Christian Denominations and Sects Commons^™

Pentecostalism And Coronavirus: Reframing The Message Of Health-And-Wealth In A Pandemic Era, J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

One of the global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic is the religious responses that it has generated. For contemporary Pentecostalism in particular, which is a religion that preaches and teaches a theology of human flourishing through the principles of prosperity, the negative effects of the coronavirus on people proved a theologically challenging endeavor. Pronouncing curses on evil or blaming Satan for it in human life has always been part of the means to achieve health and wealth for contemporary Pentecostals. This is very much the case in Africa where the instrumentalist use of religion as a means of personal and …

Covid-19, Science, And Race: A Black Pentecostal Engagement, David Daniels

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

A Black Pentecostal engagement of COVID-19, science, and race points towards a rapport between the Spirit-empowered Movement and health sciences where religious and secular (science) actors are respected agents in the public arena with each offering valuable perspectives and resources to pivotal conversations about public health in this case. In this article, it is argued that the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) represented in the episcopal letters of Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr., the presiding bishop of COGIC from 2007 to 2021, demonstrate a religious perspective that possesses a critical perspective on engaging health science during the COVID-19 pandemic. …

The Limited Impact Of Pentecostal Interracialism On Systemic Racism In The Usa, Harold D. Hunter

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The centennial of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre demands a careful review of the impact of systemic racism on Christian communities. This study starts by looking at early Pentecostal interracialism in the USA. There is a striking difference between those churches that founded the Pentecostal Fellowship of North America (PFNA) and those who were not invited or even barred. The renewed ascendancy of white supremacy forces a review of black Pentecostal victims who suffered discrimination, violence, even death. Pentecostals who would extend Jim Crow laws into the heavenly realm need to revisit the founders’ emphasis on repentance, reform, and restitution.

Pentecostal Culture, Or Pentecost Of Culture?: Transformation, Paradigms, Power, Unity, Dimitri Sala Ofm

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article will explore the relationship between Pentecostals and the broader cultures we inhabit. It will acknowledge that, like all religion, Pentecostalism can tend to create a culture within itself (a “Pentecostal culture”), which at times effects a withdrawal of its adherents from the surrounding world. This necessitates a conscious decision, first to navigate away from that tendency where it exists, and then to define a positive role for Pentecostalism within culture, viz., the transformation of civilization (a “Pentecost of culture”). Thereby the article proposes a more extensive definition of the baptism of the Spirit, looks at how God is …

Towards A Pentecostal Conscientizing Praxis Of Mass Culture Engagement: Contrasting Pneumatologies Of Amos Yong And Simon Chan, Monte Lee Rice

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This essay notes promises and problems with Pentecostal cultural engagement through its dualistic “spiritual warfare” cosmology. I propose a promising foray by forging Amos Yong’s and Simon Chan’s theologies of cultural engagement. For both employ their Asian particularities towards addressing cultural phenomena in manners that distinguish their contrasting yet I shall argue, complementary pneumatologically themed theologies of culture. Yet neither have engaged methodological disciplines of cultural analysis and critique. In response this essay suggests a Pentecostal conscientizing praxis of mass culture engagement, in conversation with Amos Yong and Simon Chan. This essay concludes by suggesting need for discerning possible prophetic …

Global Poverty And Transnational Pentecostalism In The Middle East, Eric N. Newberg

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Driven by the impact of global poverty, large numbers of documented and undocumented workers from Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa have migrated to countries in the Middle East. Many of these migrant workers are Pentecostals. The article provides a survey of Pentecostalism in the Middle East and reports on the findings of ethnographic research on transnational Pentecostals in the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula. Compelled by the pressures of globalization, these migrants find better economic prospects as contract workers than they could as free laborers in their home countries. Transnational Pentecostals in the Middle East derive spiritual, social, economic, and …

The Name Of Jesus In Luke-Acts With Special Reference To The Gentile Mission, James Shelton

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Peter declares “There is no other name . . . by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12); yet later he says, “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (10:34–35a). Are there then those among the Gentiles who follow God without hearing the name of Jesus, or are all who have not heard the name lost? The question, often posed in “either/or” discourse terms, fails to understand the meaning and scope of the name of Jesus and the urgency of the mandate …

Three Unique Theological Themes Of Oral Roberts’ Preaching, Julie Ma

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The study examines three unique theological themes of Oral Roberts: “Seed-faith,” healing of the whole being, and the “Fourth Man.” Since his message was a reflection of his theology, I also investigate his theological formation, informed particularly by his experiences such as miraculous healing.

In Memoriam: Dr. James B. Buskirk (1933–2020), James Shelton, Arden C. Autry Phd, Sally Jo Shelton

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

James Buskirk is honored as the founding Dean of ORU’s Graduate School of Theology. A Master of Arts degree was already in place; Buskirk was tasked with establishing a Master of Divinity, a Doctor of Ministry, and a PhD in theology—each fully accredited. During his tenure, faculty and student numbers increased along with denominational diversity. The MDiv and DMin achieved accreditation. The PhD was not started, however, as Oral Roberts dealt with competing financial priorities. Roberts’ declared decision not to offer a PhD led to Buskirk’s departure. He remained on good terms personally with Roberts. Buskirk’s effect on others is …

Editorial - Spiritus 6.1 (Spring 2021), Jeffrey S. Lamp

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Front Matter- Spiritus 6.1 (Spring 2021), [email protected]

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Full Issue - Spiritus 6.1 (Spring 2021), [email protected]

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The full issue of Spiritus 6, vol 1 (Spring 2021)

Restoration Quarterly: Vol. 63, No. 2

Restoration Quarterly

PDF of the cover of Restoration Quarterly: Vol. 63, No. 2.

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.

Calvin Theological Journal (Vol 56 No 1 - April 2021), Calvin Theological Seminary

Calvin Theological Journal

From the Editor: Karin Maag - 9 / Articles: Church and State in the Swiss Reformation by Jordan J. Ballor - 11 / “Unto the Fullness of Christ”: Organism and Dogma in James Orr by Todd Statham - 37 / Body and Soul: Baptismal Solidarity at a Funeral by Laura de Jong - 67 / Sermon: “Be Filled with the Spirit!”—A Sermon on Ephesians 5:15–21 by Denise L. Posie - 87 / Short Study: Sins of Omission: An Ethical Analysis by Gregory Mellema - 93 / Book Reviews - Scripture and Interpretation: Bauckham, Richard, Who Is God? Key Moments …

The (Un)Holy Bible: Slavery, Female Objectification, And Harm, Natalia A. D. Martins

Senior Theses

This project further elucidates the ability that the Biblical text has of being used as a justification for immoral actions. By using a textualist approach, we find that analyzing the effects that the literal text could have if used to justify action, allows us to see what Scriptural-based morality is subject to at all times. We approach this matter by classifying Scriptural interpretations under a spectrum that varies by degree. This is useful to see that the lowest bar for an action to be theologically justifiable, is whether it is in accordance with a literal reading of the Biblical text. …

Book Review: Lori D. Ginzberg. Women And The Work Of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, And Class In The Nineteenth-Century United States. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990., Merritt A. Morgan

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

Lori D. Ginzberg's 1990 work, Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the Nineteenth-Century United States, focuses on the ideas and socially benevolent practices of Protestant women of the prosperous middle and upper-middle-class during the 1820s to the 1880s in the northeast region of the United States. The author analyzes how contemporaries affirmed these values in women's benevolent work, which also promoted their status and brought about significant social changes in American culture.

John Eliot: A Successful Application Of Missiological Methodology, Brent Meyers

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

For many seventeenth-century explorers and settlers arriving in the “New World,” new and exciting opportunities arose not only for building new lives for themselves, but also to spread their Christian faith. John Eliot, a Puritan missionary from Widford, Hertfordshire, England, engaged in conversion efforts among the Amerindians of New England, employing "missiological methodology," or proselytizing the natives while simultaneously subjugating them to European cultural norms. His work, while mixed in its effects, anticipated many aspects of modern missionary movements.

Book Reviews And Books Received

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Trump Was Trumped Long Ago: Or, The Legacy Of Leadership In The Book Of Ecclesiastes, W. Creighton Marlowe

The Asbury Journal

Around the globe at any moment in history we witness a world in which numerous nations simultaneously struggle with the person or party in power. Often, we hear senior citizens long for a return to “the good old days.” But biblical anthropology reminds us that everyone by nature is sinful (willingly disobedient to God’s laws); and Qoheleth corrects those who long for a past golden age, because such thinking is not realistic. There never has been a government under which people were not oppressed, even the Hebrew theocracy of the Old Testament. Over the centuries, whether in the East or …

Women Church Planters In The Early Work Of The Church Of God In Christ: The Case Of The Singing Twins, Reatha And Leatha Morris, Robert A. Danielson

The Asbury Journal

While church planting is often seen as a recent topic, it has been in existence as long as the church itself. One interesting historical example of church planting is revealed in the methods practiced by the women of the Church of God in Christ (COGIC), the largest African-American Pentecostal denomination in the United States. In the early days of the denomination, Mother Lizzie Robinson was put in charge of the ministry done by women. While she did not approve of women preaching and leading churches, she did approve and commission women evangelists who would “dig out” churches and then turn …

The Seven Churches Of United Methodism, Revisited, John Lomperis

The Asbury Journal

The United Methodist Church is on the verge of what is expected to be a primarily two-way schism. But the denomination is already rather divided between seven main sub-churches: the global regions of Africa, Europe, and the Philippines, and the four main ideological factions within the United States (American traditionalists, the genuine Methodist middle, institutionalist liberals, and liberationist progressives). Each of these subchurches has important internal divisions, but also distinct characteristics setting them apart. Recognizing the particular features of each is crucial for understanding how the coming schism will impact and is being prepared for by different United Methodists.

Journal In Entirety

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Lincoln Among The Methodists, Samuel J. Rogal

The Asbury Journal

While not a professed member of any religious denomination, the relationship between Abraham Lincoln and the Methodist Episcopal Church of his time is important, both in terms of their views on the abolition of slavery and the political rise of the number of Methodists in the United States. This article charts the course of that relationship from before Lincoln’s Presidency, his election campaign against Peter Cartwright ... this was when the rise of Methodism was to have serious implications politically because of thebrapid size, growth, and moral views of the church.

From The Archives: Phebe Ward Goes To The Mukti Revival- The Papers Of Ernest F. Ward

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

Escuchando Otras Voces: Más Allá De Las Historias De Misiones Tradicionales: Un Estudio De Caso De El Salvador, Robert A. Danielson, Kelly J. Godoy De Danielson

The Asbury Journal

En su mayor parte, la historia de la misión se ha centrado en el trabajo y el esfuerzo de los misioneros y no tanto en los misionados, aquellas personas y comunidades a las que asistieron. Esta es una falla en el campo que debe corregirse, pero ¿cómo lo logramos? Este artículo propone un proceso de dos pasos. Primero, leyendo de cerca las historias tradicionales y los documentos primarios, podemos enfatizar y resaltar los roles y las voces de los misionados. En segundo lugar, mediante el uso de entrevistas de historia oral podemos capturar pensamientos y actitudes esenciales de personas y …

Books Received

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

From The Editor, Robert Danielson

The Asbury Journal

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of The Major Religions In Japan And Korea During The Colonial Period, Greg S. Whyte

The Asbury Journal

To understand why the Christian gospel has success amid one culture, while seeming to fail in similar, neighboring cultures, one must look to additional factors than those often cited by missionary sources. Some of these factors would include the socio -political and religious context of each of those cultures in question, in addition to the prior encounters with Christianity and the reactions to the gospel by the receiving cultures. To illustrate this need, this paper analyzes the contexts of Japan and Korea during the period of Japanese expansion and wartime (1894 – 1945), and looks specifically at what was happening …

A Model Of Mission By And For The Marginalized: Cezms Missions To The Deaf, Thomas Hampton

The Asbury Journal

This paper shares the untold stories of three missions to the deaf and mute in India and Sri Lanka. Prior to Indian independence, three of the first schools in the country focused in the deaf were founded by the women of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS). Their locations were Palamcottah, in Tirunelveli, India, Mylapore, in Chennai, India, and Kaitadi, near Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Each of these schools has adapted over time and continues to serve deaf students today with local leadership. there is a wider interest in the factors which allowed missionary institutions to transition to local …

Toward A Supernatural Biblical Hermeneutic, Alberto I. Bonilla-Giovanetti

The Asbury Journal

Many people who live and learn in the west, including Christian laity and scholars, inadvertently accept a materialistic cosmology in which the material world is all that exists, with the exception of God. This perspective is contrary to how the majority of ancient and modern people view the world. This essay seeks to analyze how this materialistic worldview is seen in biblical studies, and then proposes that biblical scholars should presuppose a supernatural worldview as a key aspect of their hermeneutics.