This project focuses on two case studies as representative examples of Los Angeles’ progressive tolerance in the period of the 1920s: The Pentecostal mega-church of Aimee Semple-McPherson, and the Vedanta Ashram of Swami Paramananda. Both religious institutions opened in Los Angeles in 1923, just thirteen miles away from each other, and continued to thrive side-by-side throughout the twentieth century until present day. Each religious figure spoke to a part of the growing Los Angeles population: McPherson’s staunchly Christian, emotionally-driven, Hollywood-style ministry appealed to a large number of Los Angeles natives and newly-arrived immigrants, rocketing the emerging Pentecostal denomination into nationwide fame. Swami Paramananda’s message, conversely, offered a universalistic tolerance, appealing to those struggling to grasp America’s continued attachment to a strictly Christian message in a rapidly expanding world. Both institutions offer insight into the ability of remarkably varied religions to co-exist peacefully within a shared space. Beyond the exploration of these two figures and their religious groups, this project also approaches the broader topics of religious pluralism in 1920s Los Angeles, the impact of immigration and urbanization on the religious diversity of Southern California, and the shifting religious climate of post-WWI America generally. This paper engages urban sociological theory and postcolonial thought to analyze the effects of rapid population growth and the rural-urban shift on religious environments in 1920s Los Angeles. This analysis has implications for the present, as American cities continue to struggle with managing diversity of religious beliefs and expressions.

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The Porcupine caribou herd is the focus of multiple stakeholder groups, all of which have different ways of understanding and valuing caribou. This thesis focuses on the knowledge and perspectives that the Teetł’it Gwich’in of Teetł’it Zheh (Fort McPherson, NWT) bring to Porcupine caribou co-management. This paper-based thesis has two major aims: first, to explore how the Teetł’it Gwich’in construct knowledge about caribou; and second, to explore Teetł’it Gwich’in rules-in-use with respect to caribou hunting. A comparison is made between Gwich’in methods of knowledge construction and rules-in-use with those of the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), and the Porcupine Caribou Management Board (PCMB), with the intent of understanding difficulties in co-management. The thesis offers the concept of the Gwich’in Knowledge Complex, a knowledge complex created from multiple sources of information about caribou, including scientific information (mainly from the PCMB and the GNWT) as well as Traditional Knowledge. / Rural Sociology

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This dissertation argues that in the heyday of radio, religious-radio preachers sought to use their programs to counter the secularization of American culture. Ultimately, however, their programs contributed to secularization by accelerating changes already evident in both the conservative and liberal streams of American Christianity. To reach a vast American audience, radio preachers transformed their sectarian messages into a religion more suitable to the masses, thereby altering the very religion it aimed to preserve. This was one of the unintended consequences of American religious radio. Chapter 2 argues that Harry Emerson Fosdick's ministry contributed to a movement away from Protestant orthodoxy. Radio played an important role in Fosdick's successful effort to blaze a new theological trail for the modern era. Chapter 3 shows that Aimee Semple McPherson's experiential religion had an ecumenical appeal that reached areas across the world. As one of the most celebrated Christian figures of the early twentieth century, McPherson's ministry helped make the American church more accepting of important aspects of secularization. Chapter 4 argues that Walter Maier's ministry encouraged millions of people to believe in a simple orthodoxy. The message he broadcast eschewed Lutheran particulars for the bold proclamation of the basic convictions shared by Christian fundamentalists generally. Chapter 5 argues that Charles Fuller's ministry contributed to the transformation of American religion by defining it primarily in terms of evangelism. His success uncovered a particular mood in America: one tired of the militant fundamentalism of the early decades of the century but not ready to abandon the fundamentals of the faith for theological liberalism. Chapter 6 considers religious radio against the backdrop of the emergence of television as the dominant communication medium in America and draws out implications for religion in the modern age of the Internet. To make religion accessible to large and diverse audiences, radio preachers accommodated their messages in ways suited to the medium of radio. Although religious-radio preachers set forth to advance the influence of religion in American society, their choice to limit theological substance ironically promoted the secularization of the American church.

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