{"title":"A dialectical approach to understanding the relationship between science and spirituality: The MODI model","authors":"O. Robinson","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2020.1726045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726045","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The MODI model is a dialectical way of comprehending the complementary relationship between science and spirituality. The model is founded on the notion that science and spirituality are domains of enquiry that both exemplify the values of modernity: open and embodied enquiry; the questioning of authority; and empowerment of the individual. The model captures the difference between science and spirituality by way of seven conceptual polarities: outer-inner; impersonal-personal; thinking-feeling; empirical-transcendental; mechanistic-purposive; verbal-ineffable; and explanation-contemplation. At the point where these dialectics overlap, the MODI model proposes an ‘interface space’ where science and spirituality overlap and combine. I further suggest that these seven polarities capture aspects of a fundamental ‘head-heart’ duality in human knowing, which is represented in a range of existing theories across philosophical, psychological and neurological levels. The model has predictive power and can help frame the growing interaction between science and spirituality that is a central feature of the contemporary world.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726045","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45000983","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Transformative research methods: Research to nourish the spirit","authors":"Rosemarie Anderson","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2020.1726056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726056","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Over the last two decades, an important contribution from the field of transpersonal psychology to research is the development of transformative research methods by Rosemarie Anderson and the late William Braud. These methods invite researchers studying spiritual topics to bring their full humanity and personal creativity to the fore in the conduct of research, and to enact research as a journey of personal and cultural transformation. This article overviews the historical development of transformative research methods and details the unique characteristics and risks implicit in the methods. In closing, I encourage researchers in mainstream human science research and newly emerging fields, such as spiritual and contemplative studies, peace studies, and transformative leadership, to review their own understanding of research on spiritual topics in their unique fields.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726056","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42459031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
W. Mcsherry, L. Ross, Josephine Attard, R. van Leeuwen, T. Giske, Tormod Kleiven, A. Boughey
{"title":"Preparing undergraduate nurses and midwives for spiritual care: Some developments in European education over the last decade","authors":"W. Mcsherry, L. Ross, Josephine Attard, R. van Leeuwen, T. Giske, Tormod Kleiven, A. Boughey","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2020.1726053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726053","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In recent years, preparing nurses and midwives to feel competent and confident in providing spiritual care has become the subject of international research. There is an emerging body of evidence affirming the importance of spirituality in promoting the health and wellbeing of individuals. Despite this growing recognition, there are still inconsistencies in the way that undergraduate students in nursing and midwifery are taught and prepared to assess and address this dimension of the person, and fundamentally how these concepts are integrated within programmes of education. This article charts the evolution of a European programme of research, spanning a decade, exploring undergraduate nurses’ and midwives’ perception of spirituality and perceived competence in providing spiritual care. The research culminated in an educational research study that led to the co-production and development of best practice standards for spiritual care education and the launch of a network to sustain and advance this neglected area of nursing and midwifery practice.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726053","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48574526","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spirituality and mental health","authors":"L. Kao, J. Peteet, Christopher C. H. Cook","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2020.1726048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726048","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In many contexts, emotional ailments have been considered problems of religious or spiritual origin. Historically, religious groups were often the primary providers of mental health care. This changed over time with advances in medicine and Freud’s writings framing religion/spirituality (R/S) as a sign of neurosis. In the early- to mid-twentieth century, mental health and R/S were often viewed by Western clinicians and patients as separate and antithetical. Recent decades have been marked by another shift in thought, with increased interest in the overlap between mental health and R/S, and recognition that R/S may in fact serve protective and healing roles in the face of emotional suffering. There has been a concomitant increase in research investigating the connections between R/S and mental health, along with increased development and application of clinical interventions addressing the two in combination. In this narrative review, we summarize the history of how mental health and R/S have been viewed as relating to one another, recent research evidence on the effects of R/S on mental health, and clinical implications of these findings. We conclude with a discussion of ongoing challenges and opportunities in the study and application of how mental health and R/S affect one another.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2020-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2020.1726048","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"59998842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"‘Spiritual life’ as the heart of the professionalization process of spiritual and community animators in Quebec, Canada","authors":"Jacques Cherblanc, Marie-Anne Risdon","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2019.1658263","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658263","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The ‘spiritual care and guidance and community involvement service’ in Quebec has existed since 2001. It replaced pastoral animation in schools and is intended to promote the spiritual development and community involvement of all students, whether or not they are affiliated with a religion. This article presents the historical background that led to the development of this service; as well as the professional concerns of its stakeholders. The concerns raised are based on awareness of great diversity among those who provide this service, both in their training and in their understanding of the meanings of the terms that define their work. Presently working toward the professionalization that they deem essential to their very survival, they are using professional strategies that do not reflect their reality and abilities. This article seeks to demonstrate the relevance of changing perspectives so that this profession is not limited only to community involvement, but instead adopts an interactionist point of view, focused on the spiritual aspect of the role.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658263","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49530727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Genealogies of spirituality: An historical analysis of a travelling term","authors":"Simon Peng-Keller","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2019.1658261","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658261","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In the current discussion of spirituality in healthcare, the historical and cultural backgrounds of spiritual terminology and practices are often neglected. Avoiding the standard narratives, which tend to be based on a single concept of spirituality, the present paper provides an overview of the genealogies of the term ‘spirituality’, paying particular attention to the concept’s heterogeneity and history of bifurcation. The historical reconstruction outlines the complex travels of spirituality in delineating the etymological legacies of early and mediaeval Christianity, late-mediaeval and early modern mysticism, romanticism and, finally, of the amalgamations of all these things in the twentieth century. Tracing the development of the terminology in this way will elucidate the historical roots of the current ambiguities of spirituality. Over time, spirituality has crossed different cultural spaces and has been invested with new meanings. The final sections concern the presence of the various pasts of spirituality and the ongoing travelling of this term in the world of healthcare. It will be argued that ‘spirituality’ shares its ambiguous character with the concept of ‘health’. As health-related spirituality is inevitably imbued with value and connected with healthcare politics and law, the task of clarifying this ‘travelling concept’ will remain as important as it is interminable. Research in the field of health-related spirituality must free itself from the illusion of universally valid concepts with stable meanings. An improved understanding of the many pasts of spirituality can make a valuable contribution to the perception and understanding of the fluid, emergent and sometimes contradictory phenomena associated with the concept.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658261","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47913108","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spirituality, silence and solitude: A reflective interpretation regarding mystery and people with nonverbal autism","authors":"K. Hills, J. Clapton, P. Dorsett","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2019.1658266","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658266","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT People with severe (nonverbal) autism are considerably under-researched and misunderstood. This is despite the number of diagnoses growing at epidemic proportions. Approximately 30% of people with autism are placed on the severe end of the spectrum, demonstrating social communication issues and severe speech deficits. This paper provides a reflection concerning the findings of a research study that explored the spirituality of people with barriers to traditional religious exposure, through the context of people with nonverbal autism. Spirituality and autism is a relatively new discipline, with scant information available pertaining to those with severe autism. Yet the humanness of this group, underpinned by the theological premise that values all people as carriers of the Imago Dei, is worthy of consideration. The traditional mystical disciplines of silence and solitude as enhancing spiritual awareness are explored alongside the life context that accompanies severe autism. Heightened sensitivity to sensory input typical of the condition is thought to be relevant to more subjective perceptions such as atmospheric changes and spiritual aptitude. Research data relaying unusual spiritual perception and experiences were confirmed by a number of works authored by people with nonverbal autism. This suggests the possibility that the life context of this population can be seen as conducive to spiritual aptitude rather than as a neurological deficit.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658266","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47327053","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Living a spiritual life in a material world: four keys to fulfillment and balance","authors":"L. Culliford","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2019.1658271","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658271","url":null,"abstract":"were in times past, Gaventa argues that professionals should recognise the importance of spirituality in the delivery of their service. He believes that a commitment to spirit will help move the industry beyond mere policy and compliance, facilitating a deeper sense of calling and vocation for workers, and fuller lives for clients. Gaventa makes much the same argument in his conclusion (part V), extending the logic to all of us, that our friendships and community relationships will be made whole where they facilitate inclusive, diverse, spiritual connections. He makes his case without pretending that inclusive communities will be easily formed and sustained, recognising that people with disabilities have their idiosyncrasies and challenges (just like everyone else). Ever practical, Gaventa tells stories and suggests strategies to help readers understand why challenging behaviours occur, and how to create environments that provide positive behaviour supports — respect for the spirit of every person, and communities of spiritual care. Although published with Baylor University Press, Disability and Spirituality is aimed at practitioners more than it is at scholars. As with many books that have ‘disability’ in the title, it is likely to attract a narrow audience, but I hope that it gets a wider readership. Those looking for fresh ways of thinking about spirituality would do well to consider the implications of disability. For me, the book’s major weakness is that Gaventa draws mostly on Christian and Jewish spirituality, with some mention of Islam and Hinduism (but not much). Missing was an extended discussion of African-American spirituality, and indigenous spirituality. Of course, one cannot expect a single author and a single book to cover every topic, and Gaventa understandably focuses on the context in which he has lived and worked. So I make this criticism in the hope that others will build on his work to provide fresh insights about disability and spirituality in these rich traditions that are rarely given voice.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658271","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43355958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The board-certified chaplain as member of the transdisciplinary team: An epistemological approach to spiritual care","authors":"Mark LaRocca-Pitts","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2019.1658262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658262","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Transdisciplinary models of healthcare require specialists in all clinical disciplines including medical, nursing, social work, and spiritual care. Spiritual care is the least understood of these disciplines, often resulting in using unqualified people to provide such care. This may result in spiritual harm for the care recipients and inability for this discipline to provide meaningful contributions to care plan objectives. The failure to utilize qualified spiritual care practitioners is a result of a failure in epistemology. Spirituality, and thus the care of people’s spirits, is a unique domain of knowledge that is subject to its own epistemology and has its own criteria for knowing and validating its specialized domain. Current best practice in the United States and Canada requires the spiritual care specialist on a clinical transdisciplinary care team be a board-certified chaplain who has undergone the proper formation, education, training, and vetting. Whether other countries require board certification or not, the epistemological requirements for adjudicating qualified spiritual care practitioners remains the same. This article spells out what these epistemological requirements are for a spiritual care specialist.","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658262","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47472572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Encountering the spiritual in contemporary art","authors":"R. Arya","doi":"10.1080/20440243.2019.1658269","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658269","url":null,"abstract":"1 Art, said Vassily Kandinsky, belongs to the spiritual life and is one of its most potent expressions. V. Kandinsky assumed a spiritual register to be central to meaningful art, with its roots in “mystical-spiritual” notions of abstraction. However outmoded this idea might seem, it is a theme taken up again in this latest reincarnation of art’s spiritual life, presented as a kind of virtual exhibition, the remnant of a proposed but unfulfilled project for the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Two landmark exhibitions from the 1980s are its clear precursors: The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985 , and Magiciens de la terre , the former tracing a line of spirituality in art through esotericism, the occult and abstraction, the latter drawing parallels between modern indigenous non-western art-making and its western contemporaries. Encountering the Spiritual in Contemporary Art draws these two threads together aiming, like those earlier projects, to reintroduce spiritual value into the display of art. In a richly illustrated volume, ably supported by substantial essays, it draws on diverse religious and cultural traditions under the rubric of four general themes: art-making as spiritual process, material practices, sources of inspiration, and the artist’s body as signifier of spiritual content. Opening with abstraction as a locus of spirituality, it goes on to examine First Nation and American Indian art, Australian aboriginal art, African arts, Sufism, and the Judeo-Christian tradition, identifying the spiritual as a motivating force in artists globally without prioritising any one artistic expression over another. Leesa K. Fanning is the guiding voice in this collection. Her definition of the spiritual is broad, encompassing the transcendent and immanent, personal and communal, direct unmediated experience and religious ritual. It is ineffable yet also grounded in material practices. It goes beyond religion, but also beyond the “I” or ego, to all of which art at its best alludes. If there is a polemical dimension to L. K. Fanning’s argument it consists in what she sees as a persistent fascination in contemporary art for such ideas and its almost complete absence in","PeriodicalId":42985,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Spirituality","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4,"publicationDate":"2019-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/20440243.2019.1658269","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44087132","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}