Meditation

The term meditation encompasses a broad range of different practices, including reciting religious scriptures, chanting sacred mantras, progressive muscle relaxation, exercising deep breathing, sitting in silence, dancing, or even screaming. Spirituality through meditation is becoming widespread in the mainstream business world.

Avoimesti sitoutuneena : Lähetystyö kristillisessä kasvatuksessa ja vapaaehtoistyössä

In this study the junction of Christian mission, Christian education and voluntary work are examined in the Christian student voluntary association Opiskelijain Lähetysliitto (OL), which is the Finnish successor to the Student Volunteer Movement. The main subjects are the structure and content of the mission education as one aspect of Lutheran education and the reasons for expressing the mission interest through voluntary work. The research questions are as follows: What kind of organization has the OL been? What has mission education been like in the OL? Why have the former chairpersons participated in the OL? How have purposiveness and intentionality arisen among the former chairpersons? The study is empirical despite having a historical and retrospective view, since the OL is explored during the period 1972 2000. The data consists of the OL s annual reports, membership applications (N=629) and interviews of all 25 former chairmen. Data is analysed by qualitative and quantitative content analysis in a partly inductive and partly deductive manner. The pedagogical framework arises from situational learning theory (Lave - Wenger 1991), which was complemented with the criteria for meaningful learning (Jonassen 1995), the octagon model of volunteer motivation (Yeung 2004) and the definitions of intentionality and purposiveness in the theory of teachers pedagogical thinking (Kansanen et al. 2000). The analysis of the archive data showed that the activities of the OL are reminiscent of those of the missions of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church congregations. The biggest difference was that all OL participants were young adults, the age group that is the greatest challenge to the Church. The OL is therefore an interesting context in which to explore mission education and mission interest. The key result of the study was the forming of a model of mission educa-tion. The model has three educational components: values, goals and methods. The gist of the model is formed by the goals. The main goal is the arousing and strengthening of mission interest which has emotional, cognitive and practical aspects. The subgoals create the horizontal vertical and inward outward dimensions of the model, which are the metalevels of mission education. The subgoals reveal that societal and religious education may embody a missionary dimension when they are understood as missionary training. Further, a distinction between mission education and missionary training was observed. The former emphasizes the main goal of the model and the latter underlines the subgoals. Based on the vertical dimension of the model the study suggests that the definition of religious competence needs to be complemented with missional competence. Reasons for participating in the OL were found to be diverse as noted in other studies on volunteering and motivating factors, and were typical to young people such as the importance of social relations. The study created new motivational themes that occurred in the middle of the continuity newness and the distance proximity dimensions, which were not found in Yeung s research. Mission interest as voluntary work appeared as oriented towards one s own spirituality or towards the social community. On the other hand, mission interest was manifested as intentional education in order to either improve the community or to promote the Christian mission. In the latter case the mission was seen as a purpose in life and as a future profession. Keywords: mission, Christian education, voluntary work, mission education, mission interest, stu-dent movement

Pietismin kuva - ikkuna yksityiseen hengellisyyteen : Johann Arndtin opetukset pietistisen embleemin perustana

The image of Pietism a window to personal spirituality. The teachings of Johann Arndt as the basis of Pietist emblems The Pietist effect on spiritual images has to be scrutinised as a continuum initiating from the teachings of Johann Arndt who created a protestant iconography that defended the status of pictures and images as the foundation of divine revelation. Pietist artworks reveal Arndtian part of secret, eternal world, and God. Even though modern scholars do not regarded him as a founding father of Pietism anymore, his works have been essential for the development of iconography, and the themes of the Pietist images are linked with his works. For Arndt, the starting point is in the affecting love for Christ who suffered for the humankind. The reading experience is personal and the words point directly at the reader and thus appear as evidence of the guilt of the reader as well as of the love of God. Arndt uses bounteous and descriptive language which has partially affected promoting and picturing of many themes. Like Arndt, Philipp Jakob Spener also emphasised the heart that believes. The Pietist movement was born to oppose detached faith and the lack of the Holy Ghost. Christians touched by the teachings of Arndt and Spener began to create images out of metaphors presented by Arndt. As those people were part of the intelligentsia, it was natural that the fashionable emblematics of the 17th century was moulded for the personal needs. For Arndt, the human heart is manifested as a symbol of soul, personal faith or unbelief as well as an allegory of the burning love for Jesus. Due to this fact, heart emblems were gradually widely used and linked with the love of Christ. In the Nordic countries, the introduction of emblems emanated from the gentry s connections to the Central Europe where emblems were exploited in order to decorate books, artefacts, interiors, and buildings as well as visual/literal trademarks of the intelligentsia. Emblematic paintings in the churches of the castles of Venngarn (1665) and Läckö (1668), owned by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie, are one of the most central interior paintings preserved in the Nordic countries, and they emphasise personal righteous life. Nonetheless, it was the books by Arndt and the Poet s Society in Nurnberg that bound the Swedish gentry and the scholars of the Pietist movement together. The Finnish gentry had no castles or castle churches so they supported county churches, both in building and in maintenance. As the churches were not private, their iconography could not be private either. Instead, people used Pietist symbols such as Agnus Dei, Cor ardens, an open book, beams, king David, frankincense, wood themes and Virtues. In the Pietist images made for public spaces, the attention is focused on pedagogical, metaphorical, and meaningful presentation as well as concealed statements.

Paganism, Traditionalism, Nationalism : Narratives of Russian Rodnoverie

The topic of this dissertation is Rodnoverie, a religion that revives pre-Christian Slavic spirituality. Rodnoverie has been noted to be one of the fastest growing new religions in Russia and the aim of the study is to analyse why and how the movement has attained its popularity. First, the analysis asks how Rodnovers themselves explain the revival of ancient Paganism at this particular historical moment. Secondly, these interpretations are reflected in the framework of sociological discussions about contemporary religiosity. The analysis discusses how the Rodnoverie movement corresponds to some tendencies that are considered to characterise late modern religiosity. The primary material of the research is Rodnoverie texts: books, newspapers and electronic articles. The published literature is supplemented by fieldwork material which includes interviews with some Rodnoverie leaders and the author s participant observation of rituals and gatherings. Methodologically, the study draws on a sociological narrative approach that is focused on examining how individuals and groups use narratives to construct their identities and to challenge mainstream discussions and interpretations. The analysis discerns three narratives. The first one of these portrays Rodnoverie as a revival of the native Russian or Slavic religion. The narrative provides a new version of the old Slavophile idea, according to which imitation of the West has misguided Russia and, therefore, Russians should turn to their own tradition. In the second narrative, Rodnoverie is presented as a nature religion that features tolerance and pluralistic values. According to these perceptions, the emergence of Rodnoverie marks the dead-end of the earlier hegemonic universalistic world-views, the mono-ideologies . While the nationalist narrative focuses on Russia s national heritage, the third narrative interprets the tradition in more universal terms as an alternative to modern values and way of life. The main argument of this narrative is that contemporary people have become alienated from nature, their roots and their community. The themes that are discussed in the theoretical literature on late modern religiosity often configure in Rodnovers interpretations either directly or when looked at through an analytical framework. Of the various themes that are addressed in a sociological study of religion the ones that have most relevance for Rodnoverie are the discussions on individualisation, globalisation and secularisation. Rodnoverie reflects such tendencies as the subjectivisation of religion and the modern crisis of authority. The movement also both exemplifies and actively promotes religious pluralisation in Russia.

Vain hätapua? : Taloudellinen avustaminen diakoniatyön professionaalisen itseymmärryksen ilmentäjänä

Financial Help Alone? Financial help as an exponent of professional diaconal work One essential form of helping people in the Evangelical Lutheran Church s diaconal work is providing economic aid. It can be seen as work which is in accordance with the spirit of the Church Order (4:3). One of the tasks of diaconal work, determined by the Church Order, is to help those whose distress is the greatest and who have no other source of help. This financial support has become a permanent and essential working method, which has also created tension of various kinds. Financial support has been criticized, especially when the support has been used to fill a gap in the social services provided by the government. It has been argued that diaconal work has been forced to take on responsibility for tasks that belong to the welfare state. The tensions involved in the financial support of diaconal work do not only concern the patching up and supplementing of the deficiencies in the welfare state s services but also the question of diaconal workers self-understanding of financial support and how it relates to their professionalism. In this thesis, I examine the experiences and visions diaconal workers have concerning financial support in their work with clients. The viewpoint of my work is the diaconal workers own experiences and interpretations of the meaning of financial support in customer service. In the articles of my thesis, I examined the meanings that diaconal workers gave to financial support in the aspects of work motivation, empowerment, expertise and tensions. The research material of my articles consists of three different data, which are theme interviews from diaconal workers, a survey from diaconal workers of Espoo and a diaconal barometer of 2009. I have analysed the theme interviews and the survey using qualitative content analysis. The results of my articles showed that diaconal workers motivation in tasks concerning economic aid was sustained by the nature and spiritual aspects of support activities. Work that supported empowerment through financial assistance meant influencing the client s personal life, community and local ties and structural circumstances of the surrounding society. Diaconal workers expertise in financial support work can be characterised as horizontal, which means that the expertise was built on acknowledging the client s dignity, the uniqueness of the client s life situation and listening to the client s own voice. Diaconal workers were also experts in community and area-based work. The tensions in financial support work are linked to its unofficial and undefined role in the field of social welfare and the inability of other aiding parties to respond to their duties. The results of my thesis on the experiences and visions of financial support reveal that it is multilateral and multidimensional. Diaconal workers used financial support to help the clients, taking into account their individual, communal, social and spiritual context. The professionalism of this financial support is reflectively related to the client s need of help and the spontaneity and unexpectedness of the situation. Support work was deeply bound to diaconal workers experiences of spirituality as the basic value in their work, the foundation of their idea of humanity and their method of helping others. In different tasks of financial support diaconal workers balanced between traditional, individual client work based on caritas and working methods which are based on supporting the individual s empowerment and active citizenship, as in postmodern social work. Diaconal workers experiences of financial support illustrated the transition or turning point in the professionalism of diaconal work, which involves finding one s own, stronger and clearer professional identity than earlier with respect to other helpers in society. Creating a unique identity is part of the empowerment process of diaconal work, in which it must define its professional role by itself. In postmodern pluralism and the fragmented context of diaconal activities, the question arose as to whether the spiritual traditions and traditional values of diaconal work support the modifications and adaptations needed in new, unpredictable situations. Diaconal work is said to be fast to react, able to predict changes and adapt to those changes. To preserve its sensitive reactive ability, also in the complex postmodern world, it must retain its own views and orientations. Otherwise, the distinctive values and traditions of diaconal work might sustain static diaconal work, employee-centeredness and a smug attitude when defining beneficiaries and needs, which highlights the paternalism of diaconal work. Such paternalism may complicate the progress of working methods which are based on empowerment and citizenship.

Diakoniatyön paikka ihmisten arjessa

This study examines the diaconia work of the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Church from the standpoint of clients. The role of diaconia work has grown since the early 1990s recession, and since it established itself as one of the actors along with other social organizations. Previous studies have described the changing role of diaconal work, especially from the standpoint of diaconia workers and co-operators. This research goes back to examine, beyond the activities of the diaconia work of everyday practices, its relations of ruling which are determining practices. The theoretical and methodological framework rises from the thinking of Dorothy E. Smith, the creator of institutional ethnography. Its origins are in feminism, Marxism, phenomenology, etnomethodology, and symbolic interactionism. However, it does not represent any school. Unlike the objectivity-based traditional sociology, institutional ethnography has its starting point in everyday life, and people s subjective experience of it. Everyday life is just a starting point, and is used to examine everyday life s experiences of hidden relations of ruling, linking people and organizations. The level of generalization is just on the relations of ruling. The research task is to examine those meanings of diaconia work which are embedded in its clients experiences. The research task is investigated with two questions: how diaconia work among its clients takes shape and what kinds of relations of ruling exist in diaconia work. The meanings of diaconia work come through an examination of the relations of ruling, which create new forms of diaconal work compared with previous studies. For the study, two kinds of data were collected: a questionnaire and ethnographic fieldwork. The first data set was collected from diaconal workers using the questionnaire. It gives background information of the diaconia work process from the standpoint of the clients. In the ethnographic study there were two phases. The first ethnographic material was collected from one local parish by observing, interviewing clients and diaconal workers and gathering documents. The number of observations was 36 customer appointments, and 29 interviews. The second ethnographic material was included as a part of the analysis, in which ruling relations in people s experiences were collected from the transcribed data. Close reading and narrative analysis are used as analysing methods. The analysis has three phases. First, the experiences are identified with close reading; the following step is to select some of the institutional processes that are shaping those experiences and are relevant for the research. At the third stage, those processes are investigated in order to describe analytically how they determine people s experience. The analysis produces another narrative about diaconia work, which provides tools for examining the diaconal work from a new perspective. Through the analysis it is possible to see diaconia as an exchange ratio, in which the exchange takes place between a client and a diaconia worker, but also more broadly with other actors, such as social workers, shop clerks, or with other parishioners. The exchange ratio is examined from the perspective of power which is embedded in the client s experiences. The analysis reveals that the most important relations of ruling are humiliation and randomness in the exchange ratio of diaconia work; valuating spirituality above the bodily being; and replacing official social work. The results give a map about the relations of ruling of diaconia work which gives tools to look at diaconia work s meanings to the clients. The hidden element of humiliation in the exchange ratio breaks the current picture of diaconia work. The ethos of the holistic encounters and empathic practices are shown to be of another kind when spirituality is preferred to the bodily being. Nevertheless, diaconia appears to be a place for a respectful encounter, especially in situations where the public sector s actors are retreating on liability or clients are in a life crisis. The collapse of the welfare state structures imposes on diaconia work tasks that have not previously belonged to it. At the local level, clients receive partners from diaconia workers in order to advocate them in the welfare system. Actions to influence the wider societal structures are not reached because of lacking resources. An awareness of the oppressive practices of diaconia work and their critical reviewing are the keys to the development of diaconia work, since there are such practices even in holistic and respectful diaconia work. While the research raises new information for the development of diaconia work, it also opens up new aspects for developing other kinds of social work by emphasizing the importance of taking people s experiences seriously. Keywords: diaconia work, institutional ethnography, Dorothy E. Smith, experience, customer, relations of ruling.

Los monasterios y la monarquía en época de crisis : Sancho IV

Resumen: El apoyo constante de la realeza a los monasterios en la Edad Media no se vio interrumpido en época de crisis, como la vivida en las postrimerías del reinado de Alfonso X y los comienzos del de Sancho IV, en la que algunos monasterios tradicionales participaron en la Hermandad. Del conflicto realengo- abadengo se sustrae así la realeza hispánica siempre atenta a favorecer a las comunidades monásticas, bastión y símbolos de la espiritualidad medieval así como ordenadoras del espacio y de la vida económica de la región en que se asentaban.

El discernimiento espiritual en la toma de decisiones

Resumen: El artículo intenta demostrar que la espiritualidad no es una forma de "altruismo racional" y que la elección de los actores espiritualmente motivados no puede reducirse a la lógica de "maximizar una preferencia altruista". En primer lugar, explica que la espiritualidad es necesaria como método para resolver problemas divergentes, que no pueden ser resueltos por la mente racional calculadora. Luego, explora el modus operandi del discernimiento espiritual, tomando como guía las conferencias de Hannah Arendt sobre la filosofía política de Kant. Por último, el autor ofrece algunas indicaciones acerca del modo en que este método de juicio moral y de discernimiento espiritual puede renovar las bases de la ética empresarial y del liderazgo.

Emprendedorismo guiado por la espiritualidad

Resumen: Las prácticas de liderazgo empresarial propias de la corriente teórica principal en economía, suelen producir un impacto negativo en la naturaleza, en las generaciones futuras y en la sociedad . Las convicciones espirituales pueden ayudar a los líderes de negocios a alcanzar sus objetivos en forma ecológica, pro-social y con respeto por las generaciones futuras. El artículo presenta casos de emprendedorismo guiado por la espiritualidad en Estados Unidos, Europa y la India y discute los cambios que se requieren para que las organizaciones se transformen en entidades sustentables.

Michel de Certeau : recorrido por sus múltiples pertenencias

El contenido del presente artículo surge de la necesidad de reconstruir los recorridos y continuos desplazamientos que fueron forjando el itinerario intelectual de Michel de Certeau a fin de poder captar el “estilo” de sus propias “prácticas intelectuales”. Siguiendo a Luce Giard, distinguimos tres etapas de duración desigual, en el itinerario de Michel de Certeau: 1) el tiempo de los cimientos, consagrado a la historia de la espiritualidad y de la Compañía hasta 1968; 2) el tiempo de sacudida y ampliación de su proyecto intelectual entre 1968 y 1974; 3) el tiempo de plenitud entre 1975 y el fin de 1985. Nos centramos, en esta ocasión, en la presentación de las dos primeras etapas, dejando para posteriores desarrollos la tercera etapa. Cerramos el artículo con la discusión en torno a la pertinencia del título ciertamente provocador del artículo de E. Roudinesco: “Michel de Certeau, iconoclasta esclarecido”.

“Evangelización con espíritu” (EG 261) : la unidad de la teología, la espiritualidad y la pastoral al servicio del anuncio del evangelio: una lectura de la exhortación pastoral Evangelii Gaudium desde la Teología Espiritual

Resumen: Uno de los grandes “maestros en teología” en la Argentina de los últimos tiempos, Lucio Gera (+07.08.2012), cuyo segundo aniversario de fallecido honramos en este número de la revista Teología, hablaba de la ineludible exigencia posconciliar de integrar teología, espiritualidad y pastoral. El capítulo V de Evangelii gaudium, “Evangelizadores con Espíritu” (cf. EG 259ss), se ubica especialmente en este horizonte de convicciones porque tiene un inconfundible contenido teológico, un marcado acento espiritual y una clara orientación y lenguaje pastoral, pero sobre todo en razón de expresar una íntima compenetración entre estas tres dimensiones. En este artículo, que reelabora y amplía una presentación oral en la Jornada Evangelii gaudium, organizada por la Facultad de Teología de la UCA el pasado 5 de junio, se asume el vigor de la propuesta de una “evangelización con espíritu” (EG 261) y se reflexiona, en diálogo con nuestra iglesia local, sobre cuatro aspectos relacionados con ella: 1. una teología de la “evangelización con espíritu”, es decir, “con Espíritu Santo”; 2. una espiritualidad contemplativa: amar la Palabra y gustar ser pueblo; 3. el estilo pastoral mariano de la evangelización; y 4. la danza de la teología, la espiritualidad y la pastoral al servicio de la alegría de evangelizar.

El legado espiritual de Chiara Lubich : una mística de unidad para el tercer milenio

Resumen: Al cumplirse un año del fallecimiento de Chiara Lubich el pasado 14 de marzo de 2008, este artículo se propone una memoria de su vida y sus enseñanzas. En la primera parte, se entrelazan su biografía y el nuevo carisma; en la segunda, se retoman los ejes centrales de su pensamiento siguiendo la obra La doctrina espiritual preparada por Michel Vanderleene –editada en Buenos Aires en 2005–. La tercera parte, finalmente, ofrece una reflexión sobre un testimonio de Chiara Lubich hablando de nuestro Ideal: “Sean una familia”. De este modo, quedan ilustrados los principales motivos que hacen del carisma de la unidad un legado sobresaliente de espiritualidad comunitaria para el siglo XXI.

Bioética clínica personalista : el aporte del padre José Kentenich

Resumen: Esta presentación intenta identificar el desafío metodológico de la Bioética en cuanto su fundamento racional y objetivo más allá de su modalidad procedimental, dialogante y consensuada, en busca de una fundamento substancial como ha de ser el concepto ontológico de persona. A su vez, a partir de persona, se mostrará un modelo intersubjetivo del encuentro clínico que contribuye a la Bioética clínica del cuidado. Para articular el cuidado en su sentido pleno se acude a la espi - ritualidad del Padre José Kentenich como inspiración a la medicina en cuanto vocación de servicio ministerial y fuente de la relación médicopaciente como amistad o alianza fraternal.

Fe, cristianismo y humildad: núcleos teologales de la pastoral popular del padre Rafael Tello

Resumen: Sin pretender “espiritualizar” la teología del padre Rafael Tello, este artículo ofrece algunas de las vertientes en las que abreva la espiritualidad de la pastoral popular de la que el teólogo argentino es uno de sus más originales representantes. Indagaremos en ciertos núcleos teologales y teológicos que nos permitirán registrar una continuidad entre teología y vida, al tiempo que nos dejarán en el umbral de una propuesta evangelizadora que no es posible comprender sin esta manera de vivir la fe cristiana. De la mano de figuras tradicionales de la mística y de la teología como san Juan de la Cruz y santo Tomás de Aquino, el padre Tello nos propone recrear la vivencia del evangelio para los tiempos actuales.

Expressões da espiritualidade em pessoas que vivem com HIV/Aids a partir das representações sociais acerca da síndrome: implicações para o cuidado de enfermagem

Este estudo tem como temática a espiritualidade de pessoas que vivem com HIV/Aids e como objetivo geral analisar as expressões da espiritualidade de pessoas que vivem com HIV/Aids no contexto das construções representacionais acerca da própria síndrome, com vistas à proposição de uma reflexão acerca do cuidado de enfermagem como uma tecnologia que pode estimular esta dimensão humana. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa, descritiva e exploratória, baseada nas abordagens processual e estrutural da Teoria das Representações Sociais. Quanto à metodologia, possui duas etapas: na primeira, participaram 30 pessoas com HIV/Aids em atendimento ambulatorial de um Hospital Municipal do Rio de Janeiro. Os dados foram coletados através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas e analisados através da análise de conteúdo de Bardin. Na segunda, participaram 100 pessoas atendidas no hospital supracitado. Os dados foram coletados através da técnica de evocações livres e analisados a partir do software EVOC. A partir da análise das entrevistas, emergiram cinco categorias denominadas: do sofrimento à dificuldade de encontrar sentido diante do diagnóstico; dando a volta por cima: o encontro de sentidos; da dificuldade de adesão ao tratamento à esperança de cura; os relacionamentos como forma de expressão da espiritualidade; e a presença da religiosidade no viver com HIV/Aids. Percebe-se que a descoberta diagnóstica é marcada por intenso e inevitável sofrimento, relacionado principalmente à representação social da Aids ligada à morte e à discriminação. Por outro lado, após o impacto do diagnóstico positivo, os participantes encontram um sentido para a vida, passando a ressignificá-la. A dificuldade de adesão é vista como uma vivência prejudicada da espiritualidade. Ressalta-se a esperança na cura, divina ou não-divina e há expressões de espiritualidade nos relacionamentos consigo mesmo, com o outro e com o divino. A religiosidade também se faz presente no viver com HIV/Aids principalmente para explicar a origem da Aids no mundo. Quanto à estrutura representacional da Aids, foram analisadas, comparativamente, as evocações do grupo geral, e as relacionadas ao sexo e à religião dos participantes. O possível núcleo central do grupo geral é composto pelas palavras medo, morte, tristeza e vida, elementos afetivos que também foram identificados nas entrevistas. A estrutura representacional do sexo feminino se sobrepõe a do grupo geral, diferindo-se da dos homens, que assume um caráter mais racional. Conclui-se que o sofrimento relacionado ao impacto do diagnóstico pode levar à dificuldade de encontrar sentido para a vida e, portanto, de vivenciar a espiritualidade. Ainda assim, esta dificuldade passa a ser substituída, com o tempo, por um encontro de sentido para se viver, levando a uma ressignificação da vida. A estrutura representacional permitiu a visualização de como os elementos relacionados à espiritualidade se organizam. Observa-se um processo de transformação das representações sociais da síndrome, que coincide com a presença da espiritualidade. Destaca-se o papel do enfermeiro na promoção do cuidado espiritual à pessoa com HIV/Aids.