bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Inhibited Gas Stimulation To Mitigate Condensate Banking and Maximize Recovery in Cupiagua Field
Authors: Franco C.. , Botero O.. , Zapata J.. , Mora E.. , Candela C.. , Castillo A..
Published: April 2013

Condensate banking has been identified as one of the most potentially damaging mechanisms affecting well productivity in Cupiagua Field. This gas-condensate giant field has reached an average recovery factor of 42%, with recovery values of approximately 60% in some layers of field. The mitigation of condensate banking phenomena, among the other important damaging mechanisms currently interacting along the entire productivity zones, has been one of the most relevant stimulation practices in the development strategy.

The mitigation of condensate banking led to optimization of common stimulation practices to recover the productivity of gas-condensate wells. Massive hydraulic fracturing and matrix stimulation with inhibited diesel and alcohol have been the most common practices implemented and optimized to mitigate condensate banking in Cupiagua field.

Because the field is being operated by Ecopetrol (as of June 2010), the mitigation of condensate banking was recognized as one of the most important stimulation challenges to be worked by the stimulation team. The effective mitigation of condensate banking is key to reaching and even exceeding the short- and long-term production targets set by Ecopetrol.

This paper describes all the engineering work carried out to implement a new stimulation technique based on the injection of inhibited dry gas. The performed laboratory job, the simulation runs, the engineering design, and the field results are clearly described in the paper, the preliminary results showing that a successful stimulation technique exists to remove and mitigate condensate banking. At the moment, this stimulation strategy has been focused on removing liquid saturation (condensate and water) and organic solids (especially asphaltenes) by incorporating alcohol and surfactants inside the gas stream. Future engineering work will address the incorporation of a chemical blend that can improve the gas-treatment life, thus reducing critical liquid saturation or/and reducing the size of no-mobile condensate rings.
Compositional Simulation of Condensate Banking Inside Hydraulic Fractures Coupled with Reservoir Geomechanics
Authors: Deng H. , Chen Z. , Dong C. , Nikpoor M. H.
Published: April 2013

Horizontal wells with multistage hydraulic fracturing stimulation become the common practice in developing tight and shale gas reservoirs. For gas condensate reservoirs, heavier components in the gas phase start dropping and decrease the gas mobility due to a relative-permeability relationship as reservoir pressure drops below the saturation pressure. Therefore, modeling the condensate banking along hydraulic fractures becomes critical in understanding the productivity loss, the hydraulic fracturing job design as well as the field production optimization. In addition, along with pressure depletion, the stress dependent permeability must be taken into account either by an approximation derived from lab experiments inside a finite difference flow simulator or modeling separately by a finite element geomechanics code.

A condensate fluid pseudoization that reduces nine hydrocarbon components to a pseudo three components mixture is presented in this paper. The control volume based multiphase multi-components thermal simulator FATS is utilized in modeling the condensate banking inside the hydraulic fractures and surrounding matrix blocks. A K-value interpolation algorithm is developed and validated by a two-phase envelope generated by an Equation of State (EOS). FATS results are validated by the EOS based reservoir simulator GEM.

A compositional simulation model is coupled with reservoir geomechanics in this study to investigate the interaction of stress changes and its effects on multiphase flow along fractures. A modular coupled approach is implemented for solving the stress and flow equations at each time step by the iteration between the reservoir simulator and geomechanical module. Pressure and temperature changes occurring in the reservoir simulator are passed to the geomechanical simulator to compute the changing of stress and strain and updating porosity and permeability simultaneously. Simulation results show that fracture conductivity reduction is due to the combination of condensate banking and changing of the effective stress along hydraulic fractures.
Innovative Friction Reducer Provides Improved Performance and Greater Flexibility in Recycling Highly Mineralized Produced Brines
Authors: Ferguson Marcelle L. , Anderson Clifford C. , Eichelberger Peter B. , Hallock James K. , Qiu Xiaoping (Victoria) , Roell Rebecca L.
Published: April 2013

Currently, inverse emulsion (water-in-oil) polymers are the most widely applied friction reducers for hydraulic fracturing. While oil-external friction reducers are the industry standard, they are limited by their tolerance to water containing high Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), requiring low TDS in blended waters to achieve adequate friction reduction without the addition of an external surfactant to aid in hydration. To increase operational efficiency and reduce impact on local infrastructure, operators desire to recycle the maximum amount of produced water. To meet this goal, a friction reducer that functions unassisted in high TDS water is needed. This paper describes the use of a Dispersion Polymer Friction Reducer (DPFR) in the Marcellus Shale that addresses this need.

A salt-tolerant, water-based friction reducer was developed to allow well operators to reuse high TDS produced waters encountered in the Marcellus Shale. Both lab and field experiments were carried out to assess the effectiveness of the new friction reducer. The data presented in this paper show several advantages of the DPFR: (1) conservation of fresh water sources, (2) greater flexibility in water source options, (3) reduced analytical testing for produced water management, and (4) rapid onset of friction reduction without need for external surfactants.

The DPFR provided efficiency improvements to the service company through fewer chemicals required to achieve high pumping rates. The operator benefitted from having greater flexibility in use of produced, recovered and recycled waters. Laboratory flow loop tests indicated that the DPFR would be an effective friction reducer for a wide variety of water types, and this was confirmed by field testing as shown in the treatment plots included in this paper. Minor modifications in material handling procedures were required in the application of the DPFR.

This paper details the collaboration between a chemical manufacturer, a service company and an operator which resulted in the successful development, testing and deployment of an innovative technology in the Marcellus Shale. The DPFR technology offers environmental, economic, and operational advantages over the previous inverse-emulsion polymer technology.
Optic Imaging of Two-Phase Flow Behavior in Nano-Scale Fractures
Authors: Wu Qihua , Bai Baojun , Ma Yinfa , Ok Joeng Tai , Neeves Keith , Yin Xiaolong
Published: April 2013

Gas in tight sand and shale exists in underground reservoirs with microdarcy (µD) or even nanodarcy permeability ranges; these reservoirs are characterized by small pore throats and crack-like interconnections between pores. The size of the pore throats in shale may differ from the size of the saturating fluid molecules by only slightly more than one order of magnitude. The physics of fluid flow in these rocks, with measured permeability in the nanodarcy range, is poorly understood. Knowing the fluid flow behavior in the nano-range channels is of major importance for both simulation studies and calculations of the relative permeability of gas in tight shale gas systems. In this work, a lab-on-chip approach for direct visualization of the fluid flow behavior in nanochannels was developed using an advanced single-molecule imaging system combined with a nano-fluidic chip. Displacements of two-phase flow in 100 nm depth channels were characterized. Specifically, the two-phase gas slippage effect was investigated. Under experimental conditions, the gas slippage factor increased as the water saturation increased. The two-phase flow mechanism in nano-scale channels was proposed and proved by the flow pattern images. The results are crucial for permeability measurement and gas slippage factor determination for unconventional shale gas systems with nano-scale pores.
Geomechanical Considerations in Seismicity Based Reservoir Characterization
Authors: S. Mehran Hosseini , Farzam Javadpour , Mohammadali Tarrahi
Published: April 2013

Permeability estimation from microseismic events has been used in the oil and gas industry for more than a decade. However, some of the geomechanical assumptions associated with this technique may not essentially be representative of the field characteristics. Assumptions of shear failure along faults due to any reservoir pressure perturbation and assumption of random distribution of critical pore pressure in a chosen interval as the shear failure criteria presumably will not be representative of the shear failure criteria for the faults. We propose a new model for seismicity based reservoir characterization based on radial fluid flow in the reservoir and Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria which includes the stress state of the reservoir as well as fault friction coefficient (geomechanical reservoir properties) that were not included in the previously published models. This model relaxes some of the assumptions that were associated with former seismicity based reservoir characterization (SBRC) models. We used microseismic data from German Continental Deep Drilling Project (KTB) to test the validity of our new model. The predicted permeability from our model matches very well with the estimated and measured permeability reported values in the literature for KTB. We then performed sensitivity analyses of the effects of fault friction coefficient on estimated permeability, which showed substantial dependency of estimated permeability on fault friction coefficient. This indicates that the dependency of permeability to reservoir geomechanical properties was ignored in previous SBRC models, which is included in our model.
NMR T2 Distributions in the Eagle Ford Shale: Reflections on Pore Size
Authors: Rylander Erik , Philip M. Singer , Jiang Tianmin , Lewis Rick
Published: April 2013

Production of oil from organic shale reservoirs is a function of porosity, hydrocarbon saturation, pore pressure, matrix permeability, and hydraulic fracture surface area plus fracture conductivity. Hydraulic fracture surface area, porosity, saturations and pore pressure dominate initial production rates. Matrix permeability becomes increasingly important in sustaining production later in time. Permeability measurements to oil from organic shale core samples are not commercially available today. However, permeability to oil is believed to be a function of pore throat size, wettability, and water saturation, the same as a conventional reservoir. This work investigates pore size, wettability, and expelled hydrocarbon volumes using log and core-based nuclear magnetic resonance data from the Eagle Ford Shale focused on the comprehensive evaluation of one well. Comparisons with core porosity measurements, scanning electron microscope images (SEM) and mercury injection capillary pressure tests (MICP) are compared with the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) interpretation for calibration and validation. The NMR T2 distribution is partitioned into regions of bound and producible free fluid.

Two types of pore systems are present in the Eagle Ford Shale; kerogen-hosted (OM) and inter/intra particle (IP). Bore hole logs indicate the upper Eagle Ford Shale is dominated by IP porosity, and the lower Eagle Ford Shale is dominated by OM porosity. Core NMR indicates OM pores are hydrocarbon wet while IP pores have mixed wettability. Core pore fluids are not representative of in-situ conditions as the lighter portion of the hydrocarbons have been expelled during core recovery. Comparison between log and core measured NMR allows the quantification of the expelled hydrocarbon - those zones with the "best" producibility. Understanding which portion of a shale reservoir contains producible fluids impacts target zone selection.
Developing, Implementing, and Assessing an Early Alert System
Authors: Tampke Dale R.
Published: April 2013

Early alert systems offer institutions systematic approaches to identifying and intervening with students exhibiting at-risk behaviors. Many of these systems rely on a common format for student referral to central receiving point. Systems at larger institutions often use web-based technology to allow for a scalable (available campus wide) approach to at-risk intervention. This article describes the development and implementation of a web-based, fully integrated early alert referral system at a large, public university in the Southwest. After a brief review of the academic early alert concept, the article describes the development of the system from a conceptual perspective, including how administrative, faculty, and student service input guided development. The next section details the technical aspects of system design, presented from the end-user perspective, emphasizing the integration of the system into the campus student information system. The following section includes a thorough description of the first term's experience implementing the system, including aggregated descriptive data for those using the system, the students referred, and the follow-up to the referrals. Initial analysis indicates a modest positive relationship between personal follow-up to referral and student success. The article concludes with recommendations for research and practice.
Sense of Coherence and Hardiness as Predictors of the Mental Health of College Students
Authors: Knowlden Adam P. , Sharma Manoj , Kanekar Amar , Atri Ashutosh
Published: April 2013

Psychological distress has a deleterious impact on the mental health of college students. The purpose of this study was to specify a theoretical, sense of coherence, and hardiness-based regression model to predict the mental health of college students. The instruments employed to build the model included the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale K-6, the Sense of Coherence-29, and the College Student Hardiness Measure. Data were collected from a sample of college students ( n = 220) attending a Midwestern university. Each of the theoretical predictors regressed on mental health was deemed significant. Collectively, the significant predictors produced an R2adjusted value of 0.434 ( p < 0.001), suggesting the final specified model explained 43.4% of the variance in mental health in the sample of participants. Qualitative cut-points were developed for each scale to aid in measurement of health promotion and education interventions designed to improve the mental health of college students.
Ceramics based on calcium pyrophosphate nanopowders
Authors: Safronova Tatiana , Putlayev Valery , Bessonov Kirill , Ivanov Vladimir
Published: April 2013

Present work is aimed at the fabrication of resorbable bioceramics based on
calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) from the synthesized powders of amorphous
hydrated calcium pyrophosphate (AHCPP). Amorphous hydrated calcium
pyrophosphate in the form of nanopowders was precipitated from Ca(NO3)2 and
(NH4 )4P2O7 solutions at room temperature in the presence of PO3 - ions.
Crystalline CPP powder was fabricated from AHCPP by its thermal decomposition
at 600?C and consisted of ?- and ?- phase. Small particles, with the size
less than 200 nm, were formed promoting sintering of the ceramic material.
The final sample, sintered at 900?C, exhibits microstructure with submicron
grains, apparent density of 87% of theoretical density (TD) and demonstrates
tensile strength of 70 MPa.
Do Short Sellers Front-Run Insider Sales?
Authors: Khan Mozaffar , Lu Hai
Published: April 2013

We study the behavior of short sellers as informed market participants and examine potential sources of their information. Using a newly available dataset with high-frequency short sales data, we find evidence of significant increases in short sales immediately prior to large insider sales, but not prior to small insider sales. We examine a number of explanations that the increase in short sales is driven by public information, either about the firm or about the impending insider sale. The evidence is inconsistent with these explanations, but is consistent with front-running facilitated by leaked information. The front-running appears to be concentrated in firms with poor accounting quality, suggesting that information about a large insider sale reinforces short sellers' adverse opinion about firm value when accounting quality is poor.

JEL Classifications: G14, G18, G30, M41
Free vibration analysis of laminated composite plates with elastically restrained edges using FEM
Authors: Sharma Avadesh , Mittal N.
Published: April 2013

The application of FEM is shown for free vibration analysis of moderately thick laminated composite plates with edges elastically restrained against translation and rotation. The governing equations employed are based on the first order shear deformation theory including the effects of rotary inertia. Several combinations of translational and rotational elastic edge constraints are considered. Convergence study with respect to the number of nodes has been carried out and the results are compared with those from past investigations available only for simpler problems. Angle-ply and cross-ply laminates with different thickness-to-length ratios are examined. Comparisons are made with results for thin as well as moderately thick laminated plates.
Episode 712: South Park, Ridicule, and the Cultural Construction of Religious Rivalry
Authors: Cowan Douglas E.
Published: April 2013

Using a recent episode of the adult cartoon South Park, this essay explores the function of ridicule in the cultural construction of religious rivalry. Principally, this essay argues that ridicule is not a product of derision, but of the social relationships that make derision meaningful. Functionally, ridicule serves two purposes: (1) stabilization, that is, it preempts or reduces deviance within both the aggressor group and the aggressor audience; and (2) hierarchization, that is, it reflects and reinforces a dynamic of status ascription within a given domain of social interaction.
“You Either Get It or You Don’t”: Conversion Experiences and The Dr. Phil Show
Authors: Egan R. Danielle , Papson Stephen D.
Published: April 2013

Using The Dr. Phil Show as a case study, this paper explores the processes of secularization and sacralization in the media spectacle of talk television. It argues that TheDr. Phil Showemploys the religious narrative of conversion to frame the personal experiences and the problems of participants. Using discourse analysis, the paper examines two shows that exemplify this narrative: “Addiction” and “The Weight Loss Challenge.” It argues that the morphology of conversion is comprised of two components: the confessional and the testimonial. As participants proceed through these ends of the spectrum of the conversion narrative, a transformation of self is depicted. The televised presentation of reoccurring conversions functions to produce a sense of moral authority, self-empowerment, and an imagined community. The paper concludes that the boundary between the sacred and the secular blur in this highly commodified television spectacle.
Book Reviews
Authors: Baker Kelly J. , Tate Andrew , Davis-Stofka Beth , Ciaccio Peter , Williams Tyler F. , Scholes Jeffrey , Phelps IV Hollis D.
Published: April 2013

McDannell, Colleen. Picturing the Faith: Photography and the Great Depression, reviewed by Kelly J. Baker

Detweiler, Craig, and Barry Taylor. A Matrix of Meanings: Finding God in Pop Culture, reviewed by Andrew Tate

Buhle, Paul. From the Lower East Side to Hollywood: Jews in American Popular Culture, reviewed by Beth Davies-Stofka

Barsotti, Catherine M. and Robert K. Johnston. Finding God in the Movies: 33 Films of Reel Faith, reviewed by Peter Ciaccio

Stone, Bryan P. Faith and Film: Theological Themes at the Cinema, reviewed by Tyler F. Williams

Beaudoin, Tom. Consuming Faith: Integrating Who We Are with What We Buy, reviewed by Jeffrey Scholes

Landres, J. Shawn, and Michael Berenbaum, eds. After The Passion is Gone: American Religious Consequences, reviewed by Hollis D. Phelps IV
“Passion Tickets Bear Mark of Beast!” Otherworldly Realism, Religious Authority and Popular Film
Authors: Walsh-Pasulka Diana
Published: April 2013

Much of the scholarship that examines the connections between film and religion is based on the assumption that there is a clear distinction between film reality and the reality of everyday life. In other words, viewers suspend their belief structures while enjoying a film about the supernatural, but they always maintain a conscious separation between the film and reality. This assumption is complicated when considering the urban legends and stories surrounding films like The Exorcist and The Passion of the Christ. The discourse that surrounds these films, the urban legends, tales and folklore, reveal a realism with respect to the supernatural and religion that defies the assumption of the film’s status as fantasy. They literally bring the supernatural to life. In this way, they blur the assumed boundary between film reality and ordinary reality. In this sense they function much like a religious icon as used in popular devotional practices.
Book Reviews
Authors: Maresco Peter , Sneed Roger , Barton Casey , Brown Robert E.
Published: April 2013

Brasher, Brenda E. Give Me That Online Religion, reviewed by Peter Maresco

Hardy, Clarence. James Baldwin’s God: Sex, Hope, and Crisis in Black Holiness Culture, reviewed by Roger Sneed

Anker, Roy M. Catching Light: Looking for God in the Movies, reviewed by Casey Barton

Palmer, Susan J. Aliens Adored: Rael’s UFO Religion, reviewed by Robert E. Brown
Big Brother, Pilgrimage and the Ndembu of Zambia: Examining the Big Brother Phenomenon through the Anthropology of Religion
Authors: Dutton Edward Croft
Published: April 2013

This article will examine the Big Brother television series through the prism of the anthropology of religion. It will examine the ways in which Big Brother is comparable to a pilgrimage on the one hand and a tribal initiation ceremony on the other. In this regard, Victor Turner’s research on these subjects, and related criticisms, will be discussed in detail. It will argue that one possible reason for the popularity of Big Brother is that it is a modern liminal phase in which contestants undergo suffering to attain the status of celebrity. This, it will argue, is pertinent because modern society prizes celebrity so highly. Thus, it will argue that the Big Brother programme appeals not only to voyeurism but to a kind of religious or tribal structure–that those who endure suffering have their status raised.
Book Reviews
Authors: Mercer Joanne , Bube Paul Custodio , Regehr Rudy , Baker Kelly J.
Published: April 2013

Pinsky, Mark. The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust., reviewed by Joanne Mercer

Gilvin, Brandon. Solving the Da Vinci Code Mystery, reviewed by Paul Custodio Bube

Pin, Anthony B. Noise and Spirit: The Religious and Spiritual Sensibilities of Rap Music, reviewed by Rudy Regehr

Dickerson, Matthew, Following Gandalf: Epic Battles and Moral Victory in The Lord of the Rings, reviewed by Paul Custodio Bube

Horsefield, Peter. Belief in the Media: Cultural Perspectives on Media and Christianity, reviewed by Kelly J. Baker
Adaptation: The Self-Proclaiming Rhetoric of Charlie Kaufman and of the Apostle Paul
Authors: Anderson Matthew
Published: April 2013

In his screenplay Adaptation, Hollywood screenwriter Charlie Kaufman took the inventive step of writing himself by name into what would become a hit movie. By so doing, he escaped the virtual anonymity that characterizes even the most successful movie writers and ensured his name, his “branding,” and the reception of his future writings. Yet the very nature of Kaufman’s movies–Being John Malkovitch, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Adaptation–show that as an author he is less concerned with realism or accurate autobiography than with narratives that sometimes blur the lines between fact and fiction. This paper argues that, for all its novelty, Kaufman’s approach echoes the ancient rhetoric of Paul. Paul also literally “wrote himself into scripture” as the pre-eminent Apostle to the Gentiles, and despite his lack of official credentials, successfully styled himself as the main mortal character in his story– eventually, everyone’s story–of how God was creating a new people among the Gentiles, a people who would become the Christian church.
Burned Over Bono: U2’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Messiah and His Religious Politic
Authors: Seals Chad E.
Published: April 2013

Within the last decade, many fans and members of the popular press have labeled Bono, lead singer of the band U2, a “Rock ‘n’ Roll Messiah,” because of his global humanitarian efforts and relentless effusion of theological and political messages in song and concert. Focusing on the relationship between religious practice and secular activism, I argue that Bono has performed a secularized soteriology–a public prescription of spiritual and economic salvation unbounded by religious institutions–that conjures an imagined World Polity; and this message has been packaged and delivered in ways that blur distinctions between show business and modern revival techniques.
Redemption by Grace: A Rhetorical Analysis of Hoosiers
Authors: Short Brant , Short Dayle Hardy
Published: April 2013

We contend that the 1986 film Hoosiers reconstructs the conventional narrative device of redemption, and that a rhetorical assessment offers a valuable means of explaining the film’s continuing popularity. Hoosiers demonstrates that redemption can emerge from grace and not necessarily through victimage, scapegoating or personal sacrifice. The essay approaches the concept of redemption from a Judeo-Christian interpretation of grace as contrasted with a dramatistic perspective that redemption must be earned. We conclude that grace offers a compelling alternative method of discovering and analyzing redemption narratives in popular culture texts.
Book Reviews
Authors: Matties Gordon , Hays Patrick J.
Published: April 2013

Mary Lea Bandy & Antonio Monda, eds. The Hidden God: Film and Faith, reviewed by Gordon Matties

Kaufman, Suzanne Consuming Visions: Mass Culture and the Lourdes Shrine, reviewed by Patrick J. Hays
The Politics of a Mel-placed Passion and Displaced Bodies
Authors: McDowell Dr. John C.
Published: April 2013

Gibson’s Christ has a body, and a body of hope at that. However, this Christ is little more than a bare body, a body made naked without its without a full covering of life (or rather it is a body reduced to barest life), and therefore a body that lacks the multiple extensions in space and time that characterise bodies and their being available to and for other bodies. This paper seeks to trace Gibson’s series of losses and their political implications, three of which are not only particularly important but are interdependent. Drawing metaphorically on the terms of the C4th Trinitarian theologies, this is argued to constitute something of a deadly tri-unity of threefold bodylessness, a perichoretic (interdependent co-inherence) perversity which triply enforces the terror against bodily (con)textuality. This sense of bodily loss flows directly from the nature of the abstraction involved in the film’s selected focus, and manifests itself triunely in the “Jewish-problem”; the life of the Christ; and the nature of the saving achieved by the sufferings of the condemned Jesus.
Welcome Aboard: Faith, Life and Death in United 93
Authors: Spark Alasdair , Stuart Elizabeth
Published: April 2013

This article analyses the depiction of religious belief in Paul Greengrass’ controversial film United 93 which tells the story of the doomed flight which was hijacked and eventually crashed into a field in Shanksville, PA on September 11, 2001. It argues that Greengrass paints religious belief as sincerely held by devotees but ultimately either dangerous or futile and no contemporary construction of God survives that day of terror. The film is also shown to question human trust in the mundane miracles of modern western life. Greengrass does valorise the belief of men and women in each other, their relationships and the human spirit. The film suggests that this is the only faith worth having in the post 9/11 world.
Book Reviews
Authors: Remillard Arthur , Nichols Michal , Friesen Michael N. , Kia-Choong Kevin Teo
Published: April 2013

Chidester, David. Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture, reviewed by Arthur Remillard

Kapell, Matthew Wilhelm, and John Shelton Lawrence, eds. Finding the Force of the Star Wars Franchise: Fans, Merchandise, and Critics, reviewed by Michael Nichols

Schakel, Peter J. The Way into Narnia: A Reader’s Guide, reviewed by Michael N. Friesen

Plate, S. Brent, ed. Re-viewing the Passion: Mel Gibson’s Film and Its Critics, reviewed by Kevin Teo Kia-Choong
The Impossibility of Negation: A Theoretical Defense of “Cross-Over” Christian Rock
Authors: Schill Brian
Published: April 2013

After grounding the genre’s traditional rejection of the secular world in H.R. Niebuhr’s influential heuristic of Christian “types,” this essay distances itself from both Niebuhr’s largely existential theology and adopts Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) in order to critique the “negationism” of Contemporary Christian music (CCM) and defend its late synthesis with popular culture. In essence, what follows is a theoretical, specifically dialectical, reading of CCM which moves beyond Howard and Streck’s (1999) qualitative reading to suggest that negation as a response to popular culture has not, indeed cannot, successfully accomplish a subculture’s explicit and implicit goals, and that the late pop presence of CCM is proof of negation’s “failure.” More, CCM serves as a representative case study for the theoretical conundrum that inevitably becomes any strict negationist venture.
Malcolm X and British Muslims: A Personal Reflection
Authors: Saeed Dr. Amir
Published: April 2013

Just as the Civil Rights and Black consciousness movements have inspired human rights activists around the world, Malcolm X has been a motivating figure for such people (Marqusee 1999). Malcolm X’s appeal and recognition have transcended the boundaries of “race” and national borders.
Book Reviews
Authors: Jensen Randall M , Shorkey Timothy A. , Bittarello Beatrice , Smith Andrew , Tu Steven J.H. , Mullen Thomas M.
Published: April 2013

Riess, Jana. What Would Buffy Do? The Vampire Slayer as Spiritual Guide, reviewed by Randall M. Jensen

Plate, S. Brent. Walter Benjamin, Religion, and Aesthetics: Rethinking Religion Through the Arts, reviewed by Timothy A. Shorkey

Garbowskie, Christopher. Spiritual Values in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings, reviewed by Maria Beatrice Bittarello

Neal, Lynn S. Romancing God: Evangelical Women and Inspirational Fiction, reviewed by Andrew Smith

Allison, Dale C. The Love There That’s Sleeping: The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison, reviewed by Stephen J. H. Tu

Turner, Steve. The Gospel According to the Beatles, reviewed by Thomas M. Mullen
Norman Jewison and Melvyn Bragg’s Jesus in 1973 and Mark’s Gospel
Authors: Yang Dr. Jayhoon
Published: April 2013

Interpreting Norman Jewison and Melvyn Bragg’s film Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) as a passion narrative, I examined it by employing the four dimensions of the cinematic quest for Jesus movies that Barns Tatum suggested. This film parallels Mark’s Gospel. It adopts significant Markan motifs and themes such as “way (hodos),” “blindness of the disciples,” “servanthood” and “thinking the things of God.” It also employs Markan structure in the opening and the closing of the movie, and portrays Jesus, as well as other characters, as Mark does.
A Prevalence of Witches: Witchcraft and Popular Culture in the Making of a Yoruba Town
Authors: Rea William
Published: April 2013

This paper considers two instances of witchcraft representation. The first is a representation that develops from the author’s fieldwork and his own experience of witnessing a witchcraft trail. The second is in Nigerian graphic comics that were popular in the 1990s and which to an extent influenced the current form of popular Nigerian soap opera and video films. This paper contrasts attitudes toward witchcraft in the Ekiti Yoruba town of Ikole outlining the multiplicity of moral attitudes toward witchcraft among the various constituents of the town, and the way that these generate local understandings of the town’s identity.
Just Deserts: Ayn Rand and the Christian Right
Authors: Burack Cynthia
Published: April 2013

Churches and conservative religious organizations now conduct well-coordinated and effective compassionate pedagogies for their followers on contested social issues such as sexuality. In this essay, I examine the ways in which conservative compassion is put to work in Christian Right morality politics. I use the work of novelist Ayn Rand to analyze a variety of features of these campaigns, but especially the fixing and defending of boundaries between those who deserve compassion and those who do not. I argue that Rand provides a fruitful analytic for understanding how Christian conservative leaders conceptualize and execute their politics and pedagogy of compassion
Taking off the Gloves: Dawkins and the Root of All Evil?
Authors: Carbonell Curtis D.
Published: April 2013

Richard Dawkins holds Oxford’s Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science. In his move from ethologist to evolutionary theorist, he has entered the public sphere as a vocal opponent of irrationalism. With his Channel Four (UK) television documentary The Root of All Evil? and his accompanying book The God Delusion he pulls no punches in lambasting people of faith as not only dippy thinkers but also as abusers of children’s trusting minds. This article sees Dawkins’s overt rhetoric designed to achieve a cultural goal: to reinvigorate aspects of the Enlightenment Project he finds worthwhile—in particular, a secularism founded on reason highly suspicious of religious meta-narratives. The article asks if his heavy-handed approach is the most viable in winning the religious/secular culture war and suggests that the more centrist position of the historian and philosopher of science, Michael Ruse, might be more productive, if less provocative.
Marriage, Womanhood, and the Search for “Something More”: American Evangelical Women’s Best-selling “Self-Help” Books, 1972–1979
Authors: Heller Jennifer
Published: April 2013

This essay will examine the ways in which the best-selling female evangelical authors from the 1970s negotiated the challenges of marriage in the “real world,” where Biblical injunction meets practical life experience and women must sometimes confront confusion, disappointment, and pain. We will focus on the non-fiction titles from the Christian News Service’s “National Religious Bestsellers” (NRB) lists that directly address issues of femininity, marriage and family life. These books, which combine practical advice with personal narrative, emphasize what authors consider to be the particular experiences of womanhood.
Sound Bites of Civil Religion: Politics, Popular Culture, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
Authors: Caterine Darryl V.
Published: April 2013

The Presidential Medal of Freedom originated under the administration of John F. Kennedy to honour peacetime service by United States civilians. Emerging at the dawn of the television age, this new addition to the symbolism of American civil religion reflects the increased interdependence between political and popular culture beginning in the mid-twentieth century. Even as Anglo-Protestant culture has continued to wane in political influence, the “pop pioneers” of Kennedy’s award have effectively demarcated the boundaries of the American nation under successive presidencies. Kennedy’s Medal exemplifies the transformation of American civil religion from the written and spoken word to the crafted and consumed image.
The Passion as Horror Film: St. Mel of the Cross
Authors: Walsh Richard
Published: April 2013

Abstract: The precursors of The Passion’s gory torture and crucifixion are action and horror films, not the gospels or Jesus films. Given his previous work, Gibson’s use of the suffering, action hero conventions is not unexpected. The more surprising use of horror techniques likely reflects horror’s popularity and the spread of its artifice through so much of recent cinema. The Passion so effectively displays crucifixion’s gore and violence that its “hidden” providential narrative may be lost on many. Moreover, the successful spectacle also raises questions about the gospels’ own relationships to horror.
With My Body I Thee Worship: Joe Wright’s Erotic Vision in Pride & Prejudice (2005)
Authors: Sabine Maureen
Published: April 2013

Film and literary critics are sharply divided over the merits of Joe Wright’s 2005 Austen film adaptation, Pride & Prejudice. My essay bridges this divide by suggesting that the director projects an erotic vision which simultaneously draws on venerable literary sources and popular youth culture. Wright’s stated intention was to make “a youth film” that captured the spirit of youthful excitement he felt in reading Austen’s novel for the first time. However he highlighted the theme of young love and at the same time gave his Pride & Prejudice poetic depth and gravity by alluding intertextually to the erotic tropes that were immortalized in Romeo and Juliet and that had their roots in ancient myths and tales of romance. This essay situates Wright’s filmic vision within a wider feminist cultural and theological project of speculation on erotic desire, sexual embodiment and “the holiness of the heart’s affections.”
Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love in a Secular Age
Authors: Walker Maxine E.
Published: April 2013

In Ian McEwan’s 1997 novel Enduring Love no character declares a belief in God except a mad stalker suffering from a delusional syndrome, and that character does not appear to hold recognizable theological or doctrinal positions of historical/institutional Christianity. On the other hand, the novel focuses on the conflicts between rational, emotional, even spiritual, behaviour as the characters search for enduring love in a postmodern culture. These ordinary characters’ interactions as they respond to a hot air balloon accident help to define and interpret the nature of religion and spirituality in our “secular age.” What characterizes our “secular age” and the nature of its religious impulses McGill University philosopher Charles Taylor aptly examines in A Secular Age (2007). Taylor traces the historical threads emerging from the Protestant Reformation that now appear in the 21st century as multiple alternatives for making sense of life and experiencing fullness. Using Taylor’s analysis as an interpretive lens, this article explores how an “immanent framework” both frustrates and opens possibilities for manifestations of transcendence.
Of Catholics, Commies, and the Anti-Christ: Mapping American Social Borders Through Cold War Comic Books
Authors: Clark Emily
Published: April 2013

This article explores the use of religion in three different Christian Cold War era comic books, with particular focus upon their reflection of the social borders reconstruction of American identity. Two of the comics are dramatic what-if scenarios of communist takeovers of the United States printed by Catholic educators. The third comic is an anti-Catholic tract linking the Vatican to the communist party. Engaging the relationship between Catholicism and communism, these comics reflect different perspectives concerning American’s religious landscape and its relationship to the nation’s changing identity.
Culture in Motion: Yiddish in Canadian Jewish Life
Authors: Margolis Rebecca
Published: April 2013

Le vingtième siècle a vu la transformation du Yiddish au Canada: la langue s’est déplacée d’un vernaculaire immigrant, à une langue de haute culture, à une langue d’héritage et à une composante de la culture populaire juive. Cette transformation correspond à un changement de sa vie institutionnelle, notamment de la publication, la littérature, l’éducation et le théâtre et la musique. L’immigration de masse de dizaines de milliers de juifs Yiddishophones Europe de l’est au début du vingtième siècle a rendu la langue une force significative dans les centres juifs au Canada. Depuis l’Holocauste, le Canada Yiddish a montré la vitalité face à l’usure globale, tant dans la culture Yiddish séculaire modern que dans les communautés Haredi (Ultra Orthodoxes). Ses mécanismes primaires pour la transmission sont centrés sur la performance aussi bien que la traduction.

The past century has transformed Yiddish in Canada: it has moved from an immigrant vernacular, to a language of high culture, to a heritage language and component of Jewish popular culture. These changes are reflected in shifts in its institutional life, notably in publishing, literature, education, and theatre and music. The mass immigration of tens of thousands of Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews during the early twentieth century rendered the language a significant force in Jewish centres across Canada. In the decades since the Holocaust, Yiddish Canada has shown vitality in the face of global attrition, both in modern secular Yiddish culture and in Haredi (Ultra Orthodox) communities. Its primary mechanisms for transmission are centred on performance as well as translation.
Forgotten Visions of the Afterlife: Nineteenth Century Posthumous Votive Portraiture in Iwate, Japan, Rediscovered
Authors: Thompson Christopher
Published: April 2013

Among the most colourful and abundant talismanic objects in Japan are ema—votive portraits—found at Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in every region of the country. Like its material counterparts in other areas of the world, most scholars agree that ema constitute a mode of folk expression that rarely addresses the topic of death. However, in 2001, a long forgotten variety was rediscovered, which does. Dubbed kuyô egaku (“mourning picture frames”), this form of ema, once prevalent in a remote corner of northeast Japan, challenges popular notions of the nation’s spiritual heritage regarding death, the afterlife, and the connection of the living to both.
Greed and the Nature of Evil: Tolkien versus Wagner
Authors: Arvidsson Stefan
Published: April 2013

Scholars studying J.R.R. Tolkien have often chosen to ignore the influence of Richard Wagner on Tolkien’s opus. This article starts out with showing how profound this influence was and continues by analysing Tolkien’s and Wagner’s common interest in the Old Norse Mythology of the Vikings. Examining the recently published The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrúnby Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings, the author penetrates and compares the importante themes of greed and evil in these books and in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. The author takes up for discussion the radically different political views of the two artists and indicates how this is important for their respective view of power and greed.
The Islamic Spirit of Capitalism: Moroccan Islam and its Transferable Cultural Schemas and Values
Authors: Willis Paul , Maarouf Mohammed
Published: April 2013

This article adds to and critiques current debates about the “spirit of capitalism” for being too “top down”, western and elite-oriented. It takes a bottom-end-up and ethnographic cultural perspective to examine the cultural conditions for the formation of willing, low priced labour power in a Moroccan case study example of the “Islamic south”. Tracing how the popular culture of Islam in Morocco provides a reservoir of religious meaning for the framing of, and accommodation to, capitalistic wage labour relations, we argue that capital both in the “north”, through migration, and in the “south” gains ready access to huge resources of labour. Popular Islamic religio-cultural practices and beliefs provide ready-made cultural schemas for enacting and reproducing social relations of master-disciple/saint-supplicant, which when applied to capitalist employment relations, despite some real and possible counter-tendencies and seeds of resistance, go a long way towards explaining the apparently submissive attitudes of most Moroccan workers. Further, subaltern classes in Morocco frequently look to divination, to the miraculous, to jinn-related rituals of trance-dance and eviction to arbitrate what they see as their hit-and-miss affair with Fate. This can produce what we term a magical emancipation seemingly releasing them, partially at least, from the sufferings associated with their crushing conditions of existence and offering some psychic space between immediate oppression and immediate suffering. But magical emancipation also obfuscates the true sources of their suffering and ensures, again, subjection to the maraboutic healer and in general to “the master”. Poverty and richness as well as social inequalities are perceived to a larger extent to be incurred by the machinery of luck, the evil eye, envy and the will of Allah rather than being the results of practices and discourses of exploitative economic relations.
Retiring the Maid: The Last Joan of Arc Movie
Authors: Maddox Peggy
Published: April 2013

Joan of Arc’s fascination for cinematographers began in 1895. Until 1999, Joan was presented in essentially religious and heroic terms, but then came Luc Besson’s The Messenger. Besson’s Joan, portrayed by Milla Jovovich, is neither heroic nor saintly. Besson’s nontraditional interpretation of the historical facts, and his studied manipulation of archetypal imagery, redefine Joan of Arc as an unbalanced woman explicable by Freudian psychology. In stripping Joan of her heroism and final certainties, the Besson film works to extinguish her value as either religious icon or female role model. More than a review, the following essay on The Messenger is an analysis of the way in which this film completely reshapes the popular image of Joan of Arc.
I’ll Conjure Me a World: Biblical imagery and figures in the work of Saul Stacey Williams
Authors: Samson Frank L.
Published: April 2013

Theophus Smith’s Conjuring Culture provides the hermeneutical tools to track the transmission and transformation of Biblical images, metaphors, and figures beyond the sacred site of the African American church into the popular cultural forms of film, music, and performance poetry as exemplified by Saul Stacey Williams. Williams uses Biblical figures to challenge white supremacy, patriarchy, and misogyny, while identifying his cultural productions as expressions of divinity. Rooting himself firmly in the hip hop genre, Williams’ brilliant appropriations of the Bible as a “conjure book” point to the continued relevance and importance of Christianity to contemporary youth and popular culture.