SHARED VISIONS IN SHARED SPACE: LATINO AND EURO-AMERICAN IDENTITY TRANSFORMATION AT ST. REGIS CATHOLIC CHURCH David Givens, MA University of Pittsburgh, 2010 Throughout the history of the United States, the religious beliefs, traditions, and organizations of immigrant groups have often played important roles in establishing and redefining personal, interpersonal, and cultural identities. In contemporary society, a particularly relevant example of how religion influences processes of identity transformation can be seen within Latino communities in America. As Latinos now make up one third of all Catholics in America (Stevens-Arroyo 2008, 59), American Catholics of all racial and ethnic backgrounds increasingly find themselves confronted with what it means to be Catholic in relation to both religious and ethnic identity. This is the situation confronting church leaders at St. Regis Catholic Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Similar to many other parishes in the United States, St. Regis faces the difficult task of serving several distinct ethnic groups within the congregation in this case, predominantly older Italian-American parishioners and parishioners of Central and South American descent with unique religious heritages and expectations. Interacting in this shared religious space, however, has caused subtle but significant changes in parishioners perceptions of the church community and their place within it. The experiences and perceptions of Latino and non-Latino Catholics in Pittsburgh suggest that sociological forces other than cultural retention or assimilation may be possible within parishes comprised of multiple ethnic groups. I demonstrate that the current, predominating model of cultural retention is not an accurate description of the internal social dynamics and cultural transformation that is occurring at St. Regis; the cultural retention model cannot accommodate parishioners inclusion and expansion of diverse national holidays, the creative reimagining of traditions and festival Masses, or a pervasive sense of confusion surrounding formerly stable community linguistic identifiers and stereotypes. I offer the concept of localized transculturation as an alternative lens through which to view these cultural negotiations, and I support this argument by highlighting the St. Regis communitys interwoven use of three languages, the incorporation of culturally different foods at community meals, and similar descriptions of community and a sense of belonging articulated by wide cross-sections of the congregation. This paper concludes by addressing possible theoretical and methodological challenges to these conclusions.

This paper is an ethnographic case study of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based chiropractor Daniel Pompas use of Christianity to market his company, Pompa Health Solutions. In addition to interviews and participant observation, this paper employs narrative ethnography to bridge the gap between Pompas rhetoric and the circumstances in which he shares it. This paper explores his use of Christian rhetoric to sell his services, legitimize his practice, and establish a trusting relationship with his patients. Pompa uses biblical references, his own illness/conversion narrative, and an evangelical worldview to promote his company to a Christian audience. In interactions with patients and advertisements, Pompa makes explicit and implicit Christian references in relation to current cultural issues (e.g. swine flu, vaccines, and weight loss) as a means of marketing. Pompa promotes his company by using the existing evangelical brand and adjusts his message to address the concerns of his audience. I argue that he positions himself as a supplement to evangelicalism as a means for his patients to practice their faith, and in doing so effectively attracts and maintains his audience. I conclude that Pompa successfully markets his secular services by using the evangelical brand. While this is a study of only one person, his affiliation with many like-minded evangelical entrepreneurs and his efforts to spread these marketing methods to other entrepreneurs indicates that more scholarship is warranted to determine the implications of this approach on business and evangelicalism.

The Victorian era in the United States saw significant changes in the social, domestic and religious roles of women. This period, from shortly after the Civil War until the First World War, marked a shift for women from traditional middle-class female responsibilities to more domestically challenging ones. This study examines late Victorian Protestant church community cookbooks as moral and cultural guides written by women for women, documenting the domestic roles and Christian practices of women in the years before and after the turn of the twentieth century. This paper first defines the American Victorian period. It considers the relationship between women and Protestant Christianity during the era in relation to female social roles. It then examines church community cookbooks as uniquely viable and valuable historical and autobiographical sources through which to better understand Christian domestic practice in Victorian America. Protestant Victorian female ideals and gendered piety reveal the role of women as moral matriarchs, and how men factored into the domestic equation during the period. Eleven American Protestant Christian cookbooks published from 1881 to 1913 serve as case studies throughout. These texts illuminate the late Victorian period through the words and recipes of the women who wrote them. They also present recipes for food and life in broader terms as domestic and religious guides, and advertisements from the texts offer additional information about the connection between domesticity and religion during the era. This argument concludes with an analysis of the lasting influences of the church community cookbooks on domestic manuals through the mid-twentieth century, reflecting on the relevance of the texts to the generations of women who have shared them.

This essay is a project aimed primarily at mapping certain philosophical and theological ontologies onto psychology; in particular, existential psychology. The existential psychology is strongly inspired by Sartre, and the ontologies which are investigated are those of the pre-Socratic Parmenides, Sartre himself, the Neoplatonist Plotinus, and early Christian representations of the relationship between the divine and human natures of Christ as well as the persons of the Trinity. Early (primarily Eastern) Christian doctrines of deification are also treated as significant expressions of a similar, latent existential psychology. The nature of this psychology, brought out by Sartre, is a reaction to tension between conscious and non-conscious being. Consciousness reveals that being can be other to itself: it is the hole in the heart of being, as Sartre calls it. I argue that Parmenides regards being as whole and unified in part because he does not or can not find a place for the gap in being which is the nothingness of consciousness. For similar reasons, both Plotinus and Sartre describe conscious being as a denigration of sorts in being. Because of the othering of being to itself in the form of human consciousness, man is always other to himself, and can never fully be what he aims to be. Sartre describes this failed effort as the attempt to become self-caused, that which can give itself its own essence. It is suggested that Sartres description of non-conscious being as well as Plotinus description of the One sometimes appear to contradict themselves insofar as they imply self-causation within non-conscious being, and I argue that this is due to the inability or refusal of either to imagine consciousness as a failed project. Similarly, I argue that the early Trinitarian and Christological controversies of the Christian church as well as some early Christian conceptions of deification (particularly Eastern conceptions) can be seen as representative of attempts to reconcile conscious being with non-conscious being; either in the form of the self-cause or in something approaching it.

The first-person narrative of the Confession of Cyprian of Antioch, one of three principal witnesses to the fourth-century hagiographical romance of the pagan magician turned Christian bishop and martyr, has remained a largely unexploited resource for the study of late-antique Religionsgeschichte. The vivid details ofCyprian's occult curriculum vitae and public confession before the Christian audience of Antioch have languished in virtual obscurity due to the lack of a modern critical edition. This thesis offers a critical edition of the complete text of the Greek version, newly restored using previously unedited manuscript material.The introduction provides an overview of critical scholarship on the Confession, an examination of its sources and reception history, and an assessment of the manuscript evidence. The Greek text is accompanied by an English translation and explanatory notes. / Le récit à la première personne de la Confession de Cyprien d'Antioche, qui représente l'un des trois principaux témoins d'un roman hagiographique portant sur la vie de ce magicien païen du IVe siècle, devenu évêque chrétien etmartyr, demeure une ressource en grande partie inexploitée pour l'étude de la Religionsgeschichte de l'Antiquité tardive. Sans édition critique moderne, les détails saisissants du curriculum vitae occulte de Cyprien d'Antioche et sa confession publique devant l'auditoire chrétien d'Antioche sont demeurés pratiquement inconnus. Cette thèse propose une édition critique complète de la version grecque du texte, nouvellement restaurée grâce à l'utilisation de matériel scripturaire jusqu'ici inédit. L'introduction présente un survol de l'étude critique de la Confession, une analyse de ses sources et de l'histoire de la réception, de même qu'une évaluation critique des manuscrits. Le texte grec est accompagnée d'une traduction anglaise et de notes explicatives.

Despite criticism from relatives, religious leaders and her Muslim community, Faghmeda Miller publicly disclosed her HIV status on World AIDS Day in 1996. She became the first Muslim woman in South Africa to do so. Her story of courage in the face of the unknown, stigma and discrimination echo the complex social context in which HIV is experienced nationally and globally. It places emphasis on the fact that HIV affects all humans, irrespective of religion, race, gender, sexuality or socio-economic status. Using life trajectory as a method of enquiring into Miller's social and religious meaning making regarding her infection and HIV and AIDS activism, this research presents her challenges and victories in her journey with HIV and AIDS. The biographical study examines how she became the face of a Muslim woman with HIV in society. In speaking up for the infected voiceless and taking a lead in creating awareness about a highly stigmatised disease, Miller shows how personal agency was used to change attitudes, save lives and offer support to the suffering. Mass media in the 1990s—television, radio and print—played a crucial role in her trajectory. This study argues that Miller acquired social capital through the declaration of her HIV status, increasing her public profile, and co-founding the Muslim HIV/AIDS organization, Positive Muslims. The analysis focuses on turning points in her life trajectory, including traumatic experiences, transformative reflections on Islam, and activism. Through her personal and social challenge with the virus, she ultimately embraces an inclusive Islamic theology of compassion.

Bibliography: leaves 210-218. / The hypothesis for this dissertation is that (a) there is an increasing call for something called 'raising consciousness', and (b) sexuality and spirituality are integral to the process. It is, however, argued that sexuality in it's relationship with consciousness is incompletely considered in the mainstream of academic and lay discourse; and seems to not be accorded a positive position in the problematic landscape of human affairs. In this investigation, sex, gender, sexpression (the link between the previous two), sexuality, and spirituality are shown to be generally confused and in need of differentiation, and re-integration into a coherent unit.

Bibliography: leaves 157-168. / This study examines the status of the Qur'an in contemporary Islamic thought at the point of intersection with the philosophical discourses of modernity and postmodernity. As a marginal discourse, Islamic thought has had to seek legitimacy in light of the dominant paradigms of modernity and postmodernity. It is argued that through active engagement and critique of the dominant paradigms, Islamic discourse is able to articulate a much more vivid portrait of its authentic-self. This self-portrait is shaped by dissenting voices within the Western philosophical tradition critical of modernity and postmodernity, as well as by voices from the Islamic intellectual tradition. The role of the Qur'an as foundational text is approached by questioning the status and source of values in both the Western and the Islamic traditions. It is consequently argued that the moral categories of right and wrong, or good and bad, are necessarily ontological in Islam and are informed by the Qur'an. The role of the Qur'an as foundational text is thus affirmed from this perspective. Finally, the mechanism through which the Qur'an is able to convey its ethical imperative is explored. In this regard, it is argued that the Qur'an is performative in nature and that its moral ethos is conveyed by a dialogic process. The conclusion suggests that the re-emergence of a religious slant in social discourse is of marked significance, especially at a time in which secular philosophy is being cogently challenged. This study is therefore an apt example of a new and important focal point in the social sciences.

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-98). / "Two strong features of contemporary sociology are the rapidly growing interest in globalization, on the one hand, and an increasing tendency to discuss values, morals and ethics, on the other" (Robertson, 1997: 69). Derived from such interest, the main objective of this paper is to discuss the often obscure role religion plays in today's society against the backdrop of the globalization discourse, thus marrying the twofold sociological quest mentioned above. According to Jan Aart Scholte, "globalization has considerably redrawn the contours of the world political economy" (Scholte, 2000: 173). I suggest that the same can be said of religion. Even though some argue that globalization in "neither good nor bad; [i]t is and will be what people make of it" (Dewane, 2002:2), it undoubtedly affects the role, form, and influence of religion.

Includes bibliographical references. / The purpose of this dissertation is to upset exclusive and sectarian tendencies in the Seventh-day Adventist Church via an application of Jacques Derrida's notion of hospitality to Adventist soteriology.