The Different Faces of Religion in Therapy: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of a Religion-Based Therapeutic Community for Addiction Recovery in Israel.

This article examines the impact of the integration of religion and psychological treatment in a religion-based therapeutic community for persons in recovery from addiction in Israel. Based on an exploratory qualitative study that includes participant observation in a Jewish forgiveness therapy training course and in-depth interviews with counselors working in the community, we identify three themes that characterize the therapeutic process. First, religion emerges as a challenge in therapy, one that should be addressed with sensitivity.

Offender Rehabilitation: The Middle Way of Maimonides to Mental and Social Health.

Traditional religious and spiritual texts offer a surprising wealth of relevant theoretical and practical knowledge about human behavior. This wellspring may contribute significantly to expanding our current body of knowledge in the social sciences, and criminology in particular. In Jewish religious texts, specifically by Maimonides, we can find profound analyses of human traits and guidelines for a normative way of life.

The Contribution of Volunteering to Volunteers' Life: The Case of Volunteering Beneficiaries Turned Volunteers.

This study addresses the process experienced by youth who started out as volunteering beneficiaries in treatment settings and became volunteers for at-risk youth themselves. Using the phenomenological approach, the study included 10 Israeli interviewees aged 20 to 30 who were regular volunteers. The findings suggested three themes related to the process experienced by the volunteers: (1) perceived altruism-the altruism attributed to the volunteers who had benefited the participants as youths; (2) the identity transformation from beneficiary to benefactor; and (3) acquired altruism-the acquisition of that trait by the participants.

Spiritual Jewish Criminology: The Basic Premises and the Pyramid.

Religion and spiritual traditions entail vast wisdom and knowledge which have proved their productivity in achieving criminal rehabilitation, crime desistance, and crime prevention. Unfortunately, the literature on their role is relatively scarce and was not, until recently, regarded as part of mainstream criminology. This study used a hermeneutic phenomenological approach in which 39 participants were interviewed and many of the religious scriptures selected at their recommendation were analyzed.