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Front Matter, Spiritus Editors

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Spiritus 5.1 (Spring, 2020)

Full Issue: Volume 5, Number 1 (2020), Spiritus Editors

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

The Still Center As Invented Topos: Static Pilgrimage In Aristasia, Rozalija Grace

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

After decades of challenges to many other definitional elements of ‘pilgrimage’, the centrality of motion and physical movement, whether literally enacted or realized virtually or through metaphor, remains largely uncontested. This paper examines practices of creative writing and home decorating among participants in the 1990s British subculture of ‘Aristasia’ (an outgrowth of a New Religious Movement known in the 1970s and 80s as ‘Madrianism’ but now more commonly referred to as ‘Filianism’) to argue that these practices functioned together for participants as static pilgrimages, accomplishing the same psychological and social tasks as traditional modes while suppressing even metaphorical concepts of …

Night Of The Witch: Alternative Spirituality, Identity And Media, Andreana Tarleton

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis works to understand the relationships witches and conjurors have with the film and television depictions of them. Employing the method of film critique, I argue that the witch stands as a cultural symbol in the US of women and femmes with power, and that their stories serve as lessons to these populations about what it means to be an acceptable woman or femme, while simultaneously creating and perpetuating stereotypes of magic practitioners. Then, using the combination of hashtag ethnography, in-person and video interviewing and internet surveys, I argue that #witchblr and #witchesofcolor, as well as the space of …

Catholic Deacons And The Sacrament Of The Anointing Of The Sick, Michael J. Eash

Master of Theological Studies Honors Theses

An examination to discern if Roman Catholic deacons should be allowed to sacramentally anoint the sick. This includes a review of the current rite of Anointing of the Sick through is development. The Catholic diaconate is examined in historical context with a special focus on the revised diaconate after 1967. Through these investigations it is apparent that there is cause for dialog within the Church considering current pastoral realities in the United States. The paper concludes that deacons should have the faculty to anoint the sick as ordinary ministers when it is celebrated as a separate liturgical rite.

Psalmody, Shape Notes, And Sankey: The Evolution Of Protestant American Hymnody In The 19th Century, Paul T. Anderson

Tenor of Our Times

With improvements in the lyrics, rhythms, emotional appeal, and overall quality of hymns, nineteenth century Protestant American hymnody evolved from crude psalmody to gospel songs with influences from the American frontier, new denominations, and the African-American spiritual. By examining the general trends in Christian singing in the 1800's, a better understanding can be had of the origins of popular church music today.

Rockin' The Church: Vernacular Catholic Musical Practices, Kinga Povedak

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article focuses on the unique dimensions of lived or vernacular Catholicism through the analysis of contemporary congregational music in Hungary. Looking at the musical lives of Hungarian Roman Catholics from the late 1960s to contemporary times can provide us with new understandings of the theological contents and aesthetics, as well as the vernacular religiosity of the community. Christian popular music appeared behind the Iron Curtain relatively early, in 1967 when the first “beat mass” was created and introduced at Budapest. The early Christian popular music sounded astonishingly similar to the songs of the American Folk Mass Movement of the …

Ask No Questions, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Ask No Questions (2020), directed by Jason Loftus and Eric Pedicelli.

The Others (2001) By Alejandro Amenábar In The Light Of Valentinian Thought, Fryderyk Kwiatkowski

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

The article offers a Valentinian interpretation of the Hollywood film The Others (2001). A particular attention is paid to the ways in which cinematic motifs and narrative elements of the film draw on myths, ideas and symbolic imagery present in Valentinian works, especially in the Gospel of Truth (NHC I, 3) and the Gospel of Philip (NHC II, 3). In the course of the heuristic analysis, the paper argues that although the film employs Valentinian ideas, it depicts different understanding of the world. This issue is addressed in the last part of the article by situating the film within broader …

Introduction To The Study Of World Religions, Mark Luttio

Lynn University Digital Press Books

Introduction to the Study of World Religions, by Mark Luttio, is a prolegomenon to the study of the religions of the world from a historical perspective, focusing especially on the culture and geography of each religion and their respective practices which express the essential core of each tradition. In addition to an introductory chapter on the nature of religion, and a concluding chapter on the future of religion, an examination will be made of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Shinto, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and New Religious Movements. Course: HUM 335

Flower Unfurling: Buddhist Modernism And The Early Writing Of James Joyce, Erin Garrow

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation traces the history of the references to Buddhism in Stephen Hero, James Joyce’s first and unpublished novel, through the author’s previous writing, his sources, and his context, in order to determine how—if at all—the tradition bore upon his earliest depiction of consciousness. Acknowledging that Joyce habitually revisited and refined earlier ideas and prose, it attends to previous essays, notebooks, book reviews, conversations, letters, epiphanies, poems, and autobiographical prose; to available material, bibliographical, and biographical evidence about the specific volumes and performances to which Joyce had access; to language and paratext—including advertisements, introductions, and appended essays—in those volumes; …

"Demand Prisoners Be Given Liberty." Los Angeles Herald (February 2, 1908), Holy Spirit Research Center Oru Library

Parham News Paper Clippings

An article by Charles Parham outlining a meeting by Charles Parham in protest of the detention of "laboring class" for idleness and unemployment.

"Dowie Good-By Bitter; Reviles Wife And Son", Holy Spirit Research Center Oru Library

Parham News Paper Clippings

A report on Dowie's departure from Zion City. The paper and date is unknown. It was likely 1906. Dowie says, "I am not a sick man. My disease is a broken heart. For twenty five years I lived with my wife a broken hearted man. Her private life was a shame. She abused me every day."

This report also mentions that Dowie, "ordained George W. Slater, a former negro attendant, as an evangelist."

Ayahuasca’S Religious Diaspora In The Wake Of The Doctrine Of Discovery, Roger K. Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

‘Ayahuasca’ is a plant mixture with a variety of recipes and localized names native to South America. Often, the woody ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) is combined with chacruna leaf (Psychotria viridis) in a tea, inducing psychedelic effects among its users. While social usage varies among Indigenous Peoples of South America, during the twentieth century new religious movements in Brazil began employing the mixture as religious sacrament. Additionally, various centers for ayahuasca “healing” have emerged both inside and outside of the Amazon Rainforest, frequently with the aim of helping people addicted to other substances. As interest grew, …

Biblical Rhetoric Of Separatism And Universalism And Its Intolerant Consequences, James Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

The long history of the Jewish and Christian use of separatist rhetoric and universal ideals reveals their negative consequences. The Hebrew Bible’s rhetoric about Israel as a people separated from the Egyptians and Canaanites is connected to Israel’s purity practices in Leviticus 18 and 20. Later communities wielding greater political power, however, employed this same anti-Canaanite pollution rhetoric in their efforts to colonize many different parts of the world. Separatist rhetoric was used to protect small Jewish communities in the early Second Temple period. The Christian New Testament rejected many of these purity practices in order to makes its mission …

“Spirited” Engagement: Latin American Faith And The Construction Of Emancipative Pentecostalism, David Luckey

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Pentecostalism is a prominent form of Christianity around the world that is increasingly pervasive in the Global South. One of the persistent issues that obscures accurate understanding of the movement is the question of whether such a spiritually-oriented faith gives attention to social realities. This dissertation identifies a broad spectrum of Latin America Pentecostal social- ethical engagement in order to complicate stereotypes and reveal a natural orientation toward public witness. It shows that Pentecostalism is too complex for broad generalization, and it draws on leading voices from within the movement to articulate a call to increasing efforts for social justice.

Actual Development Trends Of Religious Studies In Uzbekistan, Makhfuza Alimova

The Light of Islam

The paper highlights actual problems, major directions and development trends of the field of Religious Studies in Uzbekistan. It is clear that the youths have become the main target of different destructive ideas in the period of globalization. The paper focuses on the prevention of these threats and formation of a spiritual immunity against them as well as on the improvement of healthy lifestyle and respect towards national and universal values in souls and minds of the youths in order to prevent a gap to be appeared in their spiritual world.

National and religious values have developed for better in …

The Amish Symposium, Megan Bogden, Steven Reschly, Benjamin Zeller, Tom Coletti

Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies

The Amish is a 500-some page university press-sized handbook that touches on a variety of topical areas. The book is the culmination of two and a half decades each of Kraybill’s, Johnson-Weiner’s, and Nolt’s work about the Amish. Karen Johnson-Weiner published a series of linguistic studies through the 1990s, and from these spring-board works later explored more fully schools and New York settlements. Donald Kraybill’s first Amish-focused publication was a Durkheimian study of the Amish and suicide in 1986. From then on he has maintained this functionalist orientation in comparative studies of plain Anabaptists and Amish responses to cultural, economic, …

Giftive Dialogue: An Analysis Of The Use Of The Giftive Metaphor In The Pluralist Context Of The Lutheran University Of Brazil, Maximiliano Silva

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Silva, Maximiliano Wolfgramm. “Giftive Dialogue: An Analysis of the Use of the Giftive Metaphor in the Pluralist Context of the Lutheran University of Brazil.” Ph. D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2019. 189 pp.

Modernity’s secularization project and specific characteristics of Brazilian history have promoted pluralism to the status of a moral demand, especially in the academic context. Such a situation posits challenges and opportunities for ULBRA’s campus pastors. That is so because ULBRA’s chaplains’ pastoral ministry is the most visible and symbolic expression of ULBRA’s confessional identity. Because of the claims made by Christianity, that identity has exclusivist traits. Therefore, it …

Reviews, Arden C. Autry Phd, Christopher G. Foster, Jennifer Greig-Berens, John Austin Helm, Thad R. Horner, Wonsuk Ma, Sandra Richardson, R. Samuel Thorpe, Jeffrey Voth, Ruth Whiteford

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Healing En Masse: Examining The Unique Contribution Of The Spirit-Empowered Movement To The Practice Of Mass Evangelism, Daniel King

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article explores the unique innovation of mass healing evangelism by Spirit-empowered evangelists as an effective methodology for reaching people for Christ. It will trace the development of the idea of healing “en masse” in the Pentecostal tradition. It showcases a case study from a crusade conducted by the author in the nation of Brazil in which healing and evangelism were wedded together as an effective ministry strategy.

The Impact Of Healing On The Growth Of Christianity In Asia: An Empirical Investigation, Julie Ma

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article explores the role healing has played in the expansion of Christianity throughout Asia. It documents stories from various regions of Asia to demonstrate that healing is an effective method for evangelism.

Becoming A Whole Person Medical Professional: Reflections From An Oru Medical Student, Clay Powell, M.D.

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article is a reflection about the legacy of whole person medicine by a graduate of Oral Roberts University School of Medicine.

Healing Through Prayer And Medicine: How Oral Roberts’ Healing Vision Was— And Continues To Be—Fulfilled, John R. Crouch, Jr., M.D.

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article is a personal reflection on the legacy of integration of divine healing with medical practice through the vision of the Oral Roberts University School of Medicine. It charts the origins of the School of Medicine, the implementation of the philosophy of prayer and medicine, and the legacy that followed the theology and faculty after the school closed in 1989.

Editorial - The Healing Issue, Daniel D. Isgrigg

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Holy Spirit Research Center Oru Library

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Spiritus 4, Vol 2 (2019) The Healing Issue, Holy Spirit Research Center Oru Library

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Intimations Of A Spiritual New Age: Iii. Martin Heidegger’S Phenomenology Of Numinous/Being Experience And The “Other Beginning” Of A Futural Planetary Spirituality, Harry T. Hunt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The phenomenology of numinous or Being-experience in the later Heidegger is the focus in this third in a series of papers on a group of independent figures— also including Jung, Reich, Toynbee, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil—who beginning in the crisis years of the 1930s envisioned versions of a futural “New Age” spirituality to address a globalizing materialism and its disenchantments—and so also creating a context for much of contemporary transpersonal and consciousness studies. A preliminary consideration of Heidegger in the contexts of transpersonal psychology, religious studies, the macro-histories of Toynbee and Sorokin, James on “pure experience,” and spirituality …

On Awkward Spiritual Gateway Drugs, Scott Culpepper

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Intimations Of A Spiritual New Age: Ii. Wilhelm Reich As Transpersonal Psychologist Part 2: The Futural Promise Of Reich’S Naturalistic Bio-Energetic Spirituality, Harry T. Hunt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This is the second part of a consideration of the later Wilhelm Reich as anticipating a future planetary-wide “New Age” form of this-worldly spirituality in ways overlapping with figures from the same era of Western crisis from the 1930s through the 1950s, including Jung, Toynbee, Bergson, Heidegger, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil. Where the first part of this treatment of Reich as transpersonal psychologist traced his evolution from his bio-energetic psychotherapy to a Weberian this-worldly mysticism of a universal life energy, his cosmic orgone, with its attendant features of conflicted “spiritual emergency,” this second paper seeks to further develop …