Promoting Forgiveness at a Christian College: A Comparison of the REACH Forgiveness and Forgive for Good Methods

The present study is the first randomized, controlled trial comparing REACH Forgiveness and Forgive for Good, two of the most commonly used approaches to promote forgiveness. Additionally, the combined effects of psychoeducation and a community forgiveness intervention were examined. Psychoeducation participants were 99 Luther College students randomly assigned to six hours of one of two types of forgiveness training led by undergraduate facilitators or a control condition. The community forgiveness intervention involved campus-wide modifications to the environment that were difficult for most students to not notice. Unforgiveness and forgiveness were measured at pre-, post-intervention, and two-month follow-up. Both forgiveness groups reported decreased unforgiveness and increased forgiveness pre- to post-intervention, and these gains were maintained at follow-up. Both methods were found to be equally effective, can be taught by undergraduates, and were effective in tandem with a community intervention.

Ny arkitektur for nordmenn i Iowa. Arkitekt C.H. Griese, Luther College og kirker i 1860-årene

<p>The Norwegian Evangelical-Lutheran Church in America decided in 1861 to build their first college close to the western frontier of The Upper Midwest. The site chosen was a bluff above Upper Iowa River, highly visible from Decorah, a small town founded only 12 years earlier, few years after the first settlers arrived. The college building became a relatively vast structure erected between 1862 and 1865, completed to its originally planned symmetrical composition in 1874. The building style and its composition were common among American colleges and universities further east in the US. It is also demonstrated how the Luther College building façade in composition and detailing shows clear influences from a specific German building. This particular building has been designated as especially typical of the German <em>Rundbogenstil</em> (<em>S</em>tyle of the Rounded Arch) with its great mix of various stylistic elements.</p><p>The architect was known as C. H. Griese from Cleveland, Ohio. He is identified as Charles Henry Griese (1821–1909), who immigrated from Germany about 1850 and was known as a mason and contractor, from now on also as an architect. In 1869, Griese also designed the three Norwegian Lutheran churches of Washington Prairie, Stavanger and Glenwood in rural Decorah. They represented a Neo Gothic style which was new to the area, and had an evident architectural character contrasting the more ordinary vernacular churches in the area. They signify a change of style and, like the college building, they demonstrate architectural ambitions new to these Norwegians, giving insight also into the general architectural and vernacular development in the area.</p>