Christian Population Research Articles

The Growth of Christianity in China May Have Come to an End

Christianity in China grew rapidly in the decades following the end of the Cultural Revolution. Some scholars and journalists claim that Christianity in China is still expanding in the twenty-first century. In this study, the authors contrast evidence for such claims with the results from two decades of survey data. In 19 nationally representative surveys conducted since the early 2000s, the authors find no clear evidence that Christianity continues to grow as a share of China’s population. Surveys conducted in the past decade indicate that about 2 percent of Chinese adults identify as Christian. Contrary to claims that Christianity is rising in popularity among young Chinese, surveys consistently find that Christian identification is more common among seniors than among young adults. Despite their limitations, the authors argue that surveys provide crucial information about the recent trajectory of China’s Christian population.

Christian Communities in Lebanon under Ottoman Rule

Abstract This review essay explores the socio-political conditions of Christian communities in Lebanon during the Ottoman Empire’s governance. The study examines the administrative, legal, and social frameworks that shaped the lives of Lebanese Christians under Ottoman rule. It reviews the degree of religious tolerance, the impact of the millet system, and the role of local leaders in mediating relationships between the Christian communities and the Ottoman authorities. By offering a comprehensive historical overview, this work provides a nuanced perspective on the coexistence and conflicts between Christian and Muslim populations, contributing to a broader understanding of interfaith dynamics during this critical period in Middle Eastern history.

Reinterpreting the Funerary Rites of the Mediaeval Necropolis at Trnjane in the Light of Taphonomic Processes

The Mediaeval necropolis at Trnjane, in today’s eastern Serbia, was excavated during the 1970s and the results were published in the 1980s. Based on the material recovered from the graves, it was concluded that the necropolis was used from the end of the 11th to the beginning of the 13th century. The publication that followed the archaeological excavations highlighted the fact that the Christian population was buried there, yet that the endurance of the pagan customs is noticeable. The graves were oriented W-E, but no grave-pits or grave constructions could be identified during the excavation. The dislocated bones registered in the graves were interpreted as the testimony of the pagan rituals, especially of the fear of the buried turning into vampires. Some grave-pits were covered in ashes, indicating the rite of spreading incense over the bottom of the pits. Grave 432 is also interesting, where the skeleton of a newborn was found laid between the legs of an adult oriented in the direction opposite to the rest of the necropolis, and interpreted as the grave of a mother and a child who was not yet baptized. This paper reconsiders some possible reasons for the dislocation of skeletal remains in the graves with the help of the methods of forensic anthropology and archaeo-thanatology, and posits new interpretations of the funerary ritual on these grounds. The case of the newborn hints toward a different idea about the nature of unusual funerals at this necropolis. Namely, graves registered across the world analogous to the description of the grave 432 are usually interpreted as coffin births, or postmortem births. This is a process that, in the wake of the decay of a pregnant woman’s soft tissue, leads to the pressing of the fetus out of the womb. However, for a postmortem birth to happen, it is necessary for a pregnant woman to be buried in a wooden coffin, so that the soil would not block the fetus from being pushed out. The implication posited by the grave 432, of the possible existence of wooden coffins, not noted during the excavations, also brings into question the previous author’s explanation of the dislocated bones in the graves as the consequence of the fear of vampirism. Namely, in the cases of the burials in wooden coffins, the already skeletonized parts of the buried can be dislocated when the boards which the coffin is made from begin rotting and collapse onto the skeleton, moving parts out of their anatomical position. Considering the examples from the necropolis that imply the presence of wooden coffins, the possibility cannot be discounted that the traces identified as ashes are actually the traces of decomposed coffins. Finally, the methods of archaeo-thanatology and forensic anthropology allowed for a new interpretation of the archaeological record of the necropolis at Trnjane. Although the idea of the persistence of the pagan rituals may sound acceptable, the possibility is suggested here of viewing the necropolis at Trnjane in the light of the Christian traditions and taphonomic processes.

The Kosovo Vilayet in the geostrategic plans of the Ottoman Empire and the Eastern Question

During the 19th century, particularly in its second half, significant changes occurred in international relations and the territorial organization of Europe and the world. The collapse of traditional empires, the rise of nationalism, the expansion of imperialism, and the pursuit of a balance of power shaped the dynamics of the geopolitical landscape of the time. The whirlpool of these changes could not be avoided by the Sublime Ottoman State, as the influences from neighboring regions on its territorial integrity, internal, and foreign policies were too strong. All of this was undertaken by the great powers in the context of resolving the “Eastern Question.” In attempting to resist the incursions from both external and internal forces, while contemplating its territorial integrity, the Ottoman Empire was compelled to implement certain administrative changes during the period of Tanzimat reforms, which were essentially geostrategic considerations aimed at preserving control over parts of the Balkans and all that entailed, in a situation where territorial losses were inevitable. During this time, the Ottoman Empire found itself in the vortex of great power interests. Russia sought protection for the Christian population within the Ottoman Empire and access to the Mediterranean, while the Habsburg Monarchy had territorial interests in the Balkans. On the other side were Great Britain and France, both of which opposed Russia's access to the Mediterranean and thus advocated for the survival of the Ottoman Empire. By navigating between the interests of these powers, the Ottoman Empire managed to extend its presence in the Balkans for another thirty-four years following the Congress of Berlin in 1878. The complex demographic structure of the population in the Ottoman provinces in the Balkans was one of the factors that temporarily delayed the resolution of the “Eastern Question.” However, after all the significant historical upheavals—1878 was certainly one of those for the Ottoman Empire—a considerable part of the Muslim population was condemned to a grueling struggle for survival, retreating towards the still secure zones, which were essentially small and rare oases in the Balkans still under Ottoman control. Various types of insecurity—property, legal, personal, and others—forced the Muslim population to emigrate towards the Asian part of the Empire in search of a safer refuge. One of the transit territories on this path was the territory of the Kosovo Vilayet. The arrival of a large number of muhacirs to this area after 1878 led to a series of negative phenomena, particularly in the more significant urban centers. Certainly, there were individuals who skillfully exploited the situation to enrich themselves or to build personal political careers. Although largely educated in Western European countries, Ottoman diplomatic representatives and officials failed to navigate the whirlpool of the impending changes that affected the Ottoman Empire. The political moves they made after 1878 concerning the Balkan territories were short-term and lacked a strong impact on international relations. The aim of this paper is to highlight the geostrategic plans of the Ottoman Empire regarding the Kosovo Vilayet and the unfolding of the Eastern Question up until 1881, when the “Prizren League,” an organization fighting for the national interests of the Albanian people, was dissolved.

“Tepresh” – Tatar custom of commemorating the dead

This article examines Tepresh, a custom of commemorating the dead among the Tatars living in North-Eastern Bulgaria. Based on field research conducted among the Tatar population of Dobrudzha in the period 1990–2005, the author introduces us to a spring funeral custom not mentioned in the scientific literature, which is not practiced by the rest of the Muslim population living in the region. The brief analysis carried out gives reason to assume that this commemoral custom, considered by its bearers to be theirs from time immemorial, has a very complex and veiled characteristic, going back to the distant past even before the resettlement of this people to the territory of Dobrudzha, which was transferred to Bulgaria after the Crimean War of 1853–1856 gg. Through practical ritual actions in the cemetery space, the descendants of the settlers preserve the tradition of maintaining a unique communicative connection with their ancestors and the afterlife in which they find themselves. Due to the fact that this custom is still not registered in the Islamic religious canons, the author makes some comparisons with the bearers of a similar custom among the Christian population of the region called Sofinden, which is also not included in the calendar of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. It is generally accepted that these two commemoral customs exist independently of legislative and religious canons and are exclusively of a folk nature.

Destiny of priests from Oltenia between ”conciliation” with the state, repression and resistance (1944 – 1970s)

The article addresses the impact of the communist regime in Romania on the servants of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Oltenia, the Romanian province with the largest Orthodox Christian population in the country. The historical and political context with direct consequences on religious life was analyzed. The political factor used various moderate and violent methods in the relationship with the clergy. On the one hand, there is the tendency of the communist regime to include the clergy from Oltenia into the political life, and on the other hand, they were subjected to various forms of repression. Some of the priests resisted the communist regime.

Selected Phenomena from the Arabic Dialect of the Jews of Damascus

Abstract This article presents, for the first time, a range of features in Judeo-Damascene (JD), the spoken dialect of the Jews of Damascus, that distinguish it from the common Damascene (CD) dialect of the non-Jewish communities. The article is based on recorded interviews with Damascene Jews. This Jewish dialect is distinct from the Arabic dialect spoken by the Muslim and Christian populations of Damascus not only lexically—in the use of vocabulary from Hebrew and Romance sources—but also in some features of its phonology and morphology. Distinctive forms appear in verbal inflections, pronouns, prepositions, and other morphological categories. The article also compares JD with other Jewish dialects and vernaculars in the Levant and shows some interesting links between JD and Christian Damascene.

The art of translation in the Abbasid period

Arab-Islamic culture as a product of the mental and spiritual potential of many peoples around the world forms an important branch of human civilization. In particular, with the Abbasids overthrew the Umayyad dynasty, the role of non-Arabs in this culture increased, and the local population of the territories where Islam originated made their contribution to the all-Muslim culture. The strengthening of Islam in the conquered territories is observed with the strengthening of urbanization. Cities such as Basra, Kufa, Baghdad, Samarkand, Kardoba, Toledo are distinguished by a universal–cosmopolitan character, in which various ethnic communities and religions meet. On the other hand, with the intensification of the translation movement, Greek philosophical thought and Indo–Iranian thought penetrate into the depths of Islamic religion. The local Christian population, especially scholars, scribes and healers, who have firmly established themselves in the administrative institutions of the Baghdad caliphs, in the court of individual nobles, play a major role in this. Their activities are reflected in the work of both christian and muslim authors.

Eastern Europe Conflicts: Does Russia Occupies Ukraine?

The overwhelming majority of the world considers Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, an unlawful occupation. Russia’s seizure of Crimea was the first time since the Second World War that a European state annexed the territory of another. Although the Russian government denies it, Russian “volunteers” and regular troops are also present in the two self-proclaimed pro-Russian “people’s republics” in the Donbas region near the Russian border. However, exploiting the late 14th-century decline of Mongol power, the Grand Principality of Moscow and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (the latter eventually uniting with Poland) divided the former Russia lands. A new social group of Ukrainian Cossacks developed on the southern frontier of Poland, guarding it against Crimean Tatar raids. The Ukrainian Cossacks were a large group of free people, many of them were peasant serfs, who guarded the southern steppe border of Poland against Turkish and Tatar raids. The concept of ‘Ukraine’ already existed, but locals continued calling themselves ‘Rusyns’, while referring to the future Russians as ‘Muscovites’. By the early 17th century, the Orthodox Christian population of the Ukrainian lands had become antagonized by Catholic Poland’s religious policies and the spread of serfdom – a form of slavery in which peasants were bound to the land and sold with it. A 1648 Cossack rebellion led by Hetman (military leader) Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1595–1657) became a mass social and religious war against Polish rule, resulting in the creation of the Hetmanate, a Cossack polity nominally autonomous under the Polish king but independent in fact. Searching for allies against Poland, Khmelnytsky accepted the “protection” of the Orthodox Russian tsar in the 1654 Treaty of Pereiaslav. The exact meaning of “protection” continues to be debated today, but subsequent Russian policies affected the absorption of the Cossack lands, especially after Hetman Ivan Mazepa’s (1639–1709) failed attempt in 1709 to break with Moscow.

Doña Gracia Nasi: Between Diplomacy and Private Interests

Abstract: This article presents six new letters and documents recently found in the State Archive of Modena concerning the relationship between the wealthy conversa Doña Gracia Nasi and Ercole II d’Este, Duke of Ferrara. This discovery, which includes four letters signed by Doña Gracia herself, reveals the extent of the relationship between the Este family and the Nasi family, beginning with Doña Gracia’s time in Ferrara and continuing after her move to Constantinople. The letters and documents concern the Portuguese New Christian population of Ferrara, the needs of Ercole II, and, finally, Doña Gracia’s own family business. This article gives new insights into the financial support that Doña Gracia gave to the Duke of Ferrara over a number of years, as well as a possible direct business agreement between them, revealing the extent of the Nasi’s commercial power. Furthermore, in addition to the Nasi’s economic power, the letters also demonstrate their diplomatic influence on the foreign diplomats in Constantinople on behalf of the Este. The letters and documents are significant in that they show how a strong relationship was established and maintained between the two families throughout the life of Duke Ercole II as “father of justice and kindness,” while adding to our existing documentary knowledge of Doña Gracia Nasi, one of the wealthiest women of Renaissance Europe.

Porous Secularity: Religious Modernity and the Vertical Religious Diversity in Cold War South Korea

Beyond the once dominant secularization thesis that anticipated the decline of religion in the modern era, the academic study of religion has in recent decades revisited secular as one of the factors that shape religion and religions in the globalized world. Against this theoretical backdrop, in this article, I use the case of South Korea to explore how secular and religion interact in contemporary global society. It focuses on describing the postcolonial reformulation of secularity and the corresponding transformation of religious diversity in Cold War South Korea. The Japanese colonial secularism rigidly banning the public and political engagement of religion was replaced by the flexible secular-religious divide after liberation of 1945. The porous mode of secularity extensively admitted religious entities to affect processes of postcolonial nation-building. Religious values, interests, and resources have been applied in motivating, pushing, and justifying South Koreans to devote themselves to developing the national community as a whole. Such a form of secularity became a critical condition that caused South Korea’s religious landscape to be reorganized in a vertical and unequal way. On the one hand, Buddhist and Christian populations grew remarkably in the liberated field of religion, while freedom of religion was recognized as a key ideological principle of the anticommunist country. On the other hand, folk beliefs and minority religious groups were often considered “superstitions”, “pseudo religions”, “heretics”, or even “evil religions”. With the pliable secularity at work, religious diversity was reconfigured hierarchically in the postcolonial society.

FROM THE FRINGES TO THE FOREFRONT: THE RISE OF THE BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY (BJP) IN NAGALAND

This paper delves into the intriguing phenomenon of the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) rise to prominence in Nagaland, a state with a predominantly Christian population. Historically, Nagaland's political landscape has been dominated by regional parties advocating for distinct ethnic and tribal interests. However, the BJP's recent electoral successes have significantly challenged this established political order, prompting inquiries into the factors driving its rise.

PLURALISME PENYELENGGARAAN PENDIDIKAN BERBASIS KEAGAMAAN KRISTEN DAN KATOLIK DI KABUPATEN BANGKALAN

This research aims to take a space that has not received attention in the field of education that intersects with the complexity of community elements towards religious minority groups. Therefore, it is important to tackle the conception of pluralism in the implementation of non-Muslim religious-based education as a representation of the diversity of multicultural values of Madura. This research uses a qualitative methodology with an ethnomethodological approach. This study focuses on the assumption of "subjectivity" through the interpretive actions of community members who produce and organize daily experiences related to inter-religious tolerance values. The focus of this study concern a views of stakeholders, including the organizational structure of educational institutions and local government officials regarding the implementation of non-Muslim religious-based education as a representation of minority groups. Bangkalan Regency was chosen as the research location, referring to the highest proportion of Christian and Catholic population among the four regencies on Madura Island. The results of this study show the attitude of tolerance between religious communities as a representation of pluralism, especially for religious minority groups in the field of education provision that occurs in Bangkalan Regency.

North and South in Medieval Iberia: A historical and environmental estimate through isotopic analyses.

The Middle Ages in the Iberian Peninsula is a period of special interest for studying the relationship of climate change with historical and socioeconomic processes. Between the 8th and 15th centuries AD, the Peninsula was characterized not only by complex political, cultural, and social transitions but also by major variations in the climate. The objective of this study was to examine differences in diet and mobility between distinct populations of the Peninsula and explore the possible relationship of diet, mobility, and culture with environmental variables and geographical settings. For this purpose, we obtained stable isotopic ratios of carbon and oxygen (δ13C and δ18O) from the enamel apatite of first upper incisors from 145 individuals at eight archeological sites that represent both Christian and Islamic communities and both rural and urban social settings. Results revealed a dietary difference between Christian and Islamic populations, observing a greater contribution of C4 plants, possibly sorghum, in the diet of the latter, especially in a rural setting. The disparity in oxygen isotopic ratios between populations from the North and South of the Peninsula is consistent with modern climatic differences between these regions. In this line, intraregional variability in oxygen isotopic ratios may hint at diachronic occupation phases under varying climatic conditions. The few isotopic outliers in our sample suggest overall low mobility levels.

APPLICATION OF MICROBIOMORPHIC AND TOTAL PHOSPHORUS ANALYSES TO THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE SREDNY ZELENCHUK TEMPLE, NIZHNY ARKHYZ HILLFORT

The article presents the results of the first geoarchaeological study of the materials of Christian burials identified in the interior of the Middle Zelenchuk temple of the 10th century in the Nizhne-Arkhyz ancient settlement (Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia). The results of microbiomorphic (phytolith) and total phosphorus content analyses allowed us to reveal previously unknown features of the funeral rites of the multicultural and multi-ethnic Christian population of one of the largest cities of the North Caucasus in the Middle Ages. The differences in funerary practices between the 11th and 13th centuries became evident when studying even a small group of funerary complexes in which people of the same social group – representatives of the social elite of Western Alania – were buried. The geoarchaeological study showed an abundance of plant and animal organic matter in the burials. The complex analysis of archaeological materials and data obtained during the microbiomorphic study allowed us to conclude that members of the urban Christian community had several burial traditions: in stone boxes (tombs), in wooden frames, and a mixed ritual when a wooden structure was placed in a stone box. The presence of wooden bark particles in the burials seems to be related not so much to the material from which the burial structures were made as to the presence in the graves of bark or bast objects (bast caskets or boxes, birch bark amulets, toys, etc.). The tradition known from pagan Alanian burials of placing the head of the deceased on a “stone cushion” (more typical for male burials) was preserved in early Christian burials. In one of the four women’s graves studied, the analysis showed the presence of a “hay pillow.” Probably, before the burial, a ritual of washing the deceased was performed, as evidenced by the presence of diatoms and sponge spicules in the samples.

The Christian Population of 16th-Century Ottoman Anatolia: An Overview and Preliminary Observations on Its Location and Numbers in the 1520s

Abstract By the 15th century, the transformation of Anatolia into a region with a large Muslim majority had been completed. By then the Christian population in most of Anatolia was either small—in absolute numbers as well as in comparison to Muslims—or non-existent. This general picture has long been known to scholarship, yet no effort has been made to date to provide a systematic overall perspective of the Christian presence in Ottoman Anatolia. This article offers a preliminary overview of the location and relative strength or weakness of that presence in the different parts of Anatolia, based on data from Ottoman fiscal registers that reflect the situation in the 1520s.

Representation of Indian Christians and their ‘othering’ in Mainstream Indian Cinema, a Critical Evaluation

Abstract The recent changing tides of social and political climate across the globe has impacted the influence of media and culture (Michael Gurevitch, 1982), and in effect, the social fabric of our globalised society. This paper uses theories from Sturcturalism to understand better the larger socio-cultural structures that lay deeply embedded into our understanding of society as a whole. This cultural understanding is important to look at media (and by extension film) through its power dynamics and capital it provides to the groups that it represents and the groups that it does not. The study of these representations as being in opposition to each other in the way of ‘in’ and ‘out’ groups to understand the ways in which culture and cinema receive minorities, and for this paper, the Indian Christian identity in India. Mainstream cinema or Bollywood helps in the translation of in and out groups into the ‘othering’ of religious minorities (Brons, 2015) while also presenting and confirming the already existing ideas of the identity of minorities. This paper looks to identify the importance of alternative cinema, in this case regional Malayalam Cinema, for minorities that have been marginalised by the media and their role in the repairing the self-image of these minorities. The intrinsic binary between the alternative and mainstream cinema here are representative of the power and lack thereof for these minorities in terms of their social and self-perception.This paper goes a step further by not just looking at Indian Christians as a homogeneous whole but also determining the difference in portrayal and representation of the different denominations of the Indian Christian community. Therefore, this paper attempts to explain the reasons for the invisibility of Indian Christian representation or its ‘other-ing’ in mainstream film while also understanding the binary in the internal cultural dynamics within the Christian population through the lens of popular culture and regional or alternative cinema.

Identifying Cultural Habits and Economical Preferences in the Islamic Period, Mount Zion, Jerusalem

Archaeological and historical sources describe differently the course of events that occurred during the Islamic conquest of Jerusalem. Was the transition from the Byzantine to the Islamic period a short and dramatic event or a long and steady process? This study aims to examine the Islamic cultural influences over Jerusalem during the Byzantine/Umayyad period and later post-earthquake of the 8th century CE. Thus, we carried out a study of Mount Zion’s (seasons 2018 and 2019) faunal assemblages, analyzing the species discovered at the site, their demography and distribution between the different architectural contexts. The focus was on evaluating the cultural identity and economic preferences of the local population. The remains we found indicate that the economy was based mainly on caprines, pigs and fish. As the site was located inside the Jerusalem walls, the locals gained their meat supply from the local markets and might have been involved in agriculture outside the walls. Although the site experienced architectural alterations between the two periods, the Christian population remained, and their faunal economy did not change from the Byzantine period till after the earthquake.

Crisis of Faith: Today's African Christians and Mami-Wata (Mother-Water) Spirituality

precis: This study provides an analysis of the impact of Mami-Wata spirituality on an understanding of the place and fate of Christianity in Africa today. A section of the Christian population negotiates their Christian beliefs through the prism of their traditional African religious cosmology and worldviews. This new Christian African spirituality is generating waves of faith crises. While previous scholarship has investigated the crises of African Christian faith from the dominant point of view of African culture and context, from Christian-Muslim interaction, or from the influence of Western elements, there are no works that show the multidimensional impacts of Mami-Wata spirituality on Christians and their faith, identity, and theological discourses. Departing from past works, the present work investigates how rudimentary constructs of African spirituality have engaged Christianity on several fronts, from the problem of faith crisis and the engagement of the Mami-Wata deity to how some African Christians wrestle with their devotion to the Virgin Mary vis-à-vis the traditional Mami-Wata deity. This analysis also demonstrates the indispensability of the female divine in spiritual and religious discourses, and it provides a pathway to construct a theology that is both truly Christian and grounded in African realities.

Holocaust Analogies, Conspiracy Theories, and Far-Right Victimhood: Forum for Democracy and the Future of Holocaust Memory in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT This article examines the relationship between the Far Right and Holocaust memory politics in the Netherlands through an in-depth analysis of the antisemitic and conspiratorial discourse of far-right politician Thierry Baudet and his party, Forum for Democracy (FvD). While the FvD positioned themselves as a victim of establishment politics from the outset, the party used their opposition to government COVID-19 policies to bolster the image of themselves as victim of state power as well as Jewish conspiracies. This article argues that Baudet’s Holocaust relativization and his criticism of the evolving character of Dutch Holocaust memory are intimately tied to his and the FvD’s antisemitic worldview, in which Jews are to blame for the decline of a mythologized white, Christian Dutch nation. In this context, the FvD used Holocaust analogies on social media, in the Dutch parliament, and during rallies to simultaneously accuse Jews of exploiting a victim identity for moral legitimacy and to contest the government’s acknowledgment of Dutch collaboration and inclusion of Jewish experiences into a broader national narrative of the Second World War. In posing these challenges to the status of the Holocaust in contemporary memory politics, Baudet and the FvD attempt to rewrite Dutch history with the white, Christian population as the true bearers of Dutch heritage and identity. Examining the character and normalization of Holocaust relativization in a country still lauded internationally for its tolerance despite its delayed process of ‘coming to terms’ with its Holocaust past demonstrates the centrality of memory politics to far-right ideologies.