Digital Commons Network^™

Review Of T. S. Eliot And The Christian Tradition, Stephen Barber

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Benjamin G. Lockerd, ed., T. S. Eliot and the Christian Tradition (Lanham, Maryland, 2014). viii + 358 pages. $49.99. ISBN: 9781611477139.

C. S. Lewis And George Herbert’S The Temple, Don W. King

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

This essay explores how George Herbert's The Temple serves as one of the most important “spiritual directors” in the poems, letters, and late prose of C. S. Lewis.

Jack Lewis And His American Cousin, Nat Hawthorne: A Study Of Instructive Affinities, D. G. Kehl

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

When he was a student at Oxford University, C. S. Lewis wrote to a friend expressing his great admiration of and enthusiasm for the novels of Nathaniel Hawthorne, particularly The House of the Seven Gables and Transformation (British title of The Marble Faun). This study examines the parallels between these two kindred spirits and their works, focusing on their similar worldviews, their personal backgrounds and lifestyles, and the "Ultimates" they both pondered. It discusses common themes in their works, such as myth, scientism, and "the great power of blackness." Their respective attitudes toward these issues and others, such as faith, …

Lucretia Mott: Isaiah 58, Mark Bredin

Quaker Religious Thought

In a sermon at Cherry Street Meeting on 31 March in 1850, Lucretia Mott drew upon Isaiah 58:6–7, 13 and James 2:15 for inspiration against sentiments expressed by Isaac Watts (1674–1748), views that led, she believed, to complacency towards the poor and the slave. She perceived such to be an outrage to the God of the biblical prophets. More precisely, Lucretia’s evocation of Isaiah 58 in her address resulted in an intensification of her already developed sympathy for the poor, motivating her to social engagement for justice. In making this argument I consider: (1) what it means to read the …

Transcendent Accountability And Pro-Community Attitudes: Assessing The Link Between Religion And Community Engagement, Sung Joon Jang, Matt Bradshaw, Charlotte V. O. Witvliet, Young-Il Kim, Byron R. Johnson, Joseph Leman

Faculty Publications - College of Social Work

Prior research has established a positive relationship between religiosity and civic engagement but focused on public religiosity rather than private religiosity without explaining the relationship. We examined private religiosity as well as public religiosity in relation to community engagement, explaining the religiosity-community engagement relationship with two understudied mechanisms: ‘‘transcendent accountability’’ (seeing oneself as accountable to God or a higher power for one’s influence on other people or the environment) and pro-community attitudes. For this examination, we applied structural equation modeling to analyze data from a nationally representative survey. We found that survey respondents who believed in a higher power, privately …

Manis And Martins' "Eeavesdropping On The Most Segregated Hour: A City's Clergy Reflect On Racial Reconciliation" (Book Review), Jaclyn Lee Parrott

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

A New Paradigm For Ministry In The World: Spiritual Care Services Of Maine, Lori H. Whittenmore

Doctor of Ministry

With dwindling church attendance in the State of Maine, people’s spiritual needs are often unattended to, especially in times of struggle. Clergy are serving shrinking congregations with shrinking budgets, leading to reduced hours. They don’t often have time to provide pastoral care to their flock, let alone people outside of their flock. This project creates a mechanism to organize a chaplain team and make them available by contract to organizations and their staff and clients. I have conceptualized, designed, and birthed a community-based per diem chaplain/spiritual care organization that can match the world’s soulful need with professional, competent chaplains.

The …

Religious Dimensions Of Anti-Trinitarianism In The Projection Of The Spiritual Progress Of Society, Oleh Sokolovskyi, Andrii Kobetyak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the ideological and cultural, structural and typological, ideological and doctrinal features of anti-Trinitarianism in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th and 17th centuries. The idea has been further developed that it is a religious phenomenon formed on the basis of deep value interactions between Western and Eastern Christianity, which has passed a difficult path of evolution and differs in the features of doctrinal-institutional content. The regularities of the origin, development, and preservation of anti-Trinitarian communities in modern Ukraine are substantiated.

Experiences Of Divine Grace Among Christian Friends, Kyle T. Webster

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Though topics of prayer, forgiveness, and gratitude have received attention in the psychology of religion, there is sparse literature regarding the concept of grace. This study explored how Christians who identify as Friends (Quakers) experience grace from God. Thirty interviews were conducted with Friends in the Pacific Northwest, using a standardized semistructured interview developed for a larger study of how Christians from various denominations experience grace. Four organizing themes were derived from the interview questions and then grounded theory was used to uncover associated sub-themes within each organizing theme. The organizing themes include the nature of God, the nature of …

Report On The Visit Of Prof. And Mrs. Josef Hromádka To The U.S.A., 1966, John Heidbrink

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Professor Josef L. Hromádka (referred to as JLH in the report) was a theologian of the Church of the Czech Brethren who took refuge in the USA during the Nazi conquest of his native Czechoslovakia and taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. He made what for many seemed a surprising decision to return to Prague after the communist coup d’etat in 1948. Soon he became the best known Protestant theologian on the other side of the “Iron Curtain” as he interpreted communism as a wave of a promising future to which Christians need to adjust in order to assist in the …

Dynamics And Growth Prospects Of The Protestant Denominations In Ukraine, Irina Vasilyeva, Vita Tytarenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The intensity and nature of changes in Protestant communities in Ukraine is analyzed on the basis of broad empirical material (statistics, sociological surveys). The confessional specificity of the spread of Protestant communities in the Ukrainian territories is revealed, as well as their dynamics, geographical conditionality, and more. Changes in institutional, socio-political, cultural, and educational spheres of life of Protestant churches in modern Ukraine are recorded. Social legalization, the legal recognition of these movements as the churches and religious organizations equal to other traditional churches, as well as dynamism of Protestantism in evangelical and missionary sphere and public life, have contributed …

Thriving Holistically As A Woman Married To A Minister: A Spiritual Formation Model To Support Women In The United States In The Role Of Pastor's Wife, Elisa Renae Ashley

Doctor of Ministry

While women married to ministers are blessed by God in many ways through their role as pastor’s wife, the role also presents many particular stressors. These stressors impact the systems of self, family, and church. A majority of clergy wives struggle to some degree with interpersonal loneliness, with finding confidants, and creating spiritual community wherein they can be authentically vulnerable. These struggles negatively impact the spiritual, physical, and psycho-emotional health of the women in this role. In order for them to deepen their spirituality and thrive holistically as they navigate the challenges of this role, a tailored spiritual formation model …

Representation Of Non-Religious And Atheistic Identities In A Highly Religious Society - Croatian Case, Nikolina Hazdovac Bajić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Since the beginning of the nineties and the collapse of communism, non-religiosity and atheism in Croatia became socially non-desirable and non-conformist positions. In sociological terms, however, these phenomena have been largely overlooked, since scholars have focused mainly on trends in religiosity and public role of religion. The aim of this paper is to get the first scientific insight into the representation of individual non-religious and atheistic identities among the members of the organizations that gather non-religious people and atheists. The paper seeks to answer specific research questions: How are non-religious and atheistic identities presented at the level of everyday life …

Foreword To This Special Issue, Beth Admiraal

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The door that opens up to religious freedom does not always lead to expected places. Our contributors, reflecting on the past thirty years for religion in Romania, note both the joys and tribulations of freedom."

Miles' "Superheroes Can't Save You: Epic Examples Of Historic Heresies" (Critical Book Review), Robert Burgess

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

The Myth Of The Founders' Deism (Chapter One Of Did America Have A Christian Founding?, Mark David Hall

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

Excerpt: "Scholars and popular authors regularly assert that America's founders were deists. They support these claims by describing the religious views of the following men: Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Thomas Paine, Alexander Hamilton, and Ethan Allen. On rare occasion, they reach beyond this select fraternity to include another founder, and they almost inevitably concede that not all founders were as enlightened as the ones they profile. However, they leave the distinct impression that most founders, and certainly the important ones, were deists."

Whose Rebellion? Reformed Resistance Theory In America: Part Ii, Sarah Morgan Smith, Mark David Hall

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

Students of the American Founding routinely assert that America's civic leaders were influenced by secular Lockean political ideas, especially on the question of resistance to tyrannical authority. In the first part of this series, we showed that virtually all Reformed writers, from Calvin to the end of the Glorious Revolution, agreed that tyrants could be actively resisted. The only debated question was who could resist them. In this essay, we contend that the Reformed approach to active resistance had an important influence on how America's Founders responded to perceived tyrannical actions by Parliament and the Crown.

Were Any Of The Founders Deists? (Chapter 5 Of The Wiley Blackwell Companion To Religion And Politics In The U.S.), Mark David Hall

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

Excerpt: "Scholars and popular authors regularly assert that the founders were deists. For instance, historian Frank Lambert asserts that the “significance of the Enlightenment and Deism for the birth of the American republic, and especially the relationship between church and state within it, can hardly be overstated.” Law professor Geoffrey R. Stone similarly contends that “deistic beliefs played a central role in the framing of the American republic … [and the] founding generation viewed religion, and particularly religion’s relation to government, through an Enlightenment lens that was deeply skeptical of orthodox Christianity.” For a final example, the dean of American …

Philadelphia Methodism Walking Tour, Benjamin Hartley

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This is a 22-stop walking tour script of Philadelphia Methodism in collaboration with Palmer Theological Seminary students and staff persons at St. George's United Methodist Church, the oldest Methodist church building in the United States. The 22 stops are within 5 blocks of the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The stories told on the tour are inclusive of the histories of both the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church as well as other Wesleyan groups which trace their origins to antecedent bodies of the UMC denomination. The walking tour contains a map of the 22 stops and pictures …

Woodbrooke In Wider Context: The Enduring Thread Of Adult Education, Pam Lunn

Quaker Studies

The usual story told of Woodbrooke's history is an entirely Quaker-centric account, focused on the currents in the Religious Society of Friends in Britain in the mid-nineteenth century, the 1895 Manchester Conference, and its aftermath. However, the currents affecting the religious concern for the education of adults stretch back through all denominations into the eighteenth century, and the Quaker activities were characteristic of the era. Similarly, the fortunes of Woodbrooke in the twentieth century are within the mainstream of other adult education provision and are affected, even though not directly controlled, by the cultural changes creating and created by state-funded …

Some Quaker Attitudes To The Printed Word In The Nineteenth Century, Edwina Newman

Quaker Studies

This study uses the evidence of one Meeting House's collection of old books to explore Quaker understanding of the experience of reading. The Religious Society of Friends sought to exercise considerable control over the literary interests of its members, but charges of narrow-mindedness need to be set against the wider historical context and the practice of teaching literacy to all Quaker children. In addition to the patriarchal tone found in much advice and commentary on reading, Quaker books reflected concerns about both rationalism and evangelical 'biblicism'. Although books were an important consolidating and educating force within the Society, reading as …

Mary Morris Knowles: Devout, Worldly, And 'Gay'?, Judith Jennings

Quaker Studies

This essay examines three themes relating to the beliefs and actions of Mary Morris Knowles (1733-1807) as a devout Quaker woman, incorporates new research and places her in multiple contexts within eighteenth-century Quakerism. Considering Knowles in relation to the themes of self and collective identity, her concepts and practices of womanhood in the private, social and public spheres and her theology and religious practices raises new questions about Quakerliness, or ways of being a Quaker. How wide and diverse was the spectrum of behavior considered appropriate for a Quaker woman and did it change over time? Was it possible for …

'There's Death In The Pot!' The British Free Produce Movement And The Religious Society Of Friends, With Particular Reference To The North-East Of England, Elizabeth A. O'Donnell

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

'Chipping At The Landmarks Of Our Fathers': The Decline Of The Testimony Against Hireling Ministry In The Nineteenth Century, Thomas D. Hamm

Quaker Studies

One of the distinctive features of Quakerism from the 1650s until the 1870s was its stance against any kind of pay for ministers, what Friends referred to as 'hireling ministry'. Friends viewed a paid, authoritative pastoral ministry as contrary to Scripture, as tending toward preaching that pleased humans rather than God, as limiting the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and as generally corrupting. One of the criticisms of Orthodox by Hicksite Friends in the 1 820s was that the Orthodox were compromising this testimony by associating with clergy of other denominations in reform and humanitarian causes, and both Orthodox and …

Accusations Of Blasphemy In English Anti-Quaker Polemic, C. 1660-1701, David Manning

Quaker Studies

This paper investigates the conviction amongst zealous English Protestants, living between 1660 and 1701, that Quakerism constituted a form of blasphemy. Through an analysis of the accusation of blasphemy in anti-Quaker polemic it develops a cultural history of blasphemy as representation, illuminating a spiritual critique of Quakerism as enthusiastic antitrinitarianism and a sense of blasphemy commensurate with Thomistic theology. In so doing, this paper provides an insight into the contemporary theological anxiety that Quakerism was fundamentally wicked and anti-Christian.

The Aesthetics Of Friends' Meeting Houses, Roger Homan

Quaker Studies

In an attempt to identify a Quaker aesthetic as it applies to English meeting houses, this article draws upon the physical evidence of English Meetings past and present, upon the records of discussions preceding the design and construction of meeting houses, upon interviews with Friends at some thirty meeting houses and upon the observational and interpretative literature. The main part of the discussion is structured around the moral principles of plainness, worthiness and simplicity. A distinction is made between the effect of plainness, which has in the past been regulated, and simplicity, which is here explored as a moral attribute …

Gertrude Von Petzold (1876-1952): Quaker And First Woman Minister, Claus Bernet

Quaker Studies

Gertrude von Petzold was a pioneer in many ways: in England she was the first woman who got a post as a church minister, in Germany she was the first woman who qualified for a professorship in Germanics at Kiel University. At times when woman were not even allowed to vote, von Petzold pursued her academic career eagerly. Her ecumenical attitude resulted in membership within the Lutheran Church, the Unitarians and finally the Quakers.

'Turning Hearts To Break Off The Yoke Of Oppression': The Travels And Sufferings Of Christopher Meidel, C. 1659-C. 1715, Richard Allen

Quaker Studies

This study of Christopher Meidel, a Norwegian Quaker writer imprisoned both in England and on the Continent for his beliefs and actions, explores the life of a convert to Quakerism and his missionary zeal in the early eighteenth century. From Meidel's quite tempestuous career we receive insights into the issues Friends faced in Augustan England in adapting to life in a country whose inter-church relations were largely governed by the 1689 Toleration Act, and its insistence that recipients of toleration were to respect the rights of other religionists. In England and Wales, although not censured by Friends, Meidel's activities were …

Educating He Women Of The Nation: Priscilla Wakefield And The Construction Of National Identity, 1798, Camilla Leach, Joyce Goodman

Quaker Studies

This article examines the views of the Quaker educationist, Priscilla Wakefield, on the role of women in the construction of British national identity at the end of the eighteenth century. Priscilla Wakefield wrote children's texts in late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth century England, was interested in the question of women and science and published on the education of women. This article analyses the way in which in Reflections on the Present Condition of the Female Sex, with Suggestions for its Improvement (1798) , she based her arguments for a 'useful' education for women on her views of what constituted the virtues and …

Patterns And Practices Of Women's Leadership In The Yorkshire Quaker Community, 1760-1820, Helen Plant

Quaker Studies

By the second half of the eighteenth century, women ministers had become the principal upholders of the spiritual life of Quakerism in Yorkshire. Drawing on a range of sources including the institutional records of Quaker Meetings, personal correspondence and spiritual journals and autobiographies, this paper aims to shed light on the precise nature of female leadership in the Religious Society of Friends and to contribute to greater understanding of the conditions under which it became dominant. It suggests that the growing tendency for women to outnumber men as ministers was closely linked to wider social and economic trends within contemporary …