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

F.A.RMS. has published the fourth volume of its annual Review of Books on the Book of Mormon, edited by Daniel C. Peterson.

Full Issue

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

No abstract provided.

A Reader Notes An Expression That Is Unique To Nephi

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

Richard Rust, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, whose research has been published by F.A.R.M.S. in the past, has noticed phraseology that is unique to individual Book of Mormon prophets. He writes to F.A.R.M.S. that the phrase "my soul delighteth" appears to be unique to Nephi. It is a beautiful expression, which Nephi uses ten times: for example, "my soul delighteth in the scriptures" (2 Nephi 4:15); "my soul delighteth in the things of the Lord" (2 Nephi 4:16); "my soul delighteth in proving unto my people the truth of the coming of Christ" …

Welch Takes Leave Of Absence

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

A leave of absence from the F.A.R.M.S. board of directors for John W. Welch has been approved during the time that he serves as the editor of BYU Studies. Welch was the founding president of F.A.R.M.S. and has served on its board of directors throughout the life of the foundation. His contributions to the success of the foundation's efforts have been considerable and essential.

Books Focus On Ancient Mesoamerican Civilizations

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

New editions of two books, available at a discount from F.A.R.M.S., provide a scholarly yet readable introduction to civilization in the area where most of the events of the Book of Mormon probably took place. Both books were written by Michael D. Coe, Professor of Anthropology at Yale University. Although not written from an LDS perspective, these books provide the serious student of the Book of Mormon some very valuable background information. Both books also contain a large number of excellent photographs, maps, and line drawings, which make them not only informative to read but a pleasure to browse.

Challenging Conventional Views Of Metal Use In Mesoamerica, John L. Sorenson

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

Orthodox archaeologists have for many years supposed that metals were not used in Mesoamerica, the probable area where Book of Mormon events took place, until nearly 500 years after the scripture says the Nephites were destroyed. Of course the Book of Mormon briefly mentions the use of metal among the Nephites (although by the time of its last mention, in Mosiah 11:8, it was "precious"). Previous attempts to refute the prevailing view have had little effect. Renewed research by John Sorenson has revealed a substantial body of data on the subject that was previously ignored.

Former Farms Worker Honored

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

On March 7, DeeAnn Hofer was crowned Ms. Wheelchair Utah. Because of her fine contributions to the foundation, F.A.R.M.S. was pleased to be one of her sponsors in this competition.

Chiasmus Study Cited

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

The 1992 reprint of a classic work on chiasmus, Nils W. Lund's Chiasmus in the New Testament, contains a new preface that refers frequently to Chiasmus in Antiquity, a work published in 1981 by John W. Welch.

F.A.R.M.S. Conference On "The Olive And Jacob 5" A Success

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

More than 300 people attended the F.A.R.M.S. conference on ''The Olive and Jacob 5," held on Saturday, March 21. The nineteen presenters approached Jacob 5 from a variety of perspectives----cultural, economic, literary, historical, and theological. Comments from the audience indicated that they found this fifth annual F.A.R.M.S. Book of Mormon Lecture extremely helpful in understanding the background and meaning of the allegory of the olive tree.

Engaging Imaginations: C. S. Lewis And The Need For Stronger Spells, Justin Bailey

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Panikkar On Mysticism As A Middle Way Between Contemplation And Action, Abraham Velez De Cea

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Panikkar’s philosophy of mysticism is best understood as an attempt to overcome monistic and dualistic ways of thinking about the divine, human beings and the universe. Mysticism, for Panikkar, is irreducible to either monistic experiences of oneness without a second or to dualistic experiences where the divine is seen as wholly other. Rather, mysticism relates to holistic experiences of Reality and Life where the divine, the universe and human consciousness are seen as distinct yet constitutively interrelated. Mysticism has often been based on dualistic views of this life and the next, worldly existence and heavenly existence, the material and the …

The Lion's Country: C.S. Lewis's Theory Of The Real By Charlie W. Starr, Mark-Elliot Finley

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Book review for Charlie Starr's The Lion's Country: C.S. Lewis's Theory of Reality

Tolkien Dogmatics: Theology Through Mythology With The Maker Of Middle-Earth By Austin M. Freeman, Alex (Oleksiy) Ostaltsev

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The powerful and highly informative definitions that Freeman applies to Tolkien’s Middle-earth phenomenon in the title of his book create a productive interpretational framework. Myth and mythology in Inklings’ writing were always understood, in an almost Jungian way, as a cultural paradigm flexible enough to embrace the free creativity of the playful human mind and a philosophical postulate, or credo, of the humanistic religious intuition of Christianity. In Freeman’s interpretation, Tolkien’s literary myth in some ways requires a theological background, which, in its turn, leads to inevitable dogma, a statement that reveals the sensitive mechanics of literary myth as it …

Otherworldly But Not The Otherworld: Tolkien’S Adaptation Of Medieval Faerie And Fairies Into A Sub-Creative Elvendom, Elliott Thomas Collins

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Through a comparative analysis of Lothlorien and the medieval stories of Lanval and Sir Orfeo, this article attempts to shed some light on how the inherently pessimistic and recursive nature of Tolkien's sub-creation affects his adaptation of medieval Faerie into a sub-creative elvendom born of the creative instincts of the elves. In doing so, the article also questions Tolkien's adherence to parameters of Faerie and characteristics of elves as laid out in OFS.

"It Is 'About' Nothing But Itself": Tolkienian Theology Beyond The Domination Of The Author, Tom Emanuel

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

There is a broad stream of Christian interpretation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fiction, especially The Lord of the Rings, which views it as the intentionally, essentially Christian work of an intentionally, essentially Christian author. This reductive, exclusivist approach does not do justice to the complex, generative interactivity between Tolkien’s faith, the faith of his readers (or lack thereof), and the text itself. Building on work by Veryln Flieger, Michael Drout, and Robin A. Reid, this paper interrogates how Christian Tolkien scholarship drafts Tolkien the human sub-creator to perform Foucault’s author-function by suppressing his contradictions and painting a figure whose life …

Belonging In Unashamed Authenticity, Nathan R. Kitchen

Together We RISE (Making Excellence Inclusive)

In 2020, the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute reported that 47% of LGBTQ adults were moderately or highly religious. This equates to 5.3 million religious LGBTQ adults in America. We cannot ignore this population.

When making the transition into young adulthood, many religious LGBTQ youth feel they must make a choice between their spiritual well-being or their queerness. As a university community interested in the success of the rising generation, we can provide support for religious queer young adults through understanding:

1. What is happening in this transition and why,

2. The well-being needs of religious queer young adults …

Centrality Of Religiosity As A Predictor Of Motivational Needs For The Gen Z Cohort, Ryan A. Willcockson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Past research has focused exhaustively on the motivational needs of older generational cohorts, while Gen Z receives minimal attention. Simultaneously, no research exists examining Gen Z’s centrality of religiosity or how their religiousness might affect motivational needs. This focus by research is crucial because the global number of Gen Z individuals now eclipses the current population of Baby Boomers and Gen X (Ajzen, 2020). This gap in motivational and religious centrality research is arguably due to many studies downplaying Gen Z’s motivational needs with claims that their motivations, centrality of religiosity, and behavioral choices are like that of Gen X …

Program: Featured Lecture, "Stranger God: Meeting Jesus In Disguise.", Richard Beck

William M. Green Distinguished Christian Lecture Program

Program for the Forty-Third Annual William M. Green Distinguished Christian Lecture Program with featured lecturer Dr. Richard Beck, Professor and Chair of the Psychology Department at Abilene Christian University.

Σπλαγχνιζομαι And The Characterization Of The Markan Jesus, Jonathan W. Bryant

Dissertations

Amid scholarly studies both of the miracle stories of the Markan Jesus and of the characterization of the Markan Jesus, little attention has been given to the role of Jesus’s emotions as portrayed in those accounts—though references to Jesus’ emotions appear quite frequently in the Gospel of Mark. This dissertation seeks to fill this lacuna through a detailed analysis of the portrayal of Jesus’s compassion (σπλαγχνίζομαι) in the Markan miracle stories. I first examine the accounts of other miracle workers from ancient Greco-Roman and Jewish literature to discover how emotions feature in the depictions of miracle workers likely known in …

Artificial Intelligence And Human Hope, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

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Creative Disobedience: Dorothee Sölle's Political Theology And Ethics For U.S. Christian Contexts, Dannis Matteson

Dissertations

This dissertation adapts Dorothee Sölle’s concept of creative disobedience to account for those histories of obedience to structures of domination and to foster moral agency that disrupts and dismantles structures of domination. The first two chapters contextualize and summarize Dorothee Sölle’s critique of obedience and her warning against the way in which the obedient social character yields a “Christofascist” society. Chapter II considers the extent to which Christofascism already exists in US society today through Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry’s study of the political and cultural prevalence of Christian nationalism. Chapter III contextualizes Dorothee Sölle’s theoretical critique of …

"It's Good To Doubt Saints, Vladim.": Medieval Constructions Of Sainthood, Their Histories, And Their Cults In Leigh Bardugo's Shadow And Bone, Kacie Barrett

Master's Theses

The Grishaverse is the fictional world created by author Leigh Bardugo that encompasses three separate series and ten different books. First published in 2012, the Shadow and Bone trilogy introduces readers to the world of Ravka, its Grisha, and its saints. The story follows Alina as she moves from orphan and soldier to saint and martyr. Sankta Alina becomes a character of its own – a version of Alina communicated to the people of Ravka as a banner to rally behind. She is made into living saint. The questions raised by Leigh Bardugo are echoed in church history. Sainthood is …

"To This You Were Called": Discipleship, Suffering, And Social Identity In First Peter, Shane Patrick Gormley

Dissertations

At the center of First Peter’s rhetoric stands an exhortation to “follow” in Christ’s footsteps (2:21). Several scholars have suggested (sometimes off-handedly or in a singular footnote) that this specific exhortation utilizes the technical language of “discipleship,” but only to support a particular piece of the letter’s paraenesis (2:18–25). I contend that such a suggestion, while a helpful place to start, does not go far enough. With this study, I propose that we may read First Peter comprehensively as a summons to discipleship in accord with ancient understandings of education, exemplified in the multifaceted system of Hellenistic paideia. I argue …

“But You Don't Look Sick…:” Shedding Light On The Socially Constructed Problems Of Invisible Chronic Illness And The Benefits Of Shifting To A Dynamic Illness Framework, Samantha Susan Ropski

Master's Theses

Invisible chronic illness is a common, complex phenomenon that applies to any illness, disease, or collection of symptoms that is not always or ever outwardly apparent or discernable to onlookers, even in biomedical contexts. Interestingly, despite 96% of those with chronic illness fitting under the “invisible” umbrella, patients are frequently misdiagnosed, invalidated, dismissed and marginalized because they do not “look sick” enough within the context of the disease-focused medical model. This thesis aims to argue that many of the most significant and damaging problems associated with chronic illness are not due to the actual illnesses themselves but rather, are socially …

A Research Into The Influence Of Jewish Priests, Scribes, And Canonical And Non-Canonical Jewish Apocalyptic Literature On M Materials, Rajesh Sebastian

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

M materials refer to any content in Matthew that is not found in Mark and Luke and hence considered to be not part of the hypothetical Q. Questions are raised regarding the source and historical reliability of M materials. Many scholars consider M narratives to be fictional. Research work has been lacking among Matthean scholars to identify a source for M narratives. The primary goal of this research is to identify the Jewish priests as a plausible source of some M narratives. The research also attempts to unravel the reason for the Jewish apocalyptic influence on M materials and argues …

Paul And Economics: A Theology Of The Gospel And Economics, Brent Allen Myers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

An often overlooked biblical theology that the Apostle Paul addresses is economics. Economics impacts every area of an individual's life and even more so in the ancient world. Paul's chief concern is with the gospel of Jesus and one of the chief components of a believer's new life in Christ is how they handle their own economic situation. This work seeks to analyze the writings of Paul and explore his comments on the economic realities of individuals based on God's authority.

The Inability Of Negative Higher Criticism To Undermine The Biblical Portrait Of Jesus Christ, Brett Arthur Seybold

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Paul Tillich described, the attempt of historical criticism to find the empirical truth about Jesus of Nazareth as a failure. John Dominic Crossan described this lack of consensus among critical scholars regarding the person of Jesus as “a bad joke.” This lack of consensus by skeptics, as well as their shared reluctancy to abandon the task of attempting to make sense of who Jesus Christ truly was historically serves as the backbone of this dissertation where I argue that Jesus transcends negative higher criticism in particular and the post-Christian mindset in general. I argue that He constitutes a suis generis …

The Faithful Vassal: The Suzerain-Vassal Covenant Relationship As A Biblical-Theological Theme Connecting The Old And New Testament Narratives, Tyler Matthew Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Much has been written within the scholarly literature regarding the nature of the Mosaic Law as being one which reflects a suzerain-vassal covenant between Yahweh and the nation of Israel in the Old Testament, and particularly in the book of Deuteronomy. Likewise, it has been well established by scholars that this covenant relationship serves as a key biblical-theological theme within the narrative of the former prophets, the so-called “Deuteronomistic history.” At the same time, however, there have been relatively few attempts to examine the ways in which this critical theme features throughout the remainder of the biblical narratives, from the …

The Impact Of Preaching The Image Of God As Disability-Inclusive, Laurie E. Thompson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

According to Howard (2010), the North American Mission Board (NAMB) considers the disabled community in America to be unreached by the church. Hardwick (2021) also writes, “The disability community is the most unique community, the largest minority group in the world” (p. 12). This quantitative descriptive research study explored the frequency of preaching the biblical principle imago Dei, found in Genesis 1:27, in a way that includes the disabled, and how this preaching may impact disability-inclusivity in the church. The Word of God states, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them” …

A Phenomenological Study Exploring The Lack Of Baptist Church Participation In Seminole County, Florida, Ismael Melendez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study explores the reasons for a lack of participation in in-person Baptist churches and the rise of participation in online Baptist churches in Seminole County, Florida. The theory guiding this study was Martin Heidegger’s hermeneutical framework which focuses on the commonality of experiences. Heidegger believed that to arrive at the essence of a phenomenon a researcher must go through the revisionary process of what Heidegger termed the Hermeneutic Circle. The principal research question in this study explored existing relationship(s) between in-person and online Baptist church leaders and how such relationship(s) contributed to a lack of church participation. The …