Digital Commons Network^™

Healing And Exorcism, Meghan Henning

Books and Book Chapters by University of Dayton Faculty

The study of the Synoptic Gospel healing and exorcism stories has been dominated by contemporary medicalized ways of viewing the human body. This essay challenges those approaches, which assume that there are universal ideals of the body that transcend time and space, and privileges approaches which seek to rigorously contextualize the healing and exorcism stories amid ancient conceptions of the body. One primary way in which ancient conceptions of the body differ from the contemporary is through the ancient overlap between healing and exorcism. This essay argues that one should view exorcisms as ancient healing narratives. Through comparison with other …

Hospitality And Seminary Culture: A Phenomenological Study On The Presence And Practice Of Hospitality Between Seminary Leaders And Students, Jesse Matthew Adams

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

While hospitality is a major biblical doctrine and a requirement of Christian living and outreach, few ministers begin their ministries recognizing the essence and essentiality of hospitality in ministry or intentionally highlight and model it to those they lead. One root cause for this may stem from the seminaries in which our ministers train, that our seminaries have no apparent agreement on a formal framework for teaching hospitality and too few seminaries are marked by a culture of hospitality. This study seeks to establish a formal framework for hospitality in seminary education. Such a framework could be used to instigate …

Centered On Christ: The Book Of Enos Possibly Structured Chiastically, Stephen Kent Ehat

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

The book of Enos is considered to be a short, one-chapter treatise on prayer, yet it is more. Close examination of its text reveals it to be a text structurally centered on Christ and the divine covenant. Enos seeks and obtains from Him a covenant to preserve the records of the Nephites for the salvation of the Lamanites. Enos prays not only for his own remission of sins but also for the salvation both of his own people, the Nephites, and also of the Lamanites. He yearns in faith that the Lord will preserve the records of his people for …

“Encircled About Eternally In The Arms Of His Love”: The Divine Embrace As A Thematic Symbol Of Jesus Christ And His Atonement In The Book Of Mormon, Matthew L. Bowen

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

This study builds upon Hugh Nibley’s insightful observation that several Book of Mormon passages reflect “the ritual embrace that consummates the final escape from death in the Egyptian funerary texts and reliefs” as expressing the meaning of Christ’s Atonement. This study further extends Nibley’s observations on Jacob’s “wrestle” as a divine “embrace” to show that Lehi’s, Nephi’s, and their successors’ understanding of the divine embrace is informed by their ancestor’s “wrestle” with a “man” (Genesis 32:24–30) and reconciliation with his brother (Genesis 33:4–10). Examples of the divine embrace language and imagery throughout the Book of Mormon go well beyond what …

Calvin Theological Seminary Academic Catalog 2023-2024, Calvin Theological Seminary

Seminary Academic Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Between Choice And Compulsion: An Examination And Critique Of The Evolution Of 'Original Sin', Matthew James Wynn

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

“Why are we the way that we are?” is one of the hardest questions to answer because it requires grasping the origin of human beings. This has left philosophers and theologians in century-long debates on forming a “cosmogony of ontology” (i.e., how the origin of the universe informs the human condition). The concept, “original sin” was developed by a North African theologian named Augustine (354 – 430 CE). Augustine’s reading of Genesis 3, and inaccurate translation of Romans 5:12, taught that a person is born morally culpable for a fault antecedent to their existence. This way of thinking about the …

A Defense Of Psalm Singing: Solutions To Contemporary Practice, Philip W. Webb

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The history of singing the Biblical Psalms from the Old Testament goes back thousands of years. Early Jewish worship by the nation of Israel was centered upon singing the Psalms, and this formed the early musical worship of the first-century Christian church as well. Yet today this practice is only observed by a few denominations and has fallen out of style among mainline evangelical churches. There are Psalters being printed, but for the most part they still contain many of the traditional musical and lyrical structures that go back several hundred years. For many, these sacred texts have too much …

The Experiences Of Parents In A Christian Spiritual Parenting Program, Zili Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Christians face a rising problem in faith transmission to the next generation (Kinnaman & Hawkins, 2016). Research indicates that younger generations are less religious than their parents in many countries, especially in the U.S. (Pew Research Center, 2018b). Even though most American Christians say that faith is vital in their life, educating children in religion is critical because it provides moral guidance and appropriate values (American Enterprise Institute, 2019). However, most Christians find it challenging to perceive and articulate the relationship between faith and daily life even though they attend church regularly (Bunge, 2008). Also, many parent-child spiritual programs organized …

Artapanus And Greek Colonial Poetics, Scott Harris

Dissertations

The fragments of Artapanus have proven to be enigmatic for most scholars over the years and as such have not been treated in significant detail. Most scholarship has been restricted to two separate lines of enquiry: genre and ethnicity. I suggest that the resonance between Greek colonial poetics sheds new light on Artapanus's literary agenda: namely, that Artapanus is constructing and representing the memory of Jewish cultural and political foundations using broader Greek poetics which were used to describe the civic, cultic and geographic foundation of a colony. In this way, Artapanus is no longer an outlier within the Hellenistic …

Leadership Integrity In Kenya : The Best Leadership Practices That Promote Leadership Integrity Among Leaders In Christian Institutions Of Higher Learning In Kenya, Mike Mulwa Mutua

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The "Write" Stuff: The Plausible Capability Of Jesus’ Followers To Author The Gospels, Charles D. T. Miller

Liberty Theological Review

It is common for critics of the New Testament to cite William Harris’ 10% literacy rate for first-century Greco-Romans as evidence for the implausibility of Jesus’ followers to write, publish, and circulate the New Testament. This “evidence” is often used to dismiss the entire New Testament as a second-century fabrication that cannot accurately represent the true teachings of Jesus. Is this an accurate portrayal of Galilee during the time of Jesus? The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that Jesus’ followers possessed the “‘Write’ Stuff”—the ability to read, write, and memorize, as well as, access to the technology needed …

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

Lectures On Christianity In The Middle East

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

In March the Institute cosponsored a lecture series at Brigham Young University titled “Christianity in the Middle East.” The series provided a historical overview of the eastward spread of Christianity into the pagan Near East, a subject largely neglected in religious and socio-cultural studies. Over many centuries, Christian groups maintained a presence in the region, leaving behind a notable literary, monumental, and artistic legacy that is increasingly being recognized as an important part of the world’s cultural heritage.

Patrick Henry, Gideon, And The Book Of Mormon

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

Historian Richard L. Bush-man, responding to accusations that the Book of Mormon contains “evidence of nineteenth-century American political culture,” concluded that in fact “most of the principles tradition-ally associated with the American Constitution are slighted or disregarded altogether” in the book. “So many of the powerful intellectual influences operating on Joseph Smith failed to touch the Book of Mormon.”

60 Years And Looking Forward: Possible Liturgy Futures, Gerard Moore

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Elementary New Testament Greek, Owen Ewald

Faculty Open Access Books

This open-access textbook helps students learn to read New Testament Greek at the elementary level. It includes clear, concise explanations of grammar and syntax, helpful examples, and essential vocabulary, with no assumption of previous language study, and it does not require accents for most forms. At the end of each of its twenty chapters, students will find short Greek-language episodes from the life of a fictional early Christian family of Jewish ancestry, short readings from the Greek New Testament and Septuagint, and review/homework exercises that can help reinforce new concepts and vocabulary. This book can help students prepare to read …

Holy Impairment: The Body As The Nexus Of Apocalyptic Ekphrasis In Acts 2:1–13, Meghan Henning

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

This article reads Acts 2:1–13 as an example of apocalyptic ekphrasis, bringing together disparate imagery for rhetorical effect. In particular, the Septuagint imagery of theophany is combined with the imagery of divine healing that was associated with the god Asclepius. I explore the imagery of the divided tongue that rests on bodies and transforms them, an element of Acts 2:3 that many interpreters have given up trying to explain. The visual association of snakes and healing was prevalent not only at the shrines devoted to Asclepius but broadly in a variety of contexts outside the shrines. This complex of imagery …

The Storytelling Cure: Medicine And Narrative From Galen To Shahrazad And Rousseau, Ryan A. Milov-Cordoba

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Are stories healing? This dissertation introduces and explores an idea that I call “the storytelling cure.” With this term I capture a set of related notions about the healing power of stories that span literary studies, intellectual history, philosophy, and medical practice. Through a comparative study I make the case for “the storytelling cure” as a cross-cultural, multiconfessional, and multilingual phenomenon of great age, complexity, and power, worthy of the most sustained attention by the contemporary field of Comparative Literature. Concretely, this dissertation presents three extended case studies of “storytelling cures” from three different kinds of texts (case history, frame …

Going Deeper With New Testament Greek [Review]/ Merkle, Benjamin L., Robert L. Plummer, With Andreas J. Köstenberger., Stanislav Kondrat

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review by Stanislav Kondrat.

"The Oxford Hand Book Of The Book Of Revelation"[Review]/Koester, Craig R., Ed, Flavio Prestes Iii

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review by Flavio Prestes III.

"God's Obedience": A Linguistic And Narrative Exploration Of The Hebrew Idiom In 1 Kings 17:22 And Its Theological Implications, Oliver Glanz, Jonatas Leal

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This article explores a particular sentence in the first resurrection narrative of the Bible: “And the LORD obeyed Elijah” (1 Kgs 17:22a). Before the widow’s son returns to life, the prophet calls YHWH to perform a miracle. Subsequently, and surprisingly the narration reports that the LORD obeyed. In contrast to the Hebrew of the source text, we argue that modern Bible translations do not render 1 Kgs 17:22a (וַיִּשְׁמַ֥ע יְהוָ֖ה בְּקֹ֣ול אֵלִיָּ֑הוּ) correctly. Instead of translating “The LORD listened to the voice of Elijah” (NRSV), “The LORD heard Elijah’s cry” (NIV), or “The LORD answered Elijah’s prayer” (GNB), one …

"The Antichrist Tradition In Antiquity: Antimessianism In Second Temple And Early Christian Literature" [Review]/Kusio, Mateusz, Rodrigo Galiza

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review by Rodrigo Galiza.

A Phenomenological Qualitative Study Of Discipling Church Congregants Using Three Christ-Practiced Church Communities, Bryan Wade Ewing

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover the perceived impact of local church leadership’s implementation of three Christ-practiced discipling communities for the equipping of local-church congregants within six local bodies in the state of Indiana. Communities are generally defined as intentional groups of different purposes within the local church. The study sought to better understand the impact of congregants being involved in weekly, corporate worship, small groups, and mentorship groups in their discipleship journey. The rationale behind the study was to explore the phenomenon of the discipleship process as certain congregants were engaged in only a weekly worship …

A Linguistical Analysis Of The Greek Perfect Tense: A Defense Of “Causative Aspect.”, Malcolm Goh

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Modern Greek studies have undergone intense debate over the past several decades regarding whether to and how grammarians and linguists should apply verbal aspect theory to Greek verbs. A significant portion of this debate has centered on the Greek perfect verb. Buist M. Fanning, Constantine R. Campbell, and Stanley E. Porter are three prominent voices in this ongoing debate. While traditional grammars have done well in describing the actions of the Greek perfect tense form, a consensus has proved challenging in describing the perfect tense form within an aspectual framework. Aspectual theorists agree that the perfect tense form concerns itself …

Addressing The Inactivity Of Youth And Young Adults In The Church Environment, Leonard Burgest

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

One of the significant components of church growth and development is having a functioning youth and young adult ministry founded on the Gospel and managed by individuals who understand youth participation in the church. Unfortunately for the black church and many others, the grim reality is that they have been suffering from the same inactive youth and young adult ministry problem for quite some time. Local churches have recently witnessed a steady decline in youth attendance due to neighborhood irregularities, parental responsibilities, and youth activities. This thesis project seeks to address and implement methods and processes that will aid in …

Revisiting The Future: The Future Indicative And Perfective Aspect In Johannine Literature, Casey Lou Price

Masters Theses

As Greek aspectual studies continue to develop, there remains a significant gap in research on the future as it pertains to aspect. The nature of the future indicative is debated, especially as to whether or not it conveys aspectual value. Using Buist Fanning’s premise that aspect and Aktionsart interact to produce predicable outcomes, Mark O’Brien has shown that future STATIVE verbs consistently create an ingressive meaning that mirrors that of STATIVE verbs in the aorist tense. He has used this to demonstrate that the aorist and future share the same aspect-Aktionsart interactions and that they therefore both communicate perfective aspect. …

An Analysis Of The –Μός Suffix In The New Testament, Ryan Kendall Phelps

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation describes and analyzes the –μός suffix in the New Testament. This suffix indicates a noun derived from a verbal stem, i.e., a deverbal noun. Due to the lack of an in-depth analysis of this suffix, some incomplete ideas about this suffix have appeared in Greek grammars. Along with scholarship in Greek grammar, this dissertation employs terms from the field of linguistics, as well as patterns suggested from studies of deverbal nouns in other languages. This method will reveal two groups of conclusions. First, it will reveal that the suffix and nouns in which it occurs follow traditional expectations, …

Paul's Personification Of Hope A Historical-Rhetorical Approach To Romans 5:5, David V. Lott

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Recognized allegory has existed from antiquity to the current times and withstood the vicissitudes of scholarly research. Embedded beneath the realm of the overarching rhetorical device of allegory exists the often recognized yet readily overlooked literary device of personification, the “giving of face” to a concept or an abstract. Once considered the tool of the simple and naïve, it lay in the shadows of rhetorical criticism through the years and is only starting to elicit credible academic research. However, even within the purview of this research, there is a bifurcation of focus between what critics assert is literary personification (giving …

Lost In Translation: A Linguistic Understanding Of The Use Of The Middle Voice In The Septuagint Of Esther, Abigail Prejean

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

We Are All Eve: Rescuing The Mother Of All Things From Patriarchal Interpretation And Its Implications For Modern Christian Women, Maeve Pioli

Senior Theses

For centuries, the traditional Christian understanding of the Genesis narrative has relied heavily on the patriarchal biases of historic church figures to enforce a gendered hierarchy where women are deprived of authority, voice, and agency. My thesis deconstructs these misogynistic interpretations to provide liberating, alternative readings for the Garden of Eden as well as New Testament verses that utilize Eve’s transgression to justify women’s secondary status. As a former Christian, I have witnessed the persistence of this oppressive theology, often repackaged as a “complementary” relationship between sexes where women must dutifully submit to the headship of men. Therefore, by building …