Religion Commons^™

A Strategy For Building Healthy Local Churches In Jordan, Kwang Hu Hwang

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Evangelical churches in Jordan have faced many challenges in maintaining healthy churches under the Islamic government. The churches in Jordan are not only important for local people, but also for people in the Middle East in fulfilling the Great Commission. This is because many Jordanians visit various Arab countries to have a job and a numerous number of Gulf countries’ people travel to Jordan. The purpose of this thesis is to create a strategy with this context to build healthy local churches in Jordan that can then be involved in fulfilling the Great Commission actively for the local and Arab …

The Role Of Biblical Literacy In Discipling Believers In The Local Church, Joseph G. Austin

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The degradation of biblical literacy has increased in recent years to the point that many church attendees have very little actual knowledge or understanding of Biblical truths. This lack of knowledge is a direct correlation to the lack of moral foundations for many of today’s believers, particularly with younger generations. The goal of this paper is to provide a balanced, substantive, and interactive plan for churches, large and small, to integrate into their discipleship programs or use to assist the local church in establishing a discipleship program. The process will include surveys gauging the level of biblical literacy among self-identified …

A Mixed Methods Approach To The Implementation Of Simple Church At Greenhouse Community Church, Jeff Michael Wheeland

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The majority of Evangelical Churches in America are declining. The majority of Christian and Missionary Alliances churches in America are also declining. Greenhouse Community Church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Houston, Texas was in decline. Greenhouse Community Church lacked a simple discipleship plan. Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger wrote Simple Church and discovered after conducting research that vibrant, growing churches in America had a simple discipleship plan, whereas declining and plateaued churches had a complex plan or no plan at all. A mixed methods approach of both quantitative and qualitative research was applied to the congregation at Greenhouse …

Believers But Not Followers: The Unstoppable Misconduct And Neglect Of Christians Outside Ministries Duties, Fabio Delgado

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Christianity is embedded in moral conduct, values, and norms which require believers to project a Christ-like nature. While the whole concept of Christianity is embodied in faith and righteousness, the current generation of believers has exhibited an increased state of secularism which contradicts biblical morals and drifts them further from the religious faith. This research stems from the increasingly common notion of “believers but not followers,” where Christians wittingly abandon their ministerial duties and engage in misconduct. The selection of this topic emanates from the deep concern regarding the rising trend of hypocrisy among believers and mainly propagated by events …

Missional Metamorphosis: How Identity, Presence, And Praxis Are Reshaping Disciple Making Within Post-Christian Contexts, Justin Thomas Wester

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The American Church’s current disciple-making paradigm is struggling to engage post-Christian contexts with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite American society’s steady trending away from a biblical worldview, dwindling church attendance, and declining religious affiliation, the American Church is still operating under a disciple-making paradigm conducive for the Christendom era. What changes must occur to help churches break away from an antiquated paradigm and embrace a more contextually appropriate expression? This project helps to answer that question by capturing and expressing how changes in ecclesial identity, contextual presence, and corporate praxis are altering disciple-making paradigms within post-Christian contexts. Utilizing quantitative …

Review Of Ron Edmonson, The Mythical Leader: The Seven Myths Of Leadership, Rodney A. Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jesus, God's Story And Storyteller, Kenley D. Hall

Faculty Publications

The preachers of the twenty-first century who make the deepest impact will be preachers committed to the homiletical example of Jesus. Like Jesus, they will be God’s story and become God’s storyteller. They will utilize the art of storytelling to make God’s truth come alive by capturing the imagination of people in such a way that they have a dynamic experience with Him who is “the Truth.”

Un Solo Dio In Tre Persone: Terza Parte, John C. Peckham

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Fellowship Post, November 2019

Fellowship Post

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Boston, MA

Fellowship Post Finding Aid

Women In The Serbian Orthodox Church: Historical Overview And Contemporary Situation, Aleksandra Djurić Milovanović, Radmila Radić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Research on the position of women in the Eastern Orthodox churches is still scarce. Some recent studies show differences among the various Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe regarding women’s issues. The position of the women in the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC) was addressed as late as in the 1990s, but this is still an insufficiently examined field. Eastern Orthodox theologians have rarely discussed the problem of the position and role of women in the SOC. During the socialist era, they did not engage this topic, except in studies related to female monasticism. On the other hand, sociological and anthropological studies …

Book Review: Church In A Divided World: The Encounter Of The Lutheran World Federation With The Cold War, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Research on the mutual impact of Christian churches and the Cold War is proceeding albeit slowly. One of the most important initiators of such research, the prominent church leader Risto Lehtonen of Finland, has now added his own study based on his personal experience in executive positions with the World Student Christian Federation and then more pertinently as Director of the Department of Church Cooperation of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). With occasional direct references to his own role in the historical development of the churches’ role in the post-World War II rupture of the world into two hostile camps, …

Sexual Attitudes & Shame: Catholic Women’S Perspectives, Colleen Conklin

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Guilt, particularly around sexuality, is a concept commonly associated with those who practice Catholicism. Additionally, women in the United States (US) often navigate many mixed messages surrounding sexuality. Women who are raised in religious traditions that hold strong messages about the importance of one’s sexuality and its expression may have a particularly complicated relationship with their body and sexual experiences. Nonconsensual sexual experiences also further complicate one’s self image and self-esteem. The purpose of this study is to examine the potential correlations between one’s level of religiosity, shame, and sexual attitudes. These themes were investigated through the implementation of a …

Eurasian And Eastern European Evangelicals: Tested Over Two Centuries, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The oppression of evangelicals has been a persistent legacy, but it has not applied to all of them. Therefore, we must begin by defining evangelicals and oppression. A further query to pursue is: what intensity of oppression has permitted creative survival?

Post-Soviet Transformation For Evangelicals, 1991-2018: Deepening Causes For Discord, Walter Sawatsky

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

During the great transformation between 1989 and 1991, the majority of American journalists were completely surprised by the transformations of 1989 in Eastern Europe and the collapse of the USSR in 1991, since it contradicted their stereotypes so profoundly. Several developments within the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe turned out to be signposts for those with the eyes to see. Literary figures and philosophers circulating their thinking in samizdat form, or through the emergence of dissenting movements, pointed to the disillusionment with the grand socialist promises. Solzhenitsyn had already drawn attention in his Nobel speech to the power of truth …

Spatial Distribution Of Religious Sites In China: A Web-Based Data-Rich Application Using Esri, Guojun Han

Purdue GIS Day

The Online Spiritual Atlas of China (OSAC), created by the Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue, was constructed as a complement to the print volume, Atlas of Religion in China: Social and Geographical Contexts, by Fenggang Yang (Brill, 2018), as a way to visually demonstrate the extent and distribution of religious sites in China. OSAC is power by ArcGIS online, and some features were developed with ArcGIS JavaScript SDK. The site allows users to visualize the spatial distribution of individual religious sites in China, as well as see how provinces, prefectures, and counties compare with each other in …

Clergy Sexual Abuse In The Roman Catholic Church: Dispelling Eleven Myths And Separating Facts From Fiction, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church has made headline news across the country and world for years. Yet, even with such remarkable publicity, so much misinformation and myths about the problem persist. It is important for psychologists, as well as other mental health professionals, to be better informed about these myths and misinformation in order to better serve their clients who may be impacted by the story. Those impacted include not only clerical abuse victims, their families, and clerics themselves but also Catholics in general, who may be troubled and demoralized by the ongoing and unfolding crisis …

Relationship Between Religion, Spirituality, And Psychotherapy: An Ethical Perspective, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Spirituality and religion are typically a critically important element of most people’s lives. They offer an overarching framework for making sense of the world and a strategy to cope with life’s stressors. They provide a community and a way to wrestle with life’s biggest questions regarding meaning, purpose, and suffering. Mental health professionals are mandated to behave in an ethical manner defined by their codes of ethics. These codes typically understand religion and spirituality a multiculturalism issue. Professionals need to be respectful and responsible and pay close attention to potential implicit bias, boundary crossings, and destructive beliefs and practices. Working …

Book Review: A Short History Of The Georgian Church [SakʻArtʻVelos Eklesiis Mokle Istoria], Paul Crego

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Metropolitan Archbishop Anania Japaridze (1949-present) is a member of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in Georgia and has served as a bishop in that church since 1991. He has published several books, mainly on the history of the Orthodox Church in Georgia, but also books on how Georgians have been converted to other Christian denominations or religions, and, thereby “converted” to other ethnicities. The thesis of one such book is that Georgian converts to Islam in the northwest part of historical Georgian territories lost their Georgian language and national identity and became Abkhazians. (Apʻxazetʻi: kʻartʻveltʻa "gaapʻxazeba" = Abkhazia: …

Frontmatter (Volume 39, Issue 6), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Bewitching Power: The Virtuosity Of Gender In Dekker And Massinger's The Virgin Martyr, Thomas Fish

Faculty Articles

This paper considers Thomas Dekker and Philip Massinger’s play The Virgin Martyr (1622) in light of scientific notions of the female body circulating during the period to illustrate how the performance of martyrdom manifested a performance of gender virtuosity, elevating it to the status of the supernatural or divine. Like well-known female martyrs from the period, such as Anne Askew, the protagonist, Dorothea, takes on characteristically male attributes: she assumes the role of the soldier and defies scientific understanding of the female gender by sealing her phlegmatic “leaky” body and exuding divine heat that defies her cold, wet “nature." The …

Declining Church Attendance: Five Reasons Why Millennials Have Stopped Attending Church, Charles Eugene Sumpter

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

During the past decade, every denomination has recorded a decline in church attendance despite a continual increase in the US population. Research organizations including the Barna Group, Pew Research, and the Hartford Institute of Religion Research conducted an untold number of surveys providing statistics that ascertain reasons for declining church attendance and why people are leaving the church. Failure to address the issue of declining attendance will lead to more church failures and an increased number of people with no church affiliation. This research document will review data from the Barna Group, Pew Research, and the Hartford Institute of Religion …

Prodigal Theology For An Anxious Age: A Review Of On The Road With Saint Augustine, Aj Funk

Student Work

"Smith suggests that to be human is to be a refugee, longing for home, never quite being satisfied."

Posting about the book On the Road with Saint Augustine 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/prodigal-theology-for-an-anxious-age-a-review-of-on-the-road-with-saint-augustine/

Children's & Pathfinder Leadership Event, Victory Kovach

Andrews Agenda: Campus News

No abstract provided.

Dialogue Between Islam And Environtmental Ethics Through The Seyyed Hossein Nasr Thought, Aulia Rahman Nugraha, Naupal Asnawi

International Review of Humanities Studies

Islam is often regarded as a religion that teaches anthropocentrism through the concept of the caliph in which humans occupy a central position on earth. However, the concept of the caliph itself is a complex concept where the special status of humans always implies a moral obligation. Through alternative explanatory methods and critical reflection, the authors try to clarify the concept of the caliph and show the teachings of Islam that are environmentally friendly through the thought of Seyyed Hossein Nasr. Philosophy and environmental ethics of Nasr have two major projects, namely the resacralization of nature and the clarification of …

Go Outside And Play!, Erin Olson

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"We know that play is good for kids’ mental, emotional, and physical health, but what about for adults?"

Posting about ­­­­­­­­the benefits of enjoyable activities 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/go-outside-and-play/

Health, More Than A Biological Issue: Talking About Holistic Health, Jordan Helming, Luralyn M. Helming

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"As a society, we often ignore psychological, social, and spiritual health, focusing on the much more objective biological health. Doing so is a disfavor to ourselves, because humans encompass all four aspects."

Posting about ­­­­­­­­health for the whole person 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/health-more-than-a-biological-issue-talking-about-holistic-health/

If Not Stewards Of Creation, What Are We?, David Warners, Matthew Kuperus Heun

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

What if God didn’t place humans on earth to be stewards of creation? If not stewards, then what is our relationship to the nonhuman creation? These are the central questions addressed by Beyond Stewardship: New Approaches to Creation Care (The Calvin Press, 2019). Using voices and insights of 14 authors from diverse disciplines, this book is filled with fresh ideas and encouragement to help Christians better understand both their place in the world and the many relationships that embed them within God’s good but groaning creation.

Table Of Contents, Regennia N. Williams

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.

St. Benedict Parish For The Deaf Church Bulletin, October 27, 2019

Saint Benedict Parish for the Deaf Church Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in San Francisco, CA

Saint Benedict Parish for the Deaf Church Bulletin Finding Aid

Transformational Leadership: Flow, Resonance, And Social Change, Enas Elhanafi

The Journal of Traditions & Beliefs

No abstract provided.