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Seattle Pacific University

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Full-Text Articles in Practical Theology

Working Out Your Self-Image: Strength, Self-Esteem, And Human Flourishing, Kingston K. Christie May 2026

Working Out Your Self-Image: Strength, Self-Esteem, And Human Flourishing, Kingston K. Christie

Honors Projects

This project integrates empirical research in exercise science with theological anthropology to examine the psychological effects of resistance training and the meaning of strength within a Christian framework of human dignity and flourishing. The empirical component investigated the effects of a four-week progressive resistance training intervention on global self-esteem and physical self-concept among undergraduate university students with moderate-to-low baseline self-esteem. Eleven participants (N = 11; 20.15 ± 1.52 yrs) completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) and Physical Self-Description Questionnaire Short Form (PSDQ-S) before and after the intervention, with muscular strength assessed via submaximal testing across the squat, bench press, deadlift, …


Don’T Take St. Anselm For A Marriage Therapist: The Utility Of Substitutionary Atonement Theology In Light Of Feminist Critiques, Abigail Elizabeth Livengood Jun 2025

Don’T Take St. Anselm For A Marriage Therapist: The Utility Of Substitutionary Atonement Theology In Light Of Feminist Critiques, Abigail Elizabeth Livengood

Honors Projects

In light of feminist critiques from the twentieth and twenty-first century, this paper returns to Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo to examine the earliest expression of the Substitutionary Atonement Model. While acknowledging the harmful rhetoric attached to the model which has been brought to light by feminist theologians, this work examines Anselm's characterization of God, Jesus, and suffering from within his medieval worldview. In addition, this paper utilizes understandings of Christ held by historical women and survivors themselves to provide further context for Anselm’s understanding. Ultimately, this paper asserts that while feminist theologians raise important concerns about the dangers of Substitutionary …


Re-Examining What I Have Been Taught About Ruth And Naomi As An Asian And Asian American Woman: A Re-Reading Of Ruth Through A Postcolonial Womanist Lens That Calls Asian And Asian American Christians To The Ministry Of Reconciliation And Biblical Justice, Eunice Lin-Sawyer Jan 2024

Re-Examining What I Have Been Taught About Ruth And Naomi As An Asian And Asian American Woman: A Re-Reading Of Ruth Through A Postcolonial Womanist Lens That Calls Asian And Asian American Christians To The Ministry Of Reconciliation And Biblical Justice, Eunice Lin-Sawyer

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

As a Singaporean Chinese woman who only moved to America in middle adulthood, I discovered that one’s context(s) and the particularities of place and positionality significantly shape one’s reading and interpretation of Scripture. This thesis engages in a transnational reading of portions of the Ruth Narrative (RN) and exposes the hidden normativity of Whiteness and Eurocentric theology that has shaped how Ruth is interpreted within the Asian and Asian American Evangelical Church. It also explores the implications of taking seriously one’s social-religious contexts and developing a lived theology that accounts for one’s personal narratives, life experiences and embodied particularity. To …


Chaplaincy & Medical Family Therapy: Christian Witness To Presence, Incarnation, And Hospitality In The Pacific Northwest, R. Fraser Reach Jan 2024

Chaplaincy & Medical Family Therapy: Christian Witness To Presence, Incarnation, And Hospitality In The Pacific Northwest, R. Fraser Reach

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

This essay is an exploration of hospital chaplaincy as a frontline of faith in America today. This Thesis is a joint project between Seattle Pacific Seminary and the Department of Medical Family Therapy. It combines a literature review addressing topics of concern and practice for hospital chaplains and medical family therapists with a personal appeal to Christian ministers, seminary students, therapists, chaplains, and clergy who are called to serve in this vocation, including those who relate to this topic as a sense of mission. It is a compilation of tools, evidence-based explorations, and theology addressing hospital chaplaincy. It includes history, …


Chains Shall He Break: A Vision For Reconciling Worship, Kyle Joseph Harmon Jan 2023

Chains Shall He Break: A Vision For Reconciling Worship, Kyle Joseph Harmon

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

In the Evangelical church, there is a disparity between the worship of the church and a lack of care for the marginalized and oppressed in American society. Though their worship proclaims freedom, chains being broken, and captives set free, the church does little to advocate for the actual poor and disenfranchised. Because of these and other reasons, the American evangelical church has come to resemble something other than both its heritage and the Body of Christ described in Scripture. Instead, it has become a cloistered, segregated, echo chamber for those who agree on orthodoxy to retreat into and sense the …


The Relational Church: Being For And With Youth, Joseph Brett Wiederhold Jan 2022

The Relational Church: Being For And With Youth, Joseph Brett Wiederhold

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

The mainline church, present with youth, could begin to recognize the presence of youth in our worship services, prayer teams and leadership teams as adding value and depth to the community of believers. Youth outside of the church are hurting and desperate for belonging. Youth need relationships; youth need Jesus! Despite the church’s history of marginalizing youth, declining numbers and seeming irrelevance amongst the current Generation Z youth, the church can fulfill a vital role in seeing youth as people created in the image of God, allowing God’s church to reach our hurting world by way of the young people …


The Healing Body: Recovering The Church's Mission Of Shalom, Heather Long Mcdaniel Jan 2022

The Healing Body: Recovering The Church's Mission Of Shalom, Heather Long Mcdaniel

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

Christianity is an embodied faith. God shaped human beings from the dust of the earth in God’s own image, in relationship with God, each other, and creation, and called us “good”. Our bodies, souls, and relationships are inextricably intertwined, and full health can be defined as a state of shalom, the flourishing of our whole selves in the context of our relationships and environment. Alienation, sickness, injustice, and suffering are experienced as brokenness in our bodies, souls, relationships, institutions, and environment. Restoration of health involves identifying and healing what is broken. God affirmed the goodness and worth of our bodies …


Intersectionality And The Church, Pivot Nw Research May 2021

Intersectionality And The Church, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Making A Safe Space For Young Adults, Pivot Nw Research May 2021

Making A Safe Space For Young Adults, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Living The Deeds Of A Love So Noble, Pivot Nw Research Apr 2021

Living The Deeds Of A Love So Noble, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


People Require Proximity: What The Church Can Do To Create Wholeness For Adolescents, Carrington Phauve Wilson Jan 2021

People Require Proximity: What The Church Can Do To Create Wholeness For Adolescents, Carrington Phauve Wilson

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

Historically, many have attempted to advocate for equality by centering an earthly dominant power to bring about likeness to the majority. Unfortunately, even the most noble of causes excludes those furthest from the center source. Therefore, reconciliation must not focus on human structures of power and equality, but God’s, centering the One who created all things, to be again returned to their truthful spaces. Thus, for reconciliation to be a realized truth, we must not center the dominant source of human power, but the furthest out, realizing the likeness to God that humanity continuously excludes. For this, womanism gives a …


Imagining The Postdigital Church, Michael Paulus Jan 2021

Imagining The Postdigital Church, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

This essay focuses on the ongoing need and opportunity for church leaders to continue the process of digital transformation and imagine new forms of the post-pandemic church.


Understanding Sexual Abuse And Redemption Of Persons With Sexual Abuse History Through The Person And Work Of Jesus Christ, Nag Chi Wong Jan 2021

Understanding Sexual Abuse And Redemption Of Persons With Sexual Abuse History Through The Person And Work Of Jesus Christ, Nag Chi Wong

Seattle Pacific Seminary Theses

“Where can sexual abuse survivors find hope in God?” In order to seek an answer to this question, I turned to the person and work of Christ. My hope and belief are that through looking at the person and work of Jesus, where fullness of God was pleased to dwell, we might be able to find the message that God is speaking to God’s hurting children. What is God telling us about Godself, about sexual abuse survivors, and about all God’s people through Jesus’ incarnation, ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection, as well as through the eternal Lamb? Much has been written …


The Challenges Of Young Adulthood, Pivot Nw Research Oct 2020

The Challenges Of Young Adulthood, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Variety Of Story, Pivot Nw Research Oct 2020

Variety Of Story, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Young Adults On Council!?, Pivot Nw Research Oct 2020

Young Adults On Council!?, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


The Anatomy Of An Ideation Lab, Pivot Nw Research Oct 2020

The Anatomy Of An Ideation Lab, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Evangelism - Sharing The Gospel At Work (Overview), Theology Of Work Project, Bill Peel, Leah Archibald, Randy Kilgore Sep 2020

Evangelism - Sharing The Gospel At Work (Overview), Theology Of Work Project, Bill Peel, Leah Archibald, Randy Kilgore

Theology of Work Project

  • The Mission of Sharing the Gospel
  • We Are Called to Serve as Christ’s Ambassadors
    • Four Ways to Serve as Christ's Ambassador at Work
      • Sharing the Gospel Through Competence
      • Sharing the Gospel Through Character
      • Sharing the Gospel by Showing Concern
      • Sharing the Gospel Through Wise Conversation
    • A Final Encouragement for Ambassadors of Christ


George Floyd Protests, Pivot Nw Research Sep 2020

George Floyd Protests, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Following The Guide: A Wilderness Theology Of Youth Ministry, Rachel M. Weisz Jun 2020

Following The Guide: A Wilderness Theology Of Youth Ministry, Rachel M. Weisz

Honors Projects

Scripture offers readers a unique characterization of wilderness spaces and provides us with a great deal of information about what to expect. This discussion traces various scriptural narratives of encounter with God in the wilderness, offering the reader a model for what a wilderness experience of God may entail, and then turns to more current conversation about wilderness youth ministry. The project traces current research of fields that are tangentially related to wilderness youth ministry including wilderness therapy, outdoor adventure education, and camp ministry, and seeks to highlight the ways that they can enhance, alter, and confirm various practices within …


Shattering Stained Glass: Empowering Christian Women To Lead Equitably In The Church And Society, Kaila Catalina Materne Creamer Alvarez Jan 2020

Shattering Stained Glass: Empowering Christian Women To Lead Equitably In The Church And Society, Kaila Catalina Materne Creamer Alvarez

Seattle Pacific Seminary Projects

In today's American Christian culture, it has been my observation that women are still feeling the repercussions of Christian traditions and theologies that have an elongated history of neglecting their authority and leadership. After having a decade and a half of experience working within different Christian communities, there has been an overwhelming amount of evidence to support that there is a strong disconnect between the theology of women’s leadership and the physical, practical, and systematic action of engaging them as leaders. Among these narratives is my own. After having served in a leadership role within an evangelical mega church for …


Church Digital Transformation Template, Michael Paulus Jan 2020

Church Digital Transformation Template, Michael Paulus

SPU Works

style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif;">This template is based on a “framework for digital wisdom” and three characteristics of a “thriving congregation” as defined by the Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative. It asks three questions that seek to align digital transformation with key congregational characteristics and a fourth question to identify next steps.


Young Adult Hospitality As Intergenerational Outreach, Pivot Nw Research Nov 2019

Young Adult Hospitality As Intergenerational Outreach, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Tech Innovation In Ministry Part 1, Pivot Nw Research Oct 2019

Tech Innovation In Ministry Part 1, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Tech Innovation In Ministry Part 2, Pivot Nw Research Oct 2019

Tech Innovation In Ministry Part 2, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Tech Innovation In Ministry Part 3, Pivot Nw Research Oct 2019

Tech Innovation In Ministry Part 3, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


How Are You Preparing For Change Part 3, Pivot Nw Research Sep 2019

How Are You Preparing For Change Part 3, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Are You Serious About Change_Part 2, Pivot Nw Research Sep 2019

Are You Serious About Change_Part 2, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.


Is Ai Intelligent, Really?, Bruce D. Baker Aug 2019

Is Ai Intelligent, Really?, Bruce D. Baker

SPU Works

The question of intelligence opens up a bouquet of interrelated questions:

Suppose that some future AGI systems (on-screen or robots) equaled human performance. Would they have real intelligence, real understanding, real creativity? Would they have selves, moral standing, free choice? Would they be conscious? And without consciousness, could they have any of those other properties?[1]

The only way out of the morass is to recognize that truth claims do not stand on their own, aloof and cut off from the sea of meaning which grants epistemic access. In other words, truth presumes access to: (1) a way of knowing, …


Are You Ready For Change Part 1, Pivot Nw Research Aug 2019

Are You Ready For Change Part 1, Pivot Nw Research

Blog

No abstract provided.