Digital Commons Network^™

On Thursdays, We Wiggle, Beth Evers

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Churches of all stripes, including Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant, and non-denominational churches, have early childhood learning centers (sometimes called daycares, preschools, or child development centers) as part of their ministry profiles. Many of these churches are missing an important opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ by not intentionally ministering with the children and adults of their early learning centers.

In September 2019, University United Methodist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, began a worship gathering specifically designed for the infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and adults of their Child Development Center. While the specifics of University UMC’s decision to begin Wiggle …

Navigating Faith And Sexuality: Christian Pastors' Experiences In Providing Pastoral Care For Lgbtq+ Youth, Keith I. Raymond

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Within the Christian context, religion and sexuality are often cultural factors that shape the identity development of LGBTQ+ youth, with congregational stance (affirming, tolerant, non–affirming) and individual religiosity/spirituality serving as protective or risk factors (Crockett et al., 2018; Raedel et al., 2020; Yarhouse & Sadusky, 2021). Christian pastors’ theology, relational ministry approach, and pastoral skills influence how they engage with and care for queer youth, yet the professional ties between pastors and LGBTQ+ youth remain underrepresented in counseling literature. Guided by queer theory, this qualitative case study examined how Christian pastors understand and navigate pastoral care for LGBTQ+ youth within …

Psychotherapeutic Strategies To Cope With The Dark Side Of Religious Engagement, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Although spiritual and religious engagement that includes beliefs, practices, and community involvement has been found to offer numerous physical and mental health benefits, it can also be associated with problematic and dysfunctional perspectives and behaviors. Tragically, many people suffer from obsessive scrupulosity, guilt, anxiety, and depression, as well as discrimination, racism, and violence associated with their religious traditions and engagement or those of others. Mental health professionals must be mindful of both the upsides and the downsides of religiosity and find a way to secure appropriate consultation, embrace professional ethical principles, and support health and wellness for clients. This brief …

Peak Teaching: Exploring And Fostering Sacred Experiences In University Classrooms, Charles Burack

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Supporting the spiritual growth of college and university students with diverse backgrounds and orientations is both important and challenging. It is important not only because spirituality is a crucial dimension of human life but also because the majority of students at both private and public schools want their teachers to address spiritual issues in the classroom. A powerful way to address spirituality is to explore and foster sacred experiences in university classrooms. Sacred experiences include religious, spiritual, mystical, transcendent, numinous, and peak experiences as well as many other nonordinary experiences. The author offers guidance to educators on how to: 1) …

The Role Of Creation On Mediating Grace For The Purpose Of Spiritual Formation, Pam H. Zolczer

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

During a very difficult time in my life I found emotional and spiritual healing during time spent immersed in creation. My guide on this journey, other than the human companions who were concerned for me during my loss, has been a horse. While I thought I was learning to care for and ride a horse, I learned something much more significant: I learned how to give my pain away and I rushed breathlessly into a new phase of my love for God. I also rushed into a new vocation. And all of this is because I ride Cooper.[1] This …

Acpe’S Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy (Sip) Training Program: Clinical Competencies For Integrating Religion And Spirituality In Counseling, Carol Za Mcginnis, Maya Georgieva, Mary Elizabeth Toler

Journal of Faith Integration Counseling (JFIC)

Clients frequently seek psychotherapy that will incorporate their unique religious or spiritual values into the therapeutic process, yet they are discouraged by practitioners who are not equipped to provide those services. Licensed mental health practitioners can receive this training and certification from the ACPE Spiritually Integrated Psychotherapy Training Program. Spiritual competencies exclusive to this integrative process have been designed to guide and support SIP-certified practitioners in alignment with other professional ethical codes. It is our hope that students, educators, and licensed practitioners from all mental health fields will find this information helpful in understanding the ethical integration of spirituality into …

The Qualitative Study Of The African American Pastors' Perceptions Of Marriage And Family Therapists, De Angela Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study investigates African American pastors' perceptions regarding mental health practitioners' roles. The research aims to comprehend the perspectives and experiences of ten participants, allowing them to select the location for data collection. This study investigates the relationship between interpretive phenomenon analysis and the perceptions of African American pastors using the hermeneutic phenomenology framework established by influential thinkers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre (Smith et al., 2022). As a philosophical discipline, phenomenology emphasizes the importance of an individual's lived experiences and worldview. Husserl, Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre have contributed to this discipline by emphasizing the inseparable relationship …

Addiction, Spiritualité Et Religion, Bechir Aouad, Père Edgard El Haiby

Horizons et Conjonctures

L’étude examine comment le vide spirituel mène aux addictions aux substances et aux comportements compulsifs comme substitut à la transcendance authentique. Elle analyse les dépendances comportementales telles que le jeu ou la sexualité compulsive et met en évidence l’influence de la dimension religieuse. Elle conclut sur l’importance d’intégrer la spiritualité dans le traitement pour offrir la force et la résilience nécessaires au rétablissement durable.

Mots-clés

Dépendance, Spiritualité, Religion, Addiction, Substance, Santé mentale, Réhabilitation, Toxicodépendance, Prévention, Support psychosocial, Substance psychoactive

Peak Teaching: Exploring And Fostering Sacred Experiences In University Classrooms, Charles Burack

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Supporting the spiritual growth of college and university students with diverse backgrounds and orientations is both important and challenging. It is important not only because spirituality is a crucial dimension of human life but also because the majority of students at both private and public schools want their teachers to address spiritual issues in the classroom. A powerful way to address spirituality is to explore and foster sacred experiences in university classrooms. Sacred experiences include religious, spiritual, mystical, transcendent, numinous, and peak experiences as well as many other nonordinary experiences. The author offers guidance to educators on how to: 1) …

A Spiritual Formation Ministry For Small Groups, Deborah Defrank Tipps

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

This dissertation was born out of my own personal experience in the local church as a disciple seeking to follow Jesus Christ, and grow in his image. It began many years ago when I started to notice that the God I encountered while practicing centering prayer was, at times, very different from the God I encountered in the study of scripture, and in some of the teachings of the church. By different I mean that the God I encountered in centering prayer was bigger, more merciful, patient, loving, and inclusive than the God I had experienced through all my years …

Exploring The Effects Of Christian Worldviews On Heart Rate, Stress, And Adjustment After Loss In Bereaved Individuals, Emma Radini Ratnavel

Honors Scholar Theses

The objective of this study is to investigate the correlation between Christian values, perceptions of God, and physiological stress, assessed through heart rate, among individuals who are experiencing grief due to the loss of a loved one. Previous studies have analyzed various physiological effects on the body. There are very few studies that examine the correlation between Christian values and heart rate in bereaved participants. To explore these topics further, this study analyzes 59 undergraduate students who have recently lost a loved one, identify as a Christian, and are at least 18 years old. The participants' perceptions of God and …

The Impact And Challenge Of Religious Syncretism To The Christian Faith And Discipleship In The Anglican Diocese Of Kabba, Kogi State, Nigeria, Akobe Steven Kayode

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Divine Intervention? The Association Between Spirituality And Eating Disorder Recovery, Haley Graver

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The extant literature on the association between religiosity/spirituality and eating disorder symptomatology presents mixed findings. Some evidence suggests that spirituality is a protective factor and aids in eating disorder recovery, while other findings indicate that it is hurtful. Yet, many eating disorder treatment facilities have begun addressing spirituality as part of treatment. The current study investigates the role of spirituality in eating disorder recovery by tracking the association between changes in spiritual distress and reduction in eating disorder symptomatology in 234 patients over the course of five weeks. The results suggest that those who decrease or maintain their spiritual distress …

Religion Has A Public Relations Problem: Integrating Evidence-Based Thinking Into Clinical Practice, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Religion and religious institutions receive a great deal of negative, rather than positive, attention and press. This creates an impression, for the casual observer, that religion and associated institutions are a plight on the planet. It is critically important for evidence-based research and best practices in clinical services to be well known and utilized within professional psychotherapy practice. Clinicians must be mindful of the many advantages of religious engagement for physical, mental, and community health and wellness. Psychologists, and other mental health professionals, tend to be secular and nonreligious and receive little, if any, training on religious diversity that may …

Relationship Changes Of African Americans With Nontraditional Spiritual Practices, Della Sanders

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have explored the subject of belongingness for decades. However, there is limited research on how belongingness may change for African Americans who transitioned from traditional Christianity to other spiritual practices. In this study, the relationship changes (in terms of family, friends, significant others, and former church relationships) of African Americans who identify as spiritual but not religious (SBNR) after leaving traditional Christianity were explored. The theoretical framework of the social connectedness theory was used to explore the need for belongingness to avoid social isolation and loneliness within a social network. Six African American Generation Xers, four women and two …

Spirituality, Inclusivity, Workplace Well-Being, And Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Rebecca Williams

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to better understand how workplace well-being (WWB) and inclusivity may impact the relationship between employee spirituality and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Given the valuable contribution of a diverse workforce, and the importance of fostering spirituality and OCBs in the workplace, this research focused on examining whether WWB would help explain the relationship between spirituality and OCB intentions and the influence of an inclusive climate on spirituality and WWB. Theoretical framework was provided to help explain linkages in the model, which included the broaden and build theory (BBT) and the integrative transcendent models of …

Jesus Christ, Revelation Of Love: A Christology Of The Disabled Christ, Lisa Hancock

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Though Nancy Eiesland’s The Disabled God first introduced the identification of Jesus as disabled in 1994, sustained reflection on the person and work of Christ as disabled remains a mostly untapped wellspring for theological reflection in disability theology. Sitting with Christ’s disabled performativity, I identify Christ as disabled in both person and work, noting that recognizing disability in Christ’s person influences understandings of Christ’s work and vice versa. Establishing my use of the cultural model of disability, which I expand for use in constructive theology with Judith Butler’s notion of performativity, I examine resonances of the Disabled Christ in disability …

Don Quixote And Catholicism, Michael Mcgrath

Purdue Studies in Romance Literatures

Four hundred years since its publication, Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote continues to inspire and to challenge its readers. The universal and timeless appeal of the novel, however, has distanced its hero from its author and its author from his own life and the time in which he lived. The discussion of the novel’s Catholic identity, therefore, is based on a reading that returns Cervantes’s hero to Cervantes’s text and Cervantes to the events that most shaped his life. The authors and texts McGrath cites, as well as his arguments and interpretations, are mediated by his religious sensibility. Consequently, he …

Magic, Alchemy, And The Spiritual But Not Religious, John C. Marshell Jr.

The Hilltop Review

In this paper, I identify a problem within the growing phenomenon of the "spiritual but not religious" community based on the particular experiences of German pilgrims attending a retreat at a Chinese Daoist monastery. Despite interests and affirmations in Daoism, the German pilgrims reacted negatively to Daoist supernatural attitudes and practices. Their SBNR beliefs clashed with Daoist orthodoxy. My research is largely based on a historical examination that contextualizes the problems the German pilgrims experienced and offers a possible remedy to their trans-cultural spiritual dilemma in alchemy and Jungian psychology.

Relationship Between Religion, Spirituality, And Psychotherapy: An Ethical Perspective, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Spirituality and religion are typically a critically important element of most people’s lives. They offer an overarching framework for making sense of the world and a strategy to cope with life’s stressors. They provide a community and a way to wrestle with life’s biggest questions regarding meaning, purpose, and suffering. Mental health professionals are mandated to behave in an ethical manner defined by their codes of ethics. These codes typically understand religion and spirituality a multiculturalism issue. Professionals need to be respectful and responsible and pay close attention to potential implicit bias, boundary crossings, and destructive beliefs and practices. Working …

Religion In Contemplative Studies, Daniel J. Moseson

Dissertations - ALL

This project is about the new field of contemplative studies, a field that seeks to use “contemplative” practices, derived mostly (though not entirely) from religious traditions in academic settings, prominently including college pedagogy. First, this project seeks to understand how contemplative studies advocates persuade others (and themselves) that what they are doing is not “religion;” that is, how do they define "religion" in order to situate their own work as non-religious academic inquiry? Second, in the course of my textual and ethnographic research on contemplative studies, it has become apparent that this field adds to the growing rebuttal of religious …

Sr. Holy: A Calling From The Lord, Caitlyn Schaffer

Ask a Sister: Interview Wisdom from Catholic Women Religious

This paper includes a portion of an interview with Sr. Holy, a woman religious missionary who belongs to the congregation of Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, where her theological beliefs are enacted by her service to others. Within the congregation of Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, she is focused on directing the novitiate, giving spiritual direction, volunteering with the aid for women, networking with the aid for women, and taking part in a life learning center making disciples. She uses her gifts that Jesus has given her to employ her virtues in the service of others. Throughout her life she mentioned the …

Records Of The Ed Robb Evangelistic Association Arc1994-005 - Finding Aid, Ats Special Collections And Archives

Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Faith Experiences Among Doctoral Psychology Students, Erika Leigh Eisele

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

In order to become culturally competent psychologists, doctoral students must undergo their own process of self-reflection, including personal exploration of religious and spiritual issues. This can prove difficult insofar as many doctoral programs in psychology provide relatively little instruction in religious and spiritual issues. Even among those programs that specialize in religion and spirituality, a shifting of personal faith typically occurs over the course of doctoral training. This study is a step toward understanding the faith experiences of students in one explicitly religious doctoral training program. Faith experiences among students in the George Fox University Graduate Department of Clinical Psychology …

Deification In Cassian’S Conferences: Analysis Of John Cassian’S Writings On Unceasing Prayer In Conferences Nine And Ten As A Description Of Deification, Christina Beu

Theology Graduate Theses

No abstract provided.

Explorations Into Continuity: An Heuristic, Artistic Inquiry Into The Interplay Between Work As A Dance/Movement Therapist And Service Within The Bahá’Í Community, Elena M. Rezai

Creative Arts Therapies Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the concept of integration between two main aspects of my life: my professional career as a dance/movement therapist on an inpatient adolescent behavioral health unit, and service guided by Bahá’í teachings in a neighborhood-based setting. Literature reviewed encompassed instances of Rudolf von Laban’s Effort elements found in the Bahá’í Writings, as well as research on the integration between the mind, body and spirit, the history of religion and mental health, and the current relationship between religion and mental health. Both artistic inquiry and heuristic methodologies were used to guide my research. Through …

Spirit Politics: Radical Abolitionists And The Dead End Of Spiritualism, Robert Nelson

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

On June 30, 1858, abolitionist Parker Pillsbury wrote William Lloyd Garrison and readers of the Liberator that he had “just returned from attending one of the largest and most important Reformatory Conventions ever held in this or any other country.” In his report on the “Free Convention” held at Rutland, Vermont, Parker praised the “character and quality” and the “large brains and full hearts” of the convention participants. “The most numerous class” among these participants, he noted, were Spiritualists. Spiritualism had burst on the American scene a decade earlier, quickly attracting thousands of adherents who believed that communication and communion …

The Role Of Faith And Spirituality In The Work Of End-Of-Life Caregivers, Edward P. Stannard

Master of Arts in Religious Studies (M.A.R.S. Theses)

Nurses, certified nursing assistants and other healthcare workers who care for those who are terminally ill face issues of mortality and even existential questions every day on the job. These professionals, who have intimate contact with their patients daily, must find an inner source of strength and perseverance in order to face people who are at the end of their lives, who may be in pain, and who frequently are alone in their rooms aside from the institution’s staff. This study asks whether an inner sense of religious faith or spirituality helps end-of-life healthcare workers conduct their daily tasks and …

Counseling And Psychotherapy Within And Across Faith Traditions (Chapter 17 In The Oxford Handbook Of The Psychology Of Spirituality), Mark R. Mcminn

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

This chapter begins with general considerations for religiously and spiritually oriented psychotherapy, including the importance of seeing religion and spirituality as d.imensions of cultural diversity, considering clients' welfare and autonomy, and maintaining competence. Three types of religious and spiritual intervention approaches are then discussed: assimilative, accommodative, and collaborative. Assimilative approaches introduce spiritual interventions or considerations into a standard psychotherapy approach. Accommodative approaches involve adapting a standard psychotherapy regimen to include religious or spiritual matters. Collaborative approaches entail a mental health professional and religious leader working in tandem for the sake of clients' welfare. Next, specific issues related to counseling within …

Influences On Father Involvement: Testing For Unique Contributions Of Religion And Spirituality, Mark Lynn

Dissertations (1934 -)

The role of the father in children's development historically has been neglected. Studies examining family processes were primarily limited to mothers, under the assumption that mothers' influences encapsulated what (little) effects could also be attributed to the father. Although theory and research have begun to address fathers' roles in families in earnest, there is still much work to be done, particularly in regard to understanding the determinants of father involvement. One direction that has received attention from researchers is towards a conceptualization of environmental and contextual influences on fathers' interactions with their families. The goal of this study was to …