Religion Commons^™

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 39. What About Wallace's 'Agnosticism'...?, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) seems to have distinguished his earlier years of agnosticism from his later period as a spiritualist, but a closer look at the situation suggests he actually remained an agnostic all the way through to the end of his life. The confusion is occasioned by a lack of terminology that can be applied to his position, which most closely resembles a Spinozian manner of thinking.

Ua12/2/2 Talisman: Connection, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Spring 2025 Talisman:

• Alali, Cecilia & Ragan Harrington. Connection
• Hardesty, Emma. On a Roll – Dungeons & Dragons
• Muscutt, Carson. Grinding Through Life – Molotov Skateshop
• Cox, Kate. Stopwatch
• Harrington, Ragan. 1 Campus, 7 Strangers – Logan Hesse, Nicholas Basile, Spencer Winterbottom, Alliyah Jones, Alex Gehring, Annie McClurg, Rowan Finley
• Vickers, Abigail. Forged in Combat – Mixed Martial Arts
• Wood-Morris, Oli. Survivors to Neighbors – Bosnian Refugees
• Jordan, Shylin. Severed Roots
• Bivens, Emily. Behind the Screen – Social Media
• Dean, Clarissa. Shear Talent – Shake Rag Barbershop
• Sutton, Avery. For the Love of the Old – Thrift Shopping
• Phelps, Maggie. …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 36. Wallace, Evolution And Providence., Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

One of Alfred Russel Wallace’s most important contributions to thought was his identification of the key role provident behavior assumes in human evolution. In this essay I set out the way this idea influenced his thought process after 1864, and especially how it affected his appreciation of the possible role of spiritualism in evolution.

“You Shall Be As Gods”: Xenogears, Gnosticism, And Gaming On The Mystical Marketplace At The Turn Of The Millennium, Alexander Sutton

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

This thesis explores the role of Christian Gnosticism in the Japanese role-playing video game (JRPG) Xenogears, developed by Square Co. Ltd. and released in Japan and the United States in 1998. In tracing its historical context, development, and localization I argue that Xenogears is an important text in the history of mediated religion in global popular culture. In comparing the game’s narrative against ancient Christian Gnostic texts such as The Apocryphon of John, The Reality of the Rulers, and the Gospel of Judas, I show how the game harmonized, mediated, and reproduced ancient Gnostic mysticism for its players to emulate. …

Houchens, Dylan Thomas, B. 1996 (Fa 1419), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1419. Audio interviews by WKU student Dylan Houchens concerning the history of White Plains Baptist Church, Allen County, Kentucky. Two of the interviews include transcripts, and two include an index/log.

“Not Like Your Abuelos”: A (Fe)Minist/Autoethnographic Approach To Vernacular Religious Belief And Traditionalization, Ciara Bernal

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In this thesis I explore how vernacular Mexican Catholicism is practiced, explained, and passed down within my family. I look at vernacular religious belief and traditionalization as an integrated process that impacts the practices, beliefs, and stories of my family. I include myself as a subject of this research, conducting autoethnography within each chapter. I utilize reflexive and vulnerable writing practices to accomplish this.

My overarching research questions for this thesis are: How has Mexican-Catholicism shaped the relationships, stories, and beliefs of my family members? What can Chicana feminist perspectives add to the study of vernacular religious belief and family …

Winstead, Sara C. (Fa 1413), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1413. “The Shaker Chair,” a paper written by Sara Winstead for a WKU folk studies class.

Simmons, Mary Jean (Fa 1412), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1412. “Shaker Music as a Genre of Folk Music,” a paper written by Jean Simmons for a WKU folk studies class.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 30. Wallace A Theist? Part I., Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) has been portrayed as a ‘theist’ on a large number of occasions from his own time on to the present. In this, the first of a two part work, this assessment is questioned. In part one, the matter of Wallace’s personal philosophy and spiritual orientation is explored, the conclusion being that Wallace was a lifelong agnostic who can hardly be aligned with theism.

I Am Gay And Catholic: An Analysis Of Identity Integration In Lgbtq+ Members Converting To Catholicism, Maria Julian

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

This article examines the negotiation of sexual and religious identities among Catholic members of the LGBTQ+ community. I explore context-specific identity negotiation to determine how and why, in a time of “cultural warfare” within the Catholic Church surrounding the acceptance of LGBTQ+ participants, LGBTQ+ members choose to convert to Catholicism. Through semi-structured interviews conducted with members of the LGBTQ+ community, I identify and discuss several themes based on the identity integration process of these individuals: (1) Experiencing “The Call” (the initial interest in Catholicism), (2) Encountering the Religious “Other” (association with a welcoming and enduring Catholic LGBTQ+ Community), (3) Immersion …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 29. Extraterrestrial Entertainment: Are We Being Monitored By Alien Beings?, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) was an early advocate for the rational assessment of likelihood of extraterrestrial life. Current efforts to evaluate the situation have ranged from the heavily self-indulgent to the more objective, and it is still often difficult to decide just how much of the information we are receiving on the subject is dependable. An attempt is made here to cut through the haze and reduce the matter to elementals.

Twelve Wallace Myths, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Alfred Russel Wallace’s (1823-1913) bicentennial year is a good time to take stock. In this presentation I discuss twelve Wallace-related issues that I feel have been poorly taken up. These range from the biological to the biographical, including subjects such as social criticism, human evolution, autobiographical memory, natural selection, national affinities, spiritualism, and wokeism.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 28. Wallace's 'Change Of Mind', Revisited, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) is best known for his work on the theory of evolution by natural selection, and studies on biogeography. This fame has not, however, prevented appraisals of his work that sometimes depart from rational interpretations of his actual words. In this study, the frequently-offered notion that his adoption of spiritualism in late 1866 caused him to reverse himself on the universality of natural selection is taken to task, with arguments linked to his own words on the subject.

Building Strength Through Collaboration: What Faith Community Nurses Need To Know, Marcia A. Potter

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

This article is a practical guide and viewpoint narrative that offers definitions, justifications for, process steps, and a how-to checklist for Faith Community Nurses considering collaboration between multiple agencies outside of their own. The author offers simple guidelines and how-to advice on securing success, avoiding risks, and preventing costly misunderstandings between cooperating agencies when combining resources.

Be Still And Know That I Am God, Phyllis Ann Solari-Twadell Phd, Rn, Mpa, Faan

International Journal of Faith Community Nursing

A short reflection that can be used to center self and increase relaxation

"Can These Bones Live?": The Relationship Between Transformational Leadership And Church Revitalization, Gerald Gifford

Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between Transformational Leadership Theory and church revitalization. The researcher attempted to answer two questions. (1) To what extent do pastors who led Kentucky Baptist Convention churches through a successful revitalization exhibit the characteristics of Transformational Leadership? (2) What, according to the pastors, were the primary causes of the revitalization? The MLQ survey by Mind Garden, Inc. was used to investigate the first question by comparing a target sample with a comparative group who did not lead a revitalization. Scoring on the MLQ confirmed that those in the target sample were transformational leaders. The comparative group, …

Use Of Sources In Ancient Compositions, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

This essay contextualizes the Synoptic Gospels in terms of ancient writing materials and processes. Greco-Roman writers predominantly used waxed tablets and bookrolls, although codices emerged in the first century CE. Authors could recall texts from memory, but writers could also maintain visual contact when studying, collating, copying, quoting, or paraphrasing sources. Previous scholarship has highlighted the difficulties of interweaving multiple sources and rearranging their sayings and narratives. However, neither operation was unprecedented or overly complicated, as evinced by Septuagint recensions, Josephus’s Antiquities, and Tatian’s Diatessaron. Some writing processes were more complicated than others, but ancient authors did not always work …

Bibliography, M. Susan Jones

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by M. Susan Jones.

Bibliography, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Bibliography of publications by James W. Barker.

First Church Of Christ, Scientist - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3654), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3654. “Historical Record of First Church of Christ, Scientist,” a narrative by Kate (Topmiller) Hunt outlining the formation and growth of a Christian Science Society in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the chartering of the First Church of Christ, Scientist in 1925. Includes a list of the early members and a photograph of the church building at 11th and Center Streets in Bowling Green.

Christian Science Society - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3640), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3640. Legal papers, notes and historical data relating to the Christian Science Society, Bowling Green, Kentucky, particularly its acquisition of the church at 11th and Center Streets in Bowling Green, formerly the home of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the Second Baptist Church. Includes articles of incorporation and bylaws for the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Bowling Green (1967) and draft articles of incorporation for the Society (1994).

Wku Course Evaluations, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Course evaluations for James W. Barker between Fall 2015 and Spring 2022.

#Churchtoo: The Movement Created To Expose The Toxicity Of Gender Roles And Purity Culture In Modern Day United States Evangelicalism, Grace Alexieff

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

Purity culture was born out of conservative evangelical teachings like abstinence and complementarianism. Complementarianism is a biblically based gender ideology that God created men and women as equals in worth but distinct in the roles they are meant to play in the home, the relationship, and the church. Purity culture gained popularity in the broader United States in the 1990s due to an increase in federal funding for abstinence-only sex education as well as its appeal to the heteronormative patriarchal culture already instilled throughout the United States. While purity culture fell out of fashion in the broader U.S. by the …

Curriculum Vitae, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Curriculum vitae of James W. Barker.

Eusebian Canon Ten In Codex Fuldensis, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Eusebius of Caesarea innovated a system for locating Gospel parallels by sorting hundreds of sections into ten canons. Two centuries later, Victor of Capua produced Codex Fuldensis, a Vulgate New Testament replacing the separate Gospels with a harmony and the Eusebian apparatus. Whereas Eusebius’s Canon X demarcated unparalleled material, Victor’s scribe repeatedly wrote Canon X within episodes occurring in other Gospels. I argue that these paratextual solecisms illuminate the production of the codex. Victor occasionally wrote a single section number in the margin of his Vorlage to direct his scribe. The scribe then mislabeled the passage as Canon X. In …

Gospel Center - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3613), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3613. Two record books, 1937-1947 and 1956-1960, of the Gospel Center, Bowling Green, Kentucky. The books record membership, meeting minutes, and financial data. Also included is a list of baptisms, 1937-1943.

Historical-Critical Methods, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Historical criticism attempts to understand NT texts in their original contexts, free of later dogmatic presuppositions. This essay describes its traditional inquiries and methods as well as recent trends. The discussion divides into four sections: textual criticism, the Gospels and Jesus, Paul and his letters, and the limits of canon.

New Union Congregation - Green County, Kentucky (Sc 3577), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3577. Minute book of the New Union Congregation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Green County, Kentucky (which by 1922 had united with the Greensburg Cumberland Presbyterian Church). Includes a typescript of the minute book in paper and electronic format, with added index; historical notes, 1826-1967; and data concerning the land on which the church was built.

Ua37/43 Faculty Staff Personal Papers John Minton, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Personal papers of John Minton.

The Acts Of John Within The Johannine Corpus, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

This essay reassesses the place of the Acts of John among other Johannine literature. Although the Gospel, three epistles, and Apocalypse were eventually deemed canonical, contemporary scholarship typically treats Revelation separately. Based on patristic testimony and manuscript materiality, I contend that not only the Apocalypse but also the Acts of John should be (re)incorporated alongside the Gospel and Epistles. Charles E. Hill has argued persuasively that the proto-orthodox were unafraid of the Fourth Gospel, despite its popularity among heterodox and heretical groups. I extend the same argument to the Acts of John.