Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons^™

Review Of Robert Menzies And Craig Keener, Acts, Wsnt Commentary, Lora Angeline E. Timenia

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

A Review of Acts. Word and Spirit Commentary on the New Testament. Robert P. Menzies and Craig S. Keener. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2025. 368 pp. $29.99.

by Lora Angeline Timenia

Review Of Chinese Christian Witness By Xiaoli Yang And Daryl R. Ireland, Yi Qian

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

A Review of Xiaoli Yang and Daryl R. Ireland tackle this challenge in their book, Chinese Christian Witness: Identity, Creativity, Transmission and Poetics, by Yi Qian.

Review Of Alex Sosler, A Short Guide To Spiritual Formation: Finding Life In Truth, Goodness, Beauty, And Community, Katrina Krtek

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

A Review of A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation: Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community, by Alex Sosler. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024. 224 pp. $21.99.

by Katrina Krtek

The Machine In The Mirror: What An Ai-Created Religion Reveals About Spirit-Empowered Ministry, Todd J. Korpi

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

Spirit-empowered ministers face questions about how artificial intelligence is shaping the people they serve. Congregants may turn to chatbots for spiritual counsel, while pastors weigh the use of AI tools in their ministries. An unusual episode involving an AI-agent-created religion, the Church of Molt, offers an occasion to examine the development of generative AI and the Church’s responsibility in the face of it. This article adapts Paul Hiebert’s method of critical contextualization to examine the five tenets of this machine religion as a prophetic mirror for the Church. It exposes questions about memory, transformation, authority, attention, and belonging. Read in …

How Gen Z College Students Encounter The Holy Spirit, Daniel D. Isgrigg, Anna M. Marley

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article examines the experiences of the Holy Spirit among Generation Z college students at a Spirit-empowered university. The qualitative study documents and analyzes experiences and the language used to express them, with the goal of enhancing the understanding of pneumatology within Gen Z populations. Through an oral history archival project, the researchers collected 31 testimonies regarding Holy Spirit encounters. The testimonies were analyzed and coded to identify and evaluate trends in Holy Spirit experiences, contributing to research on Generation Z spirituality.

From Prayer To Proclamation: Re-Centering The Pneumatological Foundations Of Pastoral Speech In The Digital Age, Mario Hood

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This article argues that the contemporary crisis of Pentecostal preaching is fundamentally pneumatological before it is homiletical. Digital technology has not merely altered the methods of pastoral communication; it has restructured the very conditions in which pastoral authority is formed, exercised, and received. Drawing on Ray S. Anderson, Terry Cross, Truls Åkerlund, Daniel Tomberlin, and Amos Yong—alongside insights from the author’s own paracletic leadership framework— this article proposes a constructive response to the mediatization of preaching. If prayer forms the pastor, proclamation participates in Christ’s ongoing paracletic work, and discernment shapes the community’s reception of divine address, then the pastoral …

Editorial: Encouraging Discourse Between The Academy And The Church, Daniel D. Isgrigg

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

This editorial discusses the discourse between the Academy and the Church enabled by Spiritus.

Full Issue Spiritus 11, No. 2 (Fall 2026), [email protected]

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

The full issue of Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology (Fall 2026).

Front Matter Spiritus 11, No. 2 (Fall 2026), [email protected]

Spiritus: ORU Journal of Theology

No abstract provided.

Piercing The Veil In Sinners: Theological Insights From The Juke Joint, Antonio D. Sison Cpps

Journal of Religion & Film

Celebrated as a critical and commercial success, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying opus Sinners has also been considered as one of the most culturally significant films of 2025. It also promises to be one of the most theologically resonant films of the year. This is evinced not only in its thematic and literary bases but, importantly, in its very audiovisual language and grammar, its stylistic strategies qua film. As reasoned in this essay, Coogler’s film is a rich locus theologicus, a nexus for theological discovery and insight.Sinners kindles the hermeneutical impulse to dialogue with African American/Pan-Africa theologies exemplified by the …

From Source And Summit To Parish Practice: A Qualitative Analysis Of Eucharist And Social Outreach, Erik Sorensen S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

A small-scale qualitative study in a Catholic parish situated in Ottawa, Canada, offers insights into the complex relationship between that community's worship and its commitment to social justice. This article brings the lived theology of this community into dialogue with the academic and magisterial perspectives on the Eucharist as the source and summit of Christian life. The dialogue is framed by the Theological Action Research Network's four voices of theology: operant, espoused, formal, and normative. This framework helps to center the marginalized theology of the faithful in the pews. In this case, the parish offered a dynamic theology of welcome …

“Ite Missa Est”: How Can The Altar Alter Attitudes And Actions?, Ebenezer Akesseh

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper brings into focus the relationship between personal agency and so-

cial structure, demonstrating that what we celebrate on the altar forms within

us the proper dispositions that can help prevent the occurrence of corruption.

The first part examines corruption from a socio-cultural perspective and ex-

plains the incidence and effects of corruption. The second part discusses the

relationship between worship and the formation of actions and attitudes. It

highlights the need to embody the social implications of our celebrations. Using

responses from interviewees, the third part illustrates that the celebration of the

Eucharist shapes the commitments and conduct …

The Lived Liturgical Experience Of Non-Catholic Participants In The Roman Catholic Mass: Tactical Ecumenism In Overlapping Ritual Systems, Sarah Kathleen Johnson

Journal of Global Catholicism

In religiously diverse social contexts, liturgical practices anchored in one reli-

gious tradition often gather diverse communities. In such contexts, it is wise to

assume that people who are not Catholic may be present at any Roman Cath-

olic Mass. This article explores the lived liturgical experience of non-Catholic

Christians who participate routinely in the Roman Catholic Mass through a

mixed-methods study of a religiously diverse treble vocal ensemble that sings

weekly at Mass on a Catholic university campus. It describes how Catholic and

non-Catholic Christian singers interpret practices surrounding the eucharistic

meal in contrasting ways: non-Catholic Christians experience the …

La Santa Muerte And The Characteristic Damage Of Canonization, Ellen Webber

Journal of Global Catholicism

Devotion to La Santa Muerte, a Mexican folk saint who personifies Death, has

been condemned by the Catholic Church for its affiliation with Mexican drug

cartels. This article challenges mainstream interpretations of La Santa Muerte

devotion using the theological framework of characteristic damage, as defined

by Lauren Winner and Paul J. Griffiths. This framework understands liturgy

as celebrated by sinners in a damaged world, and therefore necessarily damaged

itself. As much as liturgy and Christian practice form us for good, they also per-

petuate damage. I argue that the sins present in La Santa Muerte veneration are

an expression of …

Negotiating Plurality: Korean Catholic Funerals As Lived Religion, Jieun Han

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines Korean Catholic funeral rites through the lenses of ritual

guidebooks and lived religion, arguing that Catholic funerary practice in Korea

has emerged through sustained engagement with Confucian and Buddhist tradi-

tions as well as modern nationalism. Focusing on Catholic manuals such as the

Sangjang yesik [Rites for Mourning and Funerals] and related texts, it traces how

officially sanctioned liturgical forms coexist with, accommodate, and reinterpret

indigenous ritual logics surrounding mourning, burial, ancestor veneration, and

care for the dead. Rather than viewing Korean Catholic funerals as a simple

localization of Roman rites, the article conceptualizes them as a …

Editor's Introduction, Brent H. Otto S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Basic Trends In The Contemporary Development Of State-Church Relations In Ukraine: A Sociological Perspective, Oleksandr Sagan, Galyna Sagan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Based on an analysis of research from sociological centers and institutes consistently operating in Ukraine, the authors present a comprehensive overview of the main trends occurring within the realm of state-church and inter-church relations. Specifically, the article addresses the trends in the self-identification of Orthodox believers in Ukraine, the dynamics of which sociologists have tracked since the beginning of the twenty-first century, as well as the changes unfolding in inter-Orthodox relations following the 2022 full-scale invasion. Crucial to this analysis is the highlighted inconsistency of state institutions in implementing the new law, Про захист конституційного ладу у сфері діяльності релігійних …

Volume 9 (2026) Climate And Responsibility

International Journal on Responsibility

This issue focuses on the various ways responsibility affects environmental justice. Specifically, this volume urges us to think about how societal and individual (in)action influences ecological crises and what informs this behavior, with a specific focus on religious and Indigenous beliefs and values.

And There Was Battle In Heaven: Angels, Demons And Depictions Of Good And Evil In The Avesta And 1 Enoch, Christopher Brent Ghan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Zoroastrian texts of the Avesta and the Second Temple era apocalyptic text of 1 Enoch represent two of the world’s most enduring and influential articulations of the concepts of good and evil forces in monotheistic religious contexts. This dissertation applies Bruce Lincoln’s theory of weak comparison to compare the depictions of good and evil intermediate beings – angels, fallen angels and Nephilim in 1 Enoch and yazatas and daevas in the Avesta – to explore how both of these corpuses use these beings to address questions of evil while maintaining their monotheistic natures, and to define and explore their …

Witchcraft Dialogues : Anthropological And Philosophical Exchanges, George Clement Bond, Diane M. Ciekawy

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Witchcraft Dialogues analyzes the complex manner in which human beings construct, experience, and think about the occult. It brings together anthropologists, philosophers, and sociologists, from diverse social and cultural backgrounds, to engage the metaphysical properties of witchcraft and sorcery and to explore their manifestations in people’s lived experiences.

While many Africanist scholars shun the analysis of witchcraft as an appropriate domain of investigation, the experiences, thoughts, activities, and powers that witchcraft encompasses have become increasingly the source of interest and debate. Concepts of witchcraft and the phenomena to which they are applied express something fundamental to the human condition and …