Religion Commons^™

The Power Of Coptic Women Saints: Historical And Analytical Study Of Coptic Women Saints As Spiritual Models For Coptic Women In The Usa And Egypt, Trevena Adeeb Eskandar Hanna

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This study addresses the lack of research concerning Coptic female experience and Coptic female saints through the use of in-depth interviews of 21 Egyptian Coptic women living in Southern California and 21 Egyptian Coptic women living in Egypt. The interviews explore women’s relationships with, and knowledge of their female saints, as well as their gendered experiences within the Coptic Church, as it relates to gender and the relative importance or honor of female saints. Results show that Coptic women have a special and unique relationship with the female saints of their tradition, who act as role models, intercessors, and friends. …

African American Women’S Use Of Spirituality To Cope With Intimate Partner Violence, Vanessa S. Barnes Bey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread public health problem in the United States (U.S.) linked to physical, mental, emotional, and psychological problems for women who experience it. Previous researchers indicated that African American (AA) women in the U.S. experience more severe effects from IPV than women in other ethnic groups in the U.S. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to identify and report AA women’s lived experiences of using spirituality to cope with IPV who were not actively engaged in organized religious practices during the time of the abuse. Semi-structured audiotaped phone and face-to-face interviews were used …

Clinicians’ Perspectives On Distinguishing Between Religious/Spiritual And Psychotic Phenomena, Jessica K. Parker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Psychosis is a central concept in mental health, yet the concept is unclear. Clinicians are challenged with the task to be able to distinguish psychotic phenomena; however, little is known about how clinicians are able to distinguish religious/spiritual phenomena from psychotic phenomena, as both may be similar in presentation. The focus of this dissertation was on understanding the perspectives and distinguishing processes of mental health professionals when distinguishing between religious/spiritual and psychotic phenomena. Taking a generic qualitative framework approach, the study included face-to-face and telephone interviews with 10 licensed mental health professionals recruited through social media and snowball sampling. Interviews …

Tongue Of Flesh - Tongues Of Fire: Enoch’S Encounter With The Heavenly Court In 1 Enoch 14-16 In Comparison With The Encounters In The Hebrew Bible, Christopher David Clarke

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The connections between Enoch’s encounter with the heavenly court in 1 Enoch 14-16 has long been connected with the similar encounters of Micaiah ben Imlah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. All four of these encounters depict a meeting between a mortal and the heavenly court, including the enthroned Deity, that results in an individual receiving a commission to fulfill a task decided upon by the court. Although most scholars recognize the similarities between Enoch’s ascent into heaven and the encounters in the Hebrew Bible, these scholars have largely concentrated on the connections between Ezekiel’s and Enoch’s encounters. This …

Adam And The Early Mesopotamian Creation Mythology, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

The first monotheist human, Adam, was likely a god, in the Mesopotamian mythology, just as the Hebrew Genesis reluctantly revealed, and the assertive Quran slightly hinted. Specifically, he was the pre-monotheist, Sumerian god, Idim, who was also called GodEa and many other nicknames over the millenniums. The names Idim and Adam are even linguistically related, according to early Arabic root words analysis. As a Mesopotamian god, Idim was the creator of the first human, and the father of his immediate generations, as he was sometimes referred to in the ancient literature. He was the preserver of life on earth, and …

Acts Of Meaning, Resource Diagrams, And Essential Learning Behaviors: The Design Evolution Of Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

Lost & Found is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed for teaching medieval religious legal systems. The long-term goals of the project are to change the discourse around religious laws, such as foregrounding the prosocial aspects of religious law such as collaboration, cooperation, and communal sustainability. This design case focuses on the evolution of the design of the mechanics and core systems in the first two tabletop games in the series, informed by over three and a half years’ worth of design notes, playable prototypes, outside design consultations, internal design reviews, playtests, and interviews.

Power And Moral Will: A Call To Christlikeness, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Ruth Bader Ginsberg, an icon to women everywhere for her tireless and brilliant work to gain equal rights and opportunities for women (and also for men), is gone. She died after a courageous battle with cancer on September 18th. The country wobbles and grieves the loss of her. And yet, even before she is in the grave, leaders of the Republican Party are fiercely positioning to replace her.

And this is wrong, because…? It is not wrong because it is the Republican Party. Read carefully. It is wrong because they made a vow in 2016 that vacancies on the Supreme …

The Formational Power Of Reading: A Requirement For All Leaders, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

In this day of weariness, confusion, and frankly ugliness from many people, our job as Christian leaders is to provide pastoral comfort, guidance, and prophetic vision. This is not easy to do because we are struggling at the same time. Yet as I listened to two podcasts on diversity by Doug Hurley and Zakiya Mims, I was reminded of one of the most effective formational tools we have for times like this: reading.

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we can learn how to respond well and be formed in Christ at the same time by reading. Reading and …

“My Body Which Is Given For You”: How The Wall Of Moms Embodies Sacrificial Living, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

When Jesus hung on the cross, he gave his body so our bodies could be spared.

On the cross he gave his life, his privilege, his power, so we might become the sons and daughters of a living God. When white people wonder about what they might do to show solidarity with our sisters and brothers of color, I recommend that we do what the Wall of Moms do, and what Jesus did: we give our bodies.

Emotional Health At Such A Time As This, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

At a time like this, I have heard over and over again from pastors that they and their team members are running emotionally amok, and I am too.

We are tired and anxious and have regressed. We have risen to the COVID-19 challenge, but the weight of it, the extra work, the unknowns, and the messiness of re-creating ourselves has caused us to become reactive—and dangerous to each other. So, I want to reflect on this and suggest a way forward.

Our Need For Lament, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

I have completed the thirty days of Sheloshim, a mourning period for the death of my dad. My grief journey began when the last two breaths passed from my father’s mouth to my face. And now during Lent, you and I are journeying towards the inevitable death of Jesus. I am also acutely aware that when Jesus died, no one had their arms around him, with their face to his face to comfort him. No one received his dying breaths.

So this year, walking the Lenten journey between Ash Wednesday and the cross is primarily for me a journey of …

The Art Of Grieving: A Spiritual Practice For Our Time, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

On January 6th at approximately 5:12 am, my head was lying on the pillow next to my dad’s face and my arm was across his chest holding him, and he had just died.

Then out of his mouth, just as it happened when my mother died, came two sweet long exhaling breaths of air, the last of his life. And with those two long breaths something shifted in me. I knew it, but I didn’t understand it. I knew that something holy and mystical happened for him and for me, and this time, I wanted to embrace it and let …

Sharing The Gospel In A Postmodern World: Challenges And Opportunities, Felix H. Cortez

Faculty Publications

Humility is the prerequisite to a significant dialogue in a postmodern context. It has the ability to transform the dialogue from a debate between opposing parties into a party of fellow travelers in the search for meaning. The truths we find and share in that common endeavor will not be suspect as biased assertions to the benefit of power groups under the cloak of truth, but embraced as common solutions to the problems we face.

Newsletter Catholic Deaf Of Detroit, January 2020

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Detroit, MI

Newsletter Catholic Deaf of Detroit Finding Aid

Changing The Subject Of Sati, Deepa Das Acevedo

Faculty Articles

Charan Shah's 1999 death was widely considered to be the first sati, or widow immolation, to have occurred in India in over twenty years. Media coverage of the event focused on procedural minutiae-her sari, her demeanor-and ultimately, several progressive commentators came to the counterintuitive conclusion that the ritually anomalous nature of Charan's death confirmed its voluntary, secular, and noncriminal nature. This article argues that the "unlabeling" of Charan's death, like those of other women between 1999 and 2006, reflects a tension between the nonindividuated, impervious model of personhood exemplified by sati and the particularized citizen-subject of liberal-democratic politics in India.

Known To God Alone: Reflections On The Trappists Of Gethsemani And Father Louis, Emilie Grosvenor

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

No abstract provided.

A Stratigraphic Analysis Of The Middle Bronze Age From The Tell Taanach Excavations In 1963, '66 And '68, Ronald H. Wakeman

Dissertations

The Problem

One the most troubling issues for Near Eastern Archaeology is the lack of published excavation reports. Part of the problem is that archaeologists love to dig, but dislike writing publication reports. As a result, final reports are lacking for substantial number of archaeological excavations. Without a final report, the results of an archaeologist season and new information is lost forever. Dr. Paul Lapp of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary lead excavations at Tell Taanach in the West Bank, Palestine in 1963, ’66 and ’68. At the end of each season he wrote and published preliminary reports. Preliminary reports provide an …

Exploring The Influence Of Racial Diversity On Church Growth: A Case Study Of Buffalo Suburban Seventh-Day Adventist Church In Lancaster, New York, Luis A. Mancebo

Dissertations

There is a growing phenomenon in the United States of America: multiracial churches. While earlier research indicates that church growth typically happens in more homogenous congregations, more and more churches are growing that are multiracial. This case study focused on the growth of Buffalo Suburban Seventh-day Adventist Church (BSSDAC), a multiracial church in Lancaster, New York. Data collection was done through focus groups of church leaders and members, and a review of any available church and membership records.

BSSDAC started as a White congregation in Buffalo in 1885 and moved to the suburbs in the 1980s where the initial transition …

Litigation To Access Health Services: Ally Or Enemy Of Global Public Health?, Alexandre A. Martins, Sydney Allen

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

Background: Some scholars and global health advocates argue that litigation is a strategy to advance public health care, especially in those countries that do not have specific legislation to guarantee access to basic health care services. However, strategic litigation has another side, known as judicialization of the right to health, particularly present in the Latin American region where most countries incorporate the right to health into their constitutions, but their citizens still struggle with health disparities.

Objectives: Considering these two perspectives on litigation in health care, this paper examines the phenomenon of litigation in health care and its impact on …

Wealthy Hyperagency In The Throwaway Culture: Inequality And Environmental Death, Kate Ward

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Which Moses? Jewish Background Of Jesus' Transfiguration, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

An importance of Mosaic traditions for understanding of Jesus’ transiguration has been long noticed by many distinguished students of the New Testament.  While the role of Mosaic motifs found in the Hebrew Bible has been duly acknowledged, often in these studies one can see a glaring neglect for extra-biblical Mosaic developments that might also constituted a conceptual background of Jesus’ metamorphosis on the mountain. The puropse of this paper is to explore early para-biblical traditions in which the son of Amraam was understood not merely as a prophet, but as a divine figure.

Leviathan's Knot: The High Priest's Sash As The Cosmological Symbol, Andrei Orlov

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Christianity And The International Economic Order, Daniel A. Crane

Book Chapters

The relationship between Christianity and the global economic order is murky. The influence of certain Christian thinkers can be seen in certain aspects of the international economic system, but it would be difficult to sustain the case that the system pervasively reflects a Christian character. There is little ongoing engagement between formal Christian institutions (churches or church groups) and formal political institutions such as the WTO, IMF, or World Bank, because the work of elite global political institutions has become technical, technocratic, and specialized. At a retail level, Christians of course exert influence on the global economy in their capacities …

Exploring The Resilience In Female Sex Trafficking Victims, Petra Torri

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study is aimed at exploring the resilience of human trafficking victims. More specifically, this research study focuses on the experience of female sex trafficking victims through the lese of practitioners who work with them. By understanding the causes that make females vulnerable to be recruited by traffickers, the way they get exploited, as well as how they are able to leave the trafficking situation, this dissertation provides an understanding about the factors that promote healing and resiliency from the trafficking experience. Feminist theory was used to illuminate existing literature on the subject, and data analysis was conducted using …

Note To Leaders, Calvin University

Campus Ministries Resources

No abstract provided.

Listen Bible Study Weekly Guides, Calvin University

Campus Ministries Resources

No abstract provided.

Liturgical Drama In The Church: An Application Of Daily Scriptural Living, Alma Lee Langley-Ward

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this research was to study the validity of using liturgical drama as a vital tool of expression in helping to make Scripture come alive for the application and transformation of lives, first of those of the researcher’s local congregation and eventually of other churches. The researcher wrote and directed a play using members of the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church as actors and crew. The entire church was a participant of this research as the play was done during a Sunday morning worship service as part of the liturgy. The mixed-method approach presented the most viable …

The Pervasive Emptiness: Acedia, Modernity, And The Boredom Of Secularity, Samuel Welbaum

CGU Theses & Dissertations

A case can be made that the greatest fear of our time is the fear of boredom. We live in an age in which things change daily. New technologies are developed, old inventions are reconceived, the entertainment industry churns out movies, shows, and music constantly, and yet, people still experience boredom. Some have even said that it's the defining experience of our day. Where does this boredom come from? Why has it become prominent? What is causing it to gain power so rapidly? And how might it be stopped? Those questions are the driving force behind his work. This dissertation …

Classical Trinitarian Theology And The Idolatry Of Nationalism: The Doctrine Of The Trinity As A Critique Of Political Theology, Shane Akerman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation proposes that the doctrine of the Trinity, in the field of political theology today, should be taken as a critique of the idolatry of nationalism and should point us toward a new theological politics that is informed by the proper worship of the triune God, especially in the Church’s sacred liturgy. Existing proposals regarding the relation between trinitarian and political theology can be sorted into two basic camps, separated by alternative understandings of the meaning of political theology as primarily either descriptive or prescriptive. Representative of the descriptive sort is Agamben’s genealogical analysis of the link between trinitarian …

The Psychosomatic Journey Of Trauma And Its Healing: A Comparative Synthesis Between Scientific And Psycho-Spiritual Perspectives, Isabel Kelly

Pomona Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to create a comparative synthesis between scientific perspectives and spiritual perspectives of understanding the psychosomatic (mind-body) nature of trauma. In order to do so we will consider the works of Dr.Bessel van der Kolk, a world-leading psychiatrist in the field of trauma therapy who advocates for the use of body-oriented approaches to healing, and the works of Carl Jung and Donald Kalsched. Jung is considered one of the founding fathers of the field of Transpersonal Psychology, while Kalsched is a Jungian psychoanalyst who specializes in working with trauma patients. We will see that while …