Digital Commons Network^™

Shinto And Buddhist Metaphors In Departures, Yoshiko Okuyama

Journal of Religion & Film

Cinematic language is rich in examples of religious metaphors. One Japanese film that contains religious “tropes” (figurative language) is the 2008 human drama, Departures. This paper focuses on the analysis of religious metaphors encoded in select film shots, using semiotics as the theoretical framework for film analysis. The specific metaphors discussed in the paper are the Shinto view of death as defilement and Buddhist practices associated with the metaphor of the journey to the afterlife. The purpose of this paper is to augment the previous reviews of Departures by explicating these religious signs hidden in the film.

Facing Forward, Looking Back: Religion And Film Studies In The Last Decade, Joseph Kickasola, John C. Lyden, S. Brent Plate, Antonio Sison, Sheila J. Nayar, Stefanie Knauss, Rachel Wagner, Jolyon Thomas

Journal of Religion & Film

On November 17, 2012, at the American Academy of Religion’s National Meeting, the Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group sponsored a session entitled, “Facing Forward, Looking Back: Religion and Film Studies in the Last Decade.” The session focused on four recent books in the field of Religion and Film: John Lyden’s Film as Religion: Myths, Morals and Rituals (NYU, 2003); S. Brent Plate’s Religion and Film: Cinema and the Re-Creation of the World (Wallflower Press, 2009); Antonio Sison’s World Cinema, Theology, and the Human: Humanity in Deep Focus (Routledge, 2012); and Sheila Nayar’s The Sacred and the Cinema: Reconfiguring the …

Outreach, April 2013

Outreach

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Great Britain and Ireland

Outreach Finding Aid

Believing Adoption, Samuel M. Brown

BYU Studies

Adoption theology is concerned with salvation and entry into the family of God. Early Latter-day Saint (Mormon) adoption theology taught by Joseph Smith came to include priesthood, baptism for the dead, temple rites, and more. The author concludes that this doctrine informs important questions, including: Are spirits born? What is the nature of salvation? What is the shape of the heaven family (the interlocking network of familial connections that will exist in the afterlife)? Adoption theology offers an alternative to the popular doctrine of spirit birth, one that is consistent with what Joseph Smith taught about the nature of God …

Phoebe: Was She An Early Church Leader?, Darius Jankiewicz

Faculty Publications

The role of Phoebe in early Christianity has been hotly debated throughout the centuries, ranging from views suggesting that her ministry was nothing more than that of a helper (or patron) of the apostolic task, to those ascribing to her a significant ministerial role. As we shall see, this debate often influenced the biblical translations of the Greek words used by Paul to describe the ministry of this remarkable woman. In this article, I will focus on three aspects of Phoebe’s ministry that flow from the text of Romans 16:1, 2: her ministry as a diakonos; her role …

Easy Effective Counseling: A Strategy For Busy Pastors, Benjamin Karner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Pastors are expected to counsel various people with various problems. However, in most circumstances, pastors have little time to prepare for counseling sessions and cannot be long-term therapists. Therefore, it is critical for the pastor to be able to quickly and effectively give substantial guidance to counselees. The purpose of this project is to develop and implement a pastoral counseling program with a decision management focus. A survey will be conducted with at least one hundred (100) pastors who engage in counseling as part of their regular ministry duties. This project will develop and communicate a practical counseling approach for …

Loving Your Neighbor: A Guide To Developing And Sustaining Community Service Projects, Rickey Houston

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A current ministry concern is mobilizing and engaging the congregation in service projects throughout the immediate and surrounding communities to spread the love of Christ and build the kingdom of God. The purpose of this project is to examine and shed light on an approach or approaches to effectively transform service beyond the walls of the congregation to intentional, appropriate, and relevant service within the community. This subject matter has the potential of transforming congregations from a predominant notion of interaction with self to interaction with organizations and individuals who are part of the church's mission field. In addition, there …

Model Minority On The Modernization Project: Images Of Chinese Religiosity In America, Emily Wu

Collected Faculty Scholarship

As the stereotypical model minority in the United States, Chinese Americans are rarely considered as religiously threatening. Those Chinese Americans who already were or became converted to mainstream Christianity are seen as cases of successful Americanization. Buddhism, another popular religious affiliation among the Chinese ethnics, is understood as a benign and respectable source of wisdom. Few Chinese ethnics identify themselves strictly as Daoist or Confucian, but there is a wide range of religious and spiritual practices that are diffused into their daily lives. Without specific religious affiliations or congregational headcount, eclectic practices such as ancestral worship, temple visits, home rituals, …

Kachin Sound Instruments Within The Context Of The Kachin Baptist Convention Of Northern Burma: History, Classification, And Uses, Walter Brath

Masters Theses

This organology identifies and describes the Kachin's sound instruments, classifies them according to the Hornbostel-Sachs' system, and considers evidence of an indigenous classification scheme. Very little research exists to date on the music of the Kachin peoples of Northern Burma. This paper cites the only known indigenous organology and is the first English language study to extrapolate evidence into an emergent classification system. This qualitative study is based on ethnographic interviews, the minimal literature available on the topic, and participant observation drawn from fieldwork conducted in the Kachin State of Northern Burma (modern day Myanmar) during the months of May …

Does God Have A Right To Judge? The Aztecs' False Worship Practices Result In God's Judgment In The Unlikely Form Of Hernán Cortés, Lisa Timmons

Masters Theses

This thesis covers religious aspects of the Aztec culture before and after the conquest of Hernán Cortés between 1519 and 1521. One aspect of this thesis details the Aztecs' history and rise to power, followed by their rapid demise at the hands of Spanish conquistadors, while the other examines the highly flawed but effective instrument used in the destruction of their sprawling Mesoamerican empire--a conquistador from Spain by the name of Hernán Cortés. At the root of this controversial topic is God's perfect justice in relation to this culture's blatant and repeated disregard for those created in His image--by all …

Semiotics And Christian Discipleship In Fyodor Dostoevsky’S Crime And Punishment And Dietrich Bonhoeffer’S The Cost Of Discipleship, Jacob Pride

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The literary and philosophical theory of semiotics considers signs and symbols. Pragmatics is the branch of semiotics that explicates the practical effects of a given interpretation according to its context. Through analyzing the pragmatic context of Crime and Punishment, one can begin to uncover the depth of meaning that the novel delivers. In The Limits of Interpretation, Umberto Eco talks about what he calls "intersubjective meaning," which helps a particular interpretation of a text attain "a privilege over any other possible interpretation spelled out without the agreement of the community" (40). The particular intersubjective meaning that needs to …

Moore’S Paradox, Direct Doxastic Voluntarism, And Atheist Distrust, Kyle Thompson

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The concept of belief is analyzed and then discussed within the context of the current climate of atheist distrust in America. To begin, Moore’s Paradox, and its relationship to an important claim made by Wittgenstein regarding false beliefs, is explored. Next, the definition of belief that results from affirming Wittgenstein’s claim is outlined and subsequently defended from an attempted refutation constructed by John N. Williams. The defended definition of belief, which regards direct doxastic voluntarism as false, is then used to argue that atheists do not directly choose to not believe in any gods so as to evade moral responsibility.

Satanic Indifference And Ultimate Reality, Brian J. Reis

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Satan has captured the imagination of writers in the English language for centuries. This figure and the notion of evil have gone through many changes in English literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. Something changed Satan during this time, and made him into an arbiter of truth rather than a figure of rebellion. In The Mysterious Stranger, Mark Twain used him as the grand narrator of the universe who explains the truth of all existence, that life is an illusion. The American horror author H.P. Lovecraft carried this one step further, using Rudolf Otto's mysterium horrendum to divest Satan …

A Christian Understanding Of Aesthetic Agency: A Theological Framework Of Resistance To Cultural Imperialism, Elise Edwards

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Aesthetic agency refers to conditions, capacities, and states that inform artistic forms of acting and exerting power on social structures. In resistance to the marginalization of women of color, aesthetic agency is exercised through creative acts of culture-making and critique of such practices to challenge domination and representation of the oppressed other. To support this work as a feminist Christian ethicist, I construct a theological framework for aesthetic agency. This paper proposes a theological understanding of transformative aesthetics and then describes the exercise of aesthetic agency for Christian communities by using a television special, Black Girls Rock! as an example.

Thinking, With Heidegger, The Religion-Science-Theology Relation, David L. Carlson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work is an attempt to think the essential nature of the interrelationships among religion, science, and theology (RST) out of Heidegger's engagement with the question of Being. Three primary questions initially motivated this inquiry: First, how are the interrelations (if any) among religion, science, and theology to be understood? Second, is a relation of "dialogue," in some sense, possible among the three elements of the RST triad? And third, does theology have a rightful place in the public square dominated by the view that science serves as the "gold standard" for rationality and truth? The inquiry interweaves five threads, …

Ordinary Community: Missional Communities As A Helpful Ecclesial Response To The Problem Of Postmodernism And Consumerism For The American Evangelical Church, Christopher W. Marshall

Doctor of Ministry

There is a storm approaching the shores of the American evangelical church that is two-fold. First, there is a macro shift in cultural worldview from modernity, which was embedded in the tenets of the Enlightenment project to a new era called postmodernity. Postmodernity is characterized as a harsh reaction against the utopian ideals of the modern world. What is the appropriate ecclesial response of the American evangelical church to the postmodern world? Secondly, the dominant cultural challenge to Christianity in America is the organizing of life around the attachments of a consumer lifestyle. Consumerism dominates American life however it is …

Pusey's Sermons At St. Saviour's, Leeds, Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

"E . B. Pusey as a Preacher." It would not be surprising to find such a phrase as the title of a nineteenth-century work. Authors in both Britain and America used it in books and articles about numerous ministers, literary figures, the Apostle Paul, and even Jesus himself.¹ Edward Bouverie Pusey, in fact, was the subject of one such piece: a review of Sermons for the Church's Seasons from Advent to Trinity, published in the Spectator on 11 August 1883.

Such a scope would, however, be too broad for a scholarly study in the twenty-first century. Pusey's canon …

We Are To Love God And Our Neighbors, H. Reese Hansen

Vol. 3: Religious Conviction

This devotional address was given to the BYU student body on April 8, 1997.

Global Resources For Integrating The Arts Into A Missional Life, Robin Harris, Brian Schrag

Symposium on Worship Archive

This workshop will feature resources to foster creativity and expand understanding of the intersection of worship, culture, and mission in your church or school setting. We’ll explore a new two-volume ethnodoxology handbook and manual (with DVD) for worship and mission in the global church. The authors/editors of these publications will offer ways you can benefit from them, whether planning and leading worship or teaching a Sunday School or college class.

Blessed Are The Persecuted: Worshiping In Solidarity With The Persecuted Church, Calvin Institute Of Christian Worship, Sandra Maria Van Opstal, Jean Ngoya Kidula, Brian Schrag, Debbie Lou Ludolph, Carolien Tantra, Eric Sarwar, David M. Bailey, Paul Neeley, Josh Davis, Robin Harris

Symposium on Worship Archive

No abstract provided.

Program Book, Calvin Symposium On Worship

Symposium on Worship Archive

Program book for the 2013 Calvin Symposium on Worship.

2013 Ncod Pastoral Week Program

National Catholic Office for the Deaf (NCOD) Conferences

Documents from the 2013 NCOD Pastoral Week held in Phoenix, AZ in 2013

• Conference program

---

Go to article

Martin Luther's Theology Of The Cross In The Face Of The Challenge Of The Neo-Pentecostal Movement And Its Prosperity Gospel Message, Hossana Yohanna

Master of Arts Theses

No abstract provided.

Narrative Beings: What Virtual Media Is Revealing About Our Youth, Kyle W. Zvejnieks

Children, Youth, and Family (CYF) Papers

No abstract provided.

'In Love With Either/Or': Religion And Oppositional Logic In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (Chapter 3 Of Irigaray, Incarnation And Contemporary Women's Fiction), Abigail Rine

Faculty Publications - Department of English

Excerpt: "Margaret Atwood is a prolific and award-winning Canadian writer whose work regularly exposes the destructive and oppressive forces at work in society, particularly as they affect women. Though Atwood refers to herself as a 'strict agnostic: she maintains an interest in religion, which is evident in her fictional work (Moyers 2006).1 Atwood's second novel, Surfacing (1973) , has received a fair amount of critical attention for its religious themes and is examined in both Carol Christ's Diving Deep and Surfacing and Barbara Rigney's work Lilith's Daughters.2 Atwood's Cat's Eye (1989), with its mystical Marian imagery, has also been explored …

Paul's Poetic License: Philippians 2:6-11 As A Hellenistic Hymn, Anna Groebe

Honors Program: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

In this paper, I use the scholarship surrounding Philippians 2:6-11 to identify it as a pre-Pauline hymn influenced by Greek culture. I use Dr. Arnold Levin’s essay “Paul’s Victory Song” as a springboard, investigating his arguments as well as other more well-known scholarship covering the passage. Dr. Levin argues that Philippians 2:6-11 is a Greek ode in the Aeolic style written in imitation of Pindar, with a clearly established meter. Although I disagree with Dr. Levin's methods and conclusion, I do not completely reject all of his argument. Philippians 2:6-11 does not have a clear meter as one might find …

Bible In Mission, Pauline Hoggarth, Fergus Macdonald, Knud Jorgenson, Bill Mitchell

Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series

To the authors of Bible in Mission, the Bible is the book of life, and mission is life in the Word. This core reality cuts across the diversity of contexts and hermeneutical strategies represented in these essays. The authors are committed to the boundary-crossings that characterize contemporary mission – and each sees the Bible as foundational to the Missio Dei, to God’s work in the world.

Orthodox Perspectives On Mission, Petros Vassiliadis

Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series

Orthodox Perspectives on Mission is both a humble tribute to some great Orthodox theologians, who in the past have provided substantial contribution to contemporary missiological and ecumenical discussions, and an Orthodox input to the upcoming 2013 Busan WCC General Assembly. There is a long history of similar contributions by the Orthodox before all the major ecumenical events. The collected volume is divided into two parts: Part I under the subtitle The Orthodox Heritage consists of a limited number of representative Orthodox missiological contributions of the past, whereas Part II includes all the papers presented in the Plenary of the recent …

Co-Sustenance: An Alternative To Stewardship, Matt Addis

Seminary Masters Theses

This thesis is concerned with the current ecological realities and the inability of current stewardship construct's to adequately address these problems. This study addresses the underlying weaknesses of current articulations of stewardship theologies. It also engages with the scientific theories that form the basis for stewardship theologies, as well as those theories that might offer alternative narratives for ecological and biotic understandings. This study also addresses the underlying ethical realities of current ecological crises. Finally this thesis seeks to offer an alternative to traditional Christian understandings of the relationship of humanity to nature. Chapter one introduces the reader to the …

The Speech Act Of Swearing: Gregory Of Nazianzus’S Oath In Poema 2.1.2 In Context, Suzanne Abrams Rebillard

School of Information Studies - Post-doc and Student Scholarship

Gregory of Nazianzus’s Poemata de seipso as a group are labeled “autobiography” erroneously. 2.1.2 provides a strong case study: it is formally structured as an oath, to be sworn by a bishop but with no definitive identification of speaker. As an oath it is well suited to the application of speech act theory, which allows for interpretations with Gregory and/or any orthodox bishop as speaker. When further considered in light of other oaths as compositional models—professional (e.g. Hippocratic), magisterial, imperial loyalty, biblical— the poem’s scope expands beyond the “autobiographer” to encompass the episcopate and fourth-century culture more broadly.