This thesis will demonstrate that the modern understanding of the four primary crusades (1095-1204) has been influenced by a fundamentally flawed framework. Defining the crusades as a conflict between two monolithic at-war religious groups (Christians and Muslims) results in an incorrect conception of the period. Therefore, in order to deconstruct this belief, this thesis will view the crusades through the prism of two cities: Constantinople and Jerusalem. The rhetorical relationship that developed between these two cities during the crusading period demonstrates that the moment was defined by political and pragmatic relationships that cut across religious lines. Modern historians, through oversimplifications and assertions of a binary religious relationship, have buttressed public misperceptions of the crusades. Thus, historians have allowed the moment to be used as a rhetorical justification for modern political issues like imperialism and terrorism.

Around the world, religion takes many forms that vary greatly in practices, beliefs, and doctrine. In fact, defining the term "religion" is a difficult task in encompassing a multitude of faiths. In America, various cultural practices emulate the religious nature of various classic religions. Sport is a peculiar example that hold the interests of millions. However, the way sport is experienced as a fan differs greatly from the way sport is experienced as an athlete. I argue that to an athlete, sport functions as a placeholder for religion in modern-day America. By exploring various functions of religion, as defined by Winston King in the Encyclopedia of Religion (1959), it is clear that sport offers the same components as religion. However, as scholars such as Price and Chidester have found, sport does not function completely as a religion for fans. I finish with a discussion of why sport in the eyes of a fan fails to meet the requirements for sport acting as religion; using King's definition, it becomes clear that sport, for fans, fails to offer the same type of traditionalism and sacred experiences as found in religion, as well as the experience of sport for an athlete.

This study concerns the concept of sacred architectural imitation, using the Platonic notion of mimesis which then later finds expression in the medieval idea of imitatio. In Religious as well as in artistic and architectural forms of expression, the notion of imitation is indeed a very central and complex issue. At the heart of this concept is the question of meaning, or, more precisely, the transference or translation of meaning; from original to copy, from prototype to reproduction. / In order to better illustrate and understand the principles guiding the notion of medieval sacred architectural imitation I have chosen to focus on five specific instances surrounding the replication of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, arguably the most revered landmark in Christendom. / A close examination of the relationships which exist between model and copy will bring to the fore the dynamics which govern the process of mimesis by which meaning is reproduced in the architectural replicas. / From this comparative analysis will emerge a more universal picture of the medieval concept of religious imitation. Indeed, if anything, a preliminary survey of the great many imitations of the Holy Sepulcher spread throughout Europe reveals to the observer a surprising trend, namely a consistency of inconsistencies in their effort to "copy". / The present study will demonstrate that these seeming inconsistencies within the application of the mimetic process nevertheless reveal a somewhat unexpected structure. / From the pattern of these inconsistencies will emerge a clearer picture of the principles governing the transfer of sacred meaning via the method of imitatio during the Middle Ages.

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Thesis (S.T.M.)--Concordia Seminary, 1989. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 251-258).

Thesis (doctoral)--Augsburg, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [318]-328) and index.

Thesis (D. Min.)--Western Conservative Baptist Seminary, 1994. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 167-169).

Thesis (M.S.)--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 1988. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2770. Abstract precedes thesis as [1] preliminary leaf. Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 31).

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 75-79).