Digital Commons Network^™

Stress-Free Christmas?, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Christmas does not need to be a time of stress and anxiety, but it can easily become one. Even in the nativity, God gave peace to Mary in what should have been the most peace-less of circumstances."

Posting about focusing on the true miracle of Christmas from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/a-stress-free-christmas/

An Incongruent Amalgamation: John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism On Naturalism, Jeffrey M. Robinson

Liberty Theological Review

John Stuart Mill's utilitarian principle of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, often surfaces in cultural debates in the contemporary West over the extent and foundations of moral duties. Given the drift from its historical Judeo-Christian moorings, naturalism now provides much of the epistemic grounding in Western culture in relation to moral duties. The amalgamation of Mill’s utilitarianism and naturalism has resulted in a cultural and epistemic disconnect. Naturalism is hard-pressed to provide consistent epistemic support for Mill’s utilitarian principle. This essay provides a number of suggestions as to why Mill’s utilitarianism may be inconsistent on naturalism.

Where Is The Warfare? The Impact Of Sola Scriptura On Science And Religion Dialogue, William James Richardson

Senior Theses

I have two aims with the publication of this thesis. The first is to contribute to the recent scholarly work that seeks to discredit the popular, yet fallacious, warfare model of science and religion. A nuanced investigation shows that the warfare evident in popular discourse cannot easily be attributed to a conflict between the essence of science and religion. Rather “science” and “religion” are interpreted as something else entirely. The New Atheists equate science with scientism, and religion is often associated with the Biblical inerrantism of many Protestant Christians. Both ideologies are grounded in an empiricist epistemological framework founded by …

Newman, Millennials, And Teaching Comparative Theology, William L. Portier

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Chapter Abstract:

On the face of it, John Henry Newman (1801-1890) and contemporary students of what is called the millennial generation make an incongruous combination. Nevertheless, this essay enlists Newman to make the case that recent generational developments, often described as disaffiliation or post- denominationalism, put comparative theologians in an epistemologically advantageous position to teach religion and theology to contemporary students. Newman’s categories of “notional” and “real” apprehension and assent help to articulate how this might work in twenty-first- century classrooms.

Book Summary:

This volume explores the twenty-first century classroom as a uniquely intergenerational space of religious disaffiliation, and questions …

Advent: Waiting, Gwen R. Marra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"When I face challenges and am in the midst of one of life’s storms, I can look at Noah’s life and have hope while I wait. I know I belong to God."

Posting about trusting God during the waiting times in life­­­­­­­­ from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/advent-waiting/

Vision, Winter 2015 (2)

Vision

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in USA

VisionFinding Aid

Nicholas Of Lyra, Literal Commentary On Galatians, Edward Arthur Naumann

TEAMS Commentary Series

Though little-known today, Nicholas of Lyra's commentaries are arguably among the most widely-read and influential commentaries of all time. For more than two hundred years, from the time of their composition, well into the Reformation era, they were copied and recopied, printed and reprinted, as an indispensable guide to the meaning of scripture. Naumann presents here a complete translation of Lyra's literal commentary on Galatians in English for the first time, with a freshly-edited Latin text, and provides ample notes on its significance in relation to the works of previous authors.

Problematic Use Of Revelation In Dispensational Theologies, Joseph Deraddo

Verbum

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

Dispensationalist theologies that use the Book of Revelation as their primary source of evidence are exegetically and hermeneutically problematic. The dispensationalist doctrine utilizes scripture in consistently literal interpretations. Followers of these various theologies are often jarred when told to switch hermeneutical gears to better understand unfulfilled prophecies. The primary belief fueling these theologies concerns dispensations, or separated periods of time thought to reveal God’s different purposes for human history and in particular the destinies of Israel and the Church. This paper seeks to demonstrate how these theological views fail …

On The Evolutionary Origins Of Religious Belief, Robert Duane Howard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Religious belief is a byproduct of evolutionarily designed cognitive mechanisms. The ubiquity of religious belief and experience across human cultures is explained by our common human psychology; our domain-specific cognitive mechanisms give rise, collectively, to the phenomenon of byproduct religious belief/experience. In this thesis, I will examine what I call religion-generating cognitive mechanisms, and I will argue that byproduct raw god-beliefs are developed by cultures into refined god-beliefs. These refined god-beliefs are co-opted by evolutionary processes and are cultural adaptations. My conception of “religious belief” in terms of raw and refined god-beliefs allows a disambiguation of the term “religion,” and …

The Way Of The Gods: The Development Of Shinto Nationalism In Early Modern Japan, Chadwick Mackenzie Totty

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at the development of Shinto nationalism in Edo Period Japan (1603-1868). It focuses on the development of intellectual thought and the relationship between the kogaku school in Japanese Confucianism and the kokugaku school in Shintoism. The primary goal is to demonstrate that there was a trend wherein members of these two schools looked back to the past in order to rediscover a lost utopia and Way. This study examines the works of Yamaga Soko, Itō Jinsai, Ogyū Sorai, Kamo no Mabuchi, and Motoori Norinaga to demonstrate how this line of thought helped contribute to the development of …

"Speak, Hannah, And Do Not Be Silent": Pseudo-Philo's Deconstruction Of Violence In Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum 50-51, Benjamin J. Lappenga

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This article argues that the movement from Hannah’s silent prayer in 50.5 (‘Hannah did not want to pray out loud’) to her bold declaration in 51.5 (‘I will speak my words openly’) interrupts a narrative trajectory involving violent zeal in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. Throughout the narrative, the prayers of key individuals for God’s merciful action on behalf of the people are rendered efficacious by acts of zeal (zelus) that are both public and violent (47.1–3). By contrast, Hannah’s act of silent prayer (framed as ‘zeal’ in 50.5) is accepted as the accompanying act for the people’s prayer (51.2). This vicarious …

The Production Of Sticky Notes And Bible Quotes: Godly Answers For Sticky Situations A Children’S Musical As Directed By Julie Brinkman, Julie Elizabeth Brinkman

Honors College

This thesis reflects upon a director’s experience while directing her first production: Sticky Notes and Bible Quotes: Godly Answers for Sticky Situations by Dennis and Nan Allen. This children’s musical was produced in cooperation with Wylie United Methodist Church of Abilene, TX. Over forty children, with the help of ten adult volunteers, shared the importance of memorizing scripture and looking to God’s Word in times of trouble through song, skits, and the recitation of scripture. While reflecting upon the production process after each rehearsal, the director makes connections between her experiences as director, the content of her music education undergraduate …

Martin Luther King, Jr. And Today’S World, Jessica Raniewicz

Verbum

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay's first paragraph.

Martin Luther King was a firm believer in nonviolence. Gandhi’s ideals of nonviolence gave King the ideas for his movement. He wanted it to be done peacefully and without violence. King had a way of uniting people and getting his ideas heard in a nonviolent way. Unfortunately, if Dr. King were here today, I believe he would be disgusted and upset with the way we as a nation have been conducting ourselves in his absence. As a nation, we have not changed for the better and have a lot …

Full Issue, No Author

Verbum

No abstract provided.

If God Didn’T Satisfice, We Could Still Exist, Rick Repetti

Publications and Research

Theodicies of satisficing – defenses of God’s goodness that justify creating minimally satisfactory beings/worlds – originate with Robert Merrihew Adams (1972, 1979). Adams (1972) argued that in creating imperfect beings God was graceful in giving the undeserved gift of life. There have been many objections to Adams’s argument; e.g., Jerome A. Weinstock (1975) objected that God still would have been graceful in granting undeserved life to superior beings, and, among others, E. Wielenberg (2004) objected that grace doesn’t erase the imperfection of creating imperfection. However, Adams’s theodicy arguably maintains two points: (a) non-existing superior beings cannot be harmed by not …

Symposium Introduction: Beyond Secular Order: The Representation Of Being And The Representation Of The People By John Milbank, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What does Beyond Secular Order have to do outside of the quibbles of the theology and religious studies academy? What might Milbank be saying to plebeians like me who have to live our lives in a world whose order is understood as ‘secular’? Milbank’s answer is to present two sequences, signaling that Beyond Secular Order is not to be read so much as a technical text, but as art, poetry, music, perhaps even a map. As an artist, poet, and musician (and geographer), Milbank has crafted a first sequence on ‘modern ontology’ tracing the strands of modern philosophy that serves …

Facticity And Transcendence Across The Disciplines: Phenomenology And The Promise, Neal Deroo

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This paper begins from one of the most commonly found questions in phenomenology, “What is Phenomenlogy?”, to argue that phenomenology is a trans-disciplinary approach to engaging with the products of human culture. This approach is characterized by paying particular attention to the distinction between facticity and transcendence within “lived experience” so as to help us better articulate and evaluate the promises that animate every human institution. Such a task necessarily requires inter-disciplinary input and helps us engage in our lives—in our shared cultural life—differently.

Public Ethics As A Canadiana “Theologica Publica”, David G. A. Pfrimmer

Consensus

This paper explores how a paradigm of the “public commons” can describe the relationship and contribution of various ‘public’ actors. The paper will explore how we might think differently about ‘public(s)’ and why “public ethics” could serve as a distinctively Canadian ‘public theology’ of ‘belonging.’ Paper presented as “Capital Theology: Religion and Politics in the 21st Century” at the Canadian Theological Society. Ottawa, June 2015.

Living In To Its Name And Living Up To Its Legacy: The Public Practical Theology Of Kairos, Jennifer Henry

Consensus

KAIROS Canada looks hopefully towards the emerging challenges of continuing public practical theology in a pluralistic, post-apology time and place.

Borderless Boundaries – As Means Of Death And Life: Wilderness Portraits In Patristic And Rabbinic Literature, Daniel Maoz

Consensus

This study examines the role played by environmental representation of an apparent borderless boundary, the desert, as presented in Scripture – the Hebrew Bible / First Testament. It considers lessons derived from “desert-thought” testified within Rabbinic and Patristic literature. In Scripture, the desert played a prominent role in both Exodus and Akedah, two narratives central to Jewish thought and Christian theology. Beyond this, desert fathers such as Antony of Egypt expressed profound spirituality through this desolate land (Chrysostom; Athanasius, Vita). The Rabbis repeatedly embellished, for virtue’s sake, lessons gained from this same bleak landscape (Midrash Bemidbar Rabbah). An early version …

Old Testament Costume Resource Guide, Rory R. Scanlon

Faculty Publications

This report offers visual costume research support for artists working on Old Testament Bible projects, with an historical overview of Mesopotamia and how to understand its historical clothing pieces, an annotated listing of the best research sources, a list of garment and fabric terms for the 4000 BC to 0 AD period, and sample sketches from historical artifacts to suggest how to interpret the original research images the artist will encounter.

Book Of Mormon Costume Resource Guide, Rory R. Scanlon

Faculty Publications

This report offers visual costume research support for artists working on Book of Mormon projects, with an historical overview of Mesoamerica and how to understand its historical clothing pieces, an annotated listing of the best research sources, a list of garment and fabric terms for the 2000 BC to 600 AD period, and sample sketches from historical artifacts to suggest how to interpret the original research images the artist will encounter.

East Asian Buddhism, Ronald S. Green

Philosophy and Religious Studies

No abstract provided.

The Sanctified Life, Beverly Carradine

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

Pen Pictures, Beverly Carradine

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

The Old Man, Beverly Carradine

Heritage Material

No abstract provided.

A Gadamerian Analysis Of Roman Catholic Hermeneutics: A Diachronic Analysis Of Interpretations Of Romans 1:17-2:17, Steven Floyd Surrency

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Catholic exegesis of scriptural and dogmatic statements has become rigid in the period following the Enlightenment. Gadamer’s account of philosophical hermeneutics, when applied to the Catholic situation, elaborates how Catholic exegesis might return to its premodern, freer form. Following Gadamer, I hold that to understand is to fuse the horizon of the old with today’s horizon using the preunderstandings that have been provided by the tradition while at the same time bringing the questions of today into dialogue with the text.

Examples of how Romans 1 and 2 have been interpreted historically serve to support this thesis. Origen reads Romans …

John Duns Scotus’S Metaphysics Of Goodness: Adventures In 13th-Century Metaethics, Jeffrey W. Steele

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At the center of all medieval Christian accounts of both metaphysics and ethics stands the claim that being and goodness are necessarily connected, and that grasping the nature of this connection is fundamental to explaining the nature of goodness itself. In that vein, medievals offered two distinct ways of conceiving this necessary connection: the nature approach and the creation approach. The nature approach explains the goodness of an entity by an appeal to the entity’s nature as the type of thing it is, and the extent to which it fulfills or perfects the potentialities in its nature. In contrast, the …

Science Associated With Producing Gmos, Darren Stoub

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Are our understandings of GMOs based in reality? Are GMOs bad? Are they good? Should we make them? These are challenging questions. We, as a society, must discuss the issues."

Posting about the science associated with GMOs from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/the-science-associated-with-producing-gmos/

Kristallnacht Presentation - Samuel Heider, Samuel Heider, Mark Verman

Comparative Religion Faculty Publications

Samuel Heider tells his experiences as a Holocaust survivor. In 1941, Heider and his family were deported to a small camp outside of Warsaw, Poland. Heider was soon separated from his family and was the only person in his family who was not killed by the Nazis.

This lecture was hosted by Mark Verman and co-sponsored by the Zusman Chair in Judaic Studies, the Department of Religion, Wright State’s Honors Program, the Frydman Educational Resource Center and the Dayton Holocaust Resource Center.