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Between Borders And Belief: Perspectives Of Aid Workers On Religion In A Migrant Shelter In Mexico, Kendall O. Roy

Senior Theses

This thesis seeks to understand the significance of religion in the Central American migration context through the eyes of humanitarian aid workers. It is based on interviews that I conducted in May of 2024 with staff members at a migrant shelter in Mexico, analysis of prior scholarship, and building upon an understanding of relevant religious history in Latin America. I will delve into trends that the aid workers observed in areas such as religious practices and beliefs of migrants, shelter functions that addressed and nurtured spiritual well-being, and the influence of the Church as an institution on humanitarian aid work. …

Front Matter

Denison Journal of Religion

No abstract provided.

Applying The Present To The Past: The Experiences Of Five Civil Rights Rabbis In Context Of Contemporary Leadership Theory, Bradley G. Levenberg

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation examines the experiences of five civil rights-era rabbis (William Silverman, Randall Falk, Alfred Goodman, Irving Bloom, and Burton Padoll) to highlight their contributions, leadership approaches, struggles, and achievements with a particular emphasis on social justice. As each of the rabbis drew from their understanding of the richness of the Jewish textual canon, the study includes a survey of Biblical, Talmudic, and contemporary Jewish sources that laid the groundwork for their rabbinic activism and which compel rabbis today. The study dramatically highlights those texts as providing applicable strategies with regard to leading a congregation with a “prophetic” voice, knowing …

Written In Black, White, And Red: An Exploration Of Civilizer Theology In American History, Jeremy Mcginniss

Master's Theses

This paper proposes an extended definition and discusses examples of civilizer theology within the perceptions and practices of white Protestant American Christianity faith traditions. Civilizer theology is defined as a self-referential, self-fulfilling framework actively shaping the expectations, behaviors and practices of societal norms driving cultural practices. Examples are selected as guided by three significant and interdependent dispositions characterizing civilizer theology: cultural decay/moral decline, authority, and violence. This paper hypothesizes theological interpretation, application and exegesis, mediated by the three dispositions, are deliberately applied to support socio-economic, cultural and political ends with the goal of maintaining power structures benefiting a particular group.

When Politics Dominates Religion: A Theological Critique Of Televangelist Rod Parsley, Leigh Rogers

Denison Journal of Religion

This essay is a critique of the nationalism of the religious right, as it is personified by Rod Parsley, a televangelist based in Columbus, Ohio. Rogers claims that the election of George W. Bush, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, have created an atmosphere in the United States that has bound religion to a partisan, nationalistic agenda. Rogers, fearing the impact of this mindset, offers a theological critique of Parsley and others with similar agendas. Rogers' critique is threefold, beginning with Parsley's polarized view of good and evil. By accepting American imperialism as an absolute good, anything that stands …

A Jewish Voice In The Public Square, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

David Novak: Jewish Social Ethics. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xii, 252. $45.00.)

Jewish participation in American public life has been either genuinely or constructively de-Judaized. (Admittedly, many orthodox Jews - the Hasidim among them - have steered clear altogether of the public square.) "Genuinely" de-Judaized Jews are simply those like Frankfurter who have a thoroughly secular outlook. "Constructively" de-Judaized Jews include the orthodox, observant Pfeffer. For them religious conviction (and practice) are private matters, checked at the entrance to the "naked public square." Quite obviously, Jews had good reason, especially in 1947, to prefer a secular …

The Persistence Of Ethnicity In African American Popular Music: A Theology Of Rap Music, Angela M. S. Nelson

Explorations in Ethnic Studies

The racial oppression of black people in many ways has fueled and shaped black musical forms in America. One example is the blues which originated in the rural South among poor, nonliterate, agrarian African Americans.[1] In the North the music became more formalized, and singers such as Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Bessie Smith, Mamie Smith, Ida Cox, and Sarah Martin became known as the queens of the "classic blues." Another musical genre is jazz, which was largely based on the twelve-bar blues harmonic structure and phrasing. It was more "polished" than the earlier New Orleans jazz at the turn of the …