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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Changing Narratives, Changing Destiny: Myth, Ritual And Afrocentric Identity Construction At The National Rites Of Passage Institute, Michael Karlin
Changing Narratives, Changing Destiny: Myth, Ritual And Afrocentric Identity Construction At The National Rites Of Passage Institute, Michael Karlin
Religious Studies Theses
According to the National Rites of Passage Institute (NROPI), African Americans have lost their authentic identity, which has led to inauthentic, broken individuals and communities. In order to reverse these trends, according to NROPI, African Americans must rediscover their authentic identity through a rites of passage program that plucks them from a Eurocentric narrative and places them into an Afrocentric one. This thesis explores how NROPI is a religious response to adversity that takes on a decidedly American form of contemporary religiosity. I argue that by analyzing NROPI and other contemporary rites of passage programs through the lens of religious …
The Shrine Of Our Lady Of Ephesus: A Study Of The Personas Of Mary As Lived Religion, Heather Abraham
The Shrine Of Our Lady Of Ephesus: A Study Of The Personas Of Mary As Lived Religion, Heather Abraham
Religious Studies Theses
In Pure Lust, Mary Daly claims that the Virgin Mary is an “image of total subservience, the dethroned and sapped Goddess who was converted into a vessel.” Daly perceives Mary primarily through Christian scripture and other orthodox texts, ignoring her role as part of a religion lived and experienced outside of Church doctrine and dogma. This thesis explores how Mary is perceived and utilized by the laity, as opposed to the theological Mary, by specifically looking at how the Virgin Mary is imagined and experienced at the Our Lady of Ephesus Shrine in Western Turkey. Utilizing Robert Orsi’s lived religion …
Labors Of Authenticity: The Function Of Spirituality And The Construction Of Selfhood In The American Business, James Dennis Lorusso
Labors Of Authenticity: The Function Of Spirituality And The Construction Of Selfhood In The American Business, James Dennis Lorusso
Religious Studies Theses
In light of claims that liberalism has led to a breakdown in society, this paper refutes these claims by examining how workplace spirituality at Starbucks Coffee impacts the identities of several employees. While others have examined workplace spirituality as a management technique, this study illustrates how it could be understood as a distinctly modern way of being religious. By linking the ethnography to recent religious trends, this study illustrates how employees are cultivating a spirituality of an inner self. Specifically, these employees accomplish three things. First, they claim to discover their true authentic self. Also, despite the alienation of modern …