Religious Paths Research Articles

NAVIGATING THE JOURNEY TO PEACE: A STUDY OF ASSIMILATION AND REINTEGRATION OF EX-OFFENDERS OF TERRORISM

Objective: This research aims to investigate and analyze the assimilation models of ex-offenders of terrorism and identify the factors that drive them to participate willingly in the process of social reintegration. Theoretical Framework: Using the segmented assimilation theory developed by Porter and Zou, this study examines the movement of former convicts through various institutions and social and economic activities has led to their acceptance by society or if they need to follow a different trajectory. Method: A qualitative descriptive ap proach, coupled with the phenomenological method, was employed to gain profound insights into the lived experience of 15 former convicts hailing from diverse districts and cities in Central Java, Indonesia. To collect the data, we conduct interviews individually and in group to gain extensive their trajectory experiences for peace. Results and Discussion: The results of the study indicate that two trajectory models occur in society as a way of returning former terrorists to a peaceful path: (a) the independent model and (b) the institutional model. The independent model focuses on individual roles and initiatives in the ex-offender communicating with the community through family, friends, or community leaders and religious paths to gain the trust of the intended social community. Research Implications: This study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms of social reintegration for ex-offenders of terrorism, highlighting the importance of both individual initiatives and institutional support in facilitating successful assimilation into society. Originality/Value: The study offers an original contribution to the field by examining the specific assimilation trajectories of ex-terrorists, providing a nuanced understanding of the social reintegration process and identifying key factors that influence successful reintegration.

Embracing Oneness: Exploring Ramkrishna’s Syncretic Philosophy and its Role in Shaping a Universal Religion for the Modern World

This research paper delves into the profound philosophy of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, a revered mystic and spiritual luminary of 19th-century India, known for his message of universal harmony and spiritual oneness. The paper examines the syncretic nature of Ramakrishna’s teachings, which seamlessly integrated various religious traditions, emphasizing the underlying unity of all faiths. Through an exploration of Ramakrishna’s life, spiritual practices, and encounters with diverse religious paths, this study seeks to elucidate the essence of his philosophy and its relevance in shaping a universal religion for the modern world. By analysing key aspects of Ramakrishna’s syncretic approach, such as his belief in the essential unity of all religions, his experiential realization of the divine through multiple spiritual paths, and his advocacy for tolerance and acceptance of diverse faith traditions, this paper aims to underscore the transformative potential of his teachings in fostering interfaith understanding and global unity. Furthermore, it investigates the practical implications of Ramakrishna’s philosophy in addressing contemporary challenges of religious intolerance, cultural divisions, and spiritual alienation in the modern world. Through a comprehensive examination of primary sources, scholarly interpretations, and comparative religious studies, this research paper strives to illuminate the enduring significance of Ramakrishna’s syncretic philosophy as a beacon of hope and inspiration for building a more inclusive, harmonious, and interconnected world. By embracing the profound wisdom of oneness advocated by Sri Ramakrishna, this study envisions a vision of a universal religion that transcends boundaries, fosters mutual respect, and nurtures a deep sense of spiritual interconnectedness among all beings.

Simulation of the interactive prediction of contemporary social change and religious socialization based on big data

Religious interaction, supported by effective theories and practical approaches, can be influenced by the social environment, resulting in differing religious paths and characteristics with changes in society. The acceleration of population aging directly affects personal consumption and indirectly affects economic development. By analyzing big data, this paper examines and predicts the interaction between contemporary social change and religionization. Through statistical analyses of cultivated land and urbanization rate data, a strong negative correlation is revealed between GDP development level and cultivated land area. The correlation coefficient between these variables can reach −0.9258, indicating that they are closely related. There is also a high positive correlation between urbanization rate and the natural logarithm of fixed asset investment, with a correlation coefficient of 0.9417. Urbanization rate has the greatest impact on fixed asset investment. Religious interaction not only maintains and cultivates political culture and improves individuals' political quality and ability but also facilitates the development of political identity, which can effectively promote social change in China.

The spiritual turn and the disenchantment of the world: Max Weber, Peter Berger and the religion–science conflict

There is little question that organized religion as embodied in the Christian churches has not fared well in recent decades. Yet, precisely the period when the decline of organized religion hit its stride – the 1960s and 1970s – also witnessed the rise of what Ernst Troeltsch referred to as ‘mystic religion’, only now it goes by ‘spirituality’. Indeed, recent empirical studies suggest that, in addition to secularization, we are also witnessing a veritable spiritual turn. How do we explain this? We pursue this puzzle in a somewhat peculiar fashion: by turning the sociological gaze toward the lives and oeuvres of the two sociologists who have arguably played the largest roles in the development of classical secularization theory: Max Weber and Peter Berger. Addressing their theoretical contributions in tandem with their personal stances vis-à-vis religion, we argue that the standard account of secularization rests on an extremely one-sided interpretation of their legacy: it leaves out their steadfast romanticism, their deep commitments to the value of individual freedom, and, most importantly, the particular religious paths they charted. Furthermore, we contend that each of them exemplifies a way of reconciling a rationalist commitment to disenchanting science with a romantic longing for ultimate meaning, which sheds significant light on why mystical religion (or ‘spirituality’) has come to flourish in late modernity.

Innovations in a Traditional Landscape of Pilgrimage: The Via Francigena del Sud towards Rome and Other Apulian Pilgrim’s Routes

Religious routes and itineraries can be seen as promoting not only the sharing of ethical and religious values and sentiments of peace and brotherhood but also the awareness and personal growth of the traveller. Those who walk remote pilgrimage paths today wish to experience the fascination of the past, to feel something of the dread and the passion of ancient travellers, but they also seek to fulfil an emotional and intellectual need for authenticity, spirituality and culture. The Puglia region has numerous religious paths that arose in past centuries and continue to be practised by modern pilgrims, who treat the journey as an emotional, educational, social and participatory experience. Appropriate exploitation of this type of journey would enable the promotion of a “gentle” but no less successful tourism, above all in a period of social distancing and global suffering. The present study starts with a presentation of some of the precursors of the many routes that led from the Orient towards Rome, such as those of the Apostle Peter, St Francis of Assisi and the anonymous Pilgrim of Bordeaux. It then examines the new values that prompt people to follow the Via Francigena del Sud that runs along the Italian peninsula linking Europe north of the Alps to the ports of Puglia, and it is just an exemplary case aimed at fulfilling the potential of eastern Mediterranean coastal regions by offering cultural routes and itineraries for sustainable and quality tourism.

Central Asian and Middle Eastern policy towards Tajikistan

The article analyzes the main policy directions towards Tajikistan, neighboring countries of Central Asia and culturally related to the Tajiks of the Middle East towards Tajikistan. The civil war in Tajikistan between supporters of the country’s secular and religious paths of development (1992-1997) caused mixed attitudes and policies on the part of various state, political and religious circles in Afghanistan. However, after it became clear that the struggle between secular and Islamist forces in Tajikistan could destroy the country as such, the culturally and linguistically close to the Tajiks political elite of Afghanistan (B. Rabbani and A. Masood) and Iran (A. Rafsanjani) made significant efforts to end the civil war in Tajikistan as mediators and expressed interest in the sustainable development of Tajikistan. In the 2000s, Iran abandoned attempts to influence Tajik policy in order to promote the establishment of a religious state in Tajikistan, turning to cooperation with the secular Tajik authorities in the economic sphere.
 Important issues complicating relations between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are the construction by Tajiks of large hydropower plants on mountain rivers, which Uzbekistan considers a threat to national security, and unresolved border disputes, which are a source of constant aggravation in Kyrgyz-Tajik. In general, Tajikistan has complex problems of various kinds with most of its neighbors (with Afghanistan - drug trafficking and Islamic influences, with Uzbekistan - water energy, with Kyrgyzstan - border), which prevent bilateral relations to reach a new level of quality.

Loughnane on Merleau-Ponty and Nishida: Artists Expressing Faith Intrinsic to Embodiment

ABSTRACT Nishida’s and Merleau-Ponty’s “perceptual ontologies” lead to other notions of self, spirituality, and faith, bringing out the distinctive and comparable religious paths of Buddhism and embodied phenomenology entered by deepening the prereflective openness to the world’s “voices of silence.” Loughnane’s study highlights how Nishida’s and Merleau-Ponty’s turn towards a series of artists in their respective cultural contexts brings out the particular groundedness in the materiality of the beings of the world in this “mutual interexpressivity” or “reversibility.” Faith is revisioned as the dropping of egoistic control to allow perception to be carried into the depths of the world of spiritual hearkening.

The R\u0101dh\u0101so\u0101m\u012b Theory of Subtle Body as an Expression of Religious Inclusivism

This article looks at the yogic theory of subtle body as a hermeneutical and pedagogical tool used by the Rādhāsoāmī (rādhāsvāmī) tradition to construct an inclusivist strategy for appropriating other religious systems. When constructing the theory of surat-śabd-yoga, the Rādhāsoāmīs took the haṭha yoga of the Nāths as a vital reference point. While rejecting the corporeal techniques of haṭha yoga, they remained influenced by the Nāth theory of subtle body. A thorough modification and expansion of this theory enabled the Rādhāsoāmīs to construct a historiosophy based on a hierarchy of religious paths. The article discloses various manifestations of the inclusivist strategy in Rādhāsoāmī thought, establishes its historical and structural determinants, and examines the process of development of the theory of subtle body into a hermeneutical tool for interpreting rival paradigms of yoga in a manner that portrays them as inferior.

Moderasi Berpikir untuk Menempati Tingkatan Spiritual Tertinggi dalam Beragama

The development of spiritual character is an appropriate step to realize moderation in religion. Spiritual character holds the value of self-awareness about human origin, purpose and destiny while religion is a testimony of faith that people accept as the absolute truth of life upon living on earth. Spirituality provides answers to who we are and how we exist and are aware of our existence, while religion provides answers to what we must reflect in our behavior and actions. Every religion presents a path to spiritual. Following the same religion, doesn't necessarily guarantee that they would have the same path or spiritual level. In fact, they can have a different spiritual value in their religious paths. Religion is not the same as spirituality, but it is a form of spirituality that lives in human's personal and communal civilizations. A Muslim can occupy seven levels of human spirituality from selfish to holiness according to Allah's command. This level consists of nafsu al-amᾱrah, nafsu al-lawwᾱmah, nafsu al-mulhimma, nafsu al-muṭma’innah, nafsu ar-raḍiyah, nafsu al-marḍiah dan nafsu as-safῑyah

Finding Religion, Spirituality, and Flow in Movement

“Moving the body is like religion and moving my body is the portal to that place.” This is one woman’s description of her practice of hoop dancing, a form of hula hooping that combines adult sized hoops and dance music. Her experience is not unique; in fact, the number of descriptions of hooping as a practice that is “like religion” serves as the basis of our research. In this essay, we examine the connection between embodied experiences in the hoop, the identification of those experiences as religious or spiritual, and the communities that are created as hoopers attempt to continually recapture the experiences (of flow) that they deem extraordinary. New religions studies is a field interested in the emergence of new religious paths, and our contribution to this academic discourse is in the form of an ethnography of value of the hoop community as an emerging religious path. Our work attempts to reconceptualize newness in the field through innovations in the hoop community. We examine the ways hoopers deem transformational experiences within the hoop as spiritual or religious and how they construct paths to truth and authenticity through embodied practice. These new religious movements are not institutional nor are they tied to formal creeds; rather, they reflect the ways in which religion has become a category of experience that can create meaningful communities of practice for individuals.

John of the Cross, the Dark Night of the Soul, and the <i>Jh?nas</i> and the <i>Ar?pa States</i>

This paper examines function and structure within the religious paths advocated by John of the Cross (1542–1591), and the Buddha, with particular reference to the jh?nas and the ar?pa states, as represented in selected suttas within the P?li texts. First, John of the Cross and the jh?na and ar?pa states are contextualised. The teaching in The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night (John of the Cross), and the S?maññaphala Sutta, the Niv?pa Sutta and the Anupada Sutta (Sutta Pi?aka) is then summarised. The two are then brought into conversation with each other to examine the extent to which the religious paths described move within the same landscape of spiritual practice. Differences in context and metaphysical underpinning are recognised. The paper argues, nevertheless, that similarities are more than evident, particularly with reference to attachment to sensory objects, discursive thought, and the idea of the self or the ‘I’. The paper demonstrates that the two speak of mystical paths, which share many of the same practices and fruits, although couched in different metaphors.

After Awakening, the Laundry: Is Nonduality a Spiritual Experience?

Historically the exclusive purview of contemplative religious paths, awakening into nonduality was considered the pinnacle of human attainment, even if, in some traditions, it proved to be the threshold to even more sublime states. Awakening was traditionally available only to dedicated elite seekers, usually renunciates who practiced for years in monastic communities, their progress directed by the authorities of their lineage. Today technologies for creating the electroencephalographic signatures of advanced meditators are available for purchase, and esoteric religious practices like Zen meditation and asana yoga have been secularized as stress-reduction techniques and physical exercise, respectively. Increased numbers of teachers of nonduality not aligned with any religious lineage and requiring no religious belief are in the business of helping people awaken, i.e., achieve a discrete shift in awareness, in which the consensual, apparently manifest reality of normal waking, adult sensory experience is perceived to derive from a singular unmanifest source in a seamless whole. This study investigated whether people who awakened with the help of nonaligned teachers, usually after working with lineage teachers, considered their awakening to be a spiritual experience, and why? This qualitative study examined the awakening experiences of 26 adults of varying religious backgrounds to see how they interpreted them. Findings suggest that spiritual experiences involve non- or extraordinary features, in contrast to awakening and ongoing nonduality, considered to be the essence of ordinariness despite their being unlike consensual sensory reality. Awakening was not always easy or smooth, and the ramifications of its secularization outside a spiritual context are many.

Composer avec l’interdit religieux

Comment le pouvoir des normes religieuses se traduit-t-il en vécu ? Comment saisir l’emprise de ces normes sur les conduites des personnes interviewées ? Ce texte essaiera de répondre à ces questions en s’appuyant sur les résultats d’une recherche menée auprès de jeunes hommes musulmans (68 au total), marocains, immigrés en Europe (France et Italie), issus de différents milieux sociaux et ayant entre 20 et 30 ans au moment de l’enquête. L’article se propose d’analyser comment les processus d’individualisation religieuse des jeunes interviewés s’imbriquent avec la production de stratégies personnalisées de bricolage des interdits sexuels. Le texte s’intéressera notamment à montrer ce que ces bricolages font aux relations entre partenaires de couple (hétérosexuels) et entre fils et parents, en perspective intra et intergénérationnelle. En s’appuyant sur les histoires de deux jeunes hommes, Rachid et Hamza, il s’agira d’analyser leurs parcours d’individualisation, religieuse et sexuelle, en introduisant la notion d’« arrangement » avec la norme – et notamment de l’interdit sexuel préconjugal selon les préceptes de l’islam.

Le impronte del traduttore

Sommario Drawing on Antoine Berman’s theory of translation as a critical act, this article analyzes the Swedish translation of Giovanni Verga's masterpiece I Malavoglia. The actual translation analysis therefore takes as its starting point a pre-analysis that highlights the translator’s individual motives to deviate from the source text. The results show that the Swedish translator has done extensive changes to Verga’s polyphonic novel, giving it a more homogeneous form. Drawing on theoretical ideas on the translator’s unconscious and habitus, the article shows that the translator has downplayed the novel’s expressive and vernacular traits as well as the patriarchal perspectives, emphasizing instead the novel’s religious paths.

Wisdom, Prophecy, and the Guidance of Humanity

While there are major differences between their respective religious paths and personal lives, there are also important areas of convergence between the beliefs and practices of Pope John XXIII (formerly Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli) and Said Nursi. Both saw a world of massive injustice, inequality and violence; both saw humans on their own as unable to meet these challenges; and both found resources to guide humanity in the wisdom of their respective religious traditions. Both worked tirelessly to actualise the promise of peace of their particular religious paths. Both believed in religious freedom. Roncalli knew and respected Muslims from his years serving as a papal envoy in Sofia, Bulgaria, and in Istanbul. As Pope John XXIII, he changed Catholic teaching by affirming for the first time in Catholic history the right of religious freedom. Nursi interpreted the Islamic heritage of prophecy and wisdom in relation to the challenges of his context. Pope John and Nursi drew lessons from the prophets of their traditions to guide contemporary believers. Both stand as beacons of hope for humanity in the 21st century. Nursi and Pope John appreciated the deep anxieties of their contemporaries over the many threats and uncertainties of modern life; both knew the havoc that can be brought by unchecked human passions. Submission to God as the one sure path to peace was at the very centre of Nursi’s understanding of Islam and human life. It was also central to Pope John’s understanding of Christian discipleship.

One Text, Two Declarations: Theological Trajectories from Nostra Aetate

Nostra Aetate inaugurated a new era of interreligious dialogue in the Catholic Church, but the theological foundation it provided for such dialogue is complex. This article traces two different heuristic trajectories: a universalist trajectory revealed in Nostra Aetate 1–2 and reflected in the work of Bernard Lonergan, and a particularist trajectory in Nostra Aetate 4 and the work of Gregory Baum. Once distinguished, these two trajectories reveal a fruitful tension at the heart of the church’s new engagement with other religious paths.

Judaism – Protestantism – Catholicism: Religious Paths of Economic Initiative

The purpose of this article is to describe the sociological discourse on entrepreneurship in the context of its religious determinants. The paper starts with the famous claim by Max Weber about the Protestant monopoly in this area. This claim is then critically analysed. The article comprises three parts. The first presents economic initiative as driven by non-economic factors. The second part focuses solely on the dispute between Max Weber and Werner Sombart over the primacy of Protestantism or Judaism, respectively, in the area of business operations. Last but not least, the third part discusses what Catholic social teaching has to say on entrepreneurship, and postulates that human dignity be emphasised in the area of economic activity.

In the Shadow of Bell Towers: The Use of Religious Capital among Christian-Catholic Second Generations in Italy

Evidence from some contemporary ethnic groups suggests that ethnic religion may play a strong role in the lives of second generation members. This is evident in recent studies on Muslims living in Europe. But Europe's immigrant population is not just Muslim in origin. Migratory flows from Latin America, the Philippines and Eastern Europe (i.e. Romania or Ukraine) bring people from Catholic and Christian countries to Europe. And—as in the Italian case—these groups are now the majority among the whole immigrant population. Consequently, the almost exclusive focus on the Islamic component has allowed little investigation of the increase of the Christian-Catholic component. The paper describes and compares the religious paths of immigrants’ youth from Peru, the Philippines and Romania, considering the following questions: How do they interact with/develop their religious identity? Is this generation seeking less visible, less participatory means of contact with the church to better integrate with their peers? Or, on the contrary, do they choose, strategically, to reinforce the Catholic part of their identity in order to succeed better in the integration process in a Catholic country?

Dialogue of Suffering, Liberation, and Fraternity: A Report on the Anniversary of Nostra Aetate: Castel Gandolfo and Vatican City June 23–27, 2015

Dialogue of Suffering, Liberation, and Fraternity: A Report on the Anniversary of Nostra AetateCastel Gandolfo and Vatican City June 23–27, 2015 Jim Fredericks Over a year ago, Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, the Prefect of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, met with Pope Francis, reminding him that the 50th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Council’s call to the Catholic Church for interreligious dialogue, was coming in October 2015. The Cardinal came prepared with a number of proposals about how to celebrate the anniversary. The Pope, however, had his own ideas. Francis asked the Cardinal to invite “our friends” who follow other religious paths to come to Rome for a new kind of interreligious meeting, what he called a “dialogue of fraternity.” The first of these new dialogues took place last June. About twenty Buddhists from various US cities gathered with the same number of Catholics at the pope’s summer residence atop Castel Gandolfo for six days of listening, learning and, most of all, imagining how we might work together in the future. Up in Castel Gandolfo, Cardinal Tauran left us with the clear impression that a new era in the work of dialogue was opening up. In the past, dialogues between Buddhists and Catholics have been focused largely on the need to develop mutual understanding and esteem. Now, the pope was urging us to build on that understanding and esteem by exploring the possibility of interreligious collaboration in addressing social problems afflicting our local communities. This is what Francis means by a “dialogue of fraternity.” In his three years as pope, Francis has given us a meaty pastoral exhortation Evangelii gaudium and a groundbreaking—and controversial—encyclical on climate change Laudato Si. He has also gone on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, made all the more memorable because he took with him a Jewish and a Muslim friend from Buenos Aires. I was not at all surprised to hear that this pope’s approach to interreligious dialogue is pragmatic. Francis was inviting us to celebrate Nostra Aetate by rolling up our sleeves and thinking about how we might work together to heal the wounds that afflict the world. In a dialogue of fraternity, Christians and their Buddhist friends, [End Page 213] trusting one another and holding the other in esteem, come together in solidarity to work for the common good. Cardinal Tauran told us to look to the pope’s message on the 2014 World Day of Peace for a better understanding of the meaning of “fraternity.” The message is titled “Fraternity: The Foundation and Pathway to Peace.” “Fraternity is an essential human quality,” the pope said, “for we are all relational beings.” Without fostering fraternity, “it is impossible to build a just society and a solid and lasting peace.” In his message, the pope went on to say that we must join together to resist “the globalization of indifference,” which inures us to the suffering of the marginalized. Globalization makes us “neighbors, but not brothers.” And yet fraternity is an “inherent calling” and a “longing” within us all. The idea that the human person is relational before being autonomous runs contrary to one of the basic tenants of the politics and economics of the modern West. Of course this aspect of Catholic social teachings is not a hard sell for Buddhists. It goes to the heart of the dharma. The implications of this shared understanding for Buddhist and Christian social action, however, is more difficult to discern. We need to talk to one another. But after the talk, we must learn how to act together. On our second day together, we left the cool of Castel Gandolfo for the heat of Rome. The original plan was for our group to have orchestra seats at the Wednesday general audience in the piazza in front of St. Peter’s Basilica: just the pope and us and about six thousand other well-wishers. Once again, Francis had another idea. He insisted on greeting us personally. In the Vatican, we were led past Swiss Guards into a reception room. After a few minutes, the Swiss Guards came to attention and before we knew it, Pope Francis was...

Felix Adler and Education for Ethical Culture

This article delves into the various religious influences on Dr. Felix Adler's spiritual development and the resulting theological and philosophical foundations for the Ethical Culture Society that he created in addition to the Society's schools. The discussion focuses on Dr. Adler's personal struggles with traditional Judaism in the face of modernism and progressive religion and also chronicles the influences of progressive Protestant thought on the development of Ethical Culture. Dr. Adler's story illustrates one of the many religious paths taken by one of Abraham's children as he sought to translate the rich tenets of his tradition for the wider world.