Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Experiences Of Grace As Told By The Lgbtq Community, Nicholas A. Schollars

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Positive psychology has yielded rich insights about the nature of forgiveness and gratitude, but it is just beginning to broach the topic of grace. Theoretical evidence suggests grace is a crucial therapeutic factor in helping patients overcome shame, but empirical evidence is wanting. Because of the central role grace plays in Christianity, a qualitative exploration was conducted with a sample of participants identifying as either lesbian, gay, or bisexual, as well as Christian. Transcripts from 26 semi-structured interviews were coded and analyzed. Participants reported that their experiences of Divine Grace were related to their views about God’s nature. They reported …

The Obstacles To Receiving Grace In A Substance Abuse Population, Bradley Johnson

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

Grace has been important throughout the history of Christianity, and it is also relevant in the contemporary positive psychology movement. Nonetheless, the construct of grace has been left relatively unexplored through theoretical or empirical investigation in the social sciences. The few psychological explorations of grace found in the current literature can be roughly divided into four categories: advocating for grace, theoretical development, measuring grace, and empirical studies of grace. The current study examined the obstacles to grace experienced by patients in a substance abuse recovery program. Seven obstacles were first identified by a group of 25 participants through the use …

The Effects Of Grace Interventions In Church Communities, Rodger K. Bufford, Mark R. Mcminn, Jeff A. Moody, Laura Geczy-Haskins

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Grace remains little studied though several recent studies have developed promising ways to measure grace. Here we report two studies involving grace interventions as part of an ongoing investigation of positive psychology in the context of Christian church communities, Study One used a crossover design in which two congregations were measured on grace and other variables at the outset, and again after phases one and two. One congregation received a grace intervention during phase one and the second during phase two. Results showed increased scores on grace but not an expected increase in marital satisfaction among married participants. Study Two …

Are Christian Children Selfish?, Abby M. Foreman

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

"Teaching right from wrong is a foundational task for parents and is an important part of moral development."

Posting about faith development in children from In All Things - an online hub committed to the claim that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has implications for the entire world.

http://inallthings.org/are-christian-children-selfish/

Dimensions Of Grace: Factor Analysis Of Three Grace Scales, Rodger K. Bufford, Timothy A. Sisemore, Amanda M. Blackburn

Faculty Publications - Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) Program

Measuring grace is challenging. Prior research found the Grace Scale (GS), Richmont Grace Scale (RGS), and The Amazing Grace Scale (TAGS) to be reliable, have promising convergent and divergent validity, and to inter-correlate strongly. However, they may tap different constructs, or grace may be multidimensional (Bufford, Blackburn, Sisemore, & Bassett, 2015). Here two exploratory factor analyses of the combined items showed five factors: experiencing God’s grace, costly grace, grace to self, grace from others, and grace to others, partially paralleling Watson, Chen and Sisemore (2011). Items from all three scales loaded on Factor 1, only items from the RGS loaded …

Covenant Nation: The Politics Of Grace In Early American Literature, Justin M. Scott-Coe

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The argument of this dissertation is that a critical reading of the concept of "covenant" in early American writings is instrumental to understanding the paradoxes in the American political concepts of freedom and equality. Following Slavoj Zizek's theoretical approach to theology, I trace the covenant concept in early American literature from the theological expressions and disputes in Puritan Massachusetts through Jonathan Edwards's Freedom of Will and the essays of Ralph Waldo Emerson, showing how the covenant theology of colonial New England dispersed into more "secular" forms of what may be called an American political theology. The first chapter provides an …