Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Giving Permission For Creative Preaching In The Lutheran Church -- Missouri Synod: Returning To Our Creative Roots, Glen Schlecht

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation explores preaching, particularly within the context of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS). The use of multi-media and interactive preaching, among other creative approaches, can effectively communicate the Gospel to all ages, engage the congregation, and relate Christ and His Word to daily life. Such creativity is found throughout God’s Word, is seen significantly at the time of the Reformation, and has historically been part of the rich evangelical nature of the LCMS. However, in the 1960s and 1970s, there was significant upheaval within the LCMS, and part of the outcome following that time was an unstated curtailing of …

Letter From The Editor, Jennie A. Harrop

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

When I began preaching occasionally at my home church some years ago, I struggled at first with the ebb and flow of engagement in the eyes of those listening. I longed to flip the classroom, so to speak, or at least call on the sleepy friend in row four or the murmuring teens to my left. The head pastor assured me that some people would be shocked into staying home if I treated the sanctuary too much like a university classroom, so I restrain myself. Instead I study their responses as I speak, counting it a win when my words …

Relearning Professionalism: From High School Teacher To University Professor, Molly Quick

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

In this narrative response to stories from the field, the author chronicles her transition from high school teacher to university professor. The transition was marked by a dissonance about what it means to be a professional in each setting. The author shares several lessons learned about the autonomy in higher education, which was at first daunting, and later a relief in her new environment.

Engaging Lgbtq Issues: It’S Still Complicated, Gary F. Sehorn Dr.

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Public school administrators deal with a range of culture war conflicts on a regular basis, and LBGTQ issues are particularly challenging. When I joined my Christian university’s faculty after a long career working as an Evangelical administrator in public schools, I looked forward to shifting from experiencing these conflicts as a public-school administrator to equipping others to handle them. Instead, the challenges have become even more complicated.

Encourage, Enlighten, Engage: Using The Three E’S To Build Students’ Intercultural Competence, Tolulope Noah

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay explores the experiences of a young female faculty member who transitions from being a K-12 classroom teacher to a teacher educator in an undergraduate program at a Christian university. She is initially apprehensive about teaching the diversity course due to fears regarding the sensitivity of the subject matter, personal competency, and classroom dynamics. However, she soon comes to embrace the opportunity she has to help build students’ intercultural competence. The essay includes practical activities and strategies that professors can use in their courses to help students grow in their intercultural competence skills. This essay is based on a …

Letter From The Editor, Susanna Thornhill

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Nearly two years ago, the newly-formed ICCTE editorial team sat around a conference table and tried to come up with ideas for how to generate increased interest and submissions to the journal. We wanted to invite authors into a shared space of collaboration, encouragement, and sustainability. Story proved to be the vehicle; we designed a call inviting our colleagues to share stories about their experiences in the classroom that would be shorter and less formal than an average article. We imagined that this invitation might offer our colleagues a chance to reflect on the moments of education that seem most …

Breathing Deeply: Surprises Encountered On Sabbatical, Jane Wilson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

After seven years of college teaching, many tenured-track professors are granted a sabbatical for their professional enrichment to increase their scholarship and instructional quality. Though expectations vary among institutions, the first time a professor embarks on a sabbatical can be both exhilarating and unsettling. This essay describes one professor’s personal story with surprises encountered during a first sabbatical.

Reflections On Teaching Over A Decade In A Christian Institution Of Higher Education, Sandra F. Mclendon

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

After many years in public education followed by 10 years of preparing teachers in a faith-based institution, this essay shares insights into what it means to cultivate and maintain a Christian ethic of care, toward self and others. This story of God’s faithfulness in my life is reflected outward through multiple lenses of care.

Book Review: Grit: The Power Of Passion And Perseverance, Matthew L. Johnson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

I first stumbled across the research of Angela Duckworth after she was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 for her work investigating the character traits that impact the achievement of long-term goals. So, when it was announced that she would be publishing a book in 2016, I immediately pre-ordered copy so that I could dig into her insights as soon as possible. When I received my copy of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance in the mail, I was excited to crack it open… and then the self-doubt settled in. “What if, after reading the brilliant ideas of …

Book Review: Encyclopedia Of Christian Education, Ken Badley

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Kurian, George Thomas, and Lamport, Mark A. (2015). Encyclopedia of Christian Education (3 vols). New York: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8108- 8493-9 (e-book). 1665 pp. $340US

This three-volume set is truly a monumental achievement. With more than 1200 articles filling its full-size, two-column pages, it will serve as an important reference work for years to come. Some might wonder if a market still exists for such an encyclopedia when one can find so much of what it contains on the internet for free. To wonder that would be mistaken. While, yes, one can quickly find an article on Comenius in …

Spotlight: Tom Buchanan

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

The ICCTE-J editorial team is pleased to welcome Dr. Thomas Buchanan to the work of online journal publishing in service to the ICCTE community. Tom is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at George Fox University.

Issues In Christian Encounters With Yoga: Exploring 3ho/Kundalini Yoga, Michael Stoeber

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

The paper begins by drawing out current issues that have been raised by critics concerning the contemporary practice of Hindu postural types of yoga in western and specifically western Christian contexts, with some illustrative reference to contemporary movements and schools, especially to Bikram Yoga. These are: cultural misappropriation; commodification; lack of moral pre-requisites; narcissistic attachment to bodily effects; occult influences; and doctrinal differences. The paper then explores specific aspects of the theory and practice of 3HO/Kundalini Yoga (3HO/KY) by Christians in light of these possible issues, showing how this tradition of Kundalini Yoga seems to skirt or side-step most of …

Devotion And Discipline: Christian Yoga And The Yoga Of T. Krishnamacharya, Stephanie Corigliano

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

SA tu dīrgha-kāla-nairantarya-satkārāsevito dṛḍha-bhūṃiḥ, Yogasūtra 1.14 states, “Practice becomes firmly established when it has been cultivated uninterruptedly and with devotion over a prolonged period of time.”¹

As a student of the late Pattabhi Jois, I heard this sūtra countless times during Jois’s afternoon conferences with his students. In the context of practice in Mysore with Jois, I understood the concept of discipline. However, the concept of devotion, satkārā, was more ambiguous. Questions about God and devotion were usually met with a simple, “God is one.”

Some Thoughts On God And Spiritual Practice In Yoga And Christianity, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

I do not approach this topic as an expert historian of the diverse schools of yoga or as a systematician of their teachings or as an exegete of their classical texts.¹ Rather I address the theme of yoga and Christianity as a Christian theologian who has been a practitioner of Iyengar yoga, a prominent method of modern postural yoga, for more than thirty years and who has done some scholarly reading on contemporary and classical yoga and on Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra (hereafter YS) in particular.² Despite all the controversy that has arisen in recent years about whether or not …

Yoga, Christians Practicing Yoga, And God: On Theological Compatibility, Or Is There A Better Question?, Andrea R. Jain

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Houston is a wildly diverse city; nonetheless it should come as no surprise that the Houston Chronicle “Belief” section frequently features stories about church expansions or declines, pastoral developments, and other reports on Christian communities. Christians, after all, make up over 70% of the city’s population. A provocative cover of a 2011 Belief section, however, shed light on a very different face of religion in Houston. The cover featured an image of local yoga teacher and entrepreneur Jennifer Buergermeister donning fashionable yoga attire and in the posture of a South Asian goddess, complete (thanks to clever photography) with six arms. …

Theōsis: A Comparative Study Of T. F. Torrance And Rāmānuja, Steven Tsoukalas

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This essay is an imaginative conversation as I engage two religious thinkers—the prolific Reformed theologian Thomas F. Torrance (1913-2007) and the great Vedāntin Rāmānuja (traditionally, 1017–1137). I will compare Torrance’s theology¹ of theōsis² (participation in the life of God) and theōria (contemplation as a way of participation in the life of God) with those of Rāmānuja. Though the words themselves were likely unknown to Rāmānuja, through his works one can see a notion of theōsis.

KristapurāṆA: Reshaping Divine Space, Pär Eliasson

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

If a place is simply a physical location, the word space can be used for something shaped by mental processes. Physical places influence our lives by putting limits to the physically practicable, whereas spaces exercise their influence through mental processes like shaping our beliefs, values and sentiments. A space may be a mental superstructure based on an actual place, but, since its power is mental, it is not necessary that this place physically exists. One such space, with power to affect the lives of human beings, is heaven. Belief in heaven has had and still has great impact on …

Buddha, Bhakti, And Brahman: Sebastian Kappen S.J.’S Dialogue With Indian Religions, Mathew Thekkemuriyil Antony, Idesbald Goddeeris

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

This article analyzes how Sebastian Kappen S.J. (1924-1993), a social thinker and one of the most radical Indian liberation theologians, related to Indian religions. It argues that Kappen, in spite of his criticism of the caste system, also found inspiration in Hinduism. He especially appreciated the ontic and cosmic understandings of transcendence and immanence, the inclusive interpretation of the divine, and the religious approach to nature. In addition, Kappen also valued other Asian religious traditions, such as Buddhism and the Bhakti movement. Being an anti-institutional and anti-hierarchical progressive theologian, Kappen used Indian religions as a challenge to his own Christian …

Viewpoint: Fight Or Flight: Thomas Merton And The Bhagavad Gītā1, Steven J. Rosen

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Two commemorative events of landmark stature inspired the essay you are about to read: First, the year 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of Thomas Merton’s abrupt departure from our material vision. Second, 2018 is also the semicentennial celebration of a consequential publication: It was in 1968 that His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedānta Swami Prabhupāda released his unprecedentedly influential Bhagavad-gītā As It Is. As we shall see, the trailblazing Western visionary, Merton, and this particular edition of the Gītā engaged in productive conversation with each other.

Book Review: Absent Mother God Of The West: A Kali Lover’S Journey Into Christianity And Judaism, Holly Hillgardner

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Absent Mother God of the West: A Kali Lover’s Journey into Christianity and Judaism. By Neela Bhattacharya Saxena. London: Lexington Books, 2016. ix + 208 pages.

Book Review: Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux): Christian Nondualism And Hindu Advaita, Edward T. Ulrich

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux): Christian Nondualism and Hindu Advaita. By J. Glenn Friesen. Calgary: Aevum Books, 2015, 592 pages.

Book Review: To Be Cared For: The Power Of Conversion And Foreignness Of Belonging In An Indian Slum, James Elisha Taneti

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of To Be Cared For: The Power of Conversion and Foreignness of Belonging in an Indian Slum. By Nathaniel Roberts. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2016, xv + 312 pages.

Book Review: Caste, Gender, And Christianity In Colonial India: Telugu Women In Mission, Kerry P. C. San Chirico

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Caste, Gender, and Christianity in Colonial India: Telugu Women in Mission. By James Elisha Taneti. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 203 pages.

Book Review: Constructing Indian Christianities: Culture, Conversion, And Caste, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Constructing Indian Christianities: Culture, Conversion, and Caste. Edited by Chad M. Bauman and Richard Fox Young. Abington, UK: Routledge, 2014, xxiii + 264 pages.

Book Review: Vernacular Catholicism, Vernacular Saints: Selva J. Raj On “Being Catholic The Tamil Way”, James Ponniah

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Vernacular Catholicism, Vernacular Saints: Selva J. Raj on “Being Catholic the Tamil Way.” Edited by Reid B. Locklin. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2017, xvii + 290 pages.

Book Review: Ritual Participation And Interreligious Dialogue: Boundaries, Transgressions And Innovations, Francis X. Clooney

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Ritual Participation and Interreligious Dialogue: Boundaries, Transgressions and Innovations. Edited by Marianne Moyaert and Joris Geldhof. London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2015. ix + 262 pages.

Book Review: Comparing Faithfully: Insights For Systematic Theological Reflection, Stephanie Corigliano

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of Comparing Faithfully: Insights for Systematic Theological Reflection. Edited by Michelle Voss Roberts, Bronx, New York: Fordham University Press, 2016, 304 pages.

Book Review: The Problem With Interreligious Dialogue: Plurality, Conflict, And Elitism In Hindu-Christian-Muslim Relations, Anantanand Rambachan

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of The Problem with Interreligious Dialogue: Plurality, Conflict, and Elitism in Hindu-Christian-Muslim Relations. By Muthuraj Swamy. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016, xvi + 230 pages.

Book Review: The Future Of Hindu-Christian Studies: A Theological Inquiry, Arvind Sharma

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book review of The Future of Hindu-Christian Studies: A Theological Inquiry. By Francis X. Clooney, S.J. London and New York: Routledge, 2017, xi + 135 pages.

“Man, Don’T Feel Like A Woman”: Christian Scriptural Interpretations, The Binary Gender System, And How They Can Lead To Misogyny And Homophobia, Alyssa Froehling

Audre Lorde Prize

This paper utilizes different analyses of scripture to argue that a binary gender system is not inherent in Christianity. Contemporary societal norms placed onto Christianity contribute to the oppression of women and those in LGBTQ+ communities.