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This paper examines the psychometric properties of the 30-item Moral Foundations Questionnaire among a sample of 370 young adults between the ages of 18 and 26 years who were born in Punjab and who had lived there since their birth. Initial analyses did not support the internal consistency reliability of the five scales of moral predispositions proposed by this measure. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis identified two factors that distinguished not between areas of moral predisposition, but between the two styles of items (relevance and judgement), each of which included all five predispositions. Correlations with personal religiosity suggested that the scale comprising 12 judgement items ([alpha] = 0.88) was susceptible to religious sentiment, but that the scale comprising 12 relevance items ([alpha] = 0.89) was not. The scale of 12 relevance items is commended for further testing and application within Muslim societies.

This study draws on data provided to the Covid-19 & Church-21 Survey by 2,017 Anglicans (clergy and laity) living in England to explore the experiences of those leading and those accessing online (pre-recorded and live-streamed) and in-church services within the Church of England between January and July 2021. The data demonstrated that for both those leading services and those accessing services, online worship was less rewarding than in-church worship, even as expressed within the context of Covid restrictions. Moreover, pre-recorded online services were less rewarding than live-streamed services both for those leading and for those accessing services. Among leaders, the return to in-church services was most rewarding for older leaders, lay ministers, Anglo-Catholics, those working in rural churches, extraverts and the emotionally stable.

This study developed and tested a Turkish translation of the 23-item Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Islam (containing six negatively-voiced items) on data provided by 493 participants (191 school students and 302 undergraduate students). Two research questions were tested on these data. First, exploratory factor analyses suggested that negatively-voiced items were not performing well and so confirmed the judgement against employing such items in Muslim societies. Second, reliability analyses identified the best performing items to propose a seven-item short form of the Sahin-Francis Scale of Attitude toward Islam. This measure displayed good properties of internal consistency reliability ([alpha] = 0.86) and of construct validity against a measure of prayer frequency.

This paper set out to explore and to compare the experiences and attitudes of self-identified Muslim students (N = 84) and self-identified Christian students (N = 87) attending the same Anglican primary schools in Wales within the context of the Student Voice Project. The data identified two distinct attitudinal trajectories, one assessed by the Scale of Attitude toward my School and the other assessed by the Scale of Attitude toward Religion in my School. No significant differences were found between Muslim and Christian students in terms of attitude toward their school. However, Muslim students recorded a significantly less positive attitude than Christian students toward religion in their school. These findings are interrogated against Anglican visions for their church primary schools within the state-maintained sector in England and Wales.

In order to evaluate the impact of "The Imagineerium" a 10-week educational project, teachers were asked to observe and rate the behaviour of a pilot sample of 135 participating students both at the beginning and at the end of the 10-week period. Scores recorded on the seven-item Trowsdale Index of Teacher Observation of Student Creativity (TITOSC) showed a significant increase between time one and time two. In order to test the reproducibility of these findings the same index was employed a year later in a replication study among 139 students. On this occasion also, scores recorded on the seven-item Trowsdale Index of Teacher Observation of Student Creativity showed a significant increase between time one and time two. These data support the effectiveness of educational experience in enhancing teacher perception of creativity displayed by individual students.

Inspection criteria for schools with a religious character in England and Wales require the sponsoring body to arrange assessment on aspects of the distinctiveness of the school ethos. The Student Voice Project was designed to include year-five and year-six students in this process. Within the Diocese of Llandaff, the Diocesan Director of Education utilised the customised reports prepared at the end of the first year of the survey for schools participating in the project with the senior leadership teams in order to enhance school improvement and effectiveness. The present study compares the responses of the 1,192 students participating in year one of the survey with the responses of the 1,111 students from the same 23 schools participating in year two. These data show a significant overall increase in scores recorded on the six-item scales designed to measure student attitude towards five areas of ethos (school character, school experience, school teachers, relationships in school, and school and environment). These findings suggest that the Student Voice Project, effectively implemented by the Diocesan Director of Education, had significant impact on the participating schools. Similar impact was not found, however, in the control group of students from 41 schools within four other dioceses.

This paper explores the impact of parental religious practice on sustaining positive religious affect among churchgoing young Canadian Baptists. A total of 299 participants between the ages of 12 and 18 years attending a summer youth programme sponsored by the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, completed the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity as a measure of positive religious affect, together with measures of frequency of church attendance for themselves, their mother and their father. These data identified fathers' religious attendance as a statistically significant factor augmenting the effect of mothers' religious attendance for sustaining young Canadian Baptists in the faith. The implications of this finding are discussed for pastoral practice.

Drawing on data provided by 4,803 year-four, year-five, and year-six students (between the ages of 8 and 11 years) attending 88 Church in Wales primary schools, this paper discusses the development of eight short scales designed to operationalize themes concerning aspects of the distinctiveness of Anglican church schools and school worship identified by the school inspection process. The eight themes include attitude toward the general character of the school and attitude toward the religious character of the school. The data demonstrated the internal consistency reliability of these eight measures that comprise the Lankshear Student Voice Scales Revised and showed more positive attitudes to be associated with being female, with being younger, and with engaging in personal and public religious practices.

Sectarianism is perceived as a serious issue in Scotland despite a lack of concrete evidence, according to the Advisory Group on Tackling Sectarianism. This paper addresses one of the gaps in knowledge, the attitudes of Catholic school pupils. Our research was designed to profile sectarian attitudes among a sample of Catholic school pupils in Scotland, using our own newly designed "Scale of Catholic Sectarian Attitudes." The research assessed the influence of five sets of factors on shaping individual differences in sectarian attitudes: personal factors (sex and age), psychological factors (personality), religious factors (identity, belief, and practice), theological factors (exclusivism), and contextual factors (Catholic schools). The study draws on data provided by 797 13- to 15-year-old school pupils from schools in Scotland who self-identified as Roman Catholic. We offer a new tool for measuring attitudes to sectarianism and also findings that demonstrate that sectarian attitudes exist within the young Catholic community in Scotland and that this has possibly become part of a wider problem generated by the public visibility of religious diversity within an increasingly secular society. Further we find that Sectarian attitudes are higher among males than among females and are higher among nominal Catholics than among practising Catholics.

John Greer first introduced the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity in 1979 into his programme of research designed to chart the religious trajectory of students attending Protestant and Catholic schools in Northern Ireland. The present study conducted in 2011 builds on earlier studies conducted in 1979, 1984, the early 1990s, and 1998. While in the early studies both male and female students in Catholic schools recorded a more positive attitude toward Christianity compared with students in Protestant schools, the 1998 study drew attention to a marked decline in attitude toward Christianity among female students in Catholic schools. The new data from 2011 found that this decline in attitude toward Christianity among female students in Catholic schools also extended to male students in Catholic schools.

In the wake of biblical trauma scholarship that identifies how traumatic experience has shaped biblical literatures and the Psalms in particular, interest has emerged in the potential therapeutic role of Psalm 90 in Christian-framed trauma therapies. Drawing on the SIFT approach to biblical hermeneutics, the present study tests the extent to which feeling types and thinking types read Psalm 90 differently. These two readings present different challenges working with this Psalm in trauma therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study draws on psychological type theory and psychological temperament theory to test the extent to which Bishop Barron’s ministry shaped by the Word on Fire Institute is reaching people less effectively reached by Catholic congregations. Data provided by 168 male and 292 female participants attending Bishop Barron’s day conference in central London during February 2023, who completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales, demonstrated that this event attracted significantly higher proportions of intuitive types and of thinking types, compared with Catholic churchgoers. However, like Catholic congregations, extraverts and perceiving types remained under-represented among the followers of Bishop Barron. The implications of these findings are discussed for the ongoing nurture of those attracted to Bishop Barron alongside inherited congregations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphors were introduced to the science of cathedral studies by Muskett in her book, Shop window, flagship, common ground. Such metaphors have the power to inform and shape the perception of cathedrals, but lack theological or ecclesial authority. Gary Hall's analysis of The purpose of cathedrals offers a different approach to cathedral metaphors when he roots the purpose of cathedrals in the episcopal ordinal: cathedrals are mandated to do what bishops are called to be, by virtue of displaying the activities of the bishop's cathedra. Central to these activities, exemplifying the bishop's role as teacher, cathedrals serve as Episcopal centres of learning. Drawing on a careful analysis of information presented by the websites of the 43 Anglican cathedrals within England and the Isle of Man, the current study demonstrated that, like Anglican church schools, as Episcopal centres of learning, Anglican cathedrals offer educational provision that exemplifies a theology of nurture (concerned with the formation of Christian disciples) and educational provision that exemplifies a theology of service (concerned with supporting and serving the wider community). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church of England's vision for education is generous and seeks to allow the riches of Christian life to overflow throughout schools. The vision is captured by the strapline 'Deeply Christian, serving the common good'. The present study assesses the contribution made to service this vision by the 43 Anglican cathedrals within England and the Isle of Man. Drawing on a careful analysis of information presented by the websites of these cathedrals, the study concluded that all 43 Anglican cathedrals dedicated considerable space on their websites to a regular programme of teaching and learning provision across the age range from early years foundation stage to sixth-form, relevant to a range of curriculum areas, and giving attention to pupils' personal development and well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Psychological type theory differentiates between two contrasting psychological functions relevant for evaluating experience, styled thinking and feeling. The present study encouraged visitors to the pre-Christmas son et lumiere at Liverpool Cathedral, The light before Christmas: The angels are coming, to evaluate their experience through these two lenses. Drawing on data from 978 participants, analysis of qualitative responses to the feeling prompt, 'What most touched your heart?' identified nine themes, including valuing being moved by visual images of the nativity, and valuing the opportunity to light a candle. Analysis of qualitative responses to the thinking prompt, 'What big issues were raised in your mind?' identified eight themes, including reflecting on the importance and meaning of Christmas, and reflecting on the world. These two prompts generated quite different responses, suggesting a complementary and richer evaluation of the total experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One understanding of Anglican cathedrals is that their ministry, like the ministry of the bishop whose cathedra they house, stretches beyond the city and embraces the whole diocese. The advent of digital and online technology has brought the ministry of cathedrals much closer to homes throughout the diocese. The present study examines the impact of the Exploring the Sunday Gospel programme developed by Liverpool Cathedral on the spiritual journey of one senior rural churchgoer who turned towards Liverpool Cathedral when her own rural church ceased to offer services during the pandemic. The data support the value of a programme designed to equip churchgoers to engage in depth with the Sunday Gospel before hearing the Gospel reading proclaimed during the Sunday Eucharist, whether in-person or online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]