Religion Commons^™

Ecowomanism: A Solution To Climate And Social Injustice, Alexis K. Karon

Theological Investigations

The interconnections of climate justice and social inequalities are paired together in a concept named 'Ecowomanism'. Originally inspired by Melanie L. Harris, ecowomanism uses spiritual theologies, experiences, and memories to discuss the post-modern struggles that women of African and indigenous descent face in society, which can then find solutions to such injustices in a reconnection to nature. In this paper, I argue that adopting an environmental paradigm inspired by the spiritual theology of ecowomanism in the United States, which acknowledges the connection between oppression and violence against communities of color to the violence and domination of the environment, a more …

Are We Not All Beggars?, Michelle Forstrom

The Restored Gospel and Applied Christianity: Student Essays in Honor of President David O. McKay

Michelle describes how her brother in law’s stroke and her home’s foreclosure helped King Benjamin’s words “Are we not all beggars?” from the Book of Mormon became especially poignant for her.

Faith Integration Essay: Biblical And Theological Studies, Victor I. Ezigbo

Faith Learning Integration Papers

This essay discusses two major themes, "Faith, Theology, and Guiding Principles for Theological Reflection" and "Christian Gospel and the Public Sphere".

The introduction begins as follows, "The term ‘faith’ is notoriously slippery. Theologians as well as Christians who do not have any formal theological education use the term ‘faith’ sometimes in competing ways. For example, some use ‘faith’ as a shield for protecting themselves from people who ask questions about God’s existence and actions in the world. For such people, faith opposes reason. They see ‘faith’ as “an antithesis of reason” and also construe “reason as an intellectual virus that …

Remembering Eden: A Study Of Garden Imagery In Judeo-Christian Worship Spaces, Luc Berard

Honors Student Works

Vases of flowers, a mural of wildlife, and poetic references to a garden, these artistic elements are all commonplace in Judeo-Christian worship spaces; but why? While all of these are certainly aesthetically pleasing, there is likely much more going on than mere interior decoration. This paper will begin by examining the source of garden imagery in the poetry of the Judeo-Christian tradition, demonstrating the significance and prevalence of Eden in the memory of the Judeo-Christian memory. Following this, the paper will then furnish and analyze several examples of Edenic imagery in the worship spaces, highlighting several important artistic elements shared …

Spiritual Exploration: Gender, Human Frailty And Interfaith Realities, Elizabeth Iobst

Charles Rice Post-Graduate Research Fellowship

This collection of essays details personal experiences, religious beliefs, gender roles and interviews conducted during a research fellowship in England and Israel.

Stress Perception And Measurement In Missionary Populations, Laurie A. Tone, Fernando Garzon, John C. Thomas, Brigitte Ritchey, Mike Malek-Ahmadi

Faculty Publications and Presentations

Christian missionaries experience numerous stressors across multiple domains. To understand their unique experiences, a targeted assessment is required. There is no known psychometrically tested measure that captures the nuances of stress for this population. To that end, as part of a larger study, the quantitative CHOPS Stress Inventory, a new tool for measuring missionary stress was developed and showed good initial psychometric qualities when compared to an established stress measure. Furthermore, the Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) of survey findings on 267 cross-cultural evangelical missionaries noted that both age and sex demonstrated significant effects on perceived stress scores. Implications for missionary …

Participation, Image And Likeness: A Comparative Demonstration Of The Scriptural And Philosophical Basis Of Origen’S Theology Of Deification, Matthew J. Doeing

Theology Graduate Theses

No abstract provided.

The Death Of Pope John Paul I: A Reappraisal, Enrique Torner

World Languages & Cultures Department Publications

October 4, 2018, marked the 40th anniversary of Pope John Paul I’s funeral. His funeral is one of the few events in his pontificate whose date, time, locations, organizers, participants, guests, attendants, and order of events, everybody agrees on. In contrast, as will be explained later, there is hardly anything related to his death on which scholars of all kinds, distinguished members of the Vatican ranging from daily assistants to the pope to cardinals, non-Catholic clerics from all over the world, politicians of all types and nations, journalists, family members, or even plain curious or interested world citizens can agree. …

Luther’S Mysticism, Pietism, And Contemplative Spirituality, Daniel L. Brunner

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

To ask, “Why church?” certainly stirs multilayered theological, missional, ecclesial, and pastoral reflection. The question also has spiritual ramifications. To explore some of them, we will trace a thread of the Lutheran spiritual tradition from Martin Luther’s own “faith mysticism” through particular aspects of German pietism. That overview will provide a foundation for engaging the contemporary contemplative movement, in order to discern how its concepts and practices might provide insight for the practice of spirituality. Our conviction is that deepening the interior journey through a living, active faith leads not to withdrawal but to an awareness—even a vulnerability—that welcomes a …

The Synoptic Problem (Introduction And Chapter One Of A Beginner's Guide To New Testament Studies: Understanding Key Debates), Nijay K. Gupta

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Excerpt: "When I first entered theological education as a seminary student, I found myself completely lost in the world of biblical scholarship. Not only were there so many technical terms I couldn’t define and histories of interpretation with which I was not acquainted, but it seemed like there were two, or three, or ten views on various debated issues, and I had trouble keeping them straight. Oh, how I wished I had a map that could help me find my way through the maze of scholarship, or a guide to clue me into this view and that view!"

Nurturing Emotional Intelligence To Encourage An Increase In Compassion Among The Members Of Ecclesia Baptist In Asheville, North Carolina, Aileen Mitchell Lawrimore

Doctor of Ministry Projects

God’s infinite chesed for humanity, embodied in Jesus, calls Christians to claim their inherent brokenness and their infinite beauty and to offer the same grace to others. This chesed, experienced as compassion, enables Christians to extend compassion to themselves and others. To encourage this behavior among members of Ecclesia Baptist, this project paired psychology with theology and biblical study to nurture emotional intelligence (EQ). Participants attended five two-hour sessions and spent time on reflection and practice outside of meetings. Results indicated that increased EQ boosts confidence in compassionate behavior and increases intentions to continue practices formed from the study.

The Gēr In Deuteronomy: Expanding Ancient Near Eastern Precedent For The Protection Of Vulnerable Classes, Josh Dunahoo

Seminary Masters Theses

The gēr in the Hebrew Bible is a legal classification representing persons who reside outside their ancestral lands with people outside of their kin. The status of the gēr is not static in the Bible. Rather, historical and textual evidence in the respective law codes informs the socioeconomic and religious standing of the gēr in Israelite society. In Deuteronomic tradition, the gēr is among the most vulnerable groups in Israel and is therefore appended to the ancient Near Eastern widow-orphan dyad in Deuteronomy. The first section of the present thesis traces the law codes and wisdom literature of ancient Near …

Introduction To The State Of New Testament Studies, Nijay K. Gupta, Scot Mcknight

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Excerpt: "I (Nijay) first encountered the book The Face of New Testament Studies, this book's predecessor, when I was in graduate school. I went to seminary primarily because I wanted to learn how to study the Bible in depth for personal and ministry formation. I had not studied the Bible in an academic setting prior to that. The "world" of biblical studies for this neophyte seminary student was intriguing but mystifying-so many technical terms, multiple differing perspectives, views, and ideas proposed and presented, and all of this was in flux as scholarship moved forward decade after decade. Thankfully, The Face …

How Far Is Your Love?, Milo A. Rediger

Milo Rediger Writings & Addresses

No abstract provided.

Talk To (Students) Faculty, Milo A. Rediger

Milo Rediger Writings & Addresses

No abstract provided.

What Is A Christian College?, Milo A. Rediger

Milo Rediger Writings & Addresses

What is a Christian college? If it is Christian, it is a good college; it cannot be Christian and condone either inferiority or mediocrity -- it emphasizes excellence or it should not be dignified with the name Christian. It cannot accept all of the young people of a given denomination just because the churches of that denomination support it with finances. Suitability of students is one of the five major concerns of a Christian college.

Goals, procedures, teachers, students, and the college image are the focal points of this presentation.

Somewhere I’Ve Never Been: Part 1, John Lanci

JRCA Pedagogy

“We want teaching to be something we can acquire and lock up,” but teaching is “nothing we can hold onto, nothing we can simply pull off the shelf and run.”1 I suspect that after the experience of the past semester, most of us have kissed that aspiration goodbye. For us in academia, it is hardly an exaggeration to note that everything has changed, and changed fast, and most of us are now being asked to do what seems impossible despite our institutions’ emergency attempts to equip us for what we need in order to promote (or at least maintain) student …

Conceptualizing Therapy As A Spiritual Discipline, Kristen M. White

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Psychological literature is in the beginning stages of reflecting the Church’s shift toward spiritual formation, incorporating theory and research regarding how spiritual disciplines might be relevant to the practice of therapy. This work may be expanded by viewing therapy itself as a spiritual discipline, particularly for the client. This article makes this connection by clearly defining spiritual disciplines and highlighting how therapy is or can be made congruent with them. It further discusses how therapy may be a very useful spiritual discipline within the Church today. Lastly, this article discusses the implications for viewing therapy as a spiritual discipline for …

Beyoncé Making Lemonade Out Of The Colonial System, Caitlin Wheeler

Race, Ethnicity, & Religion

A discussion on Beyoncé's Lemonade and how its imagery and undertones relate to the ever-present colonial system found in relationships and religion. Highlighting connections and ideas found in Albert Memmi's The Colonizer and the Colonized.

Meals, Mouths, And Martyrs: Paulinus Of Nola And Sacrificial Spaces (Chapter 6 Of Food, Virtue, And The Shaping Of Early Christianity), Dana Robinson

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

In January 406, Paulinus of Nola devotes his twelfth Natalicium, or birthday poem, in honor of St. Felix’s festival day (Carm. 20), to three miracle stories about local farmers and devotees of the saint.1 Each one vows to bring a fattened animal – two pigs and a calf, respectively – to the shrine of Felix as a devotional offering. After much misadventure, and thanks only to Felix’s intervention, each one successfully performs his vow. The first “cuts the throat of the fat beast he had vowed, as men bound by a promise do.” The second brings a pig who “demands …

Ten Of The Largest Church Ministries Aggressively Touching The World, Elmer L. Towns

Books

No abstract provided.

Silent Holy Spirit, January 2020

Silent Holy Spirit

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in St. Louis, MO

Silent Holy Spirit Finding Aid

Comparative Religion Reader Reli 30, Alan Lenzi

Pacific Open Texts

Open Educational Resource (OER) of primary source materials and study questions for the RELI30: Comparative Religion course taught at the University of the Pacific.

Immortal Combat: Iconoclasm And The Hebrew Bible, Albert L. Mcclure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biblical iconoclasm is any biblical text that describes the disruption of religious observances by physical violence against cult materials. This can include removing cult objects from their appointed places, god-napping divine bodies, outright destruction, cult reform, etc. Biblical iconoclasm, understood this way, is one component of the Hebrew Bible’s iconic politics. Other components of biblical iconic politics – like Idol Parodies, Bildersverbot, and aniconism – have been well studied in the past thirty years. Biblical iconoclasm has not shared the popularity of its collaborators in this respect. This dissertation is necessary because no extended study of iconoclasm in the Hebrew …

Windows Into The Unseen The Power Of Metaphor As Revealed By Paul Ricoeur And Moses Maimonides, Claire E. Molk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ambiguous language haunts countless fields of human inquiry. The solution to its confounding nature has repeatedly been to reduce language to its face-value, launching an endless search for the right meaning. This paper aims to examine two thinkers who reveal language to be a more complicated matter. Paul Ricoeur and Moses Maimonides demonstrate the importance of language’s complexity through close examinations of metaphor. While we find different understandings of metaphor, reflecting different metaphysics within each author’s study, both Ricoeur and Maimonides contribute to the notion that language’s complexity is not to be eliminated through literal readings, but engaged to open …

The Loss Of Baptist Identity: How The Loss Of The Baptist Name Impacts Theological Identity, Josiah O. Hoagland

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the United States, many Baptist churches have been following a recent trend of dropping “Baptist” from the church title. Research has shown that with the rise of post-denominationalism, there is a loss of identity in Baptist churches. This study explores the effects of dropping the name Baptist from a church’s title and its perceived impact on the theological identity of the church. This study includes a literature review analyzing the current body of literature on Baptist identity. Six Converge North Central Baptist churches were studied, three with a Baptist name and three without, using church surveys and interviews with …

A Multiple Case Study: Participative Decision-Making In Four Black Indiana Churches, Michael S. Johnson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study looked at factors in participative decision-making that would balance congregational polity and pastoral authority. A multiple-case study was conducted with four Black Baptist churches in central Indiana. Fifteen participants were interviewed across cases and organizational documents were analyzed. Four themes emerged. They included effectiveness, unified involvement, decision parameters, and trusted leadership. Effectiveness related to support for a decision. Unified Involvement was about members’ sense of belonging. Parameters involved areas where certain groups had discretion in decision-making. Lastly, trusted leadership pertained to the calling of a pastor and the confidence members placed in that calling.

Video Church: The Effects Of The Video Church Model On Christian Hospitality, Assad Mohammed Saif

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hospitality is fundamental to human spiritual growth. Jesus knew this. Therefore, Jesus spent much time seeking to encounter people in the spaces they naturally congregated in. God sent Jesus to come from heaven to earth to show people the incarnate God and his desire to welcome them into his family. More specifically, God sent Jesus to a specific culture in the world where he believed the message of God’s love could be viewed through the lens of hospitality. By using a grounded theory approach, the researcher set out to discover the methods by which hospitality is impacted within the video …

Determining Textual Similarity: Ga 2936 As A Test Case For The Teststellen Method, Jonathan A. Campbell

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

An important task in the field of textual criticism is the determination of which manuscripts are more closely related to one another.1 This, in turn, allows the text critic to come to a better understanding of the history of the text. The Teststellen method is one of the most influential methods currently being used to determine similarity with the Byzantine text type. This method, as practiced by the Institut für Neutestamentliche Textforschung, is examined with regard to its use in the Editio Critica Maior (ECM).2 The brevity of the method is appealing, as it does not require the full collation …

Nebuchadnezzar’S Dream: The Crusades, Apocalyptic Prophecy, And The End Of History [Review] / Rubenstein, Jay., André Reis

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review