Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ritual Legitimacy And Scriptural Authority, James W. Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

In this essay, James W. Watts explains the interdependence of texts and rituals with regard to ancient religions. Specifically, he outlines patterns of practice and developments in the ritual use of texts and the texual authorization of rituals in antiquity.

Watts also makes the case that beyond the interplay of texual authority and ritual legitimacy that most ancient cultures engaged in, Judaism was unique in elevating the Torah along with its other laws and stories to special "scriptural" status.

Religious Schools: For Spirit, (F)Or Nation, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper I draw attention to the study of 'unofficially sacred' sites in geographies of religion, which provide significant insights into the construction of religious identity and community, and the intersections of sacred and secular. I show that such sites deserve as much attention as places of worship (the more conventional focus in the geographical study of religion) in our understanding of the place of religion in contemporary urban society. In particular, using the case of Islamic religious schools in Singapore, I examine how Muslim identities and community are negotiated within multicultural and multireligious contexts, and particularly within one …

Christianity And Craft Guilds In Late Medieval England: A Rational Choice Analysis, Gary Richardson

Gary Richardson

In late-medieval England, craft guilds simultaneously pursued piety and profit. Why did guilds pursue those seemingly unrelated goals? What were the consequences of that combination? Theories of organizational behavior answer those questions. Craft guilds combined spiritual and occupational endeavors because the former facilitated the success of the latter and vice versa. The reciprocal nature of this relationship linked the ability of guilds to attain spiritual and occupational goals. This link between religion and economics at the local level connected religious and economic trends in the wider world.

Thinking Critically About Science And Religion: Disclosure Interviews Massimo Pigliucci, Jeff West, Viva Nordberg

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

No abstract provided.

Missing Levite Paper, David Randall Jenkins

David Randall Jenkins

The Book of Numbers Chapters 1, 2 and 26 Twelve Tribe listings are derived from model operation and not reports of historical fact. The Numbers 3:22, 28 and 34 (7500, 8600, 6200) numerical references are Twelve Tribe encrypted missing Levite intra-triune position and census determinative methodology references.

Updating The Bogardus Social Distance Studies: A New National Survey, Christopher Donoghue, Vincent N. Parrillo

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed a number of events and social transformations that have had great implications for religious and ethnic relations around the world. This study seeks to gauge the changes in sentiment towards various U.S. ethnic and religious groups by updating and replicating the Bogardus social distance scale. The Bogardus study, which was designed to measure the level of acceptance that Americans feel towards members of the most common ethnic groups in the United States, was conducted five times between 1920 and 1977 with very few changes in research design. Consistent with prior replications, the …

The Scottish And English Religious Roots Of The American Right To Arms: Buchanan, Rutherford, Locke, Sidney, And The Duty To Overthrow Tyranny, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

Many twenty-first century Americans believe that they have a God-given right to possess arms as a last resort against tyranny. One of the most important sources of that belief is the struggle for freedom of conscience in the United Kingdom during the reigns of Elizabeth I and the Stuarts. A moral right and duty to use force against tyranny was explicated by the Scottish Presbyterians George Buchanan and Samuel Rutherford. The free-thinking English Christians John Locke and Algernon Sidney broadened and deepened the ideas of Buchanan and Rutherford. The result was a sophisticated defense of religious freedom, which was to …

The Religious Roots Of The American Revolution And The Right To Keep And Bear Arms, David B. Kopel

David B Kopel

This article examines the religious background of the American Revolution. The article details how the particular religious beliefs of the American colonists developed so that the American people eventually came to believe that overthrowing King George and Parliament was a sacred obligation. The religious attitudes which impelled the Americans to armed revolution are an essential component of the American ideology of the right to keep and bear arms.

Can A Christian Be A Biblical Scholar? Searching For The Coherence Of Believing And Learning In Biblical Studies, James K. Mead

Faculty Tenure Papers

No abstract provided.

From Center To Margin: A Feminist Journey In The Roman Catholic Church, Susan A. Farrell

Publications and Research

Using a socio-religious approach to autobiography, a sociologist traces her development within the Roman catholic Church and her journey from the center of that religious faith to the margins. As a Feminist sociologist critiquing the institution and its practices which exclude women from ordination, Women-Church, an umbrella organization of feminist groups within the Roman catholic tradition, is used as an example of what a more inclusive religious organization could look like.

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 …

Panther Creek Baptist Church Of Jesus Christ - Ohio County, Kentucky (Sc 1408), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1408. Partial minute book of Panther Creek Baptist Church of Jesus Christ, Ohio County, Kentucky. The congregation was composed of both white and black members and names are listed. It was originally known as the Panther Creek and Yelvington Baptist Church. Photocopy and typescript section of original books.

Methodist Episcopal Church, South - Ohio And Mclean Counties, Kentucky (Sc 1409), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1409. Register kept of Methodist Episcopal Church, South circuit that included Ohio County churches in Centertown, Ceralvo, Cromwell, Equality, Hopewell, McHenry, Point Pleasant, Providence, Rockport, and Taylor Town; and a McLean County church in Island. Mostly membership lists, but also includes names of ministers, baptisms, and marriages.

Walton, Mary Pearl (Patton), 1882-1964 - Collector (Sc 1446), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1446. Greenwood United Baptist Church of Christ Sunday School record book, 1891-1899, of Warren County, Kentucky. Pearl's husband, Charles Potter Walton was a Methodist minister. Also photographs of Pearl and Charles and associated data.

Mary And Isis, Lorin Geitner

Lorin C. Geitner

An examination of the degree to which the modern conception of the Virgin Mary was affected and influenced by the cult of Isis.