Search Results (622)

This article analyzes how martyrdom progressively diverged from heroism to become an autonomous category of political discourse in nineteenth-century southern European Catholic societies. It argues that the secularization and politicization of Catholic asceticism played a central role in this process, which culminated in the martyr’s moment of agony and raised the question of the voluntary dimension of martyrdom. The analysis draws on a wide range of political martyrologies, funeral orations, and press reports, and focuses mostly on the Spanish and Italian cases, where martyrdom gained greatest prominence in the political sphere and gave rise to the most explicit theoretical expositions. It highlights the extent to which martyrdom was transformed into a powerful tool of legitimization and mobilization centered on willing self-denial and self-sacrifice for a cause or community. By reassessing secular martyrdom in relation to its religious substrate, this article seeks to reconsider sacrifice, holiness, and memory within Southern European Romanticism, shedding new light on the dynamics of secularization in post-revolutionary Europe. Full article

This article examines how sacred vocabularies from Orthodox Christianity and Judaism function in racialised public discourse in Poland and Ukraine between 2020 and 2025. It asks how terms such as imago Dei/tselem Elohim, neighbour-love and chesed, holiness/purity, suffering/martyrdom, and exile/return are mobilised across pulpit, policy, and platform communication. Drawing on a corpus of 23 publicly available texts, the study applies comparative rhetorical discourse analysis informed by Burke’s concepts of identification and logology and Pernot’s account of the religious dimension of rhetoric, alongside a coding scheme focused on topoi, metaphors, frames, appeals, and boundary work. The findings show convergences in dignity claims, memorial warning, and care rhetoric under conditions of war and displacement but also clear divergences: Jewish discourse more often mobilises peoplehood as a rhetoric of continuity and communal protection, whereas Orthodox discourse more often ties sacred language to national-historical self-location, ecclesial autonomy, and opposition to russkii mir (“Russian world”). Across the retained corpus, dog-whistle-like discourse appears mainly as an object of quotation or denunciation, while explicit counter-speech is widespread. The article concludes that sacred language remains an active rhetorical resource for defining dignity, injury, solidarity, and belonging, although its function varies across arenas, traditions, and the corpus’s asymmetries. Full article

This article is structured in two parts. The first presents an overview of late-medieval female Marian devotion and spirituality, outlining the principal interpretative approaches developed in recent scholarship. The second examines Book VII of the Revelationes of Bridget of Sweden, which is constructed as a true “Gospel of Mary.” Through the visionary reconstruction of Christ’s life and Passion, narrated in the first person by the Virgin, Bridget reshapes the apocryphal tradition and transfers authority from apostolic memory to contemporary revelation. The narrative transforms the pilgrimage to the Holy Land into a Eucharistic and prophetic space, develops an innovative and politically charged Mariology, and presents Mary as both witness of the Incarnation and guardian of a Church in crisis. By integrating theology, narrative, and embodied visionary experience, the article argues that Bridget’s Marian Gospel represents one of the most daring and enduring expressions of female spiritual authority in the transmission of Christian truth. Full article

This article examines the spiritual, intellectual, and institutional legacy of Caterina Vigri (1413–1463) and the formation of a “school of holiness” within the Poor Clare monastery of Corpus Domini in Bologna. Through the analysis of key texts produced within the monastic milieu—including the Libro devoto (later known as The Seven Spiritual Weapons), the Ordinazioni, the epistolary Formulario, and the Book of Visions and Revelations by Valeria Campanazzi—the study explores how Vigri’s teachings were transmitted, received, and reworked across generations of nuns. Particular attention is devoted to the centrality of obedience as the defining principle of monastic life, which marks a significant shift from earlier Franciscan emphases on poverty. The article highlights the pedagogical dimension of these writings, their grounding in Sacred Scripture, and their role in shaping a collective religious identity within an Observant context. At the same time, it situates Vigri’s spiritual program within broader developments in late medieval and early modern Christianity, including the institutional consolidation of religious life and the circulation of diverse spiritual influences. By tracing both continuity and transformation within the Corpus Domini community, the study demonstrates the existence of a sustained intellectual and devotional tradition that extended well beyond the founder’s lifetime. The “school of Caterina” thus emerges as a dynamic space of female religious authority, literary production, and theological formation. Full article

The multi-religious geography of urban streets in India is shaped by the constant negotiation of religious difference in everyday life. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2022, this article examines three religious processions commemorating Sikh, Jain, and Ambedkarite events that take place in the neighborhoods of Somvār Peṭh and Rāstā Peṭh in the city of Pune on the same calendar day, but at different times. Focusing on how these processions occupy, traverse, and temporarily transform shared streets, the article analyzes how religious communities claim public space through material practices, bodily presence, and sensory regimes, while simultaneously navigating political regulation and instrumentalization. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of rhythmanalysis, the study shows how biological, social, and religious rhythms structure the timing, scale, and form of these events, enabling a fragile coexistence in a densely multi-religious urban environment. The article argues that attention to rhythm offers a productive analytical lens for understanding everyday religion in the city, revealing how power, identity, and belonging are negotiated through temporal coordination, embodied adjustment, and contingent forms of sharing public space. Full article

Life can be challenging, and for this reason all of humankind requires resilience—a capacity to cope with life’s challenges, which determines whether one can experience quality of life. This was also true for the Christian community in Corinth during Paul’s third missionary journey. Paul wrote the first Corinthian letter to deal with a variety of challenges and concerns in the church, and for Paul, all these ongoing challenges and concerns mirrored their being worldly (ὡς σαρκίνοις 1 Corinthians 3:1) and being infants in Christ (ὡς νηπίοις ἐν Χριστῷ 3:1). Being worldly implies that one holds on to worldly wisdom and this is why Paul teaches them about God’s wisdom (2:6–9). He shows in this letter how this can be dealt with, namely by having the Spirit (2:10–16) and having the mind of Christ (2:16)—thus being spiritually intelligent. Later, when Titus arrived with good news about the Corinthian church, Paul wrote the second Corinthian letter to express relief and joy. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul refers to a new creation (καινὴ κτίσις), being in Christ (ἐν Χριστῷ), and having an identity in Christ. The focus of this article is the blessings of an identity in Christ, and to interpret the Corinthian letters to understand how an identity in Christ can lead to Christian spiritual intelligence, resilience and quality of life. The method of interpretation is multidisciplinary, including socio-historical, lexical–syntactical, and theological analyses, as well as insights gleaned from psychology. It is found that an identity in Christ brings holiness, strengthens the believer, gives access to spiritual gifts, brings unity and divine wisdom, provides hope, love and harmony, and leads to resilience—all contributing to quality of life. The new identity in Christ affects the believer’s calling, values, priorities, behaviour, relationships and response to the world in different ways, which in turn can heal a broken society. Full article

The classic definitions of God and Trinity involving the concept of personhood are grounded in the lexical fields of ancient theological and philosophical discourse. They raise the question of the extent to which a believer is required to enter into those worldviews and conceptualities. If a semantic approach is adopted, it becomes apparent that a term like “person” may be re-accentuated according to context. This is an approach which is itself found within patristic methodology, not least in the transitions from Hellenistic philosophy to Greek Christian theology, and then from Greek to Latin. With this method in place, readers may approach such terms using materials derived from their own culture and context, not just those of antiquity. The Kiswahili proverb, Mtu ni watu (a person is people), provides an example of such a term, used to define personhood. Its adoption means that African Christians may approach a core doctrine of the Christian faith easily from their own cultural perspective without requiring a grounding in European thought and history, using a methodology already adopted by their Christian ancestor, Augustine of Hippo. Full article

Over the course of 2021, I conducted ethnographic research among transnational Pentecostal communities in Madrid. During this research, ethnographic data on manifestations of the Spirit was collected. This data appeared to defy the perspective of a distant and critical observer. In this article I explore how an anthropologist might incorporate Tillich’s theology of the Spirit to make sense of and think through existential religious experiences within Pentecostal communities, such as experiences of being possessed or grasped by the Holy Spirit. This article begins by presenting data from a Pentecostal culto in Madrid in which the Spirit plays a defining role. Initially, I reflect on how an anthropologist might make sense of similar ethnographic data. Subsequently, I turn to Paul Tillich’s theology of the Spirit. I discover how Tillich’s theology can aid in making sense of ethnographic data of manifestations of the Spirit. Tillich’s theology enables anthropologists to make sense of ethnographic encounters with the Spirit beyond secular registers dominant in the anthropological discipline. Full article

Recent studies show that psychedelics such as psilocybin and LSD can reliably occasion spiritual or “mystical-like” experiences under supportive conditions, and the spiritual dimension of these experiences may contribute to their reported mental health benefits. Scholars have begun exploring how such experiences might relate to spiritual growth within Christian frameworks, but most theological engagement has drawn primarily on Western sources. This article addresses that gap by bringing Orthodox Christianity into dialogue with Western Christian theology on questions of psychedelic spirituality. Drawing on traditions beginning in Christianity’s earliest centuries, we argue that Orthodoxy offers distinctive and largely unexplored resources that both challenge and enrich existing approaches. We highlight five themes. First, Orthodoxy’s insistence that profound spiritual experience belongs to the universal Christian vocation rather than a spiritual elite reframes contemporary discussions of mystical experience. Second, the tradition’s recognition of diverse catalysts for spiritual awakening, and its understanding of ascetical preparation as receptive rather than self-generating, provides a framework for evaluating psychedelic experiences that sometimes resemble other mystical experience by their orientation and fruits. Third, the doctrine of the divine energies offers a framework for understanding genuine encounters with God’s real presence and activity in creation, allowing comparison with Western accounts of the Holy Spirit’s activity. Fourth, Orthodoxy’s emphasis on ongoing formation within Christian communities situates spiritual experience within a broader process of transformation. Fifth, Orthodox traditions of spiritual discernment, including the neptic tradition’s caution against acquisitive seeking of mystical states, offer well-developed criteria for evaluating authenticity, a matter of urgency given the diversity of claims surrounding psychedelics. Rather than requiring radical revision of Christian theology, we argue that engagement with psychedelic experiences can occur within established frameworks when guided by discernment, formation, and communal accountability. By placing Orthodox and Western perspectives in constructive dialogue, this study contributes to a richer ecumenical understanding of psychedelic spirituality within Christianity. Full article

Over the last forty years British Methodism has moved increasingly toward becoming an inclusive Church. Indeed, today, the concept of inclusion may accurately be described as a hallmark of British Methodism. However, while the Methodist Conference has formally identified principles governing its practice in this area there has been limited discussion as to how far these developments cohere with the church’s doctrinal standards which are officially related to John Wesley’s writings. This paper explores the continuity and discontinuity between Wesley’s theology and the commitment to inclusion characteristic of his spiritual descendants. In particular, it probes Wesley’s actual practice in relation to the admission and expulsion of members and evaluates whether or not his conception of holiness really serves as a warrant for the conception of inclusion, practically operative in contemporary British Methodism. In exploring these questions the paper explores whether or not John Wesley really was as Inclusive as contemporary British Methodists imagine. Full article

This essay offers a relational reinterpretation of the doctrine of the Trinity through perichoresis, understood as the mutual indwelling communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit in which distinction is preserved without separation and unity without domination. More than a technical term of patristic theology, perichoresis names the dynamic communion that constitutes the life of the triune God. Drawing on biblical intuition and patristic formulation and engaging modern Trinitarian theologians in sustained dialogue, this essay develops a historical, contextual and practical approach that incorporates Korean cultural metaphors and Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE). It argues that perichoresis functions not merely as a doctrinal safeguard but as a theological grammar that reorients ontology toward relationality and frames Christian life as participatory communion. Rather than remaining a conceptual proposal, this essay ultimately envisions a perichoretic paradigm in which life itself is understood as participation in the living communion of the Trinity. Full article

Yacuri National Park (YNP) is a Ramsar site located within Ecuador’s Podocarpus-El Cóndor Biosphere Reserve. The Park faces critical threats from illegal mining, livestock grazing, wildfires and the harvesting of wax palms. This study employed participatory action research to co-design a Communication, Education and Public Engagement (CEPA) plan with park managers and local communities as equal partners. Moving beyond traditional, top-down information campaigns, the CEPA framework establishes a co-governance model that integrates indigenous knowledge with local socio-economic realities. The plan implements four targeted interventions: (1) strengthening community fire brigades (BRICOM); (2) promoting culturally appropriate alternatives to Holy Week wax palm harvesting; (3) establishing participatory waste management; and (4) engaging tourists as conservation allies through experiential learning. Strategic alliances with municipalities, universities, and civil society organizations provide institutional backing and secure resources, while a participatory monitoring system using SMART indicators tracks behavioral and ecological outcomes. Ultimately, the findings demonstrate that conserving culturally complex, biodiverse landscapes requires social legitimacy, environmental justice and equitable power-sharing. Recognizing local communities as co-managers is essential to ensuring the long-term protection of Andean ecosystems. Full article

This article explores the contemporary landscape of Athonic monasticism, examining how the Holy Mountain (Ἅγιον Ὄρος) preserves its identity within the framework of modern Christianity. Moving beyond a purely archival study, the analysis is deeply informed by long-term personal engagement and experiential observation. Through a synthesis of historical-theological inquiry and first-hand experience, it analyzes the demographic shift toward a younger, highly educated monastic population and the universal restoration of coenobitic structures, interpreting these developments as tangible signs of a spiritual renaissance. The study addresses the growing tension between the traditional hesychastic ethos and the pressures of globalization, technological mediation, and mass pilgrimage. These observations highlight the nuanced ways in which Athonite communities negotiate visibility and withdrawal, creating a “monastic firewall” to protect inner stillness (hesychia). It argues that contemporary Athonic identity is best understood as a form of dynamic traditionalism—a living synthesis of rigorous fidelity to Byzantine liturgical and spiritual typika with a prudent, selective engagement with modern realities. Ultimately, the paper suggests that Mount Athos offers a paradigmatic model of continuity without fossilization, standing as a “spiritual battery” and a theological reference point for global Orthodoxy. By maintaining a balance between solitude and hospitality, the Holy Mountain contributes meaningfully to current discussions on the future of religious tradition, providing a solid counter-narrative to the “liquid” identities of modernity. Full article

This article offers a comprehensive theorization of stiob as a historically sedimented, culturally specific, yet increasingly globalized modality of ironic discourse whose logic of deadpan overidentification has migrated from late-Soviet conceptualist counterculture into twenty-first-century political communication. Revisiting the folkloric, carnivalesque, and double-voiced foundations of stiob, this study situates the phenomenon within the longue durée of Russian humor, holy foolishness (юрoдствo), and the grotesque tradition described by Dmitry Likhachev, Aleksandr Panchenko, Mikhail Bakhtin, and Sergei Averintsev. The argument proceeds to demonstrate how contemporary political actors—most prominently Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin—have appropriated stiob and its adjacent practices (holy foolishness, trolling, strategic sacrilege, and carnivalesque inversion) as powerful rhetorical instruments capable of destabilizing discursive norms, undermining institutional authority, and creating a semi-permanent state of “infernal laughter.” Drawing on examples from political speech, social media, public performance, and mediatized spectacle, the article contends that both Trump and Putin deploy a repertoire of ironic aggression, misdirection, double-voiced innuendo, and taboo-breaking parody that weaponizes cultural archetypes of the jester, trickster, and holy fool. This mode of communication, simultaneously theatrical and destructive, produces a new form of political carnivalesque in which hierarchical orders are inverted, outrage is instrumentalized, and the distinction between sincerity and mockery collapses. Ultimately, this article argues that stiob, trolling, and holy foolishness now constitute a transnational discursive formation reshaping public culture in the twenty-first century. Full article

Although Meister Eckhart is frequently regarded as a speculative mystic, his practical teachings, particularly concerning love, are often overlooked. This study explores the practical consequences of his statements on neighborly love in order to demonstrate his concrete contributions to ethics. Our research reveals that Eckhart views true love as a Trinitarian act of grace where humans participate in God’s love. Through pure, selfless love, human beings become inhabited by the Holy Spirit, loving their neighbors universally and equally as themselves. These findings are drawn from a textual analysis of Eckhart’s Latin commentaries on the Gospel of John and his German sermons, focusing on his Trinitarian theology and doctrine of virtues. Ultimately, love is identified as the central divine virtue that unifies the soul with God. When individuals love without seeking their own interest, their actions are simultaneously human and divine works. Thus, Eckhart’s profound theology offers a highly practical framework where perfect love radically transforms ethical action. Full article