Global ETD Search
Search theses and dissertations gathered from participating repositories worldwide. Every result links back to the library that holds it. No account is needed.
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Showing 1 to 17 of 17 for “"Theory of religion"”.
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Eliade's theory of religion and the African experience
… to the academic debate in the field of religion and comparative religious studies. As much as he had scholastic opinion that would find synthesis with, support and defend his thought patterns and argument, so too he had, of almost equal proportions, those who would criticize his …
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Innovation and tradition: towards an institutional theory of religion
Philosophical theories of religion often appeal to supposed facts about the way religions change and, in particular, to the role of innovators. This, is true of theories that stress the priority of experience and the priority of language. In this thesis an historical case study of innovation in …
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Monetary Effervescence: A Sociological Theory of Religion Applied to Money
… answer the question "What holds the construction of money together?" by asserting that it is money's religious nature which provides the moral compulsion for people to use, and continue to uphold, money as a socially constructed concept. This project is primarily descriptive and focuses on the …
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Intrinsic patterns in the history of religious change from early Hindu traditions to contemporary Mahayana Buddhism : an application of Cumpsty's theory of religion
This thesis, Intrinsic Patterns in the History of Religious Change from early Hindu Traditions to contemporary Mahayana Buddhism: an Application of Cumpsty's Theory of Religion, is an application of a comprehensive theory of religion to a broad sweep of religious history and diversity. It follows …
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Framing God: Toward a Cognitive Account of Religious Rhetoric
<p>The thesis develops a theory of religion based on social cognition and rhetoric.</p>
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Religion, identity, and pastoral care : gender related perspectives of reality. A quest for method
My study investigates the possibility of gender preference for the possible paradigms of reality established in Cumpsty's theory of religion. According to him there are three possible paradigms for the nature of the ultimately-real to which one would belong. These generate three ideal types of …
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Searching for SETI: The Social Construction of Aliens and the Quest for a Technological Mythos
This dissertation uses Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Stark and Bainbridge's rational choice theory of religion to analyze an established but controversial branch of science and technology, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Of particular interest are the cultural, and sometimes …
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Theories of religion and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 1856-1857
In the study of religion, a variety of definitions of religion have been presented. These numerous definitions or theories are often divergent in focus, aim and interpretation. This can be problematic, as these definitions or theories often speak to a specific end-goal and quite clearly ignore, or …
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Religious experience of the destined human being
Six people fitting the above description of "destined human beings" were studied as far as possible from their own work, i.e. writings, paintings, music, speeches, letters, etc. They were studied on two levels, that of their own metier, and then how they retained that holistic quality which enabled …
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Religion of the ancient Basotho with special reference to "water snake"
… little attention given to African Traditional Religion in Southern Africa by both Western and African authors. It is not an easy area to research for it no longer exists in its undisturbed coherent form, but only as preserved in fragmented bits of culture. This thesis attempts some …
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Ritual and religion: Responses to positivism
This work is intended to shed light on the nature of ritual conduct, both within and without a religious context, by critically examining positivist construals of such conduct and showing them to be inadequate. The discussion consists of three parts. Part 1 sketches out the central features of …
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The role of English-speaking churches in South Africa : a critical historical analysis and theological evaluation with special reference to the Church of the Province and the Methodist Church, 1903-1930
PART ONE elucidates the theoretical basis of the study and its assumptions. After surveying South African church historiography and concluding that synchronic political economic history is seldom integrated into the Church story, it is argued that critical social theory should inform church …
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In a Material World: Analyzing Religious Peacebuilding in Lebanon and Bosnia-Herzegovina
… become increasingly interested in engaging religion, in various ways, in peace and development work. A theoretical field of religious peacebuilding has emerged simultaneous to this increased practitioner engagement of religion. Despite this increase in religious peacebuilding, at both …
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Modelling religious signalling
The origins of human social cooperation confound simple evolutionary explanation. But from Darwin and Durkheim onwards, theorists (anthropologists and sociologists especially) have posited a potential link with another curious and distinctively human social trait that cries out for explanation: …
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Modelling religious signalling
The origins of human social cooperation confound simple evolutionary explanation. But from Darwin and Durkheim onwards, theorists (anthropologists and sociologists especially) have posited a potential link with another curious and distinctively human social trait that cries out for explanation: …
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Religion in the interpretation of experience
This dissertation initially grew out of a pre-occupation with the epistemological status of substantive religious beliefs. Its narrowly linguistic beginnings were soon broadened, however, for it became clear from the comparative study of religion that commitment to a tradition is an important part …
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A study of pastoral care to the terminally ill in a multi-cultural context with specific reference to India
… their ministry to the terminally ill, to members of their own denomination or religion. India is notoriously rich in its variety of religious traditions and, as we will see, there is a universal Indianness which seems to stamp itself upon even the representatives of the Abrahamic faiths present on …