Prostitutes' Understanding of God

<p>This study describes the understanding of God by twelve prostitutes of the Street 24 de Mayo, Quito, Ecuador. This understanding is presented and analyzed from a psychological and theological perspective. A way to call the area of knowledge here described is phenomenology of religion. The interviews were conducted on December 15 through December 29, 2001. The thirteen interviewed sexual workers (one interview tape was damaged) belonged to the Asociacion Pro Defensa de la Mujer (Association Pro Defense of Women), which has four hundred and fifty members, all sexual workers. The recorded interviews were done at the office of the mentioned Association. Bolwby's (1969, 1973, 1977, 1980) attachment theory and Rice's (1980, 1989, 2001; and Pinnock, Rice, Sanders, Hasker, Basinger, 1994) views on theodicy served as part of the theoretical framework for the study. A psychological perspective was followed when describing who God is; parallels where drawn between one's relationship with parents and one's relationship with God. In this study it was found that sexual workers see God as their protector and provider, not as the one who is to be blamed for their having to work in the sex industry, neither the one to whom they go in order to receive help to find another job.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Religion

Year

2002

Author dc:creator

• Toledo, Gerardo Alberto

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ramirez-Johnson, Johnny
• Simpson, Cheryl
• Sorajjakool, Siroj

• Religion
• Prostitutes - Equador; Prostitution - Equador; Prostitutes - Religious Life; God - Attributes
• Quito
• Ecuador; God - Psychological aspects; Phenomenology of Religion; Attachment theory; Sex Industry

Statement dc:rights

• This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/453

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsrepository.llu.edu:etd-1454