Faith Movement Research Articles

El estadio religioso en la obra de Sören Kierkegaard o la autenticidad de la existencia

The Danish philosopher and theologian Sören Kierkegaard finds it imperative to delve deeper into the authenticity of existence by studying the three existential stages that make up our existential development. For the Dane, the stage of greatest authenticity is none other than the third and last, called: religious stage. To access it, it is necessary to recognize one’s own subjective finitude, precariousness and ignorance in the face of the infinity, omnipotence and absoluteness that the figure of God represents; only within the framework of this metaphysical overflow managed through faith can the individual make the “leap” or access an authentic life as long as he recognizes the existential paradox that surrounds him. To do so, he analyzes the biblical figure of Abraham as the epitome of the Christian faith as an individual who renounces reason and through the movement of faith allows us to explain why the religious stage is the most complex and at the same time the most authentic to which an individual can aspire

Strategies of Adapting to the COVID-19 Pandemic among Contemporary Pagan Groups in Kraków, Poland

In the following article, I study strategies of adapting to the pandemic-induced restrictions among four different Pagan groups that operate in the city of Kraków––three represent the Slavic Native Faith movement and one modern Druidry. My conclusions are drawn from ongoing field research among contemporary Pagans of Kraków. The ritual modifications developed by the researched groups can be divided into three strategies: first, adjusting to the restrictions during actual rituals onsite; second, relocating rituals to the online sphere; and third, refraining from official public rituals, with secret small rituals instead. The first strategy seems to be crucial for my respondents, as they perceived only the rituals onsite to have “energy,” essential to the quality of the ceremony. The two other strategies were considered as a half measure.

The political turn in American Pentecostalism: prophets, healers, businessmen, and the lure of Christian America

ABSTRACT This paper looks at the role of independent and interdenominational Pentecostal actors in the politicisation of American Pentecostalism between the 1950s and 1970s. It lays particular stress on a nexus of three tightly interrelated groups: the deliverance movement (with emphasis on Oral Roberts and Gordon Lindsay); the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship, International; and the Word of Faith movement (with emphasis on Kenneth Copeland). The paper reveals a striking diversity of mid-century political postures and positions, but documents a growing shift towards political networking, patriotic themes and activities, and Christian Americanism within these quarters throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, culminating in open political engagement. That outcome is epitomised by Copeland’s fervent endorsement of President Richard Nixon in a sequence of prophetic messages that prefigured, in striking ways, the ardent embrace of Donald Trump by New Apostolic Reformation prophets almost a half-century later.

Søren Kierkegaard’s “Man in Search of God” as a Cultural and Anthropological Type

Introduction. This article attempts to present Søren Kierkegaard’s “man in search of God” as a cultural and anthropological type of a person that shapes their self-cognition independently in the dimension of their existence.Methodology and sources. The following sources are referred to in this article: “Fear and Trembling” and “The Gospel of Sufferings” by Søren Kierkegaard; works of ante-revolutionary and modern Russian authors L.I. Shestov, N.A. Berdyaev, B.E. Bykhovsky, P.P. Gidenko, S.S. Khoruzhy, E.N. Levicheva, V.A. Podoroga, V.D. Gubin, L.A. Klyukina; texts by researchers foreign to Russia, such as U. Hubben, T.V. Schitsova. To research and describe the experience of a person’s self-actualization in Kierkegaard’s “movement of faith”, the ideas of M.K. Mamardashvili’s phenomenological approach have been employed.Results and discussion. This article demonstrates that it is not faith but search for faith that is the aim of Kierkegaard’s philosophy and meaning of his existence. This is because only in the “movement of faith” is a person able to actualize their inner self in their outer self, or face their own self that searches for God. For Kierkegaard, the example of this is Jesus Christ. With the help of Christ as symbol, a person is capable of comprehending the soul’s immortality as the metaphysical dimension of a human being.In the context of Mamardashvili’s phenomenological approach, the author of this articles shows that understanding Christ as the symbol of a person’s self-actualization and selffulfillment can be interpreted as the experience of distinguishing between the symbols of time and infinity in consciousness. This very reality of distinguishing between time and infinity and having to choose between them is referred to in this article as “dynamic infinity”, which is equivalent to Kierkegaard’s notions of “movement of faith” and “moment”.Conclusion. The author concludes that in post-modern world, when a typical person is experiencing acutely the loss of fundamental autonomous individuality while the erosion of personal origin in culture is leading to dehumanization and disintegration of society, Søren Kierkegaard’s “man in search of God” can become a reference point for developing an individual thinking and integral personality.

The Worldview of the Word of Faith Movement: Eden Redeemed , by Mikael Stenhammar

The Worldview of the Word of Faith Movement: Eden Redeemed , by Mikael Stenhammar

"God, Have Mercy on Me, a Sinner"

This paper examines the question of soteriological doubt within the movement of faith, as aesthetically represented by Johannes Vermeer’s painting The Allegory of Faith and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Lutheran cantata Mein Herze schwimmt im Blut (BWV 199). In placing these two artistic works in dialogue with each other, we will articulate the triangulating movement between the soul, faith, and the crucified Christ within the wider circulating movement of salvific action. Therefore, this paper is divided into three sections: 1.) the acknowledgement of sin, subsequent remorse, and utter soteriological doubt, expressed by Vermeer’s representation of original sin and spiritual despair and by Bach’s expression of the emotional weight of sin and guilt; 2.) the triangulation in the middle of Vermeer’s painting and the circulation in the middle of Bach’s cantata; 3.) the destruction of sin and the consoling hope in personal salvation, expressed by Vermeer’s depiction of Christ’s triumph over sin and by Bach’s depiction of the soul’s elation and ultimate reconciliation with God. Finally, we will conclude by mapping these three sections in the movement of faith onto the three spiritual stages of purification, illumination, and union as described in the Christian mystical tradition.

Healing for the Soul: Richard Smallwood, the Vamp, and the Gospel Imagination, by Braxton D. Shelley

<i>Healing for the Soul: Richard Smallwood, the Vamp, and the Gospel Imagination</i>, by Braxton D. Shelley

Gläubige Zeiten: Religiosität im Dritten Reich

Over the past two decades, nobody has done more to transform our understanding of German Protestantism during the Nazi era than the Berlin-based historian Manfred Gailus. Beginning with his 2001 study, Protestantismus und Nationalsozialismus, and continuing through a number of monographs and edited volumes, Gailus has systematically revised traditional understandings of German Protestantism in the Nazi period as defined by religious resistance against the regime. Instead, Gailus has directed our attention to influential areas of consensus between church and state, such as common opposition to the political Left and Weimar liberalism, and mutual commitment to German nationalism. He is thus well placed to have written this short and thought-provoking survey summarizing the findings of recent scholarship on religious belief and identity in Nazi Germany. Unlike much of Gailus’s previous work, Gläubige Zeiten represents an effort to write history at the macro rather than the micro level. Eschewing the regional and biographical approaches taken in earlier monographs, Gailus examines the entire territory of the German Reich, analysing not only both major Christian confessions, but also the contested and ambiguous worlds of Nazi religiosity, in addition to minor ethnic-national (völkisch) religious groups such as German Faith Movement. Gläubige Zeiten covers the twelve years of the Nazi dictatorship, devoting the final of its four sections to discussion of the war years and the Holocaust. Its thematic focus specifically addresses the theme of religiosity, privileging belief and mentality over the institutional church-state relations traditionally central to much scholarship in this field.

Understanding Diakonia in World Christian Churches : Focusing on Methodist, Baptist and Reformed Church

The word ‘diakonia’ is a Greek word widely used in the secular society of the Greeks. This word, therefore, appears many times in the New Testament. Today, the term diakonia is frequently used to mean ‘social ministry’, ‘social action’, ‘social engagement’, ‘social responsibility’ or ‘social work’. In order to study the understanding of diakonia of the World Christian Churches. I investigated how World Christian Churches understand diakonia. In particular, the study explored three main Christian Churches: Methodist, Baptist and Reformed Church. The Methodist movement seems to be a faith movement to achieve holistic salvation by socially linking evangelicalism and pietism. These values are an important source of how Methodism responds to the social issues of each age. Baptists have been making social efforts since the early Baptist World Congress with their interest in race, justice, human rights and religious freedom. They also seem to be making efforts for more professional and concrete diakonia practices using the aid organization of their congress. It appears that these organizations are engaged in ecumenical activities that are beyond Baptist churches, cooperating with other organizations and religions. The WCRC raised interest in the Reformed Church’s attitude to the world’s structural poverty issue. This church seems to be making an effort for a diakonia approach with interest in the definition of global economic injustice and ecological destruction. These world churches have continued their diakonia efforts, dealing with social needs and issues based on their beliefs and theology, although their emphasis on the realm and scope of diakonia practices are slightly different.

Faith and Reason: An Inquiry into the Concept of Faith in Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling

Faith is often accused of being irrational and considered lower than reason because it is not objective and universal. In other words, at a practical level, believers cannot always obey God’s commands communicated in their inwardness. However, they must always be subject to the demands of a universal and objective reason. This elaboration attempts to counter this assumption departing from the description that Kierkegaard presented in his work, Fear and Trembling. There, Kierkegaard states that a single individual believer is higher than the ethical-rational demands that bind him. In other words, the purpose of this text is to show that faith has its rationality and is not subject to reason. Therefore, through the textual analysis method of Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, this paper would like to analyze the constitutive elements of faith, how they work, and why faith is not subject to ratio. The point of view used in this elaboration is Kierkegaardian subjectivity. The analysis finds that the constitutive elements of faith are anxiety, courage, passion, the strength of the absurd, and hope (as components of faith), which need to be carried out with a double movement of faith.

Religious Actors for Gender Equality – SDG 5: A Reflection on the Side by Side Faith Movement for Gender Justice

Abstract The article reflects on the practical experience of the Side by Side Faith Movement for Gender Justice (SbS): faith actors often play a decisive role in the formation of values, concepts and beliefs that determine how women and men see themselves and each other and how they thus practise gender equality – or not. In both cases, faith actors are key partners in the transformation of ideas and practices towards achieving gender equality – SDG 5. SbS began in 2015 in response to a gradual dominance by restrictive faith actors’ voices in the international debate on gender. Faith-based development agencies and local faith actors already involved in pro-gender-equality practice began building national chapters of SbS to mobilise, organise and strategise our work and have it reflected in international advocacy – including for a change of policy towards improved engagement with religious actors. The article presents this experience in the practical realm of “Community”, whilst the progress made in that realm can only be understood with its intimate link to the realm of “Cosmology”: it is because of what we believe as faith actors that we do what we do. Therefore, interventions for change (Agenda 2030) must be rooted in people’s values, convictions and beliefs if the change is to be sustainable.

The Positive Confession Movement and its influence and legacy on the Neo-Charismatic Movement

This article focuses on one of the branches of Charismatic Movement known as Positive Confession or Word of Faith Movement. The movement is called with some other names due to its emphasis on faith confession or claiming by faith whatever one needs, especially in areas of wealth and health. The fundamental message of the movement is that a believer has the power or authority to unshackle himself from sickness, poverty, or any negative circumstances that may steal away happiness and peace. The intention is to trace its influence on the modern NeoCharismatic Movement. To understand the movement fully, research has been done on its history, identity, message, dogma, and why its dogma is attractive to Neo-Charismatic Movement. The basic reason for this African proclivity to Positive Confession Movement is that Africans look for the faith that can enhance their privileges and power. The tenets of faith for this movement are identified as its main distinctive, therefore making some impression that the movement is a credible alternative for people in poverty, seeking some way out this dire situation of lacking material goods. The conclusion captures some positives and weaknesses in the movement. An appeal is made for the movement to draw the balance between its prosperity gospel and the evangelical values of commitment, character, sacrifice, holiness, and contentment.

Factors Influencing Eritreans Joining the Pentecostal Faith Movement

Abstract Pentecostalism, a relatively new faith movement that emphasizes Christian religious movement, including speaking in tongues, baptism in the Holy Spirit, and exercising all spiritual gifts (Allison 2021), is subject to various persecutions in the independent state of Eritrea, located in the Horn of Africa. Despite the unfriendly environment Pentecostalism encounters, it is beginning to attract many followers. This qualitative research study investigates factors influencing Eritrean Pentecostals abandoning their parental religions in favor of Pentecostalism. This study employed a grounded theory design. Data were collected using in-depth interviews with eight study participants. The study examines the genesis of Pentecostalism in Eritrea and reactions from authority figures (parents, government, and church clergy) in response to those who joined the Pentecostal faith movement. The study reveals six themes that show the reasons for joining the Pentecostalism faith movement. The researcher derived four primary conclusions from the study, leading to recommendations for a deeper understanding of an individual’s faith and allowed youth to actively participate in their preferred religious denomination. Finally, other research areas for further studies are provided.

20세기 초 팬데믹 시대에 움튼 여성들의 우정: YWCA를 중심으로

The World YWCA, based on the Christian spirit of “by young people, by young women, for young women” is a faith movement that started with the passion of the gospel and a service movement based on the ecumenical spirit. It seeks peace and the reconciliation of humankind, and has long established itself as a major player in the peace movement. Inheriting that spirit, YWCA Korea will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of YWCA Korea in April, 2022. However, the Korean academic community does not have much interest in YWCA, regardless of general or Christian history. The Korean YWCA also lacks information about the Hangzhou World YWCA Committee, which was held for the first time in Asia. The 1947 Hangzhou World YWCA Committee tells the story of the friendship of women who helped to heal and reconcile the weeping world after the war. This study will solve the missing piece of the puzzle in historical research and suggest a way for the Korean church to become a peace-church in the future.

The revelations of Revelation: The book that fits, even when it does not

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has again confirmed our obsession with, and misuse of, the Book of Revelation. Of course, this is definitely not the first time that Revelation’s themes and imagery have been pulled out and used to try and explain the current situation. In fact, the Book of Revelation is well-known as ‘the’ book of the New Testament where information about the present as well as the future can be found. Unfortunately, in situations like these, people simply do not bother to draw from the reservoir of experiences on which the author of Revelation naturally expected his hearer or reader to draw. This phenomenon is made worse by the fact that the primary study of the text has moved into the academic institution and, by inference, away from the faith movement. This may make earnest scholarly biblical study of the Apocalypse seem irrelevant to the general concerns of the faith community and the world. But the Book of Revelation does provide an indispensable resource for helping Christians conceive of their place in the contemporary world and meditate on the role the church is to play in a modern, secular society. John’s Apocalypse is not a mere nostalgic trip down memory lane; it is a form of anamnesis or recollection – in recalling or performing the narrative, the past is made physically present. By way of a performative reading of the Book of Revelation, this article makes use of a more practical exegetical dimension. Contribution: This method brings the Apocalypse as New Testament text back into the life of the community of faith it belongs to and should be performed in, thus also increasing the usage and impact of the Book of Revelation in the faith community.

Healing in the Pentecostal tradition: A Scandinavian perspective

ABSTRACT Divine healing has been, and still is, a key feature of global Pentecostalism. Yet, scholarly studies on this important aspect of the Pentecostal movement have mostly been limited to a North American perspective on predominantly North American forms of Pentecostalism. This paper provides a revised perspective based on theological reflections, historical and empirical insights from a Scandinavian context. The study offers observations and reflections upon different streams in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements of Norway and Sweden, including classic Pentecostalism, the Word of Faith Movement, and the so-called ‘third wave’ which is seen as an extension of the Charismatic Movement. The essay suggests a broader theological and historical re-envisioning of Pentecostal healing practices and prepares the ground for further systematic theological inquiry on a global scale.

Emerging Christianity in Cambodia: People Movement to Christ or Playground for Global Christianity?

Present-day Christianity in Cambodia is less than thirty years old; virtually all traces of its earlier history were eradicated by the Khmer Rouge. The article offers a portrait of this young church and introduces mission patterns, growth factors, and challenges for this emerging church. It critically discusses the entanglement of global and local factors, as well as the diversity of mission agents engaged in Cambodia. The article concludes that churches successfully present themselves as a training ground for emerging global citizens, attracting young people to a faith movement that connects them with a global network.

The Hunt for Lost Identity: Native Faith Paganism in Contemporary Lithuania

The article presents the results of the author's in-depth ethnographic research carried out during 2011-017. It focuses on the Native Faith Paganism movement in contemporary Lithuania. The popularity and peculiarities of the movement and related groups are discussed. Prehistory of the movement, establishment of related religious societies, impacts of altering history and new forms of spirituality to the phenomena debated. The turn from the folkloristic movement to the religious is explained. The diversity of the shifting phenomena and the variety of related groups are analyzed, their interrelations and relation with other modern Pagan groups are presented. Their ideas about and relation with ethnic identity, national history, ethnic culture is analyzed. The self-expression, self-presentation, aims, activities (both public and not for publicity) of Native faith movement are described. Specific attention it is given to the analysis of the Romuva group and subgroups and their ideas, as it is the most popular and the most active modern Native Faith-type Paganism active in Lithuania. Their impact on other modern Paganisms as well as to the whole image of the ancient Lithuanian/Baltic pre-Christian traditions and Lithuanian ethnic culture per se is noticeable.

“Disrupted ecclesial internationality”

The Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift (International Church Journal: IKZ) was founded in 1893 under the name Revue Internationale de Theologie as an academic Old Catholic journal with a focus on the “reunion of the churches” as proposed by Dollinger, drawing on Old Catholic, early church principles. With the outbreak of the First World War, the journal, which was active in both belligerent and neutral countries, came under pressure. The IKZ, which was published in Bern, in neutral Switzerland, committed itself to a position of strict neutrality; this policy, combined with the tireless striving of the editor-in-chief Adolf Kury to draw in theologians and potential subscribers in neutral countries, not only made possible the continued existence of the IKZ through the war, but led also to the deepening of the journal’s ecclesiastical ideal and the strengthening of its ecumenical profile, and allowed the IKZ to become integrated into the Faith and Order movement established in 1910. The IKZ became the most important European source of information about the Faith and Order movement; it also provided a link between the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht at a time when other church fora and structures could no longer function. The bishops’ wartime pastoral letters played a similar linking role, and many of these were discussed in the IKZ in 1917. The German bishop Moog’s pastoral letters corresponded to some of the usual patterns of interpretation of the war, but they did not further the war; those of the Swiss bishop Herzog were were in a good sense exercises in apologetics for Christianity as a cultural power that could not be easily destroyed by the war. Both bishops sought to foster communion.

Media Review: &lt;i&gt;Rising to the Challenge: The Transition Movement and People of Faith&lt;/i&gt;, By Ruah Swennerfelt

Ann Amberg reviews Rising to the Challenge: The Transition Movement and People of Faith, by Ruah Swennerfelt.