Christianity Commons^™

I Was Looking For God: A Study Of Wehrmacht Personnel And Their Personal Relationships With Religion, Christopher Bishop

Master's Theses

The Wehrmacht was Germany’s fighting force in the field during World War II. Its brutality and discriminatory practices rivaled that of the Nazi paramilitary and police units dispatched alongside them in newly conquered areas during this conflict. Coming from a society that was not at all unfamiliar with Christianity, some within the Wehrmacht related to Christianity in some form and attempted to use it to either justify actions or make sense of the world around them.

While considerable scholarship exists on the Nazi Party’s relationship to Christianity as a convenient propaganda tool for both soldier and civilian alike, the historiography …

Political Agendas In The Letters Of Hildegard Of Bingen, Anna Sweeney

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Hildegard of Bingen is mentioned only briefly in historical accounts of musicology, religious philosophy, and biographical studies of various monarchs from the twelfth century; however, she played a crucial role in maintaining the Catholic Church's influence as a political institution. In her correspondences, Bingen used enormous amounts of prophetic language to refer to many current events that were happening throughout Western Europe. In her letters to churchmen, bishops, popes and kings, she counseled against rampant heresies and political behavior contradicting the will of the Church. The sickly tenth daughter of a German aristocratic family, Hildegard was born 44 years after …

Re-Emerging Pietism: The Emerging Church As Postmodern Pietism, Tysen Dauer

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

Germany in the seventeenth century was ripe for religious reform: the Thirty Years War had created doubts about the correctness of contemporary religious institutions, theologians of most denominations were engaged in abstract, scholastic theological controversy, and inter-denominational conflict was increasingly off-putting. It was into this climate which Pietism emerged as an alternative way of doing religion. Its central tenants were: (1) a more extensive use of Scripture, (2) a reinvigorated spiritual priesthood, (3) an emphasis on orthopraxy, (4) irenic conduct in religious controversies, (5) the establishment of seminaries as centers of personal spiritual cultivation, and (6) sermons emphasizing faith and …

The Heliand: The Warrior's Strength And The Transcendence Of Faith, Nathanael Rhody

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The research project centered on the literary text, Heliand, a biblical paraphrase of the Gospel originally written in Old Saxon in the 9th century. Throughout this period, Christianity was steadily spreading to the pagan lands of northern Europe. Because this initially involved a form cultural clash between the Christian and Germanic world-views, Christianity is often thought to have been an overt replacement of the earlier traditional folk-culture of these lands. The Heliand, though, expresses differently by drawing parallels between the old Germanic warrior culture and the Christian faith. The project examines how this is accomplished by exploring deeper into the …

[Book Review Of] Freikirchen Und Juden Im „Dritten Reich“: Instrumentalisierte Heilsgeschichte, Antisemitische Vorurteile Und Verdrängte Schuld, Edited By Daniel Heinz, Denis Kaiser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

[Book Review Of] Freikirchen Und Juden Im „Dritten Reich“: Instrumentalisierte Heilsgeschichte, Antisemitische Vorurteile Und Verdrängte Schuld, Edited By Daniel Heinz, Denis Kaiser

Denis Kaiser

No abstract provided.

Michael Praetorius Creuzbergensis-The Man, The Musician, The Theologian: An Introduction, David Susan

Master of Divinity Thesis

One particular focus of this paper will be Praetorius' theology of music, woven of the thread of coneio et cantio, sermon and song, that runs through the prefaces and dedicatory letters to many of his works.

The overall purpose of this paper is to make available in English an introduction to the music and thought of Praetorius, since most of the primary sources and much of the secondary literature are not translated. Material quoted in the text from German and Latin sources has been translated into English, and a translation of one important primary source, his Funeral Sermon, is appended …

The Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod And World War I-A Study Of The Loyalty Problem During World War I And Theodore Conrad Graebner's Attempt To Solve It, Walter Steinbach

Master of Divinity Thesis

This paper deals with troubles experienced by the Missouri Synod in general, but its answer to the major problems are based almost exclusively on the writings of Professor Theodore Conrad Graebner. Professor Graebner was on the faculty at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1914 he assumed the role as co-editor of the Lutheran Witness, the official English periodical of the Missouri Synod. Professor Graebner was probably the most important leader of the Missouri Synod who attempted to prove its loyalty during this time. He also became the advisor, for many pastors who did not know what to do …