Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Converting Membership Into Discipleship: A Spiritual Formation Program In Discipleship For Rural African American Churches, Ernest L. Williams Sr.

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis project addresses the need for rural African American churches to focus on spiritual formation and discipleship for their parishioners. Churches that emphasize the importance of the gospel and believers’ daily commitment to it represent progress toward discipleship. Discipleship creates a connection between worship and lifestyle. Churchgoers, particularly African American Christians in rural settings, may struggle to understand and practice discipleship. Historically, church worship and attendance have been prioritized in this faith community. However, Sunday worship that fails to provide a plan for daily spiritual formation may contribute to the issue. If the gospel is not the church’s primary …

Spiritual Formation In The Pentecostal African American Church: What Factors Most Influence Perceptions, Gloria Fayetta Carroll

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study involved a sample size of 12 participants was to explore how believers perceived their own spiritual formation journey and whether length of time as a practicing Christian and regular attendance at worship services had any impact on their perceptions. The research occurred in four predominantly African American Pentecostal Churches in Oakland, California with participant interviews and sermon observations. The central research question sought a deeper understanding of how African American believers in the Pentecostal church grow spiritually through learning and practicing of the spiritual disciplines and if the variables of time and …

Paul’S Christological Hermeneutics Of The Psalter In The Book Of Romans, Finny Samuel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study examines the pivotal role of the Psalter in shaping Paul’s theological articulation of justification by faith in the Epistle to the Romans. The central argument asserts that Paul’s Christological hermeneutic of the Psalter serves as a foundational framework for the forensic and legal language employed in his presentation of justification by faith in Romans. The study systematically explores Paul’s theological interpretation of direct quotations from the Psalter in Romans, illuminating the forensic dimensions integral to his argumentation. Through rigorous exegetical analysis of these quotations, it is demonstrated that Paul consistently interprets these texts through the lens of Christ’s …

The Impact Of Implementing A House System At East Richland Christian Schools: A Dissertation-In-Praxis, Travis Johnson Mckinley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation-in-praxis examines the implementation of a House System at East Richland Christian Schools (ERCS), a private Grades 7-12 institution in Saint Clairsville, Ohio, to address deficiencies in the traditional small group model, including limited student engagement, leadership development, spiritual growth, and school spirit. Grounded in Burns’ (1978) Transformational Leadership Theory and biblical principles, the study replaced gradeand gender-segregated groups with four randomized, co-ed houses (Amare, Fidem, Spero, Veritas) for 50 students and eight teachers. The project aimed to create a spirited Christian community through weekly competitions, leadership opportunities, and spiritual activities. Using a mixed-methods approach under the Stake Model, …

The Both/And Church: A Qualitative Study On The Motives, Processes, And Impacts Of Instrumental Music In Churches Of Christ In The Bible Belt, Samuel Scott Souder

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite the information available on worship styles of churches in America, perspectives of Churches of Christ who have started using instruments have yet to be explored. Since 1906, Churches of Christ have been one of many distinct religious sects in America. Expressions of this denomination are most often found in the Deep South of the United States — what many religious persons refer to as the “Bible Belt.” Known for their emphasis on weekly communion, baptism as a sacramental part of discipleship, and their embrace of extra-biblical additions to ministry like missionary societies, one spiritual practice sets them apart most …

Yielding Fruit: The Relationship Of Love, Unity, And Spiritual Gifts, Douglas Donald Vannostrand

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation explores the interconnectedness of love, unity, and spiritual gifts within the Christian church, primarily through an analysis of Paul's letters in Romans, Corinthians, and Ephesians. It argues that these principles are essential for the church to fulfill its divine purpose. The study examines how love serves as the foundation for unity and the effective use of spiritual gifts, contributing to the community's edification and reflecting the nature of the Trinity. The research employs exegetical analysis, historical context, and practical application to demonstrate how these principles can address contemporary challenges in the church, fostering spiritual growth and reflecting God's …

Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Beowulf: Rowling’S Beowulfian Allusions, Analogues, And Inversions, Mark-Elliot Finley

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

In this essay, I suggest Rowling’s Goblet of Fire literarily echoes the Old English epic poem Beowulf, while simultaneously updating the medieval epic to reflect the novel’s place within the modernized, Christian-influenced fantasy tradition. While cursory popular links have been made between the Old English epic with Rowling’s novel, this essay presents a sustained dialogue between Beowulf and Goblet of Fire. Both heroes engage in one-to-one combat (Beowulf with Grendel and Harry with Voldemort), venture into an unknown watery abyss (Beowulf diving into Grendel’s mother’s underwater cave and Harry rescuing Ron and Gabrielle from the merpeople in Hogwarts’s …

Pandemic Mythmaking: Covid-19 And Mythological Symbolism In Indian Folk Art, Ishani Anwesha Joshi, Sathyaraj Venkatesan

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Through a comprehensive analysis of Durga Bai Vyam’s “Samura Manthan” and Rupsona and Bahadur Chitrakar’s “Corona Rakshasa,” this article aims to investigate how mythological stories and themes have been used in the Indian context in folk art during the COVID-19 pandemic. The investigation will offer insights into how artists have leveraged mythological symbolism to infuse their works with richer layers of meaning, thereby engaging readers in a deeper exploration of the pandemic’s impact on society and the human psyche. By close-reading the aforementioned paintings, this study aims to illustrate the evolving visual representation of cultural narratives …

Feasting At The Threshold: Eucharistic Eroticism And Homonationalism In Diane Duane's The Tale Of The Five, Taylor Driggers

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Diane Duane’s ongoing fantasy series The Tale of the Five (1979–present) is set in a world marked by constant bodily transgressions and surprises, where a human and dragon can occupy the same body and become lovers and a one-night stand can bring one face-to-face with God. This essay will argue that Duane’s series articulates eroticism in a manner comparable to Linn Marie Tonstad’s (2016) queer re-visioning of transubstantiation and bodily and spiritual transformation through the Eucharist. Acts of eating and drinking serve to highlight how characters’ pansexual, polyamorous relations with each other and the love of the Goddess spill over …

Modelling The Fear Of God In C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles Of Narnia, Brett Roscoe

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This article employs insights from cognitive approaches to literature to study how The Chronicles of Narnia evoke a religious affect known in the Christian tradition as the “fear of the Lord.” It first does what Guillemette Bolens calls a "kinesic analysis" of the books, focusing on the gestures, movements, and facial expressions related to the fear of Aslan, and then it interprets this fear in the context of Rudolf Otto’s The Idea of the Holy, a book C. S. Lewis claims had a large influence on him. Lewis, like Otto, was concerned with religious experience, specifically with how his …

The Middle-(Un)Man Of Desire: A Girardian Reading Of Perelandra, Clinton Manley

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

The French polymath René Girard presents a compelling argument that all desire is mimetic. According to Girard, we don’t actually know what we want; instead, we imitate the desires of others. These models of desire act as mediators, indicating what objects or ways of being are worth pursuing. For Girard, desire exists in this middle place between a subject, a model, and an object. He famously argues that all great literature leverages an awareness of mimetic dynamics; the greater the work, the more mimetically perspicacious the author.

Given Girard’s theory, we would expect the greatest fantasy authors to erect their …

An Aspirational Cultus? Tolkien Fandom At The Borders Of Belief, Tom Emanuel

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

This paper draws upon fan studies, sociology of religion, and J.R.R. Tolkien’s theory of sub-creation to theorize the religious implications of Enyalië (Quenya: remembrance), the emotionally charged graveside memorial which closes the U.K. Tolkien Society’s annual gathering in Oxford. Employing a framework of religion as sacred worldbuilding, the author argues that Enyalië is best understood as the “secondary liturgy” of the “secondary faith community” that is Tolkien fandom. The paper concludes that Tolkien’s fiction, his community of devoted fans, and the lineaments of religious ritual have combined, in Enyalië, to produce a fan practice which troubles the boundaries …

The Genius Of The And, Tim Van Soelen

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

No abstract provided.

Ilc Psalm Projects, Carolyn M. Totaro

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Each group will present an exegesis of their chosen psalm, a historical background of the musical setting of the psalm, a biography of the composer, a discussion of the musical elements in the setting, and a performance of their own arrangement.

Direct And Mediating Relationships Between Divine Grace, Legalism, And Mental Health, Branwyn H. Mccormick

Senior Honors Theses

Positive psychology has popularized the integration of religious ideas into psychological treatment. According to the literature, the experience of divine grace is correlated with favorable mental health outcomes, whereas legalistic attitudes are correlated with adverse mental health outcomes. It has also been found that the experience of divine grace is a mediator between legalism and mental health. However, the constructs of divine grace and legalism have both been relatively unexplored aside from a few studies using Latter-day Saints (LDS) populations. The current study seeks to analyze relationships between divine grace, legalism, and mental health using a conservative evangelical Christian population. …

Awards For Outstanding Papers Written In 2024

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Failure For Avon, Failure For Labour A Waterworks Project And The Shortcomings Of Left-Wing Groups In Pre-Wwi Aberdeen, Garrett Mast

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

On September 16th, 1909, the Aberdeen Daily Journal ran a single article that encompassed one and a half pages of the ten- page printing. This article did not discuss any national or international news, but rather a town council meeting for the city of Aberdeen in northern Scotland. This meeting was anything but standard procedure, lasting six and a half hours, a record for the council with at least 27 of the 34 councillors participating in the debate. The debate discussed the rather mundane question of from which river the council should seek approval for pumping new drinking water.1 “The …

A Historical And Legal Analysis Of The Life Of Ellett Robinson, Abigail Hilbig

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

To look deeply into the lives of individuals is to begin to understand the intricacies of American life. Ellett Robinson was an African American woman, born at the inception of the twentieth century. Like the century she lived through, Ellett’s life was defined by sociocultural concepts that began long before she came to be. Perceptions of race and the family were being transformed throughout the 1800s and 1900s. Born into this tumultuous time, Ellett was destined to experience the prejudice that existed against African Americans in the South. With slaves having been freed just thirty- six years before Ellett’s birth, …

La Junta Development Of U.S. Opinion And Interaction With Chile, 1970–1981, Carson Cambell

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

It was hot outside in the late afternoon of the seventeenth of September when Charles Horman stepped out of his car. Horman was exhausted from a long day of many futile attempts to contact the United States ambassador in Santiago, Chile. Many hours were spent in the endeavor to secure emergency travels back to the U.S., but thus far there was no success to be found. Carrying such important information regarding the successful coup of the Chilean General, Augusto Pinochet, Horman knew he needed to reach the safety of his home country.11 The American journalist entered his house, and mere …

“No Finger In The Dike Could Have Stopped It” The Effects Of The Governmental Failures Surrounding The Teton Dam Flood, Brooke Wilks

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Lyle H. Moon, mayor of Sugar City, Idaho, was a petroleum man. He drove trucks for the greater area of Southeastern Idaho, supplying all their petroleum needs. On June 5, 1976, his route took him within a mile and a half of the Teton Dam. Unbeknownst to him, the dam had sprung several leaks that morning. Two bulldozer crews labored through the morning, trying desperately to plug the holes. While on his route, radio operators called him and told him to drive away from the dam as quickly as possible. Thinking it was a joke, Moon quipped, “Tell me another …

The Possession Of John Toldervy Early Quakerism And The Polarization Of Print Polemic In Cromwellian England, Hyrum Veach

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In the winter of 1655, ex- demoniac, dismissed apprentice, and sometime Quaker John Toldervy published a short memoir entitled The Foot out of the Snare.1 The pamphlet presented itself as a part conversion narrative and part anti- Quaker exposé, and told a startling story of demonic possession. After Toldervy became a Quaker, he told his readers, his mind was corrupted by a “seducing spirit” that convinced him that he was both Christ and the Archangel Michael and drove him to perform many bizarre acts.2 Two months later, after a brief pamphlet war with soon- to- be- disgraced Quaker James Nayler,3 …

Superheroes To Regular Joes The Vietnam War Through The Lens Of American Comic Books And Cartoons, Ella Henricksen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Historians generally agree that American comic books got their start in 1842 with Rodolphe Töpffer’s The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck,1 but pairing images with text is far from a novel idea—it is practically as old as the invention of writing. By the late 1800s, cartoons and caricatures were staples in papers. Satirical editorial cartoons poked at serious issues, and single- panel gag cartoons showed a humorous picture with a caption. Short comic strips like The Yellow Kid featured regularly appearing characters,2 and in 1933, Famous Funnies (a reprinting of popular humorous news comic strips) finally made the jump to …

Sounds Of Solidarity Pan Africanism, Internationalism, And The Black Experience At Blue Note Records, Nathan Neher

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Blue Note Records is considered one of the most prolific and influential independent American jazz record labels of the mid- twentieth century. The label was founded in 1939 by German- Jewish immigrant Alfred Lion who had fled Nazi Germany. Lion’s longtime friend, Francis Wolff, would later also leave Germany to join Lion and help with photography and other business affairs.1 Originally recording traditional jazz and swing groups, Blue Note transitioned to modern jazz in 1947, eventually helping facilitate the development of hard bop, post- bop, and avant- garde jazz in the mid- twentieth century.2 Lion played a prominent role in …

Pain For Profit The Motivations Of Slave Surgeons In The Eighteenth To Nineteenth Century Caribbean, Gabe Smock

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

When late eighteenth- century British surgeon Dr. Alexander Falconbridge ventured belowdecks to check on the hundreds of slaves chained there, he had no illusions about the horrors of the Middle Passage. After all, this was not his first voyage providing medical care for slaves until they disembarked at the infamous markets of colonial Kingston, Jamaica. He took a moment to brace himself, then ventured down into the damp air below only to encounter a sight so awful that it was difficult to put into words when he recounted the experience years later to Parliament. As a consequence of being packed …

“Radio . . . What [Is It] Doing To Our Children?” The Impact Of Radio On Families During The Golden Age Of Broadcasting, Samuel Pulsipher

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Eerie string music, a dark cackle of laughter, and then a sinister voice says, “Who knows what evils lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.”3 Suddenly, an interruption by the Goodrich Man. He has something to say about Goodrich tires with their lifesaving tread and blow- out protection: “So, play safe, equip your car with Goodrich, safety Silvertown!” The Goodrich- Man is ushered out by organ music as our hero Lamont Cranston, the Shadow, is introduced. He is heralded as a man of wealth and science who devotes his life to righting wrongs, protecting the innocent, and punishing …

Rap And Rhyme An Insider Look On African American Life In Urban America, Rachel Van Katwyk

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Thousands of hands clapped and cheered for the rap artists heralded as the rock stars of the age. Fans packed into Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena, chanting to hear the song they all wanted to scream. F*** the Police. T he rap group, N.W.A., toured America in the summer of 1989 and was contractually obligated to forgo performing that particular song. Scattered among the crowd were police officers ready to take action if the song started playing. N.W.A. called an audible, and DJ Yella projected the song from the speakers for thirty seconds before three sharp shots were heard. At the …

Personal Politicking Dolores Huerta’S Key Contributions To Farmworker Organizing, Keylla Ortega

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

When she was just in her mid- twenties, Dolores Huerta served as a board member of one of the most influential mid- century civic organizations in California, the Community Service Organization (CSO). Huerta quickly established herself as a key voice in the farmworker movement for labor rights, but she recognized early on that as a woman she had to work strategically to win votes in board meetings. She later recalled, “If I wanted to get a vote on a tough case, like to fight the police department, I had to really use . . . all of this personal kind …

Editor's Preface, Brett Bodily

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Japanese Imperial Education In Korea And Taiwan And The Lens Of Reciprocal Assimilation, Devin Sanders

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

During the 19th century, the nation of Japan underwent a variety of political, social, and economic changes, including but not limited to events such as the Meiji Restoration in 1868 and the first Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895. This paradigmatic shift sought to usher in a new era of Japanese dominance on both regional and international scales. Japanese dominance and international relevance, as indicated by Meiji-era domestic and foreign policy, was to be realized through adopting demonstratively successful policies, technologies, ideals, governments, militaries, economic approaches, and even the appearances of Western powers.1 Indeed, influential Japanese leaders such as Fukuzawa Yukichi believed …