Thesis--Catholic University of America. / "Works of Cyril": p. x-xii. Bibliography: p. xiii-xv.

This study attempts to incorporate religious fundamentalism into an existing framework for understanding spiritual variables from an object relations perspective of development. Out of this theory have emerged two constructs-image of God and spiritual maturity-which are both spiritually and developmentally oriented. Based on theoretical considerations, it was hypothesized that religious fundamentalism would be connected to lower levels of object relations development and spiritual maturity, and more negative God images. Eighty-five Christians from 18-68 years old were therefore administered four inventories that measured these four constructs. Although mainly weak correlations for the overall sample were found, for students religious fundamentalism was linked to lower levels of object relations development, as hypothesized. Implications of this and other findings are explored.

This study attempts to incorporate religious fundamentalism into an existing framework for understanding spiritual variables from an object relations perspective of development. Out of this theory have emerged two constructs-image of God and spiritual maturity-which are both spiritually and developmentally oriented. Based on theoretical considerations, it was hypothesized that religious fundamentalism would be connected to lower levels of object relations development and spiritual maturity, and more negative God images. Eighty-five Christians from 18-68 years old were therefore administered four inventories that measured these four constructs. Although mainly weak correlations for the overall sample were found, for students religious fundamentalism was linked to lower levels of object relations development, as hypothesized. Implications of this and other findings are explored.

The vast majority of people living in the U.S. report that spirituality is an important part of their life. Ironically, the field of psychology has largely ignored the spiritual beliefs and experiences that so many people see as central to their well-being. Empirical study of spirituality, along with people's differing perceptions of their relationship to God, is a viable area of study for psychologists. This dissertation examines both spirituality and God image and the relationship between these two constructs using qualitative hermeneutic analysis. Findings showed a difficulty defining spirituality among other themes. Findings also showed that individuals' experiences with God led to more concrete descriptions of Deity, and participants often alluded to a gap between themselves and God that creates dissonance. It was generally easier for participants to describe God than spirituality, and religious concepts were integral to participants' descriptions of both spirituality and God. Implications for psychology and counseling include the limitations of current quantitative measurement of these constructs, the importance of addressing contextual worldviews, and issues relevant to counseling.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Dallas Theological Seminary, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 67-73).

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-87).

Magister Artium - MA / This study is situated in the field of Practical Theology with specific reference to empirical studies on the God-images that lay people operate with in their daily lives. It is often observed in the discourse on theology and development that the images people hold of God reflect a sense of power or powerlessness but may also influence the way lay people respond to their social environment. This applies irrespective of religious or denominational affiliation, age group, gender, occupation or socio-economic standing. In particular, this study focusses on two congregations, namely St Dominic’s Anglican Church and the Pentecostal Protestant Church, both located in Hanover Park. These are selected because they represent diverging theological traditions that may or may not shape people’s God-images. The assumption is that whether people see God as law-giver and law-enforcer, a strict judge, an advisor, an advocate, a close friend, a problem-solver or dispenser of goods and services, that this would make a significant difference to how people view themselves in relation to their world. Whilst this interest in understanding the types of God-images and the influence these God-images might have on particular groupings of people is not new, the interest in God-images is new within the field of practical theology (Counted 2015; Hoffman 2005; Lawrence 1997). The God Image Scale that was developed by Richard T. Lawrence (1997), is used in this study. Lawrence (1997:214) a Roman Catholic priest, who served as a pastor at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Baltimore Maryland, developed two instruments namely the God-Image Inventory (GII) and the God Image Scales (GIS). Whilst the GII is used within clinical and pastoral counselling, the GIS has been more widely used in empirical studies in the field of religious psychology and, especially in North America, on the ways in which images of God function amongst specific groups of people. These instruments have not been widely used in the African or the South African contexts although Africa is widely regarded as “notoriously religious”. Such findings on God-images may be significant for Christian education in violence-ridden communities, not only in Hanover Park. The significance of this study on God-images within a specific community context is tied to the complexities of attempting to measure the quality of an individual’s God- image across different denominations, religious beliefs, religious practices and religious educational frameworks. Of equal importance is the need to distinguish between the influence that different doctrinal teachings and religious practices have on the formation of God-images and God-concepts. Whilst people who are social beings learn from their contexts, are influenced by their experiences and make choices based on intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors, the corpus of God-image literature recognises the pivotal role and influence that one’s God-image have on religious knowledge, attitudes and behaviours within any given context.

The thesis is focused on the personality of Ukranian thinker Hryhorij S. Skovoroda, renowned philosopher, poet, pedagogue and composer of liturgical music. His life journey and important influences which formed his way of thinking (for exmple historical background, culture, education, travelling and crucial moments of his life). Above all, however, thinker's point of view on Holy scripture is investigated. How relationship he had with Holy scripture, how he treated it and how he wrote about it. The thesis presents contents of four Skovoroda's writings in which he deals with the Bible. Subsequently, statements directly related to Scripture or Scripture commentary are excluded from these writings. These represent the original scale of thinker's perception and interpretation of Scripture. Afrerwards, the found statements are compiled into a system that corresponds to Skovoroda's philosophy. The thesis attempts to outline the viewpoint on the Bible through the eyes of Hryhorij S. Skovoroda.

Text in Afrikaans with summaries in Afrikaans and English / Mishandeling is een van die mees traumatiese ervarings wat die adolessent kan beleef en beïnvloed sy totale ontwikkeling. Die doel met hierdie navorsing was om deur intervensie te bepaal of mishandeling enige implikasies het vir die adolessent se verhouding met God. Die pastorale en Gestaltterapie is aangewend om die adolessent wat mishandel is in sy verhouding met God te begelei. In die pastorale Gestaltterapiebenadering is daar rekening gehou met die dinamiese konteks van lewenservaring en betekenisvelde in die Godsbeeld van die adolessent. Hierdeur is die impak bepaal van die adolessent se ervaring, waarneming en verwagting van God. Die uitgangspunt van die pastorale Gestaltterapie was dat die adolessent se verhouding met God disfunksioneel geword het as gevolg van mishandeling. Met behulp van die intervensienavorsingsmodel is tot die gevolgtrekking gekom dat die pastorale Gestaltterapeutiese benadering die verwronge Godsbeeld van die adolessent verander het sodat die verhouding met God kan herstel. SUMMARY Abuse is one of the most traumatic experiences the adolescent can have and influences his total development. This research was aimed at establishing, by means of intervention, whether abuse has any implications for the adolescent's relationship with God. The pastoral and Gestalt therapy was applied to guide the abused adolescent in his relationship with God. In the pastoral Gestalt therapy approach the dynamic context of life experience and areas of meaning in the adolescent's image of God was taken into account. Thereby the impact of the adolescent's experience, observation and expectations of God was established. The starting-point of the pastoral Gestalt therapy was that the adolescent's relationship with God became dysfunctional as a result of abuse. With the aid of the intervention research model, it was concluded that the pastoral Gestalt therapeutic approach has changed the distorted God-image of the adolescent to restore the relationship with God. / Social work / M.Diac. (Play Therapy)

<p>The aim of the thesis was to examine the applicability of attachment theory to adult and adolescent religiosity. Attachment theory is an empirically oriented research paradigm that takes evolutionary theory as the starting point in the study of child-parent relations and their socioemotional correlates in development. The work consisted of two interrelated tasks. First, limitations in theory and research in the psychology of religion, particularly the traditional psychodynamic perspectives, were highlighted, and attachment theory was proposed as an integrative framework to remedy some of those limitations. Second, four empirical studies (I-IV), based on attachment theoretical predictions, were conducted to investigate relations between individual differences in attachment and religiosity. </p><p>The combined results from the studies suggest the existence of two religiosity profiles in relation to attachment. Both profiles resemble influential descriptions of individual religiosity differences in the psychology of religion literature. The religiosity of individuals in the first profile is similar to their parents' religiosity and is likely to be stable over time. If religious changes have been experienced, these are likely to be gradual, to occur early in life, and in a context pointing to the importance of relationships with religious significant others. Such individuals' God image is likely to be loving, and not distant. It was hypothesized that these religiosity characteristics stern from experiences with sensitive attachment figures in childhood, and that such experiences have promoted partial adoption of the attachment figures' religious standards. The mental representations of attachment resulting from the favorable experiences were suggested to be responsible for a corresponding image of a loving God. </p><p>The religiosity of individuals in the second profile is independent of parental religiosity, and is likely to fluctuate (increase and decrease) over time. Their religious changes are more sudden and intense, occur relatively later in life, and in a context pointing to an emotionally supportive function for religion. Such individuals' God image is more distant, and less loving. These religiosity characteristics were hypothesized to stem from experiences with insensitive attachment figures in childhood. It was suggested that they reflect an affect regulation strategy to obtain/maintain a sense of felt security, and that God is utilized as a compensatory attachment-like figure in this regard. </p><p>Findings pertaining to the profiles generally emerged regardless of whether the design was cross-sectional (I-IV) or longitudinal (III); whether participants were adults (I, II, and IV) or adolescents (Study III); and whether attachment was assessed with self-report questionnaires (I-IV) or independent ratings based on a semi-structured interview (IV).</p>