The study of the dissertation is religious autobiography with the particular purpose of analyzing religious life-stories as social reflection rather than as solely personal studies. "Social" is defined in the broad sense of the individual's interaction with anonymous social forces as opposed to face-to-face relationships. / Primary sources could include a broad cross-section of religious autobiographies but the major works studied are Black Elk Speaks, by Black Elk, Power Struggle, by Richard Rubenstein, Out of My Life and Thought, by Albert Schweitzer, The Seduction of the Spirit, by Harvey Cox, and The Seven Storey Mountain, by Thomas Merton. They are chosen because they represent five distinct themes of religious autobiography--collective story, personal turmoil, pedagogy, testimony, and conversion--as well as the thesis-theme of social reflection. / In addition to an introductory chapter which discusses the scope, importance, and history of the material, there is a chapter dedicated to each of the aforementioned autobiographies. Therein the author presents a macrocosmic overview of society in light of a variant of alienation--anomie, powerlessness, social estrangement, self-estrangement, and meaninglessness--and attempts to understand the social dimension of this phenomenon. Each author also presents a microcosmic focus which centers upon a particular set of social problems that have been important in his own life-story. Such widely divergent issues as ecology, race and ethnic relations, war, religious institutions, and the city are considered. / An epilogue articulates the social causes which spur the writing of religious autobiography. This is an important consideration since social reflection in religious autobiography is almost exclusively a twentieth century endeavor. The epilogue also discusses the convergence of opinions concerning society among the five autobiographers studied despite great differences in their backgrounds. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0509. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75039 |
| Contributors | BERTSCH, JEFFREY CURTIS., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 339 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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