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The Impact Of Religious Beliefs, Practices, And Social Networks On Rwandan Rescue Efforts During Genocide, Nicole Fox, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, John Gasana Gasasira 2021 California State University, Sacramento

The Impact Of Religious Beliefs, Practices, And Social Networks On Rwandan Rescue Efforts During Genocide, Nicole Fox, Hollie Nyseth Brehm, John Gasana Gasasira

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In April 1994, in one of the most Christian nations in Africa, genocidal violence erupted culminating in the deaths of upwards of one million people. While thousands participated in mass killings, others choose not to, and rescued persecuted individuals instead. Relying on 45 in-depth interviews with individuals who rescued others in Rwanda, we demonstrate that religion is tied to rescue efforts in at least three ways: 1) through the creation of cognitive safety nets that enabled high-risk actions; 2) through religious practices that isolated individuals from the social networks of those committing the violence; and 3) through religious social networks …


Meanings Of Mindfulness And Spiritual Awakening: Affliction And Holistic Healing In Contemporary Cairo, Sohayla El Fakahany 2021 American University in Cairo

Meanings Of Mindfulness And Spiritual Awakening: Affliction And Holistic Healing In Contemporary Cairo, Sohayla El Fakahany

Theses and Dissertations

In contemporary Cairo, people turn to various modes of spiritual, alternative, and complementary healing. Some are rooted in formal religious traditions, and others are inspired by a new globalized form of holistic healing such as yoga or meditation. What makes these practices more controversial than spiritual healing practices like el-Zar or el-Hadra is the exchange of money for the promise of healing or foreknowledge. Spiritual healing is often deemed “charlatanistic” by religious exclusivists. This entanglement of the practices with religion creates a threat because it provides an alternative to the modes of religiosity supplied by the main hegemonic Egyptian religious …


Religious Mega-Events And Their Assemblages In Devotional Pilgrimages: The Case Of Círio De Nazaré In Belém, Pará State, Brazil, José Rogério Lopes, André Luiz da Silva 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Religious Mega-Events And Their Assemblages In Devotional Pilgrimages: The Case Of Círio De Nazaré In Belém, Pará State, Brazil, José Rogério Lopes, André Luiz Da Silva

Journal of Global Catholicism

The article presents a typological categorization of contemporary mega-events and their characteristics, in order to interpret the assemblages mobilized by sectors of the Catholic Church in traditional devotional pilgrimages in the northern region of Brazil. It uses ethnographic accounts of the Círio de Nazaré feast, in Belém, Pará state, Brazil, considered the largest Catholic procession in the West, in order to analyze how the promotion of this event is organized through institutional and market logics that overlap with the religious phenomenon, evincing a contemporary trend. These assemblages open a field of possibilities for institutional religious reproduction and generate concentric flows …


Young Brazilian Catholics Reaffiliating: A Case Study In The City Of Campos, Rj, Brazil, Cecilia L. Mariz, Wânia Amélia Belchior Mesquita, Michelle Piraciaba Araújo 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Young Brazilian Catholics Reaffiliating: A Case Study In The City Of Campos, Rj, Brazil, Cecilia L. Mariz, Wânia Amélia Belchior Mesquita, Michelle Piraciaba Araújo

Journal of Global Catholicism

Through a case study in Campos, a northern city of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, this article analyzes reports from young people who state that they have undergone a process of revival or reactivation of their Catholic faith. They all declared to have participated in the “St Andrew’s School of Evangelization.” They also mentioned having experienced an "encounter with God." Their narratives were similar to conversion accounts reported by practitioners of other religious traditions. The interviewees describe faith as a personal choice, and emphasize the need for religious study and the value of religious knowledge. To what extent these values …


Contemporary Brazilian Catholicism And Healing Practices: Notes On Environmentalism And Medicalization, Juliano F. Almeida 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Contemporary Brazilian Catholicism And Healing Practices: Notes On Environmentalism And Medicalization, Juliano F. Almeida

Journal of Global Catholicism

Anthropological studies on Brazilian Catholicism traditionally focused on popular variants of this religious practice and their relationship with the official Catholicism. Encouraged by recent anthropological perspectives, which highlight the relevance of devoting researches not only on the margins, but also on the center of social practices, this paper analyzes contemporary practices of Brazilian Catholic friars and priests on health promotion. The analysis of their publications (books that include practices and tips on health and that became best sellers etc.), as well as interviews, allows us to perceive a process of environmentalization on the contemporary Brazilian Catholicism. This process seems to …


Strong Church, Weak Catholicism: Transformations In Brazilian Catholicism, Carlos Alberto Steil, Rodrigo Toniol 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Strong Church, Weak Catholicism: Transformations In Brazilian Catholicism, Carlos Alberto Steil, Rodrigo Toniol

Journal of Global Catholicism

In this paper we explore data on Catholicism from the 2010 census in Brazil, as well as other data from the Center for Religious Statistics and Social Investigation. Using these statistics, we question those arguments that explain the reduction in the number of Catholics in Brazilian society as a problem in the institution’s adaptation in response to the challenges of evangelization, or as a lack of ministerial vocations to meet the religious demands of the people. Pursuing an alternative argument, we consider the weakening of the relationship between the Catholic institution and traditional popular Catholicism to be a fundamental aspect …


Editor's Introduction, Marc Roscoe Loustau 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Editor's Introduction, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.


Placing God: Defining “Post-Christianity” For Contemporary Japanese Christians, Leryan Anthony Burrey 2021 The University of San Francisco

Placing God: Defining “Post-Christianity” For Contemporary Japanese Christians, Leryan Anthony Burrey

Master's Projects and Capstones

This work suggests that we consider a new, working definition of post-Christianity. This new paradigm is in response to Western Christian thought being too dominant a force that fails to take into enough account other global experiences— like those of Japanese Christians. These reflections are based on scholarly opinions claiming that Christianity is a “global culture,” and ultimately argues for more international inclusivity in Western Christian thought and institutions, especially regarding the Asia-Pacific. Moreover, this paper illuminates how iitoko dori allows Christian thought to peacefully coexist in Japan’s greater society. The research also explores specific Japanese cultural practices that make …


Belief And Belonging: A Case Study Of The Maronite In San Antonio, Texas, Rose Karam 2021 University of the Incarnate Word

Belief And Belonging: A Case Study Of The Maronite In San Antonio, Texas, Rose Karam

Theses & Dissertations

This study focuses on a religious group in America and how it has managed to engage the third and fourth generations who have assimilated into the American cultural milieu while maintaining allegiance to the Church of Lebanon-the Maronite Catholic church. Understanding the history of the Lebanese American people and their connection to this Church is essential when studying this group because it offers a deep awareness of the existing phenomena in America, the natural progression of an immigrant population, and its subsequent generation’s progression into the American society. Most of these individuals in this study are the descendants of the …


Remaking Divinity In Aldous Huxley’S Brave New World 2021, Sebastian Vignone 2021 SUNY College Cortland

Remaking Divinity In Aldous Huxley’S Brave New World 2021, Sebastian Vignone

Master's Theses

Humanity is an experience. Shaped through both individual and collective encounters, we understand the self and the world around us as an amalgamation of interactions over the course of our lives. Arguably, one of the most common experiential archetypes is religion, and more specifically the relationship one has with a divine being as it has been framed by a religious institution. While the United States does not have an official religion, there is a host of people who refer to the U.S. as a “Christian nation,” and it is therefore irresponsible to elide the panoply of inequities that run through …


The Hijab In The Quran And Its Effects On Muslim Women In The Western Society, Heba Omar Marzouk 2021 University of Mississippi

The Hijab In The Quran And Its Effects On Muslim Women In The Western Society, Heba Omar Marzouk

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to present the contextualization of the hijab in the Quran, present the experiences of some Muslim women who wear the hijab, and analyze them through the frameworks of choice feminism and standpoint theory. This thesis consists of two main parts: the documentary and the thesis reflective writing. The writing portion is broken down into two parts: contextualization of the hijab and documentary analysis. The documentary is mostly made up of the responses from the three interviews that were conducted virtually through Zoom. The documentary analysis portion then analyzes the experiences of the three women, …


A Theology Built On Meritocracy: A Theological And Sociological Examination Of The Prosperity Gospel And The American Dream, T.E. Starman 2021 Abilene Christian University

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 …


Book Review: The Twenty-Something Soul: Understanding The Religious And Secular Lives Of American Young Adults, Shaya Aguilar 2021 Abilene Christian University

Book Review: The Twenty-Something Soul: Understanding The Religious And Secular Lives Of American Young Adults, Shaya Aguilar

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

The Twenty-Something Soul: Understanding the Religious and Secular Lives of American Young Adults, by Tim Clydesdale and Kathleen Garces-Foley. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 242 pages, $31.00.


Grief And Spiritual Coping: The Practices Of Three Generations Of Faith, Ron Bruner, Dudley Chancey 2021 Westview Boys’ Home

Grief And Spiritual Coping: The Practices Of Three Generations Of Faith, Ron Bruner, Dudley Chancey

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

Among the more important tasks of ministry is assisting congregants dealing with the grief that permeates life. This project seeks to discover and describe spiritual coping practices, positive and negative, among three-generation families within Churches of Christ. This qualitative work reviews relevant literature, defines research questions for this research, details the methodology used to obtain data, describes the sample from which these data were obtained, and reports the results. Thematic analysis of narratives obtained in this qualitative study provides an enriched understanding of spiritual coping with life stressors that is useful for practitioners of clinical and pastoral counseling.


Pilgrimage To Bawakaraeng Mountain Among The Bugis- Makassar In Indonesia: A Contestation Between Islamic Identity And Local Tradition, Mustaqim Pabbajah, Irwan Abdullah, Hasse Jubba, M.Taufiq Hidayat Pabbajah, Zainal Said 2021 Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Pilgrimage To Bawakaraeng Mountain Among The Bugis- Makassar In Indonesia: A Contestation Between Islamic Identity And Local Tradition, Mustaqim Pabbajah, Irwan Abdullah, Hasse Jubba, M.Taufiq Hidayat Pabbajah, Zainal Said

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This study discusses the contestation of Islamic identity and local traditions of the Bugis-Makassar people in socio-religious life. Tradition contains a belief with form and practices that can still be traced to the present. In this case, the identity of the hajj pilgrimage attached to Muslims has been adapted to the Bawakaraeng Hajj community in the South Sulawesi region. The current research employed a qualitative descriptive approach and field-based data collection techniques by conducting observations and interviews with key informants about the Bawakaraeng community. It was found that the Bugis-Makassar practice of carrying out a series of rituals on the …


Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Catholics & Cultures As An Act Of Improvisation: A Response, Thomas M. Landy

Journal of Global Catholicism

This essay responds to seven articles published in the same issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism on the use of Catholics & Cultures, a multimedia website, as a pedagogical resource for college classrooms. The site is deliberately presented in a fashion that undermines notions of center and periphery and presents Catholicism from a lay, lived-religion perspective as the multicultural faith that it is, minimizing reference to religious typologies. Particular attention is given to how to navigate tensions around theorizing, categorizing and sorting information for cross-cultural comparison. Given scholars’ current state of knowledge, writing about and teaching about global Catholicism …


Catholics & Cultures: A Panoramic View In Search Of Greater Understanding, Stephanie M. Wong 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Catholics & Cultures: A Panoramic View In Search Of Greater Understanding, Stephanie M. Wong

Journal of Global Catholicism

While internet-based technologies can open up greater awareness of the world or create self-perpetuating echo-chambers, the Catholics & Cultures project aspires to do the former. Aiming to ‘widen the lens’ on the variety of Catholic communities and practices, the site delivers on this goal by introducing viewers to a vast array of articles, pictures and videos from around the world. The organization of the site by country and by certain key features of lived Catholicism offers some interpretive guidance. However, the project could be strengthened as a pedagogical resource if it were more extensively thematized and hosted reflections on potential …


The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell 2021 College of the Holy Cross

The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell

Journal of Global Catholicism

Reflecting on my experience teaching Introduction to Global Christianity, this essay ponders questions at the heart of undergraduate teaching: How can we encourage students to utilize online sources? How can we empower them to seek out answers to their questions? It offers practical examples of how I have used the Catholics & Cultures website in my classroom at a large public university. In particular, I reflect on my experience working with students who are mostly of Catholic heritage, but from many cultural and social contexts.


Teaching Sexuality On The Catholics & Cultures Website: A Refreshing Turn Toward The Longue Durée, Marc Roscoe Loustau 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Teaching Sexuality On The Catholics & Cultures Website: A Refreshing Turn Toward The Longue Durée, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

I present a close reading of the Catholics & Cultures (C&C) website’s treatment of sexuality-related issues and discuss this material in relation to debates about how to teach sexuality in religious studies and theology classrooms. The C&C website occasionally and intermittently uses a typical “contemporary issues” approach that considers sexuality in relation to legal and legislative decisions and government policies. In contrast, country profiles consistently situate sexuality in relation processes like nation building, urbanization, and lay Catholics’ growing authority. My interpretation highlights the site’s decision to emphasize the longue durée, long-term and deep structural processes driving cultural and religious changes. …


Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck 2021 College of the Holy Cross

Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck

Journal of Global Catholicism

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the …


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