History of Religions of Western Origin Commons^™

Religion Wrecked Her Mind: Religious Insanity In The Nineteenth Century, Courtney Lacy

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

In this project, I analyze how the line between good and bad religions, as constructed through secularism, influenced whether or not practitioners of religion were sent to insane asylums or, at least, considered by their peers or family to be at risk of insanity or on the brink of it. Exploring these questions revealed the link between religion and insanity but also showed how some religious practices (especially ecstatic behavior) placed believers at even greater risk because of the threat to the secular and progressive narrative encouraged by the people around them.

By placing the asylum narrative in conversation with …

La Virgen María Y El Niño Fidencio: Un Análisis Literario Y Cultural De Figuras Veneradas, Emily Schahrer, Polly J. Hodge

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Famous historical and literary figures who display characteristics of empathy, wisdom and compassion inspire a great sense of faith in humanity and hope for the future. There are two exemplary figures explored in this study that embody these characteristics. The first is the Virgin Mary, a saint widely known and recognized by the Catholic Church since the 4^th century. The other is Niño Fidencio: a famous healer, man of God, nicknamed a “saint of the people” from Espinazo, Mexico who lived in the 20^th century. Although Niño Fidencio is not officially recognized by the Catholic Church, he names …

Leveraging Machine Learning To Identify Quality Issues In The Medicaid Claim Adjudication Process, Cyrus Hoseini

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Medicaid is the largest health insurance in the U.S. It provides health coverage to over 68 million individuals, costs the nation over $600 billion a year, and subject to improper payments (fraud, waste, and abuse) or inaccurate payments (claim processed erroneously). Medicaid programs partially use Fee-For-Services (FFS) to provide coverage to beneficiaries by adjudicating claims and leveraging traditional inferential statistics to verify the quality of adjudicated claims. These quality methods only provide an interval estimate of the quality errors and are incapable of detecting most claim adjudication errors, potentially millions of dollar opportunity costs. This dissertation studied a method of …

La Virgen María Y El Niño Fidencio: Un Análisis Literario Y Cultural De Figuras Veneradas, Emily Schahrer

World Languages and Cultures Student Papers and Posters

Famous historical and literary figures who display characteristics of empathy, wisdom and compassion inspire a great sense of faith in humanity and hope for the future. There are two exemplary figures explored in this study that embody these characteristics. The first is the Virgin Mary, a saint widely known and recognized by the Catholic Church since the 4th century. The other is Niño Fidencio: a famous healer, man of God, nicknamed a “saint of the people” from Espinazo, Mexico who lived in the 20th century. Although Niño Fidencio is not officially recognized by the Catholic Church, he names the source …

Padre Pio, Pandemic Saint: The Effects Of The Spanish Flu And Covid-19 On Pilgrimage And Devotion To The World’S Most Popular Saint, Michael A. Di Giovine

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In the Catholic world, pilgrimages and other devotional rituals are often undertaken to foster healing and well-being. Thus, shrines dedicated to saints are particularly relevant in times of pandemic. Pilgrimage to the shrines associated with 20th century Italian stigmatic, St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, known as one of the Catholic world’s most popular saints, is particularly informed by this notion, as Pio is understood as a healing saint thanks to the spiritual and corporal works of mercy that marked his ministry during his lifetime, as well as belief in the miraculous nature of his relics. Pio’s hometown of Pietrelcina and …

Eternity In Low Earth Orbit: Icons On The International Space Station, Wendy Salmond, Justin Walsh, Alice Gorman

Art Faculty Articles and Research

This paper investigates the material culture of icons on the International Space Station as part of a complex web of interactions between cosmonauts and the Russian Orthodox Church, reflecting contemporary terrestrial political and social aairs. An analysis of photographs from the International Space Station (ISS) demonstrated that a particular area of the Zvezda module is used for the display of icons, both Orthodox and secular, including the Mother of God of Kazan and Yuri Gagarin. The Orthodox icons are frequently sent to space and returned to Earth at the request of church clerics. In this process, the icons become part …

Reviews, Spiritus Journal

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Reviews

Charles Stanley’S Pentecostal Roots, Vinson Synan

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

(editor's note: This article was published posthumosly in honor of Dr. Vinson Synan's passing in March 2020 from a paper delivered at Society for Pentecostal Studies in 2019. This issue is dedicated to Dr. Synan)

Charles Stanley, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, is probably best known for his television program In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley. Yet few know about Stanley’s early formation in Pentecostal circles. This article examines Stanley’s early formation in these circles and the role these Pentecostal roots have played in his ministry as a Southern Baptist minister.

Bulgarian Pentecostal Leadership In The Crucible Of Change, John Paul Thompson

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Bulgarian Pentecostal leaders have navigated the waters of turbulent cultural change over the last thirty years in the wake of the fall of Communism in Bulgaria. From May to July 2020, eighteen Bulgarian Pentecostal leaders were interviewed to explore their leadership characteristics and how their leadership behavior and values changed over time amid a rapidly evolving society. Three generational groups of present-day Pentecostal leaders were identified, and their characteristics described. The study concludes with the leadership development needs of young emerging leaders given the continuously changing cultural environment.

Spirit-Empowered Leadership: Exploring Three Dimensions, Jay Gary

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

How should colleges and universities within the Spirit-empowered Movement develop Spirit-empowered leadership among their students, staff, or faculty? To spur on thinking by those who frame university learning outcomes, this case study from Oral Roberts University defines Spirit-empowered leadership in terms of three dimensions: personal development, interpersonal influence, and generational emergence. It concludes with a call to create the frameworks of leadership needed for the future of the church and society, in light of A.D. 2033, the 2,000th anniversary of Pentecost.

The Prophetic Servant: The Ideology Of Spirit-Empowered Leaders, Wonsuk Ma

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The study examines two groups of Spirit-empowered leaders, David in his final words, and the Servant figures, to develop the ideal of the Spirit-empowered leader as understood by the Old Testament. One of the findings is the “prophetic” feature emerging as the most significant characteristic of the ideal leader.

Toward Spirit-Empowered Leadership Distinctives: A Literature Review, Daniel D. Isgrigg

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This essay is a literature review that seeks to chart the landscape of leadership from a distinctively Spirit-empowered perspective. The topic of Spirit-empowered leadership distinctives is still in its infancy as few in the Spirit-empowered Movement have reflected deeply on the distinctive characteristics or competencies reflective of Pentecostal-Charismatic spirituality. This essay reviews the existing academic works related to definitions of Spirit-empowered leadership as a way of beginning the conversation among scholars.

In Memoriam : Vinson Synan: Model Of Spirit-Led Leadership, Sally Jo Shelton

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

H. Vinson Synan (December 1, 1934—March 15, 2020) was a key successor to David du Plessis, known as Mr. Pentecost, to Catholic and mainline Protestant leaders. Like du Plessis, Synan was a classical Pentecostal who dedicated much of his life to promoting the move of the Holy Spirit beyond the confines of his own classical Pentecostal denomination, the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. His call to this work came in 1972 at an annual Catholic Charismatic Conference held at Notre Dame University when seeing some 8,000participants singing in the Spirit, he came to the conviction that Catholics had indeed received the …

Editorial: Spirit-Empowered Leadership: Leading And Being Led, John Paul Thompson

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Guest editor, Dr. John Thompson, gives an introduction to this special issues dedicated to Spirit-empowered leadership.

Editor's Note, Jeffrey S. Lamp

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Front Matter - Spiritus 5, Vol 2 (2020)

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Full Issue - Spiritus 5, Vol 2 (2020), Spiritus Journal

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This special journal issue devoted to Spirit-empowered leadership.

John Thompson, guest editor.

The Religion Of The Anglo-Saxons, Charles Dale Cannon

Studies in English

No abstract provided.

Landscape And Lore: River Acheron And The Oracle Of The Dead, Lashante St. Fleur

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In order to explore the cultural relationships between people, landscape, memory and ritual, this master’s thesis focuses on the Acheron River in Epirus, Greece, long believed to harbor an entrance into Hades, the Greek underworld. Various entrances into the chthonic, or subterranean land of the dead, are peppered throughout Greece, with each tied to their own local myths, legends, folklore and cults. According to those traditions, Hades could be accessed from several terrestrial rivers thought to be connected to Oceanus, the primordial world-encompassing river surrounding all of creation. Flowing forth from River Ocean were all above- and underground rivers and …

Digital Occult Library, Alexis Brandkamp

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project is a website, titled Digital Occult Library, hosted by the CUNY Commons and built with WordPress. The site address is:

digitaloccultlibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu

It features (in this iteration) twenty-five unique pages with information on and discussion of occult and esoteric topics. It also hosts a forum that can be accessed and utilized by anyone, not just those registered on the Commons. The purpose of the site is to inform three types of interested parties on the highlighted topics: a general audience with no current knowledge of the occult, practitioners of esoteric traditions, and academics. Not only is the …