abstract: This thesis is a translation and analysis of the “Epitaph of the Wu Kingdom Transcendent Duke Ge of the Left Palace of the Grand Bourne” (Epitaph below). The author was Tao Hongjing (456 CE-536 CE). The subject of this Epitaph inscribed on a stele was Ge Xuan (trad. 164 CE-244 CE). Ge Xuan had two titles attributed to him by later Daoists. According to the Lingbao scriptures, Ge was appointed by the Perfected of Grand Bourne, a heavenly title. Later, in the Shangqing scriptures, Ge Xuan was said to be an earthly transcendent without any heavenly appointment. This debate occurred before Tao Hongjing began to write. This stele epitaph is essential, as it records sayings from both Lingbao and Shangqing scriptures. By reading this translated epitaph, scholars can know more about different versions of Ge Xuan's legend, as well as how Ge Xuan's legend was constantly rewritten by later Daoists. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Religious Studies 2020

Frontier Internship in Mission (FIM) was an experimental mission project conceived of and run by Presbyterian Student World Relations director Margaret Flory between 1961 and 1974. It was broadly ecumenical in concept and execution and closely tied to the World Student Christian Federation community. Recent college or seminary graduates were assigned to live and work with local people who were connected in some way to the global ecumenical network and who had invited them. They worked on projects mutually agreed upon, usually for two years. One hundred fourteen of the 140 Americans who originally participated and eight of the original 20 international participants were interviewed for this study. Their narratives about their life histories and experience during and after these international partnerships offer an intimate look at one group of largely mainline Protestant Americans born in the 1930s and 1940s, and the social and religious institutions that were their avenues to engagement with the wider world at a time of cataclysmic change. Over the thirteen years of FIM program operation considered here, conditions in the forty-eight different countries where Frontier Interns (FIs) served were transformed by movements for independence and by escalating covert and overt American intrusions. The core of this dissertation presents regionally-organized internship case studies highlighting the impact of those encounters on the FI’s Christian and American identities . It also analyzes the rejection of their witness when they returned home. Moving forward with their lives, Frontier Interns reaffirmed their commitment to “right relations” of mutual respect across difference and most often gravitated to social roles as bridge-builders and interpreters, domestically and internationally. The strong internal opposition to global ecumenism that had developed in some mainline Protestant churches changed the relationship of many FIs to those churches. It is argued here that the Frontier Interns’ experience highlights a societal shift from a moral order based on covenant or social contract to one that privileged the unrestrained exercise of power and interests. A covenantal commitment to mutual global partnerships is central to who the FIs are, their internships, and what they did with their lives subsequently.

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This dissertation examines the life and work of Charles Ewing Brown (1883-1971), an influential twentieth-century leader of the Church of God (Anderson, IN). During his editorship of the Gospel Trumpet from 1930 to 1951, Brown reinterpreted Christian doctrine in ways that often challenged predominant evangelical and fundamentalist theologies of the mid-twentieth century. Although often associated with theological developments in the nineteenth century, the holiness movement impacted the twentieth century in significant ways, concurrent with the contributions of pentecostalism and neo-evangelicalism. In the late 1950s, a prominent mainline leader heralded the rise of the “Third Force in Christendom,” which prioritized an experiential and primitivist faith that was not encapsulated in Roman Catholicism or historical Protestantism. Despite the presence of holiness groups like the Church of God in the Third Force, prevailing historical narratives of the mid-twentieth century have prioritized the importance of the Reformed fundamentalist tradition associated with Baptists and Presbyterians. In contrast, Brown’s holiness fundamentalism rejected the premillennialism and cultural separatism that prevail in most historians’ depiction of the tradition. Overall, Brown complicates how historians have understood terms such as fundamentalist and evangelical. This work offers a nuanced historical account by showing how a significant holiness leader inherited and modified the beliefs and practices of formative traditions. Through a survey of monographs, editorials, and addresses, this dissertation foregrounds the foundations and implications of Brown’s claim of being an evangelical and a fundamentalist. It begins with a biographical chapter and successive chapters explore how Brown’s outlook informed his view of revivalism and doctrine, his ecclesiology, his critique of premillennialism, his articulation of the social dimensions of Christianity, and his socio-political commentary. The conclusion contextualizes Brown and analyzes his historiographical significance. For Brown, the evangelical and fundamentalist disposition was primarily communal, and the prevailing trend toward hyper-individualism and separation deeply concerned him. By challenging the assumptions about the conservative nature of evangelicalism and the epistemological foundation of fundamentalism, this study offers an initial foray into how holiness groups shaped the contours of twentieth-century American Christianity. It reveals Brown’s continuity with nineteenth-century evangelical social reform efforts and with late twentieth-century progressive evangelicals.

This dissertation is a historical and missiological study of the concept of the child in North American holiness and pentecostal mission discourse between 1897 and 1929. Despite official prioritization of evangelistic preaching, new holiness and pentecostal mission movements devoted much of their energies to starting schools and opening homes for children in need. Growing widespread interest in studying and protecting children encouraged child-focused activity. At the same time, an evangelical spirituality that emphasized childlike trust in God helped to sustain mission work with children. The study analyzes narratives found in denominational and mission periodicals as well as other missionary writings to uncover the voices and actions of mission practitioners. In early holiness and pentecostal mission movements, publications enabled the exchange of stories, ideas, and funds. This exchange spread the idea of living by childlike faith, provided resources for raising children in Christian faith, and supported and built children’s homes. Child-centered discourse thus propelled the spread of holiness and pentecostal meta-cultures that formed the next generation of the movements. Chapters 1 and 2 show the links between holiness and pentecostal mission and earlier evangelical movements. Chapter 1 argues that the child has been central to historical evangelical identity, spirituality, and mission. Chapter 2 identifies changing understandings of the child and approaches to mission that accompanied changes in evangelical identity. These developments contributed to the proliferation of mission discourse on the child during the period of this study. Chapter 3 shows how holiness and pentecostal missionaries, such as Albert Norton, looked to God as a good father who met their needs. Missionaries’ response to a benevolent father was called “living by faith,” and it shaped their approach to mission with children. Chapter 4 examines how members of North American Wesleyan holiness groups, the Free Methodists, Wesleyan Methodists, and Nazarenes, pursued a mission of rescuing and raising children in Christian faith around the world. Chapter 5 explores how pentecostals, such as Leslie and Ava Anglin and Lillian Trasher, set up homes for needy children in various global locations and contributed to the formation of pentecostal childhoods. This dissertation argues that holiness and pentecostal efforts to care for and train children helped to form global evangelical movements. It contributes to the history of mission, sheds light on how and why these movements spread, and provides a historical link to popular practices of twentieth-century child sponsorship. The study concludes by highlighting the role that narratives and the concept of the child played in shaping evangelicalism.

The thesis The Parish Community at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Prague in the Years 1950-1990 describes, as the title advises , about the history of theParish Community during the communist era. Studied Both the history of the church itself, and that of spiritual administration, Pastoral Care and Priestley House, which was established after the expulsion of the Jesuits in their residence, are investigated in the thesis. The aim of this work is to digest the history clearlyorganize and and hereby to fill the gap in the history of this place, because during the communist era the records on activities and events in the parish were not kept systematically. records about the events in the parish. Keywords Jesuits, Religious, History, Pastoral Care, Priestley House, Ignatius

The thesis The Parish Community at the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Prague in the Years 1950-1990 describes, as the title suggests, the history of the Parish Community during the communist era. Both the history of the church itself and that of spiritual administration, Pastoral Care, and Priestley House, which was established after the expulsion of the Jesuits from their residence, are investigated in the thesis. The aim of this work is to fully comprehend and meticulously organize the sources of information and therefore fill the gap in the history of this place, for the records of activities and events in the parish were not kept systematically during the communist era.

abstract: On the Antichrist (CPG 3946) is an eschatological sermon historically attributed to Efrem the Syrian. Composed in Koine Greek, On the Antichrist is not an authentic Efremic sermon but is attributed to the construct Greek Efrem, often called in the literature ‘Ephraem Graecus’. Sometime around the 12th century, Slavic Christians translated the work into Old Church Slavonic. As its goal, this study employs On the Antichrist to investigate how religions (e.g. Christianity) employ religio-cultural constructs and either refine, or redefine, them for new audiences and circumstances. To accomplish this, the author transcribes and translates one of the most important manuscript witnesses of this sermon (labelled Ov1), translates it, compares it with other early witnesses, and analyzes the differences between the Greek and OCS versions of the text in order to ascertain the variations in the versions and to posit why such variations might have arisen in the transmission of this sermon. Finally, the critical edition is interrogated to propose a date of the autographic text-form of On the Antichrist to the 6th to 8th centuries. This dissertation finds that multiple recensions of the sermon evolved from the earliest recension, the A Recension. The Old Church Slavonic recension of On the Antichrist falls squarely within the A Recension and seems to share a common ancestral tradition with the other A Recension manuscripts and help to reconstruct the early history of On the Antichrist. Thus, this dissertation provides one necessary step in preparation for the difficult task of preparing a critical edition of this sermon. The sermon draws heavily upon 2 Thessalonians 2 and the Little Apocalypse. Two manuscripts overtly indicate multiple meters for the sermon, but two others only hint at such divisions, and the nature of the meters (Aramaic or Byzantine) is uncertain. The sermon itself references no datable historical events. The Greek of the sermon analyzing to a Late Koine/Early Byzantine cusp language datable to between the 6th to 8th centuries. For all the uncertainties and puzzles this sermon presents, the evidence clearly points to at least one conclusion: Efrem the Syrian (d.373) cannot have authored this work, and there is no way currently to ascertain the author. Finally, this dissertation adduces an argument that Byzantine and Slavic Christians preserved On the Antichrist because of its emphasis upon humility and penitence, which allowed for the sermon to be incorporated into Orthodox liturgy by the 10th century. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Religious Studies 2019

Purpose. Brigham Young is best remembered for his role in the colonization of the American West and as a religious leader. He was also involved with the creation of schools and the development of an educational system in Utah. The purpose of this study was to examine Brigham Young as an educational administrator and to explore Young's administrative style. The study was also to investigate the school system established during Young's administration and evaluate him as a school leader. Procedure. A working hypothesis and questions to consider were developed through preliminary research. Information, including much primary material, was then collected and examined with the hypothesis in mind. Sources were scrutinized for biases and analyzed to determine probable causes and effects of Young's decisions and of the events that occurred. After the materials were gathered and critically evaluated, questions weighed, and hypotheses established, the findings were interpreted and reported. Findings. Brigham Young cannot, by common standards, be considered an educational administrator. What Young attempted to do for education he did through his influence as Mormon Church President and as the first Territorial Governor of Utah. Young's administrative style was that of a servant-leader, with education as part of his stewardship. Although Young opposed public education, much was done in Utah during his era to build schools and create a program for education. Conclusions and recommendations. Young championed the building of schools and stressed the importance of education in the lives of young and old. Despite his opposition to a public school system, the people of Utah received more opportunity for education and the state was better prepared to receive public schooling because of Young's influence in the Utah Territory. A study might be done to determine how many of the Mormon schools became state-owned public schools. Other related topics that could prove interesting or valuable are examinations of the curriculum and values taught in Mormon schools and a study of how many Mormons were enrolled in non-Mormon schools and vice versa.