Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Leaving Home, Keeping The Faith, Damian J. Geminder

Capstones

This capstone explores how outreach to immigrant and non-English-speaking communities is vital to the health of the American Catholic Church.

Revisiting Biblical Translation, Dominique Rideout

Honors College

Since the Reformation, translation into the vernacular has been a significant part of interpretation of biblical texts. In modern English, it seems as though new translations are created all the time, and Christians often take for granted this valuable tool of the faith. However, there are many ways in which translation can—and should—be done better. This project discusses the theory and methodology of translation, with particular attention to formal and functional equivalence translations. Additionally, it looks at key issues in translation such as semantic range and contextualization of the text. Then, it reviews new research in translation relating to discourse …

Classical Pentecostal Interpretation Of The Gift Of Discernment From 1914 To 1941, Stephanie Ann Rose

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From the beginning of the Pentecostal Movement in 1906, Pentecostal meetings were plagued by what they labeled “counterfeit manifestations.” These manifestations were creating negative consequences for the movement and Pentecostals needed a strategy that would identify and eradicate them from their meetings. Because Pentecostalism was in its infancy, it did not have a clear procedure to assist in identifying counterfeit manifestations, to determine how they operated, and/or who or what produced them. Over time they began to form assumptions regarding the operation of counterfeit manifestations and developed several strategies that they hoped would counteract their presence in meetings, one of …

Against Celsus: Piety In Context, Dustin Janssen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Celsus’s and Origen’s differing understandings of what it means to be “pious” (ὅσιος). Celsus conceived of tradition as the norm for determining piety. On the other hand, Origen maintained that the true norm was found in the Logos and Wisdom of God—i.e., Jesus. This dichotomy of understanding is consistent with the backdrop of the religious revolution happening in the Roman world during the early centuries CE proposed by scholars like Guy Stroumsa.

While this thesis does not aim to prove or fully expound on the religious revolution, it will use the shift in religious thought as a …

The Count Of Saint-Gilles And The Saints Of The Apocalypse: Occitanian Piety And Culture In The Time Of The First Crusade, Thomas Whitney Lecaque

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines Raymond of Saint-Gilles’ regional affiliation in Occitania (modern southern France) and the effect of that identity on his conduct of the First Crusade. Crusade historiography has not paid much attention to regional difference, but Raymond’s case shows that Occitanians approached crusading in a fundamentally different manner from other crusaders. They placed apocalyptic eschatology in the forefront of the First Crusade and portraying the First Crusade as bringing about the New Jerusalem. To be Occitanian was not merely to be a speaker of Occitan. It was to be part of a Mediterranean culture, halfway between classical Roman and …

A Garden Locked, A Fountain Sealed: Female Virginity As A Model For Holiness In The Fourth Century, Lindsay Anne Williams

Master's Theses

Despite centuries of Christian theologians and lay Christians alike assigning and/or accepting an entrenched misogyny in the writings of Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, close examination of their work on its own terms and in its own time reveals that, in fact, they did not hold women in lesser esteem than men. Rather, time and again, in the writings of these Latin Doctors of the Church, women were promoted as exemplars of holiness and sanctity often in excess of their male counterparts and commonly as didactic tools used to lead their fellow Christians down a more righteous path. The following thesis …

The War Of The Worlds: The Militant Fundamentalism Of Dr. Thomas Todhunter Shields And The Paradox Of Modernity., Doug A. Adams

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This biographical study of the militant fundamentalist, Dr. Thomas Todhunter Shields, tests traditional understandings of fundamentalism, especially its militancy, and applies both a new interpretative model for understanding Shields and a revisionist approach to the question of fundamentalist militancy. Shields’ fundamentalism was not the rabid anti-intellectualism of “a disgruntled and backward people who could not keep up with the culture of their time”[1] but instead illustrated the paradox of competing forces within the modern dialectic. The spiritual consequences of cultural liberalism within his own church and the horrific scenes he encountered as a guest of the Ministry of Information …

Models Of Conversion In American Evangelicalism: Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge And Old Princeton, And Charles Finney, Mark B. Chapman

Dissertations (1934 -)

The most commonly referenced definition of evangelicalism, David Bebbington’s ‘quadrilateral,’ includes conversionism as one of four key definitive features, and most other definitions also reference conversion as characteristic of evangelicalism. This dissertation examines the adequacy of the use of conversion in such a defining role through a careful consideration of a variety of dimensions of conversion among three key representatives of evangelicalism: Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, and Old Princeton Seminary (as represented by its first professor, Archibald Alexander, and especially by his protégé Charles Hodge). One cannot talk about conversion as a key to evangelicalism without understanding what is meant …

The Foundation Of Cistercian Monasteries In France 1098-1789: An Historical Gis Evaluation, Jon Eric Klingenberg Rasmussen

Masters Theses

Historical geography focuses upon those relationships which have shaped the evolution of place and landscape over time. One fundamental approach used to achieve this objective is the set of theories associated with spatial diffusion. This includes the spatial and chronological paths, the periodicities and rates of spread, as well as the identification of areas of void or avoidance. An emerging trend in historical geography is the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). A GIS provides the researcher with the necessary tools to re-evaluate and challenge long-standing interpretations of any given event, historical or otherwise, as well as develop new insights …

Lost Prophets: Tertullian, Eusebius, Epiphanius, And Early Montanism, Brice Andrew Larson

Seminary Masters Theses

ABSTRACT The dearth of reliable primary source material on the New Prophecy has led to a proliferation of interpretations of the character of the movement. However, a careful examination of the New Prophecy’s preserved sayings, the writings of Tertullian, and the movement’s earliest critics preserved by Eusebius and Epiphanius reveal a movement steeped in the Christian tradition that came into conflict with other Christians because of their willingness to pay ministers and their passive understanding of the charisma of prophecy.

The Matter Of Jerusalem: The Holy Land In Angevin Court Culture And Identity, C. 1154-1216, Katherine Lee Hodges-Kluck

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation reshapes our understanding of the mechanics of nation-building and the construction of national identities in the Middle Ages, placing medieval England in a wider European and Mediterranean context. I argue that a coherent English national identity, transcending the social and linguistic differences of the post-Norman Conquest period, took shape at the end of the twelfth century. A vital component of this process was the development of an ideology that intimately connected the geography, peoples, and mythical histories of England and the Holy Land. Proponents of this ideology envisioned England as an allegorical new Jerusalem inhabited by a chosen …

Forgotten Feminine Foundations: Content Analysis Of Secondary World History Textbooks' Inclusion Of Female Agency In The Rise Of Judaism, Christianity, And Islam, Erica M. Southworth

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated women’s agency in the emergence accounts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in nine twenty-first century United States’ world history textbooks through a feminist lens. The collected data were analyzed via critical discourse analysis and content analysis to determine if traditional patterns of female marginalization in content and imagery existed. The quantitative and qualitative findings in both text and imagery indicated that all textbooks in this sample supported a traditional content structure on both an individual and collective whole basis. This study then concluded that these gender-imbalanced accounts of world religions may serve as an avenue in which …

Reflections On A Collection: Revisiting The Uwm Icons Fifty Years Later, Laura Jean Louise Sims

Theses and Dissertations

The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Art Collection is home to a sizable donation of Byzantine and post-medieval icons and liturgical objects. Central to this thesis exhibition catalogue are the thirty-two Greek and Russian icons from this collection and their history with collector Charles Bolles Bolles-Rogers. Reflections on a Collection: Revisiting the UWM Icons Collection Fifty Years Later contextualizes the history of icon collecting in the United States and examines the collecting history of these icons.

By first focusing on icon collecting and scholarship in Greece and Russia towards the end of the nineteenth and into the twentieth centuries, this catalogue traces …

Reading Boredom In Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris, And Christina Rossetti, Rebekah Ann Lamb

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Focusing on the poetry of Alfred Lord Tennyson, the poetry and paintings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the early poetry of William Morris and the poetry and prose of Christina Rossetti, this thesis examines how boredom emerges in Victorian aesthetic culture. Drawing from writings in visual culture, gender studies, social history, and recent returns to new formalism in Victorian studies, this thesis attends to how renderings of boredom open up our understanding of the relationship between poetry, art, temporality, embodiment, and explorations of everyday life and living in Victorian England.

Chapter One of my thesis is an introductory explanation of boredom …

Irenaeus Of Lyons: A Defense Of Recapitulation, Mathew Thomas Hollen

Seminary Masters Theses

Abstract This work sets out to explain the atonement theory of Irenaeus of Lyons. Irenaeus’ atonement theology is often described simply as “Christus Victor” but I argue that is simply a narrow sliver of the wider atonement theory of recapitulation. In this thesis I systematically try to expound what it is Irenaeus believed and why he believed it. In the first chapter I explain the problem at hand and a short biography of the bishop. In the second chapter I seek to summarize the Gnostic school of Valentinianism, which is the key opponent against Irenaeus writes in his best-known work …

Quakers And Slavery: The Development Of An Anti-Slavery Society, Ryan P. Murray

Selected Honors Theses

Quaker protests against slavery started as early as 1682, in Germantown, Pennsylvania, and continued on through their work with the Underground Railroad and numerous other anti-slavery movements. But in those days of Christianity supported slavery, why is this group known as being against slavery? History reveals that early Quakers were just as involved in slavery as others during that time. The questions then are: why are the Quakers remembered most for their contributions to abolition when they too had kept slaves? And, was their anti-slavery work so effective that it causes history to forget their early support of the practice? …

Reclaiming And Reconciling What Was Originally Ours--Christianity And Feminism: A Concise History, Soquel Filice

History

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Edward Vi In The Development Of The English Reformation, Lisa Eaton-Adams

Master of Art Theology Thesis

The implied conclusion is that since the reforms were forced-the connotations of the term make its use questionable, but that is a separate issue-upon the church by the government, and since Edward was a minor, the government being dominated by the dukes of Somerset and Northumberland, Edward himself was therefore a negligible factor in the reforms implemented during his reign.

It is not within the scope of this paper to assess the secular politics or military developments of Edward's reign. What does concern us here is the question of the extent to which Edward was a factor in the development …

The Deserving Poor: The Reimagining Of Poverty In Reformation Theology And Poor Relief, Jared Thomley

Departmental Honors Projects

The Reformation is one of the most studied periods an history, with a rich historiography and body of theological literature; however, historians and scholars of religion alike have yet to fully capture the imaginative redefining of poverty that occurred during this time. The objective of the study is to do just that. Following the model set by church historian Peter Matheson, who is keen to portray the reformation in a new light – as a shift in peoples’ consciousness, rather than in terms of dogmatic changes – this study has endeavored to re-investigate the changing definition of poverty in the …

Moved By The Spirit: Evangelical Presbyterian Woman In The Early Modern Atlantic World, Chasity Dominique Hunt

Online Theses and Dissertations

Revivalism existed as a cultural feature within Scottish Presbyterian society decades before the famous transatlantic revivals of the eighteenth-century. Although many aspects of those revivals have been examined, such as the Holy Fairs, historians and scholars have largely overlooked the extensive body of memoirs and accounts featuring Scottish Presbyterian women in Scotland and the greater Atlantic world, and their experiences within these revivals. This study seeks to uncover the relationship of those women to evangelicalism and revivalism as it exists as a cultural event embedded with symbols. In order to accomplish that goal, this paper looks at the history of …

The Unity Of The Church And Church Authority: A Comparative Study Of The Views And Practice Of Alexander Campbell And Ellen G. White, Wendy Ann Jackson

Dissertations

Problem. A clear understanding of the nature of church unity and the role of authority in the maintenance of unity is imperative for the church in the face of its increasing growth and diversity. While a considerable volume of literature addresses the topic of unity of the church, little attention has been paid to the historical dimensions of the differing viewpoints on church authority, which present contemporary obstacles to Christian unity.

Purpose. In an attempt to address this void, this dissertation examines the views of Alexander Campbell and Ellen White with regard to the nature of church unity and how …

A Monastery For The Revolution: Ernesto Cardenal, Thomas Merton, And The Paradox Of Violence In Nicaragua, 1957-1979, Brendan Jordan

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In 1957, a young Nicaraguan poet named Ernesto Cardenal, recently graduated from Columbia University, entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani, located outside Louisville, Kentucky. There he met a prominent Catholic thinker and pacifist, Thomas Merton, who soon mentored young Cardenal. Though Cardenal departed Gethsemani in 1959, Merton continued to counsel him in spirituality, poetry, and social activism until Merton’s death in 1968. While Cardenal during these earlier years was a committed pacifist, his experiences after returning to Nicaragua in 1965 radically altered his view of social action. Cardenal established a semi-monastic community in the Solentiname islands in southern Nicaragua, and …

Inspiring Piety: The Influence Of Caravaggio’S Paintings In Santa Maria Del Popolo, Cara Coleman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This article looks at the way Italian Baroque painter, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio broke from the artistic conventions of the Renaissance and Mannerist styles in his religious paintings to create an entirely new style that reflected the needs of the post-Tridentine Catholic Church. Caravaggio pushed painting throughout Europe in a new direction, away from the idealization of the Renaissance and the artistic extremes of Mannerism, by popularizing realism in art. Caravaggio’s unique style is examined through comparisons of his paintings, The Conversion of Paul, c.1601 and The Martyrdom of Saint Peter, c.1601 in the Roman basilica, Santa Maria del Popolo …