Spirituality Reflection
Religion and spirituality are two subjects that many are unable to make a differentiation between. Religion is an institutionalization created by man, while spirituality is an expression or belief that an individual is born with. I did not grow up in a religious household; however, my family has always had spirituality formed around love. I came to know God and his word at a very young age, but the Bible was never a topic that I could rationalize or understand as more than a fairytale. With that being said, my faith in God has always been a pendulum that would swing toward full belief in him or away from any belief at all. The consistency to maintain a continuous faith has been hesitant for me; however, I have witnessed disasters and miracles that cause my lack of faith to recover and miraculously increase every time. The first disaster that I witnessed allowed me to see how powerful spirituality is in healing a deathly ill patient.
I began developing a spiritual relationship with God when I was three years old. I would attend church with my neighbor every Wednesday night; moreover, I affiliated learning God’s word with excitement and laughter, because we would receive the lesson through activities or competitions. Due to church, I grew into a relationship with the Lord and the family that I had made because of him; therefore, my image of God was that he was a loving father that would always provide me with safe and secure surroundings. However, I
Religion is universal. Although people may have different ideologies and practices, everyone believes in something, whether they deem it their religion or not. In this way, religion is a powerful connection between all of humanity; thus, it is important to understand the people behind religion and how their unique characteristics correlates with and influences religion—whether that be their social class, ethnicity, gender, or politics. However, ethnicity and gender, along with the closely linked topics of sexuality and politics, are the most significant concepts to understand religion in our modern world.
At the beginning of this semester, we wrote a reflection on our then-current knowledge of religion, women, and gender. I had very little knowledge of any religions other than Christianity because that is the religion I was raised in and continue to practice. As for women in religion, I also didn’t know much about except for Christianity, and even the extent of my knowledge in that area was limited. All I knew about gender was that there are two widely known and accepted genders, male and female, but one could also take on a third gender or no gender. After hearing several women from different religions speak as well as learning from texts and the professor, I have gained knowledge and perspective of women in religion.
Religion and spirituality have been complex issues in the United States of America. This is especially true when it comes to Native Americans. Since the 16th century, contact between Native Americans and Europeans has been filled with both good and bad. In this paper, the issue of religion and spirituality and how they figure into the story of Indian-European contact between the 16th and 21st centuries will be discussed.
Mark R. McMinn’s (2011) Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality in Christian Counseling establish a way to bring Psychology, Theology, and Spirituality to Christian Counselors. He introduces a replica of how to integrate the three disciplines in the counseling office. The purpose of the book is to instruct counselors how to integrate categories of Psychology, Theology and Spirituality into Christian Counseling. McMinn (2011) contends that many challenges both professional and personal face Christian Counselors on the frontier of intradisciplinary integration. (Intradisciplinary integration is the new emerging frontier for Christian Counselors).
Religion is a guideline for social conduct; additionally one may conclude of the gospel, and superstitious practices are the closest perceptible occurrence humans can term ‘magic. ' There are several definitions of the word religion because no one seems concise. One proper definition, according to Merriam-Webster, is “Religion is a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices” (Merriam-Webster, 2015). One might think that this distinguishing definition is most suitable for the purpose of this assignment. This paper will discuss the interviews of three different people who associate themselves with a particular religion. Hiawatha Macomb, Maxine Hawthorne, and Christian X will answer questions about their beliefs concerning religion, spirituality, faith, and perceptions about religion. In brief, the participants will have honest discussions about their beliefs in God and the supernatural.
As a child, I remember always saying I want to live in a large house with all my close relatives. In retrospect, that was my greatest but far fetched fantasy, since I did not realize then how divided and chaotic my life truly was. I still don’t, since they say I pushed down all my unpleasant memories, and when I’m ready they’ll come out. I often regain glimpses of the past that hurt me deeply, so I wonder do I genuinely want to remember everything? Let’s rewind. A nickname for the South is the Bible Belt. Church is a part of everyone’s life, no matter what the social class. You pray for every meal, and every day and night you pray. I didn’t pray. There are so many different words that describe beautiful ways to worship, but I can think of none. I memorize the words I hear every day, like the Lord’s prayer, I repeat them, but no belief is held behind the words. I stare at the worshippers with their eyes closed and wonder how the same words have so much meaning for them. As I go home to my mother, her boyfriend and my step sister, I find the reason why I can’t pray. No matter how hard I deny it, they’re still the reason why.
This course is an examination of the writings of the Old Testament, using an historical and interpretive approach to these writings. GER REL and Humanities
The 16th century was a time of culmination. A time during which the fundamental forces of civilization that shaped the world thus far, came together and accelerated their pace. Religious, cultural, intellectual, and economic transformations took place. New civilizations arose, only to be destroyed by imperialistic invaders. Old cultures converged and conflicts arose. New and old, east and west were unified, if only fleetingly and superficially. The religious beliefs of any society during the 1500s were taken very seriously and were tremendously important. At the time, entire empires were built on the simple principle of religion. It was the central unifier, the Europeans under Christianity, the Ottoman Empire under Sunni Islam, and the
The BA Religion program appears to be a good match and would help me on the path I am on judging from what I have done in the past. When judging my past history I am omitting my work experience because everybody needs work to pay bills and buy food which is a basic need. I call it a match because in the online material I saw history is a strong point for Colorado Christian University. The word history in this setting means to me learning history as it agrees with the Bible. This reminds me of a point brought at the end of a VHS video called EVIDENCES. That point is everything is built on the Bible. I do not have the information to site it as a source but I think it is sold by the Adventist Bookstore on DVD. Be careful since the release they created a series
My relationship with God became much less religious and more relational as I progressed through high school. I began reading the Bible consistently on my own and strove to live a life reflective of my faith and more importantly a life reflective of Christ. I ended high school losing several friends due to their “unwholesome” lifestyle choices and my transition towards spiritual maturity.
However, over the years, my faith began to wane. I don’t know If I always doubted my religion, but slowly over the years I began to slowly slip away from my religious upbringing. This all culminated in a youth camp my church held when I was around thirteen years old. During this youth camp, we were scheduled to do all sorts of service work and spiritual experiences. I had been told for years that this camp was where people finally “experienced” God, and where people finally saw God’s impact in their lives. While I appreciated the service work I got to do for others, I never had any spiritual experiences, and this moment really impacted me, and caused me to doubt the existence of a higher
The purpose of this paper is to discuss spirituality and how it can influence individuals’ faith and affect their way of prosper in their chosen religion. Spirituality applies a connection with faith; both create confidence and trust in searching for a meaning for life or a superior being, depending on the individual’s chosen religion. The research completed for this paper was determined from the results of Stephen P. Robbins’ self-assessment test IV.A.4: How Spiritual Am I? From the results and conclusion, the self-assessment presented that I have a high spirituality score. Since a child, I was raised to understand my spirituality and use of faith as
According to the American College Dictionary, religion is a noun defined as the quest for the values of the ideal life. This definition is vast and general, allowing for a variety of interpretations by people from all cultures. There is no single path to follow in order to lead an ideal life, only personal beliefs and experiences. Religion is non-finite so there is no way of determining a boundary (Smart, 5). In my quest for a true understanding of what religion is I explored my own traditions and religious beliefs as well as life experiences. Slowly, with the added insight from the text and videos, my own definition of religion has begun to take shape.
My mom once told me when I was young and ignorant, “Faith is the foundation of a beautiful friendship with the one person who will always remain by your side”. These words were expressed even more profoundly every Sunday in the echoing corridors of a small church by a priest I had yet to know or even care about. Preaching with his perplexing words in which I could only muster barely a fourth of my full attention span listening to. Thus, the term faith did not exactly resonate with me until many years later. My early years were filled with the teachings of the bible in Sunday school and later on as well in middle school during Friday night sessions. Unfortunately, my mom was an extremely strong enforcer of our faith for she was also raised Catholic from birth, but my dad on the other hand has a more scientific approach to how the world came to be. The years I spent in Sunday school blurred into an everlasting line of bleak nothingness just a ticking clock waiting till an end. Even today I do not remember anything that occurred within those taxing sixty minuets of constant bible studies it’s as though I lost the key to the inner workings of my childhood. Nonetheless, there have always been unbelievably great role models in my faith such as my mom, youth ministers, and friends who encourage me to be open to my faith. However, it’s always been my own restrictions that prevent me from furthering my relationship with God. So when my sister suffered her first severe
What religion am I? In my life, I have been told many things about my religion. My mother is a Roman Catholic, while my father is Jewish. I have learned about both religions, and I have tried to practice both as best I could, but I am now faced with the decision; which one am I?