Digital Commons Network^™

Religion Has A Public Relations Problem: Integrating Evidence-Based Thinking Into Clinical Practice, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Religion and religious institutions receive a great deal of negative, rather than positive, attention and press. This creates an impression, for the casual observer, that religion and associated institutions are a plight on the planet. It is critically important for evidence-based research and best practices in clinical services to be well known and utilized within professional psychotherapy practice. Clinicians must be mindful of the many advantages of religious engagement for physical, mental, and community health and wellness. Psychologists, and other mental health professionals, tend to be secular and nonreligious and receive little, if any, training on religious diversity that may …

Exit Of 15-19-Year-Olds From Glory Outreach Assembly (Goa) : Best Practices For Reversing The Trend, John Njoroge Kareithi

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Disciple Formation Small Group Study : Practicing Spiritual Disciplines In Community Fellowship, Kevin D. Clotfelter

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Knowledge, Attitude And Behavioral Change : A Study Of Youth In Deliverance Church Ong'ata Rongai, Peter Keffar Njogah

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Sustaining Spiritual Change In Wesleyan-Holiness Systems Of Discipleship In Selected Congregations In Illinois, U.S.A., Stephen J. Descalzo

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Spiritual Intelligence: The Next Intelligence Tool For Conflict Resolution Practitioners?, Peter Tokar

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Spiritual intelligence is currently being utilized with positive results in many professional communities, yet it is practically unknown within the conflict resolution and peacebuilding communities, at least by name. Recent national polls have demonstrated a high percentages of Americans still embrace a spiritual dimension to their humanity. Although church attendance has been on the decline for the past couple decades, polls show that even the Millennial Generation and GenZ are still interested in spirituality, though in a non-ecclesiastically organized way. Although significant sensitivities remain in society and culture concerning the separation of church and state, literally millions of Americans …

What Is The Sound Of Holiness? The Regulation Of Sound And Silence In Early Medieval Monastic Communities, 600-900, Melissa Kapitan

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation explores how the regulation of sound and silence in the early medieval monastery formed a distinct soundscape imbued with personal, communal, and theological resonances. More narrowly, this investigation focuses on the Frankish empire of the ninth century, which saw a series of monastic reforms led by the Carolingian royal family and ecclesiastical figures and consolidated in imperial legislation and treatises on the monastic life.

These ninth-century reforms witnessed not only the promotion of a single rule and custom to guide monastic life, but also a great flowering of liturgical texts, including the earliest treatises on musical theory. These …

Factors That Influence The Believers In Monze Central Seventh-Day Adventist Church Of South Zambia Conference To Consult Diviners, Ian Chiinya

Master's Theses

Problem

Studies have shown that even after becoming Christians, African Christians maintain their traditional religious practices. Non-Christian studies in Zambia reveal that both Christian and non-Christian Zambians still combine biomedicine with sacred African traditional medicine. The goal of the current study is to identify the variables that lead Monze Central Church Seventh-day Adventist members to consult diviners.

Method

Sections one and two of a questionnaire were created to collect information on the variables that affect going to a diviner. To assess the role and self-efficacy of local church elders in assisting members who have been impacted by demonic spiritual forces, …

Three Miles Per Hour: Shifting From Performance To Heart Orientation Among Seventh-Day Adventist Pastors, Royce A. V. Odiyar

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the presence and impact of performance orientation among Seventh-day Adventist pastors. It identifies multiple factors involved in perpetuating performance orientation and includes strategies to shift from performance to heart orientation in life and pastoral ministry. Using a mixed-method design, this research collected qualitative data via focus groups and quantitative data via an online survey. There was a total of eight focus groups with thirty-three participants, and the online survey gathered fifty-one responses. Focus group participants and survey respondents included both men and women from North America who were ethnically diverse. The research revealed significant concerns regarding pastoral …

Snake Iconography, Mythology, And The Meaning Of The Bronze Snake Image In Numbers 21:4–9 And 2 Kings 18:4, Mark A. Awabdy

The Asbury Journal

This study pursues the question of why Yhwh, who in the Decalogue prohibits the creation and worship of divine images, would order Moses to create a snake image as the mode of healing snake bites in the desert (Num 21:4–9). This question is legitimated as the Judahites subsequently burn incense to Moses’ bronze snake, which Hezekiah destroys as an act of loyalty to Yhwh. Adopting a definition of meaning from symbolic action theory in cultural psychology, this essay explores what the bronze snake image would have meant for the earliest audiences of these stories. In the core of the essay, …

Discrimination Against Veiled Women In The West: Social Isolation, Amina M. Abdallah

Dissertations and Theses

This research examines the discriminatory practices faced by veiled women in the West that impede their integration into their local communities or lead them to feel socially isolated. Societal prejudice and, in some cases, the laws of the land often solidify this isolation of Muslim women and girls from the rest of the world. These victims of social oppression face discrimination based on multiple factors, such as their religion, race, and sex.

This study analyses preconceived notions regarding veiled women, incorporating evidence from seventeen qualitative interviews done with veiled Muslim women residing in the West, particularly the United States, United …

Memory, Trauma, And Religious Identity, Petro Kotliarov, Valentyna Kuryliak, Stefaniia Demchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The so-called ‘memorial turn’ triggered a huge shift in historical studies of the late 20th century. It brought into focus stories of the ‘small people’ previously left out from the ‘grand narrative.’ For post-Soviet countries, the memorial turn can be perceived as an indicator of changes in society associated with the opportunity and interest of previously oppressed social groups and religious movements in finding their "roots," when the reconstruction of personal history becomes the history of the church and strengthens collective identity. In this essay, we attempted at reconstructing the traumatic history of the "little" people in the context of …

Climate Change And The Personal Presence Of God, Grace Ji-Sun Kim

Quaker Religious Thought

Climate change is one of the most important social justice issues of our time that affects the survival of humanity and planet earth. Climate change alters our planet and creates havoc in many parts of the world as weather patterns change, causing changes in our environment and countless other ripple effects. Storms are getting more devastating, as structures are destroyed and more lives are being lost. The increase in carbon emissions is destroying our atmosphere, and the consequences are enormous for the future of our planet. During this climate crisis, how are we to divert the disruption and stop climate …

Contributors - Quaker Religious Thought, No. 139, Jon R. Kershner

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Understanding Joseph Smith's Translation Of The Bible By Kent P. Jackson, Kerry Muhlestein

BYU Studies

Kent Jackson has spent about three decades studying Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible and has put all that research together in a masterful volume that is informative yet not overwhelming for the nonacademic. While there are a few minor things that could have been done differently, this book, combined with Jackson’s recent Joseph Smith’s Translation of the Bible: The Joseph Smith Translation and the King James Translation in Parallel Columns (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2021), have made it possible for us to better use and understand Joseph Smith’s translation than …

Developing Discerning Disciple-Learners And Teachers Byu–Hawaii’S Christ-Centered Framework For Learning And Teaching, Jared Marcum

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Even though the sole duty of religious educators is to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ,[1] they cannot shoulder the whole responsibility of spiritual education at the Church Educational System’s (CES) institutions of higher learning. President Kevin J Worthen stated, “If the only insights that students receive on gospel truths are in their religion classes, we will not be that different from other good universities to which an institute of religion is attached. What will truly make us unique—and what we must uniquely do well—is to meet the challenge set forth by President Spencer W. Kimball: ‘That every professor and …

Religious Literacy Practices For Young Readers, Eric D. Rackley, Rebekah Kay Strain

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Although much of our gospel knowledge depends upon our interactions with scripture, misconceptions about reading it persist. One of the most enduring is the illusion of comprehension in which young readers mistakenly believe that reading words is sufficient to understand ideas.[1] To understand the important insights embedded in scripture and other complex texts, “reading must go considerably beyond the words alone.”[2] Words are sketches of ideas—not ideas themselves—so no text, however descriptive or eloquent, can include all the information necessary to understand its most compelling truths. For young readers to take full advantage of scripture and have the truths of …

Life In Utah As An Apostate Plural Wife, Markelle Jensen

AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

No abstract provided.

No Queers Here, Kathryn Lofton

Mormon Studies Review

Taylor G. Petrey’s Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism uses a word that has an activist past and an electric capacity. This is a word also worn out by its bandying; it is a word perhaps nearing retirement. That word is queer. Tabernacles of Clay is not a book about queer life. It is not a book with any people who call themselves queer, or think within the traditions of queer political activism, or who articulate feelings of queer temporality, queer kinship, or queer emplacement. It is not a book written in a queer way or arguing …

Constancy Amid Change, Michael Goodman, Daniel Frost

BYU Studies

Few issues are more sensitive and in need of serious study than gender and sexuality. Taylor Petrey’s book, Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Sexual Difference in Modern Mormonism, contributes much to that study. The book provides a nuanced view of Church leaders’ attempts to understand and teach the nature of gender and sexuality. Petrey shows that Latter-day Saint discourse on these issues has changed substantially, especially since World War II. Petrey has gathered a trove of material for scholars and others who seek to better understand how culture, tradition, and theology have shaped teachings about gender and sexuality. Though …

Religion And Sexual Orientation As Predictors Of Utah Youth Suicidality, W. Justin Dyer, Michael A. Goodman, David S. Wood

BYU Studies

Adolescent suicide rates have increased substantially over the last two decades; suicide has become the second leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults since 2017. Some areas in the U.S. have experienced particularly large rises in suicide. For example, according to the Utah Department of Health, there was a 136.2 percent increase in suicides among Utah youth age 10–17 from 2011 to 2015, compared to an increase of 24 percent nationally.

Jesus Makes Everything Better, Sam Brown

BYU Studies

I’ve been writing this eulogy in my head for some years now. Several times it has seemed clear that Kate would be leaving us soon. But then she has stayed. And now she is gone.

Economic Models Of Church Life: Three Nudges Towards Better Behaviour, Stephen Bullivant

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

Economic ideas have long shed light on diverse spheres of social and cultural life. Religion is no exception and has spawned a large and thriving subfield. However, whereas recent decades have famously witnessed a ‘behavioural’ turn in economics – with Nobel prizes going to two pioneers of the field, Daniel Kahneman in 2002 and Richard Thaler in 2017 – there has yet to be significant work done in the ‘behavioural economics of religion’. This is a shame; there are good reasons for thinking that behavioural-economic theories and findings might be particularly well suited to illumine several areas of practical church …

A Study Of The Language Shifts In The Book Of Daniel : A Comparative Narrative Analysis Of Daniel 1 And 2, 7 And 8, Laura K. Morrow

Dissertations

Problem

The problem this dissertation seeks to address is the use of bilingualism in the book of Daniel. Previously, scholars have utilized diachronic methods to explain the phenomenon of bilingualism in Daniel and have concluded that it is the product of compositional redaction. However, such studies have not produced a consensus in scholarship. In the last 40 years, several studies have emerged that conclude the use of bilingualism in the book of Daniel may best be explained as a rhetorical device. In contrast to the diachronic methodologies of prior studies, these examinations utilized methodologies that addressed rhetorical elements. Chapter One …

An Ethics Of Doctrinal Emergence: Reading Newman With Augustine And Contemporary Information Theory, Jeffrey John Campbell

Dissertations

Jeffrey J. CampbellLoyola University Chicago AN ETHICS OF DOCTRINAL EMERGENCE: READING NEWMAN WITH AUGUSTINE AND CONTEMPORARY INFORMATION THEORY The aim of this essay is to begin the process of a reconfiguration of the theological category of doctrinal development and to integrate an “emergent doctrinal ethics of belief” as an inextricable dimension of this category. Most scholarly writing on doctrinal development has taken place in the wake of the Enlightenment with its focus on epistemology, and doctrine is conceived of as “referencing” a quasi-metaphysical “res.” I attempt to “update” the guiding metaphors of doctrinal development with the goal of moving discussions …

Turn Not Thine Eyes: Holy Faces, Saving Gazes, And The Theology Of Attention, Jacob W. Torbeck

Dissertations

Jacob W. TorbeckLoyola University Chicago TURN NOT THINE EYES: HOLY FACES, SAVING GAZES, AND THE THEOLOGY OF ATTENTION Theoretical Theologies and Practical Theologies have historically been contrasted with one another as distinct but connected disciplines, a contrast with roots in the figures of Plato and Aristotle, or Mary and Martha. Over the centuries, with the increasing ability of theologians to specialize, theoretical theologians have accused practical theologians as ignoring spiritual realities, while practical theologians have accused theoretical theologians of ignoring material realities. This dissertation puts forward a theological exposition of the notion of contemplative attention that demonstrates the unity and …

A Radically Weak (I)Ncounter: Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker, And Overcoming Otherness, An Anatheistic Argument For A Political Theology Based In Community, Martin Tomszak

Dissertations

The central goal of this dissertation is to find a way to do theology otherwise; to emphasize the need for radical community within the publics of the Church, the academy, and wider society; and to take seriously what the developing genre of radical political theology has to offer the realm of theo-ethics at both a popular and academic level. Through my chosen lens of anatheistic theology and an emphasis on radical lay community, this work aims to evoke genuine conversation about how the Church, the Catholic Worker Movement, and postmodern critical theory might fit together to address the central concerns …

Casting And Splinting Options For Pseudo-Jones Avulsion Fractures: An Evidence-To-Practice Review, Amber M. Kingsley, Aysha B. Reyes, Zachary K. Winkelmann

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Avulsion fractures of the fifth metatarsal bone occur when a portion of the bone is broken or pulled off the rest of the bone. These fractures are often seen in athletes, especially those of a young age. Avulsion fractures of the fifth metatarsal bone are commonly treated non-surgically with immobilization of the foot. There are several different options for immobilization of the foot with no clear result as to which immobilization method is the most effective. The purpose of this evidence-to-practice review was to summarize a systematic review on comparative outcomes of immobilization interventions on avulsion fractures of the fifth …

Rethinking The Hispanic Teacher Shortage: Dual Language Schools As Identity-Affirming Organizations, Elena Sada, Katie Ward

Journal of Catholic Education

Research has established the connection between the academic success of culturally and linguistically diverse students, and their schools’ ability to recruit and retain teachers that reflect such diversity (Shirrell et al., 2019). Studies have also highlighted the criticality of the students’ home language use as a way to enhance academic growth and develop their sociocultural competence and well-being (Feinauer & Howard, 2014). There is no research, however, addressing the differences between the experiences of Hispanic teachers in bilingual Catholic education compared to those in monolingual English Catholic education. This article highlights the differences captured by a recent study, and discusses …

The Sin Of Racism, Ray Almanza

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This project examines the history of racism in relation to the Catholic Church. This history amounts to an indictment of the Roman Catholic Church not only as a neutral party in the historical emergence of white supremacy, but a directly linked cause of racism. First, it describes how racism emerged in its modern manifestation in three major dimensions which include the geopolitical, economic, and social. Then, it centers on two general forms of analysis, a cultural analysis, and a philosophical analysis. Drawing on insights from Liberation Theology, various themes are highlighted as they apply to the discussion of race in …