Browsing by Subject "spirituality"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

10 Ways to enhance your spirituality
(Burnt X Orange, 2019-04-12) Burnt X
Consuming Spirituality: When Mindfulness Became Marketable
(2022-06-08) Paetzel, Savannah
Logic up to a Certain Point: Donald Judd’s Something Else in Marfa
(2021-05) Gillham, Cate
Debates surrounding American artist Donald Judd, and minimalism in general, trend toward discussions of meaning or lack thereof in art. Judd’s artwork broke conventions and reinvented the way art was created and understood in the 20st century. The Chinati Foundation, Judd’s permanent installation in Marfa, Texas revolutionized the way people consumed art by inextricably connecting the art, land, and architecture. Judd’s art has long since garnered critical attention for its autonomy, structural form, its sense of wholeness, the sensory feelings it evokes, and the space it creates. However, Judd’s work has not yet been analyzed in terms of its religiosity or lack thereof. This thesis sets out to define the oeuvre of Donald Judd through his unique, rule-breaking style and his devotion to the context and preservation of his art. Finally, this thesis concludes that Judd’s work at Chinati is the purest form of spiritual artwork because of its rejection of human culture and its connection to the land around it.
Manifesting the Invisible: Thomas Merton's Vision of Contemplative Christianity in the Modern World
(2020-12) Soenen, Pablo Christian
The American Cistercian monk Thomas Merton was a tireless contributor to the 20th century conversations of the role of the monastic contemplative life in the modern world. His concept of the contemplative life’ s openness to the world and service to modernity, and indeed his understanding of his own vocation, developed significantly throughout his life, to the point that some have found it helpful to distinguish between the “early Merton” and the “later Merton.” This thesis will track the changes in Merton’ s thought as a guide to answering the questions that captivated Merton throughout his life: what is the relationship between contemplative interiority and active struggle for justice? What is the role and function of spirituality in the modern world? Are changes in religiosity indicative of insufficiencies in the content or communication of religion? Can the contemplative life exist today as it has for centuries? I will argue that Merton’ s thought changed as he became immersed in a more secular modern society. The content of spiritual interiority remains the same, but its context must shift to the scene of modern alienation. Religious experience must be open to the modern collective consciousness, but the insights of modernity are not new: the mystics have always perceived God as absent, or at best mysteriously present. In the modern context, contemplative love will seek active expression in protest against the injustices of society if it is to remain authentic.
Neil Thomas Interview
(2020-10-05) Institute for Diversity & Civic Life; Department of Religious Studies
This interview is Reverend Dr. Neil Thomas. Reverend Dr. Neil Thomas is a well known reverend who has served as a pastor in the United Kingdom, Los Angeles, CA and Dallas, TX. Reverend Thomas is currently the pastor for the Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, a member congregation of the United Church of Christ that strives to promote diversity and inclusivity. In this interview, Revered Thomas discusses his leadership and activism in the church and larger community. He shares navigating preaching during the pandemic, how the goals of faith have changed, and the new structure of church via Zoom. We learn through his insights, the connection and engagement found through faith and how the pandemic can reteach one’s relationship with God.
Psychologizing about conversion: A comparison of three contemporaries
(2014) Cregg, David Robert
In this project I compare and contrast the methods of three pre-eminent psychologists who completed work on the psychology of religion, with particular emphasis on their views of religious conversion: Sigmund Freud, William James, and Carl Jung. Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, took a reductionistic, cynical approach to investigating religious phenomena. James utilized a descriptive method, in which he simply described and categorized the varieties of religious experiences without making value judgments of them. Jung, a student of Freud, represents an orientation that is somewhere between a reductionistic, psychoanalytic approach and the more descriptive method used by James. In contrasting the writings of these three men, I consider their respective legacies and the enduring impact they have on the perception of religion in modern culture.
Spirituality and Domestic Violence Work
(Critical Social Work, 2005) Bell, Holly; Busch, Noël Bridget; Fowler, Dawnovise N.
Spirituality is increasingly recognized as an important resource for clients coping with trauma and crises. Though more limited, research on the use of spirituality by practitioners has also expanded. This qualitative study involves in-depth interviews with 30 counselors about their work with domestic violence survivors. It focuses on the role and function of counselors’ spirituality in their work, and conversely, the impact of their work on their spiritual beliefs.
Teetotalitarianism: The Benevolent Stagnation of Alcoholics Anonymous
(2021-12) Greer, J. Patrick
In examining the global expansion of Alcoholics Anonymous over the past 100 years, the author will pinpoint elements of the world's largest peer support program that have 1. helped untold millions recover from alcoholism/addiction and 2. impacted understanding of addiction in social and professional circles. The thesis will address the program's underlying practices, which remained largely unchanged after the 1930s. First, how does the canonical literature and tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous help and harm people in recovery? An examination is conducted of clinical best practices for substance use disorder, the effect of group cohesion and identity formation in recovery, and populations that may not benefit from the 12 Step disease model of addiction treatment. The second question: what harmful aspects of AA's program could change in the 21st century to help as the maximum number of people struggling with addictions? The author outlines several areas where the program has fallen short, including its silence toward underserved or abused members, its isolation from other support groups, and deadlock/attrition within its governmental structure. Research into both questions drew on empirical studies/reviews as well as AA publications/archives. Sociological theories from the likes of Émile Durkheim and Dorothy Smith are also featured. A trustee of AA's service board provided the author with her expert opinion on the organization's unchanging nature. Ultimately, the dominance of Alcoholics Anonymous in recovery peer support—in all of addiction treatment—is found to be self-perpetuating by virtue of its wide availability and its hierarchy's traditionalist leanings. The program's successes mask its shortcomings. It's recommended that AA, rather than rest on its laurels, should instead earn status by incorporating modern research, reforming its governmental structure, and stewarding newer non-12-step peer support groups in their own growth.