Religion Commons^™

Holistic Approach To Mental Illnesses At The Toby Of Ambohibao Madagascar, Daniel A. Rakotojoelinandrasana

Doctor of Ministry Theses

The Church is to reclaim its teaching and praxis of the healing ministry at the example of Jesus Christ who preached, taught and healed. Healing is holistic, that is, caring for the whole person, physical, mental, social and spiritual. Healing is a part of the full salvation in Jesus Christ.

Mental illnesses or disorders affect one fourth of human beings in the world and their prevalence is far from declining. This thesis describes the model of Ambohibao and suggests it as a way for the church to do healing ministry, and particularly, as a way to approach the problems of …

Sobre Universos Y Teologías: Schleiermacher Y La Cuestión Cosmológica, Guillermo C. Hansen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comedy, Humor, And The Gospel Of John, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hebrews, Rhetoric, And The Future Of Humanity, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Divine Foreknowledge And The Arrow Of Time: On The Impossibility Of Retrocausation, Alan G. Padgett

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Theology As Worship: The Place Of Theology In A Postmodern University, Alan G. Padgett

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jesus The Way, The Cross, And The World According To The Gospel Of John, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

According to the internal logic of John's Gospel, Jesus' claim to be "the way, the truth, and the life" is a remarkably inclusive statement, with none of the exclusive character sometimes attributed to it.

Law And The Danger Of Freedom, Steven D. Paulson

Faculty Publications

Proposing a “third use of the law”—a law for Christians after faith—arises from a fear of freedom. It is finally a christological problem, since Christ put an end to the law not only in himself but also in us.

Opening The Front Door: Designing A Usable Library Web Site, Andrew Keck

Faculty Publications

The library website is a significant access point to a library’s collections, resources, and services. A website can and should provide information about the library in a way that can be efficiently navigated and used by all library patrons. The usability of a library website can be improved through changes in organization and design informed by the experiences of real users. User expectations should be primary in determining the content, purpose, organization, and design of the site.

"Through Many Tears" (2 Cor. 2:4): Paul's Grieving Letter And The Occasion Of 2 Corinthians 1-7, David E. Fredrickson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Remnant Church, Randall Otto

Journal for Christian Theological Research

The invisible church idea is an apologetic device developed by the Reformers to comply with the creeds’ statements concerning a “catholic church” and is based on a conception of individual election that itself may need revision. The Reformed doctrine of an invisible church has no basis in the OT or NT, for in both it is those who unite and persevere in faithful obedience with God through his mediator in the covenant community who are saved. The invisible church should thus be replaced with remnant church, for the remnant is the ecclesiola in ecclesia which public demonstrates election in saving …

The Doctrine Of The Trinity In John Wesley’S Prose And Poetic Works, Seng-Kong Tan

Journal for Christian Theological Research

One may easily judge John Wesley’s pietistic and anti-rationalistic Christianity to be an encumbrance toward a well-developed doctrine of the Trinity. That Wesley produced very limited systematic treatment on the subject augments the assumption that his theology, though implicitly trinitarian in general is, nonetheless, superficial in its ontology, and thereby, tends toward a subjective functionalism. This essay argues against such a pre-understanding, and appeals for an “organic” appreciation of John Wesley’s broad body of prose and poetical works, in order to recognize the solid doctrine of the immanent Trinity that is foundational to his soteriology. As a judicious editor of …

Testing Models Of The Incarnation: From Revelation To Historical Science, Alan G. Padgett

Journal for Christian Theological Research

Is it proper for the results of science to influence Christian theology? If so, on what grounds? I argue that science can and should influence theology, and give the example of historical investigation into Jesus (historical science) and Christology (theology). Proof, coherence and informal support are the three logical ways of relating data to theories. Abandoning proof, and assuming coherence, we look at the notions of abduction and retroduction (informal support á la C. S. Peirce) as models for the history-theology relationship. Among the theologians, I explicitly follow Basil Mitchell and Reinhold Niebuhr on the relationship between faith and history, …

Evidence For A Resurrection, Phillip H. Wiebe

Journal for Christian Theological Research

Most discussions of the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus do not pay sufficient attention to the question of what evidence would be needed for an "ordinary" resurrection (a resuscitation). The criteria for establishing a resuscitation include showing (a) that a person truly died, (b) that the resuscitated person's corpse no longer exists, and (c) that the resuscitated person was seen after his or her supposed resuscitation. The difficulties of traditional attempts to defend the Resurrection are shown to hinge on the limited amount of evidence available in the New Testament for these three conditions. The possible value of the …

Dissolving The Inerrancy Debate: How Modern Philosophy Shaped The Evangelical View Of Scripture, John Perry

Journal for Christian Theological Research

The debate among American evangelicals over scriptural inerrancy has received less attention in recent literature than it did during its height in the 1970s and 1980s. Nonetheless the issue itself remains unresolved; indeed, many consider it beyond hope of resolution. Recent work by certain philosophers, however, suggests that there is a way out -- not by resolving the debate but by dissolving it. In particular, a model developed by Nancey Murphy for understanding the history of the split between Protestant liberals and conservatives can be appropriated for understanding the history of the inerrancy debate. Examining the history of …

Making Our Home In The Works Of God: Lutherans On The Civil Use Of The Law, Marie A. Failinger, Patrick R. Keifert

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Burning Our Lamps With Borrowed Oil: The Liturgical Use Of The Psalms And The Life Of Faith, Rolf A. Jacobson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Media Literacy As A Support For The Development Of A Responsible Imagination In Religious Community, Mary E. Hess, Mary E. Hess

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Return Of The Congregation: Missional Warrants, Patrick R. Keifert

Faculty Publications

The new era of mission in North America warrants the return of the congregation as the primal location of the study of theology at every level of theological education, including schools of theology.

Amatory Motifs In Paul's Epistle To The Galatians, David E. Fredrickson

Faculty Publications

Paul uses familiar amatory terms to speak of the exclusivity of three critical relationships: the apostle and the Galatian congregations, Paul and Christ, and Christ and the congregations.

Using The Levels Of Family Involvement Model With Religious Professionals, Dale R. Hawley, Carla M. Dahl

Faculty Publications

Serving as a religious professional is a complex task with a wide variety of demands and responsibilities. This variety contributes to a professional identity that requires the fulfillment of a number of roles. The Levels of Family Involvement (LFI) model (W. J. Doherty, 1995) offers a structure for helping clergy ascertain which roles may be most beneficial to a family in a given set of circumstances, as well as which roles are beyond their training and mission. The LFI is offered as a guideline for helping clergy select modes of intervention and identify areas for personal and professional development. Case …

Natural And Unnatural Use In Romans 1:24-27: Paul And The Philosophic Critique Of Eros, David E. Fredrickson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Communication, Consolation And Discipline: Two Early Lutheran Preachers On Confession, Mary Jane Haemig

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review: A Review Of God And Contemporary Science, By Philip Clayton, Lewis S. Ford

Journal for Christian Theological Research

This is a book review of God and Contemporary Science by Philip Clayton.

Theodicy As A "Lived Question:" Moving Beyond A Theoretical Approach To Theodicy, Todd Billings

Journal for Christian Theological Research

The thesis of this essay is that the theodicy question should be configured as a "lived question" for Christians, an open question, which affects the shape of Christian practice. Building upon the work of Terrence Tilley and Kenneth Surin, who chronicle the perils of disconnecting theodicy reflection from questions of practice, this essay seeks to articulate a Christian framing of the theodicy question in which confession and practice are configured as a mutually forming dialectic. The result is that compassionate action is rendered as a way of protesting against the present state of violence, asking with the sufferer, "my God, …

From Thinking To Religion: The Opening Of Ideality In 19th Century Protestant Thought, Jeffrey W. Robbins

Journal for Christian Theological Research

In this essay, I argue for a philosophical continuity and progression to Protestant religious thought in the Nineteenth Century. More specifically, I center on the work of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Sören Kierkegaard, all of whom are Protestant Christians concerned with maintaining the worth of religion in a culture grown skeptical. The essay argues that it is the great value of Kierkegaard as a religious thinker that he provides a way beyond the conditions and strictures placed on thought by those "defenders of faith' who came before him. Kierkegaard does this by enfranchising a kind of thinking that might …

Orthos Logos, Recta Ratio: Pope John Paul Ii, Nihilism, And Postmodern Philosophy, Michael Peters

Journal for Christian Theological Research

Pope John Paul II's encyclical letter, Fides et Ratio, delivered in Rome at Saint Peter's, on 14 September 1998, is the first encyclical to address the relationship between faith and reason, and other matters philosophical, for over a hundred years. Pope John Paul II suggests that, in the history of philosophy, postmodernism appears as a form of nihilism, resulting from the crisis of rationalism. He argues for a new dialogue between theology and philosophy to recover authentic wisdom and truth. This article reviews and discusses the argument of the letter, briefly sketching the Pope's argument concerning the relationship of the …

Nature Dis-Graced And Grace De-Natured: The Problematic Of The Augustinian Doctrine Of Grace For Contemporary Theology, D. Lyle Dabney

Journal for Christian Theological Research

Contemporary theologians, as one of their number has commented, have turned from a theology of the Word to a theology of the world. After a period during the first half of the twentieth century in which theologians concerned themselves primarily with questions of their discipline's identity and character, they have in recent years turned to address as a matter of first principle the physical, the social, and the political issues in the world about them. In the course of this effort to shift theological direction, a number of fundamental issues have been raised which have yet to be fully examined. …

Free Speech In Pauline Political Theology, David E. Fredrickson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Luther On The Hidden God, Steven D. Paulson

Faculty Publications

It is not so much that God cannot be seen that concerns Luther, but that God actually and actively hides. God hides in order not to be found where humans want to find God. But God also hides in order to be found where God wills to be found.