abstract: A Japanese national identity is generally thought to have originated in the 17th century, with the advent of the Kokugaku movement. I will argue that there is earlier evidence for the existence of a Japanese national identity in the Kumano Nachi mandalas of the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. These mandalas employ the Nachi waterfall as a symbol of the strength and power of the Japanese land, counterbalancing Chinese Buddhist visual motifs. In this paper, I further assert that these mandalas are an early example of an artistic tradition of painting specific landscape features as symbols of a Japanese national identity, and that this tradition continues into the modern period. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Art History 2017

abstract: Lost and Found: Jewish Women Recovering Tradition, Remaking Themselves This study explores the turn towards stringently observant Orthodox Judaism among lesser observant Jewish women ages late 40s to early 70s residing in a rapidly growing Sunbelt city. It seeks to answer three questions: what is the impulse that inspires such a fundamental life change; what is the process for making that change; and how does that change impact the sense of self, as individuals and within families and communities? It is an ethnographic study that uses a qualitative, modified grounded theory methodology to gather and analyze data, allowing themes to arise from extensive field observation and intensive participant interviews. The data establish an underlying phenomenon of lost and found, a personal loss, compounded by a lessening or loss of religious grounding, which inspires a recovery of traditional religion and a remaking of identity. Other key findings manifest a fluidity of religious identity and a propensity for change; the social nature of such identity and the significance of communal belonging in its progression; the impact of memory, history, generation, life course position and geographic location in inspiring and informing such a progression; a reframing of feminist assertions and gender roles within a traditional religious framework; an assertion of the existence of women’s interior life and assumption of personal responsibility for its realization; a reconciliation of a rhetoric of choice and individual autonomy within a traditional religious system. In contrast to this study, previous scholarship focused on younger men and women, most in their 20s or 30s, the majority unmarried and without children. The prior studies took place several decades earlier in major metropolitan areas, most along the Eastern seaboard and in the Midwest, more densely populated with larger, older and more established Jewish communities. This study elucidates a shift towards more traditional religion within American Judaism and within the broader context of American religion. It provides fertile ground for future study of age and stage of life, feminism and gender roles, individual autonomy, choice, communal responsibility and religious change. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Religious Studies 2018

abstract: This study examines how a populist religious leader, Alexander Campbell, altered the economic value system of religious material production in the early United States and, subsequently, the long-term value structure of religious economic systems generally. As religious publishing societies in the early nineteenth century were pioneering the not-for-profit corporation and as many popular itinerants manufactured religious spectacles around the country, Campbell combined the promotional methods of revivalism and the business practices of religious printers, with a conspicuously pugilistic tone to simultaneously build religious and business empires. He was a religious entrepreneur who capitalized on the opportunities of American revivalism for personal and religious gain. His opponents attacked his theology and his wealth as signs of his obvious error but few were prepared for the vigor of his answer. He invited conflict and challenged prominent opponents to grow his celebrity and extend his brand into new markets. He argued that his labor as a printer was deserving of compensation and that, unlike his “venal” clerical opponents, he offered his services as a preacher for free. As Americans in the early national period increasingly felt obligated to find the “right kind of Christianity,” Campbell packaged and sold a compelling product. In the decades that followed his first debate in 1820, he built a religious following that by 1850 numbered well over 100,000 followers. This dissertation considers the importance of marketing, promotion, investment capital, distribution networks, property law, print culture, and ideology, to the success of a given religious prescription in the nineteenth century American marketplace of religion. Campbell’s success reveals important social, political, and economic structures in the nineteenth century trans-Appalachian west. It also illuminates a form of religious entrepreneurialism that continues to be important to American Christianity. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2018

Orientador: Eduardo Bastos de Albuquerque / Banca: Sidinei Galli / Banca: Carlos Ribeiro Caldas Filho / Resumo: Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar a trajetória do espiritismo no Rio de Janeiro a partir da visão do escritor Machado de Assis, através de seu trabalho nos jornais cariocas da segunda metade do século XIX. Tomando como ponto de partida suas crônicas e contos, buscou-se analisar os acontecimentos no meio espírita no mesmo período, estabelecendo, ou não, uma relação entre eles. O material encontrado foi publicado entre 1865 e 1896, totalizando, portanto, 31 anos de escritos referentes ao espiritismo na obra machadiana, dado que não pode ser menosprezado, visto se tratar precisamente do período em que a doutrina espírita chega ao Brasil, conquista adeptos, levanta discussões e suscita polêmicas, conseguindo, ao final do século XIX, sua institucionalização com a criação da Federação Espírita Brasileira em 1884 e a perseguição por parte dos órgãos oficiais após a inclusão do termo espiritismo em três artigos do Código Penal de 1890, fato que culminou numa longa campanha de legitimação da doutrina por parte de seus seguidores. A intenção deste trabalho foi verificar as ressonâncias desse movimento de difusão e legitimação da doutrina espírita nas páginas de Machado de Assis. / Abstract: This research has the aim of analyzing the journey of spiritism in Rio de Janeiro from writer Machado de Assis. point of view through his work on newspapers of this city on the second half of 19th century. Taking into account his chronicles and short stories, there was a survey in order to investigate the events in spiritism environment in the same period, if not a relation among them. All the material found was published between 1865 and 1896, resulting 31 years of written references at such subject on his work , information that cannot be underestimates, once we realize and state the spiritism arrives in Brazil, achieves its followers , raises issues and polemics, getting its officialization in the late 19th century with the creation of a legal and officialized Federation in 1884 which suffered persecution made by official rulers after the inclusion of the term .spiritism. in the Brazilian Law in 1890 leading to the long campaign to state it as a religion. The intention of this research was to verify its spreads on Machado de Assis. pages. / Mestre

abstract: Wu Yun (d. 778) was prominent poet at the Tang court. His biography of the Daoist ritualist Lu Xiujing (406-77) can be read on several levels. It functions as a source of information on Lu's life and works, but a reading focused on this alone is insufficient. Conventions of Chinese biography dictate the text is read not just with an eye towards who Lu "really was," but also how he functions as a character fashioned by an author for certain purposes. With this in mind, the reader can learn not just about Lu, but about the audience of the text and the aims of its author. Lu functioned as a model for later Daoist masters and as an exhortation to proper conduct towards them on the part of rulers and elites. Finally, with reference to the work of Michel Foucault and scholars of collective memory, this work can be read as a window onto the world of discourse in early medieval China. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Religious Studies 2012

abstract: This thesis discusses the intersection of Christian and Blues exegesis and hermeneutics in the life and lyrics of Eddie "Son" House, a Baptist and Methodist preacher and Blues singer who was born in Lyon, Mississippi. It is intended as a biographical case study that highlights and explores the complex and multifaceted relationship between Black Protestant Preaching and Blues Singing/Preaching. In doing so, it critically appropriates Religious Studies theoretical and methodological considerations, orientations, and insights--particularly those from Charles Long and Paul Ricoeur--to examine the life, artistry, ministry, and lyrics of House in light of his expressed religious orientations and dual, often conflicting roles as a Christian Minister and Blues Preacher. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Religious Studies 2013

abstract: 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. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Justice Studies 2014

abstract: The ancient religious practices and beliefs of the indigenous people of Northern Scandinavia, known as the Sámi, have been misrepresented and misinterpreted by well meaning ethnographers and researchers who view such practices and beliefs through an Descartes-Cartesian, objective-subjective lens. This thesis develops a more accurate, intersubjective paradigm that is used to illuminate more clearly the religious workings of the 17th-18th Century Sámi. Drawing upon the intersubjective theories presented by A. Irving Hallowell, Tim Ingold and Kenneth Morrison, ethnographic examples from the writings of early Lutheran missionaries and priests demonstrate that the Sámi lived in a world that can be best understood by the employ of the categories of Person (ontology), Power (epistemology) and Gift (axiology). / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Religious Studies 2014

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-01-25T10:38:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 juliamariajunqueiradebarros.pdf: 967072 bytes, checksum: 6472908c8a74c6f2a3c9166ac13b8110 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-01-25T18:58:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 juliamariajunqueiradebarros.pdf: 967072 bytes, checksum: 6472908c8a74c6f2a3c9166ac13b8110 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-25T18:58:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 juliamariajunqueiradebarros.pdf: 967072 bytes, checksum: 6472908c8a74c6f2a3c9166ac13b8110 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-20 / FAPEMIG - Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais / O presente trabalho visa colaborar para o enriquecimento da discussão acerca das relações entre religião e os diversos âmbitos da vida social. Aqui se buscou compreender os pontos de vista vigentes nos meios protestantes e no seio do movimento missionário no inicio do século XX. Procurou-se fazer isso através de fontes primárias, produzidas por Erasmo Braga e pelas comissões relatoras do Congresso da Ação Cristã na América Latina, o Congresso do Panamá e da leitura de obras acerca da história do movimento missionário protestante, da historia do protestantismo, do movimento de cooperação, das teologias em desenvolvimento no século XX, de obras biográficas sobre Erasmo Braga, bem como obras de história geral, do Brasil e dos Estados Unidos. Nossa intenção foi estabelecer as relações entre o movimento religioso, as questões sociais, econômicas, históricas em andamento à época e compreender as influências de todas essas questões no movimento missionário e a reação deste e de Erasmo Braga às variáveis levantadas. / The present work intends to collaborate for the enrichment of the discussion on religion and it’s relations with the various aspects of social life. Here we sought to understand the points of view prevailing in Protestant circles and within the missionary movement in the early twentieth century. We sought to do this through primary sources produced by Erasmo Braga and by the committees of the Congress on Christian Work in Latin America, the Congress of Panama (1916) and also by reading works about the history of the Protestant missionary movement, the history of Protestantism, the cooperative movement, the theologies being developed in the twentieth century, biographical works about Erasmo Braga, as well as works of Brazilian and the United States general histories. Our intention was to establish the relationship between the religious movement, the social, economic and historical issues in progress at the time, and to understand this issues influence over the missionary movement and the reactions of this movement and of Erasmo Braga to the raised variables.

This dissertation examines vernacular saint plays in French, Italian, and English from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries. It focuses on the genre of hagiographic drama as an expression of popular religion and popular culture in the Middle Ages, serving as a test of current theories pertaining to popular culture. Sociohistorical methods are employed throughout the work as a basis for determining the role of religious theater in medieval society. Contextual analyses of theoretical approaches are provided, including New Historicism, the theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, and the work of Victor Turner. The chapters offer information concerning the cultic traditions that gave rise to the saint plays, an examination of social changes related to the performances, aesthetic conventions, and issues of reception.