Autism And The Body Of Christ: Understanding, Accommodating, And Accepting Autistic Believers In The Church, Kaitlyn Cook

Senior Honors Theses

Autism is a neurotype that causes a different set of strengths and weaknesses and thus should be embraced and accommodated within the church. Not only are autistic believers able to grasp Christian concepts, but they also have different perspectives and skills that can be instrumental in building up the church. Promoting a correct view of autism and accommodating neurodiversity within the church will allow autistic believers to follow God’s command to be part of a body and build up the church. The church can employ several strategies to create an accessible environment for believers on the spectrum, including creating sensory-safe …

Welcoming The Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality And Its Contemporary Implications, Ori N. Soltes, Rachel Stern, Endy Moraes

Religion

Embracing hospitality and inclusion in Abrahamic traditions

One of the signal moments in the narrative of the biblical Abraham is his insistent and enthusiastic reception of three strangers, a starting point of inspiration for all three Abrahamic traditions as they evolve and develop the details of their respective teachings. On the one hand, welcoming the stranger by remembering “that you were strangers in the land of Egypt” is enjoined upon the ancient Israelites, and on the other, oppressing the stranger is condemned by their prophets throughout the Hebrew Bible.

These sentiments are repeated in the New Testament and the Qur’an …

Arab Feminism And The Hijab: Exploring The Intersection Of Feminism And Islam In Jordan, Melanie Kallah

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The goal of this qualitative research is to procure a definition of Arab Feminism from the religious and cultural beliefs of Jordanian Muslim women while also highlighting the feminist roots of Islam. The hijab is the perfect symbol to analyze Arab feminism under and discuss the difference between religion and culture.

This paper first dives into the history of the Jordanian women’s movement and the origins of today's activism. This hinges on the work of Rana Husseini, who has the only in-depth account of the Jordanian women’s movement. This history allows the reader to better understand the current conditions of …

The Role Of Story In The Creation And Life Of Man, Leah Ginion

Senior Honors Theses

Story was created by God as a vehicle for the revelation and glorification of Himself. Man, made in the image of God, was created as an innate storyteller. The world was created through story, and story is how it progresses and is sustained. As such, story is the foundation of all culture and the most natural and effective method of human communication. Research points to all of man’s stories being derivatives of the Great Story: the metanarrative of Scripture. Exploring man’s relationship with story reveals his place within the metanarrative and ultimately provides evidence for the existence and active presence …

Heart, Soul, Mind, And Strength: Understanding Spirituality's Transformative Impact As Assisted By Intradisciplinary Integration, Christopher Taylor Stokes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Spirituality is an essential and deeply embedded part of Black Americans’ psyche. The counseling field has largely overlooked the roles of spirituality and religious beliefs in the development of the consciousness of this demographic. In the treatment of Black Americans, particularly Black churchgoers, this can be a serious oversight. The purpose of this DMin action research thesis is to provide sufficient intradisciplinary integrative spiritual teaching to effect holistic coping strategies for Lake Providence’s Mid-Week Bible Study Service members. The goal is to bring healing through an intradisciplinary integrative teaching approach utilizing psychology, theology, and spirituality. If the members of Lake …

Theology & Religion Online, Larry Sheret

Librarian Research

Theology & Religion Online (TARO) is a digital repository consisting of four library collections that focus on Protestant and Catholic doctrine, studies into the historical Jesus, and religion in North America (see Figure 1). It includes newly digitized primary texts by major theologians, multi-volume works, references, e-books, chapters, articles, an image library, peer-reviewed secondary readings on core topics, and commentary on lectionaries. This Christ-focused resource is rounded out with a library covering the diverse religious traditions of North America and the hot topics spawned at the intersection of ethics, social movements, and religion. This database is curated and presented in …

Augustine Of Hippo: A Historical Theology Critique, Zachary Monte

Honors Program Projects

This study evaluates how current historical theology survey texts understand and present the theology of Augustine. The texts are examined to assess the following: accuracy of presentation on discussed topics, specific theological topics Augustine addressed excluded in the surveys, and theological bias on the part of the authors. The historical theology surveys include Gregg Allison’s Historical Theology: An Introduction to Christian Doctrine, Justo González’s A History of Christian Thought, and Alister McGrath’s Historical Theology: An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought. The three major topics treated include Augustine’s Trinitarian thought, the Donatist Controversy, and the Pelagian Controversy. The findings …

In Search Of Radical Theology: Expositions, Explorations, Exhortations [Toc], John D. Caputo

Religion

This sparkling collection of essays invites readers to join a seasoned scholar on his journey to catch “radical theology" in action, both in the church and our culture at large.

Capturing a career’s worth of thought and erudition, this rich volume treats readers to creative thought, careful argumentation, and sophisticated analysis transmitted through the lucid, accessible prose that has earned the author a wide readership of academics and non-academics alike. In tackling “radical theology,” John D. Caputo has in mind the deeper stream that courses its way through various historical and confessional theologies, upon which these theologies draw even while …

Covenant Language In Biblical Religions And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

In this essay I have tried to provide a broad survey of the concept of covenant for Latter-day Saint students of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. I began with a sketch of the history of covenant theology in the Christian tradition showing how the early New Testament idea of a baptismal covenant was soon replaced by the Christian institution of sacraments. Although the covenant idea played little role in the historical developments of Christian theology, it did resurge in the Reformation, but without widespread theological impact.

In contrast, over the last century, the role of the covenant idea …

Where Is God In Symbolic Exchange? A Theo-Semiological Analysis Of The Sons Of Anarchy, Alex Justin Holguin

Masters Theses

This thesis attempts to uncover the religious nature of communication by re-visioning and situating French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s theory of communication within a Christian theological context. By critically engaging Lacan’s theoretical concepts of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real within this context, the thesis is able to access the intersection of rhetorical semiotics, psychoanalysis, and Christian theology to have a more fruitful understanding of how meaning is exchanged between subjects. Lacan’s inter-disciplinary affirmation of rhetoric and psychoanalysis has been able to produce incredible explanatory potential for how meaning, as the bedrock of speech and communication, operates through the psyche …

The Impact Of Lyric Choices On Spiritual Edification, Hanna Jane Byrd

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Modern Christian worship music has gained influence within the evangelical community. The words of these songs, sung corporately, have the potential to influence the spiritual lives of church congregants, making it important for worship leaders and songwriters to identify the most beneficial lyrics. Despite numerous opinions about theological and personally relevant lyrics, little research has been conducted on the spiritual effects of lyric content within the lives of Christian believers. Diminutive scholarly inquiry has been limited to historical, theological or qualitative methodologies. Utilizing the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and the Spiritual Transcendence Index (STI), this quantitative quasi-experimental study …

The Abusive Implementation Of Biblical Sexuality: The Not So Pure Purity Movement, Paige Huggins

Belmont University Research Symposium (BURS)

Words like “virginity”, “sex”, and “sexuality” hold a good deal of weight and importance inAmerican society and in the Church, but are Christians actually approaching them theway God intended? While the purity movement arose out of good and biblical intentions, the way it has been implemented through the use of guilt and shame-driven techniques has hurt just as many people as it has helped, if not more. Even those who feel it has helped them in many ways are walking around with underlying scars that can affect their friendships, dating relationships, marriages, or even the way they raise their kids. …

Enoch A Patmos: In Margine Al Cosiddetto "Approccio Canonico", Edmondo Lupieri

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

credo, come punto di partenza su cui possiamo ritenerci tutti d’accordo, valga la considerazione che, in una prospettiva storica, non abbia senso parlare di antico o di nuovo testamento – e ancor meno di “canone” – nel contesto culturale dei seguaci di Gesù nella seconda metà del primo secolo cristiano. Pare anche ovvio affermare che, quando gli autori del nostro nuovo testamento scrivevano le loro opere, il nuovo testamento ancora non esisteva. similmente, quelli che loro e i correligionari consideravano libri sacri, solo in parte corrispondono a testi che oggi fanno parte dei tre principali e diversi canoni cristiani dell’antico …

Book Review: Using The Bible In Practical Theology, Jeffery S. Gates

Library Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mother Goddesses And Subversive Witches: Competing Narratives Of Gender Essentialism, Heteronormativity, Feminism, And Queerness In Wiccan Theology And Ritual, Carly B. Floyd

Honors Projects

Wicca has typically been viewed as an empowering alternative to institutionalized and patriarchal religions, and women especially have been drawn to this religion because of its inclusion of women as goddesses and priestesses. It is also seen as a sex-positive religion, and many LGBTQ+ people embrace Wicca due to its lack of concepts such as sin and shame, especially around sex and sexuality. This research, however, troubles the claim that Wicca is a feminist, woman-friendly, queer-friendly religion. While women are celebrated and valued, I argue that women’s positive portrayal as mothers, nurturers, emotional, and intuitive portrays women’s nature in a …

Introduction: The Umbrella Movement And Liberation Theology, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

September 28, 2014, is usually considered the day that the theological landscape in Hong Kong changed. For 79 days, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong citizens occupied key political and economic sites in the Hong Kong districts of Admiralty, Causeway Bay, and Mong Kok, resisting the government’s attempts to clear them out until court injunctions were handed down in early December. Captured on social media and live television, the images of police in Hong Kong throwing 87 volleys of tear gas and pepper-spraying students writhing in agony have been imprinted onto the popular imagination around the world. Using the image …

Epilogue: Conscientization In The Aftermath Of The Umbrella Movement, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The essays in this volume have demonstrated that the Umbrella Movement brought about a new theological moment in Hong Kong. As discussed in the introduction, theological actors in Hong Kong can be described as having followed the see-judge-act process of liberation theology. Indeed, the seeing and judging of Hong Kong’s situation that began with Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) in 2013 culminated unexpectedly with the action of the 2014 protests, transcending the wildest imaginations of the seers and the judges. In turn, the authors of this book have seen the 2014 protests and have also judged them theologically. …

The Umbrella Movement And The Political Apparatus: Understanding "One Country, Two Systems", Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Prior to the Umbrella Movement, there was little reason for people who were not from Hong Kong to care much about its politics, unless, of course, one were a devoted reader of The Economist, which did cover Hong Kong as a former British colony. Alas, my experience in the academy corroborates the former sentiment: when I began studying Christian involvement in Hong Kong’s politics in the late 2000s, nobody was interested. “You have to study Christianity in China,” one advisor said, “because that’s where the jobs are.” The growth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), especially the explosion of …

Finding Religion: An Analysis Of Theology Libguides, Gerrit Van Dyk

Faculty Publications

This paper will compare various LibGuides in theology from thirty-seven different institutions. These institutions include universities granting undergraduate and graduate degrees in religion or theology as well as seminaries for professional clergy. Data on LibGuides content, such as books, ebooks, journals, databases, librarian contact information, and others, will be compared and analyzed. Resources especially tailored to religious and theological studies will also be highlighted.

The Theology And Agency Of Love As The Substance Of Kingian Non-Violent Philosophy And Activism., Matthew Quainoo

Senior Honors Projects

The theology of Love focuses on King’s understanding of God as love:

A Research Abstract (Project Summary)

Problem: Almost 50 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., controversy continues to swirl around the motivational forces that inspired the nonviolence approach employed by King in his fight for equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. Some scholars argue that Kings was inspired by such advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha Shakyamuni. Others believe that Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence was an expression of the Christian theology of God …

Book Review: Christians In An Age Of Wealth, Jeffery S. Gates

Library Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Common Sense Theology: An Analysis Of T. L. Carter's Interpretation Of Romans 13:1-7, Joshua Alley

Senior Honors Theses

Common sense theology has been a part of American theology since the time of the Revolution when Evangelicals incorporated ideals from the Scottish didactic Enlightenment into their thought. This paper deals with the work of one particular author, T. L. Carter, and his interpretation and exegetical work on Romans 13:1-7. It deals with the two major presuppositions of his common sense theology, namely that interpretations of any passage of Scripture will adhere to common sense and will result in a value-based ethic. Following this is an analysis of both the strengths and weaknesses of Carter's methodology.

Christ's Response To The Last, The Least, The Lost, The Left Out - Is The Church Living Up To Christ's Standard?, Jerry Staples

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There is a plethora of statistics concerning how many un-churched people there are in the United States and the socioeconomic ladder does not discriminate who fits this lost category. Yet, the concern of this project deals with the gang member, drug dealer, drug users, pimps and prostitutes. The intent is to take outreach to the street through cook outs, Holy block parties, street revivals and the like. The rationale of this project is to show how one can reach, teach and keep this group of people, the potential dangers, and positive consequences associated with it. The potential value of this …

Conservative Holiness Pastors' Ability To Assess Depression And Their Willingness To Refer To Mental Health Professionals, Andrew Graham

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the willingness and ability of Conservative Holiness pastors to assess depression and their willingness to refer to mental health professionals. Eighty-six pastors completed a four-part survey that measured diagnostic accuracy, willingness to refer, attitudes toward mental health, perceived competency to assist, recognition of need for help and confidence in mental health professionals. Demographic characteristics and case study responses were investigated through analysis of frequency data; relationships with demographic variables were analyzed using Spearman's rho and independent t-tests; relationships with variables derived from the scales were analyzed using Pearson Product-Moment Correlation. Analyses found …

21st Century Evangelism And Church Growth Approach To Reach Urban Professionals In North America Metropolises, Ralph Baeza

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The call of Christ, as He stated in Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:7-9, John 20:21 and Acts 1:8, is to be a continuous command to follow, in order to reach the different peoples group of the world including the urban professionals in North America metropolises. Based on surveys sent to Christian leaders in church congregations and professionals in the secular workplace along with the associated research in the subject, this thesis project reviews the Great Commission call to pursue urban professionals in metropolises, examining their lifestyle environment, past and current trends to reach them, biblical principles that can turn …

Making Disciples Of Jesus Christ: Implementing An Effective Discipleship Strategy For Churches In America, Victor Ogundiran

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Various research findings on spiritual formation in the America church reveal that the current state of making disciples of Jesus Christ who are observing all that Jesus has commanded is woefully grim. This author believes what we have in place for making disciples is inadequate, unimplemented, or both. The purpose of this thesis project is to explain the current state of spiritual formation in the American Church and the reasons why it falls short of God's desire and design. This effort will include and incorporate research from at least 20 churches to see what discipleship systems they are using, if …

Clay-Potter Imagery In The Bible: Theological And Practical Implications For Daily Christian Life, Karl Stelzer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

God, the Master Potter, uses clay-potter imagery to explain spiritual truth. These passages are ignored, explained superficially, or misinterpreted and have not had the divinely intended impact. Theologically, doctrines of Theology Proper, Bibliology, and Anthropology have been compromised. Practically, the Holy Spirit has been hindered. To demonstrate the need for clay-potter instruction, research will include a comparative analysis of information gathered through questionnaires to churches that have held a clay-potter conference and those that have not, and an examination of written material and popular presentations. This author combines professional pottery expertise and biblical training to present accurate exposition. This thesis …

Easy Effective Counseling: A Strategy For Busy Pastors, Benjamin Karner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Pastors are expected to counsel various people with various problems. However, in most circumstances, pastors have little time to prepare for counseling sessions and cannot be long-term therapists. Therefore, it is critical for the pastor to be able to quickly and effectively give substantial guidance to counselees. The purpose of this project is to develop and implement a pastoral counseling program with a decision management focus. A survey will be conducted with at least one hundred (100) pastors who engage in counseling as part of their regular ministry duties. This project will develop and communicate a practical counseling approach for …

From Evangelistic Preaching To Mentoring: A Model For The Local Church, Seunghyun Yoon

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Throughout Christian history, biblical and historical figures have used strategic invitation methods that focused on the needs of the people who were listening to their evangelistic appeal. This demonstrates that evangelism and the invitation process is relevant to those who respond to the message.

An Effective Prayer Training Model For Church Growth: Centered On Wangsung Presbyterian Church In South Korea, Geunbae Hwang

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this project is to investigate biblical church growth, specifically studying South Korean pastors roles concerning the healthy church and spiritual reinforcement, with a limited focus and application to WangSung Presbyterian Church and other churches in South Korea. This project primarily utilizes the New Testament, as well as literature on church growth and healthy spirituality. In addition, references specifically regarding church growth and statistical information from Korean church ministries will also be used. This project shares a new alternative way for the growth of churches: A prayer-training model as the most effective method for church growth. A healthy …