The lack of research regarding the potential relationship between the reduction of bullying through participation in faith-based organizations may have failed to expand available bullying intervention methods. Faith-based organizations could assist in reducing bullying via moral instruction, boundary-setting guidance, social engagement techniques, and understanding social engagement with the bully's parents. This study explored the relationship between bullying and involvement in faith-based activities through (a) discovering the association between the reduction of bullying incidence or inclinations and faith-based activities, and (b) identifying the mechanisms responsible for the suppression of bullying orientations and behaviors through faith-based activities. The theoretical construct of the study was Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and its 5 level classification of diverse social contexts (i.e. microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, and chronosystem). This theory was utilized in the creation of the central research questions of the study. The data for the questions was gathered through one-on-one interviews with (a) 11 adolescents, (b) 6 parents, and (c) 3 church officials. The interviews were transcribed, and codes and themes identified. The sample group for the research was ninth grade students enrolled at a school in the Midwest. The study found that parents felt more responsible for their influence on their child's attitude toward violence over faith-based activity. However, the organizations were also shown to be effective in contributing to strengthened social relationships and decreased bullying incidences. This study may contribute to social change by providing insight into bullying prevention and mitigation.

This thesis, “Make-Believe: Uncertainty, Alterity, and Faith in Nineteenth-Century Supernatural Short Stories,” illustrates the confluence in nineteenth century America of a philosophical investment in uncertainty and the emergence of a genre suited to its expression. I argue that supernatural short story collections, characterized by stories with explicit fantastical elements or which leave open that possibility, helped voice and explore uncertainty as a critique of prevailing master narratives of both Enlightenment rationalism and religious orthodoxy. My study examines Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), Herman Melville’s The Piazza Tales (1856), Charles Chesnutt’s The Conjure Woman, and Other Conjure Tales (1899), and Mary Wilkins Freeman’s The Wind in the Rose-Bush (1903), whose fantastic elements question the confident subjectivity shored up by rationalism and the sense of totality it projects. The genre’s insistent uncertainty conditions a reader into an alternative posture of openness to possibilities—an openness which, at its most ethically effective, describes a means to approach alterity without the totalizing certainty which so often reduces the other. The terms of faith are crucial here, as a means to lend numinous or transcendent meaning to the world beyond the reach of, and therefore setting limits on, rational materialism. But faith also functions on an ethical and interpersonal level, in the act of believing the testimony of an other despite the assumptions of the self. As the century progresses, this genre was taken up by authors with identities more vulnerable to society’s master narratives and the power structures they uphold. My final two chapters demonstrate how the supernatural uncertainty in these collections provided not just a theoretical model for approaching otherness but a specific articulation of the oppressions which certainty enables and the openness which the supernatural helps to found.

This dissertation research is a study of the anthropology of policy with welfare reform in general and charitable choice in particular as its focus. The study begins with the notion that policies work as instruments of governance and consequently have social and political implications. These policies are examined by exploring the manner in which Catholic Charities and policy makers in Florida are responding to the charitable choice mandate and how their views are shaping local policies. The study is framed within anthropological principles pertaining to economic, humanistic and philosophical tenets. The study provides a historical background of poverty, the development of the welfare state in the United States as well as some of the social, economic, and political factors that shape social policies. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with representatives from Catholic Charities, government agencies, legislative committees, and faith-based organizations, and through document reviews. Data were analyzed qualitatively and were managed using the software Atlas.ti. Analysis of the data show that while there is increased convergence between the state and faith-based organizations (FBOs), there is some hesitancy on the part of religious organizations to assume full responsibility for the poor, particularly without having any funding guarantees. The data also suggests that through the implementation of charitable choice religious organizations face the risk of becoming highly dependent on the state and therefore loose their voice and the possibility of lobbying for the poor. Furthermore, the data suggests that there are some aspects of the implementation of charitable choice that have not received congressional approval and may eventually jeopardize the entire faith-based initiative.

The Methodist Mission Northern has provided social services to the community since 1851. The underpinning philosophy of Methodist Mission Northern’s service provision is that of being a Good Neighbour. The concept of Good Neighbour derives from the Old and the New Testaments of the Holy Bible, the Hebrew Scriptures and also public policy. A defining moment in the emergence of Christian universalism comes when the neighbour is asserted to include everyone, … while the Levite and the Cohen pass by the injured man… the Good Samaritan comes to his aid and proves himself the true neighbour of his (injured) neighbour [Zizek, Santner, & Reinhard, 2005, p. 6]. What does Good Neighbour entail in the context of so many people suffering owing to poverty, injustice and social exclusion? This study set out to examine how the concept of Good Neighbour has been put into practice and how that is relevant in contemporary public policy setting. This research was undertaken using phenomenological enquiry approach which explored the experiences of the key stakeholders namely the Board of Governors, the staff and the clients or service recipients of the Methodist Mission Northern to understand the impact of service delivery on clients. This was done through a review of the Minutes of the Board Meetings and Annual Reports over a twenty year period from 1986 to 2006. The study found that for the greater part of the history the operation of the concept of Good Neighbour by Methodist Mission Northern tended to focus on the charity model which provides for the day to day needs of the clients such as providing food, clothing and shelter and other immediate needs. For Methodist Mission Northern’s concept of Good Neighbour to reflect its underpinning philosophy more effectively the practice needs to move beyond the charity model into a community development model focussed on social change and transformation. This means meeting the needs of clients in ways that empower them to move towards independence and interdependent self sustainability.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), drawn up in London in the 1640s, has been one of the most influential confessions in the history of Reformed theology. It has occupied a very significant place in the life of a great many Protestant churches since the seventeenth century, and continues to serve as a chief subordinate standard in several major denominations today. In the opening chapter of the Confession, the divines of Westminster included a clause which implied that there would no longer be any supernatural revelation from God for showing humankind the way of salvation. Means by which God had once communicated the divine will concerning salvation, such as dreams, visions, and the miraculous gifts of the Spirit, were said to be no longer applicable. However, many of the authors of the WCF accepted that "prophecy" continued in their time, and a number of them apparently believed that disclosure of God�s will through dreams, visions, and angelic communication remained possible. How is the "cessationist" clause of WCF 1:1 to be read in the light of these facts? Was it intended as a strict denial of the possibility that any supernatural revelation for the purposes of salvation could take place after the apostolic period, or did its authors, as some modern scholars have argued, allow for a more flexible view, in which such divine revelation through extraordinary means might still take place? This thesis explores these questions in the light of the modern debates over the interpretation of the Confession�s language and its implications for the church today. It considers the difference between "mediate" and "immediate" revelation as understood by the Westminster divines, and attempts to show that only "immediate" revelation was considered to have ceased, while "mediate" revelation, which always involved Scripture, was held to continue. A detailed analysis of the writings of the Westminster divines reveals that these churchmen possessed both a strong desire to maintain the unity of Word and Spirit and a concern to safeguard the freedom of the Holy Spirit to speak to particular circumstances through the language and principles of Scripture. God still enabled predictive prophecy and spoke to individuals in extraordinary ways, but contemporary prophecy was held to be something distinct from the prophecy of New Testament figures. In the minds of both the Scottish Presbyterians and English Puritans, prophecy was considered to be an application of Scripture for a specific situation, not an announcement of new information not contained within the Bible. The Scriptures always remained essential for the process of discerning God�s will. The Introduction to the thesis considers the debate over WCF 1:1 in its modern setting. Chapter One outlines the socio-political and theological context of the Westminster Assembly, and discusses the question of how to assess the respective contributions of the divines to the documents it produced. Chapter Two investigates the Westminster view of the necessity and scope of special revelation, and discusses the nature of the "salvation" which was conveyed by this means. Chapter Three surveys the exegetical traditions underpinning the teaching that former modalities of supernatural revelation had ceased. Chapter Four seeks to respond to modern claims that Puritan theology allowed for a "continuationist" position, by canvassing evidence both from seventeenth-century Reformed thinkers themselves and from their critics, who maintained that Westminster orthodoxy was indeed cessationist in style. Chapters Five and Six explore the claims to and explanations for "prophecy" in Reformed theology in both England and Scotland in the seventeenth century. Chapter Seven examines the question of the theological status of the Westminster Confession in its own time. To what extent were subscription requirements envisaged by the Assembly and the governments of the day, and what form did these requirements take? The thesis concludes that the Westminster divines intended the cessationist clause to affirm that there was to be no more extra-biblical, "immediate" revelation for any purpose now that the church possessed the completed Scriptures. The written Word of God was fully capable of showing the way of "salvation" in its wider scope as either temporal or eternal deliverance. At the same time the divines did not intend to deny that God could still speak through special providences that might involve dreams or the ministry of angels, for example, but such revelation was always to be considered "mediate". The primary means was held to be the written Scriptures, illuminated by the Holy Spirit. The unity of the Word and Spirit was maintained, and God�s freedom to address individual circumstances remained intact.

<p>This essay is about uncovered women's faith and worship in an urban setting in contemporary Turkey. It researches the possibility of any common factors for uncovered Sunni Muslims' faith and worship as well as what parts of classical Muslim faith they have found negotiable. The essay relates to current literature and research on the topic as well as provides an insider perspective based on interviews with Turkish women.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Jewish Theological Seminary of America. Graduate School, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Religious charity is said to be one of the oldest phenomena which has been present in many societies and social welfare provision is one of the central aspects of religious charity. Although, religiously motivated welfare provision has an older history than nation state based welfare provision, with the advent of the modern welfare state social aid area has been taken -partially or totally- from the religious authorities. However starting with 80s and attracting considerable interest by 90s in contemporary world, religious themes, namely faith based organizations, have been visible again in social aid area. As a form of faith based welfare provision, Faith Based Organization (FBO) is the central concept of this study / particularly Islamist FBOs will be on the focus of this study. In that sense FBOs will be studied as a part in history of Islamist faith based welfare provision in Turkey. The central hypotheses of the thesis, FBOs are organizations fertilized by changing economic and political climate of 70s. Changing state religion relationships has a significant impact on FBO proliferation in Turkey. By combating through poverty FBOs have big problems in terms of financial accountability, permanency, trustworthiness and professionalism.

Considerable attention by scholars for the last two decades has focused on issues of spirituality and higher education. Literature in the field of college student affairs suggest that, in order promote the development of the whole student, practitioners in the field should consider adopting theories of faith and spiritual development. This study considered the application of faith development theory, as developed by James W. Fowler, for contextualizing students' response to the 1999 Bonfire tragedy at Texas A&M University. The primary intent of this study was to (1) understand how a student's level of faith development relates to the transformational learning resulting from the Bonfire tragedy, (2) whether such a tragedy was a trigger for transformational learning, and (3) how student affairs professionals can utilize faith development theory for understanding students' narrative account of the tragedy and their commitment to the university. This study utilized a comparative case study approach. Nine respondents were recruited and participated in a semi-structured and the classic Faith Development interviews. The accounts provided by three respondents were selected for in-depth analysis. The investigative tools used for this analysis were hermeneutical and included constant comparative methodology and narrative analysis. Results from the study indicate that transformation of meaning schemes and meaning perspectives are key components of young-adult faith development. Evidence indicates that Bonfire was a student activity that was unique to Texas A&M University and had the potential to become a center of value and power for many students. Findings suggest that faith development theory can be an effective tool for exploring the structure of students' faith relationships and their commitment thereto. Based on an analysis of the narrative accounts, the Bonfire tragedy was a source of cognitive dissonance but not necessarily a disorienting dilemma. For some students the 1999 tragedy was part of a longer cumulative process that advanced the faith development process. Implications from the research findings and recommendations for future research are explored at length.

I vårt arbete med palliativa patienter har vi sett en kunskapsbrist i hur patienters existentiella behov bemöts. Det saknas tid för att lyssna på patienterna och tillgodose de existentiella behoven. Det finns en risk att medikalisera de existentiella behoven istället för att bemöta dem. Uppsatsens syfte var att, baserat på självbiografier, belysa patienters existentiella behov i livets slut. En självbiografistudie genomfördes för att få belyst vilka de existentiella behoven var. En narrativ analysmetod användes. Fyra huvudkategorier framträdde; Behov av att känna tillit, behov av att ha en tro på något, behov av att få leva ett vardagsliv och behov av livet som går vidare. Familjen, de nära vännerna och att ges möjlighet att leva vardagsliv var det mest framträdande. Även tillit till personalen var viktigt. Patienter som hade en tro behöll denna till slutet, trots att inga under skedde. Vardagslivet tillsammans med familj och vänner var det som uppskattades mest och som gav störst tillfredsställelse vid livets slut. / In our work with patients in end of life we have seen a lack of knowledge in how we respond to the existential needs. Also there is a lack of time in listening to the patients when they want to express their existential needs. It is so much easier to give sedatives to comfort the patients instead of taking the time and effort to listen to the extential needs. The aim of this study was, based on autobiographies, to examine patients existential needs in end-of-life. In order to find out what needs they had we read autobiographies. The analysis was performed with a narrative method. Four main-categories were found; Need of confidence, need to have a faith in something, need to live a everyday-life and need of life that goes on. The family, close friends and the everyday-life was very important. Also the confidence for the caregivers was of significance. Patients who had a faith kept their faith to the end of life, inspite that there was no miracle. Everyday-life with family and friends at home was the most appreciated in end-of-life.