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The Culture Of Habits And Dispositions: Associationist Psychology And Unitarian Education In Gaskell's Wives And Daughters, Lori Ann Dickson

Theses and Dissertations

Although Victorian psychology has been the subject of much recent scholarship, Elizabeth Gaskell's work has not been considered in relation to nineteenth-century theories of mind. In this thesis, I argue that Gaskell's final novel, Wives and Daughters, deals with associationism, an early branch of psychology that played a key role in public debates over cognition that took place throughout the century. Gaskell was exposed to associationism through her Unitarian faith, and Unitarian educators in particular articulated associationist principles in their writings about cognitive development. Gaskell was preoccupied with a similar model of learning throughout her fiction, and I read …

Assessing Druze Identity And Strategies For Preserving Druze Heritage In North America, Chad Kassem Radwan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study focuses on promoting historical, religious, and cultural knowledge among transnational Druze. The Druze are a relatively small, tightly knit religious community from the Middle East who practice endogamy and accept no converts. In the diaspora, Druze have often established their own communities based on their collective ancestral and familial ties and through the establishment of groups such as the American Druze Society. This study works to allow individuals to discuss their Druze identity, identify the community's social problems, and recommend possible approaches or solutions. My research experience as an insider doing ethnography among fellow Druze has in …

Nathaniel Hawthorne And His Biblical Contexts, Conor Michael Walsh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The majority of criticism and scholarship devoted to the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne takes for granted the relationship between Hawthorne and the Bible, focusing instead upon theology and philosophy. This work proposes that the Bible was an important and pervasive influence in Hawthorne's fiction. The Bible provides Hawthorne with numerous resources for both his artistic and moral concerns. At a basic level the Bible provides a popular platform that allows Hawthorne to immediately connect with his contemporary audience who were intimately familiar with the Bible. More importantly, though, are the vast examples and perspectives of the human condition and human …

"Blessed Are The Dead Which Die In The Lord": The Influence Of The American Tract Society On The Historical Evolution Of American Literary Sentimentalism, Joel Bridges Henderson

Dissertations

Studies of American literary sentimentalism usually focus on either the genre's origins in the novels of the early republic or its zenith as represented by the midnineteenth- century bestsellers. Such a focus reveals two distinctly different versions of sentimentalism. While the novels of Susanna Rowson, Hannah Foster, and William Brown evidence a genre influenced by Calvinism, the bestsellers of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Maria Cummins, and Susan Warner represent a sentimentalism inextricably fused with nineteenth-century evangelicalism. The evolution of the genre is more clearly explained by the intervention of the American Tract Society (ATS). In its ongoing efforts to convert the …

Henry Steel Olcott : From Civil War Veteran To Sinalese Buddhist Nationalist, A Case Study In International Religious Activism, Jennifer Proch

Honors Theses

The nineteenth century was marked by a great deal of religious growth and change. Throughout the world, religion took on new forms, both with the introduction and expansion of movements like the Theosophical Society, and with the revival and reform of older faiths. Cultural exchange and broader exposure to religious ideals, in the form of missions and education were also important features of the century. At a cursory glance, an American Civil War veteran and a Buddhist monk from Ceylon would seem to share little in common, but during this time of increasing interconnectedness these two figures made contact. Henry …

Exploring Faith Communities In Syracuse, Rachel Dudley

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The United States of America is now the most religiously diverse country in the world. Living side by side are not only Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, but Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and people from a multitude of other religious groups as well. However, while Americans inevitably encounter religious diversity every day, very few take the time to engage in it. There is a lot of ignorance surrounding the multitude of religious traditions present in America, and this ignorance can easily lead to fear, hatred, discrimination, and violence.

The course “Exploring Faith Communities in Syracuse” tries to put a stop to this …

A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman: A Reflection Of The Tension Between Conformity And Rebellion In The Life And Times Of Mary Wollstonecraft, Ann Sofia-Rothschild

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I examine A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft and how it reflects the tension between conformity and rebellion that is an inherent component in the life of its author and therefore is a fundamental element of this treatise. In this paper I discuss how the personal struggles of Mary Wollstonecraft, as a woman living in a patriarchal society, influenced her perspective and moved her to address her concerns for her "fellow creatures." This treatise pushed the boundaries of conventional thinking, but it was also written in traditional terms in an effort to …

"Have Salt In Yourselves, And Be At Peace With Each Other" The Irenic Theology Of Daniel Kałaj, Dariusz M. Bryćko

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

Daniel Kałaj (d.1681) was a Polish Reformer of Hungarian background, born in Little Poland (Małopolska) and trained in Franeker, Friesland under some of the most brilliant Reformed theologians of seventeenth-century Europe, such as Cocceius and Cloppenburgh. Kałaj’s ministry in the Reformed Church of Little Poland was abruptly interrupted when he was wrongly accused by Catholic authorities of spreading then-outlawed Arianism and being called a “Calvinoarian.” Kałaj became the first Polish Protestant minister to receive a sentence of capital punishment as a result of the new anti-toleration law issued in 1658 against Arians, under the false pretext of military treason during …

On The Brink Of The Waters Of Life And Truth, We Are Miserably Dying: Ralph Waldo Emerson As A Predecessor To Deconstruction And Postmodernism, Michael A. Deery

ETD Archive

Between his pivotal essays "Nature" in 1836 and "The Poet" in 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson's increasingly negative and distrustful view of language can best be described as a precursor to deconstruction and postmodernism. Contemporary critics are too quick to dismiss a deconstructionist Emerson. There is evidence within his major essays that Emerson's understanding of language not only leads him to public and private displays of pessimism, but also to feelings of internal solipsism, agnosticism, and epistemological anxiety. Emerson demanded that mankind should utilize nature and aesthetics to experience the sublime and an immediate and original relationship with God. Yet, Emerson's …

Anthony Burns And The North-South Dialogue On Slavery, Liberty, Race, And The American Revolution, Gordon S. Barker

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

Revisiting the Anthony Burns drama in 1854, the last fugitive slave crisis in Boston, I argue that traditional historical interpretations emphasizing an antislavery groundswell in the North mask the confusion, chaos, ethnic and class tensions, and racial division in the Bay city and also treat Virginia's most famous fugitive slave as an object rather than the Revolutionary and advocate for equal rights that he was. I contend that it was far from clear that antislavery beliefs were on the rise in midcentury Boston. I show that antislavery views had to compete with other less noble, sometimes racist, sentiments and with …

More Than Just Books: Using Fiction To Help Young Girls Relate, Katie Michelle Simmons Laney

Honors Theses

In recent years, I have had the opportunity to work in a variety of ministry settings. One such setting brought me in contact with a girl who was in a bullying situation. In her case, she related to me action taken in her classroom by her teacher at the urging of her parents. The situation had been remedied, but she was still dealing with the emotional repercussions of having been a victim of relational aggression. In my acquaintance with the girl, I knew she enjoyed reading. Therefore, she helped to inspire my original thesis idea of learning more about the …