Digital Commons Network^™

The Old Testament And Justice: When Systems Become Systemically Broken, Jerome L. Skinner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Biblical Hermeneutical Principles Dealing With Race, Racism And Social Justice Issues, Jiří Moskala

Faculty Publications

Many modern problems arise from the misinterpretation of the Bible, unfortunately. One of my best Church History teachers Amadeo Molnár at the Protestant Faculty in Prague told us: “The history of the Christian Church is the history of the interpretation of the Bible.” At first, I doubted this statement’s truth, but after some reflections, I understood. Divisions were created and wars were fought because of certain dogmas, and millions were tortured, killed, or enslaved due to specific ideologies and wrong belief systems by believers. So many atrocities were committed in the name of God!

Chimes: September 20, 2021, Calvin University

Chimes

Concerts are back on campus. Proof of vaccination required by Ezra Craker

Facilities contactors struggle to resume recycling by Lauren Vanden Bosch

Changes to enrollment strategy a step in the right direction; efforts continue by Harm Venhuizen

January Series 2022 speakers revealed; N.T. Wright to make record-breaking sixth appearance by Katherine Benedict

Political science and economics departments unite as one by Grace Toma

Project Neighborhood combines service, community and learning by Michaela Giovannelli

Calvin alumni and former professor enter ArtPrize amid big changes by Isaiah Tenhuisen & Ezra Craker

Volleyball beats Chicago in latest ranked showdown by Jamison Van Andel …

The Beacon, September 10, 2021, The Beacon Staff

The Beacon, 2021-2022

Psychology gains married professors; Imagine Dragons without an identity; The coveter of spots has been redressed; Barker honoring 9/11 with September Bears; Connell to mentor future NW band members; Draayer directs Intercultural Department; Students spent summer serving in Haiti; Northwestern and the vaccine; Christians and conditional love; Hot Takes: How do you eat your string cheese?; Women’s basketball welcomes new head coach; Raiders defeat Broncos in home football opener; Raiders soccer hosts Pizza Ranch Classic home opener; New semester brings more normalcy; Campus IJM chapter

Wiltschek Named University Chaplain, John Twork

News and Events (Discontinued Series)

No abstract provided.

Creating Collaborative Missional Communities To Enhance Church Revitalization, Bradford William Reaves

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Paste or Type Your Abstract *

This project utilizes the revitalization efforts of Grace Community Church in Winchester, VA to examine the precedence of collaborative strategies for church revitalization. In this study contemporary literature, theological foundations, surveys of church leaders in the United States, and interviews with collaborative church and ministry leaders from around the United States are evaluated to determine the need for greater collaboration for the health and revitalization of church and ministries. The findings of this research argue that contemporary church growth strategies that emerged from the recent church growth movement may actually inhibit church revitalization efforts …

Are The Dead Sea Scrolls From Khirbet Qumran?, Kenneth Atkinson

Faculty Publications

The Dead Sea Scrolls continue to remain the subject of an intense academic debate concerning their interpretation, their authors, and whether there is a connection between the caves in which these documents were discovered and the archaeological site of Khirbet Qumran. The answers to these questions are important because of the unprecedented number of fragmentary documents in this collection and their diverse contents. Because Roland de Vaux found the same types of pottery in the Scroll caves that he uncovered inside Khirbet Qumran, most scholars view the Scrolls as archaeological objects that are associated with this settlement. Khirbet Qumran’s architectural …

Editor's Preface, Jeremy Madsen

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

Full Issue

Studia Antiqua

No abstract provided.

The Winged Victory: Nike In Ancient Greece, Megan Mayfield

Studia Antiqua

The Greek goddess Nike was a popular deity throughout the ancient Greek World. As a symbol of victory, Nike represented triumph within agonistic conflicts. Nike was an important figure in the Greek mind, and while comprehensive studies of who the goddess was and how she was represented through literature and iconography has been conducted, an overview of Nike’s development has not yet been done in English. This paper will follow the development of Nike throughout Greek thought, from her earliest representations and mentions in the Archaic Period through the Hellenistic Era, by focusing on the primary objects and literature sources …

Hedgehogs And Hyenas: Peculiar Animals Of Ancient Egypt, Elliotte Thurtle

Studia Antiqua

This essay discusses archeological information gained from the study of Egyptian artifacts, specifically focused on hedgehogs and hyenas. The aim of this paper is to expand our understanding of these animals in the day-to-day lives of Egyptians from this period, and further clarify the symbolism that they hold. Understanding the importance of less common animals within ancient Egyptian religion and symbolism is vital to understanding how the average person lived and interacted with the world around them.

Sacred Writing And Magic Metal: The High Priest's Holy Crown As A Protective Amulet, Abigail Booth

Studia Antiqua

What forces, practices, rituals, or objects worked to safeguard the ancient Israelite sanctuary against evil and harm? Archaeological and textual evidence suggests that the high priest’s golden crown may have been an apotropaic amulet worn to protect the high priest and the holy space. Magical practices described in the Bible are illuminated by the presence of apotropaic ritual and amulets in wider Near Eastern society. Metallic amulets such as those found at Ketef Hinnom were utilized to protect the wearer in the name of the deity. In inscriptions, sacred writing invoked the name of YHWH to guard a sanctuary. The …

Mendacia In Minucius Felix: The Charged Rhetoric Of A Latin Apologist, Alexander Christensen

Studia Antiqua

Most scholars agree that Minucius Felix’s Latin Christian Octavius offers a sympathetic view toward Greco-Roman tradition. This consensus has been reached largely from work on the setting, date, and sources of the text, but no one has substantially investigated its rhetorical features and what they might reveal about Minucius’s view of Greco-Roman tradition. This paper sets out to do this work. After pointing out why previous conclusions are unsatisfactory, I look at rhetorically charged words and phrases from the text and how they behave elsewhere in the corpus of Latin literature. When investigated, these expressions give a clearer picture of …

Migraines, Men, And Mythology: Gendered Imagery In The Birth Of Athena, Alexandra Carlile

Studia Antiqua

Based around a classical Greek kylix held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this essay discusses artistic portrayal of the Birth of Athena. Images of Athena’s birth represent Zeus in a way consistent with childbirth imagery, so Zeus can be understood as repurposing female imagery for a patriarchal narrative. Comparing this kylix to other childbirth images reveals Greek gender roles and stereotypes, as well as the politics associated with the rise of Athens. Understanding the gender politics in the Birth of Athena image is therefore helpful in understanding Greek society and concepts of gender roles.

The Survival Of Dulles: Reflections On A Second Century Of Influence, Michael M. Canaris

Religion

This collection, marking the centenary of Avery Dulles’s birth, makes an entirely distinctive contribution to contemporary theological discourse as we approach the second century of the cardinal’s influence, and the twenty-first of Christian witness in the world. Moving beyond a festschrift, the volume offers both historical analyses of Dulles’s contributions and applications of his insights and methodologies to current issues like immigration, exclusion, and digital culture. It includes essays by Dulles’s students, colleagues, and peers, as well as by emerging scholars who have been and continue to be indebted to his theological vision and encyclopedic fluency in the ecclesiological …

Lehi's Dream: Nephi's Blueprint, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This essay harnesses the late twentieth-century discovery of Hebrew rhetoric by Bible scholars to identify Lehi’s dream as the foundation of the carefully constructed unity in Nephi’s writings and to identify previously unrecognized elements of that dream that are distributed throughout his final work. All the teachings and prophecies in First and Second Nephi are shown to derive from that dream/vision. Further, the entirety of Nephi’s writings in the small plates are shown to be a tightly designed rhetorical production that establishes the centrality of Christ’s identity, mission, and teachings for current and future generations of Lehi’s descendants and ultimately …

Modern Archaeology And The Brass Plates, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Contemporary Palestinian archaeology has produced two major threats to traditional interpretations of the history of ancient Israel. Scientific discomfort with the exodus story as an explanation for the sudden population expansion in southern Palestine at the beginning of the Iron Age (c.1200 BCE) has led to a wide variety of theories about how these Israelites could have been drawn from existing populations in the general area. And a glaring mismatch between the biblical glorification of David and Solomon’s “empire” and disparagement of the northern kingdom combined with the archaeological finding that the cities of the northern kingdom were far larger …

Lehi And Nephi As Trained Manassite Scribes, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This paper brings contemporary ANE scholarship in several fields together to construct an updated starting point for interpretation of the teachings of the Book of Mormon. It assembles findings from studies of ancient scribal culture, historical linguistics and epigraphy, Hebrew rhetoric, and the history and archaeology of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant, together with the traditions of ancient Israel to construct a contextualized perspective for understanding Lehi, Nephi, and their scribal training as they would have been understood by their contemporaries. Lehi and Nephi are shown to be the beneficiaries of the most advanced scribal training available in 7th century …

Review Of Catholic Social Teaching And Theologies Of Peace In Northern Ireland: Cardinal Cahal Daly And The Pursuit Of The Peaceable Kingdom, Kathryn Lamontagne

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Resolving The Confusion In Revelation 6:11

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

In most English versions, Revelation 6:11 includes an interpolation (“the number of”) that changes the meaning of the verse. This article evaluates the evidence for changes in the reading and interpretation of the text and the grammatical problems introduced by the interpolation, looking closely at the Greek grammar and syntax of the passage, which does not allow for the interpolation. Then the literary-historical problems with the interpolation are considered, noting the assumptions behind the interpolation and their weaknesses. Finally, the theological problems created by the interpolation are observed. I conclude that the interpolation is unfounded and attempt to address the …

The Brass Plates In Context: A Book Of Mormon Backstory, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This paper brings contemporary ANE scholarship in several fields together with the ancient scriptures restored through Joseph Smith to construct an updated starting point for interpretation of the teachings of the Book of Mormon. It assembles findings from studies of ancient scribal culture, historical linguistics and epigraphy, and the history and archaeology of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Levant, together with the traditions of ancient Israel and the ancient scriptures restored to Joseph Smith, to construct a contextualized perspective for understanding Lehi, Nephi, and the Brass Plates as they would have been understood by their contemporaries—as prominent bearers of the Josephite …

Perfect Love Casts Out Fear: Exploring The Effectiveness Of A Person-Centered Disability Awareness Seminar In A Congregational Setting, Joshua H. Jones

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

People with disabilities and their families frequently experience barriers toward inclusion and belonging in multiple spheres of life. These barriers are also present in Christian congregations. However, many congregations express a godly desire to love people with disabilities and their families without these obstacles.

The Old and New Testaments provide examples of how God’s people sought to love people with disabilities in their midst creatively and intentionally in response to God’s gracious actions, invitation, and command. Recent research in disability studies routinely highlight the necessity of being attentive to the uniqueness of each person with disabilities and his or her …

Teaching Biblical Development In Early Childhood Education Through Praxial Music, Cheryl Lynn Pearson

Masters Theses

Music has been deemed important since biblical times for both worship and music education and has made its mark in history from ancient philosophers to modern educators. Its value is determined according to individual experiences, be they aesthetic or praxial, for the purposes of entertainment, education, or worship. Music offers a connection to God granting a deepened sense of purpose in fulfillment of our call to worship. Music is valued because it leads to the development of ethical values through active participation and reflection. Music education and spiritual development are mutually beneficial as they develop students toward a greater spiritual …

Effective Sermon Application In A Charlotte Exurb Baptist Church, David Keuss

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis explores an improvement in expository sermon application using two technical tools added to the sermon divisions of sermon series messages. The background of applicational improvements is explored, the problem at Sandy Plains Baptist Church of Gastonia is outlined, and the solution employed. The problem is a spiritual comfort or plateau among members with previous life applications of sermons. The goal was to provide two new resources that would overcome the spiritual status quo in Sunday worship attendee’s lives. This method was tested utilizing Likert scale surveys, unpaired T-tests, and facilitator notations. The thesis project provides guidance to other …

Harding School Of Theology 2021-2022 Academic Catalog, Harding University

Harding Academic Catalogs

Academic catalog for the graduate program in Bible and religion.

How Shall The Trees Clap If They Have No Hands?, Nancy L. Dresser

Consensus

No abstract provided.

John The Revelator: A Spatial Interpretation, Jon Warland

Consensus

No abstract provided.

Reflections On A Pandemic, Leah Wakefield

Obsculta

This provides a personal ethical reflection on issues raised during the Covid-19 pandemic and racial justice movements and how these themes connect to the themes of hope, destruction, chaos, and resurrection as depicted in the Synoptic Gospels, particularly the Gospel of Mark.

Homiletical Exegesis On John 21:15-19, Toni Marie Nichols

Obsculta

This is a homiletical exegesis on John 21:15-19. It brings together Peter's denial of Jesus during the Passion and Jesus' restoration of Peter, revealing an important message of John's Gospel--victory is achieved in remaining faithful to the end. In 1944 from the Ravens Bruck concentration camp, Corrie ten Boom and her sister, Betsy left us with an example of how to live into this Gospel message.