In exploring how ritualized activities can help to nurture children's spiritual growth, this article encourages a re-thinking of what ritual involves. The link between ritual and routine is explored. Distinctions are drawn between personal and collective and between 'everyday' and 'special occasion' rituals, with neither the sole preserve of…

This essay analyzes Pierre Hadot's reading of Aristotelian "theoria" in order to evaluate "theoria's" relevancy for the contemporary field of Contemplative Education. It emphasizes the limited engagement with "theoria" against a backdrop of heightened attention to mindfulness-based practices. The essay critiques the…

Conventional wisdom and antiquated stage development theories have had a negative effect on children's spirituality. This paper looks at an innovative spiritual practice (embodied prayer) that instead promotes children's agency and embodied engagement in multi-layered meaning making. It traces both the ways in which children respond to higher…

In this essay, I share how my own readings and understandings of Islam brought me closer to wider concepts of literacy. I use these views to guide my own research in literacy education to situate what literacy can be for youth in and around schools, knowing that literacy is still taught, assessed, and measured in singular ways.

The purpose of this article is to review the relevance of spirituality in the intellectually gifted and to derive a proposal for helping and guiding them in their spiritual concerns based on their psychological characteristics that may influence the way they experience spirituality. Based on their characteristics a practical approach is proposed…

This study focused on the investigation of the spiritual intelligence of prospective teachers with respect to their gender, locality, and stream. A descriptive survey method was used along with the sample of 105 prospective teachers through multistage sampling techniques. A standardized Sixfold Spiritual Intelligence Scale was used for data…

Heutagogy--also known as self-determined learning--empowers individuals to take charge of their personal growth by fostering proactive approaches to self-development. In a Christian context, self-enacted spiritual growth can operate within a range of personal, denominational, and/or hermeneutical understandings of discipleship. Moreover,…

This phenomenological study examines lived experiences and perceptions of Christian parents of young children to investigate their approaches to faith activity and nurture and the extent to which this includes authenticity of welcome for young children in the modern-day church. Online survey data was analysed thematically through the lens of…

Parents play an important role in shaping the faith of their children. Prior research demonstrates that the quality of parent-child relationships and the incorporation of spiritual disciplines into the home matter to faith formation. However, the association between spiritual disciplines and the quality of parent-child relationships has not…

This article focuses on a method of moral self-cultivation advocated by the Chinese Neo-Confucian Zhu Xi: deep reading. To Zhu Xi, reading is not only an intellectual activity of learning knowledge, but also a spiritual exercise. Through meticulous, thorough, and unbiased reading, people can gradually cultivate their minds to have three virtues,…

The Adult Religious Education and Faith Development project (AREFD) was launched in 2018 at the Mater Dei Centre for Catholic Education, DCU. As part of the study, the research team consulted variety of people involved in AREFD across a range of contexts. The purpose of these consultations was to harness their 'lived wisdom', showcasing the wide…

The devastating impacts of climate change on daily life are becoming more and more apparent. These challenging times call for religious educators in all contexts to help faith communities bring the lens of climate justice to all aspects of faith formation. In this article, the Religious Education Association (REA) 2024 program chairs share…

Practices and strategies for sustaining resilient spiritual leadership are critical in this time of climate crisis. Learnings from participants in the Seminary of the Wild eco-ministry certification program offer guidance for engaging in practices of education and formation that can help people of faith meet the challenges of these times and…

The research aims to consider artistic culture as a process of reflecting the spiritual and moral consciousness of contemporary society as an integrated product of socio-cultural, artistic, and aesthetic human activity. The research is of sociological, philosophical, and cultural nature. The research analyzes the existing values, worldview…

A 2015 Barna report revealed that a meager 20 percent of regular church attenders in the United States participate in any church discipleship activities. With declining attendance and more than four thousand churches closing in the United States since 2019, one would wonder what impact this lack of discipleship has had on the overall health of the…