History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons^™

The Theology Of The Liturgical Seasons In The Syro-Malabar Church, Ann Mary Madavanakadu Cmc

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper focuses on the theology of the liturgical seasons in the Syro-Malabar Church. The liturgical year with its liturgical cycles and seasons, is more than just a mere structural framework for the prayer life of the Church. It is a true locus of rich theology. The liturgical year is defined as the yearly plan of spiritual life by the Church, for her children, arranged in different seasons or periods to celebrate the mysteries of Christ in life together with feasts, fasts, and abstinence in order to make Christian life a successful pilgrimage to heaven for attaining salvation. This article …

Palliyogam: A Vibrant Legacy Of The Syro-Malabar Archiepiscopal Church, Dery Davis

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article explores the historic inheritance of the Palliyogam of the sui iuris Syro-Malabar Major Archiepiscopal Church, focusing on its role in maintaining synodality in ecclesial life. Palliyogam, a parish assembly, has been the cornerstone of ecclesial communion among Malabar Christians for centuries. As Pope Francis inaugurates the three-year synod on synodality, this study examines how Palliyogam aligns with this synodal vision. The article delves into both the ancient form of Palliyogam and its present-day manifestation, shedding light on their theology and role in governance and decision-making within the Syro-Malabar tradition. The article emphasizes that synodality is already inherent …

Editor's Introduction, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

Introduction by Founding Editor, Mathew N. Schmalz to Graduate Symposium II.

Theological Implications Of The Symbols And Signs In The Sacrament Of Matrimony Of The Syro-Malabar Church, Nelson Mathew O. Carm.

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article discusses the significance of the signs and symbols used in the sacrament of the marriage of the Syro-Malabar Church and the adaptations from different cultures, particularly the Hindu culture of India. It concentrates on the specific elements found in the marriage celebration of the St. Thomas Christians. The rituals that are unique to the Sacrament of Matrimony of the Syro-Malabar Church, mainly expressed through symbols and signs, remain a significant contribution to the liturgy, spirituality, and theology of the Sacrament of Matrimony, and to the theology of inculturation. In the Syro-Malabar liturgy, marriage rituals, and signs and symbols …

Rethinking The Panata To The Nazareno Of Quiapo, Wilson Espiritu Ph.D.

Journal of Global Catholicism

Filipino Catholicism’s hallmark is its festive and colorful celebrations of popular piety, which exhibit the Catholic faith’s embeddedness in people’s lives and culture. One of the most renowned Filipino devotions is rendered to Nuestro Padre Jesus Nazareno of Quiapo, Manila. The devotion of making a pledge to the Nazareno, known as panata, is commonly understood as a sacred promise that must be kept in return for a request that is granted. In this paper, I propose a theological reading of panata performance that unites devotion to the Nazareno and commitment to the wellbeing of others. This interpretation aims to …

The Jaina Goddess Padmāvati In Karnataka, Robert Zydenbos

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

Stories about Padmāvati played an important role in the founding of the Ganga Dynasty (ca. 350-1000 C.E.) and the Hoysala Dynasty (ca. 950-1350 C.E.) in what is now the modern state of Karnataka. Although not without its critics, goddess worship has been integral to Jainism as practiced in south India for more than a millennium. This article surveys primary and secondary literature written about Padmāvati and describes worship at the main shrine dedicated to her, located in Hombuja in central Karnataka.

Small But Strong: Growth And Development Of The Sikh Community In Kathmandu, Sarbjot Z. Jessop

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Manila’S Black Nazarene And The Reign Of Bathala, Antonio D. Sison

Journal of Global Catholicism

A consideration of how the dynamics surrounding Manila's Black Nazarene express crucial themes in the Filipino psyche. The article specifically addresses the importance of "felt-experience" (pagdama) in devotion to the Black Nazarene as well as its connections to indigenous Filipino religion.

Editor's Introduction, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Religious Mega-Events And Their Assemblages In Devotional Pilgrimages: The Case Of Círio De Nazaré In Belém, Pará State, Brazil, José Rogério Lopes, André Luiz Da Silva

Journal of Global Catholicism

The article presents a typological categorization of contemporary mega-events and their characteristics, in order to interpret the assemblages mobilized by sectors of the Catholic Church in traditional devotional pilgrimages in the northern region of Brazil. It uses ethnographic accounts of the Círio de Nazaré feast, in Belém, Pará state, Brazil, considered the largest Catholic procession in the West, in order to analyze how the promotion of this event is organized through institutional and market logics that overlap with the religious phenomenon, evincing a contemporary trend. These assemblages open a field of possibilities for institutional religious reproduction and generate concentric flows …

Placing God: Defining “Post-Christianity” For Contemporary Japanese Christians, Leryan Anthony Burrey

Master's Projects and Capstones

This work suggests that we consider a new, working definition of post-Christianity. This new paradigm is in response to Western Christian thought being too dominant a force that fails to take into enough account other global experiences— like those of Japanese Christians. These reflections are based on scholarly opinions claiming that Christianity is a “global culture,” and ultimately argues for more international inclusivity in Western Christian thought and institutions, especially regarding the Asia-Pacific. Moreover, this paper illuminates how iitoko dori allows Christian thought to peacefully coexist in Japan’s greater society. The research also explores specific Japanese cultural practices that make …

Investigation Of The "Cultural Appropriation" Of Yoga, Olivia Bartholomew

Honors Projects

With our world becoming increasingly globalized and cosmopolitan, practices that were once very traditional and spiritual are much different when they confront Western societies. Many yoga instructors and practitioners around the world are concerned about the issue of cultural appropriation within their practice. The researcher defines cultural appropriation to mean the process of a dominant culture manipulating aspects of a marginalized culture for its benefit. Traditionally, yoga comes from India, but it has become popularized throughout the world in our recent human history. Through interviews with nine yoga instructors, each from different yogic traditions, who teach in a variety of …

Islamic Revivalism And Democracy In Malaysia, Ashton Word, Ahmed Abd Rabou

DU Undergraduate Research Journal Archive

The paper examines democracy and secularism in Malaysia, a state rooted in Islam, and how it has been implemented in a country with a majority Muslim population. It briefly outlines how Islam was brought to the region and how British colonialism was able to implement secularism and democratic practices in such a way that religion was not wholeheartedly erased. Indeed, peaceful decolonization combined with a history of accommodating elites served to promote a newly independent Malaysia, to create a constitutional democracy which declares Islam as the religion of the Federation, and simultaneously religious freedom. Despite the constitution, the United Malays …

Mysticism And Syncretism On The Island Of Java, Ryan Smith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

On the Indonesian island of Java, there is a religious tradition referred to as Kebatinan, which can be seen as the mystical branch of the indigenous religion of Java called Kejawen. However, unlike the mystical traditions of other religions, mysticism is critical to the entire popular practice of Kejawen and is not simply reserved for a select few. There are, on the other hand, a select number of people who fully understand the philosophical notions associated with Kebatinan and so can still be considered the “mystics” of the Kejawen faith. What these principles of mysticism have ultimately manifested as in …

Syrian Crisis Representation In The Media: The Cnn Effect, Framing, And Tone, Savannah S. Day

Venture: The University of Mississippi Undergraduate Research Journal

Over the past seven years of the Syrian Civil War, Syrian refugees have been painted in a negative light by news media outlets around the world. History of media coverage regarding global humanitarian crises shows that with various tools and processes, media can shape public opinion and policy in whichever direction it desires, and oftentimes policymakers and the public are quick, as well as emotional, to react. In this paper, my objectives are to analyze specific examples of this CNN Effect phenomena within news coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis, as well as generally explain the negatively correlating relationship between …

Islam And Buddhism: The Arabian Prequel?, Anna Akasoy

Publications and Research

Conventionally, the first Muslim-Buddhist encounters are thought to have taken place in the context of the Arab-Muslim expansions into eastern Iran in the mid-seventh century, the conquest of Sind in 711 and the rise of the Islamic empire. However, several theories promoted in academic and popular circles claim that Buddhists or other Indians were present in western Arabia at the eve of Islam and thus shaped the religious environment in which Muhammad’s movement emerged. This article offers a critical survey of the most prominent arguments adduced to support this view and discusses the underlying attitudes to the Islamic tradition, understood …

The Grace Of God And The Travails Of Contemporary Indian Catholicism, Kerry P. C. San Chirico

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay discusses the challenges faced by Indian Catholicism, particularly as it seeks to adapt to and in contemporary, post-colonial India through the process or program of what is called inculturation, a self-conscious program of adaptation to Indian religion and culture. Since Indian Catholicism is constituted by so many irreducible persons-in-relation, the article focuses on the life of the Catholic priest, Swami Ishwar Prasad in whose life we may chart something of the inculturation movement and the Catholic tradition as it is found in North India region, in one rather long and rich lifetime connecting two centuries. The article seeks …

In Continuity With The Past: Indigenous Environmentalism And Indian Christian Visions Of Flora, James Ponniah

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article considers whether Indian Christianity can be said to have a distinctive ecological vision. The first two parts of the article examine Christian environmentalism in two native forms of Indian Christianity: Tamil Christianity and Tribal Christianity. Continuing with the theme of conformity to the local culture—though of the elite—the third part of the article investigates how Christian Ashrams function as dynamic centers for ecological praxis. The last part of the article considers how contemporary Indian Christian communities can respond to the ecological challenges confronting them.

Antoniyar Kōvil: Hindu-Catholic Identity At The St. Anthony Shrine In St. Mary’S Co-Cathedral, Chennai, Pj Johnston

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article combines ethnographic description of the practices of Hindu and Christian visitors of the St. Antony Shrine in Chennai with the observation that this material cannot be understood using the standard world religions paradigm that essentializes Christianity as exclusivistic. Drawing upon the visual and material culture of the shrine in light of premodern and Vatican II templates for inculturation and the negotiation of religious difference, the article highlights overlap between Tamil Hinduism and the Tamil Popular Catholicism of the site to argue that the beliefs and practices documented should inform descriptive and normative accounts of Catholic Christianity. Because Tamil …

How Liberal Korean And Taiwanese Textbooks Portray Their Countries’ “Economic Miracles”, Frances Chan

Student Work

A 2015-2016 William Prize for best essay in East Asian Studies was awarded to Frances Chan (Timothy Dwight College '16) for her essay submitted to the Department of History, “How Liberal Korean and Taiwanese Textbooks Portray their Countries’ “Economic Miracles”.” (Peter C. Perdue, Professor of History, advisor.)

Frances Chan’s essay “How Liberal Korean and Taiwanese Textbooks Portray their Countries’ “Economic Miracles,” is a fascinating exploration of the creation of historical memory as seen in textbooks on the history of postwar economic development in Korea and Taiwan. Drawing on her remarkable linguistic skills in both Korean and …

Beyond Exile: The Ramayana As A Living Narrative Among Indo-Fijians In Fiji And New Zealand, Kevin Miller

Kevin C. Miller

Drawing on the themes of collective memory, cultural ideologies, and narrative constructions, this chapter proposes to examine the narrative of the Ramayana epic, its exegesis through performance, and its continued relevance to identity formation among Indo-Fijian Hindus both within Fiji and its Pacific Rim diaspora. Based on the recasting of the “twice-migrated” Indo-Fijian as the “twice-banished” by certain observers, we might expect the meaning of the Ramayana in the lives of Indo-Fijian Hindus in New Zealand to shift towards the theme of Rama’s exile, just as it did for the indentured laborers who made the original journey to Fiji. Nevertheless, …

"On Translating Taiji", Joseph Adler

Joseph Adler

No abstract provided.

Into The Red: A Look Into The Reasons Why Refugees Decide To Flee, Settle Or Migrate To And From Morocco, Fadeelah E. Holivay

Master's Theses

This research paper explores some of the main reasons why refugees and asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan African countries, embark on a journey and decide to settle, flee or migrate to and from Morocco. Because of this phenomenon, Morocco has seen a 96% increase of refugees migrating to the borders of Morocco each year for the past three years. Many say that this astonishing increase of migrants choosing Morocco is due to such factors as: wars breaking out regionally across central African and Middle Eastern countries causing them to flee; Morocco being a culturaly diverse francophone country whose laws and …

Food And Identity Formation Among Jain Laywomen, Kristin Mcconnell

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Jains are a small but influential minority community in India. Their religion is structured around the concept of ahimsa, the strict adherence to nonviolence in one’s every under taking. The ideal Jain diet does the least amount of harm to both oneself and one’s environment, including plants and microscopic organisms. Many foods — including meat, honey, alcohol, and underground vegetables — are forbidden. While Jain philosophy is adamant about avoiding foods that are obtained through violence, it says little about the perspectives and lifestyles of those most often charged with maintaining this diet: Jain laywomen. Because these women are …

Layers Of Home: Dharamsala And The Changing Home Of Tibetans, Lydia Talen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

McLeod Ganj, a major suburb of Dharamsala, has been the home of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile for the past 54 years. The arrival of His Holiness caused a surge of development in McLeod Ganj. My independent study project studies the resulting changes in the physical infrastructure, the way people use space in McLeod Ganj and whether Tibetans perceive McLeod Ganj as their home. I hope to further understand the complexity and fluidity of the idea of home, specifically for Tibetan refugees, through the examination of physical changes in McLeod Ganj.

The Sacrality Of The Mountain, Manuel Rivera Espinoza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I explore the conception of the mountain as a "sacred space" based on the definition provided by Mircea Eliade in The Sacred and The Profane and other works. I recognize three major elements in Eliadean sacral spatiality: a) order and orientation b) liminality and c) reality. Using various sources but mainly the oracle bones inscriptions, the Yugong ("Tributes of Yu") of the Shujing ("Book of Documents") and the Shanjing ("Classic of Mountains") of the Shanhaijing ("Classic of Mountains and Seas"), I demonstrate how the three basic components of sacrality are to be found in each of the …

A New Generation Of Buddhist: The Views And Practice Of Tibetan Youth , Carey Reich

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Buddhist practices of the Tibetan youth between eighteen and thirty years old living and studying in McleodGanj, Dharamsala, Himachal Pradesh, India, and the nearby areas were examined through a series of 20 interviews and literature research. This research was inspired by previous field work done in Leh, Ladakh, India, carried out by the author, where the youth from Buddhist families rejected ritual in favor of a purely philosophical practice. It was found in Dharamsala that the definition of Buddhism given by the youth was different than the traditional one and that given by members of a monastic institution. Rather …

文革中的批孔運動和孔子形像的演變 (Images For Iconoclasts: Depictions Of Confucius In The Cultural Revolution), Deborah Sommer

Deborah A. Sommer

No abstract provided.

Neuroscience And Hindu Aesthetics: A Critical Analysis Of V.S. Ramachandran’S “Science Of Art”, Logan R. Beitmen

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neuroaesthetics is the study of the brain’s response to artistic stimuli. The neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran contends that art is primarily “caricature” or “exaggeration.” Exaggerated forms hyperactivate neurons in viewers’ brains, which in turn produce specific, “universal” responses. Ramachandran identifies a precursor for his theory in the concept of rasa (literally “juice”) from classical Hindu aesthetics, which he associates with “exaggeration.” The canonical Sanskrit texts of Bharata Muni’s Natya Shastra and Abhinavagupta’s Abhinavabharati, however, do not support Ramachandran’s conclusions. They present audiences as dynamic co-creators, not passive recipients. I believe we could more accurately model the neurology of Hindu aesthetic experiences …

To Become A Confucian, Anna Sun

Anna Sun

No abstract provided.