Digital Commons Network^™

Recognition Assembly, Jiří Moskala

Seminary Scholarship Symposium

Highlighted Projects

Denis Fortin One in Christ: Biblical Concepts for a Doctrine of Church Unity

Denis Fortin, Abner F. Hernández, and Davide Sciarabba, eds. ¿Por qué creemos en E. G. White y el don profético?: Una perspectiva histórica y bíblica

Denis Fortin and Jerry Moon, eds. Enciclopédia Ellen G. White

Richard M. Davidson and Edgard A. Horna, eds. “Me invocarás, y yo te responderé”: Estudios selectos en el Salterio

Ranko Stefanovic The Book of Revelation

Bruce L. Bauer, ed. Finding Freedom in Jesus: A Deliverance Ministry Manual

Gorden R. Doss Introduction to Adventist Mission

Joseph Kidder Out of Babylon

Joseph …

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 2. Radio Sermons 1948-1960, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 20 sermons Cummings delivered between 1948 and 1960. Most were broadcast on WMON, a radio station in Montgomery, WV; one, a “Pre-Christmas Sermon,” was done for the “chapel” of WSAZ, a TV station with studios in Huntington and Charleston. Other topics include self-examination, “falling and rising,” “trusting in God,” and “the importance of the home and the family.”

Series Ii(B). Radio Sermons. Folder 1. Radio Sermons, 1929-1941, Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons Cummings delivered on the radio between 1933 and 1941. One indicates that it was given on Cincinnati-based WLW; the station is not identified on the others. Topics come mostly from the New Testament and include the early church, the Apostle Paul, and the second coming of Christ.

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 9. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains a song/hymn entitled “A Sacrifice of Praise” and typescripts of approximately 15 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Titles and text include “An All Night Wrestling Match” (Genesis 32:29), “Bartimaeus” (Luke 18:35-38), “The Laziest Man in this Community” (Proverbs 12:27), and “The Living Past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 7. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. All are undated, but one—“The Hand of God in History”—is labeled an “Armistice Address.” Titles and texts of the others include “All Things Work Together for Good” (Romans 8:28), “Christ’s Charge to the Women of Jerusalem” (Luke 23:28), “Finding God” (Psalm 42:3), and “A Funeral Discourse for a Child” (Isaiah 49:21).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 6. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons. Titles and scripture texts include “Backsliding”(Luke 22:31-32), “Building Skyward” (Hebrews 8:5), “The Signs of the Times” (2 Timothy 3:1-6), and “The Span of Life” (Psalm 90:10).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 5. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts of approximately 10 sermons, some of which appear to be unfinished and/or have handwritten notes on them. Some, such as “the father” and “the ideal husband,” appear to be duplicated in other folders; those unique to this folder include sermons on Moses, heaven, and the Christmas season.

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 3. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and handwritten notes for approximately 10 sermons. Titles and texts include “It is Not Good that Man should be Alone” (Gen. 2:18), “A New Commandment I Give unto You” (John 13:34), and a “Commencement Sermon” and “A New Year’s Message” (no texts specified).

Series Ii(A). Sermons. Folder 2. Sermons, N.D., Melville Homer Cummings

Cummings, Melville Homer, 1890-1978

This folder contains typescripts and handwritten notes for approximately 10 sermons. The texts come from both the Old and New Testaments; titles include “How to Get Saved,” “The Blessing of Suffering,” “The Home,” and “After that the Judgment.”

Faith-Based Service In Los Angeles: An Ethnographic Approach To The Comparative Theology Of Sikhism And Catholicism, Harman Brah

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

No abstract provided.

Paper: Beware The Cat In The Hat: How Children’S Literature Is A Reflection Of A Bleak Society, Lucy Kebler

Womanist Ethics

Children’s literature is full of messages that are relayed to children. Unfortunately, many of these messages are involve cultural appropriation. Others involve harmful interpretations of sexuality, consent, and identity. This essay explores why classics such as Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, and Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie. All these books present different problematic material, which must not only be revaluated based on content, but also on the way it is taught and relayed to children. Along with the books listed above, this essay also looks …

Children's Faith Formation As Mutually Transforming Opportunity: Leading Systemic Change, Robin Michelle Turner

Doctor of Ministry

Training congregational leaders in the theological foundations and practical resources of children’s spiritual formation helps them lead congregations to value and nurture the entire communities’ spiritual formation.

An exploration of the role and nature of children from both biblical and theological perspectives reveals they are welcomed and valued members of the faith community and the Kingdom of God. Attempts to welcome and value children in faith communities have focused on their acquisition of religious knowledge rather than their holistic formation. Learning to value their presence, worship, and holistic formation in community requires a shift in vision and methodology.

Children’s sense …

Using Comedy To Build Community In Local Churches: How Laughing Together Can Bring People Together, Jason T. Deuman

Doctor of Ministry

Comedy is present in some form in every culture. Understanding humor theories and the effects of comedy on individuals and groups can help local churches foster community in their congregation as well as build bridges for non-congregants to join the community. Developing healthy community through comedy is one of the ways that church leaders can counter the isolation and disconnection occurring in American culture. This project examines humor in the Bible in order to help pastors teach on the value of humor. Church leaders have embraced and rejected humor throughout history. Understanding the various ways comedy has been used in …

My Daily Labor To Pursue: A Wesleyan Perspective On The Integration Of Faith And Work, Jason Wellman

Doctor of Ministry

Work is a central part of being human. Yet, in the Church, few discuss how one’s faith impacts his/her work. Laity struggle with discerning how their faith should be integrated with their career. While this is a problem in many churches and denominations, it is prevalent in churches from the Wesleyan theological tradition. This dissertation lays the groundwork for developing a Wesleyan perspective on the integration of faith and work.

Chapter one addresses the problem many experience in the Wesleyan tradition to find any substantive literature that provides a uniquely Wesleyan perspective on work and faith. This chapter looks at …

“In The Beginning Was Body Language” Clowning And Krump As Spiritual Healing And Resistance, Sarah S. Ohmer

Publications and Research

In the neighborhood of HollyWatts in Los Angeles, dance allows a shift from existing as bodies presented as sites of threat and extinction to sources of spiritual empowerment. Clowning and Krump dancers—their subjectivity and their dancing bodies—negotiate survival from trauma and socioeconomic marginalization. I argue that the dancers’ performances act as embodied narratives of “re-membering in the flesh.” The performance acts as a spiritual retrieval and re-integration of traumatic memories and afflictions into memory through the body. Choreography and quotes from dancers support the claim that Krump and Clowning is “re-membering in the flesh” that enacts self-worth, self-defined sexuality, and …

Forming Anglican Wayfinders In Aotearoa: A Contextual Approach To Ministerial Preparation, Karen Kemp

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation begins with a Church in crisis and a story of vocation under pressure. It identifies the need for clergy who are resilient and adaptive in the face of change.

Using the four phases of Appreciative Inquiry, Sections Two through Six build a picture of what New Zealand Anglican leaders need today.1

Discover: Section Two surveys bright spots in ministerial education, and exegetes the Rule of Benedict using a leadership lens.

Dream: Section Three identifies key challenges, evaluates emerging models of leadership, and proposes a fresh approach to training.

Design and Destiny phases (Sections Four through Six) present the …

Building Long-Term Cross-Cultural Partnerships Through Short-Term Missions : From The Case Of Dangsandong Church In Korea And Sarmaya Fellowship In Sri Lanka, Hyeon Gu Lee

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Mythology, Morality, And The Messiah: How Natural Moral Law And Hero Myth Entail That Jesus Christ Is The Best Possible Hero, Matthew J. Coombe

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Essentially this dissertation is an abductive argument for Jesus Christ being the best possible hero. The abductive argument is concerned with the synthesis of several different disciplines: natural theology, general revelation, ethics, natural law (meta-ethics), literary criticism, Biblical criticism, and mythology. When synthesized the most reasonable conclusion for the data is that Jesus Christ is the best possible hero. All of the disciplines work together: Natural theology establishes the axiological basis for moral realism and moral knowledge. General revelation acts as a universal imprinter, which not only imbeds man with moral knowledge, but also with inherent notions of heroism—heroism and …

Empowering Christian Widows For Social Change In Northern Nigeria, Sung Bauta

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Apophatic Community: Yannaras On Relational Being, Fred Dallmayr

Comparative Philosophy

For Martin Heidegger the story of Western philosophy ended basically in egocentrism or the metaphysics of “subjectivity”; however, he acknowledged the possibility of another path in Greece: that of pre-Socratic thinking. Yet, there is a further path he did not acknowledge: the tradition of Orthodox philosophy and theology. The paper focuses on some key works of the prominent contemporary Greek philosopher Christos Yannaras, for a long time professor in Athens. Taking over the notions of “Being” and ontology, Yannaras construes them (with Heidegger) not as ontic “substances” amenable to epistemic knowledge, but as guideposts to “relational” or participatory experience. His …

Jonah 4:1-11: The Love Of God For All People And Creatures, Calvin Institute Of Christian Worship, Meg Janista Kuykendall, Calvin College Worship Apprentices

Symposium on Worship Archive

Led by Calvin College Worship Apprentices; Meg Jenista Kuykendall, preaching

The Agricultural Deities Of Q ’Eqchi’ Mayas, Tzuultaq’As: Agricultural Rituals As Historical Obligation And Avatar Of The Cultural Reservoir In Rural Lanquín , Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, Yishan Lea

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Education and Professional Studies

This study, based on fieldwork in rural Lanquín, Guatemala, discusses cultural continuity and the sense of historicity through agricultural rituals and worship of the agricultural deity Tzuultaq’as. The place, Lanquín, and the Q’eqchi’ Maya peasant farmers are situated within a two-fold tension and contradiction. Geographically remote in relation to the economic centers in Guatemala, and marginal in infrastructural development, while their cash crop harvests never fail to be effected by the fluctuations of the global market. From the eclectic stance merging both theories of cultural essentialism and constructivism, by juxtaposing the emblematic event of the anti-Monsanto Law movement in 2014 …

“The Cloud Of Unseeing”: Myths Transformed And Pseudo-Scientific Interpretations Of The Book Of Genesis, Kristine Larsen

Journal of Tolkien Research

This paper, delivered at the Tolkien Seminar (Kalamazoo, MI) on May 9, 2018, traces the potential influence of popular late 19th-century Biblical commentaries on the Book of Genesis on Tolkien's post Lord Of the Rings cosmologies, in particular the problem of the creation of the Sun and Moon.

Catholic Deaf Community Newsletter, December 29, 2018

Catholic Deaf Community Newsletter

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Portland, OR

Catholic Deaf Community Newsletter Finding Aid

My Name Is Shepherd Jesus: 50 Daily Devotions, Elmer L. Towns

Books

No abstract provided.

Sexual Consent As Transcendence: A Phenomenological Understanding, Mark A. Levand, Nicolle Zapien

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Consent to sex is a topic of much research, particularly with the goal of optimizing sex education for youth, college students, and military service personnel. Sex educators have tended to err on the side of clear and concise definitions of consent for ease of instruction. However, the sexual science literature has steadily shown that the navigation of consent to sexuality activity is much more nuanced, situated and contextual. When consent is conceptualized as a yes or no answer to particular sexual acts or sexual activity altogether, it overlooks the dynamic nature of how people experience consenting. This article examines consent …

Sexual Ecstasy Scale: Conceptualizations And Measurement, John Elfers, Reid Offringa

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This article describes the development of the Sexual Ecstasy Scale, an instrument designed to measure the specific features that emerge when sexual arousal is the trigger for an ecstatic experience. Drawing from descriptions of features of sexual ecstasy in the phenomenological literature, the authors generated an initial survey of 31 items. In Study 1, the survey was completed by a wide demographic sample (N = 331). Exploratory factor analysis revealed a 4-factor solution that was replicated in Study 2 using confirmatory factor analysis with an independent sample (N = 331) that showed strong fit indices. Internal consistency for the overall …

Sexuality, Esoteric Energies, And The Subtleties Of Transmutation Versus Transformation, Barnaby B. Barratt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Transpersonal perspectives on the meaningfulness of being human, and especially the significance of subtle energy teachings, necessitate a rethinking of the notion of sexuality, beyond definitions in terms of sex acts, biological endowments, or perhaps even the complex fantasia of desire. This redefining of the erotic dimension of human life leads both to appreciation of healing as inherently sexual and to understanding how the processes of transmutation by the forces of subtle energies profoundly differ from the transformations that representation of thoughts, feelings, and wishes may undergo. Cognitive access (including that of reflective selfconsciousness) to these forces is inevitably limited …

The Path To Enlightenment Of Sacred Married Home Life: Grihasthya Dharma As A Guiding Ideal For The Transpersonal Marriage Therapist, Stuart Sovatsky

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This paper attempts to correct the unwitting reliance of much transpersonal psychology upon Indian texts that were indigenously specific to sannyasins (nonhouseholder, monastics). This includes teachings from advaita vedanta, yoga, and many Buddhist schools on releasement from desire, the diminishing role of the ego, guardedness toward “the mellow-drama” of “worldly” life (as Ram Dass famously cast relational involvements). Some forty years of the unwitting over-application of such teachings to modern non-monastic lives has helped create an artificial split in transpersonal and East-West spirituality teachings involving “engaged/ embodied” and implied “un-engaged/un-embodied” spiritual paths. This article describes the value system and lifelong …

From Romantic Jealousy To Sympathetic Joy: Monogamy, Polyamory, And Beyond, Jorge N. Ferrer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This paper explores how the extension of contemplative qualities to intimate relationships can transform human sexual/emotional responses and relationship choices. The paper reviews contemporary findings from the field of evolutionary psychology on the twin origins of jealousy and monogamy, argues for the possibility to transform jealousy into sympathetic joy (or compersion), addresses the common objections against polyamory (or nonmonogamy), and challenges the culturally prevalent belief that the only spiritually correct sexual options are either celibacy or (lifelong or serial) monogamy. To conclude, it is suggested that the cultivation of sympathetic joy in intimate bonds can pave the way to overcome …