Christian Denominations Research Articles

Church Union Movement and the Establishment of the “United Church of Christ in Japan”

The establishment of the United Church of Christ in Japan (nihon kirisuto kyōdan 日本基督教団) marked the culmination of the Church Union Movement in Imperial Japan. Although the Church Union Movement can be traced back to the Meiji era, no significant breakthroughs were made until 1939 due to the refusal of some denominations. In this article, I aim to clarify the process and causes behind the formation of the united church, while also attempting to understand the interaction pattern between the State and Christianity under an increasing wartime totalitarian regime. In April 1939, the Diet passed the Religious Organizations Law (syūkyō dantai hō 宗教団体法), a bill aimed at strengthening state control over religions, which required Christian denominations to establish religious organizations. With the war intensifying Japan’s antagonism toward Western countries, Christianity as a foreign religion faced progressive attacks from the nationalist sects. Some denominations, like the Salvation Army, were accused of espionage due to their international connections and were monitored by gendarmerie (kenpeitai 憲兵隊). Facing harsh pressure, Christians sought to project a patriotic image, ultimately leading to the formation of the United Church as a survival strategy amidst a hostile social-political environment.

ANALOGY AND HARMONY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS OF ADOPTED CHILDREN IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF INHERITANCE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY

This study examines an important comparative legal and religious issue regarding the rights of adopted children in inheritance distribution from Islamic and Christian perspectives. While the abstract summarises key findings, there is a risk of oversimplifying the complexities of religious doctrines and national legal systems governing inheritance laws. Although adopted children's rights are limited in Islamic law, the possibility of making a will can mitigate these restrictions; however, additional nuances arise from various schools of thought and interpretations that influence the scope of inheritance. Conversely, the Christian perspective is often generalised as uniformly granting equal rights to adopted children, which may only hold across some Christian denominations or legal systems influenced by Christian principles. The abstract would benefit from a more detailed analysis of internal variations within each religion and consideration of how different national laws operationalise religious principles. Furthermore, the notion of "harmony" between these two religious traditions in addressing justice for adopted children may be overstated, as the theological foundations guiding inheritance distribution differ fundamentally. A more critical engagement with potential conflicts or limitations in achieving harmonious legal frameworks would add depth to the analysis.

On the Being and Becoming of Appreciative Inquiry and Christian Faith

Appreciating Church suggests that active dialogue between Christian faith and Appreciative Inquiry can address challenges facing longstanding Christian denominations in the UK. It is important to keep working and living appreciatively, drawing creatively from scripture, tradition and experience. This article makes eight key suggestions for embedding Appreciative Inquiry in church life to encourage generativity and spark transformation.

Kerala and the Gaza Crisis: Solidarity, Politics, and Media Responses

Events that unfold in the Middle East profoundly impact the social and political environment in Kerala, India’s southernmost state. This article examines the response in Kerala to the attacks and counter-attacks by the Hamas militants and the Israeli forces in and around the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, which resulted in a humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. Traditionally, a pro-Palestine sentiment has been prevalent in Kerala due to its geographical proximity to the Arabian Peninsula, its notable Muslim population, and its anti-imperialist political discourses under the influence of the dominant Left ideology. However, there has been an increasing appeal for Israel in Kerala recently, especially among some Christian denominations. This article considers these factors and analyzes Kerala’s response to the Gaza crisis using news articles, statements by political and religious leaders, and the editorials of five prominent Malayalam language newspapers. Despite debates around the Gaza crisis in Kerala being less unequivocal, the state’s social and political circles largely stood in solidarity with the Palestinian people.

El ecumenismo receptivo: una propuesta para Colombia

The article presents receptive ecumenism as an innovative approach to dialogue between the different Christian denominations in the country. Inspired by the encyclical Ut Unum Sint and the ideas of Cardinal Kasper, this approach promotes humility and critical self-analysis, encouraging churches to recognize their limitations and learn from each other. Receptive ecumenism seeks to move towards unity through diversity, without forcing time or aspiring to immediate unification. Instead of asking what other churches can learn from a specific tradition, the proposal suggests asking what churches can receive from other denominations, thus fostering mutual enrichment and ecumenical collaboration in the daily life of church communities.

Women in Ministry: Re-Reading 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 in the 21st Century Context

<p class="abstracttextDILIGENTIA">First Corinthians 14:33-35 reveals one of the many controversies about the roles of women in ministry in the church today. Many scholars have given diverse interpretations of the verses. The verses have led many people, including many Christian denominations, to have some positions on women in ministry. The thrust of this article is to explore the correct interpretation of the verses based on some historical and biblical perspectives. The work adopted the historical and biblical exegesis method. Feminism theory was also considered in the work. The work concluded that 1 Corinthians 14:33-35 should not be interpreted literally. It must be interpreted within its context. It also concluded that women have their roles to play in the world and in the propagation of the gospel of Christ, regardless of attempts by men to relegate them to the background.</p>

Walking in Parallel: Roman Catholicism and Protestant Christianity in Korea, 1899–1945

In the early twentieth century, Korean Catholic and Protestant Churches found themselves in a period of significant power transition, from a neo-Confucian dynasty to a colonial regime. Imperial Japan and Christianity thus posed a mutual challenge: church leaders worked to sustain and increase their Evangelical mission field within Korea's new socio-political environment, while, simultaneously, the Japanese depended on the cooperation of the Korean Christian communities to fulfil their colonial project. In this dynamic of State-Church relations, Catholics and Protestants constantly vied for ascendancy. This article examines how the two Christian denominations engaged with each other and with Korea's coloniser, as imperial Japan's policies varied and its international status fluctuated.

Marriage Institution and Christianity in Nsukka, Nigeria: Between Acculturation and Syncretism, 1970-2013

Religious influence on marriage institution in Nsukka society has not enjoyed robust scholarly investigation. The upsurge of different Christian denominations with the competitive drive for evangelization of Nsukka opened new vistas for disconnects in some institutions. Christianity, in its acculturation effort, has become increasingly syncretic with respect to the sacredness of marriage institution. This study is an attempt at an insightful interpretation of traditional control mechanisms that have sustained marriages for both Christians and traditionalists. The study submits that Christians’ profane attacks on the indigenous religion; notwithstanding, it has at the centre-stage controlling the dynamics of marriage institution among the Nsukka Igbo.

The Polish Noble Society of the Early 1690s. Annotation and Counter-Reformation

The article analyzes evidence from publicistic texts about the reaction of the Polish nobility of different confessions to the pogroms of Protestant churches in cities in the early 1690s, where the nature of interfaith relations differed drastically from their nature in many other European countries. A number of acts here sanctioned the legality of the existence in the country of Christian denominations different from the dominant Catholic faith. But in the 1590s, persecution of followers of Protestantism began. Particular attention in the article is paid to the reasons of the strong negative reaction of nobility to their «sbors» by supporters of the Counter-Reformation. Among them the author names the specific consciousness of the Polish noble society: both the Catholic and Protestant gentry perceived themselves as a single community interested in preserving and expanding their class rights.

Who am I? whom can I love? and why me?: Queer Christians and the spirituality of struggle

How do queer Christians navigate the tensions between faith and sexuality? This article points to the spirituality of struggle as an answer. In the context of the Philippines, a society known for its religious and moral conservatism, we define this spirituality as an ongoing process in which queer Christians aspire to discover and fulfill God’s will for their lives. We explain this spirituality in the form of three questions we gathered from our interlocutors: Who am I? Whom can I love? And why me? Taken together, these questions reflect the deepest concerns they have about faith and sexuality. Recognizing the spirituality of struggle offers significant contributions to studying religion and gender in the Philippines: by recognizing queer religious identities as dynamic, negotiated acts steeped in ambivalence and by serving as an empirical counterpoint to the militant Christianity in the country. These insights are drawn from semi-structured interviews with sixty-six young adults who self-identify as non-heterosexual men. They are also from different Christian denominations in the Greater Manila Area.

Religious leaders’ nuanced views on birth spacing and contraceptives in Sierra Leone - qualitative insights

BackgroundSierra Leone is a religiously diverse country, with Christianity and Islam being the dominant faiths. This religious landscape plays a significant role in shaping attitudes towards family planning and contraceptives. We examined religious leaders’ knowledge of family planning and modern contraceptive methods.MethodsIn September 2021, data was collected from 116 religious leaders in Sierra Leone, including 32 Muslims and 84 Christians from nine different denominations from sixteen districts, through 16 focus group discussions. The data was subjected to a thematic analysis using NVIVO 12 software.ResultsThe study found a spectrum of opinions among religious leaders, both between religions (Christianity vs. Islam) and within denominations of Christianity. There was a general acceptance of natural birth spacing methods, like abstinence during fertile periods, across both Christian and Muslim leaders. Views on modern contraceptives were more divided. Catholics generally opposed them, citing religious doctrines against interfering with procreation. Pentecostals and some Muslims, however, found them permissible under certain circumstances, like promoting family well-being or spacing births for health reasons.ConclusionThe study reveals that religious leaders’ views on family planning in Sierra Leone are multifaceted. Understanding these nuances is crucial for designing effective family planning programs. By working with denominations that are more accepting of modern methods and leveraging the support for natural birth spacing methods across religions, there’s potential to improve reproductive health outcomes in Sierra Leone.

Faith, Climate, and Energy Frugality: Unravelling the Nexus in European Perspectives

This study explores the relationship between religious beliefs, perceptions of climate change, and preferences for energy frugality in Europe using data from the November 2023 European Social Survey across 22 countries. The research reveals a predominant inclination toward median values in addressing climate change, with subtle variations based on levels of religiosity. Lower religiosity tends to be associated with a nuanced attribution of climate change to human activity. There is a complex interplay between religiosity and the perception of personal responsibility in mitigating climate change, indicating some polarisation but an overall increasing sense of accountability. Religious affiliations show distinct attitudes, with Protestants more inclined to attribute climate change to human causes. Roman Catholics are closer to some Protestants, while other Christian denominations exhibit flexibility and common ground with Islam and Judaism. However, it is concluded that demographics and political alignment play a more pivotal role compared to religiosity levels or religious denominations.

The prevalence of child sexual abuse perpetrated by leaders or other adults in religious organizations in Australia

BackgroundNumerous national public inquiries have highlighted the problem of child sexual abuse in religious organizations. Despite this, evidence of population-wide prevalence is scarce. ObjectiveTo provide the first nationally representative prevalence estimates of child sexual abuse perpetrated by adults in religious organizations in Australia. MethodsThe Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) surveyed 8503 people aged 16 and over about their experiences of child maltreatment. Weighted prevalence estimates were calculated based on responses to the child sexual abuse questions from the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire-R2: Adapted Version (ACMS). ResultsOne in 250 people reported being sexually abused as a child by an adult in a religious organization (0.4 %, 95 % CI, 0.3–0.6 %). Men reported significantly higher rates of child sexual abuse by these perpetrators (0.8 %, 95 % CI, 0.5–1.2 %), compared to women (0.1 %, 95 % CI, 0–0.3 %). This type of sexual abuse was overwhelmingly perpetrated by men (0.4 %, 95 % CI, 0.3–0.6 %), compared to women (0 %, 95 % CI, 0–0.1 %), and was substantially more often experienced in Catholic organizations (71.9 %) than other Christian denominations or other religions. Prevalence of child sexual abuse in religious organizations has declined over time (2.2 % of men 65 years and older, compared with 0.2 % of 16–24-year-old men). ConclusionsChild sexual abuse has been widespread in religious organizations in Australia. A decline over time indicates progress has been made in preventing sexual abuse of children. Religious organizations must take all reasonable measures to prevent child sexual abuse, with a particular need for interventions targeting male leaders, and organizational cultures.

Exploring the Challenges and Benefits of Online Worship within Rural Congregations in The Episcopal Church (USA): Listening to Rural Lay People

ABSTRACT Employing data from the Covid-19 & Church-21 Survey that drew responses from 4,536 members of The Episcopal Church (TEC), this study analyses comments made by rural lay people regarding their perceptions of the challenges and benefits of online worship. Challenges identified were few and centred on technological and content limitations. The perceived benefits were numerous and included: convenience and accessibility, availability of other church services, connecting with other communities and congregations, and increased opportunity for faith development. Holy Communion and its place in the online space divided opinion. These data are set alongside findings from surveys of Church of England congregations in the UK and of Christian denominations in the USA. Rural lay people in this study saw maintaining both online and in-person provision as the way forward, provided consideration was given to the impact on younger church members and to the financial implications of a such a hybrid model.

Ecclesiastical Policies on Education: A Democratic Game of Winners and Losers?

Abstract In the post-secular societies of Scandinavia and Great Britain, Christian denominations have had to reconstruct their identities as educational agents. This article focuses on the Church of England and the Church of Sweden, and their changed self-identification as expressed in their educational policy documents. Whereas the Church of England’s discourses are of partnership and business competition, the Church of Sweden’s discourses are about the Apocalypse and external threats. These approaches are analysed using Habermas’s concept of religion, identifying a transformation of religious language into secular argumentation to become viable in the secular public space. The question posed is: “Is theology exerting less influence over education in Scandinavia and Great Britain?”

Какой тип реальности описывается концепцией постсекулярного общества?

Publications intended to prove that the contemporary mankind has entered the era of the postsecularity being already counted by four-digit numbers, verification of this point from both logic and facts, in the author’s view, proves otherwise. Because of the immensity of this ocean of writing on this matter the author indulges in confining himself with only three spheres of implementation of this “doctrine”, i.e. with the post-metaphysical philosophy of Jürgen Habermas as the icon of the whole movement, intellectual games with the prefix post- in this context as highlighting the main significances of the conception under discussion and a newest understanding of the postsecular as a format of the secular. While Habermas envisaged the main objective of the postsecular society in involvement of religious peoples in universally significant rationality, the author argues that it is just this rationality that is overtly contradicted by the main interpretations of the postsecular in the Western Europe. To say more, these interpretations are more fitted to description of the “post-religious”, and various trics with the significance of post- in this context (by devastation of its temporal, diachronic meaning) are demonstrated as ploys aimed to delete the numerous facts of deterioration of religion there, viz. dramatic and constant decrease of religious population simultaneous with the same increase of irreligious, the fall of the civic authority of religious leaders and what could be called the inner secularization of Christian denominations.

Религиозная лексика в современном русском и польском языках в переводоведческом, лексикографическом и лингвокультурологическом освещении

During the first quarter of the 21st century, Polish and Russian linguistics have been experiencing an intensification of research into the languages of various Christian denominations. In Poland, it is usually the language of the Polish Catholic Church, traditionally associated with the Polish language; in Russia, it is the language of the Russian Orthodox Church, speaking of which, Church Slavonic and Russian are usually meant. Due to the ongoing geopolitical processes, wellknown classical parallels or connections such as “Polish – Catholic”, “Russian – Orthodox” and directions of this kind of research are undergoing changes. In the Polish Orthodox Church, whose ministers and parishioners until recently used mainly Church Slavonic and Polish, today they increasingly turn to Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian and other Slavic languages in their daily lives. Therefore, against the background of the predominance of Catholicism and the Polish language, problems arise with the correct interpretation and correct understanding of basic religious names by representatives of various Christian denominations speaking related Slavic languages. As a result, there are studies of parallels and connections such as “Polish, Russian, Ukrainian – Orthodox”, and questions arise, the answers to which can be tried to find in lexicography.

Historical Narratives and Spatial Strategies of Reappropriation in Three Romanian Orthodox Monasteries

Contrary to the abundance of shared religious places throughout south-eastern Europe, multi-religious interaction is not a regular feature in Romania. Pilgrimages and visits to the popular Orthodox monasteries of Prislop and Nicula in Transylvania and Dervent in Dobruja are an exception to this trend. Unsurprisingly, these two regions are historically characterized by a remarkable ethnic and religious diversity. The two Transylvanian monasteries attract practitioners of different Christian denominations (Orthodox, Greek-Catholic, Roman-Catholic and Evangelical), while Dervent is a devotional site for Christians and Muslims (Tatars, Turks and Roma) alike. Common to all three monasteries is the presence of allegedly miracle-working objects, artefacts and bodies: a stone cross at Dervent, the Virgin Mary icon at Nicula, and the tomb of the charismatic monk Arsenie Boca at Prislop, respectively. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the three monasteries during both important feasts and everyday monastic life, this article is a multidisciplinary exploration of the workings of inter-religious competition, sharing and interaction. It combines the methods typical of ethnographic research with observations on how the religious space is navigated and socialized through the support of cartography and archival satellite images. The article casts light on how the historical narratives and spatial strategies enacted by the Romanian Orthodox Church overlap in the attempt to reclaim legitimate ownership and exclusive primacy over three popular devotional sites with a composite ethnic and religious past.

LGBTQ+ Christians in Australia

This article argues that the focus on the harm and stigma experienced by LGBTQ+ Christians misrepresents the complexity of the experience of many LGBTQ+ Christians, many of whom report affirmation and self-acceptance. A national representative survey indicates 5.5% of all Australians, 2.9% of Christians, and 8.4% of those with no religion identify their sexuality as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or ‘other’. LGB+ Christians appear to be distributed through all large Christian denominations. A second non-random national online survey indicates that many LGBTQ+ Christians report both self-acceptance and acceptance in their Christian community. While many LGBTQ+ Christians experience significant discrimination in Christian contexts, the often reported incompatibility of Christianity with LGBTQ+ sexual and gender identities is only one part of the story. There are significant sectors of Australian Christianity that are welcoming of LGBTQ+ people. Furthermore, LGBTQ+ people who remain Christians are often deeply committed to their faith.

Ecumenical Challenge in the Third Millennium

Ecumenical movement is a Christian attempt to unite the fragmented Christian denominations, which has not materialized. From this failure, this paper aimed at finding out the ecumenical challenge in the third millennium. This study followed a qualitative approach that employs content analysis of historical data. It described theological and hermeneutical themes in five sections. The first section gives a brief working definition of three theological terms, millennium, third millennium and filioque controversy. The second section focuses on the description of the ecumenical movement in the third millennium. The third section gives a hermeneutical understanding of biblical teaching on unity. The fourth section presents the contrast between the biblical teaching on unity and the concept of unity in the ecumenical movement in the third millennium. The last section presents the challenges that face the ecumenical movement in the third millennium. Base on the findings, the study concludes that the challenge that faces the ecumenical movement is disregarding the biblical concept of unity and neglecting doctrinal differences among Christian denominations. Therefore, the study recommends that unity should be sought in accordance with biblical truth; moreover, the quest for unity should focus on solving the doctrinal differences among Christian denominations.