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The Witch, Paul O'Connor

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Brandon Grafius, The Witch (Devil’s Advocates) (Liverpool, UK: Auteur Publishing in partnership with Liverpool University Press, 2020).

The Rhetoric Of Spirituality, Gender, And The Environment In The Wicker Man (1973) And Midsommar (2019), Emma Frances Bloomfield

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The Wicker Man (1973) and Midsommar (2019) are horror films that address dominant ideologies including the patriarchy, anthropocentrism, and Christianity. Both films have a nature-connected cult that sacrifices for the community and performs rituals informed by pagan eco-spirituality. I perform an ecofeminist rhetorical criticism to analyze how, despite these shared themes, spiritual, gender, and environmental messages differ between the two films. In The Wicker Man, the audience is invited to sympathize with Neil’s character, his Christianity, and his individualistic masculinity as he is sacrificed in the cult’s harvest ritual. Alternatively, the main character in Midsommar, Dani, gets revenge …

Are Christians More Likely To Invoke Rfra—And Win—Than Other Religions Since Hobby Lobby, Stephen Cranney

Mercer Law Review

Religious freedom has become a flashpoint in the culture wars, and religious freedom rhetoric is often framed differently by different political sides. Political conservatives are typically perceived as emphasizing Judeo-Christian institutions; progressives are typically perceived as emphasizing minority faiths such as Islamic and Native American religious practices. This framing, in turn, affects perceptions of religious freedom legislation.

Arguably, the most significant piece of religious freedom legislation in recent history is the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal law that heightens the legal standard required for the federal government to interfere with the free exercise of religion. This fight over …

Purging The New Age: A Theological Analysis Of The Use Of New Age Practices By The Church, Christopher Michael Berg

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation sets out to demonstrate that Yoga and the Enneagram are not compatible with orthodox Christianity. Additionally, this dissertation will show that all possible attempts at Christianizing these practices ultimately fail due to incompatible underlying philosophies and theologies. In order to accomplish this task, assessment criteria will be developed through a comparison of a subset of evangelical Christian theological topics with their New Age counterparts. These criteria will be used to assess the level of syncretization in each practice as presented by the most popular and prolific Christian practitioners. After assessment, a recommendation will be given concerning each practice’s …

Forms And Roots Of Contemporary Religiosity In Estonia, Kaido Soom, Tõnu Lehtsaar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The Republic of Estonia is a country on the east coast of the Baltic Sea. It borders Russia and Latvia on land and Latvia, Sweden, Finland and Russia on sea. As of 31 Dec 2011, Estonia had a permanent population of 1,294,455 (data from the Population and Housing Census). Estonia is a member of the European Union (2004) and of the Eurozone (2011).

Estonia has often been exemplified as a secularized nation having little regard for religion. Even so, religion is an important topic of conversation in Estonian society. For instance, Ave Tampere asked, in an article in one of …

Life Under Ban: Jehovah's Witnesses In Russia Since 2017, Emily B. Baran

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Since 2017, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been barred from legal practice of their faith in Russia. This marks the first criminalization of a major religious faith in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. For Witnesses, it has been a disturbing return to life under ban, a reality they experienced for decades under Soviet rule. Moreover, all indications suggest that this situation is unlikely to improve in the short term. Russian officials have shown consistent willingness to enforce a broad interpretation of the ban, including through the arrest and imprisonment of individual Witnesses. This article offers an overview of recent …

February 3, 2021, Faculty, Illinois Wesleyan University

2020-2021

No abstract provided.

Religious Epidemics On The Territory Of Ukraine: Historical Parallels And Essential Characteristics, Olena Predko, Denis Predko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article deals with two religious epidemics that unfolded in Ukraine in a span of one hundred years. The study analyzes the factors influencing the emergence and development of religious epidemics. On this basis, their peculiar algorithm has been singled out, the components of which are, on the one hand, the worldview and crisis of values caused by the rapid turns of history, and—on the other—-choosiness by God, charisma of the leader of a particular organization, which is “fed” by an eschatological idea, syncretic teachings, which are cultivated as an alternative religious model to established traditions. The definition of a …

State Secrecy: A Literature Review, Stephane Lefebvre

Secrecy and Society

What is secrecy? What is a state secret? Which state secrets deserve protection from disclosures? How are state secrets protected from disclosure? In this review, I use these questions as an organizing framework to review the richness of a very disparate, largely US-centric, but also multidisciplinary literature. In doing so, I highlight the social nature of secrecy - that it is a social construct with social effects and consequences - and the need for further research to unveil those rationalities that specific discourses on state secrecy put forward to legitimize the nondisclosure of state secrets.

Shopping For Salvation: A Comparative Appraisal Of The Place Of Worship And Marketplace In South Africa, Rufus Olufemi Adebayo

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Recently South Africa has been experiencing accelerated challenges on a spiritual level relating to ‘place of worship’ and spiritual pilgrimage. This has been one of the biggest challenges facing religious activities in South Africa. Arising from that, this paper examines possible connections between salvation seekers and consumers (in the marketplace). To this end, this paper seeks to understand the assertion of ‘distance to travel not being a limitation in the spiritual realm’ (Adeboye, 2014), where some Christians claim that at a certain place there is a blessing waiting for them and that they cannot find that blessing at any other …

Overseas Filipino Workers And Catholic Charismatic Communities: Partners In Evangelization, Rosalyn S. Oñate

Loyola Papers

The article reflects on the phenomenon of migration, particularly in the case of Overseas Filipino Workers or OFWs, especially in places where traditional church structures like parishes are unable to operate. It calls attention to a very promising intersection between the challenges experienced by OFWs and their potential as evangelizers, with the challenges and potentials of Filipino Catholic Charismatic Communities. The paper proposes a “partnership” between the two as a means of revitalizing and even purifying the way these two entities live out their faith.

Full Issue

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Review: Etga Ugur. Faith And Politics In The Public Sphere: The Gülen Movement And The Mormon Church. Syracuse, Ny: Syracuse University Press, 2019., Jean-François Mayer

Mormon Studies Review

When I accepted the invitation to review this book, published in a valuable series on Religion and Politics of which I had enjoyed reading several volumes, I assumed that it was a study of interactions between the Gülen movement (also known as Hizmet [service], emphasizing the social service projects for which the movement is well known) and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—something that I found intriguing, since I could not conceive how such a topic might deserve a full volume. I realized my mistake as soon as I started to read it. No sensational revelations about hidden …

Review: Kim Östman. Mormonit: Historia, Oppi Ja Elämä. Helsinki: Gaudeamus, 2019., Titus Hjelm

Mormon Studies Review

Growing up in Finland in the 1980s, it was practically impossible to hear someone speak Finnish with an accent. In a time when immigrants were more or less nonexistent, it would have been difficult to imagine why anyone would bother learning the language spoken by five million people at the northern periphery of Europe. That is, apart from a handful of immaculately dressed and groomed American men. Although never as ubiquitous as Jehovah’s Witnesses knocking on doors, the Mormon missionaries and their perfect, if accented, Finnish left a deep impression on one young person, who later became a sociologist of …

Conceptualizing The Cult Classification: The Structural Impacts Of Mainstream Anti-Cult Ideology, Caitlyn Patel

Honors Program Theses

Over the past few decades, scholars have discarded the term of ‘cult’ when labeling alternative and emergent religious groups, due to the pejorative connotations associated with the term, instead opting for the classification of ‘New Religious Movement.’ Despite this shift in scholarly terminology, mainstream American society continues to identify unconventional religious groups as cults, evidencing the existence of mainstream anti-cult ideology, and brackets these groups away from the religious realm. This paper explores why this process of delineation occurs, how it affects the perception and portrayal of cults and cult-like groups, and the consequences of anti-cult ideology in the institutional …

The Prophet Q: Qanon’S Utilization Of Christian Apocalypticism In The Formation Of A New Religious Movement, Jake Pavao

Theses & ETDs

No abstract provided.

Phil 337-452: World Religions, Charles Brooks

Humanities Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Phil 337-454: World Religions, Charles Brooks

Humanities Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Ministerial Exception: The Involuntary Servitude Loophole, Juliana Moraes Liu

First Amendment Law Review

No abstract provided.

Influences Of Public Opinion Concerning Abortion, Enya A. Brackins

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This Honors Undergraduate Thesis seeks to examine the influences of public opinion on abortion policy. Race, Partisanship, and Gender are identified as driving forces which influences the public's opinion. As social and racial movements continue to progress so does the influence that it has on policy makers.

Sleight Of Hand: Soviet Anti-Religious Practices Continued In A Post-Communist Russia, Kirk Andrew Suchowesky

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

No abstract provided.

World Enough, Tracy Fessenden

Mormon Studies Review

I value reviews that help me decide whether a book is likely to light up the classroom, so I will say it straightaway: Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon will. Classroom friendliness in the humanities feels especially pressing now, as the larger share of our students set foot in our fields to fulfill distribution requirements on their way to degrees in business or STEM. If your class in American literature or history or religious studies is the one experience of your discipline that students who take it are likely to seek, a semester’s offering built around this book will …

Faith In Strasbourg And Luxembourg? The Fresh Rise Of Religious Freedom Litigation In The Pan-European Courts, John Witte Jr., Andrea Pin

Emory Law Journal

The religious landscape of Europe has changed dramatically in the past two generations. Traditional Christian establishments have been challenged by the growth of religious pluralism and strong new movements of laïcité and secularism. Once powerful religious cultures have been shattered by exposures of clerical abuses and financial self-dealing, leading to emptier pews and waning political influence. Once quiet, homogenous European communities are now home to large groups of new Muslim emigrants, making new demands and sparking strong anti-immigrant movements. Once strictly controlled national borders have opened across Eastern and Western Europe, leading to massive migration and tense local intermixtures of …

Attitudes Toward The Electability Of Atheist And Nontraditional Religious Candidates, Brittany Escobedo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Atheists are underrepresented in political office compared to their numbers in the general population. In the United States, anti-atheist prejudice is prevalent, likely contributing to the disparity in atheist representation. Informed by social identity theory and the sociofunctional approach to prejudice, the purpose of this study was to examine the comparative electability of atheists compared to other minority religious identities, as well as one nonminority option for a baseline reference of attitudes. Using the voter likelihood scale and three 7-point semantic differential scales, 579 participants rated their intention to vote for and their feelings of trust, disgust, and fear toward …

Losing Yourself: Cults, Greeks, And Sociological Theories Of Self And Identity, Emma Morgan

Honors Program Theses

This thesis is theoretical in nature. It is an exploration of sociological theory using cults and greek life as case studies for examining the construction of the self in the context of powerful social groups.

Faith Down The Rabbit Hole: A Critical Rhetorical Interrogation Of Q-Anon And Parasitic Christianity, Nate Carlson

Masters Theses

Over the course of the last six years, the conspiracy theory community known as Q-Anon has risen to prominence across the internet, coming to encapsulate a significant portion of the United States’ conservative and protestant populations. This study applies the act of Critical Rhetoric as proposed by McKerrow (1989) to the Q-Anon “drops”; message board posts wherein Q, the enigmatic leader of Q-Anon, preached conspiratorial ideology and misinformation to his followers. A pattern of Christian theology being usurped and retooled by Q as a method of faith-based political radicalization emerged throughout the texts, and this phenomenon was named “Parasitic Christianity.” …

Varieties Of Adventists After 1844: Emerging From “Fanaticism Of Every Kind” Into “The Order Of Heaven”, David J. B. Trim

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.