History of Christianity Commons^™

A Case Study In The Ministry Of Harold Willmington: Seven Major Contributions To Liberty University, Rick Buck

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this thesis project is to provide a qualitative case study regarding the major contributions of Harold Willmington to Liberty University. The project highlights the significant contributions to discipleship and education of non-traditional adult learners within the Liberty University family. The research questions seek to collect data regarding the degree of satisfaction of Bible education and ministry training of post-graduation alumni. The thesis project analyzes the development of the various Bible Institute programs established at Liberty University and other major contributions made by Harold Willmington from 1972 to the present. A significant amount of data is obtained through …

Educate To Equip: A Model For Educational Short-Term Missions As A Ministry Of The Local Church, Steven Curtis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Recent data show that most short-term mission trips are focused on economic and social development projects coupled with intentional and/or relational evangelism, while reproducible models for in-depth theological education during short-term missions are rare. As a missionary presently ministering in a number of underdeveloped nations, this writer has witnessed the need for, and potential benefit of, such models. To validate these conclusions, research was conducted among missions agencies and church-based missions departments to determine the efficacy of existing models to meet the educational needs in the field, as assessed through personal interviews with pastors from a representative sample of underdeveloped …

Squire Adamsson: Or, Where Do You Live? An Allegorical Tale From The Swedish Awakening, By Paul Peter Waldenström, Mark Safstrom

Scandinavian Studies: Faculty Scholarship & Creative Works

It is now over 150 years since Squire Adamsson appeared in bookstores and helped to launch its author, P.P. Waldenström, to prominence within the religious revivals that were then sweeping across Scandinavia. The themes of the novel touched on many aspects of Christian life and its challenges, but particularly drew from the theology of one group of dissenters in the Lutheran state church, the so-called “new evangelical” Pietists surrounding Carl Olof Rosenius (1816-1868). There are a variety of themes that can be found in this text, but perhaps none both so provocative and poignant as the unique presentation of congregational …

Mimicry, Mirroring, Subversion, And Critique: Reading Heterotopia In The Cubicula Of The Sacraments, Eric Christopher Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the spaces commonly called the Cubicula of the Sacraments, five rooms in the Callistus Catacomb in Rome, in light of Michel Foucault's concept of heterotopia. I argue that the Christian communities that created the Cubicula constructed their spaces and construed the symbolic worlds they conjured there as a way of mimicking, mirroring, subverting, and critiquing the "other" spaces and cultures that surrounded them.

This work takes place along four lines of inquiry. The first of these is space and place, and uses Foucault's and Henri Lefebvre's notions of heterotopia to describe the Callistus Catacomb's location in the …

The Date Of Easter And Shakespeare’S ‘Progress Of The Stars’: Creed And Chronometry In The Sixteenth Century, Martin Connell

Theology Faculty Publications

William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" opens with the question "Is this a holiday?" followed by another, "What, know you not?" The queries seem benign and, perhaps, humorless four centuries after the drama about the assassination of the ancient Roman emperor premiered at the Globe Theater in 1599, but – within a century of King Henry VIII's start of the Church of England (1534) – chronometry was a grave matter of church and state. Shakespeare's first Roman play coincided with the worst span of controversy between the Vatican and Canterbury, and Flavius's questions reveal social rubs between churches and calendars in late …

An Imperial Collection: Exploring The Hammers' Icons, Wendy Salmond

Art Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"Changing hands one last time, in the 1950s, for many years the icons at BJU lived as it were incognito, the details of their glamorous origins largely forgotten. Reuniting this core group-the cream of the Hammers' imperial icons--with others that passed into American museums in the 1930s allows us to appreciate the full significance of Armand and Victor Hammer's foray into marketing icons Americans.Viewed in isolation, most of their "imperial icons" are perhaps no mo than a poignant reminder of the vast destruction and dislocation of Orthodox culture during the Soviet Cultural Revolution. Taken together, however, they paint a vivid …

Platonic And Stoic Passions In Philo Of Alexandria, Loren Kerns

Faculty Publications - Portland Seminary

Philo of Alexandria forged his theory of the soul and its passions while expositing the meaning of Torah. Though writing as a Jewish teacher and disciple of Moses, his biblical reflections display a strong orientation toward Middle-Platonic philosophy. On the topic of the soul and its passions, however, Philo also exhibits significant Stoic influence. The introduction notes Philo’s apparent incompatible use of both the complex Platonic and the monistic Stoic psychological models. After assessing the degree to which Philo understood 'passion' to be a type of Stoic impulse or opinion (chapter one), chapter two demonstrates that Philo consistently drew upon …

Christ's Crucifixion Reclamation Of The Cross, Gaye Strathearn

Faculty Publications

Twenty-three years ago, I came to BYU as a student. This was a major, life-changing event for me. My mother and grandmother had joined the Church in Australia in 1958, and I spent most of my early life growing up in a very small branch of the Church, small even by Australian standards. You can perhaps imagine my feelings of excitement at the thought of coming to live in the heartland of the Church. It was quite a novel thought that I would be able to go to Church with my roommates.

Witnessing The Web: The Rhetoric Of American E-Vangelism And Persuasion Online, Amber M. Stamper

Theses and Dissertations--English

From the distribution of religious tracts at Ellis Island and Billy Sunday’s radio messages to televised recordings of the Billy Graham Crusade and Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, American evangelicals have long made a practice of utilizing mass media to spread the Gospel. Most recently, these Christian evangelists have gone online. As a contribution to scholarship in religious rhetoric and media studies, this dissertation offers evangelistic websites as a case study into the ways persuasion is carried out on the Internet. Through an analysis of digital texts—including several evangelical home pages, a chat room, discussion forums, and a virtual church—I investigate …

More Than An "Immoderate Superstition": Christian Identity In The First Three Centuries, Edward Mason

Theses and Dissertations--History

Only recently have scholars given particular attention to the development of the racial discourse present in early Christian apologetics. This study is aimed at understanding the Latin and Greek literary antecedents to the development of a Christian discourse on race and identity and examining in detail the apex of this discourse in the work of third century apologist Origen of Alexandria. Origen’s work represented the apex of an evolving discourse that, while continuing to use traditional vocabulary, became increasingly universalizing with the growth of the Roman Empire. By understanding how Christians in the first three centuries shaped their attitudes on …

Cooperation: Churches Working Together Through The Local Baptist Association For Maximum Kingdom Ministry, John Frank

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Cooperation is a concept which many churches hold to as a basic belief, yet few incorporate into their ministry plan. With the exception of giving money toward a denominational budget, many churches operate totally independently of other churches. Believers in Jesus Christ can do more in a community as a unified body rather than as splintered groups with individual, and often self-serving, agendas. This thesis project draws together several years of observations and experiences of churches as they have joined together in unity and cooperation. A survey and interview process is used to gain insight and vision from churches and …

The Community That Raymond Brown Left Behind: Reflections On The Johannine Dialectical Situation, Paul N. Anderson

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

Among the paradigm-making contributions in Johannine studies over the last half century, one of the most significant is the sketching of “the community of the Beloved Disciple” by Raymond E. Brown (Brown 1979). Extending beyond Johannine studies, Brown’s work on the history of early Christianity and “the churches the apostles left behind” (Brown 1984) is also among the most practical and interesting of his 47 books.1 Here, Brown’s analyses of the unity and diversity of early Christians’ approaches to leadership and community organization2 have extensive implications, not only to historical and sociological understandings of the first-century Christian movement, but also …

Cyprianic Ecclesiology: Redefining The Office Of The Christian Bishop, Lauren Hudson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

St. Cyprian was a pivotal figure in the early Church. During his tenure as bishop of Carthage, 248-9 to 258, the Roman emperor Decius ignited the first empire-wide persecution of the Christian Church. The problems that resulted from this persecution were unprecedented. This thesis will analyze the letters and treatises of Cyprian and will illustrate how Cyprian solidified certain powers of the bishop and built upon the existing orthodoxy of the Church. The actions of Cyprian will be viewed as a microhistory. Cyprian is not a fringe character in history; he is a well-known Church father and a saint in …

The Politics Of Special Collections And Museum Exhibits: A Civil War Or The War Of Northern Aggression?, Christopher J. Anderson

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This essay examines the political nature of curating special collections and museum exhibits. Exhibits are designed to draw attention to historical or contemporary issues in order for viewers to reflect on the past and to ask questions in the present. The contents of an exhibit also echo the educational backgrounds, interests, and biases of both curator and curatorial team. As a result exhibits are framed ideologically, sociologically, and even theologically in order to give voice to the voiceless and to champion certain positions from history. This essay investigates the contested nature of exhibits by highlighting their basic and complicated spectrums …

Leadership Training Program For Shared Leadership Based On Super Leadership At Cheo-Eum Korean Presbyterian Church : A Study Of Christian Leadership, Houng Jin Youn

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

„Zurück Zu Schleiermacher! Und Von Schleiermacher Aus Vorwärts!“ Georg Wobbermin And The Legacy Of Schleiermacher In Weimar Liberal Protestantism, Brent A. R. Hege

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

As dialectical theology rose to prominence in the years following World War I, the new theologians sought to distance themselves from liberalism in a number of ways, an important one being a rejection of Schleiermacher’s methods and conclusions. In reading the history of Weimar-era theology as it has been written in the twentieth century one would be forgiven for assuming that Schleiermacher found no defenders during this time, as liberal theology quietly faded into the twilight. However, a closer examination of this period reveals a different story. The last generation of liberal theologians consistently appealed to Schleiermacher for support and …

Calvin Theological Journal (Vol 47 No 2 - November 2012), Calvin Theological Seminary

Calvin Theological Journal

Articles: All Is Well by Stanley D. Walters - 192 / A Good Sermon Is Hard to Find by Stanley Mast - 215 / Preaching the Creeds and Confessions of the Church: The Case for Theological Literacy by Wilbert M. Van Dyk - 224 / Applying Gracefully by Scott E. Hoezee - 237 / Balancing the Spiritual Diet: Suggestions for Preaching from the Book of Hebrews by Thomas J. Niehof - 248 / Applying Daniel's Messages to the Church Today by Sidney Greidanus - 257 / Scripture and Preaching at Calvin Theological Seminary by Arie C. Leder, Katrina M. …

A Model For Revitalizing And Restructuring Peter's Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, Jerry Grimes

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this project is to develop a model of ministry that will revitalize Peter's Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, which over the past 102 years, has been characterized by stagnate membership, diminishing evangelistic efforts and a declining spiritual impact. This project will detail a model that allows for a restructuring of Peter's Tabernacle that neither denigrates its traditional approach to congregational life nor disrupts its standard hierarchy. Presented will be an implementable approach to developing small groups of congregants trained to evangelize those communities surrounding Peter's Tabernacle while maintaining the administrative structure of its congregational leadership.

“From Concern To Caring: A Journey To Understanding Biblical Charity”, Charles Froh

Theological Symposia

Dr. Froh presents what the Biblical Charity Institute is and what it does.

“From Concern To Caring: A Journey To Understanding Biblical Charity”, Charles Froh

Theological Symposia

Dr. Froh presents what the Biblical Charity Institute is and what it does.

After Edwards: Original Sin And Freedom Of The Will, Allen C. Guelzo

Civil War Era Studies Faculty Publications

Book Summary: Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is widely regarded as one of the major thinkers in the Christian tradition and an important and influential figure in American theology. After Jonathan Edwards is a collection of specially commissioned essays that track his intellectual legacies from the work of his immediate disciples that formed the New Divinity movement in colonial New England, to his impact upon European traditions and modern Asia. It is a unique interdisciplinary contribution to the reception of Edwardsian ideas, with scholars of Edwards being brought together with scholars of New England theology and early American history to produce a …

Creating A Millennial Generation Contextualized Church Culture, Christopher Deitsch

Masters Theses

The Millennial generation, or Generation Y as some people know them, is the biggest generation in the United States of America history. As they flood schools, universities, and the job market it is easy to see that there are major differences between them and previous generations. Simultaneously, the church in America has hundreds of individual churches each year closing and tens of thousands each year declining; most churches are ceasing to grow. The inability to reach Millennials is one of the reasons for this decline. This thesis purposes to give a snapshot of the Millennial generation, overview a few of …

The Minimal Facts Approach To The Resurrection Of Jesus: The Role Of Methodology As A Crucial Component In Establishing Historicity, Gary R. Habermas

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

South Carolina Conference Journal 2012, United Methodist Church. South Carolina Conference

South Carolina Conference Journal

THE JOURNAL OF THE SOUTH CAROLINA CONFERENCE OF The United Methodist Church Southeastern Jurisdiction

VOLUME I 2012

Price: $25.00 per year paid in advance by subscription only (Volumes I and II included)

Edited for the Conference by KAREN H. RADCLIFFE Secretary of the Annual Conference

Florence Civic Center Florence, South Carolina

June 10-13, 2012

Atonement In Romans 3:19-31, Norm Mathers

SOR Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Pauline model of Romans 3:19-31 is a description of substitutionary atonement. Sin, guilt, righteousness, faith in Christ, justification, redemption, propitiation, Christ a covering, atonement in his blood, substitute, justice, justifier, and the principle of faith are descriptive of this view of the atonement. A barrage of literature has arisen against penal substitution. Penal substitution has been confused with substitutionary atonement. Penal substitution has also been referred to as penal substitutionary atonement which isn’t substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary atonement has been clouded by such atonement theories as Christus Victor. Aulen’s view of reconciliation doesn’t adequately describe the New Testament atonement. Substitutionary …

The Origins Of Christian Society In Ancient India, Crista Nalani Anderson

Honors Scholar Theses

Approximately 2.4% of the Indian population identify themselves as Christians[1]. As the number of followers grows, it is only natural to question how this religion came to India. The Syrian Christians of Kerala have taken great pride for countless centuries in the fact that their church was personally founded by the apostle Thomas. However, does this legend accurately portray the historical reality? Numerous scholars claim that Christianity was brought to the continent by merchants, other evangelists, or Jewish settlers. This study seeks to identify the evidence behind these claims by comparing the existing primary source documents and observable …

A Spectacle Of Great Beauty: The Changing Faces Of Hagia Sophia, Victoria M. Villano

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Insights From Charles Spurgeon's Preaching For A Changing Culture, John Lewis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This project has been done in order to increase the amount of literature available that demonstrates how to preach to a 21st century culture and to enlighten preachers to the timeless truths that transcend from the great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon. A close evaluation of Charles Spurgeon's biblical preaching reveals a model for pastors to emulate in a post-modern context in the local church. Spurgeon was a master communicator and a survey of his mid to late 1800's preaching reveals those areas of his ministry that are still useful in the New Millennium. By reviewing Spurgeon's sermons and writings, …

Liberian Clergywomen And The Women Of Liberia Mass Action For Peace : Causal Factors For Clergywomen's Participation Or Nonparticipation And The Impact On Clergywomen's Leadership In The Liberian Church, Katurah York Cooper

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Can't Be Tamed: A Feminist Analysis Of Apocrypha And Other Scripture, Catherine Alison Ballard

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper is my own unique feminist analysis of certain apocryphal texts. Though the texts I use have common themes, they are divided into what I consider the three most societally important aspects of an ancient woman’s identity: virgin, mother, and whore. The Acts of Thecla and The Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena deal with virginity. II Maccabees, The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas, and select chapters of Augustine’s Confessions represent motherhood. Finally, the hagiographies Life of Pelagia and Life of Mary navigate through the mire of sexualities that deviate from norms.