Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Gender As Love: A Theological Account, Fellipe Do Vale

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Despite its ubiquity in nearly all academic disciplines, gender has remained a contested concept, so much so that there is considerable ambiguity regarding what makes one a woman or a man and what relation such traits have with the human body. Debates typically polarize around the positions of gender essentialism and social constructionism, though both have been shown to have serious limitations. Additionally, theologians have typically approached these debates either by understanding gender as a category for sustained investigation but finding that the tools and virtues of theology are ill-suited for doing so, or by retaining the tools and virtues …

Arabic Christian Theology: A Contemporary Global Evangelical Perspective, Sherene N. Khouri

Liberty Theological Review

Andrea Zaki Stephanous, Arabic Christian Theology: A Contemporary Global Evangelical Perspective, Zondervan, 2019 (ISBN 978-0-310-32026-5), 493 pp. $34.99.

Unity In Christ: An Annotated Bibliography, Kelly E. Budd, Madison S. Schmidt

Liberty Theological Review

A review of the recent book publications related to the spring theme, "Unity in Christ." We include the following titles.

• Alma, Hans et al. Moral and Spiritual Leadership in an Age of Plural Moralities.
• Anatolios, Khaled. Deification through the Cross: An Eastern Christian Theology of Salvation.
• Barrett, Matthew. Canon, Covenant and Christology: Rethinking Jesus and the Scriptures of Israel.
• Beck, William David and Mike Licona. Raised on the Third Day: Defending the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus.
• Chia, Edmund Kee-Fook. Confucianism and Christianity: Interreligious Dialogue on the Theology of Mission.
• Emerson, Matthew Y. He …

Eschatological Space And Triune Kenosis: Jürgen Moltmann On The Nature Of Created And Eschatological Space, Peter Van Kleeck Jr

Liberty Theological Review

Where did God put creation? By means of experimental theology, this paper offers an answer by leveraging certain arguments from Jürgen Moltmann. These arguments for the divine kenosis of the triune persons and particularly the Father. In so doing, He provides the space in which to place all created matter. This paper first wrestles with certain Protestant positions on the nature of created space, noting that not much is said apart from dealing with the things in that space. Then the paper pivots to Moltmann's understanding of God's first act of creation - kenotic hiddenness. Finally, the paper concludes with …

A Cabin In The Woods: A Former Statistician Responds To A Critique Of The Bayesian Version Of The Fine-Tuning Argument For God’S Existence, Adam Lloyd Johnson

Liberty Theological Review

Many theists and atheists agree that the fine-tuning argument is the most compelling argument for the existence of God. However, there are many different versions of this argument and, as with most things in life, some versions are better than others. In this paper I will respond to Neil A. Manson’s recent critique of what I call the "Bayesian Version of the Fine-Tuning Argument" for God’s existence. I will argue that the Bayesian version is a relatively poor argument but that the "Abductive Version of the Fine-Tuning Argument" for God’s existence is quite compelling.

Melchizedek: Exposing His Character And Its Biblical-Theological Implications, Wesley Nottingham

Liberty Theological Review

Commentators have long recognized the mystery of Melchizedek, noting “that Melchizedek appears in the narrative out of nowhere and just as quickly is gone.” In light of the nature of this Melchizedek figure, the task for a deep reader of Scripture becomes not only identifying who this figure is as he appears in Genesis, but also drawing out the biblical-theological implications of his presence. To determine how to best understand Melchizedek as well as his presence within the canon, the most effective approach is to examine the text in which he first appears—Genesis 14:18-20—and examine its interplay with another key …

The Glory Of The Lord Whose Likeness Is As The Appearance Of A Human Being/Adam: A Study Of Ezekiel’S Son Of Man/Adam Anthropology, Timothy R. Schmeling

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

Ezekiel has often been criticized as a dehumanizing book. Still it is alternative humanisms that have done so much to dehumanize mankind with the totalitarianism of self-deifying individualism or the totalitarianism of collectively-imposed manmade metanarratives. Far from being a dehumanizing book, the objective of the son of man/Adam is certainly to purge his hearers of all anthropologies of autonomy and license, but this Adamic priestly prophet does this to eschatologically resurrect in them an anthropology of dependence and true freedom. Reasserting the creation theology and anthropology of Genesis, Ezekiel insists that authentic humanism, Edenic humanism (i.e., the original humanism), is …

Mutual Aid As Spiritual Tacit Knowledge Within Doukhobor Epistemology, Rachel L. Neubuhr Torres

University Honors Theses

The relationship between Michael Polanyi’s concept of tacit knowledge and religion is a topic that is rarely explored. Applying tacit knowledge to the study of religion and spirituality allows us to think about how we connect with the world and how we address the concern of what one feels to be true of their existence, or existential intuition. In the latter half of the 1800s the Russian prince turned anarchist, Peter Kropotkin, wrote extensively on the theory of mutually beneficial cooperation, or mutual aid, as being one of the most important factors of evolution. As Kropotkin began writing his series …

The Immaculate Conception Of The Blessed Virgin Mary, John Klapheke

Undergraduate Theses

This thesis seeks to highlight notable circumstances and schools of thought which led up to Blessed Pope Pius IX’s 1854 Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Namely, this paper seeks to show how the Immaculate Conception transitioned from a tradition held by the faithful to official Catholic Church dogma functioning as a core teaching of Catholicism.

Civil Religion And The Second Amendment, Shivaun Corry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American approach to legal hermeneutics emerged from the covenant theology of the Puritans. American civil religion understands the Constitution to be based in natural laws: a secularized conception of God-given rights. To change the text would collapse the epistemological framework of the nation. When a nation sees its constitution as a sacred text, then the answer to contemporary problems cannot be to change that text; rather, it must be to return to the text with an even more fundamentalist hermeneutic. Both gun rights advocate Charlton Heston, and gun control advocate Barak Obama, argued their cases using a fundamentalist hermeneutic, …

Consecrate The World To God: Maximus The Confessor On The “Secular” And Vatican Ii’S Theology Of The Laity., Anthony Marco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Post-Conciliar ecclesiological reflection has been largely critical of Lumen Gentium’s description of the laity. The criticism is focused around two concepts: that the lay vocation takes place principally among the life and work of the world, having a “secular character” and that the activity of the laity, as a participation in the priesthood of Christ, is the consecration the world itself to God. According to this critique, these concepts are problematic because they juxtapose the task of the laity in the world with the task of the clergy who are the sole proprietors of the sacred. This is compounded by …

Women In Diaconate Formation In The Archdiocese Of Los Angeles, Federico Guillermo Rodriguez Hernandez

LMU Theses and Dissertations

In the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the wives of the married applicants, aspirants and candidates to the permanent diaconate are required to accompany their husbands during the process of formation. Currently, the formation program does not engage them fully. Since women cannot be ordained as deacons, they are not perceived as the intended recipients for the formation offered by the program.

This study proposes an alternative vision and theological framework. The study affirms the full dignity of women as human beings created in the image and likeness of God and therefore, perfectly well suited to be icons of God as …

Animated By The Spirit: An Ecclesiology For Assessing Charism-Centered Mission In Higher Education, Michelle Nicole Blohm

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A “charism-centered” institutional mission is a mission that is believed to be instantiated and guided by the working of the Holy Spirit. Countless Catholic higher education institutions claim to have missions rooted in one or more charisms. However, institutional assessment processes tailored to charism-centered missions have remained in their infancy due to the lack of a theological grounding for institutional charism and its assessment. This work uses Yves Congar’s pneumatological ecclesiology to establish a theological framework for interpreting charism as respecting and enhancing stakeholder diversity and uses Louis-Marie Chauvet’s ecclesiology of symbol to pioneer a model for institutionally assessing charism-centered …

A Lutheran Response To The Role Of Healing And The Healer In African Independent Churches, Jasper Olawo

Master of Art Theology Thesis

A conversation with a parishioner, who left the church when her son was suffering from epilepsy and claims he could not be healed even after a series of prayers from her Lutheran pastor, revealed the extent of the influence of African Independent Churches (AICs) among members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK). Many people in Kenya who are suffering from chronic illnesses find it difficult to maintain their faith in such moments of crises and are tempted to seek quick remedies from AICs’ healers. These healers claim that salvation and the healing of the body are not separate …

Vocation Of The Elca: Dismantling White Supremacy, Amanda Vetsch

MA Capstone Papers

White Supremacy is an embodied belief and culture that must be eradicated in order for us to live into the diverse, mutually flourishing kin-doms that God has called us into. The history of white supremacy and racist theology includes ideas of mission, hierarchy, and compromise. White people and predominantly white institutions are vocationally called to do the specific work of dismantling white supremacy. The Lutheran theological tradition has commitments and practices that can ground and compel people into and through this work.

Two ways of understanding white supremacy culture are White Body Supremacy by Resmaa Menakem and Characteristics of White …

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2021, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• Rooting Out Racism
• How Do We Practice Our Religion While We Practice?
• Hope in Hardship
• The Unity Paradox

Read on Issuu

Saga Beyond The Gate: Chapter One, The Coming Of The Gate Ghost, Tristan B. Miller

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

“Saga Beyond the Gate: Chapter One, the Coming of the Gate Ghost” explores performance sculpture used as religious ritual. My work emphasizes ritual, creation myths, relics, physical manifestations of lived religion, and the power of narrative belief. One often turns to religion, science, or spirituality, to seek answers to questions about being a conscious entity, and one’s journey to the end. This saga uses scripts from all three of these schools of thought, placing the world of the Gate Ghost into tangible reality, as a play on a stage. Artefacts represent objects of power and mystery. Characters embody morality tales, …

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 …

Antyesti (Last Sacrifice): Funeral Rites Performed By Hindu From Western Region Of Nepal, Krishna Niure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Thesis will discuss the process of making, “Anyesti - The Last Sacrifice” which I have directed, produced and edited. It will cover the rites performed by people residing in the western part of Nepal. It will recount how the concept of making a documentary about the last rites came into my mind.

Overcoming The Lack Of Expressive Worship In The Haitian Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Yoner Valmyr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many Haitian Seventh-day Adventist members are not pleased with the Haitian Seventh-day Adventist Church’s lack of expressive worship. According to research, Haitian church members are unable to freely express themselves in corporate worship due to rationalistic, as oppose to kinesthetic worship practices. During worship services, Haitian Seventh-day Adventist members, young and old, are afraid to have an authentic demonstrative worship experience because of “soma phobia,” the fear of letting themselves or their bodies get out of control. Because of a traditional European cultural ethos that still exists, there is a fear that others may look upon them as ungodly. When …

Veritas At Harvard, Alfred John Zucker

LMU Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research paper is to analyze a historical, theological subject concerning the rationale for the transition from a Puritanical view of God at Harvard in the early seventeenth century to a Utilitarian perspective in the first part of the nineteenth century. The Puritans had a profound effect on Harvard, bringing with them severe discipline and an authoritarian view of God. As a result, many of the first Harvard students left the college never to return,[1] and the school had significant difficulties in maintaining an enrollment in its early years. Puritanism viewed students as being essentially depraved …

A Theology Built On Meritocracy: A Theological And Sociological Examination Of The Prosperity Gospel And The American Dream, T.E. Starman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In American megachurch Christianity there lies a paradox in the concept of wealth and blessings; many megachurch leaders take deliberate steps to distance themselves from the defamed and heretical label of prosperity gospel, while simultaneously using many of its theological tenets as foundational to their own theology of wealth, money, and success. This thesis examines the nature of this paradox from both a theological and sociological lens. Through content analysis and case study examples, this thesis assesses the theological tenets of American megachurch prosperity theology as well as the sociological reality of stratification and the ideology that buttresses it. This …

'Here We Start And In Jerusalem We Meet:' The Motivational And Organizational Influences Of Israel's Statehood Ontransnational Salafi Jihad, Charlotte Armistead

Honors Theses

The Israeli occupation of Palestine and its impact on the proliferation and longevity of transnational Salafi jihad is largely underestimated in current literature. In this thesis, I argue that Palestine, defined as both the nation and physical borders before the Balfour Declaration, largely contributed to the twentieth century revival of transnational Salafi jihad and is used by both Al Qaeda and ISIS as liberation and annihilation movements, respectively. In order to assess the motivational and organizational influences of the Israeli occupation of Palestine on transnational Salafi jihad, I examine the works of Abdullah Azzam, a selection of Osama Bin Laden’s …

Seasons Of Change : Navigating New Beginnings And Endings Within The United Methodist Church, Wade Killough

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Locating Love Amid The Violence: Girard, Vattimo, And The Radicality Of Love, Colby Dickinson

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

To try to recover something of the religious framework that is inextricably connected to the history of apophatic thought amid the emancipatory claims of various modern nihilisms, I find it helpful to consider how contemporary philosophical views have worked steadily toward an eradication of the false sacred in our world in order to produce nothing more than an empty space that might nonetheless yield the possibility for something like a source of sacrality to appear—though being careful to refrain from making such suggestions for the most part. Though such possibilities flirt with the utopian, they may also highlight a religious …

Beliefs And Their Byproducts: The Impact Of Religiosity And Political Ideology On Attitudes Toward Covid-19, Vaccines, And Climate Change, Philip Goodrich

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Several studies have indicated that an individual’s level of religiosity impacts their views toward science and scientific phenomena. Moreover, research shows that these views can also be impacted by an individual's political affiliation and ideology. In this research paper, I examine the relationship between one’s religiosity and political ideology and their attitude toward the novel corona virus (COVID-19), vaccines, and climate change. Using data from the 2021 Chapman University Survey of American Fears, I find that while religiosity plays a role in one’s attitudes toward these three scientific phenomena, the greatest correlation stems from one’s political ideology. In other words, …

Vaccine Hesitancy, The Covid 19 Pandemic, And Christian Fundamentalism, Nicole Drew

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Over the past few decades, religion has continued to move to the forefront of American politics, with many viewing fundamental Christianity as synonymous with the Republican Party. Donald Trump's presidency has increased this tenfold, with significant figures within American Christianity voicing their support for him and tying him into Biblical prophecies. In the media, this appears to have affected how this demographic views the COVID 19 pandemic. The literature in this area focuses heavily on American Christians' response to mask mandates, stay-at-home orders, and other attempts to mitigate the spread of the CoronaVirus; however, research on how this same demographic …

Mvskoke-Nene Momis Komet Yvkvpvkkeyetos/We Keep Walking The Mvskoke Path: A Reflexive And Phenomenological Ethnographic Study Of The Ceremonial Beliefs And Practices Of A Modern Mvskoke Community In Florida, Christopher B. Bolfing

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an ethnographic investigation of the intersection between cosmology, worldview, ethnoecology, and traditional religious performance, particularly in terms of the relationship between subjective experience and intersubjectivity. It is a study of how people come to understand the world – an attempt to understand understanding. I explore the acquisition of social, cultural, and ecological knowledge through participation in the traditional religious ceremonialism of a Mvskoke ceremonial community, called the Busk. I write about living people and living religious traditions, but I am also a member of this community and, therefore, I am also telling my own story. Reflexivity, then, …

The Interconnectedness Of Jonathan Edwards's Ontology And Trinitarianism, Holly Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Jonathan Edwards scholarship has been divided in recent years on the correct interpretation of his work. Scholars like Sang Hyun Lee and Amy Plantinga Pauw maintain that Edwards used a radically new dispositional ontology to understand the fundamental realities of nature. Oliver Crisp, Kyle Strobel, and Steve Studebaker have argued that Edwards used an essentialist ontology. I will defend the latter position and explain how it is tied to Edwards’s Trinitarianism. I argue for an interpretation of Edwards that situates him in his historical and theological context. The early modern philosophy of his day was marked by essentialist ontology. The …

Grappling With The Aftereffects Of Modernism In American Literature And Culture: Spiritual, Political, And Ecological, Joseph Neary

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

In this portfolio, Joe Neary examines various texts within contemporary American culture, including David Foster Wallace’s short story, “Good Old Neon,” Harmony Korine’s film, Spring Breakers, Richard Powers’ novel, The Overstory, and Bruce Holsinger’s book of criticism, Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism, and the War on Terror.