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Recent Articles in History of Christianity
Interview Of Frederick Van Fleteren, Ph.D., Frederick Van Fleteren Ph.D., Leo Wong 
La Salle University
Interview Of Frederick Van Fleteren, Ph.D., Frederick Van Fleteren Ph.D., Leo Wong
All Oral Histories
Frederick Van Fleteren was born in St. Clair Shores, Michigan in 1941. He was raised by two devout Catholic parents who valued his education. He went to Catholic grade schools and colleges in the United States, as well as two Irish universities when he was getting his PhD. in philosophy. His interest in philosophy would guide his academic and professional career from his undergraduate years to the present day where he is a Philosophy professor at La Salle University. From 1967 until 1978, he was an ordained priest with the Augustinians. He received his B.A. and M.A. from ...
Interview Of Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., M.A., M.Ed., M.L.S., Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., Wesley Schwenk La Salle University
Interview Of Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., M.A., M.Ed., M.L.S., Joseph Grabenstein, F.S.C., Wesley Schwenk
All Oral Histories
Brother Joseph Grabenstein is the Head Archivist of the La Salle University Archives and also manages the Brothers of the Christian School, District of Eastern North America Archives that are housed here at La Salle. He worked as an assistant archivist from 1992 until 1994 and was made head archivist January 1, 1994. Grabenstein was born in 1950 in Cumberland, Maryland to Herman and Irene Grabenstein. He is a 1968 graduate of Bishop Walsh High School and received his Bachelor of Arts in History in 1973 from La Salle College. He taught a variety of classes including history, geography, religion ...
Interview Of John J. Mcgoldrick, F.S.C., Ph.D., John J. McGoldrick F.S.C., Ph.D., Christine M. Thieme La Salle University
Interview Of John J. Mcgoldrick, F.S.C., Ph.D., John J. Mcgoldrick F.S.C., Ph.D., Christine M. Thieme
All Oral Histories
Brother John Joseph McGoldrick (b. 1948), grew up in Southwest Philadelphia with his parents and older brother. Attending Most Blessed Sacrament School and later West Philadelphia Catholic High School for Boys, Brother John was part of a strong Catholic community. It was here at West Philadelphia Catholic High School, where Brother John was introduced to the Christian Brotherhood. It was at this time that he realized that the life of service with the Brotherhood was the type of life he’d like to lead. At the age of fifteen, Brother John attended the junior novitiate and after graduating high school ...
Witnessing The Web: The Rhetoric Of American E-Vangelism And Persuasion Online, Amber M. Stamper 
University of Kentucky
Witnessing The Web: The Rhetoric Of American E-Vangelism And Persuasion Online, Amber M. Stamper
Theses and Dissertations--English
From the distribution of religious tracts at Ellis Island and Billy Sunday’s radio messages to televised recordings of the Billy Graham Crusade and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, American evangelicals have long made a practice of utilizing mass media to spread the Gospel. Most recently, these Christian evangelists have gone online. As a contribution to scholarship in religious rhetoric and media studies, this dissertation offers evangelistic websites as a case study into the ways persuasion is carried out on the Internet. Through an analysis of digital texts—including several evangelical home pages, a chat room, discussion forums, and a ...
Active Religion: James Ireland, The Separate Baptists, And The Great Awakening In Virginia, 1760-1775, Cooper Pasque 
Liberty University
Active Religion: James Ireland, The Separate Baptists, And The Great Awakening In Virginia, 1760-1775, Cooper Pasque
Masters Theses
In the mid-eighteenth century, the religious fervor of the Great Awakening entered Virginia. Evangelical Baptists soon threatened to undermine the authority of the Anglican Church and its planter patrons. Despite their efforts to quiet the Baptists, evangelical religion took root in Virginia by the end of the American Revolution. Historical works on these events offer valid but incomplete explanations. Puzzling dynamics in the Virginian context require a more complex interpretation. The life of James Ireland provides a unique window into possible answers. His autobiography provides evidence for what appears to be the most fundamental reason for evangelicalism's successes in ...
Interview Of John P. Rossi, Ph.D., John Patrick Rossi Ph.D., Kevin N. Bretz La Salle University
Interview Of John P. Rossi, Ph.D., John Patrick Rossi Ph.D., Kevin N. Bretz
All Oral Histories
This interview examines Dr. John Rossi’s life since his formal retirement in 2006. Major topics in the interview include Dr. Rossi’s publication of the La Salle history book, Living the Promise. Rossi details the archival experience, the research, drafts, and publication of the book. He also discusses the book’s reception at the school, as well as the community. Another major topic that was explored was Dr. Rossi’s travels and experience in Great Britain while he was researching his doctoral dissertation in the 1960s. Other topics include his analysis of history and his perspective on how technology ...
They Came Up Out Of The Water: Evangelicalism And Ethiopian Baptists In The Southern Lowcountry And Jamaica, 1737-1806, Samantha Futrell Liberty University
They Came Up Out Of The Water: Evangelicalism And Ethiopian Baptists In The Southern Lowcountry And Jamaica, 1737-1806, Samantha Futrell
Masters Theses
The Ethiopian Baptists in the eighteenth century Atlantic were not actually Ethiopians at all, but people of West African descent, traded as slaves to the southern lowcountry and Jamaica. Their identification with Ethiopia did not come from their geographic ancestry, but from a Christian heritage that they became a part of when they accepted the salvation of Jesus Christ. The evolution of this evangelical Afro-Baptist movement occurred in three stages. First, white evangelicals, like George Whitefield, carried Christianity to African American populations in South Carolina during the Great Awakening. Second, African American leaders, such as George Liele, rose up as ...
Does God Have A Right To Judge? The Aztecs' False Worship Practices Result In God's Judgment In The Unlikely Form Of Hernán Cortés, Lisa Timmons Liberty University
Does God Have A Right To Judge? The Aztecs' False Worship Practices Result In God's Judgment In The Unlikely Form Of Hernán Cortés, Lisa Timmons
Masters Theses
This thesis covers religious aspects of the Aztec culture before and after the conquest of Hernán Cortés between 1519 and 1521. One aspect of this thesis details the Aztecs' history and rise to power, followed by their rapid demise at the hands of Spanish conquistadors, while the other examines the highly flawed but effective instrument used in the destruction of their sprawling Mesoamerican empire--a conquistador from Spain by the name of Hernán Cortés. At the root of this controversial topic is God's perfect justice in relation to this culture's blatant and repeated disregard for those created in His ...
“This I Say Not As One Doubting”: Traditions Of The Apostle Thomas From The Beginning Of The Common Era Through 800 Ce, Janna Y. Strain 
Illinois Wesleyan University
“This I Say Not As One Doubting”: Traditions Of The Apostle Thomas From The Beginning Of The Common Era Through 800 Ce, Janna Y. Strain
Honors Projects
Historically, Thomas has a rich identity. Much of the apocrypha was named for the "doubting" disciple, such as The Gospel of Thomas, The Book of Thomas the Contender, and The Acts of the Apostle Thomas, yet these traditions do not address Thomas's story from The Gospel of John. In fact, Thomas becomes the favored disciple in The Book of Thomas the Contender and logion 13 of The Gospel of Thomas. In The Acts of the Apostle Thomas the disciple leaves Rome to evangelize in India where he is eventually martyred. Today, he is still revered in South India as ...
Hangin' With Judas: A Narrative Analysis Of Stephen Adly Guirgis's 'The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot', Constance Falconer Liberty University
Hangin' With Judas: A Narrative Analysis Of Stephen Adly Guirgis's 'The Last Days Of Judas Iscariot', Constance Falconer
Masters Theses
Stephen Adly Guirgis has created an era-melting play, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, which explores the timeless debate between divine mercy and free will. A systematic application of Walter R. Fisher's narrative analysis, through form identification and a functional analysis, determined how Guirgis accomplishes persuasion. This qualitative study focused on Guirgis's narrative, using Walter R. Fisher's narrative paradigm as a framework to answer the research question(s): (1) If Guirgis's ideology and created world in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot are foreign and imagined, how is narrative probability and narrative fidelity achieved?; and, (2 ...
Unbelief, Lawlessness, And Satan: Viewing The Freer Logion As A Scribal Response To Open- Ended Eschatological Themes In Mark, Seth Clark 
Claremont Colleges
Unbelief, Lawlessness, And Satan: Viewing The Freer Logion As A Scribal Response To Open- Ended Eschatological Themes In Mark, Seth Clark
LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University
The focus of my study is to demonstrate that major variants in the text of Early Christian Literature were purposely inserted into the text in light of theological controversies by scribes who represented a certain perspective on behalf of an Early Christian community. The text on which this paper is focused is the ending of the Gospel of Mark and the major textual variant known as the “Freer Logion.” I will argue that the Freer Logion was purposely inserted to conclude themes that were left open by the author of Mark and not addressed by the scribe who inserted the ...
Approaching Christianity: Exploring The Tragic Impact Of Greek Philosophical Thought On Christian Thought, Tammy Galvan-Barnett 
Olivet Nazarene University
Approaching Christianity: Exploring The Tragic Impact Of Greek Philosophical Thought On Christian Thought, Tammy Galvan-Barnett
M.A. in Political Theory Theses
This study explores the impact of Greek philosophical thought on Christian thought. I argue that Greek dualism is the fundamental contradiction in Christian thought creating problems for the doctrines of Christianity and ultimately thwarting a biblical approach to Christianity. From the early days of Christianity, Greek philosophy became absorbed into Christian thinking. Christian theology is often incorrectly interpreted through Platonic metaphysics. Platonic Christianity distinguishes between sacred and secular realms of the cosmos and devalues physical things. Furthermore, the tragedy is not only that Greek philosophy has had such a profound impact on Christianity, but also that its influence is still ...
The Holy Spirit In The Life And Writings Of Gregory Of Nazianzus, Daniel G. Opperwall 
McMaster University
The Holy Spirit In The Life And Writings Of Gregory Of Nazianzus, Daniel G. Opperwall
Open Access Dissertations and Theses
This thesis comprises the first full-length study of Gregory of Nazianzus's theology of the Holy Spirit. Gregory was a major political and intellectual figure during the pneumatological controversies of the late Fourth Century. Gregory is the first author whose works are extant to declare that “the Holy Spirit is God” in so many words. He advocated, against leading figures including Basil of Caesarea, that such a declaration should be made by the Church, but largely met with failure in his lifetime. Yet, Gregory's affirmation of the Spirit's divinity was eventually to be embraced by nearly all Christians ...
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Morgan Matos
Rollins College
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Lindsay Morehouse
Macalester College
Daniel Opperwall
McMaster University
Crista Anderson
University of Connecticut
Rebecca Leung
Olin College of Engineering
Catherine Ballard
Claremont Colleges
David Freeland
Liberty University
Tammy Galvan-Barnett
Olivet Nazarene University
Kenneth Kinton
Liberty University
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Popular Articles
The Satanic Phenomenon: Medieval Representations Of Satan, Morgan Matos
Luther And Hitler: A Linear Connection Between Martin Luther And Adolf Hitler’S Anti-Semitism With A Nationalistic Foundation, Daphne Olsen
Dismemberment And Devotion: Anatomical Votive Dedication In Italian Popular Religion, Lindsay Morehouse
The Origin Of Ideas According To St. Augustine And St. Thomas
The Holy Spirit In The Life And Writings Of Gregory Of Nazianzus, Daniel Opperwall
The Origins Of Christian Society In Ancient India, Crista Anderson
Bethlehem’S Christian Community, Rebecca Leung
Can't Be Tamed: A Feminist Analysis Of Apocrypha And Other Scripture, Catherine Ballard
Kingdom Consequences: Socio-Political Dimensions Of Evangelistic Preaching, Kenneth Kinton
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