Special Issues

Religions publishes Special Issues to create collections of papers on specific topics, with the aim of building a community of authors and readers to discuss the latest research and develop new ideas and research directions. Special Issues are led by Guest Editors, who are experts on the topic and all Special Issue submissions follow MDPI's standard editorial process. The journal’s Editor-in-Chief and/or designated Editorial Board Member will oversee Guest Editor appointments and Special Issue proposals, checking their content for relevance and ensuring the suitability of the material for the journal. The papers published in a Special Issue will be collected and displayed on a dedicated page of the journal’s website. Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies and Guest Editor responsibilities can be found here. For any inquiries related to a Special Issue, please contact the Editorial Office.

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The Energy God and Other Alternatives to the Theistic View of God and Spirituality
edited by
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 3 articles | Viewed by 6742 | Submission Open
Keywords: mysticism; spirituality; dao; ground of being; brahman; kabbalah; sufism; nirvana; panentheism
Church, Clergy, and Authority: An Exploration of Medieval Religious Life and Culture
edited by Jack Cunningham and Angelo M. Silvestri
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 5 articles | Viewed by 6059 | Submission Open
Keywords: church; authority; community; dissent; culture; clergy
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Cancer and Theology: Personal and Pastoral Perspectives
edited by Brian C. Macallan and Ronald T. Michener
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 4 articles | Viewed by 3676 | Submission Open
Keywords: cancer and theology; suffering; disease; hope and cancer; healing
The Microcosm Holds Mountains and Seas: The Sinicization of Buddhism in ‘Multi-Layered Contextualization’ from Local to Global History
edited by and Ru Zhan
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 4 articles | Viewed by 2198 | Submission Open
Keywords: sinification of Buddhism; localization of Buddhism; globalization of Buddhism; modernization of Buddhism; overseas/diaspora Chinese Buddhism; spread of Buddhism through land and the maritime Silk Road
Transdisciplinary Theological Study: Animals, Divinanimality, and Creaturely Theology
edited by Laura Hobgood
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1628 | Submission Open
Keywords: divinanimality; creaturely theology; the animal; human-animal; critical animal; transdisciplinary studies
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
“Searching for a Better Life with My Community”: Migratory Trends in Religious-Based Social Net-Works
edited by , Jarosław Kozak, Błażej Dyczewski and Malika Ouacha
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1432 | Submission Open
Keywords: religious communities; social integration; parochialism; civil society and religion; migrant diasporas; new media and AI in religion; secularization and religious polarization; religious-based social networks
Religious Communities and Artificial Intelligence
edited by , and Szilvia Dornics
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 955 | Submission Open
Keywords: religious communities; artificial intelligence; AI and religious content creating; AI and religious ceremonies; AI and religious education; religious social shaping of technology; cultured technology
Exploring Free Will in Faith Traditions in Conversation with Contemporary Challenges
edited by Nazif Muhtaroglu and Safaruk Chowdhury
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 741 | Submission Open
Keywords: human will; human authonomy; decision-making; accountability; faith traditions; artificial intelligence; neuroscience; cognitive psychology
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
The Encounter of Colonialism and Indian Religious Traditions
edited by Enrico Beltramini
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | Viewed by 502 | Submission Open
Keywords: India; religion; colonialism; mission; Christianity; Islam; Hinduism; assimilation; dialogue; practice; theology
Islam and Citizenship: Intersecting Experiences among Migrants and Their Descendants in Europe
edited by and Andrea Calabretta
submission deadline 31 Aug 2025 | Viewed by 457 | Submission Open
Keywords: Islam; lived citizenship; migrants’ descendants; Europe; Muslim activism; citizenry; faith
Divine Creativity and Participatory Cosmologies: Theological Perspectives on Science, Technology, and the Future of Humanity
edited by Matthew Segall and Ashton Arnoldy
submission deadline 1 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 808 | Submission Open
Keywords: participatory theory; process philosophy; integral theory; sacramental epistemology; relational ontology; pluralism; divine agency; science; technology; spirituality; metamodernism
Seeking Truth and Meaning: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Religion and Philosophy
edited by B. Keith Putt
submission deadline 1 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 320 | Submission Open
Keywords: truth; meaning; philosophy; religion; interdisciplinary perspectives
Saintly Voices: Sounding the Supernatural in Medieval Hagiography
edited by Catherine Saucier
submission deadline 1 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 313 | Submission Open
Keywords: hagiography; cult of saints; devotion; supernatural and natural environments; identity; liminality; sensory perception; voice; sound; performance; religious arts
Sacred Music: Creation, Interpretation, Experience
edited by Róisín Blunnie and
submission deadline 1 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 230 | Submission Open
Keywords: sacred music; religious studies; musicology; performance; classical music; vocal music; choral music; religious litera-ture
Exploring Hagiography and Monasticism
edited by
submission deadline 1 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 131 | Submission Open
Keywords: hagiography; monasticism; saints; relics; miracles
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)
Christian Theologies of Deification
edited by Keith Thompson, Myk Habets and
submission deadline 10 Sep 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 655 | Submission Open
Keywords: theosis/deification; kenosis; divinization; human character ascent; Jacob’ s ladder; Peter’ s ladder; theosis as salvation; energy vs. essence; pre-Platonic Christianity; ante-Nicene teaching; metaphor; participation vs. ontological change; joint heirship
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
Bible and Liturgy in Dialogue
edited by Marco Benini
submission deadline 15 Sep 2025 | 4 articles | Viewed by 3163 | Submission Open
Keywords: bible; liturgy; hermeneutics; old/new testament; interpretation; reception; readings; psalms; sacramentality; anamnesis
Re-Thinking Religious Traditions and Practices of Korea
edited by Kevin N. Cawley and David J. Kim
submission deadline 20 Sep 2025 | 3 articles | Viewed by 4610 | Submission Open
Keywords: Korean religion; Confucianism; Buddhism; Shamanism; new religious movements; transculturalism; comparative studies; everyday life; magic and divination
Theological Traditions of Politics: Tracing History and Its Continuity
edited by Nikolaos Asproulis
submission deadline 22 Sep 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 2508 | Submission Open
Keywords: political theology; religious traditions; state; human rights; nationalism; fundamentalism
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
Mysticism and Nature submission deadline 25 Sep 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 818 | Submission Open
Keywords: ecological spirituality; ecofeminism; deep ecology; indigenous rights; animal rights; land rights; holism; panentheism; pantheism; cosmic interdependence; anthropocentrism; animism; conservationism; creation spirituality; New England transcendentalism; goddess movement; nonviolence; stewardship; vegetarianism
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
New Work on Wittgenstein's Philosophy of Religion submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 18 articles | Viewed by 14852 | Submission Open
Keywords: Ludwig Wittgenstein; philosophy of religion; religious belief; religious language; religious point of view; ethics; faith; form of life; cognitivism; fideism; John Henry Newman; Kierkegaard; Tolstoy
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Links Between Psychology/Psychiatry and Religion submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 3415 | Submission Open
Keywords: psychology; psychiatry; religion; cooperation; interrelationship; obstacles; similarities; differences; convergencies
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)
Buddhism and Medicine from an Interdisciplinary and Global Historical Perspective
edited by and Ru Zhan
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 4 articles | Viewed by 2973 | Submission Open
Keywords: medical sciences; medical practice; Jīvaka; Buddhist medical literature; Bhaiṣajyaguru; compassionate care clinics’ 悲田養病坊; globalization of Buddhism; philanthropy
Sacred Experience and Aesthetic Connections in Religious Festivals
edited by Federico Aguirre, Wilson Muñoz and Lily Jimenez
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2779 | Submission Open
Keywords: art and the sacred; religious festivals; popular/lived religion; material religion studies; visual and performance studies
Religion and Indigenous Traditions
edited by Craig Ginn and Durga Kale
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 2406 | Submission Open
Keywords: Indigenous traditions; Indigenous knowledge; ways of knowing; ways of being; reconciliation; revitalization; colonial; postcolonial; decolonizing; Indigenizing; Indigenization; syncretism; assimilation; missionary impulse; animal theology; ecotheology; natural theology
Experience and Non-Objects: Towards a Phenomenology of Indiscernibility submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 2300 | Submission Open
Keywords: God; subatomic particles; subjectivity; intuition; inwardness; religious cognition; Kant; Husserl; Merleau-Ponty; Henry
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Heavens and Grottos: New Explorations in Daoist Cosmography
edited by Zhaojie Bai, Vincent Goossaert, Johan Rols and Jonathan Pettit
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1901 | Submission Open
Keywords: Daoist heavens; Grotto-heavens; Daoist cosmography
Psychedelics and Religion
edited by
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1520 | Submission Open
Keywords: psychedelics; spirituality; meditation
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Peccata Lectionis
edited by Marton Hovanyi
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 1405 | Submission Open
Keywords: theory of reading; history of reading; interdisciplinarity; sin; Judaism; Christianity; literary and cultural criticism; biblical hermeneutics; constructive theology
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Engaged Spiritualities: Theories, Practices, and Future Directions submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 1404 | Submission Open
Keywords: engaged spiritualities; spirituality and religion; spiritual experiences; everyday life
Continental Philosophy and Catholic Theology
edited by
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1331 | Submission Open
Keywords: Christianity; Catholic; continental philosophy; theology; metaphysics; mystery; phenomenology; synodality; truth; wisdom
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Divine Narratives: Exploring the Intersection of Poetry, Myth, and the Spiritual in Literature and Theatre
edited by Jamal Assadi
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1143 | Submission Open
Keywords: divine narratives; poetry and myth; spirituality in literature; the sacred and the profane; ritual and performance
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Reconciling Religion and Remains—Faith and Biblical Archaeology
edited by Mark D. Janzen, Kyle H. Keimer and Chris McKinny
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 214 | Submission Open
Keywords: biblical archaeology; biblical criticism; fundamentalism; positivism; worldview; apologetics; funding sources; history of research; nomenclature
Women and Religion in the Medieval and Early Modern World
edited by Antónia Fialho Conde
submission deadline 30 Sep 2025 | Viewed by 193 | Submission Open
Keywords: property; heritage management and luxury in a cloistered environment; monasticism and gender; building monastic historical landscapes; prosopography and social identity; women's monastic literacy; nuns' mobility(s); the monastic populations and its mechanisms of pressure and attraction; patronage and artistic commissions in a cloistered environment; expressions of cloistered devotions; implementing justice: times and manners
Europe, Religion and Secularization: Trends, Paradoxes and Dilemmas submission deadline 1 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 844 | Submission Open
Keywords: Europe; modernity; secularization; religion and politics
The Qur’an and Ethics: Methodology of Studying Qur’anic Morality
edited by Nuha Alshaar and Yasmin Amin
submission deadline 1 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 284 | Submission Open
Keywords: Qurʾān; ethics; tafsīr; taqwā; iḥsān; psycho-spiritual analysis of the Qurʾān; ‘ adl; ḥikma; raḥma
Existential Health, Religion and Youth in a Global Perspectives
edited by Katarina Westerlund
submission deadline 1 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 243 | Submission Open
Keywords: existential health; religion; youth; spirituality; contextual perspectives
The Modern Reception and Interpretation of Daoism in East Asia and the West: A Comparative Perspective (19th–21st Centuries)
edited by and
submission deadline 1 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 207 | Submission Open
Keywords: daoism; philosophy; existentialism; dialectics; alchemy; modernization; science; spirituality
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Systematic Theology as a Catalyst for Renewal in Catholic Education
edited by
submission deadline 10 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 1101 | Submission Open
Keywords: Catholic education; systematic theology; trinitarian and relational ontologies; Catholic faith and culture; ecclesiology; religious education; catechesis
Interpreting the Bible: Re-Reading Texts, Characters, and Images from Scripture
edited by and Ignacio Rojas Gálvez
submission deadline 20 Oct 2025 | 4 articles | Viewed by 4815 | Submission Open
Keywords: inner-biblical interpretation; exegesis; old testament; new testament; early Judaism
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
Embellishing Belief: Sacred Objects and Spaces in Premodern East Asia and Southeast Asia
edited by Cynthea J. Bogel and Daniel Borengasser
submission deadline 20 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 719 | Submission Open
Keywords: premodern East Asia; premodern Southeast Asia; religious visual and material culture; methodologies of sacred materiality and space; embellishment; religious symbolism; authenticity; precious materials; iconography and symbology; ritual praxis; sacred object contextualization
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Monastic Lives and Buddhist Textual Traditions in China and Beyond
edited by Limei Chi, and Dewei Zhang
submission deadline 30 Oct 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 1116 | Submission Open
Keywords: monastic lives; Buddhist textual traditions; transmission and transformation of Buddhist texts; Buddhist manuscript culture; Buddhist biography and hagiography; Buddhist miracle tales
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Bible Translation and Biblical Hermeneutics: Exploring the Nexus of Language and Interpretation
edited by
submission deadline 30 Oct 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 1033 | Submission Open
God, Logic and Language
edited by
submission deadline 30 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 121 | Submission Open
Keywords: concept of God; divine attributes; omnipotence; omniscience; eternity; language and theology; theism; existence of God
Echoes of the Divine: The Historical, Literary, and Theological Dimensions of Prophetism submission deadline 30 Oct 2025 | Viewed by 99 | Submission Open
Keywords: prophecy and the ancient Near East; prophecy as a religious phenomenon; prophetic hermeneutics; major and minor prophets; former or historical prophetic books; prophecy and Second Temple extrabiblical literature
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
Himalayan Ecospiritual Knowledges and Ethics of Sustainability in the Anthropocene
edited by Jelle J.P. Wouters, and Mary Evelyn Tucker
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | 5 articles | Viewed by 10112 | Submission Open
Keywords: Himalayan– Tibetan highlands; religious ecology; spiritual environmentalisms; commoning; ethics; the Anthro-pocene
Transitions of Islam and Democracy: Thinking Political Theology
edited by
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | 4 articles | Viewed by 3748 | Submission Open
Keywords: political Islam; political thought; Islam and democracy; Islamic philosophy; religion and state; Muslim state; Islamic constitution; political rights; political liberty; anocracy
Arts, Spirituality, and Religion
edited by and Emília Simão
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | 2 articles | Viewed by 1906 | Submission Open
Keywords: spirituality and religion; arts as a spiritual practice; spirituality and technology; spirituality and education; pilgrimage and celebrations; spirituality; health; and well-being
Religious Transmission Across Generations: Challenges, Continuities, and Changes
edited by Christel Gärtner and
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 852 | Submission Open
Keywords: religious transmission; young peoples belief; nones; atheism; cultural religion; religious education; religious institutions
(This special issue belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Chinese Christianity and Knowledge Development
edited by Mingyu Lu and
submission deadline 31 Oct 2025 | 1 articles | Viewed by 851 | Submission Open
Keywords: missionaries; knowledge development; publications; transition of knowledge; Chinese Christianity; Chinese culture; interdisciplinary studies; Chinese– Western cultural exchange; architecture; arts; customs
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