Browsing Religion by Title
Now showing items 6-25 of 31
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Exploring Spirituality in a New Zealand Oncology Unit
Spirituality, as presented in this paper, is characterized as an individual’s inherent need to find meaning and purpose in life, and as being the fabric that makes each person whole, (encompassing beliefs, values, attitudes, ... -
Forgeries, Falsifications, Fictions, Fälschungen? Some Early Modern European “Vedas”
This article examines—and rejects—the idea that, in the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Europeans who sought to obtain copies of the Vedas were repeatedly duped by having other works (purporting to be ... -
Galileo and the Conflict between Religion and Science
For more than 30 years, historians have rejected what they call the ‘warfare thesis’ – the idea that there is an inevitable conflict between religion and science – insisting that scientists and believers can live in harmony. ... -
Haunted, religious modernity and reenchantment
The academic study of religion has for too long laboured under a flawed understanding of the relationship between modernity and religion. Any narrative of the displacement of religion by a universal and secularising modernity ... -
A hierarchy of symbols : Samoan religious symbolism in New Zealand
This dissertation seeks to understand the religious experience of Samoans in New Zealand. The research uses the framework and themes of phenomenology of religion to observe, describe and interpret the expressions of Samoan ... -
Let the "Dirty" Women Speak: The Agency and Divergent Aspirations of Devadasis and Development Interventions in Karnataka, India
In this dissertation, I examine the relationships between development organisations and religious beneficiaries through an ethnographic exploration of devadasi women in rural North Karnataka, India. Contemporary devadasis ... -
"Let's Talk about Something Else": Religion and Governmentality in New Zealand's State Primary Schools
In 2012, the Churches Education Commission in New Zealand stated that around 40% of state primary schools provided voluntary religious instruction. A search for the word “religion” in the New Zealand Curriculum, at that ... -
Life-Prolonging Medical Care and Religiosity at the End of Life.
Studies from around the world indicate that highly religious people request and receive more aggressive end-of-life medical care than their less religious counterparts. Research suggests that patients who express strong ... -
Mapping Hinduism: 'Hinduism' and the study of Indian religions. 1600-1776
The process by which Hinduism came to be constituted as an object of European study is often taken to be the most egregious example of the invention of a religion through the reification of disparate traditions of belief ... -
Mediated Representations: Japanese New Religions and Social Media
Social Media significantly affect the way religion is presented and represented online, and allow a variety of religious actors to create a new type of charismatic authority for themselves, similar to that of celebrities. ... -
Mission, Meditation and Miracles: An Shigao in Chinese Tradition
An Shigao is well known for the important role he played in the early transmission of Buddhism into China, and Chinese Buddhists have considered him to be a meditation master for centuries. However, recent scholarship on ... -
On the Devotion to the Buddha in Paramanuchit’s Mārabandha Episode of the Paṭhamasambodhi
The Paṭhamasambodhi is an important biography of the Buddha, a living story well-known all over mainland Southeast Asia, and an essential element for Southeast Asian art history. In addition, the Mārabandha episode of the ... -
Prophet or Magician? : the debate surrounding Joseph Smith Jr.
Many authors have seen elements of Joseph Smith Jr.'s life, and early Mormonism in general to be of a magical nature. D. Michael Quinn, John L. Brooke and Lance Owens in particular have written much on the subject. There ... -
Quran and Reform: Rahman, Arkoun, Abu Zayd
This thesis engages with three Modern Muslims accounts of the nature of the Quran and its interpretation as basis for reform schemes. I investigate how the three Muslim intellectuals Fazlur Rahman (d. 1988), Muhammad Arkoun ... -
Religion and Sex Work: Sex workers perspectives on religion, identity, family and health in New Zealand and Australia
Abstract This research examines the perspectives of sex workers in New Zealand and Australia, with past or present religious beliefs, and how those beliefs have been constructed in relation to their identity. Previous ... -
The Bonds of Water: Strings of Connectedness in Bamar Buddhist Life
Yeseq, or the connections of kan (P. kamma) formed between people who pour water together as part of shared merit-making, is a fundamental part of Bamar inter-personal relations. Based upon ten months of immersive fieldwork ... -
The Cape of the Devil: Salvation in the Japanese Jesuit Mission Under Francisco Cabral (1570-1579)
This dissertation sheds new light on the missionary policies implemented by the Portuguese Jesuit Francisco Cabral (1533-1609) during his time as Superior of the Japanese mission (1570-79), by contextualising his actions ... -
The Dhammakāyānussati-kathā: A Trace of “Siam's Borān Buddhism” from the Reign of Rāmā I (1782-1809 CE.)
The Dhammakāya text genre appears in manuscripts, inscriptions, and printed texts found in Central Thailand, Northern Thailand, and Cambodia. Texts belonging to this genre share the same core Pāli verses, and date back ... -
The Shifting Narratives and Circling Bodhisattvas of Baoguo Si: A Study of Lay Buddhist Ritual at an Historic Temple on Mt. Emei, Sichuan China.
China has an ancient tradition of sacred mountain pilgrimage. One of these sacred mountains is Emei Shan 峨嵋山, located in Sichuan province. For the past 1500 years Emei Shan has been associated with the Bodhisattva ...