Search Results (64)

The rise of the non-religious, especially the young “nones”, will increasingly affect the way US culture views war, but with what result? The key to approaching this question is not only what the nones are advocating, but establishing what mixture of prominent topical ideas history has handed them. To get at the nature of this mixture by beginning with a general question: what is the most desirable mental attitude among free states with which to attend to the preparation for war? If the nones were to respond to this question, what ideas from other sources and, for the young nones, from older generations do they have to work with? What intellectual historical trends have come down to them? Classical thinking on war and justice continues to recede, so what has been proposed that would take its place? Lethality has been injected more recently into the milieu the young nones are entering. However, lethality is more an attempt to resolve tensions among contradictory agendas. A second, older possibility is a total war mindset, subsuming the state’s entire resources to warring. A third, likewise older option, is prosecuting wars of ideology that seek to crush antagonistic ideas and the political systems that hold them. The author argues the nones will not necessarily choose any of these, but will enable cultural receptivity to each of these three constructs. Alternatively, what about the contributions of classical philosophy to this question? This bypassed fourth avenue, with its emphasis on what constitutes a healthy polis, may provide a richer basis for leading militaries and cultures. The goal here, which the rise of the nones unintentionally imperils, is to secure the State and the soul of the warfighter by constituting or restoring the classical sense of the military’s reason to exist: not as a temporary inherent evil merely to serve state interests, but as a permanent dimension of society in service to the common good, as classically understood. Full article

The Hungarian minority of Transylvania comprises four historically received denominations—Roman Catholic, Reformed, Unitarian, and Lutheran—whose institutional profiles differ markedly despite their shared function as carriers of minority cultural identity. Using the European Values Study 2017 Romanian Hungarian minority oversample (GESIS ZA7550; $N=1106$), this article presents the first regression-based analysis of intra-community denominational variation in religiosity in this dataset. Four binary logistic regression models test whether denomination independently predicts church attendance, confidence in church, subjective importance of religion, and self-described religiosity type (institutional versus personalised), net of sociodemographic controls. Catholics attend services significantly more frequently than Reformed members, while Reformed members express higher confidence in their church—a practice–trust reversal explicable by the distinction between canonical obligation and ethnic embeddedness. Subjective religious importance does not vary by denomination, consistent with an identity-protection mechanism operating uniformly across confessions. Denomination does not independently predict institutional versus personalised religiosity type once sociodemographic controls are applied, with age emerging as the dominant axis of variation on this dimension. The findings engage with Davie’s believing/belonging/behaving framework and the debate on whether denominational cleavage or the secular–religious divide constitutes the primary axis of religious differentiation in contemporary Europe. Full article

Healthcare discrimination is an important barrier to accessing services among Latino populations in the United States. However, few validated scales have been developed to systematically examine this issue. In this study, we evaluated the validity and reliability of a bilingual healthcare discrimination scale in a sample of churchgoing Latino adults in Los Angeles, California. The study sample included 336 participants (foreign-born: 250; US-born: 86) who attended 12 Catholic churches in Los Angeles. Psychometric testing of the 7-item healthcare discrimination (HCD) scale included internal consistency; split-half reliability; convergent, discriminant, and predictive validity; and confirmatory factor analyses. The HCD had relatively high internal consistency (full sample Cronbach’s α = 0.92; foreign-born: 0.91; US-born: 0.92) and showed good convergent and discriminant validity, as it was moderately correlated with the depression scale (full sample r = 0.28, p < 0.001) and weakly correlated with the acculturation scale (full sample r = 0.15, p = 0.008). Confirmatory factor analyses yielded further support for a one-factor solution. Our study finds that the HCD is a valid and reliable scale for use among churchgoing Latino adult populations in the United States. Future studies should examine the psychometric properties of the HCD among Latinos of diverse backgrounds, geographic locations, religious beliefs, and languages. Full article

Previous studies have found that support that is uplifting in nature (i.e., positive social support) can have a positive influence on the spiritual well-being of individuals with chronic diseases. However, few studies have explored positive and negative social support’s (i.e., the individual receiving the support feeling unsupported) impact. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationship between positive and negative social support and spiritual well-being among individuals of African descent with chronic illnesses. Survey items that focused on positive and negative social support as well as spiritual well-being were obtained from a secondary dataset, the National Survey of American Life. Missing imputation models were adjusted by demographic characteristics (gender, age, income, education, marital status, employment, length of stay in the U.S., insurance, and religious service attendance). Findings from the analysis revealed a positive association between positive social support and spiritual well-being (β: 0.07, SE: 0.01, p < 0.0001). No significant associations were observed between negative social support and spiritual well-being (β: 0.01, SE: 0.01, p = 0.51). Future researchers should continue to explore the impact of social support on the spiritual well-being of individuals of African descent through the implementation of a culturally tailored program designed to reduce chronic diseases within this population. Full article

The race paradox in mental health refers to the phenomenon in which African Americans often demonstrate mental health outcomes that are comparable to or more favorable than those of non-Hispanic Whites, despite systemic socioeconomic disadvantage and disproportionate exposure to chronic stressors. Few studies have examined the mechanisms underlying this race paradox among older adults, and even fewer have explored the role of social participation. This study aims to examine whether social participation mediates the relationship between race and mental health. Longitudinal data were drawn from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging study Waves 1–3 (N = 1292). Race was dichotomized as African American and non-Hispanic White. Three types of social participation were assessed: volunteering, participating in organized groups, and attending religious services. Depressive symptoms were assessed as the mental health outcome. Path analyses were conducted to examine the aim. Results indicate that being African Americans predicted increased levels of religious attendance, which in turn, decreased the levels of depressive symptoms. Religious attendance is an underlying mechanism partially explaining the race paradox in mental health, and a modifiable factor that mitigates depressive symptoms. Culturally sensitive interventions promoting social participation are warranted. Full article

Though many Christian churches exist in Hong Kong, some who claim to be Christians are not members of churches, nor do they attend a Sunday service regularly. They identify as faithful but not religious. Some might even be pursuing advanced degrees in Christian studies. Why do they not join an institutional church then? Have they experienced trauma in institutional churches, and how do they process such issues? What do they hope for spiritually? Is there something in Christianity that cannot be replaced by secular spirituality which leads them to still claim to be Christians? In this article, I explore the experiences of dechurched Hong Kong Christians through archival and qualitative study, a method that foregrounds the often contradictory, complicated lived experience of faith, and ask questions about their earnestness and commitment to Christianity outside of the institutional church. I aim to understand the theological and religious perspectives of dechurched Christians and question the role of institutional churches in Hong Kong, discussing the following: (1) mundane trauma as a cause for leaving church, (2) the tendency of contemplative believers to leave church, and (3) the fragility of religious identity. I conclude that the institutional church in Hong Kong, as it is now, needs radical reimagination. Full article

Background: The Black Country (BC) is an area of the United Kingdom covering Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall, and Wolverhampton. The area is ethnically, culturally and religiously diverse. One-fifth of the total population is in the lowest socioeconomic quintile, with an uneven distribution of wealth. The area manifests unmet needs and as perceived underserved community groups. Objectives and Methods: To better understand the situation and inform future provision, listening events were organised across the BC to engage with local underserved communities. A mixed-methods design was employed, using collaborative workshops. The workshops enabled stakeholders to explore priorities, perceived barriers and solutions to mental health services’ access within the BC. Results: Sixty participants verbally consented and signed in to attend the three workshops. There were nine groups that provided 247 statements on the topic, yielding a total of 12 codes and six themes (priorities). The top identified priorities were inappropriate periodisation of accessible funded healthcare needs (n = 42, 18.03%), barriers to appropriate healthcare (n = 49, 21.03%) and limited resources for training, health promotion, preventative care and support networks (n = 62, 26.61%). Conclusions: Addressing the identified priorities will require location and community-specific solutions to establish those communities’ trust and engagement. Cultural stigma should not be viewed as the only barrier to access healthcare but should be considered in combination with the population’s reluctance to reach out to healthcare services due to loss of trust between community groups and lack of co-design of culturally and religiously appropriate services for the community. Full article

This cross-sectional study explored the moderating effect of religious service attendance on the relationship between discrimination and suicidal behaviors in a community sample of immigrants. A convenience sample of 348 individuals with immigrant experience to the U.S. completed a survey in either English, Portuguese or Spanish. The relationship between discrimination and suicidal behaviors was moderated by religious service attendance, equipping help from religious communities (RCs) and not having experienced discrimination in RCs. Other protections included being born outside the U.S. First-generation immigrants also reported less discrimination, which was a risk factor for suicidal behaviors. Other risk factors were refugee status, higher acculturation, discrimination in RCs, and certain types of help from RCs. Help that equipped them to navigate the U.S. system was associated with lower suicide risk. Community partners and RCs can help immigrants by collaborating to promote immigrant mental health because of the high religious affiliation of immigrants. Full article

Who are the religious Nones, given their representation as both a minority and a majority group within the religious landscape? This article presents findings from a comparative study of Italian and Uruguayan youth (n = 2047, with 844 Nones), focusing on sociodemographic profiles of “Nones”, their spirituality, religious belief, practice, and atheist and agnostic identities. The findings suggest that regardless of cultural context—whether in predominantly Catholic Italy or more secular Uruguay—young “Nones” tend to be males, hold beliefs, and engage in religious practices, albeit with varying degrees. Among participants in this study, those originating from Uruguay exhibit a stronger degree of belief and slightly more pronounced engagement in private prayer and attendance of religious services compared to their counterparts from Italy. Additionally, the endorsement of spiritual identity is notably stronger among religious Nones in the Uruguayan sample than in the Italian one. Instead, atheism is more prevalent among Italian Nones, whereas agnosticism constitutes a larger proportion within the Uruguayan sample. Full article

In recent years, medicine has been increasingly described as “Baconian”, in reference to the scientific methodology laid out by Francis Bacon (1561–1626), who, in criticizing Aristotle’s natural philosophy, called for cultivating useful knowledge in order to eradicate disease and extend human life by attenuating aging. Contemporary medicine is often described as “Baconian” insofar as it is devoted to the relief of suffering and the expansion of choice. These two features continue to exert pressure on medicine to expand understandings of both suffering and wellness. Recent attempts to reclassify human aging as a disease, for instance, bear witness to the Baconian impulse. In this article, I discuss and critique the religious origins of Bacon’s call for a new kind of practical rationality in service of improving humanity, showing that they were deeply theological and considerably informed by events recorded in the biblical book of Genesis. I will also argue that the theological nature of Bacon’s program, while theocentric in nature, suffers from inattention to Christology, which challenges Bacon’s theology and the Baconian Project. Attending to Christological concerns modifies Bacon’s approach to bioethics, which recognizes both the fallenness of creation and the power of medicine to address the human condition, especially human aging. Full article

State-level COVID-19 vaccination rates among older adults have been uneven in the United States. Due to the immunocompromised nature of older adults, vaccine hesitancy increases the risk of morbidity and mortality. This study aims to determine the association between the social determinants of health, the structural determinants of health, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among older adults in the United States. Secondary data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) dataset were used. A descriptive analysis and multinomial multivariable logistic regression were performed to examine the association of the independent variables—gender, age, race, immigration status, marital status, broadband internet access, social security income, Medicare coverage, education, and frequency of religious service—with the dependent variable, vaccine hesitancy. Compared to the respondents with no vaccine hesitancy and without the specific predictor, the respondents who reported religious attendance at least once/week were more likely to be “somewhat hesitant”, divorced respondents had higher odds of being “somewhat hesitant”, and older adults aged 65–74 years were more likely to be “very hesitant” or “somewhat hesitant” about the COVID-19 vaccine. Compared to the respondents with no vaccine hesitancy and without the specific predictor, females had higher odds of being “very hesitant”, “somewhat hesitant”, or a “little hesitant”, and African Americans were more likely to be “very hesitant”, “somewhat hesitant”, or a “little hesitant” about the COVID-19 vaccine. Addressing these factors may limit the barriers to vaccine uptake reported among older adults and improve herd immunity among the immunocompromised population. Full article

This study explores the relationship between religiosity, spirituality, and loneliness in the United States, using the 2018 General Social Survey to assess their interactions against a backdrop of declining traditional religious affiliation and a rise in “spiritual but not religious” identification. It examines religion and spirituality’s capacity to counteract loneliness, a condition with significant health implications. The analysis uncovers complex relationships between aspects of religious life and loneliness, showing no mitigating role of spirituality when controlling for other factors, with complex and varied negative relationships of religious service attendance and self-rate religiosity to different aspects of loneliness. Yet, any potentially protective effect of religion varies, with minority religious groups reporting feelings of increased loneliness. These findings underscore religion and spirituality’s nuanced roles in emotional well-being, indicating that their benefits (or not) against loneliness are complex, varied, and depend on the aspect of religion or loneliness observed, along with non-religious factors. The paper contributes to the literature on societal loneliness, changing religious and spiritual engagements, and highlighting the need for a comprehensive approach to explore the role of religion and spirituality in understanding loneliness specifically, and personal and social well-being more generally. Full article

A traditionally salient topic of empirical investigation in the sociology of religion, this paper seeks to offer a recent investigation into the intergenerational transmission of religion and the parental forms of religious engagement that predict adult engagement with religion. The study of this paper explores the intergenerational transmission of religion, focusing on the parental forms of religious identity and engagement that influence religious identity, beliefs, and practices in adulthood. By analyzing the 2018 GSS dataset in the United States with multiple regression analyses, I found strong parental and childhood influences on adult religiosity, religious service attendance, and belief in God. Indeed, this engagement often mirrors parental engagement for these variables. However, while paternal religious identity often predicts these religious variables, I found that the religious identity and engagement of parents generally do not predict religious identity in adulthood. Ultimately, while these results generally show strong predictive mechanisms of intergenerational transmission, they also illustrate that these relationships are variably dependent on the form of parental and adult religious engagement, and which parent participates or is associated with that engagement. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has paralyzed entire social levels. Organized religion is one of those levels, having suffered a lot due to the closing of churches and the automatic physical cessation of religious services. Both the weekly practitioners and those attending church minimally (say at Easter and Christmas) felt the shock of the closing of the churches. As such, the online environment was the saving option during the pandemic. However, not all churches embraced the move of liturgical services to online from the start, and at the same time, not all churches had a rich history of using digital technologies or the Internet for religious purposes. In this context, I investigate how religious communities succeeded in dealing with the imposed governmental regulations on social distance. I follow the specific religious rituals that have suffered the most by moving liturgy online, rituals such as baptism, Eucharist, burial, etc. Because different Christian churches understand rituals and liturgical practices in different ways, I focus specifically on a succinct comparison between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the neo-Protestant environment, especially the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In addition, I briefly extend the comparison to Adventist communities from the diaspora—especially those from London, the United Kingdom. Full article

Suicide is the second leading cause of death in 10–34-year-olds in the U.S. It is vital to identify protective factors that promote resilience in a suicide crisis. Background: This study explored the contributions of religious commitment (RC) and religious service attendance to decreased suicide intent in 18–34-year-olds. Possible moderators were investigated, including church-based social support, pandemic-related faith struggles (PRFS), and moral objections to suicide. Methods: Participants completed an online survey reporting on RC, suicide intent, church-based social support, religious service attendance, PRFS, and moral objections to suicide. Results: In the convenience sample of 451 18–34-year-olds (M = 24.97; 47.23% female), religious participants reported significantly less suicide intent than non-religious participants. RC and moral objections to suicide were more strongly negatively correlated with suicide intent than religious service attendance, but religious service attendance was associated with lower suicide intent in a regression model. Almost four times more religious young adult participants reported PRFS than not, and PRFS was found to moderate the benefits of social support received in their faith communities. Conclusions: It is suggested that professional caregivers use religious service attendance as a straightforward way to assess a possible protective factor for suicidal religious young adults. Professional caregivers may also assess for moral objections to suicide, which may provide simple decision rules in a suicide crisis. The large number of religious young adults reporting PRFS in this study suggests the need for professional caregivers to assess for spiritual struggles, which may confer suicide risk. Because of the interplay of spiritual risks and protections, mental health providers who are unsure of how to address these in therapy may need to collaborate with and make referrals to faith leaders to increase protections and reduce risks in suicidal religious young adults. Full article