Master of Arts in Humanities Capstone Project

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Browsing Master of Arts in Humanities Capstone Project by Title

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    Evangelicals, the Gnostic Impulse, and the Natural World
    (2021-12-09) Rice, Trey; Edmondson, Todd
    Dualism between between the body and the soul has become a prevalent view in the evangelical community. This said view bears a passing resemblance to perspectives rejected as heresy within the early Church, such as gnosticism, which produces political implications. For example, the implication that the created world is evil and without value - as gnosticism asserts - would result in a lack of care for the natural world among those who hold these beliefs. In making these observations, this paper explores how and why the majority of evangelicals have moved to political positions that are indifferent of hostile to the care of the natural world. Over time, the religious evangelical community has constructed a theology that is particularly anthropocentric, hyper-individualistic, and apocalyptic to provide cover for these presupposed political biases and decisions. Said construction has been enabled by theological illiteracy, allowing false orthodoxies to spread in Evangelicalism which share more similarities to gnostic approaches than they do with historical Christianity. This adoption of a rewritten orthodoxy then guides new generations in the direction of the political positions this orthodoxy was created to justify, producing an ideological feedback loop.
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    From the Romani to the Other: How Literature Created the “Gypsy” and its influence on the public perception of the Romani
    (2024-04-16) Stockley, William; Blouin, Michael
    The Western World is currently experiencing a cultural effort to shed light on the racial prejudice faced by marginalized groups. However, while the world is undergoing a positive cultural evolution in challenging common misperceptions and society’s subconscious biases, many of the Romani feel as if this is a conversation they are not privy to. Often depicted as exotic, mysterious, and connected to the supernatural, the Romani people have come to epitomize the idea of Otherness through the literary creation of the "Gypsy." A diverse group of people the average person knows very little about, the Romani occupy a space of blissful ignorance where society can live out their deepest desires without fear of consequence A belief that has led to many non-Romani co-opting what they believe to be “Gypsy” culture based mostly upon falsely perpetuated stereotypes. With an extraordinary number of references in Western Literature unaccounted for, the field of literary criticism lacks appropriate scope in understanding the depiction of the Romani. The unnoticed depiction of Romani characters in Western Literature has allowed for numerous anti-Romani sentiments to infiltrate society’s beliefs without as much as a second thought.
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    Longing and Belonging: Anxiety and Absence in Domestic Photography
    (2020-05) Hawley, Collin; Blouin, Michael
    Photography has transformed the idea of the self through a reconstruction of memory. How we use the static representations of media to reproduce the “real” world is inextricably connected to how we see and understand ourselves and the world around us. A central symbol of the American life is the domestic, a metonym for “normal.” Our ideas of “home” are shaped by the commodification of every aspect of social life. The idea of home has shifted from a literal location to an inward and individual sense. Memory is the primary source of identity; however, photographs have supplanted memory’s role in the creation of self. Domestic photographs represent the illusory stability of human space through a complication of “inside” and “outside.” The “outside” represents unstructured, destructive forces of nature and time that threaten to dismantle the natural order. Late capitalism’s “inside” is an inhumane architecture of efficiency and profit inverting inside and outside. “Home” consists of an alienating constellation of commodified discontent. The personal style of photographic snapshots masks a dubious reproduction of reality. The practice of photography unconsciously attempts to quell anxiety over the disappearance of what we understand as “me” but rather supplants any sense of reality.
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    The White House with Red Shutters: Liturgy, Narrative, and Incarnation in the Everyday
    (2020-05) Hook, Elijah; Edmondson, Todd
    The primary goal of this project is to understand the ways in which formal liturgical worship and narrative theory interact with and inform one another. I achieve this in three ways. First, the application of narrative theory to liturgy reveals that liturgy, at its most basic form, is the reenactment of various stories. Each piece of liturgy may be understood as a depiction of a particular narrative that relates either to our understanding of God or the Church body. Second, it follows that the practice of liturgy should promote and inspire the creation of further narratives as a form of creative response. The creative works of Madeleine L’Engle and Wendell Berry display this principle well, and analysis of their works punctuate the conversation throughout as a means of displaying various elements of liturgical theology through story. Lastly, I engage both narrative and liturgy in my own creative pieces. These short works of creative non-fiction move through the spaces of my grandparents’ home, viewing them through the lens of basic liturgical structures. In doing this, I hope to show not only that narrative may enhance our understanding of liturgy, but that liturgy can also help us to clarify and reimagine our own narratives.