This article explores the attributes and religious, social and political activities of local religious groups in three Italian cities across all religious traditions. This is the first application of Congregations Study methodology in Italy to analyz...
Religious tourism has developed in post-communist Romania, after decades of restrictions on the manifestation of the population’s religiosity. New monasteries and hermitages appeared and the number of travellers eager to arrive visit those and...
Focusing on maritime pilgrimages to the Madonna of the Reef in Perast (Montenegro) and the Madonna of Zečevo in Nin (Croatia), the authors explore how tourism—which has become the primary economic driver for local populations—has imp...
In the medieval Chinese context, snakes and tigers were viewed as two dominant, threatening animals in swamps and mountains. The animal-human confrontation increased with the expansion of human communities to the wilderness. Medieval Chinese Buddhist...
Over the period in which the ancient Roman empire grew to its greatest extent, religion in the provinces underwent change. In this article, the author argues that glocalization as an explicit modern conceptual framework has added value to the analysi...
As conflict dynamics become complex and escalate globally, especially identity-based conflicts, we are witnessing an unprecedented shift in the Conflict Analysis and Resolution and Peacebuilding field toward contextually innovative and effective comm...
The theme of adaptive reuse, of great topicality for those who deal with built heritage, has its roots in the recent past, dating back to the end of the last century, when the problem of reuse proved to be competitive, for economic and cultural reaso...
We draw on the organizational ecology tradition to frame the relationship between the religious environment of a community and local religious participation. Prior research linking religious environments to religious participation downplays a key org...
The management of laicity in Mexico, legally and politically, is a federal issue that involves regulating the activities of Churches and religious communities in the public space, in their practices, rituals, and relations with the organs of the stat...
This qualitative study examines how the agency of religious Druze women in Israel affects professional identity and religious affiliation and how these, in turn, shape the gender religious perception in their community, especially in the fields of ed...
The generation of transnational immigrants’ sense of place in the religious space of the places they move to can protect and promote their integration into the local society by shaping a sense of place identity and belonging through the positiv...
Religious freedom, the management of religious diversity, and interreligious dialogue are emerging and closely interconnected phenomena. In the context of increasing religious pluralism, policymakers, religious institutions, and other civil society a...
The relationship between social work field education, religiously affiliated organizations, and local philanthropic organizations is explored in this case study of a grant-funded project called the Congregational Social Work Education Initiative. Rel...
During the last decade, local celebrations of winter solstice on the 21st of December have increased all over Denmark. These events refer to the Old Norse ritual of celebrating the return of the light, and their appeal is very broad on a local commun...
This paper examines circumstances where religious practices challenge the survival of tiny diasporic communities. The persistence of such diasporic communities might be undermined by the need to fulfill religious practices that are insurmountable due...
Despite distorting narratives about extremism, specific individuals and communities of Muslims in America ground themselves in wholesome relationships among people and in the places where they find home. Between 2001 and 2009, Taqwa Eco-food Cooperat...
The transnational turn in migrant studies emphasizes complexities in migration, partly related to the agency that migrants may exercise. Chapter 44 in the biblical Book of Jeremiah holds a story of migration that is peculiarly insensitive to such asp...
The diversity of multicultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic groups and communities within Britain has created cohesion and integration challenges for different community groups and authorities to adapt to the current diverse society. More recen...
This article analyzes the origins, characteristics, and functioning of the Chilean public institutions dedicated to managing religious diversity at the municipal level. Paying attention to the effects produced by the promulgation of the 1999 Cults La...
Community organising, an approach aiming at building local leadership and empowering local communities, has become increasingly popular in the last few decades because of the crisis of more traditional practises of civil society building and politica...
The arrival of new technologies has always presented new challenges and opportunities to religious communities anchored in scriptural and oral traditions. In the modern period, the volume, speed and accessibility of digital technologies has significa...
The article examines the mobilisation of a local community after the creation of a religious attraction and a popular mountain trail in a protected and fragile context. Despite much research on the topic, the boundaries between spiritual or religious...
Despite economic development and social changes, folk religion in China has not died out, but has survived and has even experienced a revival. Oscillating state policies have in general had a strong impact on religion in China. Though there is no off...
The expansion of empires and colonial rule significantly shaped the movement of religious communities, practices, and institutions across borders. This article examines the intersections of empire, colonialism, and religious mobility with a view to e...
Since the 1970s, religious charities in Chinese communities have gradually become public and rational, transforming from previously raising donations for the temples or disaster relief. Even in mainland China, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam all be...
Religious clothing serves as the external manifestation of religious culture, and its evolutionary process not only reflects the developmental trajectory of religion but also demonstrates cultural exchange and social transformation in specific histor...
Perceived belonging to a community is one of the most frequently given reasons for the regularity of religious practice. However, it also plays a key role in the practice of religious violence. The paper addresses the relationship between felt belong...
This article offers an in-depth ethnographic and historical description of how an ethnic-religious revival movement has had an impact on religious life. The article will focus on the story of one of Israeli’s foremost religious revival movement...
This study delves into the profound impact and significance of religious culture on the urban spatial configuration and local cultural essence of Macau amidst contemporary societal transformations. Emphasis is placed on how religious sites undergo fu...
Christian communities in Palestine and Al-Andalus faced similar challenges during the ninth century. Although Muslim authorities tolerated Christianity and enshrined a certain degree of religious freedom, they downgraded these communities and encoura...
This article presents data from our investigations in Kristiansand, the largest city in Southern Norway, an area sometimes called Norway’s ‘Bible belt’. We investigate how social media is reshaping social relations in the city, look...
Rivers provide a range of Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) such as aesthetic values, sense of place and inspiration, which remain insufficiently studied due to challenges associated with the assessment of their subjective and intangible attributes....
The experiences of people with severe intellectual disabilities (SID) in local churches are rarely studied, and their voices are not being heard in the research and religious communities. This study is an attempt to narrow the gap. Through a research...
Recent ethnobotanical studies have raised the hypothesis that religious affiliation can, in certain circumstances, influence the evolution of the use of wild food plants, given that it shapes kinship relations and vertical transmission of traditional...
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emerged within the Mauritian landscape in the early 1980s after the arrival of foreign missionary work. With a population of Indian, African, Chinese, French heritage, and other mixed ethnicities, Mauri...
The Philippines is an island nation in Southeast Asia with a population of approximately 100 million. Its hot and humid climate makes it common for community buildings to be permanently ventilated or even open to the elements. The country’s sus...
Recent data from two local empirical studies on religion (Baring et al. 2018) and the sacred (Baring et al. 2017) show how an imminent shift in Filipino youth attitudes articulates new perspectives on religion, religiosity, and spirituality. This pap...
Muslims are a growing community in European countries. General health habits, including therapy-related behaviours, have been described, though implications to pharmacy practice might vary with the local dominant culture and setting. This exploratory...
This paper investigates the development of interreligious dialogue in Brescia, a prosperous Northern Italian city with approximately 200,000 inhabitants. Despite similarities to other cities in the region, Brescia exhibits an unusually vibrant &ldquo...
The cultural renaissance in 20th-century India has fostered an aesthetic integration of contemplative mysticism with popular religious practices, influencing various artistic and theological movements. This paper examines Christian artist Joy Elamkun...
On the island of Bali in Indonesia, the traditional Hindu religious leaders are the pedandas, or brahmin high priests. Their religious status is largely based on their mystical states, during which they create the highest and most valuable form of ho...
This article stems from the PRIN GOV_REL (Urban Governance of Interreligious Dialogue) research project carried out in four Italian cities in 2023–2025 and reports on some preliminary results of the empirical enquiry held in the city of Brescia...
This article examines the murals of Dabaoji Palace in Lijiang during the Ming Dynasty, analyzing their tripartite religious spatial configuration to elucidate how the Mu chieftains visualized and asserted their political and cultural agency as local...
This paper examines local knowledge, perceptions, and responses to changing climes in the Trans-Himalayan region of Dolpa in Nepal. Rooted within the environmental humanities and shaped by emerging understandings of faith-based ecospirituality, our r...
Religious activities are no longer confined to local religious communities, but are increasingly taking place online. In that regard, social media is of particular importance for young believers that connect with their peers via platforms such as Ins...
This article addresses the intercommunal relations between the 17th century Jewish community of Rodoscuk and other social groups. It examines the community’s social structure, housing distribution and economic activities, placing particular emp...
This study examines the distinctive male leadership—comprising procurators, parish priests, and chaplains—of the beguinage of St. Elizabeth in Valenciennes during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Contrary to the majority of beguin...
Drawing on in-depth interviews with rural Christians living in the South who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB), this study analyzes how they negotiate their religious, geographic, and sexual identities. We find that most interviewees emplo...
Climate change is a global issue with diverse regional impacts threatening the survival of both human and non-human species. While the academic discourse on climate change predominantly focuses on macro-level studies, it often neglects the vital role...
This paper discusses the development of an innovative methodology for engaging young people with issues of religious diversity and toleration, through combining engagement with historical and contemporary sources with the production of short document...
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