Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Impact Of Traditional (Non-Affirming) Black Church Affiliation On Exploration Of Sexual Identity For Black Assigned Female At Birth Lgbq+ Individuals And The Associated Mental Health Risk, Aurielle J. Sutton

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explored the impact of Black traditional church upbringing on the sexual and religious identity development, including the subsequent mental health risk, for Black assigned female at birth (AFAB) LGBQ+ individuals. Studies conducted on Black AFAB LGBQ+ individuals are limited, especially in terms of  assessing their experiences in sexual identity development based on religious upbringings. Studies have overlooked the experience of LGBQ+ Black AFAB individuals navigating sexual orientation development and religious and racial identities. Studies have greatly favored Black gay men and supported health risks such as HIV. In the present study, twelve Black AFAB Queer individuals participated in …

Luke-Acts As A Narrative Bridge: Observing Luke's Narrative Intentions Through The Framework Of Gentile Inclusion, Adam Duroy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation aims to show that through his twofold work, Luke-Acts, author Luke intends to create a written text that has narrative and theological continuity with the story of Jewish Scripture preceding it and provides an open-ended climax that gives opportunity for future documenters of Israel’s salvation history to build upon his work. These narrative and theological elements later help Luke-Acts serve as a narrative hinge connecting the past with the future, as observed in Acts’ function in the biblical canon. A primary way to observe Luke’s intention to develop narrative and theological continuity with Jewish Scripture is through the …

Review Of Robert Menzies And Craig Keener, Acts, Wsnt Commentary, Lora Angeline E. Timenia

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

A Review of Acts. Word and Spirit Commentary on the New Testament. Robert P. Menzies and Craig S. Keener. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2025. 368 pp. $29.99.

by Lora Angeline Timenia

Review Of Chinese Christian Witness By Xiaoli Yang And Daryl R. Ireland, Yi Qian

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

A Review of Xiaoli Yang and Daryl R. Ireland tackle this challenge in their book, Chinese Christian Witness: Identity, Creativity, Transmission and Poetics, by Yi Qian.

Review Of Alex Sosler, A Short Guide To Spiritual Formation: Finding Life In Truth, Goodness, Beauty, And Community, Katrina Krtek

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

A Review of A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation: Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community, by Alex Sosler. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024. 224 pp. $21.99.

by Katrina Krtek

The Machine In The Mirror: What An Ai-Created Religion Reveals About Spirit-Empowered Ministry, Todd J. Korpi

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Spirit-empowered ministers face questions about how artificial intelligence is shaping the people they serve. Congregants may turn to chatbots for spiritual counsel, while pastors weigh the use of AI tools in their ministries. An unusual episode involving an AI-agent-created religion, the Church of Molt, offers an occasion to examine the development of generative AI and the Church’s responsibility in the face of it. This article adapts Paul Hiebert’s method of critical contextualization to examine the five tenets of this machine religion as a prophetic mirror for the Church. It exposes questions about memory, transformation, authority, attention, and belonging. Read in …

In The Way Of Anna: The Prayer Legacy Of The Women Of The Church Of God In Christ, Kellen I. Brooks

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article explores the prayer tradition within the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) by examining the prayer ministry of four notable COGIC women: Lizzie Woods Robinson, E. J. Dabney, Elsie Shaw, and Frances Kelly. The prayer ministry in COGIC, often led by women, historically drove tremendous growth and encouraged a lively Pentecostal holiness spirituality that remains the lifeblood of the denomination. Drawing comparisons to Anna the prophetess in Luke 2, it shows how the prayer practices of COGIC women provide both a connection to ancient spirituality and also model a relevant, vibrant Spirit-empowered prayer template for churches and individuals …

How Gen Z College Students Encounter The Holy Spirit, Daniel D. Isgrigg, Anna M. Marley

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article examines the experiences of the Holy Spirit among Generation Z college students at a Spirit-empowered university. The qualitative study documents and analyzes experiences and the language used to express them, with the goal of enhancing the understanding of pneumatology within Gen Z populations. Through an oral history archival project, the researchers collected 31 testimonies regarding Holy Spirit encounters. The testimonies were analyzed and coded to identify and evaluate trends in Holy Spirit experiences, contributing to research on Generation Z spirituality.

Editorial: Encouraging Discourse Between The Academy And The Church, Daniel D. Isgrigg

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This editorial discusses the discourse between the Academy and the Church enabled by Spiritus.

Full Issue Spiritus 11, No. 2 (Fall 2026), [email protected]

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The full issue of Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology (Fall 2026).

Front Matter Spiritus 11, No. 2 (Fall 2026), [email protected]

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Structuring A Strategy To Provide Accredited Clinical Pastoral Education For Chaplains In Puerto Rico, Ronald K. Williams-Garcia

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Chaplaincy is the fastest-growing ministry in the United States.¹ There are several reasons for this, including diverse settings, a broad ministry, and a variety of people served. As the ministry grows, so does the research on chaplaincy. The last several years have seen a surge in research on chaplaincy.² There has also been greater attention paid to how chaplains are trained.³ The training still requires a theology degree, most often the Master of Divinity degree. More importantly, the training includes Clinical Pastoral Education.

Clinical Pastoral Education is an experiential learning opportunity based on the action-reflection training model. …

Book Review - The Visions Of Ephesians: The Task Of The Church And The Glory Of God, Beth Ann Fisher

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God, by N.T. Wright. Zondervan Academic, 2025. 150 pages, $30.

Why Herman Bavinck?, Gayle E. Doornbos

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Rooted in Scripture and attentive to the Reformed tradition, Bavinck sought to 'view the wonderful works of God in their own light' in such a way that the 'internal beauty' and 'inherent truth and glory' may 'commend itself to the consciences of humanity' and 'thank God not that we must but that we may believe.'"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­Herman Bavinck and Christianity in modernity from In All Things, an online hub that offers insight into maintaining and faithful and orthodox Reformed Christian worldview while fearlessly engaging in every aspect of contemporary life – until all is made new.

Why Herman …

The Great Bridge: A Congregational Engagement Intervention For The Local Church, India C. Barnes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation-in-praxis addressed a documented gap between the stated mission of New Beginnings Ministry of Faith, Hope, and Love (NBM) and the lived engagement patterns of its members. Although the church articulated a vision of Spirit-led community grounded in discipleship, fellowship, and service, participation outside of weekly worship remained limited. The intervention, titled The Great Bridge, was grounded in Acts 2:42–47 as a biblical model of participatory church life and in social capital theory, which highlights the role of relational networks in generating communal outcomes (Claridge, 2018a, 2018b; Putnam 2000a, 2000b). The Great Bridge was a structured 16-week congregational engagement …

Echo Hermeneutics: Listening To The Repetitions And Echoes Of The Bible, Shelton Matthew Trail

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

What is a biblical echo, and what contribution do they make to biblical interpretation? In seeking meaning, does divine inspiration overtake the author, or is the modern reader permitted to apply speculative meaning outside of the original author’s intent and context? Such questions are integral and relevant to modern biblical engagements. This includes questions such as how to approach, define, interpret, and apply what can be defined as intertextuality, or what this dissertation defines as echoes. Unfortunately, biblical echoes and repeated patterns are often misunderstood and underappreciated for what they can contribute to hermeneutical practices. Therefore, this research seeks to …

A Metaphysical Analysis Of Theological Language: Can We Talk About God?, Kenneth R. Marple

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The possibility of meaningful theological language presents a longstanding problem in philosophy of religion and Christian theology. Because human language is finite and creaturely while God is infinite and transcendent, questions arise concerning how human beings can make meaningful and truthful claims about God. Traditional accounts of univocal, equivocal, and analogical predication address aspects of this problem but often leave a more fundamental metaphysical question unresolved: what must language be for it to meaningfully signify reality? This dissertation provides a metaphysical analysis of theological language by examining the ontological foundations of language and its relationship to reality. Through qualitative, interdisciplinary …

A Wicked Humanity Original Sin In The Theology Of John Wesley And Jonathan Edwards, Vincent Andrew Sullivan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The source of human wickedness is not in a fault in our education, but a fault in our nature. Ignorance is not the root of human depravity; rather, there is an innate propensity in the human soul to gravitate, not towards the light, but towards the darkness. This truth, i.e., the doctrine of Original Sin, was fiercely maintained in the 18th century by John Wesley, the Father of Methodism, and by Jonathan Edwards, the last of the Puritans. Both of these men each wrote a large treatise on this same topic matter, that of Original Sin, and for the same …

Beethoven, Caspar Peucer’S Commentarius, And Enchanted Nature, Nicholas Chong

The Beethoven Journal

The posthumous inventory of Beethoven’s library includes a late Renaissance treatise by Caspar Peucer (1525–1602) entitled Commentarius de præcipuis generibus divinationum (Commentary on the main types of divination). Peucer’s text is concerned mainly with methods of predicting the future through such practices as magic, astrology, and the reading of oracles. Neither Peucer nor his treatise is mentioned in any other source associated with Beethoven. The composer also had a limited knowledge of Latin and his copy of Peucer’s text was more than two centuries old.

Previous scholarship has not explored Beethoven’s ownership of this book in any detail, except to …

Between Interpretation And Imagination: C.S. Lewis And The Bible By Leslie Baynes, Katherine Cooper Wyma

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

No abstract provided.

Eternity, Leah R. Sisk

Journal of Religion & Film

This film review of Eternity was developed from an essay on how the film demonstrates the nature of choice, including William James's notion of a leap of faith.  The original essay was submitted for an undergraduate Philosophy and Religion class on American Pragmatism at Western Carolina University.

Nothing Is As It Should Be: Estrangement, Threshold-Crossings, And Cosmic Struggle In David Lynch’S Blue Velvet And Lost Highway, Susanne Wigorts Yngvesson

Journal of Religion & Film

This article examines estrangement as a structuring existential and aesthetic principle in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (1986) and Lost Highway (1997). Through close, plot-attentive readings intended to remain accessible to readers unfamiliar with Lynch, it argues that the films stage three interlocking dynamics: becoming a stranger to oneself, the fracturing of the ‘ground’ of ordinary existence, and life as a cosmic struggle in which human agency is partial and contested. Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be provides the main theological–philosophical lens, clarifying how anxiety, non-being and courage shape scenes of desire, violence and transformation. Film-theoretical work on thresholds and cinematic …

Between Icon And State: Sergei Eisenstein's Ivan The Terrible, Milja Radovic

Journal of Religion & Film

Remembering the 80th anniversary of Sergei Eisenstein’s film Иван Грозный (Ivan the Terrible, 1944/1945), it is crucial to re-examine Eisenstein’s work, including his last film that became an unintentional ‘testament’ to cinema. Eisenstein’s mastery has been pivotal for understanding cinema and film language, the way this language operates, constructs and deconstructs and communicates historical realities. This paper focuses on a film that was made in two parts, Part I in 1944 and part II in 1945, to investigate Eisenstein’s approach to the subject of history, nation and religion. The research considers how this master of cinema contemplated intricate ideas and …

Affirmative Transcendence: The Ethics Of Mazu And The Internal Expansion Of The Confucian Moral Imagination, Yu Pei

Journal of Religion & Film

This paper proposes and defends the concept of affirmative transcendence through a systematic analysis of the 2012 Chinese television drama Mazu (38 episodes, CCTV). Affirmative transcendence names a structure in which the protagonist achieves sacred status (shen 神) not by negating her human relationships but by maintaining them while exhibiting a mode of moral perception that exceeds the limits of role-based ethics. The paper argues that what is analytically distinctive about this structure is its internal character: the tradition is not rejected but exceeded, and the exceeding is accomplished through resources the tradition itself provides. The paper identifies two …

A Metaphorical Passage To God: Simone Weil And Robert Bresson, V. G. Voigt Hogg Phd

Journal of Religion & Film

VOIGT HOGG_Abstract (REVISED)_Journal of Religion & Film_30 April 2026

This article contrasts the metaphysical and religious philosopher Simone Weil’s concepts of attachment and detachment with auteur director Robert Bresson’s method of subtraction. It argues for a commonality in their philosophy and cinema, that guides the reader or viewer respectively, to perceive a metaphorical passage to God through the lived experience of suffering. The article considers by what means does Weil and Bresson share a mutual commitment to understanding the state of the soul in affliction, while also acknowledging an opposition in the interpretation of detachment in relation to suicide. The …

Bearing God's Image: A Biblical Theology Of The Imago Dei, Elijah Gutierrez

Biblical Studies Student Projects

This paper examines the biblical theology of the imago Dei, tracing the image of God from creation through the Fall and redemption in Christ to its ultimate restoration in the new creation. Beginning with an exegesis of Genesis 1:26–28, it argues that the image of God establishes both humanity's inherent dignity and its vocation to represent God and steward creation. Although sin distorts humanity’s ability to fulfill this calling, the image itself is not lost, and human dignity remains intact. The New Testament develops this theme by identifying Jesus Christ as the perfect image of God and the one through …

Church-Based Qualitative Research, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

Qualitative research is collecting, analyzing, and interpreting subjective data to answer an important research question. It can be contrasted with quantitative research, which focuses on collecting numerical (relatively objective) data to test specific hypotheses. It is an attractive form of research in church contexts because it does not require training in statistics and can be conducted in almost all ministry settings. It is especially appropriate for topics that are under-researched, poorly understood, or involve concepts that are difficult to measure. Common problems associated with church-based qualitative research include overly broad research questions, weak descriptions of what has been observed, shallow …

Maximizing The Use Of Interpreters In Shortterm Medical Missions, Barbara L. Loach

Great Commission Research Journal

In the debate over the effectiveness of short-term medical missions (STMM), the role of interpreters has received cursory attention. However, the perceived quality of care and the actual care that patients receive, and therefore their receptivity to the organization and the presentation of the gospel by faith-based STMMs, hinges greatly on employing trained interpreters who can reliably communicate on behalf of all parties involved. Each barrier to cross-cultural communication —verbal, non-verbal, and cultural—can and should be addressed to have a successful mission outreach; providing adequate training for all participants in STMM, especially for interpreters, is critical to mediate the communication …

When Everything Moves Faster Than The Soul: Spirituality In A Fast-Paced World, Pablo Marzilli

Great Commission Research Journal

This article analyzes one of the main characteristics of the hypermodern era in which we live: social acceleration. We live in an extremely individualistic era that forces us to be highly efficient and productive in everything we do. This social phenomenon leads to a sense of being overwhelmed; our culture demands that we maximize the use of our time, to the point where we feel that we are less productive than we actually are, even though this is objectively impossible. This culture of acceleration, which makes us live at a dizzying pace, also influences the church and reshapes our daily …

Understanding Evangelism: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, And Contemporary Issues By J.D. Payne, D. A. Horton

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.