RELG 391: Theory and Method in the Study of Religion (COLL 400)
Fall 2022, Prof. Annie Blazer
The religious studies major provides in-depth study of religious traditions, spiritualities, and lived experiences in a variety of historical, cultural, and experiential contexts. Through studying religions, we gain insight into important aspects of social life: gender and sexuality, race, power, art, literature, and media, to name a few. Religious Studies is a uniquely interdisciplinary field, employing theories and methods of disciplines from history, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, and literary studies.
The COLL 400 capstone experience requires students to take initiative in synthesis and critical analysis, to solve problems in an applied and/or academic setting, to create original material or original scholarship, and to communicate effectively with a diversity of audiences. As the capstone of the religious studies major, students in this course had the freedom to apply theories and methods to aspects of the study of religion that most interested them. They created original scholarship that demonstrated critical analysis of an aspect of religion, religious tradition, or the study of religion.
Student Abstracts
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Religion and Violence: The Provisional IRA's Relationship with CatholicismJonatha Berg This paper discusses the relationship between religion and violence, specifically in the case of the Provisional Irish Republican Army’s (PIRA) relationship to the Catholic Church. Despite attempts to discredit the relationship, there is unavoidable political, social, locational, and statistical evidence distinctly linking the two. Both Irish and English scholars have analyzed the details of the Provisional IRA’s relationship to Catholicism and come to similar conclusions, with different emphasis on specific evidence. Brendan Hughes, former PIRA leader, offers a first-hand account into his interactions with Father Reid, a Catholic Priest who visited interned PIRA members during their time in prison. There can be no doubt that the Provisional Irish Republican Army is intrinsically linked to the Catholic Church, as their creation was the response to a silent and violent religious conflict in Northern Ireland. Future researchers should care about this relationship as it provides insight into why violent groups choose to publicly connect with religious practices. It also highlights the untouchable features that religious leaders are granted, in the sense that they are above or equal to the law, which violent groups hope to gain. Religious conflict never ceases to exist but by recognizing that societal response to religion plays a big role in current violent conflicts, we can start to connect the dots sooner and avoid succumbing to the ignorance that leads to violence. |
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The Sunday Sabbath Movement: The Rise and Fall of a Radical Religious Reform
Daniel Brot 19th and 20th Century Reform Judaism and the radical attempt to change the Jewish Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday. It will undertake that study by examining three case studies: three highly influential temples to the history of American Reform Judaism and the Sunday Sabbath Movement. The last and only three academic papers written on the Sunday Sabbath Movement were published in the 1980s. As such, this paper will be able to draw on a wealth of new Jewish Histories. Those histories will range from general and theoretical to several individual congregational histories. Paired with those histories, this paper will draw on published arguments and sermons over the Sunday Service from 19th and 20th century Newspapers. Ultimately, this paper will argue that leaders who use reforms to embrace the changes beyond their control such as demographic shifts, enabled the Sunday Sabbath Movement's success. Furthermore, the Sunday movement's long prosperity makes it an important chapter of American Jewish History that can not be written of as too Christian or pointless when properly contextualized. This research is significant because explorations of the past can provide lessons for the present. The successes and failures of 19th-century Reforms are important for Religious Leaders and Religious participants to understand as new Reforms seem increasingly necessary in the religious environment of today. |
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Tarot in the Twenty-First Century: From Unholy Occultism to Holistic HealingBecca Gaylin
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A Reality in the Mabinogion: The Mythology of John RhŷsColin Horn
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“Whom the Wicked in Scorn Call Quakers”: Mary Dyer and the Persecution of Quaker Women in 17th Century New EnglandAoife Hufford
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Hindu Temple Transformation: Changes from Encounters with a Non-Hindu MajorityBenson Kaminski The following paper is an attempt to study the ways that Hindu sacred spaces change through their interactions with a non-Hindu majority. A comparative analysis is used between the Shri Mangesh Devasthan located in Mardol, Goa, India, and the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple located in Langham, Maryland, U.S.A. Photos taken by myself in addition to those provided online by the temple websites have been included for detailed structural analysis, highlighting both ways that temples have been changed through their interactions with a non-Hindu majority, as well as ways that they have remained identifiable with non-minority temples. I argue that the changes that the aforementioned two temples have undergone have to varying extents altered the natures of the practices within. This research is important because it speaks on a type of change that has impacted multitudes of temples, particularly those constructed in diasporic environments. While the conclusions and statements within should not be generalized to such a large population, they may serve as an early inquiry into the changing nature of Hindu sacred space. |
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What We Can Learn from Cry Witch! and its Representation of Grace Sherwood?: A Look into the Actual Life and Trial of a Virginia Beach Folk LegendCaroline Leibowitz The witch trial of Grace Sherwood, a midwife tried by water in 1706 in Virginia Beach, is one of Virginia’s most interesting stories. A reenactment of this case is put on by the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation twice a week to entice visitors, and is called Cry Witch! The play prides itself on the basis of historical evidence and dramatized accuracy. In this paper, I examine the historical accuracy of this production and analyze what its nuances tell us in the broader context of religion and society in Colonial Virginia. Using a historical framework, sources such as 17th and 18th-century court records, and scholarly analyses about Virginian religion and social dynamics, I provide context and answers about Sherwood’s real life. Between a need for women to reproduce, and a government distancing itself from religious concerns, a wide-scale witch hunt wasn’t a possibility in Virginia. The Sherwood trial combines religious social standards and the government's need for stability– agreeing on the idea that women need to be subdued. With limited primary sources available to help write Cry Witch!, it still accurately portrays many of the dynamics that likely would have been present. Where it strays from the truth is at the climax, when the court uses a religious tactic to draw the case to a close. The theatrical needs and entertainment value of Cry Witch! explains this tactic. The current folklore presence of Sherwood is strong but is not based in scholarship. In learning her real story, fears of colonists, motives of leadership, and straying from English tradition are revealed.
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Policing the Sacred: The Implications of Peyote’s Legal Status in the United StatesBritney Price Peyote is a small, button-like cactus which contains the psychoactive substance mescaline, among other alkaloids. This entheogenic plant has been consumed as a sacred substance in Native American rituals for centuries; only recently, however, has the existence of peyote been so urgently threatened. The already dwindling supply of peyote is coupled with recent legislation decriminalizing the plant for non-Indigenous use, thus exacerbating the issue known as the Peyote Crisis. This paper underscores the issues which this Peyote Crisis is posing for members of the Native American Church (NAC) in the U.S. It explores primary sources such as the actual legal documents which first decriminalized peyote for non-Indigenous use as recently as 2019. Additionally, it looks at the primary organizations which have major stakes in this issue: Decriminalize Nature and the Indigenous Peyote Conservation Initiative. Secondary sources include those authored by scholars such as Alexander Dawson, Robin Wall Kimmerer, and others who provide a nuanced perspective on how we might go about respecting Indigenous wisdom and religious practices.Though many are unaware of this issue, I find it imperative to highlight the detrimental impacts which the NAC is facing in their struggle to re-secure their right to the sacrament. |
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A Revised Account of Miracles in an Age of ScienceTanja Rounds
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