Discourse Of Church Research Articles

Theological Intersections: Newman’s ‘Primacy of God’ in Modern Church Discourse

This article critically examines the Catholic–Anglican theological dialogue, centering on John Henry Newman’s ‘Primacy of God’, Catholic synodality, and Anglican comprehensiveness. It illuminates the interconnectedness of these elements, revealing their potential to enhance ecumenical conversations. Newman’s concept of communal faith and divine primacy resonates across both traditions, advocating a transformative, experiential spiritual journey. This study juxtaposes Newman’s stance on ecclesiastical authority and doctrinal development with contemporary synodal movements in the Catholic Church, paralleled by Anglican practices like the Lambeth Conferences. This comparison underscores a mutual commitment to participatory governance and theological inclusivity. Ultimately, the study envisions a unified Christian theology, fostering dialogue enriched by diverse traditions and promoting a harmonious convergence within the Christian theological spectrum.

Official-business communication in modern church discourse

In the article, the author examines an important aspect of linguistic and cultural dynamics, namely, the functioning of names, genres (types) of official and business communication in the church discourse, which testifies to the processes of interaction between linguistic and non-linguistic factors. The specifics of genre names used in documents of official and business communication of church discourse are analyzed. Significant emphasis is placed on the interaction of cultural, social, and linguistic factors in shaping the terminological field of religious discourse. Attention is focused on understanding the concept of «discourse» and its role in shaping the modern cognitive paradigm of the humanities. The interpretation of religious discourse in philosophical, religious studies, sociological, or linguistic research is explored. Specifics of using professional vocabulary and terms are indicated. The names of religious documents are presented, which form the appropriate terminological system of official and business communication of religious discourse and are a part of religious discourse in general. Signs of official and business communication in religious discourse are presented. The list of documents in which official and business communication is implemented in religious discourse in accordance with the church hierarchy is provided: starting from documents issued by the head of the church — the Metropolitan, ending with documents of the diocesan administrations and religious community (parish). The main types of official and business discourse are identified. It is noted that official and business communication in religious discourse covers documented acts of church activities between organizations. Keywords: genres (types) of documents, official business communication, church discourse, linguistic and cultural dynamics.

“Speeches on Religion” by Friedrich Schleiermacher in the Vision of Kyiv Academic Fedir Ornatskyi: an Example of Apologetic Reflection

In this article, we delve into the religious readings of notable Kyiv academic professors from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries. Their works contain a wealth of empirical evidence and theoretical concepts that are crucial to understanding the development of the “science of religion” within the local intellectual tradition. We’re showcasing the work of Fedir Ornatskyi, a scholar from Kyiv Theological academy. Our analysis focuses on one of Ornatskyi’s notable pieces, which delves into the religious perspectives of Friedrich Schleiermacher, a renowned German theologian. A researcher from Kyiv is updating the accomplishments and ideas of F. Schleiermacher, aiming to find connections between the cultural, intellectual, and ideological situations of the late 18th and late 19th centuries. This includes the crisis of religiosity and the rejection of church institutions. Following this vision, F. Ornatskyi is interested in exploring the limitations of rationalist theology. He aims to understand F. Schleiermacher’s search for arguments supporting religion based on inner experience. However, the Kyiv researcher demonstrated that many of the German theologian’s ideas went beyond traditional orthodox church discourse, despite his apologetic motivation. F. Ornatskyi criticises his opponent’s controversial and odious statements, such as the absolutization of subjectivity and sensuality in religion; pantheism and impersonalism; subjectivism and relativism in religious knowledge; denial of the connection between religion and morality; speculative evaluations of specific religions, especially Christianity. At the same time, the Kyiv academician’s study of Schleiermacher’s stories about the relationship between cognitive and emotional-sensual components of religion demonstrates the elements of religious analysis, which combines historical, structural, psychological and phenomenological approaches; the seeds of the psychology of religion and religious cognitivism are found. The modern interpretation of F. Ornatskyi’s work provides a new perspective on Schleiermacher’s ideas, foreshadowing contemporary trends in religious evolution in the post-secular era.

CYRIL AND METHODIUS AS PRECURSORS OF THE ‘RUS’ WORLD’: THE IMAGE OF THE SOLUN BROTHERS AND RUSSIAN IMPERIALISM

This article analyses the recent Russian Orthodox discourse on the Solun Brothers. This analysis shows, on the one hand, that the politicised interpretation of the mission of Cyril and Methodius is not a recent ideological innovation, but appeals to the same motives that made their cult popular in 19th-century Russian Orthodoxy. On the other hand, the reinterpretation of the meaning of their mission that is currently taking place is acquiring additional political objectives harmonised with those of Russian state ideology, as well as cultural and foreign policy, especially in relation to the post-Soviet area. At the same time, however, the religious significance of Cyril and Methodius is almost disappearing from church discourse and theological reflection. A common element of Russian discourse on the Solun Brothers, in both the 19th and 21st centuries, is ahistoricity, understood as a complete disconnection from the actual historical context in which Cyril and Methodius lived and worked .

Marriage and Family in Putin’s Russia: State Ideology and the Discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church

The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) presents itself as a defender of traditional Christian values. Among these values, representatives of the ROC mention concern for marriage and family. To what extent is the position of the ROC an expression of commitment to the traditional Christian concept of marriage and family? In this article, we analyse the contemporary Orthodox discourse in Russia since Kirill Gundyayev became the Patriarch of Moscow in 2009. From a political science and security studies perspective, we highlight the main ideological elements of this discourse. We contrast these elements with similar content in Russian official documents and Vladimir Putin’s statements. An analysis of what the ROC says about the problems and protection of marriage and family in Russia, against the background of Putin’s statements and the actions of the state authorities, shows that the ROC’s discourse on marriage and family echoes the main themes of the political discourse controlled by the state authorities. In its understanding of marriage and in its efforts on behalf of the family, the ROC represents a conservative doctrinal position. Although, in doctrinal terms, it essentially expresses the traditional Christian teaching on marriage, the strong ideologisation and securitisation of demographic issues in Russia are also reflected in church discourse.

Church and Politics: An Assessment of the Bases and Approach of the Church’s Political Engagement in Ghana

The church has maintained that it has a role to play in the country’s politics and that its interests are the welfare of the nation rather than a partisan agenda. To explore these assertions, this article analysed official documents and other studies on the church’s political engagement. The analysis was complemented with data from interviews with selected clergy and Christian politicians. Eight (8) members of the clergy and twenty-seven politicians (27) from the mainline, and the Pentecostal-Charismatic churches, were interviewed. They were selected using both purposive and snow-balling sampling techniques. The paper contends that the church’s involvement in Ghana’s politics has an intrinsic theological and moral basis as well as socio-economic motivations. Also, the approach and attitude in its political engagement to a large extent have been that of dialogue, collaboration, and non-partisan. Among other factors, the church’s approach has been significant in the successes it has chalked in its political engagements. However, in the discourse of church and politics in Ghana, much attention has not been given to the basis for the church’s continual political engagements, and the attitude and approach it has adopted over the years. This paper seeks to contribute to bridging this gap. The paper recommends that studies are conducted on how individual churches (denominations) and other ecumenical bodies besides the Christian Council of Ghana (CCG) and the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC) have engaged politics in Ghana and to analyse their approaches and impact. Keywords: The Church, Politics, Engagement, Motivation, Ghana.

The Law of the Gospel: Shifting Interpretations of a Temple Covenant throughout Latter-day Saint History

The Law of the Gospel: Shifting Interpretations of a Temple Covenant throughout Latter-day Saint History

An Interpretive Approach to Religious Ambiguities around Medical Innovations: The Spanish Catholic Church on Organ Donation and Transplantation (1954-2014).

How do institutionalized religions solve moral ambiguities around controversial medical innovations and public health issues? Most religions have moral guidelines about what can and cannot be done to people's bodies, but these guidelines are not always straightforward and, when faced with certain scientific advances, can come into contradiction with other doctrinal principles. I address this theoretical puzzle through the empirical case of the Spanish Catholic Church's discourse on organ donation and transplantation during the second half of the twentieth century. Drawing on an interpretive analysis of official statements by the Spanish Catholic Church, and of the media coverage of the religious debate over organ donation and transplantation in Spain from 1954 onwards, I show that the first experiments in organ transplantation faced the Church with a contradiction between its altruistic teachings and its beliefs in the sacredness of human life. Faced with an interpretive dilemma, the Church produced a context-specific version of its official doctrine friendly to organ donation and transplantation. It did so by activating its altruistic elements and suppressing sacralized meanings of the body, thus aligning organ donation with Catholic values of generosity and fraternal love. My study theorizes this moral alignment as a semantic overlap realized through historically situated institutional discourse. Additionally, it incorporates 24 primary and secondary sources on comparative cases to propose three facilitating factors that enabled and encouraged the Spanish Catholic Church to embrace a controversial medical practice.

Models of Ecumenical Dialogue in the Discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate

The article is devoted to the models of ecumenical dialogue in the Russian context on the example of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate. The wide-spread and flourishing discussions about ecumenism in the religious studies and theological fields constitute the problem of this study. The author investigates the problem with the aim to identify existing models of an ecumenical dialogue. Following from this purpose the most significant and discussed concepts of ecumenical dialogue in Russia are noted. The emphasis is placed on the widespread concept of two ecumenisms, most fully disclosed by A. V. Shishkov, and related discussions in the scientific and theological fields. Also, a discussion in the church discourse was revealed, which is based on the concepts of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church: prot. M. Kozlov, mitr. Hilarion (Alfeyev), fr. Georges Florovsky, archm. Sophronia (Sakharova) and others. To outline the broad picture, there was established the position of the Roman Catholic Church as well as its messages addressed to Orthodoxy. In addition, three main trends in the Russian Orthodox Church in relation to ecumenism are identified and described. The first is anti-ecumenism, its members are against any dialogue with non-Orthodoxy. The second is moderate ecumenism, where participants advocate the idea of acceptable and unacceptable forms of ecumenism without making edits to the Church doctrine, and the third are modernist ecumenists who are ready for changes in the teaching of the Church for the sake of the dialogue. Then, there was a transition to the term ecumenism in the context of modern conceptions about the phenomenon and also in the context of the history of the ecumenical movement of the 20th century. The author makes a conclusion about a fundamental importance of the idea of the unity of Christians for the identification of models of ecumenical dialogue. The unity can be determined as unity in one Church, as well as unity within a common space of communication without crossing borders and making one united church. It is noted that the existing concepts and terminology do not reflect this aspect, thus the author suggests the possibility of using such terms as adaptive and integrative dialogue, and lays out prospects for solving the problem.

한국형 선교적 교회 연구: 현상학적 질적 연구 중심으로

This study aims to find the missiological characteristics of missional church movement in South Korea by focusing on phenomenological qualitative research. Since the early 2000s, the discourse of missional church has been addressed from many missiologists. However, there are not many examples of qualitative studies on this movement. For this reason, we attempt to do research and analyze twenty five models of missional church, and then find out the four types of missional church: (1) The Missional Village Community Type, (2) The Missional Public Church Type, (3) The Missional Discipleship-Culture Type, and (4) The Missional Alternative Community Type. We also categorize eight crucial subjects, and finally, we make a concluding remark about the main characteristic of the missional church through data.

The Contextual Significance of Clothes and Jewellery: Lived Religion among Pentecostals in South India

This article examines the significance of clothes and jewellery among Pentecostal middle-class women in Bangalore, South India. It discusses how they position themselves in relation to a religiously diverse context through their dress. Ways of dressing constitute embodied practices that express religious identity. Moreover, the issue of dress also demonstrates individual Pentecostal laywomen's agency in negotiating official church discourse, as well as the strong connections between lived religion and religious institutions. The methods used in the study are participant observations and qualitative semi-structured interviews with ordinary Pentecostals from two churches. Attitudes and practices relating to dress differ drastically between these two churches, thereby highlighting differences between the two types of South Indian Pentecostalism that they represent. The article illustrates how a focus on gender, embodiment and materiality can draw attention to previously overlooked dimensions of Pentecostalism as lived religion.

The shaping and formation of a missional ecclesiology of township congregations in the Mangaung Metro Municipality during COVID-19

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caught most organisations, institutions and leaders off-guard, including church leaders. This was not any different in the congregations in the townships of the Mangaung Metro Municipality. The article discusses the responses of the churches in the Mangaung district and poses the question pertinently, ‘How did (or not) the churches in the Mangaung district reimagine, restructure, and position themselves prophetically during the COVID-19 pandemic?’. This is done firstly by providing a background to the development of a missional ecclesiology in North America, United Kingdon, and South Africa. Secondly, a discussion will be focused on the characteristics of the congregations which are necessary for developing a missional ecclesiology, in terms of these phases, as argued by Baron and Maponya. However, in the final section it will bring the missional ecclesiological discourse in conversation with the shaping and developing (or not) of a missional ecclesiology in respect of congregations in the township of the Mangaung Metro Municipality. The authors provide some contours for the missional role of the church in the current South African context and the formation of a missional ecclesiology.Contribution: This article contributes to the missional church discourse in missiology, that has been a conversation within Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa. The authors have been conducting research within mostly Pentecostal church in the township of Mangaung. The article is an attempt to broaden the missional church discussion in terms of region and Pentecostal ecclesiology.

A Reflection on Nominal Christians in Contemporary England

This article attends to the religious landscape in contemporary England, particularly those who display some Christian beliefs and practices loosely, while their church attendance is slight, occasional or non-existent. In Western society and churches, they are predominantly characterised as “nominal Christians.” From a missiological perspective, I examine the adequacy of this characterisation, drawing upon my empirical findings of non-diasporic Korean missionaries’ engagement with the phenomenon of interest. Firstly, I show how nominalism is addressed in the two major sociological approaches that attempt to characterise the religious trend in the contemporary Western culture, namely, secularization theories and de-institutionalization theories. Secondly, I present empirical findings of Korean missionaries’ reflection on nominalism in the light of such a sociological debate. Finally, I examine the missiological implication of their reflection for nominalism in reference to the concept of missio Dei. I argue that Korean missionaries’ accounts disclose what I call “religious nominals” who have some valid elements of Christian faith in an increasingly deinstitutionalized ecclesial context. They represent a distinctive religious constituency among whom God carries out the redemptive work of Christ, the manner of which is as yet to be explored. This disclosure invites us to review our understanding of nominalism with a serious theological exploration of such a redemptive intervention of God. This exploration also invites further reflection on our current discourse of missional church in this particular theological context.

Gender in educational and public discourse of the Church. Analysis of the Pastoral Letter on the Feast of the Holy Family

Kasiak Mateusz, Gender in educational and public discourse of the Church. Analysis of the Pastoral Letter on the Sunday of the Holy Family. Culture – Society – Education no 2(16) 2019, Poznań 2019, pp. 289–312, Adam Mickiewicz University Press. ISSN 2300-0422. DOI 10.14746/kse.2019.16.19.
 Gender as a category of cultural gender and gender identity appears not only in scientific discourse as a topic of research, but also in public discourse, as a subject of various debates and disputes. This concept was also included into the discourse of the Catholic Church. Its creators – church leaders – embarked upon a public reinterpretation of the concept of gender, thus inserting their point of view into the broader political and ideological dispute. The aim of this paper is to review the postulates of the church concerning gender in the Pastoral Letter on the Feast of the Holy Family, which seems to be a leading programme paper concerning this issue. In this paper, gender as a research and scientific category is isolated from the scientific discourse and appropriatedby the educational discourse of the church, where it functions as a scare tactic. Structural modifications in the text and style of the letter, stylistic and rhetorical tricks, as well as pragmatic mechanisms, make the text of the pastoral letter a persuasive political argument.

“Lord Come to Our Aid”: Islamisation, Civil War, and the Pastoral Letters of the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference

During the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983–2005), the Sudanese government attempted to fashion the country as an Islamic state. The Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SCBC) penned a series of letters condemning the lack of religious freedom, making demands of the state, and encouraging the laity with particular biblical references. The letters occasionally framed the war as a chance to prove a familial relationship with Christ, suggesting a compelling link between citizenship and faith. This article explores these letters and argues that they represent an important chapter in the genealogy of Sudanese church–state relations. Ongoing challenges with religious freedom in Sudan and South Sudan show the continuing relevance of earlier church discourse towards and about the state.

Exploring the Use of Machine Learning to Automate the Qualitative Coding of Church-related Tweets

This article builds on previous research around the exploration of the content of church-related tweets. It does so by exploring whether the qualitative thematic coding of such tweets can, in part, be automated by the use of machine learning. It compares three supervised machine learning algorithms to understand how useful each algorithm is at a classification task, based on a dataset of human-coded church-related tweets. The study finds that one such algorithm, Naïve-Bayes, performs better than the other algorithms considered, returning Precision, Recall and F-measure values which each exceed an acceptable threshold of 70%. This has far-reaching consequences at a time where the high volume of social media data, in this case, Twitter data, means that the resource-intensity of manual coding approaches can act as a barrier to understanding how the online community interacts with, and talks about, church. The findings presented in this article offer a way forward for scholars of digital theology to better understand the content of online church discourse.

Studying characterization in Arthur Miller’sThe Crucible

AbstractApart from the stylistic and cognitive studies which have already been done separately on Miller’sThe Crucible, this paper provides a new insight into the play and its system of characterization by integrating these approaches. To this end, the paper draws on Jonathan Culpeper’s cognitive stylistic theory of top-down and bottom-up processes in literary text comprehension and characterization. Based on this holistic framework, the paper takes advantage of such stylistic tools as speech acts, the Cooperative Principle and politeness theory to examine features of the language used by the characters Proctor and Danforth. In this regard, the article assimilates those linguistic elements with the embedded schemata within the play. Consequently, the study reveals that Proctor’s complex characterization does not coincide with the readers’ schema and thus they form their impression of his character based on piecemeal integration. On the other hand, Danforth’s character reinforces the readers’ schema about a representative of the church discourse and thus they comprehend his character on the basis of confirmatory categorization. The paper concludes that while Proctor and Danforth have a passive existence in the text or in people’s minds, it is only in the interaction between their language and the readers’ minds that they come into existence.

Moyens modernes, buts traditionnels: le discours constitutionnel de l’Église de Grèce

SOMMAIRE: 1 - Introduction - 2. L’Etat et l’Eglise en Grece. Le cadre constitutionnel - 3 - L’Eglise de Grece comme institution de l’Etat grec - 4. Le discours constitutionnel de l’Eglise. Des elements de constitutionnalisme populiste - Pluralisme constitutionnel et droits de la majorite - 6. Les droits en tant qu’identite - 7. Conclusion - Bibliographie.ABSTRACT: The invocation of the people, the constitution and the rights occupies an important place in the public discourse of the Church of Greece. Its constitutional discourse exhibits two main characteristics. Firstly, it is a populist discourse. The church talks in the name of “its” people, which it identifies with the Greek nation, and as the voice of the people’s will against its rulers. Moreover, it is a rights-laden discourse. The church talks as the protector of the rights of the majority, which it identifies with the rights of its believers. Its constitutional discourse and practice shows that the church manages to exploit the institutions, achievements and discourses of modernity, if only for the promotion of apparently pre-modern ends: the preservation of its privileges against the other religions; the prolongation of its role in the public sphere; its reproduction as an ideological mechanism of the nation-state.

50 años de Medellín: los “ires” y “venires” de la catequesis de signo liberador.

Liberating catechesis is undoubtedly one of the most important fruits of the Second Conference of the Latin American Episcopate celebrated in Medellin 50 years ago. The catechetical paradigm that emerged there revolutionized the way of understanding and doing catechesis in the continent, from a rationalistic, deductive, and mnemonic catechesis that sought the memorization and mechanical repetition of catechism content to a “situational/liberating catechesis centred n Revelation and man, where historical situations and authentically human aspirations became part of the catechesis content, and therefore, must be interpreted in present-day context, in the light of the life experiences of the Peoples of Israel, Christ, and the ecclesial community” (Medellín VIII, 6). This paper gives an account of this transformation, of the liberating paradigm characteristics, of the place occupied by catechism in that paradigm, and the almost thorough disappearance of the liberating catechesis from the offcial Latin American Church discourse.

TECHNOLOGICAL SYSTEM AND A PARISH COMMUNITY

The article considers the issue of how the Orthodox community as the most traditional social community adapts to the contemporary system of technologies. First, the author describes the phenomenon of technological system, identifies its main features, capabilities and limitations. Among the key features of the technological system, the article focuses on decentralization, weakening hierarchy and strengthening horizontal links, flexibility, self-regulation, adaptability, totality and the use of man as an algorithmically acting subject. The author emphasizes that the system approach in sociology plays an important role in the study of technological systems, and N. Luhmann’s approach is relevant for the study of parish communities, though the author mentions the limitations and critique of his works. The article examines contemporary church discourse about modernization of parish communities, which is also determined by the popularization of the views of Luhmann and other representatives of the system approach. The author also focuses on the most important question of the contemporary world under the technological development, which is the future of the mankind, and the article mentions concepts ‘cyborg’, ‘mutant’, ‘clone’, ‘virtual person’, and ‘posthuman’. The author makes a number of conclusions about how the parish community will react to the changes of the mankind, and what the most possible risks for the parish communities are considering such changes. Thus, the transformation of the parish community into a well-managed and well-functioning system or network means its rationalization, which at first seems necessary and solving urgent problems, but then one can see that it deprives the community of its vitality: a man finds himself in the community, but it does not seem to be Christian any more.