Digital Commons Network^™

Amici Curiae Brief Of Scholars Of American Religious History & Law In Support Of Neither Party, Nathan B. Oman, Anna-Rose Mathieson

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

A Defense Of The Authority Of Church Doctrine, Nathan B. Oman

Nathan B. Oman

No abstract provided.

God And The Executioner: The Influence Of Western Religion On The Use Of The Death Penalty, Davison M. Douglas

Davison M. Douglas

In this Essay, Professor Douglas conducts an historical review of religious attitudes toward capital punishment and the influence of those attitudes on the state's use of the death penalty. He surveys the Christian Church's strong support for capital punishment throughout most of its history, along with recent expressions of opposition from many Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups. Despite this recent abolitionist sentiment from an array of religious institutions, Professor Douglas notes a divergence of opinion between the "pulpit and the pew" as the laity continues to support the death penalty in large numbers. Professor Douglas accounts for this divergence by …

Theology Proper, Norm Mathers

Norm Mathers

No abstract provided.

A First Look At The Worst: Slavery And Race Relations At The College Of William And Mary, Terry L. Meyers

Terry Meyers

No abstract provided.

Joanna Baillie And Sir John Herschel, Judith Bailey Slagle

Judith Bailey Slagle

No abstract provided.

Secular Humanism And Christianity.Docx, Stenislos Daniel

Stenislos Daniel

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Essex Junto: Fear, Dissent, And Propaganda In The Early Republic, Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Dinah Mayo-Bobee

Historians have never formed a consensus over the Essex Junto. In fact, though often associated with New England Federalists, propagandists evoked the Junto long after the Federalist Party’s demise in 1824. This article chronicles uses of the term Essex Junto and its significance as it evolved from the early republic through the 1840s.

The Epistemology Of Esoteric Culture: Spiritual Claim-Making Within The American Neopagan Community, Marty Laubach

Marty Laubach

Non-institutionalised religious communities within western esotericism, such as New Age or Neopagan subcultures, are dynamic marketplaces for knowledge construction that may appear to be chaotic and governed only by the rule of caveat emptor. However, a close examination reveals authorization processes developing along similar lines as those followed by scientific empiricism during the seventeenth century. Claims of esoteric knowledge are developed from psychism experiences, and are authenticated by examining the claimant’s social standing, the narrative structure of the claim and the interests of the claimant and the judge. Such claims are authorized by incorporation into collective action, publications, workshops and …

A Brush With Weimar Germany.Docx, Rowan Cahill

Rowan Cahill

Mapping Reality: An Introduction To Theatre, Charlie Mitchell, Michelle Hayford

Michelle Hayford

This book seeks to give insight into the people and processes that create theatre. Like any other world—be it horse racing, fashion, or politics—understanding its complexities helps you appreciate it on a deeper plane. The intent of this book is not to strip away the feeling of magic that can happen in the presence of theatre but to add an element of wonder for the artistry that makes it work. At the same time, you can better understand how theatre seeks to reveal truths about the human condition; explores issues of ethics, gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality, and spirituality; and exists …

Review: 'What Would Jesus Read? Popular Religious Books And Everyday Life In Twentieth-Century America', William Vance Trollinger

William Vance Trollinger Jr.

In this interesting book Erin Smith analyzes popular religious books since the late nineteenth century with an eye toward understanding why – despite the scorn heaped on them by intellectuals -- they have been so beloved by their readers. Rather than being a comprehensive survey, What Would Jesus Read? consists of five case studies: the Social Gospel novels (1880s-1910s), Bruce Barton’s The Man Nobody Knows (1925), post-World War II religious self-help books, Hal Lindsay’s The Late Great Planet Earth (1970), and books for “the seeker” from the past twenty-five years. Smith’s focus is on white Protestant readers; working against the …

Riley’S Empire: Northwestern Bible School And Fundamentalism In The Upper Midwest, William Vance Trollinger

William Vance Trollinger Jr.

In the 1920s a loosely-united band of militant conservatives launched a crusade to capture control of the major Protestant denominations. These fundamentalists staunchly affirmed the supernaturalness and literal accuracy of the Bible, the supernatural character of Christ, and the necessity of Christians to separate themselves from the world.

Most often Baptists and Presbyterians, they struggled to re-establish their denominations as true and pure churches: true to the historic doctrines of the faith as they perceived them, and pure from what they saw as the polluting influences of an increasingly corrupt modern culture. But by the late 1920s the fundamentalists had …

Emerson And Skepticism: The Cipher Of The World [Review], Michael Fischer

Michael Fischer

In Emerson and Skepticism John Michael argues that even in Emerson's early works his famous self-reliance was more a dream than an achievement. For Michael this dream dates from Emerson's initial quarrel with Unitarianism. In Emerson's "The Lord's Supper," the skeptical arguments that Unitarians had turned against orthodox Christianity come back to haunt Unitarianism itself. We are presumably left with the autonomous individual, the Emerson who can confidendy say to his Unitarian teachers, "This mode of commemorating Christ is not suitable to me. That is reason enough why I should abandon it" (p. 17). But, as Michael points out, this …

Farcical Philology: Alexander Shewan's Homeric Games At An Ancient St. Andrews, Thomas E. Jenkins

Thomas E Jenkins

It is one of the many ironies of the term "philology" that what to the untrained ear may connote a dry and lifeless field of study was once the fightingest of fighting words; indeed, philology has been only recently retired as a field with an especial love for internecine warfare. "Love of literature," it seems, could spawn loathing of fellow literature-lovers, and as philology grew as a discipline and even academic profession, the stakes were high. Any examination of metaphilology, then, must include a glance at philology's discourses of error and detection, of correction and humiliation: philology- if dedicated to …

A Note On Odyssey 3.216-38, Erwin F. Cook

Erwin F. Cook

No abstract provided.

Moments Musicaux: Episodes In 150 Years Of Music At Illinois Wesleyan University, Robert C. Delvin

Robert C Delvin

No abstract provided.

The 2012 U.S. Election And Political Messages In Sermons, Daniel Roland, Darin Freeburg

Daniel Roland

This study sought to determine to what degree clergy members of various denominations mentioned the 2012 Presidential Election in their sermons. A convenience sampling of 1,012 sermon texts prepared and delivered by 141 Protestant Christian clergy members from August 5 through November 4, 2012, were gathered and analyzed for occurrences and type of political messages. Analysis found that political messages were more likely to be given by clergy located in Blue States and least likely to be given by clergy located in Red States. Extensive political messages were more likely delivered by clergy located in Swing States. Clergy members were …

The 2012 U.S. Election And Political Messages In Sermons, Daniel Roland, Darin Freeburg

Darin Freeburg

This study sought to determine to what degree clergy members of various denominations mentioned the 2012 Presidential Election in their sermons. A convenience sampling of 1,012 sermon texts prepared and delivered by 141 Protestant Christian clergy members from August 5 through November 4, 2012, were gathered and analyzed for occurrences and type of political messages. Analysis found that political messages were more likely to be given by clergy located in Blue States and least likely to be given by clergy located in Red States. Extensive political messages were more likely delivered by clergy located in Swing States. Clergy members were …

Trinitarian Thought In The Early Modern Era, Ulrich Lehner

Ulrich L. Lehner

This article explores Catholic and Protestant Trinitarian theology from 1550 to 1770. It discusses various issues, from the mystical visions of Ignatius of Loyola to the Augustinian approach of Jonathan Edwards. It considers the growing variety of eclectic views and the influence of anti-Trinitarian thinkers, beginning with Michael Servetus and Faustus Socinus. It also highlights the rise of confessionalism and anti-Trinitarianism and the explosion of mystical theology during this period.

Diet Composition And Insulin Action In Animal Models, Leonard H. Storlien, J Higgins, T C. Thomas, Marc A. Brown, Hong-Qin Wang, Xu-Feng Huang, Paul Else

Xu-Feng Huang

No abstract provided.

G. Stanley Hall And An American Social Darwinist Pedagogy: His Progressive Educational Ideas On Gender And Race, Lester Goodchild

Lester F. Goodchild

President G. Stanley Hall hung only a portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson in his office at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. The philosopher embodied Hall's most cherished mid-nineteenth century ideas that comprised part of his intellectual worldview. In the 1840s, Emerson reflected on his transcendental concepts of the common mind and instinct, which held all innate human knowledge and behavioral patterns, in his Essays. Later, Hall would believe that the human metaphysical psyche, driven by primordial instinct, offered an evolutionary font from which educational activities enabled individuals to discern their destinies and to discover their abilities. His intellectual journey began …

Using Sermon Text Archives To Investigate The Construction Of Social Values: A Proposal For A Collaborative Research Agenda In Social Epistemology, Daniel Roland

Daniel Roland

This article presents a detailed description of a research agenda and methodology inspired by Jesse Shera’s notion of social epistemology as the study of “the ways in which society generates new knowledge, disseminates it, and uses it to contribute to the values the society seeks.”1 The research agenda is ambitious and echoes the call that Shera put forth with Margaret Egan that librarianship be a discipline “for the effective investigation of the whole complex problem of the intellectual processes of society.”2 The research agenda focuses on sermons as a communication medium that significantly influences the social construction of knowledge. With …

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (Recording), Gary Smart

Gary Smart

"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" is from a private release CD, "Bright Morning Stars are Rising", made as a fundraiser for the Unitarian-Universalist Society. It features hymns from diverse religions and traditions around the world and reflects my interest in a diversity of musical styles including Americana, jazz and world musics.

Archibald Alexander And The Use Of Books: Theological Education And Print Culture In The Early Republic, Michael J. Paulus Jr.

Michael J. Paulus, Jr.

Strauss’S Life Of Jesus, Theodore Parker, Paul Royster (Depositor)

Paul Royster

David Strauss’s Das Leben Jesu (1835) was one of the most influential and controversial theological works of the nineteenth century. It was first translated into English by Mary Ann Evans (“George Eliot”) in 1860, and is said to have been an important early influence on Friedrich Nietzsche. Strauss (1808-1874) applied the methods of German “higher criticism” or textual criticism to the Gospels, and argued that their accounts of Jesus’ miracles and prophecies were to be understood “mythically”—as products of the early church's use of Jewish messianic ideas and expectations to underscore the conviction that Jesus was the Messiah. Parker’s long …

A Primary Human Challenge, Carroy U. Ferguson

Carroy U "Cuf" Ferguson, Ph.D.

We may ask why, at both the individual and collective levels, it has seemed so difficult for us to choose to evolve our human games with Joy. There is no one answer for such a question, for each of us has the gift of free will. I will suggest, however, that built into our human games is what I call a primary human challenge. That primary human challenge is a dynamic tension, flowing from our creative urge for the freedom “to be” who we really are in our current physical form, and simultaneously to embrace our responsibility for our Being-ness.

The Santa Barbara Public Library: History And Thematic Identifications, Michele Gibney

Michele Gibney

The paper describes the history of the public library in Santa Barbara from 1870 to 1926 while taking into account two of the thematic underpinnings of the American library tradition: women in the profession and the importance of books and libraries in the community. It is divided into three sections including, the importance of books and libraries, women librarianship, and the history of the Santa Barbara Public Library. The library’s ideology and history espouses the themes inherent in American library history. At the same time, some of the qualities of Santa Barbara’s library contradict prevalent ideas of the times—especially in …

Walter Beach, Paul J. Rich

Paul J. Rich

A variation of these remarks was part of the memorial service I led for Walter at the Southern Political Science and American Political Science Associations after his death, and was published in the Policy Studies Journal and Review of Policy Research. He was my predecessor as President of the Policy Studies Organization and he also was a friend and mentor. We miss him dearly but fortunately he lived long enough to see the PSO move to Washington, only a couple blocks from his office.

Why "Howl"?, Scott Abbott

Scott Abbott

No abstract provided.