History of Christianity Commons^™

Noetic Apologetics: A Contemporary Approach In Comparison To Historic Apologetic Methods, Enuel Hernandez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many are intrigued by the fundamental questions of life. Questions of origin, moral, and purpose are just a few of these. Christians have endeavored throughout the centuries in the task of apologetics to give sound answers to these questions. The history of Christianity has shown that apologists answered objections and inquires about their religion. Many techniques have emerged to direct apologists in explaining their faith. However, there seems to be no unifying process for doing apologetics. This study examines the different apologetic methods and exposes their strong and weak points in order to develop a more efficient strategy. The research …

Tundale’S Vision: Socialization In 12th Century Ireland, Michael W. Deike

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this project is to explore the historical image of Hell in Medieval Europe as an agent of socialization for illiterate Christian communities. The project focuses on a literary work, Tundale’s Vision, written in 1149 C.E in Cashel, Ireland. Tundale’s Vision came from a genre of vision literature derived from popular oracular folk tradition surrounding the image of Hell that served the purpose of socializing Christian communities to certain social norms and stigmas presented by the author. Vision literature would be used by preachers in vernacular sermons throughout the Medieval period in order to reinforce moral and social …

The Fathers' Faith, The Children's Song: Missouri Lutheranism Encounters American Evangelicalism In Its Hymnals, Hymn Writers, And Hymns, 1889-1912, Jon Vieker

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Jon D. Vieker, "The Fathers' Faith, the Children's Song: Missouri Lutheranism Encounters American Evangelicalism in Its Hymnals, Hymn Writers, and Hymns, 1889-1912." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 581 pp.

This dissertation offers an accounting of the hymnological sea change in the Missouri Synod as it transitioned from German into English toward the end of the nineteenth century. It explores how this immigrant, Lutheran church body brought a large portion of its German hymnody into English, while at the same time appropriating a substantial number of English-language hymns from the surrounding ecclesial culture of American Evangelicalism.

The dissertation is divided into …

A Case Analysis Of The Foundational Ministry Principles Of Rev. Jerry Falwell From 1956-1966, Iain Lyttle

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research examines principles employed by Dr. Jerry Lamond Falwell between 1956 and 1966 and the early developmental stages of his church, Thomas Road Baptist Church (TRBC). The foundation built during these formative years facilitated precipitous growth within the church plant for decades, allowing TRBC to become one of America’s most prominent megachurches and to found Liberty University, the world’s largest evangelical university. As church plants are more likely to fail than to succeed, this research aimed to investigate key characteristics of a church planter who was highly successful, which can be replicated. Using primarily twenty-three interviews of TRBC congregants …

The Essence Of Discipleship: An Evangelical Perspective, Douglas Taylor

2014-2016 Graduate

Much literature presents discipleship in terms of what one does, but the latter does not define the former - it only shows what discipleship may look like when executed. Christians in general and seminary students in particular struggle to define the essence of Christian discipleship. Much literature exists today describing how one may do discipleship, but what brands something as the very thing it is is not the same as identifying the work it does. This research fills the gap not addressed by the many “how to do discipleship” books by using a hermeneutical-type approach to identify the way people …

Roosevelt, Boy Scouts, And The Formation Of Muscular Christian Character, Gordon J. Christen

Religious Studies Honors Projects

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, many prominent Christians and political leaders saw a degenerative influence in industrializing America. For them, urban culture had eroded gender roles, personal strength, and moral fiber. So-called “Muscular Christians” prescribed physical exertion and wilderness experience to cure these ills. I argue that these values were embodied in idealized characters such as Theodore Roosevelt, Jesus, and the Boy Scout to give a form to cultural remedies. In the process, they became the terms upon which proper Americanism, and proper Christianity, were constructed.

Contesting Faith, Truth, And Religious Language At The Creation Museum: A Historical-Theological Reflection, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky, attempts to demonstrate the flaws in contemporary science and to offer an alternative explanation of human origins and biological complexity rooted in a specific reading of the biblical narrative. This effort, however, is paradoxically rooted in the worldview of modern science and the Enlightenment. This article will examine the Creation Museum’s definitions of faith, truth, and religious language and will compare these definitions to those of mainline Protestant Christianity to uncover the historical and theological presuppositions of Creationist and mainline Protestant engagements with contemporary science.

Using Census Bureau Data For Current And Historical Gis Research, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Provides examples of how geographic information system (GIS) data can be used to conduct historical and contemporary research using Census Bureau data and mapping and other resources. Such data and mapping can enhance understanding of historical and contemporary subjects in a multidisciplinary variety of topics.

The German Peasants’ War: The Intersection Of Theology And Society, Zachary Tyree

Senior Honors Theses

This paper examines the way that Reformation theology, particularly that espoused by Martin Luther, impacted German society. Sixteenth-century German society was very hierarchical in nature, with the Roman Catholic Church at the top, followed by the nobility, and finally the peasants, who suffered economic and political plight. Luther’s break from the Church in 1517 and the subsequent years brought tension to society. Developments extending from that break challenged the social hierarchy. One of the major social consequences of the Protestant Reformation, which was rooted in Luther’s theology, was the Peasants’ War. Luther criticized the peasants for the uprising, based on …

The Stone-Campbell Movement: A Global History--Reviews And Comments, James L. Gorman, L. Thomas Smith, Mcgarvey Ice, Thomas H. Olbricht

Library Research and Publications

From the Stone-Campbell Journal website: Editors D. Newell Williams, Douglas A. Foster, and Paul M. Blowers offer their second substantial contribution to Stone-Campbell historiography with The Stone-Campbell Movement: A Global History (Chalice, 2013), an unprecedented global survey. (1) A core of thirteen scholars collaboratively wrote this unique narrative that highlights groups of people (women, African Americans, global Christians, and others) often neglected in traditional histories. In this review essay, three Stone-Campbell Movement historians each review roughly one-third of the volume.

Bonhoeffer And His Answer To The Enduring Problem, Joel Durrwachter

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

In light of the relatively recent critiques of Christ and Culture, I would like to examine another text by a rough contemporary of Niebuhr's: Bonhoeffer's Discipleship. In the book, Bonhoeffer is dealing with similar themes and problems as Niebuhr wrestled with years later, yet Bonhoeffer has an entirely different interpretation and outcome than Niebuhr. Why is this the case? What was occurring in Bonhoeffer's social context and what influenced him that contributed to his argument? To help answer this question I will focus upon three areas that recent criticisms of Christ and Culture have highlighted: (1) the definition of culture, …

Bibliography Of Occasional Or State Sermons Across The Atlantic Archipelago, Published 1685–1711, Newton Key

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

This bibliography includes all State sermons preached and printed in Dublin (including Irish Protestants in London), Edinburgh, and Boston, 1688-1694, and a large sample of sermons printed in London, 1688-1692. Includes a representative sample of sermons before all Anglophone auditories from the entire period, including sermons printed in Dublin, Edinburgh, and Boston 1700-1711, for comparison. As used and cited in Newton Key, “The ‘Boast of Antiquity’: Pulpit Politics Across the Atlantic Archipelago during the Revolution of 1688,” Church History, forthcoming, Sept. 2014.

Calvin Theological Journal (Vol 49 No 1 -April 2014), Calvin Theological Seminary

Calvin Theological Journal

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Articles: Rediscovering Van Raalte's Church History: Historical Consciousness at the Birth of Dutch American Religion by Michael J. Douma - 5 / Revelation, Faith, and Tradition: Catholic Ecumenical Dialogue by Eduardo Echeverria - 25 / Becoming Who We Are Supposed to Be: An Evaluation of Schneider's Use of Christian Theology in Conversation with Recent Genetic Science by Andrew M. McCoy - 63 / Faith, Reason, and the Trinity in Richard Baxter's Theology: Incipient Rationalism or Scholastic Fides Quaerens Intellectum? by Simon Burton - 85 / Obscurity …

Sacra Domus: The Anglican House Church In Theology And Context, Alan Andraeas

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The author is an evangelical Anglican priest with a recently formed sacramental house church. Though the house church movement is gaining popularity, no formal guidelines or methodologies exist which address this trend from a liturgical and sacerdotal perspective--even within his diocese. Because of this void, he will examine the following critical issues:

* What are the scriptural foundations for mandating the use of liturgy?

* What are the biblical, theological, and historical precedents for house churches?

* Can there be a complementary union between priestly liturgy and the house church model?

Without guidance from other `reference parishes,' the need for …

Appreciating The Mystery Of "Three Persons" And "One Substance": A Study Of Tertullian's Legacy Concerning The Historical Development Of The Doctrine Of The Trinity, Brandon Walker

Masters Theses

Tertullian of Carthage is hailed by many as the most influential Western theologian prior to Augustine, and his most impressive theological contributions involved Trinitarianism and Christology. This study is a thorough investigation of the extent to which Tertullian influenced subsequent Trinitarian theologians and writers in the Western tradition. It explores how Tertullian repeated and expanded existing arguments popularized by earlier apologists and theologians. It also identifies those original features of Tertullian's theological vocabulary and reasoning which subsequent Western pre- and post-Nicene theologians found most valuable as Trinitarian doctrine progressed toward its maturity. This analysis concludes with an evaluation of Tertullian's …

I Am Who I Am: The Book Of Exodus And African American Individuality, Joseph L. Kirkenir

Student Publications

Scholars often attempt to construct collective ideologies in order to generalize the beliefs and views of entire populations, with one target population frequently being the African American community during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Unfortunately, doing so fails to recognize the individuality of the population’s members and, especially in the case of the country’s oppressed Blacks, establishes a system where assumed notions and ignorant ideas abound. One might argue that the popularity of the book of Exodus in the time’s African American expressive outlets indicates that there did exist a collective ideology based upon the biblical narrative. However, …

Slaying The Syncretistic Chimera: A Study Of The Consensus Repetjtus In Light Of Confessionalization Theory, Timothy Schmeling

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Schmeling, Timothy R. “Slaying the Syncretistic Chimera: A Study of the Consensus Repetitus in Light of Confessionalization Theory.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 478 pp.

The Syncretistic Controversy (ca. 1645–86) was the most important controversy of seventeenth-century Lutheranism. It was inaugurated by Helmstedt theology professor Georg Calixt (1586–1656), who sought mutual tolerance between Christendom’s confessions on the basis of the fundamental agreement all shared by virtue of their adherence to the Apostles’ Creed and theology of the first five centuries. In response the Electoral Saxon theological faculties promulgated the Consensus Repetitus fidei vere Lutheranae (1655), a confession against syncretism and …

Whose Kuyper? Which Inheritance?, James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Review of James Bratt, Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat

Church And Reform In Nicholas Of Cusa's Brixen Sermons (1452-58), With Additional Reference To His Roman Reform Sermons And Reformatio Generalis (1459), Richard Serina

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Serina, Richard J. "Church and Reform in Nicholas of Cusa's Brixen Sermons (1452-58),with Additional Reference to His Roman Reform Sermons and Reformatio Generalis (1459)."Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014.279 pp.

Nicholas of Cusa (1401-64) played a significant role in the conciliar movement during the Council of Basel (1431-49), but his defection to the papal cause has led many interpreters to marginalize his subsequent views on ecclesiology and church reform. The scholarship has generally regarded his later ecclesiology as strictly papalist and his later reform efforts as authoritarian. This study analyzes the concepts of church and reform he articulated in the course …

Maximus The Confessor And A Deeper Actualization Of The Apostolic Dimensions Of Pentecostal Movements, Steve Overman

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Excerpt: "...I propose to explore one expression of this more ancient and eastern tradition, as found in the cosmic vision of Maximus the Confessor. After a brief sketch of his life and times and his relationship to the larger orthodox tradition I will attempt to lay out some of the chief features of both his theological and cosmological framework and his ascetic way of practice in community. I will conclude by suggesting that both this framework and way of practice can indeed help resource healing of humankind’s relationship with one another and the other realms of the creation and that …