Religious Settings Research Articles

If I Circumambulate Around Him, I Will Be Burnt: A Brass Candlestick Endowed to the Mausoleum of Imam Musa al-Kazim, Kazimayn

ABSTRACT This study introduces a hitherto unknown brass candlestick at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar (inv. no. MW.152.1999) inscribed with an endowment inscription that indicates that it was donated to the mausoleum of Imam Musa al-Kazim in Kazimayn, Iraq. The candlestick is analysed in depth because its inscriptions – not only the endowment one but also the poetical ones – have the potential to shed some light on the cultural and religious settings in which poetically inscribed brass candlesticks were produced and meant to be used. The study focuses on the surface decorations and the poetical inscriptions on the candlestick and those on some related pieces. It also examines contemporary primary sources such as biographical anthologies of Persian poetry and dynastic chronicles. Based on these investigations, it is argued that the object in question was produced in Iran, circa 1600, most probably in Kashan, the long-established centre of the Twelver Shiʿite population and the city where poets had a close relationship with craftsmen.

A Day in the Life of Carlton Smith

The United States still has one of the lowest evolution acceptance rates in the world. Biology educators have been diligent in their methods to increase evolution acceptance and knowledge, with much success. However, misconceptions still arise through education, textbooks, and even social and religious settings that may influence our citizens’ low evolution acceptance rates. Much research has been done on such misconceptions. But with new technology and electronic advances, we now have a wide variety of information available at our fingertips. Advents such as social media, popular culture, and smart devices may incorporate new and unique misconceptions not seen before in evolution education. We see a younger generation raised in an era where they may experience a bombardment of evolution misconceptions daily, from the games they play to the posts or memes they read on social media. Research into these effects is lacking but may be essential to push the boundaries of evolution education into the future.

PEMILIHAN BAHASA DALAM CERAMAH AGAMA ISLAM DI TEMBILAHAN, RIAU

Tembilahan is the capital of the Indragiri Hilir regency in Riau and is nicknamed a worship city because of the Islamic influence brought by the ulama from South Borneo. Its community consists of various ethnic groups, such as Banjar, Malay, Buginese, Javanese, Minangkabau, and others, with the majority adherents of Islam. This diversity raises problems regarding the choice of language in the religious setting. This paper examines language choice patterns and the factors that determine the choice of languages. The data are drawn by using document analysis and the introspection method. The ethnography of communication approach was used to analyze the data. It reveals that five languages were used (Indonesian, Arabic, Banjar, Riau Malay Coastal dialect, and Javanese) by applying code-switching and code-mixing, thus forming nine patterns of language choice. The factors that determine the choice of those languages are ethnic and language background, the speaker's language competence, the speech's situation, and the speaker's purposes. The purposes of language choice are to emphasize, teach, respect, give an example, pray, quote Al-Quran and Hadith, praise Allah, quote others' statements, and humour. The conclusion is Banjar language is used as the dominant language. Even though there is still no found language use with a single variation in the Islamic sermons in Tembilahan, it shows that the Tembilahan community is classified as a multilingual society that can use more than one language.

Communicating in multilingual churches

AbstractThis paper aims to expand the boundaries of public service interpreting and translation (PSIT) and map the still widely unexplored territory of translating and interpreting in ecclesiastical settings. The starting point is the consideration that 21st-century societies are shaped by cross-cultural contact and interaction because of migration flows. Consequently, parishes are culturally and linguistically diverse. In such a context, translation and interpreting services are of utmost importance to ensure the integration of parishioners and preachers in the religious community. I intend to explore some of the realities, needs, and challenges posed by interpreting in ecclesiastical settings in Spain. A mainly qualitative methodology based on discourse analysis is used. Data come from empirical studies on related topics, an open questionnaire, and observation. The study touches on issues relating to the specific communication needs and audience expectations in religious settings, the context dependency of ecclesiastical translation and interpreting, and the interpreter’s role(s) of the interpreter in the religious environment.

Demand Analysis of Recreation Visits to Chitral Valley: A Natural Resource Management Perspective

Recreational visits are primarily about human activity which involves travel from an originating area to a destination for cultural, economic, and social exchange processes. People travel to exotic locations for sight seeing, picnicking, bird watching, and for cultural and religious settings. However, accessibility to such areas is often free, which not only results in environmental hazards but also deprives the cash destitute government from revenue that such these sites offer. Valuing the recreational benefits associated with a destination based on tourists’ preferences can help formulate an appropriate policy for Natural Resource Management (NRM). Environmental and natural resource management studies often try to measure the welfare change associated with a policy change. Welfare is generally defined as area under the demand curve; accordingly, by estimating the demand curve, consumer surplus is obtained which shows the welfare changes associated with an environmental policy change [Gunatilake (2003)]. The recreational values thus obtained can be utilised for a cost benefit analysis of a policy option, thereby, managing a park or a natural resource on a sustainable basis.

A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF AKHĪ COMMUNITY AND FUTUWWAH STUDIES

The purpose of this study is to reveal the general view of akhī community and futuwwah studies using the bibliometric analysis method. Many studies on akhī community and futuwwah have been published in the literature. These studies focused on the concepts of akhī community and futuwwah in social, economic, and religious settings. A comprehensive bibliometric mapping analysis study of akhī community and futuwwah studies has not been found. This study is thought to be distinct from other studies in the literature in this regard. Furthermore, because of the bibliometric analysis, it can be stated that this research will be useful to researchers working on akhī community and futuwwah. The study was designed with the quantitative research method. Searches on Web of Science were conducted in accordance with the study's purpose, and 22 studies were identified. The data in the study were analysed based on the authors' collaboration, the use of common key concepts, and the common citation analysis. Based on the findings of the network of author collaboration, two different conclusions were reached: the subject is out of date, and a sufficient network of relations could not be established in the literature. The most recent research key concepts date from 2010. Based on the findings of the common citation network, it was determined that the cited authors were all directly involved in the fields of akhī community and futuwwah. Because the purpose of this study was to determine the international visibility of the akhī community and futuwwah studies, it was limited to the Web of Science database. Ulakbim Tr Dizin or Dergipark searches can be used to determine its visibility at the national level. The situation of the concepts akhī community and futuwwah at the national level can be revealed based on the data obtained. However, in this study, these concepts are discussed independently of any subject. Bibliometric analysis can also be used to uncover the connections between these concepts and more specific fields. Keywords: Akhī Community, Akhī, Futuwwah, Akhi Evran, Bibliometric Analysis, VOSviewer.

Bigotry and the human-animal divide: (Dis)belief in human evolution and bigoted attitudes across different cultures.

The current investigation tested if people's basic belief in the notion that human beings have developed from other animals (i.e., belief in evolution) can predict human-to-human prejudice and intergroup hostility. Using data from the American General Social Survey and Pew Research Center (Studies 1-4), and from three online samples (Studies 5, 7, 8) we tested this hypothesis across 45 countries, in diverse populations and religious settings, across time, in nationally representative data (N = 60,703), and with more comprehensive measures in online crowdsourced data (N = 2,846). Supporting the hypothesis, low belief in human evolution was associated with higher levels of prejudice, racist attitudes, and support for discriminatory behaviors against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ), Blacks, and immigrants in the United States (Study 1), with higher ingroup biases, prejudicial attitudes toward outgroups, and less support for conflict resolution in samples collected from 19 Eastern European countries (Study 2), 25 Muslim countries (Study 3), and Israel (Study 4). Further, among Americans, lower belief in evolution was associated with greater prejudice and militaristic attitudes toward political outgroups (Study 5). Finally, perceived similarity to animals (a construct distinct from belief in evolution, Study 6) partially mediated the link between belief in evolution and prejudice (Studies 7 and 8), even when controlling for religious beliefs, political views, and other demographic variables, and were also observed for nondominant groups (i.e., religious and racial minorities). Overall, these findings highlight the importance of belief in human evolution as a potentially key individual-difference variable predicting racism and prejudice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Is it the Sermon or the Choir? Pastoral Support, Congregant Support, and Worshiper Mental Health.

BackgroundAlthough religious involvement tends to be associated with improved mental health, additional work is needed to identify the specific aspects of religious practice that are associated with positive mental health outcomes. Our study advances the literature by investigating how two unique forms of religious social support are associated with mental health. PurposeWe explore whether support received in religious settings from fellow congregants or religious leaders is associated with participants’ mental health. We address questions that are not only of interest to religion scholars, but that may also inform religious leaders and others whose work involves understanding connections between religious factors and psychological outcomes within religious communities.MethodsWe test several hypotheses using original data from the “Mental Health in Congregations Study (2017–2019)”, a survey of Christian and Jewish congregants from South Texas and the Washington DC area (N = 1882). Surveys were collected using both paper and online surveys and included an extensive battery of religious and mental health measures.ResultsCongregant support has more robust direct associations with mental health outcomes than faith leader support. Increased congregant support is significantly associated (p < 0.001) with fewer symptoms of psychological distress (β = − 0.168), anxiety (β = − 0.159), and anger (β = − 0.190), as well as greater life satisfaction (β = 0.269) and optimism (β = 0.283). However, faith leader support moderates these associations such that congregant support is associated with better mental health only in cases where faith leader support is also high. When leader support is low, congregant support and mental health are not associated.Conclusions and ImplicationsAt the conceptual level, our study adds to an extensive literature on the relationship between religious social support and mental health. Additionally, our work may provide important insights to religious leadership in terms of communications strategies, services, and resources that might enhance overall congregant mental health and well-being.

Understanding Child Sexual Abuse in the Religious Contexts in Indonesia through a Lived Experience

Child sexual abuse in Indonesia occurs in various settings, including home, school, or work (in places where child labor is common). The National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Perlindungan Anak) stated that52% of cases of violence against children from 2020 to mid-2021 were sexual violence (Suminar, 2021).The increasing number of child abuse cases encourages parents to send their children to religion-based schools that, they think, offer safer environments. Based on the data collected by KOMNAS Perempuan, 19% of sexual violence occurred in Islamic boarding schools or Islamic-based education and 3% in Christian-based education. KPAI also noted that 88% of perpetrators of sexual violence in schools were teachers, mostly religion teachers (13.3%) and physical education teachers (40%), the rest being computer, arts, social studies, Indonesian, or other teachers, while 22% were principals. The objective of the study is to unravel the experience in a religious setting. The finding narrated that the effects of child sexual abuse could include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, complex post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical injury to the child, among other problems. In addition, there was no support from the school community for the victim of child abuse.

Adverse effects of ayahuasca: Results from the Global Ayahuasca Survey.

Ayahuasca is a plant-based decoction native to Amazonia, where it has a long history of use in traditional medicine. Contemporary ritual use of ayahuasca has been expanding throughout the world for mental health purposes, and for spiritual and personal growth. Although researchers have been conducting clinical trials and observational studies reporting medical and psychological benefits, most of these do not report ayahuasca's immediate or medium-term adverse effects, so these are underrepresented in the literature. With the expansion of ayahuasca ceremonies from their traditional contexts to countries around the world, there is an important public health question regarding the risk/benefit balance of its use. We used data from an online Global Ayahuasca Survey (n = 10,836) collected between 2017 and 2019 involving participants from more than 50 countries. Principal component analysis was performed to assess group effects. Logistic regression analysis was performed to test for adverse effects associated with history of ayahuasca use, clinical, context of use and spiritual effect variables. Acute physical health adverse effects (primarily vomiting) were reported by 69.9% of the sample, with 2.3% reporting the need for subsequent medical attention. Adverse mental health effects in the weeks or months following consumption were reported by 55.9% of the sample, however, around 88% considered such mental health effects as part of a positive process of growth or integration. Around 12% sought professional support for these effects. Physical adverse effects were related to older age at initial use of ayahuasca, having a physical health condition, higher lifetime and last year ayahuasca use, having a previous substance use disorder diagnosis, and taking ayahuasca in a non-supervised context. Mental health adverse effects were positively associated with anxiety disorders; physical health conditions; and the strength of the acute spiritual experience; and negatively associated with consumption in religious settings. While there is a high rate of adverse physical effects and challenging psychological effects from using ayahuasca, they are not generally severe, and most ayahuasca ceremony attendees continue to attend ceremonies, suggesting they perceive the benefits as outweighing any adverse effects. Knowing what variables might predict eventual adverse effects may serve in screening of, or providing additional support for, vulnerable subjects. Improved understanding of the ayahuasca risk/benefit balance can also assist policy makers in decisions regarding potential regulation and public health responses.

Review: Religious Confession and Evidential Privilege in the 21st Century, edited by Mark Hill QC and A. Keith Thompson

This book of essays investigates legislative and judicial trends toward abrogating the confidentiality of religious confession in Australia, Europe, and the United States. The larger issues, of course, are freedom of conscience and the limits the state may try to impose upon religious groups, most particularly in cases of child abuse. The three essays in Part I criticize the recommendations of the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, which advised states to remove legal protections for confessions made within a religious setting. Part II considers examples from Europe, where, given the establishment of religion, canon law was part of state codes. Confessional privilege there was largely sacrosanct until the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Part III examines the situation in the United States. Clergy sexual misconduct has driven state legislatures to remove confessional protections, and led to a general decline of religious freedom in that nation.Of particular interest to readers of Nova Religio may be the final essay in the book, which argues that the Church of Scientology has a legitimate claim of confidentiality to shield communications between parishioners and ministers. Since Scientology auditors perform the traditional role of ministers, learning private and personal information in the process of aiding self-realization or problem-solving, auditing meets all the requirements for constitutional protection.The contributors to this volume all view the erosion of confessional privilege as an attack on the free exercise of religion. The editors decry the West’s “growing disinterest in freedom of conscience and religion” and point to its neglect of “Uighur Muslims in China, Rohinga Muslims in Myanmar, Bahais in Iran, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Russia and Christians in general in Iraq” (15). Readers interested in issues of religion and law and the protection of religious rights will want to read this book.

Dissenting from heteronormativity: growing sideways in religious education

AbstractTensions across religious and LGBTQ concerns have played out in education for some time. In this paper, I make efforts to respond productively to this context by theorising what it might mean for young people in religious schools to dissent from the heteronormativity of religion in religious education (RE). To do this, I survey perspectives across Jewish, Christian, and Muslim accounts of education to claim that there is precedent for dissenting from heteronormativity in religious school settings more generally given these accounts’ resistance to a uniform conception of religious identities and traditions, coupled with their sensitivity to pluralism and difference as enriching features of religious communities and experiences. The value of these accounts notwithstanding, I move to identifying two limiting dimensions to some of these perspectives for theorising dissent, namely: (1) an assumed commonality of religious identity in religious school settings, however internally diverse; and (2) an inordinately propositional and disembodied account of religious encounters. With the specific curricular context of RE in mind, I suggest that dissent from heteronormativity can (perhaps more helpfully) be understood as a mode of ethical agency that: (1) attends to that which exceeds identity in people’s encounters with religion; and (2) builds on the embodied, material, and affective dynamics of encountering religion in the RE classroom. Put differently, I understand dissent as a mode of ‘growing sideways’ in RE, where young people encounter alternatives to the limits of heteronormativity within the context of the present.

Embodied neo-spirituality as an experience filter

The authors outline the framework of ‘experience filters’ as a theoretical and methodical approach to grasp the aesthetic effect and the cultural and social influence of religious practices beyond religious settings: Participation in and enactment of practices and rituals (e.g., ‘neo-spiritual’) shape the embodied experience of further practice and ritual performance, as well as cultural and social participation in general. They create experience filters which influence experience beyond the context in which they were created, and which are intrinsically linked to the transformation of ‘body knowledge’ in practice. Experience filters are embodied conditions for the selection, perception, and interpretation of experiences. Thus, the framework underlines the importance of a body focus in cultural studies of religion, and simultaneously offers a practical possibility of including the body in cultural research. The article is based on ethnographic data obtained in the context of two neo-spiritual phenomena – the Israeli movement improvisation practice Gaga in Tel Aviv and Ashtanga Yoga in Germany. The authors sketch an exemplary evolution of different neo-spiritual experience filters in the two practice settings: the awareness, transformed body, positive emotions, and ‘secular’ filter in Gaga; and the mindfulness, balance, and spiritual filter in Ashtanga Yoga.The authors trace the filters in techniques and body knowledge actualizations, and demonstrate how the filters become effective with participants. Ultimately, the comparison of both sets of experience filters shows not only that typical neospiritual experience filters and common and collective effects of neo-spiritual practices exist, but also the way in which the framework experience filters enable researchers to close in on neo-spirituality as a greater social and cultural phenomenon.

19.2 Hoasca Use in Adolescents in a Brazilian Religious Community

In 2001, a follow-up to a biomedical-psychiatric 1993 study of adult members of the syncretic church, Uniao do Vegetal (UDV), was conducted in Brazil to examine the effects of legally administered ayahuasca to adolescent members of the church. The goal of the study was to determine if a sample of adolescents with histories of ayahuasca use in a religious setting had sustained negative psychological outcomes from their participation in UDV ceremonies and to clarify the risk-to-benefit ratio of ayahuasca when consumed within the UDV ceremonial context.

Epistemic Paternalism, Averroes, and Religious Knowledge

Epistemic paternalism occurs when evidence is withheld or shaped in particular ways in order to help an agent arrive at the truth, but this is done without their consent (and sometimes without their knowledge). While general defenses of epistemic paternalism are garnering more attention in the recent literature, little has been said regarding the practice in religious contexts. We explore a defense of epistemic paternalism in religious settings inspired by the work of the medieval Islamic philosopher Averroes. According to Averroes, epistemic paternalism is permissible in cases where it would help a layperson arrive at religious knowledge via imagination because they are incapable of arriving at it by demonstration. We conclude by explaining how the distinction between imagination and demonstration can be used to justify epistemic paternalism in contemporary settings.

Angela’s Story of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Abstract The aim of this article was to gain an in-depth understanding of one woman’s experiences of childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The analysis presented in this article is grounded in the voice-centred relational or the listening guide (LG) method of narrative analysis developed by Gilligan and colleagues. The LG is an analytical framework that allows for the systematic consideration of the many voices embedded in a person’s story. Analysis illuminates (1) how the religious practice of ‘spiritual baths’ served as a risk factor for the CSA Angela experienced and (2) how the patriarchal family structure and gendered expectations provided the contexts for the perpetration of CSA and the silencing of her voice. Angela speaks of her on-going struggles with her experiences of CSA, a voice which represents her voice of psychological distress. Nonetheless, her coping strategies are understood through her voice of resilience speaking of embracing her Christian faith and the role of motherhood in her journey to resilience. Findings highlight the need for effective safeguarding policies within religious settings, and for social workers to apply cultural sensitivity when working with or planning intervention for Nigerian children who experience CSA.

A Friend's Tribute: Mir ‘Ali for Hilali

AbstractThis article will focus on a Persian manuscript of Central Asian origin of exceptional literary, historical, and artistic importance. It is a selection of poetry, which was composed in Herat and written in 1531–32 in Bukhara and now belongs to King's College, Cambridge (King's Pote 186). It is the second part of my research on this manuscript, and I shall concentrate mainly on its textual and artistic peculiarities. The first part, which was published recently, was dedicated to its provenance as well as its historical and religious setting.1 The studies also reflect the political, social, and cultural processes in a contemporary turbulent world. Among these are the Shaybanid and Safavid conquests of sixteenth-century Central Asia, Shah Jahan's literary preferences, the colonial ambitions of the former Cambridge graduate Ephraim Pote, East India Company agent-turned-scholar Antoine Polier, and expertise of the crème de la crème of Victorian Cambridge academia.

Characterizing a Common Class of Spontaneous Movements.

Our aim is to describe a possible class of nonpathological spontaneous movements that has so far received little attention in the scientific literature. These movements arise spontaneously without an underlying pathology such as Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, cerebral palsy or spinal cord injury. The movements arise in many different contexts including therapeutic, social, religious, and solitary settings. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the movements are related to development and maintenance of form, being part of inherited autoregulatory behaviors and hence bringing an overlooked therapeutic potential. We describe contexts in which they occur, illustrate with case reports, and characterize the movements in terms of their various triggers, movement phenotypes, and conscious and subconscious influences that can occur at both the individual level as well as during collaborative movement relationships between patient and therapist. This description is intended to create a more widespread awareness of the movements, and provide a foundation for future research as to their healing potential.

Work–Life-Balance Policies for Women and Men in an Islamic Culture: A Culture-Centred and Religious Research Perspective

This paper aims to explore the nature of Work–Life Balance (WLB) policies offered within a developing country (Gaza; Palestine) by two telecommunication companies. Firstly, the cultural context is described, in which two semi-public companies have developed a particular set of family-friendly policies, which have attempted to serve the needs of employees of a country enduring blockade and bombardment. Then, ideas are developed exploring why the adoption of Work–Life Balance (WLB) policies in these organisations may have taken a particular pathway. Using the value assumptions of an Islamically informed critical realist approach, qualitative studies have been undertaken in which 20 managers and 42 employees (one third female) have been interviewed in two semi-public companies during a time of turbulence (2015 to 2021) in the political economy of Gaza. These interviews have been subjected to systematic qualitative analysis and interpreted from the methodologies of critical realism and auto-ethnography. The reasons for the provision of WLB benefits identified by respondents were often different in kind and degree from those found in studies in Western countries. These assumed reasons also differed between managers and professional employees. Generally, WLB benefits supported women in an Islamic and Arabic culture in ways which were resonant with cultural settings, but which also reflected local political and union pressures, government regulations, and international influences. The reasons for the provision of WLB benefits identified by respondents were often different in kind and degree from those found in studies in Western countries. These reasons also differed between managers and professional employees. Generally, WLB benefits supported women in an Islamic and Arabic culture in ways which were resonant with cultural and religious settings. This study, the first of its kind in a Muslim, Arabic culture deserves replication with both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

Safeguarding in Church: Children and Young People's Perceptions of Safety in Religious and Other Faith-Based Settings.

Organizations that interact with children and young people have a duty of care to ensure the safety of those children and young people from any manner of abuse, particularly from child sexual abuse. Faith-based ("religious") organizations are of particular interest due to the number of victims/survivors speaking out about their experiences of grooming, child sexual abuse, and other forms of harm in religious organizations. Focusing on addressing the risks and improving safeguarding efforts, prevention activities benefit from giving children agency and a voice. We conducted a study using two focus groups with children and young people involved with two different Christian denominations. We conducted activities and led discussions regarding their views about safety in the context of the faith-based organization with which they engage. Children and young people described different potentially unsafe situations, their likely frequency, and the level of impact such situations would have from their own point of view. They also described how they thought adults in their faith-based organization would see them. Thematic analysis of the data supported four themes related to young people's sense of safety: concerning behavior of adults and other young people, fear of judgment by others (adults and peers), sense of or lack of empowerment due to power dynamics, and the importance of a sense of "familiarity." Visual comparisons of the data on scatterplots suggested differences not only in the level of impact and frequency of potentially unsafe situations between young people and adults but also between the two denominations. Children and young people can provide a wealth of information regarding their safety concerns when involved in programs and services at faith-based organizations. Clergy and other faith-based organizational leaders should consider how the context in which young people are involved (including interdenominational and interfaith difference, as well as the diverse types of activities young people are involved with) can affect their safety concerns.