Henry Longueville Mansel (1820-71), Anglican theologian and philosopher, hastypically been remembered as a Kantian agnostic whose ideas led to those of Herbert Spencer. This thesis provides a critical challenge to this picture, and offers a thorough revisioning of Mansel's theology in context. First, concerning misrepresentation, I argue it was Spencer himself who, having had a youthful relationship with Mansel's sister Katherine, developed a prejudice against him, distorted the reception of his work, and promoted the caricature image of Mansel as an unwitting agnostic and "Kantist". With the help of Liberals such as Goldwin Smith and Leslie Stephen, Spencer's portrayal has stuck. I refute this picture and offer an alternative reading of Mansel. Second, concerning personalism, I show that Mansel was essentially a theistic personalist, indebted to the traditions of Bishop Browne, Bishop Butler, and Scottish common sense philosophy. Mansel represents a mid-Victorian example of "IThou" philosophical theology, grounded in the religious practice of Christian prayer. Mansel's theistic personalism had much in common with Newman's theology, and I explore the ways in which Newman's Grammar of Assent was written in response to Mansel's Bampton Lectures. Third, concerning politics, I argue that Spencer's distorted picture of Mansel as a Kantian agnostic served the political interests of partisan Liberals, and was aggressively spread by them because of Mansel's own Tory commitments. Located in context, Mansel, is here interpreted with reference to key personal relationships and personal networks, including his connection with leading Tories, such as Lord Carnarvon and Benjamin Disraeli. Crucially, I interpret his controversies with Frederick Denison Maurice and John Stuart Mill with reference to the political events of 1859 and 1865. These controversies were simultaneously religious and political, and receive a careful contextual reading.

This study explores how the corporal punishment experienced by learners in Nepalese schools can impact upon multiple aspects of their lives. I examine how these short and long-term effects can extend into adulthood using an auto/biographical methodology; from a perspective influenced by my own encounters as a corporal punishment survivor from Nepal. Corporal punishment continues to be used in Nepalese schools, with the support of many teachers, parents and school management committees, despite several government policy initiatives and court rulings against it. In contrast to worldwide developments (notably in Scandinavia and America), research into corporal punishment in Nepal tends to be rare, quantitative and focused upon the prevalence and short-term effects as described by group participants and newspaper articles. This study addresses the urgent need to increase public awareness, using personal accounts describing the long-term outcomes of corporal punishment, with a depth of detail facilitated by an auto/biographical research methodology. Participants in the study expressed feelings of relief and increased self-understanding, although for myself at least, these were accompanied by feelings of grief and confusion. The lives of five corporal punishment survivors are explored through a series of interviews carried out in the Devchuli municipality of Nawalparasi, Nepal, between November 2015 and January 2016. The first is my own story, the second is a pilot interview and the other three are discussed under the themes of immediate compliance, severing dichotomies, disempowered bodies and the spiritual threat of spatio-temporal appropriation. The participants, whose identities are protected, look back, as adults, upon their experiences of corporal punishment at school and consider possible links between these and their current social, political, economic and spiritual challenges. Simultaneously, the study questions whether ‘effects’ can ever be conceptually or temporally contained within ‘multi-faceted’ and ‘becoming’ identities, using examples from the participants’ self-appraisals. I examine literature from the global debate on the effects of corporal punishment upon children, including the contrasting methodologies of Murray Straus, Alice Miller and Elizabeth Gershoff. The impact of corporal punishment upon notions of personhood is explored using Theodor Adorno’s interpretation of reification and comparable notions of objectification challenged by Andrea Dworkin, Martha Nussbaum and Paolo Freire. Corporal punishment is discussed in relation to power, conflict and the Holocaust, using Adorno and Bauman’s descriptions of authoritarian behaviours and immediate compliance, and Nietzsche and Foucault’s notions of punishment as a spectacle. Conditions for the possibility of corporal punishment are located to traditions deifying teachers, judgement-based belief systems and neo-liberal ideologies of competition and performativity. These are contrasted with alternative, non-punitive pedagogical and theological resources. Participants explore the ways in which healing and holistic self-development can be blocked by everyday vocabularies of violence and conditionality, triggering destructive individual and collective over-determined reactions. My study ‘concludes’ with reflections upon how corporal punishment has affected my participants’ lives: with their social roles hampered by defensive masks and evasive dances; their political lives blocked by fears of punishment; their economic lives stilted by caution and low self-esteem and their spiritual lives distorted by disenchantment and disappointment. Methodology and theory converge as my study rejects inherently disciplinarian, Enlightenment-led demands fo**r rational or scientific ‘proof’ of psychological effects, by presenting auto/biography itself, especially ‘child-standpoint’ narratives, as valid revolutionary praxis, effervescent with resistance to punitive ideologies and practices and dedicated to the liberation of our present from a painful past.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a multifaceted social issue that affects the Christian faith community as it does the secular community. Though the literature reflects some understanding of general correlates and possible antecedents to IPV within the Christian community, the impact of religious and spiritual factors tends to be homogenized and is often misjudged. Allport's theory of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientation provided a platform for investigating Christian male-perpetrated IPV. This quantitative study utilized survey design and measured the impact of 10 select religious and spiritual factors on the probability of physical or sexual IPV perpetration. Archival data from Wave III of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health were used and included male participants ages 18 to 26 who nominally classified themselves as Catholic, Protestant, or Christian. Data were analyzed using binary logistic regression and results indicated that IPV perpetration could not be predicted from the 10 religious or spiritual factors. Given the geographic breadth and the size of the sample utilized, not finding a predictive model suggests there may be a lack of consistency in religious and spiritual orientation in these young males and elucidated analysis problems resulting from multicollinearity and the use of ordinal data. Though a predictive model for Christian male-perpetrated IPV was not found, the results of this study can contribute to social change by challenging existing ecclesiastical paradigms regarding which religious or spiritual factors, if any, impact Christian male-perpetrated IPV and which religious and spiritual factors should be addressed in faith-based batterers' programs targeting young adult males.

The Association for Spiritual, Ethical, and Religious Values in Counseling (ASERVC) identifies 9 core competencies for integrating spirituality/religion into practice. Previous research indicates that some mental health professionals have experienced discomfort when considering the balance between religious ideology (RI) and scientific orientation (SO) in their practice. However, no research exists assessing this potential for cognitive dissonance among mental health professionals nor has there been a test of the relative influence of RI/SO on approval of ASERVC competency integration into counselor training. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study was first to assess RI/SO cognitive dissonance and, second, to test RI/SO relative to ASERVC competency integration. The Religious Ideology, Scientific Orientation, Conflict Questionnaire and Core Competency Questionnaire was administered to a random sample of American Psychological Association and American Counseling Association professionals. The results from t tests revealed a significant difference in cognitive dissonance with higher scores on both RI/SO associated with greater dissonance. Multiple regression analysis revealed neither RI nor SO predict competency approval. Findings suggest an important social-change implication: Counselors may not perceive a conflict between RI and SO and, therefore, may be willing to accept the integration of the ASERVC competencies into their training. Implications also include changes in curricular requirements within academic programs that train counselors, social workers, and psychologists to integrate these competencies; considerations for ethical guidelines addressing religious and spiritual diversity; and the development of continuing education coursework pertaining to spiritual and religious diversity competencies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2008. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 141-170).

The diploma work reflects the different attitudes to evaluation of extraordinary religions experiences. The objective is to compare different ways of comprehension and evaluation of extraordinary religious experiences and thereby provide suggestions for further consideration of these experiences with a view to pathology and normality. In the theoretical part firstly the general term of the religious experience is determined further the definition of the extraordinary religious experiences follows. Using the example of three types of different religious experiences the psychological, psychiatric and religious attitudes are compared. Further two general attitudes to the extraordinary religious experiences are compared form the point of view of pathology and normality. The conclusion of the theoretical part offers suggestions for consideration of extraordinary religious experiences. The practical part, based on the qualitative research, surveys the experiences of five persons that went through an extraordinary religious experience which is considered by them as religious or spiritual. The research was carried out by means of the semistructured interview and loosely adjusted graphical projective technique called the "Axis of Life". By analyzing the performed interviews answers to questions how the...

The extent to which conscious and unconscious mental processes contribute to our experiences of learning and the subsequent knowledge has been subject to great debate. Dual process theories of implicit learning and recognition memory bear many resemblances, but there are also important differences. This thesis uses subjective measures of awareness to explore these themes using the artificial grammar learning (AGL) and remember/know (R/K) procedures. Firstly, the relationship between response times associated with intuition and familiarity based responding (conscious judgment of unconscious structural knowledge) compared to rule and recollection based responding (conscious structural knowledge) in AGL were found to be strikingly similar to remembering and knowing; their R/K analogues. However, guessing (unconscious judgment knowledge) was also distinct from intuition and familiarity based responding. Secondly, implicit learning in AGL was shown to occur at test, which would not be expected in R/K. Finally, wider theories of cognition, unconscious thought and verbal overshadowing, were shown to have measurable effects on AGL and R/K respectively. The approach used in this thesis shows the merits of both in-depth analysis within a given method combined with the synthesis of seemingly disparate theories. This thesis has built upon the important distinction between conscious and unconscious structural knowledge but also suggests the conscious-unconscious division for judgment knowledge may be as important. Implicit learning and recognition memory tasks differ in the kinds of mental processes that subjective measures are sensitive toward; particularly so in situations where judgment knowledge is unconscious. Different theories and methods divide nature in different ways; the conscious-unconscious judgment distinction may prove an important one.

The thesis argues that there is a need for Christian communal pastoral care and counselling practice beyond the individualistic Western pastoral care and counselling practices. The communal pastoral care model advocated by the author uses culturally gifted care-givers who follow spontaneous caring models. Several of the major books concerning communal pastoral care and counselling were reviewed. The author concludes that the church has been impoverished by ignoring the cultural gifts of the majority of members and the mutual communal care of the community. Pain and its healing in this thesis are understood in a culturally sensitive manner. Pastoral care must be done in context, in this case in the Vhavenda context. Hence the thesis looks systematically at the way in which the Vhavenda understand and heal pain from their cosmological perspective. The thesis engages in empirical research among the Vhavenda people using qualitative interview. The author selected five small communities to test for their understanding of pain and healing. He developed his own interview schedule. Themes encountered in interpreting the research results include pain as part of life. The thesis develops two sub-models of a Vhavenda-Christian culturally gifted model of communal care arguing the need of their incorporation into Christian communal care. They are “Kha ri vangulane” model which pictures pain as a thorn which people help to remove from a person; and the “khoro” or “dzulo” gathering which is family or community care-giving. A case study has illustrated how they are used.Finally, the author argues that the Bible is full of communal pictures which resonate well with the African people. Hence it is fairly easy to correlate the Vhavenda sense of community with the body of Christ model of Christian community as found in the Bible. The conclusion is that members of the Christian community need to reincorporate their culturally gifted care resources and integrate them with the biblical care. / Thesis (D. Th. (Practical Theology))

The thesis argues that there is a need for Christian communal pastoral care and counselling practice beyond the individualistic Western pastoral care and counselling practices. The communal pastoral care model advocated by the author uses culturally gifted care-givers who follow spontaneous caring models. Several of the major books concerning communal pastoral care and counselling were reviewed. The author concludes that the church has been impoverished by ignoring the cultural gifts of the majority of members and the mutual communal care of the community. Pain and its healing in this thesis are understood in a culturally sensitive manner. Pastoral care must be done in context, in this case in the Vhavenda context. Hence the thesis looks systematically at the way in which the Vhavenda understand and heal pain from their cosmological perspective. The thesis engages in empirical research among the Vhavenda people using qualitative interview. The author selected five small communities to test for their understanding of pain and healing. He developed his own interview schedule. Themes encountered in interpreting the research results include pain as part of life. The thesis develops two sub-models of a Vhavenda-Christian culturally gifted model of communal care arguing the need of their incorporation into Christian communal care. They are “Kha ri vangulane” model which pictures pain as a thorn which people help to remove from a person; and the “khoro” or “dzulo” gathering which is family or community care-giving. A case study has illustrated how they are used.Finally, the author argues that the Bible is full of communal pictures which resonate well with the African people. Hence it is fairly easy to correlate the Vhavenda sense of community with the body of Christ model of Christian community as found in the Bible. The conclusion is that members of the Christian community need to reincorporate their culturally gifted care resources and integrate them with the biblical care. / Thesis (D. Th. (Practical Theology))

Research has shown that the benefits of having a populace literate in science are great. Even if citizens are not literate in basic science, it is important that citizens still appreciate science and those with expertise in the field for many reasons. Recent research suggests that the United States (U.S.) has lower levels of science literacy than it should. Evidence may also suggest that many U.S. citizens are not appreciative of science. Overall, little research has been conducted on what may predict science literacy and science appreciation which is the aim of this research. Specifically, I have examined socio-personal variables, beliefs, thought paradigms, and various demographic variables that may be predictive of science literacy and science appreciation. Results indicated that scriptural literalism, religiosity, and magical ideation were predictive of low levels of science literacy. In addition, predictors of low levels of science appreciation included scriptural literalism and magical ideation. Implications of the findings are discussed.