[Download] "Evangelical Christian Students and the Path to Self-Authorship (Report)" by Journal of Psychology and Theology ~ eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Evangelical Christian Students and the Path to Self-Authorship (Report)
- Author : Journal of Psychology and Theology
- Release Date : January 22, 2011
- Genre: Religion & Spirituality,Books,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 245 KB
Description
This narrative study adopts the lens and language of Baxter Magolda's self-authorship framework to explore the faith development of four evangelical Christian students from their first year of college through their third year. The findings suggest several common elements in the students' narratives--earnest questions about "what is true?", the significant roles of family members and peers in the construction of perspectives on truth, and the centrality of various religious communities in propelling or encumbering self-authored faith development--along with some important distinctions. Implications for research, theory, and practice are discussed. Evangelical Christian students have been the focus of numerous studies in recent years as researchers have become ever more curious about the characteristics and experiences of this visible constituency in higher education. The evangelical persona is anything but one-dimensional; as such, there is not a single, fitting definition of the typical evangelical Christian student, Nonetheless, Balmer's (2004) summative characterization of the evangelical worldview is relevant to understanding the essential beliefs that underlie their otherwise diverse traits. He postulates that evangelicals are generally known for their: (1) adherence to the authority of Biblical scriptures, (2) emphasis on sharing their faith with others (i.e., evangelizing), (3) belief in personal conversion when one is born again, and (4) belief that salvation comes only through faith in Jesus Christ. Beyond these cornerstone principles, evangelical Christian students have been described as "counter-cultural conservatives" who maintain relatively conservative political and social attitudes in comparison to peers in secular higher education settings, but for whom standard political divisions and boundaries between traditional and contemporary religious practices are typically permeable (Bryant, 2005).