Christian Denominations and Sects Commons^™

Mediating Role Of Transformational Leadership On The Relationship Between Pastors’ Training And Healthy Congregations, Paul Ekal Lokol

The Asbury Journal

The church remains a solid center for transformational leadership, bringing the required light to today’s increasingly troubled world. Therefore, this study’s objective was to establish the mediating effect of transformational leadership traits on the relationship between pastors’ training and church congregational health in urban churches of the African Gospel Church, Kenya (AGC-K). The study adopted a descriptive survey design and correlation methods targeting 44 pastors, 44 LCC members, and 383 members in urban churches of AGC-K. Data was collected using pretested questionnaires and was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical methods. The findings revealed that while not all pastors manifested …

"Love Divine: A Systematic Account Of God’S Love For Humanity" [Review] / Wessling, Jordan.", Silvia Canale Bacchiocchi

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

This is a book review.

Δικαιοσύνη Θεοῦ: The Holistic Connotation Of The Term ‘Righteousness’ And Its Implications For Social Service, Uma John

The Asbury Journal

The concept “righteousness” is weighty and indispensable in the biblical tradition and understanding the concept has changed and developed through the centuries. The current article explores the topic from the ancient to modern canonical and non-canonical literature on the concept of righteousness to seek its wide range of meanings. Traditionally, the term “righteousness” has forensic, and religious connotations, but this paper argues that alongside these, the legal and social aspects of human beings i.e., the aspect of fulfilling communal obligations and the acts of philanthropy to those who are poor, oppressed, and deprived are standard expectations connoted into the term …

Frontmatter, Quaker Religious Thought, No. 140, Jeffrey Dudiak

Quaker Religious Thought

The theme of this issue of Quaker Religious Thought is “Quakers and Place.” The issue opens with an essay by Cherice Bock that explores a Quaker theology of place against the background of the climate crisis and colonialism. Grounding her analyses in Jewish and Christian theologies of place, Cherice then seeks to understand what constitutes the experience of a “sense of place,” before encouraging Quakers to undertake an intentional practice of place-making, and this for the sake of contributing to flourishing and resilient, local communities in this crucial historical moment. Rather than living “off” the land in an exploitative way, …

If N. T. Wright Is Right, How Then Shall We Do Theology?, Howard A. Snyder

The Asbury Journal

In November of 2022, theologian N.T. Wright gave a series of lectures for the Centennial Celebration of Asbury Theological Seminary. In this response from Asbury Theological Seminary’s Howard Snyder, the implications of Wright’s lectures are explored and expanded. In particular, Snyder explores the meaning of Scriptural Theology as opposed to Systematic Theology. He explores how Systematic Theology came to be the dominant way of reading scripture, and then proposes ten principles for doing theology rooted in scripture instead of any human system.

From The Archives: The Pentecostal Herald, The Pentecostal Publishing Company, And The Pentecostal Tabernacle: H.C. Morrison Dreams Big

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Equipping Marketplace Ministers For Unity: The Need For Ministry Leaders To Model Interdenominational Partnership, Eric Laudenslager

The Asbury Journal

In recent decades, the marketplace ministry (MPM) movement has made significant progress. A predominant theme in the current discussion is a focus on how to support individuals in their place of work. While this renewed attention to supporting laity is an important change, it should be asked whether strategies that focus on the individual alone reflect the pragmatic needs of MPMs or the role models put forward in the NT. This paper will review a case study of a MPM team and how a team based approach contributed to the longevity of the ministry. It will then examine the responsibility …

Training Faithful Disciples To Meet The Challenges Of The Church In The World: Applying Bonhoeffer’S Seminary Vision To Hybrid Education, Myra L. Watkins

The Asbury Journal

This article will first examine Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s philosophy and practice of theological education to train faithful ministers of the gospel for the service of the Church. Particular attention will be given to Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship and Life Together which he wrote while directing one of the underground seminaries for the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany. Second, this article will explore Paul House’s argument for a personal, incarnational, rather than a distance learning, approach. Using a small seminary for a global family of churches, Every Nation, as a case study, this article will present relational discipleship as a central, …

Faith, Knowledge, And Virtue: John Wesley’S Concept Of Faith As A Conscious State, Kenny Johnston

The Asbury Journal

It is well established that John Wesley’s understanding of faith shifted radically between 1735 and 1740. The nature of that shift is variously understood, but most agree that Wesley shifted from defining faith as assent only to faith as a heartfelt trust; from faith as a bottom-up effort to faith as a top-down gift. What is often overlooked is that Wesley’s new version of faith was influenced by his previous epistemological commitments. Faith, accordingly, is defined in terms of a conscious state, something not deducible by inference but directly available to its subject, and located epistemologically at the forefront of …

From The Archives: The Library At Asbury Theological Seminary: The Center Of Academic Learning, Robert Danielson

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Books Received

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Michael D. Simants, Alberto I. Bonilla-Giovanett, Kenny R. Johnston, Zachariah S. Motts, Tyler Hallstrom, Marshall C. Johns

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

From The Editor, Robert A. Danielson

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Can Anyone Withhold The Water...?, Brandon Keith Lacey Sr

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Abstract

Thesis

Contextualization and indigenization have always been necessary and expected components of establishing Christian communities of faith and practice. Failed or obsolete attempts at contextualization and indigenization in evangelism and missions continue to harm the development of the African American Church. This results in the development of spiritually marginalized communities alienated from the very relationship with God that such communities need. Preventing such spiritual marginalization in communities requires a training curriculum that combines a working theology on appropriate contextualization and indigenization with a framework for practical implementation. The outcome would decrease the tendency to replicate non-contextual religious practice and …

Restoration Quarterly: Vol. 65, No. 1

Restoration Quarterly

PDF of the cover of Restoration Quarterly: Vol. 65, No. 1.

This repository hosts selected Restoration Quarterly articles in downloadable PDF format. For the benefit of users who would like to browse the contents of RQ, we have included all issue covers even when full-text articles from that issue are unavailable. All Restoration Quarterly articles are available in full text in the ATLA Religion Database, available through most university and theological libraries or through your local library’s inter-library loan service.

John Wesley’S Motivation For His Mission To Georgia, Roger W. Fay

The Asbury Journal

The importance of justification by faith in the thinking of John Wesley (1703-1791) after his Aldersgate Street experience in May 1738 has long been doubted by some Wesley scholars. This article argues, however, that Wesley was motivated only by works-righteousness while he was a missionary to Georgia, and that salvation by faith did not characterise his thinking until he finished his mission there.

A Spirit-Filled Christian-In-The Making: E. Stanley Jones's Views On Entire Sanctification, Kirk S. Sims

The Asbury Journal

With his educational formation at Asbury College, E. Stanley Jones was a scion of the Wesleyan Holiness Movement of the early twentieth century. In his early years, he seems to be a champion for entire sanctification and one may have concluded that he would have fought

the same fights for this doctrine in Methodist circles as his mentors had done. However, after he set off to India as a missionary and later become a formidable Christian leader on the world stage, he appears to eschew his preaching and teaching on "entire sanctification," except when addressing people in the Wesleyan Holiness …

Book Reviews

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

The Bible For All: Biblical Interpretation As A Grassroots Movement, Hannah L. Hopkinson

The Asbury Journal

In Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza’s proposed emancipatory paradigm, the biblical scholar must both analyze how the Bible is used to subjugate and imagine how those texts could form a more just world. If tenants of this emancipatory paradigm were practiced in the local church, the Bible’s power could nurture a more just society. This paper explores how an emancipatory paradigm could be applied in local churches through analyzing the structure of its grassroots inspiration, Consciousness Raising Groups of the American Women’s Liberation Movement, and also a similar South African method, Contextual Bible Study. In contrast to other models like the pastor …

Calvin’S Doctrine Of Divine Accommodation And Its Correspondence With The Methodist Triumvirate, J. Russell Frazier

The Asbury Journal

The doctrine of accommodation is the idea that God has, out of love, accommodated divine revelation to human frailty and sinfulness. This article summarizes the contributions of secondary resources on the doctrine of divine accommodation in John Calvin’s thought. These sources provide a paradigm for examining the doctrine of accommodation in the thought of the Methodist triumvirate, i.e., John and Charles Wesley and John William Fletcher. The author emphasizes that the Methodist triumvirate adopted and adapted the doctrine of accommodation and suggests that it provided a theological underpinning for the early Methodists’ accommodative practice of ministry.

Redeeming The Time: Sabbath Observance For The Christian Minister, Chase Franklin

The Asbury Journal

In a world impacted by COVID-19, Christian clergy have reevaluated how their time is spent in response to new challenges. Rabbi Abraham Heschel, augmented by the work of Walter Brueggemann and Marva Dawn, provided guidance to focus more on the realm of the spirit and less on the physical world. This is achieved through a renewed dedication to Sabbath observance. The Sabbath is the consecrated day where both God and people find rest from their labors. Because clergy work to help others observe the Sabbath, they must be willing to think outside the box to observe their own.

Dr. David Reese And The Three Errors Of Phrenology: Religion, Anatomy, And Moral Insanity, Philip Hardt

The Asbury Journal

Today, phrenology is a mostly-forgotten and thoroughly medically disgraced theory of human behavior. Yet, in its mid-nineteenth century heyday, it not only claimed to explain one’s personality based on the size of the bumps on one’s head but also (scarily) attempted to push prison reform in a less punitive direction. Somewhat surprisingly, as phrenology crossed the Atlantic in the 1820s, a number of doctors, professors, and ordinary citizens accepted and promoted its rather startling claims. At the same time, traditionalists response is exemplifies by Dr. David M. Reese, a highly regarded physician in Manhattan who opposed its attack on (mainly …

Sidney W. Edwards: Early Holiness/Methodist Missionary Pioneer In Cuba, Puerto Rico, And Costa Rica, Robert A. Danielson

The Asbury Journal

Holiness missions is an area of mission history that is often understudied, yet it can provide insight into the growth of the Church in various parts of the world. This article examines the life of Sidney W. Edwards, a Holiness missionary who was a key part of H. C. Morrison’s missionary efforts. He served as the missionary of a mission H. C. Morrison founded in Cuba, as one of the first Holiness missions in the Caribbean. He then went on to serve in Puerto Rico with the Methodist Episcopal Church in planting churches in some of the mountainous regions of …

Psalm 1a–B (1:1–2:12 As Combined And A Chiasm): What Yhwh Knows About People’S Paths And Plans That Will Perish, W. Creighton Marlowe

The Asbury Journal

This article seeks to explore whether a division really exists between Psalm 1 and Psalm 2. The author argues that the presence of a chiasm which extends throughout the two psalms gives potential further evidence for the argument that the two psalms where once part of one continuous literary creation. The themes involve the laws of YHWH and the consequences of breaking these laws both for individuals and for nations.

Journal In Entirety

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Cruciform Teaching: Reflections On The Way Of Jesus The Challenge Of The Cross, And Teaching, Ruth Anne Reese

The Asbury Journal

Jesus’s way of life was one of humility and utter reliance upon God. This way of life ultimately led to the cross and to God’s raising of Jesus from the dead. Similarly, Christian teachers are also called to a way of humility and dependance upon God as they pursue the vocation of teaching.

Journal In Entirety

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Jeremiah’S Portrayal Of War As Worship: Hollow Form Of Holiness, Oliver Glanz

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

From an anthropological perspective, the acts of war and worship share similarities. Both are mission-driven, exercise rituals and liturgies, use songs, and have calls to duty. As such, the ultimate legitimization of war uses elements of sacred language usually found in the context of worship. The study of Jeremiah’s language usage provides a critical perspective on this typical anthropological phenomenon: the legitimization of war employing sacred language. When tracing Jeremiah’s vocabulary with the help of valence analysis, it can be argued that the prophet purposefully unmasks human war as a potential form of idol worship. Human war can, therefore, be …

Organizing (Eternal) Identity And Identification: An Upward Glance Into Religious Institutions, Casey M. Stratton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation disrupts at least two religious spaces: First, scholars religiously adhering to (social) scientific norms, and second, people identifying with religious organizations (i.e., churches). First, we begin constructing a theoretical lens using poststructural ideas offered by Foucault, Derrida, and Bakhtin to read and disrupt (religious) discourse. Second, we complicate organizational identification as a concept, deeming it fixed and fluid—a paradox within religious discourses that endorse Truth and Perfection. Here, we draw from the communication constitutes organization (CCO) approach. Third, we further curate the lens by applying poststructuralism, identification, and CCO in a specific context: The Church of Jesus Christ …

Refining The Eden Community’S Pathways For Shaping Regenerative Christian Culture In The Apprenticeship For Regenerative Culture, Laura Callarman

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This Doctor of Ministry thesis presents a project designed to meet a need of the Eden Community, an intentional Christian community, regarding the pathways it uses to shape regenerative Christian culture among college students in its apprenticeship program, ARC. In this thesis, I connect the pragmatic aims of the Eden Community to theological foundations regarding the importance of ecclesial diversity and creative contextualization, features that empower the church to embody a variety of life-giving “alternative stories” with the capacity to present the gospel as truly good news to the entire world.

In this project, a team of nine stakeholders met …