The Experiences Of Transgender Anglicans In The Eucharistic Liturgy, Jordan D. Sandrock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study asked how transgender Anglicans respond to God’s action in the Eucharistic liturgy. Transgender Christians may have different experiences in faith than our cisgender peers, which influences the way in which we respond to God and to God’s action in the liturgy.

Over the course of the study, I interviewed seven transgender Anglicans from three geographic regions (Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States). Using semi-structured interview questions, I spoke to the participants about their experiences in the Eucharistic liturgy and how it related to their sense of God’s action. I then analysed the contents of the interviews …

Lighting The Way Of The Learner: Towards A Social Virtue Epistemology In Aḥmad Al-Ṣaghīr’S The Faqīh’S Lantern, Amani Khelifa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis offers an original translation and analysis of a West African didactic poem in Islamic ethics and law, by the Mālikī-Ashʿarī Mauritanian scholar Aḥmad al-Ṣaghīr (d. 1272 AH/1856 CE) called The Faqīh’s Lantern (Miṣbāḥ al-Faqīh). In addition to the critical translation, I examine the poem thematically through the lens of social virtue epistemology. Chapter 1 sketches the background of the text and author, positioning the author historically as a product of a rich scholarly and pedagogical tradition while noting Mauritania’s contemporary place in the North American Muslim imagination. Chapter 2 is the translation of the text, making …

Islamic Ethical Considerations On Medical Decision-Making In Adolescence, Nuray Catic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Medical decision-making in adolescence has not been studied in-depth from the Islamic bioethics perspective. The objective of this dissertation is to use the Islamic ethical position to explore the adolescent medical decision-making process in Canada so as to contribute to building frameworks for Islamic bioethics consumers such as patients, physicians and policymakers. A descriptive literature review is conducted to analyze data from related disciplines such as Islamic theology, developmental psychology, law and clinical ethics through principles of Islamic ethics such as objectives of Sharīʿa, legal maxims and operational maxims. The concepts of taklīf, ahliyya, bulūgh and rushd are focused on …

Christian Mass Movements In South India And Some Of The Critical Factors That Changed The Face Of Christianity In India, Philip Joseph Mathew

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The main reason for Christian growth in India was not individual conversions but rather Christian mass movements (CMMs). Since the late 1700s, a series of independent CMMs among non-Christians and a mass reformation movement within the Suriani community have occurred in the southern end of India. These MMs culminated in a mass emancipation movement against caste-imposed segregation of Dalits in the late 1800s, an event of national significance. In the early 1900s, Pentecostalism evolved from these CMMs and transformed the religious landscape of Christianity in South India and later in India as a whole. The Thoma Christians were the early …

Seeing Thro The Musical Eye: Santo Daime, Fuke-Shū, 1960s Psychedelia, And The Antipodes Of Musical Experience, Forest Anthony-Muran

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis investigates the relationships between altered states of consciousness and the musical experience in religious tradition and practice. A common accompaniment to religious worship and ceremony, music is often used as a way of attempting to capture something of the ineffable and to help bring about a mystical experience. In this thesis, I make use of three contrasting case studies – the Brazilian syncretic religion Santo Daime, the historical branch of Zen Buddhism Fuke-shū, and the psychedelic rock of 1960s counterculture – to paint a portrait of the variety of ways that music has been used in different musical …

Women And Western Mission: A Case Study On The Christian Khasi And Garo Tribal Women, Rosemary Philip

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Western mission justified a mission to the Global South that was ingrained with the dominance of its culture and values. Women’s mission, as a tool of this mission, patronized themselves as the ‘care-taker’ of the ‘subjugated’ women of the Global South. This mission promulgated new ways of thinking and prescribed new gender roles and values to the Global South. In doing so, it framed the traditional roles and cultural values of the non-Western world as oppressive and replaceable. Subsequently, Women’s mission along with Western feminism and Feminist theology as a broad idea has been challenged by feminists from the Global …

The Notion Of Evil In The Qur'an And Islamic Mystical Thought, Irfan Asghar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

‘The Problem of Evil’ has continued to survive as one of the most contested issues in the history of philosophy of religion. This thesis aims at contributing to the existing literature by exploring the notion of evil in the Qur’an and Islamic Mystical thought as expressed in the writings of Jalal ad-Din Rumi and Muhammad Iqbal. The Qur’an sheds light on various shades of moral evil and explains how they are manifested through the actions of various agents. When it comes to natural evil and human suffering resulting from it, the Qur’an provides a utilitarian place for it in human …

Absent And Present: The Mental Health And Wellness Of Ontario Teacher Leaders Using A Catholic Social Justice Approach, Jennifer C. Wojcik

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

Abstract

The purpose of this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) is to present a Problem of Practice (PoP) at Trinity Forever Catholic School (pseudonym: TFCS). This is the limited focus on teacher-leader mental health and wellness (MhW) stemming from a lack of resource organization by school and board leadership levels. Current MhW resources are not focussed on the health and well-being of educators. It is necessary to navigate resources that minister to the common good and dignity of all teacher-leaders. This exercise is important to the work of a teacher-leader who is serving TFCS under long-standing conditions that impair MhW. Catholic …

A Values-Based, Holistic Approach Towards School Mission In A U.S. Islamic School, Salim S. Yusufali

The Dissertation-in-Practice at Western University

U.S. Islamic schools endeavour to foster the development of moral practices and values stemming from Islamic teachings. Their efforts are demonstrated in classes (such as Islamic studies and Qur’an study), ritual practice (such as daily congregational prayer), and faith-based assemblies. Yet the schools often lack awareness, structure, and procedures for a focus on character, morality, and spirituality to permeate all aspects of schooling. They also tend to have limited resources for embarking on large-scale change initiatives. This Organizational Improvement Plan is written from the standpoint of the author, a scholar-practitioner, and Dean of Mission of a U.S. based K-12 Islamic …

Personhood, Particularity, And Perichoresis: The Doctrine Of The Trinity In Identity And Faith Formation, Tabitha Petrova Edgar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis argues for the importance of doctrine in faith formation and retention among emerging adults in contemporary Canadian Christianity. Advocating a holistic approach to faith which blends mindful doctrinal engagement with the practical and emotional aspects of faith, the thesis maintains that the relevance of doctrine has largely been underestimated by the churches. Recent cross-denominational research commissioned by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, in Hemorrhaging Faith (2012) and Renegotiating Faith (2018), is used to argue this case, alongside recent treatments of the doctrine of the Trinity. The latter is used as a case study, drawing on the work of …

Duration And Depravity: Religious And Secular Temporality In Puritanism And The American Gothic, Taylor Kraayenbrink

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Duration and Depravity identifies a temporality of “sinful feeling” operating in the archive of Puritan writings of personal piety, such as diaries, autobiographies, conversion narratives, and sermons, and persisting into early American gothic literature. This temporality of sinful feeling is an attempt to discipline the self through temporal projection oriented towards the theological fact and religiously experienced feeling of sinfulness. Duration and Depravity engages with the proliferation of postsecular criticism in American literature studies generally, and Puritan studies more specifically. Postsecular criticism in literary studies is a style of historicism that reconsiders its primary archive’s position in newly complicated narratives …

ʿAbdulḥalīm Abū Shuqqa’S The Liberation Of Women In The Age Of Revelation: A Translation And Critical Commentary, Ibtehal Noorwali

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

One of Muslim scholars’ modern endeavors is to identify Islam’s egalitarian and liberating views on women as espoused by its earliest sources— the Qur’an and hadith. ʿAbdulḥalīm Abū Shuqqa makes such an attempt in his six-volume, Arabic book titled “The Liberation of Women in the Age of Revelation” (Taḥrīr al-Mar’a fī ‘Aṣr al-Risāla) published in 1995. He shows evidence from the Qur’an and authentic hadith reports for women’s autonomy, involvement in communal worship, public life, politics, battlefields, and professional work, among other activities. In an attempt to analyze and bring what was considered a ‘breakthrough’ in the Islamic …

Perspectivas Transatlánticas De Una Serie Pasionaria Del Pintor Novohispano José Ibarra (1685-1756), Alena Robin

Hispanic Studies Publications

Este artículo estudia un ciclo pasionario firmado y fechado en 1744 por el afamado pintor novohispano José de Ibarra. El conjunto de 15 lienzos, ahora en una colección particular, no había sido catalogado dentro de la producción pictórica conocida del maestro. La serie fue adquirida por un exitoso mercader español activo en el puerto de Veracruz en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII. El ciclo ilustra consideraciones de transferencias culturales en el mundo hispano de aquella época y sugiere cuestionamientos en relación a los modelos globales de comunicación y de intercambio. La serie se analiza aquí desde varias perspectivas transatlánticas, …

Atheist Controversy In The United Church Of Canada: A Review Of Gretta Vosper, Jacob A. Shaw

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Rev. Gretta Vosper (1958–), currently a serving United Church of Canada Minister in Scarborough, Ontario, has sparked debate in Canadian religious circles as a self-proclaimed atheist. In 2015, her unorthodox approach to public worship and her media statements about the high concentration of atheism among Ministers in the United Church brought matters to a head, and Vosper came under formal review by the Church’s Toronto Conference Ministry Personnel Committee. Meantime, the surrounding controversy left many people asking questions about what the United Church of Canada really believes. This thesis will examine the origins, progress and implications of the Vosper case, …

Science And Theology In Religious Education And Faith Formation With Children And Youth: Towards A Post-Foundationalist Approach, Judy S. Steers

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The intersections of Science and Theology have received a great deal of attention in recent decades. A broad range of approaches and discourse exists within academic environments. Within popular culture, however, the public perception often is that science and theology are in conflict and at odds with one another.

Many authors have attempted to write about science and theology from a dialogical standpoint. Educational projects over the past ten years have attempted to address the supposed conflict between religion and science, and affirm the validity of religious beliefs in a scientific era. Too often, however, scientific concepts are misappropriated as …

Pragmatic Holiness In The Early Salvation Army: A Theology Of Holiness As Action, Terence Hale

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The notion of holiness and sanctification are central to most Protestant understandings and expressions of religious life. This thesis explores whether a pragmatic understanding of holiness, particularly in the Wesleyan-Arminian stream, can have a meaningful place in the postmodern world.

This thesis endeavours to establish a theological argument for a non-linear pragmatic understanding of holiness in the Wesleyan tradition. The theological argument is supplemented by a substantial case study of the early Salvation Army, focusing on its missiology and theology.

The argument presented is that a pragmatic understanding of sanctification, as seen in the theology and practice of the early …

Sunday, Bloody Sunday: Martyrial Theology In The Eucharistic Liturgies Of The Anglican Church Of Canada, Andrew M. Rampton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Martyrs were foundational to early Christian life. Their experiences, their commemoration, and their ongoing inclusion in Christian life shaped significant portions of the theology, liturgy, and cultural life of early Christians. This foundation is part of the inheritance of all churches today, including the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC). The ACC states that its own beliefs are best articulated in its liturgies. Much of the belief, understanding, and practice of the ACC’s members is shaped by participation in those liturgies.

In order to understand how the ACC’s theology of martyrs and its liturgical formation of members around this topic, this …

Two Paths To Illumination In Islamic Mysticism: Self-Annihilation Versus Higher Self, Mahdieh Mirmohammadi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

Islamic mysticism has been the main focus of many Muslim philosophers and theologians. Great philosophers such as Avicenna and al-Ghazālī have dedicated part of their works to Islamic mysticism. They strove to clarify the meaning, goals and framework of Islamic mysticism. Avicenna presents Islamic mysticism as an intellectual journey that begins with the human and advances toward the Truth. The Truth for Avicenna is absolute being (wujūd muțlaq), which is equivalent with his philosophical definition of the Truth. This philosophical-mystical journey is a kind of psychological-mental journey. By psychological-mental I mean that the journey takes part and …

The Spirituality Of Watchman Nee From A Neo-Confucian Perspective, Jin Meng

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Watchman Nee (Ni Tuosheng, 1903-1972) is one of the most influential Chinese theologians. His theology formed in the early twentieth century and still attracts Chinese people today. This thesis undertakes an innovative twofold-perspective investigation into Nee’s idea of sanctification. By clarifying Nee’s synthesizing of the Holiness Movement theologies and examining his view of sanctification through the lens of the neo-Confucian idea of moral cultivation, this work argues that the practical pursuit of living in holiness and the synthesis of rational thinking and mystical intuition of Nee’s spirituality both deeply resonated within the Chinese spiritual neo-Confucian mindset. Viewing Nee’s theology as …

Impact Of Islamophobia On Post-Secondary Muslim Students Attending Ontario Universities, Hassina Alizai

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the experiences of Muslim Canadian students attending institutions of higher education in the context of increasing Islamophobia. This study utilized qualitative case study methodology to investigate the following questions: (1) What are the experiences of Muslim Canadians attending institutions of higher education in the current context of Islamophobia? (2) How is the rising anti-Muslim sentiment impacting the academic performance of Muslim students? (3) How do Muslim students negotiate or navigate their identities subsequent to recent national and international tragic events (e.g. Paris Attacks, San Bernardino and other terrorist atrocities)? The students’ responses resulted in three major themes …

La Vida Y Andanzas De Un Libro Antiguo En Nueva España Y La Península Ibérica. Cultura Escrita En La Obra Hierofánica Del Doctor Don Alonso Alberto De Velasco, Raul Manuel Lopez Bajonero

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In 1688 a legal text, Renovación, was printed in Mexico City, the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Spain, that explains a twelve year trial that focuses on determining if a 16^th century sculpture miraculously renewed itself. The final decision came from the Archbishop of Mexico City. A year after the book’s publication, the sculpture was recognized as miraculous. In 1699, ten years after this event, the author of Renovación wrote another book that narrates the same sculpture's history, Exaltación, but addressed a wider audience, and from a religious and pious perspective. The Exaltación was republished a …

On That Heart-Knotting Feeling: An Outline, Lawrence Jy Liang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The following feeling is what inspired this thesis and what this thesis aims to outline: the human heart is a knot, formed by a string, tying a human being to the divine. Simone Weil’s notion of affliction will broach the topic of the heart-knotting feeling. In the first chapter of the thesis, five qualities of affliction will be identified. In the second chapter, we will make a connection between Weilian affliction and the heart, understood by Dietrich von Hildebrand as an organ of affectivity and by the author as a transcendent souvenir. In the third chapter, we will discuss Christian …

Marcion’S Gospel And The Resurrected Jesus Of Canonical Luke 24, Daniel A. Smith

Faculty Publications

From the publisher's website:

"New reconstructions of Marcion’s Gospel, which are considerably more sophisticated than past attempts, allow more certainty when comparing Marcion’s text with canonical Luke. This essay examines the presentations of the resurrected Jesus in canonical Luke and Marcion’s Gospel, with a particular focus on the text-critical problems in Luke 24 (especially the shorter Western readings) and on the distinctive ways the two texts theorize Jesus’ risen bodily presence (especially the terms φάντασμα and πνεῦμα, and σάρξ and ὀστέα). Parallel evidence from the letters of Ignatius indicates that the emphasis on touching Jesus, who has …

Irruption: Placing Theology At The Centre Of The Discourse On Church Amalgamation, John Mackenzie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

When church attendance declines, congregational amalgamation is often looked to as a solution. To that end, institutional church bodies responsible for ecclesiastical governance offer guidance literature as a means of shepherding congregations through this complex process. As it currently exists, however, such guidance literature on how to proceed with amalgamation focuses on practical matters, and neglects a theological dimension. The aim of this paper is to highlight this paucity of theological foundation in matters of church amalgamation, and posits that this engenders sub-optimal conditions for successful congregational amalgamation outcomes. It looks primarily to Friedrich Schleiermacher for theological insights that may …

The German Christians’ Influence On Barth’S Hamartiology Of Pride, Tom Linden

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In Church Dogmatics, IV/1, §60, Karl Barth wrote of “The Pride and Fall of Man,” the first theme in his hamartiology of pride, sloth and falsehood. This thesis will argue that Barth’s conflict with the German Christian Movement served as a source of Barth’s hamartiology of pride. This is specifically evidenced by the reference to Aaron as a man of the “national church” in the lengthy excursus on Exodus 32 in Church Dogmatics §60.

Weimar humiliation in Germany had provoked reaction in the movement for a nationalistic church, which Nazism attempted to absorb. Theologians Paul Althaus, Gerhard Kittel and …

La Identidad Cultural A Través Del Espacio Urbano Y Arquitectónico En La Ciudad De México: El Caso De La Villa De Guadalupe, Jamil Afana

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Today, the revered sanctuary of Tepeyac where the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe appeared in 1531, is one of the most visited sites in Mexico and one of the most culturally characteristics spaces of Mexico City. The urban and architectural space of guadalupanista sacred enclosure has continuously transformed since the sixteenth century. This focuses primarily on the years 1976 to 2011 to analyze the Mexican cultural identity that has developed during that time. Both dates are important because they represent the last two built interventions within the sanctuary and they mark the urban image of the sacred space and surroundings. In …

Le Détective Biblique: Daniel, "Le Festin De Balthazar" Ou Une Histoire Souterraine Du Roman Policier, Rebecca Josephy

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

La problématique de cette étude s’ancre dans un constat : à la fin du XIX^e siècle et au cours du XX^e un épisode biblique dans le Livre de Daniel, mieux connu sous le titre « Le Festin de Balthazar » apparaît dans un nombre significatif de romans policiers, y compris le tout premier texte de la série Sherlock Holmes, Une étude en rouge. Que pourrait expliquer cette occurrence fréquente dans un nombre aussi canonique d’œuvres du roman policier ? « Le Festin de Balthazar », pourrait-il être considéré comme un ancêtre lointain de ce genre littéraire ? …

Christian Kitsch: A Preliminary Examination Of Christian Materialism Through Theological Aesthetics And Cultural Politics, Michael A. Bodkin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As a massive phenomenon animating the world of cultural politics, kitsch sensibility emerges in Western Christian materialism as a means to easily mediate genuine, if sentimental, expressions of religious devotion. Scorned by others as the manipulation of “bad taste,” reverence through kitsch in contemporary religious art would be better taken to reflect a crisis in modern religious thought. This thesis employs the theological aesthetics of Hans Urs von Balthasar to argue that modern Christian kitsch is the active mistaking of poor theological quality as a source of beauty, which is primarily felt as the sensibility of losing dynamis. Its …

Rethinking Resurrection: Choosing Interdisciplinary Dialogue Over Dualism, Jesse Dymond

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Christianity is plagued by two dualistic concepts: first, an ontological dualism that divides the human person into body and soul, and second, an epistemological dualism that claims science and theology are incompatible. However, these polarized (and polarizing) theological frameworks are no longer sufficient, especially as scientific research provides new understanding about the brain and human identity. The existence of the nonphysical soul has long been called into question, thereby creating a theological crisis at the very core of Christian belief: the resurrection. This thesis will examine the crisis as it manifests itself in contemporary Christian society, pointing to the perpetuation …

Canada: Multiculturalism, Religion, And Accommodation, Brittainy R. Bonnis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In this thesis I use Critical Discourse Analysis to examine discursive constructions of identity (individual, religious, and national) within the framework of Canadian multiculturalism as they are constructed in two Canadian newspapers (the Toronto Star and the Gazette) between 2003 and 2013. I am particularly interested in how understandings of multiculturalism delimit the boundaries of belonging for religious practitioners in Canada. In chapter one I establish the academic context of this thesis and give a brief outline of the history of Canadian multiculturalism. In chapter two I focus on definitions and assessments of Canadian multiculturalism and the integration of …