History of Christianity Commons^™

Teresa Of Avila (1515-2015): A Woman Between The Roman Catholic Church’S Crossfire And Exaltation, Karin Heller

Theology Faculty Scholarship

Keynote address "A Teresian Festivity - Celebrate 500 Years of St. Teresa of Avila", a conference at Gonzaga University.

The debates on a woman’s place and function were as passionate in 16th century Spain as they are in today’s Church and civil society. These debates for or against women’s freedom from male domination undergird Teresa’s life and works. From a feminist perspective, her readers have always to bear in mind that she writes under the control of male authorities, even when she is writing to women. What is striking, however, is her twofold struggle. First she struggles for personal freedom …

Canonical Development And The Early Church Fathers: Establishing The Validity And Elevating The Weight Of Accurate Textual Citations, Chris Davis

Masters Theses

The predominant theory of textual criticism known as “reasoned eclecticism” often engages the NT manuscripts in a manner that is not truly eclectic. Instead, the modus operandi is often to overlook textual witnesses from manuscript families that do not agree with the favored Alexandrian text-type. At the same time, in cases where the early church fathers seem to cite passages from these other known families, their words are often discounted and removed as evidence for a particular reading. This thesis deals predominantly with the second issue, and it addresses a number of foundational issues that lead to such a flawed …

A Program For Persistent Integration Of Faith And Learning In A Christian University Online Environment, John Norris

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia has expanded since 1971 to become the largest Christian university in the world. Liberty will be used in this paper as a contemporary example of a Christian university that has maintained its Christian commitment. Liberty will be contrasted with numerous Christian colleges and universities that had similar missions but have eventually lost their religious affiliations and their Christian-oriented focus. This paper will explore how and why other universities have drifted from their original religious affiliations and doctrines. The reasons and processes will be examined and used to develop a program for online Christian education that …

Love, Charity, & Pope Leo Xiii: A Leadership Paradigm For Catholic Education, Henry J. Davis

Journal of Catholic Education

The treatment of workers is an ongoing social issue affecting society. No organization is immune to questionable employee practices, including Catholic educational institutions. For Catholic leadership to fully embody its intended justice-based role, it must first be aware of the social teachings put forth by the Roman Catholic Church. In this study, the researcher suggests Pope Leo XIII’s social writings as a guiding presence for beginning this formation, starting with the concepts of love and charity within labor. The analysis of Leo’s work shows love and charity as interchangeable virtues that enhance our God-given dignity by acknowledging other people’s inherent …

Reformation Sunday • Romans 3:19–28 • October 25, 2015, Robert Rosin

Concordia Journal

The gospel flies in the face of logic, which is why Luther (in his 1517 “Disputation against Scholastic Theology”) said Aristotle is to theology as darkness is to light.

Proper 19 • James 3:1–12, William Schumacher

Concordia Journal

Christians are absolutely forbidden to speak evil of other people—even if what they say is technically “true.”

Pietism On The American Landscape, Martin Conkling

Concordia Journal

Pietism on the American Landscape from its beginnings to present.

Proper 10 • Ephesians 1:3–16 • July 12, 2015, Timothy Dost

Concordia Journal

It is through the durability of these promises applied to us that we find both the faithfulness and strength to love our neighbors, marking us as those distinctive people God has chosen from the beginning.

Proper 7 • 2 Corinthians 6:1–13 • June 21, 2015 Servants Of God As A Study In Contrasts, Joel Elowsky

Concordia Journal

The one who was himself a study in contrasts, contradictions, and paradoxes asks no less of his servants and gives no less than his Spirit to make it happen.

Holy Trinity • Acts 2:14a, 22–36 • May 31, 2015, Erik Herrmann

Concordia Journal

For Peter, gifted now with the Holy Spirit, all that has taken place was promised long ago and has unfolded according to God’s “definite plan and foreknowledge.” In spite of all appearances, the death of Jesus does not negate the “mighty works, wonders and signs” of God.

Faithful Witness In Work And Rest, William Schumacher

Concordia Journal

Faithful Christian witness in work starts with the value of the work itself, in its own right, not as a means to some other end or a pretense for some specifically “religious” agenda.

The New Shape Of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith. By Mark A. Noll, Ken Chitwood

Concordia Journal

Noll proposes that North American Christianity molded, and is related to, worldwide Christianity via an amalgamation of missionary influence, evangelical attitudes, and shared historical contexts.

Divine Kingdom, Holy Order: The Political Writings Of Martin Luther. By Jarrett A. Carty, Paul Robinson

Concordia Journal

Carty has collected the texts from Luther’s Works that touch significantly on topics such as law, government, authority, and war.

Epiphany 2 • Isaiah 49:1–7 • January 19, 2014, Erik Herrmann

Concordia Journal

This is the great epiphany—the mystery hidden for ages but now revealed, the surprising “new thing” of God’s salvation!

Six Ways Ecumenical Progress Is Possible, Sarah Wilson

Concordia Journal

Ecumenism can only be the outcome of both mutual and internal discernment in the churches. It will take time, it will involve missteps, and it will require humility.

Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue On Foundations Laid In 1962–1964, Jared Wicks

Concordia Journal

Ecumenical Issues discussed during the Vatican II

The Gospel Luther’S Linchpin For Catholicity, Gordon Jensen

Concordia Journal

Much has been made about the fact that after Luther launched the reformation in Germany, he changed the wording of the third article of the Apostles’ Creed from “holy catholic Church” to “holy Christian Church.”

Proper 8 • Jeremiah 28:5–9 • June 29, 2014, William Schumacher

Concordia Journal

How do we know if a prophet speaks the truth? We know by seeing whether what he said actually happens.

Epiphany 5 • Isaiah 58:3–9a • February 9, 2014, Timothy Dost

Concordia Journal

When we put up an appearance of righteousness without attendant love manifesting itself in deeds for the neighbor, we only fool ourselves and, in the end, indicate that our own situation is already ruined by our hardness of heart.

Why Priests?: A Failed Tradition By Garry Wills, John Helmke

Concordia Journal

Though he does not include a bibliography, the breadth of his reading and frequent quotation of respected authors is impressive. Short chapters and Wills’s crisp writing style make for enjoyable, thought-provoking reading.

Luther’S Works, Volume 75, Church Post Edited By Benjamin G. Mayes And James Langebartels, Paul Robinson

Concordia Journal

Roth reproduced Luther accurately when he had a work by Luther in front of him, but he felt free to include other material in his editions when he lacked something by Luther.

Proper 20 • Ezekiel 34:11–16; 20–24 • November 23, 2014, Timothy Dost

Concordia Journal

God Protects and Heals His Flock When faced with the fall of Jerusalem, Ezekiel describes the judgment on those shepherds responsible and the reasons for the fall.

God’S Timeline: An Introduction To Theology For Laypeople By Rick Meyer, Joel Oesch

Concordia Journal

In God’s Timeline: An Introduction to Theology for Laypeople, Rick Meyer seeks to engage the reader in a theological journey that spreads across the whole of history, pointing to the presence of God’s divine will as it moves from the garden of Eden to the present church and beyond.

All Saints’ Day • Revelation 7:9–17 • November 2, 2014, Erik Herrmann

Concordia Journal

Washed and clothed in white robes, God will “shelter them with his presence .

Singing The Sermon: Where Musicology Meets Homiletics, Emmett G. Price Iii

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

From the beginning of the Christian Church, singing and preaching have served as major tools of communication. In fact, they remain the most utilized methods of articulating and explicating personal and communal theologies across the diverse and expansive expressions of Christianity.

From the life, ministry, and legacy of Jesus Christ through the teachings of the Apostle Paul, the roles and functions of singing and preaching are well known but not well studied as a unit. From the foundational writings of the early Church Fathers through the various theses of the reformers, the acts of singing and preaching have been studied …

Preaching And The Power Of Music: A Dialogue Between The Pulpit And Choir Loft In 1689, Markus Rathey

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

During the ecclesiastical year 1689-90 the Lutheran superintendent in Leipzig, Johann Benedict Carpzov, and his cantor, the composer Johann Schelle, embarked on a collaboration of unusual scale. In the previous year, Carpzov had preached a cycle of sermons based on well-known hymns from the Lutheran tradition. In 1689-90 Carpzov gave a short summary of the earlier hymn sermons, while Schelle composed for each Sunday a cantata based on the very same hymn. The result is a unique collaboration between preacher and musician, pulpit and choir loft. Only a few of Schelle’s compositions have survived; however, the extant cantatas together with …

Preaching About Pipes And Praise: Lutheran Organ Sermons Of The Seventeenth Century, Joyce L. Irwin

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The seventeenth century was a grand era for organ building, and as new organs were installed in Lutheran churches in Germany, there were services of dedication at which a sermon was preached to explain the theological basis for using organ music in worship and to extol the value of instrumental worship for the praise of God. In some respects these sermons were all alike: scriptural passages, predominantly from the Old Testament, were cited to remind the congregation of ancient musical practices; opponents of church organs from Zwingli through Calvin to Voetius and Grossgebauer were chastised as misguided or worse; the …

The Reformation Of Preaching: Transformations Of Worship Soundscapes In Early Modern Germany And Switzerland, Barbara Pitkin

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

The evangelical sermon was the Protestant Reformation’s central ritual event and the catalyst for a host of other changes, ranging from the abolition of the Mass to acts of violent iconoclasm. In promoting the sermon, reformers in Germany and Switzerland were in continuity with trends in medieval preaching, but at the same time the new centrality given to the preached word fundamentally altered the worship experience, particularly the aural experience. The present investigation traces the contours of the preaching landscape in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, outlines the innovations in sermonizing in Reformation Switzerland and Germany, and, by …

The Desecration And Restoration Of The Temple As An Eschatological Motif In The Tanach, Jewish Apocalytic Literature, And The New Testament, John Randall Price

Faculty Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Against Celsus: Piety In Context, Dustin Janssen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Celsus’s and Origen’s differing understandings of what it means to be “pious” (ὅσιος). Celsus conceived of tradition as the norm for determining piety. On the other hand, Origen maintained that the true norm was found in the Logos and Wisdom of God—i.e., Jesus. This dichotomy of understanding is consistent with the backdrop of the religious revolution happening in the Roman world during the early centuries CE proposed by scholars like Guy Stroumsa.

While this thesis does not aim to prove or fully expound on the religious revolution, it will use the shift in religious thought as a …