Other Religion Commons^™

Fourth Sunday In Ordinary Time - Year C, Chinh Nguyen

Obsculta

This is a homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time – year C. Speaking God’s truth hurts, but love prevails. Being a prophet is difficult, but love never fails. SYNOD

A Homily On Romans 10:14-15, Dinh Vo

Obsculta

In my studies within the course of Technology in Ministry, I was encouraged to use and promote the use of technology as a valuable means to proclaim the Good News to people where they are. In the “spirit” of Vatican II, the Church reaches out to her sons and daughters, especially the young, in an effort to make practical use of technology. Social media specifically comes into question when considering the use of high-tech communication to proclaim the Word. If we hold that the beauty of the feet of those who bring good news to the world from village to …

Reflections On Isaiah 63:7-9, Maria Milazzo

Obsculta

This reflection for a homily given at a virtual midday prayer breaks open the Scripture reading of Isaiah 63:7-9. The scripture reading leads us to reflecting upon God’s mercy and goodness in our lives, both in the good and challenging times.

By The Power Vesta-Ed In Me: The Power Of The Vestal Virgins And Those Who Took Advantage Of It, Elena M. Stanley

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

Vestal Virgins were high ranking members of the Roman elite. Due to the priestesses’ elevated standing, Romans made use of their inherent privileges. Through analyses of case studies from ancient authors and archaeology, I identify three ways Romans wielded Vestal power: familial connections, financial and material resources, and political sway. I end by exploring cases of crimen incesti, the crime of unchastity, which highlight all three forms. The Vestals were influential women who shared access to power in different ways. The Vestals were active participants in the social and political world of Rome.

The State Of Religion In China, Christian J. Parham

Global Tides

The People's Republic of China has a complicated relationship with religion, which became even tenser within the past decade. This paper will analyze the history of religion within China while contrasting it with the current state of religion within the nation. In so doing, it will describe and highlight the experiences of Chinese people who are religious.

Seeing And Interpreting Visions Of The Next Age In Interstellar, Nancy Wright

Journal of Religion & Film

Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) uses multiple styles of cinematography – documentary, painterly and expressionistic – to guide interpretation of its apocalyptic review of history. Within the prologue and epilogue of the science fiction film, clips from interviews originally filmed for Ken Burns’s The Dust Bowl (2012) invite questions about how to interpret documentary, revisionist and eschatological reviews of history. Cinematography functions as a self-reflexive cue to spectators within and outside the mise-en-scène to engage in eschatological interpretation. The representation of spectatorship and vision reveals the challenge of interpreting prophetic visions of the last things and the next age, which are …

A Note On Ursula K. Le Guin's Daoist Interests, Robert Steed

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This note focuses upon specifying Le Guin’s particular Daoist interests. It also serves as a beginning in mapping out various Daoist concepts that she renders creatively in her literary work, serving as a short primer in Daoist thought and Le Guin.

What We Mean When We Say "Religion": The Q'Ero Migrants Of Cusco, Peru, Autumn J. Delong, Mirtha Irco

Journal of Gender, Ethnic, and Cross-Cultural Studies

This article is based upon ethnographic research conducted with Q’ero Indigenous migrants living in Cusco, Peru in the fall of 2018. The Q’ero community originates from the village of Paucartambo and the surrounding areas, about a three days’ trek northeast of the city. These stories collected from the migrants emphasize the centrality of their spirituality and worldview in defining their sense of identity apart from that of greater society. In their rituals, these migrants draw upon an experience of the sacred which is manifest through performance, discipline, and practice – often more so than through belief, faith, or intellectualism. Based …

Confucianism And Folklore In Vietnamese Fantasy Short Stories: The Case Of Ghost Stories , Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Truyền kỳ, which is a genre of fantasy short stories, was formed and developed in the historic period of medieval literature of Vietnam in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Despite being derived from a similar Chinese genre, the truyền kỳ of Vietnam was the work of the endogenous development of the national fantasy short story, which was closely associated with folk literature and historical prose. However, at the time of its inception, as well as at the glorious top of this genre, truyền kỳ had never been accepted as an official genre. It was rather a metaphor for unorthodox discourse …

Emory-Tibet Science Initiative: Changes In Monastic Science Learning Motivation And Engagement During A Six-Year Curriculum, Kelsey M. Gray, Cindy Achat-Mendes, Ann Cale Kruger, Tashi Lhamo, Rinchen Wangyal, Gelek Gyatso, Carol M. Worthman

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Led by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the initiative taken by the Tibetan Buddhist monastic community to connect with western science and scientists presents a unique opportunity to understand the motivations and engagement behaviors that contribute to monastic science learning. In this study, we draw on quantitative data from two distinct surveys that track motivations and engagement behaviors related to science education among monastic students. The first survey was administered at one monastic university in 2018, and the second follow-up survey was completed by students at two monastic universities in 2019. These surveys assessed the reception of science education related …

Domestic Morality, “Traditional Dogma”, And Christianity In A Rural Zambian Community, Bernhard Udelhoven

Zambia Social Science Journal

Hugo Hinfelaar described, for precolonial times, a comprehensive domestic religion and family spirituality which he called “traditional dogma” or “family dogma”. What is left of it in Zambia? When and for what purposes are traditional religious beliefs invoked today and scrutinised in marriage and the domestic sphere? While many say, “We have no culture left!” traditional dogma continues to function as a “moral grammar” that anchors cultural identity. The marital life of a couple becomes scrutinised along traditional beliefs during family crises. When people accept this scrutiny, they (re-)submit themselves under the wider family and thereby reconstitute the family under …

Relationship Between Religion And Native American Identity, Gennaro W. Milo

Graduate Research Posters

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a relationship between religious affiliation and Native American Identity. Based on the findings of this study, a component of a Native American's Identity is their religious affiliation. To contribute to the research on Native American and Alaskan Native identity, this study targeted the teenage demographic of ages 12 to 19 years old. Over growing concern, expressed by tribal elders, about a loss of cultural identity amongst teens, this study investigates a connection between a teen’s sense of identity and their religious affiliation (Quigley, 2019). This study used a multiple-choice …

Do Androids Dream Of Improvisation?, Aidan J. Samp

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Eleguá Exits, Laughing: Revolution, Play, And Trickster Worship, Zoe Elizabeth Oro-Hahn

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Eleguá, the trickster god of Santería, shows up across religious divides, throughout communities of minorities in the Southern United States and the Caribbean– this project attempts to chase him through myth and literature, to find where he shows up, and look at how he inspires those in his religions into revolutions and revolts.

A Sense Of Trust: Somatic Spiritual Practices As A Path To Wholeness In Spiritually Integrated Trauma Care, Shyamaa Marie Creaven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A traumatic event holds the power to rupture one’s world, generating lingering effects on embodied existence. Research has demonstrated that overwhelmingly stressful events often call into question deeply held values and beliefs and that spiritual struggles “tend to be partially responsible for the distress experienced" (Pomerleau et al., 2020, pp. 456–457). Similarly, research with veterans has demonstrated that religious and spiritual struggles mediate the relationship between a potentially morally injurious event and both anxiety and PTSD (Evans et al., 2018), often intensifying trauma and moral injury symptoms as well as opening a pathway for spiritual integration and growth (Pargament & …

Spiritual Intelligence: The Next Intelligence Tool For Conflict Resolution Practitioners?, Peter Tokar

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Spiritual intelligence is currently being utilized with positive results in many professional communities, yet it is practically unknown within the conflict resolution and peacebuilding communities, at least by name. Recent national polls have demonstrated a high percentages of Americans still embrace a spiritual dimension to their humanity. Although church attendance has been on the decline for the past couple decades, polls show that even the Millennial Generation and GenZ are still interested in spirituality, though in a non-ecclesiastically organized way. Although significant sensitivities remain in society and culture concerning the separation of church and state, literally millions of Americans …

Sikhs And Colonialism: A Study Of Religious Identity Across Time From Guru Nanak To The British Raj, Samrath S. Machra

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis deals with how a religious community shapes itself in the face of powerful external pressures. It explores ways the Sikh religion (code, creed, and cultus) was influenced by its encounters with the British Empire and in process, gave birth to a new combinative tradition. This paper will look at where the Sikh people located themselves during the Colonial period, to understand Colonialism’s imprint on the Sikh tradition. It traces the thread of contact throughout Sikh history and argues that British contact resulted in religious and cultural exchanges which reoriented Sikh creed, code, and cultus. The resulting combinative tradition …

Cultural Appropriation Or Religious Syncretism? An Analysis Of The “Tarot Of The Orishas”, Rachel Park

Capstone Showcase

A significant number of practitioners of modern alternative spiritualities adopt rituals, histories, and worldviews from at least one culture that is not their own. The widespread commodification of ideas and values enables the consumption of spiritualities much like the material goods that practitioners may also purchase. The power dynamics between those engaged in cultural appropriation and the group from which they appropriate influence the negative effects of appropriation. The hierarchical power structures of race, class, and colonialism characterize acts of cultural appropriation. Whether an act of borrowing is syncretism or cultural appropriation can often be determined by examining these power …

Hierarchy And Responsibility In Media: Cults, Culpability, And Culture, Max Hargett

Online Theses and Dissertations

This is a descriptive research project that investigates how popular entertainment media portrays cults. My intention is to see how the selected films and television shows portray issues of hierarchy and culpability within the cult and to explore how the genre and theme of the content was utilized in order to evoke certain reactions and sentiments in the audience. The selected films were The Sacrament, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Midsommar. The selected television shows were Waco and American Horror Story: Cult. Each film and series is given its own analysis. Findings indicate that a common theme of the rigid …

Mental Health Counselors’ Use Of Complementary And Alternative Approaches For Treating Individuals With Anxiety Disorders, Jane Rose Simmons

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Anxiety disorders are one of the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide. Traditional counseling approaches do not address the evolving needs of individuals with anxiety disorders, and information is scarce regarding counselors’ use of complementary and alternative approaches in treating anxiety disorders. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to investigate whether counselors’ knowledge, perceptions, intentional practices, and openness predicted their use of complementary and alternative approaches in counseling individuals with anxiety disorders. The integrative mental health model for the conceptual framework guided this study. The research questions examined how five variables—spirituality, specialization, types of anxiety disorders treated, training, …