<p>Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) is professional theological education that emphasizes experiential learning through a process of action and reflection referred to as the "clinical method." In Clinical Pastoral Education, theological students, ordained clergy, and qualified lay persons, under the direct supervision of a trained supervisor, are given opportunities for learning and growth in the art of pastoral care. CPE seeks to integrate knowledge and insights from theology, the behavioral sciences, and learning theory into pastoral functioning. </p><p> This ministry project examined the future of Clinical Pastoral Education in light of a profound cultural shift toward a postmodern worldview, and presented an integrative theistic model for a basic unit of CPE that addressed the most pressing challenges that epitomize this paradigm. It incorporated three of the most salient dimensions of postmodern contextualization, a sense of community and relationship, an appreciation for diversity, and a holistic approach focused on the whole person with emphasis on emotional health and well-being and spiritual formation. Since Clinical Pastoral Education is first and foremost theological education, the primary goal of this program was "to prepare God's people for works of service" (Eph 4:12 NIV) </p><p> The ministry project was designed as an extended, part-time unit of CPE. The clinical setting was Sentara CarePlex Hospital in Hampton, Virginia. The age range for participants was limited to the generations most affected by the postmodern worldview. Since CPE is graduate-level theological education, the targeted age range for participants in this project was from age 26 to age 51.</p><p> The integrity of the CPE learning process requires small group interaction. Five chaplain interns were participants in this ministry project. Because of sample size, a qualitative approach which relied on the self-report of the participants was used in evaluating the ministry project. The responses given by the CPE interns who were a part of this study strongly supported the premise that an integrative, theistic model for Clinical Pastoral Education designed specifically for postmodern individuals would be efficacious in helping them meet their professional ministry goals, equipping them to do the work of ministry in their churches and communities. </p>

This study is an analysis of the political behavior of the clergy in Iran during the Pahlavi monarchy (1925-1979) within the context of the interrelationship between religion and modernization. This period itself has been divided into three eras: the Riza Shah era (1925-1941), the nationalist era (1941-1953), and the post-nationalist era (1953-1979). The analytical framework adopted here is based on three behavioral motives for clerical political involvement: religious, national, and clerical corporate interests. Within this framework, various patterns of clerical political behavior are identified, each reflecting a different order of priority of interests and motives for political action. The main point emerging from this approach is that at no time throughout this period did the clergy act as a politically monolithic group. Such distinct patterns are particularly discernable during the nationalist era (1941-1953) because of the presence of greater socio-political freedom relative to the other two major eras. A major theme developed in this study is that while the greater functional differentiation and specialization caused by modernization resulted in the clergy's loss of influence and official power in the educational and legal systems, the popular base of their political power vis-a-vis the state increased because of the clerical institution's disengagement from the government. Furthermore, the emergence of a new religious intellectual class in the process of modernization led to the ideologization of Islam which in turn was a major causal factor behind the Islamic revolution and legitimization of clerical leadership. Concurrent with this development, the core of the clerical institution underwent a process of politicization through the rise of Ayatullah Khomayni in the 1960's. The Islamic revolution of 1979 represented the mutual reinforcement of these two developments and their convergence in the direction of the establishment of an Islamic system of government.

<p> For many years, churches have known that young people have not found the corporate worship of their congregations meaningful. To churches' credit, they have both acknowledged the problem and tried many different solutions to fix it. Unfortunately, most solutions lose steam after changes to the style of the corporate worship service. This dissertation suggests that the problem is not the style of music or the formality of the liturgy, but rather the inability of congregations to help young people anticipate an encounter with God in worship. After examining John Wesley's understanding of religious experience and worship as well as the historical shifts in liturgical practice of American Methodism, I use qualitative research methods to detail the experience of corporate worship for teenagers in three United Methodist congregations. Then, leaning heavily on the work of Howard Thurman, I propose a theology of magnitude that suggests that the Church is the normative home for the anticipated encounter of God. Finally, I propose five strategic turns necessary to return magnitude (the significance which comes from the anticipation of an encounter with God) to worship in United Methodist congregations.</p>

Le c. 281, &sect;&sect;1-2 du CIC/83 affirme le droit fondamental du clerc (exercant ou ayant exercé un ministère) à recevoir une rémunération convenable et, dans certains cas précis (maladie, invalidité, vieillesse, etc.), une protection sociale suffisante. Comment ce droit est-il appliqué pour les prêtres en ministère paroissial au Congo-Kinshasa? Et, s'il ne l'est pas ou pas assez, comment pourrait-il l'être (davantage)? C'est à cette double question que la présente étude entend répondre. Après avoir rappelé le sens du renouveau conciliaire en matière de rémunération du clergé et précise la manière dont le code de 1983 a assumé ce renouveau dans ce c. 281 (avec son accent de justice distributive), elle répond à la question en deux volets. D'une part, à la lumière des directives et orientations pastorales de la conférence des évêques du Congo (particulièrement des " Statuts du clergé diocésain ") et des pratiques paroissiales en la matière, elle constate qu'en dépit des efforts réels le droit ici en cause n'a pas encore vraiment trouvé son application au Congo, les Églises particulières restant encore largement tributaires de l'esprit ayant prévalu à l'époque missionnaire en ce domaine. D'autre part, pour contribuer à dépasser cette situation, l'étude propose quelques pistes de solution jugées plus réalistes et urgentes. Parmi celles-ci, outre la responsabilité des fidèles (cf c. 222, &sect;1) et celle des évêques diocésains (cf. c. 384), elle insiste notamment sur l'élaboration par la conférence des évêques (cf. c. 455) d'un droit canonique complémentaire sur le c. 281, &sect;&sect;1-2. Et ce droit particulier, en plus d'obéir à des critères importants d'ordre juridique, sociopolitique, économique et stratégique, devra mettre en avant trois facteurs très déterminants pour la subsistance des prêtres en paroisses aujourd'hui en R. D. Congo : la création et la diversification des moyens d'autofinancement (cf. c. 1254); les mécanismes adéquats d'une gestion responsable des biens ecclésiaux; l'option pour une large ouverture du ministère paroissial des prêtres au travail professionnel, sans oublier leur insertion nécessaire dans un système adéquat de protection sociale, actualisé et aussi diversifié que possible.

The purpose of this study was to determine variables which were associated with participation in continuing education by clergy in the Eleventh Episcopal District (Florida and the Bahamas) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The specific objectives of this study were (1) to determine the nature and scope of African Methodist Episcopal ministers participation in continuing education and (2) to determine the association between selected demographic, dispositional, situational, and institutional variables and participation in continuing education. One hundred twenty-four ministers were requested to respond to a fifty item mail questionnaire; from the sample seventy-five usable instruments were returned. / Data collected for objective one were descriptive. The data provided information relevant to the nature and scope of ministers participation in continuing education. Objective two was operationalized through a series of four research questions. The four research questions were analyzed using Spearman's Rho, Pearson Product Moment Correlation, and the Contingency Coefficient. / For research question one significant associations were found between income from ministerial sources and number of activities attended, providers used, and hours studied. For research question two significant associations were found between value of improved pastoring and the number of activities attended and providers used. For research question three significant associations were found between length of professional experience and hours studied, and between work obligations and size of church and the number of activities attended. In research question four significant associations were found between scheduling and number of providers; knowledge of educational offering from other ministers and number of hours studied; and fees--amount spent by ministers and number of activities attended, providers utilized and hours studied. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 3996. / Major Professor: Irwin Jahns. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

This dissertation identifies communication competencies needed by Southern Baptist clergy. These competencies are compared with the status of speech education in Southern Baptist colleges and seminaries. This dissertation utilized a questionnaire created by a task force commissioned by the Speech Communication Association. The questionnaire was adapted for a survey of ministers in Georgia and a similar survey of teachers of communication in Southern Baptist higher education. The survey contained two major sections. One section listed seven communication activities. The second section listed fifty-three communication skills or competencies grouped into three areas: speaking skills, listening skills, and human relations skills. Ministers were asked to rate the importance of the skills on a Likert-type scale. Educators were asked to indicate whether each skill was required, recommended, or available at their respective institutions. / Three hundred and thirty ministers responded, constituting a return rate of over forty-two percent of the surveys mailed. Forty-six responses were received from Southern Baptist institutions representing a return rate of over eighty-eight percent of all fifty-two Southern Baptist institutions. / A majority of ministers considered all fifty-three skills at least "Necessary." Ministers ranked listening skills as the most important area, followed by human relations skills. The least important area was speaking skills. However, responses from educators indicated that at Southern Baptist institutions, speaking skills are emphasized the most, listening skills, second, and human relations skills least. According to these respondents, many listening and human relations skills that are considered necessary to ministers are not required, recommended or available at Southern Baptist institutions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-10, Section: A, page: 3477. / Major Professor: Gregg Phifer. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The thesis of this dissertation is that the unifying factor in the life of Henry of Blois was his Cluniac profession. Given to as an oblate at a very early age, Henry was formed as a person in the abbey of Cluny. That formation could not entirely be left behind, no matter what else happened to him. At Cluny he became a member of a particular family with its own way of thinking, style of life, and values. Although he left behind the specific aspects of the religious life when he became a bishop, Henry of Blois always remained a Cluniac This thesis is developed in two parts. The first part, consisting of four chapters, establishes Henry of Blois' connection with Cluny. The paper begins with a general description of the Cluniac style and spirit and speculates on the oblate's education and upbringing in the abbey. A survey of Cluniac political thought follows, focussing mainly upon the Tractatus de Regia Potestate et Sacerdotali Dignitate of Hugh of St. Mary, monk of Fleury Using charter collections it is shown that Henry of Blois was indeed a Cluniac bishop. His consecration and subsequent involvement with all that the twelfth century episcopate entailed meant that Henry of Winchester was no longer technically a monk, but remained a Cluniac bishop The second part of this dissertation focusses upon Henry of Blois as a man of action, his relationship to King Stephen, his legateship, and his connection with Becket at the end of his life. The major sources for this study are the histories and chronicles of the period, especially the Gesta Stephani and the Historia Novella. This section is concerned with the critical question: can Henry of Winchester's deeds be understood in light of his Cluniac connection? To answer this question the dissertation compares the Cluniac political thought discussed in the second chapter, especially those common themes developed in the Tract of Hugh of St. Mary, with what Henry of Blois did as brother, counselor, legate, and friend. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.) / acase@tulane.edu

Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849-1925) facilitated the development of New Thought in America. She worked for sixteen months as editor of the Christian Science Journal under Mary Baker Eddy. In 1886 she relocated to Chicago and founded the Emma Curtis Hopkins College of Christian Science. By 1887 there were twenty-one national Hopkins associations. In 1888, with a feminist self-consciousness, she founded a Theological Seminary and her graduates and ordinands, who were primarily female, served as missionaries, ministers, teachers and practitioners of personal growth and prosperity through metaphysical healing. She taught the founders of the Unity School of Christianity, Divine Science, Religious Science and Home of Truth, which earned her the title "teacher of teachers." Current original research reveals she was the founder of organized New Thought, but had gone unrecognized because she withdrew from self-promotion. Hopkins's contributions were further veiled by various New Thought polemics of the 1880s and 90s. She travelled abroad as a teacher, making New Thought an American export. Her later years were spent living semi-reclusively in New York as a mystic ministering to the "movers and shakers" of the art, drama and literary communities of the early twentieth century. She championed civil and social rights of African and Native Americans through her personal ministry, and left a legacy of numerous books and pamphlets of mysticism and religion that are still being read and taught by members of the New Thought community today. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-08, Section: A, page: 2957. / Major Professor: Leo Sandon. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

This study investigates the expectations various groups in late medieval German society held of their parish priests and how these expectations were mediated through specific relationships. By analyzing the qualities, skills, duties and services required of the parish clergy by those in the priest's own social network--the episcopal and patronal structures above him and the parish and clerical communities around him--this study reveals the mutual obligations and contradictions inherent in the priest's situation. The strategies employed by individuals and groups to articulate and enforce their demands are examined as well as the means by which priests could negotiate or resist in order to protect their own interests. The result is a web of expectations, the individual strands of which are inspected in three major parts of the study, corresponding to the demands of the episcopal hierarchy, the intentions of a late medieval movement to educate the simple priest, and the perspective from the parish. In fifteenth-century Germany, the bishops of Constance sought to reduce their crushing debt by introducing new taxes upon the clergy of the diocese. The parish priests banded together and defied the bishop in 1492, negotiating a payment favorable to them. Another source of revenue directly contradicted diocesan law as bishops tolerated the presence of concubines among their priests in return for the payment of an annual fee. Manuals for parish priests were in high demand throughout the late medieval period; their popularity only increased after the invention of the printing press. Written to inform priests how to carry out their daily duties and avoid sacrilege, these manuals helped to steer the basic training of the parish priest toward a vocational profile combining the aura of the cultic priest with the standardized efficiency of the professional minister. Perspective from the parish encompasses the differing viewpoints of patron, priests and parishioners. The case of Wurttemberg reveals how Count Eberhard (&dagger;1496) used parish resources in an attempt to reshape devotion in his lands. In towns and villages served by a number of priests, a local clerical brotherhood often existed alongside lay parish structures. Conflict and cooperation is measured both between the clergy and the laity as well as within the ranks of the priests themselves.

Making a Difference: Professional Socialization and Practice of the Clergy is a reflection upon pastoral preparation and practice within the Church. This case study of ministerial graduates of Nazarene Theological Seminary and Nazarene Bible College seeks to understand, first, how these institutions envision and propose to prepare their students for professional practice in the ministry and, secondly, to understand how this preparation has affected the practice of their graduates in the models of ministry graduates utilize, the relationships to authority which they employ, and the professional mobility which they find within the practice of their ministry and the hierarchy of the Church of the Nazarene. The structure of the analysis grows out of the work of Wilcox (1982). As a reproduction theorist, she found that differing educational systems socialized their students in ways that maintain inequalities by teaching different kinds of skills, preparing students for differing relationships to authority, and creating different expectations about their future roles as adults. This structure was applied to two professional schools of clergy preparation. A document analysis was oeutilized to investigate the impact of professional theological education upon the practice of the clergy. Skill development was not found to be significantly influenced by institutional socialization. Relationships to authority were somewhat related to institutional patterns and expectations. Mobility and opportunity were highly influences by institutional type. Reproduction theory was found to be helpful in explaining professional socialization but not complete. The power of the workplace and an understanding of professional education as certification into differing levels of the profession were also useful in explaining the findings. At its essence, this research tried to answer the desire of all educators to know if their work effects practice and, importantly, if that effect has had a liberating and positive impact or a limiting impact on their students. This understanding may provide a basis for the revision of mission statements, expectations, and patterns of socialization within educational institutions and may provide a clearer understanding for future students of the power of professional preparation to expand or limit their practice within the field.