Abstract not available.

The purpose of this thesis was to explore the relationships between spirituality and play. Phase 1 involved in-depth interviews with ten Christian participants who indicated relationships between their spiritual attitudes and their play experience. The exploration of the spirituality and play intersection resulted in several primary themes, or features, of play: enjoyment, freedom and creative expression, connection, transformation and meaning. Phase 2 consisted of a large-scale quantitative study designed to investigate the extent to which the sample (N = 346) reflected the features of play. The Play Experience Scale (PES), developed based on conceptual, theological and empirical research and Phase 1 data, aimed to evaluate ten primary features associated with play: freedom, enjoyment, relationships (with self, God, people, and nature), creativity, transformation and meaning. Overall frequency and enjoyment of play correlated with all the features of play, with the exception of the ‘relation to God’ feature. In exploring differences between Christian (n = 187) and non-Christian (n = 159) participants, results showed that non-Christians exhibited significantly greater frequency and enjoyment of participating in play. It was found that Christians scored significantly higher on the overall play experience score, and two features of play: relation to God and relation to nature. Further, Christian sport participants reported significantly higher levels on the PES and the features of enjoyment, relation to others, transformation and meaning, as compared to Christian sport non-participants. Factor analysis of the PES suggested three-factors: creative expression, relation to God, and transformation. Creative expression correlated most strongly with self and nature sources of spirituality; transformation correlated with human-spirituality; and relation to God correlated with theistic and transcendent spirituality. Creative expression correlated with all five categories of playful activity, relation to God negatively correlated with spontaneous and casual play, and transformation most strongly correlated with physical contests and sports. Overall, creative expression and transformation were significantly correlated with playful activity, self-determined motivation, dispositional flow and frequent sport participation. In Phase 3, in-depth interviews were conducted with seven pastors to explore how play could be integrated into church life. Pastors emphasized the capacity for play to develop and strengthen relationships, notably through pedagogical practice, intergenerational activities, and within organized community programs. Altogether, creative expression, transformation and interpersonal connections were the most prominent features of play that emerged from this mixed-methods study. Findings suggest that even though play is evident in the lives of Christians, tensions persist regarding the role of play within work-life integration. Additionally, contrasting perspectives emerged regarding spiritual maturity and relational and spiritual encounters. Future research needs to examine the utility of the PES, explore the ambiguity of spirituality and play, and engage a broader sample of participants, especially pastors. Study findings have implications for pastors, teachers and leaders wanting to incorporate play into ecclesiological and educational life through emphasizing and facilitating the creative, transformative and relational features of play.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A.in Theological Studies)--Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminaary, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-105).

Thesis--Air Command and Staff College, Air University, April 2005. / "April 2005." Thesis advisor: Lt. Colonel Paul L. Sherouse. "AU/ACSC/3131/2004-05." Includes bibliographical references. Also available online in PDF from the DTIC Online Web site.

No description available.

This study explores two ancient approaches to spirituality, together with the cultural contexts in which they developed. Spirituality is a popular concept today among people of widely differing religious traditions, and among those who espouse no religious tradition. Spirituality defines the way in which people relate to what concerns them ultimately, and ways in which this concern is manifested in their daily lives. This popular interest has resulted in the rise of spirituality as an academic discipline. An in-depth study of Celtic and African Spirituality is presented in this study. Celtic Spirituality dates from the fifth century CE onwards, whereas African Spirituality predates written history. Few examples of African Spirituality are recorded in writing before the twentieth century, although some have existed for centuries in oral form. Many Celtic poems, and other examples of traditional oral literature were collected and recorded in writing by medieval monks, and thus preserved for later generations in writing. Both Celtic and African Spiritualities have a healthy, integrated approach to the material world and to the spiritual world. They acknowledge a constant interaction between the two realms, and do not dismiss or devalue either the physical or the spiritual. Art and oral literature also play an important role in enabling communication and expression of ideas. Power and powerlessness emerges as a dominant theme in African thought and spirituality, especially where African peoples perceive themselves to be powerless politically or economically. Areas of relevance of Celtic and African Spiritualities to the life of the church today are identified and discussed, such as ecological spirituality; oral and symbolic communication; the role of women in church and society; and the theme of power. These are areas from which the world-wide church has much to learn from both Celtic and African Spiritualities. The findings of this study are then discussed in terms of their relevance and helpfulness to church and society. Insights from Celtic and African spiritualities should be used in the future to deepen devotional life of individual Christians and of congregations, and ideas such as ecological responsibility and recognition of the value and gifts of women should permeate the teaching and practice of the church in the future. / Religious Studies & Arabic Studies / D. Th.(Religious Studies & Arabic Studies)

The Scriptures, as found in the Old and New Testaments, are foundational to a genuine Christian spirituality. Among the different existing approaches to spirituality, the evangelical and charismatic churches in South Africa today need to rediscover a distinctive biblical approach to spirituality for themselves in order to facilitate the discipleship of their own members. A holistic biblical spirituality can also serve society in practical ways and challenge the perceptions and practices of a South African society which is seeking to advance without religious foundations. / Philosophy and Systematic Theology / M.Th. (Christian Spirituality)

abstract: Gangs present a wide array of consequences, both for society as a whole and for gang members themselves. Addressing factors that influence gang membership is of critical importance; however, very little research to date has sought to understand the relationship between spirituality, religion, and gang membership, instead focusing on general deviance. The goal of the present study is to bridge this gap by addressing two research questions: 1. what is the relationship between spirituality and gang membership? And 2. what is the relationship between formal religious participation and gang membership? In order to answer these questions, the current study utilizes Pathways to Desistance, a longitudinal study of adjudicated youth and young adults in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Phoenix, Arizona. Logistic regression indicates that spirituality, not formal religious participation, is associated with decreased odds of gang membership in the first two years following adjudication. In addition, increased levels of antisocial peer deviance are significantly associated with increased odds of gang membership. Together, these results indicate that reorienting gang members away from their deviant peers, fostering new, prosocial connections, and encouraging spiritual ideas such as personal closeness to a higher power and feelings of spiritual support may help decrease their odds of continuing participation in gang life. These findings support the continuation of faith-based gang treatments, but do not support formal religious practices (such as church services) as a focus of these treatments. Future research should collect original data, including qualitative interviews about gang members’ perceptions of and relationship with religion and spirituality, as well as utilize Pathways to Desistance in its full seven-year capacity in order to further understand the nuances of this relationship. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Criminology and Criminal Justice 2019

This thesis attempts to answer the question of how a framework for a contemporary Australian male spirituality might be formulated. It provides a theoretical base for constructing a spirituality for Australian men that would prove more relevant than the religious patriarchal framework that many men have traditionally experienced. The study makes use of the potentially positive impact on men's spirituality, and that of Australian men in particular, of three of the most significant revolutions affecting contemporary society - the feminist, environmental and embodiment movements. A critical examination is first made of the many strands of the contemporary Men's Movement and the spiritualities associated with them to gain an overall view of the state of men's spirituality today. From this overview, a new philosophical and religious stance is developed, spiritual virism. This may be defined as a sacred worldview by and for men, which, informed by feminist spiritual principles and perspectives, results in a range of redefined personal and collective spiritualities for men in relation to the Sacred. As a result, men are challenged to work actively for the deconstruction of religious patriarchy with a view to the liberation of both men and women. Spiritual virism, in turn, defines the methodology employed throughout the thesis. It is a critical analytical methodology drawn from the disciplines of academic spirituality and feminist theory. It entails the deconstruction of life-denying forms of patriarchal religious attitudes and the construction of more life-giving forms of spirituality. As experience is central in both spiritual and feminist research, personal texts, involving my own spiritual experience expressed in my paintings and in autobiographical commentaries on them, are the prime starting points in this analysis. Discursive discourse, involving more abstract methodology, follows. The deconstruction of the traditional patriarchal understanding of the Sacred in Western Christianity is undertaken first. The construction of more life-giving images of the Sacred, drawn from parallel paradigms in feminist thealogy and earth-based religion, follows. The results are that men may find a positive re-imaging of the Sacred in non-gendered forms such as the Source or the Great Cycle of Life, or in gendered forms such as the god, radically reinterpreted, and especially in the feminine Sacred, the Goddess. Evolving contemporary perceptions of the place of the environment in spirituality, such as ecofeminism, deep ecology, the new science and ecotheology, are employed to help construct more positive spiritual practices for men with respect to nature, the earth and the cosmos. This follows a deconstruction of traditional patriarchal understandings of them within society and Western Christianity. Insights such as the Sacred embodied in the unfolding cosmos, in the living earth and in the web of all life, lead men to a more contemplative, less exploitative attitude to the world around them. Thirdly, having deconstructed the traditional patriarchal attitude of Western Christianity to the male body, the positive impact of contemporary embodiment theory and practice on a spirituality for men is sought. Implications are drawn from feminist understandings of the sacrality of the female body, from Christian embodiment theology and from the practices of body-honouring religions. A more body/earth-centred spirituality, which is non-dualistic and respects the sacredness of the body and sexuality, emerges. A unified spiritual framework draws together and integrates the positive insights of each of these studies. In seeking the application of this generic male spirituality to the Australian context, this framework is brought into dialogue with contemporary approaches to Australian spirituality. The result is a way of formulating an Australian men's spirituality from the perspective of An Australian Man in Search of an Embodied Spirituality, the title of my thesis. This spirituality is rooted in the land of Australia, where the body of the Australian man is seen as sacred and embodied within the sacred body of the Australian land. A sacred Australian mythos is explored to personalise this embodiment. This images the masculine Sacred, the god, as embodied within the man, who both move within the all-encompassing female Sacred, the Goddess, embodied within the land of Australia.