The Conversion Process

Although not the first scholar to examine the idea of religion, Jones utilizes the concept from the study of Self Psychology in order to determine if “transformative religious experience is mature or unhealthy” (Jones 2002). In chapter 5 of his text, Jones

This entry is about a woman on a journey to discover her religion. The author felt that she fell behind the religion department, compared to her friends that already had a set religion given to them by their parents. She discusses how she was afraid she would never find a religion that will suit her. She started researching churches and religions to find one that fit her beliefs and values. She believes that you shouldn’t do things out of revenge and that you should act on things you notice needs to be done. After visiting numerous churches, she is left her faithless and different perceptions on religion. In the end, she discovered her religion is Deity, a Christian religion that means to live a decent life that appeasing to the higher power. I found that this entry is related to me as well because I grew up with a strict set of beliefs my dad enforced on me. Growing up, I didn’t have the opportunity to live out my beliefs because of Apostolic beliefs of my dad. Being Apostolic, means that girls aren’t allowed to wear pants, makeup, cut their hair, wear skirts above the knee, wear hair extensions; unless bald, and listen to music that isn’t gospel. Additionally, you can’t work on Sundays, not allowed to have Christmas trees or seasonal decorations, girls have to place a prayer cloth over their head during service, boys can’t have their heads covered in church and boys can’t have long hair.

In The Sacred Quest, University of Notre Dame professor Lawrence Cunningham attempts the search for a coherent definition of religion. While he doesn’t strive for a one-sentence interpretation of what indicates a real, organized religion, he arrives on several elements and functions to give meaning to his definition. To Cunningham, there are five elements that make up a religion: belief, feeling, action, individual and community aspects, and values. Cunningham argues that these five elements exists in order to explain what could not otherwise be explained, enable people to sustain hope in the face of difficult experiences, and provide ways of thinking that provide goals and respond to “great problems” in life (158). All of these aspects work

Judaism is more than a religion, its a way of life. Judaism 's entire body of beliefs and teachings which form the foundations of the religion, are outlined in the Torah. Within the Torah, Jewish people find the many different texts and rules that prescribe to them on how to live properly as the chosen people of God. The tradition of Judaism has been alive for thousands of years, its origins tracing back to the Patriarchs Abraham, Jacob and Isaac. Subsequently, from this comes Judaism 's central beliefs: The belief in one God, the belief in moral law and the belief and trust in the covenant prescribed to Moses in Exodus 2.0. The Orthodox Judaism strand incorporates the Mitzvot quite literally and tries to take it on word for word. On the other hand Reform Judaism and Conservatio interpret it in different ways. These Sacred Texts form the Jewish religion and fundamentally make up the beliefs that the Jewish

James Fowler developed his stages of faith after conduction in-depth interviews of 359 people. The sample subjects were predominately white, with equal numbers of males and females and included a wide range of ages, from three and a half to 84 years old. Fowler’s interviews consisted of 30 plus questions regarding the subject’s life experiences, relationships, values, commitments and religion. After analyzing the responses, Fowler placed each subject in one of six faith stages. The responses indicated that as the subject’s age increased, so did their stage of faith (Hutchison, 2015).

How Orthodox and Reform Jews follow God’s Revelation in the form of the Torah is the primary difference between the two movements and is the impetus for the other differences between the two groups. The Orthodox tradition maintains that the Torah is God’s word and that it cannot be altered (Graber, 2013). Orthodox Jews believe that the Torah applies to both the past and future. The Reformist movement that has developed in the United States holds that the Torah was

Presented with the task of assessing someone’s faith development required the answers to three essential questions. How has social learning played a part in the individual’s religious development? How has attachment played a part in the individual’s religious development? Upon answering these questions we must then evaluate the stages of faith development in which the individual is in according to James Fowler and David Elkind. After thorough evaluation has occurred the question pertaining to the role of doubt can then be answered. With these questions in mind, the theory that religious beliefs and adherence to spiritual faith are ultimately tested and proved during adolescence was the driving thought throughout the process of interviewing

Relig-ish affirms the fact that, for many people, abandoning one’s faith isn’t a lazy act, but is “a mindful and appropriate response in an expanding world” (5). Mee-Chapman recognizes the diverse spiritual needs of her audience and carefully guides us through the process of creating “a set of right-fit spiritual practices that are rooted in your history, authentic to who you are today, and creative enough to grow with you” (6).

Religiosity (question A1) - “Important in Life: Religion” Coding for this question will be reversed to range from from 1 (Not al all important) to 4 (Very important).

Their beliefs and understandings of faith are being challenged and questioned in order to strengthen their understanding. Rather than having the adults in their life tell them what to believe, they are now responsible for forming opinions about everything in their lives. For this reason, it is vital that students stay connected to God during their college years. If they are not firmly grounded in truth, the controversial ideology that college courses may bring will easily sway them. If a spiritual foundation is not there, a student will face a “spiritual struggle: an experience with which many students are familiar, particularly those who concern themselves with deep reflection on faith, purpose, and life

1. For the first part of the paper, I interviewed one of my best friends from back home. I grew up with him throughout school and continue to be very close to him. My interviewee’s name is Nathaniel, he is 21, and studies philosophy. Nathaniel and I have been close for a long time but never fully discussed our religious beliefs openly. I was very excited to interview him for this paper.

In this essay we will discuss the importance of religion in society. We will attempt to explain why societies have religions and what functions their belief system has for them. We will also ask if these functions are now out-dated and if religions have any meaningful function in today's world or are they just stained glass windows into a bygone era? 'Religion' can be defined by two main groupings. 'The inclusive definition' covers all topics and subjects of a persons life including, not only, their belief in a deity but also their belief and belongingness to music, sport and any other interests the person may hold. 'The exclusive definition' refers to just their belief system regarding a 'supra-human' (Browne 2005, p. 311). It is mainly

The three different branches in Judaism consists of Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform. Other ways of stating this could be Traditional or Torah Judaism, Historical Judaism, and Liberal or Progressive Judaism. Orthodox Jews consists of nearly fifteen percent of the population of Jews while Conservative has the biggest population at approximately forty percent. Reform is the second largest near thirty percent. Orthodox Jews believe that the Torah is written true and believes in the divinity of its context. Conservative Jews believe that the Bible is the work of Man and God. It is not seen in the original sense, but as dynamically encouraged. Reform Jews believe that the Torah is a document written by humans that preserves the history and culture

Religion and spirituality reach into the depths of the human psyche and strongly influence a nation’s way of life.

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