How can Catholic leaders effectively train and form members of our institutions in the Gospel values that are the ultimate foundation of Catholic identities? Internationally recognized author, educator, and facilitator Gerald A. Arbuckle argues that it is time to acknowledge that the programs and processes used in the past are inadequate to our postmodern age. The systems previously used to educate the staffs of our hospitals, universities, schools, and other institutions rarely succeed today. Although didactic teaching and discursive learning have their place, they cannot be the primary method for forming identities. Catholic Identity or Identities?will assist a wide range of people- bishops, theologians, pastoral workers, institutional leaders and staffs, and more-in their various ministries. Arbuckle draws on several disciplines, including Scripture, theology, and history, but in particular cultural anthropology, to explain the importance of refounding adult formation for Catholic ministries and the practical ways to achieve it.

How can Catholic leaders effectively train and form members of our institutions in the Gospel values that are the ultimate foundation of Catholic identities? Internationally recognized author, educator, and facilitator Gerald A. Arbuckle argues that it is time to acknowledge that the programs and processes used in the past are inadequate to our postmodern age. The systems previously used to educate the staffs of our hospitals, universities, schools, and other institutions rarely succeed today. Although didactic teaching and discursive learning have their place, they cannot be the primary method for forming identities. Catholic Identity or Identities? will assist a wide range of people- bishops, theologians, pastoral workers, institutional leaders and staffs, and more-in their various ministries. Arbuckle draws on several disciplines, including Scripture, theology, and history, but in particular cultural anthropology, to explain the importance of refounding adult formation for Catholic ministries and the practical ways to achieve it.

The question "Who am I?" is on the minds and hearts of people of all ages. And for good reason: The answer is important! Who we are - or who we think we are - drives our actions and shapes our relationships. While we are asking the right questions about identity, the world is busy feeding us the wrong answers: We are our political party, job title, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity - and the list goes on. But until we know why we were created, by whom, and for what purpose, we can never be truly satisfied. In Who Am I, Lord?, author and speaker Joe Heschmeyer tackles the question of identity by asking two even more important questions: Who is Jesus? Who does he say you are? Only when we understand who Christ really is can he show us who we are. Our identity in Christ opens us to the promises he has made us and leads us to the freedom to be who we were created to be. Who Am I, Lord? will answer the question of your identity in a way that will transform your life. Click here to register for the related webcast ABOUT THE AUTHOR Previously a litigator in Washington, D.C., and a seminarian for the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Joe Heschmeyer now works as an instructor for the Holy Family School of Faith Institute, helping people to grow in friendship with Jesus Christ and with one another through ongoing one-on-one discipleship, small gatherings, and large group formation. His writing has appeared in Catholic Answers Magazine, the Washington Times, Word on Fire, First Things, and Strange Notions. In 2014, he was named one of FOCUS' "30 Under 30." He cohosts The Catholic Podcast weekly and has run the blog Shameless Popery since 2009.

Contemporary western Paganism is now a global religious phenomenon with Pagans in many parts of the world sharing much in common - from a nature-revering worldview and lifestyle to a host of chants, invocations, ritual tools and magical practices. But there are also locally-specific differences. Local religious contexts, landscapes, histories, traditions, politics, values and norms all impact on local Paganisms. This is nowhere more evident than in a strongly Catholic society, where religion and culture are deeply entwined. Taking the Mediterranean society of Malta as a case study, this book invites readers inside the world of a small, hidden sub-culture. Showing what it is like being Pagan in a society where the vast majority of the population is Roman Catholic, and Catholicism permeates every sphere of public and domestic, social and political life, Rountree reveals that Paganism here is a unique brew of indigenous and global influences. Pagans employ both creativity and borrowing in constructing identities within a cultural context characterized by antagonism as well as continuity. This book explores the intersections of religious and cultural identity, the global and local, Paganism and Christianity, with insights grounded in rich ethnographic detail based on long-term fieldwork. Rountree makes invaluable comparisons with other studies of modern Pagans and their various worlds.

Explores the changing aspirations, attitudes and identities of English Catholics in the late eighteenth century This book explores the changing aspirations, attitudes and identities of English Catholics in the late eighteenth century, a period which marked a critical moment of transition in their spiritual, political and intellectual culture. It is based on the experiences of the English Catholic baronet, Grand Tourist and politician Sir Thomas Gascoigne (1745-1810). Gascoigne was born on the Continent into a devout Catholic family based in Yorkshire; however, following an unusual Continental upbringing and extensive series of Grand Tours to the courts of Catholic Europe, he would abjure his faith for a seat in Parliament. Throughout his life, he was an important advocate of agricultural reform, a considerable coal owner interested in mining engineering, as well as a keen developer of spa culture. By examining the experiences of Gascoigne and his milieu, this book explores English Catholic attitudes towards continental Catholicism, the influence of the European Enlightenment upon their education and outlook, and how this affected their Christianity, their estates and their conception of national identity. It demonstrates how increased toleration entailed a gradual rejection amongst English Catholics of a pious separatism for a more ecumenical and, ultimately, Enlightened approach to religion. Although this risked the loss of English Catholics to Anglicanism, many - like Gascoigne - remained crypto-Catholic in sympathy. They adapted their faith to the Enlightenment and regarded it as a matter of personal conviction and private choice. ALEXANDER LOCK is Curator of Modern Historical Manuscripts at the British Library.

In Catholic and French Forever Joseph Byrnes recounts the fights and reconciliations between French citizens who found Catholicism integral to their traditional French identity and those who found the continued presence of Catholicism an obstacle to both happiness and progress.

Why does religion sometimes increase support for democracy and sometimes do just the opposite? In Faith in Numbers, political scientist Michael Hoffman presents a theory of religion, group interest, and democracy. Focusing on communal religion, he demonstrates that the effect of communal prayer on support for democracy depends on the interests of the religious group in question. For members of groups who would benefit from democracy, communal prayer increases support for democratic institutions; for citizens whose groups would lose privileges in the event of democratic reforms, the opposite effect is present. Using a variety of data sources, Hoffman illustrates these claims in multiple contexts. He places particular emphasis on his study of Lebanon and Iraq, two countries in which sectarian divisions have played a major role in political development, by utilizing both existing and original surveys. By examining religious and political preferences among both Muslims and non-Muslims in several religiously diverse settings, Faith in Numbers shows that theological explanations of religion and democracy are inadequate. Rather, it demonstrates that religious identities and sectarian interests play a major part in determining regime preferences and illustrates how Islam in particular can be mobilized for both pro- and anti-democratic purposes. It finds that Muslim religious practice is not necessarily anti-democratic; in fact, in a number of settings, practicing Muslims are considerably more supportive of democracy than their secular counterparts. Theological differences alone do not determine whether members of religious groups tend to support or oppose democracy; rather, their participation in communal worship motivates them to view democracy through a sectarian lens.

While the postmodern world we inhabit is highly fragmented, contested, and conflicted, we all have one thing in common: we are experiencing identity crises. Religious traditions are not immune to these crises, and orthodox Anglicans have been experiencing their own issues with identity since the 2003 consecration of an openly homosexual man. Orthodox Anglicans want to say who they are as both orthodox and Anglican, but they are also finding it difficult to articulate a clear and coherent identity, especially an Anglican one. This orthodox Anglican pursuit of a renewed sense of self in a complex and fragmented world is a microcosm of our postmodern context, and an examination of their quest holds enticing clues to our own urgent searches for meaning and identity. Think of this book as a kind of story: the story of a worldwide church who, when its identity was threatened, took counsel together to renew and revitalize its sense of self. In the process, it not only faced many dangers and difficulties but also learned much about who it was and who it wanted to be.

Henry VIII's decision to declare himself supreme head of the church in England, and thereby set himself in opposition to the authority of the papacy, had momentous consequences for the country and his subjects. At a stroke people were forced to reconsider assumptions about their identity and loyalties, in rapidly shifting political and theological circumstances. Whilst many studies have investigated Catholic and Protestant identities during the reigns of Elizabeth and Mary, much less is understood about the processes of religious identity-formation during Henry's reign. In this volume Peter Marshall explores a wide range of evidence that underlines the complex web of overlapping and competing identities that people were forced to assume as a religiously conservative king sought to take control of his national church. Investigating broad issues of conversion, polemic and propaganda, scripture, exile, forgery and miracles, as well as looking at specific cases of individuals and events, a rich picture is built up of the ambiguities and paradoxes of the early reformation process in England. Consisting of three entirely new chapters, and eight previously published but updated essays, this volume provides a fascinating insight into the complex religious developments of early sixteenth-century England. As Tudor religious history enters a 'post-revisionist' phase that acknowledges the strength and vitality of traditional religious culture, whilst reasserting the broad appeal of the evangelical message, this volume provides a timely reassessment and critique of the subject.

This book takes readers into the Mexican-majority neighborhoods of Santa Ana, California, a city once dubbed the hardest place to live in the U.S. Jonathan E. Calvillo explores the challenges faced by Mexican immigrants in this working-class city, highlighting how faith practices are central to social interactions and community building. How does faith shape residents' sense of ethnic identity? Drawing on five years of participant observation and in-depthinterviews, The Saints of Santa Ana offers a rich portrait of a fascinating American community.