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The purpose of this dissertation on the Lordship of Christ is to present a distillation of the best results of modern research on the subject. The author's thesis may be briefly stated. The affirmation, "Kurios Christos," is an expression of the faith of the most primitive Church. Its source is not to be found in the "originality of St. Paul," nor in the pre-Pauline Aramaic speaking circles outside of Jerusalem through the influence of Greek religions, but is rather to be traced aa near to the fountainhead of the primitive witness as possible, and is seen to be derived from the mind, the work, and the person of Jesus. This is not to say that the Graeco-Roman religions had no influence on the development of this concept, but rather that the central core of this affirmation is to be found springing from the uniqueness of His intentional claim. It Is contended that Jesus' culture was largely Hebraic, and that He made His Messianic claim primaril^r within the bounds of this religious and cultural background. It is, of course, impossible to maintain a clearly defined boundary between the spheres of Israel and the outside world, yet it is right to recognize that Hew Testament Christianity is to "be studied in the main against its Hebraic background. There is no necessity to give a reason for the study of Christology, nor to make a claim for its importance; for in the words of Karl Barth, . . . Christology, is the touchstone of all knowledge of God in the Christian sense, the touchstone of all theology. ... At this point everything becomes clear or unclear, bright or dark. For here we are standing at the centre. And however high and mysterious and difficult everything we want to know might seem to us, yet we may also say that this is just where everything bedomes quite simple, quite straightforward, quite childlike. The timeliness of the particularly study is significantly made clear by Visser t'Hooft in the following statement: At a time when many American Churches realize the need for a restatement of the social gospel of the twenties and when the European Churches are at last beginning to discover their responsibility to the world, it would seem that that main theme is: The nature of Christ's Kingship and its implications for the Church and the world. The vast number of works treating with this subject in one way or another, which have apneared within the past few years, bear out the validity of Visser t'Hooft's statement. Actually it is not going far afield to see in current ecumenical trends and also in the new and revitalized awareness of the unity of mankind, an increasing consciousness of the unqualified nature of the Lordship of Christ, as it is seen to be contradicted by a disunited Church and a divided world. The implications of the recognition of Christ's Lordship, when it is seen that He and He alone is the absolute Master of the destiny of man, and that to accept that Lordship is to reject every other master or lord who seeks to have exclusive control and power over the individual, are especially relevant to this day when the trend is in the direction of centralized government with increased control over the lives of private citizens. The Church must be prepared to give new thought to the significance and the absoluteness of our Lord's claim over the lives of men, and this it is doing. The thesis is so organized as to (a) seek first the primary elements which led to the Kurios-beliefj and (b) investigate the extent of Christ's Lordship as represented in the earliest tradition. The argument of the thesis proceeds along the following lines: Chapter I. There is positive proof that the early community from the very beginning regarded Jesus as the certain fulfillment of the Jewish Messianic expectation. "Form criticism as well as the study of the speeches of Acts supports the plain testimony of the Gospels that Jesus was so regarded from the first days of the church."^ Therefore it is essential to begin a study of this type with an introduction into the primary elements of Judaism's Messianic expectations, and this is the purpose of the first chapter. It does not attempt to present a clearly defined picture of these hopes, for stich a thing never existed, but rather gives a portrayal of the hope for deliverance in its variety of expressions, with special attention to related Messianic titles. Chapter II. The hopes of Judaism find fulfillment in the person of Jesus. The witness to this fact Is found throughout the primary strata of the New Testament where It is discovered that there Is a faith concerning the person of Jesus which could not be expressed in words signifying less than the confession, "Christ is Lord." This fulfillment is not in exact correspondence with the hopes of Judaism, but represents an original fulfillment which derives from the unique implications of the ministry, resurrection, and Lordship of Christ. Its essential core lies In the material which springs from the first of the Apostolic Age, and can only receive adequate explanation from the mind and the action of Jesus Himself. That the early Christian believers and writers, for example Mark, tried to do was apply to him the highest conceivable categories, human and divine; but in the end these all proved inadequate, as the later church discovered; for Jesus means more, was more, and is more than any of these categories could convey. Chapter III. The Lordship of Christ is seen to have its basis in Jesus' Messianic claim? a claim which He knowingly made by virtue of His conscious filial relationship to the Father. It was this which He Invited men to "come and see" for themselves. By virtue of His Sonship, Jesus Is Lord of men. Chapter IV. Although the death of Jesus at first appeared to terminate His messianic claim unconditionally, It proved to be the "wisdom and power of God" and the prelude to His Resurrection and establishment at God's right hand. The Resurrection represents the Divine historical vindication and the inauguration of Jesus' Lordship claim. Chapter V. Chapter V deals with the role of the Church as it is seen to he the Instrument whereby Jesus' Lordship Is extended, an instrument which He Intentionally established and of which He is ever the head. Chapter VI. The ultimately absolute or cosmic signifi¬ cance of Jesus' Lordship, although appearing largely in the later material of the New Testament, Is the natural and only conclusion to be derived from the reflection concerning His significance, if the redemption which He accomplished for man is of final consequence. In the "body of the work there is a discussion of many of the views held concerning the related problems. However, it has not been intended to discover any exclusively correct schools of thought relating to these problems, but rather to indicate the strengths of each, and to point out how each serves to complement the rest, and the whole provides us with the closest understanding of the Lordship of Christ as set forth in the New Testament writings. The critical approach to the historical and literary problems Involved has been followed, the author believing that this represents the only wise and correct manner to face the world In which we live. It is intended that this criticism should not follow the common Impression of "criticism," which is that it is both negative and destructive, but rather have as its true task the goal of finding the most primitive form of the Church's confession concerning the Christ, a simple affirmation which may best be expressed in the words, "Christ is Lord," After concluding this research, it is the author's firm convic¬ tion that the New Testament writers present a unified witness to this fact; that there is a convergence of thought on Jesus, who, as the Messiah long-expected by the Jews, although "rejected and crucified, is now the risen Lord, The author's indebtedness to a vast number of scholars is obvious throughout. Primary recognition is to be given to Professors John Wick Bowman, William Manson, and James S. Stewart, whose class lectures and writings have furnished a large portion of the argument. Only slightly less indebtedness to the writings of Wilhelm Bousset, Oscar Cullmann, W. D. Davies, T. . Manson, George Foot Moore, Vincent Taylor, and a score of others is to be mentioned.

A parameter space search for dark contents of the vacuum utilising atom interferometry is motivated. This methodology is potentially sensitive to any dark contents of the vacuum that are spatially inhomogeneous on the lab scale, and couple to atoms in addition to the gravitational force. A path integral approach to atom interferometry is discussed and a parametrisation of the dark contents of the vacuum is presented. A magneto-optical trap is detailed, capable of trapping 6.5x10^7 atoms, as a cold atomic source for the atom interferometer. The development of a prototype light pulse Mach-Zehnder atom interferometer, currently in the commissioning stages is described, as well as a unique laser system capable of running the whole atom interferometer from just two extended cavity diode lasers. Using this device 1x10^6 atoms are trapped in a magneto-optical trap and further cooled to 96 μK in an optical molasses. This prototype device is now undergoing upgrades to create larger, colder sources of atoms for the interferometer.