Ph.D., Antioch University, 2022, Leadership and Change

Today, Black Greek-letter organizations (BGLOs) struggle to use empirical data to address financial burden, elitism, hazing, relevance in social justice issues, and the anti-BGLO movement. The anti-BGLO movement frames this study. The movement stems from beliefs that secret societies, fraternities, and sororities are anti-Christian. Society will continue to question the relevance and importance of BGLOs if they cannot overcome the issues plaguing them. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to ascertain why members are leaving BGLOs, in case the organizations find the anti-BGLO movement to be a threat to organizational vitality. Through thematic analysis, 18 YouTube testimonials from denouncers were investigated to answer the research question: What are the most significant reasons ex-BGLO members say they denounce their organizations? The dataset produced 12 themes, scriptural evidence to support the speakers' decisions, and a narrative overview of their journey. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA (https://aura.antioch.edu) and OhioLINK ETD Center (https://etd.ohiolink.edu).

Committee: Mitchell Kusy PhD (Committee Chair); Harriet Schwartz PhD (Committee Member); Walter Kimbrough PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Biblical Studies; Black History; Organizational Behavior; Religion; Spirituality; Theology

Master of Sacred Theology (S.T.M.), Trinity Lutheran Seminary, 2016, Bible Division

Ancestor worship has been a vexing issue for Christian missionaries since the 16th century in Vietnam due to Buddhist, Taoist, Confucian, and Communist influences. However, there are few studies from the Protestant perspective on the ancestor cult. This thesis hopes to contribute to the mission work by analyzing the ancestor cult in light of Paul's First Corinthians 8––10, namely how Christian freedom informed participants regarding worshiping idols and consuming food sacrificed to idols. The analysis includes delineating the complexity of Vietnamese religious pluralism and tracing the similarities and differences between the Christian cult of the saints and the ancestor cult. This thesis challenges the traditional perspective that the ancestor cult in Vietnam is religious and superstitious; rather, the ancestor cult is cultural in every aspect. A successful inculturation of the Gospel must separate the ancestor cult from the religious components of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and popular folk religion.

Committee: Walter Taylor Jr./Ph.D. (Advisor); Henry Langknecht Th.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies; Bible; Biblical Studies; Religion; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2016, Musicology

The animated statue represented one of the central magical figures in French musical theater of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. During the period covered by this dissertation, 1661-1748, animated statues appeared in more than sixty works of musical theater of almost every available genre. This number does not include the many works containing statues that demonstrated magical or otherworldly properties through means other than movement or song. Some of the works of this period that feature living statues are well-known to musicologists—e.g. Moliere/Jean-Baptiste Lully's comedy-ballet Les Facheux (1661), Lully's opera Cadmus et Hermione (1673), and Jean-Philippe Rameau's one-act ballet Pigmalion (1748)—while others have received little recognition. This dissertation is the first study to consider the history of animated statues on the French stage during this period, and the first to reveal music as a defining feature of these statues. Over the course of nearly ninety years, music assumed an increasingly important role in the theatrical treatments of these figures that operated in the space between magic and mechanics. At the beginning of Louis XIV's reign, animated statues appeared with some frequency in both public and court spectacles. By the mid-eighteenth century, the animated statue had become the central focus of many works and had transformed into a potent symbol of, among other ideas, the power of music and dance, as most dramatically realized in Rameau's Pigmalion. This dissertation traces the history of this transformation.

Committee: Georgia Cowart (Committee Co-Chair); Francesca Brittan (Committee Co-Chair); Susan McClary (Committee Member); Elina Gertsman (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; Dance; European History; Music; Theater

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

This dissertation looks at the ways in which the Tannaitic Sages portrayed and discussed non-Jewish ritual. Although this has been traditionally characterized as “idolatry,” this dissertation argues that that is not a category which would have been applied by the Sages of the Mishnah, Tosefta and the Tannaitic Midrashim. In fact, the Sages did not consider worship of avodah zarah, as it is called in this text, as something which was wholly different from their own ritual. The Tannaitic Sages conceived of non-Jewish ritual and Jewish ritual to be part of a single category of ritual. This category ultimately derived from the ritual practices of the Jerusalem Temple, which meant that rituals which were performed outside of that context were sacrilege and an affront to the God of Israel. It was precisely the similarities, rather than the differences, between Jewish and non-Jewish ritual which gave the Tannaitic Sages pause. These similarities, however, also gave the Sages tools for controlling non-Jewish ritual. They did this through a quest for plausible contexts for non-Jewish ritual behavior. Through establishing these contexts, the Tannaitic Sages are able to control what does and does not qualify as the worship of avodah zarah.

Committee: Michael Swartz (Advisor); Sarah Johnston (Committee Member); Sam Meier (Committee Member); Daniel Frank (Committee Member); Lynn Kaye (Committee Member) Subjects: Ancient Languages; Judaic Studies; Religion

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2005, Psychology/Clinical

Although psychologists have studied a wide range of religious experiences, practices, and beliefs, a question of considerable importance to most religious traditions has been neglected; this is the question of idolatry. The goals of this study were to 1) define idolatry as a psycho-spiritual construct, 2) develop a reliable and valid measure of idolatry, and 3) examine the implications of idolatry for a variety of psychological and spiritual criteria. Idolatry was defined and the Idolatry Index was created to measure this construct. Based on theoretical considerations, higher levels of idolatry were hypothesized to be related to 1) lower levels of general well-being, spiritual well-being, life meaning and satisfaction, global religiousness, intrinsic religiousness, and 2) higher levels of extrinsic religiousness, alcohol and drug use, and narcissism. Data from 200 participants from a Midwestern university were collected and examined. A factor analysis of the Idolatry Index was conducted. Pearson and semi-partial correlations between the Idolatry Index and criterion variables were calculated. In general, analysis of the results supported both hypotheses and suggested that idolatry, as measured by the Idolatry Index, is not uncommon and that idolatry can be measured reliably (Cronbach's alpha = 0.95). Furthermore, the results suggested that idolatry is a promising construct that deserves additional study within the psychology of religion.

Committee: Kenneth Pargament (Advisor) Subjects: