Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Review: Christian Intercultural Communication, Andrew J. Ondo

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

A Review: Chang, C. Tim, and Ashley E. Chang. Christian Intercultural Communication: Sharing God’s Love with People of Other Cultures. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 2021. 277 Pages. $82.11.

Catholicism In Context: Religious Practice In Latin America, Gustavo Morello Sj

Journal of Global Catholicism

A critical problem to study Catholicism in the context of Latin American modernity, is that the conceptual tools we use to study religion were designed to understand the transformations that modernity provoked in European religiosity. Studies on the religion of Latin Americans have largely explored the religiosity of the population through surveys that measure attendance, adherence and affiliation. While some anthropologists have explored religious practices among particular groups, we do not know how ordinary, urban Latin Americans practice religion. To fill this gap, a group of researchers from Boston College, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Catholic University of Córdoba, and …

Tarian Perdamaian: Enacting Alternative Hindu/Christian Identity Discourses Through "Secular" Balinese Performing Arts, Dustin D. Wiebe

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

This article examines the nature of interreligious relations between Protestants of the Bali Church and Hindus as enacted through dramatic forms of Balinese music and dance. Particular attention is paid to the influence of mass tourism as a contributing factor in this process. Since the early twentieth century these arts have formed a central component of a pan-Balinese identity discourse known as" kebalian." The first Balinese converted to Christianity during the 1930s and were subsequently excommunicated from their ancestral villages for refusing to participate in local customary practices (including the ritualistic use of gamelan music). For this reason, Balinese …

The Importance Of Integrity In Christian Leadership : Giftedness + Integrity(3) = Productivity, Jasmin O. Brown

Journal of Applied Christian Leadership

"One of the christian world’s greatest leadership challenges today is integrity. the church is facing an integrity crisis that will compromise its influence within society. this integrity crisis within the church serves as the impetus for exploring the importance of integrity among christian leaders. this study examines three dimensions of integrity: personal integrity, vocational integrity,"

Understanding Christian Perfection And Its Struggle With Antinomianism, Victoria L. Campbell

The Asbury Journal

Every so often, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary will notice a current student with exceptional promise. The Asbury Journal wants to help highlight the work of rising academics by publishing works from such students. This paper is an example of such a work, brought to the attention of the editor by Dr. Larry Wood.

Much of the confusion regarding John Wesley’s phrase, Christian perfection, comes from the western tendency to define “perfection” as a state of infallibility (from the Latin perfectio) rather than a process of spiritual maturing based upon the Greek word for perfection, teleios (Matthew …

The Missional Approach Of The Acts 29 Church Planting Movement, Marylyn Sohlberg

Global Tides

Missional churches, those that bring Jesus outside the walls of the church and into the unknown, unreached, and uncomfortable areas in the United States and the world, seem to have taken center stage in the realm of popular Christian discussion over the past few decades. However, roughly thirty percent of the globe remains untargeted by “missional churches.” In his book “Planting Missional Churches,” Ed Stetzer highlights the need for missional churches in the U.S. in particular, citing a Gallup poll that observed eighty percent of American churches in decline. In 2011, Gallup also estimated an average of forty-five percent of …

Poetry As The Handmaid Of Piety: Hymns As A Catalyst For Human Development In Early Methodism, Brian Yeich

The Asbury Journal

In the preface to the 1780 edition o f Hymns for the People Called Methodist, John Wesley stated, 'When Poetry thus keeps its place, as the handmaid of Piety, it shall attain, not a poor perishable 'Wreath, but a crown that fadeth not away."l While John Wesley may have never used the term ''human development," a student of Wesley would quickly observe that Wesley and the early Methodists were focused on the transformation of individual human lives as well as the society in which they lived. This paper explores the connection between the hynmody of early Methodism and …

The Journey To God: Union, Purgation And Transformation Within The Ascent Of Mount Carmel And A Plain Account Of Christian Perfection, Stephen L. Martyn

The Asbury Journal

This article is both a call to Christian maturity and an appreciative recounting of how a Roman Catholic mystic, John of the Cross, helped me reclaim and love my own Wesleyan tradition of entire sanctification. In this article I hold up the theological doctrine of Union with God as the goal of the Christian life and review and contrast how Wesley and John of the Cross approached the issue. UThile these two spiritual masters outline differing views of the path to perfection in love, they both, nevertheless, continue to inspire and offer the light of Christ to Christians seeking full …

Christian Sensitivity In Interreligious Relation, Paul D. Numrich

The Asbury Journal

This essay reflects on the implications of my mandate to guide seminary students "to think creatively and responsibly about how to proclaim the Christian gospel in multi-cultural contexts with a sensitivity to interfaith perspectives." I ask the question, What does it mean for Christian seminarians--and Christians generally--to engage adherents of other faiths with sensitivity to their perspectives? I offer a general definition of "sensitivity" and distinguish Christian sensitivity from other kinds, in that it is informed by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit in the living heritage of the Christian faith. …

Leading A Polytheistic Faith To The Monotheistic God: A Study In Identifying Barriers To The Gospel In A Chinese Buddhist Community And Ways To Overcome Those Barriers, Agnes Wood

The Asbury Journal

This article is written for the purpose of exploring a way to lead a polytheistic faith, prevalent in the local Chinese Buddhist community (LCBC) in Brunei, to the reality of a monotheistic God as revealed in the Bible (1 Corinthians 8:6). It serves as a guide for the local Chinese church (CC) to lead the LCBC to see that God as a Creator is sufficient to be their God.

This article identifies the need of a missiological package in order to lead the LCBC to Christ. The CC needs to assist the LCBC to become receptive before the core of …

Opportunities In The Field Of Bible Translating, Eugene A. Nida

Concordia Theological Monthly

Ever since World War II an increasingly larger number of persons have become interested in and concerned for the field of Bible translating; the strategy of the printed page and the crucial necessity of wider distribution of the Scriptures have forced Christians to pay greater attention to the translation and revision of the Holy Scriptures. In our rapidly shrinking world, those with even a limited knowledge of the problems of communication on the mission field, have not failed to be impressed with the significant contribution which can be made by the relatively new emphases on structural linguistics and cultural anthropology. …

What Is A "Missionary," Anyway?, Graeme M. Rosenau

Concordia Theological Monthly

What is a "missionary," anyway? The answer cannot be given in 30 minutes or 30 hours. Some things that are extremely important can be said, and this iS an attempt to say them. But what is said can by its very generality point only beyond itself to the greatness of the work we missionaries have laid upon us and to the incalculable magnitude of the divine grace that has called us, even us, in our weakness and incapability, to perform it and has given us the power and promise that guarantee success. Only let us remember that the succes will …

The World Council Of Churches: A Theological Appraisal, F. E. Mayer, Richard Z. Meyer

Concordia Theological Monthly

Throughout the history of the divided Church there have been earnest efforts to reunite the separated communions. The impetus for such a reunion usually was strongest in a period either of prosperity or of opposition. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Church experienced an era of revivalism and expansion, and shortly the former confessional boundaries were ignored, and in spite of divergent doctrinal views denominations united in organizing the several national Bible Societies and large Missionary Associations. When shortly afterwards a wave of secularism swept over the world, the various communions again set aside their confessional differences and …

The Greatest Missionary Problem, H. Nau

Concordia Theological Monthly

The greatest missionary problem facing the Christian Church of the future is the world of Islam, the Moslem world. While the pagan world is comparatively well stocked with Christian missions and missionaries - comparatively well, we say, because we know only too well that in some parts of the pagan world the missionary occupation is but a skeleton one - the world of Islam has been touched only on its outskirts, its fringes.

The Laymen's Foreign Mission Inquiry, W. Arndt

Concordia Theological Monthly

The almost unprecedented amount of discussion which the press of the country allots to the report of the undertaking known as the Laymen's Foreign Missions Inquiry seems to demand that in addition to the brief appraisal of the report in our last issue our journal devote an article to this subject.