Digital Commons Network^™

Different Forms Of Power In Worship Spaces, Patrick Russell

Obsculta

This project examines the importance of power in a worship space. In particular, looking at the historical structures of St. Paul's Cathedral in London and St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, this paper strives to lay out the presence of power inherent in places of worship. While other aspects could be used: power as a political structure, power of shared identity, power of scale, and power as a means of limits are given here for consideration.

Namesake: An Ekphrasis On La Sagrada Familia Basilica In Barcelona, Spain, Rachel Henry

Obsculta

Ekphrasis is a literary description of a work of art or architecture—a kind of over-the-top ode. The Expiatory Temple of the Holy Family, commonly known as La Sagrada Familia, in Barcelona, Spain, has been under construction for 142 years and is expected to be completed by 2032. With its integral sculptures, soaring towers, and feats of engineering, Architect Antoni Gaudí’s masterpiece is unlike any other church or cathedral in the world. Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the temple as a minor basilica in 2010. This article delves into La Sagrada Familia and aims to aid the reader in imaginatively exploring the …

Gluten-Free Hosts And The Cross: Revelatory Suffering In Christianity, Gilbert Perez

Obsculta

The body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus are said to be made present by the Eucharist: bread and wine placed on the altar. However, the Roman Catholic Church teaches there is no validity to consecrations with gluten-free Hosts. This article notes the past permissions on gluten-free hosts and explores how present and former practices exhibit the nature of the Crucifixion, humanity’s participation in a world it abuses, and, furthermore, how to remedy this source of exclusion.

Harold Hargis Photograph Collection, Jaclynn Martin

Prints and Photographs Department

Dr. Harold Walter Hargis (1925-2015), a distinguished oral and maxillofacial surgeon, was born in Bluefield, West Virginia on June 11, 1925. His parents were Thomas and Mary Clare Hargis. Dr. Hargis made significant contributions to the field of dentistry.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and subsequently pursued his education, earning a Bachelor of Science in Liberal Arts from Howard University in 1951 and a Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) from the same institution in 1955. During his time at Howard, he met his wife, Mary Frances Diggs, and joined the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

After …

81st Annual Pepperdine Bible Lectureship--Harbor: Running With Perserverance (2024), Mike Cope

Pepperdine Bible Lectures: Programs

Program booklet for the 81st Annual Pepperdine Bible Lectures, held at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, April 30-May 6, 2024. The Pepperdine Bible Lectures is an annual event hosted by Pepperdine University featuring a wide variety of lectures and classes on topics and themes in the Bible and Christianity.

Mike Cope, Lectureship Director

Evan Woods, Tami Williamson, and Rachel Higgins, Lectures Team

Project Portfolio: Cultural Humility: Equipping Ministerial Leaders To Navigate Ever-Changing Cultural Landscapes, Caleb Lu

Doctor of Leadership

In the modern quest for competency, efficiency, and production, humility seems to have been forgotten as a key component to what Christ-like leadership looks like in churches and in ministry. Biblical humility requires one to consider one’s relationship with God2 and one’s relationship with others, as Paul details in Philippians. In interviews with Chinese-Americans in Chinese heritage church contexts, multicultural church contexts, and non-church contexts, the cultural divide between older and younger generations (exacerbated by power dynamics)3 was often highlighted as a main reason they did not feel seen or heard. The need, then, was for church and ministry leaders …

To Embody Christ's Image: Queer Presence In Liturgy, Maggie Nadalin

Obsculta

This paper examines how approaching liturgical issues from a Queer vantage-point in both theory and practice offers a fresh lens for not only understanding liturgy but recognizing the urgent need for Queer-influenced liturgical rites.

Unha Vez Tiven Un Cravo (Once I Had A Nail), Roslie De Castro, Scott Cooper

Obsculta

Rosalia de Castro was a nineteenth-century Spanish Catholic writer now best-known for her novels, but her poetry is widely admired in the Spanish-speaking world as well. This devotional poem is written in the language of her native region of Galicia, and the translator hopes that this new version will awaken interest in Castro's work in the English-speaking world.

“Jesus Freaks” Youth-Group Bands And The Power Of Christian Rock (1992–2000), Leah Payne

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

“What will people think,” Toby McKeehan, Michael Tait, and Kevin Smith asked thousands of young evangelical fans in 1996, “when they hear that I’m a Jesus Freak?” This trio of young men “on fire for God,” who performed as DC Talk, were the biggest thing in CCM in the 1990s. Their 1995 album Jesus Freak portrayed conservative evangelical youths as rock-and- roll rebels. “Welcome to the Freak Show,” the Jesus Freak tour, filled stadiums, and their high-energy, slickly produced concerts were teaming with screaming devotees. Fans pointed up to the sky as the band sang, “Jesus is the way,” in …

Contributor Biographies

Obsculta

No abstract provided.

Joseph Smith And The “Red Sea” In 2 Nephi 19:1, E. Jan Wilson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

When Nephi quotes Isaiah 9:1 in 2 Nephi 19:1, Isaiah’s the “way of the sea” (KJV translation) becomes “the way of the Red Sea” in the Book of Mormon, a change that is often said to reflect an egregious blunder by Joseph Smith or a scribal error. However, there may be a scenario in which it could reflect a reasonable interpretation of an authentic ancient passage.

Trees And The Love Of God, David M. Belnap, Nalini M. Nadkarni

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Trees play real and metaphorical roles in the beliefs and holy scriptures of many world religions, and believers and non-believers throughout the world are uplifted spiritually by trees. In the Book of Mormon, a tree with delicious, sweet fruit appeared in two visions and one parable. Respectively, the tree represents the love of God as seen through the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and symbolizes spiritual growth as one experimentally nourishes faith from a seed. Trees and fruit in the world around us can remind us of important lessons from these teachings and help keep us focused on the …

“One Drop Of Salvation From The House Of Majesty”: An Analysis Of The Revelation Of The Magi And Restoration Scripture, Spencer Kraus

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

An early Christian text called the Revelation of the Magi presents itself as a history of the Magi before and after the birth of Jesus Christ. This text offers important insights into how the early Christian world may have conceptualized how other nations outside of Israel similarly looked forward to the advent of the Messiah, how they worshiped God, and how they knew who their Savior would be. The Book of Mormon similarly presents itself as text written by early believers in Jesus Christ. It is centered primarily around two civilizations outside the land of Israel who knew who Jesus …

Further Evidence From The Book Of Mormon For A Book Of Moses-Like Text On The Brass Plates, Jeffrey D. Lindsay

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Students of the Book of Mormon have long mined the Old Testament as a rich source of influence on Nephite writers. However, surprising recent finds suggest that an ancient text related to the Book of Moses may have been an especially significant influence as well. That possibility was raised in Noel Reynolds’s early analytical paper, “The Brass Plates Version of Genesis.” He found thirty-three proposed parallels between the Book of Moses and the Book of Mormon, some of which pointed to a one-way connection with the Book of Moses as the source. Our recent collaboration resulted in identifying a total …

Μαλακοί And ΆρσενοκοῖΤαι In 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: Reception History And Its Applicability To Modern Homosexuality, Taylor Patz

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is arguing that μαλακοί and ἀρσενοκοῖται in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 should not have a place in the formation of modern Christian theological stances on homosexuality because neither μαλακοί nor ἀρσενοκοῖται conceptually align with modern homosexuality. Chapters one through four cover background context on Jewish, Greek, and Roman views of sexuality. This background information is to provide context, based on the literary evidence we have today, on what Paul could have conceptually intended by μαλακοί and ἀρσενοκοῖται. The second part to this thesis, chapters five through seven, look at the reception history of 1 Corinthians 6:9 from Latin to …

Re-Examining What I Have Been Taught About Ruth And Naomi As An Asian And Asian American Woman: A Re-Reading Of Ruth Through A Postcolonial Womanist Lens That Calls Asian And Asian American Christians To The Ministry Of Reconciliation And Biblical Justice, Eunice Lin-Sawyer

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

As a Singaporean Chinese woman who only moved to America in middle adulthood, I discovered that one’s context(s) and the particularities of place and positionality significantly shape one’s reading and interpretation of Scripture. This thesis engages in a transnational reading of portions of the Ruth Narrative (RN) and exposes the hidden normativity of Whiteness and Eurocentric theology that has shaped how Ruth is interpreted within the Asian and Asian American Evangelical Church. It also explores the implications of taking seriously one’s social-religious contexts and developing a lived theology that accounts for one’s personal narratives, life experiences and embodied particularity. To …

Chaplaincy & Medical Family Therapy: Christian Witness To Presence, Incarnation, And Hospitality In The Pacific Northwest, R. Fraser Reach

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

This essay is an exploration of hospital chaplaincy as a frontline of faith in America today. This Thesis is a joint project between Seattle Pacific Seminary and the Department of Medical Family Therapy. It combines a literature review addressing topics of concern and practice for hospital chaplains and medical family therapists with a personal appeal to Christian ministers, seminary students, therapists, chaplains, and clergy who are called to serve in this vocation, including those who relate to this topic as a sense of mission. It is a compilation of tools, evidence-based explorations, and theology addressing hospital chaplaincy. It includes history, …

Feeding Hungry Christians: The Liverpool Muslim Institute On Christmas Day, Brent D. Singleton

Library Faculty Publications & Presentations

The Liverpool Muslim Institute (LMI), a group of mainly British Muslim converts led by Abdullah Quilliam, began an annual tradition of feeding the poor and hungry on Christmas Day soon after the groups’ founding in the late 1880s. The feasts would become the largest and perhaps most important public event on the LMI’s calendar until its demise in 1908. This chapter provides a brief outline of the history of Christmas charity in England and Liverpool and then delves into the Muslims’ rationale for the feedings, their fundraising and preparations, and actual Christmas Day feasts, as recorded in the LMI’s weekly …

Recovering The Lost Concept Of Truth In The Restoration Scriptures: Another Key To Understanding God’S Word, Blaine L. Hart

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The word “truth” has for practical purposes lost one of its original English-language meanings, and this has significant implications for understanding scriptures. The obvious, well- understood meaning is that which is real or factual. However, the earliest meaning in English is that which is true in an entirely different way, in the sense of fidelity, loyalty, and faithfulness. The King James translators frequently used “truth” in this latter sense. The sense of “truth” as “faithfulness” remained well known in the nineteenth century. Some passages in the Book of Mormon and other Restoration scriptures reveal deeper insights when read with this …

Christ Is Risen! Truly, He Is Risen!, Daniel C. Peterson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

There is no more important message than that of the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It’s life-transforming and world-transforming. It is also the most joyous news imaginable. What Jesus did on our behalf leaves us forever in his debt and should put him at the center of our lives.

“Our Great God Has In Goodness Sent These”: Notes On The Goodness Of God, The Didactic Good Of Nephi’S Small Plates, And Anti-Nephi-Lehi’S Renaming, Matthew L. Bowen, Pedro A. Olavarria

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s speech (Alma 24:7–16) reveals multiple allusions to significant texts in Nephi’s small plates record. Thus, when he declares “I thank my God, my beloved people, that our great God has in goodness sent these our brethren, the Nephites, unto us to preach unto us,” he appears to allude to an inclusio that bookends the two books of Nephi’s small plates record which emphasizes the “goodness” of God as a theme. Anti-Nephi-Lehi’s description of his ancestors as “wicked fathers” appears to deliberately contrast Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael with Nephi’s “goodly parents” in 1 Nephi 1:1. The name …

An Important Addition To The Library, Kevin Christensen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Oxford University Press has published an annotated edition of the Book of Mormon. This represents a significant event and provides a useful study resource. At the same time, the author’s determination to follow the conclusions of mainstream biblical scholars inevitably generates tensions on issues where the Book of Mormon conflicts with those conclusions. The author also assures readers that the commentary follows “the plain meaning of the text,” which ought to acknowledge Joseph Smith’s foundational observation that different teachers of religion may understand the same passages very differently, depending on their framing context. In this review, I introduce the content …

Review Of Two New Theories About The Lamanite Mark Recently Presented In Two Different Forums, Clifford P. Jones

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

T. J. Uriona has offered two new theories about the meaning of Nephi’s term “skin of blackness” in 2 Nephi 5:21. He suggests that Nephi’s term may indicate impending death and/or it may be a literal reference to diseased or deathly skin. Both theories are based on a motif in an ancient Neo-Assyrian treaty that curses people to have skin as black as pitch and crude oil. I submit that these two theories are inconsistent with the larger context in the Book of Mormon.

King Benjamin’S Sermon As A Type Of Temple Endowment, Andrew I. Miller

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

To more permanently unify the Mulekites and the Nephites as a reunited kingdom of Israel, King Benjamin gathered his people at the temple, and in his role as a king and priest after the order of Melchizedek, imparted teachings that bear resemblance to the Latter- day Saint temple endowment ceremony first introduced in Nauvoo. Several of these similarities are explored in depth. Since the book of Mosiah is one of the earliest extant texts of Joseph Smith’s prophetic ministry, this finding adds to a growing body of literature that suggests that temple themes are apparent in the unfolding Restoration earlier …

“Armed With Righteousness And With The Power Of God”: Allusions To Priestly Clothing, Priesthood, And Temple In 1 Nephi 14:14, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nephi saw in vision that in the latter-days “the saints of the church of the Lamb” and “covenant people of the Lord” who, though scattered across the earth, “were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory” (1 Nephi 14:14). Nephi’s prophetic statement is loaded with meaning. This study explores how “armed with righteousness” means “clothed with righteousness” (Psalm 132:9) not merely in a martial, but also in a priestly sense (compare 1 Samuel 17:5; Isaiah 59:17). This concept relates to the latter-day temple and its ordinances, which enable the Lord’s people to “go forth” from …

The Seven Women Seeking The Bridegroom: Isaiah 4:1 As Transition Point In A Redemption Allegory, Jared T. Marcum

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Nephi laboriously copied many of the words of Isaiah in hopes that his readers would rejoice in Christ. While Isaiah 4:1 (2 Nephi 14:1) is generally not viewed as Messianic, there may be an allegorical interpretation that would place this verse among Isaiah’s other Messianic writings. A pre-Nicene patristic writer, Victorinus of Poetovio, interpreted the seven women of Isaiah 4:1 as representing the seven churches of the Apocalypse and the one man as Christ. Victorinus’s Christ-centered interpretation of Isaiah 4:1 has received very little attention in modern scholarship. This paper uses textual analysis to determine if a Christ-centered allegorical interpretation …

A Liturgy For Wholeness Culture Shaping Practices For Flourishing In Ministry, Mike Bellanti

Doctor of Ministry

A Liturgy for Wholeness emerged from the opportunity to “shape ecclesiastical culture that reimagines the holistic flourishing of vocational pastors.” The research suggests that many pastors are not flourishing but surviving. Unrealistic expectations, comparison, an unreasonable number of needed competencies, and long work weeks contribute to this challenge, often resulting in burnout or moral decline. Reimagining pastoral work within the life arenas of divine calling, daily well-being, formational relationships, and resilience creates a significant opportunity for pastors to thrive holistically.

The context in which this project will be deployed is Northbrook Church, a large non- denominational church in the exurbs …

Hybrid Faith: A Study On The Impact Of Digital Technology On Church Communication During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gertrude Dzirasa-Payne

Doctor of Ministry

The 21st Century has witnessed a new age characterized by exponential growth of global internet users and the central role of digital technology impacting the economy, science, religion, government, and society.1,2 Information is available via digital channels in every form, whether word, image, or sound.3 Digital technology is integrated into society and has influenced the practice of the Church, leading to the emergence of a phenomenon known as “Hybrid Faith,” the merging of in-person faith and online faith into one holistic integrated experience.4 This study explores how small and medium-sized churches in two cities adopted digital communication technology to engage …

Fostering Collaborative Partnerships Through Clear Communication Strategies: A Foster Care Model, Cheryl E. Haskins

Doctor of Ministry

Children need out of home placements (foster care), due to abuse and neglect, often languishing in the foster care system for years, before returning home to a safer biological family, adoptive home, or another permanent placement. Historically the Christian church and other communities of faith have functioned as social service providers, building hospitals and orphanages, caring for people in need. City Church (Churchome) a Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. based local church story is presented in this research as a model of faith, leadership and collaboration.

Chapter one describes the need, current environment, key terms, and examples of how faith-based organizations engage. …

How Does Therapy Impact African American Christians?, Suzette Theresa Law

Doctor of Ministry

A fundamental problem for African Americans is the underuse of mental health services, leaving mental health needs unmet. Many African Americans have already been subjected to enough stigmatization to the point they refuse to open themselves up to further ridicule and do not acknowledge mental health problems as medical. As a culture, African Americans continue to be distrustful of Caucasians, who fill most roles in the mental health field. 1 The researcher found cultural mistrust was the most consistent and powerful predictor of help-seeking attitudes.

This research explores the reasoning behind why those in African American communities are reluctant to …