Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Interfaith Sex Education, Bailey Lewis

Honors College

Sacred Sexuality explores the intersections of religion and sexuality. I worked with Dr. Birthisel, Director of the Wilson Center, and Kate Dawson, co-facilitator of the sex education class, to survey the sex education class participants on how the experience has been for them. I surveyed the sex education class participants after the class to analyze their opinions of the sex education class, interfaith dialogue, and how their spirituality or religious perspectives inform their beliefs around sexuality. Overall, the sex education class was highly recommended and gave an interesting look into how faith and sexuality interact. While the sex education class …

Mediation Of The Religion-Prejudice Link, Aaron R. Dustin

Honors College

Although religious teachings typically recommend prosocial behavior, religiosity is reliably linked to prejudice. This paradoxical relationship raises the question: what is it about religion that might lead to prejudice despite religion’s apparent drive for prosociality? The answer may lie with religious fundamentalism, a particularly rigid way of holding one’s religious beliefs as the single deepest and most certain source of truth. We propose that religious fundamentalism mediates the relationship between religiosity and prejudice. We also seek to explore the influence of three facets of inflexible thinking (belief rigidity, dualism, and inviolacy) on the relationship between religious fundamentalism and prejudice.

We …

The Origins Of Religious Disbelief: A Dual Inheritance Approach, Will M. Gervais, Maxine B. Najle, Nava Caluori

Psychology Graduate Research

Widespread religious disbelief represents a key testing ground for theories of religion. We evaluated the predictions of three prominent theoretical approaches—secularization, cognitive byproduct, and dual inheritance—in a nationally representative (United States, N = 1,417) data set with preregistered analyses and found considerable support for the dual inheritance perspective. Of key predictors of religious disbelief, witnessing fewer credible cultural cues of religious commitment was the most potent, β = .28, followed distantly by reflective cognitive style, β = .13, and less advanced mentalizing, β = .05. Low cultural exposure predicted about 90% higher odds of atheism than did peak cognitive reflection, …

Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Adults’ Experiences With Supportive Religious Groups, Rachel Grossman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This qualitative research study was designed to explore lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) young adults’ views about how being a member of supportive and affirming religious places of worship and social groups influenced their self-acceptance, as well as their ability to integrate their religious and sexual minority identities. In this study, six in-person interviews were completed with participants who (a) were 18-24 years old; (b) identified as lesbian, gay, or bisexual; (c) were members of supportive Jewish and Christian religious groups; and (d) identified as cisgender. The data from the interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis to tell cohesive stories …

Deep Doctrine And Passionate Proclamation: How Understanding The Relationship Between God's Sovereignty And Evangelism Increases Evangelistic Zeal, Christopher Lee Verser

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The gospel must be accurately communicated to a lost man for that individual to have the opportunity to be saved. It is the responsibility of Christians to be ambassadors of Christ and proclaim this gospel to all men. All Christians can grow in their zeal for evangelism. Many Christians have very little zeal for evangelism due to several reasons. This lack of evangelistic zeal can be increased by a robust understanding of the doctrine of God’s sovereignty and the relationship between God’s sovereignty and evangelism. In the Scripture, Christians are taught that doctrine directly affects behavior and action. The more …

Soteriology In Mainstream Monotheistic Religions: The Messiah Conundrum, Jay Fox

Masters Theses

For the promotion of the Gospel, this study seeks to examine Soteriology in Mainstream Monotheistic Religions: The Messiah Conundrum. This decidedly charged topic critically researches the philosophy of salvation doctrine, or soteriology, within major monotheistic religions. The highlighted problem is the Messiah conundrum, with critical research on each doctrine for epistemological significance of a savior and their beliefs surrounding salvation. This mystery of where, or who humans turn to for salvation, is vitally important when considering the principle of sufficient reason in today’s hermeneutic and apologetic circles. The purpose fueling this thesis is the resolute documenting of beliefs of major …

God And Mr. Lincoln, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

On the day in April 1837 that Abraham Lincoln rode into Springfield, Illinois, to set himself up professionally as a lawyer, the American republic was awash in religion. Lincoln, however, was neither swimming nor even bobbing in its current. “This thing of living in Springfield is rather a dull business after all, at least it is so to me,” the uprooted state legislator and commercially bankrupt Lincoln wrote to Mary Owens on May 7th. “I am quite as lonesome here as [I] ever was anywhere in my life,” and in particular, “I’ve never been to church yet, nor probably shall …

“We Don't Talk About That Here": Teachers, Religion, Public Elementary Schools And The Embodiment Of Silence, A Binational United States And Israel Study, Tina Keller, Amy Camardese, Randa Abbas

Faculty Educator Scholarship

Globally religious diversity is on the rise yet the place of religion in public schools is often heatedly debated. This study examined the experiences of fifth graders in regards to religion in public schools in the United States and Israel. The juxtaposition of diverse countries and school settings opens the dialogue to examine how children and their teachers perceive the impact of religion while in school. The findings suggest that the impact of minority status, school curriculum, and the political and geographical contexts of schools impact the ways that religion is conceptualized in public elementary schools. In addition, the uniquenesses …

Consumers, Clergy, And Clinicians In Collaboration: Ongoing Implementation And Evaluation Of A Mental Wellness Program, Glen Milstein, Dennis Middel, Adriana Espinosa

Publications and Research

As a foundation of most cultures, with roots in persons’ early development, religion can be a source of hope as well as denigration. Some religious institutions have made attempts to help persons with mental health problems, and some mental health professionals have sought to engage religion resources. These programs have rarely been sustained. In 2008, the Mental Health Center of Denver (MHCD) developed a program to assess the utility of religion resources within mental health care. In response to positive feedback, MHCD appointed a director of Faith and Spiritual Wellness who facilitates community outreach to faith communities and spiritual integration …

Fostering Undergraduate Spiritual Growth Through Service-Learning, Michelle S. Barrett

Scholarship and Professional Writing from the J.D. Power Center

Scholars and educational leaders have expressed concern that higher education is not adequately meeting students’ desire for spiritual growth within an academic context. Prior studies have demonstrated a relationship between the pedagogical method of service-learning and spiritual development. This study analyzed the relationship between specific service-learning components and the occurrence of spiritual growth in an effort to better understand how such growth can be fostered within the curriculum. Findings indicated that spiritual growth occurred when students experienced significant challenge balanced with support. Challenge was initiated when students witnessed injustice while simultaneously being exposed to new, diverse perspectives in class. Support …

Roosevelt, Boy Scouts, And The Formation Of Muscular Christian Character, Gordon J. Christen

Religious Studies Honors Projects

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many prominent Christians and political leaders saw a degenerative influence in industrializing America. For them, urban culture had eroded gender roles, personal strength, and moral fiber. So-called “Muscular Christians” prescribed physical exertion and wilderness experience to cure these ills. I argue that these values were embodied in idealized characters such as Theodore Roosevelt, Jesus, and the Boy Scout to give a form to cultural remedies. In the process, they became the terms upon which proper Americanism, and proper Christianity, were constructed.

The Reality Of Moral Imperatives In Liberal Religion, Howard Lesnick

All Faculty Scholarship

This paper uses a classic one-liner attributed to Dostoyoevski’s Ivan Karamozov, "Without God everything is permitted," to explore some differences between what I term traditional and liberal religion. The expansive connotations and implications of Ivan’s words are grounded in the historic association of wrongfulness and punishment, and in a reaction against the late modern challenge to the inexorability of that association, whether in liberal religion or in secular moral thought. The paper argues that, with its full import understood, Ivan’s claim begs critical questions of the meaning and source of compulsion and choice, and of knowledge and belief regarding the …

Faithful Non-Believers: Examining Ritual And Belief In A Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Clara M. Sciortino

Summer Research

No abstract provided.

Religion And Spirituality In Nevada, Ariane G. Mitchum, Michael Ian Borer

Social Health of Nevada Reports

Across the world, religion is integral to society insofar it shapes people’s thoughts, behaviors, and interactions. What exactly the term “religion” means, however, is far from clear-cut, as it continues to be a highly charged topic of discussion and debate, a subject that many hold dear and near to their hearts.

The Dissonant Bible Quotation: Political And Narrative Dissension In Gaskell's Mary Barton, Jon Singleton Ph.D.

English Faculty Research and Publications

Religious language exerted multivalent force in Victorian society, as this case study of Gaskell’s novel Mary Barton, Chartist political protest, and the weaponization of the Bible in contemporary social struggle makes clear. Scholars have established that different classes read the Bible differently; but I demonstrate how Gaskell makes the Bible read in several different ways for the same reader. Gaskell makes Bible quotations dissonant through her use of character and narration, in order to challenge the boundaries of readers’ political sympathies. This study shows how any religious utterance escapes the control and political interests of any class—and how its conflicting …

American Civil Religion: An Idea Whose Time Is Past, Frederick Mark Gedicks

Faculty Scholarship

From the founding of the United States, Americans have understood loyalty to their country as a religious and not just a civic commitment. The idea of a 'civil religion' that defines the collective identity of a nation originates with Rousseau, and was adapted to the United States Robert Bellah, who suggested that a peculiarly American civil religion has underwritten government and civil society in the United States.

Leaving aside the question whether civil religion has ever truly unified all or virtually all Americans, I argue that it excludes too many Americans to function as such a unifying force in the …

The Tractarians' Political Rhetoric, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This article examines the political speaking and writing of John Keble, John Henry Newman, and other leading figures of the Oxford Movement. It argues that while they were essentially conservative in the pulpit, where they spoke as official representatives of the Established Church, they were more critical and outspoken in other works, where they enjoyed more of the freedom afforded to private citizens.

Images Of God: The Effect Of Personal Theologies On Moral Attitudes, Political Affiliation, And Religious Behavior, Christoper Bader, Paul Froese

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Social scientists often explain religious effects in terms of religious group affiliations. Typically, researchers identify religious groups by denomination or some broader popular categorization, such as “fundamentalist” or “evangelical.” To capture religious differences more effectively, Steensland et al. (2000) propose an intricate classification of American denominations that takes into account the theology and historical development of various American religious traditions to predict individual attitudes and behaviors. We believe that equal care and attention should be devoted to the development of key measures of belief that may cross denominational lines. In this article, we propose one such measure: personal conceptions or …

The Way Of Improvement Leads Home: Philips Vickers Fithian’S Rural Enlightenment, John Fea

History Educator Scholarship

Offers a look at the life of Philip Vickers Fithian, a diarist from southern New Jersey, in an effort to assess the influence of the Enlightenment in the British American colonies. Profile of Fithian; His perception on personal morality and behavior; Political and social issues tackled in his journal; Efforts to reconcile the pursuit of Enlightenment self-improvement with passion and love for home.

Reflections On Scientific And Religious Metaphor, Ursula Goodenough

Biology Faculty Publications & Presentations

The importance of scientific conflicts for theology and philosophy is difficult to judge. In many disputes of significance, prominent scientists can be found on both sides. Profound philosophical and religious implications are sometimes said to be implied by the new theory as well. This article examines the dispute over natural selection between Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould as a contemporary instance of such a conflict. While both claim that profound philosophical conclusions flow from their own alternative account of evolution, I suggest that the implication is not as great as is claimed and that the alleged implications have as …