Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Phenomenological Study Of Female Master Of Divinity Graduates' Experiences And Role Incongruity At Texas Baptist Seminaries, Michele Lee Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Women pursue Christian education, obeying God’s call to prepare for ministry leadership. This qualitative hermeneutical phenomenological research study aimed to examine the perspectives of women graduates from Master of Divinity (MDiv) programs at Baptist Seminaries in Texas and to discover if their treatment could be linked to traditionally held beliefs about gender. The lived experiences of the study participants were defined as their first-hand accounts and perceptions of interactions with their male classmates and professors. The theory that guided this study was the Role-Congruity Theory, defined by Eagly and Diekman (2005) as aligning a group’s characteristics with their typical social …

Family Discipleship: Forming A Biblical Worldview For Godly Decisions, Eric Spencer Mccrickard

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This action research project focuses on equipping parents to disciple their children in home-based worship, Bible study, and developing a biblical worldview. The problem at The Mission Church is poor decision-making from teens in the student group. The students make decisions from a malformed biblical worldview, resulting in decisions contrary to God’s Word. Further analysis of this problem revealed the need for home-based discipleship. Contemporary literature demonstrates the need for family ministry, specifically family-based discipleship. Thus, this research is critical to developing parents to teach their families God’s precepts (Deut 6:7-9). This thesis intervention seeks to instruct the parents about …

Early Forgiveness Intervention In Substance Abuse Recovery, Susan Janos

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Recent statistics have shown significant increases in substance abuse in the United Sates indicated by rising overdose deaths and hospital stays nationwide. This study was conducted to determine if early forgiveness intervention by chaplains and clergy affects the decisions of individuals struggling with substance abuse in considering forgiveness as a pathway to recovery. Based on the success of the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step recovery program and recent studies, this research addressed forgiveness as a pathway to recovery for those struggling with substance abuse. Forgiveness was considered in one or more of five areas: forgiveness of self, forgiveness of others, forgiveness from …

Reinventing Holistic Healthcare: Pastoral Perspectives Of Biblical Insights For The American Healthcare System, Leanne Michelle Bergey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study was to examine pastoral perspectives of Biblical healthcare. These perspectives are essential to consider due to the long history of the connection between spirituality and healthcare and the church’s successful intervention worldwide for increasing healthcare outcomes. Since the church has been successful worldwide at creating faith-based organizations that meet community needs, it is vital that research focus on how churches might continue this success within the United States. This study used semi-structured interviews to examine the research questions of 1) What is the Biblical responsibility of healthcare? 2) How does culture influence the role …

Ministry After A Leadership Failure: Principles For Transitional Worship Leader, Eric R. Medford

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Despite much information and attention given to senior leadership transitions after a moral failure in leadership, there is little information regarding supporting pastoral staff moral failures and how to lead a ministry department to a place of healing and restoration. This thesis examined the distinct challenges of transitional leaders assuming the role of guiding a worship ministry department through a previous leader's moral failure. This study analyzes commonalities and themes to demonstrate the unique challenges the worship ministry faces apart from the church. Literature and research on leadership transitions due to moral failures tend to focus on senior pastoral leadership. …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Perception Of Racial Unity In Evangelical Churches In Chicago, Amber L. Harvey

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

“Racism in the United States is part of a much older and global phenomenon” that has effects that are seen “today in hearts, minds, and institutions” (Lovelace, 2021, p. 67). Regarding the African American population, housing discrimination continues to be an obstacle to families (Burke et al., 2018), racist systems have led to collateral damage in the health of adults (Bleich et al., 2019), and African American men constitute approximately 25% of police shooting victims (Schwartz, 2020). This study seeks to examine if racism has infiltrated into the local church. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore …

Autism And The Body Of Christ: Understanding, Accommodating, And Accepting Autistic Believers In The Church, Kaitlyn Cook

Senior Honors Theses

Autism is a neurotype that causes a different set of strengths and weaknesses and thus should be embraced and accommodated within the church. Not only are autistic believers able to grasp Christian concepts, but they also have different perspectives and skills that can be instrumental in building up the church. Promoting a correct view of autism and accommodating neurodiversity within the church will allow autistic believers to follow God’s command to be part of a body and build up the church. The church can employ several strategies to create an accessible environment for believers on the spectrum, including creating sensory-safe …

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

The Bible And Mental Health: Towards A Biblical Theology Of Mental Health, Robert D. Mcbain

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

The Soul Of Desire: Discovering The Neuroscience Of Beauty, Longing, And Community, Rebekah Bled

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Faithful Integration: The Importance Of Worldview, Hermeneutics, And Theology For Christian Counseling, Nicole C. Biller

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

Efforts to integrate faith with psychological science and counseling have been present within Christian graduate programs for decades; however, questions remain about how to do this effectively. A brief review of integration efforts and a survey of the experience of graduate students within these programs reveal a desire to further model this practical integration within the classroom. Possible solutions emphasize a biblically informed worldview, intentionally crafted hermeneutics, and well developed theology, which can lead to faith-informed counseling practices.

Pentecostal Hope In The Age Of Covid-19, Peter Althouse, Audrey E. Mccormick

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

This research sought to identify how Pentecostals and charismatics responded to the Coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, what role did eschatology play in provoking hope, and how did theologies on healing influence responses? Data revealed that Pentecostals were generally not casting their responses to the pandemic as a millennial expectation of a better future but were grieving their losses and seeking to provoke hope amidst suffering. While minimal miraculous healings were reported, healing was cast primarily as the ongoing presence of defiant hope amidst trauma, grief and suffering. We propose that grief and grieving is an eschatological response to loss and death.

Exploring How Pentecostals Preach About Depression, Robert D. Mcbain

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

A qualitative analysis was completed on twelve sermons into how Pentecostal preachers talk about depression from the pulpit using the Assemblies of God (AG) as a purposive sample. Findings illustrate that preachers talked about faulty thinking as the source of depression and interpreted depression as a transformative journey occurring within the context of a God encounter where the believer fixed their faulty thinking. While the way the preachers interpreted depression is not without critique, the article suggests that preaching about depression as a journey of encounter may help listeners frame their depression experiences within a narrative framework that helps them …

The Role Of Spirituality In The Lives Of Counselors: Reframing The Focus, Greg A. Meyer

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

The term spirituality is often hard to hear without prior, preconceived ideas and bias attached to it, and is often used interchangeably with other words, depending on one’s past and culture. The field of counselor education and supervision has also used the term in ambiguous ways, which has led to apprehension and a lack of clarity with which the term is taught and understood. This paper explains the historical focus of spirituality within the counselor education field, then redefines the focus towards the lives of counselors, but more specifically the lives of counseling students and the impact counselor educators might …

Building Bridges: A Student-Professor Dialogue About Spiritual Assumptions And Perspectives On Whiteness, Kyle N. Stueber, Andrea C. Walker

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

One day in May during a recent year, a conversation began that launched several years of ongoing dialogue. A graduate student, Kyle, reached out to a graduate counseling professor, Andrea, to discuss some concerns and anxieties he felt in some of his class discussions. What began as a conversation about racial diversity in the counseling setting evolved into an exploration of different ways of looking at the sociocultural context of race in the United States, a topic discovered to have political and theological underpinnings. As a result of the dialogue, we realized that specific preconceived labels identifying political, theological, denominational, …

Weaving A Tapestry, Haley R. French

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Front Matter Salubritas 3 (2024), Editors Salubritas

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Full Issue Salubritas 3 (2024), Editors Salubritas

Salubritas: International Journal of Spirit-Empowered Counseling

No abstract provided.

Black Liberation Theology In The Civil Rights Movement: Contextualizing The Works Of James H. Cone, Ella Cox

Scholars Day Conference

These slides are meant to provide a visual aid for the presentation given on my thesis, "Black Liberation Theology in the Civil Rights Movement: Contextualizing the Works of James H. Cone."

Scholars Day 2024 Program Of Events, Carl Goodson Honors Program

Scholars Day

This is the program of events for the 2023 Scholars Day Conference, where undergraduates across disciplines present their scholarly and creative works.

Trump's 2016 Election Win: Why He Owes It To Jesus, Margaret Jones

Student Research Submissions

The election of Donald J. Trump in 2016 was a shock that rippled across America. It came out of the blue and was pushed forward by the most religious sect of the US population. This left many questioning the power that Trump held to sway these voters and convince them of his religious fervor. What many people did not pay attention to was the unique religious background that Trump had. He was raised in the church of Norman Vincent Peale, famed prosperity gospel minister and creator of the “Power of Positive Thinking.” Peale’s teachings revolved around the effect of confidence …

An Evaluation Of The Book Of Hosea And Its Impact For Our Lives Today, Nathan Fulton

Honors Projects

The book of Hosea provides a rich story of the life of the prophet Hosea and the constant woes of the nation of Israel. Through analysis of commentaries from past theologians and modern psychological studies, the contents of Hosea will be reinforced as viable literature to learn from. Despite belief in the historical legitimacy of the book, through research, we find humanity’s deepest desire is to be fully loved and fully known. Analysis of attachment theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs show us that the story of Hosea demonstrates our insecurities and the proper response to them.

Mentorship For African American Female Officers Of Faith In The United States Air Force, Tanquer L. Dyer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Mentorship has emerged as a critical component for the cultivation and development of leaders. Mentoring is beneficial for the mentee and mentor both personally and professionally. The United States Air Force (USAF) encourages formal and informal mentoring for their leaders through initiatives and regulations. Other branches emphasize leadership development; whereas, the USAF emphasizes career development. While African American female officers of faith continue to hold leadership positions, it is unclear whether mentorship serves as a factor of success. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and understand the lived experience of African American female officers in the USAF …

Church And Community: Bridging The Gap To Create A Culture Of Acceptance And Inclusiveness, Matthew L. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This DMIN project helped St. Paul High Street Baptist Church develop a community engagement team that helped them reestablish its long-lasting relationship with the community surrounding the church. Certain issues within and outside of the church were discussed that had led to a lack of community engagement within recent years. A community engagement team was put together to help bridge the gap between the church and its surrounding community. To help with this, several community engagement team events were held, and surveys were given to both church and community members. Through the successful completion of this project, St. Paul High …

Barna, George. Raising Spiritual Champions: Nurturing Your Child’S Heart, Mind And Soul. Glendale, Az: Arizona Christian University Press, 2023., Robert J. Oliverio

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Evolution Of Religious Beliefs And Experiences: A Developmental Perspective From Adolescence To Adulthood, Bella Lee Contreras Giardiello

Whittier Scholars Program

This study explores how religious beliefs and experiences evolve and impact individuals as they transition from adolescence into adulthood. It aims to gain insights into the ways in which religion influences social interactions, emotional well-being, and personal identity formation. Research on religion in adolescence into adulthood can promote understanding and tolerance of diverse religious beliefs and practices. Through this study I aim to provide a framework for the ways in which society can appreciate the plurality of religious experiences, fostering respect and empathy among individuals from different religious backgrounds. Participants were recruited from Professor Hill's Intro to Psychology class at …

Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been, Cleopatra? A Study Of Past Life Regression, Practitioners, And The Impact Of Reincarnation Beliefs, Victoria Hoover

Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Dating Apps As An Outlet To Promote Sexual Autonomy Among Disabled Individuals: An Intersectional Approach To Change, Sarah Marrs

Sexual Ethics

As disabled individuals are forced into the social other and an asexual narrative, dating apps provide an outlet for this demographic to engage in their sexuality in a format that is more easily accessible. In an age of rising technology, the destigmatization and usage of dating apps highlights the self-expressive potential of an underrepresented and misunderstood demographic. This issue is addressed through historical perspectives of “crip sex,” a comparison between the disabled dating experience and the able-bodied dating experience, and a description of the significance of a dating app designed for individuals with disabilities.

Welcoming The Stranger: Abrahamic Hospitality And Its Contemporary Implications, Ori Z. Soltes, Rachel Stern, Endy Moraes

Religion

Embracing hospitality and inclusion in Abrahamic traditions

One of the signal moments in the narrative of the biblical Abraham is his insistent and enthusiastic reception of three strangers, a starting point of inspiration for all three Abrahamic traditions as they evolve and develop the details of their respective teachings. On the one hand, welcoming the stranger by remembering “that you were strangers in the land of Egypt” is enjoined upon the ancient Israelites, and on the other, oppressing the stranger is condemned by their prophets throughout the Hebrew Bible.

These sentiments are repeated in the New Testament and the Qur’an …

Thomas Merton: The Connection Between Contemplation And Activism, Leslea Linebarger

Religious & Theological Studies Student Work

Thomas Merton believed that there was a necessary connection between our inner lives and our outer presence in the world. As a cloistered monk, he became known as a major voice for contemplation, perhaps his greatest gift to spirituality. But in the 1960’s as national and international tensions were becoming increasingly volatile, Thomas Merton began some of his most challenging writing, boldly speaking out against war and violence. This paper will examine his path from cloistered monk to political activist as visible in his own spiritual journey and throughout his writings. It will also ask what lessons his life and …