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Articles 1 - 17 of 17
Full-Text Articles in Sociology of Religion
Accessing Campus Mental Health Services In A Nigerian Southwestern University: Barriers To Academic Success, Caroline Dada
Accessing Campus Mental Health Services In A Nigerian Southwestern University: Barriers To Academic Success, Caroline Dada
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Mental health disorders are a significant health concern among higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. A substantial treatment gap exists in the Nigerian healthcare system, and this gap is further worsened by cultural and religious barriers, which reinforce stigma that discourages students from seeking professional help. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored the barriers students encountered when accessing mental health services at a university in Southwestern Nigeria, to increase service access. Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with seven professional mental health providers at a university counseling center between March and April 2025. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify …
Islamic Political Anti-Theology: A Discursive Practice Of Contingency Beyond Sovereign Politics, Jason Andrus
Islamic Political Anti-Theology: A Discursive Practice Of Contingency Beyond Sovereign Politics, Jason Andrus
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Contributing to the field of political theology from outside the European Christian tradition, this dissertation develops a description of the distinct logics that Islamic theology generates from its metaphysical assumptions. These logics in turn make possible a discourse of political anti-theology where politics operates through contingency rather than sovereignty. Political theology scholarship has excavated how modern politics derives from secularized Christian theological concepts—particularly transcendent sovereignty. This study demonstrates that Islamic theology's absolute insistence on divine transcendence (tawhid) produces something fundamentally different: a politics that renders sovereign authority conceptually impossible. I identify this discursive practice of political anti-theology through …
Campus Ministry And Spiritual Self-Efficacy: A Phenomenological Study Of Academic Achievement Among Black Male Students At An Historically Black College And University, Mitchell Stevens
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, which emphasizes the importance of self-efficacy in motivation and achievement (Bandura, 1994), provided a lens through which to analyze the influence of Historically Black Colleges and University’s (HBCUs) campus ministry on the development of spiritual self-efficacy and academic achievement among Black males. Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have a long history of providing higher education opportunities to Black students, and they have been instrumental in fostering academic, personal, and social growth (Smith & Allen, 2014). However, little is known about the specific impact of campus ministry programs on the development of Black males’ spiritual self-efficacy and …
Reviving “Cult”: A Qualitative Analysis Of A Female-Led Cultic Sect, Olivia Summers
Reviving “Cult”: A Qualitative Analysis Of A Female-Led Cultic Sect, Olivia Summers
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This research analyzes the Word of Faith Fellowship (WOF), a female-led Evangelical church that social scientists have not yet studied. My thesis explores how a female leader operates within a patriarchal space and why WOF owns a Holocaust Museum. I conducted content analysis of the church and museum websites, Google reviews, and visited the museum in person. My research highlights the limitations of current taxonomies of religion in sociology. I address this oversight, argue for the re-introduction of “cult” as an analytical term, and propose a rubric for cult identification. I suggest that WOF is a sectarian cult with similar …
What Discrimination? Christian Microaggression Rhetoric Against Nontheists, Nicole Dolfi Hall
What Discrimination? Christian Microaggression Rhetoric Against Nontheists, Nicole Dolfi Hall
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Theories of microaggressions have been used in the last decade as a framework for studying subtle forms of discrimination against racial minorities and other marginalized groups. However, there is a dearth of research on the scope and types of microaggressions nontheists face. This qualitative study examines microaggressions against nontheists by interviewing 16 religious Christians on their experiences and opinions of the discrimination Christians and nontheists face. The narratives were analyzed for thematic patterns between the rhetoric used and the type of microaggressions employed. The study revealed nine categories of microaggressions. The findings also showed how experiences of discrimination, political viewpoint, …
Navigating Cultural Crossroads: Exploring Fictional And Interview Narratives Of Nigerian Immigrant Women Living In The Southern United States, Tolulope Adeusi
Navigating Cultural Crossroads: Exploring Fictional And Interview Narratives Of Nigerian Immigrant Women Living In The Southern United States, Tolulope Adeusi
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Nigerian immigrant women undergo constant navigation of their personal identities when conflicting cultural dynamics sometimes engender a balancing act between their personal beliefs and the ongoing process of acculturation. Their new Southern environment offers its own traditional mores, as well as greater opportunities for economic advancement. This places Nigerian Immigrant Women in a position where they must reconcile their desires for personal independence and empowerment with societal expectations that emphasize more traditional gender roles. This study explores the interview narratives of Nigerian immigrant women, reinforced by fictional accounts from prolific African women writers, which provides a more nuanced discussion of …
A Theology Built On Meritocracy: A Theological And Sociological Examination Of The Prosperity Gospel And The American Dream, T.E. Starman
A Theology Built On Meritocracy: A Theological And Sociological Examination Of The Prosperity Gospel And The American Dream, T.E. Starman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
In American megachurch Christianity there lies a paradox in the concept of wealth and blessings; many megachurch leaders take deliberate steps to distance themselves from the defamed and heretical label of prosperity gospel, while simultaneously using many of its theological tenets as foundational to their own theology of wealth, money, and success. This thesis examines the nature of this paradox from both a theological and sociological lens. Through content analysis and case study examples, this thesis assesses the theological tenets of American megachurch prosperity theology as well as the sociological reality of stratification and the ideology that buttresses it. This …
Decolonizing Interfaith Interaction: Common Humanity And Colonial Legacies, Teresa A. Crist
Decolonizing Interfaith Interaction: Common Humanity And Colonial Legacies, Teresa A. Crist
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Among various formations of interfaith interaction in the United States, practitioners strive to build relationships across religious difference through appeals to commonality. Problematically, relying on commonality to unite religiously diverse groups can ignore the colonial history behind what is considered common across humanity, and may serve to make interfaith interaction ineffective. The interfaith project is itself connected to the colonial legacy of Western epistemology, which tacitly normalizes Protestant Christian norms and conceptions of “Religion” and human subjectivity. This dissertation explores whether interfaith interaction, while trying to relieve the religious oppression caused by the normalization of Christianity, may in fact support …
Talk This Way: A Look At The Historical Conversation Between Hip-Hop And Christianity, Joshua Swanson
Talk This Way: A Look At The Historical Conversation Between Hip-Hop And Christianity, Joshua Swanson
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Christianity and Hip-Hop culture are often said to be at odds with one another. One is said to promote a lifestyle of righteousness and love, while the other is said to promote drugs, violence, and pride. As a result, the public has portrayed these two institutions as conflicting with no willingness to resolve their perceived differences. This paper will argue that there has always been a healthy conversation between Hip-Hop and Christianity since Hip-Hop’s inception. Using sources like Hip-Hop lyrics, theologians, historians, autobiographies, sermons, and articles that range from Ma$e to Tipper Gore, this paper will look at the conversation …
Childhood Abuse, Religiosity, And Opioid Use: Findings From The National Epidemiologic Survey On Alcohol And Related Conditions Data, James E. Lewis
Childhood Abuse, Religiosity, And Opioid Use: Findings From The National Epidemiologic Survey On Alcohol And Related Conditions Data, James E. Lewis
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Religiosity is adopting a belief system surrounding concepts of purpose, meaning, and value through an institution that has already defined these concepts prior to the individual member attending and that member’s degree of participation. Religiosity does have protective factors against negative health outcomes. This protective influence was evaluated in this study. Data from Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions were examined to learn about the relationship between protective effects of religious participation on substance abuse, and whether this association weakened for individuals who have experienced higher levels of childhood abuse. A binary logistic regression …
Religiosity, Parental Support, And Formal Volunteering Among Teenagers, Isaac Paintsil
Religiosity, Parental Support, And Formal Volunteering Among Teenagers, Isaac Paintsil
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Few countries can boast of having the culture of formal volunteering seen in the United States. In explaining this phenomenon, many empirical studies have found religiosity significant in predicting behaviors among young adults, adults, and the elderly. However, teens (13 – 17 years) have not attracted much attention from researchers, though they possess the time and resources most needed to volunteer. Using data from the National Study on Youth and Religion (NSYR) Wave 1, this study examines the relationship between formal volunteering and teens’ individual (religious salience and religious experience) and collective religiosity (religious tradition, church attendance, and religious youth …
A Critical Interpretation Of Olivier Roy: On Globalization, The Cosmopolitan And Emerging Post-Secular Religiosities, Joshua Rey Ramos
A Critical Interpretation Of Olivier Roy: On Globalization, The Cosmopolitan And Emerging Post-Secular Religiosities, Joshua Rey Ramos
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
My thesis is that secularization transforms religion into religiosity. In other words, the secular breaks apart religion, or rather, 'deculturates' religion from a cohesive, collective body embedded within a particular society and within a traditional culture towards an individuated, and existential experience of faith within the autonomous religious subject. There are various reasons for this shift, as there are various consequences. Globalization, which is modernization writ large, is the dominant paradigm through which I conceptualize these changes. The theorist whose work I use as a lens to interpret secularization, religion and societal transformation is Olivier Roy. Roy's theories are of …
The Pulpit And The People: Mobilizing Evangelical Identity, Tim Moser
The Pulpit And The People: Mobilizing Evangelical Identity, Tim Moser
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Using ten sermons from five prominent and politically active evangelical megachurch pastors taken from the 2016 presidential campaign season, this case study utilizes frame analysis to understand the political relevance of modern evangelical sermonizing. An inductive frame analysis allows the concept of a collective action frame to be observed as a process and for patterns to emerge from the source text. Within these sermons, ministers offer self-identifying evangelicals a vocabulary with which to understand and describe their own identity. In this context, the Bible is a powerful cultural symbol that represents an allegiance to traditions that are framed as the …
Secular But Not Superficial : An Overlooked Nonreligious/Nonspiritual Identity., Daniel G. Delaney
Secular But Not Superficial : An Overlooked Nonreligious/Nonspiritual Identity., Daniel G. Delaney
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Since Durkheim’s characterization of the sacred and profane as “antagonistic rivals,” the strict dichotomy has been framed in such a way that “being religious” evokes images of a life filled with profound meaning and value, while “being secular” evokes images of a meaningless, self-centered, superficial life, often characterized by materialistic consumerism and the cold, heartless environment of corporate greed. Consequently, to identify as “neither religious nor spiritual” runs the risk of being stigmatized as superficial, untrustworthy, and immoral. Conflicts and confusions encountered in the process of negotiating a nonreligious/nonspiritual identity, caused by the ambiguous nature of religious language, were explored …
Modern Megachurch Organization In The United States (2005-2013) : An Exploratory Organizational Study Of The American Megachurch Phenomenon., Robert Lee Shelby Jr.
Modern Megachurch Organization In The United States (2005-2013) : An Exploratory Organizational Study Of The American Megachurch Phenomenon., Robert Lee Shelby Jr.
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation study explores the applicability of two for-profit organizational theories on a non-profit sector. Theoretical concepts from organizational ecology (OE) and new institutional sociology (NIS) provide the framework for exploring modern megachurches as an organizational phenomenon in the United States between 2005 and 2013. Modern megachurches are modern in the sense they really began to be an organizational population starting in the 1970s and 1980s. These churches are distinctively from the Protestant Christian tradition having 2,000 or more attendees (Thumma & Travis, 2007; Hartford Institute for Religion Research, n.d.). Three empirical chapters test several hypotheses germane to these aforementioned …
The Social Role Of The Church : Alienation Or Mediation?, John O. Umoh
The Social Role Of The Church : Alienation Or Mediation?, John O. Umoh
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This research has a three-fold purpose: first, to assess the presence, or lack thereof, of alienation in a sample from the rural Farm population; second, to assess the role of the church in helping reduce feelings of alienation; and third, to determine the extent to which church membership and participation enhances personal empowerment and transformative action. The following questions are addressed in the study: 1. Is there evidence of alienation in this rural farm population? 2. If so, who are alienated? 3. Is alienation associated with church membership? 4. Is church membership associated with transformative action? 5. How are alienation …
Of Another World: The Jehovah's Witnesses, William Wesley Zellner
Of Another World: The Jehovah's Witnesses, William Wesley Zellner
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Of Another World is an account of how the Jehovah's Witnesses recruit new members and retain these converts in the face of a skeptical world. The study also attempts to advance a theoretical model toward a generic and generalized account for conversion to a group with a devalued religious perspective. The model, developed by John Lofland in his study of the members of the Unification Church, appears with some modification, to be generalizable to the Jehovah's Witnesses. After modification, the model is still applicable to members of the Unification Church. It is argued that the social characteristics of a group …