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Types Of Repetition And Shadows Of History In Hebraic Narrative, Alan Goff Jan 2021

Types Of Repetition And Shadows Of History In Hebraic Narrative, Alan Goff

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

Modern readers too often misunderstand ancient narrative. Typical of this incomprehension has been the inclination of modern biblical critics to view repetitions as narrative failures. Whether you call such repetitions types, narrative analogies, type scenes, midrashic recurrences, or numerous other names, this view of repeated elements has dominated modern readings of Hebraic narratives for at least 200 years. Robert Alter, who introduced a new yet antique understanding of repetitions in the Hebrew Bible in the 1980s, began to reverse this trend. Such repeated elements aren’t failures or shortcomings but are themselves artistic clues to narrative meaning that call readers to …

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Joseph Smith As A Book Of Mormon Storyteller, Brian C. Hales Jan 2021

Joseph Smith As A Book Of Mormon Storyteller, Brian C. Hales

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

For nearly 200 years, skeptics have promoted different naturalistic explanations to describe how Joseph Smith generated all the words of the Book of Mormon. The more popular theories include plagiarism (e.g. of the Solomon Spaulding manuscript), collaboration (with Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon, etc.), mental illness (bipolar, dissociative, or narcissistic personality disorders) and automatic writing, also called “spirit writing, “trance writing,” or “channeling.” A fifth and currently the most popular theory posits that Joseph Smith possessed all the intellectual abilities needed to complete the task. A variation on this last explanation proposes that he used the methods of professional storytellers. For …

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The Implications Of Some Standard Assumptions Of New Testament Scholars: Responding To A Modern Anti-Christ, John Gee Jan 2021

The Implications Of Some Standard Assumptions Of New Testament Scholars: Responding To A Modern Anti-Christ, John Gee

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

In a recent book, Raphael Lataster correctly argues that the acceptance of the general premises of New Testament scholarship, exemplified in the writings of Bart Ehrman, brings into question whether Jesus ever existed. Latter-day Saints who are serious about their witness of Jesus Christ need to be aware that acceptance of these presuppositions undermines their witness of the reality of Jesus Christ and his atonement and makes their faith vain.

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The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds Jan 2021

The Goodness Of God And His Children As A Fundamental Theological Concept In The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

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

The phrase goodness of God does occur occasionally in the Hebrew Bible but has not been considered by Old Testament scholars to be an independent principle in Israelite theology. Rather, it has been interpreted as just another way of talking about God’s acts of hesed, or loving kindness for his covenant people and is usually interpreted in the context of the covenants Israel received through Abraham and Moses. The Book of Mormon clearly echoes that Old Testament pattern but also presents two additional conceptual frameworks that are explained in terms of the goodness of God. It advances an explicit divine …

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“If Ye Believe On His Name”: Wordplay On The Name Samuel In Helaman 14:2, 12–13 And 3 Nephi 23:9 And The Doctrine Of Christ In Samuel’S Speech, Matthew L. Bowen Jan 2021

“If Ye Believe On His Name”: Wordplay On The Name Samuel In Helaman 14:2, 12–13 And 3 Nephi 23:9 And The Doctrine Of Christ In Samuel’S Speech, Matthew L. Bowen

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

The Semitic/Hebrew name Samuel (šĕmûʾēl) most likely means “his name is El” — i.e., “his name [the name that he calls upon in worship] is El” — although it was also associated with “hearing” (šāmaʿ) God (e.g., 1 Samuel 3:9–11). In the ancient Near East, the parental hope for one thus named is that the son (and “his name”) would glorify El (a name later understood in ancient Israel to refer to God); or, like the biblical prophet Samuel, the child would hear El/God (“El is heard”). The name šĕmûʾēl thus constituted an appropriate symbol of the mission of the …

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The People Of Canaan: A New Reading Of Moses 7, Adam Stokes Jan 2021

The People Of Canaan: A New Reading Of Moses 7, Adam Stokes

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

Moses 7 is one of the most famous passages in all of Restoration scripture. It is also one of the most problematic in regard to its description of the people of Canaan as black (v. 8) and as a people who were not preached to by the patriarch Enoch (v. 12). Later there is also a mention of “the seed of Cain,” who also are said to be black (v. 22). This article examines the history of interpretation of Moses 7 and proposes an alternative understanding based on a close reading of the text. In contrast to traditional views, it …

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An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom, Neal Rappleye Jan 2021

An Ishmael Buried Near Nahom, Neal Rappleye

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

Latter-day Saint scholars generally agree that “the place called… Nahom,” where Ishmael was buried (1 Nephi 16:34) is identified as the Nihm tribal region in Yemen. Significantly, a funerary stela with the name ys1mʿʾl — the South Arabian equivalent of Ishmael — was found near the Nihm region and dated to ca. 6th century bc. Although it cannot be determined with certainty that this is the Ishmael from the Book of Mormon, circumstantial evidence suggests that such is a possibility worth considering.

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Mine House Is A House Of Zion And Not A House Of Babylon!, Loren Spendlove Jan 2021

Mine House Is A House Of Zion And Not A House Of Babylon!, Loren Spendlove

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

In Doctrine and Covenants 132:8 we read: “Behold, mine house is a house of order, saith the Lord God, and not a house of confusion.” I propose that the words “order” and “confusion” in this passage are literary allusions to the ideals, constructs, and outcomes that embody Zion and Babylon, respectively. In other words, God’s house is a house of Zion and not a house of Babylon.

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An Early Christian Context For The Book Of Moses, David Calabro Jan 2021

An Early Christian Context For The Book Of Moses, David Calabro

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

This study argues that the Book of Moses was an early Christian text. The book’s language, literary genre, and references to its own production could fit with a date in the late first century AD. Further, the study argues that a possible ritual context of the book was a baptismal ritual, as suggested by the detailed description of Adam’s baptism in Moses 6. A comparison between the content of the Book of Moses and early Christian sources on baptism shows some close resemblances, which may suggest that the Book of Moses was read aloud, and perhaps portrayed as a ritual …

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Framing The Book Of Abraham: Presumptions And Paradigms, Stephen O. Smoot Jan 2021

Framing The Book Of Abraham: Presumptions And Paradigms, Stephen O. Smoot

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

The Book of Abraham continues to undergo scrutiny in both academic and polemical publications. The latest offering of substance in the latter category, Dan Vogel’s Book of Abraham Apologetics: A Review and Critique, criticizes the work of those who argue for the antiquity and inspiration of the Book of Abraham and makes a sustained argument that the book is, instead, modern pseudepigrapha written by a pious fraud (Joseph Smith) in the nineteenth century. Book of Abraham Apologetics lays out a particular naturalistic approach to this text that works best only when certain metaphysical and methodological assumptions are taken for granted. …

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Toward A Supernatural Biblical Hermeneutic, Alberto I. Bonilla-Giovanetti Jan 2021

Toward A Supernatural Biblical Hermeneutic, Alberto I. Bonilla-Giovanetti

The Asbury Journal

Many people who live and learn in the west, including Christian laity and scholars, inadvertently accept a materialistic cosmology in which the material world is all that exists, with the exception of God. This perspective is contrary to how the majority of ancient and modern people view the world. This essay seeks to analyze how this materialistic worldview is seen in biblical studies, and then proposes that biblical scholars should presuppose a supernatural worldview as a key aspect of their hermeneutics.

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The Reception Of Hagar In The Writings Of Origen, John Chrysostom, And Augustine, Mariah Case Jan 2021

The Reception Of Hagar In The Writings Of Origen, John Chrysostom, And Augustine, Mariah Case

MA in Religion Theses

The premise of this thesis is to explore the reception of the Hagar stories through three prominent early Christian thinkers -Origen, John Chrysostom, and Augustine of Hippo - in order to evaluate the theological significance she had for those particular contexts. Hagar functions predominately as a symbol in contexts where group identity, power, and ideology are contested. The hermeneutical and theological stances of the authors are examined to expose and mitigate the religious conflict occurring in their historical location. The resulting interpretations of Hagar and her story vary from Christianization of the character to outright scorn and rejection of the …

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With The Bohoroditsa And Her Pokrov To Liberation: A Continuing Marian Presence In The History And Devotion Of The Ukrainian Catholic Diaspora, Richard Lenar Jan 2021

With The Bohoroditsa And Her Pokrov To Liberation: A Continuing Marian Presence In The History And Devotion Of The Ukrainian Catholic Diaspora, Richard Lenar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this dissertation is to document a continuing Marian presence in the history of Ukraine, as expressed by the Ukrainian Catholic diaspora, by making original use of the material in the Ukrainian Marian Collection of the Marian Library.

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One Year Introduction To The New Testament [Lecture Notes], Scott Gambrill Sinclair Jan 2021

One Year Introduction To The New Testament [Lecture Notes], Scott Gambrill Sinclair

The Scott Sinclair Lecture Notes Collection

Lecture notes on a series of talks by Scott G. Sinclair's on his version of the Historical Jesus.

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The Heart Of Paul's Spirituality And The Implications For The Church: Becoming Centered In God Through Christ Six Conferences For The New Camaldoli Hermitage [Lecture Notes], Scott Gambrill Sinclair Jan 2021

The Heart Of Paul's Spirituality And The Implications For The Church: Becoming Centered In God Through Christ Six Conferences For The New Camaldoli Hermitage [Lecture Notes], Scott Gambrill Sinclair

The Scott Sinclair Lecture Notes Collection

Lecture notes on a series of talks by Scott G. Sinclair's on his version of the Historical Jesus.

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Après Kamloops, Le Déluge: Institutional Church, Indigenous Oppression And The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Michael W. Higgins Jan 2021

Après Kamloops, Le Déluge: Institutional Church, Indigenous Oppression And The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

Editor’s Note: on May 27, 2021, it was announced that 215 unmarked graves were discovered on the grounds of a former residential school for Indigenous (“First Nations”) children in Kamloops, a town in the Canadian province of British Columbia. In the following weeks unmarked graves were also found at similar institutions in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and elsewhere in British Columbia. Between 1863 and 1998, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in these boarding schools, which numbered more than 130, many of them, like Kamloops, the largest, operated by Roman Catholic religious orders. Opened in 1890, …

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Full Issue Jan 2021

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

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Why Undermining Evolutionary Debunkers Is Not Enough, Andrew Del Rio Jan 2021

Why Undermining Evolutionary Debunkers Is Not Enough, Andrew Del Rio

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Denying the conclusion of a valid argument is not generally permissible if one suspends on one premise of the argument and believes the other premise(s). This can happen when one’s only critique of an argument is to undermine one premise. There is incoherence there. Here I examine how this is relevant to the debate on evolutionary debunking of our moral knowledge. I argue that one significant line of response to the debunker is unsuccessful: merely undermining the debunker’s empirical claim. It is not rational to respond this way and believe one has moral knowledge. First I present evidence that prominent …

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World Enough, Tracy Fessenden Jan 2021

World Enough, Tracy Fessenden

Mormon Studies Review

I value reviews that help me decide whether a book is likely to light up the classroom, so I will say it straightaway: Americanist Approaches to The Book of Mormon will. Classroom friendliness in the humanities feels especially pressing now, as the larger share of our students set foot in our fields to fulfill distribution requirements on their way to degrees in business or STEM. If your class in American literature or history or religious studies is the one experience of your discipline that students who take it are likely to seek, a semester’s offering built around this book will …

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Subtle Hebraic Features In The Book Of Mormon, Amanda Colleen Brown Jan 2021

Subtle Hebraic Features In The Book Of Mormon, Amanda Colleen Brown

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

Donald W. Parry combines a lifetime of insights about the Old Testament and Book of Mormon into one volume. Written for a nonacademic audience, this book provides a glimpse into some of the Book of Mormon’s literary complexities that originate from Hebrew grammar and style.

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Moses 6–7 And The Book Of Giants: Remarkable Witnesses Of Enoch’S Ministry, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw Jan 2021

Moses 6–7 And The Book Of Giants: Remarkable Witnesses Of Enoch’S Ministry, Jeffrey M. Bradshaw

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

The Book of Giants (BG), an Enoch text found in 1948 among the Dead Sea Scrolls, includes a priceless trove of stories about the ancient prophet and his contemporaries, including unique elements relevant to the Book of Moses Enoch account. Hugh Nibley was the first to discover in the BG a rare personal name that corresponds to the only named character in the Book of Moses besides Enoch himself, a finding that some non-Latterday Saint Enoch scholars considered significant. Since Nibley’s passing, the growth of new scholarship on ancient Enoch texts has continued unabated. While Nibley’s pioneering research compared the …

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Cultural Intelligence Development And Study Abroad: The Effect Of Destination, Luke Zirkle Jan 2021

Cultural Intelligence Development And Study Abroad: The Effect Of Destination, Luke Zirkle

Senior Honors Theses

Cultural intelligence (CQ) is an emerging field in a globalized world. As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, study abroad opportunities at higher educational institutions have become widely-accepted means for developing students’ CQ. While a number of variables seem to impact CQ development through study abroad programs, one variable seems as yet to have been largely unexplored. This research examines anonymous archival data from juniors in Liberty University’s Global Studies program during the spring semesters of 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 to observe a potential pattern that suggests the role of a study abroad host-culture on the student’s CQ development. Though …

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Who Is The Holy Seed?: Purity And Identity In The Restoration Community, Edward Allen Jones Iii Jan 2021

Who Is The Holy Seed?: Purity And Identity In The Restoration Community, Edward Allen Jones Iii

Faculty Publications - George Fox Digital

Interpreters often note the way in which the phrase ‘holy seed’ links Isa. 6.13 and Ezra 9.2. However, few explore how these texts apply the phrase to different communities/groups of people in ancient Judah. In Isaiah, the holy seed is the remnant in the land following the exile, whereas in Ezra, those returning from Babylon take the mantel for themselves. This essay, then, proceeds in three phases: first, it considers the function of Isa. 6.13 within the context of Isaiah’s call narrative, which helps situate Isaiah’s reference to the holy seed. Second, the study turns to Ezra 9.2 and examines …

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A Theology Of Confirmation From The Canon Of Scripture, Peter Pellicaan Jan 2021

A Theology Of Confirmation From The Canon Of Scripture, Peter Pellicaan

Theses

In the last forty years, scholars have commonly referred to confirmation as the “sacrament in search of a theology.” While various works have offered a theology of confirmation in recent years, they have not employed an explicitly biblical method. In contrast, the early Church Fathers and ecclesiastical writers engaged an biblical method by employing a typological interpretation of scripture in order to understand baptism and the eucharist. In this sense, circumcision, the crossing of the Red Sea and the waters referred to in the creation narrative have been understood as prefiguring baptism; the Passover inaugurated by Moses in Egypt is …

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Religion And Theatrical Drama, Charles A. Gillespie Ed., Larry D. Bouchard Ed. Jan 2021

Religion And Theatrical Drama, Charles A. Gillespie Ed., Larry D. Bouchard Ed.

Catholic Studies Faculty Publications

With an introduction on how to redefine our thinking about religion and theatrical drama, these nine essays on contemporary and classic plays rehabilitate the link between theatrical performance and dramatic stories for the study of religion. These new and distinctively interdisciplinary perspectives will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of religion, theology, theatre and performance studies, literary studies, and philosophy.

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Lost Sheep, Lost Coins, And Lost Meanings, Jenny Rebecca Rytting Jan 2021

Lost Sheep, Lost Coins, And Lost Meanings, Jenny Rebecca Rytting

BYU Studies

Three of the best known and most loved of Jesus’s parables occur together in the fifteenth chapter of Luke as a response to the Pharisees’ disapproval of Jesus’s association with sinners: the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin (also known as the lost drachma or lost groat), and the lost (or prodigal) son. In the teaching and preaching traditions of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these parables (especially the first two) have primarily been interpreted as a call for missionary work, particularly reactivation. For example, President David O. McKay suggested that the three parables represent …

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Text Are Not Rituals And Rituals Are Not Texts, With An Example From Leviticus 12, James Watts Jan 2021

Text Are Not Rituals And Rituals Are Not Texts, With An Example From Leviticus 12, James Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

Biblical scholars have increasingly realized that textual representations of rituals do not have the same function or meaning as the ritual performances that they describe. A survey of this theoretical distinction in biblical scholarship over the last 25 years shows the impact of this realization, and also several points of resistance. The significance of the distinction between ritual text and ritual performance can be illustrated clearly in Leviticus 12, which describes the rituals required of new mothers after giving birth. The chapter mandates practices that are unique in the Bible and, possibly, novel in ancient Israel’s religious culture. However, they …

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Deaf Pastor Cohort: Self-Care For Deaf Pastors, Karen R. Bregman Jan 2021

Deaf Pastor Cohort: Self-Care For Deaf Pastors, Karen R. Bregman

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Researcher observed posts on social media from deaf pastors sharing their experiences of personal and professional struggles with suicide, depression, and mental health challenges with their close circle of pastors, colleagues, and congregation. These are tremendous burdens for both Deaf and hearing pastors. The scriptures cited for this research were 1 Kings 19, Psalm 23, and Mark 7:31-37; these Scriptures provide the theological basis that God provides self-care. The recipients became healthier emotionally, mentally, physically, socially, and spiritually. The recipients were able to recover and minister to their respective congregations and communities. The Researcher conducted a qualitative case study …

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Book Review: Orthodox Christian Renewal Movements In Eastern Europe, Walter Sawatsky Jan 2021

Book Review: Orthodox Christian Renewal Movements In Eastern Europe, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović & Radmila Radić, eds. Orthodox Christian Renewal Movements in Eastern Europe. London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2017. ISBN 978-3-319-63354-1, 339 pp. Index.

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“The Plain, Old Faith”: Theological Foundations For A Scientifically Informed Constructive Doctrine Of Original Sin In The Wesleyan Tradition, Logan Patriquin Jan 2021

“The Plain, Old Faith”: Theological Foundations For A Scientifically Informed Constructive Doctrine Of Original Sin In The Wesleyan Tradition, Logan Patriquin

The Asbury Journal

How should Wesleyans integrate modern understandings of science with theological commitments to the idea of original sin? After offering some historical context for Wesley’s engagement with the doctrine of original sin, this article aims to put contemporary socio- scientific discussions. The authority of scripture is engaged in light of Wesley’s “analogy of faith” and James K. A. Smith’s “Narrative-Arc” theological method. Insights of evolutionary psychology and sociobiology are then combined with Wesley’s understanding of universal human sinfulness and regenerating grace. The article explores Wesley’s holistic theological anthropology and contemporary emergence theory in their respective attempts to understand sin’s nefarious substance …

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