Digital Commons Network^™

1875 Minutes Of The Fifty-Fifth Session Of The Kentucky Annual Conference Of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Minutes of the Kentucky Annual Conference

No abstract provided.

Unveiling The Face: The Heavenly Counterpart Traditions In Joseph And Aseneth, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Relearning Professionalism: From High School Teacher To University Professor, Molly Quick

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

In this narrative response to stories from the field, the author chronicles her transition from high school teacher to university professor. The transition was marked by a dissonance about what it means to be a professional in each setting. The author shares several lessons learned about the autonomy in higher education, which was at first daunting, and later a relief in her new environment.

Innovation And The Local Congregation: Unleashing The Creative Power Of Communities Of Faith, Dan S. Poffenberger

Doctor of Ministry

Pastors search for ways to help their communities of faith live into their ministry with more impact, creativity and joy. Many are frustrated by the root bound nature of most congregations tightly organized in a hierarchy that limits the ability to be nimble and contextual. At the same time, culture is becoming more participatory, collaborative and creative. Thriving organizations have tapped into this culture by designing their structure to foster innovation. This work offers an examination of such organizations, their leaders and the tools they use.

Chapter One discusses the cultural shifts of connectedness and participation. These shifts have happened …

Bible As Interface, Michael Paul Hemenway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The book is undergoing a major technological transition as print wanes in its dominance and the internet and mobile devices transform our reading and writing technologies. With the entangled histories of bible and book, our emerging technological age and its transformation of the materiality of bible forces us to engage bible as something irreducible to a book. The connections between the major technological transition from roll to codex in antiquity and the contemporary move toward the internet and mobile technologies as reading platforms encourage us to consider bible as an interface that affords high surface area, collaboration, and anarchy. Building …

Death As Sleep: The (Mis)Use Of A Biblical Metaphor, William Paroschi

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"The SDA view on what happens at death has been sometimes misunderstood; first, because the way we ourselves have occasionally used the sleep metaphor to describe death and, second, as a result of the dualistic connotation traditionally associated with soul-sleep. It could be argued that this comes from a reading of Adventist literature unmindful of the larger context of biblical anthropology in which these statements are made. This, however, is no excuse for not making every effort to express our understanding of the subject as clearly and completely as possible. Sleep is not a description of the nature of death. …

Ellen White, Health, And The Third Angel’S Message: Part 1–Improving Health Through Reducing Transmissible Diseases, Warren A. Shipton

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"A systematic approach to Ellen White’s statements on health, particularly in the physical realm, has shown that her words need not be misunderstood and are as sound today as when they were given. She conveyed a profound sense of reverence for God’s word and His instructions on health. Her statements were meant to amplify the principles contained in the Scriptures. I could find no evidence of deficiency in either source. The claim that modern science has discounted her views on such things as leprosy114 is inaccurate. White was more aware of things happening in her day than some modern-day writers …

The Legacy Of Inanna, Michael Orellana

Papers

No abstract provided.

Week 5: Miriam, Calvin University

Campus Ministries Resources

No abstract provided.

Developing A Vision And Strategy For Multicultural Ministry: Woodburn Community Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Eduard Daniel Ciobanu

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The City of Woodburn, OR is home to a population of 24,223. Over half of the residents are Hispanic, while 1/4 to 1/3 are Russian Orthodox Old Believers. Adding to its diversity, 35.4% of the total population of Woodburn is foreign born. Started as a church plant 30 years ago, the mostly White, non-Hispanic Woodburn Community Seventh-day Adventist Church has traditionally kept a membership of around a 100, with a current membership of 101 and an average attendance of 38 in 2011. Despite an ideal, central location in town, an ability to embrace and support new members and attendees, …

A Marriage Preparation Program In The South Central Ghana Conference Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Francis Tuffour

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Similar to many other places in the world, the divorce rate in Ghana is on the rise. Certain media reports in Ghana have attributed the spate of marriage breakdown to a lack of marriage preparation. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Central Ghana Conference is confronted by a plethora of marital problems. Many couples schedule their wedding dates and then simply inform their pastors, whereas others adopt the traditional or customary marriage without telling the church. The short notice couples give to pastors and the church makes it difficult for adequate marriage preparation to take place. No official …

Training Volunteer And Non-Professional Health Educators In The Context Of The Milwaukee Seventh-Day Adventist Community, Glenn Cassimy

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Sharon SDA Church is a prominent faith based organization (FBO) in the Milwaukee district. Like many other churches in the community, the Sharon SDA Church continually seeks to adopt innovative strategies to assist in improving the health status of their congregants. Although the Sharon SDA Church and various faith-based organizations implement health program initiatives as a part of their mission, at the end of any program effort, there is still the need for ongoing member support to assist congregants in fully achieving the goals they set during their health initiative. This study, therefore, is an attempt to provide …

Expanding The Ecclesiastes Worship Center In Sacramento, California By Using A Documentray Of The Russian Reform Movement, Udo Sokolovsky

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

During the last decades of the twentieth century, the Greater Sacramento area of California became one of the largest Russian-speaking communities in the United States. According to Russian American Media, there are approximately 300,000 Russian-speaking residents. Many of them came to America as victims of religious persecution. However, today only about 30,000—just 10% of the total number of immigrants—are active members in different Christian churches. One reason for this is that the Russian Orthodox Church is trying to intensify its impact on Russian immigrants by linking all that is Russian with Orthodoxy. As a result, many Russian immigrants do …

Training The Members Of The Hacienda Heights Seventh-Day Adventist Church To Create Missional Communities, Brett Poynter

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

A 2011 analysis of the Hacienda Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church revealed it had poor missional health in it, was not outreach focused, small group oriented, or a discipling community. This attributed to plateaued church growth with a congregation consisting largely of boomers and a significantly low percentage of GenX’ers and millennials.

Method

An intervention to train the members of the Hacienda Heights church to create missional communities was developed and applied as a means to improve the church’s missional health and growth. The intervention was developed by studying missional church literature and assessing the church and community. The resulting …

Today's Challenges To Religious Liberty In Historical Perspective, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

From the Introduction

Many people say that religious liberty in our country is now under attack more than ever before. That's true as far as it goes, and in what follows I shall supply some reasons why I think so. But the chief aim of this Article is not to try to establish that religious liberty is in its most parlous state ever, as if some common threat-level metric is higher today than it was, say, a hundred or fifty years ago. As a matter of fact, Mormons and Native Americans in the late-nineteenth century faced government actions more hostile …

The Normative Approach Of The Catholic Tradition In The Ethical And Religious Directives For Resolving Ethical Dilemmas Regarding Medical Technology, David G. Garvis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation engages the Catholic Tradition enunciated in the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services to provide a normative approach for resolving ethical dilemmas regarding pivotal breakthroughs in medical technology.

This normative ethical approach has two components: a normative framework for Catholic health care ethics that adopts practical ethical principles as enunciated in the Ethical and Religious Directives (Chapter 2) and secular decision-making models in organizational and clinical ethics that are consistent with the Catholic Tradition (Chapter 3).

At the end of the theoretical analysis in these chapters, the conclusion to Chapter 3 explains how this normative …

Sin And Its Place In The Experience Of Suffering: Presenting The Basis For A Sound Theodicy, Roman Wiens

Master's Theses

Topic

One of the most significant issues in theism is the obvious existence of evil and suffering. Thus many philosophers (especially Atheists) propose this fact alone negates the existence of an all-loving, omnipotent, and caring God. This attacks both the integrity of God and the coherence of the scriptural accounts. In response, theologians around the world proposed theodicies to show that the existence of a God, as portrayed in the Bible, is coherent with suffering in this world.

Purpose

The different approaches to this problem are categorized in four categories, outlined, and evaluated in one chapter about the most noteworthy …

A Singular Israel In A Pluralistic World, Bill T. Arnold

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Theories Of The Self, Race, And Essentialization In Buddhism In The United States During The “Yellow Peril,” 1899-1957, Ryan Anningson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation is an intellectual history tracing developing notions of the Self in Buddhism through Buddhist publications during the years from 1899-1957. I define this time period as the Era of the Yellow Peril, due to common views in the United States of an Asian “other” which formed a larger clash of civilizations globally. 1899-1957 was marked by pessimism and dread due to two World Wars and the Great Depression, while popular and academic cultures argued for the validity of race sciences, and the application of these “sciences” through eugenics. Buddhism in the United States was created through a global …

Servant Leadership: What Makes It An Effective Leadership Model., Janice Poland Tanno

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Servant leadership (SL), a universal, ethical leadership style, consistently produces high performance and employee engagement. For the last two decades, lack of business ethics in decision making by senior leaders has resulted in many negative outcomes, such as the WorldCom scandal. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to identify and report the lived experiences of senior leaders in relation to decision making in SL organizations in the southwestern United States. The study's theoretical/conceptual foundations encompassed Maslow's motivation theories, decision theory, spirituality, spiritual intelligence, Cicero's virtue theory of ethics, and Greenleaf's SL. Data collection involved the use of semistructured …

From The Garden Of Eden To The New Creation In Christ : A Theological Investigation Into The Significance And Function Of The Old Testament Imagery Of Eden Within The New Testament, James Cregan

Theses

The thesis is intended as an analytical and critical introduction to a developing theology of Eden. It compares a range of Old Testament understandings pertaining to the imagery of the Garden of Eden, as the basis for a study of the appropriation, integration and transformation of Edenic imagery in the New Testament. It does so in the context of Christian theology which, for a variety reasons, has been generally subdued, if not ambivalent, in articulating the relationship between the imagery of Eden and the representation of the New Creation in Christ. The purpose of the thesis, then, is not just …

St. John Publishing Business Plan, Nicholas Leo

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Buddha, Bhakti, And Brahman: Sebastian Kappen S.J.’S Dialogue With Indian Religions, Mathew Thekkemuriyil Antony, Idesbald Goddeeris

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This article analyzes how Sebastian Kappen S.J. (1924-1993), a social thinker and one of the most radical Indian liberation theologians, related to Indian religions. It argues that Kappen, in spite of his criticism of the caste system, also found inspiration in Hinduism. He especially appreciated the ontic and cosmic understandings of transcendence and immanence, the inclusive interpretation of the divine, and the religious approach to nature. In addition, Kappen also valued other Asian religious traditions, such as Buddhism and the Bhakti movement. Being an anti-institutional and anti-hierarchical progressive theologian, Kappen used Indian religions as a challenge to his own Christian …

Cultural Interactions And Religious Iconography In 16th Century Kerala: The Mural Paintings Of St. Mary’S Church In Angamaly, Patrizia Granziera

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

St. Mary's Jacobite Syrian Church is an ancient church in Angamaly (Kerala). One account has Syrian Christians arriving in Angamaly in 384 CE and the church being established in 409 CE. Syrian Christians are the earliest Christian community of India, and they attribute their origin to the evangelical efforts of the apostle Saint Thomas who is believed to have travelled through the Malabar country in 52 CE evangelizing and building churches. It was when he moved east that he is supposed to have met his death and (martyrdom) at Mylapore near Madras.

Book Review: Caste, Gender, And Christianity In Colonial India: Telugu Women In Mission, Kerry P. C. San Chirico

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Caste, Gender, and Christianity in Colonial India: Telugu Women in Mission. By James Elisha Taneti. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 203 pages.

Kingship, Democracy, And The Message Of The Book Of Mormon, Gregory Steven Dundas

BYU Studies

Chapter 29 of the book of Mosiah, in which the people of Zarahemla transform their government from a monarchy to a rule of judges, is a crucial—indeed, pivotal—chapter in the Book of Mormon. Modern readers of the book, particularly those of us raised in Western nations, are prone to react very positively to this story, viewing it as the creation of a free, democratic system, and we are inclined to read this account with something of the same thrill with which we observed the freedom-loving, democratic urges of peoples worldwide, most notably in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in more …

Joseph Smith's Dog, Old Major, Alexander L. Baugh

BYU Studies

When it comes to history, interesting information is often found in the little-known, incidental details. Discovering the lesser-known facts in people’s lives helps one understand more about their disposition, character, temperament, motivation, and personality—who they really were and what they were like. One such aspect of the life of Joseph Smith is how he came to own a dog and his close relationship with this canine companion.

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Birth And Calling Of The Prophet Samuel: A Literary Reading Of The Biblical Text, Steven L. Olsen

BYU Studies

Chapters 1–3 of 1 Samuel describe the miraculous origins and auspicious upbringing of the first major Hebrew prophet since Joshua, who by all measures lived centuries before Samuel. The biblical account of Samuel’s beginnings forecasts the exceptional ministry of the man who served as Israel’s last complete sovereign. By faithfully filling the crucial roles of prophet, priest, and judge, Samuel helped to transform the House of Israel from a collection of weak and often warring tribes to a relatively permanent and somewhat stable nation in the contentious ancient Middle East. Thus, Samuel is rightly considered to be one of the …

Metaphorical, Punitive, And Pedagogical Blindness In Hell, Meghan Henning

Books and Book Chapters by University of Dayton Faculty

What is the role of the blind body in hell? Does it gesture to broader cultural conceptions of physical impairment? Can the blind be healed in places of eternal punishment? Does this ‘healing’ function similarly to the understandings of blindness available in contemporaneous medical texts? This article will examine the depictions of the blind in the extra-canonical apocalypses that describe hell. We will begin with a discussion of the apocalyptic tours of hell that describe blindness, paying special attention to the different roles (metaphorical, punitive, and pedagogical) that blindness plays in each text. We will also consider the impact that …