Digital Commons Network^™

Silent Voices: The Missing Historiography Of Soviet Evangelicalism, Abigail Coker

Montview Journal of Research & Scholarship

The historiography of Soviet evangelicalism has suffered from both lack of attention and lack of detail-oriented, scholarly research. These failings are not surprising, considering the limitations exerted by the Cold War and the nature of the Soviet system. From the 1920s to the 1990s, the primary limitation to research of Soviet evangelicalism lay in the creation of and access to primary sources. This lack of primary sources, combined with the incautious use of government sources, marks the early works on Soviet religion. Indeed, the problem of sources was not entirely resolved until the 1980s and 1990s, when Gorbachev’s liberalization measures …

Reframing Space: Religion, History, And Memory In The Early Documentary Film Of The Yugoslav Space, Milja Radovic

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper examines cinematic representations of religion and religious communities in the early cinema of the Yugoslav space. This paper introduces the readers to the rich heritage of the cinema of the Yugoslav space by providing 1) the first study of the representations of religion and the concepts of faith in the early film, and 2) novel approaches in reading religion and history through film. Film is used as a primary rather than supplementary source in historical research on diverse religious and ethnic communities in this part of the Balkan Peninsula. This is the first study that investigates the importance, …

The Rise Of Russian Peasant Witchcraft: A Response To Social Unrest In Imperial Russia, Katrina Sommer

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

Imperial Russia became home to a unique form of witchcraft from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Combining its religious history, patterns of imperial expansion and governance, and social hierarchies, witchcraft accusations arose during especially troublesome economic and political times. Differing from eighteenth-century America Witchcraft trials, these trials were not only femicide. Targeting anyone who might subvert established social or cultural norms, these accusations often led to violent expungement, ending with a ritual of communal bonding.

Strategy And Tactics Of Soviet Security Bodies In The Fight Against Religion And Religious Communities On The Territory Of Ukraine, Olha Shakurova, Oksana Vysoven, Yuriy Figurnyi, Natalia Varodi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the strategy and tactics of state security agencies in the fight against religion and religious Protestant communities on the territory of Soviet Ukraine. It was revealed that the communist totalitarian system, in order to maintain its dominant position in society and master fully the consciousness of its population and influence its spiritual life (strategic task), shortly after the end of the Second World War, in 1946 in the system of the newly formed Ministry of State Security of the Soviet Union of the Socialist Republics and its republican departments created new special operational departments endowed with extraordinary …

Gender, Race, And Religion In An African Enlightenment, Jonathan D. Lyonhart

Journal of Religion & Film

Black Panther (2018) not only heralded a new future for representation in big-budget films but also gave an alternative vision of the past, one which recasts the Enlightenment within an African context. By going through its technological enlightenment in isolation from Western ideals and dominance, Wakanda opens a space for reflecting on alternate ways progress can—and still might—unfold. More specifically, this alternative history creates room for reimagining how modernity—with its myriad social, scientific, and religious paradigm shifts—could have negotiated questions of race, and, in turn, how race could have informed and redirected some of the lesser impulses of modernity. Similar …

Medieval Infertility: Treatments, Cures, And Consequences, Zia Simpson

The Forum: Journal of History

Since the first civilizations emerged, reproductive ability has been one of the most prominent elements in assessing a woman’s value to society. Other characteristics such as beauty, intelligence, and wealth may have been granted comparable consequence, but those are arbitrary and improvable. Fertility is genetic, and for centuries it was beyond human control. Among the medieval European nobility, fertility held even greater power. The absence of an heir could, either directly or indirectly, bring about war, economic depression, and social disorder. Catholicism provided a refuge by allowing barren women to retain their hopes, while simultaneously enriching Rome’s coffers. Other women …

Natura Sanat: On Ecological Aspects Of Healing Miracles In Kalwaria Pacławska, Poland, Kamila Baraniecka-Olszewska

Journal of Global Catholicism

The subject-matter of my article is a change affecting the discourse on miraculous healings in a Catholic Marian sanctuary – Kalwaria Pacławska – run by Franciscan friars in the South-Eastern Poland and a way in which those changes affect pilgrims’ bodies. In Kalwaria Pacławska there meet, intersect and compete various religious and secular discourses and they all influence emotions and bodily sensations accompanying pilgrimage to this sacred site. One of those discourses has been introduced to Kalwaria just recently. The central element of the sanctuary is the miraculous image of Virgin Mary which is the goal of numerous pilgrimages from …

Prohibition Among Danish American Lutherans, Nick Kofod Mogensen

The Bridge

On January 17, 1920, a major change took place in American society. The Eighteenth Amendment went into effect and started the Prohibition Era, banning the sale of alcohol in the United States from 1920 to 1933. Prohibition was not a uniquely American idea. Under pressure from temperance movements, most Nordic countries banned or severely restricted the sale of alcohol around the same time as the United States did. The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, and Finland all banned alcohol during the first few decades of the twentieth century. Although a narrow majority of the Swedish people refused an outright ban in …

Art As Political Struggle: George Grosz And The Experience Of The Great War, Jeff Michael Ocwieja

Grand Valley Journal of History

The Great War was a highly traumatic event that rocked the Western world and beyond and had a tremendous effect on the professional lives of those who served in the conflict. Included among those profoundly changed by the experience of the war was George Grosz, whose art grew increasingly subversive in light of the horrors of what he had seen both on the battlefield and in the tumultuous political atmosphere of post-war Germany. This article uses the individual experience of Grosz to speak more generally about the German experience during and after the conflict, particularly through engagement with artist's illustrations …

On Danish-American Cultural Identity, Signe Sloth

The Bridge

In 1967 an article was published which kick-started a discussion that is still going on among sociologists today. The subject of the article is American civil religion and the writer is the American sociologist Robert Bellah who claims that every nation and every people has a religious self-understanding. He advocates an American civil religion that is separated from other denominations and established religious institutions, but just like them demands recognition and understanding. Bellah defines this Civil Religion as " ... A genuine apprehension of universal and transcendental religious reality as seen in or . . . as revealed through the …

Non-Lutheran Denominations Among The Danish Immigrant Churches, Robert A (Bob) Olsen

The Bridge

The combined 2012 Issue (Volume 35) of "The Bridge" was a translation of Max Henius' "Den Danskfodte Amerikaner" (The Danish-Born American), published in 1912. It is a fascinating addition for the English speaking "Danes" dealing with many aspects of the lives of the approximately 300,000 Danish-born that emigrated to the United States in the years prior to that time. It discusses many aspects of Danish-American life at the time, ranging from schools, societies, the Danish press, old people's homes, organizations and churches. Unfortunately when it comes to schools, churches, and newspapers there is barely a mention of anything outside of …

The United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church In America: A Brief Overview Of Its History And Activity, P. S. Vig

The Bridge

“The United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church in America” is the name of an organization of congregations and pastors who are among those Danes who have immigrated to America, and who desire to hold firmly to the faith in which they were baptized, to remain in that church to which they have belonged since childhood, and who want to support the effort to preserve that faith in their adopted land and pass that heritage on to their children. This goal is not attainable except by mutual work, sacrifice and effort. “The United Church,” as we are now used to saying in …

Religion And Integration Among The Danish Immigrants In The Us 1848-1914, Marianne Sletten Paasch

The Bridge

One of the most controversial social issues in the western hemisphere today is the integration of immigrants into a host society. The problems appear to be many and the solutions few. In Denmark we have had a long and at times heated debate about immigrants, their integration into Danish society and their religious practices - including how religion can influence the integration process of immigrants. During the last 10 years this "problem" has made headlines over and over again and has often greatly influenced the decision making process of our parliament. But we are not alone. The "integration problem" exists …

Politics Among Danish Americans In The Midwest, Ca. 1890-1914, Jorn Brondal

The Bridge

During the last decades of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, ethnicity and religion played a vital role in shaping the political culture of the Midwest. Indeed, historians like Samuel P. Hays, Lee Benson, Richard Jensen (of part Danish origins), and Paul Kleppner argued that ethnoreligious factors to a higher degree than socioeconomic circumstances informed the party affiliation of ordinary voters.1 It is definitely true that some ethnoreligious groups like, say, the Irish Catholics and the German Lutherans boasted fullfledged political subcultures complete with their own press, their own political leadership and to some extent, at least, their own …

Danish Churches And Congregations In Indianapolis, 1868-1885, Barbara R. George

The Bridge

A look at the population make-up of Indianapolis and Indiana during the time period from the end of the Civil War (approximately 1865) until the 1880s shows that the Danes had little impact in the relatively small Indiana immigration picture. Indiana was less influenced by foreign born than any other northern state. Although ranking ninth in the number of German-born residents in 1880, Indiana ranked thirteenth in the number of foreign born, and was sixth in total population. As a state it was not particularly aggressive in promoting itself as a viable destination for immigrants, and ranked only in front …

Carl Theodor Dreyer' S Response To Anti-Semitism In His Unfilmed Jesus Film Scenario, Peter G. Christensen

The Bridge

The controversy in 2004 over possible anti-Semitism in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ had precedents in earlier Jesus-films. Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Gospel According to Matthew and Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth have also been accused of anti-Semitism. Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) wanted to combat anti-Semitism, as he directly stated in his own essays attached to his Jesus screenplay, which since his death has been published in English, Danish, and French versions. Dreyer began the film project in 1949-1950 in Independence, Missouri, writing in English, and he worked on it until the end of his life. However, he …

The Establishment Of Danish Lutheran Churches In Canada, Rolf Buschardt Christensen

The Bridge

This paper presents a brief history of the establishment of Danish Lutheran congregations in Canada during the twentieth century. As they will continue to evolve, the paper ends with a short discussion of challenges facing the Danish congregations in Canada as they enter the twenty-first century.

Negotiating Toleration: Engagement, Enforcement, And The Politics Of Recognition, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Toleration and Identity: Foundations in Early Modern Thought by Ingrid Creppell. New York: Routledge, 2003. 212pp.

and

How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West by Perez Zagorin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. 371pp.

Danish Lutheran Churches In America: Contributions Of The United (Danish) Evangelical Lutheran Church, 1896-1960, Edward A. Hansen

The Bridge

The United Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1896 by a merger of two Danish immigrant groups. One group, the "Blair Synod" had been excluded from the Danish Lutherans organized in America in 1872, in a controversy mainly involving the Bible as the Word of God. The second group, the "North Church," had been organized in 1884 by Danish members of the NorwegianDanish Evangelical Lutheran Church (founded in 1870). These Danes had withdrawn peaceably from their Norwegian brethren, in order better to serve immigrants from Denmark. By the 1940s this united church had changed from almost exclusive use of …

The Christmas Tree And The Two Churches, Johannes V. Knudsen

The Bridge

Part of the Danish American heritage is the fact that there were, unfortunately, some believe, two separate Danish American Lutheran Church groups. Because of theological differences (and perhaps personality conflicts, as well) between these two groups, they remained separate entities from their complex beginnings in the latter half of the nineteenth century until mergers took place with a number of other ethnic Lutheran church groups in the early 1960s, culminating in the formation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 1988. The histories of and differences between the two synods, the American Evangelical Lutheran Church and the United Evangelical …

The Bridge Builders Of Luther Memorial, Wilber J. Williamson

The Bridge

The congregation of Luther Memorial Church in Des Moines, Iowa, celebrated its centennial anniversary in 1999, during which time there was a good deal of reflection concerning the historical roots and activities of the church during the preceding one hundred years. Much of the early history of the congregation was closely associated with Grand View College. During the first decades, the school provided worship facilities as well as the pastor services for the emerging congregation. With financial support from the Danish Evangelical Lutheran Church, a building was erected in 1917, which has served as the home for the congregation since …

Peder Kjolhede-Man Of Action, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

Prior to the coming of the Protestant Reformation in 1536, the area in which Peder Kjoilhede (hereinafter Kjolhede) was born and grew up was owned by the Roman Catholic bishops. This area, south of the Limfjord and close to the west coast of Jutland, became the property of the king. It was parceled out by him to those who had rendered service to him, and much later, through division and sales, a portion of it came to be the property of Johan Kjolhede and was known as the farm of Kjolhedegird.

Restless Fanatic:Mogens Abraham Sommer, 1829-1901, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

This account of the life and activities of a Danish religious fanatic who played a significant role in emigration has been prepared on the basis of materials available in this country. Further items are available in Denmark, but on the basis of what is known to be available, it is doubtful that this would make any appreciable difference. To my knowledge, this is the only English language story of his life.

A Norwegian In The Pew Of Budolfi Cathedral In Aalborg: The Annunciation Of The Virgin Mary, 1996, Oyvind T. Gulliksen

The Bridge

As an alien soul from the Norwegian church, I sought refuge in Aalborg cathedral on the Fifth Sunday in Lent, the feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary ("Marire bebudelses

Peasant Revivalism And Secularization: Protestant Popular Culture In Denmark And Sweden 1820-1850, Hanne Sanders

The Bridge

The subject of this dissertation is religious revivalism in Danish and Swedish agrarian society in the first half of the nineteenth century. Its purpose has been to analyse a specific religious phenomenon in a presecularized society. As other historians have done, I have analysed revivalism from a social and a political point of view. Furthermore, I have focused on the religious dimension of the movement not as a theological, but as a cultural and social problem. My main thesis is that during the secularization of society the meaning of religion changed from knowledge and social culture it came to mean …

The Turkey, Carl Hansen

The Bridge

The church bells did not chime in Rainesville, for there was no church. But there was a schoolhouse, and in it, the Danish and Norwegian church folk gathered twice a month to hear a Norwegian pastor, who in half an hour taught his parishioners about predestination, free will, and the Missouri Synod's infallibility. But it was still Christmas Eve, even if the church bells did not chime. And if there was anyone who doubted it, they could just stick their noses inside Jens Larsen's door to be convinced.

Tireless In His Service: Rasmus Andersen, Pastor And Author 1878-1924, Thorvald Hansen

The Bridge

Of the four founders of the Danish Lutheran Church in America in 1872, the one concerning whom the most information exists is Rasmus Andersen. Yet it has been my observation that comparatively little is known about him. A reason for this is that, to my knowledge, no comprehensive biography exists, and there is almost nothing available in the English language. Most of the material that does exist is to be found in the Danes World Wide Archives ("Udvandrerarkivet") in Aalborg, Denmark. According to Birgit Flemming Larsen, who oversees that archive, the Andersen collection is the largest at the Aalborg archive. …

Pioneer Life In The Big Dane Settlement, August Rasmussen

The Bridge

My experience in pioneer life commenced in 1856, after a long and stormy voyage from Denmark to America in that year. I shall, by the kind assistance of the Independent, give a little of my pioneer life and settlement during forty-five years. My thoughts are running back to the first Christmas I celebrated here in America, in 1856. It was a merry one, as you will see farther on. My wife and I were then both young, about twenty-seven years each.

Three Churches At West Denmark, Edwin Pedersen

The Bridge

Not many congregations know the heartbreak of losing two churches and a parsonage to fire in less than fifty years, or have in their congregation two members who can remember the building of three churches; but so it is at West Denmark, Wisconsin.

The Theological Contributions Of Johannes V. Knudsen, Axel Kildegaard

The Bridge

"The glory of God is man fully alive." That quotation attributed to lreneus, Church father and first systematic theologian, is about 1800 years old. It affords a clue in my search for the common thread that runs throughout the seemingly diverse theological interests of Johannes V. Knudsen. The Celt, lreneus, Bishop of Lyons, who lived in the volatile second century when the Christian tradition was taking shape, wrote two significant works. One defined the basic Christian teachings, and the other, Against the Heresies, answered false teachings. These works spoke also to the interests of Bishop N.F.S. Grundtvig in 19th century …