This study sought answers to two major questions regarding the Book of Mormon prophets: first, did a prophet's unique personality cause him to be significantly qualified and effective in coping with the problems of his ministry; and second, were a prophet's teachings directly relevant to his problems, assisting him to be effective in fulfilling his assignments. Six minor hypotheses were used to gather data regarding the four representative prophets chosen: Lehi, Nephi, Alma the Younger, and Mormon. The teachings studied were limited to those which reached the ears of a prophet's contemporaries, and were further limited to those which were clearly emphasized in at least one verse. The minor hypotheses yielded abundant and clear evidence showing that in all but one problem (one in Lehi's life) the prophets were qualified and effective in meeting their problems. The evidence also demonstrated that all of the teachings which were studied were directly relevant and supportive in solving the given problems.

Even though home teaching is not unique with the Mormons, its present methods and utilization are unlike the teaching practices used by other churches. The purpose of this thesis is to study Mormon attempts to establish effective home teaching practices within their Church during the nineteenth century.

This thesis explores Mormon women's experiences with death as revealed in their personal writings from 1847-1900. The study includes an examination of women's involvement in caring for the sick and tending to the dead, as well as an exploration of women's personal reactions to death. A careful reading of Mormon women's writings from this period reveals that Mormonism equipped believers with powerful doctrines and rituals which helped women cope with the sorrow and profound grief that accompanied the deaths of those they loved. In addition, members living in Mormon communities rendered invaluable physical, emotional, and spiritual support to each other as they cared for the sick and dying, prepared the dead for burial, and dealt with the lingering sense of loss brought on by death. Significantly, special community-sanctioned customs and traditions associated with illness and death provided solace in difficult times.

In laying a general foundation for this study, a brief survey of language, its origin and use by man, and its basic levels of structuring, will be presented. Patterns generated through language structuring and the inherent value of structure in language to convey meaning or esthetic qualities will also be considered. Finally, basic implications of patterns incorporated into language will be presented.

For religious couples, the spiritual domain stands alongside the biological, psychological, and systemic domains as an influence upon interaction and mechanism for change. This study is a quantitative expansion of Butler, Gardner, and Bird's (1998) qualitative study, of the change dynamics of prayer. This study attempted to improve the generalizability of the Butler et al. (1998) study through its use of a larger, and religiously and geographically more diverse sample. This study investigated the effects of prayer during times of marital conflict through a quantitative methodology with a survey design. The researchers developed a survey based on the findings of the Butler et al. (1998) study, regarding the effects of prayer on couple conflict. The data on over 90 Christian religious couples was statistically analyzed to determine the reliability of the Prayer Conflict II instrument and to further confirm the Butler et al. (1998) findings. Findings indicated that prayer invokes a couple-God system which significantly influences couple interaction during conflict. Overall, prayer appears to be a significant "softening" event for religious couples, facilitating reconciliation and problem solving. Prayer 1) invokes an experience of relationship with Deity, 2) de-escalates hostile emotions and reduces emotional reactivity, 3) enhances relationship and partner orientation and behavior, 4) facilitates empathy and unbiased perspective, 5) increases self-change focus, and 6) encourages couple responsibility for reconciliation and problem solving. Therapists' support of religious couples' use of prayer as a change mechanism is considered.

<p>This document is missing page 162. </p> / <p>The prime purpose of the thesis is the assessment of the development of Christian theological education in the context of historico-ideological changes after the disintegration of Marxist hegemony in Eastern Europe with the objective of developing and proposing a model of good theological education for a concrete setting, - a model which may be adaptable in other countries with similar conditions.</p> <p>The thesis delineates with a concise history of Christian theological education and the different methods and models of education have been used and developed. Eleven distinct models of theological education are identified and analyzed.</p> <p>A chapter deals with present status of theological education in Post-Marxist countries. It outlines the historical background of Evangelical Theological Education in Baltic states and the neighboring countries - Russia and Poland. In these countries theological education has been for decades interrupted and hindered by atheistic governments. There follows an analytical survey on the present status of theological education in these countries based on data supplied by twenty three representative institutions of theological education in Eastern Europe. The results are compared with two institutions of Western Europe. The survey includes a variety of pertinent topics, such as the dynamics of founding schools, the general profile of schools, analysis of the student body, economics, governance, faculty, libraries, and course offerings.</p> <p>A substantial chapter is devoted to elaborating the concept of a good theological school in Eastern Europe. The need for a solid philosophical foundation is emphasized. Attention is directed to practical dimensions, such as a balanced course of study; human, financial, and information resources; administration and governance. The section closes with the description of applicable methods for the teaching/learning process, incorporating some innovative approaches.</p> <p>The concluding chapter delineates a proposed model for the Latvian setting, integrating programs for students of specialized streams of study: theological and pastoral, youth and children, evangelism and mission, Christian social ministry, Christian writing and translation.</p> <p>The thesis is written from a Baptist perspective, yet it is Evangelical in its content and, as such, embodies issues pertinent to theological education of related denominations.</p> / Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

<p>One's conception of human personhood deeply impacts one's understanding and practice of community. Contemporary culture lacks precision and agreement in defining the human person. Such ·anthropological agnosticism· also affects the church. leading to devastating consequences concerning its inner sociality. cultural engagement, and pursuit of justice. This dissertation argues that a significant step forward is to gain a better understanding of theological anthropology and apply it consistently to ecclesiology. Specifically. a theological understanding of the human person as a relational. rational. and eschatological creature leads to a conception of the church as relational. rational, and eschatological communities of the new humanity. This approach overcomes problematic dualisms and false dichotomies presently plaguing the church's inner life and outward mission, in part by accentuating the ethical dimension that pervades its whole existence. Primary conversation partners include Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Miroslav Volf. and Stanley Grenz. Alasdair Macintyre and Wolthart Pannenberg are also influential.</p> <p>Part I consists of two chapters. Chapter one explores the difficulties of defining the human person in contemporary culture and the resulting consequences for community and ethics. Chapter two analyzes six typological ways of construing community based IV upon conflicting views of the human person. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of each, concluding that none is fully satisfying theologically. Part II (chapters 3-5) constructs a theological anthropology in trinitarian perspective. It presents a threedimensional view of the human person as: a relational creature whose telos is to love God and fellow human beings; a rational creature whose telos is to know God and understand God"s world; and an eschatological creature whose telos is to serve God as a stewardpriest of (new) creation. Part III (chapters 6-8) constructs an ecclesiology corresponding to the themes developed in Part II. depicting the church as relational, rational, and eschatological communities of the new humanity defined and oriented by love. faith. and hope. The concluding chapter summarizes the arguments developed and their implications for Christian community and ethics. It then explores some preliminary implications of viewing the church as God"s new humanity. called to promote and embody the welfare and flourishing of all human beings.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>The ancient themes of Sabbath and Jubilee are woven throughout the biblical narrative and form the basis of the Israel's identity under Yahweh. Four threads in particular - the release of slaves, the forgiveness of debts, the fallowing of land, and the redistribution of capital - create the ethical backbone of God's people. These themes were amplified by the prophets and assumed by Jesus Christ himself as the content and thrust of his kingdom proclamation. Following Jesus, the early church implemented these Sabbath and Jubilee practices in their communities. Thus, the challenge today is for Christians to recapture these ancient laws as a guide to contemporary discipleship. As well, churches must be willing to envision their ministry and mission in light of this long overlooked Sabbath-Jubilee vision.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Dance is the language of the soul. Dance, as a theological source, can remind us of who we are in and with the living perichoresis of the Trinity. Dance, as embodied art, can provide us with a new way of viewing and discussing pneumatology and that we too, in our incarnate reality, participate in perichoresis. Within this work I seek to answer the questions of how dance is a source of theology, why a pneumatology of the body is significant, and how dance provides a framework for a pneumatology of the body. The creation of a pneumatology of the body is a rooting or re-membering of the Spirit and our own spirit in incarnational—skin and bones—reality that includes us in Trinitarian perichoresis. Pneumatology of the body is dancing with the Holy Spirit in our given time and space to retrieve the dignity of our embodied inspirited selves as made in the imago Dei. The gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit are not abstract concepts. Through dance as embodied art we can move from abstract, intellectual concepts of the Spirit to incarnational truth of our flesh and blood, wounds and joys, where the Trinity dwells within and around.Dance as a source of theology can provide a framework for a pneumtology of the body. The Holy Spirit as relationality holding all of life together is our Holy Bridge. Within this work, we re-member our foundational belief in the interconnectedness of body and soul, and that we too participate in the Trinitarian perichoresis as part of God’s dancing revelation. In a world of division and duality, the Spirit as Holy Bridge brings us back home to the core of who we are individually and collectively, while dance provides a space for honoring difference and duality together in harmony. Dance gives expression to situations and things in our lives that are challenging to grasp conceptually and intellectually, while allowing for the embodied witnessing of a person’s and community’s story.A dancing theology as a framework for a pneumatology of the body reminds us that Spirit is our Holy Bridge between body, senses, feelings, challenges, and transformations, between my body soul temple and your body soul temple, and between individual and communal. By dancing with us in our daily lives, the Holy Spirit draws us ever deeper across loving bridges into communion with Trinitarian perichoresis. The Trinity is the Dance of Life in which the Spirit performs the role of empowering the never-ending communion and relational vitality that is God in and with Godself.

The argument of this dissertation is that a critical reading of the concept of "covenant" in early American writings is instrumental to understanding the paradoxes in the American political concepts of freedom and equality. Following Slavoj Zizek's theoretical approach to theology, I trace the covenant concept in early American literature from the theological expressions and disputes in Puritan Massachusetts through Jonathan Edwards's Freedom of Will and the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, showing how the covenant theology of colonial New England dispersed into more "secular" forms of what may be called an American political theology. The first chapter provides an overview of recent attempts to integrate theology and theory, specifically comparing Jacques Derrida and Zizek to better understand the latter's theology of materialism which relies on as well as informs the Reformed Protestant covenantal dichotomy of grace and works. The second chapter establishes the complicated architecture of the covenant concept within seventeenth-century New England Reformed Protestantism, and uses church membership transcripts along with Ann Hutchinson court trial documents to demonstrate how this inherently unstable theology created unintended slippage between God's grace and mankind's works, resulting in a theological formulation remarkably open to Zizek's analysis of political ideology. The third chapter demonstrates how Jonathan Edwards, through his ingenious counter-argument in Freedom of Will, provides a theoretical foundation for an uneasy but necessary alignment of the covenants of works and grace, releasing the subjunctive potential of grace to operate through history as a predeterminer of meaning and, potentially, freedom. In the last chapter, I argue that Emerson finally converts the covenant from a politically conceptualized theological framework for radical grace into a personal institutionalization of grace itself. Stanley Cavell's exploration of Emerson's "constitution" in light of the covenant motif demonstrates the political (im)possibilities inherent in America's self-conceptions of personal liberty and civic equality. In the end, complexities inherent in the concept of the covenant, especially its creative failure to control the radical nature of "grace," are determinative factors in our contradictory American egalitarian ideals.