History of Religion Commons^™

18, Martyrdom Of St. John The Evangelist, David Powers

Kerver Book of Hours: 2018 Senior Capstone

Stories like St. John’s trial in boiling oil, pictured in Kerver's 1507 Book of Hours, were used by the Church to demonstrate the power of faith against threats of pain and death.This essay examines the symbolism in the image of St. John's martyrdom and discusses how narratives of self-sacrifice worked to inspire the spread of Christianity.

03, Speculum Conscientie, Halia Daley

Kerver Book of Hours: 2018 Senior Capstone

Speculum Conscientie is Latin for “Mirror of Conscience” and this section of the Book of Hours is composed of elements that reflect that meaning. The section contains the Ten Commandments, the seven mortal sins, and the articles of the faithful which include the five senses, works of corporal and spiritual mercy, theological virtues, cardinal virtues, the seven gifts of the holy spirit, and the seven ecclesiastical sacraments. This essay discusses the content, placement, and symbols of this section of this Book of Hours.

13, The Tree Of Jesse, Bridget Eide

Kerver Book of Hours: 2018 Senior Capstone

The Tree of Jesse was a popular medieval theme used to represent the family tree of Christ. More specifically, it was used to represent Christ’s human ancestors, including Jesse, King David, and the Virgin Mary. This essay discusses the iconography and symbolism in this Book of Hours' image of the Tree of Jesse.

09, Typological Images And Thought, Courtney Rhoades

Kerver Book of Hours: 2018 Senior Capstone

Portland State University’s Kerver Book of Hours contains typological images in sets of three. Typological images are more commonly displayed in sets of two consisting of a type and an antitype. Typological thought uses images from the Hebrew Bible placed alongside the images of the New Testament in order to act as a prophecy.By viewing the Hebrew Bible as a prophecy for the New Testament, the church is able to justify the existence of the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew Bible must be preserved in order for it to be interpreted, and the Book of Hours was used as a tool …

The Divine Collaborative Effort: Agency As A Tool For Examining Power And Relationship In The Exodus Narrative, Harley Burgess

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Excerpt from Introduction

The character of Moses as seen within the Old Testament is perhaps the most dynamic and powerful character within the biblical text. Continually throughout the Exodus narrative, Moses faces opportunities for growth and development that lead him toward becoming the archetype for leadership. Moses’ journey is rife with choice. Though many would place Yahweh at the forefront of the narrative, it is truly Moses whom the audience witnesses generating change, making decisions, and even influencing the decisions of his God.

Seeing Witchcraft, Bernhard Udelhoven

Journal of Global Catholicism

When Christians in Zambia struggle with witchcraft, they also struggle with African cultural and religious concepts that deal with life’s ambiguities and that require discernment. It is not by working against the cultural and religious heritage, but by working with it, as far as possible, that the pastor can identify the broken relationships towards which many witchcraft discourses point. However, before we place the concepts of witchcraft into the realm of superstition (as are the trends of mission Christianity) or the demonic (as are the trends of charismatic Christianity), the Church has the duty to look at the concepts, stay …

The Devil Of The Missionary Church: The White Fathers And Catholic Evangelization In Zambia, Bernhard Udelhoven

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines how Western Catholic missionaries in Zambia dealt with claims of witchcraft and Satanism. Within an analytic frame that draws upon cultural history, theology, and anthropology the article also considers how African Christians appropriated missionary notions of the devil.

The Ecclesiology Of Pope Francis And The Future Of The Church In Africa, Bradford E. Hinze

Journal of Global Catholicism

A consideration of the future of African Catholicism in light of the ecclesiology of Pope Francis. The article explores how themes in Francis's ecclesiology work together to challenge centralization, clericalism, and triumphalism in the church by promoting practices of synodality and how these elements support the church’s mission to work against forms of colonialism, neo-colonialism, and the most fundamental matrix of colonial power by advancing radical democracy in society

Editor's Introduction, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

An overview of African Catholicism. Part Two: Retrospect and Prospect, third issue of the Journal of Global Catholicism. A summary of the work of Bradford Hinze, Mary Gloria Njoku, Matthias Scharer, Mary Sylvia Nwachukwu, and Bernhard Udelhoven. Among the topics considered: African ecclesiology, African wellness and quality of life in Africa, interreligious dialogue in Africa, African Biblical scholarship, witchcraft and the Catholic Church.

Fuhr And Yates' "The Message Of The Twelve: Hearing The Voice Of The Minor Prophets" (Book Review), John Palmer

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Amstutz's "Just Immigration" (Book Review), Rebekah Phillips

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Burke And Landaus' "New Testament Apocrypha: More Noncanonical Scriptures" (Book Review), Dennis Ingolfsland

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Collins' "Scriptures And Sectarianism: Essays On The Dead Sea Scrolls" (Book Review), Randall Mckinion

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Davies' "The History Of Ancient Israel: A Guide For The Perplexed" (Book Review), Sean Mcnulty

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Sawyer's "Resurrecting The Trinity" (Book Review), Howard Merrell

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Martin Luther’S Spiritual Practice Was Key To The Success Of The Reformation, Marion Goldman, Steven Pfaff

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

"On Oct. 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of Germany’s Wittenberg Castle Church and inadvertently ushered in what came to be known as the Reformation.

In his theses, Luther explicitly attacked the Catholic Church’s lucrative practice of selling papal indulgences that promised individuals they could purchase absolution from their sins and hasten their way into heaven.

This was far more than a simple critique of the indulgence trade. Luther challenged the Church’s overall authority. Over the next century, Luther’s ideas seeded upheavals and transformed the Western world by diminishing the Church’s power and introducing new …

When Archives And Libraries Collaborate: One Institution Benefiting Another, Shannon Smith, Scott Reeves

South Carolina Libraries

This article explores the transferal of a historic library of books known as the Salzburger Collection, and the collaboration which resulted from this transferal between a library and archives.

A Spiritual Directory Of The Order Of Prémontré, Theodore J. Antry, O.Praem Translator, Emmanuel Gisquière, O.Praem

Monasticon and Other Premonstratensian Texts

In 1910 the Vatican’s Congregation of Bishops and Religious issued norms for the revision of the statutes/constitutions, primarily for small, newly founded communities of consecrated religious. The norms stated that in these texts there were to be no references to Sacred Scripture or ascetical writers, and that they only include references to canonical norms.

Section by section, the Order of Prémontré’s new Statuta were approved by successive General Chapters until 1937 when Abbot General Noots took a different approach which adhered more closely to the Vatican’s 1910 norms. Thus the statutes of 1947 lacked all spiritual elements, and it was …

Islam According To Journalist Abraham Kuyper, Jan Van Vliet

Pro Rege

This paper was presented at the 2016 Kuyper Conference "Religion and Journalism" at the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, April 15-16, 2016.

Sense And Sensibility: A Sermon On Living The Examined Life, Sarah J. Mejias

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Jane Austen’s novels remain an essential component of the literary canon, but her first published novel, Sense and Sensibility, is frequently neglected. However, in Sense and Sensibility is the genesis of Austen’s technique through which her major characters cultivate and reveal a strong inner life, demonstrated through the character of Elinor Dashwood. This technique is a characteristic she incorporates in each of her succeeding novels. Her approach to literature centers on the interiority of her characters and their ability to change, but it her first novel Austen takes a unique approach. Following the structure of an eighteenth-century sermon, Austen …

Stewards Of God’S Mercy: Vocation And Priestly Ministry In Africa, Jordan Nyenyembe

Journal of Global Catholicism

A reflection on the tasks of priestly ministry in Africa with specific reference to the example and exhortation of Pope Francis. Among the issues addressed and critiqued are Western “cultic” understandings of the priest and the, the “Igwe Syndrome" which likens the priest to a chief.

Contested Moral Issues In Contemporary African Catholicism: Theological Proposals For A Hermeneutics Of Multiplicity And Inclusion, Stan Chu Ilo

Journal of Global Catholicism

Drawing upon the broad work of Vatican II and Pope Francis’ Evangelicum Gaudium the article proposes how a hermeneutic of multiplicity and inclusion could help hold in balance the tension between tradition and innovation, universal principles and specific contextual application for Catholicism in Africa. Among the issues addressed are cultural relativism, natural law theory, and polygamy.

Communicating The Justice And Peace Of God In Africa Today, Walter Ihejirika

Journal of Global Catholicism

Engaging with the work and theories of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, the article charts out a spirituality of communication within Nigerian Catholicism. Discussing the intersection between various forms of media and community, the article argues for the utilization of media in the pursuit of social justice and the dismantling of inequalities.

Inculturation Of Liturgical Music In The Roman Catholic Church Of Igbo Land: A Compositional Study, Benedict Nwabugwu Agbo

Journal of Global Catholicism

A study of inculturation, composition and music among Catholics in Igboland, Nigeria. The article insects with contemporary discussions of inculturation/enculturation after Vatican II and the recommendation of St. John Paul II in his Ecclesia in Africa.

Editor's Introduction, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

Introduction to African Catholicism: Contemporary Issues: Volume: 1, Issue 2 of the Journal of Global Catholicism

Providential Capitalism: Heavenly Intervention And The Atlantic’S Divine Economist, Ian F.P. Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Providential capitalism names the marriage of providential Christian values and market-oriented capitalist ideology in the post-revolutionary Atlantic through the mid nineteenth century. This is a process by which individuals permitted themselves to be used by a so-called “divine economist” at work in the Atlantic market economy. Backed by a slave market, capital transactions were rendered as often violent ecstatic individual and cultural experiences. Those experiences also formed the bases for national, racial, and classed identification and negotiation among the constellated communities of the Atlantic. With this in mind, writers like Benjamin Franklin, Olaudah Equiano, and Ukawsaw Gronniosaw presented market success …

Literary Theories Of Circumcision, A. W. Strouse

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Literary Theories of Circumcision” investigates a school of thought in which the prepuce, as a conceptual metaphor, organizes literary experience. In every period of English literature, major authors have employed the penis’s hood as a figure for thinking about reading and writing. These authors belong to a tradition that defines textuality as a foreskin and interpretation as circumcision. In “Literary Theories of Circumcision,” I investigate the origins of this literary-theoretical formulation in the writings of Saint Paul, and then I trace this formulation’s formal applications among medieval, early modern, and modernist writers. My study lays the groundwork for an ambitious …

Supplanting The Wrong With The Right: A Synoptic Overview Of Christian And Islamic Reactions Towards The Subject Of Heresy, Brett G. Barnard

Lawrence University Honors Projects

Whenever there is a faith that is claiming to be the “one true religion,” just what is it that defines that most sinister of opposition known as “heresy?” Is it the choices made by these aforementioned “heretics” to hold beliefs that are contrary to the mainstream? Or is the way in which “orthodox” authorities have historically asserted their own superiority while legally eliminating the competition? When overlooking monotheistic belief systems that claim universal theological authority, such as Christianity and Islam, what stands out the most is the fact that the greatest threat almost always comes not from exterior rivals, but …

Hell In Hand: Fear And Hope In The Hellmouths Of The Hours Of Catherine Of Cleves, Stephanie Lish

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an attempt to investigate how well the borders and miniatures of The Hours of Catherine of Cleves facilitated the method of meditation recommended by Gerard Zerbolt of Zutphen and therefore was a useful tool in Catherine’s search for eternal salvation.

Viewing Heaven: Rock Crystal, Reliquaries, And Transparency In Fourteenth-Century Aachen, Claire Kilgore

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

This thesis examines reliquaries and objects associated with medieval Christian practice in fourteenth-century Aachen. The city's cathedral and treasury contain prestigious relics, reliquaries, and liturgical items, aided by its status as the Holy Roman Empire's coronation church. During the reign of Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV (r. 1349-1378), reliquaries, pilgrimage, and architecture reflect late medieval interests in vision, optics, and transparency. Two mid-fourteenth century reliquaries from the Aachen Cathedral Treasury, the Reliquary of Charlemagne and the Three-Steepled Reliquary, display relics through rock crystal windows, in contrast to the obscuring characteristics of earlier reliquaries. Not only do the two reliquaries visually …