Religion Commons^™

Attitudes Toward Science And Stem Cell Research Based On Religious Worldview: Comparing The Views Of Theists, Naturalists, Skeptics, And Dualists Toward Science As An Institution, Method, And Application Of Knowledge, Jon Van Wieren

Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of attitudes toward science and stem cell research based on religious worldview. This study examines the relationship through General Social Survey data (2006).

Religious worldview is measured here through some of the most common measures of religiosity. This study differs from many other sociological studies of religiosity in that it includes the view of naturalism alongside other religious worldviews, including theism, dualism, and skepticism. Science is understood and measured here as multidimensional. Comparisons are made between attitudes toward science as a social institution, a research method, and as an application of knowledge - where attitudes …

"When The Eternal Can Be Met": Bergsonian Time In The Theologies Of C.S. Lewis, T.S. Eliot, And W.H. Auden, James Corey Latta

Dissertations

C. S. Lewis, T. S. Eliot, and W. H. Auden all converted to the Christian faith and, upon conversion, turned to the theme of time in their post-conversion works. Interestingly, these Christian authors employed the secular philosophical framework of Henri Bergson’s theory of duration to construct their theologies of time. As texts fostered by Bergson’s ideas of intuition, the dualistic self, and durative force, Lewis’s The Great Divorce, Eliot’sFour Quartets, and Auden’s “Kairos and Logos” are theological works that depict time as an agent.

Personality And Religiosity: The Influence Of Normative Personality On Black Sunni Muslims' Religious Attitudes And Practices, Halim Khidher Naeem

Dissertations

There is a dearth of literature on Black Sunni Muslims in the field of psychology. More so, there is no literature specifically analyzing the influences upon Black religiosity. The literature has established that personality has significant influence upon religiosity. The literature also says that females are more religious than their male counterparts. The present study analyzed the influence of personality, gender and social class upon religiosity for Black Sunni Muslims. The following hypothesis was investigated: Personality, gender, and social class will affect religious attitudes and practices.

A canonical regression analysis using SPSS revealed that personality, gender and social class had …

Popular Perceptions Of The Relationship Between Religious And Ethnic Identities: A Comparative Study Of Ethnodoxy In Contemporary Russia And Beyond, David M. Barry

Dissertations

The relationship between religion and ethnicity is well documented. However, previous studies have usually approached the relationship by focusing on the converging of two 'objective' social categories, religion and ethnicity. In doing so, the subjectivity, or the actor's own understanding of the interplay between religion and ethnicity is typically neglected. This study fills this gap by exploring popular perceptions of group identities and the affiliation with imagined ethno-religious communities. To accomplish this, the concept of ethnodoxy, first developed by Vyacheslav Karpov and Elena Lisovskaya, is applied that captures the belief that affiliation to an ethnic group's dominant religion is essential …

The Religious Aspects Of The 1893 Columbian Exposition: A Case Study Of Interreligious Interaction And Religious Pluralism In The Public Square, Cynthia Visscher

Dissertations

This case study of the religious aspects of the 1893 Columbian Exposition examines the conditions that supported religious pluralism in the public square in the nineteenth century; compares these conditions to contemporary social contexts, and; contributes to the sociological debate regarding the effect of increasing religious diversity on social structure in the United States.

The existing literature is more often focused on normative theory rather than empirical examination. This case study offers an empirical investigation of the accommodation of religious diversity in a society that was in early stages of secularization and addresses how a pluralistic public square existed. Specifically, …

Faithful Remembering: Constructing Dutch America In The Twentieth Century, David E. Zwart

Dissertations

The people of the Dutch-American community constructed and maintained a strong ethnoreligion identity in the twentieth despite pressures to join the mainstream of the United States. A strong institutional completeness of congregations and schools resulted from and contributed to this identity. The people in these institutions created a shared identity by demanding the loyalty of members as well as constructing narratives that convinced people of the need for the ethnoreligious institutions.

The narratives of the Dutch-American community reflected and reinforced a shared identity, which relied on a collective memory. The framing, maintaining, altering, and remodeling of the collective memory from …

The Mystery Of God In Situations Of Suffering: Toward The Universality Of Christ And A Reconstruction Of African Identity, Leocretia L. Muganda

Dissertations

During the patristic era, theology dealt with the problem of how to explain the union of the two natures in Christ without losing the impassible nature of God. Today, the understanding of God as impassible is no longer absolute in light of present human suffering. To gain a better understanding of God as passible, the following areas will be examined: the patristic view and the contemporary critique of divine impassibility, the African context and the reconstruction of African Christology via inculturation and liberation. The concept of God as passible can make a significant difference in the lives of Christians. This …

Theological Plunderphonics: Public Theology And "The Fragment", William Myatt

Dissertations

In response to methodological vagueness in public theology, I construct a theory of "the fragment" that enables the public theologian to respond adequately to contemporary exigencies and appropriately to traditional self-understandings. After surveying four streams of public-theological thought (chapter one), I consider the debate between David Tracy (chapter two) and George Lindbeck (chapter three). The various observations of these three chapters give way to a suggested criteriology for public theology. I then turn to Paul Ricoeur (chapter four) and Walter Benjamin (chapter five) to assist in constructing a theory of the fragment (chapter six). The thesis defended by this dissertation …

Romans 1:18-2:11 And The Substructure Of Psalm 106(105): Evocations Of The Calf?, Alexander James Lucas

Dissertations

Employing an architectural metaphor inspired by C. H. Dodd and utilizing methodology that draws from Richard B. Hays and Francis Watson, this dissertation presents a primary proposal and secondary sketch. The primary proposal is that both constitutively and rhetorically (through ironic, inferential, and indirect application), Ps 106(105) serves as the substructure for Paul's argumentation throughout Rom 1:18-2:11. Constitutively, Rom 1:18-32 (especially vv. 22-32) hinges on the triadic interplay between "they (ex)changed" and "God gave them over," an interplay that creates a sin-retribution sequence with an a-ba-ba-b pattern (vv. 22-23, 24-25, 26-27, 28-32). Both elements of this a-ba-ba-b pattern derive from …

Rethinking Nation-Building: A Christian Socio-Ethical And Theo-Political Task For Appropriating The Common Good, Artemus Wlemongar Gaye

Dissertations

nation-building as a coomon good

According To What Nomos: Understanding Romans 2 In Conversation With Diaspora Jewish Conceptions Of Nomos, Kyle Fever

Dissertations

The law (nomos) functions as a central piece of Paul's argument in the second chapter of his letter to the community in Rome. Throughout his argument Paul's references to nomos carry such complexity that there is significant disagreement about how to understand this nomos. On the one hand, scholars debate over the degree to which Greco-Roman conceptions of nomos shape the understanding of nomos present in Romans 2. On the other hand, Paul appears to have the Jewish law in mind, and there is no consensus about how Paul conceives of the Jewish law in his argument, given the similarities …

A Fresh Approach To The Miracle Stories In Matthew 8-9: Literary Analysis Through The Literary Technique Of Matthew's Three Stage Progression Pre-Supposedly Adopted By The First Evangelist, Gwan Seuk Ryu

Dissertations

The structure of Mt 8-9 is very complex, and there is no unanimous understanding. If we use Matthew's Three Stage Progression (MTSP), a writing technique that is found frequently in the gospel of Matthew, we can theologicaly explain the intention of Mt 8-9 more clearly than any other existing explanations. Matthew arranged the nine miracle stories progressively in three clusters (8:1-17; 8:23-9:8; 9:18-34). Those three clusters are divided by two intervening pericopae (8:18-22; 9:9-17). The first cluster describes Jesus as the merciful healing Messiah. Jesus heals every disease he encounters. In the second cluster, Jesus is the divine being who …

Divine Sovereignty, Divine Providence, And Prayer In The Thought Of Evagrius Ponticus, Chris Steven Gombos

Dissertations

In the thought of Evagrius Ponticus, we discern an interdependent relationship between prayer and theological belief, particularly between prayer and divine sovereignty and divine providence. We find that Evagrius's teachings on divine sovereignty and divine providence inform and govern his teachings on prayer, specifically the forms of prayer known as petition and pure prayer. And conversely Evagrius's teachings on prayer inform and deepen his teachings on divine sovereignty and divine providence, thereby demonstrating the full interdependence between spiritual practice and theological belief in the thought of one of the early Church's monastic masters.

The first chapter is divided into two …

The Meaning And Function Of System In Theology, Timothy Watson

Dissertations

Topic. Due to the nature of the discipline, the importance of our understanding of the meaning of the term "system" in systematic theology cannot be gainsaid. Unfortunately, however, there seems to be little discussion or critique to how this term is being used and its meaning is often taken for granted, even though it seems to mean different things to different authors.

Purpose. To address this ambiguity, this study takes a close look at the etymological development of this word in its various linguistic forms as it has been used in theology through history. Then, based on this etymological analysis, …

"Clothes Make The (One Like A Son Of) Man": Dress Imagery In Revelation 1 As An Indicator Of High Priestly Status, Ross E. Winkle

Dissertations

Problem . The Epistle to the Hebrews is the only document in the New Testament that explicitly describes Jesus as a high priest. The purpose of this dissertation is to ascertain whether or not the book of Revelation, in particular, in John's description of the "one like a son of man" in his inaugural vision (1:12-16), implicitly presents Jesus as having a high priestly status.

Method . This study focuses on Revelation since it is the work closest to Hebrews in terms of its rich cultic imagery, and it analyzes Revelation's first chapter since that is the part of Revelation …

A Multiple-Case Study Describing Collaborative Relations Between Adventist Pastors And Teachers In The Eastern United States, Pamela Consuegra

Dissertations

Introduction. Adventist schools and churches are embedded within a system that provides them with rich opportunities to achieve their missional goals. However, this is possible only through collaboration and the use of available social networks. The purpose of this study was to identify situations where the church and school work together collaboratively and then to describe the collaborative practices between those selected Adventist pastors and teachers. In the context of Adventist elementary schools, the school principal also fulfills a teaching role. Therefore, inthis study, the term "teacher" also refers to the principal. The broad research question was, How do Adventist …

A Delphi Study Of The Biblical/Doctrinal Knowledge That Ministers Of Christian Churches/Churches Of Christ Consider Essential For Spiritual Development, Jeffrey D. Derico

Dissertations

Purpose and rationale of the study . The primary role of the minister is to spiritually lead others and facilitate their spiritual growth. Traditionally, biblical and doctrinal teachings have played an essential role in this process. Sadly, two recent trends have worked against this pastoral role. First, research indicates that Americans and many Christians are less and less biblically literate. Second, spiritual growth scholars have observed that church leaders seem less and less prepared to convey biblical knowledge that can systematically and effectively guide others in their spiritual growth.

Christian spiritual growth literature establishes a functional and necessary connection between …

The Relationship Between Liturgical Practice And Spirituality In The Church Of The Nazarene With Special Reference To John Wesley's Doctrine Of Christian Perfection, Dirk Ray Ellis

Dissertations

The Church of the Nazarene, following the pattern of the American holiness movement that gave it birth, adopted a modified version of Wesley's doctrine of Christian perfection. During the early years of the denomination Christian perfection was promoted feverishly through revivalism and worship structured after the camp meeting model; however, over time the promotion and propagation of holiness began to wane. Currently, the belief in and pursuit of inward holiness among both clergy and laity are rapidly vanishing. For more than a decade scholars and denominational leaders have recognized that this loss of spiritual vitality has placed the Church of …

The Origin Of The Eschatological Feast As A Wedding Banquet In The Synoptic Gospels: An Intertextual Study, Phillip J. Long

Dissertations

The Problem. The problem this dissertation seeks to address is the origins of the wedding banquet imagery in the teaching of Jesus. Frequently, scholars will state that the image of a wedding banquet was a common messianic image in the first century. However, other than Isa 25:6-8, sources for the image of a banquet for the messianic age in the Hebrew Bible are sparse. Yet the image of a banquet clearly appears in the Synoptic Gospels in both the actions of Jesus as well as his teaching. Because the metaphor of a wedding banquet is not found in the literature …

The Markan "Divorce" Pericope: An Exegesis, Carlos C. Camarena

Dissertations

Purpose

The purpose of this dissertation is an attempt to make a contextual assessment of Jesus' teaching on "divorce" according to Mark in order to define its basic thrust within a Gentile community (in relation to Matthew's Jewish community) and to ellucidate a clearer picture of what the NT Jesus may have taught on the subject.

Method

This study is divided into six major chapters and an appendix. Chapter 1 gives a bird's-eye view into some of the modem scholarship regarding the "divorce" sayings in both Gospels. Chapter 2 focuses its attention on the locale of the Gentile audience of …

Toward A Holistic Interdisciplinary Model Of Human Being: A Hebraic-Christian Perspective Of The Human Observer And Its Beneficial Impact On The Theology-And-Science Dialogue, Society, And The Environment, Karen K. Abrahamson

Dissertations

Problem

A challenge faced by the theology-and-science dialogue is how to effectively communicate across disciplinary lines. The community assumes that there is a methodology or cluster of methodologies that allows for interdisciplinary conversation to take place. However, the community is not in agreement about how this process should occur or the hermeneutical principles that should guide it. Is it possible to surmount the problem of methodological compatibility and to generate mutually beneficial and fruitful dialogue through seeking a point of commonality between all the disciplines of the theology-and-science dialogue?

Purpose

The purpose of this dissertation is to discover a philosophical …

A Study Of Warfare Theodicy In The Writings Of Ellen G. White And Gregory A. Boyd, Martha O. Duah

Dissertations

The problem of evil has been an issue for all religions over the centuries. But it is a crucial issue for theism because of its affirmation of the co-existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God and evil. Theologians and philosophical theologians have developed a plethora of materials in response to the problem. However, according to critics, none of the responses in and of themselves adequately deals with theism's problem of suffering and evil. As a result, this study explores the warfare theodicy, a Christian response to the problem of sin, suffering, and evil, which seems to have been neglected …

The Concept Of Divine Love In The Context Of The God-World Relationship, John C. Peckham

Dissertations

The love of God is central to God's relationship to the world. This dissertation addresses the conflict of interpretation between the transcendent-voluntarist and immanent-experientialist models regarding divine love in the context of the God-world relationship by applying a canonical methodology. Chapter 1 introduces the background, purpose, problem, scope, and plan of study as well as the final-form canonical theological method employed in the investigation. Chapter 2 briefly surveys the historical theology of love, tracing the central conceptions of divine love and the God-world relationship by selected, highly influential thinkers. Chapter 3 presents and analyzes the irreconcilable interpretations of divine love …

God And Integrity: A Case Study Of Walter C. Kaiser Jr. And Norman L. Geisler, Augustin Tchamba

Dissertations

The God of the Bible is sometimes portrayed as using and condoning deceit to achieve His purpose, especially when human life is at stake. Two evangelical scholars, Walter C. Kaiser Jr. and Norman L. Geisler, with a shared theological heritage, differ in their interpretation of Exod 1:15-21 and Josh 2:1-7 that addresses the ethical issue of lying to save life.

This dissertation not only refutes the claim that God uses and condones the use of deceit to achieve His purpose, but also clarifies biblical argument for His integrity. The study provides answers to a number of questions. First, what causes …

A Portrait Of Christ The Hero In The Epistle To The Hebrews, Jeremy Miselbrook

Dissertations

The Epistle to the Hebrews has been noted as one of the most intricate documents of the New Testament. The author artistically employs a multiplicity of well-known images and ideas which resonate with his audience while simultaneously exemplifying Christ as the paragon of these images. The author of Hebrews presents a portrait of Christ that places him in relation to other figures known to his audience and uses figures to convey his intricate Christology. This dissertation investigates how the author of Hebrews places Christ in the context of Greco-Roman heroic references to portray Christ's superiority over all other heroes.

Chapter …

The Lord Opened Her Heart: Women, Work, And Leadership In Acts Of The Apostles, Teresa Jeanne Calpino

Dissertations

This dissertation will explore two women in The Acts of the Apostles, Tabitha (Acts 9:36-42) and Lydia (Acts 16:11-15) who have been routinely ignored by scholars, or mentioned only in praising the apostle associated with their story. As a result, stereotypical categorization has swept these important characters from their rightful place into relative obscurity. In fact, an examination of their stories set against the expectations of women in Greco-Roman antiquity reveals their unconventional situations. In particular, this dissertation takes special notice of the ways in which representations of the `ideal woman' in the Greco Roman world are at variance with …

Environmental Literacy Of Seventh-Day Adventist Teachers In The Parochial Schools Of The Florida Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Michael Murdoch

Dissertations

Problem. In the United States, there is an environmental literacy problem. Americans possess limited knowledge about the environment and environmental issues, and they display limited positive action regarding the environment in which they live. Moreover, there is a debate whether a Christian’s interpretation of Gen 1:28 leads either to a lower or to a higher environmental literacy. Does the Seventh-day Adventist teaching community reflect these problems? These are the problems which this dissertation seeks to help solve.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to attempt to assess the environmental literacy of a group of teachers in Seventh-day …

Professional Development, Teacher Learning, And National Standards : A Mixed-Method Multiple-Case Study Of The Professional Learning Experiences Of Evangelical Christian School Teachers, Vincent Montoro

Dissertations

Problem. Today’s educational environment requires teachers who understand teaching and learning, have strong content knowledge, and can make connections between life experiences and the curriculum. Teachers are expected to be continually learning to improve their practice. Professional learning is essential in this process. Research on professional development practices in various school contexts shows how teachers can improve and develop better instructional practices through a variety of learning experiences. Sadly, very little research exists on professional development practices of private Christian school teachers. This study explored professional development practices of Christian school teachers in nine evangelical Christian schools in the …

Key Factors Of Faith Development : The Relationship Between Family And Church Factors And Faith Development Of Adolescents And Young Adults In German-Speaking Europe, Alexander C. Schulze

Dissertations

Problem. The church is losing its children. Research revealed that more than two thirds of the next generation leave their congregations during their teens and early 20s. Without these adolescents and young adults the church has no viable future. While the youth are able to make their way without church, the church will definitely not make its way without the youth. The problem addressed in this study is the continuing challenge for church leaders, educators, and administrators to provide the best possible conditions for spiritual and organizational growth in order to retain the next generation.

Method. Observation and anecdotal evidence …