Religion Commons^™

The Political Implications Of The Evangelical Right’S Anti-Critical Race Theory Rhetoric, Elizabeth Howell-Egan

Scripps Senior Theses

Critical Race Theory (CRT), once an abstract principle used in academic circles, has exploded onto the national stage as parents fight against their children supposedly being taught its tenets. Through an analysis of key political and religious leaders, I discuss the right’s obsession with CRT in schools, where it came from, and its political implications.

Wedded To Change And Tradition: Conservative Jewish Same-Sex Weddings And Ritual Change, Logan Kramer

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores how the Conservative Jewish wedding ritual shifts in meaning during the creation of same-sex wedding rituals because of a re-definition of the Conservative Jewish community as a whole. This case study is then tied to ritual theory more broadly.

In Chapter 1, I discuss what makes a wedding a ritual. By defining the wedding as a powerful, transformative, and performative ritual, I examine how the creation of same-sex wedding rituals is an ideal example to help us understand the ways that a religious community might approach ritual change. I also interrogate how marriage has been used to …

Islam And The French Republic: Approaches To Laïcité In The Era Of Jacques Chirac And Nicolas Sarkozy, Jennifer C. Grady

Scripps Senior Theses

Often interpreted as the separation of Church and State that guarantees the freedom of public space from religion, laïcité is a foundational principle of French Republican ideology and is regarded as a central component of French national identity. This thesis focuses on the issue of laïcité that developed in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a period that witnessed a resurgence of debates on the purpose and function of laïcité after several decades of immigration from former colonies rendered Islam the second largest religion in France. Centering on the era of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, I examine the approaches …

The Necessity And Detriment Of Shame As Presented In John Calvin's Institutes, Tova Cohen

Scripps Senior Theses

In this senior thesis, I aim to explore the presence of shame in John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, via the excavation of the three main components that comprise of his edifice: original sin, grace, and predestination. Through a close reading of Calvin's Institutes, its application to Aristotelian ethics, and its consistencies (or lack thereof) with the biblical story of Genesis, I found that Calvin's theology not only suffers logical structure, but implores the Christian practitioner to embrace shame as a means to spiritually elevate the self. To conclude, I utilize Stephanie Arel's Affect Theory to uncover the …

To What Extent Do Religious Institutions Provide A Societal Value? Is The Tax-Exempt Status Justified?, Annabel Hou

Scripps Senior Theses

Religious institutions have been tax-exempt from almost all taxes for more than two centuries. The two primary justifications used to protect this ‘status’ is the constitution and the concept that churches provide positive externalities that believers and non-believers all benefit from. This paper examines the relationship between religiosity and five socially important characteristics: high school graduation rate, a divorce rate, incidence of domestic violence, and levels of substance abuse and crime. I run multiple simple and full regressions across 207 counties in Texas. In four of the five analyses, religiosity has a strong statistically significant desirable impact. With the addition …

Conjurer La Révolution : Sorciers, Païens Et Justice Sociale Dans La France Contemporaine, Alexandra Rivera

Scripps Senior Theses

Witches and pagans have long faced historical persecution from the Catholic church and other patriarchal systems of power. In the eyes of mainstream society, they have been reduced to fragments of ancient history and entertaining media stereotypes. Real practitioners of witchcraft and paganism have remained fairly marginalized and trapped in the shadows, but this is starting to change. Witches and pagans have begun to involve themselves in large-scale political movements, combining spiritual power with direct action. While this phenomenon has a longer track record in the United States, in France it is extremely new. France is a country that has …

Crispr Genetic Editing: Paths For Christian Acceptance And Analysis Of In Vivo And In Vitro Efficiency, Mandeep Sandhu

Scripps Senior Theses

With advancements in CRISPR-cas9 broadening the potential paths for clinical usage of genetic editing, conversations about genetic editing have grown to outside simply scientific communities and into mainstream conversations. This study focuses specifically on Christian discourse of genetic editing and locates four major tensions for many Christians when they think about genetic editing: beginning of life, Creator-human relationship, imago Dei, and stewardship. With these major concerns in mind, I identify epigenetics, somatic cell genetic editing, and in vivo genetic editing research as important research paths to pursue as they can potentially produce techniques that more Christian individuals would feel comfortable …

Caving Into The Will Of The Masses?: Relics In Augustine's City Of God, Jessica Gadis

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines Augustine of Hippo's support of the cult of relics through the lens of Peter Brown's revision of the two-tiered model which was proposed in his 1981 book The Cult of Saints. More specifically, this thesis attempts to explain the introduction of saint's relics in the final book, book 22, of Augustine's magnum opus The City of God (De Civitate Dei). After providing proof of the theologian's opposition to the cult of relics in his youth, historical, biographical, and textual evidence is used to trace his later change of heart. This change in position is crystallized in …

The Christian Influence Over Secular Understandings Of Marriage In The United States: A Critical Analysis Of Augustinian Theology, Rebecca C. Shin

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I seek to contextualize the exclusivity of traditional marriage in the United States. I investigate the use of Christian beliefs applied to the American legal system, consequently becoming the foundation of American commonsense. I draw out the ways in which Augustinian thoughts on marriage have inadvertently been used to justify institutional favoritism toward heterosexual, monogamous couples. Through examining the Christian-American lens that shapes our understanding of traditional marriage, I argue that previous and current secular opposition to non-traditional marriage is fundamentally grounded in Christian faith, furthermore, American cultural understanding of marriage is unconsciously lined with Augustinian thought.

On The Matter Of God’S Goodness: An Examination Of The Failure Of Theodicies, Herman Melville, And An Alternative Approach To The Problem Of Evil, Marie Angeles

Scripps Senior Theses

Within Judeo-Christianity there is a belief in an all perfect God who is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent. However, in this world evil and suffering exists, so how is it possible that an all perfect God can exist? This is called the problem of evil. This thesis examines the problem of evil and how philosophers like Alvin Plantinga, John Hick, and Richard Swinburne attempt to solve the problem of evil through different theodicies. In this paper I argue that all three philosophers and their theodicies fail to solve the problem of evil. I then turn to the writings of Herman Melville, …

From Profane To Divine: The Hegemonic Appropriation Of Pagan Imagery Into Eastern Christian Hymnody, Jordan Lippert

Scripps Senior Theses

Spanning the first seven centuries of Christianity, this paper explores how Eastern Christian and Byzantine hymn chant was developed alongside pagan and Jewish worship traditions around the Near East. Comparison of hymns by Christian composers such as St. Romanos the Melodist and pagan poetry reveals many similarities in the types of metaphorical imagery used in both religious expressions. Common in Christian hymn texts, well-known metaphors, like the “Light of God,” are juxtaposed with pagan mythological gods, such as Apollo and Helios. This paper attempts to explain how and why Christians appropriated and adopted ancient pagan imagery into the burgeoning musical …

Conversion Theory Through The Cognitive Science Of Religion Lense In A Christian-Muslim Context, Jennifer A. Garcia

Scripps Senior Theses

The Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) in recent years is beginning to become more popular. This project evolves around the development of the field as well as critiques of the field. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of CSR, it lends an interesting way to understand religion as well as religious experiences. One of those religious experiences, conversion, is examined and explored through the use of conversion narratives from western women who were formally Christian but converted to Islam. Many themes arise out of this research that paves the way for trying to understand religious experiences. Overall, the project focuses on …

The Sacred State: Religion, Politics And The Jerusalem Temple, Rebecca M. King

Scripps Senior Theses

I will begin at the beginning, the original construction of the Temple by Solomon and will examine the political nature the Temple achieved even before the first stone was placed. From there the Temple goes through a phase of destruction, rebuilding and destruction again. Each of these phases has political undertones that are important to understand in light of the religious ones. Jewish identity comes into question and the Temple becomes a tool by which to gain legitimacy in the political realm. However, once the Temple is destroyed a second time Jews have to accommodate themselves to a reality in …

Can't Be Tamed: A Feminist Analysis Of Apocrypha And Other Scripture, Catherine Alison Ballard

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper is my own unique feminist analysis of certain apocryphal texts. Though the texts I use have common themes, they are divided into what I consider the three most societally important aspects of an ancient woman’s identity: virgin, mother, and whore. The Acts of Thecla and The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena deal with virginity. II Maccabees, The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas, and select chapters of Augustine’s Confessions represent motherhood. Finally, the hagiographies Life of Pelagia and Life of Mary navigate through the mire of sexualities that deviate from norms.

Beyond Words: The Remystification Of The Divine Through Dance, Silence And Theopoetics, Nora F. Wright

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis challenges Classical Christian presentations of God based on exclusive and literalized metaphors. This piece explores the response of three dissenting groups, who place their emphasis on an experiential theology, directly challenging the use of conventional language to describe God. The Quaker practice of silent worship, Isadora Duncan’s dance form and Theopoetics each demand that religious structures enable an experience of the Divine that is spontaneous, mysterious and deeply personal.

Anis Of Dolma Ling: Buddhist Doctrine And Social Praxis Through The Monasticism Of Tibetan Nuns In Exile, Amy L. Mann

Scripps Senior Theses

The figure of the Tibetan Buddhist nun as a female monastic is situated within a matrix of complexities and contradictions that are constituted by textual and doctrinal sources, Tibetan social views on gender and female monasticism, and experiential realities. In order to understand the situation of nuns, one first must understand that monasticism, mainly the order of monks, has been a highly respected and financially supported institution in Tibetan society for centuries. However, because the histories of Tibetan nuns and female renunciants have gone primarily undocumented, their lineages and stories are much more opaque than those of Tibetan monks. Therefore, …