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Militant Liturgies: Practicing Christianity with Kierkegaard, Bonhoeffer, and Weil -
Something Distinct, or Business as Usual? Interpreting the Plan of the Late Medieval Bridgettine Monastery in Naantali, Finland -
Who Are Those in Authority? Early Muslim Exegesis of the Qur’anic Ulū’l-Amr -
Buddhist Pilgrimage and the Ritual Ecology of Sacred Sites in the Indo-Gangetic Region
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 many other databases.
- Journal Rank: CiteScore - Q1 (Religious Studies)
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision provided to authors approximately 16.3 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 4.6 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the first half of 2021).
- 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.
Latest Articles
Modern Teachers of Ars moriendi
Religions 2021, 12(9), 695; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090695 (registering DOI) - 30 Aug 2021
Abstract
It is evident that a change is happening, a breakthrough, in perceptions of death; the next episode is being unveiled. After the stages Philippe Aries named death of the tame and then death of the wild, people today are finally experiencing the
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It is evident that a change is happening, a breakthrough, in perceptions of death; the next episode is being unveiled. After the stages Philippe Aries named death of the tame and then death of the wild, people today are finally experiencing the humanizing of death, which we call sharing death, whose influence is worth deep analysis. Our hypothesis is that today, Ars moriendi, meeting the needs of the dying, may be learned from the so-called death teachers, whose message is growing noticeably in society. This research shows a certain reversal of social roles that are worth noting and accepting. In the past, a priest was a guide and a teacher in the face of dying and death; today, he has the opportunity to learn Ars moriendi from contemporary teachers of dying, to imagine an empty chair standing by a dying person.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Birth and Death: Studying Ritual, Embodied Practices and Spirituality at the Start and End of Life)
Open AccessArticle
Evolution as a Theological Research Program
Religions 2021, 12(9), 694; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090694 (registering DOI) - 30 Aug 2021
Abstract
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution interacted with non-empirical factors including a range of theological concerns. The influence of these theological concerns is typically modeled as secondary to that of empirical evidence. In both Darwin’s thought and later development of the theory of evolution,
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Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution interacted with non-empirical factors including a range of theological concerns. The influence of these theological concerns is typically modeled as secondary to that of empirical evidence. In both Darwin’s thought and later development of the theory of evolution, theological concerns have been viewed as serving in a range of possible roles. However, the theological concerns have consistently been viewed as, ultimately, subservient to empirical science. In the end, science has the final say regarding the content and evaluation of the theory. Here, this paper demonstrates the failure of this model. Theological concerns do have primacy over the science. They motivate the development of evolutionary theory, and they control the interpretation of the empirical evidence and justification of the theory. It is more accurate to view evolution as a theological research program.
Full article
Open AccessArticle
Emerging Hindu Rashtra and Its Impact on Indian Muslims
Religions 2021, 12(9), 693; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090693 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Abstract
This article examines the impact of the gradual Hindutvaization of Indian culture and politics on Indian Muslims. The article contrasts the status of Muslims in the still secular, pluralistic, and democratic constitution of India with the rather marginalized reality of Muslims since the
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This article examines the impact of the gradual Hindutvaization of Indian culture and politics on Indian Muslims. The article contrasts the status of Muslims in the still secular, pluralistic, and democratic constitution of India with the rather marginalized reality of Muslims since the rise of Hindu nationalism. The article argues that successive electoral victories by Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has precipitated political events, generated policies, and passed new laws that are eroding the democratic nature of India and undermining its religious freedoms. The article documents recent changes that are expediting the emergence of the Hindu state in India and consequently exposes the world’s largest religious minority to an intolerant form of majoritarian governance.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and International Relations: What do we know and how do we know it?)
Open AccessReview
Respect for Religiosity: Review of Faith Integration in Health and Wellbeing Interventions with Muslim Minorities
Religions 2021, 12(9), 692; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090692 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Abstract
Integration of religion in community health and wellbeing interventions is important for achieving a good life among faith-based populations. In countries hosting Muslim-minorities, however, relatively little is reported in academic literature on processes of faith integration in the development and delivery of interventions.
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Integration of religion in community health and wellbeing interventions is important for achieving a good life among faith-based populations. In countries hosting Muslim-minorities, however, relatively little is reported in academic literature on processes of faith integration in the development and delivery of interventions. We undertook a review of peer reviewed literature on health and wellbeing interventions with Muslim-minorities, with specific interest on how Islamic principles were incorporated. Major databases were systematically searched and PRISMA guidelines applied in the selection of eligible studies. Twenty-one journal articles met the inclusion criteria. These were coded and analyzed thematically. Study characteristics and themes of religiosity are reported in this review, including the religious tailoring of interventions, content co-creation and delivery design based on the teachings from the Quran and Sunnah, and applicability of intervention structures. We reviewed the philosophical and structural elements echoing the Quran and Islamic principles in the intervention content reported. However, most studies identified that the needs of Muslim communities were often overlooked or compromised. This may be due to levels of religio-cultural knowledge of persons facilitating community health and wellbeing interventions. Our review emphasizes the importance of intellectual apparatus when working in diverse communities, effective communication-strategies, and community consultations when designing interventions with Muslim-minority communities.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)
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Open AccessArticle
Religious Minorities’ Rights in International Law: Acknowledging Intersectionality, Enhancing Synergy
Religions 2021, 12(9), 691; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090691 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Abstract
International human rights law on minorities sets forth a complex system of provisions affecting religious groups; still, the question of defining religious minorities remains largely unsettled. While assessing the legal framework of protection established under the UN system, this article explores the current
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International human rights law on minorities sets forth a complex system of provisions affecting religious groups; still, the question of defining religious minorities remains largely unsettled. While assessing the legal framework of protection established under the UN system, this article explores the current debate drawing on the two key concepts of intersectionality and synergy. The intersectionality approach suggests that belonging to a religious minority cannot be dissociated from other features defining personal and groups’ identities (e.g., culture, ethnic origin, gender, language) and that this distinctive quality marks the multiple forms of violations and cross-cutting discriminations of which religious minorities are often victims. On the other hand, the synergy approach implies a comprehensive understanding of the legal sources protecting individual freedom of conscience and religion as well as religious minorities. Moreover, it entails fruitful cooperation among the relevant institutional and civil actors and the need for inclusive participation of persons belonging to religious minorities in democratic decision-making processes to the aim of the accomplishment of equal and full enjoyment of their human rights.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religious Minorities in Europe and Beyond: A Critical Appraisal in a Global Perspective)
Open AccessArticle
The Translation of Buddhism in the Funeral Architecture of Medieval China
by
Religions 2021, 12(9), 690; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090690 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Abstract
This article explores the Buddhist ritual and architectural conventions that were incorporated into the Chinese funeral architecture during the medieval period from the 3rd to the 13th centuries. A careful observation of some key types of sacred architectural forms from ancient East Asia,
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This article explores the Buddhist ritual and architectural conventions that were incorporated into the Chinese funeral architecture during the medieval period from the 3rd to the 13th centuries. A careful observation of some key types of sacred architectural forms from ancient East Asia, for instance, pagoda, lingtai, and hunping, reviews fundamental similarities in their form and structure. Applying translation theory rather than the influence and Sinicization model to analyze the impact of Buddhism on Chinese funeral architecture, this article offers a comparative study of the historical contexts from which certain architectural types and imageries were produced. It argues that there was an intertwined mutual translation of formal and ritual conventions between Buddhist and Chinese funeral architecture, which had played a significant role in the formations of both architectural traditions in Medieval China.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Buddhist Architecture in East Asia)
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Open AccessEditorial
Tying the Knot: A Holistic Approach to the Enhancement of Religious Minority Rights and Freedom of Religion
Religions 2021, 12(9), 689; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090689 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Abstract
The debate on religious minority rights has long been stranded in the shallows of a sterile juxtaposition between the politics of sameness and the politics of difference [...]
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religious Minorities in Europe and Beyond: A Critical Appraisal in a Global Perspective)
Open AccessArticle
Neoliberalism and eurochristianity
Religions 2021, 12(9), 688; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090688 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Abstract
This article argues for an articulation of the “eurochristian worldview” in order to situate neoliberalism as an expression of eurochristian colonialism. It uses an interdisciplinary focus on discourse related to neoliberalism and religion to evidence the necessity for analyses based on worldview. Following
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This article argues for an articulation of the “eurochristian worldview” in order to situate neoliberalism as an expression of eurochristian colonialism. It uses an interdisciplinary focus on discourse related to neoliberalism and religion to evidence the necessity for analyses based on worldview. Following the thinking of Indigenous authors and cognitive theory to articulate key distinctions between worldview, culture, and religion, it challenges conventional secularization narratives for being, like neoliberalism, an expression of eurochristian worldview and ongoing colonization.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religious Studies on Neoliberalism)
Open AccessArticle
The Evolution of Suffering, Epiphenomenalism, and the Phenomena of Life: Evidential Problems for Naturalists
Religions 2021, 12(9), 687; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090687 (registering DOI) - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
Paul Draper argues that the central issue in the debate over the problem of suffering is not whether the theist can offer a probable explanation of suffering, but whether theism or naturalism can give a better explanation for the facts regarding the distribution
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Paul Draper argues that the central issue in the debate over the problem of suffering is not whether the theist can offer a probable explanation of suffering, but whether theism or naturalism can give a better explanation for the facts regarding the distribution of pain as we find them. He likewise maintains a comparison of relative probabilities considering the facts of suffering; atheological naturalism is to be preferred. This essay proceeds in two phases: (a) It will be argued that mainstream positions in naturalistic philosophy of mind make it difficult to take pain as anything but epiphenomenal and therefore not subject to evolutionary explanation. While the distribution of suffering is a difficulty for the theist, the naturalist has equal difficulty explaining the fact that there is any suffering at all in the first place. Thus, the facts of suffering offer no advantage to the atheist. (b) Phenomenologists suggest that there is an intrinsic connection between animal life, pain, and normativity (including a summum bonum). The mere occurrence of life and normativity are, at least prima facie, more likely on the assumption of theism than atheism, so the theist may have a probabilistic advantage relative to the atheist. Phases (a) and (b) together support the overall conclusion that the facts of pain as we find them in the world (including that there is any pain at all) are at least as great, if not greater, a challenge for the atheist as they are the theist.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theodicy and Challenges of Science: Understanding God, Evil and Evolution)
Open AccessArticle
The Holonic Christ: Catholicity as Individuation and Integration
Religions 2021, 12(9), 686; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090686 (registering DOI) - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
The paradigm shift ushered in by the new science of the early twentieth century discloses the universe as a dynamic, energetic, and complex web of relationality. In view of this renewed sense of undivided wholeness, this article seeks to advance the growing synthesis
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The paradigm shift ushered in by the new science of the early twentieth century discloses the universe as a dynamic, energetic, and complex web of relationality. In view of this renewed sense of undivided wholeness, this article seeks to advance the growing synthesis of theology and depth psychology by way of a revised meaning of catholicity. Specifically, the article utilizes Carl Jung’s theory of individuation to suggest that catholicity is the conscious movement of the psyche toward wholeness, an outcome that Jung associated with Christ. The article introduces the term “Holonic Christ” to describe Christ as both the regulating principle of wholeness in nature and the co-recipient of the activity of deepening wholeness through the psychological development of the self-reflective individual. In this way, the article contends that catholicity is the process of individuation in its fullest form: a dynamic energy of the psyche that urges us in the direction of a more integrated personality, an ever-expanding community, and an eschatological remediation of divine self-contradiction made possible by human self-actualization. The article concludes with a discussion of the far-reaching religious implications of this study and explains why this new understanding of Christ is valuable to theological discourse.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catholicity in the 21st Century)
Open AccessArticle
A “Liturgical Mysticism of Open Eyes”: Johann Baptist Metz, Caryll Houselander, and Pandemic Liturgy
Religions 2021, 12(9), 685; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090685 (registering DOI) - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
The German theologian Johann Baptist Metz (1928–2019) called for a spirituality that sees more suffering, not less, the more liberated it is; he has described this as a “mysticism of open eyes.” This theological vision involves all people, living and dead, becoming free
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The German theologian Johann Baptist Metz (1928–2019) called for a spirituality that sees more suffering, not less, the more liberated it is; he has described this as a “mysticism of open eyes.” This theological vision involves all people, living and dead, becoming free to stand as subjects before God. Caryll Houselander (1901–1954), an English author, developed a liturgically infused mysticism focused on seeing Christ in each person. Her vision of Christ in others was rooted in creatively portraying the particularities of human life in the great “rhythm” of the Christ-life lived in the Mystical Body and expressed in the liturgy. This article proposes that juxtaposing these two authors reveals a “liturgical mysticism of open eyes,” playing off Metz’s initial phrasing. The work of Metz and Houselander together presents a fruitful liturgical theology for Christian communities during and in response to the pandemic as they engage questions of suffering, justice, and responsibility. By rooting our decisions about liturgical and social lives in a “liturgical mysticism of open eyes,” the church may remain rooted to a liturgical spirituality, while also recognizing and being open to the suffering of individuals and communities while liturgies are altered, moved online, or postponed altogether.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Worship in a time of Pandemic: Fresh Possibilities and Troubling Inequalities)
Open AccessArticle
Hybridity in the Colonial Arts of South India, 16th–18th Centuries
by
Religions 2021, 12(9), 684; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090684 (registering DOI) - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
This study examines the multiplicity of styles and heterogeneity of the arts created on the southern coasts of India during the period of colonial rule. Diverging from the trajectory of numerous studies that underline biased and distorted conceptions of India promoted in European
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This study examines the multiplicity of styles and heterogeneity of the arts created on the southern coasts of India during the period of colonial rule. Diverging from the trajectory of numerous studies that underline biased and distorted conceptions of India promoted in European and Indian literary sources, I examine ways in which Indian cultural traditions and religious beliefs found substantial expression in visual arts that were ostensibly geared to reinforce Christian worship and colonial ideology. This investigation is divided into two parts. Following a brief overview, my initial focus will be on Indo-Portuguese polychrome woodcarvings executed by local artisans for churches in the areas of Goa and Kerala on the Malabar coast. I will then relate to Portuguese religious strategies reflected in south Indian churches, involving the destruction of Hindu temples and images and their replacement with Catholic equivalents, inadvertently contributing to the survival of indigenous beliefs and recuperation of the Hindu monuments they replaced.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Art in the Renaissance)
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Self-Compassion and Social Connectedness as Predictors of “Peace and Meaning” during Spain’s Initial COVID-19 Lockdown
by
, , , , , , , and
Religions 2021, 12(9), 683; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090683 (registering DOI) - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
The COVID-19 lockdown has had a massive psychological impact on mental health in the general population, with increases in anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Spiritual well-being, specifically peace and meaning, has already been identified as one of the main protective factors for
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The COVID-19 lockdown has had a massive psychological impact on mental health in the general population, with increases in anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Spiritual well-being, specifically peace and meaning, has already been identified as one of the main protective factors for these disorders in the COVID-19 context. The aim of the present study is to identify facilitating elements for peace and meaning during the COVID-19 lockdown in Spain. Online surveys were used to obtain data from a sample of 3480 Spanish people. Self-compassion and social support were positively related with peace and meaning, while loneliness and perceived discrimination were negatively related. The model for peace and meaning was statistically significant, explaining 47% of the variance. The significant variables were self-kindness, family support, mindfulness, and sense of belonging having a positive association and loneliness a negative one.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion, Spirituality and Psychosocial Well-Being)
Open AccessArticle
Worldviews Complexity in COVID-19 Times: Australian Media Representations of Religion, Spirituality and Non-Religion in 2020
Religions 2021, 12(9), 682; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090682 (registering DOI) - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
In 2020, as infections of COVID-19 began to rise, Australia, alongside many other nations, closed its international borders and implemented lockdown measures across the country. The city of Melbourne was hardest hit during the pandemic and experienced the strictest and longest lockdown worldwide.
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In 2020, as infections of COVID-19 began to rise, Australia, alongside many other nations, closed its international borders and implemented lockdown measures across the country. The city of Melbourne was hardest hit during the pandemic and experienced the strictest and longest lockdown worldwide. Religious and spiritual groups were especially affected, given the prohibition of gatherings of people for religious services and yoga classes with a spiritual orientation, for example. Fault lines in socio-economic differences were also pronounced, with low-wage and casual workers often from cultural and religious minorities being particularly vulnerable to the virus in their often precarious workplaces. In addition, some religious and spiritual individuals and groups did not comply and actively resisted restrictions at times. By contrast, the pandemic also resulted in a positive re-engagement with religion and spirituality, as lockdown measures served to accelerate a digital push with activities shifting to online platforms. Religious and spiritual efforts were initiated online and offline to promote wellbeing and to serve those most in need. This article presents an analysis of media representations of religious, spiritual and non-religious responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Melbourne, Australia, from January to August 2020, including two periods of lockdown. It applies a mixed-method quantitative and qualitative thematic approach, using targeted keywords identified in previous international and Australian media research. In so doing, it provides insights into Melbourne’s worldview complexity, and also of the changing place of religion, spirituality and non-religion in the Australian public sphere in COVID times.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pandemic, Religion and Non-religion)
Open AccessArticle
“Remember Little Rock”: Racial (In)Justice and the Shaping of Contemporary White Evangelicalism
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Religions 2021, 12(9), 681; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090681 - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
In 1957, Little Rock became a flash point for conflict over the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown decision. This article examines Little Rock as a religious symbol for white southerners—especially white southern evangelicals—as they sought to exercise their self-appointed roles as cultural guardians to
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In 1957, Little Rock became a flash point for conflict over the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown decision. This article examines Little Rock as a religious symbol for white southerners—especially white southern evangelicals—as they sought to exercise their self-appointed roles as cultural guardians to devise competing, but ultimately complementary, strategies to manage social change to limit desegregation and other civil rights expansions for African Americans. This history reveals how support for segregation helped to convert white southern evangelicals to conservative political activism in this period.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Evangelicalism: New Directions in Scholarship)
Open AccessFeature PaperArticle
Neoliberalism and Political Theologies of the Post-Secular: Historical, Political, and Methodological Considerations in a 20th and 21st Century Discourse
Religions 2021, 12(9), 680; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090680 - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
Carl Schmitt’s controversial 1922 Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty initiated a long-standing, lively, and oft misunderstood discourse at the intersections of religious studies, theology, and political theory. Political theology as a discourse has seen something of a revival in
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Carl Schmitt’s controversial 1922 Political Theology: Four Chapters on the Concept of Sovereignty initiated a long-standing, lively, and oft misunderstood discourse at the intersections of religious studies, theology, and political theory. Political theology as a discourse has seen something of a revival in recent decades, which has raised genuine problems of interpretation. These include questions of what is at stake in political theology, how political theology can be applied to economic discourses, and how it can be understood in relation to secularity and post-secularity. This study takes Giorgio Agamben’s The Kingdom and Glory as a conceptual bridge that helps to situate contemporary political theologies of neoliberalism historically and theoretically. A survey of four recent political theologies of neoliberalism yields a methodological reflection on the limits and potential of political theology as a discourse. A distinction is made between descriptive-genealogical political theologies and normative-prescriptive political theologies. The former is privileged in its philosophical potential, insofar as it reveals both the contingency and genuine variety of normative-prescriptive political theologies.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religious Studies on Neoliberalism)
Open AccessArticle
Do Radical Theologians Pray?: A Spirituality of the Event
Religions 2021, 12(9), 679; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090679 - 26 Aug 2021
Abstract
Radical theology is not only an academic inquiry but also a radical spirituality. This point is confirmed in the phenomenology of radical prayer found in Derrida’s “Circumfession”. Derrida’s prayer takes place in a theopoetic space opened by a theopoetic epoche, which suspends
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Radical theology is not only an academic inquiry but also a radical spirituality. This point is confirmed in the phenomenology of radical prayer found in Derrida’s “Circumfession”. Derrida’s prayer takes place in a theopoetic space opened by a theopoetic epoche, which suspends both the supernatural signified (supernaturalism, praying to a Supreme Being) and the transcendental signified (rationalism, reducing prayer to a subjective fantasy). Radical prayer is compared to Augustine’s prayer in the Confessions, taken here as a paradigm of classical prayer. The difference is not that Augustine is really praying and Derrida’s prayer is a literary conceit, but that Augustine’s prayer takes place within a determined set of “beliefs”, of material symbols in which to incarnate his prayer, of which Derrida is deprived, from which he is circum-cut. But this very deprivation or de-materialization renders Derrida’s prayer an even more radical one, belonging to a more spectral “faith”, to the spirituality of a radical theology, to a theology of the event, by which traditional spirituality is both nourished and inwardly disturbed.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phenomenology, Spirituality, and Religion)
Open AccessArticle
‘When the Waves Roll High’: Religious Coping among the Amish and Mennonites during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Religions 2021, 12(9), 678; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090678 - 25 Aug 2021
Abstract
Religious beliefs, practices, and social support facilitate coping with psychologically distressful events and circumstances. However, COVID-19 and governmental mandates for social distancing and isolation make in-person communal forms of religious coping difficult. While some congregations began holding virtual rituals, this was not an
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Religious beliefs, practices, and social support facilitate coping with psychologically distressful events and circumstances. However, COVID-19 and governmental mandates for social distancing and isolation make in-person communal forms of religious coping difficult. While some congregations began holding virtual rituals, this was not an option for Amish and conservative Mennonite groups that restrict communication and media technologies as a religious sacrament. Governmental mandates placed a disproportionate burden on these groups whose members could not conduct rituals or interact virtually with other members and family. What religious coping strategies did the Amish and Mennonites use to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic given their restricted ability to participate in in-person rituals? We collected data from The Budget and The Diary, two Amish and Mennonite correspondence newspapers, which provide information on the experiences of community members. We content analyzed all entries from March 2020 to April 2020 and identified several themes related to religious coping focused on the positive benefits of the pandemic, specifically how it helps and reminds the Amish and Mennonites to refocus on the simple and important things in life, including God, spirituality, family, tradition, gardening, and other at-home hobbies, all of which reflect their religious commitment to a slower pace of life.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pandemic, Religion and Non-religion)
Open AccessArticle
Extending the Dialogical Array
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and
Religions 2021, 12(9), 677; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090677 - 25 Aug 2021
Abstract
The I-You dialogue of mutually reciprocal engagement makes a difference of heaven and hell. In the first out of four suggested types of I-You dialogue discussed in this article, all the I’s—of the primary word I-You—own a dialogical perspective. In the
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The I-You dialogue of mutually reciprocal engagement makes a difference of heaven and hell. In the first out of four suggested types of I-You dialogue discussed in this article, all the I’s—of the primary word I-You—own a dialogical perspective. In the other three, it is the I who has an experience of creating and engaging in a dialogue that shortly achieves some kind of mutuality with You. Epistemologically, the four suggested types differ by the qualities of the I who engages in dialogue. The second stance is an I-You dialogue of sympathy. A third possibility is an I-You dialogue of empathy. A fourth possibility aims higher to a dialogue that transcends human mutuality by compassion and reaches a heavenly dialogue.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ethical and Epistemological Aspects of 'Dialogue': Exploring the Potential of the Second-Person Perspective)
Open AccessArticle
Transcending the Technocratic Mentality through the Humanities
Religions 2021, 12(9), 676; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090676 - 25 Aug 2021
Abstract
Catholic education has a long tradition of engagement with the liberal arts and especially the humanities. The place of the humanities today in the curriculum is under threat for several reasons, one being the predominance of the technocratic mentality. This paper revisits (in
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Catholic education has a long tradition of engagement with the liberal arts and especially the humanities. The place of the humanities today in the curriculum is under threat for several reasons, one being the predominance of the technocratic mentality. This paper revisits (in three steps) the contested issue of the role of the humanities in education. First, I review arguments about the role of the humanities within education. Second, some of the defects of the technocratic mentality are pointed out. Third, a Christian lens for viewing the humanities is deployed. Here I propose that the humanities play a valuable role in nurturing the imagination, thereby contributing both to a capacity to transcend the technocratic outlook and to the development of the holistic and humanising education that is central to a Catholic worldview.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Catholic Education and the Liberal Arts)
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