Honors Theses

Academic Departments

Religious Studies honors theses written since 1983:

Aziz, Sarah S. “At the Beginning was the Dream: Three Muslim Travelers and Their Dream-Journeys.” Adviser: Zamir (2016).
Barber, Ashley E. "Recovering Physician Identity with Gratitude and Obligation: From Technical Expert to Profession or Calling." Adviser: Beach-Verhey (2005).
Blood, Barbara. "Banality and the Holocaust." Adviser: Plank (1988).
Blue, Anne C. "The Emperor's Offer: A Study of Guilt in Literature and Theology." Adviser: Plank (1988).
Burchett, Patton E. "The Historical and Intellectual Origins of the Ch'an Tradition: A Study in the Acculturation of Buddhism in China." Adviser: Mahony (2000).
Burkley, Julia H. “Walking with Hagar into the Wilderness: A Power-Conscious Analysis of the Hagar and Sarah Narrative.” Adviser: Wills (2017).
Bush, Sara Jane. “In the Image of the Imagination of God: Good and Evil in the Fairy Tales of George MacDonald.” Adviser: Plank (2015).
Calhoun, Jenny D. "Constructing Knowledge: Confronting Objectivity in the Religion Classroom." Adviser: Foley (2000).
Campbell, Elizabeth Grace. "Through the Eyes of Kathleen Norris and Annie Dillard: Sight for the Vulnerable and Horrific and How the Ordinary Illumines the Sacred." Advisers: Plank and Wills (2005).
Clark-Brown, Douglas H. "Womanist Theology and Classical Atonement: An Examination of Womanist Christological Critiques of Classical Atonement Theologies and the Relevance of Atonement Christology in Black and Oppressed Communities." Adviser: Ottati (2009).
Clasen, Liz. "Back to the Beginning: Creation through the Eyes of Homelessness." Adviser: Plank (2000).
Cohan, Amy. "Modern Midrash and the Akedah: Aharon Appelfeld's The Age of Wonders and Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev." Adviser: Plank (1994).
Crane, Cammy. "Tolla Mulier in Utero: Tamar Revisited through the Modern Lens of Esther in The Bell Jar and Sylvia Plath's Bee Poems." Adviser: Plank (2006).
Cribbs, Erica. "American Myth and the U.S. Presidency: How U.S. Presidents View the Role of Religion in American Public Life." Adviser: Wills (2009).
Curran, Kaitlyn. "Reading Between the Lines: Uncovering Protestant Prejudices in Nineteenth-Century Studies of Religion." Advisor: Plank (2012).
D'Andrea, Michael. "David Foster Wallace and H. Richard Niebuhr: A Critique of Contemporary America." Adviser: Ottati (2015).
Davis, Sarah. "The Way of Anti-Structure: A Turnerian Reading of Early Taoist Socio-Political Thought." Adviser: Lee (2003).
Davis, Tindal. "Feminist Biblical Interpretation and Biblical Authority." Adviser: Kaylor (1991).
Deutsch, Brianna. "From Fatal Flaws to Female Subversion: Pharaoh in the Bible and the Qur'an." Adviser: Plank (2011).
Drake, Anna P. "Sex, God, and the Language of Love: Theological Dimensions of the Song of Songs." Adviser: Plank (2008).
Fink, Sarah M. “Growing Han Chinese Interest in Tibetan Buddhism and the Possible Implications of This Trend.” Adviser: Pang (2017).
Foster, John A., "A Church Responsive: The Changing Composition of Protestantism in Latin America and Its Effects on Democratic Consolidation." Adviser: Beach-Verhey (2003).
Goodnoe, Carley. "The Dao and Dialogue of Dressage. An Application of Daoism and Martin Buber's I AND THOU to the Equestrian Art of Dressage." Adviser: Poland (2001).
Gyauch, Denise. "The Corpus Christi Cycle: Medieval Play and Sacred Drama." Adviser: Plank (1986).
Hall, Virginia C. "The Theological Anthropology of Frederick Denison Maurice." Adviser: McKelway (1990).
Hamilton, Alexis L. "Just War and Armed Humanitarian Intervention: Reinterpreting Jus ad Bellum Criteria." Adviser: Lustig (2008).
Herron, Zachary. "Through the Eyes of the Gods: The Role of Religion in Malaysia's Ethnic Debates." Adviser: Lye (2012).
Hess, Cyndi. "Franz Kafka: The Search for Transcendence, Truth, and Tradition." Adviser: Plank (1994).
Heston, Anderson P. "Horace Bushnell and the Mode of Prophetic Revelation." Adviser: Wills (2005).
Ireland, Elizabeth "Left Behind: Making Religious Space at the Arivaca Altar." Adviser: Wills (2007).
Ivey, Franklin D. "Paul's Gospel of the New Creation: II Cor. 5:16-2l." Adviser: Kaylor (1984).
Jackson, David. "The Jacob Cycle: Sibling Rivalry in Genesis." Adviser: Plank (1998).
Janiec, Katherine J. "Saying 'No' to Causality and 'Yes' to Restored Relation: The Banalization of Sexuality as a Stumbling Block to I-You Dialogue." Adviser: Plank (1990).
Kelly, L. Caroline. "The Generative Irony of Yahweh in Judges 4-5 and Esther." Adviser: Poland (1998).
Kilby, Christie. "The Poetics of Praise: Eastern Orthodox Aesthetics in the Writings of Rainer Maria Rilke and Thomas Merton." Adviser: Plank (2006) HIGH HONORS.
Kinner, J. Kyle. "Survivor / Artists and the Poetics of Memory: Abraham Sutzkever and Paul Celan." Adviser: Plank (1993). HIGH HONORS.
Klaasen, Carolyn. "Reading from Both Sides of the Gate: Scholarly and Marginalized Exegesis." Adviser: Plank (2009).
Kooser, Allison. "Biblical Influence and American Ignorance: Making the Case for Bible Literacy Education at Davidson College. Advisor: Wills (2010).
Kuzmanovich, Natalie. "Looking Back at Lot's Wife: An Intertextual Analysis." Plank (2015).
Lovellette, Grant. "Jotirao Govindrao Phule and the Western Reimagining of Brahmanic Mythology." Adviser: Mahony (2003).
Marshburn, Christopher. "AntiJudaism and Christian Faith." Adviser: Polley (1983).
McCabe, Lillian C. "Ibn Khaldun's Muqaddimah and the Sirat Banu Hilal: Deconstructing Distinctions." Zamir (2015).
McCrorey, Julia S. "Radical Dependence: The Human Situation from the Perspectives of Saint Augustine and Simone Weil." Adviser: Foley (1989).
McDonald, Susan. "Process Theology and the Search for an Ecological Theology." Adviser: McKelway (1993).
Moreau, Mitchell. "Whispers from the Wilderness: Tracing the Promise of Progeny and Land." Adviser: Plank (2014).
Ogden, Joslyn Eleanor. "Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold Niebuhr: Advocates of Christian Social Action." Adviser: Kuykendall (2000).
Orsbon, David A. "Bede's Sacred Order: Schemes and Tropes in the Ecclesiastical History." Adviser: Foley (2009). HIGH HONORS.
Pappas, Joshua I. "Hermeneutics in Modern Perspective: Orthodoxy's Call for Renewed Continuation of the Patristic Legacy." Adviser: Snyder (2008).
Rich, Matthew A. "Humanity, Grace, and the Church. Patristic Sources for Church Renewal." Adviser: Foley (1997).
Richardson, Cameron. "Transforming Theology: Feminism and Liberation in the Work of Dorothee Soelle." Adviser: Plank (2001).
Robinson, Grace C. "Solidarity: The Political Theology of Pope John Paul II." Adviser: Foley (1999).
Sadowski, Sarah J. "Diabolical Demise: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis and the Collapse of Covenant Theology." Adviser: Foley (1993). HIGH HONORS.
Skinner, Trey, "Becoming Through Paradox: Thomas Merton's Spiritual and Vocational Development." Adviser: Plank (2007).
Stephens, Michael C. "'All Things to All People': Second Century Images of the Apostle Paul." Adviser: Plank (1987).
Stiff, Joshua D. "Theological Questioning: Bonhoeffer and the 'Who' of Jesus Christ." Adviser: Poland (2006).
Vinson, Richard. "They Sat in Judgment: Nashville as Test Case for Blumenthal's Theory of Hierarchy and Peer Authority." Adviser: Plank (2002). HIGH HONORS.
Wall, Jordan C. "Nothing is Abnormal, Nothing is Unnatural: Homosexuality in the Sacred Works of Hinduism." Advisor: Mahony (2010).
Walters, Christopher Michael. "Psychological Approaches to Understanding Prayer." Adviser: Poland (2000).
Webb, Whitney. "He will Not Return Until All is Accomplished": An Examination of the New Apostolic Reformation's Fight for American Religion and Culture." Adviser: Wills (2012).
Yopp, Heather. "Change Within Tradition: A Theological Exploration of Catholic Doctrine." Adviser: Wills (2006).
Zeh, Kathryn L. "Affirming the Maternal: Moving Toward a Theology for Mothers." Adviser: Poland (2005).
Zirkle, Anne K. "Moses Mendelssohn: Tradition, Modernity, and the Politics of Bildung." Adviser: Plank (1994). HIGH HONORS.