Religion Commons^™

Front Matter

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Review Of Why Liberals Win (Even Win They Lose Elections): How America’S Raucous, Nasty, And Mean ‘Culture Wars’ Make For A More Inclusive Nation, By Stephen Prothero, Neil J. Young

Mormon Studies Review

Depending on how one feels about the 2016 election, reading a book titled Why Liberals Win (Even When They Lose Elections) might seem like either a deluded endeavor or much-needed balm. In his latest work, Stephen Prothero argues that liberals stand on the victorious side of history, if not always the ballot box, because they have won every culture war battle since the nation’s founding. Liberals win, Prothero contends, because conservatives launch culture wars to preserve a way of life that has already begun to change, an ill-fated effort that cannot turn back the progressive forces of history that churn …

Review Of Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies Of The Emergence Of New Spiritual Paths, By Ann Taves, Seth Perry

Mormon Studies Review

When Ann Taves’s last monograph came out, in 2009, the journal Religion ran a review of it by Finbarr Curtis entitled “Ann Taves’s Religious Experience Reconsidered is a sign of a global apocalypse that will kill us all.”1 Curtis was worried about the effects of Taves’s unapologetically reductive approach to religion. Taves is well known as a proponent of using cognitive science and related methodologies to explain what really happens when people have religious experiences. This sort of thing, as indicated by Curtis’s title, rubs a lot of people the wrong way.

Minds, Bodies, And Objects, Samuel M. Brown

Mormon Studies Review

As I wander ever more deeply into the semantic labyrinths of early Mormon translation, I find myself confronting ubiquitous objects that matter for more than their mere physicality. Seer stones, interpreters, gold plates, Egyptian papyri, locks of hair, underclothing, and scores more. Mormonism is saturated with such objects, pregnant with what some scholars call “abundance” or “real presence.” Mormons don’t call them “relics,” afraid to conjure (that fraught word!) Catholic altars, corpses, and catacombs. Mormons are no idolaters, so there must be no relics. But we who think academically about Mormons may do well to acknowledge the deep kinship Mormons …

Introduction: Small Means, Great Things, Benjamin Peters, John D. Peters

Mormon Studies Review

Mormonism is a media religion: every contribution to this forum makes this point in some way. Of course, the same could be said of most religions, and yet the Mormon tradition in particular incorporates media. How so?

Full Issue

Mormon Studies Review

No abstract provided.

Communing With Compromise: Mormonism And The Early Internet, Gavin Feller

Mormon Studies Review

As an emerging technology, the internet stirred a fascinating brew of excitement, anxiety, and fear for Jew and Gentile.1 It challenged both grassroots and top-down notions of intimacy, authenticity, and control. For Mormonism, a religion whose chronology parallels uncannily the development of electronic communication technologies, the internet joins a host of media dripping with ambivalence. In tracing the contours of Mormonism’s evolving and uneasy relationship with the twentieth-century internet—from early listserv communities to institutional web development—this brief essay presents only a morsel of the richness the religion offers for the study of technology, culture, and power.

Review Of Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805–1830, By Richard S. Van Wagoner, Mark Ashurst-Mcgee, Mark L. Staker

Mormon Studies Review

Around the turn of the century, Signature Books planned a series of three volumes that would cover Joseph Smith’s life in detail. Richard S. Van Wagoner was commissioned to write the first volume of the trilogy, treating the period from Smith’s birth to his move to Ohio. Van Wagoner’s Natural Born Seer: Joseph Smith, American Prophet, 1805– 1830 engages Smith’s family and cultural background, his childhood and formative years, his visionary claims, his translation of the Book of Mormon, and the organization of the Mormon church. Much of the work of Mormon history is done by amateur scholars who contribute …

Review Of What Is Mormonism? A Student’S Introduction, By Patrick Q. Mason; Mormonism: The Basics, By David J. Howlett And John Charles Duffy, Jennifer Graber

Mormon Studies Review

Two introductory texts on Mormonism have much to offer scholars, like myself, who are not specialists in the tradition yet regularly return to it when teaching undergraduate classes in American religions and American history. Mason’s volume, What Is Mormonism? A Student’s Introduction, focuses on the Latter-day Saints and explores the tradition’s historical development, global expansion, daily practice, and function as a response to existential problems. Howlett and Duffy’s book, Mormonism: The Basics, surveys the Latter-day Saints, the Reorganized Latter Day Saints (RLDS, now Community of Christ),

and fundamentalist groups with an emphasis on Mormon history, relations with non-Mormons, ritual life, …

Front Matter

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

No abstract provided.

“The Time Is Past”: A Note On Samuel’S Five-Year Prophecy1, Neal Rappleye

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

1The story of believers being nearly put to death before the appearance of the sign at Christ’s birth is both inspiring and a little confusing. According to the Book of Mormon, the sign comes in the 92nd year, which was actually the sixth year after the prophecy had been made. T here is little wonder why even some believers began to doubt. The setting of a final date by which the prophecy must be fulfilled, however, suggests that until that day, there must have been reason for even the nonbelievers to concede that fulfillment was still possible; yet after that …

Encountering The Gospel Anew: Confirmation As Ecclesial, Personal, And Missional Practices, Terri L. Elton

Faculty Publications

Given the challenges facing congregations and young people today, some church leaders are wondering if confirmation continues to have a role in discipling young people. Based on the findings from The Confirmation Project, this article asserts that confirmation is, in fact, uniquely positioned to be a vibrant ministry for young people to encounter the gospel anew when congregations integrate ecclesial, personal, and missional practices. Such an approach strengthens confirmands’ understanding of faith, deepens their experience with Christian community, and equips them to discern their call to join in God’s mission in the world.

Emerging Trends In Confirmation And Equivalent Practices, Terri L. Elton, Katherine Douglass, Richard Osmer

Faculty Publications

This article highlights the findings of The Confirmation Project research, a mixed methods project that studied confirmation and equivalent practices in five denominations in the United States. (The denominations were United Methodist, Presbyterian USA, African Methodist Episcopal, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Episcopal Church.) What that discovered was confirmation can provide an opportunity for young people to encounter the gospel anew. It is an important ministry when it strengthens young people’s understanding of faith, deepens their experience with Christian community, and equips them to discern their calling to join in God’s mission in the world. As congregations …

Confirmation Basics, Terri L. Elton, Lisa Kimball, Gordon Mikoski

Faculty Publications

This article moves the findings of The Confirmation Project research from theory into practice. Three members of the research team highlight three themes (purpose, design, and leadership) and walk congregational leaders through a process of discovering how these ideas can help them find a way forward that is meaningful to their congregation.

Christ And Antichrist: Reading Jacob 7, Adam S. Miller, Joseph M. Spencer

Maxwell Institute Publications

The Book of Mormon’s Jacob chapter 7 focuses on a dramatic showdown between Sherem, a defender of the Mosaic tradition, and Jacob, a prophet who views the Mosaic law as dead in light of what he calls “the doctrine of Christ.” The papers collected in this volume offer theological readings of this Book of Mormon chapter that draw on Jacob 7’s structure and literary details to illuminate key themes like law, family, prayer, mourning, and messianic time.

Includes contributions from Jana Riess, Kimberly M. Berkey, Adam S. Miller, Jacob Rennaker, Jeremy Walker, Joseph M. Spencer, Jenny Webb, and Sharon J. …

Infinite Cardinalities, Measuring Knowledge, And Probabilities In Fine-Tuning Arguments (Chapter 5 Of Knowledge, Belief, And God: New Insights In Religious Epistemology), Isaac Choi

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This paper deals with two different problems in which infinity plays a central role. I first respond to a claim that infinity renders counting knowledge-level beliefs an infeasible approach to measuring and comparing how much we know. There are two methods of comparing sizes of infinite sets, using the one-to-one correspondence principle or the subset principle, and I argue that we should use the subset principle for measuring knowledge. I then turn to the normalizability and coarse tuning objections to fine-tuning arguments for the existence of God or a multiverse. These objections center on the difficulty of talking about the …

Quakers In Early Falmouth And Portland, Maine : 1740 - 1850., Wayne Cobb

Books and Documents

Chronicle of Quaker settlements in the Portland (Me.) region, with a focus on the James Winslow family.

75 pages.

The Phenomenon Of Rome: On Roads, Refugees, And Teilhard De Chardin, Jon Radwan

CHDCM Publications

Teilhard de Chardin’s understanding of creation as an evolutionary process is used as a lens for studying Roman roads and refugees. A shorter version of this essay was published in Seton Hall University 2018 Core Trip, pages 28-33. This draft has been submitted for potential publication in Writing Rome: A Spiritual Journey, Kelly Shea ed.

What's Up Newsletter, January 2018

What's Up Newsletter

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Milwaukee, WI

What's Up Newsletter Finding Aid

What Does It Mean To Be A Christian Woman? Sustaining And Empowering The Female Christian Faith In Light Of Sexism In Christian Communities, Erin Pauline Rooney

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

What helps young Christian women sustain their faith in the face of sexism within Christian communities? Are there practices or traditions that leaders of these Christian communities need to consider to better support young Christian women? Do young Christian women find value in studying theology, history, and hermeneutics from female perspectives, and if so, why? These are the guiding questions this project seeks to answer. This project involves a qualitative research study with a group of students within a “Women in Christianity” course at Seattle Pacific University. Participants were interviewed twice during the course and also forwarded their written reflections …

Postcolonial Discipleship: Movement, Genius, And Uncertainty: Explorations In Contemporary 'Korean American' Theological Discourse, Michael Sungjoon Won

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

Contemporary ‘Korean American’ theological discourse seeks to more broadly account for the variations and deviations that characterize the ‘Korean American’ experience. Theologians Andrew Sung Park and Grace Ji-Sun Kim theorize the ‘Korean American’ subject through notions of ‘authenticity’ and cultural ‘rootedness’. Such an approach presents itself to be problematic when one begins to account for the ways that colonialism and imperialism have shaped understandings of culture, ultimately revealing that culture is not simply an expression of ontology, but is also driven by a large array of sociological factors. In light of this, theologians Wonhee Anne Joh and Sang Hyun Lee …

In Defense Of The Baptism Of The Holy Spirit In The Believer: A Presbyterian Perspective, Geoffrey K. Wanyoike

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

This thesis offers a defense of Baptism in the Holy Spirit in the believer. It narrows to a Presbyterian perspective on what we understand the Baptism in the Holy Spirit to be. In addition, it offers a scholarly foundation and defense, showing the reality of the experience from the Scriptures and different theologians.

The Power Of Story: Toward Dismantling Racism, May Tag Yang

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

The traditional narrative of America is one that upholds Whiteness and reinforces a society built on a system of advantages based on race. The particular blueprint for narration of self and experience that I posit in this project stands in opposition that dominant narrative as I advocate instead for the flourishing of people of color through narration of self. I propose a call to people of color that we counteract and dismantle our racist system by telling our stories. In this project, I explore four theologians from the perspective of storytelling and memory: Father Robert Schreiter, Stephen Crites, Miroslav Volf …

Struck Down And Not Destroyed: A New Way To Carry Trauma, Rebecca L. Weygandt

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

There seems to be an assumption in many Christian communities that suggest people should avoid the experience of pain and suffering. This is often communicated by encouraging those who grapple with difficult realities to have a positive perspective or attitude. As a future leader in the Church, I am concerned about the negative impact of this message on the emotional and spiritual health of people. I am specifically concerned about those who engage in the arduous work of reconciliation and peacemaking and how they can survive the inevitable pain and difficulty of this work over an extended period of time, …

The Black Reconciliation: Finding Restoration Through Healing Circles In A Racialized World, Geneva Ree Taylor

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

This thesis will examine the ways in which African American communities can engage in a healing process that will produce personal, relational, communal, societal and global restoration. This project will specifically identify and examine the trauma and brokenness that African Americans experience in a racialized society. To accomplish this, a theological foundation will be established that will help to develop strategies, tools, and skills that can support the process of healing and restoration. In addition, this thesis will explain how current models of reconciliation are not adequate to address the deeply rooted complexities that people of color face in America. …

Belong, Become, Believe: A New Model For Children's Ministry Building Toward A Holistic Vision Of Discipleship And Diversity In Multi-Ethnic Children's Ministry, Katey Hage

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

As the Church in the United States grapples with challenging issues of race and racism that permeate our world, children’s ministry is also impacted by these very same issues and lived experiences for a diverse community of people. This thesis seeks to help the church acknowledge that all children have particular racial and cultural identity that is formed within family and social system contexts; and it seeks to affirm the belief that children are God’s good creation and made in the image of God. With these truths in place, connections can be drawn between a child’s cultural and racial identity …

Law And Religion In Alliance: Guido De Bres And The Restriction Of Religious Liberty, Antoine Theron

CTS PhD Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates why the Dutch reformer Guido De Bres believed that the law should restrict religious liberty. In other words, why did De Bres believe that political rulers should not tolerate religious liberty? The answer developed in this dissertation is that De Bres’s restrictive view of religious liberty was largely the result of his vision of an alliance between law and religion. De Bres’s vision of an alliance between law and religion was his theological response to the acute challenge of his concrete historical (political, social) context. De Bres’s vision offered a solution to the desperate plight of the …

1896 Journal Of The Seventy-Sixth Session Of The Kentucky Annual Conference Of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Minutes of the Kentucky Annual Conference

No abstract provided.

The Meeting Of Muslim And Christian, Kenneth Cragg

Papers

No abstract provided.

A Wesley Bibliography, Kenneth J. Collins

Papers

No abstract provided.