In light of more recent conversations about religion and its import as a factor in the global geopolitical and cultural spheres, augmented by the "contracting" of relationship among people and nations, Communication and the Global Landscape of Faith highlights geographical, architectural, and a partial issues as significant and edifying dimensions of the study of communication and religion. Insights are gleaned through the prism of the philosophical, built, performative, political, and intercultural landscapes.

There are ways of being in the world that create a flourishing life and other ways that restrict that life, both for ourselves and others. Listening is one of these ways of being. Listening gives shape to speaking, inviting other people into a dialogue that impacts our everyday lives. Our acts of listening, like all communication, are shaped by our cultural and individual differences. Unfortunately, as people consider ways to ethically listen, they often abide by a set of conversational rules that do not reflect or benefit their own or others' unique contexts and communities. In this book, Parks responds to gaps in scholarship related to listening in communication research and difference in ethics scholarship. Rather than imposing a rigid ethical norm that is unresponsive to diverse cultural practices, her proposed listening ethic is one that is highly contextualized and pluralistic and yet dares to make normative claims. Using discourse research methods that are both qualitative and quantitative, Parks goes beyond describing what listening is in a given context to what ethical listening should be. Empirical findings about listening from multiple communities that represent diverse ethnic, gender, and disability orientations are interwoven with insights from communication ethics to develop the first-ever dialogic ethics of listening that is empirically-based, culturally-grounded, and normative. Ten shared values emerge as guidelines for good listening in this ethic: be open, cultivate understanding, practice authenticity, engage in critical thinking, invest in relationship, care for the dialogue, focus on what matters, be intentionally present, remember the ongoing story, and be responsive to need. These values, while shared across cultures, may be expressed in a diverse and sometimes conflicting communicative practices. Ultimately, Parks proposes that ethical listening is best conceptualized as pursuit of sustainable hospitality in our dialogic interactions within and across difference. By understanding the ways that different people share listening values yet practice them differently, we can learn to trust each other and attest to the hope that ethical dialogue is possible.

Interpret the hidden meaning of family roles to help children at risk!Because dysfunctional patterns are closed systems that serve a secret purpose, they are almost impossible to change from the outside. Patterns of Child Abuse helps you recognize the purpose behind the patterns and offers successful strategies for entering the pattern in order to help family members without joining it and becoming part of the dysfunction. Patterns of Child Abuse identifies the most common, most problematic patterns and explores their hidden meanings. Case studies and theoretical discussions demonstrate the ways family patterns are replicated in a child's psyche and the ways the grown-up child replicates the familiar family pattern, forcing the world to bend to the story within. Synthesizing systems theory, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis, Patterns of Child Abuse offers powerful insights as well as practical strategies for dealing with such complex issues as: how to comfort an abused child who cannot bear to be touched why abused children idealize their battering or neglectful parent how borderline personality organization affects individuals and their families handling the sexually powerful teenage girl, the disruptive boy, and the mother of the sexual abuse victim how family patterns operate in therapeutic context why therapists and social workers may encounter conflicts in child welfare cases when and how paradoxical interventions can work Well-written and insightful, Patterns of Child Abuse conveys a sound theoretical model and a sophisticated approach to the psychology of individuals and families for the child welfare professional.

Interpret the hidden meaning of family roles to help children at risk Because dysfunctional patterns are closed systems that serve a secret purpose, they are almost impossible to change from the outside. Patterns of Child Abuse helps you recognize the purpose behind the patterns and offers successful strategies for entering the pattern in order to help family members without joining it and becoming part of the dysfunction. Patterns of Child Abuse identifies the most common, most problematic patterns and explores their hidden meanings. Case studies and theoretical discussions demonstrate the ways family patterns are replicated in a child's psyche and the ways the grown-up child replicates the familiar family pattern, forcing the world to bend to the story within. Synthesizing systems theory, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis, Patterns of Child Abuse offers powerful insights as well as practical strategies for dealing with such complex issues as: how to comfort an abused child who cannot bear to be touched why abused children idealize their battering or neglectful parent how borderline personality organization affects individuals and their families handling the sexually powerful teenage girl, the disruptive boy, and the mother of the sexual abuse victim how family patterns operate in therapeutic context why therapists and social workers may encounter conflicts in child welfare cases when and how paradoxical interventions can work Well-written and insightful, Patterns of Child Abuse conveys a sound theoretical model and a sophisticated approach to the psychology of individuals and families for the child welfare professional.

There are ways of being in the world that create a flourishing life and other ways that restrict that life, both for ourselves and others. Listening is one of these ways of being. Listening gives shape to speaking, inviting other people into a dialogue that impacts our everyday lives. Our acts of listening, like all communication, are shaped by our cultural and individual differences. Unfortunately, as people consider ways to ethically listen, they often abide by a set of conversational rules that do not reflect or benefit their own or others' unique contexts and communities. In this book, Parks responds to gaps in scholarship related to listening in communication research and difference in ethics scholarship. Rather than imposing a rigid ethical norm that is unresponsive to diverse cultural practices, her proposed listening ethic is one that is highly contextualized and pluralistic and yet dares to make normative claims. Using discourse research methods that are both qualitative and quantitative, Parks goes beyond describing what listening is in a given context to what ethical listening should be. Empirical findings about listening from multiple communities that represent diverse ethnic, gender, and disability orientations are interwoven with insights from communication ethics to develop the first-ever dialogic ethics of listening that is empirically-based, culturally-grounded, and normative. Ten shared values emerge as guidelines for good listening in this ethic: be open, cultivate understanding, practice authenticity, engage in critical thinking, invest in relationship, care for the dialogue, focus on what matters, be intentionally present, remember the ongoing story, and be responsive to need. These values, while shared across cultures, may be expressed in a diverse and sometimes conflicting communicative practices. Ultimately, Parks proposes that ethical listening is best conceptualized as pursuit of sustainable hospitality in our dialogic interactions within and across difference. By understanding the ways that different people share listening values yet practice them differently, we can learn to trust each other and attest to the hope that ethical dialogue is possible.