Religious Way Research Articles

From the centre to periphery: The Middle Eastern impacts on Islamic education in Indonesia

This paper traces Middle Eastern elements in Islamic education in Indonesia by looking at their institutions, curricula, method of teaching, orientations, and Islamic ideological transmission. The information on values and impacts of Indonesian and Middle Eastern Islam takes a one-way traffic pattern in general terms. The dynamics of Islam in Middle Eastern regions will fundamentally affect the practice and dynamic of Islam in Indonesia. This paper maps out Middle Eastern components' influence on the course of education run by these two largest Islamic organizations in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama'. However, following the New Order's fall, many Islamic groups emerged; education offered by these new groups and orientations is also worthy of evaluation. In the modernist group, the idea and practice of Islamic reform, which constitutes one of its significant agendas, mostly echoed the similar and earlier movements in the Middle East. Similarly, traditionalist groups are often described as the revivers of more locally-rooted Islamic practice, and therefore, they tend to blend local and Middle Eastern elements within their religious way.

Women's History in the Age of Reformation: Johannes Meyer's Chronicle of the Dominican Observance

Women's History in the Age of Reformation: Johannes Meyer's Chronicle of the Dominican Observance

\u201cBlessed by the algorithm\u201d: Theistic conceptions of artificial intelligence in online discourse

“My first long haul flight that didn’t fill up and an empty row for me. I have been blessed by the algorithm ”.The phrase ‘blessed by the algorithm’ expresses the feeling of having been fortunate in what appears on your feed on various social media platforms, or in the success or virality of your content as a creator, or in what gig economy jobs you are offered. However, we can also place it within wider public discourse employing theistic conceptions of AI. Building on anthropological fieldwork into the ‘entanglements of AI and Religion’ (Singler 2017a), this article will explore how ‘blessed by the algorithm’ tweets are indicative of the impact of theistic AI narratives: modes of thinking about AI in an implicitly religious way. This thinking also represents continuities that push back against the secularisation thesis and other grand narratives of disenchantment that claim secularity occurs because of technological and intellectual progress. This article will also explore new religious movements, where theistic conceptions of AI entangle technological aspirations with religious ones.

‘Who/what causes suffering?’: Discourses on religious healing in African communities

The discourses on religious healing that are presented here were collected during interviews in seven research projects done in South Africa and Malawi over a period of almost 20 years. The focus is on how interviewees view the cause of their illness or misfortune, and consequently how they understand the healing thereof, which determines where they go for healing. During the first of these projects, church leaders of 102 churches in Atteridgeville (Pretoria, Tshwane) were interviewed during 2002 and 2003 on their healing practices and the beliefs supporting them. This was combined with the author doing counselling from 2000 to 2007 with more than 1000 patients at Kalafong Hospital in Atteridgeville on the religious discourses that guided their lives and informed them about the causes of their misfortune. During 2009, interviews were held with 210 farm workers in the Hoedspruit area (in the eastern part of the Limpopo Province) on the religious causes of, and religious cures for people living with HIV and AIDS. These interviews were followed up by interviews in the rural township of Sakhelwe (in Dullstroom-Emnotweni in the eastern province of Mpumalanga) during 2011, and extended to rural villages around Nkhoma in Malawi (2016). These were followed up by two interviews held with two women of mixed race in the industrial township of Rustenburg-Karlienpark in the North-West Province of South Africa. In addition, similar research was done in two contexts that stand in strong contrast to those described above. These are interviews with men serving long-term sentences in Zonderwater – a correctional facility 60 km outside Pretoria, who were asked about the religious causes of what is perceived as their suffering because of incarceration. The second was interviews conducted at the Thohoyandou Victim Empowerment Centre with 11 women on the (religious) causes of them being assaulted by their partners. The similarities and differences of the discourses presented by religious people in a variety of contexts on the causes of their illness and misfortune, and how healing can be effected in religious ways, will be highlighted.

Language and Symbolic Arts: Religious Adornments, Arts and Meaning in the Catholic Church Liturgy

Language is a means, a tool or method, of verbal or non-verbal communication between humans using some forms of signs, and symbols such as letters of the alphabets in written form to make words used in speech that convey meanings. The use of these words is done following the rules of grammar. Every culture/race or people have their own language and symbols and the way they communicate. Language enables one to express feelings, thoughts, ideas and shared experiences. Symbols have mystical quality that conveys a sense of the sacred and gives nourishment to the physical. Through working with symbols the inner energy is harnessed or put in use; one thinks deeper than the ordinary. Unless these symbols are understood they make no meaning and therefore have no effect on the individual. Therefore religious arts and symbols are creative images designed to aid and inspire the individual to reflect in the spiritual. The Catholic Church is one Religious Institution that uses a lot of symbols and art in religious worship or liturgy. The Liturgy is the religious way of life which is centered in the Mass or Eucharistic celebration. Its religious arts-places, objects, arts, (icons, pictures), and adornments are dressing or vestments, vessels, and decorations (flowers, vestments seasons and colours). This article tries to explain briefly what language means. It also attempts to expose to the reader the uses of some of the symbols, arts and adornment in the Catholic Church, noting their possible meaning and how they affect the life of the faithful for spiritual enhancement or growth.

Skepticism and Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War by Christopher Grasso

Reviewed by: Skepticism and Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War by Christopher Grasso Tara Strauch (bio) Skepticism and Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War. By Christopher Grasso. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. 664. $34.95 cloth; $34.95 ebook) American religious history has changed drastically over the past one hundred years. Religious historians moved from the confessional histories of the nineteenth century towards examining religious groups as cultural entities. At times over the past two decades, scholars congratulated themselves on these changes in form and function. Perhaps that is why the premise behind Christopher Grasso's book was so striking to me. Grasso puts religious skepticism at the center of his study and in doing so reminds religious historians that belief is only one piece of the story. Rather than emphasizing belief, this book argues that antebellum Americans were far more open to religious skepticism, doubt, and freethinking than we often assume. And that doubt, in particular, drove early American intellectual history until the Civil War when the sacralization of North and South left no room for the skeptic in American public life. Grasso starts his investigation in the heady, politically charged world of revolutionary America where skepticism was often a political liability and a moral failing. Part one examines how the American Revolution enabled and encouraged skepticism while it also restricted skeptics from forming organized associations such as the Deistical societies that might give skepticism cultural and political legitimacy. Grasso places the "deist hero" Ethan Allen in conversation with the "deist monster" William Beadle and the faith of Jarena Lee with the skepticism of Elihu Palmer. Skepticism existed in eighteenth-century America but it could not flourish because of the institutional obstacles—like legal restrictions and religious patriotism—of the new nation. Part two, Enlightenments, considers the intersection of belief, economics, and morality by focusing particularly on Thomas Cooper's skepticism and economic support of slavery. Grasso contrasts Cooper's skepticism with the faith of Ezra Stiles Ely and David Nelson who [End Page 339] together founded Marion College in Missouri on the principles of "enlightened Christian moral economy" (p. 228). When the college failed, these two men came to see skepticism, and slavery, as the main cause. Concluding this section of the book, Grasso compares Nelson and Ely's splintered visions for the nation with the way in which anti-slavery brought New England Unitarians and skeptics back together. Tracing the arguments of George Bethune English, Theodore Parker, and Richard Hildreth among others, Grasso argues that this common moral cause pushed the threat of deism and skepticism away from that region for a time. Part three follows attempts to change American behaviors through radical social and spiritual reformations between 1820 and 1850. "Radical Reformers" like Frances Wright, Robert Dale Owen, and William Alcott emphasized communal living, diet, and purposeful living as keys to social change while others, like Orestes Brownson, moved from skepticism to faith and found religious ways of working for earthly reform. These reformers, however, conflicted with socially conservative Christians who argued, in various ways, that worldly success and economic security provided scant comfort in the next life. Part four, Sacred Causes, considers how "civil religious theology" or "public theology" shaped Americans' opinions about slavery, Christianity, and the Civil War. Smaller than the previous sections of the book these two chapters demonstrate how the South, or at least South Carolina, melded Christianity and pro-slavery thought to the exclusion of skepticism. In the North, meanwhile, individuals could work in unison against slavery while believing in different religions—some battling slavery in the name of God while others fought for the "promise of Freedom and Equality" (p. 395). This book is a masterpiece; it tells a big story through detailed and nuanced historical research. Skepticism and Faith provides a grand narrative of American history through the Civil War that rivals popular narratives of American progress and toleration. Instead, Grasso offers doubt and skepticism as the engine behind American [End Page 340] development. This is not a popular history book, however, as its dense prose weaves together intellectual biographies of many American thinkers. In any given chapter, Grasso brings three or four...

The acquisition of recursively embedded noun modifiers in Romanian by Hungarian-Romanian bilinguals

My article is related to the use of Gloria Anzaldua’s concept of mestizaje and Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis in analyzing the possible hybridity in Joss Whedon’s Firefly, where an intergalactic Sino-American federation called the Alliance recreates the palimpsest of civilization of the kind described by Turner, but also forges a new cultural mix: a Wild West backdrop with Chinese characteristics. I examine the ways in which Whedon’s show differs from other space opera settings like Star Trek or Star Wars, but also how it ends up reproducing certain orientalizing tropes that feature in science fiction. I aim to see how mestizaje is mirrored in linguistic, sexual, and religious ways through the show’s engagement with in-betweenness, especially in the guise of its adoption of Chinese culture, and whether Whedon’s Firefly enables the creation of Anzaldua’s type of hybridity.

Book Review European States and Their Muslim Citizens: The Impact Of Institutions on Perceptions and Boundaries

Book Review European States and Their Muslim Citizens: The Impact Of Institutions on Perceptions and Boundaries

Философия религии В. Де Ветте: религиозное чувство и пути его постижения

Философия религии В. Де Ветте: религиозное чувство и пути его постижения

Intensitas Bermedia Sosial dan Minat Muslim Urban Berhijrah: Analisis Followers Akun Instragram @Surabayahijrah

This study aims to measure the effect of the intensity of accessing Instagram account access @surabayahijrah on followers' interest to hijrah (individual muslim shifts towards a more religious way of life). This article is the result of a correlational quantitative study with the number of sample 100 followers of Instagram account @Surabayahijrah who live in Surabaya. The results have shown that r squared is 0.1186 which means that there was an influence of Instagram account access @ surabayaahijrah of 11.86% on the interest of hijrah and the rest was another factor outside of the research about 88.14%. Partial test results (t) also indicated that the t-value of 2.066> t-value of 1.667, which means that there was an influence of partial access to the account @surabayahijrah with a significance value of 0.041 which is less than the specified significance value of 0.1.

Conversation or non-versation? Physicians’ communication about existential, spiritual and religious needs with chronically ill patients - protocol for a qualitative study

Background: Facing a severe, chronic disease can be experienced as an existential crisis that may lead to a lower quality of life and even risk of suicide. Existential, spiritual and religious ways of meaning-making are in many cases positively related to health and can be important in times of crises. This project aims to study a gap in the current knowledge with a specific focus on patient-centeredness as an attention to the whole person. How do physicians experience their patients’ existential, spiritual and religious needs in relation to chronic disease? How do they address these needs and are patients satisfied with this communication? Methods / Design: Two chronic diseases with severe illness in common were chosen: Chronic Pain and Multiple Sclerosis. For each disease, an in-depth study of 12 patients and 4 physicians will precede the comparison of the cases resulting in 24 patient interviews and 8 physician interviews. Further, we will compare the existential, spiritual and religious needs of these 2 patient groups. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is applied as methodology and semi-structured interviews and observations are used as data generation methods. Discussion: Investigating and addressing existential, spiritual and religious meaning in life in exchange with patients may enhance quality of care and improve efficacy of and satisfaction with treatment. The results of this project will hopefully provide a substantial contribution to the knowledge about existential, spiritual and religious needs of patients living with a chronic disease. The knowledge may be used in clinical practice as well as for educational purposes.

СЛАБКА ДУМКА («IL PENSIERO DEBOLE») ТА «СЛАБКА ТЕОЛОГІЯ» ЯК СИМПТОМИ ПОСТМЕТАФІЗИЧНОГО МИСЛЕННЯ

The growing political influence of religious communities and beliefs, the growing presence of religious discourse in public sphere require a rethinking of the role of religion in modern society. A number of mutual accusations in a metaphysical way of thinking leads to the fact that the whole philosophy of the XX century turns out to be a philosophy thinking in a “post” situation. Formation of the “post“ states is entirely explained in the field of social philosophy, which tries to “keep pace with time”, but the intrigue lies in the fact that in the first place these transformations touched the most fundamental and “eternal” field of philosophy – ontology. After Heidegger's thesis on the ontoteological structure of metaphysics, the discourse at the end of metaphysics and post-metaphysical philosophical thinking not only inevitably affect the problem of theology, but connect the problems of updating philosophy and theology in the XX-XXI centuries as well.Along with the decline of metaphysics as a system philosophy that is able to propose a coherent, unified, well-grounded picture of immutable structures of existence, the very possibility of philosophical refutation of the existence of God is exhausted. It defends the possibility of religious experience. The pluralism of the post-metaphysical era eliminates the possibility of any theoretical distinction between metaphorical and non-metaphorical languages. On the other hand, the famous statement by F. Nietzsche about the death of God, which is inscribed in the context of the critique of metaphysics, symbolically means the final decay of the religious way of thinking and the flowering of secularization, which means the rejection of appeals to other levels of being, except in the focus of today and everyday life. The specificity of hermeneutics, which is practiced by Caputo and Vattimo, is directly related to the key moment in the constructs of both thinkers – the concept of weakening thinking. For Vattimo, a weak thought (pensiero debole) refers to the gradual weakening of being, which turned the modern philosophy from its "obsession" with the metaphysics of truth to the local rationality and awareness of the hermeneutic nature of any truth. There are two aspects of weakening opinion. The first process – the weakening of being – from the objective metaphysical structure to the interpretation (“events” in the Heideggerian sense). It is described in the Nietzschean language of nihilism, which means the historical process, within which objectivistic claims of metaphysics, absolute grounds have become false (or reduced to “nothing”), weakened, and replaced by “prospects” or interpretative schemes. The second process is the weakening of God in the world, described in the language of the apostle Paul in terms of subtlety – kenosis, which is a paradigmatic expression of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation, birth and death of Jesus. Kenosis is not a one-time event that took place in the life and death of Jesus, but the continuing history or tradition initiated by this event. This process is called “secularization” by Vattimo, which doesn’t mean a rejection of God, but a kind of “transcription” of God in time and history (saeculum). Thus, nihilism and kenosis are parallel processes. Nihilism is the devastation of being in an interpretative structure; kenosis is the ascension to nothing of God as transcendental deity. Kenosis is understood as transcription, translation or transfer of God into the world, a means to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. This idea, the political correlation of which is non-authoritarian democracy, and the epistemological correlate, is a Gadamer's understanding of dialogue.On the positive side Vattimo’s “weak thinking” and the ontology, seek to be hermeneutical and nihilistic in the spirit of the Heideggerian ontology. Vattimo's philosophy seeks to save ontological discourse without making it metaphysical in the traditional sense. To speak more specifically, this philosophy recognizes the world of symbolic forms, the world of action, recognizes different practices, perceiving them as different languages of the mind. Describing postmodernity as a “more enlightened Enlightenment”, where there is no longer a dream about pure objectivity, Caputo emphasizes that the modern rebirth of religion returns its original meaning – faith, not less form of knowledge. Therefore, religious truth is characterized as truth without knowledge, and modern religiousness as “religion without religion”.By reducing the ontological and theological thought there is a convergence of theology and philosophy, which now do not contradict each other, but are found in some new space, which we call post-secular philosophy.

Dynamics of Memory and Religious Nationalism in a Sino-Vietnamese Border Town

AbstractThis article analyses the dynamics of official and unofficial religious nationalism in the Vietnamese border town of Lào Cai. In 1979 it was one of many Vietnamese towns that were reduced to rubble during the short but bloody war between Vietnam and China. The normalization of Sino-Vietnamese relations in 1991 allowed a booming border trade that let Lào Cai prosper, while the painful memory of this war continued to haunt the town and the daily experiences of its residents, both humans and gods. Since the Vietnamese state forbids any official remembrance of the war, Lào Cai residents have found a religious way to deal with their war memories that skilfully evades state control. By analysing narratives about the fate of the gods and goddesses that reign in the Father God Temple and the Mother Goddess Temple—two religious institutions located right next to the border—this article shows that it is in the symbolism of the supernatural that one can find memories of the war and of the changing social landscape of Lào Cai and reconstruct its history.

Philosophical Theology and Evolutionary Anthropology

Summary Being one of most influential anthropologists of contemporary times, Michael Tomasello and his groundbreaking evolutionary approach to a natural history of human beings are still to be received by theological anthropology. This article aims at evaluating the prospects and limitations of Tomasello’s natural history of human ontogeny from a philosophical and theological perspective. The major advantages of Tomasello’s approach are a new conceptual perspective on the mind-brain problem and a possible detranscendentalization of the human mind which leads to an intersubjectively grounded anthropology. At the same time, evolutionary anthropology struggles with the binding force of moral obligations and the human ability to interpret one’s existence and the world in a religious way. This article thus offers a first theological inventory of Tomasello’s account of evolutionary anthropology which praises its prospects and detects its limitations.

Study on the Effectiveness of Toleration in the Situation of Cultural Conflict

본 연구는 문화를 구성하는 다양한 구성요소들의 집합인 문화 간의 충돌 상황에서 관용의 효용에 대한 고찰을 시도한다. 이를 위해 논자는 문화를 구성하는 다양한 종교적, 철학적, 도덕적 요소들의 차이가 문화 간의 충돌의 전제 조건이 된다는 일반적인 상식에서부터 출발하여, 이 충돌의 요소들을 오히려 역전하여 평화와 공존의 전제 조건으로 간주하는 관용의 효용을 몇 가지 과정을 통해 논증하였다. 이 과정은 크게 두 가지 단계를 거쳤다. 첫째, 관용의 정의를 통해 관용이 문화충돌의 조건이라 여겨지는 상이한 문화적 요소들이 어떻게 문화 간의 상호 관용의 전제 조건이 되는가를 보이고자 시도하였다. 이 과정을 통해 논자 문화 간의 충돌이라는 비극적인 상황의 조건이 되는 문화 간의 차이라는 현실에 관용이 얼마나 효율적인 도구가 되는지를 보이고자 하였다. 둘째로, 상이한 요소들의 집합체로서의 문화가 어떠한 맥락에서 상호 관용의 관계로 진입할 수 있는가를 두 가지 관용의 모델들을 통해 고찰해 보았다. 이 두 가지 관용의 모델들은 종교적 관용의 모델과 정치적 관용의 모델이다. 종교적, 정치적 관용의 모델을 제시한 이유는 문화충돌이라는 현실이 충돌하는 문화들의 요소에 따라 그 성격을 달리하며, 그로 인해 다양한 해법을 요구한다는 사실 때문이다. 즉, 문화충돌이라는 상황에서 유용하게 활용될 수 있는 관용의 효율을 증대시키기 위해서는 관용의 다양한 모델을 확보하는 것이 매우 중요한 것이라 할 수 있을 것이다.There are various components that comprise culture. Religious beliefs, historical traits of political struggles against enemies, political ideologies, and moral rules are some components. Specific cultures produce unique normative rules for those who live in it as a result of the interactions among those components. Historical changes in religious ways of life, changes in geography, and moral doctrines that emerge or are imported from other nations are idiosyncratic to a given culture. In this sense, it is quite obvious that the presence of plural cultures illustrates the presence of plural normative rules for specific peoples. Furthermore, the presence of plural normative rules instructing how to live, the correct way to worship a god or gods, and how to determine good and bad-among others-foresees conflicts between various sets of normative rules. The presence of differences between rules seems to demand the resolution of differences. Thus, as the representative of normative rules, culture implicitly includes the danger of destructive confrontation between cultures. In this article, I attempt to suggest the practice of toleration as an effective tool for mitigating possible conflict between cultures. In order to defend that effectiveness, first, I introduce the concept of toleration, proving that the practice of toleration treats the presence of differences between cultures as the necessary condition for toleration, not as the thing that needs to be resolved. Second, I attempt to suggest several distinguished models for toleration with the hope of enhancing and expanding the utility of toleration in various situations.

Universal Medicine Associated with Improved Physical and Mental Health in Women: Results from a Regression Analysis of a Cross-Sectional Survey

Universal Medicine Associated with Improved Physical and Mental Health in Women: Results from a Regression Analysis of a Cross-Sectional Survey

Reflections on Pottery Art in the Oil Rich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria: A Study of Pottery Art in Akwa Ibom and Rivers States

Niger Delta region is very rich in oil and gas deposits, clay, agricultural land, fisheries, extensive forest and other resources. They are nine states which make the region namely, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers. The most oil producing communities among them are Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Edo, Delta and Rivers State. Clay is equally found in abundance in all the states like crude oil is found in Niger Delta communities. The available clay mineral in the region has the capacity to transform the nation’s economy if properly utilized. Clay is the basic material for pottery or ceramics production. It is also used to ease the penetration of pipes in drilling of crude oil. This paper looks at the practice of pottery in Niger Delta Area with a focus on pottery practice in both Akwa Ibom and Rivers States. Indigenous and contemporary pottery or ceramics practices in these communities indeed have played vital role in the economic, social religious and cultural ways of life of the people. Clay products such as dinnerware and sanitary wares and others are highly sought for and they have the capacity to boast the national economy as experienced in other nations such as Japan, Italy, Britain, United States of America, India and China among others. Data were collected from both primary and secondary sources and were subsequently assessed. The result shows that proper utilization of clay found in Niger Delta has the potential to create numerous job opportunities for the teaming population of youths in the region. The availability of abundant clay in the region, if well harnessed could adequately compete with crude oil exploitation for economic purposes in the region.

The Goals of Philosophy of Religion: A Reply to Ireneusz Zieminski

In a recent article, Ireneusz Zieminski (2018) argues that the main goals of philosophy of religion are to (i) define religion; (ii) assess the truth value of religion and; (iii) assess the rationality of a religious way of life. Zieminski shows that each of these goals are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Hence, philosophy of religion leads to scepticism. He concludes that the conceptual tools philosophers of religion employ are best suited to study specific religious traditions, rather than religion more broadly construed. But it’s unclear whether the goals Zieminski attributes to philosophy of religion are accurate or even necessary for successful inquiry. I argue that an essentialist definition of religion isn’t necessary for philosophy of religion and that philosophers of religion already use the conceptual analysis in the way Zieminski suggests that they should. Finally, the epistemic standard Zieminski has in view is often obscure. And when it is clear, it is unrealistically high. Contemporary philosophers of religion rarely, if ever, claim to be offering certainty, or even evidence as strong as that found in the empirical sciences.

Using formative assessments to form Christian readers

As our practices often shape our attitudes, pedagogical methods may help students begin to cultivate religious ways of reading. Formative assessments play a large role in how our students encounter and engage with texts, yet as much as scholars have begun considering approaches to cultivating Christian pedagogical methods, assessment methods have received little attention. Inspired by ancient and medieval Christian reading practices, I have developed formative assessments that emulate traditional Christian responses to texts, including memorization, anthologies, commentaries, and creative projects. Because these methods seek wisdom while invoking the imagination, adopting them into formative assessments may help cultivate a disposition of humility and wonder.

Faces of Religious Healing in Nkhoma, Malawi: An Exercise in Oral History

On 10 November 2016, the Nkhuni Centre for Oral History was established as part of the Nkhoma Museum at the University of Nkhoma in Malawi. Consequently, the author conducted an oral history project in and around the town of Nkhoma to strengthen the capacity of the centre to engage in future projects. The aim of the research was to record—albeit in restricted numbers—the answers which people living in the villages around Nkhoma, as well as patients in Nkhoma Hospital, gave to the interview questions: “What/who makes you ill?” and “What/who makes you healthy?” Furthermore, the research was to establish the religious ways of healing acknowledged by the interviewees. Finally, the research sought to inform itself on the history—short as it may be—of how and why interviewees have chosen to change from one church to the other, or remain in a specific church, in order to find their preferred way of religious healing. The aim of the article is to present the research results with a focus on the methodological steps taken in doing oral history research.