Digital Commons Network^™

Discovering Life Through Loss And Grief, Darcy L. Hansen

Doctor of Ministry

In times of loss, communities of faith come alongside bereaved individuals to offer support. That support is often short lived. When the casseroles stop, grieving people feel isolated and underserved in communities of faith when pastors and community members are ill-equipped and unprepared to care for them.(2)

The reason pastors and community members are ill-prepared to care for those grieving is historically, culturally, and theologically complex. Tackling such complexity is beyond the scope of this project. Implementing Occam’s Razor, where the simplest solution, with the least moving parts, suffices, enables me to address my NPO in a creative way.(3)

For …

Broken-Hearted Mothers: Gender And Community In Joan Whitrow Et Al., The Work Of God In A Dying Maid (1677), Naomi Baker

Quaker Studies

This article discusses an early modern autobiographical text in which several female Quaker authors narrate the circumstances surrounding the death of Susanna Whitrow. The Work of God in a Dying Maid (1677) represents the Quaker community as a largely autonomous group of mothers and daughters, set against negative and disruptive male influences. In its adoption of clear gender boundaries, the text reflects the new emphasis on gender binaries within Quakerism in the 1670s. As well as exemplifying the ambiguous position of women within the movement at this later stage, Whitrow et al. renegotiate wider contemporary representations of women, especially mothers, …

Starting Over: A Tentative Theory Exploring The Effects Of Past Relationships On Postbereavement Remarried Couples, Andrew Scott Brimhall, Michelle Engblom-Deglmann

Faculty Publications - Graduate School of Counseling

Using grounded theory methodology 24 participants were asked to discuss how the death of a previous spouse, either theirs or their partner’s, was currently affecting their second marriage. Participants were interviewed individually and as a couple. The central category was memories of the deceased spouse. Six additional categories emerged from the data: past spouse on pedestal, current/past comparison, insecurity of current spouse, curiosity about past spouse/relationship, partner’s response to curiosity, and impact on the current relationship. Existing literature, auditors, and participant feedback were all used to validate the results. Expanding on a tentative theory (Brimhall, Wampler, & Kimball, 2008), provisional …