Religious Genres Research Articles

Metadiscourse Resources across Themes of Islamic Friday Sermon

Friday sermon is a formal speech delivered during the act of worship by the Muslims held before Friday prayer. It is a weekly event that involves disseminating information as well as persuading the congregation through preaching and teaching. In Friday sermons, as a rhetorical religious genre, religious orators usually try to convince an audience using different strategies and language devices such as metadiscourse. Metadiscourse is a rhetorical strategy used to achieve persuasive and communicative purposes as it helps writers (speakers) to engage their audience and guide their understanding of a text. To get insights into how metadiscursive devices contribute to the theme of a sermon, the current study aimed to examine the distribution of rhetorical devices frequency in three themes (belief, practice, and spiritual) of Islamic Friday Sermon (IFS) delivered in English. To achieve the aim of this study, Hyland’s (2005) interpersonal model of metadiscourse was adapted to analyse metadiscourse devices that were deployed in thirty sermons (10 per theme) delivered between 2012 and 2018. The findings reveal the dominant presence of metadiscourse in the sermons of practice/action theme. This indicates the vital role of metadiscourse features in the nature of sermons as a teaching method. Revealing the status of MD rhetorical devises in three different themes can help raise awareness among orators on the appropriate use of MDMs to support the theme of a sermon and make their speeches meaningful, coherent and persuasive.

Transformations of Eastern Orthodox Religious Discourse in Digital Society

Digital technologies have exerted a profound influence on every aspect of human life including religion. Religious discourse, like no other type of social-communicative interaction, responds to the slightest shifts in the concepts of life, identity, time, and space caused by digitalization. The purpose of this study was to reveal the digitalization-associated transformations that have taken place in the eastern orthodox religious discourse over more than quarter of a century. This discussion focuses on the attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church towards digital technologies as reflected in the interviews of its official spokespeople. On the basis of extensive empirical material, it is shown that two major factors determine new tendencies in eastern orthodox religious discourse: the necessity to adapt to modern digital environment and benefit from organizing the internet space in order to influence large numbers of “digitally educated” non-religious people, and, at the same time, a distrust of these new digital technologies. The study is based on the theory of discourse, with discourse analysis being the main research method along with the descriptive analytical method. The article also analyzed the changes in traditional genres of eastern orthodox religious discourse (the sermon), as well as the rapid development of new religious discourse genres (the commented liturgy and call-in show) and para-religious discourse genres. It is concluded that with the help of digital technologies, religious discourse penetrates into everyday life of people, regardless of their social status and religious affiliation, eliminating the borderline between the church and society in modern Russia.

The religious genres of collective memory – an attempt at typology

The memory genre as a model of text serves to memorize (shape) and remember (pass on) images of the past, which reproduces the picture of the past. The article is an attempt at providing typology of religious memory genres. In the first part of the article, the concept of the memory genre is presented and an attempt is made at typology of religious memory genres, making use of the conceptions of Jan Assmann who distinguished communicative and cultural kinds within collective memory. According to the author, the religious genres of cultural memory include the liturgical prayer and the fixed prayer. On the other hand, instances of the religious genres of communicative memory are the universal prayer and parish announcements. Beside these two types, the author indicates also religious genres of inter-cultural memory, which constitute a connection of different types of memory: communicative and cultural or cultural and individual. Examples of this genre are the examination of conscience and a pastoral letter. Certain genres (e.g. the liturgical prayer) are stored in collective memory in full and should be tied to, primarily, remembering – one of the four phases of memory. Then they make genres of cultural memory. Others are connected with recalling (examination of conscience, a pastoral letter, parish announcement) and are genres of communicative or inter-cultural memory.

El amor en <em>El Victorial</em> de Gutierre Díaz de Games

El presente trabajo investiga la representación y la concepción del amor en El Victorial de Gutierre Díaz de Games. Siguiendo la tradición de las biografías y manuales caballerescos, predomina la idea del amor como una fuerza ennoblecedora, ligada a la virtud, el honor y la destreza militar. Esta forma de amor caballeresco, que también ocupa un lugar central dentro de la ideología de la aristocracia guerrera medieval, convive en El Victorial con otras representaciones diversas del fenómeno, comunes en géneros literarios, médicos o religiosos. El objetivo del trabajo es analizar la manera en que estas diferentes concepciones del amor se entretejen y entran en diálogo en un texto central para comprender la función del amor dentro del contexto aristocrático tardo-medieval.

Gospeltainment: Music and Profit in Nigeria

Abstract Nigerian gospel music is an emblematic and significantly informative entertainment industry; it is both an artistic and a contemporary religious genre that reveals social transformations nationally, regionally and globally. The historical fusion of entertainment with spirituality in Nigerian music reflects at once the influence of secular music upon the composition process and the performance context, the pressures of audience demand, the idiosyncrasies of each musician, as well as financial and commercial trends. The radical effects of change in the local labour market and in the world economy are not really new; these have been features of Nigerian gospel music since its origin. But now these factors define this music at the performance level as well.

RELIGIOUS THEMATICS IN UKRAINIAN MUSICAL CULTURE OF THE XIXth CENTURY: HISTORICAL PREREQUISITES

The purpose of the article: analysis of socio-historical circumstances of musical and religious creativity of Ukrainian composers of the 19th century in the conditions of belonging of the Ukrainian lands to different empires – Russian and Austrian (Austro-Hungarian). The methodology of the research includes the historical method necessary for the peculiarities analysis of the composers’ music-religious creativity development of the Dnieper and Western Ukraine in the long evolutionary process, the traditions of performance and the formation of the foundations of composer’s creativity; retrospective and structural-systemic methods in the studios of specific music and religious artifacts; historical and comparative principle in tracing the socio-political circumstances of composing religious music of the nineteenth century, as well as in determining its role in a particular socio-historical environment. The research novelty of the article is to present religious works of the most prominent representatives of the musical culture of the Dnieper and Western Ukraine of the 19th century, M. Lysenko and M. Verbitsky – canonical or religiously related – from the standpoint of historical processes in the Russian Empire and the Austrian Empire, as well as in covering the peculiarities of the musical language of the works mentioned. The connection between the choice of genre model and the system of musical and expressive means and the specific historical and social circumstances in which they were written, allows understanding the motivation of the composers’ appeal to sacred genres or religious subjects, the intensity of their creative ideas regarding the choice of means and forms of spiritual content. The Conclusions. Thus, the historical and political prerequisites that emerged in the Ukrainian society of the nineteenth century in the Russian and Austrian empires, conditioned both the motivation of the composers to appeal to religious genres and themes, and the specificity of their individual interpretation of the musical language in these works. For M. Lysenko, the most important thing was to emphasize the national and patriotic orientation of spiritual works, as well as the reliance on folk-ritual sources and the conscious continuation of the centuries-old tradition of spiritual music. Instead, the post-Lysenko school, especially his students and followers, give such vivid examples of spiritual music as the liturgical opuses of Kyrylo Stetsenko, Mykola Leontovych, Oleksandr Koshyts and others. In them, the “sacral and secular” parity is already being revealed in a new worldview dimension, in accordance with new historical realities in the struggle for the consolidation of the Ukrainian idea. In Western Ukrainian music and religious work, the Bortniansky tradition, and more broadly – the spiritual concert of the eighteenth century, played the role of a national standard up to the beginning of the twentieth century, when young generations (Stanislav Liudkevych, Vasyl Barvinskyi, Nestor Nyzhankivskyi, etc.) define the task of music in society in a new way, and thus rethink its artistic and expressive system. They do not abandon the numerous and varied allusions to biblical themes, the use of characteristic intonational appeals formed in spiritual genres, but give them a completely different, more modern figurative-aesthetic and stylistic interpretation, consistent with the historical changes in the life of Ukrainian society.

ЖИВОПИСЬ НОВОЙ ИСПАНИИ ЭПОХИ БАРОККО: ТВОРЧЕСТВО КРИСТОБАЛЯ ДЕ ВИЛЬЯЛЬПАНДО

The author of the paper investigates the work of Cristóbal de Villalpando (c.1649-1714). His paintings are analyzed in historical, cultural and social context. The author pays attention to the links and relationships between the art world of Europe and the Viceroyalty of New Spain. A significant part of his paintings belongs to the religious genre. Villalpando had been strongly influenced by works of Spanish and Flemish artists. Villalpando’s paintings demonstrate his penchant for narrative, monumentality and incorporation of many figures and details in his compositions. At the same time Villalpando acts as a distinctive painter, originally interpreting biblical scenes and signing himself as “inventor”. The relevance of the article is due to the lack of knowledge of the Baroque colonial artists’ heritage.

Holy Ghost feasts in Tambor de Mina cult houses: Modes of articulations

This article is centred on the diverse modes of articulation between Tambor de Mina – the African-Brazilian religion prevalent among the Black population of São Luís (the state capital of Maranhão, Brazil) – and Holy Ghost feasts – a Catholic feast that is the most important public celebration in Tambor de Mina cult houses. My focus is on the creative processes associated with these diverse modes of articulation. I argue that these processes are connected, on one hand, to the wider politics of boundary management between religious genres that each cult house adopts and, on the other hand, to different politics of display and containment centred on the visibility of Tambor de Mina in the public space. The article is both a contribution to recent anthropological debates on creativity and to discussions on processes of interface between different religious genres in African-Brazilian religions.

Elizabeth Gaskell and the Coarse Authorship of Charlotte Brontë: Religious Perspectives on Women’s Writing

This article explores how the work of Charlotte and Anne Brontë is situated in the context of religious writing about coarse subject matter, especially missionary memoir. It argues that Ellen Nussey, a friend of the Brontës, played an influential role in the editing of Elizabeth Gaskell’s biography of Charlotte Brontë, and that Nussey and Gaskell presented the family in a way that encouraged readers to associate the work of the Brontës with religious and moral genres of literature. It also argues that when Gaskell was writing her biography even religious writing about coarse subjects was becoming less acceptable, and that the respectable woman writer Gaskell portrayed was, therefore, limited to a role of moral martyr.

Translating the Christian Moral Message: Reading Liang Fa's Good Words to Admonish the Age in the Tradition of Morality Books

This paper seeks to interpret Good Words to Admonish the Age, the most important writing of the first Chinese Protestant pastor, Liang Fa (1789–1855), in its complex relations with the tradition of morality books (shan shu). By doing so, the paper attempts to show Liang's subversive adoption of an existing social and religious genre that enjoyed widespread acceptance at the time. While Liang affirms the significance of moral values, he also distinguishes those practices held by morality books as meritorious from actual moral uprightness. In contrast, moral good for Liang is a result of divine intervention (that is, salvation) and a Christian duty, thus transcending the conventional purpose of earthly reward or securing one's own fate for blessings. In crafting his Good Words, the morality-book tradition forms an essential point of contact that Liang appropriated and adapted for delivering his Christian message – a message that is also in competition with the conventional moral view of salvation. For Liang, these moral tenets, which he still holds dear after his conversion, now culminate in a theological knowledge of God and his salvation plan.

The Malay Fiqh Manuscripts at the National Centre for Malay Manuscripts: A Pilot Survey

The National Centre for Malay Manuscripts, under the National Library of Malaysia safeguards a large number of Islamic Malay Manuscripts whose contents have yet to be studied and explored. They cover numerous knowledge fields such as literature, history, religion, medicine, laws, constitutions, as well as amulets and tips. In terms of religious genre, Fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence) seems to dominate even though the manuscripts in this field have not been categorized yet, as in the case for others. A researcher must scan the title, table of contents or some of the descriptions provided in the catalogues before he could determine the field of a certain manuscript. This proves to be challenging especially for those who lack the basic knowledge in Islamic disciplines. Therefore, this paper will discuss the identification of Fiqh manuscripts that exist at the Centre, the sub-fields as well as some reviews on selected manuscripts related to the field. The research method used is document analysis while scanning and collecting data. Then it was analysed using content analysis and comparative method to separate it from other knowledge fields. This initial study found that there exist a large number of manuscripts related to Fiqh in various sub fields such as ibadah (worship), muamalah (commercial transaction), munakahah (marriage) and jinayah (crime and punishment). This proved that Islamic scholars in Malay Archipelago have significant contributions in Islamic Fiqh. Therefore, further studies on Fiqh can be carried out based on the classical works of the Islamic scholars in Malay Archipelago.

Constructive Principle of Religious Style: Ontological Basis

To the present day, the linguistic description of the religious style is reduced to characterizing certain genres, such as preaching, prayer, message, hagiography. The choice of the constructive principle of religious style and the description of its ontological foundations have not yet been set as an objective scientific study. The review demonstrates how the idea of proto-textualism of religious style is advanced and, consequently, the protogenic conditioning of all modern religious genres. The idea of proto-textualism receives a communicative, pragmatic and categorical textual basis in this review. The constructive principle of religious functional style is determined by the peculiarities of religious consciousness and religious activity. The characterization of these ontological principles of dual peace and salvation lies in the notion of the text-sphere embodied in the constructive principle of proto-textuality, which implies the obligatory support of each of the following religious texts relating to the religious prototype.

Жанрові модифікації фарсу в сучасній драматургії

Along with the genre forms that have not stopped their development for many centuries, but have gained significant transformations (tragedy, comedy, drama, melodrama, tragicomedy), there are also numerous genres, whichfell out of the history of drama for a long time (often for centuries) and were not claimed by theatrical art. However, in the drama of the 20 th – beginning of the 21 st century the clear tendency for the revival and modification of archaic genres, first of all, seemingly, “dead” genres of the medieval theater is characteristic. In its genre system religious drama genres (especially mystery and miracle plays), didactic (pritch, parable) and comic (farce, interlude, commedia dell'arte) occupy an important place. The article discusses the features of genre modifications of medieval farce in contemporary dramaturgy. A typology of contemporary farce is also suggested (three types are conventional farce, black farce and socio-political farce). Genre signs, features of the plot and of farce in the works of European dramaturgy of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries (M. Frein, M. Kamoletti, D. Orton, P. Schaeffer, E. Nelison, G. Adam, A. Bitton and others) are researched. Scientific (L. Smith, A. Sierz, S. Goncharova-Grabovskaya, N. Malyutina etc.) and author's (R. Cooney) reflections on the farcical genre module are considered.

Nomination and Argumentation Strategies in Oratory Discourse: The Case of an English Sermon

Inspired by critical discourse analysis and regarding language as a social medium whereby individuals, social groups, and institutions tend to express their beliefs and values, this study seeks to explore the persuasion and discourse strategies utilized in sermons. By focusing on the sermon of an influential native English orator and by employing Wodak’s discourse–historical approach, it aims to investigate how the targeted religious genre unfolds to disclose the persuasive powers of the orator and its impact on the audience. The results obtained from the qualitative analysis of the corpus under investigation revealed that the speaker resorts to significant presentation of a wide range of topics to establish the oratory, and constructs the social actors through the application of nomination tools to qualify the selected actors through carefully formulated predication devices by laying out discursively logical justifications concerning various topos. Alternatively, the complementary quantitative corpus analysis using Corpus Presenter software also provided an insightful evidential basis reflecting orator’s involvement, intensification of the intended illocutionary force, and his utilization of thought-provoking linguistic resources. Notably, the results presented here may shed light on the function of intertextuality in the genre of the sermon operationalized and activated through nomination strategies, the tools of argumentation theory, and interdiscursivity. Second, language learners’ awareness of such elements may have an overriding importance in the process of text generation in speaking and writing processes.

A History of Persian Literature, Volume 1: General Introduction to Persian Literature

A History of Persian Literature, Volume 1: General Introduction to Persian Literature

FarsiTag: A Part-of-Speech Tagging System for Persian

FarsiTag is a tagging system capable of assigning the most probable part-of-speech (POS) tags to Persian words in a text. In this system, some linguistic rules have been used to select the best POS tag for every Persian word. The present study aims to report the processes during which a robust tagging system—FarsiTag—was designed and implemented on Persian texts. A POS-tagged parallel corpus of English–Persian containing about 5,000,000 words has also been developed as a side-product of the mentioned tagger. An experiment has been conducted to evaluate the performance of the system while tagging unrestricted Persian texts. The highest rate of error traces back to medical and religious genres, while the lowest system error type is related to the scientific texts. The total error rate considering all domains is as low as 1.4%, with the overall system accuracy of 98.6% which is very promising for a language like Persian.

Дискурсивний потенціал молитви: до питання про трансформацію релігійно-культового жанру в мистецькому просторі

Дискурсивний потенціал молитви: до питання про трансформацію релігійно-культового жанру в мистецькому просторі

Afflictive Apparitions: The Folk Catholic Imaginary in Philippine Cinema

The amusing aphorism that the Philippines is “a product of 300 years in a Spanish convent and 40 years of Hollywood” evokes audiovisual validation in the enduring presence of a Filipino religious film genre that represents what I would term as the “folk Catholic imaginary,” a furious postcolonial syncretism of Roman Catholic piety and primal, pre-Hispanic religious practice. Filipino religious films keep open the portal between the this-worldly and the other-wordly, notwithstanding the ingression of what Charles Taylor terms as the “buffered self” (largely coming from “enlightened” Western thought) that summarily dismisses religiosity as belonging to the archaic, pre-enlightened world of enchantment where angels/demons and humans made strange bedfellows. Catholic religious iconography has been vividly portrayed as at once being definitively material and audaciously metaphysical, holding both in creative tension so that it is never a question of an either/or, but a both/and. Within the interpretive frame of the folk Catholic imaginary, I draw attention to Santa Santita, an acclaimed 2004 feature film lensed by noted filmmaker Laurice Guillen. I examine how the cinematic representation of postcolonial folk Catholicism, as expressed in the perceived power of religious icons and images over the lives of devotees, is indexical of a Filipino primal religion that the Spanish colonial missionary enterprise was not able to completely vanquish.

Predicting Alcohol, Cigarette, and Marijuana Use From Preferential Music Consumption.

This study investigated whether use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana may be predicted from preferential consumption of particular music genres. Undergraduates (257 women and 78 men) completed a questionnaire assessing these variables. Partial correlation analyses, controlling for sensation-seeking tendencies and behaviors, revealed that listening to conventional music (pop, country, and religious genres) was negatively correlated with cigarette smoking (p=.001) and marijuana use (p<.001). Additionally, listening to energetic music (rap or hip-hop and soul or funk genres) was positively correlated with marijuana use (p=.004). The only significant predictor of alcohol use was country music, with which it was positively correlated (p=.04). This research suggests an especially harmful influence of energetic music on marijuana use.

Model obitelji u katekizamskoj književnosti

U radu je pozornost usmjerena na tri katekizma bellarminovske tradicije koji su nastali u Slavoniji u 18. stoljeću. To su: Put nebeski (Venecija, 1707.) Ivana Grličića, Dušu čuvajuće pohođenje (Budim, 1750.) Jerolima Lipovčića i Satir iliti divji čovik u nauku krstjanskom ubavistit (Pešta, 1766.) Đure Rapića. Usporednim čitanjem tumačenjâ četvrte Božje zapovijedi pokušalo se ukazati na sličnosti i razlike u oblikovanju modela obitelji u katekizamskom štivu posttridentskog razdoblja. Osim što je riječ o modelu koji implicira hijerarhijske odnose u kućanstvu i široj društvenoj zajednici, htjelo se pokazati kako žanr katekizma, iako visoko normiran nabožni žanr, također podliježe subjektivnim i kontekstualnim utjecajima, što ga čini vrijednim izvorom za književnoantropološka istraživanja.