Journal Description
Religions
Religions
is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal on religions and theology, published monthly online by MDPI.
- Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, AHCI (Web of Science), ATLA Religion Database, Religious and Theological Abstracts, and other databases.
- Journal Rank: CiteScore - Q1 (Religious Studies)
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 22.8 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 4.6 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2023).
- Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Impact Factor:
0.8 (2022)
Latest Articles
The Role of Black Christian Beliefs in the Civil Rights Movement: A Paradigm for a Better Understanding of Religious Freedom
Religions 2024, 15(5), 527; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050527 - 24 Apr 2024
Abstract
This paper builds upon and extends Christian and legal scholarship on the civil rights movement by illuminating a climate of religious freedom that served as a catalyst for and was integral to the success of the spirited activism of the civil rights movement.
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This paper builds upon and extends Christian and legal scholarship on the civil rights movement by illuminating a climate of religious freedom that served as a catalyst for and was integral to the success of the spirited activism of the civil rights movement. To date, scholars have not extensively considered how the expansion of religious freedom in church and state jurisprudence both directly and indirectly created a climate that contributed to the success of the CRM, and how advancements in civil rights impacted the broader revolution occurring in constitutional rights. The climate of religious freedom included court support for evangelizing in residentially exclusive areas, exemptions for conscientious opposers from participating in oath swearing and other ceremonies, and exemptions from other general laws that unduly inhibited the free exercise of religious rights.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Politics: Interactions and Boundaries)
Open AccessArticle
Sickness and the Power of Healing Prayer in 2 Kings 20:1–11 and Isaiah 38:1–22
by
Michael Ufok Udoekpo
Religions 2024, 15(5), 526; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050526 - 24 Apr 2024
Abstract
2 Kings 20:1–11; Isaiah 38:1–22 and 2 Chronicles 32:24–26 discuss Hezekiah’s sickness and the power of healing prayer. They are called Hezekiah-Isaiah narratives since they deal not only with (a) the threats and salvation of Jerusalem from Assyria, (b) the disease and the
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2 Kings 20:1–11; Isaiah 38:1–22 and 2 Chronicles 32:24–26 discuss Hezekiah’s sickness and the power of healing prayer. They are called Hezekiah-Isaiah narratives since they deal not only with (a) the threats and salvation of Jerusalem from Assyria, (b) the disease and the miraculous recovery or healing (ḥāyâ/rāքā’) of Hezekiah and description of the representatives from Babylon, but share a common narrative pattern in which Hezekiah is healed with a poultice/lump of fig tree (dəbelet təʾnim), having received advise and healing support from God’s messenger, Isaiah. Past scholars have approached this text differently, searching for its dating, literary growths, differences, originality with the desire to reveal the history of the various traditional components and relationship among parallel texts, as well the prophetic and kingly images of Isaiah and Hezekiah. Built on this past scholarship and African cultural perspectives and experiences, this work contextually, historically and theologically study, develop and analyze the story of Hezekiah’s sickness and healing.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Bible within Ancient and Modern Cultures)
Open AccessArticle
Toward a Generalizable Understanding of Rightist Movements: Utilizing the Revolutionary Right’s Value Wars in Iran (1995–2009) as a Case Study
by
Amirhossein Teimouri
Religions 2024, 15(5), 525; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050525 - 24 Apr 2024
Abstract
Bringing rightist movement studies into the Iranian context, this study advances a generalizable understanding of the ideological, moral, and cultural activism of Islamist movements and their rightist counterparts. While numerous studies have discussed the economic explanation of rightist movements, I integrate Islamist movements
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Bringing rightist movement studies into the Iranian context, this study advances a generalizable understanding of the ideological, moral, and cultural activism of Islamist movements and their rightist counterparts. While numerous studies have discussed the economic explanation of rightist movements, I integrate Islamist movements in the Muslim world and rightist movements in the West to develop a generalizable cultural and moral explanation of rightist movements. Value and ideological conflicts, as well as moral outrage, drive this integrated understanding of rightist movements. The rise of innovative and contentious forms of millennialism in Iran—especially the increasing salience of the Jamkaran mosque, the rise of new media outlets and millennial discourses, and pertinent policies—provide evidence for proposing this generalizable understanding. I argue that the rise of performative contentions surrounding millennialism, known as Mahdaviat, within the pro-regime revolutionary rightist movement in Iran was Islamists’ ideological response to liberal threat perceptions. These threat perceptions were activated before the liberal Reform era (1997–2005). After the ascent of Ahmadinejad to power in 2005, ideological millennialism became the dominant discursive field in Iran’s state politics. Drawing on narratives of prominent Islamist figures and media personalities in Iran and events surrounding Mahdaviat, this paper advances a generalizable argument of the moral and cultural explanation of rightist movements.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Middle East Religions from Comparative Perspectives—How Religion Is Shaping the Middle East)
Open AccessArticle
A Contemporary Aristotelian–Thomistic Perspective on the Evolutionary View of Reality and Theistic Evolution
by
Mariusz Tabaczek
Religions 2024, 15(5), 524; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050524 - 24 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article presents a coherent and comprehensive proposal of a renewed contemporary Aristotelian–Thomistic approach to the evolutionary view of reality and the position of theistic evolution. Beginning with a proposal of a hylomorphically–grounded essentialist definition of species—framed within a broader revival of biological
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This article presents a coherent and comprehensive proposal of a renewed contemporary Aristotelian–Thomistic approach to the evolutionary view of reality and the position of theistic evolution. Beginning with a proposal of a hylomorphically–grounded essentialist definition of species—framed within a broader revival of biological essentialism—a constructive model of the Aristotelian–Thomistic metaphysics of evolution is being offered, together with a reflection on the alleged violation of the principle of proportionate causation in evolutionary transitions and the role of teleology and chance in evolution. The theological part of the article addresses a number of questions concerning the Thomistic school of theology in its encounter with the evolutionary worldview, including the question of whether God creates through evolution, the query concerning the concurrence of divine and created causes in evolutionary transitions, and the question regarding evolutionary and theological notions of anthropogenesis. A list of ten postulates grounding a contemporary Thomistic version of theistic evolution is offered as a conclusion to the research presented in the text.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquinas and the Sciences: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future)
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Buddhist Cultural Exchange between Paekche and Ancient Japan: A Comparative Analysis of the Archaeological Remains from the Wooden Pagoda Site at Asukadera and Śarīra Reliquaries from Paekche Temple Sites
by
Byongho Lee and Isahaya Naoto
Religions 2024, 15(5), 523; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050523 - 24 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article provides a critical review of the results of the Asuka Historical Museum’s excavation of the Asukadera wooden pagoda site in Japan since 2015, and its implications for Buddhist cultural exchange in East Asia. The second section examines the Asuka Historical Museum’s
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This article provides a critical review of the results of the Asuka Historical Museum’s excavation of the Asukadera wooden pagoda site in Japan since 2015, and its implications for Buddhist cultural exchange in East Asia. The second section examines the Asuka Historical Museum’s categorization and scientific analysis of the beads, pearls, horse gear, earrings, gold and silver artifacts, mica, and śarīra containers. We assert that most objects excavated from the Asukadera wooden pagoda site are relics from the Asuka era (538–710), when the pagoda was first established in 593, and only a limited number of artifacts, such as the śarīra [relics] container, were added after the wooden pagoda was burned down in 1196. The third section compares the archeological remains from the Asukadera wooden pagoda site and the reliquary objects from the Paekche Wanghŭng-sa site (577) and Mirŭk-sa site (639), which have been conventionally considered to be its models. What the relics from these three historical sites have in common is that they include clothing accessories nobles wore as they participated in the Buddhist rituals of enshrining the śarīra in a wooden pagoda. However, some differences in the metallic craft items, such as crowns and belts, were still found between Paekche and Japan, which was due to the difference in costume styles in the respective countries at the time. Also, horse gear and lamellar armor unearthed from Asukadera sites was not found in Paekche temple sites, but is similar to earlier Japanese kofun (megalithic tumuli) grave goods, which provides evidence that as Buddhism was transferred to Japan from Paekche, it was not accepted in completely the same form.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
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Intellectual Humility and the Argument from Evil: A Reply to Zain Ali
by
John Bishop and Ken Perszyk
Religions 2024, 15(5), 522; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050522 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
This is a response to Zain Ali’s critique in this journal of our presentation of a ‘right relationship’ normatively relativised ‘logical’ Argument from Evil. Our argument aims to show that the existence of horrendous evils (as defined by Marilyn Adams) is incompatible with
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This is a response to Zain Ali’s critique in this journal of our presentation of a ‘right relationship’ normatively relativised ‘logical’ Argument from Evil. Our argument aims to show that the existence of horrendous evils (as defined by Marilyn Adams) is incompatible with the existence of the personal omniGod (a person or personal being who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and perfectly good), given certain reasonable judgments about what a personal God’s perfect goodness would imply about the way God relates to those caught up in horrendous evils. We reply to Ali’s main criticism that our assumptions about divine goodness are unjustified, and show a lack of intellectual humility. We defend the claim that, if God is a person, then God’s goodness is moral goodness according to our best human theory of what that implies. We accept that God’s situation as creator and sustainer of all that exists may justify ‘divine exceptionalism’: God’s personal moral goodness may be consistent with ways of relating to others that would fall far short of perfection in human-to-human relationships. But in that case, we argue, intellectual humility may be better served by accepting that God is so exceptional that God should not be understood as a person at all, which is the prevailing Muslim view, as Ali himself acknowledges.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Problems in Contemporary Islamic Philosophy of Religion)
Open AccessArticle
Wanwuyiti and Finding God in All Things: A Comparative Study between Neo-Confucian Self-Cultivation and Ignatian Spirituality
by
Amy Yu Fu
Religions 2024, 15(5), 521; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050521 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
It seems that the early Jesuits misinterpreted the key Neo-Confucian terms taiji/li from an Aristotelian perspective in the seventeenth century, thereby leading to a dialogical failure in their initial encounter with Neo-Confucian tradition. What necessitates interreligious dialogue today is a pluralistic stance that
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It seems that the early Jesuits misinterpreted the key Neo-Confucian terms taiji/li from an Aristotelian perspective in the seventeenth century, thereby leading to a dialogical failure in their initial encounter with Neo-Confucian tradition. What necessitates interreligious dialogue today is a pluralistic stance that deems all religious quests worthy in their own context. Therefore, this paper renews the dialogue between two spiritual traditions, long overdue, by reading two representative texts, side by side, from each tradition on self-cultivation: Reflections on Things at Hand (twelfth century) and The Spiritual Exercises (sixteenth century). The comparison showcases that the notion of “wanwuyiti”, a concomitant of the Confucian ren, is tantamount to a religious imperative for human ethical engagements, and the Ignatian axiom “Finding God in All Things” energizes a spiritual self-transformation to forge an intimate bond with God and the world. While Neo-Confucian cultivation focuses on the removal of desires, seeking to maintain “equilibrium” and “centrality”, the Ignatian exercises foreground commitment to “discernment” and “indifference”. The Neo-Confucians address human and worldly affairs in a procedural manner, with ever-broadening horizons, to establish an orderly society. In contrast, the Ignatian self is directed toward an orderly life to serve, love, and bring ever more to God’s Divine Majesty.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Medieval Theology and Philosophy from a Cross-Cultural Perspective)
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The Great Web of Being: Environmental Ethics without Value Hierarchy
by
Ryan Darr
Religions 2024, 15(5), 520; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050520 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
Hierarchical views of the world such as the great chain of being have come under sustained critique in recent decades, and rightly so. They have justified not only the domination of non-human creatures but also the devaluation (via animalization/racialization) of many humans. The
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Hierarchical views of the world such as the great chain of being have come under sustained critique in recent decades, and rightly so. They have justified not only the domination of non-human creatures but also the devaluation (via animalization/racialization) of many humans. The rejection of hierarchy and the great chain of being, however, does not require the rejection of the Christian Platonic theological vision upon which hierarchy is often based. In this paper, I argue that Christian Platonic theology has always been in tension with the great chain of being and is better suited to a non-hierarchical view of creaturely value. I then develop the ethical implications of this view in dialogue with both environmental and animal ethics and anti-racist and decolonial scholarship.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Platonic Tradition, Nature Spirituality and the Environment)
Open AccessArticle
Decolonizing the Gospel of Love in Africa
by
William I. Orbih
Religions 2024, 15(5), 519; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050519 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
The violence of missionary agents on Africans contradicted the gospel of Christ’s redemptive love, which they preached. In response to the contemporary manifestations of the violence and dehumanization of “colonial love”, this article proposes the decolonization of the gospel of love, both as
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The violence of missionary agents on Africans contradicted the gospel of Christ’s redemptive love, which they preached. In response to the contemporary manifestations of the violence and dehumanization of “colonial love”, this article proposes the decolonization of the gospel of love, both as theological hermeneutic and a moral imperative in the African Church. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus commands us to recognize every human being as a neighbor. Within a colonial context, this means rejecting the dualistic logic of colonial love, its segregation, dehumanization, and violence.
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Open AccessArticle
Football Disasters and Pilgrimage: Commemoration through Religious and Non-Religious Ritual and Materiality
by
John Eade
Religions 2024, 15(5), 518; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050518 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
Although the relationship between religion and football has gained considerable interest during the last twenty years, scant attention has been paid to the relationship between pilgrimage and football. This paper seeks to advance the study of this relationship through an exploration of collective
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Although the relationship between religion and football has gained considerable interest during the last twenty years, scant attention has been paid to the relationship between pilgrimage and football. This paper seeks to advance the study of this relationship through an exploration of collective memory about football disasters that throws fresh light on central themes within pilgrimage studies—pilgrimage as both a journey to a sacred place and the performance of diverse rituals at such places. The paper explores, in particular, the ways in which three different tragedies involving English football clubs have been commemorated through journeys to and ritual performance at places seen as sacred to those involved in commemoration—football stadiums and urban spaces, and cathedrals and pilgrimage shrines in England, Germany and Italy. Through this analysis, we seek to show how the commemoration of football disaster is linked to pilgrimage as a process where people seek healing and reconciliation through the public performance of rituals that link the local to the global.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pilgrimage and Religious Mobilization in the World)
Open AccessArticle
The Evangelical Aim in the History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China by Juan González de Mendoza, a 16th Century European Work on China
by
Bo Gao
Religions 2024, 15(5), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050517 - 23 Apr 2024
Abstract
For over five centuries, the History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China, written by Spanish missionary Juan González de Mendoza and published in 1585 in Rome, has captured the interest of the international academic community. However, scholarship has primarily focused
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For over five centuries, the History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of China, written by Spanish missionary Juan González de Mendoza and published in 1585 in Rome, has captured the interest of the international academic community. However, scholarship has primarily focused on Mendoza’s depiction of China as rich and powerful, potentially overlooking the evangelical purpose of his narrative and failing to explain the correlation between the positive Chinese image and the author’s evangelical intention. This study aims to clarify the image of China presented by the Spanish author through a detailed textual analysis, concluding that Mendoza portrayed China as a rich and great nation that also had misguided beliefs and was open to evangelization. The Spanish author’s identity as an Augustinian preacher and ambassador of King Philip II of Spain to the Ming dynasty of China, as well as the global and evangelistic social context in which he lived, significantly influenced his perceptions of China. Furthermore, his hybrid profile of China was accepted in Europe at the time and became a collective memory because it embodied the spiritual context shared by the European community in the 16th century. This spiritual purpose was achieved through the idealized imagination, which serves as an affective medium in the formation of collective memory.
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Tolerance for the Tolerant “Other”—Moses Mendelssohn’s Claim for Tolerance in the “Vorrede/Preface” (1782)
by
Anne Sarah Matviyets
Religions 2024, 15(4), 516; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040516 - 22 Apr 2024
Abstract
In this paper I discuss Moses Mendelssohn’s argumentation on religious tolerance in his “Vorrede” (“preface”) that he added to his translation of Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel’s letter “Vindiciae judaeorum” in 1782. Instead of solely deducing Mendelssohn’s idea of religious tolerance, I examine Mendelssohn’s
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In this paper I discuss Moses Mendelssohn’s argumentation on religious tolerance in his “Vorrede” (“preface”) that he added to his translation of Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel’s letter “Vindiciae judaeorum” in 1782. Instead of solely deducing Mendelssohn’s idea of religious tolerance, I examine Mendelssohn’s argumentation strategies. For this purpose, I firstly determine the political and social conditions in which Mendelssohn wrote the “Vorrede”. Secondly, I examine the normative reasons or resources that Mendelssohn argues for tolerance with. In my observation, he is legitimizing religious tolerance on the normative resources of philosophical reasons (natural law/universal reason) and pragmatic reasons (utility). Further, I will analyse Mendelssohn’s concept of a tolerant Judaism in the “Vorrede”.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Skepticism and Tolerance: Moses Mendelssohn, Salomon Maimon, and Jewish Enlightenment Thought)
Open AccessArticle
Context and Liturgical Renewal: An Approach from Cuba
by
Amós López Rubio
Religions 2024, 15(4), 515; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040515 - 22 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article aims to share the experience of the renewal of congregational singing in Cuban churches since the 1960s as a testimony to the links that exist between liturgical renewal and theological renewal with a special focus on the dialogue between culture and
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This article aims to share the experience of the renewal of congregational singing in Cuban churches since the 1960s as a testimony to the links that exist between liturgical renewal and theological renewal with a special focus on the dialogue between culture and social reality, particularly in light of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, as constitutive of this renewal.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liturgy, Music, Theology)
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Resurrection Preaching in the Gospel of John
by
Karoline Lewis
Religions 2024, 15(4), 514; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040514 - 21 Apr 2024
Abstract
The Gospel of John, without having its own liturgical year, is typically assumed to have a supplemental homiletical role in the Revised Common Lectionary, and yet the Fourth Gospel is the designated Gospel reading for the festival Sundays of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and
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The Gospel of John, without having its own liturgical year, is typically assumed to have a supplemental homiletical role in the Revised Common Lectionary, and yet the Fourth Gospel is the designated Gospel reading for the festival Sundays of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and Easter season. As a result, the theological themes of the Fourth Gospel anchor the church’s Trinitarian confessions and doctrinal imagination when it comes to preaching. In particular, as the assigned Gospel for the Sundays of Easter, the Gospel of John shapes resurrection proclamation. Resurrection proclamation, therefore, is animated by Jesus’ final words to his disciples found in the Farewell Discourse (John 14–17), where Jesus interprets his own ministry, commissions his disciples, testifies to the Paraclete, and prays for his followers. This essay will explore how the viewpoint of Jesus’ departing declarations makes a difference for preaching the resurrection. Through the lens of the Farewell Discourse, the promise of the resurrection takes on thematic issues that give important meaning to Jesus’ own revelation, “I am the resurrection and the life”.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Homiletical Theory and Praxis)
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Approaching Saint Bernard’s Sermons on the “Song of Songs” through the Book of Odes (Shijing): A Confluence of Medieval Theology and Chinese Culture
by
Yanbo Zheng
Religions 2024, 15(4), 513; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040513 - 21 Apr 2024
Abstract
This paper aims to decode medieval theology from the vantage point of ancient Chinese poetry, employing a cross-textual methodology that encourages a fusion of horizons. It highlights Saint Bernard’s profound and influential theological exegesis of the “Song of Songs”, particularly his comparison of
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This paper aims to decode medieval theology from the vantage point of ancient Chinese poetry, employing a cross-textual methodology that encourages a fusion of horizons. It highlights Saint Bernard’s profound and influential theological exegesis of the “Song of Songs”, particularly his comparison of the divine–human relationship to the conjugal bond. The present study posits that readers from Chinese culture can gain access to Saint Bernard’s mystical theology through the sentiment of love, as portrayed in the Book of Odes (Shijing). Initially addressing love as a core human sentiment, this study progresses by juxtaposing the representations of love in the Book of Odes with those in the “Song of Songs”. This comparative analysis culminates in an exploration of Saint Bernard’s theological perspectives, illuminated through these analogous depictions of love. The results affirm that engaging with Saint Bernard’s discourse on love via the Book of Odes is not only feasible but also instrumental in dispelling widespread misconceptions.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Medieval Theology and Philosophy from a Cross-Cultural Perspective)
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Traces of Necromantic Divinatory Practices in the Picatrix
by
Endre Ádám Hamvas
Religions 2024, 15(4), 512; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040512 - 21 Apr 2024
Abstract
In the famous medieval magical manual called the Picatrix, the unknown author describes the phenomenon of magic with the term nigromantia. As is well known, the original meaning of the Greek term necromantia has a more concise meaning. It is used for a
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In the famous medieval magical manual called the Picatrix, the unknown author describes the phenomenon of magic with the term nigromantia. As is well known, the original meaning of the Greek term necromantia has a more concise meaning. It is used for a special kind of divination, i.e., divination through the parts of a cadaver and the conjured spirit of the dead. Seemingly, in the Picatrix, no necromantic ritual can be found; moreover, the author stresses that his main goal is pious, i.e., to find the path leading to the ultimate source of the universe, the one and only God. In my article, I show that on some pages of the Picatrix, there are traces of divinatory practices that may be connected to the original meaning of the term nigromantia. In the third book of the manual, descriptions of some interesting rituals attributed to the pagan Sabeans of Harran and their teacher, the god Hermes can be found. During the practices, the magician involved conjured spirits of the heavenly bodies and powers as well. Because of this, by looking closely at and analyzing the given text, it is possible to piece together a complex web of necromantic and demonic divinatory rituals.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Communication with the Dead)
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Buddhist Ethics for Improving Health and Well-Being during Pandemics Like COVID-19 with Special References to Modern Scientific Experiments
by
Pathompong Bodhiprasiddhinand
Religions 2024, 15(4), 511; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040511 - 20 Apr 2024
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to examine whether Buddhist ethics can improve the health and well-being of Buddhist practitioners during pandemics like COVID-19. It is hypothesized that diseases are part of suffering, and Buddhist teachings aim to eliminate the suffering of all
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The purpose of this research is to examine whether Buddhist ethics can improve the health and well-being of Buddhist practitioners during pandemics like COVID-19. It is hypothesized that diseases are part of suffering, and Buddhist teachings aim to eliminate the suffering of all beings. Buddhism also offers ethical codes of conduct for its practitioners to improve their health and well-being. So, the Buddha’s teaching or Buddhist ethics, when practiced seriously, should be able to improve one’s health, physically and mentally, enhancing the well-being of all Buddhist practitioners during the spread of all pandemics including COVID-19. The present study found that Buddhist ethical practices like the chanting of Buddhist suttas and the development of mindfulness, concentration/meditation, and insight (vipassanā) can improve both physical and mental health, which are important for dealing with any pandemic, tremendously. If the cores of Buddhist ethics (morality, meditation, and wisdom) are perfectly practiced, not only will one live with good physical and mental health but one also will be able to eliminate all the mental defilements that are the root causes of all illnesses and thus enter nibbāna, the state of mind that is beyond all sources of suffering including pandemics/epidemics. More specifically, this paper highlights a set of Buddhist practices, called four bhāvanās (types of development), that can be used to improve health and well-being during any pandemic.
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Open AccessArticle
Contextualizing Transnational Chinese Christianity: A Relational Approach
by
Nanlai Cao and Lijun Lin
Religions 2024, 15(4), 510; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040510 - 20 Apr 2024
Abstract
In recent years, the number of Chinese Christian organizations in Europe has grown considerably compared to other overseas Chinese community organizations. They can mobilize transnational networks and resources to expand religious space in host societies and form a highly visible social force. Although
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In recent years, the number of Chinese Christian organizations in Europe has grown considerably compared to other overseas Chinese community organizations. They can mobilize transnational networks and resources to expand religious space in host societies and form a highly visible social force. Although the rise of early Christianity in the Western world has been considered an outcome of inherent religious strength, especially in terms of its central doctrines and religious ethics, this article suggests that in the diasporic Chinese world where Christianity constitutes a non-indigenous religious tradition, social relatedness based on native place, family, and kinship ties provides a more useful context for understanding its dynamic expansion and cross-regional transmission. Drawing on anthropological fieldwork conducted in Europe among overseas Chinese Christian traders and entrepreneurs, this research seeks an alternative framework for understanding the religious-cultural dynamics of Chinese Christianity in the context of transnational migration.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Expressions of Chinese Christianity in Texts and Contexts)
Open AccessArticle
Spiritual Influences on Jewish Modern Orthodox Adolescents
by
Sharon Elsant Weinstein and Scott J. Goldberg
Religions 2024, 15(4), 509; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040509 - 19 Apr 2024
Abstract
Modern Orthodoxy is a sect of Judaism which aims to combine a high level of commitment to Jewish observance with immersion in modern society. Alumni of Modern Orthodox parochial high schools have varying degrees of commitment towards religion. This study was designed to
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Modern Orthodoxy is a sect of Judaism which aims to combine a high level of commitment to Jewish observance with immersion in modern society. Alumni of Modern Orthodox parochial high schools have varying degrees of commitment towards religion. This study was designed to better understand the factors that lead adolescents towards internalizing traditional Orthodox beliefs. Previous studies on religion in general are lacking in quality and depth, using superficial factors such as church attendance to attest to religious commitment. Studies on Modern Orthodox Jewish teens are limited in quantity, with very few studies published on this population. This study focused on 1341 students from 18 Modern Orthodox high schools in the United States using the JewBALE 2.0 to collect the data. The design evaluated the relationship between spirituality and self-esteem, spiritual struggle, religious homogeny between parents and adolescents, and gender. Factors such as mental health, positive Judaic studies experience, and relationships with Judaic studies teachers were examined as potential mediators. The data indicated that students with high levels of spirituality would also have high levels of self-esteem and religious homogeny with their parents, as well as high levels of agreement with the Orthodox communal norms. Positive relationships with teachers and experiences in Jewish studies classes mediated the otherwise negative relationship between spirituality and disagreement with communal norms. Females were more likely to have high levels of spirituality than males. This study is important for those who want to better understand the factors involved in helping students enrolled in Jewish Modern Orthodox high schools achieve high levels of spirituality.
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(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)
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Continuity and Change according to Hindu and Buddhist Religious Philosophies
by
David Peter Lawrence
Religions 2024, 15(4), 508; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040508 - 19 Apr 2024
Abstract
I am happy to present to the scholarly audience this Special Issue of Religions on the theme of “Continuity and Change according to Hindu and Buddhist Religious Philosophies” [...]
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continuity and Change according to Hindu and Buddhist Religious Philosophies)
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Asceticism, Mysticism, and the Affirmation of the World in Christianity and Islam
Guest Editors: Rico G. Monge, Elliott BazzanoDeadline: 15 May 2024
Special Issue in
Religions
Divine Logos in Translation: Philosophy and Biblical-Exegesis in Context
Guest Editors: Yossef Schwartz, Menachem Fisch, Christian WieseDeadline: 1 June 2024
Topical Collections
Topical Collection in
Religions
Measures of the Different Aspects of Spirituality/Religiosity
Collection Editor: Arndt Büssing