Based on a survey sent out to Catholic clergy in the UK, this study is a major contribution from empirical theology towards interpreting the health and potential of the priesthood today. The issues raised by this new study concern the nature and health of the priesthood, a topic of most urgent concern at a time of clerical scandal and abuse. The conclusions of this book are extremely revealing but fundamentally positive for anyone concerned with the future of the Christian Church at the start of a new millennium.

Based on a survey sent out to Catholic clergy in the UK, this study is a major contribution from empirical theology towards interpreting the health and potential of the priesthood today. The issues raised by this new study concern the nature and health of the priesthood, a topic of most urgent concern at a time of clerical scandal and abuse. The conclusions of this book are extremely revealing but fundamentally positive for anyone concerned with the future of the Christian Church at the start of a new millennium.

This empirical study explores how the sampled priests understand their priesthood. Chris A. Fallon reviews Liverpool's history of expansion and decline, which has left fewer and older priests serving fewer active Catholics and an undiminished number who still require baptisms, first communions, marriages and funerals. It contrasts the models of priesthood found in Liverpool with American studies of the cultic and servant leader models of priesthood, taking into account the theological viewpoints and personality profiles of the individuals who took part.

The Problem with Survey Research makes a case against survey research as a primary source of reliable information. George Beam argues that all survey research instruments, all types of asking-including polls, face-to-face interviews, and focus groups-produce unreliable and potentially inaccurate results. Because those who rely on survey research only see answers to questions, it is impossible for them, or anyone else, to evaluate the results. They cannot know if the answers correspond to respondents' actual behaviors (objective phenomena) or to their true beliefs and opinions (subjective phenomena). Reliable information can only be acquired by observation, experimentation, multiple sources of data, formal model building and testing, document analysis, and comparison. In fifteen chapters divided into six parts-Ubiquity of Survey Research, The Problem, Asking Instruments, Asking Settings, Askers, and Proper Methods and Research Designs-The Problem with Survey Research demonstrates how asking instruments, settings in which asking and answering take place, and survey researchers themselves skew results and thereby make answers unreliable. The last two chapters and appendices examine observation, other methods of data collection and research designs that may produce accurate or correct information, and shows how reliance on survey research can be overcome, and must be.

A funeral director reflects on 30 years of serving the living and the deceased while providing us with a behind-the-scenes story told with both empathy and humor. He attempts to assuage our curiosity and answer those questions that are uppermost in our minds when faced with death, including: - How do you handle the loss of a loved one? - What really happens during a death call? - Why do people send flowers? - What occurs during the restoration process? - What do people leave in loved ones' caskets? - How has the undertaker's role evolved? - and much more...

How do pastors live their spiritual lives, both as private persons and as professionals? How can their spirituality be characterized and understood? Drawing on in-depth interviews with Norwegian clergy as well as literature from the fields of Christian spirituality, practical theology, congregational studies, and the sociology of religion, this book offers a nuanced understanding of clergy spirituality. Tone Stangeland Kaufman identifies three locations and sources of spiritual nurture for pastors: the ministry itself (vocational spirituality), daily life (everyday spirituality), and spiritual practices located at the margins of daily life (intentional spirituality). The participants in this study engage in classic Christian practices, yet approach them in a subjective and new way that also potentially revitalizes their spiritual lives. Hence, the author makes the case that their spirituality can aptly be described as “a new old spirituality.” The book also seeks to nuance Paul Heelas’s and Linda Woodhead’s Spiritual Revolution claim, and thus engages in the broader spirituality vs. religion discourse. A New Old Spirituality is an exciting example of how qualitative empirical research can be used in creative ways to make a practical theological argument. It is a book for scholars, students, and practitioners.

Sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults by Catholic clergy is not a new phenomenon. Sex, Priests, and Secret Codes reveals in shocking detail a deep-seated problem that spans the Church's history.

Handbook for Religion and Social Institutions is written for sociologists who study a variety of sub-disciplines and are interested in recent studies and theoretical approaches that relate religious variables to their particular area of interest. The handbook focuses on several major themes: - Social Institutions such as Politics, Economics, Education, Health and Social Welfare - Family and the Life Cycle - Inequality - Social Control - Culture - Religion as a Social Institution and in a Global Perspective This handbook will be of interest to social scientists including sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, and other researchers whose study brings them in contact with the study of religion and its impact on social institutions.

Presents a study in the area of theological education. This title traces the origin and evolution of the formation model of training and identifies what difference this paradigm makes to the practice. It offers ideas for a renewed understanding and praxis of the role of prayer in learning. It is intended for the theological students and teachers.