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Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

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Articles 4771 - 4800 of 18530

Full-Text Articles in Religion

[Editorial] Jul 2017

[Editorial]

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"The polarization is unique in that it is augmented by communication technologies (internet, twitter, facebook, etc.) that have not previously existed. Communication has exploded and there are more competing voices, messages, and claims for the “real truth” than ever before. The anonymity of these new technologies seems to foster less civility as voices compete for ears."

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Martin Luther And Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus (“Outside Of The Church There Is No Salvation”): Did Luther Really Abandon Cyprian?, Darius Jankiewicz Jul 2017

Martin Luther And Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus (“Outside Of The Church There Is No Salvation”): Did Luther Really Abandon Cyprian?, Darius Jankiewicz

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"... careful study of the Luther’s writings reveals that, while he repudiated many Catholic ways of understanding and conducting church, and while he attempted to harmonize ecclesiastical structures and sacramental theology with the foundational principles of Protestantism, he was essentially unable to break away from medieval modes of thinking. Notwithstanding his rejection of the Catholic emphasis on the visible church, he struggled to free himself from reliance on institutional structures for salvation. Ultimately, Luther affirmed the necessity of the visible church for salvation. In His wisdom, Luther believed, God had decreed the church to be the means of grace, without …

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Belief And Practice: Spiritual Imperatives For The Adventist Teacher, Joel Luc Raveloharimisy Jul 2017

Belief And Practice: Spiritual Imperatives For The Adventist Teacher, Joel Luc Raveloharimisy

Faculty Publications

"The apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy also provides a clear message for teachers in relation to living a spiritual life: “Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you” (1 Timothy 4:16, NASB).6 For that purpose, I want to present two ways teachers can strengthen their walk with God so they can have confidence about their salvation and represent God effectively and efficiently to their students. This model is based on a principle found in spiritual-leadership literature. …

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A Study Of Worship Renewal Through The Blended Worship Style In Small Churches, Sun Kim Jul 2017

A Study Of Worship Renewal Through The Blended Worship Style In Small Churches, Sun Kim

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The topic of this study is to research and discuss the potential of worship renewal through blended worship in small churches. Renewal to inspirational worship is a powerful demand from all churches. This researcher proves whether the researcher’s experience can be applied to the worship renewal of other small churches in the same way. For this purpose, this study first provides a Biblical discussion about the concept of praise, the significance and potential capability of praise in worship, and prepare a theoretical basis by reviewing related books and preceding research materials. Along with this, this researcher obtains statistical data by …

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A Study On Church Growth Through Social Work As A Contact Point Of Community, Young Lee Jul 2017

A Study On Church Growth Through Social Work As A Contact Point Of Community, Young Lee

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The objectives of this study is to provide a vision for developing the churches in South Korea and to develop a method to recover the missional function of churches through non-profit organizations. Although Korean churches have achieved a remarkable growth both quantitatively and qualitatively, they have been busy maintaining their status in an immature fashion, resulting in the loss of their influence around the rapidly diversifying world. This study aims to provide a direction and an alternative for the church to recover its mission and approach to the world by studying the ministry associated with non-profit organizations. In order to …

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Case Studies Of The Participation And Results Of Professional Visitation To Schools By Youth Ministries Of Local Churches In Korea, Young Cho Jul 2017

Case Studies Of The Participation And Results Of Professional Visitation To Schools By Youth Ministries Of Local Churches In Korea, Young Cho

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study is to get results from youth ministry participation in local churches through a school visitation ministry. Youth ministry faces a crisis in Korea because the number of church attendees is decreasing. In fact, the number of church members in Korea is decreasing, but the numbers of people in the youth group are much smaller than other age groups. Thus, the study shows the failure of education from church and home. The researcher experienced this issue in his own church and tried to find alternative methods. Upon closer study, he found hope for a youth …

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Learn Why Some Churches Are Growing, George G. Hunter Iii Jul 2017

Learn Why Some Churches Are Growing, George G. Hunter Iii

Great Commission Research Journal

Donald McGavran’s pioneering contribution to understanding the growth of churches and Christian movements drew from field research in growing churches and Christian movements, in addition to scripture and history. While field research included analysis from observation and the church or movement’s history and statistics, interview research produced the lion’s share of new insights. This article reports some of what has been learned about field interviewing—who to interview, the kinds of questions to plan to ask, the importance of follow up questions, and how to ask questions, manage the interview process, record insights, and reflect on the insights to inform future …

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The Life Of Donald Mcgavran: Founding A School, Gary L. Mcintosh Jul 2017

The Life Of Donald Mcgavran: Founding A School, Gary L. Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

With the Institute of Church Growth in Eugene, Oregon, set to close in June 1965, McGavran was thinking of retiring to his small farm in Oregon. However, his plans changed when he was chosen to become the founding dean of Fuller Theological Seminary’s new School of World Mission and Institute of Church Growth in September of that same year. The story of McGavran’s selection, as well as that of getting Alan Tippett back into the USA, demonstrates God’s miraculous work in bringing about the establishment of the new school.

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Book Review: Race And Theology By Elaine A. Robinson, Aaron Perry Jul 2017

Book Review: Race And Theology By Elaine A. Robinson, Aaron Perry

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

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Entrepreneurial Church Planting, Jay Moon Jul 2017

Entrepreneurial Church Planting, Jay Moon

Great Commission Research Journal

Entrepreneurial church planting (ECP) explores innovative approaches for church planting in the marketplace. This article describes how entrepreneurial church plants leverage the networking and value creation provided by business in order to form communities of Christ followers among unchurched people. Biblical, theological, historical, and missiological support is provided to guide ECP planters. Four contemporary examples provide a paradigm of church planters that are typically suited for this approach to include the artist, social scientist, evangelist, and builder. These examples demonstrate the potential of ECP to break out of limited contexts and plant churches in larger networks of relationships in the …

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Two Models Of Inspiration?: The Challenge Of The Old Testament Narratives, Bernard White Jul 2017

Two Models Of Inspiration?: The Challenge Of The Old Testament Narratives, Bernard White

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"...it is not that the “two-model” view is wrong in seeking to show that inspiration was not always functioning in the same way in the biblical authors. It is simply that it is inadequate: the research model cannot be applied wholesale to the non-prophetic books, even to narratives alone. Short of declaring many of the OT narratives to be fiction, it therefore seems necessary to posit that certain of them, or sections of them, were supernaturally revealed to the authors. The prophetic model, in other words, is far more widespread a phenomenon of Scripture than the “two-model” view would suggest. …

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Atonement In Revelation—Part I: Love, Substitution, Liberation, Doxology, Larry L. Lichtenwalter Jul 2017

Atonement In Revelation—Part I: Love, Substitution, Liberation, Doxology, Larry L. Lichtenwalter

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"Two broad understandings of what atonement signifies in Revelation compete for primacy: 1) whether atonement in Revelation “signifies primarily a sacrificial death that expiates sin and puts humanity right with God”;17 or 2) whether it refers to “the larger cosmological significance of Christ’s death as it relates to the overcoming of evil and the working out of God’s purposes on earth.”18 The former would see atonement as substitutionary19 and thus relating to realities of human sin and the need for personal redemption. This includes both objective and subjective aspects of atonement. The latter would be revelatory, relating primarily to questions …

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Israel As The People Of The Covenant And Dispensationalism: A Biblical Evaluation, Ikechukwu Michael Oluikpe, Kim Papaioanou Jul 2017

Israel As The People Of The Covenant And Dispensationalism: A Biblical Evaluation, Ikechukwu Michael Oluikpe, Kim Papaioanou

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"This article ... is divided into four sections. The first two will survey the biblical context of Israel as God’s covenant people and its implications for the Gentiles in the OT and NT respectively. The third will briefly present the basic theology of Dispensationalism as it relates to Israel and the Church. The fourth will give a biblical evaluation of Dispensationalism’s basic tenets and theology in the light of the covenant theme."

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Miracles And Natural Law: Are They Compatible?, Glauber S. Araujo Jul 2017

Miracles And Natural Law: Are They Compatible?, Glauber S. Araujo

Journal of the Adventist Theological Society

"We have tried here to bring together the contribution of many who saw the incoherence in Hume’s violation theory and have proposed a different view of the universe, where the natural and the supernatural cooperate with each other, maintaining the possibility of miracles. By avoiding Hume’s proposition, they were able to present a worldview of a universe open to divine action, turning the belief in miracles into a reasonable option. Miracles, although naturally impossible, do not need to be understood as opposing natural laws, but can be interpreted as events in nature produced by a supernatural cause, having a spiritual …

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Image And Virtue In Ambrose Of Milan, Andrew Miles Harmon Jul 2017

Image And Virtue In Ambrose Of Milan, Andrew Miles Harmon

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation analyzes Ambrose of Milan’s trinitarian theology and doctrine of human action and argues that a visual logic—that works disclose nature—animates both. Ambrose’s trinitarian theology, on the one hand, trades in scriptural proofs that emphasize the tangible works (opera) of the Son as relevatory of his divinity and indicative of his shared, invisible power with the Father. While Ambrose differs from his Latin and Greek predecessors, he takes up controverted texts in his Christological reflection, many of which are borrowed from anti-monarchian and anti-homoian debates in the several generations prior. To show Ambrose’s consonance with the pre- and pro- …

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Book Review: Form And Object: A Treatise On Things. By Tristan Garcia, Trans. Mark Allan Ohm And Jon Cogburn, ‘Speculative Realism’, Ed. Graham Harman. Pp. Xxv, 462, Edinburgh University Press, 2014, $39.95, Colby Dickinson Jul 2017

Book Review: Form And Object: A Treatise On Things. By Tristan Garcia, Trans. Mark Allan Ohm And Jon Cogburn, ‘Speculative Realism’, Ed. Graham Harman. Pp. Xxv, 462, Edinburgh University Press, 2014, $39.95, Colby Dickinson

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A review of Tristan Garcia's book Form and Object: A Treatise on Things written by Colby Dickinson.

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Book Review: The Fall Out Of Redemption: Writing And Thinking Beyond Salvation In Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, Nancy. By Joseph Acquisto. Pp. 218, London: Bloomsbury, 2015, $110.00, Colby Dickinson Jul 2017

Book Review: The Fall Out Of Redemption: Writing And Thinking Beyond Salvation In Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, Nancy. By Joseph Acquisto. Pp. 218, London: Bloomsbury, 2015, $110.00, Colby Dickinson

Theology: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A review of Joseph Acquisto's book The Fall Out of Redemption: Writing and Thinking Beyond Salvation in Baudelaire, Cioran, Fondane, Agamben, Nancy written by Colby Dickinson.

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The Case To Redress Evangelism In North America, Gary Comer Jul 2017

The Case To Redress Evangelism In North America, Gary Comer

Great Commission Research Journal

This article is a response to a warning made by George Hunter regarding the church’s adherence to its own “folk wisdom.” It explores the question of how the church could change, particularly in how it currently views evangelism, and how church leaders and members are unprepared to face the mission complexity unique to our time. It offers an alternative perspective with methodology that is theologically formed on the pattern of Christ, and built around the notion of spiritual influence. To that end, the kind of research that is most needed is discussed along with ideas on examining existing presuppositions.

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Higher Education As Mission, Lewis Edwards, Kenneth Nehrbass Jul 2017

Higher Education As Mission, Lewis Edwards, Kenneth Nehrbass

Great Commission Research Journal

While missiologists have been paying attention to business as mission, few have studied the value of securing teaching positions in foreign secular universities as a missionary method. This article bases “Higher Education as Mission” on the Apostle Paul’s four-fold taxonomy for reaching the educated and uneducated at home and abroad. Teaching in universities can be a legitimate platform for gaining an entry point in restricted access countries. More than that, as Christian scholars pursue excellence in their own academic fields, they can model to the future elites of societies what it means to follow Jesus in every aspect of our …

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Orthodox Background Believers: Listening And Learning, Cameron D. Armstrong Jul 2017

Orthodox Background Believers: Listening And Learning, Cameron D. Armstrong

Great Commission Research Journal

Evangelical church and organizational leaders in majority-Orthodox Romania often find themselves at a loss in understanding how to conduct outreach to Orthodox people. Often the cultural differences between Orthodox and evangelical Romanian Christians seem impassable. One approach is that of listening and learning from the transformational narratives of evangelical Christians converted out of Orthodoxy. The following article moves in this direction through qualitative analysis of conversion stories by four Romanian Orthodox background believers. Five common themes that arise from the data are discussed. The article concludes by offering an initial “evangelism rubric” to better posture evangelical groups to begin outreach …

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Leading Through Growth: The Role Of The Lead Pastor In The Large Church, Stephen Grusendorf Jul 2017

Leading Through Growth: The Role Of The Lead Pastor In The Large Church, Stephen Grusendorf

Great Commission Research Journal

In order to be an effective leader, the large church lead pastor must recognize and respond to the ever-shifting organizational dynamics of his church. This article highlights the distinctive organizational dynamics of large churches as opposed to churches of other sizes. It will seek to identify the unique responsibilities that leading a large church places on the lead pastor. Finally, this article will describe the particular organizational perils and opportunities present as the lead pastor transitions a church through the various stages of organizational growth.

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Book Review: Growing God’S Church: How People Are Actually Coming To Faith Today By Gary L. Mcintosh, Garrett R. Eaglin Jul 2017

Book Review: Growing God’S Church: How People Are Actually Coming To Faith Today By Gary L. Mcintosh, Garrett R. Eaglin

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

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Book Review: The Benedict Option: A Strategy For Christians In A Post-Christian Nation By Rod Dreher, April Berg Jul 2017

Book Review: The Benedict Option: A Strategy For Christians In A Post-Christian Nation By Rod Dreher, April Berg

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

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Book Review: Church Planting In The Secular West: Learning From The European Experience By Stefan Paas, John P. Thompson Jul 2017

Book Review: Church Planting In The Secular West: Learning From The European Experience By Stefan Paas, John P. Thompson

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

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Black Lives, Sacred Humanity, And The Racialization Of Nature, Or Why America Needs Religious Naturalism Today, Carol W. White Jul 2017

Black Lives, Sacred Humanity, And The Racialization Of Nature, Or Why America Needs Religious Naturalism Today, Carol W. White

Faculty Journal Articles

Embedded in persistent representations of people of African descent as inferior beings or subpar humans are problematic notions of animality, race, and nature in the U.S., or a lethal combination of intimately conjoined white supremacy and species supremacy. Confronting these processes is a model of African American religious naturalism, which presupposes human animals’ deep, inextricable homology with each other and with other natural processes. Building on the ideas of Anna J. Cooper, W. E. B. du Bois, and James Baldwin, this model of religious naturalism emphasizes humans as sacred centers of value and distinct movements of nature itself where deep …

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Ethical Theories And Perspectives On End-Of-Life Decisions, Lauren Skelton Jun 2017

Ethical Theories And Perspectives On End-Of-Life Decisions, Lauren Skelton

Dialogue & Nexus

This paper approaches several different ethical theories to see how they interact with the issue of withdrawing and withholding life-sustaining care. After the theories of Utilitarianism, Kantian and Prima Facie Deontology, Virtue Ethics, and Evolutionary Ethics are explored at length, Deontological theories are proven to be the best decision-making guide from the perspective of both patients and those in policy-making positions. When used together, Kantian and Prima Facie Deontology offer the overall best combination of ethical instruction and personal freedom.

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The Ethical Considerations Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Madeline Jordan Jun 2017

The Ethical Considerations Of Physician-Assisted Suicide, Madeline Jordan

Dialogue & Nexus

With respect to physician-assisted suicide, several approaches to adjudicate an ethical position can be processed from the theories of utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, and virtue ethics. This paper will explore these three positions with respect to physician-assisted suicide and the pros and cons of each. In conclusion, based on my research and Christian beliefs, I will define why I reside with virtue ethics and why it leads me to a position that is against physician-assisted suicide at this particular point in my life.

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Christian And Islamic Perspectives On The Ethical Dilemma Of In Vitro Fertilization (Ivf), Stephanie Sariles Jun 2017

Christian And Islamic Perspectives On The Ethical Dilemma Of In Vitro Fertilization (Ivf), Stephanie Sariles

Dialogue & Nexus

After defining IVF procedures and the associated biomedical ethics with each, I will compare and contrast Christian and Islamic perspectives on IVF. Christianity in general does not accept IVF, because it is an unnatural method of reproduction that can affect Christian traditions such as parenthood and marriage. Despite this view, Protestants, in particular, have opened up to IVF as a method for treating infertility. Islam fully accepts IVF provided the married couple follows Islamic law. Sunni Muslims do not accept gamete donation, but Shi’ite Muslims are more flexible with gamete donation and surrogacy.

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Gadgets And Grieving: A Chronological Analysis On The Ways In Which Advancements In Medical Technologies Have Altered The Grieving Process, Grace Mcnair Jun 2017

Gadgets And Grieving: A Chronological Analysis On The Ways In Which Advancements In Medical Technologies Have Altered The Grieving Process, Grace Mcnair

Dialogue & Nexus

Since the 1940s, both end-of-life care and advancements in medical technologies have expanded exponentially. This article explores the advancements in medical technologies and how these have altered the way that Western society grieves death. With the capabilities to prolong life, the family, the patient, and the medical team, all grieve the end of life in different ways. This article provides a chronological analysis of palliative care, hospice care, and various medical advancements. These changes in medicine are then paralleled with alterations in the bereavement process. This article explores historical narratives of Western society’s transformation of grief through the lens of …

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Ecofeminism: The Path Towards Healing The Earth, Jamie Thompson Jun 2017

Ecofeminism: The Path Towards Healing The Earth, Jamie Thompson

Dialogue & Nexus

The concept of the patriarchy, or any concept in which one group dominates another, is inseparable from the formation of human kind’s domination of nature. This domination of nature has led to the current the ecological crisis humanity faces. Those who deny climate change can admit to the massive amounts of pollution, trash, and deforestation. Despite this worsening economic crisis, those in power have been slow to react. Women can ultimately provide and lead the movement to solve this ecological crisis through the growing movement of Ecofeminism. In the philosophy of Ecofeminism, individuals recognize and reject western dualistic thinking that …

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