Religion’s Value and Truth

2019 ◽  
pp. 50-105
Author(s):  
Christian Smith ◽  
Bridget Ritz ◽  
Michael Rotolo

This chapter examines the cultural models specifically about religion, its value, and possible truth. Grasping parents' views of these two features of religion is essential to understanding their approaches to the transmission of religion to their children. For few American parents does religion singularly determine their understanding of the ultimate purpose and expected experience of life. Instead, the expected experiences of life involve clusters of largely autonomous beliefs forming their own distinct cultural models, perhaps partly shaped by religious traditions generally but not principally determined by the specific views and priorities of those traditions. Those basic cultural models being firmly in place, religion then comes in as its own distinct issue. And when parents think about religion, the primary focus is its practical value, how it helps people, and what makes it important in this life.

Author(s):  
Christian Smith ◽  
Bridget Ritz ◽  
Michael Rotolo

How do American parents pass their religion on to their children? At a time of overall decline of traditional religion and an increased interest in personal “spirituality,” this book investigates the ways that parents transmit religious beliefs, values, and practices to their kids. We know that parents are the most important influence on their children's religious lives, yet parents have been virtually ignored in previous work on religious socialization. The book explores American parents' strategies, experiences, beliefs, and anxieties regarding religious transmission through hundreds of in-depth interviews that span religious traditions, social classes, and family types all around the country. Throughout we hear the voices of evangelical, Catholic, Mormon, mainline and black Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Buddhist parents and discover that, despite massive diversity, American parents share a nearly identical approach to socializing their children religiously. For almost all, religion is important for the foundation it provides for becoming one's best self on life's difficult journey. Religion is primarily a resource for navigating the challenges of this life, not preparing for an afterlife. Parents view it as their job, not religious professionals', to ground their children in life-enhancing religious values that provide resilience, morality, and a sense of purpose. Challenging longstanding sociological and anthropological assumptions about culture, the book demonstrates that parents of highly dissimilar backgrounds share the same “cultural models” when passing on religion to their children.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (5) ◽  
pp. e2016649118
Author(s):  
Tanya Marie Luhrmann ◽  
Kara Weisman ◽  
Felicity Aulino ◽  
Joshua D. Brahinsky ◽  
John C. Dulin ◽  
...  

Hearing the voice of God, feeling the presence of the dead, being possessed by a demonic spirit—such events are among the most remarkable human sensory experiences. They change lives and in turn shape history. Why do some people report experiencing such events while others do not? We argue that experiences of spiritual presence are facilitated by cultural models that represent the mind as “porous,” or permeable to the world, and by an immersive orientation toward inner life that allows a person to become “absorbed” in experiences. In four studies with over 2,000 participants from many religious traditions in the United States, Ghana, Thailand, China, and Vanuatu, porosity and absorption played distinct roles in determining which people, in which cultural settings, were most likely to report vivid sensory experiences of what they took to be gods and spirits.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Kanika Kishore Saxena

This chapter presents an overview of the ancient city of Mathura along with an exhaustive survey of the monographs on the same. This book entails an epigraphic analysis of the religious landscape of Mathura, therefore the nature of our primary sources namely inscriptions and its methodology is discussed in detail. Further, the primary issues raised in this book are also elaborated upon. The primary focus is to discuss the gifts mentioned as being donated in the inscriptions belonging to different religious traditions. All these donations are understood in relation to their underlying philosophies. In this book, the profiles of the donors, including their gender and occupation, have been analysed to present the reader with the social mosaic of the time. Finally, this chapter introduces the reader to explore the journey of diversity in this landscape before it became synonymous with the worship of Vāsudeva‒Kṛṣṇa.


Author(s):  
Daniel Roth

This chapter establishes the theoretical lens through which the case studies of third-party peacemakers in Judaism can be analyzed. The chapter begins by reviewing the study of religion and peacebuilding in general, and Judaism and conflict resolution in particular. Examples are provided of research conducted in religious peacebuilding and paradigmatic peacemakers in other religious traditions, such as the prophet Muhammad in Islam. In the second part of the chapter, the literature relating to traditional cultural models of conflict resolution and peacemaking is surveyed, focusing on the traditional Arab-Islamic process of sulha and how it compares to modern-Western models of conflict resolution and reconciliation.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
David Luterman

Purpose The purpose of this article is to present a client-centered model of counseling that integrates information and personal adjustment counseling. Research has indicated that audiologists are more comfortable with counseling that is information based than with personal adjustment counseling. The prevailing model of diagnosis appears to be the medical model in which, first, a case history is taken, then testing and, finally, counseling. This model lends itself to audiologist as expert and the counseling as a separate entity based on information and advice. Further research has indicated parents retain little of the information provided in the initial examination because of their heightened emotions. This article presents a client-centered model of diagnosis in which information is provided within an emotionally safe context, enabling the parents to express their feelings and have the ability to control the flow of information. The ultimate purpose of a client-centered model is to empower parents by making them active participants in the diagnostic process rather than passive recipients. Conclusion The client-centered model has wide implications for the diagnostic process as well as for the training of students.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 843-852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Tarshis ◽  
Michelle Garcia Winner ◽  
Pamela Crooke

Purpose What does it mean to be social? In addition, how is that different from behaving socially appropriately? The purpose of this clinical focus article is to tackle these two questions along with taking a deeper look into how communication challenges in childhood apraxia of speech impact social competencies for young children. Through the lens of early social development and social competency, this clinical focus article will explore how speech motor challenges can impact social development and what happens when young learners miss early opportunities to grow socially. While not the primary focus, the clinical focus article will touch upon lingering issues for individuals diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech as they enter the school-aged years. Conclusion Finally, it will address some foundational aspects of intervention and offer ideas and suggestions for structuring therapy to address both speech and social goals.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sridhar Krishnamurti

This article illustrates the potential of placing audiology services in a family physician’s practice setting to increase referrals of geriatric and pediatric patients to audiologists. The primary focus of family practice physicians is the diagnosis/intervention of critical systemic disorders (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer). Hence concurrent hearing/balance disorders are likely to be overshadowed in such patients. If audiologists get referrals from these physicians and have direct access to diagnose and manage concurrent hearing/balance problems in these patients, successful audiology practice patterns will emerge, and there will be increased visibility and profitability of audiological services. As a direct consequence, audiological services will move into the mainstream of healthcare delivery, and the profession of audiology will move further towards its goals of early detection and intervention for hearing and balance problems in geriatric and pediatric populations.


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