Christianity Commons^™

Our Own Devices, Joseph Clair

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

A flickering glow welcomed me to my university’s chapel service. Votive candles? If only. No, these were glowing smartphones, as thick as fireflies on a summer’s evening. It was a scene of tremendous absurdity, like a man watching TV while making love to his wife: distracted people distracting themselves during a sacred act. It struck me as oddly understandable (I even joined them to check my email during the sermon), yet also as the foretaste of some looming spiritual crisis. So much has been written lately about the perils of smartphone use that I’m reluctant to join the chorus. Yet …

Mysterium Tremendum Restored In The Life Of The Preacher, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

What is your most unforgettable preaching experience? Did it happen just last week or last year? Or did it happen five or ten years ago? For me it happened immediately after my graduation from my M.Div. program.

I had arrived in New Haven from Atlanta after a twenty-hour drive to attend Yale Divinity School. I am rather a slow driver, and it had taken me almost three days and about ten fast food hamburgers to get to New Haven. That very afternoon, I got a phone call from the deacon of a local Korean American Methodist church. He said that …

Ann Austin, Jeannine Graham

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The story of the Quaker Ann Austin is a story of resilience and resolve despite unremitting opposition. Mid-seventeenth-century colonial America was a paradox of settlers who braved perilous seas to escape persecution and find religious freedom in the colonies. Yet some of those same groups ironically became inhospitable, even hostile, to other immigrants seeking similar freedom to practice and promote their religious beliefs. Ann Austin, mother of five children and described as a woman "stricken in years:' traveled with fellow Quaker Mary Fisher, an unmarried former maidservant, to the colonies by way of Barbados aboard the ship Swallow. Fueled with …

Come Hell Or High Water? Scientific Progress And Ethics, Travis Pickell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

There is a perception among some today that science is necessarily equated with progress because it is dedicated to advancing knowledge; but ethics is mostly about applying abstract ideals to questions whose answers should be clear to most people, and mostly just results leads to red tape and process-driven institutional review boards. If anything, for people who hold this view, the real purpose of “ethics” seems to be to impede science, progress and human flourishing.

Second John And Women, Paul Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

On Finding Jesus: A Review Of The Cnn Episodes, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Self-Mirroring Through Broken Pieces: Jesus Among The Comfortwomen, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Once again, there is an emotional eruption and political commotion in South Korea after the Japanese and Korean governments announced their diplomat “deal” on the Comfort Women on December 28, 2015. The official agreement includes a formal apology and a compensation of $8.3 million from the Japanese government. There is one important condition also included in the agreement; that this resolution should be “final and irreversible” this year onward. On the surface, the deal seems good—formal apology and some monetary compensation finalized. But then, why the emotional eruption and vehement opposition, especially from the Korean Comfort Women rights activists? In …

A Northwest Semitic Curse Formula: The Sefire Treaty And Deuteronomy 28, Melissa Ramos

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

While a great deal of scholarly investigation has focused on parallels between biblical curses and imprecations found in Neo-Assyrian Treaties, the curses in the Aramaic treaty of Sefire have garnered relatively less attention.¹ In recent years there has been renewed interest in the Sefire treaty, the role of Aramaic, and its use and influence during the Neo-Assyrian period.² Since the publication of the Succession Treaty of Esarhaddon (STE) by Donald John Wiseman in 1958 studies have abounded that examine its parallels with Deut 13 and 28.³ While some scholars posit a direct dependence of Deuteronomy on the cuneiform text of …

Ada María Isasi-Díaz, Jeannine Graham

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

"Pioneer;' "mother of mujerista theology;' "brilliant scholar" are some of the words others have used to describe Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz. As self-described "Cuban activist theologian;' she is credited with creating a new theological category called mujerista theology, which both shares affinities with feminist and liberation theologies while also posing critiques that call for a more nuanced approach.

Book Review: Reason And Faith: Themes From Richard Swinburne, Isaac Choi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

A review of Reason and Faith: Themes from Richard Swinburne: Michael Bergmann and Jeffrey E. Brower(Eds.): Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016

ISBN: 978-0198732648

Excerpt: "The papers in this volume were originally presented at a conference at Purdue University, organized by the volume’s editors, in honor of Swinburne’s eightieth birthday. The contributors are all prominent and senior scholars in the field, and several begin with personal reminiscences and tributes to how Swinburne’s work inspired and even helped to initiate their interest in philosophy of religion."

Compassionate Concern—Seeing Truth In The Face Of The Other, Paul Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

John Punshon (1954) Obituary, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

When William Penn, whose portrait still adorns the walls of Christ Church College, was expelled from Oxford in 1661 for his nonconformist views and alternative worship venues, who would have thought that one of Oxford's alumni three centuries later would become one of the leading Quaker interpreters and ministers of the late 20'h and early 21" centuries? Having experienced a number of faith traditions in his earlier years,John Punshon actually joined the Friends movement while at Oxford. A lover of Newman and the aesthetic spirituality of the Oxford Movement, and having experienced the biblical vitality of his grandfather's rural Baptist …

Eternal Goods (Chapter Five Of Discerning The Good In The Letters And Sermons Of Augustine), Joseph Clair

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

For Augustine, eternal goods are the virtues and goods of genuine friendship as they will exist in eternity—as the full expression of love for God and neighbor-love. This chapter considers such goods in their plurality and temporality. That is, it treats them as human beings are able to comprehend and pursue them—and sometimes even obtain and experience them—in this life. To do so, this chapter revisits Augustine’s letters to Ecdicia and Macedonius to take a closer look at where each succeeded and failed in their pursuit of higher, eternal goods. Augustine’s vision of obtaining eternal goods involves a process in …

Contributions Of This Volume And The De-Johannification Of Jesus (Chapter In John, Jesus, And History, Volume 3), Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Excerpt: "As the essays in this volume demonstrate, the evidentiary basis for excluding the Gospel of John from the historical quest for Jesus is extensively flawed, critically. Many dozens, perhaps hundreds, of instances in which the Fourth Gospel arguably contributes to a fuller understanding of the life and ministry of the prophetic figure from Nazareth require renewed consideration if the fuller database of historical information about Jesus is to be consulted. The question, of course, is how to do so. While it might be safer and less likely to err to exclude John from the quest, such a conservatively reductionistic …

Book Review: Poetic Heroes: Literary Commemorations Of Warriors And Warrior Culture In The Early Biblical World, Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Mark Smith’s Poetic Heroes: Literary Commemorations of Warriors and Warrior Culture in the Early Biblical World is a tour de force of philological commentary, comparative religion, and historical reconstruction that ultimately focuses its attention on the way warriors and their concerns appear in the Hebrew Bible. After an introduction posing the question of warrior poetry’s broad cultural appeal (1–12), Smith devotes part 1 to “the literary commemoration of warriors and warrior culture” (15–47), in which he lays out a glossary of heroic terminology and literary practice in the Hebrew Bible, highlighting the problem of finding cultural reality within literary representations. …

Key Socio-Ecclesial Themes Arising In The Asian American Community (Chapter One Of Evangelical Pilgrims From The East: Faith Fundamentals Of Korean American Protestant Diasporas), Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The chapter examines the socio-ecclesial or practical theological situation of Asian Americans, of which Korean Americans are a part and out of which Korean American evangelical diasporas seek their unique cultural faith formation-the topics of the following chapters.1 The Asian American socio-ecclesial context is a hard one to analyze because of its cultural complexity. Mainly, the complexity comes from the dual identity or double consciousness of Asian American life-being Asian on the one hand and American on the other. This hybridity without a doubt complicates the cultural investigation of Asian American Christianity. At the same time, however, that hybridity is …

Grace Communion International, Jeannine Graham

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

While this denomination has only been known as Grace Communion International since April 2009, it represents the radical metamorphosis of a movement that began in Oregon in the 1930s under the leadership of Herbert Armstrong. As his autobiography attests, this young newspaper advertising designer experienced a life-changing conversion to faith in Jesus Christ in the 1920s that ignited within him an "unspeakable joy" and ravenous appetite to study the Bible. The more he learned, the more compelled he became to share his insights with others by writing articles. But by the mid- to late-20s a growing disenchantment with mainstream evangelicalism …

Hispanic "Teologia En Conjunto”, Jeannine Graham

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Pervasive throughout postmodern theological perspectives is the contention that all theology is contextual. One's knowledge and understanding of God, the natural world, human beings and their interrelations is inescapably filtered through overlaid lenses of language, culture, history, socioeconomic status, religious traditions, and faith experience. "Teologia en Conjunto" (literally, "in conjunction with;' "conjoined to") expresses the conviction of a growing number of Latino theologians that this nexus of influencing contextual factors is not tangential to but rather formative of one's theology. The social, cultural or ethnic location of Latinos, consciously or unconsciously, shapes how they interpret life experiences as well as …

Bartolomé De Las Casas, Jeannine Graham

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Amidst the checkered history of sixteenth-century Spanish colonization of Latin America stands a Dominican priest whose passion for safeguarding the human dignity of abused indigenous populations prompted the Spanish monarch King Ferdinand to bestow upon him the title "Protector of the Indians." His dogged pursuit to challenge the mistreatment of Indians earned him both admiration from some as well as scorn from others, the latter of whom regarded his efforts to improve the plight of their cheap labor force as meddlesome interference with their economic gain.

Allan Aubrey Boesak, With Foreword By Nicholas Wolterstorff, Dare We Speak Of Hope? Searching For A Language Of Life In Faith And Politics. Reviewed By Travis Pickell, Travis Pickell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Review of Allan Aubrey Boesak, with foreword by Nicholas Wolterstorff, Dare We Speak of Hope? Searching for a Language of Life in Faith and Politics (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2014). xiv + 202 pp. ISBN 978-0-8028-7081-0

‘Hope’ has become something of a catchword in contemporary civic and political dis-course. In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama published The Audacity of Hope, his visionary manifesto, which was followed two years later by now-iconic presidential election campaign posters, boldly and simply proclaiming ‘HOPE’ to masses of American voters. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the powerful enthusiasm the promise of hope can bring …

Reading Ceremonies In The Hebrew Bible: Ideologies Of Textual Authority In Joshua 8, 2 Kings 22-23, And Nehemiah 8, Lisa Joann Cleath

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The covenant reading ceremonies in Joshua 8:30-35, 2 Kings 22-23, and Nehemiah 7:72b-8:18 betray a developing interplay between the people of Israel and the book of the law. These narratives are unique in the Hebrew Bible in presenting the oralization of a covenant document to a specific audience. Previous scholarship on these narratives has focused on reconstructing the source-critical history of each account and the historicity of the reported events. For the following study, Joshua 8:30-35 and 2 Kings 22-23 represent earlier pre-exilic and exilic traditions, while 2 Chronicles 34-35 and Nehemiah 8 illustrate later post-exilic perspectives. However, supplementing source-critical …

An Other-Typological Illustration Of The Exodus Story According To Dr. King's Perception Of Universal Reconciliation In His Sermon On Exodus 14:30, Sunggu Yang

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Introduction

This article investigates Dr Martin Luther King’s illustrative understanding of the Exodus story in his sermon on Exodus 14:30, which is in stark contrast to the Black church’s widely accepted typological understanding of the same story (Raboteau 1995).1 As we shall see, however, King’s illustrative use of the Exodus story is not ‘pure’ but blends both typology and illustration. King, indeed, initially embarks on the different-typological or other-typological understanding of the same Exodus story and eventually ends up using that story as a crucial illustration of his sermon point. We shall see that all this discussion of typology and …

Praeparatio Evangelica - Or Daemonica? C. S. Lewis And Anders Nygren On Spiritual Longing, Jason Lepojärvi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

C. S. Lewis has serious disagreements with Anders Nygren’s theology of love. Several scholars have noticed the similarities between Nygren’s eros-love and Lewis’s concept of need-love. This article suggests, however, that need-love is not necessarily the closest equivalent in Lewis’s taxonomy to Nygren’s eros. The author argues that Lewis’s concept of Joy (or Sehnsucht) is a largely-overlooked contribution to “the Nygren debate,” and contrasts it with the three main features of Nygren’s eros. While encompassing many signature traits of eros, Joy manages to avoid many of its negative and excessive qualities. In Lewis’s theological vision, spiritual longing, far from jeopardizing …

Ethiopian Lives Matter -- The Social Conscience Of The Saint John's Bible Iii, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Testimonies Of Truth: What Have Quakers Believed Through 350 Years?, Paul Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

The Stuttgart Declaration Of 1945: A Casy Study Of Guilt, Forgiveness And Foreign Policy - Chapter 15 From "Trinity And Transformation: J. B. Torrance's Vision Of Worship, Mission, And Society", Roger Newell

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

J. B. Torrance was one of the few theologians of our era whose exposition of fundamental Christian theology spoke prophetically to the church’s social and political witness to the Gospel. This essay examines how Torrance’s analysis of forgiveness casts fresh light on the process whereby relations between the Protestant churches of Europe and America were restored in the chaotic aftermath of postwar Germany. The essay argues that the result of their meeting for reconciliation, the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, prepared the way for the Allies to set aside policies of collective punishment in favor of policies which supported reconciliation and …

Alternatives To Violence—Leadership And Truth, Paul Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Authentic Worship — Glimpsing The Truth Of God, Paul Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Truth And Liberation 2: Personal Transformation, Paul Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.

Truth And Liberation 1.2: But, How Do We Proceed?, Paul Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

No abstract provided.