Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Scientific Review, Nadiia Stokolos

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Protestants In Soviet Ukraine In The 1920s To 1930s: Political And Historical Aspects, Roman Sitarchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim. The article offers a general political-historical analysis of the Protestant movement in the context of the party-state policies of Soviet Ukraine in the 1920s and 1930s. Scientific novelty. The study of state-church relations of polyconfessional Ukrainian society in general and Protestant currents, in particular, actualizes a new scientific understanding of the state religious policy at different stages of development of the historical past and present. Research methods. The research project studies Baptists, Evangelical Christians, Seventh-day Adventists, and Pentecostals, utilizing the principles of objectivity, ideological pluralism, complexity, methodologies of mathematical statistics, comparative studies, and problem-chronological method. The study is …

Armed Conflict And Protestant Volunteering In Eastern Ukraine, Valentyna Kuryliak, Maksym Balaklytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The process of development and activity of Ukrainian Protestantism due to the influence of the recently destroyed Soviet ideology is somewhat complex and unstable. Protestants became noticeable to Ukrainian society after the events of Euromaidan and the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 in the center of the capital of Ukraine. The Protestant community, however, did make real, material contributions in the territory of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, which began in April 2014. The aim of this article is to evaluate the volunteer work of Ukrainian Protestants and to understand the difference between secular …

Frontmatter (Volume 41, Issue 3), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Question Of The Autocephalous Status Of The Polish Orthodox Church In The Documents Of The Council For The Affairs Of The Russian Orthodox Church (1944-1948), Ella Bystrytska, Nadiia Volik

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The process and stages of the acquisition of autocephaly by the Polish Orthodox Church are explored. The formation of a socialist model of public administration in Poland after the Second World War required the resolution of some problems, in particular the restoration of canonical communication between the Polish and Russian Orthodox Churches. The cause of the conflict between these Churches was the proclamation of the autocephaly of the Polish Orthodox Church by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1924. The Soviet and Polish governments were interested in abolishing this Tomos. The state and church relations in the USSR provided for the …

In Lieu Of A Review: Reminiscences On Reading One Word Of Truth; The Cold War Memoir Of Michael Bourdeaux And Keston College, Mark R. Elliott

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

I first met Michael Bourdeaux in October 1983, at the beginning of one month of research at his Keston College Library and Archive, located in a southwest suburb of London, England. The back story to what gave occasion for our first meeting dates back a decade, to 1974, the year I completed my Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky and the year my wife, Darlene, and I made our first trip to the Soviet Union.

Re-Imagining Ecclesiology: A New Missional Paradigm For Community Transformation, Michael J. Berry

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation claims that the church is siloed, disconnected, and disengaged from the communities they are called to serve. The destructive mentalities of a disengaged church may even be complicit in creating and enabling some of these community health problems instead of being a part of the solutions. This research is focused on how ecclesiology, ethnography, and epidemiology is a missional paradigm to improve the gospel’s contextualization and work in community transformation. Chapter 1 demonstrates how increasing public health issues (such as pandemics, chronic diseases, poverty, homelessness, food deserts, addiction, inadequate health care, gun violence, mass incarceration, racism, and social …

Symbols Of Sacred Filling Of Religious Musical Art Of Ukraine, Maksym Melnychuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In the spectrum of the research of this paper lies the sacred essence of religious musical art and the symbolic component of spiritual music of Ukraine. This scholarly research is aimed to reflect the content essence of spiritual art in the sphere of the Ukrainian musical culture. This phenomenon is analyzed both as a result of a creative (figurative) thinking in generalization, and the spiritual inner necessity of comprehension of the metaphysical. Symbol is represented as a component of the sacred content of religious art, which reflects the irrationality of the constituent forms of spiritual music. A retrospective analysis of …

The Effects Of The Dominant Public Discourse And The Influence Of (Non)Knowledge As A Sign Of Resistance/Support To Women's Faith-Based Peace Activism In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Halida Đonlagić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article strives to offer general insight into the subject matter of the dominant public discourse and socio-cultural construction on which it is founded and created, as well as the experience of women activists in local communities in Bosnia and Herzegovina who act guided by their religious beliefs. The influence of the context on women’s peace activism is observed, with special reference to women’s faith-based peace activism. The relationship between secular and theological feminism is scrutinized as well, along with its challenges and the effects of the subordination and complementarity theories which legitimize the hierarchical patriarchal structure that obstructs the …

Remembering Canon Michael Bourdeaux, Founder Of Keston Institute, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Through a regular email prayer letter from Mission Eurasia,1 its Director Sergey Rakuba and his close colleague Dr. Michael Cherenkov, I learned of the death on March 29, 2021, of Michael Bourdeaux, and his funeral on April 12, 2021, in Oxford. Bourdeaux’s persistence over many decades to make known the appeals for prayer, for assistance in making known the plight of prisoners of conscience in the Soviet Union has continued, in spite of many changes and transformations over the decades. Even today the harassment of believers not conforming to Russia’s current state-church close integration and its banning of the Jehovah’s …

Review Of The Asymptote Of Love By James Kellenberger, Jason Lepojärvi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Review of The Asymptote of Love From Mundane to Religious to God's Love by James Kellenberger

ISBN: 9781438471778

Published 2018

Book Review: Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy: Religion, Politics, And Strategy, James R. Payton Jr.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In this book Dmitry Adamsky tells a remarkable story which, only thirty-five years ago, would have come across as a wild-eyed dream (or, possibly, nightmare). As he shows, though, this is not a phantasm: it is the reality in Russian today, a reality the rest of the world does well to take note of.

Emigration, Home, Identity: An Ethnological Examination Of The Identity Of Jewish Emigrants From Czechoslovakia, Peter Salner

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Stretnutie (The Meeting) is a group formed in October 2004 by Jewish emigrants from Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) who fled Czechoslovakia following the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The original intention behind its founding was to hold a reunion that would bring together people who, forty years after emigrating, lived in Israel, in different states across Europe and North America, and in Australia. The meeting took place in May 2005 in Bratislava, drawing over 200 participants. Encouraged by this initial success, the group and its website continued its activities, and it remains operational to this …

Frontmatter (Volume 41, Issue 2), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Religion In The Lives Of The Last Soviet Generation In Lithuania, Milda Ališauskienė

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper contributes to the academic debates about the compatibility of religion and modernity and reveals the way Soviet modernization has affected the religious values of the last Soviet generation in Lithuania. It discusses the role and dynamic of religion, intergenerational transmission, and the manner in which religion becomes or does not become a resource for an individual’s social mobility. The article, focusing on the last Soviet generation (b. 1970–1985) living in Lithuania, is based on analysis of 88 narratives of representatives of this generation. Trends of religious individualism, critical engagement with institutional religiosity and conformity with religious identification with …

Agnosticism And Atheism As Amoralism And Anti-Ideological Sociopolitical Paradigm In The Balkans, Specifically In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Faruk Hadžić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The study investigates whether atheism in B&H is treated, a priori, as amoralism and how this affects plural civic space. If religion is privileged, is it a politically dictated value system or pure ideology? Besides in-depth critical literature review, the author refers to a number of structural interviews focusing on both groups (theists and agnostic atheists) as a direct indicator of variability. The B&H Constitution obstructs the creation of a plural civic identity, hypostasizes the collective political mentality, and stigmatizes atheism and agnosticism in everyday life. Spiritual usurpation has moved into the realm of identity. The ideological ethnonationalism has metastasized …

Forms And Roots Of Contemporary Religiosity In Estonia, Kaido Soom, Tõnu Lehtsaar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The Republic of Estonia is a country on the east coast of the Baltic Sea. It borders Russia and Latvia on land and Latvia, Sweden, Finland and Russia on sea. As of 31 Dec 2011, Estonia had a permanent population of 1,294,455 (data from the Population and Housing Census). Estonia is a member of the European Union (2004) and of the Eurozone (2011).

Estonia has often been exemplified as a secularized nation having little regard for religion. Even so, religion is an important topic of conversation in Estonian society. For instance, Ave Tampere asked, in an article in one of …

Life Under Ban: Jehovah's Witnesses In Russia Since 2017, Emily B. Baran

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Since 2017, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been barred from legal practice of their faith in Russia. This marks the first criminalization of a major religious faith in Russia since the collapse of the Soviet Union. For Witnesses, it has been a disturbing return to life under ban, a reality they experienced for decades under Soviet rule. Moreover, all indications suggest that this situation is unlikely to improve in the short term. Russian officials have shown consistent willingness to enforce a broad interpretation of the ban, including through the arrest and imprisonment of individual Witnesses. This article offers an overview of recent …

Faith Development Theory And A Developmental Approach To Spiritual Formation For The, Joshua Nolt

Doctor of Ministry

The Church has a strong vision of the beginning of a life of faith as men and women come to Christ, but it lacks a framework and language to articulate the continued development, growth, and formation of faith over a lifetime. The result is a group of leaders and followers who lack direction to facilitate a deeper participation in and formation of life with God. The external tools provided by the church do not quench the questions of their inward reality. This leads to identifying faith as doing and believing the right things, on one hand, or becoming disillusioned on …

Service Matters: Integrating Faith And Vocation In Evangelical Christian Higher Education, Karen Rouggly

Doctor of Ministry

Evangelical colleges and universities in North America are at a tipping point. Schools are struggling to demonstrate their relevance to a culture that separates faith from work. This research demonstrates that using the pedagogical approach of service learning, colleges and universities can empower students to integrate their faith and vocation, ultimately producing locally and globally engaged citizens. The sections begin with a description of the ministry problem, noting the educational problems as well as the theological problems which produce systems of disintegration in faith and vocation for traditional undergraduate students. Next, the biblical foundation of symbiotic relationships between Godself, humanity, …

Meshed Ministry: Retaining Young Adults During Their Complex Migration Into Adulthood, Randy Jumper

Doctor of Ministry

Most studies indicate over two-thirds of churched young adults stop participating in church life one year after high school graduation. This generation represents one of the least churched generations in American history. After spending millions of dollars on elaborate children’s and youth programs, churches experience young adult attrition. Young adults themselves seem ill prepared for this life stage. Churches who do not intentionally address the needs of young adults or view the exodus as inevitable miss the mandate to facilitate lifelong followers of Jesus.

In Section One, a review of developmental markers, faith stage development theory, and the uniqueness of …

Vile Methods: Bridging Divides And Expanding Churches' Understanding Of Creativity, Tyler Jack Kaufmann

Doctor of Ministry

Over the last 25 years, technology has made learning, sharing information, and connecting easier than ever before. Humans, especially in North America, have access to unprecedented amounts of information, ways to interact, and tools for relationship building. Yet, in the United States, humans find themselves in one of the most polarized times of the last 50 years. At the same time, the US church has been in major membership decline and its societal influence has decreased. Great numbers of the poorest US Americans are leaving the church and with that exodus gaps between social classes are widening as less spaces …

A Culture Of Scarcity And A God Of Abundance: Leading A Church Into A Bigger, Better, More Beautiful Story, Jamie Mccallum

Doctor of Ministry

Christians live in the ever-present tension of two competing stories. The first is the story our culture promotes. It is one of scarcity. In this story, there is never enough money, resources, time, or love to go around. The other story is the one God tells in Scripture. It is a story of an abundant Creator who gives more than enough for life, love, purpose, and enjoyment in this world. This paper explores my journey in leading Belfair Community Church away from a mindset of scarcity and into a living theology of abundance. When we truly trust that God is …

Wayfinding: Spiritual Resilience For Global Servants, Joyce Reed

Doctor of Ministry

This dissertation proposes that mission agencies who develop a spiritual formation paradigm that incorporates the principles of wayfinding to navigate personal, vocational, and spiritual shifts enhance cross-cultural resiliency for missionaries (also known as global servants). Section One highlights the problem: mission agencies are not adequately addressing the numerous stressors that global servants constantly manage resulting in less healthy, unhealthy or toxic behaviors. In addition, organizational and historical mission culture often creates untenable expectations that contribute to the global servant's stress. Section Two analyzes how stressors might alternatively be addressed via pre-assignment counseling, sending churches, corporate support structures, or enhanced self-care. …

Winsome Wounds: A New Perception Of Pastoral Suffering, Stephanie Hurd

Doctor of Ministry

Pastors may view their divine calling as quid pro quo assurance against personal suffering. Yet everyone suffers. Seminaries train pastors in the technical skills required for ministry, but hermeneutics and homiletics do not help a pastor who is wounded. Churchcraft is about thriving as a leader in a church environment and acquiring the navigational tools, experiential knowledge, and soft skills to do so. Section 1 establishes the problem: Misperceptions about typical pastoral suffering, the disorientation it causes, and the lack of tools needed to respond in a productive way. Section 2 presents possible responses such as Stoicism, Legalism, Epicureanism, increasing …

The Development Of A Robust, Self-Sustaining Internal Coaching Network, Harry Fritzenschaft

Doctor of Ministry

The problem this dissertation addresses is, like most problems, complex, multilayered, and contextual. In essence, I inherited the Multiply Vineyard (MV) internal coaching network, which was in decline, demotivated, not performing well, and in drastic need of refurbishing. The contextual realities of MV’s drastically reduced budgets and pandemic virtual training imperatives compelled me to be more innovative and adaptive. This paper's thesis is the entire MV coaching network infrastructure needs to be renovated and restructured to support MV’s church planting mission.

Section 2 describes MV's alternatives, including continuing our current communications and operations approach and framework. Another proposed solution option …

A Community's Responsibility To Help Unaccompanied Homeless Teens, Spokane Valley, Calvin Bruce Coblentz

Doctor of Ministry

Homelessness is ubiquitous in communities across America. There are 1.5 million homeless school children annually. Over 125,000 are unaccompanied homeless youth detached from family. Many factors contribute to their homelessness, such as poverty, physical and sexual abuse, neglect, family conflict, addictions, mental illness, and sexual orientation. As difficult as it is in an abusive home, life does not usually improve when they depart. Homeless teens experience high rates of violence, sexual assault and exploitation, substance abuse, pregnancy, disease, leaving school, incarceration, unemployment, suicide, and dependency as adults.

This study explored the problem of unaccompanied teen homelessness in Eastern Spokane County, …

Dynamic Expansion: An Exploration Of Hospitality And Its Application To Foster Children And Families In Crisis, Sean Dean

Doctor of Ministry

The concept of hospitality has many applications. This dissertation is an exploration of hospitality using the American foster system as an example of how hospitality can be applied to an at-risk group.

Chapter 1 looks at the state foster care. There is an exploration of the two main reasons children enter foster care: neglect and drug offenses. Lastly, there is a look at the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) study and how its results are contributing factors to the current state of foster care in the United States. Chapters 2 and 3 delve into the concept of hospitality, what it is …

The Sobramesa Dinner Group: Discipline Boomers In Active Adult Living Communities, James Divine

Doctor of Ministry

Over the next 25 years, the American Church will be in a unique position to impact the eternity of almost 77 million people. As the Baby Boomer population moves into the third age of life, the church has the opportunity to reintroduce this population to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Within this large mission field is the added dimension of a large migration of retired and semi-retired people into Active Adult Living Communities (AALCs). While AALCs represent the largest-growing urban segment of the USA, the church is doing little to evangelize these communities. What the church does for these adults …

Transitional Ministry 2.0: When Transitional Ministry Finds Itself In Transition, Brian Craker

Doctor of Ministry

For churches within the Presbyterian tradition, as well as other mainline denominations, the use of interim and transitional pastors has been a mainstay for congregations between permanent pastors. The current use of transitional pastors as a specialized pastoral position dates back to the original model and framework established by Loren Mead and the Interim Ministry Network in the 1970s and 1980s. This model has remained relatively untouched since its introduction but is no longer adequately addressing many of the issues facing local churches today. To help congregations navigate new and complex challenges, there is a need to reimagine the purpose …