other major European anti-heresy campaigns of the period. Several cases are analyzed in which heretics who should have been executed, according to the letter and intention of canon law on the subject, were permitted to abjure, sometimes repeatedly. Cases that ended in execution despite intense efforts by the presiding bishop to obtain a similarly law-bending abjuration are also discussed. These cases are situated within explorations of the constitutions governing heresy trials, contrasting their use of apparently standard legal terminologies with more aggressive continental inquisitors, as well as the theology and cultural standing of oaths within both Wycliffism and the broader Late Medieval and Early Modern world. This dissertation will trace how Lollard heretics gradually accepted the necessity of false abjuration as one of a number of measures to preserve their lives and their movement, and how early adopters using coded writing carefully persuaded their co-religionists of this necessity. Furthermore, it will argue that the bishops who conducted the trial system deliberately constructed it to encourage this type of perjury, even suppressing attempts to alter heretics’ actual convictions, for the sake of social order and stability.

This diploma thesis with the issue of Czech Franciscan church persecutions during the Communist Era in the period of the 1950´s - 1960´s. The author describes historic development of the Franciscan church, political and legislative assumptions of persecution of the regular churches, situation of the Czech Franciscans from communist party taking power to their repressions, internations, particular trials with main representatives and following detentions. This study is based on the bibliographical research of the primary and secondary sources. The author considers the impact of these persecutions on following development of the Franciscan Church.

Thesis captures the life of doc. RNDR. J. P. Ondok, Th.D. since his childhood, troughout his studies, being in prison, working at the Botanical Institute and at the University of South Bohemia until the day of his death. It shows his wide activity in the world of science, in the spiritual world and in the purely human world.

With the collapse of the Visigothic kingdom, the judges of Catalonia and southern France worked to keep the region’s traditional judicial system operable. Drawing on records of judicial proceedings and church dedications from the ninth century to the end of the eleventh, this dissertation explores how judges devised a liturgically-influenced court strategy to invigorate rulings. They transformed churches into courtrooms. In these spaces, changed by merit of the consecration rite, community awe for the power infused within sacred space could be utilized to achieve consensus around the legitimacy of dispute outcomes. At the height of a tribunal, judges brought litigants and witnesses to altars, believed to be thresholds of Heaven, and compelled them to authenticate their testimony before God and his saints. Thus, officials supplemented human means of enforcement with the supernatural powers permeating sanctuaries. This strategy constitutes a hybridization of codified law and the belief in churches as real sacred spaces, a conception that emerged from the Carolingian liturgical reforms of the ninth century. In practice, it provided courts with a means to enact the mandates from the Visigothic Code and to foster stability. The result was a flexible synthesis of law, liturgy, and sacred space that was in many cases capable of harnessing spiritual and community pressure in legal proceedings.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)
In mid-January of 1691/2 two young girls in the household of Samuel Parris, the minister of Salem Village, Massachusetts, began exhibiting strange behavior. "It began in obscurity, with cautious experiments in fortune telling. Books on the subject had 'stolen' into the land; and all over New England, late in 1691, young people were being 'led away with little sorceries.'" The young girls of Salem Village had devised their own creation of a crystal ball using "the white of an egg suspended in a glass" and "in the glass there floated 'a specter in the likeness of a coffin.'"

Antireligiously motivated trials in 1980s in Czechoslovakia The aim of my Master's degrese thesis is to point out specifics of the antireligiously motivated persecution in Czechoslovakia in 1980s. It differs from commonly known and reflected trials in the 1950s, which led to long lasting jail sentences and even death sentences. The strategy of communist Czechoslovakia in 1980s was more focused on less drastic but never stopping actions. The level of religious freedom in that time did't really exist, although the state submitted to several international pacts promising to be obliged by them. The first chapter deals with the historical context. It describes how the relationship between the communist regime and churches evolved after the World War Two. It focuses on the 1980s, describing some of the most important events in more detail. The second chapter deals with philosophical and political ideas on which the communist regime built its real policy. It quotes and comments various contemporary ideologists and tries to find the real meaining and purpose of the quoted material. The third chapter deals with the legal development of enactments relevant for this thesis. Also it tries to show how the law was applied. The fourth chapter deals with concrete case. There are four case studies, each chosen for a...

This thesis seeks to interpret Christology from the perspective of tribal people in Mizoram, northeast India, with an objective to help them and their churches to understand Jesus Christ in a way meaningful to them. In this study, historical and socio-theological analysis is used to show that Christology and culture are always related, and that different Christologies have been developed in different cultural contexts. This analysis in turn helps identify the issues that must be addressed in the construction of a contextual Christology for Mizoram context. In this study, Mizo culture and experience are taken into account as essential theological source. The first chapter discusses the need for a contextual Christology and examines the basic issues and methodological approaches surrounding the construction of contextual Christology. In the second chapter, the context of tribal people in Mizoram is analysed. Among the major issues that must be addressed in Christological construction, the thesis identifies the growing disparity between rich and poor within the state and the socio-economic alienation of Mizos from mainland India. The third chapter surveys the Christological tradition in Mizoram from its beginning to the present. It finds that the Christological heritage in Mizoram is largely irrelevant to Mizo people because of its uncritical application of Western theology to this very different historical and cultural context. The idea of Christ introduced into Mizoram is basically individualistic, otherworldly and dualistic. Neither missionaries nor native church leaders have taken the local culture seriously into account in doing Christology. The fourth chapter attempts to recover some major liberating cultural traditions of the Mizos as sources for Christology, including their concepts of pasaltha, humanity, land, God and spiritual beings, and life after death. The study reveals that, despite the Western overlay, there is a significant continuity and influence of traditional culture in Mizo Christianity. On the basis of these findings, the fifth chapter seeks to reinterpret the significance of Jesus Christ in the Mizoram context, using a Mizo conceptual framework. It argues that the idea of the pasaltha incorporates much of the New Testament portrait of the person and work of Christ, Jesus' self-giving life and ministry, incarnation, suffering and death on the cross, can all be seen as manifesting the principle of tlawmngaihna, which is an essential characteristic of the pasaltha. Jesus' resurrection and exaltation can be seen as God's response to Jesus' person and work precisely as pasaltha-tlawmngai. Similarly, the kingdom of God, which defined and summed up Jesus' message and mission, can be perceived in the Mizoram context as exhibiting the qualities of a communitarian society.

This qualitative study focuses on two questions: a) Do present-day Shona still subscribe to the world-view of their ancestors? b) How does this world-view relate to that of the modern (Western) world? Interviews were conducted with government representatives, chiefs in Masvingo Province and people in all walks of life. Virtually all interviewees, even when participating in the "modern" sector (including Christianity), still subscribe to the traditional system. Government, however, has adopted the model of the pre-Independence government, with some concessions to tradition. The traditional world-view (emphasising its key symbols, blood and soil) and the history of the two dominant tribes in Masvingo Province are outlined. A case study of a current chieftaincy dispute illustrates the dilemma. Conclusion: searching dialogue between the two belief systems is needed to resolve the potentially creative ambivalence. Some key issues are suggested as starting points for such dialogue.
M.A. (Religious Studies)