This thesis assesses seeker sensitive churches from the standpoint of Andrew Walls' missionary paradigm. Seekers are described as a distinct population on the American religious landscape, characterized by the importance of individual relevance, immanence, and open-mindedness. Their ideological lineage is said to go back to the Transcendentalists. Seeker sensitive churches act as missionaries to seekers. These churches have conservative statements of faith. However, in translating their message to seeker culture, some of the aspects of those conservative beliefs become muted. Seekers come away with a strain of Christianity which is tailored to the three key characteristics of seeker religiosity. This new seeker Christianity makes the religion viable for a population who had moved away from the Christian faith. Other missionary encounters often have similar results, with Christianity adapting based on the culture into which it is introduced. These adaptations have led to Christianity's continued success. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Degree Awarded: Spring Semester 2007. / Date of Defense: March 27, 2007. / Church Marketing, Church Growth, Seeker Sensitive Churches, Commodification Of Religion, Missionary Paradigm / Includes bibliographical references. / Amanda Porterfield, Professor Directing Thesis; John Corrigan, Committee Member; Amy Koehlinger, Committee Member.

A variety of social groups exist in the cultural area known in Tibetan as Amdo (covering parts of present-day Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan provinces in western China; see Map 1). Much investigation remains to be conducted on these terms as other scholars have noted (Hille, Horlemann, and Nietupski 2015:4). Not only are there a multitude of terms in use, but Tibetan communities in different regions use the same term to describe different kinds of social groups. One such term, tsowa, is commonly used in Amdo. Many scholars have translated tsowa as “tribe” or “clan;” both of which introduce inaccurate connotations. As the meaning of tsowa is not uniform, local case studies in different regions are necessary to document the range of meanings this term contains. This work is but one such case study of a group of tsowa, the Eight Lhadé Tsowa, that coalesced as support communities for a monastery in present-day Trika (Ch. Guide) County, which is in Tsolho Prefecture (Ch. Hainan) of Qinghai Province. It is based on documentary sources, both historical and contemporary, and will hopefully be used as the basis for future fieldwork. The present study surveys the available literature on tsowa, examines the history of one group of tsowa, proposes a working definition, and raises questions for future research. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 13, 2018. / Amdo, social organization, Tibet, tsho ba / Includes bibliographical references. / Bryan Cuevas, Professor Directing Thesis; Kristina Buhrman, Committee Member; Joseph Hellweg, Committee Member.

This dissertation investigates how ancient Jewish communities restructured the Mosaic Law to redress the physical and emotional trauma that they endured under occupation. A systematic analysis of the Seleucid and Roman Empire’s governing strategies in ancient Judea reveals that military occupation was a system of colonial governance whereby military and judicial structures converged to monopolize regional politics. The Mosaic Law or Torah played a decisive role in reproducing this monopoly of legislative and military power with Seleucid and Roman rulers representing themselves as protectors and patrons of the Mosaic Law. By representing themselves as benevolent protectors of the Torah, they simultaneously reproduced the assumption that the Mosaic Law made Jewish men weak, effeminate, and unable to protect themselves. This discursive practice enabled Seleucid and Roman rulers to legitimate and justify their extraction of material resources from the region and exploitation of local labor. However, analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls suggests that locals developed a discursive practice of their own to counteract this dominant discourse. This discursive practice has often been identified by scholarship as sectarian in nature, since the texts urge the readers to separate from local institutions. I argue that this discursive practice represented mimicry of Seleucid and Roman military discipline. Mimicry consisted of a strategic process of negotiation, contestation, and adaption to the defining features of professional military life and discipline. These included the idea that professional soldiers must separate themselves from civilian institutions, specfically family, wealth, and marriage. By doing so, soldiers could embody the highest levels of integrity, competency, and virtue. The scrolls seem to parallel this practice by staking covenantal membership in a rigorous program of training that occurs outside of the context of home and family. This strategic process of restructuring the Mosaic Law reproduced a configuration of masculinity that shared apparent affinities to the masculine ideology that promulgated Seleucid and Roman hegemony. Locals in effect transformed the Mosaic Law into a manual of masculine discipline and in the process represented themselves as more disciplined, skilled, and masculine than soldiers in occupying armies. By repudiating the assumption that the Mosaic Law made them weak, effeminate, and unable to protect themselves from military subjugation, the scrolls’ authors undermined the central rationale that structured and legitimated the Seleucid and Roman Empires’ occupation of ancient Judea. I conclude that the scrolls, often read as the work of a Dead Sea sect, restructure the Mosaic Law to dismantle colonial governance and become masters of their own stories. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2018. / April 13, 2018. / Includes bibliographical references. / Matthew Goff, Professor Directing Dissertation; William Hanley, University Representative; Adam Gaiser, Committee Member; Nicole Kelley, Committee Member; David Levenson, Committee Member.

論文(碩士)--香港中文大學,1967. / Manuscript. / Includes bibliographical references. / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue,1967. / Chapter 一 --- 導 論 / Chapter 二 --- 中國古代宗教所崇奉之百神 / Chapter 1 --- 山川庶物神 / Chapter 2 --- 社稷社 / Chapter 3 --- 五祀神 / Chapter 4 --- 日月星辰風雨寒暑四將諸神 / Chapter 5 --- 五行神 / Chapter 6 --- 祖先神或人鬼 / Chapter 7 --- 天帝 / Chapter 三 --- 山川庶物社稷五祀諸神及其與人之關係 / Chapter 1 --- 諸神觀出現之推測 / Chapter 2 --- 諸神觀之發展 / Chapter 3 --- 諸神與人之關係 / Chapter 四 --- 日月星辰風雨寒暑四特五行諸神及其與人之關係 / Chapter 1 --- 日月星辰諸神觀出現之推測及其發展 / Chapter 2 --- 風雨寒暑四特諸神觀出現之推測及其發展 / Chapter 3 --- 五行神觀念出現之推測及其發展 / Chapter 五 --- 視先神或人鬼及其與人之關係 / Chapter 1 --- 中國古人崇奉視先神或人鬼概述 / Chapter 2 --- 祖先神或人鬼觀之發展 / Chapter 3 --- 祖先神與人之關係 / Chapter 六 --- 天帝神及其與人之關係 / Chapter 1 --- 天帝觀念之出現問題 / Chapter 2 --- 天帝一神觀 / Chapter 3 --- 天帝之德性或本質之涵義 / Chapter 4 --- 天帝之下感於人 / Chapter 5 --- 人上交於天帝 / Chapter 6 --- 天命下貫而為人性 / Chapter 7 --- 人上達於天 / Chapter 七 --- 中國古代宗教思想所藉以表現之形式 / Chapter 1 --- 宗教觀念與宗教形式 / Chapter 2 --- 古代宗教活動之方式之演變與中國傳統宗教形式之確定 / Chapter 3 --- 中國古代宗教形式之特殊性之比較說明 / Chapter 八 --- 中國古代宗教思與人生社會之相互影響 / Chapter 1 --- 概 述 / Chapter 2 --- 中國古代宗教思想與人生社會一般性之相互影響 / Chapter 3 --- 中國古代宗教思想與政治觀念之相互影響 / Chapter 4 --- 中國古代宗教思想與道德觀念之相互影響 / Chapter 5 --- 中國古代宗教思想與社會結構之相互影響 / Chapter 九 --- 諸子與傳統宗教思想 / Chapter 十 --- 儒家對傳統宗教思想之繼承與發展 / Chapter 1 --- 孔子對傳統宗教思想中天帝觀之繼承與發展 / Chapter 2 --- 孟子對傳統宗教思想中天帝觀之繼承與發展 / Chapter 3 --- 筍子對傳統宗教思想中天帝觀之歧出 / Chapter 4 --- 孔子對傳統自然神與祖先神等觀念之繼承與發展 / Chapter 5 --- 孟筍對傳統自然神與組先神之態度 / Chapter 6 --- 孔孟筍對傳統宗教形式之態度 / Chapter 十一 --- 墨子對傳統宗教思想歧出之發展 / Chapter 1 --- 概 述 / Chapter 2 --- 墨子對傳統宗教思想中天帝觀歧出之發展 / Chapter 3 --- 墨子對傳統自然神與祖先神之態度 / Chapter 4 --- 墨子對傳統宗教形式之態度 / Chapter 十二 --- 結 論

This dissertation examines the life, films, and manuscript, Devotional Cinema, of American Buddhist experimental filmmaker Nathaniel Dorsky (1943-present). Dorsky’s work shifts the point of intersection between religion and film from the ability of movies to immortalize subjects, engage with eternal themes, or provide experiences of transcendence to the immanence of the materials of film, and by extension the contingency and impermanence of our lives. His approach has developed religious meaning in keeping with particular Buddhist teachings and meditation practices by opening up possibilities of how films might do religion, revealing the ways the study of religion and film can become a means of expanding and refining our vision of religion itself. Dorsky’s life intersects with a variety of significant institutions, leaders, and communities of American Buddhism and avant-garde film from the 1950s to the present. His story illustrates a history between religion and film unique in its fluidity, hybridity, and symbiosis: he has studied Buddhism with Asian Buddhist emissaries like Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who engaged in and wrote about filmmaking as a mode of Buddhist knowledge; he is among a collection of American avant-garde filmmakers who experimented with Buddhist ideas and practices in their lives and work; and has been a friend and follower of Stan Brakhage, a leader of a particular lineage of 1960s avant-garde film, who voiced religious devotion to film itself. By situating Dorky within American Buddhism and avant-garde film, I consider the religious depth underlying his work, challenge definitions of authenticity present within Buddhist and religious studies, and examine the intensity and diversity of religious aspirations among filmmakers and enthusiasts. Doing so encourages a reading of Devotional Cinema and Dorsky’s films that highlights the physicality and temporality of film in religious understanding, emphasizing the worldly, material, diverse, contingent, and impermanent dimensions of both.

This dissertation investigates the efficacy of shamanistic healing by exploring the self-transformation process as mediated through ritual practices and symbolic narratives. It has long been observed that self-transformation is a common occurrence in shamanistic healing, but the mechanisms contributing to this transformation are not well understood. By integrating findings from contemporary scientific research on self and adapting earlier frameworks to reconsider both theoretical formulations of and empirical data on self-transformation, this dissertation constructs a computational model capable of identifying these mechanisms, which are articulated and tested using simulation. Studying shamanistic healing within a broader evolutionary, informational, and physical context and by means of computer modeling, the gap between the contemporary science of self and the understanding of self in religious studies has been partially bridged. As simulation results show, self-transformation consists of two stages, disruption and reintegration. High-arousal shamanistic healing rituals exhaust cognitive resources and weaken the self-organizing integration tendency of the self-system, leaving self vulnerable to external influence and therefore providing a window of opportunity for symbolic narratives to exert their guiding influence on the reintegration process. As such, the self-transformation achieves optimal results when ritual practices and symbolic narratives are both involved in the healing process. By employing computational modeling, this dissertation demonstrates the potential and relevance of simulation for exploring the mechanisms that underlie shamanistic healing and constitutes a case study for how computational approaches may apply to topics in religious studies. / 2021-02-15T00:00:00Z

This dissertation is a study of Youxi Chuandeng's (1554-1628) transformation of "Buddha-nature includes good and evil," also known as "inherent evil," a unique idea representing Tiantai's nature-inclusion philosophy in Chinese Buddhism. Focused on his major treatise On Nature Including Good and Evil, this research demonstrates how Chuandeng, in his efforts to regenerate Tiantai, incorporated the important intellectual themes of the late Ming, especially those found in the Śūraṃgama Sūtra. In his treatise, Chuandeng systematically presented his ideas on doctrinal classification, the principle of nature-inclusion, and the practice of the Dharma-gate of inherent evil. Redefining Tiantai doctrinal classification, he legitimized the idea of inherent evil to be the highest Buddhist teaching and proved the superiority of Buddhism over Confucianism. Drawing upon the notions of pure mind and the seven elements found in the Śūraṃgama Sūtra, he reinterpreted nature-inclusion and the Dharma-gate of inherent evil emphasizing inherent evil as pure rather than defiled. Conversely, he reinterpreted Śūraṃgama Sūtra by nature-inclusion. Chuandeng incorporated Confucianism and the Śūraṃgama Sūtra as a response to the dominating thought of his day, this being the particular manner in which previous Tiantai thinkers upheld, defended and spread Tiantai. What set Chuandeng apart from his predecessors were his efforts to harmonize rather than criticize other Buddhist schools. The Śūraṃgama Sūtra was emblematic of the syncretic intellectual trend of the late Ming and its popularity was widespread. Chuandeng ably took ideas from the Śūraṃgama Sūtra to make his points. Chuandeng was a culminator and innovator of nature-inclusion and his thought and activities represent the revival of Tiantai in the late Ming. This study proves that the Tiantai school was not a marginal but rather an active contributor to the overall revival of Buddhism in the late Ming,

This dissertation explores diverse imaginings of Mount Wutai's significance put forward between the seventh and fourteenth centuries. It is built around a close reading of five principal miracle tales, various versions of which appear in court memorials, clerical biographies, diaries, statuary sets, temple chronicles, local gazetteers, and inscriptions preserved in China and Japan. Comparing the different portrayals of the mountain in these five primary narratives together with many other miracle tales set at the mountain, this thesis attempts to explain how and for whom the representation of Mount Wutai's significance worked. The dissertation proposes that during the course of its emergence as the focus of regional, national, and international devotion, the site's former importance was repeatedly recast in ways that met the needs of changing audiences in Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) China and Heian (794-1185) and Kamakura (1185-1333) Japan.

It is generally held that the Apostle Paul dismissed the rite of circumcision for Gentiles. This dissertation, however, offers a different perspective. Through examination of relevant sources regarding the role of circumcision in conversion along with consideration of Philo of Alexandria's depiction of Abraham as an exemplar of and for the proselyte, this project will suggest that Paul, in Rom 4:11-12, uses the example of Abraham in order to explain the value of circumcision for Jews as well as for Gentiles. It will be argued, moreover, that Paul's objections to circumcision, as found in Romans as well as in Galatians, Philippians, and 1 Corinthians, were not to the rite <em>per se</em> but rather to the notion that circumcision was necessary for entering the Abrahamic covenant, "becoming a Jew," justification, salvation, spiritual transformation, protection or identity in Christ. A case will be made, moreover, that in Paul's day there were two competing forms of circumcision and that Paul was opposed to the more radical procedure. Finally, divergences in Paul's handling of the topic of circumcision in different letters will be explained through attention to particular audience concerns.

Taking Gushan Monastery in Fujian Province as a reference point, this dissertation investigates the formation of the Gushan Chan lineage in Fujian area and its later diffusion process to Taiwan. From the perspective of religion diffusion studies, this dissertation investigates the three stages of this process: 1. the displacement of Caodong Chan center to Fujian in the seventeenth century; 2. Chinese migration bringing Buddhism to Taiwan in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911) and 3. the expansion diffusion activities of the institutions and masters affiliated with this lineage in Taiwan during the Japanese rule (1895-1945), and the new developments of humanistic Buddhism after 1949. In this spreading process of the Gushan Chan lineage, Taiwanese Buddhism has emerged as the bridge between Chinese and Japanese Buddhism because of its unique historical experiences. It is in the expansion diffusion activities of the Gushan Chan lineage in Taiwan that Taiwanese Buddhism has gradually attained autonomy during the Japanese rule, leading to post-war new developments in contemporary humanistic Buddhism.