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Symposium: From Coming Out To Coming In: Roundtable Conversation Among Southeast Asian Queer Theologians, Michael Sepidoza Campos, Jayeel Cornelio, Erich Von Marthin Elraphoma, Joseph N. Goh, Jerlo M. Jaropillo, Joshua Marasigan, Kristine C. Meneses, Irene Nainggolan, Kakay Pamarán, Lizette Tapia, Amadeo Devin Udampoh, Wan Wei-Hsien

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Through a roundtable conversation via Zoom, teachers, pastors, and graduate students discussed the place of gender, citizenship, and faith in their identity formation and social accountability to articulate a hermeneutical lens specific to Southeast Asian contexts that shape and critique queer identities. These participants—primarily ministers, theological students, and seminary formators—engaged in organic, fluid, and multifocal turns to capture experiences that undergird the realities of women and LGBTQIQ+ people of faith in the region.

Constructing A Theological Framework That Revitalizes The Missional Nature Of Churches Of Christ In South Australia, Mark Daniel Riessen

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the need for a theological framework that revitalizes the missional nature of Churches of Christ in South Australia. The problem identified within this ministry context was a lack of clear theological principles that informed a common understanding of identity for missional engagement. The purpose of the project was to create a study guide that informs common theological commitments and grounds congregations for missional vitality. A research and development team made up of seven Church of Christ ministers from different backgrounds was assembled to design a curriculum that addressed the problem. Through eight two-hour sessions over four months …

An Interdisciplinary Theological Method From The Knowledge Of The Forgotten, Alexandre A. Martins

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

S. B. J. Oschoffa (1909–85): The Miracle Of A Shared Life, Samuel Olamiji Akibu

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

In the twentieth century, God raised many faith giants among Africans for Africans and the whole world. These faith heroes contributed immensely to the decolonization, indigenization, and expansion of Christianity in Africa and the Global South. Among these highly spiritually invested Africans was a Beninese-Nigerian carpenter, Samuel Biléou Joseph Oschoffa (1909–1985). He was educated in the Methodist tradition before the Lord called him to lead one of the most significant African prophetic-charismatic indigenous movements, the Celestial Church of Christ. This article explores his life, ministerial legacies, and theology.

An Integrated Preaching Design : A Methodological Framework For Preaching In The Indian Context, Ancy John

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Pastoral Ministry And Theological Education : The Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Theological Education/Ministerial Training For Pastoral Ministry In Southern Nigeria, Oluwakemi Grace Okonkwo

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Racial Reconciliation: A Theological Approach To Building Relationships, Calvin Glass

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Racism within the Christian community in America has resulted in social unrest and has plagued the Christian church in a way that mandates urgent solutions to this untamed malady. This research focus is centered on learning a practicable methodology based on biblical principles that address racial reconciliation (building God-approved relationships) that will combat racial disunity among Christians. The study method used BBR (Building Better Relationships) consisted of interviewing and teaching a focus group representing a Black pastor and five church participants on racial relations issues within the church context. From the recommendations of the senior pastor, a focus group from …

The Impact Of Theology On The Development Of Cultural Intelligence Among College Students At An Evangelical Liberal Arts University, Esther Damodar Jadhav

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Analysis And Comparison Of The Missional Doctrine Hermeneutics Of Kevin J. Vanhoozer And Veli-Matti KäRkkäInen, With Emphasis On Their Notions Of God, Eschatology, And Mission, Elmer Arrais Guzman

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen’s and Kevin J. Vanhoozer’s theological method, in order to understand its structural elements, and thereby to facilitate comprehension of their missional doctrinal hermeneutics, and the ramifications of those hermeneutics for the construction and development of Christian theology. Missional doctrinal hermeneutical models conceive the missional dimension of doctrine in various ways. Some privilege the maintenance of theological identity cohering with the foundational sources of theological authority. Others privilege theological constructions that assimilate the context and the missional situational framework of understanding. This dissertation strives to examine the diverging missional hermeneutics of Kärkkäinen and Vanhoozer, the foundational …

Prosperity Gospel In Liberia: A Theological Alternative To The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, Jerome A. Newman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many indigenous Liberian pastors are not theologically grounded on a solid biblical foundation. As such, many Liberian Christians lack foundational knowledge of the truths of the Gospel of Christ for salvation. The prosperity gospel or “Faith, Wealth, and Health” theology in Liberia is a significant deviation from the Gospel of Christ that undermines sound hermeneutical interpretation of Scripture. This study examines why a growing number of pastors in Liberia are replacing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the prosperity gospel. An anonymous survey research study of 12 pastors from Unity Light Ministry Network (Unity Community Church) in Kakata, Liberia, West …

An Exploration Of The Context And Ecclesiastical Investigations Of The Virgin's Reported Appearance In Knock, Ireland In 1879, Erin Meikle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On August 21, 1879, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Joseph, St. John the Evangelist, and the Lamb of God reportedly appeared in Knock, Ireland. Ecclesiastical authorities of the Roman Catholic Church investigated this reported apparition in 1879 and again in 1936. The first chapter of this paper explores the processes by which the Church investigates alleged apparitions and considers different models for conceptualizing the Church. The second chapter unpacks the context of two nineteenth century French apparitions. The third chapter explores the Knock apparition and the immediate historical context surrounding the apparition. The analyses in the first two chapters serve …

A God Worth Worshiping: Toward A Critical Race Theology, Duane Terrence Loynes Sr.

Dissertations (1934 -)

Theologian James Cone has declared that White supremacy is the American Church’s greatest, original, and most persistent sin. Although the Church has engaged in numerous attempts to remedy racism, theology still seems to witness to a God that stands relatively unopposed to the status quo of racial injustice and marginalization. This dissertation begins with the claim that Christian theology still operates from the normativity of whiteness. I will argue that, although the Church has made admirable progress with regard to racial justice, the attempts have been at the surface: the underlying structural logic of White supremacy remains intact. My thesis …

Lcms Identity And Mission In The American Urban Context: Engaging Conian Black Theology Through Strategic Lutheran Missiology, Gregory Seltz

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Seltz, Gregory P., “LCMS Identity and Mission in the American Urban Context: Engaging Conian Black Theology through Strategic Lutheran Missiology.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2017. 304 pp.

This dissertation addresses the challenges of the American urban context by dialoging with James Cone’s Black Theology in order to construct an LCMS urban missiology. This LCMS urban missiology is a dynamic, Two-Kingdom, sacramental engagement strategy that addresses the issues endemic to the urban community for the sake of the community and for the sake of the Gospel. The American urban setting is fraught with challenges: identity politics, ethnic-sociological fragmentation, and the delegitimation-politicization …

The Crucible Of Orthodoxy And Orthopraxy: Examining The Intersections Of Social Justice, Moral Development And Theology, Eydie Dyke Shypulski

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to better understand the relationship between moral development, theology and social justice within a Christian context. An apparent disconnect exists regarding how people of faith apply personal morals and theological perspectives when positioning themselves with regard to public policy and social justice issues. The researcher sought to extract information that would have implications for professional social practice, social work ethical and practice pedagogy, for faith-based institutions of higher learning and for the broader Christian community. A theological reflection included a brief examination of Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophies of moral and ethical development followed by …

For Such A Time As This : Ecclesiastical Response To Human Sexual Trafficking In North America, Dawn A. Beamish

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Theology’S New Turn: A Survey Of Contemporary Movements, Thomas P. Rausch

Theological Studies Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

"After All, Africa Is Largely A Nonliterate Continent": The Reception Of Vatican Ii In Africa, Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

The article examines critical factors that determined the impact, reception, and implementation of Vatican II in Africa. Drawing on historical accounts, the author identifies and analyzes personalities, contexts, and issues that conditioned and shaped Africa's participation in the council. Looking back 50 years, he argues that while the continent's participation was negligible, shaped by a combination of events and attitudes that either facilitated or hampered reception, concrete examples abound of how the council generated impetus for growth, renewal, and reform in inculturation, interreligious dialogue, theological reflection, and ecclesial collaboration in Africa.

Sense-Making Bodies: Feminist Materiality And Phenomenology In Constructive Body Theologies, Heike Peckruhn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Constructive body theology provides an ethical commitment to and a set of analytical principles for understanding bodily experience. If we insist upon the theological value of embodied experience, how can we give an adequate account of it? Are feminist appeals to the senses useful in developing theological truth claims based in embodied experiences? Feminist theologies which explicitly seek to overcome body/mind dualisms often reinscribe them when they neglect to attend to perception as a critical element of bodily experience. Phenomenological analyses of perception (such as suggested by Merleau-Ponty) strengthen and refine our conception of embodiment. Grounding constructive theology in experience …

Inductive Bible Study: Contextual Appropriation In Northeast India, M. Sashi Jamir

The Asbury Journal

M. Sashi Jamir examines the application of Inductive Bible Study to the tribal communities of Northeast India. This postcolonial situation has some positives such as a context with a higher degree of education, but it has also lead to a prominence of Western philosophy over traditional ways of understanding, which need to be reclaimed. The reality that larger national forces in India often overshadow tribal communities also poses potential problems that prevent the local theological voice from being heard.

Pioneer And Prophet: Frédéric Ozanam’S Influence On Modern Catholic Social Theory, Thomas W. O'Brien

Vincentian Studies

Thomas O’Brien provides a “contextual theological analysis of some key elements of [Frédéric] Ozanam’s beliefs and practices, especially as these influence the birth of Catholic social theory and its subsequent developments.” O’Brien addresses Ozanam’s advocacy of direct service to the poor as part of discipleship for all Christians (part of what is known today as the option for the poor). The formation of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul was both conservative because it continued the Church’s tradition of charity and radical because it organized laypeople and allowed them positions of leadership hitherto reserved for priests and religious. Ozanam …

"A Classless Society?": The Pneumatology Of E. Stanley Jones In Conversation With Mortimer Arias' Theology Of The Kingdom Of God, Angel Santiago-Vendrell

The Asbury Journal

This lecture addresses the pneumatology of E. Stanley Jones in

conversation with Mortimer Arias' theology of the kingdom of God. Jones was an advocate of what is known today in Latin America as mission integral. Integral mission seeks to restore every dimension of human life by requiring from Christians to be completely involved in the historical moment by the concrete demonstration of the power of the gospel in everyday life. Later, this illlderstanding of mission was used in Bolivia to propagate the gospel illldera brutal right-wing military regime by Bishop Mortimer Allas. Therefore, the kingdom of God as used …

The Church Going Glocal: Mission And Globalisation, Tormod Engelsviken, Erling Lundeby, Dagfinn Solheim

Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series

'This book provides thought-provoking and inspiring reading for all concerned with mission in the 21st century. I have been challenged by its contributors to re-think our Gospel ministries in our new local contexts marked by globalization and migration. With its biblical foundation, its missiological reflection and interaction with contemporary society I warmly recommend this volume for study and pray that it will renew our passion for the Gospel and compassion for people'.

- Rt Rev Ole Chr M Kvarme, Bishop of Oslo

Spiritual Direction With Women Who Have Autoimmune Diseases: A Model Of Psychospiritual Care, Kelly Renee Arora

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), multiple sclerosis (MS), and systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus) are incurable autoimmune diseases affecting a growing number of people in the U.S. Women typically receive medical care for the physical effects of these diseases, but psychospiritual dimensions of illness experiences are often neglected. Common autoimmune illness experiences include delayed diagnosis; chronic pain, fatigue, depression; and liminality (being neither healthy nor sick). Women with RA, MS, and lupus also experience ongoing losses (which may be disenfranchised), such as losses of identity, relationships, self-agency, and spiritual beliefs and practices. As a result of ongoing experiences of suffering and loss, women …

The Suffering Of God? The Divine Love And The Problem Of Suffering In Classical And Process-Relational Theisms., Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

Not quite twenty-five years ago, theologian Ronald Goetz surveyed the landscape of late twentieth-century theology to find that “the ancient theopaschite heresy that God suffers has, in fact, become the new orthodoxy.”2 The shifting commitments and methodological assumptions contributing to this seemingly radical reorientation of Christian thought concerning the doctrine of God are varied and complex, but we might consider a few important questions to discern whether the theopaschite trend in contemporary theology powerfully and faithfully speaks good news in our time, and whether it does so more effectively than the classical doctrine of divine impassibility.

Mi 630 Biblical Theology Of Mission, Lalsangkima Pachuau

Syllabi

Bible: NRSV or NIV Bosch, David. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll (NY): Orbis Books, 1991. Newbigin, Leslie. The Open Secret: Sketches of a Missionary Theology. Revised. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. Wright, Christopher. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.

Mi 730 Biblical Theology Of Mission, Lalsangkima Pachuau

Syllabi

Bible: NRSV or NIV Bosch, David. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll (NY): Orbis Books, 1991. Newbigin, Leslie. The Open Secret: Sketches of a Missionary Theology. Revised. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995. Wright, Christopher. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006

Beyond Stewardship: Toward An Agapeic Environmental Ethic, Christopher J. Vena

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation is a work in theological anthropology and environmental philosophy. It seeks to provide a conceptual framework for a Christian environmental ethic rooted in love.

The heart of the crisis of ecological degradation is found in human attitudes and behaviors. In the late 1960's it was suggested that Christianity was a key source of the problem because it promoted the idea of human "dominion" over creation. This spurred a variety of responses designed to show that Christian faith was compatible with environmental care. A key theme emerging from this debate was the image of humans as Stewards of God's …

St 501 Method And Praxis In Theology, George Ille

Syllabi

Larry Wood, God and History, EmethPublisher.Com Larry Wood, Theology as History and Hermeneutics , EmethPublisher.Com Stanley J. Grenz and Roger E. Olson, Who Needs Theology? An Invitation to the Study of God, (Downers Grove: IVP, 1996). Stanley J. Grenz & Roger E. Olson, 20th Century Theology, (Carlisle, Patternoster Press, 1991) Stanley J. Grenz & John R. Franke, Beyond Foundationalism. Shaping Theology in a Postmodern Context, (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001). George Ille, Hermeneutical Explorations of Agency as Prolegomena for a Theological Epistemology, PhD Thesis, King’s College, University of London, 2000) (selections provided in digital format). Nancey Murphy, Beyond Fundamentalism …

Developing A Contextual Theology Of Postcolonial Filipino American Diasporic Identity, Ferdinand C. Llenado

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Mi 715 Contextual Theology , Eunice L. Irwin

Syllabi

Course Description: A study of the way local communities and cultural groups receive the Christian faith, apply its message to their life contexts and express its relevance through writings and traditions. The course will consider roles and methods of those who participate in contextualizing theology, including those who contribute from the outside. Areas of special focus will be: theological approaches and disciplinary rationales for doing contextual theology; models and criteria of contextual theologies; responding to multiple expressions of the Christian faith within the global church; and case studies in contextual theology.