The Encyclopedia of Religious and Spiritual Development is the first reference work to focus on the developmental process of religion and spirituality across the human life span. Spiritual development is an important part of human development that has links to identity development, moral development, and civic engagement. This innovative Encyclopedia offers insight into the characteristics of people and their contexts that interact to influence religious and spiritual development over time. Editors Elizabeth M. Dowling and W. George Scarlett provide readers with glimpses into the religious and spiritual developmental trajectories of people from all over the world, from many different religious and spiritual backgrounds. The Readerʼs Guide groups entries into the areas of The Arts, Religious and Spiritual Concepts, Health, Leading Religious and Spiritual Figures, Scholars, Nature, Organizations, Religious and Spiritual Places, Religious and Spiritual Practices Supports/Contexts, Texts, Theory and Traditions. Also includes information on I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou).

"A SAGE reference publication."

Australian Aboriginal spirituality -- Overcoming adversity -- Alchemy -- Altars -- Maya Angelou -- Angels -- Apocalypse -- Aprocrypha/Deuterocanonical books -- Thomas Aquinas -- Islamic art -- Visual art -- Asceticism -- Developmental assets -- Astrology -- Attachment formation -- Attitudinal dimension of religion -- Autism -- Awe and wonder -- Baptism -- Baptists -- Religious development in Baptist youth -- Phoebe Bartlett -- Contextual impacts on belief and affiliation -- Peter L. Benson -- Bhagavad Gita -- Bible -- Christian Bible -- Jewish Bible -- Biological and cultural perspectives -- Body -- Body image and eating disorders, womenʼs -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer -- Bork of Mormon -- Martin Buber -- Buddha -- Buddhism -- Socially engaged Buddhism -- Buddhist scriptures -- John Bunyan -- Catholicism -- Child and youth care -- Childhood experiences -- Childʼs God -- Christianity -- Orthodox Christianity -- Christian Spirituality -- Churches -- Robert Coles -- Intentional spiritual communities -- Confessions of St. Augustine -- Confucianism -- Congregations -- Conversion -- Coping in youth -- Richard Crashaw -- Crisis -- Crop circles -- Cult figures -- Cults -- Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) -- Dance -- Daoism (Taoism), Dorothy Day -- Dead Sea Scrolls -- Delphi -- Devil -- John Dewey -- Dhammapada -- Interreligious dialogue -- Differences between religion and spirituality in children and adolescents -- Discernment -- John Donne -- Doubt -- Drama -- Drug and alcohol abuse -- Ecology -- History of Christian education -- Educational organizations in world religions David Elkind -- End of life, Life-span approach -- Book of Enoch -- Environmental ethics -- Episcopal church -- Erik H. Erikson -- Eschatology -- Eucharist -- Evangelism -- Evil -- Faith -- Faith-based service organizations -- Faith maturity -- Fasting -- Forgiveness -- James Fowler -- George Fox -- Anna Freud -- Sigmund Freud -- Fundamentalism -- Gaia hypothesis -- Mohandas K. Gandhi -- Gnostic Gospels -- God -- Hindu views of God -- Gospel music -- Grace -- Happiness Healing the children of war -- Health -- Health and medicine -- Heaven -- Hell -- George Herbert -- Abraham Joshua Heschel -- Hinduism -- Hinduism: supreme being, the Hindu trinity -- Human rights -- Intervarsity -- Islam -- Five Pillars of Islam -- Founding fathers of Islam -- Islamic sects: Sunni and Shiʼa Jainism -- William James -- Jesuit Volunteer Corps -- Jesus -- John the Baptist -- Conservative Judaism -- Orthodox Judaism -- Reconstructionist Judaism -- Reform Judaism -- Carl Jung and post-Jungians Law of Karma -- Martin Luther King, Jr. Kingdom of God -- Lawrence Kohlbert -- Krishna -- Madeleine LʼEngle -- Language of spirituality -- C.S. Lewis -- Abraham Lincoln -- Childrenʼs literature -- Moral development in literature -- The Lordʼs Prayer -- Martin Luther -- Magic -- Mary -- George Herbert Mead -- Mecca -- Medicine -- Meditation -- Meher Baba -- Meherabad -- Mexican American religion and spirituality -- Mindfulness -- Monasticism -- Mormonism -- Moses -- Mosque -- Mother Teresa -- Muhammad -- John Muir -- Music -- Mysticism -- Jewish mysticism -- Myth -- Narrative -- Native American Indian spirituality -- Practices of Native American spirituality -- Naturalism -- The sacred in nature -- Neo-Paganism -- Rienhold Niebuhr -- Nel Noddings -- Object-relations theory -- Objectivism -- Original sin -- Orthodox Christian youth in Western societies -- Fritz K. Oser -- Adolescent outcomes -- Parental influence on adolescent religiosity -- Peer and friend influences on adolescent faith development -- Pluralism -- Pluralism, Hindu approach -- Politics and religion in the American presidency -- The Pope -- Positive youth development -- Prayer -- Prayer in psychological perspectives -- Presbyterian -- Prophets of the Hebrew Bible -- Psychoanalytic approaches -- Psychological correlates of religion -- Psychological evil -- Psychological type and religion -- Psychopathology, personality and religion -- Spiritual development in public education, a charter school case study -- Purpose in life -- Quaker education -- Qurʼan -- Relational consciousness -- Religious diversity in North America -- Religious theory, developmental systems view -- Retreats -- Revelation -- Ritual -- Rosicrucianism -- Sacraments -- Sacrifice -- Saints -- Salvation -- Save the Children -- Science and religion -- Search Institute -- Sedona, Arizona -- Self-esteem -- Semiotics -- Service -- Shamanism -- Sierra Club -- Sin -- David Alfaro Siqueiros -- Sistine Chapel -- Soul -- Ethical speech -- Spiritual development of children and youth: Biblical descriptions -- Spirituality, contemporary approaches to defining -- African American spirituals -- St. Bonaventure -- St. Ignatius, spiritual exercises of -- Stage-structural approach to religious development -- Edith Stein -- Stonehenge -- Suicide and Native American spirituality -- Tarot -- Teen Challenge -- Sir John Templeton -- Theodicy: God and evil -- Adolescent as theologian -- Thich Nhat Hanh -- Torah -- Tower of David -- Religious transformation -- Ernst Troeltsch -- Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the South African Truth and Reconciliation commission -- Tyrants -- UNESCO -- UNICEF -- United Nations -- Henry Vaughan -- Vodun (Voodoo) -- Volunteerism -- John Wesley -- Western Wall (Wailing Wall, Al-Buraq) -- Wicca and Witchcraft Wilderness -- Witches in popular culture -- World Youth Day -- Woship -- YMCA -- Yoga -- Young life -- YouthBuild -- Zoroastrianism.