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The Banner - V. 144, No. 11 - (November 2009), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

6 - Editorial: So What Do You Think? by Bob De Moor / 7 - Catch Your Breath: In a Funk? by Heather Vallejos / 8 - IMHO: No Need to Adopt Belhar by Paul Hansen / 8 - Letters to the Editor / 10 - CRC News: CRC staff safe in Honduras / 17 - Frequently Asked Questions / 18 - The Suffering of Iraqi Christians by Victor and Lisa Atallah / 20 - A Silent Dwelling by Mark Mulder / 22 - Finding God Outside the Brick and Mortar by Nancy Vander Meer / 26 - Dear Reader: …

The Art Of Aidagara: Ethics, Aesthetics, And The Quest For An Ontology Of Social Existence In Watsuji Tetsurō’S Rinrigaku, James Mark Shields

Faculty Journal Articles

This paper provides an analysis of the key term aidagara (“betweenness”) in the philosophical ethics of Watsuji Tetsurō (1889-1960), in response to and in light of the recent movement in Japanese Buddhist studies known as “Critical Buddhism.” The Critical Buddhist call for a turn away from “topical” or intuitionist thinking and towards (properly Buddhist) “critical” thinking, while problematic in its bipolarity, raises the important issue of the place of “reason” versus “intuition” in Japanese Buddhist ethics. In this paper, a comparison of Watsuji’s “ontological quest” with that of Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), Watsuji’s primary Western source and foil, is followed by …

Peopled By The Book, Allen Jorgenson

Luther Faculty Publications

Christians, along with other religious groups, are sometimes called “people of the book.” Despite its laudable intentions, this phrase sometimes fosters the tendency to set up readers of the book as masters of this object in their possession. I seek here to unsettle this prejudice with the suggestion that the Triune God uses the Christian Scriptures to master us by transforming us into the people of God. We are, in fact, peopled by the book. I will unpack this thesis in three steps: by exploring the notion of authorship of Scripture, by discussing the question of scriptural authority, and by …

The Altercatio Ecclesiae Et Synagogae As A Late Antique Anti-Jewish Polemic, Michael J. Brinks

Masters Theses

The Catholic Church's newfound influence in late antiquity led to the political marginalization of the empire's Jewish community, a marginalization that is evident in Christian polemic against Judaism written after the Empire's religious transformation had largely been consolidated. This thesis is an analysis of the Altercatio Ecclesiae et Synagogae, written anonymously in the fifth century. Its primary intention is to discover what earlier writers influenced its author, what can be known about him, when the text was written, and what kind of arguments against Judaism he used.

The thesis begins by comparing and contrasting the anti-Jewish writing of Cyprian …

Self-Actualization In The Lives Of Medieval Female Mystics: An Ethnohistorical Approach, Cherel Jane Ellsworth Olive

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation explores the cultural and psychological factors that permitted six medieval female mystics to assume positions of leadership and innovation in a world marked by extreme gender inequality. Women religious have often been charged with being neurotics, hysterics, narcissists, and nymphomaniacs whereas males with similar experiences are rarely subject to the same degree of criticism. It is argued here that the women may well have been seeking to achieve the form of self-actualization described by humanist psychologist, Abraham Maslow, as a result of the "conversion" experience analyzed by William James. Furthermore, applying modern categories of mental illness to these …

Revelation, Text, And Revision: Insight From The Book Of Commandments And Revelations, Grant Underwood

BYU Studies

This article is one of several in this issue about the Book of Commandments and Revelations (BCR), a foundational document of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This article explores how the textual revisions preserved in the BCR shed important light on the process by which Joseph Smith received, recorded, and published his revelations. It has long been recognized that revelations published in the 1833 Book of Commandments were revised for publication in the 1835 Doctrine and Covenants. Less well known is that those texts were also edited prior to publication in the Book of Commandments or The …

Offering Hope And Affirming Faith, Michael Campos

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Hiv And Condoms Within Marriage, Most Rev Anthony Fisher

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

In this essay I revisit the issue of whether an agency or a professional, including doctors, nurses, pastors, counselors and educators, may assist the condomizing of intercourse – as I will call it for short – in order to reduce HIV transmission within marriage. There are parallel but also distinct arguments to be made outside of marriage, e.g. in homosexual intercourse. There are also many ways to ‘assist’. Most Catholic agencies will not actually distribute condoms. But may they take part in an ‘ABC’ program which promotes ‘A’ for Abstinence, ‘B’ for Be Faithful to one’s spouse (what I call …

Church Growth By Another Name: Challenges And Opportunities For The Future Of A Movement, Alan Mcmahan

Great Commission Research Journal

A brief review of the church growth movement not only highlights significant accomplishments but also raises questions about its future. While church growth thinkers were compelled by the evangelistic mandate, this article argues that continued obedience to the Great Commission will require new responses to the rapidly changing context of ministry. Charting the path ahead, the author identifies six key challenges that demand new initiatives from the church: 1) the challenge to reinvent the evangelistic paradigm and imagination; 2) the challenge of diasporas, and the worldwide migration of people; 3) the challenge of urbanization, 4) the challenge of the plateaued …

Ethical Guidelines For Church Planters: A Suggested Approach For Starting (And Continuing) The Conversation, J. D. Payne

Great Commission Research Journal

Church planters, regardless of their ministry contexts, need to develop a set of ethical guidelines to direct their ministry practices. This paper presents eleven particular guidelines.

Marginality And Coping: A Communal Contextual Narrative Approach To Pastoral Care With Korean American Christians, Jaesang Lyu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Focusing on Korean American experiences of racism, sexism, and intergenerational conflicts related to the acculturation process, this dissertation examines the social reality of marginality and constructs a communal contextual narrative approach to pastoral care. Current approaches to pastoral care in the Korean American church encourage a deferring style of religious coping that maintains the status quo—the internalized status of marginality—without activating self agency for the fulfillment of one’s own selfhood within the communal life of religious communities. A communally grounded sense of self agency is described in terms of three aspects of Korean indigenous culture: 1) uri (we-ness), 2) jeong …

The Silent Witness, Summer 2009

Silent Witness, The

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Washington, D.C.

The Silent Witness Finding Aid

Deaf Southern Star, May 2009

Deaf Southern Star

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in New Zealand

Deaf Southern Star Finding Aid

The Perceptions Of Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints Full-Time Seminary Teachers Regarding The Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities, Reginald S. Slocombe

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Efforts to formally educate students with special needs have been ongoing for over 50 years in the United States. Teachers are on the front line of the work to include students with disabilities. Previous research indicates a correlation between the attitudes of teachers and successful inclusion of students with disabilities. Two-hundred and fifty-one full-time released-time seminary teachers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Seminaries and Institutes of Religion (S&I, formerly the Church Education System or CES) in Utah responded to a questionnaire regarding their attitudes toward including students with disabilities in their classrooms. Selected personal and professional …

The Sky Is Wide Enough: A Historico-Critical Appraisal Of Theological Activity And Method In Africa, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

This essay presents and critiques the methods and claims of the principal theological schools and camps of African theology. While situating them in their historical context, it examines their respective claims as the best representative or expression of theological activity in Africa. The historico-critical appraisal of these African theological schools generates some useful lessons on the nature and method of theological reflection in Africa, particularly the necessity of taking experience and context seriously.

The Spiritual Value Of Poetic Expression, Sally Waggoner

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This project explores the nature of the self’s relationship to language, particularly creative linguistic expression, and aims to illustrate the ways in which creative linguistic expression or, in other words, poetic expression, can be spiritually beneficial to the speaker, writer, reader, or listener. Of course, this could mean a variety of things. In this project, I take it to mean that poetic expression has the potential to subvert ego discourse (expression that only serves to create, reinforce, and protect the ego or self-identity).

First, in the introduction, I use Gilles Deleuze’s text, Bergsonism, along with a quotation by Paul …

Theme And Structure In Isaiah 28-33 A Unified And Coherent Reading Centered On Chapter 30, G. Vincent Medina

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Medina, G. Vincent “Theme and Structure in Isaiah 28–33: A Unified and Coherent Reading Centered on Ch. 30.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2009. 260 pp.

This dissertation represents an attempt to demonstrate that Isaiah 28–33 is a compositional unity with structural and thematic coherence. Beginning with the widely recognized structuring function of the six hôy-oracles found in this section of Isaiah (Isa 28:1; 29:1; 29:15; 30:1; 31:1; 33:1), the dissertation seeks to discover a deeper and more comprehensive structuring principle. It argues that Isaiah 30 is the center of Isaiah 28–33, and that 30:15–18 is the central passage. This thesis …

Preaching The Story Behind The Image A Narrative Approach To Metaphor For Preaching, Justin P. Rossow

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Rossow, Justin P. “Preaching the Story behind the Image: A Narrative Approach to Metaphor for Preaching.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary,2008.296pp.

In response to an increasingly image-driven culture, preachers have focused more and more attention on the use of imagery and metaphor in the sermon. The homiletics of metaphor, however, currently lacks a sufficient hermeneutical foundation. This dissertation lays the groundwork for a fuller understanding of how interpreters fill in the blanks left by metaphors in the biblical text and in the sermon. While the appendix describes a range of different theories on what metaphor is and how it works, the …

The Pelikan Movement - An Immigrant Story, Richard Blythe

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Blythe, Richard J. “The Pelikan Movement: An Immigrant Story.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2008. 306 pp.

The Pelikan Movement, led initially by Jan Pelikan, the grandfather of the Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan, was a pivotal event in a Slovak Lutheran immigrant community that desired to provide a confessional Lutheran witness to their mother country. Shortly after the First World War, this immigrant community was resolute to return to Slovakia to share their confessional Lutheran understanding of the Christian faith, in the Hurban tradition, as well as their new church polity and practices that they adopted in America during the previous …

Nathaniel Hawthorne And His Biblical Contexts, Conor Michael Walsh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The majority of criticism and scholarship devoted to the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne takes for granted the relationship between Hawthorne and the Bible, focusing instead upon theology and philosophy. This work proposes that the Bible was an important and pervasive influence in Hawthorne's fiction. The Bible provides Hawthorne with numerous resources for both his artistic and moral concerns. At a basic level the Bible provides a popular platform that allows Hawthorne to immediately connect with his contemporary audience who were intimately familiar with the Bible. More importantly, though, are the vast examples and perspectives of the human condition and human …

Divine Fluidity: Shifts Of Gender And Sexuality In Conservative Christian Communities, Sarah Stewart Burgess

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis draws on ethnographic research from three communities of conservative Christian women who find empowerment and agency through their religious traditions. Two communities are politically active, outspoken women who also believe strongly in "traditional" roles for women, and one community idealizes conservative standards of sexuality while accepting women who work as sex workers. These women did not view their positions as contradictory, rather, they used religious beliefs and religious practices to enact, embody or explain their complex genders and sexualities. This thesis draws on ethnographic, feminist and queer theories while showcasing the diversity within a movement largely believed to …

Auschwitz Has Happened: An Exploration Of The Past, Present, And Future Of Jewish Redemption, Alexander Warren Marcus

Pomona Senior Theses

Ch. 1: Introduction: A Destruction without Adequate Precedent. Ch. 2: Rupture and the Holy Ideal: Redemption in the Hebrew Bible. Ch. 3: Giving the Sense: The Rise of Commentary. Ch. 4: Rabbi Eliezer’s Silence. Ch. 5: Gold and Glass: Ethical Rupture in Mystical Union? Ch. 6: Our Impossible Victory.

Enhancing Evolution: Posthumanous Dreams And The Moral Complexity Of Biomedical Aspirations, David L. Paulsen, Clark H. Pinnock

BYU Studies

A noted academic bioethicist and British media pundit with a named chair at the University of Manchester, John Harris has recently given birth to an odd literary child. His latest book, Enhancing Evolution: The Ethical Case for Making Better People, hails from an esteemed university press, but it is informal and tendentious, often jeering at opponents, both popular and academic. Despite his credentials (an Oxford PhD in philosophy, co-editorship of the British Journal of Medical Ethics, a lengthy curriculum vitae), Harris has created a popular polemic better fitted for the entertaining and energetic repartee of the Daily Show with Jon …

The Effect Of The Use Of Christian-Published Science Textbooks On The Act Science Reasoning Subtest Scores Of Midwest Christian High Schools, Janice Marie Guthrie

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Statistics indicate that students in conservative Christian schools earn higher standardized test scores in mathematics, reading, science, and writing compared to their public school counterparts, while many are criticized for using curricular materials deemed inferior in quality and for employing uncertified and ill-trained teachers. This study investigates the effectiveness of Christian-published science textbooks in preparing students for college-level science courses as measured by the Science Reasoning subtest of the ACT college entrance examination. A questionnaire was sent to conservative Christian high schools in five Midwest states which are affiliated with the American Association of Christian Schools, Association of Christian Schools …

Concerning Theory For Performance Studies, Richard Schechner, Timothy K. Beal, William E. Deal

Faculty Scholarship

In 2007, Routledge published Theory for Performance Studies as part of its Theory 4 series, listing Philip Auslander as author. When, in August, The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed that much of the book was lifted word-for-word from the template for the series, Theory for Religious Studies by Timothy K. Beal and William E. Deal, TDR editor Richard Schechner convened via email and phone conversations a “TDR Forum,” asking leaders in the field to respond to the book and the series. Schechner and other respondents address issues of plagiarism, corporate takeovers of academic publishing, and the dumbing down of performance …

The Dialectic Of Idolatry And Profanation: On Discerning The Spirit In Congregational Studies, Lois E. Malcolm

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Rose By Any Other Name: Iconography And The Interpretation Of Isaiah 28:1-6, Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Psalm 2, Psalm 8, Psalm 17, Psalm 23, Psalm 90, And Psalm 100., Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Answering The "How" Question Regarding Healing : The Story Of The Healing Of The Blind Man, Erin M. Diericx

Master of Arts Theses

No abstract provided.

Muslims In Canon Law, Ca. 650–1000, David M. Freidenreich

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.