Asatru is a New Religious Movement reconstructing the practice of pre-Christian Norse and Germanic Pagan religion. It has been one of the least studied of the Pagan movements in America. In addition, Asatru has often been associated with far right or fascist political views and racist ideology, developing a reputation as a movement in high tension with American culture and values. For the most part, academic interest in Asatru has focused on exploring the connection with racism and evaluating the role of racist ideology within the movement, while its more religious aspects have been overlooked. Scholars have recognized that new religions offer alternative solutions to social problems arising from modernity. By disembedding individuals from traditional social contexts, modernity creates social and psychological tensions requiring new modes of identity creation. Using this paradigm, Asatru can be approached as a movement providing creative religious solutions to the tensions experienced by people living in modern America. This study addresses several areas of tension and their solutions within Asatru, including the family, women's roles, and the environment. As parts of the movement shift toward lower tension with American culture, Asatru is in the process of emerging as a viable and complex religion that achieves a degree of cultural continuity by reinvigorating certain American values within its own religious solutions to contemporary tensions. In this light, Asatru can be seen as a new American religion that incorporates and adapts important cultural values while at the same time challenging scholarly assumptions about new religions.

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The thesis compares the depictions of paganism found in the Middle Irish Togail Troí ('The Destruction of Troy'; first half of the twelfth century) and the Old Norse Trójumanna saga ('The Story of the Trojans'; first half of the thirteenth century), which are both based on Dares Phrygius's Late Antique De excidio Troiae historia. The two vernacular adaptations are presented in the wider context of the medieval popularity of Dares's text. The in-depth analysis of the pagan references (most of which relate to mythology and ritual), reveals Togail Troí's and Trójumanna saga's general source-based approach and their shared reliance on Latin mythographic scholarship, but also a different approach concerning the literary presentation of paganism. The Irish text's 'Christian' approach to the issue (as seen through authorial comments and historical contextualisation) is shown to be in contrast to the Norse text's 'classicising' approach (i.e. paganism presented as in the classical sources themselves). The findings of this analysis are then compared with the literary attitudes towards paganism encountered in medieval Irish and Norse texts more widely (especially in those set in Ireland or Nordic countries). This comparison reveals a general sympathy for many pagan characters that finds some parallels in the Trojan texts as well, but also a different representation of pagan deities in the two traditions. Indeed, the Irish tendency to avoid depicting the gods as such and the opposite Norse tendency, to portray them in an explicit way (often from a pagan point of view), mirror the evidence furnished by Togail Troí and Trójumanna saga. The literary attitudes to paganism and particularly towards mythology, which are encountered in the two texts, are further explored from the point of view of authorship. It is shown that the Irish author is writing in a historiographical mould, while the Norse author is writing in what could be described as a mythographical mould. Two complementary lines of interpretation are sketched for this phenomenon. The first one emphasises the existence of two different cultures of dealing with paganism in Irish and Norse literature respectively. The second line of interpretation draws to the fore two different approaches to the author-text relationship, examined through the framework of medieval literary theory. The final chapters highlight the importance of the research both for our understanding of the unique and complex literary cultures of medieval Ireland and Iceland and for the light that can be shed on the multifaceted relationship between authors and texts in medieval literature through the prism of paganism.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis explores the contribution of the Australian witch and trance artist Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979) to the 20th century Western esoteric tradition. Norton’s artistic career began in the 1940s, with publication of some of her earliest occult drawings, and reached a significant milestone in 1952 when the controversial volume The Art of Rosaleen Norton – co-authored with her lover, the poet Gavin Greenlees – was released in Sydney, immediately attracting a charge of obscenity. Norton rapidly acquired a reputation as the wicked ‘Witch of Kings Cross’, was vilified by journalists during the 1950s and 1960s, and was branded by many as evil and demonic. Norton’s witchcraft coven was dedicated to the practice of heathen worship and ceremonial sex magic and attracted a small number of dedicated inner-circle followers, most notably the renowned musical conductor Sir Eugene Goossens (1893-1962), whose personal and professional career would be irrevocably damaged as a result of his contact with Norton’s magical group. Within the social context of post-World War Two Australia Norton was unquestionably an unconventional figure at a time when the local population was approximately 80 per cent Christian. Norton claimed to be an initiated follower of the Great God Pan and also revered other ancient figures, most notably Hecate, Lilith and Lucifer. Norton claimed to encounter these mythic beings as experientially real on the ‘inner planes’ which she accessed while in a state of self-induced trance. Many of her most significant artworks were based on these magical encounters. Norton is presented in this thesis as a magical practitioner and artist whose creative work and thought has made a substantial contribution to the 20th century Western esoteric tradition – and, in particular, to the magic of the so-called ‘left-hand path’, which is a significant part of this modern occult tradition. Norton’s artworks are also compared to those of the notable British trance artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956), who is now widely regarded as a major figure in the 20th century magical revival.

There is a prima facie incompatibility between a law conception of ethics, in which law concepts (e.g. ought, rule, action) are basic, and a virtue conception of ethics, in which virtue concepts (e.g. character trait, ideal, agent) are basic. However, both conceptions contain elements that are needed for an adequate ethical account. Aquinas's conception of ethics is of interest, because it combines virtue and law components within a broadly Aristotelian account. I argue that Aquinas's virtue-and-law ethical conception is not ad hoc, but emerges from, expresses, and is grounded normatively, rationally, and motivationally in his general conception of practical thought. My first objective in the thesis is to explicate and defend an interpretation of Aquinas's understanding of practical thought as the rational determination of general good into particular action. I argue, first, that this interpretation expresses Aquinas's conception of the nature of practical thought, as reflected in Aquinas's central practical concepts of order, nature, good, and reason. Second, I argue that this interpretation is expressed in Aquinas's conception of the structure of practical thought, as reflected in general, specific, and particular conceptual levels of practical thinking, reasons, and forms of reasoning. My second objective in the thesis is to show that Aquinas's virtue-and-law account presupposes and develops this conception of practical thought, and briefly to indicate how insights from Aquinas's account elucidate relationships between virtue and law ethical conceptions.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis explores the contribution of the Australian witch and trance artist Rosaleen Norton (1917-1979) to the 20th century Western esoteric tradition. Norton’s artistic career began in the 1940s, with publication of some of her earliest occult drawings, and reached a significant milestone in 1952 when the controversial volume The Art of Rosaleen Norton – co-authored with her lover, the poet Gavin Greenlees – was released in Sydney, immediately attracting a charge of obscenity. Norton rapidly acquired a reputation as the wicked ‘Witch of Kings Cross’, was vilified by journalists during the 1950s and 1960s, and was branded by many as evil and demonic. Norton’s witchcraft coven was dedicated to the practice of heathen worship and ceremonial sex magic and attracted a small number of dedicated inner-circle followers, most notably the renowned musical conductor Sir Eugene Goossens (1893-1962), whose personal and professional career would be irrevocably damaged as a result of his contact with Norton’s magical group. Within the social context of post-World War Two Australia Norton was unquestionably an unconventional figure at a time when the local population was approximately 80 per cent Christian. Norton claimed to be an initiated follower of the Great God Pan and also revered other ancient figures, most notably Hecate, Lilith and Lucifer. Norton claimed to encounter these mythic beings as experientially real on the ‘inner planes’ which she accessed while in a state of self-induced trance. Many of her most significant artworks were based on these magical encounters. Norton is presented in this thesis as a magical practitioner and artist whose creative work and thought has made a substantial contribution to the 20th century Western esoteric tradition – and, in particular, to the magic of the so-called ‘left-hand path’, which is a significant part of this modern occult tradition. Norton’s artworks are also compared to those of the notable British trance artist and occultist Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956), who is now widely regarded as a major figure in the 20th century magical revival.

Thesis (M.A. in Religion)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2008. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Glasgow, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 270-288). Print version also available. Mode of access : World Wide Web. System requirements : Adobe Acrobat reader required to view PDF document.

Thesis (M.G.S.)--Miami University, Dept. of Sociology and Gerontology, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-38).