“A Singular Contribution to the Field of Religion and Aging”: Aging,Spirituality, and Religion: A Handbook

This study investigated the relative effects of structured group reminiscence on 34 seniors who were more or less religious. While similar in age, education, and self reported health, the more religious group (n = 21) reported a significantly higher level of intrinsically motivated religion (t(32) = 4.18, p < .001)     

Lived Religion and Family Therapy: What Does Spirituality Have to Do with It?

This review examines fundamental and methodological issues concerning the cross-disciplinary efforts of family therapists to involve spirituality in their clinical practice. Training requirements, challenges, and limitations are discussed. It is suggested that the construct lived religion is the best starting point for this work. Lived religion is a term that addresses the real, lived, experiential, and intimate dimensions of our religious life. It is also tied to a variety of academic disciplines that can guide and deepen thought. Significant problems and limitations are identified with the term spirituality. It is suggested that if clinicians continue to prefer spirituality as a construct, that it be seen as a form or expression of lived religion. This way the links to various discipliines are maintained and idiosyncratic efforts will be minimized. Methods that attempt to integrate spirituality and family therpay are also found to be lacking. For nearly a half century American divinity schools have developed various co-relational methods which foster more respectful and productive discourse calling for the goals and objectives of mental health and religion to be equally value and maintained. In this way the piftalls of reductionism, or oversimplification, and anti-institutional bias can be lessened.     

“Theobiology”: Attempting to Understand God and Ourselves

Theobiology, describing the interface between theology and biology, is proposed as a means to help us in our attempt to understand God, God's world, and ourselves. This embodiment of theological knowledge includes the relationship of humans to plants and animals, to the environment or God's world of creation, to God. Humans experience through their bodies and bodily functions, their senses and perceptions, all knowledge, including theological, psychological, and sociological knowledge. Gender, perhaps the largest division in any species, is a very important issue in biology and in theobiology. The gender and attributes associated with God and Christ—those of the male—have alienated and disenfranchised female persons. A balance between flesh and spirit, the sacred and the secular, women and men is vital if we are to achieve a healthy life and to live as a loving Creator would want all to live—in love, peace, and harmony, with caring and mutual respect among all that make up life—plant, animal, environment, and God.     

God Attachment: Resource or Complication in Women’s and Their Partners’ Adjustment to the Threat of Breast Cancer

Journal of Religion and Health - This study explored the role of adult attachment and God attachment in women’s and their partners’ adjustment to the threat of breast cancer. Women and...     

How Anger Toward Absentee Fathers May Make it Difficult to Call God “Father”

Using parts of the prayer commonly known as the “Our Father,” a reflection is presented in which anger toward absentee fathers is seen as an inhibitor to relatedness to God as father. The way people behave toward and interact with their environment may be indicative of their interaction with the divine. Such attitudes make people question their religious experience and their ability to enter into intimacy with the divine. When people with skeptical attitudes toward father-like figures enter the world of pastoral counseling, ministers or counselors should help these people to explore and come to terms with the thought that God can be identified as father. It requires a willingness to approach the pain of separation. The goal of the counselor then is to help these people make substantial change in their ability to cope with anger and thus enter into relatedness with the divine. Pierre M. Balthazar is a student in the PsyD program in Clinical Psychology at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology.     

Integrating Job, Jesus’ Passion, and Buddhist Metta to Bring Meaning to the Suffering and Recovery from Breast Cancer

Coming face-to-face with death was a spiritual crisis. My family and I suffered individually and collectively during my treatment and recovery for locally advanced breast cancer. Like Job, I learned that it takes tremendous energy to ruminate about the causes of suffering and to protest innocence with little gains in wisdom. Wisdom came as I deeply experienced a passion narrative based on the life of Jesus with reference to the psychological benefits as extolled by Wilkes. The grueling experience of treatment for locally advanced breast cancer broke my body and forced me to experience Easter Saturday as I retreated to heal in the tomb. My physical and emotional healing of Easter Saturday included the Buddhist meditation of Metta and guided imagery that involved spiritual healing focussed on God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. My reflection on the story of Job, passion journaling and Buddhist meditation enabled me to physically, emotionally, and spiritually heal, even in the midst of chaos.     

Transcendence and Feminism: Response to Anderson’s “Feminist Challenges to Conceptions of God”

An argument that Pamela Sue Anderson’s critique of Irigaray commits her to a version of the Ideal Observer Theory, a theory Anderson rejects. This paper was delivered in the APA Pacific 2007 Mini-Conference on Models of God.     

Response to Ted Peters’ “Models of God”

In “Models of God,” Ted Peters discusses a methodology for formulating and evaluating models of God, surveys nine models, and proposes one that he entitles “Eschatological Panentheism.” This paper provides critical comments on Peters’ methodological claims, taxonomy of models of God, and specific proposal. This paper has been delivered during APA Pacific 2007 Mini-Conference on Models of God.Both Peters’ “Models of God” and these comments were presented at the “Models of God” mini-conference at the Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association in April of 2007.     

Affective Reactions to the Thought of “God”: Moderating Effects of Image of God

Recent understanding of subjective well-being suggests that it consists of global judgments of life satisfaction, hedonic experiences, and beliefs about facets of one’s life. Traditionally, life satisfaction judgments have been the outcome of interest in studies examining the relationship between religiosity and well-being. Two studies were conducted to look at the interactive effects of personal religious beliefs, namely God images, and environmental stimuli, particularly priming the thought of “God.” The first study examines hedonic experiences, which is one of the information sources when constructing a well-being judgment. A second study attempts to replicate the findings with life satisfaction ratings. Results of the first study showed that one’s image of God as a controlling or non-controlling entity moderated the affective response to being primed to think about God. In particular, those who had a high controlling image of God had a negative affective reaction to the God prime. Results of the second study replicated the pattern of results using life satisfaction ratings as the dependent variable.     

“Where Does it Come from?” Experiences Among Survivors and Parents of Children with Retinoblastoma in Kenya

Genetic testing and counseling have become integral to the timely control of heritable cancers, like the childhood eye cancer retinoblastoma. This study aimed to determine attitudes, knowledge and experiences related to retinoblastoma genetics, among survivors and parents of children with retinoblastoma in Kenya. This qualitative study used focus groups as the primary data collection method, coupled with a brief demographic questionnaire. Study settings were Kenyatta National Hospital and Presbyterian Church of East Africa Kikuyu Hospital. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes. Thirty-one individuals participated in five focus groups. Two main concepts emerged: (1) the origins of retinoblastoma are unclear, and (2) retinoblastoma is associated with significant challenges. The lack of clarity surrounding the origins of retinoblastoma was linked to limited knowledge of retinoblastoma genetics, and limited genetic counseling delivery and uptake. The challenges associated with retinoblastoma were discussed in terms of the impact of the diagnosis on individuals and families, and unmet healthcare needs related to the diagnosis. Next steps will incorporate these findings to develop evidence-informed and accessible cancer genetic services in Kenya.     

Jonathan Edwards, God, and “particular minds”

Although philosophical theologians have sometimes claimed that human beings are necessarily dependent on God, few have developed the idea with any precision. Jonathan Edwards is a notable exception, providing a detailed and often novel account of humanity’s essential ontological, moral, and soteriological dependence on God.