Religion Commons^™

The Great Rebellion And The Mystery Of Lawlessness In 2 Thessalonians 2,1-12, Ranko Stefanovic

Faculty Publications

This article provides an expository study of 2 Thessalonians 2,1-12 in which Paul delineates the Christian history from his day until the Second Coming. The apostle contends that the Christian history will be characterized by a great spiritual rebellion against God organized by Satan. The apostle points to the central roles of two entities in that great rebellion, which he defines in terms of “the man of lawlessness” as the agent of Satan and “the restrainer” who for some time holds back the full revelation of that lawless figure on the world scene. Bible commentaries offer various proposal on the …

Christ Our Passover (Pascha Nostrum), Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Research

Work was originally written for the Congregation of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer (Irving, TX) in 2021, but not completed till 2023. Given in honor of Canon Victoria Heard's Distinguished Service and Retirement in Spring 2023. (9 pages). [Based off of texts from 1 Corinthians and Romans].

Review Of "Come, Lord Jesus", H. Michael Shultz Jr.

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

This review examines John Piper's 2023 Come, Lord Jesus. The book is shown to be a valuable contribution to the broader eschatological field, and a particular contribution to the Historic Premillennialist camp.

Approbation: An Annotated Bibliography, Grace Morris

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

Annotated Bibliography

The Influence Of The Gospels Of Matthew And Luke On Carl F. H. Henry’S Kingdom Theology, Michael Cunningham

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

Carl F.H. Henry was a leading theologian of American Evangelicalism and prominent voice in the Neo Evangelical movement of the twentieth century. His prominent book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism (1947) persuaded conservative evangelicals to avoid the separatist inclinations of fundamentalism. He, instead, championed a biblically based brand of cultural engagement rooted in the kingdom theology found in the Gospels. Harnessing the “Already, but not yet” view of the kingdom popularized by Herman Ridderbos and George Ladd, Henry effectively engaged culture during a tumultuous twentieth century. This paper will begin with a survey of the historical legacy of Carl …

Platonism’S Influence On The Hermeneutic Of Augustine: Exploring The Philosophical Roots Of Augustine’S Interpretive Approach, Kent T. Maitland

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

This paper contends that Augustine was a significant contributor to the “Spiritual Vision Model” of the Christian conception of heaven described by Craig Blaising. This model is premised on the Platonic understanding of perfection in which the soul unites with the Good, and heaven is primarily a cognitive state in which the individual possesses perfect spiritual knowledge. This model also provides a rational basis for favoring a figurative or spiritualized interpretation of Scripture over its literal meaning. Augustine’s early life and conversion reflects a commitment to the SVM’s Platonic ideals, as demonstrated in his deference to Cicero, his journey into …

Moralistic Therapeutic Deism: A Classical Critique, Michael W. Cunningham

Eleutheria: John W. Rawlings School of Divinity Academic Journal

In 2005, American sociologist Christian Smith coined the term “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism” in his book, Soul Searching, The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. At the time, this phenomenon was heralded as a new “religion” for emerging generations, yet it ascribes to no formal text, deity, or doctrine. It serves as a self-focused compilation of secular philosophy, politics, culture, and spirituality flavored with fragments from popular religions. While there is no formal MTD doctrine, there are five affirmations: (1) A God exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on Earth, (2) God wants …

Meddling With The Gospel: Celsus, Early Christian Textuality, And The Politics Of Reading, Jeremiah Coogan

Jesuit School of Theology

The second-century philosopher Celsus disparaged Christians who “alter the original text of the Gospel three or four or many times” (Cels. 2.27). Scholars have understood this passage as a critique of multiple distinct Gospels, but Celsus’ invective is better explained by comparison with elite second-century polemics (e.g., Gellius, Lucian, Galen) against readers who lack discernment and arbitrarily alter manuscripts. For Celsus, Christians’ irresponsible textual practices reveal their cultural inferiority. The complaint is about varying copies of what Celsus thinks to be the same work: “the Gospel.” Christian thinkers in the second and third centuries—including Irenaeus, Tertullian, Origen, and the …

“And God Blessed The Seventh Day And Sanctified It”: The Sabbath At Creation, Dedications, And Christ’S Theophany In 3 Nephi, Dan L. Belnap

Faculty Publications

The Creation narrative, found in various places within the canon of scripture of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, describes the institution of two different types of time. The first type of time is established in the “fourth day” with the placement of the astronomical bodies, which act as markers “for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years”—that is, common time (Genesis 1:14; Moses 2:14). The second type of time is established in the “seventh day,” when the Lord rests from his labors. Situated as it was at the conclusion of the physical creation and …

A Community Centered By Love: A Linguistic Approach To The Theology Of Paul's Instruction For The Corinthian Body, Cadence Moore

Honors Projects

This article appropriates elements of M.A.K. Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to analyze the Apostle Paul’s communication with the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 12-14. The linguistic evidence of the text reveals that Paul’s instructions guide the Corinthians to order their community through love, imitating the Trinity’s nature of diversity and unity. The final section translates Paul’s teachings to a modern context using Richard B. Steele’s article, “Disability and the Beloved Community,” a reframing of how Christian communities interact with and not only include persons with disabilities but fully incorporate their diverse gifts into the church body.

Artificial Intelligence: Its Impact On Christian Education, Youssry Guirguis

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

In recent years, the world has witnessed a resounding revolution in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and today there is no field where AI is not employed. These institutions have a major role in developing policies, curricula, and strategies to keep pace with the modern artificial revolution. The aim of this research is to find out how current developments in this ��eld are likely to impact education in the future, and how such developments in Edtech might impact on future graduates, colleges, universities, societies, and cultures.

Authentic Credible Leadership: An Examination Of Jesus’S Leadership In The Farewell Discourses, Joshua D. Henson, Samuel Hemby

Selected Faculty Publications

This is a study of authentic credibility as demonstrated through John’s description of Jesus’ words and actions in the Farewell Discourses (John 13-17). Identifying the need for further research on the relationship between authentic leadership and credibility (Williams et al., 2018) and building from Kouzes and Posner’s (2011) six disciplines of leader credibility—discover yourself, appreciate constituents, affirm shared values, develop capacity, serve a purpose, and sustain hope—and Hemby’s (2007) on leader credibility, we espouse that moral foundations of authentic leadership promote leader credibility while not dimensioning the need for competence. After a thorough literature review on authentic leadership, the study …

There Is A Place For You And Your Little Ones: Homiletics And Liturgy In View Of Pregnancy Loss, Joseph Michael Baumgarten

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Baumgarten, Joseph M. There is a Place for You and Your Little Ones: Homiletics and Liturgy in View of Pregnancy Loss. Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2022. 81 pp.

Pregnancy loss and the grief that follows is more common than most people think. However, there is a gap in resources, discussion, and care for those who have experienced such losses. This is true in wider culture as well as in the church. While there are a few resources available, they are limited. This project addresses the church’s ability to provide proper recognition of pregnancy loss, the validation …

Positive Factors Related To The Decision To Study For The Office Of The Ministry By Men Of The Lutheran Synod Of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo De Nicaragua/Lutheran Church—Canada), Edmund Auger

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

Auger, Edmund D. “Positive Factors Related to the Decision to Study for the Office of the Ministry by Men of The Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua (Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua / Lutheran Church—Canada).” Doctor of Ministry. Major Applied Project, Concordia Seminary, 2023. 128 pages.

The Lutheran Church throughout the world needs a continuing supply of men to serve as faithful pastors in the public ministry of the Gospel. The identification and spiritual formation of candidates for Word and Sacrament ministry is critical for the young national church body, Iglesia Luterana Sínodo de Nicaragua (Lutheran Synod of Nicaragua).

This project is …

Hospitality: Areas That Are Effective In Creating A Desire For A Visitor To Connect To Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Brent M. Hartwig

Doctor of Ministry Major Applied Project

This major applied project explores hospitality offered by the local congregation. Biblical hospitality is implicitly and explicitly commanded in scripture. Balancing the Missio Dei and two kinds of righteousness will keep us on the straight and narrow theologically when pursuing hospitality.

When churches offer hospitality, we are feeding, clothing, visiting, providing, and welcoming our neighbor. Our Redeemer wants to continue serving the community as a family-oriented, mission focused, hospitable congregation. We are doing the feeding, clothing, and providing through many efforts in the community. We are active with the local homeless shelter and crisis center. For the MAP, we wanted …

Embodied Superintendence: The Person Of The Preacher In Lutheran Homiletics Especially In Relation To Cultural Identity, Dennis Matyas

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Over the past several decades, the greater homiletical academy has progressed from questions of authority to dialogics to identity, both of the preacher and of the hearers. Within this timeframe, modern Lutheran homiletics has stayed relatively silent on considerations of the person of the preacher, opting instead for certain foundational homiletical truths including the efficacy of the Word of God, the proclamation of justification, and the authority of the Ministerium. After recovering the consideration of the person of the preacher as a foundational Lutheran homiletic, this work explores the formational significance of the preacher’s cultural identity by offering a theoretical …

A Spiritual Call: Jeremiah’S Call To The Heart And The Stages Of Spiritual Progression In Carmelite Spirituality, Julia S. Whelan

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The aim of this study is first, to identify resonances between Jeremiah 1:10 and the three stages of the spiritual journey as defined by the Carmelites such as John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila (i.e., the stages known as purgative, illuminative and unitive) and then, in light of an in depth understanding of the spiritual senses attributed to Jeremiah 1:10 in its reception history, to evaluate the impact of Jer 1:10 upon the Carmelite conception of the spiritual journey.

A comprehensive Word Study is undertaken of six task verbs from Jer 1:10, presented as three pairs: to root …

What God Has Joined Together: The One Threefold Purpose Of Marriage, David Frayne Shudy

Master of Sacred Theology Thesis

Modern married couples and marriage-minded individuals are often left awash in a sea of confusion aimlessly groping about for a purpose for their marriage, with disastrous societal results. Whereas long-standing Christian tradition has taught a unified threefold marital purpose of three equal elements—procreation, mutual help, and remedy for sin—Enlightenment thinkers and their ideological descendants have introduced a hierarchical marriage teleology with a self-chosen purpose (usually companionship) at the top in order to correct for an alleged countervailing overemphasis on procreation in premodern marital teleology.

This thesis will challenge the claim of a relative deficiency in the companionate aspect of premodern …

Journey With A Purpose, Walter Prescher

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

The modern church is in bondage from years of trauma rooted in the Post-Christendom decline. As the church has responded to the trauma it is enduring, it has responded by becoming stagnant as it seeks to maintain any relevance it still has. What the modern church is going through has strong parallels with the Hebrew people who were in bondage in Egypt and were delivered through the wilderness into the promised land of Canaan. Following this example, this dissertation walks church leadership through an understanding of the traumatized church and presents a what a modern-day Exodus journey could look like …

Cultivating Reproductive Small Group Leaders Within Southwest Church, Springboro, Ohio, Roger D. Hendricks

Doctor of Ministry Theses

ABSTRACT

This project was designed to address an ongoing challenge within the Southwest Church (SWC) in Springboro, Ohio. The specific challenge that SWC leaders have faced throughout the twenty-five-year history of the church is to continually increase the number of small group options within a growing congregation. Small groups have been identified as the primary vehicle for SWC members to grow as disciples of Jesus Christ. This congregational emphasis has led to the good dilemma of having more individuals willing to participate than lead weekly small groups. In the past few years, SWC leaders have identified the need for the …

Recovering A Missional Ecclesiology: A Framework For Reviving Congregational Mission Within The Baptist Union Of Victoria, Gayle Hill

Doctor of Ministry Theses

ABSTRACT This project is an intervention to develop a theological and theoretical framework

that will become the foundation for a future curriculum for recovering a missional ecclesiology for the pastors of the Baptist Union of Victoria (BUV). Despite mission being central to the overall vision of the BUV, declining numbers, the post-COVID context in Victoria, and an overarching post-Christian and pluralistic context have significantly challenged the centrality and functioning of mission across our denomination. The impetus of this project was the observation that our churches were floundering rather than flourishing in the missional space. Many chronic and acute provocations were …

The Voice Of One Crying In The Wilderness, Megan Kenyon

MFA in Visual Art

I am a Midwestern, Christian, and feminist artist. I make work about the beautiful, broken, and absurd ways in which American evangelical culture influences lives, especially women’s lives. I’m dragging everything into the light by deconstructing and critiquing the world in which I live, move, and have my being. I do this by harnessing prophetic imagination and incarnational space to shine a light on how patriarchy infects evangelical Christian theology and practice. Using prophetic imagination through photographic self-portraiture and text (my own and found texts using the Bible), I seek to make plain the effects of white, Christian patriarchy on …

Redefining Unnatural: A Modern Understanding Of Paul’S Homophobia, Emma Bradley

Student Research Submissions

This paper examines the change in the meaning of the word “unnatural” in Romans 1:26-27, and establishes both an idea of what the Apostle Paul intended and a definition for how the word is used in modernity. There are five sections, each one building off of the next: Background, Analysis of the Text, Scholar’s Reading of the Text, Understanding and Usage in Antiquity, Modern Definition and Understanding, and Conclusion. The paper discovers that Paul’s intention with the word “unnatural” can be summarized as “any sex which is non-procreative, outside of marriage, and goes against gender roles.” However, a modern definition …

Contestant Theology: Toward A Play Theology Of Religions, Greg Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How can a Christian theology of religions navigate the interreligious dialogical problems of 1) the inability to fully articulate faith, 2) the lack of persuasive religious language, 3) the reality of violence among religions, and 4) the liquescent “truth” of modern times? This dissertation answers this question with a theology of religions considered through the lens of play theology. Contestant theology navigates these problems as 1) a space of cooperation and contest which 2) incorporates assertiveness (exclusivism), compassion (inclusivism), openness (pluralism) and free participation (Trinitarianism) to 3) hold together enriching and diminishing relationalities among diverse religious peoples with a view …

Christ In You Is Your Hope Of Glory: Exploring Colossians In The Sunday Lectionary, Maggie Nadalin

Obsculta

This paper was submitted in the Fall of 2022 as an assignment for LTGY 421: The Liturgical Year and the Word of God, exploring the use of Paul's letter to the Colossians in the lectionary cycle.

Isaiah 7:10-25: The Climax Of The Messianic Expectation, Thong K. Tran

Obsculta

Is there a man called Messiah who was promised by God? Did he come? Or will he come? Isaiah gave the most straightforward prophecy — Isaiah 7:10-25 — about him. Since then, a lot of efforts have been made to figure out "Who is he?" However, to acknowledge Jesus as the only fulfillment of the messianic expectation, a possibly correct interpretation is not enough. One also needs a leap of faith.

Jesus' Identity As "The Son Of God" Revealed In The Narrative "The Transfiguration Of Jesus" (Mark 9:2-8), Hang T.H. Nguyen Op

Obsculta

This article is an exegesis of the narrative “The Transfiguration of Jesus” in Mark 9: 2-8, the powerful evidence of Jesus’ full identity as the “Son of God” and the manifestation of His glorious state that are inseparable from his suffering, death, and resurrection. His final triumph must take place in and through his suffering and death. Thus, we, as his followers, are invited to participate in the future triumph and glory of God by following his “way” to gain the promised glory.

"Get Me The Girl For A Wife": Feminist Readings Of Genesis 34-35, Jacqueline Sanchez-Small Osb

Obsculta

This essay, originally written for “The Hebrew Scriptures: History, Theology, and Controversy,” considers the story of the rape of Dinah, exploring the text’s history and its traditional interpretations. Drawing on the work of Phyllis Trible’s Texts of Terror, the piece proposes a feminist and liberatory reading of the passage, one that centers the personhood of Dinah and the other women of the story.

Keeping Covenant: The Story And Scholarly Scrutiny Of David And Goliath, Peter Tran

Obsculta

The story of David and Goliath is a tale of courage, duty, and faith in God. What is taken for granted, however, is whether or not David was actually the one who killed Goliath. Some critical scholars have begun to question the long-standing claim that David defeated Goliath. So, who really killed him and what are the theological implications? A thorough examination will shed light on this question.

Widening The Lens From Genesis 19:5 To Genesis 18 And 19: A Remedy For Transmitted Blindness, Kelly Olson

Obsculta

This article is the product of an exercise in scriptural interpretation. The text of Genesis 18 and 19 were chosen due to an awareness of a common theme propagated by culture and the desire to better understand the content of the text using tools of interpretation that connect ancient text with contemporary human experience in hopes to open access to a diverse population that nurtures and elevates creation rather than divide and harm marginalized populations.