A Study On The Development And Effectiveness Of Christian Leaders Through Cambodia Christian International School, Changsoon Son

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This paper is about fostering Christian leaders and missionary roles in Cambodia through the operation of the Christian International School in Cambodia. The researcher emphasizes the necessity and importance of Christian international schools in Cambodia, a Buddhist country, and aims to present missionary strategies through them. Cambodia is located in Indochina, southeast of Asia, and has a painful history of the Killing Fields. In 1976, a Chinese-backed Khmer Rouge leader, Pol Pot, killed at least one million Cambodians by 1979, systematically sweeping the educated middle class and most of those who seemed enemies of the government. As a result, Cambodia …

The Rural Church As Community Support For Grandparents Raising Their Grandchildren, William Shane Cassida

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A growing trend in rural communities located in the Southern Appalachian Mountains, as well as across much of the United States, is the significant increase in the number of grandparents that are being forced to accept the responsibility of raising their grandchildren due to a crisis within the family structure. The US Census Bureau cited in 2016 that over 2.5 million grandparents are helping with the responsibility of raising their grandchildren, and that 7.8 million children live in homes owned by their grandparents. This accounts for almost 10% of all children nationally. There is a current ministry need for churches …

Effective Decision-Making Strategies That Support Long-Term Sustainability In Nondenominational Churches, Andre Paul Davis Jr.

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective financial decision-making has frequently led to nondenominational church failures and contributes to 4,000 to 8,000 churches closing each year in North America. Grounded in stewardship theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective financial decision-making strategies in nondenominational churches that support long term sustainability. Participants were 10 church leaders who successfully used financial decision-making strategies to support long-term sustainability in Central North Carolina was used for this study. Data were collected from semi structured interviews and internal church documents relating to church leadership's financial decision-making and analyzed using thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: budgeting …

The Pursuit Of Salvation. Community, Space, And Discipline In Early Medieval Monasticism, Albrecht Diem

History - All Scholarship

This book is published with open access: https://www.brepolsonline.net/action/showBook?doi=10.1484/M.DM-EB.5.120300 A history of the monastic pursuit of eternal salvation in the early medieval West, revolving around a seventh-century monastic rule for nuns, the Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines ("Someone’s Rule for Virgins") The seventh-century Regula cuiusdam ad uirgines (Someone’s Rule for Virgins), which was most likely written by Jonas of Bobbio, the hagiographer of the Irish monk Columbanus, forms an ideal point of departure for writing a new history of the emergence of Western monasticism understood as a history of the individual and collective attempt to pursue eternal salvation. The book provides a …

Sample Syllabus Using Understanding The Bible By Watts, James Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

Sample syllabus for course using Understanding the Bible as A Scripture in History, Culture and Religion by James W. Watts (Wiley Blackwell, 2021)

Text Are Not Rituals And Rituals Are Not Texts, With An Example From Leviticus 12, James Watts

Religion - All Scholarship

Biblical scholars have increasingly realized that textual representations of rituals do not have the same function or meaning as the ritual performances that they describe. A survey of this theoretical distinction in biblical scholarship over the last 25 years shows the impact of this realization, and also several points of resistance. The significance of the distinction between ritual text and ritual performance can be illustrated clearly in Leviticus 12, which describes the rituals required of new mothers after giving birth. The chapter mandates practices that are unique in the Bible and, possibly, novel in ancient Israel’s religious culture. However, they …

Another One Bites The Dust: Three Changes The Church Needs To Make, Marykate Morse

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Here I am, only six months since the last article I wrote on mighty cedars falling to the earth (aka Jerry Falwell, Jr.), and now I’m writing another on the fall of Ravi Zacharias. It’s hard not to get cynical about famous male evangelical leaders. Ravi’s fall hits the evangelical church particularly hard because he was admired internationally. I’ve been reading soul-searching responses from all over the world. Ravi had a huge following of young leaders who listened to, were inspired by, and imitated his apologetic approach to evangelism. Now his organization and leaders worldwide are trying to pick up …

Saving The Nation: Chinese Protestant Elites And The Quest To Build A New China, 1922-1952, Thomas H. Reilly

Faculty Books

While Protestant Christians made up only a small percentage of China's overall population during the Republican period, they were heavily represented among the urban elite. Protestant influence was exercised through churches, hospitals, and schools, and reached beyond these institutions into organizations such as the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) and YWCA (Young Women's Christian Association). The YMCA's city associations drew their membership from the urban elite and were especially influential within the modern sectors of urban society. Chinese Protestant leaders adapted the social message and practice of Christianity to the conditions of the republican era. Key to this effort was …

Religious Alternative Dispute Resolution In Israel And Other Nations With State-Sponsored Religious Courts: Crafting A More Efficient And Better Relationship Between Rabbinical Courts And Arbitration Law In Israel, Michael J. Broyde, Ezra Ives

Faculty Articles

This paper proposes the expansion of both private and public options regarding religious arbitration in Israel, broadening both the choice of law and the choice of forum available to Israeli citizens in cases of either commercial law or issues of status (such as divorce, marriage, and conversion). The current law in Israel prohibits citizens from adjudicating their monetary disputes in state religious courts and treats private religious courts as no different from any other arbitration tribunal, precluding these private religious courts from marriage, divorce and conversion matters. We propose that both of these restrictions be lifted, while the role of …

Saving Our Planet Through Faith: A Buddhist-Christian Response, Guillermo Gonzalez

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

The main topic of this essay is how certain attributes and teachings from Christianity and Buddhism can inform us of what path we can take to combat global climate change. Although environmental work is not limited to these traditions, this paper aims to point out the teachings that help understand our role as humans as interconnected within these two traditions. One of the main points that are made for Christianity is a reinterpretation of Imago Dei which is explained in detail in the first section. In short, Imago Dei is the idea that human beings are made in the image …

Fire Of Divine Unity: Col 1: 24-7, Sr. Pia (Kimberly) St. Romain

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

Paul invites all people into a oneness with Christ and each other. It is a requirement in the Christian journey. The Holy Trinity is a communion of persons as One and we as the church are a communion of persons as one body of Christ. It is only by God’s Love that we can share in the inner life of the Holy Trinity, participating in a holy intimacy beyond our imagination. This Divine unity with the Holy Trinity and others is made possible through Mary’s heart, the Eucharist, and our willingness to undergo unavoidable sufferings for the sake of Christ …

Exploring Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy In Clinical Practice, Tim Rieck

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

ABSTRACT

Key Words: religion, spirituality, sacred, intervention, spiritual intervention, soul

Over the past twenty years, spirituality and religion have gained increased attention in the field of psychotherapy. In the research of psychotherapy, psychology, and social work, there is recognition that spirituality and religion can contribute to positive outcomes when people are faced with various challenges and distresses in life.

The main challenges are tied into determining how to move the research beyond the fact that spirituality has importance in psychotherapy to exploring how spirituality is integrated in psychotherapy. There are numerous questions to explore regarding the application of spirituality into …

The Sower, The Story & Kingdom Space In The Gospel Of Mark, Susan Lankowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The kingdom of God is an ambiguous term that Jesus does not explicitly define. Traditional scholarship has explained the kingdom in terms of its social, cultural and time aspects. Recent scholarship is examining the spatiality of the kingdom of God to uncover its characteristics as a “space.” Spatiality seeks to understand how humans interact with space. Space captures the experience of human life and activity and stories, and storytelling reveal that experience. It is at the intersection of space and storytelling that this project examines the kingdom of God. The Gospel of Mark is a story that grew from an …

Second Generation Christian Korean Canadians: Exploring Their Lived Experiences Of Mental Health Issues And Services, Kyoung Jung Kim

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

This study explores the lived experiences of second-generation Christian Korean Canadian young adults with mental health issues (MHI) and their use of health services (MHS). In addition, this study asked this cohort to discuss their beliefs about the views their parents held about MHI and MHS. All research participants were born and raised in Canada by Korean born immigrant parents. This study was descriptive, phenomenological, and qualitative in nature; it consisted of in-depth interviews with six male and six female participants. In their experience with MHI, seven participants experienced fear and sadness (depression and anxiety) and three of them …

Messages From The Margins: How Mature Women At Risk Of Homelessness Sustain Their Psychosocial And Spiritual Lives, Catherine E. Tovell

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This community based qualitative study examined the psychosocial and spiritual lives of 10 mature women (age 50 and older) who were at risk of becoming homeless, in other words, the hidden homeless. A narrative inquiry research design was employed to explore the lived experiences of these women. Voluntary participants were recruited through Life*Spin, a community based non profit organization that works primarily with low income families and individuals in London, Ontario. The Executive Director of Life*Spin circulated the recruitment flyers and handbills throughout her networks of social agencies. Individual interviews were arranged with participants who met the inclusion categories of …

The Genre Of A Meal: The Prototypical Instantiation Of The Lord's Supper In 1 Corinthians 11: 17-34, Paul Olatubosun Adaja

Dissertations

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 contains the earliest reference to the celebration of the official meal of the early Christians, commonly known today as the Lord's Supper or the Eucharist. In this passage, Paul addresses what he considered to amount to abuses of this Christian practice (1 Cor 11: 17-22). The idea that the Lord's Supper as it was celebrated in the city of Corinth is a variant of the Greco-Roman meal tradition is a well-established position among scholars today. It is also a position I agree with, but only partially. The contribution of this dissertation to scholarship in this field will …

Designing A Program To Help Urban Pastors Cope With Compassion Stress, Valerie Andrews

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

Clergy are in a unique position as emotional and spiritual first responders to individuals and families during times of crisis including the current global pandemic due to COVID-19. While the most rewarding part of ministry is helping people by offering spiritual direction, these services can also be the very things that threaten and inflict harm on their personal, physical and spiritual lives (Ferguson, 2007). The purpose of this dissertation is to help clergy effectively cope with and manage the stressors of ministry that can lead to compassion stress, fatigue or vicarious trauma and other distress responses. To this end, I …

The Role Of Islam In Establishing Women's Rights In The Muslim World, Assad Khan

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This paper examines the literature surrounding women's rights in the Muslim world to determine the factors that have contributed to the oppression of women in the Muslim world and to understand the role that different interpretations of Islam can have on either restricting or improving the status of women in the Muslim world. The practices of Muslim people as a population deviate from what is prescribed by Islam in some cases, contributing to the misconception that the restrictive practices toward women in many Muslim-majority countries are founded in Islamic teachings. Factors such as individual levels of religiosity and adherence to …

Almost Heaven: Religious Arguments In Appalachian Extractive Fiction, Darby Lane Campbell

Theses and Dissertations--English

Appalachia is a national sacrifice zone that hosts extractive industries directly responsible for many social problems in the region, however, many attribute these issues to the moral failings of Appalachians themselves. Activism in the area is heavily focused on opposing both extraction and the negative perceptions which contribute to its domination. One way this activism is conducted is through extractive fiction—novels which expose the destruction caused by extractive industries. Appalachian extractive fiction utilizes religion and spirituality to argue against extraction. This research examines how fiction can be an effective mode of activism and how the use of Christian arguments in …

Spiritual Mentoring During Emerging Adulthood: A Dyadic Perspective, Jeffrey L. Reed

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Mentoring relationships have long been identified as a valuable means for supporting identity development in young adults and assisting these individuals in navigating life transitions. The guidance and stability afforded by mentoring relationships can be particularly beneficial to individuals undergoing transitions in their personal or professional lives, or both, and are thus well-suited to play a meaningful role in the lives of emerging adults. Emerging adults are also in a unique developmental stage in which they experience increased freedom and opportunity for exploration away from parents and guardians. While this freedom often results in increased risky behavior, it also allows …

A Qualitative Examination Of The Preparedness Of African American Pastors To Address Issues Of Addiction, Shuntay Tarver, Chaniece Winfield, Judith Preston, Alexis Wilkerson, Pastor Isaac Shorter

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

This study qualitatively explored the preparedness of African American pastors to meet the needs of parishioners with addictions. Findings indicated that African American pastors do not always perceive themselves to be prepared to address issues of addiction, and existing cultural barriers challenge collaboration between human services practitioners and African American pastors. Findings also revealed that despite existing cultural barriers, African American pastors are willing to collaborate with professionals who offer educational opportunities in culturally relevant ways. Human services professionals’ ability to understand cultural nuances of African American pastors is of paramount concern to effectively enhance the quality of life for …

The Dynamic Relationship Between Young Spanish Catholics And The Church, Caroline Cox

CMC Senior Theses

Research Question: How is the commitment of Spaniards to Catholicism changing with younger generations? And why is this relevant given Spain’s deep roots with the religion?

The Catholic Church and Spain have been highly involved with each other for centuries. It is possible that the Church’s controversies and conservative values are distancing young members from pursuing a stronger relationship with their faith. I predicted that more young Spanish Catholics’ commitment to the Church was wavering because of three potential reasons: increased security and education, child sex abuse scandals involving clergymen, and the institution’s outdated attitudes. I conducted a study …

Controls And Obstacles Of Justice In The Holy Qur’An An Objective Study, Dr. Ali Abdul Aziz Sayour

Faculty Peer-Reviewed Papers | بحوث هيئة التدريس المحكمة

Justice is one of the primary aims of Sharia and a moral value in every time and place. It is the millstone around which ideas, people, nations and groups revolve. God sent messengers with holy books to teach people the meaning of justice in order to achieve it. This paper reviews approaches followed to command people to achieve justice whether clearly or through interpretation, in addition to reward and punishment approaches. It classifies the controls into physical and psychological. The research draws attention to many factors that affect the achievement of justice whether apparent or hidden. It is important to …

Removing God From Public Schools-Beneficial Or Not, Angela Kay Constantine

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite the Constitution allowing for the removal of religious conceptions from public schools, the perspectives of most United States middle school-age kids show that the cultural shift towards scientific naturalism as the de facto worldview has impacted worship music in the Church. The worldview is one of worship that presents more as a concert than that of praise. The data, such as suicide statistics, show that there is a correlation between a negatively shifted moral valuation and the aversion, or inability, for the subject of God to be approached in the school setting (i.e., the science classroom) - even where …

A Look At Short-Term Mission Trips In The Context Of Cypress Baptist Church As A Sending Unit, John Daniel Bodine

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This thesis project is a study on short-term missions in the context of Cypress Baptist Church as a sending unit. The purpose of this project is to seek answers of why many of Cypress members are choosing not to engage globally by being part of the ministry of short-term missions at Cypress. Cypress Baptist Church is a rapidly growing church, and as it grows it should see more members participating in short-term missions. The goal is to ask the people of Cypress questions centered around this project so the project manager can get candid, real answers to why many are …

Gregory The Great On The Balance Of The Christian Life Of The Clergy, Isaias D'Oleo Ochoa

CTS Student Publications and Creative Works

In Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care the balance of the Christian life of the clergy not only permeates Gregory’s discussions in each major section of the book but also this theological motif served him to challenge the tendency of the clergy of his times to have a negative attitude towards the active life.

How Bavinck Responds To The Challenges Of The Theory Of Evolution: The Primacy Of Biblical Revelation, Isaias D'Oleo Ochoa

CTS Student Publications and Creative Works

In his discussion of evolution, Bavinck offers a modified theory of development, rooted not under a mechanistic and naturalistic worldview, as Darwin does, but under a “theistic-friendly” framework. This article argues that Bavinck’s discussion of evolution as a whole endorses a modified Aristotelian/ Thomistic framework in order to understand the theory of development, and thus overcomes the challenges raised by Darwin’s naturalistic worldview to biblical revelation.

Even Rocks Are Alive: Christian Animist Disruptions Of The Species Divide, Mark I. Wallace

Religion Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

A Bitten Apple And A Bloody Key: Feminist Revisionism At The Intersection Of The Eden Myth And The Bluebeard Tale, Jacob Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the feminist revisionism of the Bluebeard fairy tale through a focus on its relationship with the Eden myth. Past studies have examined the remarkable feminism of Bluebeardian literature and history, but this thesis is the first to interrogate the tale’s evolution from and alongside the Eden myth and to argue that the Bluebeard tale’s feminism is exceptional because of its ties to the Eden myth. I argue that the evolution of the intersecting revisionism of the Eden myth and the Bluebeard tale is characterized by the changing morals of the two myths—morals that, depending on the author’s …

Religious Naturalisms, Carol W. White

Other Faculty Research and Publications

This article focuses on recent developments in religious naturalism in the twenty-first century, building on Jerome Stone’s 2008 study of its resurgence in the mid-twentieth century. I introduce religious naturalism as a synthesis of naturalistic ideas that often depart from traditional forms of religious thinking, defining it as a capacious, ecological religious worldview grounded in the observational conviction that nature is ultimate. I also describe different models of religious naturalism, focusing on the key ideas found in the influential publications of contemporary religious naturalists (e.g., Ursula Goodenough, Donald Crosby, Loyal Rue, among others). While acknowledging specific points of emphasis, I …