Digital Commons Network^™

Lighting Young Lights: The Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program In Samoa, Nicholas Muccio

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Junior Youth Spiritual Empowerment Program (JYSEP) is a program inspired by the Baha’i Faith offered all around the world to those between the ages of 12 and 15. Due to its widespread implementation, it is likely that the practice of the program is in accordance with the cultural norms of the society in which it is practiced. The present study examines influences that the JYSEP has had on Samoan culture, and the influences that Samoan culture has had on the JYSEP. It has been found that the major values of the program are not in agreement with the traditional …

La Isla Del Sol, Courtney K. Blackmer-Raynolds

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Yo fui a la Isla del Sol para realizar un investigación sobre el significado sagrado de la madre tierra en la cultura Aymara. Yo encontré mucha gente que no querían trabajar con migo, pero al final me permitieron filmar el sacrificio ceremonial de una llama. Yo también consiguió algunos entrevistas sobre esta tema, entonces yo decidí enfocar mi estudio en el sacrificio de la llama. Yo quería saber porque sacrificaban una llama. Las respuestas de esta pregunta han salido muy interesantes, y los puede ver en mi video.

I went to the Isla del Sol for research on the sacred …

Violence And Disruptive Behavior On The Difficult Trail To Utah, 1847–1868, David L. Clark

BYU Studies

One aspect of the Mormon pioneer experience has not been studied: violence. Did the pioneers have problems with fighting and other aggressive behavior? How did company leaders prevent problems and handle disputes when they inevitably arose? This article reports pioneer records mentioning arguments, punishments, and other violent actions. The stories range from a threatened whipping for children who dallied behind their group to the heartbreaking tale of handcart pioneers being whipped to keep them moving along a frozen trail. While sickness, hunger, accidents, and weather took their toll on the Mormon pioneers, violence was not a major issue. Although records …

Creation As An Ecumenical Problem: Renewed Belief Through Green Experience, Thomas Hughson

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Loss of a sense of creaturehood and of members has occurred across the lines of divided churches in a secular context. The author explores the question whether green experience of nature can be a path toward a renewed sense of creaturehood. Bernard Lonergan’s distinction between faith and belief allows for identifying a primordial faith that interprets the cosmos as numinous. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises interprets primordial faith with the biblical word of God as Creator. Why not develop local ecumenical experiments in reevangelization that address green experience?

Codex Sinaiticus As A Window Into Early Christian Worship, Timothy N. Mitchell

Liberty Theological Review

Codex Sinaiticus is the oldest and most complete New Testament in Greek known to exist. Its two colophons at the end of 2 Esdras and Esther indicate a possible connection with Pamphilus’ famous library at Caesarea in Palestine. Origen was head of a school for catechumens during his days in Alexandria in Egypt and later began a similar school in Caesarea. Pamphilus was Origen’s star pupil and later directed his school in Caesarea. These colophons may connect Sinaiticus with an ancient tradition of early Christian worship and instruction of new converts, possibly exhibited in particular scribal features. These scribal features …

The Wolf Attacks: A History Of The Russo-Chechen Conflict, Christina E. Baxter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the Chechens fought against the Russians for independence. The focus in the literature available has been on the wars and the atrocities caused by the wars. The literature then hypothesizes that the insurgency of today is just a continuation of the past. They do not focus on a major event in Chechen history: the Soviet liquidation of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1944. It is this author’s assertion that the liquidation of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR forever changed the mindset of the people because it fractured a society that was once unified. This …

Native, Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Native as a noun and an adjective. How and where do you belong?"

Posting about what it means to be "native" 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/native/

The Living Earth: A Nineteenth-Century Latter-Day Saint Perspective, J. Michael Hunter

Faculty Publications

By studying the worldview of Mormons living in the nineteenth century, we can better understand their interpretation of nature and their relationship to it. For Mormons of that era, the earth was alive and deeply affected by the attitudes and actions of the humans living upon it. Nineteenth-century Latter-day Saints spoke frequently of the earth, its nature, and its relationship to humanity. They referred to the earth in anthropomorphic terms. It was a living orb endowed with intelligence and feelings. The earth’s life paralleled that of the humans who lived on it. So entwined were the lives of the earth …

Like A Dog Walking On Its Hind Legs: Samuel Johnson And Quakers, Paul A. Lacey

Quaker Studies

Samuel Johnson liked some individual Quakers but disliked the sect; an examination of his encounters with them, as reported in Boswell's Life, along with reminiscences of the Lloyd family, Mary Knowles and Anna Seward, throws significant light on both Johnson's religious and social views and on some aspects of the Quakerism of his time. The commonly-held view of Quakerism in the Quietist period is, in W. C. Braithwaite's phrase, that these were 'years of outward respectability and inward spiritual decline'. He adds that 'religion as a whole was suffering from the lassitude of Dissent and the devastations of Deism'. Kathryn …

The Universal Dimension: William Loftus Hare's Pivotal Contribution To London Yearly Meeting, Tony Adams

Quaker Studies

The origins of Christian universalism in the Religious Society of Friends during the seventeenth century are reviewed. A Hicksite shift among some Friends in the nineteenth century is seen as paving the way for a radical extension oflnner Lightist philosophies of universalism. A doctrine of Inner Light mysticism, as presented by Rufus Jones, is considered in the context of an extension of universalism among Quakers. As editor of the Socialist Quaker Society journal The Ploughshare, and in later published studies, William Loftus Hare (1863-1943) forwarded a form of theological universalism at some considerable variance with its previous meanings throughout Quaker …

Patterns And Practices Of Women's Leadership In The Yorkshire Quaker Community, 1760-1820, Helen Plant

Quaker Studies

By the second half of the eighteenth century, women ministers had become the principal upholders of the spiritual life of Quakerism in Yorkshire. Drawing on a range of sources including the institutional records of Quaker Meetings, personal correspondence and spiritual journals and autobiographies, this paper aims to shed light on the precise nature of female leadership in the Religious Society of Friends and to contribute to greater understanding of the conditions under which it became dominant. It suggests that the growing tendency for women to outnumber men as ministers was closely linked to wider social and economic trends within contemporary …

The Life And Times Of Peter Briggins, Simon Dixon

Quaker Studies

This article draws attention to a little known and rarely used historical source, the diary of the early eighteenth-century London Friend Peter Briggins. Four areas of Briggins' life are examined: his business, religious, family and leisure activities. It is suggested that the examination of sources such as diaries and personal correspondence can shed new light on the nature of seventeenth and early eighteenth-century Quakerism. In particular, such material can enable the development of a more subtle picture of the relationships that existed between Friends and the communities in which they lived.

Broadcasting Truth To Power:The American Friends Service Committee And The Early Southern Civil Rights Movement, Brian Ward

Quaker Studies

This article addresses two gaps in the historical literature on the modern civil rights movement. First, it highlights the contributions of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to the struggle for racial justice in the South. Second, it reveals the importance of radio broadcasting in helping to create a climate in which southern white racial attitudes and discriminatory practices were challenged. It demonstrates how AFSC-sponsored broadcasts reflected Quaker principles, but also how debates over appropriate programme content exposed the tensions between principled and pragmatic considerations, morality and expediency, that shaped the Movement and determined the AFSC's role in it.

The Persecution Of 'An Innocent People' In Seventeenth-Century England, Raymond Ayoub

Quaker Studies

This article gives an outline survey of the beliefs and practices of seventeenth century Friends, the spiritual-religious basis of these, the existing or enacted laws with which these came into conflict, and the ensuing penalties inflicted on Friends for disobeying these strictures. While there is an abundance of relevant material in print, this account endeavors to give a comprehensive and systematic summary of the pertinent laws and some of their consequences to Friends. Though the penalties were not of equal frequency or severity, they point to limitations placed on Friends in their effort to be faithful to their beliefs.

Interiority And Connectivity: A Brief Comparative Study On The Relation Of Scripture And Contemplation In Bridal Mysticism And Krishna Bhakti, Graham M. Schweig

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

In this study I bring two disparate traditions together which have painted portraits of divinity as a divine lover and supreme beloved. One tradition is from sixteenth century Europe and the other from sixteenth century India. My focus here is on the function of contemplative experience and vision in relation to the scriptural depictions and descriptions of divine love within both Carmelite Catholicism and Caitanya Vaishnavism through the developed visions in the sixteenth century works of Saint John of the Cross and Krishnadāsa Kaviraja Goswami, respectively.

America's Learning About Foreign Places Through The Eyes Of Missionaries: Writings In The Friends' Missionary Advocate, 1885-1933, Stanley D. Brunn, Elizabeth J. Leppman

Quaker Studies

Missionaries were among the travelers who supplied American adults and children with information about foreign places. Because they enjoyed a high status and respect with their home congregations and because they lived among peoples in foreign, often exotic, lands, missionaries and their writings enjoyed a wide and attentive audience. Materials in The Friends' Missionary Advocate between 1885 and 1933 report that information on foreign regions reached American audiences through presentations at monthly and quarterly meetings and at yearly conferences. Articles, letters, reports, maps, and pictures were also a medium for influencing Americans' impressions of the world.

Kennedy's "British Quakerism 1860-1920: The Transformation Of A Religious Community" - Book Review, Brian D. Phillips

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

James Nayler In The English Civil Wars, David Neelon

Quaker Studies

James Nayler spent between eight and nine years in Parliament's army during the English Civil Wars, but this period of his life has not been adequately discussed in any of his biographies. This article documents causes for the Civil Wars in Nayler's home town and his enlistment, rank and service throughout the wars. His involvement in a list of major battles is shown. Nayler became a member of the Council of War under John Lambert, commander of the Northern Armies, and served as Lambert's Quartermaster in the settlement of the rebellious army troops. As a member of the Council, Nayler …

The Embodiment Of Seventeenth Century Quakerism: An Exercise In Historical Anthropology, Peter J. Collins

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

James Rendel Harris: A Life On The Quest, Alessandro Falcetta

Quaker Studies

No abstract provided.

The Local Philanthropy Of The Reckitt Family, With Particular Reference To Hull Garden Village, Jane Pietrusiak

Quaker Studies

Sir James Reckitt, a Quaker, Chairman of Reckitt & Sons, Limited, a manufacturer of laundry and household products based in Kingston upon Hull, was well known as a local philanthropist. Philanthropy, perhaps combined with fear of social unrest, but with a firm foundation of his own experience in public life, provided the impetus for Sir James Reckitt to build Hull Garden Village, commencing in 1907. A range of house sizes was rented to the workforce and others, within walUng distance of Reckitt's factories. Local architects Runton & Barry supervised all aspects of the building and village lay out. Community feeling …

Contemporary Quaker Attitudes To Science And Technology, Jackie Leach Scully

Quaker Studies

I discuss some data on contemporary Quaker attitudes to science, particularly gene technology, gathered from member of Britain Yearly Meeting. Quakers are often perceived as having a relatively positive attitude towards innovation, including technology, and some confirmation of this can be found in Quaker history, until 30 years ago. The observations described in this paper suggest that, in line with the general trend in the west towards a greater skepticism about the benefits of science, the current attitude of British Friends towards the practice of science is a more ambivalent or even negative one, although attitudes towards the scientific/experimental method …

Money Matters - The Experience Of English Friends In Stavanger, 1885-1900, David Adshead

Quaker Studies

The economic depression in Norway in the mid- 1880s led to the virtual bankruptcy of two of the key members of the Stavanger Meeting at a time when there was also a crisis of leadership following the death of Endre Dahl for so long the leader of the Quaker group there. A small group of English Friends led by Walter Morris (later, Morice) made an appeal for funds so as to be able to make commercial loans and thus ease the situation for Carl Nyman and Peter Fugilie who had by now made arrangements with their creditors. But just as …

Accounting For The Shift Towards ‘Multifaith’ Religious Education In Zambia, 1964 -2017, Nelly Mwale, Joseph C. Chita, Austin M. Cheyeka

Zambia Social Science Journal

This article sheds light on the factors that contributed to the development of ‘multifaith’ Religious Education (RE) in Zambia after 1964. Our analysis makes a contribution to the discourse on inter-religious RE in Zambia by demonstrating how Zambia became a multifaith society, a context in which political statements and ideologies have influenced the framing of the aim, and selection of, the content of the subject. Research for this article consisted of interviews with Christian missionaries who shared with us their involvement in developing, teaching and evaluating standards of the teaching of RE. We also carried out an appraisal of literature …

Using Storytelling (Including Image, Metaphor And Narrative) In Cross-Generational, Cross-Cultural Twenty-First Century Evangelism, Rick D. Mckinney

Doctor of Ministry

Generational and cultural diversity within twenty-first century society has created great challenges to both professional clergy and laypersons in communicating the gospel. In addition, a postmodern, post-Christian culture has created a hostile environment for those sharing the message of Christ using the formulaic, propositional evangelism methods of the Twentieth century. Section One of this dissertation will elaborate on the problem. Section Two discusses why these methods, written primarily for a period of time when Judeo-Christian absolutes and regard for the sacred were staples in society, are increasingly ineffective. As the church struggles with a steady decline in its membership, the …

Anorexia/Bulimia, Transcendence, And The Potential Impact Of Romanticized/Sexualized Death Imagery, Heather D. Schild

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented November 10, 2014. Papers presented for the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Western Michigan University

Transhumanism And Catholic Natural Law: Changing Human Nature And Changing Moral Norms?, Brian Patrick Green

Staff Publications and Research

In this chapter I propose a preliminary response to the transhumanist challenge to natural law by investigating six basic questions: ( 1) Is human nature relevant to morality? (2) Is human nature mutable? (3) How would we know if human nature had changed? ( 4) Could cultural evolution replace biological evolution? (5) How would human nature and human will relate to each other under these new transhuman conditions? (6) Is it possible to construct a dynamic ethic to fit a dynamic nature, and if so, what might that ethic be?

Overall, I argue that it is possible to maintain a …

Elias Hicks And Thomas Shilltoe: Two Paths Diverge, Cynthia E. Kerman

Quaker Studies

Two prominent Quaker ministers, English Thomas Shillitoe and American Elias Hicks, at the end of their long lives of exhortation devoted to the mission of persuading others to follow the will of God, came together on the American continent in 1826-29. They turned out to be key players on opposite sides in the struggle which ended with the splitting of American Friends into two antagonistic groups, the Orthodox and the Hicksite.

Through a close reading of the journals of these two men, supplemented by biographies and other relevant materials, this paper analyzes similarities and differences in their views on humanity …

Reading A Quaker's Book: Elizabeth Ashbridge's Testimony Of Quaker Literary Theory, Michele L. Tarter

Quaker Studies

Elizabeth Ash bridge offers one of the most striking transatlantic spiritual autobiographies of the eighteenth century. While historians and scholars alike have given careful attention to this now-canonical text, no one to date has yet positioned this narrative in the context of the transatlantic Friends' unique literary traditions. Turning to the first generation of Friends, who also cal led themselves 'The Publishers of Truth' , this essay explores the Quakers' mystical relationship to language, prophecy and writing, and their subsequent creation of a New Word. I trace how the Friends created their own literary theory, locating the written word as …

Family Memory, Religion And Radicalism: The Priestman, Bright And Clark Kinship Circle Of Women Friends And Quaker History, Sandra Stanley Holton

Quaker Studies

In the nineteenth century, women Friends frequently preserved private family papers - spiritual memoranda, letters, diaries, photograph albums, household accounts, visitors books and so on. One such collection holds the personal papers of women in, among others, the Bragg, Priestman, Bright, and Clark families, who lived during this period mainly in the regions of Newcastle, Manchester and Bristol. Such material allows an exploration of the domestic culture shared among these families and, in particul ar, the legacy of family memory preser ved among this collection. A significant part of that legacy, it is argued, was the various representations of womanliness …