Faith Orientation Research Articles

IS THERE SOMETHING WORTHWHILE IN SOMETHINGISM?

Although ietsism, which comes from a Dutch term referring to “somethingism,” came on the religious scene a couple of decades ago, Anglophone publications springing from serious reflections on this term have only just recently appeared. This paper constitutes an attempt at addressing a couple of questions pertaining to this rather novel term. Two of these main questions concern the characteristics of ietsism that set it apart from other faith orientations, and the means by which ietsism is able to stand up to the test of its practical worth in terms of promising to fulfil a profound need in human life.

Does Faith Concordance Matter? A Comparison of Clients\u2019 Perceptions in Same Versus Interfaith Spiritual Care Encounters with Chaplains in Hospitals

In religiously pluralized societies, caregivers frequently care for patients or clients with a religious, spiritual, or secular orientation that differs from their own. Empirical studies exploring the implications of this faith diversity for spiritual care interactions between caregivers and clients are scarce. Some literature suggests that similarities in faith orientation between caregivers and clients relate to better professional caring relationships than encounters with dissimilar faith orientations, while other studies suggest that faith similarities do not relate, or relate only under certain conditions, to the way in which professional caring relationships are perceived. This study supports the second line of thought. Based on a survey among 209 clients and 45 chaplains in hospitals in the Netherlands, it shows that clients in faith-concordant encounters evaluate the spiritual care encounter just as positively as do clients in faith-discordant encounters. This is in line with broader trends of secularization and blurring of boundaries between the religious, spiritual, and secular domains.

The Relationship Among and Between Marital Satisfaction, Religious Faith, and Political Orientation

This study examined the relationship between marital satisfaction, religious faith, and political orientation for 285 married Christian individuals. Participants completed a survey of three instruments, designed to measure one of the four variables. There was a slight positive correlation between marital satisfaction and religious faith and between religious faith and political orientation on conservative issues; there was a slight negative correlation between religious faith and political orientation on liberal issues. There was no significant correlation between marital satisfaction and political orientation. Of the 285 participants, 76 participants were matched; the 38 married couples were further analyzed finding differences between all spousal scores except conservative issues. Additionally, a linear regression supported earlier research that a husband’s strong religious faith predicted their wife’s marital satisfaction.

Multifaith Perspectives on Family Therapy Models

ABSTRACTResearchers used thematic analysis to identify participant perceptions of the alignment between their faith traditions and family systems theory, structural family therapy, Bowen’s multigenerational theory, and narrative family therapy. Thirty-seven participants from six faith orientations, including 20 denominations or sects, responded to a survey. Patterns across responses indicate that family systems theory concepts are compatible across diverse faith traditions. Structural family therapy’s emphasis on restructuring boundaries and hierarchy is compatible across faith traditions as long as cultural and religious norms are carefully considered. Bowen’s concepts of detriangulation and differentiation are compatible across faith traditions, but particular beliefs may contradict the transmission of family patterns. Core concepts of narrative family therapy are compatible across faith traditions as long as therapists honor intuitive processes, include stories from clients’ faith traditions, and do not instill stories of false hope. Regardless of model, some clients may resist definitions of psychological dysfunction and understand illness and change as supernatural.

When Genetics Meets Religion: What Scientists and Religious Leaders Can Learn from Each Other

Introduction: To date scientists and religious leaders have not yet engaged in sustained face-to-face conversation concerning precision public health-related genetic technologies. Objectives: To elucidate areas of commonality and divergence in scientists’ and religious leaders’ views of precision genetic technologies, and extract lessons conveyed by religious leaders to scientists, and scientists to religious leaders through participatory dialogue. Methods: Six 1.5-h dialogue sessions were held between 6 religious leaders, 8 University of Michigan scientists, and 3 additional public health/genetic counseling graduate students between October 2016 and September 2017, followed by an open conference at the Ann Arbor Public Library (n = 46). Statements were organized into thematically arranged duets comparing views of scientists and religious leaders. Duets were further ordered into interpretive levels. Comparative techniques were used to assure category agreement and face validity. Results: The analysis yielded 20 duets and 3 interpretive levels (expositional; implications and consequences; and integrative, bridging concepts). Scientists emphasized the value of epigenetic testing for health promotion, and cost saving for some forms of early genetic testing for adult-onset conditions. Religious leaders stressed care for an individual’s willingness to change over technical fixes for behavioral conditions and, together with public participants, the importance of allocating money for societal needs. Both expressed caution on the use of nuclear transfer for mitochondrial DNA replacement and secondary uses of genetic data. Lay conference participants pointed towards a middle ground on the release of genetically edited mosquitoes for disease eradication. Discussion: Scientists stressed the value of professional guidance; religious leaders listened to family needs. Dialogues met four literature-based criteria for stakeholder involvement in deliberative processes. Conclusion: While scientists and religious leaders differ in their points of emphasis and faith orientations (professional competency versus drawing on compassion), they can successfully collaborate in reaching mutual understanding and specific areas of agreement on precision genetic technologies relating to public health.

Russian Validation of Homophobia Scale (HS)

Introduction: A three-factors self-reporting questionnaire, consisting of 25 items, related to behavior/negative affect, affect/behavioral aggression, and negative cognition towards homosexual people, was administered to a sample of 200 farmer workers recruited in various ways from two Bryansk and Kursk regions of Russian Federation. Aim: The objective of this paper is to validate the HS in the Russian sample in Russian language. Methods: A Russian translation of the HS was carried out by two bilingual translators, after which an English native translated the Russian test back into the English language. Main Outcome Measures: Together with the translated version of HS was administrated a biodata questionnaire including the main information as age, level of education, partnership status, faith and sex orientation. Results : Analyzing obtained data of 200 subjects (100 (50%) female and 100 (50%) male) with ages ranging from 18 to 50 years (mean age = 21.19±2.65; SD: 8.82) showed an overall Cronbach’s α coefficient 0.92 of the internal consistency. All three domains had a good alpha coefficient (three higher than .91), whereas in the total score was .87. The test-retest reliability results: behavior/negative affect was r = 0.79 (P < 0.0001), affect/behavioral aggression was r = 0.82 (P < 0.0001), negative cognition was r = 0.74 (P < 0.0001) and the HS total score was r = 0.93 (P < 0.0001). Conclusions: This study offers a new tool to assess homophobia in Russian population. The Russian validation of the HS in Russian language revealed the use of this self-report test to have good psychometric properties. Therefore, this scale is a necessary diagnostic instrument to detect subtle homophobic attitudes toward homosexual people and useful in the preventive programs of homophobic behavior, in the clinical praxis.

„Ein Backofen voller Liebe“ – Luthers Rede von Gott im Kontext (früh)kapitalistischer Zivilisation

Martin Luther’s writings contain a waelth of economic analyses and perspectives on the beginning capitalist changes in the economy and society of his time. In this case, his economic considerations did not pertain to areas of ethics or ethics in the area of economics, but explitely theological analyses and perspectives, ones that originated from the First Commandment: they are about god or false gods, the god of the Christian faith or the mammon of the emerging „for profit“ economy. With this, Luther takes up the Jesuanic alternative version of god or mammon emphasized in the New Testament. The author outlines Luther’s deliberations and, in the context of the „Radicalizing Reformation“ project, further calls for contemporary critical perspectives on capitalism as well as conceptions of god in the vein of and in line with Luther’s theology, which can support current faith orientations in the engagement with economic and social developments.

Muslim Faith in Pakistan: A Faith-Development View on Fundamentalist to Mature Orientations

Faith development theory has evolved as a prominent theoretical perspective during the past three decades to explain different ways of relating to religious beliefs and worldviews. Recent revisions of the theory have elaborated on these characteristic ways as religious styles namely the fundamentalist, mutual, individuative-systemic, and dialogical. The present study developed an Urdu version of its principal measure, i.e., Faith Development Interview, to analyze twelve cases of Muslims of various religious affiliations within Islam in Pakistan. Four case studies representative of each faith style are presented in detail. The cases are compared to analyze Islamic faith in terms of faith development theory and to understand fundamentalism in a Muslim context. The findings support faith development theory as a comprehensive paradigm to address the varieties of faith orientations in Islam. Implications for future research with larger samples in highly religious and collectivistic cultures are discussed.

Shyness, Self-Construal, Extraversion–Introversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism

Shyness is considered as a universal phenomenon and its prevalence rates vary across cultures. This study aimed at comparing the level of shyness, self-construal, and personality traits of extraversion, introversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism among the college students from India, the host country, Africa; Iran; and Maldives, and Tibetan refugees in India (TRI), studying in different colleges at Mysore, India. Two hundred students (100 men and 100 women), age ranging from 17 to 30 years, were recruited based on stratified random sampling and were administered the Henderson/Zimbardo Shyness Questionnaire, Fernandez Scale of Independent–Interdependent Self-Construal, and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised. The results showed that shyness was significantly correlated with high introversion and high neuroticism scores. The results also showed that level of shyness varies significantly across different cultural groups and students from Maldives showed highest level of shyness whereas Iranian students had the lowest level of shyness. Although there was no significant gender difference, TRI males and Maldivian females had higher scores on shyness. Faith Orientation did not differentiate the prevalence of shyness among students of the different cultural groups. Shyness may be influenced by the culture from which one hails, and its level may vary depending on the nurturance.

Religion and Prosocial Behavior

Previous research has identified the positive correlation between religion and prosocial behavior. Accordingly, the "religious prosociality hypothesis" was proposed to further examine if there was a causal relation. In this paper, progress of current researches concerning the religious prosociality hypothesis would be introduced and reviewed, from the perspective of methodology, influencing factors and psychological mechanism. In its early stage, researchers mainly focused on the effect of religious identity on prosocial behavior, however, in recent years, more and more importance has been attached to the effects of religious priming. "Religious Prosociality Hypothesis" was supposed to be influenced by a variety of factors, including intensity of faith, cultural background, religious cognition and religious orientation etc. As to the future research, the impact of religious identity on prosocial measurement should be effectively controlled, the operational definition of religion should be specified and relevant measurements should be improved, the mechanism of spirituality, cross-cultural effect of religion and effect of religious belief on nonreligious individuals should be closely regarded as well.

Religious and demographic indicators of music preference in a Turkish sample

The attitude of people with various religious and faith orientations towards music is likely to be influenced by the teaching of their religion and the way they hold their faith. In this study, the connections of music preference with religiosity and with the way faith was held by participants were surveyed. The sample consisted of 259 university students (140 men [54%] and 119 women [46%], Mage = 20.29 years). Participants listened to 10 pieces from different music genres. Next, their music preference was measured using music feeling scales and single-item music-liking questions. In addition, participants also completed the scales of religious attitude and faith development. Demographic variables included gender, age, income, residency type, and frequency of listening to music. Factor analyses determined 5 music types from 10 musical genres, including Western sophisticated (jazz and classical), Western energetic (rock and metal), Western pop, traditional (Turkish folk, Turkish classical, religious music), and melancholic-rebellious (arabesk and rap). It was found that religious attitude correlated positively with traditional music and negatively with some of the Western music, including rock-metal and jazz. It revealed no correlation with Western classical music. In contrast, faith development correlated positively with Western classical, jazz, and rock-metal music but negatively with religious music, Turkish folk, and arabesk music. It was found that religiosity had an effect on music preference. In terms of demographic variables, women tended to prefer pop and rock-metal more than men, and men tended to prefer Turkish folk, arabesk, and rap more than women. More sophisticated musical genres were favoured more by somewhat older participants. In addition, whereas Western classical, Turkish classical, and jazz music tended to be preferred by participants from urban areas, arabesk and rap music tended to be liked more by participants from rural areas.

Capacity for public service delivery: a cross-case analysis of ten small faith-related non-profit organisations

Government-funded contracts are widely known to test the internal capacity of non-profit organisations (NPOs). Smaller faith-related NPOs are considered to be particularly lacking in the capacity needed to manage such contracts. Based on the uneven experiences of ten small faith-related non-profit organisations in a federal initiative in the United States, this article details four capacity areas critical to effective adaptation to the demands of government contracts: professional leadership, human resource management, strategy development and organisational alignment, and prior contract experience. Besides these internal organisational capacities, a key external factor found to predict effective adaptation is the capacity building given by support organisations that share the same faith orientation. However, two other factors explain the lack of pervasive adaptation, namely the financial strength of support organisations and funder perception of effective performance. The research contributes to neo-institutionalist arguments that attention to capacity and capacity builders may explain variations in adoption of practices that support public service delivery among small faith-related NPOs.

The Umayyad Dynasty's Conversion to Islam

Modern Muslims are searching for political policies that are based on the Umayyad role model, which was so successful that poverty had been eliminated and not a single individual could be found to accept the zakat - the alms. According to Muslim tradition, the Umayyad leaders of the early caliphates were among the families that had originally followed Prophet Muhammad. Hence, the question whether or not and when the Umayyads had indeed converted to Islam seems of paramount importance in modern Muslim socio-economics. This is the focus of this paper. Unless the suggestions of inadmissible traditions, contemporary external evidence, and the Koran itself are ignored, the first conclusions from this article are that the origin of Islam is by no means Pagan but rests on like Arian Christianity - pre-Nicean Christology in its Arian branches merged with an adaptation of Nestorianism and Judeo-Messianism - and on professional Judaic insiders rather than on an amateurish chance construct. In other words, much of the content in the Koran rests on very old dogmas rather than on new ones. The target groups were many nonTrinitarian Judaic sects. The final composition of the Koran needs to be freed from the assumption of having been revealed to a single prophet or even to a single sect. Given the inclusion of the Umayyads in the linage of the Quraysh and in the Islamic version of history (but without implying an early conversion to Islam), they must have either been part of rewriting their past at some point before they were ousted, or that they had come to a lineage arrangement under a prototype agreement that may have had nothing to do with a new faith. But where is the evidence of when the Umayyads converted to Islam? It seems that a possible faith orientation of the Umayyads toward Melkite Christianity leans on rather slim evidence, albeit multiple, near contemporary, and also in later inadmissible traditions. However, the here selected lop-sided traditions and external sources seem to be in agreement that the leading members of the clan were unwavering (Melkite) Christians and opponents of the Muhammadean throne and maybe also of the Koran. The outcome remains unchanged even upon eliminating the traditions. On the other hand, a conversion from any preexisting faith to early Islam rests not only on guesswork and exclusively on inadmissible traditions from long after the fact but also on simply ignoring the archaeological and primary evidence. There is not a dot of historic or archaeological evidence in Syria of the much touted missionary efforts of a new religion from Muhammad almost to the last decade of the seventh century. Instead, the order of events presents a continuum and a deepening of Judaic sectarian conflicts from hundreds of years before. If the Umayyads were indeed adherents to any differing creed other than Islam, then the economic dreams of modern Muslims rest on the premises of another faith. It may help explaining why Muslim doctrines seem unable to address global systemic poverty, of which countries under the influence of Islam absorb the bulk.

"All for Faith": Profiles, Engagement Chronicles, and Perceived Implications of Adherents to Indic Faith-Based Organizations

1. Samta P. Pandya[1][1] 1. 1Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India 1. Samta P. Pandya, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai 400088, Maharashtra, India Email: pandya.samta19{at}gmail.com This article is based on a study of a sample of 481 member adherents across nine Indic faith-based organizations (IFBOs) in India. Findings revealed that higher socioeconomic status, socially privileged ethnicity grouping, and fairly higher end religiosity and spirituality scores characterize IFBO adherent profile. Adherence is a way to strike the tradition–modernity balance and fill in the moral spiritual vacuum. Engagement chronicles entail factors initiating association, duration of involvement, time devoted, nature and view of work, training, and factors motivating sustenance. In general ideology, teacher charisma, faith communitas, and familial connections serve to initiate and motivate. Levels of identification propel longer involvements, and work is of the nature of altruism–philanthropy–seva as also routine maintenance activities. Perceived self-implications are a combination of transcendental gains, faith orientations, and network–communitas formation. On a larger scale, member adherents perceive that in an environment of existential uncertainty, IFBOs’ message/epithets contain practical elements for social change/development. [1]: #aff-1

Canadian children’s perceptions of spirituality: diverse voices

Few researchers have explored children’s understandings of spirituality. Thus, Canadian children from different religious, spiritual and cultural backgrounds were asked open-ended questions concerning their spiritual thoughts, beliefs and experiences. Parents of participants completed a demographic questionnaire and reported children’s religious affiliation. Regardless of children’s religious background, six prominent themes emerged: (1) Positive feelings when praying or thinking about God, (2) God’s location, (3) God helps, (4) God as a listener, (5) Soul and spirit and (6) God is a comforter. Despite diverse faith orientations, children’s responses reflected similar conceptualisations of God as a listener and helper, and conversations with God served as a source of comfort and elicited feelings of happiness. Discussion involves educational implications of children’s spirituality for diverse learning contexts.

The Adaptability of Pentecostalism: The Fit between Prosperity Theology and Globalized Individualization in a Los Angeles Church

Abstract A main theme in the study of global Pentecostalism is its adaptability to the modern world system; yet, the way in which adaptability “works” is not well theorized. Hannah Arendt’s analysis of “the private and public realm” and Ulrich Beck’s description of “individualization and self-culture” offer heuristic frameworks for understanding how prosperity theology is well-suited to macro-historical patterns that address the growing individualization of everyday life, especially in relation to uncertain career paths and risk-oriented work structures. Arendt’s and Beck’s theoretical conceptualizations move away from sect-like notions of Pentecostals cultivating a bounded system among the non-Spirit-filled natives. Instead, their theoretical conceptualizations reveal Pentecostalism — especially in its prosperity orientation — to be fully compatible with individualization processes experienced by and demanded from today’s workers. A case study of the ministry of Oasis Christian Center to Hollywood entertainment industry workers illustrates connections between the Prosperity/Word of Faith orientation of the congregation and overarching processes of individualization.

Entrepreneurship as a leap of faith

Entrepreneurial start-ups require a “leap of faith”. Since a person’s faith represents a belief in something for which there is limited information and considerable uncertainty, this suggests that the entrepreneur’s faith orientation may influence the start-up process for some entrepreneurs. Due to the paucity of research in this area and the need to better understand the start-up process, this study utilized an inductive, longitudinal research design. Specifically, we studied the new venture creation process for four entrepreneurs operating throughout the USA over a five-year period from 2005 to 2009. As a result of this study, new theoretical insights are generated on entrepreneurial motivations, creativity, expectations, and emotions for those entrepreneurs who seek to integrate their faith journey with a new entrepreneurial start-up.

The relationship between bonding and bridging social capital among Christian denominations across Australia

AbstractThis article is an intricate empirical examination of the relationship between bridging and bonding with respect to subcultural differences in religious denomination and faith orientation. The respondents were 2,710 Christian church attendees from nineteen denominations across Australia. They were surveyed with a closed‐answer questionnaire covering the topics of faith, demographics, involvement in the congregation, and involvement in the wider community. The results revealed a positive relationship between bonding and bridging social capital, with a high level of bonding associated with a high level of bridging for all denominations and faith identities. There was no evidence that high bonding within the congregation restricted bridging beyond the congregation. The results support the notion that the relationship between bonding and bridging may vary with societal subcultures.

Psychotherapy in India

The articles that appeared in Indian Journal of Psychiatry were related to different areas of psychotherapy. Case reports dealt with a wide variety of cases. The review papers focused on the suitability of psychotherapy in the Indian context, different approaches in psychotherapy, psychotherapy training and supervision. Psychotherapy has been viewed very close to faith orientation. There were attempts to identify the indigenous concepts that are applicable to psychotherapy. Empirical studies are low in number. Concerted effort is needed to generate interest in psychotherapy, conduct more research on evidence-based therapies as well as on psychotherapeutic process variables.

Beyond Compare: St. Francis de Sales and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God (review)

Reviewed by: Beyond Compare: St. Francis de Sales and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God Thomas A. Forsthoefel (bio) Beyond Compare: St. Francis de Sales and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God. By Francis X. Clooney, SJ. [publisher] xiii + 271 pp. $34.95 Francis X. Clooney continues his compelling engagement in inter-religious encounter with this latest project, an intensification and expansion of what seems to be among his deepest professional and spiritual sensibilities. A work that combines profound erudition and deep passion, Beyond Compare really is a mystical treatise emerging out of the intensity of Clooney’s own apparent openness to the divine, formed in decisive ways by his Jesuit training and shaped further by his empathetic and serious study of great Hindu theologians and devotional poets. In one sense, the book could be read as a highly cerebral study of two great spiritual writers from worlds that in some ways could not be further apart: the post-Reformation Europe of St. Francis de Sales and the Hindu community of medieval South India led by the brilliant Sri Vaishnava theologian Vedanta Desika. But to limit the book to an intellectual enquiry alone is to miss its point altogether. Beyond Compare is not only a systematic discussion of loving surrender in two different texts and traditions, it is really a direct encounter with loving surrender as an existential possibility. This provocative trajectory means that Clooney’s work does indeed go beyond the usual rubrics and objectives of contemporary scholarship, certainly in South Asian studies and perhaps even in theology, and instead becomes something almost startling in its freshness and potential. Beyond Compare, at root, is a work of profound spirituality, and, given the contemporary context of pluralism and inter-faith dialogue, has the potential to become a spiritual classic. The book is grounded by a rigorous and systematic analysis of two key texts, one by the Catholic de Sales, the other by the Hindu Desika. As an intellectual investigation, the book is dense, and because so, perhaps may be less accessible to a broad audience of readers. This may be its most serious limitation. There are very few scholars, let alone lay readers, who share Clooney’s conceptual and linguistic skills, whose career has nimbly crossed academic disciplines and cultural boundaries with consummate grace and skill. On the other hand, as Clooney himself notes, a central point in gaining expertise in any field is precisely to make available that training and its fruitfulness in ways that benefit others. In any case, readers, regardless of their professional training, will profit from the Clooney’s considerable gifts and his use of them in this book. In the end, Beyond Compare makes both lucid and accessible the awareness of and prospects for loving surrender to God found in the work of de Sales and Desika. However, while the book is clearly the product of uncommon intellectual and linguistic skill, it is hardly limited to conceptual analysis and abstraction. On the contrary, Clooney seems almost driven to investigate precisely how de Sales and Desika, operating from their respective traditions, each use the world of the written word to articulate, elucidate, and in the end call forth loving surrender to God. Writers, of course, typically engage topics they wish to probe, explore, and internalize, and in doing so are themselves changed, certainly intellectually, but also, potentially, affectively and ethically. Clooney’s study here seems at one level to be his own intimate and intense encounter with the prospects and possibility of loving surrender, along with all such surrender promises and intimates. He directly adverts to this personal sensibility early in the book, though perhaps more as a [End Page 254] history of or launching point for the project. However, the entire study has the feel of Clooney carefully exploring and opening to loving surrender himself, not just as an intellectual exercise but as a dynamic and living spiritual possibility. In any case, all close readers of the book, regardless of faith orientation, will benefit from this rigorous analysis, owing to Clooney’s considerable intellectual acumen. However, those sharing certain presuppositions of Clooney (and of de Sales and Desika) will gain something...