For many years educational practitioners have tended to focus on issues within the child for the causes of special educational needs and or disabilities. However, as the field has developed in professional maturity, a more inclusive approach has now tended to look beyond the child themselves, and recognise that often the cause of the child's…

Through the voice of Thomas Nashe in "The Unfortunate Traveller," published in 1594, it is possible to see another side of the historical conflict between splintering Anabaptist groups and the state-operated church which controlled voice and thus literacy and literature during the Renaissance. The Anabaptist movement, forerunner of the…

Rhetorical movement theory suggests two portrayals of social movements: the establishment conflict, or radical innovational portrayal, and the innovational, in which the movement is seen as upholding traditional values while suggesting institutional modifications or additions. A third portrayal, the competitive, lies on the midpoint on a continuum…

This paper examines the Scopes trial's contribution to American intellectual history by studying the historical context of the controversy from a rhetorical perspective. The trial became a rhetorical vehicle which focused on the modernist-fundamentalist religious controversy and polarized these movements. By analyzing the rhetorical…

The majority of critics of religious broadcasting, the so-called "electronic church," are members of the "liberal" or ecumenical Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish groups. In a historical context, however, these critics, along with the major radio and television networks, are as responsible for the electronic church as are the…

An appreciation of the religious milieu of the John Peter Zenger libel case of 1735 can help explain the nature of the Zenger defense as prepared by Alexander Hamilton, the meaning of the jury's verdict, and the ambiguous legacy of the trial for freedom of expression in the United States. In essence, the case was a disputation on "truth"…

Textbook censorship cases from Tennessee and Alabama have been brought before the U.S. Supreme Court. In east Tennessee, fundamentalist families objected to a 1983 Holt, Rinehart, and Winston reading series for grades 1-8. Federal District Judge Thomas G. Hull held that Hawkins County Schools had violated the families' First Amendment rights and…

For many years, Northern Ireland has been living under the shadow of civil strife. These years have produced relatively little literature, either adult or juvenile, which deals directly with the so-called "troubles." Literature can play an important role guiding against prejudicial attitudes and in educating individuals about society as…

The word "parrhesia" is of Greek origin and indicates the right to say anything a person chooses. The Apostle Paul was himself an operational definition of parrhesia, and a term that symbolizes such a controlling force on such a significant figure is worthy of examination and academic study. For Paul, his work as an evangelist and pastor was a…

The Disciples of Christ, an indigenous American religious movement born on the frontier, grew rapidly until early in the twentieth century. Its growth was based on a rhetorical vision that offered a plausible interpretation of the data of the senses and accounted for developments in human activity and conditions. That rhetorical vision was linked…

The world is dominated by the technological applications of scientific ideas and by the naturalistic empirical way of thinking characteristic of science. Also in this world, many people rightfully place great importance on their faith in a supernatural being and their membership in a church. The U.S. is a highly pluralistic society represented by…

An anonymous 12-item, multiple-choice questionnaire was administered to 218 southern college, introductory zoology students prior to and following a study of evolutionary theory to assess their understanding and acceptance of the credibility of the evidence supporting the theory. Key topics addressed were the history of evolutionary thought, basic…

A study was conducted to examine the journalism work of James Gordon Bennett, who founded the "New York Herald" in the 1830s, and to determine the nature of his coverage of religion before, during, and after the "Moral War" waged in 1840 against Bennett's popular newspaper. In addition, the study analyzed what Bennett's…

In 1960 a teenage boy, Bill Murray, refused to participate in Bible reading, and the result was a series of court cases that culminated in the 1963 United States Supreme Court decision banning compulsory prayer in public schools. To gain insight into the dynamics of journalism practiced during controversy, a case study attempts to examine the…

The two religion clauses of the First Amendment of the Constitution clearly declared the objectives of the framers, toleration and separation, but the means whereby these objectives were to be achieved were left to be decided through the dynamic processes of the courts. The history of these two clauses reveals that Americans are still seeking to…