Members Of Religious Communities Research Articles

Protecting People from Their Own Religious Communities: Jane Doe in Church and State

AbstractSuppose that people seek confidentiality in what would otherwise be a public process—such as litigating or applying for a firearms license—because they are afraid that publicly identifying them will stigmatize them in their (or their families’) religious communities. Should the law allow them to proceed anonymously to better protect their interests and to avoid discouraging their lawsuits or applications? Or would that unduly stigmatize the religious community by branding it as improperly censorious or judgmental—or interfere with religious community members’ ability to evaluate for themselves how their coreligionists are using the courts and other government processes?

가톨릭신자들의 종교공동체 참여가 환경 및 사회문제의 시민적 참여의도에 미치는 영향

Efforts to resolve or mitigate environmental, human rights, and pro-life issues are required of members of religious communities. To address these issues, members of religious communities may seek civic engagement based on their social capital and social identity within their communities. This study aims to examine the processes through which members of the Catholic Church can demonstrate civic engagement for environmental, human rights, and pro-life issues by focusing on the inherent role of the church community in realizing the common good. The results of the dual mediating analysis of responses collected from a Catholic parish showed that religious community participation had a positive effect on religious knowledge and religiosity, and religious knowledge had a positive effect on religiosity and civic engagement intention. Religiosity also had a significant positive effect on civic engagement. In the relationship between religious community participation and civic engagement intention, the dual mediation effect of religious knowledge and religiosity was statistically significant. In particular, the magnitude of the indirect effect from religious community participation to civic engagement intention through religious knowledge was the largest. Based on its results, this study discusses the role and importance of religious factors in the civic engagement of Catholic Church laypeople. Specifically, it can be expected that bridging social capital can be created through the dual mediating role of religious knowledge and religiosity.회적정체성, 신앙지식, 종교성, 시민참여, 생명수호

Hate speech from the perspective of the mediatization of religion in the post-secular age. A few remarks for discusión

The purpose of the paper is to systematize the following issues concerning the problem of hate speech from the perspective of the processes of the mediatization of religion in the post-secular era: the differences between constructive criticism and hate speech in the media; the implementation of hate speech in the mediatized forms of religion (doctrine, religious practices, the image of religious leaders and members of religious communities) and the importance of the mediatization processes in the spread of hate speech in the field of religion. In the study, the method of analysis as well as critical literature research and literature review methods have been applied.

Islamic religiosity and subjective well-being in the United Arab Emirates: the roles of gender, social contacts, and religious social support

ABSTRACT This research uses a sample of Muslim adults (n = 569) living in the United Arab Emirates to investigate the association between Islamic religiosity and subjective well-being (SWB), with a particular focus on how gender, social contacts (both religious and secular), and religious social support affect this relationship. The findings of this research demonstrate that higher Islamic religiosity predicts higher levels of SWB for both men and women equally. Individually, the frequency of social contact (with religious contacts, family, and friends) was associated with higher SWB for both men and women, but only religious and family (but not friends) contact partially mediated the religiosity-SWB association. A mediation analysis showed that the frequency of contact with religious community members was associated with better SWB, in part, because of the religious social support these contacts provide.

Freedom of Religious Beliefs and Protection of Cultural Heritage: A Comparative Study between Four EU Member States and Recommendations for Training, Education and Awareness Raising

Terrorist attacks and religious hate crimes have escalated in recent years, putting places of worship in greater danger around the world, especially in Europe. Short- and long-term consequences of such attacks, according to the European Commission, include acute physical injuries to people and/or irreparable destruction to highly significant religious artefacts, as well as long-term psychological traumas and increased terror in society. Despite EU and worldwide efforts to defend places of worship, there remains a scarcity of information on the reasons of such assaults and how to prevent them in the future. This paper shares original desk and field research conducted with law enforcement agents, religious leaders, and members of religious communities regarding the social ecosystem analysis of protecting religious heritage in the four partner countries as part of the PROSECUW Project, which is co-funded by the EU (Cyprus, Greece, Germany, and Portugal). Despite the multiplicity of situations, research findings point to a common need for better communication and understanding among members of various religious communities, as well as further training and education for acceptance of diversity, as crucial tools for religious site protection. The paper concludes with key security and protection recommendations for places of worship, including the adoption of novel approaches and instruments to both strengthen security and protect religious heritage.

Jesuits and Race: A Global History of Continuity and Change ed. by Charles H. Parker and Nathaniel Millett

Reviewed by: Jesuits and Race: A Global History of Continuity and Change ed. by Charles H. Parker and Nathaniel Millett Thomas M. Cohen Jesuits and Race: A Global History of Continuity and Change. Edited by Charles H. Parker and Nathaniel Millett. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. 2022. Pp. xi, 286. $65.00. ISBN 978-0-826-36367-1.) Jesuits and Race is an important and timely book. Catholic thinking about race has become a central concern of historians of the early modern and modern church in recent years. As leaders of the global missionary enterprise, members of the Society of Jesus developed close ties to racial and religious minorities in Europe, the Americas, and Asia from the time of the founding of the order in 1540. In the process, they produced a distinguished body of work on race and the global church. Six of the book’s nine chapters focus on the early modern Society. These include strong contributions by Liam Matthew Brockey, Emanuele Colombo, Susan Deeds, J. Michelle Molina, Andrew Redden, and Erin Kathleen Rowe. A common theme is the rejection, by some important Jesuit writers and missionaries, of the racism and anti-Semitism that pervaded the early modern Church and that caused deep and lasting divisions within the Society. Emanuele Colombo’s essay about Antonio Possevino (1533–1610) provides a perceptive analysis of these divisions, especially those surrounding the decision by the Fifth General Congregation in 1593 to prohibit the admission to the Society of men of Jewish or Muslim descent. In practice, this decision affected mainly New Christians, as men of Jewish descent were known (few men of Muslim descent sought admission to the Society). Many of the most distinguished Jesuits of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—including Pedro de Ribadeneira, Juan de Polanco, José de Acosta, and Francisco Suárez—were New Christians. The campaign to exclude New Christians nearly provoked a schism in the Society. The prohibition was not rescinded until 1946, in the wake of the Holocaust. Discrimination against Jews and New Christians was inextricably linked to discrimination against Africans and people of African descent. Erin Rowe cites the seventeenth-century historian and bishop Prudencio de Sandoval, who asked, “Who can deny that the descendants of Jews . . . persist in the evil tendencies stemming from their ancient ingratitude and poor understanding, just as Black people are inseparable from the accident of their blackness?” Rowe analyzes a widely-circulated treatise by the Jesuit historian Martín de Roa, who rejected his contemporaries’ denigration of blackness and affirmed, in what Rowe notes is an “extraordinary passage,” that “Black Christians were as endowed with heavenly light as white ones.” Liam Brockey writes that although Jesuits throughout the Portuguese empire benefitted from unfree labor, they rarely referred to this labor in their writings, an [End Page 170] absence that he suggests is likely due to the pervasiveness of slavery in colonial societies, and to “the unquestioned assumption that owning slaves or indentured servants was permissible, even for members of religious communities.” Like the New Christian question, the question of unfree labor divided Jesuits in Asia. Alessandro Valignano, the Visitor who played a decisive role in shaping the Asia missions, tried to steer a middle course, insisting on the need for unfree labor but cautioning the Jesuits against the excessive use of such labor: “moderation was essential if the Jesuits were to avoid the appearance of pomp while still projecting autoridad y reputación.” Sean Dempsey, Nathaniel Millett, and James M. O’Toole contribute chapters on the restored Society. In “A Challenge to Our Sincerity: American Jesuits Discover ‘The Negro,’” O’Toole takes as his point of departure a circular letter that the Jesuit General Pedro Arrupe sent in 1967 to all American Jesuits. Arrupe acknowledged the Jesuits’ ownership of slaves before the Civil War, which is the subject of Millett’s chapter, “The Memory of Slavery at St. Louis University.” Arrupe then “laid out the political and religious case against any form of racism” and called on the Jesuits to expand their ministries to include not only the white Catholics whom they had traditionally served but also African Americans. Arrupe’s letter produced far-reaching changes. O’Toole...

Религиозное поведение верующих Башкортостана

The article contains information about the poly-confessional composition of the population of Russia and the Republic of Bashkortostan at the present stage. The degree of regularity of individual indicators of believers’ religious behaviour— active members of religious communities (Muslims and Orthodox) of the republic was revealed: visiting mosques / temples; reading prayers, the Koran and the Bible, as well as religious literature; the proportion of believers who adhere to fasting; the indicator of pilgrimage activity; the frequency of confession and communion; compliance with dress regulations. Such an indicator of religious consciousness as the understanding of religiosity by believers themselves is considered.

«Другие» протестанты — смена религиозной идентичности

In this article, the author attempts to reveal some aspects related to the transformation of the confessional identity of members of Protestant religious organizations operating in the Southern, Middle and Polar Urals and identifying themselves as representatives of “other” ethnic groups that are not widespread in Russia. The article presents data on the confessional identity of the respondents and on the factors that contributed to their adoption of Protestant Christianity. The research materials allow us to conclude that the religious identity (or lack of it) of the respondents before coming to Protestantism is close to that of the respondents from the general sample in the Urals; most of all among the “other” Protestants were atheists or non-denominational theists who “simply” believed in God. Most of all, both among “other” Protestants and among believers from the general sample of those who came to Protestantism with the assistance of close people who enjoy the greatest trust: friends, parents, relatives and spouses. Domestic and foreign missionaries, as well as members of religious communities personally unknown to the respondent, played an insignificant role in the religious choice of the respondents from both samples. The data presented in the article demonstrate that the confessional affiliation (or lack of it) of the respondents before they adopted Protestantism, as well as the factors contributing to the acquisition of their religious identity by Protestants, do not depend on ethnic identity.

Challenges of religious life in diasporic Muslim communities of Western Balkan origin

Integrating religion into everyday life is the goal of every believer wherever they are, including the diasporic context. When recognizing and anticipating the challenges of the diasporic Muslim community of the Western Balkan origin, the experience of those who live what we consider a religious diasporic life for a long period of time can certainly help. The purpose of presenting challenges and analysing their impact on the religious practice and the lives of religious community members is to anticipate the development of these challenges and search for ways to enhance organization of the religious life, as well as help religious community members to fulfil their religious needs.

Риски взаимодействия светской и религиозной культур в цифровую эпоху

Introduction. It is determined that the description of the vectors of transformation of the boundaries of the secular and religious in the modern digital environment requires the need to track the anthropological origins of the issue. It is indicated that in the process of transition from secular to post-secular culture, not just the values and needs of people were transformed, but a new format of anthropological reality appeared. Theoretical analysis. It is found that in the conditions of the digital world, two new generations were born and grew up, whose lives were closely connected with information technologies. It is revealed that both generations find the source of value orientations in the Internet space, so their identification directly depends on virtual socialization. It is proved that in the conditions of a digital society, it is difficult for traditional religions to build relationships with young people, since religious systems themselves require considerable time to adapt to changes and legitimize new forms of work. The digital space provides a unique opportunity for continuous and free communication for members of religious communities, but at the same time it is dangerous because it becomes an open platform for conflicts. Conclusion. It is noted that the risks of communication of the secular and post-secular themselves are of an international, universal nature. The essence of cyberreligion and the degree of responsibility of traditional religions to society are determined.

Reading Readers Reading: A Brief Reply to my Interlocutors

Reading Readers Reading: A Brief Reply to my Interlocutors

Exploring the Contextual Factors of Religious Leader Participation in Health Communication: Evidence from a Qualitative Study in Sierra Leone

As there are many and sometimes ambivalent intersections of health and religion, strategic collaborations with religious opinion leaders in health campaigns have been increasingly explored. Despite the known influence of distinct contextual factors within emergency and non-emergency settings, existing research seldom distinguishes between those different factors and their impact on the inclusion of religious leaders as health messengers. To compare the contextual factors of religious leaders as health messengers during emergency and non-emergency situations in a setting with high religious affiliations, this study used a qualitative approach and triangulated the perspectives of three different samples, including (religious) opinion leaders, members of religious communities, and developers of health communication strategies in Sierra Leone. The results provide multifaceted insights into contextual factors applicable to emergency and non-emergency settings as well as the risks and opportunities. Recommendations for the incorporation of religious leaders in health promotion activities in consideration of different contextual factors are provided.

Freedom by Regulation: A Legal Assessment of the CRL Commission’s Report on the Commercialisation of Religion and Abuse of People’s Belief Systems

Abstract The South African Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities is one of the key institutions established by the Constitution of the country to strengthen its constitutional democracy. The Commission conducted investigations and released a report in 2017 related to suspicions that there are abuses of beliefs taking place in religious communities. The report was subjected to a number of challenges from academia, especially with regards to the constitutionality of some of the findings and recommendations of the Commission. In this article, it is argued that one of the contributing factors to the main shortcomings of the report emanates from a lack of nuance in the approach of the Commission. Considering the complex nature of religious beliefs, it is argued that the investigations by the CRL Rights Commission would have offered an opportunity for better conversation if the Commission had taken a human rights approach. In the main it is argued that a clear differentiation between the right to freedom of religion which vests on individuals, and the right of freedom of religious practice which vests on individuals in their capacity as members of religious communities, would have created a discourse that would better grapple with the complexity of ensuring maximum freedom of religion while creating safety for communal interests beyond specific beliefs.

‘It was the Presentation nuns who made a rebel of me’: women religious and Ireland’s Revolutionary Era

ABSTRACT This article explores the interconnections between female religious orders and nationalist activity of the Irish Revolutionary Era (1912–23) arguing that they played important roles in the Revolutionary Era both in facilitating engagement with nationalist ideas and in supporting revolutionary activity itself. Female members of religious communities are simultaneously visible and invisible within the historical record of the revolution. In this article, Bureau of Military History witness statements are used to consider the myriad connections between republican activities and female religious orders, both explicit and unconscious. It does not seek to make pronouncements on the views and actions of women religious generally. Instead, it highlights examples to prompt further investigation into the intersections of nationalist activity and female Catholic religious orders during the founding and early years of the Irish Free State. This article begins the process of adding women religious into the study of Ireland’s Revolutionary Era. In doing so, it presents an original perspective to the study of women and the Catholic Church during the Irish Revolution.

Religious practice in the pandemic of COVID‐19 and the nursing diagnoses

ABSTRACTPurposeIdentify the elements (defining characteristics, related factors, and risk factors) of the diagnoses of NANDA international impaired religiosity (00169), risk for impaired religiosity (00170), and readiness for enhanced religiosity (00171), in a period of social distancing in the pandemic of COVID‐19, and associate them with the behavior of individual and collective religious practice, before and during the pandemic.MethodsSurvey study, released via social media to members of religious communities in Brazil. Data collection took place in June 2020, by online questionnaire.FindingsParticipants were 719 people, 563 (78.3%) were women, with a median age of 39 years (min 18–max 73), of Catholic religion (64.7%), with a median of 29 years of religious practice (min 0–max 70). The participants were from Southeast 652 (90.68%), South 49 (6.82%), Northeast 13 (1.82%), Midwest 4 (0.56%), and North 01 (0.14%) of Brazil. The increase of individual religious practice was associated with two diagnostic elements and the reduction of individual practice to nine elements. The reduction of collective religious practice was associated with seven diagnostic elements and the maintenance of the practice associated with five elements. The increase of collective religious practice was associated with five diagnostic elements.ConclusionsIn individuals who presented during the pandemic reduction of individual religious practice, reduction of collective religious practice, and maintenance of collective religious practice, the elements of the diagnosis impaired religiosity were predominant. In individuals who presented increased practice of collective religious activity during the pandemic, the elements of the diagnosis readiness for enhanced religiosity were predominant.Implications for nursing practiceThis study highlights defining characteristics, risk factors, and related factors of the religiosity diagnoses presented due to social distancing in the pandemic; these should be screened during nursing consultations in primary health care.

Locating Muslim Cinema(s)

The four essays collected here raise a series of questions that unsettle and reconfigure some of the most persistent boundaries in studies of world cinema. In “Hollywood’s Bad Muslims: Misrepresentations and the Channeling of Racial Violence,” Imed Ben Labidi highlights the potential pitfalls of such an attempted mapping, focusing on Hollywood’s essentialized and essentializing portrayal of Muslims and Arabs. Conversely, while remaining within the confines of a small national industry, in “The Poetics of Tajik Cinema,” Sharofat Arabova transcends the implicit distortions of schematic periodization, tracing evolving traditions of film poetics across the major historical transformations of the Soviet and sovereign periods. Similarly, while feminist theory has been at the core of film studies since its inception, the two pieces in this collection complicate understandings of the construction of gender in Muslim cinemas. Sitara Thobani’s “Locating the Tawa’if Courtesan–Dancer: Cinematic Constructions of Religion and Nation” resists the impulse to understand tawa’if solely in terms of gendered spectacle, instead exploring the less examined question of this figure’s Muslim identity. In the final piece, “Defa’-e Moghaddas (The Sacred Defense), Hamdeli va Mehrvarzi (Camaraderie and Love from Knowing the Other), and the Making of Social Cinema in Post-Revolutionary Islamic Iran,” Fakhri Haghani contrasts the front-line masculinist cinema of the Iranian “sacred defense” with social dramas that reveal undertheorized gender dynamics of sacrifice and justice. Each of these pieces, then, invigorates core questions within the field of religion and popular culture by positing Muslim cinema as a point of intersection at which Muslim participation in the creation and viewing of film may productively be explored, while simultaneously offering a broader, more universal alternative perspective by attending to cinema′s functions in the quotidian lives of members of religious communities.

The Historiography of Medieval Monasticism: Perspectives from Northern Europe

The article provides a thematized discussion of the development of the historiography of European monasticism in northern Europe (north Atlantic, North Sea to the Baltic). Whilst it does not offer a comprehensive overview of the field, it discusses the significance of major currents and models for the development of monastic history to the present day. From focusing on the heritage of history writing “from within”—produced by the members of religious communities in past and modern contexts—it examines key features of the historiography of the history of orders and monastic history paradigms in the context of national and confessional frameworks. The final section of the article provides an overview of the processes or musealization of monastic heritage and the significance of monastic material culture in historical interpretations, both academic and popular.

Mental health care among marginalized populations in the United States

Mental health care among marginalized populations in the United States

Religiosity and Disability in West Timor: Pray, Access and Peer Empowerment

Religion does not always positively impacted people with disabilities as past studies also discovered some negative influences that arise from interaction with members of religious communities. This research aimed to explore the experience of religiosity of people with disabilities. Nine people with disabilities participated in semi-structured interviews. Findings suggest that religiosity experience were described with themes of praying as a psychological oasis, lack of access, and empowerment from religious peer groups. While people with disabilities admitted the importance of religiosity in their life, they were still hampered by poor accessibility caused by poor awareness from leaders and members of religious communities.

Le jour des cendres par Jean-Christophe Grangé

Reviewed by: Le jour des cendres par Jean-Christophe Grangé Nathalie G. Cornelius Grangé, Jean-Christophe. Le jour des cendres. Albin Michel, 2020. ISBN 978-2-226-43942-0. Pp. 368. Niémans's second case as head of the Office central contre les crimes de sang once again forces the bristly criminal investigator to return to his home turf to track down a murderer and confront painful childhood memories. In Alsace, near the compound [End Page 232] of an insular religious group, the body of one of the Anabaptists' leaders was found dead under a collapsed chapel ceiling. What could have been an accident becomes suspicious when unusual frescoes are revealed beneath the visible ones, and a strange stone is found in the victim's mouth. In collaboration with local police, Niémans plays bad cop with the residents while soliciting the help of some surprising acquaintances. Meanwhile, his mentee and colleague Ivana Bogdanovi adopts a more surreptitious approach, working undercover as one of the seasonal workers hired by the Émissaires to help with the grape harvest. Lasting but a few days, it is the one occasion when the community has any contact with society, the creation of the wine culminating in a mysterious ceremony of rebirth bearing the novel's name. Like Grangé's previous novel La dernière chasse (2019), this newest work is an adaptation of episodes from the author's recent made-for-television series, Les rivières pourpres (2018), which could be disappointing for those who saw the televised version. However, the novel focuses more on the female protagonists: the local police commander, who is a source of both frustration and attraction to Niémans; Ivana, whose violent past formed her resourceful determination; and the disarmingly innocent yet wise Rachael, one of the religious community's members, with whom Ivana forges a friendship. The reader gains a better understanding of the reasons behind Niémans's misogyny, his rough policing style, and his protectiveness toward Ivana. Although the plot is not complex and the storyline is linear and clichéd, the vivid style of the novel bears all the hallmarks of Grangé's best. Fast-paced and high-tension action scenes alternate with unsettling character portraits, and meditations on history, art, and society. Descriptions of the haunting countryside, the rustic compound and dilapidated interiors in the nearby village suggest a society struggling to modernize while remaining tethered to its traditional roots. In this context, Grangé's story, permeated by the region's Franco-Germanic past with its persecution of the French Anabaptists, takes on added dimension. Interpretations of medieval art with its omnipresent Biblical iconography add to the stifling atmosphere. Pulled between these historical and religious mindsets, conflicted characters are attracted by decadence while seeking the placating promises of religion. Ultimately, with this strategic mix of elements, Grangé immerses the readers in this universe. He invites them to ponder the paradoxical mix of reassurance and temptation religion offers humans, whose goodness is precarious at best. Nathalie G. Cornelius Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French