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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Remember My Chains: New Testament Perspectives On Incarceration, Matthew L. Skinner
Remember My Chains: New Testament Perspectives On Incarceration, Matthew L. Skinner
Faculty Publications
Understanding the physical realities and social attitudes concerning incarceration in the ancient world provides a fuller context to the New Testament’s unadorned and ambiguous references to people’s experience of being held in custody. The context is crucial for interpreting biblical passages that commend caring for prisoners, that reaffirm God’s strength and nullify the ignominy associated with incarceration, and that declare God’s power over the means and motives of imperial coercion. Such passages also compel the contemporary church to advocate on behalf of prisoners and to denounce the systems that regularly victimize them.
Damascus Road Or Emmaus Road?: Conversion, Nurtutre Or Both?, Edyta Jankiewicz
Damascus Road Or Emmaus Road?: Conversion, Nurtutre Or Both?, Edyta Jankiewicz
Faculty Publications
As outlined previously, the Scriptures appear to portray a tension between, on the one hand, the need for adults to nurture the faith of children and, on the other hand, the need for the new birth of conversion. Thus, while adults are encouraged to create an environment that facilitates optimal spiritual development, the Scriptures do not suggest that optimal spiritual nurture negates the need for conversion. However, while the Scriptures provide counsel on the how of spiritual nurture, they do not address the subject of how those who are nurtured in faith experience conversion. Thus, Adventist understandings of children’s faith …
Emerging Trends In Confirmation And Equivalent Practices, Terri L. Elton, Katherine Douglass, Richard Osmer
Emerging Trends In Confirmation And Equivalent Practices, Terri L. Elton, Katherine Douglass, Richard Osmer
Faculty Publications
This article highlights the findings of The Confirmation Project research, a mixed methods project that studied confirmation and equivalent practices in five denominations in the United States. (The denominations were United Methodist, Presbyterian USA, African Methodist Episcopal, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Episcopal Church.) What that discovered was confirmation can provide an opportunity for young people to encounter the gospel anew. It is an important ministry when it strengthens young people’s understanding of faith, deepens their experience with Christian community, and equips them to discern their calling to join in God’s mission in the world. As congregations …
Encountering The Gospel Anew: Confirmation As Ecclesial, Personal, And Missional Practices, Terri L. Elton
Encountering The Gospel Anew: Confirmation As Ecclesial, Personal, And Missional Practices, Terri L. Elton
Faculty Publications
Given the challenges facing congregations and young people today, some church leaders are wondering if confirmation continues to have a role in discipling young people. Based on the findings from The Confirmation Project, this article asserts that confirmation is, in fact, uniquely positioned to be a vibrant ministry for young people to encounter the gospel anew when congregations integrate ecclesial, personal, and missional practices. Such an approach strengthens confirmands’ understanding of faith, deepens their experience with Christian community, and equips them to discern their call to join in God’s mission in the world.
Looking High And Low For Salvation In Luke, Matthew L. Skinner
Looking High And Low For Salvation In Luke, Matthew L. Skinner
Faculty Publications
No abstract provided.
The Thin Blue Line Of Theodicy: Flannery O’Connor, Teilhard De Chardin, And Competitions Between Good/Good And Evil/Evil, Sue Whatley
Faculty Publications
This essay explores the concept of theodicy in Flannery O’Connor’s works of fiction. O’Connor’s fiction complicates the subjects of good and evil, moving the reader through what seem to be competitions not only between good and evil, but also between actions of good and actions of evil. Characters align themselves with one force, then another, in a constantly fluctuating system, and there is no traditional pattern of Christian warfare that we would expect orthodox Catholic writing to produce. Sometimes, evil brings about the resolution of the narratives, and sometimes actions of good fail to redeem. It is only through the …
The Gospel Of Pseudo-Matthew, The Rule Of The Master, And The Rule Of Benedict, Brandon W. Hawk
The Gospel Of Pseudo-Matthew, The Rule Of The Master, And The Rule Of Benedict, Brandon W. Hawk
Faculty Publications
The reliance of the apocryphal Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew on the Rule of Benedict has been long acknowledged. The most significant scene to demonstrate intertextuality between the Rule of Benedict and Pseudo-Matthew is chapter 6, which depicts Mary's ascetic life in a community of virgins. This scene adds much that is not in the main source, the Greek Protevangelium of James, based on the Benedictine life of work and prayer. Recent work on the sources of the apocryphal gospel, however, gives rise to questions about the sources involved in Pseudo-Matthew, especially opening up the possibility that the author of …