Religions

12 pages, 7063 KiB

Open AccessArticle

by David Torrijos-Castrillejo

Religions 2025, 16(5), 573; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050573 (registering DOI) - 29 Apr 2025

This paper analyses the section of Nemesius of Emesa’s treatise On the Nature of Man dedicated to fate. The main objective is to analyse Nemesius’s response to the supporters of a notion of fate within the framework of astral determinism, Stoicism, and Middle [...] Read more.

This paper analyses the section of Nemesius of Emesa’s treatise On the Nature of Man dedicated to fate. The main objective is to analyse Nemesius’s response to the supporters of a notion of fate within the framework of astral determinism, Stoicism, and Middle Platonism. Following a mainly descriptive method, the paper focuses on Nemesius’s own thought and not just on his treatment of his sources, as much of the existing literature has done until now. Without pretending to give a definitive answer on the originality of his own philosophy, we examine how Nemesius assigns some of the functions of fate in one of his Middle Platonic sources to divine providence. In doing so, he develops a personal theology in which he gives an innovative prominence to divine free will and transcendence in the traditional philosophical problem of providence. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fate in Ancient Greek Philosophy and Religion)

28 pages, 513 KiB

Open AccessArticle

From India to China: Evolution of the Connotations of Extracanonical Buddhist Literature

by Zhongyue Guan and Siyao Wang

Religions 2025, 16(5), 572; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050572 (registering DOI) - 29 Apr 2025

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of “Extracanonical Buddhist Literature” and explores its origins and development in the two major Buddhist cultural spheres of India and China. It investigates the roles such texts played in religious practice, doctrinal interpretation, and cross-cultural transmission. In India, [...] Read more.

This paper introduces the concept of “Extracanonical Buddhist Literature” and explores its origins and development in the two major Buddhist cultural spheres of India and China. It investigates the roles such texts played in religious practice, doctrinal interpretation, and cross-cultural transmission. In India, extracanonical texts frequently remained outside the official canon due to factors such as sectarian divisions and geographic constraints, reflecting ongoing debates and dialogues with non-Buddhist thought. In China, the formation of these texts was influenced by indigenous cultural integration, political pressures, and translation practices, highlighting a distinct trajectory of Buddhist localization. By analyzing the complementary relationship between these extracanonical works and canonical scriptures, this study demonstrates that these texts not only supplement the canonical system but also offer critical insights into the diversity of Buddhist thought and cultural exchange. Ultimately, they hold significant academic and cultural value, shedding light on how Buddhist ideas were disseminated and adapted across diverse regional contexts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Shaping Sacred Knowledge: The Transmission and Legacy of the Chinese Buddhist Canon)

6 pages, 150 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

An Introduction to the Special Issue “The Platonic Tradition, Nature Spirituality, and the Environment”

by Alexander J. B. Hampton

Religions 2025, 16(5), 571; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050571 (registering DOI) - 29 Apr 2025

Abstract

We can understand Platonism as both a storehouse of resources that can be drawn upon and a living philosophy capable of helping us address the present-day environmental crisis, one of humanity’s most important and pressing challenges. Platonism appears in the collected papers here [...] Read more.

We can understand Platonism as both a storehouse of resources that can be drawn upon and a living philosophy capable of helping us address the present-day environmental crisis, one of humanity’s most important and pressing challenges. Platonism appears in the collected papers here in philosophical, theological, scientific, and literary contexts, demonstrating both its versatility and its capacity. One of the aims of promoting this avenue of research is to both explore and challenge the traditional characterisations and critiques of the Platonic tradition in relation to nature and ecology. This Special Issue demonstrates how Platonism can serve as a resource for addressing the environmental crisis in a present-day context. Collectively, the wide range of contributions allow us to begin to tackle the task of showing how a Platonically orientated metaphysics can provide an integrative and sustainable framework for conceptualising nature and the place of humans within it, particularly by offering an alternative to subject-centred epistemologies. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Platonic Tradition, Nature Spirituality and the Environment)

18 pages, 426 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Way to Immortality: The Theory of Human Nature and Destiny of Ge Hong, a Religious Thinker

by Yuan Gao

Religions 2025, 16(5), 570; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050570 (registering DOI) - 29 Apr 2025

Abstract

Ge Hong, a religious thinker, has a philosophy of life that integrates Confucianism and Daoism that is reflected in his theory of human nature and destiny. It is embodied in several related concepts. First, “human nature and destiny are inherently natural”. This means [...] Read more.

Ge Hong, a religious thinker, has a philosophy of life that integrates Confucianism and Daoism that is reflected in his theory of human nature and destiny. It is embodied in several related concepts. First, “human nature and destiny are inherently natural”. This means that human nature and destiny are inevitable and determined. On the one hand, Ge Hong denied this concept to demonstrate the possibility of immortality; on the other hand, he accepted it in terms of whether an individual could become an immortal. This gave his thought a distinct dualist feature. Second, the “law of human nature and destiny” served as the foundation for discussing the rationality of the cultivation of immortality during the Wei and Jin Dynasties. Ge Hong also used the law to demonstrate the rationality of the way to immortality. Third, the essence of the way to immortality can be presented through the theory of human nature and destiny, which is to transform humans into immortals through certain means, known as “transforming life and destiny”. Full article

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

12 pages, 176 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Some Reflections on the Moral Reality of Social Power

by Charles S. Brown

Religions 2025, 16(5), 569; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050569 (registering DOI) - 29 Apr 2025

Abstract

Power is often understood as the sheer use of force in social relations. While power is frequently expressed and experienced in these terms, it is also necessary for the generation, sustenance, and enhancement of life in all its forms. This means that, in [...] Read more.

Power is often understood as the sheer use of force in social relations. While power is frequently expressed and experienced in these terms, it is also necessary for the generation, sustenance, and enhancement of life in all its forms. This means that, in a very basic way, power is constitutive of personhood and society. Understood and exercised in this way, power affirms the dignity of individual persons and promotes bonding between and among persons. Therefore, ethically, social power must be viewed as essentially relational and intended to be reciprocal, community building, and accountable. Contrarily understood and exercised, power gives rise to bondage through denial of the responsibility in its constitutive and relational character. Here, the emphasis on domination and power becomes alienating and irresponsible. The purpose of this article as a whole is to undertake an ethical analysis of social power that furthers exploration of the principles and implications of nonviolent strategies for the exercise of social power. Full article

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

15 pages, 247 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Beyond Secularism (Laïcité): Québec’s Secularism and Religious Participation in Nation-Building

by Hyuk Cho

Religions 2025, 16(5), 568; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050568 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2025

Abstract

This article explores the role of religion in nation-building by examining its public dimensions within the evolving context of secularism in Québec. By examining the shift from open secularism, recommended by the Bouchard–Taylor Commission report of Building the Future, a Time for Reconciliation [...] Read more.

This article explores the role of religion in nation-building by examining its public dimensions within the evolving context of secularism in Québec. By examining the shift from open secularism, recommended by the Bouchard–Taylor Commission report of Building the Future, a Time for Reconciliation (2008), to a more rigid form under Bill 21, the study critiques Bill 21’s marginalization of religious minorities and explores the broader tension between state neutrality and religious participation in public life. Drawing on Rajeev Bhargava’s concept of “principled distance”, the author advocates for a flexible secular framework that balances institutional neutrality with ethical commitments to equity and justice. Through case studies, including the accommodation of Sikh turbans in the RCMP and the United Church of Canada’s support for same-sex marriage, the article illustrates how religious engagement fosters bridging social capital and enacts public religion, thereby enriching democratic discourse. This article insists on the limitations of rigid secularism in its dealings with pluralism and proposes that principled distance offers a more inclusive approach, allowing constructive religious contributions to civic life without undermining secular governance. Ultimately, the study promotes a vision of secularism that honors differences and encourages religious participation in nation-building. Full article

15 pages, 183 KiB

Open AccessReview

Joseph Ratzinger and Cultural Dynamisms: Insights for the Renewal of the Techno-Scientific Culture

by Maurice Ashley Agbaw-Ebai

Religions 2025, 16(5), 567; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050567 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2025

Abstract

From the Christian heartland of Europe emerged the techno-scientific culture borne from the Enlightenment movement. Prior to this cultural outlook that severed culture from its foundational roots in religion, it was the case that religion was not only a crucial agent in the [...] Read more.

From the Christian heartland of Europe emerged the techno-scientific culture borne from the Enlightenment movement. Prior to this cultural outlook that severed culture from its foundational roots in religion, it was the case that religion was not only a crucial agent in the shaping of culture, but in many ways, the heart of culture. With secular rationality and its underscoring of the techno-scientific mindset, a growing privatization of religion has become the acceptable ethos of contemporary Western culture. Secularism, largely understood in terms of a naked public sphere, is increasingly perceived to be the only form of rationality that can guarantee societal cohesion and the democratic spirit. But as Ratzinger pointed out in his 1993 Hong Kong Address to the Doctrinal Commissions of the Bishops Conferences of Asia, this Western understanding of culture that is governed by a hermeneutic of suspicion towards religion, and which seeks to replace the heart of culture with autonomous reason a la Kant, ends up leaving culture in a winter land of existential frostiness. By depriving culture of its roots in the transcendental dimensions of human experience, much of the wisdom and riches that have been accumulated in the pre-techno-scientific cultures—regarding fundamental questions such as “Who am I?”, “Why am I here?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, “What happens when I die?”, “Does life make sense?”, “Do I have a destiny?” and more—are now left to the manufactured logic of the techno-scientific with its anthropological reductionism that fails to offer the big picture of the cultural outlook that did not construe the scientific and the technological as antithetical to religion. This essay seeks to unpack the arguments Ratzinger made in this Address at Hong Kong, with the hope that this theological exegesis of the Hong Kong lecture could once again offer an invitation to the world of the techno-scientific, the world of secular rationality, to open up to the world of faith, so that together, the breadth and depth of the human culture would once again flourish in its greatness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catholic Theologies of Culture)

22 pages, 2852 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The Role of Buddhism in the Language Ecology and Vitality of Tai Phake in Assam (India) and Wutun in Qinghai (China)

by U-tain Wongsathit, Erika Sandman and Chingduang Yurayong

Religions 2025, 16(5), 566; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050566 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2025

Abstract

This study examines the role of Buddhism in the vitality of local languages as an asset of indigenous traditions, focusing on two geographically disconnected minority language communities: Tai Phake in the state of Assam, India, and Wutun (Ngandehua) in the Qinghai [...] Read more.

This study examines the role of Buddhism in the vitality of local languages as an asset of indigenous traditions, focusing on two geographically disconnected minority language communities: Tai Phake in the state of Assam, India, and Wutun (Ngandehua) in the Qinghai province of China. The investigation addresses various factors related to the ecology of speech communities discussed in connection with religion. The data are based on longitudinal observations from personal fieldwork in the respective locations over the past two decades. The descriptive and comparative analysis applies an ecology-based typology of minority language situations to assess the contribution of individual factors in three different domains (speakers, language, and setting) to the vitality of the Tai Phake and Wutun languages. The results reveal several areas in which Buddhism as a cultural authority has noticeably contributed to language preservation. The effects of Buddhism are considered significant in enhancing demographic stability, social setting, attitudes, awareness of historical legacy, education in monasteries, and sustainable economics. In contrast, religion does not account for the vitality of these local languages in situations where a low degree of dialectal variation does not complicate intergenerational transmission of language, the minority status of the speech community is unique, and space for language in the institutionalised domain of use is insufficiently provided. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Indigenous Traditions)

35 pages, 11211 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Exploring Early Buddhist–Christian (Jingjiao 景教) Dialogues in Text and Image: A Cultural Hermeneutic Approach

by Wang Jun and Michael Cavayero

Religions 2025, 16(5), 565; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050565 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2025

Abstract

The dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism began during the Tang dynasty (618–907) when East Syrian Christian missionaries from Persia arrived in China in 635. At this time, Buddhism was prospering under the Tang Empire, and the “Church of the East” was established, known [...] Read more.

The dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism began during the Tang dynasty (618–907) when East Syrian Christian missionaries from Persia arrived in China in 635. At this time, Buddhism was prospering under the Tang Empire, and the “Church of the East” was established, known as the “Brilliant (or Radiant) Teaching” (Jingjiao 景教). Historical records and archaeological evidence indicate that the Jingjiao church employed the method of “matching concepts” (geyi 格義). This methodology, initially utilized in the early stages of Buddhism’s dissemination from India and Central Asia to China for the translation of Buddhist texts, was similarly applied to the translation of Christian texts and concepts. These translation efforts and dissemination activities represent the earliest documented encounters between Christianity and Buddhism in premodern times. Furthermore, recent archaeological discoveries reveal that the dialogue between the two religions in China transpired through textual and visual representations (iconography) in the form of “borrowing pictures”. This study investigates these interactions across disciplines, exploring the evidence of early cultural exchange between Buddhism and Christianity while reviewing the motivations behind the missionaries’ translation and dissemination activities. It addresses pivotal questions regarding these early dialogues by examining the proselytization strategies employed and analyzing the reasons why imperial authorities sanctioned Christian activities and facilitated their propagation during the Tang dynasty. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Otherness-Reception and Self-Rediscovery in the Dialogue and Comparative Study of Christianity and Buddhism)

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35 pages, 4657 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Comparing Two Distribution Models of Paul’s Literary Techniques: Poisson Versus Negative Binomial

by Thomas McCauley and Paul Robertson

Religions 2025, 16(5), 564; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050564 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2025

Abstract

This article explores how literary features are statistically distributed in the Christian apostle Paul’s letters. While several decades of occasional research have applied statistics to Paul’s letters, most if not all previous such approaches have either assumed that Paul’s language follows a normal [...] Read more.

This article explores how literary features are statistically distributed in the Christian apostle Paul’s letters. While several decades of occasional research have applied statistics to Paul’s letters, most if not all previous such approaches have either assumed that Paul’s language follows a normal distribution or ignored the question of statistical distribution entirely. The nature of feature distribution—be the features vocabulary words or second-order features chosen by the analyst—is a crucial component of any statistical analysis, and the dearth of work in this area therefore forms a major hole in mathematical approaches to Paul’s letters. This paper addresses this hole in scholarship by comparing two possible models for Paul’s various literary techniques: the Poisson distribution versus the negative binomial distribution. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Computational Approaches to Ancient Jewish and Christian Texts)

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22 pages, 287 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Artificial Intelligence in Religious Education: Ethical, Pedagogical, and Theological Perspectives

by Christos Papakostas

Religions 2025, 16(5), 563; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050563 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2025

Abstract

This study investigates the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Religious Education (RE), a field traditionally rooted in spiritual formation and human interaction. Amid increasing digital transformation in education, theological institutions are exploring AI tools for teaching, assessment, and pastoral engagement. Using a [...] Read more.

This study investigates the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Religious Education (RE), a field traditionally rooted in spiritual formation and human interaction. Amid increasing digital transformation in education, theological institutions are exploring AI tools for teaching, assessment, and pastoral engagement. Using a critical literature review and analysis of institutional case studies, the paper examines the historical development of AI in education, current applications in general and theological contexts, and the ethical challenges it introduces, especially regarding decision making, data privacy, and bias as well as didactically grounded opportunities such as AI-mediated dialogic simulations. The study identifies both the pedagogical advantages of AI, such as personalization and administrative efficiency, and the risks of theological distortion, overreliance, and epistemic conformity. It presents a range of real-world implementations from institutions like Harvard Divinity School and the Oxford Centre for Digital Theology, highlighting best practices and cautionary approaches. The findings suggest that AI can enrich RE when deployed thoughtfully and ethically, but it must not replace the relational and formational aspects central to RE. The paper concludes by recommending policy development, ethical oversight, and interdisciplinary collaboration to guide responsible integration. This research contributes to the growing discourse on how AI can be aligned with the spiritual and intellectual goals of RE in a rapidly evolving digital age. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and/of the Future)

14 pages, 269 KiB

Open AccessArticle

AI, Consciousness, and the Evolutionary Frontier: A Buddhist Reflection on Science and Human Futures

by Peter D. Hershock

Religions 2025, 16(5), 562; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050562 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2025

Abstract

The technological advances and material control that have resulted from reductive and deterministic practices of science are quite real. The digitally mediated expansion of experiential freedoms-of-choice and the transformative problem-solving potential of artificial intelligence are undeniable. But for all its successes, reductive physicalism [...] Read more.

The technological advances and material control that have resulted from reductive and deterministic practices of science are quite real. The digitally mediated expansion of experiential freedoms-of-choice and the transformative problem-solving potential of artificial intelligence are undeniable. But for all its successes, reductive physicalism has failed to solve the so-called hard problem of consciousness. As a result, its successes are exposing humanity to an intensifying confluence of existential and ethical risks as the digitally mediated attention economy and intelligent technology facilitate a fundamental restructuring of the dynamics of human presence. Making use of Buddhist conceptual resources and drawing out their implications regarding causality and agency, this paper offers a nondualist and nonreductionist approach to theorizing consciousness and evolutionary dynamics in ways that are suited to opening an ethically productive “middle path” to critically rethinking the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution and more positively configuring the evolution human–technology–world relations. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Science: Loving Science, Discovering the Divine)

4 pages, 185 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Editorial for Special Issue “Expressions of Chinese Christianity in Texts and Contexts: In Memory of Our Mentor, Professor R. G. Tiedemann (1941–2019)”

by Lars Laamann and Joseph Tse-Hei Lee

Religions 2025, 16(5), 561; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050561 (registering DOI) - 27 Apr 2025

Abstract

Chinese Christianity, or Sinophone Christianity, has gained increasing attention in recent decades as both a socio-cultural phenomenon and a subject of inquiry [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Expressions of Chinese Christianity in Texts and Contexts: In Memory of Our Mentor Professor R. G. Tiedemann (1941–2019))

18 pages, 343 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Fanaticism and the Zhuangzi: The Discursive Conditions for Unhealthy Commitments

by Daniel Sarafinas

Religions 2025, 16(5), 560; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050560 (registering DOI) - 27 Apr 2025

Abstract

This article utilizes the Zhuangzi’s critical approach to language to expand contemporary discourse on the philosophy of fanaticism beyond the conceptual categories derived from European Enlightenment-era critiques of religious and political fanaticism. Recognizing some of the problematic tendencies that stem from the [...] Read more.

This article utilizes the Zhuangzi’s critical approach to language to expand contemporary discourse on the philosophy of fanaticism beyond the conceptual categories derived from European Enlightenment-era critiques of religious and political fanaticism. Recognizing some of the problematic tendencies that stem from the method of comparison itself, an articulation of a post-comparative paradigm is proposed, which emphasizes approaches from non-Western sources that are not predicated upon the comparison of similarities or differences with Western sources. The main body of this article explicates the Zhuangzi’s critiques of a linguistically and discursively conditioned fanaticism. These critiques focus on the following: (1) the interdependence of binary linguistic terms that constitute shifei discourse; (2) semiotic chains of cascading distinctions that confound attempts to ground shifei judgements; and (3) the relationship between unhealthy forms of language, thought, and anxieties and a discursively conditioned fanaticism. This article concludes with a brief reflection on how the Zhuangzi’s critiques of a linguistically and discursively conditioned fanaticism might open discourse on the philosophy of fanaticism in more ways than by merely adding a token Chinese voice. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Going Beyond Comparative Ethics: Post-Comparative Ethics in Philosophic and Religious Traditions)

11 pages, 218 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The History of Canon Law as a Proper Mirror to Deepen Current Legal Conflicts

by Domenico Bilotti

Religions 2025, 16(5), 559; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050559 (registering DOI) - 27 Apr 2025

Abstract

It is important to underline that the history of Canon Law has a specific significance, even considering the methodological opportunity to find and to reconsider documents, periods, and personalities in order to modify and to enhance already acquired hermeneutical data. A partially unexplored [...] Read more.

It is important to underline that the history of Canon Law has a specific significance, even considering the methodological opportunity to find and to reconsider documents, periods, and personalities in order to modify and to enhance already acquired hermeneutical data. A partially unexplored hypothesis, however, consists in the peculiar attitude of Canon Law in approaching themes coming from the current configuration of legal relationships because the ecclesial paradigm has represented a primary framework, not only in Western societies, for Christian cultures and a not necessarily hostile and antithetical model to the others. By selecting a restrained amount of critical case studies, this essay will consider juridical institutes related to the legitimacy of public authorities, the legal protection of dissent (but on the basis of limited circumstances), the Private law possibility to realize human interests in a pacific, mutual, contractual way. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Canon Law and Secularization: Societal Trends and the Changing Role of Religious Law)

18 pages, 214 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Whether God Exists Is Irrelevant to Ethics

by David Kyle Johnson

Religions 2025, 16(5), 558; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050558 (registering DOI) - 27 Apr 2025

Abstract

The question of whether ethics is possible without God is a non-issue. While many believe that without God, morality collapses, I contend that the existence or non-existence of God has no bearing on whether ethics is possible, whether moral truths exist, or whether [...] Read more.

The question of whether ethics is possible without God is a non-issue. While many believe that without God, morality collapses, I contend that the existence or non-existence of God has no bearing on whether ethics is possible, whether moral truths exist, or whether ethical inquiry is viable. Ethics is no more secure within a theistic framework than an atheistic one. I establish this by critically examining Divine Command Theory (DCT) and its variants, including Divine Nature Theory, demonstrating that they fail to provide truthmakers for moral statements, explain moral truths, generate moral knowledge, or serve as a practical guide for ethical decision making. If one seeks a way to justify ethical principles or resolve moral dilemmas, appealing to God does not improve the situation; supernatural explanations, including those invoking divine commands or nature, fail to meet the criteria of explanatory adequacy. I conclude by suggesting a secular approach to ethics—drawing from Ted Schick’s inference to the best action—that does not depend on God’s existence. Ultimately, if moral nihilism is a concern, God’s existence offers no solution. If ethics is possible at all, it is possible regardless of whether God exists. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Is an Ethics without God Possible?)

16 pages, 280 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Considerations on Fate in the Iliad and the Remarkable Interventions of the Divine

by Angela Zamora Cilento

Religions 2025, 16(5), 557; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050557 (registering DOI) - 27 Apr 2025

Abstract

By borrowing the metaphor of the ‘tapestry of existence’ to discuss the matter of fate in Homer’s Iliad, we selected four threads that are interwoven in the warp of each hero’s destiny—that of necessity/fatality, the relations between Zeus and the Moîra, the [...] Read more.

By borrowing the metaphor of the ‘tapestry of existence’ to discuss the matter of fate in Homer’s Iliad, we selected four threads that are interwoven in the warp of each hero’s destiny—that of necessity/fatality, the relations between Zeus and the Moîra, the plots and tricks of the gods, and fate and human actions—with the aim of inviting the reader to appreciate the texture of the work with the passages that most caught our attention, without the intention of exhausting the subject. To do so, we draw upon the origin of the word Moîra in anthropology, as well as some of Heidegger’s ideas and those of other commentators to enrich the discussion. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Fate in Ancient Greek Philosophy and Religion)

19 pages, 343 KiB

Open AccessArticle

The People Shall Not Dwell Alone: The Hebrew Bible in Light of Chinese Classics

by Lupeng Li

Religions 2025, 16(5), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050556 (registering DOI) - 27 Apr 2025

Abstract

This article compares the similar texts in historiography, legend, poetry, and law between the Hebrew Bible and Chinese classic works, emphasizing the mutual reflection and illumination of the two in terms of culture. This article holds that a literary work, just like an [...] Read more.

This article compares the similar texts in historiography, legend, poetry, and law between the Hebrew Bible and Chinese classic works, emphasizing the mutual reflection and illumination of the two in terms of culture. This article holds that a literary work, just like an object, will release a certain form of energy, which will have an impact on other works and, at the same time, be influenced by other works. This article examines Chinese classic works from the perspective of the Hebrew Bible to gain new insights. By discussing the traditional comparative methods in biblical studies, the article emphasizes the possibility of comparison between different cultures. It is believed that, for similar stories and texts, it is important to analyze their specific cultural backgrounds and writing environments and to reveal the deep-seated reasons in terms of philosophy, history, society, culture, personal life experiences, etc., behind the phenomena of similarities and differences. Using this method, the article deeply analyzes the similarities and differences between the two kinds of texts in specific literary genres such as historiography, poetry, and law and gives examples to illustrate the similarities and differences between these two types of literary works. The study of these narratives within a comparative framework enables people to have a deeper understanding of these texts and the societies that produced them, while also respecting the unique backgrounds and meanings of each work. The article underlines the significance of cross-cultural comparison in the studies of the Bible and Chinese classic works. This research approach, as proposed, enriches the comprehension of these two literary traditions and their profound influence on the shaping of human history and culture. Full article

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

14 pages, 209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

From Public Images of Islam to Everyday Muslim Practice

by Hanna Grabenberger and Erol Yildiz

Religions 2025, 16(5), 555; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel16050555 (registering DOI) - 26 Apr 2025

Abstract

From public images of Islam to everyday Muslim practice. As the current debates on “Islam” and “Muslims” in Europe illustrate, social conflicts related to religious issues seem to attract public attention and become politicised relatively quickly. As European societies develop into a place [...] Read more.

From public images of Islam to everyday Muslim practice. As the current debates on “Islam” and “Muslims” in Europe illustrate, social conflicts related to religious issues seem to attract public attention and become politicised relatively quickly. As European societies develop into a place of cultural and religious diversity in the context of global opening processes, voices are increasingly raised that propagate religious homogeneity in Europe and see the presence of Muslims almost exclusively as a problem. On the one hand, such homogenising interpretations are made visible, and it is shown how a decidedly negative image of Islam has emerged and how such rigid categorisations lead to the decontextualisation of religious affiliations and practices, which has a significant influence on the life constructions and positioning practices of those affected. On the other hand, biographical examples are used to illustrate how negative attributions to Islam and its adherents are perceived by subsequent generations, how they react to them, how they position themselves in the debate, and what strategies result from this to deal with them. The focus is on the experiences of those affected, i.e., the “knowledge of the people”, as a counterpoint to a “hegemonic knowledge” of Islam and Muslims. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Immigrants in Western Europe)

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