Digital Commons Network^™

The Adaptation Of The Papacy Within The Church, Kristyn Demers

Obsculta

This short essay briefly details the changes within the Catholic Church's ecclesiology and its view of the papacy from its inception to the modern day. It focuses on the “witness” and “monarch” models that describe the structures of the church during the first and second millennia, and glances at the changes currently happening within the third millennium.

Herrens Veje: A Catalyst To Reflect Upon Military Chaplaincy And Ecclesial Issues In A Nordic Context, Jan Grimell, Mariecke Van Den Berg

Journal of Religion & Film

This article is based on an analysis of the first season of the Danish series Herrens Veje (The Way of the Lord; Price 2017). The series portrays the young, idealistic pastor and military chaplain August, who is deployed to a conflict zone with a military unit. He accompanies the unit on a patrol to win the trust of the soldiers. During the patrol, they engage in combat and August kills an innocent civilian woman. Upon return, the transition from military to civilian life proves to be increasingly challenging and troublesome. As the series proceeds, August’s mental health deteriorates and his …

Christ As Dialogue With Culture: Reimaging The Church For Incarnational Discipleship And Ministry, Sean Sloan

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

God spoke, and Logos created. Increased polarization and divisiveness in USAmerican society and the resulting social pain and even violence inspired this project to pursue a healthier and restorative dialogue. If God’s spoken and incarnate Word originated human life and was and is the means of redeeming humans to life with God and one another, how might such a dialogical Christology impact a theology of dialogue capable of addressing brokenness in a culture? As action research, this project tested the potential for a theology of dialogue to impact perceptions as a precursor to altering behaviors through a presentation at Calvary …

The Decalogue Of Justice: A Covenantal Application Of Biblical Justice, Andrew Mark Adil

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation aims to establish a biblical theology of justice (מִשְׁפָּט), ascertaining the commands and references to justice in Scripture are comprehensively and exclusively rooted in the Moral Law of the Torah, summarized in the Ten Commandments, and embedded in the Covenant of Grace (Old and New), making it binding on New Covenant believers and inextricably attached to the church’s Great Commission mandate. To this end, the study examines the concept of justice in the OT and the Moral Law, contrasting Reformed evangelical hermeneutics with the modern iteration of Liberation Theology in connection with the application of biblical justice. Additionally, …

Recovering A Missional Ecclesiology: A Framework For Reviving Congregational Mission Within The Baptist Union Of Victoria, Gayle Hill

Doctor of Ministry Theses

ABSTRACT This project is an intervention to develop a theological and theoretical framework

that will become the foundation for a future curriculum for recovering a missional ecclesiology for the pastors of the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV). Despite mission being central to the overall vision of the BUV, declining numbers, the post-COVID context in Victoria, and an overarching post-Christian and pluralistic context have significantly challenged the centrality and functioning of mission across our denomination. The impetus of this project was the observation that our churches were floundering rather than flourishing in the missional space. Many chronic and acute provocations were …

Blessed, Broken, And Shared, Joseph Penny

Obsculta

This paper seeks to boldly confront the evils of racism while simultaneously pointing to a renewed baptismal ecclesiology and a praxis of radical communion as a way forward. Venturing into the unknown, we will persevere onward to the road less traveled by briefly charting the Catholic Church's historical cooperation with White Supremacy. We will also celebrate the wisdom gleaned from Black and Latin American communities and their seemingly mundane yet deeply sacred rituals.

Creating An Action Plan To Increase Diversity And Inclusion At Northwest Church Of Christ, Kenton Reeves Brown

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This project was designed to meet a need at the Northwest Church of Christ in Oklahoma City to help the church transition from a church that values diversity to one that realizes its vision of being diverse and inclusive. The scope of this project was to create an action plan to increase diversity and inclusion to present to the church leaders for their consideration. The theological foundation for the project comes from Paul’s convictions, expressed in Gal 1–2, that any who are in Christ should not be excluded or treated as a lower-class member of the community based on their …

Developing Practices Within The Lord’S Supper That Develop Central Identity At Queen City Church Of Christ, Ryan Russell

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This project was designed to meet a need at the Queen City Church of Christ (QCC) for developing intentional practices around the Lord’s Supper for forming a central identity in a diverse community. The scope of this project focuses on the project group’s ability to develop practices based on the theology of the Lord’s Supper, biblical teaching, engaging in practices of spiritual formation as a group, and their observations of Lord’s Supper practices in other Christian traditions. Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth provides the textual context for the discussion of the role the Lord’s Supper plays within …

Christ And American Culture- Some Biblical Reflections, Paul Raabe

Concordia Pages

Going beyond H. Richard Neibuhr’s famous paradox model on “Christ and Culture,” Dr. Paul Raabe contends for a biblical, dynamic tension that exists between the culture and the faith. Using the image of a house, Raabe explores four “rooms” : (1) Christianity affirms culture in some respects; (2) Christianity opposes culture in some respects; (3) Christianity leavens culture in some ways; and (4) Christianity uses cultural forms to communicate its message. Each of the four rooms needs to be lived in for maintaining the tension presented in the Scriptures as a faithful witness to the lordship of Christ.

Queer Church Construction: Dialoguing Ecclesiology And Queer Theory, Daniel Ryne Warwick

Master's Theses

What would “The Church” look like if it were constructed by the socially marginalized, specifically queer bodies (modernity’s LGBTQIA+)? The “Catholic theological tradition” has been reticent in its hesitancy of queer theory, reinforcing the rejection of queer faithful and their highly contextual expressions of spirituality. This thesis seeks to build a well-architected theology out from these rejected queer bodies in order to demonstrate the intrinsically disordered’s inherent ordered-ness within the Catholic tradition and experience. Three distinct pillars of ecclesiology are engaged in this manner: spatiality, temporality, and spirituality. The first chapter, “En-sexed Flesh in De-Sexed Space; or, The Case of …

“Change And Become Like Children”: Eschatological Childhood As Critique And Intention Of Ecclesiological Life, Joel Young

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Survival Of Dulles: Reflections On A Second Century Of Influence, Michael M. Canaris

Religion

This collection, marking the centenary of Avery Dulles’s birth, makes an entirely distinctive contribution to contemporary theological discourse as we approach the second century of the cardinal’s influence, and the twenty-first of Christian witness in the world. Moving beyond a festschrift, the volume offers both historical analyses of Dulles’s contributions and applications of his insights and methodologies to current issues like immigration, exclusion, and digital culture. It includes essays by Dulles’s students, colleagues, and peers, as well as by emerging scholars who have been and continue to be indebted to his theological vision and encyclopedic fluency in the ecclesiological …

Micro-Kingdom: A Theological And Missiological Apologetic For The Microchurch Model As An Effective And Faithful New Testament Expression Of The Kingdom Of God, Donald Clayton Dodge

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Using a bibliographic methodology, this thesis is a theological and missiological defense for the microchurch model as a solution to the limitations of the prevalent Western attractional model to effectively live out Jesus command to be a community of disciples making disciples. The declining western model is proving insufficient in a post-Christian, post-Christendom world to fulfill the intended role of the church. And as more churches are continually planted, if the erroneous presuppositions responsible for the decline of the church’s efficacy are not amended, there will be no lasting change regardless of how much effort and money is invested. New …

Book Review: Pilgrims And Priests: Christian Mission In A Post-Christian Society, Nathan Pickard

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

Pilgrims and Priests: Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society by Stefan Pass. London, UK: SCM Press, 2019. 257 pages, $31.57.

The Liturgical Action Of Christ's Body: A Theo-Philosophical Extension Of Bonhoeffer's Ecclesiology, Joseph Carson

Senior Honors Theses

Bonhoeffer’s theological contributions may provide significant relevance and theoretical illumination on contemporary issues in ecclesiology. Not only did Bonhoeffer offer creative theological insights, but he also incorporated philosophy into his theological positions in a way that maintains the supremacy of theology. Specifically, Bonhoeffer develops an ecclesial theology, starting in Sanctorum Communio and extending throughout his writings, that relies on social theory and philosophy (especially Hegel) while simultaneously making theology the theoretical authority over these other disciplines. In his ecclesiology, Bonhoeffer argues for an ontological unity between the Church and Christ, which he calls the Christ-reality and Christ existing as Church-community …

Sanctification And Ecclesiology, Gregory Moffitt

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The question of the nature of the Christian community is complex, with farreaching implications. For instance, the way in which we conceive the Christian community impacts how we think about questions such as the sanctification of the individual as he or she lives out their vocation as a part of the community. In this paper I will examine how Dietrich Bonhoeffer discussed the Christian community, focusing particularly upon how he discusses questions concerning ecclesiology and sanctification in his Discipleship and Life Together.

Re-Imagining Ecclesiology: A New Missional Paradigm For Community Transformation, Michael J. Berry

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation claims that the church is siloed, disconnected, and disengaged from the communities they are called to serve. The destructive mentalities of a disengaged church may even be complicit in creating and enabling some of these community health problems instead of being a part of the solutions. This research is focused on how ecclesiology, ethnography, and epidemiology is a missional paradigm to improve the gospel’s contextualization and work in community transformation. Chapter 1 demonstrates how increasing public health issues (such as pandemics, chronic diseases, poverty, homelessness, food deserts, addiction, inadequate health care, gun violence, mass incarceration, racism, and social …

The Body Of Christ As Community: Does A Patriarchal Hierarchy Make Sense For The Body Of Christ?, Cindy Kozal

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

This paper examines what it means to be Church. It looks briefly at the idea of what was Church prior to Vatican II and then addresses the vision of Vatican II’s Church by looking at the document Lumen Gentium. It then turns to the 2014 document Sensus Fedei, which builds upon some of the discussion of the People of God. Richard Gaillardetz offers an important vision of Vatican II and a model of the noncompetitive church. While pneumatology is not the main focus, it can hardly be avoided as Lumen Gentium is filled with references to the working of …

Toward Spirit-Empowered Leadership Distinctives: A Literature Review, Daniel D. Isgrigg

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This essay is a literature review that seeks to chart the landscape of leadership from a distinctively Spirit-empowered perspective. The topic of Spirit-empowered leadership distinctives is still in its infancy as few in the Spirit-empowered Movement have reflected deeply on the distinctive characteristics or competencies reflective of Pentecostal-Charismatic spirituality. This essay reviews the existing academic works related to definitions of Spirit-empowered leadership as a way of beginning the conversation among scholars.

Pentecostalism In Western Ukraine: Historical Development And Current Theological Challenges, Roman Soloviy

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The purpose of this article is twofold: firstly, to examine the origins and historical development of Christians of the Evangelical Faith (Pentecostals) in Western Ukraine from 1920 until today; secondly, to give an account of current theological problems of Western Ukrainian Pentecostalism and to explore its theological renewal, which began after the Revolution of Dignity (2013-2014). In doing so, the socio-political, ethnic, and religious contexts of the birth of Pentecostalism in Western Ukraine will be studied; these include the living conditions of Ukrainians in the Second Polish Republic, religious situation in Western Ukraine between the First and Second World Wars, …

Popes Benedict Xvi And Francis On The Sexual Abuse Of Minors: Ecclesiological Perspectives, Mariusz Biliniewicz

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

This article does not have an abstract.

Mission In The Margins: An Emplaced Missional Ecclesiology For The Brazilian Church In Urban Environments, Samuel Fuhrmann

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Fuhrmann, Samuel Reduss. “Mission in the Margins: An Emplaced Missional Ecclesiology for the Brazilian Church in Urban Environments.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2019. 217 pp.

As the church tries to engage in God’s mission in Brazilian metropolises, it needs to account for the reality of the favelas. Favela is a housing category that refers to an urban built environment where one encounters a rich social, cultural, and spatial diversity, and often the problems of violence and poverty, all of which configure a challenge to the church. How does the church understand this reality? How does urban missional ecclesiology account for …

South German Anabaptist Ecclesiology And Its Present-Day Pentecostal Counterpart, Mathew Clark

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Th is article accepts that twentieth-century classical Pentecostalism originally shared a similar ethos to that exemplified among the South German Anabaptists, and investigates some resonances in ecclesiology between the two. Scrutiny of a selection of early sixteenth-century documents relating to Anabaptism identifies the following: a radically consistent application of sola scriptura, a rejection of the state-church synthesis, a revisioning of sacramental belief and practice that subverts the clergy-laity divide, commitment to the teachings of Jesus as the primary and central guide to discipleship, a sacrifi cial pilgrim mentality of “just passing through this world,” individual choice and responsibility to …

The Matthew 16:13-18:20 Chiasm As The Fountainhead Of Matthean Proto-Ecclesiology, Nicholas A. Dodson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The only two instances of the Greek term ἐκκλησία (usually translated “church”) found in the Gospels are in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17. These two passages have been examined, debated, and interpreted in a number of ways by various scholars. The present dissertation presents considerable exegetical evidence that these two uses of ἐκκλησία are actually part of a larger literary structure called a chiasmus, which connects the passages in which Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 are found. Because these are highly significant ecclesiological passages, this study further develops the connection of the chiastic structure to other foundational ecclesiological passages, namely the Matthean …

Re-Imagining The Lord's Supper As A Place Of Belonging And Hospitality In The Christian Churches/Churches Of Christ, Katy Drage Lines

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation reimagines the independent Christian Churches' practice of Communion as a means of belonging within a community—and as an opportunity for hospitality and welcoming others. Unfortunately, the deficient theological understanding and trivializing of communion within many independent Christian Churches contributes to a lack of ecclesial identity and authentic openness to others. It will be argued that when an independent Christian Church congregation prioritizes and collectively practices communion, it strengthens their identity, mission, and connection to one another and puts in place opportunities to welcome outsiders into their community through shared meals. The concept of permeable belonging will be introduced, …

Ecclesiology And Adaptive Change: A Qualitative Study Of Christian Church (Disciples Of Christ) Congregations In The Northwest Regional Christian Church, Kara Lynn Markell

Doctor of Ministry Doctoral Projects

This project was conceived and executed as a survey of congregational leaders in the Northwest Regional Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), to create a grounded theory related to the connection between ecclesiological beliefs and adaptive change. The study’s findings are based on data collected using a Delphi process that began with a short series of open-ended questions. Participants were asked to identity the nature and mission of the Church and to imagine their congregation in five years. Congregational pastors, elders, and board members provided data which was synthesized into common ecclesiological themes and possibilities for adaptive change. An Audience Review …

Human Freedom And The Invisible Church From The Viewpoint Of Bavinck's Pneumatology, Dong-Yaul Tae

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

Although Reformed pneumatology is generally recognized by scholars of Calvin and Reformed confessions to be relatively well developed compared to the various pneumatologies of the Western theological tradition, it faces two important challenges. First, Reformed pneumatology is directly linked to the critique that Reformed soteriology’s accentuation of predestination and effectual grace leads to inevitable fatalism that ignores human freedom. This is because the ministry of the Holy Spirit is crucial in the Reformed understanding of the order of salvation beginning with regeneration and ending with glorification. Second, because the ministry of the Holy Spirit is a key to understanding Reformed …

Christ’S Presence In The Poor And The Church: A Traditionalist Liberation Theology, Ross W. Mccullough

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This paper argues that central claims about the poor in liberation theology do not displace traditional claims about the centrality of the Church but are a natural outworking of them. Christ is present in the poor first in the sense that Christ is present prior to and as preparation for justification, working to overcome our infirmities; Christ is present second in the sense that the poor are God’s special instrument of salvation. Neither manner of being present relies on the rethinking of nature and grace in the 20th century that is sometimes made foundational to liberation theology, suggesting that at …

Thy Kingdom Come: The Church And The Kingdom Of God In Loisy’S L’Évangile Et L’Église., Jeffrey Morrow

Jeffrey L. Morrow, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Best Practices In Lcms Congregational Mergers Into Multisite Ministries, Brian Hesse

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Hesse, Brian J. “Best Practices in LCMS Congregational Mergers into Multisite Ministries.” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2018. 171 pp.

In this MAP the process of a church merger is evaluated for the development of Best Practices in LCMS Congregational Mergers into Multisite Ministries. These best practices aredeveloped with special considerations towards LCMS ecclesiology, missiology and Martin Luther’s Distinction of God’s Two Kingdoms. Best practice recommendations are included for LCMS church mergers, especially for those congregations considering multisite ministry.