Religion Commons^™

Foster Care And The Church, Donald R. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this action-based research project was to expose the absence of the church from active/personal involvement in the lives of foster families. The foster care system is overloaded, resulting in burnout of both foster parents and administrators. This results in a negative impact on children who enter the foster care system. Data was researched from the national, state, and local levels to note trends in the foster care system and reference that data with current books and journal articles analyzing trends/needs in the system. The intervention utilized interviews, questionnaires, and observations to gather information on the status of …

Discipleship Methods For A Pluralistic Environment At Whiteville Correctional Facility, Adam Rimmer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Volunteers within prisons are not accustomed to a prison’s pluralistic environment. Discipleship and relationship building with inmates in prisons have been strained because proper methods are not being incorporated into their chapel services. There is a need to understand inmates' diverse backgrounds and cultures to build more healthy relationships, lead them on the right path, and maintain a successful prison ministry. The goal of this project was to teach volunteers intercultural discipleship methods at Whiteville Correctional Facility. The first phase of the research methods involved doing a pre-interview with each participant that would serve as a control to gauge where …

Leadership Development In The African American Church, Barbara S. Houston

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

If the Church successfully fulfills its mission, it must have skilled and effective lay leadership. This research intends to examine the Christian organization's enhancement through discipleship and leadership development. Leadership development and discipleship are vital to every church organization. However, research shows that many historically African American denominations are challenged perhaps more than others to find and educate new religious leaders for their congregations (Johnson, 2017, kindle, loc. 179). What most African American pastors have discovered is that aging leadership is prominent in all denominations. The reality is that many African American churches are on life support; they are clinically …

Grounded Theory Study On The Perceived Relationship Between Classical Leadership Theories Education And Christian Ministry Leader's Success, Yannique Thomas

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

A central aim of the research study was for colleges and universities that prepare Christian ministry leaders for ministry in the twenty-first century to include classical leadership theories education in order to meet the growing demand for equipping Christian ministry leaders of the future for success (Kessler & Kretszchmar, 2015). The research findings overwhelmingly suggested that there is a direct link between classical leadership theories education and Christian ministry leaders’ success. All of the characteristics, skills, talents, and attributes identified through receiving classical leadership theories education shifts the emphasis away from what the Christian ministry leader knows in his head …

A Multiphase Iterative Mixed-Method Study Of Lay-Equipping Competencies Of Midwestern Adventist Pastors, Gary Sean Collins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this Multiphase iterative mixed-method study is to determine if the lay equipping competency courses of a School of Divinity's MDiv program influences the church discipleship programs of graduate lead pastors to develop partnership with their parishioners in ministry and commitment for their church's mission. Burggraff (2015) attests that most evangelical churches in North America are in decline (p. 22). He and many other scholars believe that this general membership decline is due to a lack of emphasis on discipleship, by clergy (Burggraff, 2015). At this stage in the research, lay equipping competencies (LEC) will be generally defined …

Growing In Global Perspectives: A Book Conversation Of Reading The Bible Around The World, Hannah Landman, Jaelyn Dragt, Ethan Hovrud, Joya Schreurs, Susan Wang

Student Work

"... God uses the oppressed to represent Jesus, the Savior, in [the Good Neighbor] story."

Posting about the book Reading the Bible Around the World from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/growing-in-global-perspectives-a-book-conversation-of-reading-the-bible-around-the-world/

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Growing In Global Perspectives: A Review Of Reading The Bible Around The World, Ethan Hovrud, Jaelyn Dragt, Joya Schreurs, Susan Wang, Hannah Landman

Student Work

"Effects of colonization, refuge seeking, and persecution affect how communities interpret meaning in Scripture."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the book Reading the Bible Around the World from In All Things - an online journal for critical reflection on faith, culture, art, and every ordinary-yet-graced square inch of God’s creation.

https://inallthings.org/growing-in-global-perspectives-a-review-of-reading-the-bible-around-the-world/

Composing The Book Of Jeremiah: Relocating The Oracles Against The Nations In The Masoretic Text, Brenna C. Salverson

Honors College Theses

The thesis conducts a textual critical analysis of the Book of Jeremiah’s placement of the oracles against the nations in the Masoretic Text and Septuagint. The following questions will be explored: 1) are the oracles against the nations a late addition to Jeremiah? 2) does the Masoretic Text relocate the oracles against the nations? and 3) do keywords and phrases that occur in the oracles against the nations appear in the content preceding and following the oracles in the Masoretic Text and Septuagint? Implications of the questions include the radical scribal decision to rearrange the Book of Jeremiah and the …

Tár, Sherry Coman

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Tár (2022), directed by Todd Field.

Ordering Gospel Textuality In The Second Century, Jeremiah Coogan, Jacob A. Rodriguez

Jesuit School of Theology

This article interrogates how several second-century figures ordered a pluriform Gospel corpus. Focusing on approaches to Gospel plurality visible in the Epistula apostolorum, Tatian the Syrian, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Ammonius of Alexandria, we argue that a number of Christian readers—across the Roman Mediterranean, from Alexandria to Gaul and from Syria to Rome—employed similar approaches. Drawing on evidence for second-century reading practices, we demonstrate continuities in both textual practices and conceptual frameworks that illuminate Gospel reading and writing. These figures engaged Gospels in multiple dimensions—horizontal juxtaposition of parallel material and vertical coordination of narrative sequence—in order to map relationships between …

Natural Lights & Natural Rights: The Problem Of The New Classical Natural Law Theory, Charles Neville Cacciatore

LSU Master's Theses

The present work examines the natural law jurisprudence of John Finnis. It argues that Finnis’s teaching is a genuinely new natural law theory. Finnis’s jurisprudence is not a re- presentation of the jurisprudence of St. Thomas Aquinas because its central element—a doctrine of natural rights—is a departure from Aquinas’s natural law teaching. In support of these claims, the present work relies upon the scholarship of Ernest L. Fortin, A.A. Following Fr. Fortin, it presents an understanding of the natural law that endorses a clear distinction between natural right and natural rights—between premodern political philosophy and modern political philosophy.

Reading (In) A Quadriform Cosmos:Gospel Books In The Early Christian Bibliographic Imagination, Jeremiah Coogan

Jesuit School of Theology

Early Christian thinkers developed the widespread linguistic cosmology of the Roman Mediterranean in a novel way in order to advance a specific bibliographic project: aligning the emergent fourfold Gospel with the structure of the physical cosmos. Employing interlocking concepts from the disciplines of meteorology, geography, music, mathematics, and astronomy, a number of figures—including Irenaeus, Origen, Ephrem, Eusebius, Fortunatianus, Augustine, and Maximus—imagined a Gospel corpus consisting of precisely four texts. Number provided a way to articulate the coherence of the fourfold Gospel—both with itself and with the rest of the world. By situating both familiar and neglected evidence in the context …

Tabular Thinking In Late Ancient Palestine: Instrumentality, Work, And The Construction Of Knowledge, Jeremiah Coogan

Jesuit School of Theology

In late antiquity, a revolution in information technology transformed the practices and possibilities of knowledge. At the cutting edge of this development, several third- and fourth-century figures in Roman Palestine deployed the emerging technology of the column-and-row table as a novel tool of historical and literary scholarship. The Christian scholars Origen and Eusebius and the rabbinic sages of the Palestinian Talmud adapted this specialist technology from grammar and astronomy, and put it to work to structure complex textual corpora. As a “textual machine,” the table generated new possibilities of knowledge. Bringing together literary and material evidence, this study analyses the …

Youth Ministry Curriculum Developing Korean American Youth's Christ-Centered Identity, Jonathan Hyung Lee

Doctor of Leadership

In this Project Portfolio, I will address the following NPO: High school students growing up in Korean American immigrant churches need a culturally and ethnically reflective youth curriculum to help them grow in their Christ-centered identity. The overall insight from this research is that there is a lack of youth pastors and youth directors available for the emerging second and third-generation Korean American youths who want to grow in their faith and identity. Although they have attended church since birth, they are growing up without a proper spiritual mentoring relationship that can help them become deeply rooted in faith. They …

Silent Holy Spirit, April-June 2023

Silent Holy Spirit

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

Silent Holy Spirit Finding Aid

Building The Bridge And Crossing It: Using Digital Media To Connect Churches With Their Local Community, Andrew Blair Farley

Doctor of Ministry

This project is designed to address the NPO statement “Churches need strategies to both engage in and measure the effectiveness of digital ministry and discipleship expressions that reflect the unique character and context of their physical gatherings.” During the discovery phase of this project, it was found that many churches want to use digital ministry methods that enhance their in-person ministry and not as a replacement for it. I have found this to be true both in my research and a pastor and pioneer in the field of church communications. The project outlined includes a website to act as a …

The Watering Place™: Creating Space For Spiritually Dehydrated And Hurried Women, Donna M. Cox

Doctor of Ministry

NPO Statement and Ministry Context: The Watering Place™: Creating Space for Spiritually Dehydrated and Hurried Women seeks to address the NPO: In a speedy, frenzied world, women need [a] space to pursue healing, spiritual connection, be refreshed, and be empowered to grow into the fullest expression of themselves. This project grew out of my position as founder of Doxology Ministries International, Inc., a 501c3 religious organization. For over fifteen years, I have been leading retreats focusing on women.

Key Insights: The Doctoral Project allowed me to explore issues facing women more deeply, particularly conditions impacting women’s health, such as the …

Moved To Compassion: Envisioning Parables In The Gospel Of Luke, Patrick J. O'Kernick

Dissertations (1934 -)

The primary goal of modern parable studies seems to be objective, more or less impersonal, interpretations. The subjective experience of the reader, the ways in which real readers are active and personally engaged in their encounters with parable texts—these things have hardly been addressed. Moreover, narrow views of reception activity have yielded narrow views of the parables themselves. Why, after all, read a parable firsthand? This is the central concern of my study. From reader response criticism, education-oriented reading research, cognitive psychology, and cognitive literary studies I derive what I call an Envisionment-Development Model of Reading (EDMR). According to EDMR, …

Recurso 13 Orientación Bíblica Evangelismo, Pablo Brink

Evangelismo

Recurso 13- Orientación Bíblica de Evangelismo

Eb-Encuentros Con Jesús, Pablo Brink

Estudios Bíblicos

EB-Encuentros con Jesús

Eb-Palabras De La Cruz, Pablo Brink

Estudios Bíblicos

EB-Palabras de la cruz

The Southern Baptist Convention’S Perception Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Compared To African American Pastors’ And Leaders’ Lived Experiences, Jeffrey J. Wallace

PhD in Organizational Leadership

The study of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is complex and multilayered. Similarly, the study of DEI within an ecclesiastical and ecumenical Christian movement like the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has its challenges. Challenges and tensions surrounding the SBC, relating to women's leadership issues, the infiltration of partisanship and politics in the pulpits, racial injustice flashpoint moments, and the lack of ethnic diversity in a crucial leadership position have impacted the overall lived experience of African American pastors and leaders. This phenomenological study explored the Southern Baptist Convention's perception of diversity, equity, and inclusion compared to African American pastors’ and …

Calvin Theological Journal (Vol 58 No 1 - April 2023), Calvin Theological Seminary

Calvin Theological Journal

From the Editor: Karin Maag - 1 / Articles: “Going Abroad” in the German Academy: Abraham Kuyper as Continental Philosopher by Dylan Pahman - 3 / Old Princeton’s Midwestern Allies: An Aspect of Reformed Recovery Since 1930 by Kenneth J. Stewart - 29 / Catholic, Evangelical, and Reformed: The Theological Vision of I. John Hesselink by David Komline - 53 / Short Studies Low-Level Church Workers in the Spread of Reformed Protestantism in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch East Indies by Yudha Thianto - 89 / Review Essay: A New Wave of Scholarship on Karl Barth by Ronald J. Feenstra - …

Healthy Souls And Steady Hands: A Relational Model For Soul Care Of Rural, Assemblies Of God Pastors, Nathaniel E. Rhoads

Doctor of Ministry

The NPO: Pastors and their spouses, of rural, Assemblies of God (AG) churches, need a relational structure for sustainable soul care to maintain a healthy spirituality and ministry. Pastors expend great energy caring for the welfare of others through acts such as teaching, counseling, and visiting. But who provides care for pastors? How can pastors take care of themselves? If the souls of pastors are dry, disordered, and dismayed, their relationship with God and service to the church suffers. Pastors in rural communities, typically in small congregations, face particular challenges, especially from geographical isolation and expectations of church growth. In …

Supply Chain Collaboration Under A Christian Business Ethics Lens, Daniel Oldak

Undergraduate Research and Scholarship Symposium

Supply chain management is a source of competitive advantages for firms and is becoming an increasingly important part of the business. Firms, on a strategic level, have it in their best interest to operate in a way that leverages their partnership with their suppliers to form sustainable strategic advantages which include but are not limited to product innovation & design, operational efficiency, shared cost savings, and collaborative planning, forecasting, & inventory. A collaborative supply chain that yields these benefits is only possible through the exercise of the justice dimensions of procedural, distributive, and interactional justice which are related to fair …

Public Opinion And Support On Physician Assisted Suicide, Emma Gottschalk

Political Science Theses and Capstones

I investigate the connection between public opinion and physician assisted suicide, using data in the SPSS data set from 2021. The strength of support a person feels towards PAS and what influenced that view is studied, religious affiliation, age, sex, education level, income, race, and region are considered in the study. The data set was collected through surveys that willing persons over the age of 18 completed. I analyze who is more willing to support PAS and why. I find that religion has a huge impact on public support for PAS, while other factors like education, sex, age and race …

The Gospel Of Luke: Major Themes, Narratives, And Theology, Adelyn Schoenbeck

Biblical Studies Student Projects

Within the paper, major Lukan themes are portrayed. The birth narrative is reimagined with major themes of the narrative, especially the purpose of the birth narrative to Theophilus, Luke's mentor. The paper defines and identifies Christology and discipleship which is formed from Luke. The paper illustrates what Jesus really means by stating the first century was an "evil and adulterous generation" (Luke 9:41). The essay concludes with the passion narrative and personal challenges that I have faced as studying the book of Luke.

Sunan Kalijaga: The Birth Of A Self-Actualized Pilgrimage Culture, F. P. Meachem

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Javanese Islam is incredibly unique in its style and practice. Despite boasting a Muslim population larger than the entire Middle East, Indonesia and its Islamic cultural practices are largely unknown in academic circles. This has made an introduction to Islam in the archipelago even more difficult for the rare interested Western reader. Frustratingly, what is lost on the rest of the world is basically second nature to 155 million Javanese Muslims, who learn from their families, schools, and pilgrimages about the Wali Songo, a group of nine semi-mythical figures credited with spreading Islam to Java. When we stop casting …

Assessing The Costs And Benefits Of Principal Time Usage And Ohio's Edchoice Scholarship, Adam J. Dufault Ed.D.

Journal of Catholic Education

This study explored the experience of Catholic school principals in Ohio whose schools have participated in the EdChoice Scholarship program. The researcher employed the lens of principal time usage to examine the experiences of Ohio Catholic school principals with EdChoice, with a focus on the direct experiences of principals participating in the program, the principal’s role in the supervisory aspects of operating the program at a school, and on the connections between workload and principal perceptions of the EdChoice program. The research questions were explored through semi-structured interviews with eight Catholic school principals and three administrative designees at those schools. …

The Beam In Our Own Eyes: Antiracism And Ya Literature Through A Catholic Lens, Katie Sutton, Abigail D. Grafmeyer, Dan Reynolds

Journal of Catholic Education

As Catholic schools serve an increasingly racially diverse population of students, they must grapple with the critical requirement to address these students’ unique needs while heeding the call from modern Catholic Church leaders to engage in explicit antiracist action. Using the Historically Responsive Literacy Framework (HRL), this article equips Catholic high school English language arts (ELA) teachers with practical and powerful ways to create antiracist curriculum. To do this effectively, we place antiracist Young Adult (YA) literature (both fiction and nonfiction) in conversation with Catholic canonical texts and modern voices from Catholic clergy members. By connecting with students’ complex identities …