Congratulations to MSU Religious Studies alumnus David Armstrong for being awarded the Distinguished Thesis competition!

Every year the MSU Distinguished Thesis Award is awarded to one thesis selected from those produced by the over seventy Master’s programs across the University.

David’s thesis, “A Kingdom of Priests and Gods: Angelic and Participatory Deification in John’s Apocalypse,” was written under the guidance of his thesis advisor, Dr. Leslie Baynes, and joins an impressive list of theses written by Religious Studies M.A. students who have won the award since 2005:

2018-2019, David Armstrong (advisor, Dr. Leslie Baynes), A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS AND GODS: ANGELIC AND PARTICIPATORY DEIFICATION IN JOHN’S APOCALYPSE

2015-2016, Harrison King (advisor, Dr. John Schmalzbauer), RELIGION AND ANTHROPOGENESIS: OTHER ANIMAL PRESENCES IN THE SCIENCE-FICTION OF URSULA K. LE GUIN

2012-2013, Matthew Hartman (advisor, Dr. Julia Watts Belser), BETWEEN OTHERS, BETWEEN ETHICS: RESISTING DOMINATION THROUGH POSTCOLONIALISM, ENVIRONMENTALISM, AND ECOCRITICISM

2011-2012, Linda Covey (advisor, Dr. Martha Finch), DINÉ BECOMING BAHA’Í: THROUGH THE LENS OF ANCIENT PROPHECIES

2007-2008, David Rice (advisor, Dr. Martha Finch), HOW THE MISSOURI BAPTIST CONVENTION SHIFTED THEIR IDENTITY TO THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION’S NEW HEGEMONY

2004-2005, Brian Doak (advisor, Dr. Victor Matthews), PATRIARCH AS TRICKSTER: THE SOCIAL AND LITERARY FUNCTION OF THE JACOB CYCLE IN GENESIS 25-33