Digital Commons Network^™

Empathy As Sacred Ethic: A Chaplain's Perspective On Difficult End Of Life Cases, Peter L. Bauck

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Because of our increasingly intercultural world, it can be difficult for patients, families, and medical teams to decide on what they should do for patients who are, in the medical team’s opinion, near the end of life. The family and medical team can hold disparate beliefs and values around what they should do for the patient. Ethics committees often get involved in these difficult end of life cases.These cases are also emotionally charged, especially for the family as they wrestle with the intensity of their loved one’s situation and try to decide what to do. Because of the emotional intensity …

Countertransference As Koinonia, Karin A. Craven

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This thesis inquires after the lived-through experience of community in the congregation by the pastoral leader. It is predicated upon the multiple self whose plurality is understood through psychoanalytical and postcolonial theories as well as by developmental processes illumined by interpersonal neurobiology. The phenomenological inquiry into one pastor’s experience of community in the congregation yielded in vivo themes – movement, joy, and open; connect, conflict, and centering; table, hospitality, love, and diversity -- that were understood broadly from the wondering perspective of desire. Closer theoretical analysis of these in vivo themes from theological, psychological, and interpersonal neurobiological conceptual categories was …

Coram Deo Et Coram Mundo: The Two Kinds Of Righteousness As A Normative Framework For The Description, Interpretation, And Healing Of Shame, Barson Lahivelo Mahafaly

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Contemporary pastoral theologians, though describing and interpreting shame from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing both from theology and psychology, tend to propose healing for shame only from a theological perspective. Transposing Martin Luther’s doctrine of the two kinds of righteousness into an interdisciplinary framework, this work proposes that pastoral theologians need to describe and interpret shame as well as suggest strategies for its healing from both theological and social-scientific perspectives.

Luther distinguishes between two kinds of righteousness, one passive and the other active. Passive righteousness is the righteousness of Christ bequeathed to us through the Word and the Sacraments (baptism and …

Relational Pastoral Care And Counseling: A Practical Theological Exploration Of Relational Spirituality And Grief, Joel A. Jueckstock

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

What is the relationship between relational spirituality and grief? This dissertation pursues this question by employing a practical theological method for practitioners of pastoral care and counseling when tending to unique grief experiences. Grief is understood in terms of contemporary bereavement science. Relational spirituality is developed as an interdisciplinary, interpretive lens with the capacity to describe how individuals relate to the sacred in light of four dimensions: human-human, human-God, God-human, and inner Trinitarian. The outworking of these dimensions suggests a relational approach to interdisciplinary dialogue. Applying relational spirituality to individuals’ unique grief experiences produces a process of care for tending …

Transforming Narratives Through “Live”: A Pastoral Model Of Care For Women In Sex Work, Nkiruka Okafor Ihm

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This work, “Transforming Narratives Through “Live”: A Pastoral Model of Care for Women in Sex Work,” seeks to provide the Church with a pastoral response from the narratives of the women doing sex work as streetwalkers in Nigeria. The work uses the four steps of practical theological model of Rick Osmer to describe, interpret, theologize, and strategize on pastoral care of women in sex work. The literature review, both descriptive and interpretive, examines the perception of agency as exercised by the women in sex work through the work of scholars, writings by women in sex industry, the different pastoral models …

A Theological Playground: Christian Summer Camp In Theological Perspective, Jacob Sorenson

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Christian camping ministry is a vibrant and well-established form of ministry in the church, but it has received shockingly little scholarly attention. Supporters and detractors alike rely on anecdotal evidence to support their claims. Many in the academic community have dismissed camp as theologically shallow or mere fun and games, while others have praised it as a form of ministry proven to facilitate life-changing experiences. Much of the confusion comes from conflating very different models of camping ministry, though most is the result of a simple dearth of scholarly research.

This project takes a close look at the rich history …

A Future Horizon For A Prophetic Tradition: A Missional, Hermeneuical, And Pastoral Leadership Approach To Education And Black Church Civic Engagement, David L. Everett

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This mixed-methods study performed among six congregations explored how the historical framework, fabric, and focus of the Black Church have changed throughout a modern/postmodern context. An exploratory approach was used to study congregations identified by a 10-person pastoral focus group using methods of interviews and questionnaires. This researcher hypothesized that the social gospel dimensions and prophetic radicalism of the historic Black Church have diminished, but that it might reestablish itself as a pillar in the community through a retrieval of its prophetic voice and social gospel roots which caused it to be missional-minded and civically-engaged. It is anticipated that this …

Sharing Witness Along The Way: Engaging The Lived Theology Of An Urban Congregation In Evangelical, Public, And Missional Strands, Scott J. Hagley

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This ethnographic phenomenology explores the lived theology of an urban congregation as it engages with civil society. Drawing methodological considerations from Jen-Luc Marion, Paul Ricoeur, and James Clifford, the research journey attends theologically to the sociality embodied both within the congregation and with its neighborhood for the sake of participating with this congregation in bringing to discourse its lived evangelical, public, and missional theological strands.

Drawing upon Charles Taylor's use of moral frameworks in relationship to narratives, practices, and goods, the evangelical strand explores intimacy as a strongly valued good. Theologically, such a good makes possible James McClendon's vision of …

Martin Buber's “I And Thou”, Pastoral Counseling And Reading Text: A Proposal For An Integrated Approach, David Hawkinson

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Pastoral care and the biblical tradition are inextricably linked in the minds of Jews and Christians for whom a central human task and calling is healing which leads to wholeness with each other, the world and God.This study explores the possibility of integrating reading the biblical text with a pastoral counseling approach informed by Martin Buber's I-Thou relation that serves this goal of healing and wholeness.

In Martin Buber's I-Thou wholeness is understood in relational terms. Healing is accomplished through "meeting" each other in genuine encounter. Buber's I-Thou dialogical philosophy has influenced a relational approach for the practice of pastoral …

Mainland Chinese Christian Scholars Leaving The Church In The Twin Cities (Minneapolis /St. Paul): A Theological And Pastoral Analysis, Yu Zhao

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

Mainland Chinese Christian scholars (Xue Zhe Ji Du Tu) are crucial to the Chinese churches in the American context in the U.S. In the last two decades, because these scholars join and then quickly leave the church, the fate of the Chinese church is in jeopardy. This research will consider this phenomenon of Christian scholars joining and then leaving the church and attempt to determine what are the theological, pastoral and sociological factors that contribute to these scholars leaving. This research will utilize a qualitative approach using the interview method to study the members of these Chinese Churches …