Digital Commons Network^™

Revolutionary Joy: Affect, Expression, And Community In Milton's England, Stephen Spencer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

To express joy in revolutionary England was deeply paradoxical. English Protestants frequently described the experience as indescribable, owing more to the agency of God’s grace than the subject’s will. And yet, the public expression of joy was considered a Christian duty, an important means of affirming and galvanizing community. In Revolutionary Joy: Affect, Expression, and Community in Milton’s England, I argue that the constitutive paradox of Protestant joy renders its expression a potent form of political speech amidst mid-seventeenth century transformations to the English church, monarchy, and parliament. In an era where apocalyptic expectation put pressure on affective experience …

Constructing A Theology Of Relational Life Through The Themes Of Creation, Incarnation, And Re-Creation As An Alternative To Current Categories Of Religions, Andrew Tompkins

Dissertations

This dissertation argues that current categories of religions are overly reliant on Western Enlightenment-based presuppositions and academic thinking that creates barriers in understanding God’s desire for all people to have abundant life. Many theologians and missiologists utilize these inherited categories without first subjecting them to the biblical canon. As a result, the theological and missiological discourse on religions is often grounded in extra-biblical presuppositions rooted primarily in an overly high view of human reason that do not accurately portray a biblical approach to relational life. These presuppositions do not accurately portray a biblical approach to relational life. I, therefore, compared …

How God Writes History: A Gramscian Analysis Of Religion And Nature In The Writings, Life, And Legacy Of John Muir, Daniel R. Jones

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Representations of John Muir, America’s most famous environmentalist, and religion have been highly variegated. A mythological figure of American environmental politics, Muir and his legacy have been an ideological apparatus for presidents, environmentalists, and naturalists performing acts of identification for themselves and their country. Furthermore, religion and environmental scholars have often used Muir as a case study for what they call “nature religion.” Lost in this myth-making labor are the politics of sacred spaces and national discourse. Italian political theorist Antonio Gramsci developed the concept of common sense and the intellectual, which this thesis uses to analyze John Muir’s poetics …

Cultural Naturalism And The Market God, David Timothy Denenny

Theses

This work employs John Dewey's cultural naturalism to explore how and why the orthodox economic tradition functions as a religious faith.Scholars such as the theologian Harvey Cox and others now view orthodox economic practice as a religion. Other scholars such as Max Weber, Alasdair MacIntyre, and numerous others view modern economic practice as exemplifying a particular ethic. The focus in this work is placed upon the destructive consequences of practicing the Market faith. This work argues that much of contemporary economic practice maintains a view of science that is incompatible with the kind of naturalism found in Classical American Pragmatism. …

Religious Leadership And Political Affiliation On A Secular Midwestern Campus, Kristy Atanasov

Honors Projects

This qualitative study explores the connection between religion and political affiliation in campus organizations from the perspective of the leaders of religious organizations on a secular Midwestern university. Interviews with ten leaders of Christian, Jewish, or Muslim organizations were utilized in gathering data. The current literature on campus religion is rarely qualitative, and fails to address specific campus religious organizations and their leaders. The results of the study found that religious affiliation is not a highly contributing factor in political affiliation, as previous quantitative studies have indicated. Ethnic, religious, and racial marginalization emerged as more significant indicators of political affiliation …

Review Of Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830, By Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mark Ashurst-Mcgee, Mark L. Staker

Mormon Studies Review

Around the turn of the century, Signature Books planned a series of three volumes that would cover Joseph Smith’s life in detail. Richard S. Van Wagoner was commissioned to write the first volume of the trilogy, treating the period from Smith’s birth to his move to Ohio. Van Wagoner’s Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805– 1830 engages Smith’s family and cultural background, his childhood and formative years, his visionary claims, his translation of the Book of Mormon, and the organization of the Mormon church. Much of the work of Mormon history is done by amateur scholars who contribute …

Cecil B. Demille And David O. Mckay–An Unexpected Friendship, Fred E. Woods

BYU Studies

Early in the twentieth century, what should have been a most unlikely friendship curiously evolved into a lifelong amiable relationship between world-renowned filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille and David O. McKay, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In some ways, the two men were polar opposites. DeMille was an icon in the twentieth-century film industry who directed seventy motion pictures in an illustrious career that spanned over four decades. Dwelling in the midst of “Babylon” (Los Angeles), he was referred to as “Mr. Hollywood.” McKay presided from the heart of Latter-day Saint conservatism, Salt Lake City, dedicated …

A Dramaturgical Exploration: Setting Oliver Goldsmith’S She Stoops To Conquer In Post-Civil War Virginia, Amanda Ward

Senior Honors Theses

A reputable theatrical company will hire a dramaturg to implement historical research and to provide reputable information where the director or staff desires it. They ensure that the play’s elements are as truthful to the time period as possible and aid in a performance’s overall success. If a theatrical company were to set Oliver Goldsmith’s play She Stoops to Conquer in 1870 Virginia, it could strengthen the play’s underlying religious, political, and cultural elements.

The paper is comprised of seven sections: a biography of the playwright, a religious exploration, a political analysis, a cultural comparison, a delineation of suggested script …

Where Morality And The Law Coincide: How Legal Obligations Of Bystanders May Be Informed By The Social Teachings Of Pope Francis, Amelia J. Uelmen

Seattle University Law Review

Since the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has offered to the world powerful signs of how we should aspire to treat each other as human beings, as brothers and sisters in the one human family. He has communicated his message and his teachings in myriad ways: through symbolic gestures; his presence and words at gatherings in our world’s most troubled places; brief messages, homilies and meditations; and official documents that continue the application of the principles of Catholic social teaching to contemporary social questions. What might these prophetic signs and statements mean for the dialogue between Catholic social thought …

The “Mississippi Of The West”: Religion, Conservatism, And Racial Politics In Utah, 1960–1978, Jessica Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examines what historians have written about African Americans in Utah as well as two carefully selected episodes from 1960 to 1978 that illustrate the complexities of race and cultural politics in the state of Utah during this time. Unlike the political and racial discourse in other states, Mormonism and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints became a large part of the dialogue in Utah because of LDS teachings on race and the predominance of Latter-day Saints in the state. The effect of these teachings was not contained to church buildings, but seeped into secular spaces such …

Problem-Based Learning And Two Studies Of The Journal Of Religion And Film: Self-Sacrifice And Music, Ken Derry

Journal of Religion & Film

This article offers a case study for using problem-based learning (PBL) in a religion and film course. PBL is an open-ended, experiential approach to teaching, which requires students to engage with a real world problem in groups. While many university classes are based on a lecture format and variations of that format, PBL asks students to take greater ownership of their learning. The problem drives what students will learn, how they will learn it, and what they produce to assess that learning. Students in a fourth-year PBL class at the University of Toronto Mississauga were given the following problem: analyze …

Retroactive Definitions: The Problem With The Traditional Marriage Argument, Atticus Garrison

Religion: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Words often change meaning over time. For example, until the 1960s, the word “gay” meant “Light-hearted and carefree” or “Brightly coloured; showy”.[1] But after the 1960’s, the definition of “gay” drastically changed, to meaning a “homosexual.”[2] “When you're with the Flintstones, Have a yabba dabba-do time A dabba-do time, We'll have a gay old time!”[3] This means that when we look at the theme song for the classic cartoon The Flinstones, we should not apply our definition of what gay means to how it is used in the theme song. Definitions of marriage work much in …

John Calvin, Authority, And The Evangelical Conviction Of The Evidentness Of Truth, Joshua Miller

The Kabod

John Calvin stands apart as a singularly powerful figure in the history of Western Civilization. His thought undergirds the fundamental principles of liberal democracy that dominate the most advanced nations on earth in the modern age, and his theology continues to influence the doctrine and leadership of the Reformed church’s many inheritors. This paper emphasizes and identifies the importance of understanding of Calvin’s views on secular and ecclesiastical authority and evaluates them.

Patriots And Practical Men: British Educational Policy And The Responses Of Colonial Subjects In India, 1880-1890, David Thomas Boven

Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the interplay between educational policy implemented by the British colonial authorities in India and the religious and ethnic communities impacted by these policies. It first considers educational policies promulgated from the earliest days of rule by the British East India Company until the Hunter Commission of 1882. Following this survey, the dissertation considers Indian reactions to these systems and colonial structures of education between 1880 and 1890. Those colonizing India had planned to use education as a means of stabilizing and strengthening their own rule on the subcontinent. As the British colonizers steadily overran the subcontinent, …

New Perspectives On The Northampton Communion Controversy Iv: Experience Mayhew’S Dissertation On Edwards’S Humble Inquiry, Douglas L. Winiarski

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

This fourth installment in a series exploring newly discovered manuscripts relating to the “Qualifications Controversy” that drove Edwards from his Northampton pastorate presents an unpublished oppositional dissertation by Experience Mayhew, a prominent eighteenth-century Indian missionary from Martha’s Vineyard. Next to Solomon Stoddard, Mayhew was Edwards’s most important theological target during the conflict. Where Edwards pressed toward precision in defining the qualifications for admission to the Lord’s Supper, Mayhew remained convinced that the standards for membership in New England’s Congregational churches should encompass a broad range of knowledge and experience. His rejoinder to Edwards’s Humble Inquiry provides a rare opportunity to …

Jane Minot Sedgwick Ii And The World Of American Catholic Converts, 1820-1890, Erin M. Bartram

Doctoral Dissertations

When Jane Minot Sedgwick II (1821-1889), the daughter of an elite New England Unitarian family, became a Catholic in 1853, she joined a new faith culture while remaining embedded in the social world of her birth. As a young woman, she was uninterested in her family’s religious activities and uncomfortable with their zeal. This dissertation argues that Sedgwick only came to see Catholicism as a viable religious option after developing friendships with other elite women who had recently converted. After studying Catholicism for ten years, Sedgwick joined the Church, a decision she described as rational. In light of her independent …

National Trends And A Local Response: A History Of The Conservative, Evangelical Twin Tiers Christian Academy, Cary M. Shaw

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Ever since the common school era, a significant number of Protestant Americans have supported the nation’s public schools. A dramatic change occurred, however, when in “one of the most visible dissenting movements of the late twentieth century” many conservative Protestants turned away from public education to open their own private Christian schools (Carper & Hunt, 2007, p. 7). The 1970s proved to be a time of explosive growth for these new schools. According to some estimates, Christian schools opened at a rate of two per day throughout that decade (Rose, 1988, p. 34). Though thousands of these Christian schools were …

Becomes A Woman Best: Female Prophetic Figures In Shakespeare's Plays, Alan Morris Cochrum

English Theses - Archive

This dissertation argues that female characters in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, Henry VIII, Richard III, Macbeth, and 1 Henry VI function as prophets in the style of the Old Testament. In a culture that venerates Holy Writ but also devalues women, a dramatic exemplar wrapped in the mantle of a biblical prophet becomes a potential model for playgoers as well as an embodied critique. Paulina, Katherine of Aragon, and Margaret of Anjou condemn injustice, uphold the cause of the vulnerable, challenge the abuse of royal and spiritual authority, and frequently echo aspects of biblical figures such as Moses, Isaiah, and …

Between Egyptian Nationalism And Religion: Imagining The Nation From Below, Yara Moussa Sultan

Theses and Dissertations

The January 25 revolution and the dramatic unfolding of events thereafter, have been a time of immense social, political and economic transformation in Egypt. Recent changes in political leadership, from the fall of Mubarak’s regime, to the Muslim Brotherhood’s (MB) ascent to power, and finally, to the landslide victory of the Armed Forces through Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s assuming of the presidency, have brought to light some of the dynamics of mass politics in Egypt. These transformations made visible a wide array of expressions of collective and national belonging as the Egyptian people came into contact with ideologically differentiated ruling regimes. …

Possessing The Past: History And Heritage At The Mosque-Cathedral Of Córdoba, Dorigen W. Martin

Theses & ETDs

The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba is an active cathedral in Spain whose structure is largely that of an eighth-century Andalusi mosque. The site’s history has allowed it to be inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List and has made it a tourist destination. Given these things, this study examines how heritage is constructed in relation and contrast to history. Furthermore, it looks at how the past is understood and used at the Mosque-Cathedral by different groups. These conflicting interests draw upon the same history in distinct ways to stake their own claims (both sacred and secular) on the building, in a confrontation …

The Development Of Christianity In Contemporary China, Chu Yi Lu

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to study the development of Christianity in contemporary China. It adds to the limited literature that explores how Christianity has developed as the fastest growing religion in China post the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The data derive from semi-structured and focus group interviews with Chinese Christians and field observation notes collected at both official and non-official Christian churches in Beijing. I found an ambivalent attitude toward the development of Christianity across different social levels in China. At the state level, the Chinese government expects Christianity to provide a much-needed stabilizing influence in an increasingly self-centered …

An Interpretivist Case Study Of Leadership Transition In The Context Of A Southern Baptist Church, Ronald Tuck

Dissertations

This ethnographic study examined the experiences of key individuals involved in a senior leadership transition in the context of the church. Leader transition constitutes a significant aspect of organizational leadership theory, yet succession planning is often neglected in the context of churches. This study revealed that leadership transition is not a single event in the history of a church organization, but rather an evolution of events involving a multiplicity of factors and individuals. Narratives from five individuals directly involved in the pastoral leadership transition process informed the study: the search committee chair, the outgoing and incoming pastors, and two differently-located …

The Pulpit And The Nation: Clergymen, Political Culture, And The Creation Of An American National Identity, Spencer W. Mcbride

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the politicization of clergymen during the American Revolution and explains the direct impact this process had on the development of a national polity and a distinct American national identity in the early republic. Both during and after the Revolution, clergymen utilized providential rhetoric and biblical symbolism to assign greater religious and moral significance to political events. Focusing on the period between 1775 and 1800, this dissertation describes and analyzes the extent to which national political leaders relied on local clergymen when securing independence and thereafter inventing a new nation. Ultimately, it argues that clergymen were essential to …

With Xavier, However, There Will Be This Distinction: Mapping The Educational Philosophy Of Saint Katharine Drexel In The Intellectual Tradition Of Black Higher Education In New Orleans, Louisiana, Berlisha Roketa Morton

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Historical studies on higher education often utilize traditional historical methods. This practice has produced a body of literature, both historical and contemporary, which has a particular focus on (a) the histories and mythologies of institutions, (b) the individuals who function within the system at the administrative or student levels, and (c) the individuals who have been excluded from the system. In this research, I connected the foundational histories of Southern University and Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana by telling institutional narratives through people instead of telling the narratives of people through institutions. Therefore, using Southern Womanism as a theoretical …

A Different Kind Of Vision: The Critique Of Consumerism In Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood, Nicholas L. Eilts

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In the tradition of Jon Lance Bacon and Steve Pinkerton, this work endeavors to show how Flannery O’Connor, along with her secular humanist contemporaries, voices a critique of modern American culture that depicts the conflicting elements of consumerism as detrimental to an individual’s personal and social well-being. This study will focus on Wise Blood, in particular, as it represents a consumerist way of life as antithetical to a religious way of life. By illustrating the emptiness of materialism and the nihilism of consumerism, O’Connor hopes to persuade her readers that Christianity is a preferable alternative. The body of this study …

Preaching Unbelief: Freethought In Boston, 1825--1850, James Rogers

Master's Theses and Capstones

Freethinkers in the early nineteenth century embarked upon unprecedented organizational efforts in a period characterized by evangelical religious awakenings. In the face of almost pervasive discrimination, unbelievers conspicuously appropriated the recruitment and publicity methods of Christian organizations. Radical developments in print technology resulted in the publication of atheistic books and periodicals, none of which survived longer than the Boston Investigator. Its editor, Abner Kneeland, further disseminated antitheistic thought through oratorical performances and by engaging with contemporary social issues. More than this, unbelievers unashamedly copied specific religious practices: they sang rational hymns celebrating "truth" and science, and individual freethinking intellectuals gave …

Theocratic Governance And The Divergent Catholic Cultural Groups In The Usa, Charles L. Muwonge

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated how the Roman Catholic Church, as a bureaucratic organization, governs the widespread and divergent Catholic cultural groups in the United States. The purposes of this research were (a) to examine the nature of the ecclesiastical governance structure in the Vatican, (b) to explore the nature of the American Catholic cultural environment, (c) to analyze the types of relationships between the divergent American Catholic subcultures, and (d) to establish ways in which ecclesiastical authorities in the Vatican govern the American Catholic cultural environment.

This study was historical in nature and longitudinal in scope. This study examined the relationship …

Re-Visioning The Semantic And Semiotic Registers In The Study Of Culture And Religion, Gary S. Bedford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term `God' may be understood as the desire for the complete epistemological condition of thought; language expresses this condition in statements of `meaning.' `Religion' expresses this desire in texts and ritual practice which may be examined by in academic study; however, because the `third term' of religio is understood as the condition of being `bounded to or by,' the study of religion is itself bounded to or by this desire for the completion of thought. This desire cannot be understood as an `alterity' of thought but is rather the internal native or `alter-native' condition of thought itself. …

"An Asylum To The Persecuted And Oppressed Of Every Nation And Religion": Dissenters And Liberals In The Drive For Religious Freedom In Virginia, Shelley Dawn Bailess

Masters Theses

The struggle for full religious liberty in Virginia encompassed nearly two decades and generated thousands of documents in the form of petitions and legislation. In spite of historical tendencies to claim primacy in the victory of liberty over establishment in matters of religion for one denomination or individual, it was a unique triangulation of religious dissenters and prominent legislators that resulted in the separation of church and state in Virginia. The ideas that brought these seemingly disparate groups together emerged from theological, as well as political ideas that were prevalent in 18th century thought. The passage of Jefferson's Statute Establishing …

Exploring The Relationship Between Work, Family And Religion Among Clergy Families, Lenore Johnson

Dissertations

Studies examining how working adults manage the competing demands of family, home and work shed light on the interconnectedness of public and private life. The notion that private life is a refuge separate from work is highly contested, and the experiences of clergy families add further support to such claims. However, while clergy families experience many of the same strains as other families, the relationship between public and private life is noticeably impacted by the inclusion of religion, adding further complications to the process of balancing multiple responsibilities. In this study, I explore the complex relationship between these aspects of …