Religious Studies Theses

Contemplative Studies in Context

Bishal Karna — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 06:40:43 PDT

Contemplative Studies is an emerging field within higher education and American culture that is blurring the boundaries of modernity by bringing seemingly religious practices in spaces such as scientific laboratories, classrooms and corporate workplaces, which are often understood as secular environments. This thesis studies the field of Contemplative Studies in higher education by organizing it into the two categories, Contemplative Science and Contemplative Pedagogy in order to situate them in their proper contexts. The paper, then, situates the discourses of Contemplative Science and Contemplative Pedagogy in the larger context of modernity, spirituality in America, science and secularity. In doing so, it brings to light a number of nuances and paradoxes within the contemplative movement that have heretofore been uncommented upon.

Bad Religion: How Ex-Mormon Fiction Reinforces Normative Views of American Religion

Ilani S. Blanke — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 08:35:39 PST

This project examines recent fiction by ex-Mormon authors and highlights how these novels reinforce an American ideal of “good religion.” These texts reveal the boundaries of American religious freedom by illustrating examples of “bad religion” and providing favorable alternatives. The paper looks at scholarship on 19^th century anti-Mormon literature, which provides a foundation for the more modern literature at hand. Through the recent narratives, authors point to an abstract concept of benign, acceptable religion, marking as harmful that which does not share these key characteristics. While these fictional sects appear differently in each work, they comment on similar themes, such as the threat of rigid authority structures and figures, community isolation and insulation, coercive proselytizing and manipulation, and an emphasis on escaping the sect. These themes highlight the existence of a particular brand of American “good religion,” which is antithetical to such groups illustrated in these texts.

The Birth of Tragedy out of the Spirit of Dance: Nietzschean Transitions in Nijinsky's Ballets

Sarah Levine — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:35:39 PDT

This project compares the career of the early 20^th century ballet dancer, Vaslav Nijinsky, to Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of the tragic arts. In The Birth of Tragedy (1872) and elsewhere, Nietzsche argues that artists play the central role in communal mythmaking and religious renewal; he prescribes the healing work of the “tragic artist” to save modernity from the decadence and nihilism he identifies in scientism, historicism, and Christianity. As a dancer, and especially as a choreographer for the Ballets Russes (1912-1913), Nijinsky staged a kinetic response to modern culture that not only displayed shared concerns with Nietzsche, but also, as I argue, allow him to be interpreted as Nietzsche’s archetypical tragic artist. By juxtaposing the philologist-philosopher and dancer-choreographer as artists, I situate the emergence of Modern Art as a nascent movement still bound to Romanticism even while rebelling against it, and as an attempt to reinterpret art in a mythic (and thoroughly modern) context.

Sacrilege in the Sanctuary: Thucydidean Perspectives on the Violation of Sacred Space during the Peloponnesian War

Suzanne Y. Tryon — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:36:22 PST

Few have paid attention to the role that pan-Hellenic religious norms play in Thucy-dides‟s The Peloponnesian War. This thesis investigates the trope of religious sacrilege in the form of violated sacred space. By examining how this trope functions within his chosen rhetori-cal presentation, I will argue that a secular interpretation of Thucydides does not accord with what he tries to accomplish within his narrative, and that scenes describing such sacrilege actual-ly function in crucial ways to support a major premise of his work. Two specific instances of sacrilege will be examined: the civil war on Corcyra in 427 BCE; and the Battle of Delion in 424/3 BCE. I will demonstrate that Thucydides incorporates sacrilege to serve as evidence for his readers that the Peloponnesian War was the worst war the Greek-speaking world had everexperienced, and that religio-cultural norms, however unanimously conceived and internally ob-vious, are inherently fragile and unstable.

Redescribing Agency through Sport and Ritual: Considering an Alternative Approach

Bethanie Harsh — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 12:28:08 PDT

This project exposes the problems with the dominant conception of agency in secular liberal discourse. The main critique is that the dominant conception of agency tends to attribute value to certain aspects of action that are not necessarily the most telling or valuable in terms of what constitutes agency. I use Saba Mahmood’s Politics of Piety to aid in this critique. Her project uses the Muslim rituals performed by women of the mosque movement in Egypt to demonstrate the need for a more nuanced conception of agency in academics. I use CLR James’ Beyond a Boundary to support the approach offered by Mahmood and demonstrate the applicability of such an approach outside of typical considerations of “ritual”. In this case, the approach is applied to cricket.

Raising the Voice for Communion and Conquest: Hymn Singing in Contact among the Brainerd Missionaries and the Cherokees, 1817-1838

Gavin M. Cooper — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 05:51:57 PDT

Many scholars have recognized the communicative and emotive power of singing as a ritual performance, and some have argued that hymn singing has played a significant role as a medium of cultural and religious communication and exchange. To better understand how and why singing might facilitate such exchange, this essay explores as a case study, the role of hymn singing in the cultural contact between the Cherokees and the missionaries at Brainerd, near Chattanooga, TN. By examining accounts of ritual singing recorded by both missionaries and Cherokees, the project illuminates how these communities, respectively, may have understood the role of singing in ritual practice. From these different perceptions of ritual singing, one can better understand how the Cherokees may have experienced resonances with the missionaries’ practices, which would encourage cultural assimilation and exchange. In turn, this study contributes to a larger conversation about music and religious expression.

Hagiography, Teratology, and the "History" of Michael Jackson

Kelly M. O'Riley — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:56:22 PDT

Before his death, Michael Jackson arguably was one of the most famous living celebrities to walk the planet. Onstage, on air, and onscreen, he captivated the attention of millions of people around the world, whether because they loved him or loved to hate him. In an attempt to explain his popularity and cultural influence, I analyze certain theoretical and methodological approaches found in recent scholarship on western hagiographic and teratological texts, and apply these theories and methods to selected biographies written on Michael Jackson. By interpreting the biographies in this way, I suggest why saints, monsters, and celebrities have received considerable attention in their respective communities, and demonstrate how public responses to these figures are contextual, constructed, and often contradictory.

Religious Freedom or Child Abuse? Drawing the Line between Free Excercise and Crimes against Children in Georgia

Christina G. Bennett — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 07:40:54 PDT

This project examines how Georgia draws the line between religious freedom and child abuse. In Georgia, certain religious parents are granted spiritual exemptions for conduct that would otherwise be prohibited due to its potential harm to children, while other parents must alter their religious practices to conform to the law. An examination of Georgia law governing conduct that is both religiously-motivated and poses a risk of physical harm to children illustrates that Georgia’s spiritual exemptions have contributed to producing legally-defined religious orthodoxy, inconsistent regulation of religious conduct, and less stringent state protection from harm for the children of some religious parents.

The Contextualization of Tikkun Olam in American Reform Judaism

Erin M. McClanahan — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:34:49 PDT

American Reform Judaism currently associates the Kabalistic term, tikkun olam, with one of its core principles, social justice. This association is relatively new, dating roughly to the 1950s. The appropriation of a Kabbalistic term by American Reform Judaism is unusual given the historical animosity of American Reform Judaism toward the Kabbalah. The purpose of this thesis to explain this appropriation by contextualizing the use of tikkun olam within American Reform Judaism. The method through which this will be accomplished is the analysis of official documents, journal articles and theological discussions found within the American Reform movement. The thesis concludes that American Reform Judaism chose to appropriate tikkun olam and associate it with social justice in order to locate social justice in a historically Jewish context. This reworking of the concept of social justice to place it within a specifically Jewish frame work reflects the theological shift which occurs in reaction to the Holocaust, fears over Jewish assimilation and other social factors taking place during the 1940s and 1950s.

The Contextualization of Tikkun Olam in American Reform Judaism

Erin M. McClanahan — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 12:25:03 PDT

To Cover Our Daughters: A Modern Chastity Ritual in Evangelical America

Holly Adams Phillips — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:10:26 PDT

Over the last ten years, a newly created ritual called a Purity Ball has become increasingly popular in American evangelical communities. In much of the present literature, Purity Balls are assumed solely to address a daughter’s emerging sexuality in a ritual designed to counteract evolving American norms on sexuality; however, the ritual may carry additional latent sociological functions. While experienced explicitly by the individual participants as a celebration of father/daughter relationships and a means to address evolutionary sexual mating strategies, Purity Balls may implicitly regenerate existing social hierarchy. This ritual facilitates a sociological purpose by means of re-establishing the role of the male through halting the psychological development of sexual identity in the daughter, and these rituals are enacted in the ownership of the daughter by the father, who is responsible for maintaining the daughter’s purity, for “covering her with his protection.”

Can We Be Forgiven?: On "Impossible" and "Communal" Forgiveness in Contemporary Philosophy and Theology

Joshua Scott Lupo — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:11:28 PDT

This essay traces two trends in current philosophical and theological debates concerning forgiveness. One, advocated by Vladimir Jankélévitch and Jacques Derrida, I label “impossible” forgiveness. The second, advanced by John Milbank and L. Gregory Jones, I label “communal” forgiveness. I explore and critically examine each of these positions in the first two sections of the thesis. In the last section of the thesis I examine a recent conversation amongst religious ethicists against the background of the theoretical conversations described in the first half of the essay. Bringing the theoretical conversation together with the religious ethicists’ conversation, I argue that whether or not we embrace forgiveness depends in large part in what tradition, religious or secular, we place ourselves.

A Hermeneutical Examination of Creation in Islam at Georgia State University

Ndola M'Balia Owuo-Hagood — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:56:26 PDT

In traditional Islam, Adam is the first human created. Eve, or Hawa, was created to be his mate and she was made from Adam’s uppermost left rib. There has been a move to argue that Eve and Adam were created simultaneously. I will argue that, because of the negative patriarchal and misogynistic imagery that has been attached to Islam, some feminist Muslim thinkers are attempting to move Islam into a realm where they believe is revolutionary enough to make a new statement in the modern world. These feminist Muslims are making strides to make the Qur'an the sole authority in Islam, while simultaneously dismissing all traditional accounts that have historically been used to assist in interpreting the Qur’an. Although their conclusions are interesting, their methods will be the focus of my thesis. What these feminists are attempting is a method of interpretation that has never been widely accepted in Islam.

Bhaktivedanta Swami's American Scripture

Christa Marie Lasher — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:10:36 PDT

This essay explores ISKCON’s religious text A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada’s commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, the Bhagavad Gita As It Is, as an American scripture. This commentary expressed a philosophy which attracted ISKCON’s American converts and gave voice to the protest they had against the larger American culture. Using Thomas Tweed’s theory of dissent, I show how the Bhagavad Gita As It Is gave the American converts of the 1960s and 1970s a language of dissent in the larger American conversation and allowed them to create an alternative American identity. In this way, the Bhagavad Gita is an American text.

The Brain on Ritual: How Tantric Puja Shapes the Mind

Sherry Lynn Morton — Wed, 26 May 2010 10:06:15 PDT

Traditional ritual studies approaches to the body are effective for illuminating how the body functions as an entity that absorbs and expresses a variety of social, and political dynamics; however, they are less productive for understanding the body as a physical organism. This interdisciplinary thesis applies theoretical models from cognitive science, social psychology and ritual studies to the Śrī Cakra Pūjā in order to develop a more complete understanding of the ritual body as a physical body. Using Lawrence Barsalou’s theory of embodied cognition, which focuses on the impact of human experiences on the creation and integration of neural pathways, this essay, argues that Śrī Cakra Pūjā affects the mind by shaping the neural architecture of the brain. This cognitive perspective on religious ritual practice is compared with the more traditional ritual studies approach of Catherine Bell in an effort to provide a more complete understanding of the religious ritual body, brain and mind.

The Audacity of Faith: A Study of Barack Obama's Religious Views and How they could Shape his United States Presidency

Zachary Ross — Wed, 26 May 2010 08:35:52 PDT

During the 2008 Presidential election, questions concerning Barack Obama’s religious views arose. Specifically, the controversy surrounding Obama’s former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, caused some people to wonder how Wright’s theology may have influenced Obama. This project investigates Obama’s religious views and examines several forces, including Wright, which influenced his theological perspective. Wright bases his theological perspective on the works of James Cone, a significant figure in Black Liberation Theology and a mentor to Wright. This thesis compares and contrasts Obama’s religious perspective with that of James Cone.

Mythmaking from the Fringe to the Center: The Appropriation of Barack Obama in an Emergent UFO- Based Religious Movement and in Mainstream American Culture

Kenneth Paul Smith — Wed, 26 May 2010 08:17:30 PDT

In this essay, I examine the ways in which new myths were made of Barack Obama in the months leading up to, and immediately following, the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election at three sites of cultural production: a UFO-based religious movement historically grounded in the black Israelite religious tradition, TIME magazine’s 2008 “Person of the Year” edition, and Sean Hannity’s “The Real Barack Obama” airing on the FOX News network. I argue that, while the content of these three Obama-myths varies considerable, the ways in which these myths are constructed, and function, are in fact rather similar.

The Red Tent a Case Study for Feminist Midrash

Karen Flagg — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:14:14 PST

This thesis puts forth the argument that two contrasting models of modern feminist midrash evolved in the late nineteenth century. Both models successfully bridge Jewish tradition and modern experience. The Red Tent serves as a primary text and a case study in this discussion of modern feminist midrash.

Changing Narratives, Changing Destiny: Myth, Ritual and Afrocentric Identity Construction at the National Rites of Passage Institute

Michael Karlin — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:14:13 PST

According to the National Rites of Passage Institute (NROPI), African Americans have lost their authentic identity, which has led to inauthentic, broken individuals and communities. In order to reverse these trends, according to NROPI, African Americans must rediscover their authentic identity through a rites of passage program that plucks them from a Eurocentric narrative and places them into an Afrocentric one. This thesis explores how NROPI is a religious response to adversity that takes on a decidedly American form of contemporary religiosity. I argue that by analyzing NROPI and other contemporary rites of passage programs through the lens of religious studies, scholars can gain a deeper understanding of how these programs fit into the broader American religious landscape, and provide commentary on the changing nature of that religiosity, and how their language and rituals can be used as rhetorical strategies for social cohesion and control.

The Shrine of our Lady of Ephesus: A Study of the Personas of Mary as Lived Religion

Heather Abraham — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 17:14:12 PST

In Pure Lust, Mary Daly claims that the Virgin Mary is an “image of total subservience, the dethroned and sapped Goddess who was converted into a vessel.” Daly perceives Mary primarily through Christian scripture and other orthodox texts, ignoring her role as part of a religion lived and experienced outside of Church doctrine and dogma. This thesis explores how Mary is perceived and utilized by the laity, as opposed to the theological Mary, by specifically looking at how the Virgin Mary is imagined and experienced at the Our Lady of Ephesus Shrine in Western Turkey. Utilizing Robert Orsi’s lived religion approach and ethnographic research, this examination of the Virgin Mary will test Daly’s theologically based theory.