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The Philosophy Of Christian Service And Its Practice In The Seventh-Day Adventist Senior Academies Of The United States During The 1979-1980 School Year, Edward M. Norton

Dissertations

Problem. Service-learning in the educational system of the Seventh-day Adventist church in the United States, as is true in public education, generally has been overshadowed by a subject-matter orientation. It was the purpose of this study to determine the level of practice of service to others in the secondary schools of the Adventist church in the United States, to research the principles necessary to write a philosophy of service, and to specify the organizational components required for service projects.

Method. Two types of closely related research were used in this study : descriptive analysis and descriptive developmental. A descriptive analysis …

Perceptions Of The Role Of The Bible Class In Four Christian Liberal Arts Colleges: Considered In The Context Of Conflicting Rationales, Jaime Castrejon

Dissertations

Problem. The four Seventh-day Adventist senior colleges in Inter-America aim at training Christian professionals who will serve the church either directly on its payroll or indirectly as devoted Christian professional laymen. The colleges are doubly challenged to maintain academic excellence while providing spiritual nourishment and commitment. The Bible class is central to this approach to education. Adventist leaders and educators, however, have not given serious study to the questions arising from this practice. No guidelines exist for determining an adequate amount of Bible classes. Each institution sets its own requirements which results in great disparity among them in this regard. …

Aspects Of The Remnant Concept In The Gospel Of Matthew, Edgar A. Johnson

Dissertations

Only some aspects of the remnant concept in the christology and ecclesiology of Matthew are dealt with in this dissertation. Special attention is given to the evangelist's distinctive interpretation of Jesus as the remnant and the conceptual structures (e.g., μαθητἠς, ὲκκλησἰα, μικροἰ, πτωχοἰ, ὲκλεκτοἰ, ὸλἰγοι, and others) that cohere with the remnant concept.

A brief survey of the recent debate on the ecclesiology of Matthew and a statement on the purpose, scope, method, and plan of the dissertation are set forth in the Introduction. The need for a careful analysis which would necessitate a much more inclusive review of the …

Relationship Between Four Temperament Types And Nineteen Spiritual Gifts, Roland L. Joachim

Dissertations

Problem. No studies have been found that examine empirically the possible relationship between temperament and spiritual gifts. Traditionally they have been seen as offspring of discrete disciplines, the former belonging to the realm of psychology and the latter to theology. When some writers recently hypothesized a possible correlation between temperament and spiritual gifts, others discredited the notion.

This study was undertaken to investigate the possible correlation between the traditional four temperament types and a selection of nineteen spiritual gifts of the New Testament.

Method. The data base for this study consisted of 1,067 Christian graduate students and church members from …

Frederick Griggs, Seventh-Day Adventist Educator And Administrator, Arnold Colin Reye

Dissertations

Problem. Frederick Griggs was a pivotal figure in the development of Seventh-day Adventist education. As an administrator he was influential in clarifying educational goals, defining the scope of the educational program, and building the structure and organization necessary to achieve and maintain an educational system. Despite his considerable contribution to Adventist education, there has been no comprehensive investigation of his life.

Method. This study has investigated Grigg's life from the perspective of his work as an educational administrator. A historical-documentary method of research has been used. Major sources have been collections of official correspondence; minutes of committees, boards, and faculties; …

Indonesia Union College : A Historical Study Of A Seventh-Day Adventist Institution, Rajoaman Nainggolan

Dissertations

Problem

The first Seventh-day Adventist training school established in Indonesia was the Netherlands East Indies Training School (Indonesia Union College after 1962) founded in 1929. The school has since grown considerably and achieved university status, but no comprehensive history of it has been written. This lack points to a need for a systematic examination of the development of Seventh-day Adventist higher education in Indonesia. This study reconstructs the history of this institution from 1929 to 1970.

Method

The documentary-historical method, based on published and unpublished materials, was used. Materials included books, periodicals, school bulletins, minutes of the Indonesia Union Mission, …

An Empirical Study Of The Relationship Between Religious Orthodoxy (Defined As Religious Rigidity And Religious Closed-Mindedness) And Marital Sexual Functioning, Stephen Lennard Purcell

Dissertations

Problem

This study attempted to explore whether or not a significant relationship exists between religious orthodoxy (defined as religious rigidity and religious closed-mindedness) and marital sexual functioning.

Methodology

Two Likert-type scales were developed to measure religious orthodoxy and marital sexual functioning, respectively, in a sample of 217 subjects representing Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths. The relationship between the eleven indices of marital sexual functioning (overall marital sexual functioning, sexual interest, responsivity, foreplay, frequency, pleasure, inhibition, anxiety, guilt, shame, and disgust) and religious regidity, religious closed-mindedness, and four moderator variables (sex, age, education, and duration of marriage of subjects) were investigated …

Liturgy And Ritual As Religious Education: Implications For The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, James Bingham

Dissertations

Problem. The act of worship has not been the central focus of the Seventh-day Adventist church. An evangelistic priority has reduced its worship periods to mostly didactic acts, often leaving believers unsatisfied in their desires to worship. Structural deficiencies are evident in the neglect of liturgical and ritualistic matters. The problem is compounded in that the educative forces inherent in liturgical, ritualistic expressions are not well understood.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to analyze the nature of liturgy and ritual in order to better understand their contribution and potential as religious education and their impact upon worship. It …

Seventh-Day Adventists And Original Sin: A Study Of The Early Development Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Understanding Of The Effect Of Adam's Sin On His Posterity, Edwin Harry Zackrison

Dissertations

Problem. In Seventh-day Adventist theology, the doctrine of original sin has received ambivalent treatment. Periodically voices within the church and outside of it have asserted that the doctrine has no part in SDA theology, yet other Christians have insisted that it is a Scriptural doctrine. It was the purpose of the present study to examine the theological roots of Adventism to determine the reasons for and the content of its treatment of the doctrine.

Method. Since Biblical and historical perspectives are indispensable to the critical process of theology, a brief developmental survey was done to reveal trends and models relevant …

Religious Value Transmission Among Seventh-Day Adventist White American Families : A Cognitive Approach To Parental Values And Relationship As Perceived By Youth, Claude M. Villeneuve

Dissertations

Three research questions were examined: (1) What role does cognitive-attribution play in religious value transmission? (2) Is there a generation gap in the religious values of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) families? (3) What is the influence of parental support on value transmission?

The Religious Value Transmission Study (RVTS) questionnaire was developed. The internal reliabilities of the fundamental belief, attitude, and behavior scales was, for each scale, above .80. A factor analysis with a rotation of factors confirmed the construct validity of the scales. A nation-wide random selection of SDA college freshmen and sophomores, and their parents returned 1089 questionnaires representing an …

The Development Of Seventh-Day Adventist Missionary Thought: A Contemporary Appraisal, Børge Schantz

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Biblical Concept Of Man And Its Implications For Christian Religious Instruction, Helmut Ott

Dissertations

Problem

A reliable understanding of the nature of man is essential for the formulation of the theoretical framework and for the actual practice of religious education. The purpose of this dissertation is to make an in-depth study of the biblical concept of man and to elaborate on some of its most significant implications for Christian religious instruction.

Method

The study is divided into two major sections. The first one (chs. 2-4) analyzes the biblical concept of man from three different perspectives; man as he was initially created by God; man in his present condition as a sinner; and man as …

Planning A Needs-Assessment-Based Approach To Continuing Education Programs For Seventh-Day Adventist Clergy In The Eastern Africa Division, Baraka G. Muganda

Dissertations

Problem. This study attempts to determine the extent to which the needs-assessment-based approach to educational planning can be validated and used in planning continuing-education programs for the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) ministers serving in the Eastern Africa Division (EAD).

Method. The sample of the population for this study was drawn from the SDA clergy and a selected group of laity in the EAD. The data were gathered through a two-part questionnaire. The first part sought the demographic profiles of respondents. The second part was designed to enable the respondents to rank each one of the thirty items for preparation and importance. …

A Comparative Study Between The Black And White Seventh-Day Adventist Seminarians Concerning Their Attitudes And Perceptions Of Their Ministry Relative To Selected Social And Theological Issues, Byron P. Napper

Dissertations

Problem

The integration of theological studies with the practical aspects of the ministry is a desirable goal which the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church seeks to nurture within its seminary. The problem this study addresses is the lack of available data which answer questions related to how the Black and White SDA seminarians approach their ministry in areas of selected social and theological issues. Empirical data were not found to assess the relationship between one's race, age, community, church location, religion and one's response or attitude concerning his social involvement.

Method

From a list provided by the SDA Theological Seminary, 244 …

A Statistical Model For Seventh-Day Adventist White English-Speaking Church Growth In The United States, Des Cummings

Dissertations

Problem. Until 1983 there was no statistical model for projecting church growth among white English-speaking Seventh-day Adventist churches in the United States. The purpose of this study was to identify a forecasting model based on the variables that were gathered from pastor and local church reports. Thegeneral hypothesis was that a significant predictive relationship existed between some combination of report variable/factors and the rate of church growth or decline. This hypothesis was subdivided into four specific hypotheses.

Method. One hundred forty-five churches were randomly selected from the white English-speaking churches in the United States. The financial, membership, pastor, and Sabbath …

Liturgical Order And Glossolalia: 1 Corinthians 14:26c-33a And Its Implications, William E. Richardson

Dissertations

Problem. Though the practice of glossolalia, understood as continuing the phenomenon described in 1 Corinthians 14, has spread through both Catholic and Protestant denominations, it has remained something of a puzzle among Christians, some of whom regard it as a mark of genuine faith, while others look upon it as a repellent distraction. Inasmuch as 1 Cor 14:26c-33a highlight and summarize the directives by which Paul sought to regulate the practice among the Corinthians, a careful exegesis of these verses provides a basis upon which the topic of glossolalia in the chapter as a whole might be most clearly explicated …

The Meaning Of Telos In Romans 10:4, Robert Badenas

Dissertations

This study attempts to resolve the ambiguity surrounding the meaning of ‘telos’ in Rom 10:4 and to provide philological criteria for the understanding of this term.

Chapter I indicates clearly that a considerable shift has occurred in the history of the interpretation of ‘telos’ in Rom 10:4. The early church and the Reformers understood this verse in a teleological/completive sense: as a statement of the fulfillment of the law in Christ in a prophetic as well as purposive signification. However, since the post-Reformation era and particularly since the nineteenth century the terminal/temporal/antinomian interpretations have prevailed. Rom 10:4 has been generally …

Toward A Criticism Of Theological Reason : Time And Timelessness As Primordial Presuppositions, Fernando Luis Canale

Dissertations

This investigation studies the possibility of developing a theological criticism of Christian theological reason. The investigation proceeds by developing a phenomenological analysis of three major contexts within which reason has been interpreted and utilized by Christian theology for the constitution of its exegetical and systematic formulations: the philosophical, theological, and Biblical contexts. The philosophical context shows that the structure of reason requires the interpretation of Being's dimensionality which determines its basic meaning and functioning. Moreover, it shows that Being's dimensionality has been interpreted in two ways: as timeless and as temporal.

The theological context, through the analysis of reason's procedures …

A Study Of Selected Variables Dealing With Continuing Education Interests Of Seventh-Day Adventist Pastors And Judicatory In The North American Division, Penny Shell

Dissertations

Background and Purpose of the Study. The study grew out of an increased Seventh-day Adventist interest in continuing education for ministry in the church's North American Division. This interest had generally been accompanied by a lack of current data for careful planning and development of resources. As a needs assessment, the study sought opinions on continuing education for ministry from the pastors, the local conference presidents, and the local conference ministerial directors in the North American division. The four specific areas covered by the study were (1) subject-matter preferences, (2) learning-situation preferences, (3) motivations, and (4) obstacles. Also covered were …

A Study Of Teacher Motivation In Five Selected Seventh-Day Adventist Colleges In The United States, Allen F. Stembridge

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to determine what positive and negative motivating factors affect teachers at Seventh-day Adventist colleges, to determine if these factors are different for public university teachers as identified in a similar study by Morgan, and to determine what factors influenced teachers to accept an appointment at an Adventist college.

Method. Respondents were asked to describe positive or negative incidents that related to their jobs as teachers and to answer twenty forced-choice-structured questions to indicate their level of satisfaction of dissatisfaction. The critical incidents were coded within a set of categories adapted for …

The Implications Of The Piagetian Stages To Readiness For Baptism, Daniel Gutekunst

Dissertations

The Problem. This study was designed to discover how children from Seventh-day Adventist families react to their baptism after the event. Do they feel that they were "ready" at the time of baptism? Do they think they understood the Bible doctrines when they were baptized? Which people and factors influenced them in their decision? Have these children reached cognitive maturity according to the Formal Operations stage in Piagetian terms, the stage at which children are accountable for their decisions.

Method. A questionnaire of thirty-three questions was given to children in selected Adventist schools who had been baptized between June 1972 …

Liberation Theology's Use Of The Exodus As A Soteriological Model, Atilio Rene Dupertuis

Dissertations

This investigation studies the soteriology of Latin American liberation theology particularly in the light of its use of the Exodus as a liberation model.

Chapter I briefly traces the historical and theological developments in the continent, from its discovery to the present, in an effort to provide a better understanding of the circumstances and currents of thought which led to the emergence of liberation theology.

Chapter II shows that liberation theology takes its starting point from a decided commitment to create a new and more human society, through the radical change of the present unjust social order seen as oppressive …

Goodloe Harper Bell, Pioneer Seventh-Day Adventist Christian Educator, Allan G. Lindsay

Dissertations

The Seventh-day Adventist church operates a worldwide system of Christian education. The pioneer educator who played a most significant part in laying its foundations was Goodloe Harper Bell (1832-1899).

Bell was a public school teacher in central Michigan from 1851 through 1866. He became a Seventh-day Adventist in 1867 and was subsequently invited to open a small private school in Battle Creek, Michigan. The success attending this school encouraged the church to employ Bell as the first teacher to operate a denominationally sponsored school in 1872. The school became Battle Creek College in 1875. Until 1882, Bell taught a variety …

A Seventh-Day Adventist Concept Of The Kingdom Of God And Its Implication For Religious Education, Alvinus Desmond Bhola

Dissertations

Problem. While there are statements in the writings of Ellen G. White and those of Seventh-day Adventistscholars that seem to indicate that there is a relationship between the kingdom of God and education, it appears that no major work has been done to show, in a systematic manner, the relationship between the Adventist concept of the kingdom and its philosophy of education. The purpose of this study was to find what relationship exists between the SDA concept of the kingdom and its philosophy of education.

Method. This study, which is documentary in nature, is essentially a typological classification research effort. …

Resource Allocation In Seventh-Day Adventist Elementary Schools: An Educational Production Function Study, Gerald Alan Brown

Dissertations

Problem. Scarce resources and declining student achievement, heighten the need for schools to examine the resource allocation function more closely than ever to ensure that resources are being used most effectively. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of selected school controlled variables on student achievement in Seventh-day Adventist elementary schools and to develop guidelines for the resource allocation function relative to these selected variables.

Method. Thirty schools on both grades three and six served as the population sample. Achievement scores were used as the determiner of school effectiveness. Three basic multiple regression procedures were used in …

The Nearness And The Delay Of The Parousia In The Writings Of Ellen G. White, Ralph E. Neall

Dissertations

The writings of Ellen G. White, pioneer leader of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, exhibit two apparently contradictory streams or thought on the time of the parousia. On one hand she wrote that the time of Christ's coming is fixed by God and will occur soon; on the other, that He has been delayed by the church's failures to preach the gospel and live holy lives. Her point of entry into eschatological thought was the prediction of William Miller that Christ would return in 1844, rooted in the time prophecies of Daniel and summarized in the three angels' messages of Rev …

The Impact Of Student Evaluative Feedback On The Perception Of The Teaching Faculty At Andrews University, Edmund Siagian

Dissertations

Problem. Educational researchers have little consensus of opinion regarding the usefulness of student evaluations and much less of the use of student evaluative feedback as a means of improving teachers' performance. However, because a movement of educational accountability pervades institutions of higher learning and administrators desire to keep students content, many school administrators periodically assess the performance of their teaching faculty by student evaluation. This study investigates the impact of student evaluative feedback on the perception of the teaching faculty at Andrews University, with the hope that the findings may help resolve whether student evaluation is helpful for improvement of …

William Warren Prescott, Seventh-Day Adventist Educator, Gilbert M. Valentine

Dissertations

Problem. William Warren Prescott, 1855-1944, was one of the most influential educators of the Seventh-day Adventist church. As a religious educator he also served the church as preacher, writer, editor, and administrator. His influence on the church was extensive but until now there has been no comprehensive investigation of his life or evaluation of his contribution to the church.

Method. This study investigated Prescott's life from the perspective of his work as a religious educator. It has used the documentary-historical method of research. Major sources included the extensive official correspondence in the Archives of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists …

Nonclassroom Teacher-Student Association In Seventh-Day Adventist Academies In The Northern And Central California Conferences, John G. Kerbs

Dissertations

Problem. Nonclassroom teacher-student relationships were studied in the secondary-school setting with regard to their occurrence; their perceived value, adequacy, and effects; their preferred forms or types; and the perceived barriers to teacher-student association.

Method. This was a descriptive study employing survey research. A 53-item questionnaire was completed by 671 senior students, full-time teachers, and principals in the eleven SDA academies and two boarding academies in the Northern and Central California Conferences. The data from the questionnaires were summarized--totaling responses and calculating percentages, means, and standard deviations. Comparisons were made and some differences were evaluated by applying t tests, accepting .05 …

Usage Of Archaeological Data In North American Seventh-Day Adventist Literature, 1937-1980, Lloyd A. Willis

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to determine how archaeological data have been used in Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) literature of North America since the first SDA attained advanced qualifications in the discipline (1937). The early twentieth-century SDA literature showed a strong tendency to apply archaeological information apologetically especially in defense of Scriptural reliability and sometimes seeming to imply that Scripture is reliable because archaeology has declared it so. The thesis was that increased expertise as heralded by the formal training of such SDA scholars as L. H. Wood, E. R. Thiele, S. H. Horn, and their successors, would introduce a …