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The Plurality Of Religions And The Spirit Of Pluralism: A Participatory Vision Of The Future Of Religion, Jorge N. Ferrer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper first uncovers the subtle spiritual narcissism that has characterized historical approaches

to religious diversity and discusses the shortcomings of the main forms of religious pluralism that

have been proposed as its antidote: ecumenical, soteriological, postmodern, and metaphysical. It

then argues that a participatory pluralism paves the way for an appreciation of religious diversity that

eschews the dogmatism and competitiveness involved in privileging any particular tradition over the

rest without falling into cultural-linguistic or naturalistic reductionisms. Discussion includes the

question of the validity of spiritual truths and the development of a participatory critical theory of

religion. The essay concludes …

The Ghosts Of Our Mothers: From Oral Tradition To Written Words—A History And Critique Of Jewish Women Writers Of Iranian Heritage, Farideh Goldin

English Faculty Publications

Throughout the 2,000 years of Iranian Jewish history, women usually were either illiterate or silenced. Iranian Jewish women in exile have been making up for their foremothers by creating prose literature at a fast pace in the last two decades. Through their poetry, novels and memoirs, they validate the claim that with financial security, access to education, and freedom of speech—rarely accessible to Iranian women until the twentieth century—they can shine. This article explores the history and background of Jewish women writers of Iranian heritage.

Strategies And Themes Of Luke, Center For Catholic Studies, Seton Hall University

Center for Catholic Studies Faculty Seminars and Core Curriculum Seminars

No abstract provided.

Heidegger And Dewey: Science In A Post-Metaphysical World, Michael Allen Dusch

LSU Master's Theses

The aim of this paper is to compare and contrast the philosophies of Martin Heidegger and John Dewey regarding metaphysics and science. Concerning metaphysics, there are two main areas of attention, the historical emergence of metaphysics in the philosophical tradition, and the abandonment of the metaphysical notions of substance and subjectivity. After examining these two areas of both thinkers’ philosophies, we then turn to their philosophy of science, demonstrating how the scientific thought of both thinkers is inseparable from their metaphysical critiques. For Heidegger, modern science is merely a continuation of the metaphysics of the past, while for Dewey; science …

Using "Chaos" In Articulating The Relationship Of God And Creation In God's Creative Activity, Eric Michael Vail

Dissertations (1934 -)

Out of dialogue with Old Testament studies and the sciences, there has been a rise in recent years in the use of "chaos" language by theologians in their articulation of a theology of creation. There has been little uniformity in how the word is used among the fields, or even within some fields—especially by biblical scholars doing ancient Near East comparative studies. Under the umbrella of this popular terminology, some ideas have found refuge whose theological implications warrant evaluation.

Within this dissertation the range of ideas that fall under "chaos" within the physical sciences, Old Testament studies, and theology is …

Heidegger, Aletheia, And Assertions, Erin M. Kraus

LSU Master's Theses

This essay is interested in Heidegger’s radical reconception of truth as disclosure and how this reconception relates to truth as it operates in assertions. This concept of truth derives from his interpretation of the ancient Greek work for truth, aletheia, which means unhiddeness or disclosure. Heidegger appropriates this notion of truth to criticize post ancient Greek philosophy, which advocated the correspondence theory of truth. This theory contends that the locus of truth lies in an assertion’s correspondence with states of affairs or facts in the world. In contrast, Heidegger contends that, although correspondence is a way of accessing truth, it …

The Spontaneous Generation Of Excess And Its Capitalist Capture, Ryanson Alessandro Ku

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis evaluates the economic and Marxist claims on excess. As its official science, economics takes the capitalist economy as a given and explains excess as savings on costs resulting from the strategic planning of capitalist agents, whose point of view, in studying economic phenomena, economics takes. Marx, in a historicist move, argues that capitalism is but one political economy among many, where the facts assumed by economics, such as savings, are, far from given, attributable to a particular systemic formation (a political event) of social relations and materials into an economy. This systemic social formation that comes to be …

Gendered "Relations" In Haverhill, Massachusetts, 1719-1742, Douglas L. Winiarski

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The two autobiographical narratives- so similar in content, structure, and physical appearance-raise intriguing questions regarding the degree to which Puritan gender norms shaped the religious experiences of laymen and laywomen in early New England. Historians remain divided in their analyses of this issue. Two decades ago Charles Cohen posited a spiritual equality in Reformed theology that rendered "androgynous" the language that laymen and laywomen deployed in the oral church admission testimonies recorded by Cambridge, Massachusetts, minister Thomas Shepard during the seventeenth century. Elizabeth Reis recently challenged Cohen's argument by highlighting the "subtle but significant ways" in which women internalized Puritan …

Religion And Realism In Late Nineteenth-Century American Literature, Lisa Irene Moody

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

A critical approach to understanding the analytical power of realism and its representational claims in the late nineteenth-century is to examine the relationship between realism and a common cultural concern that opposes the very tenets of realism, one that necessarily pervaded all aspects of class, gender, nationality, race, sexual orientation, or other classifiable subsets of society typically linked with various schools of literary theory: the subject of religion. In fact, religion, with its disembodied immaterialism, surely the antithesis of realism, represents a unique cultural problem that tests the conceptual biases of the realist mode. One basic issue is that religion …

Rethinking Advaita: Who Is Eligible To Read Advaita Texts?, Anantanand Rambachan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

My most recent work, The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity, exemplifies two related movements. First, I join the growing stream of scholars who are making efforts to distinguish the interpretations of Sankara from later Advaita exegetes. The uncritical equation of Sankara's views with those of later exegetes needs to be challenged. Second, I contend that Advaita reflection and scholarship cannot limit itself to the clarification of Sankara's interpretations. These interpretations must also be critically evaluated in order for the tradition to be relevant and creative. It is problematic to assume that Sankara was immune from historical influences, cultural …

Book Review: "The Experience Of God: Icons Of The Mystery", Joseph Prabhu

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

A review of The Experience of God: Icons of the Mystery by Raimon Panikkar.

Concepts Of Freedom: Ethical, Epistemological, Ontological, Marijo Cook

LSU Master's Theses

Traditionally, the defense of freedom appeals to moral responsibility: if we are not free, then we have no moral responsibility, but we believe in responsibility, so we must acknowledge that we are free. In this thesis, I show some of the ways that this argument has been attacked, both by showing that we might not be morally responsible and by showing that we might be morally responsible without being free. Then I argue that the defense of freedom needs a broader scope in order to succeed. Arguments from Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason are used to show that we must …

Michael Martin And The Moral Argument For God's Existence, Robert Keith Loftin

LSU Master's Theses

Theism, that is, belief in the existence of God, has, over the last forty or so years, been making a quiet comeback. Whereas for several decades the “death of God” was heralded—culminating, perhaps, with Time magazine’s April 8, 1966, title: “Is God Dead?”—philosophers are once again vigorously debating the rationality of theistic belief. Emerging from amid this renaissance is an increasing number of publications treating the various so-called “theistic proofs” or arguments for God’s existence. These arguments are part of the project of natural theology, that is, the project of establishing the rationality of theistic belief apart from appeal to …

A Heideggerian Route Through Kuhnian Revolutions, Ashley Knox

LSU Master's Theses

Knox, Ashley Renee, B.S., Tulane University, 2006 Master of Arts, Summer Commencement, 2009 Major: Philosophy A Heideggerian Route through Kuhnian Revolutions Thesis directed by Professor Husain F. Sarkar Pages in thesis, 54. Words in abstract, 195. The aim of this thesis is to offer a defense of the philosophy derived from Thomas S. Kuhn’s seminal work, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I focus on the persistent criticisms that Kuhnian science entails relativism and forbids scientific progress. My unusual line of defense appeals to Martin Heidegger’s concept of truth as the Greek aletheia as explicated in his essay, “The Origin of …

Ficta As Mentalia: Surveying Theories Of Fiction In Search Of Plausible Ontology, Joseph John Dartez

LSU Master's Theses

In the philosophy of fiction, there is a major debate between those who hold realist theories (theories which incur the existence of entities independent of human cognition) and those who hold anti-realist theories (theories which incur the existence of no independent entities). With this debate in mind, the primary goal of this essay is to construct a mentalist theory of fictional entities and worlds. Besides the mentalism constructed herein, three other theories are outlined and held to the same explanatory standards as the focal theory: two augmentations of modal realism (Lewis’ concrete realism and van Inwagen’s abstract realism), and a …

Finding Confucianism In Scientology: A Comparative Analysis, John Albert Kieffer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scientology holds considerable interest for scholars of new religious movements. As such, this study aims to contribute new data and insight to ongoing theoretical work within this area of religious studies scholarship. Engaged in this inquiry are the similarities between Scientology, the new religious movement founded in 1951 by L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986), and the Chinese religion, Confucianism, which originates with the teachings of Confucius (551-479 BCE). Though Hubbard admits being influenced by eastern thinking such as Buddhism and Daoism in shaping his worldview, he specifically discounts Confucius as relevant in this regard. However, through comparisons between Scientology and Confucianism, …

Much "To-Do" About Nothing: Hale's Skeptical Relativism, And Basic Doxastic Perspectives, Mark Mcleod-Harrison

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

The Prophetic Imagination Of P. B. Shelley, Andrew O. Winckles

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

In his “Defence of Poetry,” Shelley claims, “Poets… were called in the earlier epochs of the world legislators or prophets.” As such, even a cursory glance at Shelley’s poetry and political beliefs reveals an interest in what is wrong with the world, how to fix it, and what will happen if no action is taken. However, current studies fail to fully assess what makes up the prophetic imagination. They confine discussions of Romantic prophecy to discussions of prophetic inspiration, futurity, and rhetoric – divorcing the work from its impetus for social change. The prophetic imagination, as utilized by Shelley, is …

Pentecostal Theology According To The Theologians: An Introduction To The Theological Methods Of Pentecostal Systematic Theologians, Christopher Adam Stephenson

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation is a twofold argument that 1) existing pentecostal systematic theology can be interpreted according to four analytical categories and that 2) future pentecostal theological method should incorporate a form of lex orandi, lex credendi for the benefit of pentecostal theology and spirituality.

I analyze the theological methods of major past and present pentecostal systematic theologians and demonstrate that they have followed four basic patterns. First, Myer Pearlman, E. S. Williams, and French L. Arrington take the material for their theologies almost exclusively from the Bible. Second, Steven J. Land and Simon K. H. Chan center their theologies on …

Beyond Stewardship: Toward An Agapeic Environmental Ethic, Christopher J. Vena

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation is a work in theological anthropology and environmental philosophy. It seeks to provide a conceptual framework for a Christian environmental ethic rooted in love.

The heart of the crisis of ecological degradation is found in human attitudes and behaviors. In the late 1960's it was suggested that Christianity was a key source of the problem because it promoted the idea of human "dominion" over creation. This spurred a variety of responses designed to show that Christian faith was compatible with environmental care. A key theme emerging from this debate was the image of humans as Stewards of God's …

Asimilación : A Study Of Costa Rican Newcomers In Their Search For A Church, And The Church's Response To Them, Osias Segura-Guzmán

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Richard J. Clifford, Ed. Wisdom Literature In Mesopotamia And Israel, Alan Lenzi

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

The article reviews the book "Wisdom Literature in Mesopotamia and Israel," edited by Richard J. Clifford.

Stephanie Dalley, Esther’S Revenge At Susa: From Sennacherib To Ahasuerus, Alan Lenzi

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, James Mohr, Joanie Eppinga, Steven Baum

Journal of Hate Studies

“I love mankind; it’s people I can’t stand.” This quotation from Charles Schultz’s Linus is brought to mind by the current volume of the Journal of Hate Studies. This year’s theme, “The Science of Hate,” has brought forth notions about how, under the auspices of some ideal that is sure to benefit humankind, science is used as a bottom line or a justification for horrendous behavior directed toward individuals or groups of individuals.

Singing The Word Of God: Five Hymns By President Frederick G. Williams, Frederick G. Williams

BYU Studies

Frederick G. Williams (1787–1842) was a member of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints under Joseph Smith and served as his personal scribe. His descendant of the same name now examines evidence proving that the Church leader, historian, doctor, editor, and Kirtland landowner also composed hymns. The article discusses the subject matter of Williams's hymns, including Joseph Smith's vision of Enoch, Zion, the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, and Williams's own experience with the gift of tongues.

Preaching To The Court House And Judging In The Temple, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Response To Rambachan's "The Advaita Worldview" And Thatamanil's "The Immanent Divine", Michelle Voss Roberts

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In light of postcolonial and feminist criticism, it has become good form for scholars to "locate themselves" with regard to their subject matter by laying out their values and presuppositions to the extent possible. Because supposedly "objective" or "neutral" scholarship often reflects hegemonic interests, this practice ideally brings self-awareness about the discourses we carry into the hermeneutical process. Postcolonial discourse since Edward Said's Orientalism (1978) instructs that if Western academics are to continue representing the so-called East, they must at least acknowledge the dominance of Western and Christian presuppositions in this scholarly tradition.

Torah, Tradition, And Trina: Analysis And Development Of Trina In William Finn's Falsettos From A Faith-Based Perspective, Margaret-Ellen Jeffreys

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

When an actor approaches a character, s/he examines many facets of the play-the setting, the time period, the politics surrounding both of the former. S/he also looks into elements of the character-any noted physical attributes in the text, his/her financial and social status, what s/he wants and what obstacles are standing in his/her way. Often the last thing that the actor studies is the character's spiritual and/or religious life. When I was cast as Trina in UCF's production of Falsettos in the winter of 2005, I knew I wanted to approach the character from an oft-neglected area: her faith. Judaism …

Papyrology On The Threshold Of A New Millennium, James G. Keenan

Classical Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Papyrologists have met internationally as a group since 1930. Following various complications, including a meeting planned for Vienna for 1939 but never held and, of course, the devastating intrusion of World War II, a custom of triennial meetings was established. Recent meetings have been larger than the early ones, with more participants, more papers, and correspondingly bigger proceedings (cf. BASP 39 [2002] 213-227 on the 1998 congress in Florence). At Vienna in 2001 there were 281 registered participants. The program featured nine specially invited keynote speeches, 126 standard-length papers, and three workshops (with fourteen workshop presenters in all).

Recent Publications

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.