It is generally recognized by scholars familiar with Twentieth Century American religious thought that Walter Rauschenbusch was a significant and creative thinker whose writings on church and society constitute one of America's most influential theological developments. However, given the fact that his life and theological writings emerged from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and in awareness of the charges leveled at Rauschenbusch and Liberal Protestantism by the Christian Realism School it is fair to ask what is alive and what is dead in Rauschenbusch's theology. Does he have relevance for our time? Has his work molded the present climate more than most of us know? If so, how and through whom? / This dissertation defends the thesis that Rauschenbusch does indeed provide a theological model that is adequate for our present situation. It also argues that Rauschenbusch has been an even more significant thinker in American Social Theology than we have previously suspected, and his thinking in regard to social justice continues to shape the American consciousness through another generation of interpreters. / To investigate the thesis this dissertation examines the social ethics and theology of Walter Rauschenbusch as it is enunciated in the thinking of Reinhold Niebuhr and Martin Luther King, Jr., because these two men confess to being influenced by Rauschenbusch. This dissertation advances the argument on the relationship between Niebuhr and Rauschenbusch by specifically, though not exclusively, examining Niebuhr's magnum opus Nature and Destiny of Man, all the while noting that there are differences as well as similarities between the two men. In its investigation of the relationship between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Walter Rauschenbusch the dissertation pays specific attention to his social ethic of nonviolence and his theological understanding of sin, salvation and eschatology. Throughout the investigation of their relationship to Rauschenbusch one question remains central: what (in their understanding) is the possibility of bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth in accordance with Rauschenbusch's beliefs regarding the Kingdom of God. / This dissertation concludes that all three men share in a passion for social justice, but Niebuhr and King appeal to Rauschenbusch's theology and to his passion as an inspiration for their own. It is argued that Niebuhr was a highly individualistic thinker who developed new roads not pursued by Rauschenbusch in his search for social justice and that while he was profoundly influenced by Rauschenbusch, Niebuhr must be seen as standing alongside the Rauschenbuschian tradition rather than in it. In its conclusions regarding the relationship between King and Rauschenbusch this dissertation holds that King's thinking is quite derivative of Rauschenbusch's social ethic and theology. This dissertation also concludes that Rauschenbusch's theology continues to provide an adequate social model for our present situation and supports that conclusion by limited examination of areas of possible influence. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-11, Section: A, page: 4669. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

In the monthly event designed for students seeking to learn more about faith and religion in an inviting social environment, Father Bill Neenan discussed the different signs and symbols that exist all around us especially in regards to religion. He also discussed the religious meaning behind various symbols including the Angelus painting and the Boston College logo. / with Father William Neenan, S.J. / Hillside Cafe

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 33-09, Section: A, page: 4963. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1972.

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Thesis (Ed. D.)--Oregon State University, 1979. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the World Wide Web.

The thesis analyzes how Jewish historians presented the Ottoman Empire and its Jewish subjects during the long time span between the end of the fifteenth century and the first decades of the twentieth century. In the first part of the thesis, the key characteristics of the Jewish attitude towards history and history writing are analyzed. Throughout the ages of pre-1820, Jews are observed to be consciously lukewarm towards history. The sealing of the Bible and the emergence of an apocalyptic/messianic world view, which are both considered to have taken place around the last centuries of B.C.E., are illustrated as two major causes behind the emergence of this particular Jewish attitude towards history. In the second part of the thesis, the historiography of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are examined with special emphasis on the period historians who explicitly wrote historical works. As the Ottoman Empire was the super power of the age, in these historical writings, a special divine role was attributed to the Empire. The consecutive part of the thesis focuses on historical writings on the Sabbatian messianic movement. As one of the important episodes of the early modern period of Jewish history, the Sabbatian movement stimulated awareness and interest in history even in the far flung communities of Diaspora and produced a new surge of history writing. The modernization of the Ottoman Empire Jewry that began after the 1840s, and adaptation of numerous already-existing social and intellectual models of the West is the subject of the final part of the thesis. Each of these western Jewish intellectual movements had their distinctive approach to history and influenced the Ottoman Jewish historians in their writings of history. However, the actual scientific and objective historical writings on the Ottoman Jewry started much later in the second half of the twentieth century and gained popularity in the 1980s with the increased world-wide interest in the Ottoman/Turkish Jewry.

This study aims to formulate and evaluate a methodology for the study of rituals in historical time periods. The methods developed in the field of Ritual Studies for the investigation of present-day, observable rituals are assessed in terms of their usefulness for studying rituals practiced in the past, and these methods are adapted to the particular needs of historical study using the pre-modern Polish custom of Wigilia, a Christmas Eve supper ritual, as a case study. This paper suggests that despite the limitations in applying Ritual Studies methodology to rituals practiced in the past, these methods are useful for helping to construct a generalized reconstruction of historical rituals and in using that reconstruction to understand dimensions of popular religion in historical time periods. In looking specifically at Wigilia, this study argues that the customs associated with this ritual are perceived by participants to have effective utility in their everyday lives.

Deep ecology is a relatively new branch of study which combines different fields of knowledge such as philosophy, religion, and sociology, on the one hand, with environmental studies, on the other. The basic premise of deep ecology is the interconnectedness of all life and consequently, a concern for the ecological well-being of our planet, which is increasingly threatened by the impact of modern human lifestyles. Recently, there has been a lot of recent attention given to deep ecology movements in Asia. However, these studies often lack the interdisciplinary background in science necessary to assess a real ecological impact. This study is based on a series of case studies was conducted in India, Mongolia, and Thailand across a variety of faiths and locations. By investigating specific cases across cultures and religions and drawing comparisons between the impacts of minority religions and majority religions, the true environmental potential and value of deep ecology movements is analyzed.

The survival of the human race and all life on planet earth is endangered by the technological advancements of modern civilization such as weapons of mass destruction and the global climate crisis. In the 1960s and 1970s movements began in the academic field of psychology that radically opposed the paradigm believed to have created this dire situation. Tranpersonal Psychology is an integrated field that approaches the future of humanity with hope as it explores the highest evolutionary potentials of our race as conveyed by comparative religious scholarship, psychological literature, scientific investigations, psychosomatic analysis, and case studies. The problem identified in the old paradigm is a disconnected duality of the reductive model that promotes separation, fear, and conflict. Universal unconditional love (agape) is the proposed trait that when implemented into the new paradigm of integration will dissolve the duality into the unity of a spiritual and physical evolution of humanity. The research herein suggests not only a continuity to this proposition that can be found amongst the worlds religious and spiritual traditions, but also a physiological exploration into a scientific understanding of extraordinary levels of human functionality. The suggested physiological transformation of the human body, as understood in the Taoist tradition through studies with a Tai Chi Chuan master, renders an individual invincible to any survival threat. The agape trait in conjunction with the transpersonal movement promotes attitudes of selflessness, compassion, and empathy in order to facilitate an initiative to insure collective survival. Universal unconditional love aligns the collective survival interests with the individual survival interests, and may present an opportunity for humanity to evolve spiritually and physically beyond the threats of our modern day.