Presbyterian Theological Research Articles

Curricular Information Demand in Theological Degrees: Operationalizing a Key Concept for Library Services

If seminary libraries exist to support student information needs, then librarians need specific knowledge about how a given school's curriculum shapes such needs. This article puts forward a model of the intended curriculum in master's-level theological education. Based on analysis of the intended theological curriculum (giving special attention to the use of student time), the author posits curricular information demand (CID) as a way to describe with precision how courses and degree programs expect students to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information. CID has a weaker measure based on analysis of syllabi and a stronger measure based on analysis of actual student work. The author presents examples of CID for courses at Austin Presbyterian Theological School. Finally, the author calls for research to analyze the usefulness of the model.

Doing Theology On the Center, Today and Tomorrow: A Study on the Formation of the Identity of the Theology at Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary

Doing Theology On the Center, Today and Tomorrow: A Study on the Formation of the Identity of the Theology at Presbyterian College and Theological Seminary

Davis, Thomas J. This Is My Body: The Presence of Christ in Reformation Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2008. 203 pp. $26.00 (paper).

Previous articleNext article No AccessDavis, Thomas J. This Is My Body: The Presence of Christ in Reformation Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2008. 203 pp. $26.00 (paper).Christopher ElwoodChristopher ElwoodLouisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 91, Number 2April 2011 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/660712 Views: 11Total views on this site © 2011 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Barry Aron Vann . In Search of Ulster‐Scots Land: The Birth and Geotheological Imagings of a Transatlantic People, 1603–1703 . Columbia : University of South Carolina Press . 2008 . Pp. ix, 252. $39.95.

What the Mediterranean Sea was for Fernand Braudel and the Atlantic Ocean has been for a host of contemporary scholars, the north Irish Sea is for Barry Aron Vann. In the early modern world, bodies of water provided the most effective means of moving people, ideas, and institutions throughout large areas and defining the cultural space of distinct and important regions. Vann's Ulster-Scots Land emerged in the seventeenth century as Scots Calvinists moved readily throughout southwestern Scotland and eastern Ulster. In the process, Puritan divines created among themselves and their congregants an imagined community of shared beliefs, rituals, and enemies. The plantation of Ulster in the early seventeenth century first engaged Scottish landlords and their dependents in colonizing Ireland for the interest of English security during a series of European struggles between Protestant and Catholic powers. But it was the politics of religious conflict in the 1630s, the English Civil Wars, and the Stuart Restoration that welded leaders of the Scottish Kirk into a community embracing the northern borders of the Irish Sea. Imbued with the fervor of Knoxian Calvinism, English Puritanism, the Scottish Confession of Faith, the National Covenant, an Old Testament sense of the Scots as God's chosen people, and a vision of Ireland as a New Canaan, Presbyterian ministers crossed and recrossed this sea in the service of salvation and sacred destiny. The result was not only the creation of an “Irish Sea culture area” (p. 11) but also the forging of the Ulster Scots as a providential people. Vann's familiarity with the sources for Presbyterian theology, the history of the Kirk, and the culture of Puritanism make for a strong argument about the historical integrity and regional coherence of an Ulster-Scots Land and an identity for Ulster Scots more closely associated with the “geotheological imagings” of this land than with any sense of Scottish, Irish, English, or British nationhood.

Presbyterians and science in the north of Ireland before 1874

In his presidential address to the Belfast meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1874, John Tyndall launched what David Livingstone has called a 'frontal assault on teleology and Christian theism'. Using Tyndall's intervention as a starting point, this paper seeks to understand the attitudes of Presbyterians in the north of Ireland to science in the first three-quarters of the nineteenth century. The first section outlines some background, including the attitude of Presbyterians to science in the eighteenth century, the development of educational facilities in Ireland for the training of Presbyterian ministers, and the specific cultural and political circumstances in Ireland that influenced Presbyterian responses to science more generally. The next two sections examine two specific applications by Irish Presbyterians of the term 'science': first, the emergence of a distinctive Presbyterian theology of nature and the application of inductive scientific methodology to the study of theology, and second, the Presbyterian conviction that mind had ascendancy over matter which underpinned their commitment to the development of a science of the mind. The final two sections examine, in turn, the relationship between science and an eschatological reading of the signs of the times, and attitudes to Darwinian evolution in the fifteen years between the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859 and Tyndall's speech in 1874.

O discurso acadêmico de Rubem Alves sobre "protestantismo" e "repressão": algumas observações 30 anos depois

Em 1979 foi publicado um dos primeiros ensaios críticos do protestantismo brasileiro. Seu autor, Rubem Alves, então teólogo presbiteriano, professor de filosofia e psicanalista, usando a linguagem da filosofia política, apresentou um livro que viria a se tornar um texto clássico no estudo do protestantismo brasileiro: Protestantismo e Repressão. Para isso criou um tipo ideal: "Protestantismo da Reta Doutrina" e desenvolveu uma metodologia própria, de inspiração fenomenológica e weberiana. Hoje, quase 30 anos depois, uma segunda edição surge com o nome "Religião e Repressão". Este artigo, partindo de sugestões da Sociologia do Conhecimento e das propostas de Pierre Bourdieu, procura descrever o campo religioso brasileiro em que esse texto surgiu, o contexto intelectual e político, discutindo a epistemologia e a metodologia empregada por Alves na confecção de sua obra.

Christian Life is Life in the Church

The Ecumenical ReviewVolume 59, Issue 4 p. 514-518 Christian Life is Life in the Church Kathryn L. Johnson, Kathryn L. Johnson Dr Kathryn L. Johnson is interim director of the office for ecumenical affairs at the Lutheran World Federation. She is professor of historical theology and Paul Tudor Jones professor of church history at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, USA. This sermon was preached for the Lutheran World Federation Week of Meetings in October 2007.Search for more papers by this author Kathryn L. Johnson, Kathryn L. Johnson Dr Kathryn L. Johnson is interim director of the office for ecumenical affairs at the Lutheran World Federation. She is professor of historical theology and Paul Tudor Jones professor of church history at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, USA. This sermon was preached for the Lutheran World Federation Week of Meetings in October 2007.Search for more papers by this author First published: 26 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6623.2007.tb00655.x Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume59, Issue4October 2007Pages 514-518 RelatedInformation

REVIEW AND CRITICISM: RESEARCH PIONEER TRIBUTE—Jennings Bryant: The "Compleat" Scholar

Jennings Bryant is one of the last true generalists in the field of mass communication. The name of this prolific scholar is inexorably linked with entertainment theory, media effects, television and children, and mass communication theory. The successful journal Media Psychology, developed under his conceptualization and tutelage, continues to thrive. In any good library, one can fill an entire shelf with his classic scholarly volumes and textbooks, and the Erlbaum Communication Series that he edits could fill a complete library stack. Bryant is renowned for all dimension of his scholarship--his research, teaching, and service. For 14 years, Bryant served as director of the Institute for Communication Research at the University of Alabama, where he directed research contracts totaling more than $7.6 million for governmental agencies, foundations, and corporate clients. From 2002 to 2003, he served as president of the International Communication Association, one of the discipline's most prestigious scholarly organizations. In 2006, he received a BEA Distinguished Scholar Award. Through the years, he has spoken at conferences and universities around the world. His books have been published in a number of different languages, including Spanish, Russian, Romanian, Korean, and Chinese. But Bryant is not your typical, run-of-the-mill famous research scientist. He is not narrowly focused on one particular area of scholarly interest (thus, the epithet, the scholar, using the archaic spelling denoting the idea of a true Renaissance man; cf. Walton, The Compleat Angler, 1653/2003). He enjoys theoretical and applied research in a number of different areas, and his contributions have always been and continue to be substantial. As the director of a research institute, he proved himself highly successful and productive. As a writer and editor, his brilliance has always been and remains unmatched. In the areas of instruction and mentoring, Bryant is again the compleat scholar, as he excels not only in research and service but also in the classroom. Despite the fact that he is so famous (or, as he would say, infamous), he is not a stuffy, egotistical bore. Quite the opposite. He is kindhearted. He's friendly. He is a voracious reader--he especially loves mystery novels--and he's an avid media consumer. His intellectual versatility makes him a brilliant conversationalist. While engaged in conversation with him, one soon recognizes a delightful sense of humor (one that can take a slightly wicked turn around those he knows well) accompanied by a hearty laugh. He is a large man with a generous supply of graying hair and a graying beard to match, with Newman-blue eyes that sparkle whenever one of those warm, infectious laughs erupts. Bryant earned an A.B. in history from Davidson College in 1967 and a master's of divinity in communications and counseling from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 1971. He received his Ph.D. in mass communication from Indiana University in 1974. Bryant has three beautiful and brilliant women in his life, his wife Sara and his daughters, J. Alison and Adrienne, and one handsome and brilliant young man, his son Todd. Sara (formerly Poteat) Bryant, his wife of 38 years, teaches gifted children in Tuscaloosa. Oldest daughter Alison Bryant earned her Ph.D. in communication from the University of Southern California and is now director of research for Nickelodeon. Todd Bryant graduated in 2005 with a master's in telecommunication and film from the University of Alabama and is working as a freelance multimedia specialist in New York City, doing production and postproduction work for the likes of HBO and the Sundance Channel. Adrienne Bryant, the youngest, received her B.A. magna cum laude from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2005, with minors in philosophy and dance, and she is currently assistant manager of the Mark Morris Dance Group in New York City. …

A Companion to the Reformation World

Books reviewed:Hsia, R. Po‐chia, ed., A Companion to the Reformation World Reviewed by Arun Jones Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

The Vulnerable and Transcendent God: The Postliberal Theology of William Placher

: Between the extremes of fundamentalism and secularism, the postliberal Presbyterian theologian William Placher offers a dynamic middle way. This “Theology Update” summarizes Placher's work. Warning us against prematurely domesticating God's transcendence, Placher presents a picture of a God who is radically transcendent, and therefore recklessly immanent in creation. God is vulnerable in Christ, who saves us through solidarity, reconciliation and redemption.

Anglican and Presbyterian Presence and Theology in the Holy Land

The Anglican and Presbyterian Churches are the only two major non-traditional denominations in Jerusalem to have had an institutionalized presence in the Holy Land since the nineteenth century. Their work and presence in the region have been continuous, apart from an interruption during the two world wars. Their presence, ecclesial, social and political, repeatedly called for a re-interpretation of their theological understandings of the place of the Holy Land, perhaps especially of Jerusalem. For the purposes of this article, the primary objects of study will be the English and Scottish ‘sending’ churches and their theological interpretations, and the institutions in Jerusalem and the Holy Land that they created.

Towards a New Christian Sexual Ethics in the Light of Hiv/Aids

AbstractAccording to various statistics, about 90% of the HIV infections in Africa, south of the Sahara are got through unprotected sexual intercourse. This clearly suggests that the key to a reduction of the HIV infection rate is a change in our sexual behaviour. In this article, therefore, I want to propose some guidelines “Towards a New Christian Sexual Ethics in the Light of HIV/AIDS”, and take into consideration various aspects of an African context. Next to upholding the positive value of our sexuality as part of God's good creation, we have to empower women to determine for themselves if, when, how and with whom they want to have sexual contact. We have to emphasise values like intimacy, love, commitment and responsibility, and we should discourage casual sex and prostitution. We may also have to reconsider the relationship between sexual relationships and activities and marriage. While confirming marriage as the ideal context of sexual relationships and activities, we may encourage people to practice their sexuality only within long‐term permanent relationships that should be characterised by the principles stated above.However, since we know that humans are not perfect, we have to reckon with people who are either unwilling or unable to follow the proposed guidelines, and at this point we, as churches and Christians, cannot avoid the discussion about condoms. According to my point of view, there is no alternative than to advise those unwilling or unable people always to consistently and correctly use condoms, while at the same tune we should encourage them to change their behaviour.One of the greatest problems to introducing the proposed guidelines is certainly the widespread difficulty there is to talk about sexual matters. This is something that we have to overcome in order to save people from dying, and to lead them into real loving relationships.

BABEL, JERUSALEM AND KUMBA: MISSIOLOGI‐CAL REFLECTIONS ON GENESIS 11:1–9 AND ACTS 2:1–13

International Review of MissionVolume 92, Issue 366 p. 406-421 BABEL, JERUSALEM AND KUMBA: MISSIOLOGI-CAL REFLECTIONS ON GENESIS 11:1–9 AND ACTS 2:1–13 Hinne Wagenaar, Hinne Wagenaar Rev. Hinne Wagenaar (wagenaarvisser@hetnet.nl) wrote this article in 2001 while teaching systematic theology at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kumba, Cameroon. Currently, he works as a pastor in Wurdum in Friesland, The Netherlands, and also teaches missiology at the University of Groningen.Search for more papers by this author Hinne Wagenaar, Hinne Wagenaar Rev. Hinne Wagenaar (wagenaarvisser@hetnet.nl) wrote this article in 2001 while teaching systematic theology at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Kumba, Cameroon. Currently, he works as a pastor in Wurdum in Friesland, The Netherlands, and also teaches missiology at the University of Groningen.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.2003.tb00414.x Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume92, Issue366July 2003Pages 406-421 RelatedInformation

Jesus the Seer: The Progress of Prophecy

Increasingly scholars are realizing that prophetic traditions, expressions, and experiences stand at the heart of most religions in the ancient Mediterranean world. This is no less true for the world of Judaism and Jesus. Witherington aims to look at the broader expression of in its ancient Mediterranean context in an attempt to better understand biblical in that wider context. Equipped with an impressive appreciation for the cross-cultural nature of in the ancient world, Witherington is then able to look at the prophetic role of Jesus. the especially complements Witherington's other volume on Jesus, Jesus the Sage. Ambitious in scope, clear and compelling in presentation. Witherington has linked the eschatological prophet-sage to the complex world of Old Testament prophecy, and then gone on to trace the relationship of both to early Christian prophecy. Rarely has a New Testament scholar demonstrated such proficiency in handling Old Testament and Hebrew sources. The result is a comprehensive scriptural presentation. Christopher R. Seitz, University of St. AndrewsJesus the Seer pursues two important ends simultaneously. On the one hand, it adds yet another essential dimension to the emerging comprehensive portrait of that is being brought to light by the careful work of Ben Witherington III. On the other hand, anyone interested in prophecy in prophets and in prophesying will find Witherington s book a veritable tour of the topic. Witherington s knowledge of the contemporary study of and his picture of the phenomenon of are remarkably broad and deep. His presentation is lucid, accurate, incisive, andpersuasive. All who are interested in the complex person and ministry of the historical Jesus, especially his work as a prophet, are in Witherington s debt for this volume. Marion L. Soards, Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary In ranging over two millennia of the phenomenon of and offering a sustained interpretation of the whole phenomenon, this book is something of a tour de force. It is not too surprising that it has not been attempted before. Witherington's command of the several scholarly fields his book traverses is impressive. This book will undoubtedly stimulate fresh study of biblical within the broad historical and cultural context it provides. Richard Bauckham, University of St. Andrews

Religion and the American Civil War.

Religion and the American Civil War. Edited by Randall M. Miller, Harry S. Stout, and Charles Reagan Wilson. (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv, 422. Paper, $24.00, ISBN 0-19-512129-5; cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-19-512128-7.) This book of splendid essays had its beginning 1994 at a symposium on religion and the Civil War held at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. The individual contributors did not agree on a single religious meaning of the conflict, but their various approaches at ferreting out the way individuals experienced the war religious terms and how the Civil War even redefined religion for many illustrated the essential theme that in fundamental respects, religion stood at the center of the American Civil War experience (p. 4). Sixteen essays written for the seminar have been revised and enlarged for publication Religion and the American Civil War. A brief review can only hint at the fine arguments presented this volume. Phillip Paludan's overview points to areas needing further investigation, such as a possible connection of postwar literature emphasizing Jesus with the wartime linking of the death and carnage of war with God's purpose. Mark Noll suggests that the struggle over the Bible and slavery not only helped bring on the war, but that the war also altered the dominant hermeneutical traditions the United States. Eugene Genovese examines the doctrinal differences and their links to social and economic structures that provided the moral framework for secession and civil war. Bertram Wyatt-Brown offers a new explanation for the transformation of the lukewarm clerical support for secession into a zealous support for the Confederacy. George Fredrickson shows how the Civil War cost northern clergymen their prophetic role because they helped link God's purpose with the Union, a lashing of church to state that was difficult to untie after the war. Kurt Berends's study of the religious military press illustrates the role of the church press bolstering morale at the front and sowing seeds for the lost cause ideology. Paul Harvey claims that a Baptist democracy mixing white supremacy and evangelicalism helped southerners cope with defeat and strengthened their cultural identity (p. 168). Daniel Stowell argues that their responses to questions about God's Providence raised by Stonewall Jackson's death prepared southerners to deal with the calamity of the Confederate defeat when it came twenty-three months later. …

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal Article BOOK REVIEWS Get access Faithful Change: The Personal and Public Challenges of Postmodern Life. By James W. Fowler. Abingdon Press Press, 1996. 246 pages $24.95. Dale P. Andrews Dale P. Andrews Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Volume 67, Issue 1, March 1999, Pages 211–213, https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/67.1.211 Published: 01 March 1999

Teaching Christian Theology

Three scholars present narrative descriptions of their syllabi for the first year course in theology. David Goatley discusses the challenges of teaching theology amid the many kinds of diversity characteristic of Memphis Theological Seminary and emphasizes the importance of teaching students how to think theologically. Amy Plantinga Pauw describes the strengths and ongoing problems of an introductory course at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary which combines theology and church history. Linda Woodhead's account of teaching Christian theology in a religious studies context at Lancaster University focuses on the embodiedness of theology as key to teaching students for whom it really is a foreign language. Surveying the other essays, William Placher notes positive news about the place of Christian theology within a religious studies department and the ongoing challenges faced in many seminaries of teaching theology in less time to less well prepared students.

Alan Edmond Lewis

The last number of this Journal was already in print when news came of the death on 19th February of Dr Alan Lewis, who served for many years as one of our editors. The following tribute by President Stotts of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary speaks for all who knew and valued Alan Lewis as a colleague and friend.

Book of Common Worship: Compiled by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Theology and Ministry Unit, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church: Louisville, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993. 1108 pp. $25.00

Book of Common Worship: <i>Compiled by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Theology and Ministry Unit, and the Cumberland Presbyterian Church</i>: Louisville, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993. 1108 pp. $25.00

Doing Theology with Willie Nelson

Research Article| March 01 1994 Doing Theology with Willie Nelson Robert M. Shelton Robert M. Shelton Robert M. Shelton is the academic dean and Jean Brown Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. A small portion of this article was first published in Summary of Proceedings, Forty-Sixth Annual Conference of the American Theological Library Association, ed. Susan E. Sponberg (Evanston, Il.: American Theological Library Association, 1992). Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Black Sacred Music (1994) 8 (1): 254–264. https://doi.org/10.1215/10439455-8.1.254 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Robert M. Shelton; Doing Theology with Willie Nelson. Black Sacred Music 1 March 1994; 8 (1): 254–264. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/10439455-8.1.254 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search Books & JournalsAll JournalsBlack Sacred Music Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 1994 by Duke University Press1994 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.