The purpose of this study is to conduct a psychometric investigation of the Attachment to God Inventory (AGI; Beck & McDonald, 2004) using a national sample of socioeconomically and religiously diverse young adults commonly referred to as millennials (i.e., persons born between 1980 and 1996; Pew Research Center, 2018). Confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) results failed to yield satisfactory fit for the AGI model using the entire sample and a Christian-only subsample. Alternative model specifications that accounted for method factors, higher-order factors, and bi-factors also failed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) suggested alternative factor solutions that were cross-validated using CFA. Support for an orthogonal, 2-factor, 8-item model possessed excellent model fit (χ²(20) = 172.186; RMSEA = .051 [.044–.058]; CFI/TLI = .955/.993). Configural, metric, and scale measurement invariance were supported based on gender- and ethnic-identity considerations; however, invariance was not supported based upon religious affiliation. The resulting model consisted of two constructs that were labeled divine rejection (McDonald’s ω = .838 [95% CI: .827–.849]) and divine dependence (McDonald’s ω = .862 [95% CI: .852–.872]) and were found to be invariant only for individuals who identified as Christian. Latent profile analysis (LPA) of the standardized scores of the two factors yielded a five-class solution whose classes were labeled intrinsic, independent, everyday, strained, and detached believers. Class membership was found to be most associated with divine rejection. Rather than considering the resulting model to be an improved model based on attachment to God theory, this study concludes that the resulting model is most consistent with social comparison theory. Several hypotheses and recommendations for future research are made.

Interviews with Swedish and Ugandan creatives are the main data sources of this work, as well as my own reflections while spending eight weeks in Uganda. The purpose of this project was to compare and resonate on cultural differences between my own previous experiences and what I experienced in Uganda during my stay and how such cultural differences may affects creativity. The results show that abundance and scarcity have a direct connection to creative thinking. The creative process is dependent on a large knowledge base, but also on the ability to think outside the box. The colonization of Africa still affect the way Ugandans experience their capability to control their lives and future, and thereby the development of the country. Artistic individuals, no matter religious or not, are all experiencing spiritual, or magical, connections when creating. Religion and culture have a large impact on creativity. The creative personality is based on a complex mind of paradoxical traits. Blocked creatives can be un-blocked by learning how to nurture their artist.

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<p>This paper presents Theopoetics, a theo-philosophical aesthetic movement that arose from the 1960’s Death of God theology, as a hermeneutical framework that accounts for both embodiment and the numinous in poetry. Through an examination of the life and poetic works of the disenfranchised religious poet, Thomas Merton, and a more religiously nebulous poet, Denise Levertov. This paper will present two different perspectives from these poets who encountered the need to qualify the numinous in their poetry and subverted that qualification through a theopoetic process. </p>

This thesis addresses non-traditional angelic spirituality experienced outside of traditional churches. This spirituality is specific for its everyday communication and contact with angelic beings. The present research examines contemporary angelic spirituality using a lens of relational ontology and semiotic analysis, focusing on how recurrent communication acts allow the emergence of specific subjectivities and identifies the main processes behind this phenomenon - recognition, interpretation and reaction. Research documents specific techniques allowing the formation of angelic subjectivities and redefinition of human subjectivities; prayer, reading cards, guided meditation, different types of clairvoyance and interpretation of signs. Deliberately using these techniques leads to re/definition of subjectivity of a practitioner (through clairvoyant insights into the past lives) and transforms him into human/incarnated soul. These communication acts further form a subjectivity of deceased souls, with which practitioners of angelic spirituality are often in contact, together with the subjectivity of dark beings, which cannot interact with a person without invitation it first and a subjectivity of angelic beings, which are defined by their unconditional support of their charges. Emergent "ecology of...