Christian Movement Research Articles

Implicación y afectividad en el ejercicio profesional del Trabajo Social y la Educación Social

When we talk about involvement and affectivity, we also talk about characteristics that are, a priori, intrinsic to the professional practice of social workers and social educators. These particularities are not integrated in the VERIFICA of university degrees, but they provide inputs to the professional performance of them. The use of these invisible competences that make up the curricula of the study plans are, however, visible in reality, as they help in the construction of the educational relationship with people at risk. The aim of this paper is to expose the theoretical and methodological origins that build both strategies and their implementation in daily professional practice with children, adolescents and young people at risk. The results deepen in a holistic theoretical understanding, which is determined by the helping relationship and the deepening in epistemological bases connected with Christian movements and community pedagogies of a preven- tive, participative, educational and communicative nature. The methodology also has an important impact, since the existence of isolated actions does not achieve the planned action objectives. Thus, the connection between theory and methodology constitutes a range of proposals and experiences to deepen itineraries, spaces where to implement competences and learning outcomes that guide through involvement and affectivity.

A Discursive Engagement of Ideological Issues in Ilaje Zionist Gospel Songs: Lekan Remilekun-Amos and Debo Ojubuyi as Exemplars

The ideological practices of Christian groups in Nigeria and beyond, as evident in their songs, have received considerable attention from scholars across disciplines, including linguists. However, the songs and music of the Ilaje Zionist Christian movement, which constitutes a major bloc in the Nigerian “white garment” Christian circle, have not received serious scholarly attention. To address this gap in the literature, this article explores ideological issues in Ilaje Zionist gospel songs. Two prominent male artistes within the Ilaje Zionist Christian movement are sampled as case studies. The theoretical framework for this study is critical discourse analysis with emphasis on Fairclough’s analysis on ideology and insights from Odebunmi’s notion of shared cultural knowledge. The study identifies the following ideological themes that reverberate in this Christian movement: life is a battle, human wickedness, life is a matter of time and season, you reap what you sow, and life is vanity. The findings reveal that there are areas of complementarity between the Yorùbá ideological standpoint and the Christian biblical principles about life, as evident in the analysed songs. While the songs of the Ilaje Zionist Christian movement are gospel in nature, they reveal the people’s ideological attachment to their indigenous roots as a sub-group of the Yorùbá.

Кому принадлежал криптоним Е.И.? (Вокруг одной рецензии А.А. Блока)

The article deals with the circumstances associated with the review of A.A. Blok (“Novyj Put’”, 1903, no. 5), devoted to the book “Gaplights” and Moods” (1903), published under the cryptonym E.I. To date, its author has not been identified. As a result of archival and source studies, the authorship was established: this is E.I. Arsenieva, wife of K.K. Arseniev, a well-known lawyer, literary critic, liberal figure, editor of the journal “Vestnik Evropy”, Solovyov’s correspondent. The article provides biographical information about the Arseniev family, including previously unknown ones. The charitable activities of Arsenieva and her daughter, the organizer of a women's community and a monastery, fit into the context of the social and Christian movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The paper presents information about the literary circle organized by Arsenieva, about its orientation on the spiritual heritage of Soloviev, as well as fragments of her correspondence with P.P. Pertsov and N.M. Minsky, which shed light on the circle of her contacts, as well as on the history of the emergence of Blok's review. In addition Arsenieva’s sketch “The Soul of the Poet-Philosopher (about V.S. Soloviev)” extracted from the book “Gaplights” and Moods” is published.

Purity Culture: Measurement and Relationship to Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance

Though discussed extensively in popular culture, purity culture, a conservative Christian movement that builds on traditional sexual ethics by proscribing additional rules and regulations to govern sexual behaviors and prioritize virginity, has scarcely been examined from a psychological perspective. The present study was designed to develop and validate a measure of purity culture, the Purity Culture Beliefs Scale (PCBS). We explore and confirm the factor structure of the PCBS and establish convergent and discriminant validity. We also demonstrate the utility of the scale showing incremental validity in the prediction of domestic violence myth acceptance. Convergent validity was established between purity culture and heterosexual scripts, sexual–spiritual integration, and shame. Discriminant validity was established between purity culture and manifestation of God in sexuality, sacred qualities of sexuality, Christian orthodoxy, and affect. The PCBS was also used to find that purity culture beliefs predicted domestic violence myth acceptance above and beyond the constructs of hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, and traditional sex roles. The introduction of the PCBS allows for the empirical study of the internalization and consequences of purity culture, which may inform interventions around Christian engagement with the topics of gender and sexuality.

Theological Genealogies of Modernity: An Introduction

Theological Genealogies of Modernity: An Introduction

And Hope Does Not Disappoint Us: Pauline Hope and the Lamb’s War

Using the framework of a theologically-informed commentary on the Christian Scriptures, this essay will explore the Pauline concept of hope as well as the imagery of the lamb’s war. With a narrative approach, themes of eschatology will also inform the Quaker understanding of the Lamb’s war as a central metaphor in the ecclesial movement. Expanding from Paul’s words in Romans 5 and the Johannine language of the Lamb’s War in Revelation 17, this paper seeks to hermeneutically explore how hope is an essential truth necessary for the future of the Christian movement.

Pentecostalism and heteronormative God-talk in modern South Africa: A decolonial approach

This article reflects on the use of heteronormative God-talk within African Pentecostalism in modern South Africa. God-talk has often been used as a tool to push specific socio-political ideologies within the global community and in discourses about gender and sexuality. In Africa, these discourses are often characterised by debates and influenced by normative, moral religious and Christian views. Research indicates that African Pentecostalism is one of the fastest-growing Christian movements in the world and it has great influence on sexual moral discourses. The advent of neo-Pentecostalism in South Africa was marked with the abuse of God-talk. Different media platforms reported on the commercialisation and abuse of religion as Pentecostal prophets used God-talk often disguised as prophecy to perform unusual practices and to make religious remarks regarding gender identities and sexualities. This forced and reinforced the hegemony of heterosexuality in society. Therefore, the decolonial motif was applied in this article to reflect on the coloniality of power embodied in God-talk. Decoloniality can be a tool that can reveal both the liberating and oppressive elements in the use of God-talk in South Africa.Intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary implications: The decolonial move here was motivated by the progressive post-heteronormative South African paradigm. The article used the interdisciplinary approach, namely socio-political sciences and Missiology to challenge the abuse of God-talk within contemporary Pentecostalism in South Africa. Positive use of God-talk can liberate both the church and society by transforming the traditional heteronormative views and by empowering congregants irrespective of their gender or sexuality. Such transformation can be possible if post-heteronormativity can be embraced by both church and society.

The use of anointed products during Covid-19 lockdown: An African Pentecostal spirituality experience

The use of anointed products such as anointing oil and anointing water within the broader Pentecostal movement in world Christianity has been documented in previous studies. Traditionally, the demand for these products is based on the quest to receive healing and deliverance from sicknesses, barrenness, witchcraft, and so forth. The products are also used to access job placement, promotion, a house, a car, and other material possessions. This paper worked within African Pentecostal spirituality of experience to explore the use of anointed products during Covid-19 lockdown. Regardless of many perceptions and misconceptions about the anointed products, they were used as a point of contact during the Covid-19 lockdown. The paper used Apostle Mohlala Ministries in Cape Town, South Africa as a case study to explore the use of these products during Covid-19 lockdown. The argument in this paper is that these products were used as a substitute for spiritual service during the Covid-19 lockdown. In other words, anointed products became a point of contact when members of these ministries could not meet physically during the Covid-19 lockdown. This changes how Pentecostal scholars study anointed products within the broader Pentecostal movement. Despite their challenges such as commercialization and other abuses, anointed products become a point of contact in Pentecostal spirituality of experience. For the believers that could not attend church during the Covid-19 lockdown, anointed products became a medium to connect spiritually.

Trad nationalist a/effects

Trad nationalist a/effects

Fulfilling Prophecies on China's Ethnic Frontiers in Southeast Asia: Peripheral Peoples’ Encounter with Christianity in the Twentieth Century

AbstractAt the turn of the twentieth century, an enchanted response to Christianity among minority peoples on China's ethnic frontiers in Southeast Asia caught Western missionaries by surprise. This paper explores the historical circumstances and the dynamics of the mass Christian conversion among those hill peoples. Far from a cultural defeat and a grudging surrender to a conquering foreign faith, their embrace of Christianity was an exuberant, communal rush toward fulfillment of indigenous prophecies of redemption. Unlike the civilizing project of the modern state—a coercive mandate of assimilation and ideological transformation—the Christian movement offered them a choice and allowed them to channel their desperate prophecies of the past toward a reformist messianism. With its war on local shamanism, rituals of courtship, and inherited (and often inebriated) rhythms of ethnic life, Christian conversion was ostensibly a break with indigenous traditions. However, it also ironically fortified the ethnic identities of the peripheral peoples—especially through the creation of the written script for the purpose of Bible translation—and generated fresh resiliency for their material and cultural survival.

To the Farthest Gulf for the Wealth of India: Firsthand Experiences of American Travelers in India

My essay analyzes the experiences of Americans in India from the colonial period to the emergence of the United States as a nation in the 18th century and further into the nineteenth century when the nation consolidated its identity through commerce, religion and race discourse. I trace these three moments in the joint history of America and India through the life and travel writings of a few key figures. Through the letters of Nathaniel Higginson, the Salem-born man who eventually became Governor of Madras in 1692, we can trace the social and political dealings of a New England based administrator in the colonial era. In the second period, in the aftermath of the American revolution, there is a great interest in India from a newly formed United States, that can be seen in the exploits of American travelers such as Bartholomew Burges. In the nineteenth century there was a further escalation of the ties between India and America that is seen in the story of Calvin Smith, a civil war veteran who traveled to India and worked in the then popular ice trade, sharing his perspectives and experiences of living in India for five years. Finally, in the mid to late 19th century, evangelical America and the Liberal Christian movement spread Christianity to other nations through missions, reaching India.

The Impact of Transmigration on The Development of Christianization in West Pasaman (1953-1980)

Abstract : This study reveals the social history of transmigration's effects on the chirstianization of pasaman. This chirstianization took place in 1953, for the existence of christians who have settled in about the 20th century. These christians came from java, and it's mainly in transmigration resettlement areas. In progress until the end of 1980, chirstian activity look dinamics, so that christian could engage in various activity of life. The study uses historical science research methods of heuristic, critisim, interpretation, and historiography. Studies have found that, the social movement of christian resulted from transmigration trough all walks of life in the pasaman. The christian movement in the pasaman included education, place of worship, youth and art, and socioeconomic society. A propesive action is that without resorting to anarchy in a persuasive or inviting approach. This effrot has brough various froms of infrastructure to all sector of life.Keywords : Impact, Transmigration,Christianization, Pasaman.

Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, by Gina Zurlo

<i>Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe</i>, by Gina Zurlo

Identity, Belonging, and Christian Community in Protestant Responses to the Aryan Paragraph in Nazi Germany

Examining Christianity and its representative denominations and groups in Nazi Germany has led scholars to try to construct how these Christian groups interacted with a government which institutionalized the death of millions. The focus of past scholarship has centered on debates over the extent to which institutional Protestant Christianity and individual Protestants opposed Adolf Hitler’s regime and Nazism. The focus of this thesis examines how four Protestants or Protestant groups employed definitions of what made one a Jewish Christian, what being Jewish meant, and who was included within the larger Christian community in their 1933 responses to the Aryan paragraph. These responses originated from the Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the General Synod of the Protestant Church of the Old Prussian Union, the faculty of theology at the University of Marburg, and the German Christian movement. Though each response to the Aryan paragraph utilized a unique definition of Jewish Christians and Christian community, they all reveal a Protestant church unprepared to answer the questions of belonging and identity posed by its society. In their search for a unified answer to the question of whether a baptized Jew belongs in the Protestant church, Protestants displayed that they had no unified answer. The consequences of not belonging in Nazi Germany could and did lead to discrimination, persecution, and genocide.

Performing Power in Nigeria: Identity, Politics, and Pentecostalism

Performing Power in Nigeria: Identity, Politics, and Pentecostalism

Mission, Charity and Ecumenical Links in the Baltics: the RSKhD and Its Contacts with Lutheran Relief Organisations in the USSR

The Russian Student Christian Movement (RSKhD), one of the leading Christian movements of the twentieth century, became the basis for a new Orthodox identity in the religious revival of Russian emigration in the 1920s. Recent studies have given this movement a clearer shape, focusing on the personalities of its participants, their missionary and educational work, and their international support for Russian emigrants. Our article focuses on the RSKhD in the Baltics, which remains an understudied part of the movement. This article highlights the RSKhD’s links with Protestant organisations assisting Christians in the USSR in the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the role of the mediator between Protestants and the RSKhD, Vladimir Fedorovich Buchholz, whose archival materials from the Estonian National Archives have remained largely unexplored. This study contributes to the understanding of Russian emigration and Estonian religious history through the lens of transnational religious influence.

Pentecostalism in the ‘New Luanda’: Urbanity, Imaginaries, Aspirations and Resistance

In the ‘New Angola’ top-down governing and post-war reconstruction project, ‘New Luanda’ has emerged as a powerful social imaginary. It represents an aspiration, projecting desired ways of life, shaping developmental narratives, and forming the matrix for the moral and sociopolitical horizon of the desired future city, and more broadly, for Angolan citizens. This article approaches ‘New Luanda’ from the Pentecostal perspective and includes Pentecostalism as an important part of the ‘New Luanda’ imaginaire. Beyond the Christian movement, this article frames Pentecostalism as both an urban practice and an urban formation, suggesting the heuristic potential of the analytical Pentecostalism-Urbanity-State governance triangle for studying social change and non-compliant socio-spiritual worlds in contemporary Angola. Pentecostalism is claimed to be one of the social formations, next to various social movements active in contemporary Luanda, that exercise particular forms of compliance or disruption and rebellion against dominating and imposed governing structures in Angola. As such, Pentecostalism becomes an exemplary study case of a resistance practice towards the state’s governing policies. This article claims that Pentecostalism should be analyzed as an embodiment of the grass-root ideals of social discord, rebellion, and local anti-hegemonic governance modes in Angola. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork with two Pentecostal churches, the Bom Deus Church and the Assembly of God of Maculusso, conducted in Angola and beyond (Cape Vert, Brazil, the UK, and Portugal), between 2013 and 2023.

Seeing Light: A Critical Enquiry into the Origins of Resurrection Faith by Peter Gant

Reviewed by: Seeing Light: A Critical Enquiry into the Origins of Resurrection Faith by Peter Gant Glenn B. Siniscalchi peter gant, Seeing Light: A Critical Enquiry into the Origins of Resurrection Faith (Durham, UK: Sacristy Press, 2019). Pp. xii + 302. Paper $31.80. Peter Gant’s thought-provoking book will be of interest to biblical scholars and fundamental theologians whose area of specialization is dedicated to historical-critical exegesis and the earliest Christian claim that “God raised Jesus from the dead.” The first half of the book comprehensively covers the relevant aspects of the ancient Jewish matrix leading up to the emergence of Christianity, including the multiple understandings of immortality (which is consistent with and reinforced by the hellenization of Palestine), Sheol, angelo-morphic visions, rewards and punishments for the dead, the notion of resurrection itself, exaltation, and heavenly redeemer figures and titles. One should agree with G. in affirming that “Jesus’ followers were able to draw on a wide variety of existing Second Temple afterlife beliefs” (p. 19). Gant’s lucid coverage of the wisdom traditions and cultic practices of Judaism sets the stage for the possibility of many nuanced interpretations of the NT evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. He exposits the embedded testimonies and cultural factors that are behind and underneath Paul’s writings and the canonical Gospels. These testimonies include [End Page 158] “a short, powerful and multiply attested formulaic assertion to the effect that God has raised Jesus from the dead” (p. 20). Other considerations include “pre-Pauline christological hymns . . . that speak powerfully of the heavenly exaltation of Jesus. . . . There is also an early Aramaic prayer for the coming or return of Jesus from heaven. And, most especially, there is a very early tradition concerning appearances of the risen Jesus to his disciples, a tradition differing significantly from the much later appearance stories in the Gospels” (p. 20). G.’s text is especially helpful in distinguishing the earliest evidence (i.e., the after-death appearances of Jesus) from later understandings that developed in the first twenty years of the Christian movement. Gant’s assessment of the understandings of the religious background and the NT evidence is fairly presented and consistently informative. Although G. does not completely discount interpretations of the resurrection that resonate with most of the agreed-upon evidence in contemporary studies (see, e.g., the proposals set forth by senior scholars such as Gerald O’Collins and N. T. Wright), he settles for a reconstruction that many critics will want to dispute. Introducing his willingness to push forward a newer depiction of Easter faith, G. believes that “key texts such as Daniel 12:2–3 are capable of more than one interpretation. Even if it is true that ‘resurrection’ without an empty grave would have been unthinkable, allowance must still be made for the possibility of innovation on the part of Jesus’ earliest followers” (p. 197). Consequently, G. maintains that the earliest evidence points in favor of the earliest Christian belief in the exaltation of Jesus (see Phil 2:5–11). However, other believers said that Jesus was raised from the dead. More importantly, these distinct beliefs were not necessarily complementary to one another (p. 262). According to G., the latter point highlights the uncertainty and pluriform ways in which evidence can be assessed. A second controversial point is the irrelevance of the empty tomb of Jesus for resurrection faith. The final controversial contention is that modern scientific worldviews will preclude the possibility and defensibility of miracles. It is unfortunate that G. repeatedly takes this assumption for granted and never explains to the reader why anyone should accept it. Part of the problem is that miracles are defined as divine interference with the laws of nature, but this outdated definition indicates that G. is unaware of the scholarship that discusses miracles in ways that are congruent with science and its relationship to philosophy. Since the nature of the evidence is uncertain, allowing for many interpretations in light of a modern scientific worldview, one should merely resort to theological language for understanding the origins of Easter faith: “resurrection faith emerged as a theological interpretation of the totality of the history of Israel, the life...

Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure by David Wenham

Reviewed by: Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure by David Wenham Glenn B. Siniscalchi david wenham, Jesus in Context: Making Sense of the Historical Figure (Cambridge Studies in Religion, Philosophy, and Society; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021). Pp. xii + 249. Paper $29.99. David Wenham’s evenhanded, concise, and accessible book is dedicated to the basic themes of contemporary research on the historical Jesus. It is strongly recommended for introductory-level college courses that are related to historical approaches to the NT writings. One of the best aspects of Jesus in Context is the comprehensive coverage of most of the pertinent subjects in the current state of historical Jesus research. Whether it is the broad contours of the Roman Empire or the Jewish matrix from which Jesus and his first followers emerged in ancient Israel, there is plenty of informative and digestible material in this book. Wenham’s impartial coverage of the current findings of Jesus research is both ecumenically sensitive and consistent with the presuppositions of Christian theology. In this way, W.’s text subtly reports that christological orthodoxy and many well-established conclusions about the historical figure of Jesus can now be seen as comrades-in-arms. W. is keen on informing the reader where the consensus of NT scholars stand with respect to Jesus and his self-understanding; his teachings, actions, and miracles; and the immediate impact that he made on his followers. One might profit from understanding the political and socioreligious contexts in which Jesus lived (part 1) and some of the major themes that characterized his sayings and ministry (part 2). Toward the beginning of Jesus in Context, W. discusses the literary sources that ancient historians commonly use to study Jesus, the geographical and archaeological discoveries that seem pertinent for the relevant contemporary studies, and the history of ancient Israel and the Roman Empire up to and including the first century of the Common Era. [End Page 168] Wenham’s text is also excellent with regard to the fundamental reliability of the canonical Gospels. He rightly reports that form criticism, redaction criticism, the fascination with the second-century apocryphal Gospels, and the notion of oral traditions in ancient Palestine are not relevant enough concerns to lead one to conclude that the Christian Gospels are unreliable. Moreover, the current state of NT scholarship is not on the side of the revision-ist views of Rudolf Bultmann (who was known for separating the theology of the canonical Gospels from whatever history might lie behind them) or the older nineteenth-century scholars who saw the Gospels as fabricated myths. In the words of W., “The skepticism that ends up with scholars concluding or implying that much gospel tradition is the creation of the early Christian church rather than Jesus is curious, to say the least. It is much more likely that the main creative genius reflected in the gospel stories and teaching was the person who inspired the Christian movement, rather than . . . his followers” (p. 76). Rather, most of the newest questers in the guild endorse the historicity of Jesus and his various teachings about the reign of God, his baptism by John the Baptist, his wondrous miracles, and his resurrection from the dead. Recognizing that Paul’s letters were not understood as inspired texts by the original recipients, W. pointedly brings home the relevance of the apostle Paul for Jesus studies: “Both these early letters and others that followed, . . . give a lot of evidence about what the first Christians said and believed about Jesus. The letters are not telling the stories of Jesus, but are dealing with issues that had arisen in the churches; their references to Jesus are all the more revealing for being incidental” (p. 47). One of W.’s areas of special interest is that the apostle Paul and the four Gospel writers were not literarily dependent on one another. Despite that barrage of technical publications on early christology and historical criticism, W.’s book should be warmly welcomed as one of the best introductory texts on the current state of the basic questions on the historical Jesus and the reliability of the NT. In terms of accessibility and depth of...

Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds, The Other Black Church. Alternative Christian Movements and the Struggle for Black Freedom

Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds, The Other Black Church. Alternative Christian Movements and the Struggle for Black Freedom