Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Talk This Way: A Look At The Historical Conversation Between Hip-Hop And Christianity, Joshua Swanson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christianity and Hip-Hop culture are often said to be at odds with one another. One is said to promote a lifestyle of righteousness and love, while the other is said to promote drugs, violence, and pride. As a result, the public has portrayed these two institutions as conflicting with no willingness to resolve their perceived differences. This paper will argue that there has always been a healthy conversation between Hip-Hop and Christianity since Hip-Hop’s inception. Using sources like Hip-Hop lyrics, theologians, historians, autobiographies, sermons, and articles that range from Ma$e to Tipper Gore, this paper will look at the conversation …

Capitalism And Biblical Ethics, Sarah D. Stewart

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

There has been a growing trend in some expressions of Christianity to view Capitalism as fundamentally incompatible with the Christian faith. This article looked to a variety of sources to argue that Christianity and Capitalism are not fundamentally incompatible. Rather, Capitalism developed alongside developments in Christian theology during the Middle Ages. This traditional form of Capitalism is defined and argued for in this article. The article attempts to demonstrate that the elements that allow Capitalism to thrive are compatible with Christian ethics. The case is made by first examining the historical development of Capitalism and its relationship to Christianity. From …

"Theology That Actually Works" : An Analysis Of Those Aspects Of Theological Formation Which Best Equip Church Planters For Their Work, John H. Valentine

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Applying Biblical Principles Towards A Model Of Theological Dialogue At The Hillside O'Malley Church, David Shin

Professional Dissertations DMin

Problem

Based on feedback from members of the Hillside O’Malley Church through personal conversations, theological polarization threatened to paralyze the local church and keep it from fulfilling its mission of ministering to its members and reaching out to the community with the gospel message. The theological polarization stemmed from divergences on the presuppositional, macro-hermeneutical level that are revealed visibly in how members interpret the biblical text.

Method

The methodology that was employed was to derive biblical principles from an exegesis of the book of Acts specifically related to theological reason, which included an understanding of how presuppositions worked in the …

Truth And Reconciliation In Light Of The Cross: Martin Luther’S Theology Of The Cross In Relationship To The Current Ubuntu Theology Of Desmond Tutu, Nokukhanya Pearl Shabalala

Master of Art Theology Thesis

Shabalala, Nokukhanya, P “Truth and Reconciliation in Light of the Cross: Martin Luther’s Theology of the Cross in Relationship to the Current Ubuntu Theology of Desmond Tutu.” Master of Arts Thesis, Concordia Seminary, 2019. 97pp.

The issue of suffering in Africa has resulted in Africans attributing suffering to God’s work, ancestors’ anger and evil spirits or witchcraft’s work. This is a skewed understanding of suffering. And not only that, the suffering that has been perpetrated by the civil war has birthed the phenomenon of child soldiers resulting in Africa casting out its children. In both of these presented issues sub-Saharan …

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 …

A Power Man’S Theology: Marvel’S Luke Cage And Black Liberation Theology, Diarron B. Morrison

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Netflix released Marvel’s Luke Cage in 2016 to critical acclaim. Born from a 1970s comic book, the series features Luke Cage, an African-American superhero. Cage is a big, bald, bulletproof black man. Instead of tights and a cape, Cage wears a hoodie calling the audience to remember Trayvon Martin and other victims of white racism. Theologian James Cone created Black Liberation Theology in the 1970s. As a result of Cone’s work, Black Liberation Theology addresses the issue of white racism from a theological standpoint. In this thesis I present a close reading of Marvel’s Luke Cage using Black Liberation Theology …

Tracing God's Hand In Redemption: Exploring Evidence Of The Imago Dei In Human Molecular Biology, James Don Johansen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This interdisciplinary dissertation examines how Imago Dei and the impacts and redemption of sin may be observable in molecular biology. It introduces the idea of biological redemption, where, in support of our Imago Dei mission and calling, our bodies can respond to environmental and spiritual factors with biological redemptive adaptations. This project does both theological and scientific assessment. It explores how God is engaged with individuals in community via spiritual social networks, where Christian communities act as an ecosystem in which individuals can thrive and undergo spiritual formation, living out Christian spiritual practices. The main question this dissertation addresses is: …

Reading The Bible Together: The Virtue Of Patience As A Resource For Navigating Interpretive Disagreements In Congregations, Mason Lee

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

Disagreements over the meaning of Scripture and how it should shape congregational action can be great sources of conflict in congregational life. Yet as contentious as these disagreements can be, appeals to method have been unable to resolve them. This article proposes that a fruitful way of navigating these arguments within our congregations is not by trying to establish a single way of reading Scripture or of determining what Scripture “means,” but by becoming people able to peacefully hold an irreducible diversity of interpretive options. This article focuses on one virtue in particular—the virtue of patience—and suggests that it is …

Doing The Good In The Apostle Paul's Ethical Vision, T. Luke Post

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Emotional Intelligence For Pastoral Leadership : An Evaluative Study Of The Teaching Modules On Emotional Intelligence For Pastoral Leaders At Seoul Theological Seminary In South Korea, Dong Hyun Nam

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Designing Non-Residential Theological Training Curriculum For Enph Vocational Ministers, Nixon A. Ng

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Theology And Practice Of Foster Care Ministry: An Investigation Into The Effectiveness Of A Church-Based Wraparound Program For Foster Parents, Robert Wesley Griffith

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new foster parent wraparound program at Journey Church in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The need for this program was found to be in alignment with the mission of God as seen in Isaiah 1:17, Acts 6, Romans 8, and James 1:27. The New Testament Church has a history of leading the way with innovative solutions to rescue orphans, and today, the church once again has the opportunity to lead the way in foster care solutions.

When Kenosha County leaders in the judicial, legal, and social services sector were recently asked …

Toward An Adventist Theology Of Urban Mission, Gary Krause

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"As the Adventist Church looks at modern cities, the vista can be overwhelming. The city is an enigmatic phenomenon, a conglomeration of hundreds of disparate cultures, languages, and people groups. It is a complex and complicated place, resistant to easy categorization or description. Just as soon as one feels one is getting a grip on the nature of a city, a street corner is turned and another unfamiliar world opens up. The way the church views the city is of fundamental importance to the way it conducts its urban mission; therefore, in this chapter I will propose a theological window …

A Theological Framework For Adventist Urban Ministry, Kelvin Okey Onongha

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"Early Adventism typically advocated the need to flee the cities for simple rural living because cities were regarded as Babylon (Jer 50:1-3; Rev 18:2-3). Consequently, in those regions of the world where the church’s presence has the longest history with sometimes larger congregations, many church properties are located in the countryside or rural areas. A major reason why the Adventist Church is only so lately coming to terms with the exigency of urban ministries is the deficiency of a theological framework for engagement in missions to the cities. Stone (2015) agrees that the failure to develop a theology for the …

Toward A Post-Religious Urban Theology: The Missionary Movement Ethos In Secularized Contexts, Marcelo E. C. Dias

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"An urban theology should be the center of conversation with the current post-religious context that takes into serious consideration people’s search for meaning and the new spirituality in this age. Perhaps popular culture can give clues about contemporary meaning-making as well (Shannahan 2014:207-217). On the one side, history assures that an urban setting does not need to feel like a threat to the Christian faith. “Early Christianity was primarily an urban movement. The original meaning of the word pagan (paganus) was ‘rural person,’ or more colloquially ‘country hick.’ It came to have religious meaning because after Christianity had triumphed in …

Country Versus City Tension: Historical And Socio-Religious Context Of The Development Of Adventist Understanding Of Urban Mission, Allan Novaes, Wendel Lima

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"The Adventist engagement in the evangelization of cities has been timid and, for many decades, even discouraged by an anti-urban attitude. This mentality of criticism and resistance to the cities was largely sustained through an incomplete and/or misreading of Ellen White’s writings (Jones 2013:716). This article seeks to describe Adventist rural/urban tension, the historical and social context of its origin, and how it has been softened by a contrasting broader view of Adventist urban mission."

Ms – 231: Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg Keller, Class Of 1838, Karen Dupell Drickamer

All Finding Aids

The collection consists of four notebooks penned in Keller’s hand. Two of the notebooks contain notes taken by Keller while a student at the Seminary, 1838-1840, for courses taught by Samuel. S. Schmucker, founder and sole instructor at the Seminary (original).

The notes in MS #1 begin with a lecture on Chronology, (the application of periods of time to history) and moves through lessons on “Biblical History” as presented in the Hebrew Scripture from creation in Genesis to the kingships of David and Solomon in I & II Samuel. The notes in MS #2 cover two subjects, “Church Government & …

Science And Theology In Religious Education And Faith Formation With Children And Youth: Towards A Post-Foundationalist Approach, Judy S. Steers

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The intersections of Science and Theology have received a great deal of attention in recent decades. A broad range of approaches and discourse exists within academic environments. Within popular culture, however, the public perception often is that science and theology are in conflict and at odds with one another.

Many authors have attempted to write about science and theology from a dialogical standpoint. Educational projects over the past ten years have attempted to address the supposed conflict between religion and science, and affirm the validity of religious beliefs in a scientific era. Too often, however, scientific concepts are misappropriated as …

The Gospel-Centered Christian, Timothy Saleska

Concordia Pages

When I was a seminarian back in 1980 we were less than six years distant from the synodical upheavals that came to a head in 1974. One of the documents that every seminarian was required to read in those days was the 1970 report of the LCMS Commission of Theology and Church Relations (CTCR) entitled, Gospel & Scripture. Prof. Harry Huth of Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, who served as the primary drafter for the report, penned what is arguably one of the most important reports ever put out by the CTCR. Or at the very least, it was a …

An Overview Of The Theology Of Oral Roberts, R. Samuel Thorpe

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Oral Roberts’ life and healing ministry were shaped by his theology of God. Roberts viewed God as good, who personally worked in the lives of people in the present, and who had good plans for each believer. The manifestation of these plans depended, however, on the faith of the individual believer. God was affected by events in time, was limited in his ability to act by the cooperation of the believer, and suffered emotional distress even as people do. The overriding element in all of Roberts’ message is that “Something good is going to happen to you.” Christians should expect …

The Two Shall Become One: A Comparative Exegetical Study On Marital Unity From The Genesis Garden Narrative To Ephesians 5, Abigail M. Diaz

Selected Honors Theses

In light of a cultural world in which both real-world marriages and the scholarly interpretation on marital purpose and process are scarred with dysfunction and division, this thesis attempts to contribute to the discussion on the Scriptural purpose and process of marriage as God intends it. In order to discern a glimpse of divine intention of marriage, an exegetical analysis of its divine beginnings in Genesis 1:27-3:24 is performed. This section addresses the original nature of marriage as well as how it was affected as a result of sin and the fall. The following chapter complements this analysis with exegesis …

Christian Versus Heathen Ways Of Praying: A Look From The Age Of Postmodernity, Yuri N. Drumi

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"In many respects, postmodernity resembles paganism, but certainly it does not totally overlap with it. People around us are searching, but they do not search for answers and explanations as much as they are searching for people who are living answers. If prayer is a metanarrative, then my life must be a metanarrative too. In this context, I find helpful the analogy drawn by Crossan between Paul’s metaphor of spiritual maturation and that of an individual Christian growing in prayer. Paul says, “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as …

Grammars Of Transformation: Saving Evangelical Cultural Engagement, William Watts

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Watts, William J. “Grammars of Transformation: Saving Evangelical Cultural Engagement.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2018. 137 pp.

Evangelical Christians have been struggling to offer a thorough and unified account of cultural engagement for the last several decades. H. Richard Niebuhr’s “Christ the Transformer of Culture” type has supplied evangelicals with the most influential rhetoric on the proper relationship of Christians and the church to the culture at large. However, this consensus is collapsing in the wake of new ways of speaking of cultural engagement that largely downplay or altogether avoid the language of transformation. The emergence of these new ways …

Orthodoxy And The Great Commission In The South Georgia Conference Of The United Methodist Church, Lee Edward Pettis

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Mercy Vs. Justice - Blood Of The Lamb, Ryan Murphy

Honors Projects

How did Christ's death save us? The Atonement is a Christian doctrine which has been heavily debated in how it should be understood since the beginnings of Christianity. This analysis covers the theological theories of the Atonement, narrates a Catholic layman's personal understanding that is based on scholarly research and is kept within the bounds of Catholic doctrine, and summarizes the thoughts and feelings of surveyed college-age Christians on the subject.

Theological Foundations Of Pastoral Care In Catholic Universities, Thomas V. Gourlay

Thomas V. Gourlay

One defining element of life in any Catholic educational institution, whether it be primary, secondary, or tertiary, is the focus on pastoral care for staff and students. This paper provides a distinctly Catholic definition of the term ‘pastoral care’ and briefly examines the theological foundations that underpin this concept, particularly, in relation to its application in the Catholic university. The paper traces the motif of pastoral care through the Scriptures and, building on insights from St. Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990) and the broader theological anthropology of the Vatican II Council. The …

A Strategic Spiritual Formation Study Based On The Book Of Malachi, Rand Muender

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A review of current literature on spiritual disciplines demonstrates the need for a pastor to successfully implement an exegetical preaching methodology toward spiritual formation. The goal of this project is to answer: “What impact would a strategic spiritual formation study based upon the Book of Malachi implemented by a pastor have on a local church that is below 200 in attendance?” Incorporating the results of surveys sent to pastors within The Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia having below 200 in attendance, this project will review theological, historical, and exegetical, perspectives and principles for a biblical methodology for spiritual formation.

The Parables Of Jesus Christ: The Ultimate Evil Eye, Harold Willmington

The Second Person File

No abstract provided.

The Parables Of Jesus Christ: Two Gates, Two Goals, Harold Willmington

The Second Person File

No abstract provided.