Search Results (268)

Historic buildings occupy a sensitive position in contemporary energy and heritage management because they combine building-performance requirements, material-conservation constraints, and dynamic patterns of use. This study maps the broader historic-building literature at the intersection of energy-efficient restoration, building decarbonization, heritage conservation, and sustainable tourism, and interprets the resulting bibliometric structure with particular implications for historic stone places of worship. Records were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection and screened through a PRISMA 2020-aligned protocol, yielding 804 publications. Accordingly, the 804-record corpus represents a broad historic-building and heritage-management evidence base rather than an exhaustive dataset restricted exclusively to stone religious buildings. Performance analysis and science mapping were conducted using Bibliometrix, while bibliographic coupling and longitudinal thematic-evolution analyses were added to examine contemporary research fronts and their temporal continuity. Co-citation analysis identified two partially separated intellectual schools—European conservation microclimate and adaptive reuse management—whereas bibliographic coupling revealed five current research-front communities, including adaptive reuse and sustainability, microclimate-conservation-energy, and an emerging HBIM/digital-documentation front. Thematic evolution showed increasing post-2019 convergence of tourism and management with conservation and cultural-heritage research, but continued separation from technical energy and microclimate streams. The study therefore moves beyond descriptive rankings to identify structural fragmentation and three priority directions: integrated monitoring of visitor loads, energy, and conservation performance; HBIM-supported spatial integration; and stronger cross-national research collaboration. The findings are interpreted as bibliometric evidence and research-agenda signals rather than as causal proof of building or policy performance. Full article

This article argues that “compassion” in the worship of Guanyin in metropolitan Bangkok is not an unchanging category as one might assume, but a religious construction generated by the dialectic of devotion, images, and the urban religious architecture. Based on a consideration of Guanyin devotion in various locations around Bangkok and the larger metropolitan area, the following study illustrates the construction, mediation, and stabilization of compassion through devotee practices, images of Guanyin, and spatial configurations necessary for access to, presence within, and experiential encounter with the religious site. Although Guanyin devotion occurs within Mahayana networks, the Chinese diaspora community, and non-monastic devotional settings, each site analyzed here can be understood as a living space where issues of religious authority, visual judgment, spatial accessibility, and bodily experience meet. Through ethnography, visual analysis, and a focus on concepts of lived and material religion, it is demonstrated that the concept of compassion does not arise from theological discourse; rather, the definition of compassion is created locally through the dynamic interrelationship between bodies, images, spatial configurations, and lived experience. Full article

Based on three years of sustained personal observations and extensive on-site interviews, this study is the first to investigate the bird totem worship customs of the Dong ethnic minority in southeast Guizhou, China. The Dong-inhabited regions of southeast Guizhou possess a long-standing tradition of bird totem worship, which has permeated every aspect of local people’s daily life, serving as a living museum where ancient bird totem worship continues to thrive in the present day. Through investigation and research, we can clearly perceive that bird totem worship here is no longer merely evidence of primitive thinking as previously discussed in academic circles, nor is it an endangered intangible cultural heritage. Instead, it represents emotional resonance with a more modern spirit and open-ended identity construction. Faced with the era of the internet and new media, they have broken free from the constraints of totem concepts and taboos, instead embracing creative totem will, totem activities, totem behaviors, and intelligent totems, thereby endowing totems with new belief content and forms of expression. They have transcended the preconceived concepts and fixed thinking about totems in academic discourse, making it an important vehicle for maintaining community relations, strengthening ethnic solidarity, inheriting ethnic culture, and continuing local civilization. Through the contemporary reconstruction of collective behavior, the traffic empowerment of internet short videos, and complex functional transformations, they have constructed a brand-new totem value system in the context of the internet and new media era, organizing a multi-dimensional, comprehensive social ecological view and civilizational value system. It is precisely through this continuous evolution, expansion, and activation in response to changing times that totems have acquired sustained vitality and creativity, providing a vivid case study for the contemporary transformation and creative development of ancient totemic beliefs. This is also the significant importance of field investigation—it enables us to gain entirely new value cognition and different theoretical perspectives from the living site of totem practices. Full article

This article examines the ancestral belief system of fishermen in the Taihu Lake region through the worship of Xianfeng 先锋 (lit. “forerunner”). Existing studies of Taihu fishermen’s beliefs have primarily provided general descriptions of fishing communities, while the formation, transmission, social functions, and contemporary transformation of Xianfeng belief remain insufficiently examined. Drawing on textual analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, this article addresses this gap by exploring how Xianfeng belief has been sustained through the tradition of ritual specialists (Tangmen Taibao 堂门太保) and transformed from family-based ancestor worship into a community-wide protective practice through rituals such as incense pilgrimages and incense association rites. In doing so, it reconstructs the developmental trajectory of Xianfeng belief and provides a representative case for understanding the religious transformation of the rapidly disappearing fishing communities in the Taihu Lake region, while contributing to a broader discussion of religious change in China’s waterborne societies. Full article

This study has examined how Silla Korea and Heian Japan diverged from the pond-garden tradition of Tang China and developed their own localized forms in terms of landscape and religious studies. In Tang China, the Grand Fluid Pond occupied a prominent position within the highly symmetrical palace compound, yet it was excluded from the imperial sacrificial rituals. The pond primarily functioned as a space for courtly recreation, while Daoism survived largely as a symbolic vocabulary and formal embellishment. By contrast, the Wŏlji pond in Kyŏngju more actively incorporated celestial elements of garden Daoism and indigenous beliefs. They included the three immortal islands, the Twelve Peaks of Mount Wu, wild animals for hunting, and the worship of the Dragon King. More importantly, the pond was deliberately situated adjacent to a royal Buddhist temple, and, over time, a large number of Buddhist artifacts were placed in the pond area. Taken together, the Silla pond functioned not merely as an idealized landscape but also as an ideological space that reinforced the royal authority and glorified the dynasty through a syncretic religious landscape. Although the imagery of Amitābha’s Western Paradise was only partially expressed in the Silla garden, it was fully realized in garden form under the patronage of the Fujiwara clan in eleventh-century Heian Japan. By this time, Pure Land Buddhism had permeated all levels of society, while widespread anxieties over the “Latter Days of the Law” encouraged devotion to Amitābha as the primary means of salvation. Against this religious background, the Fujiwara sponsored temple complexes with expansive pond gardens. Two of the most prominent examples, Hōjōji and Byōdōin, were deliberately designed to represent Amitābha’s Western Paradise and to serve as ritual settings for Pure Land devotion. This religiosity therefore represented a fundamental departure from both the Daoist garden of Tang China and the syncretic gardens of Silla Korea. Full article

Microgrids are key to rural electrification in Africa. While previous studies have mainly addressed microgrid sizing, techno-economic performance, and energy management, electricity consumption has received limited attention despite its central role in system design. The goal of this study is to review, harmonize and analyse publicly available electricity consumption data from rural microgrids across Africa. The analysis reveals a median of 44.5 consumers per microgrid, with most microgrids serving a few dozen to a small hundred consumers. The most frequently reported domestic loads are lighting, televisions, radios and fans while schools, health centers, places of worship, water pumps, and mills are the most frequently reported community-wide loads. The median consumption per consumer is 0.7 kWh/day. Moreover, a significant difference is observed between existing and hypothetical (e.g., used in the frame of conceptual design studies) microgrids, with median consumption per consumer values of 0.13 and 2.85 kWh/day, respectively, suggesting a tendency to overestimate demand during the microgrid planning phase. These findings are complemented by further insights, particularly into variability patterns and reporting practices. As new studies become available, we will continue to expand the compiled database. This work can notably be useful to microgrid developers and policymakers. Full article

This article examines the orientation that emerges during worship in the Abrahamic religions through the interrelation of bodily experience and architectural space. Drawing jointly on Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the “lived body” and Mircea Eliade’s theory of sacred space, the study discusses how the directionality of worship in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam produces distinct spatial theologies. Methodologically, the research is based on a hermeneutic reading of selected sacred texts, rabbinic and liturgical sources, and on a comparative analysis of synagogue, church, and mosque spaces according to the criteria of orientation, architectural focus, bodily posture, congregational alignment, light, axis, threshold, and ritual surface. The proposed tripartite schema distinguishes between the horizontal covenantal orientation toward Jerusalem in Judaism, the vertical/transcendent axis associated with the cross, resurrection, and ascension in Christianity, and the downward orientation intensified around prostration in Islam. These orientations are not merely ritual prescriptions; rather, they constitute intentional structures through which the body is situated in relation to God, others, and the world. In the synagogue, the Torah ark and the direction of Jerusalem; in the church, the apse, cross, and luminous order; and in the mosque, the qibla wall, the alignment of prayer rows, and the surface of prostration are examined as architectural foci that materialize these intentional structures. The study brings together three domains that are often treated separately in literature: the phenomenology of religion, Eliadean cosmology, and architectural spatial analysis. In doing so, it proposes a comparative model of “spatial theology” among the Abrahamic traditions, articulated through the relationship between body, text, and worship structures. Ultimately, sacred space is interpreted as a dynamic order that is reconstituted in every act of worship through the convergence of bodily orientation, historical memory, and cosmic reference. Full article

In this article, we aim to examine the companions’ understanding of religion, as well as the transformations it underwent in later periods, by analyzing hadiths transmitted through the verbal form “amara” (he commanded), used when reporting the statements of the Prophet, and those conveyed in the passive form “umirnā” (we were commanded). The companions (sahāba) are regarded as the most distinguished among Muslims for their proper understanding and implementation of Islam, as they directly witnessed the revelation of the Qur’anic verses and the occasions when the hadiths were uttered. For this reason, their understanding of religion and their religious practices have been highly valued by subsequent generations, to the extent that the concept of qawl al-ṣaḥābī (the statement of a companion) has even been considered a source of religion. In this study, the subject will be addressed through selected examples drawn from al-Jāmiʿ al-Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī, widely regarded as containing the most authentic hadiths. We will attempt to demonstrate that the Prophet’s commands and recommendations concerning various domains, such as acts of worship, social ethics, and public order, are predominantly transmitted through the verbal form “amara”, and that in narrating these reports, the companions prioritized and intended moral encouragement and guidance rather than a strictly normative purpose. Accordingly, the study approaches transmission forms not merely as technical means of narration, but also as meaningful structures that carry the companions’ understanding of religion. In this way, it seeks to reveal the perspectives from which the companions approached the commands and recommendations of the Prophet. Full article

This study analyses the Reformed liturgy as a site of ritual contestation that both shapes and facilitates the reconstruction and transformation of gender roles and identities in African contexts. Rooted in genealogical and decolonial scholarship, it examines how a ministry, long-reformed yet fundamentally integral to African-congregational communities, continues to express masculine forms of agency already present in reformed worship that influence perceptions of power, belonging, and identity. The emphasis is on Reformed communities in Southern Africa, where the arrangements of liturgical practices, preaching, eldership, sacramental administration, and life-cycle rites persist in grappling with a colonial past from an African epistemological perspective. This study examines the intersections of baptism, marriage, funerals, and ordination with customary rites such as lobola (bridewealth), initiation, and ancestor veneration, drawing on liturgical theology, ritual studies, and African gender scholarship to reveal both reproductive and resistant dynamics while simultaneously reshaping a new order within these practices. This article examines the ways in which worship facilitates continuity, rupture, and transformation within African gender identities, while seeking to situate Reformed liturgy within an African context of ritual ecologies rather than to contrast them. This approach may enhance decolonial discourse by illuminating contemporary discussions on liturgical studies and gender. Full article

This study examines the transformation of religiosity among individuals who leave traditional Eastern madrasas in Turkey unfinished, focusing on the existential rupture between traditional religious education and modern secular life. While the madrasa institution has historically served as a primary site of religious formation and cultural production in the region, the transition to civil life has led to a significant reshaping of the relationship between faith and practice. Utilizing a qualitative research design, in-depth interviews were conducted with 13 male participants in Batman to explore the impact of institutional departure on individual belief systems. The findings suggest that a curriculum weighted toward grammar and the presence of intense social pressures can affect perceptions of the sacred, triggering a shift in the individual’s attitude toward religious boundaries. Crucially, not being in a position that represents the religious status relieves individuals of the burden of representation, fostering a sense of conscientious flexibility toward abandoning worship. The study identifies a post-secular typology of believing but indifferent, in which belief persists as an ontological comfort zone while losing its regulatory power over daily life. These results indicate that, in the context of madrasa dropout, secularization manifests as the ineffectiveness and worldliness of belief rather than its outright rejection. Full article

This study investigates the metaphysics of fasting according to the hugely influential mystic Muhyi al-Din ibn ‘Arabi (d. 638/1240). Ibn ‘Arabi argues that fasting holds an unparalleled position in ritual worship. While his predecessor Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (d. 505/1111) in his magnum opus—The revival of the religious sciences (Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din)—addresses the ethical dimension of fasting, Ibn ‘Arabi’s concern is the metaphysical reality of it. There are six principal reasons Ibn ‘Arabi gives for fasting being superior to other forms of worship, all of which revolve around fasting’s uniqueness that adverts to the uniqueness of God: (1) Fasting is elevated because God has connected it to Himself in prophetic traditions. All other acts of worship are connected to humans. Fasting is thus elevated from the servant to God. (2) Fasting is not an action like other forms of worship; it is an inaction since it entails refraining from eating, drinking, and sexual intercourse. This makes its essence incomprehensible as it is not an entity but the lack of one. The incomprehensibility of the essential inaction of fasting connects it to the incomprehensibility of God. (3) Fasting, insofar as it displays independence from food, drink, and sexual intercourse, mirrors the divine attribute of true independence from all things (samadaniyya). (4) Fasting is described as a shield (junna) in prophetic traditions because although it is not an action in itself, the state of fasting becomes a protection against evil actions. Awareness of God (taqwa), likewise, protects against evil actions. Thus, fasting is related to God as it begets awareness of God. (5) The breath of the person who fasts, though malodourous to humans, is said to be fragrant for God by Prophet Muhammad. This ‘fragrance’ is produced by the breath of the person who fasts, which adverts to the Breath of the Compassionate (nafas al-Rahman) that brings all things into existence according to Ibn ‘Arabi. (6) The people who fast shall enter heaven through the Gate of Rayyan (quenched thirst) as reported in prophetic traditions. Ibn ‘Arabi argues that the quenching of thirst represents an endpoint or ‘perfection’ (kamal) after which one does not require more drink. This ‘perfection’ (of satiation) mirrors God’s perfection. Fasting is the only form of worship that has a gate that alludes to its perfection, which demonstrates that it is unique. In all these ways, then, there is nothing like fasting, which connects it to God because there is nothing like God. Full article

Sacral objects are found across all major religions worldwide. The contemporary urban landscape, shaped by cultural, social, and utilitarian interdependencies, is enriched by places of worship, which strengthen social bonds and ensure the continuity of cultural heritage. In Poland, wayside shrines and crosses serve as sites of local religious practices, co-creating the genius loci as carriers of local history. Since the nineteenth century, they have been subjected to urbanisation pressure and may become incongruous with the transformed urban landscape, uprooted by evolving transport systems, spatial functions, and social needs. Relocation, as a preservation method, perpetuates historic shrines and crosses, while shaping new sacral landscape interiors and should therefore constitute a sustainable heritage preservation strategy. The article analyses this conservation strategy as applied in southern Kraków. Based on surveys, archival maps, orthophoto, press articles, the literature, and fieldwork, we pinpoint 25 relocated features out of 126 found across five city districts. Our literature and case study analysis identifies factors influencing the preservation of religious, landscape, social, and cultural functions. Despite altering original locations, a dramatic intervention into the urban fabric and local community space, relocation remains an effective tool for protecting historic substance and managing the landscape. Full article

This article examines the ethnopragmatic significance of religiously based personal names among the Agwagune people of Biase in Cross River State, Nigeria. Insights from a socio-onomastic framework are used to account for the situational, socioreligious and sociocultural contexts of Agwagune naming practices that reinforce the people’s belief systems and worldview. Using participant observation and semi-structured interviews, data were generated during a nine-month fieldwork session involving 30 participants who were knowledgeable in the traditional religious socio-onomastic tradition. Our findings show that Agwagune people draw from their symbolic linguistic resources to bestow personal names that become messaging instruments that express traditional religious affiliations, sociocultural practices and indigenous belief systems. The personal names bear ethnopragmatic relevance that manifests in the veneration of deities and traditional worship; significations in rituals and religious festivals; mysteries of death, reincarnation and commemoration; traditional familial hierarchies; and the sociocultural connection between the people and their physical and spiritual universe. Aside from contributing to the global discourses on socio-onomastics from the perspectives of a micro-minority ethnolinguistic group, the study is also relevant because it serves as documentary material for an endangered and transitioning socio-onomastic practice that characterizes the people’s cosmology, belief systems and lived experiences that are gradually being replaced by Christian orientations. Full article

This multiple case-study explores the intersection of education justice and digital inclusion through three international students’ experiences of learning English within church communities in Australia. Drawing on an education justice lens foregrounding redistribution, recognition, and representation, as well as spatial perspectives on informal digital language learning, this study examines how faith-based participation and digitally mediated interaction shape language development in everyday life. Narrative and thematic analyses were conducted based on narrative data collected from journal entries and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal that church involvement created recurring opportunities for English use through volunteering, worship, and small-group interaction. Digital mediation extended community engagement through livestreaming and messaging platforms, supporting vocabulary noticing. Recognition within digital spaces was shaped by how participants’ contributions were taken up by others and by interactional norms such as pace and turn-taking, which structured conditions of visibility and responsiveness. These findings suggest that digital inclusion depends not only on access and participation but on whether participants’ contributions are recognised and sustained within digitally mediated environments. This study offers pedagogical implications for supporting learners’ meaningful participation in the digitally mediated multilingual communities that shape their everyday language development. Full article

This study explores the formation of diaspora worship among the English-speaking exile community in Geneva during the mid-sixteenth century and its decisive role in shaping the theological and political identity of the Second Reformation. By examining the leadership of John Knox and the compilation of The Forme of Prayers (1556), the research investigates how the experience of displacement facilitated a radical departure from the liturgical compromises of the Church of England. The study begins by analyzing the “troubles” at Frankfurt (1554–1555), where the conflict between the “Prayer Book party” and the “Geneva faction” catalyzed the adoption of the Regulative Principle of Worship as a defensive mechanism for faith. It then evaluates the socio-ecclesiastical institutionalization of the community in Geneva, as evidenced by the Livre des Anglois, and the theological framework of their resulting liturgy. Key elements (including covenantal confession based on the “remnant” identity, the sacraments as “visible Word,” and the pedagogical function of metrical psalmody) are analyzed as paradigms for religious identity construction within a refugee context. Furthermore, the paper traces the intellectual output of this diaspora, such as the Geneva Bible and radical resistance theory, which provided the theological blueprint for the “Genevanization” of Scotland and the emergence of Elizabethan Puritanism. Ultimately, this research presents the Genevan exile experience as a sophisticated model of “diaspora faith,” demonstrating how marginalized religious communities utilize theological innovation, institutional autonomy, and media technology to transform from the periphery into a central force of historical and political change. Full article