Digital Commons Network^™

Contemporary Femininities In Mormonism And In Ireland: Challenging And Confirming Essentialism In Online Spaces, Hazel O'Brien

Mormon Studies Review

How are gender identities negotiated within Irish Mormonism, and does this intersect with trends identifiable within Mormonism more generally? In this paper I use the examples of modern Ireland and modern Mormonism to speculate regarding the nature of gendered identities online. I suggest that Irish and Mormon cultures are both confronting serious challenges to traditional essentialist interpretations of femininity that have long dominated their cultural landscapes. I also suggest that social media (SM) and online spaces are facilitating these challenges. However, I observe that online spaces are also used in Irish Mormonism to conform to hegemonic Mormon understandings of gender …

Guns And Practical Reason: An Ethical Exploration Of Guns And Language, Mark Ryan

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

There is no shortage of words and rhetoric being offered up in relation to the topic of guns, much of it directed to the political standoff regarding how to respond to gun violence. Yet the debate over guns in America, especially as it concerns putting in conversation the positions of “gun people” and “non-gun people,” barely scratches the surface of substantive convictions held on both sides about the place of guns in our lives. A critical reason for this is that the language and rhetoric of the debate suppresses such convictions, keeping the discussion shallow and antagonistic. This, I argue, …

Covenant Language In Biblical Religions And The Book Of Mormon, Noel B. Reynolds

BYU Studies

Because twenty-first-century public discourse in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to feature the language of covenant more and more often, it may be helpful to step back and reexamine the scriptural and historical backgrounds for covenant theology and terminology. When the Restoration took shape in the first half of the nineteenth century, it was dependent primarily on the language of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible and contemporary Protestant teachings for a context in which to interpret the language of Joseph Smith’s revelations and the Book of Mormon. After two centuries of modern linguistic …

Mormon Studies: A Critical History By Ronald Helfrich Jr., Roger Terry

BYU Studies

This short but dense critical history of Mormon studies is unique in several ways. First, author Ronald Helfrich Jr. is a self-described “Gentile” scholar who spent “probably far too many years,” including a year as a visiting professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University, researching and writing this history. Second, the book is surprisingly thorough. I have been the editorial director at BYU Studies for the past sixteen years and thought I had a fairly decent grasp of Mormon studies, past and present, but Helfrich repeatedly describes the work of historians and other scholars with whom I …

When Goods Become Gods: Fractured Identities And The Call For Safe Spaces In Sports, Cynthia A. White, Elizabeth Bounds

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

What is the relationship between identity, idolatry, wholeness, and community? What are the ways in which sports culture bolsters or misdirects God-given identity? How can leaders in sports cultivate authentic, loving community that provides athletes safe spaces to explore and discern messages from the world and truth from God? In this paper, we will explore existential questions such as these. First, we will describe how identity is inherently physiological, psychological, social, and spiritual, developing subconsciously through explicit and implicit messaging. Then, we will explore the ways in which sports – organized play, human creation, and a good gift from God …

Christ And Sport: Reappropriating H. Richard Niebuhr’S Christ And Culture Typology, Reuben Hoetmer

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

What is the relationship between Christ and sport? In this article I unpack five types of responses that Christians have offered to this question and examine how they correspond to the five approaches described in H. Richard Niebuhr’s classic work Christ and Culture. The primary goal is to offer a helpful heuristic to make sense of how Christians can think about sport. The article begins by clarifying two framing problems—one theological, one philosophical—that underlie the discussion. It then proceeds to describe the five types and the ways they are reflected in theological literature on sport.

Soul-Training: The Why, What, And How Of Spiritual Formation In Sports, Elizabeth Bounds

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

Sportspeople know how to train and prepare their bodies for competition. The question this article seeks to explore is how sportspeople should approach training and preparing their souls. The Willardian corpus provides sportspeople a framework for understanding spiritual formation. This article examines the “why,” “what,” and “how” of soul-training, how Christians in sports can engage in spiritual formation. Sportspeople train their souls to experience God’s presence and worship him on and off the competition stage (why). In order to do so, they train their souls by following Christ as his apprentices, leading to transformation into his likeness (what) by cooperating …

Religiosity And Ways Of Coping With Sport Injuries Among Christian Athletes, Diane M. Wiese‐Bjornstal, Kristin N. Wood, Francesca M. Principe, Emma S. Schwartz

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

Although research evidence supports religiosity’s predominantly positive mental and physical health benefits to patients coping with varied health problems, there are few studies exploring the influence of religiosity on coping with sport injuries among athletes identifying with specific religions. This study examined the relationships between religiosity and the use of religious and non-religious ways of coping with sport injuries by athletes affiliated with diverse Christian denominations. Within a concurrent mixed methods design, adult athletes (N = 88) responded to an online survey asking about several religiosity factors, their most serious or challenging sport injuries, and their ways of coping …

Recasting Paul As A Chauvinist Within The Western Text-Type Manuscript Tradition: Implications For The Authorship Debate On 1 Corinthians 14.34-35, Joseph A. P. Wilson

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The mandate for women’s silence in 1 Corinthians 14.34-35 is an incongruity within Paul’s undisputed writings. Critical scholars expressed doubts about these verses’ authorship beginning in the nineteenth century. The consensus of egalitarian Paulists today is that vv.34-35 are not Paul’s sentiments. Disagreements about circumstances beyond this fact remain unresolved. Supporters of the quotation/refutation (“Q/R”) hypothesis argue that Paul quoted a letter from Corinth in vv.34-35 and refuted it in v.36. Supporters of the interpolation hypothesis regard the passage as a marginal gloss by a later author, inserted at one of two locations (after v.33 or v.40). The present work …

Feminist Catholic Organizational Identity: A Phenomenological Study Of Charism In The Lay Educator Of A Notre Dame De Namur Learning Community, Kathleen Barrera Quiazon

Doctoral Dissertations

The Catholic schools of women’s religious congregations in the United States possess a distinctive Catholic identity, owed in great part to the charism of their founders and the feminist worldview that emerged in the sisters’ mission, communal narratives, and ministries. With the decline of women religious across the country, schools and congregations ask questions for the future of that identity in the hands of lay educators. As with many religiously sponsored schools, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur and their lay partners in education are engaged in these critical questions for their own learning communities across the country.

This …

Informed By Joy: A Christian Librarian's Reflection On C.S. Lewis, David H. Michels

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

In Surprised by Joy C. S. Lewis offers us his account of his conversion to Christianity. Using his experiences of joy as “signposts,” he leads us through his early life up to his conversion at age thirty-one. I reflect on Lewis’s account as a librarian, researcher, and fellow Christian, considering his information world and the people who aided and hindered him on his faith journey. I conclude with some thoughts on his and my own conversion, as both unique yet shared experiences within the Christian tradition.

"Real joy seems to me almost as unlike security or prosperity as it is …

"The Best Man That Ever Trod Shoe Leather" And His "Crown Of Rejoicing" : The Personal Relationship Of James And Ellen White, 1845-1881, Gerson Cardoso Rodrigues

Dissertations

James White (1821-1881) and Ellen G. White (1827-1915), co-founders (with Joseph Bates) of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, were united in marriage on August 30, 1846, and lived together for thirty-five years until James died. As leaders (though Ellen White never assumed any administrative post) of the emerging denomination and putting all effort for the growth and mission of the Adventist cause, the Whites lived an intense life of writing, publishing, preaching, and traveling. Though their marriage was a blessing for both of them, the intensity of their lives, health issues, and their humanity, caused marital difficulties in some periods of …

Value Vectors Of The World Local Orthodox Churches Position Regarding Russia's War Against Ukraine, Oleksandr Brodetskyi, Iryna Horokholinska, Mykola Lahodych

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article deals with the religious contexts of the modern civilizational crisis caused by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Among the multitude of thematic lines of this set of problems, the article’s authors focus their attention precisely on the position of the world Orthodox Churches regarding this war. The concentration of such attention is objectively determined by the fact that the majority of Ukrainian citizens position themselves as Orthodox by faith, and therefore, are particularly sensitive to the opinion of the leaders of the Orthodox Churches of the world. The article examines the value aspects of the problem of …

Jenny Vorpahl And Dirk Schuster (Eds). Communicating Religion And Atheism In Central And Eastern Europe. (Book Review), Oleg Kyselov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Jenny Vorpahl and Dirk Schuster (eds). Communicating Religion and Atheism in Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020. 312 p. ISBN 978-3-11-054637-8 Hardcover $114.99.

Religious Leadership And Critical Junctures In The 2022 Russian Invasion Of Ukraine: 104 War Days Of Metropolitan Hilarion, Alar Kilp, Jerry G. Pankhurst

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The chairman of the Department for External Church Relations (DECR) of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) was dismissed from his office on the 104th day (June 7, 2022) of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Was Hilarion dismissed because of his ‘silence’ on the Russian invasion? We study the 104 ‘war days’ of Metropolitan Hilarion from four dimensions: leadership as position; leadership as process; leadership as result; and leadership as person. Our findings are multivocal: the Russian invasion of Ukraine did become a leadership challenge for Hilarion the way that previous military interventions (in Ukraine and Syria) and …

A Theology Of Divine Calling In Light Of Karl Barth, A.N. Whitehead, And Meister Eckhart’S Theological Forms, Kin Ting Caleb Cheung

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation aims to show how divine calling can be considered a multifaceted reality. The theory of divine calling includes God, humans, the content of the call, and the interaction between God and humans. It embraces a wide range of data: theology, anthropology, metaphysical considerations, and subjective experience. As this dissertation wants to understand divine calling in a multifaceted way, this dissertation examines it from three different perspectives. The theology/philosophy of Karl Barth, A. N. Whitehead, and Meister Eckhart is utilized. They represent three distinctive theological forms: revelational, metaphysical, and experiential. This dissertation studies their theology/philosophy according to their forms …

Indigenous Climatic Perspectives: A Multidisciplinary Approach To Environmental Discourse Analysis, Linda G. Claros

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents a multidisciplinary analysis of climate discourse from Indigenous Climatic Perspectives (ICP). This research highlights how the manner in which we relate intellectually, culturally and spiritually to the environment has been dictated by economic ideology developed within Euro-American capitalistic paradigms. Hence, the origin of our climate disaster is traced to religious and philosophical assumptions about Nature and the environment, that operate unchallenged within spheres of discourse- scientific, religious and cultural. This dissertation presents an alternative means of analysis, Indigenous Climatic Perspectives, by which we can come to understand our place in the biosphere by embedding new theoretical and …

Scholarly Study Of Religion In Ukraine, Vita Tytarenko, Liudmyla Fylypovych, Larysa Vladychenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the specifics of religious studies of religious minorities (RM). This religious phenomenon needs a concrete applied methodology that would make it possible to study the RM in its entirety. It is proposed to rely on the materials, which, in this case were the materials of a sociological study conducted within the project "Religious Minorities of Ukraine and State-Religious Relations" (2021), carried out by the authors of the article. As a result, it was clarified which religious organizations should be attributed to the RM, and how they differ from the religions of the majority, who have specific needs …

The Political Implications Of The Evangelical Right’S Anti-Critical Race Theory Rhetoric, Elizabeth Howell-Egan

Scripps Senior Theses

Critical Race Theory (CRT), once an abstract principle used in academic circles, has exploded onto the national stage as parents fight against their children supposedly being taught its tenets. Through an analysis of key political and religious leaders, I discuss the right’s obsession with CRT in schools, where it came from, and its political implications.

Religious Violence And Twitter: Networks Of Knowledge, Empathy And Fascination, Samah Senbel, Carly Seigel, Emily Bryan

School of Computer Science & Engineering Faculty Publications

Twitter analysis through data mining, text analysis, and visualization, coupled with the application of actor-network-theory, reveals a coalition of heterogenous religious affiliations around grief and fascination. While religious violence has always existed, the prevalence of social media has led to an increase in the magnitude of discussions around the topic. This paper examines the different reactions on Twitter to violence targeting three religious communities: the 2015 Charleston Church shooting, the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue shooting, and the 2019 Christchurch Mosque shootings. The attacks were all perpetrated by white nationalists with firearms. By analyzing large Twitter datasets in response to the attacks, …

Religious Affiliation’S Association With Suicidality Across Sexual Orientations And Gender Identities, W. Justin Dyer, Michael A. Goodman

Faculty Publications

The objective was to replicate and extend earlier findings examining the intersection of sexual orientation and religious affiliation predicting suicidality. Current analyses used updated data and extended prior work by examining how affiliation relates to suicidality for transgender individuals. Data were collected in 2021 from 46,562 adolescents and were representative of Utah adolescents in grades 8, 10, and 12. In regressions, affiliation predicted suicidality and subsequent models added demographics, family functioning, drug use, feeling socially integrated, and interaction terms between sexual orientation, gender identity, and affiliation. In baseline models, affiliation was related to fewer mental health difficulties. When including drug …

The Black Church: A Place Of Refuge – A Place Of Prayer, William F. Spencer

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Non-Religious Influence Of The Ukrainian Orthodox Church Of The Moscow Patriarchate On Ukrainian Society, Bogdan Synchak, Maksym Balaklytskyi, Volodymyr Dudarets

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The relevance of the study is provided by the Russian military invasion of Ukraine, more specifically, the hybrid nature of the war that Russia has been waging against Ukraine since 2014. The use of information technologies along with military force, among other things, provides for the involvement of the churches of the Moscow Patriarchate as an additional tool for the spread of destructive ideological influence in Ukraine. Attention to the non-religious influence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) on Ukrainian society is being updated against the background of the ideological confrontation between the Russian and Ukrainian worldview systems in …

Worldview Origins—Part 2: The Role Of Religion, The Bible, And Culture, Joseph Kidder, Katelyn Campbell Weakley

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

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Using Transformational Preaching And Life-Skill Seminars To Promote Conversation And Dialogue On Abuse And Family Violence At Mount Olive Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Toronto, Jacqueline D. Peart

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Domestic violence is a hidden crime globally and it is a problem at the Mount Olive Seventh-day Adventist Church. Very often, the abusers and the abused are from the same family. Children who grow up in homes where physical and mental abuse is prevalent tend to become abusers or marry abusers. Members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are not immune and need emotional healing from abuse and family violence. However, Christian communities typically appear silent on the issues of abuse and family violence.

Method

An exploratory process was devised to research the benefits of transformational preaching and life-skill seminars …

The “Black Experience” As Preparation For Participation In Global Partnerships, Cynthia A. Talley

The Asbury Journal

The lived experiences of African Americans, along with their reliance on God, serve as preparation for participation in global mission partnerships. The “Black Experience,” characterized by suffering, dehumanization, violence, and survival has provided the African American community with a toolkit that can be used to teach others how to survive their own suffering as they too rely on God. Long-term African American missionaries have sent out a clarion call requesting that the African American church step up to the plate and join them in spreading the Gospel message “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends …

Book Reviews

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

From The Archives: Gilbert James And The Fight For Interracial Justice- The Papers Of Gilbert James And The Shelhamer Family Papers, Robert Danielson

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Hierarchy And Responsibility In Media: Cults, Culpability, And Culture, Max Hargett

Online Theses and Dissertations

This is a descriptive research project that investigates how popular entertainment media portrays cults. My intention is to see how the selected films and television shows portray issues of hierarchy and culpability within the cult and to explore how the genre and theme of the content was utilized in order to evoke certain reactions and sentiments in the audience. The selected films were The Sacrament, Martha Marcy May Marlene, and Midsommar. The selected television shows were Waco and American Horror Story: Cult. Each film and series is given its own analysis. Findings indicate that a common theme of the rigid …