Religion Commons^™

Converting The Saints: A Study Of Religious Rivalry In America By Charles Randall Paul, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

Charles Randall Paul, the founder and president of the Foundation of Religious Diplomacy, has established himself in the academy as an expert in religion and philosophy on engaging differences. Paul’s book Converting the Saints looks at religious conflict by analyzing encounters between early-twentieth-century Protestants and Latter-day Saints. During this time, Protestants served several missions to Utah in an attempt to convert Latter-day Saints back to mainstream Christianity. Paul looks at the conflicts that inevitably arose between the two religious traditions and through his analysis proposes a new theory of conflict engagement that turns destructive conflict into constructive, peaceful engagement. In …

How Dead Cats, Your Siblings, Eighteenth-Century English Clergy, Making Lists, Ted Talks, Evolutionary Biology, Susa Young Gates, And My Mom Can Save The World From Being Utterly Wasted, Amy Harris

BYU Studies

I’m going to tell you two stories today; a short one about dead cats and a long one about dead people.

Administrative Records: Council Of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846, James B. Allen

BYU Studies

Everything You Could Ever Want to Know about the Council of Fifty in Nauvoo” would be a well-suited subtitle for this highly anticipated volume. As the editors note, Joseph Smith and his closest associates saw the Council of Fifty “as the beginning of the literal kingdom of God on earth” (xxiii). It functioned secretly in Nauvoo from March 1844 to January 1846 and then later for three short periods in Utah. Historians have long been aware of this council, also called the “Kingdom of God,” and some have pieced together from various journals and other reliable sources considerable information about …

Sarah Louisa Bouton Felt: Thousands Called Her Mother, Roseann Benson

BYU Studies

A tribute to Sarah Louisa (“Louie”) Bouton Felt declared her “a beautiful lady whose name we all should know.”1 Although many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are familiar with two names important to the organization of the Primary Association, Aurelia Spencer Rogers (1834–1922) and Eliza R. Snow (1804–1887), the name Louie B. Felt (1850–1928) is relatively unknown. However, Louie was the second person called to be a ward Primary president and at age thirty was selected to preside over all the Primary Associations in Utah Territory, serving as the first general superintendent of the Primary …

Book Review: Keshab: Bengal’S Forgotten Prophet, Edward T. Ulrich

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet. By John A. Stevens. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 309 pages

Book Review: Imaginations Of Death And The Beyond In India And Europe, Herman Tull

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Imaginations of Death and the Beyond in India and Europe. Edited by Günter Blamberger and Sudhir Kakar. Singapore: Springer Nature, 2018, ix + 202 pages

Tatian's Diatessaron And The Proliferation Of Gospels, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Previous scholarship on the Diatessaron has asked whether Tatian intended to supplement or replace the fourfold gospel. This essay reconsiders the question by sketching a general theory of Gospel proliferation. Greek, Roman, and Jewish comparanda show that the proliferation and collection of similar works were common reading and writing practices. Accordingly, Gospel writers would not likely discard their sources, and Gospel readers would likely collect and compare multiple texts. On the supposition that ancient writers were attuned to their contemporary reading practices, Tatian likely would have expected the Diatessaron to be read alongside—not instead of—the fourfold gospel, as was the …

The Baptist Tradition And Religious Freedom: Recent Trajectories, Samuel Kyle Brassell

Honors Theses

For my thesis, I have focused on the recent religious freedom bill passed in Mississippi and the arguments and influences Southern Baptists have had on the bill. I used the list of resolutions passed by the Southern Baptist Convention to trace the history and development of Southern Baptist thought on the subject of religious freedom. I consulted outside scholarly works to examine the history of the Baptist tradition and how that history has influenced modern day arguments. I compared these texts to the wording of the Mississippi bill. After conducting this research, I found that the Southern Baptist tradition and …

"I Love People So Terribly": Approaching Affectivity With Levinas, Hillesum, And Christian Theology, Glenn Morrison

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

Through engaging the writings of two Jewish thinkers, Emmanuel Levinas and Etty Hillesum, this essay sets out to develop a Christian theological approach to affectivity. It begins by introducing Levinas and Hillesum to develop a context for dialogue between Jewish thought and Christian theology. Initiating a phenomenological foundation, the essay suggests that affectivity resonates through the human condition of loneliness and otherness. Building on this perspective and aided by Levinas’s thought and the practical expression of Hillesum’s affectivity of talking to God, the focus turns to introduce and develop the notions of spontaneity, melancholy, and vigilance. Hence, it suggests the …

Millennials Leaving Religion: A Transcendental Phenomenological Research Study On Religious Disaffiliation, Elizabeth Ann Rainwater

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Religious disaffiliation among Millennials has increased significantly in the past decade alongside rapidly changing social relationships amplified by social media applications. In the United States, many Millennials claim no religious identity with many leaving their religion for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of religiously disaffiliated Millennials regarding their psychological health and well-being. Self-determination theory fulfilled the theoretical framework for examining the lived experiences of young adults regarding their well-being after religious disaffiliation. A purposive sample of 12 male and female religiously disaffiliated Millennials was recruited for semistructured interviews. …

Angels And Sub-Divine Supernatural Beings: Their Characteristics, Function, And Relationship To God And Humanity In Deuteronomy-Kings, Joni Amanda Mcguire-Moushon

Dissertations

This research analyzes selected passages in Deuteronomy-Kings in order to determine the characteristics and roles of supernatural sub-divine beings within these books. Then this data is compared with the angelology of the Second Temple period in order to identify the similarities and the extent of the differences between them.

Deuteronomy contains references to supernatural sub-divine beings, such as “demons” and “holy one(s)”. While Deuteronomy affirms the existence of sub-divine beings, it forbids the Israelites to worship them. In the books of Joshua and Judges, there is awareness of supernatural beings and their roles as warriors, messengers, and tormentors. However, in …

Islam, Christianity, Traditional Religions And Power Politics In Northern Nigeria Since Pre-Islamic Period, Emmanuel M. Abar

Dissertations

Problem

Currently in Northern Nigeria, religious interaction among the three major religious traditions, Islam, Christianity, and African Traditional Religion, is marred by violent religious conflicts. Also, competing concepts of religious legitimacy, which appeal to the historical heritage of Nigeria, are often used to validate and justify the violation of religious freedom. Does the current state of religious interaction among the various religious groups reflect the true heritage of religious interaction in Northern Nigeria? Or is it possible that the history of the interaction between African Traditional Religions, Islam, and Christianity in the past might actually be a heritage that points …

Motivation For The Sharing Of Material Possessions In Acts, Philo's De Vita Contemplativa And The Didache: A Comparative Study, Lena V. Toews

Dissertations

Luke, in the book of Acts, depicts the sharing of possessions as a practice in the Jerusalem community of the first century. Several pericopes, occurring primarily in the first part of the book of Acts, embody the idea of shared property and seem to have important parallels to other sources of the time, including the Jewish author Philo’s work De vita contemplativa, where he describes a group he calls, “Therapeutae,” and in the Jewish Christian document Didache. This study seeks to identify beliefs correlated with the material sharing practices in the community of Acts and compare them with De vita …

The Third Space: The Meeting Of Jew And Christian In The Act Of Remembering, Restoring, And Reconciling - A Case Study Of The Matzevah Foundation, Steven D. Reece

Dissertations

Problem

Due to long-standing religious, racial, and cultural tensions, a complex and challenging relationship exists between Jews and Christians. The resulting breach isolates and separates these two faith groups from each other. Consequently, they struggle to interact and engage in meaningful dialogue, which could repair the breach and lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Dialogue bridges the gap between Jew and Christian allowing them to meet in the third space—the liminal space of the Jewish cemetery in Poland. Jews and Christians may deal with the evil of the past through what researchers term as "loving acts."

Method

This study was conducted …

Pedagogies Of Distance Learning, Ekaterina Lomperis

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

North American universities increasingly offer distance learning options as part of their undergraduate, master’s, and even doctoral curricula. Distance education may include online courses (taught solely via the Internet), hybrid courses (online courses which involve occasional required face-to-face components), or a combination of the two. Once primarily associated with for-profit online-based colleges delivering educational content of questionable quality, online teaching and learning has been establishing its presence in mainstream education, including flagship public universities, small liberal arts colleges, and (of particular relevance for religious studies) seminaries. While premier private research universities have thus far expressed reservations regarding online education, one …

Archaeological Backgrounds Of The Sanctuary: A Search For Egyptian Cultural Influence In The Construction Of The Hebrew Tent-Sanctuary, Leslie Scott Baker Jr

Dissertations

Problem

Although the documented description of the construction of the tent-sanctuary appears to give it an Egyptian context in terms of the materials used and the culture of the artisans, in three distinct spheres (sacred, royal-domestic, and military), very little work has been done in comparing the descriptions in the text with the recovered archaeological fabric from Egypt and no study has, as yet, taken the next step of quantifying that comparison through a potentially-repeatable statistical analysis in an effort to determine, in an unbiased manner, the nature of the relationship.

Method

Design and frequency data of the appearing materials …

Social Cohesion Among Individuals Participating In Re-Entry Groups, Todd Reiser

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When prisoners are released from incarceration they enter a social landscape that holds unique challenges. One of the ways humans living within social systems understand their place and role is through the mechanism of religion. This study investigates how group religious practice establishes a shared worldview among those recently released from prison; a worldview that promotes the creation of positive social cohesion which contribute to life improvements, social mobility, and social status changes. "Social networks may include friendship circles in local congregations, scripture study groups and relationships with religious leaders who serve as role models for individuals" (Kerley et al …

The Primitive Lawyer Speaks!: Thoughts On The Concepts Of International And Rabbinic Laws, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

A feature of the Norman J. Shachoy Symposium: The Rabbinic Idea of Law: Interactions and Implications

Inspired by Chaim Saiman’s brilliant book, Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law, this essay draws connections between the lived experiences of international law and Jewish law, focusing in particular on (1) the centrality of practice, (2) the search for and construction of authority in communities of practice (the “invisible college”), (3) the challenges and opportunities of fragmentation and pluralism, and (4) the difficulty translating their methods to more state-like institutions, like courts and legislation. The hope is that this testimony of one of H.L.A. …

Toward Engaging The Secular: Charles Taylor's Modern Social Imaginaries, Human Flourishing, And Theological Method, Jenifer A. Daley

Dissertations

Increasing secularization seems to fly in the face of Christian proposals for a Scripture-only principle for theology. The question that this dissertation explores is "How will Christian theology tackle the resulting church-society impasse in a way that is both faithful to Scripture and intelligible contemporaneously without appearing to privilege one aspect over the other?" That is, "What form should theological method take to efficaciously engage the secular?" This study suggests that the answer might lie in an innovative fusion of Scripture with borrowed concepts from secular culture. Thus, this dissertation responds to the problem of the need for robust, multidimensional …

Country Snapshot Albania, Leonie Vrugtman

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A brief summary of the history and current status of religion in Albania.

Survey Report North Macedonia, Viktorija Borovska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

One of the activities of the project ‘Role of Religion in Western Balkan Societies’ was an elite survey that enabled us to gain an insight into views and perceptions on issues related to religiosity, the role and influence of religion, threats and opportunities of religious diversity and suggestions on how religion can contribute to the different social aspects of the various countries of the region.

Cross Country Comparison And Concluding Remarks, Viktorija Borovska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Political, economic and cultural elites in the Western Balkans share common views on the role of religion in society, but different perspectives on the challenges and concerns related to interreligious relations.

Survey Report Montenegro, Nenad Zekavica

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

During March and April 2019, a survey was conducted as part of the regional project that deals with the role of religion in Western Balkan countries. The survey was conducted as part of a research project and was conducted among members of the cultural and political elite of society. Its purpose is to give a sketch of the religious beliefs of different societies. The survey itself was developed as the result of the mutual cooperation among four partner institutions in the Balkans.

Ezra And Nehemiah: Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, Jiří Moskala

All Books

No abstract provided.

1939 Minutes Of The First Session Of The Kentucky Annual Conference Of The Methodist Church, The Methodist Church

Minutes of the Kentucky Annual Conference

No abstract provided.

1956 Journal Of The Kentucky Conference The Proceedings Of The One Hundred And Thirty-Sixth Session (Eighteenth Session Of The United Church), The Methodist Church

Journal of the Kentucky Conference

No abstract provided.

1962 Journal Of The Kentucky Conference: The Proceedings Of The One Hundred And Forty-Second Session (Twenty-Fourth Session Of The United Church), The Methodist Church

Journal of the Kentucky Conference

No abstract provided.

1966 Journal Of The Kentucky Conference: The Proceedings Of The One Hundred And Forty-Sixth Session (Twenty-Eight Session Of The United Church), The Methodist Church

Journal of the Kentucky Conference

No abstract provided.

1963 Journal Of The Kentucky Conference: The Proceedings Of The One Hundred And Forty-Third Session (Twenty-Fifth Session Of The United Church), The Methodist Church

Journal of the Kentucky Conference

No abstract provided.

Illumination, William B. Godbey

William B. Godbey

No abstract provided.