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Planted: Belief And Belonging In An Age Of Doubt, Patrick Q. Mason

Maxwell Institute Publications

For all its beneficial advances, our secular age has also weakened some people’s ties to religious belief and affiliation. Latter-day Saints have not been immune to this trend. In recent years, many faithful Church members have encountered challenging aspects of Church history, belief, or practice. Feeling isolated, alienated, or misled, some struggle to stay. Some simply leave. Many search for a reliable and faithful place to work through their questions.

You can find such a place in Patrick Q. Mason’s Planted: Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt. This book gives people who struggle with questions—and people who …

Hindu Center Of Virginia, Janel Boyles De Rondon

RELS 108 Human Spirituality: Student Perspectives

Student perspectives on worship services from Instructor Jennifer Garvin-Sanchez's Religious Studies 108 Human Spirituality course at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Cathedral Of The Sacred Heart, Emilie Urquidi

RELS 108 Human Spirituality: Student Perspectives

Student perspectives on worship services from Instructor Jennifer Garvin-Sanchez's Religious Studies 108 Human Spirituality course at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Transpersonal Psychology And An Agnostic Experiential Exploration Of Mediumship And The Ostensible Phenomenon Of Life After Death, Elliot Benjamin

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper presents results of an autoethnographic personal experiential research study of mediumship and the ostensible phenomenon of life after death. The researcher’s experiences center on his attempt to make contact with his deceased brother, as part of a doctoral research project. The researcher concludes with a skeptical interpretation of the phenomenon of medium-facilitated communications regarding the deceased; he suggests these are likely to involve cold reading, sensory cues, coincidence, and subjective validation rather than constituting genuine evidence of life after death. The researcher’s conclusions leave room for the possibility of a paranormal interpretation, though this is not favored.

The Art Of Observation And Experience, Andrée Salom

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Mindfulness practices aim to develop intentional awareness of the present moment. This paper touches on two of the difficulties that may arise in the course of such practice. On the one hand, the present moment may be overwhelming if there is an over-identification with the content that the practices uncover. On the other hand, the present moment may seem excessively foreign if there is an over-identification with the witnessing of such content. Art can prevent an over-identification on both poles of this equation by acting as a container for content, a source of somatic discharge, and a facilitator for observing …

The Mariner’S Way Of Individuation: An Insight Into The Jungian Principle Of Acausality, Parisa Shams, Farideh Pourgiv

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

As a Romantic poet who was especially interested in the workings of the mind, Coleridge, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, has dealt with notions, ideas, and images that lend themselves to a Jungian reading, specifically from the perspective of the principle of synchronicity which is to be the focus of this analysis. The theory of synchronicity, being the principle explaining the concurrence of psychic states and external events which bear no causal relationship, could be employed to bring up a novel interpretation of the poem. The causally unrelated but meaningful succession of events in the course of the …

The Lost Dialogue Of Artists: Negotiating The Conjuring Of Art, Diane L. Meyer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This article examines the nature of the duologue between artist and creative source, as a lost interplay and negotiation within the gestation of the work in a uniquely individual language that can never be fully revealed, translated, or understood by a viewer. The author, an elder, late career studio artist, draws comparisons to sacred language and interpretation positing that the conversations and relationships that form between artist and art are very different from those between works of art and humanity and have never been appropriately examined from an insider perspective. She offers reflections and writings of master artists as an …

The Use Of Technology To Enhance Individualized Learning In Postsecondary Educational Students With Multiple Intelligences In An Anatomy And Physiology Classroom, Kimberly Carpenter Stanley

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This purpose of this dissertation was to determine whether or not the use of computer enhanced supplemental material in a postsecondary anatomy and physiology classroom would be perceived to positively affect students’ opinions regarding their acquisition of classroom instruction. There were a total of 15 students who participated in this qualitative case study. They participated in a Multiple Intelligences Classification Survey upon the beginning of class and took part in a lecture on the cardiovascular system from an educator employed with the institution where the study took place. Students then viewed a supplemental video provided by the researcher which contained …

Mystical Poetry And Imagination: Inspiring Transpersonal Awareness Of Spiritual Freedom, Dorit Netzer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The author describes the philosophical and empirical aspects of an intuitive inquiry that explored 24 individuals’ (ages 30-80) mental images and creative expression in response to selected mystical poetry through a three-step procedure named Imaginal Resonance. Participants’ imaginal encounters with the poems inspired transpersonal awareness of spiritual freedom—a participatory, co-creative experience of self-awareness beyond personal concerns. Intuitive examination of the data and a hermeneutic analysis uncovered participants’ symbolic expressions of qualities such as awakening, personal development, introversion, expansion, connection, and liberation. Imaginal resonance facilitated a temporary glimpse of spiritual freedom, which was soon hindered by reasoning, questioning, commentary, comparison, anticipation, …

Ua3/2/1 President's Office-Garrett Correspondence/Subject File, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

General correspondence and subject files regarding Western Kentucky University.

Speculative Grace: Bruno Latour And Object-Oriented Theology, Brent J. Schmidt

BYU Studies

Adam S. Miller. Speculative Grace: Bruno Latour and Object-Oriented Theology.

Perspectives in Continental Philosophy Series.

New York: Fordham University Press, 2013.

Full Issue

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Integration Of Temples And Families: A Latter-Day Saint Structure Or The Jacob Cycle, Jamie J. Huston

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Scholars from many religious backgrounds — including Latter-day Saints--have noted both temple themes and parallel structures in the Jacob Cycle (Genesis 28–35). T he present paper surveys that body of work and then offers a new structural understanding of the text, one that is uniquely LDS. This interpretation focuses on the entwining of temple and family themes in the narrative, showing how the form of the text uses each to support the other

Christmas Is About A Baby, Orson Scott Card

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

When I was a child, I completely understood all the Santa Claus stuff. No great moment of disillusionment, because my parents were wise enough to let us help create the illusion for the younger kids as soon as we were old enough.

Sustaining The Brethren, Duane Boyce

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Believing Latter-day Saints hold different views about what it means to sustain the presiding Brethren of the Church. In this article, I outline some considerations that might be kept in mind as members of the Church evaluate their views on this vital topic and the Lord’s admonition to sustain the Brethren by their faith, prayers, and actions.

The Implications Of Past-Tense Syntax In The Book Of Mormon, Stanford Carmack

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In the middle of the 16th century there was a short-lived surge in the use of the auxiliary did to express the affirmative past tense in English, as in Moroni «did arrive» with his army to the land of Bountiful (Alma 52:18). The 1829 Book of Mormon contains nearly 2,000 instances of this particular syntax, using it 27% of the time in past-tense contexts. The 1611 King James Bible — which borrowed heavily from Tyndale’s biblical translations of the 1520s and ’30s — employs this syntax less than 2% of the time. While the Book of Mormon’s rate is significantly …

Lehi The Smelter: New Light On Lehi’S Profession, Neal Rappleye

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

A strong case has been made by John A. Tvedtnes and Jeffrey R. Chadwick that Lehi was a metalworker by profession.1 Although the text gives several indications of Nephi’s (and by implications, Lehi’s) familiarity with the craft of working metals, prominent Book of Mormon scholar John L. Sorenson nonetheless disagreed with this assessment on the grounds that, “it would be highly unlikely that a man who had inherited land and was considered very wealthy (1 Nephi 3:25) would have been a metalworker, for the men in that role tended to be of lower social status and were usually landless.”2 More …

Psalm 82 In Contemporary Latter-Day Saint Tradition, Daniel O. Mcclellan

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The nature and function of Psalm 82 has long been a subject of debate within biblical scholarship.1 The text is rather brief and has no real significant textual instabilities,2 but it stands out within the Hebrew Bible as a text particularly steeped in mythological imagery. Precritical exegetes understood the gods of the narrative to be human judges, but subsequent textual discoveries and concomitant lexicographical advances, combined with more critical methodologies, have largely undermined that reading.3 A divine assembly setting has become widely accepted since the middle of the twentieth century,4 and more contemporary scholarship focuses on the psalm’s possible distinction …

Freemasonry And The Origins Of Modern Temple Ordinances, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Joseph Smith taught that the origins of modern temple ordinances go back beyond the foundation of the world.1 Even for believers, the claim that rites known anciently have been restored through revelation raises complex questions because we know that revelation almost never occurs in a vacuum. Rather, it comes most often through reflection on the impressions of immediate experience, confirmed and elaborated through subsequent study and prayer.2 Because Joseph Smith became a Mason not long before he began to introduce others to the Nauvoo endowment, some suppose that Masonry must have been the starting point for his inspiration on temple …

On The Highway, Ella N. Wood

Books

No abstract provided.

Sacred Violence: When Ancient Egyptian Punishment Was Dressed In Ritual Trappings, Kerry Muhlestein

Faculty Publications

Despite gaping holes in our knowledge of ancient Egyptian laws and punishments, the sheer amount of data available for that long-lasting culture dictates that we limit our study of punishments both topically and temporally. This article will investigate the topic of ritual-associated killing from the Old Kingdom through the Libyan era. Earlier phases of Egyptian history yield evidence of ritual killing, such as the retainer burials associated with Early Dynastic kings or the labels of Aha and Djer (fig. 1), that seem to depict ritual slaughter. Whatever the nature of these seeming programs of ritual slaying, we cannot trace a …

The Dangers Of "Vocation" For Students Thinking About Career, Carl S. Hughes

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Leading From Within: Peer-Learning Consultations To Explore Our Callings And Campus Capacities For Leadership, Chris Johnson

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Review Of Silver Screen Buddha: Buddhism In Asian And Western Film, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

For anyone interested in the growing study of Buddhism and film, I recommend Sharon A. Suh’s Silver Screen Buddha: Buddhism in Asian and Western Film. This is the third study in English related to this topic, all three of which have been published within the last year and a half. This attention corresponds to an increase in Buddhist film festivals, a rise in internet discussions and postings on the subject, and an expansion of university class offerings that deal with it. It has been said that 1998 marked the peak year for Hollywood releases with overt Buddhist themes, including Kundan …

Buddhism, Uncertainty And Modernity In A Hometown In Heart, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

A Hometown in Heart (Maeumui gohyang, 1949), written by Ham Sedeok (1915-1950) and directed by Yun Yonggyu (b.1913), is said to be the first Korean Buddhist film. It depicts Buddhism in a remote mountain region without even electricity. The main character of the film, an orphaned child monk, must decide what to do with his life. This paper argues that the central aspect of the Buddhism-related symbols represent Korean tradition and that the supporting characters represent socio-political forces in post-liberation Korean society just after liberation, pulling the young generation of Koreans in various directions. In particular, the film centers on …

KūKai's Epitaph For Master Huiguo: An Introduction And Translation, Ronald S. Green, Chanju Mun

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

Moving Past: Making Space For Memory After The Boston Marathon Bombing, Austin Thomas Jacobs

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, visitors from across the US and the world descended on Boston to pay their respects to the three people who were killed and the more than 260 who were injured at the race's finish line. The public commemorated the tragedy in multiple and diffuse spaces, both physical and virtual. In recognition of this fact, I use the changing location of the spontaneous shrine as an organizing structure for this study, analyzing the memorialization in three "movements,” each of which corresponds to a physical relocation of the shrine itself in the weeks …

Altrusim, Fact Or Fiction?: An Exploration Of Altruism And Egoism In The Context Of Religion And Service Learning, Sarah Pawlicki

A with Honors Projects

This research paper questions the existence of true altruism, by discussing social psychological, philosophical, and theological theories regarding altruism and egoism. The author then discusses her findings in the context of two service learning projects which involved volunteering at the Champaign County Humane Society and Salt and Light, A Christian ministry that provides job counseling, computer access, a thrift and food store. She concludes that, rather than questioning the existence of true altruism exists, the focus should be on doing good for others, regardless of motives.

Monotheism, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

James McGrath's contribution to the forthcoming edition, Vocabulary for the Study of Religion.

Discovering The Work Of Baptist General Conference Mission In Ethiopia: The Essence Of Mission That Lasted For Six Decades, Kebede Gonfa

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The researcher has explored six decades of mission work and leadership development by the Baptist General Conference (BGC) in Ethiopia. The main purpose of this project is to summarize the work of the mission in Ethiopia and its relationship to the national church with comments from local pastors and missionaries in regard to the conclusion of the work of the missionaries and the turnover to the local church, so that the current and coming generations may benefit from the strengths and weaknesses of the BGC Ethiopia ministry. The evaluations by missionaries and local leaders provides a balance of perspectives on …