Faith Perspectives Research Articles

Bioethics from a Faith Perspective: Ethics in Health Care for the Twenty-First Century

Australian Social WorkVolume 58, Issue 1 p. 109-111 Bioethics from a Faith Perspective: Ethics in Health Care for the Twenty-First Century Marj Milburn, Marj Milburn Author of Informed Choice of Medical Services: Is the Law Just? (Ashgate, Aldershot, UK, 2001)Search for more papers by this author Marj Milburn, Marj Milburn Author of Informed Choice of Medical Services: Is the Law Just? (Ashgate, Aldershot, UK, 2001)Search for more papers by this author First published: 10 March 2005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0312-407X.2005.00188.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume58, Issue1March 2005Pages 109-111 RelatedInformation

Lifestyle

Operation Noah is a campaign about climate change for churches and community groups. It enables them to take action, both as citizens at the national and international level, and as consumers at the personal level, by encouraging people to join the ‘Climate Covenant’. The Kyoto Protocol represents only a start to the urgent worldwide task to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Operation Noah will build a mandate to encourage the UK government to take a lead in negotiations for a long-term safe and just resolution to the climate crisis. It also shows how people, churches and other groups can switch to clean electricity as a first step to delivering the solution. The campaign recognizes a spiritual dimension to the climate crisis, which requires a contribution to be made to public debate from a faith perspective. The stories of Noah and the Rainbow Covenant have relevance for our own time, and include symbols full of potential for creative expression. The campaign enables churches and other groups to offer a prophetic witness, in a manner that is both attractive and challenging.

Using reflective practice to explore the origins and consequences of cultural and faith perspectives

The intention of the symposium is to allow individual voices to speak for themselves and to display their unmediated autobiographical narratives, albeit within a theoretical framework suggested by Part 2 of the Editorial. However, this snowball sample has thrown up some commonalties. So, the third and final part of the Editorial will attempt to point out some of these similarities. From a variety of viewpoints and positions and expressed in different styles of autobiographical narratives, the voices record a sophisticated awareness of the religious traditions discussed; a questioning of substance and loyalty that in one case resulted in a moving from one faith to another; and a display of religious and social values that travel with the individual to be tried and tested in a number of demanding contexts. Impotantly, it would seem that the individuals themselves selected what they would use in the formation of their own personal and professional identities.

Faith Perspectives for Development Institutions

FRAMING THE ISSUESMy professional life has been spent in the world of development practice, working on what I term operations in an international development organization. The range of issues we address is very wide, AIDS to zebras, as one might say. We work with villagers to raise crop yields, build pumps for water, and reduce maternal mortality. We work in urban areas with slum communities on housing, with city administrators on sanitation, and with women's groups on how to confront the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We deal all too often with the consequences of economic crises like the 1997-1998 east Asian crisis. Our central aim is to find long-term solutions and visions for better lives, yet we grapple daily with the practical consequences of strategic choices for countries like Bolivia, Mali, and Cambodia. Debt problems, corruption, gender dimensions, environmental assessments, and many more topics are all our daily fare.Until very recently, this kind of front-line work, as carried out by development institutions such as the World Bank, was consciously very secular, with little direct engagement with the worlds of faith, spirituality, and organized religion. This article speaks to this divide and to the importance of bridging these worlds, building on the resurgence (or revelation, in the sense of lifting barriers that prevented us from seeing what was there all the time) of ties between faith and development. These issues have taken on heightened importance in the world following 11 September 2001.I also reflect on the complex web of threads that tie the phenomena of poverty, instability, fundamentalist religious movements, and terrorism. We know well that most poor people seek nothing more than peace and security, and that few terrorists are themselves poor. Poverty and terrorism are not directly linked. Yet there are important relationships that deserve thoughtful exploration. Many years ago, a graduate school professor of mine noted the correlation between rum prices and the salaries of Presbyterians ministers: they tend to move in similar patterns. Rum prices and Presbyterian ministers' salaries are, of course, not directly related to one another in any causal pattern; instead, both depend on broader economic trends. It is useful to reflect on linkages between poverty and terrorism in a similar light. Though the causal inter-relationship is limited, they are both part of broader trends and challenges to do with what we might term global social justice; in many instances they do indeed go together and the one can aggravate the other. If we do not address the challenge of global poverty and work towards social justice, it is difficult to imagine that we can put an end to today's tragic patterns of instability and the terrorism that is part of them.My central message is the urgent need for better understanding of, and effective action to address, the complex ways in which the worlds of faith and development intersect and can engage with each other. Part of this challenge is to open and pursue channels of dialogue between the worlds. There are also ample opportunities for alliances for advocacy and policy change and for stronger partnerships on the ground. For some, this challenge may be readily met if areas of common purpose can be defined; for others, deeply suspicious of what they see as the methods and motivation of international development work, or for that matter of religious institutions, the task is much more difficult. Great creativity and commitment are needed if we are to find ways to bridge the divide.DEVELOPMENT AND FAITH IN SEPARATE WORLDSJoint reflection, dialogue, and research between the worlds of faith and development were piecemeal in the late 20th century. Institutions like the multilateral development banks, which interact with governments as a matter of institutional structure, found limited ways to interact with civil society institutions, including religious institutions. …

“FAITH, HEALING AND MISSION”: REFLECTIONS ON A CONSULTATIVE PROCESS

Participants at this consultation have come across as people who take their faith seriously; they entered the current process with genuine desire to contribute and also to learn from what I feel inclined to label a consultative process on faith, healing and The first indication of this was the palpable sincerity and keen sense of interest with which we prayed and participated in the Bible studies. I did not get any impression that these were seen as mere appendices or aberrations to the enterprise. The consultation has itself been process in mission because of the constant reference to the activity of the Holy Spirit in mission. Indeed, John V. Taylor opens his award-winning The Go-Between God: The Holy Spirit and the Christian Mission with the profound observation that: The chief actor in the historic mission of the Christian church is the Holy Spirit. He is the director of the whole enterprise. The mission consists of the things that he is doing in the world. In special way it consists of the light that he is focussing upon Jesus Christ. (1) Part of the uniqueness of our meeting has lain in the fact that it was never lost on this group that God was doing something in the world, and that his Holy Spirit was the chief agent in the enterprise. For the rest of the consultative process, we have to keep on discussing the nature of what God has been about and how to get ourselves and those we represent co-opted into the enterprise. Discussions of faith, health and mission have been approached from various faith perspectives without any undermining of the need for critical reflection. This is something I believe has contributed to the uniqueness of the present process. The net result of reflecting from experience is that the issues get disseminated, and this may help bring the otherwise remote World Council of Churches (WCC) few more steps closer to the ordinary members of the churches they serve. Restoration to normalcy The logical question that arises out of Taylor's description of Christian mission is, What is God doing in the world? God is healing people. In fact, he is healing the nations by restoring broken persons to health and wholeness. From the stories that we have heard from various contexts, God is everywhere restoring people to health so that, as one participant put it, those so restored can lead lives. Again, what life does one describe as being normal? Our response to this question has been very empathetic. There was unanimous realization that many who seek God's intervention in illness remain uncured, even after prayer. It takes faith to realize that people can still have normal lives, that is, they can be healed, even though they may still be living with disabilities after God's intervention. We have heard stories about blind healers in Africa, and barren African prophetesses through whose ministry many continue to receive fruits of the womb. In such situations, the Akan of Ghana would say, Aboa onni dua, Onyame na opra no ha (It is God who drives the flies off the body of the tail-less animal). The Akans also say Onyame na owow basin fufu ma no (It is God who pounds fufu for the person who has lost the use of his or her arms). The principle underlying these two proverbs are the same: people may continue to live with disabilities, whatever they may be, but God has his own way of helping such people to have holistic lifestyles. I understand us to be saying that to have the grace to cope with disabilities itself constitutes miracle that generates belief in the God of mission. God is so powerful that he restores some to complete health, and helps others to do what only those who have the full complement of their human faculties can do. Not only that, God's intervention in lives has been perceived as multidimensional. The laying on of hands and anointing with oil works but these must not be absolutized and divorced from other therapeutic methods, including those that use medicine and psychotherapy. …

A Ponderous and Ravenous Faith

Abstract Today pastoral counselors are more comfortable with the idea of eating disorders, though there are a number of parallels between traditional views of gluttony and the research on eating disorders. In this article, I argue that psychodynamic, developmental, and faith perspectives all of which have physiological, cultural, and familial accomplices provide the lenses needed to understand gluttony. In brief, a glutton's preoccupation with the pleasure or toxicity of food results from a complex array of factors, including family and cultural deprivation, impingement, and education that distorts a person's self-image and his/her desire, motivation, passion, and meaning. In terms of the dynamics of faith, gluttony is ponderous because the person is unwittingly weighed down by emptiness and loss associated with painful experiences of betrayal, distrust, and hopelessness. The ravenousness of gluttony is the desperate search to fill this emptiness and preserve some measure of trust and fidelity, albeit distorted. Helping people who struggle with eating disorders requires an empathic appreciation of their suffering as well as developing strategies that facilitate a person' movement from a ponderous and ravenous faith to a lively and passionate faith with others.

Faith Perspectives for Development Institutions: New Faces of Compassion and Social Justice

Faith Perspectives for Development Institutions: New Faces of Compassion and Social Justice

Book Review: III. Ministerial Studies: Bioethics from a Faith Perspective: Ethics in Health Care for the Twenty-First Century

Book Review: III. Ministerial Studies: Bioethics from a Faith Perspective: Ethics in Health Care for the Twenty-First Century

God at the Edge: Searching for the Divine in Uncomfortable And Unexpected Places

God At the Edge explores one man’s spiritual adventures as he grows from a typical college boy into a Rabbi and a man. Goldstein uses a combination of story relating and historical accounts to take the reader through an exploration of faith and spirituality. Although a Jewish Rabbi, the book explores the history of faiths from Buddhism to Catholicism and, at times, draws parallels between multiple faith perspectives.

Cultural Engagement in Clinical Ethics: A Model for Ethics Consultation

In the rapidly evolving healthcare environment, perhaps no role is in greater flux and redefinition than that of the clinical bioethicist. The discussion of ethics consultation in the bioethics literature has moved from an ambiguous concern regarding its proper place in the clinical milieu to the more provocative question of which methods and theories should best characterize the intellectual and practical work it claims to do. The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities addressed these concerns in its 1998 report, Core Competencies for Health Care Ethics Consultation. The report tries to answer the question as to what disciplinary training, background experience, and levels of knowledge in ethics the clinical ethics consultant should have, and what specific skills and character traits the clinical ethics consultant should cultivate. In addition to acquiring knowledge of common bioethical issues, theoretical concepts in ethical theory and moral reasoning, and health-related law and policy, the report also recommends that ethics consultants demonstrate knowledge of the health beliefs and perspectives of patients and healthcare providers. In our opinion, this recommendation underscores a crucial aspect of the practice of ethics consultation in the increasingly multicultural settings of healthcare institutions. Clearly, the dynamic of American life and culture is permeated with diversity and variety as new groups suffuse their own beliefs and faith perspectives into the health sector. New immigrant groups force society to question traditional healthcare practices and to accommodate changing medical needs.

EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH THE CENTRE FOR CONSTRUCTIVE THEOLOGY

Women in the South African context South Africa has a history of disempowering the majority of its people on the basis of race, class and gender. This year (i.e., 1999, Ed.) South Africa celebrates five years of democratically elected government by the majority of the people. The major issue facing South Africa today is how to empower its previously disadvantaged people so that they can have dignity and self-identity. The aim of this paper is to show how the programme on Women in the Church and Society of the Centre for Constructive Theology attempts to make a contribution towards the empowering of South African church women from different classes and racial groups through it various activities. From the outset, it is important for me to declare my own identity as it may colour the interpretation of the situation of women in the South African context. As a Malawian professional lay woman growing up in the Presbyterian and Pentecostal urban area, I stand out from among the majority of African women. They mainly live in rural areas and exist under very difficult economic, social and spiritual conditions. For the majority of African women, it is issues of survival that concern them most rather than discussions about their gender. Therefore, as observed by Denise Ackermann: Gender exists, but does not do so alone. It has to be understood in the context of other factors that make up our identity, our race, class, economic status, religion, culture, sexual preference and so on. Women are different and our differences divide us from one another. For example, women are divided according to class. The differences between privileged women who are able to exercise choice over the course of their lives and women who struggle to subsist (even if they are of the same race) are prodigious. [1] Thus, women's experience of discrimination (by men or other women) on the basis of their sex varies from woman to woman. The variety of women's experiences must be taken into account when setting the agenda for women's discussions about themselves. The Centre for Constructive Theology The Centre for Constructive Theology (CCT) is an initiative of the Faculty of Theology at the University of Durban-Westville, Durban, Kwazulu Natal, South Africa. It is now housed in the Centre of Religious Studies as a unit within the Faculty of Humanities. It was established in 1996 and is funded by various churches within South Africa and abroad. The CCT seeks to play a significant role in responding to the challenge of transformation and reconstruction in the new South Africa. It does so by providing concrete mechanisms for outreach and advocacy, which are informed by theological reflection. Although this reflection arises from a Christian base, the CCT intentionally promotes openness to and dialogue with other faith communities. The CCT endeavours to bridge the gap between formal academic theological enquiry and the practical needs and concerns of communities whose faith perspectives on the critical issues confronting South Africa have been undervalued in the past. The CCT does this by facilitating contextually relevant theological responses to the unfolding social, political and religious situation in the country and region. The work of the CCT involves coordinating the research, learning and outreach efforts of its various programmes. Currently these include the programme on Women in the Church and Society, the programme on Non-Formal Theological Education, and the programme on Justice and Peace. The CCT publishes the results of its programmatic undertakings, such as curricular resources, research projects, and a bi-annual Journal of Constructive Theology. The programme on Women in the Church and Society In my ministry as coordinator for the programme on Women in the Church and Society, I work with women in ecumenical groups. I am also invited to address men and women as well as women only in particular denominations. …

Reviews

Books reviewed:Peter C. Hodgson God's Wisdom: Toward a Theology of EducationCharles F. Melchert Wise Teaching: Biblical Wisdom and Educational MinistryFernando F. Segovia and Mary Ann Tolbert, eds., Teaching the Bible: The Discourses and Politics and Biblical PedagogyH. Edward Everding, Jr. Mary W. Wilcox, Lucinda A. Huffaker and Clarence H. SnellingViewpoints: Faith Perspectives and Christian NurturePeter McLaren Revolutionary Multiculturalism: Pedagogies of Dissent for the New Millennium

The Little Flower and the New Evangelization

Roger Duncan The Little Flower and the New Evangelization Thousands ofpeople in different parts ofthe world have been viewing and touching the relics of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, "the Little Flower," as the new millennium dawns. As she has on numerous occasions been recognized as the special saint for our time,1 it becomes very important to understand more clearly how that is so, lest we miss her special importance for the new evangelization. Since she has been proclaimed a Doctor ofthe Church we would do well to acquaint others and ourselves with what she taught by word and example. Some people, reading her autobiography, and confusing the late nineteenth-century gift wrap with the gift itself, have not liked her very much. "A sugary little saint," or something to that effect, said James Agee, contrasting her with Theresa ofAvila. This kind ofmisunderstanding, by those who like the sugar and those who do not, must not be allowed to obscure her heroic apostolate ofthe radically new. Radically new? Of course there is nothing so new in authentic Church teaching that it was not in some way there from the beginning .2 "Innovation" in the wild sense tends to heresy and is at least irrelevant. By the radically new, however, I mean that which grows LOGOS 3:3 SUMMER 2ooo Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (? 873-1 897). Photograph, 189c. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France. Alinari/Art Resource, N.Y. THE LITTLE FLOWER AND THE NEW EVANGELIZATION up from the roots, and in the providence ofGod springs into flower at that point in history when the Church and humankind are ready for it. I do not mean here to cover all ofher teaching, all ofwhich is distinctive, original, and glowing with "new lights."3 I only want to direct attention to aspects ofher doctrine and practice that seem in danger ofbeing insufficiently noticed. Thérèse and the Modern World The Little Flower endured a spiritual darkness without consolation for several years at the end ofher short life, a darkness she describes in a distinctly modern accent. Great contemplatives have of course often spoken of an anguished desolation, a crucifixion of the self, experienced on the way to union with God. Thérèse knows this "Dark Night of the Soul" specifically as a temptation against faith, a temptation to atheism. Here she joins modern man, who has lost a comfortable cosmos and found a technological void. Modern people find it easy to question everything, including reason itself, which anyway offers no answers to why horrible things happen to good people . To many, God seems more inaccessible, more hidden, than ever. Vatican II "opened the doors ofthe Church to the world" to allow a two-way flow. The world penetrates the Church in such a way that the world's pain and problems—starvation, war, loss ofintellectual and faith perspective—are felt within the Church as she identifies with the world. These are our problems, we human beings, together . The Church in turn penetrates the world. She exercises political and social advocacy toward a more just society. She adjusts her global missionary activity witii increased sensitivity toward the variety of human goods and values expressed in alternate cultures (inculturation ) and with heightened respect for autonomy and process. She expects her lay people to perform a unique and indispensable role in humanizing and Christianizing every corner ofhuman work, technology , and culture.4 12LOGOS It is well known that St. Thérèse identified with the Church's missionary thrust. She always wanted to be a missionary and kept this global focus all her short life, finding astonishing ways to implement it. As one who was porous toward the world, however , she had to take in its darkness, its atheism. She had to endure it contemplatively. The Church knows that God's action in Jesus Christ makes it possible to negotiate Nietzsche's "death of God." For since the Incarnation all human beings have been touched irrevocably by Christ.5 This means, among other things, that when we think we have lost the connection with the Father we can find it again by looking closely at the human reality, turning...

Trauma and Development: A Faith Perspective

This essay describes the relationship between psychological trauma, psychosocial development and faith. I delineate four phases of development, each possessing particular psychosocial needs, achievements, and capacities. In addition, each phase includes specific ways of organizing experience and relating to objects in terms of the dynamics of trust-distrust and loyalty-disloyalty. Thus, trust-distrust and loyalty-disloyalty hold different meanings and functions in each phase. Throughout these phases, primary and secondary transitional objects provide persons with safe objects to recognize and work through the meanings and affects associated with changes in beliefs about and experiences of trust-distrust and loyalty-disloyalty. I suggest that trauma impacts phase specific capacities and achievements consequently disrupting one's ability to organize and relate to objects in terms of the dynamics of faith.

The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity: From Alexander to Bar Kochba (review)

Hebrew Sludies 40 (1999) 355 Reviews and marital behavior" which were at variance among sectarian groups within first century Judaism. The phrase n,mn ~l'Q shows similarity with epyoov VOJ.lOU in the Pauline letters; it is unlikely, however, that this was the heading of the document or that Paul's use of the phrase was a direct reference to it. On the whole, these essays are carefully argued and cautious in their approach , specially in the search for biblical or rabbinic parallels. In spite of the problems raised by the fragmentary character of 4QMMT and the uncertainty of the composite text, the authors generally agree on a few major points, such as the proto-Sadducean and early setting of the document . They also show the importance of 4QMMT for Jewish and New Testament studies, and map the ground for further research. It is to be hoped that they fmd followers from various horizons whose work will enhance our understanding of this important text from Qumran. Jean Duhaime Universile de Montreal Montreal Quebec, Canada jean.duhaime@umontreal.ca THE JEWISH PEOPLE IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY: FROM ALEXANDER TO BAR KOCHBA. By John H. Hayes and Sara R. Mandell. pp. x + 246. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997. Paper. $28.00. In The Jewish People in Classical Antiquity: From Alexander 10 Bar Kochba, John H. Hayes and Sara R. Mandell have produced an erudite and readable text for the study of the Judean-Jerusalem community from 333 B.C.E. through 135 C.E. This work is described in the preface as being the companion volume to J. M. Miller and John H. Hayes' earlier work A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (Philadelphia/London: Westminster Press/SCM Press, 1986). The book consists of an introduction followed by four chapters: "The Jewish Community under Ptolemaic and Seleucid Rule" (chap. 1), "The Hasmonaeans" (chap. 2), "The Herodian Period" (chap. 3). and "The Jewish-Roman Wars" (chap. 4). In the Introduction, Hayes and Mandell treat three critical issues that must be carefully considered by any scholar writing about ancient Judaism. First, the scholar must be conscious of-and avoid-the theologicallyrooted tendency to see the Yahwistic community of Jerusalem, beginning with the Babylonian returnees of 538 B.C.E., as being the "authentic" representative of a "normative" Judaism to which essentially all Jews gave their assent. Such a reading of the history. the authors correctly point out. Hebrew Studies 40 (1999) 356 Reviews was probably adhered to by the Jews of the time who saw themselves as the heirs of that particular Yahwistic tradition and by those today whose view of the history is built upon a Jewish or Christian faith perspective. Yet it is an unacceptable perspective for an historian, who must not be swayed by an image of the Jews as a "totally unique people, chosen by the one and only real deity" (p. 1). Rather, we must recognize that "normative Judaism" is a construct, and that the evidence shows great diversity in religious and political viewpoints among the Yahwists who lived in Palestine during this period . The members of these various groups "were Jewish insofar as they were Yahwists" (p. 2). Hayes and Mandell next take up the issue of the sources available to the historian of the period. While primary source materials for the period are scarce, there are the accounts of Josephus, 1 and 2 Maccabees, some material that may help shed light on the Samaritans, the Qumran community, and the followers of Bar Kochba, and the writings of a number of Greek and Roman authors (aside from Josephus) including Polybius, Cicero, Livy, and Tacitus. Hayes and Mandell correctly argue that the literary products of the Roman world outside of Palestine are relevant to a study of the Judean community because we thereby gain a Roman perspective on Rome's interactions with those under its suzerainty. This information can then balance the information obtainable from internal Judean sources alone. Yet Hayes and Mandell are aware that caution is also required when using Roman sources, since the latter often do not explicitly treat the issue for which they are being mined-the relationship of Greeks or Romans to...

Towards a Common Understanding and Vision: A Faith and Order Perspective

Towards a Common Understanding and Vision: A Faith and Order Perspective

Soul and System: The Integrative Possibilities of Family Therapy

This article presents a review of the interface of family systems theory and therapy with religious, spiritual, or faith perspectives, with particular emphasis on Christian theology and Scripture. A brief review of the literature shows the relative paucity of work in this area to date. It is argued that family therapy is a particularly fertile ground for the integration of theological, religious, and spiritual considerations. Three points of intersection between family systems theory and biblical concepts—context, legacy, and body life—are discussed to illustrate the considerable promise of family systems theory for future integrative work. Implications for practice are discussed within a framework outlining three means of including religion or spirituality in the clinical work of family therapy—as resource, as culture, or as context. Borrowing from the family systems theory emphasis on epistemology, a definition of “second-order integration” is suggested, which may help to clarify the field's “thinking about thinking” about integration.

Collective worship in primary schools: Issues for practice

This paper begins with a brief summary of the history of collective worship in schools and then outlines the terms of the 1988 Act, reflecting on the interpretations which have been placed on it. There follows some examples of responses from members of various faith perspectives and life stances.

Grounded in justice: Service learning from a faith perspective

AbstractThe Service Learning Model is complemented by Parks's, Westerhoff's, and Fowler's faith‐development models, as well as by the social‐justice activities of campus ministries' staffs.

The death crisis and pastoral counseling

Death is an event that presents a crisis to the family system. Conceptualizing death as a stressor event and recognizing the variety of coping resources present in and available to bereaved families and individuals, along with the meaning attached to death, can help interventionists to perceive stategies for providing assistance in time of grief. Pastoral counselors are often needed to interpret death from a faith perspective, yet they may need to interpret the family's reaction to the death crisis in order to facilitate their readjustment. Analysis of the death event using Reuben Hill's crisis equation provides a workable conceptual framework.