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“Deserting The Broad And Easy Way”: Southern Methodist Women, The Social Gospel, And The New Deal State, 1909-1939, Chelsea Hodge 2020 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

“Deserting The Broad And Easy Way”: Southern Methodist Women, The Social Gospel, And The New Deal State, 1909-1939, Chelsea Hodge

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the course of three decades, white southern Methodist women took on issues of labor and poverty through their national women’s organization, the Woman’s Missionary Council (WMC). Between 1909 and 1939, the WMC focused their work on five groups of people they viewed as in need of their help: women, children, black southerners, immigrants, and rural people. Motivated by the Social Gospel and an intense belief that their faith led them to effect real change in the American South, the WMC intervened in people’s lives, pursuing reform that could at times be maternalistic and condescending but at other times radical …


The Defense Of Principates: The English Appropriation Of Marsilius Of Padua's 'Defensor Pacis', Nathan Harkey 2020 University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

The Defense Of Principates: The English Appropriation Of Marsilius Of Padua's 'Defensor Pacis', Nathan Harkey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Marsilius of Padua’s Defensor pacis is widely thought to be one of the most important texts to emerge in late medieval Europe. Initially purposed as a defense of Holy Roman Emperor Ludwig IV’s rights against the claim of the papacy’s claim to possess a ‘plenitude of power’, Defensor pacis is one of the most sophisticated arguments against the centuries of abuse of papal authority. Marsilius, though condemned as a heretic during his lifetime, remains a pivotal figure for medieval and early modern European historians, and is perhaps best remembered by the ways that his ideology influenced subsequent generations of political …


The Beast And The Revival Of Rome: Mussolini And Rome In The Premillennial Imagination, Jon Stamm 2020 Illinois State University

The Beast And The Revival Of Rome: Mussolini And Rome In The Premillennial Imagination, Jon Stamm

Theses and Dissertations

Premillennial dispensationalism became immensely influential among American Protestants who saw themselves as defenders of orthodoxy. As theological conflict heated up in the early 20th century, dispensationalism’s unique eschatology became one of the characteristic features of the various strands of “fundamentalists” who fought against modernism and the perceived compromises of mainline Protestantism. Their embrace of the dispensationalist view of history and Biblical prophecy had a significant effect on how they interpreted world events and how they lived out their faith. These fundamentalists established patterns of interpretation that in the second half of the 20th century would fuel the emergence of a …


The Inner Revolution: Shuddhi And The Reinvention Of Hinduism, Nirav Mehta 2020 Swarthmore College

The Inner Revolution: Shuddhi And The Reinvention Of Hinduism, Nirav Mehta

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The Shuddhi movement of the late 19th century was a religious revolutionary movement that aimed to intrinsically restructure and transform the Hinduism and Hindu society into a more socially equalized and religiously universal system. It was a quest to reconstruct Hindu religious and social identity in response to socioeconomic modernism and challenges from Christian and Islamic proselytization. The first phase of the movement lasted from the 1880s to the late 1910s and was defined by a persistent struggle with orthodox society to transform Hinduism by opening its doors to induct and assimilate returning and new converts. The second phase …


Full Issue: Volume 1, Issue 1, Editorial Board 2020 Swarthmore College

Full Issue: Volume 1, Issue 1, Editorial Board

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

The first issue of the Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal.


Bloodied Hearts And Bawdy Planets: Greco-Roman Astrology And The Regenerative Force Of The Feminine In Shakespeare’S The Winter’S Tale, Christina E. Farella 2020 CUNY Graduate Center

Bloodied Hearts And Bawdy Planets: Greco-Roman Astrology And The Regenerative Force Of The Feminine In Shakespeare’S The Winter’S Tale, Christina E. Farella

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis offers a new reading of William Shakespeare’s late play The Winter’s Tale (1623), positing that in order to understand this complex and eccentric work, we must read it with a complex and eccentric eye. In The Winter’s Tale, planets strike without warning, pulling at hearts, wombs, and blood, impacting the health and emotional experience of characters in the play. This work is renowned for its inconsistent formal structure; the first half is a tragedy set in winter, but abruptly shifts to a comedy set in spring/summer in its latter half. What’s more, is that planets, luminaries, and …


Devotional Literature Of The Prophet Muhammad In South Asia, Zahra F. Syed 2020 CUNY Graduate Center

Devotional Literature Of The Prophet Muhammad In South Asia, Zahra F. Syed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many Sufi poets are known for their literary masterpieces that combine the tropes of love, religion, and the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In a thorough analysis of these works, readers find that not only were these prominent authors drawing from Sufi ideals to venerate the Prophet, but also outputting significant propositions and arguments that helped maintain the preservation of Islamic values, and rebuild Muslim culture in a South Asian subcontinent that had been in a state of colonization for centuries. The continued practice of both ritualistic and literary veneration of the Prophet became a key factor in this preservation and rejuvenation …


Eucharist As Sacrifice: A Study Into The Development Of The Eucharist As A Sacrifice Of The Believer In The First And Second Centuries, David Williams 2020 Andrews University

Eucharist As Sacrifice: A Study Into The Development Of The Eucharist As A Sacrifice Of The Believer In The First And Second Centuries, David Williams

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

The sacrifice of the believer at the Eucharist can nowhere be found in the Adventist understanding of the Lord’s Supper. However, Adventists may find value in reexamining the early church’s teachings on sacrifice. While the early church deviated from Scripture in its primary teachings on the Eucharist, they maintained the scriptural notion of the spiritual sacrifice of the worshiper— something Adventists would do well to practice. This article examines the liturgical orders and teachings of the apostolic fathers, apologists, and early liturgical orders of the first and second centuries. The author considers four major issues relating to the Eucharist as …


The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy Of Daniel 9:24–27 And First-Century Ad Jewish Messianic Expectation, David J. Hamstra 2020 Andrews University

The Seventy-Weeks Prophecy Of Daniel 9:24–27 And First-Century Ad Jewish Messianic Expectation, David J. Hamstra

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

For Christians who interpret the seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24–27 by correlating the coming of the messiah with the arrival of Jesus Christ, the question of whether Jesus could have been identified as the predicted messiah at the time of fulfillment is theologically significant given biblical claims of prophetic intelligibility. There is a consensus among scholars affirming the view that interpretation of the seventy-weeks prophecy led to a climate of messianic expectation among certain sectors of first-century Jewish society. This position is supported by the explicit connection of the seventy weeks to the anticipated arrival of a messiah in Melchizedek …


A Review Of The Historical Roots Of The Union Conference Organizational Structure In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church And Inter-Structural Accountability, Eric Louw 2020 Andrews University

A Review Of The Historical Roots Of The Union Conference Organizational Structure In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church And Inter-Structural Accountability, Eric Louw

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

Over the last few years, a debate regarding the inter-structural relationship of each level of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown to the point where it can be polarizing, regardless of which side of the debate one is on. This tension has likely come about, at least in part, as a response to the ongoing gender role debate, which has given rise to the emergence of an “us vs. them” mentality between those who agree and disagree with the decisions of the General Conference Sessions and its Executive Committee. This paper looks at some of the historical data related to …


Adventism In East Africa: Were The Initial Mission Strategies Effective?, Christopher R. Mwashinga 2020 Andrews University

Adventism In East Africa: Were The Initial Mission Strategies Effective?, Christopher R. Mwashinga

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is one of the fastest-growing Christian denominations in the world. Studies show that the SDA Church in Africa in general and East Africa, in particular, has recorded tremendous growth since it was introduced in the region in the early 1900s. This article surveys the first fifty years of the beginning and development of the SDA Church in East African (1903–1953). It focuses on the three initial mission strategies employed by early Adventist missionaries to East Africa, including education, medical care, and publishing work. Early Adventist missionaries to East Africa established educational and medical institutions alongside …


The Transition Of Guanyin: Reinterpreting Queerness And Buddha Nature In Medieval East Asia, Robert Wilf 2020 Ursinus College

The Transition Of Guanyin: Reinterpreting Queerness And Buddha Nature In Medieval East Asia, Robert Wilf

Religious Studies Honors Papers

Avalokitesvara, better known by the Chinese name of Guanyin, is perhaps the second most pervasive figure in all of Buddhism after the historical Buddha himself. Part of this popularity comes from his adaptability and willingness to change to order to save everyone, no matter what part of society they might be from. It is thanks to this adaptability that Guanyin’s iconography varies wildly by region, with much of Theravada and tantric Buddhism depicting him as a man, while Mahayana Buddhism tends to revere her as the patron of women. From their earliest description, Guanyin was known to transcend boundaries to …


Is It So Bad To Be Yourself?, Andrew S. Russell 2020 Winthrop University

Is It So Bad To Be Yourself?, Andrew S. Russell

Graduate Theses

Homosexuality has been a topic of recent controversial religious discourse, not only in America, but also world-wide. This begs the question: when did homosexuality become such a divisive issue in religious circles? The purpose of this thesis is to examine how ancient western cultures perceived homosexuality and treated homosexuals. Starting with the pagan civilizations of Greece and Rome, and then looking at how homosexuality was perceived in the ancient Judaic world and into the early Christian community, it seems that homosexuality only gradually became stigmatized as early Christians sought to distinguish themselves as unique in the ancient world.


Modern Yoga In America, Emily Parkinson Perry 2020 Utah State University

Modern Yoga In America, Emily Parkinson Perry

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Yoga’s immense growth and popularity during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, along with its proliferation into countless varieties and styles, presents teachers, students, and scholars with the question: “What is yoga?” Answering this question requires the investigation of a number of cultural, historical and philosophical tensions at play in modern expressions of this ancient tradition: (1) Is modern postural yoga (MPY)—the yoga widely practiced in studios across the country today—an authentic expression of yoga or is it simply another form of physical fitness? (2) Does the modern focus on the physical dimension of yoga forsake its original purpose of …


Non-Muslim Integration Into The Early Islamic Caliphate Through The Use Of Surrender Agreements, Rachel Hutchings 2020 University of Arkansas

Non-Muslim Integration Into The Early Islamic Caliphate Through The Use Of Surrender Agreements, Rachel Hutchings

History Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this honors thesis, I discuss the role of surrender agreements in the early Islamic caliphate and their evolution through the ninth century. Seen as a window into the developing relations between Muslims and non-Muslims, surrender agreements shed considerable light on the evolving conceptualization of non-Muslims’ place in dar al-Islam from the point of view of Islamic legal tradition and political theory. By defining the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims in a framework that was agreed on by all parties and one that preserved the basic rights of non-Muslims, these agreements were remarkably effective in facilitating the incorporation of …


Power In Vulnerability: Widows And Priest Holes In The Early Modern English Catholic Community, Jennifer Binczewski 2020 Gonzaga University

Power In Vulnerability: Widows And Priest Holes In The Early Modern English Catholic Community, Jennifer Binczewski

History Faculty Scholarship

Catholics in post-Reformation England faced new challenges in their resolution to remain faithful to Rome following the passage of anti-Catholic laws in the 1580s. These legislative attempts to root out Catholicism resulted in the creation of a clandestine community where private households became essential sites for the survival of Catholic worship. This article extends prior studies of the role of women in the English Catholic community by considering how marital status affected an individual’s ability to protect the ‘old faith’. By merging the study of widowhood with spatial analyses of Catholic households, I argue that early modern patriarchal structures provided …


The Unlimited Absorbs The Limits: Analyzing The Religious And Mystical Aspects Of Virginia Woolf's Work Through The Lens Of William James, Zachary J. Beck 2020 Missouri State University

The Unlimited Absorbs The Limits: Analyzing The Religious And Mystical Aspects Of Virginia Woolf's Work Through The Lens Of William James, Zachary J. Beck

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Commentators on the work of modernist author Virginia Woolf have frequently remarked upon the “religious” and “mystical” aspects that appear throughout Woolf’s oeuvre, but have found it difficult to reconcile these aspects of Woolf’s work with her self-expressed atheistic beliefs. For those who have sought to resolve the tension between the “religious” and “mystical” features of Woolf’s work and Woolf’s (lack of) personal religious beliefs, the work of American psychologist and philosopher William James has proven to be a starting point for investigations into selections of Woolf’s oeuvre that seem to exhibit “religious” and “mystical” characteristics. There continues to exist, …


El Pastor: The Life And Ministry Of José Ynéz Perea, 1837–1910, Benjamin Rankin Davis 2020 University of New Mexico

El Pastor: The Life And Ministry Of José Ynéz Perea, 1837–1910, Benjamin Rankin Davis

History ETDs

Although numerically few, Presbyterian Hispanos constitute a persistent presence in the predominately Catholic religious landscape of New Mexico. Despite their resilience, they have been largely invisible in historical scholarship. This study foregrounds the Protestant Hispano identity through the experience of the first Hispano ordained as a Presbyterian pastor, José Ynéz Perea. Using Perea’s correspondence, U.S. government documents, contemporary newspapers, Presbyterian serials, and Catholic oppositional writings, this study locates Perea’s experience in the wider context of the Gilded Age, both in New Mexico and in the United States. Perea’s religious identity made tenuous his place in Hispano society. Although he found …


Finding Aid For The Katallagete / James Y. Holloway Collection (Mum00249), 2020 University of Mississippi

Finding Aid For The Katallagete / James Y. Holloway Collection (Mum00249)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Manuscripts and correspondence related to Katallagete, the journal of the Committee of Southern Churchmen. Published from the 1960s to 1991, the journal was edited by James Y. Holloway, and boasted contributions by notable people such as Thomas Merton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Billy Graham, and Will Campbell, among many others. The collection contains correspondence, meeting minutes, loose journal issues, and other materials relating to the creation and publication of Katallagete. Also contains materials that pertain to the career of James Holloway.


Islamic Revivalism And Democracy In Malaysia, Ashton Word, Ahmed Abd Rabou 2020 University of Denver

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 …


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