Thesis (D. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 155-176).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1993. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-293).

No description available.

"The Spinning Place" finds its impetus in the intersection of the spiritual and material, and while often dwelling in a domestic milieu, the poems move outward both figuratively and literally. For instance, one poem re-narrates the tale of Rumpelstiltskin, several poems are about divination by various means (frogs, animal behavior), and another performs an erasure of the last supper so that it instead tells a woman's experience in a delivery room. I borrow the title of the collection from a stanza of Dylan Thomas's poem "Fern Hill," and the excerpt (which will become an epigraph to the book) reads: "So it must have been after the birth of the simple light / In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm / Out of the whinnying green stable / On to the fields of praise." Thomas refers to the newly created earth as the "spinning place," imagining the fleeting idyll and harmony of that scene. In a similar way, my new poems specifically explore moments of creation, birth, and discovery, drawing from a variety of inspirations, including recognizable narratives and myths, as well as personal experience.

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain affects millions of Americans every day. Research shows that using different coping strategies (e.g. catastrophizing, coping self-statement and prayer) has differential impacts on pain outcomes. One of these coping mechanisms, prayer, has been examined less frequently than others perhaps because there is currently only one measure of prayer as a coping mechanism for pain, the Prayer/ Hope subscale of the Coping Strategies Questionnaire-Revised (CSQ-R). The latter, however, is an incomplete representation of prayer practices and hence the CSQ-R only offers a narrow measure of prayer. Recent research has characterized the CSQ-R as measuring prayer in a passive nature, which may be associated with poor pain outcomes. This measure does not include an active style of prayer. Furthermore, the evolution of research characterizing the petitionary content of prayer has resulted in substantive data revealing the contrasting dimensions of the prayer content with opposite reported outcomes. Thus, there is the need for a more comprehensive measure of prayer related to pain which clearly delineates the petitionary content of prayer. The current gap in the literature highlighted the beneficial nature of certain types of prayer for pain management and also the importance of the target to which the prayer is directed but noted that there exist no validated measures of pain-related prayer types. The aim of this study is to develop and validate a new measure of the use of prayer amongst people who experience pain, the Pain related PRAYERS (PPRAYERS) questionnaire. METHODS: An interim data analysis was performed of 42 adult participants with chronic pain who use prayer as a means to cope with their pain who completed a battery of questionnaires including the Brief Pain Inventory, PPRAYERS, Duke University Religion Index (DUREL), Coping Strategies Questionnaire-Revised (CSQ-R) and Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS).The population analyzed represented a fraction of an estimated target sample of 100 participants for this phase of the research. In order to assess the factor structure of PPRAYERS, two principal component analysis factor analyses were conducted on the Pain Related Prayer Questionnaire (PPRAYERS). In addition, bivariate correlations between the identified factors of PPRAYERS and other known pain-related psychosocial measures were examined to assess convergent and discriminant validity of the questionnaire. RESULTS: An interim, exploratory principal component analysis yielded six factors, active prayer, passive prayer, neutral prayer, along with three other factors that were atheoretical and accounted for 77% variance. However, based on our a priori theory (i.e. three types of prayer: active, passive and neutral) as well as minimal variance accounted for by the other three atheoretical factors, a follow up analysis of a three-factor model was performed and accounted for 58% variance. There was good convergent validity between the DUREL and the active prayer subscale of the PPRAYERS questionnaire. There was also good discriminant validity between the PCS and all subscales on the PPRAYERS questionnaire. CONCLUSION: According to these preliminary data, the PPRAYERS measure is comprised of three distinct factors: active, passive, and neutral prayer and is associated with pain and other pain-related factors. This study and the creation of PPRAYERS lays the foundation for additional studies evaluating the benefit of active, passive and neutral prayer in the treatment of chronic pain especially in patients open to religious, spiritual or meditative-based coping strategies. / 2023-12-02T00:00:00Z

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Compared to White individuals, Black individuals demonstrate a lower tolerance for experimental pain. Previous studies also suggest that prayer mediates the race difference in pain tolerance such that Black individuals pray more than White individuals with praying being associated with decreased pain tolerance. However, prayer as it has been studied in relation to pain is a passive coping strategy. Therefore, it is unclear whether prayer in and of itself is driving this relationship or whether it is due to the passive nature of the prayer. The purpose of the current study was to examine the interaction between prayer and race on experimental pain tolerance. Healthy undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of three prayer groups: active prayer, passive prayer, and no prayer. Participants were instructed to continually repeat a specified prayer while undergoing a cold pressor task measuring pain tolerance. Results of a 2 (Race: White vs. Black) X 3 (Prayer: active vs. passive vs. none) between-subjects ANOVA indicated there were no significant main effects of race [F(1,202) = 1.01; p = .32] or prayer [F(2,202) = 1.99; p = .14] on tolerance and no race X prayer interaction [F(2,202) = .37; p = .69]. However, a visual inspection of the means trended in the expected direction with those engaged in active prayer demonstrating longer tolerance (M = 53.77; SD = 49.96) than those engaged in passive prayer (M = 40.94; SD = 36.11) and no prayer (M = 41.63; SD = 40.84). These results suggest that the nature of prayer may influence its effect on pain outcomes. This is consistent with the literature which suggest that, compared to passive strategies, active coping strategies are associated with improved pain outcomes. These results may inform psychosocial pain treatments, especially for individuals who endorse the use of prayer as a coping strategy. Providers may consider encouraging patients to adopt a more active style of prayer in order to facilitate pain self-management.

Applied research project (D. Min.)--School of Theology and Missions, Oral Roberts University, 2005. / Includes abstract and vita. Translated from Korean. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-161).

Applied research project (D. Min.)--School of Theology and Missions, Oral Roberts University, 2005. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-159).

Applied research project (D. Min.)--School of Theology and Missions, Oral Roberts University, 2005. / Includes abstract and vita. Translated from Korean. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-187).

Applied research project (D. Min.)--School of Theology and Missions, Oral Roberts University, 2005. / Includes abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-185).