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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Clark University, 1905.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Clark University, 1905.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Claremont School of Theology, 2007. / (UMI)AAI3268420. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-05, Section: A, page: 2004. Adviser: Elizabeth Conde-Frazier.

<p> In a child's life, the church has minimal time to make a maximum impact. The time children are in church must not be wasted, but should be spent in valuable and life changing ways. Stories have long been included in Christian education, but is the practice of telling stories something that is continued merely because "we've always done it this way," or is there merit in continuing their use? Story is a wildly popular theme in Christian education today and children love stories, but there is more to a story than mere amusement? Parents and Christian educators wrestle with questions such as "How do stories have lasting meaning and life changing influence on children's lives?" "How can stories be used to affect children's spiritual growth?" "What kinds of stories should be included?" These are important questions to consider as Christian educators set pedagogical goals and specific methodology is followed. </p><p> This research attempts to address these questions by investigating empirical, theoretical, and theological literature related to two domains: (a) what characterizes the spiritual life and development of children, and (b) how story can be used by Christian educators and parents to benefit the instruction and spiritual growth of children. Beginning with an analysis of the spiritual life of children, it will then be shown how story affects the whole person, rendering it a very powerful medium. Using Luke 10:27 as an organizing principle, story is analyzed as to how it affects the heart, the affective realm; the soul, the spiritual realm; strength, the behavioral realm; the mind, the cognitive realm; and loving neighbor as oneself, the social realm. These realms, together, comprise a faith that involves a totality of commitment. Recommendations are then made as to how parents and Christian educators can use the power of story to benefit the instruction and spiritual growth of children. The use of story can be a spark for children's spiritual growth and holds great potential benefit for the church and for the children who are a part of the community of faith. </p>

<p> Faith-based school-family-community partnerships have been a federal mandate over the past decade, yet little has been written about the outcomes of these faith-based partnerships. A need exists to understand if the potential in these faith-based partnerships is indeed realized in positive outcomes for students and schools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a faith-based school-family-community partnership, Just Love. Just Love is a faith-based school-family-community partnership between a large suburban church and a Title 1, urban elementary school, Charisma Elementary School (Charisma ES), implemented in what is considered a "failing school". Just Love's purpose was to have the volunteers from the church provide love, care, supportive adult relationships and service to the teachers, students, and parents of Charisma ES through a comprehensive, systemic program: <b>Just Mentor</b> (i.e., a school-based mentoring program), <b>Just Connect</b> (i.e., a classroom adoption program), and <b>Just Rewards</b> (i.e., a school wide student incentives/rewards and parent involvement program). The Bryan and Henry (2012) School-Family-Community Partnership Process Model was used in developing Just Love.</p><p> The Model for Collaborative Evaluations (MCE) was used in this evaluation to actively engage stakeholders during the evaluation process and to answer the evaluation questions. A mixed methods research design was used. Differences in student outcomes (i.e. academic, behavior and attendance) were examined between Charisma ES and another matching school without a faith-based school-family-community partnership were analyzed with descriptive statistics, paired T-tests, and mixed ANOVAs. Student outcomes were also investigated relevant to different aspects of the Just Love programs including adopted classrooms compared to non-adopted classrooms and mentored students compared to non-mentored students. </p><p> In addition, this study gave 20 children (i.e., mentees) who had experienced all aspects of the Just Love programs an opportunity to share their perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations regarding Just Love through the method of photo elicitation including picture selection and interviews. The transcribed data from the interviews and the pictures used in the photo-elicitation process were analyzed using thematic analysis with a focus on capturing the voices of the students.</p><p> Student outcome data were collected for three years from 2010-2013, with 2009 as a baseline year. The findings from the quantitative aspect of this study revealed that students in Charisma ES made significantly greater gains in reading than students in Joseph ES following the implementation of the partnership. Further, number of disciplinary referrals decreased dramatically at Charisma ES in contrast to Joseph ES whose disciplinary referrals increased. Attendance rates differed significantly between the two schools with students in Joseph Elementary School having higher attendance rates than students in Charisma Elementary School.</p><p> On average, both adopted and non-adopted classes made gains in reading in each of the three years although adopted classes appeared to have higher reading scores in 2011-2012 than non-adopted classes. The average number of disciplinary referrals per class was lower for adopted classes than for non-adopted classes in 2011-2012, one academic year after the Just Love partnership program was implemented. Concerning attendance, there were no significant differences in attendance rates between students in adopted and non-adopted classes at Charisma ES.</p><p> Mentored students at Charisma made significant improvements in reading. They also had a dramatically lower average number of disciplinary referrals than non-mentored students in 2012-2013, just two years after the Just Love partnership was implemented. When compared to non-mentored students, mentored students had significantly higher attendance than non-mentored students in 2011-2012, just one year after the Just Love partnership began. Further, attendance appeared to have a positive relation to the number of years students were mentored.</p><p> Findings from the qualitative aspect of this study were captured using thematic analysis of the children's perceived satisfactions, experiences, challenges and recommendations concerning Just Love. The six categories that emerged from the data were (a) perceptions of Just Love, (b) positive feelings, (c) positive relationships and connectedness, (d) classroom and school climate, (e) experiences, and (f) support and resources. Each of these categories comprised a number of themes that aligned with identified protective factors and developmental assets necessary for the resiliency of and successful outcomes for children. </p><p> Taken together, the findings reveal that Just Love, a faith-based school-family-community partnership contributed to improved student outcomes in reading achievement, behavior and attendance and provided important protective factors and developmental assets for the children in Charisma ES. The Just Love partnership program presents a viable model for schools, school districts, and faith-based and community organizations that have a desire to foster resilience in children at-risk, generate positive academic, behavior, and attendance outcomes for children and decrease the chances of children growing up and developing risky behaviors. Implications for practice, training, evaluation, policy, and future research are discussed. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)</p>

This book is a must read for followers of Jesus. The church is called to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world, walking with people in their struggles. It will help us to walk with people if we understand them and the origin of those struggles and what may be helpful. This book is a readable, practical guide for the faith community. Readers will learn how early adversity may explain many struggles that they themselves and others have. That is not where the story ends, though. Readers will be equipped with tools that can reduce addiction and mental health struggles.Not only is Dr. Clements is a "sold out follower of Jesus," but she is also a university researcher who studies addiction, child development, and the effects of adversity. This book combines science and scripture to equip the church. Understanding the connection between past adversity and life struggles such as addiction, anxiety, depression can help us to move ourselves and others toward flourishing. / https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu_books/1291/thumbnail.jpg

Set within an attachment theory developmental perspective, the thesis explored attachment to God as a psychological construct, both theoretical and as experienced within individual Christians’ relationships with God. The dual focus of the interview process, conducted between 31 predominantly Australian born individuals, was to identify 1/ whether individual Christians experienced God functioning as an activity as an attachment figure, and 2/ whether aspects of their relationship with God were able to be identified as attachment experiences. Three types of analyses were conducted. Findings suggested that the ‘attachment to God’ construct was more complex than previously understood, suggestive of an underlying developmental progression. Findings are discussed in relation to debates concerning ‘implicit’ versus ‘explicit’ features of attachment to God, and developmental features including ‘correspondence’ and ‘compensatory’ hypotheses. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

[pt] A presente tese investiga uma forma nova de diálogo entre monges, o diálogo de experiência, focalizando o processo psicossocial de identidadealteridade religiosa. A pesquisa baseou-se em documentos e testemunho do Diálogo Inter-religioso Monástico (DIM), órgão ligado ao Conselho Pontifício para o Diálogo Inter-religioso (CPDI) do Vaticano, que reúne monges de mosteiros católicos do mundo inteiro, participando de comissões de diálogo com monges de outras tradições religiosas. Embora recente este tipo de diálogo indica uma tendência inovadora na relação entre as religiões ocidentais e orientais; e é fruto não apenas do esforço pessoal de alguns pioneiros, mas também das transformações religiosas e sociais que se aceleraram na atual etapa de mundialização. Assim sendo, após apresentar os fundamentos do monaquismo, tendo salientando as diferenças entre suas principais tendências e a referência a uma base comum, situo o desenvolvimento deste tipo de diálogo na perspectiva da história monástica cristã, do atual contexto de pluralismo religioso e de elaboração católica sobre o tema. A importância deste tipo de diálogo para o campo de estudo da religião reside em sua ênfase na experiência, em sua associação entre diálogo e contemplação (ou meditação), e no compartilhamento de práticas monásticas por membros de diferentes tradições religiosas. Ao mesmo tempo, como as experiências relatadas pelos monges estão enraizadas em uma vida religiosa tanto pessoal como comunitária e foram orientadas para o testemunho, elas permitiram um enfoque das representações históricas que relaciona estas representações às práticas religiosas, às experiências espirituais, e às histórias de vida dos monges e comunidades monásticas. A convergência da reflexão vinda de vários campos do conhecimento em direção à experiência transformou esta última em um ponto nodal de referência, em torno do qual foi possível integrar estes campos e estabelecer uma articulação com o testemunho, a narração e o processo psicossocial. Baseada na fenomenologia hermenêutica de Ricoeur e na concepção da consciência religiosa de Nabert, e tendo colocado em evidência a contribuição da psicologia social para esclarecer a dinâmica de identidade-alteridade entre o ego e o alter, a tese analisa o sentido, a formação e a consolidação de uma nova dinâmica desenvolvida no contexto do diálogo intermonástico, estudando-a do ponto de vista da comunidade monástica católica e de sua experiência viva e histórica de diálogo e contemplação. Esta rompe com a visão de subjetividades separadas e com a negação e exclusão da alteridade religiosa, chegando a uma perspectiva de unidade na pluralidade e a um novo tipo de identidade e espiritualidade dialogal. Tendo verificado a importância central desta dinâmica e seu sentido religioso para o desenvolvimento do diálogo entre contemplativos, a tese destaca não apenas a dimensão psicossocial desta dinâmica, mas seu enraizamento no mais profundo centro do ser, sublinhando a relação estabelecida pelos monges católicos entre o diálogo inter-religioso e seu diálogo com Deus. A concepção cristã da alteridade de Deus e do próximo foi determinante para a formulação e prática dialogal de reconhecimento mútuo e para as experiências monásticas de paz e harmonia entre os monges de diferentes religiões. É possível, portanto, distinguir a dinâmica de reconhecimento mútuo da dinâmica de autoafirmação e recusa do outro, relacionada à experiência de negação da diferença, de guerra e eliminação da alteridade. A dinâmica de reconhecimento mútuo é favorecida pela ruptura social da vida monástica, pelas práticas contemplativas e pelo profundo processo de reformulação da identidade- alteridade pela qual passam os monges em sua caminhada para o Absoluto. Atualmente, o reconhecimento da identidade cristã e da alteridade religiosa está sendo considerado por estes monges como central para seu diálogo inter-religioso e está lhes permitindo rever sua relação com a própria identidade, ultrapassando, ao mesmo tempo, as representações históricas negativas sobre as outras religiões e promovendo a abertura para outros seres, culturas e religiões. Estes monges consideram que sua tradição monástica católica está sendo renovada pela esperança espiritual e pela pesquisa de outras tradições e que o diálogo os está ajudando a aprofundar sua própria identidade cristã. A tese descreve suas profundas transformações pessoais e comunitárias, as resistências e avanços, assim como as mudanças nas representações históricas dos monges católicos em relação com a experiência da alteridade e do aprofundamento da identidade cristã, que provocaram uma revisão crítica da postura católica sobre as outras religiões. A análise de todas estas mudanças em relação com o contexto da Babel contemporânea pôs em relevo a contribuição monástica para uma nova perspectiva dialogal sobre a unidade na diversidade de linguagens e seres, permitindo distinguir a visão de pluralidade no reconhecimento da identidadealteridade de outras perspectivas de unidade e pluralidade baseadas apenas na identidade. / [en] The present thesis investigates a new form of dialogue among monks, the dialogue of experience, bringing into focus the psychosocial process of religious identity-alterity. The research is based on documents and testimonies of the Monastic Inter-religious Dialogue (MID), organism attached to the Vatican s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue (PCID), that gathers monks from Catholic s monasteries of all the world participating at dialogue s commissions with monks of others religious traditions. Although recent, this type of dialogue indicates a renewable tendency in the occidental and oriental religions relationship; and it is fruit not only of the personal efforts of some pioneers, but also of religious and social transformations, that are accelerating in the actual world-wideness stage. Then, after presenting the monachism s foundations, having presented the differences among their main tendencies and the references to a common base, I situate the dialogue s development in the perspective of Christian monastic history, of the current context of religious pluralism and of Catholic s elaboration about this subject. The importance of this type of dialogue to the religious study s field lies in its experience s emphasis, in its association between dialogue and contemplation (or meditation) and in the sharing of monastic practices by the different religious traditions members. At the same time, as the monk s experience accounts are rooted in their personal and communitarian religious life and are orientated to testimony, they allowed an approach of historical representations that relates these representations to religious practices, to spiritual experiences and to life s histories of monks and monastic communities. The convergence of reflections coming from various fields toward experience has transform this one in a central point of reference around which it was possible to integrate these fields and establish the articulation of experience to testimony, narration and psychosocial process. Based on Ricoeur s hermeneutical phenomenology and on Nabert`s conception of religious consciousness, and having put in evidence the social psychology s contribution to clarify identityalterity s dynamic between the ego and the alter, this thesis analysis the sense, the formation and the consolidation of a new dynamic developed in the inter-monastic dialogue s context, studying it from the point of view of the catholic s monastic community and of their living and historical dialogue and contemplation s experience. This one breaks off with the separated subjectivities vision and with the negation and exclusion s of religious alterity, arriving to a unity in plurality s inter-subjectivity perspective and to a new type of catholic dialogical identity and spirituality. Having verified the central importance of this dynamic and its religious sense to the dialogue s development among contemplatives, the thesis stands out not only this dynamic s psychosocial dimension, but also its rooting in the deepest center of being, underlying relation established by catholic monks between the inter-religious dialogue and their dialogue with God. The Christian conception of God and fellow s alterity has been determinant to the dialogical mutual recognition and to the peace and harmony s monastic experiences among monks from different religions. The study of this conception and of its application on inter-monastic dialogue conducts to the distinction between this dialogical dynamics from the one established in terms of auto- affirmation and other s deny, that is related to the differences negation, to war, and to several kinds of alterity s elimination. The mutual recognition was favored for the monastic social rupture, for the contemplative practices and for the profound process of identityalterity s reformulation the monks go through in their path toward the Absolute. Nowadays, the recognition of Christian identity and religious alterity is being considered by these monks as central to their inter-religious dialogue, and is allowing them to revise their own identity going, at the same time, beyond negative historical representations about other religions and promoting an opening to other beings, cultures and religions. These monks consider that their catholic monastic tradition has been renewed by the spiritual hope and research of other traditions, and that dialogue is helping them to go deeper in their own Christian identity. The thesis describes their profound personal and communitarian transformations, the resistances and progress, as well as the changes in historical representations and spiritual experiences, provoking a great reformulation of catholic posture about others religions. The analyses of all this changes in relation with the contemporary Babel context put in relief the monastic contribution to a new dialogical perspective about unity in diversity of languages and beings, allowing distinguishing the vision of plurality in the recognition of identityalterity from others perspectives of unity and plurality based only on identity.

A atual pesquisa revela a importância de estudar as relações entre a mídia televisiva e a construção de sentidos de jovens universitários e urbanos acerca do fenômeno religioso, apresentando a televisão como um instrumento que possibilita a experiência do sagrado no contexto da vida cotidiana. A investigação parte do pressuposto teórico da secularização, estrutura de plausibilidade e racionalização de Peter Berger para compreender os mecanismos tecnológicos da transmissão eletrônica do sagrado e os efeitos psicossociais, da narrativa audiovisual, sobre a concepção de Deus, Igreja, homem e experiência religiosa dos jovens da região metropolitana do Recife. Concomitantemente, o estudo analisa o impacto da mídia religiosa na construção de novas identidades e práticas sócio-religiosas e discursivas; procura identificar as estratégias adotadas pela mídia religiosa na conquista do público jovem no ambiente competitivo da pluralidade religiosa e busca compreender os processos de elaboração, distribuição e recepção de bens simbólicos de natureza religiosa veiculados pela televisão. Neste sentido, a investigação caracteriza-se por um estudo exploratório na intenção de aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre a percepção, motivação e atitudes dos jovens acerca do fenômeno religioso em meio eletrônico. A coleta de dados foi realizada através de entrevistas, questionários e grupo focal com a apresentação do vídeo de um episódio do programa PHN, veiculado pela rede Canção Nova de Televisão, como estímulo enunciador do conteúdo a ser aprofundado pelo grupo. A leitura dos dados foi realizada no enquadramento teórico da Análise do Discurso. Buscou-se compreender como a linguagem eletrônica do sagrado pode auxiliar no processo de aquisição ou re-elaboração de uma identidade religiosa dos jovens universitários da região metropolitana do Recife / The actual research essay reveals the importance of studying the relationship between television media and the construction of sense of the university and urban youth about the religious phenomenon. It introduces the television as a tool that turns possible the experience of the sacred in the context of contemporary life. The investigation is based on the secularization and rational choice theory and its structure of plausibility proposed by Peter Berger. This research focus in understanding the technological mechanisms of electronic transmission of the sacred and its psychological and social effects by the audiovisual text in the conception of God, Church, Human and religious identity of the youth from metropolitan region of Recife. Concomitantly, this study analyses the impact of religious media in the construction of new identities and social-religious and discursive practices; it intends to identify the strategies adopted by the religious media in its conquer of the youth as a target in this competitive environment of religious pluralism; it tries to understand the creation, transmission and reception processes of symbolic goods of religious nature transmitted by television and tries to identify what is motivating the production, distribution and consume of religious programs in our days. The research characterizes as an exploratory study that intends to go deeper in knowledge about perception, motivation and attitudes of the youth about the religious phenomenon in electronic media. The data was collected by interviews and focus group with the presentation of video programs transmitted by the net television Canção Nova as the stimulus that enunciates the content to be analyzed by the group. The data collected will be treated by French Analysis of Discursion. This essay tried to understand how the electronic language of sacred can help in the process of acquiring or re-elaborating of a religious identity of the university youth of the metropolitan region of Recife