World Religions Research Articles

How Are Religious Systems Ultimately Adaptive?

In their new book, Religion Evolving: Cultural, Cognitive, and Ecological Dynamics, B. G. Purzycki and R. Sosis (2022) argue that religions should be viewed as adaptive systems not just by-products of cognitive capacities that evolved for other purposes. In this essay, I argue that they are correct that the types of religious systems that are widespread across cultures and eras (i.e., “world religions”) have been selected for because they help individuals to solve adaptive problems. However, I disagree with their claim that this fact proves the by-product camp wrong. Rather, I argue, religious systems that are successful are both cognitively catchy and provide adaptive benefits. It is not either/or, it is both/and. Further, I argue that to be truly adaptive, religious systems must accomplish the ultimate evolutionary goal of genetic replication by sexual reproduction and not just the proximate goal of pro-sociality or group cohesion.

A faith in science: Gardner Murphy and parapsychology

Historians have noted that many 19th-century founders and members of psychic societies were clergy, or had fathers who were clergy, seeking evidence for the survivalist hypothesis. One such member, psychologist Gardner Murphy, was influenced in childhood both by the Episcopalian faith of his father and the Transcendentalism of his mother's hometown, Concord, Massachusetts. We propose that these religious and philosophical influences, as well as his childhood experiences informed his life's work. They also prompted Gardner Murphy to focus on the survivalist hypothesis and commit to discovering a scientific approach that might yield evidence of paranormal phenomena. Murphy was highly respected for his biosocial theory of personality and his contributions to the discipline of psychology, even while he persisted in studying parapsychology, an area of contention in the relatively new science of psychology. He drew on the potential synergy of world religions and philosophical traditions as a means of understanding human behavior – in each case revealing him as the polymath and ethical humanist for which he is remembered. Like William James, he viewed reported psychic experiences as simply another human phenomenon to be examined using the scientific method. His ability to entwine these interests seems motivated by his religious upbringing and academic training in the sciences.

Religious Approaches to Bioethical Reasoning: Bridging Values and Ethics

Religious traditions exert a profound influence on bioethical reasoning, shaping how different communities approach complex ethical issues like end-of-life care, genetic manipulation, and medical interventions. This study investigates the diverse methodologies employed by various religions, focusing on how scriptural interpretation and ethical principles inform their bioethical frameworks. By conducting a comparative analysis across major world religions, the research highlights both the distinct and shared approaches these traditions take toward navigating bioethical dilemmas. Case studies and contemporary examples are examined to illustrate how religious moral reasoning influences decision-making in areas such as ventilator use, feeding tubes, and genetic interventions. The study shows that although religious traditions offer a strong basis for ethical reasoning, their values frequently clash with secular perspectives, making consensus difficult in multicultural societies. Resolving these conflicts is vital for cultivating ethical harmony and encouraging cross-cultural dialogue.

Василий Розанов: богоискательство как трагедия

Religion is the dominant aspect of Rozanov’s creativity. The main topics of Rozanov’s spiritual search include: God, the world and man are focused around this dominant. The peculiarity of this topics is the explication of intuition of a single whole. This intuition was realized by means of symbols that belong to the world of traditional religions. Rozanov’s creativity actualizes the opportunity of vision of religion as a phenomenon despite the prevalence of images of material things in his texts. This vision is based on a metaphysical foundation of suggestions, examined in the work “On Understanding”, where he understands religion as a temporal undetermined phenomenon. Contact with the world of religion allows us to explicate the human spirit as unity. Rozanov’s vision moves from a description of religion as unity to the description of single images of paganism, Judaism and the Christianity. Rozanov emphasizes this particular content, but his search is inspired by the doctrine of religion as having a certain potency. The realization of this certain potency is the historical development of religions, that conditions the occurrence of new religion in a cultural vacuum, and appears after the distraction of Christianity. The presentiment of metaphysical emptiness is the culmination of Rozanov’s search for God and at the same time the tragedy. Rozanov conceptualizes this intention as the absolutisation of particular things. The transparency of the religious search and the concentration on religion itself makes Rozanov’s position in some aspects close to the narrative of the classic phenomenology of religion. We study the creativity of Rozanov by means of historical-philosophical reconstruction, using elements of hermeneutic analysis.

Discourses on ‘World Religion’ and ‘Essence of Religion’ in Modern Korean Buddhism - Tiele, Schleiermacher, and “knowing, feeling, and willing” Categories in Buddhist Magazines from the 1910s to the 1940s

Discourses on ‘World Religion’ and ‘Essence of Religion’ in Modern Korean Buddhism - Tiele, Schleiermacher, and “knowing, feeling, and willing” Categories in Buddhist Magazines from the 1910s to the 1940s

The Divergent Pathways to the Divine, God: A Comprehensible Research Article on the Convergences and Divergences of the Divine Pathways in the Three Major Religions within the Framework of Religious Diversity

The current research article seeks to explore the convergences and divergences in the approaches to reaching God across the three major world religions within the context of religious diversity. The current article implements a review of the existing literature as a research method in order to gather conclusive and evidence-based data with the aim of systematically evaluating these approaches in order to address the research objectives effectively. Throughout history, religions have focused on the concept of God or a divine being, yet the approaches to understanding or reaching this concept have varied dramatically among these three different religions. By comparing the understandings of God or divine reality in Islam, Christianity, and Judaism along with the methods of reaching this understanding, the study reveals the fact that the theological and ritual structures of each religion are uniquely established. Furthermore, the common themes and fundamental differences among the approaches to reaching God in these religions are scrutinized. The findings of the study reveal both similar and different aspects of the roadmaps among the three major religions, and in this context, it is concluded that the cultural, historical and theological backgrounds of each religion shape their respective approaches to the Divine, that is, the ultimate absolute being, God.

A case for democratic pluralism instead of democratic minimalism

This paper proposes a theory of democratic pluralism instead of democratic minimalism developed by Shadi Hamid in his book “The Problem of Democracy”. Democratic pluralism will leverage pluralism to create a possibility for reconciliation between liberalism, secularism, religion, and democracy. It presents a framework of democratic pluralism based on four key elements: (1) a conception of democracy that includes performance and political action in the public sphere beyond electoral participation; (2) recognition of diversity and intercultural dialog, alongside the agonistic dimension of pluralism; (3) moderation of individual autonomy and identity politics; and (4) pluralistic accommodation of religion. The paper critiques Hamid’s monolithic notions of liberalism, secularism, and democracy, suggesting that more nuanced approaches to these concepts are necessary. It contends that rather than abandoning liberalism and secularism, exploring compatible versions of liberalism and Islam within a pluralistic framework offers a more promising path for reforming religion and polity in the Muslim world.

Religiosity, Economic Growth and Development Dynamics: An International Perspective

This study examines the relationship between religiosity and economic growth as an indicator of modernization. It also examines the relationship between religiosity and various dimensions of development such as educational attainment, mortality rate, and urbanization. To this end, average country-level data from 6 different survey waves of the World Values Survey, spanning the period 1989-2022, and various data sources, including the World Christian Encyclopedia, Religion and State Project, Penn World Table, World Development Indicators are utilized. The analyses include a maximum of 108 countries. The ongoing secularization paradigm is experienced differently in each society, depending on the predominance of religious belief and societal characteristics, including the degree of cultural and social diversity. The Seemingly Unrelated Regression method is employed to address the potential problem of correlation between the error terms of the regressions utilizing different religiosity indicators. Estimates indicate that religiosity is negatively associated with economic growth, the presence of a state religion and religious pluralism, while it is positively associated with state regulation of the religious market. Education, which is one of the most fundamental indicators of development, is positively correlated with religiosity. Nevertheless, the most characteristic indicator of modernization and development, urbanization, is negatively related to religiosity.

Religious imaginations: religious literacy as the reading of signs

ABSTRACT Drawing together Charles Taylor’s idea of the social imaginary and the semiotic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure, this article develops an account of religious literacy as the expansion of imagination. It argues that a conventional description of ‘world religions’ is reductive and essentialised, while the counteracting focus on instances of ‘lived religion’ fails to do justice to the organising power and scope of religious traditions. Both approaches draw on an imaginative framework of signs that shape the believer’s understanding of the world and their place within it. Religious literacy is an awareness of the key features and contours of these contrasting imaginative landscapes. Seeing religious traditions in these terms gives a better account of how they can be pathologized as they are drawn away from the mystical, analogical reading of signs that characterises any religious imaginary. To illustrate the theories set out, two contrasting examples of the Christian imagination are explored: American Christian Nationalism and the Forest Churches of Ethiopia.

The Existence of Islam in The Face of Homogenization in Indonesia

A dialogic discourse suggests that globalization has marginalized the existence of religion. Religion no longer has the opportunity to address public issues. This is evident in the reality that globalization has shifted local values, including religion, and replaced them with homogenized values. Islam, as one of the world's religions, is aware that it has entered the global stage of preaching. Revitalization is one of Islam's efforts to face the challenges of the times. This article will address how Islam, as one of the world's largest religions, maintains the existence of its teachings and responds to the impact of globalization, namely homogenization. Several Western futurologists such as John Naisbitt, a scholar like John L. Esposito, and religious ideologists like Al-Maududi contribute their thoughts to this study. Using literature analysis, the author maps out the constructs of thought and responses of the Islamic community to globalization. In this context, there are differing perspectives between two groups. On one side, there are those who view homogenization negatively, believing it could destroy the existence of religion, while others believe that homogenization is not a threat but rather a motivation for Islam to maintain its existence.

The fundamentals of Criminal Law: a new direction of research (on the pages of the book by I. M. Ragimov “Crime and punishment in world religions. Historical, religious, legal and philosophical aspects. St. Petersburg: Association “Law Center”, 2023. – 303 pp.”)

The fundamentals of Criminal Law: a new direction of research (on the pages of the book by I. M. Ragimov “Crime and punishment in world religions. Historical, religious, legal and philosophical aspects. St. Petersburg: Association “Law Center”, 2023. – 303 pp.”)

LINGUISTIC MARKERS OF EXTREMISM IN ISLAMIST TEXTS OF THE RELIGIOUS GENRE “SERMON”: METHODOLOGICAL ASPECT

Linguistic examination of texts with allegedly extremist content is carried out using special methods. The most popular today are lexical-semantic, semantic-syntactic methods, as well as the method of discourse anal-ysis, which allow an expert linguist to make an objective expert opinion on the issues raised. An expert linguist conduc ting an examination of texts with allegedly extremist content has to identify linguistic markers of extrem-ism that are implemented at all language levels. The linguistic examination of Islamist discourse texts involves taking into account genre features of a religious text, having an impact on linguistic markers. Islamist discourse is understood as texts related to political radical trends of Islamism. The article presents fundamental diff erenc-es between the terms “Islam” as a world religion and “Islamism” as a political trend. We propose an algorithm for the me thodology of analyzing texts of allegedly extremist content based on the material of an Islamist text of the “sermon” genre, the main function of which is to instruct believers. Linguistic markers of extremism in the sermon genre are identifi ed during the analysis and are classifi ed according to their main functions: motivation and appeal, negation, demonstration of the superiority of one person or group of persons over other people based on nationality, origin and attitude to religion. These linguistic markers are implemented using the following lin-guistic means: morphological (verbs of obligation, verbs of the 2nd person singular or plural in the imperative mood, the form of the imperative of the 1st person plural); syntactic (particles in imperative sentences, complex sentences with subordinate clauses, addresses in combination with verbs in the imperative mood of the 2nd per-son plural); rhetorical means (rhetorical questions, antithesis); lexical and semantic means (nouns, verbs and oth-er parts of speech with negative connotations); morphemic and word-formation means (comparative, superlative forms). The identifi ed linguistic markers realize the function of demonstrating superiority, appeal, negativity in relation to “strangers”, “others”.

Analyzing the Views of Religion in the Individualism of Moralism Between Religions

Moralism is a global phenomenon that can be found in various societies that adhere to "world religions" such as Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. The purpose of this research is to know that the faith of religion is entirely based on their individual and personal achievement, and given by the pride given to the personal experience that guides everyone in their own way. Religion is a basic human necessity, because religion is a means of defending itself against all acts of violence that threaten human life. Religion gives meaning to individual life and also gives hope for survival after death. Religion can be a human tool to rise from the world's life of suffering, to achieve spiritual independence. Religion as a symbol of society is no longer visible since religion has been established as religious institutions, institutional religions in principle create a good institutional regime based on faith validation, using a secure president according to the authoritarian organisation that conforms to each tradition, in connection with the line of religious descent. Religion has become a legitimate tool for a group of people who have economic and political resources.

Pedagogue’s fallacy and pedagogue’s parsimony

ABSTRACT Pedagogue’s fallacy occurs when epistemological principles are applied by educators that in fact do not tell of, or explain, or help understand, the subject at hand. It is identified and introduced in this article to raise an important issue in the construction of pedagogical models of religious education: knowledge is reduced and/or distorted to systematise it for pedagogical purposes. Cases of this fallacy have long been identified in the pages of this journal, albeit implicitly, such as in critiques of the ‘world religions’ approach and debates over other pedagogical models. The purpose of this article is to explore and explicate pedagogue’s fallacy in order to distinguish useful ways to structure and sequence knowledge on the one hand, from erroneous reduction, distortion, or even fabrication on the other. As religious education is diversifying in terms of the disciplines, religious traditions and standpoints with which it engages, understanding and remedying pedagogue’s fallacy has never been more significant. This is because avoiding or mitigating pedagogue’s fallacy is pertinent to achieving and maintaining epistemic justice. I offer the strategy of pedagogue’s parsimony to do this.

Representation of Male and Female Corporality in Different Religions

The article, based on the material of world religions and new religious movements, examines the forms of representation of male and female corporeality. Gender, in turn, fixes the body and sex in a social framework and determines the initial parity of male and female, the hierarchical position of which is established not by the body itself in which a person was born, but by the actions of this body, or rather its owner. From the illustration of the Fall of Adam and Eve, which predetermined corporeality by reducing the body to desiring/sinful flesh, we observe a strict normalization of bodily practices in religious contexts. However, contemporarily offers us various cases that seem to violate established norms. In the article we turn to cases of the Hare Krishnas and Raelites, who in the realities of the 21st century practice parity of bodily principles. The masculine and feminine of given roles and statuses turn into one of many factors that can fix the Self. Or, conversely, they still remain a predetermined role in some contexts.

Personal knowledge: Teaching place-based religious ethics for a climate emergency

ABSTRACT In this article, I analyse ways that the modern depersonalisation of knowledge production has contributed to breakdown in climate change education, and by extension, prevented moral and religious education from taking on a more ecological dimension. I draw on analysis by indigenous scholars which focusses on an indigenous re-personalising of science in order to make a case for a form of religious, moral and values education as an explicitly ecological pursuit, which arises from situated personal forms of knowledge. I argue that the work of re-personalising teaching and learning also requires educators to confront problems embedded in the models of ethics, values and belief which underpin our pedagogical approaches, particularly the unexpectedly problematic idea of ‘world religions’ and related binary conceptions of knowledge that have emerged from specific Christian lineages. By reconfiguring pedagogy we can pursue more holistic approaches that can in turn help us to overcome depersonalized (and colonial) forms of knowledge production and connect more intimately with the ecologies that sustain creaturely life.

Empowering Innovation: A Comprehensive Perspective on Muslim Business Ownership

In an increasingly vigorous business world religion and culture are influential factors in business development. Islam is the second largest religion so there is a dire need to present a holistic picture of the Islamic perspective of entrepreneurship. This paper demonstrates the Islamic principles of entrepreneurship and Islamic entrepreneurial ethics by utilizing the Quran, Hadith, and other available literature. The primary goal of this paper is to unravel the approach of Islam as a religion towards business activity and entrepreneurial activity. In addition, this paper focuses on how Islam as a religion affects entrepreneurial activity from micro to macro levels. The major themes of the study are halal, haram, taqwa, utilization of resources, business financing, and social and entrepreneurial responsibilities. In conclusion, the study regards Islam as an entrepreneurial religion. Topics for further recommendation are also given at the end for future researchers.

Teaching Asian Religions through the Internet—How Online Representations Interact with Dynamics of Eurocentrism, Orientalism, and Confessionalism in the Case of Italian Teaching of Catholic Religion

The religions of South and East Asia resist Eurocentric interpretations, such as the so-called World Religion Paradigm. However, they are subjected in various ways to hetero- and auto-orientalist representations that respond to Western ideals and expectations. This article analyzes how Italian Catholic teachers use online representations of East Asian religions in their lessons to teach these traditions. The aim is to shed light on the interplay, facilitated by online environments, between contemporary processes of Eurocentric and Orientalist interpretation and the educational and confessional motivations of confessional religious education teachers. The result of the analysis indicates that these factors concur to reinforce misleading representations, which contradicts the intercultural aims proclaimed by teachers and other Teaching of Catholic Religion stakeholders. Nevertheless, this article also individuates those elements that could be fruitfully framed in an academic study-of-religions perspective and suggests a modality of cooperation between Catholic Religion teachers and scholars of religions.

From Spatial Domination to Virtual Space Solidarity Tactics: Perjuangan Bersama Untuk Mengatasi Ketidakadilan Terhadap Penghayat Agama Lokal Minahasa

Many studies have explored indigenous religious believers struggle against world religions domination. However, studies on the employment of virtual space to heighten indigenous believers' tactical solidarity from the Global South remain understudy. This paper explores indigenous religious followers' struggles through access to virtual space as a tactic of everyday solidarity against world religions spatial domination and the state politics of religion in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. It focuses on the efforts of Minahasa indigenous religious believers to advocate for their existence through virtual media collectively. Indigenous religious believers have experienced various forms of spatial domination, such as destroying ancestral sites and ritual places that they consider sacred to realize their beliefs. The single truth perspective has produced the domination of the world religions monotheistic paradigm and the state politics of religion. The single truth has resulted in hate speech, stigmatization, and physical destruction of indigenous religious sacred sites. Through click activism, indigenous religious believers employ virtual media to advocate Minahasa indigenous religions/beliefs. The concept of tactical media is used in this study to analyze how the tactics of indigenous religious believers collectively produce a discourse of resistance critique and discourse on the importance of their places of belief to the public. This study uses qualitative research: observation, in-depth interviews, and literature review to argue that indigenous religious believers have tactically used virtual media as a critical discourse of resistance to the spatial domination constructed by world religious relations and state religious policies.

An Investigation of the Compatibility of Baha’i Views with Religious Diversity

The Baha’i faith is a relatively new religion that has quickly gained popularity over the past century. Its main theological concepts include progressive revelation and religious unity, and perhaps its most important goal is unity among all humans, which takes the form of a single religion and eventually leads to a single peaceful society. Such a destination would first require interreligious dialogue and the acceptance of truth in many world religions at present, according to Baha’i teachings. Ideas of religious diversity have already spread among some Theocentric theologians, which leads us to question if such views are compatible with Baha’i doctrine on religious unity. This study investigates how the Baha’i faith promotes concepts of religious diversity in order to achieve its eventual goal of religious and societal unity, and whether Baha’i teachings are truly compatible with pluralism. The conclusions of this study reveal that while Baha’is promote the concept of religious diversity today, their eventual goal is not compatible with pluralism. Because pluralism implies the existence of multiple religions that share truth, its outcome is different from a single, worldwide religion. Theocentric ideas encourage diversity, but do not specify a formal outcome, which means that interreligious dialogue and acceptance of truth in many faiths could lead to pluralism or unity. Therefore, Theocentric theology does not necessarily disagree with Baha’i goals or the concept of pluralism due to a lack of specificity. This study is significant as our societies become more globalized, such that the coexistence of religions is becoming more critical. The Baha’i faith’s strong focus on religious unity sets it apart from religions that are traditionally exclusive. An analysis of such a religion that emphasizes interreligious dialogue and encourages cultural fusion is therefore essential for our understanding of interactions between religions in a multicultural society.