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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Living A Better Story: The Lived Narrative Apologetic In The Book Of Acts, Cedric Lemar Thomas
Living A Better Story: The Lived Narrative Apologetic In The Book Of Acts, Cedric Lemar Thomas
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Is it possible to articulate an apologetic practice from the account of Luke-Acts, which is not among the current popular Christian apologetic practices within contemporary apologetic scholarship? Can one consider the narratives in this history of Acts as a description of apologetic methodology, a sort of a first Christian apologetic practice demonstrated by Jesus and then replicated by His disciples? The answer is yes. The historical work of Luke offers an early apologetic practice in which the story of Scripture, the narrative of God, witnessed incarnationally through the life of Jesus and continued by the early church. Like Scripture, the …
Private Christian Education And Utilization Of Evangelism Curriculum, Amy N. Mcbrayer
Private Christian Education And Utilization Of Evangelism Curriculum, Amy N. Mcbrayer
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this DMIN action research project is to develop and implement curriculum for equipping students to communicate their faith and the gospel interculturally. The central focus of this DMIN research project to introduce a novel World Religions course to the curriculum at Angleton Christian School in order to provide the students with practical training for cross-cultural evangelism and apologetics. There were eleven total participants, all who were either junior and senior-level students at the start of the 2023 fall semester. Each student was assessed using the same theological assessment and world religion survey on both the first day …
Reconsidering The Apologetic Purpose Of Luke-Acts, James C. Williams
Reconsidering The Apologetic Purpose Of Luke-Acts, James C. Williams
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The Gospel of Luke and Acts of the Apostles are two critical works in the Bible. Together, these two books make up approximately twenty seven percent of the New Testament. Their literary contribution to what is known about the origins of Christianity and its rapid spread in major cities of the Roman Empire is immeasurable. It is appropriate that so much has been written regarding these two key books’ origins, genre, and purpose. Yet, with all that has been written, there is still much debate about this subject. Should these two books be treated separately, as two different genres, or …
Apologetic Knowledge: The Modern Church Planter, Matthew Dilley
Apologetic Knowledge: The Modern Church Planter, Matthew Dilley
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This project addresses a critical need within the ministry field, focusing on pastors affiliated with the church planting networks Excel Leadership Network and Transformation Ministries. The context is shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on church planting, with a shift to online services and emerging challenges in ministry. The problem is the significant lack of knowledge of apologetics among church planters, hindering their ability to effectively articulate and defend the Christian faith in today's postmodern world, particularly when engaging with non-believers. This DMIN action research project aims to create a concise video curriculum that equips pastors with fundamental apologetics knowledge. …
Christological Apologetics: How Late Antique Christians Contextualized Christology In Inter-Faith Dialogue With Muslims, Andrew P. Hillaker
Christological Apologetics: How Late Antique Christians Contextualized Christology In Inter-Faith Dialogue With Muslims, Andrew P. Hillaker
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The earliest Christian-Muslim dialogue offers a unique glimpse into how Christians viewed the religion of their neighbors. Much of contemporary American scholarship misplaces focus geographically and linguistically in the West, chronologically late, and theologically narrow. These biases neglect those who had the earliest interaction with Islam, allowing for misunderstanding of how Christians originally understood Islam. This study examines the apologetic arguments of representatives under Islamic rule, in the late 7th to early 9th centuries, and both inside and outside theological orthodoxy, to understand how they used Christology to distinguish Christianity from Islam, whether as a heretical group or a distinct …
Understanding The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ And Its Soteriological Significance, Zach Maldonado
Understanding The Resurrection Of Jesus Christ And Its Soteriological Significance, Zach Maldonado
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this DMIN action research project was to develop and implement a study on the resurrection of Jesus at Life Church. The problem was that people at Life Church did not adequately understand the resurrection of Christ for their belief in salvation. The study sought to help members of Life Church understand what Scripture teaches about salvation. The goal for this action research project was for members of Life Church to understand, defend, and articulate the resurrection of Jesus and its soteriological implications. There were seven total participants that took part in the study. Every participant was given …
Teaching High School Students An Apologetic Curriculum On Relativism, Ryan G. Willert
Teaching High School Students An Apologetic Curriculum On Relativism, Ryan G. Willert
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this action research project is to develop and teach an apologetic curriculum on relativism to the high school students at Eastern Hills Church. The research project will measure the student's prior knowledge of relativism and show that an apologetic curriculum on the topic can be used in order to grow their knowledge of the worldview that inhabits their generation. There were twenty total student participants. Eight total male students ranging from 9th grade to the 12th grade level. There were twelve female students ranging from the 9th grade to the 11th grade level. Each student was given …
Implementing And Equipping A Fivefold Ministry With Theological Education To Defend And Uphold Biblical Doctrines In The Church, Kara Yvette Harris
Implementing And Equipping A Fivefold Ministry With Theological Education To Defend And Uphold Biblical Doctrines In The Church, Kara Yvette Harris
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
God instructed believers to put forth their best work to rightly handle His Word of truth (2 Tim 2:15). Unfortunately, God’s truth is under attack and has been polluted with false teaching and incorrect understanding of Scripture. It is incumbent on the local church to combat this problem of incorrect biblical teaching head-on. Therefore, this action research project aims to demonstrate that through proper theological training in the church, this problem will be remedied. This action research assumes that arming the local church with theological training will strengthen its core. To this aim, this research project included teaching five theological …
Theological Education And Spiritual Formation In The Lives Of Engaged, Emerging Adults, Markus David Colbert
Theological Education And Spiritual Formation In The Lives Of Engaged, Emerging Adults, Markus David Colbert
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This thesis seeks to answer the following question: What is an effective discipleship method for emerging adults who are already engaged in IChurch? The method chosen was multi-layered and utilized corporate discipleship which involved a classroom setting geared toward theological and doctrinal education based on Bloom-Anderson’s taxonomy of educational objectives, communal discipleship which was concerned with small group activities and peer-to-peer accountability, and personal discipleship geared toward individual spiritual formation given an edited list of Whitney’s personal spiritual disciplines. Participants were asked to take an introductory Theological examination which plotted them from analyze level to the create level of Bloom’s …
Apologetic Properties Of Archaeology, Scott Christopher Reynolds
Apologetic Properties Of Archaeology, Scott Christopher Reynolds
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Scholars are divided over the idea of archaeology providing more information than anthropomorphic data about people groups. In the Levant, biblical archaeology used the Bible to connect artifacts with biblical accounts; however, scholars began to believe that interpretation was being forced to fit the biblical accounts. Apologists began to embrace more technical results and archaeology and different schools of apologetics began to see a place for archaeology in the study of apologetics. The most accepting form of apologetics is the Cumulative Case Apologetic, as it blends into its apologetic argument anything needed to further the argument. However, the ability of …
Whence Faith? The Nexus Of Passional Reason, Christian Personalism, And Abduction In Apologetics, Thomas Jefferson Gentry Ii
Whence Faith? The Nexus Of Passional Reason, Christian Personalism, And Abduction In Apologetics, Thomas Jefferson Gentry Ii
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Motivated by a desire to understand better and articulate matters touching on how beliefs are formed, this research considers the possibility of a religious epistemological nexus, a connection between the rational and affective capacities possessed by persons, human dignity and self-determination, and the method of argumentation used by apologists. The thesis defended is that through the means of the concomitance of the human intellect, emotions, and will (passional reason), the whole person is engaged in the process of passional reason whereby one can perceive, assess, and decide to believe in matters of religious faith (Thomistic doxastic voluntarism). Further, at the …
C. I. Scofield's Teachings Regarding The Conversion And Restoration Of The Jewish Nation In Fulfillment Of Old And New Testament Prophecies And Their Potential Apologetic Value, Timothy M. Skinner
C. I. Scofield's Teachings Regarding The Conversion And Restoration Of The Jewish Nation In Fulfillment Of Old And New Testament Prophecies And Their Potential Apologetic Value, Timothy M. Skinner
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The confirmation of C. I. Scofield's beliefs and teachings regarding a literal and national restoration of the Jewish people in fulfillment of Old and New Testament prophecies can be argued through the writings of Reformed theologians and those hostile to dispensationalism by utilizing a comparative biblical/theological approach on a key eschatological passage, Romans 11:26 and the statement, “All Israel shall be saved.” Non-dispensationalists acknowledge or are in agreement with many of the teachings of Scofield but reject his conclusions regarding the restoration of a literal Jewish nation as being proof of the proper interpretation of the biblical text, even though …
From Mocker To Martyr: The Unlikely Conversion Of James The Brother Of Jesus, Brian Lewis Cunningham
From Mocker To Martyr: The Unlikely Conversion Of James The Brother Of Jesus, Brian Lewis Cunningham
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
For many years, James, the brother of Jesus, was all but neglected when it came to biblical scholarship. Around four decades ago, there was a resurgence of serious inquiry about James. Since that time, a considerable amount of scholarly material has been published about him, including a possible connection between James and a first-century ossuary box that bears his name. But one aspect of James’s life has not enjoyed such widespread discussion, namely, his conversion. The reason his conversion has been ignored is because there is so little prominent information. The only glimpse afforded to us comes from Jesus appearing …
Connecting Youth To The Gospel: The Role Of Theology And Apologetics, John Wesley Sales Iv
Connecting Youth To The Gospel: The Role Of Theology And Apologetics, John Wesley Sales Iv
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Connecting youth to the Gospel sounds like a basic undertaking. However, evidence shows students know very little about the Gospel. While they grow up in church and attend Sunday school, there is still a lack of desire from students to want to know who God is. There needs to be a path to teaching students the genuine and deep teachings of the Gospel. This topic is important because as students grow older, they may grow apart from what they learned in Sunday school. When they are challenged and distracted by the world, they need a strong anchor to keep them …
Christian Education And The Examination Of Apologetics Curriculum, Sara Elizabeth Boyd
Christian Education And The Examination Of Apologetics Curriculum, Sara Elizabeth Boyd
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The purpose of this action research project was to evaluate the ability of Christian high school students to explain and defend their faith. The main focus of the project was to compare the current apologetics curriculum used by Cedar Park Christian School to a new curriculum designed for the sake of this study. The new curriculum sought to provide grade-level resources as source material for each student. Additionally, it approached the course with the expectation for students to articulate their learned knowledge conversationally. There were forty-nine total participants, all who were either a junior or senior at the start of …
Joy Beyond The Walls Of The World: How Christianity Ably Explains The Moral Facts, Jonathan Royce Pruitt
Joy Beyond The Walls Of The World: How Christianity Ably Explains The Moral Facts, Jonathan Royce Pruitt
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
I argue that Christianity ably explains the moral facts of moral goodness, intrinsic human value, moral rationality, and moral transformation. Chapter 1 provides an explanation of the thesis, a historical overview of the moral argument, a defense of the method, a critique of William Lane Craig’s deductive argument, and a response to some challenges to abduction from a Christian worldview. In chapter 2, I explain how Christianity ably explains moral goodness. I first give some reason to think God should be identified with the Good, following Robert Adams. Next, I summarize some of the issues related to moral goodness. Then, …
Purging The New Age: A Theological Analysis Of The Use Of New Age Practices By The Church, Christopher Michael Berg
Purging The New Age: A Theological Analysis Of The Use Of New Age Practices By The Church, Christopher Michael Berg
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This dissertation sets out to demonstrate that Yoga and the Enneagram are not compatible with orthodox Christianity. Additionally, this dissertation will show that all possible attempts at Christianizing these practices ultimately fail due to incompatible underlying philosophies and theologies. In order to accomplish this task, assessment criteria will be developed through a comparison of a subset of evangelical Christian theological topics with their New Age counterparts. These criteria will be used to assess the level of syncretization in each practice as presented by the most popular and prolific Christian practitioners. After assessment, a recommendation will be given concerning each practice’s …
Preparing The Next Generation For A Pluralistic World: The Need To Teach Systematic Theology To Christian Youth, Terrance Jermayne O'Neil
Preparing The Next Generation For A Pluralistic World: The Need To Teach Systematic Theology To Christian Youth, Terrance Jermayne O'Neil
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The continuation of Christianity is rooted in the historical practice of the preceding generation theologically educating the next generation. This process has led to the spreading of the gospel throughout the world. However, in recent years, the Christian church has watched an entire generation walk away from the faith. Many youths who affirmed their faith in Christ are abandoning their confessions and practice. The challenges and skepticism of a pluralistic and relativistic culture have questioned historic Christianity. Regretfully, Christian youth are unable to respond theologically and accurately with confidence. The church has failed to prepare them. This study sought to …
Morality And The Personhood Of God: A Moral Argument For The Existence Of A Personal God, Stephen Scott Jordan
Morality And The Personhood Of God: A Moral Argument For The Existence Of A Personal God, Stephen Scott Jordan
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The concept that God is personal is an important part of religious belief. If God were not personal, it would be odd to think of him as moral or loving; it would also seem counterintuitive to speak of him as One with whom humans can have a personal relationship, One who can be trusted, cares for the people he created, listens to their prayers, acts on their behalf, has their best interests at heart, and so on. In short, to talk of such matters in a sensible manner and to experience them in everyday life seemingly requires that God is …
Establishing Christ Community Church As A Sent Community: Initiating Spiritual Conversation With Confidence, Relevance, And Conviction, William Leland Burch Ii
Establishing Christ Community Church As A Sent Community: Initiating Spiritual Conversation With Confidence, Relevance, And Conviction, William Leland Burch Ii
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The problem is that Christ Community Church does not see itself as a ‘sent community.’ A ‘sent community’ is one where purpose and forward movement in Kingdom work is embraced. A church must seek to involve itself in the community, delve into the needs, and speak to the emptiness with the Gospel of Jesus. The purpose of this project is to establish Christ Community Church as a ‘sent community’ by offering a sustentative engagement program which will: 1) describe the mission of Jesus; 2) assess the culture in which the church is situated; 3) answer six frequently asked theological questions; …
A Model For Pastoral Care And Shepherding Of A Mid-Sized Growing Church, Willis Dean Wainwright
A Model For Pastoral Care And Shepherding Of A Mid-Sized Growing Church, Willis Dean Wainwright
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This study addresses the challenges related to the caregiving ministry of Mountain View Community Church located in Temecula, California. This revitalized Church has grown from 50 attendees in 2004 to over 2000 by 2010. The growth has led to many challenges, including the development of a ministry strategy that will meet the needs of the congregation. The leadership team sought to answer the question of an appropriate ministry strategy through examining scriptures, reviewing the history of ministry, and evaluating current models of caregiving used in large Baptist churches. Additionally, a survey of pastoral care methodology employed in large Baptist churches …
An Approach To Teaching Christian Apologetics To The Believers In The Local Church, Reba Renorder Gore
An Approach To Teaching Christian Apologetics To The Believers In The Local Church, Reba Renorder Gore
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This research project is an academic research on apologetics, which will be taught in the in the future in local church. Many people in the Christian community may be attending the local church and living in their community that may not clearly understand apologetics. As followers of Christ, in the Christian community and the local church, can everyone defend the Faith and feel comfortable? In the Old and New Testament, God has given His road map for man. He came, lived, was buried, and resurrected for all humankind that would accept Him as their personal Lord and Savior. As Christians, …
Combatting Secular Humanism: Creating A Strategy To Teach Theology And Apologetics To High School Students, Chad J. Brown
Combatting Secular Humanism: Creating A Strategy To Teach Theology And Apologetics To High School Students, Chad J. Brown
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
In today’s society, there are more distractions than ever before. Students graduate from high school and often face worldview attacks from their professors. Many times, students do not have a solid enough understanding of a biblical worldview to respond confidently. The postmodern culture has created a gap between student’s emotional need and the intellectual need for a solid biblical foundation. Secular humanism has become a dominating worldview in our culture, and this project will formulate a strategy to teach theology and apologetics to high school students to combat secular humanism. Discipleship is training of a person’s mental, emotional, and spiritual …
Original Monotheism: A Signal Of Transcendence Challenging Naturalism And New Ageism, Daniel Roger Cote
Original Monotheism: A Signal Of Transcendence Challenging Naturalism And New Ageism, Daniel Roger Cote
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Where once in America, belief in Christian theism was shared by a large majority of the population, over the last 70 years belief in Christian theism has significantly eroded. From 1948 to 2018, the percent of Americans identifying as Catholic or Christians dropped from 91 percent to 67 percent, with virtually all the drop coming from protestant denominations. Naturalism and new ageism increasingly provide alternative means for understanding existential reality without the moral imperatives and the belief in the divine associated with Christian theism. The ironic aspect of the shifting of worldviews underway in western culture is that it continues …
The Use Of Apologetics In The Book Of Isaiah, Daniel Robert Sloan
The Use Of Apologetics In The Book Of Isaiah, Daniel Robert Sloan
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Isaiah used apologetics in three distinct areas: Yahweh’s creation and sovereign control (Past), Yahweh’s divine intervention in delivering Judah (present) and Yahweh as the controller of the future (Immediate, Exilic, Messianic and eschatological) to argue that Yahweh was the one true God, unique and superior to all pagan deities, to both his contemporary audience and to future generations. In chapter one, the research questions are addressed, a literary review is presented, and the methodology of the dissertation is given. In chapter two, the dissertation addresses how the book of Isaiah argues apologetically that Yahweh is the Creator and therefore is …
Tracing God's Hand In Redemption: Exploring Evidence Of The Imago Dei In Human Molecular Biology, James Don Johansen
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: …
Missional Apologetics: An Examination Of Essential Elements In The Apologetic Approaches Of Early Christian Era Apologists In Light Of The Mission Of Christ To A Pluralistic World, George B. Bannister Sr
Missional Apologetics: An Examination Of Essential Elements In The Apologetic Approaches Of Early Christian Era Apologists In Light Of The Mission Of Christ To A Pluralistic World, George B. Bannister Sr
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
The cultural ethos known as postmodernism has impacted the epistemological and functional structures of contemporary society in dramatic ways. Changes in the attitudes, standards, and belief systems from which people operate in their day-to-day lives have seen radical alterations in the last fifty years. The impact of the postmodern milieu has been evident in various ways in local church ministry, as well as the extension of local church ministry on the mission field.As a result of the waning effectiveness of traditional evangelism methods and indications that there is a relationship between that waning efficacy and the postmodern milieu, scholars have …
How Public College Students Experience Biblically-Informed Literature Taught As Cultural Documents: A Transcendental Phenomenology, De'lara Khalili Stephens
How Public College Students Experience Biblically-Informed Literature Taught As Cultural Documents: A Transcendental Phenomenology, De'lara Khalili Stephens
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
This transcendental phenomenology describes the experience of public college students who study biblical or biblically-informed literary texts that are taught merely as cultural documents in literature and humanities courses. Two primary theories informed this study: transformation theory in adult learning and the theory of literary apologetics. Furthermore, qualitative methodologies of data collection included journaling, individual interviews with 13 public college students, and focus groups. Data analysis included epoche, member checks, and horizonalization. Three research questions guided the study: (1) How do public college students describe their experiences with biblical or biblically-informed literary texts when they are taught simply as cultural …
One From The Beginning: A Proposed Apologetic For The Growth Of The Church From Ad 30-250, Douglas Taylor
One From The Beginning: A Proposed Apologetic For The Growth Of The Church From Ad 30-250, Douglas Taylor
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
“The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.” Why Christianity from its inception grew in numbers has remained a relatively stable and uncontested topic. Moreover, recent history has seen a move by some scholars to claim not one but multiple Christianities existed in the first three centuries. No study, however, has approached the growth of Christianity as being a result of positive apologetics and then defended that there was but one Christianity from the beginning through the use of Root Cause Analysis. After proposing an early fixed understanding …
Justin Martyr, Irenaeus Of Lyons, And Cyprian Of Carthage On Suffering: A Comparative And Critical Study Of Their Works That Concern The Apologetic Uses Of Suffering In Early Christianity, Aaron Kilbourn
Doctoral Dissertations and Projects
Suffering in Early Christianity has often been highlighted in martyrdom and the stories surrounding the persecution of the Early Church. The biblical idea of redemptive suffering was not an afterthought to the Christian community or part of what Joyce Salisbury calls, “the unintended consequences of ancient violence,” but it appears to be part and parcel of the Early Christian community as they sought to live faithfully to Christ’s teachings. As the Early Church lived out redemptive suffering, it became apparent to the surrounding culture and critics of Christianity that their suffering was different and it pointed to something else. Through …