Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Diante do desafio de nosso tempo em relação a problemática do abuso no uso das drogas cresceu a oferta de atendimentos e internações em comunidades terapêuticas para a reabilitação das pessoas atingidas por esse mal. Conforme a legislação vigente sobre a saúde mental, esse espaços terapêuticos devem proporcionar um momento de Espiritualidade em seus programas de atendimento. A Igreja Católica Apostólica Romana dispõe da Pastoral da Sobriedade, um departamento que destina-se a cuidar do assunto de apoio a reabilitação de adictos. Muitos agentes de pastoral se dedicam a tarefa de fazer o acompanhamento junto a essas comunidades terapêuticas. Contudo, nem todos possuem indicações claras de como devem agir em suas atividades direcionadas à reabilitação. Nossa tese visa responder a questão: como proporcionar um momento de Espiritualidade a partir da Lectio Divina respeitando critérios terapêuticos que articulem o momento de Espiritualidade como um momento terapêutico? Diante dessa dúvida buscamos investigar a Logoterapia como uma abordagem Psicoterapêutica que respeita a esfera noológica da pessoa, e em especial, buscar elementos da Biblioterapia, uma das técnicas da Logoterapia que possui características semelhante a Lectio Divina em sua operacionalização. / The challenge of our time we have faced about drug abuse increases the supply of care and admissions in therapeutic communities for the rehabilitation of people affected by this disease. According to current Brazilian legislation on mental health, therapeutic settings should provide a spiritual moment in their care programs. The Roman Catholic Church has the Pastoral da Sobriedade, a department that deals with the issue of supporting the rehabilitation of addicts. Most of pastoral agents are dedicated to the task of support these therapeutic communities. However, not all of pastoral agents have clear indications of how they should work to get success at rehabilitation. Our thesis aims to answer the question: how is possible to provide a spiritual moment according to the Lectio Divina in compliance to therapeutic criteria that causes the spiritual moment as a therapeutic moment at same time? In view of this question we investigate the Logotherapy as a psychotherapeutic approach that respects the person noological sphere. In particular way, we find elements of Bibliotherapy that is one of the Logotherapy techniques has similarities Lectio Divina in its implementation as groundwork to therapeutic criteria.

[pt] A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo principal estudar a homilia como parte integrante das celebrações litúrgico-sacramentais, tendo como paradigma a celebração eucarística. Desse modo, as Sagradas Escrituras são determinantes no contexto da sagrada liturgia, pois delas são retirados os textos bíblicos para serem proclamados e comentados na homilia. Esta, por sua vez, na potência do Espírito, atualiza os prodígios operados por Deus na história da salvação tornando-os presentes no hoje da Igreja projetando-a para as realidades futuras. Ao homileta, cabe haurir da Palavra de Deus a mensagem salvífica para a pregação e interpretá-la com a finalidade de conduzir a assembleia litúrgica nos sagrados mistérios. Da mesma maneira, como foi fundamental a redescoberta da Palavra de Deus na celebração litúrgica realizada pelo Concílio Vaticano II, necessário se faz resgatar o caráter pascal da homilia. Por esse motivo, a Igreja apresenta a lectio divina como legítimo método de oração a fim de preparar e prolongar as Escrituras na existência humana. A esse respeito, a Exortação Apostólica Evangelii Gaudium tem o mérito de recuperar a homilia como um autêntico diálogo entre Deus e seu povo com palavras que iluminem e abrasem os corações. / [en] The aim of this research is to study the homily as an integral part of liturgical-sacramental celebrations, whose paradigm is the Eucharistic celebration. Thus, the Sacred Scriptures are decisive in the context of the sacred liturgy because the biblical texts are obtained from them to be proclaimed and commented on in the homily. It, in turn, renews the wonders wrought by God in the history of salvation through the power of the Spirit, making them present in the today of the Church, projecting it to future realities. It is up to the homilet to draw from the Word of God the saving message for preaching and to interpret it to lead the liturgical assembly into the sacred mysteries. In the same way, as the rediscovery of the Word of God was fundamental in the liturgical celebration held by the Second Vatican Council, the Paschal character of the homily must be recovered. For this reason, the Church presents lectio divina as a genuine method of prayer in order to prepare and extend the Scriptures in human existence. In this regard, the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium has the merit of recovering the homily as an authentic dialogue between God and his people with words that enlighten and inflame their hearts.

This dissertation describes a method for constructing a religious environmental ethic modeled on the spiritual practice of lectio divina, or devotional reading. Lectio divina is an explicitly religious way of reading, distinguished from other modes of reading not by what is read--even sacred scriptures can be read for mastery of content, for entertainment, etc.--but by how it is read. In lectio divina, the reader engages the text with a willingness to be transformed by an encounter with the sacred, mediated somehow by the text. This vulnerability is inherent in a religious reading, as is the intimacy implicit in the repeated engagement with the text that is central to the practice of lectio divina. The emphasis on vulnerability and intimacy marks this religious approach to environmental ethics as a form of virtue ethics. Consistent with the traditional insight conveyed by the two-books metaphor, whereby Christians believed God was revealed both in the Book of Scripture and the Book of Nature, I map the classic stages of lectio divina onto a reading not of scripture but of the natural world. Paying attention requires careful observation, the naming and description of relevant details, and awareness and articulation of emotional responses as one repeatedly visits natural settings. Pondering requires a willingness to enter deeply into the religious, scientific, and other sources that help us understand the natural world and our place within it, as well as a willingness to reflect critically upon those sources. Responding calls upon readers of nature to take definite actions that flow out of the previous stages of paying attention and pondering, utilizing knowledge born of familiarity to address environmental challenges while also protecting natural settings in which the unnamable sacred can be encountered. Surrendering involves acknowledging human limits of understanding, will, and action, and nonetheless finding rest and restoration by trusting in some force beyond the merely human. I illustrate this argument with interpretations of literary works by Terry Tempest Williams, thereby asserting the relevance of religiosity to human transformation and to efforts to imaginatively embody human-land relationships that further human and ecological flourishing.

This dissertation studies adaptations of monastic literary culture between the first decades of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the English Reformation. My discussion focuses on the writings of John Whethamstede, John Lydgate, Richard Whitford and Thomas More. I argue that, while these authors aim to satisfy readers’ desires for elaborate and authoritative forms of piety, they actually provide models of reading and patterns of disciplined living that restrict lay piety within orthodox boundaries. I begin with an introductory chapter that situates this adaptation of monastic reading within broader literary and cultural developments, such as the growing popularity of humanist reading and Protestantism, in order to demonstrate that monastic ideals remained culturally relevant throughout this century. This chapter also aims to prompt a further reassessment of the division that is often created between the medieval and early modern periods. Chapters Two and Three focus on the use of monastic reading practices within a Benedictine context. Chapter Two examines the historiographic poetry and prose of John Whethamstede in which the abbot both positions himself at the forefront of contemporary Latin literature and, at the same time, signals the differences that set the cloistered reader apart from his secular counterpart. Chapter Three examines Lydgate’s incorporation of monastic devotional culture into the Life of Our Lady through the depiction of the Virgin as living out an exemplary religious vocation and through the arrangement of the text to facilitate calculated meditative responses from readers. Chapters Four and Five then shift to the first decades of the sixteenth century. Chapter Four examines Richard Whitford’s orthodox programme of monastic and social reform that aimed not only to meliorate the individual’s ethical life but also to revitalize Catholicism and engage directly with Protestantism. Finally, Chapter Five looks back two decades to investigate More’s borrowings from different elements of religious life in his Life of Pico and Utopia that seek to manage the spiritual aspirations of the laity and to depict a society in which, much as in a monastery, the desires of the individual are shaped by and subordinated to the ideals of the community. / Thesis (Ph.D, English) -- Queen's University, 2009-10-30 11:56:09.669

The narrative research journey and pilgrimage into and epistemological reflection on the relevance of the Benedictine, Franciscan and Taizé monastic-mystic traditions (associative spirituality) for retreat within the Dutch Reformed tradition (disassociate spirituality) began because of a passion for, an interest in retreat and because of lack of research done on the subject. The research developed in story form as a participative active process of story development, interpretation, and reflection in which the researcher and the research subject as valued co-researchers (co-pilgrims) constructed a shared reality and new story together. Consequently, the observations and experiences reflected on may tell just as much about the researcher as about the action of retreat and the research participants. The action of retreat was not approached in a neutral, objective stance but with self-awareness, particular presuppositions, and a postmodern philosophical mindset with ideological-critical, deconstructive and inclusive thought processes. The research problem was viewed as a narrative situation of action, explained by means of empirical research, and interpreted via epistemological reflection and theological theories. The focus has not been on new or adapted theory formulation, hypotheses, or “conclusions” as such but on the empiric interaction between the experiences of Mystery (noumenon), the Jesus narrative, stories of the co-pilgrims, monastic traditions, Dutch Reformed tradition, the researchers’ own story, and those who might read the thesis. A potential amplifying or expanding of the repertoire of existing options and meanings were viewed as a possibility in the creative development of a new reality or research story. The aim was to listen to, understand, and interpret qualitatively the subjective dimension and experience of the reality (story/ies) of retreat as a situation where pilgrims (from different traditions and spiritualities) were in relation with God, self and others. The research journey took me into the life world of the monastic-mystic traditions and my own internal dialectics and story within a Dutch Reformed context. From here arose questions, engagement, and re-engagement with the monastic traditions and a new story. The concern was the beliefs and practices of the retreatants (co pilgrims) under study as beings in real-life human experiential reality, taking seriously their concerns, expressions of belief, practice, perceptions, and stories. The data from the empirical encounter was subsequently investigated, mapped with the major themes and interests highlighted and reflected on in the process. The main themes and focal points that were identified and researched were: -- The lives and stories of St. Benedict, St. Francis, and Br. Roger, their respective communities’ monastic-mystic spirituality, the way these traditions approach retreat and the way they live or express their respective monastic rules or orders in comparison with the Dutch Reformed traditions’ retreat narrative. -- The main elements of Monastic retreat namely silence, solitude, lectio divina in facilitating an awareness of God and the mystery of God as part of the journey to the inner mountain, ever deeper into his presence. -- Different types of retreat and especially the experience of monastic retreat, the experience of holy places (desert spirituality) as places saturated by prayer, Eucharist and the community of pilgrims, and retreat as pilgrimage experience. -- Retreat as ritual following a rite of passage structure of separation, marginality and reincorporation focusing on structure and anti-structure (power of liminality) as helpful tool of analysis and framework for planning of retreat. -- The potential therapeutic or pastoral care qualities of a monastic way of retreat facilitating in pilgrims, life story interpretation and new understanding of stories. The research story ended in the form of findings and the posing of possible questions for future research. / Thesis (PhD (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

This thesis contributes towards understanding of how ‘ordinary’ Christians, who have little or no experience of academic biblical study or theological training, might be enabled to engage more deeply with the Bible. I propose that attempts to cultivate the skills of biblical engagement among ordinary Christians might be shaped around lectio divina, this ancient practice being adapted for the situation of contemporary readers. The adaptations would involve use of a range of modern media with which to encounter the texts, working in small groups in order to make space for a more intentional engagement between the voices of multiple ordinary interpreters, and employment of strategies to enable readers to navigate a perceived tension when approaching the Bible: one between head and heart, academic learning and spiritual growth. More specifically, I propose that the promotion of biblical engagement among ordinary Christians should be undertaken as a planned programme with a suite of different resources, which complement one another in both style and aim, together with a sign-posted framework to show participants what each stage is designed to achieve. It should begin with a widely accessible introduction to the whole Bible that conveys the overall narrative and historical setting while communicating the sense that the reader is a participant in the ongoing biblical story. This and subsequent resources should be selected in order to attempt to integrate cognitive and emotive approaches to the texts and, where possible, straightforward terminology would be employed to maximise accessibility. These proposals emerged from my evaluation of an experiment in promoting biblical engagement among ordinary Christians (Bible Society’s ‘Pathfinder’). Analysis of, and reflection upon, the rich qualitative data generated there led to my examining the process of developing biblical engagement in the context of the lectio divina tradition and in the light of contemporary theological reflection across a wide range of theological hermeneutics.

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