C A M Hermans
Biographic Data
| ID | 7122620 |
|---|---|
| NAME | C A M Hermans |
| GIVEN NAMES | C A M |
| FAMILY NAME | Hermans |
| SIGNATURE | HERMANS C A M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Radboud University Nijmegen |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9416-3924 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Reimagining ecclesiological imagination within a Dutch Reformed Congregation in South Africa
This research explores how Durbanville congregation’s liturgical practices might reimagine “God’s new world” amidst these sociocultural constraints. Drawing on Christi van der Westhuizen’s work, the study critiques how these enclaves institutionalise prejudice under the guise of preserving familiar norms and orders, highlighting the identity crisis faced by White individuals in affirming racial exclusivity. It presents practices of change (an int…
Reimagining the self in relation to God and all creation. Practices of silence in an urban context of societal acceleration
What defines the practices of silence of young urban people (25-35 years old) as an experience of the divided self and relationship with God in an urban context of Cape Town characterised by acceleration? The concept of “primordial spirituality” (Waaijman) is used to shed light on the pursuit of spirituality by young urban persons outside formal church structures. This study highlights the dynamic nature of embodied practices of silence for young…
The social imagination of the church in a racially divided society
Based on the work of Graham Ward, this article distinguishes three distinct but interrelated forms of imagination, namely cultural imagination, cultural values, and social imagination. Social imagination is defined as the imaginative way in which we give meaning to our institutionalised social systems. How do agents within an institutionalised social system know how to act in accordance with their role and the cultural values upon which they are …
Reimagining forgiveness: A transformative engagement with a social imagination of forgiveness through intercultural Biblical reading in South Africa
How can one work towards the transformation of the social imagination of forgiveness among racially divided South African Christians, with the focus on the White participants, through a process of intercultural Bible reading of Matthew 18:15-35? The study highlights therole of local congregations as both sites of constraint and transformation. The research involves two Methodist churches that are institutionally united (sharing the same doctrine,…
Towards an emergent theory of reimagining church in a racially divided society: Building theory from different cases
How to build an emergent theory on changing social imagination of church in the context of South Africa? Emergent theory involves building theory, not testing theory. The author uses the so-called Eisenhardt method of building an emergent theory. Rigour in the Eisenhardt method rests on five criteria: “how” and “why” research questions, using theoretical sampling, well-identified theoretical constructs, identifying mechanisms of transformation, a…
Public Theology and Human Dignity: Critique, New Directions and Methodological Considerations
How can we discuss human dignity in public theology while acknowledging the associated challenges? The author agrees with Kim and Day that public theology must transcend the boundaries of different groups, disciplines, and languages in order to establish itself as a credible and accessible voice open to critique based on publicly available criteria and evidence. Next, the theological concept of human dignity as presented in Catholic Social Teachi…
Towards an agency-oriented model of congregational vitality: How (not) to transform congregational vitality
The author defines ‘congregational vitality’ as a disposition of the members of the congregation, who act in a role within the social system of the congregation. He connects this agency-related perspective with a structural-functionalist perspective on local churches after the agentic turn. Functions are dynamic processes of a system that are ‘needs’ in terms of maintenance of stability or production of change Two functions are necessary for surv…
Resilient religion: What good is religion for
Good refers to the intrinsic value or telos (purpose) of religion. The author starts with the claim that religion keeps alive, in thinking, the awareness of ultimate meaning (“truth”); in actions, the focus on human dignity and the common good, and, in the heart of man, the longing for fulfilling happiness, peace of heart, and love. As spiritual beings, human beings transcend the given towards the telos or purpose of life. At the same time, human…
Discernment as predictor for transformational leadership: A study of school leaders in Catholic schools in India
Transformational leaders are leaders who ‘transform and inspire followers to perform beyond expectations while transcending self-interest for the good of the organisation’. ‘Discernment’ is defined as the individual and communal practice of decision-making that is oriented on the future (educational aims), conditioned by the personal qualities of leaders (purity of heart), and which emphasises teleological ethics as source of reliance. In line wi…
A Framework of Five Transformative Leadership Competencies for Church Leaders in the DRC
What framework of transformational leadership competencies could guide the development of church leaders in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) with regard to the changes facing the church in South Africa in the 21st century? The article summarises the results of a Delphi research to find consensus on the formulated research question in a panel of 25 DRC leadership experts. Five competencies are formulated: spirituality, sense-making, visioning, rela…
Spirituality and Contingency in Narrative Biographical Interviews With Primary School Leaders of Catholic Schools in the Netherlands
There is a growing interest in personal biographies of school leaders as a source of their leadership qualities. However, it is unclear what aspects of the biography informs these qualities as a school leader. This article proposes to focus on experiences of contingency in biographies of school leaders. Previous research has conceptualised various modes of handling contingency experiences: denial, acceptance and receiving. The authors suggest a n…
Spiritual Determinants and Situational Contingencies of Transformational Leadership
There is a strong evidence that transformational leadership gives rise to loftier motivation among the teaching staff, creative school innovation, enhanced learning results among students and critical openness to diversity in society. Little is known how school leaders can become better transformational leaders. Our research among school leaders of the Salesian schools in India seeks to verify if higher performance of transformational leadership …
Spirituality as Passions of the Heart. An Empirical Study Into the Character, Core Values and Effects of the Passions of the Heart of General Practitioners
There is growing interest in the spirituality of physicians, relating to burnout and emotional stress and in terms of dealing with their workload. The authors distinguish four different lines of research in this area and position their approach of the “passions of the heart” as a meta-intentional feeling for what is good and satisfying, which we derive from a phenomenological theory of feeling by Stephan Strasser (1977). Human beings are characte…
On the High Sea of Spirituality. Antecedents and Determinants of Discernment Among School Leaders in India
Discerning the good is the spiritual compass of living a good life with, and for others. It is the core of “lived spirituality”. A person grows in discernment, when his/her spiritual character traits, spiritual capital and spiritual experiences grow. The authors first map the field of lived spirituality related to discernment. Next, they present the results of a research into lived spirituality of school leaders in India. School leaders have a ta…
Unexpected Possible. A Building-Block Approach to Spiritual and Religious Experiences Revisited
Both spiritual and religious experiences express an “unexpected possible happiness”. Unexpected is defined as a recognition of contingency. Possible is defined as transcendental openness towards possibilities that are considered ultimate. Happiness as a transcending anticipation of ultimate possibilities. Spiritual experiences are characterised by the recognition of contingency, transcendental openness and happiness. Spiritual experiences can be …
The Religious Gender Gap within Dutch Relationships: Explaining the Persistent Religious Gender Gap in the Netherlands Using a Multifactorial Approach
Like other Western countries, in the Netherlands women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. In this article, we set out to explain this Dutch religious gender gap regarding belief in God, prayer and church attendance. Using high quality survey data ( LISS 2015), a comprehensive model is built combining social and psychological differences between Dutch men and women. These gender differences are operationalized where the…
Modes of Handling Contingency and Educational Goals and Aims
This article reports the results of an empirical study into the relationship between school leaders’ experiences of contingency, and how they formulate goals and aims for the future of the children at their schools. We distinguish between three ways of handling experiences of contingency: contingency denial, contingency acceptance, and contingency receiving. We expect that school leaders who have received new insights in their experiences of cont…
Why Dutch Women are Still More Religious than Dutch Men: Explaining the Persistent Religious Gender Gap in the Netherlands Using a Multifactorial Approach
In many secular Western countries, women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. But why does this religious gender gap persist? In this research note, we set out to explain the religious gender gap in the Netherlands for three dimensions of religiosity: belief in God, frequency of prayer and frequency of church attendance. Using high quality national representative survey data from LISS (Longitudinal Internet Studies for t…
Good education, the good teacher, and a practical art of living a good life: A Catholic perspective
What is good education? We value education for reasons connected to the good provided by education in society. This good is connected to be the pedagogical aim of education. This article distinguishes five criteria for good education based on the concept of ‘Bildung’.Next, these five criteria are used to develop the idea of the good teacher. The rationale behind the analysis is that the good teacher should be able to realise what we consider to b…
Discerning the Good
This study addresses normativity in the practice of collaborative decision-making in Dutch Catholic school management teams. ‘Discernment’ is used as a heuristic to describe the process and content of collaborative decision-making. With regard to the process, discernment is marked by four distinctive aspects: reflection; trust; welcoming of diversity; and enactment of decisions. As for the content, discernment in schools requires different modes …
Religion and Conflict Attribution: An Empirical Study of the Religious Meaning System of Christian, Muslim and Hindu Students in Tamil Nadu, India
Contains fulltext : 131953.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)
Towards a Theory of Spiritual and Religious Experiences: A Building Block Approach of the Unexpected Possible
How do we define religious experiences? And what would be the relationship with spiritual experiences? The author claims that the cognitive turn in science gives us new opportunities to map the territory of religion and spirituality. In line with other authors (Taves, Wildman), he proposes a building block approach of cognitive mechanisms that can deal with questions regarding the specificity, origin, and complexity of religious experiences. Two …
Towards a model of influence of spirituality on leadership: Empirical research of school leaders on Catholic schools in the Netherlands
What is spirituality? What is leadership? And what is their relationship? The article presents the concept of 'discernment' (Latin: 'discretion') as the link (tertium comperationis) between spirituality and leadership. Spirituality is a way of life in (the growth of) discernment towards human fullness, which is grounded in a moral universe (God, nature). Three elements are employed in discernment: spiritual traits (Cloninger), spiritual capital (…
Spiritual Transformation: Concept and Measurement
Spiritual experiences are defined as experiences of ultimate meaning, which are existentially relevant, unexpected and sometimes (but not necessarily) objectively strange compared to normal experience. Two types of spiritual experiences can be distinguished: an orientation type and a transformation type. Spiritual transformation is defined as a process of self-awareness to unify the divided self. The ultimate (final, eternal, sublime) guides this…
‘Silent Citizenship Educators’ in Dutch Catholic Schools: Exploring Teachers’ Moral Beliefs About Citizenship in Relation to Their Conduct of Citizenship Education
In this article we adopt a virtue ethical approach to study teachers’ moral beliefs about citizenship and their relation to two kinds of teacher behaviour in citizenship education: (1) teachers’ modelling behaviour, and (2) the way they arrange moral classroom discussions. We believe that a virtue ethical approach would appeal especially to religious schools, which is why we conducted our study in Catholic primary schools. Two hunderd and three t…
Why Dutch Women are Still More Religious than Dutch Men: Explaining the Persistent Religious Gender Gap in the Netherlands Using a Multifactorial Approach
In many secular Western countries, women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. But why does this religious gender gap persist? In this research note, we set out to explain the religious gender gap in the Netherlands for three dimensions of religiosity: belief in God, frequency of prayer and frequency of church attendance. Using high quality national representative survey data from LISS (Longitudinal Internet Studies for t…
A Comparative Study of Mystical Experience Among Christian, Muslim, and Hindu Students in Tamil Nadu, India
Hood developed a Mysticism Scale based on the theoretical work of Stace. The scale was tested by Hood and others in a comparative perspective. Using an abridged version of Hood's Mysticism Scale, we join the debate with a study of a much larger number of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu respondents (1,920 college students) living in Tamil Nadu, India. Our empirical analysis yields a moderately reliable model of mystical experience that permits compar…
Metaphor Theories and Religious Language Understanding
Contains fulltext : 158828.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)
Internal Consistency Reliability and Construct Validity of the Dutch Translation of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity among Adolescents
A sample of 1,021 young people attending Years 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 at Catholic secondary schools within the state-maintained sector completed the Dutch translation of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity. The data support its reliability and validity and commend it for further use in studies conducted among young people in The Netherlands
Social Constructionism and Theology
Scholars of practical theology are increasingly regarding the discipline as one whose scope extends beyond the bounds of an applied theology. The concept of action, or practice, plays a central role in this new understanding. At the base of theological reflections by scholars of practical theology are the practices, and these are analyzed empirically. The aim of the discipline is to transform these practices and develop a hermeneutical action the…
Reliability and Validity of a Dutch Translation of a Short Scale of Attitude toward Christianity
To facilitate cross-cultural research in the psychology of religion, the reliability and validity of a Dutch translation of a seven-item short-form of the Francis Scale of Attitude toward Christianity was examined among a sample 980 young people attending Catholic secondary schools within the state-maintained sector in the Netherlands. The data support the reliability and validity of the scale and commend it for further use among young people in …
Dependent Autonomy. Towards a Contextualised and Dialogic Aim for Moral Education
This article presents two approaches to moral education: the autonomy approach and the heteronomy approach. Generally the two approaches are considered to be mutually exclusive. The study described here, conducted among Dutch teachers at Catholic primary schools, reflects a positive relation between the two approaches. This leads to the assumption that teachers regard moral education as a dialogical, embodied and contextual process (Vygotski). In…
Religion and Moral Education. Empirical Research into the Moral Consciousness of Trainee Teachers in the Netherlands
This article deals with the way trainee primary school teachers approach religion in moral education. To explain the relation between religion and reason we use Habermas's framework. We distinguish between three ways of dealing with religion in this context: value communication, value transfer and value presentation Exploratory empirical research shows that trainee teachers recognise only two approaches. The first two are combined. Whether and ho…
Religious Practice and Religious Socialization: Comparative Research among Christian, Muslim and Hindu Students in Tamilnadu, India
This article seeks, first, to offer a comprehensive theoretical framework of religious practice — based particularly on the works of Stark and Glock — that may be used in comparative research among adherents of different religious traditions. Secondly we clarify the role of the agents of religious socialization and their function as "reference others", taking into account the contributions of Bajzek, Milanesi and Schlenker. The empirical analysis…
Relationship between Goal Orientations and Educational Methods in Christian Adult Education
Christian adult education has various goals and educational methods. From a theoretical perspective the authors' task is to formulate a relationship between goals and methods. Their distinction between goals is based on whether the authority for Christian identity formation lies 'outside' or 'inside' the adult learner. The distinction between educational methods is based on the question whether the educator or the learner, or both, directs the le…
Expressing Otherness in Interreligious Classroom Communication. Empirical Research into Dialogical Communication in Religiously Pluriform Learning Situations in Catholic Primary Schools
This qualitative research investigates the degree in which pupils, who belong to different religions, express their religious otherness in dialogical communication, the degree in which teachers offer them room to do so and the views on religious pluralism that teachers use to this end. Otherness refers to the relation of the I with himself and with the other. The expressions of otherness of both teachers and pupils in nine lessons on interreligio…
What do teachers do to stimulate the understanding of the other in interreligious classroom communication? Empirical research into dialogical communication in religiously pluriform learning situations…
How do pupils in dialogical classroom communication understand the otherness of peers who belong to religions different from their own? We distinguish between three aspects of dialogical communication that are conducive to understanding pupils’ otherness: orientation, appropriation, and evaluation. To what extent do teachers apply these three aspects in interreligious classroom communication? To answer this question we investigated the interactio…
Memory of Deductive and Inductive Sermons: Empirical Research into the Effects of Transmission of Theological Concepts in the Doctrinal Mode
Transmission of religion is important in order to pass on the beliefs, rituals, stories, devotional practices etc. as part of a religious tradition to the next generation. According to Whitehouse (2004) two requirements have to be fulfilled in order that this transmission is successful: it must take a form that people can remember and people must be motivated to pass on these beliefs and rituals. In the empirical research, five categories of pred…
Moral Pluralism and Goals of Moral Education within Christian Adult Education
The article focuses on the way moral pluralism is dealt with in adult religious-moral education. Following the philosopher N. Rescher, various angles on the diversity of moral stances are identified: nihilism, monism, scepticist pluralism, relativist pluralism, syncretist pluralism and contextualist pluralism. On the basis of this typology certain goals of Christian moral education for adults are singled out. The results of an empirical study amo…
A Comparative Study of Mystical Experience Among Christian, Muslim, and Hindu Students in Tamil Nadu, India
Hood developed a Mysticism Scale based on the theoretical work of Stace. The scale was tested by Hood and others in a comparative perspective. Using an abridged version of Hood's Mysticism Scale, we join the debate with a study of a much larger number of Christian, Muslim, and Hindu respondents (1,920 college students) living in Tamil Nadu, India. Our empirical analysis yields a moderately reliable model of mystical experience that permits compar…
‘Silent Citizenship Educators’ in Dutch Catholic Schools: Exploring Teachers’ Moral Beliefs About Citizenship in Relation to Their Conduct of Citizenship Education
In this article we adopt a virtue ethical approach to study teachers’ moral beliefs about citizenship and their relation to two kinds of teacher behaviour in citizenship education: (1) teachers’ modelling behaviour, and (2) the way they arrange moral classroom discussions. We believe that a virtue ethical approach would appeal especially to religious schools, which is why we conducted our study in Catholic primary schools. Two hunderd and three t…
Towards a model of influence of spirituality on leadership: Empirical research of school leaders on Catholic schools in the Netherlands
What is spirituality? What is leadership? And what is their relationship? The article presents the concept of 'discernment' (Latin: 'discretion') as the link (tertium comperationis) between spirituality and leadership. Spirituality is a way of life in (the growth of) discernment towards human fullness, which is grounded in a moral universe (God, nature). Three elements are employed in discernment: spiritual traits (Cloninger), spiritual capital (…
Spiritual Transformation: Concept and Measurement
Spiritual experiences are defined as experiences of ultimate meaning, which are existentially relevant, unexpected and sometimes (but not necessarily) objectively strange compared to normal experience. Two types of spiritual experiences can be distinguished: an orientation type and a transformation type. Spiritual transformation is defined as a process of self-awareness to unify the divided self. The ultimate (final, eternal, sublime) guides this…
Religion and Conflict Attribution: An Empirical Study of the Religious Meaning System of Christian, Muslim and Hindu Students in Tamil Nadu, India
Contains fulltext : 131953.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)
Towards a Theory of Spiritual and Religious Experiences: A Building Block Approach of the Unexpected Possible
How do we define religious experiences? And what would be the relationship with spiritual experiences? The author claims that the cognitive turn in science gives us new opportunities to map the territory of religion and spirituality. In line with other authors (Taves, Wildman), he proposes a building block approach of cognitive mechanisms that can deal with questions regarding the specificity, origin, and complexity of religious experiences. Two …
Discerning the Good
This study addresses normativity in the practice of collaborative decision-making in Dutch Catholic school management teams. ‘Discernment’ is used as a heuristic to describe the process and content of collaborative decision-making. With regard to the process, discernment is marked by four distinctive aspects: reflection; trust; welcoming of diversity; and enactment of decisions. As for the content, discernment in schools requires different modes …
Good education, the good teacher, and a practical art of living a good life: A Catholic perspective
What is good education? We value education for reasons connected to the good provided by education in society. This good is connected to be the pedagogical aim of education. This article distinguishes five criteria for good education based on the concept of ‘Bildung’.Next, these five criteria are used to develop the idea of the good teacher. The rationale behind the analysis is that the good teacher should be able to realise what we consider to b…
The Religious Gender Gap within Dutch Relationships: Explaining the Persistent Religious Gender Gap in the Netherlands Using a Multifactorial Approach
Like other Western countries, in the Netherlands women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. In this article, we set out to explain this Dutch religious gender gap regarding belief in God, prayer and church attendance. Using high quality survey data ( LISS 2015), a comprehensive model is built combining social and psychological differences between Dutch men and women. These gender differences are operationalized where the…
Modes of Handling Contingency and Educational Goals and Aims
This article reports the results of an empirical study into the relationship between school leaders’ experiences of contingency, and how they formulate goals and aims for the future of the children at their schools. We distinguish between three ways of handling experiences of contingency: contingency denial, contingency acceptance, and contingency receiving. We expect that school leaders who have received new insights in their experiences of cont…
Why Dutch Women are Still More Religious than Dutch Men: Explaining the Persistent Religious Gender Gap in the Netherlands Using a Multifactorial Approach
In many secular Western countries, women continue to demonstrate higher levels of religiosity than men. But why does this religious gender gap persist? In this research note, we set out to explain the religious gender gap in the Netherlands for three dimensions of religiosity: belief in God, frequency of prayer and frequency of church attendance. Using high quality national representative survey data from LISS (Longitudinal Internet Studies for t…
A Framework of Five Transformative Leadership Competencies for Church Leaders in the DRC
What framework of transformational leadership competencies could guide the development of church leaders in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) with regard to the changes facing the church in South Africa in the 21st century? The article summarises the results of a Delphi research to find consensus on the formulated research question in a panel of 25 DRC leadership experts. Five competencies are formulated: spirituality, sense-making, visioning, rela…
Spirituality and Contingency in Narrative Biographical Interviews With Primary School Leaders of Catholic Schools in the Netherlands
There is a growing interest in personal biographies of school leaders as a source of their leadership qualities. However, it is unclear what aspects of the biography informs these qualities as a school leader. This article proposes to focus on experiences of contingency in biographies of school leaders. Previous research has conceptualised various modes of handling contingency experiences: denial, acceptance and receiving. The authors suggest a n…
Sociology (24 works) · Psychology (22 works) · Epistemology (19 works) · Philosophy (19 works) · Social Psychology (18 works) · Religion, Spirituality, and Psychology (13 works) · Political science (10 works) · Christian Theology and Mission (8 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Law (8 works)