Experience Religion Research Articles

Motivations for the Demand for Religious Tourism: The Case of the Pilgrimage of the Virgin of Montserrat in Ecuador

Religious tourism is one of the oldest forms of mobility for travel. This study aims at validating the motivational dimensions of demand in religious tourism. The present research was carried out with tourists who had attended the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Montserrat in the city of Montecristi (Ecuador), an important tourist destination that stands out for its culture and intangible heritage. This quantitative study had a sample of 298 valid questionnaires that were analyzed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results identified five motivational dimensions: experience belief, experience religion, social exploration, escape, and shopping. The results will serve as a guide for private companies to develop products from religious tourism. Likewise, the research contributes significantly to the academic literature on religious tourism in emerging destinations.

Pentecostal theological education and its thematic nuclei and dialogue with Theoambientology

The secularized world opens space for human supremacy and its rights. The human being in its self-sufficiency is complete. This feeling of denial of God arising from modern rationalism was confronted by Pentecostalism, the religion of experience, that which embraces the spiritual through the outpouring of power and brings God and his Spirit to the center of all things. Pentecostal theologians hold that Pentecostal theology has the potential to unite the dialogue between the religious phenomenon, the orthodoxy of faith, and praxis, that is, orthopraxy because these pillars prepare it for the different plural contexts of the contemporary 21st century. Our proposal is that this potential is channeled to a broader sense of mission and for both propose openness to the environmental issue as one of the foundations for missionary practice. In this sense, we argue that, for the present day, Pentecostal theological education and this includes mission, can review their theological teaching programs including in their core programs or curriculum the knowledge of environmental education, considering the theological milestones of the Transforming mission. Such a review matters in what we are calling Theoambientology.

Gender-based violence, religion and forced displacement: Protective and risk factors

IntroductionThis paper examines the relationship between gender-based violence (GBV) and religion in a range of forced displacement contexts. While it has been acknowledged that religion frequently shapes experiences of GBV survivors, little is known about the influences of religion on GBV experiences in forced displacement and its potential role in strengthening interventions.MethodsUtilizing empirical evidence from 58 interviews from the SEREDA project with forced migrants in Sweden, UK, Turkey and Australia, we outline the interactions between religious resources and GBV in migrants' forced displacement experiences. We conceptualise religious resources as comprising religious ideas, religious practices, religious experience and religious organization.ResultsSurvivors talked about religion spontaneously when responding to questions relating to resilience, coping mechanisms, and risk factors. Religion acted as both a “protective” and “risk” factor for GBV experiences. Religious beliefs were assets in coping with GBV experiences, but also contributed to creating an environment in which violence was normalized, exposing women to further harm. Religious practices supported survivors emotionally to cope with GBV but also some practices posed risks. Religious organizations in many cases served as a lifeline for many displaced women, offering practical and emotional support, however religious leaders at times encouraged survivors to stay in abusive relationships. Religious experiences “empowered” and “disempowered” survivors across the processes of forced migration.DiscussionWe demonstrate the relevance and importance of acknowledging the role of religion in the experiences of GBV in forced displacement. Our analysis advances the understanding of religious resources as both protective and risk factors that affect forced migrants' experiences of GBV over time and place. We suggest a way forward for practitioners and researchers to account for the roles of religion in experiences of GBV and forced displacement, as opportunities and barriers to GBV prevention and response, and to work with religious leaders and local faith communities to strengthen protection of survivors.

The Lived Religion of Two Daimista Women in the Context of the Transnationalization of Santo Daime: Notes about a Feminized Religion

In this article, I discuss the experience of two daimista female leaders located in The Netherlands and in Japan. The reason why their stories are here is because of the prominence of Santo Daime in these countries per world region (Europe and Asia), where the leadership of these women have great projection in the daimista transnational field. The data discussed here were collected through in-depth interviews by using the life history technique. The objective was to analyze how these women experience this religion outside its context of origin. Their religious background appeared as something very important to their lived religion, showing cultural elements with which Santo Daime ends up having to negotiate in the religious global flows. Also, it seems that the feminization of Santo Daime is not only about women’s entrance in this religion, more than that, it is about a feminized way to live and experience religion. Over all, there is a reflexive relationship between Santo Daime and these women because their lives are changed by this religion just as their agency contributes to changes in the core of it and its transnationalization process.

A TASTE FOR THE INFINITE: WHAT PHILOSOPHY OF BIOLOGY CAN TELL US ABOUT RELIGIOUS BELIEF

AbstractAccording to Friedrich Schleiermacher, religiosity is rooted in feeling (Gefühl). As a result of our engagement with the world, on which we depend and which we can influence, we have both a sense of dependence and of freedom. Schleiermacher speculated that a sense of absolute dependence in reflective beings with self‐consciousness (human beings) gave rise to religion. Using insights from contemporary philosophy of biology and cognitive science, I seek to naturalize Schleiermacher's ideas. I moreover show that this naturalization is in line with Schleiermacher's outlook on biology, as he already had evolutionary considerations in mind when he wrote the Christian Faith (1830). While Schleiermacher rejects natural theology in a narrow sense (proofs for the existence of God), his project is natural theological in a broader sense, as it roots religion in experiences that we can examine using naturalistic theories.

Ideological Preferences and Evolution of the Religious Cleavage in Chile, 1998–2014

This article analyses how religious orientations and ideological preferences have coevolved in Chilean society between 1998 and 2014. On the basis of the premise that people experience religion heterogeneously, we develop four hypotheses that describe possible changes in the association between these two variables. Using data from yearly national probability surveys and multinomial regression models, we obtain two general results. First, we observe a general process of political “dealignment,” whereby the proportion of the population, religious and irreligious, that ceases to identify with ideological positions strongly increases. Second, the magnitude of this dealignment is moderated by religious denomination and frequency of church attendance. Irreligious people have ceased to identify with ideological positions at higher rates than Evangelicals and Catholics, whereas frequently attending Catholics have become more reluctant than nonattending Catholics to abandon their traditional right-wing preferences. These results imply that as Catholics have reduced their size in the population, they have also become more politically heterogeneous.

Spirituality and religion in experiences of Italian American daughters grieving their fathers.

Spirituality and religion in experiences of Italian American daughters grieving their fathers.

Perilaku Keagamaan Santri Lanjut Usia(LANSIA) di Pondok Pesantren Sepuh Masjid Agung Payaman Magelang

This article aims to study the religious behavior of elderly studentsin Islamic boarding school of Sepuh Payaman Magelang. analysis in this study is through the fivedimensions; religious belief (ideological), religious practice (ritualistic), religious knowledge (intellectual), religious appreciation (experiential), and experience religion (consequential). The results of this study showed that the ideological dimension embodied in the belief of the pillars of faith in the form of full submission to God as the One single, unified set of all creatures on lafadz tahlil "laa ilaha illa Allah". Second, ritualistic dimension embodied in the practice of religious activities both mahdloh and ghairu mahdlah. Third, Intellectual manifests in learning activities and assessment of students using the book of al-ibriz li Ma'rifah Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Aziz by KH. Bisri Mustafa. The method of the study is "eavesdrop" or listening carefully. Various activities undertaken by the elderly students is serveas a provisioninthe hereafter. Fourth, experiential dimensions embodied in belief and consciousness that hereafter is is the goal of this life. Fifth, consequential dimension manifests in elderly students that all daily activities are always supervised by God and recorded by the angels.

The ‘contextual setting approach’: a contribution to understanding how young people view and experience religion and education in Europe

This publication focuses on pupils' attitudes towards religion in school, having specific regard to four key issues of the religious pedagogical debate: the role of religion in school, the content of learning, teachers' religiosity and learning models. It draws on the results of the qualitative study within the international research project REDCo: ‘Religion in Education. A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries?’ carried out in eight European countries. Based on a European comparison, in terms of the four issues identified above, we aim to interpret the findings by introducing a ‘contextual setting approach’. The assumption is that the similarities and differences among the pupils who contributed to a qualitative study (over 1000) are highly influenced by the particular contextual setting of religious education – that is the way in which religion/religious education is shaped according to national/regional traditions, structures, etc. – and that this is the case, especially in terms of their attitudes towards religion in the school environment.

‘Spiritual Science‘ and Conversion Experience in Edwardian Methodism: The Example of West Yorkshire

Victorian Methodism was a religion of experience. More specifically, it was a religion of conversion experience. A personal, attested, conversion experience, undergone in a chapel, a mission hall or even the home, was an essential prerequisite of becoming a Methodist. Subsequently relived and dissected in a class meeting, it was a vital part of living as a Methodist. Finally, recounted and honoured in circuit obituaries and station records, it was posthumous testimony of the grace and fellowship accorded to an individual who had been a Methodist. For all that, it was a curiously unsystematised aspect of nineteenth-century Methodism. Contemporary doctrine, custom and practice taught that conversion experience was something which could, at least in theory, happen to anyone, at any time, in any place. It did not discriminate between social classes, between the sexes, even between the mature and the juvenile. Moreover it required, at least in principle, no act

The Mystic of Feeling: A Study in Rajneesh's Religion of Experience

The Mystic of Feeling: A Study in Rajneesh's Religion of Experience

Book Review: The Religion of Experience

Book Review: The Religion of Experience