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Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States: Southeast
No full textOpen access also available at: http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/us-global-climate-change-reportsoutheast.pdfA description of climate change impacts in the Southeast of the US Teaching Method: Background information; scientific assessment to have students update or apply to a new location.Union of Concerned Scientists; USGCR
Spirit of Water, Spirit of Aloha: An Experiential Program of Reflection and Formation
No full textChristian communities are in need of connecting personal experience of God in Creation with traditional teachings of the church. By developing an experiential course of formation and reflection using three unique areas of focus, participants in one community are given an opportunity to deepen their own spiritual lives. The areas of focus are: an experience with naturally occurring water sources, values found in the tradition of native Hawaiian culture, and the language of covenant given in the Episcopal
Book of Common Prayer. When integrated through the lens of experience and reflection, these three areas can help develop a richer understanding of the Spirituality of Creation. This project is an example of how that process works by reorienting perception and opening the individual to new experiences of God in creation.Dr. Robin R. Gottfrie
Monsters of Japan and the Globalization of Folklorism: Oni and Their Representations in "InuYasha" and "The Legend of Zelda."
Get PDFThis paper looks at the anime series InuYasha as well as the video game series The Legend of Zelda and analyzes the depictions of Japanese demons (oni) within their narratives, demonstrating the importance of these images and their effects on our cultural understanding
Green Rhodes: Sustainability in the ACS
Get PDFThis represents a Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClkWzfb1u-Q&list=PLwuab1ZTDczStvDUUIJaRZjjabuGQyQdp&index=1This short documentary film discusses student efforts to combat climate change and encourage environmental sustainability at Rhodes College.
Teaching Method: This film demonstrates student and staff involvement in campus sustainability projects
Furman ACS Video
Get PDFThis entry links to a Youtube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eXRDmuaxFI&index=3&list=PLwuab1ZTDczStvDUUIJaRZjjabuGQyQdpFurman University was one of the charter signatories of the President's Climate Commitment back in 2007 and is striving to be carbon neutral by 2026. This video highlights some of the efforts Furman is taking to help meet that goal.
Teaching Method: This film was created in conjunction with a First Year Seminar
The Diocesan Intern program in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas: A presentation of the Diocesan Intern Program with evaluation, comparison, and recommendations for future applications
Get PDFThe demands of the modern church on its clergy are as complex and multifaceted as at any time in history. One of the ongoing issues facing the Episcopal Church is the process by which it equips, with God’s help, its clergy to navigate this complexity. For one to live a long, productive and joyful life in the ministry requires a profound sense of personal identity grounded in God’s grace. It also requires very intentional decision-making regarding the habits of a healthy life. This includes patterns of prayer, work and rest as well as fostering healthy and life giving relationships. It also necessitates particular attention to physical and mental health. More recently it has become clear that the experiences a recently ordained person has early on in ministry are seminal in the development of these healthy patterns.
The Episcopal Diocese of Texas has a program designed to address these issues at the beginning of ordained ministry. First, a newly ordained person is placed in a two-year curacy in a parish or institutional ministry setting where he or she can work under the careful guidance of an experienced person in Holy Orders. Secondly, The Episcopal Diocese of Texas requires those recently ordained to participate in a series of retreats with other recent ordinands and experienced clergy facilitators in a Diocesan Internship Program, or “Curate Camp”.
The scope of this Doctorate of Ministry project is to describe the development and content of Curate Camp, test its assumptions, and assess its impact on participants.
The project begins with the articulation of a Vision for Ministry by the author. This vision provides both the rationale for the author’s interest and commitment to the project, as well as the perspective from which the Diocesan Internship is evaluated by the project.
Following the articulation of a vision for ministry, there is as description of the theological and practical rationale for a program like the Diocesan Internship Program. This includes a summary of some of the recent research material that is available regarding the importance of the first five years of ministry.
Second, there is a presentation of the history of the Diocese of Texas internship program from its inception. This includes interviews with the bishops, diocesan staff and facilitators who created the program to develop a clear understanding of its goals and how those goals were implemented into programmatic components. There are also interviews with the various clergy facilitators who led the program since its inception and descriptions of changes they made, and presentation of the rationale for those changes. Particular attention is paid to the changes made after the author became a facilitator of the program.
Third, a review all of the feedback gathered from the participants at the end of each series of retreats since the program’s inception is presented.
Fourth, the results of a qualitative longitudinal evaluation survey, designed and implemented under the direction of a professional statistician are presented.
Fifth, this project presents a description of the Second Three Years Program at the Virginia Theological Seminary. This program is designed to offer peer support, continued education, mentoring and self-development for the most recently ordained graduates of VTS and it is similar to the work we are doing in the Diocese of Texas. This allows the Diocese to Texas to compare its work to another program with similar goals, and informs adaptations the author recommends for the future.
Finally the results of this history, research and comparison are complied to make specific recommendations for the Diocese of Texas for changes in the program for the future.Rev. Dr. William Brosen
The Gift of Silence: A Renewed Call to Contemporary Pentecostals to the Spiritual Discipline of Silence
No full textPentecostals are known for being vociferous and boisterous in worship, and generally eschew silence. The thesis of this project, The Gift of Silence: a renewed call to contemporary Pentecostals to the spiritual discipline of silence, however, is that the discipline of silence is not antithetical to Pentecostal spirituality. On the contrary, silence has been, and can continue to be an important and indispensable aspect of Pentecostal spirituality.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of Pentecostal spirituality, based on Russell P. Spittler’s “five implicit values governing Pentecostal spirituality.” These values are individual experience, oral tradition, otherworldliness, spontaneity, and biblical authority. Discussion focuses on ways in which these five values affect personal and communal life, worship, and prayer in the Pentecostal community. Documents from Pentecostal denominations are cited for authenticity.
Chapter 2 addresses the subjects of silence in prayer and worship, citing biblical examples (from both Testaments), Early Church Fathers, and Pentecostal writers from the first half of the 20th century.
Chapter 3 issues a call to contemporary Pentecostals to reconsider the spiritual discipline of silence in prayer and worship. It explores the influences of popular contemporary Christian youth culture on contemporary Pentecostal prayer and worship. Then, contemporary Pentecostals are asked to reconsider the spiritual discipline of silence in prayer and worship as a viable and vital aspect of Pentecostal spirituality. Biblical foundations and precedence, practice among early Pentecostals, and deep roots in Early Church spirituality are given as reasons to reconsider the discipline of silence in prayer and worship. Then, encouragement is offered to direct interested Pentecostals toward a better understanding of the discipline of silence.
The conclusion gives a brief summary of the project, and restates the thesis. Then suggestions are given for Pentecostals who would like to explore further the spiritual discipline of silence: a suggested bibliography, and suggestions for the personal and corporate practice of silence.
A bibliography of sources cited is provided at the end of the project.Professor Robert Davis Hughes, III, School of Theolog
Divine Beauty: Experiencing God through sight and sound
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis is to examine divine beauty as experienced through the senses, in particularly the senses associated with sight and sound. Since Western Christian Spirituality emerged out of Eastern Christian Spirituality, this thesis will examine both traditions. This, in turn, will include specific examples of Easter music and art as well as Western music and art.
It is important to point out that Divine Beauty, first and foremost, is found in all aspects of creation and nature. It’s difficult to imagine experiencing the beauty of nature without at least pondering it originating, in some way, from a divine being. That being said, this thesis closely focuses on the incarnational beauty as manifested by the creativity of human endeavors.
This thesis will also offer a working definition of theological aesthetics and the reemergence of the mystical
components that go along with theological aesthetics in the more recent decades.
The purpose of this endeavor is to encourage the reader of this thesis to delve deeper into a more sensual and spiritual experience of God. To put it another way, this endeavor is meant to encourage the reader to gain a deeper desire for “heart, body, and soul knowledge” of God. This kind of knowledge may be difficult to experience in any other way outside of one’s senses.
This deepening of “heart knowledge” of God can lead a person to experience, transcendence and/or transfiguration, which will also be outlined within this thesis. This change of being will, in turn, cause transformation.
It is also important to point out that this thesis meant to, hopefully, cause the reader to desire the transformation that springs out of experiencing divine beauty. This kind of transformation may result in a person being so enraptured by God that their attitude towards God, God’s beloved, and all of God’s creation, may be changed to desire that person to love more deeply. This in turn, will result in positive action that pours out from a deep love of God. In other words, a person’s moral being is altered through being transformed from experiencing divine beauty.
The concluding chapters of this thesis focus on sacrament, worship, and application, all of which are meant to show examples of how to mediate the experience of divine beauty. The two primary examples that are described are the Eucharist and Taizé style of worship. Both of these engage the senses in profound ways and when one is open to it, can cause one to experience transformation.
Finally, this thesis includes two appendixes of specific images examined within this theses as well as the text of Rachmaninoff’s Vespers in hopes that the reader will desire experiencing these beautiful pieces of art that are divinely inspiring. With these specific examples along with the rest of this thesis, it is also the hope that those who are engaged in ministry, in some way, will find ways of creating a sacred space that engages the senses. Again, this will, in turn create the space to move deeper into experiencing divine beauty.Professor Robert MacSwain and Professor Martin L. Smit
Oak Savanna Restoration Through Thinning and Prescribed Burning on the Southern Cumberland Plateau
Get PDFThis study was conducted in compartment 20 at Sewanee: The University of the South located atop the Cumberland Plateau at approximately 1900 ft in elevation . The 56-acre site is located at about 35°13’22” N and 85°55’58” W. The forest is an upland oak-hickory forest with a shortleaf and Virginia pine component . Non-native eastern white pine is also comprised of the forest, and is planted in plantations and along the adjoining fire lines. The reference condition in this restoration project is the year 1959 in which the forest was largely comprised of oak and other hardwoods interspersed with some shortleaf, had low tree density, and did not contain eastern white pine . Pre- and post-treatment inventories were conducted, and prescribed fire will be used at the site in the spring of 2013.Dr. Ken Smith; FORS 262 Class Projec
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States: Southeast
No full textA description of climate change impacts in the Southeast of the US Teaching Method: Background information; scientific assessment to have students update or apply to a new location.Associated Colleges of the Sout