Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Religion vernaculaire'

La thèse se compose d'une introduction et de quatre articles. Elle analyse la représentation du passé du point de vue des communautés tibétaines contemporaines d'Amdo. Cette dernière est une région linguistiquement et ethniquement diverse, située dans la partie nord-est du Plateau Tibétain, qui correspond aujourd'hui en grande partie à la province de Qinghai dans la République Populaire de Chine (RPC).Bien que les études de cas présentées dans les articles aient une portée géographique limitée, elles embrassent une étendue temporelle considérable. Basé sur des récits oraux enregistrés dans le village de Drakar, le premier article retrace l'inscription de trois généraux mongols dans le paysage tibétain par leur transformation en divinités protectrices. Le récit illustre que la division ethnique entre Mongols et Tibétains ne concerne pas seulement les humains, mais se transpose également dans le surnaturel. S'appuyant sur la polysémie du terme « bandit » en tibétain et en chinois, le deuxième article explore la transformation des définitions orales et écrites du banditisme en Amdo et son rôle dans le contexte politique chinois du XXe siècle. Basé sur la notion de participation générique de Derrida et sur la théorie de l'intertextualité des genres de Briggs et Bauman, le troisième article analyse la relation interdépendante entre « récit » et « histoire » à travers l'exemple du récit oral dans une communauté tibétaine du comté de rTse-khog, en rapport avec la Révolution Culturelle (1966-1976).Le quatrième article étudie comment les mémoires locales et les tensions ethniques liées aux activités minières des années 1930-1940 sont rituellement abordées dans un village tibétain du comté autonome hui de Hualong. Ensemble, ces articles démontrent que l'histoire est principalement comprise comme l'organisation narrative d'événements passés significatifs pour les communautés tibétaines contemporaines d'Amdo. Les données de recherche ont été collectées lors de mes missions de terrain en Amdo entre 2010 et 2018. Les sources principales incluent des interviews enregistrées, des photos et des vidéos. La méthodologie reposait sur des interviews qualitatives non structurées que j'ai personnellement menées en tibétain et en mandarin. De plus, j'ai consulté des livres d'histoire locaux publiés officiellement et non officiellement. Le cadre théorique s'appuie sur trois corpus distincts de la littérature académique : l'histoire comme narration, la mémoire collective, et la religion vernaculaire. En ce qui concerne « l'histoire comme narration », j'ai suivi l'approche de la Microstoria pour montrer comment le récit oral tibétain et l'historiographie officielle chinoise partagent une approche narrative du passé. Dans ce contexte, le genre collectif de l'(hi)story souligne la distinction floue entre les genres « histoire » et « récit » qui caractérise les deux. Par « mémoire collective », je fais référence à la dimension sociale où les Tibétains partagent et reproduisent des connaissances sur le passé. En m'appuyant sur la distinction d'Assmann entre mémoire communicative et mémoire culturelle, je soutiens que la mémoire culturelle tibétaine émerge comme une somme sélective de fragments de mémoire communicative que les individus jugent significatifs pour leur identité contemporaine. Selon la définition de Primiano, j'utilise « religion vernaculaire » pour désigner les multiples dimensions expérientielles de la religion telles qu'elles sont vécues par les individus dans leurs expressions verbales et non verbales de croyance. Dans les articles de la thèse, les croyances et rituels tibétains sont analysés comme des réponses aux besoins spécifiques du présent. En se concentrant sur les manières dont le passé est remémoré et réélaboré culturellement dans le contexte des communautés tibétaines d'Amdo, la thèse élargit notre connaissance des pratiques de création d'histoire et de mémoire dans la République Populaire de Chine dans son ensemble
The thesis consists of an introduction and four articles. It analyses the representation of the past from the standpoint of contemporary Tibetan communities in Amdo. The latter is a linguistically and ethnically diverse region in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, which today largely coincides with Qinghai Province in the People's Republic of China (PRC).While the case-studies presented in the articles have a limited geographic scope, they cover a considerable temporal stretch.Based on oral storytelling recorded in Drakar village, the first article retraces the inscription of three Mongol generals into the Tibetan landscape by means of their transformation into protective deities. The storyline testifies that the ethnic divide between Mongols and Tibetans does not only concern humans but is also transposed into the supernatural.Based on the polysemy of the term “bandit” both in Tibetan and Chinese, the second article traces the transformation of the Tibetan oral and written definitions about banditry in Amdo and its role within the political context of China in the twentieth century.Based on Derrida's notion of genre participation and Briggs and Bauman's theory of the intertextuality of genres, the third article analyzes the interdependent relationship between “story” and “history” through the example of oral storytelling in a Tibetan community in Tsekog County with regard to the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).The fourth article analyses how local memories and ethnic tensions over mining activities occurred in the 1930s-1940s are ritually addressed in a Tibetan village in Hualong Hui Autonomous County.Together the articles demonstrate that history is primarily understood as the narrative organization of past events that are meaningful to contemporary Tibetan communities in Amdo.The data of the research were collected during my fieldwork trips in Amdo between 2010 and 2018. The main sources consist of audio recorded interviews, photos, and videos. The methodology was based on unstructured qualitative interviews that I personally conducted in Tibetan and Mandarin. In addition, I consulted officially and unofficially published local history books.The theoretical framework draws on three separate bodies of academic literature: history as narration, collective memory, and vernacular religion. With regard to "history as narration", I followed the Microstoria approach to show how Tibetan oral storytelling and Chinese official historiography share a narrative approach to the past. In this respect, the collective genre of (hi)story point at the blurred distinction between the genres “history” and “story” that characterizes both. By “collective memory” I refer to the social dimension wherein Tibetans share and reproduce knowledge about the past. Drawing on Assmann's distinction between communicative and cultural memory, I argue that Tibetan cultural memory emerges as a selective sum of pieces of communicative memory that people consider meaningful to their contemporary identity. Following Primiano's definition, I use “vernacular religion” to refer to the multiple experiential dimensions of religion as it is lived by individuals in their verbal and non-verbal expressions of belief. In the articles of the thesis, Tibetan beliefs and rituals are analysed as responses to specific needs of the present.By focusing on the ways the past is remembered and culturally re-elaborated in the context of Tibetan communities in Amdo, the thesis broadens our knowledge of history-making and memory-making practices in the People's Republic of China at large

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2001.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 270-299). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

A persistent interest in a particular type of Christian witness is found in a substantial amount of Hindi-language Protestant (hereafter, ‘Hindi Christian’) literature in modern India. Across a range of texts like Hindi translations of the Bible, theo-ethical works, hymns, biblical commentaries, and poems, this literature calls attention to a form of Christian witness or discipleship that both is credible and recognizable and is public. This witness aims to be credibly Christian: as I will show, Hindi Christian texts have regularly rejected a Hindu concept like avătār in favor of a neologism like dehădhāran to communicate a Christian notion of incarnation in a predominantly Hindu context. Yet, the variety of polytradition (or, shared) words found in Hindi Christian texts suggests a comfort with loose religious boundaries. The witness aims also to be recognizably Christian. For instance, Hindi Christian texts on theology and ethics persistently reflect on a virtuous Christian life with a view toward perceptions in multifaith contexts. Perceptions of Christians matter to the authors of these texts. The attention to Christian witness in such literature, then, is to a very public form of witness. A reading of the works of three prominent Hindi Christian scholars – Benjamin Khan, Din Dayal, and Richard Howell – will show how a focus on the pluralistic context of Hindi Christian witness has shaped influential texts on ethics, theology, and evangelism in Hindi. This dissertation is a first attempt in the academy of religion to study Hindi Christian texts in modern India. As a result, it seeks to achieve two goals: provide an introduction to Hindi Christian literature, and understand a prominent theme found in such literature. It is by no means an exhaustive study of Hindi Christian literature. Rather, it maps a literary landscape and subjects one trope therein to further examination. Protestant Christian literature in India has generally portrayed the purpose of Christian discipleship in two ways: by describing it as a response to salvific grace and by denying it is works righteousness. Hindi Christian texts shed light on another rationale: to present a credible and recognizable witness in a multifaith public context.

The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 promoted regular and effective religious instruction for the parish laity. This was facilitated by the development of preaching and instructional texts – works known as pastoralia – which proliferated throughout Europe. This dissertation explores the phenomenon of vernacular pastoralia written in rhymed verse, works intended for oral performance to a lay audience. My focus is on the work of four writers of sacramental instruction in Anglo-Norman and Middle English. The earliest text considered is the Anglo-Norman Corset, written circa 1240-50 by Robert the Chaplain. The other three authors were more or less contemporary, all writing in the late-thirteenth or early-fourteenth centuries. I examine three penitential poems by the Franciscan friar, Nicholas Bozon: Pus ke homme deit morir, Tretys de la Passion and Le char d’Orgueil, and then Handlyng Synne by the Gilbertine, Robert Mannyng. I finally consider the religious poems of William of Shoreham, a vicar in rural Kent, concentrating on De septem sacramentis and On the Trinity, Creation, the Existence of Evil, Devils, Adam and Eve. While all these writers confronted the challenges of providing religious instruction for the laity, their efforts also reflected a concern with social issues and an awareness of the literary nature of their verse enterprises. The texts frequently employed poetic or fictive devices found in popular literary genres and, whilst these illuminated and entertained listeners, they sometimes rendered the teaching obscure. The meeting of sacramental exposition, social discourse and literary invention resulted in complex textual interplay and tension, as well as in memorable formulations of faith. This dissertation considers the content of verse pastoralia in their historical context and aims to assess how the texts may have been received and understood by parishioners in thirteenth- and fourteenth-century England.

Cette thèse traite de la complexité des rapports entre l'architecture, l'environnement et la société, chez les Tamberma du Togo en intégrant la diversité des indicateurs relatifs à la culture, l'habitat, l'organisation sociale et spatiale, et aussi l'environnement dans lequel ils évoluent. Elle permet de mettre en évidence la représentation que cette société se fait du monde, et d'analyser la manière dont cette représentation est transposée sur sa production architecturale. Ce travail nous a amené à identifier les moteurs de l'organisation sociale et spatiale des Tamberma, et à clarifier, au travers de la perception et de la mise en ordre pratique et symbolique de l'espace et du temps qui caractérisent cette société, les rapports qu'elle entretient avec son environnement. De plus, cette étude dynamique d'une société qui a su préserver la plupart de ses caractéristiques culturelles, nous permet de montrer la manière dont celle-ci intègre la changement que lui apporte le "monde moderne"
This thesis deals with the complexity of relationship between architecture, environment and society, about the Tamberma people in Togo. It integrates a variety of indicators with respect to their culture, settlement, social and spatial organization, and also the particularities of the environment in which they progress. This work allows us to highlight the Tamberma's representation of the world, and analyse how that representation is adaptated on the architectural production. It leads us to identify the main elements of the social and spatial organization of the space and the time, to clarify what characterizes the people and the links he maintains up with its environment. Furthermore, this dynamic study of a society who has succeeded in preservating most of its cultural characteristics, allows us to demonstrate how that society integrates the change the "modern world"

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Depts. of Comparative Literature and English, 2007.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 11, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-07, Section: A, page: 2932. Advisers: Herbert J. Marks; Judith H. Anderson.

In analysing architectural environments, several approaches can be used. In this thesis, a religious viewpoint is adopted to interpret Taiwanese architecture and settlements, and the relationships between religious beliefs and the built environment are therefore mainly emphasised. Three important Chinese traditional life notions, feng-shui (geomancy), the supernatural, and ethics have been applied to interpret those relationships throughout the thesis. The thesis is composed of two main parts covering, first, vernacular Taiwanese houses, and, second, settlements. A distinction is also made between static and dynamic aspects. Statically, it is shown how the Taiwanese people, by means of the three traditional notions of feng-shui, the supernatural and ethics, arrange their architectural spaces and spatial elements and engage the whole construction process in building their vernacular houses and settlements in order to maintain a harmonious relationship between gods, ancestral spirits and ghosts. But, an analysis is also made of various religious activities which are intimately related to vernacular houses and settlements to show how they have been applied to further improve the harmonious relationship dynamically. The historical, social, religious and architectural background to the development of Taiwan are described first of all. The two stages of the process of the construction of Taiwanese architecture, first the selection, by virtue of the concepts of feng-shui, of an auspicious site for a building and its spatial elements, and, second, the holding of a series of ceremonies which seek to unite man and nature, and man and supernature, are then outlined. The concepts of feng-shui, the supernatural and ethics are used to interpret the meanings of the main spaces of vernacular houses and the relationships between those spaces and many rituals of Taiwanese life. It is shown how the early immigrant society of Taiwan, as a result of social and economic factors, was transformed into an indigenous society, in which different groups lived together in settlements. A relationship between the layout of these settlements and the cosmos was developed by the use of yasheng objects and rituals along with Chinese concepts of the cosmos.

The cavernous mouth of hell was an iconographic convention representing the threshold of eternal damnation in medieval England and Europe. The gaping mouth of a fierce beast captured the essence of everlasting isolation from God, making it a dramatic way to represent hell’s perpetual threat for devout Christians. Created in tenth-century Anglo-Saxon England, the mouth of hell spread throughout continental Europe, and detailed Lucifer’s Fall, the Harrowing of Hell, or the Last Judgment. This horrible visage was represented in sculpted tympana, paintings, mosaics, and stained glass, and by the fourteenth century, the mouth of hell appeared in lay religious vernacular theater as a constructed stage scene and prop. Theatrical effects contributed characteristics to the visual experience of the mouth of hell that could not be portrayed in static representations. Actors playing demons issued from the great mouth, condemned characters were dragged to its jaws, smoke wafted from its recesses. In his 1995 survey of the image, Gary D. Schmidt utilizes Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of grotesque realism to propose that the mouth of hell became a ludic site of laughter in medieval theater, eroding its theological meaning and accelerating its decline. By examining the mouth of hell’s performativity within a ritualized production undertaken by communities, this thesis intervenes in debates about the fearsome, comic, efficacious, and entertaining qualities of religious vernacular theater. Extant primary sources reveal that theater did not void the iconography of its threatening countenance, but facilitated an intimacy between the laity and the mouth of hell that had not been possible before. Through its purposeful nature, communal obligations and audience involvement, religious vernacular theater provided a context in which the mouth of hell could become a multivocal and complex image within medieval culture.

Astrology is a belief system that has existed for almost 2,500 years. This enduring form of belief has not been effectively studied by scholars and thus we know little about why beliefs commonly stigmatized as superstitions continue to appeal to people today. My research, based on fieldwork and interviews with astrologers in the Portland, Oregon area, demonstrates that the longevity of this belief system may be attributed to its ability to provide meaning and purpose to people. Throughout history, astrology has been adapted to and has evolved within the cultures in which it exists, and its latest adaptation reveals a close connection to the New Age movement. Astrological worldviews, which assume a correlation between predictable celestial cycles and human activity, are rooted in a premise of fatalism, but this analysis reveals a nuanced view of fate that often is empowering rather than limiting.

The Ocean of Inquiry is a vernacular compendium of Advaita Vedānta, one of the most influential traditions of South Asian religion and philosophy, especially in modern times. Its author, Niścaldās (ca. 1791 – 1863), was a classically trained pandit and a sādhu of the Dādū Panth. His work was widely read in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, both in its Hindi original and in regional translations: Vivekananda once referred to it as the most influential book in India. Surprisingly, however, The Ocean of Inquiry remains virtually unknown to Western scholars; even specialists in Hinduism have rarely heard of it. This dissertation aims to draw attention both to Niścaldās’s work and to the broader genre of vernacular Vedānta; it also calls into question the notion that late Advaita Vedānta represents a period of intellectual decline. Part I provides a historical and textual overview of The Ocean of Inquiry, arguing that Niścaldās’s work should be situated within what might be termed "Greater Advaita Vedānta," or Advaita Vedānta as it was disseminated outside the received canon of Sanskrit philosophical works. This part of the dissertation also offers the first comprehensive biography of Niścaldās in English, and it analyzes the significance of his choice to write in the vernacular. Part II investigates the relationship of philosophy and religious practice in Niścaldās’s work. Taking as its starting point the question "What does it mean for knowledge to liberate?" this part of the dissertation argues that for Niścaldās, the key distinction is not between theoretical knowledge and liberating knowledge but between doubtful and doubt-free awareness. For those who are properly qualified, the central practice on the path to liberation is the practice of inquiry (vicāra), interpreted as a dialectical process of raising and removing doubts. This interpretation is supported with three "case studies" of characters in The Ocean of Inquiry who reach liberation. The conclusion is that for Niścaldās, philosophical inquiry is not a purely theoretical undertaking; under the right conditions, it can become a concrete religious practice.

Several earlier generations of historians described the later Middle Ages as an 'age of fear'. This account was especially applied to accounts of the presumed mentality of the later medieval layperson, seen as at the mercy of the currents of plague, violence and dramatic social, economic and political change and, above all, a religiosity characterised as primitive or even pathological. This 'great fear theory' remains influential in public perception. However, recent scholarship has done much to restitute a more positive, affective, incarnational and even soteriologically optimistic late-medieval vernacular piety. Nevertheless, perhaps due to the positive and recuperative approach of this scholarship, it did not attend to the treatment of fear in devotional and literary texts of the period. This thesis responds to this gap in current scholarship, and the continued pull of this account of later-medieval piety, by building an account of fear's place in the rich vernacular theology available in the Middle English of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It takes as its starting point accounts of the role of fear in religious experience, devotion and practice within vernacular and lay contexts, as opposed to texts written by and for clerical audiences. The account of drede in Middle English strikingly integrates humbler aspects of fear into the relationship to God. The theological and indeed material circumstances of the later fourteenth century may have intensified fear's role: this thesis suggests that they also fostered an intensified engagement with the inherited tradition, generating fresh theological accounts of the place of fear. Chapter One begins with a triad of broadly pastoral texts which might be seen to disseminate a top-down agenda but which, this analysis discovers, articulate diverse ways in which the humble place of fear is elevated as part of a vernacular agenda. Here love and fear are always seen in a complex, varying dialectic or symbiosis. Chapter Two explores how this reaches a particular apex in the foundational and final place of fear in Julian of Norwich's Revelations, and is not incompatible even with her celebratedly 'optimistic' theology. Chapter Three turns to a more broadly accessed generic context, that of later medieval cycle drama, to engage in readings of Christ's Gethsemane fear in the 'Agony in the Garden' episodes. The N-Town, Chester, Towneley and York plays articulate complex and variant theological ideas about Christ's fearful affectivity as a site of imitation and participation for the medieval layperson. Chapter Four is a reading of Piers Plowman that argues a right fear is essential to Langland's espousal of a poetics of crisis and a crucial element in the questing corrective he applies to self and society. It executes new readings of key episodes in the poem, including the Prologue, Pardon, Crucifixion and the final apocalyptic passus, in the light of its theology of fear.

La pâleur des témoignages distillés par une Antiquité tardive et un haut Moyen Âge roussillonnais, pourtant florissant, a jeté un voile nous privant pour longtemps de toute la richesse chromatique d’une longue période, qui n’a d’obscure que les a priori que l’on s’en fait. Opérer une introspection sur la genèse du vocabulaire formel chrétien est inévitable pour en comprendre les raccourcis, ceux souvent initiés par une vision monofocale n’offrant que trop peu souvent la possibilité d’envisager le bâtiment ecclésial selon sa polysémie : tout à la fois lieux de l’accomplissement du culte, de rassemblement des fidèles, mais aussi lieux d’expression techniques et artistiques. Un condensé, en somme, au cœur d’une société en mutation, où les différents acteurs politiques n’ont eu, en réalité, qu’un impact modéré.Les modestes églises rurales anté-romanes, par leurs structures et leurs modes de construction, sont finalement révélatrices d’un héritage et d’une continuité, jusque là minimisés, voire insoupçonnés. En choisissant de ne pas dissocier l’évolution des techniques de celle des formes, tout en prenant en compte les nouvelles perspectives soulevées par l’archéologie médiévale, pour d’autres territoires, les postulats chronologiques s’étiolent, se faisant moins relatifs et plus impartiaux. Entre relecture et reformulation, il convient maintenant d’envisager une mise à l’épreuve de l’architecture préromane
The scarcity of evidence trickled down from the late Antiquity and the Roussillon Early Middle Ages, although quite flourishing, has casta veil depriving us for quitea while of all the chromatic richness of a long era, obscure only because of the a priori one has about it. Carrying out an introspection into the genesis of the formal Christian vocabulary is an absolute must to understand its shortcuts, those being often brought about by a monofocal vision too rarely offering the opportunity to consider the church building according to its polysemy: worshipping and congregating places for the believers as well as places where their craftmanship and art could be expressed. A summary, all in all,in the midst of a mutating society where the various political actors have only had in fact a moderate impact.The humbleante-Romanesque rural churches, by their structures and their method of building are eventually revealing of a legacy and a continuity played downuntil now, unsuspectedindeed. By choosing not to dissociate the evolution of techniques from that of the forms while factoring in the new prospects brought up by medieval archaeology, for other areas, the chronological postulates weaken, becoming less relative and more unbiased. Between rereading and rewording, it is now advisable to consider putting to the test pre-Romanesque architecture

My dissertation examines the significance of sacred poetry in English to the political and social identity of the English church, from England’s conversion at the end of the sixth century to the flourishing of England’s vernacular theology in the fourteenth. I show that the vernacular literary culture of Anglo-Saxon England was fostered in part by the distinction between the spirit and the letter of the Bible, which enabled speakers of Old English to regard their own literary cultures as potentially sacred and inspired. Turning to the later part of the medieval period, I examine the “spiritual sense,” or level of figural meaning, of sacred texts in Middle English. I demonstrate that the spiritual sense of Middle English religious poems is often designed to communicate an idealized history of English Christianity, as Middle English poems often use inventive typologies to represent the miracle of Anglo-Saxon England’s conversion as a source of sacred authority for the English language. This idealized religious history typically imagines the Church, not as a homogeneous community of Latin speakers, but as a diverse community characterized by heterogeneity and multilingualism. My focus on the distinction between the spirit and the letter, and its significance to medieval multilingualism, enables me to showcase an aspect of the cultural identity of medieval Catholicism that has often gone overlooked. While scholars have long been interested in the cohesion of medieval Catholic literary cultures across Europe, they have often sought to elucidate this area of research by focusing narrowly on medieval authors’ shared possession of Latin texts. I demonstrate that, throughout the Middle Ages, English Christians explained the unity of their shared tradition not in terms of the sacred authority of Latin, but in terms of the sacred authority granted to the many vernaculars spoken within the Roman Catholic Church. In making this argument, I re-examine the historical development of sacred texts in English, seeking to transform this story from a straightforward progress narrative into a complex story of multilingual and transhistorical transmission and encounter. This dissertation is organized chronologically. In my first chapter, “Gehyre se ðe Wille: The Old English 'Exodus' and the Reader as Exegete,” I show that the insular nation of Anglo-Saxon England employed the spiritual sense of Scripture to identify itself implicitly with other originally “pagan” nations, such as Egypt and Ethiopia. Within Anglo-Saxon studies, these African nations have often been treated as the fantastic realm of the Other; my dissertation shows that they also offered Anglo-Saxon England a site of historical identification. This transnational identification was made possible by figural reading, which enabled medieval readers to imagine the Roman Catholic Church as a dynamic world religion, and thus to conceive of a place for England within the Church. In my second chapter, “‘For nu mine hyge hweorfeð’: ‘The Seafarer,’ Grammatica, and the Making of Anglo-Saxon Textual Culture,” I argue that “The Seafarer” reworks standard figural images drawn from the liturgical tradition in order to reimagine them as entirely English. By engaging its readers with the spiritual or figural sense of sea travel, and then reworking that sense in the language of the Old English liturgy, the text makes implicit claims for the sacredness of the vernacular literary tradition. Rather than relegating the vernacular to the expression of “barbaric” or “pagan” ideas, I show that “The Seafarer” invests English with a range of possibility equal to that of the Latinate tradition. Ultimately, I read the poem’s relationship to its Latin intertexts as an early example of vernacular theology, one that makes implicit claims for the potentially sacred authority of English literary traditions. In my third chapter, “‘All forr ure allre nede’: The Ormulum, the Long Twelfth Century, and the Invention of the Vernacular,” I argue that the English language lost much of its imagined spiritual authority during the post-Conquest clerical reforms of the English church and became primarily a vehicle for literal meaning. Against this backdrop of reformist centralization and standardization, I examine the Ormulum, a metrical gospel paraphrase most famous among medievalists for its inexplicably standardized spelling. I argue that, in keeping with contemporary views about the limitations of the English language, Orm focused his efforts on perfecting the letter of English rather than its spirit. In my fourth chapter, ‘‘To Hippe Aboute in Engelonde’: Langland’s Alternative Typology and The Conversion of Anglo-Saxon England,” I argue that the distinction between letter and spirit enabled readers of Middle English to read figural poems for idealized representations of English religious institutions. I examine the re-emergence of a fully developed spiritual or figural sense in the English texts of late medieval England. In particular, I turn to the historiography of William Langland, found in Passus XV of Piers Plowman, where the poet uses the enigmatic phrase “Peter, i.e. Christ” to introduce a long and disordered chronicle of English church history. The equation of Peter with Christ is a clear invocation of figural reading practices; Langland’s innovation, I argue, is to synthesize figural reading practices with specifically English history-writing. Thus, in Passus XV, Langland uses the spiritual sense of his text as an opportunity to put forward his own vision of the ideal English church and its place within world history: as a convert nation, England derives its place within world Catholicism from the authority of its miraculous conversion from paganism to Christianity.

Hui, Mei Kei Maggie.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 324-327).
Abstracts in English and Chinese.
ABSTRACT --- p.2
DECLARATION --- p.5
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.6
NOTES ON TRANSLITERATION --- p.7
TABLE OF CONTENT --- p.9
TABLE OF FIGURES --- p.11
Chapter 1 --- INTRODUCTION TIBETAN MONASTIC SETTLEMENT AND THE VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURAL QUESTIONS --- p.1
Chapter 1.1 --- Background. --- p.1
Chapter 1.2 --- Research Aim --- p.4
Chapter 1.3 --- Thesis outline --- p.5
Chapter 2 --- READING TIBETAN ARCHITECTURE AND SPACE AS CULTURAL FORM ON THE PERIPHERY LITERATURE REVIEW AND RESEARCH DESIGN --- p.7
Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.7
Chapter 2.2 --- Literature review: different perspectives --- p.7
Chapter 2.3 --- Research Design --- p.29
Chapter 3 --- LABRANG COMPLEXITY AND TRANSFORMATION --- p.46
Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.46
Chapter 3.2 --- Amdo: an ethnographic ally tibetan region --- p.46
Chapter 3.3 --- Transformation of the physical fabric of Labrang --- p.63
Chapter 4 --- HOUSE SPACE AT LABRANG HOUSE SPACE AND VILLAGE --- p.102
Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.102
Chapter 4.2 --- House architecture at labrang --- p.103
Chapter 4.3 --- Village and house placement --- p.106
Chapter 4.4 --- House space --- p.108
Chapter 4.5 --- House Typology --- p.188
Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.195
Chapter 5 --- PLACE MAKING AT LABRANG --- p.197
Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.197
Chapter 5.2 --- The making of sacred landscape through daily pilgrimage --- p.197
Chapter 5.3 --- The site and the pilgrims ´ةs physical anchorage --- p.203
Chapter 5.4 --- Summary: Ritual and the different level of body-space action --- p.270
Chapter 6 --- SPATIAL CONTINUUM IN THE RELIGIOUS/LIVING SPACE FROM HOUSE TO SETTLEMENT --- p.274
Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.274
Chapter 6.2 --- Negotiation of space inside the house --- p.275
Chapter 6.3 --- "Religious spatial phenomenon: From house to Village, from house to monastery." --- p.294
Chapter 6.4 --- Spatial negotiation of Labrang: public religious rituals --- p.299
Chapter 6.5 --- Summary: Negotiation of space and time --- p.304
Chapter 7 --- CONCLUSION WAYS OF DEFINING SPACE AND PLACE MAKING THROUGH BODY AND SPACE AT LABRANG --- p.306
Chapter 7.1 --- Complexity in reading Tibetan cultural form through the architecture and space at Labrang --- p.306
APPENDIX --- p.315
Chapter Appendix A: --- Village name and code --- p.315
Chapter Appendix B: --- Major buildings inside Labrang Tashikyil --- p.317
Chapter Appendix C: --- Chart showing major public rituals celebrated at Labrang monastery --- p.321
Chapter Appendix D: --- Chart of house samples --- p.323
BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.324

Ephraim Amu is a distinguished musician. He is well known for his advocacy on African tradition and culture. Amu's pride in the African personality has earned him a place in Ghana's hall of fame. It was in recognition of these achievements that his portrait was embossed on Ghana's highest currency, the Twenty Thousand Cedi note. But there is more to the Amu story. In this thesis I have drawn substantially on Amu's own works to demonstrate how, in fact, he is an exemplar of mother tongue apprehension of the Christian faith in Africa. Amu showed in his songs, diaries, sermons, letters, addresses and private papers that the mother tongue, in this case, Ewe and Twi can be used to express not only Christian experience but also to formulate theological ideas in an innovative and creative ways. Amu's credentials as "African statesman" and "a self-conscious nationalist" owe not so much to Pan-African ideologies as his understanding of African culture and tradition from a biblical perspective. Amu believed that the entire universe, including the African cosmos, was created by God from the very beginning as kronkronkron (pure), pepeepe (exact), and fitafitafita (without blemish). He wrestled with the problem of (evil) and how this may have polluted an otherwise unblemished creation. Amu also wrestled with the issue of human participation in God's work of creation and the extent to which humankind may have contributed to the desecration of creation. In spite of the pollution, Amu believed that creation can be redeemed and restored to its original status by cleansing with the Word of God and the Holy Spirit. This belief led him to adopt a positive stance towards African culture and tradition. Amu demonstrated this particularly in the use of language. Most of his sermons and notable musical compositions are in Twi or Ewe. He kept a diary in his mother tongue, Ewe, for almost seventy years. Amu demonstrated that by using indigenous African languages it is possible to make a fresh contribution to theological issues and thereby present African Christianity as an authentic expression to God and capable of contributing to world Christianity. Apart from language, Amu believed that other elements in the African tradition could be employed to express the Christian faith. It is in this regard that his contribution to Christian worship, particularly the use of indigenous musical instruments, must be appreciated. Amu's realisation, that "There are deep truths underlying our indigenous religions, truths which are dim representations of the great Christian truths", led him to deal with the perception that
Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

O presente relatório resulta do estágio efetuado na Câmara Municipal da Chamusca. O mesmo teve como objetivo a realização de um inventário do património arqueológico do concelho da Chamusca, centrado nos períodos da época Romana à Moderna, elaborando conjuntamente uma observação sobre o respetivo povoamento do território. O inventário realizado compilou toda a informação identificada nas fontes bibliográficas nos documentos da época já publicados e nas informações orais que se foram recolhendo. Posteriormente, procedeu-se à confirmação dos dados no terreno, através de uma prospeção dirigida aos sítios nos quais havia indícios de ocorrências patrimoniais. O desenvolvimento deste projeto e deste tipo de investigação possibilitou a identificação/relocalização de um número muito significativo de sítios e potenciais sítios arqueológicos, num total de 136 sítios. O seu inventário foi sistematizado e permitiu, assim, a compilação do conhecimento do património arqueológico deste município, contribuindo diretamente para a sua salvaguarda, preservação e valorização junto da comunidade. A autarquia passou agora a ter um instrumento essencial para a definição das políticas de salvaguarda do património, bem como para a definição das estratégias de desenvolvimento do seu território.
The following dissertation results from the report written on the internship developed by the author in the municipality of Chamusca. The main goal of said internship was to inventory Chamusca’s archaeological sites and available materials, from the Roman Age up to the Modern Ages, as well as in loco confirmation of settlement strategies for the period under analysis. The inventory compiles both the information from bibliographic sources and historical documentation, as well as personal information shared by the locals. All available data was verified resourcing to field surveys an in loco confirmation. The approaches and methodologies used in this project propiciated the (re) identification of a considerable amount of archaeological sites/occurrences, adding to a total of 136 sites. The standardization of terminology and content allowed for the compilation of all known local archaeological heritage, thus contributing for its safeguard, preservation and social valorization. The municipality now has a valuable tool for defining educated heritage policies, as well as development strategies for its territory.

The dissertation entitled "Religious Issues in Karolina Světlá's Ještěd Novels" deals with an analysis of the Ještěd Novels by the author Karolina Světlá. It characterises the depiction of vernacular devoutness in the novels by means of an analysis of the changes in the characters' religious consciousness and their subsequent interpretation. The paper confronts the fictional depiction of the various forms of religiousness with real historic facts; the most important factors of the religious positions of the "long" 19th century are verified on the scale of the Ještěd Novels. The objective of the paper is to shed light on the progressive qualitative changes in Karolina Světlá's works of prose and interpret them against the backdrop of the defined problem area, which is the period concept of devoutness and attitudes to faith as such.

This study investigates the role of the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) in the development of the Oromo language. The main aim of the study is to provide an account of the contribution of this particular church to the maintenance and development of Oromo, which is spoken by the largest speech community in Ethiopia. The study draws on theoretical and methodological frameworks from the field of language planning and development. The main source of data was interviews and focus group discussions conducted with church leaders at different organisational levels and other members of the church community. In addition, documents found in the church archives were analysed. The findings indicate that a number of church activities have contributed to the maintenance and development of the language. These activities include translation and transliteration work of the Bible and other religious literature, literacy and educational programmes, media work as well as use of Oromo in the liturgy and church services. This study also examined the obstacles that hindered the development of Oromo. The main obstacle was the conflict within the EECMY that arose in 1995 over the use of the language. The study unearths the roots of the controversy through a brief historical examination of the church’s attempts to develop the language, despite opposition from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and earlier regimes, which proscribed the use of the vernacular languages in Ethiopia. Thereafter it focuses on the internal conflict after the change to a democratic government when the situation in Ethiopia became more favourable towards use of vernacular languages. It identifies the causes of the conflict, the way in which it was resolved and the effects which it had on the development of the language. Recommendations are made for further research and some suggestions are given regarding ways to promote the future development of the Oromo language.
Linguistics and Modern Languages
D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)