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Awakening Between Science, Art & Ethics: Variations On Japanese Buddhist Modernism, 1890–1945, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

The half-century between the publication of the Imperial Rescript on Education (kyōiku chokugo 教育勅語, 1890) and the bombing of Pearl Harbor (1941) was one of tremendous institutional and intellectual tumult in the world of Japanese Buddhism. Buddhist sects and scholars were not immune to the changing political and cultural winds. While it is true that by the late 1930s, the majority of Buddhist leaders and institutions had capitulated to the status quo, preaching, in the words of Joseph Kitagawa “the virtues of peace, harmony, and loyalty to the throne,” the previous decades show anything but a continuous progression towards …

The Construction Of Belief : Reflections On The Thought Of Mohammed Arkoun, Abdou Filali-Ansari, Aziz Esmail

Independent Volumes

Mohammed Arkoun was one of the most prominent and influential Arab intellectuals of his day. During a career spanning more than thirty years, he was revered as an outstanding research scholar, a bold critic of the theoretical tensions embedded within Islamic studies and an outspoken public figure, upholding political, social and cultural modernism.

This festschrift honours Mohammed Arkoun’s scholarship, bringing together the contributions of eleven distinguished scholars of history, religious studies and philosophy. It offers a comprehensive selection of critical engagements with Arkoun’s work, reflecting on his considerable influence on contemporary thinking about Islam and its ideological, philosophical and theological …

Theological Plunderphonics: Public Theology And "The Fragment", William Myatt

Dissertations

In response to methodological vagueness in public theology, I construct a theory of "the fragment" that enables the public theologian to respond adequately to contemporary exigencies and appropriately to traditional self-understandings. After surveying four streams of public-theological thought (chapter one), I consider the debate between David Tracy (chapter two) and George Lindbeck (chapter three). The various observations of these three chapters give way to a suggested criteriology for public theology. I then turn to Paul Ricoeur (chapter four) and Walter Benjamin (chapter five) to assist in constructing a theory of the fragment (chapter six). The thesis defended by this dissertation …

Book Review: Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role Of Business In Missions By Steve Rundle And Tom Steffen, Anthony Casey

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Anticipating Change: Missions And Paradigm Shifts In Emergence, Sam Law

The Asbury Journal

As our global community is in an unprecedented period of rapid change, missiology, being a study of crossing boundaries, plays a critical pathfinder role in anticipating, participating and mediating the change process, for change itself is a temporal boundary. Failure to do so in the past has left the Church and other groups in a position in which they lag change, and have been marginalized and considered irrelevant. Emergence theory is introduced as a new model, in place of Kuhn's pyramid of causality, to describe how change itself has changed, as networks are now the opinion leaders. As well, Emergence …

Book Review: A Light To The Nations: The Missional Church And The Biblical Story By Michael W. Goheen, Tereso C. Casino

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Protology And Eschatology In The Writings Of John C. Polkinghorne: A Study Of Contrastive Roles Of Scripture, H. Nicholas De Lima

Master's Theses

Problem The focus of this thesis is to address the problem of the contrastive roles of Scripture in protology and eschatology in the writings of John C. Polkinghorne. On the one hand, Polkinghorne rejects a univocal understanding of Gen 1-2, by invoking symbolic/analogical language for Gen 1-2, so that he can accept scientific protology. On the other hand, Polkinghorne introduces an apparent, relative univocity of biblical language in order to obtain his eschatology, contrary to the claims of pure scientific eschatology. This seems to suggest a dimension of internal methodological and theological incoherence in his system. Methodology This thesis provides …

Journal In Entirety

The Asbury Journal

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Essays

Anticipating Change: Missions and Paradigm Shifts in Emergence Sam Law

Identification by Spirit Alone: Community-Identity Construction in Galatians 3:19-4:7 Susann Liubinskas

Public Theology for Global Development A Case Study Dealing with ''Health'' in Africa Gregg A, Oktsson

Poetry as the Handmaid of Piety: Hynms as a Catalyst for Human Development in Early Methodism Brian Yeich

A Macarian-Wesleyan Theology of Mission Matt Friedman

Impacting the Orienting System: The Role of Theological Education in Influencing Socio-cultural Images of God Anne K. Gatobu

The Tabernacle and Contextual Worship Craig Keener

The Journey to God: Union, Purgation and Transformation …

Christian Publishing In Central And Eastern Europe, Katharina Penner

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Christian Sensitivity In Interreligious Relation, Paul D. Numrich

The Asbury Journal

This essay reflects on the implications of my mandate to guide seminary students "to think creatively and responsibly about how to proclaim the Christian gospel in multi-cultural contexts with a sensitivity to interfaith perspectives." I ask the question, What does it mean for Christian seminarians--and Christians generally--to engage adherents of other faiths with sensitivity to their perspectives? I offer a general definition of "sensitivity" and distinguish Christian sensitivity from other kinds, in that it is informed by the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit in the living heritage of the Christian faith. …

The Ethics Of Amos In Light Of Its Ancient Near Eastern Context, Mark D. Arnold

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The book of Amos, in a fashion almost preternaturally relevant to contemporary conditions, discusses issues of war and welfare. Amos condemns several foreign nations for various war crimes and then turns to Israel, excoriating it for its mistreatment of the poor. Specifically he indicts the wealthy for enacting policies that created new poor while preventing the old poor from regaining their rightful positions in society. Israel’s elite used economic and judicial methods to enrich themselves at the expense of the vast majority of the population. As a result, Amos predicts the destruction of Israel just as he predicted the destruction …

Review Of Herbert Hömig's Carl Theodor Von Dalberg: Staatsmann Und Kirchenfürst Im Schatten Napoleons, Ulrich Lehner

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Origin Of The Eschatological Feast As A Wedding Banquet In The Synoptic Gospels: An Intertextual Study, Phillip J. Long

Dissertations

The Problem. The problem this dissertation seeks to address is the origins of the wedding banquet imagery in the teaching of Jesus. Frequently, scholars will state that the image of a wedding banquet was a common messianic image in the first century. However, other than Isa 25:6-8, sources for the image of a banquet for the messianic age in the Hebrew Bible are sparse. Yet the image of a banquet clearly appears in the Synoptic Gospels in both the actions of Jesus as well as his teaching. Because the metaphor of a wedding banquet is not found in the literature …

A Study Of Warfare Theodicy In The Writings Of Ellen G. White And Gregory A. Boyd, Martha O. Duah

Dissertations

The problem of evil has been an issue for all religions over the centuries. But it is a crucial issue for theism because of its affirmation of the co-existence of an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent God and evil. Theologians and philosophical theologians have developed a plethora of materials in response to the problem. However, according to critics, none of the responses in and of themselves adequately deals with theism's problem of suffering and evil. As a result, this study explores the warfare theodicy, a Christian response to the problem of sin, suffering, and evil, which seems to have been neglected …

The Concept Of Divine Love In The Context Of The God-World Relationship, John C. Peckham

Dissertations

The love of God is central to God's relationship to the world. This dissertation addresses the conflict of interpretation between the transcendent-voluntarist and immanent-experientialist models regarding divine love in the context of the God-world relationship by applying a canonical methodology. Chapter 1 introduces the background, purpose, problem, scope, and plan of study as well as the final-form canonical theological method employed in the investigation. Chapter 2 briefly surveys the historical theology of love, tracing the central conceptions of divine love and the God-world relationship by selected, highly influential thinkers. Chapter 3 presents and analyzes the irreconcilable interpretations of divine love …

A Reading Resource On Micah For Ministers And Teachers, John T. Willis

Leaven

No abstract provided.

The International Churches Of Christ: A Historical Overview, John F. Wilson

Leaven

No abstract provided.

The Journalist As Theologian: A Tribute To Gregory Baum, Michael W. Higgins

Mission & Culture Publications

The article features Gregory Baum, mathematician, theologian, ex-Augustinian friar, dissenter and pioneering sociologist of religion. In an interview in 1996, he provided a diagnosis of the Roman Catholic Church mentioning that it was undergoing a governance crisis of immense proportions and that there was a need for a new system. Baum, Professor Emeritus of Theological Ethics and the Sociology of Religion at McGill University, considers himself a journalist fascinated with ideas.

Toward A Sankofa Ethics, Lareine-Marie Mosely

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

Here Mosely reflects on sankofa as a value embraced by womanist theologians in terms of its philosophical meaning and its practice. She presents a sankofa ethics that emphasizes the importance of protecting one another, especially the young, resisting all that demeans black people and black life, and living lives of justice.

Book Review, Thomas H. Olbricht

Leaven

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Kindalee Pfremmer De Long

Leaven

No abstract provided.

Book Review, Kathy Pulley

Leaven

No abstract provided.

Embodying God Through Our Bodies, Kathy Pulley

Leaven

No abstract provided.

Review Of Ewa Wipszycka, Moines Et Communautés Monastiques En Égypte (Ive-Viie Siècles), Caroline T. Schroeder

College of the Pacific Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Editorial For Theological Studies (September 2011), David G. Schultenover

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Re-Visioning The Semantic And Semiotic Registers In The Study Of Culture And Religion, Gary S. Bedford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term `God' may be understood as the desire for the complete epistemological condition of thought; language expresses this condition in statements of `meaning.' `Religion' expresses this desire in texts and ritual practice which may be examined by in academic study; however, because the `third term' of religio is understood as the condition of being `bounded to or by,' the study of religion is itself bounded to or by this desire for the completion of thought. This desire cannot be understood as an `alterity' of thought but is rather the internal native or `alter-native' condition of thought itself. …

Beyond Words: The Remystification Of The Divine Through Dance, Silence And Theopoetics, Nora F. Wright

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis challenges Classical Christian presentations of God based on exclusive and literalized metaphors. This piece explores the response of three dissenting groups, who place their emphasis on an experiential theology, directly challenging the use of conventional language to describe God. The Quaker practice of silent worship, Isadora Duncan’s dance form and Theopoetics each demand that religious structures enable an experience of the Divine that is spontaneous, mysterious and deeply personal.

Missional Churches In Secular Societies: Theology Consults Sociology, Thomas Hughson

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

The church is missionary by nature. But what about public church mission in secular societies? Furious religion mobilizing against rebarbative secularity? Withdrawal to seek exemplary perfection? To the contrary, theologically principled consultation with the sociology of J. Casanova on deprivatized religion leads to public witness in modern societies. Public theology can interpret deprivatized religion as an expression of prophetic and kingly elements in church mission. However, sociology leaves the priestly element as if private. What might ecclesiology, missiology, and public theology say about a public aspect of the priestly element in the church’s witness in modern societies?

The Substance And Style Of Len Dong: Healing, Transformation, And Aesthetic In Spirit Possession Rituals Of Hue, Lauren Cardenas

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Len Dong is a spirit possession ritual practiced in the mother goddess religion of Tu Phu. Tu Phu roughly translates to “Four Palaces” or the sacred homes of the four spirits of the earth, heaven, water, and mountain or woods[1]. As there is no formal organization of the religion, there is much freedom in its expression among practitioners. For example, the styles, designs, and intricacy of the costumes may vary, or perhaps the size of the accompanying ritual orchestra. Yet there remains one very important element of spirit possession ritual: loc or lucky gifts from the spirits …

"Poor Maggot-Sack That I Am": The Human Body In The Theology Of Martin Luther, Charles Lloyd Cortright

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation represents research into the writings of Martin Luther [1483-1546] reflecting his understanding of the human body in his theology. Chapter one reviews the history of the body in the theology of the western Christian church, 300- 1500. Chapters two through five examine Luther's thinking about various <“>body topics,<”> such as the body as the good creation of God; sexuality and procreation; and the body in illness, death, and resurrection. Chapter six presents conclusions.

Luther's thinking is examined on the basis of consultation of the Weimarer Ausgabe and the <“>American Edition<”> of Luther's works. Special attention is given to …