Examining the Role of the Catholic Environment in Students’ Search for Meaning

Emerging research illustrates that undergraduate students are searching for meaning in their lives, yet postsecondary institutions generally do little to support them in exploring such issues (Astin et al., 2005b). We speculated that religiously affiliated institutions might offer guidance on supporting students’ spiritual development, and thus examined students in the context of Catholic postsecondary environments, focusing on whether the students’ religious affiliations and perceptions of their institution as supporting their spiritual development affected their search for meaning. Further, we examined the aspects of the environment that strengthened students’ perceptions of their college environment as closely aligned with the Catholic mission, and thus supportive of their spiritual development. We discuss implications for secular and religious institutions

Problematic Issues of Institutional Development of Islamic Associations in Contemporary Ukraine

The article analyzes the revival of the Islamic religion which began in Ukraine in the 1990s. The authors point to the problematic issues of the institutional establishment of Islamic associations in contemporary Ukraine. In particular, four stages of development of Islam in independent Ukraine, which have their own institutional and ideological characteristics, are distinguished. Thus, the first stage was the creation of the first three spiritual administrations (the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of the Crimea, the Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, and the Spiritual Center of Muslims of Ukraine), the development of which defined the ideology of future development of Islam in Ukraine (national orientation, leadership projects, etc.). That ideology was unacceptable to many independent Muslim communities who refused to participate in national and leadership projects. This led to the formation of the second stage (2007-2010) of the local development of Islam. The completion of the stage was marked by the creation of the common Council of Spiritual Administrations and Centers of Muslims of Ukraine. The next stage (2010-2016) is characterized by the artificial creation of associations affiliated with other Spiritual administrations. In the fourth stage, which has been going on since the end of 2016, the processes of self-identification of Muslims in a multi-confessional and multi-ethnic environment, the participation of Muslims in the protection of their homeland, etc., have intensified. In total, nine Muslim Spiritual Administrations or Centers have been established during the years of independence, four of which (DUM of Crimea, DCM of Ukraine, DUMU “The Unity” and DCM of Crimea) now operate in the territories of Ukraine occupied by Russia and have embarked on the path of collaborationism. The authors draw attention to the numerical indicators of accounting of Muslim communities and believers in general, the peculiarities of the Islamic educational process, the dependence of Ukrainian Spiritual administrations on foreign Islamic centers, and the attempts of political activity of the Ukrainian Islamic Ummah

Locating experience in time and place: a look at young adult fiction and spiritual intelligence

Spiritual intelligence describes self-awareness and intuition, with the development of creative thinking, compassion, and connectedness with others. Many researchers point to an awakening and development of spiritual intelligence that is enhanced through exploration of existential questions within the genre of young adult fiction. Such literature absorbs the adolescent reader so that they become transported into the narrative, exploring a sense of self and of others This article discusses the ways in which young adult fiction, including comparison of a novel of older context (An Episode of Sparrows) with contemporary dystopian fiction (The Maze Runner), can foster young adults’ exploration of self-awareness and cultivate the continued development of notions of connectedness, justice and responsibility. It describes current research on the relationship between spiritual intelligence in young adults and the narrative transportation effect of young adult fiction

Finding a moral homeground: appropriately critical religious education and transmission of spiritual values

Values-inspired issues remain an important part of the British school curriculum. Avoiding moral relativism while fostering enthusiasm for spiritual values and applying them to non-curricular learning such as school ethos or children's home lives are challenges where spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development might benefit from leadership by critical religious education (RE). Whether the school's model of spirituality is that of an individual spiritual tradition (schools of a particular religious character) or universal pluralistic religiosity (schools of plural religious character), the pedagogy of RE thought capable of leading SMSC development would be the dialogical approach with examples of successful implementation described by Gates, Ipgrave and Skeie. Marton's phenomenography, is thought to provide a valuable framework to allow the teacher to be appropriately critical in the transmission of spiritual values in schools of a particular religious character as evidenced by Hella's work in Lutheran schools

Reclaiming Sacred Space

I wrote this piece for myself as a hybrid of personal discovery and academic inquiry, and I hope it can guide and empower others like myself. In this piece, I examine the intersections of queer identity with religious and spiritual identity development and discuss how practitioners can help students reclaim sacred space. Foregrounding my personal narrative and expanding with scholarship, I show why this development deserves attention from student affairs professionals. I give both programmatic and institutional considerations to review when centering religious and spiritual development for LGBTQ students

Encyclopedia of Religious and Spiritual Development (Review Article)

This is a large volume with around 300 entries and 130 contributors, mostly from the USA. The editors are child developmental psychologists. ‘Spiritual development’ is taken to be ‘aboutbecoming a whole person, someone who stands for something that defines and gives meaning to being human…There is religion without spirituality and spirituality without religion’ (p. xxiii). Religion is viewed as one route to spirituality, but not the only route. This article reviews the Encyclopedia entries, complains about many of the selection decisions (especially to promote belly dancing and crop circles and ignore Sikhism and the Bahai faith). It concludes that the combination of psychology and study of religions has not worked. It contains many worthwhile articles of broad interest on applied psychology, but extreme caution is needed regarding its entries on religion

Shadows along the spiritual pathway

Contemporary spirituality discourses tend to assume that a canopy of light and love overarches all spiritual pathways. Unfortunately, the dark side of humanity cannot be spirited away so easily, and aberrations of personal spiritual development, interpersonal spiritual relationships and new spiritual movements can often be traced to the denial, repression and return of our dark side. Transpersonal psychology offers a way of approaching, reframing and redeeming the unconscious depths of our psyche, with its metaphors of shadows and daimons on the one hand, and its therapeutic practices for symbolically containing and transcending polarities on the other. In its absence, any spirituality which eulogises holistic growth is likely to engender the reverse effect

Spirituality in education : promoting children's spiritual development through values

This paper reports on research in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick regarding an educational programme, which is based on what are perceived to be universal values. The programme aims to contribute to the spiritual development of children in schools, which is one of statutory requirements of mainstream school provision in England and Wales. The Sathya Sai Education in Human Values (SSEHV) offers material which seeks to promote ‘human values’. The paper explores what these values are and why they are perceived to be of a universal nature. The focus on values introduces spiritual dimensions which are examined with reference to the educational contexts in which they are conveyed. The contents of the programme and the development from its inception are described. The paper is based on ethnographic data collected in classrooms and other educational environments where the programme has found application

Opera and spirituality

Research into opera audiences has taken up a predominance of emotion in opera lovers’ responses to opera, in particular, and music in general (including opera). For the field of music psychology, there has been increased interest in strong emotions in relation to music, physically manifested as, for example, chills, shivers down or up the spine, or an increase of the heart rate. Spiritual experiences feature among the range of strong emotions thus identified. It is on those that I focus in this article. Not only opera audiences report spiritual experiences: opera singers do so as well. Some contextual frameworks have been developed to explain such spiritual experiences, predominantly for audiences, but they are also relevant for singers. While the libretto is in many cases not likely to support the onset and development of spiritual experiences, some opera librettos might be argued to provide such support. In this article, I discuss spiritual experiences reported by singers and review the literature on spiritual experiences reported by audience members in relation to opera, proposing, along the way, relevant additions to the clarification of terminology for, and the explanation of, such experiences. Finally I add a section on the importance of mise-en-scène in relation to the potential of a libretto to induce and maintain spiritual experiences in opera