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"The Packed Reality Of Heaven": C.S. Lewis's Imaginative Re-Education Of The Modern Pilgrim, Monika B. Hilder

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

How to think of Heaven then, which Lewis says “is, by definition, outside our experience,” when the fact is that “all intelligible descriptions must be of things within our experience” is a question that Lewis took seriously, especially since the scriptural imagery “[a]t first sight . . . chill[ed], rather than awake[ned], [his] desire.” He asked how a “typical modern” like himself might interpret the heavenly concept of glory. The first idea of fame suggested to him hellish competition; the second idea of brightness suggested the “ridiculous” image of becoming “a kind of living electric light bulb.” Indeed, he contends …

"A Dreadful Thing": C.S. Lewis And The Experinces Of War, Timothy J. Demy

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

From a Christian perspective, war entails the death and killing of people who are all created in the image of God and therefore have inherent dignity and incalculable worth. And yet, even after experiencing war at firsthand, C. S. Lewis believed that war is sometimes justifiable and necessary.

Like others of his generation, Lewis was deeply affected by the experience of war. He lived through the First and Second World Wars, serving as an officer on the Western Front between November 1917 and April 1918. His brother Warren (“Warnie”) was a career officer serving in the British army in both …

Demythologizing Homer: Investigating Religion In Minoan Crete, Elizabeth Rybarczyk

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The Minoan civilization of Bronze-Age Crete has, until recently, been obscured in mythological uncertainty. As a prehistoric civilization, the available evidence for historic analysis is sparse and ambiguous. This paper evaluates the material evidence for ritual activity to chart the religious developments of Minoan Crete. In the earliest periods of their civilization, the Minoans practiced animism, which reflected their ideals towards survival and cooperation. As their prosperity grew due to technological advancements, a social hierarchy formed. The emerging elite employed religion to justify their claim to power by appropriating religion, which culminated in a dual-monotheistic Knossian theocracy. This lasted until …

Caron's Japan: Tokugawa State And Society Through A European Lens, Cegan Hinson

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Dutch East India Company (VOC) merchant François Caron describes Tokugawa Japan as a rigid political hierarchy controlled by the Shogun, similar to the governments established by absolute monarchs in Europe. Caron understands and insightfully describes Tokugawa society by emphasizing perceived and real similarities between Tokugawa Japan and Early Modern Europe. He struggles to understand religious differences between these societies, but his description of Japanese religious practices still reflects how the Shogunate utilized Buddhism and anti-Christian policies to uphold their rule. Caron also depicts Tokugawa Japan as a land of plentiful resources prime for lucrative trade. He includes the writings of …

The Contribution Of Domestic And International Conflict In Renaissance Italy To The Sport Of Fencing, Amelia E. Nason

Young Historians Conference

Fencing, the art or practice of attack and defense with the foil, épée, or saber, has progressed over hundreds of years from the warfare of Germanic tribes to a regulated Olympic sport. This paper investigates the development of fencing during the fifteenth and sixteenth century Italian Renaissance and outlines a variety of ways that fencing culture mirrored Italy’s at the time, demonstrating that Italian fencing was a product of both international and domestic conflict beyond the sport itself. The competitive cultural influence of aesthetic epicenters such as the Florentine Republic over other European countries—particularly France, Spain, and Italy—was paralleled by …

33rd Annual Young Historians Conference Program, Portland State University History Department, Portland State University Challenge Program

Young Historians Conference

This is the 2023 Young Historians Conference schedule and abstracts.

The Rise In Anti-Asian Racism And Xenophobia In The Time Of Covid-19, Mitchell Alan Kaplan

Journal of Hate Studies

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a detrimental impact on the health of the American people and those abroad, the social consequences stemming from the spread of the virus have become an international crisis whose effects reach far beyond the medical issues associated with the disease. Racial and xenophobic propaganda about the illness promoted on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter and at campaign rallies by former President Trump has spurred a dramatic increase in anti-immigrant sentiments toward Asian Americans. The polarizing effects of the Administration’s anti-Asian rhetoric have become a battle cry that has given renewed …

Nuclear Threat As Race Hatred, John Streamas

Journal of Hate Studies

Nuclear weapons, since their advent in the 1940s, have been regarded as so massively destructive and lethal that few have questioned whether particular groups might be targeted. Deaths across their geographical sweep seem to be total and indiscriminate. I argue, however, that it is no accident or coincidence that the Bomb was first used on a non-White nation; people of color in the United States such as Langston Hughes believed it would never be used against a White enemy. On the other hand, even if it is a race weapon, it is also still a species weapon, so that even …

Mirroring Jesus’S Prayerful Approach To Interactions With Dissatisfied Followers Through The Lens Of The Modern Worship Pastor, Bryant Timothy William West

Masters Theses

This study shows the life and mission of Jesus through His interactions with conflict and will show how worship pastors can apply these lessons to the church. Detailing Jesus's prayer life and His approach to interacting with others, examining the approach worship leaders should have when interacting with similar people. The report will concentrate on three areas of study, including Jesus's prayer life, his ministry, and how the worship pastor can create a church that parallels Christ. Jesus' ministry and discussions with the Pharisees show worship pastors how they should approach church members. This discussion is due to the struggles …

From Mascot To Marine: The Long Walk To The American Military Dog Program, Elisabeth Jana Phillips

Masters Theses

In World War II, the military dog became synonymous with patriotism and the fight for a free world. In the absence of a military dog program at the beginning of World War II, the United States was the exception amongst Western powers. The establishment of an official military dog program in the United States during World War II was a critical and inevitable step in the development of the country’s military. Through the creative collaboration of civilians and military personnel, the K9 Corps and Dogs for Defense organization produced trained military dogs that had immediate positive impacts on the battlefield …

Heilbronn Im Jahr 1945: Warum Hier, Alexander Keuerleber

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Die Stadt Heilbronn, im Südwesten Deutschlands, war und ist ein wichtiger Kreuzungspunkt im südlichen deutschen Raum. Dort kreuzen sich wichtige Handelswege: per Schiff, per Auto, per Zug und zu Fuß. Infolge der Handelswege wurde Heilbronn schnell eine einflussreiche Stadt und Drehpunkt im Land. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg führte das zu Konflikt und Bombardierungen. Wie viele andere deutsche Großstädte kam es 1944 in Heilbronn zu verheerenden Bombenangriffen und dann im April 1945 zu einem neuntägigen Kampf. Dieser Kampf war wichtig, weil er einer der brutalsten Kämpfe der Amerikaner in Deutschland war, und weil es auch der allerletzte große Kampfeinsatz für amerikanische Truppen …

Apartheid’S Leviathan : Electricity And The Power Of Technological Ambivalence, Faeeza Ballim

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

A fascinating study that shows how the intersection of technology and politics has shaped South African history since the 1960s.

This book details the development of an interconnected technological system of a coal mine and of the Matimba and Medupi power stations in the Waterberg, a rural region of South Africa near the country’s border with Botswana. South Africa’s state steel manufacturing corporation, Iscor, which has since been privatized, developed a coal mine in the region in the 1970s. This set the stage for the national electricity provider, Eskom, to build coal-fueled power stations in the Waterberg.

Faeeza Ballim follows …

Review Of The Reading Life: The Joy Of Seeing New Worlds Through Others’ Eyes, Corey Latta

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Corey Latta: Review of C. S. Lewis, The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others’ Eyes, ed. by David Downing and Michael Maudlin (Harper Collins: New York, NY: 2019). 171 pages. $14.79. ISBN 9780062849977.

Review Of From Spare Oom To War Drobe: Travels In Narnia With My Nine-Year-Old Self, Sarah R. A. Waters

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Sarah Waters: Review of Katherine Langrish, From Spare Oom to War Drobe: Travels in Narnia with my Nine-Year-Old Self (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2021). 286 pages. $26.00. ISBN 9781913657079.

The Artist's Arsenal: Hiv+ Women Artists, The ‘War On Aids’, And Reclaiming Illness Narratives, Mekha Varghese

Art and Art History Honors Papers

This work uses the methodologies of both art history and medical sociology through the ‘syndemic’ framework to engage in close readings of two selected artworks, Exit (1997) by Nancer LeMoins and Violation of Africa (1984) by Affrekka Jefferson. An interdisciplinary approach to these works enables consideration of how multiple marginalized identities—i.e., living with a stigmatized illness, being a woman, being LGBTQIA+, being a person of color—appear in visual art and shape illness experience; these ideas are investigated through a formal and iconographic reading of the selected artworks. Placing art as the foundation of this analysis reveals its astounding impact and …

The Sin Of War, Devon L. Harrison

The Agora

The main question of the short story is who is Ares? It's well known he is the war god of ancient Greek mythos and individuals interested in Greek Mythology could tell you he is one of several war gods, who specifically embodies the brutality of war. I bother to explore this question as Ares doesn't make much of an appearance in mythology and when he does it's in a rather demeaning light. Ares is one of the only Olympians who is, typically, disliked existing as a necessary evil rather than a god. He is appreciated in certain circles with the …

The Colours Of Rethoryk: The Medieval World’S Influence On Red And White Color Symbolism In Geoffrey Chaucer’S The Canterbury Tales, Frederick W. Smallshaw

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Chaucer’s use of visual imagery and symbolism in The Canterbury Tales. From a literary approach, scholars point to Chaucer’s diverse and extensive descriptions of visuals in poetry as a primary rhetorical avenue, where he applies commentary to instances where a physical image (known in this case as a symbol) is most appropriate to elicit a desired emotion or convey a certain idea concerning moralit

Review Essay: C. S. Lewis On The Final Frontier: Science And The Supernatural In The Space Trilogy, Sørina Higgins

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Sanford Schwartz, C. S. Lewis on the Final Frontier: Science and the Supernatural in the Space Trilogy (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009). 256 pages. $27.95. ISBN: 9780195374728.

From Vocal Agnostic To Reluctant Convert: C.S. Lewis And C.E.M. Joad, Joel Heck

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

After a brief consideration of Joad’s life and career this essay will examine the events that led to his return to the Christian faith, and the extent of Lewis’ influence on it. As we will see, Joad and Lewis’ interest in philosophy and the world of ideas, their reading of one another’s work and the mutual respect that emerged out of that effort, their published debate over the issue of theodicy in 1941, their lively debate over the merits of Christianity at the Socratic Club in 1944, and their exchange over the troubling issue of animal pain in 1950, comprise …

A Fake Future: The Threat Of Foreign Disinformation On The U.S. And Its Allies, Brandon M. Rubsamen

Global Tides

This paper attempts to explain the threat that foreign disinformation poses for the United States Intelligence Community and its allies. The paper examines Russian disinformation from both a historical and contemporary context and how its effect on Western democracies may only be exacerbated in light of Chinese involvement and evolving technologies. Fortunately, the paper also studies practices and strategies that the United States Intelligence Community and its allied foreign counterparts may use to respond. It is hoped that this study will help shed further light on Russian and Chinese disinformation campaigns and explain how the Intelligence Community can efficiently react.

The Dialectics Of Rock Music And Neoliberalism, Derek Block

Honors Theses

It has been argued that Rock music is one of the Modern West’s most important artistic achievements. It was, in some way, shape, or form, the most popular genre of music in the Western hemisphere for the last 60 years. The depth and relevancy of the genre still resonate through almost every level of society; a Bruce Springsteen song played at a political rally, a Beatles tune scoring a movie characters existential contemplation, the same six songs played at sporting events, and the list goes on. Rock music can be as personal as a stranger strumming a guitar in a …

The Abc Of Christian Missionary Work, Luke Walsh, Amelia Thomas, Annalisa Stoll, Briana Slaubaugh, John Chevere, Natasha Leininger, Paul Jang

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

Torn Between The Creeds Of The Devil: The German-Finnish Co-Belligerency In World War Ii, Stephanie Wright

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

The Atomic Bomb: A Violent Means Of Peacemaking, Eric Cashion

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

The Sound Of The Civil War: Examining The Intersection Between Music And Emotion In America, 1861-1865, Christina Cannon

Campus Research Month

The topics of the history of music and the history of music intersect in the Civil War in fascinating ways. Both religious music and “secular” music were seen to have great power over their listeners, potentially with the power to alter the directions of lives or their salvation status. Music was used both as a mode of rebellion against the antagonizing army and ideal and a rebellion against unnecessarily violent acts. Each side used it against the other, but a select few also used it against the war itself. Soldiers marched to music, set camp to music, and fought to …

Dorothy Wordsworth, Religion, And The Rydal Journals, Emily Stephens Kasper

Theses and Dissertations

Dorothy Wordsworth’s religious practices continued to evolve throughout her life. She was baptized Anglican, but after her mother’s death she resided with her mother’s cousin, where she practiced Unitarianism. When she later moved in with her uncle, she embraced evangelical Anglicanism. Records of her religious beliefs in her twenties are scarce, as after moving to Racedown with her brother William in 1795 and throughout her years living in Alfoxden, she rarely wrote of her involvement with organized religion. Only in the 1810s while at Grasmere did Dorothy Wordsworth begin to record a gradual return to church attendance. Concerning her religious …

Review Essay: Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis Can Train Us To Wrestle With The Modern And Postmodern World, William Gentrup

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A lengthy review of Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle with the Modern and Postmodern World. By Louis Markos. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.

ISBN 0-8054-2778-3. Pp. xv + 174. $19.99 [paper].

Cautividad: Deconstructing Notions Of Race And Nation In Argentina 1776–1840, Whitney Rue Wagner

Latin American Studies ETDs

This project is an exploration of the construction and contestation of whiteness in Argentina through the lens of women’s captivity in the middle period. This research explores how representations of captive women were used to construct a national identity via gender, race, and ethnicity, exploring some of the foundational work that would lead to the myth of Argentina as a white nation. By focusing on the various roles these captive women played and centering the complex liminal spaces they negotiated this work seeks to challenge elite historical representations of captive women by highlighting their nuanced socio-political role amongst Indigenous, specifically …

Introduction To Theme 4: Scientific Essentials And Sustainable Environments, Alison R. Holmes

csuglobaljournal

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.