The purpose of the study was to find the relationship between adolescent premarital sexual activity and involvement in the family, school, and church. The sample was composed of 192 adolescents. The data were analyzed for significant relationships by using chi square test of independence. The study found that there were significant relationships between adolescent premarital sexual activity and family structure, family mobility, parental employment, grade level achievement, and parental attendance at school functions. Since the findings of a study of this nature are pertinent to society, further research needs to be done using a more heterogeneous sample and a more refined, limited instrument. The instrument should be further tested for reliability and validity.

Counselor education programs are charged with the responsibility to train students to be effective counselors. Despite relative consistency in academic and clinical experiences, some students are less effective than others. It was the intent of this research to investigate possible relationships which may exist between students' background and experiences and their levels of demonstrated counselor effectiveness as measured by the Counselor Rating Form - Short Version (CRF-S) and the Supervisor Rated-Counselor Interaction Analysis (SR-CIA). It was hypothesized that counselor effectiveness would be negatively correlated with prior teaching experience and level of religious participation. Data was collected using a demographic survey from masters level counseling students participating in their practicum semester. Counseling tapes from each of the participants were collected towards the end of the semester. These tapes were then rated by doctoral students using the CRF-S and the SR-CIA. The total sample size was 28. Regression analysis was used to investigate the hypotheses. Three models were constructed. The dependent variables used were scores from the CRF-S, the SR-CIA and a third comprised of a normalized composite of CRF-S and SR-CIA termed COMPOSITE. Each model used, as the independent variables, years of teaching experience, and hours of religious participation. Results from regression analysis suggested that a negative correlation existed between counseling effectiveness and years of teaching experience and a positive correlation between counselor effectiveness and hours of religious participation. Statistically significant results were not achieved for any of the models tested. Further investigation was conducted using effect size analysis. Small to medium effect sizes were achieved, however, suggesting that the models were detecting a negative correlation between counselor effectiveness and years of teaching experience, and a positive correlation between hours of religious participation and counselor effectiveness.

The assumption of the study was that children are capable of an intimate and real relationship with God. The question that is often asked is, "How does the church best help children to grow in that relationship?" The lack of an agreed upon definition and understanding of spirituality and the need for a sound and practical approach to helping children develop spiritually was the catalyst behind this research. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between ministry praxis and spiritual development milestones in the lives of Nazarene children. The literature review began with an examination of the history of spirituality, the biblical call to children's spiritual nurture, and the history of psychology and developmentalism. Attention was given to the typologies presented by Urban Holmes and David Kolb culminating in analysis of Michael Anthony's Children's Spiritual Formation Typology. A mixed methods approach was used to gather data. The process for development of the research instrument and the procedures used for implementation were clearly explained. The online instrument was completed by 201 (64.4% of the population) Nazarene children's pastors and analysis of the data was conducted using ANOVA testing. The respondents were assigned to one of the four ministry models based on their responses to the 24 statements on the survey instrument. By determining one's preferred ministry model and analyzing a variety of self-reported data, analysis of the relationship in the four spiritual development milestones was possible. In addition to the four spiritual milestones, growth rate of each of the ministry models was analyzed. The research was completed by conducting two focus group interviews to provide qualitative analysis of the data gathered from the survey instrument. Open-ended questions were presented to each focus group which further validated the analysis of the data. The statistical analysis of the data concluded that there are no significant statistical differences in the four ministry models and the four spiritual development milestones. Key words: child, children, development, formation, growth, milestones, ministry, nurture, praxis, spiritual, spirituality / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

This dissertation examined to what degree traditional students were impacted by the institutional core values at a Southern Baptist college. The subjects of mission statements, core values, and college impact were defined. Special attention was given to the eight institutional core values being examined in this study. The current study was conducted at Georgetown College. Located within the eleven state region that is encompassed by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools accrediting agency, Georgetown College is a member of the Association of Southern Baptist Colleges and Schools. The goal of Georgetown College, broadly defined, is to provide a quality educational program within the context of a values-based Christian atmosphere. The sample of the current study included all the traditional freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors at Georgetown College at the beginning of the fall semester of 2003. Data gathering consisted of two concurrent lines of inquiry: similarities and differences in students' agreement with the institutional core values. These lines of inquiry were analyzed according to four specific areas of interest including students' class year, gender, ethnic background, and religious affiliation. A value statement index was created for use in this study. The core values of community and integrity were rated by the students as the most important values in the study. The Christian core values showed a general increase among almost all of the students from the freshmen to the senior year. The core values concerning diversity and cultural enrichment programs were rated as the least important values in the study. The presence of a Christian community was determined to be the key ingredient for Southern Baptist colleges to impact positively the value systems of their traditional students. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

Thesis (M.Arch (Professional)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, 2016. / India is currently undergoing a rapid transformation economically, consciously and spatially. A layout of national infrastructure is happening at a pace which may be ungovernable, in its current state and India’s historical and natural landscapes are in jeopardy. One such ecological resource is the Ganga (colonialised as the Ganges), which through continued pollution is reaching a point of irreversible damage. There is, however, still hope. Accordingly, this thesis moves from an overview of India in the globalised world, through a rephrasing of how “development” is understood and manifests itself to the suggestion of an overall plan to understand and implement it in a way that is co-ordinated in intention but regionally and contextually responsive in application. Through Homi Bhabha’s theoretical perspective of cultural hybridisation the discourse of creating a new infrastructural identity for India is introduced. The current political focus on the Ganga, created by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, through a renewed and trending agenda for cleaning the holy river, acts as a platform to explore the possibilities of infrastructure within this context . The Ganga River has been a religious symbol for millennia and the life force to approximately 500 million people. Through continued and increased pollution the quality of its water now radically exceeds the minimum requirements for safe drinking, bathing or even agricultural use. The Ganga River symbolises a cosmological relationship between people and the ecological environment, which requires that pollution be approached from a holistic viewpoint responding to the weight of its cultural value. This contextualized approach has the potential to become a catalyst for new innovative approaches to the integration of infrastructure throughout the river network . By using the political momentum created in the city, by the national project, this thesis is realised through a multiplicity of conflicting lenses inherent to Varanasi, one of India’s holiest cities. The city itself is growing economically but at the price of its prized ancient heritage. It possesses a cosmological value unparalleled by any other city in the country thus making it an emotionally powerful tool to mobilise a cleaning project for the river. If infrastructure is not implemented correctly the threat to the city’s unique character becomes real. This challenge created the Meta question for my research: How do you implement infrastructure into the sacred landscape? Through various degrees of research, both intuitive and informed, a system to clean water is designed in a way that truly integrates into a cultural landscape. The proposed design establishes itself as the first intervention in a national network for cleaning the River. By taking into account the infrastructural, ecological and sociological requirements of the city and its daily life the water purification sanctuary mediates the conflicting programmatic requirements between spirituality and science. Through an understanding that purity of water has a number of connotations within the site context the building utilises various treatment methods to reinforce the sanctity ABSTRACT of water through a hybrid mediation of heritage, nature, science and infrastructures (both vernacular and modern). This new typology enables the interaction of people with water cleaning infrastructure at a local scale and offers a way forward in redefining a national identity that is bound up in these currently conflicting imperatives.

An evaluation of the spiritual experience of South African expatriates living in or migrating to other African countries, as a process of practical theology, established that expatriates do not isolate themselves from their churches in South Africa (SA). SA churches only make provision for traditional missionary outreaches and do not make provision for the SA expatriates, black or white, living in these African metropolitan areas. The subjects studied included SA expatriates, the relationships between SA churches, local African churches and expatriates, the act of migration, repatriation and its challenges together with the spiritual and social impact on individuals, marriages and families. A topical view implicates a direct relationship between fieldworkers, missionaries and chaplains deployment into African countries from SA. Furthermore, from research it is implied that the church in SA remains the spiritual home and resource centre of the migrant. The practical theological call for a realignment of mission praxis is vital and is linked to Christ’s parable of the ninety nine sheep, whilst one is lost (Matthew 18:12-14; Luke 15:4-7). This analogy produces the direct requirement of the Church to reconstruct missions to encompass combined support for their congregants in SA, the ninety nine, and those expatriates living in other African countries, the one. The missions to Africa should no longer be missions that only seek to convert African tribes to Christianity, but rather to serve Africans and others immigrating to countries on the continent. Church resources for SA expatriates would be made available when a visionary change occurs at the planning stages of strategies for African missions. Proposed mission strategies should include cell church, care group and discipleship models geared for missions and the African expatriate terrain. A realistic strategy that harmonises resources within the church to serve those abroad shall ensure positive impact on the spirituality, family and marriage of the expatriate. Finally two challenges are laid before the SA church, one, to continue with missions in Africa according to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ, Matthew 28:19-20, with the second, to combine the expatriate discipleship models into its mission strategies. / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / D. Th. (Practical Theology)

從服食雲母得仙的嶺南何氏女，到增城邑人何泰抗婚的女兒，最後成為以「仙姑之後」自詡的何姓居民敬奉的「仙姑婆」─女仙，未嫁女兒，祖姑，這幾種身份在帝國晚期共同交織出增江沿岸何仙姑信仰多元的面向，也揭示了這塊山水交會之地上的人群在流徙與生根落戶之間拓蕪興荒、聚合與爭競的歷史。本文結合文獻（text）、歷史（history）與田野調查（fieldwork），在區域社會史的架構和歷史人類學的理論關懷下，探討廣東增江地區以女神「何仙姑」之名為中心的傳說系統和崇拜活動，是如何具體在一方水土之上為不同的人群與勢力團體所襲用與創造，漸層堆疊交織成為帝國晚期的樣貌。透過析縷何仙姑信仰與增江沿岸社會從宋代自清中葉相互構造的歷史過程，本文試圖呈現神祇傳說與廟祀傳統背後所隱含的人群關係、社會樣貌與歷史文化傳統，並揭示神祇的靈顯之名是為何與如何鑲嵌進入地方社會的組織結構與文化肌理之中，以及在這樣的過程中被改變，留存，或新創。本文認為，增城何仙姑信仰具體說明了一方之神的靈顯之名，實為複雜的宗教、文化、地域傳統先後參與對話的結果。所謂地方宗教（local religion）傳統的「地方性」（localness），除了植根並展演於為特定地理疆界所定義的地域社會之中，實際上還是鄉土邊界以內和以外紛陳的政治社會文化勢力相互激盪和構造出來的產物。裰織仙名的歷程揭示了仙姑之名的不朽，實來自社區生活的展延、地方歷史敘事的不斷更新以及敬拜人群持續選擇與實踐的結果。本文指出，以「何仙姑」之名在地方社會中上為各方士庶所敬拜的神祇，對於敬拜者而言，不是同一位（the same/unified）神明，而是共同的（common/commonly shared）神明。在增江沿岸社會，「何仙姑」作為一個具有豐厚歷史文化積澱的神話人物，其傳說與廟祀實踐所體現的主流文化和神祇的多重形象，一方面為面臨不同機遇的行動者提供了豐富多元的象徵資源，一方面也在立場、動機互異的行動者之間鋪陳了一個可以對話與行動的共同基礎，這是此一信仰傳統能夠持續呼應世道並存續綿延的主要原因。 / Female deity, unmarried daughter, and grand paternal aunt─are the three dominant identities that have mutually characterized the cult of the Goddess He Xiangu (the Transcendent Maiden He) in the local society along the Zeng River in Guangdong since the mid-Qingto date. Drawing upon the perspective of regional social history and historical anthropology, this study adopts an interdisciplinary text-history-fieldwork investigation into how these three identities had overlapped over a period from the Song to the Mid-Qing. By mapping the historical and social settings wherein the cult had been crafted, I depict in detail the process through which the image and identity of the deity had been shaped, renovated, and appropriated by diverse social groups in multi-layered historical conditions. It is in fact the result of an on-going interactive dialogue among multiple religious, cultural, and local traditions. In this process of the social affairs associated with the legend and religious practices, the role of community and collective memories are proved decisive. The study shows that the localness of the local religion/cults was taken formed by the diverse socio-political powers and cultural traditions that not only existed within but also beyond the boundary of the given local society. Through elucidating the transformation of the cult, I consider that as a local symbol of divinity with abundant meanings, what the goddess meant to her believers may be of the same title "He Xiangu" but with variant interpretations according to different ways of adaptation from commonly-shared understandings among local communities. This explains the complexity of the legend and religious practices. In a shell, it also shows us how the cult meanders with the path of history and keeps echoing to the sound of the new world. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / 廖小菁 = The fabrication of divine prestige : the making of the He Xiangu cult and local society from the Song to the mid-Qing dynasty / Liao Hsiao Ching. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 208-235). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Liao Xiaojing = The fabrication of divine prestige : the making of the He Xiangu cult and local society from the Song to the mid-Qing dynasty / Liao Hsiao Ching.

by Cheris, Shun-ching Chan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 212-222). / Abstract --- p.i / Acknowledgements --- p.ii / Abbreviations --- p.iii / Introduction --- p.1 / Part I - Contexts for the Present Study --- p.1 / Disenchantment - Reenchantment Dialogue --- p.2 / Reenchantment in Hong Kong? --- p.16 / Part II - Methodological Note --- p.23 / Chapters / Chapter I --- "Enchantment, Disenchantment and Reenchantment" --- p.30 / The Concept of Sacredness and Sacred Order --- p.30 / A Review of the Relation between Sacred Order and Secular Reality --- p.33 / Sacred Order in the Enchanted World --- p.37 / Sacred Order in the Disenchanted World --- p.41 / New Religious Movements as a Manifestation of Reenchantment? --- p.48 / Chapter II --- Epitome of the New Sacred Order - The Emergence and the Worldview of the Lingsu Exo-Esoterics (靈修顯密宗） --- p.56 / The Emergence and Development --- p.56 / The Sacred Worldview --- p.65 / Chapter III --- Epitome of the New Sacred Order - The Ethos of the Lingsu Exo-Esoterics (靈修顯密宗） --- p.79 / Sacred Symbols --- p.79 / Sacred and Secular Orders of Life --- p.100 / Chapter IV --- Constitution and Location of the New Sacred Order --- p.120 / Sacred Basis of the Secular Ethos : Making Sense of the Secular Mode of Life --- p.121 / Constitution of the New Sacredness --- p.131 / Man as God / Inner-Worldly Eclecticism / Location of the New Sacred Order --- p.136 / Subjectivization and Privatization of the Sacred Order / Demagicifying Religious Practices / Sacralization of Secular Way of Life / Chapter V --- Reconstitution of Sacred Order and Social Reality --- p.146 / Sacred Order as a Model of Social Reality --- p.147 / As a Model of Hierarchy / As a Model of Individualism and Intellectualism / "As a Model of Pluralism, Subjectivism and Relativism" / Aa a Model of Secularism and Materialism / Role of Rationality and Intellect in the Sacred Model / Sacred Order as a Model for Social Reality --- p.167 / As a Model for Social Maintenance / As a Model for Social Transformation / As a Drawback to Social Integration / Sacred Order and Social Reality --- p.184 / Conclusion --- p.184 / New Sacred Order as a Manifestation of Reenchantment --- p.189 / Reenchantment in Dialectical Sense --- p.193 / Implications --- p.198 / Appendix / Chapter I --- The Lingsu Disciples' Attitudes towards My Field Research --- p.201 / Chapter II --- Some Personal Details of the Lingsu Disciples --- p.203 / Bibliography --- p.212

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By reconstructing the interaction between the indigenous people and the Chinese state over a long period of time from the Tang dynasty to the Qing, this thesis argues that the anomaly of indigenous contact with the state in the southwest, unlike the Pearl River delta or even Fujian, is the very long duration of contact and the persistent representation of the indigenous as part of the dominant (Han) tradition, despite the Han claim to superiority. / In my visits to Gaozhou, Leizhou and Hainan, I was attracted by the interesting phenomenon that Madam Xian (Xian Furen) or the God of Thunder (Lei shen) is worshiped not only as a deity, but also as an ancestor. The deities had been blended in with the ancestor because in the late imperial period, local people had changed the foci of their territorial worship as they became become part of the Chinese polity. / This paper draws on a variety of sources---including official documents, the images of the subjection of the natives, the temples, and the performance of ritual and so on---to voice the indigenous point of view. It goes into the history of Hainan, Leizhou and Gaozhou to relate changing religious practices with social changes and the contact between the indigenous and the state. It also relates history to ritual practices as they are currently observed. By bringing together published historical sources, steles and documents found in the field and current observations of ritual practices, this thesis shows that the imperial tradition was made up of many different strands. / 賀喜. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2007. / 參考文獻(p. 261-276). / Adviser: David Faure. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0714. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2007. / Can kao wen xian (p. 261-276). / He Xi.