Digital Commons Network^™

Update - June 2011, Loma Linda University Center For Christian Bioethics

Update

In this issue:

[ Clinical Bioethics and Religion: Robert Orr's Medical Ethics and the Faith Factor ]
-- Forging a Path for Christian Ethics (Review)
-- A Passionate, Faith-Inspired Physician - Ethicist (Review)
-- Excepts from Robert Orr's Medical Ethics and the Faith Factor

-- 2012 Jack W. Provonsha lecture opens the Alumni Postgraduate Convention
-- Editorial

[ Claritás - Clarity in Ethics Essay Contest - White Coats: Purple Pens ]
-- First-place 2010 essay winner, Gregory A, Lammert, School of Medicine, Loma Linda University

-- Dental Ethics at Loma Linda University
-- Non-violent Revolution: Blessed Are the Peacemakers
-- …

Reformed Hermeneutic: An Outline, Thomas R. Wolthuis

Pro Rege

Dr. Thomas R. Wolthuis presented this article at the Calvinism for the 21st Century Conference at Dordt College, April 2010.

Haiti's Troubles: Perspectives From The Theology Of Work And From Liberation Theology, Lys Stéphane Florival

Dissertations (2 year embargo)

This dissertation examines "signs of the times" in contemporary Haiti, concentrating on the harsh realities of work and workers in the context of entrenched poverty and ecological devastation. It seeks to formulate a Christian theological-ethical framework that will empower movements of both the Church and Haitian society to engage the problems of the degradation of work and exploitation of workers. This investigation adopts the critical method of correlation using insights from certain modern theologies of work (Chenu, John Paul II, and Miroslav Volf) and from liberation theology (Gutiérrez, Godefroy Midy, and J-B Aristide) to analyze key features of the realities …

Recreating Religion: The Response To Joseph Smith’S Innovations In The Second Prophetic Generation Of Mormonism, Christopher James Blythe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

On June 27, 1844, Joseph Smith, the founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, was assassinated. In the wake of his death, a number of would-be
successors emerged. Each of these leaders - part of what I call the second prophetic
generation - established a unique vision of Mormonism.

In 1844, Mormonism was in the middle of a major shift in its character. Joseph
Smith’s death left numerous theological and practical questions unresolved. This thesis argues that, rather than merely a succession struggle of competition and power, a principal function of the second prophetic generation in Mormonism …

Continuity And Development In Roman Catholic Ecclesiology, Susan K. Wood

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

An overview of the conceptualizations of the Catholic Church from the theology of Bellarmine to contemporary understanding of the church as communion shows both continuity and development from one concept to the next rather than an abrupt change to a new model that discards the model preceding it. This essay examines the church as perfect society, church as mystical body, church as sacrament, church as people of God, and church as communion, demonstrating that the various conceptualizations represent development, balance, correction, and a deeper penetration in the understanding and articulation of the prior conceptualizations. The church as body of Christ …

"That They May Secure It And Hold It Forever": Bluff's Revival, 1885–1886, David S. Carpenter

BYU Studies

This article is an extract of David S. Carpenter's Jens Nielson: Bishop of Bluff (BYU Studies, 2011). Home to only a couple of hundred people in 2011, Bluff is located in southeast Utah. The experiences of the hardy pioneers in this hostile and forbidding region have become legendary among Latter-day Saints. This extract tells the story of Mormon settlers in Bluff in 1884: their struggles over joint ventures, water, cattle grazing, and whether to maintain the settlement at all.

Making Friends Down Under: The Beginnings Of Lds Missionary Work On Thursday Island, Queensland, Australia, 1961, Fred E. Woods

Faculty Publications

The year 2011 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the beginnings of LDS missionary work on Thursday Island. On this jubilee occasion, it is fitting to ask how the message of Mormonism came to this tiny Australian isle and how American Mormon missionaries adapted to a region far removed from their culture and homeland. Using journal entries, letters, and interviews from the first three full-time elders to preach on the island, it is possible to sketch a portrait of what these young men experienced.

By The Pricking Of My Thumbs, Something Wicked This Way Comes: Omani Perceptions Of The Supernatural, Jennifer L. Borger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As a student who came to Oman knowing very little about the Arab world or Islam, I can safely say that my knowledge has increased tenfold. Upon entrance to the country in January 2011, I had no idea what my independent research study would end up addressing. Upon first hearing of the concept of the evil eye and all it relates to, my interest peaked. I began to think that this topic was interesting enough to command a month’s attention from me. This all changed during a weekend trip to Salalah, in the south of Oman, which included a lecture …

Latter-Day Saint Poetry And Songs Of The Utah War, Kenneth L. Alford Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

During the Utah War (1857–58), Latter‐day Saints wrote and published a large number of poems and song expressing their loyalty to the Church, anger at the federal government, and defiance of the United States soldiers who were marching toward Utah Territory. This article places those poems and stories in context and shares many of them.

From Pacifism To Just War Theory : The Development Of Christian Attitudes To War And Military Service From The Late First Century To The Early Fifth Century, Luke Arnold

Seminary Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Kids And Kingdom: The Precarious Presence Of Children In The Synoptic Gospels, Arthur James Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At a time when institutions of faith are increasingly confronted with scandals that have brought the vulnerability of young children to the fore of religious consciousness, some scholars have pointed to Jesus' special concern and affection for children in the Gospels. Scholars are struck by how often the authors place Jesus in relation to children: healing them, blessing them, and challenging their marginal status by characterizing them as models for understanding the kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus. If the authors had concluded their stories of Jesus' eschatological gathering with the blessing of the children, then their characterizations of children …

Enlightenment Sermon Studies: A Multidisciplinary Activity, Bob Tennant

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

The past two decades have seen a collective reconsideration of the positions occupied by religion in the eighteenth century, amounting to a fundamental shift in historiography. The revived study of the period's sermon literature seems to contribute to this. The present essay suggests the need for more interdisciplinary cooperation in better defining sermon studies and presents four questions about sermons to scholars working on the British Enlightenment, and, more generally, the Long Eighteenth Century, which will be referred to as "our period": What are the characteristics of the corpus? What is distinctive about the relationship of sermons to theological and …

Irish Clergy And The Deist Controversy: Two Episodes In The Early British Enlightenment, Scott Breuninger

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

D uring the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, an important question facing Anglican divines was the relationship between reason and religion. Initiated by the publication of John Toland's Christianity Not Mysterious (1696), the controversy concerning deism raged across both sides of the Irish Sea and called into question the sanctity of revealed religion, forcing believers to articulate more "rational" defenses of Christianity. Closely associated with the problematic origins of the "English Enlightenment;' Toland's provocative tract valorized reason in matters of religion and drew heavily upon the ideas of natural philosophy. Although viciously attacked for its heretical tenets, Toland's position …

Johannes Piscator (1526-1625) And The Consequent Development Of The Doctrine Of The Imputation Of Christ's Active Obedience, Heber Carlos De Campos Júnior

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

Though the forensic understanding of imputation of Christ's righteousness was consistently asserted by the Reformers, the discussion around what constituted this imputed righteousness was a Post Reformation debate. However, secondary literature is often unaware of the development of such doctrine when they assert that early Reformed figures such as John Calvin, Zacharias Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus were either in favor or opposed to the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's active obedience. These labels are preferable if attributed to those who responded to Johannes Piscator's disagreement with Theodore Beza's theology of imputation of righteousness, this being the debate which sparked …

Called Into Communion: A Paradigm Shift In Holiness Theology, B. Susan Carole

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation argues that current problems in Nazarene holiness theology can be traced to a person-centered theological approach, which was introduced into theological reflection and practice during the Nineteenth Century Holiness Movement. Subjectivism has resulted in articulations of holiness doctrine that over-value the human role in religious experience and obscure the primacy of grace. These problems can be overcome by an articulation of holiness doctrine from the standpoint of its transcendent goalfullness in divine-human communion. Fullness of communion is divine-human fellowship characterized by the full actualization of divine Lordship and wholehearted human devotion, through the fullness of the Holy Spirit. …

Missiological Imagination As A Pedagogical Tool: African And Asian Christians In Conversion, Benjamin Hartley

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This article provides an example of how mission history may be utilized in imaginative ways to promote student reflection about missiology. The article first presents biographical portraits of three Christian leaders from Africa and Asia in the late eighteenth century with respect to three missiological themes (migration, empire, and theology of evangelism). The second section of the essay is a fictitious and imaginative conversation among these three historical characters and me, the author, where questions are posed concerning these same themes. The article concludes with pedagogical reflections on the use of a similar exercise with students.

Sermon Publishing, Clerical Reading, And John Wilkins's Ecclesiastes, 1646-1750, Rosemary Dixon

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

Francis Bacon had little to say about the study of divinity in The Advancement of Learning (1605), his critical survey of the state of knowledge at the turn of the seventeenth century. In contrast to the other fields of learning Bacon explored, divinity needed but little encouragement: "For I can finde no space or ground that lieth vacant and vnsowne in the matter of Diuinitie, so diligent haue men beene, either in sowing of good seede, or in sowing of Tares:' Bacon did, however, have an intriguing suggestion for a hypothetical theological book:

that forme of writing in Diuinitie, which …

Jesus Founding The Church: A Perspective Drawing Upon Loewe And Lonergan, Dennis M. Doyle

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

William Loewe, who directed my dissertation over twenty-five years ago, has influenced my own work deeply. My dissertation compared the positions of Wilfred Cantwell Smith and Bernard Lonergan on the relationship between religious belief and truth. In this essay I will try to express some of what I have learned from my director, both while writing my dissertation and in the decades since, about Lonergan and about theology.

Taking up the issue of Jesus’ founding of the church, I will focus especially on how Loewe’s approach to Christology has influenced my own approach to an important issue in ecclesiology. Loewe …

Using Ezra's Time As A Methodological Pivot For Understanding The Rhetoric And Functions Of The Pentateuch, James W. Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

The Persian period saw the transformation of pentateuchal materials into a scripture, the Torah. The story of Ezra exemplifies that transformation by its description of his manipulation of the physical scroll, his oral reading of it before the people of Jerusalem, and his arrangement for its professional translation/interpretation by Levites. These rituals have characterized the function of the Torah (and other scriptures) from that time forward. The Persian period, however, also marks a major change in the nature of our evidence for the form, contents and meaning of pentateuchal materials. The only historical evidence from before the time of Ezra …

Malcolm X And The Limits Of 'Authentically Black And Truly Catholic:' A Research Project In Black Radicalism And Black Catholic Faith, Bryan Massingale

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Based on the talk he delivered during the 2010 Annual Meeting, Massingale here tackles head-on the unvoiced questions with which most of us have struggled at some point in our careers and ministries. He begins by unveiling the conflicted ramifications of ‘authentically black and truly Catholic’. Echoing Copeland’s reference in Volume IV to the price that black scholars and theologians must pay to “speak and act and live in truth” (p. 75), Massingale explores Malcolm X’s call for Black Nationalism and its synthesis and coexistence with Integrationism in current Black Catholicism. Finally, he asks a series of haunting questions about …

The Ecclesial Meaning Of The Eucharist, Susan Wood

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Sabbath In The Pentateuch: An Exegetical And Theological Study, Mathilde Frey

Dissertations

Many studies have explored the seventh-day Sabbath in the Pentateuch from historical-critical, theological, and historical perspectives. However, systematic contextual exegesis and close reading of the pentateuchal Sabbath texts have been neglected. This dissertation investigates literary features of these passages in their respective contexts and develops an integrated Sabbath theology from the viewpoint of the Pentateuch as a whole.

In chapter 1, an overview of literature on the biblical Sabbath introduces the topic and describes the methodology of the study. Chapters 2 to 5 explore specific contextual, stylistic, and linguistic elements of the pentateuchal Sabbath pericopes, which contribute to expression of …

Foreword, From Holy Places And Pilgrimages: Essays On India, Robert H. Stoddard

Geography Program: Faculty Publications

This collection of twelve articles continues a long and rich body of information about pilgrimages. Written materials in the form of pamphlets, guidebooks, manuals, itineraries, and treatises about pilgrimages date from antiquity (see, e.g. the discussion in this volume by Rana Singh about ancient epics, pp. 15-20). Travelling to places regarded by worshippers as having extraordinary spiritual power is a phenomenon permeating all religious traditions so it is logical that it appears in various literary forms.

On The Good Name Of The Dead: Peace, Liberty, And Empire In Robert Morehead's Waterloo Sermon, Bob Tennant

Religion in the Age of Enlightenment

On Sunday, July 2, 1815, a fortnight after the battle of Waterloo, the Scottish Episcopalian minister Robert Morehead ( 1777-1842) preached a sermon- On the Good Name of the Dead [Ecclesiastes 7:1]-which displayed many of the components of a theory of Christian empire and combined them with the radically new approach to pulpit oratory that Morehead was helping to develop. The present essay offers a method of exploring the connection between ideology and rhetoric based on tools belonging to linguistic analysis rather than conventional historiography. Thus it is hoped that the evidential base available to historians may be extended. …

1 & 2 Thessalonians And Work, Theology Of Work Project, Colin Nicholl

Theology of Work Project

1. Introduction 1 & 2 Thessalonians
2. Working Faith, Finishing Up, and Keeping the Faith (1 Thess 1:1-4:8; 4:13-5:28; 2 Thess 1:1-2:17)
3. Faithful Work (1 Thess 4:9-12, 2 Thess 3:6-16)
4. Christians are Expected to Work (1 Thess 4:9-12; 5:14)
5. Those Truly Unable To Work Should Receive Assistance (1 Thess 4:9-10)
6. Idleness (2 Thess 3:6-15)
7. Conclusion to 1 & 2 Thessalonians

Go Ye Out From Babylon: Mormon Gathering As A Reaction To American Culture, 1831-1846, Brady G. Winslow

Student Works

Many have claimed that Mormonism is the American religion. But perphaps they have mistaken American geography for American culture. While early Mormonism took place in America, it can be interpreted as a reaction to American culture, and this is perhaps best seen in the Mormon doctrine of gathering.

Cyprian Davis, O.S.B.: To Walk A Path, To Be Transformed, And To Transform, Cecilia Moore, Kimberly Flint-Hamilton

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

This essay is Part One in a BCTS archival project to record, preserve, and publish the life stories of the senior members of our organization.

Mormon Media Studies Symposium - 2010, Sherry Baker

Faculty Publications

Website for the Mormon Media Studies Symposium year 2010.

Are We Confused About Ordination?, Denis Fortin

Memory, Meaning & Faith

No abstract provided.

Making Friends In Missouri: Telling The Steamboat Saluda Story And Its Aftermath, Fred E. Woods

Faculty Publications

The infamous "Extermination Order" issued October 27, 1838, by Missouri Governor Lilburn W. Boggs caused thousands of Latter-day Saints to flee the state and seek refuge in Illinois. Throughout the harsh winter of 1838-39, many Latter-day Saint families traveled to Missouri's eastern border (some 150 miles) in carts and wagons and on foot. While most crossed the Mississippi River by ferry at Quincy, some voyaged by riverboats from Richmond, Missouri, to the Quincy region in Illinois.