Search Results (196)

The intersection of religion and education in the United States dates to colonial times, as do attempts by religious institutions and individuals to regulate educational content. After a prominent retreat by religious fundamentalists following the Scopes Monkey Trial, conservative Christians have once again entered political debates about educational content in the form of modern culture wars issues. Both conservatives and liberals have attempted to punish educators for political comments made in class, but the influence of religion on individual attitudes has yet to be examined. In this article, we use an original survey experiment to examine individuals’ propensity to punish a professor who makes politically charged comments in class. We also assess whether religious individuals are more likely to punish professors for comments disparaging conservatives or liberals. We find that high-attending religious individuals, including both Evangelicals and Catholics, are more likely to support punishing the professor. However, we find that the propensity to punish is not related to the target of the professor’s comments. These findings suggest a resurgence of religious interest in education as a cultural issue at the individual, and not just institutional, level and a coalition between Evangelicals and Catholics on this issue. Full article

Based on ethnographic data collected in Germany, this article compares ultra-conservative Salafi and progressive, LGBTQI-plus Muslim movements and examines their negotiation of religious identity and practice within and in contrast to ‘mainstream Islam’ (e.g., DİTİB). While on the surface these movements appear to be on the fringes of Islam and clearly opposed to each other, a closer look reveals interesting moments of convergence and publicly gained prominence. In doing so, this article explores the actor biography issues that drive affiliation, including negative experiences with mainstream mosques and the search for authentic expression and roots. It analyses the politics of labelling (e.g., ‘Salafi’, ‘liberal’), and how these groups define their target audiences in relation to the perceived mainstream. It examines the negotiation of cultural diversity and Islamic ‘purity’, contrasting Salafi reform with progressive interpretations. Finally, it examines strategies for challenging mainstream institutions. By comparing these groups, the article offers a nuanced insight into Islamic practices at the margins. It sheds light on the various strategies employed to discredit mainstream Islamic institutions, ranging from theological differences to power struggles within the contested religious field. Full article

This article aims to provide an account of the political thought of Archbishop John Carroll on the topic of religious liberty as a core principle of the American founding. It examines the relationship of Church and State through the lens of a developing self-understanding in the American and Roman Catholic identities. American Catholic colonists were accused of having a divided allegiance that made them dangerous to the social compact, divided between papal authority and the authority of the republic. Further, the place of the Catholic Church in a more pluralistic religious landscape following the Reformation demanded a reexamination of the traditional Catholic teaching on religious liberty. One man in particular stands out as a seminal figure in the development of a rapprochement between the American liberal understanding of religious liberty and that of the Catholic tradition. This man was Archbishop John Carroll, the first Roman Catholic Bishop in America. Carroll’s theoretical and practical approach to the highly contentious issue of religious liberty is a noteworthy example of simultaneous commitment to the Catholic faith and responsiveness to the exigencies of the moment and the perennial demands of political life. Carroll’s example is useful for Catholics and all others, as a model for Church–State separation. Full article

This article offers a Thomist response to Brian Leiter’s Why Tolerate Religion?, challenging his claim that religion does not merit distinct legal protection. While Leiter assumes religion to be epistemically irrational—defined by existential consolation, categorical demands, and insulation from evidence—this article draws on John Finnis’s interpretation of Saint Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) to reconstruct religion as a basic good of practical reason. It proposes a three-tiered model of religion—as human quest, natural religion, and revealed religion—which clarifies religion’s internal structure and civic relevance. Developing this model against Leiter’s critique, this article shows that religion, so understood, can be legally protected even on Leiter’s liberal terms, through both Rawlsian and Millian frameworks. The article also extends its argument to “second-wave” law-and-religion controversies, illustrating how a Thomist framework illuminates debates about ideological establishments, identity politics, and public reason. Through original syntheses and rigorous normative analysis, this article advances a conceptually fresh and publicly accessible model of religion for law and public policy. It also speaks to pressing constitutional debates in the U.S. and Europe, thus contributing to transatlantic jurisprudence on religious freedom and the moral purposes of law. Religion still matters—and must be understood—not as conscience, but qua religion. Full article

This article examines the role of religion in Russia’s national security system through the lens of ontological security, assessing whether contemporary Russia is undergoing a process of desecularisation or, conversely, an intensified form of secularisation. Employing the theoretical framework of ontological security, this study argues that Russia’s securitisation of religion serves as a mechanism for consolidating state control, legitimising authoritarian governance, and constructing a distinct civilisational identity in opposition to Western liberalism. The Russian Orthodox Church, rather than functioning as an autonomous religious institution, has been absorbed into the state apparatus, where it operates as an instrument of state ideology. Religious rhetoric permeates Russian strategic security documents, reinforcing narratives of national exceptionalism, historical continuity, and moral superiority, particularly in justifying Russia’s geopolitical ambitions and military actions, including its war against Ukraine. The analysis challenges prevailing interpretations of religious resurgence in Russia, arguing that the increasing presence of religion in public life does not necessarily signify desecularisation. Instead, the instrumentalisation of religion for political and security purposes suggests a process of extreme secularisation, wherein religious institutions lose their autonomy and doctrinal substance, becoming tools of state power. Full article

This paper analyzes the Hindu concept of sevā—selfless service—as a theo-ethical practice that reconfigures the relationship between religion and economy, offering a snapshot of an Indian perspective on the convergence between postsecularism and postcapitalist discourses. Rather than being reducible to acts of charity, sevā integrates spiritual, ethical, and social dimensions that challenge the neoliberal emphasis on individual self-interest and material accumulation. Rooted in the pursuit of liberation and relational well-being, sevā frames economic and moral agency in terms of embeddedness, reciprocity, and care. To illustrate sevā’s unique attributes, the paper engages with two case studies. The first explores Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy, where sevā is articulated through a non-anthropocentric ethic of nonviolence (ahiṃsā), obliging the reconstruction of eco-economic mechanisms and environmental responsibility. The second examines contemporary guru-bhakti communities in Delhi’s urban peripheries, where sevā functions as spiritual discipline (sādhana), a means for communal uplifting, and the expression of kalyāṇ—holistic well-being that transcends individual boundaries. In both contexts, sevā emerges as a practice that intervenes in and reshapes socio-economic life. By foregrounding sevā as a lived practice, the paper situates Indian religious traditions as a distinctive contribution to broader postcapitalist and postsecular debates. It argues that sevā offers an alternative model of personhood and ethical intentionality—one that contests dominant binaries of spiritual/material, secular/religious, and human/nature, and reimagines human flourishing through the lens of relational ontology and collective responsibility. Full article

“If it wasn’t for the women” is a common refrain in Black Church culture, made most popular by Cheryl Townsend Gilkes’ sociology of religion work in the 1990s. As conversations grow around a perceived disconnection from the church—particularly among younger generations—many Black congregations and denominations are asking the following question: Where do we go from here? One possible response is to ask the women. Black women have long been central to the sustenance and theological framing of the Black Church. However, many contemporary Black women theologians and church-adjacent writers are reshaping religious discourse in ways that move beyond traditional ecclesial boundaries and into the interiority of Black womanhood. This turn should be considered essential in any reimagining of the Black Church. This paper employs content analysis to examine five contemporary works by Black women thinkers—Candice Benbow, Lyvonne Briggs, Tricia Hersey, EbonyJanice Moore, and Cole Arthur Riley—whose writings reflect Black women’s embodied spirituality, theological imagination, cultural meaning-making, and institutional critique within Black religious life. Rather than signaling a decline in moral or spiritual life, their work points to the search for sacred spaces that are more liberative, inclusive, and attuned to lived experience. Through a thematic analysis of Power, Authority, and Institutional Critique; Afrofuturistic Visioning of Faith; Sacred Embodiment and Spiritual Praxis; Language and Rhetorical Strategies; Gender, Sexuality, and Sacred Autonomy; and Liberation, Justice, and Social Transformation, this study contributes to the evolving conversation on Black women’s spirituality, leadership in religious spaces, and a possible iteration of the Black Church. Full article

In recent decades, various communities and organizations have been working to promote LGBTQ+ inclusion and justify their equal rights. This task becomes more complex within religious communities that are based on traditional values that reject homosexuality. This historical-anthropological study presents “K’Afikim BaNegev”—a special manual that includes more than 347 pages and incorporates 73 diverse sources distributed in early 1994 in American Conservative Jewish congregations aimed at combating homophobia. I clarify how the documents reveal progressive qualitative methodologies for identifying and understanding barriers and mechanisms of community change. Textual analysis of personal letters, educational programs, workshops, and rabbinical sermons revealed two methods for creating this egalitarian change and constructing the Jewish community as a safe space for gay men and lesbian women and their family members: (1) using and promoting personal narrative (storytelling) as a channel to voice LGBTQ+ people’s stories and (2) adapting a text-centered approach that considers biblical sources as authoritative in recognizing LGBTQ+ identity. Thus, the acceptance of homosexuality was not conceptualized in terms of liberal human rights rhetoric but rather as a religious commandment. Thus, I define this novel initiative as an act of ‘queer Jewish activism,’ offering a new typology for community development and practice that advocates for LGBTQ+ individuals within contemporary religious communities. Full article

The article seeks to read the contribution of religious practices in prison education within the broader framework of spirituality as a search for meaning in life. It argues that religious engagement can foster cognitive and emotional development, providing inmates with a sense of purpose, community, and resilience that supports their reintegration into society. In light of an exceptional and extremely significant experience with APAC in Brazil’s police-free prison model, the authors aim to highlight the nexus between spirituality and re-education in contexts of deprivation and restriction of personal liberty. Indeed, the APAC (Association for the Protection and Assistance of the Convicted) model, central to this study, emphasizes nonviolent coexistence, responsibility, and spiritual care as part of its rehabilitative framework, with a significant reduction in recidivism rates and costs compared to traditional prisons. The model’s approach, grounded in a collective sense of responsibility and spirituality, aligns with Viktor Frankl’s and Paulo Freire’s theories on meaning and liberation, illustrating how spirituality can transform prison environments and promote social justice. The study concludes that spirituality in prisons not only aids individual redemption but also calls for structural changes to support reintegration, marking a shift towards a more human-centered penitentiary system. Full article

While digital religion and digital protest can ideally serve the common good, religious nationalist and fundamentalist movements have exploited these tools to disrupt the social fabric and create dangerous political outcomes. This paper examines how religious communicators within Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) and Alternative for Germany (AfD) perceive and enact their responsibility within digital spaces, leveraging the power of “networked communities” and the collective identity of the digital “crowd” to advance their agendas of religious fundamentalism and political conservatism. Bypassing traditional media, groups like the AfD and TLP exploit digital religion to build communities, spread propaganda that merges religion with national identity, frame political issues as religious mandates, and mobilize collective action. Campbell’s concept of the “networked community” demonstrates how digital technologies form decentralized, fluid, and global religious communities, distinct from traditional, geographically bound ones. Both the TLP and AfD have tapped into this new digital religious space, shaping and mobilizing political and religious identities across virtual borders. Gerbaudo’s idea of the “digital crowd” complements this by examining how collective action in the digital age reshapes mass mobilization, with social media transforming how political movements operate in the 21st century. Although the AfD’s platform is not overtly religious, the party strategically invokes ethno-Christian identity, framing opposition to Islam and Muslim immigration as a defense of German cultural and Christian values. Similarly, the TLP promotes religious nationalism by advocating for Pakistan’s Islamic identity against secularism and liberalism and calling for strict enforcement of blasphemy laws. Recognizing digital spaces as tools co-opted by religious nationalist movements, this paper explores how communicators in these movements understand their responsibility for the social and long term consequences of their messages. Using Luhmann’s systems theory—where communication is central to social systems—this paper analyzes how the TLP and AfD leverage individuals’ need for purpose and belonging to mobilize them digitally. By crafting emotionally charged experiences, these movements extend their influence beyond virtual spaces and into the broader public sphere. Finally, this paper will reflect on the theological implications of these dynamics both on and offline. How do religious communicators in digital spaces reconcile their theological frameworks with the social impact of their communication? Can digital religious communities be harnessed to foster social cohesion and inclusivity instead of exacerbating social divisions? Through this lens, the paper seeks to deepen our understanding of the intersection between digital religion, political mobilization, and theological responsibility in the digital age. Full article

For various religious and political reasons, the idea of divine sovereignty (ḥākimiyya) has found support in many Islamic movements and discourses between the 1940s and the 1980s throughout the Muslim world. Nonetheless, in the 1990s, the consolidation of contemporary nation-states, the appeal of liberal democracy, and human rights in the Muslim world, along with the failure of Islamism, paved the way for a turn towards popular sovereignty in Islamic political thought. The emergence of a post-Islamist age in the Arab world and Iran, especially in the aftermath of the Arab Spring (2011), has changed the perspectives of many Islamic intellectuals and jurists, who now place a higher emphasis on popular sovereignty, depoliticizing divine sovereignty. This article offers an intellectual history of the shift from divine to popular sovereignty in modern Islamic political ethics, as well as a discussion of the factors that led to this change. Few critical voices on sovereignty highlight the ethical aspects of sharia’s governance and challenge the popular sovereignty narrative as authoritarian. Full article

This paper examines the emergence of vernacular liturgies in Latin America, particularly through the incorporation of folk music in Nicaraguan Masses following the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). In response to the Romanization of the Catholic liturgy in the nineteenth century, folk songs in local languages became a form of theological and cultural resistance, offering an alternative to the Latin-dominated liturgical tradition. Despite Vatican disapproval of certain Mass settings due to their non-traditional texts, these vernacular liturgies transcended their missionary origins, enriching both devotional practice and theological discourse. The study explores key Vatican II documents on liturgical participation, examines the role of liberation theology in framing vernacular and multilingual Masses as tools for social and religious transformation, as well as historical precedent as a lens for understanding the progression of change in the setting of the Mass, particularly in Latin America. Using the Misa Campesina, by Carlos Mejía Godoy, as a case study, the paper demonstrates how Nicaraguan folk Masses embody the intersections of ecclesial reform, cultural identity, and social justice within the broader context of Latin American liturgical innovation. Full article

This paper examines how Daoxuan 道宣, the Tang Dynasty Buddhist historian and founder of the Nanshan Vinaya School, meticulously constructed the saintly image of Sengya 僧崖—a monk renowned for his auto-cremation—in his Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (Xu gaoseng zhuan 續高僧傳). Drawing on a range of sources—including the now-lost Biography of the Bodhisattva Sengya and regional texts such as the Collection of Miscellaneous Records from the Shu Region—Daoxuan reconfigured Sengya’s narrative, presenting his auto-cremation as a profound religious sacrifice emblematic of transformative spiritual commitment. The analysis explores how Daoxuan navigated the doctrinal tensions between this extreme practice and the Vinaya precept of non-killing by emphasizing the practitioner’s mental state over the physical act. In doing so, he reframed self-immolation not as an aberration but as a legitimate, even exalted, path to liberation. This reinterpretation is situated within the broader context of Chinese Buddhist thought—particularly the ideas of the indestructibility of the spirit and the cosmological framework of “Heaven–Man Correspondence”—highlighting the interplay between religious symbolism, doctrinal adaptation, and lived practice. Crucially, this paper treats Daoxuan’s narrative not merely as biography, but as hagiography—a literary mode in which historical memory and religious narrative are inextricably entwined. By examining the rhetorical and ideological dimensions of this genre, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how religious hagiography functioned as a tool for shaping sainthood, authorizing extreme religious practices, and negotiating the spiritual and social landscapes of medieval China. Full article

Various religious responses to the AIDS epidemic were and still are often laden with stereotypes and homophobic attitudes, sometimes justifying the disease as a divine response to “sin”. This study is dedicated to examining prayers written by non-Orthodox gay rabbis to commemorate those lost to AIDS-related causes and to pray for healing and robust health for those living with the virus. In each of these prayers, most of which are recited on World AIDS Day (WAD), the worshiper is invited to remember the deceased and the hardships they endured, as well as to bless the present moment; those struggling with the virus; and the medical teams treating it. The textual analysis illustrates how AIDS liturgy reveals the congregation’s distinct religious–therapeutic egalitarian culture. These prayers serve as political instruments of resistance against AIDS-phobia and related stereotypes, demonstrating how LGBTQ+ collective memory can be constructed through religious liturgical texts rather than exclusively within secular frameworks. This is another way for non-Orthodox Jewish communities to signal their liberal agenda and distinguish themselves from conservative communities. Full article

This article addresses preconditions and possibilities for ecumenism in secularised societies. In doing so, it draws attention to the complex nature of the secularisation process. On the one hand, this process involves a positive demand for freedom from religious compulsion in social life, which finds its basis in the Gospel’s liberating message. On the other hand, it carries negative consequences such as the elimination of various aspects of religiosity from social life. Some scholars have emphasised that Christian Churches themselves are partly at fault in this regard. As a result of their historical disintegration and lack of unity, the Churches are losing credibility and weakening the efficacy of their evangelising mission. Under conditions of secularisation, ecumenism becomes particularly relevant and should take on a new dynamic in relations between the Churches, which see secularisation’s effects in an exodus of believers and a loss of relevance in social life. From a normative point of view, only a reconciled Christianity can give credibility to the Churches’ evangelising mission and counteract secularisation’s negative effects. Full article