Digital Commons Network^™

Introduction To The Special Topic Section On Transpersonal Sexuality: Bringing Sexy Back To Transpersonal Studies, Samuel A. Malkemus, Marie I. Thouin-Savard

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

N/A

Circumcision In The Old Testament, Ryan J. Wessel

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

It can be awkward to say the word circumcision in the gospel classroom. The problem lies in that many students (and some teachers) know just enough about the physical process of circumcision to make mentioning the topic uncomfortable but not enough of the religious history and symbolic meaning to gain much spiritual insight from classroom time dedicated to the topic. Yet the concept of circumcision is related to many chapters in the Old Testament; it is interwoven into scriptures relating to the Abrahamic covenant, the Exodus from Egypt, the promised land, and teachings of multiple Old Testament prophets.¹ An …

Full Issue

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

A Savior With A Sword: The Power Of A Fuller Scriptural Picture Of Christ, Kerry Muhlestein

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

We have been counseled to draw the power of Christ into our lives and to “begin by learning about him.”¹ The Savior himself commands us, “Learn of me” (Doctrine and Covenants 19:23; Matthew 11:29). In fact, coming to know both God and Christ is a necessary part of receiving eternal life ( John 17:3). Many of our students will naturally conclude that to learn about Jesus Christ they should study the Gospels. While this is necessary, it is not sufficient if we are to come to know who our Savior and Redeemer truly is and thus draw on his …

Ces Missionary Couples Serving Around The World, Po Nien Chou, Petra Chou

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

In 1992 the Church sent six missionary couples to Mongolia at the government’s invitation to teach and help improve the educational system in Mongolia.¹ These missionary couples were based in Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia. They came from a range of educational experiences and backgrounds and were uniquely qualified to help with the development and planning of higher education in Mongolia.² Their experience and background included “a medical doctor responsible for postgraduate studies at a university medical center, a computer science professor, a business professor, a professor of curriculum development and administration, and an educational administrator.”^{3 …}

A Lifetime Of Deep Learning, Kim B. Clark, Barbara Morgan Gardner, Scott C. Esplin

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Gardner: Thank you for the chance to interview you previously, and now one final time as you conclude your service as Church Commissioner of Education. The question I’ve asked every time I’ve met with you is, What have you learned this last year that you didn’t already know before being Commissioner? What has stood out to you as a Commissioner? What experiences have you had?

Clark: First, I think what happens is that I relearn things. And each time they go deeper or I get more confident. Second, one thing’s really clear— there’s a lot of help from heaven in …

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.

The Stem Of Salvation And The Rod Of Restoration: Revisiting Biblical Exegesis And Latter-Day Saint Interpretation Of Isaiah 11:1, Jared A. Jepson

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Students of the Bible in the twenty-first century are like a Charles Dickens character living in the best and worst of times. Today we have the advantage of thousands of years of biblical studies on which to build our interpretations and understandings of the Bible. The formation of modern academic disciplines—such as textual, historical, source, and form criticisms, to name a few—for approaching ancient texts over the past 130 years has greatly enhanced our ability to draw meaning out of the text.¹ Yet conversely, thousands of years separate us from when the sacred oracles were first conveyed. Hence, the …

Study Bibles: An Introduction For Latter-Day Saints, Joshua M. Sears

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Latter-day Saints revere the Bible as “the bedrock of all Christianity” and are instructed to feast upon its teachings regularly.²Although Latter-day Saints appreciate so much about the Bible, many struggle with some of its language and its deeply contextual messages. Fortunately, special editions known as study Bibles can help make the Old and New Testaments much clearer. There are many kinds of study Bibles, but for present purposes we will define them as an edition of the Bible featuring a modern English translation and sophisticated, context-focused study aids—including book introductions, footnotes, and appendixes—that provide textual, historical, cultural, literary, …

Teaching The Scriptural Emphasis On The Crucifixion Of Jesus Christ, John Hilton Iii

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

A colleague recently shared with me how, when teaching missionary preparation classes, he would role-play with students. When students pretending to be missionaries would ask him (acting as an investigator) if he knew about Christ’s Atonement, he would say, “Yes, I saw that Mel Gibson movie about Christ dying for our sins on the cross.” At least half of his students would correct him, stating that Christ atoned for our sins in Gethsemane, but not on the cross. This not only indicates a lack of the interpersonal skill of building on common beliefs but is also doctrinally incomplete. It also …

Interfaith Dialogue And Comparative Theology: A Theoretical Approach To A Practical Dilemma, Michael Atkinson

The Journal of Social Encounters

Interfaith dialogue is based on the premise that there is more that unites than divides us. Epistemological humility, acceptance of religious plurality or the need for unity itself have all been presented as unifying pathways across disparate religious traditions. Despite such approaches, conceptual understandings of interfaith dialogue have not kept pace with practice. This theoretical paper argues that interfaith dialogical theory profits from a deep understanding of moral psychology and social learning theory. The former posits that a sense of ‘fairness’ and ‘universal care’ are aligned with religious acceptance. On the other hand, values of sanctity, loyalty and authority promote …

Faith Leaders Developing Digital Literacies: Demands And Resources Across Career Stages According To Theological Educators, Kyle M. Oliver, Stacy Williams-Duncan

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Despite popular framings about skills for 21st-century jobs, there are few studies of how new media literacies unfold in workplaces, nor of how professional education programs can build on adult learners’ previous experiences to foster effective digital communication practices. We argue that seminaries and divinity schools are a particularly rich context in which to explore these questions. Not only do theological education students represent an unusually wide spectrum of ages compared to graduate programs across professional education, but ministry leadership also lends itself to a sociocultural understanding of digital literacy in which past work-related interpersonal skills are likely to be …

“And They Shall Eat Until They Are Satisfied:” Critical Disability Theory And Widows, Orphans, Aliens, And Levites In The Book Of Deuteronomy, Cheryl Strimple

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers the construction of widows, orphans, aliens, and Levites in deuteronomic law. Making use of multiple methodologies, literary criticism, Disability Studies, and food and foodway studies, this study argues that, in Deuteronomy, the members of the formulaic reference, “the alien, the orphan, and the widow,” often associated with “the Levite” operate as cultic functionaries and participate in cultic meals in order to secure stability and continuing abundance in the land for all of Israel.

Augustine's Concept Of Volition And Its Significance For The Doctrine Of Original Sin, Scot Bontrager

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Augustine has been credited as the inventor of the concept of volition (the will), and yet it is not clear from this claim exactly what his concept of volition is. His understanding of the human person, especially his theory of volition, has had profound implications for much of the theological work which followed. This thesis examines various concepts which influenced Augustine’s notion of volition, contemporary ways of understanding volition, and what Augustine himself believed about it. Since the will is central to Augustine’s description of the human person and the human condition a careful examination of the concept is necessary …

Haiti’S Pact With The Devil?: Bwa Kayiman, Haitian Protestant Views Of Vodou, And The Future Of Haiti, Bertin M. Louis Jr.

Anthropology Faculty Publications

This essay uses ethnographic research conducted among Haitian Protestants in the Bahamas in 2005 and 2012 plus internet resources to document the belief among Haitian Protestants (Haitians who practice Protestant forms of Christianity) that Haiti supposedly made a pact with the Devil (Satan) as the result of Bwa Kayiman, a Vodou ceremony that launched the Haitian Revolution (1791–1803). Vodou is the syncretized religion indigenous to Haiti. I argue that this interpretation of Bwa Kayiman is an extension of the negative effects of the globalization of American Fundamentalist Christianity in Haiti and, by extension, peoples of African descent and the …

Singing As English Protestants: The Whole Booke Of Psalmes’ Theology Of Music, Samantha Arten

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The Whole Booke of Psalmes, first published in 1562, became the most visible symbol of English Protestant music-making through its immense popularity and its perceived Protestant authority and monarchical authorization, and the psalter was directly responsible for the formation of the Church of England’s musical culture. Through close reading of the hymnal’s words about music—the versified texts of the psalms themselves, particularly the paraphrases of those psalms that speak directly about music, singing, worship, and instruments, and also other material including the versified hymns and prefatory matter—I argue that the WBP promoted a particular theology of music in Reformation …

Exorcising Mythicism’S Sky-Demons: A Response To Raphael Lataster’S “Questioning Jesus’ Historicity.”, James F. Mcgrath

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

No abstract provided.

The Date Of The Muratorian Fragment: An Inference To The Best Explanation, John F. Lingelbach

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Three hundred years after its discovery, scholars find themselves unable to identify the more likely of the two hypotheses regarding the date of the Muratorian Fragment, whether it is a late second- to early third-century composition or a fourth-century composition. In light of the lingering problem of the Muratorian Fragment’s date and its significance, a new study has been conducted, and this dissertation features an exposition of that study’s conduct and findings. The study sought to break the impasse and identify the more likely of the two hypotheses regarding the date of the Fragment—that it is either a late second- …

Matriarchs And Martyrs: Women In Early Christian Apocrypha, Robert Wilf

Religious Studies Summer Fellows

"The Master Narrative of Christianity" as outlined by Karen King states that Jesus Christ passed down the one true gospel to his apostles who then spread it throughout the world among a sea of dissension. But exactly which texts contained the true gospel, and even who counted as an apostle, is far less cut and dried than the early church fathers would have you believe. In fact, many narratives involving powerful women preaching, baptizing, and facing down execution had been lost or purposely neglected from most canons. I looked at just a few of these works; The Gospel of Mary …

Naturalistic Explanations Of The Origin Of The Book Of Mormon, Brian C. Hales

BYU Studies

In early 1830, an unknown farmer in upstate New York burst upon the world’s book-publishing scene. The Book of Mormon rolled off the Grandin Press in Palmyra, New York, with Joseph Smith listed as “author and proprietor” on the title page. That same year, a few other authors produced new titles, including The Fortunes of Perkin Warbeck by Mary Shelley, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron by Thomas Moore, and Six Sermons on the Study of the Holy Scriptures by Samuel Lee. If grouped with books classified as “fiction” in 1830, the Book of Mormon may have been the longest, …

“As Far As It Is Translated Correctly”: Bible Translation And The Church, Daniel O. Mcclellan

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

The publication of Thomas A. Wayment’s The New Testament: A Translation for Latter-day Saintsis a significant event that occasions not only a close examination of his work but also a discussion of how it fits into the complex relationship The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long shared with Bible translation.1 If the Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, the King James Version of the Bible is certainly its linguistic cornerstone. The scripture and other revelations that flowed from the Prophet Joseph Smith and his successors in the early days of the Church were …

Peter As A Learner And Teacher, John Hilton Iii

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Over a century ago, biblical scholar Phillip Shaff wrote, “Generally speaking, the character of Peter is described with essential harmony in all the Gospels. He appears as an admirable type of the Galilean: well-meaning, confiding, freedom-loving, and courageous, yet changeable, capricious, and eager for novelty.” Indeed, as Markus Bockmuehl points out, “Peter is, after Jesus, the most frequently mentioned individual both in the Gospels and in the New Testament as a whole.” Peter’s enthusiasm and forward nature can be seen throughout the four Gospels in the manner in which he speaks for the disciples and at times acts impetuously (for …

The Office Of Church Recorder, Keith A. Erekson

BYU Studies

Elder Steven E. Snow served as the Church Historian and Recorder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from August 1, 2012, to July 31, 2019. During this time, he oversaw significant developments in the work of Church history, from record keeping to publishing to developing historic sites and exhibits. Two years into his tenure, I joined the Church History Department as director of the Church History Library. One of my assignments in this role eventually involved participating in ongoing discussions about the office of Church Recorder. Over the years, there had been much discussion about the role …

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

The Ambiguity Of Being: Medieval And Modern Cooperation On The Problem Of The Supernatural, Jonathan Robert Heaps

Dissertations (1934 -)

The recent debate over the supernatural has proved intractable in part because of a failure to distinguish two irreducible-but-linked problems of the supernatural, one medieval and one modern. The first is a metaphysical problem concerning the cooperation of humans with God. Bernard Lonergan’s retrieval of St. Thomas Aquinas’s solution to this problem indicates that a grasp of divine concursus is integral to a theory of nature and grace. A metaphysics of universal cooperation with God implies a pair of ambiguities about creaturely being. The general ambiguity is that, because the fundamental explanatory term for creaturely causation is both universal and …

"Come To The Knowledge Of Their Redeemer": The Book Of Mormon's Message To The House Of Israel, Kevin Leon Clawson

Theses and Dissertations

One of the major themes in the Book of Mormon is the promises of the Lord to the house of Israel. Even before Lehi and his family left the promised land, Lehi and Nephi prophesied of the future scattering and gathering of Israel. After the family of Lehi arrived on the Americas, prophets continued to teach about God’s covenants with Israel. The destiny of the house of Israel was a major theme in the books of 1 and 2 Nephi, and also at the end of the Book of Mormon in the teachings of Jesus Christ, Mormon, and Moroni.In Lehi’s …

Beyond Slavery: Christian Theology And Rehabilitation From Human Trafficking, Christopher Michael Gooding

Dissertations (1934 -)

Is there life beyond slavery? In the past 20 years, there has been a significant increase in research related to human trafficking. However, very little of it has examined the ethical issues that survivors face as they attempt to reintegrate back into society, or that aftercare workers face as they attempt to assist survivors in the reintegration process. And there has been almost nothing written on how the tools of moral and political theology might offer insight into these issues. This dissertation attempts to begin to address this gap in the literature.In order to assess what the nature of …

Comprehending Just Peacemaking Theory And Its Application To The Rwandan Genocide, Caroli Shao

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Scripture Note: A Fresh Approach To Moroni’S Promise, Alan Taylor Farnes

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Moroni’s promise is a well-known and much-loved passage of scripture to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has been called “probably the most celebrated and oft-cited verses in the Book of Mormon.”¹ Most missionaries know it by memory and often challenge their investigators to take “Moroni’s challenge.” Moroni tells his readers that when they read the Book of Mormon they should ponder on the Lord’s mercy since the Creation and then ask God if the Book of Mormon is not true. Then comes Moroni’s promise: “If ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with …

End Matter

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

No abstract provided.