Browsing by Subject "Pluralism"
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Item Open Access A "Trinitarian" Theology of Religions? An Augustinian Assessment of Several Recent Proposals(2007-05-04T17:36:56Z) Johnson, Keith EdwardContemporary theology is driven by a quest to make the doctrine of the Trinity “relevant” to a wide variety of concerns. Books and articles abound on the Trinity and personhood, the Trinity and ecclesiology, the Trinity and gender, the Trinity and marriage, the Trinity and societal relations, the Trinity and politics, the Trinity and ecology, etc. Recently a number of theologians have suggested that a doctrine of the Trinity may provide the key to a Christian theology of religions. The purpose of this study is to evaluate critically the claim that a proper understanding of “the Trinity” provides the basis for a new understanding of religious diversity. Drawing upon the trinitarian theology of Augustine (principally De Trinitate), I critically examine the trinitarian doctrine in Mark Heim’s trinitarian theology of multiple religious ends, Amos Yong’s pneumatological theology of religions, Jacques Dupuis’ Christian theology of religious pluralism and Raimundo Panikkar’s trinitarian account of religious experience (along with Ewert Cousins’ efforts to link Panikkar’s proposal to the vestige tradition). My Augustinian assessment is structured around three trinitarian issues in the Christian theology of religions: (1) the relationship of the “immanent” and the “economic” Trinity, (2) the relations among the divine persons (both ad intra and ad extra) and (3) the vestigia trinitatis. In conversation with Augustine, I argue (1) that there is good reason to question the claim that the “Trinity” represents the key to a new understanding of religious diversity, (2) that current “use” of trinitarian theology in the Christian theology of religions appears to be having a deleterious effect upon the doctrine, and (3) that the trinitarian problems I document in the theology of religions also encumber attempts to relate trinitarian doctrine to a variety of other contemporary issues including personhood, ecclesiology, society, politics and science. I further argue that contemporary theology is driven by a problematic understanding of what it means for a doctrine of the Trinity to be “relevant” and that Augustine challenges us to rethink the “relevancy” of trinitarian doctrine.Item Open Access Coequal Heirs: The Civil War, Memory, and German-American Identity, 1861-1914(2015-05-22) Kaelin, Michael JrUpon the outbreak of the American Civil War, German-Americans took up arms in defense of their adopted country. The German-American community in 1861 was incredibly diverse, and notions of shared German identity were secondary to religious, regional, and other divisions. Although widely respected by Anglo-Americans because of a perception that they were well-suited for assimilation and enjoyed a generally high level of education and economic success, German-Americans were also marginalized by overriding nativist tendencies. In response to these challenges, German-American Civil War veterans constructed the image of a “freedom-loving German.” Mythologized as firm abolitionists and unwavering supporters of the Republican Party, this model took hold among many Germans as an ethnic identifier following the Civil War. This thesis examines the development of the freedom-loving German through experience of the 20th New York Infantry Regiment. After focusing on the stakes German-American soldiers attached to their service at the outset of the war, this thesis traces the development of a pluralistic brand of patriotism which German-Americans developed during the Gilded Age. This brand of patriotism was in constant dialogue with an emerging patriotic culture among all Americans, and was responsive to changes within the German-American community in the latter half of the nineteenth century. As Civil War veterans began to die off at a rapid rate, the National German-American Alliance took upon itself the responsibility of speaking for German America, and framed all of German-American history in terms which were developed by German-American Civil War veterans.Item Open Access Eruditio et Religio: A Comparative History of Religious Life on Four Campuses(2018) Muir, ScottThis dissertation examines the relationship between religion and higher education in the United States through analyses of the religious histories of four distinct educational institutions in North Carolina’s Research Triangle—Duke University, Meredith College, North Carolina Central University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It places three seemingly contradictory scholarly representations of this relationship in conversation with one another. The first, represented by evangelical historians George Marsden and John Sommerville, claims that American higher education has come to be characterized by exclusive secularism. The second, represented by scholars of education, including Tricia Seifert, Lewis Schlosser, and Sherry Watt et al. claims by contrast that Christian privilege continues to obstruct the full inclusion of religious and non-religious minorities. And a third, represented by Rhonda and Jake Jacobsen, contends that historical Protestant and secularist predominance have been transcended by inclusive pluralism in the “postsecular” 21st century. This dissertation draws on archival research, participant observation, interviews, quantitative survey analysis, and secondary sources to demonstrate how Protestant, secular, and pluralist forces have coexisted and interacted throughout these four institutions’ histories. It illuminates how their campus religious climates have evolved in distinct ways through contingent interactions among these forces conditioned by a variety of institutional identity factors, including race, gender, affiliation, prestige, and geographical reach. As a result, we see that the relationship between religion and higher education is not uniformly characterized by either Christian privilege, exclusive secularism, or inclusive pluralism. Distinct institutional trajectories shape coexisting forms of privilege, secularism, and pluralism that interact in specific contexts, producing unique campus religious climates that shape undergraduate identity formation.
Item Open Access Knowledge and Power through Pluralisms and Relationality in the Governance of Salmon on the West Coast of Vancouver Island(2023) Bingham, Julia AThere is growing recognition that conventional Western approaches to fisheries governance and management are globally falling short in addressing many social and ecological challenges. Calls to “reinvent” or “reimagine” fisheries institutions through adaptations of ecosystem-based approaches increasingly intersect with interest in the “integration,” “bridging,” or “weaving” of knowledges and values held by Indigenous peoples with Western approaches. Generally, the intent is to improve decision-making processes and management outcomes, and to better recognize Indigenous rights following national and international legislative commitments such as UNDRIP. However, without appropriate strategies these efforts can echo harmful colonial histories, further marginalize Indigenous communities, and fail to restore fisheries of concern. Reimagining fisheries institutions will fundamental systemic changes to dominant worldviews, including how we approach multiple knowledges, conceptualize social and environmental relations, and even the very question of what constitutes “good” fisheries governance.The purpose of the dissertation is to consider what it means to pursue “integration” of Indigenous and Western scientific ways of knowing for improved fisheries governance and management and to meaningfully recognize Indigenous rights and knowledges. I present a case study of salmon in Clayoquot Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island (WCVI). Salmon are highly valued by WCVI coastal communities and are integral to the wellbeing of local Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations, but are at risk of extirpation. The federal government, through Fisheries and Oceans Canada, is tasked with recognizing Indigenous knowledges and the recently formalized commercial fishing rights of five Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations into WCVI fisheries. Development of the five Nations’ fisheries within a context of multiple overlapping Indigenous and Canadian actors and authorities presents a particularly entangled challenge for local governance reform and directly confronts colonial legacies and the historical distribution of power between Canadian and Nuu-chah-nulth governance structures. In this dissertation, I present the findings of research built through five years of partnership with Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations and Ha’oom Fisheries Society and based in the Tla-o-qui-aht hahouthli (traditional territory). The methodology includes a combination of archival and place-based methods informed by approaches in critical geographies and Indigenous relational practice. The broader goal of our partnership is to support ongoing efforts to mobilize Nuu-chah-nulth knowledges and values in WCVI salmon governance and management for productive, healthy, and abundant salmon fisheries. In presenting the work, I first review the case study context with attention to colonial histories of BC salmon fisheries. I then present a literature review summarizing primary concerns and recommendations from other efforts to “integrate” or mobilize Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in fisheries. With these recommendations in mind, I detail the case study findings considering the mobilizations of knowledge and governance relations in WCVI salmon governance. I first identify pluralistic approaches to Indigenous and Western ways of knowing in Tla-o-qui-aht’s internal management and governance structures. I then consider how specific relational approaches to knowledge coproduction and institution building support local decision-making and knowledge mobilization in the entangled salmon governance arrangements of Clayoquot Sound. Finally, I consider how the five Nations’ fisheries are impacted by and strategically respond to colonial structures and knowledge hegemonies in State fisheries management, with implications for disrupting feedbacks between colonialism and conventional Western fisheries science. Throughout, I discuss insights regarding strategies for Indigenous rights implementation and knowledge mobilization which transform governance and power relations in small scale, multispecies fisheries. The dissertation chapters collectively contribute to the following findings. First, Nuu-chah-nulth governance structures approach fisheries management through knowledge pluralisms and should be recognized as legitimate and capable governing bodies for self management. Second, relational strategies to partnership building between rightsholders and governance actors support coordinated decision-making, adaptive management actions, increased local capacity, and robust knowledge co-development, especially in when reflecting Nuu-chah-nulth embodied relational practice and with deference to Nuu-chah-nulth governing authority. Finally, strategically utilizing pluralisms and relational partnerships to challenge knowledge hegemonies and the settler state’s authority can disrupt feedbacks between colonialism and conventional Western fisheries science and offers a potential avenue for decolonization in the context of a resistant bureaucratic structure. The findings of this dissertation also contribute insight regarding broadly applicable steps forward through alternate pathways of information, understandings of relation, and arrangements of governance. Pluralistic approaches to knowledge and governance conducted in collaboration with Indigenous scholars and communities should be prioritized in efforts to mobilize multiple knowledges in the management of fisheries. Indigenous leadership and power sharing through co-governance are imperative to these approaches. Broadly, knowledge pluralisms and more-than-capitalist relational reimaginings present promising avenues for meaningful fisheries reform.
Item Open Access Mountain at a Center of the World(2018) McKinley, Alexander“Mountain at a Center of the World” examines the pilgrimage site of Sri Pada, or Adam’s Peak, in Sri Lanka, explaining its worldwide significance across multiple religious traditions over the past millennium. Drawing on a year of ethnographic fieldwork, as well as many historical sources, including original translations of Sinhala and Tamil texts, I present a history of the Peak that argues its multi-religious fame is due to its physical landscape—including prominent relief, visibility from sea, verdant woods, watershed, and wildlife. As these natural elements recur in past and present storytelling about the Peak, I suggest that the mountain helped structure human history by making its own myth.
Using a methodology that refashions geological theories of stratigraphy and crystallization for reading sources in the humanities, the Peak’s polytemporal multi-religious accounts are presented in a layered comparative perspective. The natural environment is the common denominator for tracking similarities and divergences across traditions, showing the Peak translated into Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Christian stories, with rhetorical ends ranging from political rule to spiritual attainment. As both commonalities and conflict exist in this landed history, I propose that religious pluralism at the Peak is best understood like the mountain’s ecology, describing environments that are cooperative, if not always harmonious. In turn, pilgrimage practices and ecological concerns meet in conservation projects at the Peak, where religious messages may be productively used for environmental ends if they recognize full pluralities—including all multi-religious actors sharing the pilgrimage, as well as other assemblages of living and nonliving forces shaping the planet
Item Open Access Multicultural Cold War: Liberal Anti-Totalitarianism and National Identity in the United States and Canada, 1935-1971(2007-05-03T18:53:45Z) Smolynec, GregoryIn Cold War North America, liberal intellectuals constructed the Canadian and American national identities in contrast to totalitarianism. Theorists of totalitarianism described Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union as monolithic societies marked by absolutism and intolerance toward societal differences. In response, many intellectuals imagined Canada and the United States as pluralistic nations that valued diversity. The ways in which Canadians and Americans imagined their respective national identities also varied with epistemological trends that were based on the ideas of totalitarianism and its correlate, anti-totalitarianism. These trends emphasized particularity and diversity. Using archival sources, interviews with policy-makers, and analysis of key texts, Multicultural Cold War outlines the history of theories of totalitarianism, related trends in epistemology, the genealogy of the social sciences, and the works of Canadian and American proponents of cultural pluralism and multiculturalism. It centers attention on Canada and the United States where the unreflective ideology of anti-totalitarianism was widespread and the postwar enthusiasm for ethnicity and cultural pluralism became especially pronounced. In the U.S.A. this enthusiasm found expression among public intellectuals who defined cultural pluralism in their scholarship and social criticism. In Canada, discourses of multiculturalism originated in the hearings of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism and the political thought of Pierre Elliot Trudeau. This dissertation shows that enthusiasm for sub-national group particularity, pluralism, and diversity was a transnational North American trend.Item Open Access "The Breakfast Problem": A Comparative Dispute between a Classical Confucian and a Feminist Liberal on Priority of Virtues(2019-04-04) Auh, RoyA classical Confucian and a feminist liberal married to each other find themselves at a stalemate when they disagree on a breakfast routine for their six-years-old daughter. The Confucian Carl espouses a routine is characterized by filial deference in the name of engendering xiao (孝), or filial piety – the properly affectionate and respectful attitude and conduct the children should have and perform towards their parents. Liberal Libby instead argues for a breakfast routine that targets the growth of May’s autonomy competency – she follows Diana Meyer’s conception of autonomy, which is described as a competency in a repertory of skills that allows one to assess one’s constellation of values, beliefs, desires, principles, and ends, and act most according to its integration, or one’s integrated sense of self. They believe that the practice of each other’s advocated virtues hinder the growth of their own projects, and so a philosophical argument proceeds. They resolve their argument by recognizing the various mistakes they had in their responses to each other during this cross-cultural argument. They then realized that there are substantive areas of agreement between the two positions, but which are different enough so that they can be of use for each other to construct a more comprehensive ethical life.