Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Progressive christianity'

When the Uniting Church formed in 1977, its Basis of Union envisaged a final reconciliation and renewal for all creation, not just humans. It did, nonetheless, reflect the anthropocentric assumptions of its day, as did other official documents released in the first decade of the Uniting Church’s life. Anthropocentrism assumes that human beings alone are created in the image of God, charged with dominion over Earth, and responsible for the fallenness of creation, though not necessarily through the actions of a literal Adam and Eve. This basic framework did not shift in the first decade, even though Earth began to be talked about not as an inanimate resource for human consumption, but something good and valuable in and of itself. In 1990 this anthropocentric paradigm began to be challenged, and during 2000-2002 two quite irreconcilable understandings of the relationship between God and Earth, and thus humans and other animals existed side by side in Uniting Church worship resources. Having listened carefully to the story of life as told by ecological and evolutionary scientists, I conclude that the traditional anthropocentric paradigm is no longer tenable. Instead I propose that all of life is the image of God, in its evolutionary past, ecological present and unknown future. All of life is in direct relationship with God, and exercises dominion of Earth. Evidence traditionally used as evidence of the fallenness of creation is instead affirmed as an essential part of life, though life on Earth has experienced a number of significant “falls” in biodiversity. Even the more biocentric thought in recent Uniting Church resources is inadequate, because its language implies that life is simple, static, benign, and to some extent designed by God. In order to be adequately consonant with the life sciences, theology must be able to accept that finitude (pain, suffering and death) is a good part of creation, for without it there could be no life. This is an emphasis of ecofeminism, which I extend to affirm not only individual death, but the extinction of whole species, including humans. I argue that the purpose of creation was not the evolution of humans, but to make possible God’s desire for richness of experience, primarily mediated through relationships. Whilst this idea is well established in process theology, it must be purged of its individualistic and consciousness-centric biases to be adequately consonant with the scientific story of life. The resulting biocentric paradigm has several implications for our understanding of Jesus. I argue that he offers salvation from the overwhelming fear of finitude, rather than finitude itself. Against the trend in ecotheology, I propose that this saving work is directed in the first instance to humans only. I tentatively propose that it is directed to only some humans. This, paradoxically, is more affirming of God’s relationship with the rest of creation than most ecotheology, which proclaims Jesus as a global or universal saviour. Salvation for some humans, and all non human creatures, happens only in a secondary sense, because this is the only sense in which they need saving. I then speculate on whether and how it might be possible for a Christian biocentric community to live out its salvation. Finally, I revisit the Basis of Union and argue that although the biocentric theology I have proposed goes well beyond the Basis, it is not at odds with the Basis’ directions and intentions. Biocentric theology is, rather, an extension of the trajectories already contained within the Basis, with its trust in the eventual reconciliation and renewal of all creation.

This thesis explores the American view of the Brazilian Catholic Church through the critical examination of cables produced by the U.S. diplomatic mission in Brazil during the period 1964-1972. This thesis maintains that the United States regarded the progressive catholic movement, and eventually the Church as a whole, as a threat to its security interests. Nonetheless, by the end of 1960s, the American approach changed from suspicion to collaboration as the historical circumstances required so. This thesis sheds light on the significance of the U.S. as a major player in the political conflict that affected Brazil in the 1964-1972 years in which the Brazilian Catholic Church, and particularly its progressive segments, played a fundamental role.

This abstract is for the thesis on the Cathedral of Hope (CoH). The CoH is currently the largest church in the world with a predominantly gay and lesbian congregation. This work tells the history of the church which is located in Dallas, Texas. The thesis employs over 48 sources to help tell the church's rich history which includes a progressive Christian philosophy, an important contribution to the fight for gay civil rights, and fine examples of courage through social activism. This work makes a contribution to gay history as well as civil rights history. It also adds to the cultural and social history which concentrates on the South and Southwestern regions of the United States.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009.
Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 23, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 305-327).

Evangelical Protestant Christians have been one of the primary groups opposing Mormons since the beginnings of Mormonism in the 1820s. This thesis is an examination of the historical basis for Evangelical opposition to Mormonism and the impact of that opposition on Mormon identity. This study is divided into three chronological chapters representing the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries in America. Evangelical animosity towards Mormonism was grounded in the Christian heretical tradition begun in the second century AD. Because of this tradition, Evangelicals were inherently afraid of heresy for two main reasons: temporal treason and eternal damnation. Due to the heterodox claims of a new prophet and new scripture, Mormonism was quickly labeled as dangerous, not only to Christianity, but to America as a whole. This perceived danger only grew as Mormonism continued to differentiate itself further with the practices of polygamy, communalism, and theocracy. In the nineteenth century, Mormon assimilation of Evangelicalism primarily affected the social structures of marriage, economics, and politics. In the twentieth century, Mormon assimilation of Evangelical identity would focus more on the incorporation of Evangelical ideology and theology. As Fundamentalism and Neo-Evangelicalism protested Mormonism as a cult, Mormonism became more Fundamentalist and Evangelical by nature, especially as the Church of Jesus Christ of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognized how such opposition negatively impacted American public perceptions. Such changes included the development of Mormon neo-orthodoxy with its emphasis on the sovereignty of God, the depravity of man, and salvation by grace. In the twenty-first century, a group of Mormon and Evangelical scholars engaged in the practice of interfaith dialogue developed by Liberal Protestants and Catholics. As part of their dialogue, Evangelicals retained the purposes of evangelism and apologetics thereby qualifying the dialogue as a new more subtle form of Evangelical opposition to Mormonism in the twenty first century. As Evangelicals continuously opposed Mormonism as a Christian heresy, such opposition effected changes within Mormonism, changes that have led to some degree of assimilation and even adoption of several elements of Evangelicalism. The most recent part of this assimilation process has been the development of Mormon progressive orthodoxy that emphasizes anti-sectarianism, anti-liberalism, and revised supernaturalism.

This paper attempts to explore the creation of Satan as an embodiment of evil in Early Christian theodicy. I use Greco-Roman myth and the Old Testament Book of Job to explore "duality," a system in which good and evil are encapsulated in gods or God. I attempt to trace the trajectory of a shift from this duality to a system of Christian cosmic "dualism," in which good and evil are separated as opposing forces. This shift is explored through the intertestamental Pseudepigrapha of 1 Enoch and Jubilees, towards the New Testament story of the Temptation of Christ in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Finally, exploring post-New Testament Christian ideas with Origen's seminal work On First Principles and the martyr text of Perpetua to investigate the Early Christian community's ideas of good, God, evil, and Satan.

Ce travail construit une dantologie transcendantale fondée sur la fécondité et la légitimité du commentarisme français tout au long du dix-neuvième siècle. Le nom et l’œuvre de Dante progressent dans la vie de l’esprit et de la culture après la sidération de la Révolution, avec la naissance, l’apogée, le déclin et les suites métamorphosées du Romantisme. Un amour soumis à la loi de la divisibilité de quelques fragments de la Divine Comédie se transforme graduellement en une première dantologie. Des figures archétypiques issues de domaines hétérogènes donnent une armature conceptuelle et poétique à cette double spirale entrecroisée : la lecture des textes de Dante éclairée par la critique contemporaine ; et la compréhension des morphologies divergentes du Romantisme en la diversité de ses moments. Dante est un penseur de l’histoire, des enjeux politiques, du christianisme jusqu’en ses limites internes et externes, du fait initiatique, de la différence sexuelle dans laquelle UN POETE SE TRANSHUMANISE PARCE QU’IL EST AIME PAR BEATRICE APRES AVOIR ETE GUIDE PAR VIRGILE. Chateaubriand, Balzac, Nerval et Hugo sont les parangons d’une lecture tournée vers un usage libre, infidèle mais hautement créateur. Fauriel, Ozanam et Aroux représentent la volonté d’une critique raisonnée de la doctrine philosophique et théologique dantesque. Dante et son œuvre s’inscrivent au cœur des mille agitations d’un dix-neuvième siècle qui reconfigure la France et l’Europe. La rémanence de l’espérance du voyageur cherchant à revoir les étoiles et à contempler la Trinité influence les réminiscences du progressisme plurivoque. La figure d’airain du poète acrimonieux et vengeur accompagne les esprits désenchantés. Celui qui devient l’égal des dieux après avoir affronté une Dame qui tue autant qu’elle ennoblit inspire les mystiques et ceux qui cherchent une nouvelle spiritualité. Le chantre de la foi, revenu dans le giron de l’Église après la conversion de son amour, réchauffe les catholiques. L’homme qui dédouble les pouvoirs comme les soleils de Rome devient un interlocuteur privilégié après l’Empire. Nous ne cherchons pas une liste exhaustive, thématique ou chronologique, notionnelle ou par auteur. À travers des exemples ayant valeur de paradigmes, nous montrons comment cette union de connaissance et d’usage créateur construit des FIGURES de Dante qui entrent en écho avec les inquiétudes et les espérances, les attentes et les angoisses, du Romantisme. Alors Dante et son « Poème Sacré » ne sont plus seulement des occasions de références. Ils deviennent un MYTHE au cœur du rapport entre mystique religieuse et initiation par l’Éternel-Féminin, engagement dans l’histoire et culte de la Beauté, aspiration à un sursaut régénérateur du monde et conscience amère du tragique de la scission entre l’Idéal et le Réel, mythe du Tombeau et promesse d’élévation spirituelle. Parmi les voies possibles, NOUS DEFENDONS UN DANTE SE VOUANT AU CULTE INITIATIQUE DES TOMBEAUX ET DES « DAMES QUI ONT L’INTELLECT D’AMOUR. » Il appartient à un catholicisme élargi, dilaté – le catholicisme transcendantal de Maistre qui assume son ésotérisme arcane fondé sur la polysémie des textes et la liberté accordée par Dante au commentaire. L’auteur de la Divine Comédie s’inscrit dans un Romantisme de plus en plus sombre, antimoderne, à la fois POUVOIR D’ANAMNESE D’UNE GRANDEUR ABOLIE ET PROPHETE D’UN MONDE EN GERMINATION, qui reprend ses thèmes : les questions de la laïcité, de la langue pour le peuple contre celle des dieux, de l’aspiration à l’idéal et à la communication du visible et de l’invisible, de la puissance métaphysique de la Dame. Notre Dante est celui qui doit choisir « l’autre voie », celle de la catabase nécessaire avant l’anabase ; et qui doit faire preuve de la plus grande piété envers les ombres. Alors ce Dante et ce Romantisme « ne descendent pas sans raison dans l’abîme » : ils y trouvent, notamment par la puissance de la parole, la promesse de l’Esprit
This work builds a transcendental dantology based on a leibnizian paradigm of a perennial philosophy. Dante's name and work get on gradually in the life of spirit and French culture, after the astonishment of the Revolution, with the birth, the apogee, the decline and the transformed sequels of Romanticism. One love submitted to the rule of divisibility in direction of some fragments of the Divine Comedy turns into a first dantology. Archetypal figures coming from heterogeneous domains provide a conceptual and poetical framework at this double-crossed spiral: the reading of Dante's texts enlightened by present-day criticism; and the understanding of the divergent morphologies of the various moments of Romanticism. Dante appears as a thinker of history, political stakes, Christianism even in his internal and external limits, initiatory fact, sexual difference in which A POET BECOMES TRANSHUMAN THANKS TO BEATRICE'S LOVE AND VIRGIL'S GUIDING. Chateaubriand, Balzac, Nerval and Hugo are the paragons of a reading going to a free use, inaccurate but highly creative. Fauriel, Ozanam and Aroux represent the quest of a reasoned criticism of the philosophical and theological dantean doctrine. Dante and his work got included in the heart of thousands occasions of unrest of a nineteenth century that reconfigure France and Europe. The persistence of the hope of a traveller attempting to see once more the stars and contemplate the Trinity influence the reminiscences of progressivism in many aspects. The brazen figure of an acrimonious and revengeful poet goes with disenchanted minds. The one that becomes a companion of the other gods after struggling with an ennobling and killing Lady inspire the mystics and those who look for a new spirituality. The faith apologist, once he has got back into the bosom of the Church thanks to the conversion of his love, warms up the Catholics. The man who divides into two the powers as the suns of Rome turns to a favoured speaker after the Empire. We don't look for an exhaustive, thematical, notional, chronological or nominal list. But, through examples as paradigms, it's shown how that union between knowledge and creative use builds, in less than a century, some figures of Dante that echo with the concerns and hopes, expectations and anguishes, of Romanticism. In this way Dante and his "Sacred Poem" aren't reductive to citations occasions. They become a myth at the heart of the relation between religious mystic and initiation thanks to the Eternal-Feminine, commitment in history and cult of Beauty, craving for a world-wide regenerative burst and being aware of the tragic scission between Ideal and Real, myth of the Tomb and promise of spiritual elevation. Among the various possibilities, WE DEFEND A DANTE DEVOTED TO THE INITIATORY CULT OF THE SEPULCHRE AND THE "LADIES WHO GOT THE INTELLECT OF LOVE." He belongs to a broadened, dilated Catholicism - the transcendental Catholicism by Maistre, that takes on his Arcanum esotericism based on the polysemy of the texts and the freedom granted by Dante to the commentary. The author of the Divine Comedy takes place in a more and more gloomy, antimodernist, Romanticism; BOTH THE ANAMNESIS POWER OF AN ABOLISHED GREATNESS AND THE PROPHET FOR WORLD IN GERMINATION that picks his themes up again: questions of laicity, popular language in front of the gods 'one, aspiration at the Ideal and at the link between visible and invisible, metaphysical power of the Lady. Our Dante is the one who has to take care of "the other path", the catabasis before the anabases; and who has to show up the highest devotion toward the shadows. Then, this Dante and this Romanticism don't journey to the "deep randomly": here they find, in particular thanks to the power of Speech, the promise of the Spirit

This dissertation investigates the development of progressive Christianity. It explores the ways in which progressive Christian churches in Canada adopt biblical criticism and popular theology. Contributing to the anthropology of Christianity, this study is primarily an ethnographic and linguistic analysis that juxtaposes contemporary conflicts over notions of the Christian self into the intersecting contexts of public discourse, contending notions of the secular and congregational dynamics. Methodologically, it is based upon two-and-a-half years of in-depth participant observation research at five churches and distinguishes itself as the first scholarly study of progressive Christianity in North America. I begin this study by outlining the historical context of skepticism in Canadian Protestantism and arguing that skepticism and doubt serve as profoundly religious experiences, which provide a fuller framework than secularization in understanding the experiences of Canadian Protestants in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In doing so, I draw parallels between the ways that historical and contemporary North American Christians negotiate the tensions between their faith and biblical criticism, scientific empiricism and liberal morality. Chapter Two seeks to describe the religious, cultural and socio-economic worlds inhabited by the progressive Christians featured in this study. It focuses on the worldviews that emerge out of participation in what are primarily white, middle-class, liberal communities and considers how these identity-markers affect the development and lived experiences of progressive Christians. My next three chapters explore the ways that certain engagements with text and the performance or ritualization of language enable the development of a distinctly progressive Christian modality. Chapter Three investigates progressive Christian textual ideologies and argues that the form of biblical criticism that they employ, along with entrenched concerns about the origins of the Christian faith ultimately, leads to a rejection of the biblical narrative. Chapter Four examines the ways in which progressive Christians understand individual 'deconversion' narratives as contributing to a shared experience or way of being Christian that purposefully departs from evangelical Christianity. The final chapter analyses rhetoric of the future and argues that progressive Christians employ eschatological language that directs progressive Christians towards an ultimate dissolution.

This dissertation proposes that a necessary connection exists between a progressive model of sanctification and a compatibilist model of human freedom. Chapter 1 presents the thesis, background, and methodology for the dissertation, giving special interest to the way that compatibilism is uniquely qualified to accommodate the necessary link between one's character and conduct intrinsic to a progressive model of sanctification. Chapter 2 defines and examines the two most widely held models of human freedom: libertarianism and compatibilism. Compatibilism is shown to comport more closely with Scripture and to solve many of the nagging philosophical problems associated with a libertarian model of freedom. Chapter 3 continues to build a foundation for the remaining chapters by defining the three most widely held models of sanctification: Wesleyan perfectionism, Keswick, and Augustinian or progressive sanctification. Here it is argued that Wesleyan perfectionism and Keswick require a concomitant libertarian freedom, whereas an Augustinian model of sanctification requires compatibilism. Chapter 4 offers scriptural support for the connection between progressive sanctification and compatibilist freedom. The central focus is on determining the biblical author's intent and on laying the exegetical groundwork for the final chapter. Chapter 5 argues for the necessary connection between progressive sanctification and compatibilist freedom by questioning libertarian interpretations of the texts examined in the previous chapter. Since it potentially bifurcates the scriptural connection between one's character and conduct, libertarian freedom is shown to be a poor candidate for the type of freedom necessitated by a progressive model of sanctification. I close, in Chapter 6, by calling Evangelicals to return to a common sense understanding of the bounds of logic, scriptural fidelity to both God's gracious sovereignty and man's genuine freedom, and a greater sense of mystery concerning the nature of God.

Women have been abused from the beginning of time and it would appear that a patriarchal system has facilitated this abuse. Churches, in general, and Seventh-Day Adventists, in particular, have been silent on the issue of Abuse. It is my thesis that a predominantly confessional Seventh-Day Adventist's view and use of Scripture are foundational to this silence on human rights issues. Adventist eschatology is predominantly apocalyptic in nature, focussing on end-time events, thus, the present is viewed secondary. Human rights issues are marginalised with the focus on evangelism. Thus, relationships are secondary and abused women have not been accommodated within the Seventh-Day Adventist framework of worship and caring.
M.Th. (Practical Theology)

Ce travail construit une dantologie transcendantale fondée sur la fécondité et la légitimité du commentarisme français tout au long du dix-neuvième siècle. Le nom et l’œuvre de Dante progressent dans la vie de l’esprit et de la culture après la sidération de la Révolution, avec la naissance, l’apogée, le déclin et les suites métamorphosées du Romantisme. Un amour soumis à la loi de la divisibilité de quelques fragments de la Divine Comédie se transforme graduellement en une première dantologie. Des figures archétypiques issues de domaines hétérogènes donnent une armature conceptuelle et poétique à cette double spirale entrecroisée : la lecture des textes de Dante éclairée par la critique contemporaine ; et la compréhension des morphologies divergentes du Romantisme en la diversité de ses moments. Dante est un penseur de l’histoire, des enjeux politiques, du christianisme jusqu’en ses limites internes et externes, du fait initiatique, de la différence sexuelle dans laquelle UN POETE SE TRANSHUMANISE PARCE QU’IL EST AIME PAR BEATRICE APRES AVOIR ETE GUIDE PAR VIRGILE. Chateaubriand, Balzac, Nerval et Hugo sont les parangons d’une lecture tournée vers un usage libre, infidèle mais hautement créateur. Fauriel, Ozanam et Aroux représentent la volonté d’une critique raisonnée de la doctrine philosophique et théologique dantesque. Dante et son œuvre s’inscrivent au cœur des mille agitations d’un dix-neuvième siècle qui reconfigure la France et l’Europe. La rémanence de l’espérance du voyageur cherchant à revoir les étoiles et à contempler la Trinité influence les réminiscences du progressisme plurivoque. La figure d’airain du poète acrimonieux et vengeur accompagne les esprits désenchantés. Celui qui devient l’égal des dieux après avoir affronté une Dame qui tue autant qu’elle ennoblit inspire les mystiques et ceux qui cherchent une nouvelle spiritualité. Le chantre de la foi, revenu dans le giron de l’Église après la conversion de son amour, réchauffe les catholiques. L’homme qui dédouble les pouvoirs comme les soleils de Rome devient un interlocuteur privilégié après l’Empire. Nous ne cherchons pas une liste exhaustive, thématique ou chronologique, notionnelle ou par auteur. À travers des exemples ayant valeur de paradigmes, nous montrons comment cette union de connaissance et d’usage créateur construit des FIGURES de Dante qui entrent en écho avec les inquiétudes et les espérances, les attentes et les angoisses, du Romantisme. Alors Dante et son « Poème Sacré » ne sont plus seulement des occasions de références. Ils deviennent un MYTHE au cœur du rapport entre mystique religieuse et initiation par l’Éternel-Féminin, engagement dans l’histoire et culte de la Beauté, aspiration à un sursaut régénérateur du monde et conscience amère du tragique de la scission entre l’Idéal et le Réel, mythe du Tombeau et promesse d’élévation spirituelle. Parmi les voies possibles, NOUS DEFENDONS UN DANTE SE VOUANT AU CULTE INITIATIQUE DES TOMBEAUX ET DES « DAMES QUI ONT L’INTELLECT D’AMOUR. » Il appartient à un catholicisme élargi, dilaté – le catholicisme transcendantal de Maistre qui assume son ésotérisme arcane fondé sur la polysémie des textes et la liberté accordée par Dante au commentaire. L’auteur de la Divine Comédie s’inscrit dans un Romantisme de plus en plus sombre, antimoderne, à la fois POUVOIR D’ANAMNESE D’UNE GRANDEUR ABOLIE ET PROPHETE D’UN MONDE EN GERMINATION, qui reprend ses thèmes : les questions de la laïcité, de la langue pour le peuple contre celle des dieux, de l’aspiration à l’idéal et à la communication du visible et de l’invisible, de la puissance métaphysique de la Dame. Notre Dante est celui qui doit choisir « l’autre voie », celle de la catabase nécessaire avant l’anabase ; et qui doit faire preuve de la plus grande piété envers les ombres. Alors ce Dante et ce Romantisme « ne descendent pas sans raison dans l’abîme » : ils y trouvent, notamment par la puissance de la parole, la promesse de l’Esprit
This work builds a transcendental dantology based on a leibnizian paradigm of a perennial philosophy. Dante's name and work get on gradually in the life of spirit and French culture, after the astonishment of the Revolution, with the birth, the apogee, the decline and the transformed sequels of Romanticism. One love submitted to the rule of divisibility in direction of some fragments of the Divine Comedy turns into a first dantology. Archetypal figures coming from heterogeneous domains provide a conceptual and poetical framework at this double-crossed spiral: the reading of Dante's texts enlightened by present-day criticism; and the understanding of the divergent morphologies of the various moments of Romanticism. Dante appears as a thinker of history, political stakes, Christianism even in his internal and external limits, initiatory fact, sexual difference in which A POET BECOMES TRANSHUMAN THANKS TO BEATRICE'S LOVE AND VIRGIL'S GUIDING. Chateaubriand, Balzac, Nerval and Hugo are the paragons of a reading going to a free use, inaccurate but highly creative. Fauriel, Ozanam and Aroux represent the quest of a reasoned criticism of the philosophical and theological dantean doctrine. Dante and his work got included in the heart of thousands occasions of unrest of a nineteenth century that reconfigure France and Europe. The persistence of the hope of a traveller attempting to see once more the stars and contemplate the Trinity influence the reminiscences of progressivism in many aspects. The brazen figure of an acrimonious and revengeful poet goes with disenchanted minds. The one that becomes a companion of the other gods after struggling with an ennobling and killing Lady inspire the mystics and those who look for a new spirituality. The faith apologist, once he has got back into the bosom of the Church thanks to the conversion of his love, warms up the Catholics. The man who divides into two the powers as the suns of Rome turns to a favoured speaker after the Empire. We don't look for an exhaustive, thematical, notional, chronological or nominal list. But, through examples as paradigms, it's shown how that union between knowledge and creative use builds, in less than a century, some figures of Dante that echo with the concerns and hopes, expectations and anguishes, of Romanticism. In this way Dante and his "Sacred Poem" aren't reductive to citations occasions. They become a myth at the heart of the relation between religious mystic and initiation thanks to the Eternal-Feminine, commitment in history and cult of Beauty, craving for a world-wide regenerative burst and being aware of the tragic scission between Ideal and Real, myth of the Tomb and promise of spiritual elevation. Among the various possibilities, WE DEFEND A DANTE DEVOTED TO THE INITIATORY CULT OF THE SEPULCHRE AND THE "LADIES WHO GOT THE INTELLECT OF LOVE." He belongs to a broadened, dilated Catholicism - the transcendental Catholicism by Maistre, that takes on his Arcanum esotericism based on the polysemy of the texts and the freedom granted by Dante to the commentary. The author of the Divine Comedy takes place in a more and more gloomy, antimodernist, Romanticism; BOTH THE ANAMNESIS POWER OF AN ABOLISHED GREATNESS AND THE PROPHET FOR WORLD IN GERMINATION that picks his themes up again: questions of laicity, popular language in front of the gods 'one, aspiration at the Ideal and at the link between visible and invisible, metaphysical power of the Lady. Our Dante is the one who has to take care of "the other path", the catabasis before the anabases; and who has to show up the highest devotion toward the shadows. Then, this Dante and this Romanticism don't journey to the "deep randomly": here they find, in particular thanks to the power of Speech, the promise of the Spirit