Digital Commons Network^™

Efficacy Of A Christian Intervention To Promote Posttraumatic Growth In Women Recovering From Intimate Partner Violence, Jerra L. Dooley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative pretest-posttest design evaluated a biblically based personal development program (PDP) for promoting PTG in Christian women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). A convenience sample (N = 7) of volunteers included women within a large county in the Southeastern United States. Participants were recruited through numerous large and small Southern Baptist churches. Qualifications included being female, at least 19 years old, and having experienced IPV but not within the last 12 months, to reduce the possibility of reinjury by rumination. Participants completed pretest assessments, attended the 3-hour personal development program, and completed a posttest assessment. Data was …

Equipping Covenant Baptist Church To Defend The Bible In A Skeptical World, Harlan Grant Mclain

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The thesis of this research project is “If Covenant Baptist Church members are taught the reliability of the Bible, they will be equipped to defend their faith to a skeptical world.” The goals of this doctoral thesis are two-fold: to train adequate believers regarding the Bible’s reliability in a skeptical world, and honor God in the process through the equipping ministry of the church in accordance with Ephesians 4:11-16. Seven lessons were researched, formulated, and presented to a small group of believers in Covenant Baptist Church who desired to become more confident in defending the Bible to a skeptic. Entrance …

An Unlikely Preacher: C.S. Lewis And The War-Time Sermon, Joe Ricke

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

The sermon was supposedly titled “‘None Other Gods’: Culture in War Time,” although no extant copy has that full title. His text was an obscure verse from the Book of Deuteronomy. It was the first sermon he had ever preached. Before the end of the war, the preacher, Clive Staples Lewis, a native of Belfast, a veteran of the Great War, and a rather recently converted agnostic, had become a household word in Great Britain and beyond as a defender of the Christian faith.

Woman, Queer, Jewish: The Sociopolitical Importance And Impact Of Identity Labels, Megan Polun

Honors Projects in English and Cultural Studies

In this thesis, I trace and analyze the historical, social, and political uses of three identity labels: woman, queer, and Jewish. These three identity categories are personally important to me because I identify as a queer, Jewish woman. The questions motivating this analysis are as follows: How have these words been defined and who gets to define them? What has it meant historically to move through the world with one of these labels, and what does it look like today? What qualifies someone to identify with one of these labels, and what experiences or qualities do we share? What challenges …

Emerging From The Pandemic As A Community Of Faith: Assessing How The Life And Faith Of Woodland West Church Of Christ Has Been Shaped By The Pandemic And By God Through This Experience, Randy Todd

DMin Project Theses

This April 2023 Doctor of Ministry project thesis at Lipscomb University is a qualitative study that aims to explore and assess how the COVID-19 pandemic experience has shaped the life and faith of Woodland West Church of Christ and its members. Specifically, the study aims to explore how members of this local congregation sensed the pandemic experience shaped their faith as described in James 1:2-4. How have members sensed God at work in all this as described in Romans 8:28? How has it shaped their fears and hopes for the future? And has the pandemic shaped us in such a …

Review Of C.S. Lewis And Don Giovanni Calabria, The Latin Letters Of C.S. Lewis, Nikolay Epplée

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Nikolay Epplée: Review of C. S. Lewis and Don Giovanni Calabria, The Latin Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed. and trans. by Martin Moynihan (South Bend, 2009). 125 pages. $12.00. ISBN 9781587314551.

C.S. Lewis On Scripture And The Christ, The World Of God: Convergence And Divergence With Karl Barth, P. H. Brazier

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

The aim of this paper is to explore a fundamental convergence between Lewis and Barth in their understanding of the w/Word of God, or the ground of their respective doctrines of Scripture. Lewis, like Barth, distinguished between the word of God (Scripture) and the Word of God (Christ). Each asks and answers the question: What is the relationship between Scripture and Christ? This work will also explore the priority of the Word above all else, including the church and the Bible: as Lewis commented, “We have no abiding city even in philosophy: all passes except the Word.” Finally, it will …

Coffins And Pancakes: Eschatological Experiences In The Brothers Karamazov, Joshua Sullivan

Global Tides

This paper investigates the roles of perspective, community, and memory in shaping experience in the lives of the characters of The Brothers Karamazov. Eschatology, in Christian theology, refers to the study of the end times and the ultimate destination of humankind. Dostoevsky elicits an eschatologically blurred vision of the present and the future, where characters experience the realities of heaven and hell in their present life. This paper examines these experiences, analyzing the circumstances, implications, and meaning of these events in the characters’ lives.

Believe It Or Not: Discovering The Role Of Marketplace Ministry In Reconciling Race And Religion In The African American Church, Shawn Burgs

DMin Project Theses

This April 2023 Doctor of Ministry Project thesis at Lipscomb University explores the experiences of African Americans as faith holders in the crux of race, religion, and marketplace and how the interconnectedness of these facets can lend to reconciliation. The purpose of exploring how African American believers experience race and religious reconciliation is a noble goal that seeks to address the challenges faced by many African American believers in navigating their faith and cultural engagement. By examining their experiences, insights, and perspectives, we can learn more about the unique challenges they face and the strategies they employ to overcome them. …

Review Of Is Your Lord Large Enough? How C. S. Lewis Expands Our View Of God, Mark J. Hamilton

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Review of Is Your Lord Large Enough? How C. S. Lewis Expands Our View of God. By Peter J. Schakel. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2008. ISBN: 0830834923. Pp. 208. $16.00.

Can Feminism And Christianity Coexist According To 40 Christian Women?, Riley George

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Applied

Songs Of Sorrow, Hope And Praise: Toward A Historical Analysis Of Negro Spirituals, Hope Dornfeld

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Three Minute Thesis

The Prevelence And Effect Of Pornea In Culture, Bryce Bengtson

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Three Minute Thesis

Liminal Space Theology And The Problem Of Divine Hiddenness, Isaiah B. Parker

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Three Minute Thesis

The Abc Of Christian Missionary Work, Luke Walsh, Amelia Thomas, Annalisa Stoll, Briana Slaubaugh, John Chevere, Natasha Leininger, Paul Jang

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Textual or Investigative

God In Harlem: Religious Symbolism In "Sonny's Blues", Katherine Bechter

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Deconstructing Petrine Succession: A Historical-Exegetical Inquiry Into Roman Dogma, Samuel Johnson

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

So You Want To Preach The Gospel? A Narrative Paradigm Perspective On Implications For Christian Evangelism From Peter's Sermon In Acts 3:11-26, Jacob Haley, Jala Boyer

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Review Essay: Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis Can Train Us To Wrestle With The Modern And Postmodern World, William Gentrup

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A lengthy review of Lewis Agonistes: How C. S. Lewis Can Train Us to Wrestle with the Modern and Postmodern World. By Louis Markos. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003.

ISBN 0-8054-2778-3. Pp. xv + 174. $19.99 [paper].

A Time For Joy: The Ancestry And Apologetic Force Of C.S. Lewis' Sehnsucht, James P. Helfers

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Excerpt: "In sum, it is clear that Lewis owes a great debt to Wordsworth’s idea of Joy, a debt he acknowledges explicitly through the title of his autobiography. Their views of the experience have much in common: for both it is an intense long- ing, for both it undergirds their sense of the reality of an eternal realm, as well as guiding them toward either virtue (in Wordsworth’s case) or a contemplation of and belief in the eternal (in Lewis’ case). Both of their experiences connect, ei- ther explicitly or implicitly, with the philosophical notion of the sublime. There are …

The Prevelence And Effect Of Pornea In Culture, Bryce Bengtson

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Travel Across The "Narrow Neck Of Land", Matthew Roper

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

In recent years a number of Book of Mormon scholars have associated the "narrow neck of land" mentioned by Mormon with the Mexican Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Mormon states that it was approximately "a day and a half's journey for a Nephite, on the line Bountiful and the land Desolation, from the east to the west sea" (Alma 22:32). This was the speed "for a Nephite," and presumably a group of people or even a non-Nephite might take longer. Moreover, since Mormon was speaking of a fortified line of defense along which communication would be desirable, the phrase "for a Nephite" …

"In The Beginning, God Created Atoms", Samiya L. Henry

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Genesis 1:1 states “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” This is the defining statement in the Bible and acts as the foundation of creation and God’s power in the Christian faith. On the other hand, many scientists believe the Big Bang Theory and the discoveries made in other fields of science solely define the creation of the universe and explain life as we know it, also disproving the Christian creation story and the overall existence of God. However, the exact opposite is true; God is science.

Alone, neither of these concepts (faith and science) fully solve …

Embodying The Image Of God: A Call To Holistic Spiritual Formation, Katelyn Jo Brackney

DMin Project Theses

This April 2023 Doctor of Ministry project thesis at Lipscomb University explores how humanity is created good and in God’s own image. Over the years many streams of the Christian tradition have moved away from this foundation of created goodness resulting in disembodied approaches to our spiritual formation. The disconnection from our embodied selves God so lovingly and intentionally created has appeared in a variety of ways. Some particular perspectives consider bodies to be prohibitive to spiritual growth. This project seeks to return to the beginning and explore how a holistic approach to spiritual formation helps us live in a …

Review Of Genesis: A Pentecostal Commentary, Michael Blythe

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Abiding In The Vine: A Relational Model Of Spiritual Formation, Bill Buker

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

In recognizing the significance of final conversations, the information Jesus shares in his Farewell Discourse (John 13–17) is considered especially important. During this conversation, in describing the new relationship he envisioned with his disciples following the events of his passion, he employs a vine and its branches as an analogy. Three core concepts seem critical to understanding this comparison—abiding in the vine, bearing fruit, and pruning. These concepts are explored within the context of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse and defined relationally in connection with the new commandment he had just introduced. This new command to love each other as he had …

Songs As Theologizing: Annamma Mammen’S (1911–2002) Contribution In Shaping The Kerala Pentecostal Imagination, Allan Varghese Meloottu

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

In Indian Pentecostal theological and missiological literature, the role of Kerala Pentecostals is well documented. However, the pioneering voices that are highlighted are of men, sidelining women’s voices and contributions that shaped the grassroots Kerala Pentecostal imagination. The preacher-songwriter Annamma Mammen (1911–2002) is one such voice that impacted early Kerala Pentecostal growth. Therefore, this article, in addition to bringing forth the sidelined story of Annamma Mammen, emphasizes Mammen’s role as a songwriter and analyzes one of her early songs to highlight how her theology encapsulates early Kerala Pentecostal theological emphases (eschatological imagination, scriptural importance, contextual primacy, and Jesus-centeredness). Although Mammen’s …

On Making “Universal Human Rights” Universal: The Intelligibility Of Human Rights In Jacques Maritain’S Natural Law Theory, Jeremy M. Wallace

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article examines the thought and influence of Jacques Maritain, specifically his application of Traditional Natural Law (TNL) theory to the vexing challenge of what makes universal human rights universal. The author shows how TNL satisfies the preconditions for the “universality factor” needed for making human rights truly universal where rival theories such as legal positivism, New Natural Law, and Empirical Natural Law fall short.

God Our Neighbor: Discerning Our Calling By Discovering God's Life In Our Neighborhood, Wayne D. Beason Ii

DMin Project Theses

This April 2023 Doctor of Ministry project thesis at Lipscomb University presents the results of research completed with congregants and neighbors of Parkside Church of Christ in Dearborn Heights, MI. The research question driving this project is: How might a congregation’s missional identity be reshaped by attentiveness to God’s activity among their neighbors? The missional activity of the Holy Spirit makes God’s future accessible in the present both within and beyond the church; thus, the Spirit is discernible in the particularity of a neighborhood. For this reason, the local neighborhood functions as an arena of the Spirit’s activity, a source …

Intergenerational Discipleship At St. Paul's Smoke Church, Elle Rulavage

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Intergenerational ministry through discipleship is found in the archetype of Christ and His disciples. St. Paul’s Smoke Church in Windsor Township, Pennsylvania, has impacted and influenced the area through many centuries in the generational call to follow Christ. The church has seen its ebbs and flows. In the past decade, membership has tremendously decreased, but the heart of love for God and its community is lasting. The pandemic of COVID-19 had limited ministry in the traditional sense. Still, the unorthodox ways of ministry were sought out and employed to continue St. Paul’s Smoke Church in its operation and functionality while …