Digital Commons Network^™

"Trading Western Suits For Monastic Robes" : Remaking Tibetan Buddhism In The Chinese Religious Revival, Jue Liang

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Johnson V. M'Intosh: Christianity, Genocide, And The Dispossession Of Indigenous Peoples, Cynthia J. Boshell

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Using hermeneutical methodology, this paper examines some of the legal fictions that form the foundation of Federal Indian Law. The text of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1823 Johnson v. M’Intosh opinion is evaluated through the lens of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide to determine the extent to which the Supreme Court incorporated genocidal principles into United States common law. The genealogy of M’Intosh is examined to identify influences that are not fully apparent on the face of the case. International jurisprudential interpretations of the legal definition of genocide are summarized and used as …

How Shame Shapes Church Planting : Exploring Impacts On Gospel Receptivity Among Emerging Adults, Robert Mark Montgomery

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Heavenly Trio: Exploring The Views Of Ellen White And The Adventist Pioneers Regarding The Trinity [Review], Denis Kaiser

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Faith For Today: Saving The Planet, Oystein S. Labianca

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

From Me To We: A Phenomenological Inquiry Into Group Beingness, Stacey K. Guenther

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

To be human is to be a member of myriad groups. The universality of groups in our lives poses an important area of study for social scientists investigating human flourishing. Additionally, inquiring into the evolutionary potential of groups may begin to inform new ways of addressing the intractable issues we face as a human species. While most empirical studies of groups focus on group performance, or group doingness, this study explored group beingness and the experience of manifesting deep union and oneness, which is an intersubjective phenomenon that has been called coherence. Intersubjective coherence is often written about from a …

Isaac Newton As A Prophetic Interpreter, Kenneth Jørgensen

Dissertations

Throughout his life, Sir Isaac Newton was deeply dedicated to the science of decoding biblical apocalyptic writings. To understand and appreciate Newton's prophetic scheme, it will be advantagous to have a certain grasp of what sources and ideas might have influenced him. No comprehensive study before this one has helped us see Newton from that perspective. A survey of the development of canonical apocalyptic hermeneutic and interpretation, beginning before the time of Christ and ending with Newton, shows that four distinct systems of hermeneutics had developed by that time. Historicism was the earliest and the preferred system among Protestants until …

Passages From The Book Of Micah In The Book Of Mormon, Dana M. Pike

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Ending Christian Hegemony: Jean-Luc Nancy And The Ends Of Eurocentric Thought, Colby Dickinson

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay addresses Jean-Luc Nancy’s “deconstruction of Christianity” and how what Christianity proclaims through enacting a deconstruction of itself brings an end to the western, hegemonic hold that Christian imperialism has perpetuated for centuries. Nancy, for his part, takes up the name of Christianity insofar as it is a religious phenomenon that signals a trajectory of thought in the West that must be discerned as providing an “exit from religion and of the expansion of the atheist world.” Since deconstructing the dominant narratives of the West means deconstructing the myth of a sovereign, autonomous deity whose reign, Nancy declares, has …

Caring For The Land And The Livestock: Anabaptist Agricultural Practices In Europe And Colonial Pennsylvania, Rebecca Shenton

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

Anabaptists have a strong history of agricultural innovation and care for the land. Their innovative spirit was forged out of persecution, migration, and the need to survive in challenging circumstances. This article examines the agricultural practices of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Swiss and South German Anabaptist farmers and those of eighteenth-century Anabaptist immigrants to Pennsylvania. European Anabaptist tenant farmers distinguished themselves by their family-centered mixed agriculture and their investment in both the land (using manure, lime, gypsum, and crop rotation to improve the soil) and livestock (improving natural meadows and planting pastures for fodder, maintaining clean barns, practicing confinement feeding, and …

Manila’S Black Nazarene And The Reign Of Bathala, Antonio D. Sison

Journal of Global Catholicism

A consideration of how the dynamics surrounding Manila's Black Nazarene express crucial themes in the Filipino psyche. The article specifically addresses the importance of "felt-experience" (pagdama) in devotion to the Black Nazarene as well as its connections to indigenous Filipino religion.

Catholicism In Context: Religious Practice In Latin America, Gustavo Morello Sj

Journal of Global Catholicism

A critical problem to study Catholicism in the context of Latin American modernity, is that the conceptual tools we use to study religion were designed to understand the transformations that modernity provoked in European religiosity. Studies on the religion of Latin Americans have largely explored the religiosity of the population through surveys that measure attendance, adherence and affiliation. While some anthropologists have explored religious practices among particular groups, we do not know how ordinary, urban Latin Americans practice religion. To fill this gap, a group of researchers from Boston College, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Catholic University of Córdoba, and …

The Prophecy Of Prophecies: Correcting Harold Hoehner’S Interpretation Of Daniel’S 70 Weeks, Nathan Jarrett

Liberty Theological Review

Attacks against the Bible’s divine inspiration are rampant in today’s society. One of the most popular apologetic methods used to defend the doctrine of inspiration is messianic prophecy. Though many predictions fulfilled by Jesus Christ have been identified, no prediction found in the Old Testament is quite as precise or as controversial as the prophecy of Daniel’s 70 weeks. While various interpretations of Daniel 9:24-27 have been promoted, this article defends the interpretation popularized by Harold Hoehner as the most convincing. Though Hoehner may have provided the most accurate interpretation historically, the purpose of this article is to correct mistakes …

Faith After The Fight: Overcoming Doubts And Trauma From Warfare, Donald Anthony Baker Iii

Liberty Theological Review

In the aftermath of intense kinetic battlefield engagements where friendly, civilian, and enemy casualties occur, Christian combat veterans express difficulty reconciling God’s omniscience, omnipresence, and benevolence with their traumatic experience. The result has been prolonged episodes of despondence with God that presents itself as an impediment to continued faith or worse, an outright rejection of His existence. Exposure to the horrors of armed conflict can have a profoundly detrimental effect on a service member’s faith, but a person can begin the process to heal the invisible wounds of spiritual trauma by not abandoning their faith in God but instead clinging …

In The Wake Of Euthyphro's False Dilemma, Gregory S. Mckenzie

Liberty Theological Review

All moral apologists, at one time or another, engage with the Euthyphro dilemma and all theologians engage, at one point or another, the issue of continuity or discontinuity of the Mosaic Covenant and Torah in general. The general view among apologists is that correct theology can be determined by its logical consistency and explanatory power considering philosophical, existential, and scientific principles. This study examines how answering the Euthyphro dilemma as a false dilemma, which is a common position among apologists actually produces theological contradictions primarily in the realm of theology proper and specifically immutability, issues in hamartiology and an improper …

Barriers To Belief: Why Do The Resistant Resist God?

Liberty Theological Review

Barriers to belief in God and Christianity in an increasingly antagonistic culture are considerable. Reasons for resisting belief were studied in an intellectually-driven population of educated atheists in Western culture (N = 50) through survey and interview analysis. This mixed-method research study evaluated a broad range of functional (socio-cultural, psycho-emotional, existential, experiential, moral, volitional) and substantive (intellectual and spiritual) variables influencing disbelief. Based upon extensive data collection, these findings advance the case for viewing obstacles to belief as diverse, interactive, and complex in nature. These barriers should not be easily reduced to broad brushed presumptions, but should be engaged thoughtfully, …

Philosophical Anthropology And Biblical Interpretation In John Paul Ii’S Theology Of The Body, Shawn Conoboy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the Theology of the Body, through a series of Wednesday Catecheses, John Paul II presents a magisterial understanding of the sacrament of marriage and of marriage and family ethics. At the same time, John Paul II presents a theological anthropology, which forms a basis for the magisterial teaching. His theological anthropology is developed through an exegesis of selected biblical texts, especially Genesis 1-3 and Ephesians 5, and through an application of a philosophical anthropology articulated by Karol Wojtyła. This dissertation draws the connection between the philosophical anthropology of Wojtyła, especially as it is articulated in his major works, …

Queerificando A Cristo: Manifestando La Gloriosa PasióN
 Y Promiscuidad Amorosa De La EncarnacióN, Lisa Isherwood

Conexión Queer: Revista Latinoamericana y Caribeña de Teologías Queer

This article looks at the trajectory of queer theologies, especially highlighting the challenges and opportunities they offer to the Christian tradition. It examines the way in which a queer eye on doctrine and church history yields different perspectives. These benefit the LGBTIQ+ community and the whole Christian community through deepening and broadening our understanding of the incarnate divine. While acknowledging the existence of a fluid rupturing core in Christianity —a queerness that begs for its embracing— the analysis concludes that Incarnation and queer theory are splendid passionate and risk compelling companions towards the deconstruction of Christ.

St. Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin, December 12, 2021

Saint Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Chicago, IL

Saint Francis Brogia Deaf Center Church Bulletin Finding Aid

C. S. Lewis And His Later Respondents: Letting In Fresh Air, Preventing Questions, And Reimagining A Preface To Paradise Lost, David V. Urban

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

This essay chronicles significant responses to C. S. Lewis’s A Preface to Paradise Lost (1942) that occurred from the 1960s into the twenty-first century. Important responses include those of William Empson, Stanley Fish, Stuart Curran, John Rumrich, Peter C. Herman, Michael Bryson, and Joseph Wittreich. All of these scholars challenged Lewis on various points—most commonly concerning matters of Lewis’s analysis of Milton’s Satan, his alleged oversimplification of Milton’s theologically complex epic, the supposed similarities between A Preface and Fish’s Surprised by Sin, and his assumed hegemonic prevention of new avenues of critical inquiry into Milton’s epic. This essay contends …

Jati Kutta: The Street Dog, The Servant, And Me, Lisa Warden Phd

Between the Species

Caste, class, race, and species collide in this narrative nonfiction piece about an injured street dog, his foreign rescuer, and her Dalit housekeeper in Ahmedabad, India.

Art As Contextualization: Using Visual Communication As Christian Missions In Native American And Alaskan Cultures, Hali Gehring

Senior Honors Theses

Contextualization is an important aspect of Christian ministries and cross-cultural missions to create sustaining churches around the world. There are many forms of communication that use contextualization for religious purposes, such as theatre, story, art, and dance. These important forms of communication can be used with cultural practices to contextualize the Gospel to different people groups. For Native Americans and Alaskans, artistic works that promote cultural heritage are highly regarded. A beadwork piece that explains the Gospel could be a creative way to contextualize to Native American and Alaskans.

The Origin (And Future) Of Transpersonal Psychology In An Open Scientific Naturalism, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A number of scholars well known within transpersonal psychology appear to be converging on open scientific naturalism as a philosophically and methodologically fruitful framework for transpersonal and related fields. This builds on the nascent open naturalism evidenced in the early years of transpersonal psychology, before it entered its metaphysical phase (ca. 1975 to 2000). Since it is necessary for science to assume some kind of world within which it is possible to do science, and not every aspect of that assumed world can be subjected to processes of empirical investigation, some of these necessary background assumptions are unavoidably metaphysical. However, …

Going Berserk, Running Amok, And The Extraordinary Capabilities And Invulnerability Of Battle Trance, Jenny Wade

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Battle trance, which evolved from instinctive defensive and offensive behaviors for close combat, involves socially transgressive processes like becoming-intense and becoming-animal that produce non-ordinary psychophysical states useful in fighting. Berserkergang (going berserk) is one of the best attested types of battle trance and the latest in a long history of Indo-European ecstatic warrior cults, but the state has been identified cross-culturally in consecrated holy amok warriors and in juramentado. Colonial interpretations for centuries have tended to denigrate such fighting styles, even though they involve discipline, spiritual dedication, and altruistic self-sacrifice, especially by falsely attributing such states to intoxication or insanity. …

Deaf Catholic Newsletter, Advent-Christmas 2021

Deaf Catholic Newsletter

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Philapelphia, PA

Deaf Catholic Newsletter Finding Aid

A Christian Response To Modern Extraterrestrialism, Chase Perry Cakmis

Masters Theses

Extraterrestrial beliefs (ET-ism) have become a cultural craze in contemporary times, infatuating many who encounter these ideas. ET-ism has influenced all forms of media, science, and even religion. With ET-ism permeating all facets of society, Christians need to know how to approach this craze and the ideas that sprout from it. Much research has been conducted on this subject both on the individual and scientific level, thrusting these beliefs from fringe views believed only by the paranoid into widely accepted ideas even within the scientific community. While Christian circles have discussed this subject in the past, it is becoming a …

Traversing The Back Door Of The Mind: Directing Imaginative Stories To Generate Meaningful Dialogue About Biblical Truths In A Materialist World, Heather Jean Birkeland

Masters Theses

Ontological materialism hinders evangelistic efforts because it precludes any dialogue about spiritual matters, especially regarding the importance of cultivating an eternal value system. Furthermore, potential meaningful dialogue is inhibited by an audience that routinely rejects overtly Christian materials, which results in failure to develop the correct contextual understanding regarding biblical spiritual truths. The writer provides an overview of the philosophy of ontological materialism and its effects on people, the impact of imaginative storytelling, and the psychology of narrative persuasion. Firstly, the selected thesis topic will explore how non-Christians could potentially approach and engage in biblical truths without hostility through the …

Joy Beyond The Walls Of The World: How Christianity Ably Explains The Moral Facts, Jonathan Royce Pruitt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

I argue that Christianity ably explains the moral facts of moral goodness, intrinsic human value, moral rationality, and moral transformation. Chapter 1 provides an explanation of the thesis, a historical overview of the moral argument, a defense of the method, a critique of William Lane Craig’s deductive argument, and a response to some challenges to abduction from a Christian worldview. In chapter 2, I explain how Christianity ably explains moral goodness. I first give some reason to think God should be identified with the Good, following Robert Adams. Next, I summarize some of the issues related to moral goodness. Then, …

Integrity, Freedom, And Trust – A Comprehensive Understanding Of Corruption And Its Effect On Human Rights, Nelu Burcea, Lucile Sabas, Carlos Biaggi

Faculty Publications

Book of Abstracts, UNEQUAL WORLD Conference Third Edition

Moral Injury In Sexual Brokenness: Using Military Models Of Mi To Address Civilian Issues, Vanessa M. Close

Theology Undergraduate Work

Moral injury (MI) has long been an emotional and psychological wound carried by military servicemembers in response to their experiences during war or active duty. Since the conception of moral injury in the late 20th century, dedication toward researching the topic has increased to provide better psychological treatment to veterans and active-duty military. As a result of an increased understanding of MI, researchers have begun to explore the application of MI models to civilian experiences and traumas. This paper seeks to join the conversation through exploring the occurrence of moral injury throughout a unique state of sexual distress labeled by …