Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons^™

Worshipping Meaningfully: The Complementary Dynamics Of Liturgy And Theology In Worship, Joseph Omolo

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Omolo, Joseph, T. "Worshipping Meaningfully: The Complementary Dynamics of Liturgy and Theology in Worship." Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 242 pp.

This dissertation is a work in systematic theology which explores the relationship between liturgy and theology in the current scholarship of liturgical theology. It examines how the complementary dynamics of liturgy and theology enhance the appropriation of meaning experientially and conceptually in the Christian assembly and thereby making worship meaningful event. Worship is meaningful when the Christian assembly encounters the Triune God in his word and sacraments and the assembly responds in praise, prayer and thanksgiving. In such encounter …

Mcgavran’S Family Heritage, Gary L. Mcintosh

Great Commission Research Journal

Mission was the natural expression of Donald McGavran’s heritage. This article traces the ancestral history of Donald McGavran’s family line from James and Agnes Anderson, his maternal grandparents, and John and Helen McGavran, his mother and father. His connection to the Stone-Campbell Movement and William Carey’s Baptist Missionary Society is discussed.

Reaching The Nations Through Our Cities, Chris Clayman

Great Commission Research Journal

While the American public perceives New York City to be a post-Christian environment, reality is that the city is moving into a post-secular existence largely influenced by religious immigrants. These immigrants are symbolic of a new era in pioneer missions—one in which migration, transnationalism, globalization, and urbanization pose newer challenges and opportunities than uncharted geographies, isolated societies, and foreign cultures. “Reaching the Nations Through Our Cities” proposes that the next challenge for missionary pioneers is reaching busy, hidden, influential unreached peoples who have migrated to cities. Based on several years of research on the immigrant populations in Metro New York, …

Why Is There A Silent Exodus Of English-Speaking Adults From Western Canadian Chinese Churches?, Matthew Todd

Great Commission Research Journal

This study recommends solutions towards the retention through empowerment of Canadian Born Chinese (CBC) adults in Chinese bicultural churches. To address retention, the key risk factors and common dynamics that contribute to a “silent exodus” of CBC adults were established through qualitative research, including a survey of participants from diverse church affiliations. Based on an analysis of the literature review and survey results, this study advocates working toward the retention of English-speaking adults from Chinese Canadian churches through associated parallel independent English congregational models; this recognizes a link between the process of acculturation and the imperative to leverage mission.

Why Multiply Healthy Churches?, Charles Van Engen

Great Commission Research Journal

This article examines biblical motivations to multiply new, healthy churches. Such motivations emerge from the following five biblical truths: a) God the Father seeks and finds the lost, b) The love of Christ obligates us, c) God sent the Holy Spirit for all human beings, d) The local congregation is the primary locus of the rule of the King, and e) Multiplying churches is for the glory of God. Our loving and compassionate triune God desires that all women and men become disciples of Jesus Christ, active participants in a local Christian church, and committed agents of the transformation of …

The Church Of The Nazarene And Church Growth: Better Together?, Duane H. Boady

Great Commission Research Journal

The essence of the article is to offer a fresh look at Church Growth to the Church of the Nazarene. Perhaps the Church of the Nazarene is one of many denominations that struggle with plateaued and declining churches. It seems to this writer that we have failed to ask difficult questions about what we are doing and why we do those things. If we are part of the Body of Christ, then we ought to be flourishing. Instead the converse is often more true. The Church Growth movement may have brought out some people hoping to sell their latest and …

Book Review: Embracing Shared Ministry: Power And Status In The Early Church And Why It Matters Today By Joseph H. Hellerman, Paul Gritz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Planting New Churches In A Postmodern Age By Ed Stetzer, Joseph Mun

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Coffee Shop That Changed A Church: Discovering The Net Effect By Steve Parr, Peter Varosky

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Five Types Of Multicultural Churches: A New Paradigm Evaluated And Differentiated, Bob Whitesel

Great Commission Research Journal

This article puts forth a comprehensive and reconciliation-based paradigm through which to view multicultural congregations as one of five models or types. It updates the historical categories of Sanchez, adds contemporary models, and then evaluates each through a ten-point grid of nomenclature, mode of growth, relationships, pluses, minuses, degree of difficulty, creator complex, redistribution, relocation, and reconciliation. The five models are 1) the asset sharing Multicultural Alliance, 2) the collaborative Multicultural Partnership, 3) the asymmetrical Mother-Daughter model, 4) the popular Blended approach, and 5) the Cultural Assimilation model. The result is a comprehensive five-model paradigm that includes an assessment of …

My Pilgrimage In Church Growth, Ray Ellis

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Ecclesiology Of Training For Trainers: The Issue Of Method And I Timothy 3:6, John Henry Serworwora

Great Commission Research Journal

The implementation of the Church Planting Movement (CPM) and Training for Trainers (T4T) by the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention missions life is not without challenge. Southern Baptist missiologists and seminary professors have written numerous papers and articles supporting or contesting this methodology. The majority of criticisms focus on the emphasis in the rapidity and “mass production” of churches, fearing the theological alteration among the new believers and their churches. This article argues that the leadership process in T4T/CPM violates the Baptist ecclesiology, since 1 Timothy 3:6 essentially excludes a new believer from pastoral leadership.

Book Review: Advanced Strategic Planning: A 21st Century Model For Church And Ministry Leaders By Aubrey Malphurs, John Sun

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: The Bridges Of God: A Study In The Strategy Of Missions By Donald A. Mcgavran, Ivan Yu

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Replant: How A Dying Church Can Grow Again By Mark Devine And Darrin Patrick, Garrett R. Eaglin

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Experiencing Our Only Comfort: A Post-Reformation Refocus In The Heidelberg Catechism, Jan Van Vliet

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Last year marked the 450th anniversary of the publication of the Heidelberg Catechism. In celebration of this momentous occasion and as a reminder of the contemporary applicability of this highly-regarded confessional document, this essay examines the earliest and most complete Puritan commentary extant: that of second-generation Puritan thinker William Ames (1576–1633), protégé of William Perkins (1558–1602), the “father” of the Puritan movement. We examine methodological considerations and two topical issues that arise when the venerated Catechism is placed in the hands of a practically oriented, post-Reformation divine for whom theology was none other than “living to God”: Theologia est doctrina …

Review Of The Cross And The Lynching Tree, Bryan Massingale

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Emerging From The Shadows: Civil War, Human Rights, And Peacebuilding Among Peasants And Indigenous Peoples In Colombia And Peru In The Late 20th And Early 21st Centuries, Charles A. Flowerday

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Peacebuilding in Colombia and Peru following their late-20^th and early 21^st century civil wars is a challenging proposition. In this study, it becomes necessary as indigenous peoples and peasants resist domination by extractive industries and governments in their thrall. Whether they protest nonviolently or rebel in arms, they are targeted for human-rights violations, especially murder, disappearance and displacement. The armed actors, state, insurgency, paramilitaries or drug traffickers, destroy civic institutions (local or regional government) and the civil (nonprofit) sector and replace them with their own authoritarian versions. Therefore, peacebuilding has emphasized rebuilding civic institutions, civil society and local …

Consideration Of The Church's Identity And Mission, Predicated On The Church Be-Ing 'Ligamen' (Bond), C. A. Chase

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

In 1965, the Roman Catholic Church, in Gaudium et spes, declared to the world: this community realizes that it is truly linked with mankind and its history by the deepest of bonds (GS 1). Shifting her identity from being one in opposition to the modern world, she announced the possibility of becoming the very bond (ligamen) binding diverse human communities and nations of the world, whilst existing as a function, a light, an energy (GS 42). Framed against the classical understanding of ecclesia as a perfect society, and the fact that this was no longer realistic in …

Prayer In A Time Of Sin: A Comparative Analysis Of Christian, Buddhist, And Kashmiri Shaiva Doctrines, Viresh Hughes

LMU Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Gustave Thibon And Human Freedom, Wesley Sutermeister

Obsculta

No abstract provided.

The Grammar Of Choice: Charles Dickens's Existential Idea Of Religion, Hai Na

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation challenges the received opinion that Charles Dickens's religious thinking is merely sentimental and philanthropic. Instead, I argue that there is in his works a very consistent "existential" sense of religion, especially in his mature novels. To be religious for him does not lie in the adherence to dogma or the study of theological arguments, but in the crucial choices people make every day. In order to illustrate this "existential" sense of religion, I analyze, in the first chapter, relevant works by Kierkegaard, Carlyle, George Eliot, and Dostoevsky, in order to establish the context in which Dickens's religious views …

Merging The Principles Of Occultism And Anarchism, Kevin Todd Mclaren

History

"Merging the Principles of Occultism and Anarchism" is an attempt to pinpoint the correlations between occult and/or esoteric belief systems and political anarchist philosophy. The paper analyzes the works, belief systems and philosophies of Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Aleister Crowley and extracts the underlying anarchist principles that are embedded within them. This established connection to anarchism through occultism is reinforced by referencing various anarchist works, particularly the works of William Godwin.

From Defending Theism To Discerning Spirits: Reconceiving The Task Of Christian Philosophy, Neal Deroo

Pro Rege

Dr. Neal DeRoo presented this paper at a joint meeting of the Society for Christian Philosophers and the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology, held at Trinity College, June 2014. The topic of the meeting was, "What is Christian Philosophy," celebrating the 30-year anniversary of the publication of Alvin Plantinga's landmark essay "Advice to Christian Philosophers."

Reformed Theology As Worldview Theology: The Public Nature Of The Gospel And Spirituality, Jay Shim

Pro Rege

No abstract provided.

Review Of Baptismal Imagery In Early Christianity: Ritual, Visual, And Theological Dimensions, Robin M. Jensen, Denis Fortin

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Divine Omnipotence In Descartes' Philosophy, Alfredo Rodriguez

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present thesis explores various aspects of Rene Descartes' doctrine of divine omnipotence within the context of his overall philosophy and with reference to his medieval heritage. This thesis shows that, contrary to his multiple and explicit statements that God's power cannot be limited in any way, Descartes took a more nuanced position on divine omnipotence that incorporated aspects of the widely accepted medieval position that God's goodness is a constraint on his power. Furthermore, Descartes used the medieval concept of universals as he experimented with the use of modes to explain how a thing's actual existence is possible by …

Foreword, Gordon A. Jensen

Consensus

No abstract provided.

Pope Paul Vi And Ignacio Maria Calabuig: The Virgin Mary In The Liturgy And The Life Of The Church, Thomas A. Thompson

Marian Studies

On this fortieth anniversary of Marialis Cultus, we wish to commemorate Paul VI and Ignacio Calabuig, both of whom made singular contributions to implementing Vatican II’s directives for the reform and strengthening of Marian devotion in the liturgy, or, as expressed at Vatican II, who collaborated “that devotion to the Virgin Mary, especially in the liturgy, be generously fostered” (LG 67). Here a brief introduction presents Paul VI and Ignacio Calabuig and their views on Marian devotion and liturgy; a description of the causes for the postconciliar Marian crisis follows. Their collaborative response is found in Paul VI’s 1974 Apostolic …

Servant Of God Patrick Peyton, Csc: Renewal Of Marian Devotion In Light Of Vatican Ii And 'Marialis Cultus', Laetitia Rhatigan

Marian Studies

Article details the efforts of Father Patrick Peyton, CSC, to have the family and family prayer included in the documents of the Second Vatican Council and to bring the Family Rosary to homes in America.