Religious Life Research Articles

АННА БОЛЕЙН – РЕФОРМАТОРКА ЧИ ПОЛІТИЧНА ГРАВЧИНЯ?

English society of the first half of the 16th century underwent many changes in political, cultural and, most importantly, in religious life. The reign of Henry VIII was marked by a decline in the popularity of the papacy among ordinary citizens, which led to a crisis and a break with Rome. From the moment Anne Boleyn arrived at the royal palace of Henry VIII in 1522, she began to play a key role in religious change in England. Some sources confirm her active involvement of the king in reading controversial works that would shake his attitude towards the Pope and the Catholic Church. Different researchers trace different motives for her activity, debating whether it was a religious or rather a political move. The purpose of the article is to understand and determine the level of activity of Anne Boleyn in the religious sphere of life, to trace her role and motives in the formation of a new religious belief in England. Accordingly, the following main tasks arise. Firstly, to analyze the source base of Anne’s contemporaries and scientific works, which reveal the research achievements of our time. Secondly, to investigate the dynamics of the development of the reformation movement in England, to determine the reasons and prerequisites for the church reform in order to understand the level of influence of Anne Boleyn in the decision-making by the king.

Demographic Differences in Satisfaction in Interpersonal Relationships Among Consecrated Religious in Catholic Higher Educational Institutions in Lang’ata Sub-County, Kenya

The study sought to examine the socio-demographic differencesin relation to satisfaction in interpersonal relationships among consecrated religious in Catholic higher education institutions in Lang’ata Sub-County, Kenya. The study employed a quantitative paradigm to collect data and analyze it. A correlational research design was utilized. Proportionate stratified random sampling method was used to select 329 participants that took part in the study. The study was based on the Big Five Model and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relationship Orientation theory. Data was collected using the Big Five Inventory and the Relationship Assessment Scale and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study revealed that levels of satisfaction in interpersonal relationship varied across different demographic variables in the following manner; gender (male, M=26.6889, SD=3.24302; female, M=26.3673, SD=3.29400), stage of religious life (perpetually professed, M=27.0000, SD=3.05273, temporary professed, M=26.3578, SD=3.3578). Age, Participants within age range of 40-46 years old had a high mean of 27.1818, SD=2.83912 than the rest. Respondents with PhD degrees had a high mean (M=27.0000, SD=.00000) as compared to the rest. Lastly, participants who been in religious life for 11-20years old reported a higher mean of 27.5455, SD=2.99052 as compared to the rest. The study concluded that demographic variables have an influence on satisfaction in interpersonal relationship among the consecrated religious. The study recommends that counsellors need to psycho-educate the clients especially those who scored low in satisfaction in interpersonal relationships on how to develop interpersonal skills.

In This Place Called Prison: Women’s Religious Life in the Shadow of Punishment by Rachel Ellis (review)

In This Place Called Prison: Women’s Religious Life in the Shadow of Punishment by Rachel Ellis (review)

«За пожертвования в пользу церквей…»: примеры благотворительности православной паствы Кавказской епархии в пользу Церкви в 40-х гг. XIX в. (по материалам Государственного архива Ставропольского края)

Introduction. The article reveals the features of charitable activities of the Orthodox congregation in favor of their churches. This part of religious North Caucasian everyday life allows us to understand the peculiarities of the worldview of religious people, for whom contribution to the common good was an important moral need. Materials and Methods. Based on an analysis of the activities of the Stavropol Spiritual Consistory, events related to the private charity of the congregation of the Caucasian diocese are identified. The main body of documents is concentrated in the State Archive of the Stavropol Krai, fund 135 Stavropol Spiritual Consistory. The descriptive method used allows us to get an idea of the motivations of the donors and show what the values donated to the Church were used for. Analysis. The Caucasian diocese, established in 1843, experienced difficulties in organizing the process of caring for its flock. To a large extent, concern for the improvement of the temple, where parishioners came to church services, became the concern of the laity themselves. Attention is paid to the analysis of the circumstances under which the donation was made. An important point can be considered the control on the part of the church leadership over the targeted expenditure of funds received. Results. It is concluded that gifts were most often brought to decorate the temple, which was a sacred space for believers. Donations were a way of repentance and atonement for sins, a way to increase one’s authority in the eyes of society, because they became “symbolic capital” characterizing the godly virtues of a particular person. The church carefully monitored the observance of voluntariness in the act of the donor, and to confirm such a step, witnesses were often brought in from among the parishioners associated with the temple to which the donation was made.

الفقه والوحي ومطلب التجديد: نظرات في بناء المفاهيم والأسس والغايات

The call for the renewal of jurisprudence and its issues, one of the most important issues that scholars have been interested in ancient and modern, whether in its deductive or downloadable dimension, which made jurisprudence respond to all issues and calamities through the centuries and successive periods with time, and this interest in jurisprudence and its issues continues to this day people, and since jurisprudence includes all aspects of religious, social and economic life, it was necessary for jurists and scholars to take into account the changes, and understand the circumstances and circumstances, in an effort to download the legal ruling according to the will of God Almighty. On this basis, the article shed light on the concepts related to the renewal of jurisprudence and its issues on the one hand, and determine the nature of the relationship between jurisprudence and revelation on the other hand, with a statement of the foundations of jurisprudential deduction and how to deal with the texts of revelation, as well as highlighting the importance of jurisprudential renewal, in addition to mentioning models of contemporary jurisprudential calamities, in order to find appropriate solutions to them, because some jurisprudential calamities "such as organ transplantation" were not known by jurisprudence before, and this is what was confirmed by the scholar Muhammad Al-Taweel, may God have mercy on him, where he said: "This situation is a novelty that Islamic jurisprudence has not known, and there are no texts and calamities in its heritage with these specifications that indicate that it is permissible or expressly prohibited." Therefore, the absence of the correct explicit text in emerging issues in Islamic jurisprudence opens the door for scholars to ijtihad and find appropriate solutions to contemporary jurisprudential calamities, and this does not necessarily mean that scholars agree on these issues, as they may agree or disagree, based on their ijtihad and rooting of these calamities.

The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God: An Emerging Chapter for Religious Life; Science, Technology, and Mission by Laurie Brink, OP (review)

The Heavens Are Telling the Glory of God: An Emerging Chapter for Religious Life; Science, Technology, and Mission by Laurie Brink, OP (review)

ПРЕДПОСЫЛКИ ИНДИВИДУАЛИЗМА (СТАТЬЯ ВТОРАЯ)

This article discusses the question of how the personal element, which became the starting point of the movement toward individual thinking, manifested itself in the culture of ancient Israel and the culture of ancient India. The article attempts to describe the features of these cultures, which unlike the ancient Egyptian and Sumero-Akkadian, allowed to pass this way to the end. The process of formation of monotheism from the pre-state period to the great prophets is traced. It is noted that socio-political life, which determined with such force the status of man in a number of other Near Eastern cultures, in Israelite culture was subordinated to religious life, which otherwise determined the consciousness of man's status. In doing so, henotheism is gradually overcome. In the consciousness of the Israelite people the idea of complete dependence on God, who reveals himself through the prophets and establishes the requirement of a personal relationship to him, is established. At the same time, God, acting as a guarantor of justice, is revealed through the problem of theodicy, which can be posed only by a free personality. The movement of thought in ancient India turns out to be the opposite of what we see in ancient Israel: while the latter is affirmed through a long but persistent movement towards monotheism, Indian Brahmanism accepts the great diversity of divine reality and through the affirmation of its unity only multiplies the number of its components The decisive period for the emergence of individual consciousness was the period of the Upanishads. At this time, the deepened comprehension of the texts of the Vedas leads to the fact that a philosophical knowledge is built over religious knowledge. The specificity of Indian consciousness is determined by the long period of its oral existence, when the sounding speech in ritual or in the process of meditation acquires the key importance in the realization of the unity of the world. Individual consciousness is manifested in the process of concentration, directed towards understanding rather than mere reproduction of ritual mantras. The practice of asceticism played a role here. Just like in some other cultures in India real authorship emerges in the Axial period as an important sign of awareness of individual creativity.

ПРАВОВЫЕ МЕРЫ ОБЕСПЕЧЕНИЯ РЕЛИГИОЗНОЙ БЕЗОПАСНОСТИ В РОССИЙСКОЙ ФЕДЕРАЦИИ

With this article, the author tries to draw attention to the issue of the need to strengthen the role of the state in ensuring religious security. The relevance of the problem raised lies in the fact that the state, when regulating the religious life of people, is currently implementing a passive policy, trying not to interfere in detail in these processes, whereas religion has a deep motivation on human behavior, making it extremely vulnerable and accessible for involvement and recruitment into extremist and radical criminal organizations. This generates a number of threats in the sphere of religious security, in the implementation of which the state is struggling with their consequences, whereas it would be more correct to eliminate (minimize) the cause of their occurrence. To do this, the author comes to the conclusion that the state should pursue a more active policy, and in some individual cases apply urgent measures to ensure religious security in society. The instruments for the implementation of such a policy should not affect any particular direction of public administration separately, but work in a systematic unity of legal measures in cultural, educational, criminal, social, controlling, mi-gration, digital and other spheres of state regulation and influence. Only in such a complex unity is it possible to counter threats in the field of religious security and reach a higher level of its provision. The purpose of the article is to study some legal measures to ensure religious security in society and the specifics of their implementation. When writing the article, the au-thor used such research methods as analysis, synthesis, formal legal and logical, as well as the method of generalization of legal information.

Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women by Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz (review)

Challenge and Conformity: The Religious Lives of Orthodox Jewish Women by Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz (review)

Paraguayan Indigenism since Barbados I . The Catholic Church and Indigenous Peoples in Paraguay

One of the actors in the field of Paraguayan indigenism is the Catholic Church. The article focuses on relations between the Catholic Church and indigenous peoples in reference to the Declaration of Barbados I (1971). The Declaration, as well as the Document of Asunción (1972), had a game-changing impact on Paraguayan indigenism. Its “fruits” include the Marandú Project and the subsequent legal struggle for indigenous land rights. Both documents also inspired new legislation, such as the Statute on Indigenous Communities, the Law 904/81, the new Paraguayan National Constitution of 1992, the Indigenous Education Law 3231/07 and the Indigenous Health Law 5,469/15 - with their respective regulations. The Catholic Church significantly contributed also to the political and legal process of promoting autonomy and self-determination of indigenous peoples of Paraguay. Furthermore, the author also discusses the missionary project of formation of indigenous leadership in the shifting political and social settings. The resulting introduction of an intercultural diploma for native teachers and legal training for elected indigenous leaders help to face new challenges to economic and religious life of native communities, especially in urban contexts.

Examining religious life from a multidisciplinary perspective. Reflection on the social functioning of the annulment of marriage in the example of research conducted in Poland

Examining religious life from a multidisciplinary perspective. Reflection on the social functioning of the annulment of marriage in the example of research conducted in Poland

Excommunication in Postrevolutionary England, 1689–1714

AbstractThis article asks why many divines pushed for reform of the Church of England's use of excommunication after the Glorious Revolution of 1688. In response, it argues that, worried by what they perceived as widespread moral decline and the threat posed by the floodgates of Protestant dissent opened up by the Toleration Act of 1689, clergy became concerned that sentences such as excommunication were ineffective and the church would soon cease to be the chief arbiter of certain offenses. In contrast to existing historiography, this article suggests that the urge for reform was not confined to any particular section of the church. Instead, the reform of excommunication was a shared cause, although there was sharp disagreement about how to pursue it. However, despite enthusiasm for change, efforts for reform floundered because of partisan conflict and the legacy of the Tudor Reformation that continued to shape religious life in England well into the later Stuart period. Examining the debate about excommunication allows us to revise of our understandings of religion and politics in the last decades of the Stuart dynasty and further develop important concepts such as the long Reformation.

State-religious relations in crisis situations: The support by Russian religious organizations for a special military operation

The article is devoted to the consideration of the specifics of state-religious relations in crisis situations using the example of the reactions of Russian religious organizations, their leadership and representatives, regarding support for a special military operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine. The starting point of the article is the thesis about the fundamental support by the largest religious organizations of Russia of the foreign policy course of the President of the Russian Federation V. V. Putin, including a special military operation. Forms of support include public speaking (reports, interviews, lectures, sermons, communication with parishioners); acceptance by the governing bodies of a religious organization of documents confirming support; providing humanitarian and other assistance to military personnel and members of their families, the population of new constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and refugees; spiritual care for military personnel; participation in social and psychological rehabilitation programs; coordination of the religious life of believers in new constituent entities of the Russian Federation; cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Defense and other government bodies in matters relating to a special military operation. These examples will demonstrate different levels of interaction between the state and religious organizations during a special military operation, revealing the general specifics of the model of state-religious relations in crisis situations in the Russian Federation.

Religion and Intimacy

Michel Foucault has famously argued that, since the counter-Reformation, the modern West has been preoccupied with extracting truth from sex, above all, the truth about power and the human subject. Africa has long been waging its own battles over the politics of gender, sexuality, personhood, and power, a conflict in which religion has played a pivotal role, abetting and sometimes challenging established modes of governance. In recent times, this relationship has become ever more agonistic. In many parts of the continent, religious authorities have mounted puritanical crusades against nonconforming gender and sexual practices. But faith has also been mobilized to offer refuge to the persecuted. How might these issues of identity, exile, and redemption speak to more general transformations in the nature of religious life in the current moment, in Africa and beyond?

Da Europa ad Ercina: Interscambi religiosi nella Beozia di età ellenistica

This article aims to analyze the cultic history and evolution of the nymph Hercyna. She was worshipped in the Boeotian town of Laebadea. Her cult, and even her name, seems to be linked with two toponyms of Celtic origin: Lake Ercina and the Hercynian Forest, located, respectively, in northern Spain and Germany. The article attempts to show how the policies of the Antigonid kingdom may have affected the religious life of a small community in the periphery of the Hellenistic world.

Religious life of Mountain Jews in the North Caucasus in the second half of the XIX c.

Religious life of Mountain Jews in the North Caucasus in the second half of the XIX c.

Перфоманс субжанра «гандз» и поэтика как тактика

The article aims to show one of the crucial features of religious lyrics: cyclicity and network as a poetic feature. A crucial subgenre in this regard is represented by the works called “gandz” and the Gandzaran anthologies they compose, viewed in the context of historical, ecclesiastical liturgical ritual and practice, and medieval religious life. Networking in this article refers to the means, images, and narratives transferred between different genres and subgenres used for the same purpose, which create the paradigmatic image of the liturgical texts of the Christian Middle Ages. The article analyzes the dynamics operating in the network system of different texts and how the characteristic units of different texts become the most significant component of the poetics of the “Gandz” subgenre. The article analyzes the functionality of the “gandz” subgenre in the literary and social sense, its performance, the historical context of its origin and development, its paradigmatic significance in Armenian medieval literature, and its being a network unit in the theological context. One of the crucial aspects of the article is the study of the interaction between gandz and sermon based on their similar social function.

Pengaruh Budaya Organisasi terhadap Efektivitas Manajemen Gereja

Abstract This research explores the influence of organizational culture on church management effectiveness, a crucial aspect in the dynamics of religious life within communities. Through a qualitative descriptive approach, we delve into various sources to gain a profound understanding of this phenomenon. Our findings highlight that the church's organizational culture comprises norms, values, and assumptions that shape its unique identity. Dimensions such as communication, training, recognition, decision-making, risk-taking, planning, collaboration, and management practices contribute to this organizational culture framework. Church management effectiveness, as an effort to integrate resources to achieve the church's goals, is influenced by various factors such as organizational characteristics, environment, members, and management practices. The close relationship between organizational culture and church management is key to achieving effectiveness, while weak culture can impede church goals. Furthermore, a positive organizational culture positively impacts church members' performance and creates an adequate religious environment. In conclusion, a strong relationship between organizational culture and church management supports the growth and sustainability of the church in fulfilling its mission and goals. Thus, a deep understanding of the dynamics of church organizational culture can help enhance church management effectiveness and contribute positively to the religious life of communities.

Some unusual scenes in the tombs of the members of the modern state (1549-1069 BC) in ancient Egypt, on the western bank of Luxor

The ancient Egyptian civilization expressed many noble human values, which were a vivid expression of the reality of life at all levels, whether public life, religious life, or funeral life in accordance with their spiritual and temporal perceptions. This expression was manifested through tomb scenes, especially with regard to The western mainland of the ancient city of Luxor, and in particular in the era of the New Kingdom, in addition to the natural scenes that were included in the walls of these tombs, there were some unfamiliar scenes that were not repeated very often.

Prison Life in the Eyes of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

Christian and Islamic cultures of old abound with examples of atrocities committed against faithful people. Even in the modern era, many people have been unjustly imprisoned and deliberately subjected to persecution by authoritarian regimes. Said Nursi and Aleksander Solzhenitsyn are prominent examples of such poor treatment, even though each fought for their country and produced outstanding works, as long as breath was in them, for the welfare of their fellow citizens and co-religionists. By acting positively, despite every setback, they both fought against ignorance, sedition and lawlessness within the putative legal framework of their respective nations. One of the most important points this article argues is that these two scholars’ spiritual qualities allowed them to discern a hidden beauty, kindness and goodness even behind all kinds of injustices, however much pain and distress was inflicted on them during their incarceration. Thus, Nursi and Solzhenitsyn turned prison experiences into seeing every phenomenon as a reflection of God’s manifestations, exploration and rediscovering a religious and moral life. For Nursi and Solzhenitsyn, the sharp difference between sadness, distress, sickness and old age, on the one hand, and joy, peace, youth and health, on the other, almost disappears in their thinking after converting the prison into paradise.