Christianity Commons^™

Seeing Through The Incense Smoke: Understanding The Meanings Of Ancestral Rites In Vietnam For The Sake Of A Pastoral Approach In Christian Mission, J.P. Cima

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Cima, J.P. “Seeing Through the Incense Smoke: Understanding the Meanings of Ancestral Rites in Vietnam for the Sake of a Pastoral Approach in Christian Mission.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2025. 285 pp.

The veneration of ancestors at family altars has long been a defining feature of everyday Vietnamese life that poses a critical missiological problem for Christian mission in Vietnam. May Christians participate in ancestral veneration rituals? Current and historical responses to this question, among Protestants and Catholics alike, have not been uniform. Moreover, many responses have been based on assumed or oversimplified understandings of the rites’ meaning which recent …

God And Psychology: How The Early Development Of Famous Psychologists Influenced Their Work, Chris Dinwiddie

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Clinical Hour: How Counselors Can Partner With The Church To Address The Mental Health Crisis, Michelle Taylor

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

A Theology Of Hope For Missing Persons And Lost Causes, Joelle Yanko

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

This paper explores how unresolved tragedies—particularly missing person cases and lost causes—serve as profound reflections of the human condition and reveal the necessity of Christian eschatological hope. Missing person cases touch the deepest questions of the human soul and reveal a deep, universal longing for justice and resolution—longings that cannot be fully met within the bounds of this present life. Drawing from theological reflection, the paper argues that both suffering and miraculous resolution ultimately point toward a greater hope found in the Christian vision of union with God. This future-oriented hope, grounded in the resurrection of Christ, invites believers to …

Exploring Biblical Language In Trauma Processing, Kathy B. Hoppe

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

Clients may often find themselves struggling with accessing traumatic experiences in therapy, thereby developing an avoidance of trauma that impedes healing. Strategies for reducing trauma processing may be difficult to identify effectively. This project suggests several means by which therapists can utilize the language of scripture, including scriptural narrative, metaphor, and poetry, as a therapeutic intervention with conservative Christian clients who are pursuing trauma processing. The proposed approach assists clients in explaining their traumatic events in a secure setting, hence preventing the common hyperarousal symptoms that are upsetting. The treatment can enhance the effectiveness of evidence-based practices. It incorporates several …

Walking In Promise, Living In Reality: Exploring The Mental Health Implications Of The Pentecostal Discourse Of Divine Calling, Robert D. Mcbain

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

Pentecostalism places a strong emphasis on the discourse of divine calling, where individuals believe they are purposefully created, guided, and empowered by God to fulfill a specific mission. This sense of calling profoundly shapes Pentecostals’ sense of identity and purpose. Using Grounded Theory, this study analyzes open, in-depth interviews with Pentecostals in the U.S. to explore the impact of the Pentecostal discourse of divine calling on their mental health. The metaphor of ‘walking in’ one’s calling emerges as the central theme used by participants to explain the interaction between their perception of divine calling, their lived realities, and their mental …

I Am My Body: Post-Traumatic Embodying And The Unexpected Disinterring Of Childhood Spiritual Neglect, Cathy Rowan

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

This autoethnographic paper investigates how an embodying approach (Focusing) unexpectedly impacts the author’s spiritual formation in the undoing of childhood relational trauma, which had resulted in a dissociative embodiment reaction. This enlivening and deepening spiritual formation process is described by means of a five-step metaphor, moving from “no-body” (dissociative disembodiment) to “I am my body” (the experience of the bodily indwelling) as her spiritual formation evolves from just intellectual belief to an embodying, experiential Christian spirituality. This life-long process is viewed through various lenses, including children’s spirituality research, trauma theology, faith development models, the writings of Thomas Merton and the …

Hoping Forward, Haley R. French

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Salubritas 4 (2025), Editors Salubritas

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Full Issue Salubritas, Editors Salubritas

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Reason And All My Senses: Surveying The Post Enlightenment Frame Of Reason Through Contemporary Philosophy, Cognitive Psychology, And Cognitive Linguistics, Joshua T. Lowe Rev. Dr.

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

This dissertation argues that Christian theology and practice are aided and enriched by a more complete understanding of reason by surveying recent studies and views in theology, philosophy, cognitive psychology, and cognitive linguistics. Since the Enlightenment, Christian theology has assumed widely the Enlightenment model of human reason as ideally acontextual, that is, free from constraints of contexts, and therefore universal, that is, applicable in all contexts. Recent developments from a variety of perspectives challenge this model of rationality. Some challenge the acontextualism of the Enlightenment understanding by showing how it arose from and depends on a context, and that context …

The Only Thriller J.R.R. Tolkien (Never) Wrote: Jungian Shapes Of Evil In “The New Shadow”, Martin Hauberg-Lund Laugesen, Bo Kampmann Walther

Journal of Tolkien Research

J.R.R. Tolkien's The New Shadow, a fragment set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, offers a rich but often overlooked exploration of the psychological and cultural implications of peace following the defeat of Sauron. Although Tolkien abandoned the project, dismissing it as a mere “thriller”, the text presents significant insights into the dynamics of generational conflict, the origins of Evil, and the moral challenges of a post-heroic world. This paper examines The New Shadow through a dual lens: first, by contextualizing Tolkien’s depiction of good and evil within Christian ethical frameworks, and second, by applying Carl Gustav Jung’s psychological …

God Who Crafts: An Appalachian Theology Of Making And Community, Gwendolen Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Appalachia has been the subject of much speculation and often disparagement since it first became distinct as a part of the United States in approximately the 1860s, but it is more than just its reputation. This dissertation discusses the history and modern myth of Appalachia, and then it considers Appalachia on its own terms through what the people who live there have said about it and about their own lives.

This work focuses on the continued prominence of craft and its place in the spiritual lives of mountain people as it examines interviews that I conducted with mountain crafters. I …

C. S. Lewis And The Process Of Sanctification: A Literary Analysis Of Till We Have Faces, Samantha Fullmer

Student Research

This article analyzes C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces as a mythical representation of the Christian process of sanctification. Through the main character, Orual, and her transformation, Lewis portrays the Christian journey from pride to love through submission to divine intervention. This tale reveals how pride and self-deception can prevent humanity from recognizing the truth of the Divine. Orual’s story illustrates that the barriers between humanity and the Divine often come placed there by humanity themselves. By examining the process of transforming from hubris to love through sanctification, and by comparing this narrative to other works by Lewis, such …

Shepherds Of Loss: Religion And Grief In The Shenandoah Valley, Ewan Benjamin

Honors Projects

This study explores the relationship between faith leaders and religious communities with the human experience of grief, death, and loss. Inspired by the researcher's own experience, this paper argues that the United States has a generally uncomfortable relationship with death and hypothesizes that religious traditions can serve to assist with grief in a positive way. After interviewing six religious leaders in the Shenandoah Valley, two themes arose: the mystery of death and the concept of "making space" for the grieving, dying, and dead. In the paper's conclusion, the faith leaders make known their own concerns with death in the United …

Leading Elca Lutheran Colleges And Universities: Lutheranism, Purpose, And Alignment, Ian K. Mcmichael

Doctorate in Education

The colleges and universities affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) occupy a unique space within the higher education market. To varying degrees, each school currently professes to be a school of the “third path” between sectarian dogmatism and secular relativism. However, the mission of these schools has shifted dramatically since their founding and whether there is anything markedly different between them and secular liberal arts schools remains an open question. While research has addressed mission, values, and purpose in this context, what has not been extensively explored previously is the role the leaders of these institutions play …

Hemispheres Of Faith: Mapping The Global Journey Of An Ivory Rosary Bead At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Mary M. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Hemispheres of Faith reattributes a carved ivory rosary bead in the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Quito School in 18th-century Ecuador. Through examining the trade history of the Manila Galleons, material analysis, and iconographic study, Hemispheres of Faith challenges the bead's European origins and reveals the object as a product of global exchange, devotional practice, and colonial artistic collaboration within the Spanish Empire.

Building Character: How Stories Shape Our Children, Abby De Groot

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Stories can help us imagine ways to partner with God in His restorative Kingdom work and can help foster our love for virtue."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­how stories influence our thinking from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Building Character: How Stories Shape Our Children

Womanist Pedagogy And Teaching Preaching: Black Women Preachers As Sources For Pedagogical Reflection, Courtney Buggs

Sermon Studies

The preaching classroom is a place of exploration, interrogation, and reflection. For Black preaching women, it is also a place for deep introspection and wrestling with questions of self-identity, religious authority, and theological (un)certainty. In this essay I show how womanist pedagogy functions to intervene and disrupt harmful assumptions in the preaching classroom, such as who can preach, who should preach, and how preachers engage with Scripture. Using Black women preaching students as sources for reflection, I explore political clarity, risk taking, teaching with tenderness, active listening, and instructional agility, to aid womanist-informed pedagogues in attending to the range of …

“True Disciple”: Minister Louis Farrakhan's Eulogy Of Pastor Clay Evans And The Emergence Of The Son Of Abraham Rhetoric, Eugene L. Gibson Jr.

Sermon Studies

In this essay, I examine Louis Farrakhan's eulogy for Pastor Clay Evans on December 7, 2019. Drawing from the work of Andre E. Johnson, the eulogy is an example of prophetic rhetoric that showcases the powerful emotional and spiritual connection that aligns with the tradition of prophetic speech. I argue, however, that Farrakhan, in producing this rhetoric, adopted a prophetic persona I call “Son of Abraham”– an African American prophetic rhetoric that is firmly grounded in the sacred teachings, beliefs, and subscriptions of one of the Abrahamic religions, that contains a bold truth of love and healing, that when intentionally …