Digital Commons Network^™

The Foundations And Early Development Of Mormon Mission Theory, David Golding

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study seeks to answer a fundamental question facing missiologists and historians of Mormonism: given their sustained preoccupation with converting others to Mormonism and their thriving tradition of missionary work, how do Mormons conceive of their mission? By focusing on the theoretical frame in which Mormon missionaries imagined the non-Mormon world, prepared for missionary engagement, and derived their expectations for their mission work, this study aims to illuminate the development of Mormon missionary activities and explain the processes by which Mormons fashioned for themselves a missional character. Beginning with Joseph Smith and the emergence of his missional thought and ending …

Beyond Belief: Japanese Approaches To The Meaning Of Religion, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

For several centuries, Japanese scholars have argued that their nation’s culture—including its language, religion and ways of thinking—is somehow unique. The darker side of this rhetoric, sometimes known by the English term “Japanism” (nihon-jinron), played no small role in the nationalist fervor of the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. While much of the so-called “ideology of Japanese uniqueness” can be dismissed, in terms of the Japanese approach to “religion,” there may be something to it. This paper highlights some distinctive—if not entirely unique—features of the way religion has been categorized and understood in Japanese tradition, contrasting these with Western (i.e., …

Shulchan Arukh, Amy Milligan

Women's & Gender Studies Faculty Publications

[First Paragraph] The Shulchan Arukh, literally translated as "The Set Table," is a compilation of Jewish legal codes. Written in the sixteenth century, it represents the first codification of Jewish law that is universally accepted by religiously observant Jews. It encompasses laws observed by both Ashkenazic Jews, those with German and eastern European roots, and Sephardic Jews, those with Spanish and Middle Eastern roots. Rabbi Yosef Karo composed the work in an effort to provide an authoritative legal text that would help to guide Jews in properly observing religious obligations. Although he composed the text before subdivisions of Judaism existed, …

Hindutva And Anti-Muslim Communal Violence In India Under The Bharatiya Janata Party (1990-2010), Elaisha Nandrajog

CMC Senior Theses

On May 16, 1998, under the directives of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led coalition, the Indian government detonated three nuclear bombs in the Rajasthan desert, near a site called Pokhran.1 If the name of India’s inter-ballistic missile, Agni, the god of fire in the Vedic tradition, is inscribed in antiquity, its symbolism in 1998 was entirely new, reflecting the rise of a political party that emblematizes a chauvinistic, majoritarian stance.2 To celebrate India’s accomplishment, the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a sister organization of the BJP, ordered the construction of a temple dedicated to Shakti, the goddess of strength, …

Government And Politics Newsletter, Issue 6, Sacred Heart University

Government and Politics Newsletter

No abstract provided.

The Book Of Job: Navigating Between The Two Jobs From The Perspective Of Ritual, Lawrence Pang

Theses

The overarching problem concerning the unity of the book of Job is its conflicting juxtaposition of Job’s character. In the prose frame, Job does not charge God with any wrongdoing despite the afflictions against him and is acknowledged by God for his piety whereas in the dialogue, Job responses with words of accusation against God for his trouble and for mismanaging the affairs of the world according to the orthodoxy of reward and punishment. Various methodological approaches, ranging from the synchronic to the diachronic, have been advanced to account for the dissonance, however, to date, no attempt has been made …

Suffering Savior - A Hindu Vaisnava Perspective, K.R. Sundararajan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

My interest in inter-religious dialogue goes back tot he late sixties when I was a research student working on a doctoral dissertation on "The Doctrine of Incarnation in Hinduism and Christianity" and continued when I became a lecturer in Hindu Studies at the very first department of Religious Studies in India at Punjabi University in Patiala. From there I was brought to the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions as a Fellow by Professor John Carman to take courses in Christian Studies at the Harvard Divinity School for three years from 1970 to 1973. It was a period …

"He Is Our Master": Jesus In The Thought Of Swami Prabhupada, Ravi M. Gupta

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

"Now that steam, electricity, and the printing press have brought into closer communication the different races that inhabit the earth, and have expanded the minds of men, tending to dispel the illusion that God Almighty especially favours any particular people, it is time to proclaim to the world, that if a messenger of God appeared in Judea about nineteen hundred years ago, it is no less true that a messenger from the same God appeared in the quiet town of Navadweep (popularly known as Nadia) in Bengal, some fifteen centuries later. The former is known by the name of Jesus …

A World Filled With Grace: Conceptualizing The Divine In Hindu Devotionalism And Karl Rahner, Ankur Barua

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In recent decades, a substantial body of scholarly work in the field of Hindu-Christian studies has been produced, which has not only done much to dispel earlier stereotypes of Hindu life-worlds as steeped in 'pantheism', 'world-negation' and the like, but also urged Christian thinkers to reflect on their own foundational beliefs through Hindu motifs. A relatively unexplored theme remains that of whether, and in what ways, the divine reality can be conceptualized as 'gracious' in Hindu devotionalism, especially given that the Christian doctrine of 'grace is related to a constellation of other notions such as creation out of nothing, justification …

The Catholic Doctrine Of Transubstantiation: An Exposition And Defense, Pat Selwood

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to offer both an exposition and defense for the Catholic Church's traditional understanding of eucharistic transubstantiation. I hope to show how a belief in such a doctrine is in no way irrational nor is it indefensible; butinstead, the doctrine of transubstantiation makes sense when it is viewed in light of what Catholic Christians believe about who the human being is, what the human desires, and the special way in which God personally works in human history. The method I am following investigates how the doctrine of transubstantiation coheres with and follows the other beliefs …

Barriers In Conversion (Missional And Indigenous Barriers) : Identifying The Potential Barriers Contributing To The Stagnant Progress Of Evangelistic Work Among The Burman Buddhists, Zam Sian Khai

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Grateful Gifts: Toward An Ethic Of Donativity, Clayton James Monck Alsup

LSU Master's Theses

Much recent work on the philosophical import of gifts comes in the wake of Jacques Derrida’s work Given Time I: Counterfeit Money, in which he claims that the gift is aporetic. This essay is an attempt to work out whether the gift is genuinely aporetic and, if it is not, to explore what this means for the gift. In the first chapter I will give an account of Derrida’s aporia as he presents it in Given Time. This will carefully lay out his reasons for thinking that the gift is im-possible, introduce the models of desire and duty, and explain …

Memory And Tradition In The Book Of Numbers (Book Review), Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Review of Adriane Leveen, Memory and Tradition in the Book of Numbers. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2008, x D 245 pp, ISBN 978 0 521 87869 2

Shaking Hands With The (D)Evil: Adventism And Communism, Cristian Dumitrescu

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

The Ezekiel Mural At Dura Europos: A Witness Of Ancient Jewish Mysteries?, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

BYU Studies

One of the most stunning archaeological finds of the last century was the accidental discovery in 1920 of the ruins of Dura Europos, "a frontier town of very mixed population and traditions" located on a cliff ninety meters above the Euphrates River in what is now Syria. This Helenistic city had been abandoned following a Sassanian siege in AD 256–57 and was eventually buried by the shifting sands. Among the structures uncovered by excavation was a small Jewish synagogue with elaborately painted walls, preserved only because the building had been filled with earth as a fortification during the siege.

Full Issue, Byu Studies

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Creating Knowledge, Volume 3, 2010

Creating Knowledge

CREATING KNOWLEDGE 5 Dear Students, Faculty Colleagues, and Friends,

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, through the deliberations and efforts of its Task Force on “Creating Knowledge,” chaired by Professor Ralph Erber, Associate Dean for Research in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, committed itself to a number of new strategic initiatives that would enhance and enrich the academic quality of the student experience within the college. Chief among these initiatives was one that would encourage students to become actively engaged in creating scholarship and research and give them a venue for the publication of their essays. The …

Sir Thomas Wyatt's Rondeaux: Early Modern Perception During And After The English Reformation, Anne Begin Myer

All ETDs from UAB

This paper examines the implications of Sir Thomas Wyatt's use of the rondeaux during the English Reformation and the reception and editorial emendations of that French poetic form in subsequent anti-Reformation publications. The first chapter, "Contemporary Publications and Controversy," explores the two texts by which Wyatt's works would have been disseminated to the public, namely, Tottel's Songes and Sonettes (or Miscellany) and The Court of Venus. In addition to these texts, I also consider the relationship between Wyatt and his deeply Protestant patrons, Sir Thomas Cromwell and Anne Boleyn, and how these relationships would have influenced the public perception of …

Thinking Otherwise: Theology, Inculturation And Climate Change, Glenn J. Morrison

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

Eco-Theology and Creation Spirituality are examples of major attempts to dialogue with science. In the process, they have journeyed through diversity. In contrast, the essay will seek to take another route to think otherwise upon ecological responsibility. First, it comments on the danger of being forgetful of the Christian narrative. This is not to deny the impact of climate change or global warming, but to argue that fear and facts should not necessarily be the starting point for addressing our present concern. The essay then brings into conversation the idea of ‘the quest’ for Jesus the Christ. The quest consists …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Community Connectedness And Congregational Spiritual Vitality, Rhonda Louise Whitney

Dissertations

Problem. Discussion over how to achieve church growth has been prominent over the first decade of this century and the last half of the 1900s as membership growth in mainline Christian denominations faltered to flat or negative growth. Membership growth in the Oregon Conference of Seventh-day Adventists over the past 10 years has also flattened. Church leaders have responded by putting increased resources and emphasis on evangelism. At the same time, some megachurches that have developed multiple connections with their communities have seen spectacular growth.

Method. This study was conducted to determine if there is a relationship between levels …

Political Repression And Islam In Iran, Amy Kirk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Signs with the slogan, ‘I am Neda’, flooded the streets of Tehran in the violent aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections and assassination of Neda Agha-Soltan. The internationally publicized video of Neda’s death became an iconic rallying point for the reformist opposition in Iran. Stringent clampdowns since the 1979 revolution have signified a sociopolitical change that has endured for three decades. President Khatami’s reform efforts of the late 1990s were stifled by Ahmadinejad’s election of 2005. Since Ahmadinejad’s appointment there has been little official tolerance for political and fundamental Islamic dissent, leading to serious human rights violations against the reformist …

Sacred Spaces, Public Places: The Intersection Of Religion And Space In Three Chicago Communities, 1869-1932, Elizabeth Hoffman Ransford

Dissertations

Manifestations of religion in the built environment and in conceptions of space illuminate a variety of cultural impulses. As the most tangible display of religion on the landscape, religious structures embody and shape the theological understandings, cultural assumptions, and social aspirations of believers; sacred buildings convey how congregations perceive themselves and how they aspire to be perceived by others. Moreover, because houses of worship serve as visible markers of the cultural authority and political status of their builders, religious structures also reflect the secular values and aesthetic fashions of the public sphere. In less materially tangible ways, religious groups' engagement …

The Leadership Of The Umc As A Prophetic Community For The Holistic Transformation Of Post-Conflict Liberia, Jerry Paye-Manfloe Kulah

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Other-Centred Love: Diotima’S Lesson To Socrates, Colin A. Redmond

Theses

In this thesis I set out to determine the possible motivations in response to which Diotima agreed to teach Socrates the arts of love. In the process I develop a broader understanding of Diotima and her natural, feminine complexity. This understanding of Diotima suggests an interpretation of her teaching to show that, for all that can be said of love it is, importantly a re-orientation from self-centred interest to other-centred interest and it is this re-orientation which impacted on Socrates and by which he was persuaded.

Such an impact and its explanation offers a clear rationale for the changes which …

The Twentieth And Twenty-First Centuries, Krista Ratcliffe

English Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction, John Shuford

Journal of Hate Studies

T

he Institute for Hate Studies at Gonzaga University is pleased to offer Volume 8 of the Journal of Hate Studies, the theme of which is “The Other Among Us.” It is a timely topic, no doubt, as nativism, racism, and extrem- ism boil over in America’s immigration debate. This volume considers those issues as well as a wider range of perspectives on engagement and disengagement with “the other” in our society, culture, and lives.

Imbedded in this volume’s theme are myriad questions. Who is the “other” among us, and what does it mean to be an “other” or to …

Denominational Support For Clergy Mental Health, Bobby L. Trihub, Mark R. Mcminn, William C. Buhrow, Thomas F. Johnson

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

To date, minimal research has addressed the actual services provided to maintain the mental health of leadership in the church. Three major Protestant denominations were consulted within this study, including a total of 434 pastors across the United States. Among these three denominations, a range of services are now being offered to support clergy, with services such as time off, prayer support groups, and clergy retreats among the most valued, adequately provided, and utilized. Still, clergy do not see the provision of services as fully adequate, and report a number of obstacles to utilizing services. Generally, the most highly rated …

[Introduction To] Warcraft And The Fragility Of Virtue: An Essay In Aristotelian Ethics, G. Scott Davis

Bookshelf

The origins of the book make a chronicle of the unexpected. In the spring of 1985, if memory serves, I was invited by Jeffrey Stout to teach a course at Princeton focusing on war and traditions of moral reasoning. Although I had not previously explored the just war tradition, it dovetailed nicely with my interest in Aristotle and his place in contemporary moral theory.

Correlation: The Early Years, Michael A. Goodman

Faculty Publications

Elder Bruce C. Hafen has stated, “Few superlatives could overstate the historical importance of correlation, both as a doctrinal concept and as an organizational movement.”1 Yet, despite the importance of correlation, little has been published regarding its history. Though included as a topic in biographies about David O. McKay, Harold B. Lee, and Neal A. Maxwell, each account focused more on the individuals’ involvement in correlation than the history of correlation itself. Therefore, each account had large gaps in the history. This article will present the history of correlation from the turn of the twentieth century until 1960. Though access …

Interfaith Grand River: The Potential And Limits Of Dialogue To Transform Participants And Impact Communities, Jonathan Andrew Napier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the dynamics between an interfaith dialogue group and its community. While interfaith dialogue is used for various reasons, I will study how Interfaith Grand River (IGR) deals with issues of religion in Canadian society through their monthly discussions. IGR began in September 2001 as an initiative to ensure different religious adherents in the Kitchener/Waterloo and surrounding area could meet regularly to discuss different faith topics and develop relationships. IGR serves as an illustration to compliment the theoretical works on the limits and possibilities of dialogue. Data on IGR has been derived through …