bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Looking for Boundaries
Authors: Witham Larry A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The evolution–creation debate has produced various stances. This chapter uses “boundary theory” to survey them from strict evolutionism on one pole to literal Bible creationism on the other pole. Many shades of evolutionist and creationist solutions exist in between. The key stances are materialist evolution, theistic evolution, progressive creation, and young‐earth creation. The boundaries now include postmodern and New Age views of science.
What Natural Scientists Believe
Authors: Witham Larry A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Hinges on survey findings (1990s) that 40% of U.S. scientists believe in a personal God and afterlife, while 93%of National Academy of Sciences members do not. Here is a look at the beliefs of Darwin and Einstein, how scientists deal with belief and atheism, and studies of scientists since psychologist James Leuba (1914) asked them about God. Biology and social science seem least open to belief.
Media‐Eye View
Authors: Witham Larry A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The John Scopes “monkey trial” over evolution in 1925 set a pattern for news coverage of future disputes in courts, churches, school boards, and legislatures. This chapter samples media treatment of science–religion disputes – from Galileo to Arkansas and Kansas – and applies a news “framing” theory. It details court cases, political battles, news bias, and academic events on science–religion topics.
Parables for Our Time
Authors: Oldenhage Tania 
Published: October 2003

AbstractOver the centuries, New Testament texts have often been read in ways that reflect and encourage anti‐Judaism. Since the Holocaust, Christian scholars have increasingly recognized this inheritance. New Testament scholars have not directly confronted the horror of Nazi crimes, Odlenhage argues, but their work has nonetheless been deeply affected by the events of the Holocaust. By placing twentieth‐century biblical scholarship within its specific historical and cultural contexts, she is able to trace the process by which the Holocaust gradually moved into the collective consciousness of New Testament scholars, both in Germany and in the U.S.. Her focus is on the interpretation of the parables of Jesus by scholars, including Joachim Jeremias, Wolfgang Harnisch, Paul Ricoeur and John Dominic Crossan. In conclusion, Oldenhage offers her own reading of the parable of the wicked husbandmen, demonstrating how the turn from historical criticism to literary theory opens up the text to interpretation in light of the Holocaust. Thereby, she seeks to fashion a biblical hermeneutics that consciously works with memories of the Holocaust. If the parables are to be meaningful in our time, Oldenhage contends, we must take account of the troubling resonance between these ancient Christian stories and the atrocities of Auschwitz.
Comedy, Play, and “The Horrors of This Century”
Authors: Oldenhage Tania 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Develops a post‐Holocaust reading of John Dominic Crossan's book Raid on the Articule, published in 1976. Oldenhage attends to the ways in which allusive references to the Holocaust continue to appear in Crossan's discussion and offer an uncanny subtext to his comparison of the parables of Jesus and twentieth‐century literature. Oldenhage argues that Crossan's gestures to Holocaust atrocity together with his perpetuation of anti‐Judaism are typical of the vague nature of Holocaust memory in American culture in the mid‐1970s. The chapter draws from Peter Novick's and Jeffrey Shandler's works on American Holocaust memory.
Parables for Our Time?
Authors: Oldenhage Tania 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Considers the motivations underlying the widespread efforts in biblical scholarship to find similarities between the parables of Jesus and twentieth‐century literature. Oldenhage's focus is on the frequent comparison between the stories of Jesus and the stories of Franz Kafka. She argues that such comparisons are not only driven by an interest in formal or generic similarities. She argues that scholarly projects that find parallels between Jesus and Kafka are also driven by the desire to have Jesus’ stories speak to twentieth‐century catastrophe and thus to make Christian Scripture relevant for our own time. While Oldenhage acknowledges the importance of such a hermeneutics of New Testament parables, she argues that it needs to be spelled out and explored more thoroughly.
Toward a Post‐Holocaust Biblical Hermeneutics
Authors: Oldenhage Tania 
Published: October 2003

AbstractThis chapter concludes by addressing the implications of this book for future work in New Testament scholarship. Oldenhage demonstrates what a post‐Holocaust reading of the parables of Jesus might look like. Focusing on the story of the Wicked Husbandmen, she seeks to develop an interpretation that critically makes use of literary criticism and that works explicitly with Holocaust memory. Oldenhage emphasizes the importance of situating parable interpretation as thoroughly as possible in specific cultural and rhetorical contexts. She also suggests possible ways for dealing with the parable's legacy of anti‐Judaism.
Secrets, Gossip, and Gods
Authors: Johnson Paul Christopher 
Published: October 2003

AbstractThis book is about secrecy in religion and the process by which traditionally secretive religions become public, taking as its case the Afro‐Brazilian religion of Candomblé. The book argues that Candomblé's entrance to the national public sphere of Brazil entails a two‐part process: (1) Practitioners become active participants in the dissemination of knowledge about the religion, including protected knowledge or secrets, and thus choose to enter the public sphere; and (2) the metropole turns toward indigenous religions like Candomblé as a source of exotic fascination and a set of religious practices from which outsiders may selectively appropriate. The result is religion innovation that nonetheless evokes strident discourses of traditional continuity – here in the form of claims to authenticity, depth, and secret knowledge.The book explores secrecy as a form of social boundary making and the social processes through which such boundaries are both ritually and discursively forged. The book coins and explicates the neologism of secretism. If secrecy is the act of restricting information and the establishment of sanctions against the uncontrolled flow of information, secretism is, contrariwise, a dissemination or placing into circulation the reputation of secrets and claims of their possession and location. The contemporary meanings of secrecy and secretism become legible when read against the historical stages of Candomblé's relation to the nation of Brazil as a whole and the purposes secrecy served during successive historical stages: (1) the secrecy of African hermeneutics carried by slaves to the shores of Brazil; (2) the secrecy‐as‐resistance to the slave colony and kingdom of Brazil; (3) the secrecy of hidden affiliations with the newly formed Afro‐Brazilian religion under the First Republic; (4) the gradual replacement of secrets by secretism, the discourse of “depth” and “foundation” after Brazilian Candomblé became known and “national” under the Second Republic; and finally, (5) the layering of these uses of secrets and secretism to adjudicate religious meanings, orders, and privileges in contemporary practice.The book argues that as Candomblé has become a national and public religion during the last decades through radically augmented forms of disclosure, freely circulated discourses of secret, African knowledge have begun to eclipse ritual practices and locales formerly regarded as traditional, generating new modes of religious affiliation.
What Is Candomblé?
Authors: Johnson Paul Christopher 
Published: October 2003

AbstractHere, the religion of Candomblé is described. Candomblé is presented as a relatively stable system of meanings and practices. Johnson maps out the contour lines along which variations occur, the semiotic system linking historically disparate groups of practice. The key vectors of signification described include: (1) the orixás (orishas) and the digestive metaphor of exchange, (2) Africa, “Africa” and Afro‐Brazil, (3) gender and spirit possession, (4) axé and the terreiro, and (5) Candomblé in the context of a broader Brazilian religious field of spirit‐possession religions.
Slaves and Secrets
Authors: Johnson Paul Christopher 
Published: October 2003

AbstractPresents conceptions of secrecy West Africans brought with them to Brazil: the interpretive separation of superficial appearance from “deep knowledge,” the face presented in public (ori ode) versus the inner head (ori inu), the layered nature of knowledge, which is ultimately bottomless, and the secret society of the Ogboni earth cult among the Yoruba. Additionally, the chapter recounts the nineteenth‐century context and motivations for a second historical layer of secrecy generated in response to repressive slave laws and policing, and the construal of Candomblé as illegal sorcery. Candomblé is interpreted as a secret society that was both built upon West African ideals of secrecy and constructed in Brazil as a religion that was seen, but not penetrated, and whose members concealed their affiliations with the orixás. Finally, in a third use of secrecy, the chapter demonstrates how masters with reason to fear it attributed extraordinary powers to exotic Candomblé.
From Tumor to Trophy
Authors: Johnson Paul Christopher 
Published: October 2003

AbstractDescribes the sociopolitical context of the new republican public order of Brazil between 1889 and 1930 that uncovered a third historical layer of the practice of secrecy, now as resistance to the republic.The problem of the classification of Candomblé in the Brazilian public sphere began in 1888 with abolition. It is precisely at this juncture that the relation of Afro‐Brazilians and their religions to Brazilian national identity became a pressing concern. With the advent of abolition and the inchoateness of Afro‐Brazilians’ new social position, their provisional status as “Brazilians” shifted in the eyes of white élites back to that of “Africans” and therefore, foreigners – a dangerous and polluting presence. The liberty of freed slaves to perform religious ceremonies involving drumming, sacrifice, and possession dance was an obvious site of contestation since it was in such ritual performances that difference – the “non‐Brazilian” identity – was most radically marked.
Public Space to Secret Place
Authors: Johnson Paul Christopher 
Published: October 2003

AbstractShifts attention to the contemporary ritual practice of secrecy, focusing especially on initiation as a rite of passage. The chapter addresses (1) how secrecy is communicated and expressed spatially, (2) how that concept of a space of secrecy is transmitted from the group to arriving individuals and reproduced in the “closed bodies” of individuals sealed by initiation, and (3) how the reproduction of secrecy relies upon and incorporates coordinates of national legitimacy created between 1890 and 1940 to mark the spatial progression of the initiate. It is demonstrated that secrecy has less to do with the restriction of information than with bodily containment and the making of a “closed body” (corpo fechado).
Public Candomblé
Authors: Johnson Paul Christopher 
Published: October 2003

AbstractCandomblé's expansion beyond ethnic markers and beyond the bounds of the traditional sites of ritual practice is described and analyzed under the rubric of public Candomblé. The chapter interprets the shift from the traditional form of secrecy, the initiation of contained bodies within the inner chamber, to secretism, the circulation of discourse on the street about secrets. Public Candomblé is under construction through bureaucratic institutionalizing efforts, published information about Candomblé, television broadcasts, film representations, and sites devoted to Candomblé on the Web.The second half of the chapter assesses the feedback loop between public Candomblé and traditional practice within the terreiros, schematized as a “protestant” effect – the condensation of ritual practice and concomitant elaboration of discourse.
Conclusion
Authors: Johnson Paul Christopher 
Published: October 2003

AbstractExplains the rise of secretism by summarizing three related arguments: First, Candomblé had no option to remain silent about the religion, only to either be represented or to take part in the control and production of those representations. Here, secretism follows the pattern of the incitement to discourse theorized by Foucault, as part and parcel of the creation and required administration of the public sphere. Second, claims to secrets are now circulated as a system of intrareligious prestige, a competition for limited rewards. In this competitive context, claims to deep secrets (secretism) are stimulated, compared to their former relative stability in traditional ritual practice. Third, secretism attempts to resecure the locative identity of Candomblé by discursively constructing boundaries for the experience of place, the ritual ideal of acquiring “foundation.” Secretism has therefore grown in direct proportion to Candomblé's publicization.
America's God
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Examines the emergence – and then the broad effects – of a singularly American synthesis of convictions. That synthesis of evangelical Protestant religion, republican political ideology, and commonsense moral reasoning came into existence during the second half of the eighteenth century and then exerted a telling influence on American life through the time of the Civil War. Elsewhere in the North Atlantic world, the main Christian traditions opposed both “Real Whig” republicanism and the “commonsense” principles of the era's new moral philosophy. Not so in America. Through a series of contingent circumstances – revival in the 1740s, colonial warfare with France, the struggle for independence, a great surge of evangelical denominations in the new republic, and the leadership of Protestant thought and agencies in creating a national culture – distinctly American forms of Christian republicanism and theistic common sense became the common intellectual coinage of the new United States. In turn, these patterns of thought pushed theology, for both educated elites and sectarian populists, toward greater stress on the individual, on free will, and on personal appropriation of the Bible. The very centrality of commonsense Christian republicanism also, however, set the stage for the intellectual tragedy of the Civil War – when dedicated Christians, both North and South, were convinced that the Bible supported only their own side. The story is at once a great triumph of creative theological energy and a significant tragedy of theology captured by culture.
3 The Long Life and Final Collapse of the Puritan Canopy
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
By 1750, a transition was beginning to take place in American Christianity. Americans began to replace traditional theology with public intellectual ideologies like republicanism and commonsense moral reasoning – views that had traditionally been seen as heterodox. This occurred in large parts because the traditional Puritan framework cracked and fragmented during the heated events of the colonial Great Awakening.
8 Innovative (But not “American”) Theologies in the Era of the Revolution
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The theological innovations that occurred prior to 1790 resulted largely from the importation of European progressive theology and from the extension of traditional pietistic impulses. Innovations arising from an absorption of American principles were uncommon. Those most willing to incorporate new elements with their theology were the liberals of New England, Baptists, African Americans, and radical dissenters.
10. . . and Constructing a New Nation
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
As evangelical Christianity grew rapidly after the 1790s, it made a great contribution to the creation of a national culture. Evangelicalism, as a flexible form of Christianity, thrived in a national environment that placed the concept of liberty at the fore. Evangelicals took to themselves the principles of the American Revolution and soon had made their type of religion critical for maintaining the virtue required by a republican government.
11 Ideological Permutations
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The rise of a distinctly American theology came from Christian appropriation of a republican political vision, Christian confidence in commonsense moral reasoning, and Christian success at implementing evangelical religion in the culture of the new United States. But, as American political thought evolved from classical whig (and hierarchical) principles toward liberal (and populist) principles, so also did the American theology evolve in the direction of greater confidence in free will, personal initiative, and self‐guided interpretations of the Bible.
12 Assumptions and Assertions of American Theology
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
In the early nineteenth century, a great deal of diversity existed in American theology. Nevertheless, despite substantial differences, American religious thinkers during this period were dominated by Christians – mostly Protestants – and emphasized commonsense republican understandings of authority over against traditional standards. Even in disagreements, the commonsense republican approach to Christianity set the boundaries for dispute.
13 The Americanization of Calvinism
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The historic Calvinist churches that still enjoyed significant leadership in American public life thoroughly incorporated common sense and republican emphases into their theology. In general, these theologians condemned the revolutions in France and were suspicious of the “infidel” Thomas Jefferson and his friend James Madison. American Calvinists were, however, not unified; their disputes grew from the different approaches they took to the problems of religious organization and national civilization posed by the new American nation.
15 The Americanization of Calvinism
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The middle decades of the nineteenth century witnessed both the golden age of American Calvinism and its decline. Increasing fragmentation among Calvinistic voices as well as the rise of competition from non‐Calvinistic Protestants and Roman Catholics contributed to a vital but also chaotic theological period. A number of key Calvinist leaders published important works during this era, and public debates over theology were influenced by a number of decisive events not only within the denominations but also in public life. By the 1850s, leading voices like Horace Bushnell and Catherine Beecher were beginning to challenge the once settled principles of American Calvinist theology.
16 The Americanization of Methodism
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Methodism became a great force in American life as a spiritual movement directed toward the salvation of souls. In its early American history, Methodism was mostly apolitical. Like their counterparts in Reformed circles, however, Methodists absorbed prevalent American principles of republicanism and commonsense moral reasoning. Unlike their Reformed counterparts, however, the Methodist absorption of these American ideologies occurred gradually and after they had spread widely in the country, rather than as part of the early Revolutionary struggle against Great Britain.
17 The Americanization of Methodism
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
By the middle of the nineteenth century, the Methodists were the largest American denomination. But as they grew, so also did their theology Americanize. In the years following the death of Francis Asbury in 1815, Methodists grew closer to other denominations as they embraced American standards of commonsense moral philosophy and republican political thought. Still, it was not until the denomination divided over slavery in 1844 that the Methodists would come to look like most other American Protestant denominations in their embrace of commonsense and republican principles.
18 The “Bible Alone” and a Reformed, Literal Hermeneutic
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
By the 1830s and 1840s, challenges began to emerge to republican, commonsense understandings of the Christian faith. In the North, stronger individualistic interpretations emerged, whereas Southerners were returning to classic understandings of republicanism. In both the North and the South, however, the dominant pattern of biblical interpretation was shaped by the Reformed tradition, and it stressed a literal reading of the text. In the years leading up to the Civil War, differences over how to interpret Scripture, especially with regard to slavery, led to far‐reaching theological debates.
20 Failed Alternatives
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Despite the prevalence of the Reformed, literal hermeneutic in the nineteenth century, a number of other interpretative strategies existed. These strategies were promoted by Roman Catholics, African Americans, church Protestants trying to maintain European traditions, and some conservative Presbyterian Calvinists. None of these groups succeeded in efforts to promote hermeneutical alternatives to the dominant Reformed, literal interpretation of the Bible. In addition, commonsense thinking about race exerted a largely unexamined, but very strong, influence on popular interpretations of the Scripture.
21 Climax and Exhaustion in the Civil War
Authors: Noll Mark A. 
Published: October 2003

Abstract
The Civil War was a decisive chapter in the history of American theology. While the leading theological commentators on the war continued to rely on the theological constructs that had been developed during the early years of the republic, more and more Americans found these constructs inadequate. One of the great ironies of the war era was that while theologians North and South found it very difficult to transcend the political–religious ideologies of their own regions, a few laypeople broke through to more profound theological insight. The most remarkable example was President Abraham Lincoln who, especially in his Second Inaugural Address, reached levels of theological profundity that none of the more thoroughly Americanized theologians reached.
Four Illusions
Authors: Candrakirti  
Published: October 2003

Abstract
Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas (Catuḥśataka) is a Mahāyāna Buddhist text that describes the Bodhisattva's path toward enlightenment. In his commentary on this text, the Indian Buddhist philosopher Candrakiriti (c.550–650 c.e.) combines philosophical argument with the narration of popular stories to persuade beginners on the path of the value of the Buddha's teachings. In the first four chapters, Candrakiriti offers therapeutic advice to lay and monastic people on how to cope with death, suffering, lust, and egotism. Each chapter focuses on a different mistaken idea that must be abandoned by people who aspire to become Buddhas. Candrakiriti argues that people deceive themselves by believing in their immortality, in the pleasurable and pure nature of their bodies, and in the pride they take in themselves and their possessions. Part 1 of Four Illusions explores the broad range of his knowledge about Indian religious beliefs and practices, legal and political works, and the popular literature of his time, the Mahābharata and the Rāmāyaṇa. Part 2 provides the first translation into a Western language of the first four chapters of Candrakiriti commentary on Āryadeva's Four Hundred Stanzas.