<p> The purposes of this study were to: (1) examine the use of religious/spiritual coping by emerging adults coping with perceived life stressors; (2) assess the relationship between positive and negative forms of religious coping, and overall religious/spiritual coping with perceived stress; and (3) identify the specific religious/spiritual coping behaviors used by emerging adults when in times of perceived stress. The study analyzed self-report data collected from 715 emerging adults from a diverse undergraduate public university in California. Frequency analysis indicated that emerging adults commonly use prayer for self and others, count their blessings, and try not to sin when under moments of stress. Additionally, many of the respondents reported frequently seeking G-d's love and care, asking for forgiveness for sins, and meaning making as a means of coping with stress. Zero-order correlations revealed a positive and significant relationship between negative religious coping and perceived stress. Furthermore, when comparing differences between religious views (conflicted, secure, doubting, seeking, and not interested) t-test results found decreased use of religious coping, spiritual coping and positive religious coping for those who endorsed "conflicted" religious views. Conversely, those who indicated feeling "secure" reported higher use of religious coping, spiritual coping, and positive religious coping. Emerging adults who identified themselves as "doubting" were less likely to use of religious coping, spiritual coping, and positive religious coping and reported greater use of negative religious coping. "Seeking" emerging adults, identified using less spiritual coping. Finally, those who endorsed "not interested" reported less use of religious coping, spiritual coping, and positive and negative religious coping. Clinical implications for emerging adults and clinicians are discussed.</p>

Dewi Z. Phillips maintains that philosophy must have a contemplative character. Applied to religion, it takes the form of a hermeneutics of contemplation that emphasizes the role concepts play in human life. While some philosophers try to bring philosophy to bear on to religion, others try to bring religion to bear on to philosophy; seeing their task as being for or against religion. According to Phillips, both these views are confused. Instead, the philosophy of religion must strive to understand religion on its own terms: showing that a sensibility should be possible that does justice to both belief and atheism. In order to appreciate Phillips' philosophy of religion, it is essential to recognize the three authors that have contributed to his thinking: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Soren Kierkegaard, and Simone Weil. From Wittgenstein, Phillips learns the philosophical method, Kierkegaard teaches Phillips what it means to be a religious author, and Simone Weil imparts Phillips with an authentic sense of religious belief and understanding. Throughout his career Phillips has been poorly understood because he refuses to be pinned down to the categories and frameworks within which philosophers of religion and theologians traditionally define themselves. For Phillips, a contemplative conception of the philosophy of religion endeavours to show just how far philosophy can bring one in a religious dimension: trying to enable a person to be conceptually clear about the matters at hand and to realize when a personal judgment must be made.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pacific Graduate School of Psychology, 1994. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-03, Section: B, page: 1685. Chairman: Jerreld L. Shapiro.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Philosophy, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Jul 23, 2009). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-11, Section: A, page: 4347. Adviser: Paul V. Spade.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 435-462).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Religious Studies, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 9, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-08, Section: A, page: 3021. Adviser: Richard B. Miller.

Rather than “saving” the difficult fields of religion and philosophy for college curricula, it is instead developmentally appropriate for high school students—fourteen- to eighteen-year-olds—to engage the complex existential, ethical, and analytical challenges raised by these disciplines, especially as they pertain to the adolescent search to “know thyself” (Gr. γνῶθι σεαυτόν [gnōthi seauton]). This is explored in the context of unfolding trends in American education which downplay the importance of a humanities education in the overall curriculum, and with reference to models of adolescent psychology and pedagogical theory, drawing in particular upon my forty years of experience as a classroom teacher. In pursuit of this thesis, I argue for a more appropriate understanding of the definitions of religion and philosophy, as well as a more holistic understanding of the act of philosophizing. More traditional and restrictive definitions of religion need to be revised to embrace the view of the student as a person who is seeking meaning in a variety of situations and places, often outside of organized religion. The understanding of what it means to teach philosophy—that is, “to philosophize”—is likewise reappraised in light of Phillips Exeter Academy’s reliance on the pedagogy of the Harkness method, which mandates seminar-style classes modeled after the Socratic exchange. This invites a discussion of how Socrates used the apothegm γνῶθι σεαυτόν, an understanding of which is a necessary part of defining both the word philosophy and the activity of philosophizing. There is a difference between education as intellectual and spiritual formation and as information transmission, a distinction drawn from the original intent of a Platonic dialogue. In Chapter Two, I demonstrate how seven major figures—Immanuel Kant, Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche, Frederick Buechner, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer—function as intellectual muses for teaching students how to come to know thyself better as a person. The first four are read directly in class; the latter three inform the pedagogy embedded in the religion department curriculum at Phillips Exeter Academy. In Chapter Three, I offer numerous Phillips Exeter Religion Department course descriptions and lesson plans to illustrate how one translates the theory of the dissertation into classroom practice. / Religion, Committee on the Study of

Orientador: Lúcio Lourenço Prado / Banca: Evandro Oliveira de Brito / Banca: César Ribas Cezar / Resumo: Com este estudo pretendemos examinar e elucidar como Kant enfrenta a religião em sua obra A Religião dentro dos limites da simples razão, operando de tal forma que a localiza na moral, ao mesmo tempo em que, a rigor, distingue tais áreas tão somente naquilo que tange à metodologia e formalidade peculiares. Ele não quis, à vista disso, abordá-las como que ipsis verbis. Em sua acepção, assuntos com substrato metafísico-dogmático permanecem inacessíveis à razão pura, e, portanto, não se pode, teoricamente, nem negar nem tampouco afirmar neste afã, ao que põe no crivo da crítica a razão humana. Por conseguinte, Kant toma a questão religiosa como sendo objeto da razão prática, assim como do sentimento estético, principalmente inserindo neste campo a ideia de postulação, nevrálgica em sua teologia. Versa sobre as relações do homem com Deus, entendendo este último como sendo justo remunerador, ser moral, legislador superior e perscrutador dos corações. Ao fazê-lo desloca-o do campo da pura especulação para a moralidade. Não se volta para as construções da teologia racional, mas lhe interessa mostrar que o homem não deve ter uma relação barganhista para com Deus. Destarte, o homem não deve delegar sua tarefa de melhoramento moral para outra instância (tutela), posto que esta tarefa é do sujeito mesmo, correndo o risco de em não o fazendo, viver imerso na superstição da religião estatutária, ao invés de viver a religião da razão, ou se quisermos, a religião moral. Por via de regra, o ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: With the study we intend to examine and elucidate how Kant confronts religion in his work Religion within the limits of simple reason, operating in such a way that it locates it in the moral, at the same time as, strictly speaking, it distinguishes such areas only in what peculiar methodology and formality. He would not, in view of this, approach them as ipsis verbis. In his sense, subjects with a metaphysical-dogmatic substratum remain inaccessible to pure reason, and therefore, one cannot theoretically deny or affirm this desire either, which puts human reason on the line of criticism. Therefore, Kant takes the religious question as the object of practical reason, as well as of aesthetic feeling, mainly inserting in this field the idea of postulation, nevralgic in its theology. Versa on the relation of the man with God, understanding the latter as being just remunerative, being moral, superior legislator and persecutor of the hearts. In so doing, he shifts it from the field of pure speculation to morality. He does not turn to the constructions of rational theology, but he is interested to show that man should not have a bargaining relationship with God. Hence, man should not delegate his task of moral improvement to another instance (tutelage), since this task belongs to the subject himself, at the risk of not doing so, living immersed in the superstition of the statutory religion, instead of living the Religion of reason, or, if we will, moral religion. As a rule, the reli... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

This dissertation is a study of the work of John Milton, most especially of his late poems, Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and Samson Agonistes. The early poetry, the prose tracts, and Christian Doctrine are considered in their developmental relation to those late poems. The question my study addresses is this: What does Milton mean by obedience? The critical approach used to address the question is as much philosophical-theological as it is literary. My project seeks to understand the shaping role of Milton’s theology on his poetry: that is, to attempt to recreate and understand Milton’s thinking on obedience from Milton’s perspective. To this end, I focus on providing contextualized, attentive readings of key poetic moments. The contexts I provide are those derived from the two great heritages Milton had at his disposal—the Classical and Christian traditions. The poetic moments I attend to are most usually theologically and conceptually difficult moments, moments in which Milton is working out (as much as reflecting on or demonstrating or poeticizing) his key theological concerns, chief among them, obedience. Milton’s concept of obedience is not just an idea developed within given interpretive frameworks, Classical, Christian, and a specific historic context, England in the seventeenth century. It is a strangely practical structure of being intended by Milton to recollect something of the disposition of Adam and Even before the fall. In other words, Miltonic obedience is multifaceted and complex. To address the complexity and nuance of what Milton means by obedience, I suggest that Milton’s idea of obedience may be understood as a concept. The definitional source of Milton’s concept of obedience is the Bible, and various texts of the Classical tradition. The necessary mechanism of the concept is Milton’s idea of right timing, derived from the Greek idea of kairos. The necessary condition of Miltonic obedience is unknowing. With Milton’s concept of obedience fully established, the dissertation concludes by suggesting connections between Milton’s religious imagination and his political engagements. If Milton’s paramount value was obedience, it was so because his paramount concern was liberty, for himself and for his nation.