Abstract of “From Learning of the Sage to Learning of the Exemplary Person in a Constant State of Self-Examination: Tasan Chŏng Yakyong’s Restructuring of Confucian …
This thesis examines the rituals surrounding Christian relics and reliquaries of the Early and High Middle Ages. I argue that relic rituals engaged both the …
This dissertation draws attention to the religious lives of Ming eunuchs, who, despite their active engagement in religious activities during the late Ming era, have …
In this dissertation, I argue that in climate literature and the popular imagination common affects—in tandem with an under-interrogated acceptance of what I call the …
Through a survey of religious freedom Supreme Court cases, this thesis explores the various historical origin stories, interpretations, and applications of the Religion Clauses and …
Perhaps no single biblical verse has been more quoted in the history of Black religious thought than Psalm 68:31. Known widely as “the Ethiopian prophecy,” …
This thesis is an examination of hospital spiritual care in Rhode Island during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on qualitative interviews with ten Rhode Island-based chaplains …
This study investigates how and why Tunisia’s 2014 Constitution describes the nation as both an Islamic and civil state, and what effect this duality has …
This dissertation sketches the conceptualization and representation of sociopolitical dissent in Central Asia and Iran between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries. How might rebels have …
This dissertation examines the category of “human” in an ancient West Asian context in order to better define the term. Many scholars have studied nonhuman …
Can religious literacy be imparted to the general public on a national scale using scripted, fictional television? This author asserts that it can and discusses …
This dissertation aims to demonstrate that the writings of G.W.F. Hegel afford us timely and generative resources for diagnosing, understanding, and addressing ethical and political …
Starting from the premise that “every law contains within itself an implicit theology”, this thesis will argue for a shift in our understanding of states’ …
This dissertation explores the generative epistemological potential of medieval Sufism through the radical openness of Saʿd al-Dīn Ḥamūya's (d. 1252) thought. The project reads the …
This thesis argues for a critical return to and update of Critical Whiteness Studies' operative frameworks. I begin from the observation that the last sustained …
This thesis explores the ways that three Protestant groups: selected Mainline denominations, the Poor People's Campaign, and the Institute for Christian Socialism, read the Bible …
This dissertation examines the power relationships between the hegemons of the Late Bronze and Iron Age and their subjects in the Levant through the lens …
This dissertation takes up the question, who is Halakhic Woman? Joseph Soloveitchik’s elegant and influential work Halakhic Man describes what it is like to be …
In this thesis, I investigate how women are challenging clericalism in the contemporary Roman Catholic Church by illuminating a small cohort of Catholic women in …
Abstract of “Kalām as a Way of Life: al-Jāḥiẓ, Natural Philosophy, and the Ontology of Human Difference,” by Michael Lawrence Payne, Ph.D., Brown University, October …
Using canonization as a framework to engage the process of history creation and collective memory, this thesis seeks to understand why certain narratives gain a …
This dissertation analyzes encounter and exchange between Christianity and Islam in late antiquity and the Middle Ages through the lens of saints’ stories, their textual …
Abstract of “Early Intertextual Uses of Parallels with the Laozi and Their Role as Source of Authority” by Larson Di Fiori Ph.D., Brown University, May …
This dissertation examines the ways in which late antique rabbis in Palestine and Babylonia read and discussed reading. It aims to understand the rabbinic orientation …
The purpose of this thesis is to demonstrate that Abba Silver’s ideology and tactics represent the cultivation of an originally Americanist Zionism. This Zionism is …
This thesis seeks to understand the nature of trilateral relations between the Israeli, American, and Yemeni Jewish communities during Operation On Eagles’ Wings through the …
This thesis suggests a re-evaluation of Francis Bacon’s major writings based on biographical and historical evidence. I argue that Bacon’s lack of training in philosophy …
This thesis examines the spiritual, ethical, and political writings of Simone Weil. In particular, I endeavor to articulate Weil's theory of \"decreation\" in the content …
This thesis investigates an emergent cyberreligion called Syntheism. This group of spiritual atheists attempt to sacralize the internet, re-enchanting modern subjectivities by turning digitality into …
"The Sacred Commons: Reconstructing Hegel, Religion, and National Memory" turns to a new interpretation of Hegel in order to understand two "sacred" sites constructed by …
This dissertation is an interdisciplinary work that integrates material from the humanities and social sciences in service of a more sophisticated theory of the relationship …
This study examines the history and constructive prospects of a movement in modern thought and practice known as "personalism." Concerning its history, I argue that …
The recent recovery of manuscripts of a Sanskrit text calling itself the Skandapurāṇa has provided a critical impetus for this project of rethinking early Śaiva …
This project argues that Paul adapted Greco-Roman mythic resources to promote his Judean Christ-cult among Gentiles. His letters articulate the cultic and moral-psychological corruption of …
This dissertation redescribes the creation of biblical history, from Genesis to 2 Kings and in the books of Chronicles, as a late Persian period nationalist …
This dissertation investigates the promise and peril of the concept of vulnerability in contemporary ethical and political thought. Many strands of modern Western thought castigate …
This dissertation examines the topic of animal sacrifice in ancient Judean/Jewish religion (Judaism) with a historical focus on the late Second Temple period. It analyzes …
This dissertation offers a reevaluation of the Synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and a hypothetical document thought to be common to Matthew and Luke, …
Abstract of “Gaining Virtue, Gaining Christ: Moral Development in the Letters of Paul,” by Laura B. Dingeldein, Ph.D., Brown University, May 2014 Inhabitants of the …
People throughout history and around the world have drawn on religion to frame and negotiate disaster phenomena. Recent research shows that these links between religion …
This dissertation explores how Israelites regarded foreign lands, relates this to the debate about biblical categorizations of pollution and purification, and points to larger questions …