Ethics in Religion Commons^™

Reframing The Imperative Of The Great Commission In The Haitian Context: Discipleship Strategies To Impact Haiti For Christ, Dieufort Dieujuste

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Haitians generally identify themselves as Christians. According to World Factbook, Haiti is 80% Catholic and 16% Protestant; however, nearly all the population practices or believes in Voodoo, which is now a national religion. Idolatry permeates every segment of life while the Haitian Protestant Church remains powerless and disengaged. The purpose of this thesis project is to develop key strategies of discipleship for Haiti in view of Matthew 28:18-20. The author proposes to survey 300 Haitian pastors, seminarians, and lay leaders in order to gauge the status of discipleship and to identify hindrances to the gospel in Haiti. The survey will …

Luther And The Jews: An Exposition Directed To Christians On Martin Luther's Anti-Semitism, Defense, And Legacy, Megan Wilson

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis is an analysis of the historical relations between reformer Martin Luther and the Jewish people. Its primary purpose is to defend Luther’s image as a prominent figure in Christian history while considering the possibility of his anti-Semitic views. This thesis focuses particularly on a number of Luther’s written works in order to achieve this goal, with a secondary concentration on historical and incidental defenses that can be used to exonerate him. This thesis also serves to inform contemporary Christians of the controversy surrounding these views and the result of his legacy in more recent centuries.

African Americans Speak To Spectacle Lynchings, Mary Beth Mathews

Cultural and Philosophical Inquiry Articles

Donald Mathews’s “The Southern Rite of Human Sacrifice” both describes southern lynching as a lived interpretation of Christianity and claims a role for the religious study of lynching. Relying largely on historiography, Mathews contends that white southerners created this religion and ignored obvious parallels between lynched black men and the death of Jesus on the cross. But missing from this and other interpretations is a key voice: that of contemporary black evangelical pastors.

A Taste Of Armageddon: When Warring Is Done By Drones And Robots, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Discusses the increasing use of drones and weaponized robots. Argues that the international community must put firm ethical guidelines in place before the technology becomes rampant.

The Reputation Of The Apostle Paul: Was He A Misogynist?, Melinda Nelson

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The Apostle Paul is a fundamental figure in the history, traditions, and beliefs of Christianity, yet his thoughts are sometimes viewed as controversial. Through his letters, Christians for centuries have learned about early Christianity and have been guided by Paul’s writings into following the ways of Jesus as he is interpreted by Paul. However, Paul did not begin as a crusader for Christ; initially Paul was extremely opposed to this reform of Judaism and made his stance known through aligning himself with the Jewish Pharisees during the persecutions of Christians during the early years of Christianity. While Paul’s letters and …

Review Of: Andrew R. Murphy (Ed.), The Blackwell Companion To Religion And Violence, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Blackwell Companions, and instalments from similar series, should be initially sized up according to their purpose and audience. Such hefty tomes present themselves first as reference books—as collections of articles by scholarly experts that treat the key methods, topics, historical developments, etc., in the field. Second, each Companion is addressed to students and teachers as a state-of-the-field resource that provides several benefits: a sound picture of the field, assessment of various theories and methods used in the field, a sense of the innovative developments and open questions, and plenty of information to follow up on. Finally, some Companions give primacy …

Talking And Not Talking: Sexual Education And Ethics For Young Women Within The Evangelical Movement In America, Kate Sargent

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

Evangelical culture is a juggernaut, and has now permeated every level of American society. Much of the culture’s strength is due to the powerful youth movement within Evangelical denominations. A great deal of its propaganda is aimed at “youth” and “youth culture” in the form of music, books, and technology. Young people are the “heart and soul” of the Evangelical movement. They embrace it, and then perpetuate it. “Evangelical” is an admittedly elusive term. The Oxford English Dictionary (2011) defines evangelical in two ways, both as an adjective, “1 of or according to the teaching of the gospel or Christianity. …

Review Of: Thompson, J. Milburn, Introducing Catholic Social Thought, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

This book enters a crowded field. There are many books on Catholic social thought (CST), as suggested by this book’s select bibliography of over 200 items. Most religious studies publishers—especially those of a Catholic orientation—have one or more books on the topic. There are roughly thirty to forty texts in print that a college professor would consider when teaching a course or a module on Catholic social thought. Nonetheless, J. Milburn Thompson’s Introducing Catholic Social Thought is a welcome addition to the field. Thompson has written a clear, informative, and fairly engaging book for college students and others wanting to …

Rethinking Nation-Building: A Christian Socio-Ethical And Theo-Political Task For Appropriating The Common Good, Artemus Wlemongar Gaye

Dissertations

nation-building as a coomon good

Ecocriticism And Christian Literary Scholarship, Timothy J. Burbery

English Faculty Research

This essay presents a case for ecocriticism as a viable critical method for Christian scholars. It begins with an historical overview of the method, then examines common ground shared by ecocriticism and Christianity, including what amounts to a kind of critical realism, and the belief in the inherent goodness of creation. Two potential obstacles are then addressed by way of Lynn White, Jr.'s famous essay, "The Historical Roots of our Ecologic Crisis." These include the relationship of the Bible and the environment, and the charge of anthropocentrism. I believe White is partly right, but contend that neither objection is fatal …

Book Review: Daniel M. Bell, Jr., Just War As Christian Discipleship: Recentering The Tradition In The Church Rather Than The State, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

From his conversations in church settings and classrooms, Daniel M. Bell, Jr. has observed that Christians by and large do not know the church’s just war tradition very well, but that they are receptive to learning about it. Most theologians would likely agree that they know a number of Christians who are hungry to see better thinking and more effective action in response to war in our time. Bell, a Lutheran seminary professor and ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, wrote this book to interpret ‘the just war tradition in terms of concrete practices that might contribute to the …

Christian Realism And Immigration Reform, Victor C. Romero

Faculty Scholarship

Drawing upon President Barack Obama’s admiration of Reinhold Niebuhr’s work, this Essay outlines a Protestant, Christian realist approach toward immigration policy, with specific focus on the role of the executive in providing providential leadership. Embracing realism in its political, moral, and theological dimensions, Christian realism offers a pragmatic, yet optimistic, alternative to secular liberalism’s faith in reason by striving instead to adhere to God’s guidance on matters, taking into account the fundamentally flawed nature of man. The specific policy prescriptions described here mirror the twin virtues of Christian realism by promoting the hope in pursuit of the peaceable kingdom and …

Medicine As Friendship With God: Anointing The Sick As A Theological Hermeneutic, M. Therese Lysaught

Institute of Pastoral Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

A theological bioethics needs, first, a theological politics. The thesis of this essay rests on the claim that the contours of a theological politics are found in the nature of sacramental practices. More specifically, a theological politics of medicine is found in the sacramental practice of anointing of the sick. Anointing provides a radically theological hermeneutic—a theologically robust vision for interpreting medicine that, if enacted, can powerfully make real God's work in the world. Such a vision is embodied in one particular twentieth-century exemplar—the organization called Partners In Health (PIH) and its cofounder, Paul Farmer. Farmer and PIH, I argue, …

Augustine And Corruption, Peter Iver Kaufman

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Augustine's political thought or, as it is often called, political theology is a matter of considerable dispute. 'Augustine and Corruption' approaches that dispute by examining the evidence that Ramsay MacMullen presented to substantiate his observation that Augustine 'approved of' corruption. I read that evidence differently and use Augustine's remarks about bribes paid to court clerks, schemes to defraud philanthropists, and tax evasion to support what has been aptly called 'a minimalist' interpretation of his political expectations.

Social Insurance, Commitment, And The Origin Of Law: Interest Bans In Early Christianity, Jared Rubin

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

Despite the historical importance of ideology-based, economically inhibitive laws, we know little about the economic factors underlying their origin. This paper accounts for the historical emergence of one such law: the Christian ban on taking interest--a doctrine that shaped the evolution of numerous financial contracts and related organizational forms. A game-theoretic analysis and historical evidence suggest that the Church's commitment to providing social insurance for its poorest constituents encouraged risky borrowing, which the Church attempted to limit by banning interest. The analysis highlights the applicability of the rational choice framework to seemingly irrational actions and laws, the role of nonmonetary …

Review Of: The Politics Of Human Frailty: A Theological Defence Of Political Liberalism, By Christopher J. Insole, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Against the grain of much contemporary Christian theology, Christopher Insole’s The Politics of Human Frailty takes on the challenge of theologically defending political liberalism. Specifically, he defends a strand of political liberalism ‘informed by the theological conviction that the human person is a creature incapable of its own perfection, although nonetheless called to and made for this perfection’ (p. vii). Insole, University Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Cambridge, attends to philosophers and theologians primarily in the British tradition, but also on the American side. Insole advances his argument mostly through readings of other authors. Positively, Insole …

Religion, Violence And Peace: Continuing Conversations And Study Guide, David L. Coppola, Center For Christian-Jewish Understanding

Sacred Heart University Press Books

Continuing the conversation that began with the 1999 volume, Religion and Violence, Religion and Peace, this thought-provoking collection of essays also offers a Study Guide that explores the questions of violence and peace faced by people of the Abrahamic faiths. The essays in this work were presented by Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders and scholars at the 2003 conference, “Pathways to Peace in the Abrahamic Faiths,” sponsored by the Center for Christian-Jewish Understanding of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Contributors include David L. Coppola, Rabbi Rene-Samuel Sirat, Adolphe Steg, Rabbi Rene Gutman, James G. Williams, Jean Dujardin, Azizah …

A Review Of A Different Death: Euthanasia And The Christian Tradition By Edward J. Larson And Darrel W. Amundsen, M. Therese Lysaught

Institute of Pastoral Studies: Faculty Publications and Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Rediscovery Of Judaism: A Re-Examination Of The Conciliar Statement On The Jews, John M. Oesterreicher

Selected Works of John M. Oesterreicher

This booklet contains the paper that opened a Convocation of scholars at Seton Hall University from October 25-28, 1970, for the fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the Conciliar Statement on the bond of the Church to the Jewish people. The Convocation stood under the joint sponsorship of the Institute of Judaeo-Christian Studies and The American Jewish Committee.

Friends And The Race Problem: An Outline For Study, North Carolina Yearly Meeting

Historical Quaker Books

10 pages, 23 cm.