Toward a Comprehensive Strategy for Effective Practitioner–Scientist Partnerships and Larger-Scale Community Health and Well-Being

This article articulates joint priorities for the fields of prevention science and community psychology. These priorities are intended to address issues raised by the frequent observation of natural tensions between community practitioners and scientists. The first priority is to expand the knowledge base on practitioner–scientist partnerships, particularly on factors associated with positive outcomes within communities. To further articulate this priority, the paper first discusses the rapid growth in community-based partnerships and the emergent research on them. Next described is an illustrative research project on a partnership model that links state university extension and public school delivery systems. The article then turns to the second, related priority of future capacity-building for diffusion of effective partnership-based interventions to achieve larger-scale health and well-being across communities. It outlines two salient tasks: clarification of a conceptual framework and the formulation of a comprehensive capacity-building strategy for diffusion. The comprehensive strategy would require careful attention to the expansion of networks of effective partnerships, partnership-based research agendas, and requisite policy-making.     

Making room: a place for children’s spirituality in the Christian church

A relatively uncharted territory until recently, the concept of children as innate spiritual beings has garnered significant attention among scholars over the past two decades. The more that is learned about children’s spirituality, the more apparent it becomes that the Christian church in the United States generally fails to provide sufficient space for children to explore, develop and share their spirituality. This potentially leads children to suppress or disconnect from their spirituality in later years and also deprives a Christian community of the ability to learn and grow from children’s unique experiences of God and spirituality. This paper examines the underlying theories that foster environments among Christian churches where the ennoblement of a ‘grown-up faith’ and the resulting power adults hold because of that, inhibit the ability for children to be regarded and approached as capable of spiritual and faithful beliefs and understanding apart from adult intervention.     

In Forty Years,What has Changed … or Not?

Abstract : Drawing on the background of her own experiences over the past forty years, the author reflects on the marginalization, tokenism, and mainstreaming of women in ministry and feminist theology that has occurred during this time. She calls for greater sensitivity to the realities women globally still face today, and for more interactive, trans‐contextual, and transformational engagement with these realities.     

Theme Articles: Mujerismo and The Two Kin‐doms: Distinction and Reconciliation

Abstract : The theological ethics underlining mujeristas' theological praxis and Luther's Two Kingdoms doctrine may seem to be contradictory to some. Mujerista theology calls for active engagement in the public sphere. Despite its utilization to the contrary, Luther's Two Kingdoms doctrine calls for that same active engagement of the Christian in civic matters. As a Lutheran Latina, I posit that the theological ethics of mujeristas and Luther's Two Kingdoms are distinct but reconcilable.     

A New Methodology for Reporting the Status of Community Health Improvement in the United States

Objective To assure that Healthy Communities are achieved, a tracking methodology is proposed using four health improvement categories. Methods Counties are classified as having met or not met nine HP2010 mortality targets and as improving or not improving, creating four categories of community health improvement – static, progressing, exemplary, and maintaining. Results Exemplary counties make up 1.7%32.7% of counties, counties have both improved and met the HP2010 target during the period. Across all indicators, a large proportion remains of counties that have neither met the HP2010 target nor improved (33.572.8%). Conclusions Understanding why, how, and in what ways communities move from static to maintaining categories is necessary to guiding every local public health system to community health improvement.     

Comparing the Patrologia Latina and the CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts Databases from a User's Perspective

ABSTRACT

This review article provides a detailed comparison of two major patristic databases, the Patrologia Latina and the CETEDOC Library of Christian Latin Texts from a user's perspective.     

The Lord's Prayer in Eastern Spirituality

This article first speaks briefly of prayer in general and its essence; and then discusses various kinds of prayer in the Orthodox Christian tradition, chief among which is personal prayer made in private, and liturgical prayer celebrated in church. There is also spontaneous prayer, less favored in Orthodoxy, where the model prayer is the Lord's Prayer. The main part of the article examines the petitions that make up the Lord's Prayer and the interpretation given to them by patristic writers. It concludes by affirming the unique character of the prayer, which can be regarded as the perfect summary of the Christian message.     

Shock tactics to counter AIDS: The australian experience

Abstract

The use of shock tactics to motivate people to learn more about AIDS and to take appropriate protective action characterised the approach adopted by the national health authorities in Australia during 1987. The rationale underlying this approach is critically examined, particularly in the light of results obtained from surveys of community concern and knowledge about AIDS in the state of South Australia before the campaign and after it had been in progress for some five months. Contrary to expectations no significant increases in either personal or social concern were found; in fact, among older respondents personal concern had decreased significantly. Levels of knowledge about AIDS, in general, remained unchanged, apart from an increase in acceptance of the safety of blood transfusions from a very low to a somewhat higher level. Among a minority of respondents (29%) who approved of the campaign and also believed they had been influenced by it, personal and social concern about AIDS, but not knowledge, was significantly greater than among others. The view that fear-inducing techniques can be used to bring about increases in knowledge about AIDS was not supported, although some positive effects on the social attitudes of respondents most affected by the campaign are suggested.