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Identity Resolution In Feminists Raised Catholic: A Narrative Analysis Of Life Histories, Carlotta Reinhardt, Lauren E. Duncan

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Using narrative analysis of life histories, we explored the interplay between Catholic religious background, identity formation, and feminist activism. We used data from 13 oral histories of feminist and LGBTQ+ activists in the US and Italy who were raised Catholic. In the first stage of Downing and Roush’s model of feminist identity development, passive acceptance, religion can play a significant role. We found that whether religion is central to a person's worldview or not, and whether it is rigid or flexible, influence how individuals handle identity conflicts related to gender and sexuality during the revelation stage. Dissonances were caused by …

The Ghannouchi Test: The Compatibility Of Religious Ideas And Secular Democracy, Andrew P. Sheppe

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Secular, democratic societies and governments evolved out of religious societies and defined themselves partially in opposition to religious authority. This historical relationship has led to a debate about the compatibility between religious ideas and modern, secular society. Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde posited that secular, democratic societies still depend on religious foundations. Jürgen Habermas disagrees, claiming that processes of rational dialogue can provide sufficient support.

Two prominent twentieth century theologians, Reinhold Niebuhr and Abraham Joshua Heschel demonstrate that democratic systems are enriched and protected by theistic ideas, thus supporting Böckenförde’s dictum. However, they both recognize the importance of epistemic humility and a …

Conjuring Realities: Southern Supernaturalism And Race From The Antebellum Era To The Early Twentieth Century, Dylan T. Kobus

Theses and Dissertations

Conjure practices in the nineteenth-century American South, such as “Hoodoo” or “Voodoo,” are commonly portrayed as primarily “black” beliefs or entrenched in “Africanistic” cultures. For the enslaved, their black spiritual systems, including conjure, were a powerful tool of resistance against the white enslaver. Black conjure practitioners established themselves as an affordable and pervasive medical alternative to often ineffective or harmful professional medicines for black and white Southerners, regardless of class. In this way, conjure challenged the authority of racial capitalism and destabilized the perceived moral and intellectual superiority of whiteness. Moreover, by examining legal documents, newspapers, fictional literature, and oral …

Redefining Gender Equality: A Senegalese Conversation With Islam, Seulgie Lim

All Faculty Scholarship

How do Muslim women balance their religious agency and political aspirations? Gender quotas have been used across the African continent to improve women's political visibility since the 1990s. Senegal's own experiment with gender equality in 2010 faced political barriers as well as religious ones. The author sheds light on how Muslim women activists in Senegal shaped women's place in their communities through the gender parity law. Based on multiple fieldwork visits from 2016 to 2018 and individual interviews with activists and scholars involved in the movement to make gender parity the law in Senegal, the author argues that while Islam …

Rethinking The Philosophy Of Religion: Toward A Better Relationship Between Religion And Science, Jovino De Guzman Miroy

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

This paper rethinks the philosophy of religion by asking what it can learn from the less antagonistic and more dialogic relationship between science and religion. Greater heterogeneity amongst student beliefs requires that the philosophy of religion become pluralistic. Moving beyond antagonism, the task of the philosophy of religion is to improve the relationship between religion and science for the better. The paper also probes what it means to study religion scientifically. The reform of the philosophy of religion proposed here means that the field shed its apologetic nature, but continue its project of reason-giving for a synthesis of religious experience. …

Adam Smith: Social Imaginary And Religion, Jan Van Vliet

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Faith In Conflict: The Role Of Religion In Conflict And Peacebuilding Among Minority Christian Communities In Ukraine And Palestine, Julia Lats

Honors Projects

Religion has long influenced both the escalation of conflicts and efforts toward peace. The wars in Ukraine and Palestine are deeply rooted in historical narratives, national identities, and religious influences. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is often framed in terms of Jewish-Muslim tensions and the issue of politicization of religion and tensions within the Orthodox Church frame the Ukrainian-Russian War, these dominant narratives often overlook the role of minority religious groups. This paper examines the contributions of Protestant Christian groups in these regions, exploring how their beliefs and practices influence their actions, identity formation, interactions with others, and approaches to conflict …

Ib-Adat, Anum Naseer

Masters Theses

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Places Of Life, Places Of Death: Caves In Pre-Hispanic Huachichil Conscience In Northern Mexico, Kate Prashby

Indigenous Studies

In 1931, a US geologist took ten skulls from a pre-Hispanic burial cave in historic Huachichil territory in northeastern Mexico and brought them to a US museum. To assist in repatriation efforts, this thesis uses ethnoarchaeology to suggest how ancient Huachichiles may have used caves and what they may have believed about those caves. Drawing from ethnographic accounts from the US Southwest, Aridoamerica, and Mesoamerica, this thesis establishes two possible models of belief that Huachichil cosmology may have followed regarding caves. A second pre­ Hispanic Huachichil burial cave and its surrounding caves are also examined using participant observation and interviews …

Shepherds Of Loss: Religion And Grief In The Shenandoah Valley, Ewan Benjamin

Honors Projects

This study explores the relationship between faith leaders and religious communities with the human experience of grief, death, and loss. Inspired by the researcher's own experience, this paper argues that the United States has a generally uncomfortable relationship with death and hypothesizes that religious traditions can serve to assist with grief in a positive way. After interviewing six religious leaders in the Shenandoah Valley, two themes arose: the mystery of death and the concept of "making space" for the grieving, dying, and dead. In the paper's conclusion, the faith leaders make known their own concerns with death in the United …

Rising Sun And Morning Calm : A Comparative Historical Study On The Response To Christianity In Korea And Japan, Gregory S. Whyte

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

"Talaqqi" In The Age Of Bureaucracy; Symbiosis Of Pedagogical Cultures In West Javanese "Pesantren", Julian Millie

Wacana, Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia

Since Indonesian independence, the Republic’s Ministry of Religion has steadily become more deeply involved in the overseeing and monitoring of the country’s internally diverse system of Islamic education. This involvement has changed the pedagogical texture of Islamic education. The bureaucratized education system of the modern nation state aims to achieve policy goals such as quality at scale, equality of access, and standardization of curricula and teacher qualifications. In contrast, many Islamic institutions, and especially the pesantren (Islamic boarding school), structure their pedagogy around spiritual and genealogical hierarchies, and maintain teaching methods that affirm those hierarchies. This research asks about the …

Deconstructing A Theology Of Scarcity. Case Study: Watermark Zoning Case Presented To The City Of Dallas, Todd M. Atkins

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

In their book, Moral Leadership for a Divided Age, David P. Gushee and Colin Holtz discuss 14 historical leaders' life stories and their leadership principles. In chapter four, the authors highlight the life of Harriet Tubman and identify the following leadership lesson, “Faith can drive both moral evil and moral greatness.” These authors go on to state that African slaves, white slaveholders, and the Northern and Southern Abolitionists each on some level claim to worship and adhere to the same sacred scriptures. From our current point of view, several hundred years removed, it seems impossible for enslaved Africans and white …

Examining The Effect Of Climate Change Denialism In American Christianity On International Climate Policy, Hope Mcbride

Selected Honors Theses

While 53% of Americans say anthropogenic climate change is happening, only 32% of American evangelical Protestants share that belief (Alper). Key reasons for this gap include the values and political affiliations held by religious Americans. Historically, there have been dissenting opinions on the role of Christianity in global warming, but ultimately data have demonstrated that the opinions of American Christians can influence major global political decisions, such as President Trump’s executive order pulling the United States out of the keystone Paris Agreement.

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. …

Religion, Culture, And Politics, Jared Rubin

ESI Working Papers

This chapter presents a conceptual framework for understanding the interaction of religion, ideology, and politics. The framework’s key insights are: i) culture and ideology provide a shared mental framework for interpreting the world; ii) ideology is malleable, and it can be used to justify a wide set of empirical realities in a manner that is consistent with the prevailing mental framework; iii) religion is particularly adept at shaping this mental framework because it attempts to explain the unknown; iv) because co-religionists share a mental framework that depends on a (religious) interpretation of events, religions are particularly likely to be co-opted …

Marginalized, Secularized, And Popularized? The Prevalence And Patterns Of Paranormal Belief In The United Kingdom, Tom Clark, Joseph O. Baker, Christoper D. Bader

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

There is growing recognition of the prevalence of paranormal beliefs in Western countries. However, most of this interest has been focused on the United States and robust, comparative data remain limited. This study extends this literature to report findings from a national survey of the United Kingdom designed to assess the prevalence and patterns of paranormal beliefs. Although there are many similarities to previous research, the results also suggest that there are significant differences in the scope, clustering, and patterns of paranormalism across contexts. The study makes four contributions to research on the paranormal by a) reiterating the continuing popularity …

To All The Nations Of The World: A Postcolonial Analysis Of Protestant Christian-Oriented Study Abroad Programs, Joshua Patterson, Melissa Whatley, Anna Kelly

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Human Skeletal Remains From The Magen Avraham Compound, Yafo (Jaffa) (Pp. 375–378), Yossi Nagar

'Atiqot

Human skeletal remains of at least ten adult individuals were found in the Magen Avraham Compound. Some of the bones were found scattered, while others were anatomically articulated, indicating primary burials, possibly in simple pit graves. The graves’ layout could not be traced, and no burial goods were retrieved; therefore, the dating of the finds is problematic.

New Archaeological Finds From Kursi-Gergesa (With A Contribution By Gabriela Bijovsky) (Pp. 175–197), Vassilios Tzaferis

'Atiqot

Two areas were opened (Areas C, D), exposing a stepped tunnel, a bathhouse and a cemetery. The stepped tunnel, which was unearthed in the 1970–1971 season of excavations, was found to end in a narrow leveled space, above which was a vaulted entrance leading to a spacious underground room. A compact Roman–Byzantine bathhouse was exposed, comprising five distinct units: a water-supply unit, a heating installation (praefurnium), heated-water pools, a hot room (caldarium) and a cool room (frigidarium). It is evident that the bathhouse was connected to the hostel building excavated in 1970–1971. The pottery from the bathhouse was similar to …

An Examination Of Donald Trump And Young Evangelical Voters, Kevin Finn

Honors Theses and Capstones

The relationship between Donald Trump and religious voters is often discussed, but much less attention has been directed to the connection between Trump and young voters, particularly young evangelicals. This paper attempts to provide the reasoning behind why despite his unconventional character, Trump maintains a strong base of support from young evangelical voters. After examining the theories of previous scholars, it hypothesizes that support is shaped by religious elites, who exploit the strong connection that young evangelicals have to their community. The argument is separated into three phases: first, that evangelical leaders and elites have proven to be consistently in …

Peak Teaching: Exploring And Fostering Sacred Experiences In University Classrooms, Charles Burack

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Supporting the spiritual growth of college and university students with diverse backgrounds and orientations is both important and challenging. It is important not only because spirituality is a crucial dimension of human life but also because the majority of students at both private and public schools want their teachers to address spiritual issues in the classroom. A powerful way to address spirituality is to explore and foster sacred experiences in university classrooms. Sacred experiences include religious, spiritual, mystical, transcendent, numinous, and peak experiences as well as many other nonordinary experiences. The author offers guidance to educators on how to: 1) …

Waking The Witch: Exploring Gender, Magic, And Power Dynamics In Ancient Rome, Diana Gibson

Honors Theses and Capstones

This thesis explores the presence of witches and magic in the literature of the Roman Empire. The study ranges from the 1st century BCE to the 6th century CE, and relates the prevalence of female witches in the Roman literature to particularly turbulent social contexts, such as the fall of the Republic and the rise of Christianity. The piece considers the rhetorical nature of accusations of witchcraft, and how the concepts of magic and witchcraft themselves were defined and shaped by those in power to uphold imperial hegemony and structures of patriarchy. The project seeks to highlight a distinction between …

Interfaith Marriages: Exploring The Role Of Upbringing And Lived Experiences On Interfaith Couples' Unions, Meghna Gogoi

Theses and Dissertations

This study on interfaith marriages is an example of the micro-macro linkage that we seek to make in sociology. Marriage is a “primary,” intimate relationship, but one that increasingly involves “intermarriage” across lines of race/ethnicity, religion, and cultural backgrounds. Interfaith marriages, which refer to unions between individuals from different religious backgrounds, are becoming more common in today’s contemporary society. Therefore, it is relevant to understand the experiences of couples in interfaith marriages. It highlights how individual decisions in intimate relationships are influenced by larger social structures, such as religious norms and cultural expectations. This study explores how upbringing and lived …

Slaying The Windigo: Fear And Faith In The Anthropocene, Daniel J. Irwin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines the changing affect of fear in the environment and how it is influencing writing in the Anthropocene. Chapter one lays the groundwork for the present moment of ecocriticism, examining how the relationship with the environment has changed throughout the history of ecocritical writing. The second chapter examines how fear has been an intrinsic element of environmental storytelling, starting with the romantic ideas of the sublime. With the recognition of the impact that humanity has had on Earth over the past several centuries, and the accelerating acceptance of the idea of the Anthropocene since the turn of the …

A Question Of Izzat: Honor, Shame And Ownership Among Sunni Muslims In South Asia And The British Diaspora, Lila Ramos Shahani

Kritika Kultura

This paper is part of a larger project that looks at Asian writers in the English-speaking world. It focuses on literature representing British-Muslim identities in relation to post- 9/11 and post-7/7 debates on national identity, cultural and religious expression, and the future of multiculturalism in Britain. While the postcolonial paradigm offers a rich site for examining the long-term consequences of colonialism in relation to first- and second- generation writers, the complex politics of location in recent British-South Asian fiction points to the emergence of a new set of positionalities. I argue that much contemporary minority writing has come to reflect …

Enemies And Friends: A Consideration Of The Burnham Kidnapping, Gerald T. Burns

Kritika Kultura

The relationships between the political and the spiritual, hostage-taker and victim, friends and enemies, the US and the Philippines are shaped and contested in the light of journalistic accounts of the Burnhams’ hostage crisis in 2001, and in particular Gracia Burnham’s reconstruction of it in her memoir. The following four distinct but related contexts are used as lens to explore the binarisms: 1) the psychosocial dynamics and literary traditions of captivity; 2) what used to be billed the “special” but has more recently and perhaps more accurately been called the “entangled” relationship between the United States and the Philippines; 3) …

Religious Affiliation And Alcohol Use Amongst The College Population At The University Of Northern Colorado, Cassandra H. A. Higgins

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A rampant problem growing globally is the issue of substance use disorders, especially that of alcohol abuse. As the problem of alcohol abuse spreads, finding tactics to mitigate this issue or discover what aspects are causing this issue is important to decrease the threat of a further problem developing. Prior research on different religious groups has shown that people who identify as highly devout in their religion are often less likely to exhibit signs of alcohol abuse. This study examined students at the University of Northern Colorado with the goal of comparing their levels of religious affiliation with their levels …

Are Secular Politics Possible?, Gregory C. Melleuish, Susanna G. Rizzo

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Contemporary political analysis makes a distinction between politics that are secular in nature and politics that are religiously based. This article questions whether there is such a thing as secular politics. Firstly, it examines the roots of the secular/religious dichotomy in Western thought and concludes that it is the creation of particular intellectual developments in the West. And then it argues that modern politics is best viewed in terms of a number of “sacred projects” that are generated out of the supposedly secular nature of the modern West. There can be no real politics without such projects, only administration. Even …

The Fight For Purity: Hiram Evans And The Second Ku Klux Klan, Ava Jackson

English: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

The Klu Klux Klan of the 1920s, known as the second Klan, built its three to six million members quicker than any previous group. The Klan continued the traditions of earlier generations, including the notorious robes, masks, and racist attitudes toward African Americans. In addition, anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism grew, which further increased animosity and reshaped what it meant to be a terrorist in America. Through the leadership of Hiram Wesley Evans, a small-practice dentist, who quickly rose in the ranks to later become Imperial Wizard of the Klan in 1922, the Klan was altered in a way never seen before. …