Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Women and religion – Germany'

German resistance to Nazi oppression existed within the ranks of academe, the military, the working classes, and the established churches. The Catholic Church, under the leadership of Pope Pius XI, entered into a non-interference agreement with Hitler, but the Evangelical Church experienced a severe split. From this division grew the Confessing Church. A number of leaders within the Confessing Church were arrested or killed during Nazi Germany, and it was the women of the church who continued the work overtly and covertly. The work of these women has mostly been marginalized by history, in part because historic writings belonged to the male hegemony, and in part because the women did not seek recognition. As most of the women about whom I am writing came of age during Weimar Republic (1919-1933), I argue that the women of the resistance received their empowerment to rise up against Nazi oppression from the women's movement of the interwar years. To understand the normative influences, one must consider the societal and political forces that helped shape that time. What led Germany on this path of destruction and caused it to vote for a leviathan in 1933? How did the work of the resistance women serve to fight against the forces of evil that threatened to drown out all reason? What motivated these women to disregard their own safety in their struggle against evil?
Ph. D.

This study offers an overdue exploration of the early years of the deaconess community in Neuendettelsau from a gender perspective. Drawing on rich archival material, it focuses on the process of the formation of a distinctive collective identity. Central to this study is the assumption, drawn from the social sciences, that collective identity is a social construction which requires the participation of the whole group through identification and which is consolidated by developing specific rituals, symbols, codes and normative texts, which facilitate integration, and by constructing external boundaries, which separate from the world and wider church. The centrifugal forces which came into play when deaconesses were sent out in isolation were counterbalanced by a communal life which offered forms of participation and identification for the individual members and which consolidated their sense of belonging. The first chapter introduces the methodology. Chapter Two explores the social, cultural and theological context of the foundation of the Deaconess Institute, and offers a brief outline of the institution's historical development. The third chapter offers an in-depth analysis of the initiation ceremony as a rite which both admitted into the community and conferred an ecclesiastical office. Chapter Four analyses formative and normative texts that shed light on the community's norms, values, and expectations. In the fifth chapter, non-literary means of consolidating and affirming the deaconesses' collective identity are explored. This study concludes that the process of the emergence of a specific deaconess culture was pervaded by bourgeois norms, values, patterns of behaviour and notions about gender roles which measured out the women's radius of action and were at times difficult to reconcile with the deaconess profession.

In this study, I have focused on the process for an eventual reunification of North and South Korea. In this process, Korean political, economic, cultural and religious issues are necessarily present. My study focuses on cultural and religious factors. I adopt the German reunification as a case study. The German reunification process provides Koreans with lessons about the negative changes in the status of German women since the German reunification caused extreme instances of the loss of status and economic opportunity for women. German reunification shows that the unequal situation and systems in society were not only due to political positions. Strong religious factors deeply influenced the German mentality. A similar religion-factor is at work in North Korean society which is influenced by Confucianism and in South Korean society which is influenced by Confucianism and conservative Christianity. I argue that religion is one of the major factors in the political culture of Korea, and religion can either assist a fair and equal process for both women and men or it can in a biased way maintain a male-oriented form of reunification. Consequently, the cultural and religious factors in this process of reunification must include an equalization of women and men. This can only take place if Korean women are major participants in the entire reunification process. There is a serious need for a reunification theology which incorporate gender into Korean theology, thus providing a 'feminist reunification theology.' A 'feminist reunification theology' presents basic theological principles that will help build an egalitarian community. There are three important ways to include women's concern for true reunification: 1) The creation of an egalitarian community in work, family and society; 2) The restoration of humanity by healing love and forgiveness through the power of Cross; and 3) The need for religion to be reformed in which a women can be a co-leader in family, church and nation.

Germany is presently transforming into a modern immigration state, leaving behind its image of a “guest worker” country. Parallely, it is confronted with growing religious plurality and rising religious conflicts. Moreover, religious labeling of groups other than the Christian or undenominational majority population becomes more significant. Against this background, the paper discusses the views of the population in Germany towards religious plurality, practices of religious minorities as well as attitudes towards members of different religious groups. The results reveal a considerable amount of negative attitudes towards foreign religious groups in Germany. More specifically, Islam and Muslims are mostly viewed as negative by the German population. Structural equation models with manifest variables show that, in particular, the frequency of contacts have positive impacts on attitudes towards people of different religious affiliations.

Women in leadership have had a difficult time rising into positions of leadership in the church. Qualified women in the local church are not realizing their dreams and or achieving their goals because of barriers which include sexism in the church and society, cultural differences and the inner struggles through various expected roles within their family structure. Women in the local church need proper nurturing, guidance and or support in the articulation or the manifestation of their ministerial visions and goals. There is very little data available regarding women in leadership. Research suggests that even though women make up the majority of membership in the church, women are disproportionately represented in the leadership of the church. Research further suggests that even though Americans are comfortable with women as leaders, relatively small numbers of women make it to top leadership positions relative to their male counterparts. The conceptual framework integrated ideas from theological, biblical and theoretical perspectives. The theological perspective focused on several theologians within the categories of the theology of liberation, feminist theology, Black feminist theology and womanist theology. The biblical perspective was explored through the arguments about women in leadership from the egalitarian and complementarian viewpoints. The biblical perspective further discussed women in leadership within the arguments about women in leadership from the egalitarian and complementarian viewpoints. The biblical perspective further discussed women in leadership within the biblical context. Finally, the theoretical perspective investigated the theory of subordination as it relates to women in leadership. The theory of subordination was explored in three sections: (a) the biblical theory of subordination, (b) the cultural theory of subordination and (c) the pastoral domination theory of subordination. The purpose of this project is to encourage and inspire women who have the potential to be leaders by assisting them to develop leadership skills, enabling them to step forward as true leaders in the church using a "Wo-Mentoring" approach. The research project was conducted at Saint John C.M.E. Church in Monticello, Georgia. Women in this congregation were involved in a program that will help them envision their goals, identify the barriers that preclude them from reaching their goals, and help them utilize the voices of other women to give encouragement as future leaders. This program enabled these women to develop skills to process their issues, understand themselves, and visualize goals assisting them in creating a workable road map toward these goals. The intended results are changes from within - transformation. The women should be different in their approach to leadership in various ministries. In the project, the women participated in leadership sessions including bible study, developing vision, mission and goal statements, and communication skills. As a result, the women who participated in the sessions were inspired to equip themselves using the resources provided. The researcher evaluated the effectiveness of the project by utilizing a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. This project utilized Stacy Floyd-Thomas' qualitative method of 'historiography' to understand the other women's voices used to undergird the project. The quantitative method explored statistical data conducted in pre/post surveys as it relates to the program participants. Additionally, the researcher used qualitative methods to dialogue with the women participants. The results of the project suggest that the women who participated in the project had a better understanding of leadership; and felt that they would use their skills in the near future. It was concluded that many of the participants experienced transformation. We will be better equipped for future leadership opportunities when we understand the many obstacles women face such as sexism in the church, cultural differences and inner struggles through various expected roles.

The thesis sets out to explain the presence of women writers in the book market of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. In order to do so, it examines the position of women writers in Germany - in the context both of their discursive and of their social reality. The thesis investigates the ideological and material background for women's writing, by exploring the areas of gender ideology, contemporary concepts of authorship, women's reading, and the literary market. The final chapter examines women's freedom of expression in different public circumstances. The thesis argues that women's position in the business of culture in general and literature in particular is not as unpromising as has often been claimed. By investigating less well-known texts on gender roles, such as eighteenth-century journal articles, it is possible to show that the rhetoric of prohibitions, for example regarding women's reading and writing, was by no means uniform, but fragmentary and frequently contradictory. Women's own responses to the conditions under which they were working are highlighted throughout the thesis, and examined on the basis of a range of texts, including unpublished correspondence. The examination of non-literary factors, such as the expansion of the literary market and the emergence of a newly diverse reading public, enables the identification of causes other than gender as determining women's position as writers during this period. In the course of this study, numerous neglected texts are considered, which broaden our understanding of this period of literature. The creative and successful use which women writers made of the opportunities they were afforded is emphasised throughout, thereby making an important contribution to the study of women writers.

This thesis explores the construction of identity amongst the second generation of South- Korean migrants to Germany in Frankfurt am Main, focussing mainly on women. Overwhelmingly, when talking about migrants the German media focus on the Turkish minority. Literature follows a similar pattern. However, West Germany recruited South Korean nurses and miners during the 1970s as labour migrants. Today, they and their children constitute the largest South Korean minority in Europe. In this thesis I examine the second generation of the Korean minority in relation to broader discourses on migrants and integration in Germany, and trace the dynamics of identification and self-understanding. Central to these are narratives of shared experiences, of having Korean parents and of living in German society, particularly in relation to discourses in which they are identified as foreigners. Korean parents impart a sense of “Korea” as a source of timeless tradition and practices; whereas “Germany” is a setting for their everyday lives. These shared experiences are mobilised as a framework for negotiating identities. In contrast to the essentialist understanding of identity invoked by Germany society, the second generation describe themselves as kyopo, a Korean term meaning “Korean living in a foreign country” and which, in the German context, means “Second-generation German-Korean living in Germany”. This thesis looks at the ways Korean-Germans articulate the possibilities and limits of kyopo identity in relation to narratives and discourses on ‘Koreanness' and ‘Germanness', and in the context of social interactions. I focus especially on the ways in which this occurs for women, whose experiences are often marginalised in the process of kyopo identity negotiation. They are caught between the need to expose the problems of male privilege and the desire to unite with Korean-German men to contest the German discourse on integration and foreigners that confines them both.

This study investigates the expectations various groups in late medieval German society held of their parish priests and how these expectations were mediated through specific relationships. By analyzing the qualities, skills, duties and services required of the parish clergy by those in the priest's own social network--the episcopal and patronal structures above him and the parish and clerical communities around him--this study reveals the mutual obligations and contradictions inherent in the priest's situation. The strategies employed by individuals and groups to articulate and enforce their demands are examined as well as the means by which priests could negotiate or resist in order to protect their own interests. The result is a web of expectations, the individual strands of which are inspected in three major parts of the study, corresponding to the demands of the episcopal hierarchy, the intentions of a late medieval movement to educate the simple priest, and the perspective from the parish. In fifteenth-century Germany, the bishops of Constance sought to reduce their crushing debt by introducing new taxes upon the clergy of the diocese. The parish priests banded together and defied the bishop in 1492, negotiating a payment favorable to them. Another source of revenue directly contradicted diocesan law as bishops tolerated the presence of concubines among their priests in return for the payment of an annual fee. Manuals for parish priests were in high demand throughout the late medieval period; their popularity only increased after the invention of the printing press. Written to inform priests how to carry out their daily duties and avoid sacrilege, these manuals helped to steer the basic training of the parish priest toward a vocational profile combining the aura of the cultic priest with the standardized efficiency of the professional minister. Perspective from the parish encompasses the differing viewpoints of patron, priests and parishioners. The case of Wurttemberg reveals how Count Eberhard (†1496) used parish resources in an attempt to reshape devotion in his lands. In towns and villages served by a number of priests, a local clerical brotherhood often existed alongside lay parish structures. Conflict and cooperation is measured both between the clergy and the laity as well as within the ranks of the priests themselves.

Purpose This study was undertaken, in response to a need of long standing, to raise the consciousness of the church regarding her need for more effective administration of the ministry. Simultaneously, the purpose is to identify and bring recognition to a ready source capable of addressing this need—black women in administration. Goal The desired goal is to provide a basis for affirming the gift of administration as an appropriate ministry for women and an essential ministry for the church and, utilizing the theology of administration, propose an adult education model of effective training for the ministry of administration. The Problem This study addresses the problem of ineffective administration which I argue is directly related to the life, vitality and growth of the church and the involvement of members of the church. The church has not validated the ministry of administration though the need is evidenced by ineffective administrative operations of many church leaders. The gift of administration has been underutilized as an intentional ministry of major importance for the enabling and empowering of women to share their several gifts in the programmatic, coordinating and implementing operations of the church. Non-involvement is a tragic commentary on those who give leadership to the community of believers. Each year fewer people attend church regularly and even fewer actively participate in significant church relationships. In the male-oriented church, men in leadership have not solved this increasing problem. The revolutionized world is in need of visionary, creative, skilled, and committed black women in administration to cultivate and use their skills for effective ministry. Methodology A threefold process was used. First, the literature was researched to discover historical, biblical and theological support for black women in the ministry of administration. Secondly, a survey was conducted with selected seminary graduates and non-seminary practitioners to explore their attitudes, philosophies and present administrative roles. Thirdly, a consultation was held with a select group of experienced clergy and lay women currently engaged in significant administrative positions in religious organizations and the church. Problem Solution As women make their way into significant, responsible Christian leadership positions, they need to be encouraged and equipped to focus their attention on enabling the discovery, utilization and ordering of spiritual gifts in the church and wherever Christians are living out their faith in everyday life. Having participated in the revolution to liberate women, Christian women have the challenging opportunity to open doors to significant leadership roles in the church and religious institutions where their administrative ministry is needed. To bring acceptance and recognition by the church of the ministry of administration that it deserves, is a formidable undertaking, but one that must be attempted. Black women have the potential to give leadership to this task. The ministry of administration is a position that needs to be filled. Black women bring to the challenge of administration a history of overcoming obstacles to freedom, of bearing the pain and frustration of triple discrimination; they bring an intuitive problem-solving capability inherent from ingenious slave survival. Black women are among the "49 million women employed in this country who have altered the image of womanhood and changed the way America lives, works and even thinks." Evaluation The evaluation of this project occurred mainly in consultation with black women leaders who have administration as a major function in their ministry. In the consultation the concept of administration ministry, as set forth in this study, was critically reviewed. Terminology Some of the terms in this paper are defined by using collective meanings of several authors, and have been paraphrased with particular reference to the ministry of administration. Administration - A function of skillful, coherent and comprehensive coordination of the mission ministries utilizing some of the principles, tools, practices and resources of the business world. Religious institutions - Organizations which have in their purpose or objective the Christian intent to meet human needs and assist persons to improve their standard of living, spiritually and physically. Ministry - The Christ-centered, intentional, organized, dedicated, service of a person who proclaims by life and words the reality of the love of Jesus Christ in relationships with people, and in relationship to God. Church - God's chosen community identified by each and all of her members sharing in koinonia, witnessing to the love of God through the use of gracious gifts each member has received to bring others to receive God's love. Review of Literature Theories of administration have been written heretofore by men who have historically monopolized administrative roles and positions. Their treatment of the ministry of administration has been written from their experiences, to the exclusion of women. Some of the books, relevant in part to the subject matter in this paper, are reviewed here. James D. Anderson and Ezra Earl Jones, in the Management of Ministry (1978), focus on the individual church in its community context. The authors use case examples to show how the minister can manage an effective, efficient, enabling ministry to meet pastoral needs and community objectives. The emphasis is on the leader of ministry rather than tools and procedures in the management of an organization. The concept of an intentional ministry, by John Biersdorf in Creating An Intentional Ministry (1976), is described as a continuing process of negotiation with significant social systems such as congregation, family, peers, denomination, seminary, neighborhood, community and culture. The effective administration of the process is seen as an intentional ministry. The twelve keys that Kennon L. Callahan treats in Twelve Keys to an Effective Church (1983), serve as guide lines to what a church must do to be effective. The author places considerable emphasis on "long-range strategic planning" , and the blending of management expertise to a theological perspective. Callahan is inclusive of women as capable of advancing the church to accomplish her mission in the world. Alvin J. Lindgren has organized in Foundations for Purposeful Church Administration (1979), an extensive directional guide for church administration. It is geared to the beginner to interpret his/her concept of church administration, its foundations, and prerequisites for leadership in this field. In Lindgren's later book, Let My People Go (1980), he turns to the age old problem of the enslaved laity who need to be freed, to be enlisted and be equipped to increase the church's ability to make a corporate witness and impact in making known the love of God. The collaborate responsibility of clergy and lay members is the administrative challenge presented in this book. Black Church Life Styles, by Emmanuel L. McCall (1986), is a compilation of black religious experiences that provide interpretations of black church life styles. The varieties of experiences give a realistic description of the primary place, the church, where women will practice the ministry of administration. Terry A. Clark in his dissertation confronts the weakness in administration by the clergy that has limited the influence of and ministry to those who really want to be a society of ministers. The male clergy administrators have discouraged women from active involvement in their "lofty ranks." Clark, a pastor, admits his own negligence in the paper he has written on "Equipping for Ministry: A Project to Equip Christian Laypersons to Perform Their Individual and Corporate Ministries," 1983. The article, "Together and in Harness: Women's Traditions in the Sanctified Church," by Cheryl Townsend Gilkes explores four aspects of black women's experiences in the sanctified church that have been part of their larger historical role that emphasizes independence, self-reliance, strength and autonomy; the devaluation of black women by dominant culture and their elevation to roles of spiritual leadership. In "What Does Administration Theory Give the Church," Stephen C. Rasor raises some cautions on the use and application of organizational concepts and management theories in the church, lest they be used as "another manipulative mechanism to enhance the status quo or to promote a congregation 's tunnel vision of a maintenance oriented institution . . ." which the church is not. It is a warning that women in administration should beware of slipping into. James G. Sigorentos and Myron Shank authored the article, "Public Roles for Women in the Pauline Church: A Reappraisal of the Evidence (I Corinthians 11:2-16; I Corinthians 14:33-35; I Timothy 2:15.)" The main consideration in these texts was for a woman to show a "proper" submissive attitude and literalists use it to justify limiting women's roles and authority. The authors attempt to provide as full a range as possible of ministries for women, without hindering the spread of the gospel. Method in Ministry by James D. Whitehead and Evelyn Eaton Whitehead is a research report supporting the need for contemporary method in ministry. Because of its reflective and immediate nature drawing on experience, the need for process in ministry will more likely be received by black women than male ministers whose method and style have been traditionally autonomous. Women can learn to make fuller use of their innate and subconscious resources in a highly conscious and organized manner. None of these books on church administration was written from the experience of black women. This project dissertation was given the title "Black Women and the Ministry of Administration" in recognition of cultural and sexual distinctions that give meaning and style to the way that one functions in ministry. The African-American woman's experience of triple jeopardy has provided the black woman an extraordinary context for the development of creative skills needed for effective ministry.

Women were prominent in the Lollard movement in the fifteenth century, but it is only in the mid-seventeenth century that women begin to produce theological texts which contribute to the controversy over popular religious expression and women's part in religious culture. After 1640 women began to publish on a number of theological issues and in a wide range of genres: prose polemic, prophecy, autobiography and spiritual meditation. Subject to widespread criticism, they quickly had to fashion a rhetoric of justification with which to defend their intervention in print and pacify male critics. This thesis shows that they achieved this in two ways: by producing a literature which complied with the expectations of masculine theological culture and by manipulating these assumptions so as to create space for a female symbolic language of piety. They developed a literary self-consciousness which depends on the idea of subjectivity as a gendered experience and they often resisted their detractors by valorising denigrated forms of female subjectivity and pursuing theological conclusions irrespective of normative ideas of gender. Women did not engage in theological debate in isolation, however. They often intervened as committed members of religious sects and thus deserve to be read as representatives of corporate and communal theologies. In contrast to earlier studies which have sought to recover neglected women writers as early feminists, without reading their work historically, this thesis seeks to uncover the social and the theological rather than the authorial origin of much early modem women's writing and to measure its engagement with early modem debates on women and religious culture. It seeks to challenge the increasingly dominant view of early modem women writers which invests them with too modem an authorial presence, by reconstituting the seventeenth-century debates which gave rise to their work and by bringing modem French feminist perspectives to bear on a period largely untouched by theoretical approaches to literature. To this end it proceeds by way of several close readings of women who wrote as women and as Baptists, Independents, Levellers, Presbyterians and Quakers.

Background and Problem: Stereotyping of genders and leaders has been around for ages and it is very hard to change people’s perceptions and beliefs. Even though the way society perceives men and women has changed the last century, most people still prefer men as leaders. The historical background often makes it hard for today’s women to be taken seriously in a management position. Nonetheless, the negative attitude some people hold against women in leadership is slowly fading away due to the increasing acceptance of women in management positions.

Purpose: The purpose of the thesis is to investigate how women in Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom perceive their situation as female leaders in middle management.

Frame of Reference: Women’s historical background in Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom is discussed to give the reader a more throughout understanding of the women’s situation today. The frame of reference also talks about stereotypes within gender and leadership as well as obstacles held towards women in leadership.

Empirical findings: Three women from each country investigated are being interviewed regarding how they perceive their situation as middle managers.

Analysis and final discussion: The empirical findings showed that women are still facing a lot of obstacles when it comes to being middle managers. The obstacles they face are stereotypes, Glass Ceilings and organisational structure. Some of the obstacles are universal, while others are specific for each country.

Women’s perception of university education and professional life during the period 1900 to 1945 is the focus of this study. In order to examine these perceptions, the thesis undertakes a close textual analysis of autobiographical writings by two medical doctors, Rahel Straus (1880-1963) and Charlotte Wolff (1897-1986) and the aviator Elly Beinhorn (1907-2007). The images employed in these texts indicate the intricate ways that individual women in the professions define their sense of who they are in relation to their surroundings and how that sense may shift in different settings and at different times, or may ostensibly not shift at all. I have developed a differentiated language for the purposes of articulating the fluidity. This language allows me to take apart narrative levels and to examine the importance that is attached to gender in relation to religion, race, nationality, sexuality and professional identities. Through differentiating between narrative levels I am able to juxtapose life experiences that at first glance seem unconnected and to show this can be done without imposing binary classifications such as ‘emancipated’ or ‘un-emancipated’, as ‘political’ or ‘apolitical’ or ‘victim’ or ‘perpetrator’. The language that I have developed enables me to explore the articulation of self where it cannot be classified and where self should not be judged.

Homeless individuals in Berlin can be included into the group of people who do something more interesting than architects would ever dream of. With their knowledge of the city and the ability to claim spaces, they create their home within the city context. They use the city and what the city offers, to their advantage and create their homes with what is available in the city. They are not homeless. For the "city users" the city becomes home- the city home.To tell the stories of individuals who make the city their home, this thesis describes the daily routine of several individuals (with insights gained from a two-month internship) and appreciates these people for how they manage to survive somewhat independently on the streets of Berlin.It is argued that these individuals are not future clients for architects. Instead, it is suggested that we --architects, designers, planners, policy-makers, and others – have much to learn from those we consider to be homeless.
Department of Architecture

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2007.
The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 20, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Although Germany’s increasingly multicultural population presents challenges to the nation, it must also be seen as a kairos moment, ripe with opportunity. Immigrant believers from the Global South have come to Germany to bring back the gospel and establish new churches. Although most of these immigrant churches in Germany tend primarily to reach people who have a similar ethnocultural background to the church planter, some have become multicultural and include indigenous Germans in their congregations. The purpose of the study was to discover and describe factors present in immigrant churches in urban Germany that contributed to their becoming multicultural and reaching Germans. Most of the literature on multicultural churches comes out of the North American context. Although some literature exists on multicultural churches in Germany, this study considers another church model in Germany that the literature largely overlooks—namely, multicultural churches that have been initiated by church planters in Germany who have come from the Global South. Through qualitative case study research, data from three immigrant multicultural churches in varied urban settings of Germany were collected and analyzed. From the data, the researcher concludes that all three immigrant multicultural churches in the study have in common the “four Cs”: (a) specific characteristics of the church planters, (b) contextualization efforts on the part of church leaders, (c) the presence of German and 1.5/2.0 generation immigrant connectors, (d) and a Christ-culture. The study adds to the existing body of knowledge on the topics of immigration, immigrant churches, multicultural churches, reverse mission, missionaries from the Global South, and diaspora missiology in the context of Germany and beyond.

A proliferation of media discourse on the ‘phenomenon’ of violent women in 1960s and 1970s West Germany suggests that the violent woman is a troubling figure who provokes both fascination and fear. Julia Kristeva’s notion of the abject provides a language for understanding and accounting for the complex mixture of emotions the figure elicits. For Kristeva, abjection is a violent revolt against something which threatens the subject, which may be both “other” or foreign, and familiar; we abject that which cannot be tolerated, cannot be thought or known, which provokes both desire and repulsion. Troubling about the violent woman, and what renders her culturally unintelligible or unimaginable, is that she takes life rather than giving it. In this study, I trace the various attempts made by the print media to assimilate the violent woman, to make her thinkable and knowable and, as a result, to defuse her threat. More frequently, she is made other, abjected either in the Kristevan sense or in the (related) more literal sense: ‘cast off,’ ‘excluded,’ ‘rejected’ or ‘degraded.’ West Germany of the 1960s and 1970s provides a good time-frame for the study: West German terrorism, which involved a large number of women, was at its peak in the 1970s, and a number of high-profile trials against non-politically violent women also took place during the period. In chapter one of the thesis, I look at how the violent woman is rendered the negative and ‘unnatural’ (m)other of the proper German woman and nation, the better to bolster hegemonic understandings of both woman and nation; in chapter two, how she is made hysterical and feminised so as to defuse the threat that she poses; in chapter three, how her crime is redefined as a crime against her gender and sexuality (one idea here is that it is the ‘man inside’ who is to blame). Finally, in chapter four, I explore how the violent woman is abjected through association with filth and defilement. Arguably it is because the strategies which attempt to assimilate, to know and to name her fail or are only partially successful, that the violent woman must be abjected from the body politic through association with dirt.

In this project, I profile politically active women in a Muslim society –more specifically in Turkey. I explore the question of how female leaders experience the influence of Islam in contemporary Turkish politics—has had on their understanding(s) of themselves, their public and private lives, their political philosophies and aspirations. In many places around the world, and in a variety of ways, women are constrained from fully participating in political life. The rationale for limiting women's opportunities in the political sphere is often rooted in religion. Religion, or some interpretations thereof, expects them to focus their energies and talents on the private sphere: society can grow and thrive only when women stay home and leave the business of politics to men. Religion, however, often gives women mixed messages about their roles and capacities. Many women take advantage of this ambiguity to interpret their relationship to the realm of politics in creative and sometimes surprising ways. It is important to examine religion's influence on women who are active participants in the public sphere. In this study, utilizing interviews conducted with female members of the Turkish parliament, I show the ways in which women have challenged both the state and religion in order to increase their social and political competence, power, and agency. I find that critical self-reflections of many politically astute Muslim women show that the influences of religion on their consciousness are complex and flexible. Women politicians' constraints in politics derive from cultural, traditional norms rather than religious origins. While some women appear to unconsciously conform to these constraints, majority –if not all, of the women politicians interviewed suggest ongoing efforts to tackle the impositions of the public and private spheres of life.

By May 1945, most major German cities lay in ruins, and a largely demoralised population struggled for subsistence in many areas. National Socialist remnants, Christian faith and communist ideology met in the rubble of the Third Reich. The Protestant and Catholic Churches attempted to ‘re-Christianise’ the Volk and reverse secularisation, while the German communists sought to inspire dynamism for their socialist project in Eastern Germany. This thesis recreates the religious world of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia in the Soviet zone, 1945-9, and analyses ‘religio-politics’ (the interactions between the secular authorities and the Churches), the affairs of the priesthood/pastorate, and the behaviours, mentalities and emotions of ‘ordinary people’ amongst the pews. After the American withdrawal in July 1945, the Soviet authorities occupied the entirety of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, and they proclaimed a ‘freedom of religion’. The realities of this policy were different in each state, and the resolution or non-resolution of local-level disputes often determined Church and State relations. At the grassroots, though, many people engaged in a latent social revolt against all forms of authority. The Churches’ hopes of ‘re-Christianisation’ in 1945 were dashed by 1949, despite a brief and ultimately superficial ‘revival’. The majority of people did not attend church services regularly, many allegedly practiced ‘immorality’, and refused to adopt ‘Christian neighbourly love’ in helping often-destitute refugees. ‘Re-Christianisation’ also did not incur comprehensive denazification or a unified pastorate, and there was even a continuation of the Third Reich Kirchenkampf in some areas. Christian ideas of guilt for a popular turning from God, much less for Nazism and its crimes, rarely resonated amongst the population and some sections of the pastorate. This mentality encapsulated the popular rejection of authority, whether spiritual or political, that endured up to and beyond the foundation of the German Democratic Republic in October 1949.

The purpose of this research was to investigate how Buddhism affects the status of Thai women by (1) not directly addressing concerns regarding the sex trade industry, (2) not allowing for the legitimation of a bhikkuni sangha (community of higher ordained women) and (3) denying mae chis (5-9 precept nuns) access to education and other privileges. The study is significant from the standpoint of public health since there is a high rate of HIV/AIDS infection in Thailand, and also in regard to human rights because of the growing international interest in women's rights issues. This study is based on a review of key literature on the topic, along with observations and on-the-ground accounts of Thai Buddhism from travel opportunities to the country in recent years. The findings suggest that Buddhism contributes to the low status of women by defining how they are viewed based on Buddhist scripture and traditional Thai culture and by systematically failing to provide the same religious outlets for women that men are allowed.

Religion
Ph.D.
This dissertation examines a series of interchurch consultations that took place between 1999 and 2009 with the participation of the Evangelical Church in Germany, the Roman Catholic German Bishops' Conference and the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Protestant-Catholic-Orthodox ecumenical encounters began in the immediate aftermath of the Kosovo crisis, and aimed to support Serbia's democratization and European integration. At a total of nine meetings, delegates from the participating churches, together with politicians, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and scholars from various fields, discussed the role of churches and religion in the two countries. The meetings provided a forum for exchanging knowledge and addressing the challenges confronting the churches and their social organizations. Through lectures, discussions, and meetings in working groups, the consultations focused on theological, legal, political, and social topics, such as church and state relations in Serbia, the role of churches in secularized society, Serbia's relationship to the rest of Europe, reconciliation, and the healing of memories. Focusing on the content and the outcomes of the consultations, the author places them into the broader ecumenical, social and political context in which they took place. All available texts from the consultations are studied through the lens of critical discourse analysis. In addition, in-depth qualitative interviews are conducted with key initiators, organizers and participants of the consultations from the three primary participating churches. The dissertation also interacts with the existing theoretical framework for ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, theories of secularization and the sociology of religion in Europe, as well as nationalism and memory studies. The Serbian-German consultations represent a unique, hybrid form of interchurch contact. The author argues that existing theories of ecumenical and interreligious dialogue should be reconsidered to include such meetings, which represent a broadened understanding of dialogue focused on both theoretical and practical aspects of life. Furthermore, the consultations may serve as a potential blueprint for similar future encounters in post-conflict societies and in countries undergoing political transition.
Temple University--Theses

This thesis illustrates, examines and explains a diversity of female responses to Evangelical religion in Kent and Northamptonshire between 1800 and 1850. Previously untapped archival sources are investigated producing fresh evidence of Evangelicalism in women's domestic and local experience. Special collections, parish records and various other documents are explored to establish the religious and social identities of women featuring most prominently in this study. Family background, socio-economic circumstances, local environment and childhood denominational influences are shown to have been of greatest significance in shaping the spiritual attitudes and activities of women discussed here individually, or collectively. Local traditions of belief were important and the historical development of Evangelical religion in specific parishes is traced. Female responses to Evangelicalism are considered not only in parochial, but also in broader religious, political, intellectual, geographical and social contexts of the period. This wide-ranging enquiry points to avenues of research that can bring something new to the local history of women and Evangelical religion. Chapter one concerns an Orthodox Anglican woman with a family history of ecclesiastical and civic service in Canterbury, whose antipathy towards Evangelicalism and its expansion in Kent is investigated from her correspondence. The second chapter focuses on women in a Northamptonshire family who provided a home for the Rev. Thomas Jones (of Creaton) for over fifty years. Letters and other substantial documents give insight into a household and locality significant as centres of Evangelical religion. Chapter three investigates female involvement with the Church Missionary Society, the British and Foreign Bible Society and other Evangelical activities in and around Creaton. The final chapter relates to a young lacemaker belonging to a Particular Baptist community in Northamptonshire established by noted Evangelicals. Analysis of some of her published poems and hymns reveals them openly expressive of Evangelicalism.

In this dissertation I explore the relationship between women, the state, and religious institutions in western Austria--the most conservative part of the country. The fall of the Iron Curtain triggered widespread fears of massive migration flows from Eastern Europe, and created strong sentiments against migrants, especially those from the East and South and led to a rise in ethnocentrism and xenophobia. Turks, who comprise the largest migrant population, are especially vulnerable to the resulting discriminatory practices and attitudes.The questions I posed focused on how Turkish women who have arrived since the economic boom of the 1980s, their children born in Austria, and women of pre-WWII Austrian ancestry deal with the challenges integration brings. Further, I examine the effect patriarchal, elitist discourse has on both Austrian and Turkish migrant women's self-perception, sociopolitical status and their worldviews.

Germany is presently transforming into a modern immigration state, leaving behind its image of a “guest worker” country. Parallely, it is confronted with growing religious plurality and rising religious conflicts. Moreover, religious labeling of groups other than the Christian or undenominational majority population becomes more significant. Against this background, the paper discusses the views of the population in Germany towards religious plurality, practices of religious minorities as well as attitudes towards members of different religious groups. The results reveal a considerable amount of negative attitudes towards foreign religious groups in Germany. More specifically, Islam and Muslims are mostly viewed as negative by the German population. Structural equation models with manifest variables show that, in particular, the frequency of contacts have positive impacts on attitudes towards people of different religious affiliations.