Digital Commons Network^™

Did Secularism Fail? The Rise Of Religion In Turkish Politics, Zeynep Taydas, Yasemin Akbaba, Minion K.C. Morrison

Political Science Faculty Publications

Religious movements have long been challenging the modernist and secularist ideas around the world. Within the last decade or so, pro-religious parties made significant electoral advances in various countries, including India, Sudan, Algeria, and the Palestinian territories. In this article, we focus on the rise of the pro-religious Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi- AKP) to power in the 2002 elections in Turkey. Using the Turkish experience with political Islam, we evaluate the explanatory value of Mark Juergensmeyer's rise of religious nationalism theory, with a special emphasis on the "failed secularism" argument. Our analysis indicates that the …

Atheist Scripts In A Nation Of Religiosity: Identity Politics Within The Atheist Movement, Jacqueline Frost

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the use of identity politics within the atheist movement at both the national and individual levels. I conducted a content analysis of two national atheist groups and three best-selling atheist authors in order to assess the use of atheist identity politics at the national level. I then conducted 15 in-depth interviews with a sample of atheists in Portland, Oregon about their atheist identity and their reactions to and identification with national atheist movement strategies. Findings suggest that national atheist organizations and atheist authors are using a strategy of identity politics that encourage atheists to "come out" as …

Papers Of John C Cooper Arc1997 -008 - Finding Aid, John C. Cooper

Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Papers Of Hannah Whitall Smith Arc1983-002 - Finding Aid, Ats Special Collections And Archives

Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

What The Religions Named In The Qur'an Can Tell Us About The Earliest Understanding Of "Islam", Micah B.D.C. Naziri

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Both Western studies of Islam as well as Muslim beliefs assert that the Islamic holy text, the Qur'an, endeavored to inaugurate a new religion, separate and distinct from the Jewish and Christian religions. This study, however, demonstrates that the Qur'an affirms a continuity of beliefs with the earlier revealed texts that suggest that the revelations collected in the Qur'an did not intend to define a distinct and separate religion. By studying the various historical groups named in the Qur'ān-such as the Yahud, Sabi'un, and Nasara-we argue that the use of the term "islam" in the Qur'an relates more to the …

Is "Nontheist Quakerism" A Contradiction Of Terms?, Paul Anderson

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

The Emerging Church - Part 3: Evangelical Evaluations, Fernando Canale

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

The Emerging Church - Part 4: Levels Of Change, Fernando Canale

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of The New Apostolic Reformation And Its Implication For Adventist Eschatology, Trevor O'Reggio

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Talking About Talk: The Problem Of Communication As An Object Of Study In Public Participation Research, Lauren Leigh Cutlip

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When citizens participate in risk assessment and decision-making for environmental and other issues that affect members of the public, more robust decisions may be made. Public participation in policy decisions is not only more democratic, but it also enables members of the public to contribute valuable expertise to the decision-making process. However, the development of an effective forum for such participatory projects has been difficult. Participation mechanisms that foster dialogue and interactive exchange between participants have been regarded as the most beneficial, but the practical application of these mechanisms has been observed to be problematic. The goal of this study …

Review: 'God's Own Party: The Making Of The Christian Right', William Vance Trollinger

History Faculty Publications

There has been no end of predictions that the demise of the Religious Right is imminent. Over the past three decades, proof of its impending collapse has included the televangelist scandals, Pat Robertson’s failure to secure the Republican presidential nomination, the election and re-election of Bill Clinton, and the emergence of “young” evangelicals who refuse to toe the Religious Right line (this one keeps popping up).

The latest version involves the notion that economically focused libertarians of the Tea Party will inevitably find themselves in heated conflict with evangelical and fundamentalist social conservatives, thus challenging the power of the Religious …

Religion As Aesthetic Creation: Ritual And Belief In William Butler Yeats And Aleister Crowley, Amy M. Clanton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

William Butler Yeats and Aleister Crowley created literary works intending them to comprise religious systems, thus negotiating the often-conflicting roles of religion and modern art and literature. Both men credited Percy Bysshe Shelley as a major influence, and Shelley's ideas of art as religion may have shaped their pursuit to create working religions from their art. This study analyzes the beliefs, prophetic practices, myths, rituals, and invocations found in their literature, focusing particularly on Yeats's Supernatural Songs, Celtic Mysteries, and Island of Statues, and Crowley's "Philosopher's Progress," "Garden of Janus," Rites of Eleusis, and "Hymn to Pan." While anthropological definitions …

Practicing What They Preach? Lynching And Religion In The American South 1890 - 1929, Amy Kate Bailey, Karen A. Snedker

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

This project employs a moral solidarity framework to explore the relationship between organized religion and lynching in the American South. The authors ask whether a county’s religious composition affected its rate of lynching, net of demographic and economic controls. The authors find evidence for the solidarity thesis, using three religious metrics. First, their findings show that counties with greater religious diversity experienced more lynching, supporting the notion that a pluralistic religious marketplace with competing religious denominations weakened the bonds of a cohesive moral community and might have enhanced white racial solidarity. Second, counties in which a larger share of the …

Philosophy & World Religions Department Newsletter, V3, Fall 2011, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Philosophy And World Religions.

Philosophy & World Religions Department Newsletter

Inside this issue:

-- Notes from the Head
-- Faculty Updates: John Burnight
-- Faculty Updates: Grant Goodrich
-- Faculty Spotlight: Reza Lahroodi, Professor of Philosophy
-- Faculty Spotlight: James Robinson, Professor Of Religion
-- Harry Brod's Work with The Center for Violence Prevention
-- Discussion & Lectures by Dr. Russ Shafer-Landau
-- Student Interview: Emily O'Loughlin
-- Student Interview: Kayleigh Massman
-- Philosophy Club
-- Alumni Updates
-- RIPD Seminar
-- Impact of Scholarships
-- Support for Students or Department
-- Alumni Highlight: Tom Hesse
-- Alumni Highlight: Peg O'Rourke
-- Alumni Response Form

Review Of "Daoist Modern: Innovation, Lay Practice, And The Community Of Inner Alchemy In Republican Shanghai" By Xun Liu, Emily Wu

Collected Faculty Scholarship

Article Excerpt:

Situated in Republican-era Shanghai, already a great metropolitan city, Daoist Modern leads the readers through a Daoist inner-alchemy revivalist (no pun intended) movement that actively participated in China’s transformation from its imperial past toward modernization. Xun Liu’s book traces the way in which Chen Yingning (1880–1969) and his followers infused both intellectual discourse and the cultivation of immortality with issues pertinent to their own identity as Chinese urban elites: Nationalism and the roles of elite Daoist practitioners in a time of crisis; gender equality and women’s rights; and changing modes of information dissemination.

Western Perspectives On Church-State Relations In Soviet Era, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Prayer In Jewish Community High Schools: Generation Y Jews In An Era Of Unlimited Choices, Yonatan Yussman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine and analyze tefilla (prayer) programs in three Jewish community high schools, as well as professional leadership practices in these schools as they related to prayer. The questions that guided this research were: (1) What does prayer education and practice look like in Jewish community high schools? (2) How is prayer education and practice perceived by key constituencies in Jewish community high schools? (3) How do educators and students in Jewish community high schools describe authentic prayer?

Site observations, interviews with students, faculty, and administration, as well as data collected from sources …

Recreating Religion: The Response To Joseph Smith’S Innovations In The Second Prophetic Generation Of Mormonism, Christopher James Blythe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, was assassinated. In the wake of his death, a number of would-be
successors emerged. Each of these leaders - part of what I call the second prophetic
generation - established a unique vision of Mormonism.

In 1844, Mormonism was in the middle of a major shift in its character. Joseph
Smith’s death left numerous theological and practical questions unresolved. This thesis argues that, rather than merely a succession struggle of competition and power, a principal function of the second prophetic generation in Mormonism …

Internet Usage And Religious Authority: A Case Study Of The Catholic Church Of South Korea, Youngho Park

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This study examines what impact the Internet usage by church members has on religious authority, focusing on a case study of the Korean Catholic Church. The goals of this study are to investigate the ways in which church members use the Internet for communication in the Church, to examine whether and how the Internet usage by church members affects religious authority, and to identify what kind of religious authority is affected. This study encompasses two main parts: historical background of the Church's Internet usage and analysis of the online forums about "The Four Major Rivers Project". The latter is divided …

Occam's Beard: Belief, Disbelief, And Contested Meanings In American Ufology, William J. Dewan

American Studies ETDs

The purpose of this dissertation is to critically examine the emergence, maintenance, evolution, and dissemination of belief traditions in New Mexico and the United States that are most commonly associated with the UFO phenomenon. This critical analysis incorporates theoretical frameworks from a multitude of interrelated disciplines, including folklore, history, anthropology, popular culture studies, sociology, and psychology. The primary goal of this dissertation involves the attempt to formulate a typology of UFO accounts in American culture, and how said accounts are interpreted, communicated, and publicly evaluated. To achieve this end, a database of UFO-related experiences was compiled in New Mexico and …

The Lotus Sutra, James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Kjv In The Usa: The Impact Of The King James Bible In The Usa, Brian C. Wilson

Comparative Religion Publications

No abstract provided.

Explore, Fall 2011, Vol. 15, No. 1: The Globalization Of Superficiality And The Challenge Of Jesuit Higher Education, Ignatian Center For Jesuit Education

explore

Contents: Reflections on the “Shaping the Future” Conference, Mexico City, 2010 4 Refounding the “Universities of the Society”—The Challenge of Fr. Nicolás to Jesuit Higher Education BY MICHAEL E. ENGH, S.J. 10 Jesuit Higher Education and the Legacy of Paul Locatelli, S.J BY RON HANSEN 13 Universality, Learned Ministry, and Depth of Thought and Imagination BY PAUL J. CROWLEY, S.J. 18 Shaping the Future of (Jesuit) Legal Education BY CÉSAR ARJONA 22 HWJT? (How Would Jesus Tweet?): Reimagining New Media as Social BY ELIZABETH DRESCHER 28 Friending in El Salvador and Tanzania: An Education in Solidarity BY HILARY TITUS, SCU …

Spiritual Abuse : When The System Becomes The Persecutor, Gary R. Veenhuizen

Doctor of Ministry

Spiritual abuse is an extremely subtle issue in its early stages. Often one doesn’t recognize when they are a subject of abuse, or how they have been influenced in ways that are controlling and involve manipulation of behavior and thought. It should be understood that all institutional systems are vulnerable to manipulation by leadership, tradition or culture of the system or organization. I am proposing that it is possible that a system itself can be an abuser, inflicting spiritual control and manipulation on the organization, the leadership and members for future generations. I want to examine the earmarks of unhealthy …

Full Issue, Number 34, Fall 2011

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Gift And Calling: A Lutheran Perspective On Higher Education, Darrell Jodock

Intersections

No abstract provided.

From Reading To Revering The Good Book, Or How The Word Became Fossil At The Creation Museum, Susan L. Trollinger

English Faculty Publications

Given the complexity of this sacred text and the intensity with which Protestants have sought to glean its truths from it, it is not surprising that Luther’s “dangerous idea” yielded countless splits, schisms, and sects. Whereas once there was the Church, Protestants dedication to reading the Scripture for themselves has brought an endless variety of theologies, practices, and fellowships with no end in sight. While every one of these groups claims (whether explicitly or implicitly) that they alone have the true word of God, none has been able to arrest the flow of interpretations. With everyone free to read the …

Witnessing To Christ In A Pluralistic World Christian Mission Among Other Faiths, Lalsangkima Pachuau, Knud Jorgensen

Edinburgh Centenary Series

"The relationship of Christian faith and mission to other living faiths is a core issue in contemporary mission. In a world where plurality of faiths is increasingly becoming a norm of life, insights on the theology of religious plurality are needed to strengthen our understanding of our own faith and the faith of others ... As part of the study process, position papers and case studies were invited from a wide range of contributors representing various theological positions, confessional traditions and denominational bodies. The position papers are reflections on the theme by scholars belonging to Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Protestant-Conciliar, …

Be United, Be Virtuous: Composite Culture And The Growth Of Shirdi Sai Baba Devotion, Karline Mclain

Faculty Journal Articles

In one popular devotional poster the Indian god-man Shirdi Sai Baba (d. 1918) gazes out at the viewer, his right hand raised in blessing. Behind him are a Hindu temple, a Muslim mosque, a Sikh gurdwara, and a Christian church; above him is the slogan, “Be United, Be Virtuous.” In his lifetime, Shirdi Sai Baba acquired a handful of Hindu and Muslim devotees in western India. Over the past several decades, he has been transformed from a regional figure into a revered persona of pan-Indian significance. While much scholarship on religion in modern India has focused on Hindu nationalist groups, …

Modern Myth In Performance: Claiming Identity Through A Reading Of Fantasy Withcraft, Jessica Satterwhite Gray

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I create a Wiccan dramaturgical lens to analyze three key fantasy sites: The Wizard of Oz film and stage adaptations (especially the Broadway musical Wicked), The Chronicles of Narnia film and theatrical adaptations, and the Harry Potter films and paratheatrical adaptations. These three fantasy stories have significant cultural impact and strong images of folkloric witches. My alternative reading shows how a subgroup can appropriate popular images for their own identity formation. I will analyze how signs, themes, and narrative tropes that otherwise seem ancillary or even anti-witch become highlighted and privileged, creating a different but equally legitimate …