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Frontmatter (Volume 19 Issue 2), Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

No abstract provided.

Theologians, Political Influencers, Organizers, Founding Mothers, White Feminists: Evangelicalism Recast As Revolution, Through The Life Works Of Hannah More And Phyllis Schlafly, Taylor Valci

Effervescence: Yale Divinity School's Student Journal of Religion

Nearly two hundred years and an ocean apart, Hannah More and Phyllis Schlafly occupied the same impossible set of roles: theologians, political influencers, organizers, founding mothers, and white feminists. What they shared most deeply, however, was evangelicalism. This essay argues that their life works require evangelicalism to be recast not as a stable denominational throughline, but as a reactionary religious revolution: a recurring form of conservative Christian mobilization that emerges when national security and Christian order are perceived as threatened by secularization, women’s expanding public authority, revolution, or global disorder. Read comparatively, More and Schlafly reveal how evangelical women turned …

The Dialogue Of Spiritual Experience In Buddhist-Christian Encounter, S Mark Heim

Journal of Global Catholicism

Can one learn more about one’s own religion through the practices of another? My positive answer to this question is illustrated in this paper by reflection on aspects of the Buddhist practice of emptiness, in specific connection with Christian under-standing of our lives as creatures. The Buddhist meditative practices I have in mind have several things in common. They are introspective (activated in one person’s inner consciousness) and premised on the Buddhist understanding of emptiness (specifically “no self ” teachings). Buddhist introspective practice takes at least three broad forms. One of these is a meditative analytical awareness of the contents …

Losing The Body: Tracing Corporeality As A Component Of The Imago Dei Through Early Christian Exegesis, Andrew Kneeland

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Kneeland, Andrew R. “Losing the Body: Tracing Corporeality as a Component of the Imago Dei Through Early Christian Exegesis.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2025. 252pp.

This dissertation examines the interpretation of imago Dei in Gen. 1:26 across early Christian history, revealing both a robust tradition of corporeal emphasis and a shift toward a spiritual consensus that was driven not by immediate, unanimous consensus but a variety of pastoral and polemical factors. Far from a fleeting, anthropomorphic error, a bodily understanding of the image of God spans diverse provenances and contexts. Organized diachronically and topically, the study begins with textual exegesis …

Christian Leadership In Times Of Persecution: A Comparative Study Of The Pastoral Response Of Tertullian And Cyprian To The Phenomena Of Oppression And Martyrdom In North Africa, Thomas Michael Ray Knoff

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation examines Christian leadership during persecution through a comparative study of Tertullian and Cyprian in Roman North Africa in the late second and mid third centuries. Although both figures are central to early Christian theology and ecclesiology, their leadership is often assessed without sustained attention to the pressures created by persecution.

Using a historical and theological approach, the dissertation examines the writings and ministerial actions of Tertullian and Cyprian as responses formed under conditions of hostility. Close engagement with their treatises, letters, and apologetic works shows how persecution influenced their understanding of martyrdom and apostasy and guided their handling …

“Enslavement By Unbridled Passions:” Catholic Magisterial Institutional Attitudes Toward Homosexuals In Poland Between 1945 And 1989, Agnieszka Laddach

Journal of Global Catholicism

During Communism, the Polish bishops presented a narrative about (homo)sexuality with in order to create the image of a righteous moral and social life that was to influence the Catholics. In my research I conduced a thematic analysis of this narrative. I highlight the doctrinal and Polish social-religious context to foreground tendencies in the formation of Church teaching about homosexuality as well as the importance of the Church in Poland to its formation. Then, I show the factors that characterize the episcopal discourse’s content and language about homosexuality, recognizing that components of episcopal discourse suggest a specificity of Church potential …

The Genuine Nature Of Worship In The Scriptures: Bowing Before God As An Act Of Submission, Michael Jones

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The various translations of the Scriptures use the word worship over 250 times in both the Old and New Testaments. Unfortunately, many Christians and even scholars do not understand the meaning of worship and the purpose for doing it. It is pivotal, however, for Christians to understand the meaning and purpose for worship when directed toward God so they may live in obedience to him. The thesis of this dissertation will be that although Christians presume that worship means to praise God, the Scriptures teach that worship means to bow before God as an act of submission as he establishes …

Louis Markos, Passing The Torch: An Apology For Classical Christian Education, Joshua Herring

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

A review of Louis Markos, Passing the Torch: An Apology for Classical Christian Education (Lisle, IL: IVP, 2025). 240 pages. $30.00. ISBN 9781514011300.

Islamic Political Anti-Theology: A Discursive Practice Of Contingency Beyond Sovereign Politics, Jason Andrus

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contributing to the field of political theology from outside the European Christian tradition, this dissertation develops a description of the distinct logics that Islamic theology generates from its metaphysical assumptions. These logics in turn make possible a discourse of political anti-theology where politics operates through contingency rather than sovereignty. Political theology scholarship has excavated how modern politics derives from secularized Christian theological concepts—particularly transcendent sovereignty. This study demonstrates that Islamic theology's absolute insistence on divine transcendence (tawhid) produces something fundamentally different: a politics that renders sovereign authority conceptually impossible. I identify this discursive practice of political anti-theology through …

Dalit And Tribal Women As Ecological Victims, Dhinakaran Savariyar

The Journal of Social Encounters

The essay examines the ecological marginalization of Dalit and tribal women in India, especially by analysing the three points of intersection, namely, caste, patriarchy, and gender. Though it starts with a global outlook on the African water crisis, it substantiates the argument with Indian realities of water inequality and resource depletion. While showing caste as the root cause of water discrimination in the country, it exposes the abetting roles of patriarchy and gender in keeping the Dalit and tribal women at the lowest position in the Indian social fabric. Environmental casteism and exclusion from decision-making processes add to the invisibility …

Women And Puritanism: Establishing A Theological And Philosophical Framework For Women's Legal Rights In Seventeenth-Century New England, Karen A. Jones

Masters Theses

Using the framework of the modified germ theory, this thesis seeks to discover how the intersection of theology, philosophy, and law reveal the rationale behind the state of women’s legal rights in seventeenth century Puritan New England. The study mostly focuses on 1630-1690, since these sixty years represent the limit of Puritan hegemony in New England. During the 1690s, the Crown forced the northeastern colonies to conform to common law and subsequently expunge their laws of any hints of Puritan biblicism. The conclusion will address the ramifications of this change. The main body of this work, however, takes up Marylynn …

The Nation’S Cold Becomes The Black Community’S Flu: A Phenomenological Study Of Vicarious Traumatization Amongst Black Clergy Affected By Community Violence, Robyn C. Hill

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Clergy are often the frontline community workers when it comes to mental health crises and trauma, especially those working within the Black communities. Black clergy frequently serve in environments with high community violence exposure and are usually subject to vicarious traumatization due to repetitive exposure to trauma narratives during their ministry work. However, studies on vicarious trauma have been geared more towards clinical mental health workers, while studies on clergy have focused more on professional burnout. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand the experience of vicarious traumatization of Black clergy who serve congregations that are exposed to …

Defending The Doctrine Of Hell, Jordan P. Ballard

Liberty Theological Review

The doctrine of hell, or the final state of the wicked, has become one of the most objectionable Christian doctrines because it depicts God as vengeful and wrathful, which is offensive to human sensibilities. As an extension of the problem of evil, where God is put on trial for allowing what may appear to be gratuitous pain and suffering in the world, many Christians and non-Christians alike wonder how a loving God could consign people to suffering in hell forever. After all, why didn’t God make a world where all would be saved if He is truly loving? Belief in …

The Salvation Of The Unevangelized: A Comparative Analysis Of The Views Of Clark H. Pinnock And Millard J. Erickson, Christopher R. Mwashinga

Dissertations

Problem and Purpose

This dissertation addresses the problem of the ongoing disagreement among evangelical theologians, as represented by Clark H. Pinnock and Millard J. Erickson, concerning the issue of the salvation of the unevangelized. This disagreement continued even though both scholars focused on special revelation and general revelation as sources for information leading people to receive salvation. This approach failed to resolve the disagreement even after decades of heated theological debates indicating a need for a different approach to this soteriological problem. While other researchers have documented Pinnock’s and Erickson’s views on the salvation of the unevangelized, their motivations and …

Soteriological Perspectives In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church From 1930 To 2000, Jungkyu Park

Dissertations

The Topic

The soteriology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, originally shaped in the mid-nineteenth century around the preparation for the imminent Second Coming, has undergone gradual development over time. By the mid-twentieth century, various perspectives emerged due to the continuation of traditional teachings from the late nineteenth century and challenges from external theological influences. In particular, throughout the debate over Last Generation Theology, each theologian defined and interpreted “righteousness by faith” according to their own theological background and historical context. The resulting tensions and conflicts continue to persist to this day.

The Purpose

This study aims to describe and examine …

God The Protector: An Exposition Of Psalm 68’S Thematic Coherence On The Warrior God’S Care For The Oppressed, Michal Lynn Lee

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

From the beginning of the Creation saga, the Warrior God can be visualized taming the chaotic waters of the deep with the authoritative command of “Let there be light.” This theme catapults through the pages of Scripture and climaxes in the iconic scene of the end of the age as described in the book of Revelation where God as a warrior is meting out judgment against those whose faces have turned against him. Inherent in warrior character are aspects of strength, courage, righteousness, and sometimes even divine brutality. Within these warrior-istic characteristics of God is the trait of protector or …

Response To Frederick L. Ware, Kimberly H. Belcher

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Response to Frederick L. Ware, "Initiation (Water Baptism) in North American Pentecostalism."

Initiation Sacraments And Directions For Catholic-Pentecostal Dialogue: An Essay For The Exploratory Usccb/Pccna Dialogue, Kimberly H. Belcher

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article surveys Roman Catholic understandings of initiation sacraments. It traces historical developments and current practices for the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and Holy Communion. Throughout attention is paid to the areas where convergences and issues for further discussion between Roman Catholics and Pentecostals emerge.

Review Of On The Resurrection: Evidences Volume 1, Brian G. Chilton

Liberty Theological Review

Dr. Brian Chilton reviews the first volume of Dr. Gary Habermas's magnum opus On the Resurrection: Evidences. Chilton summarizes Habermas's work, offering key themes found throughout the book. Then, he analyzes the methodology of the book and confronts the possible objections offered by popular naysayers of the minimal facts approach. Chilton ultimately deduces that the naysayers objections are overblown and that Habermas's approach stands on its own.

New Paths In Jewish And Religious Studies: Essays In Honor Of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, Glenn Dynner, Susannah Heschel, Shaul Magid

Purdue University Press Books

The work of Elliot R. Wolfson has profoundly influenced the fields of Jewish studies as well as philosophy and religion more broadly. His radically new approaches have created pioneering ways of analyzing texts and thinking about religion through the lens of gender, sexuality, and feminist theory. The contributors to New Paths in Jewish and Religious Studies: Essays in Honor of Professor Elliot R. Wolfson, many of whom are internationally renowned scholars, hearken from diverse fields. Each has learned from and collaborated with Wolfson as student or colleague, and each has expanded the new scholarly directions initiated by Wolfson’s groundbreaking …

The Secrets Of Christian Others: Hungarian Catholic Intellectuals Debate Ecumenism At A Transylvanian Pilgrimage Site, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

Claims about a shared Christian tradition animate European debates about religious otherness, but more remains to be known about how Catholics on Europe’s near-margins understand ecumenical unity among churches. I analyze contemporary Hungarian Catholic intellectuals’ publications about a controversy at the Hungarian national shrine, Our Lady of Csíksomlyó, in Transylvania. When a priest wrote that Csíksomlyó’s annual pilgrimage commemorated sixteenth-century Catholics’ victory over an invading Unitarian army, Transylvania’s Unitarian bishop denounced the origin as an undocumented myth. Prominent Catholic ethnologists, historians, and theologians agreed that, in the name of ecumenism, intellectuals should not publicly mention the origin narrative. But they …

The Book Of Ruth: Its Didactic Wisdom Themes, Brian Corn

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation proposes and argues that the Book of Ruth is better situated in Wisdom literature because of its didactic wisdom themes. Prominent wisdom themes will be analyzed and compared intertextually with the Book of Ruth, which provides Ruth’s understanding of YHWH. The research methodology evaluates the intertextuality, or inter-themes, between the Book of Ruth and the Wisdom literature (Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes), the primary source. Peer-reviewed sources (scholarly commentaries, academic peer-reviewed journals, and scholarly biblical dictionaries) are used to evaluate and support the findings uncovered in the primary source. Semantic field and range studies are performed with the help …

The Evidential Problem Of Assurance: Textual Approach From The Johannine Literature, Derick A. Adu

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Assurance of salvation is an existential issue that has occupied the center stage of theological deliberations in the Church's history. This dissertation is a quest for epistemic justification. The dissertation examines the conditions that justify and validate claims of assurance of salvation. The research is partly an epistemological quest as well as a textual inquiry. This study utilizes evidentialism, the epistemological concept that what provides epistemic justification is evidence, to reach a reasonable conclusion. The data for the analysis consists of the Johannine literature, that is, the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and the book of Revelation. …

The Stratified Leadership Model Of The First-Century Christian Church, Barton Schuyler Garratt Edsall Iv

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As Christianity enters its third millennium, it faces the sharpest decline in the number of people attending church congregations compared to the total population. In Romans 1:13, the Apostle Paul states that God’s people should not be ignorant that the purpose for leaders within the collective church body, beginning with himself as the example, is so the people’s lives would be fruitful–spiritually enriched and productive. Logic dictates that if the lives of those who attended Christian churches in the twenty-first century experienced and displayed such spiritual quality, attendance would not be declining but contrarily on the rise. Regarding church clergy …

The Nature Of Beauty And Its Objective Manifestation Serve As Evidence Of The God Described In The Bible, Michael S. Libby

Masters Theses

In exploring the concept of objective beauty in nature, a strong argument emerges for the existence of a divine creator as described in the Bible. This thesis, titled “The Nature of Beauty and its Objective Manifestation Serve as Evidence of the God Described in the Bible,” proposes that the intricate design and objective manifestation of beauty in the world are indicative of a higher transcendent being, prompting us to contemplate the profound mysteries of creation and the interconnectedness of aesthetics and spirituality. Through this lens of beauty, we are challenged to engage in a thought-provoking discourse that encompasses apologetics, philosophy, …

Miscellaneous, Bruce R. Johnson

Sehnsucht: The C. S. Lewis Journal

Announcements:

Call for papers (The Abolition of Man 80 Years On)

The C. S. Lewis Correspondence Project

The Inaugural Undiscovered C.S. Lewis Conference (George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon September 5-8, 2024)

Submission guidelines, style guide, copyright notice, and order form.

Some Aspects Of The Theology Of The City In Ane Literature And Biblical Protology And Eschatology: A Comparative Study, Vlatko Dir

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The city is an essential accomplishment that is embedded in the foundations of human civilization. From its mature appearance in Sumer and its developed forms throughout the ANE world, the city held a high place in cosmology, cosmogony, and anthropogony. The ideology and theology of the city created by the ANE peoples were built around and presented through the interplay of the triangle of influences and dependencies formed by the city, the temple, and kingship in conjunction with the gods. The question is whether the same construct is ingeminated in the Bible. This dissertation strives to provide an appropriate context …

Regarding The Centrality Of The Covenant Motif In Heinrich Bullinger’S Theological Thought, Isaias D'Oleo Ochoa

CTS Student Publications and Creative Works

This article offers some statistics from Heinrich Bullinger’s The Decades with a brief analysis as evidence that Bullinger must be understood as the forerunner, not the father, of federal theology, since his discussion of the covenant doctrine is limited, inconsistent, exploratory, and slightly integrated with the rest of his theological thought.

Oral Roberts University’S Judaic-Christian Studies Program: A Reflection On Its History And Significance, Pamela L. Idriss

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Oral Roberts University’s (ORU) Graduate School of Theology and Missions offered the Judaic-Christian Studies Concentration (JCSC) of Master of Theology in Biblical Literature between the fall of 2007 and the spring of 2020. Under the supervision of Brad H. Young, the program flourished with academic excellence and distinct practical applications. Students learned to comprehend the teachings of Jesus in their Second-Temple Jewish context and to recognize the Jewish roots of Christianity. The program employed the comparative/associative methodology for exegetical work and utilized the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and primary Jewish sources, such as the Rabbinic literature and the Dead …

Into Every Person’S World: The Oru Bible Institute Program, Sam Barsoum, Paul King

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article describes the history, development, mission, and impact of the ORU Bible Institute program over its thirty-year history. Different phases of the program are presented: beginnings of the program, curriculum development, and program expansion; features of the program; global impact through international development; times of crisis, re-evaluation, and recovery; adjustments, stabilization, and growth to the present; and the long-term impact of the ORU Bible Institute program