Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

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 …

Biopolitics And Belief: The Impacts Of Religious Attitudes On Reproductive Rights In The U.S., Katlyn Barbaccia

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade (1973)—a groundbreaking case that legalized the right to have an abortion—which signified a deep rift in the nation between the opinions of its lawmakers and citizens in the wake of a widening partisan gap. Biopower, according to Foucault, can be defined as the governing of bodies wherein citizens are stripped of bodily autonomy and are closely regulated by the nation-state. Manifested in political consequences, this can be defined as biopolitics, or when the nation-state’s ideas are made into a reality in the political realm. …

Vaccine Hesitancy, The Covid 19 Pandemic, And Christian Fundamentalism, Nicole Drew

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Over the past few decades, religion has continued to move to the forefront of American politics, with many viewing fundamental Christianity as synonymous with the Republican Party. Donald Trump's presidency has increased this tenfold, with significant figures within American Christianity voicing their support for him and tying him into Biblical prophecies. In the media, this appears to have affected how this demographic views the COVID 19 pandemic. The literature in this area focuses heavily on American Christians' response to mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and other attempts to mitigate the spread of the CoronaVirus; however, research on how this same demographic …

Networked Religion: Metaphysical Redemption Or Eternal Regret?, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"I’d like to set the tone of this commentary commenting upon the above quotation by Reagan: Can we doubt that war criminals in your administration, under the tutelage of your ‘Reagan Doctrine,’ transformed the country into a harrowing neoliberal horror show starring the nomenklatura of corporate America? They achieved this world-historical assault on the working-class through foreign and domestic policies and acts of clandestine military outlawry that can only provoke a rational mind to contemptuously scoff at your use of the word ‘refuge’ and ‘freedom’ to describe the USA."

Shamanism & Its Basic Spiritual Function To Heal, Carla Frias

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Shamanism is known as the oldest spiritual and mystical practice still existing in our planet. Its presence dates back 30 to 40 thousand years ago, a time where consciousness emerged into the human mind. Throughout time and evolution, many of the shamanic practices have spread across the world and remain prevalent in a multitude of religious practices. Nevertheless, over time, their esoteric views on healing have become commonly overlooked and replaced by modern science. The holistic interpretation of human nature is being forgotten by a more “rational” approach about humankind. But what does shaman medicine truly entail? And how can …

The Oval Office Is Ready For Madame President: Predictors And Support, Brittney E. Souza

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The 2016 United States Presidential Election brings the revolutionary idea of a woman president with the Democratic candidate of Hillary Clinton. The current opposition for a woman president has been generalized gender stereotypes that she will be incompetent, too sensitive, temperamental and fickle with other world leaders. Many studies show that these arguments lack evidence in current female leaders and many commanding women in democracies have proven to be sufficient leaders to their male counterparts. Judeo-Christian traditions have permeated political voting and has acted as an important role in American public opinion on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. These …

Introduction To America's Four Gods: What We Say About God And What That Says About Us, Paul Froese, Christoper Bader

Sociology Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Despite all the hype surrounding the "New Atheism," the United States remains one of the most religious nations on Earth. In fact, 95% of Americans believe in God--a level of agreement rarely seen in American life. The greatest divisions in America are not between atheists and believers, or even between people of different faiths. What divides us, this groundbreaking book shows, is how we conceive of God and the role He plays in our daily lives.

America's Four Gods draws on the most wide-ranging, comprehensive, and illuminating survey of American's religious beliefs ever conducted to offer a systematic exploration of …

In God We Trust: Images Of God And Trust In The United States Among The Highly Religious, F. Carson Mencken, Christoper Bader, Elizabeth Embry

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

In this analysis, the authors use Greeley's 'religion as poetry' model to frame an analysis of images of God and trust among the highly religious. Using the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey, the authors regress four ordinal measures of social trust on two images of God measures and a bank of religion and demographic controls. The authors find that having a loving image of God creates greater levels of trust in all four measures among the highly religious. They also find that having an image of God as angry creates less trust in all four measures of trust. Implications for theory …

Love, Nancy M. Martin, Joseph Runzo

Religious Studies Faculty Books and Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

Images Of God: The Effect Of Personal Theologies On Moral Attitudes, Political Affiliation, And Religious Behavior, Christoper Bader, Paul Froese

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Social scientists often explain religious effects in terms of religious group affiliations. Typically, researchers identify religious groups by denomination or some broader popular categorization, such as “fundamentalist” or “evangelical.” To capture religious differences more effectively, Steensland et al. (2000) propose an intricate classification of American denominations that takes into account the theology and historical development of various American religious traditions to predict individual attitudes and behaviors. We believe that equal care and attention should be devoted to the development of key measures of belief that may cross denominational lines. In this article, we propose one such measure: personal conceptions or …

World-Views And The Epistemic Foundations Of Theism, Joseph Runzo

Religious Studies Faculty Articles and Research

Epistemological issues have inevitably been perennial issues for theism. For any claim to have insight into the nature and acts of the divine requires some sort of substantiation. And the appeal to faith typically made to meet this demand is often unconvincing. This raises a fundamental question: what could constitute proper grounds for theistic belief? In attempting to answer this question, we will need to address the underlying epistemic issue of what justifies commitment to any world–view.

Relativism And Absolutism In Bultmann Demythologizing Hermeneutic, Joseph Runzo

Religious Studies Faculty Articles and Research

The reliability of the kerygmatic tradition must not be questioned, for otherwise the eschatological event to which the kerygma testifies would be implicated in the relativity of all historical knowledge.