Increasingly, adolescents and young adults in the United States are racially and socioeconomically diverse, while the teaching population remains predominantly white and middle class. Many youth ministry programs that utilize volunteer mentors recruit adults who are ill-equipped to bridge cultural differences and effectively build sustainable relationships with adolescents who come from different backgrounds than their own. College and university campus ministries that are historically white struggle to provide adequate support and mentoring for students who have traditionally not been represented in the college population. Often, mentoring relationships break down over cultural misunderstandings. As educators who come from backgrounds marked by privilege, Katherine Turpin and Anne Carter Walker draw from their experiences in an intentionally culturally diverse youth ministry program to name the challenges and inadequacies of ministry with young people from marginalized communities. Through engaging case studies and vignettes, the authors re-examine the assumptions about youth agency, vocational development, educational practice, and mentoring. Offering concrete guidelines and practices for working effectively across lines of difference, Nurturing Different Dreams invites readers to consider their own cultural assumptions and practices for mentoring adolescents, and assists readers in analyzing and transforming their practices of mentoring young people who come from different communities than their own.

Increasingly, adolescents and young adults in the United States are racially and socioeconomically diverse, while the teaching population remains predominantly white and middle class. Many youth ministry programs that utilize volunteer mentors recruit adults who are ill-equipped to bridge cultural differences and effectively build sustainable relationships with adolescents who come from different backgrounds than their own. College and university campus ministries that are historically white struggle to provide adequate support and mentoring for students who have traditionally not been represented in the college population. Often, mentoring relationships break down over cultural misunderstandings. As educators who come from backgrounds marked by privilege, Katherine Turpin and Anne Carter Walker draw from their experiences in an intentionally culturally diverse youth ministry program to name the challenges and inadequacies of ministry with young people from marginalized communities. Through engaging case studies and vignettes, the authors re-examine the assumptions about youth agency, vocational development, educational practice, and mentoring. Offering concrete guidelines and practices for working effectively across lines of difference, Nurturing Different Dreams invites readers to consider their own cultural assumptions and practices for mentoring adolescents, and assists readers in analyzing and transforming their practices of mentoring young people who come from different communities than their own.

Why do I live as a small human being in this huge universe?' The answer to this question is simple and clear. 'It is to feel genuine happiness.' Then, another question arises. 'How and what makes one happy?' And this question cannot be answered right away. Feeling genuine happiness is something that can't be achieved easily in this world, where many complicated circumstances are intertwined. In order to feel genuine happiness, one must understand oneself, know about the world and see through the universe. You are the one who feels happiness, you can't be happy simply by yourself, and happiness is the universe's response to your choices. This book contains the principles by which the universe responds to your choices. It contains the very specific details. This book elucidates the five constitutions of your mind to help you understand yourself, and it explains the nine essences of how you communicate with the universe to help you understand your fate. Based on such understanding, it guides you to the path to happiness. We ought to be happy, because happiness is the fate, as well as an obligation, that we little human beings, living in this huge universe, have.

A uniquely comprehensive discussion of vocation from infancy to old age Do infants have a vocation? Do Alzheimer's patients? In popular culture, vocation is often reduced to adult work or church ministry. Rarely do we consider childhood or old age as crucial times for commencing or culminating a life of faith in response to God's calling. This book addresses that gap by showing how vocation emerges and evolves over the course of an entire lifetime. The authors cover six of life's distinct seasons, weaving together personal narrative, developmental theory, case studies, and spiritual practices. Calling All Years Good grounds the discussion of vocation in concrete realities and builds a cohesive framework for understanding calling throughout all of life.

In this landmark volume, internationally recognized scholars address with unheralded honesty key intellectual and practical conundrums that not only trouble practical theology but reflect biases and breakdowns in the construction of theological knowledge in academy and religious communities at large.

Provides a contemporary view of the intertwined relationship of communication and religion The Handbook on Religion and Communication presents a detailed investigation of the complex interaction between media and religion, offering diverse perspectives on how both traditional and new media sources continue to impact religious belief and practice across multiple faiths around the globe. Contributions from leading international scholars address key themes such as the changing role of religious authority in the digital age, the role of media in cultural shifts away from religious institutions, and the ways modern technologies have transformed how religion is communicated and portrayed. Divided into five parts, the Handbook opens with a state-of-the-art overview of the subject’s intellectual landscape, introducing the historical background, theoretical foundations, and major academic approaches to communication, media, and religion. Subsequent sections focus on institutional and functional perspectives, theological and cultural approaches, and new approaches in digital technologies. The essays provide insight into a wide range of topics, including religious use of media, religious identity, audience gratification, religious broadcasting, religious content in entertainment, films and religion, news reporting about religion, race and gender, the sex-religion matrix, religious crisis communication, public relations and advertising, televangelism, pastoral ministry, death and the media, online religion, future directions in religious communication, and more. Explores the increasing role of media in creating religious identity and communicating religious experience Discusses the development and evolution of the communication practices of various religious bodies Covers all major media sources including radio, television, film, press, digital online content, and social media platforms Presents key empirical research, real-world case studies, and illustrative examples throughout Encompasses a variety of perspectives, including individual and institutional actors, academic and theoretical areas, and different forms of communication media Explores media and religion in Judeo-Christian traditions, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, religions of Africa, Atheism, and others The Handbook on Religion and Communication is an essential resource for scholars, academic researchers, practical theologians, seminarians, and undergraduate and graduate students taking courses on media and religion.

The landmark play A Raisin in the Sun takes its title from a Langston Hughes poem which poses the questions "What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?" Focusing on a working-class African-American family in Chicago who save enough to purchase either a business in a black neighborhood or a house in a white neighborhood, the plays exposes issues of racism and gender as the women of the family make important decisions that push against both racial and gender lines. This volume discusses gender in the play, looking at how the female characters fight both racism and male chauvinism, how the play is dominated by strong female characters, and how characters resist the stereotype of the emasculating female. The book also presents contemporary perspectives on race and feminism in the twenty-first century. Contributors include Barbara Ehrenreich, Jewelle L. Gomez, and Sharon Friedman.