Abstract:Researchers have examined how perceiving marriage as "sacred" or believing God is manifest in marriage is associated with marital functioning and satisfaction, but little is known about how biblical family metaphors (e.g., God is father) inform Christians' interpretations of family relationships. Few studies explore the perspective of individuals who believe in, interpret and apply these metaphors to their relationships. This study uses Hermeneutic Theory to examine how Evangelicals apply the metaphor of Jesus as husband and the church as bride to their intimate relationships and spirituality. Qualitative interviews with 15 Evangelicals explored the meaning, interpretations, and processes of marital relationships in light of the Christ-groom God image. Participants indicated many ways the metaphor was useful: value partners more; invest more in the relationship; strive to demonstrate love, patience, etc. toward partners; and guidance in relationship structuring. They discussed how their couple relationships opened positive and negative possibilities for relating to God. Gender hierarchy and implication that husbands are the "head" or "Christ" figure in marriage caused incongruence for some participants as did the difficulty of comparing a person or human relationship to a spiritual metaphor. Application, implications, and ideas for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this article is to critically examine the emerging discourse of religion and spirituality in family research to clarify how each construct is defined and to make visible hidden ontological, epistemological, and culturally situated assumptions. The use of the term spirituality has increased dramatically in published articles and has undergone a distancing from religion. This separation creates a dichotomy that associates religion with conservative traditions and spirituality with liberalism and individualism, thus aligning the emergent spirituality discourse with dominant Western values.

Addressing academic diversity in today's college classroom is challenging. This chapter explores Universal Design for Learning as a viable framework for removing barriers for all students in higher education.

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