Sociology of Religion Commons^™

Note From The Editor, Meggie Hill, Seth Schoenhaus, Ellie Hasan

Denison Journal of Religion

No abstract provided.

Indian Dalits And Hindutva Strategies, Seth Schoenhaus

Denison Journal of Religion

“Indian Dalits and Hindutva Strategies” by Seth Schoenhaus, ’18. The author tracks the evolution of India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party alongside Scheduled Caste (specifically Dalit) self-conception to elucidate the BJP’s strategies to attract Dalit voters, who have historically not been receptive to the BJP’s muscular Hindutva thrust. Importantly, appropriating and recasting the Hindu story of Lord Ram in a nationalist light and engaging in historical revisionism regarding Dalit communal leader B.R. Ambedkar has proven vital in engaging with the Dalit electorate. These methods, combined with lingering sentiments of Sanskritization in many Dalit communities and increasing stratification with higher rates …

In The World But Not Of It: Negotiating Evangelical Tradition And Gendered Identity In Contemporary Family Life, Lauren Hansbury

The Pegasus Review: UCF Undergraduate Research Journal

Evangelical Protestants are an influential force in the world of politics, particularly in bringing debates over family values to the forefront of public life within the last thirty years. Their perspectives on gender have become a central point of contention in the so-called "culture wars" in American society. Recent research shows that the majority of evangelicals do not embody gender roles that fit within traditional, patriarchal, and gender essentialist models once central to evangelical thought on family life. Evangelicals live out their everyday family lives in much the same way as non-evangelicals and non-religious Americans. Research on evangelicals and subcultural …

The Influence Of Religious Homogeneity Upon Life Expectancy: A Cross-National Comparative Analysis, Donald J. Ebel

Sociology Department Publications

Research upon health and life expectancy has focused primarily upon individual and community level analyses, with extrapolations to national level data. In this study, the unit of analysis is shifted from individual health statistics to the national level. Life expectancy data for every nation and in the world (total n=191, restricted n=138) is explored, controlling for a variety of socio-economic factors. Two hypotheses are tested which offer the explanation homogeneity in both religion (H1) and ethnicity (H2), determines differences in life expectancy between nations. The first hypothesis, that religious homogeneity supports positive health outcomes is supported. The second hypothesis, that …

Dreaming Of Eden: A Sociological Inquiry Into Sacred Selves And Public Places, Donald J. Ebel

Sociology Department Publications

A diverse literature from several different disciplines addresses the issues of identity, settings and spirituality. This paper focuses upon drawing these traditions together in order to understand the relationship from a more holistic perspective, and to discern to what degree the three domains interact in a sociological sense. Several hypotheses are tested to discover if setting influences the salience of people’s spiritual identity or the levels of their spiritual transcendence, as well as whether or not age, controlling for other factors, explains or influences these two aspects of spiritual expression. Findings indicate that neither setting nor age significantly influence identity …

Tasseography From Jung's Perspective, Avetisian, Elizabeth

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Approaching from Jung’s perspective this paper aims to understand how the unconscious communicates through symbolism that may be the basis for synchronicity arising from mantic procedures. A particular ritual of divination called tasseography will be studied whereby the seer interprets patterns in coffee grounds intuitively and by following a standard system of symbolism to foretell the seeker’s future life events or provide answers to seeker’s pressing life questions. The paper will examine various processes involved in the experience of tasseography and its ritual that enable the reader to predict the seeker’s future or bring light to the present or past …

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 …

Sourcing Enchantment: From Elemental Appropriation To Imaginal Symbolics, Schwartz, Michael

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Critical theorists and social commentators agree that modernity and postmodernity suffer from historical pathologies of world disenchantment. What might be done? Drawing on John Sallis’ phenomenology of the elemental and Tibetan Buddhist teachings on elemental practices, this paper investigates the imagination in its doubling as imaginal in generating a symbolics of the self, world, and other that is always already enchanted; an aesthetics of existence where the world itself shows forth like a work of art replete with exorbitant logics.

The Sociology Of Staying: Persistent Activism And The Benedictine Sisters Of Erie, Theresa Avila-John

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Who Is My Neighbor? Identifying Epistemic Peers Among Polarized Communities, Alex Hoagland

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Faith Development On College Student Decision Making, Kaitlyn Christine Noah

Masters Theses

Utilizing qualitative methodology, participants' process of faith development was analyzed to determine the impact that development has on their decision making processes in college. To accomplish this, individual interviews were conducted with four participants who came from a faith-based background and it was determined that faith development plays a significant role in each of their decision making processes while in college. Participants all adapted their faith in college to better align with their adult lifestyle. Recommendations were made to better help student affairs professionals understand the process of faith development and comprehend the ways this can affect their students' identity …

In Media Res, Christopher Andrew Sisk

Theses and Dissertations

We are inundated by a constant feed of media that responds and adapts in real time to the impulses of our psyches and the dimensions of our devices. Beneath the surface, this stream of information is directed by hidden, automated controls and steered by political agendas. The transmission of information has evolved into a spiral of entropy, and the boundaries between author, content, platform, and receiver have blurred. This reductive space of responsive media is a catalyst for immense political and cultural change, causing us to question our notions of authority, truth, and reality.

Leadership Development Among Youth In Latino Congregations: The Relationship Of Religious Participation To Social Service Involvement And Engagement In Leadership Tasks, Elizabeth Tamez Mendez

Dissertations

Problem

Personal observations and anecdotal accounts attest that some of the young people in U.S. Latino churches are developing as leaders within their congregations. This seems to come as a result of the organic or less-formalized leadership development dynamics and practices present within Latino congregations, where leaders often develop by being actively involved in leadership actions without necessarily first following a curriculum of study, completing a training program, or fulfilling a set of theological education requirements. In this way, many are acquiring roles and responsibilities by which they actively contribute towards local congregational and community life, and by which they …

Pathways From Religiosity To Couple’S Satisfaction Through Relational Virtues And Equality In Two Cultures, Ilya A. Okhotnikov

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

To explore relational processes of couple’s satisfaction this study drew on the relational spirituality framework (Mahoney, 2010) in order to test a relational religiosity model to evaluate the effects of public, private, ideological, intellectual, and experiential religiosity that were mediated by relational virtues of commitment, sacrifice, forgiveness, and sanctification and relational equality on couple’s satisfaction in two cultures. Data for this component used convenience samples of English-speaking respondents (hereafter American sample; n = 1,529) and Russian-speaking respondents (hereafter Russian sample; n = 529). Results provided evidence to partially support relational religiosity model; specifically commitment, while a statistically significant intervening element, …

Ministries Of Catholic Sisters In The Diocese Of Cleveland: Assessing Capacity And Opportunity In A Period Of Transition, Robert L. Fischer, Rong Bai

Faculty Scholarship

Catholic sisters have long played a vital role in addressing the needs of the poor, neglected, and vulnerable members of society. In northeast Ohio, sisters have been instrumental in the arenas of education, healthcare, social service, and advocacy. This research builds on research conducted in 2009 on the characteristics of the ministries of Catholic sisters. Using a survey approach, responses were collected from 358 Catholic Sisters in 12 religious orders, approximately 60 percent of the sisters living in the Diocese of Cleveland. The study explores sisters' current ministries (work and service), the plans for their ministries to continue, and their …

The Political Implications Of Religious Non-Affiliation In Emerging Adulthood, Philip Schwadel

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Religious non-affiliation has increased considerably in the U.S. over the last few decades. The contemporary generation of emerging adults is the first to have a sizable proportion raised with no religious affiliation. This article uses nationally representative, longitudinal survey data to examine how both non-affiliation in adolescence and switching to non-affiliation in emerging adulthood influence political interest, behaviors, orientation, and partisanship. The results show the following: 1) that unaffiliated emerging adults are less politically active than the religiously affiliated; 2) that the unaffiliated are relatively liberal and unlikely to be Republican; 3) that the unaffiliated are more likely than the …

Beyond Muslim Xenophobia And Contemporary Parochialism: Aga Khan Iv, The Ismā‘Īlīs, And The Making Of A Cosmopolitan Ethic, Sahir Dewji

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Aga Khan IV is the forty-ninth hereditary Imām of the Shī‘a Nizārī Ismā‘īlī Muslims (or ‘Ismā‘īlīs’ for short). As a Muslim leader, Aga Khan IV addresses salient issues concerning humankind in the contemporary world and expresses the challenges of living under such conditions through his public speeches and the institutions of the Ismā‘īlī Imāmate. His discourse is informed by the inseparability of dīn (faith) and dunyā(world), which is viewed as being a central function to the office of Imāmate. Aga Khan IV adopts a context-rich approach that addresses modernity by integrating commitments to theology with religio-cultural ethics, a formulation …

Narratives Of Baby Boomers: Envisioning Late Life Spiritual Resources, Jane A. Kuepfer

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT:

In this narrative inquiry, first-wave baby boomers (six males and six females born between 1946 and 1955) reflected on their lives and envisioned living into old age. While literature has focused on trends in baby boomer spirituality, issues of aging, and spiritual needs and tasks among elders, this study listened for “spiritual resources.” Initially defined broadly as that which has sustained a person throughout their life and will sustain them in the future, spiritual resources came to be understood as those things, both internal and external, that address deep human need for such spiritual values as love, hope, peace, …

Good Works And The Great Commission: An Exploration Of Religious Influence In Evangelical Faith-Based Organisations In Canada And India, Ravi Gokani

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

By the mid-1990s, the post-war, Keynesian welfare state that had typified much the landscape of service provision in North America had already begun seriously to corrode in the presence of a resurgent classical liberalism. This meant, among other things, an increased role for civil society organisations in the provision of social welfare to citizens in need. As part of this restructuring of the welfare state, faith-based organisations found a renewed place, bolstered in part by favourable legislation, political support, and the revival of a once-recluse evangelicalism. Today, with decades of maturity and the aide of technology, evangelical faith-based organisations are …

Using Traditional Rituals In Hospitality To Gain Value: A Study On The Impact Of Feng Shui, Madeleine Ogilvie, Danny Ng, David Xiang, Maria M. Ryan, Jaime L.P. Yong

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Superstition and the rituals used to support such beliefs remain an important part of Chinese business society. With the advance of globalisation and the normalisation of many business practices this study explores the importance these rituals continue to play in the contemporary hospitality setting. The paper examines the prominence of Feng Shui in business today in a qualitative study using Chinese restaurants to explore associated business behaviours and perceived value of use. Findings from 20 phenomenological interviews from across four different Asian communities are discussed highlighting the core elements of this ritualistic practice. Results indicate that these practices continue to …

On Elemental Phenomenology: Sallis And Dzogchen Buddhism, Schwartz, Michael

Journal of Conscious Evolution

John Sallis’ volumes on the Force of the Imagination (2000) and Logic of the Imagination (2012) constitute, in the field of contemporary Continental thought, a novel philosophical view of the elementals. Tibetan Buddhism has a more than a thousand-year old tradition of teaching about and practicing with the elements. This study is a preliminary exploration of the cross-currents of these two elemental teachings.

Uncovering The Lost Knowledge Of The Imagination In Films, Seda, Daniel A.

Journal of Conscious Evolution

Films have forever changed the way in which humans perceive reality and have provided significant opportunities to spread knowledge in ways that are both entertaining and deceptive. Uncovering the lost knowledge of the imagination shifts an individual’s perceptions of a shared experience and exposes film’s persuasive power to penetrate the psyche. This paper explores the constitutions of reality and how humans are able to tap into other realms of consciousness through mediums of creative expression. Topics such as the origins of life, the hidden knowledge of secret societies, and the burgeoning full disclosure movement for truth are discussed as a …

Religiosity And Feminism: Navigating Gender Constructions And Ideologies, Molly Noble

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Religious women and feminist women are large demographics around the world, but relatively little is known about women who identify as both religious and feminist. In this thesis I ask: How do religious women hold feminist ideals when religion is seen by many feminists as an inherently patriarchal and oppressive institution? How does the interplay of their feminism and religiosity affect their life decisions and how they worship? How does having a religious feminist identity affect interactions with people in their lives? To address these issues I interviewed eleven (11) religious feminist women from a small rural community in Northern …