Orthodox Christian Belief Research Articles

19-20세기 초 러시아 제국의 중앙아시아 식민통치와 행정 구획의 지역별 특징

The purpose of this study is to show that the colonial policy implemented after the annexation of Central Asia by the Russian Empire in the 19th century was applied in different ways in the Kazakh steppe and West Turkistan, which are two regions that compose Central Asia. For this purpose, the process of the annexation of the Kazakh steppe and West Turkistan into the Russian Empire, the implementation system of political, economic, social, religious and cultural policies, and differences in administrative divisions were examined. And as a result, we came to the following conclusions:<BR> Firstly, although the Kazakh steppe and West Turkistan had historically interacted for a long time, there was no experience of integrating these regions into one space before the 19<SUP>th</SUP> century.<BR> Secondly, at the beginning of the 19th century, the Tsarist Empire regarded the Kazakh nomadic settlements that had been served Russia and paid tribute(yasak) since the beginning of the 18th century as the territory where the suzerainty of the empire was established. Based on this recognition, the imperial government demarcated the Kazakh Steppe into administrative divisions according to the Russian system, and focused on spreading Russian culture and Orthodox Christian beliefs.<BR> On the other hand, thirdly, in Western Turkistan, which was conquered by the Russian expeditionary force in the middle of the 19th century, it showed a change in the introduction of a protectorate system along with the demarcation of Russian administrative divisions. In addition, in the social and religious aspects, a relatively moderate policy of colonial rule was pursued, such as acknowledging some of the power of the indigenous elites and implementing a policy of ‘disregard (игнорирование)’ which implicitly acknowledged Islamic beliefs.<BR> Fourthly, despite these differences, what the Russian Empire was trying to establish in Central Asia was a European colonial system. As a result, the foundation for the formation of Central Asia as a space and Central Asians as a community, which had never appeared in the past, was laid in this region in the 19<SUP>th</SUP> century.

The Challenge of Mysticism: a Primer from a Christian Perspective

In this article, I discuss the relevance of the study of mysticism for Christian analytic theologians and philosophers of religion. I begin with a brief consideration of some reasons Christian academics might be reluctant to enter this field, and indicate that, somewhat surprisingly, the study of mysticism is something but seldom addressed in Christian analytic circles. With this background in place, I proceed to the primary two sections of the article. Section I deals with demarcating mysticism: for the purposes of this article alone, an experience will count as mystical if and only if it is strongly unitive, transcends everyday consciousness, and (allegedly) conveys epistemic certainty as to the veracity of the insights acquired. These three criteria are discussed in some depth. Section II turns to the challenge mysticism in this sense might present to the Christian philosopher or theologian. I argue that the phenomenon of mysticism might be seen plausibly to imply one of two conclusions, both of which appear to be unpalatable for the Christian. First, it might suggest certain metaphysical views which prima facie call key tenets of orthodox Christianity into question. Secondly, mystical experience might be understood as the ‘inner meaning’ of Christianity which renders the better part of orthodox Christian belief equally problematic (as evidenced in three Christian mystics I discuss). I then conclude with a reflection on how the discussion might proceed, suggesting once more that Christian analytic theologians and philosophers of religion have scarcely begun to ask the relevant questions, let alone answer them in any persuasive manner.

Veiling and Revealing: Ancient Myth and Christian Grace in C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces

Veiling and RevealingAncient Myth and Christian Grace in C. S. Lewis’s Till We Have Faces Philip A. Rolnick (bio) “You cannot see my face, for no one can see me and live.” (ex 33:20, 23) But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. . . . And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. (2 cor 3:16, 18) Myth in general is not merely misunderstood history . . . nor diabolical illusion . . . nor priestly lying (as the philosophers of the Enlightenment thought) but, at its best, a real though unfocused gleam of divine truth falling on human imagination. (c. s. lewis)1 C. S. Lewis loved to read myths, and Till We Have Faces, pointedly subtitled A Myth Retold, is an attempt to write one. In Lewis’s retelling, the ancient myth of Cupid and Psyche is given a pseudo-historical grounding, greatly expanded, and intertwined with and transformed by Christian principles. Portraying multifaceted forms [End Page 22] of love (and their distortions), and surprising events of grace, revelation, and human response, Lewis surreptitiously Christianizes the myth. At the same time, he uses the myth’s pagan and historicized setting to gain new perspective on the divine nature and wisdom— and subtleties of the human soul. Myth, Truth, and History As is well-known, Lewis, around the age of 32, converted to Christianity after a life-changing conversation with J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. What is not as well-known is that this conversion conversation pivoted on the understanding of myth. Tolkien and Dyson were able to show Lewis a basic inconsistency in his thinking: If in a pagan myth he encountered a god sacrificing himself and then rising again, Lewis was delighted and moved; but at the same time Lewis thought he must reject the accounts of Christ’s sacrifice and resurrection. Once awakened to the imaginative and emotional import of the story of Christ, soon thereafter Lewis became convinced of its historical reality. As he wrote to his lifelong friend Arthur Greeves, “Now the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened. . . . It is God’s myth where the others are men’s myths.”2 Lewis’s conversion joined his love of myth to his love of reality, to what really is the case, and in the case of Christ, to what “really happened.” In a paper given about fifteen years later, Lewis sees other myths and religions as anticipations of a truth that will be more fully revealed in Christianity: “I could not believe Christianity if I were forced to say that there were a thousand religions in the world of which 999 were pure nonsense and the thousandth (fortunately) true. My conversion, very largely, depended on recognizing Christianity as the completion, the actualisation, the entelechy, of something that had never been wholly absent from the mind of man.”3 Lewis’s inclusiveness, at once both sensible and charitable, is put to creative use in Till [End Page 23] We Have Faces, a work that instantiates his idea of Christianity as the fulfillment of earlier, mythic anticipations. Lewis came to have very orthodox Christian beliefs, but he continued to hold myth in high esteem. In a substantive footnote in Miracles (1947), written when he was already famous, Lewis elaborated thoughts on myth that would later shape and color Till We Have Faces: Just as, on the factual side, a long preparation culminates in God’s becoming incarnate as Man, so, on the documentary side, the truth first appears in mythical form and then by a long process of condensing or focusing finally becomes incarnate as History. This involves the belief that Myth in general is not merely misunderstood history . . . nor diabolical illusion . . . nor priestly lying (as the philosophers of the Enlightenment thought) but, at its best, a real though unfocused gleam of divine truth falling on human imagination.4 In the “long process” that leads from ancient...

When Religion Reinforces Stigma: a Call to Bridge the Gap

When Religion Reinforces Stigma: a Call to Bridge the Gap

Naturalism and Unbelief in France, 1650–1729, by Alan Charles KorsEpicureans and Atheists in France, 1650–1729, by Alan Charles Kors

Almost thirty years ago, Alan Charles Kors published an exciting and original book entitled Atheism in France, 1650–1729: The Orthodox Sources of Disbelief, which was recently reissued by Princeton University Press. That was announced as Volume One, and the two new publications from Cambridge are effectively the long-awaited sequel. The three books do indeed have a unity, such that the new ones can only be fully appreciated when read in conjunction with their predecessor. Indeed, it is puzzling why the publisher has produced two volumes rather than one, and is charging significantly more for the shorter of the two. Atheism in France combined a very scholarly examination of a wide range of contemporary writings with sensitivity to their context. Kors stressed the notable expansion of the reading public in the seventeenth century, the thirst for books and the enthusiasm for travel in geographical space and historical time. He argued convincingly that, as a result, there was a keen interest in the relationship between Christian Europe and other cultures, whether those of antiquity, of the civilisations of the East or of the natives of the New World. Another crucial context was that of the learned and clerical world. Teachers in universities and colleges were proud of their rigorous training and their proficiency in logic, while they were also taught to generate objections to the most cherished ideas. The majority seem to have viewed the innovative philosophical and scientific views of their time as grave threats to their own central values and to their intellectual integrity. In France, this conservatism was reinforced by the rivalries between clerical groups, and the bitter theological controversies seen at their most extreme in the disputes over Jansenism. The monarchy, largely incited by the powerful and divisive Jesuits, issued a long series of prohibitions directed against the Cartesians and others, which probably exacerbated the disputes and certainly failed to stop the arguments. The printing press encouraged disputants to engage in extended debates before the public, made more intense by the appearance of journals that loved quarrels. A standard technique on all sides, surely founded on scholastic debating practices, was that of the reductio ad absurdum. What this usually meant was that the opponent’s system was shown to lead to an impasse, either opening the way to atheism or actively supporting it. In this fashion, a whole arsenal of arguments against orthodox Christian claims and beliefs was laid before the public, with the atheist being invoked as a heuristic device, only for this material to help inspire the real deists and atheists of the next generation.

Book Review: The Human Icon: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Orthodox Christian Beliefs

Book Review: The Human Icon: A Comparative Study of Hindu and Orthodox Christian Beliefs

Purgatory Puzzles: Moral Perfection and the Parousia

My argument proceeds in two stages. In §I, I sum up the intuitions of a popular argument for 'satisfaction accounts' of Purgatory that I label, TAP. I then offer an argument, taken from a few standard orthodox Christian beliefs and (at least) one axiom of Christian theology, to so show that TAP is unsound. In the same section, I entertain some plausible responses to my argument that are prima facie consistent with these beliefs and axiom. I find these responses wanting. In §II, I offer a sorites problem for TAP, given the orthodox Christian understanding of Christ’s parousia, showing that TAP and the intuitions driving it are faulty. To attempt something of a corrective, I end by offering some modest theological suggestions for thinking through “the logic of total transformation.”

“Two Musics about the Throne of Ilúvatar”: Gnostic and Manichaean Dualism in The Silmarillion

“Two Musics about the Throne of Ilúvatar”:Gnostic and Manichaean Dualism in The Silmarillion Carrol Fry (bio) In “Ainulindalë,” the opening segment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, Eru, The One, “who in Arda is called Ilúvatar,” composes his great symphony with the participation of the Ainur, “the Holy Ones that were the offspring of his thought” (15). Ilúvatar’s music is the mighty theme of creation. “Of the theme that I have declared to you,” he tells the Ainur, “I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music” (15). Then his Ainur respond with their own individual additions to the symphony, creating “endless interchanging melodies woven in harmony that passed beyond hearing into the depths and into the heights” (15). The Ainur are given a vision of the symphony’s creation: Arda or Eä (Tolkien’s names for the earth and material creation); the Elves, or the First Born; and the Followers, or humanity. When many of the Ainur express their love for Arda, Ilúvatar decrees that “their power should thenceforward be contained and bounded in the world, to be within it for ever, until it is complete, so that they are its life and it is theirs” (20). Perhaps because they are now of this world, they become the Valar and can take on physical forms of great beauty, a choice given them by Ilúvatar. The mightiest of the Ainur, Melkor,1 had “meddled with all that was done” (20) in the ordering of Eä during the symphony, desiring to make Arda his own. Melkor “also took visible form, but because of his mood and the malice that burned in him that form was dark and terrible” (21). He built his kingdom of darkness while Manwë, his brother, and the other loyal Valar created a kingdom of light in Valinor, the Blessed Realm. And so began the battle between good and evil, darkness and light in The Silmarillion, a work dear to Tolkien’s heart. Clyde S. Kilby, who spoke with Tolkien while he continued working on The Silmarillion long after The Lord of the Rings was published, reports that the author’s “main trouble with it was the lack of a commanding theme to bring the parts together” (11). I would suggest that the finished version of The Silmarillion as Christopher Tolkien arranged and edited the tales from his father’s notes and unpublished manuscripts does have a powerful central theme: an exploration of the nature and origin of evil. [End Page 77] Critical consensus has long held that J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythos is rooted in his orthodox Christian beliefs. Indeed, in creating the fictional frame for The Silmarillion the author builds on a complex mix of mythologies to create his own, with Christian, Nordic, and Celtic allusions. But a central element that drives the work’s exploration of its theme includes suggestions of ancient dualism, best remembered in the heresies of Gnosticism and Manichaeism. The Silmarillion presents two possible answers in the discourse on theodicy: the inquiry on the nature of good and evil and the question that asks why evil exists if God is good. The author’s orthodox Roman Catholic faith would suggest that his fantasy world should reflect the Church’s doctrine of a monist creation. The New Catholic Encyclopedia defines monism as a system “that reduces all of reality to some type of unity or one basic principle, where other doctrines admit of two or more” (9: 811). Monists would see God’s original creation as perfect and marred by free will: that of Satan and his minions and then of Adam and Eve, choices that brought evil to a pristine creation. In Milton’s words from Paradise Lost, humans were created “sufficient to have stood, though free to fall” (2: 81) in the world God had given them. From a Christian monist perspective, God permits evil as necessary to a creation that offers free will. Ralph Wood interprets The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings from a monist perspective: Tolkien’s world is not the product of a struggle between good and evil deities, as in many pagan...

Towards a Psychological Understanding of Servanthood: An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship between Orthodox Beliefs, Experiential Avoidance, and Self-Sacrificial Behaviors among Christians at a Religiously-Affiliated University

The authors utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the relationship between orthodox Christian beliefs, experiential avoidance, and self-sacrificial Christian behaviors among adults at a religiously-affiliated university. Results revealed that lower experiential avoidance was linked to more orthodox Christian beliefs, which, in turn, was related to more self-sacrificial Christian behaviors, similar to the acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) model that emphasizes accepting the inner world in order to adopt and live out a set of well-defined values in the outer world. Therefore, the authors proposed ACT-based interventions designed to help Christians cultivate an attitude of acceptance when relating to difficult private encounters, which may help followers of Christ to more fully believe in and implement his teachings. Further research is needed to generalize and replicate these preliminary results.

Remixing Religion in Hanne Ørstavik’s Presten and Lars Amund Vaage’s Tangentane

More than a century after Nietzsche's madman accused human race of deicide, alleged murder of God is still working its way through courts of academic philosophy, theology, and literary criticism. (1) While it seemed by late twentieth century that death of God was an undisputed event among intellectuals and artists in oil-wealthy, largely secular Norway, new millennium has seen a renewed focus in public sphere on issues of faith, including in works of literature. Already in 1990s conspicuous increase in religious themes in Norwegian novels baffled and irritated critics like Eivind Tjonneland (1999) who called for an ideological critique of this culturally regressive, moralistic, and puritanical trend. Yet growing presence of spiritual themes and religious language did not signal a resurgence of orthodox Christian belief as much as a search for new frontiers of literary expression beyond die-hard historical materialism. Dag Solstad, a prominent radical of Profil-generation, has clarified for record that he was compelled to bring God into his 1996 novel Professor Andersens natt (Professor Andersen's Night) in obedience to an esthetic law that demands epic integrity, even when it forces him to violate his own sensibilities. (2) Three-quarters of early critics ignored God's centrality in work, Solstad claims, perhaps because they found it embarrassing, but also because they did not understand inherent principle in construction of novels, det genuint romanmessige ved en roman (2013, 14) [the genuine novel-ness of a novel]. In a similar vein, Lars Amund Vaage (2001) has identified novel as most vital literary form in postmodern times, thanks to its broad exploratory power, which does not privilege scientific over subjective or explanation over intimation (73). (3) While some critics lament mere inclusion of a metaphysical dimension, others are confounded by heterodox representation of religion in contemporary works of literature. Ase Kallestad (2004) argues that Norwegian literature from 1990s reveals a diffuse theological longing in main characters, but she concludes that their idiosyncratic relationships to God do not represent any religion. (4) Kallestad claims rather that works by several leading Norwegian authors, including Solstad and Hanne 0rstavik, have unearthed a postmodern, sometimes masochistic, theological individualism--a longing for subjugation to a higher power without comfort of personal salvation or collective worship practices (204-6). However, two novels that appeared shortly after turn of millenium, Orstavik's Presten (2004; The Pastor) and Vaage's Tangentane (2005; The Piano Keys), place spotlight directly on members of Lutheran clergy against backdrop of contemporary congregations. These works foreground experience of practicing pastors who question call to ministry and effectiveness of their response. Appearing during a decade of political discussion and revision of status of Church of Norway, both novels point to current ecclesiastical challenges and criticize key aspects of institutional religion, but they do not dismiss it as irrelevant. By exposing scarred and shifting interior landscapes of pastors in midst of a crisis of calling, authors draw attention to both individual and interpersonal dimensions of religious identity in post-Christian Norway. In their very different performances, these texts recognize phenomenology of religious practice as a wellspring of literary innovation. Their common themes and sharply contrasting fictional discourses invite a comparative reading. The immediate issue for protagonists in Presten and Tangentane is how to go forward with call to ministry, when the Word has lost its power. Kallestad (2004) found that Norwegian authors employ biblical and mystical language to convey deep spiritual longing that their characters experience. …

The Erotic Approach

Building upon the orthodox Christian belief on the impossibility of preaching, this essay draws from a rather unorthodox source to structure the philosophical limits of preaching’s impossibility. The sources under consideration are those of the eminent French intellectual and social critic Georges Bataille. Drawing in particular upon Bataille’s thinking of inner experience, the ineffable, the wound, and the erotic, this essay articulates an approach to Christian proclamation that takes Bataille’s insights seriously.

An Empirical Examination of the Warfare Metaphor with Respect to Pre-Service Elementary Teachers

Since its origination in the late nineteenth century, the warfare metaphor has been used to characterize the relationship between science and religion, especially orthodox Christianity. Though thoroughly discredited by historians of science, the ideological descendants of Thomas Huxley, who spoke of science in quasi-religious terms, have kept the warfare metaphor alive. On the other hand, there are substantial numbers of Christians who at least appear to oppose science given their high-profile opposition to the general theory of evolution. The research reported in this paper asked, “Does anti-science sentiment increase with increasing orthodox Christian belief?” Two validated, published instruments were used: The Thinking about Science Survey Instrument and the Christian Fundamentalist Belief Scale. The subjects for the study were 545 preservice elementary teachers. The analysis did not show that anti-science sentiment increases with increasing Christian belief. Subjects with strong Christian beliefs were found to be just as supportive of science, if not more so, than subjects with no Christian beliefs. The study concludes with a caution against projecting attitudes toward science “on the whole” based on attitudes specifically toward evolution when working with preservice elementary teachers. Such a projection could well be counterproductive. The study has implications for other modern countries having highly religious populations such as Turkey.

I’m Number One! Does Narcissism Impair Ethical Judgment Even for the Highly Religious?

Can an assessment of individuals’ narcissism help explain the quality of a respondent’s ethical judgment? How is the relationship between religiosity and ethical judgment moderated by the effects of narcissism? With a sample of 385 undergraduate business majors, this study uses a taxonomic approach to examine the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity as well as orthodox Christian beliefs on ethical judgment. Three distinct clusters were identified: Skeptics, Nominals, and Devouts. Surprisingly, of the three clusters, Nominals and Devouts were the only groups impacted by narcissism, although Skeptics overall demonstrate the worst ethical judgment.

Democracy and Moral Autonomy

The focus of this paper is on the justificatory basis of democracy. The paper operates on two levels, theoretical and historical. On the theoretical level the author claims that many of the arguments put forward to justify democracy, such as that formulated by Dahl in ‘Democracy and its Critics’ based on his two principles of equality, although not without merit, suffer certain crucial weaknesses and do not, in fact, get at the real basis of the belief in the unique legitimacy of democracy. He goes on to argue that this legitimacy is grounded not simply in the positive egalitarian consequences expected from democracy, but rather is to be found in the moral autonomy of the human being. Further, he claims, this moral autonomy is itself rooted in what the author calls the Cartesian autonomy of reason. On the historical level he claims that, while Descartes was himself extremely conservative with regard to orthodox Christian belief and traditional structures of political authority, many self-styled followers of Descartes saw the autonomy of reason as implying a radical rejection of all ‘external’ authority, first in respect of religious belief, but also, then, with respect to the secular authority. The result was that within what Jonathan Israel refers to as the ‘Radical Enlightenment’, there developed as early as the mid-seventeenth century a tradition of liberal and democratic radicalism, based explicitly on the Cartesian autonomy of reason and what was referred to as the ‘freedom to philosophise’. The author illustrates this with a brief account of the Dutch radical thinker Franciscus Van den Enden. He argues that if we posit moral autonomy as the basis of democratic legitimacy, this privileges one particular conception of democracy, namely deliberative democracy, as its paradigmatic form. Throughout the whole argument he gives a central role to the autonomy of reason as, in particular, it began to sweep across Europe with the influence of Cartesianism. It is possible that there are older egalitarian roots to modern democratic ideology or that democratic authority is grounded on democracy's epistemic properties. The author looks at these claims towards the end of the paper and concludes that the autonomy of the moral agent as based itself on the autonomy of human reason is the most plausible basis of the unique legitimacy of democracy.

PAUL RICOEUR AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS: NARRATIVE IDENTITY AND THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY

AbstractThis article attempts to reconcile the holistically understood and embodied philosophical anthropology indicated by Paul Ricoeur's concept of “narrative identity” with Christian personal eschatology, as realized in the bodily resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Narrative identity resonates with spiritual autobiography in the Christian tradition—evinced here by a brief comparison with the confessed self of St Augustine of Hippo—and offers to theology a means of explaining identity in a way which: 1) places care for the other firmly within the construction of one's sense of self; 2) accounts for radical change over time and 3) hints at the possibility of the in‐breaking of the infinite into the finite. In this article I will contend that narrative identity provides theology with an exemplary means of framing selfhood which is ultimately congruent with the orthodox Christian belief in the resurrection of the body.

The Unmaking of Prejudice: How Christian Beliefs Relate to Attitudes Toward Homosexuals

We propose that the internalization of orthodox Christian beliefs serves as a basis for a personal moral standard that discourages prejudice against others as well as for self‐critical emotions that follow upon behaving in a discriminatory manner. Two correlational studies tested hypotheses derived from our theory. Study 1 demonstrated that to the extent people endorse orthodox Christian beliefs, they report an internal motivation to respond without prejudice toward homosexuals. Study 2 demonstrated that, when controlling for the effects of right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), endorsement of orthodox Christian beliefs was related to positive attitudes toward homosexuals as individuals or as a group, but not toward homosexuality as a behavior or lifestyle.

Divinity and Humanity. By OLIVER D. CRISP.

InDivinity and Humanity Oliver D. Crisp makes a contribution to Christology by raising important questions about the divine–human relation in the person of Christ. The book contributes to the doctrine of the incarnation in three ways. The first way is through its content—its presentation of the history of doctrine and meticulous examinations of representative schools. Crisp examines three issues in the Chalcedonian formula of the person of Christ and critiques ‘three doctrines that attempt to modify or, in one case, replace it’ (p. ix). The second way is through its form—Crisp employs dogmatics and analytical–philosophical analysis and makes a masterful delivery of Reformed apologetics. The third way is through his hermeneutical principle: a ‘good theological rule of thumb’, he writes, ‘if a doctrine contradicts the teaching of Scripture, it is automatically outside orthodox Christianity belief. If a doctrine contradicts the implicit teaching of Scripture and the explicit declaration of an ecumenical council … this is also outside orthodox Christian belief’ (p. 71). A close reading of the book will show that it is no ‘small contribution to the doctrine of the person of Christ’, even though ‘it is physically small by comparison to a number other books on the topic’ (p. ix). What it lacks in physical volume, it makes up with its ambitious design, depth, effective delivery, and conceptual precision.

Ethical aspects and regulation of assisted reproduction in the Arabic-speaking world

Regulations relating to assisted reproduction in the Arabic-speaking world are derived mainly from religious regulations. The basic concept of Islam is to avoid mixing genes, as Islam enjoins the purity of genes and heredity. It deems that each child should relate to a known father and mother. Since marriage is a contract between the wife and husband during the span of their marriage, no third party intrudes into the marital functions of sex and procreation. A third party is not acceptable whether he or she is providing a spermatozoon, an egg, an embryo or a uterus. Transfer of frozen–thawed embryos, or using frozen–thawed spermatozoa after termination of the marriage contract by divorce or death of the husband is also forbidden. The orthodox Christian belief in the Arab world concerning assisted reproduction treatment is identical to that of Muslims. If it is not possible to perform assisted reproduction treatments under these regulations, the patient may be able to travel abroad for gamete donation. There are no laws governing assisted reproduction in the Arab world, with the exception of Tunisia that has a law conforming to religious regulations. Most of the Arab countries have recommendations and guidelines issued by ministries of health or fertility societies.

Religious Involvement, Conventional Christian, and Unconventional Nonmaterialist Beliefs

This article uses a Scottish national sample to examine the relationship between church involvement, religious socialization among nonattenders, orthodox Christian beliefs, and a variety of unconventional nonmaterialist beliefs. Greater conventional religious belief is strongly associated with supposed alternatives but nonetheless, nonattenders are more likely to believe in the unconventional over and above any enduring sympathy they may hold for Christian doctrine. One group in particular stands out: belief remains high among nonattenders who once went to services regularly and seriously contemplate reengaging with organized religion. The article discusses the importance of these findings for “believing but not belonging.”

Sin, Sickness, and Salvation

This article seeks to provide commentary and rationale for Orthodox Christian rites and prayers for the sick as found in the Euchologion, or Book of Needs. The reader needs to understand that the prayers of the Orthodox Church prayed at times of sickness and suffering will often strike the non-Orthodox as harsh and even unjust. References to God willing suffering do not sit well with most Western Christians. However, this is the Orthodox Christian belief, and it is expressed in the prayers of the Orthodox Church. Sickness and suffering are understood to be avenues of salvation and a participation in the glory and joys of the resurrection of Christ and life in the Kingdom of God. This is why the Orthodox Church teaches her faithful to accept suffering as something that has the potential to bring them further along in the process of theosis.