Miguel’s Stories of Religious and Spiritual Diversity
Empowerment series: Understanding human behavior and the Social Environment Chapter 9 & 10
The purpose of this assignment is to understand human behavior at different life stages. Understanding development helps us understand what our clients are capable of as well as the implications in which life stage challenges has on future development.
1. With which of these beliefs were you most familiar? With which of the beliefs were you least familiar? What were your reactions to the different stories reported by Miguel? How comfortable are you with the idea of including the spiritual person in social work’s understanding of human behavior? What do you like about the idea? What don’t you like about the idea?
2. Theorists Fowler and Wilber both think of spirituality in terms of development to higher levels of faith or consciousness over time. Do you think this is a helpful way to think about spirituality? Is it a helpful way to think about your own spiritual life? Do you see any cultural biases in either of the theories? Explain your answers.
3. With globalization, contact between people of diverse religious and spiritual beliefs is increasing. How much religious and spiritual diversity do you come in contact with in your everyday life? How comfortable are you with honoring different religious and spiritual beliefs? How have you seen religious and spiritual beliefs used to discriminate against some groups of people? How have you seen religious and spiritual beliefs used to promote social justice?
