Andrew J. Frost and Dr. Victor L. Ludlow, Ancient Scripture History: This project began as a class assignment for Dr. Ludlow’s Writings of Isaiah class. One of the sections that I found most helpful in Dr. Ludlow’s class was the section on poetic parallelism. Dr. Ludlow identifies a visual symbol of each of seven types […]
The Correlation between Religiosity and Education in Mexico
Mark and Janel Williams and Dr. Keith Wilson, Ancient Scripture A common concern for religious leaders for centuries has been the effect of education on religious devotion. During medieval times in Europe, leaders of the Catholic Church found that secular education was not compatible with church doctrines, and they strongly discouraged church members from studying […]
A Pictorial Perspective of Isaiah
Jared Miller, Victor Ludlow (Ancient Scripture) and Jason Zimmer (Visual Arts) Jared Miller A Pictorial Perspective of Isaiah Faculty Mentors: Victor Ludlow, Ancient Scripture and Jason Zimmer, Visual Arts Taking a pictorial perspective of Isaiah, and glimpsing the visions of his painted poetry had always seemed to personally open a window of understanding to his […]
A Study of the Evolution of the Angel of Death in Jewish Literature
Carolyn Plocher and Dr. Jared Ludlow, Religious Education My original proposal was entitled “Ancient Near Eastern Perspectives on the Process of Death in the Hellenistic Period.” I initially chose this topic because the human fascination with death extends far back into history; in fact, it alone has been the reason for the founding of many […]
Orality, Social Memory, and the Apocryphal Acts
David M. Nielsen and Dr. Kristian Heal, Director, Center for the Study and Preservation of Ancient Religious Texts The corpus of texts that constitute the New Testament apocrypha is large, to make a gross understatement. It is a vast collection that spans the continents, languages, and centuries of the early Church and rightly so would […]
The Chrism in the Gospel of Philip
Christopher J. Dawe and Dr. Gaye Strathearn, Ancient Scripture The Gospel of Philip, while not the most famous of the Gnostic texts found with the lost documents of Nag Hammadi Library in 1945 does offer an exciting glimpse at the ritual sacraments used by Valentininian Gnostics. In the view of the anonymous author of Philip […]
Morphometric Analysis of Banana Phytoliths
Terry Ball and Dr. Terry Ball, Dean of Religious Education The banana is an important crop in the South Pacific that provides not only food, but fiber and other products as well. Because it is a vegetatively propagated crop, it is only with the help of humanity that it has spread so far across that […]
A Greater Understanding of the Joseph Smith Translations
Paul W. Lambert and Dr. Thomas Wayment, Ancient Scripture The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible has been the source of religious research and study for years. From the time that the Prophet Joseph Smith began his revisions of the Bible, both believers and nonbelievers have been intrigued by the process and doctrinal contributions of […]
Significant Symbols in World Religions
Vance Bohman and Dr. Alonzo Gaskill, Department of Religion The intent of this project is to produce an encyclopedia of the symbols of the major religions of the world, providing information regarding their origin, as well as their use historically, and how that use has changed over time, including their adoption by other faiths. This […]
Reexamining the Dating of P. Oxy. LCIV 4405 (ß52) Based on Section Division Analysis
Michael Trotter and Dr. Thomas Wayment, Ancient Scripture The purpose of my project has been to reevaluate the current dating of P. Oxy. LXIV 4405, which is currently dated to the late II or early III century. This papyrus fragment preserves a section of Matthew 23: 30–39, and its original dating by Peter Parsons, and […]