Influence of the Family on How Youth Relate to God: A Systematic Review of Psychology Literature

youth and family COVER PAGE webLiterature on the psychological correlates of individual’s god-image is abundant.  They range from Freud’s conceptual claim that the image of God was an inherited parental image of the murdered primeval father, which can be activated by the individual’s experience of their father, to more contemporary examination of God-image drawn from the relationship between a child and the care-giver.  Underpinning these claims is the undeniable role of the family in the formation of God-image and the way individuals relate to God. The present chapter reports the outcome of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR), which searched and selected 31 empirical reports from Academic Search Premier – a database of journal articles.  Using a process of Qualitative Thematic Analysis, six themes were identified within the selected literature.  On the basis […]

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Sermon for 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A Homily

Jesus - who do u say i amBut you, who do you say I am? (Mt 16:13-20)
 In my mother tongue – Tamil, while speaking about great people, speakers and writers often refer to: “the Buddha, Jesus and Gandhi”. These three persons are mentioned as a matter of fact in the same breath.  We Christians may feel proud that even non-Christians refer to Jesus as a great man.  Looking at it at a deeper level, we may realise that this expression does not reflect our own experience of Jesus. Who is Jesus for you?  Is he merely a great man?  The gospel text of today once again invites us to reflect on this question. Let us explore three possible implications of this event described in the gospel narration of today, and in so doing […]

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