Religion Commons^™

Holy Heroes! Catholic Comics In Special Collections, Henry M. Handley, Stephanie Shreffler, Jillian M. Ewalt

Roesch Library Faculty Publications

This chapter considers the importance of Catholic comics in special collections and emphasizes their potential as multi-disciplinary research and teaching tools. The legacy of comics as Catholic educational literature, subjects of censorship, and political bellwethers in the United States make these visual texts rich in content for both special collections instruction and student scholarship. This article provides an overview of Catholic comics in special collections at the University of Dayton, a brief survey of the history of Catholic comics in the United States, and illustrates examples of active learning and research in special collections through two case studies. The authors …

Committing To The Common Good: Reframing Student Success Using Catholic Social Teaching, Zachary Lewis

Roesch Library Faculty Publications

This case study examines how the role of Student Success Librarian (SSL) at University of Dayton’s (UD) Roesch Library incorporates Catholic Social Teaching in order to achieve the mission of this faith-based institution. Students at UD are asked to sign a Commitment to Community, a list of pledges which share similar values to the themes of Catholic Social Teaching. By focusing on the intersection of the Commitment to Community, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), and Catholic Social Teaching themes, the SSL at UD’s Roesch Library is able to incorporate Catholic Social Teaching in its programming, services, and partnerships.

Archiving Catholic Faith On The Web During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kayla Harris, Stephanie Shreffler

Marian Library Faculty Publications

In the middle of March 2020, an undergraduate English class from the University of Dayton visited the Marian Library for hands-on learning with primary source materials related to miraculous cures at the Lourdes shrine in France. Students in the upper-level seminar course that focused on narrative, rhetoric, and medicine prepared for the visit by reading an article about the baths at Lourdes, where thousands of pilgrims have traveled annually since the 1870s for a chance to be cured by the holy water from a spring.1 As students examined photographs, copies of case files, and historical narrative accounts, several of them …

Shrines And Pilgrimages: Documenting Mary's Role In The Pandemic, Kayla Harris

Marian Library Faculty Presentations

A 1997 special report in Scientific American claimed that the average lifespan of a website was only 44 days. A study in 2001 put that at 75 days, while a 2003 article indicated 100 days. Everything on the Internet doesn’t last forever. The Marian Library has collected material related to the Blessed Virgin Mary since its founding in 1943. Increasingly, some of the material that would have once been printed, and possibly made their way to the Marian Library archives, is now being shared only electronically. Things like shrine Mass schedules, news articles, or blog posts are available on websites, …

Celebrating Open Access At University Of Dayton, Maureen E. Schlangen

Roesch Library Staff Publications

Each year, Open Access Week calls attention to efforts worldwide to make scholarly literature, research data, creative works, primary sources and other materials available to anyone online, free of charge. The Catholic Portal, Catholic News Archive and subject guides are among the freely available resources made possible by CRRA members and partners.

Kathleen Webb, dean of the University of Dayton Libraries, places a high value on information accessibility and ushered her libraries into the open-access realm with the 2013 launch of eCommons, an institutional repository showcasing the research and creative works of the faculty, staff and students of the University …

Catholic Documents 101: Resources For Parts 3 And 4, Andrew Kosmowski

Marian Library Faculty Presentations

This list of resources accompanied the presentation "Catholic Documents 101: A Theological Librarian’s Guide to Identifying, Locating, and Using the Documents of the Catholic Church."

Catholic Documents 101: A Theological Librarian’S Guide To Identifying, Locating, And Using The Documents Of The Catholic Church, Andrew Kosmowski

Marian Library Faculty Presentations

Over the course of 2,000 years, theologians have accreted mountains of writings on every aspect of the Christian faith. While even devoted students of Christian doctrine likely will not have time to scale all of the peaks in a single academic lifetime, they cannot afford to skip completely over one of the highest summits: the documents of the “teaching arm” of the Catholic Church, the Magisterium, which safeguards the deposit of faith and interprets controversies in light of it. Those approaching doctrinal matters, such as the atonement and the virgin birth, from a Protestant perspective may find it beneficial to …

A Theological Library’S Efforts To Complement Faith Formation, Andrew Kosmowski

Marian Library Faculty Presentations

In the fall of 2016, a librarian at the Marian Library was approached about the possibility of preparing an art lesson that would also support catechesis of the parish school students. This poster presentation will summarize how the Marian Library's special collections have been used to complement ongoing faith formation efforts of both adults and children.

Catholic Documents 101: A Theological Librarian’S Guide To Identifying, Locating, And Using The Documents Of The Catholic Church, James Humble, Kathy Harty, Elyse Hayes, Andrew Kosmowski S.M.

Marian Library Faculty Publications

The teachings of the Catholic Church are found in numerous documents, produced by different persons or groups across centuries, whose arrangement and importance relative to each other are often hard to understand. This Listen and Learn session familiarizes librarians from non-Catholic backgrounds with the various types and features of Catholic Church document, concluding with strategies for answering a sample reference question by relying on that material. By sorting through the classification of these documents and directing attendees to the most authoritative or most easily obtainable source materials for those documents, this session makes it easier for librarians working in non-Catholic …

Marian Library Celebrates 75 Years, Andrew Kosmowski

Marian Library Faculty Publications

News article announcing the Marian Library's 75th anniversary celebration and prompting readers to see a special website featuring anniversary events.

The Gifts Of Membership, Andrew Kosmowski

Marian Library Faculty Publications

Appeal for support for CLA: gift sponsorships.

Living Seeds Of History: The John Stokes And Mary's Gardens Exhibit, Stephanie Shreffler, Kayla Harris

Marian Library Faculty Presentations

This panel describes how the University of Dayton planned and carried out an exhibit on the John Stokes and Mary’s Gardens archival collection, featuring a garden inside the library. A “Mary garden” is a garden filled with flowers named for Mary.

The panel describes the content of the collection and how the exhibit was originally conceived; the exhibit design and programming; and the challenges faced during the planning process.

The exhibit provided a way for the Libraries to promote an archival collection that not only closely connected with the University’s mission as a Catholic institution, but also provided new opportunities …

Served Through Service: Undergraduate Students’ Experiences In Community Engaged Learning At A Catholic And Marianist University, Elizabeth M. Fogle, Savio D. Franco, Edel M. Jesse, Brent Kondritz, Lindsay Maxam, Heidi Much-Mcgrew, Cody Mcmillen, Carolyn Ridenour, Daniel J. Trunk

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Students participating in sustained community service at an urban Catholic and Marianist university were volunteer informants in this qualitative exploration of the meaning they make of their service experiences. A PhD student research team (nine members) interviewed fourteen undergraduate students (eleven of whom were seniors). Findings were organized as themes constructed within three domains: background, experience, and meaning. Within “background,” students who had prior work in faith-based service before college deepened their meaning of service. Within “experience,” there were social and cultural dynamics of navigating on and off campus life, including the roles students played as well as the challenge …

Preachers, Politics And The Pulpit: The Influence Of Church Structure On How Clergy Approach Political Topics And How Congregations Receive Their Messages, Michael Bender

Honors Theses

Inspired by the Catholic Church’s nationwide resistance to President Obama’s contraceptive mandate in the summer of 2012, this honors thesis paper attempts to discover a link between church polity (or church structure) and whether political messages are more or less likely to be preached by clergy from the pulpit and accepted by their congregants. Given that churches are places where attendees are exposed to political messages, this paper hypothesizes that structurally centralized Christian denominations are more likely to have preached on the contraceptive mandate than decentralized denominations. Accordingly, it is assumed that Catholics are more likely to have heard about …

Negotiating A Culture Of Encounter And Disruptive Discourse In Catholic Higher Education, Laura Leming

Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work Faculty Publications

Any brief attention to global, national, and local news underlines the urgency for education that leads to knowledge about and action for the common good. Catholic institutions of higher learning have a dual history of encouraging students to speak and act on behalf of the common good while also pursuing the good life. As those who can readily access a Catholic education have increasingly come from the upper middle class, how are we introducing our students into the culture of encounter that Pope Francis called the U.S. Bishops to promote in September 2015? This essay explores ideas and examples related …

Cowboys, Angels, And Demons: American Exceptionalism And The Frontier Myth In The Cw's 'Supernatural', Joesph M. Valenzano

Communication Faculty Publications

The CW network series Supernatural (2005–) draws its text from the horror and fantasy genres as well as religious mythology. Concurrently, it transmits a core “American” mythos. As its protagonists keep watch along a supernatural frontier and eradicate threats to the American way of life, this program both reinforces and alters aspects of the frontier myth and the myth of American exceptionalism by depicting its main characters as representations of America writ large whose mission has grown from an appointment by God to being equals to God.

In this manner, Supernatural forwards a new American exceptionalism through the notion that …

Wonder-Worlds Of Words, Sandra A. Yocum

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

An essay on the impact of the works in the Imprints and Impressions: Milestones in Human Progress, an exhibition of rare books from the collection of Stuart Rose. Exhibition was held Sept. 29-Nov. 9, 2014, at the University of Dayton.

Not So Private: A Political Theology Of Church And Family, Jana Marguerite Bennett

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The words used to describe that relationship are public and private, words that frequently appear in both secular and Christian conversations about marriage and family. We name "family" and "church" as private matters, parts of life that are necessarily held distinctly from public matters, as in political life. At the same time, because Christians rightly understand family as a place where people learn discipleship and a place where formation and evangelization happen,³ we care very much about how to think about families in relation to church and state. There is a relationship between these three entities, American Christians …

Use Of Archives By Catholic Historians, 2010-2012: A Citation Study, Jillian M. Slater, Colleen Hoelscher

Marian Library Faculty Publications

This article reports on a citation study examining the use of archives by researchers in the field of Catholic history. The authors collected citation data from three Catholic history journals published from 2010 through 2012. They analyzed two citation attributes: the type of materials cited and, for archival materials, the type of repository. This article presents results and observations from the study and discusses them in the context of archival practice. The authors discuss how findings from this study can inform collection development and archival description as well as ideas for further research.

The Role Of Public Relations In Social Capital And Civic Engagement, Weiwu Zhang, Alan Abitbol

Communication Faculty Publications

Public relations scholars have increasingly argued for the broader role of public relations and strategic communication in society (e.g., Taylor, 2010). That is, how can knowledge of public relations be used to make society better rather than simply making organizations more effective? This study examines how different types of public relations and strategic communication efforts contribute to citizens’ social capital and civic engagement. Specifically, this study uses data from the 2010 Pew Internet and American Life Project ‘Social Side of the Internet’ survey to examine the relationship between various strategic communication efforts by social, civic, professional, and religious organizations and …

Catholic Academic Libraries And Print Promotional Materials, Katy Kelly

Roesch Library Faculty Publications

Catholic academic libraries are the focus of this study for several reasons. Not only are Catholic academic libraries private institutions with varying budgets, but they hold special and unique collections of particular interest to a diverse group of constituents, including scholars, vowed religious, and laypersons. With these elements in mind, to what extent are Catholic academic libraries still using print promotional materials? This study aims to uncover trends concerning academic libraries' budgets, staffing, and production workflows with regard to promoting with print.

Religion, Politics, And Polity Replication: Religious Differences In Preferences For Institutional Design, Joshua D. Ambrosius

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article presents a theory of polity replication in which religious congregants prefer institutions in other realms of society, including the state, to be structured like their church. Polities, or systems of church governance and administration, generally take one of three forms: episcopal (hierarchical/centralized), presbyterian (collegial/regional), or congregational (autonomous/decentralized). When asked to cast a vote to shape institutions in a centralizing or decentralizing manner, voters are influenced by organizational values shaped by their respective religious traditions‘ polity structures. Past social scientific scholarship has neglected to explicitly connect religious affiliation, defined by polity, with members‘ stances on institutional design. However, previous …

Religion And Regionalism: Congregants, Culture And City-County Consolidation In Louisville, Kentucky, Joshua D. Ambrosius

Political Science Faculty Publications

Literature on religious involvement in public affairs typically examines the national scene, particularly public opinion and political behavior in presidential elections. Few scholars examine religious actors in urban politics and policymaking. Those who do study local politics emphasize morality policy and ignore issues of metropolitan governance and institutional design, central concerns of the urban politics field. This dissertation fills that gap by studying Louisville, Kentucky, site of the first large-scale city-county consolidation since 1969. I ask: does religion affect how people vote in a consolidation referendum and shape their opinions about merged government? I employ a survey instrument (N=807), collected …

Why Urbanists Need Religion, Joshua D. Ambrosius

Political Science Faculty Publications

This essay summarizes a conference paper presented at the October 2008 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. The paper was reviewed by several leading scholars.

His Final Homily: Pope John Paul Ii's Death As An Affirmation Of His Life's Message, Joesph M. Valenzano

Communication Faculty Publications

Every Sunday morning, a member of the Roman Catholic clergy addresses his flock after a reading from one of the Gospels. These homilies ordinarily last between 10 and 20 minutes and allow the priest an opportunity to interpret the Gospel message from that day's reading, as well as discuss how that message relates to contemporary events and issues.

During the final two months of his life, Pope John Paul II provided a longer, more powerful symbolic homily to the world. The message summarized his positions on freedom, suffering, and the dignity of human life.

Review: 'Women In Catholic Higher Education: Border Work, Living Experiences, And Social Justice', Carolyn Ridenour

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Twelve writers challenge the structures and priorities of traditional Catholic colleges and universities: contemporary “reality TV” for anyone who values social justice in Catholic education. Throughout the book the writers confront the status quo of Catholic universities, questioning even those who have embraced feminist theology. The editors divided the book into three parts with subheadings that overstate their contents: “Feminist Border Work: Tensions and Contradictions” (3 chapters), “Living Experiences: Identity, Empowerment, and Action” (4 chapters), and “Social Justice: The Ideal, the Reality, and the Quest” (3 chapters). Like bookends, the editors have constructed two additional chapters: one at the beginning …

The Sacred And The Secular: Aligning A Marianist Mission With Professional Standards Of Practice In An Educational Leadership Doctorial Program, Darla J. Twale, Carolyn Ridenour

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This inquiry was conducted to explore how the characteristics of our university’s religious mission are interwoven into our educational leadership doctoral program and are manifest in the structure and learning experiences that our students encounter. We examined how these characteristics might correspond to or relate to the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards that resulted from national reform initiatives in educational leadership in the mid 1990s. We concluded that the foundations of the PhD program are built solidly on the distinctive characteristics and identity of our founders and are aligned with these professional standards as well. Implications for universities …