Religious Studies Theses

The intersection of religion and autism represents an under-researched area in religion scholarship. Social media activity suggests a growing number of autistic people self-representing their religious experiences through online platforms, generating discourse about religion in relation to exvangelicalism. This project reports the various digital strategies autistic ex-evangelical TikTok creators employ to narrate their deconstruction of American evangelical Christian beliefs and doctrines. These narrations and strategies are considered through the framework of implicit religion, exploring how creators portray autistic identity as a vehicle for meaning making. This thesis analyzes where autistic ex-evangelical TikTok creators’ commitments lie, how they integrate aspects of their core identity into a meaningful life, and what issues from these commitments obscure the boundaries of what we deem religious activity.

In contemporary society, distinct traditions are bleeding into one another, blurring traditional lines of inquiry and historically significant boundaries. This phenomenon frames this project and creates the context for the Yoga-Christian praxis dialogue this study constructively critiques. Unfortunately, this dialogue exhibits an Eliadean concern for essentialism and universality. I challenge this trend by juxtaposing two distinct texts, Patañjali‘s Yoga-Sūtra and Gregory of Nyssa’s Life of Moses. These texts point to the similar idea that without striving and personal transformation neither the yogic practitioner nor practicing Christian logically subsists. More importantly, however, from this point of correspondence I constructively critique the Yoga-Christian praxis dialogue by concretely engaging these texts and paying particular attention to the differences inherent in them. My comparison, then, suggests how attention to particularity points to a more authentic dialogue: what I wish to call a dialogue of distinction without separation.

The first chapter of Mishnah tractate Sotah (m. Sot) records rabbinic elaboration and interpretation on the sotah ritual contained in the Hebrew Bible, Numbers 5:11-31. Specifically, the nine mishnayoth that compose m. Sot 1 discuss the circumstances for invoking the trial of the “bitter waters” and the overall treatment of the suspected wife during the trial. This paper argues that, when read together, m. Sot 1 describes an entire economy of justice and punishment that must be imposed on a wife who is merely suspected of adultery, quite apart from whether she is—or is not—guilty of adultery. Through a close reading of m. Sot 1 and by examining the current gender discourse surrounding this text, this paper maintains that the rabbis sought to justify and explain these aspects of the sotah ritual by elaborating their understanding of suspicion and drawing them under a larger conception of measure for measure justice.

This thesis examines current radical liberal Christian activism in the Southern United States through focusing upon a particular intentional community located in Atlanta, Georgia, The Open Door Community. Through praxis and reflection, this community has developed its own unique practice and theology that I have termed “Liberation Gospel.” This thesis analyzes and describes a unique community in order to understand where the community succeeds, and where it does not, in putting its theological beliefs into practice. This very liberal community does not distinguish between their politics and their theology.

From the 1960s to the present day, American research into the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs has focused on their ability to facilitate “mystical” experiences in test subjects. “Mysticomimetic” research has close ties to perennialist notions of religion that gained popularity over the course of the 20^th century. Figures such as William James and Aldous Huxley promoted perennialist ideals within intellectual circles, particularly influencing psychological researchers. As research into psychedelics has gathered momentum from the 2000s onward, claims that mystical experience is key to the compounds’ palliative effects remain tied to perennialist thought, with current research picking up where studies in the 1960s left off. Perennialism can itself be considered a new religious movement that has developed in scientific and academic circles, the existence of which brings into relief the breakdown of notions of a dichotomist relationship between science and religion in the process.

Thomas Adeoye Lambo (1923 – 2004), a Yoruba Nigerian psychiatrist who received his training in London, initiated a culturally responsive psychiatric treatment in Aro village of Abeokuta, Southwestern Nigeria, in 1954. All through his career, Lambo worked to harness traditional socio-cultural resources for the treatment of mental illness and incorporate them into his medical work. This thesis explores Lambo's understanding of various Nigerian or on broader scale, African religious beliefs regarding mental illness and how they influenced his clinical practice in Aro village. It considers Lambo’s legacies and asks how his works might inform contemporary approaches to addressing mental illness concerns within present day Africa.

My research will explore the recent and explosive growth of those African Americans who identify as “NONES.” My research also examines whether or not identifying as a NONE is the first step to secularism for some African American NONES, and if so, what are the ramifications of a more secularized African American community. I posit that secularization (Secularization, an attitude or political ideology aiming to eradicate religion from public life as defined by the Encyclopedia of Sciences and Religions) of the African-American community will affect every aspect of the community, including interpersonal relationships, how and where they allocate financial resources, education (embracing science), socialization, and other cultural issues. My research on this topic is essential because an increasing number of African Americans identify as “NONES.” NONES, defined by the Pew Research Center, are individuals who respond to a survey asking to describe their religion; they choose atheist, agnostic, or “nothing in particular.” . African Americans make up the second-largest demographic of NONES at 34.9%, . Relatively little scholarship has been done on this phenomenon. The methodology used for this project will consist of an exhaustive and robust analysis of the available scholarship on this topic. My textual analysis will examine the work of those who have written about NONES as a collective and those individuals who have written about the specific life experiences of African American NONES. I will also examine the available scholarship on secularization as it applies to the African American community. My research will identify and fill the substantial gap in scholarship related to African American NONES. I will answer the questions of why there is a sudden growth in African American NONES, whether there is a causational relationship between an expanding African American NONE category and secularization of the African American community, and if so, what are the ramifications. My research has multilayered implications. Its results are instrumental in reimagining how community financial resources can be more effectively used to better the community. My research can also be used to create updated political strategies for reaching African American NONES. Finally, my research can be used to track the changing cultural patterns of the African American community and how those changing patterns affect every aspect of African American and larger U.S. society.

From the 1960s to the present day, American research into the therapeutic effects of psychedelic drugs has focused on their ability to facilitate “mystical” experiences in test subjects. “Mysticomimetic” research has close ties to perennialist notions of religion that gained popularity over the course of the 20^th century. Figures such as William James and Aldous Huxley promoted perennialist ideals within intellectual circles, particularly influencing psychological researchers. As research into psychedelics has gathered momentum from the 2000s onward, claims that mystical experience is key to the compounds’ palliative effects remain tied to perennialist thought, with current research picking up where studies in the 1960s left off. Perennialism can itself be considered a new religious movement that has developed in scientific and academic circles, the existence of which brings into relief the breakdown of notions of a dichotomist relationship between science and religion in the process.

The American Dream has informed cultural and political conversation for more than a century and continues to be used as a normative trope in political discussions. It is often referred to as the cultural, political, and economic ethos of the United States. For its influence however, there is no set of documents that can define what exactly this Dream entails. In the following thesis I will trace and analyze how the American Dream came to be an authoritative myth. By analyzing its development, I will detail how dwelling in one particular understanding of it (political, cultural, etc.) is not enough to explain it, or to account for its existence. By exploring its emergence I will illustrate how political, economic and moral aspects of the American Dream work synergically to form its whole, behaving in patterns identical to religious traditions.

This paper scrutinizes the relationship between Arabic grammar and tafsīr “Qurʾānic exegesis” through investigating the phenomenon of iʿrāb al-jumal “the analysis of sentences’ syntactic functions.” Whereas iʿrāb analyzes words’ syntenic relations within one sentence, iʿrāb al-jumal examines the syntactic status of a sentence within an utterance(s). This study argues that grammar plays a significant role in tafsīr. It investigates iʿrāb al-jumal in two medieval works: Ibn Hishām’s Mughnī al-Labīb in grammar and al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf in tafsīr to illustrate the importance of grammar in tafsīr. The paper consists of three chapters. The first chapter reviews different approaches in Qurʾānic interpretation, focusing on the development of the linguistic approach. The second chapter investigates the theorization of iʿrāb al-jumal in Mughnī al-Labīb, which was the first work to study the syntactic functions of sentences comprehensively. The third chapter analyzes examples of the employment of iʿrāb al-jumal to justify Qurʾānic interpretations in al-Kashshāf.

ABSTRACT

In the 1930s, the Rastafarian religion emerged. Considering the West as “Babylon”, likening themselves to the Israelites of the Hebrew Bible, and believing that Blacks were still in mental, political, and economic slavery; they claimed Ethiopia’s Haile Selassie I as God and urged Blacks to flee the enslavement of the West. I contend that following a religion that espoused a Black god and rejected the most popularly taught Christian doctrines was a modern method of marronage. The lived religious experiences of the Rastafari, from the growing of dreadlocks to physical repatriation, function as methods of flight from the clutches of “Babylon” or captivity. This thesis will show that within these aspects are located the historical concepts of both petit marronage and grand marronage. Utilizing an intersectional framework, I will also discuss the dilemma that faces women practitioners, e.g., subjugation in the face of a perceived freedom from Babylonian bondage.

At the height of its popularity in our society, the teaching of modern transnational postural yoga is entering a new space. A team of researchers and yoga teachers have developed a therapeutic, trauma-informed and trauma-sensitive postural yoga practice. This adapted postural yoga practice, which was specially designed as a supplemental somatic therapy to traditional cognitive psychotherapies for populations coping with complex trauma, is currently offered as an optional therapeutic modality to incarcerated juvenile males in regional youth detention centers in Atlanta, Georgia. In this article I will explore some unique changes, developments, questions and issues that arise from, surround and potentially transform the teacher-student dynamic in the teaching of trauma-informed, mindfulness-based postural yoga within the unique context of incarcerated youth. I will argue that the effects of the intersections of adolescence, complex trauma, incarceration, race and ethnicity, present new and significant challenges that have changed how yoga is taught.

Jewish identity has been defined and redefined, negotiated and renegotiated, among Jews and non-Jews in various parts of the world. The tensions around the ongoing question of “Who is a Jew?” arise from the fact that Jewish identity encompasses numerous combinations of religion, commitment, nation, kinship, peoplehood, culture, ethnicity, and memory. This thesis will examine the way Jewishness has been and continues to be racialized in the United States by Jews and non-Jews. Specifically, I look at how direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry testing companies, such as 23andMe and AncestryDNA, present a racialized view of Jewish identity to consumers and perpetuate the social construction of a Jewish race by claiming detectable “Jewish genes” in their ancestry reports. Additionally, since these companies often provide reports on European, or Ashkenazi, Jewish ancestry, excluding non-Ashkenazi Jewish ancestries, they contribute to an Ashkenormative narrative of Jewish history, heritage, and identity.

Robotic honey bees are drones that are mobile and can successfully pollinate flowers by mimicking the behavior of wild bees in nature. This technology is a potential solution to the declining wild honey bee population. Although robotic honey bees could offer a positive solution to a problem, the fictionalization of robotic honey bees in the popular television show Black Mirror depicts the downside of independently operating drone bees. In the television show, the drones go rogue and pose a threat to human life. Concepts stemming from the anthropology of religion, like “fetish” and Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory, offer ways to think about advances in artificial intelligence and may help us understand the place of these objects and artificial intelligence in the culture. This project will investigate whether robotic honey bees fit into one of these categories or if an expansion of Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory needs expanded.

Throughout much of Christian history, the church had predominant control over religious ritual and belief. As early as the 1st Century, institutions representing "orthodoxy" were banning, forbidding or destroying the "heretical", separating it from what eventually would become canon and religious practice. The 21st Century provides new ways for spiritual knowledge to spread, bypassing traditional methods. Modern Martin Luthers can nail a manifesto to an internet door while the media's obsession with non-canonical texts provides no shortage of material for movies and television. A multi-media barrage challenges orthodox concepts and scriptural definition, often blurring the line between religion and entertainment. The initial clash between the churches and media has evolved over the last century to a point where the media may now produce beneficial results, educating many who may have either left the church or never joined it.

In many of his plays, August Wilson uses religious influences from Africa and from Western Christianity to depict the dichotomy between Black people in America and White people in America. In The Piano Lesson Wilson explores these themes in greater detail and, through an elaborate carving on a piano, shows how the combining of traditional African religions with a westernized version of Christianity can create a uniquely African American experience and expression of religion and spirituality. This thesis discusses the religious integration found in The Piano Lesson and argues that the Charles family ancestors are active agents with decision-making authority regarding the piano, their ancestral burial grounds.

The resettlement process of refugees and asylum seekers in the United States involves many services to a multitude of marginalized identities. The creation of religious community is commonly foundational for the resiliency of refugees. In terms of transgender and non-binary refugees and asylum seekers, this creation proves more difficult but equally as necessary. The two theological frameworks that welcome gender minorities are inclusive theology and affirming theology. This project examines the current practices of resettlement agencies as to the creation of religious community for transgender and non-binary clients and offers a critique to the theological frameworks. Through improving the creation of religious community for transgender and non-binary refugees and asylum seekers, the concept of home can be better supported and strengthened. This will allow for greater chances for resiliency in the resettlement process for such marginalized groups seeking refuge in the United States.

This thesis traces the historical evolution of the term transgender in the United States, mainly since the Second World War. The history of varying terms and conceptions regarding non-conforming gender identity may help clarify contemporary debates among Christian Evangelicals regarding the creation stories in Genesis and how gender is depicted there. The advantage of presenting a more complex history of Evangelicalism will be to counterbalance the mistaken view that Evangelicals are unilaterally conservative; in fact there is a long history of progressive Evangelicalism in this country. Without a consensus understanding of transgender identity and how it may or may not appear in scripture, churches remain uncertain how best to minister to transgender parishioners. This thesis offers a terminological history that may sustain an understanding of transgender identity within progressive Evangelical churches, and shows how different progressive interpretations of the creation stories in Genesis may serve to promote tolerance and acceptance.

The present research project will explore a case study of the experiment of Pandrogeny as conducted by artists Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, arguing that it is best understood as art that performs religion. Utilizing behavior and body modification, this collaborative experiment was intended to create a third, androgynous being, coming into existence through a merging of their identities and referred to as “Breyer P-Orridge.” The experiment was conducted between 1993 and 2007, when Lady Jaye passed away; however, Genesis, in various ways, continues Pandrogynic explorations into the present. The case of this project being religious for Genesis will be made by examining a recent solo exhibition displaying Genesis’s work as well as the performative dimensions of Pandrogeny from its inception to the shift that occurred with Lady Jaye’s death.

In the Civil Rights era there was a resistance from some White Southern Evangelicals to push for equality for African Americans. This response is often attributed to racist attitudes towards African Americans within the Evangelical and Fundamentalist communities. Although racist attitudes are a definite motivating factor, I believe there is a larger theological argument that also needs to be examined- the internalization of atonement theology and what that meant for the understanding of suffering and sacrifice experienced by African Americans. I will also examine the ways in which atonement theology, specifically the penal substitution and Christus Victor models, influenced Martin Luther King, Jr.’s methods in the fight for Civil Rights as well as the response of Noel Smith, a white fundamentalist preacher, to the movement. In my conclusion, I will discuss the ways atonement theology continues to influence the interpretations and responses of these groups to Civil Rights issues.