Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Digital Commons Network

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 10 of 10

Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network

Women In Religious Leadership Roles, Amanda Wadkins Jan 2024

Women In Religious Leadership Roles, Amanda Wadkins

MSU Graduate Theses

The experiences of women in leadership have been well studied in academia, but there remains a gap in the literature regarding and understanding of the experiences of women who are in religious leadership roles. I examined what challenges these women experience in their roles, and how they make sense of those challenges, using the constant comparative method of data analysis to analyze interviews with 12 women who have leadership roles within their protestant church or nonprofit organization. The results indicate that these individuals experience challenges that are consistent with past research on women in leadership. However, the results also illustrate …


Domesticity And Religion: Women In Italian American Literature And Culture Of The 1930s, Madeleine J. Kirkpatrick Jan 2023

Domesticity And Religion: Women In Italian American Literature And Culture Of The 1930s, Madeleine J. Kirkpatrick

MSU Graduate Theses

The lives of Italian American women of the early twentieth century have been documented in fragments in histories of immigration and in the literature written by the children of first-wave immigrants. This documentation often leaves an incomplete picture of how Italian women lived and moved in their new American context in the first decades of the twentieth century. This thesis examines Pietro Di Donato’s portrayal of Annunziata in his 1939 novel Christ in Concretealongside the journals of Elba F. Gurzau, a real-life, second-generation Italian woman living in New York City during the 1930s. By holding these women up next to …


Investigating Relations Regarding The Religious Ought, Ideal, And Actual Self Using A Relational Density Theory Approach, Kam Barker Jan 2023

Investigating Relations Regarding The Religious Ought, Ideal, And Actual Self Using A Relational Density Theory Approach, Kam Barker

MSU Graduate Theses

Religiosity may produce positive outcomes (e.g., greater life satisfaction, hope, and optimism) or negative outcomes (e.g., psychological distress), especially if the individual’s identity is in conflict (Koenig, 2001). This distress, as explained by self-discrepancy theory, is caused by inconsistency between the self-concept (attributes the individual believes they currently possess) and the self-guides, consisting of the ‘ought’ self (attributes the individual believes they ought to -or should- possess) and the 'ideal' self (attributes the individual desires to possess) (Higgins, 1987). Exploring stimulus relations related to these ‘selves’ using a relational density framework (Belisle & Dixon, 2020) may provide insight regarding relational …


Examining Health Inequity In Ancient Egypt, Samantha Rose Gonzalez Aug 2021

Examining Health Inequity In Ancient Egypt, Samantha Rose Gonzalez

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis explores the history of medicine in ancient Egypt between the Middle and New Kingdoms, and offers a case study highlighting the use of religion and magic in healing and analyzing health inequity. I am interested in medical practices, treatments, diagnosis methods, and access to healthcare in the ancient world. I seek to bridge the gaps and help unify the knowledge surrounding ancient Egyptian medical practices and contribute to the studies in the history of medicine. I explore types of diseases that commonly affected the ancient Egyptians and how they integrated religion and magic into their understanding and treatment …


The Unlimited Absorbs The Limits: Analyzing The Religious And Mystical Aspects Of Virginia Woolf's Work Through The Lens Of William James, Zachary J. Beck May 2020

The Unlimited Absorbs The Limits: Analyzing The Religious And Mystical Aspects Of Virginia Woolf's Work Through The Lens Of William James, Zachary J. Beck

MSU Graduate Theses

Commentators on the work of modernist author Virginia Woolf have frequently remarked upon the “religious” and “mystical” aspects that appear throughout Woolf’s oeuvre, but have found it difficult to reconcile these aspects of Woolf’s work with her self-expressed atheistic beliefs. For those who have sought to resolve the tension between the “religious” and “mystical” features of Woolf’s work and Woolf’s (lack of) personal religious beliefs, the work of American psychologist and philosopher William James has proven to be a starting point for investigations into selections of Woolf’s oeuvre that seem to exhibit “religious” and “mystical” characteristics. There continues to exist, …


The Lingering Menace, Logan M. Burke Dec 2018

The Lingering Menace, Logan M. Burke

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis applies modern approaches to better examine a largely neglected nativist publication, The Menace. This thesis also challenges the importance scholars have placed on formal associations, including prominent nativist groups such as the Klan. Instead, this thesis will focus on The Menace, a print publication that was mainstream with respect to its popularity as well as in the way it was produced. At the same time, The Menace was also similar to other nativist groups in the way it viewed race, gender, and religion.


How God Writes History: A Gramscian Analysis Of Religion And Nature In The Writings, Life, And Legacy Of John Muir, Daniel R. Jones Dec 2018

How God Writes History: A Gramscian Analysis Of Religion And Nature In The Writings, Life, And Legacy Of John Muir, Daniel R. Jones

MSU Graduate Theses

Representations of John Muir, America’s most famous environmentalist, and religion have been highly variegated. A mythological figure of American environmental politics, Muir and his legacy have been an ideological apparatus for presidents, environmentalists, and naturalists performing acts of identification for themselves and their country. Furthermore, religion and environmental scholars have often used Muir as a case study for what they call “nature religion.” Lost in this myth-making labor are the politics of sacred spaces and national discourse. Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci developed the concept of common sense and the intellectual, which this thesis uses to analyze John Muir’s poetics …


Tangled, Shannon Marie Ashley May 2018

Tangled, Shannon Marie Ashley

MSU Graduate Theses

This thesis is a collection of poems. Much of my poetry is influenced by ideas of identity, particularly religious and sexual identity, and the ways identity affects relationships. As someone raised in a Catholic church from birth, religion has had a major impact on my life and perspective. I am no longer practicing but still consistently find myself considering the morals of the Church in my actions in a positive way. Catholicism will also always affect my relationship with my mother, who is still practicing. Much of my current poetry concerns my relationship with my mother, especially regarding religion and …


An Idol Of The Old Errors, Amy Kaye Lafferty May 2017

An Idol Of The Old Errors, Amy Kaye Lafferty

MSU Graduate Theses

This work is a collection of short stories exploring the religious, social, psychological, and relational consequences of territory and isolation. Though not necessarily within the same world, they are set in modern times and exemplify similar commentaries on religious structures in rural, Midwestern America.


The Myth Of A Secular Economy: Capitalism's Unarticulated Theology, Daniel F. Sebastian Dec 2015

The Myth Of A Secular Economy: Capitalism's Unarticulated Theology, Daniel F. Sebastian

MSU Graduate Theses

The discipline of modern economics has been categorized as based in mathematics and thus dealing only with facts. Religion, on the other hand, is considered one of the primary institutions in society that engenders different values. The stark separation between these two fields is typical of the modern fact-value distinction. The goal of this project is to provide, relying heavily upon Peter L. Berger, a detailed analysis of the value-laden social functions of religion and consider whether economics, specifically capitalism, also carries out these functions. The thesis blurs the lines between economics and religion by showing that capitalism engages in …