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Grand Valley State University

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Religion

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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities

Imperfect Church, Perfect God, Claire N. Barr Dec 2023

Imperfect Church, Perfect God, Claire N. Barr

Honors Projects

Jesus’ death on the cross demonstrates the most radical act of love. So when the church, which is biblically supposed to reflect Jesus’ love, causes pain and disagreements, there is no doubt as to why people choose to leave, completely stay away from the church, or lose their faith altogether. Despite this, the solution remains in Jesus. Through His ministry represented in scripture, one can see the way in which the church is called to care for the world. Despite this, the church has come short of Jesus’ example, often skewing people’s perspective on Christ. When on Earth, Jesus defied …


Religious Syncretism In Spanish Latin America: Survival, Power, And Resistance, Ian Mcguckin Sep 2022

Religious Syncretism In Spanish Latin America: Survival, Power, And Resistance, Ian Mcguckin

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

This paper explores the theory of religious syncretism and its application within early modern Latin America. It proposes a new model for understanding religious syncretism in order to eliminate the previous bias in the scholarship and misconceptions inherent in the term and seeks to discover why cultures chose specific religious elements over their counterparts in syncretic scenarios. Reviewing primary and secondary sources analyzing the religious characteristics and atmosphere of this period revealed that there was a pattern to syncretism and religious selection in Spanish Latin America. Europeans, Indigenous Peoples, and Africans in the New World selected religious elements based on …


Separation In The Sara Female Initiation Ceremony, Kelsey Moe May 2017

Separation In The Sara Female Initiation Ceremony, Kelsey Moe

Exemplary Undergraduate Research

This paper employs hermeneutics as opposed to a comparative, explanatory, or descriptive method to engage the phenomenon of Sara female initiation as captured by Lori Leonard’s ethnography, “Female Circumcision in Southern Chad: Origins, Meaning, and Current Practice.” The Sara people of Southern Chad – although predominantly Christian – have their roots in a pre-colonial religion that reveres ancestors. The spirits of Sara ancestors are believed to exist in the bush outside of the village. In the female initiation ceremony, girls are removed from the village and enter the surrounding bush to undergo the ritual transition. This separation is key to …