Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Contributors

Quaker Religious Thought

No abstract provided.

Quaker-Buddhist Blendings, Michael Birkel

Quaker Religious Thought

From their beginning, Friends have benefited from the religious ideas and spiritual practices of other communities.1 Such influences and confluences have always been a sign of spiritual openness and vitality among religious communities across history. Where, for example, would Augustine of Hippo, the most influential theologian in the history of Western Christianity, be without the insights of the pagan Neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus? This essay considers two persons who identify as both Buddhist and Quaker yet define that relationship in complementary ways.

Like other Christians, such as Ruben Habito and Paul Knitter,2 some Friends have explored the gifts of other-than-Christian communities. …

The Complex Hybridity Of Ham Sok-Heon, Dan Christy Randazzo

Quaker Religious Thought

This paper examines the multiple elements of Korean Quaker Ham Sok-Heon’s religious, political, and theological identity from the perspective of hybridity, with a special focus on the impact of that hybridity on Quaker reconciliation theology. In this article, I outline the basic elements of his ideas and context, emphasising the ways in which they interact in the intricate web of his thought. I also outline ways in which both reconciliation and Liberal Quaker theology are present in his ideas, and how exploring these overlaps would strengthen theological and ethical thought in both of these areas. His ideas are relatively unknown …

The Wordless Mystical And The Spirituality Of Belief, Jeffrey Dudiak

Quaker Religious Thought

In our day, at least among what passes as urbane and polite company, anything short of an enthusiastic affirmation of the full range of religious expression, including none, as anything other than the manifestation of an enriching difference, and as the enlightened antidote to any suggestion that some religion is true to the exclusion of others, means that one risks being stained with the dirtiest of modernist sobriquets: that of being a “fundamentalist”! In fact, this litmus test of liberality, dividing the drive toward acidic ethnoscleansing in the name of universal reason,1 on the one hand, from the base, parochial …

Review: Douglas Gwyn, The Anti-War (San Francisco: Inner Light Books, 2016), Lonnie Valentine

Quaker Religious Thought

Excerpt: "The Anti-War is a challenge to Friends everywhere because it is a call to be renewed by immersion in our tradition that will reveal our captivity to cultural and religious forces we must resist. Doug Gwyn has been an itinerant witness for peacemaking within the family of Friends and for Friends’ peacemaking in the world. In his introductory “Personal Testimony” we see his long effort to have Friends seek together the grounding for peacemaking by deeper study and meditation on Quaker and Christian witness. The Anti-War, a summary of Gwyn’s work, would be a fine way for Friends to …

Review Of T. Vail Palmer, Face To Face: Early Quaker Encounters With The Bible. (Newberg, Or: Barclay Press, 2016), Michael Birkel

Quaker Religious Thought

Excerpt: "At the present moment, when—as with early Friends when the monarchy was restored and a vengefully conservative Parliament set out to undo all the good work of Friends and other religious radicals during the Commonwealth—political forces are at play to reverse all the efforts of the past half century to further social justice, a book like Face to Face can revive hope in the mighty acts of God. This is good news."

Engaging Lgbtq Issues: It’S Still Complicated, Gary F. Sehorn Dr.

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Public school administrators deal with a range of culture war conflicts on a regular basis, and LBGTQ issues are particularly challenging. When I joined my Christian university’s faculty after a long career working as an Evangelical administrator in public schools, I looked forward to shifting from experiencing these conflicts as a public-school administrator to equipping others to handle them. Instead, the challenges have become even more complicated.

Mighty Teacher Mentors, Michelle C. Hughes

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Teaching is about cultivating curiosity, fostering a love for course content, and making connections with students. Educators who serve as mentors and pass on their passions for the profession and a love for sharing their craft can thoughtfully encourage prospective teachers into the field. This article captures and links one educator’s journey with the teaching mentors that encouraged a contagious love for teaching and learning in her. The article provides encouragement and practical suggestions for educators that desire to learn from authentic mentors and pay it forward with others in the faith. The article is adapted from a chapel talk …

When Women Faculty Write: The Power Of Community In Scholarship, Eloise Hockett, Brenda Morton

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

With the variety of teaching and leading roles placed on faculty members within higher education institutions, finding time to engage in scholarship can be very challenging and often problematic. One way to support scholarship requirements, is finding likeminded colleagues who can provide encouragement and assistance in such efforts. This article describes the formation of a women’s faculty writing group at one Christian higher education institution, and how the support from within that group, helped to facilitate and increase each member’s scholarship agenda and productivity.

Honoring And Maintaining A Dual Identity, Andrew Dean Mullen

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

My father taught at a church-affiliated college as a professor of philosophy. My mother, for much of my growing-up years, was a fifth-grade public school teacher. Although I was shaped by both of these models, and attracted to each, I initially came down on the side of elementary teaching. For close to 10 years I worked, mostly happily, with upper-elementary children in both public and private settings. Professionally, at least, I seemed to have much more to talk about with my mother.

Having subsequently completed a doctorate in the history of education (including much formal and informal study of philosophy) …

Building A Community Of Christ In A Mathematics Classroom, Robert Bonner

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

The prevalence of mathematics anxiety and math phobia is an accepted phenomenon in our culture today (Boaler, 2013; Kimball & Smith, 2013). Multiple research studies have been conducted investigating the levels of mathematics anxiety present in both preservice and in-service elementary education teachers (Bekdemir, 2010; Mizala, Martínez, & Martínez, 2015). This article describes how the creation of a learning community within a two-course sequence of mathematics content courses for elementary teachers addressed the fears and anxieties of a cohort of prospective female teachers. The learning community was founded on three perspectives: Palmer’s (1989) community of truth, Paul’s description of the …

Book Review: Encyclopedia Of Christian Education, Ken Badley

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Kurian, George Thomas, and Lamport, Mark A. (2015). Encyclopedia of Christian Education (3 vols). New York: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-8108- 8493-9 (e-book). 1665 pp. $340US

This three-volume set is truly a monumental achievement. With more than 1200 articles filling its full-size, two-column pages, it will serve as an important reference work for years to come. Some might wonder if a market still exists for such an encyclopedia when one can find so much of what it contains on the internet for free. To wonder that would be mistaken. While, yes, one can quickly find an article on Comenius in …

Frontmatter, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Mojzes, Paul (2017) "Frontmatter," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 37 : Iss. 1 , Article 1.

Kazakhstan: Is Sharing Faith A State Security Issue?, Felix Corley

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Review Of Kuburić'S "The Self-Image Of Adolescents In The Protestant Family", Radmila Radonjić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Serbian Jerusalem: Religious Nationalism, Globalization And The Invention Of A Holy Land In Europe's Periphery, 1985-2017, Vjekoslav Perica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

According to beliefs of religious nationalism, a nation is a community of ancestors and descendants, dead and living, past and present. As such, it incorporates within its territory all past and present markers of nationhood, notably historic religious monuments as the physical evidence of the perennial existence of the religious and ethnic community that is, in the nationalist imagination, of the nation. Thus, the history of the shrines and monuments, as told in religious tales and preserved in the rituals, is the history of the nation. In many parts of the world, contesting claims to consecrated territories clash. The struggles …

Letter From The Editor, Jennie A. Harrop

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

When I began preaching occasionally at my home church some years ago, I struggled at first with the ebb and flow of engagement in the eyes of those listening. I longed to flip the classroom, so to speak, or at least call on the sleepy friend in row four or the murmuring teens to my left. The head pastor assured me that some people would be shocked into staying home if I treated the sanctuary too much like a university classroom, so I restrain myself. Instead I study their responses as I speak, counting it a win when my words …

Encourage, Enlighten, Engage: Using The Three E’S To Build Students’ Intercultural Competence, Tolulope Noah

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay explores the experiences of a young female faculty member who transitions from being a K-12 classroom teacher to a teacher educator in an undergraduate program at a Christian university. She is initially apprehensive about teaching the diversity course due to fears regarding the sensitivity of the subject matter, personal competency, and classroom dynamics. However, she soon comes to embrace the opportunity she has to help build students’ intercultural competence. The essay includes practical activities and strategies that professors can use in their courses to help students grow in their intercultural competence skills. This essay is based on a …

Integrating Domains: My Work As A Christian Teacher Educator, Thomas D. Buchanan

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay on one teacher educator’s integration of faith, learning, and scholarship articulates the author’s exploration into what it means to be a Christian teacher educator who seeks to integrate the cognitive and the spiritual domains at a small private Christian university. Drawing from both educational and spiritual literature, the essay examines both the ideals and applications of one who seeks to be a teacher educator who is informed by the life and teachings of Jesus.

Hated On Both Sides Of The Aisle: Overcoming The Tension Between Christian Foundation And Present-Day Social Advocacy, A. Gillian Stewart-Wells

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Heeding the imperative of recent social movements calling for racial justice, university educators are faced with the challenge of developing curriculum that eliminates cultural stereotypes and mobilizes students toward social action. There is an imperative (Smith, 2015) to increase Anti-Racist Pedagogy (ARP) (Ladson- Billings, 2005) and refine Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) (Gay, 2000) in our education systems, leaving university faculty and administration with the daunting task of designing curriculum that reflects both an understanding of and respect for all students’ identities. The author shares how she blends the social justice research she conducts, the education courses she teaches, and her …

Cultivating Inclusive Learning Communities With Careful And Caring Conjunctions, Sunshine Sullivan

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This essay was originally the invited lecture I shared at ICCTE 2016. I arrived there, prepared to share about inclusive learning communities and our responsibilities to both model and teach our emerging educators to plan, teach, and assess diverse learners with inclusive and responsive practices. But just as I had to listen to the Sabbath whisper, I could not ignore the and whisper. So I ask that as you finish reading this essay and we go our separate ways, remember that we are embodied conjunctions. We are an important part of our language system that communicates so much about our …

Letter From The Editor, Susanna Thornhill

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Nearly two years ago, the newly-formed ICCTE editorial team sat around a conference table and tried to come up with ideas for how to generate increased interest and submissions to the journal. We wanted to invite authors into a shared space of collaboration, encouragement, and sustainability. Story proved to be the vehicle; we designed a call inviting our colleagues to share stories about their experiences in the classroom that would be shorter and less formal than an average article. We imagined that this invitation might offer our colleagues a chance to reflect on the moments of education that seem most …

Spotlight: Tom Buchanan

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

The ICCTE-J editorial team is pleased to welcome Dr. Thomas Buchanan to the work of online journal publishing in service to the ICCTE community. Tom is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at George Fox University.

Stimulating Critical Literacy Consciousness, Kathryn S. Hastings

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

This story from the field recounts how, after being an educator for over ten years, I became aware that I had been responsible for misrepresenting information to my first-grade students. This difficult realization shook me to the core, but it also became the impetus for me to learn about critical pedagogy and critical literacy. Both of these educational practices align with my faith and have been transformational to my teaching. As a result, I am able to teach my pre-service and graduate students how to instruct in more socially-just ways.

Book Review: Grit: The Power Of Passion And Perseverance, Matthew L. Johnson

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

I first stumbled across the research of Angela Duckworth after she was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 for her work investigating the character traits that impact the achievement of long-term goals. So, when it was announced that she would be publishing a book in 2016, I immediately pre-ordered copy so that I could dig into her insights as soon as possible. When I received my copy of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance in the mail, I was excited to crack it open… and then the self-doubt settled in. “What if, after reading the brilliant ideas of …

Fourth World Conference On Dialogue Among Religions And Civilizations In Macedonia 2016, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Review Of Beljakova, Bremer And Kunter's "'Es Gibt Keinen Gott!' Kirchen Und Kommunismus. Eine Konfliktgeschichte [There Is No God! Churches And Communism: A Conflict Story]", Reka Juhasz

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam: The Jesuits In Albania, Ines A. Murzaku

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

When Pope Francis addressed students, teachers, and parents of the Jesuit schools of Italy and Albania in 2013, he discussed the core and the value of a Jesuit-Catholic education, which in essence follows St. Ignatius of Loyola’s Spiritual Exercises and the Constitutions of the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits in all multifarious activities and apostolates put Jesus in the center, thereby making him the prototype. It was Jesus who had trodden a novel way for the Society of Jesus to follow and that meant to live a meaningful life, live well, and live joyfully among the people they were serving. …

Latino Protestants And Their Political And Social Engagement (Chapter Six Of Latino Protestants In America: Growing And Diverse), Mark T. Mulder, Aida I. Ramos, Gerardo Marti

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

Excerpt: "On a rainy early spring morning in a modest brick Presbyterian church just outside the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland, California, sixtyfour worshippers gather. The entire worship is in Spanish. During the sermon, the pastor makes a passing reference to how few of the attenders now live in Oakland proper, that many have to drive farther than ever for church services. The implicit message: the leadership of the church realizes that gentrification of San Francisco has spilled over the Bay Bridge and now threatens the availability of affordable housing throughout Oakland. In response, the congregation has started programs that offer …

Perceiving The Cultural Sea That Is Our Home - Spiritual Formation And Western 21st Century Culture, Lisa Graham Mcminn

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

Spiritual formation occurs in the routines of daily living. We are formed by choices made at the grocery store, as we reach for our medicine cabinet, as we consider whether to drive ten minutes or walk thirty. Such seemingly insignificant choices reflect assumptions held about who we are, and how we are supposed to live in the world. Spiritual formation, like notions of civic duty, develops from within a cultural context. Cultural environments give us largely unquestioned taken-for- granted assumptions about how the world is and how we should live in it. This essay explores three of the many Western …