Arts and Humanities Commons^™

With Love, ; An Interdisciplinary And Intersectional Look At Why Creativity Is Essential, Theo Starr Gardner

Whittier Scholars Program

My Whittier Scholars Program self-designed major, Teaching Creativity, is a mixture of Art, Literature, and Education classes. My research and praxis classes have been focused on the ‘how?’s and 'why?’s of creativity, so it felt only right that my project should be a constructivist, generative project. The project I have been working on throughout my time at Whittier, and that has just fully come to fruition on April 11th, 2024, was a solo art gallery/open mic event entitled ‘With Love,’. With Love, was conceptually inspired by the research I’ve conducted on creativity and creative arts education over the past few …

An Exegetical And Theological Exploration Of Paul’S Self-Identity In Consideration Of Modern Social Sciences, Chala Baker

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The Apostle Paul possessed a multifaceted background unusual for the period in which he lived. It is now well-known by scholars and laypeople alike that Paul was a Hebrew, Pharisee, Roman citizen, persecutor of the church, Christian, and Jew who hailed from Tarsus (Acts 21:29). Paul utilized each distinct portion of his background to advance the gospel. Throughout the New Testament, the apostle sets the example of using everything at his disposal for the cause of Christ. Paul himself writes that he became “all things to all people” with a direct purpose in mind that he “might save some” (1 …

Forgiving Childhood Hurt Biblically, Latisha Shearer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The profound impact of childhood experiences on an individual's mindset, emotional well-being, and transition into adulthood is a compelling problem addressed in this thesis paper titled “Forgiving Childhood Hurt Biblically.” This DMIN action research project is to implement biblical forgiveness as a transformative tool to address the physical, mental, and emotional wounds inflicted by childhood trauma. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), marked by early-life toxic stress, establish a foundation for the intergenerational transmission of trauma, significantly affecting the health and lives of adults. Given the vulnerability of childhood, addressing and forgiving the sources of trauma is crucial for effectively reprogramming and …

Identity In Christ: Who We Become When We Are With Christ, Felix Cortez

Faculty Publications

I am in Christ when the only way in which others can understand me is by understanding my relationship with Him.

Women: Radically Glorified, Oppressed, Or Set Free?, Easton Finger

Senior Honors Theses

A woman’s identity in society has often been debated, starting from the beginning of time. The answer to this identity question has been sought in systems ranging from oppression, slavery, radical feminism, and over-exaltation of power. This thesis suggests that the value of women and their role is not found in those systems but in the knowledge of their Creator. Two questions will be posed, including how women’s identity has been previously defined and can a woman’s identity be found in her Creator God. The history of women in biblical times will be reviewed, as well as how Christ valued …

Changing An Individualistic Cultural Identity Into A Christocentric Identity At Community Alliance Church Of The Christian And Missionary Alliance In Towanda, Pennsylvania, Jacob Samuel Howard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Jesus instituted a new way of doing community which would transcend all cultural backgrounds and creates a new belonging and identity. This thesis aimed to engage a small group of men from Community Alliance Church in a covenant community, establishing a christocentric identity. The small group of five men, including the facilitator, met for eight weeks to practice several spiritual disciplines together, including confession and accountability, to know what God says about whom they are in Christ, and how to live out that identity in every circle of influence. This mixed-method action research project included both entry and exit surveys …

From Handmaids To Princesses: How Identity And Politics Impact Definitions Of Biblical Rape, Gabrielle R. Isaac-Herzog

Classical Mediterranean and Middle East Honors Projects

The politics of sex in the Bible are complex. They are impacted and limited by the time of the stories, as well as the political landscape and laws of the region. However, since many modern religions have emerged from the text of the Hebrew Bible, it is important for scholars to continue the work of critically examining the texts in the contemporary context. This paper offers a textual analysis of several biblical stories through a feminist and decolonial lens. Through the generation of a taxonomy by which these stories can be categorized, this paper posits that the biblical definitions of …

Class(Ify)Ing Christianity In Singapore: Tracing The Interlinked Spaces Of Privilege And Position, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper considers how two facets of identity – religion and class – are performed, (re)produced and negotiated within the spaces of the Christian school, home and church in Singapore. We show how the social structuring of one space can inform and influence the structuring of another. Spaces of Christianity in Singapore tend to be mutually reinforcing, strengthening the linkages between religion and class, and in particular reifying the position of Christianity as a religion of the privileged classes. However, the ways in which Christian spaces are reified can become problematic when space is in fact shared with less privileged …

Pathology, Identity, Or Both?: Making Meaning From Early Christian Martyrdom, Matthew J. Recla

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2022

Partly in response to an earlier ‘pathological approach’ that seemingly stigmatised early Christian martyrdom, recent scholarship has adopted an ‘identity approach’ that explains martyrdom as a normative discourse of self-construction. This explanation of martyrdom as Christian identity-making, not willing death, is insufficient for three reasons. First, this approach implicitly reaffirms the theological claim that religious identity alone makes martyrs. In doing so it reduces the complexity of the individual martyr to ‘Christian’. Second, this approach excises the existential phenomenon of the martyr from martyrdom. Third, the term ‘identity’ has become ubiquitous, and its use to mark both sameness and difference …

Black American Identity Crisis: Culture And Christ, Celestine Job

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is a comparative and qualitive study of African American identity and Christian/Spiritual identity. The formation of each identity was presented by examining psychological and sociological, causes of The case for an African American identity crisis was supported by the psychological and sociological trauma experienced through the African American experience in American. The research showed that the historical effects of slavery and lawful subjection, exclusion from the dominant society indeed cause an identity crisis that has rippling effects even to today. The Christian identity proved to be the highest form of identity, as it is rooted …

The Impact Of Writings By Grace Abounds Association Of Pastors That Provocatively Concatenate Biblical Events And Current News Topics To Ignite Christian Bible Reading, Patryse J. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As Christians are becoming increasingly secularized by the teachings within their communities, it is critical to address how to creatively ignite, encourage, and inspire daily Bible readership among Christians. Teachers of God’s word must creatively ignite Christians to read their Bibles, daily. This will arm Christians with God’s word so Christians can effectively counter pervasive secular teachings and the consequential impacts of secular teachings that have infiltrated the Christian lifestyle. The researcher utilized a qualitative phenomenological research design and selected five participants by purposive sampling. Participants represented Christian-centric and goal-centric communities. By telephone, the researcher provided participants with pre and …

Immortality Through Mind Uploading And Resurrection, Adam M. Leis

Masters Theses

Technology in the last century has flourished exponentially. Previous fantasies are becoming cutting-edge discoveries like global communications, encyclopedic knowledge at the average person’s fingertips, and even medical advances used to improve and extend one’s quality of life and life expectancy. As technology pushes the boundaries of what is possible, ambitious visionaries look to solve the arguably greatest problem known to humanity: death. Transhumanists aiming to use technology to overcome this great human limitation, mortality, present the newest proposed solutions to life’s oldest challenge. One of these solutions, mind uploading, is perhaps the most ambitious, but it is not without its …

Methods And Motivations Of Multigenerational Churches In Selecting A Worship Music Identity, Joshua Charles Morton

Masters Theses

Churches in the twenty-first century come in all types, shapes, and sizes. The church plant movement is bringing many new churches into existence. With many of these church plants, the assumption is that a contemporary worship style comes with it. This could be viewed this way, because of the high population of younger people that attend these churches. Churches like Elevation Church, North Point Church, Passion City Church, and Saddleback Community Church are all church plants. These churches are magnets for newly established Christians and those seeking to answer questions about God for the first time. They are magnets for …

The Afar Of Djibouti: Maintaining Identity Amidst Conflict, Cheyenne King

People Group & Region Research (Capstone Papers)

The story of the Afar people of Djibouti is plagued by a long history of oppression and marginalism. As Djiboutian society has changed and progressed over the years, the Afar have struggled to maintain their ethnic and cultural identity, as well as set themselves apart from the larger Somali community. This paper outlines the historical, geographical, religious, social, cultural, and societal reasons for the struggles of the Afar people and looks towards how they can retain their unique identity in the midst of it all.

Missional Metamorphosis: How Identity, Presence, And Praxis Are Reshaping Disciple Making Within Post-Christian Contexts, Justin Thomas Wester

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The American Church’s current disciple-making paradigm is struggling to engage post-Christian contexts with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite American society’s steady trending away from a biblical worldview, dwindling church attendance, and declining religious affiliation, the American Church is still operating under a disciple-making paradigm conducive for the Christendom era. What changes must occur to help churches break away from an antiquated paradigm and embrace a more contextually appropriate expression? This project helps to answer that question by capturing and expressing how changes in ecclesial identity, contextual presence, and corporate praxis are altering disciple-making paradigms within post-Christian contexts. Utilizing quantitative …

Sikh Youth Coming Of Age: Reflections On The Decision To Tie A Turban, Muninder Ahluwalia, Tyce Nadrich, Ikbal Singh Ahluwalia

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

In Sikhism, the turban is a sign of adherence to faith and fighting for justice; for Sikh men, it can also be considered essential to manhood (Chanda & Ford,). The authors provide an introduction to Sikhism and discuss the turban's importance to Sikhs. Next, they present a self-reflective case of one individual's experience of the decision to tie a turban and discussion of that case. Finally, the authors discuss implications for counselors.

Toward A New Theory Of Gender Transcendence: Insights From A Qualitative Study Of Gendered Self-Concept And Self-Expression In A Sample Of Individuals Assigned Female At Birth, Seth T. Pardo

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Sex and gender are two concepts that are often conflated in popular culture. However, those who experience dissonance between their assigned sex and gender identity intimately understand the difference between sex, a biologicallybased distinction, and gender, a confluence of social and behavioral factors that contribute to understanding who one is as well as how one is seen by others. The gendered self-understanding and self-expression of 170 North Americans who selfidentified as gender nonconforming and who were assigned female at birth were explored using a transpersonal lens and thematic analysis. Data suggested a range and variety of gendered self-concepts that aligned …

Reframing Identity In The Age Of Authenticity, Daphne Edmonston

Masters Theses

Many in American culture have either actively or passively adopted the idea that authenticity is one of the highest virtues, if not the highest. The cultural ideal of authenticity states that personal identity and meaning are found within oneself. Being true to ‘the real you’ is the path to meaning, pleasure, and flourishing. This way of framing personal identity proves to be insecure, unstable, and leads to a lack of flourishing. In contrast, a Christian view of authenticity provides stability and security and leads to the possibility of flourishing in this life as well as for eternity. There is a …

Who Are You?, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"While knowing who we are in marriage is important, it’s even more important to remember whose we are."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­managing marital expectations from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/who-are-you/

Zycie W Ameryce: Life In America (Poster), Brett A. Cotter

Summer Research Program

Poster complementing author's summer research project exploring the history of the Polish-American community of Worcester, Massachusetts centered on the parish of Our Lady of Czestochowa and how its members responded to the forces of Americanization. Research in area archives such as the Worcester Historical Museum, the Worcester Public Library, and at Our Lady of Czestochowa’s rectory and its parish school of Saint Mary’s, as well as oral history interviews with past and longtime members of the community test the assumption that the story of Worcester’s Polish community is one of loss and decline. On the contrary, Polish-American efforts to preserve …

Zycie W Ameryce: Life In America, Brett A. Cotter

Summer Research Program

My project explores the history of the Polish-American community of Worcester, Massachusetts centered on the parish of Our Lady of Czestochowa and how its members responded to the forces of Americanization. Like many ethnic groups new to America, Polish-Americans and Polish immigrants in the twentieth century had to adapt in a world that demanded conformity in exchange for social mobility and departure from tradition and community. Over eight weeks, I conducted research in area archives such as the Worcester Historical Museum, the Worcester Public Library, and at Our Lady of Czestochowa’s rectory and its parish school of Saint Mary’s, as …

Citizenship, Identity, And Populism, Jeff Taylor

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"We can recognize that no party or ideology has a monopoly on truth, and that even our political opponents are right about some things."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­our fallen earthly kingdom from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

http://inallthings.org/citizenship-identity-and-populism/

Transcending Liberalism – Avoiding Communitarianism: Human Rights And Dignity In Bioethics, Hille Haker

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Contemporary bioethics is caught in the Scylla of political liberalism that presupposes a concept of a sovereign and independent individual, thereby more and more promoting a “consumer patient” in the realm of medicine, and the Charybdis of communitarian ethics, here spelled out as care ethics, arguing for the acknowledgment of embeddedness and interdependence and interpreting care as a right and a responsibility. Both approaches, I argue, fall short to provide moral criteria that define the scope or limits of the rights and responsibilities, and they both lack a comprehensive understanding of the moral agency. I argue that the concept of …

You Want It Darker: There Is A Crack In Everybody, G Morrison

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

There is a crack of humiliation and brokenness in everybody. Both our mission and identity have everything to do with letting God’s unconditional light of love and healing into ‘the crack’.

Mapping Chineseness On The Landscape Of Christian Churches In Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Scholarship on the Chinese Indonesian community has largely been concerned with the tensions between the community and the majority non-Chinese (or pribumi). The fault lines were usually examined against the background of Suharto’s assimilation policy, the 1998 anti-Chinese riots, the stark imbalance of the nation’s wealth within this minority group, and Chinese loyalty – or chauvinism – in the time of nation-building, and in the face of the rise of modern China. Little attention has been given to Christianity as offering a shelter for the inconspicuous propagation of Chineseness; particularly in terms of the conduct of services in Chinese, the …

Talking To Kids About Race: Against The Grain, Howard Schaap

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"The stories of race are bound up in the story of America and in all of our identities, so directly addressing it with our children is an approach we have no choice but to take."

Posting about teaching children about racial struggles in our society­­­­­­­­ from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/talking-to-kids-about-race-against-the-grain/

What Does Faith Got To Do With It? Influences On Preservice Teachers’ Racial Identity Development, Yune Tran

Faculty Publications - College of Education

The U.S. student population has grown more racially and culturally diverse demanding teachers who possess certain skills, competencies, and cross-cultural proficiencies to serve students equitably. With a continual homogeneous White teaching force, studies on preservice teachers’ racial identity have prioritized in the field to promote anti-racist education within a social justice model. However, few studies have documented identities of preservice teachers who attend predominantly private evangelical Christian institutions. This mixed-method study investigated White preservice teachers’ racial identity development focusing on the interconnectedness of religion with beliefs of race, culture, and diversity.

To Be Human, Adiba Hasan

Op-Ed Pieces

Op Eds, or opinion editorials, are typically published in daily newspapers and can raise awareness about a particular topic or aim to persuade others. For this project each student wrote an op-ed in which they presented their opinion or thoughts about the issue of islamophobic discourse coming from Republican candidates, especially Donald Trump.

Mediating Islam: Representation And Muslim Identity, Kristian Petersen

Religion Faculty Publications

This essay argues that there is a predominant media narrative that asserts that Islam is inherently violent, Muslims are foreign and dangerous, we should remain alert and suspicious, and policies or acts of aggression against them are therefore justifiable. Routinized replication of simplistic, patterned, and easily recognizable Muslim identities leads to real social consequences. I demonstrate the dynamics at work in constructing Muslim media identities through an investigation of recent incidents, including the Charlie Hebdo and Chapel Hill shootings, several anti-Muslim crimes, and the media declarations encircling these events. These types of events are best understood within a context where …

Mission In Evolving Cultures: Constructively Managing Music-Related Conflict In Cross-Cultural Church Planting Contexts, David R. Dunaetz

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The choice of music, an essential element of worship and church life, must be addressed in cross-cultural church planting contexts. As cultures evolve, church planters are faced with choices about musical styles that may lead to interpersonal conflicts within the church. The purpose of this study is to empirically examine factors that may enable cross-cultural church planters to constructively manage music-related conflicts when they arise. Members of church plants, like all people, have various goals when entering into such conflicts. They are concerned about the content of the conflict (i.e., the musical style) and thus have content goals. They are …