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The Divine Handclasp In The Hebrew Bible And In Near Eastern Iconography, David Calabro Jan 2021

The Divine Handclasp In The Hebrew Bible And In Near Eastern Iconography, David Calabro

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

David Calabro explores what he describes as the “divine handclasp” in the Hebrew Bible. The term refers to a handclasp between God and his human servant that had a place in ancient Israelite temple worship. Calabro indicates it was a ritual gesture that was part of temple rite performance with a priest acting as proxy for God in close interaction with mankind. While other scholars have suggested the gesture was indicative of deity transporting mankind to “glory,” Calabro’s research proposes the clasping of right hands while facing one another was ritually indicative of God granting access to His chosen rather …


De Profundis, Daniel C. Peterson Jan 2021

De Profundis, Daniel C. Peterson

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

In describing the operation of the spindles in the Liahona, Nephi’s statement that “the one pointed the way” in 1 Nephi 16:10 is frequently taken to mean that one of the two spindles indicated the direction to travel. However, Nephi’s apparent use of the Hebrew word האחד (ha’echad)1 may imply a different mechanism in which the direction was being shown when both operated as one. If so, there may be added symbolism of unity and oneness inherent in Nephi’s and Alma’s descriptions of the Liahona. Additionally, I provide a detailed analysis of words and phrases used by Nephi and Alma …


Axes Mundi: Ritual Complexes In Mesoamerica And The Book Of Mormon, Mark Alan Wright Jan 2021

Axes Mundi: Ritual Complexes In Mesoamerica And The Book Of Mormon, Mark Alan Wright

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

An axis mundi refers to a sacred place that connects heaven and earth and is believed to be the center of the world. These places are sanctified through ritual consecration or through a divine manifestation that results in qualitatively detaching that space from the surrounding cosmos. Often expressed in architecture as a universal pillar, these axes mundi incorporate and put in communication three cosmic levels — earth, heaven, and the underworld. As Mark Alan Wright notes, Mesoamerican sacred architecture was designed according to cosmological principles and finds a modern analogy in Latter-day Saint temples. Also, among Mesoamerican civilizations and in …


Types Of Repetition And Shadows Of History In Hebraic Narrative, Alan Goff Jan 2021

Types Of Repetition And Shadows Of History In Hebraic Narrative, Alan Goff

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

Modern readers too often misunderstand ancient narrative. Typical of this incomprehension has been the inclination of modern biblical critics to view repetitions as narrative failures. Whether you call such repetitions types, narrative analogies, type scenes, midrashic recurrences, or numerous other names, this view of repeated elements has dominated modern readings of Hebraic narratives for at least 200 years. Robert Alter, who introduced a new yet antique understanding of repetitions in the Hebrew Bible in the 1980s, began to reverse this trend. Such repeated elements aren’t failures or shortcomings but are themselves artistic clues to narrative meaning that call readers to …


Joseph Smith As A Book Of Mormon Storyteller, Brian C. Hales Jan 2021

Joseph Smith As A Book Of Mormon Storyteller, Brian C. Hales

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

For nearly 200 years, skeptics have promoted different naturalistic explanations to describe how Joseph Smith generated all the words of the Book of Mormon. The more popular theories include plagiarism (e.g. of the Solomon Spaulding manuscript), collaboration (with Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, etc.), mental illness (bipolar, dissociative, or narcissistic personality disorders) and automatic writing, also called “spirit writing, “trance writing,” or “channeling.” A fifth and currently the most popular theory posits that Joseph Smith possessed all the intellectual abilities needed to complete the task. A variation on this last explanation proposes that he used the methods of professional storytellers. For …


Adam, Eve, The Book Of Moses, And The Temple: The Story Of Receiving Christ’S Atonement, Bruce C. Hafen, Marie K. Hafen Jan 2021

Adam, Eve, The Book Of Moses, And The Temple: The Story Of Receiving Christ’S Atonement, Bruce C. Hafen, Marie K. Hafen

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

The authors begin by the highlighting the importance of Book of Moses research that has discovered plausible findings for its historicity, rendering it at least reasonable to give the benefit of the doubt to sacred premises — even if, ultimately, the choice of premises is just that, a choice. Emphasizing the relevance of the Book of Moses to the temple, they note that the Book of Moses is not only an ancient temple text, but also the ideal scriptural context for a modern temple preparation course. Going further, the authors address an important question raised by some who have asked: …


The Good God Hermeneutic: A Reconsideration Of Religious Vocabulary, Garrett R. Maxwell Jan 2021

The Good God Hermeneutic: A Reconsideration Of Religious Vocabulary, Garrett R. Maxwell

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

Fiona and Terryl Givens once again deliver a book worthy of the comparatively wide readership they have gained within Latter- day Saint circles. Their orderly treatment of individual gospel concepts in this book can rightly be seen as a distillation and unification of their previous work, boldly attempting to awaken us from our ignorance of the sheer novelty and vitality contained in the Restoration vision of God and humanity. They convincingly argue that the historically wrought semantic baggage that comes with the most basic religious vocabulary we use must be consciously jettisoned to fully appreciate and articulate the meaning of …


Vox Populi And Vox Dei: Allusive Explorations Of Biblical And Book Of Mormon Politeias, Alan Goff Jan 2021

Vox Populi And Vox Dei: Allusive Explorations Of Biblical And Book Of Mormon Politeias, Alan Goff

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

David Gore’s book The Voice of the People: Political Rhetoric in the Book of Mormon is a welcome reading of Book of Mormon passages which engage in conversation with the biblical politeia — those parts of the Hebrew Bible that explore the constituent parts of the Israelite governance under judges and kings. Gore asserts that the Book of Mormon politeia in Mosiah is in allusive dialogue not just with the Bible but also the Jaredite experience of kingship in Ether. This allusive (intertextual) feature is present not just in the Book of Mormon but any text (Dead Sea Scrolls, New …


Ancient Sacred Vestments: Scriptural Symbols And Meanings, Donald W. Parry Jan 2021

Ancient Sacred Vestments: Scriptural Symbols And Meanings, Donald W. Parry

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

In this essay Parry starts with the symbology of ritual vestments, and then discusses in detail how the ancient clothing worn in Old Testament temples are part of the rituals and religious gestures that are conducted by those who occupy the path that leads from the profane to the sacred. The profane is removed, one is ritually washed, anointed, invested with special clothing, offers sacrifices, is ordained (hands are filled), and offers incense at the altar, before entering the veil. Putting on clothes, in a Christian context, is often seen as symbol of putting on Christ, as witnessed by the …


Tamid: Zacharias And The Second Temple, Lisle G. Brown Jan 2021

Tamid: Zacharias And The Second Temple, Lisle G. Brown

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

This essay follows Zacharias’ biography from entering the priesthood till the day the angel Gabriel appeared to him in Herod’s temple. After recounting the procedures to become a priest, Brown focuses on the day when Zacharias prepared to bring one of the two central standing offerings. He points out that likely, a priest would only have a once in a lifetime chance to partake in the core of this ceremony, entering the Holy Room and burning incense on the Inner Altar. Brown paints a very visual picture of this day, immersing us in the ritual of the time, a ritual …


Toward A Supernatural Biblical Hermeneutic, Alberto I. Bonilla-Giovanetti Jan 2021

Toward A Supernatural Biblical Hermeneutic, Alberto I. Bonilla-Giovanetti

The Asbury Journal

Many people who live and learn in the west, including Christian laity and scholars, inadvertently accept a materialistic cosmology in which the material world is all that exists, with the exception of God. This perspective is contrary to how the majority of ancient and modern people view the world. This essay seeks to analyze how this materialistic worldview is seen in biblical studies, and then proposes that biblical scholars should presuppose a supernatural worldview as a key aspect of their hermeneutics.


Born Believers?, Mark Siderits Jan 2021

Born Believers?, Mark Siderits

Faculty Publications - Philosophy

A Response to Karsten Struhl’s “What Kind of an Illusion is the Illusion of Self”.


Phenomenology Of Death: The Religious Dimension In The Ethical Thought Of Emmanuel Levinas, Changhyun Kim Jan 2021

Phenomenology Of Death: The Religious Dimension In The Ethical Thought Of Emmanuel Levinas, Changhyun Kim

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores Levinas’s phenomenology of death in order to unveil the religious dimension in his ethical thought through examining the political moment of the third party. I argue that death is neither a pure phenomenon transparently intelligible in the noema-noesis structure of intentionality nor a mere non-phenomenon totally irrelevant to the phenomenological investigation. Rather, death is a para-phenomenon whose unfathomable feature calls into question Levinas’s two important philosophical precedents: 1) Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology, in a methodological sense, and 2) Heidegger’s ontological interpretation of death, in a thematical sense. On the one hand, Levinas faces in the para-phenomenality of death …


Immortality Through Mind Uploading And Resurrection, Adam M. Leis Jan 2021

Immortality Through Mind Uploading And Resurrection, Adam M. Leis

Masters Theses

Technology in the last century has flourished exponentially. Previous fantasies are becoming cutting-edge discoveries like global communications, encyclopedic knowledge at the average person’s fingertips, and even medical advances used to improve and extend one’s quality of life and life expectancy. As technology pushes the boundaries of what is possible, ambitious visionaries look to solve the arguably greatest problem known to humanity: death. Transhumanists aiming to use technology to overcome this great human limitation, mortality, present the newest proposed solutions to life’s oldest challenge. One of these solutions, mind uploading, is perhaps the most ambitious, but it is not without its …


Après Kamloops, Le Déluge: Institutional Church, Indigenous Oppression And The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Michael W. Higgins Jan 2021

Après Kamloops, Le Déluge: Institutional Church, Indigenous Oppression And The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

Editor’s Note: on May 27, 2021, it was announced that 215 unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school for Indigenous (“First Nations”) children in Kamloops, a town in the Canadian province of British Columbia. In the following weeks unmarked graves were also found at similar institutions in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and elsewhere in British Columbia. Between 1863 and 1998, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in these boarding schools, which numbered more than 130, many of them, like Kamloops, the largest, operated by Roman Catholic religious orders. Opened in 1890, …


The Benefits Of Integrating An Assistance Dog With Military Chaplain Corps Services At The 169th Fighter Wing, Mcentire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, Christina Pittman Jan 2021

The Benefits Of Integrating An Assistance Dog With Military Chaplain Corps Services At The 169th Fighter Wing, Mcentire Joint National Guard Base, South Carolina, Christina Pittman

Doctor of Ministry Projects

The ministry project is addressing the spiritual resiliency of service members in an intentional and innovative approach through the presence of an assistance dog in an active military Chaplain Corps setting; specifically, through South Carolina Air National Guard. The issue is to reach service members on a level beyond the efforts of human contact. The research shows support in positive effects or no effects of engagement with an assistance dog. The participants are service members engaging with and without Avalon, a current Assistance Dog for Ministry, with a Chaplain providing warrior care. The research data collection is a survey presented …


Working Out Salvation History In The Book Of Mormon Politeia With Fear And Trembling, Alan Goff Jan 2021

Working Out Salvation History In The Book Of Mormon Politeia With Fear And Trembling, Alan Goff

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

The Maxwell Institute for the Study of Religion has released another book in its series The Book of Mormon: Brief Theological Introductions. This book by James E. Faulconer more than ably engages five core elements of the book of Mosiah, exploring their theological implications. Faulconer puzzles through confusing passages and elements: why is the book rearranged so that it isn’t in chronological order? What might King Benjamin mean when he refers to the nothingness of humans? And what might Abinadi mean when he declares that Christ is both the Father and the Son? The most interesting parts of the introduction …


Moses 6–7 And The Book Of Giants: Remarkable Witnesses Of Enoch’S Ministry, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw Jan 2021

Moses 6–7 And The Book Of Giants: Remarkable Witnesses Of Enoch’S Ministry, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

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

The Book of Giants (BG), an Enoch text found in 1948 among the Dead Sea Scrolls, includes a priceless trove of stories about the ancient prophet and his contemporaries, including unique elements relevant to the Book of Moses Enoch account. Hugh Nibley was the first to discover in the BG a rare personal name that corresponds to the only named character in the Book of Moses besides Enoch himself, a finding that some non-Latterday Saint Enoch scholars considered significant. Since Nibley’s passing, the growth of new scholarship on ancient Enoch texts has continued unabated. While Nibley’s pioneering research compared the …


Remnant Or Replacement? Outlining A Possible Apostasy Narrative, Nicholas J. Frederick, Joseph M. Spencer Jan 2021

Remnant Or Replacement? Outlining A Possible Apostasy Narrative, Nicholas J. Frederick, Joseph M. Spencer

BYU Studies

Since early in the twentieth century, it has been common for Latter- day Saints to speak of a “Great Apostasy” that occurred in the centuries following the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Such a general apostasy has been viewed as providing the basic motivation for the Restoration, begun in earnest with Joseph Smith’s First Vision in 1820. The traditional apostasy narrative has centered on the argument that the church founded by Jesus Christ once possessed the same organization, doctrine, and authority restored in the nineteenth century but that, over time, these crucial components were either lost or corrupted. It …


“In Their Promised Canaan Stand”: Outlawry, Landscape, And Memory In C. C. A. Christensen’S Mormon Panorama, Jennifer Champoux Jan 2021

“In Their Promised Canaan Stand”: Outlawry, Landscape, And Memory In C. C. A. Christensen’S Mormon Panorama, Jennifer Champoux

BYU Studies

What do Robin Hood and Joseph Smith have in common? This article examines C. C. A. Christensen’s Mormon Panorama according to themes of outlawry in Anglo-Saxon literature, revealing insights into the nineteenth-century Latter-day Saint understanding of exile and sacred space in relation to both the landscape and to America. In Christensen’s paintings, the moral rightness of Latter-day Saints is contrasted with injustice by both government officials and local vigilantes, thereby equating outcast status with righteousness and true justice. In collating early stories of persecution and miracles, and presenting them with an aura of objective truth, the Mormon Panorama helped shape …


Lost Sheep, Lost Coins, And Lost Meanings, Jenny Rebecca Rytting Jan 2021

Lost Sheep, Lost Coins, And Lost Meanings, Jenny Rebecca Rytting

BYU Studies

Three of the best known and most loved of Jesus’s parables occur together in the fifteenth chapter of Luke as a response to the Pharisees’ disapproval of Jesus’s association with sinners: the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin (also known as the lost drachma or lost groat), and the lost (or prodigal) son. In the teaching and preaching traditions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these parables (especially the first two) have primarily been interpreted as a call for missionary work, particularly reactivation. For example, President David O. McKay suggested that the three parables represent …


Panpsychism And The First-Person Perspective: The Case For Panpsychist Idealism, Brentyn Ramm Jan 2021

Panpsychism And The First-Person Perspective: The Case For Panpsychist Idealism, Brentyn Ramm

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

In this paper I argue for a version of panpsychist idealism on first-person experiential grounds. As things always appear in my field of consciousness, there is prima facie } empirical support for idealism. Furthermore, by assuming that all things correspond to a conscious perspective or perspectives (i.e., panpsychism), realism about the world is safeguarded without the need to appeal to God (as per Berkeley's idealism). Panpsychist idealism also has a phenomenological advantage over traditional panpsychist views as it does not commit perceptual experience to massive error by denying that perceived colors are properties of things. Finally, I argue that the …


The Doctrinal Basis Of Islamic Utterances Associated With Domestic Assaults, William Andrew Arthur Gawthrop Jan 2021

The Doctrinal Basis Of Islamic Utterances Associated With Domestic Assaults, William Andrew Arthur Gawthrop

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractBetween March 1977, and February 2020, there have been 78 instances of ideologically motivated murders and attempted murders in the United States. These instances were characterized as individual-based attacks against other individuals and treated as local crime. However, in each instance, there were indications of Islamic religious overtones characterized by Islamic religious utterances made by the attackers. The overall problem addressed in this study was the lack of research on the utterances associated with religiously based autonomous self-actualization resulting in homicides and assaults: jihad applied as street crime. The key research questions are: What are the utterances associated with Islamic-based …


Isbanban Foundation Volunteers During The Covid-19pandemic: Activities & Innovation, Ariza Bima Putra, Puspitasari Puspitasari Jan 2021

Isbanban Foundation Volunteers During The Covid-19pandemic: Activities & Innovation, Ariza Bima Putra, Puspitasari Puspitasari

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

ISBANBAN is an educational driving foundation in Banten that arranges programs to achieve curriculum goals in schools through 21st Century Skill that elaborates and encourages the ability of fostered to master the skills of Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity for children aged 4 - 12 years old. Since the Covid-19 pandemic and the adoption of large-scale social restrictions and physical distancing by the government, this affected the voluntary activities carried out at Isbanban Foundation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to obtain information about the ISBANBAN volunteers activities in Banten during this covid-19 pandemic, as well as innovative …


Text Are Not Rituals And Rituals Are Not Texts, With An Example From Leviticus 12, James Watts Jan 2021

Text Are Not Rituals And Rituals Are Not Texts, With An Example From Leviticus 12, James Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

Biblical scholars have increasingly realized that textual representations of rituals do not have the same function or meaning as the ritual performances that they describe. A survey of this theoretical distinction in biblical scholarship over the last 25 years shows the impact of this realization, and also several points of resistance. The significance of the distinction between ritual text and ritual performance can be illustrated clearly in Leviticus 12, which describes the rituals required of new mothers after giving birth. The chapter mandates practices that are unique in the Bible and, possibly, novel in ancient Israel’s religious culture. However, they …


Saving Our Planet Through Faith: A Buddhist-Christian Response, Guillermo Gonzalez Jan 2021

Saving Our Planet Through Faith: A Buddhist-Christian Response, Guillermo Gonzalez

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

The main topic of this essay is how certain attributes and teachings from Christianity and Buddhism can inform us of what path we can take to combat global climate change. Although environmental work is not limited to these traditions, this paper aims to point out the teachings that help understand our role as humans as interconnected within these two traditions. One of the main points that are made for Christianity is a reinterpretation of Imago Dei which is explained in detail in the first section. In short, Imago Dei is the idea that human beings are made in the image …


How Bavinck Responds To The Challenges Of The Theory Of Evolution: The Primacy Of Biblical Revelation, Isaias D'Oleo Ochoa Jan 2021

How Bavinck Responds To The Challenges Of The Theory Of Evolution: The Primacy Of Biblical Revelation, Isaias D'Oleo Ochoa

CTS Student Publications and Creative Works

In his discussion of evolution, Bavinck offers a modified theory of development, rooted not under a mechanistic and naturalistic worldview, as Darwin does, but under a “theistic-friendly” framework. This article argues that Bavinck’s discussion of evolution as a whole endorses a modified Aristotelian/ Thomistic framework in order to understand the theory of development, and thus overcomes the challenges raised by Darwin’s naturalistic worldview to biblical revelation.


Even Rocks Are Alive: Christian Animist Disruptions Of The Species Divide, Mark I. Wallace Jan 2021

Even Rocks Are Alive: Christian Animist Disruptions Of The Species Divide, Mark I. Wallace

Religion Faculty Works

No abstract provided.


“The Plain, Old Faith”: Theological Foundations For A Scientifically Informed Constructive Doctrine Of Original Sin In The Wesleyan Tradition, Logan Patriquin Jan 2021

“The Plain, Old Faith”: Theological Foundations For A Scientifically Informed Constructive Doctrine Of Original Sin In The Wesleyan Tradition, Logan Patriquin

The Asbury Journal

How should Wesleyans integrate modern understandings of science with theological commitments to the idea of original sin? After offering some historical context for Wesley’s engagement with the doctrine of original sin, this article aims to put contemporary socio- scientific discussions. The authority of scripture is engaged in light of Wesley’s “analogy of faith” and James K. A. Smith’s “Narrative-Arc” theological method. Insights of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are then combined with Wesley’s understanding of universal human sinfulness and regenerating grace. The article explores Wesley’s holistic theological anthropology and contemporary emergence theory in their respective attempts to understand sin’s nefarious substance …


A Bitten Apple And A Bloody Key: Feminist Revisionism At The Intersection Of The Eden Myth And The Bluebeard Tale, Jacob Ford Jan 2021

A Bitten Apple And A Bloody Key: Feminist Revisionism At The Intersection Of The Eden Myth And The Bluebeard Tale, Jacob Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the feminist revisionism of the Bluebeard fairy tale through a focus on its relationship with the Eden myth. Past studies have examined the remarkable feminism of Bluebeardian literature and history, but this thesis is the first to interrogate the tale’s evolution from and alongside the Eden myth and to argue that the Bluebeard tale’s feminism is exceptional because of its ties to the Eden myth. I argue that the evolution of the intersecting revisionism of the Eden myth and the Bluebeard tale is characterized by the changing morals of the two myths—morals that, depending on the author’s …