Religion Commons^™

Swinging Bridge - December 11, 2014, Joel Hoover

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Creation As An Ecumenical Problem: Renewed Belief Through Green Experience, Thomas Hughson

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Loss of a sense of creaturehood and of members has occurred across the lines of divided churches in a secular context. The author explores the question whether green experience of nature can be a path toward a renewed sense of creaturehood. Bernard Lonergan’s distinction between faith and belief allows for identifying a primordial faith that interprets the cosmos as numinous. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises interprets primordial faith with the biblical word of God as Creator. Why not develop local ecumenical experiments in reevangelization that address green experience?

Swinging Bridge - November 20, 2014, Joel Hoover

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

'A Protest Against Protestantism': Hicksite Friends And The Bible In The Nineteenth Century, Thomas D. Hamm

Quaker Studies

Differing views of the nature and authority of Scripture were at the heart of the Hicksite Separation of 1827-1828 among American Friends. Mter the separation, the Bible became a source of conflict among Hicksites. Some Hicksite leaders feared anything that tended to diminish the authority of the Bible; other Hicksites argued for a critical view. By 1870, the liberals had the upper hand, as virtually all Hicksite Quakers came to share views of the Bible, including a sympathy for critical scholarship, that mirrored the modernist movement among Protestants.

Swinging Bridge - November 6, 2014, Joel Hoover

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Public Justice And Personal Liberty: Variety And Linguistic Skill In The Letters Of Mary Fisher, Althea Stewart

Quaker Studies

This essay concerns the use of language in letters by Mary Fisher, the seventeenth-century Quaker missionary. It shows how she adapts her exegetical discourse to suit her readers, and uses it for more than selfjustification. Her first letter, written from York prison is shown to be influenced by the work of Elizabeth Hooton. It is also used as an example of a letter containing a complex and subtle biblical subtext. This technique gave these early Quaker women the confidence to write. Both Fisher and Hooton started writing to draw attention to injustice. Hooton continued to do this throughout her life; …

Swinging Bridge - October 30, 2014, Joel Hoover

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Swinging Bridge - October 16, 2014, Joel Hoover

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

From Clay Tablets To Canon: The Story Of The Formation Of Scripture, Kerry Muhlestein

Kerry Muhlestein

Presented at the 35th Sperry Symposium. The Sidney B. Sperry Symposium is sponsored by Brigham Young University Religious Education and the Church Educational System. It is difficult for us, in the age of information, to appreciate the impact of both the sweeping movements and technical advances that allowed for the creation of the canonized book we call the Bible. We live in a time when we regularly turn to written documents for the "final word", and we take for granted an astounding volume of written works and easy access to them. Indeed, it has been argued that U.S. culture has …

Swinging Bridge - September 25, 2014, Joel Hoover

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Queer Theology: Reclaiming Christianity For The Lgbt Community, Kelly Kraus

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

The root of homophobia in the United States is the condemnation of homosexuality in the Church. By and large, Americans form their moral conscience based on the teachings of the church and so since the church condemns homosexuality, Americans blindly accept this teaching. This condemnation has done immense harm to the LGBT community and it is time for the LGBT community to reclaim Christianity.

Harry Potter As A Piece Of Apocalyptic Fiction, Cambria Findley-Grubb

e-Research: A Journal of Undergraduate Work

J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series remains one of the most popular series ever created, loved by adults and children alike. The Harry Potter series has been translated into over thirty languages in more than one hundred and thirty countries (Killinger 2). This series has spawned a billion dollar industry eight movies, merchandise including shirts, cloaks, wands, and bobble heads, an intercollegiate muggle quidditch league, and a multimillion-dollar amusement park attraction However, despite its increasing popularity and fandom, Harry Potter remains a highly controversial book among fundamentalist religious groups because of its involvement in the world of witches, wizards, and magic. …

Swinging Bridge - September 11, 2014, Joel Hoover

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Psalms For Skeptics (101-150), Kent L. Gramm

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Sparked by phrases from the book of Psalms, these poems question and occasionally affirm our everyday ideas about life, mortality, the afterlife, God, family, and belief. In vigorous contemporary language—complaining, lamenting, and wisecracking on everything from Job's wife to baseball, crows to angels, circus elephants to Mary Magdalene—but in traditional form, these sonnets, or little songs, "speak what we feel, not what we ought to say." [From the publisher]

The Rhetoric Of Praise : Prayer And Persuasion In The Psalms, Ryan J. Cook

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Stand Firm: 48 Life-Guides From Philippians, Dave Branon

Alumni Book Gallery

The book of Philippians may be 2,000 years old, but throughout its pages Paul gives us clues about living that are just as valid for us today as they were for the believers in the ancient city of Philippi. “We need to hear from a guy who was beaten, jailed, shipwrecked, threatened, and mistreated due to his allegiance to Jesus as he tells us how to stand firm and experience peace,” says author Dave Branon.

Digging into the meaning and teaching of Paul’s letter, Stand Firm

• Provides easy-to-read and engaging narrative
• Challenges Christians to secure their faith and experience God’s …

The Dao Of Qoheleth: An Intertextual Reading Of The Daode Jing And The Book Of Ecclesiastes, R. Heard

Chris Heard

Of all the world's literary works which may appropriately be labeled religious classics, the Hebrew scriptures and the Daode Jing stand out as two of the most popular across cultural and linguistic boundaries. One might suppose that the cross-cultural popularity of these classics would have brought them into frequent contact with one another. However, not much seems to have been done to relate the Bible to the Daode Jing in a constructive way. In this article, I seek to begin redressing this lack of conversation by offering a reading of the biblical book of Ecclesiastes using the Daode Jing as …

What Does The Mob Want Lot To Do In Genesis 19:9?, R. Christopher Heard

Chris Heard

Most English Bible translations render [Hebrew text A-B] in Gen 19:9 with some variant of “Stand back!” However, a very few interpreters recommend a translation along the lines of “Come closer!” more in keeping with the typical gloss on [Hebrew text A]. A detailed study of the syntax and semantics of both [Hebrew text A] and [Hebrew text B], as well as constructions similar to [Hebrew text A-B] demonstrates the strength of the minority suggestion.

Toward A Canon-Conscious Reading Of The Bible: Exploring The History And Hermeneutics Of The Canon, Ched E. Spellman

Faculty Books

Two distinct questions about the canon of the Bible can be raised: (1) How did the biblical canon come to be?, and (2) What effect does that canon have on its readers? The former is a historical question about the formation of the biblical canon; the latter is a hermeneutical question about the function of the biblical canon. Though these questions have often been pursued in virtual isolation from one another, Spellman argues that there are considerable gains from observing the interconnections between the two lines of inquiry. On the historical question of the origin of the canon, Spellman asks, …

Gods Behaving Badly: Differences In Perceptions Of Divine Violence In Mythologies Of The Ancient Near East, George Louis Groh

Religious Studies Publications and Other Works

Most people who follow one of the major contemporary religions, particularly in the Abrahamic traditions, adhere to a very specific set of beliefs concerning the types of behavior expected from a deity or divine power. The Bible portrays a God who “delights to show mercy” (Mic. 7:18) and encourages followers to “sanctify yourselves… and be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44). God’s character is often thought to be perfect, utterly above negative qualities such as evil, deceit, wrong doing and pettiness.[1] By this standard, then, some of the acts committed by the gods and goddesses of the ancient …

Does Religion Have A Role In Criminal Sentencing?, Jack B. Weinstein

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Swinging Bridge - May 1, 2014, Dan Row

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Printing The Bible, Megan R. Wu

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Rising Above A Crippling Hermeneutic, Luke Steven, Carlos, Armando Thompson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sacred texts authored in antiquity present a challenge for contemporary religious practitioners because there is always a question regarding how to interpret and apply the message today. Prominent Pentecostal theologian and disability theorist Amos Yong faces this challenge concerning the Bible as it relates to disabilities and those who have them. As I argue in this thesis, Yong succeeds in challenging the Pentecostal perceptions of disability without compromising on the over-all Pentecostal view of scripture.

The Hebrew Bible, which, according to Yong, "...serves as the foundation of the Christian scriptures," contains multiple passages that portray disability in a negative light. …

A Den Of Thieves, Robert F. Gelberg

English Honors Projects

A Den of Thieves is a three-act play detailing the final three days of Jesus of Nazareth from the point of view of the two "thieves" with whom he was crucified. However, rather than a retelling of the Gospels, A Den of Thieves approaches the story through a historical lens, presenting a portrait of Jesus as a Jewish revolutionary leading a populist rebellion against Rome for which he was ultimately publicly executed for sedition. The play offers an examination of both faith and the foundations upon which we build faith.

Swinging Bridge - April 10, 2014, Dan Row

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Rivers Of Paradise: Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, And Muhammad As Religious Founders, David Freedman, Michael Mcclymond, Deborah Sommer

Deborah A. Sommer

In his introduction to Rivers of Paradise, David Noel Freedman explains how the book finds a guiding metaphor in a passage from Genesis (2:10–14) that relates how a river emerges from Eden and splits into four different rivers that flow to different parts of the world. He associates these five rivers with five “great personality religions of the world,” which are traditions “originating in and centering around the person, the life and experience, of a single individual—as it happens all of them men” (p. 2). These “founding fathers” are Moses, the Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, and Muhammad, in that order; …

Book Review: The King In His Beauty, Christopher R. Bruno

Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Parenting Again For The Very First Time/You're Raising Your Grandchildren: Now What?, Larry Lamb

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Grandparents raising their grandchildren are a new demographic emerging at a staggering rate because the parents are either unwilling or incapable of raising their own children. The rationale for this work is derived from the challenges this author and his wife have because of parenting their grandchildren. The research for this project has the value to offer support, wisdom, hope, and perspective for those who are parenting again as grandparents. Opportunities abound to lead grandchildren in a direction where they never would have gone had grandparents resisted the selfless act of parenting again. This project will be approached using surveys …

Swinging Bridge - March 13, 2014, Dan Row

Student Newspapers & Magazines

No abstract provided.