Christianity Commons^™

Music And Sound In Weihsien Internment Camp In Japanese-Occupied China, Zhihui Sophia Geng

Asian Studies Faculty Publications

From the chapter's Introduction:
On 7 July 1937, Japanese forces based in Manchuria charged southward towards Beijing, invading north China and hence starting the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, transforming the Second Sino-Japanese War into the Pacific War. As a result of Pearl Harbor, the status of Allied citizens living in China at the time changed from neutral to ‘enemy aliens’. These Allied citizens included individuals and their families who worked in China as government officials, executives, engineers and Christian missionaries. They were forced into internment camps under the watchful eyes of the …

'Holy Seeing' From The Art Of The Saint John's Bible, Barbara Sutton

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ecumenical Ecclesiology In Its New Contexts: Considering The Transformed Relationship Between Roman Catholic Ecclesiology And Ecumenism, Kristin Colberg

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

The quest for Christian unity is entering a new phase amidst the movement’s many voices, perspectives and tensions. Christians are witnessing the advent of an emerging ecumenical paradigm, which, because it is not fully realized, is still realizing its full definition. The paradigm operates in a global context rather than a Eurocentric one, and even as it is more global, it is simultaneously more local. It cultivates shared praxis while being less concerned with the comparison of dogmas. Ecclesiology is also entering a new paradigm which shares many features with its ecumenical counterpart, particularly its global perspective and interest in …

Wedding Bans: Why Do Parishes Turn Young Catholic Couples Away?, Michael Leonard Hahn

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Craftsman Mirroring The Creator: Explorations In Theatrical Theology, Andrew Noah

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

This will be my presentation given to theology faculty on Scholarship and Creativity Day required for the Theology Capstone course. I will be discussing the idea that when doing theology in a theatrical mode, it becomes a way to focus on God working in the world and our call as the audience to take part in the performance. Because God does not just exist in the abstract, but makes Godself known through the senses, theatre, as a sensual art, becomes the perfect mode to explore and make relevant God’s divine revelation.

Ecclessiology Today And Its Potential To Serve A Missionary Church, Kristin Colberg

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

This article engages the theme of the 2017 meeting of the American Society of Missiology: “Missiology’s Dialogue Partners: Practitioners and Scholars Conversing about the Future of Mission.” It seeks to contribute to that conversation by providing a survey of the discipline of ecclesiology with an eye towards how it might learn from the field of mission and how it might inform it. This exploration begins by defining some of the goals, methods, and boundaries of the field of ecclesiology. It then considers three critical issues at the forefront of ecclesiological work today: 1) questions emanating from the ecumenical sphere; 2) …

Informed And Formed By Theological Education, Kathleen A. Cahalan

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

This essay explores the author’s experiences of both the contributions and the limits of the varied ways in which the meaning and purpose of theological education have been understood: as a habitus, as liberating praxis, as faith seeking understanding, as the clerical paradigm, as scholarship for the church, as spiritual practice, and as practical knowing. With appreciation for each, she concludes that theological education is a disciplined way of life in search of wisdom for our times.

Integrative Learning For Practical Wisdom, Kathleen A. Cahalan

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

Why is “the very kind of knowledge that people need to live well—what we call practical wisdom—the least understood, the hardest to learn, and often the most devalued kind of knowledge?”6 This essay will explore the second question: Why is practical wisdom the hardest kind of knowledge to learn?

Benedictine Communio: A Gift For The Church?, Michael Leonard Hahn

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

“I Am The Mahar Of Your Mahars:” Cokhāmelā, The Modern Dalit Movement, And The Dalit Christian Theology, Chris Conway

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

Over the last century, Cokhāmelā’s place and prominence in the Modern Dalit Movement and Dalit Christian theology have waned significantly. As the liberating potential of his work failed to be actualized, and more recent Dalit figures like Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and movements like Dalit Sahitya began to examine his work and life more critically, Cokhāmelā and his abhangas were found inadequate. Cokhāmelā became identified as one whose conscientisation remained incomplete, primarily because he failed to convert from Hinduism and saw his caste through the lens of karma. This essay re-examines Cokhāmelā’s life, death, and legacy so as to reassess his …

Almsgiving As Patronage: The Role Of Patroness In Third Century North African Christianity, Charles A. Bobertz

Theology Faculty Publications

In the social world of the third century Roman Empire the most important determinant of political and social status and advancement was the giving and receiving of patronage. By means of a close study of two of Cyprian of Carthage’s well known treatises, De opere et eleemosynis (On Almsgiving) and De habitu virginum (On the Dress of Virgins) within the context of the larger social reality of the Roman patronage system, this study seeks to explore the level of status and authority that women benefactors (patronesses) may have enjoyed within parts of the early Christian Church and ultimately how such …

"Review Of L’Ultimo Nemico Didio: Il Ruolo Deltanticristo Nel Cristianismo Antico E Tardoantico", Michael Patella Osb

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessing A Christian's Response To The Annihilating Self-Communication Of The Suicide Bomber, C. A. Chase

Forum Lectures

A person enters a public space-market, café, church-unnoticed, identity camouflaged against the vernacular of the everyday. In a flash-self-communicating through willful self-annihilation-the anthropology of a hitherto unknown individual is irrevocably imbedded in the history(s) of other human anthropologies without any consent. In the violence of such a moment, against the compelling mystery of the self-erased suicide bomber, a starting point opens up for the Christian witness to the event to enter into, and to begin a radical exploration of mystery, identity, of the other, of the self, framed against the Christian tradition, and reflected against the Christ.

The 'call' of …

Christ As Chrism, Christ Given Away, Anna Mercedes

Theology Faculty Publications

This article develops the concept of Christ not as static body but as chrism for bodies. Christ as chrism travels in the matrix of relationality, on a vector toward the benefit of others. Conceptualizing christ as chrism potentially avoids both exclusionary and colonizing tendencies in Christian polity, and frames a Christian ethics that, while vulnerable and risky, marks the sanctity of the one giving Christ away.

"Review Of Mark", Michael Patella Osb

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On Liturgy And Lectionary: The Word Of Life In The Body Of Christ, Martin Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

In 1843 the Catholic bishop of Philadelphia, Francis Patrick Kenrick, wrote to the Public School Board of Controllers to ask that Catholic children be spared reading of the Protestant Bible [the King James Version, KJV] and that anti-Catholic vitriol be excised from textbooks of the public schools. Historians focus on the translation divide – the Protestant King James Version versus the Catholic Douai-Rheims – but the issue closer to the heart of the matter was ritual formation (and malformation) of Christian believers, well-heeled Protestants versus poor Catholics. What happened in summer 1844, I suggest, was more accurately Rite Riots rather …

Understanding The Vocation Of Health Professionals, Laura Hey, Kate Nowakowski

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

This project seeks to determine if and how physicians and dentists understand their work as a vocation or calling. In order to accomplish this, we interviewed dentists and physicians who were at different points in their careers and analyzed the data in comparison with theological sources on vocation. Dentists defined their vocation in broad terms, saying that it was more than their work. Physicians, on the other hand, see their vocation to mean the work that they do as a physician. Both groups found the most fulfillment in their careers when they feel a sense of joy and excitement, when …

'Our Opinion Is In Accordance With The Eucharist': Irenaeus And The Sitz Im Leben Of Mark's Gospel, Charles A. Bobertz

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

This article explores Irenaeus of Lyon’s 2nd century understanding of Eucharist in relation to a historical and theological reading of Mark’s Gospel, specifically the feeding narrative cycles (Mark 6:30-52; 8:1-21). Irenaeus contends, most particularly in books IV and V of Adversus haereses, that the union of divine spirit and flesh in the humanity of Jesus and its replication in the Eucharistic bread serves as primary refutation of docetic heretics. Jesus was, and his Eucharistic body is, fully a part of creation in contrast to only a spiritual entity. Similarly Mark’s understanding of Eucharist linked to the …

The Date Of Easter And Shakespeare’S ‘Progress Of The Stars’: Creed And Chronometry In The Sixteenth Century, Martin Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" opens with the question "Is this a holiday?" followed by another, "What, know you not?" The queries seem benign and, perhaps, humorless four centuries after the drama about the assassination of the ancient Roman emperor premiered at the Globe Theater in 1599, but – within a century of King Henry VIII's start of the Church of England (1534) – chronometry was a grave matter of church and state. Shakespeare's first Roman play coincided with the worst span of controversy between the Vatican and Canterbury, and Flavius's questions reveal social rubs between churches and calendars in late …

Resurrection: Love Conquers Death, Dale Launderville Osb

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

"When a loved one is on his or her final journey home to God, we who keep vigil recognize that a momentous event is happening before us. As believers, we live in hope that this journey will bring the loved one to a better place. We regard the dying process as the one by which a believer is born into eternal life. As communication with the loved one fades, it is as if a veil descends between the dying person and those gathered around. This fading of communication marks the transformation of the loved one’s earthly body into a heavenly …

Making Christ Of The Man Born Blind (John 9:1-41): A Hypothesis, Martin F. Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"The Saint John's Bible: Biblical Authority Within The Illuminated Word", Michael Patella Osb

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Review Of Le Temps Et Les Temps: Dans Les Littératures Juives Et Chrétiennes Au Tournant De Notre Èr", Michael Patella Osb

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Three Approaches To Practical Theology, Theological Education, And The Church’S Ministry, Kathleen A. Cahalan

School of Theology and Seminary Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On The U.S. Aversion To Ritual Behavior And The Vocation Of The Liturgical Theologian, Martin F. Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

This three-part essay reflects on the vocation of liturgical theologians in a culture in which there is a general antipathy toward the influence of religious rituals on personal formation and decision-making.¹ Part ι considers a few foundational nineteenth-century authors of the American Renaissance for reflections on the aversion to Christian ritual behavior. Part 2 takes up the sermons of a few nineteenth-century revivalist preachers. Part 3 suggests five challenges to liturgical theologians who teach and think in the complex social and religious environment of the United States.

‘Just As On Easter Sunday’: On The Feast Of The Presentation Of The Lord, Martin F. Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Attolite Portas, ‘Open Up, You Doors!’: Liturgical Narrative And Christ’S Descent, Martin F. Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

From the New Testament to late antiquity the narrative of Christ's descent to the dead – preaching the good news there, and, in some accounts, baptizing them – was received and, by the fourth and fifth centuries, nearly omnipresent in paschal theology.Neither faith nor baptism exempts any Christian from death, but the waters of baptism, as Paul wrote to the Romans (6:3-4), wed believers into a community of faith in which mysteries are celebrated and transitions marked, enabling believers to face sickness, catastrophe, dying, and death with eyes wide open. Christ's descent to the dead deepens God's life in us.

Review Of The Dramatic Liturgy Of Anglo-Saxon England, By M. Bradford Bedingfield, Martin Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Descensus Christi Ad Inferos: Christ’S Descent To The Dead, Martin F. Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

The narrative of Christ’s descent was nearly omnipresent in the early Church. Yet a change of Latin vocabulary from “descensus ad inferos” (Christ’s descent to the dead) to “descensus ad inferna” (Christ’s descent into hell) prompted a change in what was proclaimed. The earlier stratum portrayed Christ preaching to those who, while on earth, did not hear the word of God, while the latter described the reconciliation of sinners. The author here considers the vitality of this creedal statement and what is lost when the descent is absent from Christian experience.

Jesus The Jew: Contributions Of Geza Vermes To The Modern Jesus Debate, Robert A. Zelada

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

In the spirit of interfaith dialog between Jews and Christians, this project focuses on the Jewish Jesus presented by Geza Vermes in his trilogy of books published during the last quarter of the twentieth century. The paper begins by looking at the life of Vermes as seen from his autobiography and continues into a review and reflection of the major themes Vermes examines in his three books on the search for the historical Jesus. Specifically, the paper covers Vermes' theories regarding intertestamental Palestine, Jesus' observance of Mosaic Law, His notion of the Kingdom of God, and His relation to the …