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Y Con Ellos Rezamos: The Intersection Of Spanish Religious Identity And Nationalism In The Valley Of The Fallen, 1939-2019, Helen Michelle Spalding

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Nestled in the Sierra de Guadarrama mountains of Spain in northwest Madrid is The Valley of the Fallen, (El Valle de los Caídos). This Spanish Civil War monument was originally constructed in 1940 as a celebration of the fascist victory of the war over the radical leftist republicanos. The monument made clear the Catholic ties that dictator Francisco Franco’s regime planned to uphold through its religious spaces such as an abbey and basilica. Since the monument’s construction and into the present day, the public eye has mainly associated the Valley of the Fallen with the Francoist dictatorship. However, this paper …

The Common Man And The Rise Of The Anabaptist Kingdom Of Munster, 1534-1535, Andrew Roebuck

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This essay studies the causes of the rise of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster, with special emphasis on the actions and agency of the common people. The analysis begins with the two main primary sources, Hermann von Kerssenbrock and Henry Gresbeck, whose accounts provide firsthand knowledge of how events in Munster led to the Anabaptist takeover. Care is taken to read beyond some of the biases and assumptions made by those authors to gain the clearest insight for what really happened.

The essay looks at Anabaptism itself, including what it meant to be Anabaptist from the perspectives of participants and …

College Basketball In Kentucky, Religion, And Distinguishing Between The Two: Concerns And Cautions For The Conversation On The Religiosity Of Sports, Matthew A. Sheffield

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Academic analysis of sport and religion is still in an early and formative phase. Only in the past fifty years has the conversation of sport and religion substantially been revealed as subject matter for serious academic work. This thesis includes literature from various scholars interested in religion and sport, contemplation on the religious nature of college basketball in the state of Kentucky, and challenges for leading scholars arguing over the notion of sport as a form of religion. The first half of the thesis presents the narrative of the increasingly growing academic debate over considering sport a religious phenomenon. The …

Examining The Influence Of Race, Class And Gender Inequalities On Perceptions Of The American Dream Since The 2008 Economic Recession, Scarlett D. Marklin

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

America has a national ethos embodied in the moniker “land of the free” and defined by a set of ideals in which being free means all men and women have an equal opportunity for prosperity, the pursuit of happiness and success. In essence, simply having access to upward social mobility achieved through one’s own perseverance and hard work, the quintessential American Dream. The first use of the phrase American Dream was by James Truslow Adams to characterize the ideal that every man should live a richer and fuller life than his ancestors based on opportunity according to ability or achievement …

Uncertainty, Individual Differences, And Paranormal Beliefs, Kelly Mccoy

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The current study examined the relationship between uncertainty and supernatural beliefs, as well as the link between individual personality traits and supernatural beliefs. Participants were placed in four different prime conditions: self uncertainty, other uncertainty, self affirmation, or other affirmation. The current study was created due to the widespread belief in supernatural phenomena in America and its effect on society. Results suggest that uncertainty increases religious beliefs but not paranormal beliefs when the self is threatened. Results also suggest that narcissism and neuroticism have a negative correlation with paranormal beliefs, inconsistent with previous research. The search for meaning in life …

When God Dies: Deconversion From Theism As Analogous To The Experience Of Death, William David Simpson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis, I explore the psychological and experiential aspects of the shift from a supernatural theistic worldview (specifically born-again Christianity) to a
philosophically naturalistic and atheistic worldview in the context of the religious
landscape in the U.S. I posit that certain features of this transition, which is known as "deconversion,” can be thought of as potentially analogous, both psychologically and subjectively, to the experience of another's death as an objective environmental change. I provide anthropological and psychological evidence that believers often experience the God of born-again Christianity as an independently existing and active agent in the world. The similarities …