Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Religion, Jewish Studies, Theology'

This study conducts a close literary analysis of a variety of Talmudic-era prayers in order to develop a method of interpretation, called the "literary-intertext" method. Drawing on literary theory and the work of intertextuality in biblical and midrashic fields, this method offers a literary reading of prayer texts based on the juxtaposition with biblical intertexts. The method can be described as follows:

Step 1: Approach the liturgical text from a standpoint of exegesis, in which allusions abound and the surface rendering is never satisfactory.

Step 2: Using the tools of philology and academic inquiry, establish as many parallels to the liturgical text as one can to point more clearly to the identification of the intertexts.

Step 3: Identify the biblical intertext or intertexts at play in the line of prayer, and consider the surrounding biblical context.

Step 4: Identify the rabbinic interpretation(s) of the biblical intertext, giving additional layers of meaning to the text behind the prayer text.

Step 5: Offer an interpretation or set of interpretations that relate to the prayer. In the course of this study, we employ this method with the first blessing of the amidah, the blessings that constitute havdalah, and the texts of confession for Yom Kippur. In each case, the multiplicity of interpretations that emerges through the juxtaposition of the prayer text with the biblical intertext (and its rabbinic understanding) extends far beyond the original surface rendering. These interpretations are offered throughout the analysis.

Poetry is a creative instrument of inquiry and revelation expressed through images, sounds, and metaphors. In this dissertation, I argue that Solomon Alkabez's poem "Lecha Dodi" (Come, My Beloved) demonstrates this hypothesis. The poem's mythological story connects with people of diverse Jewish movements in many lands, inviting their participation and varied expressions. While singing the poem keeps historic traditions alive, the song itself inspires communities to express the poem's beauty in ever-changing ways. The poem's mythos embraces the following concepts that are explored in this work: Adam Kadmon, Shekhinah, and Tikkun ha-Olam. Its logos, which follow structured grammatical forms, and archetypal mythos are examined in this study.

Drawing on insights from C. G. Jung, wisdoms revealed in Kabbalistic text and inherent within Hebrew terminology, this paper examines sacred time, ceremonial space, and Kabbalistic motifs in Lecha Dodi. Further, it addresses the question: "What Kabbalistic motifs in Lecha Dodi parallel those found in depth psychology?" For in this work, I argue that the process of individuation, imagery, and alchemical symbolism in Jung's writings find common ground in the mystical landscape of Kabbalah, as this poem illustrates.

Rediscovering the poem's motifs may shed light on, and contribute to, reconstructing the balance, harmony, and healing requested in our frenzied world today. In the process, according to Kabbalah's alchemical nature, one's foothold in the mundane world may scatter and shatter one's self through transitional experiences of disrepair and chaotic disarray. These aspects of Kabbalah are reflected in Jung's writings on shadow, descent, and death. Meanwhile, codes embedded in the poem identify pathways on Kabbalah's Etz Hayim (Tree of Life). In turn, the psyche may travel these pathways during such shadow periods, or times necessary to repair and individuate itself. In this way, the poem's Kabbalistic motifs share motifs that are common to depth psychology and mysticism. This dissertation seeks to imagine Lecha Dodi's essence forward for future generations. It includes the author's original musical composition, a production designed to express the beauty of this mystical poem.

Keywords: Adam Kadmon, Alkabez, Etz Hayim, individuation, Jung, Kabbalah, Lecha Dodi, Luria, Shabbat, Shekhinah, soul, Tikkun ha-Olam

This research study aimed to examine Orthodox Jewish couples in context of attributions and marital attributions to address gaps in the literature regarding Orthodox Jews as a multicultural group in general, and their experiences of marriage in particular. A cross sectional design was utilized to consider the impact of both an individual's and his or her partner's cognitions on relationship satisfaction among marrieds. It was hypothesized that religiosity has a positive influence on optimism, marital attributions, and marital satisfaction, and that both actor and partner effects will be present for optimism and marital attributions. Specifically, marital satisfaction would be influenced positively by an individual's higher optimism scores and positive marital attributions as well as his or her partner's optimism and marital attributions, respectively. A total of 70 couples (N = 140) completed the survey and were included in analysis. Regression data indicated that religiosity was related to optimism, marital attributions, and marital satisfaction together, R² = .081, F(3, 130) = 3.82, p = .012, but pathways did not indicate statistical significance for individual predictors. The data did not indicate a statistically significant actor or partner effects of optimism on marital satisfaction for husbands or wives. Actor effects for marital attributions on marital satisfaction were found for Orthodox Jewish husbands (β = –0.10, SE = 0.02, p < .01) and wives (β = –0.07, SE = 0.03, p < .01) but no partner effects were found, perhaps indicating a proximity effect.

Recognizing the lack of consensus among studies of the letter of James concerning its original situation, this thesis is a study in the circumstances that precipitated the letter of James; it argues that the letter responds in significant measure to the inclination of some pre 70 Diaspora Jews to rebel violently against the Roman Empire. In so doing, it is suggested that the paralleled passages of Jas 1:2-20 and 5:7-11/12 might covertly critique a set of convictions and behaviors of the letter’s audience that configures a “war agenda.” This thesis finds sufficient reasons to read the letter of James as a paralleled literary structure rather than as a linear progression of thought. Reading it thus provides a better control on the exploration of the plausibility of a “war agenda” as the original situation of the letter of James, inasmuch as such exploration can be speculative. Some corroborating evidence for the plausibility of the “war agenda” is provided in the form of identifying a highly volatile political environment in mid-first-century Palestine with important implications and reverberations in the Jewish Diaspora. Such evidence is correlated with the letter of James.

The letter of James can be seen thus as an authoritative exhortation embedded in the thought-world of the Old Testament as interpreted according to the teachings of Jesus. It is argued that such exhortation was addressed to the Jews in the Diaspora, irrespective of whether they were Christians, and that its author was James, the brother of Jesus and a Christian Jew. This James emerges then as a recognized leader in the nascent Christian movement, with influence among his Jewish brethren in Palestine and in the Diaspora, at a time when there was no clear discontinuity between Christianity and Judaism. Such reading seems to account for some of the clear, and at times problematic, traits identified by other studies in the letter of James, including the seemingly meager Christology, a strong Jewish ideological background, a reflection of the thought-world of Jesus, and the social concern for the marginalized.

Recent writers on the priesthood of all believers have challenged the doctrine’s biblical warrant, historical pedigree, and value for contemporary ecclesiology. This dissertation responds to these challenges in three ways. It first identifies the priesthood of all believers as a canonical doctrine based upon the royal priesthood of Christ and closely related to the believer’s eschatological temple-service and offering of spiritual sacrifices (Chs. 1–3). It secondly describes its catholic development by examining three paradigmatic shifts, shifts especially associated with Christendom (Chs. 4–6) and a suppression of the doctrine’s missional component. Finally, the dissertation argues that a Christian doctrine of the priesthood of all believers should be developed with a Christocentric-Trinitarian understanding of the missio Dei. This suggests there are especially appropriate ways for the royal priesthood to relate to the Father (latreia), to the Son (diakonia), and to the Holy Spirit (martyria ). A canonically and catholically informed priesthood of all believers leads contextually to particular ecclesial practices. These seven practices are 1) Baptism as public ordination to the royal priesthood; 2) Prayer; 3) Lectio Divina; 4) Ministry; 5) Church Discipline; 6) Proclamation; and 7) the Lord’s Supper as the renewal of the royal priesthood.

The purpose of this dissertation is to answer the question, “What is the theological understanding of congregational worship in the Bayside Church of Christ, Virginia Beach, Virginia?” The Bayside Church of Christ, Virginia Beach, VA is an independent, middle-size church which is conservative in matters of theology, doctrine, and cultural worldview. The church has experienced healthy membership growth in demographic, racial, and ethnic integration, but faces potential challenges in sustaining congregational worship that reflects its diversity. It was the researcher’s concern that the issue was due to the absence of an identifiable, articulated, and implemented theology of congregational worship in the context of the church’s changing demographics. The church needed to understand and adapt to its evolving membership diversity so that greater participation, vitality, and mutuality in its congregational worship would be ensured.

The goal of the ministry project detailed herein was to identify the theology of congregational worship in the Bayside Church of Christ and assess whether authentic participation, vitality, and mutuality reflective of the church’s diverse membership exist. It was believed that the church would benefit from a theological understanding and evaluation of its congregational worship in light of the church’s diverse nature. The ministry project investigated and assessed the worship beliefs, experiences, and perceptions of the members. Formalized instruction was also offered on the role of diversity, inclusion, and vitality in congregational worship.

The ministry project concluded that a study of congregational worship in the Bayside Church of Christ led to greater awareness of the existing worship theology being shaped by the congregation’s changing ethnicity and demographic makeup. It is believed that increased understanding can in turn increase participation, mutuality, and spiritual growth for the membership. This work is offered in the hopes that the Bayside Church of Christ along with other researchers, church leadership boards, and congregations will benefit from the effort to understand and improve congregational worship in Churches of Christ that possess ethnic, racial, and demographic diversity.

This study created a method for measuring the presence of Christian-voodoo syncretism in three Protestant denominations in the north of Haiti. Estimates of voodoo practice among Christians have ranged from 50% to 75%, a;though it is unclear how these percentages were derived. The researcher created a Voodoo-Protestant Scale (VPS), which tests for the presence of fourteen Christian-voodoo syncretistic practices and fifteen Christian-voodoo syncretistic beliefs. The VPS was written and administered in Creole, but the study contains an English translation. A scoring system for the VPS is also explained in Chapter Three, in which four points are counted for "strongly agree" and two points are counted for "agree" responses to syncretistic practice questions (PQs), and two points are counted for "strongly agree" responses and one point is counted for "agree" responses to syncretistic belief questions (BQs). Zero points were counted for "neutral," "disagree" or "strongly disagree." The VPS therefore had scores that ranged from zero to 88. The VPS allowed the researcher to make determinations about the extent of syncretism within the population (the percentage of the participants) as well as the depth of syncretism for each participant (the VPS score itself). The VPS was administered to 218 individuals who attended churches in the Church of God, Baptist, and Evangelical denominations in four urban areas (Milot, Plaine du Nord, Cap-Haitian Petite-Anse and Vaudreuil) and in three rural areas (Grand Bassin, La Jeune, and Maliarette). First, with respect to extent, the researcher discovered that 212 of 218 participants evidenced some syncretism of some kind (97%)—only 6 of 218 showed no trace of Christian-voodoo syncretism. Second, with respect to depth, the researcher discovered that 84 of 218 (39%) evidenced low syncretism (VPS scores from 1-14), 94 of 218 (43%) evidenced intermediate-level syncretism (VPS scores from 15–30), 25 of 218 (11%) evidenced high syncretism (VPS scores from 31–48), and 9 of 218 (4%) evidenced super-high levels (VPS scores from 50–88). Thus, these results offer a more nuanced picture of Christian-voodoo syncretism in Haiti. The study concludes with recommendations for church leaders.

Problem: This dissertation investigates the first century Greco-Roman cultural backgrounds and the literary context of the motif of the image of the beast in Rev 13:14, 15, in order to answer the problem of the author’s intended meaning of the image of the beast to his first century Greco-Roman readers. Method: There are six steps necessary to accomplish the task of this dissertation. These steps are taken in the form of the exegetical studies which are done in six chapters, respectively. Following the introductory chapter, the second chapter is a brief history of the historical interpretations of the image of the beast in Rev 13:14, 15, starting with the interpretations from scholars of the first three centuries and continuing on to the present. This historical survey in Chapter 2 demonstrates that an in depth exegetical study of the image of the beast is much needed. Chapters 3-6 were an attempt to make up for this deficiency by providing an exegetical study of the image of the beast motif in its original cultural and literary context of the book of Revelation. Chapter 3 is a study of the image-of-the-beast motif within its immediate context of Revelation 13. Chapters 4-6 provide a study of the image-of-the-beast motif in the latter half of Revelation, i.e., Revelation 14-20, with Chapters 4-5 studying the image-of-the-beast motif in the chapters (Revelation 14-16, 19, and 20) in which this term occurs, and Chapter 6 studying this motif in the chapters (Revelation 17, 18) in which this term is absent. Conclusion: As I have come to see it, the narrative of Rev 13:14, 15 depicts the attempt of an unholy trinity to counteract God’s goal for the plan of salvation, i.e., the restoration of Imago Dei in human beings in the last days by creating the image of the beast on Earth. The image of the beast is an end time entity, comprised of a community of people who reflect the character of the dragon, and has the three-fold religious-economic-political power to impose false worship on Earth. The image of the beast is best identified with the end time Babylon the Great of chapters 17-18.

In a time when Black millennials lead statistical data in imprisonment and other negative data, millennials are overlooked in positive data that allows for better financial stewardship and ministry approaches. The purpose of this research is to hear the voice of Black millennials on faith and the Black church. The Black church cannot sustain itself if it loses this generation due to lack of communication, understanding, and relationship. Using mixed method ethnographic research, data was collected using the snowball method of surveying, small group conversations, and interviews. This created a multidimensional depiction of millennials, not as a monolith but as a biological generation with a collective sense of ideals and understanding that do not define the generation but penetrates the culture. The data embodies men and women born between 1981 and 1996, representing more than thirty-six states, of different sexuality, familial backgrounds, education, socioeconomic levels, faith backgrounds, and incarceration experiences. There were 1,117 participants surveyed, four small groups engaged, and four interviews. The results were clear. Millennials want to be valued and engaged. Black churches represent relationship for millennials in unique ways of surrogacy for some and accountability for others. Millennials have hope for Black churches, since they are able to connect them to outreach opportunities that benefit them and their communities in a spiritual experience that accepts responsibilities of the Black churches of old. Communication between Black churches and millennials is restricted and superficial. Churches have made more assumptions than inquiries, leaving them programming blindly. If churches are willing to ask questions, listen, and act with authenticity in mind as opposed to numerical bragging and the creation of Stepford Christians, they will benefit from unique gifts and souls that will not only sustain the church but catapult it into a trailblazing institution whose product matches the brand.

The author of Hebrews is concerned that the persecution of a spiritually immature and discouraged Christian community may cause them to relinquish their mission and lose certain rewards inherent to obedience. He argues that God swears an oath in Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 in order to assure his people of the certainty of his promises (Heb. 6:13–20). He demonstrates that specific elements of the divine oath have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ, guaranteeing the eventual consummation of the inaugurated promises of this oath and providing certain benefits that enable Christians to fulfill their divinely appointed mission. These embattled saints can endure attacks from their enemies because Jesus Christ is the anointed king who will utterly defeat his enemies, and he is the promised priest after the order of Melchizedek who grants direct access to his heavenly throne for the power to persevere faithfully in the last days. Therefore, the thesis is that the author of Hebrews views Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 as oaths of God, reassures his audience by proving that God is bringing to completion all the elements of his oaths, and encourages them to take advantage of the benefits provided by God’s oaths.

Peter presents a new exodus framework by inserting throughout the letter quotations and allusions to the OT that reference to the exodus narrative or its theological and eschatological interpretations in Isaiah and selected psalms. Most of these allusions are in key programmatic passages of 1 Peter. Through a redemptive-historical reading of 1 Peter, this thesis seeks to understand Peter's background and motifs. This study carefully examines the structure of 1 Pet 1:1–2:10 and the function of the OT allusions in their literary context. After analyzing the OT references, this work follows their development in salvation history, beginning in the exodus narratives and then through the Prophets and the Psalms. Finally, we see how the author of 1 Peter applies the Christological fulfillment of such allusions, and what are the eschatological implications for Peter’s readers as the new covenant church.

The dissertation explores the Qur’anic hermeneutics of Irfan A. Khan (b. 1931), a significant contemporary scholar of the Qur’an and modern western philosophy. It demonstrates that Khan’s Qur’anic hermeneutic is a paradigm shift as compared to classical Qur’anic hermeneutic and provides a substantive theory and methodology of Qur’anic interpretation.

For Khan, Qur’anic God is perpetually active in new creation and new guidance. Since the sum total of all current existences is new creation, therefore it requires fresh guidance. Therefore, Khan considers the Qur’an a primary guide for us, as if it were just revealed. Khan proposes that readers should exert themselves directly to understand the Qur’an with their own mind, developing a personal relationship with it. The readers must keep the Sunnah of the Prophet in front of them. The Prophet and his Companions read the Qur’an in their existing socio-historic situation, purified themselves, and changed their socio-historic reality. The current readers should also follow the Sunnah in this sense. Finally, for guidance Qur’anic God has been systematically guiding humankind through prophets. After the Prophet Muhammad we are in post-prophetic stage. Thus, the Prophetic Movement changed into the Qur’anic Movement. Therefore, the responsibility of interpretation rests squarely upon humankind in the absence of any prophet.

Philosophically speaking humankind’s understanding is limited by its epistemic system. The lower bound of our epistemic system is apprehending Reality, but we always fail to apprehend it as an organic whole. The upper limit of our epistemic system is what we can think. Understanding happens between these two bounds. When we understand texts we convert textual symbols into images, manipulate the images, and get insights about the world of the text in front of us. However, it is only when we act upon it that we find the truth of our textual insights. Since our epistemic capacities keep on increasing due to advances in science, technology and the arts, it is possible to understand the same text in a deeper way in future. Thus, Qur’anic understanding is a continuous process that requires its new concretization in each historic epoch.

While ethical arguments for nonviolence have persisted for generations, theological arguments for an absolutely nonviolent God have recently emerged. Some theologians deem violence in every form to be immoral and punishment to be a form and cause of violence, so they contend that a moral God must be nonviolent and non-retributive. Also, this nonviolent God assertion undermines other doctrines including penal substitution in the atonement, eternal punishment in hell, and temporal judgments in biblical narratives. In response, I will argue that God’s justice has a retributive aspect, for He gives to people what they deserve including punishing sinners or a substitute in their place. His justice is a necessary divine attribute, for to be true to Himself, God highly values His image bearers by dignifying their free will and choices by assuring that they experience the results of their decisions. Thus God’s retributive justice provides a moral framework for His violent judgments.

Ezekiel the Tragedian’s Exagōgē, a circa second-century BCE play, incorporates Jewish traditions that may associate Moses with resurrection and that describe Moses as having a vision in which he ascends to heaven, where he is elevated above the angels to a cosmic kingship. The extra-biblical traditions in this drama present Moses as more similar to the Jesus of the NT than does the biblical tradition of Moses. New Testament depictions of Jesus’s ascent to heaven and portrayals of Jesus through a Moses typology may be influenced by these traditions. This study will focus on traditions represented in the ascent-to-heaven scene (Ezek. Trag. 68–89) and in the scout’s report (Ezek. Trag. 243–69) and will examine the likely influences of such traditions in the Letter to the Hebrews.

Theological interpretation of Scripture has been ascendant in recent decades, and theologians and biblical scholars from a variety of backgrounds, areas of expertise, and ecclesial commitments have rallied around it. Increasingly, however, divisions are fraying the heretofore united front against historical criticism's dominance in academic biblical interpretation. This dissertation is an exploration of the reasons for these divisions. Its motivating thesis is that differences in ecclesiology lie behind disagreements about bibliology, which manifest in turn as divergences over theological interpretation. Prior to and operative within judgments about the nature, authority, and interpretation of the Bible stand judgments about the being, mission, and authority of the church. But the relationship between the two is not so linear as that. For the connections between them are direct and materially operative, and only more so when they remain implicit and therefore unexamined. Every account of the Bible both assumes and implies an account of the church, and vice versa: the lines of influence are reciprocal and circular. The Bible is always the church's book, the church always the community under the Bible's authority.

This dissertation responds, diagnostically and constructively, to this situation through engagement with particular figures. Specifically, it expounds one specific strand of bibliology influenced by the great Protestant theologian Karl Barth: the work, respectively, of John Howard Yoder, Robert Jenson, and John Webster. Each of these theologians is a contemporary Barthian of a sort, a student but not a disciple of the Swiss master. Given Barth's influence over the development of theological interpretation, this commonality is helpful both genetically (all three trace their thought to the–proximate–source) and substantively (their proposals share enough to make disagreement intelligible, and interesting). Moreover, Jenson, Webster, and Yoder represent, between them, the three great traditions of western Christendom: catholicism, the magisterial reformation, and the radical reformation. The specific ways in which their ecclesial commitments shape, inform, and at times determine their theological treatments of Scripture provide ideal examples of the phenomenon at issue in this dissertation.

Across five chapters, the project's principal aim is to demonstrate as well as examine the inseparable relationship between theology of Scripture and theology of the church. Along the way, the positions and proposals represented by Yoder, Jenson, and 'Webster come to light, and critical analysis of each highlights their respective strengths and shortcomings. In fulfilling these tasks the dissertation serves both as an initial reception of these theologians' bibliologies and as a critique of a feature–at times a problem–endemic to the current renewal of theological interpretation of Scripture.

Using theories of nationalism from Anthony D. Smith, Benedict Anderson, and Barry Shenker, alterity as discussed by Kim Knott and Jonathan Z. Smith, and conversion theories from Joseph Rosenbloom, Lewis Rambo, and Andrew Buckser, this thesis examines four "snapshots" of Israelite/Jewish history for evidence of the use of conversion as a necessary component of "nation building." Periods analyzed include the Israelite Period, Post-Exilic Ezra and Nehemiah, Second Temple Hasmonean Kingdom, and the Late Antique Mishnaic Period. By analyzing primary sources and related scholarship, this thesis seeks to show that conversion is not only a necessary component of building an intentional community, but also that the early Jewish community leaders employed conversion as a means to ensure the continuity of their people and history.

This project addresses the subtle pneumatological shifts in doctrine and in practice that have taken place in the Pentecostal Movement in North America over the past several decades and the relationship of these shifts to a decline in growth.

The biblical-theological literature review establishes a solid biblical-theological foundation for the importance of Spirit baptism as empowerment for the fulfillment of God's mission, the vital significance of initial evidence as a gateway to the increased manifestation of the charismata (1 Cor. 12:8-10), the critical role of the charismata in effective ministry and mission, and the importance of leaders creating a learning environment to equip believers to minister the gifts of the Spirit. The general literature review emphasizes the experienced presence of God and the baptism in the Holy Spirit as central to Pentecostal spirituality, the key role of the charismata in church growth, and the ramifications for the future in developing a Pentecostal model of ministry.

The School of the Spirit (SOS) uses sound teaching and activation exercises to provide believers the opportunity to exercise the gifts of the Spirit under the guidance of spiritual leaders. SOS helps believers to develop confidence in operating in the gifts as a natural part of a lifestyle that builds up the church and provides a powerful witness to the community as they proclaim the gospel with confirming signs and wonders.

In addition to the immediate benefit to the participants of the SOS, it also provides a curriculum for Pentecostal and charismatic pastors and spiritual leaders who desire to equip their congregations or groups to minister in the gifts of the Spirit.