HDS Student Papers

This zine of short essays, collages, and erasure poetry stitches together representations of Saint Francis with texts like Hospicing Modernity by decolonial scholar Vanessa Machado de Oliveira Andreotti in order to explore some of the moral dynamics of modern living. Rather than claim to describe a historical Francis, instead this “modern florilegium” attempts to reconstruct a Francis who speaks to us as a companion in troubled times; as a patron saint of moral injury and as a willfully foolish figure. This Francis, “my” Francis, is one who troubles and complicates the desire to “leave the world,” as much as he insists we find ways to know, feel, and enact new ways of living.

This paper explores abolition as a spiritual discipline, considering the possibilities of turning a political commitment into a ritual, daily practice that becomes an ethic. Incarcerated people have always documented their experience through writing and storytelling, and in recent decades, scholars have turned to anthologizing their words. Few analyses focus on prison writing influences abolition, and even fewer highlight the spiritual dimensions that connect incarcerated individuals to a larger movement. This work uses writing from incarcerated people to demonstrate the power of spiritual discipline to combat the power of discipline by the state.

During the early years of the Great Depression, financial pressures caused the rate of abortions to at least double despite the procedure’s illegality in every state. In response to this rise in abortions, Catholic theologians published anti-abortion articles in journals like Commonweal, America, and The Linacre Quarterly that described abortion, contraception, and eugenics as murder. Although the publication of these articles coincided with the release of the first monographs arguing for abortion’s legalization, all of which were written by Jewish physicians, Catholic anti-abortion voices dominated the discourse on reproductive health. What did these Catholic perspectives reveal about how they viewed their identities as American Catholics? In the Great Depression, arguments over abortion, including Catholic theologians’ resistance to abortion, were designed around visions of a “civilized” America. In Catholic journals, theologians described Catholicism as a civilizing force that had the power to advance the nation from the darkness of “paganism.” In this way, Catholics portrayed themselves as the saviors of the nation. Ultimately, these anti-abortion arguments decentered the experiences of pregnant people by placing pressure on women to uphold the morality of American civilization.

"Almost No Matter What" is a work of autotheory - according to Stacey Young, a mode of writing "personal experience within political contexts" - in the emerging discipline of post-capitalist pastoral theology. Aware that critiques of capitalism have so far failed to shake us of its spell, "Almost No Matter What" represents the author's assessment of the damage capitalism has wrought on his own relationships and inner life. If Bruce Rogers-Vaughn (who coined the term "post-capitalist pastoral theology") is correct in his view that capitalism enacts a kind of soft trauma on the human psyche, then theory and academic discourse alone do not suffice to bring about healing and transformation; we must bravely examine our own wounds, notice our patterns, face up to our coping mechanisms, and find our way toward new choices. Proceeding from our collective right to "need recognition" - to being seen as ones who need - "Almost No Matter What" takes careful stock of the author's own dwindling spiritual resources in the era of neoliberalism, an aggressive form of capitalism that came of age alongside him. It addresses the reader directly, in a sense saying, "I feel this; do you feel this too?" Insofar as the answer is "yes," the solution becomes ours to forge together.

One can learn a lot about a person based on their social media of choice. No one considered ‘young' uses Facebook anymore—but where have they moved? Despite being considered “dead” by many after its infamous adult content ban in December of 2018, the social media website Tumblr, founded in 2007, is still a viable option—it's even (re)branded itself as a friendlier (albeit less user intuitive) alternative to X, formerly Twitter. While Tumblr is not a new website, it is host to all sorts of discourse—not the strictly academic kind, but rather that which is produced by a specific group of people who most would call “chronically online.” This paper explores one aspect of this online discourse, specifically as it relates to antis, who can be seen reiterating conservative/right-wing religious rhetoric in their crusade against darker aspects of fiction.

This was written as a Capstone Project for the Certificate of Religion in Public Life and it is a project within the education track which prioritizes Religious Literacy within Education. The novel Between Two Moons presents a great opportunity for young adults to explore this text and analyze in ways that religious literacy could be promoted at a high school level. This project includes an outline unit for an AP English Literature curriculum, with the potential for pitching it to College Board.

This thesis contributes to the study of African American religion, more specifically, the realm of the Apostolic-Pentecostal tradition. This work recollects the untold story of Bishop Kenneth Herbert Moales Sr., a father in the Black Charismatic Movement. This project works to uncover his impact within the Black Church and Gospel Music traditions by shedding light on his life’s journey. This thesis uses his musical journey to make sense of his call to ministry. While becoming the successor to Dr. Thomas Dorsey for the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses, he was a dynamic preacher who was anointed and called to live a life of prayer and love. He became known interdenominationally for the “War Cry,” a ‘shout chant’ that merged his music and preaching ministry, which is still being sung in churches nationwide. Through this journey, we will understand the history of the Holiness movement and the impact of women that shaped his life while closing with the importance of commissioning the next generation. This work is intended to raise awareness of the work of one of the few impactful practitioners who departed from mainline Black Pentecostalism and still made a mark amongst religious practitioners.

I have previously written on the effects of the non-affirming church on the LGBTQIA+ community compared to that of an affirming church. Additionally, I’ve considered the treatment of queer Soldiers in my Army ROTC program, where I individually interviewed a peer to gain insight into their experience. Therefore, when I entered HDS, I knew I wanted to study material that prepared me for my career, and that I wanted to give something in return. The work I have done involved research on the denominations that are in the Army Chaplain Corps to determine if they practice queer ministry and able to perform spiritual care to all Soldiers regardless their sex, gender, and sexuality. I have created a short timeline to showcase the movement of the Army and its ministry regarding queer ministry and where I hope we can land. That is a protocol that allows all Soldiers to ensure they have a chaplain that can tend to their needs at all times. Our calling as chaplains is to protect the religious freedom of all Soldiers and those we work with. However, we also must protect our religious freedom as well as demonstrate that religious freedom is not only for those who refuse ministry to the queer community. Even though chaplains have the right to protect their religious freedom if it does not coincide with that of a Soldier, a chaplain still must seek out the resources and solutions for that Soldier.

This capstone project assessed the theological foundations underpinning growing movements for land justice among communities of Catholic Sisters. The project involved a series of conversations with Catholic Sisters and consultants who engage in property management assessment with these and other faith communities. The results of the project include an observation of salient obstacles and opportunities among communities, and underlying theological foundations.

This 45-minute original piece explored the intersection of music and spiritual care in both its content and in the rehearsal process for a performance that involved 25 musicians. Synopsis: Tragedy strikes on Rosie’s sixth birthday when her mother, Rachel, falls ill. As the family gathers around the hospital bed, reeling as they try to metabolize the situation, a visitor slips in and offers a simple but profound gift. Late October. Late 1960’s. The midwest, US. Inspired by a true story.

Social media influencing is a novel phenomenon which has no exact analogue prior to the advent of personal computer and smartphone technology. However, throughout history, women have taken advantage of new forms of communication and media to harness authority they are otherwise denied, within both religious and secular contexts. When conservative Christian women take to Instagram, a photo and video sharing app, to post about their children, their morning Bible study, or the dinner they have prepared, they contribute to a digital religious community that is constantly renegotiating norms and boundaries that are well established in other religious realms, such as the physical church space. This research seeks to understand how participating in this online religious community, which lacks clearly defined guidelines and regulations for women's religious authority, allows women to access and practice a degree of religious authority they may be denied in their conservative Christian communities.

Beloved Discipleship is a ministerial project conceptualized as a sermon series for Old Cambridge Baptist Church. It articulates a posture of faith grounded in the encounter between the Christian tradition and the wisdom of queer life to enrich its ways of engaging with God, the world, and the self.

Theology of the Beloved Community has become mainstream in many discussions across Unitarian Universalism. As a powerful concept that emerged out of the works of Dr. Josiah Royce and popularized by the 1960s US Civil Rights Movement, it grew to cast a prophetic vision of equity and justice for all people, in a radically relational community. In the present moment, Unitarian Universalist institutional leaders have placed a call for doing theology in our faith. This thesis attempts to piece together a modern Unitarian Universalist theology of Beloved Community, as well as the “beloved glimpses” we actively work toward and have available to us in the here and now of the world we seek to create. Likewise, this work examines how this theology of doing Beloved Community might help us to revisit our Seven Principles with renewed depths and commitments; I explore this as Beloved Community theology meets the Sixth Principle, with our goal of world community with justice, peace, and liberty. Ultimately, I argue that Unitarian Universalists actively do a shared theology of creating the Beloved Community that is only implied in our Principles, and that we need a richer articulation of our theology and what we find sacred to our faith and our commitments toward building a more multicultural, anti-racist faith and world.

This paper examines the Apple Farm Community, a women’s commune founded in rural Michigan in the 1960s, through its fragmentary archival record and the first sustained scholarly engagement with its materials. It traces how community members turned to the unconscious as a generative site of knowledge, especially through dreamwork and ecological engagement. Dreams became the primary medium through which they understood inner and outer worlds as mutually constitutive, producing a relational field of meaning that linked psyche, body, and environment. The paper ultimately argues that Apple Farm expands understandings of gendered mediation and epistemologies of darkness in American women’s religious history.

Join us. Step into an extraordinary journey of love, devotion, and wisdom. This online conference series brings together prominent voices to explore the transformative path of Bhakti Yoga—the yoga of love and devotion.

Bhakti Yoga is more than a practice; it's a way of life. It's about cultivating a profound, personal connection with the Divine through love, humility, and selfless service. Open to all cultures and traditions, this universal path invites you to awaken the love within and express it in every facet of your life.

This conference is your opportunity to immerse yourself in the wisdom of sincere practitioners as they address the questions and challenges faced by us all. Expect thought-provoking discussions, actionable insights, and a deeper understanding of how to cultivate Grace in an Age of Distraction, and how to incorporate Bhakti Yoga in your daily life.

https://www.happyjackyoga.com/bhakti-yoga-conference

Through skillful reflection on the medium of photography, working in community, and visualizing loss and presence, Dawoud Bey’s The Birmingham Project forms a ruminative series of images. As a visual memorial, the series exposes questions of the ethical responsibilities in the wake of grief and mourning that result from violence while resonances of the past echo in the present moment. To explicate these questions, the contemplation of The Birmingham Project that follows utilizes work by Judith Butler to examine the political transformations possible through processes of mourning. In addition, reading these works together allows an exploration of the ethical responsibilities that arise from both a shared precarity of life and the opacities of self and other that are revealed through differentiated experiences of mourning.

This paper argues that anti-Blackness is so vast, pervasive, and powerful that it has disfigured the concept and experience of time for Black people, and it argues that, against and within this disfigurement, Black people might yet reclaim this “time” to demonstrate and enact ways of being that help sustain and honor Black life. This paper explores how the distorting effects of anti-Blackness on time can be discerned in what we broadly understand as “the law” in the United States, including its case law, statutes, and prison system. And, alongside this, this paper argues that the Black capacity to refigure time is evident in Black music. Here, this paper analyzes two pieces of music (Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” and Herbie Hancock’s “Ostinato”), how their composers and performers navigate and manipulate rhythm, and what we might glean from these different orientations to and in time.

The author shares his Christian faith journey and its impact on his psychedelic thought. The paper is a theological conversation with Thomas Merton’s books, essays, letters, journals, and monastic lectures and the Reformed tradition of the Presbyterian Church (USA). After exploring facets of idolatry (including "illuminism," the idolatry of experience), natural theology, relational theology, dialectical theology, interreligious theology, religious ethics, and some social implications of Christian psychedelic use, the author formulates a post-psychedelic theology of Reformed mysticism incorporating Merton's "mysticism of is-ness."

Focusing on the expression––regaining the ownership of the body––this thesis attempts to explore the gendered dimension of the Chinese lay meditation movement from two aspects. In one aspect, I examine how the ownership of the female body is intertwined with a nationalist discourse of the state interest that emphasized physiological fitness for the sake of the nation. In this sense, this essay intends to illustrate how Chinese females’ body was not only physically being disciplined, but also ideologically and narratologically controlled by the state since the nineteenth century. In another aspect, I investigate how the females’ bodies have retreated into the private area and the ownership of their bodies has been returned to them with the help of the bodily practice of meditation. In this sense, with a study of the embodied experience of two groups of female meditators, this essay argues that the lay meditation movement with an individual-oriented dimension has opened the possibility for women to have a more private interpretation of their bodies. In this way, the lay meditation movement raises a resistance toward the nationalist portrait of the female body that constantly addresses the relationship between the physical wellness of individuals and national strength.