Nicholas A. Christakis delves into the intricate connections between human behavior and its biological underpinnings, exploring themes such as the evolutionary nature of friendship and the impact of social networks. His work bridges sociology, evolutionary biology, and medicine to understand how social interactions shape our health and actions. Through his research, he seeks to identify ways to foster collective well-being and improve public health practices. His approach combines empirical fieldwork with rigorous data analysis.
Most research on two-party elections has considered the outcome as a single, dichotomous event - either one or the other party wins. In this book, the authors investigate not just who wins, but by how much, and they marshal compelling evidence that mandates - in the form of margin of victory - matter.
In this updated reissue of his 1984 classic, James Fowler applies his groundbreaking research on the development of faith to Christianity. In his revised first chapter Fowler locates his approach to the study of human and faith development in relation to the contemporary conversation about identity and selfhood in postmodernity.
Dr. James Fowler has asked these questions, and others like them, of nearly six hundred people. He has talked with men, women, and children of all ages, from four to eighty-eight, including Jews, Catholics, Protestants, agnostics, and atheists. In many cases, the interviews became in-depth conversations that provided rare, intimate glimpses into the various ways our lives have meaning and purpose, windows into what this books calls faith. Faith, as approached here, is not necessarily religious, nor is it to be equated with belief. Rather, faith is a person's way of leaning into and making sense of life. More verb that noun, faith is the dynamic system of images, values, and commitments that guide one's life. It is thus everyone who chooses to go on living operated by some basic faith. Building on the contributions of such key thinkers as Piaget, Erikson, and Kohlberg, Fowler draws on a wide range of scholarship, literature, and firsthand research to present expertly and engagingly the six stages that emerge in working out the meaning of our lives--from the intuitive, imitative faith of childhood through conventional and then more independent faith to the universalizing, self-transcending faith of full maturity. Stages of Faith helps us to understand our own pilgrimage of faith, the passages of our own quest for meaning and value.
James Fowler's work as the originator of faith development research -- his use of the theories of Jean Piaget and Erik Erikson for theology -- has been widely acclaimed for its profound impact on the field of religious education, and for its promise for other fields.