Digital Commons Network^™

Clinician Experiences With Religious, Spiritual, And Nonreligious Beliefs In Psychotherapeutic Interactions, Carolyn Rochelle Cowl-Witherspoon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Psychologists are ethically bound to respect the belief systems of their clients while practicing within appropriate boundaries of competence regardless of whether they hold different beliefs than their clients. Further, though there may be a disparity between clinicians’ and clients’ beliefs, most clients expect meaningful integrations of religious and spiritual beliefs, values, and traditions into psychotherapeutic interactions. To meet the needs and expectations of a religiously or spiritually oriented client base, psychologists must maintain appropriate levels of competency within this complex domain. But clinicians are hindered by inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent levels of education and training specific to the ethically …

Assessing The Health Of An Established Urban Church To Develop A Strategic Plan For Growth, Alfonse Javed

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The health of a church is solely dependent on the health of its leadership. The more the leadership becomes imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2), the more the church resembles the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This work seeks to determine the kind of healthy church leadership, which generates a healthy church culture for multiplying disciples. The purpose of this study is to assess the health of an established urban church in midtown Manhattan, and to evaluate the perception that one large church is more effective than multiple churches in order to discover an evangelistic approach that may help this and …

Transitioning To A Televised Worship Service Via Internet To Provide For The Continued Existence Of A Small, Declining Congregation, Clifford L. Herd

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Prince of Peace (POP) congregation, Ft. Payne, Alabama has less than twenty members and is struggling to survive. POP needed another option for her continued existence and sustainability as a small, declining congregation. Utilizing Internet technologies, it was possible for this small congregation to connect with a host congregation to receive their worship service and message on a large screen television. The thesis project investigated if POP congregation could make a transition from a live person-led worship service/message to a televised worship service/message to enable them to continue to worship and survive as a congregation. The congregation was prepared to …

Fostering Self-Efficacy For Biblical Learning And Doctrinal Awareness With Micro-Teaching In A Brief Course On Bible Study, Robin K. Henson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Self-efficacy for biblical learning was explored in the context of a small group experience focused on how to study the Bible. After first developing a new instrument to measure self-efficacy for biblical learning in a pilot study, ten church attendees participated in a seven-week course designed around the hermeneutical principles of understanding a Scripture passage in textual and historical context, placing the passage in the grand story of God, and relating it to relevant doctrine. The small group process employed micro-teaching as a mechanism to facilitate challenge and mastery experience in learning. Micro-teaching places the student in the role of …

Kavana: Photography, Jewish Storytelling, And Memory, Hannah Altman

Theses and Dissertations

Jewish thought suggests that the memory of an action is as primary as the action itself. This is to say that when my hand is wounded, I remember other hands. I trace ache back to other aches - when my mother grabbed my wrist pulling me across the intersection, when my great-grandmother’s fingers went numb on the ship headed towards Cuba fleeing the Nazis, when Miriam’s palms enduringly poured water for the Hebrews throughout their desert journey - this is how the Jew is able to fathom an ache. Because no physical space is a given for the Jewish diaspora, …

Reframing And [Re]Presenting Evangelism In Oral Cultures : A Case Study Of The Harare West (Mumc) Vabvuwi Choir In Zimbabwe, Irene M. Kabete

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Perspectives From The Pew: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Congregants' Experiences Of Change In Their Churches, Courtny Davis Olds

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

Christian churches in the United States are notoriously resistant to change, whether in regard to leadership, worship style, church governance, positions on social issues, or myriad other aspects of congregational life. Yet the ability to navigate change successfully is vitally important to churches’ continued survival and renewed relevance. A particular body of literature, consisting of both scholarly and practitioner-oriented works, has attempted to address the necessity and the challenges of change in a church context. However, the literature is largely silent when it comes to the perspectives of those who are most impacted by congregational change: namely, the congregants themselves. …

Tradition As Flow: Decolonial Currents In The Muslim Atlantic, Jason Sparkes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This study contributes a decolonial critique of the world-system from the longue durée perspective of the Muslim Atlantic. It connects contemporary Traditionalist Islamic discourse in North America to human networks developed since the long sixteenth century. Traditionalist Islam can be described as a discourse about traditional Islam. Genealogically, it draws upon many sources. Two important ones are (1) the oeuvre of French metaphysician and Sufi René Guénon, and (2) the Shâdhilî school of Sufism born in North Africa. Traditionalist Islam distinguishes itself from what it depicts as fundamentalist (or Salafist) and modernist (or progressive) currents, representing two extremes of …

Teachers' Perceptions Of The Nine Defining Characteristics Of Catholic Identity In Ursuline Secondary Schools Of The Usa, Barbara Ann Middendorf

Doctoral Dissertations

Catholic schools are integral to the Catholic Church’s mission of evangelization. A Catholic educational institution is a place to encounter the living God who is Jesus Christ. Education is the concern and task of the Church, called to serve humankind from the heart of God. This study examined the perceptions of teachers working in Roman Union, Ursuline secondary schools of the Central Province of the United States regarding the extent to which the nine defining characteristics of Catholic identity were present in their respective schools and classrooms. For this research, Catholic identity was operationally defined using the seminal Catholic education …

Grieving The Eternal Present: The Pressures Of Being A Person (With Words), Rowen Light-Wills

Scripps Senior Theses

I started this poetry project from the jumping off point of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott's most well known theory; that of the "good enough" mother. This appealed to me because like Freud's, Lacan's, and other psychoanalysts’ work, it centers the infant and attempts to understand the developing psyche. In combination with Melanie Klein’s theories, this thesis aims to pinpoint specific anxieties that transcend childhood and feel applicable to the rest of the relationships a person develops in their life. Did they experience nurturing and detach from their primary caregiver at a developmentally healthy time? Or did they lack some relationship between …

The Necessity And Detriment Of Shame As Presented In John Calvin's Institutes, Tova Cohen

Scripps Senior Theses

In this senior thesis, I aim to explore the presence of shame in John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, via the excavation of the three main components that comprise of his edifice: original sin, grace, and predestination. Through a close reading of Calvin's Institutes, its application to Aristotelian ethics, and its consistencies (or lack thereof) with the biblical story of Genesis, I found that Calvin's theology not only suffers logical structure, but implores the Christian practitioner to embrace shame as a means to spiritually elevate the self. To conclude, I utilize Stephanie Arel's Affect Theory to uncover the …

Salvation: Contours Of Adventist Soteriology [Review] / Martin F. Hanna, Darius W. Jankiewicz, And John W. Reeve, Eds., Stephen Bauer

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review

The Hermeneutics Of The Biblical Writers: Learning To Interpret Scripture From The Prophets And Apostles [Review] / Chou, Abner., Silvia Bacchiocchi

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review

The Later Wittgenstein And Moral Philosophy [Review] / De Mesel, Benjamin., Kenneth Bergland

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review

Women In Leadership In The Beginnings Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church In South America [Review] / Scholtus, Silvia C., Eric E. Ritcher

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review

Young People And The Baptist Church: Staying And Leaving, Timothy Mullen

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The purpose of this study was to understand and compare the young people’s experiences of the church between those who attended church at the time of the study, and those who were no longer attending church at the time of the study. The study was conducted to understand more about the experiences that lead young people to leave the church, and the experiences that motivate young people to stay. A literature review, and a phenomenological study was conducted into this experience. 15 young people aged 19 – 29 were interviewed using openended questions. It was found through the literature review …

Religious Belief And Culture: The Curious Case Of The Intuitive Soul, Karl G. D. Bailey, Duane C. Mcbride

Faculty Publications

While Adventists recognize some of the straightforward and concrete ideas that are part of doctrinal training on human nature and the state of the dead, the core intuitive belief in mind-body dualism likely continues to influence how Adventists understand human nature.

Youth Decline In Church Growth And Attendance, Marion Diane Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Youth attendance in the church has declined in the recent past. The reason for their decline is that they no longer find a church to be socially and spiritually relevant to their lives. The paper seeks to provide a solution to the problem through spiritual formation and increasing the depth of youth programs so that they can remain socially relevant to the lives of the young people. This will be done by encouraging youth people to know who Jesus is and how to have a personal relationship with him through faith.

American God Story: Creating Shared Cultural Context With Popular Television, Timothy Joseph Rosenberger

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Believers increasingly encounter a stark divide between their cultural contexts and those of the people they seek to evangelize. This divide is particularly pronounced in popular culture where the television, movies, music, and books that appeal to Christians often are radically different than those that appeal to mainstream Americans. Without a shared cultural language, and a shared network of cultural touch points, it can be challenging to form meaningful connection between, and amongst, church members and unchurched community members. This study pioneers an intervention in which church members, and unchurched community members, come together to view popular television episodes and …

The Hope And History Debate In Fundamental Theology, David Patrick Collits

Theses

The hope and history debate in twentieth century Catholic theology concerned to what extent the object(s) of eschatological hope could be realised within history. Its context was the ‘secularisation of Christian eschatology’. On the one hand, Joseph Ratzinger, who was indebted to the philosophical work of Josef Pieper, considered hope’s object to belong to the realm of gift. He was sceptical of the extent to which hope could be manufactured by human means within history. On the other, Edward Schillebeeckx, Johann Baptist Metz and Gustavo Gutiérrez presented theologies of futurity, including political theology and liberation theology, in which the realisation …

St. Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin, December 29, 2019

Saint Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Chicago, IL

Saint Francis Brogia Deaf Center Church Bulletin Finding Aid

“Spirited” Engagement: Latin American Faith And The Construction Of Emancipative Pentecostalism, David Luckey

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Pentecostalism is a prominent form of Christianity around the world that is increasingly pervasive in the Global South. One of the persistent issues that obscures accurate understanding of the movement is the question of whether such a spiritually-oriented faith gives attention to social realities. This dissertation identifies a broad spectrum of Latin America Pentecostal social- ethical engagement in order to complicate stereotypes and reveal a natural orientation toward public witness. It shows that Pentecostalism is too complex for broad generalization, and it draws on leading voices from within the movement to articulate a call to increasing efforts for social justice.

The Unmarried (M)Other: A Study Of Christianity, Capitalism, And Counternarratives Concerning Motherhood And Marriage In The United States And South Africa, Haley Feuerbacher

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

A reified and patriarchal form of Christianity that emphasizes “family values” – that is, adherence to the formula of a male-headed, heterosexual, capitalist, nuclear family, characterized by distinct, complementary, and hierarchical gender roles as essential to the well-being of individuals, one’s nation, and the ecumenical Church - over “community values” has become a happy bedfellow of the market system and neocolonialism, extending its reach worldwide through globalization. The result is that single mothers constitute the most economically oppressed demographic internationally across all race and ethnic categories. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory and a postcolonial feminist theological lens to collect, retell, and …

Habermas And The Question Of Bioethics, Hille Haker

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In The Future of Human Nature, Jürgen Habermas raises the question of whether the embryonic genetic diagnosis and genetic modification threatens the foundations of the species ethics that underlies current understandings of morality. While morality, in the normative sense, is based on moral interactions enabling communicative action, justification, and reciprocal respect, the reification involved in the new technologies may preclude individuals to uphold a sense of the undisposability (Unverfügbarkeit) of human life and the inviolability (Unantastbarkeit) of human beings that is necessary for their own identity as well as for reciprocal relations. Engaging with liberal …

Natural Law, The Object Of The Act, And Double Effect: Moral Methodology For Catholic Health Care Ethics, Travis Stephens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Veritatis Splendor is the first and only magisterial document that systematically articulates a moral methodology for Catholic moral theology. This dissertation makes explicit the methodological connection between Vatican teaching and the United States Bishops’ Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. The thesis of the dissertation explains the systematic connection between Natural Law, the Moral Object of the Act, and the Principle of Double Effect and by extension the ethical Principle of Cooperation. Second, the thesis applies this complex moral method of official teaching to health care ethics.

Following the introduction, chapter …

A Comparison Of Some Of The Fatwas Issued By The Medical Affairs, Baxrom Mamadiyev Mr

The Light of Islam

In history and nowadays, in a constantly globalizing world, Islamic religion and medicine have provoked numerous heated debates, especially at critical moments in life and death, transplantation of human organs, abortion and other issues.

All Islamic law schools consider a woman’s life threat as an acceptable cause of abortion, and some allow abortion to preserve a woman’s health. Islam favors abortion under strict conditions, such as a risk to the mother’s life, a birth defect, and fetal deformity, or if pregnancy is the result of sin. Some ulema do not allow abortion to maintain a woman’s health.

An analysis of …

Wanda And Me: The Continuous Rise Of Puerto Rico's Greatest Pyramid Schemer, Natalia Rodriguez Medina

Capstones

Wanda Rolón is Puerto Rico's most prolific pastor. Her megachurch seats more than 4,000 people. She has ties to the government. She owns several radio and TV stations, and has reached millions. Follow the reporter as she visits Rolón's church, and discovers Wanda's modus operandi, and a bit of herself in this longform narrative.

https://medium.com/@nataliarodrguezmedina/wanda-and-me-the-continuous-rise-of-puerto-ricos-greatest-pyramid-schemer-f2d4ab9e8b5c

Lutheran Pioneers I - Our Pilgrim Fathers., Theodore Graebner

Synod History

The Story of the Saxon Emigration of 1838. Retold Mainly in the Words of the Emigrants, and Illustrated from Original Documents Related to the Emigration.

St. Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin, December 8, 2019

Saint Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Chicago, IL

Saint Francis Brogia Deaf Center Church Bulletin Finding Aid

Loving Thyself And Well-Being: What Does God Have To Do With It?, Derek De La Peña Ph.D.

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

The current study is both exploratory and conceptual in nature and considers the controversial topic of “self-love” from both Christian and positive psychology viewpoints. Adaptive and maladaptive concepts of self-love are considered with Christian participants (n = 467) who listed God as the most important factor to happiness (Type I, n = 133) and a second group (Type II, n = 334) who considered some other factor as more important. Statistical significance was evident between groups with Type I participants scoring higher for meaning in life, engagement, and life-satisfaction measures in addition to a number of biblically-based character qualities (e.g. …