Digital Commons Network^™

The Restoration-Focused Church, David Ralph

Doctor of Ministry

Statistical research indicates an increase in brokenness among North Americans over the past fifty years. Despite this increase, people seeking help for mental health issues, relational dysfunction, addictive behaviors, and other forms of brokenness are not often turning to the church for restoration, recovery, and healing. Many of those struggling with brokenness more often turn to therapeutic practitioners and other healing sources absent of any genuine spiritual parameters. Others turn to mutual support recovery groups where behavior modification and cognitive therapies lead to abstinence but not restoration. They stop giving into their addictions and compulsive behaviors, but they do not …

Inner Healing And Deliverance As An Essential Component Of The Discipleship Structure Of The Local Church, Jonathan Lee Shoo Chiang

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation posits that Inner Healing and Deliverance (IHD) is an integral, essential component of the discipleship structure of a local church, contributing much to the spiritual growth and maturity of believers. By “integral” and “essential”, I make the point that IHD is not merely a supplementary ministry, like a “hospital unit” for emotionally wounded or spiritually oppressed believers. Rather, it exists as a ministry that is much more inclusive, for everyone who wishes to receive biblical teaching on life issues, and receive prayer counseling.

IHD brings a believer into an experiential encounter with God. This results in an effective …

Giving Permission For Creative Preaching In The Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod: Returning To Our Creative Roots, Glen Schlecht

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation explores preaching, particularly within the context of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). The use of multi-media and interactive preaching, among other creative approaches, can effectively communicate the Gospel to all ages, engage the congregation, and relate Christ and His Word to daily life. Such creativity is found throughout God’s Word, is seen significantly at the time of the Reformation, and has historically been part of the rich evangelical nature of the LCMS. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was significant upheaval within the LCMS, and part of the outcome following that time was an unstated curtailing of …

Vantage Point: Using Narrative And Discourse Analysis Of Jesus' Sermon On The Mount To Improve Discipleship Outcomes, David J. Swisher

Doctor of Ministry

When the narrative and discursive aspects of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount (SOTM) are divorced from their cultural and rhetorical context, traditional historical-critical methods of exposition miss important contextual applications. Originally delivered as a live discourse to an audience of first-century Jews, the text and circumstances of the SOTM are recorded in Matthew 5-7 by one of Jesus’ followers as an embedded discourse within the larger framing narrative of the first gospel.

However, the dynamics of interactive discourse are quite different than what contemporary readers experience with printed text on a page. Absent that live exchange and its embedded cultural …

Tolstoy And Spirituality (Library Resources), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to “Tolstoy and Spirituality,” a conference held at the College of the Holy Cross April 21-22, 2017.

in this conference, an international slate of authors and scholars of Tolstoy's writings analyze his works of fiction and non-fiction to assess the viability and fruitfulness of his approach to Christianity.

Restoration, Shannon M. Slaight-Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The marks I make in clay have different characteristics, and the physical mark of one’s fingertips or visual record of the hand is personal and intimate. This visible activity is the evidence of my constant presence and control within each object. Its repetitive meditation produces a private relief from my persistent anxieties. This exploration for me is not only visual, but also physical. This is the start of my infatuation with the idea of pattern. It has its own discrete visual language and modes of communication; and through my research I am developing a method of intercommunication.

Deconstructing Theodicy: A Fresher Reading Of The Book Of Job, Anthony Maynard

Masters Theses

The Book of Job displays well the reality of the human predicament. However, does the Book of Job provide an answer to the problem it so vividly displays: the existence of God and the reality of suffering? This paper is a quest for an answer, which, if correct, is no. The purpose of the book has less to do with an answer for why good people suffer and more to do with exactly what God has done, and continues to do, to rectify suffering, culminating in the Christ event. Stated simply, the Book of Job exists as a harbinger, to …

Christ's Consequentialism In Light Of Abelard And Mill, John Witt

Masters Theses

An exegetical investigation of the ethical teachings of Christ seen throughout the Gospel accounts. Christ's consequentialist teachings are further clarified by investigating the works of Peter Abelard and John Stuart Mill. Brief reviews of modern consequentialists and utilitarians are given, and finally a cumulative formulation of a working Christian utilitarian ethic is formulated.

Beyond Ecological Democracy: Black Feminist Thought And The End Of Man, Eric D. Meyer

Eric Meyer