Digital Commons Network^™

The Book Of Moses As A Temple Text, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

In this fascinating article, Jeff Bradshaw details how the Book of Moses might be understood as a temple text, including elements of temple architecture, furnishings, and ritual in the story of the Creation and the Fall. Bradshaw shows how the second half of the Book of Moses follows a general pattern of a specific sequence of covenants that will resonate with members of the Church who have received the temple endowment. The story of Enoch and his people provides a vivid demonstration of the final steps on the path that leads back to God and exaltation.

The Cultural Heritage And Potential For Sustainable Site Development Of Greater Jezreel, Morgan Davidson

Masters Theses

This thesis surveys the historic and cultural significance of the site of Tel Jezreel, Israel and the surrounding environs and proposes a program of conservation and research which will facilitate further study of the site’s history while simultaneously making the area safely accessible to visitors. Particular attention is paid to the role that the tower and church which currently lie in ruins played within the region. Although the tower of Jezreel has been relatively neglected by historians and archaeologists to this point, it represents a very important aspect of the site, namely its continued occupation and importance beyond the biblical …

Understanding Catholic School Attrition: Catholic Elementary School Students’ And Parents’ Perceptions And Matriculation Decisions, Thomas Gasper

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study shed light on the issue of attrition within Catholic education and points to opportunities for leaders to improve the effectiveness of elementary and secondary schools as well as identify barriers impacting access to poor and vulnerable populations. The purpose was to: describe factors eighth-grade Catholic school students and their parents consider in choosing a high school; determine correlations between degree of satisfaction with Catholic elementary schools and perceptions of programs in Catholic high schools; and understand the extent students’ and parents’ identified attributes corresponded to their high school selection.

Quantitative data was generated from surveys of …

Gvsu Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog, 2021-2022, Grand Valley State University

Course Catalogs, 1963 - Current

Grand Valley State University 2021-2022 undergraduate and graduate course catalog. Course catalogs are published annually to provide students with information and guidance for enrollment.

Danish Cedar Falls, Carrie Eilderts

The Bridge

In 1855, Frederick Petersen’s family became the first Danish immigrants on record to settle in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The Petersens came from the Schleswig area on the Danish/German border, and in 1860, Christian Petersen came to Cedar Falls, also from Schleswig. More Danish families moved to Cedar Falls from Pine River, Wisconsin in 1866, and the next year Danes began arriving directly from their homeland after enduring a long journey by ship and train. By the early 1870s, Danes were settling in Cedar Falls in large numbers. By 1871, three hundred Danes called the city home, making up about ten …

The Exclusivity Of The Christian Faith: A Case For Christ-Alone In A Culture Of Relativism, Brandon Keith Sinclair

Masters Theses

The proposition of absolute and exclusive truth in a culture permeated by relativism is among the most important discussions of today. The answer to this dilemma is imperative. Relativism has not only taken captive secular society, it has infiltrated the thinking of many professing Christians. The traditional Christian message has always been one of exclusivity and Christ-alone. The challenge for the Christian Apologist in a culture of relativism is three-fold: Establish the existence of absolute and exclusive truth, nullify the arguments presented by relativism as unreasonable, illogical, and fallible, and to make a solid case for the unsurpassable uniqueness of …

Concerning A Manuscript From A Moravian Immigrant’S Trunk: Postil By Johann Spangenberg (1557), Hana Waisserova

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications

In Nebraska, a family of Czech ancestry possesses a precious and unusual family artifact—an antique early-modern book, which was passed down in the family from generation to generation as their most precious treasure, a book that is much older than most carefully investigated family genealogies. The book has neat calligraphy and prints, leather binding, and comprises more than a thousand pages, though the first batch of pages is missing. The inside of the cover bears a pencil-written date: 1542. There are no title pages, no forewords, and no introductory chapter(s). The family lore tells that they kept it hidden in …

Retributive Justice, Capital Punishment, And Jurors In Northeast Florida, Joseph S. Hamrick

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Jacksonville is nationally recognized as being a city that disproportionately places defendants on death row. The author, who has been both a prosecutor and an appellate attorney representing inmates on death row in Jacksonville, believes that the high number of death sentences being issued in this city, at the recommendation of juries, is driven by a strong retributive intuition held by a significant part of Jacksonville’s society. This thesis evaluates the views of three philosophers who played influential roles in the resurgence of retributive theory in the latter half of the twentieth century in America, in seeking to identify and …

Balaam In The Book Of Numbers, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

Balaam, the non-Israelite who prophesied positively about the Israelites, remains an enigmatic biblical figure, at least in part, because we cannot fully or confidently answer several important questions about him. The account of Balaam in Numbers 22–24 is oddly unique and reads like an independent unit, but it connects in several ways with the content and themes of the rest of the book of Numbers. So, however this account developed and was incorporated into the book of Numbers, it can at least be appreciated as part of the organic whole of the book.

The Poor And The Needy In The Book Of Isaiah, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

When we read Jesus’s pronouncement in 3 Nephi that “great are the words of Isaiah” (3 Nephi 23:1), prophecies about the Messiah and the scattering and gathering of Israel are what may quickly come to mind. However, the book of Isaiah also contains important passages addressing the treatment of the poor and needy. These passages, which particularly focus on one of the many social ills in ancient Israelite society, range from condemning the unrighteous treatment of the poor to promising how the Lord will (eventually) deliver them.1

Hózhó, “To Walk In Beauty And Balance”: Indigenous Writers Decolonize Theories Of Myth, Aaron Laughlin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In this project, I argue for an Indigenous theory of myth in order to reconsider popular and academic paradigms about myth and its function. My goal is to articulate how Indigenous understandings might revise these paradigms by emphasizing myth as a means to foster ethical relationships of health and balance within ourselves and in the world. Inspired by the Indigenous writers Leslie Marmon Silko, Thomas King, and Gerald Vizenor, I outline how these authors think, write, and talk about the concept of myth. I explain prevailing academic paradigms, including the term’s long history of associations with old-fashioned, “primitive,” superstitious stories …

"Then What Are We Fighting For": Securitizing Religion In The Ukrainian-Russian Conflict, Viktor Yelenskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

With the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, religion has shifted from a sphere of great importance in inter-state relations to the national security domain, where the sides in the conflict perceive religion as potentially posing the utmost threat and have resorted to extraordinary measures to securitize it. The author argues that at the core of the Ukrainian securitizing move was the struggle for the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which allowed weakening Russia's influence not only on the Orthodox milieu but also on Ukrainian society as a whole. Russia, viewing the loss of control over Ukraine …

Integration Of The Pochaiv Lavra Into The Structure Of The Russian Orthodox Church Between 1830s And 1860s, Ella Bystrytska, Nadiia Volik

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A series of imperial decrees during the 1820s contributed to the spread of the autocratic and synodal system of government, and the installation of control over the Greek Uniate Church institutions in the territories of Right Bank Ukraine.1 The Greek Uniate Church was moved in “standby mode” for favorable conditions for the government to rapidly localize its activities. The accusation of the Basilian monks in support of the November Uprising of 1830-1831 in Poland contributed to the liquidation of this order and most of their monasteries. The transfer of the Pochaiv Lavra to the ownership of the Orthodox clergy in …

Ancient Beliefs And Their Religious And Mystical Symbols, Elyor Alimkulov

The Light of Islam

The article examines the concept of religious symbols, the history of the origin of religious-mystical symbols in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, their essence and content and meaning today. Also, the author’s views on the introduction of the concepts of symbol and religious symbols into scientifc circulation are expressed, various defnitions of these concepts by Western scientists are given, the role of symbols in society is determined. It is noted that in ancient Egyptian beliefs, each tribe worshiped and revered not only its own god, but also a certain animal that was somehow connected with this god, regardless of whether …

Front Matter, Kanya Wattanagun

Journal of Letters

No abstract provided.

Church On The March: Sexual And Gender Dissidents In The Struggle For Embodied Political Rights, Ana Ester Pádua Freire

Conexión Queer: Revista Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Teologías Queer

The relations between Christianity, sexual/gender dissidents, and civil rights of LGBTIQ+ people constitute an essential field of analysis considering Brazilian religious conservatism’s upsurge. The tensions evoked by these political actors within the public space reveal art as a mechanism for sexual /gender dissidents' visibility. Artivism —perceived as political liturgy— subverts precarity. This article investigates the Metropolitan Community Church of Belo Horizonte’s participation in the «III March against LGBTphobia» in Minas Gerais in 2016. The public presence of an affirming Christian community reveals that religious and political artivism reconfigures the public space.

Religion And Rural Internationalism In The Nineteenth-Century Middle West: The Global Consciousness Of Rural Dutch Middle Westerners,1865–1901, Andrew Klumpp

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This project asks: How did underlying religious worldviews inform the local, national, and global engagement of rural middle western Dutch communities in the nineteenth century, which are often characterized as isolated and provincial? More broadly, it queries, if the local, national, and global are united by this broad religious worldview, how does that transform our understandings of rural middle western ethnic enclaves and who contributed to the rich internationalism of the nineteenth century and from where?

Close examination of these rural middle western ethnic enclaves reveals not only an ambitious vision for building local institutions but also for extending Dutch …

Religion Wrecked Her Mind: Religious Insanity In The Nineteenth Century, Courtney Lacy

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

In this project, I analyze how the line between good and bad religions, as constructed through secularism, influenced whether or not practitioners of religion were sent to insane asylums or, at least, considered by their peers or family to be at risk of insanity or on the brink of it. Exploring these questions revealed the link between religion and insanity but also showed how some religious practices (especially ecstatic behavior) placed believers at even greater risk because of the threat to the secular and progressive narrative encouraged by the people around them.

By placing the asylum narrative in conversation with …

Faith In Action, Adult Learning, And Immigrant Justice: Bringing Mission To Life, Christopher D. Tirres, Melanie C. Schikore

Religious Studies

This article emerges from a collaborative research project between a religious studies professor at DePaul University and the executive director of the Chicago-based non-profit Interfaith Community for Detained Immigrants (ICDI). In 2016, we forged a community partnership to explore and enhance the relationship between pedagogy, faith, and social justice. In this article, we share the results of our research on how exposure to and involvement with the work of ICDI impacts students, staff, and volunteers. Our research reveals the powerful effect that a community-engaged partnership can have not only on adult learning but also on spiritual development. Our findings suggest …

'Seeds Of Happiness': An Oral History Of Members Of Soka Gakkai International-New Orleans, Lorvelis Amelia Madueño

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a Japanese new religious movement present in 192 countries. Despite the substantial amount of academic work that has been produced on SGI’s overseas expansion, many scholars continue to overlook the local context when analyzing the organization’s global presence. This paper is based on oral history interviews and examines the experiences of five members of the SGI-USA New Orleans Buddhist Center, located in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. This thesis argues that many SGI practitioners choose to join and remain in the organization because it fills specific spiritual and emotional voids in their lives, creates …

Parechesis In The Undisputed Pauline Epistles Definition, Identification, And Discovery, Kevin Gingrich

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Throughout the undisputed Pauline epistles (UPE), the author employs ancient rhetorical figures of soundplay. In particular, this dissertation focuses on a stylistic device known since Homer and named, a century or so after Paul, “parechesis.” Parechesis is sophisticated alliteration and refers to similar sounding words of different lexical roots that lie in some collocation. The device is so pervasive in Paul as to be deemed a defining characteristic of Pauline style.

Wandering Jews: Global Jewish Migration, Steven J. Gold

The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review

Despite the importance of historical and contemporary migration to the American Jewish community, popular awareness of the diversity and complexity of the American Jewish migration legacy is limited and largely focused upon Yiddish-speaking Jews who left the Pale of Settlement in Eastern Europe between 1880 and 1920 to settle in eastern and midwestern cities.

Wandering Jews provides readers with a broader understanding of the Jewish experience of migration in the United States and elsewhere. It describes the record of a wide variety of Jewish migrant groups, including those encountering different locations of settlement, historical periods, and facets of the migration …

The Evil God Challenge: Two Significant Asymmetries, Carlo Alvaro

Publications and Research

Several authors have maintained that every argument in support of God, indeed everything that a theist claims about God, can be reversed and used in support of an evil god. The most salient example is the alleged symmetry between theodicies and reverse theodicies: God gave us free will to promote good, evil god gave us free will to promote evil; God allows evil for soul making, evil god allows good for soul destruction; our suffering is compensated for by the eternal bliss in the afterlife, our happiness is compensated for by the eternal damnation in the afterlife. Considering such symmetries, …

Coming Attractions

Insights

With the pandemic prohibiting in-person learning and campus visits, the college offered an assortment of creative online offerings this summer to give newly admitted DePaul students a taste of the LAS experience. Among the offerings were a mini-course, "Critical Perspectives on Our Current Moment," taught using Zoom, an introduction to the Center for Black Diaspora and the Center for Latino Research, and panel discussions with current students and faculty in the Honors program.

Arvo Pärt: Sounding The Sacred [Toc], Peter Bouteneff, Jeffers Engelhardt, Robert Saler

Religion

Scholarly writing on the music of Arvo Pärt is situated primarily in the fields of musicology (analyzing Pärt’s signature “tintinnabuli” method), cultural and media studies (Pärt’s audience is uncannily broad within and beyond the contemporary classical world) and, more recently, in terms of theology/spirituality (Pärt is primarily a composer of sacred music). For the most part, this work is centered around the representational dimensions of Pärt’s music (including the trope of silence), writing and listening past the fact that its storied effects and affects are carried first and foremost as vibrations through air, impressing themselves on the human body. In …

Orpheus, Fall 2020: Catharsis, University Of Dayton

Orpheus: UD's Literary and Artistic Magazine

No abstract provided.

Full Copy

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Divine Command Theory And Psychopathy, Erik J. Wielenberg

Philosophy Faculty publications

I advance a novel challenge for Divine Command Theory based on the existence of psychopaths. The challenge, in a nutshell, is that Divine Command Theory has the implausible implication that psychopaths have no moral obligations and hence their evil acts, no matter how evil, are morally permissible. After explaining this argument, I respond to three objections to it and then critically examine the prospect that Divine Command Theorists might bite the bullet and accept that psychopaths can do no wrong. I conclude that the Psychopathy Objection constitutes a serious and novel challenge for Divine Command Theory.

Which Politics Of Nature?: A Response To Crawford, Carol W. White

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Journal Review: Illuminatio/Svjetionik/Almanar, Vol. 2, Year 1 (Fall 2020), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Excerpt: "Under the enlightened leadership of its editor-in-chief, retired Grand Mufti of the Bosniak Muslim community, Dr. Mustafa Cerić, the journal Illuminatio splendidly succeeds to implement its espoused aims to be “a journal of new ideas that enlighten the human spirit and mind about the condition of the human past, present, and future.” The journal aims to be a “cultural broker” of universal values with new ideas. Its sources are the most progressive ideas of Islam in its European context, while aiming to explore and, if suitable, to utilize other religious and secular insights. To those who might hold the …