History Commons^™

The Trials Of Robert Ryland, Edward L. Ayers

History Faculty Publications

Robert Ryland tried to behave in a generous Christian way with the African-American people among whom he lived all his life even as he presided over what he recognized was a compromised form of the church. He faced skepticism and criticism from all sides, and experienced considerable doubt, but he pressed on.

Spirit Politics: Radical Abolitionists And The Dead End Of Spiritualism, Robert Nelson

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

On June 30, 1858, abolitionist Parker Pillsbury wrote William Lloyd Garrison and readers of the Liberator that he had “just returned from attending one of the largest and most important Reformatory Conventions ever held in this or any other country.” In his report on the “Free Convention” held at Rutland, Vermont, Parker praised the “character and quality” and the “large brains and full hearts” of the convention participants. “The most numerous class” among these participants, he noted, were Spiritualists. Spiritualism had burst on the American scene a decade earlier, quickly attracting thousands of adherents who believed that communication and communion …

Evangelicalism And Religious Pluralism In Contemporary America: Diversity Without, Diversity Within, And Maintaining The Borders, William Vance Trollinger

History Faculty Publications

Not that many people need convincing, but the 2008 American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) provides confirming evidence that evangelicalism in America is alive and well. In this survey, which involved 54,461 telephone interviews, the 76% of respondents who identified themselves as Christians were asked a follow-up question: "Do you identify as a Born Again or Evangelical Christian?" Forty-five percent answered yes. This number obviously includes a fair number of folks within "mainline" denominations and within predominately African-American churches; more surprising, perhaps, 18.9% of American Catholics identified themselves as "born again" or "evangelical."

If one were to depend solely on the …

Menorah Review (No. 78, Winter/Spring, 2013)

Menorah Review

After the Shoah: Blackmail, Vengeance, and the Death of the Future -- Assessing Jewish Worship in the United States -- Books in Brief: New and Notable -- Claude Lanzmann's Shoah Revisited -- Israel's Leaders An Inside View -- Mission in the Diaspora: Simon Dubnov's Jewish Autonomism -- Saul And David -- The Rambam Project: Code, Marshal, Hegemony, Sanctity Of Life And Gender in the Mishneh Torah -- Valuing Cultural Differences

Menorah Review (No. 79, Summer/Fall, 2013)

Menorah Review

Authorities Without Power: The Jewish Council of Vienna During the Holocaust -- Books in Brief: New and Notable -- Cry and Wail: Jewish Suffering in Documents From Ukraine, 1918-1921 -- Moreshet: From the Sources -- Speaking of the Law -- The Jewish "Success" Story? -- The Power of the Word -- Two Poems by Richard Sherwin -- Unearthing Buried Treasures: Reading Leah Goldberg in Translation

The African-American Islamic Renaissance And The Rise Of The Nation Of Islam, Patrick Denis Bowen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines African-American Islamic culture from 1920 through 1959, a period I label the "African-American Islamic Renaissance" (AAIR). The AAIR is characterized by a significant increase in interest in Islam, extreme diversity in views about Islam, and the absence of a single organization dominating African-American Islamic culture for a significant amount of time. Previous works dealing with African-American Islam in this period have failed to fully recognize these features, particularly the last of these. As a result, explanations for the rise of the Nation of Islam (NOI) have not satisfactorily explained why it was only the NOI--and not other …

Drawn Together, Drawn Apart: Black And White Baptists In Tidewater Virginia, 1800-1875, Nancy Alenda Hillman

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

A detailed study of local Baptist communities in Tidewater Virginia, "Drawn Together, Drawn Apart" explores the interactions of black and white evangelicals both under slavery and following emancipation. Significant bonds of fellowship between black and white Baptists persisted throughout the antebellum years. The majority of black Baptists continued to engage in baptismal, worship, and disciplinary gatherings with their white neighbors. Baptists of both races participated in the national culture of reform through their commitment to temperance, mission work, and other forms of "benevolence.".;At the same time, a pattern of black religious autonomy was developing. as Christian paternalists, white Baptist leaders …

The Choir Books Of Santa Maria In Aracoeli And Patronage Strategies Of Pope Alexander Vi, Maureen Elizabeth Cox

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines painted leaves and fragments that were extracted from a set of choir books created in the last decade of the fifteenth century for the basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli in Rome. These remnants are currently housed within various library and museum collections throughout Europe and the United States. The set is agreed upon generally by scholars to have been commissioned by Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia, 1431-1503), who was pope from 1492 to 1503, as a gift to the church during his time as pontiff. The choir books for Santa Maria in Aracoeli contain the bulk of …

Record Of A Journey: Mother Benedicta Riepp And Companions Travel To North America: Part Ii, Helen Herbstritt, Ephrem Hollermann Osb

Saint Benedict’s Monastery Publications

A series of excerpts is presented from the 19th century diary of the missionary Reverend Maximilian Gärtner, which explores the Reverend's journey from Europe to the U.S., from June 24, 1852 through July 12, 1852.

More Than An "Immoderate Superstition": Christian Identity In The First Three Centuries, Edward Mason

Theses and Dissertations--History

Only recently have scholars given particular attention to the development of the racial discourse present in early Christian apologetics. This study is aimed at understanding the Latin and Greek literary antecedents to the development of a Christian discourse on race and identity and examining in detail the apex of this discourse in the work of third century apologist Origen of Alexandria. Origen’s work represented the apex of an evolving discourse that, while continuing to use traditional vocabulary, became increasingly universalizing with the growth of the Roman Empire. By understanding how Christians in the first three centuries shaped their attitudes on …

Beyond The Battle: Religion And American Troops In World War Ii, Kevin L. Walters

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation examines the ways in which military personnel interacted with religion during World War II. It argues that the challenges of wartime service provided the impetus and the opportunity to improvise religious practices, refine religious beliefs amid new challenges, and broaden religious understanding through interaction with those from other traditions. Methodologically, this dissertation moves beyond existing analyses that focus primarily on institutions and their representatives such as military chaplains. Instead, it explores first-person accounts left by men and women who were not part of the chaplain corps and analyzes ways in which non-chaplains engaged religion. The exigencies of war …

An Exploration Of Worship Practices At An African American Church Of Christ, Lamont Ali Francies

Doctoral Dissertations

The identity of the African American Churches of Christ is deeply rooted in the American struggle for racial equality. Without a formal governing body, the Churches of Christ have survived throughout the majority of the 20th century without making an official stance on racial relations. Many leaders in the religious movement have claimed racial immunity but have not addressed the evident division among ethnic lines. This study explored the extent of cultural influence that Caucasian Churches of Christ have on African American congregations.

This study observed these influences and how they shape religious culture and tradition in Black churches. The …

The National Muslim Forum Nepal: Experiences Of Conflict, Formations Of Identity, Megan Adamson Sijapati

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

With Nepal's recent transition to state secularism, the politicization of Muslim religious identity has emerged with increasing vitality. One particular pan-Nepali Muslim organization, the Rastriya Muslim Mane Nepal (National Muslim Forum Nepal), offers a window into the complex relationship between national and religious identity that animates this politicization. Through analysis of the National Muslim Forum's earliest discourses, produced between 2005 and 2006, both immediately before and after the people's revolution that resulted in the declaration of Nepal as a secular state, this essay highlights the ways that experiences of conflict coupled with a national political transition shape and contribute to …

Urban Rifts And Religious Reciprocity: Chicago And The Catholic Church, 1965-1996, Dominic E. Faraone

Dissertations (1934 -)

From the late 1960s onward, a sequence of unusually transformative, combustible, and sometimes alarming urban phenomena beset the city of Chicago and bred considerable turmoil and uncertainty: post-industrial transition; street gang activity and unprecedented levels of interpersonal violence; the political ascendancy in 1983 of African American reform candidate Harold Washington to the mayor's seat; gay liberation; and AIDS. Each accentuated a host of social and/or spatial rifts--between the deteriorating city and comparatively thriving suburbs; the economically impoverished, culturally alienated, and frequently isolated inner city and the rest of Chicago; machine and reform politicians; Black lawmakers and White "ethnics"; sexual majorities …

"Friendly Fire": Free Quakers, Fatherhood And Religious Identity In The Early Republic, Samuel S. Wells

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

"A Medley Of Contradictions": The Jewish Diaspora In St Eustatius And Barbados, Derek Robert Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

During the 17th and 18th century a number of Jews settled on the English island of Barbados and the Dutch island of St. Eustatius. The Jews on both islands erected synagogues and a number of key structures essential for a practicing religious community. Although they had strong connections that spanned across geo-political boundaries, the synagogue compounds on each island became key places for the creation and maintenance of a Jewish community. I argue that these synagogue compounds represented diasporic places that must be understood through a tri-partite model that explores the relationships between the Jewish community and its hostland, other …

Sins Of A Nation, Margaret T. Kidd

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This article explores how Methodist clergy in Virginia tended to the spiritual needs of their congregations in the context of war. It also discusses the way that clergy worked to make their ideas on the war and its progression known through newspapers, sermons, addresses, and government-recognized days of fasting and prayer. As the largest religious denomination in the South during the war the Methodist Church was in a position to not only offer support , but to shape the opinions of the Confederate people.

Word, Spirit, And Power: Women And Prophetic Authority In The Early Church, Mitchell Locklear

Bridges: A Journal of Student Research

In the second century, a prophetic movement emerged out of Asia Minor that sent shockwaves through the Christian Church. Montanism, as the movement became known, emphasized both prophetic and female authority. These aspects of the movement were a threat to the male hierarchy of bishops, and in their efforts to combat threats to both episcopacy and patriarchy, Church leaders tied prophetic excesses to the usurpation of authority by women. Both Montanists and their opponents used New Testament literature and their own understandings of Church tradition to legitimize their claims. Church leaders were largely successful in neutralizing prophecy as a threat …

"The Perfidy Of The Jews": Visigothic Law And The Catholic Public Sphere, Jonathan Phillips

Anthós

In this essay, I will analyze the Visigothic law code, the Forum judicum, as revised by King Recces winth in 654 CE and King Erwig in 681 CE, in order to examine Visigothic society as envisioned by its lawmakers. In particular, I will focus on the role of Jews in this social framework. While these laws were, of course, normative and not necessarily reflective of any historical reality outside the imaginations of their authors, they can be used to attempt to determine the intent of the Visigothic rulers towards the Jews in their kingdom. To this end, I will …

Sunday Does Not Come In Camp, Margaret T. Kidd

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This article explores how the Methodist Church tended to the spiritual needs of the soldiers in the Confederate Army. The church supplied 448 chaplains to the Army, but there were never enough to meet the needs of the troops. The church worked to mitigate this problem by establishing the Soldiers' Tract Association in 1862 and by sometimes working with churches of other denominations to support the soldiers.

To The Jew First: A Socio-Historical And Biblical-Theological Analysis Of The Pauline Teaching Of `Election' In Light Of Second Temple Jewish Patterns Of Thought, Anthony Thornhill

A. Chadwick Thornhill

Paul's "doctrine" of election has remained a controversial and enigmatic topic for centuries. Few studies, however, have approached Paul's doctrine through the context of Second Temple Judaism. This study examines Paul's view of election through the lens of Second Temple Jewish texts written prior to 70 CE. In doing so, it is argued that the best framework through which to view Paul's discussion of election is through a primarily corporate model of election. While such a model is rooted in Judaism, Paul departs from his Jewish contemporaries in arguing that the locus of election is in God's Messiah, Jesus.

Before Religion: A History Of A Modern Concept, William Cavanaugh

William T. Cavanaugh

No abstract provided.

Stosunki Chrześcijańsko-Żydowskie W History, Pamięci I Sztuce: Europejski Kontekst Dzieł W Katedrze Sandomierskiej [Jewish-Christian Relations In History, Memory, And Art: European Context For The Paintings In The Sandomierz Cathedral], Magda Teter, Urszula Stępień

Magda Teter

[Polish] Obraz Infanticidium wiszący na zachodniej ścianie katedry sandomierskiej i ukazujący sceny rzekomego morderstwa dzieci chrześcijańskich przez Żydów był często przedstawiany w izolacji jako przykład antysemityzmu polskiego oraz stosunków pomiędzy Żydami a Kościołem katolickim. Stał się więc ten obraz swego rodzaju „miejscem pamięci” (lieu de mémoire), w którym „skrystalizowana” została także pamięć stosunków chrześcijańsko-żydowskich w Polsce, oraz tym samy źródłem napięć i protestów. Bogato ilustrowana książka pod redakcją Magdy Teter i Urszuli Stępień ma na celu przedstawienie wstępnego zarysu, ułatwiającego zrozumienie sandomierskich obrazów w ich szerszym kontekście artystycznym, historycznym, i historiograficznym, na tle wydarzeń zarówno europejskich, jak i lokalnych.

[English] …