Religion Commons^™

2018 Faculty Summer Seminar On Interfaith Relations: Day 1, Lawrence Frizzell

Selected Works of Lawrence E. Frizzell

The Rev. Dr. Lawrence E. Frizzell facilitated the 2018 Faculty Summer Seminar on Interfaith Relations at Seton Hall University. In this presentation, Fr. Frizzell reviews a key document from the Second Vatican Council, "The Declaration on the Church's Relationship to Non-Christian Religions" (Nostra Aetate), with a focus on the Church's encounter with the Jewish people.

Johnson Family - Letters To (Sc 3219), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3219. Letters to Speed and Pernie Johnson, Chattanooga, Tennessee, from various Mormon elders. They write of their missionary activities, primarily in east Tennessee, express faith in their work and that of the Johnsons, and comment on the hardships of the Depression. One of them dismisses a claim that the “blue eagle” symbol of the National Recovery Administration is a sign of the Antichrist. Also includes childhood letters from the Johnsons’ daughter and a photograph of Speed and Pernie Johnson.

Buddhist Economics: Problems And Possibilities, James Mark Shields

Faculty Contributions to Books

No abstract provided.

Amy Schumer, Susan Sarandon Give Cqsh To Kim Davis' Would-Be Opponent, Andrew Wlfoson

Media Collection

No abstract provided.

Lakota Cultural Fusion And Revitalization Of Native Christian Identity, Kelly Sherman-Conroy

Master of Theology Theses

No abstract provided.

The Rupture That Remains: A Trauma-Informed Pastoral Theology, Eric Worringer

Master of Theology Theses

No abstract provided.

Living The American Dream: Faith Formation And The Missio Dei Dilemma Among Seventh Day Adventist African American Immigrant Families, Enock Ariga Marindi

Master of Theology Theses

Faith formation of children in a post-Christian America and balancing chasing American dream and obeying the Missio Dei poses insurmountable challenges to African immigrant families. This study analyzes works of scholars Karen-Marie Yust, Marva J. Dawn and Marjorie J. Thompson on faith formation and the family, and Andrew Kirk, Athyal and Nyce, Christopher J. Wright regarding Missio Dei. Bible texts on mission and faith formation are discussed. Through an exploratory study of focus group discussions and observation and document analysis, this study argues that the family, church and community need to unite and work together as interrelated systems to advance …

The Need For Older Adults’ Ministry In The Evangelical Church Winning All (Ecwa), Bitrus Habu Bamai

Master of Theology Theses

No abstract provided.

Nearer My God To Thee: How Biblical Preaching Fosters Intimacy With God, Warren Lee Domenick Jr

Doctor of Ministry Theses

We desire it. We long to be in its presence. We look for it in everything we see and hear and smell and touch and taste. We someday hope to have it surrounding us, holding us close. It is intimacy with God. Moreover, in it, we are somehow able to find a connection with God. Intimacy with God first belongs to God. God is the measure by which all intimacy is evaluated. Some would say that God is intimacy. God is revealed to us through intimacy which is both accurate and right; one might say, an intimacy that is authentic …

Real People, Real Faith, Real God: Encountering The Divine In Preaching Biblical Characters, Cynthia Halvorson

Doctor of Ministry Theses

Using the Action/Reflection method, this project examines sermons which aim at the heart by using character development within a storytelling sermon style. This thesis considers the effectiveness of intentional reimagining of biblical witnesses by overlying behavioral styles and archetypical fears and desires onto various characters of the Gospel of John. It designs a methodology for intentional development of characters and examines the responses of the listeners. It asserts the value of creating space within a sermon for the listener to encounter the Divine by identifying with the people of scripture.

Confessional Biblical Preaching In The Face Of Whiteness: Challenging The Preacher’S Understanding Of White Supremacy, Laurie P. Feille

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This thesis addresses the need for preachers to hear the voices of people of color, to hear the “prophets in the streets,” specifically African-Americans, and to have their eyes opened to their own white privilege and role in white supremacy. This thesis argues that this is an important step in preachers finding their confessional voices for preaching before they can begin to help the individual members of those congregations become aware of their individual and collective white privilege and role in white supremacy. With the help of black clergy a “Twin Cities Pilgrimage” was created. This involved learning the stories …

Preaching To Shape Christian Witness: He Cannot Be The Messiah, Can He?, Christine M. Bellefeuille

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This action-reflection project explores the effectiveness of preaching in shaping witnesses to tell their own stories of their experiences of God. Uses preaching that models witness, helps the listener identify experiences of God and offers language for disciples to use in their own witness. Also explores the challenges of preaching to a congregation that has experienced uncertain theological grounding and conflict. Other considerations explored are trust, changing calls mid-doctoral program, and project fit.

Table, Food, Waiter: Preaching The Eucharist To Today’S Popular Food Culture, Richard W. Vevia Jr

Doctor of Ministry Theses

The centrality of the Eucharist to the Church cannot be underestimated. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, decreased frequency of shared meals, a growing distrust of food, and a disregard for the obligations and responsibilities that accompany eating have resulted in a disconnection between the Eucharist and daily life. This thesis will demonstrate the loci method derived from Philip Melanchthon’s Loci Communes as a tool for gathering scripture and non-scriptural sources around loci suggested by Catherine of Siena: Table, Food, and Waiter. The aim of this thesis is that it will aid preachers preparing sermons that address today’s …

Digital And Analog Preaching In A Multi-Media World, Ramona Hayes

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This thesis explores the reception of sermons by two groups: “Analogs,” people who were formed primarily through the written page and who gather and process information linearly, and “Digitals,” people who were formed by digital communication and who gather and process information in sound bites. Using the Action/Reflection model, a series of sermons was presented: a manuscript sermon, an integrated worship/sermon, a TED Talk style sermon, a participatory sermon, and a multiple learning style sermon. Preaching a sermon which engages both groups has the potential to increase engagement with the biblical text and growth in faith.

(Re)Discovering A Midrashic Biblical Imagination For The Progressive-Liberal Community, Elisabeth R. Jones

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This thesis presents the case for the development of a sustainable community practice of midrashic biblical imagination as a catalyst for transformative engagement with the Bible in progressive Christian congregations. Notes that a midrashic imagination applied to the polyvalent testimonies of the biblical canon is an apt partner for post- modern, progressive congregations, whose theology embraces diversity, plurality, and critique of hegemonic structures. Uses a longitudinal qualitative methodology, with Appreciative Inquiry, to trace the various methods used for cultivating curiosity among Scriptural skeptics over nine years, concluding with the Midrashic Imagination Project, which involves the community in study, worship, preaching …

Recapture The Call: A Theology Of Preaching As Proclamation In The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Tricia L. Tedrow

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This thesis explores preaching as proclamation in light of recent changes to the title and description for ordained ministers in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Reflection on Scripture, confessional statements of the denomination and writings on the theology of preaching lead to a theology of preaching as proclamation written by the author. Two sermons are compared to show how the creation of a theology of preaching sharpens one’s preaching. The thesis concludes with reflections on how style, voice and the issue of power in proclamation have a place in the future of preaching in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

Seeing Salvation: The Effectiveness Of Preaching On The Sacramental Life In A Salvation Army Context, Steven Mark Cameron

Doctor of Ministry Theses

This thesis begins by acknowledging that The Salvation Army is a non-practicing sacramental church. The Army abandoned the practice of the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper officially in 1883 and its focus since then has been on developing holiness through sacramental living. The sacraments have been a topic of theological conversation in Army since the 1883 decision. In recent years, in Canada, this conversation has become increasingly divisive with questions being raised as to the soundness of the Army’s position. To bring opposing positions into a place of dialogue this thesis project engages in a five part biblical …

Liberating The Imago Dei: An Examination Of Jewish And Christian Feminist Biblical Anthropology, Carissa S. Wyant

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This study provides a comparative analysis of the work of Roman Catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson and that of Jewish feminist theologian Judith Plaskow, who have both sought to reconstruct the Imago Dei (“image of God”) within their respective traditions. By way of this analysis, it makes a methodological and a substantive contribution. Methodologically, it expands on Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza’s feminist critical approach to reading Scripture by relating it to Francis Clooney’s comparative theological approach to reading texts in religious traditions other than one’s own. Although there have been attempts at comparisons of various religious traditions from a feminist perspective, this …

Hauge’S Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod In America And The Continuation Of The Haugean Spirit In Twentieth-Century American Lutheranism, Thomas E. Jacobson

Doctor of Philosophy Theses

This thesis explores the history and enduring legacy of Haugeanism in American Lutheranism, a tradition that has been overlooked in the scholarship of recent decades. Originally, this lay-led Norwegian movement sought to enhance the spiritual life of Norwegian Lutherans within the established church and was fueled by the revival activity of Hans Nielsen Hauge in Norway. It became transplanted on American soil with the immigration of the nineteenth century. The interaction in America between the low-church Haugeans and their more formal counterparts rooted in the state church of Norway reveals that a sense of friction existed between the two emphases …

Festival Of Pentecost Series B 2018, Phillip L. Brandt

Sunday's Sermon

This PDF comments on the Propers for the First Sunday in Pentecost, Series B and offers ideas for proclamation and preaching.

St. Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin, May 20, 2018

Saint Francis Borgia Deaf Center Church Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Chicago, IL

Saint Francis Brogia Deaf Center Church Bulletin Finding Aid

Rethinking Alma 36, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

Over the last fifty years, Alma chapter 36 has become famous among Book of Mormon readers because of its impressive chiastic structure as identified by John W. Welch. As it evolved over the following decades, Welch’s analysis also attracted criticisms—mostly for its failure to include more than half of the text of the chapter. During this same time frame, students of the Hebrew Bible discovered and elaborated a rich rhetorical system evidenced in Hebrew literature from the 8th century BCE and forward, a system which included chiasmus and many other devices based on repetition, parallelism, demarcation, and subordination and which …

St. Francis Of Assisi Catholic Church And Center For The Deaf Sunday Bulletin, May 20, 2018

Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Center for the Deaf Sunday Bulletin

A newsletter published for Deaf Catholics in Landover Hills, MD

St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church and Center for the Deaf Sunday Bulletin Finding Aid

Anselm On The Atonement In Cur Deus Homo: Salvation As A Gratuitous Grace, Thu Nguyen

LMU Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Christian Political Economy And Economic Science: A Pathway For Interdisciplinary Dialogue, Nathan Mclellan

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation considers two intellectual impediments to interdisciplinary dialogue between Christian theologians, ethicists, and economists: scarcity and the status of economics as a wertfrei science. Using the landmark methodological work of Lionel Robbins, An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economics Science, to frame the discussion, this dissertation seeks to remove these two intellectual impediments to interdisciplinary dialogue by considering three nested questions. They are:

(1) Is scarcity—as defined by Robbins—an accurate description of the world?

(2) If scarcity, as defined by Robbins, is an accurate description of the world, how is this to be justified theologically, and …

Believing Into Christ: Restoring The Relational Sense Of Belief As Constitutive Of The Christian Faith, Natalya Cherry

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

The beginning phrase of major Christian creeds, Cred(ere) in Deum literally means “to believe into God.” What has been lost in translation of this admittedly awkward construction is the relational sense of active and living belief, fit for the flourishing of human agents who relate to a living and active God. This loss occurred, despite Augustine’s describing this phrase as the culmination of Christian faith, distinct from credere Deo, “to believe God,”[1] and from credere Deum,[2] “to believe that God exists” (which today is taken to be the basic meaning of “believing in God”). Despite the resulting …

Mapping The Nature Of Empire: The Legacy Of Theological Geography In The Early Iberian Atlantic, Ángel Jazak Gallardo

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This investigation revolves around one central question: if Christianity became the official ideology for sixteenth-century imperial expansion, then how does a theological conception of nature undergird or undermine colonial configurations of knowledge and power? I argue that, in the wake of 1492, Iberian empires racialized religious identity and mapped hemispheric dominion by leveraging a theological geography, that is, a scholastic vision of the natural world.

In Chapter One, I examine the order of nature in late medieval cosmology. By analyzing Fra Mauro’s Mappamundi (c. 1450), I show the ways in which Aristotelian Thomism provides an intellectual framework for subsequent global …

Human Capabilities, Religion, And Rights, Oleg Makariev

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines whether a commitment to human rights is cogent apart from a religious view of life. I identify three distinctive religious criticisms of secular conceptions of human rights, from ultimate meaning, dignity, and comprehensive good, illustrating each through the work of a prominent author, Michael J. Perry, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Alasdair MacIntyre. The criticism from ultimate meaning focuses on assessing enduring goods and universal solidarity, from dignity on distinct and equal human worth in relation to other species, and from comprehensive good on holistic flourishing, shared reasons, and sources of obligation. I grapple with these criticisms by drawing …

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

“Just About Right”: Contrasting Views Of Local Church Efforts In South Korea, China, And The Ukraine, Petr Cincala, Rene Drumm

Adventist Human-Subject Researchers Association

This presentation highlights data from the 2017 Church Member Survey in South Korea, China, and Ukraine. The analysis of over 3,300 members reveals statistically significant differences in the levels of satisfaction concerning the local church’s efforts in evangelism, community involvement, and nurturing its members. In addition, differences surfaced regarding policy-setting on the local level.