Search Results (572)

New theologies developed in tandem with evolutionary biology during the nineteenth century, which have been called metaphysical evolutionisms and evolutionary theologies. A subset of these theologies analyzed here were developed by thinkers who accepted biological science but rejected both biblical creationism and materialist science. Tools from the cognitive science of religion, including conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) and blending theory, also known as conceptual integration theory (CIT), can help to explain the development of these systems and their transformation between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The analysis focuses on several stable and popular blends of ideas, which have continued with some alteration into the twenty-first century. The three blends evaluated here are Progressive Soul Evolution, Salvation is Evolution, and Evolution is Therapy. Major contributors to these blends are the theosophist and theologian Helena P. Blavatsky and psychologist Frederic W. H. Myers, both influenced by the spiritualist movement, particularly the ideas of the spiritualist and biologist Alfred Russel Wallace. The influence of these blends can be seen in the twentieth-century “Aquarian Frontier,” a group of 145 thinkers and organizations identified in 1975 by counterculture historian Theodore Roszak. Part of the appeal of these blends may be seen in their use of metaphors, including the Great Chain of Being and A Purposeful Life is a Journey. The application of the polysemic term evolution in a sense that does much of the theological work of salvation in Christianity can in part be explained by applying the principles of blending theory, including the vital relation “achieve a human scale,” as well as compressions of time and identity. These blends have been successful because they meet the needs of a population who are friendly towards science but disenchanted with traditional religions. The blends provide a satisfying new theology that extends beyond death for a subset of adherents, particularly in the New Age and spiritual but not religious (SBNR) movements, who combine the agency of self-directed “evolution” with the religious concepts of grace and transcendence. Full article

Ongoing interest in the intersection of spirituality and health has prompted a need for integrated research. This report proposes a distinct approach in a model that allows for successful and harmonious cross-fertilization within these latter two areas of interest. Our work is especially pertinent to inquiries around the role of spirituality in mental health, with special attention to chronic pain conditions. The latter have become an open channel for novel avenues to explore the field of spirituality-based interventions within the arena of psychological inquiry. To address this, the authors developed and implemented the Church and Academia Model, a prototype for an innovative collaborative research project, with the aim of exploring the role of devotional practices, and their potential to be used as therapeutic co-adjuvants or tools to enhance the coping skills of patients with chronic pain. Keeping in mind that the church presents a rich landscape for clinical inquiry with broad relevance for clinicians and society at large, we created a unique hybrid research model. This is a new paradigm that focuses on distinct and well-defined studies where the funding, protocol writing, study design, and implementation are shared by experts from both the pastoral and clinical spaces. A team of theologians, researchers, and healthcare providers, including clinical pain psychologists, built a coalition leveraging their respective skill sets. Each expert is housed in their own environs, creating a functional network that has proven academically productive and pastorally effective. Key outputs include the creation and validation of a new psychometric measure, the Pain-related PRAYER Scale (PPRAYERS), an associated bedside prayer tool and a full-scale dissemination strategy through journal publications and specialty society conferences. This collaborative prototype is also an ideal fit for integrated knowledge translation platforms, and it is a promising paradigm for future collaborative projects focused on spirituality and mental health. Full article

Background/Objectives: Quality of life (QOL) is a multifaceted concept involving a variety of factors which define the overall well-being of individuals. Food security, which implies a resilient food system, is one factor that is central to the calculus of the QOL status of a community considering that food is a staple of life. Advancing food security as a strategy for attaining sustained improvement in community QOL hinges on recognizing that food security is embedded in a matrix of other factors that work with it to generate the QOL the community experiences. The lived experience of the community defines the community’s QOL value matrix and the relative position of food security in that value matrix. Our thesis is that the role of food security in the lived experience of low-income communities depends on the position food security is accorded relative to other factors in the QOL value matrix of the community. Methods: This study employed a multimethod approach to define the QOL value matrix of low-income Guilford County residents, identifying the relative position of the value components and demographic segments based on priority ranking. First, an in-depth interview was conducted and then a telephone survey (280 sample) was used for collecting data. The ISAC Analysis Procedure and Best–Worst Scaling methods were used to identify and rank components of the QOL value matrix in terms of their relative impact on QOL. Results: The analysis revealed that spiritual well-being is the most important contributor to QOL, with a weight of 0.23, followed by access to health services (0.21) and economic opportunities (0.16), while food security has a moderate impact with 0.07. Conclusions: These findings emphasize the need for targeted policy interventions that consider the specific needs of different demographic segments to effectively improve QOL and inform the design of resilient food systems that reflect the lived experiences of low-income communities. Food security policies must be integrated with broader quality of life interventions, particularly for unemployed, low-educated, and single individuals, to ensure that a resilient food system effectively reduces inequities and address community-specific vulnerabilities. Full article

Background: Spirituality is increasingly seen as a key component of patient-centered care, especially in serious illness or surgery. However, its role among surgical patients in Eastern Europe remains underexplored. Objective: To assess daily spiritual experiences among surgical patients compared to healthy individuals in the Bucovina region (northeastern Romania). Methods: This observational case-control study included 102 participants (51 surgical patients and 51 healthy controls), recruited between March 2023 and April 2024. Participants completed the validated Romanian version of the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (DSES). Results: Surgical patients reported significantly higher mean DSES scores (M = 66.27, SD = 16.40) than healthy individuals (M = 55.06, SD = 12.81; p < 0.001). Higher scores were also associated with female gender (p = 0.002), older age, and oncological conditions. Widowed and highly educated participants showed a trend toward higher spirituality, though it was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Surgery may intensify spiritual experiences, possibly as a coping response to perceived risk. Addressing spiritual needs in perioperative care—particularly among women, older adults, and oncology patients—could enhance holistic care and improve patient well-being. Full article

This article addresses the epistemic and political problem of self-referentiality in theology within the context of post-secular societies as a demand for public relevance of faculties of theology within the 21st-century university. It focuses on the epistemological emergence of public theology as a distinct knowledge, such as human rights, and ecological thinking, contributing to the public mission of knowledge production and interdisciplinary engagement. This study applies Michel Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical methods in dialogue with Michel de Certeau’s insights into the archaeology of religious practices through a multi-layered analytical approach, including archaeology of knowledge, apparatuses of power, pastoral government, and spirituality as a genealogy of ethics. As a result of the analysis, it examines the historical conditions of possibility for the emergence of a public theology and how it needs to be thought synchronously with other formations of knowledge, allowing theology to move beyond its self-referential model of approaching dogma and the social practices derived from it. This article concludes programmatically that the development of public theology requires an epistemological reconfiguration to displace its self-referentiality through critical engagement with a public rationality framework as an essential task for the public relevance and contribution of theology within contemporary universities and plural societies. Full article

(1) Background: Analyses using participatory GIS (PGIS) data have primarily focused on reporting landscape values (e.g., subsistence, spiritual) or activities (e.g., hunting, meditation) and less frequently on identifying patterns of value and activity co-occurrence. This paper explores whether consistent combinations of landscape values and activities associated with meaningful places identified by visitors—referred to as “bundles”—emerge across protected areas. These bundles represent the cognitive-behavioral components of sense of place. (2) Methods: We used exploratory factor analysis on aggregated PGIS data collected between 2011 and 2017 to identify value-activity bundles across three protected areas administered by the Forest Service in the northwestern United States. (3) Results: We found no universal bundles of landscape values and activities across the protected areas, limiting the ability to describe consistent sense of place bundles. Instead, relationships between landscape values and activities varied across areas. Weak associations between them highlight heterogeneity in how individuals perceive and interact with meaningful places, reflecting the subjective and context-dependent nature of the sense of place. (4) Conclusions: These findings suggest that identifying visitor “types” for outreach and planning may be more nuanced than anticipated. To provide diverse opportunities for visitors to protected areas, planners and decision-makers may need to move beyond standard audience segmentation practices and consider the context-dependent nature of sense of place. Full article

Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide and in Spain. Individuals with cancer are at a higher risk of suicide compared to the general population due to both general and disease-specific risk factors. Objective: To update knowledge on nursing care measures to address the risk of suicide in cancer patients. Methods: A narrative review was conducted by searching PubMed, WOS, Scopus, and CINAHL during February and March 2025. The inclusion criteria comprised original qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed-methods studies related to the topic of the review. Results: Of the 289 identified studies, 23 were selected. Twelve studies of cancer patients, ten studies of healthcare professionals, and one study of caregivers and survivors were included. Regarding suicide risk factors, eight studies addressed demographic aspects, fifteen socio-economic factors, twenty-one psycho-emotional factors, and seventeen physical factors. Key risk factors included male sex, advanced age, social isolation, lack of social support, hopelessness, and physical deterioration. Seventeen studies highlighted the need for continuous and comprehensive nursing care using validated tools for systematic assessment of suicide risk. Eight emphasised the importance of ongoing training in suicide prevention, which is essential for developing communication skills and improving therapeutic relationships. Five studies underscored the relevance of a holistic approach that addresses the physical, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of patient care. Six extended this approach to include family members and caregivers. Conclusions: Suicide risk in cancer patients is associated with multiple risk factors. Emotional support and a comprehensive, continuous nursing approach—based on systematic assessments, specialised training, and a holistic focus—are key to effective suicide prevention. Full article

There are many lessons to be learned from the findings of research that would be advantageous in realising the potential of Catholic schools to contribute to the common good of a secular society. In summary, it is possible to highlight the following inferences, which were drawn from research undertaken by the writer: (1) From the perspective of Catholic school leaders, Catholic education faces considerable challenges and, sometimes, antagonism, within a secular society, which can impose significant pressures on the conduct of their work. (2) There is a need to disseminate information to individuals and groups within and outside Catholic schools of the Christian values that are promoted by the Church. (3) Catholic schools make a significant contribution towards the common good of society, which is not always generally appreciated and should be more widely publicised. (4) Catholic communities and their leaders would benefit from ongoing opportunities to engage in continuing professional development and formation that would nourish and nurture the enhancement of spiritual capital in their schools. Full article

This essay argues for the reciprocal benefits of joining the new theories of matter emerging out of critical posthumanism and the psychedelic drugs currently experiencing a so-called “renaissance” in global north societies. While the former’s twin emphasis on relationality and embodiment is perfectly suited to capture and ground the ontological, epistemological, and ethical implications of psychedelic experiences of interconnectedness and transformation, these substances are in turn powerful companions through which to enact a “posthuman phenomenology” that helps us with the urgent task to “access, amplify, and describe” our deep imbrication with our more-than-human environments. In other words, I argue that while the “new materialism” emerging out of posthumanism can help elaborate a psychedelic rationality, psychedelics can in turn operate as educators in materiality. It is from this materialist perspective that we can best make sense of psychedelics’ often touted potential for social transformation and the enduring suspicion that they are somehow at odds with the “ontoepistemological order” of modernity. From this point of view, I contend that a crucial critical move is to push against the common trope that this opposition is best expressed as a turn from the narrow scientific and “consumerist materialism” of modern Western societies to more expansive “spiritual” worldviews. Pushing against this science-–spirituality binary, which in fact reproduces modern “indivi/dualism” by confining psychedelic experience inside our heads, I argue instead that what is in fact needed to think through and actualize such potentials is an increased attention to our material transcorporeality. In a nutshell, if we want psychedelics to inform social change, we must be more, not less, materialist—albeit by redefining matter in a rather “weird”, non-reductive way and by redefining consciousness as embodied. By the end of the essay, attaching psychedelics to a new materialism will enable us to formulate a “material spirituality” that establishes psychedelics’ political value less in an idealistic or cognitive “politics of consciousness” and more in a “materialization of critique”. Full article

This article examines the theological trajectories of Watchman Nee (1903–1972) and Witness Lee (1905–1997) on sanctification, union with Christ, and deification, situating their contributions within recent reappraisals of the doctrine of theosis in the academy. Though deification was universally affirmed by the early church and retained in various forms in medieval and early Protestant theology, post-Reformation Western Christianity marginalized this theme in favor of juridical and forensic soteriological categories. Against this backdrop, Nee and Lee offer a theologically rich, biblically grounded, and experientially oriented articulation of deification that warrants greater scholarly attention. Drawing from the Keswick Holiness tradition, patristic sources, and Christian mysticism, Nee developed a soteriology that integrates justification, sanctification, and glorification within an organic model of progressive union with God. Though he does not explicitly use the term “deification”, the language he employs regarding union and participation closely mirrors classical expressions of Christian theosis. For Nee, sanctification is not merely moral improvement but the transformative increase of the divine life, culminating in conformity to Christ’s image. Lee builds upon and expands Nee’s participatory soteriology into a comprehensive theology of deification, explicitly referring to it as “the high peak of the divine revelation” in the Holy Scriptures. For Lee, humans become God “in life and nature but not in the Godhead”. By employing the phrase “not in the Godhead”, Lee upholds the Creator–creature distinction—i.e., humans never participate in the ontological Trinity or God’s incommunicable attributes. Yet, in the first portion of his description, he affirms that human beings undergo an organic, transformative process by which they become God in deeply significant ways. His framework structures sanctification as a seven-stage process, culminating in the believer’s transformation and incorporation into the Body of Christ to become a constituent of a corporate God-man. This corporate dimension—often overlooked in Western accounts—lies at the heart of Lee’s ecclesiology, which he sees as being consummated in the eschatological New Jerusalem. Ultimately, this study argues that Nee and Lee provide a coherent, non-speculative model of deification that integrates biblical exegesis, theological tradition, and practical spirituality, and thus, present a compelling alternative to individualistic and forensic soteriologies while also highlighting the need for deeper engagement across global theological discourse on sanctification, union with Christ, and the Triune God. Full article

This article explores the themes of repentance and conversion in Augustine’s Notes on Job. Despite its fragmentary and often improvisational character, Augustine’s theological vision in the Notes presents Job as an exemplum of ongoing conversion. Though not portrayed as a sinner, Job undergoes spiritual transformation, embodying the human need for continual repentance and deeper understanding of God. This treatment aligns with Augustine’s depiction of other biblical figures, such as St. Paul and the Prodigal Son, whose stories serve as models of conversion. By closely examining the rhetorical and theological function of Job in the Notes, the article suggests that Augustine’s portrayal was meant to guide readers on the path toward salvation. In doing so, it contributes to a broader understanding of how Augustine constructs conversion narratives within his biblical commentaries. Full article

Wetlands in northeastern Algeria’s Numidia region provide vital ecosystem services, yet their cultural and intangible values (e.g., spiritual or aesthetic benefits) remain under-recognized in policy and practice. This study explores how gender, education, occupation, and wetland protection status influence local perceptions of provisioning, regulating, and cultural ecosystem services. Based on surveys (n = 552) across 12 wetland communities, results show that women place greater importance on cultural services, while those with higher education display more ecological awareness but less connection to traditional practices. Occupation and residence in protected areas also significantly shape valuation. These findings highlight the need for inclusive conservation strategies that integrate gender perspectives and local knowledge, promoting community-driven stewardship. This research supports more equitable and resilient environmental governance. Full article

This article examines the struggles for water justice led by women in the Aconcagua River Basin (Valparaíso, Chile) through a hydrofeminist perspective. Chile’s water crisis, rooted in a colonial extractivist model and exacerbated by neoliberal policies of water privatization, reflects a deeper crisis of socio-environmental injustice. Rather than understanding water merely as a resource, this research adopts a relational epistemology that conceives water as a living entity shaped by and shaping social, cultural, and ecological relations. Drawing on life-history interviews and the construction of a hydrofeminist cartography with women river defenders, this article explores how gendered and racialized bodies experience the crisis, resist extractive practices, and articulate alternative modes of co-existence with water. The hydrofeminist framework offers critical insights into the intersections of capitalism, colonialism, patriarchy, and environmental degradation, emphasizing how women’s embodied experiences are central to envisioning new water governance paradigms. This study reveals how women’s affective, spiritual, and territorial ties to water foster strategies of resilience, recovery, and re-existence that challenge the dominant extractivist logics. By centering these hydrofeminist life histories, this article contributes to broader debates on environmental justice, decolonial feminisms, and the urgent need to rethink human–water relationships within the current climate crisis. Full article

This article describes the design and implementation of a Specialized Mental Health Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) program for clergy and theological students of all spiritual, religious, and cultural backgrounds. Addressing the need for mental health competencies in religious leaders and chaplains, this training equips participants with specialized skills in individual and group mental health spiritual assessment and spiritual care. Program participants become effective members of a multiprofessional team, gain knowledge of mental health philosophies of concordant and discordant spiritual orienting systems, and gain greater relational capacity. The Mental Health CPE Program includes traditional and novel CPE elements: (1) clinical practice, (2) group and individual supervision, (3) didactic presentations and journal clubs, (4) verbatim (Protocols of patient encounters) and case presentations, (5) group leadership training and practica, and (6) experience of faith reflections. This article provides insights into the origins of CPE, a description of the implementation in a free-standing psychiatric hospital, and observed developmental changes of program participants. We include graduates’ anecdotal feedback about their learning experience and its impact on their leadership in chaplaincy and in religious communities. Additionally, we report on areas for future development and further study of the effectiveness of Mental Health CPE. Full article

Aim: This study aimed to explore the attitudes of family caregivers toward truth-telling practices in palliative care in Türkiye, a Muslim-majority context where disclosure is often mediated by relatives. Methods: Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, data were collected from 100 unpaid family caregivers of terminally ill patients at a palliative care unit. Quantitative data were gathered via a structured questionnaire, and qualitative data through in-depth interviews with a purposively selected subsample of 10 participants. Chi-square tests were used to analyze associations, and p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of caregivers was 47.4 ± 16.5 years, 67% were female. Notably, 67% of participants did not prefer that the patient be informed of irreversible deterioration, while 71% stated they would want to be informed if they were in the patient’s position (p < 0.05). Most preferred a multidisciplinary disclosure process involving physicians, psychologists, and spiritual counselors. Qualitative analysis revealed four themes: emotional conflict, protective family-centered decision-making, spiritual readiness for death, and preference for multidisciplinary communication approach. The participants expressed cultural concerns about psychological harm to the patient and emphasized the family’s role as emotional guardians. Conclusions: The findings highlight a gap between caregivers’ attitudes when acting as family members versus imagining themselves as patients. These results underscore the critical need for culturally sensitive and family-inclusive communication strategies in palliative care settings. Full article