Practical Theology Commons^™

Sowing Hope Where There Is Despair (Chapter 4 Of Practicing The Prayer Of St. Francis), Patrick Allen

Faculty Publications - College of Education

Excerpt from the Introduction:

So, how do we sow hope where there is despair? That is the major question we will address in this chapter. First, we’ll look a bit more at despair and why it troubles our spirits so deeply before turning to the subject of hope, something we all can embrace. Then, we’ll pick up the story of Elijah once more. I believe that it is a textbook example for how to sow hope in the wilderness of despair. Before closing, I will offer a few practical steps we can take when we despair or walk with those …

A Journey To Finding Space In The Tension: Experience Of Instructors' Relationship With Religion And Spirituality In Doctoral Psychology Programs, Samantha Mcgee

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Religion and spirituality, when viewed through a holistic lens, can reflect important aspects of a person’s identity. It can be a source of well-being and also struggle. The fields of religion, spirituality and psychology have had a history of being polarized, with some efforts to integrate the two fields. Tensions exist at multiple ecological levels around the topic of religion and spirituality, which can make it easier to avoid discussing it in classrooms and therapy rooms. It is important to address and create room for discussion of experiences around religion and spirituality in classrooms that are training psychologists so they …

Investigating The Prevailing Worldviews Of American Public Education: A Brief Analysis And History, Chester Walker

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis investigates whether the philosophies and worldviews underlying U.S. public education contradict or purposefully undermine Biblical Christianity. It provides readers with an understanding of the Biblical Christian worldview to enable them to analyze and contrast prominent worldviews of public education. Pragmatism and Marxism run rampant in public education today. Both strongly oppose fundamental tenets of the Biblical Christian worldview. To determine any purposeful anti-Christian agenda, the author examines the men behind the worldviews. Christianity maintains that ideas and practices in education originate from deeply-held, personal beliefs, which are passed on to students. Education is a means of discipleship to …

Playing At The Crossroads Of Religion And Law: Historical Milieu, Context And Curriculum Hooks In Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This chapter presents the use of Lost & Found – a purpose-built tabletop to mobile game series – to teach medieval religious legal systems. The series aims to broaden the discourse around religious legal systems and to counter popular depiction of these systems which often promote prejudice and misnomers. A central element is the importance of contextualizing religion in period and locale. The Lost & Found series uses period accurate depictions of material culture to set the stage for play around relevant topics – specifically how the law promoted collaboration and sustainable governance practices in Fustat (Old Cairo) in twelfth-century …

Minecrafting Bar Mitzvah: Two Rabbis Negotiating And Cultivating Learner-Driven Inclusion Through New Media., Owen Gottlieb

Articles

In 2013, a boy with special needs used the video game Minecraft to deliver the sermon at his bar mitzvah at a Reform synagogue, an apparently unique ritual phenomenon to this day. Using a narrative inquiry approach, this article examines two rabbis’ negotiations with new media, leading up to, during, and upon reflection after the event. The article explores acceptance, innovation, and validation of new media in religious practice, drawing on Campbell’s (2010) framework for negotiation of new media in religious communities. Clergy biography, philosophy, and institutional context all impact the negotiations with new media. By providing context of a …

George Phillip Holt, Sr. Papers, 1971-1972, G. P. Holt

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

Finding aid for the George Phillip Holt, Sr. Papers, 1971-1972.

Vanity Of Vanities Or Song Of Songs? Music Education From A Biblical Perspective, Sandra Yang

Faculty Integration Papers

The last chorus of a beloved gospel hymn reads, “Christ without, all is vain! Christ within, all is gain.” Without Him, life at best is the vanity of vanities with nothing new under the sun. With Him, though, as our regenerated new life within, our life is a continual song of songs, full of meaning, full of potential, full of the life that is the very Christ Himself. To know Him and the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10) has been my principal aim since I met Him. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes …

Fostering Self-Efficacy For Biblical Learning And Doctrinal Awareness With Micro-Teaching In A Brief Course On Bible Study, Robin K. Henson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Self-efficacy for biblical learning was explored in the context of a small group experience focused on how to study the Bible. After first developing a new instrument to measure self-efficacy for biblical learning in a pilot study, ten church attendees participated in a seven-week course designed around the hermeneutical principles of understanding a Scripture passage in textual and historical context, placing the passage in the grand story of God, and relating it to relevant doctrine. The small group process employed micro-teaching as a mechanism to facilitate challenge and mastery experience in learning. Micro-teaching places the student in the role of …

A Phenomenological Understanding Of A Calling With Implications For Pastoral And Vocational Education, Thomas R. Connors

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of calling for seasoned pastors. Guiding the research were four related sub-questions: (a) How do seasoned pastors describe their initial experiences of calling? (b) How do they describe the ways in which they have critically reflected on their experiences of calling ? (c) How do seasoned pastors describe their subsequent actions that have resulted from their calling? (d) HAnd, how do seasoned pastors describe the development of their calling? A purposeful sampling of 11 pastors who have for six or more years functioned as a full-time pastor were engaged …

Summit On Abuse Focuses On Helping To Recognize And Stop Abuse, Andrews University

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

David Edwin Harrell, Jr. Papers, 1923-2017, David Edwin Harrell Jr

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Interview Of Margaret Mcguinness, Ph.D., Margaret Mcguinness Ph.D., Stephen Pierce

All Oral Histories

Dr. Margaret McGuinness was born in 1953, in Providence, Rhode Island. She went to an all-girls Catholic high school called St. Mary’s Academy Bayview in Providence where she graduated in 1971. McGuinness went on to major in American Studies and Civilization as an undergraduate at Boston University graduating with a B.A in 1975. She continued her work at Boston University where McGuinness earned a master’s of theological studies (M.T.S) focusing on Biblical and Historical Studies in 1979. She would move to New York to work on her dissertation at Union Theological Seminary finishing with her Ph.D. in 1985 concentrating on …

Developing A Strategy To Vitalize Volunteering For Successful Community Service In Korean Churches: Focusing On The Korean Baptist Church Of Blacksburg, Daijoong Park

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Volunteering is a practical method of community service which is an essential ministry of the church’s mission as the salt and light of the world. In order for a church to fulfill its mission of community service, the volunteer work of church members should be activated. However, many church members are still not participating in community service, and some volunteers have difficulty in continuing their volunteer work due to the lack of volunteer management for volunteering properly. The purpose of this study is to develop a viable volunteer management process to vitalize volunteering for community service of a church properly …

Finding Aid For Christian Scholars Conference Records, (1981-2009), Abilene Christian University Special Collections And Archives

Christian Scholars Conference Records

Finding aid for the Christian Scholars Conference Records, (1981-2009).

Re-Playing Maimonides’ Codes: Designing Games To Teach Religious Legal Systems, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

Lost & Found is a game series, created at the Initiative for

Religion, Culture, and Policy at the Rochester Institute of

Technology MAGIC Center.1 The series teaches medieval

religious legal systems. This article uses the first two games

of the series as a case study to explore a particular set of

processes to conceive, design, and develop games for learning.

It includes the background leading to the author's work

in games and teaching religion, and the specific context for

the Lost & Found series. It discusses the rationale behind

working to teach religious legal systems more broadly, then

discuss the …

Climate Change And Reasons To Care (Leader's Guide), Kevin Timmer

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

An introduction to the climate change discussion based on the video series Global Weirding by Katharine Hayhoe.

What Can We Learn From Atheists? (Leader's Guide And Participant's Guide), Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A study of Larry Tauton's The Faith of Christopher Hitchens: The Restless Soul of the World's Most Notorious Atheist

An Examination Of Children’S Ministry Volunteer Development From Pastors And Laity In The Local Church, Kenneth Warren

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Developing children’s ministry volunteers in the local church is crucial to the sustenance of the body of Christ. Children’s ministry volunteers should be viewed as capable partners with both parents and church leaders in fulfilling the Great Commission. All volunteer ministries of the church matter, but those serving in children’s ministry have the unique opportunity to shape the lives of individuals who could serve the kingdom for a lifetime. Children’s ministry volunteer development is valuable because kingdom advancement hinges on lay ministry development as described in Ephesians 4:11–16. For this project, the researcher surveyed children’s ministry volunteers and pastors in …

Confirmation Basics, Terri L. Elton, Lisa Kimball, Gordon Mikoski

Faculty Publications

This article moves the findings of The Confirmation Project research from theory into practice. Three members of the research team highlight three themes (purpose, design, and leadership) and walk congregational leaders through a process of discovering how these ideas can help them find a way forward that is meaningful to their congregation.

Monotheism And Its Vicissitudes, K. Daniel Cho

Education Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

Challenging the claim that monotheism is intolerant, the author presents an original interpretation of Sigmund Freud’s last book Moses and Monotheism. Freud is shown offering a theory of monotheism in which monotheism is not seen as exclusive, but rather as inherently equivocal.

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.

Why Are We Compelled To Do Science? (Participant's Guide), Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A study of The Penultimate Curiosity: How Science Swims in the Sliptream of Ultimate Questions

Why Are We Compelled To Do Science? (Leader's Guide), Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A Study of The Penultimate Curiosity: How Science Swims in the Slipstream of Ultimate Questions

Have Science & Religion Conflicted In The Past? (Leader's Guide), Robbin Eppinga, Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A study of That Galileo Went to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion

How Can We Respond To Those Who Hate Religion? (Leader's Guide And Participant's Guide), Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A study of Antitheism's Major Critiques of Religion

Have Science & Religion Conflicted In The Past? (Leader's Guide), Robbin Eppinga, Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A study of That Galileo Went to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion

Have Science And Religion Conflicted In The Past? (Participant's Guide), Robbin Eppinga, Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A study of That Galileo Went to Jail and Other Myths About Science and Religion

The Relationship Between Religious Commitment And Bible Literacy In Suburban New York And New Jersey Christian High School Juniors And Seniors, Pradeep Emmanuel Stephen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This correlative study explored the relationship between the religious commitment of junior and senior Christian high school students and their level of Bible literacy as indicated by their respective scores on the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) and Assessment of Bible Knowledge Test (ABKT). Using a non-parametric Spearman’s rho statistic for a correlation test, the study fills a gap in the literature by analyzing the strength of the relationship between students’ levels of Bible literacy and outcomes on the specific religiosity subscales on the DUREL instrument, including Organizational Religious Activity (ORA), Non-Organizational Activity (NORA) and Intrinsic Religiosity (IR). A non-random …

An Introduction To All Curricula, Robbin Eppinga, Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

No abstract provided.

How Can We Reconcile The Theory Of Evolution And Our Theology Of The Fall? (Participant's Guide), Robbin Eppinga, Ashley Huizinga, Lydia Marcus

Study Guides for Faith & Science Integration

A study of William Cavanaugh and James K. A. Smith's Evolution and the Fall