Arts and Humanities Commons^™

American Daoism: A New Religious Movement In Global Contexts, Steven San-Hu Chan

Masters Theses

This thesis explores the phenomenon of American Daoism. It assumes that American Daoism is a New Religious Movement, and argues that it has roots in counterhegemonic religious movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I will explore these roots and describe how they are counter-hegemonic. Furthermore, I will build upon Elijiah Siegler’s doctoral dissertation, “The Dao of America: The History and Practice of American Daoism,” by using post-modern theories of identity to discuss how American Daoist identity is formed. This thesis argues that American Daoist identity is a combination of Chinese and American cultural objects that form a hybrid religious …

Neuroticism, Marital Violence, And The Moderating Role Of Stress And Behavioral Skills, Julianne C. Hellmuth

Masters Theses

Do high levels of neuroticism predict intimate partner violence (IPV)? Although neuroticism may predispose partners to increased risks of IPV perpetration, the extent to which it predicts such perpetration is likely to depend on the broader context of the relationship. Consistent with this prediction, the current longitudinal study of 169 community couples revealed that the effects of neuroticism on IPV perpetration over the first four years of marriage were moderated by observations of problem-solving behavior and objective ratings of chronic stress. Specifically, although husbands and wives who scored higher on a measure of neuroticism at the outset of marriage engaged …

Zen Buddhism And American Religious Culture: A Case Study Of Daistez Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966), Christopher Robert Pinder

Masters Theses

This work explores the life, works, and role of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki (1870-1966) in the reception of Zen Buddhism in the United States. Particular attention is paid to the major themes that informed Suzuki’s presentation of Zen to American audiences: Western mystical-universalist traditions, intellectualism, psychology and Japanese nationalism. These themes, as Suzuki used them, are not part of traditional Zen in Japan; instead they are responses to Western modernity, colonialism, and Orientalist discourses. Suzuki and many of his contemporaries rephrased Zen in order to assert Japanese cultural and religious superiority.

Suzuki was a prolific writer and his books became the …

A New Approach To The Devīmāhātmya: The Greatness Of The Goddess In Its Purāṇic Context, Elizabeth A. Cecil

Masters Theses

Although the text of the Devīmāhātmya is itself a section of the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, recent scholarship has taken a primarily extrinsic approach to the text and its use by emphasizing the life of the Devīmāhātmya (henceforth DM) well apart from the textual tradition of the purāṇas. A reading of the DM in the context of the MārkP is instructive, because it reveals some interesting thematic connections that are indicative of larger thematic trends within the purāṇa, which prior extrinsic studies have not explored. Broadly speaking, these themes glorify women and Goddesses as positive manifestations of some fundamental female …

Burning For Allah: (Mis)Understanding Ties Between Islam And Violence, Allen B. Johnson

Masters Theses

The goal of this thesis is to address what I believe to be an all too frequent misunderstanding. This is the idea that religion generally and Islamic extremism specifically is the primary foundation for suicide terrorism in Iraq. Because of the social and historical demographics of Iraq, I argue that it is necessary to understand Iraqi suicide bombings as a variety of dfferent concurrent movements as opposed to one monolithic phenomenon. Furthermore, it is my assertion that the connection between suicide attacks and Islam has been exaggerated within American public discourse. This discourse has lead to a large and varied …