Public Prayer Research Articles

Public Prayer and the New Political Misuse of Religion within Western Christianity in Central Europe

The following text conducts a conceptual analysis of new misuses of religion for political purposes within Western Christianity in Central Europe. The primary objective is to present a conceptual understanding and analysis of this phenomenon, considering both quantitative and qualitative research already conducted. The analysis reveals a paradox wherein the misuse is deemed both unsuccessful and successful. The paradox unfolds as unsuccessful predominantly among the majority of Christians in Europe, especially when compared to its successful counterparts in Orthodox Christianity (e.g., in Russia) and Islam (in Europe). Notably, the success of misuse is more pronounced among Central and Eastern European Christians than among Western European Christians. Numerous exceptions contribute to this paradox, including a positive correlation between Christians and far–right parties, and instances of public prayer at state borders, town squares, and near abortion clinics. This pattern is particularly pronounced in regions with a higher prevalence of Roman Catholics than Protestants. The author presents a basic explication of why these misuses appear or are attempted, and are only minimally or mildly successful, namely, because of the strong posed by democracy, free market, and rule of law.

REVIEW: Even amidst the pain, author manages to show kindness

Excommunicated. A multigenerational story of leaving the Exclusive Brethren, by Craig Hoyle. Auckland: Harper Collins, 2023. 327 pages. ISBN 9871775542018 IN THIS deeply personal memoir, Sunday Star-Times journalist Craig Hoyle turns his lens on his own family and the destructive effects upon them of their religion. Growing up in an Exclusive Brethren family meant closeness and warmth, but it also meant strict discipline, public prayers every day, and not really having schoolfriends for young Craig. It also meant there were family members nobody talked about because they had transgressed increasingly arbitrary sets of rules, or called out high-handed or incompetent leadership.

Public Prayer as Serious Play: Coming-of-Age in Hip Hop Cultures

Abstract Aggrieved religious practitioners often speak to God in public. Their demands of God elicit critical examination not least because they are irreverent and apathetic. The first part of this article explains the importance of hip hop culture to a democratic society through an analysis of Cornel West’s “danceable education”. The second part describes such an education as pious and playful. The next two parts examine how public prayers from a hip hop (part three) and gospel (part four) artist show how questioning God is a socially valuable way to come-of-age. Artists whose vocation is an act of protest against God-forsakenness and poor governance are exemplified in the invocations of those for whom respectability and redemption remain essential. The vocation of invocations in public stress the social value of loss and negation for reasons—maturation and playing—that make public God-talk good for groups that stubbornly need or actively ignore religious practices.

Category of Addressee in New Apostolic Prayer: Categorical-Textual and Axiological Aspects

The study examines the realization of the addressee category in Protestant — New Apostolic prayers. The object of analysis is prayer as a genre of religious functional style, and the subject is the addressee category. The aim of the work is to describe the ways of explication of the addressee category in a corpus of 220 public prayers of New Apostolic Christians. The textual material was collected through participant observation and consists of transcribed audio recordings of prayers — non-reproducible texts spontaneously created by both churchgoers and clergy in various communicative situations, both religious and non-religious. The methodology of constructing thematic nomination chains is applied on a categorical-textual basis to describe the addressee category. It has been revealed that the addressee is denoted using personal pronouns ‘we’, possessive pronoun ‘our’, and nouns ‘community’, ‘brothers and sisters’, ‘children’, ‘sinners’. The results of the analysis show that these nominations are included in positively colored contexts, including the nomination ‘sinners’, which is conditioned by the specificity of the doctrine: the praying individuals are focused not on repentance but on gratitude for forgiveness. The listed ways of nominating the addressee and the description of evaluative contexts allow us to conclude about the reflection of ‘we axiological’ in the texts of New Apostolic Christians.

Старообрядчество Ижевского завода в контексте взаимоотношений с заводской администрацией и духовенством в дореформенный период

The author analyzes the Old Believers of the Izhevsk factory of the Vyatka province. The focus of this study is the interaction between the factory administration, clergy and Old Believers. The author studied the situation of the plant's Old Believers in the context of the confessional policy of the Russian Empire and made several conclusions. Firstly, the Old Believers appeared in the factory district probably at the end of the 18th - early 19th century, when workers were recruited for weapons industry. Secondly, the laws of the Russian Empire regarding the Old Believers also applied in the factory district. The legislation was tightened during the reign of Nicholas I, especially since the 1840s, when the harm of sects to society was determined. The purpose of the legislation was to protect the monarchy, the Orthodox Church and the family. The measures of influence on the Old Believers were conversations, sermons, prohibitions of public prayers, closure of prayer houses, confiscation of objects of worship, initiation of court cases. The clergy of the Izhevsk churches cooperated with the factory administration. As a result, the number of Old Believers decreased in the Izhevsk factory by the end of the studied period. In turn, the Old Believer communities preserved the specifics of social and family life and rituals, polemicized with the clergy, submitted petitions, cited as an argument the importance of factory work as a civil service.

Празднование Нового года в Византии

Introduction. Many cultures consider the first day of the new year a holiday which supposes the performance of specific rituals and rites. The traditions of New Year celebrations reflect the nature of this or that civilization, its historical experience, and religious and world-viewing constants. The said is to the full extent actual for the Byzantine civilization. The purpose of the work is to reconstruct the general scenario of official celebrations, to trace its evolution, and to analyse the folk tradition related to it. Methods and materials. The main sources of the given research are liturgical books, treatises on ceremonies, and epistolography. Analysis. In Byzantium, the New Year was celebrated on September 1 at different levels: church, state, and public. Despite its origin from the laity, the Byzantines viewed this holiday primarily as religious as it opened both the new year cycle and the church calendar. By the tenth century, there developed the order of service (akolouthia) for the first day of the new year. The patriarch served special liturgies in St Sophia’s Church and performed a crucession. The emperor was not allowed to participate in the church rituals. In Late Byzantium, the climax of the New Year ritual was the public prayer made in the imperial capital, in the Forum of Constantine, in the presence of the emperor. The ceremonial protocol documented that the ruler must participate in the New Year service. The ordinary people of Byzantium widely celebrated this holiday, spending this day in going to church, paying visits, and exchanging greetings. Conclusions. The enlarging of the programme of palatial ceremonies with the emperor’s appearance in the New Year celebration shows, from the one hand, the strengthening of the secular component of the holiday and, on the other hand, the trend to sacralization of the palatial life. The comparison of the scenario of the New Year celebration that existed in the Age of the Palaiologoi with the official holiday on such a case in the pre-Petrine Russia shows an important Byzantine influence on Russian culture of celebration and church policy.

Об одном бытовом предмете алтайцев

The article is devoted to the culture and religious beliefs of the Altaians and the use of household, family things in the course of rituals. In the traditional culture, reflecting the pastoral lifestyle of nomads, felt products occupy a special place. Everyday household items, such as felt, being included in the ritual field of the rite, acquire special significance. During a religious prayer, they can be presented as a bedding for the master spirit of Altai, celestial deities who can “descend from heaven” and sit on a carpet. In the first half of the XX century. in rituals, large felt carpets were widely used, which are used in everyday life as a “wrapping” material for newborn lambs and calves. Nowadays, the practice includes small family rugs, which the faithful take with them to individual or public prayers.

The Dark Prelude

The Dark Prelude Shana L. Redmond (bio) For Robeson Cade "Dark Prelude": A Preliminary Playlist (In Order of Appearance) Leon Bridges, "Sweeter" (Gold-Diggers Sound, Columbia Records, 2021). Dawn featuring Tony Orlando, "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (Tuneweaving, Arista Records, 1973). Roberta Flack, "Killing Me Softly with His Song" (Killing Me Softly, Atlantic Records, 1973). The Five Satins, "In the Still of the Nite" ("In the Still of the Nite"/"The Jones Girl" [single], Ember Records, 1956). Gladys Knight and the Pips, "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)" (Neither One of Us, Soul Records/Motown Records, 1973). Tye Tribbet, "What Can I Do?" (Greater Than (Live), Motown Gospel, 2013). I cry a lot for what I'm learning and those things that I'm being forced to acknowledge that I already knew. I'm in the throes of something risky; every nerve has risen to the surface. Paper cuts draw blood, a pinprick might bring me to my knees. Devastation has become a companion, and for its presence "I [, like Kendrick,] grieve different." The inventory that I'm tasked with is composed of the deleted details of kin. Reading their names is enough for the corners of my mouth to turn down, inhalations through my nose to quicken, my cheeks wet. This too is a part of my process; navigation of Black Study's thick emotion. The work tonight is not an indictment of the state of the field. Like the 2022 CFP, it is an indictment of the state of the world and the state of our hearts. It's about the feelings of desire and need that guide our pens without concern for the gatekeepers and their aspirants who lie in wait. It's about what the work forces us to do and forces us to become. When you write, do you laugh a lot, love a lot, tear up a lot, liberate a lot, take cues from emcees a lot, think about the people not on the page a lot, find wonder in it a lot, get hot [End Page 203] with anger a lot, play a lot, create a better world a lot? Are those who haunt your thought hours pleased or furious for the truth you've told? Do you live with them as they live with you? I'm lingering again in the discontinuities of death named by comrade Sharon Holland.1 I'm trying to revive the details carried to graves—to write answers to the questions we don't ask. I'm trying to become an amplifier for a chorus whose bright songs have been compressed to undertones beneath the weight of symbolism and spectacle. If only all movies about Black people struggling against the machinery of this country were, instead, movies about Black people living.2 Not just the movies but the books too. So I'm writing from the unremarkable, expansive moments of repair, diplomacy, curiosity, and affection prior to the fatal execution of no-knock warrants and traffic stops in order to force a detour away from Black expiration to Black living as a visionary rehearsal for futures assembled over lifetimes, no matter how short or how long that time may be. Hopin' for a life more sweeter/Instead I'm just a story repeatin' Why do I fear with skin dark as night/Can't feel peace with those judgin' eyes3 A single F-note drone accompanies Leon Bridges's public prayer—a haunting hum that rises and falls in prominence within and between the verses, structuring the whole composition, never allowing us to know that the song could sound differently. Listeners are tethered to that pitch of song, of life, gripped by all the realities it accompanies. Is it the buzz of a hospital monitor at the end of life or the din of constant danger that structures Black life as a sequence of possible endings around every corner? Perhaps, instead, it's a buoy, a lifeline, a stable chord for listeners who know too well that of which he sings: the tears that rain down on us and the songs sung over us. He's...

Sports and Religion in the Supreme Court: Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Feb 01, 2023

Sports and Religion in the Supreme Court:Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Feb 01, 2023 Cody Musselman (bio), Frank Klose (bio), Eric Bain-Selbo (bio), and Eric Stephen (bio) SUMMARY KEYWORDS Establishment Clause, prayer, coercion, Lemon test, football Background: During the 2021–2022 term, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case about school prayer called Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, in which Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Washington, engaged in public prayer at the 50-yard line after football games. Kennedy had been praying at the 50-yard line since 2008, and what was initially a solo prayer changed over time into nearly the entire team joining him in prayer after shaking hands with the opposing team after every game. The school district feared his actions violated the Establishment Clause and would open up the school district to legal liability: that they could be sued for showing favor to a certain religion. The school district asked Kennedy to stop his public prayers and tried to accommodate his ability to privately pray. Kennedy refused and the school district put him on paid leave. Kennedy sued Bremerton School District, claiming his First Amendment rights to exercise his religion and free speech were violated. In a 6–3 opinion written by Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court sided with Kennedy. This case, about the separation of church and state, raised several questions: Is a public-school employee’s prayer during school sports activities protected speech? And if so, can the public-school employer prohibit it to avoid violating the Establishment Clause? Football in America Cody Musselman I’d like us to begin by talking about the significance of football to American identity. What’s the significance of Kennedy’s prayers happening on the 50-yard line at a football game versus some other kind of sporting event? Eric Bain-Selbo Football is the most popular sport in our country and so everything is magnified if it touches football in ways that it wouldn’t have been if this [End Page 50] had been happening at a lacrosse game. It would still be an incredibly important case, but I think that anything that touches football is going to have a heightened significance. Frank Klose I think regionally, it kind of varies the extent in which [high school] football is has significance. In terms of the mid-Atlantic region and city of Philadelphia, a lot of these big cities around here don’t have college football teams or high school football teams of significance. So, I don’t know if public prayer on the 50-yard line would even go noticed in the city of Philadelphia. But I wonder if the location has something to do with it. I think the culture in the city of Philadelphia, football isn’t big enough for something like that to even get noticed at the high school or college levels because of just where we are geographically. Eric Bain-Selbo If we think about the civil religion of the United States, football plays a really central role in that, as does Christianity. And in this case, we are clearly dealing with something that involves two institutions that are particularly important to a lot of Americans [Christianity and football]. Establishment Religion Cody Musselman Yes, speaking of how prevalent Christianity is in American culture, let’s discuss questions about establishment religion and the role of conservative Christians in pushing to make Christianity America’s establishment religion. Frank Klose I’m actually a little surprised that the Supreme Court would say it’s okay. There’s been a number of cases (including, let’s say, a religious sister—a Catholic sister—who is teaching in a public school who wears her religious garb) that don’t usually go this way because otherwise it would be seen as an endorsement of a religion by the state. But in Kennedy v. Bremerton the fact is that the coach was still essentially an agent of the state because Kennedy was employed by the state. I’m surprised by this decision. [End Page 51] Supreme Court precedent was that anybody giving the impression that the state...

Святилище Дыдрыпшь-ныха вчера и сегодня

The sanctuary of Dydrypsh, which is located on the territory of the Achandara village in Bzyb region of Abkhazia, is revered by all Abkhazian society. According to local residents, not only the sanctuary is the main one, but also its priest, who currently conducts rituals during public prayers. The article highlights three key topics related to this sacred place. Primarily these are pre-revolutionary sources and the information about the sanctuary contained in them, as well as scientific literature on this topic. Special attention is paid to the priests from the Chichba clan, who were first mentioned in the 19th century. It is not possible to establish the historical period when the clan received this privilege, as well as the moment when they became the main priests in Abkhazia. Of particular interest is the story of obtaining the priesthood by the Chichba clan from the Achba princes, which appeared in the research literature only in the 20th century. The third topic addressed in the article is the practice of prayer in the sanctuary. In the communications of the 19th century, detailed descriptions of various kinds of oaths are given as well as information about what punishment the criminal should suffer from the point of view of the victim. It is important to note the transformation of these oaths, which are currently prohibited by the Council of priests.

Нові аспекти релігійного життя в Україні в умовах соціальних викликів XXI століття

The changes in religious life of Ukrainian society of the 21st century are analysed in the article. Problems of church-state relations transformation, significance of religious-cultural heritage, confessional diversity and religious influence on society remain relevant not only in Ukraine, but in Europe as a whole. The peculiarity of Ukrainian religious life of the time period studied consists in its denominational diversity provided by law. Connection between religious affiliation and national identity in Ukrainian society, documented by researchers, is not only found in Orthodox midst, but also in Catholic, Islamic and Jewish religious communities. The Revolution of Dignity has become a turning point in the activity of church organizations. Many Prayerful Maidans, held during that time in various Ukrainian cities, are ecumenical in nature. The concept of Maidan theology has appeared and become widely used. It is introduced by the theologian Kyrylo Hovorun. This process has confirmed the necessity for church to start work in the direction of dialogue with society. Civic attitude of church leaders and social doctrine of the church have experienced significant changes because of military events in the Eastern Ukraine. Interconfessional consolidation of religious communities and believers on the principles of patriotism has taken place in the conditions of threat of the state security loss. The religious landscape of the country has been changed because of the territories loss and migration processes: a number of Protestant and Muslim communities is decreased on the occupied territories. The representatives of various denominations provide humanitarian aid to the wounded, displaced persons and the residents of the so-called Grey Zone. Military chaplaincy has become widespread and established by law. Receiving of the Tomos in 2018 and creation of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine has become a significant geopolitical event, assessed by the public opinion as an act of justice restoring, restitution of its historical heritage to Ukrainian church. Covid-19 pandemia has corrected the development of the country’s religious life, influencing both the level of common religiosity of the population and social stability in general. The significance of digital technologies in churches’ activity has increased during this time. Virtual liturgies and public prayers have hundreds of thousands of views (especially on holidays), social media vaccine discussions, video addresses of religious leaders to the flock in connection with key social events testify the population interest in church issues and importance of the religious factor in modern Ukrainian society.

Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia

<i>Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia</i>

Reading Other People’s Prayers: A Pilot Study around a Prayer Tree at a Church Christmas Tree Festival

ABSTRACT This pilot study explores the extent to which adults attending a Christmas tree festival in a parish church read prayers hung by others on the festival prayer tree. In the growing body of empirical research on prayer content in public prayer spaces, the practice of reading others’ prayers has tended to be inferred from copying patterns evident in prayer books, rather than evidenced from on-site observation. To discover whether on-site observation is feasible, four 30-minute observations were conducted over two days around the festival prayer tree. Use of hand tally counters during these sessions revealed that on average 40% of festivalgoers who entered the chapel where the prayer tree was located read at least one prayer written by someone else. Possible motivations are discussed. On the basis of this limited pilot study, it is recommended that more sophisticated ethnographic work be carried out in prayer facilities of public spaces.

The Pulpit's Audible Shadow: Sonic Experience in Deborah Kay Davies's Tirzah and the Prince of Crows

Reviews of Deborah Kay Davies’s 2018 novel <i>Tirzah and the Prince of Crows</i> praised its attention to sensory detail and the deep engagement with nature shown by its protagonist, Tirzah, as she passes from adolescence to adulthood within a small religious community in 1970s Wales. This article explores some of the many ways in which meaningful sounds affect Tirzah’s struggle against the social restrictions placed upon her by the Noncomformist ideals of her family and community. I call the sonic element of Tirzah’s struggle ‘the pulpit’s audible shadow’ in tribute to M. Wynn Thomas’s idea of ‘the shadow of the pulpit’, which traces the influence of Nonconformism on Welsh writing in English. While Thomas identifies key sonic details of Nonconformist life – ‘public prayers, testimonies, confessions, groans, tears, exclamations’ – there has been little analysis of the effects produced by Nonconformist sounds outside chapel walls. In Davies’s novel, the pulpit’s shadow is audible whenever Tirzah’s emotional development is linked to her experience of sonic effects which, as defined by the theorists Jean-Francois Augoyard and Henry Torgue, emerge in the interrelationship between a sound, its physical and social context, and the experiences of the people within its range. The sonic effects of repulsion and filtration, for example, articulate Tirzah’s antagonistic relationship to her father and his religion. Repulsion, an effect ‘that produces, in an uncontrolled or conscious way, an attitude of rejection and behaviours of flight’, deters Tirzah from chapel life and guides her towards her own private theology. Filtration, ‘a reinforcing or weakening of specific frequencies of a sound’, subtly shapes the relationship between Tirzah and her father within the walls of their house. Overall, Davies’s careful representations of religiously-inflected audible events allow us to imagine the social and personal significance of historical sonic experience in Wales.

The Western Wall Controversy

Abstract Since 1988 a group of Jewish women in Israel, who later organized as the “Women of the Wall,” have been battling to realize what they see as their right to hold a public prayer service, while wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries and reading from a Torah scroll, in the women’s section of the Western Wall Plaza. Some of the Orthodox are fiercely opposed to the WoW and its project. This issue has reached the Israeli courts several times and has repeatedly engaged the political system. This article examines whether one of the two positions can draw on constitutional arguments that would justify a ruling in its favor.

RITUALS AND BELIEFS OF SHARKAN UDMURTS IN THE LOCALITY OF PISLEGOVO

The article is devoted to the description of the rituals and beliefs of the Sharkan Udmurts in the Pislegovo locality. It is based on the materials of the ethnographic expedition conducted in 1993 and 2001 in the Sharkan district of the Udmurt Republic at the watershed of the Cheptsa and Kama Rivers' basins. The work contains the information on the demographic indicators, settlement area, dialect terms used by this local Udmurt group. Here is given the characteristic of the cult places, family and calendar rites of the following settlements as the villages of Pislegovo, Bol’shoy Bilib, Malyj Bilib, Stary Baibek, Verkh-Sjurzja, Badjarvyr, Kykva, and others. The secret (undeclared) public center of the settlement was the village of Pisegovo. The Kargurez’ elevation as a kind of sacred value of the local Udmurts is situated near the village. The traditional public prayers of Badgym busy vös’ (‘great prayer in a field’) were held in the nearby village. There were sacrificed foals and sheep. It was revealed that the border between the settlement areas of two Udmurt ethnographic groups, such as the northern ( vatka palios “residents of the Vyatka side”) and southern ( kuzon palios “residents of the Kazan side”), went through the locality.

The Traditional Mass: History, Form, and Theology of the Classical Roman Rite by Michael Fiedrowicz

Reviewed by: The Traditional Mass: History, Form, and Theology of the Classical Roman Rite by Michael Fiedrowicz Daniel Waldow Michael Fiedrowicz The Traditional Mass: History, Form, and Theology of the Classical Roman Rite Translated by Rose Pfeifer Brooklyn, NY: Angelico Press, 2020. xvi + 331 pages. Paperback. $22.95. English speakers are in Rose Pfeifer's debt for her laudable translation of the 2019, fifth edition of Michael Fiedrowicz's The Traditional Mass. This book is an exemplary scholarly introduction to the content, meaning, and history of what is commonly called the "Latin Mass." The book aims principally for breadth, but at 304 body pages it also treats each of its topics with significant depth. The extensive footnotes and 15-page bibliography, organized by topic, are a tremendous resource for those wishing to do further research. Fiedrowicz's book is divided into three parts. Part I ("History") traces and assesses the historical development of the Roman Eucharistic rite. Chapter 1 succinctly details the growth of the Roman Mass from the apostolic era up to its revision in the 1962 Roman Missal. With this historical context in place, chapter 2 assesses the appropriateness of the various titles which have been given to the "Mass of the Ages" (46). Chapter 3 defends the theological legitimacy of the changes that occurred to the Roman Rite over the course of centuries. These various additions and reforms were always enacted in order to better express and protect the essence of the sacred mystery that is the Mass (54). Reforms were always "cautious and restrained," while additions always consisted of venerable liturgical customs that had already been proven in practice (55–56). Part II ("Form") studies the basic meaning of the structure and various parts of the Mass. Chapter 4 discusses the three levels of solemnity with which the Mass can be celebrated. Chapter 5 is an outstanding, step by step exposition of the meaning and historical origin of every major part of both the Mass of the Catechumens and the Mass of the Faithful. Chapter 6 covers the meaning of liturgical seasons and feast days. Chapter 7 treats the history and theological significance of ad orientem, versus altare and ad Dominum liturgical prayer. These practices express and promote faith in the true presence [End Page 150] of Christ in the Eucharist as well as the theocentric and sacrificial character of the Mass (147–150). Chapter 8 concerns the history and value of the Mass's use of Latin and Gregorian chant. Fiedrowicz makes a strong case for the exclusive use of a sacred language at Mass and claims that catechesis, not vernacular liturgies, is the best way to help the faithful understand the meaning of the Eucharistic liturgy (166). Chapter 9 examines the importance of rites, rubrics, and aesthetics to the promotion of the liturgy's sacred character. Fiedrowicz also expounds how the "active participation" of the laity in Mass is actualized primarily through their deliberate, prayerful, interior attempts to unite themselves with the sacrifice of Christ and adore his Eucharistic presence (225–231). Part III ("Theology") is an exegesis of the major dogmatic and theological truths contained in the prayers of the Latin Mass. Chapters 10 and 15 open and close this section by emphasizing how the public prayer of the Mass is the principal means by which the Church proclaims divinely revealed truth and fosters an orthodox, living faith among the people; hence, the theological content of the Mass matters. Chapter 11 describes how some of the orations of the classic rite bear witness to challenging theological truths that get watered down in the corresponding orations of the 1970 missal (239). Chapter 12 explores the history and logic of the lectionary. The readings in the older rite were chosen to illuminate the particular season or feast during which they were read. Their annual recurrence on fixed days helped the faithful to internalize their letter and spirit (252–253). Chapter 13 demonstrates how the offertory prayers which proceed the Roman Canon manifest the Church's faith in the sacrificial nature of the Mass. In the offertory the bread and wine are offered as "victims" to God, but these oblations are not independent and divinizing sacrifices...

The Public Prayer Station: Taking Healing Prayer to the Streets and Evangelizing the Nones, by William L. De Arteaga

The Public Prayer Station: Taking Healing Prayer to the Streets and Evangelizing the Nones, by William L. De Arteaga

Las rogativas públicas en Oviedo (1550-1840)

El estudio de las rogativas públicas pone de relieve varias cuestiones. Desde el punto de vista conceptual, el análisis de estas prácticas muestra con claridad la excesiva simplicidad de la división entre formas culturales elitistas y populares, y la necesidad de hallar modos para definir adecuadamente la pertinencia de fenómenos sociales como éste. Desde la óptica cultural y sociológica, las rogativas informan sobre los valores religiosos de una sociedad; pero también sobre sus miedos y temores cotidianos, así como sobre los intentos de los poderes públicos para lograr una mayor cohesión social en determinados momentos. Tratamos de desarrollar estos tres puntos centrándonos en la ciudad de Oviedo.

Four Paradigms of Legal Change: American Conservative Halachic Rulings on Women’s Roles in Synagogue Practice

Abstract Conservative Judaism in North America has undergone significant changes over the last seventy years regarding the issue of women’s roles within the synagogue. A review of different halachic responsa addressing women’s participation in three central functions of public prayer—receiving aliyot to the Torah, leading public prayer, and being counted in the prayer quorum, the minyan—reveals four different paradigms of legal change within the Conservative Movement and allows us to recognize certain trends throughout time.