Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Becoming Stewards Of Attention: A Theological Appeal, Joshua Gorenflo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The widespread compromising of attention currently taking place in our digital age is, at least in part, a theological issue necessitating a theological response, which invites an examination of the human person in relation to God. Familiar within the biblical narrative and throughout Christian tradition, I suggest that when the role of steward functions as the operative paradigm for humans, the claims made upon their lives have profound implications for attending within the digital age. More specifically, the steward’s attention becomes a tangible expression of authority and accountability in representation of God’s image to the rest of creation. In pursuit …

Holistic Pastoral Care In Dhading District : An Evaluation Of The Pastoral Care Practice In Dhading District Of Nepal, Yohannan Thomas

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Yoga And Brahmavihārā: Expanding The Concept Of Self To Include Others”, John Paul Gauer

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Yoga is a method that practitioners use to expand their sense of self. According to Stuart Ray Sarbacker, yoga has been used to attempt two types of goals: the numinous which bestows special powers upon the practitioner, and the cessative which brings the process of saṃsāra, the endless cycle of rebirth, to an end. Both of these are goals that are focused on an individual self. In modern American yoga, a commodified practice has served to solidify the sense of individualized self by focusing solely on the body-based practices such as āsana. But yoga has a history of …

The Usefulness Of Yoga Towards Interconnected Environmental Liberation, Gayatri Sehgal

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

There are a great number of interpretations of the term Yoga today, often being an elusive term. Yet we must recognize the importance of questioning which interpretation can provide us with a clear lens into its meaning, given the legacy of colonialism which has warped our understanding of it. Yoga has a great deal to offer us, and some of its imperative offerings for us today are its ethical principles, particularly the dissolution between the opposition of self and other. This paper employs the principles of nonviolence, non-stealing, and moderation from the yamas (external ethics) of Patanjali’s eight-fold path, as …

The Protoevangelium Of James: Mary, Purity, And Womanhood, Sophia Gilmour

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Despite its somewhat misleading title, The Protoevangelium of James is an unofficial gospel about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Although many contemporary Christians may not know it, this text is where we find many ideas surrounding Mary. Like many early Christian writings, the identity of the author is unclear, but based upon the writing, it would seem the author had firsthand knowledge of the events recorded. The Protoevangelium of James, also known as The Infancy Gospel of James, outlines the divine circumstances surrounding Mary’s birth and upbringing and reports that she lived a very holy childhood. In this paper, I …

Visionary Account Of Purgatory, Alexandra Paradzick

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

This paper is a recreation of a visionary journey that was popular around the 14th century, with the protagonist specifically travelling to the realm of Purgatory. The story has the same tropes as other stories in their genre. Specifically, the protagonist is not fully dead when they enter the realm, they are explained the “rules” of this realm by an angelic guide, they witness others suffering before suffering themselves, and are then sent back to the physical world affected by their journey. The story itself is a tool to show how the living and the dead were linked, with prayers …

The Parable Of The Workers In The Vineyard In Matthew (20:1-16) – Who Are The Workers In The Lord’S Vineyard In The American Church?, Leonardo D. Mendoza

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

The parable of the workers in the Lord’s vineyard in the Gospel of Matthew (20:1-16) provides an insight into the work of God in relation to building the Kingdom of God in our midst. This biblical story provides communities of faith, students of the bible, and people of goodwill with a witness to how God calls people to labor in God’s vineyard and who some of those laborers truly are. Thus, this paper will question who the laborers in the vineyard are in the context of the Church in the United States. Questions posed will challenge the kinds of persons …

The Labor Of Mary: A Comparative Analysis Of The Virgin Birth In The Qur’An And The Gospels, Jessica Leu

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Mary has been called a bridge between Christians and Muslims for centuries. Both religions revere her as the mother of Jesus (Isa) and for her status as a virgin when she conceived him, and both traditions have within them devotees who venerate Mary. But despite this shared adoration for the blessed mother, there are a variety of differences between their understanding of Mary’s role in salvation and of her virginity. While the New Testament Gospels make some mention of Mary in their texts, the Qur’an dedicates an entire surah (chapter) to her story and mentions her with more frequency than …

The Diminished Experience Of Liturgy In A Pandemic, Joseph Torti

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Vatican II taught that the “Eucharistic sacrifice is the source and summit of the Christian life” (Lumen Gentium, 11). For many, this Holy Eucharist is spiritual food to nourish the soul that has been worn down by the challenges of daily life. Participation in the communion ritual where we all share of this holy sacrifice allows the faithful to be truly one with Jesus Christ. We are more than one year into the global Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Our lives have been significantly altered by this new reality. At the outset of the pandemic, most of the world went into …

Instrument Of God: The Celestial Harmony Of Hildegard Von Bingen And The Silence Of Women In Sacred Music, Kayla Ray

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

This paper examines the music of Hildegard von Bingen considering the shocking lack of female composers to come after her, particularly within the genre of sacred music. It begins by exploring the history of women and liturgical music in the Early Church before analyzing Hildegard’s prolific music career, including the vast range of genres she employed, the creativity and complexity of her compositions, her divinely feminine lyrics, and her theology of music and embodiment. It then investigates why so few female composers followed her, concluding that despite rare exceptions such as Hildegard, the Roman Catholic Church silenced women in sacred …

How Should Members Of The Lgbtq+ Community Be Allowed In Positions Of Ministry In The Catholic Church, Federico Guillermo (Memo) Rodriguez Hernandez

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

The Catholic Church has had an inconsistent approach to the LGBTQ+ community. The Church speaks of respect, compassion, and sensitivity, while at the same time terminates the employment of workers who openly identify themselves as LGBTQ+, without any other cause for termination. The Church also frequently hinders opportunities for ministry for members of the LGBTQ+. This article calls for a consistent application of Catholic doctrine, so that the respect, compassion, and sensitivity the Church teaches we are to show to members of the LGBTQ+ community is not obscured with unjust discrimination. Based on solid Catholic doctrine, I will establish the …

Cease & Desist Or A Doorway To The Soul: Sensing Your Way To Spirituality, Christine Gabaly

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

This paper will argue that yoga is not just a mind-body practice, but a spiritual practice that is experienced through the body and the senses, including sight, sound and physical sensation. This is of importance because most of the emphasis within yoga scholarship is on the mind as the doorway to spiritual practice and not the sensory experience as the key to opening the door. We will look at two important passages within The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali and The Bhagavad Gītā, and compare how they differ. We will also analyze two spiritual doorways: the mind and the …

A World Without God: An Investigation Into Dietrich Bonhoeffer’S Baptism Homily, Geoffrey Watson

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

What happens when faith communities fail to meet the moral obligations of their unique historical moment? Has the church then, by definition, lost its authority and right to speak or teach on Jesus’ behalf? If so, what are the repercussions of those failings? In what specific ways do the failures of Christian communities call us to reflect on and evolve our theology? These were questions that must have dogged the Lutheran minister and martyr, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), as he sat in his German prison cell, awaiting his death sentence. Yet after the initial shock, Bonhoeffer accepted these harsh circumstances, wrestling …

Identity Formation And Powerful Narrative: What The Church Can Learn From Disney, Janie Fisher

Master of Art Theology Thesis

This thesis explores a phenomenon I first observed while working for The Walt Disney Company in Florida. Many people seem to be dedicated to Disney in a distinctly religious way, giving the company their time, money, abilities, and heart. Disney is one of the most successful organizations in America, and they have mastered the art of storytelling in their films and theme parks. These stories can be used for identity formation, as they teach people who they are, what the world is like, and how they ought to live. Disney uses religious means to help their fans feel as if …

Dawn Of A Silver Millennium: Millenarianism, Futurity, And Utopia In Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Matthew Dentice

Far West Popular Culture Association Annual Conference

The story of Sailor Moon, told and retold in countless forms in the thirty years since the original manga’s publication, is imbued with a cosmic sense of time. The modern-day protagonists’ personal journeys are tightly interwoven with the distant past of the Silver Millennium and the far future of thirtieth-century Crystal Tokyo. But only the manga is fully willing to grapple with what the future means for its own present moment. Written in the early 1990s during Japan's "Lost Decade," Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon dramatizes the angst that accompanies the imminent arrival of a new millennium. As the Sailor Guardians …

Spiritual Friendship: Learning To Be Friends With God And One Another, Hank Voss

Sacred Roots Spiritual Classics

Aelred’s Spiritual Friendship focuses on being God’s friend expressed through three conversations with different friends. Aelred draws upon his friendships both with contemporaries and with authors who lived centuries before. This work provides an antidote to our contemporary milieu which, though replete with unremitting communications, propels toward individualism, autonomy, and loneliness. What Spiritual Friendship affords is a guide toward “holy and life-giving” friendships fruitfully marked by joy and happiness.

Professor Hank Voss amplifies a voice from the 12th century that explored Christian friendship in Scripture, in creation (reason), in church teachings (tradition), and in his own practice of spiritual friendship …

Songs Of The Son: Exegetical Method, Christology, And Piety In Reformation And Post-Reformation Interpretations Of Select Messianic Psalms, Maarten Kuivenhoven

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

The case for continuity between the Reformation and Reformed Orthodoxy receives a significant contribution from the examination of select Messianic Psalms in the commentaries of Wolfgang Musculus, William Ames, Johannes Cocceius, and Matthew Henry. This contribution is found through the examination of three lines of thought— exegetical method, Christological development, and the formulation of piety.

The consistent employment of prophecy in order to understand the sensus literalis as the Christological reading of the text seems to indicate continuity. The usage of typology also furthers this argument as these interpreters identified various persons or objects as types of Christ. By using …

A Humanist's Account: Manetti On Humanism's Impact On Morality In 15th Century Italy., Connor Kurtz, Beau Kilpatrick

Undergraduate Research Events

Abstract

Religion, art, and politics were at their peak during the Italian Renaissance. However, because of the generously allocated talent of the Italian sphere at this time it is easy to overlook the contributions of those who broke away from the Catholic concentration and kick started this humanistic era. Giannozzo Manetti, an Italian politician who in 1452 wrote De Ignate er Excellencia Hominis, a challenge to Pope Innocent III’s philosophy. The text has been translated to “On Human Worth and Excellence” and describes a deep-rooted foundation of humanism in religion. He concludes a functionality of society and religion in …

Christian Sexuality: Five Session Small-Group Study, Christian Dollar

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Christian sexual ethics have always set the Church apart from the world. The division between Church and world goes deeper than its incongruence with its early Greco-Roman context of sexual slavery and pervasive homosexuality. Jesus’ teaching on sexuality was shocking to his Jewish context as well. Jesus’ radical commitment to the integrity of marriage left his disciples questioning the feasibility of the institution, all the more since the teaching contradicted the pattern of divorce instituted by scripture (Matt 19:1-10). Behind Jesus’ vision of human sexuality stood God’s original design for marriage rooted in the creation of sexed bodies designed for …

Grapho 2022, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The Light from Generation to Generation

Impassioned Wonder: Theosis And The Place Of Reason In Gregory Nazianzen’S Theological Orations, Ben Vanderhyde

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The theologian is situated between two realities: the revelation of God and the transcendence of God. It would seem that all of theology should be a matter of reckoning with these two extremities. Without transcendence, we have no God. Without revelation we have neither starting point, nor guide, nor aim; theology becomes pointless speculation. We must know God, and yet, not know him. He must remain far beyond any language to describe or any image to depict, and yet, we must describe him. Theology lives in the middle of these, neither putting God into a box nor holding God above, …

Morning, Cody Macmillin

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Poetry composed by Cody MacMillin.

A Disordered Estate: A Lutheran Approach To Institutional Evils, Christian Dollar

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The question of institutional evils weighs heavily on the mind of the American Zeitgeist. Institutional racism, once happily relegated to history as a relic of Jim Crow, has reentered the public discussion on a national level in a way not seen since the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement. The new virtue of “fair-trade” is lauded as the solution for an exploitive economic system, while “going green” promises absolution of a company’s carbon footprint. The extent of government COVID-19 measures and the debate surrounding the inclusion of critical theories in public education dominate primetime and social media. These are all examples of …

Letter From The Chairman: Over One Hundred Years Of Student Publications At Concordia Seminary, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

For this year’s issue of Grapho we are focusing on the theme, “The Light from Generation to Generation.” Obviously, this echoes the motto of our seminary, “Ἄνωθεν τὸ φῶς” or “The light from above.” But the student publications committee also felt that this theme captures well what we do here at this seminary: prepare men and women to teach present and future generations about the light, the Lord Jesus. In exegetical classes we learn how the writers of the Scriptures pointed their original hearers to this light. In historical classes we learn how Christians in the past taught and thought …

Arius As A Figure In Church History, Kendall Davis

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Church history, much like any other kind of history, is an exercise in meaning-making and identity creation. As Anglican theologian, Rowan Williams, writes regarding Church history, “We begin with a sense of identity that is in some way fragile or questionable, and we embark on the enterprise of history to make it clearer and more secure. In the process, of course, definitions may change a good deal, but the aim is to emerge with some fuller sense of who we are.”1 This is quite obviously true when we tell stories about the heroes of the faith: Irenaeus, Martin Luther, C. …

Light: Recovering An Ancient Perspective, Hayden Lukas

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

As John the Baptist bore witness to the Light of the World, so too must the Church today. But there are many ways to talk about light. How should we speak about light when bearing witness to Christ? On which understanding of light should we draw? Light can refer to daylight or the light in a room—the physical phenomenon we perceive through sight. But light can also refer to objects that produce light, such as a floor lamp; we “turn on the lights.” We are familiar with scientific descriptions of light, such as its speed or its wavelength. Light can …

Greek And Hebrew Catechetical Devotions, Jaron Melin

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

The Greek and Hebrew catechetical devotions are intended for all students of the Greek and Hebrew Bibles who wish to embed their practice of reading the Bible from the original languages within a devotional format. Not only will they practice reading the Bible in the original languages, but they will also recite the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer in the biblical languages. It is fitting and proper to review the ABCs of the Christian faith as one engages with the Scriptures. The grammar of faith as expressed in the Catechism is an indispensable guide for navigating …

Deep Roots Are Not Touched By The Frost, Aidan Moon

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Poetry composed by Adian Moon.

Kyrie Eleison, Aidan Moon

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

Poetry composed by Adian Moon.

Collaborative Essays, Kendall Davis, Aaron Coggins

Grapho : Concordia Seminary Student Journal

In the spirit of fellowship, the student journals of Concordia Seminary in St. Louis and Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne have decided to use their publications as an opportunity for conversation and edification between our two student bodies. As students may have seen, we have begun to distribute each other’s journals on our campuses and now in this issue we share a collaborative project we have been working on.