Married Love And Responsible Parenthood: Changing The Discussion On The Ethics Of Birth Control, Hannah Renner

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

The current framework in which The Catholic Church discusses birth control originates within a sexual ethic based on rules Christians are obligated to follow. After a careful, internal critique of the encyclical, there needs to be a change in this framework so that Christian sexual ethics is less focused on the rules and more focused on the values which Humanae Vitae embodies. These values are presently described as the unitive and procreative ends of marriage. However, with a transition from a rule-based sex ethic to a value-based sex ethic, these ends of marriage can be redefined in terms of married …

"Traditioning" Blackness: A Theo-Ethical Analysis Of Black Identity In Black Theological Discourse, Ben Sanders Iii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of James Cone's black liberation theology in the late-1960s and early 1970s marked both a radical challenge to and a historical transformation of the fields of religious and theological studies. Building on Cone's work, black theological discourse has developed a rich tradition of religious and academic inquiry characterized by its commitment to interpreting Christianity in particular, and religious experience more broadly, from the vantage point of oppressed black people. This dissertation shows that James Cone developed a particular understanding of black identity in his early works and, furthermore, that various scholars have critically engaged this conception of black …

Editorial, Bruce L. Bauer

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"Immigrants and refugees are in the news almost every day with people lining up on both sides of the issue with ideas on how to deal with them. More important than one’s feelings though are the biblical principles that should guide every Christian in deciding how to relate and treat the strangers coming to our countries."

Toward An Adventist Theology Of Refugees, Nicholas Miller, Janna Quetz

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

"The Bible encourages God’s people to help immigrants, and does not leave it up to just the state, but says the people of God should personally help them. Whatever path is taken in the future it is important to keep in mind that Christ calls us brothers, and we too should call the sojourner within our gates brother. Immigration policy is complex, and there may be no clear guidance from God’s Word on parts of it. But whatever policies are arrived at, the Christian has a role to advocate for the creation and implementation of a humane and moral policy …

Relational Power, Music, And Identity: The Emotional Efficacy Of Congregational Song, Nathan Myrick

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

Relational Power, Music, and Identity: The Emotional Efficacy of Congregational Song

The power of congregational song to unify (or divide) people along various lines is well documented. Yet, how this process of uniting or dividing is accomplished has proven necessarily difficult to document. This paper examines the complex and polyvalent factors that contribute to the meaningfulness of congregational music making, seeking to offer a synthetic, conceptual framework with which to engage this often murky milieu.

Employing interdisciplinary research techniques drawn from sociology, ritual studies, and ethnomusicology, I construct a conceptual framework with which to understand the profoundly formative power of …

God Of Sense And Traditions Of Non-Sense, Denis Fortin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Speculating The Subject Of Money: Georg Simmel On Human Value, Devin Singh

Dartmouth Scholarship

This article initiates an inquiry into the sources and frameworks of value used to denote human subjects in modernity. In particular, I consider the conflation of monetary, legal, and theological registers employed to demarcate human worth. Drawing on Simmel’s speculative genealogy of the money equivalent of human values, I consider the spectrum of ascriptions from specifically quantified to infinite human value. I suggest that predications of infinite human value require and imply quantified—and specifically monetary-economic—human value. Cost and worth, economically and legally defined, provide a foundation for subsequent eternal projections in a theological imaginary. This calls into question the interventionist …

Gustavo GutiéRrez – Liberation Theology & Marxism, Todd Cameron Swathwood Jr

The Kabod

Since 1968, liberation theology has emerged as a prominent feature of religion and politics, particularly in South America. Originally stemming from the writings of Peruvian priest Gustavo Gutiérrez, this at-once theological and overtly political ideology decries the institutionalized violence of the world’s capitalist society on the poor and oppressed, and argues that God is particularly concerned with the plight of the suffering masses. Christians should therefore make assistance of these poor souls their highest priority, and advocate for any and all methods of alleviating suffering, especially those that work from the premise that society must be toppled and rebuilt for …

The Theology And Agency Of Love As The Substance Of Kingian Non-Violent Philosophy And Activism., Matthew Quainoo

Senior Honors Projects

The theology of Love focuses on King’s understanding of God as love:

A Research Abstract (Project Summary)

Problem: Almost 50 years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., controversy continues to swirl around the motivational forces that inspired the nonviolence approach employed by King in his fight for equality for African Americans, the economically disadvantaged and victims of injustice through peaceful protest. Some scholars argue that Kings was inspired by such advocates of nonviolence such as Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha Shakyamuni. Others believe that Dr. King’s philosophy of nonviolence was an expression of the Christian theology of God …

The Deserving Poor: The Reimagining Of Poverty In Reformation Theology And Poor Relief, Jared Thomley

Departmental Honors Projects

The Reformation is one of the most studied periods an history, with a rich historiography and body of theological literature; however, historians and scholars of religion alike have yet to fully capture the imaginative redefining of poverty that occurred during this time. The objective of the study is to do just that. Following the model set by church historian Peter Matheson, who is keen to portray the reformation in a new light – as a shift in peoples’ consciousness, rather than in terms of dogmatic changes – this study has endeavored to re-investigate the changing definition of poverty in the …

Practicing Hope, Rebecca Konyndyk Deyoung

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

In this essay, I consider how the theological virtue of hope might be practiced. I will first explain Thomas Aquinas's account of this virtue, including its structural relation to the passion of hope, its opposing vices, and its relationship to the friendship of charity. Then, using narrative and character analysis from the film The Shawshank Redemption, I examine a range of hopeful and proto-hopeful practices concerning both the goods one hopes for and the power one relies on to attain those goods. In particular, I show how the film's picture of the role friends and friendship play in catalyzing …

The Ethics Of Vision And Black Theology And Experience, Angelo Sylvester Riley

Dissertations

To this day, philosophical ethics and dominant discussions in Christian ethics have paid insufficient attention to how vision shapes the moral life. Too much focus is given to moral decision-making and action, while too little focus is given to the way vision and patterns of attentiveness ground our capacities for genuine morally responsible action. Therefore, in this study, I draw on important works in philosophical and Christian ethics to examine both the ethics of responsibility and the central role that an ethics of vision plays in our attempts to live responsibly. I use the "ethics of vision" as method and …

Review Of: T. J. Gorringe. The Common Good And The Global Emergency: God And The Built Environment, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Tim Gorringe follows up his positively reviewed 2002 book A Theology of the Built Environment with this offering from the same publisher. The former book was notable as a sustained attempt to think theologically about the ‘built environment’. The built environment is the context that humans construct for themselves through their industry and technology; it comprises all types of physical settlements (cities, suburbs, towns, and villages), roads and transportation systems, parks and outdoor spaces, and buildings of every sort. It matters to humans how we build social spaces, for this influences our individual flourishing and the common good. While any …

Whosoever Will: A Review Essay, C. Fred Smith

Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary (1973-2015)

No abstract provided.

Fearless Speech, Courageous Eyes: A Theological Engagement With Freedom Of Expression, James K.A. Smith

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Beyond Stewardship: Toward An Agapeic Environmental Ethic, Christopher J. Vena

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation is a work in theological anthropology and environmental philosophy. It seeks to provide a conceptual framework for a Christian environmental ethic rooted in love.

The heart of the crisis of ecological degradation is found in human attitudes and behaviors. In the late 1960's it was suggested that Christianity was a key source of the problem because it promoted the idea of human "dominion" over creation. This spurred a variety of responses designed to show that Christian faith was compatible with environmental care. A key theme emerging from this debate was the image of humans as Stewards of God's …

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 …

Masking Hispanic Racism: A Cuban Case Study, Miguel A. De La Torre

Journal of Hispanic / Latino Theology

This essay considers the way identity performances and theological claims of white Cuban theologians masks the long-historical racism that has haunted Cuban culture throughout its history. The author considers concerns among today’s Black Cubans that national reconciliation Miami-style may reimpose silence and secondarity upon them as citizens. They fear any attempt by exilic Cubans to radically change the present government in La Habana, lest it creates a one-way empowerment of White Cubans once again. True Cuban reconciliation must confront Cuban White supremacism. Otherwise national “reconciliation” would occur only among white Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits, excluding Black …

Advice From The Apostle Paul, Paul R. Fink

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Principled Paraenesis: Reading And Preaching The Ethical Material Of New Testament Letters, James A. De Jong

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Religion, Law And Ethics -- A Call For Dialogue, Jerome Hall

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.