Even though I recognized that I was an outsider living within these countries and was not immersed in these cultures—and was, in fact, often in conflict with the cultures because of my association with the military—my increased awareness of the important place and value of religion in other countries was valuable because it made me more tolerant and knowledgeable. I also opened myself more to ideas that would, in the past, have caused me to either shut down or to avoid or condemn practices in other cultures, especially in Middle Eastern countries. Although I do not feel that I have arrived at any sort of conclusion about whether I agree or disagree with many of the practices that are informed by the cross-over of religion into so many social institutions and practices, I am not convinced that such a decision is important for me to make. An additional benefit of my time spent abroad during my military service with respect to the formation of my religious beliefs was that my awareness of other countries’ religious practices made me more reflective and, eventually, more proactive in redefining my own religious identity. Thus, one begins to see Kolb’s learning cycle in action. As I began to accumulate experiences, I was increasingly able to reflect upon these experiences and consider both how they related to one another and how they informed my perceptions of other countries and other religions. Then, as my awareness of the multiple ways in which religions and social practices inform one another was expanding, I was able to begin to think about religion and society in a less concrete manner, abstracting the subtleties of what I had observed and experienced in order to think more deeply about my own culture and its relationship with religion. This line of thought led, in turn, to a more profound reflection about my own religious beliefs, which ultimately crystallized in the form of a renewed commitment to the religious beliefs that were instilled in me by my parents during my childhood.

I was raised as a Christian in a family that attended church regularly. Beyond the weekly observance of the ritual of the church service, my parents sent me to Sunday School, where I was taught the scriptural lessons of the church alongside my peers. As I think back on those lessons now, with greater knowledge and life experience, I recognize that despite the way in which these stories were told to be able to appeal to children, they often lacked a clear means of translating the messages of the stories in order to apply them to the realities of children’s and teenagers’ daily lives. My parents certainly supplemented Sunday School lessons with their own teachings and the lessons they conveyed to me through the examples of their own lives, as did teachers and other adult figures in our close-knit community. Nonetheless, religious practices were certainly not as integrated into the fabric of my daily life as they must seem to be in the lives of people in the countries where I was stationed as a serviceman.

Over the course of my late adolescence, in particular, I began to move away from religion, though my intention was neither rebellious nor entirely conscious to me at the time. I attended church services when my parents forced me to do so, but by the time I moved away from home and began forging a life of my own, I had become distant from a church community. Certainly, the values that had been instilled in me as critical moral beliefs remained with me and informed my daily life; however, I did not view these beliefs and values as religious in the strictest sense of the word. Rather, these values and beliefs simply seemed normal and normative within American culture.

During this period of my life, I was also not attending church services, nor was I affiliated with any particular church. Although I continued to consider myself a Christian and believed in God, I was a passive believer, not an active one. I had not, at that point, discovered a meaningful way of exercising my religious beliefs within the context of a church community with like-minded Christians worshiping God. Being in the military made alienation from a church community even easier. Although the military offers church services and counseling is available from military chaplains, the idiosyncratic schedules of soldiers’ lives makes it easy to remain outside of a spiritual community whose members gather together purposefully. Despite the fact that I probably could have benefited from the support and insight of church services and sharing in religious beliefs with fellow soldiers at this time in my life more than any other, I continued to avoid making any true commitment to the Christian faith.

Nonetheless, I was eventually provided the opportunity to actualize the final phase of Kolb’s cycle of learning with respect to developing my religious identity. The more time I spent surrounded by people in cultures where religious expressions were such an important and fully integrated part of everyday life—so much so that this fact was accepted and not really viewed by locals as the novelty it was considered to be by many soldiers–, the more I felt compelled to do some serious soul-searching and determine how and why I had become so distanced or ambivalent about Christian religious practice. Once I had engaged in the reflection that produced insights in response to these questions, I was finally able to begin working my way back to embrace an overtly religious aspect of my personal identity.

Over the course of the past few years, I have begun easing my way back into a life that includes regular religious practice as part of my contact with others and an expression of my faith, values, and beliefs. This renewal of my religious identity involves attending church regularly and participating actively in the life and activities of my congregation. Some of the activities are social, and others are service-oriented, and I find these important and meaningful expressions of tangibly making my faith real. Beyond just attending church regularly and considering my obligations as a member of this faith community, I have also reflected upon how faith should inform my day to day life and made changes in my daily activities accordingly. For instance, I have drawn from my experiences of observing the Buddhist influences on Japanese culture and have adopted the practices of mindfulness and awareness, trying to be present in each moment as often as possible. From my experiences of observing the Muslim influences on Middle Eastern culture, I have adopted the practice of pausing periodically throughout the day to reflect upon my actions. During these moments I ask myself whether I am living as God would expect me to live and whether I am treating others the way God would want me to treat them.

The adoption of new practices and an expanded worldview has been deeply meaningful to me, and I hope it has affected others who have interacted with me positively, too. I would contend that my ability to renew my commitment to a vibrant Christian faith is largely attributable to my experiences of witnessing other cultures and the ways in which they integrate, both positively and otherwise, their religious beliefs as part of their collective social identity and daily practice. As a result of this assignment, I have been able to see how Kolb’s learning cycle is applicable in my religious development.

Related Articles

An Analysis of Theories in Science and Applications in Psychology

Analysis of On the Heavens by Aristotle : The Argument for an Ordered Universe

The Value of Perception, Personal Philosophy and Inherent Optimism

 
References

Eliot, C. (1993). Japanese Buddhism. Surrey, England: Curzon Press.

Haddad, Y.Y., & Smith, J.I. (2002). Muslim minorities in the West: Visible and invisible.

Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira Press.

Kolb, D.A., Boyatzis, R.E., & Mainemelis, C. (2001). The experiential learning model and

learning styles. In Sternberg, R.J., & Zhang, L. (Eds). Perspectives on thinking,

learning, and cognitive styles. (228-248). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Moghadam, V. (2005). Modernizing women in the Middle East. In Choueiri, Y.M. A companion to the history of the Middle East. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Pierotti, R., & Wildcat, D. (2000). Traditional ecological knowledge: The third alternative. Ecological Applications, 10(5), 1333-1340.