27,679 research outputs found
Where's the ‘faith’ in ‘faith-based’ organisations? The evolution and practice of faith-based homelessness services in the UK
No full textDrawing upon a qualitative exploration of the role of faith-based organisations (FBOs) in service provision for homeless people in the UK, this paper examines the ways in which the ‘faith’ in ‘faith-based’ services is articulated and experienced ‘on the ground’. It demonstrates that the ‘F’ in FBO is expressed in a myriad of nuanced ways, and that the strength of ‘coupling’ between many welfare agencies and organised religion has diminished over time such that some projects’ faith affiliation or heritage is now evident in palimpsest only. Homeless people do in fact often find it difficult to discern tangible differences between avowedly ‘faith-based’ and ‘secular’ projects, given a blurring of boundaries between the religious and the secular. These findings problematise FBO typologies, and highlight the complexity and fluidity of the very concept of ‘FBO’ itself. Certainly, they suggest that the differences between faith-based and secular provision should not be exaggerated, whilst recognising the importance of faith to the motivations of many service providers and the potential value of the (optional) ‘spiritual’ support offered by most FBOs
What is a ‘faith community’?
No full textThis article asks ‘what is a faith community?’ This is important because of a re-emergence of faith and the ‘faith community’ as a public category in many Western countries. This is reflected in the United Kingdom in a public policy interest in faiths as repositories of resources for ‘strengthened community’. Thus faiths are understood as ‘containers’ of staff, buildings, volunteers, networks, values and skills which can be ‘harnessed’ in key community domains, especially the provision of welfare and social services, extended forms of participative neighbourhood governance, and initiatives for community cohesion. Resources in each of these areas are understood to reside in ‘faith communities’ and faiths are frequently seen as ‘good at community’ in these terms. But do we know what a ‘faith community’ is? Using communitarian ideas of community, this article explores the notion of the faith community and the implications of policies about them for faith-based practices in community settings. It argues for the application of community development values to understanding ‘faith communities’
Close encounters? The intersection of faith and ethnicity in mixed-faith families
No full textThe encounter and intersection between faiths, cultures, and ethnicities in families where parents have different faith backgrounds are areas of social interaction about which we know little, although the number of such families is growing in the UK and globally. Mixed-faith families reflect the multi-cultural and multi-faith character of society and are thus spaces where individuals develop and negotiate multiple identities in relation to faith, ethnicity, gender, education - among other factors. Based on ethnographic data gathered during a recent study at the University of Warwick, this article presents a case study to examine what kind of cultural repertoire young people could draw on and whether this fostered 'multiple cultural competence' in them. The study also seeks to show how parents negotiated the practice and belief of their respective traditions and how children in such families perceived and formed their own religious and social identities
Leadership development in a faith-based non-profit organisation using a relational leadership model: A case study
No full textThis paper describes a case study of a Leadership Development Program (LDP) which has been developed and conducted at a large faith-based non-profit organization providing aged and community care in Australia. Walter Wright's Relational Leadership model which used insights from Jude, Philemon and Colossians was adopted by the organization. Started as a pilot in 2003 the LDP was implemented in 2007 and has been run regularly since then. The LDP was systematically evaluated by an independent researcher recently. The evaluation concluded that the program has been effective and recommended that it continue with some minor modifications. The organization in which this program was developed is a partner in an Australian Research Council (ARC) linkage grant started in 2010 between three universities and two faith-based non-profit organizations providing aged care and community care. This paper has been written by four researchers involved in the linkage grant. Four interviews on participants in the LDP were conducted by the authors to evaluate the effectiveness of the leadership program in order to prepare this paper. The study was carried out to clarify the research aim for the principal author (who is a PhD student in the ARC grant) by trying to understand what the LDP program was aiming to achieve and to be presented at the Spirituality at Work conference at the University of Arkansas
Wilfred Cantweil Smith's concept of faith: a critical study of his approach to Islam and Christianity
No full textThe aim of this study is to present and evaluate Wilfred Cantwell Smith's concept of faith, and to examine the way in which he uses it to approach and understand material from the traditions of Islam and Christianity. Chapter one consists a brief introduction and a biography of Wilfred Cantwell Smith. The second chapter analyses Smith's concept of faith, relating it to cumulative tradition, belief, truth and his vision of a world community. Chapter three examines Smith's treatment of various material from the Islamic tradition: the meaning of Islām, the shahādah, truth, the Qur'ān, and some studies of faith. Chapter four examines material from the Christian tradition: faith in the New Testament, faith in the baptismal rites of St Cyril of Jerusalem, and religious pluralism. These items illustrate his concept of faith and the way in which it is used in his approach and understanding of Islām and Christianity. Chapter five provides an evaluation of Smith's concept of faith and of his approach to Islam and Christianity. It is argued that although the concept of faith helps the student of religion in general and Islam and Christianity in particular to keep his eyes open to the personal existential aspects of human religious life. Smith's approach has some serious deficiencies. In particular faith itself is difficult to study other than in a selective, subjective way. His approach undervalues the corporate, institutionalized aspects of religious life, and the symbolic function played by the externals of religion. Furthermore, his understanding of faith is ill-equipped to handle the conflicting truth-claims found amongst the various traditions
Is Kierkegaard's radical faith a defensible justification for religious belief?
No full textFideism, or basing one’s religious belief on faith, is popular especially amongst modern Protestant Christians. For the fideist, religious belief-systems are not subject to rational evaluation, and faith as the act of belief forms the essence of truth and the ultimate criterion for embracing a religion. Critics of fideism say that epistemologically, a hierarchy of methods can be used to derive the truth, and each method gives us varying confidence levels. These methods include mathematics and logic, science, personal experience, history, expert testimony, inference and Faith. Among these, the critic says, pure faith in something is the least successful in getting at the truth. Radical fideists like Kierkegaard do not cite logical reasons for defending their belief that God exists. Personal reasons are instead offered for their decision to believe. In this thesis I seek to demonstrate that the radical fideism advocated by Kierkegaard constitutes good justification for belief in the Christian God. I will begin with a discussion on fideism and some of its proponents, followed by a discussion on the place of faith (as a non-rational belief in God’s existence) in religion. I will then appeal to Kierkegaard’s philosophy in defending my view that religious belief in God is a matter of faith and personal commitment, feeling and passion, and this is an inner process not grounded in arguments. References will be drawn from Kierkegaard’s themes of faith, subjectivity and inwardness. I conclude by saying that even if no objective grounds exist to justify our belief, Kierkegaard standpoint remains right in two ways: Firstly, the fideist rejection of the attempt to justify his belief through offering reasons for it is precisely what makes his decision to believe deeply meaningful in his life. Secondly, those who ‘try to judge faith by objective, critical reflection will go on forever that way, and will never reach the point of having faith and of being religious’. (Peterson et al, 2003:53
OntoMedia - Creating an Ontology for Marking Up the Contents of Fiction and Other Media
No full textThe OntoMedia project began as a convergence of three interests - the creation of metadata to describe the content of online amateur fiction, the identification of events in multimedia objects to seed external applications such as sound effects or automatic music generation and, finally, as a potential way of generating narrative. From that beginning it has expanded to describe narrative in media. The focus of this paper will be on the first of these since my initial involvement with the OntoMedia project was due to research I am doing into usability and user requirements in the amateur fiction online space
Literacy and Numeracy in Faith-Based and Government Schools in Sierra Leone
No full textThis paper provides a comparative assessment of the market share, reach to the poor, and performance of faith-based and public schools in Sierra Leone using data from the 2004 Integrated Household Survey. One-third of primary school students attend government schools and more than half are in faith-based government-assisted schools. Faith-based schools tend to serve children who live in poverty more than public schools, and after controlling for student and household characteristics and school choice, they also perform slightly better than public schools.Primary education; faith-based; poverty; performance; Sierra Leone
Faith Development, Religious Styles and Biographical Narratives: Methodological Perspectives
No full textKeller B, Streib H. Faith Development, Religious Styles and Biographical Narratives: Methodological Perspectives. Journal for Empirical Theology. 2013;26(1):1-21.Narrative study of religious lives has formed part of numerous projects at the Bielefeld Research Center for Biographical Studies in Contemporary Religion. An essential instrument in our designs, which mostly combine qualitative and quantitative methods, is the Faith Development Interview (FDI). In response to longstanding criticism its cognitive structural framework has been revised in respect of styles and schemata. The religious styles perspective examines the self as articulated in narratives and associates it with affectivity and emotion. This article gives an overview of our theoretical and methodological revisions, which take cognizance of current developments in lifespan developmental and clinical psychology such as attachment, mentalization and wisdom. We illustrate the implementation of these advances with a case study from our current study of ‘spirituality’ , which we locate in the complex multi-method design, and outline the triangulation of qualitative and quantitative data
Faith Reyher Jackson papers
No full textAuthor, educator, dancer/choreographer and master gardener Faith Reyher Jackson was born in New York City in 1919 to author Ferdinand Reyher (1890-1967) and author and women's rights activist Rebecca Hourwich Reyher (1898-1985). Jackson attended Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont, where she studied under Martha Hill and Martha Graham, graduating with a degree in dance and the arts in 1939. Jackson pioneered a program in dance education at the Academy of the Washington Ballet, where she served as the headmistress from 1964 until her retirement in 1978. Upon her retirement, Jackson devoted considerable time to her gardening efforts, earning her the title of master gardener. Jackson's journalistic career includes positions as the beauty editor of the New York Post from 1945 to 1946 and book editor of the Miami Herald from 1948 to 1950, and she has written for a number of publications, including Dance Magazine, Home & Garden, Mid-Atlantic Country, and American Horticulturist. Her major publications include both fiction and nonfiction, beginning with a scholarly biography of landscape architect William Lyman Phillips, Pioneer of Tropical Landscape Architecture: William Lyman Phillips in Florida, published in 1997 by the University Press of Florida. Jackson's fiction includes Meadow fugue and Descant (2002), for which she was awarded the Washington Writers Award, and her most recent publication, Stone's Throw (2009). Faith Jackson died on November 12, 2012. The collection documents Jackson's literary and journalistic activities, as well as major gardening projects. Material includes correspondence, manuscripts, architectural drawings, photographs, publications, and clippings
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