Browsing by Subject "Poverty."
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Item Clare of Assisi : shaping a new paradigm of sainthood.(2010-02-02T20:07:11Z) Sutherland, Gabrielle E.; Hamilton, Jeffrey S.; Church and State.; Baylor University. Institute of Church-State Studies.Separating the historical figure of Saint Clare from the icon handed down from history is a significant part of this study. Part of the complexity of the life of Clare of Assisi rested in the negotiation of her very public spiritual life during a time of ecclesiastical reform and her formative association with the Franciscan movement. Another part of that construct can be attributed to her role in society as a noblewoman in the burgeoning Italian commune with all that involved. Finding the woman who was Clare within the iconic image passed down poses a challenge. The process of becoming a saint is a living dialogue between the saint-the-person and sainthood-the-symbol. Semiotic theory offers a method for studying this process of Clare-the-saint serving as image, becoming a symbol, and eventually a sign for her time—especially for women—as she grappled with questions of identity, redefined relationships, and applied her theories towards a model for Franciscan living. The legendae surrounding Clare (even those produced during her lifetime) were a significant element of this process, as the writers consciously drew upon traditional and contemporary themes from literature and iconic imagery. Clare employed similar themes in her own writings, and the Church did the same upon her death, using the occasion to re-formulate and more firmly cement canonization procedures.Item The kingship of Yahweh and the politics of poverty and oppression in the Hebrew Psalter.(2011-01-05T19:51:20Z) Wittman, Derek Edward, 1977-; Bellinger, W. H.; Religion.; Baylor University. Dept. of Religion.This dissertation is a rhetorical critical analysis of the Hebrew Psalter's use of language connoting poverty to portray Yahweh, ancient Israel, and foreign nations and to structure the literary relationships between them. It advances the thesis that such language functions to portray ancient Israel as an oppressed nation, to portray foreign nations as oppressors, and to portray Yahweh as a royal figure who acts as a just arbiter between them. The introductory chapter outlines the rhetorical critical methodology of this study, highlighting its emphasis on the reader's role in generating the sense of the text in light of the Psalter's canonical context. It also contains a summary of scholarship on the topic of poverty in the Psalter, including the issues of defining the scope of terminology that connotes poverty in the Psalter and determining the degree to which the Psalter views poverty in a literal or spiritual manner. The second chapter addresses the royal portrayal of Yahweh in the Psalter through the three lenses of scholarship on the enthronement psalms, theological analysis, and canonical criticism, and it includes a discussion of the significance of the relationship between the royal metaphor and the refuge metaphor in understanding the Psalter's view of poverty. The third chapter outlines the Psalter's portrayal of ancient Israel as an oppressed nation, with a particular emphasis on the communal psalms of lament and thanksgiving. It also includes a discussion of the Psalter's tendency to portray foreign nations in a negative light. The fourth chapter is an exegetical analysis of ten psalms that contain these three elements: language connoting poverty, references to foreign nations, and the royal portrayal of Yahweh. It demonstrates that the structures of these psalms lead the reader toward the conclusion that foreign oppressors are to be blamed for the suffering of an impoverished ancient Israel. Chapter five consists of a contextual analysis of these ten psalms. It addresses the repetition of the three aforementioned elements in psalms that precede and follow them. The final chapter contains an assessment of the study's implications for future scholarship on the Psalter and for practical theology.