Faith Practices Research Articles

Comparative Studies of the Oral and Literary Culture in the First Century and Its Implications for African Christianity Today

This study explores the interplay between oral and literary traditions in early Christianity and contemporary African Christian practices. While early Christian communities relied heavily on oral traditions, the transition to written texts significantly shaped the formation of Christian theology and scripture. However, contemporary African Christianity continues to preserve oral traditions, particularly in worship and evangelism. By comparing these two contexts, the study highlights how Reader-Response Theory helps bridge historical and modern interpretive practices. Methodologically, the study employs textual analysis of early Christian writings and fieldwork observations of African Christian communities. Key findings show that oral traditions remain crucial for biblical engagement and theological discourse in low-literacy settings. The study recommends incorporating oral traditions into African Christian theological education to enhance faith practice.

The hostile environment in primary care: Qualitative analysis of a cross sectional survey of health care professionals in primary care

BackgroundIn 2014 the UK government rolled out the then called hostile environment as a series of punitive policies designed to disenfranchise undocumented migrants from living in Britain. As part of these measures upfront charging was introduced in 2017 which saw patients being denied treatment without prior full payment based on their immigration status. AimAssess the knowledge of the charging regulations in a sample of primary care practitioners. Assess the impact of the regulations on both patients and practitioners in a primary care setting. MethodsBuilding on a previous survey by the RCPCH, a cross sectional survey was circulated through the RCGP faculties and GP training groups within England. Demographic information and likert responses were collected from over 300 responses. Thematic analysis of over 120 white space questions was undertaken to create themes and sub-themes. ResultsResults showed an overall poor knowledge of the regulations. Thematic analysis was split into two main categories, (i) human impact of the policies and (ii) the economic and political impact of the policies. Key points were (i) lack of knowledge and awareness of the regulations, (ii) evidence of patient harm through patients’ being denied care, avoiding care or having care delayed, (iii) evidence of clinician harm through burnout, stress, a loss of faith in practice and concerns over extra work and (iv) concerns over implicit bias and structural racism within primary care and (v) concerns over lack of economic analysis. ConclusionCharging of overseas visitors is poorly understood within primary care despite having an impact on both patients and practitioners within this setting. Recommendations to help tackle this issue and reduce harm include training of staff, systematic reporting of harm, and a system wide economic analysis.

Practical Faith & Active Love: Meditations on the Epistle of James by Joel W. Huffstetler

<i>Practical Faith &amp; Active Love: Meditations on the Epistle of James</i> by Joel W. Huffstetler

Female Faith Practices. Qualitative Research Perspectives, edited by NICOLA SLEE, DAWN LLEWELLYN, KIM WASEY, LINDSEY TAYLOR-GUTHARTZ

<i>Female Faith Practices. Qualitative Research Perspectives</i>, edited by NICOLA SLEE, DAWN LLEWELLYN, KIM WASEY, LINDSEY TAYLOR-GUTHARTZ

Contributions of the Synodal Process to the Religious Life of Adult Believers in Christian Communities

Synodality, as a determinant of the mentality and style of pastoral activity, has proven to be one of the key themes of Church life in the last few years. The synodal dimension of the Church is seen as the fundamental backbone of all the other important components of pastoral engagement. Religious life and practice of adult believers, on the other hand, remains one of the most challenging pastoral tasks. This claim is so current that concerning many church environments one can legitimately ask whether a mature and developed practice of faith exists at all. The synodal process that is ongoing in the Catholic Church, especially until the fall of 2024, helps to improve so many pastoral activities and most of them concern the practice of faith of adult believers. This paper is dedicated to the theological–pastoral study of the main components of the improvement of this practice in light of the contributions of the synodal process.

Internalization of Islamic Education Values in Remote Communities in Pasangkayu Regency

This study discusses t he process of internaliz ation Islamic education values in outlying communities in Bambalamotu district, Pasangkayu Regency , Indonesia. This used a qualitative approach , and the data was gathered through in depth interviews with local public figu res and communities. The data , then, was analyzed using a thematic approach as outlined by Strauss and Corbin. The results of this study show that the process of internalizing the values of Islamic education in the communities was carried out through val ue transformation practiced by families, government, and community figures. Local religious leaders also disseminated Islamic education values through religious speech. Islamic education values were also internalized through habituation and awareness impro vement that community groups drive. The results of Islamic education values internalization were reflected in the form of moral and good attitudes. The communities become more devoted to God as they manifest in faith practices, such as regular worship, don ation, fasting, and practicing pilgrims. Islamic values were also manifested in the increase of mutual cooperation, the help of each other, and mutual caring among communities

Improving the Quality of Children's Faith Formation through Catechesis for First Communion Preparation in the Parish with a Holistic Approach

This study aims to evaluate and improve the quality of children's faith formation through catechesis preparation for First Communion in the Parish. The research method is descriptive quantitative, with data collected using surveys through Google Forms. The study population consists of parents or guardians of children preparing for First Communion, with a sample of 23 respondents. Data analysis uses descriptive statistics. The findings indicate that catechesis activities and children's experiences preparing for First Communion significantly impact the quality of children's faith formation. Most respondents reported positive experiences and perceived improvements in their children's understanding and practice of the Catholic faith. However, factors inhibiting optimal faith formation were also identified, particularly the need for increased parental involvement. The study recommends encouraging parental participation, providing necessary resources and guidance for active engagement in children's religious education. To enhance children's faith formation, collaboration between parents, churches, and catechists is recommended, along with establishing effective communication channels between these stakeholders.

God – Justice – Climate change

The climate catastrophe challenges theology to think about the relationship between our faith in God, the endangered creation, and justice. Although the challenge affects all living beings on the planet – and not only humans – the human responsibility for dealing with the issue cannot be separated from how we practice faith in God. God is the God of all, and the precarious and vulnerable situation of humans who suffer from the consequences of climate change represents a call to prophetic action and to affirm a shared community among all living beings. The resources of the Christian tradition can be employed to support this task.

Perverse attraction: Idolatry, pornography, and the making of infrastructure

The making of novel infrastructure often involves some kind of faith. This article considers a pair of experiments in the context of blockchain infrastructure led by entrepreneur Ameen Soleimani: MolochDAO and SpankChain, a grant fund and a sex-worker payments network, respectively. These enact a strategy we describe as “perverse attraction,” or the inversion of dominant moral hierarchies as a means of cultivating faithful practice around a still-incomplete infrastructural project. Although the technology at play is new, the strategy for advancing it reiterates the development of past infrastructures, from print cultures to the early internet. These precursors and the present case suggest that the strategy of perverse attraction, while occurring under the guise of empowerment, risks reinforcing the marginalization of its human participants.

언어네트워크분석에 따른 가톨릭교육의 국내 연구동향

[Objective] In this study, we conducted an analysis of Catholic education research trends by utilizing multiple academic paper search engines. Through keyword searches such as ‘Catholic,’ ‘education,’ ‘Catholic education,’ and ‘faith education,’ we identified important keywords, centrality, and performed CONCOR analysis among the papers retrieved. This enabled us to gain insights into the research trends in Catholic education. Departing from conventional literature reviews, it aimed to explore the evolution of research in Catholic education, emphasizing the interrelationships among keywords through an objective and scientific method of keyword network analysis.&#x0D; [Contents] The analysis revealed that the centrality of major keywords in academic journal articles related to Catholic education included terms such as ‘Catholic Church,’ ‘education,’ ‘catechesis,’ ‘faith,’ and ‘Christ.’ In the TF-IDF analysis indicating keyword importance, terms like ‘religious education,’ ‘youth,’ ‘Korea,’ ‘theology,’ and ‘character’ emerged at the forefront. Finally, the CONCOR analysis related to Catholic education research defined groups such as ‘history and direction of catechesis,’ ‘ethical education of educators and schools,’ ‘holistic education in Catholic schools,’ and ‘practical faith education.’ [Conclusion] Through this study, analyzing the trends in Catholic education is expected to broaden the comprehensive understanding of Catholic education from an integrated perspective. Additionally, it offers suggestions for future directions in Catholic education research through this comprehensive analysis.

Honouring Children

The views held about the humanity of children influence faith praxis with regard to children. Recognizing the full humanity of children will help pose questions that will lead to critical reflections on theories and practices thatunderpin the lived realities of neglect, abuse and violence against children. It is said that a faulty anthropology produces a faulty theology, and a faulty theology produces a skewed anthropology. It is argued that views of children that harm them in daily life could be connected with views of Godas authoritative, hierarchal, powerful and strong, a God who punishes and disciplines. There is, therefore, the need to explicate a Christian view ofchildren that honours the dignity and humanity of children and could result in faith practices that are liberating. The Trinity could serve as a framework for a theological anthropology of children. The paper explores insights from key scholars such as Miroslav Volf (1998), Jürgen Moltmann (1991) and Catherine LaCugna (1991) on a relational view of the Trinity to glean resources that could influence a theological understanding of the personhood of children: resources which recognise the full humanity of children and honour their dignity, and interdependence as well as mutuality in faith communities and society. The paper posits that a relational view of the Trinity could provide a sounder foundation for a deeply relational and non-hierarchical Christian view of children that arehonouring, and therefore, promotes faith praxis that is liberating and encourages flourishing.

The physician experience of patient to provider prejudice (PPtP).

Patients can demonstrate prejudice and bias toward minoritized physicians in a destructive dynamic identified as PPtP (Patient Prejudice toward Providers). These interactions have a negative impact on the physical and mental well-being of both those who are targeted and those who witness such behaviors. The purpose of this study was to explore the PPtP experiences of attending physicians who identify as a minority based on race, ethnicity, citizenship status, or faith preference. Qualitative methodology was used to collect data using in-depth interviews. 15 attending physicians (8 male, 7 female, aged 33-55 years) who identified as minorities based on ethnicity, citizenship status, or faith practices were interviewed individually. Interviews were conducted using a guide validated in previous studies and content analysis was performed by two trained researchers to identify themes. Five themes were identified: A Continuum of Offenses, Professional Growth through Adversity, Organizational Issues, Role of Colleagues, and Consequences for Provision of Care. Findings suggest that although attending physicians learned to cope with PPtP, the experience of being treated with bias negatively impacted their well-being and work performance. Attending physicians also felt that white majority medical students sometimes treated them with prejudice but expressed a commitment to protecting vulnerable trainees from PPtP. The experience of PPtP occurs consistently throughout a career in medicine, often beginning in the years of training and persisting into the phase of attending status. This makes it imperative to include strategies that address PPtP in order to successfully recruit and retain minoritized physicians.

Development cooperation and Neo-Pentecostal churches – A decolonial perspective

Religion and development are a subject that has stimulated researchers in the recent past. Most of the religious role players in development within sub-Saharan Africa have been the historic missional churches, also known as the mainline churches – mostly founded by Euro-Western missionaries. Development with Neo-Pentecostal Churches (NPCs), who are part of Pentecostal-Charismatic churches, is fairly a new area of research. The purpose of this article is to position NPCs as potential development partners that can work in cooperation with other stakeholders in advancing development in the South African context from a decolonial perspective. A literary review on Neo-Pentecostals as development actors, is the focus of this article, positioning them as ideal development partners that contribute towards social and economic capital of communities within the context of education. The article starts by defining a working definition of development, followed by a conceptual framework of Pentecostal tenets where Christ is saviour, healer, baptiser and soon coming king, together with the holistic African worldview which does not demarcate between the sacred and the secular. The outcome is that development in NPCs is spiritual development which starts from individual development that is accompanied by entrepreneurial skills and that Neo-Pentecostals have a contribution towards sustainable development as expressed in their practice of faith and theology which naturally gravitates towards development.Contribution: Education, economics, and Pentecostalism highlight the importance of flexibility and versatility of Neo-Pentecostals in the discourse of sustainable development.

"Prayer is Universal": How Integrative Faith Practices Enable Indigenous Peoples' Persistence and Resistance to Transcend Historical Oppression.

Indigenous faith practices have enabled persistence, resistance, and transcendence despite centuries of settler colonial historical oppression. Spirituality, ceremony, and religious practices are fundamental aspects of Indigenous wellness, resilience, and liberation from a colonial mindset. The purpose of this research was understand U.S. Indigenous peoples' perspectives of spirituality and religion from the settler colonial framework of historical oppression, resilience, and transcendence (FHORT) as it relates to wellness. Data from critical ethnographic interviews with 31 participants from rural reservation communities in the Southeast and an urban Northwest environment were analyzed using reconstructive thematic qualitative analysis. Themes include: (a) "You'd be persecuted … for your beliefs": Historical Oppression of Indigenous beliefs; (b) "I was always told that church was wherever you were": Integrative faith practices and (c) "No matter how hard times get … never forget to pray": Prayer through adversity. Results clarified how settler colonial power differentials tended to relegate Indigenous spiritual and faith practices to a lower status than Western European religions, namely Christianity. Participants resisted this oppression by ingeniously integrating tribal and Western European faith practices to promote wellness. This article provides pathways to prevent clinical bias and harm by expanding awareness and familiarity with localized and heterogenous faith practices among Indigenous communities. Practitioners can honor Indigenous peoples' preferences, acknowledge Indigenous faith practices as central for wellness, and become reflexive about how an internalized settler colonial mindset may cause bias and perpetuate historical oppression by delegitimizing Indigenous worldviews and faith practices.

Predictors of Posttraumatic Growth in Cancer Patients Post Treatment

The aim of this study was to investigate the level of posttraumatic growth of cancer patients post-treatment in the context of selected sociodemographic characteristics, clinical markers, and psychological variables (positive and negative emotions, anxiety and depressive symptoms, gratitude, forgiveness, hope, importance of the spiritual aspect of life and the practice of religious faith). The study sample consisted of 110 patients post-treatment aged 22-79 years and with an average time since the completion of the last treatment ranging from 5 to 396 months. The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, screening methods to measure anxiety (General Anxiety Dis- order-7) and depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), and questionnaires to measure dispositional gratitude (Gratitude Questionnaire GQ-6), dispositional hope (Adult Dispositional Hope Scale), and forgiveness (Heartland Forgiveness Scale) were used to measure the psychological variables. There were no differences in the level of posttraumatic growth in terms of sociodemographic characteristics and clinical markers. Partner status, employment status, presence of recurrence, and comorbidities did not differentiate its level either. The rate of posttraumatic growth was related to the experience of positive emotions, gratitude, the importance of the spiritual aspect of life, and the practice of religious faith. In the regression model that explained 21.90% of the variance in posttraumatic growth, only the level of positive emotions was a significant predictor. The results of the present research point suggest that the level of posttraumatic growth is associated with several areas of emotional experience and cognitive adjustment of cancer patients post-treatment.

“Finding peace in God” – faith practices of provincial catholic students in Hanoi

Hanoi is one of the major educational centers of Vietnam. Every year, about 500,000 – 600,000 students come to Hanoi to study at colleges and universities, including provincial Catholic students. They mostly come from the northern provinces of Vietnam where Catholics live in tightly-organized, one could almost say closed, communities organized around the daily practice of their faith. For each individual, the way they express and practice their faith in the city shows that they are searching for the practical meaning that religion brings to their lives in this very different environment. Based on anthropological research and sociological surveys with a target group of provincial Catholic students in Hanoi, this study describes how they construct emergent religious identities in order to cope with unprecedented challenges to their understandings of morality and Catholic personhood. This article focuses on understanding the shift in faith practice of provincial Catholic students in Hanoi, the debates within the student community around the core issues of faith and sin, the general tolerance for behaviors -their own and others- that would not be possible in village life. Above all, it descibes, how they reach God in ways compatible with these challenging new expetiences.

The practice of faith in everyday life based on the metrical books of various denominations in the period of Galician autonomy (as illustrated by Rzeszów)

This article aims to highlight aspects of religious life based on metrical records. The research focuses on religious communities in Rzeszów: the Roman Catholic parish of Farna, the Jewish metrical district, and the Greek Catholic parish in Zalesie. In all of these communities, the choice of wedding dates was in accordance with the liturgical calendar, including holidays and fasting periods. Illegitimate births indicated that relationships typical of marriage were also established before the formal wedding ceremony. Illegitimate births were more common among Jews due to marriages concluded only according to their own ritual. Illegitimate births were also more prevalent in the urban-like Farna parish compared to the rural Greek Catholic parish, where their percentage was the lowest. Records of administering sacraments to the dying were also indicative of religiousness.

THE INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION ON NURSING HOME SOCIAL WORKERS PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AND RESILIENCE

Abstract The complexities of social workers’ behavioral integration of personal spirituality within nursing homes, where a highly regulated, stressful environment marginalizes professional identity and challenges retention, remains largely unexplored and untested. The paucity of data limits the profession’s commitment to resourcing current and future practitioners with evidence-informed integration of spirituality with professional identity, ethical practice, and continuation in the role. This qualitative study addresses this gap by interviewing and analyzing narratives authored by experienced NHSWs who daily navigate the spirituality-at-work opportunity and challenge. Researchers collected a purposive sample of licensed NHSWs working within these settings and consenting to participate. All respondents held a social work license at the baccalaureate or master’s level (LBSW, LMSW, or LCSW) and were employed as a social worker full time for an average of 3.2 years in their current nursing facility and their overall experience in nursing facility social work averaged 8.8 years, with a range of 2 to 30 years’ experience. Twenty NHSWs were interviewed and 80% (n=16) associated their role, at some level, with a higher power (God, Christ, Holy Spirit, unnamed) and religious beliefs and practices. Fifteen percent (n=3) stated faith and religious ideology had no impact or was irrelevant for practice, and one (5%) did not respond. It became clear that religion, spirituality, and faith practices matter for a majority of the respondents in how they view and enact their practice.

“Why Don't You Just Take it Off?”

Abstract Through collaborative autoethnography, a mother and a daughter with shared and diverging identities examine the hijab as a radical practice of feminist resistance in our lives. Our lived experiences as Indo-Caribbean social workers and university educators at a predominantly white institution offer a unique point of departure from normative narratives of hijabi girls and women. Using a critical feminist analysis, we chronicle our journey through more than 60 years of patriarchal oppression and white supremacy. Our stories reveal a complicated relationship with the hijab as an important faith practice which also functions as a marker of otherness that signals unbelonging in all spheres of our lives including the academy and social work practice.

The Principle of Good Faith in the Arbitration Process

The article examines the principle of good faith, analyzes the features of conscientious and unscrupulous behavior in the exercise of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens. In addition, the article proves the existence of the principle of good faith both in judicial practice and in arbitration procedural law, reveals the content of the principle. Based on the analysis, the authors come to the conclusion that the consolidation of the principle of good faith in arbitration proceedings is currently relevant, while the need to maintain a balance of interests of all participants in the arbitration process is indicated.