"Spirituality, Religion, and Peace Education" attempts to deeply explore the universal and particular dimensions of education for inner and communal peace. This co-edited book contains fifteen chapters on world spiritual traditions, religions, and their connections and relevance to peacebuilding and peacemaking. This book examines the…

Jerry Falwell is the best-known religious figure in America today. His language is full of allusions to sports and to warfare. The message is one of machismo and toughness, especially emphasizing the need for unquestioning acceptance of a strong leader. (Author/CS)

Presents information on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Examines Joseph Smith's early knowledge of death experience and teachings on death, five historical Mormon near-death experience (NDE) accounts predating 1864 and two NDEs in late 1800s, other Mormon teachings on death experience, and Mormon sources of knowledge on death…

Public schools, since their founding in America in 1647, have reflected the demographic characteristics of the communities in which they are located. Because the United States has, until recently, been mostly Protestant Christian, many schooling practices have built upon the values of this faith. Pupils have sung Christmas songs at Christmas…

Recognizing that many of us teach the medieval English women mystics Margery Kempe and Julian of Norwich in survey courses, this essay attempts to put these writers in context for teachers who may have only a passing familiarity with the period. Focusing on passages of their writings found in the Longman and Norton anthologies of British…

Madeline Smith, a new elementary principal in northeastern Pennsylvania, wrestles with how to handle a dilemma involving one of her special education teachers who is wearing a head wrap while working. Wearing the head wrap is a violation of district policy, and if the head wrap is a religious symbol, then the employee is also violating the state…

Using a life notes methodology (Bell-Scott, 1994; Dillard, 2000, 2006; Simmons, 2007), I use personal narratives to describe my epistemological influences on my approach to educational practice, research, and the preparation of school leaders. Second, I share personal accounts of how my social justice lens expanded to be inclusive of lesbian, gay,…

The study examined attitudes toward school inclusion of students with disabilities of 1,145 prospective teacher trainees from six national/religious groups in eleven colleges in Israel: The groups were secular, religious and ultra-orthodox Jews and Muslim, Christian and Druze Arabs. Participants responded to the "Opinion Related to Inclusion…

"Twenty million Americans are involved in fringe religious cults such as spiritualism, Hare Krishna, Scientology, and Black Gospel groups," according to anthropologist Irving Zaretsky of the University of Chicago. He recently completed a 10-year period as a participant-observer of fringe religious groups in the San Francisco Bay area and the…

Examines the use of the small group modality for providing helping services in religious settings and the use of religious-spiritual content in small helping groups. Includes a review and critique of various types of services, including group therapy, marital treatment, marriage enrichment, growth groups, and assertion training. (Author/ABB)

This paper uses narrative criticism to analyze the ancient Indian religious poem, the "Bhagavad Gita." This important text, the second most widely translated piece of literature in the world, will receive much-deserved rhetorical attention to its narrative and how this helps construct issues of the self, the world, action, and ontology.…

Mormon adolescents (n=36) who were a majority group in their own community were found to score higher in identity foreclosure in comparison with Catholic and Protestant adolescents who were religious minorities in their communities. Results are discussed in terms of fidelity and identity commitment. (SLD)

A dialogic model for the discussion of issues related to Christian privilege and religious oppression of minority religious groups and non-believers in the United States is presented. The goal of the dialogue circles is to create and maintain a true multicultural community on the university campus.

A study was conducted to compare the degree of Jewish identity felt by: Soviet immigrants and American Jews. Questionnaire respondents in each group indicated their knowledge of Yiddish and of religious customs. Spoken knowledge of Yiddish was far more common among the Soviet Jews surveyed than among the Americans. Any knowledge of Yiddish by…

Traces the anti-intellectual tendency of American religious revivals throughout our history and suggests that educators note the effects of the present surge on the goals and processes of schooling. (Editor)