This thesis investigates artifacts and concepts present in the Noahide world and how they affect Noahide identity. Five factors are analyzed, namely Noahide law, religious pluralism, ritual, sectarianism, and conversion. I consult the Hebrew Scriptures as well as early, medieval, and modern rabbinic sources to set the conceptual background of the Noahide movement before moving into the primary, contemporary sources written by Orthodox Jews, Orthodox rabbis, and Noahides. To supplement my literary analysis, I have conducted a survey of self-identifying Noahide practitioners. This survey collects data concerning religious background, religious behavior, demographics, and free responses. I aim to show first and foremost that Noahidism is a new, exclusive religious tradition which comprises the lay order of Orthodox Judaism. This is born out of a theology which requires belief in the Jewish God and Jewish revelation, a strict ritual system based on Orthodox Jewish prescriptions, and a sectarian typology which mirrors Orthodox Jewish sectarianism. Additionally, my analysis of conversion shows Noahidism is not a gateway to Orthodox conversion, but an end in itself.

Exploding on the American scene in 1906, Pentecostalism became arguably the most influential religious phenomenon of the twentieth century. Sparked by the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles, the movement grew rapidly throughout the United States and garnered global momentum. This study investigates the original Los Angeles Apostolic Faith Mission and the subsequent extension of the mission to South Africa through an examination of periodicals, mission records, and personal documents. Using the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa as a case study, this study measures the significance of print media in the emergence and evolution of the early Pentecostal movement. Based on historical analysis of more than 260 issues of the mission’s periodical, “The Comforter and Messenger of Hope,” this dissertation demonstrates how the publication served a variety of functions critical to the establishment of Pentecostalism in South Africa. As a work of cultural history, it situates the periodical within larger trends in South African culture and society. It illustrates how the periodical functioned simultaneously at the local and international level to standardize Pentecostal discourse and formulate an early Pentecostal identity. Finally, this dissertation argues that Pentecostal periodicals formed a transnational network of Pentecostal thought, connections, and support in the early twentieth century that influenced the development of Pentecostalism in the South African context.

The Gnostic Mass of the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.) suggests a heterosexual gender binary in which the female Priestess seated on the altar as the sexual and fertile image of the divine feminine is directed by the male Priest’s activity, desire and speech. The apparent contradiction between the empowered individual and the polarized gender role was examined by comparing the ritual symbolism of the feminine with the interpretations of four Priestesses and three Priests (three pairs plus one). Findings suggest that the Priestess’ role in the Gnostic Mass is associated with channeling, receptivity, womb, cup, and fertility, while the Priest’s role is associated with enthusiasm, activity, phallus, lance, and virility. Despite this strong gender duality, the Priestesses asserted that their role was personally and spiritually empowering, and they maintained heterosexual and polarized gendered roles are necessary in a transformative ritual which ultimately reveals the godlike unified individual.

Emma Hardinge Britten’s life encompassed and reflected many of the challenges and opportunities afforded to women in the Victorian world. This dissertation explores the multi-layered Victorian landscape through the life of an individual in order not only to tell her individual story, but also to gain a more nuanced understanding of how nineteenth-century norms of gender, class, religion, science and politics combined to create opportunities and obstacles for women in Britten’s generation. Britten was an actor, a musician, a writer, a theologian, a political activist, a magazine publisher, a spirit medium, a lecturer, and a Spiritualist missionary. Taking into account her multiple subjectivities, this dissertation relies on historical biography to contextualize Britten’s life in a number of areas, including Modern Spiritualism and political and civic engagement in the second half of the nineteenth century in Britain, the U.S., and Australia. The dissertation is organized thematically in a quasi-chronological manner. Time frames overlap between chapters, as Britten travels from the realm of politics to that of science and to religion. Each chapter reflects this transformation of Britten’s multiple intellectual and spiritual engagements, including performance, religion, politics and science. Emma Hardinge Britten challenged, whether consciously or not, gendered expectations by attaining a presence in a male-dominated public. Even though her life and accomplishments pre-date the New Woman of the fin de siècle, Britten established a successful career and her life creates a foreshadowing of the larger movements to come. She was an extraordinarily politically active woman whose influence reached three continents in her lifetime and beyond.

Dans cette thèse, nous nous demandons comment les mouvements contreculturels ont trouvé de nouveaux lieux d’expression grâce à la plus grande accessibilité de l’audiovisuel, grâce aussi au combat des « radios libres ». Plus précisément, nous cherchons à savoir pourquoi et comment la société et l’audiovisuel français ont permis la constitution d’un média alternatif radiophonique comme Radio Ici et Maintenant (RIM) et comment cette radio a trouvé un modèle économique viable pour diffuser son idéologie. Nous verrons que l’existence et la persistance de RIM est due à la conjonction de deux phénomènes : d’une part la diminution du coût d’entrée dans la radiophonie grâce au développement et au combat des « radios libres » qui ont donné naissance aux radios associatives (avec leur modèle juridico-économique spécifique), et d’autre part la diminution du coût d’entrée dans le marché religieux avec le développement de la contreculture New Age française issue de la contreculture américaine, elle-même issue des pensées religieuses alternatives occidentales (liées à l’ésotérisme, au médiumnisme) et des religions orientales (l’hindouisme et le bouddhisme). Ainsi, le modèle juridico-économique spécifique des radios associatives a permis de faire vivre puis persister l’idéologie « radiolibriste » et New Age au sein de RIM. Mais ajoutons que ce modèle n’aurait pas été possible s’il n’avait pas été porté par des animateurs bénévoles, des invités militants et des auditeurs actifs dont nous analysons ici le profil sociologique. L’intérêt scientifique de ce sujet provient du fait qu’il s’agit principalement d’étudier RIM qui est une ancienne « radio libre ». Elle a été l’une des radios les plus importantes au sein du mouvement. C’est la plus ancienne des radios locales privées parisiennes. C’est aujourd’hui une radio associative de catégorie A. Cette catégorie correspond à un grand nombre de radios (environ 600), mais celles-ci sont peu étudiées. Enfin, c’est une radio New Age et l’un des seuls médias audiovisuels français New Age. Croisant histoire et sociologie du religieux, des médias, de la communication, de la politique, des sciences, cette thèse repose sur une écoute assidue, sur de nombreux entretiens et discussions informelles, sur l’étude de différents fonds d’archives (papier, audio, numérique) et sur de nombreuses observations de type ethnographique. Nous donnons dans une première partie les outils scientifiques pour pouvoir analyser ce phénomène. Nous verrons ensuite dans quel contexte historique, radiophonique, économique, social, juridique et politique RIM fait son apparition et continue d’exister aujourd’hui. Enfin, nous nous focalisons sur le modèle radiophonique proposé, et sur les acteurs de cette radio. / In this thesis, we wonder how countercultural movement found new places of expression through the increased accessibility of audiovisual, thanks to "free radio" fight. Specifically, we want to know why and how society and the French media have enabled the establishment of an alternative media like Radio Ici et Maintenant (RIM) and how this radio has found a viable business model to spread its ideology. We shall see that the existence and persistence of RIM is due to the combination of two factors: firstly the reduction in the cost of entry into the radio broadcasting through the development and struggle of "free radio" that gave birth to associative radios (with their specific legal and economic model) and also the decrease in the cost of entering the religious market with the development of the French New Age counterculture issue of the American counterculture, itself the result of religious thoughts Western alternatives (related to the esoteric, the mediumship) and Eastern religions (Hinduism and Buddhism). Thus, the specific legal and economic model of associative radios allowed to live and persist "radiolibriste" and New Age ideology within RIM. But add that this model would not have been possible if it had not been worn by volunteer facilitators, invited activists and active listeners which we analyze the sociological profile. The scientific interest of this subject is the fact that it is mainly to study RIM which is an old "free radio". She was one of the most important radio stations in the movement. It is the oldest Parisian private local radio station. Today, it is a community radio (category A). This category corresponds to a large number of radio stations (about 600), but these are little studied. Finally, this is a New Age radio and one of the only French audiovisual media New Age. Crossing history and sociology of religion, media, communication, politics, science, this thesis is based on a constant listening, on numerous interviews and informal discussions on the study of different archives (paper, audio, digital) and numerous ethnographic observations. We give in the first part scientific tools to analyze this phenomenon. We will then see in which historical, radio, economic, social, legal and political context RIM appeared and continues to exist today. Finally, we focus on the proposed radio model and the actors of this radio.

Eighteenth-century Methodist evangelism supported, perpetuated, and promoted slavery as requisite for a productive economy in the colonial American South. Religious thought of the First Great Awakening emerged alongside a colonial economy increasingly reliant on chattel slavery for its prosperity. The records of well-traveled celebrity minister and provocateur of the Anglican tradition, George Whitefield, suggest how Calvinist-Methodist evangelicals viewed slavery as necessary to supporting colonial ministerial efforts. Whitefield’s absorption of and immersion into American culture is revealed in his owning a plantation, portraying a willingness to sacrifice the mobility of the disfranchised for widespread consumption of evangelical thought. A side effect of this was free and formerly enslaved individuals of African descent gained direct access to itinerancy in the post-Revolutionary Atlantic world, as evidenced by the multi-racial ministerial network of Whitefield’s proslavery benefactor, Selina Hastings. Paradoxically, southern evangelicalism appealed to the disfranchised while perpetuating slavery as a socially normative, religiously-sanctioned institution.

G. R. S. Mead is an important but neglected historical personality of the British fin-de-siècle occult, Theosophical, and post-Theosophical milieu. While previous scholars of Theosophy have portrayed the Theosophical movement as quite cohesive in nature, I argue that it might have been a lot more pluralistic, with ostensibly key Theosophical concepts being open for debate. By a careful study of Mead’s editorial activity, his debates with other Theosophists in leading occultist journal over the period 1890s through 1910s, I illustrate that Mead held alternative views of key Theosophical concepts. This gives us a clue as to how the movement of Theosophy can be characterized differently. I suggest that we speak of many different “Theosophies” rather than one singular “Theosophy” to better capture the seemingly diverse makeup of the Theosophical movement. I look at three areas wherein Mead’s views differed from those of other important Theosophists: the concept of “the Masters” as spiritual authority, which sources to turn to and how to interpret them, and the question of whether occultism should be understood primarily in theoretical or in practical terms. I propose that by seeing Theosophy as a debating ground where many different Theosophists competed over the definition of their particular kind of Theosophy, we might also better account for why so many post-Theosophical currents emerged. Lastly, Mead’s concept of “Gnosis” might have served as a bridge between his Theosophical and post-Theosophical periods, as the concept’s meaning, along with Mead’s spiritual outlook, does not appear to have changed over time. This gives some consequences to how we conceive of post-Theosophy, since he does not fit neatly within that category.

While commenting upon the challenges of studying the history of religious figures and movements, Richard Bushman once said, “Everything we know in this life is seen through someone’s eyes. All a historian has to work with is the way this person saw it...The purpose of history is not to find out what really happened but to collect the ways human observers have described what they think happened. We [as historians] look at the world through other’s eyes.”[1] This thesis seeks not to argue the veracity of any particular religious doctrine, but rather strives to understand the historical development of certain Mormon beliefs by looking through the eyes of those who helped form them. Mormon doctrines are often regarded as impositions made by Joseph Smith onto docile followers. Such an interpretation fails to recognize that lay members were just as influential in the development of Mormon doctrine as was the founder of the religion. Joseph’s revelations did not emerge ex nihilo. Joseph engaged the world and people around him and his environment shaped the doctrines forming in his mind and continued to do so once they were taught to his followers. [2] This study will examine the origins of Mormonism’s dietary code, known as the Word of Wisdom, and the sect’s doctrines concerning the body. Both of these tenets of Mormonism were shaped by the environments in which they emerged. The regional environments which influenced to evolution of the Word of Wisdom are central to this study. In the case of the Word of Wisdom, Joseph first began teaching the doctrine in Kirtland, Ohio, an area of constant reform movements and moral activism. Conflicts within the Mormon Church reflect the tensions of Ohio settler’s reformist culture primarily located in the region known as the Western Reserve. This study will also look at the tensions within the Mormon community itself. These tensions involved leader responses to the Word of Wisdom, conflicts over church power structures, and the fallout from the Kirtland Bank’s failure in the financial panic of 1837. As the main Mormon Church body moved from Ohio, to Missouri, to Illinois, and eventually Utah they adopted attitudes toward the Word of Wisdom that reflected the new environments in which they found themselves. In Missouri the Word of Wisdom emerges in official charges in church disciplinary courts. However, an examination of these courts indicates that the Word of Wisdom was merely one indicator of a more serious power struggle within church leadership structures. Missouri temperance, which was relatively temped, did not influence church affairs nearly as much as struggles within church leadership itself. In Illinois Mormonism’s doctrine of the body also affected the ways in which the Word of Wisdom was implemented as it influenced the ways in which Mormons conceptualized health, godliness, plural marriage (polygamy), procreation, and their identities as a people. Simply put, context is everything and this study tries to show that the study of the teachings of any religious group should not be done piecemeal because each doctrine is shaped by and in turn shapes the other doctrines with which it is associated. [1] Samuel Alonzo Dodge, “The Hermeneutics of Suspicion” (interview with Richard Bushman), in Exploring the First Vision, ed. Samuel Alonzo Dodge and Steven C. Harper (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2012), 277. [2] Contrary to standard scholarly practice, Mormon historical and cultural custom is to refer to many of the early church leaders by their first names rather than surnames. I have decided to follow this custom throughout the thesis.

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The purpose of this work is to explore the interactions between occultism and scholarly Egyptology from 1875 to 1930. Within this timeframe, numerous esoteric groups formed that centered their ideologies on conceptions of ancient Egyptian knowledge. In order to legitimize their belief systems based on ancient Egyptian wisdom, esotericists attempted to become authoritative figures on Egypt. This process heavily impacted Western intellectualism not only because occult conceptions of Egypt became increasingly popular, but also because esotericists intruded into academia or attempted to overshadow it. In turn, esotericists and Egyptologists both utilized the influx of new information from Egyptological studies to shape their identities, consolidate their ideologies, and maintain authority on the value of ancient Egyptian knowledge. This thesis follows the Egypt-centered developments of the Freemasons, the Golden Dawn, Aleister Crowley's A∴A∴, the Theosophical Society, the Anthroposophical Society, and the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis to demonstrate that esotericism evolved simultaneously with academia as a body of knowledge. By examining these fraternal occult groups' interactions with Egyptology, it can be better understood how esotericism has affected Western intellectualism, how ideologies form in response to new information, and the effects of becoming an authority on bodies of knowledge (in particular Egyptological knowledge). In turn, embedded in this work is a challenge to those who have downplayed or overlooked the agency of esotericists in shaping the Western intellectual tradition and preserving the legacy of ancient Egypt.