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The Theodramatic Imagination: Spirit And Imagination In The Work Of Kevin Vanhoozer, Justin Bailey

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

This article situates and evaluates the cultural hermeneutic method of theologian Kevin Vanhoozer. His “theodramatic imagination” sets forth a method for rightly interpreting both Scripture and culture. Fellow theologian William Dyrness criticizes Vanhoozer’s model as theoretical rather than theatrical, focused on extracted ideas instead of embedded imaginaries. The article argues that, although Dyrness’ critique misses its mark, the true disagreement is pneumatological in nature. In the view of the author, this is the real limitation for Vanhoozer’s method: he prepares us to recognize and respond to the Spirit at work in shaping the Church’s “theodramatic” imagination, but we are less …

After Faith, Hope, And Love: The Unique Divergence Of Asceticism By Gregory The Great And Maximus The Confessor, Caleb N. Zuiderveen

Theses and Dissertations

In the late sixth and early seventh centuries, asceticism continued as a frequent expression of Christian devotion. Despite communications between the Eastern and Western Churches and a common patristic foundation, theology in the East and West during this time diverged on the results of asceticism. This paper explores this divergence by examining two theologians, Gregory the Great and Maximus the Confessor. Current scholarship has examined Gregory the Great and Maximus the Confessor on their own, yet the dialogue between each tradition and its implications remains understudied. Thus, this study contextualizes Gregory the Great’s On the Song of Songs and Maximus …

The Medievalizing Process: Religious Medievalism In Romantic And Victorian Literature, Timothy M. Curran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Medievalizing Process: Religious Medievalism in Romantic and Victorian Literature posits religious medievalism as one among many critical paradigms through which we might better understand literary efforts to bring notions of sanctity back into the modern world. As a cultural and artistic practice, medievalism processes the loss of medieval forms of understanding in the modern imagination and resuscitates these lost forms in new and imaginative ways to serve the purposes of the present. My dissertation proposes religious medievalism as a critical method that decodes modern texts’ lamentations over a perceived loss of the sacred. My project locates textual moments in …

Oral Roberts’ Theology Of Healing: A Journey From Pentecostal “Divine Healing” To Charismatic “Signs And Wonders” To Spirit-Empowered “Whole Person Healing”, Thomson Mathew

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This paper traces the development and articulation of Oral Roberts’ theology of healing through three discernible stages. From the perspective of a participant observer during the final stage of Roberts’ healing ministry, the author examines Roberts’ writings to show that his healing theology moved from a classical Pentecostal theology of divine healing of his roots to a theology of “Holy Spirit in the Now” that emphasized signs and wonders befitting the Charismatic Movement he led, to a final stage that might be characterized as a Spirit-empowered theology of whole person health. Attention has been given to Roberts’ conceptual and linguistic …

The Spirit Of Immense Struggle: Oral Roberts' Native American Ancestry, Timothy Hatcher

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Oral Roberts was proud of his blended white, Cherokee, and Choctaw heritage and spoke openly about it. To understand Roberts’ view of his own hybridized identity better, it is necessary to consider how his parents and grandparents negotiated the issues related to their mixed ancestry. His own view changed over time from conscious pride to overt activism on behalf of his fellow Native Americans. From the early years of the ministry, the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association engaged in a variety of creative outreaches to Native Americans where Roberts identified deeply with his brothers and sisters. Several Native American communities across …

How The Balinese See The Sea: Interpretations Of Oceanic Power, Margaret Dougherty

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Divine Truth, Presence, And Power: The Christian Book In Fourth-Century Roman North Africa, Jeremiah Coogan

Jesuit School of Theology

The rhetorical significance of sacred books in the North African controversy between Caecilianists and Donatists remains under-explained. In this article, I situate the act of traditio in its historical context by employing insights from the study of material texts. The Acts of the Abitinian Martyrs, the arguments of Augustine and Optatus, and even apotropaic practices reveal a social logic in which the physical book does more than transmit text. I argue that this theology of the book provides a richer account of traditio than the economic and sociological explanations in current scholarship on the North African controversy. The sacred book …

Spiritual Realities And Spiritual Activism: Assessing Gloria Anzaldúa’S Light In The Dark/Luz En Lo Oscuro, Christopher D. Tirres

Religious Studies

This study explores Gloria Anzaldúa’s understanding of “spiritual activism” in her recently published, posthumous work, Light in the Dark/Luz en lo Oscuro: Rewriting Identity, Spirituality, Reality. It argues that Anzaldúa’s occasional ontological appeals to spiritual realism should be offset by her more process-driven and pragmatic intuitions, which foreground the function and praxis of spirituality. Such intuitions, the study shows, are ultimately more consistent with Anzaldúa’s interests in personal healing and social transformation.

The Musician's Vocation, Jeffrey Bell-Hanson

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Faith In Creation: Martin Luther's Sermons On Genesis 1, Mickey L. Mattox

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Future Growth Of Global Christianity And Yoido Full Gospel Church: Its Potential Role In The New Context, Wonsuk Ma

Great Commission Research Journal

Christians have long recognized the amazing growth of Yoido Full Gospel Church. It has been a pioneer in the Church Growth Movement and has set an example in its dependence on prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit. The church faces challenges/opportunities in the future as it relates to the church growth in the Global South, the changing culture in South Korea, and the Pentecostal/charismatic movements around the world.

The Life Of Donald Mcgavran: Turning To North America, Gary L. Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

The event that put Church Growth on the worldwide map was the Lausanne Congress on Evangelism held on July 14-28, 1974. Then, as the Church Growth Movement took hold around the world, the focus of some faculty at Fuller’s School of World Mission gradually turned toward North America. This article describes the actions and processes that propelled the movement into world prominence.

Architectural Evangelism: Examination Of Place Constructs Held By Churched And Unchurched Individuals, Matthew Niermann

Great Commission Research Journal

In recent decades, the exterior design of Protestant churches has undergone radical reformulation under the influence of the church growth architectural design theory known as architectural evangelism. Presupposing that churched and unchurched individuals hold differing place constructs, architectural evangelism seeks to attract unchurched individuals to the church by changing the exterior design from church typologies to secular typologies. In doing so, as the theory proposes, when an unchurched individual is exposed to a typology they are more familiar with, a different place construct formulation occurs—a place construct rooted in conceptions of comfort and the perception of community-based activities. Noting the …

Uniquely Gifted: A Theology Of Mental Illness For Inclusive Ecclesiology, Asia M. Lerner

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis surveys the possibility of a theology of mental illness in order to create an inclusive ecclesiology for modern churches. Mental illness is greatly stigmatized in the Church as demonic or spiritual and moral failing. In combat of such stigma and prejudice to create an inclusive atmosphere in the Church, a positive theology of mental illness understood as a unique gifting is argued for. With the elusive nature of mental illness in both definition and experience taken into account, all aspects of mental illness are considered, such as biology, psychology, and philosophy of mental disorder. The thesis understands mental …

Historical And Theological Notes On Libermann And Slavery, Paul Coulon C.S.Sp.

Spiritan Horizons

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Gorana Ognjenović And Jasna Jozelić'S Education In Post-Conflict Transition: The Politicization Of Religion In School Textbooks, Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

An edited volume entitled, Education in Post-conflict Transition: The Politicization of Religion in School Textbooks, was published by Palgrave Macmillan series in Religion, Politics and Policy and edited by two scholars, Gorana Ognjenović (University of Oslo) and Jasna Jozelić (Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo). This volume focuses on the politicization of religion and the development of religious education in public schools, and the degree of religious liberty and human rights in several, mainly former Yugoslav countries. Apart from an introduction, the volume has thirteen chapters and a conclusion. Chapter authors include scholars from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, …

Bible As Notepad. Tracing Annotations And Annotation Practices In Late Antique And Medieval Biblical Manuscripts, Liv Ingeborg Lied, Marilena Maniaci, Jeff Childers

Graduate School of Theology

The present volume provides a comparative look at the contents and layout features of secondary annotations in biblical manuscripts across linguistic traditions. Due to the privileged focus on the text in the columns, these annotations and the practices that produced them have not received the scholarly attention they deserve. The vast richness of extant verbal and figurative notes accompanying the biblical texts in the intercolumns and margins of the manuscript pages have thus been largely overlooked. The case studies gathered in this volume explore Jewish and Christian biblical manuscripts through the lens of their annotations, addressing the various relationships between …

Divining Gospel: Classifying Manuscripts Of John Used In Sortilege, Jeff Childers

Graduate School of Theology

The texts of Christian scripture find their way into a variety of ancient artifacts. The manuscript form has been the most widespread, yet manuscripts manifest distinct patterns of organization and structure according to their different purposes. Many include companion texts sharing the page with that of scripture—texts that gloss, provide commentary, give liturgical direction, or otherwise assist the reader in understanding or using scripture. In many instances, pages containing scripture have acquired additional texts over the years–e.g. marginal notes, corrections, claims of ownership, prayers, and fragments of other texts. One of the least well-studied phenomena is the sort of artifact …

“The Female Face” Of Hiv/Aids As An Ethical Challenge To The Catholic Church In Uganda: Lessons Of Catholic Social Teaching, Athanasius Kikoba

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

Since the emergence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Uganda in the 1980s, it has become increasingly evident that the HIV/AIDS scourge disproportionately affects more women and girls than men and boys. Women and girls suffer a particular vulnerability due to this pandemic. There are social, economic, political, and cultural factors that precipitate and aggravate the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls in Uganda.

This dissertation contends that Catholic Social Teaching offers us one of the best and most comprehensive and integrative ways for addressing the HIV/AIDS scourge. We argue specifically for a rights-based solidarity as the most comprehensive and …

Well-Being And Self-Transformation In Indian Psychology, Sangeetha Menon, Shankar Rajaraman, Lakshmi Kuchibotla

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This paper uses instances from literature covering a broad spectrum of Indian philosophies, art, medicine and practices—attempts to offer the components of a psychology that is rooted in transformative and transpersonal consciousness. Psychology, in this instance, refers to a systematic study of mind, behavior, and relationship, rather than the formal Western discipline as such. In the Indian approach to understanding consciousness, primary importance is given to the possibility of well-being. Such an approach facilitates an immediate comprehension of the unity of metaphysical opposites, such as matter and consciousness, and its experience as empathy, love and intuition. It involves a thinking …

Introduction To The Special Topic Section On Integral Yoga Psychology: The Challenge Of Multiple Integrities, Debashish Banerji

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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A Neurotheological Approach To Spiritual Awakening, Andrew B. Newberg, Mark R. Waldman

Marcus Institute of Integrative Health Faculty Papers

A neurotheological approach suggests an analysis of spiritual awakening experiences by combining phenomenological data with neuroscience. This paper presents a synthesis combining information on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences associated with spiritual awakening experiences and neurophysiological data, primarily from neuroimaging studies, to help assess which brain structures might be associated with these experiences. Brain structures involved with emotions correlate with emotional responses while areas of the brain associated with the sense of self appear to correlate with the key feature of these experiences in which an individual loses the sense of self and feels intimately connected with God, universal consciousness, …

A Matter Of Heart And Soul: The Value Of Positing A Personal Ontological Center For Developmental Psychology, Elizabeth M. Teklinski

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A whole person understanding of postconventional development needs to offer a facilitative agent, what is here called a psychocentric dimension, with a unique and necessary role in the transformation of individual consciousness, that complements and completes the egocentric and cosmocentric domains. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s writings and praxis concerning what they called the psychic being may elucidate an alternative frame to current theoretical speculations, in a way that may offer a new synthesis and a more theoretically satisfying interpretation. More specifically, it is hoped that an integral yoga psychology framework for postconventional development can meaningfully account for the transformation …

Re-Veiling The Revealed: Insights Into The Psychology Of “Enlightenment” From The Kabbalah, B. Les Lancaster

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

I explore psychological aspects of a mystically-awakened state as depicted in the Kabbalah. This awakened state is portrayed using imagery of light and is associated with wisdom. The path towards the state entails intense hermeneutic work, and the core characteristic of the awakened person is the ability to see into that which is concealed—be it in scriptural texts, fellow humans, or the outer world. The primary distinction between this kabbalistic state and awakened states as portrayed in recent psychological and perennialist conceptions is the importance of cognitive and intellectual components in the former. I argue that cultural constructions of spiritual …

A Neurotheological Approach To Spiritual Awakening, Andrew B. Newberg, Mark R. Waldman

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A neurotheological approach suggests an analysis of spiritual awakening experiences by combining phenomenological data with neuroscience. This paper presents a synthesis combining information on the thoughts, feelings, and experiences associated with spiritual awakening experiences and neurophysiological data, primarily from neuroimaging studies, to help assess which brain structures might be associated with these experiences. Brain structures involved with emotions correlate with emotional responses while areas of the brain associated with the sense of self appear to correlate with the key feature of these experiences in which an individual loses the sense of self and feels intimately connected with God, universal consciousness, …

Subjectivity Is No Object: Can Subject-Object Dualism Be Reconciled Through Phenomenology?, Brent Dean Robbins, Harris L. Friedman, Chad V. Johnson, Zeno Franco

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal psychology has at times critiqued the broader psychology field for perpetrating a somewhat arbitrary Cartesian subject-object divide. Some phenomenologists claim that reframing this purported divide as an experienced phenomenon can defuse its philosophical impact. If subjective experiences are viewed as continuous with the lifeworld out of which objective phenomena are abstracted, the divide between these is revealed as a somewhat arbitrary, if useful, construction. This, in turn, challenges psychology to engage with subjective phenomena in a more substantive way. In this paper based on excerpts from a protracted email conversation held on the American Psychological Association’s Humanistic Psychology (Division …

Religious Literacies As Social Practice: A Latterday Saint Perspective, Eric D. Rackley

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Although we are learning more about how young people make sense of religious truths, there is a conspicuous dearth of research examining the meaning-making practices of Latter-day Saint youth. As a result, it is unclear, for example, how Latter-day Saint youth read scripture. What’s working for them? What’s not? How do we know? “Faith without understanding” may be the sardonic standard for religious literacy in the United States, but I am confident that in the Church we can do better. We can help youth develop faith and understanding. Without a clearly articulated conception of religious literacy, however, the Church may …

Chapel: A Space Between Faith And Learning?, Ryan Mcilhenny

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Influences Of Egyptian Lotus Symbolism And Ritualistic Practices On Sacral Tree Worship In The Fertile Crescent From 1500 Bce To 200 Ce, J. Andrew Mcdonald

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Biology)

Many conventional features of world tree motifs in the ancient Near East—including stalked palmettes, aureoles of water lily palmettes connected by pliant stems, floral rosettes, winged disks and bud-and-blossom motifs—trace largely from Egyptian practices in lotus symbolism around 2500 BCE, more than a millennium before they appear, migrate and dominate plant symbolism across the Fertile Crescent from 1500 BCE to 200 CE. Several of these motifs were associated singularly or collectively with the Egyptian sema-taui and ankh signs to symbolize the eternal recurrence and everlasting lives of Nilotic lotus deities and deceased pharaohs. The widespread use of lotus imagery in …

A Linked Coptic Dictionary Online, Frank Feder, Maxim Kupreyev, Emma Manning, Caroline T. Schroeder, Amir Zeldes

College of the Pacific Faculty Presentations

We describe a new project publishing a freely available online dictionary for Coptic. The dictionary encompasses comprehensive cross-referencing mechanisms, including linking entries to an online scanned edition of Crum’s Coptic Dictionary, internal cross-references and etymological information, translated searchable definitions in English, French and German, and linked corpus data which provides frequencies and corpus look-up for headwords and multiword expressions. Headwords are available for linking in external projects using a REST API. We describe the challenges in encoding our dictionary using TEI XML and implementing linking mechanisms to construct a Web interface querying frequency information, which draw on NLP tools to …