Spiritual Traditions Research Articles

THE RIGHT TO DIGNITY - BETWEEN ASPIRATION AND LEGISLATION

The study aims to analyse one of the essential rights of the human being, the right to dignity, with particular implications for the evolution of communities, societies and humanity as a whole. Dignity is also an ethical and legal value, which runs like a guiding thread through the evolution of individuals, whether viewed in isolation or in a larger or smaller group. Dignity is the cornerstone of the architecture of fundamental rights and freedoms, a conclusion drawn from its inclusion in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, in the sequence of its component parts, as its first title. Article 1(3) of the revised and republished Romanian Constitution regulates the values declared supreme in the Romanian State and guaranteed in the spirit of the democratic traditions of the Romanian people and the ideals of the December 1989 Revolution. The first of these values is human dignity. Then follow, in succession, the rights and freedoms of citizens, the free development of the human personality, justice and political pluralism. Hence the conclusion that, in the view of the Romanian constitutional legislator, human dignity is also the pedestal of the values which are the essential elements of the Romanian state's identity. We say this because we are referring to the first article of the Fundamental Law, whose name is “the Romanian state.”

Organization and composition of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party 
 at the beginning of the XX century

The idea of the organizational state and composition of one of the most significant parties in pre-revolutionary Russia – the party of Socialists Revolutionaries – gives a lot to understand its essence. The agreement on the creation of the party was made in the spirit of traditions of illegal conspiratorial organizations. The party appeared as an extremely amorphous formation. Until the turn of 1905–1906, its organizational principles were not formulated and were not approved by the general party forum. The competencies of the structural divisions, the criteria for membership were not clear to everyone. The party structure evolved spontaneously, in the spirit of the traditions of the revolutionary organizations in Russia in the 1970-ies and 1990-ies of the XIX century. Simultaneously existing «non-party» and «party» committees and groups characterized two dimensions: a socio-political movement and a political party. Consolidation in general terms was completed by the end of 1905. At the beginning of the XX century. the main part of the Socialist-Revolutionary organizations was located in the provinces of European Russia. Basically, the Socialist-Revolutionary organizations operated in the intellectual and industrial centers of the country, areas of concentration of the intelligentsia. A significant part of the party leadership was made up of representatives of the generation of the 40–60-ies of the XIX century of birth. The committees were dominated by young people of the 70–80-ies of the XIX century of birth. The party included representatives of various social groups, first of all the intelligentsia, then workers and peasants. Intra-party ties were weak and intermittent; the main unifying center was «Revolutionary Russia». Theoretical, tactical and organizational problems were discussed behind the scenes. In the structure of the party, the features of an illegal circle organization were clearly manifested.

A New Day for Perennialism: the Case for a Perennial Phenomenology, or ‘Soft’ Perennialism

AbstractThis paper argues for a ‘perennial phenomenology’ (or ‘soft’ perennialism) varying from the traditionalist notion of a ‘perennial philosophy.’ Perennial phenomenology offers a more nuanced form of perennialism that focuses on spiritual/mystical experiences rather than the teachings and beliefs of different religions. While teachings and beliefs vary greatly, the mystical experiences associated with different mystical traditions have striking commonalities. I suggest four experiential aspects that support a perennial phenomenology. These aspects also necessitate a reconsideration of the debate between perennialism and constructivism. Significantly, these experiential elements are present when mystical experiences occur outside the context of spiritual traditions, to people who know little or nothing about spirituality and consider themselves non-religious. Treating mystical experiences exclusively in the context or religion and spiritual traditions has been a major failing in debates between constructivists (or contextualists) and perennialists. There is a common landscape of mystical experience that precedes interpretation and conceptualization by spiritual traditions. This paper contributes to a reopening of discussion about perennialism that has been underway in recent years.

Drawing on Eastern Spiritual Traditions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as Guideposts in an Increasingly Unpredictable World

Drawing on Eastern Spiritual Traditions of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as Guideposts in an Increasingly Unpredictable World

Unravelling the Depths of Sanatana Dharma: Exploring the Eternal Principles of Hinduism

Purpose: Sanatana Dharma, also known as Hinduism is an ancient cultural tradition that originated in India. It encompasses a range of beliefs, practices, and philosophies that emphasise concepts, like karma, dharma, and moksha. Hinduism is one of the most revered religions in the world. Methodology: This study aims to explore the tapestry of Hinduism uncovering the timeless principles that have guided its followers for thousands of years. It will delve into the aspects of Hinduism including its deities and sacred texts as well as its vibrant traditions and rituals. Result/Analysis: This exploration will shed light on the philosophical and ethical dimensions that form the foundation of this faith. Originality/Value: By analysing the core principles of Sanatana Dharma this paper seeks to offer an understanding of the wisdom embodied by Hinduism while fostering cross-cultural dialogue and appreciation, for this enduring spiritual tradition. Type of Paper: Exploratory.

Teaching the Russian literary language to foreign master and postgraduate students within the special course “Modern Russian literature”: key problems and prospects

The article puts insight into current issues of teaching the Russian literary language to foreign under-graduates and postgraduates, specializing in “Linguistics and Intercultural Communication”, in the course of studying “Modern Russian Literature”. We use a broad historical and cultural context to substantiate the fundamental role of Russian literature in the formation of world culture and the global literary canon, and highlight the great influence that such Russian classical writers as Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Chekhov had on the development of foreign literature in the East and West. We observe and trace continuity in classical and modern literary eras and the best long-lasting spiritual, moral and linguistic traditions of the Russian people. We assume that the key problems the teacher should focus on are: Russian literature as a significant phenomenon of world culture, the development of classical traditions in the history of Russian literature at present, the dialogue among cultures and the translation of modern writers’ works into foreign languages, historical and philosophical problems in literature, and historical heritage of the Russian language. The article comprehensively studies the Russian language value dimensions and linguistic axiological directions. The data show the presence, stability and preservation of the fundamental values (life, love, truth, good, beauty, hope, grace, honour, etc.) in the Russian literary language. These values form the spiritual conceptual sphere in Russian culture and constitute its main moral foundations. Serious attention is paid to the aesthetics of the language. We show the aesthetic potential, artistic expressiveness and stylistic richness of the modern Russian literary language, based on the works of E. Vodolazkin, L. Ulitskaya, M. Shishkin, M. Kucherskaya, M. Stepnova, D. Rubina and others. We focus on the problem of preserving the Russian literary language and the high status of Russian in general, revealing complex realities of modern multinational and multicultural world. We recommend such modern masterpieces as “Laurel” by E. Vodolazkin, “The God of Rain” by M. Kucherskaya, “The Garden” by M. Stepnova, “The Writer” by M. Shishkin, “Yakov’s Staircase” by L. Ulitskaya as sources to improve literacy and general cultural competence of foreign students.

Commemoration and devotion in the resurgence of contemporary Sufi communities in their homeland and western settings: descendants and followers of a medieval Sufi Saint in Syria and Cambridge, Ontario

ABSTRACT This article examines the resurgence of contemporary Sufi communities in Islamic and Western settings. Focusing on the descendants and followers of Shaykh ʿAqīl al-Manbijī, a medieval spiritual master and saint (d. 1155) in their Syrian homeland and Cambridge, Ontario, the examination offers insights into the confluence of three dimensions. The first refers to the hagiographical and historical traditions that perpetuate the memory and legacy of the long-gone shaykh and nourish the sacrality of his shrine. The second highlights the significance of the rituals performed by communities of the shaykh’s descendants and their followers in Syria to revitalise the spiritual tradition that centres on him and evoke a sense of collective identity. The third dimension, spatiality, fleshes out the role of the devotional spaces as arenas for commemorating the venerated shaykh and manifesting the beliefs and traditions that hold the homeland communities together. The form and location of the mosque established by his descendants in Cambridge and its use as a public devotional space and an Islamic learning centre allow us to see how the saint’s memory is inscribed, his spiritual tradition perpetuated and disseminated as an integral part of Islamic religiosity in a Western environment.

Towards the origin of devotion and happiness: An acoustical and neuro-cognitive exploration of Indian spiritual music

Since the age of the Vedas, devotion has remained a key component of Indian music through centuries of changes and foreign influences. The brightest example of this is the Bhakti tradition, a pan-Indian movement (7th-15th Century CE), which integrated poetry and music in the transmission of spiritual and social goals. Devotees often report perception of emotions like devotion, happiness, awe while listening to spiritual music of their own religion and culture. This paper aims to study the acoustical and neuro-cognitive correlates of these emotions for two Indian spiritual music traditions – (a) Sikh Gurbani/ Shabad Kirtan, (b) Bangla Vaishnav Kirtan, both of which emerged from the Bhakti tradition. 5 Punjabi and 5 Bengali speaking participants listened to 3-minute long four songs from these two spiritual music traditions while EEG signals were recorded from each participant along with their emotion responses. Acoustical time series of these music clips and their corresponding EEG signals were analysed using nonlinear DFA technique. DFA Scaling Exponent values were calculated for multiple 30-second EEG segments across the total duration of each music clip to understand the perception and induction process of devotion and happiness in human brain, which is a novel step in the domain of music cognition and signal processing.

Kazakhstan’s Society Modernization in Response to the 21st Century Global Challenges: The Material Aspect and the Shifting Discourse Issue

The purpose of this study is to examine the current aspects of former Soviet society modernization in the context of global challenges of the 21st century. The study uses Kazakhstan as an example. The primary focus of this paper is on the comparative analysis of the global dynamics of economic development trends regarding OECD and Kazakhstan. The study’s methodology entails a historiographical analysis of recent works on modernization issues in contemporary societies. Modernization is seen as a part of the complicated process of the world becoming more global as the capitalist system changes. Modernization phenomena are analyzed quantitatively and phenomenologically within the framework of the research methodology. The study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze statistical data on economic development in Kazakhstan. The applied quantitative analysis techniques constructed a regression model of modernization prospects based on the factor of labour productivity and gross savings. Qualitative interpretations in this study were based on phenomenological and analytical approaches in the philosophical sciences. This study focused on a new theory of modernization that views it from the perspective of social acceleration and the pursuit of sustainability in the protection of traditional spirituality within the context of modernization. In practice, this model enables the exploration of various modernization trajectories. It will be useful in the creation of the corresponding state development programmes of Kazakhstan. In this way, the spiritual modernization of society will help build a work ethic, an economy based on knowledge and innovation, a social consensus, and a space where people from different backgrounds can live together.

The Influence of African Tradtional Spirituality on Christian Practices in Africa

Human beings are religious by nature. In the discussion on African traditional spirituality, it provides the proofs on how Africans were and are notoriously religious even before the advent of Christianity. This article provides an overview of the influence of African traditional spirituality on Christian Practices in Africa. It is noted in this article that African traditional spirituality is a diverse and complex set of beliefs and practices that reflect the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the people of Africa. It encompasses a wide range of practices, including ancestor veneration, divination, healing practices, music and dance, and community building. Christianity was introduced to Africa in the 1st century AD, but it was not until the arrival of European colonizers in the 16th century that Christianity began to spread more widely throughout Africa. Today, Christianity is one of the most widespread religions in Africa, with over 541 million adherents on the continent. Christianity in Africa is diverse and complex, encompassing a range of denominations, including Catholicism, Protestantism, and various indigenous African churches. This article explores the ways in which African spirituality has influenced Christianity in Africa, and how this has shaped the religious and cultural landscape of the continent.

Rebellion Against the Church in the Name of Christ – Nikolai Leskov’s Rebel Priests and Russian Cultural Tradition

The paper discusses an important figure of Nikolai Leskov’s numerous literary works: a clergyman who does not accept rules in force in the Church, as he regards them as obstacles to true religion and people’s relationship with Christ. This character is analyzed in the context of Christian understanding of categories of obedience and disobedience, their biblical sources, as well as older Russian spiritual, cultural and literary tradition, namely “holy fools” and the Archpriest Avvakum. It also deliberates later transformations of the rebel priest figure in early-twentieth-century Russian literature in conjunction with the social changes and leftist political sympathies of the Russian clergy of that period.

Conceptualization of Workplace Spirituality in an Eastern Context

Workplace spirituality is a complex construct and is perceived differently in different cultures and contexts. The purpose of this study was to construct the meaning of workplace spirituality from the perceptions of employees in an Eastern context, particularly Nepal, which is primarily dominated by the Vedic and Buddhist spiritual traditions. This study utilized the constructivist grounded theory methodology to elucidate the meaning of WPS. The analysis of data revealed that WPS is a multi-dimensional construct having nine distinct dimensions – Altruistic Motive, Interpersonal Positivity, Compassion, Inner Calmness, Duty Orientation, Sense of Collaboration, Interconnectedness, Self-Regulation, and Higher Consciousness. The emergence of these dimensions is discussed in light of the Western WPS literature and the teachings of Vedic and Buddhist spiritual traditions. Finally, practical and research implications are drawn and the study's limitations are highlighted.

A Sacred Place, an Enchanted Space: Crisis and Spiritual Elasticity in the Mountain of the Moon

This article explores the notion of the “magic of a place” and the way a space attracts groups and individuals who follow various forms of vernacular or lived religion and spirituality. The space is Sintra, an “enchanted” mountain facing the westernmost point of Europe, the Roca Cape. Classified by UNESCO as Cultural Landscape, Sintra is a unique place, a “sensuous sacred geography”; its sacredness comes from its natural setting, combined with historical layers of religious use and the way these are nowadays interpreted by individuals who live spirituality as “sensational forms” (configurations of imaginations and sensations in a context of religious and spiritual traditions). Thought of as an encapsulated magical place where innumerous groups perform their ceremonies, meditations, and spiritual retreats, Sintra is a scenario where Tweed’s discussion on the sacredness of a place is highly suitable and transreligiosity and spiritual elasticity are the norm. Furthermore, through the ethnographic data presented, we will see how, within this “spiritual elasticity” directly relating to the astonishing nature of the Sintra mountain, individuals find relief for their personal crises or their collective eco-anxiety.

Calvin, Rabelais, and the platonic tradition: cognition of god and the self in renaissance and modernity

In Sociology of Religion the massive shift towards secularisation, especially in historically Protestant countries of Europe, or these with Protestant influence, has been found to comprise two shifts: one towards the loss of religion, the other towards highly individualistic esoteric spirituality. The ‘individualisation of faith’, brought about by Protestantism, proclaimed especially by John Calvin, as ‘master theoretician’, is regarded to be a feature of both. Yet, presently, Protestantism and Western Esotericism, define themselves as opposites. At the beginning of this development, in the 16th century Renaissance culture, Platonism, (understood as spiritual philosophy) had a formative influence on both. In this essay, I will look at the origins of this development, at Calvin’s introduction to his theoretical exposition of Christian faith, the ‘Institutes’, and at Francois Rabelais’ references to ‘divination’ – the means of finding out the will of God – as a foremost literary representative of the spiritual tradition that was to become Western Esotericism. I will show, that both are close in their sharing of the Platonic motif that the knowledge of God and of the Self are interconnected – despite their differing reception of it. Thus, ‘common ground’ is identified, that may help to understand the present dynamics between both, in the context of Modernity.

The Role of Religion in Shaping Sociocultural Self-Identification of Society in Kazakhstan

Religiosity acts as an important marker of personal self-identification and an identification marker of social processes. The paradigm in relation to religion is changing: the secularism of the state and ideological pluralism contributes to an expanded understanding of religion not only as a spiritual tradition, but also as an institution of socialization. This article examines the dynamics of religiosity in Kazakhstan, focusing on the impact of traditional and new forms of religiosity on sociocultural self-identification. The research utilizes a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis techniques. The study reveals the evolving nature of religiosity in Kazakhstan within a context of ideological pluralism, emphasizing the complex interplay between traditional and new forms of religiosity and highlighting the need for strategies to maintain social cohesion and effective ideological socialization in this multicultural, multi-confessional society. The study contributes to understanding the religiolization process in Kazakhstan and its implications for individual and collective identities in a multicultural and multi-confessional society.
 
 Received: 30 June 2023 / Accepted: 22 August 2023 / Published: 5 September 2023

The Gospel According to Lazarus

Abstract: Modernist Reformations presents three major modernists—Eliot, Stevens, and Joyce—in the romantic and Protestant traditions of revisionary theologians who read anew in a liberal pluralist manner their literary, religious, and cultural traditions, opening them to the theological and spiritual traditions from around the globe, with special emphasis on the Buddhist connections and parallels.

Was ist das? Martin Luther's catechism and pedagogical methods in the contemporary theological classroom

<i>Was ist das</i>? Martin Luther's catechism and pedagogical methods in the contemporary theological classroom

Christianity and The Indigenous Spiritualties of The Igbo People: From Multi-Religiousness to Synculturation

The Igbo people of Nigeria have historically maintained a rich and dynamic spiritual tradition. The advent of Christianity introduced new dimensions to their spiritual landscape, leading to significant shifts in religious beliefs and practices. This study aims to explore the complexities and transformations in the Igbo spiritual landscape following the encounter with Christianity. It seeks to understand how the Igbo people navigate the coexistence of indigenous spirituality and Christian beliefs, and the resultant socio-cultural and religious dynamics. Employing a literature review and historical analysis, this study systematically examines scholarly works and historical records to unravel the complex interplay between Igbo indigenous spirituality and Christianity. The study found that the Igbo's flexibility in spiritual choices facilitated their rapid conversion to Christianity, influenced by practical advantages such as effective medicine, economic benefits, and efficient foreign social structures. However, this transition also entailed a mental shift, marked by the perception of the Christian God's superiority following military defeats against foreigners. The study highlights the intricate interplay between indigenous spiritualities and Christianity within the Igbo context. It underscores the role of practical factors, cultural adaptation, and perceived spiritual efficacy in shaping religious transformations. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of religious syncretism and the evolving nature of spiritual beliefs in multi-religious societies.

A Probe into the Form of Dance Performance in Drama Performance

China's traditional culture, as the spirit that has lasted for thousands of years, has shown brand-new vitality internationally in recent years. As the quintessence of China, drama condenses the cultural and spiritual traditions of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, and comprehensively embodies the aesthetic feeling of China's art. Dancing on the stage of drama can not only contribute to the visual experience of drama, but also further reflect the culture of drama works.

Трансляция как основа преемственности духовного опыта поколений

Spiritual traditions should be referred to special cultural phenomena that have one very important quality – the ability to accumulate knowledge, experience gained by previous generations of people belonging to different ethnic, religious and social groups. Any nation, people, society, social community is interested in preserving ancestral experience and transferring it to the younger generation to the fullest extent possible. This problem is effectively solved with the help of such elements of human culture as spiritual traditions. Modern society is in-fluenced by the information space, characterized by diversity and many contradictions. In this regard, the need to find ways to transfer values and knowledge that would retain meaning in the process of their transmission from one generation to another is actualized. Based on comparativist analysis, this article presents models and methods that can solve the problem of transmitting spiritual values through the use of spiritual traditions.