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Spiritual Transformation (spiritual + transformation)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	80%

Selected Abstracts

"Appear as Crucified for Me": Sight, Suffering, and Spiritual Transformation in the Hymns of Charles Wesley

JOURNAL OF RELIGIOUS HISTORY, Issue 3 2006
JOANNA CRUICKSHANKArticle first published online: 21 AUG 200
Early Methodist laypeople often described their conversion experiences in terms of seeing the suffering of Christ. This article considers this theme within early Methodist culture by examining the relationship between sight, suffering, and spiritual transformation in the hymns of Charles Wesley. Many of Wesley's hymns depict the suffering of Christ in evocative detail, encouraging the singer or reader to imagine and respond to this suffering in particular ways. I argue that Wesley presents the sight of Christ's suffering as having profound transformative power, at the heart of Christian experience. In doing so he constructs Methodist spirituality in a way that draws upon both the ancient Christian tradition of Passion devotion and contemporary eighteenth-century convictions about the power of the sight of suffering. [source]

Ideal Womanhood in Chinese Thought and Culture

PHILOSOPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 8 2010
Robin R. Wang
Based on original texts this essay attempts to describe two main conceptual constructions and practices of ideal womanhood in the Chinese tradition: Lienu (exemplary women) as the Confucian social inspirations for women and Kundao (way of female) as the Daoist commitment to bodily and spiritual transformation. [source]

Choosing Buddhism in Australia: towards a traditional style of reflexive spiritual engagement1

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2005
Tim Phillips
Abstract There has been little dedicated sociological research on the appeal Buddhism holds for many individuals in the West. It is suggested that this absence reflects a current tendency within the discipline to highlight a new age approach to spiritual involvement and to overlook other optional styles of engagement. Such a pattern of study is concerning because the propensity to privilege the new age style would seem to be less an outcome of a coherent research agenda than a result of the currency that the idea of postmodern religion has come to assume in theoretical accounts of spiritual transformation in contemporary societies. Using data from a modest quantitative survey, the study investigates spiritual style among a sample of Australians who have developed an interest in Buddhist practice and belief. The results point to the prevalence of a traditional approach to involvement, whereby the individual decides to engage solely with Buddhism for the long duration. Given its possession of these qualities, the research goes on to examine the social patterning of spiritual commitment. The findings suggest that comprehending the social restrictions to any kind of involvement is a more pressing sociological question than explaining social divergences among the engaged. [source]

Assessing spiritual growth and spiritual decline following a diagnosis of cancer: reliability and validity of the spiritual transformation scale

PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 2 2008
Brenda S. Cole
Abstract This study assessed the factor structure, reliability, and validity of an instrument designed to assess spiritual transformations following a diagnosis of cancer,the Spiritual Transformation Scale (STS). The instrument was administering to 253 people diagnosed with cancer within the previous 2 years. Two underlying factors emerged (spiritual growth (SG) and spiritual decline (SD)) with adequate internal reliability (alpha=0.98 and 0.86, respectively) and test,retest reliability (r=0.85 and 0.73, respectively). Validity was supported by correlations between SG and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS) Positive Affect Subscale (r=0.23, p<0.001), the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (r=0.57, p<0.001), and the Post-traumatic Growth Inventory (r=0.68, p<0.001). SD was associated with higher scores on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (r=0.38, p<0.001) and PANAS-Negative Affect Subscale (r=0.40, p<0.001), and lower scores on the PANAS-Positive Affect Subscale (r=,0.23, p<0.001), and the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale (r=,0.30, p<0.001). Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that the subscales uniquely predicted adjustment beyond related constructs (intrinsic religiousness, spiritual coping, and general post-traumatic growth). The results indicate that the STS is psychometrically sound, with SG predicting better, and SD predicting poorer, mental and spiritual well-being following a diagnosis of cancer. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]