Religious Studies
This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Religious Studies .
Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).
Waterloo faculty, students, and staff can contact us or visit the UWSpace guide to learn more about depositing their research.
Recent deposits
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Out of the 'Broom Closet' and Into the Academy: The Development of Contemporary Pagan Studies and the Role of Scholarship in Shaping Legitimacy
(University of Waterloo, 2022-05-30)Contemporary Pagan studies is an academic field that explores the beliefs, behaviours, practices, and identities of contemporary Pagans, borrowing lenses from such fields as religious studies, anthropology, sociology, ... -
Multi-sited Faith: Chinese Canadian, Young Adult Evangelicals and the Negotiation of Ethno-Religious Identity in the Greater Toronto Area
(University of Waterloo, 2020-05-13)In 2016, Census Canada found that more than 1.5 million of Toronto, Ontario’s roughly 5.4 million total population were second-generation immigrants. As part of this significant cohort, Chinese Canadian young adults are ... -
Renunciation and the Householder/Renouncer Relation in the New Kadampa Tradition
(University of Waterloo, 2019-04-30)Founded by the Tibetan-British monk Geshe Kelsang Gyatso in 1991, the New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union (NKT-IKBU) is a fast-growing and controversial transnational Buddhist network that has ... -
God, Country, and Christian Conservatives: The National Association of Manufacturers, the John Birch Society, and the Rise of the Christian Right
(University of Waterloo, 2018-05-28)According to the First Amendment of the United States of America, religion is to be separate from the State, yet the heart and faith of voters cannot always be separated from their choices in the polling booth. Media, ... -
Thirsty Land into Springs of Water: Negotiating a Place in Canada as Latter-day Saints, 1887-1947
(University of Waterloo, 2018-05-17)This dissertation examines how Latter-day Saints—originally an American tradition—expanded into an international religion beginning with their settlement on Canadian soil. The “Americanization thesis” promoted by scholars ... -
How it Seams: Religious Dress, Multiculturalism, and Identity Performance in Canadian Society, 1910-2017
(University of Waterloo, 2018-05-16)Canadians generally consider themselves forerunners of acceptance who deem diversity a core value, yet this identity coexists alongside fierce national debates over reasonable accommodation of minority religious practices ... -
Neospirituality, Social Change and the Culture of the Post-Fordist Workplace
(University of Waterloo, 2017-05-19)This dissertation applies a religious studies perspective to the topic of neospirituality in the iconic post-Fordist workplaces of symbolic analysts. Despite a voluminous business literature on the importance of spirituality, ... -
Bruxy Cavey and The Meeting House Megachurch: A Dramaturgical Model of Charismatic Leadership Performing “Evangelicalism for People Not Into Evangelicalism”
(University of Waterloo, 2016-03-21)Megachurch pastors—as local and international celebrities—have been a growing phenomenon since the 1960s, when megachurches began to proliferate across North America. Why are these leaders and their large congregations so ... -
"J'y Suis. Pour de Bon." Montreal Jewish Education and the Social Construction of Diaspora Identity
(University of Waterloo, 2015-09-25)This work examines the meaning of the State of Israel in diaspora Jewish education in contemporary Montreal, Canada. It does so by asking three central questions: “Is there a common idea of the nation?” “How is the idea ... -
Drag Queens and Farting Preachers: American Televangelism, Participatory Media, and Unfaithful Fandoms
(University of Waterloo, 2015-07-14)Studies of religion and fandom have generally considered sincere devotion a fundamental point of contact between the two cultural phenomena, an assumption not reflected in fan studies proper. This dissertation aims to ... -
The Political Discourse of Religious Pluralism: World Religions Textbooks, Liberalism, and Civic Identities
(University of Waterloo, 2014-09-22)Religious pluralism is a meaningful framework for many scholars and students of religion as well as citizens working to make sense of a religiously and culturally diverse society. It purports noble aims: bringing people ... -
Sharia and Constraint: Practices, Policies, and Responses to Faith-based Arbitration in Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2014-03-13)In the fall of 2003 Syed Mumtaz Ali, leader of the Islamic Institute of Civil Justice located in Toronto Ontario announced in a media interview that his institute was in a new position to offer faith based arbitration ... -
Religion, Land and Democracy in Canadian Indigenous-State Relations
(University of Waterloo, 2013-05-22)Many indigenous communities perceive an intimate connection between land and religion, and land has, and continues to remain, at the heart of indigenous-state relations. This dissertation examines how philosophies of land ... -
Quenching the Spirit: The Transformation of Religious Identity and Experience in Three Canadian Pentecostal Churches
(University of Waterloo, 2012-03-09)According to Census Canada, after eight decades of consistent growth Canadian Pentecostal affiliation reached an all-time high of 436,435 individuals in 1991. A decade later, the results of the 2001 Canadian census revealed ... -
Playing for keeps: The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada in the public sphere, 1983-2006
(University of Waterloo, 2011-06-14)This thesis is an intellectual history of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) and its public policy activity from 1983 to 2006. The EFC represents many of the major evangelical Protestant denominations and organizations ... -
Springfield's Sacred Canopy: Religion and Humour in The Simpsons
(University of Waterloo, 2010-11-12)This dissertation examines religion’s satirical portrayal in The Simpsons. Building upon a sociological theory of humour developed from Peter Berger’s sociological theories of knowledge, religion, and humour, it assesses ... -
Religion in the Ranks: Religion in the Canadian Forces in the 21st Century
(University of Waterloo, 2008-05-23)Religion in the Ranks offers insights into the role of religion in the modern bureaucratic institution of the Canadian Forces and the nature of religious identity among its personnel. This study of religion in a modern ... -
Creating a Timeless Tradition: The Effects of Fundamentalism on the Conservative Mennonite Movement
(University of Waterloo, 2007-12-14)Revivalism and fundamentalism were significant forces that greatly influenced the life and theology of North American Mennonites during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. After World War II, the (Old) Mennonite Church ...
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