Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

2020

Discipline
Institution
Keyword
Publication
Publication Type
File Type

Articles 451 - 480 of 547

Full-Text Articles in Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

The Unity Process And Its Effectiveness In Decreasing Cross-Cultural Divisions In Society Due To Racism, Pamela Y. Fields Jan 2020

The Unity Process And Its Effectiveness In Decreasing Cross-Cultural Divisions In Society Due To Racism, Pamela Y. Fields

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper dealt with determining the usefulness of The Unity Process as a tool in combatting the racial divisions in the Dallas metropolitan area. The case study qualitative method was utilized for this assessment. The research identified the background information and the context of the divisions and then the framework for the research. Research tools included pre- and post-surveys and interviews with the participants. The entire nine-session process was observed and then the researcher compared the results of the research with the materials from The Unity Process and then presented the findings. The analysis presented followed the order of the …


Discerning Best Practices For Multiethnic Church Of Christ Mergers, Jordan T. Tatum Jan 2020

Discerning Best Practices For Multiethnic Church Of Christ Mergers, Jordan T. Tatum

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project was aimed at discovering best practices for multiethnic Church of Christ mergers. Three churches were discovered that had formed by the merger of a White Church of Christ with a Black Church of Christ. A study of the multiethnic dynamics of the early church provided the biblical and theological foundation for this project. Special attention was given to Galatians, Romans, and Ephesians, as well as the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15. The researcher discovered that the Church was multiethnic from its inception. The researcher then researched the literature concerning multiethnic churches in America, Churches of Christ, and church …


Democracy & Religion: Some Variations & Hard Questions, Kent Greenawalt Jan 2020

Democracy & Religion: Some Variations & Hard Questions, Kent Greenawalt

Faculty Scholarship

The ideas sketched here concern the nonestablishment and free exercise norms expressed in the U.S. Constitution, their application to governmental institutions from legislatures to prisons and the military, the place of religion in the curricula of public schools, and the proper role of religious convictions in lawmaking. A major concern of the essay is the problem of achieving an appropriate balance between governmental neutrality toward religion, as required by the nonestablishment norm, and governmental accommodation of religious practices that would otherwise violate ordinary laws, as required by the free exercise norm. A recurring theme is the complexity of the issues …


A Cathedral Not Made By Hands, Vincent J. Miller Jan 2020

A Cathedral Not Made By Hands, Vincent J. Miller

Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

In Laudato si’, Pope Francis offers a vision of moral responsibility rooted in awareness of the world around us. He points to St. Francis, who “looked with love” on all creatures, as a model. He writes of an “attitude of the heart, one which approaches life with serene attentiveness, which is capable of being fully present” to everyone and everything. And he also calls for an “intense dialogue” between religion and science, which has its own “gaze.” The H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon, one of the world’s most studied ecosystems, offers an especially rich opportunity for such dialogue. Here …


The Impact Of Presence And Touch On Church Growth, William Charles Berg Jan 2020

The Impact Of Presence And Touch On Church Growth, William Charles Berg

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses the problem of discovering whether, when churches move to be physically present in their communities and engage in appropriate touch through serving, there is a corresponding impact in confession of faith and church growth. To answer this problem, the researcher began with the incarnation and trinity as a model of presence and touch. The researcher reviewed the Gospels to identify Jesus’ use of physical presence and touch in His ministry. The researcher also looked at the impact of presence and touch on the early church in the Book of Acts. He reviewed literature that focused on the …


Cultivating Relational, Developmental And Missional Discipleship Within A Lutheran Mega-Church, Richard Michael Webb Jan 2020

Cultivating Relational, Developmental And Missional Discipleship Within A Lutheran Mega-Church, Richard Michael Webb

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades, many Lutheran mega-churches have become stagnant or have begun to decline in worship attendance. Some have even closed their doors, not surviving past their founding leadership. Furthermore, few of these mega-churches offer any kind of intentional growth pathway for their members. What is called discipleship often appears instead to be a classroom-driven assimilation process. This project addressed the problem Lutheran mega-churches have in making disciples by exploring the relational, developmental and missional aspects of discipleship and how they might be integrated into an effective discipleship strategy for use in these mega-churches. This project began with …


Matching Concepts, Transgressing Boundaries: Buddhist Transmission Strategies In The International Buddhist Women's Movement, Karma Lekshe Tsomo Phd Jan 2020

Matching Concepts, Transgressing Boundaries: Buddhist Transmission Strategies In The International Buddhist Women's Movement, Karma Lekshe Tsomo Phd

Theology and Religious Studies: Faculty Scholarship

One of the most striking features of the contemporary revitalization, transmission, and transformation of Buddhism is the prominent roles that women are playing, both locally and globally. Since 1987, Buddhist women from around the world have been uniting on a grassroots level and taking more active roles in working not only for the welfare of women, but for the welfare of human society writ large. Today, the Buddhist women’s movement has become a highly dynamic forum representing the interests of somewhere between 300 and 600 million women, depending on who is compiling the statistics. This movement is transgressive by its …


Religious Belief And Culture: The Curious Case Of The Intuitive Soul, Karl G. D. Bailey, Duane C. Mcbride Jan 2020

Religious Belief And Culture: The Curious Case Of The Intuitive Soul, Karl G. D. Bailey, Duane C. Mcbride

Faculty Publications

While Adventists recognize some of the straightforward and concrete ideas that are part of doctrinal training on human nature and the state of the dead, the core intuitive belief in mind-body dualism likely continues to influence how Adventists understand human nature.


Acts Of Meaning, Resource Diagrams, And Essential Learning Behaviors: The Design Evolution Of Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber Jan 2020

Acts Of Meaning, Resource Diagrams, And Essential Learning Behaviors: The Design Evolution Of Lost & Found, Owen Gottlieb, Ian Schreiber

Articles

Lost & Found is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed for teaching medieval religious legal systems. The long-term goals of the project are to change the discourse around religious laws, such as foregrounding the prosocial aspects of religious law such as collaboration, cooperation, and communal sustainability. This design case focuses on the evolution of the design of the mechanics and core systems in the first two tabletop games in the series, informed by over three and a half years’ worth of design notes, playable prototypes, outside design consultations, internal design reviews, playtests, and interviews.


Known To God Alone: Reflections On The Trappists Of Gethsemani And Father Louis, Emilie Grosvenor Jan 2020

Known To God Alone: Reflections On The Trappists Of Gethsemani And Father Louis, Emilie Grosvenor

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

No abstract provided.


Liturgical Drama In The Church: An Application Of Daily Scriptural Living, Alma Lee Langley-Ward Jan 2020

Liturgical Drama In The Church: An Application Of Daily Scriptural Living, Alma Lee Langley-Ward

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this research was to study the validity of using liturgical drama as a vital tool of expression in helping to make Scripture come alive for the application and transformation of lives, first of those of the researcher’s local congregation and eventually of other churches. The researcher wrote and directed a play using members of the Greater Friendship Missionary Baptist Church as actors and crew. The entire church was a participant of this research as the play was done during a Sunday morning worship service as part of the liturgy. The mixed-method approach presented the most viable …


The Pervasive Emptiness: Acedia, Modernity, And The Boredom Of Secularity, Samuel Welbaum Jan 2020

The Pervasive Emptiness: Acedia, Modernity, And The Boredom Of Secularity, Samuel Welbaum

CGU Theses & Dissertations

A case can be made that the greatest fear of our time is the fear of boredom. We live in an age in which things change daily. New technologies are developed, old inventions are reconceived, the entertainment industry churns out movies, shows, and music constantly, and yet, people still experience boredom. Some have even said that it's the defining experience of our day. Where does this boredom come from? Why has it become prominent? What is causing it to gain power so rapidly? And how might it be stopped? Those questions are the driving force behind his work. This dissertation …


Classical Trinitarian Theology And The Idolatry Of Nationalism: The Doctrine Of The Trinity As A Critique Of Political Theology, Shane Akerman Jan 2020

Classical Trinitarian Theology And The Idolatry Of Nationalism: The Doctrine Of The Trinity As A Critique Of Political Theology, Shane Akerman

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation proposes that the doctrine of the Trinity, in the field of political theology today, should be taken as a critique of the idolatry of nationalism and should point us toward a new theological politics that is informed by the proper worship of the triune God, especially in the Church’s sacred liturgy. Existing proposals regarding the relation between trinitarian and political theology can be sorted into two basic camps, separated by alternative understandings of the meaning of political theology as primarily either descriptive or prescriptive. Representative of the descriptive sort is Agamben’s genealogical analysis of the link between trinitarian …


The Psychosomatic Journey Of Trauma And Its Healing: A Comparative Synthesis Between Scientific And Psycho-Spiritual Perspectives, Isabel Kelly Jan 2020

The Psychosomatic Journey Of Trauma And Its Healing: A Comparative Synthesis Between Scientific And Psycho-Spiritual Perspectives, Isabel Kelly

Pomona Senior Theses

The purpose of this paper is to create a comparative synthesis between scientific perspectives and spiritual perspectives of understanding the psychosomatic (mind-body) nature of trauma. In order to do so we will consider the works of Dr.Bessel van der Kolk, a world-leading psychiatrist in the field of trauma therapy who advocates for the use of body-oriented approaches to healing, and the works of Carl Jung and Donald Kalsched. Jung is considered one of the founding fathers of the field of Transpersonal Psychology, while Kalsched is a Jungian psychoanalyst who specializes in working with trauma patients. We will see that while …


Creator God, Humans, And Artificial Intelligence: Framework To Address Theological And Relational Issues, Tinku Thompson Jan 2020

Creator God, Humans, And Artificial Intelligence: Framework To Address Theological And Relational Issues, Tinku Thompson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technological advancements are happening at an accelerated phase. Five decades ago, no one even owned a personal computer. A decade ago, smartphones did not exist. Today there are 2.71 billion smartphone users in the world, which is more than thirty-five percent of the world’s population. Many developments have happened in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Robotics, and Mixed Reality. AI is the term used to describe a machine’s ability to simulate human intelligence. Characteristics once considered unique to humans like learning, logic, reasoning, perception, and creativity are now being replicated by technology and used in every industry. The problem …


Editorial Jan 2020

Editorial

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Editorial


Linguistics And New Testament Greek: Key Issues In The Current Debate [Review] / Black, David Alan, And Benjamin L. Merkle, Eds., Johnathan A. Campbell Jan 2020

Linguistics And New Testament Greek: Key Issues In The Current Debate [Review] / Black, David Alan, And Benjamin L. Merkle, Eds., Johnathan A. Campbell

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review


Der Brief An Die Römer [Review] / Wolter, Michael., Dominic Bornand Jan 2020

Der Brief An Die Römer [Review] / Wolter, Michael., Dominic Bornand

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review


The Necessity And Detriment Of Shame As Presented In John Calvin's Institutes, Tova Cohen Jan 2020

The Necessity And Detriment Of Shame As Presented In John Calvin's Institutes, Tova Cohen

Scripps Senior Theses

In this senior thesis, I aim to explore the presence of shame in John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, via the excavation of the three main components that comprise of his edifice: original sin, grace, and predestination. Through a close reading of Calvin's Institutes, its application to Aristotelian ethics, and its consistencies (or lack thereof) with the biblical story of Genesis, I found that Calvin's theology not only suffers logical structure, but implores the Christian practitioner to embrace shame as a means to spiritually elevate the self. To conclude, I utilize Stephanie Arel's Affect Theory to uncover the …


The Knowledge Of End-Time Prophetic Scriptures Prepares Believers At Northcliffe Baptist Church To Expect Religious Persecution, John C. Reddy Jan 2020

The Knowledge Of End-Time Prophetic Scriptures Prepares Believers At Northcliffe Baptist Church To Expect Religious Persecution, John C. Reddy

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The lack of knowledge about the end-time prophetic Scriptures and its inferences to Islamic eschatology appears to be a problem at Northcliffe Baptist Church. The purpose of this study is to raise awareness about the end-time Scriptures and prepare the congregants to expect persecution as normative in the Christian life. Islam is projected to overtake Christianity in a few decades and is proliferating at a rapid pace. The anti-parallel structure between Christian eschatology and Islamic eschatology is disconcerting. Islam denies Jesus’s divinity and advocates persecuting Christians if they do not convert to Islam. Suffering and persecution for the Lord are …


Assessing The Health Of An Established Urban Church To Develop A Strategic Plan For Growth, Alfonse Javed Jan 2020

Assessing The Health Of An Established Urban Church To Develop A Strategic Plan For Growth, Alfonse Javed

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The health of a church is solely dependent on the health of its leadership. The more the leadership becomes imitators of Christ (Ephesians 5:1-2), the more the church resembles the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). This work seeks to determine the kind of healthy church leadership, which generates a healthy church culture for multiplying disciples. The purpose of this study is to assess the health of an established urban church in midtown Manhattan, and to evaluate the perception that one large church is more effective than multiple churches in order to discover an evangelistic approach that may help this and …


Evil As Privation Justifying Restorative Justice, Josh Shrader-Perry Jan 2020

Evil As Privation Justifying Restorative Justice, Josh Shrader-Perry

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

No abstract provided.


Christian Bioethical Approaches To Gender Reassignment Surgery: Understanding Opposition And Retrieving The Body-Soul Complex, Stephanie Roy Jan 2020

Christian Bioethical Approaches To Gender Reassignment Surgery: Understanding Opposition And Retrieving The Body-Soul Complex, Stephanie Roy

Say Something Theological: The Student Journal of Theological Studies

No abstract provided.


Rational Creatures: Examining The Cat-Dog Divide In The Medieval World, Emily Price Jan 2020

Rational Creatures: Examining The Cat-Dog Divide In The Medieval World, Emily Price

Capstone Showcase

The spiritual chasm of status that exists between man and beast is daily put to the test by the very beasts kept in our homes. Human beings have a long history of keeping animals for one reason or another, but it has only been recently that the concept of animals purely maintained for companionship has taken center stage. The Middle Ages in particular served as a transformative moment in the history of the “pet,” where not only was the role of the animal within man’s existence re-examined, but so, too, were the specific animals preferred by different cultures more solidly …


Immigrants, The Bible, And You (Calvin Shorts), Amanda W. Benckhuysen Jan 2020

Immigrants, The Bible, And You (Calvin Shorts), Amanda W. Benckhuysen

Calvin Press

How does our Christian faith affect the way we think about immigration? What does the Bible say about immigrants that can help Christians respond faithfully to the current refugee and asylee crises? What does it look like to love our migrant neighbors? This book explores biblical perspectives on immigration in order to help Christians reflect theologically on issues related to immigration today.


The Roman Martyrs: Introduction, Translations, And Commentary [Review] / Lapidge, Michael., Rodrigo Galiza Jan 2020

The Roman Martyrs: Introduction, Translations, And Commentary [Review] / Lapidge, Michael., Rodrigo Galiza

Andrews University Seminary Studies (AUSS)

Book Review


Alvin Plantinga: Christian Philosophy As Apologetics, James K. Beilby Jan 2020

Alvin Plantinga: Christian Philosophy As Apologetics, James K. Beilby

Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Works

The History of Apologetics follows the great apologists in the history of the church to understand how they approached the task of apologetics in their own cultural and theological context. Each chapter looks at the life of a well-known apologist from history, unpacks their methodology, and details how they approached the task of defending the faith. By better understanding how apologetics has been done, readers will be better able to grasp the contextualized nature of apologetics and apply those insights to today's context. The History of Apologetics covers forty-four apologists including: Patristic apologists. Justin Martyr : prophetic revelation as the …


Music And Communal Division During The French Wars Of Religion, Cameron G. Wade Jan 2020

Music And Communal Division During The French Wars Of Religion, Cameron G. Wade

Honors Theses

This Senior Honors Thesis explores the social and cultural impact of confessional musical composition and performance on the French Wars of Religion (1562-1598). Because Huguenots and Catholics identified with and were widely identifiable by their respective musical styles, cultural divisions between each confession were emphasized by differences in music. This capacity of sacred and confessionally-influenced secular music to highlight and reinforce societal divides is evidenced by the interconfessional violence that accompanied the public performance of sacred music in cities as well as the pressures imposed on composers to create music which clearly aligned with their respective confessions. As the wars …


Mystical Yet Political: A Liberative Encounter With God Through Popular Piety, Wilson Angelo G. Espiritu Jan 2020

Mystical Yet Political: A Liberative Encounter With God Through Popular Piety, Wilson Angelo G. Espiritu

Theology Department Faculty Publications

Today, an increasing number of Catholics can be found in the countries of the Global South. This coincides with the pontificate of the first pope who comes from that region of the world where the prevalent expression of the Catholic faith is popular piety. Popular piety may be considered as an indispensable phenomenon in Global Catholicism. In his Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis refers to popular piety as ‘the people’s mysticism’ and calls it a ‘locus theologicus’ which demands attention especially in the contemporary Church’s mission of evangelization. This paper examines popular piety as a probable point of encounter …


Should We Be Just, Loving Or Both? Understanding The Relationship Of Justice And Love, Edwin B. Odulio Jan 2020

Should We Be Just, Loving Or Both? Understanding The Relationship Of Justice And Love, Edwin B. Odulio

Theology Department Faculty Publications

In this article, I argue that the relationship of justice and love can be seen and understood through the prophets’ message in the Old Testament and in Jesus’ manifestation and proclamation of the Kingdom of God. This relationship is continuously affirmed by the Church, in particular, through its Catholic social teachings. The love for God and God’s people is the essence of the human beings’ commitment to work for justice while living out justice is the concrete manifestation of humanity’s response to their loving relationship with God and one another.