Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
- Discipline
-
- Social and Behavioral Sciences (471)
- History (348)
- Christianity (326)
- Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion (326)
- United States History (206)
-
- Sociology (154)
- Ethics in Religion (106)
- Philosophy (106)
- Biblical Studies (103)
- Psychology (103)
- Practical Theology (97)
- Education (93)
- Catholic Studies (87)
- Christian Denominations and Sects (87)
- Other Religion (85)
- Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (84)
- History of Religion (82)
- International and Area Studies (82)
- Law (80)
- Religious Education (78)
- Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies (77)
- Political Science (76)
- Mormon Studies (74)
- English Language and Literature (73)
- History of Christianity (66)
- Anthropology (64)
- Comparative Methodologies and Theories (59)
- Islamic Studies (57)
- Institution
-
- Western Kentucky University (198)
- Brigham Young University (113)
- Technological University Dublin (65)
- Asbury Theological Seminary (64)
- Southern Methodist University (64)
-
- Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis (54)
- Liberty University (52)
- George Fox University (48)
- Augustana College (32)
- Gettysburg College (30)
- Butler University (28)
- Chapman University (28)
- City University of New York (CUNY) (25)
- Singapore Management University (25)
- Claremont Colleges (24)
- Dordt University (23)
- Providence College (22)
- University of Denver (22)
- Loyola University Chicago (19)
- University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law (18)
- University of Nebraska at Omaha (18)
- University of Richmond (18)
- Santa Clara University (17)
- Old Dominion University (16)
- SIT Graduate Institute/SIT Study Abroad (16)
- Sacred Heart University (15)
- Pepperdine University (14)
- Rochester Institute of Technology (14)
- Syracuse University (14)
- University of South Florida (14)
- Publication Year
- Publication
-
- Manuscript Collection Finding Aids (170)
- Articles (64)
- ATS Dissertations (55)
- Concordia Theological Monthly (39)
- Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe (33)
-
- Electronic Theses and Dissertations (28)
- BYU Studies (24)
- Theses and Dissertations (24)
- Doctoral Dissertations and Projects (23)
- Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations (23)
- Research Collection School of Social Sciences (23)
- Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses (22)
- Faculty Publications (18)
- Religion in the Age of Enlightenment (18)
- Pro Rege (17)
- University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class (17)
- Folklife Archives Finding Aids (15)
- Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS (15)
- Doctor of Pastoral Music Projects and Theses (14)
- Journal of Religion & Film (14)
- Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies (13)
- Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection (12)
- Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship (12)
- Masters Theses (12)
- Religious Studies Faculty Publications (12)
- USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations (12)
- Mormon Studies Review (11)
- Psychology (11)
- The Light of Islam (11)
- Whittier Scholars Program (11)
- Publication Type
- File Type
Articles 181 - 210 of 1700
Full-Text Articles in Religion
Religious Musical Art Of Ukraine In The Conditions Of Cultural Transformations, Maksym Melnychuk, Oleh Sokolovskyi
Religious Musical Art Of Ukraine In The Conditions Of Cultural Transformations, Maksym Melnychuk, Oleh Sokolovskyi
Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe
The article explores Ukrainian religious musical art and highlights the transformative aspects of the development of Ukraine's spiritual music against the backdrop of cultural and historical changes. This phenomenon is analyzed as both a manifestation of the religiosity of the Ukrainian nation and its spiritual essence, as well as the result of the creative pursuits of composers--their doubts and efforts to infuse musical harmony with religious meaning and envelop their works with profound Christian significance. Spiritual music manifests and functions in various spheres of social existence but most naturally, fully, and effectively demonstrates its “life parameters” within temple and church …
"Fulfil In Beauty My Imperfect Prayer": Mythologization In Santayana's Aesthetics Of Religion, India M. Johnson-Mccauley
"Fulfil In Beauty My Imperfect Prayer": Mythologization In Santayana's Aesthetics Of Religion, India M. Johnson-Mccauley
Honors College Theses
This thesis addresses George Santayana’s theories of art and religion in the context of turn-of-the-century religious thought and introduces the concept of the mythologization of religion. Santayana, the Spanish-American turn-of-the-century philosopher, poet, and novelist, took a naturalist, pragmatist, and religious non-realist approach to understanding the world that prompted works regarding the nature of art, The Sense of Beauty (1896), and the nature of religion, Interpretations of Poetry and Religion (1900). Within these two works, Santayana proposes a theory of aesthetics and a theory of religion that seem to function in tandem with each other. According to his theories, art, particularly …
Playing To Grow. Roundtable Interview On Games, Education, And Character, Owen Gottlieb, Matthew Farber, Paul Darvasi
Playing To Grow. Roundtable Interview On Games, Education, And Character, Owen Gottlieb, Matthew Farber, Paul Darvasi
Articles
In this roundtable interview moderated by Paul Darvasi, lecturer at the University of Toronto and co-founder of Gold Bug Interactive, Owen Gottlieb and Matthew Farber discuss research and practice at the intersection of religion, character education, and games in schools. Gottlieb is an associate professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, founder and lead faculty at the Initiative in Religion, Culture, and Policy at the MAGIC center, and founder and director of the Interaction, Media, and Learning Lab at RIT, where he specializes in interactive media, learning, religion, and culture. Farber is an associate professor of educational technology and coordinator …
The Religious Landscape Of Uruguay In The Third Millennium: Present Piety As A Product Of The Past?, Brandon Kriplean
The Religious Landscape Of Uruguay In The Third Millennium: Present Piety As A Product Of The Past?, Brandon Kriplean
Honors Theses
Of all Latin American countries, Uruguay enjoys both the lowest percentage of Catholics and the highest percentage of religiously unaffiliated. The central aim of this thesis is to explore the extent to which historical secularization processes and laicidad are responsible for the low number of Catholics and the large number of religiously unaffiliated. With regards to the former, the historical evidence suggests that the small Catholic population is not a result of laicidad but is instead a product of internal issues within the Uruguayan Catholic Church. Part 1 of this thesis will explore the factors that have weakened the Uruguayan …
Curriculum As Theology: A Framework For Analyzing Curriculum As Theological Text, Russell Miller
Curriculum As Theology: A Framework For Analyzing Curriculum As Theological Text, Russell Miller
The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community
This article seeks to establish a framework that contemplates curriculum as theological text by exploring the works of Neil Postman, W.F. Pinar, and C.S. Lewis in relation to past and present research and commentary. The paper investigates a range of concepts related to theology and curriculum including culture and religion, ethics, and morality. The author argues that curriculum is intrinsically a theological endeavor due to the nature of humanity and the interaction between learning and spiritual development.
Imperfect Church, Perfect God, Claire N. Barr
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 …
Psychology: Religious Conflicts Amongst A Christian Campus, Cole Peterson, Alyssa Shearing, Sydney Willis, Melody Alvarez
Psychology: Religious Conflicts Amongst A Christian Campus, Cole Peterson, Alyssa Shearing, Sydney Willis, Melody Alvarez
Science University Research Symposium (SURS)
The current study seeks to develop and validate a quantitative measure of religion on a Christian campus. As the influence of religion in multiple aspects of the world continues to evolve, it becomes increasingly important to gain an understanding of the experiences of college students within a Christian campus. It has been found that “exposure to new ideas that college provides were thought to lead students to question and ultimately abandon their traditional religious beliefs” (Maryl & Oeur, 2009). More research regarding the effect of religion specifically on a Christian campus is needed; therefore, a reliable and valid psychometric scale …
A Spiritual Formation Ministry For Small Groups, Deborah Defrank Tipps
A Spiritual Formation Ministry For Small Groups, Deborah Defrank Tipps
Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses
This dissertation was born out of my own personal experience in the local church as a disciple seeking to follow Jesus Christ, and grow in his image. It began many years ago when I started to notice that the God I encountered while practicing centering prayer was, at times, very different from the God I encountered in the study of scripture, and in some of the teachings of the church. By different I mean that the God I encountered in centering prayer was bigger, more merciful, patient, loving, and inclusive than the God I had experienced through all my years …
"It Is 'About' Nothing But Itself": Tolkienian Theology Beyond The Domination Of The Author, Tom Emanuel
"It Is 'About' Nothing But Itself": Tolkienian Theology Beyond The Domination Of The Author, Tom Emanuel
Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature
There is a broad stream of Christian interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction, especially The Lord of the Rings, which views it as the intentionally, essentially Christian work of an intentionally, essentially Christian author. This reductive, exclusivist approach does not do justice to the complex, generative interactivity between Tolkien’s faith, the faith of his readers (or lack thereof), and the text itself. Building on work by Veryln Flieger, Michael Drout, and Robin A. Reid, this paper interrogates how Christian Tolkien scholarship drafts Tolkien the human sub-creator to perform Foucault’s author-function by suppressing his contradictions and painting a figure whose life …
From Patriarchal Stereotypes To Matriarchal Pleasures Of Hybridity: Representation Of A Muslim Family In Berlin, Rahime Özgün Kehya Dr
From Patriarchal Stereotypes To Matriarchal Pleasures Of Hybridity: Representation Of A Muslim Family In Berlin, Rahime Özgün Kehya Dr
Journal of Religion & Film
Sinan Çetin’s blockbuster Berlin in Berlin (1993) is a Turkish-German co-production. In contrast to certain representational tendencies with German orientalism or Turkish occidentalism, it deconstructs the intersectional structures of migration, religion, and gender. The portrayal of religion in films about Turkish-German labour migration is a kind of cultural narcissism often projected into national cinema by denigrating the faith of the other and glorifying one’s own religion. However, perspectives at such intersections are critical and require sensitivity in filmmaking, as films can create prejudice or help build peaceful relationships around these sensitive issues. The paper employs discourse analysis in linking Derrida’s …
Reframing Space: Religion, History, And Memory In The Early Documentary Film Of The Yugoslav Space, Milja Radovic
Reframing Space: Religion, History, And Memory In The Early Documentary Film Of The Yugoslav Space, Milja Radovic
Journal of Religion & Film
This paper examines cinematic representations of religion and religious communities in the early cinema of the Yugoslav space. This paper introduces the readers to the rich heritage of the cinema of the Yugoslav space by providing 1) the first study of the representations of religion and the concepts of faith in the early film, and 2) novel approaches in reading religion and history through film. Film is used as a primary rather than supplementary source in historical research on diverse religious and ethnic communities in this part of the Balkan Peninsula. This is the first study that investigates the importance, …
"The Opium Of The People" - The Effects Of Soviet State Atheism On The Muslims Of Central Asia, Joshua Hughes
"The Opium Of The People" - The Effects Of Soviet State Atheism On The Muslims Of Central Asia, Joshua Hughes
Senior Theses
This thesis explores the Soviet Union’s approach to Islam in the Central Asian republics of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan and the effects that these policies have had on believers following the collapse of the Soviet Union. As the first nation to adopt atheism as official policy, the Soviet Party-state employed many tactics to suppress Islam in the region through violence, propaganda, and strict control. Relying on existing literature written on the topic, I begin by offering a historical analysis of the attacks on Islam in the 1920s and 1930s. In an attempt to expand the scope of English-language …
Faith-Based Fissures Take Many Forms, Lily Kong
Faith-Based Fissures Take Many Forms, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In a commentary, SMU President Professor Lily Kong discussed why religion continues to be a source of contestation over space the world over. She noted that it is important to recognise that conflicts and contestations do not just occur between religions, or between the religious and the secular, but within religions as well, and called for religious leaders to be mindful of the dynamics within their organisations and to consider how to manage potential tensions and conflicts.
Queer Crises: Movements From Queerness And Feelings Of White Religion In The United States, Austin Williams Miller
Queer Crises: Movements From Queerness And Feelings Of White Religion In The United States, Austin Williams Miller
Communication ETDs
Anchored by contemporary crises surrounding queer and trans people in the United States, I employ movements from queerness within an affective queer phenomenological framework to understand how arrangements of “white religion” (Schaefer, 2015, p. 63), a process whereby U.S. American Christian forms escape ideology into religious affective economies in the United States, relegate queer people “to the background… to sustain a certain direction” (Ahmed, 2006, p. 31). I assemble a queer rhetorical context analyzing white religious space in documentary film, secular sexual regulation through contemporary U.S. legal contexts around marriage, and settler colonial Christian nationalist political imaginations to critique how …
Christological Apologetics: How Late Antique Christians Contextualized Christology In Inter-Faith Dialogue With Muslims, Andrew P. Hillaker
Christological Apologetics: How Late Antique Christians Contextualized Christology In Inter-Faith Dialogue With Muslims, Andrew P. Hillaker
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The earliest Christian-Muslim dialogue offers a unique glimpse into how Christians viewed the religion of their neighbors. Much of contemporary American scholarship misplaces focus geographically and linguistically in the West, chronologically late, and theologically narrow. These biases neglect those who had the earliest interaction with Islam, allowing for misunderstanding of how Christians originally understood Islam. This study examines the apologetic arguments of representatives under Islamic rule, in the late 7th to early 9th centuries, and both inside and outside theological orthodoxy, to understand how they used Christology to distinguish Christianity from Islam, whether as a heretical group or a distinct …
Marital Quality And Marital Satisfaction In Protestant Haitian Americans Vs. Non-Christian Haitian Americans, Frantz Lamour
Marital Quality And Marital Satisfaction In Protestant Haitian Americans Vs. Non-Christian Haitian Americans, Frantz Lamour
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The current study examined perceptions regarding marital satisfaction as described by Protestants Haitians Americans and non-Christian Haitian Americans. Participants were selected from married Christian and non-Christian couples that have been married for over five years within the age range of 25-53. The study used the Religion-Adapted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy theory (R-CBT) framework. R-CBT is a well-known theoretical framework that integrates religious interventions in the therapeutic relationship to educate clients about the triangular relationship between thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and cognitive restructuring (de Abreu Costa & Moreira-Almeida, 2022). Religion-Adapted Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (R-CBT) incorporates cognitive behavioral therapy methods from the perspective of …
The Spiritual Migrants Of Sogenji: Notes Of Participant Observation In A Rinzai Zen Temple, Andrei-Razvan Coltea
The Spiritual Migrants Of Sogenji: Notes Of Participant Observation In A Rinzai Zen Temple, Andrei-Razvan Coltea
International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage
Anomie is a cultural pathology that is becoming chronic in the West, characterized by the erosion of values, disintegration and deregulation. Amongst its symptoms we find anxiety, isolation, depression, tribalism, incoherence and loss of meaning. Individuo-globalism is a new ideology that permeates the religious market created by globalisation, encouraging individuals to discover, nurture and express their ‘true self’. This new spirituality forms the background for a journey that our ‘heroes’, a handful of non-Japanese inhabitants of a Japanese Rinzai Zen monastery, have been undertaking for years in search of the philosopher’s stone that could cure anomie and its symptoms. At …
The Influence Of Religion On Marital Crisis: A Qualitative Study, Kendal Florence Thomas
The Influence Of Religion On Marital Crisis: A Qualitative Study, Kendal Florence Thomas
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this case study was to explore how married Christians couples and pastors perceive the influence of religion, religious over-idealization, and community-centered social processes on couples’ ability to cope with relationship crises within their marriage in New York. The theory guiding this study was the Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura (1977). The Social Learning Theory was fundamental in the discussion of marriage because behaviors can occur in a marriage that one spouse may disagree with, but due to lack of consequences or rewards, the behavior has persisted, leading to conflict within the marriage. The researcher interviewed ten …
Flores, Rigoberto Flores
Flores, Rigoberto Flores
Masters Theses
My name is Rigoberto Flores and I was born in Guerrero, Mexico. The work I make involves politics, immigration, cartel violence and religious themes. I’m interested in presenting these challenging and difficult concepts, to have them remain in the public consciousness. The work I produce involve charcoal drawings, textiles, print, and painting. The work I create is intended to address inconstancies in established ideas, usually involving government violence. Throughout history art has been used to promote institutional propaganda. I am searching to do the same, but to oppose those structures.
Online Worship And The Autism Community, Stephen J. Bedard
Online Worship And The Autism Community, Stephen J. Bedard
Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture
The COVID-19 pandemic forced many faith communities to move their services online. This may have been a pragmatic decision to adapt to health regulations but it also provided an accessible option for autistic worshipers to participate in their faith community. Although there are some challenges to online worship services, they remain an important option for autistic members of faith communities.
Journey With A Purpose, Walter Prescher
Journey With A Purpose, Walter Prescher
Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses
The modern church is in bondage from years of trauma rooted in the Post-Christendom decline. As the church has responded to the trauma it is enduring, it has responded by becoming stagnant as it seeks to maintain any relevance it still has. What the modern church is going through has strong parallels with the Hebrew people who were in bondage in Egypt and were delivered through the wilderness into the promised land of Canaan. Following this example, this dissertation walks church leadership through an understanding of the traumatized church and presents a what a modern-day Exodus journey could look like …
Eudaimonist Exemplarism And Saints, Brian C. Clark
Eudaimonist Exemplarism And Saints, Brian C. Clark
Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations
Contemporary moral philosophy tends to treat saints as either maximally moral and thus exemplary only for those who share their ideals or as so morally excellent that they are inimitable and “Other.” Thus, the saint is practically useless as a model for plain persons. Moreover, in the case of Christian saints, modern moral theories tend not to account for their religious and theological dimensions. As a remedy, this dissertation argues for thinking about the exemplarity of saints in eudaimonist and theologically naturalist terms. Christian saints exemplify what Christians consider human flourishing, revising natural accounts of human flourishing but preserving the …
Educating A Denomination: Albert C. Outler And American Theological Education, 1925 - 1974, Lane Davis
Educating A Denomination: Albert C. Outler And American Theological Education, 1925 - 1974, Lane Davis
Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation provides a critical biography of Albert C. Outler, a prominent historian and theologian in modern Methodism and analyzes three significant emphases in his work: ecumenism, theology and psychology, and Methodist doctrine. The study begins with Outler's formative education and his ministry as a Methodist pastor in Georgia. Outler's doctoral education at Yale focused his work on discovering the connections of the "common history" of all Christians. The study then considers Outler’s extensive work in three interconnected disciplines: ecumenical studies, the study of religion and psychology, and Methodist theology and doctrine. The connection between these diverse subjects lies in …
The Voice Of One Crying In The Wilderness, Megan Kenyon
The Voice Of One Crying In The Wilderness, Megan Kenyon
MFA in Visual Art
I am a Midwestern, Christian, and feminist artist. I make work about the beautiful, broken, and absurd ways in which American evangelical culture influences lives, especially women’s lives. I’m dragging everything into the light by deconstructing and critiquing the world in which I live, move, and have my being. I do this by harnessing prophetic imagination and incarnational space to shine a light on how patriarchy infects evangelical Christian theology and practice. Using prophetic imagination through photographic self-portraiture and text (my own and found texts using the Bible), I seek to make plain the effects of white, Christian patriarchy on …
A Brief Analysis Of Contemporary Confucianism's Research On Feminine Topics, Jingzhi Pan
A Brief Analysis Of Contemporary Confucianism's Research On Feminine Topics, Jingzhi Pan
Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters
Although Confucianism has been recognized as a world religion for more than a hundred years today, recent research, which studies it as a religion, still seems numbed to or ignores day-to-day feminine topics like sexual crimes, domestic violence, male patronize, and even gendered religious value itself. More often, even if they announce they are studying the religion, people study Confucianism as a philosophy, an ethic, a phenomenon, a political strategy…everything else but a religion with transcendent values like other world religions. This essay will overview the research of contemporary Confucian feminine topics and analyze and argue their utilities in helping …
Mother Goddess As Mother Nature, Elizabeth Ungar
Mother Goddess As Mother Nature, Elizabeth Ungar
Senior Theses
This paper analyzes the connection between the Ancient Mother Goddess and the modern EcoFeminist movement by illustrating similar traits and symbolic images that they share. I first examine how far back the mother figure was praised in human history, and how images of the feminine body connect to the nurturing aspect of our Earth in Paleolithic times. I then analyze the Mother Goddess figure through three ancient religious Goddesses; the Hindu Goddess Devi and all of her embodiments, the Ancient Egyptian Goddess Isis, and the mother goddess Gaia in Greek mythology.
The Bible In Full Color: A High School Bible Study On The Inductive Bible Study Method, Margaret Gregory
The Bible In Full Color: A High School Bible Study On The Inductive Bible Study Method, Margaret Gregory
Senior Honors Theses
Modern Christianity is saturated with Bible studies for students. However, a crucial skill the Christian student needs to learn – how to study the Bible independently – is a topic difficult to find in contemporary youth Bible study curricula. While there is a wealth of biblically sound, helpful Bible studies that students can benefit from, it is essential that students do not remain dependent on these resources. One goal for youth ministry leaders is that their students graduate high school with the knowledge and tools they need to interpret the Scriptures for themselves correctly. The creative thesis will be an …
Lgbtqia+ People And Religious Trauma, Cira Abiseid
Lgbtqia+ People And Religious Trauma, Cira Abiseid
Graduate Theses and Dissertations
Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and asexual people (LGBTQIA+) experience religious trauma caused by the harmful messaging often aimed at sexual and gender minorities. Identity dissonance can be created when LGBTQIA+ people find their religious and sexual or gender minority identities at odds with each other. A review of existing literature revealed themes of identity erasure, internalized homophobia, and resilience, but there was limited research involving this population. This qualitative study centers the voices of those who have experienced religious trauma based on their identities and works to understand their healing journeys. Fifteen LGBTQIA+ individuals participated …
An Examination Of The Association Of Religiosity, Purity Culture, And Religious Trauma With Symptoms Of Depression And Anxiety, Kaelyn R. Griffin
An Examination Of The Association Of Religiosity, Purity Culture, And Religious Trauma With Symptoms Of Depression And Anxiety, Kaelyn R. Griffin
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
While no consistent definition yet exists for religious trauma, religious abuse is typically defined as a misuse of authority by a spiritual leader to coerce, control, or exploit those under their leadership, which may in turn lead to the experience of religious trauma. Numerous studies suggest that experiencing abuse within a religious environment is a both global phenomenon and common experience. The impact of religious abuse has recently gained greater media attention, specifically related to the social and psychological impact of leaving high-cost religious groups (i.e., those with rigid rules or groups from which departure leads to isolation and rejection …
Demythologizing Homer: Investigating Religion In Minoan Crete, Elizabeth Rybarczyk
Demythologizing Homer: Investigating Religion In Minoan Crete, Elizabeth Rybarczyk
Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects
The Minoan civilization of Bronze-Age Crete has, until recently, been obscured in mythological uncertainty. As a prehistoric civilization, the available evidence for historic analysis is sparse and ambiguous. This paper evaluates the material evidence for ritual activity to chart the religious developments of Minoan Crete. In the earliest periods of their civilization, the Minoans practiced animism, which reflected their ideals towards survival and cooperation. As their prosperity grew due to technological advancements, a social hierarchy formed. The emerging elite employed religion to justify their claim to power by appropriating religion, which culminated in a dual-monotheistic Knossian theocracy. This lasted until …