Sociology of Religion Commons^™

Changes In Sufism In The American Context, Patrick Hamilton

Denison Journal of Religion

This article considers the ways in which Sufism has altered since entering the American context. While in Islamic countries, Sufism's atypical rituals and interpretations of the Qur'an often made it a target of mainstream Islam. Once Sufism arrived in the United States, however, it rapidly began to change as practitioners no longer had to consider the pressures of a largely Islamic community. This does not mean, however, that there is no pluralism within Sufism in the United States. While early generations of immigrant Sufis remain more strongly tied to a traditional Islamic heritage, many of the Euro-American converts claim no …

Desmond Tutu: A Theological Model For Justice In The Context Of Apartheid, Tracy Riggle

Denison Journal of Religion

The power that religion can have over society today is undeniable. Riggle laments that our culture is plagued with strong memories of terrorist attacks, and fear of religious injustices based on gender and sexuality. Instead of giving up on religion's potential for positive influence, the author turns to an example of life-giving religion. Desmond Tutu, an Anglican Archbishop and South African political activist, demonstrates the continued existence of life-giving faith. Tutu, a man influenced by his Anglican religion, his African spirituality, and Apartheid, bases his theology on imago dei, the notion that humans are made in God's own image and …

The Tower Of Babel: The Dispersion Of God's People, Stephanie Dixon

Denison Journal of Religion

Dixon reimagines the story of the tower of Babel by making God's dispersion of the people a reward instead of a punishment. While this story is often read as a sign of humanity's hubris and disobedience and God's punishment, this essay choose to see the narrative as evidence of God's pride in his people and his confidence in them to populate the earth. While the vast majority of the Genesis stories show very specific interactions between particular men and women and God, this story depicts a broader narrative. Perhaps while the other stories attempt to demonstrate the relationships that exist …

The Tower Of Babel, Laura Perrings

Denison Journal of Religion

This essay refocuses the narrative of the tower of Babel to focus not on the division of languages or cultures, but rather on the relationship with god that this division reflected. Perrings notes that while the original unified language of humanity must have eased communication between people and can be seen, particularly in this day of cultural tension and violence, that this relationship was not pleasing to god. God is not only offended by the pride of the people, but is also concerned with their inattention to his rules and also their misunderstanding of their relationship with god. The focus …

Jean-Paul Sartre: The Bad Faith Of Empire, Megan Henricks

Denison Journal of Religion

Henricks shows Sartre's concept of "bad faith" as a considerable influence several theologians' criticism of empire. In order to explain "bad faith," Henricks first elucidates Sartre's concepts of "being-in-itself" and "being-for-itself." While "being-in-itself" implies on object that simply is what it is and cannot become more than its current identity, "being-for-itself" has the capacity to change and transcend its current identity. Humans, Henricks points out, are "beings-for-themselves" but they also contain qualities associated with "beings-in-themselves." This duality of humanity is of the utmost importance to respect. "Bad faith" is a lie to oneself that has destabilizing results. "Bad Faith" can …

A President's Jeremiad Of Terror (Excerpts From Honors Thesis, The Rhetoric Of The War On Terror: George W. Bush's Transformation Of The Jeremiad), Lauren Alissa Clark

Denison Journal of Religion

Clark examines George W. Bush's transformation of the Jeremiad as an internal critique to a self-promoting form that characterizes an "other" as the enemy, and not the self. The Jeremiad is a rhetorical form that is originally taken from the biblical prophet Jeremiah. The form consists of four primary steps: (1) painting a picture of the ideal of the community, (2) clarifying how things currently stand, (3) warning against what will happen if the community does not change, (4) offering hope for a future in which the community does change its behavior. In its original form, all of these steps …

Aids And Empire: Setting: The Conditions Of A Pandemic, Cora Walsh

Denison Journal of Religion

Walsh criticizes the imperialistic tendencies of the United States for not only helping to create an economic and social system that stratifies wealth, but also creates such deplorable conditions of the poor that their physical well-being is also jeopardized. This is seen most profoundly in sub-Saharan Africa where the AIDS pandemic has hit most violently. Furthermore, Walsh is disappointed in the United States for creating an atmosphere of inefficient humanitarian response. During the presidency of George W. Bush, the U.S. frequently gave government resources to conservative Christian groups that practice such things as abstinence only responses, making effective treatment to …

When Politics Dominates Religion: A Theological Critique Of Televangelist Rod Parsley, Leigh Rogers

Denison Journal of Religion

This essay is a critique of the nationalism of the religious right, as it is personified by Rod Parsley, a televangelist based in Columbus, Ohio. Rogers claims that the election of George W. Bush, and the terrorist attacks of September 11th, have created an atmosphere in the United States that has bound religion to a partisan, nationalistic agenda. Rogers, fearing the impact of this mindset, offers a theological critique of Parsley and others with similar agendas. Rogers' critique is threefold, beginning with Parsley's polarized view of good and evil. By accepting American imperialism as an absolute good, anything that stands …

Coming To Terms With Death: Theodicy In Hindu Myth And Biblical Narrative, Gitanjali Bakshi

Denison Journal of Religion

This article examines the manner in which two major world religions explain death. Bakshi claims that both religions make peace with the end of life through an overwhelming respect for nature, theodicy, and a "masochistic attitude." Using the language and theories of Peter Berger, Bakshi examines the Hindu myth of Mahishasuramardini and the Biblical narrative of Job. The story of Mahisha, Bakshi explains, shows him as a half-brahmin, half-beast who desperately craves the immortality of the gods. All of his attempts fail under the overwhelming power of Durga, the creator and destroyer goddess. Right before Durga kills Mahisha, he surrenders …

Ritual And Religious Tradition: A Comparative Essay On The Use Of Ritual In Christian, Jewish And Hindu Practice, Joshua Clark

Denison Journal of Religion

This essay examines the link between existential despair and the use of religious ritual in several religions. Clark argues that ritual proves its significance when community members are suffering. Ritual does not offer much to those who are content within their current social frame, but it can rejuvenate those who use ritual to reconnect with divinity as they struggle through life despite their great despair. Clark first notes this process in black womanist theology. He uses the example of theologian Katie Cannon to show that the ritual of storytelling has not only provided black women with generations of stories of …

Letting Gandhi In, Joshua Clark, Emily Teitelbaum

Denison Journal of Religion

Clark and Teitelbaum contemplate the seemingly unending cycle of violence in human history and look to nonviolent resisters as an example of how to break this pattern. They build this hope for a future unburdened of war on Gandhi's belief that all people are essentially loving. That love, he argued, must just be freed of the superficial societal pressures that debilitate it.

Clark and Teitelbaum look not only toward Gandhi's successful use of non-violent resistance, but also to other examples such as the Mothers of the Plazo de Mayo who protested the disappearance of people during Argentina's Dirty War. These …

Finding Patterns In The Chaos: Woman As Chaos Agent In Creation Myths, Amanda Vajskop

Denison Journal of Religion

This article looks primarily at two creation myths to understand the subjugation women have experienced through the patriarchy that has defined western history.

The first, Enuman Elish, is a traditional Babylonian narrative that Vajskop argues may have indirectly influenced the Genesis writers and the creation myth featured there. Both of these myths, Vajskop points out, start with a male deity creating a male progeny. This first act deprives women of their reproductive creativity and their necessity for life. Instead, women are portrayed as destabilizing and potentially dangerous persons who jeopardize life as it is known. Vajskop argues that this is …

The Passion Of The Christ As The Passion Of The Condemnation, Aaron Bestic

Denison Journal of Religion

This review of Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ reveals its anti-Semitic tendencies. Bestic reveals what, he claims, is rampant anti-Semitism through the characters of Pilate, Caiaphas, and Satan. Pilate is revealed to be both obviously anti-Semitic (lamenting over the presence of the Jewish people in his district and insulting the intelligence of that population), and also a convert to the case of Christ whom he attempts to treat fairly.

His conversion legitimizes his anti-Semitism in the film"he takes the side of God against those who are trying to persecute Him. Pilate's distaste for the Jewish people is …

The Problem Of Being At Ease In Zion, Gretchen Roeck

Denison Journal of Religion

Roeck uses her experiences in the Appalachian Service Project to serve as a springboard of her reflection on the question of what it means to be a Christian in an economically stratified world. She argues for religion as a source that can help to transform and re-stabilize society into one more suited to providing for all.

Roeck reflects on Berger's theory of world-building to show that religion can be used as a springboard for social change. According to Berger, society is created through human construction and the world that humanity constructs defines societal interactions. While Roeck acknowledges that this might …

Building A Relationship With The Earth: Humans And Ecology In Genesis 1-3, Stephen Grosse

Denison Journal of Religion

Grosse reimagines the relationship between 21st century Christians and nature by doing a close analysis of Genesis 1-3. While these chapters have long been used to prove that humans have dominion over the earth and can use it as they see fit, Grosse argues that a closer look at the language used by the Genesis writers provides a far different picture. In fact, he claims that this analysis results in a challenge issued to those invested in the Genesis story to treat the earth with respect and care.

Grosse's close reading of Genesis 1, the creation of the earth, shows …

Narrative’S Revelatory Power: Toward An Understanding Of Narrative Theology, Annette Thornburg

Denison Journal of Religion

This article links the significance of the process of crafting and receiving stories to a greater understanding of religious lives. The influence that stories have on life, Thornburg claims, cannot be understated.

People believe and perform stories, interpreting their meanings and applying them to their own lives. Thornburg claims that this is particularly true of religious stories. She makes this point through an examination of biblical narratives. It is the multiplicity inherent in stories that makes them such a vital source. The many forms of the biblical stories are so important because it is through examination of the many differences …

Reclaiming Religious Symbols In A Secular World: Ritual And Uniting The Faith Community Within The Prophetic Tradition, Rachel Wise

Denison Journal of Religion

Wise's article deals with the impact that the secularized world has had on religious communities. Specifically, Wise looks into the manner in which secularization has changed the American Christian community. The American Christian community, Wise claims, has responded in two major ways to the growing secularity in American culture.

The orthodox response refuses to accept any of the influences of secularity. The more progressive response has so embraced some of the influences of secularity that it leads to a loss of some religiosity. She argues that secularization has so stratified the Christian community that Berger's twin purposes of religion"world-maintaining and …

Pluralism And The New Religious America, Emily Teitelbaum

Denison Journal of Religion

This essay highlights the continued diversification of the United States and the potential for conflict that goes along with it. Teitelbaum looks at three primary theoretical models that deal with religious diversity. She rejects the first two, exclusivism and inclusivism, because the first often leads to violent conflict and the second to condescension. Instead, Teitelbaum argues that pluralism is the most hopeful and considerate method. In order to make this point, she clarifies that pluralism is not syncretism, a process of blending all religions into one. Nor is it relativism, which lets go of particular beliefs in order to find …

Claiming A Space Of Empowerment: Exploring Hispanic Feminist Theology And The Struggle Towards Justice And Liberation, Sarah Pyle

Denison Journal of Religion

Pyle links liberation and empowerment to the carving out of space. Those individuals and communities who live without space, who have borders incessantly drawn around them, preventing them from building their own space, are those who suffer oppression most deeply. Hispanic women profoundly experience this spacelessness. Finding a remedy for this requires that they build a community in a space they make for themselves. Pyle looks towards the Lady of Guadalupe as a potential example and inspiration to these women. While disappointed by the current representation of this image as ultimately submissive, the author challenges Hispanic women to claim this …

Son Of My. . .?, Meghan Henning

Denison Journal of Religion

Henning In Genesis 35, the beloved Jewish matriarch, Rachel, dies in childbirth outside of Bethlehem. Before her death, Rachel names her son "Ben-Oni" which means "son of my sorrow." Hearing this, her husband Jacob says his son will be called "Ben Yamin" which means "Son of my Right Hand" or "Son of the South." Scholars have long looked at this moment as a step in the process that turned the Israelites from tribal and matriarchal to monarchical and patriarchal. This article reimagines this story in a less domineering manner. In order to make her point, Henning first clarifies the importance …

Tower Of Babel, Al Klingler

Denison Journal of Religion

Klinger reinterprets the Tower of Babel narrative to turn it from a story that speaks simply about god's punishment of human arrogance to a story that integrates that notion with perspectives that focus on environmentalism and diversity. Klinger warns against the temptation to oversimplify biblical narratives. He claims that the story of the Tower of Babel is a perfect example of how frequently this occurs. Klinger does not completely discredit the original interpretation of the story, but he does posit that a fuller understanding of the story could be reached by allowing more than one theory to be engaged in …

Resurrection In The People: Catholic Identity And Archbishop Romero, Chris Byrnes

Denison Journal of Religion

Byrnes distinguishes between personal and communal Catholicism by following the story of Archbishop Oscar Romero. When Romero was appointed to the post of Archbishop in San Salvador, El Salvador, he was a conservative member of the Church who was appointed primarily because of his belief that the Church should remain apolitical. This was particularly important for the Church hierarchy at the time as they struggled to maintain the traditional Church (equivalent with personal Catholicism) while membership in the Popular Church (comparable to communal Catholicism) was growing rapidly. The Popular Church, Byrnes explains, was theologically based in liberation theology and spoke …

Primordial Symbolism: A Case Study, Lauren Caryer

Denison Journal of Religion

Caryer examines the importance of symbolism to humanity's own understanding of itself. Caryer does this by examining the two famous triptychs, Haywain and The Millennium, of Hieronymus Bosch, an artist of the Northern Renaissance. A closer look at the context of the time during which Bosch created indicates that it was a time of "eschatological fervor," and this sense can be easily recognized in both of the triptychs. Haywain shows the progressive damnation of humanity, from Adam and Eve's initial separation from God, to a wagon carrying political and religious leaders that is pulled by demons. The Millenium is not …

Sowing With Faith: Immanence And Eternality In The Liberation Of Nature, John Bartholomew

Denison Journal of Religion

Bartholomew applies liberation theology to the destruction of nature occurring under the current free market system. Bartholomew argues for a greater respect for nature by emphasizing the immanence of God. Bartholomew relies on the tradition of God's immanence which stresses the existence of God within and around humanity. God living closely among people implies that God must also live closely with the environment provided for humanity. This establishes a relationship between God and nature. Having a healthy relationship with nature is, therefore, reflective of a healthy relationship with God. An inherent part of treating the environment with care is conscientiousness …

Genesis 9: 20-21: Noah’S Legacy Of The Vine, Lindsey Marie Ross

Denison Journal of Religion

While the biblical character of Noah is almost exclusively known for his role in the flood narrative, there is a passage in Genesis 9 that indicates he is both the inventor and an enjoyer of wine. This article questions the implications for men and women today of such a revered biblical character imbibing regularly and, there is evidence of, to an excess. Ross examines aspects of the story such as Noah's heritage which can link him either to Cain and the city, or to Seth and agriculture. She also looks at the symbolism of the vine, and its frequent usage …

Good Sex And How To Get It, Erin Walker

Denison Journal of Religion

Walker uses the theology of Kelly Brown Douglas, Rita Brock, and Susan Thistlewaite, and the ethics of Marvin Ellison to consider a healthy definition of good sex. This conversation is continued by considering the societal changes that would need to occur to make the general outlook towards sexuality lose its oppressive nature"be it gendered or racial. Ideally, sex would regain its inherent ability to connect lovers to each other and to god. Walker points out that all of the authors view sexuality as an essential part of the human experience, and point out its inherent goodness as a gift of …

Who’S That Lady?, Meghan Henning

Denison Journal of Religion

This article considers the "valiant woman" from Proverbs 31 and explores the context and original identity of that woman while also questioning how to reclaim that figure for the 21st century's Christian community. Henning starts by acknowledging that this figure has come to intimidate women who look to the passage because it represents an impossible ideal. Henning, however, is also equally disappointed in the way many scholars have tried to reclaim this figure by ignoring the original context and using her to suit their own needs. The author comes to the conclusion that the woman of Proverb 31 represents Woman …

Sisters In Sorrow And Durga’S Incarnations: The Double-Edged Sword Of Shakti, Sarah Pyle

Denison Journal of Religion

This article examines the relationship between the depiction of women and femininity in Hindu myth and the lives and possible oppression of Hindu women today. The author synthesizes this question with Sallie McFague's theory that the way in which cultures use language to construct god(s) reveals how that culture conceptualizes the roles of different members of the community. The first notion that Pyle pursues within this question is dharma. Dharma can be roughly understood as the fulfillment of each person's appropriate role. For women, their primary dharma is to care for their husband and their children. This often consists of …

Beyond Pacifism: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’S Theology During War, Dan Rohrer

Denison Journal of Religion

Rohrer links Bonhoeffer's theology to contemporary America and explores the implications that Bonhoeffer's work, particularly the work that occurred in Nazi prison, has on the contemporary American Christian. All of Bonhoeffer's work, from The Cost of Discipleship to Letters and Papers from Prison, shows a commitment to Christianity that does not make the life of a Christian easy. This is particularly evident in his discussion of "cheap grace" or "grace without the cross." Bonhoeffer describes this notion as an empty salvation that does not bear in mind the great sacrifices that the Christian Testament shows as necessary to find grace. …

What Does The Bible Say About Homosexuality? An Exercise In Biblical Hermeneutics, Matthew Lehrer

Denison Journal of Religion

Lehrer argues for the importance of a close hermeneutical study of the Bible in order to understand most fully the statements made about homosexuality. Through his study, Lehrer posits that no condemnations are made against homosexuality, with the exception of the two statements made in Leviticus, both of which deal with Hebraic purity laws, many of which are no longer followed. Instead, the passages most frequently deal more explicitly with issues of hospitality (the story of Sodom) or idolatry (the letters of Paul.) Therefore, homosexual relationships are placed at the same level as heterosexual relationships. As long as the relationship …