Religion

Social scientists have debated whether religious involvement is associated with differences in deviant behaviours for over a century. Religious practices and beliefs are often associated with less deviant behaviours in young adults, such as less frequent drug use and law-breaking. Empirical results on these associations, though, have been mixed, possibly due to heterogenous measures. Recent literature has begun teasing apart religious practices (e.g., attending church) from spiritual beliefs (e.g., believing in higher powers) and exploring their unique associations with different outcomes. The present study tested the independent and interactive effects of religion and spirituality in predicting deviance. Religion was negatively associated with some types of deviance, the relationship remained significant even after controlling for covariates. Spirituality was not reliably associated with deviance. There was an interaction between religion and spirituality, where the combination of the two was associated with the lowest level of deviance. Further findings and implications are discussed.

Author Keywords: deviance, religion, spirituality, youth

The dissertation explores and defends the theory and practice of a Western-Islamic public sphere (which is secular but not secularist and which is Islamic but not Islamist), within which a critical Islamic intellectual universe can unfold, dealing hermeneutically with texts and politically with lived practices, and which, moreover, has to emerge from within the arc of two alternative, conflicting, yet equally dismissive suspicions defined by a view that critical Islam is the new imperial rhetoric of hegemonic orientalism and the opposite view that critical Islam is just fundamentalism camouflaged in liberal rhetoric. The Western-Islamic public sphere offers a third view, arising from ethical commitment to intellectual work, creativity, and imagination as a portal to the open horizons of history.

Author Keywords: Critical Islam, critique, history, Islamic reformation, public sphere, secular

This thesis examines the symbolic meaning and significance that the elite attached to water in ancient Bagan. Through the use of ethnoarchaeological, epigraphic, archaeological, and iconographic data, this study examines the role of water as part of rituals performed by the royal court and the ways in which the royalty of Bagan, in particular King Kyansittha, negotiated, appropriated and disseminated water symbolism to fulfill his interests. Data indicates that the symbolic and religious meaning of water was intricately attached to Buddhist concepts of fertility, wisdom, creativity, and protective powers. Evidence suggests that the royalty employed different techniques to appropriate and disseminate water ritualization, including the performance of water rituals that were closely attached to kingship, power, and ruler legitimacy, the promotion of an alliance with creatures capable of increasing rains and fertility, and the use of analogies that compared the properties of water with the virtues of the king.

Author Keywords: Bagan, Bagan Iconography, Jataka Tales, Royal Rituals, Theravada Buddhism, Water Rituals