Religion Commons^™

Let My People Go: A Biblical Theology Of Liberation In The Exodus Motif, Lou Ann Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Liberation theologians view political liberation as the central theme of the historical Exodus event due to their interpretation of the text through the perspective of the oppressed and the oppressor. I reject the postmodern stance of liberation theologians, which overemphasizes political liberation and fails to consider the links between Yahweh’s supernatural actions on behalf of the Hebrews in light of Yahweh’s covenantal obligations to Abraham’s descendants. This study argues against the use of liberation theologies as the paradigm for interpreting the historical Exodus event and asserts that a biblical theology of the Exodus motif reveals “covenant” as the interpretive key …

Others First: A Visual Roadmap 4 Transformation, Toby D. Wagoner

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Small rural churches tend to have an inward-focus mindset fueled by the need for self-preservation and survival. This transactional ministry mindset negatively impacts sharing the love of Christ with others, culminating in apathetic attitudes toward church functionality. The problem this DMin action research project sought to address is the inward focus of First Baptist Church of Ravenswood members. The church needs to improve its evangelism and discipleship efforts, embrace sharing their love of Christ with others, begin engaging guests on a meaningful level, and consider facility upgrades. Members were reminded of the importance of demonstrating their love of Christ to …

Digital Ministry In The Church: Strengths, Weaknesses, And Opportunities, Willie Charles Howard Garrett

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative phenomenological study explores how churchgoers and senior pastors who are servant-leaders perceive the effectiveness, drawbacks, and opportunities of employing digital ministry in their churches as they attempt to develop healthy virtual relationships that maintain personal connections. The COVID-19 pandemic caused a change in churchgoers attending services in person. The government instituted social distancing and closures of businesses, schools, and churches. As a result, senior pastors engaged in creative ways using digital ministry to continue spreading the Word of God. While digital ministry existed pre-COVID-19, an increase occurred in response to the need to suspend in-person attendance. The theory …

God’S Narrative Of Redemption: Creation, Imago Dei, And Water Imagery, Dawn Lewis Sutherland

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This research demonstrates that the reclamation of imago Dei identity is the ultimate and terminal end-state of God’s plan for humanity’s redemption; this plan is universally expressed to humanity through water imagery in the Old Testament (OT) and in Ancient Near East (ANE) context. The Creator unveils supernatural intent through natural processes and contends that the restoration of imago Dei identity represents the conclusive fulfillment of God’s redemptive plan for humanity. In pursuit of this argument, the research critically explores creational identity, the contrasting biblical notion of idolatry, and the cross-cultural significance of water imagery within the contexts of the …

Pursuing An Earthly Spirituality: C.S. Lewis And Incarnational Faith By Gary S. Selby, Sarah O'Dell

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Review of Pursuing an Earthy Spirituality: C.S. Lewis and Incarnational Faith, by Gary S. Selby.

Timeless Moments: Russell Kirk, Charles Williams, And Stephen King On The Afterlife, Camilo Peralta

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

What happens to us after death is one of the oldest and most difficult questions. Even the standard response of many Christians, that we go to either Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory, can only partly satisfy, because while we experience the passing of time in a linear manner, those places are said to exist completely outside of time. How, then, can it make sense to speak of “going” to Heaven or Hell after death? Must we not always and forever be there—even during our lifetimes? Russell Kirk, a Catholic historian from Michigan who often speculated about the afterlife in his fiction …

Orpheus And The Harrowing Of Hell In The Tale Of Beren And Lúthien, Giovanni Carmine Costabile

Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature

Critics have observed that Beren and Lúthien’s tale is a Christian retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The “Harrowing of Hell” tradition is widespread in Italy as attested by the mosaic of San Marco among others, but it is in France that the Ovid Moralized reconnects it to Orpheus who descended into the Underworld to save Eurydice (an already late antique parallel) and therefore attests a happy ending version of the story that can be found in medieval England and also in various classical sources, perhaps even in the original legend of Orpheus. The apocryphal Harrowing is also …

Critical Faith: What It Is, What It Isn't & Why It Matters [Chapter 1], Joni Schwartz

Publications and Research

Near hysteria has erupted in the media, state and federal legislatures, community boards, and churches around critical race theory (CRT). Despite the term's history, development, and clearly defined meaning, it has become a catch-all for white America's fears, deflections, and equivocations on race, society, and the law. Christians are no exception. Their critiques routinely claim that CRT is rewriting of American history, that it is anti-democratic, and even heretical.

Critical Faith presents a counter argument to these claims and insists that CRT is a tool to grapple with the thorny issue of race in both society and the church. In …

The Spiritual Prodigy, The Reluctant Guru, And The Saint: Mirabai And Collaborative Leadership At Hari Krishna Mandir, Nancy M. Martin

Religious Studies Faculty Articles and Research

This article explores the life and influence of Indira Devi Niloy (1920–1997) who in 1949 began to encounter the sixteenth-century saint–poet Mirabai during her meditative trance states. She would recount songs, stories, and teachings that the saint gave to her as well as scenes from Mirabai’s life that she witnessed as an observer and at other times experienced directly as a participant. Their ongoing relationship would have a tremendous influence on Indira Devi as well as her guru Dilip Kumar Roy (1897–1980) and the increasingly international community that grew up around them. Their interactions and Indira Devi’s reports in turn …

Barna, George. Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’S Heart, Mind And Soul. Glendale, Az: Arizona Christian University Press, 2023., Robert J. Oliverio

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Hugh Of Saint Victor On Reading And Study, Weston Fields

Beets Paper Contest

REL 341: Studies in Medieval Scholastic Theology

Thesis: Hugh's educational schema, with its dual emphasis on liberal arts and scripture, serves to sanctify all aspects of life.

Exploring The Evolution Of Religious Beliefs And Experiences: A Developmental Perspective From Adolescence To Adulthood, Bella Lee Contreras Giardiello

Whittier Scholars Program

This study explores how religious beliefs and experiences evolve and impact individuals as they transition from adolescence into adulthood. It aims to gain insights into the ways in which religion influences social interactions, emotional well-being, and personal identity formation. Research on religion in adolescence into adulthood can promote understanding and tolerance of diverse religious beliefs and practices. Through this study I aim to provide a framework for the ways in which society can appreciate the plurality of religious experiences, fostering respect and empathy among individuals from different religious backgrounds. Participants were recruited from Professor Hill's Intro to Psychology class at …

Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is An Essential Christian Practice (Book Review), Jeff Ploegstra

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Reviewed Title: Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping is an Essentlal Christian Practice by Steven Bouma-Prediger. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023. 224 pp. ISBN: 9781540966322.

Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been, Cleopatra? A Study Of Past Life Regression, Practitioners, And The Impact Of Reincarnation Beliefs, Victoria Hoover

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Winstead, Sara C. (Fa 1413), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1413. “The Shaker Chair,” a paper written by Sara Winstead for a WKU folk studies class.

Simmons, Mary Jean (Fa 1412), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1412. “Shaker Music as a Genre of Folk Music,” a paper written by Jean Simmons for a WKU folk studies class.

Full Issue

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

The Persistence Of "A Simple Melody": Acceptance Of Irving Berlin's Music In The 1920s, Alina Vanderwood

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

"Nobody appreciates more than I do how bad some of my lyrics are in the matter of technical details," said the 32-year-old composer Irving Berlin in 1920 during an interview with American Magazine. "Some of the biggest hits I've written were songs I was so ashamed of that I pleaded with the heads of music houses not co publish them." Yet in all of its imperfection, his music became so popular and influential that American composer Jerome Kern famously wrote, "Irving Berlin has no place in American music. He is American music." Just nine years prior to this 1920 interview, …

Birthing Contention: Conflict Between Black And White Health Officials In Southern Midwife Training In The Mid-Twentieth Century, Ruth Hyde Truman

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

"You can go right now and start talking to somebody about my age and Iil older and quite a bit older. They'll say, 'I was delivered by a granny midwife.' A black woman, a granny midwife." These words, spoken by Onnie Lee Logan in her book, Motherwit: An Alabama Midwife's Story, illustrate the important role that black women played in childbirth in the South in the mid-twentieth century. In the South, hospitals were located far from rural communities, and women were much more likely to give birth in their own homes and enlist the aid of a black midwife than …

"Moloch Of The Present Mode": Women's Short Hairstyles In Nineteenth-Century American Society, Jack Tingey

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

An article from Indianapolis journal in 1883 reported on the phenomenon of women cutting their hair short in the name of fashion, describing the process of a woman cutting off her long hair as akin to sacrificing virtue to the "Moloch of the present mode." Today, short hairstyles are more commonly associated with the bob of the Roaring Twenties, an era historians and popular culture recognize as one of excess, social change, and new innovations. But short hair on women was by no ~ans new in the 1920s. The bob was not the first short hairstyle in the United States …

Losing "The Jewels In Her Crown": Latter-Day Saint Women And Pregnancy Loss In The Nineteenth Century, Karen Mackay Moss

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In her journal entry for the morning of May 27, 1849, Zina D. H. Young recounted her morning's work in assisting Margaret Alley, a fellow wife of Brigham Young, during a sickness which had begun over a week earlier after Margaret had "over done" herself. Young wrote that while she stayed home from church meetings that day, Margaret "was relieved of a two month sickness-perfect form occasioned by a hurt." Margaret Alley had experienced a miscarriage. Taking to her journal again that evening, Young stated that her day had been quite busy, full of "little events" including Margaret's "misfortune," a …

From President To Dictator: Anastasio Somoza Debayle's Fall From Grace In The American Press, Kara Molnar

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

When news of Anastasio Somoza Debayle's Assassination in Paraguay reached Nicaragua, the reigning Sandinista government announced over radio that its citizens should "celebrate with joy the execution of Anastasio Somoza." Nicaraguans obeyed this command in force, dancing in the streets, filling downtown bars, and setting off fireworks late into the night. While U.S.-based journalists did not face this turn of events with such glee, they eagerly provided their own renditions of what precisely had transpired the morning of September 17, 1980, as well as the legacy Somoza would leave behind. Condemnations of the former Nicaraguan ruler as a "dictator" were …

Maya-Catholic Theologian: The Influence Of Maya Theology On Catholic Doctrine In The Morley Manuscript, Travis Meyer

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 1576, at the height of Catholic evangelization in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, an unnamed Catholic preacher met regularly with a congregation of indigenous Maya to teach them the doctrine of Christianity. He taught them about the biblical creation, as well as the nature of God and the devil, all from his own original doctrinal instructional manual. This preacher was also a Maya himself Between the years 1500 and 1800, only about 1,100 European-descended Catholic friars ministered to the tens of millions of Maya in Mesoamerica. Because there were so many natives and so few friars, they could not …

"Yearning To Breath Free": American Policy's Impact On The Experience Of Imprisoned Migrants, 1980-1989, Samuel Johnson

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The evidence against the Immigration and Naturalization Service was clear. "The agent grabbed me by the arm and twisted it behind my back. He threw me against the van and held me by the arms while a second agent cook out his revolver and struck me very hard in the face, twice. I began to bleed profusely from the nose and mouth," recalled plaintiff Crosby Orantes Hernandez. "He told me that I would be placed in a cell with men, leaving me with the impression that I would be sexually molested," testified fellow plaintiff Dora Elia Estrada. Jose Sanchez Flores …

The Wolfenden Report: The Key To The English Gay Rights Movement, Ryan Hollister

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The history of homosexuality in Great Britain is long and complicated, extending all the way back to the Roman conquest. Romans had a tradition of homosexuality, but when Rome fell, churches became the authority on homosexuality, leading to numerous movements to fight against it. King Henry the 8th of England outlawed buggery, a term for anal intercourse, in 1533, and there are suspicions chat King James had homosexual relationships, but the scope of English history cannot be fully summarized in a paper of this length. Instead, this paper will focus on the British decriminalization of homosexual practices in the 1950s …

Abraham Smoot: Complexity In Context, Molly Hansen

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In 2019, a Salt Lake Tribune article described pieces of Abraham O. Smoot's slaveholding past. The article raised controversy over the administration building on BYU campus, which bears Smoot's name. After that Salt Lake Tribune article brought Smoot's negative history into a more public eye, outcry from the general public, the BYU community, the Latter-day Saint community, and the Smoot family themselves erupted. Questions like 'Why do we have buildings that honor slaveholders?' and 'Was he even a slaveholder?' and 'Do we unname or rename the Abraham Smoot Building at BYU?' were raised, and are still being asked in public …

Left In The Dust: Byu's Reluctant Response To The Rise Of The Automobile, Caleb Child

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Although Brigham Young UNiversity students and faculty have changed throughout the years, one issue has managed to unite all members of the campus community for almost a century: campus parking lots. As a student in 1946 wrote,

"It goes without saying that we don't like muddy shoes and don't like bad roads; bur what can we do? The natural solution to the problem is to let the school go back to the horse. No parking problem, no roads to worry about. Just put the feed bag on old Dobbin and !er him roam rill school's out. Then a quick whistle, …

"Hiding By Showing": Hans Holbein's The Ambassadors As A Eucharistic Tableau, Katharine Davidson Bekker

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

Liturgical cloths and hangings have been a ubiquitous part of the Eucharistic experience for Christian churchgoers for much of the Catholic Church's religious history. While often overshadowed or displaced in religious images by the drapery of individual figures, altar cloths and frontals are occasionally featured, as in the Master of the Aachen Altar's images of The Mass of St. Gregory (figs. I and 2). A similar green cloth to those in the St. Gregory images is seen in the background of Hans Holbein the Younger's 1533 portrait of The Ambassadors (fig. 3). Though much has been said about many of …

Front Matter

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

No abstract provided.

Editor's Preface, Alison Wood

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

When writing of her friendship with Henry James, Edith Wharton described their relationship as "an atmosphere of the rarest understanding, the richest and most varied mental comradeship." The friendship began in 1900, when Wharton sent James a brief note congratulating him on a recent publication. They struck up a correspondence, one chat lasted nearly fifteen years. Wharton would lacer reflect on the relationship in her autobiography, calling it "a real marriage of true minds," built upon a shared love of writing and reading. This relationship is documented in large part because of their vast correspondence, as the two authors shared …