Religion Department Honors Theses
Special Collections, Library
2015
Sarah Rose Cohen
Religion, Violence and the Apocalypse:
The Case of the Islamic State
Honors
2015
Blake Alexander Harper
Justification and the Disappearing Gap:
Two Essays on the Philosophy of Perception
& the Philosophy of Religion
Highest Honors
2015
David Keun Woong Park
Preaching in the Midst of Violence and
Conflict Case Studies of Past and Present
Honors
2015
Jack Schwarz Peisch
The Anxious Search for Self-Realization:
Synthesizing Ernest Becker's The Denial of
Death and Indian Buddhist Thought
Highest Honors
2014
Madeleine Therese Dai
Blasphemy! (And Beyond): An Exploration
of Religiously Offensive Art and its Contribution
to Public Discourse, Artistic Diversity, and
Theological Inquiry
Highest Honors
2014
Adina Rebecca Marx-Arpadi “The Most Awesome of Human Experience”:
An Exploration of Mothers’ Meaning-makings
Throughout the Childbirth Process
Highest Honors
2014
Peter Angelo Murray
Equal Dignity Under the Law An Ethical
Analysis of Catholic Political Participation
& “Ad Hoc Theology” in the Minnesota
Same-Sex Marriage Debate
Highest Honors
2014
Preston Aaron Peralta
Interpretations of Luther: Martin Luther's
Role in Nazi Germany
Honors
2013
Victoria Marie Anderson
American Buddhism: A Case Study in
the Formation of Religious Identity and
Community
High Honors
2013
Maria Roberta Benjamin
Toward and American Islam: What the
Debate over the Compatibility of the
Shari’ah and the U.S. Constitution
Reveals About American Religion
Highest Honors
2013
Sandro Dakalovic
Building the ‘Heavenly Kingdom’: The
Construction of Serbian National Identity
High Honors
2013
Hannah Lauren Elkin
“O Mortal, Proclaim Jerusalem’s
Abominations to Her”: Understanding
the Language of Ezekiel 15 in Antiquity
and Today
Honors
2013
Diane Patricia Martin
Maintaining “Dual Citizenship” to Church
& State: Revisionist Moral Theologians
Providing a Catholic Argument for
Conception in Federally Funded Catholic
Hospitals
Highest Honors
2013
Adrienne Christine Matunas God, Evolution, and Morality’s Foundation
(joint with Philosophy)
Highest Honors
2013
William Per Gustaf Peterson Religious Curriculum at Middlebury:
1915-1966
High Honors
2012
Jeremy Steven Cline
Climbing on the World Tree
Honors
2012
Catherine Joy Kessler
Hermeneutics in the Conservative and
Progressive Muslim Reponses to HIV/
Aids
Honors
2012
Matthew Kingsbury
The Scourge of Islam: The Endurance
of European Theodicy in American-Christian
Perceptions of Muslims
High Honors
2012
Zachary Seth Mollengarden Sanctuary: Toward an Effective Christian
Response to Asylum Seekers and Refugees
Highest Honors
2012
John Philip Palmer
Revealing the New Apostolic Reformation:
A Little-Known Religio-Political Movement
in the United States and Beyond
High Honors
2012
Amie Pendleton-Knoll
Seizing [Spiritual] Stardom: The
Intersection of Religion and Musical
Theater as Illustrated by Godspell
Honors
2012
Charles Lesser Roberts
Speaking in His Image: The Religious
Rhetoric of Barack Obama and George
W. Bush
High Honors
2011
Alicia Danze
Human and Divine, Conscious and
Unconscious, Self and Other: The
Paths to Mystical Union in the Poetry
of Jalal Al-Din Rumi and St. John of
Highest Honors
the Cross.
2011
Paloma Dugan
Tibetan Buddhism Preserved, Transmitted,
Mythologized, and Modernized: A
Political Religion Depoliticized
Honors
2011
Shalyn Getz
From Monstrous to American: An
Examination of Family, Marriage, and
Gender in Media Representations of
Morman Polygamy
Highest Honors
2011
Andrew Law
An Introduction to Joseph Ratzinger,
Benedict XVI
High Honors
2011
Michael Pappa
Arthurian Myth: The Once and Future
Legend
High Honors
2010
Sara Black
The American Jewess: The Cultural
Legacy of a Publication in the History
Of Jewish Women in America and the
Early Zionist Movement
Highest Honors
2010
Alexandra Krieg
Deciding How to Treat
Highest Honors
2010
Hannah Lincoln
The Martin Diaries: A Study of the
Protestant Missionary Enterprise in
Late Qing China (joint with Chinese)
Highest Honors
2010
Angie Ramsey
Social Transformation as Religious
Catalyst: The Conditioned Arising of
Buddhism in Mid-First Millennium
B.C.E. Northern India
Highest Honors
2010
Allison Shaffer
Beyond Controversy: Teaching about
Religion in American Public Elementary
Schools
Highest Honors
2010
Victoria Bommarito
From the Fires of Extinction to the
Waters of Life: Sufism, Conformity,
and Critique in the Poetry of Ghalib
High Honors
2010
David DeMarkis
Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci:
Two Men, Two Missions, Two Methods
High Honors
2010
David Dolginow
The Brethren of Purity and the Honeybees: An Inquiry into How the Brethren
High Honors
of Purity Use the Natural World as a
Model for Human Society
2010
Ann Montgomery
Crossfire and Cross Talk: New Ecumenism
In the Same-Sex Marriage Culture War
Honors
2009
David Meschke
Ritual and Religious Identity in
Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam
Highest Honors
2009
Tegan O’Brien
In the Court of David: The Politics of
Kings, Advisors, and Prophets in II
Samuel
Highest Honors
2009
Caitlyn Olson
Making Sense of Incoherence: An
Investigation into the question of the
divine attributes as debated in the
sixth discussion of al-Ghazali’s
Tahafut al-falasifa and Ibn Rushd’s
Tahafut al-tahafut
Highest Honors
2009
Robert McKay
Christian Theology, Climate Justice,
And the Problematics of Nature and
Modernity
High Honors
2009
Brittany Burnett
“The Splendor of the Old”: An
Analysis of the Role of Congregations
In the Social Engagement of Senior Adults
High Honors
2009
Susanna Merrill
Seeing the Possessor/Non-Possessor Conflict
Through the Visual Iconography of the Virgin of
The Burning Bush
Highest Honors
2009
Marie Lucci
The Spiritual Marriage Between God
and The Soul in the Spiritual Canticle
of St. John of the Cross
High Honors
2008
Jessica Haber
Visiting the Prophet Samuel Today:
Muslim and Jewish Experiences
Highest Honors
2008
Jessica Polebaum
Changing Visions of Ijtihad: An
Exploration of the Use of Ijtihad in
Classical Islamic Law and in Modern
Reform Movements
Highest Honors
2008
Donald Stuart
“I came that they may have life, and
have it abundantly.” The Prosperity
Gospel in the South African Context
Highest Honors
2008
Emily Irwin
Communities of Salt and Light: The
American Catholic Response to
Climate Change
High Honors
2008
Sarah McGowen Franco
Jewish Environmental Ethics: Theory
vs. Practice
High Honors
2008
Caeli Nistler-Schnabel
Ideas of Universality in Theory and
In Practice: How China’s Religious
Traditions Influence Attitude Toward Disability
High Honors
2007
Jessica Cox
The Ethics of Death: When Dying
Well Enough is not Good Enough
Highest Honors
2007
Thomas J. Heitkamp
Illuminating the Remembrance of
Amalek: Trends of Israelite Violence
God-Sanctioned Genocide in the
Hebrew Bible
Highest Honors
2007
Emily Lee
A Visual Universe: The Icon in Buddhist
Thought and Practice
Highest Honors
2007
Andrew Harrison
The Legal Status of Non-Muslims Under
Muslim Rule
Honors
2007
Richard Klein
All Things Being Equal? Two Arguments
For God and the Implications for Religious
Proof
Honors
2006
Celia Cohen
Judging the Seemingly Unjudgeable:
A Normative Framework for Evaluating
Transitional Societies’ Responses to
Widespread Human Rights Violations
Highest Honors
2006
Jessica Greenberg
Modern Jewish Demoninationalism:
Continuing the Tradition of Innovation
And Change
Highest Honors
2006
James Rogers
Territorial Restoration in Early Christianity
Highest Honors
2006
Deborah Tennen
Italian Jewish Women in Ottava Rima:
A Translation and Analysis of Mordecai
Highest Honors
Dato’s Sixteenth-Century Retelling of
Megillat Ester
2006
Rebecca M. Bloom
Syncretism and the Sacred Landscape:
The Expression and Worship of
Vajrayogini in the Kathmandu Valley
High Honors
2006
Trevor F. Crowell
Under the Fifth Rib: Joan ben Zeruiah
And David’s Monarchy
High Honors
2006
Megan P. Hickey
The Friend, The Recluse, and The ThreeFold Love: The Paradox of Spiritual
Friendship and the Life of Reclusion in
Aelred of Rievaulx
High Honors
2006
Joya Taft-Dick
Sex and Islam: The Forgotten Discourse
High Honors
2005
K. Parker Diggory
From Ha-Akedah to ‘Id al-Adha’: The
Story of Abraham’s Sacrifice in Judaism
And Islam
Highest Honors
2005
Devon Parish
An Ecological Theology of the InterDependent Americas: Sallie McFague,
Ivone Gebara, and A Central American
Case Study
Highest Honors
2005
B. Ryan Dunn-Homeh
AIDS in Zibabwe: An Ethical Argument
For Why We Should Care
High Honors
2004
Hannah W. Osier
Finding a Voice: Virginity and Passion
in Second Century Ephesian Religions
Highest Honors
2004
Adam Fasoli
Contemporary Catholic Moral Theology
of Abortion
High Honors
2004
Jill T. Snider
Are You Another Me? A Secular and
and Jewish Ethical Assessment of
Reproductive Cloning
High Honors
2004
Schuyler Van Horn
A Reason to Believe: An Investigation
of Buddhist Epistemology From
Sakyamuni Buddha to Dharmakirti
High Honors
2003
Alison E. Poppe
The Model of the Urban Church – Past,
Present and Future
Highest Honors
2003
Alexandra Bottemanne
Jefferson and the philosophies:
A dialogue on social progress
High Honors
2003
Abigail Christine Goff
The Apocalypses of John of Patmos
and Julian of Norwich: A Comparative
Discourse
High Honors
2003
Jeremy Holiday
Four Simple Truths
High Honors
2003
Elisha Schecter
Definition and Redefinition:
The Changing Identity of the
Ethiopian Jews
High Honors
2003
Buster Smith
One World, Two Religions:
A Case Study of Buddhism and
Christianity in a Pluralistic World
High Honors
2002
A. Hannah Robertson
Ambivalent Flesh: The Second Century
Catholic and Gnostic Polemic on the
Resurrection
High Honors
2002
Peter Park
A Critical Analysis of Gustavo Gutierrez’s
“A Theology of Liberation”
Honors
2002
Laura Allen
The Light-Giver: A Study on the Evolution
of the Magdalene Myth into the Thirteenth
Century
Honors
2001
Catherine Dalton
Emptiness Embodied: A Study of
Symbolism and Feminine Imagery in
Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Traditions
Highest Honors
2001
David Arnold
Man Glorified in God’s Dependence:
Feuerbach’s Philosophy as an Endpoint
In Religious Thought
High Honors
2001
John Robertson
American Public Religion
A Reinterpretation of Religion in
Contemporary America
High Honors
2001
Sydney Copp
Mysticism, Religion, Language
Honors
2001
Luke T. Day
The American Cultural Appropriation
of Asian Religious Traditions, 1784-1970
Honors
2001
Jonathan Reiber
The Praxis of Love and the Creation of
Honors
Fellowship in the Lives of Legacies of
Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day
2000
Benjamin Gitenstein
The Liberation of Servitude:
A Reading of benedict De Spinoza’s
Theologico-Political Treatise
Highest Honors
2000
Galen Murton
The Cakrasamvara Complex:
The Symbolism of the Mahesvara Myth
In Mandala, Ritual, and Landscape in
India and Tibet
High Honors
2000
Melissa Russell
Constructing the American Revivalist:
Honors
An Analysis of the Theology and Methodology
Of Charles Grandison Finney and William “Billy”
Franklin Graham
1999
Madhavi Nevader
Priestly Torah: The Israelite Priesthood
Re-Examined
1998
Anne Bruder
(Missing)
1998
Hayden Baker
Shadows of the Divine: The Evolution
of Deities in Indo-Tebetan Buddhism
High Honors
1998
Carole Barnsley
A Comparison of Abraham’s Sacrifice in
Islam and Judaism
High Honors
1998
Kevin Sullivan
Mastering the Mission: A Look at
Manichaeism’s Malleable Message
High Honors
1998
Andrea Yevuta
Religious Progressivism in a Changing
Society: Lyman Abbott’s Place in the
Social Gospel
High Honors
1998
Sherr Lo
Daoist Inner Alchemy and Chinese
Medicine: Complimentary Partners
In the Quest for Immortality
Honors
1998
Carri Smith
Pentecostal Explosion: An Early History
of the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)
Honors
1997
Elizabeth Fraizer
Sallie McFague’s Multi-Dimensionality
and Its Affects upon Christianity
Honors
1997
Amy Starr
Questioning Mark’s Questioning Jesus:
High Honors
Highest Honors
A Rhetorical Analysis of the Questions
In the Gospel according to Mark
1997
Howard Young
Middlebury College and the University of
Vermont: The Calvinist/Liberal Debate Comes
To the Classroom
Honors
1995
Douglas Rogers
Missing
1995
Kira Greenholz
“My Heart Is in the East”: The Poetry and
Philosophy of Jehudah Halevi
1993
Sarah Humphries
The Journey into Consciousness: A Feminist
Interpretation of Judaism
1993
Timothy Juliani
From Abhidharma to Yogacara: The Development
of Critical Thought in Buddhism
1993
Michael Matheson
Arguing for Definition: Faith, Scripture and the
Law in Galatians 3:6-14
1993
F. B. (Chip) Muller, Jr.
Doctrines of Innocence in Hua-Yen Buddhism and
N. Whitehead’s Philosophy of Organism
1993
Leigh Ann Wolfe
The Psalms of Lament: Reflections of the Experience
of God in Ancient Israel
1991
Reiner Winkler
Notions of Death and Afterlife During the early
Christian Era
1990
Theodore C. Cole
Exploring Life: Changing Perceptions of Religion,
Theology and Doctrine
1990
Christina Conklin
One Nation Under God: An Analysis of American
Civil Religion
1990
Kim Gifford
Who is Responsible for the Death of Jesus? An
Examination of Roman and Jewish Participation
In Jesus’ Death
1990
Kara Hordlow
Traditional Progress: An Examination of the
Institution of the Dali Lama and Tibet’s Changing
Religio-Political Structures
1990
Nathaniel Levtow
The Discovery of the Eschatalogical Kingdom:
A Monograph on the Relation of Faith and History
1990
Alexander Perry
Jung and Yogacara
1989
Lyn Agre
The Silence of God (Holocaust)
1989
Susanna Green
Studies on Women and the Feminine in Tantric
Buddhism: India, Tibet and the U.S.A.
1989
Beatrice Metzger
What Does it mean to be a Christian? A Study of
the Thinking of Dr. Martin J. Heinecken, as
Influenced by Soren Kierkegaard
1988
Marion C. Brune
Missing
1988
Diana C. Stuart
Missing
1987
Daniel L. Curtis
Paul and the Christian’s Proper Attitude Toward
the Civil Authorities
1985
James Kelley
A Discussion of the Power of Paul Tillich’s Concept
of Being- itself and Keiji Nishitani’s Concept of
Sunyata in Overcoming Modern-day Nihility
1985
Suzanne Uhrig
Edward Hicks: Painter, Preacher, Patriot
1984
Lesley Finlayson
Jesus Christ and the Bodhisattva: A Comparison
of the Ideal Human Being in Christianity and
Mahayana Buddhism
1984
Cynthia M. King
Human Alienation Overcome in the Work of Love:
A Study in Estrangement, Eros and Agape
1984
Allison Wheatley
The Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic
Church: An Issue that Needs a New Solution
1983
Laurie G. Oliver
Echoes of Silence: The Voice of Elie Wiesel
1982
Pamela B. Nelson
Why Freedom? An Inquiry into the Value of
Individual Autonomy
1980
David Neale
Buddhist Influence in the Thought of Wang
Yang-ming
1979
Kim K. Harvie
Presenting the Marketplace: An Inquiry into
Mysticism in Social Action
1979
Susan M. McCafferty
An Imperishable Idea
1979
Cathy Senzel
The Final Foundation: The Public Philosophy
and the Law of Love
1977
Richard Parker
Dante’s Use of Scripture in The Inferno
1976
Josephine Herron
Washington Gladden: Pastoral Social Reformer
1976
James Spink
The Problem of Meaningless and a Modern
Solution: The Thought of C. G. Jung
1975
Kathleen Blum
Felix Adler and Rabbi Israel Salanter: Two
Attempts to Make Ethics Work
1975
Priscilla Reidinger
An Analysis of the Ambivalent Character
of the Goddess, Devi, in Three Myths
1975
Jean Scandlyn
Paul Tillich’s Participation in the Religious
Socialist Movement
1975
Nancy L. Anderson
The Parallels Between T. S. Eliot’s Burnt Norton
and the Hindu Path
1974
Mary Lee
The Gates of Eden are Closed – A Humanist
Looks at Religion
1973
John Sorenson
Untitled (The Philosophy of Non-Violence of
Leo Tolstoy)
1972
Bernard C. Wessen
Tantric Art and Philosophy