Religious Worldview Research Articles

ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH ON RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS (IN THE EXAMPLE OF BELARUSIAN AND RUSSIAN RESEARCHERS’ EXPERIENCE)

The article analyzes the research carried out on the religious consciousness of the population of the republics of the North Caucasus of the Russian Federation and Belarus. Thus, in the North Caucasus, based on opinion polls, the state of mass Islamic consciousness in the region was analyzed to identify Salafi components in its content. By comparing the religious positions of the demographic groups of young people and the older generation, we identified the features and trends in the development of Salafi consciousness. The main hypothesis of the study boiled down to the fact that in the mass Islamic consciousness of the region, the Salafi consciousness is widespread to a sufficient extent, in connection with which, one could speak of the presence of a solid social base for followers of Salafism in the region. By the tasks of their research, Belarusian scientists determined the study of religious consciousness in its most comprehensive and broad understanding, setting the goal of obtaining a religious worldview model, as well as determining the factors that influence its dynamics. The hypothesis is that the degree of respondents’ religiosity forms a spectrum from declarative through weak and moderate to deep involvement.

Положение татар и других мусульманских меньшинств в коммунистической Болгарии

The article examines the situation of the Tatars and other Muslim minorities in Bulgaria during the communist period. The policy of the state in relation to Muslim minorities after the proclamation of the People`s Republic of Bulgaria and the establishment of socialism in the state according to the Soviet model, when the political, economic and social models of the USSR were imported and introduced without taking into account the national characteristics of Bulgaria, are analyzed. As in the Soviet Union (especially in the early stage of its formation, religion was banned and this applied to all confessions without exception. The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) made every effort eradicate religious identity and, in particular, Islamic identity. It was planned to replace the religious ideological fragment with a socialist one, and then, on its platform, form and stimulate the development of the national, modernist and Soviet identity of Muslims. Moreover, the emphasis was also placed on improving the way of life and the material situation of the Muslim population, which, according to the Marxist theory of culture, should have contributed to a more effective formation of socialist consciousness. The ruling party saw in the Muslim religious consciousness and rudiments of the Ottoman past, an obstacle on the way of socialist progress and formation of socialist consciousness. Emasculating elements of the religious worldview from the mind of people, the BCP set itself the task of creating a modern, secular, socialist personality. To this end, in 1946–1989 the government implemented a number of economic, educational and cultural establishments.

Migration, Exile, and Homecoming in the Book of Ruth

Abstract My article examines various artworks from Europe and Israel that portray and are inspired by the Book of Ruth. While in Jewish sources such as the Talmud (Yevamot 47b) Ruth is seen as an immigrant and a convert to Judaism, European artists since the seventeenth century highlighted different episodes and aspects of the biblical story that suited their social, political, and religious worldviews. Notably, the expansion of colonialism during the nineteenth century transformed the depictions of Ruth. While in the canvases of painters such as Pieter Lastman and Jan Victors Ruth is depicted as a model of religious identification, in the paintings of Joseph Anton Koch and Francesco Hayez she epitomises “oriental” otherness. Furthermore, while early European painters underscore the immigration of Ruth, Hayez represents Ruth as a dweller of the “East.” Zionist artists were influenced by European traditions of depicting the Book of Ruth but developed a unique fusion between strategies of identification and differentiation. Artists such as Ze’ev Raban (1890–1970) portrayed the story of Ruth as both ancient and contemporary, while imitating and appropriating Palestinian tropes in order to imagine the Zionist narrative of homecoming. The contemporary Israeli artist Leor Grady (b. 1966), on the other hand, addresses questions of immigration and homecoming while exploring the Book of Ruth in his solo exhibition Bethlehem (2019, Tel Aviv). While Raban’s illustrations ignore the Jewish experience of exile, Grady’s oeuvre epitomises what the Israeli historian Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin sees as “exile within sovereignty.” Instead of recounting a linear historical narrative that begins with exile and culminates with the return to the Promised Land, Grady underscores that every return is also a departure and every departure a return. In this manner, Grady foregrounds the voices silenced by Zionist historiography and challenges the exclusion of the Palestinian narrative.

«Красные похороны». Новая похоронная обрядность в молодой Советской России

The article analyzes the emergence of the so-called red funeral ritual in the 1920s in Soviet Russia as an important component of political everyday life. The first part of the article examines the funeral rituals of representatives of the Bolshevik elite. The second part attempts to characterize the transformation of funeral rites among the “common” population. The analysis undertaken clearly shows the undoubted political and public nature of funeral rituals in early Soviet Russia. Initially, Soviet funeral rituals were powerfully influenced by radical utilitarianism and total nihilistic denial of the religious worldview, intensified by the excesses of the World War, Revolution and Civil War. Nevertheless, nihilism and utilitarianism, the highest expression of which was the idea of cremation, were quickly pushed out by a new funeral ritual, the key elements of which were demonstration and “theatrical ritual” with its music, processions, pretentious speeches and fireworks, in many respects borrowed from military funerals. The main role in the emergence of the red funeral ritual was played by the cult of fallen heroes, which in turn was a guarantee of political immortality of the Bolshevik leaders. As a result, the red funeral became an important element of the alternative Bolshevik culture. The concept of Vladimir Buldakov, who characterized revolutionary funeral rituals as “neo-pagan”, is at least controversial. The attempt to make funerals of the Bolshevik elites a model for mass funerals collided with conservative rituals, especially in the countryside. With regard to the 1920s, at best, we can talk about the emergence of a kind of “the effect of dual faith", a specific symbiosis of red and religious funeral rites. Thus, in the 1920s, the process of a new Soviet ritualism development was far from complete, including the Soviet party and state elites, as evidenced by the fluctuations between party asceticism with its utilitarian attitude to ashes and splendid funerals of leaders.

The Virtuous Teachings of Abu Nasir al-Farabi

The article, defining the weight of Al-Farabi's works in the XXI century, outlines its origins, the importance of philosophical, political, socio-ethical concepts in modern society. First, it examines the viability of Al-Farabi's ideology of government. Secondly, scientific works reveal the significance of the theory of goodness, happiness, education and upbringing in modern society, demonstrate the scientific guidelines of the path to the continuous aspiration of a person for perfection, to the relentless dream of finding happiness. Thirdly, the formation and development of humanistic values in the philosophy of Al-Farabi is analyzed from the standpoint of philosophical discourse. The scholar's view that a focus on justice and morality is essential to building a great society is studied as a good path stemming from humanity's desire to evolve and achieve happiness. The Islamic context of a humane city is revealed. The article explains the well-being of a virtuous society, the completeness of relationships in the context of the Muslim religious worldview. The importance of the problem of the heart in building a good society is emphasized,ideological continuity and harmony with Abai are demonstrated. It is said that the heart can be an object of deep contemplation, anticipation of events, awareness of their nature, understanding of their causes and wisdom. It is noted that the concept of the heart in the work of Al-Farabi is an independent subject of research, which will be further considered in continuity with religious texts.

Global Contexts: How Countries Shape the COVID-19 Experience of Amish and Mennonite Missionaries Abroad

Across the globe, governments restricted social life to slow the spread of COVID-19. Several conservative Protestant sects resisted these policies in the United States. We do not yet know if theology shaped the resistance or if it was more a product of a polarized national political context. We argue that the country context likely shapes how conservative Protestants’ moral worldview affects their perceptions of the pandemic and government restrictions. Countries implementing more regulations, those with limited access to healthcare, food, and other essential services, and those with past histories of epidemics may all shape residents’ perceptions. Drawing on the case of American Amish and Mennonite missionaries stationed abroad, we content-analyzed accounts of the pandemic from an international Amish and Mennonite correspondence newspaper. We found that the missionaries’ perceptions of the pandemic and governmental restrictions differ from those of their U.S. counterparts, which suggests that context likely shapes how religious moral worldviews express themselves concerning public health interventions.

Критический реализм в диалоге науки и религии: подход И. Барбура и Дж. Полкинхорна

The purpose of the study is to identify specific nature and characteristic features of critical realism methodology used by I. Barbour and J. Polkinghorne in elaboration of the problems peculiar to the dialogue between science and religion. The article presents an analysis of justification concerning the use of critical realism methodology in the dialogue between science and religion. Scientific novelty lies in the fact that the study reveals causes of the debate on using critical realism methodology in science and religion, shows limitations of applying critical realism in the field of religion, as well as identifies possible ways to adjust the considered authors’ approach to the dialogue between science and religion. As a result, it is proved that even though critical realism can serve as a “bridge” in the dialogue between scientific and religious worldviews, its use has significant limitations in the field of theology.

Death and burial in Kyivan Rus’ according to written sources

The spread of Christianity in the lands of Kyivan Rus caused radical, but not rapid, changes in the religious, philosophical, and mental worldviews of contemporary society. Funeral rites were a significant factor in which the feature of the spiritual transformation of local societies was reflected. The proposed study is devoted to the peculiarities of the Christian funeral rite and ceremony in the lands of Kyivan Rus’ and the Galician-Volhynian state, which are covered in written sources of the time. Therefore, the upper chronological date of the study is the XIV century. Their elaboration and systematization led to the construction of the article in a linear way – starting with pre-death, and then post-mortem preparations, directly funeral and memorial service. The analysis and generalization of the funeral rite, characteristic for the Christian Orthodox tradition as a whole, is carried out. At the same time, their separate local elements are highlighted. Some comparisons and parallels between the Rus’ and Byzantine funeral traditions were made.

The idea of “Tengrism” in Turkic proverbs

Although the Turkic people have the same origin, their beliefs do not coincide, therefore it is difficult to study the religious beliefs of the Turkic people. The religious and theological paradigm of Turkology is very extensive. The strategic direction of theological Turkology is the scientific analysis of the historical and political factors of the adoption of a particular religion by the Turkic people of different religions, clarification of the system of common values ​​of the Turks of at least one religious class, grouping them according to genealogical and linguistic similarities. The paper aims to identify traces of the idea of "Tengrism" in the worldview of modern Turks through the content of Turkic proverbs and sayings. The continuity and interaction of the common Turkic mythological and religious worldviews are differentiated on the basis of a single paremiological meaning and semantic range of keywords. It is defined that the attributes of the idea of Tengrism in the language of Turkic written monuments of the VI-IX centuries are also reflected in the content of Proverbs and sayings of modern Turkic peoples who profess Islam (Kazakh, Karakalpak, Kyrgyz, Bashkir, and Tatar). The synonymic meaning and common symbolic meanings of the theonyms "Tengir", "Allah", "God", which form the dominant words in Proverbs and sayings, are analyzed. The influence of the semantic features of the supporting/dominant word on the paremiological meaning is considered. One of Turkic Studies' topical problems is the study of the continuity of the religion of “Tengrism” and Islam through language units, which form the basis of the religious and mythological faith of the Turkic peoples. Key words:  paremiology, old Turkic manuscripts, Turkic languages, theonym, the idea of Тengrism

Generational Change in Religion and Religious Practice: A Review Essay

Background Numerous studies have been done of the religious affiliations, beliefs, and practices of the Millennial generation (North Americans born between 1980 and 1995). Many of these studies assume that their findings will be useful to denominations and congregations wishing to attract more young people. But at least one influential social theory would imply the opposite: that religious decline is inevitable as societies modernize and secularize. Purpose The current essay suggests a useful addition to the religious decline theory, the work of Karl Mannheim and his followers on the sociology of generations, and applies it to the major studies of generational change and continuity in religious practice among young adults in present-day North America. Methods In total, 35 academic books, 43 articles in refereed journals, and 22 denominational research reports are included in the analysis. Only works studying the religious beliefs, practices, and affiliations of the Millennial generation in the United States and Canada, and based on data collected through approved social science research methods are included. Results The essay first summarizes the findings of the studies, noting similarities and differences in religious decline across the various social locations of race, gender, and country. Next, it summarizes the causes that the various studies have postulated for this decline, relating them to Mannheim's argument that the “fresh encounter” with one's childhood religious worldview which occurs in young adulthood is a key determinant of whether a person accepts or rejects his/her childhood religious socialization. A final section evaluates the effectiveness of the suggestions that some of the studies make for stemming or reversing religious decline in young adulthood, in the light of Mannheim's theory. Conclusions and Implications A key determinant of religious affiliation, belief, and practice in adulthood is the fresh encounter that young adults have with the culture and worldview transmitted to them in childhood. The lifecycle stage of emerging adulthood poses a challenge to denominations and congregations since it is often the age group that is least connected with organized religion. The essay concludes with suggestions for further research.

What’s Love Got to Do with It? Religion and the Multiple Logic Tensions of Social Enterprise

This paper develops a model that advances our understanding of how social enterprises respond to the complexity of a constellation of multiple, often competing goals, referred to here as institutional logics. Introducing a religious logic to the recognised social welfare and commercial logics of social enterprise, this model builds on a religious worldview foundation and incorporates religion-inspired altruistic love and non-transactional giving as its scaffolding. A comparative case study of faith-based, faith-inspired and secular organisations located in Southeast Asia demonstrates the origin and applicability of the model. Findings highlight that religion serves as an overarching logic, or “metalogic”, and frame of reference. Faith-based social enterprises use this religious logic to redefine perceived paradoxical tensions between the social welfare and commercial objectives they embody. Study results advance knowledge on organisational responses to multiple logic prescriptions, underscores the influence of religion, altruistic love and giving on organisational behaviour and contributes to the scarce literature on faith-based social enterprises.

Dark Times and Second Chances: Perceived Growth From Adversity.

Using a lifespan perspective, we investigated a neglected aspect of research on religion, namely, whether perceptions of growth from adversity might strengthen religious worldviews, thus accounting for feelings about one's own death in old age. A directed content analysis of in-depth interviews from 16 adults aged 65+ focused on life events, religious worldviews, and death. Findings suggested that participants' religious worldview beliefs were associated with positive reinterpretation of lifespan adversities such that stressors functioned as opportunities for spiritual growth. Participants' views of and beliefs about death were without fear, indicating the potential influence of highly individualized and deeply spiritual religious worldview beliefs on the abatement of death fear.

Religion and human rights in artificial insemination.

It is pointed out that modern man is particularly sensitive to the imposition of any worldview and way of life. The only language in today's world is the language of freedom, even if there is a substitution of this concept and its abuse. The value of freedom is not indifferent to religion. Therefore, the only way to spread the religious worldview in society is not the force of coercion, but the force of gravity.
 It is noted that the problem of the relationship between bioethics and religion is determined by a number of reasons, both scientific and theoretical, and socio-cultural plan. The current stage of development of scientific thought is characterized by the emergence of a new phenomenon - bioethics. Bioethics is an integrative science that synthesizes knowledge about man, which is already substantiated in medicine, psychology, psychiatry, religious anthropology, philosophical anthropology and others. The moral aspect is the center of bioethics, it is associated with its attitude to all living things, to life as such. Because of this we can talk about the formation of a bioethical worldview as a holistic system of views on the human problem. The beginning of the process of forming a bioethical worldview is closely connected with scientific progress, biomedical practices, and the aggravation of religious problems. The uniqueness of bioethical discourse creates the preconditions for the development of philosophical and methodological ground for the study of bioethical worldview. The methodological significance of the problem is related to the need to rethink the fundamental philosophical problems that relate to demental philosophical problems that relate to the definition of attributive characteristics of man.
 It is established that the religious problems that arise when using the IVF method are associated with several components: the production of germ cells, the lack of connection between conception and the natural idea of marital intimacy, obtaining an excessive number of embryos and manipulating them (elimination, reduction, freezing) embryos, preimplantation diagnosis), the use of germ cells of third parties. In this case, in vitro fertilization can be morally justified by religion and an acceptable method of infertility therapy for the Orthodox Christian, if it does not kill embryos and does not break the bond "in the flesh" even at the level of gametes.

Freedom and Religious Worldview

The article, written in the form of a dialogue/discussion, examines the problem of freedom in the context of its interpretation in religious and philosophical thought. The starting point for considering freedom is the thesis that the concept of freedom, as it is presented in the metaphysical and spiritual traditions, hinders both the philosophical understanding of freedom and its implementation in practice since the status of the concept requires the identification of freedom with the knowledge of freedom. However, the knowledge, as it always implies being universal, excludes the possibility of a different understanding of freedom, which leads to the confusion of freedom and necessity. While criticizing this thesis, Mikhail Sergeev insists that the adoption of a particular system of beliefs, including religious faith, does not necessarily make other people understand freedom the same way, which leads to the elimination of freedom in real life and to the substitution of freedom by necessity on theoretical level: as the history of philosophy and religion shows, there have always been many different concepts of freedom, even within the same school or tradition. From the point of view of Aleksandr Rybas, the variety of interpretations of freedom is such only formally since each of these interpretations is aimed at formulating the only one, “true” concept of freedom, resulting from the chosen point of view and therefore making it necessary to characterize alternative views as false: the very idea of “true” freedom is rooted in the specifics of metaphysical thinking, which should be seen the reason for the rejection of freedom. As a result of the discussion, however, some common views on freedom were developed. In particular, freedom was defined as the inherent ability of man to consciously initiate his own changes and determine the parameters of his own existence. Moreover, it was argued that there could not be the only valid or universal form of human life.

Review: Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion? by Candy Gunther Brown

Review: <i>Debating Yoga and Mindfulness in Public Schools: Reforming Secular Education or Reestablishing Religion?</i> by Candy Gunther Brown

Animal Care and Ethics in Contemporary Religious Debates

Can religious worldview help humans respect non-human-animals, and achieve a better, more balanced environment? Since Lynn White wrote a damming essay against the Judeo-Christian religion, the answer to the question among most environmental ethicists has often beenon the negative. Lynn White had accused the Western Judeo-Christian worldview as been anthropocentric. Anthropocentrism is the worldview that places humanity at the center of all moral concern, hence, such a worldview enhances the conditions for human exploitation of non-human animals. The Judeo-Christian worldview specifically holds that the Universe was created and fine-tuned for the creation of the human species in particular. On a personal level, this ideology drives the fragile Human ego to think that the God of the Universe created everything on earth for human consumption and domination. Hence, many scholars believe that such a worldview is seen and dominant among most religions across the world. This paper attempt to join the contemporary debates on religious worldview and Animal ethics.Against the popular notion, this paper argues that mostReligious traditions have often been the primary movers of a compassionate engagement with other lives. Thus, religious persons can still respect and conserve animals irrespective of their religion.

Worldview Theory and its relation to Islam and Muslim İdentity

Since the 18th century to the present, the concept of worldview has been used in various forms by various writers and extensively in several fields of academic disciplines. The article provides a brief historical overview of its usage in the discipline and demonstrates how worldview has been perceived differently over time. It presents the evolution of the concept, its essential characteristics, worldviews frameworks, Muslim worldviews, and the identity formation of young Muslims. Thus, it provides a detailed, overview of how the concept has been understood in the core disciplines, particularly in Islam and Western culture, and most relevant for Muslim identity. &#x0D; The Worldview Theory has been popular in the West but has not yet found a proper place in the Turkish context. This study aims to remedy the lack of the concept of worldview in the current literature. Nevertheless, exploring the Muslim identity is important. The meaning of identity is defined with Tariq Ramadan’s four foundational pillars. These four aspects provide a sufficient idea of the basics of Muslim identity, individual and social, in a particular area of the world. Regarding this, religion and religious education have attempted to respond to the challenges faced by many young people seeking to find a worldview that holds the promise of a meaningful life. Thus, the religious worldview dimension of life is significant and is given special attention in this article. This paper is concerned to be one of the few attempts to discuss a need for professional care in dealing with the development of worldview and identity relations.

New Sacred Places in Contemporary Poland: Ethnographic Case Study of Two Miracles in Sokółka and Legnica

Abstract Events that happened in Poland in 2008 and 2013 related to the alleged miracles in Sokółka (in the Podlasie region) and Legnica (in the Silesia region) seriously affected the native ‘sacrosphere.’ Sensational information about the unusual events polarized public opinion by confronting secular and religious worldviews. At the same time, the increase in the devotion of the faithful was accompanied by folklore-forming mechanisms, adding new threads to the ‘miraculous story.’ Ethnographic research performed in the newly founded sanctuaries reveals elements of sensuality specific to folk religiosity. Miracles displaying the motif of blood build the reputation of Sokółka and Legnica as new holy places, attracting pilgrims and tourists from Poland and abroad. Contrary to pessimistic predictions of widespread secularization, there was a revival of the so-called ‘traditional piety.’ Folk religiosity revealed its vitality.

Catholic Material Culture, Socialist Society, and State Power in Cuba, 1959–1978

The article analyses the histories of Catholic material culture in revolutionary Cuba. It illustrates and discusses how the Cuban Church and individual Catholics have navigated the revolutionary everyday with practices of material religion. Moving from the first years of the Cuban Revolution (1959 onwards) to the late 1970s, the article presents and analyses examples of the ways in which material religion has intersected with the state ideology, politics, and the performance of the Revolution in Cuba. Additionally, the article discusses the meanings given to material representations of religion in the revolutionary reality by Cuban Catholics themselves: how religious material culture has constituted a means for Catholics to navigate the juxtaposition of religious worldviews and the socialist state power.

Examining Amoghavajra’s flat-earth cosmology: religious vs. scientific worldviews in Buddhist astrology

ABSTRACT This study examines the cosmology of the monk Amoghavajra (Bukong 不空; 705–774), as outlined in his astrological manual, the Xiuyao jing 宿曜經 (Sūtra of Lunar Stations and Planets), as well as its historical background and context, in relation to classical Buddhist models of Mt. Meru and the Four Continents in the Āgamas and Abhidharma. These models all use a flat-earth model, in contrast to the spherical-earth model utilized within classical Indian astronomy. This study shows that although the spherical model was known in Chinese from at least the early eighth century via the Jiuzhi li 九執曆 (*Navagraha-karaṇa), a translation of an Indian astronomical treatise, Amoghavajra consciously adopted the flat-earth model in his cosmology, yet at the same time he was willing to introduce new astronomical elements, such as the planets and the zodiac signs. It is argued that Amoghavajra’s cosmology constitutes an intriguing example in Buddhist history of a religious worldview taking precedence over a scientific one, yet at the same time it is demonstrated that Chinese Buddhist literature was not averse to incorporating some scientific astronomical elements before, during and after Amoghavajra’s time.