Religion Commons^™

Dispelling Delusion And Seeing Nature: A Comparative Analysis Of Lucretius’ _De Rerum Natura_ And Hui-Neng’S _Platform Sutra_, Isaac Raymond

Honors Theses

Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura and Hui-neng’s Platform Sutra have never been compared in a scholarly context; as such, this paper builds a new bridge between Western and Eastern philosophical literature, examining language, narrative, ethics, teleology, theology, and departures from orthodox philosophies in order to synthesize a clear and complete view of the two works in dialogue. De Rerum Natura, or On the Nature of Things, is a first-century BC epic poem composed in Latin by Titus Lucretius Carus which explains Epicurean philosophy in great detail through verse. The Platform Sutra is an eighth-century AD Chinese Zen (Ch’an) Buddhist sermon, …

Accounting For The Gift: Theology And Ethics In Accounting, Daniel Sebastian

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Accounting is often assumed to be a neutral presentation of the facts of economic activities and actions. Its double-entry system means that it is always in balance and comports to the rigor of mathematical formulas, and it is taken to be a matter of empirical counting that lends it certainty as well. The dissertation argues that this description of accounting is inadequate. Accounting is better seen as a political tool and technology for producing trust that can help resolve social conflicts. As such, accounting is not value-neutral but carries within it a particular sociality that has moral implications. These moral …

A Third Way: Christian Philosophy Of Music, Eric S. Gardner

Senior Theses

Philosophers have posed many difficult-to-answer questions regarding music. For example, what counts as beautiful music? Can beauty be objectified, or is beauty in the eye of the beholder? What counts as a performance of a piece of music? Besides, what counts as music anyways? Where does the noise stop, and where does the music begin? In this thesis, I want to show that the Christian worldview offers the philosophical building blocks to answer these questions. By working with biblical truths and Christian presuppositions, I hope to show that the Christian worldview can offer satisfying answers to these philosophical questions.

The Myths Of Plato: Socratic Kenosis And The Call Of Beauty, Daniel Edward Shirley

Master of Arts in Classical Studies

The myths of Plato have been inordinately subordinated to the “intellect” of Plato since the eighteen-thirties. The ancient Christian tradition of interpreting stories and scriptures with symbolic understanding serves as a potentially primary hermeneutical pattern that could correct the modern tendency of subconscious materialism. To restore the Platonic myths, there are two foundational arguments to be made about the myths. The first is that these myths are kenotic in function. Observing the Socratic call to self-emptying, especially in the cosmological image of the World Axis, challenges modern assumptions concerning the second goodness of Platonic myth. The second argument is the …

Alyosha The Christian Hermeneut, Eddie Li

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Presentation Abstract: Alyosha as the Christian Hermeneut

This presentation is adapted from my essay Alyosha as the Christian Hermeneut, written under the supervision of Dr. Paul Contino. In the essay, I gave an analysis of the character Alyosha in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, in light of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics, and Dr. Contino’s book on Incarnational Realism. I discussed how Alyosha adapts from an inexperienced Christian disciple to a mature interpreter capable of conducting the hermeneutical fusion of horizons with different horizons. Within this capability, Alyosha develops his unique Christian horizon, enabling him to understand and reconcile the …

Notes From The Cosmic Sea, James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Ciis Dissertation Abstracts, 2022-2023, California Institute Of Integral Studies

CIIS Dissertation Abstracts

This compilation of dissertation abstracts reflects the exciting research completed by the 2022-2023 graduates from PhD programs in the School of Consciousness and Transformation and the Clinical Psychology Doctorate (PsyD) in the School of Professional Psychology and Health at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).

The original and impactful doctoral research presented here spans diverse areas of scholarship from anthropology and social change to human sexuality, philosophy and religion, and whole person approaches to psychology, demonstrating the breadth and depth of transformative and integral inquiry happening at CIIS. The transdisciplinary nature of these dissertations reflects the richness and complexity …

Of Method: A Propaedeutic To Coleridge's Prose Works, Michael A. Granger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Coleridge’s prose works, published and unpublished, demonstrate a thorough and critical testing and understanding of British and German philosophical responses to skepticism and the ability of philosophy to progress by maintaining a double-minded and conflicted suture of both the practical or imaginative eclipse of knowledge and theorizing the hypothetical epistemological absolute that explains the relativity of facticity. Any inadequate method of inquiry stagnates within attempting a purely figurative or purely demonstrative solution to skepticism. Thus, the appropriate way to approach Coleridge’s understanding of philosophy is the struggle to make inquiry adequate though progression. Coleridge’s methodological impulse originates explicitly in a …

Eternal You, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Eternal You (2023), directed by Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck.

The Thought Of C.S. Lewis, Wyatt Golden

NEXUS: The Liberty Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies

No abstract provided.

Golden Rule Ethics And Complementary Learning Process With The Other: From Confucius’ And Christian Approaches To Hatatas’ Approach, Fasil Merawi

Comparative Philosophy

Through the development of a comparative analysis that explores the conceptions of the Golden Rule that are expressed in the teachings of Confucius, Christianity and the Hatatas, the article shows that the combined insights that emerge from these three teachings have a contemporary significance in the attempt to develop a complementary learning process with the Other. Throughout its variations, the Golden Rule is grounded on the need to treat others as how we want to be treated. Such a moral vision occupies a central importance in Confucius’s ren, Christianity’s Gospel of Matthew and the commandments, and the Hatatas’ principle of …

Love Machina, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Love Machina (2024), directed by Peter Sillen.

Spacious Theories Of Object Relativity & Objective Reality Book Review For "Seven Brief Lessons On Physics" By Carlo Rovelli, Carmiella Salzberg Zorzi

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

An Arts-based Review of Carlo Rovelli’s 2016 book "Seven Brief Lessons on Physics" that incorporates original artworks by the book reviewer. This review concludes with the harvesting of an Expressive Arts Academic Consultation session that was informed by this work of Carlo Rovelli, among many other great creative thinkers in physics.

Tikkun Olam, Book Review For "Art-Care Practices For Restoring The Communal: Education, Co-Inquiry, And Healing” By Barbara A. Bickel And R. Michael Fisher, Valerie Oved Giovanini

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

A book review of Barbara A. Bickel’s and R. Michael Fisher’s "Art-Care Practices for Restoring the Communal: Education, Co-Inquiry, and Healing" published in 2023 by Routledge.

The Yes Of Soul: Book Review For "Poetry In Expressive Arts: Supporting Resilience Through Poetic Writing" By Margo Fuchs Knill & Sally S. Atkins, Katrina Plato, Lucien Zell

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Abstract

A book review of Margo Fuchs Knill’s and Sally S. Atkins’s “Poetry in Expressive Arts: Supporting Resilience through Poetic Writing” published in 2021 by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Like the authors of the book, this review is written in partnership. Author and creative writing teacher Lucien Zell reflects on the book’s theme of resilience. Expressive arts professional Katrina Plato follows with a couple of her own poems and then work by clients in response to the book’s prompts.

Harvesting A Blessing, Alba Torres Robinat, Katrina Plato, Alexandra Goodall, Valerie Oved Giovanini, Sinem Lanacı

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

The process of collectively writing the Artizein articles in this issue has come to an end. In this video you can see how we harvested the gifts of our writing collaboration. Each of us made a visual artwork that we shaped as a creative digestion of our work together. The group responded to each members’ art through written words and movement. Each member then gave a final message that gathered what emerged and touched her from the group, the blessing.

Teaching Philosophy As A Pedagogic Practice-Ing: Are You The Type Of Person That Says, “Everything Happens For A Reason”?, Valerie Oved Giovanini Ph.D.

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

In this paper, I discuss a classroom activity that was intended to create an environment attentive enough for students to scrutinize whether their touted beliefs matched their implicit assumptions. Drawing upon Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics of the face-to-face relation, Carol A. Taylor’s posthuman orientations for pedagogical practice-ings, and Bickel’s and Fisher’s emergent theory of art-care, I explore my pedagogical approach in teaching philosophy to explain how affective encounters in communitas between teacher and learners can expand personal understandings and imagine new meaningful possibilities together. These affective encounters serve an ethic of concern where each is capable of a unique response and …

Borders And Bridges In Virtual Work: Between Real And Imaginary, Valeria Rocío Gonzales González Cueva, Carmiella Salzberg Zorzi

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This article discusses our reflections on how to holistically integrate reality embodied in virtual workspaces--what we perceive within our work and interaction with technology-and highlights the importance of documenting our exploration in times while Artificial Intelligence is developing. Our approach is divided into three parts: the boundaries and bridges between the real and the imaginary, the possibilities of existence and non-existence offered by technology, and the experiences of expressive arts practitioners within virtuality.

Resumen

Este artículo habla de nuestras reflexiones sobre cómo integrar de forma holística la realidad encarnada en los espacios de trabajo virtuales, lo que percibimos dentro de …

Collective Memory And Creative Subjectivity: A Living Conversation, Alexandra Katherine Goodall, Alba Torres Robinat

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

This article is the record of a dialogue between two artists and Expressive Arts therapists, Alba Torres Robinat and Alexandra Katherine Goodall. They chose to undertake this conversation in the form of letters that were written back-and-forth over a period of time in a shared document, which places their correspondence in the tradition of epistolary writing. This decision to write the article as letters lends the conversation an immediacy, a warmth, a sense of time, distance and familiarity, and a feeling of intimacy.

The authors invite readers to witness the deepening of a relationship and the development of their conversational …

Doing And Thinking On The Edge With Intermodal Expressive Art, Katrina Plato, Sinem Lanacı, Valerie Oved Giovanini

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Three collaborators share their experiences and reflections on The European Graduate School’s (EGS) first Alumni Event. Graduates were invited to present the cutting-edge research in expressive arts and critical theory that they developed since their M.A. and Ph.D. programs. Details are provided of the art-making processes they used to recall the memory of the Alumni Event as well as how they harvested its significance months later. The collaborators’ topic was “decentering the self,’’ specifically how to decenter the self in community through expressive arts practices, such as co-journaling, deep listening, and photography. During the Alumni event these practices were intended …

Ιntroduction: Invitations And Purposeful Encounters, Valerie Oved Giovanini, Katrina Plato, Alexandra Katherine Goodall, Carmiella Salzberg Zorzi

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Guest Editor Introduction for Artizein: Arts & Teaching Journal, volume 8, issue 1 2023

Editorial Team Weclome, Darlene St.Georges, Barbara Bickel

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Artizein: Arts & Teaching Journal editorial team welcome to Dr. Jeeyeon Ryu

Editoral Foreword: A Métissage Of Presence-Ing, Darlene St.Georges, Barbara Bickel

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Artizein; Art & Teaching Journal, issue 8, volume 1, Editoral Foreword: A Métissage of Presenc-ing

Front Matter_ Artizein 2023, Barbara Bickel, Darlene St.Georges, Jeeyeon Ryu

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Front Matter for Artizien Arts & Teaching Journal, Volume 8, Issue 1, 2023

Artizein_ Full Issue 2023, Barbara Bickel, Darlene St.Georges, Jeeyeon Ryu

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Full issue of Artizein: Arts & Teaching Journal Volume 8, Issue 1, 2023

Guest Editor's Introduction, Ranwarat Kobsirithiwara

Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia

No abstract provided.

Four Poems, Sakul Boonyatat, Sompong Duangsawai, Satchaphum La-Or, Siwakan Pathumsoot, Ritthisak Wongyutthipong

Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia

No abstract provided.

Naturalism, Christian Molinism, And The Problem Of Evil, Caleb Blackman

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to create a Christian theodicy by forming an abductive argument showing that Christian Molinism can provide reasons for the existence of evil, and compared to naturalism, it provides the best explanation. This is accomplished by considering the naturalistic explanation of evil and building upon defenses and concepts such as the Free Will Defense and Molinism.

An Appeal To Mystery Without "Punting": Revisiting Molinism’S Biblical Problem In Light Of Ephesians 1:4–11 And Romans 11:33–36, Jeffrey S. Kennedy

Liberty Theological Review

Molinists maintain that middle knowledge is the best candidate for settling the historical debate on God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. The philosophical sophistication of the view can be alluring, and the efforts of Molinists to rationally defend it against criticisms have been impressive. But does Molinism still have a biblical problem? Proponents argue that the doctrine is compatible with the Bible's teaching on God's knowledge of counterfactuals, though admittedly, it is not explicitly taught in Scripture. But this claim is more problematic than advocates for the theory have alleged. The present study maintains that in the absence of a …

Bioethics And A Theology Of Vulnerability, Carrie Oneil-Smith

Obsculta

This essay looks at how a theology of vulnerability can contribute to ethical decision-making in an increasingly secular society. Relationality, power dynamics and scriptural justifications are considered, as well as early contributions made to this nascent field of Christian thought. This essay was written for a class on Health Care Ethics taught by Dr. Mary Ann Kish.