This thesis offers a novel interpretation of 1 Cor 11:2–16 in light of the Roman ritual practice of capite velato—a custom of covering the head with a garment during prayer, sacrifice, and divination. It traces linguistic and conceptual links between ancient descriptions and depictions of capite velato and 1 Cor 11:2–16, and demonstrates that this ritual gesture must have been familiar to Paul and his Corinthian interlocutors. With the aid of cognitive science of religion, this thesis explores the possible reasons for and implications of Paul's instructions on this Roman custom in First Corinthians. It argues that 1 Cor 11:2–16 preserves a clash of values between Paul and his addressees in regards to the correct procedure and efficacy of prayer and accessing of divine knowledge: some in Corinth had begun to argue that for the sake of uniformity, all members of the Christ association, including married women of all cultures, should strip their heads of everything when in prayer or when seeking divine knowledge to match the appearance of Roman men whom Paul had asked not to pray with garments over the head. In response to this, Paul found a way to argue that praying with a garment over the head is only shameful for men, but the same does not apply for women, and so women can keep their head-coverings and hair accessories on during prayer and prophecy. While these instructions may have been intelligible to the original readers, later interpreters of Paul, who had no knowledge of the Sitz im Leben that prompted 1 Cor 11:2–16, misunderstood and misappropriated Paul's instructions in this passage, mistakenly believing Paul to have been solely concerned with a faction of rebellious women in the Corinthian congregation. These assumptions have dominated the readings of 1 Cor 11:2–16, but this thesis offers an alternative interpretation that builds on a more accurate understanding of ancient customs and ideals related to ritual head-coverings.

RESEARCH QUESTION

Did the diaspora synagogue substitute the second temple after 70 CE as Judaean ethnocultural  hub wherein rival Pharisee think tanks would elect themselves carrier groups of two contesting narrations - each addressing the collective trauma of the temple’s fall by separately appropriating memory creation to metaphorically rebuild it in competing Jewish traditions, both in incubation during the late first century?

THEORY

My theory is that both proto-christian and proto-rabbinic thought initially gained consensus among first century Judaeans owing to a post-70 CE preoccupation with ethnocultural survival that was piloted by a collective trauma sparked by the destruction of the temple - all resulting in a veritable zeitgeist experience of covenantal discontinuity. I posit that it was thereafter the diaspora synagogue that brokered the formation of two leading models of covenantal continuity - essentially palliating the trauma by ‘metaphorically rebuilding the temple’ via contending Davidic-Messianic and Mosaic-Sinaitic models (each of which successfully ‘reconstructed’ the ancient cultic centre from within that ‘substitute’ locum sacrum at those geographical peripheries far from Ha Arez i.e. the diaspora synagogue). I postulate that the same two competing traditions originally hailed from the Pauline and Yahvnean schools respectively and that both started out as quintessentially Judaean creations jointly sourced by Pharisee thinking.

HYPOTHESIS 

The post-destruction diaspora synagogue would become a ‘substitute locum sacrum’ for the fallen temple from which a developing contest for covenantal continuity gradually gained sufficient traction to pilot a process of mutual delegitimation between the two leading Pharisee think tanks who got ‘first past the post’ in competing for ascendancy.  

I denna uppsats studeras Wilfrid Stinissen som en modern mystiker utifrån hans förståelse av jagets död. Stinissen var en belgisk-svensk katolsk präst, filosofie doktor och karmelitbroder som föddes 1927 i Antwerpen och som bosatte sig i Sverige 1967. Fram till sin död 2013 var han en produktiv författare av kristen andakts- och uppbyggelselitteratur med ett särskilt fokus på den karmelitiska, mystika traditionen. 

Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera Stinissen som en mystiker i ljuset av moderna föreställningar om individen och jaget. Den övergripande problemställningen lyder: Framstår Stinissen som en modern mystiker, och i så fall hur? Metoden är en närläsning av ett primärmaterial bestående av nio verk i Stinissens författarskap. 

Uppsatsens slutsats är att Stinissen framstår som en modern mystiker genom sin förmåga att kombinera medeltida mystik med modern individualism. Han träffar de punkter där de är överens med varandra, och när teocentrisk och antropocentrisk individualism står i motsatsförhållande visar Stinissen på en medelväg. Han formar en slags modernitet där den enskilde individen uppmuntras att på samma gång finna både sitt äkta jag och Gud inom sig. 

This thesis examines the effectiveness of India's National Green Tribunal (NGT) in safeguarding the environment, mitigating climate change, impacting environmental justice, and protecting human rights. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research focuses on the Indian dedicated environmental court, the NGT as the primary case together with two nested case studies of an Indigenous tribe, the Idu Mishmi people of Arunachal Pradesh in addition to the Ranthambore Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan and the forest dwellers who have lived with-in the reserve's territory for generations. 

By analyzing the NGT's functioning, its impact on specific cases, and the experiences of affected communities, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities associated with achieving environmental justice in India. The study also explores the interplay between environmental legislation, the role of the NGT, and NGT's contribution to India's sustainability commitments. 

Key findings reveal that while the NGT has played a vital role in addressing environmental issues, its effectiveness is constrained by factors such as limited resources, non-compliance with judgments, and an uneven power balance. The study highlights NGT's role in balancing development with ecological sustainability. 

There are also several barriers to climate justice in India, both practical and ideological challenges. Starting with the practical barriers, according to the findings of this study, the biggest obstacle to climate justice in India is not a lack of laws or court rulings, but a failure to implement them. Despite NGT’s fines and guidelines, there is often a lack of resources and incentives for companies and government agencies to comply. The study further emphasizes that regulatory agencies like state pollution control boards often lack the staff and capacity to monitor and enforce environmental laws. This undermines the possibility of achieving climate justice, as violations go undetected or unaddressed. Corporations, particularly in the energy and mining sectors, also actively oppose stricter environmental laws through lobbying, often portraying environmental protection as an obstacle to economic development and arguing that it hinders job creation and economic growth. Continuing further to the ideological barriers, there is a widespread belief, among both politicians and the public, that environmental protection conflicts with economic development. This perspective hinders progress in climate justice, as it creates a false dichotomy between economic and environmental goals. 

Recommendations include increasing the NGT's capacity, strengthening enforcement mechanisms, and fostering greater collaboration between the NGT, government agencies, and civil society organizations. These measures are essential for ensuring the NGT's continued effectiveness in safeguarding the environment, mitigating climate change simultaneously, and promoting environmental justice and sustainable development in India. 

This dissertation offers a detailed analysis of birth metaphors in Job 1, 3, 10, 38, and 39 by using blending theory, supplemented by conceptual metaphor theory. It explores both metaphors that describe birth and those that use birth as a metaphor for other concepts, such as creation and death. It also concerns related concepts such as fetal formation, womb, and stillbirth. The metaphors are studied in their cultural and literary contexts, as well as how they are grounded in embodied experiences of birth. Blending theory explains various cognitive processes and can analyze both conventional metaphors and new, complex ones. It explains the debated expression of death as a return to the womb in Job 1:21, based on a cognitive process where something is understood through negated features of its antonym. A detailed mapping of the metaphors in Job 3 reveals, contrary to the dominant interpretation, that Job does not wish to curse all of creation but only the day he was born. Furthermore, it shows that the womb is blended with the grave and Sheol, but without projecting any positive associations of the womb to the realm of death. This study examines how conventional metaphors are replaced by new ones and demonstrates how the birth metaphors in Job 38–39 challenge the traditional combat motif, where God is seen as combating the sea and wild chaotic forces. The portrayal of God as a midwife includes an act of breaking the limit to the sea, which contradicts the combat motif. Rather than dominating creation, God is depicted as a midwife and a parent who is close to it, providing all wild creatures with food and freedom. Overall, the study underscores the central position of birth metaphors in these key chapters of Job. A close analysis of the metaphors contributes to the interpretation of the biblical text, from the understanding of specific Hebrew words to how innovative metaphors challenge both the beliefs of their time and current interpretations.