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Alyosha The Christian Hermeneut, Eddie Li

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Presentation Abstract: Alyosha as the Christian Hermeneut

This presentation is adapted from my essay Alyosha as the Christian Hermeneut, written under the supervision of Dr. Paul Contino. In the essay, I gave an analysis of the character Alyosha in Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, in light of Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutics, and Dr. Contino’s book on Incarnational Realism. I discussed how Alyosha adapts from an inexperienced Christian disciple to a mature interpreter capable of conducting the hermeneutical fusion of horizons with different horizons. Within this capability, Alyosha develops his unique Christian horizon, enabling him to understand and reconcile the …

The Crucifixion And Death Of Jesus In The Qur'an And Islamic Scholarship: The "Swoon Theory" And The Medical Perspective, Emmanuel K. Asante

Masters Theses

The crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ is a profound event that holds immense theological significance within Christianity. However, the Islamic perspective as presented in the Qur'an, offers a distinct portrayal of this event, giving rise to an argument known as the Swoon Theory. This theory suggests that Jesus did not die on the cross but instead survived the crucifixion, prompting various interpretations and implications. This thesis aims to explore the depiction of the crucifixion and death of Jesus in the Qur'an, focusing specifically on the swoon theory and its relationship with the medical perspective. By examining relevant Qur'anic verses …

Addressing Chaplain Care And Resiliency As Protective Factors To Burnout In Community Chaplaincy, Robin Jonell Ratcliff

Masters Theses

This paper will address Chaplain Care and Resiliency as Protective Factors to Burnout in Community Chaplaincy. There will be a problem stated, literature review covered on the subject, the results of the assessments, scales, and screening used to address burnout. Then the author discusses training and interventions and shows analysis of said training and interventions.

The Nature Of Beauty And Its Objective Manifestation Serve As Evidence Of The God Described In The Bible, Michael S. Libby

Masters Theses

In exploring the concept of objective beauty in nature, a strong argument emerges for the existence of a divine creator as described in the Bible. This thesis, titled “The Nature of Beauty and its Objective Manifestation Serve as Evidence of the God Described in the Bible,” proposes that the intricate design and objective manifestation of beauty in the world are indicative of a higher transcendent being, prompting us to contemplate the profound mysteries of creation and the interconnectedness of aesthetics and spirituality. Through this lens of beauty, we are challenged to engage in a thought-provoking discourse that encompasses apologetics, philosophy, …

A Phenomenological Study Of Church Polity And Its Impact On Pastoral Leadership And Congregational Health, Travis L. Biller

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

It is reported that deacon-led churches produce conflict and high pastoral turnover (Harbuck, 2018; Payne, 1996). The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how a church governance structure impacts a pastor’s ability to lead, the health of the church, and pastoral retention. The experiences of pastors from deacon-led churches were evaluated for clusters of meaning and compared with the experiences of pastors who serve under an elder-led model of leadership. Nine interviews were conducted—five pastors from deacon-led churches and four from elder-led churches. This study approached the phenomenological design from an interpretive, or hermeneutical approach to understand the …

Preparing The Next Generation For Faith Ownership By Training Fathers In The Biblical Worldview, John D. Embrey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Several modern factors increase families’ difficulty training children in the Christian faith. Time commitments outside the home have increased, and a decline in faith practice has made parents less comfortable and confident with knowledge of the Christian faith. These factors fueled an increase in teenagers leaving the Christian faith as they moved into adulthood and a decline in the number of adults with a biblical worldview. The underlying assumption of this DMIN project is that if fathers are trained with a biblical worldview and mentoring skills, they will become more comfortable and prepared to share their faith with their children …

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

"No Nation More Tenacious Of Its Past" National Historical Memory In Lnterwar Scotland, 1920-1934, Susannah Morrison

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Looking back over the last claendar year at the end of 1929, one Glasgow newspaper concluded, "Certainly no year within the memory of any living Scot has witnessed so much heart-searching. Never before has there been so much airing of the question: what is wrong with Scotland?" The question might as well have been posed about the entire decade of the 1920s. Scotland emerged from the Great War essentially demoralized, with a devastated industrial sector, an influx of Irish immigration, and a flood of mass Scottish emigration to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Facing this onslaught of postwar domestic problems, …

The Critical Role Of Lutheran Higher Education In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Jose Marichal, Maya Goehner, Tyler Haug

Intersections

No abstract provided.

Search And Destroy: The U.S. Military's Contribution To The Victory Of The North Vietnamese Army, Mike Baer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On August 7, 1964 both houses of Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, placing congressional support behind the president in repelling "any armed attack against the forces of the United States." The president was also empowered to take, upon request from any nation in Southeast Asia, "all necessary steps, including the use of armed force, to assist {that nation} in the defense of its freedom." This allowed the U.S. to circumvent the Geneva Accords of 1954, which had severely limited the U.S. troop contingent in South Vietnam and prevented any offensive military campaigns. Less than a year after passage …

The Theoretical Epigenetic Relationship Between Complex-Ptsd And Adhd In Holocaust Survivors’ Descendants, Y. Sahara Brodsky

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When comparing ADHD and Complex-PTSD, these two disorders share many overlapping features in both areas of the brain that are affected and the behavioral aspects due to deficits in certain brain regions, such as the prefrontal cortex. It is due to this similarity that I predict that c-PTSD is the precursor to the development of ADHD in later generations. Through epigenetic changes that are consistent with c-PTSD diagnosis, these changes to the brain are then passed down the generational line. When this is combined with trauma transference and generational trauma, it creates a situation where both the behaviors inform how …

The Rites Of Women: The Continuity Of Gender Roles In Roman Religion, Ariel E. Bybee

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The second-centrury B.C. historian Aulus Gellius recounts the ceremony by which a girl was inducted into the cult of the Roman goddess Vesta in his Attic Nights. A maiden between six and ten years of age and of aristocratic birth was selected from among her peers by the drawing of lots. The chief pontiff took her by the hand and declared, "I take thee, Amata, as one who has fulfilled all the legal requirements, to be priestess of Vesta, to perform the rites which it is lawful for a Vestal to perform for the Roman people, the Quirites." She was …

Honors Seminar: "Religion And The Sermon In Appalachia", Robert Ellison

English Faculty Research

This presentation is kind of a sequel/follow-up to one I gave seven years ago in Baltimore, entitled “Four Case Studies in Teaching Sermons at a Public University.” I discussed

a gen-ed ENG class, a gen-ed class cross-listed with ENG & RST, a graduate seminar, and a class in the Honors College. The first three were one-offs, but the Honors class has lived on. I taught it again, in much the same form, the semester after that presentation, and again this past semester. The title was now “Religion and the Sermon in Appalachia” (for purposes of the online schedule, it had …

Children On The Mormon Trail, Jill Jacobsen Andros

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

While reflecting on her experience crossing the plains in a Mormon handcart company at age nine, Agnes Caldwell, recalled:

"Although only tender years of age, I can yet close my eyes and see everything in panoramic precision before me-the ceaseless walking, walking, ever to remain in my memory. Many times I would become so tired and, childlike, would hang on the cart, only to be gently pushed away. Then I would throw myself by the side of the road and cry. Then realizing they were all passing me by, I would jump to my feet and make an extra run …

Women's Reproductive Health: A Critical Appraisal Of Reproductive Justice And Magisterial Contributions To Responsible Family Planning, Kelly Olson

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

History reveals the degrading and traumatizing experiences of marginalized women harmed by unethical reproductive healthcare practices. Progress has been made; however divisive barriers still prohibit dialogue from resulting in a dignified approach to legislation that serves the diverse population of women in diverse situations of lived reality. Enhancing the theological dialogue with updated awareness of women’s reproductive healthcare needs and a renewed conversation of the benefit of expressed human sexuality in heterosexual marriage allows opportunity for the Magisterium to enhance teaching that aligns with Catholic tradition and grows with human understanding, in the spirit of aggiornamento. Improved clarity and wider …

Faith In Europe: De Gasperi, Adenauer And Their Visions Of Postwar Europe, Michael Griffitts

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

G ermany and Italy faced exceptional challenges after World War II. Their culpability in the outbreak of this devastating war made recovery an especially difficult task. Konrad Adenauer (1876-1967) and Alcide De Gasperi (1881-1954) had the unenviable jobs of rebuilding their respective nations after Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini had fallen from power. Both were Chri~tian Democrats who believed that the Christian tradition could provide an important foundation for Europe's rebirth. For both, the ennobling principles of Christianity and the transnational solidarity promoted by the religious tradition offered a refreshing possibility for peace and stability. Their commitment to greater European …

Review Of My Soul’S Journey To Redefine Leadership, Patricia Mische

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: An Apostolate Of Friendship: Recent Publications On The Letters And Conferences Of Thomas Merton, Paul Pynkoski

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Relational Leadership And Governing: Somali Clan Cultural Leadership, Farhia Abdi

The Journal of Social Encounters

This research is focused on exploring the distinction between theories of leadership and more contemporary visions of relational leading. In order to do so, the specific case of traditional clan structure seen in the Somali state will be examined, and parallels between the two will be drawn. This paper argues that the old Somali tradition shares much in common with current writing on relational leadership (Uhl-Bien, 2006) and, therefore, can expand our understanding and support for a form of leadership that transcends traditional, individualist, hierarchical leadership. This argument will be supported by a detailed investigation into clan politics, leadership, and …

On Dialogue And Beyond: Positive Environmental Peacebuilding In Palestine, Elsa Barron

The Journal of Social Encounters

In Palestine, environmental management has been used as a tool of military occupation and oppression. Yet even within that context, many community-based organizations have established programs relating to environmental peacebuilding. Of these initiatives, environmental dialogue programs have received significant attention and resources, even more so since the war in Gaza began in October, 2023. However, a deeper interrogation of these programs reveals the danger that dialogue and collaboration devoid of a critical analysis of power and injustice further perpetuates systemic oppression. Moving these programs into the realm of positive environmental peacebuilding requires a willingness to engage in this structural analysis. …

Trinity And Creation: Bavinck On The Vestigia Trinitatis, Gayle E. Doornbos

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Engaging recent scholarship on Bavinck’s revitalization of the vestigia trinitatis and its connection to the organic motif, this essay identifies and examines two aspects of Bavinck’s account that remain underdeveloped with scholarship on this topic. First, it explores the lingering importance triads within Bavinck’s account of the vestigia. Bavinck may have developed a primarily non-numerical account of the vestigia, but he still acknowledges the place of triadic analogies, especially in humanity. Second, it contextualizes Bavinck’s appropriation of the vestigia within his understanding of creation as relative, divine, self-communication in order to illuminate how creation can bear the imprint of the …

At The Intersection Of Religion, Spirituality, And Clinical Psychology: A Conversation With Two Jewish Psychologists, Robert A. Demayo, David A. Levy

Psychology Division Scholarship

This article presents a dialogue between two Jewish psychologists who share their respective personal and professional journeys on how spirituality and religious affiliation impacts their work as clinicians. They address the following questions: How would you identify your cultural background with respect to your religious or spiritual history and identity? How do you manage the competing demands of respecting both individual cultural identity and group cultural identity? How did your early experiences with Judaism influence your professional practice? What were your earliest academic influences on the question of spirituality in psychology? How have religion and spirituality manifested in your clinical …

Pastoral Care During Widespread Disruptions : Pastoral Care Practices In Small Rural Churches During Widespread Disruptions, Jerry L. Dicks

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Revisioning The Shawnee Prophet: Revitalization Movements, Religious Studies, And The Ontological Turn, Douglas L. Winiarski

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Historians invariably frame the early life of Laloeshiga, more commonly known as Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet, as one of unmitigated chaos and disorder. He emerges in scholarly literature as a ne'er-do-well: failed hunter and warrior, adulterer and wife beater, penurious healer, and dissolute alcoholic. A near-death experience during the winter of 1805 triggered visions that led to his rapid rise to religious authority in the revitalization movement he led with his brother, the famed Shawnee leader Tecumseh. Newly discovered sources and systematic review of older ones reveal a vastly different origin story. None of the supposed facts of the Prophet's …

The Assault On Protestants And Other Minority Faiths In Russian-Occupied Ukraine, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Russian forces have been responsible for damaging or destroying at least 660 churches and other religious structures, including at least 206 belonging to Protestants.1 The largest number of Protestant churches damaged or destroyed have been Pentecostal (94), Evangelical Christian-Baptist (60), and Seventh-day Adventist (27).2 And what Russians have not destroyed or seized they have closed and banned for purposes of worship.3 For example, in the portions of the Luhansk Region under Russian and pro-Russian separatist control not a single Protestant church remains open for worship, and in Russian-occupied Donetsk Region, only …

“Guard Your Virtue With Your Life”: Purity Expectations And Dynamics Of Purity And Gender-Based Violence For Latter-Day Saint (Lds) Girls And Women, Reilly H. Brady

Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Senior Honors Papers

This study investigates purity expectations directed towards girls and women in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), approaching a largely underresearched topic and establishing findings such as the mutual embeddedness of purity and gender-based violence for girls and women in the LDS Church. Through a discourse analysis, this study creates a historical timeline of over 100 years of documents, including church-produced media as well as separate writings by LDS women, focusing on how purity has changed and has been politicized over time within various historical moments. While most survey participants in this study described never having heard …

Ethics Of Plausible Deniability, John A. Van Til

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Image Of Women In Islam: Maqāsid Approach For Correct Interpretation, Maher Haswa, Man Baker, Moath Alnaief

All Works

The current study attempted to outline the necessity of using the purposes method (al-manhaj al-maqāṣidi) to understand the correct meaning of Islamic religious texts, particularly those related to the image of women, by analysing a set of Prophetic Hadiths in the canonical works of al-Bukhari and Muslim. When the purposes method is not utilized, these texts are typically understood as hostile towards women, leading many to question their validity. The current study employed the analytical and critical methods derived from holistically viewing the religious texts. The study argued that the purposes method should be used by gathering all the texts …

The Techniques And Applications Of Hitler's Propaganda, Kelly Stone

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In March of 1924, Adolf Hitler and forty of his associates were convicted of treason for attempting to overthrow the Weimar government in the failed "Beer Hall Putsch." Hitler was sentenced to five years in the Landsberg fortress, but was released in less than a year. During his eight month incarceration, Hitler wrote a remarkable book, Mein Kampf ("My Struggle"), in which he recounted his life, proclaimed his ideology, and described in detail his plans (upon attaining power) for Germany's future. Mein Kampf is not a literary masterpiece. Winston Churchill describes it as "turgid, verbose, [and] shapeless." Mein Kampf's importance …

Differentiating Magic: A Call For A Differential Approach, Weston L. Wright

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to propose an alternative approach for studying magic. It is often the case inacademia, when studying magic, scholars use an understanding of modernity which favors a scientific perspective. When doing so, some scholars have concluded magic has become extinct in our modern society; despite recent research suggesting magical practice is thriving. Likewise, this scholarship promotes an idea of magic grounded in fear, ignorance, superstition, and fraudulence. The goal of this paper is two-fold. First, I seek to advocate for an approach to magic that allows for a plurality of perspectives to be acknowledged, not just a scientific …