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"Gospel According To Bristol: The Life, Ministry, and Ministry of Ernest Phipps" is the first biographical and critical writing on the Kentucky Holiness preacher and Bristol Sessions recording artist. With information gathered from interviews with his surviving family members, court documents, and public records, this thesis paints the most complete picture of the life of Ernest Phipps (1900-1963) possible. Phipps is known for the company he keeps in the line-up of mountain musicians, including Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, that came to Bristol, Tennessee to record for Ralph Peer in 1927, but Phipps's music is discussed here on its own merit as a forerunner of modern Southern Gospel music. This thesis also argues that a 1930 Vocalion record by the Kentucky Holiness Singers is the last record Ernest Phipps made.

In Spring 2007, the University of Central Florida (UCF) Department of Theatre mounted a production of "The Rocky Horror Show." This thesis focuses on the author's process of using the gospel music style to revitalize "The Rocky Horror Show," a cult musical. The author uses defining characteristics of the cult film genre to establish a set of guidelines. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is the movie version of the stage musical and is responsible for the show's inevitable cult status. He discusses the history and journey of "The Rocky Horror Show" and how audience participation was integral in establishing this landmark musical. The reader observes the process used in rearranging "The Rocky Horror Show" score from start to finish and recordings used as influence throughout. Although this is a discussion of a musical process, this portion of the document is written in terms for all to understand, and a glossary of terms is provided for those that are unsure of certain vocabulary. With a show that is well established, one must be careful when making stylistic changes. The author took this into consideration when arranging the score and rationalizes through a discussion of gospel music history, key gospel elements apparent throughout the score, and how the essence of Richard O'Brien's music remains intact.

Since the Greek phrase ἐγώ εἰµι has been used as a form of the divine name by God to reveal himself in the Septuagint, biblical scholars generally acknowledge that the appropriate interpretation of this phrase is important for understanding John’s unique presentation of Jesus. However, scholars have not reached a consensus on the interpretation of Johannine “I am” and there are several problems with contemporary interpretive works. First, the extant studies rely heavily on the background of the “I am” phrase and draw their conclusions almost on the basis of diachronic data only. Consequently, the significance of this phrase in the Gospel of John itself has not been fully understood. Second, the linguistic features that are actually essential for the appropriate interpretation of this particular linguistic structure have not been fully assessed in current biblical scholarship. Third, the existing research normally interprets the “I am” phrases individually but fails to explore the relationship between these uses. In the Gospel of John, the Greek phrase ἐγώ εἰµι and its variants occur in Jesus’ utterances in thirty-one verses, namely John 4:26; 6:20, 35, 41, 48, 51; 7:34, 36; 8:12, 18, 23, 24, 28, 58; 10:7, 9, 11, 14; 11:25; 12:26; 13:19; 14:3, 6; 15:1, 5; 17:14, 16, 24; 18:5, 6, 8. This study conducts a discourse analysis based on the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to interpret these thirty-one occurrences of “I am” in Jesus’ utterances, concentrating on their interpretation and significance within the Johannine context. This new methodological framework can analyze the linguistic features of the New Testament text and may offer new insights into the current research of Johannine “I am” in most regards. Examining the function of this phrase through a functional-semantic analysis and a rhetorical-relational analysis, this study argues that the thirty-one occurrences of “I am” in Jesus’ utterances throughout the Gospel of John reinforce John’s portrayal of Jesus’ divinity. According to John’s construing of Jesus’ divinity, this study demonstrates how Johannine Christology is expressed through the narrative of John’s Gospel with various textual characteristics.

Religious diversity largely defines the present religious situation; comparative theology adaptively responds to this situation by comparing influential theological hypotheses from different contexts and developing theological hypotheses from that inquiry. The popularity and sophistication of the Bhagavad-Gītā and Fourth Gospel make these scriptures excellent comparative candidates. This dissertation situates these scriptures, interprets them, compares them, and constructs a philosophical theology from the comparison. Part I follows J.A.B. van Buitenen, Angelika Malinar, and Emily Hudson by situating the Bhagavad-Gītā in its original epic context, the Mahābhārata, and philosophical context: Sāṅkhya and Vedānta darśanas. It follows Robert Hill and George MacRae by situating “John” against its dual first-century backgrounds: Judaism and Hellenism. Part II provides an original interpretation of the scriptures. With Śaṅkara, Abhinavagupta, and Hudson, the dissertation interprets the Bhagavad-Gītā as reorienting Arjuna to see the subtlety of karma and dharma and to realize non-duality with Kṛṣṇa/Ātman/Brahman in the devotee’s heart. With Bultmann, Eckhart, Hill, and Neville, the dissertation interprets John as anti-gnostically affirming the cosmos as God’s Logos expression, which elicits love as the appropriate response to the Logos. Part III compares the scriptures in respect to ultimate reality and human existence, the main comparative categories. Ultimate reality comprises four subcategories: (1) cosmic scope and nature, (2) cosmological metaphysics, (3) ontology, and (4) avatāra/incarnation. Despite notable differences, both scriptures emphasize the non- duality of the cosmos with its indeterminate (nirguṇa/ἀόρατος) ontological ground. Existence comprises four subcategories: obligation, comportment, engagement, and life’s meaning. Realizing nonduality with Brahman, seeing everything as the expression of the Logos, provides ecstatic freedom, and the courage to be. Part IV develops a philosophical theology from the comparison. Einstein’s relativity theories weigh the probability that the cosmos pulsates or dies. Evolutionary theory shows that consciousness emerges as an adaptation to environments, not environments for consciousness’s pleasure. After distinguishing physical cosmology from cosmological metaphysics, the dissertation dialectically argues that the cosmos is real, but contingent on the ontological one, which is indeterminate (empty/nothing) apart from its shining forth in the cosmological many. Although this theological hypothesis requires greater breadth for stabilization, it remains tentatively viable for today’s religious situation. / 2024-09-06T00:00:00Z

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This paper explores the crucial role of language in understanding the spiritual lives of young people today, commonly known as “Gen Z.” Though significant disaffiliation rates among young people often cause alarm within faith communities, this paper argues that listening carefully to the language of young people provides a more nuanced, in-depth picture that statistics on religious affiliation do not capture, which is critical in developing effective pastoral care for young adults. This paper opens with a sociocultural approach to Gen Z, drawing upon generational analysis and sociological data to demonstrate how different types of research yield varied results in their findings on young people’s spiritual lives. The exploration section is followed by a Christian perspective on finding faith in unexpected voices through exegesis of Matthew 15:21-28. This portion of the paper argues that, when we encounter people whose worldview differs from our own, language is integral to challenging and transforming our viewpoint. As a response to this matter of taking young people’s spiritual language seriously, the final part of this paper proposes a listening session for teens and their families in the context of a high school Confirmation program. Ultimately, the goal of this paper is to emphasize the rich interior lives that are already active in young people, even if on paper they may describe themselves as unaffiliated, and that the best way to become part of those ongoing spiritual journeys is through a pastoral ministry that is grounded in accompaniment and listening.

Four oracles appear in Jeremiah 21:11-23:8 detailing the failure and future of the final kings in Judah, also known as the King Collection. The final oracle against Jehoiachin (he also appears with the names Coniah / Jeconiah) precedes the announcement of the unnamed new Davidide, the Branch. The oracle against Jehoiachin appears to be unique, involving no stipulations of covenant wrongdoing, a feature of Deuteronomistic criticism of the kingship since Solomon. He is one of the most unremarkable kings in Israelite history. Yet, he is the concluding figure in both the Greek (Septuagint or LXX) and Hebrew (Masoretic Text or MT) versions of Jeremiah's King Collection, a significant change from the accounts in Kings and Chronicles. He occupies an important place in Josephus's attempts to sketch the ideal Israelite king, respectful of Roman rule. He is important to the rabbis in developing an atonement theory of the exile. In the New Testament, he appears in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, while the other kings from the King Collection disappear. The Epistle to the Hebrews may adopt similar ideas in developing the analogy of Melchizedek, another insignificant king in Israel's history, as a precursor to Jesus. Ideas developed from the flow of the oracle in the text of Jeremiah, shaped by the polemics of exile, appear in the Acts of the Apostles' casting of Jesus' spiritual kingship on the world's stage. Precritical Jewish and Christian exegesis adopted a harmonizing approach to the oracle, importing reasons from the Deuteronomistic History and the Chronicler for its harsh judgment. Yet discussion of the oracle and its significance in the construction of the figure of Jehoiachin in Jeremiah has all but disappeared from critical scholarship following the groundbreaking work of Bernhard Duhm. Early critical scholarship, while correcting many of the mistakes of precritical exegetes, followed the new Protestant confessionalism of the 19th century. Michel Foucault locates the loss of the theology of the cross as this decisive turn in interpretive methodology. This turn caused modern Protestant interpreters, who are mainly responsible for the foundations of modern critical studies in Jeremiah, to devalue disempowered kings in Israel's history, one of the most important hermeneutical categories in classical Jewish literature, according to Yair Lorberbaum. Thus, Bernhard Duhm, and later scholarship that builds on his work, missed the significance of this oracle in the textual function of the book of Jeremiah and its polemical significance in the debates between post-exile groups of Judeans. Gerhard von Rad, in his revision of Martin Noth's theory of the Deuteronomistic History, saw the importance of Jehoiachin as a source of hope for a renewed Israel. Jack Lundbom most recently observed the development of an oracular frame moving from the center outward in which the oracle against Jehoiachin appears. Yet, to date, little work has appeared on the way the canonical form of Jeremiah frames Jehoiachin and its effect on Jeremiah's end to the DtrH. To make sense of it, we must account for what appears to be an unfulfilled prophecy in Jeremiah 22, as recorded by Jehoiachin's treatment in Jeremiah 52 where, against the expectation of the oracle, the Jewish king again appears on the world stage. Mark Roncace has written extensively on how this type of prophecy functions in the book of Jeremiah. Speech-act theory, as proposed originally by J. L. Austin, and refined by his protégé, John Searle, provides further insight into this issue. Building on the scholarship of von Rad, Lundbom, Mark Leuchter and several other scholars of the sociopolitical forces in the production of biblical texts in exile, we will reconstruct the remarkably adaptable prophetic frame developed in exile around Jehoiachin and his oracle, which set the stage for a return of a Jewish king to the world stage. / Religion

Public administration literature lacks richness and context regarding the moral history of the founding of the field in the early 1900s. As a result, current calls for "recapturing the soul" of public administration have failed to stimulate a theory-or even a working understanding-of how to "rehydrate" the observed desiccation of public life and revivify the concept of the public interest. In correcting the historical record, this dissertation shows that the "soul" of public administration stemmed from the field's deep roots in the social gospel movement of the early 20th century. For that short period, the nascent field was not viewed as a bastardization of constitutional order, but as a noble endeavor in which beloved sons and daughters participated in their nation's governance. As a representative character of that era, Charles M. Sheldon serves as an exemplar of a citizen administrator whose sojourn into the public square was characterized by deep faith, empathy for the common person and commitment to action-regardless of the personal cost. His optimism, innovation and creativity stand in sharp relief to today's dispirited and over-regulated public work force. Sheldon's best-selling book, In His Steps (1896), stands as a pre-modern parable for moral decision-making in a dynamic and uncertain postmodern environment. In allowing for uncertainty, discourse and experimentation, the book's operative question, "What would Jesus do?" enriches our understanding of normative theory as process. It also offers back the field's lost "soul" in the way of submission, empathy, covenant, grace and hope. / Ph. D.