Religion Commons^™

Short-Term Missions And Their Ethical Shortcomings, Breanna Watson

Scholars Day Conference

I wrote on "Short-Term Missions..." for my Christian Ethics class last semester. Short-Term Missions (STMs), while aiming to fulfill the Great Commission, often prioritize quick results over genuine relationship-building, diverting significant financial resources from sustainable solutions. They perpetuate power imbalances and fail to foster mutual understanding between "goers" and "receivers." STMs lack the long-term, selfless, culturally adaptive nature of true mission work, exemplified by early missionaries like Paul the Apostle. To mitigate their damaging effects, prospective participants should engage in informed cultural study, prioritize relational connections over task completion, and reconsider the economic impact of their involvement, seeking more ethical …

Spare The Rod, Spoil The Child?: The Christian Ethics Of Corporal Punishment, Brooke Wright

Scholars Day Conference

This paper seeks to answer the question of whether or not Christians should spank their children according to what the Bible and research says about a parent's duty to their children, the long term effects of spanking, and the efficacy of the practice.

The Religious Significance Of Ise Grand Shrine, Noah Embrey

Scholars Day Conference

This research paper will discuss the religious history of Ise, explain the beliefs of Shintoists, explore the rituals performed at the shrines, and explain why the Ise Grand Shrine is a sacred space.

Buddhist Monasteries, Bella Rushing

Scholars Day Conference

Buddhist monasteries are a foundational piece of the Buddhist tradition. These monasteries play an important role in shaping the lives of monks and laypeople alike. Purposefully designed to be both unique, as well as containing some of the same architectural and social aspects, these monasteries are the hub of cultural significance in Buddhism.

Monasteries serve as a home to monks, as well as a place of worship, education, and religious practice for Buddhists. Within each monastery is a hierarchy of monks, who collectively work to propagate the teachings of the Buddha. Because of their interdependent relationship with laypeople, the monastery …

Black Liberation Theology In The Civil Rights Movement: Contextualizing The Works Of James H. Cone, Ella Cox

Scholars Day Conference

These slides are meant to provide a visual aid for the presentation given on my thesis, "Black Liberation Theology in the Civil Rights Movement: Contextualizing the Works of James H. Cone."

Under The Sun: Songs From Ecclesiastes, Emma Kay Smith

Scholars Day Conference

Historically, artists in all spaces have gleaned inspiration from the text of the Bible in order to communicate meaningful stories. The book of Ecclesiastes is particularly rich in its images and themes, and it warrants profound creative contemplation. This project documents the process of crafting 1960s-style folk songs based on this often confounding and ever-beautiful text. This process included close, meditative listening to the works of great songwriters from the 1960s folk era such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and culminated in the live recording of four folk songs, compiled in the demo-EP Under the Sun: Songs from Ecclesiastes. …

Scholars Day 2024 Program Of Events, Carl Goodson Honors Program

Scholars Day

This is the program of events for the 2023 Scholars Day Conference, where undergraduates across disciplines present their scholarly and creative works.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Ai-Ghazali's Deliverance From Error And Mormonism, Jade Stocks

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the Doctrine and Covenants, we are encouraged to "Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom." While this recommendation comes from Mormon scripture, no group or individual has a monopoly on wisdom or knowledge-these "best books" clearly include works by those of other faiths. One of history's most prominent religious writers is Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazali, who studied and wrote during the uoos on many topics, including the relationship between religion and the various forms of science. In his thesis Deliverance from Error, Al-Ghazali proposes that there are three levels of knowledge, each more concrete than …

Beeman, Richard. Plain, Honest Men: The Making Of The American Constitution, Garrett Nagaishi

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the twenty-first century America, it is nearly impossible to open a newspaper or turn on the television without hearing talk of "Constitutional rights." But what did the Founding Fathers think about rights? What would Thomas Jefferson or James Madison say about the state of American political affairs today? Beeman's exhaustive analysis of the 1787 Constitutional Convention attempts to answer these questions. Beeman asks the reader to set aside long-held preconceptions of the founding of the United States and journey through the four-month assembly that constructed a nation from the rubble of the American Revolution. This book marks not only …

Memories In Stone: Family History Research In The Western Pyrenees, Paul Woodbury

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

I stood in a small grove of trees, which afforded a respite from the misty rain. Streams of fog crept along the valley walls and covered the village of Aydius in foamy white waves. I admired the engravings decorating the lchante household- the heartfelt expression of a peasant farmer and shepherd. I would never have imagined that my internship and study abroad would culminate here, reading my ancestor's memoirs chiseled in stone. Yet here I was, thousands of miles from home, alone in a foreign country, away from the pristine comfort of the regional archives, reading Joseph lchante's legacy carved …

The Other American Revolution: Catalyzing The Virginia Statute For Religious Freedom, Amberlee Hansen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The American colonies were on the verge of revolution and the Commonwealth of Virginia was in turmoil, but the John and Elizabeth Semple family in King and Queen County, Virginia, had reason to celebrate. On that day they welcomed the family's youngest son, Robert Baylor Semple, into the world. As his mother lovingly examined his tiny features, myriad thoughts may have run through her mind-thoughts about her child's future in a world that seemed so politically uncertain. There would still be peace in the American colonies for several more years before the political explosion of revolution rocked the colonies, but …

"Many Hearts Yet Beat With The Hurt Of A Wounded Past:" Miss Indian Byu, Lamanite Identities, And The Subversive Potential Of Pageants, Jennifer Duque

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The theme of Brigham Young University's 1972 Indian week, an annual event set apart for Native guest speakers, Lamanite Generation performances, and the Miss Indian BYU pageant, was "New IndianNew Commitments." This might have well been the theme of Mormonism's oft-ambivalent relationship with Native Americans. The "new Indian" that the Mormon leadership celebrated was "modernized," "civilized," and, of course, Mormonized. The Miss Indian BYU pageant provides a compelling site in which to investigate the tension between new and old, the contemporary and the traditional. Although Miss Indian BYU existed within an oppressive neocolonial framework, it is reductive to see the …

Choiceless Choices: The Sonderkommando Of Auschwitz As Victims, Taylor Rice

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

To undertake the Extermination of Europe's Jews, the Nazis needed more manpower than the ranks of the SS could provide. The Germans relied on the constant supply ofJewish prisoners to meet their need for a large labor force in the concentration camps themselves. At its highest rate of extermination, more than one hundred inmates were assigned to work in each crematorium at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Sonderkommando (special detachment) at Auschwitz was composed of prisoners selected by the Nazis to participate in extermination work. As a result, members of this special detachment had an incredibly intimate view of the inner workings of …

The Monkey On America's Back: The Fears Of 1960s America As Seen In The Film Planet Of The Apes, Grant Reynolds

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Few movies with blatant socail messages are both entertaining and profitable, but 1968's Planet of the Apes is an historic exception. The launching point for a franchise that included seven additional films, Planet of the Apes became a box office financial success and a cult classic, perhaps because of its social message. Planet of the Apes was released during one of the most stressful periods of American history and was written to shine a spotlight on the fears of the times, especially fears about the issues of the Red Scare, race relations, Vietnam, and nuclear war.

"American And British Spoken Here": American Servicemen In Cambridge, 1942-1945, Jordan Meservy

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

During the 1940s, troops from the United States of America marched through parts of the world they had never before imagined, such as the dry heat of North Africa, the humid climate of the South Pacific islands, and the snow-clad forests of Belgium. & the troops interacted with different cultures, they made a deep impression on these countries and were impacted in their turn, forming new international relationships. One such interaction took place between British citizens and American troops, as Great Britain became the staging ground for the invasion of Europe, a giant aircraft carrier of sorts for the men …

A Precious Privilege, A Fragile Experiment: The Massachusetts Bay Colony, Rebecca Johnson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Empowered by a royal charter, the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony seized the opportunity to organize a pure society unencumbered by the corruption of Old England. Anticipating the blessings of God on their covenant pursuit, but perhaps naive about the extreme challenges awaiting them, they embarked on their experiment full of confidence that a solution to their oppressive situation in Old England lay beyond the ocean in New England. Discounting the native population, they viewed the land as vacant, a virgin environment where the solution to the Puritan dilemma of doing what is right in a world that does …

Bluegrass Grays: Confederate Sons And Unionist Fathers In Civil War Kentucky, Elise Petersen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

After clinging for four months to a futile neutrality policy, the Commonwealth of Kentucky officially pledged loyalty to the Union in September 1861. Though Federal officials welcomed the state with enthusiasm, expecting her to provide significant aid to the Union army, state commanding officer William T. Sherman was soon frustrated by the astonishing one-quarter of Kentucky volunteers who flocked, instead, to the Confederacy. Hardly lonely in his disappointment, Sherman's woes were echoed by thousands of fathers across the Bluegrass State-for these Kentuckian Confederates were, overwhelmingly, young sons of men who passionately supported the Union.

Preface, Cameron C. Nielsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

It has become a truism that research is a lonely understaking. This is particularly true for undergraduates, as very few people are likely to read the results of our work: our professors, our parents, maybe a couple of friends. Considering our learned shyness, relative ignorance, and lack of experience with the academic world, it can take some courage for us students to put our work out for the whole world to see. Within these covers, then, can be found the work of a brave few. These authors had the foresight to put more care into their writing than was required …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.