Digital Commons Network^™

The Continuing (Ir) Relevance Of C.S. Lewis, Robert Macswain

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

found myself profoundly frustrated with the polarization that became evident between Lewis’ friends and foes, devotees and detractors. At the extremes of this debate were those who apparently regarded Lewis’ work as, for all intents and purposes, Holy Writ; at the other end of it were those who, for whatever reason, regarded Lewis with disdain and contempt. Sane, balanced, objective, sympathetically-critical and critically-sympathetic assessments seemed so rare as to be almost non-existent. The devotional attitude was largely characteristic of the United States, where I had grown up; and the disdain and contempt seemed especially prevalent in England, where I was …

Did Jesus Survive The Cross?, Christopher Dwayne Banks

Masters Theses

This study explored whether it was possible for Jesus to survive the crucifixion from a medical and historical perspective. The scope of this thesis is based purely on what is evidentially plausible and more likely. Therefore, the data must reflect whether it was possible for Jesus to survive being crucified. Medical examination and ancient Roman sources were utilized to determine the nature and effectiveness of a Roman crucifixion. Furthermore, several theories concerning how one expires by the crucifixion were included to provide a rounded conclusion. Contrasting hypotheses offered greater insight into refining the question for which this thesis was designed. …

Natural Christology: The Necessity Of Christ By Analysis Of Natural Religion, Jared Anthony Smith

Masters Theses

The hero’s journey [or the monomyth] and the perennial philosophy are two conceptions of human experience that popularize a single old idea: a common human plight recurs across time through humanity’s socio-cultural variety. The monomyth highlights this through narrative modes; the perennial philosophy does this through religious modes. Both distillations have garnered a Christian counterattack, being thought to dangerously depart from the gospel in their essence as they nonetheless borrow its language and timbre. Yet, their incorporation of the gospel ventures beyond appropriation. Supposing these secular notions esteem the recurrent human journey with any alacrity, a careful apologetic discerns and …

Solving The Logical Problem Of Evil Using The Principles Of Programming, Daniel Joel Edmond

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to offer a solution to the logical problem of evil, using computer programming principles to establish a logical model to the solution. Rather than engage in a purely philosophical discussion, the emphasis of this thesis is to establish a reasonable and applicable model that allows for a practical description of the solution using a framework built on computer programming principles.

Undercutting The Biblical Inspiration And Authority Debate: The Hermeneutic Of 2 Timothy 3:16-17 In Postmodernism Against Black Liberation Theology, Raleigh M. Bagley Iii

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A resurgence of Black Liberation Theology has recently occurred in America, especially among proponents of Karl Barth and his contemporaries, James Cone, Robert McAfee Brown, and J. Deotis Roberts, to name a few. Black Liberation Theology and its concepts have been embraced in American culture via political, social, and economic media capable of bridging the divide between postmodernism and the church. Indeed, the avowal by certain prominent liberation theologians has been so widespread that their proposed theories have become synonymous with biblical truth among specific audiences. However, on the central issue of the denial of the authority and inspiration of …

Organic Leadership Training: A Training And Assessment Program For Potential House Church Leaders, David Glenn Bailey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This action research thesis project engaged non-professionally trained Christians who worked through the early stages of Christian leadership development and house church planting. The project utilized a six-week training program in which participants hosted a prayer meeting, chose a confession, led a Bible study, designed an outreach ministry, hosted a worship meeting, and drafted future house church resolutions and a community rule. The participants engaged in a weekly targeted spiritual discipline to foster spiritual formation. Data were collected through journaling, entrance and exit questionnaires, activity guides, post-activity questionnaires, and participant-observations. The research indicates that organic leadership training inspires confidence in …

The Prevelence And Effect Of Pornea In Culture, Bryce Bengtson

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Three Minute Thesis

Deconstructing Petrine Succession: A Historical-Exegetical Inquiry Into Roman Dogma, Samuel Johnson

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

The Prevelence And Effect Of Pornea In Culture, Bryce Bengtson

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Textual or Investigative

Embodying The Image Of God: A Call To Holistic Spiritual Formation, Katelyn Jo Brackney

DMin Project Theses

This April 2023 Doctor of Ministry project thesis at Lipscomb University explores how humanity is created good and in God’s own image. Over the years many streams of the Christian tradition have moved away from this foundation of created goodness resulting in disembodied approaches to our spiritual formation. The disconnection from our embodied selves God so lovingly and intentionally created has appeared in a variety of ways. Some particular perspectives consider bodies to be prohibitive to spiritual growth. This project seeks to return to the beginning and explore how a holistic approach to spiritual formation helps us live in a …

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Lds Church Sponsors Dead Sea Scrolls Exhibit In Chicago

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is one of the principal sponsors of an exhibit on the Dead Sea Scrolls that opened on 10 March at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Running through 11 June 2000, the exhibit features 15 scroll texts and 80 artifacts excavated at Qumran, a site of ancient ruins located near the caves where the scrolls were first discovered.

Composing The Book Of Jeremiah: Relocating The Oracles Against The Nations In The Masoretic Text, Brenna C. Salverson

Honors College Theses

The thesis conducts a textual critical analysis of the Book of Jeremiah’s placement of the oracles against the nations in the Masoretic Text and Septuagint. The following questions will be explored: 1) are the oracles against the nations a late addition to Jeremiah? 2) does the Masoretic Text relocate the oracles against the nations? and 3) do keywords and phrases that occur in the oracles against the nations appear in the content preceding and following the oracles in the Masoretic Text and Septuagint? Implications of the questions include the radical scribal decision to rearrange the Book of Jeremiah and the …

Moved To Compassion: Envisioning Parables In The Gospel Of Luke, Patrick J. O'Kernick

Dissertations (1934 -)

The primary goal of modern parable studies seems to be objective, more or less impersonal, interpretations. The subjective experience of the reader, the ways in which real readers are active and personally engaged in their encounters with parable texts—these things have hardly been addressed. Moreover, narrow views of reception activity have yielded narrow views of the parables themselves. Why, after all, read a parable firsthand? This is the central concern of my study. From reader response criticism, education-oriented reading research, cognitive psychology, and cognitive literary studies I derive what I call an Envisionment-Development Model of Reading (EDMR). According to EDMR, …

Pop Spirituality In The Context Of Nepal, Kalinda Benson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this research report, Pop Spirituality in the Context of Nepal, I look to add clarity to what it means to be “spiritual” and how that has been applied historically in context of Nepal. This paper focuses on what has led up to our modern day perceptions on spirituality. In the first section of the paper, I briefly describe what I mean when I say, “pop spirituality” or a “modern spirituality.” I define spirituality and how it differs from religion, a religion, and what secularization is. I want to acknowledge that there are many types of spirituality that exist of …

Monetary Muddles: Money And Language, Ethics And Theology, Tyler Womack

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers a theological critique of political economy by turning to Wittgenstein in order to re-think what “criticism” is and can be. It diagnoses the current state of critical discourse about money as incapable of properly dealing with the confusions or illusions such criticism identifies as intrinsic to our ways with money and economic production and exchange. The dissertation argues that while political economic critiques and heterodox theories of money rightly challenge the economic orthodoxy’s individualism and its illusions of an apolitical money and an autonomous market economy, these “social” critiques are caught in a Geltungslogik that dichotomizes “value” …

Juicemania: Interpreting Jay Kordich’S Health Empire As Religion, Deirdre M. Sullivan

Student Publications

John “Jay” Kordich, an American “health reformer,” salesman, author, and celebrity, is best known for his recipe books on diet and health and his series of television infomercials. With his charismatic presentations and playful sense of humor, he captivated audiences with his demonstrations of various models of juicers and the delicious taste of his fresh juices. Kordich is part of a long line of health reformers, fasters, and practitioners of alternative medicine that has persisted in American culture for over 200 years. These advocates of alternative medicine have not only met a need for medical treatment, but also for religion …

Back To Eden: A Practical Ecotheology And Entrepreneurial Endeavor, Laura W. Gordon

Doctor of Ministry

Back to Eden (BTE) practical ecotheology is a presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, anchored in the Garden of Eden story, before the fall of mankind, enculturated in an African ethos within various African perspectives, traditions, and worldviews. It is useful to reclaim God-given African Christian identity and agency. Essentially, BTE ecotheology is mankind divinely integrated vertically with God and horizontally with humanity and His creation, based on Genesis 1–2. It is an appeal to become deeply rooted in the Spiritual soil of divine truth, to become entrenched in the incarnate Son, and to become planted as an ecological …

A Bibliometric Analysis Of The Great Commission Research Journal 2009-2019, Glenn R. Wittig

Great Commission Research Journal

The Great Commission Research Journal, the subject of this investigation, is a relatively new journal with roots in the past. It is a successor to two previous publications from the American Society for Church Growth. A bibliometric analysis of the journal’s first ten volumes is presented on two levels. The first is a content analysis of the surface features of the publication such as the authors’ education, academic credentials, and employment, the number of full-length articles published, the subjects covered in each article, and other features such as the average length of articles, number of footnote references, and number of …

Discipleship Renewed: Returning To The Ancient Teachings Of Jesus As The Manual For Modern-Day Christianity, Sarah Duron

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

The modern American Christian is faced with a society that is in unprecedented spiritual decline. Yet, is today’s church equipped with the fortitude to shine as light in darkness like Jesus intended? The concern behind this project is that a broad view of current Christian landscape reveals a great need to reclarify what it means to be a Christian. In His teaching, Jesus provides everything that is needed for the Christian life. The American church needs to experience a genuine return to the kind of Christianity that Jesus intended. It is the kind that can be referred to as discipleship. …

Person And Society: The Trinitarian Anthropology Of Henri De Lubac, Sara Hulse

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation argues that the Trinity is central to the theological anthropology of Henri de Lubac. Although the Trinitarian dimension of his thought receives scant attention in secondary scholarship, de Lubac insists on the centrality of the Trinity to anthropology from his first public lecture through his final, post-conciliar works. This dissertation further illustrates how de Lubac’s Trinitarian anthropology shapes his anthropological works, concluding that he deserves to be counted among the Trinitarian thinkers of the twentieth century. To make this argument, Chapter One defines Trinitarian anthropology as the application of the Trinitarian mystery to the human person, and sketches …

Finding The Historical Church: A Pursuit In Futility, Tyler Skywalker

Senior Honors Theses

Many Protestants today have been disenchanted with Protestantism due to the great degree of denominationalism which is rife within the tradition. This disenchantment has led some Protestants to explore the Catholic and Orthodox churches, because of their apparent historicity. Within modern Christianity, a claim to be the historical church can be a powerful apologetic for several denominations. However, because of the influence of various factors, political and otherwise, no modern church can accurately claim to be the historical church. Consequently, Christians ought to look to Scripture as the sole authoritative source of doctrine and use church structures similar to the …

Pesantren Waria Al-Fatah: Navigating The Intersection Of Gender Nonconformity And Islam In Indonesia, Tali Hastings

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

Rape Jokes, Sexual Violence, And Empire In Revelation And This Is The End, Meredith J.C. Warren

Journal of Religion & Film

The Book of Revelation is one of the most borrowed-from texts of the New Testament when it comes to popular culture. Although there are dozens of other ancient apocalyptic writings, it is John’s apocalyptic visions that directly inform contemporary ideas of apocalypse. The apocalyptic comedy This Is The End (Dir. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, 2013) not only invokes imagery from Revelation but also adapts portions of the text in its portrayal of the end times. However, it also reproduces and expands upon the use of sexual violence as a means of punishment found in Revelation. This paper will examine …

“Knowledge Belongs To All, But You Don’T Understand That Because You’Re Nothing But A White”: The Mystical Philosophy Of Embrace Of The Serpent, Rebecca Makas

Journal of Religion & Film

This article explores the implicit theory of mysticism in Ciro Guerra’s 2015 film Embrace of the Serpent (Sp. El abrazo de la serpiente). While many theories of mysticism argue that true mystical experience is unmediated and, therefore, universal, Guerra makes a more provocative statement in the film. He depicts two Westerners’ attempts to have an entheogenic mystical experience in journeys on the Amazon, guided by an indigenous shaman named Karamakate. While the first experience is unsuccessful, the second produces an astonishing mystical vision. The film’s apex transcends culture and suggests the power of the mystical to heal the trauma …

Lars Von Trier’S Cinema: Excess, Evil, And The Prophetic Voice, Jeanette Solano

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a book review of Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, Lars Von Trier’s Cinema: Excess, Evil, and the Prophetic Voice (Routledge, 2021).

Full Issue

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Farms And Byu Participate In The 1999 Aar And Sbl Annual Meetings In Boston

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Since 1995 FARMS representatives have attended the joint annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). AAR and SBL are longstanding learned societies with members from colleges, universities, seminaries, and other academic institutions in the U.S. and abroad. Each year they jointly hold their annual meetings, which constitute the largest gathering of religion scholars in the world, offering sessions on subjects ranging from the history of Christianity and the study of Islam to biblical texts and their ancient contexts.

New Book On Book Of Mormon Geography Provides Maps, Helpful Explanations

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

As Mormon edited the Book of Mormon, he must have had a map in his mind of the places and physical features that were the setting for the events described in that book. In Mormon's Map, a new book from FARMS, John L. Sorenson attempts to reconstruct that mental map" Mormon's Map"-using information in the Book of Mormon text.

Review Of Shia Islam And Politics: Iran, Iraq, And Lebanon, Christopher Anzalone

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.