Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Ecocritical Theology Neo-Pastoral Themes In American Fiction From 1960 To The Present, Joan Anderson Ashford

English Dissertations

Ecocritical theology relates to American fiction as it connects nature and spirituality. In my development of the term “neo-pastoral” I begin with Virgil’s Eclogues to serve as examples for spiritual and nature related themes. Virgil’s characters in “The Dispossessed” represent people’s alienation from the land. Meliboeus must leave his homeland because the Roman government has reassigned it to their war veterans. As he leaves Meliboeus wonders why fate has rendered this judgment on him and yet has granted his friend Tityrus a reprieve. Typically, pastoral literature represents people’s longing to leave the city and return to the spiritual respite of …

Counter-Cultural Communities: Baptistic Life In Twentieth-Century Europe, Richard Crane

Biblical, Religious, & Philosophical Studies Educator Scholarship

This book’s six essays were originally presented as master’s degree dissertations at the International Baptist Theological Seminary (in the Czech Republic). Four chronicle the struggles of Baptist communities facing opposition and persecution in Eastern European societies under communist rule.

Disenchantment: The Formation, Distortion, And Transformation Of Identity In Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, Lydia K. Christoph

Masters Theses

Charles Dickens' Great Expectations (1861) stands apart from his other works as a powerful expression of his later social and theological views. Rife with rich characterizations, fairy-tale elements, grotesque and bizarre plot twists, Victorian social issues, and a beautifully thoughtful and imaginative commentary on the universal human themes of loss, guilt, abuse, identity, money, social status, and love, this novel remains an outstanding example of truly great art, both popular and classic. This story of identity formation in a nineteenth-century English context demonstrates how Dickens' life and writings, influenced by spurious and inconsistent theological beliefs, express the idea that sin …

How A Hearer Listens To A Sermon: Setting The Presuppositions Of The "Second Text", Jeffery D. Nehrt

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

The purpose of the project was to answer the question: Can preachers influence how a hearer listens to a sermon? To answer that question, 70 pastors of the Southern Illinois District, Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod were asked if they every used a pre-sermon Bible study to help the hearer listen to the sermon. A seven week pre-sermon Bible study was developed and taught based on four filters of hearing. Those filters were Logos, Ethos, Pathos, and community. A post sermon survey was given and separated into two categories, those who attended the pre-sermon Bible study and those who did …

Returning To The Sources: The Literature Of Christian Librarianship, Gregory A. Smith

Faculty Publications and Presentations

By definition, a research study explores new intellectual territory yet builds on previous inquiry that has led up to it. However, many sources that explore the connections between Christian faith and the information professions fail to acknowledge the existence of prior discourse on the subject. The author has assembled a database of more than 450 sources that discuss topics such as philosophy and ethics of librarianship from a Christian perspective; the mediation of Christian/religious information in various library contexts; Christian, religious, and theological publishing; and more. Insights from these sources can help readers develop professionally and engage in productive dialogue …

Returning To The Sources: The Literature Of Christian Librarianship, Gregory A. Smith

Gregory A. Smith

Nakedness And Shame In Calvin's Writings, Alida Sewell

Pro Rege

Alida Sewell’s article was presented to the Sixteenth Century Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, 2008.

Divine Voice: Christian Proclamation And The Theology Of Sound (Book Review), Teresa Terhaar

Pro Rege

Reviewed Title: Webb, Stephen H. The Divine Voice: Christian Proclamation and the Theology of Sound. Grand Rapids, Michigan, Brazos Press, 2004. 244 pages. ISBN 9781587430787.

All Creation Groans: A Comparison Of Feminist And German Existential Theology Of Romans 8:18-25, Jeffrey R. Reed

Obsculta

No abstract provided.

The Sky Is Wide Enough: A Historico-Critical Appraisal Of Theological Activity And Method In Africa, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

This essay presents and critiques the methods and claims of the principal theological schools and camps of African theology. While situating them in their historical context, it examines their respective claims as the best representative or expression of theological activity in Africa. The historico-critical appraisal of these African theological schools generates some useful lessons on the nature and method of theological reflection in Africa, particularly the necessity of taking experience and context seriously.

A Study Of Pastoral Burnout Among Korean-American Pastors, Young Sun Jin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is to provide a resource of prevention and overcoming from pastoral burnout to Korean-American pastors. This project is born out of the author's five year journey in ministry as a senior pastor of Korean-American church. This study is performed from literature research, survey observation, and personal experience. Especially, the case study was based on research targeting the pastors who belong to the Capital Presbytery of KAPC, and conducted through analysis of the statistical data obtained from a questionnaire survey. In that view, this dissertation presents the definition, various factors and symptoms of burnout among the …

Stem Cell Order Was Immoral And Unnecessary, Nicanor Austriaco

Theology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Open And Relational Theology An Evangelical In Dialogue With A Latter-Day Saint, Samuel M. Brown

BYU Studies Quarterly

Clark H. Pinnock and David L. Paulsen dialogue about open theism and Latter-day Saint theology, examining the convergences and divergences between the two traditions. Open and Relational Theology: A Latter-day Saint in Dialogue with an Evangelical explores beliefs on divine embodiment, spiritual warfare, deification, omniscience and omnipotence of God, divine feminine, theodicy, creation, and pragmatic applications of religion.

Theology And Down Syndrome: Reimagining Disability In Late Modernity, Amos Yong, Rosalynde F. Welch

BYU Studies Quarterly

Amos Yong's Theology and Down Syndrome represents an ambitious attempt by an Evangelical theologian to come to grips with the conditions and conundrums of disability in a contemporary Christian context. The book's nine chapters and formidable bibliography inquire into cognitive disability of all kinds, not, despite its title, narrowly into Down syndrome alone. Yong writes in the dense idiom of critical academic theology and disability studies that may put off some readers, but the text is leavened with epigraphs, personal asides, and case studies that will appeal to most readers.

Yong sets himself three aims in this volume: to edify …

When Corporate Policies And Consumer Values Collide: Examining The Relationship Between Religion And Controversial Business Decisions, Krist R. G. Swimberghe

Doctoral Dissertations

Religion appears to play a very important role in people's lives in the United States. Some companies, however, continue to make business decisions which appear to be contrary to the value systems of a majority of consumers in the United States. Although past descriptive research has confirmed that religiousness influences consumers' and marketing managers' ethical judgments of their own behavior, this research has not explored the influence of religion in the buyer-seller dyad. To fill this gap in the consumer behavior literature, this study uses the Hunt-Vitell theory of ethics to help explain how consumers' religiosity influences their ethical judgments …

An Effective Strategy For Church Revitalization Through A Case Study Of Hosanna Church, Hyung Woo Park

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this project is to suggest an effective strategy of church revitalization through a case study of Hosanna Church. The case study will focus on the strategic process for church revitalization at Hosanna Church. This model of ministry extracted the principles, critical components, and elements that have been primary for the revitalization. Ten principles of church revitalization were discovered in the literature and diagnose the reality of the Hosanna Church, confirming the application of these principles. The principles were found to be transferable and applicable to various setting.

Children Should Be Begotten And Not Made, Nicanor Austriaco

Theology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming Our Identities: From Ethicist To Moral Theologian, M Therese Lysaught

Institute of Pastoral Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

The CHA Ethics Survey issues a challenge to those who "do" ethics within Catholic health care: is it time to reclaim the identity of the Catholic moral theologian for Catholic health care? If the answer is "yes," what will it take to do so?

Is Neo-Calvinism Calvinist? A Neo-Calvinist Engagement Of Calvin's "Two Kingdoms" Doctrine, Jason Lief

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

"These Are Written" Toward A Cruciform Theology Of Scripture, Peter Nafzger

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Nafzger, Peter H. "'These Are Written' : Toward a Cruciform Theology of Scripture." Ph.D. diss .. Concordia Seminary, 2009. 244 pp.

This dissertation is an attempt to ground the Christian theology of Scripture in the trinitarian economy of salvation. Rather than approaching the Scriptures with the assumptions, concepts, and categories that have governed the modem "battle for the Bible," this account locates the Scriptures in the theology of the Word of God. In the biblical narrative this Word is found in three forms: Jesus Christ is the personal form of the Word of God who was sent by the Father …

Contemporary Preaching To A Non-Contemporary Society: Nineteenth-Century Reformed Theology Comes To Non-Nineteenth-Century Brazil, Jorge Luiz Patrocinio

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Patrocinio, Jorge Luiz. “Contemporary Preaching to a Non-Contemporary Society: Nineteenth-Century Reformed Theology Comes to Non-Nineteenth-Century Brazil.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2009. 241 pp.

When Presbyterian missionaries came from America to nineteenth-century Brazil, they encountered a society strongly marked by a Roman Catholicism that was both tugged in several directions and also marked by a spirit more attuned to the later Middle Ages. In planting and then cultivating the Presbyterian Church, first the missionaries and then indigenous Brazilian pastors responded by spreading a message strongly rooted in Reformation theology, approaching their task almost as if the Reformation were unfolding again in …

Theological And Pedagogical Implications Of The Role Of Zionism In Reform Jewish Manifestos: A Bridge From Vision To Praxis, Haim O. Rechnitzer, Gabriella Minnes Brandes

Haim O Rechnitzer חיים א. רכניצר

In this article, we explore the transition from philosophical and theological manifestos to their practical and educational implementation as we analyze the official American Reform-Judaism discourse as curricular text. This analysis provides a tool for a discussion of the relationships between vision and its implementation particularly for educators and leaders. We highlight the possibilities of dialogue among educators, rabbis-in-training, and leaders to aid in the formation of new visionary documents and, in doing so, affect the dynamics of paving new directions. We demonstrate a model that may be used to investigate such translations from vision to a lived experience and …

The Spirit Of Calvin And The Synod Of Dordt, Steve Curtis

Steve Curtis

Beginning in November of 1618, in the Dutch city of Dordrecht, the Reformed Church of the Netherlands convened a synod to examine and consider the positions being promoted by a group of pastors and theologians known as the Remonstrants. Chief among the disputed points were the doctrines of soteriology, though there were other, ancillary issues that had developed from this time as well, such as the proper relationship between church and state and church polity. A number of countries sent delegates to the synod which met over 180 sessions. In the end, the Synod denounced the Remonstrance and confirmed the …

The Old Perspective On Second-Temple Judaism: Covenantal Nomism, Justification, And Perseverance, Steve Curtis

Steve Curtis

Beginning with the seminal work of E. P Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism, in 1977, there has been a concerted effort to redefine the Pauline references to the “works of the law” (mentioned explicitly five times in his epistles and implicitly several more times). It is the contention of those in this movement (most notably beside Sanders are James Dunn and N. T. Wright) that the Reformers, in their reaction against the multi-faceted errors of Rome and, particularly, in their defense of the doctrine of sola fide, read too much into Paul, and that first century Judaism in general was, …

"Searching For The Face Of The Lord In Ratzinger's Jesus Of Nazareth", Peter J. Casarella

Peter J. Casarella

No abstract provided.

A Scientific Rationale For Belief In God?, Philip E. Graves

PHILIP E GRAVES

This paper presents a concise scientific rationale for the existence of God. The works of Ray Kurzweil and the many other artificial intelligence researchers provide a backdrop to the central thesis. An entity (computers or humans, it not mattering which) will eventually approach all-knowing. How much time passes before this occurs is not important. All-knowing is likely to be all-powerful insofar as knowledge leads to power, as has been our experience. One would suspect that this would be inclusive of time travel. The methods by which knowledge grows require “seed” facts to begin working. The seed facts can easily be, …

Review Of Teachings Of The Odd-Eyed One By David P. Lawrence, Sucharita Adluri Ms.

Philosophy and Religious Studies Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Voting About God In Early Church Councils, Gaye Strathearn, Ramsay Macmullen

BYU Studies Quarterly

In his latest monograph, Ramsay MacMullen, emeritus professor of history at Yale University, takes a wonderfully fresh look at the early Christian councils. At the beginning of his study, MacMullen recognizes the primacy of the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) whose definition of the Supreme Being forms the basis of the majority Christian view on the nature of God. The Nicene Creed was "made formal and given weight by majority vote and supported after much struggle by later assemblies, notably at Chalcedon (451)--likewise by majority vote. Such was the determining process. Thus agreement was arrived at, and became dogma widely …

Clothing Maketh The Saint: Ælred's Narrative Intent In The Life Of Saint Ninian, Marie Anne Mayeski

Theological Studies Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Academy For Student Ministry: A Study In Youth Ministry, Myrle Raymond Grate

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.