DOCSLIB.ORG

Sermon: Once Upon a Paradise

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sermon: Once Upon a Paradise 1 Sermon: Once upon a paradise Pastor Sandeep Thomas Aug 10th,, 2014 Gen 2:4-25 I want to welcome each one of you to Argentine Mennonite Church. Church means a called out community. Each week from the pulpit I will be speaking from the Word of God, to challenge you, comfort you and also to equip you to participate in the work of calling people out of this world into this fellowship of God’s people who will walk together to bring God’s transforming power to our neighborhood. So let’s see where we are on our journey in the Word. Last week we looked at unexplained suffering and the pain it causes and how to deal with that pain. Before that we looked at the evil that ended the life of a very special man of God, John the Baptist. Yes God has a purpose in all pain and suffering, but when evil happens something rises up within us, this feeling that this is not right, it is not the way it should be. In fact we become aware of a longing in us of a world where there is no evil and suffering. NT Wright an important theologian of our time in a book titled Simply Christian, says “all humans in the depths of our being know there is something greater and grander than this world out there”. In his book he talks about 4 longings justice, spirituality, relationships and beauty that make us earn of a different world. Well the Bible talks about three different worlds than the one we have just described. One that existed before sin arose, one that will exist after sin have been removed and an in between world where God rules called the Kingdom of God. For the next two weeks we will be visiting all these worlds. But for today we will be starting out in a world before sin, we will be going in fact to the Garden of Eden. Read Gen 2:4-25, Pray Lets reflect for a moment on the sheer beauty of the garden of Eden. Well first of all the Garden of Eden would have been spectacular to look at. Because verse 9 says that there were all kinds of the trees that were beautiful to look at and great for food as well. Another feature of the garden was the river that came in and then divided into 4 head waters which went into four different directions. On top of that there was a mist that came and watered the garden. You have to remember that there was no rain at this time. Instead of periodic showers there was this really sophisticated sprinkler system which mists instead of sprays water. So the plant life would be perfectly nourished. There could be no dried leaves and dead or diseased plants of any kind. Also the land had gold, onyx and aromatic resin. So if you were Adam or Eve you could have created garden ornaments of gold and onyx and even had amazing aromas wafting through the garden with those special resins. Now besides an incredible plant life the garden was also filled with amazing animals and birds. More than that Adam and Eve have each other as perfect companies and Eve is the suitable helper made for Adam when God himself performed the world’s first surgery. And more that that God himself walked the garden everyday so they knew the infinite God as a close friend and had access to an un spoilt relationship with God and each other. So when you look at the elements of the Garden of Eden you have a spectacular setting, you have amazing delicious organically grown, non genetically modified food, you had amazing animals and birds that played their 1 | P a g e 2 own part in the ecosystem of the garden and you did not have disease or death. Adam and Eve also had each other to love and enjoy and because the temperature of the garden was so perfect all the time, and because there was no sin they did not even have to wear clothes. I was readying the other day that one of the things to do before you die is to just jump into a beautiful lake or ocean with nothing on. I can’t comment on how that feels because I have never done it but I can tell you that Adam and Eve surely experienced what they were talking about. I am sure it was good. Surely the beauty and completeness of that garden where the first couple and God walked was so beautiful a gift to Adam and Eve that we are still talking about it today. But that was only the physical aspects of the Garden of Eden. You must be asking what did Adam and Eve have to do in the garden? If there is nothing to do life would be pretty boring even in a very pretty looking place. Well, actually they had the perfect jobs. They could work the garden and take care of it. Adam was given the task of naming all the animals. That meant that Adam got to study the animals, understand their unique characteristics and then manage the animals in the garden. So Adam and Eve had the amazing jobs of being the horticulturalists and zoologists of the Garden of Eden. Further because Eve came later on it was Adams job to introduce Eve to the garden as well as telling her all than God had told him. Adam and Eve also had the task of learning about each other, loving each other and as Genesis 1 puts it being fruitful and increasing in number, filling the earth and ruling it. You see when Adam was created he was made outside the Garden of Eden and then placed in the garden. So there was plenty of undeveloped and unlandscaped land outside Eden. Adam and Eve could have expanded their Garden and the human and animal population till it covered the whole earth. Gen 1:28 Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. This was their job description. Further they had access to God and could talk to him everyday. So if there ran into problems they could not solve or if they needed to discuss some mystery or just get to know God better, all they had to do was talk to God. At this point Adam and Eve were in perfect self surrender to God. They had a self and a will but they did not have any agenda of their own. Their agenda was a 100% match of God’s agenda for the whole earth through them. And because God is the creator and because God is creative, Adam and Eve would in their full surrender to God be creative like God in the way they ruled the earth and accomplish God’s agenda. You see Adam and Eve’s had the task of taking care of the whole earth, and they had God’s help to do it God’s way. Adam and Even did not have to sit idle. They had the perfect job of looking after the garden and expanding it to cover the whole earth. That brings us to the third aspect of the Garden of Eden, its limits. You see in those days there were no geographic limits to the garden of Eden. You never find anywhere a command from God about not going outside of the Garden of Eden. But there was one important conceptual limit to the Garden. And it was right in the middle of the garden. Now in the middle of the garden there were two trees. One tree was the tree of life. And there was no command about not eating from the tree of life. But next to this tree of life there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This tree they could not eat from. The fruit of this tree was the self destruct button to their paradise. Wait a min. Well can paradise be paradise if it has a self-destruct button? Well I believe you will see the role of the self destruct when you look carefully at Adam and Eve’s free. Let me unpack that for you. CS Lewis in the book “The problem of pain’ 2 | P a g e 3 says that if Adam and Eve were to be given the ability to choose then they had to be given real choice, not just some trivial choices. And the real choice they had to be given was the ability to continue to surrender their will to God or the ability to say I can do this my way, because I choose to be like God. Anything less than the ability to reject God and be self willed would have not been true free will. However when you have true free will and you choose the self will there is a cascade of events that you don’t have a choice over. You see when one person chooses the self will it makes other people chose self will too. Where you have self wills you have conflict. And when there is conflict, paradise has long been lost. And that is not the worst part. Remember God said if you eat the fruit you would die? You see God was pointing to something very important.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Esoteric Buddhism by A.P
    Esoteric Buddhism by A.P. Sinnett Esoteric Buddhism by A.P. Sinnett Author also of The Occult World President of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society Fifth edition, annotated and enlarged by the author London, Chapman and Hall Ltd 1885 Page 1 Esoteric Buddhism by A.P. Sinnett CONTENTS Preface to the Annotated Edition Preface to the Original Edition CHAPTER I - Esoteric Teachers Nature of the Present Exposition - Seclusion of Eastern Knowledge - The Arhats and their Attributes - The Mahatmas - Occultists generally - Isolated Mystics - Inferior Yogis - Occult Training - The Great Purpose -Its Incidental Consequences - Present Concessions CHAPTER II - The Constitution of Man Esoteric Cosmogony - Where to Begin - Working back from Man to Universe - Analysis of Man - The Seven Principles CHAPTER III -The Planetary Chain Esoteric Views of Evolution - The Chain of Globes - Progress of Man round them - The Spiral Advance - Original Evolution of the Globes - The Lower Kingdoms CHAPTER IV -The World Periods Uniformity of Nature- Rounds and Races - The Septenary Law - Objective and Subjective Lives - Total Incarnations - Former Races on Earth - Periodic Cataclysms - Atlantis - Lemuria - The Cyclic Law CHAPTER V - Devachan Spiritual Destinies of the Ego - Karma - Division of the Principles of Death - Progress of the Higher Duad - Existence in Devachan - Subjective Progress - Avitchi - Earthly Connection with Devachan - Devachanic Periods CHAPTER VI - Kâma Loca The Astral Shell - Its Habitat - Its Nature - Surviving Impulses - Elementals -
    [Show full text]
  • Heaven, Paradise, Sheol, Hell & Hades
    Heaven, Paradise, Sheol, Hell & Hades o you know where you are going after this life? The vast majority of people believe that there is a life after this one, D and most people do not believe we all go to the same place. The Old Testament talks about Sheol, the recesses of Sheol, Abaddon, and heaven, while the New Testament uses the terms Hades, hell or Gehenna, the abyss or Tartarus, the lake of fire, Paradise, and heaven. This study will explain these biblical terms and end by explaining what happens to Chris- tians after they die. Destiny of the Body. In the Old Testament the the wicked who have died. terms for death and life after this world are vivid. Th ey are Amos 9:2 says that people can dig into Sheol. serious reminders that each person will die someday. Th ose who reject God will not be going to a vacation spot or to a Th ough they dig into Sheol, from there shall My hand take them place where they can talk with their friends and have a party. Amos 9:2 (NASB) Th e Bible makes it clear the spiritually wicked will spend eternity in eternal torment. Th is clearly implies that Sheol is in the ground, and the next SHEOL - THE GRAVE. Th e word Sheol is the common word verse reveals that Sheol is the dust of the ground. for the grave in Will it go down the Old Testa- with me to Sheol? ment for both Shall we together the righteous go down into the and unrighteous.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 15: 'From Shahāda to 'Aqīda
    15 FROM SHAHĀDA TO ʿAQĪDA: CONVERSION TO ISLAM, CATECHISATION AND SUNNITISATION IN SIXTEENTH- CENTURY OTTOMAN RUMELI Tijana Krstić n a recent article, Derin Terzioğlu introduced a heretofore unknown seventeenth- Icentury catechetical work in Ottoman Turkish by a certain Nushi al-Nasıhi. Hailing most probably from the Ottoman European domains (Rumeli) and writing in roughly the 1630s, Nushi lamented the state of basic religious instruction in the empire and blamed the woes of the Ottoman state on insuffi cient knowledge of faith and on lax- ity in the observance of religious laws. He went on to outline a detailed plan of how the condition should be remedied: the authorities should send out town criers to all neighbourhoods and announce that from that point on everyone over the age of seven regardless of their social status would be examined on their knowledge of ‘faith and Islam and ablution and ritual prayer’ (īmāndan ve İslāmdan ve ābdest ve namāzdan suʾāl idüp).1 He further enjoined that those who fail to show satisfactory knowledge should be ‘publicly scolded, administered discretionary punishment or evicted from the neighbourhood’.2 The effect of this expulsion of ‘heretics’, he suggested, would also be the conversion of non-Muslims, who would fl ock to the true faith upon this evidence of the Muslims’ commitment to it.3 Nushi al-Nasıhi was not writing in the early days of Islam’s spread in Rumeli; rather, his work dates to a different phase in the process of Islam’s establishment in the Ottoman Empire, a phase that scholars have recently begun to refer to as ‘Sunni- tisation’ and/or ‘confessionalisation’.4 This phase seems to begin in the early sixteenth century and continues throughout the seventeenth, and is characterised by a greater concern within the Ottoman Muslim community about Sunni orthodoxy and ortho- praxy according to the Hanafi legal tradition.
    [Show full text]
  • Deity, Cosmos and Man by Geoffrey Farthing Deity, Cosmos and Man
    Deity, Cosmos and Man by Geoffrey Farthing Deity, Cosmos and Man by Geoffrey Farthing Published in the late 1900's Geoffrey Farthing has authorized us to reproduce this document for purely non-commercial purposes only. CONTENTS FOREWORD BIBLIOGRAPHY Key to abbreviated titles INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 ABOUT ESOTERIC SCIENCE THE SCOPE AND FRAMEWORK OF CHAPTER 2 THE SCIENCE THE OCCULT CONSTITUTION OF CHAPTER 3 COSMOS AND MAN CHAPTER 4 THE HIERARCHIES OF BEINGS Document 1 CHAPTER 5 AKASHA AND THE ASTRAL LIGHT on web CHAPTER 6 ELEMENTS AND ELEMENTALS BOOK - I - CHAPTER 7 LAW IN COSMOS AND HUMAN LIFE CHAPTER 8 DEATH AND REBIRTH CHAPTER 9 ORIGINS CHAPTER 10 GLOBES, ROUNDS AND RACES EVER-BECOMING - THE PROCESSES CHAPTER 11 OF EVOLUTION CHAPTER 12 SPIRITUALISM AND PSYCHISM CHAPTER 13 SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 14 RELIGION Page 1 Deity, Cosmos and Man by Geoffrey Farthing INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 ABOUT ESOTERIC SCIENCE CHAPTER 2 THE SCOPE OF THE SCIENCE THE OCCULT CONSTITUTION OF COSMOS CHAPTER 3 AND MAN CHAPTER 4 THE HIERARCHIES OF BEINGS CHAPTER 5 AKASHA AND THE ASTRAL LIGHT BOOK - II - CHAPTER 6 ELEMENTS AND ELEMENTALS Document 2 CHAPTER 7 LAW IN COSMOS AND HUMAN LIFE on web CHAPTER 8 DEATH AND REBIRTH CHAPTER 9 ORIGINS CHAPTER 10 GLOBES, ROUNDS AND RACES EVER-BECOMING, THE PROCESS OF CHAPTER 11 EVOLUTION CHAPTER 12 SPIRITUALISM AND PSYCHISM CHAPTER 13 SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 14 RELIGION EPILOGUE GLOSSARY Page 2 Deity, Cosmos and Man by Geoffrey Farthing FOREWORD A thread of Esotericism runs through the chronicled events of the world's history. Although the origins of the esoteric tradition are lost in the mists of time, the tradition itself may be discerned in the myths and fairy-tales of many cultures, with their stories of giants, dragons, magicians and wise men.
    [Show full text]
  • Conceptions of Heaven in Antebellum Southern Presbyterian Thought
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Graduate Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 2020 Slaveholders’ Paradise: Conceptions of heaven in antebellum southern Presbyterian thought Matthew Dawdy Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd Recommended Citation Dawdy, Matthew, "Slaveholders’ Paradise: Conceptions of heaven in antebellum southern Presbyterian thought" (2020). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 18114. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/18114 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Slaveholders’ Paradise: Conceptions of heaven in antebellum southern Presbyterian thought by Matthew David Dawdy A thesis submitted to the graduate faculty in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Major: History Program of Study Committee: Lawrence McDonnell, Major Professor Kathleen Hilliard Rose Caraway The student author, whose presentation of the scholarship herein was approved by the program of study committee, is solely responsible for the content of this thesis. The Graduate College will ensure this thesis is globally accessible and will not permit alterations after a degree is conferred. Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 2020 Copyright
    [Show full text]
  • Hell in Popular Muslim Imagination the Anonymous Kitāb Al-ʿaẓama
    CHAPTER 7 Hell in Popular Muslim Imagination The Anonymous Kitāb al-ʿAẓama Wim Raven Can we know anything about paradise and hell before being sent to them? This question must have been considered by the first Muslims, who worried about their eternal fate. The relatively scarce details given in the Quran may well have triggered the believers’ imagination while failing to give any com- prehensive answers to their questions. That task was left to the early exegetes, the storytellers (qāṣṣ, pl. quṣṣāṣ) and preachers who explained the Quran, recounted the life of the prophet Muḥammad, and alerted souls to the afterlife (targhīb wa-tarhīb). They were first hand witnesses to the most reliable source of further knowledge: the Prophet himself, whom they made journey through heaven and hell, in the best tradition of Apocalyptic and Ascension literature. Moses, Enoch, and various Christian apostles before him were said to have made a similar journey, and this tradition was also known in Iranian literature, in the Ardā Virāz Nāmag (sixth century CE?). This genre was to continue for centuries: much was written on Muḥammad’s ascension, and this even spread within Europe (Liber Scalae Machometi; ca. 1250?). The idea was also picked up by al-Maʿarrī (d. 449/1058), Dante (d. 1321), and, at a more popular level, by the Bulūqiyā story, for example, in the Arabian Nights.1 In this text Bulūqiyā, a Jewish boy from Cairo, wishes to find the prophet Muḥammad. His quest leads him through mythological landscapes, where he meets various supernatural beings who teach him about the unknown parts of the universe from where they originate.
    [Show full text]
  • Frithjof Schuon on Esotericism
    The Heart of the Religio Perennis: Frithjof Schuon on Esotericism Harry Oldmeadow Exotericism consists in identifying transcendent realities with the dogmatic forms, and if need be, with the historical facts of a given Revelation, whereas esotericism refers in a more or less direct manner to these same realities. FrithjofSchuon1 If we can grasp the transcendent nature of the human being, we thereby grasp the nature of revelation, of religion, of tradition; we understand their possibility, their necessity, their truth. And in understanding religion, not only in a particular form or according to some verbal specification, but also in its formless essence, we understand the religions... the meaning of their plurality and diversity; this is the plane of gnosis, of the religio perennis, whereon the extrinsic antinomies of dogmas are explained and resolved. FrithjoJSchuon2 Introduction Generally speaking, 'esotericism' refers to a field of 'spiritual' knowledge and practice which is secret, arcane, and initiatory; the term encompasses movements as diverse as hermeticism, alchemy, Rosicrucianism, theosophy, freemasonry, Eastern Tantras and various psycho-physical disciplines, Shamanism, Christian mysticism, Kabbala, and Sufism, as well as a plethora of modem occult and para­ psychological movements gathered around disparate charismatic figures - Aleister Crowley, Madame Blavatsky, and G.I. Gurdjieff might be cited as representative figures. Today esotericism, ancient and modem, is a burgeoning field of academic study. Scholars from fields as diverse as religious studies, history, psychology and art history (to 1 F. Schuon, Logic and Transcendence, New York, 1975, p. 144 (Schuon, 1975a). 2 F. Schuon, Light on the Ancient Worlds, London, 1966, p. 142. The Heart ofthe Religio Perennis name only a few) are exploring a terrain that earlier remained largely the province of 'occultists' of various mien.
    [Show full text]
  • Paradise Lost
    Paradise Lost John Milton This eBook is designed and published by Planet PDF. For more free eBooks visit our Web site at http://www.planetpdf.com Paradise Lost Book I Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste Brought death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed In the beginning how the heavens and earth Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed Fast by the oracle of God, I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th’ Aonian mount, while it pursues Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme. And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer Before all temples th’ upright heart and pure, Instruct me, for thou know’st; thou from the first Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread, Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast Abyss, And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark Illumine, what is low raise and support; That, to the height of this great argument, I may assert Eternal Providence, And justify the ways of God to men. 2 of 374 Paradise Lost Say first—for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, Nor the deep tract of Hell—say first what cause Moved our grand parents, in that happy state, Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off From their Creator, and transgress his will For one restraint, lords of the World besides.
    [Show full text]
  • Dion Fortune and Her Inner Plane Contacts: Intermediaries in the Western Esoteric Tradition
    1 Dion Fortune and her Inner Plane Contacts: Intermediaries in the Western Esoteric Tradition Volume 1 of 2 Submitted by John Selby to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology June 2008 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from this thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has been previously submitted and approved for the award of a degree at this or any other University. 2 _________________________ Abstract Whereas occultists of the standing of H. P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant, C. W. Leadbeater, and especially Aleister Crowley have been well served by academic enquiry and by published accounts of their lives and work, Violet Evans, neé Firth (aka ‘Dion Fortune’), has suffered comparative neglect, as has her concept of the ‘Masters’ who inspired and informed her work. These factors, alongside the longevity of her Society of the Inner Light (still flourishing), are the catalysts for my embarking on this thesis. Chapter 1 discusses the method of approach, covers Fortune’s definitions of frequent occult terms, and compares observations of her work by fellow occultists and outside observers. Chapter 2 is a comprehensive review of mainly recent academic research into the role of intermediaries in magic and religion from ancient times, and serves as a background to Fortune’s own esoteric philosophy, showing that she was heir to a tradition with a long history.
    [Show full text]
  • The Three Kingdoms of Glory 8
    Lesson The Three Kingdoms of Glory 8 Purpose To encourage class members to strive for exaltation in the celestial kingdom by keeping the commandments and exercising faith in Jesus Christ. Preparation 1. Prayerfully study John 14:2; 1 Corinthians 15:40–42; Revelation 7:9–10; 2 Nephi 25:23; Alma 3:26; Doctrine and Covenants 58:27–28; 76:32–89, 98–106; 82:10; 131:1–4; 137:7–10; 138:29–34; Articles of Faith 1:3. 2. Make a copy for each class member of the quiz “The Truth about Heaven and Hell,” found at the end of the lesson (page 43). If it is not feasible to make copies, bring a blank piece of paper for each class member. 3. Materials needed: a. A pen or pencil for each class member. b. A set of scriptures and a scripture marking pencil for each class member. Continue to encourage class members to bring their own scriptures to class each week. Note to the teacher The extent of our obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel determines the glory we will receive after we are resurrected. Encourage class members to have as their goal exaltation in the highest kingdom, the celestial kingdom, where we can experience a fulness of happiness. Suggested Lesson Development The Truth about Heaven and Hell Quiz Give each class member a pen or pencil and a copy of the quiz. Have class members mark each statement as “True” or “False.” (If you have not made copies of the quiz, give each class member a blank piece of paper and have them write their answers as you read the statements.) Scripture After everyone has completed the quiz, discuss each answer until you are sure discussion everyone understands it well.
    [Show full text]
  • Roads to Paradise
    Roads to Paradise Eschatology and Concepts of the Hereafter in Islam Volume 1 Foundations and Formation of a Tradition Reflections on the Hereafter in the Quran and Islamic Religious Thought Edited by Sebastian Günther and Todd Lawson With the Assistance of Christian Mauder LEIDEN | BOSTON For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV Contents VOLUME 1 Foundations and Formation of a Tradition: Reflections on the Hereafter in the Quran and Islamic Religious Thought Zum Geleit xv Josef van Ess Acknowledgments xxvi List of Illustrations xxix Note on Transliteration and Style xxxii Abbreviations xxxiv List of Contributors xxxvii 1 Introduction 1 Sebastian Günther and Todd Lawson PREPARING FOR THE JOURNEY – CONFERENCE OPENING ADDRESSES The Paths to Reality are as Diverse as the Souls of Humanity 2 Paradise Lost 31 Tilman Nagel 3 The Path to Paradise from an Islamic Viewpoint 39 Mahmoud Zakzouk Part 1 Paradise, Hell, and Afterlife in the Quran and Quranic Exegesis 4 Quranic Paradise: How to Get to Paradise and What to Expect There 49 Muhammad Abdel Haleem For use by the Author only | © 2017 Koninklijke Brill NV viii CONTENTS 5 Paradise as a Quranic Discourse: Late Antique Foundations and Early Quranic Developments 67 Angelika Neuwirth 6 Paradise in the Quran and the Music of Apocalypse 93 Todd Lawson 7 Paradise and Nature in the Quran and Pre-Islamic Poetry 136 Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila 8 Dying in the Path of God: Reading Martyrdom and Moral Excellence in the Quran 162 Asma Afsaruddin 9 The Poetics of Islamic Eschatology: Narrative, Personifijication, and Colors in Muslim Discourse 181 Sebastian Günther Part 2 The Pleasures of Paradise 10 “Reclining upon Couches in the Shade” (Q 35:56): Quranic Imagery in Rationalist Exegesis 221 Andrew J.
    [Show full text]
  • The Art of Barzakh ------The Poses, Props and Performances of Masculinity in Pakistani Art
    The Art of Barzakh --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Poses, Props and Performances of Masculinity in Pakistani Art Abdullah, Syed Muhammad Iyhab UNSW Art & Design Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the Doctor of Philosophy UNSW 2015 DECLARATIONS Originality Statement ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Copyright Statement ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only).
    [Show full text]