Religion Commons^™

Behind The Numbers: A Traditional Church Faces A New America, Larry Vogel

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

The dissertation examines membership data for The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) from the mid-1970s to the present. It considers the analysis of LCMS decline by two scholars, George Hawley and Ryan MacPherson, who independently proposed that LCMS membership decline was internal in causation due to diminished birthrates and fewer young families. While acknowledging the reality of such internal decline, this dissertation argues that the lack of external growth is a greater cause for LCMS decline. Its lack of external growth is due primarily to the racial and ethnic homogeneity of the LCMS and its failure effectively to evangelize the increasingly …

Gospel Encounter With Subaltern India , Stanish Stanley

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

This work examines the role of religio-cultural resources in enabling the transformation of a broken community and people.

In the context of nineteenth and twentieth century British India, an oppressed community in India set out to explore the possibility of challenging and re-defining their own destiny. This oppressed section of Indians who lived in the margins of Indian caste defined society were considered socially and ritually polluting people and were subservient to various socio-economic and religio-cultural biases. The daily life routine of this oppressed community, called the Sambavars (Pariahs) of the Malayalam speaking princely State of Travancore in South India, …

Global Diasporas And Mission, Chandler Im, Amos Yong

Edinburgh Centenary Series

In this volume, we endeavor to view the world through the lens of the global diasporas and their missiological implications in the twenty-first century. Combining both the numbers of their countries of birth and their current places of residence, this work’s 21 contributors represent 13 nations and four continents – Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.

Theology, Mission And Child: Global Perspectives, William Prevette, Keith White, C. Rosalee Velloso Da Silva, D. J. Konz

Edinburgh Centenary Series

In our view there are three primary and equally constituent parts to the volume we have been commissioned to edit and collate, and these are therefore indicated in the title.

The Lausanne Movement: A Range Of Perspectives, Lars Dahle, Margunn Serigstad Dahle, Knud Jorgensen

Edinburgh Centenary Series

This book follows the Lausanne Movement from its creation through Cape Town and beyond.

A Century Of Catholic Mission Roman Catholic Missiology 1910 To The Present, Stephan Bevans

Edinburgh Centenary Series

A Century of Catholic Mission surveys the complex and rich history and theology of Roman Catholic Mission in the one hundred years since the 1910 Edinburgh World Mission Conference. Essays written by an international team of Catholic mission scholars focus on Catholic Mission in every region of the world, summarize church teaching on mission before and after the watershed event of the Second Vatican Council, and reflect on a wide variety of theological issues.

Bible In Mission, Pauline Hoggarth, Fergus Macdonald, Bill Mitchell, Knud Jorgensen

Edinburgh Centenary Series

While the essays in this volume contribute individually to collective reflection on the Bible in mission, the larger significance of the book is greater than the sum of its parts. First it must be noted that the volume is part of the larger 2010 process, a collection of essays that grew from a “transversal” theme identified for the centennial of the World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh. As such, it joins a rich collection of contemporary missiological reflection generated by the series of 2010 meetings.

Mission Spirituality And Authentic Discipleship, Wonsuk Ma, Kenneth Ross

Edinburgh Centenary Series

The book should be read not so much as the progressive elaboration of a logical argument but more as a kaleidoscope where each chapter sheds light on a particular form of mission spirituality so that, by the time the reader reaches the end, a comprehensive global picture has come into view.

Foundations For Mission, Emma Wild-Wood, Peniel Rajkumar

Edinburgh Centenary Series

Three broad foundations for a theology of mission are identified and explored in this volume. Mission begins with the nature of the loving, triune God, the intentions and actions of God are revealed to humanity by the Holy Spirit, through the vehicles of God’s word, the Bible, our experience and theology.

Evangelical And Frontier Mission Perspectives On The Global Progress Of The Gospel, Beth Snodderly, A. Scott Moreau

Edinburgh Centenary Series

As we reflect on the past century, then, the stories of the evangelical world church deserve to be heard. In this volume, we do not have space to even begin to scratch the surface. Being forced to choose an orientation, we collected stories and thinking related to the way evangelicals have idealized, operationalized and organized in light of the remaining frontiers of mission.

Mission Today And Tomorrow, Kim Kirsteen, Andrew Anderson

Edinburgh Centenary Series

This record of the Edinburgh 2010 Conference is intended to give the background to that Call, to share the spirit of the conference, and to stimulate informed and focused participation in God’s mission in Christ for the world’s salvation.

Holistic Mission God’S Plan For God’S People, Brian Woolnough, Wonsuk Ma

Edinburgh Centenary Series

This volume on holistic mission addresses this challenge in a dynamic and multi-faceted way through a variety of voices from different contexts. Many should find the collection of materials it contains useful, stimulating and rewarding. Above all, as I commend it to you, may it stir greater response and engagement in the spread of the gospel of the kingdom of God throughout the world.

World Missions, Glenn O'Shoney

Missions

Convocation recorded on February 12, 1992, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis.

Overviews both world and American mission fields. Emphasizes the great need for efforts in America.

Presbyterian Missions To Indians In Western Canada, James Codling

Doctor of Theology Dissertation

This paper seeks to explain the success and failure of Presbyterian missions to Indians in western Canada. It attempts to discover if there has been an authentic engagement between the Gospel of Christ and the cultures of these Indians. The focus is on the theology of missions and its application. The question of Christian relationship to culture is an important issue.

The problem that the Presbyterian Church in Canada faced in its missions to Indians was theological. The Christian faith challenged an Indian religion. It was theology that determined how the religion of the Indian should be approached by Presbyterian …

Theological Education In East Asia, Arthur M. Ahlschwede, Arthur C. Repp

Concordia Theological Monthly

In response to the 1962 All-Asia Conference of missions affiliated with The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, the Synod in convention in Cleveland, Ohio, encouraged the Board for World Missions to "upgrade its seminaries" in Asia and to "bring recommendations on the establishment of a graduate seminary in the Orient to the next convention of the Synod" (Resolution 2-22, 1963 Proceedings, p.98). The Board for World Missions, therefore, sponsored a second All-Asia Conference at Baguio City Philippines (Oct. 19-29, 1964), to which 26 persons were invited, including representatives from six Asia countries and training centers, the India Evangelical Lutheran Church, …

From Advent To Shrove Tuesday, Walter E. Buszin

Concordia Theological Monthly

Liturgical life and activity have not been at a standstill since the close of World War II. Already more than a decade ago more books on worship and liturgics were being published in English than in any other area of theological literature. It is likely that this is true also today. At present more courses in liturgics are being offered at theological schools of North America than ever before in American history; they continue to increase in quantity and quality from year to year. Services of worship conducted in American churches of our day reflect concern for decorum and order …

An Annotated Translation Of Georg F Vicedom's Missio Dei, Dennis Hilgendorf

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

The present thesis is offered as a contribution towards the study of a theology of missions. The Translator's Appendix and the majority of the footnotes are the work of the writer; the rest of the thesis is a translation of Georg F. Vicedom's Missio Dei, published by the Chr. Kaiser Verlag of Munich, Germany. Although the work reveals continental flavor and concerns, it is my conviction that by its range and depth it will appeal to a far wider constituency in the West as well as those areas where religion is making a fresh impact.

The Readiness Of The World For The Mission, R. Pierce Beaver

Concordia Theological Monthly

"The Readiness of the World for the Mission" or "for the Gospel" has been a favorite argument in the promotion of the mission in Protestant churches for at least a century and a half. Thus John M. Mason, preaching in 1797, exulted in the fact that by the providence of God the most formidable obstacles to the spread of the faith, such as travel, language, manners, had already been overcome by those persons who were primarily serving science, wealth, and fame.

February's Festivals, Arthur Carl Piepkorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

The two minor festivals of February focus attention on two important tasks that faculty and field, the editors and most of the readers of this magazine, share with each other.

Brief Studies, Martin H. Scharlemann, William J. Danker

Concordia Theological Monthly

A Theology for Biblical Interpretation

Some Recent Books for the Study of Missions In the Modern World

A Study Of The Effects Of Christianization Upon The Religious Structure Of Primitive Society As Reflected Among The Ibo People Of Southeasteren Nigeria West Africa-, Duane Mehl

Bachelor of Divinity

As the title of this thesis indicates, the problem under investigation is the effects of Christianization upon the religious structure of primitive society, especially in so far as these effects have been noted among the Ibo peoples of southeastern Nigeria. The emphasis is to be placed upon the word "society." We are interested in the religious beliefs of the African people because they profoundly influence the formation of the tribe. We are not interested in these beliefs from a theological point of view. This means that we shall not delve into the theological implications which are involved in mission activity …

The Relationship Between The Church's Program For Ministerial Training And Her Mission Program, W. C. Birkner

Concordia Theological Monthly

The formulation of the theme to which I am to address myself indicates that our Church has become aware that the relationship of two vital parts of her program, namely, Missions and Ministerial Training, deserves some attention and a closer scrutiny at this time. The fact that occasionally the expressions "problem," or "dilemma," or "difficulty," or even "rivalry" are heard when the relationship of these two areas of activity is under discussion, is in itself an admission that this question has not always been clearly defined and a confession that not all members of the Church have arrived at the …

Lutheranism In India, Herbert M. Zorn

Concordia Theological Monthly

Lutherans in India have become a considerable factor among Christians. The first Protestant missionaries, Ziegenbalg and Pluetschau, were Lutherans. Lutheran missionaries had a strong influence in the early work of some of the non-Lutheran missions in South India. They can be found in the southern tip near Nagercoil, north and east of Calcutta near the Burma border, in central India. and even in Pakistan. There are Lutherans who speak Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Santali, Briya and several other languages and dialects. There are missions with only a little over two hundred members, and missions which have been replaced almost completely …

A History Of Missouri Synod Work Among The Japanese, Arthur H. Strege

Bachelor of Divinity

This thesis gives a brief history of work done by members of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod among people of Japanese ancestry living in various places throughout the world. A complete title of the material covered in this thesis should probably read: "A History of Work Done by Pastors, Missionaries, Chaplains, Teachers, and Laymen of the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod among People of Japanese Ancestry in the United States till 1952, and among Japanese People in China till 1950 and in Japan till September, 1948." Since the Rev. William J. Danker, first resident missionary of the Missouri Synod in Japan, arrived in …

Why Emphasize A Bible Study Program Now?, Arthur C. Repp

Concordia Theological Monthly

There is little point in belaboring the question whether the Church needs to further the study of the Bible. It has needed such study in every age, and the present is no exception. Whether the Church of today should emphasize such a study in a Synod-wide effort, giving it precedence over other important endeavors, is another question and may be open to debate. Right now when we are interested in opening missions in new outposts, when we are getting our congregations conscious of their own opportunities with an “Each One Reach One" emphasis, when the present problems of finances and …

History Of Protestant Missions In Nigeria, Arthur W. Machinske

Bachelor of Divinity

When studying the history of missions in a certain country, it is necessary that a study be made of that country. Without any knowledge of the land, its peoples, and its history the story of missions is not made complete, for these three things are so closely interwoven with missions that they cannot be separated.

Outline On Christian Education, Arthur C. Repp

Concordia Theological Monthly

Educational program should not be limited to any age. Must think of the adult level also. Children need it more; the adults profit more. Church should have a program for every level.

The Unionistic Campaign, Theo. Engelder

Concordia Theological Monthly

The Presbyterian Guardian, January 25, reports: "Dr. John A. Mackay, president of Princeton Theological Seminary and champion of Barthianism, is one of ten well-known Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Jewish leaders participating in an interfaith 'Institute on Religion' now being held in the Jewish synagog at Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The theme of the Institute is: 'Religious Values ID American Democracy.' Speakers in addition to Dr. Mackay are: Gregory Feige, noted Roman Catholic writer; Dr. Louis Finkelstein, provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Dr. F. Ernest Johnson, professor of Religious Education, Columbia University; and Rabbi Louis M. Levitsky, rabbi of Temple Israel, Wilkes-Barre." …

The Attitude Of The Lutheran Church Of The 16th And 17th Centuries Towards Missions, Herbert H. Umbach

Bachelor of Divinity

In this thesis it shall be our aim to see on the basis of the facts at hand what really was the sentiment of the 16th and l7th. century Lutheran Church as regards the sphere of missions. And of course, in the treatment of a subject like this, aiming at a presentation of historic facts, there is but little room for originality. I have not, therefore, sought so much to be original as to be truthful, and have endeavored to gather from every accessible source all such historic data as tended to establish the object in view. The old principle …