The role of secularism in government is an important question following the events of the Arab Spring. This report aims to look at how Turkey and India's political systems evolved in the 20th and 21st century against the backdrop of constitutional secularism. Moreover, this report explores some of the consequences of secular principles on economic and societal progress. Turkey, with a stance that separates religion and state, has had numerous problems between secular and religious groups. This strife has led to multiple coups and cycles of progress and political turmoil. The military sees its duty as guarding the secular principles of Turkey -- a problem for politicians perceived as overly religious. In India, which has a concept of secularism that requires government consideration and protection for all religions, what has evolved is a political system that pits a party devoted to secularism against a party that advocates a more Hindu national identity. In both Turkey and India, some social and economic interests are drowned out by more vocal religious political groups. While both these countries have different interpretations of secularism, the current atmosphere in both countries fosters civil unrest and, at times, violence. On a societal level the rhetoric only serves to divide people. So long as this rhetoric and atmosphere exists, there is a limit to economic progress, societal stability, and international influence. This last aspect is especially important for these two countries, which have broad historical reach. In Turkey, previous restrictions on religion have been repealed by the current government in order to follow more democratic principles, however, many also see this as the first step towards a politically Islamic Turkey. In India, the religious rhetoric concerns the religious minority groups. India is a country with relatively high governmental restriction and very high societal hostility towards religion. Much of this hostility manifests as public violence. The emergence and predicted victory of a more Hindu political party only fuels the public debate over secularism. The challenge is to balance secularism with freedom of religion, and perhaps accept an evolving stance that reflects each policy's limit. / text

Oriented archaeomagnetic samples were collected from 158 in situ features at 33 sites in the southwestern U.S. Seventy-three independently dated features were used for analysis of secular variation. A moving-window smoothing technique with outlier rejection was developed to objectively compute a virtual geomagnetic pole (VGP) path. Weighted Fisher statistics, accounting for errors in both dating and archaeomagnetic direction, were used to compute a mean VGP and standard error (A95) within each window of time. The VGP moves from 86°N, 83°E at A.D. 750 to 74°N, 192°E at A.D. 1075, and then to 85°N, 236°E at A.D. 1425. Secular variation of the VGP ranges from .00423-.350°/yr with a median of .0359°/yr. The A95s for the VGP curve range from 1.33-5.28°. Archaeomagnetic declinations and inclinations in Tucson range from 346-359°E and 47-60°. The close agreement with a similarly constructed VGP curve for Arkansas implies a small nondipole field in North America between A.D. 1150-1450. The VGP curve is significantly different from that of R. L. DuBois. Three case histories of archaeomagnetic dating suggest the validity of the new curve. The Thellier-Thellier paleointensity experiment was performed on 187 specimens from 77 potsherds. A significant magnetic fabric anisotropy, typically 30%, was found. Using an easy-plane model of magnetization, the anisotropy correction systematically increased the paleointensities by 5%. Paleointensities were interpreted for 127 samples from 54 sherds. All ceramics were independently dated and used along with other results to construct a virtual axial dipole moment (VADM) curve. A moving-window smoother using weighted statistics within each interval of time and incorporating outlier analysis was used. The Southwestern VADM at 300 B.C. is 14 x 10('22)Am('2), decreases to 8.6 x 10²²Am² at A.D. 800, and increases to 12.9 x 10²²Am² at A.D. 1500. Paleointensities from Hohokam ceramics compare favorably with paleointensities from other Southwestern ceramics, regardless of whether the long Hohokam chronology beginning at 300 B.C. or the short chronology beginning at A.D. 500 are used. There is also reasonable agreement between the Southwest and Mesoamerican VADM records.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / This study traces the tendencies of thought and the institutional processes which culminated in the New Beacon Series in Religious Education, inaugurated by the American Unitarian Association in 1937. This curriculum is still in use in the large majority of Unitarian Universalist churches today. This study is based both on published and manuscript sources and on interviews with the persons most involved in the creation of the series. The study begins with a chapter of historical background, in which the distinctive characteristics of Judaic, Christian, Unitarian, and progressive education are delineated. It is showm that religious and secular education were integrated in Judaism, in the Reformation, and in the moral education movement pioneered by Horace Mann and Horace Bushnell. This integrated approach, whereby the child is regarded as a unity and religion is regarded as indigenous to children's growth, achieved articulation in the twentieth century in the progressive education movement, and is foundational to the New Beacon Series. The immediate precursors of the New Beacon Series, namely the Beacon Series of 1909 and the Beacon Course of 1912, are described. While the innovations contained in these curricula derived primarily from the assumptions and methodology of progressive education, it is shown that the curricula also contained residues of what many Unitarians considered to be outmoded theological, ethical, and psychological worldviews which limited their usefulness. Of the many individuals and groups who contributed to the making of the series, three persons are studied in detail: Angus H. MacLean, who contributed to the climate of ideas out of which the series emerged; Ernest W. Kuebler, who administered the Division of Education of the--American Unitarian Association while the series was in process of creation; and Sophia L. Fahs, who was the prime mover of the series as Children's Editor. It is demonstrated that Mrs. Fahs successively (1) abandoned the concept of the deity of Christ in favor of a more liberal view of his humanity; (2) abandoned the concept that all religious instruction should be Bible-centered in favor of an extra-Biblical orientation including missionary biography and world stories; (3) modified the concept of formal classroom learning in favor of an experimental curriculum, as derived from the educational philosophy of John Dewey; and (4) augmented the life situation approach with a concept of vicarious learning based on the assumed congruity of childhood experience and early racial experience, as derived from the philosophy of G. Stanley Hall. The creation of the New Beacon Series is described book by book, from Beginnings of Earth and Sky in 1937, the initial volume, to Today's Children and Yesterday's Heritage in 1952, the definitive theoretical statement of its philosophy. No attempt is made to trace the development of the series after 1952. It is shown that the series evolved from the premise of progressive education that all learning is contingent upon the needs and capacities of the child. The approach to younger children presupposed the principle of growth, and emphasized social and natural experience. The approach to older children presupposed, in addition to the principle of growth, the principle of the equivalence of immediate and vicarious experience, and emphasized world culture and religious biography, drawing heavily upon the Christian Bible. In the New Beacon Series, three basic principles are shown to be operative. First, the child is the arbiter of his own growth; religious instruction conforms to the growth of the child, rather than the reve~se. Secondly, Biblical models are employed not for their inherent superiority but for their power to illustrate religious values. Thirdly, openness, tentativeness, and wonder are prized as evidence of continuing growth, and there is no end to the process of growth save more growth. / 2031-01-01

Secular change has been documented in a number of studies focused on cranial and postcranial morphometrics and nonmetric traits. However, to date, few studies have addressed the potential of temporal change occurring in the expression of cranial nonmetric traits utilized in ancestry estimation. This study examines the effect of secular change on the expression of 23 cranial and mandibular nonmetric traits frequently employed in ancestry estimation; with age-at-death, sex, and year-of-birth of each individual documented for data analysis. Data were collected from European American individuals from the Hamann-Todd Skeletal Collection (n=518) and from the William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection (n=602). Individuals were divided into birth-year cohorts as follows: Hamann-Todd Skeletal Collection: 1824-1849 (Cohort 1), 1850-1874 (Cohort 2), 1875-1899 (Cohort 3), and 1900-1924 (Cohort 4); William M. Bass Donated Skeletal Collection: 1900-1924 (Cohort 4), 1925-1949 (Cohort 5), and 1950-1987 (Cohort 6). Pearson’s chi-square analyses produced significant p-values (≤ 0.01) in 19 of the 23 traits between the six birth-year cohorts. Factor maps generated through correspondence analyses were used as visual representations of relative trait expression between the cohorts. Ordinal regression analyses assessed the degree of variation between each cohort in relation to Cohort 1 along with the influence of age-at-death and sex on trait expression. Overall, analyses of the data revealed that secular change has occurred in 11 of the 23 traits, including: anterior nasal spine (ANS), malar tubercle (MT), nasal bone contour (NBC), postbregmatic depression (PBD), supranasal suture (SPS), transverse palatine suture (TPS), zygomaticomaxillary suture (ZS), gonial angle flare (GAF), mandibular tori (MDT), and posterior ramus edge inversion (PREI). Change in trait expression occurred in both males and females in seven traits, including: ANS, MT, TPS, ZS, GAF, MDT, and PREI. Significant change in trait expression occurred predominately between Cohorts 3 and 4 (birth years ranging from 1875 to 1924) and Cohorts 4 and 5 (birth years ranging from 1900 to 1949). This study demonstrates that secular change in nonmetric cranial and mandibular traits has occurred over the last two centuries with the greatest change appearing at the turn of the twentieth century.

Exercising to maintain a healthy lifestyle is significant to our modern society, and more and more aids such as blogs on the internet dedicated to training are there to help us. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze three Swedish female bloggers all of them dedicated to training and health, with the aim to find the secular sacred among their descriptions, in relation to Kim Knott and her theory of the secular sacred. The analysis was based on twelve blog posts, categorized after exercising, workouts or health, with the intention to answer the questions “How is the concept of exercise and health described in the selected blogs?”, and“How could these descriptions be understood according to Kim Knott’s theory of secular sacred, based on three categories: sacred, profane and unidentifiable?”. Based on an abductive method the blog posts were analyzed with a qualitative text analyzing approach. Using Knott’s theory, I categorized the posts in to three groups: sacred, profane and unidentifiable. The result showed that many of the posts could be categorized as sacred due to its content. Therefore, I concluded that it was possible to find content that could be seen as sacred based on Knott’s reasoning, which indicates that sacredness is not only placed within the religious context, but can also be found in the secular.

This dissertation examines the popular theatre of the late-nineteenth century and focuses on the most commercially successful and popular playwrights of the era: Henry Arthur Jones, Arthur Wing Pinero, and Oscar Wilde. Looking at the major popular playwrights reveals that the commercial stage had different concerns than the avant-garde theatre of Ibsen and Shaw. Foremost among these concerns was religion, and starting with Jones’s 1884 play Saints and Sinners, a massive change swept through the commercial stage as religious prejudice and official censorship fell by the wayside. In its place, religion started to become a topic that was once again seen as acceptable, and the fin de siècle stage was awash with syncretic religious views. This syncretism was aided by the publication of scripts and the religious pluralism of the day. Though publication aided the literary and religious quality of the texts, they were crafted as staged works, complete with the shared, collective experiences and emotions of the audience, a collective affect that mimics the collective emotional experience of a congregation in a church, and the stage thus became one of the largest venues for ecumenical religion during the late-Victorian era. The alacrity with which this happened challenges not only the common conception of the secularization of the late-Victorian stage, but also of the larger culture

Solving global environmental problems requires a major change of values. As relates to environmental education, worldview, ethics and spiritual issues are important elements. But how are environmental issues included in such school subjects that especially discuss values and ethics? In this article I examine 24 Finnish religious education and ethics textbooks to analyze, to what extent environmental issues are integrated and discussed in them. I conclude that there is confusion about what environmental education can be in societal school subjects. The environmental texts in textbooks do not always draw on the specific content of the societal subject in question but repeat content from the natural sciences. Therefore, I suggest contexts and perspectives for discussing environmental issues that would comport with these subjects and supplement existing environmental education at school.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--Univeristy of Oklahoma, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references.

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