Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Biblical Literacy In Discipling Believers In The Local Church, Joseph G. Austin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The degradation of biblical literacy has increased in recent years to the point that many church attendees have very little actual knowledge or understanding of Biblical truths. This lack of knowledge is a direct correlation to the lack of moral foundations for many of today’s believers, particularly with younger generations. The goal of this paper is to provide a balanced, substantive, and interactive plan for churches, large and small, to integrate into their discipleship programs or use to assist the local church in establishing a discipleship program. The process will include surveys gauging the level of biblical literacy among self-identified …

Believers But Not Followers: The Unstoppable Misconduct And Neglect Of Christians Outside Ministries Duties, Fabio Delgado

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Christianity is embedded in moral conduct, values, and norms which require believers to project a Christ-like nature. While the whole concept of Christianity is embodied in faith and righteousness, the current generation of believers has exhibited an increased state of secularism which contradicts biblical morals and drifts them further from the religious faith. This research stems from the increasingly common notion of “believers but not followers,” where Christians wittingly abandon their ministerial duties and engage in misconduct. The selection of this topic emanates from the deep concern regarding the rising trend of hypocrisy among believers and mainly propagated by events …

Missional Metamorphosis: How Identity, Presence, And Praxis Are Reshaping Disciple Making Within Post-Christian Contexts, Justin Thomas Wester

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The American Church’s current disciple-making paradigm is struggling to engage post-Christian contexts with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite American society’s steady trending away from a biblical worldview, dwindling church attendance, and declining religious affiliation, the American Church is still operating under a disciple-making paradigm conducive for the Christendom era. What changes must occur to help churches break away from an antiquated paradigm and embrace a more contextually appropriate expression? This project helps to answer that question by capturing and expressing how changes in ecclesial identity, contextual presence, and corporate praxis are altering disciple-making paradigms within post-Christian contexts. Utilizing quantitative …

Women In The Serbian Orthodox Church: Historical Overview And Contemporary Situation, Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović, Radmila Radić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Research on the position of women in the Eastern Orthodox churches is still scarce. Some recent studies show differences among the various Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe regarding women’s issues. The position of the women in the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) was addressed as late as in the 1990s, but this is still an insufficiently examined field. Eastern Orthodox theologians have rarely discussed the problem of the position and role of women in the SOC. During the socialist era, they did not engage this topic, except in studies related to female monasticism. On the other hand, sociological and anthropological studies …

Eurasian And Eastern European Evangelicals: Tested Over Two Centuries, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The oppression of evangelicals has been a persistent legacy, but it has not applied to all of them. Therefore, we must begin by defining evangelicals and oppression. A further query to pursue is: what intensity of oppression has permitted creative survival?

Post-Soviet Transformation For Evangelicals, 1991-2018: Deepening Causes For Discord, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

During the great transformation between 1989 and 1991, the majority of American journalists were completely surprised by the transformations of 1989 in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the USSR in 1991, since it contradicted their stereotypes so profoundly. Several developments within the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe turned out to be signposts for those with the eyes to see. Literary figures and philosophers circulating their thinking in samizdat form, or through the emergence of dissenting movements, pointed to the disillusionment with the grand socialist promises. Solzhenitsyn had already drawn attention in his Nobel speech to the power of truth …

Clergy Sexual Abuse In The Roman Catholic Church: Dispelling Eleven Myths And Separating Facts From Fiction, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church has made headline news across the country and world for years. Yet, even with such remarkable publicity, so much misinformation and myths about the problem persist. It is important for psychologists, as well as other mental health professionals, to be better informed about these myths and misinformation in order to better serve their clients who may be impacted by the story. Those impacted include not only clerical abuse victims, their families, and clerics themselves but also Catholics in general, who may be troubled and demoralized by the ongoing and unfolding crisis …

Relationship Between Religion, Spirituality, And Psychotherapy: An Ethical Perspective, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Spirituality and religion are typically a critically important element of most people’s lives. They offer an overarching framework for making sense of the world and a strategy to cope with life’s stressors. They provide a community and a way to wrestle with life’s biggest questions regarding meaning, purpose, and suffering. Mental health professionals are mandated to behave in an ethical manner defined by their codes of ethics. These codes typically understand religion and spirituality a multiculturalism issue. Professionals need to be respectful and responsible and pay close attention to potential implicit bias, boundary crossings, and destructive beliefs and practices. Working …

A Strategy For Building Healthy Local Churches In Jordan, Kwang Hu Hwang

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Evangelical churches in Jordan have faced many challenges in maintaining healthy churches under the Islamic government. The churches in Jordan are not only important for local people, but also for people in the Middle East in fulfilling the Great Commission. This is because many Jordanians visit various Arab countries to have a job and a numerous number of Gulf countries’ people travel to Jordan. The purpose of this thesis is to create a strategy with this context to build healthy local churches in Jordan that can then be involved in fulfilling the Great Commission actively for the local and Arab …

Declining Church Attendance: Five Reasons Why Millennials Have Stopped Attending Church, Charles Eugene Sumpter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

During the past decade, every denomination has recorded a decline in church attendance despite a continual increase in the US population. Research organizations including the Barna Group, Pew Research, and the Hartford Institute of Religion Research conducted an untold number of surveys providing statistics that ascertain reasons for declining church attendance and why people are leaving the church. Failure to address the issue of declining attendance will lead to more church failures and an increased number of people with no church affiliation. This research document will review data from the Barna Group, Pew Research, and the Hartford Institute of Religion …

Go Outside And Play!, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"We know that play is good for kids’ mental, emotional, and physical health, but what about for adults?"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the benefits of enjoyable activities from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/go-outside-and-play/

Health, More Than A Biological Issue: Talking About Holistic Health, Jordan Helming, Luralyn M. Helming

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"As a society, we often ignore psychological, social, and spiritual health, focusing on the much more objective biological health. Doing so is a disfavor to ourselves, because humans encompass all four aspects."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­health for the whole person from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/health-more-than-a-biological-issue-talking-about-holistic-health/

If Not Stewards Of Creation, What Are We?, David Warners, Matthew Kuperus Heun

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

What if God didn’t place humans on earth to be stewards of creation? If not stewards, then what is our relationship to the nonhuman creation? These are the central questions addressed by Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care (The Calvin Press, 2019). Using voices and insights of 14 authors from diverse disciplines, this book is filled with fresh ideas and encouragement to help Christians better understand both their place in the world and the many relationships that embed them within God’s good but groaning creation.

The Amish Symposium, Megan Bogden, Steven Reschly, Benjamin Zeller, Tom Coletti

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The Amish is a 500-some page university press-sized handbook that touches on a variety of topical areas. The book is the culmination of two and a half decades each of Kraybill’s, Johnson-Weiner’s, and Nolt’s work about the Amish. Karen Johnson-Weiner published a series of linguistic studies through the 1990s, and from these spring-board works later explored more fully schools and New York settlements. Donald Kraybill’s first Amish-focused publication was a Durkheimian study of the Amish and suicide in 1986. From then on he has maintained this functionalist orientation in comparative studies of plain Anabaptists and Amish responses to cultural, economic, …

Giftive Dialogue: An Analysis Of The Use Of The Giftive Metaphor In The Pluralist Context Of The Lutheran University Of Brazil, Maximiliano Silva

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Silva, Maximiliano Wolfgramm. “Giftive Dialogue: An Analysis of the Use of the Giftive Metaphor in the Pluralist Context of the Lutheran University of Brazil.” Ph. D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2019. 189 pp.

Modernity’s secularization project and specific characteristics of Brazilian history have promoted pluralism to the status of a moral demand, especially in the academic context. Such a situation posits challenges and opportunities for ULBRA’s campus pastors. That is so because ULBRA’s chaplains’ pastoral ministry is the most visible and symbolic expression of ULBRA’s confessional identity. Because of the claims made by Christianity, that identity has exclusivist traits. Therefore, it …

Lived Kardecism - A Phenomenological Approach To Understanding Brazilian Spiritism, William Miller

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Miller, William D. “Lived Kardecism: A Phenomenological Approach to Understanding Brazilian Spiritism.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2019. 327 pp.

This dissertation addresses a problem that faces the researcher of Brazilian Spiritism, namely that there is a need for a particular kind of account that takes the lived experience of religion as its foundation; an account of the lived experience of Spiritists who practice Spiritism as a religion in the Brazilian context and find value in it for their spiritual journey. This study answers the question as to how Spiritists articulate what is spiritual, relate to religion, and experience spiritual significance …

“Wild Mobs, To Mad Sedition Prone”: Preaching The American Revolution, Barry Levis

Sermon Studies

The Church of England in the American Colonies was really not a single institution. Because no local bishop governed the church in America, falling as it did under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, the clergy tended to have differing loyalties. Especially in the southern colonies, local vestries ruled the clergy because they controlled their stipends; therefore the clergy followed the lead of the local squirearchy and suppressed their personal views regarding independence. The New England Anglican clergy were equally in a difficult position. Midst the hostility of Puritanism and the Sons of Liberty, they seemed like an alien …

Witnessing At Work When It's Taboo To Talk About Religion, Michael E. Cafferky

Faculty Works

This article explores an alternative to traditional approaches to evangelism in the workplace. it presents an approach based on using the language of business alone in conversations with coworkers, suppliers and customers. While it is often taboo to talk about religion in secular organizations, opportunities exist for believers to be not just silent witnesses but rather explicit verbal witnesses to Jesus Christ. Business conversations naturally present opportunities to champion the theological identity and character traits of Jesus Christ without mentioning his name.

The Impact Of Healing On The Growth Of Christianity In Asia: An Empirical Investigation, Julie Ma

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article explores the role healing has played in the expansion of Christianity throughout Asia. It documents stories from various regions of Asia to demonstrate that healing is an effective method for evangelism.

“I Will Heal Their Land”: The Meaning And Significance Of Healing (רפא) In 2 Chronicles 7:13–16, Lian Mung

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article explores the meaning and significance of Yahweh’s promise to heal the land of his people in 2 Chr 7:13–16 within its immediate context and also within the book of 2 Chronicles by exploring how the text is connected linguistically and thematically with other related texts. It argues that the meaning of healing in 2 Chr 7:13–16 extends far beyond the physical healing of the land that results in agricultural blessings, and the theme of healing plays a significant role in the Chronicler’s theology of retribution, repentance, and restoration.

Healing Through Music Therapy, Hayoung Lim

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article explores the field of music therapy as a healthcare profession to benefit various clinical populations and the way in which music therapy is a whole-person approach to healing for people with cognitive, physical, and social needs.

Becoming A Whole Person Medical Professional: Reflections From An Oru Medical Student, Clay Powell, M.D.

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article is a reflection about the legacy of whole person medicine by a graduate of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine.

Healing Through Prayer And Medicine: How Oral Roberts’ Healing Vision Was— And Continues To Be—Fulfilled, John R. Crouch, Jr., M.D.

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article is a personal reflection on the legacy of integration of divine healing with medical practice through the vision of the Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. It charts the origins of the School of Medicine, the implementation of the philosophy of prayer and medicine, and the legacy that followed the theology and faculty after the school closed in 1989.

Editorial - The Healing Issue, Daniel D. Isgrigg

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Spiritus 4, Vol 2 (2019) The Healing Issue, Holy Spirit Research Center Oru Library

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

2019 Denominational Survey Results, Calvin University

CRCNA Denominational Survey Results

As part of the denominational ministry plan, Our Journey 2020, the CRCNA has contracted with Calvin College’s Social Research Center to administer a denominational survey every year. The results from the 2019 survey have now been compiled.

All CRC-affiliated adults and older youth are welcome to respond to this survey every year as they are led. In order to ensure a healthy number of responses to the survey every year, however, CRC leaders have randomly assigned every CRC church to one of five “cohorts.” Each cohort includes about 20 percent of all active congregations, and each congregation will be asked …

Partnering With Faith Communities: Challenges Of Religious And Secular Literacy, Rob Brodrick, Kelly S. Johnson, Anwar Khan, Leocadie Lushombo, Edith Tapia

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Partnering with Faith Communities: Challenges of Religious and Secular Literacy

While many scholars have noted the necessity of a grasp of the complexity of religious belief for engagement in international relations, human rights, and humanitarian work, the topic of religious belief remains fraught and underdeveloped in human rights activism. Concerns include the conviction that religion must be treated as private in order to preserve an inclusive public life; evidence that religious communities may oppose the human rights' groups commitments on LGBTQI and women's rights; and anxieties that various religious groups will exclude or manipulate those who are not members and …

Jesus, Popular Culture, And The Politics Of The Margins: A Theomusicological Analysis Of The Drive-By Truckers, Vinson Lee Edwards

Student Theses and Dissertations

With the September 2016 release of the American Band album, the Drive-By Truckers, a band formed in 1996, inserted themselves into discussions on politics like never before. In response to the media’s frequent question of, “What made you decide to get so political now?” the band—chiefly Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley—replied, “We have always been a political band.” This study aims to pinpoint what the band means by such a statement, first by analyzing the band’s previous albums; then by considering the band’s Southern, Bible-Belt background; and finally, by examining additional aspects of the band such as sonic qualities, genre, …

Catholicism In The Neonatal Context: Belief, Practice, Challenge, Hope, M. Therese Lysaught Phd

Institute of Pastoral Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Roman Catholics comprise the largest single denomination in the United States and are the nation’s largest group of not-for-profit healthcare providers. Yet, there is little or no available literature to assist neonatal caregivers in understanding how religious beliefs and values might influence parents’ responses to the challenges posed by their newborn’s care. Equally, there is little or no available literature on the academic or pastoral side addressing questions of neonatal medicine from a theological perspective. This chapter addresses how Roman Catholic teachings might affect the ways in which parents and caregivers make treatment decisions. It examines the neonatal context in …

Biblical Coens: Can We Laugh Now?, Richard G. Walsh

Journal of Religion & Film

A review of Coen criticism, specifically attending to Elijah Siegler’s recent, significant collection of essays, indicates that Coen brothers’ films frame characters in harsh, amoral worlds. This aesthetic “framing” is similar not only to Camus’ analysis of the absurd, but also to the “feel” of some biblical narratives. Where Camus urges one to move beyond the absurd to absurd creation and biblical narratives press on to faith—at least, in most religious readings of them—the Coens laugh. A selective overview of the use of bibles in Coen brothers’ films demonstrates that the Coens’ biblical hermeneutic is risible. Their films frame bibles …