Spiritual Benefit Research Articles

Efficacy of Dispensations Granted Without a Just Cause and under the Influence of Error, Deceit and Force

Dispensation is one of the fundamental institutions which are typical of ecclesiastical law. It has been ordered and disciplined with much precision by the canonical doctrine, grown within the canonical system, and is ever modified and perfected by canonical legislations. Canon 85 of the 1983 Code defines this institution as a singular administrative act, granted by those enjoying executive power, whose main objective is to mitigate the vigor of a merely ecclesiastical law in a particular case for the spiritual benefit of the faithful. It is not an instrument of administering justice but an instrument of prudent administration. At times, there can be abuse of this canonical institution by the competent authorities themselves, or by the subjects requesting dispensation. This article, in order to help the people of God and the competent ecclesiastical authorities to appreciate the value of the canonical institution of dispensation within the canonical system, sets out to defend the need of a just cause, and to caution the Christian faithful from seeking dispensations on the basis of deceit, force or under the influence of grave fear.

ПАЛОМНИЦТВО ТА РЕЛІГІЙНИЙ ТУРИЗМ У КОНТЕКСТІ РОЗВИТКУ ТУРИСТИЧНОЇ ІНДУСТРІЇ

The purpose of the article is to determine the specificity of pilgrimage and religious tourism and their potential in the development of the tourism industry. Methods. The research methodology is based on the use of general scientific and specific research methods. General scientific methods include the method of analysis and synthesis, generalization and abstraction, comparison and analogies. These methods allowed us to identify the specificity of pilgrimage and religious tourism, establish the differences between them, and outline distinctions in the motivation for travel of pilgrims and religious tourists. Results. It has been determined that pilgrimage and religious tourism are quite similar in terms of the participants' activities, but they differ in their motivations. The distinction between pilgrims and tourists also lies in how they perceive the experiences they gain: pilgrims are more interested in the content of the religious ceremony and its inner meaning, while religious tourists are attracted to the aesthetic and emotional aspects of destinations. However, despite these differences, both religious tourism and pilgrimage contribute to the formation of tourists' experiences based on their participation in religious practices and the exploration of cultural achievements. Promoting many destinations based on their religious potential can be aimed not only at believers and pilgrims but also at other categories of tourists who intend to study the history, culture, traditions, and beliefs of the local population, as well as to become acquainted with their secular and spiritual practices. This can serve as an important tool for fostering harmonious relations between nations and countries. The scientific novelty is in the discovery of modern approaches to the classification of pilgrimage and religious tourism that dominate in foreign science. Common and distinctive features have been identified that influence the motivation of travelers and their expectations from the journey. The practical significance of the work lies in the discovery that cultural and religious heritage can be transformed into a shared asset that brings not only spiritual benefit but also socio-economic gain to local residents and aesthetic satisfaction to tourists. Religious tourism can utilize local resources, such as sacred sites, to attract tourists who wish to participate in the traditions and culture of a specific tourist destination. This can contribute to the preservation of cultural heritage and ensure the sustainability of the area's development.

Spiritual Benefit from Cannabis

ABSTRACT Like many mind-altering plants, cannabis has been part of spiritual practices for thousands of years. It has deep roots in Hinduism, Islam, Rastafarianism, and indigenous traditions in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. Yet almost no attention has been given to how contemporary adults employ it spiritually. A sample of 1087 participants (mean age = 38.9) completed an online survey assessing their use of cannabis and other substances, as well as spiritual and psychological characteristics. Spiritual benefit from cannabis was reported by 66.1% of the sample, and 5.5% reported it had sometimes been a spiritual hindrance. A MANOVA showed that those who reported spiritual benefit differed significantly from those who did not on several outcome variables, and a post hoc descriptive discriminant analysis revealed that expansiveness motivation, non-theistic daily spiritual experience, meditation frequency, and two mindfulness facets contributed most to differentiating the two groups. The majority of the sample (63%) was free of cannabis use disorder. Compared to disordered groups, the non-disordered group was significantly older and scored lower on experiential avoidance, psychological distress, and several motives for use. Results suggest that spiritual motives for cannabis use may be widespread. Implications for future research on spiritual use of cannabis are discussed.

The Main Issues of the Formation of State Power in the Works of Al-Farabi

This article examines the main issues of the formation of state power in the work of Al-Farabi. The study of the value content of the Turkish spiritual tradition continues in modern humanities. Its popularity is due to the fact that the heritage of the past is relevant for our contemporaries, and our present is closely connected with the culture of the past. In his socio-political views, Al-Farabi played a key role in society, realizing the ideal of a perfect person who was the ruler of an intelligent state. The essence of Al-Farabi's teachings lies not only in the spiritual development of a person, but also in the improvement of legal and legislative norms in society. According to the Second Teacher, only an educated, moral person can bring spiritual benefit. Here the idea of the ruler, based on the works of Al-Farabi, fulfills a special mission. Determination of the place and role of the leader in the social process, the dialectics of objective and subjective factors in the history and dialectics of public life occurs after reading the research works of Al-Farabi. Thus, Al-Farabi's idea of the state and its correct management, that the highest mission of the ruler is capable of embracing the principles of state structure that have developed in the real history of Kazakhstan, in the structure of the world, as the highest meanings and values of ontogeny that have human and social significance, are still relevant.

Ramazan Ayında Oruç Tutan Diyabetli Bireylerde Diyabetin Yönetimi

Fasting, which is important in many ancient religions, is also one of the basic conditions of Islam. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims do not eat and drink from dawn to sunset. The month of Ramadan continues for 29-30 days and the fasting period ranges from 10 to 20 hours depending on geographic location. The condition for fasting is to be healthy and not have chronic illness. However, with the thought that it is a religious obligation and will provide spiritual benefit, most individuals with chronic diseases also want to fast. Diabetes mellitus (DM) is considered a high risk condition for fasting in Ramadan, as it is a chronic metabolic disease and carries risks such as hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia during fasting. Hypoglycemia is a common problem during fasting during Ramadan. However, in clinical practice, most individuals with DM prefer to fast. Therefore, healthcare professionals must provide training to protect individuals with DM against various risks and to prevent hypoglycemic and hyperglycemic events. This review has been prepared in order for health professionals to make recommendations such as dose adjustment, risk classification, education, pharmacotherapy and blood glucose monitoring, medication and in line with the recommendations of the guidelines for type 1 and type 2 DM adults who plan to fast during Ramadan.

Program evaluation of trauma-informed yoga for vulnerable populations

BackgroundTrauma is highly prevalent among vulnerable populations, including those who are incarcerated, in treatment for substance use, or seeking mental health services. Trauma-informed yoga seeks to create a safer yoga practice for individuals with a trauma history and may improve emotional and physical wellbeing. Thus, we conducted an evaluation of a trauma-informed yoga program to gain insight into participant experiences. MethodsTrauma-informed yoga classes were led by trained volunteers and held in three sectors that work with vulnerable populations: corrections and reentry, substance use treatment and recovery, and community and mental health. Data were collected via anonymous survey using a retrospective pre-post design. The survey instrument captured reasons for student participation and perceived effects of yoga on emotional and physical wellbeing. ResultsStudents were motivated to participate in yoga classes by expectations of physical, mental, and spiritual benefit. Students reported perceived improvements in emotional and physical wellbeing and greater use of self-regulation skills after starting yoga. ConclusionOur findings suggest trauma-informed yoga is perceived as beneficial by vulnerable individuals, especially those in the correctional system or recovering from substance use. Our results support the value of offering trauma-informed yoga in institutionalized and community settings. Improvements in emotional and physical wellbeing warrant formal study.

Evaluation of Impact of Tourism on the Quality of Life of the Host Community Resident in Idanre, Ondo State Nigeria

It has been observed that tourism enhances the growth of the economics of developing nations because the industry relies on natural and cultural resources to attract tourists. Tourism can facilitate the development of infrastructure to tourist destinations located in rural areas, which lack amenities, thereby enhancing the quality of life of the community and its residents. Previous studies across the world have highlighted the relationship between tourism, community development and resident satisfaction. In Nigeria, this relationship has not been widely investigated as a subject of tourism research. Therefore, the study investigates the tourism impact on the quality of life of the host community in Idanre. The study employed the use of case study research design using qualitative (interview) and quantitative (questionnaire) methods. The population of the study comprises the residents of Idanre. 200 respondents were selected through simple random sampling techniques while the collected data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical tools. The results are presented in table, chart, figure and plate. The findings reveal that cultural festivals celebrated at Idanre hill and the attraction site have positive impact on the socio-cultural and spiritual benefit (such as contributing to cultural preservation and boosting the morale of the community) which influence the quality of life of the community resident positively. Also community residents have a positive perception towards economic and environmental impacts of tourism on their living conditions (such as health status, social lifestyle and environmental condition). The hypothesis test shows that a significant relationship exist between perception of resident towards impact of tourism and the resident age distribution and involvement in tourism. In conclusion there is a significant relationship between perception of community residents about tourism impact and their age distribution and involvement in tourism business and activities which is validated by social exchange theory.

Perceived Value Influencing the Household Waste Sorting Behaviors in Rural China.

Waste sorting is the cardinal measurement to solve the problem of low efficiency of rural environmental governance and to alleviate environmental pollution by reduction, recycling, and harmlessness in rural areas. However, non-excludable and non-rival features of public goods easily cause a wide free-rider problem, which results in a low frequency of participation in the waste sorting of rural people. Based on the theory of the utility maximization of the rational economic man, this paper investigates survey data of 688 farm households in three cities and three counties of Shaanxi Province to explore the effect of the perceived value on the household waste classification behavior based on cost-benefit analysis. The results show that perceived benefit and perceived cost are important perceived value factors affecting farmers’ participation in waste sorting. Specifically, the spiritual benefit of the perceived benefit has a significantly positive impact on classification behavior, while the time cost, physical cost, and material cost of the perceived cost have a negative impact on waste classification behavior. Further study of the heterogeneity of income impact shows that time cost only has a significant impact on the high-income group of farmers’ classification behavior, while spiritual benefit and learning cost only affect the low-income group of farmers’ waste classification behavior. Material cost has different influence directions on high- and low-income groups. In view of the aforementioned findings, this study highlights corresponding policy implications from the perspective of perceived benefit and perceived cost.

Les “apologies” de l’Ordo Missae de la Liturgie Romaine: Sources—Histoire—Théologie by Alain-Pierre Yao

Reviewed by: Les “apologies” de l’Ordo Missae de la Liturgie Romaine: Sources—Histoire—Théologie by Alain-Pierre Yao Uwe Michael Lang Alain-Pierre Yao Les “apologies” de l’Ordo Missae de la Liturgie Romaine: Sources—Histoire—Théologie Ecclesia orans. Studi e Ricerche 3 Naples: Editrice Domenicana Italiana, 2019 393 pages. Hardbound. €45.00. The Frankish adoption and adaptation of the Roman Rite of Mass in the early medieval period included a shift towards a more personal and emotive approach to the liturgy. This is exemplified in the incorporation of specific prayers in the first person singular or plural, to be said in a low voice by the celebrant at different moments of the Mass. These prayers, known as “apologies” (apologiae), express sorrowful recognition of the priest’s (or bishop’s) personal sinfulness as well as joyful trust in God’s mercy and calling to offer the acceptable sacrifice for the salvation of souls. Liturgical scholarship in the first half of the twentieth century tended to see in the dramatic style of these texts an infelicitous departure from the sober character of the Roman Rite. Consequently, the priest’s personal prayers were considerably reduced [End Page 311] in the post-conciliar liturgical reform. This study by Father Alain-Pierre Yao, a priest of the archdiocese of Bouaké (Ivory Coast), based on his doctoral dissertation at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute of Sant’Anselmo in Rome, shows that we are now in a better position to appreciate the historical development, theological significance and spiritual benefit of these prayers in the Mass. Above all, Yao argues that, despite its general acceptance, the term “apologies” is misleading, because many of these texts do not have the character of confession or self-accusation. This insight provides him with a hermeneutical key to review the historical evidence. The first chapter (33–122) offers a lucid and instructive presentation of the origins and historical development of “apologies.” Of particular interest is the author’s discussion of the Byzantine tradition, where the introduction of the prayer “No one is worthy” (Οὐδεὶς ἄξιος) into the Divine Liturgy may date from the early eighth century. While Yao briefly reviews non-Roman Western traditions, the major part of this chapter is dedicated to the Roman Rite and concludes with the Tridentine missal of 1570. The main sources for “apology” prayers are the collections of the recurring parts of the Eucharistic celebration that developed into a distinct liturgical genre, the Ordo Missae. Although much progress has been made in this field since the seminal contribution of Bonifaas Luykx, still more work remains to be done. In the first place, not all of the known texts are available in a critical edition. Moreover, the prayers of the Ordo Missae are not always organized in a distinct section but may be dispersed throughout a liturgical manuscript. Such prayers can be found not only in sacramentaries or missals, but also in handbooks for priests or collections of prayers (libelli precum). Hence more examples of the Ordo Missae are likely to be discovered and require a revision of Luykx’s widely-accepted typology. In this context, Yao points to the Cluniac Ordo Missae, which is distinguished from other ordines, both diocesan and monastic, by its sobriety and restraint (44). While this book cannot attempt a comprehensive and systematic study of the Ordo Missae, it presents the reader with the current research on this important chapter in liturgical history. Following Adrien Nocent, the inclusion of “apologies” in the celebration of Mass is often seen in connection with the development [End Page 312] of tariff penance. In the Carolingian period, it became possible to commute an imposed penance into a specific number of “penitential” Masses to be offered. The priest was seen to identify with penitents both living and deceased and this would explain the strongly penitential character of his private prayers. Yao, however, argues that “apologies” resulted from an increasing preoccupation with ritual purity. There is certainly evidence in support of this argument, but the difficulty with Yao’s proposal is its reliance on the overstated theory of Arnold Angenendt about the importance of “cultic purity” (kultische Reinheit) in the early Middle Ages. The substantial second chapter...

De animales, pecados y emblemas: tradición europea para una Emblemata americana

La publicación en 1860 en New Haven (Connecticut, EE.UU.) de The Book of Similitudes, libro de emblemas de John Barber dirigido al beneficio espiritual de sus lectores, constituye un claro ejemplo de la influencia europea en la emblemática americana del siglo XIX, por cuanto entre sus fuentes se encuentran los “espejos del alma” de origen francés y germánico. Este artículo analiza un conjunto de emblemas alusivos a los pecados capitales alegorizados por animales, a través de los cuales sus autores desarrollan una catequesis que transita desde el esclavo del pecado hasta el reincidente, pasando por el arrepentido y el santificado. El estudio nos permite concluir que, más allá del paralelismo del mensaje y de la reelaboración de los emblemas europeos realizada por Barber para adaptarlos al credo metodista, la tradición animalista mantiene plena vigencia en la América del siglo XIX en su simbolismo de los pecados capitales.

Communicating with Clinicians on Fasting during Ramadan: The Patients’ Perspective

Caring for millions of Muslim patients who decide to fast during Ramadan can be challenging for clinicians. Using a theory-guided approach, this study explores Muslim patients' perspectives on factors influencing communication with clinicians in relation to fasting during Ramadan. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a sample of patients in Egypt (9) and the USA (8). Participants were purposefully sampled to assure variance in age, gender, education, decision to fast and ethnicity. Data emerging from narratives were mapped to constructs within the Linguistic Model of Patient Participation in Care (LMOPPC). Using framework analysis, iterative sampling and analysis continued until saturation. Drawing on LMOPPC, participants' narratives were mapped and clustered into patient participation and quality of care; predisposing factors (perceptions about fasting and its significance including sense of spiritual benefit when fasting and sense of guilt when not fasting, prior experiences including prior conversations with clinicians on fasting and experience of fasting while sick, patients' personality and locus of control, belief in the legitimacy of participation, motivations and perception of need to communicate with clinicians about fasting, provider verbal and nonverbal responses, and provider-patient rapport); and enabling factors (knowledge about the topic and repertoire of communicative skills, presence of companions during appointment, and timing of appointments). The LMOPPC framework provided insight into patients' perspectives on barriers and facilitators for communication with clinicians about fasting during Ramadan. It is important for stakeholders to consider those issues when implementing interventions aiming to adopt a concordant approach in providing care for this group of patients.

Egzegeza literalna Starego Testamentu jako źródło herezji. Stanowisko Filastriusza z Brescii

In the last part of the treatise Diversarum hereseon liber (from chapter 128 to 156), Filastrius of Brescia presents heresies based on the erroneous exegesis of the various biblical texts of the Old Testament. The author of the article dis­cusses several examples of the exegesis considered by Filastrius to be heretical, and wonders whether they indeed had signs of heresy and whether they could pose a significant threat to ecclesiastical orthodoxy. In the light of the examined texts, the Bishop of Brescia appears as a follower of the allegorical exegesis. As for the whole of the Alexandrian tradition from Origen, the overriding criterion of orthodox interpretation of the Scriptures was a spiritual advantage (utilitas spiritalis, scientia caelestis, scientia salutaris). If the proposed interpretation of the biblical text not carried out for such spiritual benefit, it was designated by the Bishop of Brescia as heretical, even if it did not materially harm the doctrinal truths contained in the Rule of the Church’s faith.

THE PLACE OF EXPEDIENT(MASLAHAT) IN THE LEADERSHIP OF THE ISLAMIC COMMUNITY

Expediency is one of the titles which have important statuses in the Islamic jurisprudence and its association with religious decrees is clarified while determining its concept and it specifies the authorities of the prudent leader.
 Expedient (Maslahat) in the view of Islam is defined as to do anything for the sake of material and spiritual benefit of the individual and society. Islamic religions do believe that Expedient (Maslahat) plays an essential role in the interpretation of the law, but there is some disagreement over its scope. Most jurisprudents consider expediency to be effective in divine rules when it is based on the expedients, and its purpose is to achieve expedients that can changed as according to the requirements of time and place. Examining and implementing this in the affairs of society is one of the duties that the Islamic ruler should observe. Therefore, it is necessary that the ruler considers the expedient in community management and use it as a key to solving problems and removing the obstacles. The present research project tries to examine the role of expedient in implementing the provincial leadership and seeks to answer the following questions:
 What is the relationship between the community leadership and the welfare state?
 How can the Islamic ruler utilize this rule?
 Another purpose is to explain this relationship as a solution and a key to solve the problems of the society including the conflict of the rules, which mainly deals with the jurisprudential texts in a qualitative way with an analytical attitude. Various research on leadership and expediency has been done separately, but it seems that the link between these two has not been mentioned yet. So, it seems necessary to carry out a new research on this issue to answer the questions raised in relation to these two categories.

Americans' Health Mindsets: Content, Cultural Patterning, and Associations With Physical and Mental Health.

Health mindsets are mental frameworks that help people recognize, organize, interpret, and respond to health-relevant information. Although mindsets shape health behaviors and outcomes, no study has examined the health mindsets of ethnically and socioeconomically diverse Americans. We explored the content, cultural patterning, and health correlates of diverse Americans' health mindsets. Two studies surveyed approximately equal numbers of African American, Asian American, European American, and Latinx American men and women of lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES). Study 1 (N = 334) used open-ended questions to elicit participants' mindsets about the definitions, causes, and benefits of health. Study 2 (N = 320) used Study 1's results to develop a closed-ended instrument. In Study 1, open-ended questioning revealed six overarching mindset themes: behavioral, medical, physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. The most prevalent mindsets were psychological definitions, behavioral causes, and psychological benefits. Participants mentioned more cause themes than definition or benefit themes, and mindset theme mentions correlated with worse health. Older participants mentioned more themes than younger, women mentioned more definition themes than men, and low-SES participants mentioned more cause themes than high-SES participants. In Study 2, closed-ended scales uncovered more complex and positive health mindsets. Psychological and spiritual benefit mindsets correlated with good mental health. African Americans and women endorsed the widest array of mindsets, and the spiritual benefit mindset partially explained the superior mental health of African Americans. Many Americans hold simplistic, illness-focused health mindsets. Cultivating more complex, benefit-focused, and culturally appropriate health mindsets could support health.

Calling as a Motivating Factor of the Development of Education in Ukraine

The article raises importance of the topic of mission in contemporary philosophy and educational sciences. Mission is a basic idea for building up of civil society as a community of responsible and committed people. Mission has a special significance for teaching professions. Ukraine as well as many other countries experiences a shortage of teachers. Many successful students of pedagogical professions prefer to get other jobs because of low salaries and prestige of teaching. The problem of motivation in educational sphere needs political, public and scientific awareness.
 The skeptics and pragmatics are not sure that mission is a vital idea of our days. That is why it was important to find out whether the phenomenon of mission exists in the consciousness of contemporary Ukrainians and how it appears to them. In the focus of the article are opinions of secondary school graduates, students, whose area is educational sciences and professional teachers. The method and strategy of the presented research is hermeneutic phenomenology. The relevant experience of people was examined and interpreted by in-depth interviews. Before in-depth interviews there was conducted a quantitative survey which provided the statistical data about the choosing factors of future professions and the share of those who declare having the experience of mission.
 The result of the survey is that at least half of Ukrainian youth think that the idea of mission is important for their choice of profession. Mission as a phenomenon shows the unity of structural elements: Desire – Talent – Realization – Social or Spiritual Benefit. The aim of transpersonal goodness is the core of the phenomenon of mission and the integrity of its structure. Teaching as a career definitely needs mission, even though it is not true for some teachers. That is undoubted thesis for Ukrainians. Teacher’s mission is to bring young people to their own missions. If the essence of education is a rising people to the level of spirit out of the level of matter, the task of a teacher is to bring up that ability of that rising in the youth. People of mission are those who have to be in the center of the development of education system reforms in Ukraine.

"Crespo e Nuu e Negro": Gomes Eanes de Zurara and the Racialization of Non-Christians by Portuguese Authors

"Crespo e Nuu e Negro":Gomes Eanes de Zurara and the Racialization of Non-Christians by Portuguese Authors Marcelo E. Fuentes In an often-quoted passage of the Crónica dos feitos notáveis que se passaram na conquista da Guiné, Gomes Eanes de Zurara describes a massive auction of African slaves that took place in Lagos, Portugal, in 1444.1 As Willie James Jennings clarifies, "this event did not mark the first time slaves had appeared at the port of Lagos"; however, "the newness of the event lay in the number of slaves, 235" and "in their place of origin, parts of Africa theretofore unvisited by the Portuguese."2 Additionally, according to Peter Russell, this auction and the following ones in Lagos and Lisbon showed the rest of Europe that "instead of having to depend for supplies of black slaves on the trans-Saharan caravan routes controlled by Islam, the Portuguese had established direct access by sea to the regions of Guinea where such slaves were available by barter in potentially whatever numbers their ships and their new slave markets at home were able to handle."3 In Zurara's account of the first auction in Lagos, two elements stand out: the variety of skin color of the people put on sale and the intense emotionality of the scene: Os quaaes [catiuos] postos juntamẽte naquelle cãpo. era hũa marauilhosa cousa de veer. Ca antre elles auya alguũs de razoada brancura / fremosos e apostos. outros menos brancos que queryam semelhar pardos. outros tam negros come tiopios tã desafeiçoados assy nas caras como nos corpos que casy parecia aos homeẽs que os esguardauam que vyã as jmageẽs do jmjsperyo mais baixo. mas qual serya o coraçom por duro que seer podesse / que nom fosse pungido de piedoso sentimẽto / veẽdo assy aquella cõpanha / Ca huũs tijnham as caras baixas e os rostros lauados com lagrimas oolhando huũs contra os outros. outros estauam gemendo muy doorosamente esguardando a altura dos ceeos firmando os olhos em elles braadando altamente como se pedissem acorro ao padre da natureza. [. . .] Mas pera seu doo seer mais [End Page 17] acrecẽtado sobreueherom aquelles que tijnham carrego da partilha e começarom de os apartarem huũs dos outros afim de poerẽ seus quinhoões em jgualleza / onde cõuijnha de necessydade de sse apartarem os filhos dos padres e as molheres dos maridos e os huũs jrmaãos dos outros. [And these (captives), placed all together in that field, were a marvelous sight; for amongst them were some white enough, fair to look upon, and well proportioned; others were less white like mulattoes; others again were as black as Ethiops, and so ugly, both in features and in body, as almost to appear (to those who saw them) the images of a lower hemisphere. But what heart could be so hard as not to be pierced with piteous feeling to see that company? For some kept their heads low and their faces bathed in tears, looking one upon another; others stood groaning very dolorously, looking up to the height of heaven, fixing their eyes upon it, crying out loudly, as if asking help of the Father of Nature (. . .) But to increase their sufferings still more, there now arrived those who had charge of the division of the captives, and who began to separate one from another, in order to make an equal partition of the fifths; and then was it needful to part fathers from sons, husbands from wives, brothers from brothers.]4 The attention to the slaves' distressed reactions towards the separation from their relatives could suggest Zurara's sympathy for them and his loathing of slavery, if the passage were read in isolation. In context, however, Zurara's views are more complex and challenging to a contemporary understanding: not despite, but precisely because he considers Africans as fully human and worthy of his sympathy, Zurara advocates for their slavery. Only as slaves can Africans be civilized and Christianized for their material and spiritual benefit, since in the past they were living in perdition of their souls, because "erã pagaãos" [they...

Rethinking development and peacebuilding in non-secular contexts: a postsecular alternative in Mindanao

This paper aims to positively engage with the religious character of many development contexts through an exploration of my own fieldwork in Mindanao. Through problematising a secular development industry and building on the momentum of the religious turn some scholars have identified, I share my initial explorations of how a postsecular framing might offer an alternative approach to development and peacebuilding. Through a deconstructive framing of the religious-secular binary I analyse the practices of one small non-governmental organisation (NGO) and suggest that a practice of ‘journeying with’ – Muslims and Christians on the shared philosophical/theological project to nourish each other’s faiths – can contribute to material and spiritual benefit, and the conditions to enable this.

Penitents and Their Proxies: Penance for Others in Early Medieval Europe

This article investigates the religious practice of suffering for others in the early Middle Ages. In proxy penance, one person completed a penitential work for another, who received the spiritual benefit. This practice was based on the idea that one person could stand in for another to bear his burden. Using penitential, conciliar, liturgical, and epistolary sources, I uncover two types of proxy penance. First, priests shared in the penance of those who confessed to them. Liturgical texts include Masses in which the priest completes the penance for someone who could not complete it himself. Penitential texts admonish the priest to “share in the foulness” with the sinner in order to bring about the remission of his sin. Second, there was both a promotion and a criticism of proxy fasting among the laity. Thissic et nonrhythm shows that early medieval penitential culture could not control the demand for proxy penance. Some attention is also paid to the practice of proxy penance in the eleventh-century monastic milieu of Peter Damian. This article broadens the scope of current scholarship on penance by focusing on its substitutionary ability. Also, this article explores the changing notions of and metaphors about sin in this period—from medical to economic—that fueled proxy activity.

ASURANSI SYARIAH DI INDONESIA (Studi Tentang Peluang ke Depan Industri Asuransi Syariah)

<p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>The term of takaful originates from Arabic verb ”kafalah” which means ”to help one another” or ”mutual guarantee”. Now takaful can be defined as an Islamic insurance concept which is grounded in Islamic muamalat, and regulations of Islamic law. This concept has been practiced in various forms. Theoretically, Takaful is perceived as cooperative or mutual insurance, where members contribute a certain sum of money to a common pool. Takaful is invited since commercial/conventional insurance is prohibited in Islamic law. Commercial/conventional insurance is strictly disallowed for Moslem because it contains the elements of gharar (uncertainty), maysir (gambling), and riba (usury).<br />Islamic Insurance or Sharia Insurance is based on mutual cooperation, responsibility, assurance, protection and assistance between groups of participants. Sharia Insurance gives members the opportunity to benefit in two ways ; from the financial security of a risk sharing arrangement, and from the spiritual benefit. Indonesia Islamic Insurance Association (AASI) said the growth of Takaful industry in 2013 reached 30-40 per cent. This year is expected better than before because Indonesia has prospect for the insurance industry to grow.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> <em>Islamic Law, Risk Sharing, Mutual Cooperation</em></p>

Teaching with Spiritual Impact: An Analysis of Student Comments Regarding High‐ and Low‐Rated Spiritually Inspiring Religion Classes

AbstractWe analyzed 2,621 written student comments to better understand themes which most contribute to religion classes being rated high or low in terms of the spiritual benefit students received from the class. From 2,448 religion classes taught from September of 2010 through April of 2014, comments from the top 61 (2.5 percent) and bottom 51 (2.1 percent) rated classes in terms of being “spiritually inspiring” were compared for emerging themes. The most frequent themes in higher‐ranked spiritually inspiring courses were (1) intellectually enlightening and (2) applied religion to life. In lower‐ranked spiritually inspiring courses the themes (1) class time was ineffective and (2) poor assessments were prevalent. We explore the practical implications from these and other findings.