Hasil untuk "By religion"

R. Stark, W. Bainbridge

Religion is alive and well in the modern world, and the social-scientific study of religion is undergoing a renaissance. For much of this century, respected social theorists predicted the death of religion as inevitable consequence of science, education, and modern economics. But they were wrong. Stark and Bainbridge set out to explain the survival of religion. Using information derived from numerous surveys, censuses, historical case studies, and ethnographic field expeditions, they chart the full sweep of contemporary religion from the traditional denominations to the most fervent cults. This wealth of information is located within a coherent theoretical framework that examines religion as a social response to human needs, both the general needs shared by all and the desires specific to those who are denied the economic rewards or prestige enjoyed by the privileged. By explaining the forms taken by religions today, Stark and Bainbridge allow us to understand its persistence in a secular age and its prospects for the future.

H. Lafollette, M. Woodruff

H. Koenig

This paper provides a concise but comprehensive review of research on religion/spirituality (R/S) and both mental health and physical health. It is based on a systematic review of original data-based quantitative research published in peer-reviewed journals between 1872 and 2010, including a few seminal articles published since 2010. First, I provide a brief historical background to set the stage. Then I review research on R/S and mental health, examining relationships with both positive and negative mental health outcomes, where positive outcomes include well-being, happiness, hope, optimism, and gratefulness, and negative outcomes involve depression, suicide, anxiety, psychosis, substance abuse, delinquency/crime, marital instability, and personality traits (positive and negative). I then explain how and why R/S might influence mental health. Next, I review research on R/S and health behaviors such as physical activity, cigarette smoking, diet, and sexual practices, followed by a review of relationships between R/S and heart disease, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease and dementia, immune functions, endocrine functions, cancer, overall mortality, physical disability, pain, and somatic symptoms. I then present a theoretical model explaining how R/S might influence physical health. Finally, I discuss what health professionals should do in light of these research findings and make recommendations in this regard.

W. Bainbridge, Robert J. Wuthnow

S. Charles

P. Norris, R. Inglehart

Peter C. Hill, K. Pargament

M. Barron, M. Gordon

T. Asad

A. Favazza

N. Ammerman

Spirituality" has often been framed in social science research as an alternative to organized "religion," implicitly or explicitly extending theoretical arguments about the privatization of religion. This article uses in-depth qualitative data from a religiously-diverse U.S. sample to argue that this either-or distinction not only fails to capture the empirical reality of American religion, but it does not do justice to the complexity of spirituality itself. An inductive discursive analysis reveals four primary cultural "packages," that is, ways in which the meaning of spirituality is constructed in conversation -a Theistic Package that ties spirituality to personal deities, an Extra-Theistic Package that locates spirituality in various naturalistic forms of transcendence, an Ethical Spirituality that focuses on everyday compassion, and a contested Belief and Belonging Spirituality tied to cultural notions of religiosity. Spirituality is, then, neither a diffuse individualized phenomenon nor a single cultural alternative to "religion." Analysis of the contested evaluations of Belief and Belonging Spirituality allows a window on the "moral boundary work" (Lamont 1992) being done by the cultural discourse of being "spiritual but not religious." The empirical boundary between spirituality and religion is far more porous than the moral and political one.

Earl D. C. Brewer, T. Luckmann

B. Garssen, A. Visser, Grieteke Pool

ABSTRACT The objective of this meta-analysis was to determine the longitudinal positive effect of religion or spirituality (R/S) on mental health. We summarized 48 longitudinal studies (59 independent samples) using a random effects model. Mental health was operationalized as a continuous and a dichotomous distress measure, life satisfaction, well-being, and quality of life. R/S included participation in public and private religious activities, support from church members, importance of religion, intrinsic religiousness, positive religious coping, meaningfulness, and composite measures. The meta-analysis yielded a significant, but small overall effect size of r = .08 (95% CI: 0.06 to 0.10). Of eight R/S predictors that were distinguished, only participation in public religious activities and importance of religion were significantly related to mental health (r = .08 and r = .09, respectively; 95% CI: 0.04 to 0.11 and 0.05 to 0.12, respectively). In conclusion, there is evidence for a positive effect of R/S on mental health, but this effect is small.

Richard Rorty, G. Vattimo, S. Zabala et al.

Valerio Aversano, Ellen Van Stichel

In recent decades, a novel right-wing nationalist and populist tendency has emerged on a global scale, frequently framing Christian identity as one of its central pillars. This article explores the relationship between right-wing populism and Christianity, by addressing how populism considers the role of religion on the one hand, and how Christianity position itself in relation to populism on the other hand, with a specific focus on Pope Francis’s social thought Although the relationship between right-wing populism and Christianity appears to be ambivalent, the response of Pope Francis, as elaborated in the encyclical _Fratelli Tutti_, is not. In the section entitled “A Better Kind of Politics,” the distinction between the “popular” and “populist leader” is employed as a hermeneutical tool to investigate current political developments. Furthermore, it enables us to respond to the allegation that Francis himself could be considered a populist, as some claim, referring to his alleged affinities with the political culture associated with Peronism. In his interpretation of the notion of political love as delineated in _Fratelli Tutti_, Francis leaves us with a legacy regarding the ethical response of Christians to populism, promoting instead a “culture of encounter” and a “better kind of politics.”

Araj Sekh

Women’s rights in Islam are often debated and frequently misunderstood due to cultural practices and selective interpretations. This paper examines the historical evolution of women’s rights in Islam from pre-Islamic Arabia to modern times. It aims to show how Islamic teachings brought significant reforms in the social, legal, and moral status of women. Before Islam, women faced severe discrimination, denial of inheritance, and lack of personal choice. Islam addressed these injustices by granting women rights to inheritance, consent in marriage, education, religious responsibility, and participation in social life. The study also highlights the important contributions of Muslim women scholars, jurists, and educators during the prophetic and medieval periods. In addition, the paper briefly discusses Muslim feminism and contrasts it with Western feminist thought to clarify key ideological differences. Based on Qur’anic teachings, Hadith, and historical evidence, the paper argues that Islam fundamentally supports dignity, justice, and equity for women. The study concludes that many contemporary challenges faced by Muslim women arise from cultural misuse of religion rather than Islamic principles themselves. Understanding Islam through authentic sources is essential for an accurate view of women’s rights.

Donata Bulotta

The precariousness of the health situation in England from the 14th century onwards led to the use of any curative means, whether scientific, religious or ritual-magical. In this context, healing charms were seen as accessible and practicable methods. They were often added to medical prescriptions and herbal remedies in medical or pseudo-pharmacological compilations, as they were considered an alternative form of therapy equally valid in the treatment of ailments. Many charms created during this period were a mixture of magic, religion and folklore, but some received new cultural stimulus, by incorporating original elements and symbolism from Arabic, Greek and Hebrew magical texts introduced to the island. This work will focus on a selection of 15th century healing charms. The analysis aims to demonstrate that the principles of the new occult and esoteric doctrines, circulating in the intellectual and cultural centers of the island, influenced the magical healing ritual. The study of pseudo-Solomonic texts, although strongly censored by the Church, however contributed to the creation of new textual amulets, which were used in addition to the pre-existing charms so becoming a further alternative medium in the therapeutic procedure.

O. Yu. Boytsova, I. N. Yablokov

The relevance of addressing the understanding of the geography of religion as a section of religious studies is on the one hand due to the growing popularity of this discipline in the modern scientific space,  and on the other its insufficient conceptualisation. The high interest in the geography of religion on the part of the scientific community is caused by its focus on the comprehension of theoretical and practical problems related to the spatial characteristics of religious life. Nowadays, the study of territorial aspects of the coexistence of different religious traditions acquires a special urgency due to the combination of globalisation trends and the desire to preserve authentic identity. Historically, the problem field and scientific apparatus of the geography of religion has been formed with reliance on theoretical developments and methodological tools of philosophy and various scientific disciplines, which supports terminological and methodological polyphony within this discipline and hinders its conceptualisation. The aim of this work is to identify possible grounds for attributing the geography of religion to the sections of religious studies. To achieve this goal the following tasks were solved: the origins of the formation of geography of religion were revealed; the approach to the formation of geography of religion from the perspective of geographical science was analysed; the influence of philosophy of religion on the methodological foundations of geography of religion was shown; the main vectors of interrelation between geography of religion and religious studies were determined. The research is limited to the European tradition of studying the relationship between religion and geography. The study is based on the texts of the classics of philosophical thought, as well as the works of Russian and foreign scholars devoted to the comprehension of the geography of religion as a scientific discipline. To reconstruct the thinkers' position on the issues raised, to identify their dependence on the intellectual context and to compare them, such methods as historical and philosophical analysis of the text, discourse analysis and comparative analysis were used. The result of the study was the substantiation of the conclusion about the possibility and expediency of attributing the geography of religion to the branches of religious studies. Such positioning of geography of religion does not contradict the modern understanding of the problem field and tasks of this discipline as they are formulated within the framework of geographical science, and at the same time allows us to identify promising research strategies in interaction with various religious studies disciplines such as: philosophy of religion, history of religion, anthropology of religion, sociology of religion and psychology of religion.

Yaser Hashemi, Ahmad Valiee, Mohammad Javad Asghari

Atheists have long advanced arguments against the existence of God, challenging the claims of theists. Among these, John L. Schellenberg has proposed an argument known as “divine hiddenness,” which has garnered significant attention from philosophers of religion. Therefore, the subject of this paper is to critique and examine this argument based on the ontological foundations of Avicenna, one of the greatest theist philosophers and prominent figures in Islamic philosophy. The methodology of this article is descriptive-analytical, based on an ontological examination of the rational possibility of connection and the occurrence of connection with the transcendent through religious and mystical experiences. Through a careful examination, it will be demonstrated that Avicenna’s ontological foundations not only support the possibility of relational experiences with the divine but also, when considered within the framework of logical argumentation and the epistemological certainty of mutawātirāt (mass-transmitted hadith), establish the reliability and certainty of such transcendent relations. Consequently, the argument from divine hiddenness—and by extension, atheism—is effectively refuted.