This thesis uses the discourse analysis methods developed by T. Van Dijk and J. P. Gee to examine public debate over the Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in 2001 as it arose in testimony before the U. S. House of Representatives and related news articles published in the New York Times and Washington Post. In analyzing the language used in the congressional hearings and news articles printed between January 2001 and December 2004, Van Dijk‘s categories and related questions were methodologically combined with Gee‘s approach to provide a framework and method for analyzing the underlying discourse. While debate participants expressed strong beliefs in complex social ideals, many see America‘s social problems as intractable in nature, where key decisions about distributions of funds are based on political considerations, as opposed to merit or need.

These poems are lyrical narratives dealing primarily with the joys and sufferings of familial relationships in present and past generations, and how one is influenced and haunted by these interactions. There is a particular emphasis placed on the relationship between parent and child. Other poems deal with passion, both in the tangible and spiritual realms. The poems aim to use vivid figurative language to explore complex and sometimes distressing situations and emotions.

This study investigated the psychological experience of losing faith in God, within the context of fundamentalist Christianity. Nine former fundamentalist Christians were interviewed about their experience of losing faith. Data analysis was guided by principles of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (Smith, 2004), an inductive qualitative approach that identifies themes to generate a description of an experience's essence. Themes were classified into three domains (Experience of Christianity, Transition out of Christianity, and Experience of Unbelief). Participants' transition was characterized by emotional shifts (associated with a loss of trust in, or loyalty to, God) and intellectual shifts (associated with a loss of belief in God's existence). Two typologies of experience emerged within the Experience of Unbelief, one characterized by a sense of relief and the other by a sense of struggle. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of identity and attachment, and are used to generate recommendations for counselling practice.

Becoming an effective agent of development in the challenging and complex context of the development NGO in Sub-Saharan Africa necessitates prioritizing learning and adaptation. But NGOs are often not characterized by such a strong learning culture and commitment; and Christian NGOs are no exception. Reforming both the commitment to learning and the structures that support it is a pressing challenge facing Christian NGOs committed to being effective agents of development. Such reform requires careful analysis of the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, special consideration of the complex broader socio-political structure of the NGO world, and systematic research into understanding organizational dynamics that facilitate learning. Data from this research contributes to building an integrated learning model. Applying this model through a case study of specific Christian NGO—World Vision Burundi—leads to both identifying factors that undermine learning and proposing a set of recommendations that will help this NGO become a more effective learning organization.

The cultures of science and religion have had different levels of conflict throughout the past several hundred years due in part to the development of the theory of evolution. Although many ideas abound in science education as to the alleviation of this struggle, few studies have examined how scientists who profess religious beliefs deal with this conflict. In general, the study sought to understand the cognitive dynamic of the cultural interaction between the scientific and religious culture within a few individuals. Specifically, the study allowed scientists to explain how they found a measure of compatibility between their faith and their scientific endeavors. Within the boundaries of both the general and specific purposes for the study, the following research question was used: How do college science professors describe the interaction between their faith and their scientific knowledge in reference to their transitioning between a naturalistic or scientific understanding and a super-naturalistic or religious understanding? Three theoretical lenses were used as backdrop to view the cultural interaction. World View (Kearney, 1984), Collateral Learning Theory (Jegede, 1995), and Faith Perspective in relation to the Stages of Faith Theory (Fowler, 1981) constituted the theoretical framework. Because of the qualitative nature of the research, the author used a modified naturalistic paradigm that stressed an emergent quality, grounded categorical design, and a modified case study written format that aided in the understanding of data generated through multiple qualitative methods. Three overlapping themes emerged within the data that offer new insights not only into the complex nature of the conflict but also into the ways scientists themselves find a reason to have faith as well as scientific knowledge. Boundaries based upon a philosophical and world view difference, conflict due to culturally integrative ideas, and cultural bridges without distortion made up the overlapping thematic ideas that were consistently demonstrated by each participant. The insights demonstrated by this study may also enlighten the science education community to the importance of both culture and belief in reference to a meaningful learning experience in science.

As provision of social services is increasingly handled by the non-profit sector, specifically through faith-based organizations (FBO's), current scholarship has suggests that FBOs have the possibility to either reinforce neoliberal ideology or progress social justice. This study provides an examination of the shift in conceptions of justice for participants in the Mission Year program, an FBO program naming justice as a goal. For the participants, this experience creates a new understanding of the causes of poverty, injustice and American culture which I name 'justice as knowing.' This understanding culminated within participants a desire to “live out justice” as ‘intentional neighbors’ by relocating to a high-poverty neighborhood, reconciling racial relations by building relationships, and contributing to a redistribution of wealth by investing resources in a high-poverty neighborhood. I call this action ‘justice as doing.’ Participants shift from liberal-based notions justice, rooted in liberalism, toward more equity-based conceptions of justice as fairness.

Recognizing that Christians cannot adequately understand the mysteries of faith from a single vantage point, Catholic theologians have been keen on emphasizing the multidimensional nature of theological understanding since Vatican II. The advantage of such a method has helped believers to understand the rich, in-depth quality of Catholic faith.<br>One of the fields of theology which has not been discussed in the models approach, however, is apologetics&hibar;which includes as one of its aspects the art and science of defending the doctrines and practices of the Catholic Church. When all of the relevant passages in the documents of Vatican II are taken into consideration, a unique apologetical approach emerges that incorporates key advances as they emerged historically from the Church's apologists. Each of the individual apologetic systems from the past will be shown to have its own particular strengths and weaknesses. By way of contrast, I will argue that the best way to "make a defense for" the Gospel in a postconciliar church is to advance the integrated model of the Council. This integrated model of Catholic defense is called combinationalism. The interests and views of the apologists are proven to be complementary rather than competing.<br>This integrated model helps apologists and evangelists to recognize that although one approach might be needed in a certain context, it would be an egregious mistake to take that one system and use it as the exclusive means to reach persons situated within different circumstances and cultural contexts. This essay will not only exploit the different apologetic models in the post-Vatican II period, it will also serve as a serious work of apologetics in its own right by focusing on certain challenges as test cases to highlight the pertinence and livelihood of each model. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Theology / PhD; / Dissertation;

Modern societies are for the most part pluralistic in their compositions and world views. As such, we are given a variety of possibilities to embrace in our everyday lives and social interactions. The plethora of religious choice is a prime example of societal pluralism. John Hick is an eminent proponent of religious pluralism. His adoption of the religious pluralist stance arises from his experience and observations of various religions and their practices wherein he has noted similarities in the development of moral individuals in spite of vastly different and exclusive truth claims made by their religious systems. Hick, in a huge leap of faith, believes these similarities among such great differences must indicate a unitary source of revelation from a Transcendent Ultimate Reality to humankind sometime during the great Axial Age of human development more than two thousand years ago.<p> Religious pluralism, in its Hickean formulation, is a call for individuals to not only abandon their religions claims to exclusive truth about the Transcendent Ultimate Reality but also to reduce religious dogmas to their essential elements and modify them in order to preclude contradictory assertions that would exclude other religious systems. The benefits would be to reduce or eliminate religious intolerance and claims to superiority; incidents of religious violence should also be expected to decrease.<p> This thesis critically examines Hicks thesis and finds that religion has a greater role to play in individual lives than Hick acknowledges. For those with weakly held religious beliefs, the call to religious pluralism may find appeal. However, for those with strongly held religious views, operating within religious structures that serve their needs and eschatological hopes, the adoption of religious pluralism of the Hickean variety may cause them to abandon something that is working well for them without replacing it with something of equal benefit. In the final analysis, I find Hicks call to embrace religious pluralism to be unpersuasive since it is not in itself a religious system; it is, rather, a philosophical system which attempts to address the epistemological challenges associated with the myriad systems of faith and belief found within the great world religions.

Project (D. Min.)--Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University, 1986. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 339-346).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-105). Also available on the World Wide Web.