Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Editor's Introduction, Marc R. Loustau Ph.D.

Journal of Global Catholicism

Introduction by Managing Editor Marc Roscoe Loustau to Towards an Economic Anthropology of Catholicism in the Age of Pope Francis

Alyosha The Christian Hermeneut, Eddie Li

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Presentation Abstract: Alyosha as the Christian Hermeneut

This presentation is adapted from my essay Alyosha as the Christian Hermeneut, written under the supervision of Dr. Paul Contino. In the essay, I gave an analysis of the character Alyosha in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, in light of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics, and Dr. Contino’s book on Incarnational Realism. I discussed how Alyosha adapts from an inexperienced Christian disciple to a mature interpreter capable of conducting the hermeneutical fusion of horizons with different horizons. Within this capability, Alyosha develops his unique Christian horizon, enabling him to understand and reconcile the …

Preparing The Next Generation For Faith Ownership By Training Fathers In The Biblical Worldview, John D. Embrey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Several modern factors increase families’ difficulty training children in the Christian faith. Time commitments outside the home have increased, and a decline in faith practice has made parents less comfortable and confident with knowledge of the Christian faith. These factors fueled an increase in teenagers leaving the Christian faith as they moved into adulthood and a decline in the number of adults with a biblical worldview. The underlying assumption of this DMIN project is that if fathers are trained with a biblical worldview and mentoring skills, they will become more comfortable and prepared to share their faith with their children …

A Phenomenological Study Of Church Polity And Its Impact On Pastoral Leadership And Congregational Health, Travis L. Biller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

It is reported that deacon-led churches produce conflict and high pastoral turnover (Harbuck, 2018; Payne, 1996). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how a church governance structure impacts a pastor’s ability to lead, the health of the church, and pastoral retention. The experiences of pastors from deacon-led churches were evaluated for clusters of meaning and compared with the experiences of pastors who serve under an elder-led model of leadership. Nine interviews were conducted—five pastors from deacon-led churches and four from elder-led churches. This study approached the phenomenological design from an interpretive, or hermeneutical approach to understand the …

Addressing Chaplain Care And Resiliency As Protective Factors To Burnout In Community Chaplaincy, Robin Jonell Ratcliff

Masters Theses

This paper will address Chaplain Care and Resiliency as Protective Factors to Burnout in Community Chaplaincy. There will be a problem stated, literature review covered on the subject, the results of the assessments, scales, and screening used to address burnout. Then the author discusses training and interventions and shows analysis of said training and interventions.

Emulating Paul’S Ministry Leadership In A Diverse And Changing Cultural Landscape, Mark J. Lee

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this Doctor of Ministry project is to train ministry leaders by studying the cross-cultural leadership characteristics of Apostle Paul. Central Steele Creek Presbyterian Church is part of the sad statistic of traditional churches that have been declining for the past thirty years. This will continue unless leaders of the church embrace the diverse culture and nature of the surrounding community. Cross-cultural leadership is needed in this time of multi-cultural communities and there is no one better than Paul to demonstrate this indispensable cross-cultural ministry paradigm. If leaders at Central are trained and motivated to embrace Paul’s cross-cultural …

Impact Of Worldview Development On Spiritual Vitality In Evangelical Protestant Churches: A Phenomenological Study, Nicholas Jared Curtis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The need for a biblical worldview is important in the church since only ten percent of Americans (17% in the church) have a biblical worldview (Foley, 2017, paragraph one; Barna, 2017, paragraph twenty). This is directly connected with one’s spiritual growth in the church as relationships help form one’s worldview which in turn will form one’s values and actions (McDowell and Wallace, 2019). The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore the perceived impact of biblical worldview development on spiritual development in the church for pastors who oversee discipleship at doctrinally conservative, Evangelical Protestant churches in Texas. At this …

Developing Health Ministries Beyond The Disparities In The Community, Tasha Renea Berry-Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an upswing in the lack of awareness concerning disparities and the lack of resources available in many of the neighborhoods in the Chicagoland area. The Washington Park and Bronzeville areas are two (2) communities among several others in the Chicago area that are considered to be low-income neighborhoods with minimal resources and an increasing concern of disparities. As a church in the community, it is vitally important we provide a place of hope and trust for people to come for help and refuge. Developing a service such as a health and wellness ministry …

Biblical Leadership Development: Essential Components In Servant Leadership, André T. Moore Sr.

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There was a need for a biblical leadership development program at Anointed To Minister Ministries (ATMM). This researcher assessed the effectiveness of the current leadership and concluded that a biblical leadership development program was paramount to the foundation of the church. Furthermore, Henry and Richard Blackaby, argue in their book Spiritual Leadership “failing to develop leaders in an organization is tantamount to gross failure by the leader, whether by design or by neglect.” The purpose for this DMIN action research project was to develop a strategy and to implement a biblical leadership training program for educating, equipping, and empowering selected …

The Nature Of Beauty And Its Objective Manifestation Serve As Evidence Of The God Described In The Bible, Michael S. Libby

Masters Theses

In exploring the concept of objective beauty in nature, a strong argument emerges for the existence of a divine creator as described in the Bible. This thesis, titled “The Nature of Beauty and its Objective Manifestation Serve as Evidence of the God Described in the Bible,” proposes that the intricate design and objective manifestation of beauty in the world are indicative of a higher transcendent being, prompting us to contemplate the profound mysteries of creation and the interconnectedness of aesthetics and spirituality. Through this lens of beauty, we are challenged to engage in a thought-provoking discourse that encompasses apologetics, philosophy, …

The Crucifixion And Death Of Jesus In The Qur'an And Islamic Scholarship: The "Swoon Theory" And The Medical Perspective, Emmanuel K. Asante

Masters Theses

The crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ is a profound event that holds immense theological significance within Christianity. However, the Islamic perspective as presented in the Qur'an, offers a distinct portrayal of this event, giving rise to an argument known as the Swoon Theory. This theory suggests that Jesus did not die on the cross but instead survived the crucifixion, prompting various interpretations and implications. This thesis aims to explore the depiction of the crucifixion and death of Jesus in the Qur'an, focusing specifically on the swoon theory and its relationship with the medical perspective. By examining relevant Qur'anic verses …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence In Online Education For Recruitment, Retention, And Sustainability Of Religious Organizations, Gordon Vaill Barrows

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation explored the applicability of AI chatbot technology in the context of a church environment where it was used to promote an accessible and engaging online learning platform for education and ministry training. The primary objective was to develop an AI-powered chatbot to increase recruitment, improve retention, as well as support organizational sustainability as it relates to church membership. The research includes a comprehensive literature review on AI chatbot technology and its relevance to online education within the context of a religious organization. The literature review establishes the fundamentals for a theoretical framework, exploring the association between educational technology, …

A Composition Of Strategic Harmony: The Role Of Hymnic Elements In The Compositional Strategy Of Amos, Moegagogo S. Solomona

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Scholarship on the book of Amos has oft leaned in favor of a multilayered composition of the prophetic book, citing either post-exilic motifs or unusual thematic transitions as evidence. While most of the book of Amos is typically ascribed to the prophet himself, the attribution of certain portions to the work of later redactors brings into question the integrity of the message Amos seeks to convey, especially regarding a united theological message. Proponents of redaction claim that the portions in question would not have been part of the original composition due to their contents displaying post-exilic themes. Such a reconstruction …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Slim Winnings For Tubby Taft: Utah And The Presidential Election Of 1912, Natalie Larsen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Traveling on a special passenger train from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles, Utah governor William Spry waxed uncharacteristically eloquent with the reporters who hounded him for his insights on the 1914 congressional elections. Sent by the roundly Republican newspaper the Los Angeles Times, the reporters were looking to see how the dust had settled after the humiliating Republican losses two years earlier in 1912. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won a resounding victory that year, while Theodore Roosevelc's Progressive Parry won eighry-eight electoral votes, and the incumbent president William Howard Taft limped away with a meager eight electoral votes. Considering …

Angles And Angels: Political Unity And Spiritual Identity In Anglo-Saxon England, Susannah Morrison

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The development of nationalism in Europe is a contested process, and most historians conclude that nationalist sentiments did not arise in the shattered remnants of the Western Roman Empire until the twelfth century. However, a national consciousness developed in England long before this date. Although it was a fundamentally abstract concept, largely limited to the intellectual domain of the highly educated elite, English national identity in the Anglo-Saxon period was a vibrant and powerful cultural force. Memorably articulated by the Venerable Bede in the eighth century, this proto-national sentiment identified the Angles-the Germanic tribes who had invaded and occupied Britain …

Non-Chinese In Chinese History The Enduring Influence Of "Foreign Barbarians" In Ancient China, Caleb Darger

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The modern concept of Chinese Nationality is a rather recent construct. During China's early Republican (1912-27) and Nationalist (1928-49) periods, leaders like Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai embraced the idea of Zhonghua minzu, translated as "Chinese nation" or "Chinese races." The inclusive term helped unify the Han Chinese people and four other major non-Han ethnic groups that comprised most of the Chinese population: The Man (Manchus), the Meng (Mongolians), the Hui (Uighurs and groups of Muslims in northwestern China), and the Zang (Tibetans). The term was later expanded in 1978 after the death of Mao Zedong to include fifty-one …

The Effect Of The Destruction Of The Jerusalem Temple On The Jewish Perception Of The Sacrificial Cult: A Look At Pseudepigraphical, Deuterocanonical, And Rabbinic Texts, Allen Kendall

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Though many of us are somewhat familiar with today's modern world religions and with ancient religion inasmuch as it is portrayed in our own religious literature, we often do not understand how we got from the ancient world to the modern. For the most part we understand how ancient Jews worshipped in Jerusalem according to the Law of Moses and chat certain biblical practices have changed, but we are not aware of how this happened. This paper attempts to bridge that gap of knowledge by tracing the development of Jewish religious thought and practice vis-a-vis the sacrificial cult. Over the …

Limitations Of The Index In Philip Ll's Spain, Courtney Cook

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On 19 December 1592, Philip II of Spain composed a letter to Diego de Orellana de Chaves, a royal governor of Spain's northern coast. At war with England and France, Philip's concern in this instance was neither strategy nor war logistics, but rather books. Orellana de Chaves notified Philip previously in two letters chat Spanish privateers had captured a French ship carrying books. The king expressed concern chat the books be turned over to the proper authorities, the Inquisition, reminding his governor chat not all books contain proper messages for Spanish readers. Eager to maintain the religious purity of his …

Rebirth And Renewal In Maya Ritual From The Precolonial Period To The Present, Madeline Duffy

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The concepts of rebirth and renewal were paramount in pre-Columbian Maya culture. Traditionally, the Maya believe chat everything passes through a never-ending cycle of birch, maturation, decay, death, and rebirth. This cycle encompasses the elements of everyday life which the Maya could perceive: the human life cycle, the life cycle of crops, the seasons, and even the rise and fall of the sun. They noticed chat all of these day-today happenings "have their beginnings in a creative ace and ultimately weaken and die in an orderly succession of days chat is both comforting in its predictability and terrifying in its …

"The Voice Of The People, And Not The Voice Of This House": Legislative Instructions In The Atlantic World And The Irish Struggle For Free Trade, 1779-1780, Ian Mclaughlin

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1771, on his way to London to lobby for the American cause, Benjamin Franklin visited the city of Dublin. While there, he visited with several members of che Irish Parliament, especially chose who had their own gripes with British imperialism. "I found [the Irish Patriot Party] disposed to be friends of America," he wrote of che experience to a friend, "in which disposition I endeavored to confirm chem, with the expectation chat our growing weight might in time be thrown into their scale, and, by joining our interest with theirs, might be obtained for chem as well as for …

"Always Leading Out In That Which Is Great And Good": Mormon Women's Perspective Of Women's Rights Fifty Years After Suffrage, Ashley Anderson Webb

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On a cold Thursday in eartly February 1920, newly enfranchised women from across che nation huddled together in Chicago for a seven-day-long Golden Jubilee. The anticipated passage of the Nineteenth Amendment lay only three scares' ratification and half a year away. That same Thursday, women in Utah looked back half a century co 12 February 1870, when che Utah Territory granted its women the right co vote. While reflecting on their own history, Utah's women also case their eyes outward, joining their sisters throughout the US who looked forward co the future of nationwide suffrage. Many prominent female leaders of …

"No Nation More Tenacious Of Its Past" National Historical Memory In Lnterwar Scotland, 1920-1934, Susannah Morrison

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Looking back over the last claendar year at the end of 1929, one Glasgow newspaper concluded, "Certainly no year within the memory of any living Scot has witnessed so much heart-searching. Never before has there been so much airing of the question: what is wrong with Scotland?" The question might as well have been posed about the entire decade of the 1920s. Scotland emerged from the Great War essentially demoralized, with a devastated industrial sector, an influx of Irish immigration, and a flood of mass Scottish emigration to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Facing this onslaught of postwar domestic problems, …

Jazz And Music Diplomacy In The Cold War, Mitch Rogers

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the Soviet Union in the 1950s, everyone jammed. While High Soviet officials worked their hardest to jam the incoming Voice of America and Music U.S.A. radio broadcasts, Soviet musicians and youth jammed underground to the hot swing .and blue harmonies of American jazz. Jazz, with its rebellious syncopations, rogue tunings, and egalitarian arrangements, connected with the Soviet people. Amicable cultural exchange between the two superpowers began only in 1958, and even then it only took place in small, mitigated steps. Knowing the Soviet proclivity for American music, American statesmen saw the opportunity to replace the stodgy, pedantic propaganda …

Foreword, Tyler Balli

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The world we live in is far from perfect. Prejudice, misunderstanding, and fear of the "other"-whoever that other might be-still abound. Perhaps some of these characteristics are simply human and will never be eradicated entirely. But I truly believe that one remedy for these feelings is the study of history. After all, history takes us to times and places completely foreign to us. It requires us to cry to understand people's thoughts, fears, motivations, and reasoning even though they are completely different from our own. Well-researched and well-written history helps us remove labels and discard oversimplifications and generalizations, helping us …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Whole Genome Sequencing Of The Whipple Azalea Garden, Afia Asamoah, Elizabeth Toth, Amy Vasudevan, Sarah Justice, Elizabeth D. Hasenmyer

Lux et Fides: A Journal for Undergraduate Christian Scholars

Taylor University houses a large collection of North American azaleas. Deciduous azalea species, like those found on campus, are vastly understudied. This project aims to provide publicly available genomic data which will be used to study the genetic basis behind their physical characteristics and their relatedness to other species.

Water Filtration System For Hospital In Bangladesh, David E. Mitchell

Lux et Fides: A Journal for Undergraduate Christian Scholars

The Chadraghona Christian Hospital serves the people of Bangladesh in a Christ-centered way, providing quality care for the people of the region. The hospital has several significant infrastructure needs, including a source of clean water. Currently, the hospital does not have a filtration system and draws its water directly from an adjacent river that is polluted and often cloudy with particulates. Prior work on this project, performed during the summer of 2022, began the design of the filtration system for the hospital. The work performed this summer focused on improving and extending last summer’s work. Improvements in the system design …

Full Issue

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Forming The Division For Access, Equity & Belonging At Susquehanna University, Amy Davis, Scott Kershner, Dena Salerno, Nina Mandel, Maria L. O. Munoz

Intersections

No abstract provided.