Pluralistic World Research Articles

Feeling at home: Bildung and the clash between nostalgic and universal values: singing together in a plural world

Abstract The paper explores the tensions of belonging by focusing on the clash between nostalgic and universal values. Because of the inherent tension that they share, the concepts of Bildung and nostalgia provide an opening for understanding human belonging as ranging between nostalgic rootedness and the search for universality. Johann Gottfried Herder’s and Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig’s theories of Bildung, exemplify this clash between nostalgic and universal values. Wilhelm von Humboldt’s thinking offers a theory of Bildung that transcends nostalgic values and points to the world as a place of belonging. In this paper I problematize feelings of nostalgia, such as a sense of national belonging, by demonstrating how they might turn into educational values that exclude individuals who do not share the same idea of home and sense of belonging. I employ Agnes Heller’s term ‘value- orientational categories’ to understand how feelings might transform into values. I question and discuss nostalgia’s potential to uphold diversity, given human longing for local versions of home with different languages, cultures, and customs. I then suggest that embracing nostalgia in an educational context can provide a foundation for fostering universal values such as diversity, openness, and flexibility among citizens. Barbara Cassin’s vision of the ‘world freed from belonging’ and her idea of ‘airborne roots’ contribute to this discussion.

Missio Inter Gentes: A Pastoral Response for The CICM Religious Missionaries in Doing Mission in Today's Pluralistic World

In a world where rivalry, jealousy, hatred, and competition among religions are taking root in the heart of our society, the Church needs to look for a new trajectory to bring together the people of God. Therefore, The suggestion of the new paradigm inter gentes, defined as mission among the nations, would contribute to a peaceful interreligious dialogue. This paradigm involves understanding and respect, building bridges between different faiths, and fostering a warm and inclusive atmosphere among religions. This article presents missio inter gentes as a CICM's pastoral response to doing mission in today's pluralistic world. The CICM (Congragatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae) is an international religious missionary dedicated to the Incarnate Word under the name and patronage of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It is a missionary Congregation founded to participate in the mission Jesus entrusted to the Church. As the world evolves, the Church also evolves and, therefore, seeks new ways to relate with others. CICM missionaries play a vital role as agents of reconciliation for interreligious dialogue as the Church faces pluralism of religions. They facilitate dialogue among the leaders of other religious denominations by promoting respect and harmony for peaceful coexistence.

Transformative Shifts: From Puritanical Rigidities to Cosmopolitan Flexibilities in Islamic Education

This journal explores the evolving dynamics within Islamic educational paradigms in the context of increasing global interconnectedness. The study investigates the transition from rigid, puritanical educational models, which emphasize strict adherence to traditional interpretations and practices, towards more flexible, cosmopolitan approaches that accommodate diversity, inclusivity, and global perspectives. Through a comprehensive literature review and qualitative analysis of case studies from various Islamic educational institutions worldwide, the research identifies key factors driving this shift. These include the influence of globalization, advancements in information and communication technologies, and the growing recognition of the need for educational systems that prepare students for the complexities of a pluralistic world. The article argues that embracing cosmopolitan flexibility in Islamic education does not necessitate the abandonment of core religious values. Instead, it advocates for a balanced approach that integrates traditional Islamic teachings with contemporary pedagogical methods and curricula that promote critical thinking, intercultural understanding, and ethical reasoning. By highlighting successful examples of transformative educational practices, the study aims to provide a framework for policymakers, educators, and scholars to develop and implement educational models that reconcile the rich heritage of Islamic knowledge with the demands of modern, globalized societies. The findings suggest that such an approach not only enhances the quality and relevance of Islamic education but also fosters a more inclusive and cohesive global Muslim community.

CHRISTUS SALVATOR

Considering the many diverse religious traditions coexisting in the same societies across the globe, the issue of how Christianity relates to other religions has become increasingly important. Theologians have developed three main approaches that address this issue: exclusivism, inclusivism, and religious pluralism. This article offers a critical examination of these approaches using a literature study. It also delves into the truth claim about Christ’s finality and salvific role in the world, exploring its implications for Christian missions. It argues that while adhering to Christ’s finality in the religiously pluralistic world is still relevant for contemporary Christians, it is necessary to engage respectfully and sensitively when approaching missions among people of other faiths. The article advocates a P-H-D model for missions, demonstrating the significance of three missional attitudes: Perseverance, Humility, and Dialogue.

Revelation in a Pluralistic World by Louis Roy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022, pp. 336, £90.00, hbk

Revelation in a Pluralistic World by Louis Roy, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022, pp. 336, £90.00, hbk

Salvation, Enlightenment and Awakening in Shaping Followers' Perception and Understanding of Their Faith: A Linguistic Exploration

This paper examines how religious concepts of salvation, enlightenment, and awakening shape followers’ perception and understanding of their faith. Drawing on theories of language ideology (Woolard, 1998) and linguistic structuration (Giddens, 1979), it explores how linguistic and conceptual variations surrounding these key terms influence religious worldviews. A mixed methods approach integrates comparative-historical case studies, interviews, surveys, and textual analysis of three religious’ denominations. Findings reveal ideological divergences in the metaphorical framing of the key concepts, relating to differences in perceived resonances and definitions among followers. The study demonstrates that religious conceptual systems transmit between contexts via semiotic processes of indexicality and erasure, undergoing shifts in meaning. These ideological variations in turn contribute to divergent understandings of core principles across faith traditions. Ultimately, illuminating conceptual divergences and the symbolic processes by which they spread provides vital insight into religion’s cultural logic and diversity. The research contributes to theoretical models of religious language’s co-constitutive relationship with thought and experience. It offers an empirical approach employing cognitive linguistics and the sociology of religion to promote understanding across belief systems in an increasingly pluralistic world.

Analysis of Japanese Cultural Patterns —Based on Hofstede’s Value Dimensions and Minkov’s Cultural Dimensions

Intercultural communication is of vital importance, as it not only promotes intercultural understanding and respect, but also stimulates innovative thinking and broadens horizons. In today's globalized world, intercultural competence has become the key to individual and organizational success, helping to build a harmonious and pluralistic world. Japanese culture is unique and diverse, blending tradition and modernity, not only in the exquisite art of tea ceremony and flower arrangement, but also in advanced technology and innovation. Its spiritual core of respect for nature and emphasis on etiquette has had a profound impact on the world, highlighting the unique charm and importance of Japanese culture. This paper analyzes Japanese culture based on Hofstede’s Value Dimensions and Minkov’s Cultural Dimensions. It includes individualism or collectivism, high uncertainty avoidance or low uncertainty avoidance, high power distance or low power distance, masculinity or femininity, long or short-term orientation, industry or indulgence, monumentalism or flexumility, exclusionism or universalism, tight or loose culture.

Working as facilitators and co-researchers: opportunities, tensions and complexities in educational participatory research

ABSTRACT In this paper, we transcend the boundaries of conventional academic writing and embrace the African philosophical concept of conversationalism to create an honest and decolonial space, albeit imperfect, in which we can talk about the messiness of participatory research. Engaging in a dialectical conversation with each other, we share our reflections on and respond to four lines of questioning related to: onto-epistemology; axiology; methodology; and temporality within participatory research. As we converse, we draw on lessons learnt from three different photovoice projects that involved working with marginalized youth or within marginalized neighborhoods and communities. As co-researchers and authors located across the Global South and North (two of us working in South Africa and the other two in the UK), we draw on our photovoice experiences to discuss the complexities and negotiations inherent in educational participatory projects. By doing so, we contribute to debates surrounding the unfulfilled promises of photovoice projects, whilst acknowledging the fluid spaces it creates for intercultural, more inclusive meaning-making. Our dialectic conversation shows that, despite being fraught with ideological tensions that are amplified by the fundamentally diverse and morally plural world we live and research in, photovoice projects can be worthwhile if we are critically reflexive before, during and long after the research is done.

The Reputation of the Anabaptists over the Centuries

ABSTRACT The Anabaptists were condemned in the sixteenth century for theological, social, economic and political reasons, especially after the catastrophe of Münster in 1534–35. Persecution was sometimes intense, though it gradually eased. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, despite persistent memories of Münster, favourable opinion grew. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Anabaptists were still harried for their practice of non-resistance, but praised for their hard work, drawn into the evangelical community of the new world and rehabilitated by historians. In the recent past they have been admired for their pacifism and their pioneering role in a world of religious pluralism.

The use of biofield energy therapy as complementary and alternative medicine in human health care system: a narrative review and potential mechanisms.

There has been accumulating interest in the application of biofield therapy as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to treat various diseases. The practices include reiki, qigong, blessing, prayer, distant healing, known as biofield therapies. This paper aims to state scientific knowledge on preclinical and clinical studies to validate its potential use as an alternative medicine in the clinic. It also provides a more in-depth context for understanding the potential role of quantum entanglement in the effect of biofield energy therapy. A comprehensive literature search was performed using the different databases (PubMed, Scopus, Medline, etc.). The published English articles relevant to the scope of this review were considered. The review gathered 45 papers that were considered suitable for the purpose. Based on the results of these papers, it was concluded that biofield energy therapy was effective in treating different disease symptoms in preclinical and clinical studies. Biofield therapies offer therapeutic benefits for different human health disorders, and can be used as alternative medicine in clinics for the medically pluralistic world due to the growing interest in CAM worldwide. The effects of the biofield energy therapies are observed due to the healer's quantum thinking, and transmission of the quantum energy to the subject leads to the healing that occurs spiritually through instantaneous communication at the quantum level via quantum entanglement.

Kant, the Nation-State, and Immigration

Abstract Kant is invariably read by his followers as antipathetic to all forms of nationalism. Yet he was interested in differences of national character and used an organic metaphor to explain why states should not be broken up or annexed (unfortunately he never commented explicitly on the dismemberment of Poland by Prussia and its allies). He favoured a plural world in which national differences of language and religion prevented the emergence of despotic world government. So his acknowledgement of a limited obligation to provide refuge to vulnerable people should not be amplified into an acceptance of culturally disruptive mass migration.

Discerning the Holy Spirit in the World of Religious Pluralism(s), Secularism(s), and Science(s): A Multilayered Constructive Christian Vision of Pneumatology for the Third Millennium

Abstract This essay seeks to reimagine Christian pneumatology in a radically new key. This plural and multilayered vision allows us to discern the presence and work of the Spirit of God in the cosmos, in the secular and religiously pluralistic world and society, as well as in Christian life at both the ecclesial and personal levels. No need to mention that this kind of authentically Christian reimagining can only be accomplished in an integral trinitarian framework. This plural paradigm engages critically spiritual “powers” and energies (as in traditional “angelology”), the S/spirit(s) in other religions, the spirit(s) of the public realm (as in sciences, politics, and economy), and the spiritual aspects of (post-)secularism. And in difference from the traditional limited conception of the Spirit’s work to the “spiritual,” the multilayered and complex account of pneumatology seeks to envision the Spirit’s work in all aspects of the world and life.

Three Worlds: the West, East and South and the competition to shape global order

Abstract Among the many impacts of Russia's war on Ukraine, the most consequential may be in pushing the world in the direction of Three Worlds—the global West, the global East and the global South. One is led by the United States and Europe, the second by China and Russia, and the third by an amorphous grouping of non-western developing nations. These Three Worlds are not blocs or coherent negotiating groups, but loose, constructed and evolving global factions. This article makes four arguments. First, the Three Worlds system has the makings of a fairly durable pattern of global order, shaping struggles over rules and institutions. Second, the Three Worlds system will encourage a ‘creative’ politics of global order-building. The global West and global East will have incentives to compete for the support and cooperation of the global South. Third, there are deep principles of world order that provide a foundation for the Three Worlds competition. Finally, if the global West is to remain at the center of world order in the decades ahead, it will need to accommodate both the global East and the global South, and adapt itself to a more pluralistic world. But in the competition with the global East for the support of the global South, it has the advantage. The global South's critique of the global West is not that it offers the wrong pathway to modernity, but that it has not lived up to its principles or shared sufficiently the material fruits of liberal modernity.

Healing the Body and Soul: A Comprehensive Review of Spiritual Nursing Care

Background: Spiritual care is an important aspect of patient centered care and in healthcare research, the focus on spiritual care has been growing over the past decades. Providing spiritual care in a global, culturally entwined, and pluralistic world is complicated, as providers are sensitive to the potential variance in the secular, spiritual, and religious meaning orientations of their patients. The purpose of spiritual nursing care is to support people's spiritual health, encourage inner serenity, offer emotional support, and assist them in using their spiritual resources to get through trying times. Purpose: To identify challenges nurses face (communication, sensitivity) for improvement. Methods: In this study, we estimated ten patients from a geriatric ward in Edinburgh, Scotland, who were asked to define their spiritual requirements. Results: In our study, the majority of the patients expressed a desire to make sense of or find purpose in their lives, as well as to be loved and accepted. Conclusion: The study provides theoretical research and empirical support for nursing, creating a cumulative added value in spiritual nursing care. Future studies on spiritual care in nursing should inform changes in education and practice. This patient requirement must be prioritized alongside all other physical and mental needs. Implications for Nursing: Spiritual care in nursing practice has the potential to significantly enhance patient well-being and expand the role of nurses in healthcare. By addressing these challenges and fostering better training and education, nurses can become more equipped to integrate spiritual care into their practice. Keywords: Spiritual care, Spiritual well-being, Spiritual interventions, Nursing care, Holistic care, Spiritual health.

Biblical Foundations for Business Ethics

The article explores biblical sources of ethics principles of business. It demonstrates that in the contemporary pluralistic world, principles of biblical business ethics can be valuable in the communication and interaction among representatives of different countries and cultures, as they encompass fundamental foundations for building business relationships. Due to the influence of Christian morality on the culture of many nations, biblical values have the potential to significantly impact individuals and their economic behavior, contributing to the dissemination of important economic categories in society. The study reveals that important anthropological foundations for fruitful economic relations have been formed within the framework of biblical theocentrism, including considerations of human dignity, honesty, diligence, responsibility, and charity. The biblical perspective on property as a temporary stewardship has significant implications for awareness and education about responsibility not only towards other people but also towards the environment, holding crucial relevance in the context of corporate social responsibility in the modern world.

“Squinting through Gunsmoke”: William Burrough’s Errant, Worlded West

William Burroughs had been challenging closed worlds since the 1960s. Haunted by the West, born in St Louis, Missouri and dying in Lawrence, Kansas, it was as if he knew America’s inheritance was seeded on the frontier and his characters were caught up in a conditioned cycle of mythic action. His fiction, with its wild experimentation, hallucinogenic cut-up forms, and extreme states of dislocation strove to interrupt such mythic systems and cycles through what I term in this chapter errantry. Burroughs’ fiction presents alternative, errant worldings – carnivalesque plural worlds that refuse to fit into a presupposed pattern, always wandering astray from prescribed paths.

Book reviews

Grievous religious persecution: A conceptualisation of crimes against humanity of religious persecution (Werner Nicolaas Nel) Liberty for all: Defending everyone’s religious freedom in a pluralistic world (Andrew T. Walker) Faith in courts: Human rights advocacy and the transnational regulation of religion (Lisa Harms) Religion and world politics: Connecting theory with practice (Erin K. Wilson) Secularism(s) in contemporary France: Law, policy and religious diversity (David Koussens, translated by Peter Feldstein) A principled framework for the autonomy of religious communities: Reconciling freedom and discrimination (Alex Deagon) Religious accommodation and its limits (Farrah Raza)

Innovation for sustainability: how actors are myopically caught in processes of co-evolution

In this paper, we argue that the development, uptake and adoption of innovations resembles an evolutionary process of variation, selection and retention (within broader processes of co-evolution) in which actors are myopically caught. We do so in four steps. First, we review in what ways socio-technical evolution resembles biological evolution. Second, we argue that in socio-technical evolution so-called ‘configurations that work’ can be viewed as evolutionary units, which are subject to selection pressures, variation and human-made couplings between variation and selection. This explains why innovation is often cumulative, based on variation and recombination. Third, we discuss how producers, consumers, governments and scientists are myopically caught in processes of co-evolution. While humans are capable of imagining the need for system change and details of desired systems, they are less capable of accepting the concomitant higher costs and inconveniences and adopt new interpretive schemes. Fourth, in a pluralist world, steering is done by all kind of actors, including those who actively resist transformative change. Because of this, steering by government and coalitions of change can achieve little more than a modulation of ongoing dynamics, despite disturbing evidence of a run-away climate, mass extinction, pervasive ecological degradation and steady depletion of resources. A new consciousness of the Anthropocene can evoke fundamental changes in science and the economy if—and only if—they are sufficiently carried by institutional changes and new practices. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolution and sustainability: gathering the strands for an Anthropocene synthesis’.

Bernard Shaw + Richard Rorty = Two Dialectical Peas in a Jesusian Pragmatist Pod

ABSTRACT This article argues that Shaw and Rorty are dialectical Jesusian pragmatists who share three significant and interrelated characteristics that could easily play decisive roles in determining the fate of the human species and the planet that sustains it: ethnocentrism, liberal ironism, and Jesusian pragmatism. Ethnocentrism, a synthesis of absolutism and nihilism, asserts that we necessarily make value judgments from parochial vantage points because we live in an inescapably pluralistic world. Liberal ironism, a dialectical synthesis of liberalism and contingency, asserts that humans can commit themselves to privileged causes even in the face of radical uncertainties in theory and practice. Jesusian pragmatism, a synthesis of Christian agape and pragmatist tenets, asserts that Jesusian social values compose the ethical core of a pragmatism dedicated to providing global wellness. The argument shows that Shaw and Rorty are not only congruent dialectical thinkers, but also kindred Jesusian pragmatists.

Relevance of Interreligious Dialogue Amidst Multiplicity in the Society

Purpose: The study aimed to examine the relevance of interreligious dialogue amidst multiplicity in the society
 Methodology: The study applied desktop review methodology to gather relevant literature.
 Findings: We are living in pluralist world, confronted with a supermarket of ideologies and religions. The variety of ideologies particularly religious ideologies and beliefs poses problems when any one of them is regarded as the supreme and absolute truth and the rest of them are considered to be of no use. In the past centuries religious exclusiveness cause enough suffering locally, but today clashes between religious have global repercussions. Today, when the world has attained a great technological progress and scientific achievements, it is disconcerting to say that the people are making disputes in the name of religion. Thousands of people are killed and nations have been divided. In this era of confusion and distressed life, where we grow more afraid than the previous day, afraid of our neighbors, or folks, our society and other’s beliefs. To protect the humanity form this appalling condition the only solution would be interreligious dialogue which is mandatory if not dynamic for everyone to have the understanding of different religions.
 Recommendations: this study believe that education is the most important thing for smooth education dialogue process. Evidence has shown that interreligious dialogue is one of the paths to build bridges among diverse cultural and religious communities that otherwise would be in conflict.