Other Religion Commons^™

Middle Savannah River: An A/R/Tographic Ecopedagogical Ethnography Experimenting With Rhizomatic Perspectives, Lisa Augustine-Chizmar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is an experiment in perspective. Using the four commonplaces (Schwab, 1978), I practiced letting the Savannah River teach me what there is to know about the water, the land, the people, and the other entities that depend on ki through artistic, ethnographic, and ecopedagogical lenses. The ethnographic findings describe the social actors that depend on ki and give a voice to the River. The a/r/tographic findings display the River on a canvas map through two hundred years using paint, clay, photography, video, abstract acrylics, and fabric. Together, these methods contribute to a unique ecopedagogical journey. This word cloud …

Paradigm Of The Unknown, Vasia A. Pemberton

Senior Projects Spring 2020

This project is about portraying the essence of certain unexplained or controversial areas of belief that affect the lives of each and every one of us whether or not we are aware of it. My focus is to explore these confusions over the paranormal, the existential, and the supernatural, by overlaying, compiling, and comparing these different narratives as well as connecting them to a sense of greater mystery, or a fundamental knowledge that we are somehow not privy to.

Radical Social Ecology As Deep Pragmatism: A Call To The Abolition Of Systemic Dissonance And The Minimization Of Entropic Chaos, Arielle Brender

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper aims to shed light on the dissonance caused by the superimposition of Dominant Human Systems on Natural Systems. I highlight the synthetic nature of Dominant Human Systems as egoic and linguistic phenomenon manufactured by a mere portion of the human population, which renders them inherently oppressive unto peoples and landscapes whose wisdom were barred from the design process. In pursuing a radical pragmatic approach to mending the simultaneous oppression and destruction of the human being and the earth, I highlight the necessity of minimizing entropic chaos caused by excess energy expenditure, an essential feature of systems that aim …

The Moderating Effects Of Positive Religious/Spiritual Coping On Teachers’ Pain And Stress, Dawn Green

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this internet-based survey was to investigate the effects of positive religious or spiritual coping strategies on teachers’ chronic pain reports. Teachers in the United States may represent a vulnerable group due to a high prevalence of risk factors for chronic pain conditions. Teachers have been identified to experience high stress (Johnson, et al., 2005; Kyriacou, 2001) and report poor job satisfaction (Wang, Hall, & Rahimi, 2015), which are associated with development of chronic pain conditions (Kopec & Sayre, 2004). Religious coping strategies have been associated with beneficial associations with stress and health (Reutter & Bigatti, 2014). The …

Spiritual Frameworks In Pediatric Palliative Care: Understanding Parental Decision-Making, Lindy Grief Davidson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parents of seriously ill children are charged with making complicated medical decisions, and many of those decisions are made during their children’s hospitalizations. As medical staff seek to support parents, it is important for them to understand what resources parents are drawing upon for decision-making. This project explored parental decision-making by examining the following research questions: RQ1: What resources do parents draw upon to make medical decisions for their seriously ill children? RQ2: How do parents enact their spiritual or religious frameworks in clinical settings when faced with medical decisions for their seriously ill children? Methods of research included ethnographic …

Uncovering Meanings Of Death, Trauma, And Loss As Experienced By Hospice Bereavement Coordinators: A Phenomenological Study, Rochelle S. Clarke

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

This study examined the experiences of Hospice Bereavement Coordinators (HBCs) and Hospice Chaplains working with grief narratives from patient-family units exhibiting signs of anticipatory or complicated grief. While a significant amount of research has been conducted on Hospice employees, no qualitative studies have examined the interpretation of meaning from employees whose primary role focused on the psychosocial-spiritual aspects of clients exhibiting anticipatory or complicated grief. The researcher identified shared meaning of death, trauma, and loss from six participants in the context of a high stress and high loss environment. This study‘s findings revealed ten central themes: Death is an earthly …

Religiosity, Spirituality, And Quality Of Life Among Selected University Students, Abby Austin Kreitlow

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Objective: College marks a time of transition and self-exploration. Quality of life can be enhanced or diminished throughout this experience. The objective of this study was to identify the level of religiosity, spirituality and quality of life and identify if there was a relationship between a person's level of religiosity and spirituality and quality of life.

Participants and Methods: The sample group, consisting of 548 Midwestern university undergraduate students, completed the Spiritual Wellbeing Scale (SWBS) and the Ontological Wellbeing Scale (OWBS) in the spring semester of 2015.

Results: Findings indicate that Midwestern university students have a moderate sense of spiritual …

Communication As Yoga, Kristen Caroline Blinne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I am in conversation with the following questions: How can individuals and communities teach and learn to engage more peacefully, nonviolently, and compassionately with each other? Further, how can one practice a style of communication that helps at least one person suffer less each day? In asking these questions, my goal has been to imagine as well as attempt to actualize a world where individuals and communities work together to create less suffering in each other's lives by first developing compassionate awareness of our interconnectedness, then "waking up" not only to our own divinity but also to …

The Student Augustinian Values Institute: Assessing Its Impact Of Enhancing The Understanding And Experience Of The Augustinian Core Values Of Veritas, Unitas, And Caritas Upon Students In Augustinian Secondary Schools, Stephen M. Curry

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Educational leadership understands the importance of teaching values in its schools and incorporates this philosophy into the school’s symbolic and structural systems. Roman Catholic Church leaders have always endorsed the teaching of values in its schools and this position was sanctioned at its Second Vatican Council (Vatican Council II, 1962-65). One aspect of the Council emphasized the importance of Catholic education as an essential vehicle for proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ. Catholic schools founded and sponsored by religious communities were challenged to reappropriate their founders’ charisms in their educational ministries. The Order of St. Augustine is an example …

The Impact Of Counselor Level Of Spiritual Well-Being On The Morale, Global Symptoms, And Global Impairment Of Adolescents Receiving Treatment For Substance Use And/Or Other Mental Health Disorders: A Pilot Study, Michael William Holland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years there has been a movement towards a holistic perspective of human nature in the counseling leading to increased interest in the nature and role of spirituality in counseling and the counseling process. In the present study multiple regression analysis is used to determine whether Counselor Level of Spiritual Well-Being, or aspects thereof, namely, Counselor Level of Existential Well-Being and/or Counselor Level of Religious Well-Being, as measured by the Spiritual Well-Being Scale significantly impacts client outcomes, namely, Morale, Global Symptoms, and Global Impairment as measured by the Health Dynamics Inventory for adolescents receiving treatment for substance use and/or …

"Free Your Mind . . . And The Rest Will Follow": A Secularly Contemplative Approach To Teaching High School English, Kendra Nicole Bryant

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of my research is to provide high school English instructors and students a contemplative writing pedagogy that has the capacity to assist them in calming their bodies and quieting their minds so that they can focus their attention, openly explore self and others, rediscover their creativity, and reawaken their appreciation for the art of writing. Such a pedagogy is supported by mindfulness practices, which are exercises in moment-to-moment awareness that help to detach the practitioner from his or her thoughts. Mindfulness practices include breathing, walking, yoga, body scans, and visualizing; they provide quiet spaces wherein mind, body, and …

A Study Exploring The Educational Needs Of African-American Pastors' Wives Within Baptist Congregations, Jocelyn Georgette Henry-Whitehead

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

For many years, the role of the pastor's wife has been an emerging role in American religious history (Sweet, 1983). While on their journey in building and nurturing their relationship with God, supporting their husbands, families, congregations, and communities, pastors' wives have experienced joys and blessings as well as challenges and issues. A tremendous joy for some pastors' wives has been the privilege, the opportunity, and the honor to serve, minister to, assist and care for others. However, one major challenge for many pastors' wives has been preparedness, or the lack of preparedness, knowledge, and instruction (Obleton, 1996). Wives of …

A Qualitative Study Of Clergy Career Satisfaction, Functioning, And Clergy-Congregant Relations, Brian R. Mcdonald

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of Catholic And Non-Catholic Students In A Catholic Secondary School, Wheeling Central Catholic High School, With Respect To Their Religious Knowledge And Religious Practices, Mary Aileen Mansuetto

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The purpose of the present study is to compare Catholic and non-Catholic students in a Catholic High School (Wheeling Central Catholic High School) with respect to their religious knowledge and religious practices. One hundred and fifty-nine (159) Catholic students (92 ninth graders, 67 twelfth graders) and eighteen (18) non-Catholic students (14 ninth graders, 4 twelfth graders) are included in the study. Raw scores for religious knowledge and religious practice were derived from data obtained from administration of the Assessment of Catholic Religious Education (ACRE), 1992 edition. Results indicate a statistical difference between Catholic and non-Catholic students at a .05 significance …

Ministerial Education In Colonial Massachusetts, Charlotte Ryland

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

Issues Of Power And Centrality In United Methodist Ministers' Occupational Activities: Implications For Professional Education, Richard Bruce Osmann

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The purpose of this interview based qualitative study was to explore the influence that a plurality of social contexts, represented through United Methodist congregations in the Virginia Conference, have on the formation of ministers' occupational activities.;The study used a typology developed by Larry Blazer (1987) to identify the occupational activities practiced by parish ministers. The investigation weighted clergy's professional practice using Judith Hackman's (1985) concepts of power and centrality in her study institutions of higher education's budgeting process. Congregational representatives identified occupational activities that were central and peripheral to their congregation's mission. Clergy identified the occupational activities that received more …

A Descriptive Study Of Sex-Trait Stereotypes Of Lay Church Members For Women Clergy, Loretta A. Mueller

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The purpose of this study was to investigate the sex-trait stereotype church lay people had of women clergy. Two groups of lay people were studied, those who had and had not had a woman clergy as either pastor or assistant pastor of a church to which they belonged. Data was also obtained from women clergy.;Gough's Adjective Check List was used to determine a stereotype that the above described lay people had of women clergy. The goal was to determine if there were differences between lay men and women in the way they described women clergy and if there were differences …

A Descriptive Analysis Of Evangelical Seminaries In Canada Based On And Comparing The Views Of Their Presidents And Deans And Of The Canadian Leaders Of Evangelical Denominations, Edward Lawrence Oke

Dissertations

Problem

Evangelical seminaries in Canada enroll more students than those of mainline denominations, yet they lack recognition and acceptance. This problem may be due to insufficient information, inaccurate understanding of evangelicals, or the fact that most of them were founded since 1970. No study has attempted to describe them or to analyse their distinctives and growth.

Method

One of the most recent studies of Canadian seminaries was by Robert T. Handy who compared Canadian and American members of ATS and reported his findings in the Spring 1982 issue of Theological Education which also included responses from five Canadian educators. The …

The Development Of An Exceptional Brethern Ministers Scale For The California Psychological Inventory, James Ralph Hutchison

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

The purpose of this study was to develop an Exceptional Brethren Ministers Scale for the California Psychological Inventory. This scale was designed to differentiate between effective and ineffective parish pastors in the Church of the Brethren.;The procedure involved the identification of two groups of parish clergy in the Church of the Brethren. These groups were formulated using a Pastoral Effectivenes Rating Form, (PERF). A list containing 160 items was circulated among a group of experts in ministry in the Church of the Brethren for their appraisal. The experts rated each item according to its efficacy in discriminating between effective and …

Biographical Sketches Of Anglican Clergymen Trained At The College Of William And Mary, 1729-1776: A Study Of James Blair's Plan And Its Result, Susan Louise Patterson

Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects

No abstract provided.

The Function Of The Priest And Of The Prophet In The Propatation Of Religion, Charles Ernest Davis

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

As one peers across the vistas of the past two types of holy men stand out with striking prominence and significance. The advance of religious thought and life has largely been due to the activities and contributions of these two, the priest and the prophet.

It has been the purpose of this research to seek to discover the particular functions of each of these, to show their correlation in producing religious advance, and to make certain suggestions as to how the values each has to contribute to the program of the modern Christian church may be more adequately realized.