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Abstract

Despite the increasing prominence of Christian nationalism within the U.S. population and its concerning associations with anti-democratic attitudes and racial bias, little is known about how highly spiritual individuals engage with Christian nationalism. Moreover, while extant research has examined demographic and political associations with Christian nationalism, the present study attempted to understand how Christians who are pursuing vocational training in the service of others may simultaneously support Christian nationalism’s messages of exclusivity and authoritarianism. Using latent profile analysis on Christian nationalism items, we examined how 746 Christian emerging religious leaders engage with this ideology. We assessed demographic and psychosocial (e.g., ideological commitment, spiritual impression management) predictors of different profiles and explored associations between these subgroups and various constructs of spirituality (e.g., spiritual grandiosity, spiritual struggles) and social engagement (e.g., social justice, authoritarianism). We discuss our findings and their implications for the future of religiousness and nationalism.

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Empirical studies of religion's role in society, especially those focused on individuals and analyzing survey data, conceptualize and measure religiosity on a single measure or a summary index of multiple measures. Other concepts, such as "lived religion," "believing without belonging," or "fuzzy fidelity," emphasize what scholars have noted for decades: humans are rarely consistently low, medium, or high across dimensions of religiosity including institutional involvement, private practice, salience, or belief. A method with great promise for identifying population patterns in how individuals combine types and levels of belief, practice, and personal religious salience is latent class analysis. In this paper, we use data from the first wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion's telephone survey to discuss how to select indicators of religiosity in an informed manner, as well as the implications of the number and types of indicators used for model fit. We identify five latent classes of religiosity among adolescents in the United States and their socio-demographic correlates. Our findings highlight the value of a person-centered approach to understanding how religion is lived by American adolescents.
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The paper presents a short version of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) Scale. The results of two studies are described. In the first one, conducted on a sample of 363 university students, the short version is developed by means of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, which supported a two dimensions solution. The two dimensions have been labelled as “authoritarian aggression and submission” and “conservatism”. Different issues concerning the factorial structure are tested and discussed. Subsequently, the relationships between authoritarianism, subtle and blatant prejudice towards Islamic immigrants in Italy, and participants’ political orientation are examined. Compared to conservatism the authoritarian aggression and submission dimension is more strongly associated to prejudice and right-wing political orientation. In the second study, carried out on a sample of 201 adults, the validity of the short version is successfully supported. Differences due to gender, age, and level of education are also examined.
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In recent years, catalysed by public exposure of failures in care and neglect, health systems around the world have renewed an undertaking to provide compassionate care. Implementing the undertaking however is less than straightforward. This study argues that an adequate understanding of compassion has profound implications not only for everyday behaviour of health practitioners but also for reforming health systems and for transforming the societies they serve. It suggests that palliative care offers experience and insights that are important to this undertaking, and that renewed attention to compassion throughout the health system will also support palliative care in regaining aspects of its original mission, including its understanding of dying as a spiritual quest.
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Faith-based organizations are a frequent partner in health promotion due to their large and expansive reach across multiple demographics of the United States. These faith-based organizations are led by clergy members who have a strong influence over their institutions and who shape the physical and social environments of their institutions for health-related matters. The purpose of this review was to examine current issues associated with the health, behaviors, and well-being of clergy, highlight the literature on the role clergy play in delivering effective health promotion interventions, and present recommendations for improving clergy health and the involvement of clergy in faith-based initiatives.
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This paper reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of the results of 137 tests of the ingroup bias hypothesis. Overall, the ingroup bias effect was highly significant and of moderate magnitude. Several theoretically informative determinants of the ingroup bias effect were established. This ingroup bias effect was significantly stronger when the ingroup was made salient (by virtue of proportionate size and by virtue of reality of the group categorization). A significant interaction between the reality of the group categorization and the relative status of the ingroup revealed a slight decrease in the ingroup bias effect as a function of status in real groups, and a significant increase in the ingroup bias effect as a function of status in artificial groups. Finally, an interaction between item relevance and ingroup status was observed, such that higher status groups exhibited more ingroup bias on more relevant attributes, whereas lower status groups exhibited more ingroup bias on less relevant attributes. Discussion considers the implications of these results for current theory and future research involving the ingroup bias effect.
Article
The authors characterize religions as social groups and religiosity as the extent to which a person identifies with a religion, subscribes to its ideology or worldview, and conforms to its normative practices. They argue that religions have attributes that make them well suited to reduce feelings of self-uncertainty. According to uncertainty-identity theory, people are motivated to reduce feelings of uncertainty about or reflecting on self; and identification with groups, particularly highly entitative groups, is a very effective way to reduce uncertainty. All groups provide belief systems and normative prescriptions related to everyday life. However, religions also address the nature of existence, invoking sacred entities and associated rituals and ceremonies. They are entitative groups that provide a moral compass and rules for living that pervade a person's life, making them particularly attractive in times of uncertainty. The authors document data supporting their analysis and discuss conditions that transform religiosity into religious zealotry and extremism.
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"Philip Rieff has become out most learned and provocative critic of psychoanalytic thinking and of the compelling mind and character of its first proponent. Rieff's Freud: The Mind of the Moralist remains the sharpest exegesis yet to be done on the moral and intellectual implications of Freud's work. It was a critical masterpiece, worthy of the man who inspired it; and it is now followed by a work that suffers not at all in comparison. No review can do justice to the richness of The Triumph of the Therapeutic."—Robert Coles, New York Times Book Review "A triumphantly successful exploration of certain key themes in cultural life. Rieff's incidental remarks are not only illuminating in themselves; they suggest whole new areas of inquiry."—Alasdair MacIntyre, Guardian
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A small but growing literature recognizes the varied roles that clergy play in identifying and addressing mental health needs in their congregations. Although the role of the clergy in mental health services delivery has not been studied extensively, a few investigations have attempted a systematic examination of this area. This article examines the research, highlighting available information with regard to the process by which mental health needs are identified and addressed by faith communities. Areas and issues where additional information is needed also are discussed. Other topics addressed include client characteristics and factors associated with the use of ministers for personal problems, the role of ministers in mental health services delivery, factors related to the development of church-based programs and service delivery systems, and models that link churches and formal services agencies. A concluding section describes barriers to and constraints against effective partnerships between churches, formal services agencies, and the broader practice of social work.
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Spirituality and religiousness are gaining increasing attention as health research variables. However, the particular aspects examined vary from study to study, ranging from church attendance to religious coping to meaning in life. This frequently results in a lack of clarity regarding what is being measured, the meaning of the relationships between health variables and spirituality, and implications for action. This article describes the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) and its development, reliability, exploratory factor analyses, and preliminary construct validity. Normative data from random samples and preliminary relationships of health-related data with the DSES also are included. Detailed data for the 16-item DSES are provided from two studies; a third study provided data on a subset of 6 items, and afourth study was done on the interrater reliability of the item subset. A 6-item version was used in the General Social Survey because of the need to shorten the measure for the survey. A rationale for the conceptual underpinnings and item selection is provided, as are suggested pathways for linkages to health and well-being. This scale addresses reported ordinary experiences of spirituality such as awe, joy that lifts one out of the mundane, and a sense of deep inner peace. Studies using the DSES may identify ways in which this element of life may influence emotion, cognition and behavior, and health or ways in which this element may be treated as an outcome in itself a particular component of well-being. The DSES evidenced good reliability across several studies with internal consistency estimates in the .90s. Preliminary evidence showed that daily spiritual experience is related to decreased total alcohol intake, improved quality of life, and positive psychosocial status.
Article
Spirituality is essential to healthcare. It is that part of human beings that seeks meaning and purpose in life. Spirituality in the clinical setting can be manifested as spiritual distress or as resources of strength. Patients' spiritual beliefs can impact diagnosis and treatment. Spiritual care involves an intrinsic aspect of care, which underlies compassionate and altruistic caregiving and is an important element of professionalism amongst the various healthcare professionals. It also involves an extrinsic element, which includes spiritual history, assessment of spiritual issues, as well as resources of strength and incorporation of patients' spiritual beliefs and practices into the treatment or care plan. Spiritual care is interdisciplinary care-each member of the interdisciplinary team has responsibilities to provide spiritual care. The chaplain is the trained spiritual care expert on the team. Optimally, all healthcare professionals, including the chaplain, on the team interact with each other to develop and implement the spiritual care plan for the patient in a fully collaborative model.
The Association of Religion Data Archives
The Association of Religion Data Archives. https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/S5YNU