Ethics in Religion Commons^™

Using The Examen, A Jesuit Prayer, In Spiritually Integrated And Secular Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The Examen is a 500-year-old end of day prayer developed by St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus (better known as the Jesuits). Like many other religious or spiritual practices, such as mindfulness and yoga, the Examen is suitable as either a spiritually focused or secular intervention strategy to assist people within clinical psychotherapy practice and elsewhere. Adapting the Examen as a cognitive behavioral psychotherapy intervention is easy to do and may add another important tool to the toolbox of practicing clinicians interested in thoughtfully integrating spiritually based approaches in their clinical work with religiously as well …

The Two Types Of Grades And Why They Matter To Ethics Education, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

In-course marks and final grades each have their own nature and purpose and conflating the two does a disservice to both. Final grades represent a fixed and final statement about how a student did in the course in the end. They are a communication between the professor and anyone who will pick up that student’s transcript someday. In-course marks, by contrast, are a communication between the professor and student alone, and ought to be representative of an ongoing conversation about how the student is currently doing in the course. They are subject to change with each lecture, assessment, and conversation, …

University Ethics: The Status Of The Fieldmatthew Gaudet, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

This paper’s task is to provide a summary of this nascent field at its current state of development. First, I trace Keenan’s work to germinate university ethics as a new field worthy of study. Second, I examine several precursors to university ethics and how these precursors continue to provide fertile soil for the field from which this new field may continue to grow. Next, I survey the current state of the field, identifying where the field has already begun to bloom and bear fruit. Finally, I look to the future of the field, identifying issues that are either already plaguing …

A Review Of Spiritual Development And Transformation Among College Students From Jesuit Higher Education, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The college experience can be a critically important and enriching time for personal as well as academic growth and development. For many students, college is their first foray into a more independent world and lifestyle no longer under the careful, and sometimes critical, eyes of their parents, families, and schoolteachers. When students go far away from home to attend college, they need to find ways to live independently, manage their many needs, and attend to the rigors of academic life in higher education. Additionally, the college years offer a unique and important period for spiritual growth, development, and transformation. The …

St. Ignatius As Psychotherapist? How Jesuit Spirituality And Wisdom Can Enhance Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The great wisdom traditions associated with various religious and spiritual practices and institutions have offered a variety of helpful strategies for more effective living and coping with life’s many challenges. In most recent times, efforts to secularize these strategies have been made in order to appeal to the general population as well as to secular mental health professionals as tools for their clinical practices. Although mindfulness meditation and yoga are perhaps the most notable examples, many other intervention strategies have been and can be borrowed from various religious and spiritual traditions to use in a secular manner if so desired. …

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 …

Clergy Sexual Abuse In The Roman Catholic Church: Dispelling Eleven Myths And Separating Facts From Fiction, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The sexual abuse crisis in the Roman Catholic Church has made headline news across the country and world for years. Yet, even with such remarkable publicity, so much misinformation and myths about the problem persist. It is important for psychologists, as well as other mental health professionals, to be better informed about these myths and misinformation in order to better serve their clients who may be impacted by the story. Those impacted include not only clerical abuse victims, their families, and clerics themselves but also Catholics in general, who may be troubled and demoralized by the ongoing and unfolding crisis …

Introduction To Journal Of Moral Theology V.8 Special Issue #1, James F. Keenan, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

The overarching goal of this volume is to attend to the reality of contingency today in light of pertinent Catholic teachings on education, social structures, and economic justice. The essays in this volume will proceed in three parts. Part I is a single essay offered by Keenan that situates the issue of contingency within the broader field of university ethics. The task of Part II is to examine the intricate details and facets of the main subject. To this end, the five authors in this section each offer a snapshot of one of the most glaring concerns regarding contingency today …

Toward An Inclusive Faculty Community, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

Today nearly three quarters of all college professors work off of the tenure-track, and thus exist in a university structure that was not constructed with them in mind, does not take them seriously, and, ultimately, offers them little more than the most tenuous and temporary of connections. This is hardly the model of a Christian community that the Catholic university aspires to be. Thus, this paper first seeks to unpack the historical legacy of the past four decades of contingent faculty growth, and then, offers a response by drawing upon Catholic Social Teaching and Christian scripture to inform a new …

Reflections On The Contingent Workforce At Catholic Colleges, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

Contingent or “adjunct” professors are highly educated and often excellent educators, yet they are suffering from a nationwide epidemic of low wages, a lack of benefits, poor working conditions, short and sporadic contracts, and—to make ends meet—long commutes that often involve two, three, or even more institutions. This story of contingency on American campuses is fast becoming a well-tread narrative, not only in periodicals that focus on academic life (e.g. the Chronicle of Higher Education, Vitae, Insidehighered.com), but also more recently, in mainstream news outlets as wide spanning as the Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN, Forbes, The Atlantic, …

On “And Vulnerable": Catholic Social Thought And The Social Challenges Of Cognitive Disability, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

In light of the ongoing social challenges facing individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in our time, I want to highlight some underappreciated aspects of Catholic Social Teaching that we would do well to recall. The discussion proceeds in four parts. First, I identify several key contemporary social challenges that continue to face individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Second, I trace the root of those particular challenges to the social forces of industrialization, urbanization, and social Darwinism in the second half of the nineteenth century. Third, on the basis of that historical framework, I argue that the contemporary Catholic …

A Survey Of Ethics Training In Undergraduate Psychology Programs At Jesuit Universities, Thomas G. Plante, Selena Pistoresi

Psychology

Training in ethics is fundamental in higher education among both faith-based and secular colleges and universities, regardless of one’s academic major or field of study. Catholic colleges and universities have included moral philosophy, theology, and applied ethics in their undergraduate curricula for generations. The purpose of this investigation was to determine what, if anything, Jesuit college psychology departments are doing to educate psychology majors regarding ethical issues. A survey method was used to assess the psychology departments of all 28 Jesuits colleges and universities in the United States. A total of 21 of the 28 schools responded and completed the …

Principles Of Incorporating Spirituality Into Professional Clinical Practice, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Incorporating spirituality into contemporary professional clinical practice has become more common in recent years most notably with the popular interest of mindfulness meditation, mindfulness based stress reduction, and yoga in particular. However, many other spiritual and religiously based assessment and treatment approaches have also been successfully utilized with a great deal of evidence-based research to support their use and effectiveness. The purpose of this brief article is to outline several guiding principles for those professionals interested in integrating spiritual and religious wisdom and approaches into their professional clinical practices in the spirit of diversity and multiculturalism sensitivity and respect. Psychology …

Astrobiology, Theology, And Ethics, Brian Patrick Green

Staff Publications and Research

Through his work, Ted Peters has given us a unique permission to dream¹-permission to dream about God's creation not only as it is right now on Earth, but also how it might be elsewhere in the universe both now and in the future. He has taken three of the grandest fields of human endeavor-astrobiology, theology, and ethics-and pioneered them into the new field of astrotheology.²

In this chapter I will present three areas in which Peters' work has motivated my own thinking. First, I want to consider the idea of convergent cultural, theological, and moral evolution between …

Beyond Mindfulness: Expanding Integration Of Spirituality And Religion Into Psychotherapy, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Since the publication of Bergin’s classic 1980 paper “Psychotherapy and Religious Values” in the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology, an enormous amount of quality research has been conducted on the integration of religious and spiritual values and perspectives into the psychotherapy endeavor. Numerous empirical studies, chapters, books, blogs, and specialty organizations have emerged in the past 35 years that have helped researchers and clinicians alike come to appreciate the value of religion and spirituality in the psychotherapeutic process. While so much has been accomplished in this area of integration, so much more needs to occur in order for the …

Six Principles To Consider When Working With Roman Catholic Clients, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Although the majority of Americans consider themselves to be Christian and affiliated with various Protestant denominations, a quarter of the American population identify themselves as Roman Catholics who are the largest single religious denomination in the country. Yet, surprisingly, fairly little research has been published in the professional psychology literature about working with this very large and diverse group. Psychologists have an ethical responsibility to be aware of and respectful to diversity including diversity based on religious background, affiliation, and perspectives. The purpose of this brief reflection is to offer 6 important principles to keep in mind for professional psychologists …

Four Lessons Learned From Treatingcatholic Priest Sex Offenders, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Perhaps there is no one in our society more despised and vilified than sex offenders, especially those who sexually violate young children. And during the past decade perhaps no particular subgroup of sex offender has been more despised than those who are Roman Catholic priests. We need to be attentive to the state-of-the-art facts, best practices, and create policies and procedures to keep those who might harm children away from children. To do otherwise is foolish and harmful. Yet strong opinions, advocacy, and hysteria sometimes gets more attention than actual evidence-based quality research and practice which is not ultimately in …

Increasing Engagement Through Oral Exams, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

The author discusses the teaching methods he uses in an undergraduate religious studies course, focusing on how oral exams can be used to increase student engagement. He comments on how class discussions can improve through such exams and goes on to explore the benefits over assigning written exams or essays.

Fruit Of Faith, Fruit Of The Spirit, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

As contemporary behavioral scientists living and working within an often secular, scientific, and empirically focused world as well as being affiliated with rigorous academic institutions and research programs, we wonder if the fruits of the spirit have any empirical and scientific basis. Does engagement with religion and spirituality make us better people or make us worse?

Goodness, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

And what does the Lord require of me? To love mercy, do justice, and walk humbly with God. -Micah 6:8

This quote from the Hebrew Bible has been one of my favorite quotes from sacred scripture in the Judea-Christian tradition for a very long time. It well summarizes how we should live. It well articulates how to live a good life. In this brief and simple statement in response to what God wants of us, it makes clear that there are three things that we should do throughout our lives if we want to follow the dictates of the God …

Restoring Peace: Toward A Conversation Between The Just War And Reconciliation Traditions, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

Tragically, ethnic conflicts have become one of the hallmarks of the post-Cold War era. In response to this, two distinct traditions appear to be emerging.The first continues the classical just war tradition while the second represents a new "reconciliation tradition," built largely around questions of restorative justice in areas of social division. Our goal in this essay is to begin a rapprochement of these divergent traditions by asking the question, what does a restorative justice perspective offer to the just war tradition? We proceed in three stages: first, we survey the current state of the just war tradition; second, we …

Episcopal Applicants To Ordained Ministry: Are They Psychological Healthy?, Thomas G. Plante, Christopher Apodaca

Psychology

The current investigation evaluated psychological and personality profiles of applicants to the diaconate and priesthood for several Episcopal dioceses. Applicants included both genders and their ages ranged from 29 to 67 years. A psychological testing battery including the MMPI-2, 16PF, and MCMI-III was administered to 42 applicants between 2008 and 2009 who subsequently entered the diaconate or priestly formation program in the Episcopal Church. Results indicate that these applicants were generally well-adjusted. Findings also suggest some tendency for defensiveness, repression, naïveté, and a strong need for affection, as well as for being emotionally stable, intelligent, trusting, and open to change. …

From The Ashes: Jus Post Bellum And The Emergence Of Kosovo, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

In many parts ofthe world today, when the subject of war arises, the conversation inevitably turns to the continuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. As these two conflicts rage into their fifth and seventh years respectively and the situation on the ground seems to be deteriorating, the United States national conversation seenlS primarily concemed with a timeline for exit.

The just war tradition is not immune to this conversation. In direct response to these conflicts, scholars have, for the first time, developed criteria for justly ending and exiting a war. Unfortunately, the application ofthese criteria has thus far been limited …

Avoiding War And Creating Peace In Kosovo, Matthew J. Gaudet

General Engineering

The article presents the author's comments on peace negotiations and the possibility of war regarding the independence of Kosovo from Serbia. According to the author, the Albanians of Kosovo will not refrain from war to free themselves from Serbian rule. He comments that with the ethnic division between the Serbs and the Albanians it is hard to predict whether independence will spark violence or ensure Kosovo's economic growth.

Integrating Spirituality And Psychotherapy: Ethical Issues And Principles To Consider, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Professional and scientific psychology appears to have rediscovered spirituality and religion during recent years, with a large number of conferences, seminars, workshops, books, and special issues in major professional journals on spirituality and psychology integration. The purpose of this commentary is to highlight some of the more compelling ethical principles and issues to consider in spirituality and psychology integration with a focus on psychotherapy. This commentary will use the American Psychological Association's (2002) Ethics Code and more specifically, the RRICC model of ethics that readily applies to various mental health ethics codes across the world. The RRICC model highlights the …

Are Successful Applicants To The Roman Catholic Deaconate Psychologically Healthy?, Thomas G. Plante, Kathleen Lackey

Psychology

The current investigation evaluated psychological and personality profiles of successful applicants to the deaconate in several Roman Catholic dioceses in California. The MMPI-2 and 16PF were administered to 25 applicants between 2004 and 2006 who subsequently entered the permanent deaconate program. Results indicate that these applicants to the deaconate were generally well-adjusted as well as being socially responsible. Findings also suggest some tendency for defensiveness, repression, naivete, and a strong need for affection, as well as for being emotionally stable, genuine, and cooperative.

The Psychological Assessment Of Applicants For Priesthood And Religious Life, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The recent clergy sexual abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church have focused a great deal of attention on how we evaluate applicants to the priesthood and religious life. The crisis has underscored the critical need to ensure that men who have a sexual predilection towards children be barred from entering religious life and priesthood. Additionally, men who have other significant psychiatric conditions that put them at risk of harming children or others have no place as Church leaders or clergy in positions where they have access to and power over vulnerable others.

Answering The Earthquake, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

During the past several years, the American Catholic Church has suffered an enormous earthquake due to the child sexual abuse crisis that was initially reported on January 6, 2002 by the Boston Globe Spotlight Team. Although the sexual abuse of children by priests had been in the news many times before, the recent case in Boston 14 Conversations resulted in perhaps the largest earthquake ever in the American Catholic Church. While the epicenter of the quake was centered in Boston, there were many significant aftershocks felt across the land. Sadly, Jesuits and Jesuit universities were not immune from the recent …

The Sexual Abuse Crisis In The Roman Catholic Church: What Psychologists And Counselors Should Know, Thomas G. Plante, Courtney Daniels

Psychology

Recent events regarding child sexual abuse committed by Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Boston and elsewhere have yet again resulted in a tremendous amount of media attention and frenzy regarding this topic. During 2002 alone, approximately 300 American Catholic priests, including several bishops, were accused of child sexual abuse. Many were forced to resign their positions while others were prosecuted and went to prison. Curiously, there still exist many myths and misperceptions about priests who sexually abuse children and their victims. Since psychologists and other mental health professionals are likely to interact with many who have been impacted …

A Proposed Psychological Assessment Protocol For Applicants To Religious Life In The Roman Catholic Church, Thomas G. Plante, Marcus T. Boccaccini

Psychology

This paper proposes a psychological assessment protocol for applicants to religious life in the Roman Catholic church. While most Catholic religious orders, seminaries, and dioceses require applicants to complete some type of psychological evaluation prior to entrance into seminary, there is no established standard or protocol suggested for conducting these evaluations. The current proposed assessment protocol provides those conducting or receiving these evaluations with a comprehensive foundation from which they can add or delete components to meet their specific needs. Furthermore, the utilization of a standard clergy assessment protocol creates the opportunity for the establishment of a national database useful …