Religion Commons^™

Ancient Hawaiian Temples In LāʻIe, Cy Bridges, Tēvita KaʻIli, Brooks Haderlie, 'Ulise Funaki, Nakia Nae'ole

Mormon Pacific Historical Society

No abstract provided.

Light And Perspective: Essays From The Mormon Theology Seminar On 1 Nephi 1 And Jacob 7, Kevin Christensen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

The Mormon Theology Seminar has produced two volumes of essays exploring 1 Nephi 1 on Lehi’s initial visions, and Jacob 7 on the encounter with Sherem. These essays provide valuable insights from a range of perspectives and raise questions for further discussion both of issues raised and regarding different paradigms in which scholars operate that readers must navigate.

Review: Jonathan A. Stapley. The Power Of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy And Cosmology. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018., Matthew Bowman

Mormon Studies Review

Jonathan Stapley’s new book is only 129 pages of text, but it feels much longer. This is not, happily, because the prose slogs. Rather it is one of those books that makes every word count. There is no fluff here, only finely sanded insight after insight, with all redundancy polished away. Stapley’s strengths are twofold. First, his archival work is unparalleled. For every assertion he has an anecdote. He meticulously marks fine nuances in opinion among his subjects, and those subjects are as frequently obscure figures like Steven Markham, John Steele, or Margaret Anderton as they are more familiar Mormons …

“And They Shall Be Had Again”: Onomastic Allusions To Joseph In Moses 1:41 In View Of The So-Called Canon Formula, Matthew L. Bowen

Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship

Moses 1:41 echoes or plays on the etymological meaning of the name Joseph — “may he [Yahweh] add,” as the Lord foretells to Moses the raising up of a future figure through whom the Lord’s words, after having been “taken” (away) from the book that Moses would write, “shall be had again among the children of men.” Moses 1:41 anticipates and employs language reminiscent of the so-called biblical canon formulas, possible additions to biblical texts meant to ensure the texts’ stability by warning against “adding” or “diminishing” (i.e., “taking away”) from them (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:2; 5:22 [MT 5:18]; 12:32 [MT …

Front Matter

BYU Studies

No abstract provided.

Better And Worse, Hollie J. Wise

BYU Studies

"Is it just me, Miss Wise, or are your eyes getting really big?” Walker says as he looks all the way up at me. It’s mid-September of my second year of teaching, and all around us the other kindergartners buzz about the room. Nice Miss Wise is trying to contain Crazed Miss Wise as I reprimand Walker for the umpteenth time. Apparently, my eyes give me away.

Converting The Saints: A Study Of Religious Rivalry In America By Charles Randall Paul, Ronald E. Bartholomew

BYU Studies

Charles Randall Paul, the founder and president of the Foundation of Religious Diplomacy, has established himself in the academy as an expert in religion and philosophy on engaging differences. Paul’s book Converting the Saints looks at religious conflict by analyzing encounters between early-twentieth-century Protestants and Latter-day Saints. During this time, Protestants served several missions to Utah in an attempt to convert Latter-day Saints back to mainstream Christianity. Paul looks at the conflicts that inevitably arose between the two religious traditions and through his analysis proposes a new theory of conflict engagement that turns destructive conflict into constructive, peaceful engagement. In …

How Dead Cats, Your Siblings, Eighteenth-Century English Clergy, Making Lists, Ted Talks, Evolutionary Biology, Susa Young Gates, And My Mom Can Save The World From Being Utterly Wasted, Amy Harris

BYU Studies

I’m going to tell you two stories today; a short one about dead cats and a long one about dead people.

Administrative Records: Council Of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846, James B. Allen

BYU Studies

Everything You Could Ever Want to Know about the Council of Fifty in Nauvoo” would be a well-suited subtitle for this highly anticipated volume. As the editors note, Joseph Smith and his closest associates saw the Council of Fifty “as the beginning of the literal kingdom of God on earth” (xxiii). It functioned secretly in Nauvoo from March 1844 to January 1846 and then later for three short periods in Utah. Historians have long been aware of this council, also called the “Kingdom of God,” and some have pieced together from various journals and other reliable sources considerable information about …

Sarah Louisa Bouton Felt: Thousands Called Her Mother, Roseann Benson

BYU Studies

A tribute to Sarah Louisa (“Louie”) Bouton Felt declared her “a beautiful lady whose name we all should know.”1 Although many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are familiar with two names important to the organization of the Primary Association, Aurelia Spencer Rogers (1834–1922) and Eliza R. Snow (1804–1887), the name Louie B. Felt (1850–1928) is relatively unknown. However, Louie was the second person called to be a ward Primary president and at age thirty was selected to preside over all the Primary Associations in Utah Territory, serving as the first general superintendent of the Primary …

Book Review: Keshab: Bengal’S Forgotten Prophet, Edward T. Ulrich

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Keshab: Bengal’s Forgotten Prophet. By John A. Stevens. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 309 pages

Book Review: Imaginations Of Death And The Beyond In India And Europe, Herman Tull

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

Book Review of Imaginations of Death and the Beyond in India and Europe. Edited by Günter Blamberger and Sudhir Kakar. Singapore: Springer Nature, 2018, ix + 202 pages

Tatian's Diatessaron And The Proliferation Of Gospels, James W. Barker

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Previous scholarship on the Diatessaron has asked whether Tatian intended to supplement or replace the fourfold gospel. This essay reconsiders the question by sketching a general theory of Gospel proliferation. Greek, Roman, and Jewish comparanda show that the proliferation and collection of similar works were common reading and writing practices. Accordingly, Gospel writers would not likely discard their sources, and Gospel readers would likely collect and compare multiple texts. On the supposition that ancient writers were attuned to their contemporary reading practices, Tatian likely would have expected the Diatessaron to be read alongside—not instead of—the fourfold gospel, as was the …

The Baptist Tradition And Religious Freedom: Recent Trajectories, Samuel Kyle Brassell

Honors Theses

For my thesis, I have focused on the recent religious freedom bill passed in Mississippi and the arguments and influences Southern Baptists have had on the bill. I used the list of resolutions passed by the Southern Baptist Convention to trace the history and development of Southern Baptist thought on the subject of religious freedom. I consulted outside scholarly works to examine the history of the Baptist tradition and how that history has influenced modern day arguments. I compared these texts to the wording of the Mississippi bill. After conducting this research, I found that the Southern Baptist tradition and …

"I Love People So Terribly": Approaching Affectivity With Levinas, Hillesum, And Christian Theology, Glenn Morrison

Theology Papers and Journal Articles

Through engaging the writings of two Jewish thinkers, Emmanuel Levinas and Etty Hillesum, this essay sets out to develop a Christian theological approach to affectivity. It begins by introducing Levinas and Hillesum to develop a context for dialogue between Jewish thought and Christian theology. Initiating a phenomenological foundation, the essay suggests that affectivity resonates through the human condition of loneliness and otherness. Building on this perspective and aided by Levinas’s thought and the practical expression of Hillesum’s affectivity of talking to God, the focus turns to introduce and develop the notions of spontaneity, melancholy, and vigilance. Hence, it suggests the …

Millennials Leaving Religion: A Transcendental Phenomenological Research Study On Religious Disaffiliation, Elizabeth Ann Rainwater

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Religious disaffiliation among Millennials has increased significantly in the past decade alongside rapidly changing social relationships amplified by social media applications. In the United States, many Millennials claim no religious identity with many leaving their religion for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of religiously disaffiliated Millennials regarding their psychological health and well-being. Self-determination theory fulfilled the theoretical framework for examining the lived experiences of young adults regarding their well-being after religious disaffiliation. A purposive sample of 12 male and female religiously disaffiliated Millennials was recruited for semistructured interviews. …

Angels And Sub-Divine Supernatural Beings: Their Characteristics, Function, And Relationship To God And Humanity In Deuteronomy-Kings, Joni Amanda Mcguire-Moushon

Dissertations

This research analyzes selected passages in Deuteronomy-Kings in order to determine the characteristics and roles of supernatural sub-divine beings within these books. Then this data is compared with the angelology of the Second Temple period in order to identify the similarities and the extent of the differences between them.

Deuteronomy contains references to supernatural sub-divine beings, such as “demons” and “holy one(s)”. While Deuteronomy affirms the existence of sub-divine beings, it forbids the Israelites to worship them. In the books of Joshua and Judges, there is awareness of supernatural beings and their roles as warriors, messengers, and tormentors. However, in …

Islam, Christianity, Traditional Religions And Power Politics In Northern Nigeria Since Pre-Islamic Period, Emmanuel M. Abar

Dissertations

Problem

Currently in Northern Nigeria, religious interaction among the three major religious traditions, Islam, Christianity, and African Traditional Religion, is marred by violent religious conflicts. Also, competing concepts of religious legitimacy, which appeal to the historical heritage of Nigeria, are often used to validate and justify the violation of religious freedom. Does the current state of religious interaction among the various religious groups reflect the true heritage of religious interaction in Northern Nigeria? Or is it possible that the history of the interaction between African Traditional Religions, Islam, and Christianity in the past might actually be a heritage that points …

Motivation For The Sharing Of Material Possessions In Acts, Philo's De Vita Contemplativa And The Didache: A Comparative Study, Lena V. Toews

Dissertations

Luke, in the book of Acts, depicts the sharing of possessions as a practice in the Jerusalem community of the first century. Several pericopes, occurring primarily in the first part of the book of Acts, embody the idea of shared property and seem to have important parallels to other sources of the time, including the Jewish author Philo’s work De vita contemplativa, where he describes a group he calls, “Therapeutae,” and in the Jewish Christian document Didache. This study seeks to identify beliefs correlated with the material sharing practices in the community of Acts and compare them with De vita …

The Third Space: The Meeting Of Jew And Christian In The Act Of Remembering, Restoring, And Reconciling - A Case Study Of The Matzevah Foundation, Steven D. Reece

Dissertations

Problem

Due to long-standing religious, racial, and cultural tensions, a complex and challenging relationship exists between Jews and Christians. The resulting breach isolates and separates these two faith groups from each other. Consequently, they struggle to interact and engage in meaningful dialogue, which could repair the breach and lead to forgiveness and reconciliation. Dialogue bridges the gap between Jew and Christian allowing them to meet in the third space—the liminal space of the Jewish cemetery in Poland. Jews and Christians may deal with the evil of the past through what researchers term as "loving acts."

Method

This study was conducted …

Pedagogies Of Distance Learning, Ekaterina Lomperis

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

North American universities increasingly offer distance learning options as part of their undergraduate, master’s, and even doctoral curricula. Distance education may include online courses (taught solely via the Internet), hybrid courses (online courses which involve occasional required face-to-face components), or a combination of the two. Once primarily associated with for-profit online-based colleges delivering educational content of questionable quality, online teaching and learning has been establishing its presence in mainstream education, including flagship public universities, small liberal arts colleges, and (of particular relevance for religious studies) seminaries. While premier private research universities have thus far expressed reservations regarding online education, one …

Archaeological Backgrounds Of The Sanctuary: A Search For Egyptian Cultural Influence In The Construction Of The Hebrew Tent-Sanctuary, Leslie Scott Baker Jr

Dissertations

Problem

Although the documented description of the construction of the tent-sanctuary appears to give it an Egyptian context in terms of the materials used and the culture of the artisans, in three distinct spheres (sacred, royal-domestic, and military), very little work has been done in comparing the descriptions in the text with the recovered archaeological fabric from Egypt and no study has, as yet, taken the next step of quantifying that comparison through a potentially-repeatable statistical analysis in an effort to determine, in an unbiased manner, the nature of the relationship.

Method

Design and frequency data of the appearing materials …

Social Cohesion Among Individuals Participating In Re-Entry Groups, Todd Reiser

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

When prisoners are released from incarceration they enter a social landscape that holds unique challenges. One of the ways humans living within social systems understand their place and role is through the mechanism of religion. This study investigates how group religious practice establishes a shared worldview among those recently released from prison; a worldview that promotes the creation of positive social cohesion which contribute to life improvements, social mobility, and social status changes. "Social networks may include friendship circles in local congregations, scripture study groups and relationships with religious leaders who serve as role models for individuals" (Kerley et al …

The Primitive Lawyer Speaks!: Thoughts On The Concepts Of International And Rabbinic Laws, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

A feature of the Norman J. Shachoy Symposium: The Rabbinic Idea of Law: Interactions and Implications

Inspired by Chaim Saiman’s brilliant book, Halakhah: The Rabbinic Idea of Law, this essay draws connections between the lived experiences of international law and Jewish law, focusing in particular on (1) the centrality of practice, (2) the search for and construction of authority in communities of practice (the “invisible college”), (3) the challenges and opportunities of fragmentation and pluralism, and (4) the difficulty translating their methods to more state-like institutions, like courts and legislation. The hope is that this testimony of one of H.L.A. …

Toward Engaging The Secular: Charles Taylor's Modern Social Imaginaries, Human Flourishing, And Theological Method, Jenifer A. Daley

Dissertations

Increasing secularization seems to fly in the face of Christian proposals for a Scripture-only principle for theology. The question that this dissertation explores is "How will Christian theology tackle the resulting church-society impasse in a way that is both faithful to Scripture and intelligible contemporaneously without appearing to privilege one aspect over the other?" That is, "What form should theological method take to efficaciously engage the secular?" This study suggests that the answer might lie in an innovative fusion of Scripture with borrowed concepts from secular culture. Thus, this dissertation responds to the problem of the need for robust, multidimensional …

1. The “New Person Contested”: Atheist Humanist Vs. Catholic Worldviews On Transhumanism, Irene J. Dabrowski, Anthony L. Haynor

Praxis Publications

No abstract provided.

Hungary's New Church Law Is Worse Than The First, H. David Baer Ph.D.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In early December 2018, the Hungarian parliament passed a series of sweeping laws with major constitutional implications. The parliamentary session itself was something of a circus. In order to pass the law, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government was forced to disregard rules of the chamber that would have allowed the opposition to derail the legislation with parliamentary maneuvers. In protest, the opposition sounded bullhorns in Parliament while throwing confetti, before walking out. Perhaps the most significant law was one establishing a new, parallel system of courts which critics say give Orbán complete control of the judiciary. Less noted, but also …

The Prodigal Daughter: An Edition Of An Anonymous Text, Paige Deans

Theses and Dissertations

The Prodigal Daughter (1736) is a poem that, on the surface, appears to be an approachable text that was likely geared towards a children’s audience during New England’s first Great Awakening, within the approachable format of a chapbook. However, when explored further, The Prodigal Daughter reveals a complicated textual history during a time of theological and social revival in New England. This thesis considers the historical context of The Prodigal Daughter’s narrative, as well as the poem’s publication history. The text’s transmission is carefully examined and encapsulated in this edition—giving the reader a transcription that is the result of …

0856: Bible Of Mrs. Isabella W. Hite, 1857, Marshall University Special Collections

Guides to Manuscript Collections

This collection consists of a single bible. Published by E. Stevenson & F. A. Owen, Agents, for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1856, the title page states it is the English Version of the Polyglott Bible. The book itself contains fold-out maps and illustrations. On the first page is written “Mrs. Isabella W. Hite Cabel Co. Va. Feb 24th 1857” and then in a different ink/pencil, “Isa. H. Moore.” Throughout the book, passages are marked and near them, a name and date are written in the margins. Many of the days (not all were checked) appear to have fallen …

Transformative Discipleship : Effective Discipleship Of Young Adults At Christ Is The Answer Ministries (Citam), Kenya, Juddy Karei

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.