Arts and Humanities Commons^™

I Was In Prison And You Educated Me: A Missiological Analysis, Paul H. De Neui

Great Commission Research Journal

With less than 5% of the world’s population, the United States incarcerates more than 25% of the world’s prisoners. The U.S. detains more of its own population than any other country in the world. Providing theological education to men and women who are incarcerated in U.S. prisons presents possibilities for mutual transformation, culture shaping, as well as numerous complex challenges. This article reviews the ten years of North Park Theological Seminary’s involvement in this effort in three state prisons in Illinois, drawing out lessons learned in the process. The opportunities and potential pitfalls are presented from a missiological perspective to …

Book Review: Canoeing The Mountains: Christian Leadership In Uncharted Territory By Tod Bolsinger, Jason Ballard

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

A Brief History Of The American Society For Church Growth And Great Commission Research Network, Gary Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

This article surveys the 40‑year history of the Great Commission Research Network, originally founded in 1985 as the American Society for Church Growth. It traces the Society’s origins in the vision of C. Peter Wagner, its early development alongside emerging academic and consulting roles in the Church Growth Movement, and its subsequent evolution through changing leadership, themes, and institutional partnerships. The narrative outlines major milestones, including organizational restructuring, name changes, expanding conference formats, and increasing collaboration with seminaries, denominations, and the Society for Church Consulting. Across four decades, the Society has produced significant research, cultivated key leaders, supported academic scholarship, …

Book Review: Reading James Missiologically: The Missionary Motive, Message, And Methods Of James Edited By Abeneazer G. Urga, Jessica A. Udall, And Edward L. Smither, Kenneth Nehrbass

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: A New And Ancient Evangelism: Rediscovering The Ways God Calls And Sends By Judith Paulsen, Rhonda Haynes

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Generations: The Real Difference Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, And Silents – And What They Mean For America’S Future By Jean M. Twenge, H. L. Ward Jr.

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Receptivity Principle For Effective Evangelism: Its Biblical Basis, Mike Morris

Great Commission Research Journal

Donald McGavran’s receptivity principle remains relevant today as Christian mission agencies and individuals make decisions about prioritizing evangelistic efforts. This article examines the scriptural basis of the principle. The author analyzes various passages that confirm the logical progression of the following statements: The preliminary work of God is necessary for evangelistic effectiveness. God works unevenly around the world as he works in the evangelistic process. Because of God’s uneven work, some individuals and groups are more receptive to the gospel than are other individuals and groups. Christians can and should discern where God is causing increased receptivity, and they should …

Book Review: Evangelism In An Age Of Despair: Hope Beyond The Failed Promise Of Happiness By Andrew Root, Mark R. Teasdale

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Meaningful Outreach: An Essential Guide For Churches By Mark A. Wood, Glenn L. Campbell

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Bearing Witness In Acts And Today By Troy M. Troftgruben, Christopher Robershaw

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Preaching In A New Key, Crafting Expository Sermons In Post-Christian Communities By Mark R. Glanville, Bing Nieh

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Hybrid Church: Rethinking The Church For A Post-Christian Digital Age By James Emery White, Glenn L. Campbell

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

About The Great Commission Research Network Fall 2025, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Fall 2025 Complete Issue, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Evangelism Renewed: The Theological Revisioning Of Evangelism By Henry H. Knight Iii, Mark R. Teasdale

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Egalitarianism: A Hermeneutical, Biblical-Theological And Logical Evaluation, Martin Nyanzu

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

There are several sensitive and polarized issues confronting the church in our day, one of them has turned egalitarians and complementarians into warring camps – men and women’s role in the home, church, and society. The last twenty years have seen an intensification in egalitarian publications. However, a critical examination of egalitarian theology in some major works presents a concerning deficit in adhering to the principles of biblical theology, hermeneutics, and logic. This literary research is a biblical canonical survey of egalitarian theology based on existing scholarly perspectives among North American evangelicals. It is apparent that egalitarian biblical theology lacks …

From Belief To Action: An Exploratory Study Of Theological Perspectives In Influencing Credibility-Enhancing Displays, John Chambers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this two-phase qualitative research design was to explore the relationship between faith and works, as evidenced by manifest Credibility Enhancing Displays (CREDs), for electronic survey participants in the orthodox Christian community. Exploring the potential links between specific aspects of the theological narratives and the intentions that precede behavior was the central focus of the study. An expert panel was used to develop the Phase One survey. Phase Two retained the same expert panel members but presented them with the Phase One survey analysis to expand the interpretation of the results. At this stage in the research, CREDs …

Holidays, Religiosity, And Democratic Attitudes, Hannah Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Decades of research have linked religion and religiosity to support for democracy and authoritarianism. This study uses a temporal religious prime during national surveys – the European Social Survey and the National Election Survey – to identify the effect of religion on regime-type preferences. Jewish Israelis who took surveys on Friday or Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, expressed more openness to non-democratic governance. They also interpreted the word democracy in a more populist way. Furthermore, non-religious Jews were less democratic on the Sabbath and more interested in strongman rule than they were on days without the religious connotation. Similarly, more religious …

Review Of: Justice After War: Jus Post Bellum In The 21st Century, Jacaranda Turvey Tait

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of: The Mistake: A New Play About Hiroshima, Rosemarie Pace Ed.D.

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of: With The Best Of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps And Mistakes, William Skudlarek Osb

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Peacebuilding For Integral Human Development: Caritas Good Practices And Lessons Learnt, - Caritas Internationalis

The Journal of Social Encounters

Today’s geopolitical context, with big powers choosing bilateralism over multilateralism, is fostering a proliferation of conflicts and violence throughout the globe. The Caritas Confederation has been working actively for peacebuilding for decades, especially since the Rwanda genocide in 1994. Indeed, there is a growing consensus within the Confederation supporting the urgent need to enhance peacebuilding efforts globally. This document explores best practices and lessons learnt, with a strategic focus on the importance of involving women in peacebuilding. Each best practice is illustrated by one or two projects implemented by Caritas Member Organisations.

Dalit And Tribal Women As Ecological Victims, Dhinakaran Savariyar

The Journal of Social Encounters

The essay examines the ecological marginalization of Dalit and tribal women in India, especially by analysing the three points of intersection, namely, caste, patriarchy, and gender. Though it starts with a global outlook on the African water crisis, it substantiates the argument with Indian realities of water inequality and resource depletion. While showing caste as the root cause of water discrimination in the country, it exposes the abetting roles of patriarchy and gender in keeping the Dalit and tribal women at the lowest position in the Indian social fabric. Environmental casteism and exclusion from decision-making processes add to the invisibility …

The Origins Of The Pax Christi International Movement: The Pax Christi In Regno Christi Crusade, François Mabille

The Journal of Social Encounters

The Pax Christi movement was created in 1944 by a French laywoman. Its original name was "crusade of prayers for the conversion of Germany", the term crusade referring to a very specific political and religious imagination, marked in particular by the intransigent Catholicism of the beginning of the 20th century and by a specious analysis of the origins of the Nazism. This article, resulting from a thesis devoted to the history of the movement from 1944 to 1983, reviews the genesis of Pax Christi, and its evolution during the first 5 years of its existence, from a "crusade of prayers" …

Schism And Dialogue In Antioch: Melkite-Orthodox Relations, 1724 – Present, Berge Traboulsi

The Journal of Social Encounters

More than three centuries after the emergence of Uniatism and the 1724 Antiochian schism, deep divisions persist between the Melkite Greek Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches. Despite ecumenical milestones and the official condemnation of Uniatism, full ecclesiastical union remains elusive. Efforts to heal the 1054 schism between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy likewise continue to encounter significant obstacles. This study examines traditional Melkite–Orthodox relations, academic initiatives, and dialogue efforts within the Antiochian context. It advocates bold, reform-oriented approaches to coexistence and collaboration—grounded in human rights and fraternity—moving beyond polemics toward mutual understanding, reconciliation, and trust.

Fires And Protests Of Peace: The Catholic Anti-War Movement In Sixties America, Casey Self

The Ozark Historical Review

This study reviews the history of the Catholic Peace Movement and the impact of the publication, Catholic Worker, and individuals such as Thomas Merton, Phillip and Daniel Berrigan, and Dorothy Day on the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War.

The Meaning Of Christian Suffering In Aquinas, Pedro Cardoso Figueiredo Santiago

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This thesis investigates the theological meaning of Christian suffering in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. While much attention has been given to Aquinas’s treatment of the problem of evil, little has been written on the positive and salvific meaning of suffering as it appears in his Christology, sacramental theology, and moral theology. This study aims to demonstrate that for Aquinas, suffering—when united to Christ—acquires a redemptive value that transforms human pain into a means of configuration to the crucified and risen Lord.

The first chapter develops the Christological foundation of Christian suffering. Drawing primarily from Summa Theologiae III, q. 69, …

Encountering The Sublime: Early Hermit Lifeways, Visual-Spatial Worlds, And The Global Recluse, James Brown

The Ozark Historical Review

This paper will assess the degree to which reclusion in the early period can be labeled a global phenomenon and will examine three key areas, the institutional ambits of reclusion, the visual-spatial world of the eremite, and the enduring cultural canon associated with eremitisms across both geographical and temporal distances. In addition, the author will perform an epistemological and phenomenological exercise in deriving humanistic insight from the experiences of recluses, as gleaned through deep consideration of their environments and cultural products.

Assertions Of Monastic Identity And Power In The Cloister And Nave Of St. Gall, John D. Treat

The Ozark Historical Review

The Carolingian monastery lived in an unresolved tension between the purity of separation from the world and the benefits to be gained from secular engagement. To confront this dilemma, the parts of the monastery received new layers of symbolic meaning, opening some spaces to lay penetration while shielding others more securely. Here I will examine the monastic cloister and the nave of the abbey church as instances of these two tendencies.

The God Prompt And Deus Ex Machina: Techno-Theological Tropes And Operational Metaphors In Generative Media, James Hutson

Faculty Scholarship

This study reframes two durable tropes—the ―God Prompt‖ and the deus ex machina—as analytic lenses for understanding how contemporary generative systems stage beginnings and endings of cultural production. The ―God Prompt‖ denotes command-driven synthesis in which minimal textual instructions instantiate content on demand, crystallizing a production loop of input, model execution, and post hoc evaluation that orients anticipation toward instantaneous yield and controllable variation. The deus ex machina names an externally imposed resolution that interrupts causal development—historically a crane-borne god, functionally an algorithmic override—thereby concentrating attention on closure mechanics rather than world-building continuity. Read together, the pair offers a compact …