Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1970, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1971, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1966, Communication Studies

Committee: Carl Larson (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Religion

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1966, Communication Studies

Committee: Raymond Yeager (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Religion

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1963, Communication Studies

Committee: R. Franklin Smith (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Religion

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1958, Communication Studies

Committee: Raymond Yeager (Advisor) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1958, Communication Studies

Committee: Raymond Yeager (Advisor) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theology

Mary's purity has been a subject of theological inquiry for over a millennium. This project's objective is to follow the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception historically to the ways it became manifest in the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages, how it was brought and taught to the Nahua and Maya in the sixteenth century evangelization of Central Mexico by Spanish friars, and then how it remained a powerful force of evangelical and political fervor in New Spain through the analysis of three seventeenth century homilies about the Immaculate Conception. Whereas the conquest of the Americas is largely remembered for the brutalities and injustices committed, the Spanish friars who implemented a wide-scale evangelization of the Native Americans were interested in the sincere conversions of people like the Nahua and Maya. This dissertation studies the evangelization methods of the sixteenth century Franciscan friars in Central Mexico with particular attention to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and to Marian belief and devotion. The study also takes into account the cosmologies and ways of living of the Nahua and Maya, the two most prominent cultural groups in Mesoamerica at the time. The interaction between the friars and the natives is viewed in light of their respective cultural heritages. The spiritual concerns of the friars and their indoctrination of the Nahua and Maya are studied in light of the religious heritage of the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages and the defense of the belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Spanish friars make Mary central to their evangelization of Central Mexico, along with Christ and the Cross. The first three chapters deal with the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican world with respect to Nahua and Maya cosmologies, the Catholicism of the Iberian Peninsula up to the expansion to the Americas, and the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception respectively. Chapter four focuses on the ev (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Neomi DeAnda (Advisor); Sébastien (Bakpenam) Abalodo (Committee Member); Sandra Yocum (Committee Member); Dennis Doyle (Committee Member); Gilberto Cavazos-González (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American History; Latin American Literature; Latin American Studies; Middle Ages; Native Americans; Religious Education; Religious History; Spirituality; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2020, Theology

Sexism is a reality in the Catholic Church. The Church's teaching on women, though true, needs to be explicated more carefully to avoid a sense of woman's incompleteness in both humanity (through misunderstood “complementarity”) and imaging the Trinitarian God (if she only images God as “mother” in a family). Augustine can help bring balance to the lacuna. Review of feminist theologians on Augustine find two major concerns: inequality between women and men in imaging God, and a question of his development in appreciating women in the Church (Chapter One). His letters track such a growth, but from a mix of positive and negative statements to increasingly positive assessments of women (Chapter Two). Augustine finds women to be equal with men in being the image of God, in their minds, but female and male bodies do not equally represent God's image. The representation corresponds to contemplative and “temporal management” aspects of mind in every human. Only the contemplative aspect is “image of God”; the temporal management aspect is not unless joined with the contemplative. Augustine wants to stress, however, that women are God's image, and in this life all of us are and are not yet God's image. The inequality in representation is problematic, but the inequality is resolved in the Incarnation of Christ, the divine Word “married” to humanity Inequality is resolved for women and men completely in the resurrection of women's and men's bodies to the fullness of redeemed equality. This is what it means according to Augustine to grow up fully into the Image of God, Christ (Eph. 4:15) (Chapter Three). Christ, the union of divinity and humanity gives himself to the women and men of the Church through the bishop's body so that the bishop in his embodiment is devoted to the temporal management of the Church. The bishop finds himself in such embodied solidarity with women in the Church that they are better understood as incorporated into each other so closely that (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jana Bennett (Advisor); Sandra Yocum (Committee Member); William Portier (Committee Member); Dennis Doyle (Committee Member); William Collinge (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; Religion; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1988, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: History

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), University of Dayton, 2015, International Marian Research Institute

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Committee: Thomas Thompson S.M. (Committee Chair) Subjects: Religious History; Theology

Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.), University of Dayton, 2002, International Marian Research Institute

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Committee: Bertrand Buby S.M. (Advisor) Subjects: Theology

Doctorate in Sacred Theology (S.T.D.), University of Dayton, 2011, International Marian Research Institute

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Committee: Bertrand Buby S.M. (Advisor) Subjects: Theology

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2014, History

In his sermon at the execution of a convicted man, Puritan minister Samuel Danforth used the term "strange flesh" to describe the man's deeds, which in the present would be recognized as sodomy and bestiality. Danforth and other Puritan leaders took responsibility for the spiritual welfare of all the people in their community; sexual activities that they associated with God's enemies terrified them. Believing that their spiritual “city on a hill” was threatened, these leaders tried to deter such behavior not only through passionate sermons that railed against “strange flesh” but through explicit civil laws that mandated harsh penalties for those who persisted. This project focuses on the language in legal and religious texts used by magistrates in Massachusetts Bay from 1629 to 1699. It makes explicit the links connecting law, sex, and religion in this early period. By reading the religious and legal texts together, and paying close attention to the sodomy and bestiality statutes, I show how spiritual anxiety over “strange flesh”dictated legal policy regarding sexual activity. The Bay Colony leaders enacted specific legal statutes because they feared “God's Judgment”; since some people in the community practiced the biblical “abomination” of “unnatural sex.” My working argument is that the conjunction of religious and legal texts created different groups of “other” within the community that established and reinforced the Puritan “godliness” and their “city on the hill.” Legal statutes, legal commentary, and religious commentary provide the main primary sources for this project. Massachusetts Bay lawmakers consolidated individual legislation against “buggery” and “sodomy” into colonial legal codes in the mid-seventeenth century, and English legal manuals describing “buggery” in great detail circulated in the Atlantic world during this time period. Further, Massachusetts Bay Puritan leaders relied heavily on particular passages in the King James Version of the (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ruth Wallis Herndon PhD (Advisor); Renee Heberle PhD (Committee Member); Christine Eisel PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Law; Legal Studies; Spirituality; Theology

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Arts and Sciences : Communication

Throughout America's religious history, there have been periods of increased religious sentiments leading to times of religious revitalization known as America's Great Awakenings. This thesis project performs a rhetorical criticism of exemplary sermons delivered by the prominent figure from each of America's Great Awakenings. Previous rhetorical scholarship on the Great Awakenings has typically identified broad patterns in awakening sermons, but few have focused on the internal dynamics of individual sermons. This thesis supplements these studies with an examination of the internal dynamics of individual sermons. This thesis develops standards for identifying prominent preachers and representative or exemplar sermons, and focuses on the following sermons and figures: “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners Bound to Change Their Own Hearts” by Charles Finney, and “Lost and Saved” by Dwight Moody. Key rhetorical features include the organization of the sermon and use of appeals to emotions and values, specifically fear and responsibility. Shifts in the organization and appeals used by each speaker can be attributed to three major factors: the dominant theological perspective (i.e. Calvinist versus Arminian views of salvation), the training and background of each preacher, and the relative diversity and size of the audiences addressed.

Committee: John Lynch PhD (Committee Chair); Steve Depoe PhD (Committee Member); James Crocker-Lakness PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Religion; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Spanish and Portuguese

The sermons of the Spanish Dominican preacher Fray Alonso de Cabrera (1549?-1598) represent a rich source of the various mechanisms that a preacher in Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had at his disposal in order to turn the pulpit into a highly efficient instrument of ideological control and political propaganda. This dissertation discusses the dialogical intersections between the sixteenth century art of preaching and contemporary theories of “Performance Studies” in order to cast a clear light on the relationship between the sender of the ideological message and his receivers, in other words, to measure the effect of the preacher on his listeners and the spiritual and ideological impact of his message upon them. The introductory chapter contextualizes the condition of preaching in sixteenth century Spain, locates fray Alonso de Cabrera within the Dominican order, reviews the existing literature on the topic, and summarizes the chapters of the dissertation. The second chapter contains the theoretical framework and the methodology of the study, using several Christian treaties from the sixteenth century and concepts from “Performance Studies” to give a perspective on the cultural and social performance of the Dominican preacher. The third chapter is devoted to Lenten sermons. These sermons are analyzed with regard to their moral doctrine and the figures of speech they contain. At the same time, this chapter explores what it meant to be a Spanish preacher at the end of the sixteenth century, taking into account the socio-cultural background of the period. The fourth chapter examines the Easter and Advent sermons, in which two images of Christ are contrasted: the Redeemer and the God-judge. The fifth chapter covers the liturgical cycle of Epiphany, focusing on the holy wars of the king Phillip II, as well as on the pastoral endeavors of the Dominican friar regarding the upbringing of the young and the sacrament of matrimony. The sixth chapter incorpor (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Donald Larson R (Advisor); Maureen Ahern (Advisor); Salvador Garcia (Committee Member); Marcelo Dapino (Committee Member) Subjects: Literature; Religion

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2003, History

This dissertation explores the beliefs and worldviews among the Coptic Christian community living in Egypt under Ottoman rule (1516-1798 CE), predominantly through the use of Coptic Church documents. Research in this topic has ultimately isolated three groups of Arabic Christian manuscripts which are closely considered here. These sources, written by Copts themselves, show Copts to be major actors rather than groups “marginalized” by the Islamic society at large. The first sources are chronicles that record communal events, noting momentous occasions such as pilgrimages or “miracles” performed by Coptic patriarchs. An example of this material is found in a discussion of the Coptic pilgrimage to Jerusalem during the Ottoman period, a ritual that reflects insight into the construction of spiritual meaning among Ottoman-era Copts. Two other categories of sources characterize the massive literary output which was a hallmark of this era. These are hagiographies and sermons, which were read out loud to sizable audiences and which document the performative dialogue between the church hierarchy and its congregation. A hagiography, that of Saint Salib, is considered here as a text of “communal remembrance” from the late Mamluk and early Ottoman periods, a time of political transition in Egyptian society. Another, that of the Coptic female martyr Saint Dimyana, illustrates ascetic values reflected in her legend that were popular among Coptic believers. The sermons which are examined in this dissertation were written to instruct the community in appropriate moral codes and behavior during the late eighteenth century. They reveal the Coptic clerical hierarchy's concerns with the encroachment of “non-Coptic” morals into the community and provide clues to widespread practices among the community in this era. Ultimately, this dissertation speaks to the need to recognize and document the Coptic contribution to Egyptian society and religious life, and it addresses Coptic popular rel (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jane Hathaway (Advisor) Subjects: History, Middle Eastern

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2003, History

This paper attempts to demonstrate the constructive nature of the language of grief through an examination of the funeral sermons and funeral monuments for the Richard Riche family of Felsted, Essex, who held the earldom of Warwick from 1618/9 until 1673. This analysis argues that this elite family and their supporting clergymen utilized the existing culture and rituals of death to rhetorically and visually protect their inheritance and hegemony within society as political, social, and spiritual examples. In other words, the dead were resurrected through language and sculpture in such a way that they demonstrated familial continuity and legitimacy, while simultaneously serving as spiritual exemplars that also suggested the Riches hegemony in spiritual affairs. Through a close reading of sources surrounding the eventual extinction of one aristocratic family, a contribution may be made towards understanding the pressures and sentiments experienced by early modern English families.

Committee: Renee Baernstein (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2009, Communication Studies

This dissertation argues that womanist rhetoric is a cultural discourse. It asks the questions, what is womanist rhetoric, who engages in womanist rhetoric, and what are the implications for womanist rhetoric in the everyday lives of Black women? I ask and answer these questions within the context of the Black Church as a cultural location and social institution. This allows for a rich and complex discussion of the organic elements of womanist rhetoric, which enter the academy but are not limited to the academy. I define the Black Church in both historic and contemporary terms to demonstrate the cultural location of womanism within African America.Womanist rhetoric has three pillars: authentic womanist voice, gendered cultural knowledge, and ethical discourse for salvation. This dissertation uses a mixed-methods approach to present each of these three elements. Historic and literary womanist shape my definition of womanist rhetoric. In centralizing Black women's narratives through womanist discourse, Black women create spaces in which and through which they make their voices heard and their presence known. Through this engaged discourse within and outside of the Black Church, African American women have created and maintained spaces for authentic womanist voice. African American women daily embody the process of womanist rhetoric. Through an analysis of Wanda Davis Turner as a womanist minister, I am able to discuss womanist rhetoric in the context of the sermon. Womanist rhetoric goes beyond womanist theory and beyond womanist theology to get at the root of the cultural meanings within the deep cultural spaces African American women inhabit daily. Through her sermon Sex Traps, Wanda Davis Turner presents herself as an authentic womanist voice within the Black Church. Her sermon and book series Sex Traps utilizes gendered cultural knowledge to explore issues of morality and the ethical discourse of salvation that constitute womanist discourse.

Committee: Lara Lengel PhD (Committee Chair); Khani Begum PhD (Committee Member); Alberto Gonzalez PhD (Committee Member); Philip Wander PhD (Committee Member); John MaKay PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: African Americans; Communication; Religion; Religious Congregations; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2013, English/Rhetoric and Writing

Historically, various technologies, print and the television, for example, have been adopted by religious groups to spread their teachings and faith. Presently, many churches are adopting various digital technologies to accomplish this aim. This study examines the adoption of digital technologies into preaching to determine the effects of this adoption on the sermon as a genre and preaching as a rhetorical practice. It contends that understanding genre expectations, which are steeped in the traditions and values of a community, is key to understanding how and why digital technologies are used in particular ways and further, how those uses shape or fail to shape a preacher's ethos. Thus, it employs a combination of survey and case study research to determine how both preachers and congregants understand the sermon as a genre and how those understandings influence the practice of preaching and the adoption of digital technologies. The results of the study indicate that many preachers and congregants privilege the spoken word in the sermon because they perceive, for both historical and theological reasons, the sermon as an oral genre. As a result, they situate digital technologies as supplementary or peripheral to the oral act of preaching. Such a separation is a method for preserving existing practices, beliefs, and values, while simultaneously adopting new technologies. However, as long as preachers and congregants expect the sermon to be an oral genre and evaluate preachers by those expectations including digital technologies in the sermon will not help preachers construct or maintain ethos. This study concludes by articulating two options for building ethos through the use of technology: (1) to reconceive the sermon as a multimedia genre that integrates digital technologies as integral to the sermon, thereby taking advantage of their affordances, or (2) to use digital technologies to improve congregational ethos through accessibility. Digital technologies may a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kristine Blair (Committee Chair); Katherine Bradshaw (Committee Member); Sue Carter Wood (Committee Member); Lee Nickoson (Committee Member) Subjects: Religion; Religious History; Rhetoric