Digital Commons Network^™

Poetry To Break The Power Of The Empire: A Review Of Touch The Earth, Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"To be clear, you should read this book because it’s good poetry. It’s musical and accessible, yet multivocal and idea-laden."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the book Touch the Earth from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/poetry-to-break-the-power-of-empire-a-review-of-touch-the-earth/

In Defense Of Religion-Sport Separation In Coaching, Lou Matz

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

Can a coach rightfully integrate a religious orientation in their coaching in a public institution? In its recent Kennedy v Bremerton School District (2022) decision, the U.S. Supreme Court defended the educational value of players’ exposure to diverse expressive activities as a part of learning how to live in a pluralistic society. I contend that religion-sport separation is the most philosophically defensible position, based primarily on the problems with supernatural theism in religions like Christianity. Nonetheless, there is a form of religion-sport integration that is theoretically possible within my critique of theism which could strengthen the inner morality of sport. …

Discerning Culture With Herman Bavinck, John B. Thompson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Bavinck does not intend that we simply adopt and casually integrate secular ideas into our Christian worldview. Instead, every idea must be brought into conformity with Christ."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­Christianity's influence in a hostile world from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/discerning-culture-with-herman-bavinck/

The Process Theology Of John Elof Boodin, Michael A. Flannery

Libraries Professional Work

Despite his impeccable academic pedigree, a protégé of Josiah Royce and a friend and student of William James, John Elof Boodin is nearly forgotten today among American philosophers; hence, an essential aspect of his thought lost to history is his contribution to process theology. The leading features of process thought demonstrate Boodin’s connections to this unique theology and show it to have been established early on, as early as 1900 and 1904. This places Boodin’s writing on process philosophy/theology well before Alfred North Whitehead, the putative pioneer in modern process metaphysics, by more than twenty years, and co-extensive with Henri …

Do Modern Christians Know God Differently?: A Review Of Chapters 4-5 Of Neo-Calvinism, Geoffrey Fulkerson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Brock and Sutanto synthesize wide bodies of content and an array of rather complex concepts and arguments into succinct summary chapters."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the book Neo-Calvinism from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/do-modern-christians-know-god-differently-a-review-of-chapters-4-5-of-neo-calvinism/

Under G-D, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Under G-d (2022), directed by Paula Eiselt.

The Liminal Church: Why Navigating Thresholds Between Us Leads To Thriving, Andrew Hale

Doctor of Leadership

Through the discovery, design, and delivery stages of the doctoral project, I centered my work on the following NPO: Churches can thrive when they understand, navigate, and leverage the liminality existing between people, the community, and where God is leading. Despite the myriad of different contexts among local churches, whether polity, worship style, belief statements, and geographical locality, congregations are still composed of people living in relationship to one another and the community around them. Relationships, no matter their nature, are complicated. For the relationships within a local church to thrive, they require intentionality, coaching, effort, openness, and vulnerability. My …

Kingdom Economy Found In A Cup And On A Mat, Nicole J. Richardson

Doctor of Leadership

My NPO is: Churches struggle being relevant forces but could become restorative and thriving communities by rethinking traditional approaches to ecclesiology through reframing Biblical koinonia, mission, and worship. Curating a well-balanced “third space” that offers opportunities for people to engage in their spiritual pilgrimage will fill a void in our context. Additionally, it will offer the universal church another way to nurture community, define worship, and practice relational mission daily through radical hospitality. I serve a Presbyterian Church in North Carolina. The focus is to serve an 8-mile radius in the Piedmont Triad area focusing on the Nones and Dones …

Liberated Voices An Online Course In Speaking Up, Seth J. Thomas

Doctor of Ministry

NPO Statement: The white church and its leaders have demonstrated postures of silence and privilege, which need to be lovingly disrupted to leverage and encourage the liberative witness at the heart of the biblical narrative.

Key Insights: Faith leaders from the white church are hungry for resources that encourage them to participate in the struggles for social justice in this present era of ministry. Many desire to speak the truth with love but need encouragement and permission to leverage that witness they find in the scriptures. The liberation theology tradition offers excellent historical and present examples of God’s preferential option …

Mteule: A Program Of Healing And Spiritual Growth, Kathy Ham

Doctor of Ministry

Mteule is a one-year program of Spiritual Formation designed for the camp mentors of Angaza Discovery Camp and other staff members of Missions of Hope International (MOHI). Mteule means ‘set apart’ in Swahili. Mteule was developed to address the following need, problem, or opportunity: Camp mentors and other staff from the Mathare Valley come with their own experiences of trauma and can be lacking the capacity to maturely minister to traumatized children. MOHI is a Christian non-profit providing spiritual development, education, physical well-being, and sustainability training/micro-finance opportunities to those living in abject poverty in Kenya. MOHI currently has 31 Hope …

Crossing The Jordan Together: Recoding The Language Of Discipleship Used Among The Tribes Of Jesus Followers, Brian D. Russell

Doctor of Ministry

This Project Portfolio addresses the following NPO: The post-pandemic era leaves many Christians and seekers unmotivated to re-engage with the church. Reconnection is possible by recoding discipleship as thriving, holistic devotional living. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, all churches, regardless of size and vitality prior to the pandemic, were dealing with the same challenges of re-engaging people in the church, especially within their hospitality teams. Therefore, an opportunity arose to bring churches together to find fresh ways to re-engage their faith community where no one is the perceived expert. I am currently an adjunct professor teaching undergraduate ministry …

Inner Work Community: Shadow Work As Spiritual Formation, Michael Simmons

Doctor of Leadership

The NPO statement surrounding this doctoral project is that A theological, practical, and community-centered framework for shadow work is disconnected from Christian spiritual formation. This doctoral project is the culmination of a three-fold process: discovering the need for shadow work in the context of spiritual formation, designing multi-faceted virtually-based opportunities to address this need among individuals and groups, and delivering those opportunities via online courses, one-on-one shadow work, and digital content such as essays, articles, and podcasts. My vocational context is my unofficial organization, and MVP, Inner Work Community, which provides these opportunities. Inner Work Community is extended through partnerships …

Strengths-Based African Leadership Training: A Comprehensive Guide For Empowering Grassroots Communities, Henry Gwani

Doctor of Leadership

This project portfolio addresses the following need, problem or opportunity (NPO): Hopelessness within African low-income communities highlights the need for equipping local agents with a Christian gospel that integrates discipleship with leadership development, vocational training, mental health and asset-based community development if we wish to see Shalom. Several insights emerged from this research. First, to foster holistic transformation within low-income communities, it is imperative for discipleship to include basic mental health and practical interventions such as vocational training. Second, each community, regardless of how impoverished, is blessed with assets (skills, experiences and relationships), that need to be leveraged for the …

Jesus Tribe, Christopher Richardson

Doctor of Ministry

Christians and churches in the early twenty-first century seem to belong to various tribes which leads to confused, disjointed loyalties. This confusion can lead to acrimony within churches. To develop and maintain the unity spoken of by Jesus Christ, these groups would benefit by better understanding and recognizing the prevalence of tribalism. Further, this should lead to the instigation of processes by which they can effectively evaluate and re-align their tribal loyalties toward a more definitive and effective modeling of Jesus and his lordship. Church leadership will benefit from a better understanding of the forces of tribalism at work both …

Belonging: The Heart Of Our Family Calling, Janice M. Brewer-Stevens

Doctor of Ministry

Transracial families are part of our society whether people like it or not. There are not enough adoptive families of any kind, and children need support, love, and acceptance. Last August the Census Bureau reported that the number of non-Hispanic Americans who identify as multiracial jumped by 127 percent over the last decade, and for people who identified as Hispanic, the increase was even higher. Also, from 2017 to 2019, half of all U.S. adoptions were of non-white children, and half of these adoptions were transracial. The result? An increase in transracial adoptions in the United States and the subsequent …

Spiritual Formation And Trust Building Envisioned For Nerima Baptist Church's Leaders In Japan Through Group Spiritual Direction, Nozomu Makita

Doctor of Ministry

Group spiritual direction with participant leaders within Nerima Baptist Church in Tokyo, Japan, was introduced across eight monthly sessions wherein directees developed the practice of silence, listening to themselves, others, and Holy Spirit. The experience of being accepted by God and others through safe relationships found the church in a relational culture of authentic relationships. The residual effect was the experience of one's own full acceptance by God and others, which further carries potential for lasting impact on the leadership style of the church through the 1-on-1 interaction. The group spiritual direction was facilitated by Sachi Nakamura, a spiritual director …

Gcm: Generations In Community On Mission A Theoretical Framework For Intergenerational Disciples On Mission, Denise C. Johnson

Doctor of Ministry

The increasingly unstable and changing world in which we now live requires a resilient, discerning, and adaptable family of God, who is intentional about reaching their community with the hope of Jesus. This project sought to address the disconnect between the congregants, the relational network, and the tools necessary to walkout the fulfillment of their identity on mission. The following NPO was initiated due to my background working in disenfranchised settings within public schools as a Special Educator and School Counselor and the three decades working in interdenominational foreign missions’ partnership, together with Foursquare Missions International. This final form was …

Storied Discipleship: Nine Practices For Jesus-Shaped Living, David Bach

Doctor of Ministry

This project germinated out of the observation that many evangelical congregations are facing the malaise of a profound lack of true faith formation, which is creating a wide gap between authentic Christ formation and secularization, and is further exacerbated by the genuine blind spot of denial in the minds of Christians that this is problematic. In a distracted and frenzied world, faith formation is becoming less of a priority, which is caused by an inherent bent toward selfish independence. Changing the narrative on these observations would mean Christians prioritize and cultivate their relationship with Jesus Christ, propelling them outwardly towards …

Concordia Seminary Magazine Fall/Winter 2023, Vicki Biggs

Concordia Seminary Magazine

Sharing the Gospel. Sharing Our Lives.

Plan C, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of PLAN C (2023), directed by Tracy Droz Tragos.

Learning From Buddhist Teachings And Ethical Practices In Qualitative Research, Pei-Jung Li

The Qualitative Report

This paper aims at conceptualizing research ethics in qualitative research with Buddhist teachings. As a Buddhist, I first introduce how Buddhism came to be central in my life and eventually influenced me as a qualitative researcher. I exemplify how the concepts of all-beings-are-equal, karma, the five precepts, and repentance might inspire a qualitative practice that centers ethics and informs a researcher’s interactions with participants. I suggest that researchers not only work on reflecting on their body (actions), speech (talk), and mind (thoughts) but more importantly, move beyond just reflection and reflexivity to facing and resolving “unwholesome” moments that may arise …

Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (2023), directed by Anna Hints.

Divinity, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Divinity (2023), directed by Eddie Alcazar.

Bad Behaviour, Christopher R. Deacy

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Bad Behaviour (2023), directed by Alice Englert.

Aum: The Cult At The End Of The World, Dereck Daschke

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of AUM: The Cult at the End of the World (2023), directed by Ben Braun and Chiaki Yanagimoto.

"Understanding Transgender Identities: Four Views" [Review] / Beilby, James K. And Paul Rhodes Eddy, Eds. ., Ronald Rojas

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review

Book Review On Mindfulness-Based Emotion Focused Counselling (By Padmasiri De Silva), Kathleen Higgins

Comparative Philosophy

No abstract provided.

Zero, Śūnya And Pūrṇa: A Comparative Analysis, Animisha Tewari

Comparative Philosophy

Due to apparent duality in this world, one has to face a lot of difficulties while searching for the Truth. Our ego is the root cause for perception of duality and this in turn leads to suffering. This suffering can only be extinguished by attainment of the Truth, i.e, non-duality. However, in order to enable the finite intellect to comprehend the incomprehensible non-duality, this undifferentiated whole is sometimes denoted by nothingness (śūnya) or fullness (pūrṇa). Non-duality is usually understood by the numeral ‘1’ which stands for unity or oneness. The main aim of this paper is …

How Al-Farabi’S Interpretative Method Can Engage With Aristotle’S Method In Cognition And Practical Philosophy, Meysam Shirvani

Comparative Philosophy

Following Aristotle, al-Farabi divides philosophy into theoretical and practical each of which requires some specific methodology both in interpretation and cognition. Based on this division, there may arguably be four methodologies for four parts: 1) cognition of theoretical philosophy 2) interpretation of practical philosophy 3) cognition of practical philosophy 4) interpretation of practical philosophy. This paper focuses on the last one: the methodology of interpreting practical philosophy. Al-Farabi has an undeniably significant contribution to practical philosophy as a commentator on Greek philosophy and as a founder. In this paper, I investigate how al-Farabi (870-950 AD) read classical practical philosophy to …

Caducitas And Śūnyatā: A Neoplatonist Reading Of Nāgārjuna, Fabien Muller

Comparative Philosophy

In this paper I am addressing the question whether Nāgārjuna’s doctrine should be understood as a theory that describes reality itself (ontology) or as a theory of our relation to reality (epistemological, logical, psychological, etc.). To answer this question, I propose to compare Nāgārjuna’s concept of emptiness to that of ‘caducity’, a key element in the ontology of Renaissance Neoplatonist philosopher Francisco Patrizi. By showing that these concepts are similar, I argue that Nāgārjuna’s standpoint can be considered as that of ontology.