Digital Commons Network^™

How Should Members Of The Lgbtq+ Community Be Allowed In Positions Of Ministry In The Catholic Church, Federico Guillermo (Memo) Rodriguez Hernandez

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

The Catholic Church has had an inconsistent approach to the LGBTQ+ community. The Church speaks of respect, compassion, and sensitivity, while at the same time terminates the employment of workers who openly identify themselves as LGBTQ+, without any other cause for termination. The Church also frequently hinders opportunities for ministry for members of the LGBTQ+. This article calls for a consistent application of Catholic doctrine, so that the respect, compassion, and sensitivity the Church teaches we are to show to members of the LGBTQ+ community is not obscured with unjust discrimination. Based on solid Catholic doctrine, I will establish the …

A Spatial Analysis Of The Relationship Between Places Of Worship And Criminal Activity In Little Rock, Arkansas, Joseph Charles Williams Iii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research Topic and Gap(s): Previous studies often show negative relationships between religiosity and participation in criminal acts. However, much of the literature revolving around this topic employs a micro-level approach that looks at the religiosity of individuals instead of a macro-level approach that looks at the religiosity of communities. Because this relationship has often been studied from a micro-level perspective, a gap in the literature surrounding macro-level relationships has formed. More specifically, the potential for places of worship to act as buffers against crime has been relatively understudied which furthers the importance of filling this gap in the literature to …

My Journey To Create A Space For Young Adults To Grow In Community, Chelsea Simmeth

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project focuses on the development of a safe space for young adults to come together, create community and engage in activities. There is a gap in college-age students’ ability to find community outside the university. This project focuses on creating a place where they would be able to meet new people, play sports, and board games, and do arts and crafts. The development of marketing strategies, event planning checklists, and locations for holding events are outlined for the Young Adults (YA)- UNITE (Upbeat, New, and Inviting Transformational Environment) program.

The Labor Of Mary: A Comparative Analysis Of The Virgin Birth In The Qur’An And The Gospels, Jessica Leu

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Mary has been called a bridge between Christians and Muslims for centuries. Both religions revere her as the mother of Jesus (Isa) and for her status as a virgin when she conceived him, and both traditions have within them devotees who venerate Mary. But despite this shared adoration for the blessed mother, there are a variety of differences between their understanding of Mary’s role in salvation and of her virginity. While the New Testament Gospels make some mention of Mary in their texts, the Qur’an dedicates an entire surah (chapter) to her story and mentions her with more frequency than …

The Diminished Experience Of Liturgy In A Pandemic, Joseph Torti

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Vatican II taught that the “Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). For many, this Holy Eucharist is spiritual food to nourish the soul that has been worn down by the challenges of daily life. Participation in the communion ritual where we all share of this holy sacrifice allows the faithful to be truly one with Jesus Christ. We are more than one year into the global Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Our lives have been significantly altered by this new reality. At the outset of the pandemic, most of the world went into …

Becoming Stewards Of Attention: A Theological Appeal, Joshua Gorenflo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The widespread compromising of attention currently taking place in our digital age is, at least in part, a theological issue necessitating a theological response, which invites an examination of the human person in relation to God. Familiar within the biblical narrative and throughout Christian tradition, I suggest that when the role of steward functions as the operative paradigm for humans, the claims made upon their lives have profound implications for attending within the digital age. More specifically, the steward’s attention becomes a tangible expression of authority and accountability in representation of God’s image to the rest of creation. In pursuit …

Multi-Site Church : Best Practices To Launch And Sustain Multi-Site, Brandon Beals

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Progressive Christianity: The Postmodern Mutation Of Theological Liberalism, Lisa Dundov

Masters Theses

The intention of this thesis is to historically track Liberal Christianity, distinguishing its different shapes, dissecting its current form of Progressive Christianity, and then refute its tenets by holding them to the standard of orthodox Christianity. This project is organized into a chronological, historical approach to Liberal Christianity followed by a comparative approach to Progressive Christianity and orthodox Christianity. The historical research aims to identify and connect common, theologically liberal elements, a distinct man-centered theology, across different historical horizons, including the delineation of modernity, postmodernism, secularism, and humanism, which are influenced and shaped by theological liberalism. Focusing on the current …

The Blanqueamiento Of Ecuador: Liberation In The Black Christ Of Daule, Jessica Leu

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The dominance of the White Christ in Latin America has been used to lend “theological” support for social, racial, and colonial hierarchies of the Spanish in Ecuador. The rhetoric used to justify the blanqueamiento process continues to play an enormous role in Ecuadorian social mobility, and also determines how various ethnicities in Ecuador are governed and treated. The Indigenous and Afroecuadorian populations of Ecuador are subjected to significantly higher rates of violence, poverty, and disease than their Mestizo and White counterparts. Against the tide of this theological distortion, I will argue that the Black Christ of Daule subverts the dominant …

Evangelism Through Online Gaming : Communicating To Gen Z Beyond The Church Walls, Michael A. Mcmullen

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Narrative Preaching For Millennials : Inviting The Next Generation Into God's Story, Daniel J. Jones

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Holistic Pastoral Care In Dhading District : An Evaluation Of The Pastoral Care Practice In Dhading District Of Nepal, Yohannan Thomas

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Attention, Reflection, And Contemplation: Approaching The Divine Through Romantic Poiesis, Katelynn Tyner

English Undergraduate Honors Theses

Often the techniques of the said and the unsaid work together. This paper will explore ways in which poets embrace iconophilic or iconoclastic postures toward divine poiesis. One objective will be to focus on the arrangement of an abundance of images into itineraries and poetic landscapes. Another objective will be to demonstrate how these patterns of cultivation can be related to a divine poiesis. Through poetry, there are ways of attending to, reflecting on, and contemplating divine images that can return us to forms of participation with the sacred. First examining poetic attention, I identify poets who demonstrate …

Building Healthy Families Through Intergenerational Worship Ministry, Frank Richard Gillespie

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Although literature exists concerning family ministry in the local church, there is little research that gives explicit insight into music and worship ministry’s role in helping to strengthen families. Since worship is one of the ultimate functions of both the church and the family, this study integrates family ministry methodology with worship ministry methodology to discover theological sound and practical ways to build up the family through corporate worship, structured music programs, and community involvement. Guided by biblical and historical foundational teachings on church and family, this qualitative research study identifies perspectives that have not yet been explored and documented …

A Model For The Pastor Search Process For Free Will Baptist Churches, Timothy Buckley York

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project sought to help the pastor shortage in the National Association of Free Will Baptists by creating and implementing a tool to assist churches in their search for a pastor and help pastors find a new church to serve. Each church in the association is autonomous and selects its own pastor. The tool is actually two surveys that mirror each other. The churches seeking a pastor completes the church survey. And the candidate seeking a church to pastor completes the pastor survey. The tool gives information and views of ministry roles, preferences, non-negotiables, and negotiables. It is designed to …

Wonders In The Deep: Faith And Religious Practice In The Shipboard Writings Of American Sailors, 1810-1859, Valerie Sallis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While stereotypes of sailors as immoral, godless ne’er-do-wells flourish in mainland historical accounts, little attention has been paid to the records left by sailors that document their own faith and religious practices. This thesis examines the logbooks, journals, and diaries written by American sailors while at sea, sounding the depth of sailors’ religious beliefs through their own words. While American seamen certainly drank, swore, and caroused, sailors also frequently captured in their writing a much more religious nature than the mainland expected of them. Sailors’ position as highly mobile laborers on the ultimate borderlands—the sea itself—impacted their religious practice and …

A Reader’S Guide To Worship And Liturgical Studies, David Kneip

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

The history of writing about worship in the Christian tradition is almost as old as the tradition itself, and it shows no sign of abating anytime soon. As a result, readers may find it difficult to know where to begin reading, and how to evaluate books that are popular or otherwise available to them. This annotated bibliography aims to assist readers in navigating the huge field of Christian publishing in worship studies, both by offering specific book recommendations and by demonstrating some of the different sub-categories that one might examine in attempting to choose what to read or study. The …

Identity Formation And Powerful Narrative: What The Church Can Learn From Disney, Janie Fisher

Master of Art Theology Thesis

This thesis explores a phenomenon I first observed while working for The Walt Disney Company in Florida. Many people seem to be dedicated to Disney in a distinctly religious way, giving the company their time, money, abilities, and heart. Disney is one of the most successful organizations in America, and they have mastered the art of storytelling in their films and theme parks. These stories can be used for identity formation, as they teach people who they are, what the world is like, and how they ought to live. Disney uses religious means to help their fans feel as if …

A Homily On Romans 10:14-15, Dinh Vo

Obsculta

In my studies within the course of Technology in Ministry, I was encouraged to use and promote the use of technology as a valuable means to proclaim the Good News to people where they are. In the “spirit” of Vatican II, the Church reaches out to her sons and daughters, especially the young, in an effort to make practical use of technology. Social media specifically comes into question when considering the use of high-tech communication to proclaim the Word. If we hold that the beauty of the feet of those who bring good news to the world from village to …

Pope Francis' Leadership In The Time Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Hang T.H. Nguyen Op

Obsculta

The essay writes about the influences of the COVID-19 pandemic to human existence in various aspects, particularly Christian faith. In the darkness and hardship of life, believers and non-believers need the help of good leaders so that they can overcome the crisis, but not lose their faith in God. In order to achieve this purpose, the leaders both in the Church and in the world need to acquire some qualities. What are qualities of a good leader? The essay is an attempt to answer this question by reflection on Pope Francis’ leadership. According to Orobator, Pope Francis is good leader …

The Generation Of The Smartphone, Anisabel Palma

Obsculta

iGen is the generation of those born after 1995. A common characteristic of teen iGen’ers is their lack of interest in school. Many of these kids attend school only because they must, not because school is a place where they are looking forward going each morning. The low interested has been increasing since 2012.. There is a link between iGen teens’ behavior including motivation to go to school to their use of technologies around them. In this paper, the author tries to find a response to this change and to offer some hope to those working with teens.

Prosodic And Deictic Features As Performance Markers In Southern Baptist Sermons, Matt Nelson

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This paper examines sermons taken from Southern Baptist churches in Virginia to study how the forms of sermons contribute to the message of the sermons. The data for the study comes from publicly posted recordings of sermons on websites of churches registered with the Southern Baptist Convention of Virginia. I took five sermons, transcribed, and analyzed them using methods of discourse analysis. I find that Southern Baptist pastors change their tempo mid-utterance, pause often, change pronouns between themselves and the congregation, and refer to the weekly sermon as a reference point in time. I argue that these discourse features mark …

Reclaiming Rights To The Rites Of The Anointing, Kelly Olson

Obsculta

This submission is a paper written in response to the discussion of Jesus’ healing ministry restoring ethnomedical health of a community through healing particular individuals thus representing the need to reintegrate the marginalized within the body of the community and the utilization of the Rite of the Anointing as a communal sacrament to renegotiate the individual in the community amid circumstances contributing to the migration to the periphery creating discord and illness. I have used the diverse and global impact of the pandemic to illuminate imbalanced health of communities and the urgency with which we must respond through sacramental theology.

Dawn Of A Silver Millennium: Millenarianism, Futurity, And Utopia In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Matthew Dentice

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The story of Sailor Moon, told and retold in countless forms in the thirty years since the original manga’s publication, is imbued with a cosmic sense of time. The modern-day protagonists’ personal journeys are tightly interwoven with the distant past of the Silver Millennium and the far future of thirtieth-century Crystal Tokyo. But only the manga is fully willing to grapple with what the future means for its own present moment. Written in the early 1990s during Japan's "Lost Decade," Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon dramatizes the angst that accompanies the imminent arrival of a new millennium. As the Sailor Guardians …

Super Apocalypto 64: Inhabiting Revelation As A Video Game Made Of Sacred Words, Greg Jones

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The book of Revelation makes the living and life-giving reality of Scripture known to audiences via the vision articulated by John. He conveys this divine reality through words – both read and heard – which call for more than the passive reception of a static text. Rather, Revelation is also participatory; its words are meant to be read, heard and kept in the life of faith. How can one articulate this dynamic interactivity with accessible terms that render divine reality as recognizable in everyday life and highly-qualified language which makes it clear that divine reality is never comprehended in …

Spiritual Friendship: Learning To Be Friends With God And One Another, Hank Voss

Sacred Roots Spiritual Classics

Aelred’s Spiritual Friendship focuses on being God’s friend expressed through three conversations with different friends. Aelred draws upon his friendships both with contemporaries and with authors who lived centuries before. This work provides an antidote to our contemporary milieu which, though replete with unremitting communications, propels toward individualism, autonomy, and loneliness. What Spiritual Friendship affords is a guide toward “holy and life-giving” friendships fruitfully marked by joy and happiness.

Professor Hank Voss amplifies a voice from the 12th century that explored Christian friendship in Scripture, in creation (reason), in church teachings (tradition), and in his own practice of spiritual friendship …

"Standing In The Gap": Combating Sexual Abuse In The Protestant Church, Hayley N. Carter

Honors Projects

Sexual abuse in the Christian Church has been a problem for many decades, and scholars have written extensively about sexual abuse occurring in the Catholic Church. However, abuse occurring in the Protestant Church has not been given that same attention. In 2017, the #MeToo movement went viral and has inspired many sexual abuse survivors to share their stories. I will argue that the Protestant Church should acknowledge the #MeToo movement’s accomplishments, and that this acknowledgement would lead to positive changes in how it approaches sexual abuse. I also will discuss financial abuse, which is a correlating behavior along with sexual …

Developing Ethical Training Curriculum For University Short-Term Missions, Elizabeth P. Sutphin

Honors Scholars Collaborative Projects

This thesis addresses common problems associated with short-term mission (STM) trips and the gaps in existing training materials for these trips. The research throughout this project is designed to inspire community-specific training materials for college students participating in domestic STM trips through their universities. The final chapter of this thesis includes the framework for a sample curriculum to promote sustainable STM work — providing cross-cultural communication techniques and relationship-building tools to avoid harming the communities students seek to serve.

Volume Xxxvii, No. 2, Cumulative Issue 73

The Communicator

The English Speaking Circary of the Order of Prémontré

Grapho 2022, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The Light from Generation to Generation