Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers PDF Author: Christian Smith Dr William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology University of Notre Dame
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198039972
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers

Soul Searching : The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers PDF Author: Christian Smith Dr William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology University of Notre Dame
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198039972
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 358

Get Book Here

Book Description
In innumerable discussions and activities dedicated to better understanding and helping teenagers, one aspect of teenage life is curiously overlooked. Very few such efforts pay serious attention to the role of religion and spirituality in the lives of American adolescents. But many teenagers are very involved in religion. Surveys reveal that 35% attend religious services weekly and another 15% attend at least monthly. 60% say that religious faith is important in their lives. 40% report that they pray daily. 25% say that they have been "born again." Teenagers feel good about the congregations they belong to. Some say that faith provides them with guidance and resources for knowing how to live well. What is going on in the religious and spiritual lives of American teenagers? What do they actually believe? What religious practices do they engage in? Do they expect to remain loyal to the faith of their parents? Or are they abandoning traditional religious institutions in search of a new, more authentic "spirituality"? This book attempts to answer these and related questions as definitively as possible. It reports the findings of The National Study of Youth and Religion, the largest and most detailed such study ever undertaken. The NYSR conducted a nationwide telephone survey of teens and significant caregivers, as well as nearly 300 in-depth face-to-face interviews with a sample of the population that was surveyed. The results show that religion and spirituality are indeed very significant in the lives of many American teenagers. Among many other discoveries, they find that teenagers are far more influenced by the religious beliefs and practices of their parents and caregivers than commonly thought. They refute the conventional wisdom that teens are "spiritual but not religious." And they confirm that greater religiosity is significantly associated with more positive adolescent life outcomes. This eagerly-awaited volume not only provides an unprecedented understanding of adolescent religion and spirituality but, because teenagers serve as bellwethers for possible future trends, it affords an important and distinctive window through which to observe and assess the current state and future direction of American religion as a whole.

The Soul Search

The Soul Search PDF Author: Kat Knecht
Publisher: Balboa Press
ISBN: 1504366409
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Thousands of self help books and transformational training programs have been created to help you find fulfillment, live a better life and become prosperous. The unique promise of the Soulsearch is to integrate the common threads of New Thought philosophies and Ancient Wisdom traditions so that you can apply those spiritual principles to your everyday life. the Soulsearch is full of stories that reveal both the journey and the results that come from using a practical tool guided by a spiritual philosophy. There is a step by step process you can follow as well as a simple concept that, once learned, will change your life forever. The stories are funny, inspirational, dramatic and rich with learning. They are the real life experiences of humans doing their best in a world that offers both challenges and opportunities to give and receive love in its many forms.

Soul Searching

Soul Searching PDF Author: Sarah Stillman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1582703426
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Examines various methods of self-discovery for teenage girls including dream interpretation, volunteer work and aromatherapy. Activities and quizzes are also included.

Soul Searching

Soul Searching PDF Author: William J. Doherty
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 0786724382
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Paul, a divorced father, wants to back out of his child care arrangement and spend less time with his children. Nathan has been lying to his wife about a serious medical condition. Marsha, recently separated from her husband, cannot resist telling her children negative things about their father. What is the role of therapy in these situations? Trained to strive for neutrality and to focus strictly on the clients' needs, most therapists generally consider moral issues such as fairness, truthfulness, and obligation beyond their domain. Now, an award-winning psychologist and family therapist criticizes psychotherapy's overemphasis on individual self-interest and calls for a sense of moral responsibility in therapy.

Soul Search

Soul Search PDF Author: David Darling
Publisher: First Edition Design Pub.
ISBN: 1622870506
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 89

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Book Description
What happens when we die? Does everything we are just stop? Is consciousness lost forever? Or does some vital spark inside us, a spirit or a soul, live on? We find it almost impossible to think about not having a mind, of our awareness being snuffed out like a candle. Yet the stark fact is that within a century or so, everyone alive today - all six billion of us - will be dead. Humans are the only creatures on earth that know they are going to die. But that foreknowledge has come fairly recently and it flies in the face of four billion years of evolution. Those eons have genetically conditioned us to do all we can to preserve ourselves and our kin. The result is that we are caught in a dilemma. We are programmed to survive by our genes yet made painfully aware of our mortality by our forward-looking brain. If we admit that death is inevitable, then our will to survive may be fatally weakened. On the other hand, if we deny death, we have to turn a blind eye to a patent fact of the real world. Only one avenue of escape is possible - belief in an afterlife. With this we can face the nightmare that death poses to the rational mind. We distance ourselves from death by institutionalizing it. Whereas in earlier times most people spent their last days at home in the bosom of family and friends, today four-fifths of us are removed to hospitals or nursing homes. We are hidden from the gaze of the young and healthy and tended to by strangers. As the end approaches, we are discreetly moved to wards for the terminally ill and plugged into life-support machines. Technology takes over. And when we do eventually die, it is often the inadequacy of the equipment or the shortcomings of the treatment that are blamed. Instead of accepting death as a natural and inevitable fact of life, we are in danger of convincing ourselves that, given further medical advances, we shall be able to stave it off for as long as we like. "Some people want to achieve immortality through their works or their descendants," said Woody Allen. "I want to achieve it through not dying." Now, for the first time, science seems to be holding out the slender hope of cheating death. Already, some of our vital parts can be replaced with natural or synthetic substitutes. In time, it seems, the transplant surgeon will be able to do for a human being what any competent mechanic in a well-equipped garage can do for a car. Key words - Death, Reincarnation, Consciousness, Cosmos, Science, Soul, Afterlife, Universe Author Bio - David Darling is the author of more than 40 titles including narrative science titles: Megacatastrophes!, We Are Not Alone, Gravity's Arc, Equations of Eternity, a New York Times Notable Book, and Deep Time. He is also the author of the bestseller-The Universal Book of Mathematics: From Abracadabra to Zeno's Paradoxes. Darling's other titles include The Universal Book of Astronomy, and The Complete Book of Spaceflight, as well as more than 30 children's books. His articles and reviews have appeared in Astronomy, Omni, Penthouse, New Scientist, the New York Times, and the Guardian, among others. David Darling was born in Glossop, Derbyshire, England, on July 29, 1953, and grew up in the beautiful Peak District, close to Kinder Scout for those who know the area. He went to New Mills Grammar School and then on to Sheffield University, where he earned his B.Sc. in physics in 1974, and Manchester University, for my Ph.D. in astronomy in 1977. David Darling's interests, apart from his work and family, include singing, song-writing, and playing guitar, walking, and travel.

Modern Man in Search of a Soul

Modern Man in Search of a Soul PDF Author: C.G. Jung
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135549486
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Modern Man in Search of a Soul is the perfect introduction to the theories and concepts of one of the most original and influential religious thinkers of the twentieth century. Lively and insightful, it covers all of his most significant themes, including man's need for a God and the mechanics of dream analysis. One of his most famous books, it perfectly captures the feelings of confusion that many sense today. Generation X might be a recent concept, but Jung spotted its forerunner over half a century ago. For anyone seeking meaning in today's world, Modern Man in Search of a Soul is a must.

In Search of the Soul

In Search of the Soul PDF Author: John Cottingham
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691234035
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
How our beliefs about the soul have developed through the ages, and why an understanding of it still matters today The concept of the soul has been a recurring area of exploration since ancient times. What do we mean when we talk about finding our soul, how do we know we have one, and does it hold any relevance in today’s scientifically and technologically dominated society? From Socrates and Augustine to Darwin and Freud, In Search of the Soul takes readers on a concise, accessible journey into the origins of the soul in Western philosophy and culture, and examines how the idea has developed throughout history to the present. Touching on literature, music, art, and theology, John Cottingham illustrates how, far from being redundant in contemporary times, the soul attunes us to the importance of meaning and value, and experience and growth. A better understanding of the soul might help all of us better understand what it is to be human. Cottingham delves into the evolution of our thoughts about the soul through landmark works—including those of Aristotle, Plato, and Descartes. He considers the nature of consciousness and subjective experience, and discusses the psychoanalytic view that large parts of the human psyche are hidden from direct conscious awareness. He also reflects on the mysterious and universal longing for transcendence that is an indelible part of our human makeup. Looking at the soul’s many dimensions—historical, moral, psychological, and spiritual—Cottingham makes a case for how it exerts a powerful pull on all of us. In Search of the Soul is a testimony to how the soul remains a profoundly significant aspect of human flourishing.

Soul Search

Soul Search PDF Author: Swarn Bains
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1524514225
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
This book is a translation of my Punjabi poetry, excluding few English poems in the beginning. God came into existence first. God worshipped inner source of knowledge (guru) to come into existence. A teacher who teaches English is called English teacher. Teacher who teaches math is called math teacher. Same way, the teacher who teaches spirituality is called guru. Worldly teachers teach from the brain to brain. The guru teaches the soul from soul. Guru is a mentor as well. It is telepathic transformation. Make your own judgment. When God felt lonely, he created the creation. He started caring for it. Doing so, he got attached to it and fell in love. God set love as prerequisite to realize him. The Creation is a testament to it. Mind is a thought-processing system. Spirituality is a study of the mind. Divinity is a state of mind. Spirituality is a rehearsal of the mind to miss God, and it straightens following gurus teaching. Sometimes it helps to follow the teachings of prophets or saints. But they have died long ago. So it has very little effect because the spirituality is learned telepathically from mind to mind from a living guru. The mind does not tune to spirituality without the gurus blessing. It can only be learnt by self-surrendering. It cannot be forced into the devotees mind. It can be learned from a spiritual teacher through love, humility, and dedication. God is great. Everything created by God is also great. So everything in the world is flawless and beautiful. To stay abreast with Creation; God assimilated himself in everything. That is why God is called omnipresent. God created his creations, including human beings. God abides in everything. So God has mothers love and motherly relation with his subjects. The subjects also have motherly relation with God. God wants us to realize him, and we also want to merge with him to end separation. I do not know much about other species, but man has instinct to go back and merge with the entity he separated from. So it is a mother-child relationship. There are many types of faiths, procedures, and processes people use to find a way to go back to him. We assume that God is one. Therefore, the final process to realize him also must be one only. Finally, all processes merge and end up in onethat is, to learn from a learned master, the guru. The world is a terrifying world ocean. The being is on one side of it and godliness or to merge with God is on the other side of the ocean. Gurus teaching is the process to take the being across the terrifying world ocean. It is a lot easier to learn from a teacher than your own. I was fortunate to meet my guru and become his devotee and follow his teaching and advice. At the same time, I started to read and contemplate the Sikh religious scripture, Siree Guru Granth Sahib. It is a spiritual book only. It has no stories that a person has to learn from. Writing in SGGS is by living saints, and it emphasizes that guru is God. One will have to console with guru to console with God. Other important criteria to realize God is selfless love, humility, and dedication mentioned in SGGS. Most harmful events from becoming divine are duality and slander. I learned from my guru and from reading SGGS. I decided my path, and I follow it under my gurus guidance and following the teachings of SGGS. Both have same message and advice. God is the highest power in the universe. In order to miss him, recitation and repetition are necessary. So there is lot of repetition about praising God in this book. To understand this book, the reader has to tune his mind to soul searching. Some people follow other systems. I have no opinion or knowledge about it. It is a lifelong process. Life is too short to learn on your own. He who puts his feet on two boats does not cross the water doing so. As they say, a guest at many homes at the same time remains hungry. It is my humble request to follow one path, whatever pleases you.

The Search for a Soul

The Search for a Soul PDF Author: Jess Stearn
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
ISBN: 9780425143667
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
Describes the past lives revealed by the renowned novelist while under hypnosis and explores their relationship to her best-selling works

Soul Searching

Soul Searching PDF Author: Yaakov Astor
Publisher: Feldheim Publishers
ISBN: 9781568712499
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
For over two centuries, scientists have denied or ignored the possiblity of an afterlife. Now, however, research has taken an unexpected turn, finding compelling evidence of the existence of life after death and the human soul. This beautifully written, well documented book compares ancient Jewish teachings, and contemporary research on the subject of the afterlife. It is a fascinating, valuable, and insightful contribution to Jewish literature.