Family life since World War II has undergone dramatic changes. Cultural shifts emphasizing personal needs and fulfillment have transformed traditional understandings of marriage and divorce, gender equality, and sexual behavior, resulting in a marked increase in single-parent homes, dual-income couples, and divorced and blended families. In this book, contributors who represent diverse religious traditions in North America show how their respective traditions have responded to changes in the family in the last half century. Exploring the broad range of responses in their traditions - from conservative to progressive - they reflect on the roles that theology, scripture, and the social sciences have had in this transformation. Further, they take a realistic look at the influence of mainstream religion and its role in future discussions of family life. This exploration offers readers fresh and broad ranges of ways to evaluate their own religious traditions when dealing with issues related to the future of the family. Religious traditions discussed are Southern Baptist, Mormon, Mennonite, Roman Catholic, African Methodist Episcopal, Methodist, Jewish, Presbyterian, United Church of Canada, Episcopal, and ecumenical and interdenominational.

For theorists in search of a political theology that is more responsive to the challenges now facing Western democracies, this book tenders a new political economy anchored in a theory of value. The political theology of the future, Carl Raschke argues, must draw on a powerful, hidden impetus-the "force of God"-to frame a new value economy. It must also embrace a radical, "faith-based" revolutionary style of theory that reconceives the power of the "theological" in political thought and action. Raschke ties democracy's retreat to the West's failure to confront its decadence and mobilize its vast spiritual resources. Worsening debt, rising unemployment, and gross income inequality have led to a crisis in political representation and values that twentieth-century theorists never anticipated. Drawing on the thought of Hegel and Nietzsche as well as recent work by Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-Joseph Goux, Giorgio Agamben, and Alain Badiou, among others, Raschke recasts political theology for a new generation. He proposes a bold, uncompromising critical theory that acknowledges the enduring significance of Marx without his materialism and builds a vital, more spiritually grounded relationship between politics and the religious imaginary.

This innovative and sensitive guide to providing spiritual care to people with dementia features original methods drawn from the author's experiences of working with over 1,000 individuals with dementia. It provides creative new ways for chaplains to connect with patients whose spiritual needs are all too often neglected. Ranging from the author's personal experience, factual information about different kinds of dementia and the challenges of pastoral care, it provides instructions for staging a multi-sensory spiritual care intervention with patients. Included are links to exclusive online resources of the author's video presentations and photographs for use in treatment. This insightful work will prove an essential resource for all chaplains working with people living with dementia, and will enable them to achieve both exceptional patient care and a sense of personal accomplishment.

Presenting clergy and chaplains with unique therapeutic tools for helping senior adults enrich their later years, this book gives advice on how to strengthen relationships, find meaning in life and feel comfortable approaching life's final chapter. It guides clergy and chaplains through how to effectively conduct "Soul Legacy" projects, in which older people reflect on what they want to leave behind for their loved ones and how they want to be remembered after they die. It enables older people to pay loved ones personal tributes and show them how important they are. By focusing on others rather than the self, it provides comfort for loved ones as well as the senior adult, prevents loneliness and negative feelings about ageing, and helps adults gradually become comfortable with the challenges of approaching the end of life.

Focusing on how someone in need can best be helped, the author identifies the skills and honesty of the person who wants to help as key to how effective this can be. Looking in detail at the nature of boundaries, willingness to speak from a place of authenticity and to be honestly present to the experience of the individual person, and the sensitive and economical use of language, the author shows how people in a state of deep personal crisis can be richly helped. Taking the view that no set response is always right or always wrong, he argues strongly for the importance of going with what is spontaneous and real in the moment, and responding thoughtfully and with integrity to the experience of the person in need. The book is an inspiration to develop deep awareness about the practice of encounter. Focusing on experiences of crisis and anxiety, the author provides many in-depth case examples, and sample scripts with actual questions and answers included. This short and deceptively simple book will raise awareness of, and broaden the range of, possible interventions for the open-minded reader.

Publishing on the 50th anniversary of the opening of St Christopher's Hospice - widely thought of to be the first modern hospice, combining pain and symptom management with education and training - this edited collection discusses what motivates professionals and volunteers to provide spiritual care. This book shows how the world of hospice care is moving on from Cicely Saunder's, founder of St Christopher's Hospice, legacy to providing spiritual care in a more integrated manner. With entries from doctors, nurses and CEOs among others, this book informs good practice for professionals and volunteers providing spiritual care for patients and their families. It looks at how, for many of these professionals, spirituality does not have to be grounded in organised religion, but stems from understanding and providing for our human needs.

How do modern Muslims adapt their traditions to engage with today's world? Charles Tripp's erudite and incisive book considers one of the most significant challenges faced by Muslims over the last sixty years: the challenge of capitalism. By reference to the works of noted Muslim scholars, the author shows how, faced by this challenge, these intellectuals devised a range of strategies which have enabled Muslims to remain true to their faith, whilst engaging effectively with a world not of their own making. The work is framed around the development of their ideas on Islamic socialism, economics and the rationale for Islamic banking. While some Muslims have resorted to confrontation or insularity to cope with the challenges of modernity, most have aspired to innovation and ingenuity in the search for compromise and interaction with global capitalism in the twenty-first century.

Exploring the role of imagination in trauma recovery, the author shares the arresting dreams and stories of traumatized adolescents. Describing the impact of trauma on adolescent health and development, the author provides promising research into the use of breathing skills, HRV Biofeedback, and dream work to promote healthy breathing, emotion regulation, and restorative dreaming. Research suggests that these interventions can decrease post-traumatic distress and assist in the creation of meaningful posttraumatic narratives. The author explores the role of embodied imagination in adolescent spiritual development and posttraumatic growth. These interventions provide clinicians and pastoral caregivers with simple and effective ways of helping adolescents heal from trauma in holistic and dynamic ways that respect the integrated constitution of the human person.

Healthcare chaplains working as part of interdisciplinary teams are frequently involved in contributing to discussions on all aspects of patients' wellbeing. This insightful collection of case studies shows how chaplains can effectively support patients and their families in making decisions regarding medical care, as well as for their spiritual needs. Reflecting the reality of medical decision-making, each case study follows a format where a chaplain and a non-chaplain (e.g. a doctor or a social worker) gives their response to the example considered, helping the reader to understand the chaplain's role in the decision making and how they can contribute constructively to the process. Adding another layer to the multifaceted role of the chaplain, this is essential reading for any chaplain in healthcare.

Islam and AIDS is the first book to comprehensively address the HIV/AIDS pandemic from an Islamic perspective, with contributions from a number of internationally known activists and scholars of Islam, including Kecia Ali and Abdulaziz Sachedina. With an introduction by Peter Piot, Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, this landmark work provides an insight into new possibilities of critical and progressive Islamic approaches, in both law and ethics, to one of the most urgent crises facing humankind today. Covering emotive issues such as gender, justice, poverty, health, disease, addiction, and sexuality, Islam and AIDS provides the religious analysis so essential for the communities at the forefront of the epidemic.

In a timely book with a powerful and persuasive message, Dr. Harold G. Koenig addresses federal, state, and local government policy leaders, urging them to more fully integrate religious organizations into the formal disaster response system, and he then provides recommendations on how this can effectively be done. Koenig also advocates faith communities and organizations to learn more about the role they can play in responding to disasters and terrorism.The chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina made extraordinarily clear the gaps in the United States' disaster policies. At the same time, the contributions of organized faith communities were highlights amidst the bungled federal, state, and local responses. One example is the "New York Times," September 9, 2005, headline: "A New Meaning for 'Organized Religion': It Helps the Needy Quickly." But as faith-based organizations look for ways to help, there are few, if any, guidelines for them. This book provides information on the psychological, social, and spiritual responses to trauma. It addresses how the emergency response system works, and the role that religious communities can play in disaster response and recovery in terms of providing emotional and spiritual care for victims. It advocates integrating mental health into emergency response systems directed at those affected by hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, and terrorism. "The aim is to help victims of disaster to better cope with the stresses they face, as well as help direct care workers (firefighters, police, health care providers, etc.) to deal better emotionally with the trauma to which they are exposed so they can remain effective and functional on the job," explainsDr. Koenig, whose research on the healing power of faith has been published worldwide. Increasing the resiliency of our communities in the face of disaster is crucial. Religious communities have tremendous potential to contribute to this. Here are guidelines on how to do that more effectively, alongside data on how to facilitate the integration of these contributions with the formal disaster-response system.

"Authentic Fakes "explores the religious dimensions of American popular culture in unexpected places: baseball, the Human Genome Project, Coca-Cola, rock 'n' roll, the rhetoric of Ronald Reagan, the charisma of Jim Jones, Tupperware, and the free market, to name a few. Chidester travels through the cultural landscape and discovers the role that fakery--in the guise of frauds, charlatans, inventions, and simulations--plays in creating religious experience. His book is at once an incisive analysis of the relationship between religion and popular culture and a celebration of the myriad ways in which invention can stimulate the religious imagination.
Moving beyond American borders, Chidester considers the religion of McDonald's and Disney, the discourse of W.E.B. Du Bois and the American movement in Southern Africa, the messianic promise of Nelson Mandela's 1990 tour to America, and more. He also looks at the creative possibilities of the Internet in such phenomena as Discordianism, the Holy Order of the Cheeseburger, and a range of similar inventions. Arguing throughout that religious fakes can do authentic religious work, and that American popular culture is the space of that creative labor, Chidester looks toward a future "pregnant with the possibilities of new kinds of authenticity."

Seelsorge gilt mit Recht als Herzsteck der Pastoral - einer Pastoral, die sich als kreative Konfrontation des Evangeliums mit unserer Gegenwart versteht. Pastoral lasst an Hirten, an bauerliches Leben denken, an biblische Kultur, an Agrikultur - und nicht etwa an heutige Kulturwelten. Die Konfrontation des Evangeliums mit unserer Gegenwart geht von Anfang an mit fremden, wenn nicht befremdlichen Ansprechen einher. Seelsorge ist konzeptionell eine interkulturelle Qualitat eigen, noch bevor Fragen einer interkulturellen Seelsorge laut werden, sei es aufgrund muslimischer Patientinnen und Patienten in katholischen oder evangelischen Krankenhausern, sei es aufgrund auslandischer Priester in Deutschland, sei es aufgrund vielfaltiger Migrations- und Fluchtbewegungen. Seelsorge interkulturell lasst programmatisch anklingen, dass es nicht allein um Gestalten interkultureller Seelsorge geht, sondern um eine Interkulturalitat, wie sie zum Selbstverstandnis jeder Seelsorge gehoert.Zu diesem Band tragen Autorinnen und Autoren mit praktisch-theologischer und insbesondere pastoralpsychologischer Kompetenz bei: Bischof Franz-Josef Bode, Ulrike Elsdoerfer, Ottmar Fuchs, Rebecca Marie Hafner MMS, Martin Kempen, Tobias Kessler CS, Klaus Kiessling, Agnes Lanfermann MMS, Jakob Mertesacker, Peter Claver Narh SVD und Lisa Strassberger.Dieser Band will die aktuellen pastoralpsychologischen Diskussionen inspirieren und vorantreiben. Er richtet sich an Seelsorgerinnen und Theologen sowie an alle, die sich in der Pastoral der Kirchen engagieren und dafer Verantwortung tragen.

Aprenda acerca de...- La epidemia de caidas morales que amenaza tanto a los lideres como a los cristianos en general- Como vivir una vida moral de pureza y santidad- Como guarder su matrimonio de comtaminacion moral- Como proteger su ministerio y su testimonio de las aschanzas del pecado sexual- Porque los pastores y lideres cristianos son blancos para los ataques de Satanas en el area moral- Cuales son las senales de alerta cuando uno corre el peligro de una caida moral- Los deferentes tipos de pecado sexual y lo que la Biblia dice acerca de ellos- Cuales son las influencias que puenden llevar a un problema moral

Larry nos ensena como vivir en pureza de pensamiento y accion. -- Wayne Myers, misionero veterano a Mexico

As head of the Sufi Order in the West, Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan has been conducting workshops and giving personal counseling for over thirty years. Introducing Spirituality into Counseling and Therapy sums up Pir Vilayat's experience in applying spiritual principles to everyday life situations, problem solving, and personal growth. Among the topics explored are spiritualizing emotion, personality and the divine inheritance, relationship, creativity, awakening and cause and purpose. Pir Vilayat gives detailed instructions for many meditation practices that can be used to bring fresh insights to bear on specific problems. Everyone concerned with human growth, whether professionally or on a more personal level, will find inspiration in this book.

This enlightening edited collection shows how migration shapes the lives of faith communities - and vice versa - through diverse prisms including diaspora, generational change, cultural conflict, conceptions of 'ministry' and artistic response. The contributors comprise writers, poets and artists from the three largest Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) and beyond. They show how issues of migration are addressed through a variety of different media such as theological debate and shared community action, poetry and art. As issues of migration are an important factor in so many political and social debates, faith communities are looking for guidance on how to deepen their theological understanding of migration. This book helps them to reflect on their own practices and experiences, learn from their own traditions and engage in dialogue with diverse communities. *All royalties from book sales will be donated to The Helen Bamber Foundation - a UK-based charity that supports people who have survived extreme physical, sexual and psychological violence.*

Offering a model of care that the church can use with survivors of sexual abuse, this supportive book is backed up by Rene Girard's Mimetic Theory throughout. The book proposes that the treatment survivors receive in churches could be greatly improved if instead of adding to a survivor's sense of guilt, difference or isolation or trying to change survivors' thoughts, feelings or behaviour they adopt the role of God as benevolent other. It shows that by adopting these beliefs churches can move past unintentional scapegoating of sexual abuse survivors and into a healing community where survivors feel included on churchgoers' journeys towards health and wholeness.

This book is an attempt by the author to give us a brief human insight into life behind bars in one of our penal institutions.  It is written from the perspective of someone who has walked the walk with the prisoner for twenty years and now questions the effectiveness of our criminal justice system. She is an advocate for a Restorative Justice System and sees this model as the way forward. She argues that true justice lies in healing for all involved in criminal behaviour, including victim, perpetrator and society. The second part of the book hears the voices of the prisoners in emotionally charged reflections on the reality of life within a prison cell. The author challenges the use of prisons to deal with addictions, mental health issues and homelessness.Where prisons are needed, as they are for a small cohort of people, they should be open institutions dedicated to rehabilitation based on the needs of the individual and on societal needs of the time.  

A collection of readings and reflections for participants in the Inspiring Faith Communities programme.

For counselors, pastors, women's ministry leaders, and any Christian woman who wants a user-friendly quick reference guide to Scripture, here is an essential resource Scripture passages are conveniently gathered under ninety topics that concern today's women, including adoption, birth control, career, contentment, dating/courtship, depression, friendship, prodigal children, self-worth, singleness, an unsaved spouse, worry, and more. Perfect for counseling or for personal study and memorization, this revised and updated edition includes new topics and features an attractive new cover design.