Digital Commons Network^™

Catholic Theological And Equity Framework To Champion Hispanic Representation In Catholic Schools, Jorge Pena, John Reyes, Michael T. O'Connor

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

How do Catholic schools create inclusive, equitable environments that embrace the identities of their students, including their race, ethnicity, and culture? What does Catholic theological spirituality say about diversity, equity, and inclusion to address racism? What is the connection between Catholic theological spirituality and equitable school practices to bring about equity in Catholic schools? In response to increased diversity of students, educators, communities, and societal challenges, there is a need for a framework for Catholic schools with a culturally diverse student body, or with a student body and staff with dif­ferent cultures. We synthesize Catholic theological spirituality and research about …

Employing A Chinese Ghost Story To Teach The Syncretism Of Chinese Religions, Gloria I-Ling Chien

Journal of Religion & Film

Upon its release in 1987, the Hong Kong blockbuster A Chinese Ghost Story resulted in sequels, adaptations, and two remakes in 2011 and 2020. Despite its popularity, only a few critics have noticed its eclectic representations of Chinese religions, nor has there been any evaluation of its pedagogical potential. This article details how the author employs this 1987 work to teach the syncretism of Chinese religions in an undergraduate course “Asian Religions in Film.” By decoding the embedded concepts, the meanings and history behind “the Jade Garland talisman,” the inclusion of the Diamond Sutra for exorcistic efficacy, and the portrayal …

Digitalizing Religion In The Age Of Covid-19: A Uses And Gratifications Perspective, Abdulaziz Altawil

Dissertations - ALL

The current COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people’s religious behavior around the world. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, most in-person religious services have shifted to virtual platforms. The online religious transition amidst the outbreak has alleviated many issues for worshippers as it provided them with a sanctuary space to connect with their faith and community. According to a 2020 Pew Research analysis, the pandemic has made many Americans change their religious habits by watching religious content online instead of physically engaging with their local religious institution. This dissertation provides a preliminary examination of this phenomenon by exploring the role of digital …

Saint Jude's, September 18, 2022

Saint Jude's

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Waltham, MA

Saint Jude's Finding Aid

How Servant Leaders Navigate Conflict: An Analysis Of Acts 15:36–41, Joshua D. Henson, Justin R. Craun

Selected Faculty Publications

Greenleaf’s foundational work on servant leadership has evolved considerably over the past 50 years. Servant leadership has been found to have positive outcomes on group and organisational effectiveness. While servant leadership characteristics and outcomes have been measured, is a need to be better understand how servant leaders navigate when they disagree. Using a social and cultural analysis, the conflict between Paul and Barnabas is explored. Social and cultural analysis allows interpreters to understand what the characters in the narrative ‘see and hear.’ The analysis of Acts 15:36–41 yielded three emerging themes related to how these servant leaders navigated conflict: (1) …

Pastoral Pitfalls: Solutions To Navigating The Stresses Of Twenty-First Century Ministry, Chris Moore

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

American church clergy and their families are suffering from the effects of Twenty-First Century ministry and the stresses of the local church, according to research from the Fuller Institute, Barna Group, and Pastoral Care Inc. Much of the research in this area and its effects on the clergy and churches occurred more than a decade ago. Through updated research and surveys of current Southern Baptist ministers in the Baptist General Convention of Texas, this thesis will offer solutions to how these dangers can be lessened or alleviated. Through the presentation of updated statistics, the seriousness of this problem for the …

Chaplaincy Upholds The West’S Value Of Tolerance Not Acceptance, Monique Decandido

Masters Theses

Throughout history, the differences between humanity led mankind to experience many hardships, even wars. These differences include religion or beliefs, tribal differences, racial differences, and geographical differences. Over time, and after much bloodshed and despondency of life, critical thinking men began to develop a strategy for humanity to get along together despite their differences. The question and the challenge of how mankind can get along together without engaging in conflicts about their differences became the chief thinking cap throughout the West. Humanity realized that the answer to their question and challenge was tolerance. Now forwarding into the 21st century, the …

Changing The Effects Of A Reduced Gospel, John Douglas Herring

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Does your church preach the “whole gospel” or “reduced gospel?” The whole gospel is the story of God working to redeem mankind, from Eden to the New Jerusalem. The reduced gospel is a belief that the plan of salvation and the whole gospel of Scripture are synonymous, a belief that salvation is for personal forgiveness. This research aims to change the effects of a reduced gospel in a local congregation. Participants, members of First Baptist Church of Eupora, were given questionnaires and interviews to determine their views regarding the gospel. To many participants, the gospel is one of forgiveness; therefore, …

Experienced Pastoral Burnout And The Self-Reported Role Of Emotional Intelligence On Leadership Effectiveness During Burnout, Craig Wesley Folds

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Emotional intelligence (EI), employee burnout, and effective leadership traits are constructs that have been researched from a traditional, organizational perspective since the 1970s. Over the past 15 years, pastoral leaders and clergy have been identified as leaders working in the same capacity as public safety officials, medical professionals, mental health specialists, and other helping professions. Research suggests that leaders working in helping professions are often exposed to situations that may induce burnout, create emotional dissonance, and may have adverse implications on effective leadership behaviors during experienced burnout. The significance of this study lies in its identification of a gap in …

A Phenomenological Study Of Clergy Job-Related Stress And Stress-Coping During Covid-19, Peter Michael Foxwell

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of stress and stress-coping of five Michigan pastors who led their Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) congregations through the 2020-21 COVID-19 pandemic. Stress is generally defined as the psychophysiological response to a perceived threat or stressor, and stress-coping is generally defined as intentional behaviors designed to manage stress. The theoretical background of this study is the transactional theory of stress and coping (TTSC) (Lazarus, 1966; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) as it relates to pastors’ lived experience of ministry-related stress and coping in crisis conditions. The rationales for …

Positioning Theory In Islamic Sermons: Online Messages To Parents, Cipto Wardoyo, Sheena Gardner, Benet Vincent

Sermon Studies

Positioning theory offers a theoretical and analytical framework to explore how individuals position themselves or are positioned by others through discourse. Positioning theory provides ways to interpret how the positioning is achieved through the mutual effects of storylines, speech acts, and positions (Van Langenhove & Harré 2003). We examine how male and female preachers position themselves when they advise parents about Islamic values in raising children. The sermon data is from a corpus of twenty online Islamic sermons on YouTube that engage with the theme of family. The sermons were delivered in different settings, such as in Friday services in …

التجميل بتقنية البلازمــا (Prp) - دراسة فقهية تأصيلية- Cosmetic Treatment Using Plasma Therapy (Prp) A Fundamental Jurisprudence Study, Wassan Rashidi

Jordan Journal of Islamic Studies

ملخص

ظهرت في السنوات الأخيرة العديد من الحلول التجميلية الطبية، ومن هذه الحلول تقنية التجميل بالبلازما الغنية بالصفائح الدموية (Platelet-rich plasma therapy - PRP)، فقد بدأ الأطباء باستخدامها لعلاج مشاكل صحية وجمالية مختلفة، بما في ذلك إنبات الشعر وتجديد البشرة، وشفاء الأنسجة المتضررة.

وعلى الرغم من حداثة هذه التقنية إلا أن كثرة الفتاوى المتعارضة الراجعة إلى اختلاف التصور الدقيق لهذه التقنية وتأثيرها، بالإضافة إلى انتشارها بشكل كبير في العيادات التجميلية برز لنا تساؤل عن مدى مشروعية التداوي بهذه التقنية في مجال الطب التجميلي بقسميه الضروري والحاجي أو التحسيني؟

مما دفعنا لكتابة هذا البحث، للوقوف على حقيقة هذه التقنية وتأثيرها، وإرجاع …

Hand In Hand, Autumn 2022

Hand in Hand

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Milwaukee, WI

Hand in Hand Finding Aid

Texas 'Our' Texas: My Family's Deep Roots In The Lone Star State, Karen Kossie-Chernyshev

Department of History, Geography and General Studies

No abstract provided.

Taming The Wandering Mind: Where Buddhism & Polyvagal Theory Meet, Tamara Embrey

Mindfulness Studies Theses

The ability to tame the wandering mind is at the heart of the insights emerging from the places where Buddhism and the Polyvagal Theory (Porges, 2001, 2011) meet. A polyvagal understanding of how our nervous system functions opens the door to developing skills that can strengthen our ability to regulate ourselves and others during times of challenge. The Buddha’s meditation instructions, laid out in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta, the Establishment of Mindfulness Discourse offers a type of attentional training that allows us to become aware of our current neural state so that we can make intentional choices to tame our wandering …

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 …

Vision, Fall 2022

Vision

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in USA

VisionFinding Aid

Gendered Citizenship: Understanding Violence Against Women In Pakistan, Taqdees M. Mela, Taqdees Mela

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

From 2020 to 2021, there has been an increase in violence against women by 255 percent in Pakistan.1 As a democratic state, Pakistan constitutionally recognizes its women as equal citizens but the fear of gendered violence acts as an effective deterrent to women to exercise their rights. My thesis explores the question, why Muslim women who exercise their rights are potentially subject to violence in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. An examination of this question demonstrates the historical roots of violence and their continued effect on the Pakistani Muslim woman as a citizen. Starting from the colonial period, this thesis …

Love Your Neighbor: The Church's Response To Individualism's Impact On Interpersonal Engagement, Anna Herman

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

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 …

Religious Syncretism In Spanish Latin America: Survival, Power, And Resistance, Ian Mcguckin

Student Summer Scholars Manuscripts

This paper explores the theory of religious syncretism and its application within early modern Latin America. It proposes a new model for understanding religious syncretism in order to eliminate the previous bias in the scholarship and misconceptions inherent in the term and seeks to discover why cultures chose specific religious elements over their counterparts in syncretic scenarios. Reviewing primary and secondary sources analyzing the religious characteristics and atmosphere of this period revealed that there was a pattern to syncretism and religious selection in Spanish Latin America. Europeans, Indigenous Peoples, and Africans in the New World selected religious elements based on …

Mary, Martha, And The “Good Part”: A Feminist Evaluation Of The Glorification Of Sacrifice In Latter-Day Saint Culture, Harriet Norcross

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Susa Young Gates Award Essay

Honorable Mention

In the tenth chapter of Luke, Jesus Christ visits the home of sisters Mary and Martha. While Mary sits at the Savior’s feet and listens to his words, Martha bustles about doing what she thinks is her duty, serving others (The Holy Bible, Luke 10:38-42). When she complains to Christ that her sister is not helping her with the work, He will not instruct Mary to leave his side, instead telling Martha that her sister has chosen the good part.

The Orthodox Theology Of Modernity: Problem Statement And Prospective Tasks, Hennadii Khrystokin, Vasyl Lozovytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article studies the problem of Orthodoxy's attitude to modernity. The concept of the theology of modernity–a new section of the social theology of the church, which considers the specifics, main trends, problems, and tendencies of modernity–is proposed. The theology of modernity raises questions about the possibilities, boundaries, and ways of renewal of the church. The concept of the theology of modernity is a set of methods, approaches, and discourses that allow us to comprehend modernity, carry out its assessment by means of Orthodox theology, and find its religious potential for the actualization of Christianity in our time. The analysis …

Five Steps To Successfully Make Social Engagement Happen In Your Church, Sung Kun Kwon, Bordes Henry Saturne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Burn On, Don't Burn Out: Factors That Promote Longevity In Ministry, Gary William Simpson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

Scientific literature in the social sciences is rife with studies on burnout and how this phenomenon affects those in various occupations, especially the helping professions. Clergy members are not immune to the influence and effects of burnout. The rate at which clergy members are affected by burnout is evidenced in the documented shortage of clergy currently serving churches and the paucity of ministers going into ministry. The purpose of this study was not to reiterate the effects of burnout on clergy members, but to discover and to explore those factors which promote longevity in ministry. This study used an …

Lived Religion In A Digital Age: Technology, Affect And The Pervasive Space-Times Of “New” Religious Praxis, Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong, Siew Ying Shee

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper explores how Christian practices of prayer are being reconfigured through digital media in Singapore. Although digital technologies are an area of burgeoning interest amongst social and cultural geographers, the ways in which these technologies reconfigure the space-times of religious praxis and engender new affective relations or subjectivities of religion have not yet been embraced. This paper fills the lacuna by bringing existing studies on religion, technology and affect into constructive conversation with each other. By elaborating on digital prayer as an affective assemblage of religious practice, we show how digital technologies blur institutional boundaries and create new affordances …

Factors Influencing Australian Muslims’ Attitudes Toward Christian-Muslim Dialogue: The Case Of Sunni Muslims Of Adelaide And Uniting Church Christians, Gregory Macdonald, Mohamad Abdalla, Nahid Afrose Kabir

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Since the implementation of a multicultural policy in the 1970s, religious diversity in Australia has increased. Research has demonstrated that intergroup contact is essential for managing diverse multicultural societies. This is because, given the right conditions, intergroup contact will reduce prejudice and build trust between groups. Given the importance of intergroup contact, policy makers and researchers have identified interfaith dialogue’s importance to the success of multicultural societies. However, there is very limited research that explores interfaith dialogue from the perspectives of adherents, in this case Christians and Muslims in the Australian context. This paper focuses on interfaith dialogue between Christians …

Religion And Peace : Global Perspectives And Possibilities, Nukhet A. Sandal, Ingo Trauschweizer

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Can religion help societies achieve peace and stability? What actions can religious leaders take to facilitate conflict resolution? This book addresses these critical questions in terms of numerous contemporary conflicts within and between countries.

In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, public attention to religion shifted away from its relationship to politics and toward its connection to violence in civil conflicts, wars, and terrorism. Religion’s role in sowing discord became more prominent than its ability to unify. Only recently have discussions turned toward the positive impact of religion and spirituality in the public sphere and to the role of faith …

A Step Toward An Interfaith Visitation Ministry To Provide Spiritual, Social, And Emotional Support To The Seriously Ill And Elderly At Their Homes In The Community Served By Good Samaritan Medical Center Lafayette, Colorado, Grant Gill Kirksey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this Doctor of Ministry action research thesis is to identify the support offered to the seriously ill and elderly by local faith-based communities, to compare the identified interventions provided, to discuss the population’s needs and satisfaction with their local hospitals, and to discuss the results in the context of the population of seriously ill and elderly community members, and explore opportunities for Good Samaritan Medical Center (GSMC), Lafayette, Colorado, to partner with local religious communities to improve the well-being of the seriously ill and elderly in their community. This project will include the analysis of needs and …

Engaging Millennials In Missions, Annell Adams James

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The millennial members of the Power of God Church have shown a lack of interest in participating in the local church's mission ministry. This lack of interest has caused the Missions Department and the church concern because fulfilling the mission of God is the mission of the church. The mission statement of the church is the focus of the ministry programs. Suppose the mission department creates a missions training program designed to focus on a technological learning style in which millennials thrive. Could it attract, involve, and engage millennials in future mission trips while educating them? It is this question …