Digital Commons Network^™

Being “In The World” But “Not Of The World”: A Reflection On John 17:14–18, Boubakar Sanou

Andrews University Seminary Student Journal

No abstract provided.

For The Wild: Ritual And Commitment In Radical Eco-Activism By Sarah M. Pike, Alda Balthrop-Lewis

The Goose

Review of Sarah M. Pike's For the Wild: Ritual and Commitment in Radical Eco-Activism

The Lord's Prayer: A Study In Christian Theology, Kerry Irish

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

Introduction: "It is a sad truth, though not surprising, that Christians with little understanding of their Christian faith often have great difficulty maintaining their faith. It is equally true that the last kind of sermon most Christians want to hear is one full of theology; that is, they do not to want to develop a deeper understanding of Christianity. This is a recipe for a crisis of belief that often leads to giving up one's faith, especially when a personal tragedy occurs such as the loss of a loved one, loss of a job, loss of financial security, disappointment with …

Marta, Marta, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Marta is a member of the support community for Central American refugees arriving in the southwest US. In this interview, Marta shares her own story of crossing the border at a young age with her daughter and her life in the US. Marta was self-employed for many years and later went on to serve in the US Army in Iraq. For the last 9 months, she and her husband Israel and son Josue have worked tirelessly to help make sure the current refugees arriving are cared for after they are released from detention centers and begin their lives in the …

Overcoming Barriers: Helping Navy Chaplains Understand The Need And Implementation Of Self-Care, Carl Muehler

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Muehler, Carl B. “Overcoming Barriers: Helping Navy Chaplains Understand the Need and Implementation of Self-care.” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2019. 115 pp.

The Navy Chaplain serves with Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard personnel throughout the world and often in challenging environments including at sea and combat operations. The Navy Chaplain is unique because the chaplain has complete confidentiality and may be the only caregiver with a deployed unit, which can take its toll on the chaplain. Self-care is critical for the chaplain on a personal level and to maintain effectiveness in the support to the personnel …

Deaf Southern Star, June 2019

Deaf Southern Star

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in New Zealand

Deaf Southern Star Finding Aid

So That It Might Become Clear: The Methods And Purposes Of Narrative Abridgement In Early Modern Jain Purāṇic Composition, Gregory M. Clines

Religion Faculty Research

Scholars have long known that Jain authors from the early centuries of the common era composed their own versions of the story of Rāma, prince of Ayodhyā. Further, the differences between Jain and Brahminical versions of the narrative are well documented. Less studied are later versions of Jain Rāma narratives, particularly those composed during the early modern period. This paper examines one such version of the Rāma story, the fifteenth-century Sanskrit Padmapurāṇa by the Digambara author Brahma Jinadāsa. The paper compares Jinadāsa’s work with an earlier text, the seventh-century Sanskrit Padmapurāṇa, authored by Raviṣeṇa, as Jinadāsa explains that he …

So You Are Thinking About Reading Moby-Dick..., Joshua Matthews

Pro Rege

Editor’s Note: In May 2017, fourteen Dordt College (now University) professors, co-led by Dr. Josh Matthews and Dr. Walker Cosgrove, gathered for three hours a day to talk about Moby-Dick. These professors came from the disciplines of theology, literature, law, chemistry, biology, history, and psychology. This was the second of the annual “Great Texts” seminar that we hold during the summers, which are week-long discussions of important and influential books. This post introduces a series on Moby-Dick that developed from that seminar.

A Correlation And Causal-Comparative Study Of The Worldview Of K-12 California Christian Educators, Mariellen True

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Christian schools identify developing a Christian worldview in students as an important component of the school’s mission. Many influences affect student achievement. The teacher is one of those influences. At a Christian school, it is reasonable to expect that educators possess a Christian worldview. This study sought to examine the Christian worldview of K-12 Christian educators from ACSI member Christian schools in California. Participants took the Three-Dimensional Worldview Survey (3DWS) and the Worldview Measurement Project Survey (WMPS). Christian educators participated in this study voluntarily and anonymously. The survey results were analyzed to determine if the 3DWS correlated to the WMPS …

Newsletter Catholic Deaf Of Detroit, June 2019

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Detroit, MI

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit Finding Aid

Becoming Animal: Karma And The Animal Realm Envisioned Through An Early Yogacara Lens, Daniel Malinowski Stuart

Faculty Publications

In an early discourse from the Saṃyuttanikāya, the Buddha states: “I do not see any other order of living beings so diversified as those in the animal realm. Even those beings in the animal realm have been diversified by the mind, yet the mind is even more diverse than those beings in the animal realm.” This paper explores how this key early Buddhist idea gets elaborated in various layers of Buddhist discourse during a millennium of historical development. I focus in particular on a middle period Buddhist sūtra, the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra, which serves as a bridge between early Buddhist theories of …

Erotic Devotional Poetry: Resisting Neoplatonism In Protestant Christianity, Sarah M. Pruis

Honors Projects

A genre best known for its appearance in Eastern religions, erotic devotional poetry uses sensual imagery to access an experience of the divine. Historically, many Christian traditions, excluding the mystical ones, have pushed back against such literature, seeing it as an impure model that degrades divinity by association with the physical, especially in the specific physical ritual of sex. This stance is a hallmark of Protestant Christianity. The idea of a dichotomy and hierarchy between soul and body, though, comes not from theology but from the introduction theologians made between Western philosophy, particularly Platonic Dualism, and Christianity, which was then …

The Nature And Operation Of Structural Sin: Additional Insights From Theology And Moral Psychology, Conor M. Kelly

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Recent work has improved the understanding of social structures in theological discourse, but ambiguity persists with respect to structures of sin. Here, a revised definition of structural sin reconnects this concept with its theological roots, adding clarity to the nature of structural sin and strengthening the moral weight of the term. Parallels with fMRI research in the field of moral psychology then refine the existing account of the operation of structural sin. Together, these insights aid in the identification of structures of sin and improve efforts to combat their influence.

Texas Indian Holocaust And Survival: Mcallen Grace Brethren Church V. Salazar, Milo Colton

The Scholar: St. Mary's Law Review on Race and Social Justice

When the first Europeans entered the land that would one day be called Texas, they found a place that contained more Indian tribes than any other would-be American state at the time. At the turn of the twentieth century, the federal government documented that American Indians in Texas were nearly extinct, decreasing in number from 708 people in 1890 to 470 in 1900. A century later, the U.S. census recorded an explosion in the American Indian population living in Texas at 215,599 people. By 2010, that population jumped to 315,264 people.

Part One of this Article chronicles the forces contributing …

Where Is God In Symbolic Exchange? A Theo-Semiological Analysis Of The Sons Of Anarchy, Alex Justin Holguin

Masters Theses

This thesis attempts to uncover the religious nature of communication by re-visioning and situating French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan’s theory of communication within a Christian theological context. By critically engaging Lacan’s theoretical concepts of the Imaginary, the Symbolic, and the Real within this context, the thesis is able to access the intersection of rhetorical semiotics, psychoanalysis, and Christian theology to have a more fruitful understanding of how meaning is exchanged between subjects. Lacan’s inter-disciplinary affirmation of rhetoric and psychoanalysis has been able to produce incredible explanatory potential for how meaning, as the bedrock of speech and communication, operates through the psyche …

Overview, Significance, And Outcomes: Using Guidelines For Interacting With Faith-Based Leaders And Communities, Jame Schaefer

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Damned Neighbors Problem Rousseau’S Civil Religion Revisited, Micah Watson

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

Near the conclusion of The Social Contract, Jean-Jacques Rousseau starkly proclaims that no state has been founded without a religious basis, and thus if he is right, every political community must grapple with the tension between the conflicting claims of the divine and the mundane. Because Christianity cannot solve this tension, Rousseau calls for a new religion, a civil religion. Whereas most of the academic treatment of civil religion follows various paths beginning with Robert Bellah’s original 1967 article, this essay explores more deeply the contours of Rousseau’s original articulation of the problem to which civil religion is his proposed …

La Lucha For Home And La Lucha As Home: Latinx/A/O Theologies And Ecologies, Jacqueline Hidalgo

Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology

No abstract provided.

A View From The City: Creation, Recreation, Y La Nueva Creación, Carmen Nanko-Fernández

Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology

No abstract provided.

God’S Story, Our Story Telling, Re-Telling And Re-Storying, Kara Carter

Consensus

No abstract provided.

Social Media And Othering: Philosophy, Algorithms, And The Essence Of Being Human, Mark Ehlebracht

Consensus

No abstract provided.

Dear God, Stephanie Blyth

Consensus

No abstract provided.

The Last Temptation Of Christ – A Film Essay, Nathaniel Khaleel

Consensus

No abstract provided.

Easter 5 Series C 2019, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Series C and offers ideas for proclamation and preaching.

A Revised Land Ethic: Sustainable And Spiritual Agriculture, Brooke Maitlan Parrett

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper proposes a return to the land and reconnection of spiritual practices through ethical teachings. Such a land ethic would involve answering the woes of industrial agriculture and providing a framework for farmers, consumers, and policymakers based on sustainable and spiritual considerations of the land. I analyze the loss of spiritual literacy and traditional ecological knowledge in the United States and discuss the spiritual history of agriculture in order to analyze contemporary religious perspectives on farming and agricultural ethics and thereby develop my own recommendations. The land ethic I propose combines sustainability and spirituality to develop intrinsic respect for …

Navigating Chinese Culture And Politics: The Destinies Of Companies In China, Vicki Chen

Master's Projects and Capstones

It is generally accepted that the colossal Chinese market offers great opportunities for dynamic entrepreneurial businesses, as well as individuals, but it also means that there are more potential obstacles to be aware of and to overcome than in smaller countries. This study will show how successful businesses in the Chinese market are directly influenced by China’s unique culture, religious beliefs, codes of behavior and political policies. It will also show ignorance or unawareness of these influences can lead to a loss of business or even total failure.

Indeed, a lack of understanding of these influences has been the downfall …

Traversing Mass Tragedies: Material Religion Between The 9/11 And Newtown Memorials, Kate Deconinck

Journal of Global Catholicism

In keeping with recent anthropologists and scholars of religion who are re-imagining the phenomenon of pilgrimage as including more than just journeys to traditional “religious” sites, this article focuses on visitation to multiple sites of remembrance associated with mass tragedies. At the same time, my interest lies not only in the human actors who move between different memory sites, but also in the things that journey alongside or independent of them. In this article, I trace the movement of one particular object—an angel statue—that was initially created to memorialize individuals killed in the September 11 attacks and was later gifted …

In Pursuit Of Healing And Memories: Cross-Border Ukrainian Pilgrimage To A Polish Shrine, Iuliia Buyskykh

Journal of Global Catholicism

I present an analysis of Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic and Orthodox pilgrimages to Kalwaria Pacławska in south-east Poland near the Polish-Ukrainian border. Before World War II, there were two pilgrimage sites in Kalwaria Pacławska, one Roman Catholic and the other Greek Catholic. Today, Ukrainian pilgrimage is quite a diverse phenomenon, consisting of people of both Ukrainian and Polish origin, and the three Christian denominations. The approach to pilgrimage as a palimpsest can broaden the research perspective of mobile religiosities and reconsider the interactions between religious motivations, sacred sites, memories, experiences, and storytelling through space and time. In my research case, …

"This Is A Glimpse Of Paradise": Encountering Lourdes Through Serial And Multisited Pilgrimage, Michael Agnew

Journal of Global Catholicism

Based on fieldwork conducted with pilgrims traveling from England to the Marian apparition shrine of Lourdes, this article will focus on the experience of serial pilgrims, those who have made the journey to Lourdes repeatedly for several years. Serial pilgrimages to Lourdes are often a family affair, spanning multiple generations, and become compulsive for those who undertake them. Yet the stories of several Lourdes pilgrims reveal that they do not feel this compulsive need to go to Lourdes alone. Many frequently navigate the European circuit of Marian pilgrimage shrines, including Walsingham in England, Knock in Ireland, Fatima in Portugal, and …

Theology Of Arcavatara And The Eucharist: A Comparative Study, James Adeoye

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The diversity in the world today is undeniable and quite imposing. The claim to uniqueness and universality of faith in each religious system cannot be sustained without factoring the implications and impacts of this claim on the well-being of humanity and reality hermeneutics. The postmodern world favors pluralism and encourages mutual respect for particular opinion, praxis, faith, theology and all forms of epistemology as they exist in the individual culture, religion and society. With this in mind, this work is a comparative analysis of the notion of avatars in Vaishnavism, a religious sect in Hinduism and the concept of the …