This article compares the outcomes of studies using the so-called Humans and Nature scale in The Netherlands and in Indonesia. The scale measures public support for policies that aim to address environmental challenges, conceptualizing and operationalizing 4 images of human-nature interaction, based on philosophy and religion. The scale was developed in The Netherlands, which is considered to be one of the most secularized countries in the world. It has been used in more than 12 countries, and recently in Indonesia, a country that is considered to be overwhelmingly religious, predominantly Muslim. The main research questions are whether religion matters when it comes to environment, and whether The Netherlands and Indonesia differ in this respect. The answers are relevant because in the environmentalism debate there is a tension between secular and religious environmentalists that does not facilitate a joint effort. The main finding is that humans primarily respond to environmental issues as humans, not as Muslims or Christians, Indonesians or Dutch, and that respondents of various backgrounds are united in their support for a view of humans as eco-friendly stewards of nature. However, this fundamental human attitude towards nature may be framed in religious language, if that language is available in a specific context. In a world where there seems to be a growing gap between the West and the Muslim world, yet a world which faces global environmental challenges, this outcome might be surprising and significant. It is good news for policy makers who foster collaboration between religions, religious and secular (non-religious) actors, and Westerners and non-Westerners in overcoming environmental challenges.
Izmir is one of our cities with a rich history, known for its geographical structure and its embrace of different cultures and religions. Izmir, a city that holds a central position in many areas, particularly in art, culture, and trade, is one of our cities that has been a focal point from the past to the present, with a history dating back to around 8500 BC. Being one of the first regions where Christianity spread, Izmir has historically been a popular center for the Christian world. With its incorporation into Ottoman lands, it continued to be a favored center.The city of Izmir, which holds an important position in the Christian world, is home to communities with different cultures and civilizations living together, as well as adherents of various faiths who have built their own places of worship to practice their beliefs and rituals freely. Thus, Izmir has become one of our cities famous not only for its mosques but also for its churches. Recently, it has been observed that churches, particularly those with Protestant and Evangelical identities, have been operating within a more intensive working system in Izmir. The church is the term used for the community formed by those who believe that Jesus provides spiritual salvation and strive to live a life within the framework of Christian faith, as well as the place of worship where this community performs its religious rituals. In the understanding of Christianity, churches and communities that emphasize theological and moral structures rather than sacraments are also defined as Protestant groups. Protestantism, which aims to return Christianity to its form during the time of Jesus, emphasizes the importance of the spiritual connection that will be established between the individual and God. According to the Protestant perspective, it is accepted that the individual experiences spiritual enlightenment through inspiration believed to be sent by the Holy Spirit, alongside faith in Jesus’ salvific role in their personal life. Therefore, rather than focusing on certain sacraments, the Protestant viewpoint highlights the importance of spiritual connection for the individual, centering on the spiritual relationship with Jesus as the path to spiritual salvation. Evangelicalism, in this respect, is a movement that aims to spread the message of the Gospel and the belief in Jesus’ salvation to the entire world, essentially viewing the whole world as its field of activity. In this context, the efforts of the founding members of the churches included in our research area to organize the church community for administration and various activities, as well as their work towards establishing new churches, have been examined. The similarities between the process of the spread of Christianity in the post-Jesus era and the contemporary evangelical movement have also been addressed.This study focuses on the New Birth Protestant Church, which has a Protestant-Evangelical identity and is located in the center of İzmir, along with several key churches associated with it. The relevant churches were particularly visited on Sundays to observe their services and other activities. The founding dates of these Protestant churches and their development processes up to the present have also been identified. One-on-one interviews were conducted with both the founding members and pastors of the churches, as well as with visitors, in an effort to get to know them closely. Our aim is to gain a deeper understanding of a religious group that exists in our country from a researcher’s perspective and to introduce it. While examining the subject, written literature and the churches’ websites were utilized, and as mentioned above, field research was also conducted, with observations and evaluations shared based on direct participation in church programs. The information obtained was interpreted phenomenologically, and comparisons were occasionally included.
“Sufism is the major sacrifice offered by Islam on the altar of its modernization”, declares a contemporary scholar while explaining the modern challenges faced by Sufism (Weismann 2015, p [...]
Alwi Dahlan Ritonga, Cynthia Hadita, Mawardi
et al.
Religious harmony in Indonesia still necessitates special attention since a balance must be established among the country's six religions. From a political and legal standpoint, examining the Religious Harmony Forum's performance in sustaining religious harmony in Indonesia is vital. This study employed the normative juridical research approach. The statutory technique was adopted, and the library research method was the search system. According to the findings, encouraging religious unity through the Religious Unity Forum is vital in preventing religion from becoming politicized in Indonesia. Concerns are developing about the role of religion, particularly Islam, in coping with the growing prominence of extremist groups, notably by justifying religious
politicization. As problems and policies concerning intra-and inter-religious harmony are improved politically and legally through an institution known as the Religious Harmony Forum, it is critical to encourage the passage of the Draft Law on Religious Harmony as soon as possible in order to strengthen the Religious Harmony Forum's role in maintaining religious harmony in Indonesia. Communication is crucial in building intra- and inter-religious harmony and preventing religion from being politicized in Indonesia.
The fact that Pentecostal Christianity is the fastest growing form of Christianity in Africa can no longer be a subject of debate. Christianity, one of the major religions in the world, has been growing at unprecedented rates in sub-Saharan Africa. What is being observed on the religious atmosphere is the Pentecostalisation of African Christianity in Africa in general and Zimbabwe in particular. From 2009 onwards, Zimbabwe has experienced a mushrooming spree of contemporary Pentecostalism. Though conglomerate in nature, three ecclesiastical figures overshadow the rest, namely Emmanuel Makandiwa’s United Family International Church, Uebert Angel of Good News Church and Walter Magaya of Prophetic, Healing and Deliverance Ministries. The three Pentecostal figures became highly popular through the propagation of the Gospel of Prosperity with vigour and vitality. Their presence in the Zimbabwean religious arena has attracted mixed perceptions. Some people view them as rippers of peoples’ hard-earned monies, while others regard them as true prophets – the messengers of God. The million-dollar question remains: Are they catalysts or antidotes to downward social mobility? This article grapples to assess whether the ‘Big Three’ contemporary Pentecostal prophets serve as propellers or dispellers of downward social mobility. The Big Three are antidotes based on three arguments: (1) Propagation of the Gospel of Prosperity, (2) miracle performances and (3) societal empowerment champions. On the other hand, the prophets are catalysts based on three arguments: white-collar prophecy, negation of social justice and preferential option for the Powerful. Through the application of the justitia pro-povo oprimido liberation hermeneutics, the study argues that the ‘Big Three’ ecclesiastical clergymen serve more as catalysts to downward social mobility than antidotes to downward social mobility. The justitia pro-povo oprimido liberation hermeneutics is a new methodological approach invented by the author based on liberation theology that sees Christianity as seeking the justice of the oppressed.
Contribution: The article critically reflects on rise of contemporary Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe focussing on the three outstanding prophets – Emmanuel Makandiwa, Uebert Angel and Walter Magaya. While the three clergymen contributed immensely, both positively and negatively to the rise and development of African Pentecostalisation of Zimbabwe, the justitia pro-povo oprimido liberation hermeneutics reveals the contemporary Pentecostal figures as propellers of downward social mobility.
This article reviews the doxological motivation of and for the church’s mission from a reformational perspective. The researcher learned that there is a human tendency to position oneself, or other beings or things, in the centre of God’s story and mission. Human religions and philosophy in ancient times claimed that behind the visible reality, there is an invisible world of either fate or ideals, which determined how people lived, and how they viewed and practised music. It is learned from missiological debates that the goal and the motive of the church’s missional music are often misunderstood and it led to a disarray, not only of the goal and motive of the church’s music, but also of the effective and efficient missional fellowship with God and with each other through music. With an overarching theme of formation (creation), deformation (humanity’s fall into sin) and reformation (redemption and hope), this article is set to discuss three aspects of doxological motivation of and for the church’s missional music, before the concluding remarks. In short, firstly the starting point: its formation; secondly, the critical point: its deformation (misdirection); thirdly, the ultimate point: its reformation and consummation.
Contribution: This article adds value (a voice) in finding ways and means for the effective and efficient missional worship of God through church music. In that regard, understanding the doxological motivation behind the church’s missional music and its relevance in the missional worship of God is important. This attempt not only helps in handling misconceptions regarding the human tendency to position themselves, other beings, or things in the centre of God’s story, worship and mission, but helps also in restoring the proper doxology at the centre of worshipping God through music.
Practical Theology, Practical religion. The Christian life
This article builds on and supplements an earlier one in this journal about theodicy. It focuses on species extinctions and on the possible role of humanity as fallible co-creators. Christopher Southgate has suggested that co-creators might shoulder the task of curtailing extinctions. In appraising this view, I distinguish between extinctions resulting from evolution, which humans have limited power to reverse, but which are held to be indispensable for the evolution of complexity, consciousness and self-consciousness, and those caused by humanity itself, which humans should reduce, even if they cannot be halted. Human creativity, however, extends further to the development of skills, trades, the arts and literature. Church Fathers, such as Ambrose, Theodoret and Cosmas Indicopleustes, held that God left the creation incomplete so that humanity could enhance it; certainly, human creativity has introduced agriculture, navigation, technology and culture, adding to the value of the world. Granted belief in creation, this can be understood as co-creation. Granted the value that humanity continues to add to the world, the belief that such creativity flows from the creator’s overall plan emerges as a coherent one.
Transforming food systems is essential to bring about a healthier, equitable, sustainable, and resilient future, including achieving global development and sustainability goals. To date, no comprehensive framework exists to track food systems transformation and their contributions to global goals. In 2021, the Food Systems Countdown to 2030 Initiative (FSCI) articulated an architecture to monitor food systems across five themes: 1 diets, nutrition, and health; 2 environment, natural resources, and production; 3 livelihoods, poverty, and equity; 4 governance; and 5 resilience and sustainability. Each theme comprises three-to-five indicator domains. This paper builds on that architecture, presenting the inclusive, consultative process used to select indicators and an application of the indicator framework using the latest available data, constructing the first global food systems baseline to track transformation. While data are available to cover most themes and domains, critical indicator gaps exist such as off-farm livelihoods, food loss and waste, and governance. Baseline results demonstrate every region or country can claim positive outcomes in some parts of food systems, but none are optimal across all domains, and some indicators are independent of national income. These results underscore the need for dedicated monitoring and transformation agendas specific to food systems. Tracking these indicators to 2030 and beyond will allow for data-driven food systems governance at all scales and increase accountability for urgently needed progress toward achieving global goals.
Father Wilhelm Schmidt SVD (1868-1954) was one of the great linguistic and ethnological information hoarders of the early 20th century. Through the missionary Society of the Divine Word, he coordinated an army of trained fieldworkers who supplied him with information for his twelve-volume synthesis of world religions, his atlas of the world’s languages, and the journal Anthropos. Schmidt saw himself as practicing Catholic modern science, based on historical criticism and observational data. His guiding tenet was that language structures and material culture were linked to intersecting patterns of original Kulturkreise (cultural spheres), each with their own form of primeval monotheistic religious awareness. In other words, Schmidt sought to confirm Catholic dogma through data; a confirmation bias that mainly taints his ethnological work. This article investigates to what extent it also informed his more technical linguistic work, and how the two are interrelated.
Buddhist ritual healing and medical therapies included care for domestic animals, such as the horse. In pre-modern Japan, equine medicine (ba’i 馬医) was not restricted to the treatment of military horses; it was also practiced in a religious context. The Scroll of Equine Medicine (Ba’i sōshi emaki 馬医草紙絵 巻, 1267) is an enigmatic picture scroll held by the Tokyo National Museum. It extends to more than six meters and contains images of ten divine figures related to the healing of horses, followed by seventeen pictures of plants, and a postscript emphasizing that the content of the scroll should be kept secret. Many of the plants listed in the scroll are either associated with the world of Buddhism, e.g. Yakushi-sō 薬 師草, ‘Medicine Buddha plant,’ or with horses, e.g. metsu-sō 馬頭草, ‘horsehead plant.’ Previous analyses of the scroll largely focused on the botanical identification of the sketches of the plants. This article reviews current interpretations of the scroll and explores the question of whether the plant names were thought to empower the plants to be used as potent materia medica for veterinary purposes. Based on earlier analyses, I suggest a new interpretation of the scroll from a study of religions perspective taking into consideration that some of the plant names in the scroll indicate both health-related and salvific potency. I also address the possible use of the scroll. The scarcity of textual information and the choice of textual detail and imagery in this ‘secret’ scroll suggests that it was used in the context of an oral transmission and empowerment ritual. The scroll itself seems to have been an object of ritual empowerment, rather than a compendium of materia medica for practical daily use when caring for horses.
Shépa: ‘explanation’ or ‘elucidation’ in Tibetan. A form of oral poetry sung antiphonally in a question-and-answer style. This book contains a unique collection of Tibetan oral narrations and songs known as Shépa, as these have been performed, recorded and shared between generations of Choné Tibetans from Amdo living in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Presented in trilingual format — in Tibetan, Chinese and English — the book reflects a sustained collaboration with and between members of the local community, including narrators, monks, and scholars, calling attention to the diversity inherent in all oral traditions, and the mutability of Shépa in particular. From creation myths to Bon and Buddhist cosmologies and even wedding songs, Shépa engages with and draws on elements of religious traditions, historical legacies and deep-seated cultural memories within Choné and Tibet, revealing the multi-layered conceptualization of the Tibetan physical world and the resilience of Tibetan communities within it. This vital and unique collection, part of the World Oral Literature Series, situates Shépa in its ethnographic context, offering insights into the preservation and revitalization of intangible cultural heritage in the context of cultural Tibet, Indigenous studies and beyond. Scholars and students in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, ethnic and minority relations, critical Indigenous studies, Tibetan studies, Himalayan studies, Asian studies and the broader study of China will find much to reward them in this book, as will all readers interested in the documentation and preservation of endangered oral traditions, intangible cultural heritage, performance and textuality, and Tibetan literature and religions.
Rapid antigen tests (RATs) for detecting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are widely used in the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by diverse variants. Information on the real-world performance of RATs for variants is urgently needed for decision makers. Systematic searches of the available literature and updates were conducted in PubMed, Ovid-MEDLINE, Ovid-EMBASE, CENTRAL, and KMBASE for articles evaluating the accuracy of instrument-free RATs for variants up until 14 March 2022. A bivariate random effects model was utilized to calculate pooled diagnostic values in comparison with real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction as the reference test. A total of 7562 samples from six studies were available for the meta-analysis. The overall pooled sensitivity and specificity of RATs for variants were 69.7% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 62.5% to 76.1%) and 100.0% (95% CI = 98.8% to 100.0%), respectively. When an additional 2179 samples from seven studies reporting sensitivities only were assessed, the pooled sensitivity dropped to 50.0% (95% CI = 44.0% to 55.0%). These findings suggest reassessment and monitoring of the diagnostic utility of RATs for variants, especially for the sensitivity aspect, to facilitate appropriate diagnosis and management of COVID-19 patients.
Abstract In this article, I show that: (1) There is a transcendence strain in African Traditional Religion (ATR) and traditional African thought that agrees perfectly with traditional monotheism and legitimizes the question of the relation of God with evil in the world. (2) There is incontrovertible evidence of the conception of God as a limited deity that subverts the categories of omnipotence and omniscience. (3) African philosophers of religion must show how a transcendent or, conversely, a limited God is related to the evil that exists in the world, since the overwhelming stance of ATR is that God is the creator of the world and wields effective power. I substitute the categories of omnipotence and omniscience with the novel categories of power and glory and argue that while a powerful and glorious God is not the author of evil and cannot eliminate evil in the world, such a God can be conceived as working to reduce the evil in the world through the instrumentality of human moral agency.
Heiner Bielefeldt, Thiago Alves Pinto, M. Petersen
Human rights remain a contested issue in theory and practice. Several scholars have criticized their theoretical underpinnings, and practitioners struggle to enforce these rights. The right to freedom of religion or belief is an integral part of the international human rights framework and, as such, has been criticized alongside human rights in general. Not only that, the right to freedom of religion or belief has been decried or ignored by some human rights defenders, while it has also been mishandled by groups aiming to undermine other human rights. Put simply, freedom of religion or belief is contentious right within the widely challenged field of human rights. Still, we believe that freedom of religion or belief is an inalienable human right, and in this introductory article we present a summary of a diverse range of actors that have in various ways defended this right in their own capacity, all around the world.
Worldwide, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) significantly increases mortality and morbidity. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak has had a considerable impact on healthcare systems all around the world, having a significant effect on planned patient activity and established care pathways, in order to meet the difficult task of the global pandemic. Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are considered a particularly susceptible population and conceivably at increased risk for severe COVID-19 because of two combined risk factors: chronic advanced liver disease and HCC itself. In these challenging times, it is mandatory to reshape clinical practice in a prompt way to preserve the highest standards of patient care and safety. However, due to the stay-at-home measures instituted to stop the spread of COVID-19, HCC surveillance has incurred a dramatic drop, and care for HCC patients has been rearranged by refining the algorithm for HCC treatment to the COVID-19 pandemic, permitting these patients to be safely managed by identifying those most at risk of neoplastic disease progression.
Odunola Akinloye, Oluwasegun Peter Aluko, S. A. Owoeye
World over, there are different festivals that cut across different climes, be it, religion, culture and economic. These festivals are often celebrated with pomp and large expressions of pageantry. This is also the case within the Christian world, especially when it comes to the area of music festivals. There are many Christian music festivals in the world that seek to and in many cases expand God’s kingdom through the use of music. One such festival is the Livingspring Christian Music Festival. This study is a social-historical analysis on this particular Christian music festival. The authors trace its emergence, its beliefs and practices. The article also discusses the impacts of this festival on the development of Christianity in Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
Introduction. In the modern world globalization leads to the active interaction of representatives of different cultures. However, there are questions of how this affects the life of society. The purpose of this article is to assess the religious diversity impact on the well-being level of the population of the Russian Federation regions.
Materials and Methods. For analysis the author has used data from the Atlas of Religions and Nationalities of Russia “Arena” and the Federal Agency for Ethnic Affairs. Religious diversity was assessed using two indicators: the Simpson Diversity Index and the Polarization Index. The paper considers the consumption level as an indicator of well-being. On the one hand, the consumption level reflects independently the standard of living; on the other hand, it is an element of gross output. The correlation between religious heterogeneity and the well-being indicator was checked by using regression analysis. Besides the panel regressions were also evaluated.
Results. The economic analysis confirms that religious diversity is directly proportional to the divorce rate, which has a negative impact on the consumption level in the Russian Federation regions. In addition, there are direct negative relationship between confessional heterogeneity and consumption. The results lead to the conclusion that religious diversity negatively affects economic indicators through the social sphere.
Discussion and Conclusion. The general conclusion is that during the period under consideration, there is trend of the gradual reduce of the religious diversity. These processes are a favorable basis for increasing the well-being indicators of society because they reduce the negative impact of religious heterogeneity on the whole as well as on the consumption level. The data, the methods and the obtained results can be used as a basis for further research. The estimates and the conclusions could be taken into account in the socio-economic policy.
I describe “spiritual” addiction as a felt compulsion to seek surrogates in the absence of that spirit of unconditional love underlying core personality change. We awaken to a “real” world akin to a prison in which all sides seem morally compromised, so any choice seems to necessitate sacrificing our conscientious relationship to the truth. Thus, spiritual addiction runs deeper than physical and psychological addictions to include socially accepted “addictions” to all we associate with “success”—including our morality and religion. All that we seek may be grounded in a collectively imbibed prejudice toward truth itself. If so, such a prejudice, underlying spiritual addiction, compromises our will, reason, feelings, actions, and character—including all of our relationships. It underlies the reality of a collective moral crisis which, we show, is more deeply a religious crisis tempting us to doubt the reality and attainability of that unconditional love that provides a foundation for hope. To overcome the prejudice underlying spiritual addiction, we show how unconditional love can be realized by placing conscientiousness in the foreground of concern as we are guided by the most reliable moral and spiritual witnesses in our history distinct from any religious group claiming to speak in their name.
Jana Furstova, Klara Malinakova, D. Sigmundová
et al.
ABSTRACT In the secularizing Christian world the Czech Republic holds a leading position: it is the country with the highest percentage of religiously unaffiliated people in the world. The trend toward the secularization of the Czech Republic is closely related to the nation’s history. This study aims to explore the stratification of religious beliefs in different sociodemographic groups and to assess the differences between believers and nonbelievers. The survey was conducted on a representative sample from the Czech Republic. A total of 1,800 participants (46.6 ± 17.4 years; 48.7% of men) were included in the study. Bayesian statistical analysis methods were used. In this study, over 70% of Czechs refer to themselves as non-religious. The most important impact on a person’s attitude toward religion seems to be their family upbringing. The main difference between Czech believers and nonbelievers was found in their perception of the qualities of God. This study shows that Czech believers are in many aspects similar to those in Western Europe. On the other hand, Czech nonbelievers should not be seen as complete atheists; they are just religious skeptics who tend to fulfil their spirituality needs outside traditional religion.