Scripture, Spirituality And Society Research Centre

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    Tithing Practices Among Seventh-day Adventists: A Study of Tithe Demographics and Motives in Australia, Brazil, England, Kenya and the United States
    (2016-01-01) McIver, Robert

    This book provides answers to the following questions:

    • “What is the tithing behavior of the different age-groups that make up the congregations found in Seventh-day Adventist churches?”

    • “What is motivating Seventh-day Adventists to tithe?”

    The answers are based on the results of the analysis of more than 118,000 separate tithe receipts and the responses of over 8,000 surveys collected in five countries.

    WHO WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS BOOK?

    • Academics and researchers who are interested in the demographics of and motivations for giving behavior;

    • Professionals such as church pastors, church administrators, stewardship directors, church treasurers, and others who are interested in what is motivating church members to tithe, and the various factors that influence giving;

    • Anybody who is interested in patterns of and motives for giving.

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    The Teaching of History as a Transformative Christian Tool in the Tertiary Classroom: A Study of Student Responses
    (2020-12-01) Reynaud, Daniel

    This is a study of student responses to the teaching of history in an American university context, conducted by an Australian professional on a year’s exchange. It is based on an analysis of data drawn from student response surveys conducted across the units taught. The results highlight a number of key principles for a curriculum that is centred around the revealing of Jesus, particularly in the nature and effect of the learning experiences he created as a master teacher during his earthly ministry. Students identified the following qualities as responsible for measurable changes in their attitudes and perspectives: inspirational teaching, the promotion of critical thinking and discernment and the creation of relevant Christ-centred educational encounters, utilising an inquiry-oriented, open-discussion, and deep-learning context. Students considered these approaches transformational, inspiring them to life-long learning. This study draws on the Christian educational perspectives of White (1903), Palmer (1993) and Kilgour (2019), particularly for its theoretical framework.

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    Vocal Exegesis: Reading Scripture Publicly without the Heresy of Boredom
    (2014-07-01) Kent, Grenville J.

    This chapter considers the public reading of Scripture, with the aim of expressing its literary beauty and theological richness and doing ‘vocal exegesis’, rather than losing these due to lack of preparation and committing the ‘heresy of boredom’. It suggests strategies for readers to prepare, to consider words, phrases and images, and to make interpretive choices, note variety in texts and read characters.

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    The Death of Baldr
    (2014-09-21) Howard Race, Claire; Smith, Paul

    Current national developments in composition have identified a lack of chamber music repertoire for non-traditional combinations of instruments. This composition, The Death of Baldr by Australian composer Paul Smith, was commissioned by clarinetist, Ian Sykes, and premiered by the Sirius Chamber Ensemble. The composition was a collaborative process, being work-shopped with minor edits made to the score to adapt to the ensemble.

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    If 'Poetry is more a Threshold than a Path' Then What Might Students Redress to Help With Crossing Over?
    (2014-12-01) Williams, Anthony; Northcote, Maria T.; Rickett, Carolyn; Musgrave, David; Beveridge, Judith

    If Seamus Heaney’s observation that ‘poetry is more a threshold than a path’ aligns with the lived experience of those who teach or study the art of writing poetry, then there is an ongoing pedagogical discussion to be had about the way students acquire skills and achieve competency in writing poetry in a tertiary learning context.

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    No News Today': 24/7 Fatigue and the Welcome Gaps in Reporting Storylines.
    (2014-12-01) Rickett, Carolyn; Joseph, Sue

    Obviously, media convergence and the 24-hour news cycle have crossed these containment lines to produce boundless data—we deliberately employ the word data here as opposed to the mediation of meaningful information that is often sacrificed in the commodification and commercialisation of news as product.

    The more traditional editorial practice used to determine whether a storyline constitutes ‘news’ involves a mapping to at least one or more standard news values. These now often run second to the pressing agenda of media entities needing to present something, or anything, continuously to the public.

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    Something to Hang my Life on: The Health Benefits of Writing Poetry for People with Serious Illnesses
    (2011-06-01) Gordon, Jill; Greive, Cedric; Rickett, Carolyn

    Objective: We aimed to explore the effect of a poetry writing program for people who had experienced a serious illness.

    Method: For this study we randomly assigned 28 volunteer participants with a history of serious illness, usually cancer, to one of two poetry writing workshops. Each group met weekly for 2 hours for 8 weeks. The second group was wait-listed to enable comparison between the two groups. We used the Kessler-10, a measure of wellbeing, before and after the workshops and also interviewed the participants at these times.

    Results: Participants responded enthusiastically and each group demonstrated an increase in wellbeing over the course of their workshop, moving them from medium to low risk on the K10. Participants enjoyed the challenge of writing and the companionship of other group members.

    Conclusions: Psychiatrists, especially those working in liaison psychiatry, are in a position to encourage patients who have experienced a serious illness to explore writing as a way of coming to terms with their experiences.

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    The Flogging of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel
    (2014-05-01) Young, Norman H.

    The Fourth Gospel’s (FG) account of Jesus’ trial before Pontius Pilate has some affinities with Mark and-to a lesser degree-with Luke’s narrative; but overall, John marches according to his own drum-beat. The most obvious difference between the FG’s account of the Roman Trial and the Synoptics is their length. The FG devotes 593 words to its account (18.28-19.16) of the trial compared with 338 words for Matthew (27.11- 31), 265 for Mark (15.1-20), and 252 for Luke (23.1-5, 13-25). However, a more startling difference is the FG’s positioning of the scourging and the Roman soldiers’ mocking of Jesus in the midst of Pilate’s investigation of the charges against Jesus. Matthew and Mark place these events at the end of Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus, just prior to his being handed over to be crucified. In contrast the FG situates them in the midst of Pilate’s inquiry, that is, as scene four (John 19.1-3) of the seven scenes that form the FG’s trial narrative. Thus John distances the scourging and the troops’ mockery from Pilate’s handing Jesus over to be crucified. Why does he do this? He does it for dramatic effect: so as to forcefully portray the abused, pitiable, and mocked Jesus, as indeed being the true King (Messiah) of Israel. Hence the FG’s remarkably frequent use of basileu/j and basilei/a in its trial narrative.

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    A Presentation of 4QLXXNum in Comparison with the LXX and MT
    (2013-10-01) van Wyk, Koot

    Texts from Qumran received attention in publications and research since their discovery. The text under investigation here is no exception. There are some serious questions to consider in relation with this text: What can this Qumran text tell us about the relationship with the consonantal text of the Masoretic Tradition? What can it tell us about its relationship with any of the Ancient Translations? What can it tell us about its relationship with the so-called LXX or Septuagint? And what can it tell us about the condition of the Septuagint in the pre-Christian era? What scholars may not have realized, is that 4QLXXNum is able to tell us something about the conditions of the Hebrew Vorlage in the pre-Christian period related to the existence or not of one canonical perceived and applied text. Textual variety over millennia is no secret nor surprise. Close correlation of texts over millennia is a noteworthy surprise. It appears that 4QLXXNum is the survival of a pre-Antiochus Epiphanes text-form of the Septuagint (pre-164 BCE) which was more literal and in line with the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition than the Greek text-form that survived in post-Epiphanes times through Christian hands. Since 4QLXXNum is aligning so well with the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition (a period of nearly 1148 years) the stability of these two texts calls for a canon form to have existed almost identical to the consonantal text of the Masoretic tradition from which the literal translation was made. It implies that this form existed already at Qumran. Any deviation from this standard is later and due to degenerative scholarship. Wevers is correct, he did not reconstruct the original Septuagint of Genesis for the Göttingen edition. He reconstructed the post-Epiphanes degenerative product and what was preserved through Christian hands, and not the original, of which 4QLXXNum is an example.

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    The Epistle to the Hebrews as Pastoral Encouragement
    (2015-03-01) Young, Norman H.

    The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews writes to a small group of former Jews, who are now followers of Christ. They have suffered much on account of their commitment to Jesus, and many of them have faltered in their pilgrimage of faith.Their pastor is temporarily absent from the group, so he writes to encourage them to persevere, and to warn them of the serious implications of abandoning their faith in Jesus.

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    Slow Combusting Hymn
    (Cerberus Press, 2014-08-01) Rickett, Carolyn

    The published poems that form the authors ‘Slow Combusting Hymn’ portfolio reflect aspects of the scope and experience of their doctoral program and research interests, which have at their core a personal engagement with writing as a therapeutic response to witnessing another person’s illness or death. These poems might be regarded as works of mourning, and a responsive insistence on creating some kind of textual continuity.

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    Channel
    (2015-02-01) Morris, Richard

    The painting Channel - enamel and butyl rubber on plywood 36cm x 32cm in the exhibition Richard Morris Paintings 2015 exhibited at ASW Art Systems Wickham, Newcastle., was formed by deconstructing pre-painted panels, into narrow rectilinear units, which have been re-assembled into a horizontally stacked rectilinear configuration. By utilising a strictly horizontal assembly or ‘stack’ of painted ‘splinters’ of plywood, each with distinct variation in both colour and texture, the work entails a type of stratification, suggestive of a landscape ‘field.’ Such notions can be seen to stem from a similar structuring configuration in the horizontal bands of earth, water and sky which typify a conventional observation of the physical landscape.

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    Fighting Mac: The Story of William McKenzie
    (Hope Channel, 2014-04-25) Livingston, Daniel; Hamilton, Mal; Reynaud, Daniel

    A report on the reach, audience and effectiveness of SDA Hope television channel showed that its audience was predominantly composed of retired conservative SDAs. One of the top-rating programmes among them was It Is Written Oceania (IIWO).

    IIWO’s mission statement claims that it ‘is a deeply spiritual ministry passionate about communicating the Gospel to the world.’ However, while also broadcast on commercial television, it is confined to the 3.30 and 4.30 am slots on two major commercial networks.

    The purpose of this research project was to explore the form and content required to make an episode of IIWO which meets both the spiritual ministry mission of IIWO and at the same time appeals to a mainstream Australian audience during daytime screenings.

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    Faith of the Anzacs
    (Hope Channel, 2010-04-23) Hamilton, Mal; Portbury, Kyle; Livingston, Daniel; Reynaud, Daniel

    The significance of this research is demonstrated in that 7Two Prime accepted the programme and broadcast it at 12.30am on Anzac Day, before the Anzac Day AFL match. It forms one episode of a larger series titled ‘Faith of the Anzacs’ that has received prime daytime screenings on Anzac Days over successive years since 2010, achieving peak audiences of up to 250,000 in the Eastern States of Australia. By reducing verbal content, heightening the emotional content, introducing a more dynamic presentation through discussion between the presenter and a historian and by choosing a topic which has wide secular appeal, the programme has transcended its previous audience barriers.

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    The Enduring Influence of the King James Version
    (2012-01-01) Ball, Bryan W.

    This chapter traces the lasting influence of the King James, or Authorised, Version of the Bible on several aspects of Western culture, including the English language, art, music, education, social reform and democracy.

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    Gustaf Dalman, Anti-Semitism, and the Language of Jesus Debate
    (2010-02-01) Thompson, Steven

    The theory that Jesus of Nazareth spoke and taught exclusively in Aramaic rather than Hebrew achieved its present dominant position just over a century ago due largely to the labour of Gustaf Dalman. His primary motivation was not the recovery of the historical Jesus, however, but to support his deep commitment to the Protestant movement to convert Jews. This movement did not escape the impact of escalating anti-Semitism in society, intensified by rapid progress towards German national unification. One Christian response to anti-Semitism was to "extract" Jesus from Judaism by contrasting him with "Jewish" attitudes and values held by Jewish spiritual authorities. Dalman's contribution was to extract Jesus from the ethnically exclusive Hebrew language by insisting that he spoke only the more widely-used lingua franca of the region, Aramaic. By over-stating his case and going beyond the evidence, Dalman revealed his indebtedness to the anti-Semitic spirit of his age.

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    Pig Taboos in the Ancient near East
    (2014-11-01) van Wyk, Koot

    The cardinal study on the topic of pig eating in the Ancient Near East, is the work of Billie Jean Collins (2006). She focused basically on the issue as it relates to the Hittite cuneiform texts but did also probe sideways to other nations and the Bible, albeit minor comments. This study wishes to stand on the shoulders of Collins, adjusting some statements, adding other aspects from Archaeological sites and Gerhard Hasel’s explanation of Clean and Unclean in Leviticus 11. What was found in this presentation, is that chronology as backbone in the Scriptures, if taken seriously, could explain the presence or absence of pig eating practices also among the Hittites and Egyptians (the New Kingdom).

    This research has investigated Collins’ contribution of Hittites and Pig Consumption, Pigs in Hittite archaeology, Pigs in Egypt, Pigs in Mesopotamia, Pigs in Zoo-archaeology at Hesban in Transjordan, Pigs at Sites in Canaan, Pigs as Offerings in Hittite Rituals, Pig Taboo Rules in the Ancient Near East, Pigs as Medical Use in Mesopotamia, Pig Taboo in the Old Testament by Ackerman (1992) and Collins (2006), Pig Taboo among Later Greeks, Pig Taboo in the Old Testament by Gerhard Hasel (1991,1994).

    Whereas the other Nations around Israel display an S-curve or down-trend and up-trend in the appearance and disappearance of evidence for the taboo against pig-eating, among the Israelites it was a straight line unchanged. For that matter, the sojourn in Egypt, the Exodus from Egypt, the presence in Assyria, the presence in Babylonia or Egypt later during the exiles and Persian periods, should be taken into consideration for observations from cuneiform texts, from papyri or pyramid texts or from the travel descriptions of Herodotus. The biblical reality of Israelites living in these domains under consideration and the evidence or absence of taboos against pig-eating from the same areas and times, necessitate re-evaluations of the data.

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    From Part to Whole: Synergy and the Assembled Trajectory
    (2015-02-01) Morris, Richard

    The compositional flexibility inherent in an aesthetic compositional system such as the grid, and in the convention of assemblage, offer artist’s with a structural freedom to explore some evocative compositional possibilities. Examples of such possibilities can be seen in the assembled "trajectories" attending works which utilize a contiguous arrangement of discreet parts. A trajectory could be described as a discernable visual "logic," or visual coherence amongst distinct yet neighboring parts in a work, and in some cases, also their potential direction of interpretation. Such a trajectory may exhibit a unity of structure and fluidity of interpretation for the viewer, so that they may be able to discern a palpable synergism amongst dissimilar parts. This paper will look at a selection of works which can be seen to employ the grid and/or assemblage for the purpose of forming evocative linear trajectories. Common to each of the works explored, is the compositional juxtaposition of discreet components which have been utilized for the purpose of forming such trajectories. Each work will be discussed on the basis of the viewer’s perceptual encounter with specific trajectories identified in each work.

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    The English Connection: The Puritan Roots of Seventh-day Adventist Belief
    (2014-09-30) Ball, Bryan W.

    A guide to how 17th-century Puritan theology doctrines influenced the development of Seventh-Day Adventism.

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    Preface to 2nd Edition
    (2015-01-01) Reynaud, Daniel

    This book chapter covers the origins, history and significance of Romanian poetry, couched in the broader context of world literature, and explains the importance of the translation in giving access to an otherwise obscure European literature to a wider Anglophone audience.