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Soteriology In Mainstream Monotheistic Religions: The Messiah Conundrum, Jay Fox

Masters Theses

For the promotion of the Gospel, this study seeks to examine Soteriology in Mainstream Monotheistic Religions: The Messiah Conundrum. This decidedly charged topic critically researches the philosophy of salvation doctrine, or soteriology, within major monotheistic religions. The highlighted problem is the Messiah conundrum, with critical research on each doctrine for epistemological significance of a savior and their beliefs surrounding salvation. This mystery of where, or who humans turn to for salvation, is vitally important when considering the principle of sufficient reason in today’s hermeneutic and apologetic circles. The purpose fueling this thesis is the resolute documenting of beliefs of major …

Contributors -- Quaker Religious Thought No. 131

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

An Overview Of Four Traditions On War And Peace In Christian History, Joseph J. Fahey

The Journal of Social Encounters

This essay examines four traditions on war and peace that have developed in Christian history. They are: Pacifism, Just War, Total War, and World Community.Pacifism characterized the earliest Christians; Just War appeared in the late fourth and fifth centuries; Total War in the eleventh century; and World Community began in the sixteenth century. All four positions continue today and are held by people who sincerely call themselves Christian.

The Methodist Church In Yugoslavia From 1945 To 1965: A Case Study Of An Ecumenical Protestant "Free Church" In A Hostile Environment, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Though in size resembling a sect, the Methodists of the former Yugoslavia functioned as a Protestant “Free Church” due to its international structural connection with a large worldwide Methodist Church. After disparate beginnings in the two locations, the Methodist of Vojvodina began to function in 1898 while in Macedonia, the former Congregationalist (called Evangelical) began their work in 1870 but were transferred to the Yugoslavia Methodist Mission Conference after World War I. In Vojvodina, most of the members were of German and Hungarian ethnicity who had already been Protestants before they joined the Methodists while in Macedonia, the members were …

Christianity And Gambling: An Introduction, Massimo Leone

Occasional Papers

Religions hold complex relations with games and, in particular, with gambling. The article focuses on Christianity. On the one hand, the history of this religion shows a tendency to condemn games as source of distraction from spiritual rectitude and to stigmatize gambling, above all, as opening to metaphysical randomness and, as a consequence, as challenge to the idea of divine omniscience. On the other hand, Christianity has also sought to reinterpret games, and even gambling, as possible occasion for moral improvement and as useful distraction from the hardship of monastic life. A theological perspective that reaches its peak in Thomas …

Charismatic Renewal And Miracular Sensitivity At A Catholic Marian Apparition Site In Poland, Konrad Siekierski

Journal of Global Catholicism

Almost 70 years after the Mother of God appeared in a series of visions at the pastures near the village of Mazury in south-eastern Poland, this ‘abundant event’, in Robert Orsi’s terms, still attracts the attention of Polish Catholics. Drawing on my research on the recent revival of the apparition site in Mazury, I examine the current penetration of Polish Catholicism by the charismatic movement. As I discuss it, this trend reinvigorates, but also reshapes, what Andrzej Hemka and Jacek Olędzki call the ‘miracular sensitivity’ of Polish believers, traditionally dominated by Marian devotion.

Editor's Introduction, Marc R. Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Evangelicalism And Capitalism: A Reparative Account And Diagnosis Of Pathogeneses In The Relationship, Jason Paul Clark

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

No sustained examination and diagnosis of problems inherent to the relationship of Evangelicalism with capitalism currently exists. Where assessments of the relationship have been undertaken, they are often built upon a lack of understanding of Evangelicalism, and an uncritical reliance both on Max Weber’s Protestant Work Ethic and on David Bebbington’s Quadrilateral of Evangelical priorities. This then gives rise to misunderstandings and faulty prescriptions for the future of Evangelicalism. This thesis seeks to remedy this situation by providing a robust diagnostic, not to refute Evangelicalism, but as a reparative. This reparative attends to the faulty responses of either over-dichotomising capitalist …

Where Are We Going? : A Critical Analysis Of Millennials And The Traditional Church, Riley Ferguson

Celebration of Learning

Walk into any given Protestant church on any given Sunday morning, outside of Christmas and Easter; what you will most likely see is the pastor at the front of the congregation running through the week’s prayers, a piano/organ playing, a cross somewhere at the front, but what you will not see is a great multitude of young adults between the ages of 18-29 (Kinnaman). There is a problem with millennial church membership and it is deeply impacting our congregations and how faith is being understood today. Pastors, church leaders, and congregations have been trying to find ways to solve the …

Liberating The Imago Dei: An Examination Of Jewish And Christian Feminist Biblical Anthropology, Carissa S. Wyant

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This study provides a comparative analysis of the work of Roman Catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson and that of Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow, who have both sought to reconstruct the Imago Dei (“image of God”) within their respective traditions. By way of this analysis, it makes a methodological and a substantive contribution. Methodologically, it expands on Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza’s feminist critical approach to reading Scripture by relating it to Francis Clooney’s comparative theological approach to reading texts in religious traditions other than one’s own. Although there have been attempts at comparisons of various religious traditions from a feminist perspective, this …

Christian Political Economy And Economic Science: A Pathway For Interdisciplinary Dialogue, Nathan Mclellan

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers two intellectual impediments to interdisciplinary dialogue between Christian theologians, ethicists, and economists: scarcity and the status of economics as a wertfrei science. Using the landmark methodological work of Lionel Robbins, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economics Science, to frame the discussion, this dissertation seeks to remove these two intellectual impediments to interdisciplinary dialogue by considering three nested questions. They are:

(1) Is scarcity—as defined by Robbins—an accurate description of the world?

(2) If scarcity, as defined by Robbins, is an accurate description of the world, how is this to be justified theologically, and …

Believing Into Christ: Restoring The Relational Sense Of Belief As Constitutive Of The Christian Faith, Natalya Cherry

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

The beginning phrase of major Christian creeds, Cred(ere) in Deum literally means “to believe into God.” What has been lost in translation of this admittedly awkward construction is the relational sense of active and living belief, fit for the flourishing of human agents who relate to a living and active God. This loss occurred, despite Augustine’s describing this phrase as the culmination of Christian faith, distinct from credere Deo, “to believe God,”[1] and from credere Deum,[2] “to believe that God exists” (which today is taken to be the basic meaning of “believing in God”). Despite the resulting …

Jean-Luc Marion And Gianni Vattimo’S Contributions For The Postmodern Faith, Michael Mcgravey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Catholic theology in the postmodern era has encountered various cultural or narrative shifts—both negative and positive—which have helped shape the Roman Catholic Church and Christianity at large. Negatively, the Church has been affected by external factors (e.g., globalization, immigration/emigration, increased access to technology, etc.) and internal struggles (e.g., reduced church attendance, an aging population, etc.). Positively, as others have suggested, postmodernity has ushered in a return to religion through new philosophical and theological ideas (e.g., phenomenology, existentialism, post-metaphysics, etc.). This dissertation aims to contribute to the ongoing postmodern concerns addressed in the cultural and narrative shifts, by focusing on the …

A Theological Analysis Of Confessional-Centric Curriculum Of Christian Religious Education: Towards An Inclusive Religious Pluralistic Centered Curriculum For Nigeria Colleges Of Education, Ilesanmi Ajibola

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Desire to live in peace and unity despite the multi ethnic and multi religious composition of Nigeria, remain ideals that are constant in the nation’s Constitution. However, accruable benefits of a culturally and religiously pluralistic society have continued to elude Nigeria due to incessant religious violence arising from the mutual suspicion of Christians and Muslims in the country. Nevertheless, the nation’s National Policy on Education proposes the education sector as one of the platforms to inculcate a sense of unity and religious tolerance in the country. The policy considers the nation’s learning centers and religious courses offered in such institutions …

A Kingdom Of Priests And Gods: Angelic And Participatory Deification In John's Apocalypse, David A. Armstrong

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature contains soteriological narratives of human transformation that qualify as examples of deification in antiquity. One widely exemplified type of deification in ancient Jewish apocalypses and apocalyptic literature focuses first on the analogy between priests and angels, and then the gradual assimilation of the former to the identity of the latter. In much apocalyptic thought, God resides in a celestial sanctuary in heaven where angels serve a heavenly liturgy of worship and praise, and it is this reality which the earthly priesthood, temple, and cult mimic and extend into the human world, which led to …

Information Search Strategies Among Theological Faculty Members In Tamil Nadu, Yesan Sellan, Dr. S. Ally Sornam, Associate Professor And Head

The Christian Librarian

This research article studies the information seeking search strategies used by theological faculty members in Tamil Nadu. It is based on a structured questionnaire sent to 120 select faculty members, of which 101 questionnaires were returned, achieving a response rate of 84%. Major findings of this study contribute to understanding the awareness and use of search options among respondents. Basic and keyword search options are commonly used by respondents in online sources while preferences for references from books and journals are more popular among faculty members to locate bibliographic information in print sources. This study further noted that faculty members …

Bremmer's "Maidens, Magic And Martyrs In Early Christianity" (Book Review), Cynthia Hammell

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Reinhold Niebuhr's Christian Nation: The Theology Of White Supremacy In Liberal White American Christianity, Sophia Driscoll Gamber

Religious Studies Honors Papers

Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian Nation explores the relationships between white supremacy, American nation-building, and Protestantism. The argument operates on two levels. It is firstly concerned with unpacking the development of white supremacy as a cultural theology that evolved alongside the American project from European colonization to the present day, one which infiltrates all aspects of the American project and provides its unjust racial hierarchies with divine justification. To this end, the project then turns to an analysis of the development of American nationalism and discusses the ways in which we have cultivated a heroic American mythology that undergirds both white supremacy …

Teaching For A Multifaith World; From Bubble To Bridge: Educating Christians For A Multifaith World, Debra S. Espinor

Faculty Publications - College of Education

Similar but different is the metaphor to describe both multifaith books reviewed here—similar in that both are exploring the many facets of how to live in our multifaith world today, and different because the books are written for different audiences and ages. Teaching for a Multifaith World, edited by Eleazar S Fernandez, is written for an audience of seminarians. The language is pastoral and the book is a compilation from writers from many well-respected seminaries across the United States. The title of the book implies that this might be a textbook in a course within a religious studies program. From …

The Cost And Value Of Your Education, T. Perry Hildreth

Journal of Counseling and Psychology

This brief address explores the issue of the dominance of the economical way of valuing education over a more traditional idea of education as moral formation. An education in a Christian liberal arts university uniquely gives priority to the idea that education should shape the student's moral understanding and consequent actions. The address is an invitation to consider how one, professionally and personally, might serve members of a culture shaped largely by the idea that human meaning and purpose are reducible to economic value as merely producers and consumers.

Interdisciplinary Team-Based Pastoral Care Model For Estonian Healthcare Institutions: The Professionals' Insight And The Model Adjustments, Liidia Meel

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The current article addresses the application potential of an interdisciplinary team- based pastoral care model in Estonian healthcare institutions. To support the inclusion of pastoral care in Estonian healthcare institutions, the initial model of interdisciplinary team-based pastoral care was created as a theoretical construction. The current article deals with the model applicability and aims to adjust the model to be adaptable to different healthcare institutions in Estonia. To inform the model adjustments, a qualitative research was conducted in three Estonian hospitals that have included pastoral care provision in different organizational forms. The expert sample consists of pastoral caregivers of these …

Is Liberalism The Problem? Review Of Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed, Ross W. Mccullough

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

A specter is haunting conservatism — the specter, indeed, of Marx. Those conservatives too young to remember the Cold War are increasingly suspicious of the economic and political prescriptions of the older anticommunism: capitalism as opposed to socialism; individual rights as opposed to collectivism. If they are not sure of Marx’s solutions, they at least share with him a sense of the problems, especially the meaninglessness and atomization of our social order. The alternative right is an alternative to precisely this fading consensus, wagering that race and nation have survived the ravages of liberal capitalism and can be a home …

Introduction, Johnathan Rothchild

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

No abstract provided.

Religion, Media, And Marginality In Modern Africa, Felicitas Becker, Joel Cabrita, Marie Rodet

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

In recent years, anthropologists, historians, and others have been drawn to study the profuse and creative usages of digital media by religious movements. At the same time, scholars of Christian Africa have long been concerned with the history of textual culture, the politics of Bible translation, and the status of the vernacular in Christianity. Students of Islam in Africa have similarly examined politics of knowledge, the transmission of learning in written form, and the influence of new media. Until now, however, these arenas—Christianity and Islam, digital media and “old” media—have been studied separately.

Religion, Media, and Marginality in Modern Africa …

Christ, The Karamazovs, And Compensational Theodicies, Ross W. Mccullough

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This article draws from Ivan Karamazov a two-fold challenge to the goodness of God: that no one can forgive the infliction of suffering upon the innocent and that, even when forgiven, this suffering costs more than any good brought out of it. It then looks to Alyosha for a response to these challenges, suggesting that Christ can forgive because of the cross and that his doing so puts the innocent to a choice: either to join their suffering to his – and so maintain God’s goodness – or to lose their innocence. This response helps supply another defect of theodicies …

Ijcs News, Volume 6, The Institute Of Judaeo-Christian Studies

Newsletters

The 2018 issue of IJCS News, the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies' annual newsletter, Vol 6.

Inquiry, Identity, And Integrity In A Biblical Studies Methods Course, Philip Teeuwsen, Abigail Deelstra, Jonathan Van Santen, David Grills

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

In this study, a university professor, a high school teacher, and two teacher-candidates engage in an inquiry into the identity and integrity of the religious studies teacher. Using Charteris’s (2014) ‘epistemological shudders’ as a framework, the authors explore the experience of learning to teach Bible in Christian schools by paying attention to the ways in which their experience with the unfamiliar intersected with their taken-for-granted beliefs and perspectives. The authors believe such reflections on experience are essential in particular to teachers of the Bible in Christian schools, but also, more generally, for ongoing lifelong teacher growth. This paper offers insights …

Tragic Creation: Hope For The Future—Moltmann's Creative (Mis)Reading Of Hegel's Philosophy, John Michael Bechtold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Christian theology, in its many and varied forms, and to the detriment of both the church and the world, is often built upon a shaky epistemological foundation. In this dissertation, I describe this shaky foundation by the term 'insular universalism'. The oxymoronic nature of the term is both intentional and telling. A theology which strives for, or unwittingly arrives at, a position which is here being called 'insular universalism' achieves neither while rejecting or misunderstanding the complexity of both. When considered theologically, insular universalism could be simplistically described as the idea that "one cultural expression of the religion is exclusive …

Theology And The World's Living Faiths, Roland Scott

Papers

No abstract provided.

A Rationale For Christian Mission In Theological Education, Roland Scott

Papers

No abstract provided.