A third way: Developing a planetary spirituality

Globalization has brought the world closer together, but it has come with a cost. Over the past several decades, it seems our only two options for moving ahead are through continued globalization of a neoliberal model of economics as usual, or some sort of return to nationalism. Many countries are facing the challenges of globalization and opting for one or the other of these models to deal with a globalized world. Might there be a third way? Perhaps religious leaders can help bring about a third, planetary model that helps us to navigate between the ills of neoliberalism and nationalism, and toward an understanding of a planetary vision of spirituality, ethics, and citizenship.     

A qualitative study of the interdisciplinary approaches to adolescent spirituality in Australian government schools

Abstract

The growing body of evidence in education reveals that ‘spirituality’ as an aspect of learning is largely overlooked in government schools in Australia and consequently, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This paper will report on some findings of a PhD study which investigates the spiritual lived experiences of secondary school students. As an interdisciplinary approach to spirituality for adolescents, this paper represents the different ways spirituality is understood across the disciplines and whether young people view themselves to be ‘spiritual’. In sharing some of the student narratives, this paper will explore what spirituality means in the context of young peoples’ everyday lives. It will also address how schools can play a central role in students’ quest for a sense of meaning; and the important role of teachers in this process will also be explored.     

Shaping Teachers' Interpretation of Spirituality: The Contribution of Anglican and Free Church Colleges in England and Wales

A sample of 298 primary-school teachers working within the state-maintained sector in England completed a 150-item questionnaire to assess their understanding of the term “spirituality.” The data demonstrate that after controlling for sex, age, personality, and current religiosity, teachers trained in an Anglican or Free Church College were more likely than teachers trained in secular institutions to interpret the educational construct of spirituality in terms of traditional features of Christianity. There is some evidence for the distinctive religious contribution of Church Colleges to teacher education.     

Spirituality in Occupational Therapy: Do We Practice What We Teach?

This mixed-method study examined the responses of 97 occupational therapists on the subject of spirituality in occupational therapy practice. The inclusion of spirituality into the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (2008) implies that clinicians address spirituality as a component of client-centered practice. This research revealed a gap between education, theory, and practice as evidenced in the quantitative and qualitative data. Although occupational therapy is intended to be holistic, therapists require a more complete understanding of what spirituality is and what the role of the occupational therapist is when addressing spirituality in evaluation or treatment. The discussion of this research provides information for future occupational therapy educators and educational programs as they seek to incorporate the construct of spirituality into curricula.     

Finding connections between spirituality and play for early childhood education

ABSTRACT

In an attempt to provide holistic education and care, expand the view of young children’s development to include the spiritual, and make connections with the found benefits of play for all areas of development, this article looks at 33 surveyed U.S. early childhood educators’ perceptions on nurturing spirituality through open-ended and free play. Data collected from the open-ended questions of an online survey were analyzed looking at 22 mentions of play as a mean to support spirituality. Findings show that 45.5% of surveyed teachers mentioned play as a way intentionally used in the classroom to nurture children’s spirituality. It is posed that developmentally appropriate approaches to early childhood education would be enhanced by including spirituality in their understanding of the child, as well as intentionally nurturing spirituality in educational settings, by providing free, child-centered, child-directed play and opportunities for children to experience spiritual moments, defined as feeling wonder, awe, joy, and inner-peace.     

A new discourse on spirituality in public education. Confronting the challenges in a post-secular society

Australia is facing a new frontier in the educational discourse of spirituality as we transition into a globalised and post-secular society. Teachers are now faced with the question of how to respond to the intrinsic spiritual awareness of secondary school students and the subsequent inquiry process into matters of personal spirituality, meaning and worldview. In Independent and Catholic schools across Australia, spirituality has a dimension to learning and has a significant place in the curriculum and in the classroom, inculcated through pastoral care programmes and the teaching of religious education. However, in public schools, there is a paucity of research investigating whether young people consider spirituality to be an important and worthwhile component of their educational experience. This article highlights the importance of inquiry into spirituality in public education, through political discourse, and the potential for resurgence in exploring spiritual lived experience from a phenomenological perspective.     

Teaching worldviews through creative drama for religious education in Turkey

Abstract

Over the last two decades, Worldview Approach has been mentioned in the field of religious education and spirituality. This article aims to determine the effects of creative drama on teaching worldviews and religions. The main purpose of Worldview Education is to assist individuals to have a broader and deeper understanding on self-identity, worldviews of others, and on the meaning and purpose of life. It also helps individuals to think on ontological, epistemological and ultimate questions about life, values and beliefs. The spiritual development of individuals has a need for several guidelines from the fields of philosophy, theology, and education. As an educational tool, creative drama increases imagination, creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking skills and assists students’ personal and emotional development. Combining Worldview Education with creative drama creates a multidimensional educational environment for a meaningful learning on religions, worldviews, and spirituality.     

Spirituality and Religiousness Among American Jews

In this article we examine the association between spirituality and religiousness for Jews in the United States. Using data from the most recent National Jewish Population Survey of 2000–2001, a large national sample, we examined the extent to which these two concepts correlate. In addition, we compared the relative importance of sociodemographic factors, stressors, and Jewish contextual factors in predicting spirituality and religiousness. We found that spirituality and religiousness correlated, but modestly; some variables were predictive of both concepts (less education, younger age, experienced anti-Semitism in last year, ethnic identity, social identity), some of being highly spiritual only (female, not living in the Northeast), and others of being highly religious only (being married, having a child at home, living in the Northeast, not living in the West, and Jewish background). The differences in sociodemographic characteristics and Jewish background suggest that family life (marriage, having children at home), knowledge about Judaism, and living in a geographic area where there is a high population of Jews are conducive to religiousness as a framework for meaning. Jewish contextual factors were salient for both spiritual and religious pathways.     

Children's spirituality with particular reference to a Norwegian context: some hermeneutical reflections

Spirituality has become an issue in many domains of the Norwegian society, but this is not reflected in public education. This paper discusses why this is so, and suggests some hermeneutical approaches to understanding spirituality that can include pre‐school children's spirituality, with particular reference to a Norwegian context. Central to this discussion is a case study of children in ‘sacred space’, and an understanding of spirituality as cultural learning. Education in schools as well as in kindergartens is dominated by a secular outlook on life as ‘default’, or a cultural and collective forgetfulness. Children's spirituality challenges adults to explore and rearticulate what is forgotten, in terms of nurturing what it is to be human, of caring for what is really important, and of cultivating hope – in Norway as well as in other countries.     

Interrogation,Interpretation and Integration of Spirituality: Insights from Sri Aurobindo for “Care for Creation”

This paper brings together three strands of enquiry – interrogation of spirituality, interpretation of spirituality and Sri Aurobindo's integrative spirituality – which form the three natural parts of the paper. In the first part I interrogate the idea and category “spirituality” and argue that this term came to be understood in opposition to the “material” only in medieval times, and thus the common notion of spirituality as opposed to materiality is misplaced. In the second part, in light of George Lindbeck's work, I will explore the question – is it possible for different traditions that interpret spirituality differently to hold a common unifying position? I will argue that if we are to arrive at an understanding of spirituality that will be acceptable to different traditions, then the very conception of spirituality must be informed by all. In the final part, I will argue that Sri Aurobindo's integrative spirituality offers a sufficient rationale for creation‐care by proposing a view of spirituality which, on the one hand, overcomes the spiritual‐material dichotomy, while on the other, contains an implicit guard against imposing its view of spirituality on other traditions. Finally, by bringing Sri Aurobindo into the dialogue I demonstrate how insights from another tradition can be drawn to enrich our understanding of spirituality.     

Spirituality,spiritual sensibility and human growth

While notions of spirituality, spiritual experience and spiritual development seem much neglected in the literature of modern analytical philosophy, such terminology continues to be current in both common usage and religious contexts. This author has previously taken issue with some recent attempts to develop (educational and other professional) conceptions of spirituality and spiritual experience as substantially independent of religious attachment. Notwithstanding this, the present paper considers whether such a ‘religiously-untethered’ notion of spirituality, spiritual experience or sensibility might yet be sustainable in terms of two key criteria: (1) as a capacity for non-instrumental perspectives on, or interpretations of, the world of ordinary experience; and (2) as a corresponding capacity to identify goals and values that transcend or are not reducible to the meeting of immediate natural or material—either individual or social—needs.     

Spiritual,but not religious?: On the nature of spirituality and its relation to religion

Recent years have seen a rise in those who describe themselves as “spiritual, but not religious”. At a popular level, there has been a lot of debate about this label and what it represents. But philosophers have in general paid little attention to the conceptual issues it raises. What is spirituality, exactly, and how does it relate to religion? Could there be a non-religious spirituality? In this paper, I try to give an outline account of the nature of spirituality and of religion, and then close with some thoughts on the prospects for a non-religious spirituality.     

Influence of Familial Spirituality: Implications for School Counseling Professionals

This article (a) addresses the importance of familial spirituality on students' holistic development; (b) explores professional ethical codes, standards, and counseling competencies relating to students' familial spirituality; (c) introduces educational activities to assist school counselors in increasing their understanding and appreciation of the influence of familial spirituality on students' behavior; (d) reviews a case study of a counselor integrating the suggested strategies in support of students and families; and (e) provides implications for professional school counseling.     

Shadow and Spirituality

When we confront the meaning of spirituality in education confusion and conflict can arise as they arise from the confrontation with spirituality in ourselves. This occurs both at the personal and at the collective level, according to writers such as C.G. Jung. Failure to understand that human spirituality includes a shadow side of this kind is precisely what leads many forms of human spiritual expression, including organized religion, into deep splits and schisms. It is unsurprising, therefore, that the willing, but perhaps, nä L ve attempts of contemporary educationalists to understand spirituality within education in a wholly positive light have themselves run into trouble. This paper will attempt to argue that without balancing contemporary educational debate about spirituality against some writers', including C.G. Jung's, deepest insights into the place of shadow in spirituality, children will yet again be sold a misfaction [1] about the nature of that aspect of human being and becoming. This, in turn will merely deepen the chaos, confusion and conflict arising from the earnest and well-intentioned, but perhaps nä L ve, attempt to make spirituality part of the cross-curricular experience of all children in all common schools.[2]     

The Impact of Globalization on Church Mission in Zambia: Some African Perspectives

This article builds on the theme of a symposium held in October 2015 for female church workers in the United Church of Zambia in Kabwe, Zambia, and devoted to the impact of globalization on mission. The article discusses the effects of globalization on missionary activities in Zambia and offers some background to both the tensions and the opportunities that arise when doing mission in an Africa that is part of a globalized world. It discusses some insights that have emerged from the symposium with specific reference to the challenges faced by women doing mission in a globalized Zambian context. It concludes that globalization is setting the agenda for how mission should be done. To be relevant to Zambians, the church should seriously engage with the challenges and opportunities presented by the current uni‐directional globalization to make it into an instrument of liberation rather than a force of oppression.     

Spirituality versus Individualism: Why we should nurture relational consciousness

This paper proposes an approach to spiritual education which transcends the religious-secular boundary by conceiving of spirituality as a natural human predisposition labelled 'relational consciousness'. Evidence drawn from recent research demonstrates that this predisposition is universally identifiable in young children and expresses itself in many forms apart from the religious. Nevertheless it is this which allows the possibility of religious belief. As a result of the cultural construction of an extreme individualism which is particularly evident in the Western world, there has been a 'forgetting' of relational consciousness/spirituality resulting in damaging effects to the texture of human community. Some major sources of individualism are identified as having particularly serious effects on relational consciousness. These are reflected upon in the light of empirical research on children as well as contemporary philosophical and political critiques. Spiritual education is seen as a major means of resistance to the damaging effects of possessive individualism.     

Spirituality in African Education: Issues,contentions and contestations from a Ghanaian case study

This article explores Ghanaian educators' and students' understandings of spirituality and its role and implications in education. Using a Ghanaian case study of two selected school sites, the article addresses local conceptions and responses to educational reform initiatives and the specific implications of spirituality and values in education. In particular, the article examines how students and teachers employ local meanings of self, personhood, and the individual identifications with the group/collective to promote learning and teaching. Attention is paid to understanding what it means to teach and learn culture, history, and spirituality within a holistic paradigm. The article also highlights contestations in educators' and students' views regarding the place of spiritual and religious values in the educational system. It is argued that educational change will emerge from understandings of the goal and purpose of education as pursued through educators' and students' teaching and learning practices.     

The Effects of Childhood Maltreatment on Adult Religiosity and Spirituality: Rejecting God the Father Because of Abusive Fathers?

Current theories can support conflicting accounts of the effects of childhood maltreatment on adult religiosity. However, in the relevant empirical research there are few examples of probability sampling or a focus on nonsexual forms of abuse. It is also uncommon to control for risk factors for abuse, which may themselves also affect adult religiosity. This study attempts to overcome some of these limitations by examining the effects of physical and emotional abuse on adult religiosity and spirituality in a U.S. probability sample of adults at midlife. Neither maltreatment from mothers nor from outside the family has an effect on religiosity, but abuse committed by fathers is related to decreases in religiosity, and abuse from outside the immediate family is related to increases in self-ratings of spirituality. Possible explanation for these results may be related to the image of God as father, which leads victims of abusive fathers to distance themselves from religion.     

Spirituality and Meditative Practice: Research Opportunities and Challenges

Meditative practices have a long history in India and have influenced contemporary meditative programs elsewhere in the world. Over the last several decades, the use of meditation as a therapeutic tool has been investigated in regard to physical, emotional and behavioral effects with impressive results. In parallel to this has been a growing interest in research on spirituality, spiritual growth, and therapeutic modalities that incorporate the spiritual dimension of the person. Ironically, very little research has explored the interface between these two constructs, despite how closely linked they are traditionally. This paper addresses the range of ways in which spirituality and spiritual development might be fruitfully investigated in the context of meditative practice, bringing further understanding to both psychological constructs. Furthermore, the widely recognized significance of both meditative and spiritual experiences suggests that cross-cultural research may be particularly valuable at identifying factors that engage the universal human capacity of spirituality, and the particular potential for meditative practice in doing so.     

Marriage and Family Therapy Graduate Students’ Satisfaction with Training Regarding Religion and Spirituality

Marriage and family therapists are likely to encounter religious or spiritual clients in their career and thus are encouraged to be aware of their clients’ religious and spirituality. This awareness is often fostered within graduate training programs. This study aims to examine graduate students’ incorporation of religion and spirituality in therapy and their satisfaction with the quality and amount of training programs’ adherence to religion and spirituality. A sample of 135 graduate students from American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy accredited programs completed the survey. Findings showed that graduate students with greater levels of religiosity and spirituality were more likely to perceive it important to address religion/spirituality in therapy and to perceive there is a need for religious/spiritual education. When controlling for religious and spiritual orientations, overall regression results revealed that not having a course on religion and spirituality and perceiving a need for religious/spirituality in education predicted lower satisfaction with the amount and quality of current training surrounding these dimensions. Implications demonstrate the need to address religious/spiritual concepts in the curriculum, supervision, and in marriage and family therapy training.