Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Spiritual quest'

In this study, C. S. Lewis's books, essays, stories, and poems, in addition to biographies and essays written about Lewis, were read in an attempt to understand the relationship between Lewis's spiritual quest and his total health. The spiritual quest is defined as the search for the ultimate truth and meaning of life. For Lewis, who was a Christian, the quest for the Spirit is a journey toward God-Jesus-the Holy Spirit. Health is defined as total experience; the interrelationship of the body, mind, and spirit with all there is, has been, and will be. Health is considered a changing perception, not a fixed state. The dimensions of Lewis's health—physical, psychological, social, and spiritual—are studied. Lewis's physical states, literary works, literary themes, friendships, ethics, marriage, and views on religion are considered as each relates to his determination to know and to love God. For Lewis, anything without God is nothing. God is the creator of all living things and all matter. He is the inventor of all loves and is Love. In Lewis's opinion, one's health is in direct proportion to one's love for God. When man loves God he is healthy, the more he loves Him the healthier, the less he loves Him the less healthy.

Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2006.
Title from title screen. Reiner Smolinski, committee chair; Robert Sattelmeyer, Paul Schmidt, committee members. Electronic text (121 p.) : digital, PDF file. Description based on contents viewed Apr. 19. 2007. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-121).

This paper investigates Herman Melville’s quest for spiritual stability and certainty in his novel Moby-Dick. The analysis establishes a philosophical tradition of doubt towards the Bible, outlining the philosophies of Thomas Hobbes, Benedict de Spinoza, David Hume, Thomas Paine and John Henry Newman. This historical survey of spiritual uncertainty establishes the issue of uncertainty that Melville writes about in the nineteenth century. Having assessed the issue of doubt, I then analyze Melville’s use of metaphorical charts, which his characters use to resolve this issue. Finally, I present Melville’s philosophical findings as he expresses them through the metaphor of whaling. Here, I also scrutinize Melville’s depiction of nature, as well as his presentation of the dichotomy between contemplative and active questing, as represented by the characters Ishmael and Ahab.

It is well documented that church attendance figures in Great Britain fell consistently throughout the twentieth century and there is little sign of the trend abating at the beginning of the twenty-first century. There are scholars who argue that this decline in traditional religiosity has been accompanied by diverse expressions of alternative spiritualitites. This study explores and maps the contemporary quest for spirituality through an examination of the visitors to St Davids Cathedral in West Wales, the birthplace and home of the patron saint of Wales, St David. Within this context, four aspects of spirituality were investigated, characterised as: Spiritual Awareness, Spiritual Experience, participation in the Spiritual Revolution, and Spiritual Health. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection, employinga questionnaires urvey( which yieldeda round2 700r esponses)in, terviews, and case studies. The analysis of the questionnaire survey explored whether individual differences of sex, age, church attendance and psychological type preferencesa ffect individual spirituality. Analysiso f the datas uggeststh at visitors to St Davids Cathedral are very much spiritually aware and undergo various spiritual experiences. The evidence presented in this study also concurs with Heelas and Woodhead(2 005)t hat, while therei s an undoubtedin creasein the participationo f the holistic milieu, it is premature to suggest Britain is undergoing a spiritual revolution. It also showst hat the visitors to St Davids Cathedraal re in goods piritual health.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2000.
Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 319-335). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thirty thousand feet above the Pacific Ocean—somewhere between Sydney and Los Angeles—the narrator of “the lonely and the road” doesn’t really know where he is going, or why. His is a quest written spontaneously—‘on-the-go.’ It is a journey of uncertain motivation, of uncertain means, towards uncertain ends. From Los Angeles, to Vegas, to the Rocky Mountain states and beyond, the narrator travels with and learns from his friends, his family and even his ex-girlfriend as he searches for that which continues to elude him. But what is that exactly? Does it even exist? While the novel details a journey, the exegesis is a phenomenological account of the intersecting of my road with that taken by Jack Kerouac. It explores my experiences with the life and work of Kerouac—the creator of spontaneous prose—in relation to the development of my writing, up to and including this novel. In doing so, the exegesis is itself a quest that seeks to understand more fully the essence of Kerouac’s and my own representation of the quest motif in content and in form. Both the exegesis and the novel, then, constitute part of the search for my own artistic road, and aim to assist others in search of theirs.

Thomas Merton throughout his autobiographical writings took some of the dominant images and metaphors from the Christian tradition and, as many writers have done previously, applied them to himself, reinterpreting them for the twentieth century. This dissertation examines the metaphors Merton used to describe his spiritual quest and places his writings within the category of autobiographer that James Olney defines as a theoretical or auto-autobiographer thus providing a new way of interpreting Merton's writings. This dissertation examines Merton's major autobiographical works, some of which are well known, others that have only been recently published, and his unpublished nineteen-thirties' novels along with teenage writings uncovered in the course of this study. Reference is also made to other published and unpublished work as appropriate. By looking at these works and at specific chronological periods it is possible to see developments in Merton's autobiographical writings, specifically in the metaphors Merton used to express his developing sense of his self. The key to Merton's life and writings is his ongoing autobiographical quest, a spiritual development expressed using a variety of Christian and biblical metaphors including journey and place. This dissertation traces and evaluates aspects of Merton's spiritual development in the light of his autobiographical process. Merton's metaphors developed throughout his writings, moving from a physical journey where he saw himself as an exile, unstable and without a home, to a spiritual journey in which nature, place and stability grew in importance, until he arrived at a deep level of at-homeness achieved through his vow of stability which allowed him to go out to the world, to others and, eventually, to undertake his final pilgrimage to the East.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This qualitatively oriented Practical Theological research journey, informed by the philosophical ideas of postmodern, contextual, participatory and feminist theologies, postmodern and social construction epistemologies was based on a participatory action research through the therapeutic lens of narrative inquiry. The thesis is about the spiritual problems and spiritual needs of people living with HIV and AIDS and how they can be addressed as part of a holistic approach to their care within the primary healthcare delivery system in Zimbabwe. The research curiosity was prompted by the HIV and AIDS policy in Zimbabwe that advocates for a holistic approach to the care of HIV and AIDS patients within the primary health care delivery system. The recognition that healthcare has to be holistic for the best outcome for patients creates an expectation that spiritual care will also be incorporated into clinical practice. However there is a puzzling blind spot and a strange silence about the spiritual problems and spiritual needs of people living with HIV and AIDS within the HIV and AIDS policy. This has had the effects of reducing intervention programmes to purely medical, psychological and sociological. This research sought to correct such an approach by highlighting the role of spiritual care in the healing process of people living with HIV and AIDS as part of the holistic approach to their care. The core information, on which this research is based, comes from the experiences of people living with HIV and AIDS who are receiving care within the primary health care delivery system in Zimbabwe. It sweeps away statistics and places those questing for spiritual healing at the core of the study. All the participants in the study affirmed that the why me questions as a summation of their indescribable and unimaginable spiritual pain felt in the spirit were directed to God. They confirmed that their spiritual problem was spiritual pain and their spiritual need therefore was spiritual healing from the spiritual pain of which God is believed to be the healer. The belief that God is the ultimate healer of the spiritual pain stood out from the midst of problem saturated narratives of spiritual pain and suffering as the unique outcome to reconstruct the alternative problem free stories of healing. The research opted for an approach that is informed by the experiences of people living with HIV and AIDS. In the light of the stories shared by the participants in this study, it became evident that there is an existing need within the Primary Health Care delivery system in Zimbabwe to provide spiritual care to people living with HIV and AIDS. The research aimed at co-creating a spiritual care approach in which those living with HIV and AIDS as well as those working with them can be empowered to re-author the stories of patients‟ lives around their self preferred images. The narrative approach was explored in this research as a possible therapeutic approach that could be used to journey pastorally with people living with HIV and AIDS in a non-controlling, non-blaming, non-directive and not knowing guiding manner that would permit the people living with HIV and AIDS to use their own spiritual resources in a way that can bring spiritual healing to their troubled spirits. The research also emphasizes the position of the people living with HIV and AIDS which they can inhabit and lay claim to the many possibilities of their own lives that lie beyond the expertise of the pastoral caregiver. The strong suggestion emerging from this study is that a spiritual care approach to healing must of necessity be integrated into the holistic approach to the care of people living with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe. The wish of participants that their spiritual well-being be considered in their health care adds momentum to this suggestion. Hence the research argues for the inclusion of a spiritual and pastoral approach to spiritual healing which links the patient‟s spirituality and pastoral care. The research does not claim to have the solutions or quick fix miracle to the complicated spiritual pain of people living with HIV and AIDS and neither claims to have the power to bring any neat conclusions to the spiritual healing of people living with HIV and AIDS. However, the research has the potential to stimulate a new story of spirituality as a vital resource in the healing process of people living with HIV and AIDS and ignoring it may defeat the purpose of a holistic approach to the care of people living with HIV. The re-authoring of alternative stories is an ongoing process but like in all journeys, there are landmarks that indicate achievements, places of transfer or starting new directions or turning around. Hence this research process may be regarded as a landmark that indicated a new direction in the participants‟ journey towards spiritual healing.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie kwalitatief-georiënteerde Praktiese Teologie navorsingsreis, geïnformeer deur die filosofiese idees van postmoderne, kontekstuele, deelnemende en feministiese teologie, postmoderne en sosiale konstruksie epistemologie, is gebaseer op deelnemende aksie-navorsing deur die terapeutiese lens van narratiewe ondersoek. Die tesis handel oor die spirituele probleme en navorsingsbehoeftes van mense wat met MIV en vigs leef en hoe dit aangespreek kan word as deel van ʼn holistiese benadering tot hul sorg binne die primêre gesondheidsorg-diensleweringstelsel in Zimbabwe. Die navorsing-belangstelling het ontwikkel na aanleiding van die MIV en vigs beleid in Zimbabwe wat ʼn holistiese benadering tot die sorg van MIV en vigs pasiënte in die primêre gesondheidsorg-diensleweringstelsel bepleit. Die erkenning dat gesondheidsorg holisties moet wees om die beste uitkoms vir pasiënte te bied, skep ʼn verwagting dat spirituele sorg ook by kliniese praktyk ingesluit sal word. Daar is egter in die HIV en vigs beleid ʼn raaiselagtige blinde kol, ʼn vreemde stilte oor die spirituele probleme en spirituele behoeftes van mense wat met MIV en vigs leef. Die gevolg is dat intervensie-programme gereduseer word tot slegs mediese, sielkundige en sosiologiese programme. Hierdie navorsing streef om dié benadering reg te stel deur die beklemtoning van die rol van spirituele sorg in die heling-proses van mense wat met MIV en vigs leef as deel van die holistiese benadering tot hul sorg. Die kerninligting waarop hierdie navorsing gegrond is, vloei voort uit die ervarings van mense wat leef met MIV en vigs en sorg ontvang binne die primêre gesondheidsorg-diensleweringstelsel in Zimbabwe. Dit vee statistiek van die tafel af en plaas diegene wat soek na spirituele heling, in die hart van die ondersoek. Al die deelnemers aan die ondersoek het bevestig dat hul “Waarom ek?” vrae, as opsomming van hul onbeskryflike, ondenkbare geestelike pyn, aan God gerig is. Hulle het bevestig dat hul spirituele probleem spirituele pyn is, en dat hul spirituele behoefte dus spirituele genesing is van die spirituele pyn, die pyn waarvan geglo word dat God die geneser is. Die geloof dat God die opperste geneser is, het uitgestaan te midde van die probleem-deurdrenkte narratiewe van spirituele pyn en lyding as die unieke uitkoms om alternatiewe probleem-vrye verhale van heling te herkonstrueer. Die navorsing het ʼn benadering gekies wat geïnformeer is deur die ervarings van mense wat leef met MIV en vigs. In die lig van die verhale wat die deelnemers aan die studie gedeel het, het dit duidelik geword dat daar ʼn behoefte is dat spirituele sorg ook aan mense wat leef met MIV en vigs verskaf word in die primêre gesondheidsorg-diensleweringstelsel in Zimbabwe. Die doel van die navorsing was om saam ʼn spirituele sorg benadering te skep waarin diegene wat met MIV en vigs leef, sowel as diegene wat met hulle werk, bemagtig kan word om die stories van pasiënte se lewens te herskryf in terme van pasiënte se verkose beelde. Die narratiewe benadering is in hierdie studie ondersoek as ʼn moontlike terapeutiese benadering wat gebruik kan word om pastoraal te reis met mense wat leef met MIV en vigs op ʼn manier wat nie kontroleer, beskuldig, voorskryf of weet nie, maar wat mense wat met MIV en vigs leef eerder begelei en toelaat om hul eie spirituele bronne te gebruik op ʼn manier wat spirituele genesing vir hul gekwelde siele kan bring. Die navorsing beklemtoon ook die posisie van mense wat leef met MIV en vigs waarin hulle spirituele moontlikhede, areas van hul lewens kan eien en bewoon, moontlikhede wat buite die bereik van pastorale versorgers lê. Uit hierdie studie vloei ʼn sterk suggestie dat ʼn spirituele benadering tot genesing noodwendig geïntegreer moet wees in die holistiese benadering tot die sorg van mense wat leef met MIV en vigs in Zimbabwe. Deelnemers se wens dat hul spirituele behoeftes ook in hul gesondheidsorg oorweeg word, gee aan dié suggestie verdere momentum. Derhalwe argumenteer hierdie navorsing ten gunste van die insluiting van ʼn spirituele en pastorale benadering tot spirituele genesing wat die pasiënt se spiritualiteit en pastorale sorg verbind. Die studie maak nie daarop aanspraak dat dit antwoorde of ʼn wonderbare kits-oplossing bied vir die gekompliseerde spirituele pyn van mens wat leef met MIV en vigs nie, of spirituele genesing netjies afsluit nie. Die navorsing het egter wel die potensiaal om ʼn nuwe verhaal te stimuleer van spiritualiteit as ʼn deurslaggewende bron in die genesingsproses van mense wat leef met MIV en vigs. Om spiritualiteit te ignoreer, mag dalk die doel verydel van ʼn holistiese benadering tot die sorg van mense wat met MIV en vigs leef. Die herskryf van alternatiewe verhale is ʼn voortdurende proses, maar soos alle reise, is daar landmerke wat prestasies aandui, en ook punte van verplasing, rigtingverandering of selfs ommekeer. Hierdie navorsing kan beskou word as ʼn landmerk van ʼn verandering van rigting in deelnemers se reis na spirituele genesing.

Thanks, in part, to critical studies like Sandra Gilbert & Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic and Patricia Beer's Reader, I Married Him, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte has come to be regarded as the standard feminist text; that is, when someone wants to demonstrate a particular principle of feminist criticism or a traditionally feminine concern, she generally points to Jane Eyre. As critics like Gilbert and Gubar have shown us, Bronte's novel is not merely a Gothic romance; it reveals a feminine consciousness struggling to assert itself within the nineteenth-century patriarchal social and religious structures. Jane Eyre, therefore, would naturally lend itself to a critical study based on the concerns of feminist spirituality, especially the notion of women's communities and reflections of a feminine divinity. I propose a critical study of Jane Eyre, like the one Carol Christ conducted on the works of Kate Chopin, Margaret Atwood, Doris Lessing, Adrienne Rich and Ntozake Shange in Diving Deep and Surfacing: Women Writers on a Spiritual Quest, in which Christ examines spiritual awakening of a female consciousness in the writings of these five authors.Though Jane Eyre, seems at first glance to work within a standard Christian, or patriarchal, religious structure, there are elements of a feminine divinity, even an attempt to re-create (as Mary Daly would say) God so that He perhaps more closely resembles the early, androgynous Hebrew Yaweh: Iahu-Anat, or Ashtoreth (Diane Stein, The Women's Spirituality Book, Llewellyn Publications, 1987, pp. 78). Jane Eyre asks guidance from the Moon, who in turn addresses her as "daughter'; then too, she clearly rejects the Christian Church, as evidenced by her highly symbolic refusal of St. John's proposal of marriage, for instance. However, despite her intuitive recognition of the feminine power and wisdom that is hers to draw upon and her rejection of the institution of patriarchal religion, she does not ultimately, I believe, reject a masculine God, nor does she replace Him with an androgynous God. Yet the aspects of the feminine divinity she discovers and the women's community (the nurturing influence of her cousins Diana and Mary, so named for the archetypal moon and the virgin) in which she finds herself lead lead her to a subconscious acceptance of the feminine divinity within herself.I propose then to trace the development of a feminine divinity in Jane Eyre, which culminates in a rejection of the Church and follows the individuation process of Jane Eyre herself. Completion of this project will requires research into four principal areas:1) Feminist literary criticism on Jane Eyre--in order to familiarize myself with the feminine and feminist significance of such a reflection, and possibly place Jane traditions it falls into and those, like Gilbert & Gubar's, that center on it and also to determine to what extent the notion of a feminine divinity has been recognized in the novel.2) Archetypal psychology and criticism--strictly concerning the process of individuation and manifestations of the Goddess and those figures associated with Her; for example, near the end of the novel Mr. Rochester is compared to Vulcan and I would like to pursue to what extent he can be seen in light of a Hephesties/Demeter syzygy.3) Jane Eyre criticism that discusses the spiritual or religious aspects of the novel--since Jane Eyre has obvious religious implications, spiritual issues have not been ignored by the critics (I am most eager to read Elisabeth Jay's The Religion of the Heart: Anglican Evangelicalism and the Nineteenth Century Novel, for instance); however, my previous research has not unearthed a feminist spirituality critical approach to Jane Eyre.4) Issues of women's spirituality--particularly those concerning communities of women, Goddess worship and ritual behavior, and images and symbols of the Goddess. Such research will allow me to determine to what extent a sense of a feminine divinity is reflected in Jane Eyre, come to a conclusion about the meaning and Eyre into a tradition of women writers on a spiritual Research in community management of the severely mentally ill has been scarce. Two primary components of community care in particular need evaluation,residential arrangements and styles of "case management." The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interaction of two types of residential arrangements (single- and double-occupancy) and two types of case management ("assertive" and "limited") in a 2 X 2 design. Participants were individuals with a severe mental illness served by CMHS, Inc. Individuals were matched on DSM-III-R diagnoses and sex: 8 had roommates and received assertive case management, 5 had roommates and limited case management, 5 lived alone and received assertive case management, and 5 lived alone with limited case management. Data were obtained from three independent sources: (1) each client was interviewed using the Denver Community Mental Health Questionnaire (DCMHQ) and the Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors (ISSB) on four separate occasions over three consecutive months; (2) frequency of client contact with family members over the same time interval was tracked by case managers; and (3) concurrent attendance in day treatment sessions, diagnosis, number of previous hospitalizations, and approximate number of months of previous hospitalization were obtained from community mental health center records. DCMHQ scores for acute symptoms and interpersonal conflict were combined into an index called problems, while ISSB scores measured social support received. Monthly followups for. three consecutive months were used to obtain stable estimates of problems and support. Significant positive correlations were found between family involvement and problems, family involvement and residential arrangements, social support and problems, group attendance percentage and age, problems and social support, and a marginal relationship between residence and social support. Statistically significant negative correlations were found between case management and problems, social support and number of previous hospitalizations, group attendance percentage and problems, and residence and age. In multiple regression involving all predictors, the variables other than roommating and case management, (i.e., average family involvement, number of previous hospitalizations, program attendance, and age, considered together) predicted both problems reported and support received, while as second and third steps in the regression analysis case management and residence did not significantly predict problems or social support. In other words, once chronicity (i.e., number of previous hospitalizations), family contact, age, and group attendance were controlled, case management and residence both vanished as predictors. Future studies should consider these factors, and other aspects of the natural context, when evaluating community interventions for the mentally ill in a more controlled experimental design. With respect to developing new research for community adjustment, recommendations for more controlled studies were made and two new community intervention procedures were described.
Department of English

The Medieval English dream vision evidence influences from a variety of earlier vision literature, notably the apocalyptic vision and narrative dream. Philosophical visions by Plato, Cicero and Boethius, and Christian revelations of John and Paul contain traits that found their way into the dream poems by Langland, the Pearl poet and Chaucer. The Norwegian ballad Draumkvedet exhibits features that mirror these English visions. Notable characteristics pertaining to the character of the dreamer, the interplay between dreamer and dream, imagery of the vision, and structure, point to a common set of generic influences. Comparing Draumkvedet with its English counterparts demonstrates that they stem from the same tradition. Draumkvedet bares special resemblance to the Dream of the Rood, Piers Plowman and Pearl in its exploration of Christian doctrine and its appeal to the audience.

Michel Tournier est l’une des grandes figures du roman français contemporain. Son œuvre est remarquable à la fois par sa dimension philosophique et par sa dimension mythique. Nous constatons que des thèmes regroupés sous l’angle philosophique et mythique comme l’ogre, le double, l’inversion sont bel et bien analysés en France. Notre recherche développera donc une philosophie de la vie ou de l’existence humaine sur le bonheur, en exploitant des thèmes récurrents chez Tournier, le voyage, la solitude, le bonheur, etc. L'image du départ est source de réflexions dans la plupart des romans de Tournier où le voyage s’impose comme la suite logique et dynamique de l’intrigue et de la thématique, et dans ce voyage la recherche du bonheur semble indispensable. Ainsi, notre recherche sera consacrée à une lecture des textes en ayant recours aux approches thématiques de Gaston Bachelard, à une analyse du moteur du voyage et de l’évolution des esprits des personnages dans le voyage initiatique. Dans la Première Partie, nous essayons d’analyser trois niveaux d’initiation : à travers les voyages, les images, l’écriture. La dimension spirituelle de l'écriture permet de révéler le sens du vrai bonheur, fondé sur le respect de la nature, l’éternité et la sérénité, ce qui s'approche de la conception du bonheur dans la philosophie orientale. Et surtout, elle exprime une idée de la conscience de l'écrivain sur la beauté de la nature et de la vie. Dans la Deuxième Partie, nous étudierons comment les héros réagissent, surmontent le destin solitaire de l’homme et acquièrent le bonheur. La quête des personnages se répère au début comme une recherche du bonheur corporel ; à la fin elle se traduit par une reconstruction du monde et une quête spirituelle. Le bonheur serait enfin réalisé dans une quête du sacré, par la resacralisation du monde et des phénomènes célestes. Dans la Troisième Partie, nous étudierons les fantasmes et le bonheur de l’écrivain à travers le côté obsédant de l’écriture. Le côté narcissique de l'écrivain se révèle d'abord dans la reprise de la rêverie de ses personnages, la circulation des mêmes thèmes ou expressions dans les différents romans et essais. Puis ses fantasmes résident dans l'éloge de l'innocence enfantine. Le narcissisme de l'écrivain se manifeste encore dans la mise en relation de la vocation créatrice avec la divinité
Michel Tournier is one of the great figures of contemporary french novel. His work is remarkable both for its philosophical dimension and its mythic dimension. We find that the philosophical and mythic themes as the ogre, the double, the inversion are thoroughly analyzed in France. So our research will develop a philosophy of happiness about the life and the human existence, by exploring the recurring themes as the journey, the solitude, the happiness, etc. In most novels of Tournier, the image of the departure is the root of thoughts and the journey seems like the logic and dynamic result of the history and the theme. And in this journey the search of happiness seems essential. Thus, our research will be devoted to a reading of the texts by using the thematic approachs of Gaston Bachelard, an analysis of the motive of the journey and the evolution of the minds of characters in the initiatory journey. In the First Part, we try to analyze three levels of initiation : through the travelling, the images, the writing. The spiritual dimension of writing can reveal the meaning of true happiness, based on the respect for nature, the eternity and the serenity, which is similar to the concept of happiness in eastern philosophy. And especially, it expresses the consciousness of the writer on the beauty of nature and life. In the Second Part, we will study how the protagonists react, overcome the solitary fate of man and gain the happiness. The quest of the characters appears at the beginning to a search for the physical happiness ; in the end it leads to a reconstruction of the world and a spiritual quest. The happiness is finally fulfilled in a quest for the sacredness, by the resacralization of the world and the celestial phenomena. In the Third Part, we will explore the fantasies and the happiness of the writer through the haunting aspect of writing. The narcissism of the writer is first revealed in the recovery of the dream of his characters, the repetition of the same themes and expressions in different novels and essays. Then his fantasies resident in praise of childlike innocence. The writer's narcissism is still apparent in the association between the creative vocation and the divinity

Cette thèse défend l’idée que plusieurs auteurs modernistes ont utilisé des concepts centraux à la croyance religieuse traditionnelle afin de préconiser le changement social. Au lieu de soutenir l'hypothèse de la sécularisation, qui prétend que les modernistes ont rejeté la religion en faveur d'une laïcité non contestée, j'argumente en faveur de ce que j'appelle « la spiritualité moderniste, » qui décrie une continuité intégrale des concepts spirituels dans l'agitation de la période moderniste qui a déstabilisée les institutions qui avait auparavant jeté les bases de la société Occidentale. En me basant sur les écrit de Sigmund Freud, William James et Émile Durkheim concernant les fins poursuivis par la religion, je développe cinq concepts centraux de la croyance religieuse que les modernistes ont cherché à resignifier, à savoir la rédemption, la communauté, la sacralité, le spectre, et la liturgie, et, dans chaque cas, j'ai montré comment ces catégories ont été réinterprétées pour traiter des questions considérées comme essentielles au début du vingtième siècle, à savoir ce que l’on identifie aujourd’hui comme le féminisme, l'écologie, la biopolitique, les crises, et le rôle du poète. Le chapitre I se concentre sur la rédemption par le féminin telle qu’on la trouve dans le recueil de vers de H.D. portant sur la Seconde Guerre mondiale, Trilogy (1944-1946), qui projette un certain espoir grâce à un mélange synchrétique de Christianisme, de mythes anciens, d’astrologie, et de psychologie. Mon deuxième chapitre discute de The Grapes of Wrath (1939) de John Steinbeck, qui élargit le rôle de la communauté en avançant une écologie universelle qui concevoit tous les gens comme étant intimement liés entre eux et avec le monde. Le chapitre III traite de la notion du sacré dans The Light in August (1932) de Willam Faulkner et Nightwood (1936) de Djuna Barnes, qui préconisent une foi privatisée qui accentue l'illégitimité des concepts de sacralité et de pollution en élevant des individus qui sont marginalisés biopolitiquement. Le chapitre IV cherche à comprendre le retour des morts, et je soutiens que le topos a été utilisé par les modernistes comme un symbole de crises sociales; le chapitre enquête d'abord sur “The Jolly Corner” (1908) de Henry James, que j'ai lu comme la séquence rêvée d'un homme faisant face à son propre spectre, Ulysses (1922) de James Joyce, où Stephen Dedalus est hanté de façon répétée par le spectre de sa mère, et Mrs. Dalloway (1925) de Virginia Woolf, qui se concentre sur le motif caché de la Fête des Morts. Ma cinquième section traite de la liturgie, la langue poétique utilisée pour les rites religieux, dans la première poésie de Wallace Stevens, qui conçoit le rôle du poète comme une vocation de l'imagination.
This dissertation argues that many modernist writers used concepts central to traditional religious belief in order to urge social change. Against the secularization hypothesis, which posits that the modernists fully jettisoned religion in favour of an unquestioned secularism, I argue for what I term “modernist spirituality,” which identifies an integral continuance of spiritual concepts within the dire turmoil of the modernist period that destabilized the institutions such as an established organized religion that had previously formed the foundations of Western society. Hence, in each of my dissertation chapters, I have looked outside of organized religion to literature to find that spiritual impulse. Building upon the purposes of religion as defined by Sigmund Freud, William James, and Émile Durkheim, I name five concepts central to religious belief that the modernists sought to resignify, namely redemption, community, sacredness, the spectre, and liturgy, and, in each case, I have shown how these categories were reinterpreted to treat issues considered vital in the early twentieth century that would now be identified under the categories of feminism, ecology, biopolitics, crisis, and the role of the poet. The first function of spiritual belief addresses the intertwining of redemption and humanity’s actions within history, and for this reason, Chapter I focuses on redemption through the feminine as seen in H.D.’s book of World War II verse, Trilogy (1944-1946), which offers hope through a syncretistic blend of Christianity, ancient myths, goddess traditions, astrology, and psychology. My second chapter discusses John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (1939), which enlarges the role of community by positing a universal ecology of holiness that sees all people as connected with one another and with the land. Chapter III treats the notion of the sacred in William Faulkner’s Light in August (1932) and Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood (1936), both of which urge a privatized faith that emphasizes the illegitimacy of concepts of sacredness and pollution by elevating individuals who are marginalized biopolitically. Chapter IV seeks to comprehend the return of the dead in dreams or in visions, and I argue that the topos was used by modernists as a symbol of social crisis; the chapter first investigates Henry James’ “The Jolly Corner” (1908), which I read as a dream sequence of a man facing his own ghost, James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922), wherein Stephen Dedalus is haunted repeatedly by the ghost of his mother, and Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925), which is textually ordered by the hidden motif of the Day of the Dead. My fifth section is an epilogue that treats liturgy, the poetic language used for religious rituals, in the early poetry of Wallace Stevens, who revisions the role of the poet as a vocation of the imagination.

碩士
國立中央大學
中國文學系
102
Recently, the trend of researching Dietary Literature develops in Taiwanese contemporary literary forum. Since that, Dietary Prose gradually becomes a genre of feeling expression from a cultural custom. Especially, Dietary Prose describes the memories of taste buds, and the interactive relationship needs to be generated from dimensional field, psychological and phenomenological universal expression. In order to hypostatize the spatial seeking beneath original memory and primitive lack in Dietary Prose and analyze the need of love and sense of security between the human beings. First above, I set a relish of familial affection as a theme, then I’m going to discuss it in two ways: a joyful journey of reminiscence and a contradictory itinerary of recollection to reveal the miraculous power with stability and recoordination from the the complicated dietary signified. Then, to fulfill the image-deductive development of spiritual home, I will represent the miniature but complete evidence to the contrary against scholars’ opinions with “kitchen domain as a base, gender statement as a practical application”. Finally, to respond people’s longings for transboundary space with love and safety, I will aim at the interpretations of the essence of spiritual home through rounded imagination of phenomenological psychology and endogebous expression of collective unconsciousness.

My thesis, the novel ‘The Golden Milkmaid’ and its exegesis, comprise an original contribution to knowledge in that it is the practice-led research of a female Gaudiya writer analysing the process of writing bhakti (devotion to divinity) from within the academy. Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a significant strand of Hinduism liked in India, among the Indian diaspora, and beyond the Indian demograph globally. Yet inevitably, Gaudiya practice, process and aesthetics are being altered during transmission and now, time-honoured the traditions have become vanishingly rare. My work is a written record from an insider-observer perspective. ‘The Golden Milkmaid’ is an account of one young woman’s spiritual journey from Australia to India, to a hermitage of Gaudiya women, worshipers of goddess Kishori (the golden milkmaid) and her paramour, the god Krishna. One of these women becomes the protagonist’s spiritual mentor. The major part of the book represents the protagonist immersing herself in Gaudiya life. Celebrated Kishori-Krishna narratives embedded throughout the novel are re-presented as ‘real’, sacrosanct, and the very sustenance and sanctuary of believers’ lives. A retelling of asta-kaliya-leela (pastimes at the eight watches of the day) derived from the traditional Gaudiya narrative/literary/ritual/meditational scaffolding, is presented as a work that the characters are translating into English. The narrative flashes back to the protagonist’s relatives in Australia to reveal how they feel about her living in India and her new beliefs. An exchange of letters is also interleaved. When her mother is taken ill, the central character returns to her family, changed. The exegesis is in three parts. Part I, Neti Neti (Not this, not that), compares and contrasts ‘The Golden Milkmaid’ to relevant works in the closest possible genres of contemporary Australian literature to put forward that the work stands alone. Part II, Devi (Goddess), explores the connection between believer, land, and sacred stories about the land; it describes the realities of the lives of the ‘widows of Vrindavan’ and it explains the kinship between the novel’s Gaudiya characters. Finally, it elucidates restrictions imposed on Gaudiya women and their creative expression through writing, thus presenting the case for ‘The Golden Milkmaid’ empowering its women characters through text in the midst of a patriarchal cult. Part III, Achintya-bheda-abheda-tattva (the actuality of inconceivable, simultaneous oneness and difference) backgrounds Gaudiya writing so elucidating the context in which ‘Golden Milkmaid’ was conceived. It is divided into five segments that together suggest that the work of a modern-day, independent, female Gaudiya writer both does and does not belong in a Gaudiya genre. This section reflects upon the living spoken and literary Gaudiya tradition in its setting of India’s vast and ancient religion; it acknowledges the rich tradition of Indian aesthetics; it addresses dilemmas in striving to amalgamate literary art and faith and it elucidates the key textual/meditational scaffolding used in the novel. The concluding segment is a reflection on a significant Gaudiya text, Bhaktivinode Thakur’s novel Jaiva-dhama.
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2014

Au cours du vingtième siècle, le Québec a connu un bouleversement identitaire et religieux lorsqu’une majorité de Québécois a délaissé les prescriptions doctrinales catholiques, la religion identitaire du Québec, qui encadrait leur vie et s’imposait en tant que détentrice du « code exclusif du sens » (Hervieu-Léger 1993 : 155). Pour combler la perte de repères (Lemieux 2008) engendrée par les bouleversements décrits précédemment, plusieurs individus se tournèrent vers d’autres formes de spiritualité, soit en se convertissant à un nouveau système religieux ou en s’engageant dans une quête spirituelle. Certains Québécois, au cours de leur quête, ont alors découvert le druidisme, une spiritualité fondée sur le désir de retour à l’ancienne religion païenne des Celtes, et l’ont intégré en tant que composante principale ou secondaire de leur spiritualité. Le but de ce mémoire sera d’apporter quelques éléments d’explication à la présence du druidisme au Québec. Nous soulignerons l’importance du contexte moderne dans la quête de sens amorcée par l’adepte de paganisme celte, car ce contexte semble avoir servi de catalyseur dans le processus de découverte du druidisme pour ces Québécois. Puis, nous mettrons l’accent sur les raisons identitaires mises de l’avant par la CDQ pour justifier leur choix d’intégrer le druidisme à leur cheminement spirituel. Nous verrons que pour le druidisant, cette religion vient à la fois répondre à des besoins spirituels et combler un vide identitaire.
During the last century, Quebec society underwent a major transformation in identity and religion as a majority of Québécois abandoned the Catholic doctrinal prescriptions. Until then, Catholicism was fundamental to the identity the Québécois and guided their lives, imposing itself as the holder of « code exclusif du sens » (Hervieu-Léger 1993: 155). To make up for the loss of cultural markers (Lemieux, 2008) engendered by the upheaval of the Quiet Revolution, many individuals turned to other forms of spirituality, either in a process of conversion to a new religious system or as part of a spiritual quest. Some Québécois engaged in such a quest discovered Druidism, which presents itself as going back the ancient pagan religion of the Celts, and integrated it as the main or a secondary component of their spirituality. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to the explanation of the presence of Druidism in Quebec. I emphasise the importance of modern context for shaping the search of a sense of self that is undertaken by those involved in Celtic Paganism because that context seems to be a catalyst in the process of discovery of Druidism for these Québécois. I will also examine the justifications on the basis of ethnic identity that are put forward by the members of the group I studied to justify their choice to integrate Druidism to their spiritual path. We will see that for the neo-Druid, this religion answers identity as well as spiritual needs.

L’écriture littéraire de Kerouac est la manifestation de sa quête spirituelle sous la forme du chemin de l’écrit. Ce n’est pas exactement la route de l’écriture de On the Road, qui s’élance vers l’horizon comme l’autoroute américaine, lorsque l’on déroule le manuscrit sur le sol ou l’on lit les lignes de gauche à droite. Il s’agit plutôt de la manière par laquelle l’écrit forme un chemin pour que cette quête spirituelle s’oriente à travers l’œuvre, à travers la création de l’œuvre. À mi-chemin entre le français et l’anglais, écrivain beat visionnaire, Jack Kerouac explore toutes les formes d’écriture, de la prose à la forme la plus brève d’écrit littéraire, le haïku, afin de répéter et répéter des exercices littéraires de l’esprit qui lui permettront d’orienter sa quête spirituelle et de la traduire en mots. Plusieurs textes font office d’exercices d’écriture sur le parcours du corpus des écrits kerouaciens, mais c’est dans Some of the Dharma qu’on retrouve l’exemple le plus percutant des sentiers littéraires à travers lesquels s’est engouffrée sa quête spirituelle. Cette thèse examine la notion de chemin et les articulations de la quête spirituelle à travers quatre chapitres. Les deux premiers chapitres traitent respectivement des textes en français publiés en 2016 sous le titre La vie est d’hommage et du problème de la spontanéité sous l’angle du spirituel. Ils préparent ainsi la réflexion du troisième chapitre où il s’agit de comprendre comment Some of the Dharma peut être conçu comme le grand carnet laïque des chemins spirituels de Kerouac. Enfin, le quatrième chapitre expose la signification de l’imbrication de la prose et de la brièveté littéraire (notamment les haïkus et les koans), appuyée sur la conception d’un présent à la fois impermanent et éternel. Cet ensemble de réflexions mène à s’interroger sur le sens spirituel de la voie littéraire dans un monde sécularisé. Les défaites spirituelles de Kerouac sont aussi nombreuses et lui ont permis de s’orienter, n’ayant pas d’autres guides spirituels que sa propre écriture et ses lectures. L’écriture littéraire est avant tout chemin et la traversée de ce chemin mène là où nous sommes toujours. Kerouac en donne un exemple saisissant que cette thèse explicite par ses propres chemins de l’écrit.
Kerouac's literary writing is the manifestation of his spiritual quest formed by the path taken by the written word. This is not exactly the road of writing in On the Road, which rushes towards the horizon like the American highway, when you unroll the manuscript on the ground or you read the lines from left to right. Rather, it is the way in which the writing forms a path for this spiritual quest to find its way through the work, through the creation of the work. Halfway between French and English, the visionary beat writer Jack Kerouac explores all forms of writing, from prose to the briefest form of literary writing, the haiku, in order to repeat and rehearse literary exercises of the mind that will allow him to orient his spiritual quest and translate it into words. Several texts serve as writing exercises on the journey through the corpus of Kerouacian writings, but it is in Some of the Dharma that we find the most striking example of the literary paths through which his spiritual quest was launched. This thesis examines the notion of the way and the articulations of the spiritual quest through four chapters. The first two chapters discuss respectively the French texts published in 2016 under the title La vie est d'hommage and the problem of spontaneity from a spiritual perspective. They prepare the reflection developed in the third chapter, where the aim is to understand how Some of the Dharma can be conceived as the great lay notebook of Kerouac’s spiritual paths. Finally, the fourth chapter explains the meaning of the interweaving of prose and literary brevity (notably haikus and koans), based on the conception of a present that is both impermanent and eternal. These reflections lead us to question the spiritual meaning of the literary path in a secularized world. Kerouac’s spiritual defeats are numerous and have allowed him to find his way, having no other spiritual guides than his own writing and reading. Literary writing is above all a way and crossing this path leads to where we are, always. Kerouac gives a striking example of this, which this thesis makes explicit through its own writing paths.

This research was stimulated by pastoral concerns pertaining to the South African Hindu Community. It was found that the community had a noticeable number of individuals stagnant or stranded at the level of gross spirituality. On the other hand it is known that the primary texts of Hinduism and its long mystical traditions, from the Vedic Period to the Neo-Vedanta Movement, had adequate motivational and goal-orientated material to address this challenge. This work surveys the Vedic and Upanishadic texts in order to show the literary, social and philosophical conditions under which they were produced. Hindu mysticism emerges from all these strands of development. Gross mysticism in the form of elaborate rituals occupies the attention of the early Vedic seers. This graduates into subtle subjective mysticism in the Upanishads. At each phase there is a paradigm shift which this study interprets in the light of Shankara (medieval period) and Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan of the Neo-Vedanta Movement. In the early Vedic period the soul is a metaphysical entity. Upon death it is judged in accordance with its good or bad actions. Heavenly rewards or the punishment of hell are meted out to it. Heaven and hell are final eschatological goals for the soul in the Vedic period. In the Upanishadic period heaven and hell are temporary eschatological goals. The ultimate Upanishadic goal is Liberation which implies the mystical cessation of empirical existence and the realization of Unitary Consciousness. The Taittiriya Upanishad defines the soul analytically as a formulation of five sheaths : body, vital energy, mind, intellect and bliss with an immortal consciousness as its divine focus. These sheaths are fundamental to Hindu sacred psychology. Functioning under the effects of ignorance each sheath binds the soul to mundane existence. However, each sheath also possesses an intrinsic capacity to liberate the soul from suffering. This research explores the limitations and opportunities of each sheath and indicates the path by which the soul's divine potential may be realized. In the light of the Neo-Vedantic outlook this process is considered with a life-affirming attitude which is of relevance to South African Hindus.
Religious Studies and Arabic
D.Lit et Phil. (Religious Studies)

The aim of the present study is to account for the significance of mobility in American culture and its reflection in literature. In order to reach this goal, the thesis observes the role of mobility in the history of the United States, its transformation in the twentieth century, and the manifestation of this motif in the works of Jack Kerouac. Through the analysis of his novels, including On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Desolation Angels, Lonesome Traveler, and Big Sur, the thesis identifies some of the recurrent themes associated with the motif of journey and further interprets them in the context of postwar America. With the support of an array of secondary literature, this research approaches mobility as a constitutive part of the American identity and Jack Kerouac as one of its most ardent advocates. The introduction probes the contemporary preoccupation with space and the necessity of interrogating its intersection with time. While incorporating both of these dimensions, movement is identified as a manifestation of this intersection and it is distinguished from mobility as lacking the meaning acquired through culture. In order to explain this process of acquiring meaning, the link between mobility and narrative is established and its presence in literature observed. It is subsequently argued...

The importance of this research on the life of Shaykh Yūsuf‟s life and legacy is eviden t from the depth of the reports on "Shaykh Yūsuf al-Maqassarī’s literary contribution with a special attention to his Maṭālib al-Sālikῑn [The Quests of the Spiritual Seekers].” We contend that without a comprehensive knowledge of it, some of the subtleties and nuances of the Shaykh as well as his treatises will remain concealed from us. I utilised the comprehensive religious historical and philological approaches following the methodology of Sultan, Nabilah Lubis, and Suleman Essop Dangor to complement al-Maqassarī‟s history, his literary contribution in general and to gain the essence of his Maṭālib al-Sālikῑn through commentaries. I also used hermeneutic‟s theory for interpreting some of the texts. Shaykh Yūsuf (1626-1699) is considered a national hero of Indonesia and South Africa. His movements from Gowa South Sulawesi to other countries including the Middle East were motivated by his wish to deepen his understanding of Islamic mysticism. This was supported by his local teachers and the needs of Gowa Kingdom for a qualified Islamic scholar to convert its animistic society into real and fervent Muslims. This responsibility fostered in him a sense of bravery and adventure, and he ended up wandering around the world in search of knowledge. In their purpose to rule the East Indian countries and remove his influence over his fellow citizens, the Dutch banished Shaykh Yūsuf initially to Ceylon and then to Cape of Good Hope, South Africa (1684-1699). He left behind a large body of literary contributions, many of them still preserved at UB Leiden and the National Library of Jakarta. His Maṭālib al-Sālikῑn holds a special place among his literary contributions. It discusses three important issues that are illustrated with parables which should be understood by spiritual seekers; namely tawḥῑd, ma‘rifa, and „ibāda {Divine Knowledge, Divine Recognition and Worship]. They constitute a tree with leaves, branches, and fruit. Its practitioners are directed to the Oneness of God and to none other. These teachings have become a foundation of his reformist ideas and a basis to build his Islamic community in South Africa and finally to be implemented in his own ṣūfī order, Ṭarīqat al-Yūsufiyya/Khalwatiyyat al-Yūsufiyya.
Religious Studies and Arabic
D. Litt. et Phil. (Islamic Studies)