Sociology of Religion Commons^™

Janja Majstorovic, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Oneness In Everyday Life: Nonduality, Wholeness And Human Life After Awakening, Gibbons, Tom

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

In Advaita Vedanta a distinction is made between an experience of oneness and permanent awakening. The author argues that a nondual philosophy such as Advaita - as opposed to a direct experience of oneness – contains significant theoretical difficulties, which in turn are reflected in problems with actualizing nonduality in everyday human life. Alternative spiritual conceptions that might be more helpful in guiding the nondual aspirant in her spiritual life are examined, including the concept of “wholeness.” In the place of a reliance on an exclusive doctrine of nonduality, Jorge Ferrar’s concept of “Participatory Spirituality” and A. H. Almaas’s idea …

Categorical Modelling Of Conscious States, Baruss, Imants

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

In the last several decades, there has been an explosion of research concerning consciousness with some efforts at mathematical modelling. The purpose of this paper is to model conscious states using categorical constructions. In particular, this modelling captures temporality, the intentional structure of consciousness, and meaning fields, which provide the templates for occurrent events. The architecture of conscious states naturally lends itself to applications of category theory, more specifically to sheaf-like constructions in which the stacks over a site are topoi whose germs are the objects of the topoi. Each topos represents the potential experiential content of an individual where …

Psychotherapy In The Dream: A Phenomenological Exploration, Bustos, Nick

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

Post-materialist ontologies offer a transformed worldview whose implications point toward the illusory nature of the separate self, or ego. Aligned with the literature of mysticism and perennialist spiritual models, this portends a significantly altered backdrop for the practice and discipline of psychotherapy, the underlying premises of which assume a strict existential dichotomy between patient and therapist. Kenneth Wapnick, preeminent scholar of the twentieth-century spiritual document of A Course in Miracles, provides a relevant model toward integrating spiritually-based, ego-negative states within psychotherapy practice. The author studied the lived experiences of eight psychotherapists, both practicing and retired, who practice according to this …

Ecopedagogy: Learning How To Participate In Ecological Consciousness, Peterson, Eric

CONSCIOUSNESS: Ideas and Research for the Twenty-First Century

This paper is the result of an inquiry into ecological consciousness through a participatory paradigm. The dialectical relationship between institutionalized education and consciousness is central to this inquiry’s focus. This exploration into ecological consciousness has lead to the following question: How can institutionalized education be designed, delivered, and experienced in a way that nurtures ecological intelligence, ecological consciousness, and more importantly, ecological activism? The ‘sense of self ‘is a central theme within the paper, and led to the conception of intraearthal and interearthal relationships as a way of communicating our need to identify as being in Earth. The author utilizes …

Examining Public Opinion About Lgbtq-Related Issues In The United States And Across Multiple Nations, Amy Adamczyk, Yen-Chiao Liao

Publications and Research

Over the last three decades many countries across the world, including the United States, have experienced major increases in support for LGBTQ individuals and related issues. In part related to these changes a number of studies have examined the factors shaping public opinion. In this review we focus on four major areas of research on public opinion in this field of study. We first assess the terms that scholars typically use when examining attitudes and highlight the areas of public opinion research that have received the most attention. We then focus on the data and measurement challenges related to examining …

Evangelical Faith And Culture In The Lives Of Vietnam’S Upland Hmong - 1987-2017, Jim Lewis

Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Works

This paper centers on the contemporary conversion movement to Christianity among the Hmong of the Northern Mountainous Region (NMR). Taking place within the brief scope of only 30 years, religious change among the 1.2 million highland Hmong in Vietnam’s fourteen provinces has resulted in some 330,000 declaring they have exchanged many traditional beliefs for faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have embraced substantially the same faith as the Tin Lanh Church, which first came to Vietnam in 1911, one of Vietnam’s six officially approved religions. It is reasonable to claim that a mass movement of this magnitude among a …

Jagoda Duvnjak & Ana Komso, Marija Maracic, Josipa Karaca

SICANJE

No abstract provided.

Justifying A New Beginning: The Case Of An Urban, Jewish Congregation In The 1970s, Tirza Ochrach-Konradi

Scripps Senior Theses

This research applies C. Wright Mills’ theory of vocabularies of motive to reveal the collective narratives, which were used to justify the atypical founding of an urban Jewish congregation in the 1970s. Prior to and during this period, US Jewish communities were migrating out of city centers into their surrounding suburbs. Most Jewish congregations followed their congregants and moved into the suburbs. This study identifies the collective justifications within the Hatchala Chadasha community, which are the accepted reasons for the organization’s atypical urban location and organizational structure. The findings of this research are based in the examination of interviews with …

Religious Heterogamy, Marital Quality, And Paternal Engagement, Young-Il Kim, Isaak Swan

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

Using data from a nationally representative sample of married fathers of school-aged children, we examined the association between religious heterogamy of parents and fathers’ involvement in children’s lives. We further examined whether that association is mediated by marital quality and father–child religious discord. Results showed that greater religious heterogamy is associated with less interaction and more relational distance between fathers and children. Results also suggested that fathers’ reports of marital happiness play an important role in mediating the association between religious heterogamy and paternal engagement. We concluded that religious fathers are more involved in their children’s lives insofar as their …

The Electromagnetic Brain A Review Of Em Theories On The Nature Of Consciousness By Shelli Joye, Pryzdia, Michael, Radin, Dean

Journal of Conscious Evolution

No abstract provided.

Born Again With Trump: The Portrayal Of Evangelicals In The Media, Eun-Young Julia Kim

Faculty Publications

Since Trump’s ascendancy in American politics and his subsequent election, a number of articles have surfaced in the media trying to explain evangelical voters’ support of Trump. This paper analyzes common descriptions and conceptions of evangelicals by identifying recurring descriptions of evangelicals in 110 online articles published in a two-and-a-half-year period surrounding Trump’s presidential campaign and election. The results indicate that the answer to the question as to why evangelicals support Trump resides not so much in their theology, but in their aspirations for America and assumptions of what America should be like. This paper argues that it is crucial …

Islam & Interfaith Dialogue: Innovative Diplomacy Between The United States And Islamic Republic Of Iran, Kristyn Rohrer

Honors Student Research

This meta-communicative study provides an analysis of global interfaith dialogue as it pertains to peace and conflict, with a primary focus on Islam. The Islamic Republic of Iran and United States have a complicated history. Their diplomatic relationship is rife with manipulation, radicalism, and a disregard for human dignity. Currently, the US is imposing hundreds of sanctions and restrictions on Iran, from nuclear energy to medicine, as a result of President Trump’s decision to back out of the Iran Deal. However, other forms of dialogue are affecting positive relations between the two countries. Interfaith dialogue between North American Mennonites and …

Schisms And Conflict Management In New African Immigrants’ Religious Organizations In The Greater Atlanta Area, Christina Edwards

Doctor of International Conflict Management Dissertations

New African immigrant religious organizations (NAIRO) are transnational religious organizations established and led by new African immigrants (NAI). These organizations are experiencing planned growth as outlined in their manuals, but little is known about the internal conflicts that lead to unplanned schisms or break away congregations. Foundational studies in the field of Sociology of Religion failed to include NAI-led churches in their studies and Atlanta was not selected as an immigrant hub city in their follow-up studies. This dissertation explores the social phenomenon of NAIRO internal conflicts that lead to unplanned schisms and therefore contribute to the overall growth of …

Evaluating Bad Norms, John Thrasher

Philosophy Faculty Articles and Research

Some norms are bad. Norms of revenge, female genital mutilation, honor killings, and other norms strike us as destructive, cruel, and wasteful. The puzzle is why so many people see these norms as authoritative and why these norms often resist change. To answer these questions, we need to look at what “bad” norms are and how we can evaluate them. Here I develop an integrative analysis of norms that aims to avoid parochialism in norm evaluation. After examining and rejecting several evaluative standards, I propose what I call a comparative-functional analysis of norms that is both operationalizable/testable and nonparochial, and …

Bailey's "Race And Redemption In Puritan New England" (Critical Book Review), Jill Botticelli

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Jewish Masculinity In The Holocaust: Between Destruction And Construction, Kevin Gentzler

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The Pornography Debate: Religiosity And Support For Censorship, Brian A. Droubay, Robert P. Butters, Kevin Shafer

Faculty Publications

Pornography has become an increasingly salient topic in public discourse. We sought to better understand the role of religiosity in shaping people’s support of policy stances against pornography, in the form of censorship, using nationally representative data from the 2014 General Social Survey (n = 1676). Results from logistic regression indicate that high religiosity significantly increases odds of supporting censorship. Holding control variables at their sample means, the least religious persons had a predicted probability of 0.09 of supporting censorship, compared to 0.57 for the most religious respondents. We discuss these findings within the context of the current public …

Reconstructionist Judaism, Seth Schoenhaus

Denison Journal of Religion

This essay argues that Reconstructionist Judaism, though first and foremost a Jewish movement, was profoundly influenced by quintessentially American ideals, values, and figures that shaped the denomination’s foundations. In doing so, the paper pays special attention to Reconstructionism’s founder, Mordechai Kaplan, delving into his personal history as well as relevant European Jewish history to contextualize his ideas. Additionally, this essay explores modernity as it applied to early and mid-twentieth century American Jewish life and what that meant to the practice and evolution of the Jewish faith.

Seth Schoenhaus '18 is from Albany, NY and received his BA in Religion with …

Embodiments Of Wisdom: Feeling, Knowing And The Boundaries Of The Self, Eva Rosenthal

Denison Journal of Religion

In this collection of excerpts from her senior research, Rosenthal examines different iterations of the traditionally female goddess Wisdom. She selects two ancient texts, The Thunder: Perfect Mind and the Secret Revelation of John, from the Nag Hammadi codices. Rosenthal notes the ways in which Wisdom is disconnected and isolated, drawing from David Halperin’s essay “Why is Diotima a Woman” to argue the point that much of Wisdom’s power and legitimacy seems to stem from her being other, and therefore above, humanity. Rosenthal also notes the places and ways in which Wisdom seems to have a physical body in each …