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Mark for All Christians? The Theological Implications of Audience
Divine Filiation and the Trinity in Thomas Aquinas: Reassessing Rahner’s Critique
Embodiment, Divinity, and New Theological Directions in William James and Ralph Barton Perry
The Turning Point in the Question of Pulchrum: Thomas Aquinas and Early Franciscanism

Journal Description

Religions

Religions is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal on religions and theology, published monthly online by MDPI.

Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, AHCI (Web of Science), ATLA Religion Database, Religious and Theological Abstracts, and other databases.
Journal Rank: CiteScore - Q1 (Religious Studies)
Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 24.5 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 4.9 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2025).
Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Journal Cluster of Human Thought and Cultural Expression: Culture, Histories, Humanities, Languages, Literature and Religions.

Impact Factor: 0.6 (2024)

Imprint Information Journal Flyer Open Access ISSN: 2077-1444

Latest Articles

14 pages, 286 KB

Open AccessArticle

Faith Under Pressure: The Romanian Orthodox Church in Banat During Communism

by Daniel Aron Alic

Religions 2026, 17(2), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020183 - 2 Feb 2026

The pivotal moment of 23 August 1944 thrust Romania into alliance with the Soviet Union and launched over four decades of communist rule. The Romanian Orthodox Church actively resisted communist ideology, but was swiftly targeted by state oppression. Soviet troops entering Banat executed [...] Read more.

The pivotal moment of 23 August 1944 thrust Romania into alliance with the Soviet Union and launched over four decades of communist rule. The Romanian Orthodox Church actively resisted communist ideology, but was swiftly targeted by state oppression. Soviet troops entering Banat executed atrocities, seized property, arrested citizens, and terrorized communities. These actions marked the start of communist domination. A critical review of this era shows that authorities deliberately and systematically dismantled the Church and other Romanian institutions in Banat. Most significantly, they dissolved the Caransebeş Diocese, the principal ecclesiastical authority for Romanians in South Banat. Authorities shut down theological academies in Caransebeș and Timișoara, and forced hierarchs Veniamin Nistor and Vasile Lăzărescu into exile. These actions severely crippled the Church’s role. Collectively, these measures devastated the Banat Church’s religious, educational, and social capacities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)

21 pages, 2069 KB

Open AccessArticle

Who Is the Woman Who Desires Life? Israeli Female Religious Leaders Craft Liturgy for Jewish–Arab Peace in Wartime

by Elazar Ben-Lulu

Religions 2026, 17(2), 182; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020182 - 2 Feb 2026

The Israel–Hamas War, which erupted with the horrifying events of 7 October 2023, stands as one of the pivotal breaking points in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since its inception. Both sides have been left battered, pained, and devoid of any trust or hope for [...] Read more.

The Israel–Hamas War, which erupted with the horrifying events of 7 October 2023, stands as one of the pivotal breaking points in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict since its inception. Both sides have been left battered, pained, and devoid of any trust or hope for peace. Among the local immediate social grassroots responses to repairing the fractured relationship was the production of a special prayer booklet focused on coexistence and shared life liturgy produced by the Reform Movement in Israel, a non-Orthodox Jewish community. In this article, I analyze four prayers for peace included in this booklet, written by Israeli female religious leaders. I examine how these women crafted prayers to promote a message of peace. The texts establish a maternal dialogue to foster a space of trust and security, aiming to replace the exclusive focus on the God of Israel with a deity encompassing all nations. Through these liturgical creations, the authors challenge both the Israeli Orthodox establishment, which excludes non-Orthodox identities and expressions, and the hegemonic national order, which suppresses discussions of coexistence during times of conflict and marginalizes women’s political involvement. Therefore, I conclude that the creators of these prayers emerge as significant gendered political actors in an era marked by distrust, anger, hostility, and fear. They demonstrate that a message of coexistence can resonate within the religious sphere. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious Traditions in Dialogue)

28 pages, 307 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Ordinary as Ceremony: Wittgenstein on Language and Religion

by Piergiorgio Donatelli

Religions 2026, 17(2), 181; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020181 - 2 Feb 2026

This paper examines Wittgenstein’s shifting engagement with religion, from the early emphasis on the limits of the world in the Tractatus to the later attention to the ordinary and to the ways religious expressions inhabit forms of life. An analysis of later Wittgenstein [...] Read more.

This paper examines Wittgenstein’s shifting engagement with religion, from the early emphasis on the limits of the world in the Tractatus to the later attention to the ordinary and to the ways religious expressions inhabit forms of life. An analysis of later Wittgenstein shows that the religious functions within ordinary language-games, in which expressions tied to religion have established places and contexts of use. These uses, in turn, are intelligible against the background of many kinds of talk and observation that are not ordinarily characterized as religious. At the same time, Wittgenstein is concerned with the way in which words can be intensified through personal use, acquiring an inflection that responds to individual experience and is exposed to the possibility of acknowledgment or failure. What emerges is a way of inhabiting language in which the religious is understood as a renewal of one’s gaze upon the everyday. This is the region in which philosophy and religion meet in Wittgenstein: the work of finding again the words that speak for us, allowing them to regain their depth and to return us, moment by moment, to ordinary life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Work on Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Religion)

19 pages, 706 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Features of Christian Belief in a Just World: A Psychological Examination Based on American Christians

by Xi Li and Lining Lin

Religions 2026, 17(2), 180; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020180 - 2 Feb 2026

While divine justice is central to Christian faith, theologians disagree about its nature and dimensions. This study examines Christian belief in a just world (CBJW) as a psychological belief system through which Christian believers construe justice in the world by referring to God’s [...] Read more.

While divine justice is central to Christian faith, theologians disagree about its nature and dimensions. This study examines Christian belief in a just world (CBJW) as a psychological belief system through which Christian believers construe justice in the world by referring to God’s Justice. Drawing on the psychological concept of belief in a just world, which emphasizes deservedness, we develop and validate a measure of CBJW. In the pilot study, 34 items were selected from biblical texts with the help of an expert review. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis supported a four-factor solution—God’s Punishment, Reward, Sovereignty, and Forgiveness—yielding a 27-item scale. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated good fit, and internal consistency was strong. These results suggest that CBJW functionally overlaps with secular BJW in its emphasis on reward and punishment while adding theologically distinctive dimensions of sovereignty and forgiveness. Moreover, in Christian belief, justice is construed as distinct from divine love and is oriented toward an eschatological horizon, thereby differentiating CBJW from secular conceptions of justice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Critical Issues in Christian Ethics)

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16 pages, 3918 KB

Open AccessArticle

Rethinking Manuscript Reuse: Sino-Khotanese Scrolls from Dunhuang

by Imre Galambos

Religions 2026, 17(2), 179; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020179 - 2 Feb 2026

Several dozen Chinese scrolls from Dunhuang contain Khotanese writings on the verso. The contents of the Khotanese side are relatively diverse, including drafts letters and reports addressed to the Khotanese court, accounts and contracts, writing exercises, narrative works such as the Rāmāyaṇa and [...] Read more.

Several dozen Chinese scrolls from Dunhuang contain Khotanese writings on the verso. The contents of the Khotanese side are relatively diverse, including drafts letters and reports addressed to the Khotanese court, accounts and contracts, writing exercises, narrative works such as the Rāmāyaṇa and Sudhanāvadāna, lyrical poetry, medical treatises and Buddhist texts. By contrast, the Chinese side is significantly more uniform in content and appearance, comprising popular Mahāyāna scriptures copied in an even script, adhering to a regular layout. Although the Chinese sūtras were for the most part copied during the Sui-Tang era or the subsequent period of Tibetan rule over Dunhuang, the Khotanese writings seem to have been added significantly later, during the long tenth century. The reuse of Chinese Buddhist scrolls to write unrelated content—in Chinese and other languages—has typically been explained as the practice of recycling discarded manuscripts. Such explanations essentially see the Chinese sūtras on the recto as waste that was no longer wanted. This paper argues that the repurposing of Chinese scrolls could not have been exclusively motivated by paper shortage and the desire to cut costs. The paper situates this phenomenon within a broader range of reuse practices attested in Buddhist communities across Asia. The central argument advanced here is that reuse often involved a deliberate engagement with earlier textual layers, which retained aspects of their meaning even as new texts were added to the manuscript. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Treasures of Khotan: Multidisciplinary Studies on Khotan as a Hub for Religious and Cultural Exchanges)

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20 pages, 294 KB

Open AccessArticle

Thresholds of Self-Organisation in Catholic Religious Education: A Complex Analysis of Curricula in Latin America

by Javier Díaz-Tejo and Javier Vega-Ramírez

Religions 2026, 17(2), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020178 - 2 Feb 2026

This article analyses the official Catholic Religious Education (CRES) programmes in Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica and Colombia from the perspective of complexity sciences, using the concept of self-organisation as a central analytical axis. Given Latin American contexts marked by religious pluralism, cultural transformation, [...] Read more.

This article analyses the official Catholic Religious Education (CRES) programmes in Chile, Brazil, Costa Rica and Colombia from the perspective of complexity sciences, using the concept of self-organisation as a central analytical axis. Given Latin American contexts marked by religious pluralism, cultural transformation, institutional crisis and youth subjectivities, it is proposed that the adequacy of CRES does not depend solely on content or methodologies, but also on the systemic architecture that articulates students, classrooms and institutions in relation to their environment. Methodologically, the study develops a framework of three thresholds of educational self-organisation—reactive, reflective, and ecological—and applies it comparatively to the four national programmes, examining how they distribute agency, learning capacity, and openness to context at the student, classroom, and school-environment levels. The analysis reveals that, although all programmes activate relevant forms of reactive and reflective self-organisation, only some partially enable thresholds of ecological self-organisation capable of sustainably integrating contemporary sociocultural and religious complexity. The results allow us to identify structural tensions between current curriculum designs and the demands of increasingly complex environments. Full article

18 pages, 2389 KB

Open AccessArticle

Prophecy, Gastronomic Ghosts, and Oracular Flatulence: On the Substance of Spirit in Ancient Israel and Mesopotamia

by Scott B. Noegel

Religions 2026, 17(2), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020177 - 2 Feb 2026

In this contribution, I contend that the divine “spirit, wind” was conceived as moist, wet, and vaporous in nature in ancient Israel and Mesopotamia. I adduce support for this view from biological reality and from a number of biblical and cuneiform texts that [...] Read more.

In this contribution, I contend that the divine “spirit, wind” was conceived as moist, wet, and vaporous in nature in ancient Israel and Mesopotamia. I adduce support for this view from biological reality and from a number of biblical and cuneiform texts that associate the spirit with water or depict it behaving like a liquid. I submit further that since the ancients believed that a divine spirit animated living bodies, they conceived it as capable of conveying divine missives by way of wind emanating from the body, either from the mouth as prophecy (in Israel and Mesopotamia) or as flatus (Mesopotamia). The inclusion of the latter reveals that the process was understood as gastric in nature, a view that finds parallels in the Septuagint and other Greek texts. Thus, this study offers new perspectives on the materiality of spirit and the phenomenology of prophecy and divination in ancient Israel and Mesopotamia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bible and Ancient Mesopotamia)

18 pages, 289 KB

Open AccessArticle

Secrecy, Politics, Monasteries, and Byzantine Iconoclasm

by Zeliha Senel

Religions 2026, 17(2), 176; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020176 - 1 Feb 2026

The Byzantine iconoclastic controversy (726–843) has sparked a debate among Byzantine scholars. The literature on iconoclasm and Byzantine history links the onset of the Iconoclasm period to various indirect factors, including the dual nature of Christ, the ban on idols in the Old [...] Read more.

The Byzantine iconoclastic controversy (726–843) has sparked a debate among Byzantine scholars. The literature on iconoclasm and Byzantine history links the onset of the Iconoclasm period to various indirect factors, including the dual nature of Christ, the ban on idols in the Old Testament, the expansion of the Muslim empire, natural disasters, schisms, Leo III’s political motives, and many others. Debates in the Iconoclasm age between iconodules and iconoclasts created confusion in the literature, and researchers concluded that iconodules altered records of the first phase of iconoclasm by introducing theological concepts. However, theological debates over the nature of Christ obscured the iconoclastic emperors’ political intentions, as theology was generally exploited as a political tool in the Byzantine Empire. The complex interaction between Orthodox and Muslim religions, the wealth of monasteries, and the political ambitions of both Byzantine and Umayyad emperors were some of the leading causes of the process that led to the development of iconoclasm. This study proposes that theological arguments were used to conceal the emperors’ political motives by blaming others for violating the pillars of Christianity. Secrecy in foreign policy and covert operations contributed to the lack of direct evidence, hiding political motives behind theological arguments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interfaith Encounters: Religious Polemics from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period—2nd Edition)

12 pages, 238 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Fact of War and the Cry for Peace in the Way of Thinking of Andrea Riccardi

by László Gájer

Religions 2026, 17(2), 175; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020175 - 1 Feb 2026

Andrea Riccardi is an Italian Catholic historian, university professor, activist, and the founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio. His writings mainly deal with contemporary historical topics, with a particular focus on the history of the papacy today. However, his books do not neglect [...] Read more.

Andrea Riccardi is an Italian Catholic historian, university professor, activist, and the founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio. His writings mainly deal with contemporary historical topics, with a particular focus on the history of the papacy today. However, his books do not neglect moral positions. He shapes his views in practice just as he does in his theoretical work. His community, the Community of Sant’Egidio carries out a significant peace mission, the moral foundations of which were laid by Riccardi. In this study, I wanted to collect primarily those moral principles and theoretical statements from Riccardi’s writings that came from his heart and define the Community’s peace mission. Pope Francis described this Catholic lay association as the community of the “three P’s’: preghiera (prayer), poveri (the poor), and pace (peace). The mission of peace and standing up for peace are therefore essential in the life of this Community. In Catholic social teaching, the importance of the message of peace has become increasingly valued in recent decades. Riccardi explains his own moral principles in this context. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Ethics of War and Peace: Religious Traditions in Dialogue)

13 pages, 363 KB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Communication in Sūfī Way of Contemplative Life (Vita Contemplativa): Aspects of Silence (al-Ṣamt) and Speech (al-Nuṭq) in Theoretical and Practical Ṣūfīsm

by Nurullah Koltaş

Religions 2026, 17(2), 174; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020174 - 31 Jan 2026

The desire to discover the nature of existence and one’s proper role in the universe has been a matter of concern throughout the ages, and individuals have endeavoured to examine the events that occur around them accordingly. In their pursuit, some have embarked [...] Read more.

The desire to discover the nature of existence and one’s proper role in the universe has been a matter of concern throughout the ages, and individuals have endeavoured to examine the events that occur around them accordingly. In their pursuit, some have embarked on a deeper search for meaning, independent of common perceptions, and have posited that forms of expression beyond the limits of language could potentially provide important clues about the course of their lives. Transcending the limits of language can essentially be achieved by choosing a form of expression that goes beyond sounds, letters, words, or speech. Explained by certain scholars as beyond words, silence (Ar. al-ṣamt) is a discourse or mode of expression that involves the ability to speak inwardly (Ar. al-nuṭq). Thus, silence encompasses the ability to speak through remaining silent—a mode that, at first glance, appears to be paradoxical. This study focuses on one of the ways of attaining truth in theoretical and practical Ṣūfīsm: by remaining silent and finding the key to inner silence simultaneously. To reach such a level of understanding, it is crucial to examine how Ṣūfīs attempt to assimilate the inherent meaning beyond the boundaries of ordinary speech and approach the concept of silence from various aspects. By way of examining the possibility of communicating through silence according to some Ṣūfīs, the ways to a life in contemplation may be analysed to the extent that one could find a language that goes beyond letters or words. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)

15 pages, 214 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Human Being in Exposure to Mystery: Phenomenological Foundations of a Mystical Anthropology

by Angélica Morales Arizmendi

Religions 2026, 17(2), 173; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020173 - 31 Jan 2026

This article develops a phenomenological foundation of mystical anthropology through a dialogue between contemporary Spanish philosophy and the sixteenth-century Castilian mystical tradition. Taking Juan Martín Velasco, Miguel García-Baró, and Teresa of Ávila as its main interlocutors, it explores the anthropological structure of the [...] Read more.

This article develops a phenomenological foundation of mystical anthropology through a dialogue between contemporary Spanish philosophy and the sixteenth-century Castilian mystical tradition. Taking Juan Martín Velasco, Miguel García-Baró, and Teresa of Ávila as its main interlocutors, it explores the anthropological structure of the encounter with Mystery as an essential possibility of human existence. The study identifies the human being as a subject in exposure to Mystery—an existence that receives itself through a transcendent call to truth and goodness. The analysis shows that the mystical attitude converges with the philosophical one in their shared openness to the real and their ethical orientation toward truth and the Good. Both reveal that the human being is constituted by relation, receptivity, and responsibility. This synthesis redefines mystical experience not as an exceptional event, but as the most lucid manifestation of the human condition, offering a renewed anthropology capable of addressing contemporary nihilism and spiritual disorientation, understood as the loss of ultimate meaning and the weakening of desire that characterize many contemporary forms of human experience. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mysticism and Ethics: Bridging Transcendence and Action in Religious Experience)

23 pages, 417 KB

Open AccessArticle

Confucius’ Belief in Natural Deities and Sacrifice

by Zhongjiang Wang

Religions 2026, 17(2), 172; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020172 - 31 Jan 2026

The diversity of religious traditions and the increasing prevalence of religious pluralism, along with critical reflections on scientism and the relationship between philosophy and religion, have stimulated global scholarly discussions on Confucianism—its identity as a tradition of learning, its religious dimensions, and its [...] Read more.

The diversity of religious traditions and the increasing prevalence of religious pluralism, along with critical reflections on scientism and the relationship between philosophy and religion, have stimulated global scholarly discussions on Confucianism—its identity as a tradition of learning, its religious dimensions, and its relation to religion in general. These discussions have been further enriched by the discovery of early Confucian texts and renewed examination of existing Confucian classics. As the founder and chief architect of Confucianism, and as both a perceiver and teacher of its truths, Confucius demonstrated a distinct religious consciousness in his teachings and practices. This is reflected in his beliefs concerning spirits and deities, his views on sacrifice, and his ritual awareness—not only through his faith in Heaven and the Mandate of Heaven and his reverence for ancestral spirits, but also in his belief in natural deities. However, Confucius’s conception of natural deities and his associated sacrificial views remain relatively underexplored. This paper examines how Confucius distinguished between the physical and the divine aspects of nature, recognized the connection between the order (or disorder) of these two realms and political governance, maintained faith in natural deities, and advocated for corresponding ritual practices. By systematically reconstructing Confucius’s beliefs regarding natural deities, this study aims to fill a significant gap in current research. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Multiple Images and Forms of Classical Confucian and Daoist Ethics for Living)

19 pages, 341 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Spiritual in the Secular: Transcultural Encounters from Ibsen to Chinese Modern Drama

by Li Yu and Jin Zhang

Religions 2026, 17(2), 171; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020171 - 31 Jan 2026

This article reinterprets modern realist drama as a site of secular spirituality, where aesthetic form sustains the sacred under conditions of modern secularity. Employing a phenomenological–theological framework, it integrates Charles Taylor’s account of the secular age, Mircea Eliade’s sacred–profane dialectic and hierophany, and [...] Read more.

This article reinterprets modern realist drama as a site of secular spirituality, where aesthetic form sustains the sacred under conditions of modern secularity. Employing a phenomenological–theological framework, it integrates Charles Taylor’s account of the secular age, Mircea Eliade’s sacred–profane dialectic and hierophany, and René Girard’s anthropology of sacrifice. Through textual and performance-historical analysis of key works—Ibsen’s A Doll’s House (1879) and An Enemy of the People (1882)—together with Chinese modern drama shaped by Ibsenization, including Hu Shi’s translations, Lu Xun’s critiques, and Cao Yu’s Thunderstorm (1934), the article argues that realist theatre fulfils religious functions in secular culture: revelation as truth-telling, confession as critical self-disclosure, and renewal as ethical transformation. In early twentieth-century China, the encounter between Ibsen’s moral realism and indigenous moral traditions generated a distinctive spiritual humanism, in which theatre assumed ritual and didactic functions traditionally associated with religious practices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Divine Narratives: Exploring the Intersection of Poetry, Myth, and the Spiritual in Literature and Theatre)

23 pages, 321 KB

Open AccessArticle

Mediatization of Indonesian Islam: A Historical Examination of Media and Religious Change

by Yearry Panji Setianto

Religions 2026, 17(2), 170; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020170 - 30 Jan 2026

This article analyzes the long-term relationship between Islam and media in Indonesia through the lens of mediatization. While most research on the mediatization of religion is grounded in Western secular contexts, this study examines how the process unfolds in Indonesia, the world’s largest [...] Read more.

This article analyzes the long-term relationship between Islam and media in Indonesia through the lens of mediatization. While most research on the mediatization of religion is grounded in Western secular contexts, this study examines how the process unfolds in Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, whose religious life and cultural dynamics differ significantly from the Arab world. Using a historical approach, this study traces the evolution of Islamic media from the early twentieth century to the digital era, encompassing prints, broadcast programming, and social media platforms. The findings show that the interaction between Islam and media in Indonesia is a gradual, negotiated transformation shaped by political shifts, technological change, and evolving religious authority. Instead of producing secularization, successive media formats have enabled the continual rearticulation and popularization of Islamic values. New actors such as televangelists and digital preachers have emerged, challenging traditional authorities and prompting adaptations in religious practice to fit media formats and audience expectations. Although commercialization and algorithms sometimes result in a banalized expressions of religion, media developments also create new participatory spaces for religious engagement and personal piety. The study offers a non-Western model of mediatization grounded in Indonesia’s unique media and religious landscape. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Practice of Religious Media in the Twenty-First Century)

24 pages, 320 KB

Open AccessArticle

Lived Theology and Leadership in Wartime Ukraine: An Empirical Study of How Lament, Presence, and Hope Reflect and Shape Theological Meaning-Making (2022–2025)

by Alexander Negrov

Religions 2026, 17(2), 169; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020169 - 30 Jan 2026

Based on leadership narratives collected between 2022 and 2025, this article examines how Ukrainian non-military organizational and community leaders who have remained in the country during the ongoing war interpret, embody, and enact theological meaning within their lived leadership experience. Drawing on two [...] Read more.

Based on leadership narratives collected between 2022 and 2025, this article examines how Ukrainian non-military organizational and community leaders who have remained in the country during the ongoing war interpret, embody, and enact theological meaning within their lived leadership experience. Drawing on two qualitative datasets—one collected in 2022 (n = 145) and a second in 2025 (n = 79)—the study employs a lived theology approach together with a reflexive thematic analysis to explore how theological meaning emerges organically as stated in leaders’ accounts of suffering, responsibility, presence, and hope. The findings indicate that participants articulated three overarching movements of lived theology: lament, leading to dependence on God; the sensed presence of God, leading to social solidarity and shared responsibility; and hope in God, orienting leaders toward post-war restoration. These movements function not as abstract or institutionally authorized doctrines, but as dynamic theological orientations generated through lived theological reflection as leaders connect their perceptions of God with the realities of wartime life. The study contributes to practical theology by demonstrating how theological reflection arises from concrete leadership practices under conditions of war. It further advances leadership studies by showing how theological sense-making, suffering, and responsibility converge in the lives of ordinary people—leaders and followers alike—forming a shared spiritual orientation that sustains communal life amid war and nurtures hope for post-war renewal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)

49 pages, 2919 KB

Open AccessArticle

War of Narratives: Christianity, Iconoclasm, and Decoloniality of Race and Religion

by Shalini Kakar

Religions 2026, 17(2), 168; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020168 - 30 Jan 2026

This paper examines Christian icons in Panjab, in northern India, and their relationship to the larger discourse on race, iconoclasm, and decentering Whiteness in the United States. I analyze the appropriation of Panjabi idioms woven into Christian icons to interrogate the alleged case [...] Read more.

This paper examines Christian icons in Panjab, in northern India, and their relationship to the larger discourse on race, iconoclasm, and decentering Whiteness in the United States. I analyze the appropriation of Panjabi idioms woven into Christian icons to interrogate the alleged case of forced conversions of lower caste, Mazhabi Sikhs, and the atmospheres of violence. Focusing on the beheading of Christ and Mary’s pieta statue in a church in Tarn Taran, Panjab in 2022, I investigate the iconic materiality and vexed histories of the religious symbol through a visual studies lens. How do Christian images signal liminal material presences that oscillate between their identity of sacred icons and of hegemonic monuments of white supremacy? Using a Lacanian psychoanalytic and decolonial framework, I argue that entangled in the politics of memory, Christian icons are an impregnated space of intersecting colonial histories of oppression and conversion entrenched in hierarchies of race, class, and caste. This study contributes to understanding the growing impact of Christianity in northern India, the war of narratives being enacted upon its icons, and its relationship to anti-colonial and anti-racial expressions of transnational iconoclasm to posit a bigger question: Is there a way to navigate through the dense matrix of colonialism, race, religion, caste, and violence to reclaim agency through Mignolo’s call for a “praxis of decolonial healing”? Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Race, Religion, and Nationalism in the 21st Century)

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6 pages, 380 KB

Open AccessEditorial

Religions, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings

by Marie-Therese Mäder and Anna-Katharina Höpflinger

Religions 2026, 17(2), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020167 - 30 Jan 2026

Finally, after more than an hour of impatiently waiting, the wedding couple enters the hall where the reception with 160 guests takes place [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Images of Love: Religion, Norms, and the Mediatisation of Weddings)

17 pages, 428 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Religious Nature of “Dao” in the Yi Zhuan

by Xiejiao Liu and Zhifeng Zhang

Religions 2026, 17(2), 166; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020166 - 30 Jan 2026

Confucian thought inherently contains a religious dimension, with its core concept, “Dao,” serving as its principal expression. The Confucian classical text Yi Zhuan, built upon the Dao of Yin and Yang, presents a system imbued with religious significance. Scholarship on the Yi Zhuan [...] Read more.

Confucian thought inherently contains a religious dimension, with its core concept, “Dao,” serving as its principal expression. The Confucian classical text Yi Zhuan, built upon the Dao of Yin and Yang, presents a system imbued with religious significance. Scholarship on the Yi Zhuan has largely approached its theory of Dao from a human-centered philosophical perspective. By contrast, this paper examines the religious nature of Dao in the Yi Zhuan, as expressed through four key dimensions. In its worldview, Dao is the universal foundation of all existence. It permeates the world through the Dao of Yin and Yang, accounting for the generation and transformation of all things. In the realm of values, Dao serves as the ultimate source, guiding individuals in cultivating virtue and realizing their true nature, thus fostering the moral ideal of unity between Heaven and humanity. Within the sphere of norms, Dao acts as the foundation of ethical principles, directing individuals in the construction of moral frameworks for the real world. This framework is realized through the divine teachings of sages and the understanding of Dao by persons in high station and exemplary persons. In religious and ethical practice, Dao serves as the ultimate point of reference for meaning, with the belief that deviation from Dao results in misfortune, while adherence brings blessings. It calls for individuals to seek practical wisdom, cultivating an awareness of the times and acting in harmony with them, thus providing a foundation for one’s life and purpose, thereby presenting a distinctive Eastern approach to religious and ethical living. This approach offers a new perspective on the interpretive tradition of the Yi Zhuan and its place in contemporary religious studies, while fostering dialogue between philosophical and religious approaches to the Yi Zhuan and Confucian thought more broadly. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Multiple Images and Forms of Classical Confucian and Daoist Ethics for Living)

20 pages, 382 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Spiritualism Debate and the Reconstruction of Epistemic Order: Revisiting Spirit-Writing Practices and Scientific Discourse During the New Culture Movement

by Tingjian Lou and Qixin Yang

Religions 2026, 17(2), 165; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020165 - 30 Jan 2026

Established in 1917, the Spiritual Society (Lingxuehui 灵学会) centered its activities on spirit-writing (fuji 扶乩), constructing a sacred discourse through the Spiritual Chronicles (Lingxue Congzhi 灵学丛志) that blended Confucian ethics, Buddhist–Daoist notions of reincarnation and karmic causality, and the terminologies [...] Read more.

Established in 1917, the Spiritual Society (Lingxuehui 灵学会) centered its activities on spirit-writing (fuji 扶乩), constructing a sacred discourse through the Spiritual Chronicles (Lingxue Congzhi 灵学丛志) that blended Confucian ethics, Buddhist–Daoist notions of reincarnation and karmic causality, and the terminologies of modern science. This synthesis aimed to restore moral order and epistemic legitimacy amid intense social upheaval. Beginning in 1918, however, New Youth—the flagship journal of the New Culture Movement—launched sustained critiques against Spiritualism (Lingxue 灵学). Moving beyond a historical narrative, this article draws on Weber, Foucault, and Abbott to analyze this confrontation as a contest for exclusive jurisdiction over “explaining the world” and “healing society.” New Culture intellectuals labeled fuji as “superstition” through the lenses of scientism and psychology, linking it to imperial residues and anti-modern ideologies. Scientific discourse, by deploying the label of “superstition”, secured epistemological orthodoxy and systematically marginalized indigenous spiritual traditions. The confrontation between the “divinity–medium–text” structure and the modern logic of “science–rationality–nation” reveals a deeper struggle over knowledge boundaries and legitimacy, while also illuminating the tensions and negotiations that shaped China’s trajectory toward modernity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)

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Open AccessArticle

A Multilevel Approach to Religion: Individual, Interactional, and Institutional

by Landon Schnabel

Religions 2026, 17(2), 164; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel17020164 - 30 Jan 2026

This article presents a multilevel framework for understanding religion as operating simultaneously at individual, interactional, and institutional levels. Drawing on the multilevel theory of gender as a conceptual parallel, it synthesizes existing perspectives in the sociology of religion into a coherent analytical framework. [...] Read more.

This article presents a multilevel framework for understanding religion as operating simultaneously at individual, interactional, and institutional levels. Drawing on the multilevel theory of gender as a conceptual parallel, it synthesizes existing perspectives in the sociology of religion into a coherent analytical framework. While many sociological theories implicitly recognize multiple levels, empirical research has typically focused on individual religiosity, treating religion primarily through measures of personal belief, behavior, and belonging. The 3I framework—individual, interactional, and institutional—makes this implicit multilevel thinking explicit, providing conceptual scaffolding for both theoretical development and empirical practice. The framework is illustrated through application to contemporary American religious change, revealing how apparently contradictory patterns of religious decline and spiritual persistence reflect differential change across levels. Full article

(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)

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