Religion Commons^™

A Faithful Band: Moses Mahlangu And The First Soweto Saints, Richard E. Turley Jr., Jeffrey G. Cannon

BYU Studies

The faith of the African Saints is legendary, and the story of one man is often repeated to illustrate that faith. Moses Mahlangu waited many years from his introduction to the Book of Mormon sometime in the 1960s until his baptism in 1980. Two significant factors led to his long wait: (1) the laws and attitudes in South Africa affecting race relations and (2) a priesthood restriction of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints regarding people of black1 African lineage. Through it all, Mahlangu and several others who had been converted through their reading of the Book of …

Almost A Psalm, About Inheritance, Benjamin Blackhurst

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

From Darkness Unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation And Publication Of The Book Of Mormon, Steven L. Olsen

BYU Studies

Michael Hubbard MacKay and Gerrit J. Dirkmaat. From Darkness unto Light: Joseph Smith's Translation and Publication of the Book of Mormon.

Provo, Utah: BYU Religious Studies Center; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2015.

Empathy And The Atonement, Tyler Johnson

BYU Studies

Even as an incurable optimist, I can see the world is often drenched in suffering.

Why And How Did Karl G. Maeser Leave Saxony?: New Documents Offer New Insights, Roger P. Minert

BYU Studies

History and family history are frequently characterized by legends and traditions, some of which turn out to be inaccurate under scrutiny. For example, Roger Minert’s great-grandfather was said to have been a professor of modern and classical languages at the University of Cologne in Germany; he knew seven languages. Yet he managed to live as an immigrant farmer in Oregon for twenty years and die without having learned English. Careful research led to the discovery that he was actually the son of a farmer and grandson of a farmer in the town of Wylatkowo in the Prussian province of Posen, …

An 1860 English-Hopi Vocabulary Written In The Deseret Alphabet, Brian D. Stubbs

BYU Studies

Kenneth R. Beesley and Dirk Elzinga. An 1860 English-Hopi Vocabulary Written in the Deseret Alphabet.

Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2015.

Full Issue

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Fawad And Zakeela, Fawad, Zakeela, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Fawad and his wife, Zakeela, have three children. Zakeela was a beautician, and Fawad was a singer in the Baghlan district in Afghanistan. The music he produced was not in accordance with the strict restrictions of the Taliban. They threatened his life and assaulted him many times, so he decided to leave with his family to Kabul. Fawad’s day job was as an FM radio producer; at night, he moonlighted as a singer and musician. He produced music for ceremonies and weddings, often performing for the women’s part, which the Taliban did not accept. Eventually, his life was again threatened, …

Faroosh And Elina, Faroosh, Elina, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Faroosh was a cameraman for a private television program in Afghanistan working on a documentary about the Taliban. When he and his crew were discovered, the Taliban attacked them and he and his wife fled to Turkey, walking 12 hours to get there. Upon arrival the police arrested and harassed them. Turkey was not a safe place. After several suicide bombings in the area, they decided to move on to Greece, where they are in a refugee camp without any progress in their situation. They have no money to move forward and no ability to work and the economic situation …

Reading 1 Peter Intertextually With Select Passages From The Old Testament, Taylor Halverson

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Literary studies, especially intertextual approaches, are relevant for exploring how scriptures are constructed and interpreted. Reading 1 Peter intertextually reveals the thoughtful way that Peter selected suitable, relevant, and applicable Old Testament scripture to encourage faithfulness for his audience. Peter draws from Isaiah 40 in 1 Peter 1:24-25 to preach comfort; Isaiah 40 is one of the hallmark Old Testament chapters focused on comfort. 1 Peter 2:2-3 quotes from Psalm 34 which is a hymn dedicated to the salvation that God’s servants experience when they faithfully turn to Him during times of distress and persecution. And when 1 Peter 1:16 …

Hubristic Specialists: Catholic Responses To Higher Biblical Criticism, Candida R. Moss

Studies in the Bible and Antiquity

Understanding the history of biblical criticism as it takes place within specific denominational contexts is, to my mind, interesting not only to members of those groups, but also to anyone who wants to understand the history of the guild and the history of scholarship, as well as those who want to understand the history of ecclesial relations with the academy.

Faith In A Changing Planet: The Role Of Religious Leaders In The Fight For A Livable Climate, Morissa Zuckerman

Pitzer Senior Theses

Progressive religious leaders are playing an increasingly important role in the effort to combat climate change. Through a combination of unstructured in-depth interviews and primary source analysis, this thesis highlights nine U.S. religious leaders from various denominations of Christianity, Judaism and Islam who are actively involved in working on climate issues. Drawing on literature in social movement theory, I explore how clergy are uniquely influential in climate issues because of the organizational advantage and moral authority they hold through their positions as religious leaders, granting them the ability to highlight social justice implications of climate change with distinctive legitimacy. Clergy …

New Perspectives On The Northampton Communion Controversy Iv: Experience Mayhew’S Dissertation On Edwards’S Humble Inquiry, Douglas L. Winiarski

Religious Studies Faculty Publications

This fourth installment in a series exploring newly discovered manuscripts relating to the “Qualifications Controversy” that drove Edwards from his Northampton pastorate presents an unpublished oppositional dissertation by Experience Mayhew, a prominent eighteenth-century Indian missionary from Martha’s Vineyard. Next to Solomon Stoddard, Mayhew was Edwards’s most important theological target during the conflict. Where Edwards pressed toward precision in defining the qualifications for admission to the Lord’s Supper, Mayhew remained convinced that the standards for membership in New England’s Congregational churches should encompass a broad range of knowledge and experience. His rejoinder to Edwards’s Humble Inquiry provides a rare opportunity to …

Entering Into Dialogue With Pope Francis' Laudato Si: On Care For Our Common Home, Sarah Jeanne Shimer

Honors Theses

Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home brings together the spheres of science and religion. In this document, Francis puts forth a call for action towards religious and non-religious communities alike to address climate change. The strength of the document lies in the way Francis expresses his call. By drawing on scientific and religious tradition, he situates the encyclical in a broader conversation about the moral obligation for humans to care for the environment. This thesis explores the reception of Laudato Si by religious and environmental communities through political cartoons, written critiques, and personal interviews. …

Making And Training Disciples Of Christ Using The Pursuit Of "Life... To The Full" As The Catalyst For Mission In High Springs Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Mark Swaisgood

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Task

In the Spring of 2012, the High Springs Seventh-day Adventist Church had about 29% of its membership "active in ministry," meaning these members were involved in "ministry activities outside of Sabbath morning" or they served in "leadership responsibilities during Sabbath school and worship time" (i.e. I did not consider mere attendance as "active in ministry"). Approximately 9% of the membership was "missionally engaged," meaning they were participating in activities through "service to others outside of our denominational affiliation" (I considered serving people within our church membership as "active in ministry" not "missionally engaged"). The goal of this project was …

A Cross-Centered Evangelistic Preaching Strategy For The Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Canelas, Portugal, Daniel F. M. Gouveia

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Bible reveals that evangelistic preaching must be Christ-centered and cross-centered (1 Cor 2:2). However, in recent years the evangelistic series in the Seventh-day Adventist Church of Canelas have been mainly of a doctrinal nature. As a consequence, my pastoral observation indicates that attendance, baptisms, and decisions for future baptisms at the end of the meetings are few. One of the factors that contributes to this condition is the lack of evangelistic preaching that focuses on the love of God revealed in the cross of Christ.

Method

A cross-centered evangelistic preaching strategy was developed in order to present the …

Developing The Educating For Discipleship Model To Be Used In Sabbath School In South Korea, Sun Il Kim

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Sabbath School is designed to be a system in which people are engaged in the process of becoming disciples, however, the church tends to operate in a formal and mechanical manner. As a result, the Sabbath School cannot be an agency to produce Christ’s disciples and the church cannot be a community of discipleship. Both of these conditions can be addressed by attending to the health of the faith community which allows the process of discipleship to accomplish transformation of the members of the community. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has Sabbath School, which is a great system for the …

Using Illustrations And Storytelling Via Incarnational Ministry To Reach Post-Christian Young Adults, David J. Resendes

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Post-Christian young adults are generally not interested in Christianity and therefore are unlikely to attend church or hear preaching. Therefore, a preaching strategy must be developed and implemented to reach post-Christian young adults in their setting.

Method

The subjects of the study were 24 young adult males from the community who attended the weekly open-gym basketball outreach. They ranged in age from 16 to 34 and were of various races and some of mixed race. All were born and raised in the United States and spoke English. Of these subjects only two were from the church I pastor. One …

Seminario Para Fortalecer La Vida Devocional De Los Jovenes De La Iglesia Adventista Centra De Miami, Bernardo Rodriguez Trivino

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The task of this project was to develop, implement and evaluate a seminar to fortify the devotional life (Bible study, prayer, and Christian witnessing) of young people of the Central Miami Adventist Church. A study undertaken with a stratified random sample (organizing the whole population into groups and then taking a random sample) of 1,544 Seventh-day Adventist young people revealed four basic deficiencies: Social relationships within the church, devotional life, pressure from secularism, and apostasy. These deficiencies bear the potential of negatively affecting the church’s mission. A statistical analysis of the results of these surveys reveals that a consistent …

Reviving Family Worship In The Rocky Mountain Indonesian Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Purasa Marpaung

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Seventh-day Adventist immigrants struggle to maintain Indonesian Adventist family worship practices in the process of assimilating to the United States culture. In particular, the family worship practices of the Rocky Mountain Indonesian Seventh-day Adventist Church have been adapted to fit the American environment and lifestyle. The practical family worship activities that were an essential component of the culture and identity of the people of Indonesian heritage are disappearing through exposure to new ideas and methods of worship. This lack of family worship in immigrant families must be addressed through cultural as well as theological perspectives.

Method

Couples, with at …

A Training Program For Non-Chaplain And Volunteer Chaplains Conducting Spiritual Care At Feather River Hospital In Paradise, California, Brad B. Brown

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Responsibilities of chaplain services at Feather River Hospital (FRH) primarily include completing its mission of whole-person care by providing spiritual and emotional support to the patients and staff. However, the challenge of meeting this goal historically is due to insufficient funding to hire adequate staff chaplains to provide this service. Per conversation with fellow chaplains of other hospitals, this same staffing challenge in meeting the spiritual and emotional component of whole-person care is consistent. However, there is a potential solution. Staff and community volunteers with a spiritual bent have shown interest in filling this gap of spiritual and emotional …

Equipping The Members To Lead Cell Groups Into Emotional Health In The Nonsan Seventh-Day Adventist Church In South Korea, Kyungbo Byun

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Korean society is in a state of serious emotional distress. This is evidenced by the fact that South Korea had the highest suicide rate among the 34 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for the years 2002-2013. Despite this alarming state of affairs, there has been no extensive or long-term plan incorporated into the discipleship and small group ministries of the Nonsan Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Korea to equip the members with the skill to improve their emotional health. If the members could be equipped with such skills, they would be empowered with …

A Strategy For Planting Missional Churches To Include And Disciple The Postmodern People In The South Of Brazil, Natal Gardino

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

In spite of the fact that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is growing in Brazil, the traditional evangelistic methods have not significantly reached people with a postmodern worldview, who (in this country) are generally younger, wealthier, and more educated. This present study was to mobilize the churches in the South of Brazil with information and strategies to include postmodern people in their evangelistic efforts both in the local church and in new planted churches as well.

Method

Curitiba Central Church was informed about the reality of the contemporaneous worldview, and leaders of the church and volunteers were trained, making the …

Transitioning The Waldorf Seventh-Day Adventist Church To An Integrated Multiethnic/Multicultural Ministry, Kleyton Feitosa

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

Charles County, Maryland, is an ethnically and culturally diverse community. The only two Seventh-day Adventist churches in the county are mono-ethnic – one White and one African-American – and do not reflect the multiethnic composition of the community. In the beginning of this study the Waldorf Church had the following ethnic composition: 81% White and 19% of all other major ethnic groups. According to the U.S. Census Bureau (2008), Waldorf city was made up of 40.6% White and 59.4% of all other groups combined. In light of this reality, being a monoethnic White church presented significant church growth challenges …

Creating A Leader Development Strategy For Lay Church Plant Leaders In The Texas Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Elton Demoraes

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Texas Conference has a strong emphasis on church planting. Since 2001 more than 115 churches have been planted throughout the conference. This rapid growth was possible because 107 of those churches were started by lay planters supported by an assigned coach. However, after studying the Texas Conference Church Plant database, we discovered that only 45% have experienced growth and 55% have plateaued or are declining. It appears that the reasons for this difference may be the lack of adequate coaching and training for the lay leader to enable effective leadership in the church plant.

Methodology

A leadership development …

Developing The Whole Student: Campus Ministry's Impact On Spiritual Development, Zachary D. Samples

Masters Theses

College students at both public and private institutions across the country are involved in campus ministry organizations; however, not much is known about how such involvement translates into the students' faith and spiritual development. This study aimed to gain a better understanding of how students are involved in campus ministry organizations, how faith and spiritual development is affected, and how students are generally impacted by campus ministry organization involvement. The researcher conducted six interviews with juniors and seniors involved in three different campus ministry organizations. Results showed that participants have grown in their faith and spirituality through membership in campus …

Islamic Law And Constitution-Making: The Authoritarian Temptation And The Arab Spring, Mohammad Fadel

Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper Series

The political dynamics that have characterized post-Mubarak Egypt have often been understood to be a battle between "religious" forces, represented by the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters, and "secularist" forces, represented by a diverse group of civil society actors. Opposition of this latter group to the "religious" politics of the Muslim Brotherhood is therefore understood to be the primary cause of the events that led to the July 3, 2013 military coup that overthrew Egypt's only freely elected President, Mohammed Morsi. Without denying the salience of a religious-secularist divide in Egypt, this narrative of post-Mubarak politics fails to appreciate the …

Beyond Mindfulness: Expanding Integration Of Spirituality And Religion Into Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Since the publication of Bergin’s classic 1980 paper “Psychotherapy and Religious Values” in the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology, an enormous amount of quality research has been conducted on the integration of religious and spiritual values and perspectives into the psychotherapy endeavor. Numerous empirical studies, chapters, books, blogs, and specialty organizations have emerged in the past 35 years that have helped researchers and clinicians alike come to appreciate the value of religion and spirituality in the psychotherapeutic process. While so much has been accomplished in this area of integration, so much more needs to occur in order for the …

The Prince Of Colored Preachers, E. T. Tindley

Books

No abstract provided.

Prison And The Bible: Current Practices And Reflections From Isaiah, Edward Allen Jones Iii

Faculty Publications - George Fox Digital

There is wide agreement today that our prison system is fraught with problems. Opinion associates prisons with overcrowding, racism, human debasement, and with an inability to accomplish the reduction of crime. Further, there is also a partial antipathy ascribed to the general populace. Practically, citizens want governmental systems to provide for our security. Ideologically, there is a sense that leniency is foolhardy. However, as religious communities often equate crime with sin writ large, there is also a need to pursue wholeness in society. One way to do this is by reflecting on how punishment, prison in this case, can relate …