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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Bennett, Gaymon
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Contemporary Christian American politicians have diverse identities when integrating their faith with their political ideology and have developed their worldviews and interpretive schemas and have defended, enacted, and given meaning to their positions, knowingly or unknowingly. There are two distinct theoretical clusters which are a result of an already existing dichotomy. This ideological divide happens along the philosophical notions of individualism or communitarianism, libertarianism or egalitarianism, capitalism or collectivism, literalism or hermeneutics, orthodoxy or praxis. One cluster, Institutional Christianity, exerts a dominating influence on the political and cultural landscape in the US, particularly during the last ten years, and could be considered a hegemonic discourse; while the other, Natural Christianity, serves as the counter-hegemony within a political landscape characterized by a two party system. This study explores the relationship of these dichotomous clusters with contemporary Arizona Christian politicians. Using a phenomenological, qualitative study, interviewing sixteen Arizona Christian politicians, this study yielded ten themes, and binary meaning units within each theme, that describe the essence of politicians' faith and political behavior as they intersect. Finally, this study found, as reported by each subject, what political perspectives generally created a sense of dissonance with one's faith and what perspective exhibited a unified sense of congruence with their faith and political behavior.
ContributorsAbleser, Edward (Author) / Gomez, Alan (Thesis advisor) / Oliverio, Annamaria (Committee member) / Herrera, Richard (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This work examines the spectrum of Christian attitudes toward yoga as demonstrative of contemporary religious imagination in recent United States history. With the booming commodification of yoga as exercise, the physical and mental elements of yoga practice are made safely secular by disassociation from their ostensible religious roots. Commonly deployed phrases, "Yoga is not a religion," or even, "Yoga is a science," open a broad invitation. But the very need for this clarification illustrates yoga's place in the United States as a borderline signifier for spirituality. Vocal concern by both Christians and Hindus demonstrates the tension between perceptions of yoga as a secular commodity and yoga as religiously beget. Alternatively embracing and rejecting yoga's religious history, Christian yoga practitioners reframe and rejoin yoga postures and breathing into their lives of faith. Some proponents name their practice Christian Yoga.
Christian Yoga flourishes as part of contemporary religious and spiritual discourse and practice in books, instructional DVDs, websites and studios throughout the United States. Christian Yoga proponents, professional and lay theologians alike, highlight the diversity of American attitudes toward and understanding of yoga and the heterogeneity of Christianity. For religious studies scholars, Christian Yoga advocates and detractors provide an opportune focal point for inquiry into the evolution of spiritual practice, the dynamics of tradition, experience and authority, and the dialectic nature of evolving cultural attitudes in a religiously plural and complex secular environment.
Christian Yoga flourishes as part of contemporary religious and spiritual discourse and practice in books, instructional DVDs, websites and studios throughout the United States. Christian Yoga proponents, professional and lay theologians alike, highlight the diversity of American attitudes toward and understanding of yoga and the heterogeneity of Christianity. For religious studies scholars, Christian Yoga advocates and detractors provide an opportune focal point for inquiry into the evolution of spiritual practice, the dynamics of tradition, experience and authority, and the dialectic nature of evolving cultural attitudes in a religiously plural and complex secular environment.
ContributorsWilken, Jennifer (Author) / Fessenden, Tracy (Thesis advisor) / Cady, Linell (Committee member) / Gereboff, Joel (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This study analyzes competing forms of Protestant Christianity within the Bible Belt of the Upper South (Kentucky, Tennessee, and North Carolina). On one hand, a conservative “culture war” version of Christianity has dominated the South, and deeply influenced national politics, for almost fifty years. This form of Christianity is predicated on white supremacy and heteropatriarchy and regulates religious, as well as sexual, gender, and racial norms. On the other hand, an emerging movement of those once socialized in the culture war version of Protestantism is now reconfiguring the regional traditions. Through ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative interviews, and historical analysis, this study explores the ways these post-culture war Christians are navigating and negotiating relations with family, church, and politics and society more broadly. This work argues that Protestantism in the Upper South is being re-landscaped from the inside by individuals staying within the tradition who seek to reorient regional, national and religious identities. This study goes beyond generalizations about changes in American religion to shed light on the specific motivations, conflicts and dynamics inherent in shifts in lived religion in this particular region. In so doing it also contributes to deeper understanding of processes of religious change more generally.
ContributorsShoemaker, Terry (Author) / Cady, Linell (Thesis advisor) / Gereboff, Joel (Committee member) / Bennett, Gaymon (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
The transformation of Christianity from a small sect of Judaism into a stabilized and powerful multinational political structure has been the topic of a tremendous amount of research and study over the last several hundred years. The question on how, or in what cultural situation was the Christian movement able to grow and stabilize, has been answered in a variety of different ways, by a variety of eminent scholars. In this thesis I apply traditional academic explanations for Christian growth, specifically those of Princeton Historian Peter Brown, to the Syriac-speaking regions of the East during the fourth and fifth centuries. Within this cultural situation, I explore the life and works of the influential Syrian theologian Ephrem the Syrian as a reflection of the concerns of Christians in the East. I provide rich historical information, as well as analysis of Ephrem's many theological concerns. I make use of a myriad of other resources and historical figures relevant to the thesis, and use the vivid picture of Syriac Christianity to answer the fundamental question of how Syriac Christianity grew, and how wealth, poverty, and the changing role of the Christian clergy contributed to this growth. In this investigation, I argue that Syriac Christianity promoted the same radical attitude concerning charity, renunciation of wealth, and the role of the clergy as Mediterranean Christianity according to Brown, but that many cultural and societal impediments faced in Persia prevented the same growth from occurring. The cultural situation faced by Christians in the East was radically different from that of the Mediterranean. This distinction, and all of its implications, is shown to be the reason for the historically underwhelming growth of Christianity during these centuries and beyond.
ContributorsWright, Aidan Eugene (Author) / Bruner, Jason (Thesis director) / Bennett, Gaymon (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
An early Christian construct which had the recently-deceased soul endures a series of judicial proceedings by demons, the telonia has survived as a folk belief in Orthodox nations such as Russia and Ukraine. The telonia construct is a controversial one in Orthodoxy, however, as discussions of the construct's origins often break down into polemical debate regarding the ontological reality of the telonia. This thesis, as its primary goal, investigates the origins and early development of the telonia in a methodical, scholarly manner. It adduces texts from ancient Egypt to propose that the origins of the telonia extend to the earliest written phases of the Egyptian religion. Secondarily, this thesis investigates the origins of the logismoi: intentions which demons introduce into human minds to seduce them to sin. In 1952, Morton Bloomfield posited that the logismoi ultimately evolved from the telonia. Bloomfield's assertion has become the secondary inquiry of this thesis: to wit, whether the logismoi construct evolved from the telonia. This study employs textual criticism of sources in Greek, Latin, and Coptic to answer the two queries. The evidence indicates that the telonia evolved from three previous constructs over the course of at least 2500 years. It also indicates that neither the telonia nor any of its ancestral constructs influenced the creation of the logismoi.
ContributorsMcAvoy, Shawn Daniel (Author) / Newhauser, Richard (Thesis advisor) / Clay, J. Eugene (Committee member) / Tueller, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Women often feel lost within their church community and are overlooking their own health to blend in with conceptions of a perfect marriage that are brought on through stereotypes. Women of abuse are believing, even if it's a matter of their personal health, they are not allowed to separate from their husband sin-free. This concept holds many spiritual women from taking a crucial step from leaving a dangerous situation. Finally, gender roles and the concept of male power is granting abusive men the chance to control the lives and beliefs of their wives with little fight from religious leaders. In order to help Christian women fighting a losing battle against rough husbands, changes need to be made. The education of the clergy and faith communities that may be the first step for many women reaching out for help is vital. First, sermons and lectures need to change to place an emphasis on the equality that is preached throughout the Bible. Second, a solution, such as annulment for abusive marriages, needs to be accepted by the Christian church in order to free women of their vows. At last, a wider knowledge of how common this unfortunate scenario is needs to be expressed throughout the Christian Community. Too many women believe that they are alone, and this is causing them to create unrealistic stereotypes about marriage. By addressing these major issues found throughout the Christian faith there is a better chance that women will start to speak up and find the courage to get out.
ContributorsPierce, Megan Marie (Author) / Fey, Richard (Thesis director) / Berra, Robert (Committee member) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Why do some local religious organizations, particularly Christian foreign mission groups, send missionaries to culturally and politically risky states where they face personal high risks and political entanglements? I argue that local religious groups’ goals and motivations are driven by their involvement in international religious networks, which is a key factor in dispatching missionaries to high-risk countries. These religious activities are driven by constituted identities and expected behaviors from the international networks. I utilized a qualitative analysis of documented sources from domestic and international religious networks and 37 semistructured interview records with South Korean Protestant missionaries and church leaders to probe international influence on local actors’ motivations of religious activities. I also used quantitative data of the number of Korean missionaries collected from the Korea World Missions Association and the Korea Research Institute for Mission to assess several hypotheses describing the influence of global religious discourse on local actors’ motivations and practices. I built a framework of an interaction pattern of local actors and international religious networks and depicted how the shared idea of reaching high-risk countries among global religious actors influenced national actors. The study findings indicate that motivations of religious actors risking their lives in high-risk countries are connected to the power of discourse of “unreached people groups” shaped among global actors, and such discourse is actively constructed by global, national, and local actors.
ContributorsJung, Jihye (Author) / Thomas, George (Thesis advisor) / Warner, Carolyn (Committee member) / Kittilson, Miki (Committee member) / Bruner, Jason (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
From 1973 to 1984 the people of Uruguay lived under a repressive military dictatorship. During that time, the Uruguayan government violated the Human Rights of its opponents and critics through prolonged imprisonment in inhumane conditions without trial, physical and psychological torture, disappearance, and a negation of freedom of speech, thought and congregation. In this project, I argue that these violations of Human Rights committed by the military dictatorship added urgency to the rethinking by religious individuals of the Uruguayan model of secularism, the laïcité, and the role that their theology required them to play in the "secular" world. Influenced by the Liberation Theology movement, Catholic and Protestant leaders simultaneously made use of and challenged the secularization model in order to carve a space for themselves in the struggle for the protection of Human Rights.
Furthermore, I will argue that due to the Uruguayan system of partitocracy, which privileges political parties as the main voices in public matters, Uruguay still carries this history of Human Rights violations on its back. Had alternative views been heard in the public sphere, this thorny history might have been dealt with in a fairer manner. Thus, I call for further exploration of the "intelligent laïcité" model, which might ensure true democratic participation in the public sphere.
Furthermore, I will argue that due to the Uruguayan system of partitocracy, which privileges political parties as the main voices in public matters, Uruguay still carries this history of Human Rights violations on its back. Had alternative views been heard in the public sphere, this thorny history might have been dealt with in a fairer manner. Thus, I call for further exploration of the "intelligent laïcité" model, which might ensure true democratic participation in the public sphere.
ContributorsCash, Lucía (Author) / Cady, Linell (Thesis advisor) / Duncan, Christopher (Committee member) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Warner, Carolyn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015