Religious Affect Research Articles

Religion and emotion

In early 17th-century Finland, then part of Sweden and pronouncedly orthodox Lutheran, several people in the south-west regions were found to possess and use rosaries. This article discusses rosaries and rosary practices as material objects in the context of performing emotion and gender, on the basis of the ensuing court cases. The court record cases of rosary practice show that a Marian devotion channelled religious feelings in 17th-century Finland and that the experience or performance of these feelings had not changed as much as church teaching on the subject had. In reading of these emotions, however, one has to take into account the nature of the source material: court records were not meant to create a religious affect, but rather the opposite. Therefore they create emotions that support the authority of the legal system. The materiality of the rosaries themselves is abstracted in the court record text. Something of the materiality, and the emotions carried by it, can, however, be read from the narratives as recurring topics and repeated remarks; these methods of creating religious emotions used by the people were bodily and physically active techniques. The emotions thus created spread on a wider range than would be suggested by the interpretations of (medieval) Marian devotion, from displays of indifference and detachment to compassion, building the feeling of communality and belonging.

PERSPEKTIF AGAMA DAN KEBUDAYAAN DALAM KEHIDUPAN MASYARAKAT INDONESIA (Suatu Tinjauan Sosiologi Agama)

The relationship of religion, culture and community very important or is a system of life because of the interconnectedness of each other. But the question of keberagamaan and social development will not be complete if only seen from one particular aspect only. For that in looking at the question of societal must go through a holistic approach. Required studies as the study of the sociology of religion and vice versa. It means the study of the life of keberagamaan the community won't be completed without involving sociology, sociological stats helper monkeys do not judge the religion concerned. Each nation or group that actually live up to the mandate of each religion, therefore by itself will manifest harmony, brotherhood, peace and comfort in the life of bermayarakat. Because religions have taught the truth and goodness and distanced from all malice, strife, discrimination etc. Religious life looks on mindset, behaviour or attitude and way of living one's religious attitude embodiment and able to receive different neighbor any religion as a servant of God Almighty. Religion as a guide of human life created by God, the one true God through his life. Whereas culture is as a habit or an Ordinance of human life created by the man itself results from creativity, taste and karsanya given by the Lord. Religion and culture influence each other each other. Religion affects culture, community groups, and ethnic groups. The culture tends to be fickle to any people or groups who really lives in accordance with the mandate his religion each, hence will automatically be eventuate harmony, the peace and comfort in life bermayarakat. Because of religion have taught truth and goodness and removed from all philippic, dissensions, discrimination and others. Religious life looks on people think, behavior or attitude and manner embodiment attitude religious life someone and capable of receiving fellow different any religious as the servants of allah swt. Religion as a guideline human life created by god, of almighty god in lived his life. While culture is as habit or procedures of human life created by human beings themselves from the power copyright, taste and karsanya given by god. Religion and culture interplay each other. Religious affect culture, the group, and peoples. Culture capricious tending to any people or groups who really lives in accordance with each, amanah his religion hence with itself would be harmony, the fraternity, peace and comfort in life community. Because of religion have taught truth and goodness and badness, taking away from all dissensions, discrimination and others. Religious life seemed in a pattern of thought, of behavior or attitude and manner of living religious embodiment of the attitude of someone and capable of receiving a fellow who is different any religious a follower of allah swt. Religion as a guideline human life created by the lord of almighty god in lived his life. While culture is as the habit or procedures of human life created by human beings themselves from the power of copyright, taste and karsanya given by god. Religion and culture on each other. Affecting culture, religion community groups, and peoples.Keywords :Religion, cultural and society

Religion and Happiness: A Study Among University Students in Turkey.

This study tests the hypothesis that higher levels of positive religious affect are associated with higher levels of personal happiness among a sample of 348 students studying at a state university in Turkey who completed the Ok Religious Attitude Scale (Islam), the Oxford Happiness Inventory, and the short-form Eysenck Personality Questionnaire Revised. The data reported a small but statistically significant association between religiosity and happiness after taking sex and individual differences in personality into account.

A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the United States by Bill J. Leonard

Reviewed by: A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the United States by Bill J. Leonard Emily Suzanne Clark A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the United States. By Bill J. Leonard. (Nashville: Abingdon Press. 2014. Pp. xii, 380. $45.00 paperback. ISBN 978-1-4267-5490-6). In A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the United States Bill Leonard offers a broad historical narrative that seeks “to define, describe, and analyze various elements of religious experience across a wide spectrum of religious communities where varying expressions of religious liberty and pluralism exist” (p. 3). Traversing the Atlantic Ocean, the book begins in sixteenth-century Europe and ends with the spiritual seekers of twenty-first-century America. Leonard provides a readable and approachable overview that will make an excellent read for those interested in learning about Christianity in America and will work well in an undergraduate classroom. Readers who are well versed in American Christian history will recognize all the usual suspects and key players, but they likely will learn some new, interesting details along the way. The first chapter outlines what Leonard means by the term religious experience with nods to William James, Mircea Eliade, Ann Taves, Rudolph Otto, and others. In short, Leonard is not interested in doctrine and dogma; rather, he focuses on what Christians did and how they felt. With such an aim, it is no surprise that the book’s title comes from Jonathan Edwards’s 1746 work A Treatise on Religious Affections (and Leonard references Edwards throughout the book). The chapters that follow take the reader through American Christian history and cover a wide range of individuals and communities. Chapters are both thematic and chronological, and they center on topics like colonial America, revivalism, liberal or esoteric Christian experience (transcendentalism and spiritualism), communitarianism, African American Christianity, Pentecostalism, Catholicism, and modern-day America. This is a wide range of American Christians and experiences, and Leonard brings them together in a narrative that reads and flows with [End Page 638] ease. Readers of The Catholic Historical Review will be particularly interested in chapter 9, which describes the development of American Catholicism, including John Gother’s colonial “Garden of the Soul” devotions, nineteenth-century immigration, Dorothy Day and Catholic social justice, the Second Vatican Council, and Thomas Merton. Despite the book’s attention to Christian diversity, it is still a traditional narrative of American Christianity. Although there is reference to colonial missions to Indians, Native Christian voices are noticeably lacking in A Sense of the Heart. At the close of the book’s first chapter, Leonard notes that his narrative will examine “the nature and diversity of religious experience in light of such distinct religiocultural issues as pluralism, voluntarism, religious freedom, democratic idealism, and Protestant privilege in the US” (p. 22). In light of the missing Indian experiences and the single chapter on black Christians, it might have been more accurate to write “white Protestant privilege.” Although it is a traditional story of American Christianity, with supplemental readings the book will work well in an undergraduate classroom. It provides a solid base narrative and introduces students to various theoretical ideas about religious experience. Leonard’s clear distillation of James, Taves, and others in chapter 1 provides a primer for reading and analyzing the religious experiences that abound in the following chapters. Emily Suzanne Clark Gonzaga University Copyright © 2016 The Catholic University of America Press

Aryas Unbound

This article analyzes a controversial book ban from the 1940s to trace the mutual determinations of print media, the legal regulation of communal sentiment, and the discourse of religious tolerance in late colonial India. Claimed as the Bible of the Arya Samaj, the Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth) was banned in the Muslim-majority province of Sindh because of its defamatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad. The result was a controversy of national proportions. Through theoretically informed close readings of texts from the controversy, Scott shows how the legal regulation of religious offense altered the economy of textual circulation in South Asia. Colonial law fueled a thriving extralegal legal culture that bureaucratized religious affect. It also reorganized the unbounded social imaginary associated with mass publicity. This allowed controversialists to exploit previously unrealized potentialities of the print medium in order to politicize the Hindu public.

조나단 에드워즈의 『신앙 감정론』에 나타난 영적분별

조나단 에드워즈의 『신앙 감정론』에 나타난 영적분별

The Moral Significance of Religious Affections: A Reformed Perspective on Emotions and Moral Formation

Drawing on the work of Jonathan Edwards, this essay explores two dimensions of Reformed thought central to considering the emotions’ moral significance. First, Reformed theology’s singular understanding of virtue and holiness as love to God and neighbor gives rise to a distinctive account of the emotions’ place in the moral life. Certain emotions are to be embraced insofar as they have the capacity to be sanctified and thereby made compatible with growth in love to God. Second, Reformed theology historically links the emotions with the will, which is subject to moral necessity. Contemporary Reformed reflection on the emotions must therefore grapple with questions about moral agency and accountability that arise from this account of necessity.

Entre las aguas/Between the Waters: Interorality in Afro-Cuban Religious Storytelling

Abstract This essay investigates different kinds of storytelling found in Afro-Cuban religions. The term "interorality" describes how narrators and audiences interact, collaborate, and help construct the meaning of narratives. The piece uses fieldwork and ethnographic writing to illustrate how Afro-Cuban religious storytelling allows for the fluid interpretation of gender, race, and sexuality by different members of the religious community. Storytelling here also affords opportunities where Cuba’s cultural and historical frictions are negotiated through moments of religious affect.

“Suspended in Wonderment”: Beauty, Religious Affections, and Ecological Ethics

Three figures in the American Reformed tradition—the novelist Marilynne Robinson, the theocentric ethicist James Gustafson, and the biocentric poet Robinson Jeffers—treat the perception of beauty as the framework of moral discernment in ways that seem particularly significant for ecological ethics. Their work makes vividly concrete dimensions of Calvin’s theology of creation that have been the subject of increasing theological attention over the past twenty-five years. By focusing on receptivity to natural beauty, their approach suggests a reorientation of the Christian ecological conversation that would root responsibility in grateful awe rather than stewardship, and would substitute graced responsiveness for obligation. This shift away from duty, sacrifice, and self-denial has the prophetic potential to inspire life-way changes that have been hard to effect through caustic critiques of wasteful materialism or exhortations to just regard for generations as yet unborn.

Campagna-Pinto, S. T. The Workshop of Being: Religious Affections and Their Pragmatic Value in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards and William James. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011. xi+171 pp. $80.00 (cloth).

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewCampagna-Pinto, S. T. The Workshop of Being: Religious Affections and Their Pragmatic Value in the Thought of Jonathan Edwards and William James. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2011. xi+171 pp. $80.00 (cloth).Anri MorimotoAnri MorimotoInternational Christian University. Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of Religion Volume 94, Number 4October 2014 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/679205 Views: 17Total views on this site For permission to reuse, please contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Extraordinary order: Fátima, religious affects and the Catholic political imagination in Portugal, c.1910–1950

Close observation of the episodes making up the history of Fátima enables us to identify various combinations of political and religious factors across different points in time. The trajectory of Carlos de Azevedo Mendes, a militant Catholic in the First Republic and representative of the National Assembly to the Portuguese New State dictatorship, suggests a religious attachment marked by devotion to the Virgin, captured by a political project that took shape in the 1920s. In effect, from mid-way through the decade, this Marian religious affection crystallized in a desire for order that inter-related with the political programme of the New State. The collective experience linked to Fátima’s so-called apparitions was strongly fashioned by the political context, even while lived as a religious event. To this Catholic activist, Fátima eventually became an imaginary place where devotion and the vision of a new Christian order were inherently intertwined. This article argues that within this process there were successive reattributions of political meaning that enabled the political ‘order‘ in power, already under the New State, to present itself as religious, while the religious became simultaneously a standpoint from which it was possible to criticize the state.

How Should War Be Related to Christian Love?

How Should War Be Related to Christian Love?

Ulster-Scots Psalmody: A Consideration

The Scottish Metrical Psalter of 1650 commands an iconic cultural significance within the Ulster-Scots tradition, and it has been treasured with intense religious affection for hundreds of years. This is particularly true for the rural Presbyterian heartlands of Antrim and Down that had been settled by Lowland Scots in the early 1600s (and which today remain the “core” Ulster-Scots speaking regions). Paradoxically, the 1650 Scottish Psalter used traditionally by this community is in English (as is the equally-treasured 1611 King James Version of the Bible). The provision of a translation of the metrical psalms into Ulster-Scots is considered in three contexts: the historical, religious and cultural significance of the Scottish Psalter to the Ulster-Scots speaking community; the modern Ulster-Scots language development programme which seeks to promote its everyday use in extended contexts; and the parallel (and parent) Ulster-Scots Bible translation project.

Contraceptive use among women in Ogoja and Obudu Local Government Areas, Cross River State, Nigeria

Sexual behaviour in human societies is embedded in a complex web of shared ideas. Moral rules and regulations, obvious associations and obscured symbols are part of the complex behaviour patterns. Sexual behaviour varies from one culture to another, from one stage of development to another as well as from one period of history to another. Many factors including biological, social, political, educational, economic and religious affect sexual behaviour. This study was undertaken to assess women’s knowledge of modern contraception, examine the role of culture in contraception use and find out the relationship between background characteristics and contraception use. The results of this study indicate that knowledge of contraception is relatively low in both rural and urban centres of the study area. Given the importance of family planning to the reduction of growing population, it is crucial to embark on an aggressive education and enlightenment of the people on the need to use contraception in order to prevent unwanted, unintended and ill-timed pregnancies. The media should be effectively harnessed to take its rightful position in the dissemination of information to the people.

Spiritual Theology in an Amish Key: Theology, Scripture, and Praxis

Evangelical Protestant spirituality, under the influence of the Enlightenment, has assumed a somewhat modernist flavor. As a result, traditional forms of religious symbol and piety were demoted in favor of religious affections, true spirituality was now discerned by means of “heart knowledge,” and the assurance of salvation assumed a place of prominence in the emerging market of spiritual autobiography. This essay explores several ways that a non-monastic, non-modern Protestant tradition, which lives according to a community rule, can contribute to the spiritual formation conversation. I begin by introducing the reader to the Amish narrative and discuss how two theological themes shape their approach to spirituality–-the cross of Christ and the relationship between faith and works, justification and sanctification. Next, I question a common view of Jesus’ ministry as being diametrically opposed to that of the Pharisees and suggest that the Sermon on the Mount deserves to be central to the enterprise of spiritual formation. I conclude this essay by revealing how the Amish put spiritual theology into practice, via a locally constructed Ordnung and while seated around the supper table.

Are Religious Affections Positive or Negative?—The Role of Religious Affections on Executive Control

The present study investigated the influence of religious affections on executive control compared with positive and negative emotions using emotional priming paradigm and the letter flanker task. 58 participants (Tibetan Buddhists, 28 males and 30 females) were required to identify the central target letter after primed by religious, positive, or negative pictures. There was a space (loose) or no space (close) between neighboring letters. The results revealed that in close condition both religious affections-prime and negative emotional-prime reduced the flanker effect in response accuracy (ACC) compared to positive emotional-prime for female participants. It means that religious affections do not function as positive emotions on executive control. Moreover, for females, when primed by religious pictures, the ACC flanker effect was negatively related to the arousal of religious pictures, but when primed by negative pictures, the flanker effect in response time was positively related to the valence of negative pictures. The correlation analysis indicates that religious affections and negative emotions may influence executive control in different ways. These findings suggest that religious affections exert their special influence on executive control, not simply positive or negative.

Anterioritatea experienței religioase spontane față de confesiune şi pluralismul religios, la Friedrich Schleiermacher / The Priority of Spontaneous Religious Experience to Confession and Religious Pluralism, According to Friedrich Schleiermacher

Abstract Schleiermacher's religious naturalism considers religious affections as a spontaneous and ordinary experience of all humans. Confessional identity is only subsequently bestowed to the naturally produced religious experience. Confession doesn't engender religion but it only moulds its expression into a culturally determined pattern; generally, the pattern is given by the outstanding example of a particular religious leader or event. Even if expressed and cultivated according to a common example, religion remains highly particular, its variety going down until the individual level. In most cases, the difference between confessions relies on the differences between their implicit cosmological views. Progress of civilization didn't really involve a progress of the religious feeling itself, but rather a progress of its manner of expression. Considered as the feeling of utter dependence of every finite being on the Infinite, religion necessarily embeds an attitude of absolute openness, seeing everything, including all faiths, as complementary within the all-encompassing unity. Hence, religious pluralism is not just a possible view, but it belongs to the very essence of religiosity.

Diagnosing Bias in Philosophy of Religion

AbstractWork in philosophy of religion exhibits at least four symptoms of poor health: it is too partisan, too polemical, too narrow in its focus, and too often evaluated using criteria that are theological or religious instead of philosophical. Our diagnosis is that, because of the emotional and psychosocial aspects of religion, many philosophers of religion suffer from cognitive biases and group influence. We support this diagnosis in two ways. First, we examine work in psychology on cognitive biases and their affective triggers. This work supports the view that, while cognitive biases are no doubt a problem in all inquiry and in all areas of philosophy, they are particularly damaging to inquiry in philosophy of religion. Second, we examine work in social and evolutionary psychology on religious sociality and its attendant emotions. This work establishes that the coalitional features of religion are correlated with group bias, and we contend that this bias is also harmful to inquiry in philosophy of religion. We close by offering both a prognosis and recommendations for treatment.What is the first business of philosophy? To part with self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn what he thinks that he already knows.-Epictetus, Discourses, Book 2, Ch. 17I think it clearly and abundantly evident that true religion lies very much in the affections.-Jonathan Edwards, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, Part 31. SymptomsIt is widely believed, at least by philosophers of religion, that philosophy of religion is flourishing. It is not difficult to find evidence supporting this optimistic assessment. For example, many university students at all levels are intensely interested in the subject, and philosophy of religion gamers far more attention from people outside academia than most other areas of philosophy. Also, in terms of sheer quantity of articles, books, conferences, and specialty journals, philosophy of religion compares favorably with many other areas of philosophy. This has not always been so. Philosophers of religion today, including the two of us, owe a considerable debt of gratitude to the extraordinarily talented philosophers responsible for the growth of philosophy of religion in the second half of the twentieth century. Their own careers would not have been possible were it not for ground-breaking work by distinguished thinkers like William Alston, Nelson Pike, Alvin Plantinga, William Rowe, and Richard Swinburne, to mention just a few.Having said that, our role in this paper will be that of the proverbial skunk at the garden party. For in spite of the recent expansion of work in philosophy of religion, it exhibits at least four symptoms of poor health: it is too partisan, too polemical, too narrow in its focus, and too often evaluated using criteria that are theological or religious instead of philosophical. Before we offer any diagnosis, we describe these symptoms in more detail. We do not, however, try to prove that philosophy of religion exhibits these symptoms. Instead, we assume that most philosophers familiar with the literature in philosophy of religion will easily recognize them.Partisanship is so entrenched that most philosophers of religion, instead of being alarmed by it, just take it for granted. This manifests itself in a variety of ways. For example, for the sake of balance, editors of collections on topics in philosophy of religion usually invite both theists and nontheists to contribute, assuming that they know which side each will take on the topic of the collection, even when taking the unexpected side is perfectly compatible with the authors' theism or nontheism. A philosopher of religion who is a theist, for example, could consistently admit (and even defend the view) that horrendous evil is strong evidence against theism, so long as they think, for instance, that this evidence is outweighed by even stronger evidence (whether inferential or noninferential) on the other side. …

Redemptive Validity and the Assessment of Depression: Singing Songs to Heavy Hearts

This investigation into the clinical utility of six contemporary depression instruments establishes a foundation for a theologically informed validity subtype. Redemptive validity is defined as the effectiveness of an assessment instrument that samples behavior or attitudes to provide insight into wise living in conformity with the reality and truth of Scripture as creatures growing in dependence on the Creator. Ancient biblical wisdom argues that helping those with heavy hearts requires compassion, understanding, reflective words, and effective strategies (Prov. 25:20). Clinical settings can assess for depression using technology in as little as 74 seconds with remarkable criterion validity. Do such findings reflect Christian values and worldview? Will results sharpen perception of the faith aspects of a heavy heart in a manner consistent with Scriptural teaching? Depression symptoms may indicate spiritual heart health as a downcast emotional state connected to religious affections (Prov. 13:12). Building upon standard psychometric review, this utility survey displays how mental health clinicians can explore measures through the theological notion of redemptive validity to serve both the mental health needs and spiritual formation interests of clients committed to growth in their Christian lives.

Jonathan Edwards, Affective Conversion, and the Problem of Masochism

This essay uses the work of Jonathan Edwards to trace intellectual, historical, and theoretical connections between eighteenth-century religious conversion in England and New England and later accounts of masochism's Enlightenment philosophical basis. Expanding feminist readings of revival abjection to include racial abjection, I focus on Edwards's account of religious sentiment in a “Personal Narrative” (ca. 1739), A Faithful Narrative of the Surprizing Works of God (1736–37), and Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1742). Situating these texts in their philosophical and political contexts, I then use A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746) to show how Edwards's evolving response to revivalist disruptions of hierarchy led him to describe a sentimental structure of desire similar to masochism as a defense against a modern subjectivity that would allow for masochism.