Browsing by Author "Joubert, Jeremia"

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    The impact of the Seventh-Day Adventist church's religious thinking on the interplay between personality type and spiritual maturity
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2000-12) Joubert, Jeremia; Louw, D. J. (Daniel Johannes), 1944-; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Theology. Dept. of Practical Theology & Missiology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research seeks to establish whether the members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Africa have a characteristic personality type and temperament that relates to their style of spirituality. Style of spirituality here refers to all spiritual behaviour in a broad sense - how they pray, worship, use the Bible, care about others, relate to social needs, care about the environment, administer and organize their church activities, etc. This study does not deal with what they believe, but rather focuses on how they believe. This research further seeks to establish what impact participant's God-image has upon their level of spiritual maturity, if any at all. To what extent does one's personality and temperament influence spiritual maturity and God-image? What instruments were used? I used the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator to measure personality and temperament, the Personal Orientation Inventory of Everett Shostrom to measure levels of self-actualization and psychological maturity, the Faith Maturity Scale of Benson, Donahue, and Erickson, to measure faith maturity, and the Christian Preference Profile scale, which I developed to measure preferences of Christian religiosity, which also gave an indication of God-image. How was the study conducted? I visited approximately 22 SDA churches in the Western Cape and distributed the inventories to willing participants myself. I explained the purpose of the research and how to complete the inventories. Participants were requested to complete it at home and return it the next week. I made use of two supervised students who helped to mark the answer sheets and capture the data. What were the findings? The personality type of the SDA laity was more introverted, compared to a similar study indicating that SDA clergy were more extraverted. The most significant finding was that the dominant temperament was sensing/judging (SJ=70%), slightly higher than that for the clergy. The self-actualizing levels were relatively low - the two main measures, time competency and locus of control measured both in the non-actualizing range, as well as three of the ten sub-scales, relating to a rigid implementation of values, a pessimistic view of humanity, and a lack of acceptance of synergy between opposite characteristics. The faith maturity levels were slightly above the average, and were low on three of the eight measures, relating to integration of faith and life, social concerns, and involvement in social and environmental issues. The religious preference scale indicated a dominant relational style, followed by a dependent, personal, evangelical style, and a bureaucratic organizational style of religious preference. Some of the main characteristics of the SDA profile were a resistance to change, preservation of the status quo, stable, able administrators, favour a hierarchical, bureaucratic structure, substance-oriented rather than relationship-oriented, preserving their identity is a high priority, and is evidenced in preserving the purity of their beliefs, affectionately referred to as the "truth."