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Reevaluating The God-Human Relationship Through The Psychological Origin Of Sin: A Comparative Theology Of Schleiermacher And Kierkegaard On The Doctrine Of Sin, Brandon Tsark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In his The Concept of Anxiety, Kierkegaard’s decision to have Haufniensis acknowledge Schleiermacher’s contribution to the doctrine of sin continues to raise questions regarding Schleiermacher’s influence on Kierkegaard’s intellectual development. These questions also serve to underscore the general need to locate Kierkegaard properly within the larger context of religious and theological studies in the nineteenth century. Our project here seeks to address these questions with a comparative theology of Schleiermacher and Kierkegaard on the Christian doctrine of sin. I argue that Kierkegaard is right to credit Schleiermacher as a source of inspiration in The Concept of Anxiety because of …

Discursive Struggles Reflected In The Communication Of Conservative Christian Parents And Their Adult Children With Differing Religious Beliefs And Values, Braedon G. Worman

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Nearly half of American adults no longer believe in their childhood faiths (Pew Research Center, 2015). The steady decline of Christianity could have considerable impacts on family life (Pew Research Center, 2022). From a postmodern critical perspective and guided by Relational Dialectics Theory 2.0, the researcher sought to discern how conservative Christian parents and their adult children with differing religious beliefs and values communicated when they discussed these differences, as well as to identify the discourses that informed and were reflected in their talk and illustrate how these discourses interplayed and animated the meaning of participants’ Christian family identities. The …

Exploring College Experiences Of Muslim Students At Four-Year Institutions In Colorado: A Narrative Inquiry, Kamal Gamada Ararso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the last two decades, Colorado's number of Muslim Americans (citizens and permanent residents) has substantially increased (Bowen, 2009a; Bowen, 2009b; Mohamed, 2021; Roberts, 2022). This increase is reflected in the growing number of Islamic community centers, emerging Islamic schools, mosques, grocery stores, Muslim cuisines, and the diversity of students in the post-secondary education system (Roberts, 2022). Although centralized data about Muslim college students are hard to find, their presence within the higher education system is well-known. Still, in Colorado, Muslims' religious, racial, cultural, and gendered experiences within the higher education system remained unexplored in the research. Therefore, this exploratory …

After Great Pain: The Uses Of Religious Folklore In Kenji Mizoguchi’S Sansho The Bailiff (Jp 1954) And Kaneto Shindo’S Onibaba (Jp 1964), Teng-Kuan Ng

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article studies the adaptations and applications of religious folklore in two mas-terworks of Japanese cinema: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Sansho Dayu (Sansho the Bailiff, JP 1954) and Kaneto Shindo’s Onibaba (JP 1964). While academic approaches will often draw a strict line between narrative genres and discursive forms, these films, I argue, draw creatively from Japanese tradition for both critical and constructive purposes in the postwar context. Besides mounting trenchant criticisms of Japan’s erstwhile militaristic violence and imperial ambitions, both filmmakers present their respective female protagonists as models for spiritual and sociocultural transformation in the face of anomie. Embodying humanistic compassion on …

Perceived Stress And Religious Coping Among Pakistani-Origin Emerging Muslim Adults Living In Pakistan And The United States: A Cross-Cultural View, Amna Khan, Kiran Bashir Ahmed

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

This study explored the relationship between Perceived Stress and Religious Coping levels among Muslim emerging adults of Pakistani origin living in Pakistan and Muslim emerging adults of Pakistani origin living in the United States (US). Participants (Pakistani Origin Muslims Living in Pakistan, n= 103; and Pakistani Origin Muslims Living in the US, n=50) were between 18-25 years old. The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Brief R-Cope scale were administered using an online format. Results indicated that negative religious coping strategies were associated with higher perceived stress in both groups while positive religious coping strategies showed a weaker association with lower …

Vulnerability In Times Of War: The Necessity Of The Moral Third, Hille Haker

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Vulnerability as a critique of the one-sidedness of the principle of autonomy is at risk of overemphasizing the positive dimension of vulnerability. Moreover, in the discourse on vulnerability, the threat of dehumanization (or moral vulnerability) has not been scrutinized enough ethically. Therefore, the ethics of vulnerability is insufficient when faced with the force of war that requires the conceptualization of vulnerability for political-ethics. The Russian war in Ukraine demonstrates this weakness in a striking way: the called-for openness to the other as well as an active form of nonviolence, as promoted by Judith Butler, may not be an option in …

Book Review: Disability: Living Into The Diversity Of Christ's Body, Ron Bruner

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

Disability: Living into the Diversity of Christ’s Body, by Brian Brock. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic. 180 pages, $21.99.

"It Is 'About' Nothing But Itself": Tolkienian Theology Beyond The Domination Of The Author, Tom Emanuel

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

There is a broad stream of Christian interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction, especially The Lord of the Rings, which views it as the intentionally, essentially Christian work of an intentionally, essentially Christian author. This reductive, exclusivist approach does not do justice to the complex, generative interactivity between Tolkien’s faith, the faith of his readers (or lack thereof), and the text itself. Building on work by Veryln Flieger, Michael Drout, and Robin A. Reid, this paper interrogates how Christian Tolkien scholarship drafts Tolkien the human sub-creator to perform Foucault’s author-function by suppressing his contradictions and painting a figure whose life …

Belonging In Unashamed Authenticity, Nathan R. Kitchen

Together We RISE (Making Excellence Inclusive)

In 2020, the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute reported that 47% of LGBTQ adults were moderately or highly religious. This equates to 5.3 million religious LGBTQ adults in America. We cannot ignore this population.

When making the transition into young adulthood, many religious LGBTQ youth feel they must make a choice between their spiritual well-being or their queerness. As a university community interested in the success of the rising generation, we can provide support for religious queer young adults through understanding:

1. What is happening in this transition and why,

2. The well-being needs of religious queer young adults …

Centrality Of Religiosity As A Predictor Of Motivational Needs For The Gen Z Cohort, Ryan A. Willcockson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Past research has focused exhaustively on the motivational needs of older generational cohorts, while Gen Z receives minimal attention. Simultaneously, no research exists examining Gen Z’s centrality of religiosity or how their religiousness might affect motivational needs. This focus by research is crucial because the global number of Gen Z individuals now eclipses the current population of Baby Boomers and Gen X (Ajzen, 2020). This gap in motivational and religious centrality research is arguably due to many studies downplaying Gen Z’s motivational needs with claims that their motivations, centrality of religiosity, and behavioral choices are like that of Gen X …

Program: Featured Lecture, "Stranger God: Meeting Jesus In Disguise.", Richard Beck

William M. Green Distinguished Christian Lecture Program

Program for the Forty-Third Annual William M. Green Distinguished Christian Lecture Program with featured lecturer Dr. Richard Beck, Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at Abilene Christian University.

Σπλαγχνιζομαι And The Characterization Of The Markan Jesus, Jonathan W. Bryant

Dissertations

Amid scholarly studies both of the miracle stories of the Markan Jesus and of the characterization of the Markan Jesus, little attention has been given to the role of Jesus’s emotions as portrayed in those accounts—though references to Jesus’ emotions appear quite frequently in the Gospel of Mark. This dissertation seeks to fill this lacuna through a detailed analysis of the portrayal of Jesus’s compassion (σπλαγχνίζομαι) in the Markan miracle stories. I first examine the accounts of other miracle workers from ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish literature to discover how emotions feature in the depictions of miracle workers likely known in …

Creative Disobedience: Dorothee Sölle's Political Theology And Ethics For U.S. Christian Contexts, Dannis Matteson

Dissertations

This dissertation adapts Dorothee Sölle’s concept of creative disobedience to account for those histories of obedience to structures of domination and to foster moral agency that disrupts and dismantles structures of domination. The first two chapters contextualize and summarize Dorothee Sölle’s critique of obedience and her warning against the way in which the obedient social character yields a “Christofascist” society. Chapter II considers the extent to which Christofascism already exists in US society today through Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry’s study of the political and cultural prevalence of Christian nationalism. Chapter III contextualizes Dorothee Sölle’s theoretical critique of …

"To This You Were Called": Discipleship, Suffering, And Social Identity In First Peter, Shane Patrick Gormley

Dissertations

At the center of First Peter’s rhetoric stands an exhortation to “follow” in Christ’s footsteps (2:21). Several scholars have suggested (sometimes off-handedly or in a singular footnote) that this specific exhortation utilizes the technical language of “discipleship,” but only to support a particular piece of the letter’s paraenesis (2:18–25). I contend that such a suggestion, while a helpful place to start, does not go far enough. With this study, I propose that we may read First Peter comprehensively as a summons to discipleship in accord with ancient understandings of education, exemplified in the multifaceted system of Hellenistic paideia. I argue …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring The Lack Of Baptist Church Participation In Seminole County, Florida, Ismael Melendez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study explores the reasons for a lack of participation in in-person Baptist churches and the rise of participation in online Baptist churches in Seminole County, Florida. The theory guiding this study was Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutical framework which focuses on the commonality of experiences. Heidegger believed that to arrive at the essence of a phenomenon a researcher must go through the revisionary process of what Heidegger termed the Hermeneutic Circle. The principal research question in this study explored existing relationship(s) between in-person and online Baptist church leaders and how such relationship(s) contributed to a lack of church participation. The …

From Patriarchal Stereotypes To Matriarchal Pleasures Of Hybridity: Representation Of A Muslim Family In Berlin, Rahime Özgün Kehya Dr

Journal of Religion & Film

Sinan Çetin’s blockbuster Berlin in Berlin (1993) is a Turkish-German co-production. In contrast to certain representational tendencies with German orientalism or Turkish occidentalism, it deconstructs the intersectional structures of migration, religion, and gender. The portrayal of religion in films about Turkish-German labour migration is a kind of cultural narcissism often projected into national cinema by denigrating the faith of the other and glorifying one’s own religion. However, perspectives at such intersections are critical and require sensitivity in filmmaking, as films can create prejudice or help build peaceful relationships around these sensitive issues. The paper employs discourse analysis in linking Derrida’s …

Herrens Veje: A Catalyst To Reflect Upon Military Chaplaincy And Ecclesial Issues In A Nordic Context, Jan Grimell, Mariecke Van Den Berg

Journal of Religion & Film

This article is based on an analysis of the first season of the Danish series Herrens Veje (The Way of the Lord; Price 2017). The series portrays the young, idealistic pastor and military chaplain August, who is deployed to a conflict zone with a military unit. He accompanies the unit on a patrol to win the trust of the soldiers. During the patrol, they engage in combat and August kills an innocent civilian woman. Upon return, the transition from military to civilian life proves to be increasingly challenging and troublesome. As the series proceeds, August’s mental health deteriorates and his …

Viewing Terrence Malick’S A Hidden Life As Political Theology: Toward Theocinematics, Joel Mayward

Journal of Religion & Film

In this article, I bring Terrence Malick’s 2019 film, A Hidden Life, into conversation with two of philosopher Paul Ricoeur’s concepts: (1) the “social imaginary” as the interplay of ideals, images, ideologies and utopias, and (2) Ricoeur’s description of the genre of “parable” as a narrative-metaphor which provokes a “re-orientation by disorientation” within an audience’s imagination. Drawing from Ricoeur’s thought, I apply a theological film criticism I call “theocinematics” to A Hidden Life in order to call attention to the ways in which the cinematic form itself engenders sociopolitical and theological thought. Through emphasizing film aesthetics in my analysis, …

Peele’S Black, Extraterrestrial, Naturalistic Critique Of Religion, Jonathan D. Lyonhart

Journal of Religion & Film

While Jordan Peele’s films have always held their mysteries close to the chest, they eventually granted their viewers some climactic clarity. Get Out (2017) used an 1980s style orientation video to clear up its neuroscientific twist, while Us (2019) had Lupita Nyongo’s underworld twin narratively spell out the details of the plot. Yet Nope (2022) refuses to show its hand even after the game is over, never illuminating the connection between its opening scene and the broader film, nor a myriad of other questions. As such, critics complained that it stitched together two seemingly incongruent plots without explanation; one where …

Preventative Mental Health Measures For Ministerial Leaders, Claire Phypers

Selected Honors Theses

Pastoral care and responsibilities come with a particular weight that can feel overwhelming at times for those engaged in ministry. In a world where mental health seems to be making all the headlines, there appears to be an overall lack of conversation surrounding the emotional well-being of clergy. This thesis aims to create a more holistic perception of mental health among ministerial leaders and pinpoint preventative measures that can be put in place to protect the hearts and minds of pastors as they fulfill the callings on their lives. In conducting this research, a mixed-method survey was completed by twenty-one …

Full Issue

Intersections

No abstract provided.

A Lutheran Call For Educator Flourishing, Krista E. Hughes

Intersections

No abstract provided.

After 15 Years Of Planting Simple House Churches Around The World, What Have I Learned?, Milton Adams

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

This article will highlight five areas of learning: (1) the conventional church attendance crisis, (2) church history, (3) Simple House Church planting, (4) the future of “church,” and (5) the rise of Disciple-Making Movements. It is intended to be descriptive. It is my story. In many ways, thanks to the input of many Simple Church planters, it is our collective Simple Church story of the past 15 years.

Survey And Questionnaire Design For Church-Based Research, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

To better understand behaviors, beliefs, and attitudes in churches, survey research can be very useful, especially to test a hypothesis that we believe to be true. Before creating a survey or questionnaire, the phenomena being examined need to be well understood and appropriate measures chosen. The items included in the survey need to measure the concepts desired and should be clear and unambiguous. The survey should be laid out to motivate maximum participation and minimize biased responses. This article provides many principles for how to accomplish these goals and to ensure that the research undertaken is credible.

About The Great Commission Research Network, David R. Dunaetz Azusa Pacific University

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Great Commission Research Journal Fall 2023, David R. Dunaetz Azusa Pacific University

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Bereaved Songwriters' Project, Laura A. Figueroa

Doctor of Education (Ed.D)

The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental study was to evaluate bereaved individuals’ responses to a reflective songwriting program intervention (RSPI). The purposive and convenient sample included 30 bereaved adults who were members of the teaching staff at a private, Christian, K-12 school in the southeastern United States and/or past or present members of the church with which the school was affiliated. The researcher developed a simple and succinct RSPI in which study participants were prompted to create an original musical piece using personal reflections, memories, and descriptions in song form to commemorate a deceased loved one. The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being …

Christ As Dialogue With Culture: Reimaging The Church For Incarnational Discipleship And Ministry, Sean Sloan

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

God spoke, and Logos created. Increased polarization and divisiveness in USAmerican society and the resulting social pain and even violence inspired this project to pursue a healthier and restorative dialogue. If God’s spoken and incarnate Word originated human life and was and is the means of redeeming humans to life with God and one another, how might such a dialogical Christology impact a theology of dialogue capable of addressing brokenness in a culture? As action research, this project tested the potential for a theology of dialogue to impact perceptions as a precursor to altering behaviors through a presentation at Calvary …

Mental Health In The African American Church: Dismantling The Stigma Of Treatment And Services, Sonya R. Mccurdy

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

The purpose of this study is to identify the prevailing mental health perspectives of African American spiritual leaders and to analyze how their views on this subject are communicated to their congregations. Historically, research has demonstrated that African American clergy have admonished congregants for seeking mental health care from mental health professionals instead of seeking God. Twelve African American and Caucasian American spiritual leaders were interviewed. According to the interview results, spiritual leaders' personal beliefs about mental health impact their perspectives on mental health services, which determines their receptiveness and support––or lack thereof––of mental health services. The research concluded that …

Examining Christ’S Method Of Ministering To People Using Maslow’S Hierarchy Of Needs: A Theoretical Analysis, Danie Potgieter

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

This article seeks to view Christ’s Method through the lens of Maslow’s theory of Hierarchy of Needs. The ensuing theoretical discourse adheres to a structured framework, encompassing the following components: Introduction, Christ’s Methods as Found in Scripture, Christ’s Method as Articulated by Ellen G. White, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory, Christ’s Method and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Application and Implications, and a Concluding Section.