The Greening of Faith: God, the Environment, and the Good Life (20th Anniversary Edition)

The recent release of Pope Francis’s much-discussed encyclical on the environment, Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, has reinforced environmental issues as also moral and spiritual issues. This anthology, twenty years ahead of the encyclical but very much in line with its agenda, offers essays by fifteen philosophers, theologians, and environmentalists who argue for a response to ecology that recognizes the tools of science but includes a more spiritual approach—one with a more humanistic, holistic view based on inherent reverence toward the natural world. Writers whose orientations range from Buddhism to evangelical Christianity to Catholicism to Native American beliefs explore ways to achieve this paradigm shift and suggest that “the environment is not only a spiritual issue, but the spiritual issue of our time.”https://scholars.unh.edu/unh_press/1003/thumbnail.jp

ReStory Your Church

This project provides a framework for churches at a turning point or near closure to “ReStory” and consider legacy options for their future including a restart, repurpose, or reallocation of resources. This is the key insight of this project: Churches that tell their past and present stories are well positioned to stay connected to a future vision that meets the needs of the community through creative and innovative means. I am a pastor in the Tennessee Western Kentucky Conference of the United Methodist Church. In this context, I have witnessed the closure of dozens of churches in both urban and rural settings. Denominational leaders hope to find an effective way to address this growing trend while still pursuing the mission of the Church. For years, church revitalization has been centered on a model of learning and importing best practices. The thought has been that, if churches could simply be closed, sold and resources redirected, the mission of the Church might thrive. I have discovered that a story-based approach can guide those conversations in a less threatening, more legacy-affirming way. We must talk about the reality of death and resurrection, legacy and purpose in ways that are informed by the hope we have in Christ. A ReStory asks three basic questions: 1. What story are we telling ourselves now? 2. What story did we live in the past? 3. What story does God dream for our future? By involving the church in a process of storytelling, the ReStory project increases the level of buy-in and belief among church leaders and members. As this project has developed, it has become increasingly focused on helpful ways to adjust the language used to talk about churches in decline. After a successful ReStory process, other ministry partners will be used to implement the ReStory

Images of creation and evil in the Book of Job

This study examines the problems of theodicy and creation in the book of Job through an exploration of some of its most important images and exegesis of the principal passages in which they occur. Four main areas of imagery: Death, the Chaos Monster, Creation and Law are explored, drawing on illustrative material especially from other parts of the Old Testament and from the Ugaritic texts. An introductory chapter sets out the guidelines for the study and analyses the relationship of imagery to mythology and Theology. It is argued that the problem of evil and suffering in Job is inextricably linked with the doctrine of creation and the legal framework of the heavenly court in which the book is set. Chapters 2-7 explore the images of Death and Supernatural evil. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on the theme of Death and argue that contextually, linguistically and thematically Behemoth is to be identified with Mot, god of Death. Chapters 4 and 5 make a similar analysis of the Leviathan figure and argue his identity with the Satan of the Prose Tale. Annotated translations and detailed exegeses of the Behemoth passage (Ch. 40:15-24) and the Leviathan passage (Ch. 40:25-Ch. 41:26) form a major part of the argument. Chapter 6 looks at the figure of Rahab and briefly comments on Apocryphal and Rabbinic treatments of the subject. Chapter 7 discusses the imagery of the sea and the sea god. Chapters 8 and 9 examine the basic framework in which these images operate. Chapter 8 looks at Creation Imagery, exploring especially Job Chapters 28 and 39. Chapter 9 looks at legal imagery through an analysis of the 'witness' passages in Chapters 9, 16 and 19, with an annotated translation of the go'el passage (Ch. 19:20-27). Chapter 10 suggests three areas in which the study could be taken further: the study of the book of Job itself; issues in Old Testament Theology and areas of Pastoral Theology

David taunting Goliath: divine judgment and messianic expectation

This thesis examines the use of the taunting language used by David and Goliath against each other in 1 Samuel 17 and its usefulness in understanding both the David and Goliath narrative and 1 Samuel as a whole, particularly as it pertains to the themes of messiah and king. The research examines such language in order to test the Christo-centric reading of the narrative. In the content of a literarily fascinating verbal onslaught, one finds a set of threats involving non-burial and carrion-eating animals that is linguistically, syntactically, and thematically similar to numerous threats throughout the Hebrew canon. When examined, one finds these judgement scenes to have both a common purpose of judgement and a common eschatological force. Further, when one examines, the taunting language of the David and Goliath narrative against Ancient Near Eastern literature, various linguistic and narrative parallels are found which appear to share a very similar rhetorical function to the taunting language of 1 Samuel 17:43-47. In light of the shared function of the Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern analogues to both the taunting language of 1 Samuel 17 and the David and Goliath narrative as a whole, one rightly reads the latter as a purposeful text designed with a particular function related to divine judgement, authority, and eschatological force - ideas that are brought together in the themes of messiah and king thus supporting a Christo-centric reading. This function of the David and Goliath narrative provides a clue to the potential purpose of its broader context. Indeed, when one situates 1 Samuel 17 in the broader narrative one finds that it is not an anomaly in how it functions but ties in with the narrative of 1 Samuel as a whole

Grammar of death in the Psalms with reference to motion as conceptual metaphor

The purpose of this study is to determine what relationship, if any, exists between the verbs of motion and emotion and the language of death in the Psalms. Such motionemotion verbal pair we describe as motion-emotion axis. This will endorse that motion vocabulary in the Psalter is often found in the vicinity of emotion words. The principal premise of this thesis is that death is one of the chief motifs in the Psalter, while we distinguish between the idea of motif and that of a theme. Subsequently we maintain that death motif is underlined by thanatophobic emotional predicaments of the psalmist. The following questions and issues arise in the examinations of this work. One of the important investigations is exploring some of the key issues in psalmodic studies, particularly in relation to the inquiries of the identity of the psalmist as a private individual; and that in the context of his personal experience of distress, in face of death threats. This will be some kind of referential points, as we develop our central thesis objectives. Secondly, we will investigate questions and issues of religious language and prayer as one of the focal points in expressions of the psalmist’s experience and emotions. Thirdly, an ever-present and an intriguing question of the psalmist’s sudden mood changes, which often appear within a single Psalm, can hardly be avoid, and this issue will be followed up throughout the dissertation. Fourthly and finally, the central subject we examine here is motion as a concept relative to motional vocabulary and how it relates to the psalmist’s experiential and emotional dimension. The end of the thesis is broader examination of the realms of death and incorporates four aspects of death in biblical context (grave, silence, name, dust and depths). The plan of investigation begins with describing the thesis objectives with the scope of psalmodic texts; giving an overview of previous studies, particularly of Form-critical traditions. This follows with surveying relevant psalmodic texts, in accordance to the following general criteria we ought to: (1) pay attention to thanatophobic motifs in the Psalter, observing the fact that death motif in the Psalter is associated with not only the lamental and complaint Psalms, as one might expect, (2) examine the relationship in the motion-emotion axis in the psalmist’s experience of the spatial dimension (motion in conceptual space, heaven-Sheol). The following general conclusions and contributions are indicated. The verbs of motion in general, are very sparsely investigated in the biblical literature, hardly at all in the context of the Psalms; and not at all as the motion-emotion axis in the thanatophobic experiences of the psalmist. The work has shown that in literary and linguistic terms (grammar of death) there is an exceptional presence of motional vocabulary and phraseology associated with the Psalmist's emotional turmoils in thanatophobic situations. The last chapter is assigned to examine five suggested realms of death in bibliucal texts which are most commonly found (grave, silence, name, dust and depths)

Philosophical issues concerning the Bible and animal telos

This dissertation lays the groundwork (1) for understanding why there is so much disagreement evident in the current discussion of what the Bible says about animal telos, and (2) perhaps for helping an individual work through a number of philosophical barriers in order to come to an understanding of what the Bible says about animal telos from his or her own worldview. First, the dissertation shows how some writers seemingly claim that the Judeo- Christian views apparent in the Bible have influenced the western world in such a way that they have significantly contributed to the wrong thinking about animal telos and the inhumane treatment of animals which it implies. However, other writers claim that the Judeo-Christian views apparent in the Bible are precisely what have raised awareness of animal concerns and have contributed to the better treatment of animals. The question begs to be answered, Why is there such a radical difference in opinion on what a single book says about animal telos? Second, the dissertation uncovers some of the underlying philosophical issues which tend comprise the worldviews that separate those who write about the Bible and animal telos. These differences in philosophical presuppositions are often subtle and thus do not clearly appear on the surface, but nevertheless generate a great deal of disagreement concerning the Bible and animal telos. Because of the variety of underlying presuppositions that different people have (particularly about the Bible), when they say, Here is what the Bible says about X it is almost as if they are talking about different books, rather than only one. Third, the dissertation reviews the reasoning of some important writers (Andrew Linzey, James Gustafson, Jay McDaniel, John Berkman, and Stanley Hauerwas) who have recently argued that the Bible view of animal telos favors better treatment of animals than some have traditionally contended. Fourth, in Appendix A the dissertation provides an in-depth catalog of biblical texts relevant to the issue of animal telos along with brief discussions of their significance for this topic

In Pursuit of Visibility

In Pursuit of Visibility honors the distinguished career of a scholar of Canaan and ancient Israel, Beth Alpert Nakhai. In fifteen diverse essays, Professor Nakhai’s students and colleagues celebrate her important contributions to the field of Near Eastern Archaeology, including her research into gender, household, and cult in the Bronze and Iron Age southern Levant, and her tireless efforts to acknowledge and support women in the profession. These essays reflect Professor Nakhai’s commitment to combining archaeology and text to reconstruct aspects of ancient life and make those who are marginalized visible in both the past and the present

2015 - 2016, Gardner-Webb University Academic Catalog

2015 - 2016, Gardner-Webb University Academic Catalog. A. Frank Bonner, president.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/academic-catalogs-graduate-undergraduate-combined/1004/thumbnail.jp

2015 - 2016, Gardner-Webb University Graduate Academic Catalog

2015 - 2016, Gardner-Webb University Graduate Academic Catalog. A. Frank Bonner, president.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/graduate-academic-catalogs/1010/thumbnail.jp

Relationships amongst science, ethics and polis in pre-modern times

The emergence of the Modern Age is depicted as a replacement of a long standing political philosophy by a distinctly new one. Foundational meanings are attributed to key terms Science, Ethics and Polis, nuance in these terms is traced against those attributed meanings, and the integrating impact of that nuance on relationships amongst key terms is interpreted as changing political philosophy. Speculative questioning reflection is expressed about the nature of the next Polis