Dissertations from the School of Arts and Sciences

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Dissertations from School of Arts and Sciences

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Dissertations from CUA School of Arts and Sciences

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dissertations, CUA School of Arts and Sciences

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: Anxiety, Sleep, and Functional Impairment among Clinically Anxious Youth and Healthy Controls; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America, Childhood anxiety disorders are characterized by non-transient excessive fear or worry that often affects various domains of life, including academic performance and social relationships (Albano & Detweiler, 2001; Langley, Bergman, McCracken, & Piacentini, 2004). A particular concern for children with anxiety disorders are sleep disturbances (Alfano, Ginsburg, & Kingery, 2007; Gregory, Eley, O'Connor, Rijsdijk, & Plomin, 2005). Without sufficient sleep, children experience functional impairments such as increased anxiety severity, academic problems, and behavior problems at school or home. Interestingly, the impairments of sleep deprivation are similar to those of anxiety in children (Crabtree & Witcher, 2008; Sadeh, Gruber, & Raviv, 2002). Although sleep problems are common in children with an anxiety disorder, the relationship between sleep difficulties and anxiety disorders in youth has been minimally studied (Alfano & Lewin, 2008). Moreover, whether children with a comorbid anxiety disorder and sleep difficulties experience greater functional impairment than do children with an anxiety disorder alone has not been empirically examined. The current study examined 60 non-depressed clinically anxious youth (ages 7-18) and 30 healthy controls. All participants underwent a diagnostic assessment and completed the parent/child Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), Life Events Scale (LES), Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS), and Family Risk Factor Checklist - Parent (FRFC-P) at baseline. Findings indicate that sleep functioning did not significantly differ between groups when controlling for age. Rather, sleep functioning was significantly related to life event stressors. In contrast, group differences were revealed in social functioning. Notably, greater social functional impairment was best predicted by anxiety symptom severity rather than sleep functioning. Together, these findings lend support to the necessary examination of compounded anxiety symptom severity and sleep functioning in an effort to better understand impairments associated with youth anxiety disorders, particularly social functioning. The results of this investigation can be used to inform the assessment and treatment of youth with anxiety disorders in an effort to minimize the development, maintenance, and impairments of anxiety associated with sleep problems (Alfano & Lewin, 2008)., Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-11T18:35:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cumba_cua_0043A_10473display.pdf: 518963 bytes, checksum: d857e70e8c22bc9487950c08f33f69d3 (MD5)

: Apocalyptic Expectation and Recognition in Shakespeare's Early Jacobean Plays; Scholars have long noted the prevalence of references to the apocalypse in Shakespeare’s plays from the early Jacobean period, but there are few sustained studies centered on the topic. In this work I will offer an extended treatment of Shakespeare’s use of the apocalypse in Measure for Measure, King Lear, Macbeth, and Antony and Cleopatra. This work attends to the historical understanding of the apocalypse available to Shakespeare as I seek to gain a fuller appreciation of how the material functions thematically and formally within the plays. These apocalyptic elements give weight and form to the expectations that direct the audience’s attention to the end to come, and then, undermine that expectation with an experience of recognition that mirrors the apocalyptic end. In Measure for Measure, the long, much-anticipated final scene upends judgment based merely on what is due, leading through the tribulating experience of self-knowledge to the challenge to extend and accept mercy, thereby making all things new. In Macbeth, the “vaulting ambition” that leads Macbeth to “jump the life to come” leaves him in a “restless ecstasy” that is hell on earth (1.7.27, 1.4.7, 3.2.24). In King Lear, patterns of “nothing” create an expectation of an apocalyptic unfolding of the ultimate abyss, or at least the “image of that horror” (5.3.262). Containing the most allusions to the Book of Revelation of any of his plays, Antony and Cleopatra translates the whole goal of the Aeneid, the future Golden Age of Rome, using only pre-Christian mythical elements, to portend the Golden Age of the Christian vision: “new heavens, new earth” (1.1.18). Allusions from the Book of Revelation cue the audience to recognize the beginnings of their own epoch prefigured in the seeking for more than Octavius’ Rome can offer, an age that Shakespeare’s audience knows did not last, as divinely foretold by Jupiter, sine fine dedi (Aeneid 1.279). In these plays, Shakespeare confronts the often complacent providentialism of his contemporaries with images of the true beauty and the horror of the Christian apocalypse, creating four of the most compelling artistic enactments of “the promised end” (King Lear 5.3.251)., English literature, Literature, Antony and Cleopatra, apocalypse, King Lear, Macbeth, Measure for Measure, Shakespeare, English Language and Literature, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America

: The Apophthegmata Patrum and the Greek Philosophical Tradition; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Early Christian Studies. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation traces the influence of the ancient philosophical schools upon the practices of the early Christian monastic communities that produced the Apophthegmata Patrum. Both ancient philosophy and early Christianity, especially in its monastic form, were complex social movements defined by their doctrines, but also by their distinctive community structures, pedagogy, and practices. Where studies of the relationship between Christianity and philosophy have tended to focus primarily on doctrinal questions, this project aims to explore various areas in order to develop a more subtle understanding. Both philosophy and monasticism represent elite spiritual groups within larger religious traditions, requiring a conversion in order to set out on the path. These conversions represented the crossing of a bright line, leaving behind an old life in order to adopt a new and fundamentally different identity. This required a measure of withdrawal from society at large, including stepping aside from common political and religious concerns, and, particularly in the monastic case, living in a separate community. It also entailed entering a personal relationship with a teacher, who would guide the convert in the new way of life. This mentorship was characterized by a therapeutic orientation, a desire not merely to teach the disciple new beliefs, but to treat the maladies of the soul. Achieving this therapeutic goal required a radical degree of openness on the part of the disciple, which allowed the teacher to understand all the unique elements of the individual case, and thus to address the disciple's errors frankly. A key element of the content of this teaching was the spiritual exercises, practiced in all the philosophical schools, and later adopted by the monks as well. The practitioner of either spiritual path would regularly examine their conscience in order to evaluate how successfully they were living up to their ideals. They would also memorize and reflect upon striking sayings from the leading lights of their communities (and, in the monastic case, upon the Christian scriptures). Additionally, they would reflect upon their inevitable mortality. These three practices combined to help form an attitude of focused attention to the present moment known as "vigilance" or "watchfulness". In this state of vigilance, the philosopher and the monk would be able to instantiate the commitments of their chosen path at every moment of life. While these practices were inflected differently in the different communities that employed them, the similarities are systematic and consistent. It is clear that the monks of the Apophthegmata Patrum were building deliberately and creatively upon philosophical precedents.

: The Arabic Letters of the Byzantine Emperor Leo III to the Caliph 'Umar Ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz: An Edition, Translation and Commentary; This study explores the tradition of the epistolary exchange between the two famous figures, the Byzantine emperor Leo III and the ‘Umayyad caliph, ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Azīz. Several Christian and Muslim authors have over the centuries provided accounts of the tradition that ‘Umar sent a letter to Leo to inquire about Christian doctrines and practices and that Leo replied to him. In addition to these accounts, copies of letter purporting to have been written by Leo and ‘Umar have come down to us in the manuscript tradition in Arabic, Armenian, Latin and Aljamiado. There have been studies concerning the authorship and provenance of these letters.This study continues the scholarly discussion on this tradition based on the newly available manuscript, which contains two letters in Arabic attributed to Leo. The manuscript is among so-called ‘new finds’ in the library of St. Catherine Monastery at Mt. Sinai. This study presents the first edition of these Arabic texts, with English translation and commentary. Based on the examination of the new source, this study sheds new light on the correspondence between Leo and ‘Umar. The content and style of the Arabic letters of Leo show that they were written by an anonymous Christian author living in the second half of the eighth century. These texts seem to have been composed by a Melkite author, probably living either in the monastery of Mar Sabas or Mar Chariton in Judean desert. They show how the Christian author wrote the defense of Christian doctrines and practices such as divinity of Christ, the Eucharist and the veneration of the cross. Arabic was a new language for Christian writers in this era; the author used many expressions found in the Qur’ān. The purpose of the composition of these texts is to provide Christian audiences with ready replies to objections to their faith coming from Muslim polemicists, in order to encourage them to keep their Christian faith. Additionally, a close analysis of the first Arabic letter of Leo in comparison with the Latin version of the letter ascribed to Leo shows that both letters are from the same earlier text, written in Arabic. This anti-Muslim polemical text was not only read by Christians in the East, but also known to the Christian in the West through Latin translation., Middle Eastern literature, Christian Arabic, Christian-Muslim polemics, Correspondence, Leo III, Melkites, 'Umar II, Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America

: Arachnopoetics: Spiders and Webs in the American Literary Imagination; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America, Spider and web imagery abounds in American literature from the colonial era through the present, appearing in the work of writers ranging from beloved children's authors (e.g., L. Frank Baum, E. B. White, Shel Silverstein) to revered poets (e.g., Edward Taylor, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost) and canonical novelists (e.g., Mark Twain, Vladimir Nabokov, Toni Morrison) to genre superstars (e.g., Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman). There is a great deal of variety in the nature of that imagery among different texts, where the spider is cast in opposite roles - predator and prey, creator and destroyer, hero and villain - and possesses incompatible characteristics: intelligence and foolishness, wildness and domesticity, kindness and cruelty. Arachnopoetics investigates spiders and webs in dozens of primary sources to determine the range of functions spiders perform in American literature as well as the correspondingly varied tones the texts adopt toward them. The method of close reading employed incorporates techniques from traditional poetics and contemporary stylistics. This study argues that the spider is a flexible figure in the American literary imagination, capable of embodying the wonders and horrors of both the unknowable other and the intimate self. Unlike other commonly feared creatures, the spider offers a combination of the sublime and beautiful: its alien physical form provokes terror and disgust even as its ability to spin delicate webs inspires admiration and awe. In an examination of spiders across genres, variations of particular types emerge. For instance, the spider appears as a monster in cautionary tales for young readers, frequently inflated to a gigantic size, and these giant spiders also populate the adult genres of horror and science fiction, while in literary fiction and poetry, predatory spiders (literal and metaphorical) are often used to help establish character and theme. Through an analysis of diverse passages and poems, this study demonstrates the peculiar status of the spider within American literature as a creature of powerful contradictions. The chapters are as follows: Introduction; 1: Children's Literature; 2: Poetry; 3: Literary Fiction; 4: Popular Fiction; and Conclusion.

: Aramaic Poetry in Qumran; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America, Aramaic Poetry in QumranPeter Y. LeeDirector: Edward M. Cook, Ph.D.The often fragmentary Aramaic texts preserved by the Qumran community represent a large collection of well edited texts, whose publications have triggered numerous contributions that have brought a significantly clearer understanding of them. Little attention, however, has been devoted to the poetic structure of these Aramaic texts, much less on Aramaic literature as a whole. This study presents a model for the analysis of Aramaic poetic texts as well as a detailed poetic discussion of six Aramaic texts within the Qumran collection. These texts are: 1) 4Q246, "The Son of God" text; 2) 4QLevia, a portion of the wisdom poem in the Aramaic Levi Document; 3) 4Q534, "The Elect of God" text; 4) 4Q542, The Testament of Qahat; 5) 4Q541, two fragments from the Apocryphon of Levi; 6) 1QapGen, the beauty of Sarai in the Genesis Apocryphon. Three have been previously identified as poetic, namely 4Q246, the wisdom poem in ALD, and the beauty of Sarai. The poetic nature of the remaining three has not. Also included are the eight poetic passages from the Aramaic portions of the Book of Daniel: 2:20-23 (=4QDana), 3:33-4:2; 4:7b-14; 4:31-32; 6:27b-28; 7:9-10; 7: 13-14; 7:23-27. Combined, this study examines over 124 lines of poetry. These texts use literary features and devices that are characteristic of poetic texts, specifically parallelism and terseness. It is the interrelationship between these two particular poetic devices that is the hallmark characteristic of Aramaic poetry. In addition to these is the use of imagery, strophic formations, and sound repetitions. The application of all these various techniques within any given text is what identifies it as poetic. It is what makes Aramaic poetry poetic., Made available in DSpace on 2011-06-24T17:12:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lee_cua_0043A_10214display.pdf: 1578676 bytes, checksum: 4be882fbecaa640cc079c81322c0f963 (MD5)

: Arcadian Exile: The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau's Political Thought; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, The purpose of this dissertation is to correct oversimplified readings of Henry David Thoreau's political thought by elucidating a tension within his imagination. Drawing on the work of Claes Ryn, imagination is here conceived as a form of consciousness that is creative and constitutive of our most basic sense of reality. The imagination both shapes and is shaped by will/desire and is capable of a broad and qualitatively diverse range of intuition which varies depending on one's orientation of will. The criterion for determining the quality of the orientation of will and imagination is experiential reality of a certain kind. The moral and philosophical life constantly involves a struggle between an attunement or will to reality and a revolt against, or an evasion of, reality. The former characterizes the higher will and the corresponding moral imagination, while the revolt or evasion distinguishes the lower will and the idyllic imagination. This study outlines a theory of imagination and applies it to an analysis of the moral-idyllic tension in Thoreau's political thought. Thoreau's preference for an abstract, ahistorical "higher law," his radical concept of autonomy, and his frustration with government and community foster an impractical political thought characteristic of the idyllic imagination. Nevertheless, Thoreau demonstrates a moral imagination by emphasizing the inescapable relationship between the moral order of individuals and the order of political communities. This study further applies the theory of imagination to Thoreau's view of nature and the non-human world. On the idyllic side is the Thoreau who longs for an escape from human community and social obligations by withdrawing to nature, and by idealizing the non-human world as a perfect companion and as divine. On the moral side is the Thoreau that awakens others to the underappreciated sanctity, beauty, mystery and value of nature. Thoreau's overall vision ultimately creates significant problems with which environmentalists still struggle. While Thoreau's emphasis on freedom and the immaterial aspects of human and non-human nature are of considerable value, his abstract political morality, misanthropy and escapism must be resisted both for the sake of environmental well-being and human dignity.

: "Art to Enchant": Shakespeare's Player-Dramatists Staging Recognition Scenes; In the mid and late twentieth century, scholars became fascinated with the way Shakespeare uses theatrical metaphors. The introduction of the term “metatheatre” in the 1960s launched a school of criticism that examines Shakespeare’s plays as self-consciously theatrical. To clarify some of the ambiguity surrounding the term “metatheatre,” this dissertation examines a class of characters I have denominated “player-dramatists.” The player-dramatists are characters who present any fiction intended for an audience inside the play. The dramas of the player-dramatists range from formal plays-within-plays, as in Hamlet, to other kinds of showmanship involving an audience, as in Don Pedro’s loud conversation staged to be overheard by Benedick. In every case, the player-dramatist attempts to hide some part of his or her artifice from the audience within the play. When the “in-play” audience comes to recognize that an artifice has been used, Shakespeare’s player-dramatists use this recognition to accomplish various goals. In the earliest plays, from Comedy of Errors to Much Ado About Nothing, the player-dramatists are largely concerned with changing behaviors in their in-play audience, almost to the point of seeming didactic. In the middle plays, from As You Like It to All’s Well That Ends Well, the player-dramatists use the recognition for a greater variety of ends; occasionally the end is related to audience behavior, but increasingly the player-dramatists use drama for private purposes of their own. Sometimes these player-dramatists overestimate the power of drama and try to use it for ends to which it is not suited. In the Jacobean plays from Measure for Measure to The Tempest the player-dramatists have a much greater impact on their audiences than their predecessors. This impact is related to the way in which the player-dramatists draw their in-play audiences into taking active part in the drama. These player-dramatists become increasingly successful as they move from using drama as a mere tool to shape an audience and begin to treat it as an opportunity for the audience to reshape itself. Although the typical effect of recognition in the late plays is a profound sense of wonder, the latest player-dramatist recognize the limitations as well as the power of drama. I conclude that the study of player-dramatists reveals something of Shakespeare’s understanding of his own drama. Like the player-dramatists, he often beguiles theater audiences into responding to the action of the play in ways that can and should lead to self-recognition, insofar as the audience is willing., English literature, Theater, anagnorisis, bisociation, metatheatre, player-dramatist, recognition, Shakespeare, English Language and Literature, Degree Awarded: Ph.D. English Language and Literature. The Catholic University of America

: Assembly of Bacteriophage T4 DNA Packaging Motor: Analysis of Portal-Terminase Interactions; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Biology. The Catholic University of America, The icosahedral double-stranded DNA bacteriophages and herpes viruses package their genomes into preformed proheads by a powerful ATP driven motor. The packaging motor, an oligomer of gp17 (large terminase) in phage T4, is assembled at the special portal vertex of the empty prohead. The T4 motor is the fastest and most powerful motor reported to date. gp17 has an N-terminal ATPase that powers DNA translocation and a C-terminal translocase that causes DNA movement. The dynamic interactions between the motor (gp17) and the portal (gp20) are however poorly understood. Here, using biochemistry, bioinformatics, structure, and molecular genetics, the site in gp17 that interacts with the dodecameric portal protein is determined. Biochemical and structural studies suggest that the N-terminal domain of gp17 interacts with gp20, and that the stoichiometry of prohead-gp17 complex is five subunits of gp17 to twelve subunits of gp20. Sequence alignments predict that there are two potential portal binding sites in gp17. Mutational studies show that the portal binding site I in the N-terminal domain is critical for function whereas the site II in the C-terminal domain is not critical. Second site suppressors of site I D331Q mutant (temperature sensitive) show a single intragenic mutation in the helix-loop-helix (HLH) of N-terminal sub-domain II, suggesting the importance of this motif in portal interaction. Fitting the X-ray structure of gp17 into the cryo-EM density of portal-motor complex showed the same HLH (amino acids 333-352) in contact with gp20. A peptide corresponding to the HLH motif specifically binds to proheads as well as inhibits DNA packaging in vitro. Swapping of non-conserved residues of the helix, but not the conserved residues of the loop, from T4-family phages relieves the DNA packaging inhibition. Together these data for the first time identify a HLH motif in gp17 that interacts with gp20, leading to models for symmetry mismatch between the packaging motor and the portal as well as implications to the mechanism of viral DNA translocation., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:46:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Hegde_cua_0043A_10057display.pdf: 4743078 bytes, checksum: 6d427b395d892815cb664cba9e4c2f9d (MD5)

: Association and meaning in schizophrenics and normals /

: Atlantic Connections: Gender and Antislavery women in the United States and Britain; Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, The importance of antislavery activism in the rise of feminism in the US and Great Britain has long been acknowledged by historians of women in both countries. However, the historiography of antislavery women is missing important analytical elements: the role of class and attention to the words of the women themselves. Antislavery women were the first to advocate for their own rights to speak in public, participate in political debates and to challenge the ideology of separate spheres. The way in which antislavery women negotiated the restrictions on their own behavior reshaped the class-based gender roles that were being established in the first half of the nineteenth century. The way in which the middle class defined itself in each country limited how far antislavery women could bend gender roles. American women were able to make a case for their right to speak in public and participate in mixed-gender meetings much earlier than British women, mainly due to the fact that the middle class in America constructed itself in a racial and ethnic diametric. The letters, speeches and diaries of antislavery women illuminate how the leaders of the movement were able to challenge the boundaries of proper behavior and shift the margins of separate spheres to make advocacy for the slave permissible. In doing so, they realized the inequality they and all women lived under. The turning point for this realization was the 1840 World's Antislavery Convention in London, which brought together antislavery women from both sides of the Atlantic, forging and strengthening ties between individuals and groups of women involved in antislavery work. The networks created between 1840 and 1860 aided women in their antislavery work, but also supplied a support network that allowed women to circumvent the male-dominated antislavery movement in Britain and to exchange information about women's rights as well as antislavery issues. The lessons learned in the antislavery movement provided a strong base for feminist assertions in the second half of the nineteenth century for both American and British women. Women's rights activists drew on the skills and spaces their antislavery predecessors had carved out for women., Made available in DSpace on 2011-03-01T11:47:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Richmond_cua_0043A_10171display.pdf: 1312558 bytes, checksum: 9abad92807d2accde3cbd5239efe244a (MD5)

: Augustine the Preacher and the Judgment of God; Although the judgment of God is a dominant theme in Augustine’s Sermones ad populum, it has not yet been studied effectively. The problem is that modern scholarship strives to relate the judgment of God to other aspects of Christian teaching, or to understand its place in Augustine’s own thought, without consideration of its relevance for the life of the individual members of the Christian community. Not enough has been said about Augustine’s concrete exposition and application of this teaching, that is, his efforts to bring the judgment of God to bear on individual behaviors, and thereby to establish a dynamic link between personal life experience and ultimate human destiny. This study provides a comprehensive overview of Augustine’s homiletic application of the various teachings that are associated with divine judgment. These include original sin; divine mercy and justice; God’s activity in the world; his desire for the salvation of sinners; the incomprehensibility of divine election; the need for faith, love, and repentance to be saved; divine displeasure with sins and approval of works of charity; the divinely appointed means for receiving the forgiveness of sins in the one true Church; God’s judgment on those who unworthily partake in Christian sacraments and rituals; the mixture and separation of the good and the bad; various elements of the last judgment of Christ; and the timing of the last day. All of this amounts to what God has revealed in scripture and commanded his bishops to preach concerning the path of salvation. This is a contextualized study of the sermons, in which Augustine is portrayed as more than a thinker or a theologian. He is also a bishop, a shepherd of souls and a watchman over his flock, ever vigilant against the real dangers – both internal and external – that jeopardize the eternal welfare of his people. The same teachings are therefore applied differently in different sermons, which are distinct in their time, place, and audience. The content and style of Augustine’s preaching depends on his perception of what his listeners most need to hear., Degree awarded: Ph.D. Greek and Latin. The Catholic University of America

: Ausonius of Bordeaux: Grammar, Rhetoric and the Establishment of a Christian Culture in the Late Roman West

: Bands of Brothers: The Negotiation of Identity in the Congregation of the Mission's Polish Vice-Province in the United States, 1903--1975.; Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, Bands of Brothers: The Negotiation of Identity in the Congregation of the Mission's Polish Vice-Province in the United States, 1903--1975.Charles R. KaczyńskiDirector: Leslie Tentler, Ph.D.The historical literature on late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Polish Catholic immigration to the United States includes numerous studies of conflicts between the immigrant laity and members of the Catholic clergy, both Polish- and American-born. While scholars have closely studied the laity's motivations and the conflicts' outcomes, little attention has been given to the Polish immigrant clergy who came to the United States to minister to the spiritual needs of the laity and their perspective on these tensions.This dissertation fills a gap in this historical literature by examining the history of the Polish Vice-Province in the United States of the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentian Fathers) from the first Polish Missionaries' arrival in 1903 to the reconstitution of the Polish Vice-Province as the autonomous New England Province in 1975. Drawing on theoretical frameworks developed by T. H. Breen and Benedict Anderson, this dissertation analyzes the role that competing ethnic and clerical identities played in the Polish Vice-Province's ability to resolve conflicts with its Mother Province in Poland and the Eastern Province of the United States as well as with Polish secular priests serving in Catholic dioceses throughout the eastern half of the United States. While these conflicts were, in themselves, difficult to solve, negotiations between these different groups of priests were further complicated by global events, such as the First World War, the Great Depression, and the Second World War, as well as by the assimilation of later generations of Polish Americans.Utilizing materials collected from archives in the United States and Europe and oral interviews with members of the New England Province and alumni of the Polish Vice-Province's former high school in Erie, Pennsylvania, this dissertation concludes that ethnic identity continued to be a significant factor in the history of the Polish Vice-Province in the United States well into the second half of the twentieth century., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:47:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Kaczynski_cua_0043A_10066display.pdf: 2079548 bytes, checksum: ca29cea5e83c29872de5b92bef2f6f19 (MD5)

: Bar Daysan and Mani in Ephraem the Syrian's Heresiography; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America, Before May 24, 2015, this dissertation can be viewed by CUA users only. [24 months embargo], This project addresses Ephraem's approach to Bar Daysan and Mani in his heresiology. The primary aim is to reveal Ephraem's conception of the threat that Bar Daysanism and Manichaeism posed to Ephraem's own community and to analyze Ephraem's response to that threat by expounding on key texts in Ephraem's polemical writings, the collections of his Prose Refutations and Hymns against Heresies. The focus is on three particular ways by which Ephraem casts his opponents as heretics. First, it addresses his attacks on the credibility of his opponents as teachers. Second, it deals with Ephraem's assertion that the apparently pious actions of his opponents are deceptive. Third, it considers how Ephraem is working to create a certain image of these opponents as heretics in the minds of his community. With these characteristics of Ephraem's heresiology in mind, the first chapter of this dissertation will provide a historical backdrop of the setting of fourth century northern Mesopotamia, focusing on the socio-religious settings of Nisibis and Edessa, Ephraem's primary residences. The second chapter will discuss the connection between Ephraem's conception of the correct approach to theology and his approach to doing heresiology. The third chapter will focus on Ephraem's claim against the authority of these teachers and their followers to teach, to interpret scriptures, and to perform sacraments. The fourth chapter will look at Ephraem's depiction of these heretics' apparent virtue as malicious vice and their rites as fruitless chores. The fifth chapter will offer an exposition of the characterization of these heretics that Ephraem is aiming to form in the minds of his audience through an evaluation of the imagery he uses throughout his prose and metrical refutations., Made available in DSpace on 2013-06-25T14:59:01Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Morehouse_cua_0043A_10430display.pdf: 1929150 bytes, checksum: c42b2fd5797e858c8dba11a15783af9b (MD5)

: Becoming a patrician: Alejandro Galvis Galvis and the Liberal Party in Santander, 1915-1931; Degree awarded: Ph.D. History. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation examines the earlier career and intellectual formation of the liberal colombian politician Alejandro Galvis Galvis (1891-1981). To do so, it situates his biography within the context of the long history of economic modernization in the department of Santander. At the end of the colonial period, Santander was an agricultural society of small farmers and artisans; over the nineteenth century, the state transitioned to a coffee-growing region dominated by elite landowners and merchant families who facilitate export-led growth. By the early twentieth century, increasing industrialization and cyclical collapse of the export market had created new openings for social and political change.During the first two decades of his political career, Alejandro Galvis Galvis helped to transform Santander into a laboratory of reformist ideas. Indeen, Santander was one of the first regions of Colombia to witness worker movements during the second decade of the twentieth century. Although he is often portrayed as a privileged and distant oligarch, this study suggests that Galvis Galvis in fact had a populist approach to politics. As the leader of the liberal party, he was in close contact with the peasants, workers, and artisans that formed the base of the party in Santander. This approach would be implemented on a national scale after the Liberal Party took power in Colombia in 1930, particularly under President Alfonso Lopez Pumarejo between 1934 and 1938., Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-24T15:03:37Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Castro_cua_0043A_10524display.pdf: 3343708 bytes, checksum: 7d706f137cf5b7f9757cb5498157bb57 (MD5)

: Beginning at the End: Literary Unity and the Relationship between Anthropology and Liturgy in the Protevangelium Jacobi (P. Bodm. 5); Degree awarded: Ph.D. Early Christian Studies. The Catholic University of America, The Protevangelium Jacobi(/italic) is categorized in scholarship as apocryphal. Yet, while instability seems to be the only unifying characteristic of early Christian apocryphal literature, the manuscript tradition of the treatise is remarkably stable. The text is attributed to an apostle and was early considered part of the tradition of the Church.This thesis argues that the author of PJ is not trying to add to the New Testament canon but has, rather, two aims: first, to teach the hermeneutics and techniques for confirming that the Scriptures are written according to technê and that the writings constituting the New Testament are written "according to the Scriptures"; second, to provide the knowledge and critical skills for ensuring the unaltered tradition of these texts and teachings. The text, rather than announcing these aims, leaves it to the reader to discover them. Elements of the text such as grammatical terminology (historia), repetitions of words and phrases, and allusions to intertexts are included in the different manuscript versions to assist the reader in assessing the fidelity of the copy, identifying the main reference works, and determining its subject matter.Analyzing the technical usage of the term historia and reading the text according to the teachings of grammatikê suggest that the writing is a "synoptic" combination of text and clarifying commentary. Morphological and syntactical characteristics of the individual words and phrases bound together in a sentence or embedded in brief narratives, dialogues, or speeches have a heuristic function--they point to glosses in the text (such as paraphrases, repetitions, comparisons, or material for analogies) and to external sources which can expand, complete, and clarify concise passages.While such an interweaving of narrative and commentary clarifies what is said, it also requires transmitting the written text without alterations--even when misspellings seem to beg correction. Features of the text (omissions, orthographic or syntactic errors) that initially seem redundant or incorrect, analyzed grammatically, clarify the argument, allowing the reader to deduce its proposition. The authors of different manuscript versions of PJ use various methods (acrostics, halved lines, references to grammatical terminology and paradeigmata) to prevent permanent alterations., Made available in DSpace on 2011-03-01T11:46:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Raithel_cua_0043A_10176display.pdf: 5041533 bytes, checksum: aa02b07576afe79bbf03a71bf6a4d067 (MD5)

: The Biblical Hebrew Transitivity Alternation in Cognitive Linguistic Perspective; Degree Awarded: Ph.D. Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures. The Catholic University of America, That there exists a group of biblical Hebrew verbs which appear in both transitive and intransitive grammatical constructions has long been recognized. However, explanations of this phenomenon among modern BH grammarians, especially regarding the grammatical status of the Object, have been unsatisfactorily vague. Many issues relevant to the BH transitivity alternation (e.g. valency, transitivity, lability, verb classes, and constructional semantics) have received sustained treatment in the broader linguistic community. The purpose of this dissertation is to offer an extended treatment of the BH transitivity alternation utilizing the theory and methods of Cognitive Grammar and the related (sub)discipline Construction Grammar. This investigation explains the relationship of these BH verbs to their associated nouns with reference to the prototypical and schematic transitive event. Many BH verbs which permit the transitivity alternation exhibit significant semantic overlap allowing them to be categorized and analyzed as "verb classes." The benefit of analyzing verbs by class is that it increases the amount of data (an important feature when working with a dead language) and, more importantly, it enables the isolation of common lexical qualities that contribute to a verb's ability to appear in alternate constructions. The BH verb classes analyzed are: Verbs of Dressing and Undressing ,Verbs of Dwelling, and Verbs of Fullness and Want. After a consideration of BH verb classes, the same methods are applied to a selection of miscellaneous BH verbs which also exhibit the transitivity alternation. This study concludes that the BH transitivity alternation is licensed and limited by conceptual factors. Though often translated and interpreted as essentially synonymous expressions, verbs exhibiting the transitivity alternation actually offer alternate construals of the realities they represent and therefore should be regarded as having different meanings. It is argued that the meaning of these BH verbs must be established on the basis of the unique combination of verbal and constructional (or syntactic) semantics. Both transitive and intransitive constructions construe verbal meaning in accordance with certain conventionalized image schemas. Such construal is based, at least in part, on the imagination, goals, and intentions of the speaker.

: Bilingualism, Cognition, and Successful Aging; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Psychology. The Catholic University of America, This dissertation aimed to answer the following questions: (1) Does bilingualism affect performance in an implicit sequence-learning task and an executive control task? (2) Specifically, do older bilinguals show increased performance measures than older monolinguals in an implicit sequence-learning task and an executive control task? (3) Are second language proficiency, language usage, and age of acquisition important factors in acquiring cognitive benefits? College-aged and older adult Spanish-English bilinguals and English monolinguals participated. With traditional analyses, young bilinguals demonstrated greater executive control than young monolinguals, but the older groups performed the same. Novel distributional analyses uncovered differences among the older groups, such that older bilinguals had better executive control than older monolinguals. Bilinguals and monolinguals performed equivalently on the implicit-sequence learning task. Second language proficiency and language usage did not affect performance on either task, but bilinguals who had been speaking two languages from a young age performed better than people who learned a second language later in life on both the implicit sequence-learning task and the executive control task. Implications are discussed., Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:48:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Romano_cua_0043D_10027display.pdf: 1356932 bytes, checksum: 47e4343966a3d40092ad775bb6544422 (MD5)

: The Bill of Rights and Federalism: An Interpretation in Light of the Unwritten Constitution; Degree awarded: Ph.D. Politics. The Catholic University of America, According to conventional understanding, the primary purpose behind the framing and ratification of the Constitution was to preserve liberty through a form of government that provided for a highly structured system of federalism and separation of powers. The primary purpose behind the framing and ratification of the Bill of Rights was to allay Anti-Federalist fears that the Constitution did not sufficiently secure individual rights. For that reason, the original Constitution is frequently contrasted with the Bill of Rights. Yet distinguishing between the Constitution and the Bill of Rights obscures more about the nature of the Bill of Rights than it discloses. It is agreed that one of the primary Anti-Federalist objections to the Constitution was the absence of a bill of rights. A close examination of the debate over the absence of a bill of rights reveals that the first ten amendments to the Constitution occupy a much more complex place in the constitutional scheme than is commonly assumed. While individual rights did constitute an important theme during the ensuing debate concerning the importance of a bill of rights, they were not the only theme or even the prevailing theme. A historically, philosophically, and textually informed examination of the Bill of Rights reveals that it was attentive to constitutional structure and was intended to reinforce the commitment to federalism in the original Constitution. The Federal government could not intrude upon the subtle and often fragile social and legal arrangements pertaining to such matters which evolved over a long period of time at the state level. These prerogatives were protected by the several state constitutions, state statutes, and the unwritten common law. This study challenges the conventional wisdom and decades of constitutional jurisprudence, which have assumed that the purpose of the Bill of Rights was to guarantee individual rights. If properly interpreted, the Bill of Rights would serve to decentralize authority, leaving many more decisions to the states and what Robert Nisbet described as "autonomous associations.", Made available in DSpace on 2011-02-24T20:46:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Devaney_cua_0043A_10104display.pdf: 680381 bytes, checksum: 0393c6ed28281e7641268a8f70ea6ff5 (MD5)