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Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

“Life And Death, Blessing And Cursing” New Context For “Skin Of Blackness”: In The Book Of Mormon, T. J. Uriona

BYU Studies

For many readers of the Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 5 can prove rather challenging. Not only does this chapter contain the actualization of a curse and the apparent genesis of an outgroup, but it also states that “the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon” this group because of their iniquity (2 Ne. 5:21). Given the prevalence of racial thought in society today, this passage has been interpreted as a hurtful reference to a phenotypic change in skin color brought on by a divine curse, leading many researchers to propose alternatives to a purely racialized …

Learning Eternal Truths In Joseph And Emma Smith’S Restored Kirtland Home, Aaron L. West

BYU Studies

At the beginning of 2023, the historic sites of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints featured twenty-five toured historic homes.1 That’s a lot of old houses. And the number recently increased by one. On August 29, 2023, the restored home of Joseph and Emma Smith in Kirtland, Ohio, opened for guided tours (fig. 1).

So the Church now has another historic home, restored after more than a decade of meticulous work, including historical research, architectural studies, and archaeological excavations. What makes this home worth so much time and so many resources?

Understanding The Relationship Between Mental Health And Spiritual Warfare For Pastoral Care Ministry, Donna E. Johnson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper discussed the ways to understand the relationship between mental health and spiritual warfare for people who are providing pastoral care ministry. It analyzes three biblical characters who may have appeared to have suffered from mental health symptoms and explores the latest literature on spiritual warfare and its connection to mental health. The literature explored various thoughts from a psychological perspective of those in pastoral care roles. The methodology was qualitative, grounded theory and case study, including interviewing counselors/therapists, pastoral care pastors, and practitioners in spiritual warfare. According to the findings effective pastoral ministry includes, psychological training, increased …

Misreading C. S. Lewis On Friendship: The Charges Of Sexism, Secrecy, And Snobbery, Jason Lepojärvi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

C. S. Lewis’s published writings comprise some forty-odd books in multiple genres, hundreds of essays, and thousands of letters. The theme that arguably rises above other themes is love, and within the family of different kinds of love, the love of friendship holds prominence. Although Lewis is often credited for accessible writing, there exists a number of popular misunderstandings about his ideas of friendship in particular. Several writers—theologians, philosophers, and literary scholars—have leveled serious charges against Lewis’s understanding of friendship. This article will evaluate three of these charges in more detail, those of sexism, secrecy, and snobbery. The article shows …

Abandoned Form : Secularity & Religion In The Eighteenth-Century British Novel, Kasey Waite

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abandoned Form rereads the theory of the novel from a post-secular perspective. Since the early 1980’s, theorists such as Nancy Armstrong, Michael McKeon, and Ian Watt have argued that the novel mimics Western civilization’s journey from irrationality to rationality by embracing secular ideologies and abandoning religious ones. Conversely, Abandoned Form contends that the eighteenth-century novel form depends on an inseparable relationship between the religious and the secular. Rather than being independent of religious influence, the eighteenth-century novel utilizes a dialectical engagement of secular and religious forces to create its formal structures. Focusing on the form of the novel, rather than …

Infusing Theology In Changemaking Curricula: Engaging Justice Natives With Christian Social Thought, Jonathan Bowman Phd

Communication: Faculty Scholarship

As “justice natives,” today's undergraduate students are motivated to engage directly with the world around them in ways unseen throughout most previous generations. Interestingly, secular humanistic perspectives on changemaking are in keeping with a wide variety of biblical teachings and principles of Christian social thought. At the same time, educators and practitioners can better engage these students to lessen a disconnect that often seems to emerge between social justice causes and the modern church. This paper applies a praxis-based approach, Kingian Theology, the Beatitudes from the gospels, elements of liberation theology, Wesley's thoughts about community engagement, and principles of both …

Family As A School Of Social Virtues And The Mission Of Social Transformation Of The Catholic Church In Vietnam, Trieu M. Nguyen

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

This dissertation explores the Church’s ability to effectively communicate Catholic Social Teaching (CST) principles to its followers in Vietnam. Using virtue ethics as a guide, I argue that the social vocation of the Christian family can become a potential channel for applying the principles of CST to the daily life of believers. The dissertation employs the See–Judge–Act method to assess and discern the current reality and proposes some family practices. Discerning the negative and positive signs of time through the lens of historical, sociological, and political studies, I propose that one way the Church enables its believers to engage more …

Influenced: Performing Gender And Femininity In Mormon And Evangelical Online Spaces, Kathryn Ann Davis

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The construction of a digital self is fully performative; online identities are simultaneously highly curated, edited, and uniquely personal. These spaces allow users to become producers of identity and religious narrative. In this dissertation I examine the online communities which are a dynamic and developing aspect of religious life in America. I will argue that religious women have created increasingly diverse virtual spaces for themselves, and that these online communities give women a safe space to talk about their faith and create common bonds with other female adherents. I have engaged with these creators directly through oral history interviews and …

Reaching Out Through The Universal: The Powerful And Positive Role Of A Jesuit Catholic Law School On The Secular Line, Judith A. Mcmorrow

Touro Law Review

There are multiple ways in which Catholic law schools can provide an education that supports and reflects a Catholic vision. Some schools align more closely to an orthodox view in which text and doctrine are the starting lens. Catholic law schools closer to the secular end of the spectrum play a powerful role by actively building bridges with the secular world. These schools, either implicitly or explicitly, start with values framed in more universal terms -- a moral or ethical worldview that can implement the common good in the secular world. A Catholic law school that emphasizes the universal generally …

Between Black Mothers And Daughters: A Critical Intergenerational Duoethnography On The Silence Of Health Disparities And Hope Of Loud Healing, Asha S. Winfield, Hope Hickerson, Deshara C. Doub, Ann R. Winfield, Brigitte Mcphatter

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Black American women's health outcomes have been altered by a number of factors. Those factors include social determinants of health, lack of culturally competent healthcare providers, and generations of medical racism leading to prolonged pain, delayed care, and sometimes, untimely deaths. Methods: This original research article centers Southern Black women's lived experiences through family storytelling. We explored generations of health narratives in regard to age, region, and at times, their own acts of silence. Building from theorizing on loud healing, two Black daughters turned the mic on for their mothers by engaging in a critical intergenerational double duoethnography to …

Deconstructing The Gender Enrollment Gap In Higher Education, Christopher Bezdedeanu

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

No abstract provided.

Acquiring Knowledge Of Ultimate Reality Through Psychedelic Experience, Lia Harel

CMC Senior Theses

Psychedelics have the power to induce in us an altered state of consciousness—a psychological experience radically different from our normal waking state of consciousness. Notable differences include changes in one’s perception of time, their sense of self, and the meaning and significance they attribute to things in their life. Across a broad range of testimonies, many people have reported characteristics of their psychedelic experience that bear a close resemblance to metaphysical accounts of ultimate reality from various cultures and time periods. In this paper, I explore the question of whether one can acquire knowledge of ultimate reality through psychedelic experience. …

The Body Of Christ And The Law: A Comparative Study Of Romans 7:4 And Galatians 2:19, Dominic Bornand

Dissertations

In Romans and Galatians, Paul refers to a spiritual death to sin (Rom 6:2) and to the law (Rom 7:4; Gal 2:19). As the means of the believer's death to the law, Paul mentions the "body of Christ" in Rom 7:4 and the "law" in Gal 2:19. These verses seem to suggest some sort of relationship between the body of Christ and the law, as well as between the law and sin. The purpose of this study is to determine the type of relationship between the body of Christ and the law, as well as between law and sin. The …

Catalog Revision Gen Ed, Academic Affairs

Executive Actions

No abstract provided.

General Education Catalogue Revisions, Academic Affairs

Program Revisions/Additions

No abstract provided.

An Evaluative Study To Understand The Mission Motivation Of The Theology Students Of Spicer Adventist University With Missiological Implications And Applications, Anish Puthusseril Joseph

Dissertations DIS

This dissertation critically examines the understudied domain of mission motivation among theology students at Spicer Adventist University (SAU) to provide valuable insights for developing an appropriate missiological response. Chapter I provides a comprehensive overview of the research proposal. Then the study builds upon a biblical and theoretical foundation established in Chapters II and III. Official statistics reveal a significant need for focused missiological attention in India, where the Adventist community constitutes a ratio of 1:811 (1.26 billion Indian population vs. 1.55 million Adventists in India). However, there has been a lack of evaluation concerning the mission motivation of theology students …

University Libraries Annual Report Fy 2022-2023, Jennifer Hoyt, Katie Canaday, Alisa Faumore, David Pope, Michael Price, Alex Aycock

Libraries Reports and Documents

Annual Report of the Old Dominion University Libraries for FY 2022-2023. Contents include Reflecting on Progress, Fostering Scholarship, Reimagining Libraries' Spaces, Strengthening Connections, and In Memoriam.

The report was written by the Libraries' Communications Team, headed by Jennifer Hoyt.

Divine Democracy: Examining The Intersection Of Religion And Politics In Civil Religion, José Andrés Serrano

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This thesis seeks to build upon and provide a new interpretation of civil religion in the United States. In it, the history of civil religion from the 1960s, starting with Bellah, to the 2010s will be analyzed for any themes still used in the 2020s. Similarly, understanding what a religion is within this time frame will be broken apart and examined to see how it paralleled the evolution of political understanding. Building upon its history, the paper will break into four prominent chapters: Is American Democracy Like a Civil Religion?, Religious Characteristics in the American Government, American Democracy as a …

Interfaith Communities: Relationships In Thirdspace, Jessica Spence Moss

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Contending with, and expanding the understanding of, diverse interfaith relationships, this project presents a nuanced awareness of interfaith action and the dialectic of lived religion with interfaith engagement. Arguing that interfaith is a type of thirdspace in which engagements have affective impacts on individuals within interfaith communities, as well as orientation towards religious communities. While there are common struggles, interpretations, and socializations that hinder the participation of women and non-binary individuals in institutional interfaith spaces, observing organic interfaith relationships as occurring in thirdspace allows for the recognition of radical inclusion and dedication to diversity.

As Below So Above: Reconstructing The Neo-Babylonian Worldview, Heather Marie Burrow

CGU Theses & Dissertations

To add to our knowledge about a Near Eastern culture, this project examines through textual evidence how the early first millennium BCE Neo-Babylonians thought, reasoned, and wrote in order to partially reconstruct the shared, generally held worldview of the Neo-Babylonian people using the transdisciplinary approach of worldview analysis. Worldviews are what we use to think with, not what we think about. Underlying surficial cultural behaviors are deeper levels of cognition regarding how to reason, perceive the world, prioritize values, prescribe behavior, and explain all of life. Specifically, this work examines the language and logic reflected in the textual archive, believing …

Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind: An Exploration Of Wastewater Issues And Possible Solutions In And Out Of Montana, Keely I. Larson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Larson, Keely, M.A., Spring 2023

Major:Environmental and Natural Resources Journalism

Out of sight, out of mind: An exploration of wastewater issues and possible solutions in and out of Montana

Chairperson: Dennis Swibold

Co-Chairpersons: Nadia White, Sarah Halvorson

This is a master’s project, featuring three stories, linked in theme. The first starts with a nationally scoped story about septic systems in resort towns and what happens when too many people want to visit areas like Cape Cod, the Florida Keys or, more locally, Seeley Lake, and overwhelm waste disposal methods. Often in these areas that are more remote, septic systems …

Nidus Idearum. Scilogs, Xi: In-Turns And Out-Turns, Florentin Smarandache

Branch Mathematics and Statistics Faculty and Staff Publications

In this eleventh book of scilogs – called in-turns and out-turns –, one may find new and old questions and solutions, referring mostly to topics on Neutrosophy, but also Multispace, with miscellaneous addition of topics on Physics, Mathematics, or Sociology – email messages to research colleagues, or replies, notes about authors, articles, or books, spontaneous ideas, and so on.

Bibliography, Print Culture, And What To Do With Comics In A Rare Books Library, Michael C. Weisenburg

Faculty and Staff Publications

Comic books are among the rare books of the future. In fact, some comic books are scarcer and more valuable than many of the “old books” that fill special collections stacks. This essay proposes to answer the questions of “What do we do with comics in an academic library?” by analyzing comics as a popular phenomenon that is deeply rooted in book history and the developing print culture of the past 100 years. Using the traditional methods of bibliographic analysis, we might better situate comics within the mission of academic libraries as we work to foster learning, discovery, and inclusivity …

Human Rights And Divine Holiness, Kevin Vallier

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Theists commonly hold that God endows humans with rights. Standard explanations draw on natural law theory or divine command theory. However, the natural law account does not give God a central role in explaining our rights, and the divine command account does not assign human nature a significant explanatory role. A successful theistic explanation of human rights must meet three conditions: (1) God must directly explain human rights; (2) human nature must also directly explain human rights; (3) this dual contribution must explain why morality forbids rights violations by grounding the deontic reasons associated with rights. I propose a holiness …

Ovid's Caeneus As A Queer Hero: Understanding Gender And Gender Variance In The Ancient Mediterranean., Rj Palmer

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

Caeneus, as written in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, is a notable blend of ancient and Hellenistic versions of the myth. Ovid’s Caeneus can be understood as a transgender man, since he was assigned female at birth, but asks for his gender to be changed by the god Neptune, and goes on to live the rest of his life with the body, appearance, and social roles of a man. Ovid incorporates Caeneus’ trans identity with his use of grammatical gender endings for Caeneus, using masculine gender for Caeneus except when discussing his pre-transition childhood, or when the centaurs address him mockingly while fighting. …

Nuclear Weapons In Japanese Strategic Culture, Logan Joseph Douglas Campbell

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Acquiring nuclear weapons of its own has been inconsistent with Japan’s post-Cold War strategic culture, which is heavily based on an identity and associated norms grounded in nuclear pacifism. However, Japan’s strategic culture has been evolving with changing threat perceptions, eroding international nuclear nonproliferation norms, and declining confidence in US security guarantees. As Japan’s strategic culture shifts towards a more pragmatic interpretation of its national interests, acquiring nuclear weapons may become a more easily legitimized option, one that would be entirely consistent with a remilitarized strategic culture. Scholarship on Japanese strategic culture is vast but lacks a strategic culture explanation …

Between Choice And Compulsion: An Examination And Critique Of The Evolution Of 'Original Sin', Matthew James Wynn

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

“Why are we the way that we are?” is one of the hardest questions to answer because it requires grasping the origin of human beings. This has left philosophers and theologians in century-long debates on forming a “cosmogony of ontology” (i.e., how the origin of the universe informs the human condition). The concept, “original sin” was developed by a North African theologian named Augustine (354 – 430 CE). Augustine’s reading of Genesis 3, and inaccurate translation of Romans 5:12, taught that a person is born morally culpable for a fault antecedent to their existence. This way of thinking about the …

Murder On The Vr Express: Studying The Impact Of Thought Experiments At A Distance In Virtual Reality, Andrew Kissel, Krzysztof J. Rechowicz, John B. Shull

Philosophy Faculty Publications

Hypothetical thought experiments allow researchers to gain insights into widespread moral intuitions and provide opportunities for individuals to explore their moral commitments. Previous thought experiment studies in virtual reality (VR) required participants to come to an on-site laboratory, which possibly restricted the study population, introduced an observer effect, and made internal reflection on the participants’ part more difficult. These shortcomings are particularly crucial today, as results from such studies are increasingly impacting the development of artificial intelligence systems, self-driving cars, and other technologies. This paper explores the viability of deploying thought experiments in commercially available in-home VR headsets. We conducted …

Undergraduate Catalogue 2023-2024, Seton Hall University

Undergraduate Catalogues

No abstract provided.