In this doctoral thesis, The Spirituality and Mysticism of Nature in the Early Franciscan Tradition, I have begun with an attempt to clarify the notions of spirituality and mysticism. The former, was seen as an approach to God embodied in outlook, practice and lifestyle, and the latter, mysticism, was defined as a felt awareness and knowledge of the presence of God. My hypothesis is that nature played a very important part in both the spirituality and mysticism of Saint Francis of Assisi, and in the spirituality of the movement he founded. In a systematic attempt to investigate my theme, I began with a study of the chief places associated with Francis. They present a kind of mirror of his soul and reveal, I believe, a good deal about his outlook and way of living. They tend to be remote and solitary places, often high in the mountains or near water, often desolate and harsh and usually beautiful, and what was later to become known as `romantic'. I turned then to the world of nature, beginning with the celestial bodies, sun, moon and the stars, and the elements of the sub-lunar world. The world of living things, fruits and flowers, animals, wild beasts and tame, fish and birds was examined. Nearly all the evidence here came from that collection of Franciscan stories and anecdotes which forms one of the great treasuries of stories in world literature. The fourth chapter was devoted to the poetry of Francis, above all to the Praises of God and The Canticle of the Creatures. After examining the circumstances of its composition, I took the stanzas one by one and examined them in the light of what they reveal of Francis spirituality and mysticism. The purpose of chapter five was to gather the fruits of my research and evaluate the hypothesis I proposed. I concluded that Francis, incorporated nature into his spirituality and mysticism in a very original way. I hold that Francis was a great nature mystic, and that his nature spirituality is still full of vigor and potential for the future. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / (D.Th. (Christian Spirituality))

The present study focuses on the further development of the increasingly popular field of spirituality and religiosity in the workplace (SRW) by providing a parsimonious definition, and a three dimensional model for the construct of spirituality grounded in the historical tradition of the perennial philosophy. The study subsequently adopts a multi-study validation process to develop the 21 item universal spirituality scale (USS). By creating a definition for spirituality that has a firm historical grounding and a universal outlook, the study addresses the dilemma of Religiosity vs. Spirituality faced by researchers in this area. This is further supported by the use of multiple samples and participants from three major world faith traditions (both eastern and western). The three factor model for spirituality derived in Study A (n=159) is corroborated by a separate sample of participants in Study B (n=181). The USS shows high levels of internal consistency reliability (α = 0.90, inter-item correlation = 0.32, and split-half, Guttman's coefficient value of 0.77). In Study C, criterion related validity is established by conducting a comparison of the USS with the DUREL - Duke University Religiosity Index (Koenig & Bussing, 2010). Results show that correlations were moderately high (0.20 to 0.41) at significance levels of 0.05 and 0.01 between expected factors for the DUREL and USS. Notably, there is no significant correlation for the factor of Universality (USS) indicating discriminant validity. Group differences for spirituality are measured in Study D (Known-groups validity). The results of parametric and non-parametric tests in Study D clearly illustrate that the USS is sensitive enough to detect differences in means in expected directions when administered to two different groups. Finally, high levels of test-retest reliability are noted in Study E (R = 0.73). Overall, the universal spirituality scale (USS) exhibits strong levels of validity and reliability. The study addresses the concerns surrounding the literature in the SRW area by offering a definition and universal framework for spirituality as well as a reliable and valid instrument for its measurement.

“How does one develop an appropriate urban Christian Spirituality?” is the question this study asks. First, I develop a rigorous, yet open, theoretical framework with which to describe Christian Spirituality’s complexity: a description focused primarily on constraining the markers of Biblical Spirituality and City Spirituality. Within the limits placed on the complex system of Christian Spirituality, I begin exploring various, mostly minor, tropes of urban biblical spiritualities in the “Old” and “New” Testament. From these analyses, I evince the implications of these biblical spirituality tropes for the current city theater, and also construe a set of questions evaluating the appropriateness of mitigating urban communities. The study culminates in an imagined ideal mitigating urban community named an ekklesiastes: a wisdom teaching technology of urban meaning, complexity, and resistance. / Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology / M. Th. (Christian Spirituality)

This dissertation explores the theological and ethical preoccupations of Phillis Wheatley in colonial New England. Chapter 1 frames the conversation around relevant research and states the project thesis to explain Wheatley’s background and eventual role as mother of African-American literature. Wheatley manipulates neoclassical Greek mythological images to subversively critique British-American racial hierarchicalism. Chapter 2 explains the meaning of an Afrosensitive hermeneutic, exploring the epistemological development of Afrocentric thought as a Eurocentric counterfactual. Bebbington’s quadrilateral is the exploratory portal used to discern Wheatley’s commitment to evangelical theology. Chapter 3 assesses Wheatley’s critique of exemplary or open American exceptionalism through the lens of chattel slavery. Critical race theory becomes the analytical lens to understand the intersection of religion, race, class, and gender on Wheatley sociopolitical imagination. Chapter 4 develops a conversation on social justice and neighbor love between Wheatley and St. Augustine (AD 354-430) of Hippo. Although Wheatley never directly quotes, she exemplifies Augustinian spirituality in her response to injustice. They both desire to restore the image of God through a comprehensive view of the gospel—vertical, horizontal, and cosmological. Chapter 5 addresses Wheatley’s staunch commitment to Christian orthodoxy and social activism. She honored Christ as the exclusive way of salvation through literary apologetics in select poems. She also leveraged her privilege amongst societal influencers to advocate for the immediate emancipation of African peoples. Wheatley believed that enslavers lacked a comprehensive understanding of love. Hence, she confronted inconsistent religious and philosophical beliefs through her poetry and prose. Chapter 6 summarizes the dissertation by demonstrating the theological and ethical commitments of a contemporary afrosensitive evangelical spirituality by critiquing key figures within the realm of Afrocentric spirituality, illustrating why afrosensitive evangelical spirituality reverences biblical authority while exercising cultural agency when examining African diasporic narratives.

As pesquisas que tratam do coping religioso-espiritual (CRE) que vem sendo publicadas ainda não abordaram esta temática com relação ao profissional de enfermagem, profissional este submetido a vários fatores de estresse originados não só de sua prática laboral, mas também oriundos do cotidiano existente fora do local de trabalho. O presente estudo foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de verificar se os profissionais de enfermagem (auxiliares, técnicos e enfermeiros) se utilizam do coping religioso-espiritual para lidar com os fatores de estresse vivenciados tanto no trabalho como na vida particular. Trata-se de um estudo transversal, descritivo de abordagem quantitativa de natureza exploratória, no qual foram convidados a participar da pesquisa todos os profissionais de enfermagem da Unidade de Urgência e Emergência do Hospital das Clínicas de Ribeirão Preto, obtendo-se uma amostra de 126 participantes aos quais foi entregue a cada profissional um envelope contendo o termo de consentimento, o Questionário Geral e a Escala CRE, que foram devidamente preenchidos fora do ambiente de trabalho e devolvidos à pesquisadora posteriormente. Os resultados mostraram que a média de CRE total foi de 3,66, a média de CREP foi de 3,11 e a média de CREN foi de 1,78 e que as mulheres fazem mais uso do coping religioso-espiritual positivo do que os homens. Com relação a situação de estresse referida pelos respondentes, verificou-se que a maioria relatou ter vivenciado uma situação de estresse em ambiente familiar (61,1%), que 25,4% relataram ter vivido uma situação de estresse no ambiente de trabalho, 2,4% referiam ter vivenciado situações de estresse em ambos os ambientes e 10,3% relataram não ter vivenciado nenhuma situação de estresse no período indicado. Apenas 0,8% não respondeu a pergunta. Os resultados obtidos por meio dos índices da escala CRE neste trabalho já eram esperados tendo em vista a religiosidade do povo brasileiro, especialmente a religiosidade da mulher brasileira, no entanto, não foi verificado o impacto do uso do coping religiosoespiritual para a saúde dessa categoria profissional, sendo necessários novos estudos, principalmente com relação ao impacto do uso da dimensão negativa do CRE, que, apesar de ter sido pouco utilizada pelos participantes deste estudo, tratase de informação importante que pode afetar a saúde daqueles que fazem seu uso, cabendo aos futuros pesquisadores na área investigar também possíveis formas trabalhar este aspecto para a realização da promoção da dimensão espiritual dos profissionais de enfermagem. / Researches published in the area of spiritual/religious coping (SRC) still not addressed this issue related to nursing professionals who are submitted to different stress factors arising not only from their work practice, but also from their everyday life outside the workplace. This study aimed to verify if nursing staff (assistants, technicians and nurses) uses the spiritual/religious coping to deal with the stress factors experienced both at work and in private life. It is a cross-sectional, descriptive, and quantitative study in which all nurses of the Emergency Unit of the Hospital das Clínicas of the University of São Paulo at Ribeirão Preto Medical School were invited to participate, obtaining a sample of 126 participants who were given an envelope containing a free consent form, the General Questionnaire, and the Spiritual Religious Coping Scale (SRCOPE Scale), which were completely filled out by the participants out of the workplace and then returned to the researcher. The results showed that the SRC average was 3.66, the positive SRC average was 3.11, the negative SRC average was 1.78, and that women make more use of positive spiritual/religious coping than men. Regarding the situation of stress mentioned by the participants, it was found that the majority reported having experienced a stressful situation in the family setting (61.1%); 25.4% reported having experienced a stressful situation in the workplace; 2.4% reported having experienced stressful situations in both environments; and 10.3% reported not having experienced any stressful situation during the period of the study. Only 0.8% of the participants did not answer the questions. The results obtained through the index of the SRC Scale were expected in view of the religiosity of the Brazilian people, especially the religiosity of Brazilian women, however, it was not seen the impact of the use of spiritual/religious coping for the health of this professional category, which warrants further studies, particularly with respect to the impact of the use of negative dimension of the SRC, which, although it was rarely used by the participants in this study, it is an important information that can affect the health of those who make its use, leaving it to future researchers in this area also investigate possible ways to work to achieve the promotion of the spiritual dimension of nursing professionals.

<p> It is not the existence of depressive symptomology, but understanding the function and effect that should be central in how to best support patients. Even in cases of milder depression, phase-of-life issues, or adjustment-related depressive episodes, the myth of a magical pill, here an antidepressant, appeals to the human desire for cessation of whatever unpleasantness may be arising. As a collective, clinicians may be placating clients&rsquo; psychological defenses and natural desire to suppress or dissociate at the expense of allowing a soulful opportunity to work through and resolve challenges. Utilizing a primarily hermeneutic approach, the author contemplates various studies supporting psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and combined therapies. Ultimately, the case is made for decision-making processes that place higher value on the greater context of potential soul opportunities for resolution and healing as well as individuation and growth.</p><p>

M.Phil. / People are living in a stressful world, which is characterised by materialism, narrow self-centeredness, lack of meaning and dearth commitment (1.1). This results in people loosing touch of their spiritual core. They are searching for meaning and purpose in their lives, both at home and at work. Furthermore, companies seem not to take into account that people are more than just mind and body, with unique and special gifts. Companies treat people as numbers and not as people (1.2). The purpose of this study was to create an understanding of the concept spirituality and secondly to understand how employees experience spiritual fulfilment in the workplace and if the employer addresses their spiritual needs (as per 1.3). The study consequently aimed to describe the key elements of the concept spirituality in the workplace (as per Chapter 2), in an attempt to identify and disclose the current experience of spiritual fulfilment in the workplace (described in Chapter 3) — which might aid us in increasing employee productivity. The research has been done from a Personal and Professional Leadership perspective (1.6). This perspective is based on the assumption that human beings have an ongoing commitment and accompaniment to growth and dev'elopment, through self-knowledge and self-awareness, finding a purpose, realising one's full potential and co-operation with and adding value to other people's lives. In endeavoring to address the study's problem, the researcher subsequently decided to make use of a hermeneutic phenomenological research strategy, and to conduct an extensive literature review, word and concept analysis as well as focus group and individual interviews in order to meet the research objectives. The result of the literature study has consequently been described in Chapter 2 in an attempt to: meet the research objective (1.4) of what can be seen as the spiritual needs of workers, as well as to establish the link between the productivity of the workers and their spiritual fulfilment.

D.Phil. / Communities in a society consist of individual members of the communities. Only when the individuals in communities are thriving can the communities contribute to the health of society. This study focuses on the members of macro communities. A macro congregation was used as an example of a macro community. An unhealthy imbalance between individual growth, self-assertion, and a healthy self-esteem, on the one hand, and functioning as part of a larger community, on the other hand is indicative of massification that has a detrimental effect on the wellbeing— spiritually, psychologically, socially and potentially even physically—of the individual. Little or no research has been done about the role of the spiritual disciplines in personal wholeness, specifically as far as members of macro communities are concerned. The following question can therefore be asked: "What can be done to accompany members of a macro community to understand the importance to be self-responsible to implement the disciplines of spirituality?" The purpose of this study is to develop a model for accompaniment of members of macro communities to promote wholeness. A theory generative, qualitative, explorative, descriptive and contextual research design was used to conduct this study. The fieldwork was done by having semistructured interviews with members of macro communities. The results obtained were analysed and categorised. The findings from all data were contextualised and a literature control was carried out. In this way findings were validated. The results obtained from the analysed data reflect the fact that members of macro communities are preoccupied with the mass gathering of the community during the Sunday service. Members of macro communities often associate strongly with the macro community, its leaders, dogma, philosophy and culture, but fail to grow as individuals. Members of macro communities are in desperate need of exercising selfresponsibility for spirituality. A lot can be done to facilitate self-responsibility for spirituality. The central concept of facilitation of self-responsibility for spirituality can be defined as the facilitator creating a safe space in order to assist, intervene, empower and motivate a community member to bring about self-awareness, selfacceptance and the making of a conscious effort in order to bring about selfdiscipline to practice spiritual disciplines and private spirituality in order to grow towards wholeness. A model was developed as framework of reference to facilitate self-responsibility for spirituality. The interrelated divisions were identified for the model of facilitation of self-responsibility for spirituality namely initiation, facilitation and mobilisation. The unique factor about the model of facilitating self-responsibility for spirituality is that members of macro communities are facilitated to live in a way that they will not be victims of massification. The aim is to assist them in living with a new inner functioning. This new inner functioning is available through the self-discipline of practicing the spiritual disciplines. That would bring about the healthy condition of an inner locus of control and a healthy relationship with the macro community, promoting hope, positive beliefs and personal growth. Members of macro communities can exercise self-responsibility for spirituality through self-awareness, self-acceptance and the making of a conscious effort. This thesis therefore proposes a model of facilitating self-responsibility for spirituality on which guidelines can be operationalised. This will assist members of macro communities to exercise self-responsibility for spirituality in order to continue in the lifelong process of growing towards wholeness.

M.A. / Despite the growing evidence that suggests psychologists’ religious and spiritual convictions influence their work and the renewed interest in the role of spirituality in the context of psychotherapy over the past two decades, psychologists’ own spirituality is often avoided by psychologists in the South African context for personal and professional reasons. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe psychologists’ experience of their own spirituality in psychotherapy as part of personal and professional leadership, and to develop guidelines as a framework of reference to assist psychologists when integrating their own spirituality into psychotherapy ...

D.Phil. (Leadership in Performance and Change) / Orientation: This thesis presents a model of spirituality in the workplace. Spirituality in the workplace has largely been avoided or neglected in the banking sector and is therefore ill understood. It shows little theoretical development and could very well be the next competitive advantage for business. Research question: A general research question guided the study, namely: "What are the subjective experiences of spirituality of a manager in a South African retail bank and how can these assist scholars in reaching an understanding of spirituality at work?” Research aim and objectives: The aim of the study was to explore and describe the concrete experiences and views of a branch manager of a retail bank with regard to spirituality in the workplace and to develop a model of it. The key objectives of the study were: · To develop an appropriate qualitative research approach to capture and unravel the experiences and views of the bank manager; · To study the work of prominent scholars in associated study fields in order to infer abstract constructs that could be used as analytic tools to illuminate the world of the bank manager, and · To develop a model of spirituality in the workplace by applying first-order constructs, that is, the concrete experiences and viewpoints of the manager, as well as second-order constructs, that is, the abstract concepts of scholars. Motivation for the study: Knowledge of spirituality in the workplace is in its infancy in the banking sector. Interest in the topic was raised by existential questions such as: Who are you? Where are you going? Why are you going there? The fact that human beings ask these questions, seek meaning and ask about the purpose of life fascinated me. This fascination was not limited to individuals' personal lives; I wanted to know more about spirituality as it is lived and felt in the workplace where workers spend a third of their lives; I also wanted to know the value of spirituality in the workplace for organisations. This finally led to my submission of a research proposal titled "Towards developing a model for spirituality in the workplace". The model I developed for spirituality in the workplace organises information in such a way that the relationships among the various elements are clarified. This theoretical framework provides an understanding for spirituality in the workplace. Research approach: A modernist qualitative research approach was employed, since I wanted to give my research participant a voice regarding spirituality in the workplace. The interpretive-constructivist research philosophy, and more particularly the assumption that reality is constructed by individuals interacting with their social worlds, underpinned my research. The research data were collected by means of a life history and analysed using Strauss and Corbin’s grounded theory. Regarding data management and storage, I followed Bogdan and Biklen’s (2007, p. 118) advice: pledge to keep your data physically well organised; develop a plan on how to achieve this; ensure that you stick to your plan; create a back-up system; have hard copies of all the recorded data in a manual filing system to secure valuable and often irreplaceable data should your computer become infected with a virus or dysfunctional for some other reason. I also ensured that all the data, whether paper-based or electronic, were kept safe and confidential. The writing style was mainly the scientific tale, but confessional, realist and autoethnographic tales were also used. The entire research process was influenced by symbolic interactionism, that is, seeing meaning as something that arises from the interaction between people, especially when they seek understanding of the world in which they work and live. Meaning was constructed through the researcher’s questions to, and discussions and interactions with the research participant.