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“Line Upon Line”: Joseph Smith’S Growing Understanding Of The Eternal Family, R. Devan Jensen, Micheal A. Goodman, Barbara Morgan Gardner

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” So begins L . P. Hartley’s novel The Go-Between. This statement reminds religious educators to study history as it unfolded and to avoid presentism, or “an attitude toward the past dominated by present-day attitudes and experiences.” Latter-day Saint doctrines did not spring up fully formed, as we have them today. The historical record shows that Joseph Smith did not begin with a full understanding of the doctrines of eternal families and sealing ordinances as we teach them today. In fact, the Prophet Joseph Smith dictated a revelation on …

The New Home-Centered, Church-Supported Curriculum, Tad R. Callister, Scott C. Esplin

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Esplin: Thank you, President Callister, for meeting with me and for helping our readers understand the role of the Church’s Sunday School General Presidency and, maybe most important, changes that have been announced regarding the curriculum and the organization of our classes. You have previously served as a General Authority and in the Presidency of the Seventy. What can you share about your calling and experience as the Church’s Sunday School General President? How has it shaped you as a teacher and as a learner?

Callister: As a teacher, it has helped me be more observant as I …

“You Had Better Let Mrs Young Have Any Thing She Wants”, Matthew C. Godfrey

BYU Studies

It was a cold, blustery day in Commerce, Illinois—a town pressed up against the Mississippi River—in November 1839. As the rain poured from the sky, a small skiff appeared on the river, approaching Commerce (later renamed Nauvoo) from Montrose, Iowa Territory. A woman huddled in the vessel, trying to protect a small bundle in her arms from the elements. The rain, coupled with the spray from the river, soaked both the woman and the bundle, which was a two-month-old baby. Despite the rawness of the day, the woman was determined to reach Commerce, hoping to visit the tithing office of …

Martyrs In Mexico: A Mormon Story Of Revolution And Redemption, Ignacio M. Garcia, Cindy Gonzalez

BYU Studies

While not described as such, Martyrs in Mexico is a continuation of the story that author F. LaMond Tullis gave us in Mormons in Mexico, a classic work, first published in 1987, detailing the growth of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mexico. Martyrs in Mexico, however, has a narrower scope, focusing on one community—San Marcos, Hidalgo—from which would come well-known individuals of the Church in Mexico. Why did Tullis choose San Marcos? The obvious answer is that this community holds an important place in Church lore. San Marcos was the place of one of …

Third World Studies Questions The Very Social Formations That Enable The Study Of Religion, Justin Kh Tse

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In Racial Formations in the United States, Michael Omi and Howard Winant have one of the best takes, I think, on why the interrogation of racial formations has been so central to American studies. Calling the Civil Rights Movement the beginning of ‘the great transformation,’ what Omi and Winant help us to see is that by calling attention to race, what began in the 1950s led to what they term the ‘politicization of the social,’ the revelation that there were multiple inequalities and oppressive structures – gender, sexuality, religion, age, ability – on which American society was founded and that …

Session Iii English, Religious Studies & Marketing Presentation 3: From The Window: Liberating Michal Through A Prophetic Reading Of 1 – 2 Samuel, Harley Burgess

Life of the Scholar Multidisciplinary Conference

This presentation will discuss utilizing original languages and literary-feminist criticism to re-evaluate the role of Michal as a prophet in 1-2 Samuel.

“Living Creatures Of Every Kind:” An Ecofeminist Reading Of Genesis 1-3, T. G. Barkasy

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This work will examine the Genesis creation narratives through an ecofeminist critical lens to illuminate the ambivalence regarding both the ecological and feminist concerns pertinent to ecofeminist criticism. While ecology and feminism are major issues in today’s social and political climates, ecofeminism and its presence in biblical scholarship is not as prevalent as one might think. When it is discussed, authors come to varying conclusions on the Bible’s stance about either nature or gender, and discussions that consciously espouse ecofeminist methodology are so far insufficient. This work utilizes the documentary hypothesis in order to examine the parallel narratives of creation …

Complex Tripartite Hydro Politics Of River Ganges, Muttaki Bin Kamal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper studies if the Flagship Namami Gange program of Cleaning the river Ganges in India aligns with the transcendental discourse on the river. Web contents as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter along with Indian English daily newspaper reports are used here as the source of data. The study shows that the program aligns with the transcendental discourse on river Ganges as the Mother Goddess and reaching out to her devotees.

Do Christian Artists Feel Limited By Their Beliefs?, Natalia Perez

Blog

No abstract provided.

The Crucifixion, Gaye Strathearn

Faculty Publications

A number of years ago some members of the Church heard that I was working on a paper about Christ’s crucifixion.1 They asked me why I was bothering with that topic: Why would I want to spend time studying the Crucifixion? Their questions highlighted for me how little we discuss the cross in classes, except perhaps to note that it took place. This modern situation is a long way from Brigham Young’s direction to the missionaries that if they wanted to be successful on their missions they would need to have their minds “riveted—yes, I may say riveted—on the cross …

In Celebration Of Notebooks (December 2018) By Schubert M. Ogden: Avoiding The Partialist Fallacy In Theology, Especially In Liberation Theology, Theodore Walker

Perkins Faculty Research and Special Events

As an ethicist, and especially a theological ethicist, and more especially as a liberation theologian, what I most appreciate about Schubert M. Ogden’s “revisionary theology”* is his appreciation of Charles Hartshorne’s neoclassical theology, including especially panentheism (all-in-theos-ism), and his insistence that such appreciation is essential to adequately formulated theology and ethics, including liberation theology. And insofar as Ogden is contributing something essential to liberation theology, he might be called a neoclassical liberation theologian, or at least a wanna-be-helpful neoclassical theologian.

Return To Me: Lenten Reflections From Holy Cross (2019), Office Of Mission, College Of The Holy Cross

Office of Mission Publications

This reflection booklet was prepared by the Office of Mission at the College of the Holy Cross to serve as a prayer aid throughout the liturgical season of Lent. Within these pages are the unique voices of many people from the Holy Cross community: faculty, staff, students, alumni, administrators, members of the Board of Trustees, benefactors of the College and Jesuits. Each contributor reflects on the readings prescribed for the Mass of the day and while we hope that their own prayers help you to pray, we hope, too, that the reflections contained herein might also help you to return …

Leadership Factors That Influence Church Growth For Western North Carolina Churches Of God, Harold Jordan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this project is to identify and describe the essential leadership factors required to stimulate and sustain church growth for Church of God churches operating in Western North Carolina. This will be accomplished using a grounded theory research approach. Sample (N = 30) analysis of statistics provided by the Western North Carolina State Offices of the Church of God showed 3% of the churches in this region to have recorded significant overall growth in attendance and membership (=>10% per year) from April 1, 2014 to April 30, 2016. Few of the sampled churches recorded benchmark conversion growth …

The Matthew 16:13-18:20 Chiasm As The Fountainhead Of Matthean Proto-Ecclesiology, Nicholas A. Dodson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The only two instances of the Greek term ἐκκλησία (usually translated “church”) found in the Gospels are in Matthew 16:18 and 18:17. These two passages have been examined, debated, and interpreted in a number of ways by various scholars. The present dissertation presents considerable exegetical evidence that these two uses of ἐκκλησία are actually part of a larger literary structure called a chiasmus, which connects the passages in which Matthew 16:18 and 18:17 are found. Because these are highly significant ecclesiological passages, this study further develops the connection of the chiastic structure to other foundational ecclesiological passages, namely the Matthean …

Retaining Second Career Pastors In Recognized Ministry, David L. Carringer

Doctor of Ministry

All Christians are called into ministry through their commitment to Christ and baptism. Some are called into church- or denominationally-recognized pastoral ministry. A traditional way for those called into pastoral ministry would be to follow an educational path of higher education and, upon completion of their studies, entrance into pastoral ministry. There also exists a less traditional path that includes careers and occupations not recognized as church or denominational pastoral ministry. Those who follow this less traditional path will be referred to as a ‘second-career pastor’.

During the transition from a non-ministry career into church- or denominationally-recognized pastoral ministry, many …

A Story, Metaphor, And A Matrix For The Truly Rural Church That Grows Christ Followers In An Uncertain Future, Lon Hider

Doctor of Ministry

The Church is always one generation away from extinction. There are larger trends that jeopardize the future of rural churches in my area. Evidence suggests there will not be enough Millennials to keep these rural churches viable. The rural churches built themselves on the “world-as-it-used-to-be.” But this world is fading with younger generations. Current approaches are unlikely to keep the ship afloat.

The “world-as-it-used-to-be” distorted the biblical narrative culminating in Christ. This story does not have weight with younger generations. If followers of Jesus in a rural context can embrace the correct biblical narrative, they can grow in their humanity …

Frank Pack Papers, (1940-1989), Walter Frank Pack

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Essay: “My Life In Buddhist Studies", James Mark Shields

Other Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Mackie's Arguement For The Infinite Man, Abigail J. Basile

Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion

Theists and non-theists alike have toiled with the characteristics of the Judeo-Christian God and how they may or may not be contradictory with the existence of evil. Some philosophers, such as J. L. Mackie, have decided that God and evil cannot coexist, mainly because the existence of evil means that any God is unable to keep evil and suffering away from His beloved creation, and such a limited God is no God at all. But Mackie’s argument rests on flawed foundation. Mankind is necessarily finite because even the infinite God cannot do the logically impossible and create the infinite—nothing infinite …

Truth-Makers And The "Grounding Objection" To Molinism, Tyler Crown

Quaerens Deum: The Liberty Undergraduate Journal for Philosophy of Religion

One of the most discussed topics on the nature of God, in Christian circles today, is the subject of God’s knowledge. There are a few popular positions today that are engaged in a serious debate as to what the true biblical and philosophical position on the nature of God’s knowledge is. One such position, which has become increasingly popular and has found support among many leading Christian philosophers, such as Alvin Plantinga, Thomas Flint, and William Lane Craig, is called Molinism. While Molinism does have an abundance of supporters, there are many detractors as well. Calvinist’s, Thomists and open theists …

Intimations Of A Spiritual New Age: Iii. Martin Heidegger’S Phenomenology Of Numinous/Being Experience And The “Other Beginning” Of A Futural Planetary Spirituality, Harry T. Hunt

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

The phenomenology of numinous or Being-experience in the later Heidegger is the focus in this third in a series of papers on a group of independent figures— also including Jung, Reich, Toynbee, Teilhard de Chardin, and Simone Weil—who beginning in the crisis years of the 1930s envisioned versions of a futural “New Age” spirituality to address a globalizing materialism and its disenchantments—and so also creating a context for much of contemporary transpersonal and consciousness studies. A preliminary consideration of Heidegger in the contexts of transpersonal psychology, religious studies, the macro-histories of Toynbee and Sorokin, James on “pure experience,” and spirituality …

Promoting Spiritual Wellness On A College Campus Through Community Based Participatory Research, Regina Idoate, Melissa Tibbits, Mark Gilbert, Michele Marie Desmarais, Christopher Fisher, Alicia Bower, Daniel J. Shipp, Joe Kaminski

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

This case study describes an initiative to promote spiritual wellness on a public state college campus and demonstrates evidence of the effectiveness of taking a community-based approach. We employed the community readiness model to develop an initiative to promote spiritual wellness in a Midwestern state university. We recruited informants through purposeful sampling and conducted interviews, both pre- and post-initiative launch. Baseline data was used to inform initiative efforts. The community’s level of readiness to promote spiritual wellness increased from stage three, vague awareness, at baseline to stage six, initiation, at follow up. Although these findings are specific to our community, …

The Alchemical Vessel, River Soma

MFA Statements

My work comes from a place of deep feeling on a bodily level. Amidst the decorative play, there is a sense of the primitive and primordial, and also a certain humanity and clumsiness through struggle. Through the hermetic tradition I relate the alchemical vessel and its symbolic process of interior development to my artistic practice. Focusing in mixed media sculpture, I discovered a concentrated accumulation of symbolism specific to my practice, but also the full recognition of my practice as a ritualized psychological undertaking.

Center For Spiritual And Religious Life End Of Year Report 2018-2019, Lawrence University

Spiritual and Religious Life Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

God’S Faithfulness To Promise: The Hortatory Use Of Commissive Language In Hebrews, David Ripley Worley

ACU Brown Library Monograph Series

David Worley's 1981 Yale University dissertation--revised with foreword by James Thompson and bibliographical addendum by Lee Zachary Maxey--explores the use commissive language, promises, and hortatory literature in the book of Hebrews. The author concludes that the use of commissive language in the book of Hebrews was not prompted by criticisms within the church over a delay in God’s promise keeping; rather that our author seized upon God’s commissive activity and the behavior of promisees of scripture as a way of emboldening a people tempted to withdraw from one another and from God to endure social and financial difficulties and to …

Ijcs News, Volume 7, The Institute Of Judaeo-Christian Studies

Newsletters

The 2019 issue of IJCS News, the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies' annual newsletter, Vol 7.

Sr. Barbara Joanne: Prison Ministry, Amayrani Lopez

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

This paper includes an interview with Barbara Joanne, a woman part of a Roman Catholic religious congregation and a teacher for about 20 years, and her experiences with prison ministry.

Choosing A Doctoral Program (Chapter 1 Of Prepare, Succeed, Advance: A Guidebook For Getting A Phd In Biblical Studies And Beyond), Nijay K. Gupta

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Excerpt: "Perhaps the greatest challenge for someone wanting to become a professor in biblical studies is selecting the best kind of program and institution at which to study. Furthermore, it is not only important to calculate the various factors involved in making the decision, but also thinking through the process and contingent issues ahead of time. Practically speaking, the advice offered in this book may be utilized and applied more efficiently for someone at the beginning of his or her master's degree (or, even better, during a bachelor's degree) than, for instance, at the stage of actually applying for the …

American Converts To Islam, Post-Conversion Experiences Post 9/11, Muhammad Abdelhakam Kolila

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

American converts to Islam and their post-conversion experiences do not attract the attention of many researchers and policy makers in the United States. They have been understudied or overlooked as they are positioned at the margins of studies of Islam and in Muslim communities in the US. Interest in and attention to converts to Islam, however, is triggered once a few embrace an extreme worldview, especially if they join a terrorist group. Therefore, this research intends to add the complexity and diversity of post-conversion experiences of American converts to Islam to the literature of conversion to Islam studies in the …

Sustaining Lamentation In Traumatic Grief Through The Contemporary Elegy: A Practical Theology Of The Poetics Of Testimony, Patricia Shawn Fawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses the problem that sustaining lamentation for particular testimonies of bereaved people is not supported culturally or spiritually by current practices of mourning. In a democracy, religious leaders become public theologians who respect and respond to diverse religious, political, historical, and economic interests without losing focus on the individual, family, and corporate systems and the ongoing elements of traumatic grief. In the context of lamentation and memorialization, when spiritual caregiver fail to acknowledge potentials for particular ways of mourning to contribute to empowerment and healing, mourners' grief can be foreclosed.

In North America, the dominant rhetoric of public …