Hasil untuk "Religions of the world"

Agung Saputra , Faiz Albar Nasution

This investigation assesses the reciprocal engagement between the Hellenic philosophical corpus and the emergent theological idiom of early Islam, focusing on the Abbasid epoch when the institutionalised pacemaking of the Translation Movement matured. The inquiry sharpens on the epistemic predicaments of the predominant doctrinal triad—Mu'tazilah, Asy'ariyah, and Maturidiyah—whose constructs exacted a selective retrieval of the Hellenistic inheritance. Through a conjunction of historical contextualisation and close philological scrutiny, it interrogates axial substantive questions, including the nexus of reason and revelation, the divine attributes, the modality of volition, and the semiotic status of the Qur'ān. The interpretive outcomes disclose that the Greek legacy engendered more than passive inheritance; it provoked an agonistic dialogue that sporadically oscillated between assimilation, refraction, and creative integration. Mu'tazilah rationalism, yielding a predilection for demonstrative syllogism and a metaphysics of divine justice, incorporated Aristotelian logical schemata; by contrast, Asy'ariyah and Maturidiyah wrought a composite idiom registering revelation within stringent logical confines. The magisterial refutations of al-Ghazālī, which circumscribed the epistemic locus of non-prophetic reason, emerge as a historical fulcrum that consolidated the theological nomenclature and defined, within normative Islam, the extents of speculative scrutiny. Thus, this article addresses a gap in the literature by offering a systematic, comparative reconstruction of how Greek philosophical reasoning was selectively appropriated, contested, and normatively integrated within the formative schools of Islamic theology.

Omar Coloru

SJ (Lilly) Nortje-Meyer

In recent feminist research, women and children are not seen collectively as one marginalized group, but children and animals have been given their own research focus and categories. Judith 8:1 states an impressive list of forebears of Judith that defines her character and role, but scholars say nothing about the fact that she prefers to terminate this lineage by not having children or offspring, no legacy. In Judith, children are absent in the victory section, their crying out to YHWH during the period of mourning is not recognised and forgotten. Children and animals form a vulnerable group, especially in biblical narratives. In Judith 4:8-15 and Jonah 3:6-9 at the time of a national disaster, a period of communal mourning is called by the leaders. Children and animals are given the agency to petition YHWH to intervene and not allow the crises to happen. This agency of children and animals contradicts their vulnerability as they are not involved in decision-making concerning their participation in events and overall well-being. In this paper, the agency of children and animals in Judith 4:8-15 and Jonah 3:6-10 is critically assessed to determine if they are given a real agency to petition YHWH or if their vulnerability is exploited for communal purposes and interests. Although Judith’s role inspires feminists to focus on her independence and perseverance in saving Israel, as well as to undermine motherhood as an essential woman attribute, what has the story to say about the future and agency of children and animals, the most vulnerable in society?

Hernán Cardona Ramírez

This article analyses the evolution and meaning of “Interpretation” in the journal Revista de Interpretación Bíblica Latinoamericana (RIBLA [Latin American Journal of Biblical Interpretation]) from its inception in 1988 up to 2023, with a focus on the period 2012–2023. Launched in Costa Rica in 1988, RIBLA reflects the faith experiences and struggles of Latin American communities and churches from the popular Reading of the Bible in Latin America and the hermeneutics of liberation. In its early days, RIBLA focused on biblical hermeneutics as the interpretation of the text in its historic context in relation to the life of the Ecclesial Base Communities (BECs) of the continent. In the years 1988–2011, it emphasized a liberationist interpretation of the Bible, with a focus on Indigenous communities. The dialogue between Revelation in indigenous religions and Revelation in traditional religions is important, as is the figure of Paul in the theology of liberation. Between 2012 and 2023, RIBLA restates the importance of biblical narratives in collaborative interpretations. In short, “interpretation” in RIBLA is seen as fundamental to confront the challenges of Latin America and the world. With a constant commitment to the Word of God, contextualised liberation and a dialogue between hermeneutics and hermeneutics of liberation, the journal offers an “unfinished” interpretation that is “open” to new considerations, as a beacon of critical reflection in the midst of historic crises.

Andrzej Słowikowski

There are many religions in the human world, and people manifest their religiousness in many different ways. The main problem this paper addresses concerns the possibility of sorting out this complex world of human religiousness by showing that it can be phenomenologically reduced to a few very basic existential attitudes. These attitudes express the main types of ways in which a human being relates to his or herself and the world, independently of the worldview or religion professed by the individual. I use Kierkegaard’s theories of the stages of existence and subjective truth as a model. The theory of the stages of existence provides five basic existential attitudes on the basis of which religious attitudes can develop: spiritlessness, the aesthetic, the ethical, religiousness A, and religiousness B. The theory of subjective truth shows how the concept of truth functions in an ethical and existential sense as the personal truth of an individual engaged in building their religious identity. In turn, I discuss the problem of the relation of Kierkegaard’s philosophy to phenomenology, briefly introduce his concept of subjective truth and the stages of existence, and show how existential attitudes can be transformed into religious ones. I also consider the problem of the demonic as the inverted order of this anthropological and existential model. Finally, I argue that the model developed herein may be useful for further research into the phenomenology of religious attitudes.

Makka S.-G. Albogachieva

The article describes modern religious processes and related cultural and everyday practices of the Abazin people, who in their spiritual development went through three stages - pagan, Christian and Muslim. Each period brought its own cultural code to the spiritual culture of the Abazin, which remains in society throughout the period, and even the monotheistic religions that replaced it were not completely able to oust it from the life of the people.A reference to the history of traditional beliefs and statements of world religions among the Abazins preceded the presentation of the material characterizing modern religious and everyday practicesSuch information allows us to assess the dynamics of the relevant transformations and better understand the modern processes taking place in Abazin society, where ancient beliefs and Muslim norms coexist in a syncretic form. All this, taken together, causes tension in society, since the older generation, accustomed to living in this paradigm, is not ready to agree with the new, orthodox Islamic movements that have arisen in recent decades in Abazin society. This confrontation gradually leads to disunity in society and slowly but steadily continues the destruction process of national traditions that do not correspond to the norms of orthodox Islam. These are the disappointing predictions that the author comes to as a result of the study.

Hayyam Celilzade

Bu makalenin konusunu Nurettin Topçu’nun felsefesi, sorunsalını ise onun kim(ler)den etkilendiği meselesi oluşturur. Nurettin Topçu’nun felsefesinde her ne kadar ahlâkî meseleler merkeze alınmış olsa da si­ya­setten dine, sanattan tarihe birçok alanda çalışmaları bulunur. Bina­ena­leyh ele aldığı her meselede insandan yola çıkar. Nurettin Top­çu’­ya göre insan, muhtaç olduğunu idrak ettiği an harekete başlar. İnsa­nın idrak etmesi ve harekete geçmesi onun iradeye sahip olduğunu gösterir. İnsan iradesinin hareket gayesi nedir? Nurettin Topçu’ya göre hareketin gayesi Tanrı’ya ulaşmaktır. Dolayısıyla Tanrı’ya ulaştırmayan hareket, insanı gerçek hedefe ulaştırmamış olur. Nurettin Topçu’nun kimlerden etkilendiğine dair yapılan araştırmalar onun Fransa’daki fel­se­fe eğitimini, Bergson, Blondel ve Massignon’un Nurettin Topçu üze­rin­deki etkilerini konu eder. İşbu etkileri irdelemekle başlayan çalış­ma­ların ulaştıkları neticeyse çoğunlukla şu yöndedir: Nurettin Topçu, Batı fel­sefesinden özellikle Bergson mistisizminden çok etkilenmiş, Blon­del’in “hareket düşüncesi” bütün felsefesine hâkim olmuş ve Mas­signon sayesinde sufileri tanımıştır. Nurettin Topçu’nun kim­(ler)­den etkilendiği sorunsalını merkeze alarak önce İslâm düşünce gele­nek­leriyle sonra ise hocalarının görüşleriyle onun görüşleri arasında mu­kayese yapacağım. Mukayesenin sonucuyla birlikte Nurettin Top­çu’nun hangi düşünce geleneğinin devamında konumlandırılabileceği sorusu da cevaplanmış olacak. Blondel’den asırlar önce hareket kav­ra­mı­nın geliştirildiği, Bergson’dan asırlar önce tasavvuf metafiziğinde sez­gi kavramının merkezi yer tuttuğu olgusu söz konusu çalışmalarda ya unutulur ya da es geçilir. Makalemizin temel tezi bu çalışmaların ek­sik ve hatalı olduğu yöndedir. Nurettin Topçu’nun felsefesinin temel kav­ramlarının analiziyle makaleyi bitireceğim.

Jan A. Ali

In Arabic, Islamic revival is called tajdid, which literally translates to “regeneration” or “renewal” [...]

Felix Ó Murchadha

Eschatology is central to Christian theology: the significance of the death and resurrection of Christ is the promise of the “kingdom of God”. This paper takes up this idea in discussion with contemporary Christian theologians and discusses it phenomenologically by recourse to Husserl’s account of “horizon”. The horizon is both finite and infinite: always limited in its actualization but with an infinity of potential actualizations. This is explored with respect to time and its relation to the eternal, as well as the dispositions of hope and fear with respect to the eschaton. The final section draws these insights together in a discussion of the eschaton to understand the eschatological destiny of nature in a “new heaven and a new earth” (Revelations, 21: 1) and conceiving of eschatological justice as a harmony of horizonal perspectives.

Juraev Zuhriddin

In “The Drama of Atheist Humanism”, Henri de Lubac meticulously explores 19th-century efforts to overcome the limits of the divine and create a humanism. The book looks at the roots of modern atheism, focusing particularly on the influential contributions of figures such as Feuerbach, Nietzsche, and Comte. These figures were instrumental in shaping the path of contemporary humanism. De Lubac masterfully weaves together historical and philosophical currents with modern perspectives to expose the prevailing ideology that views Christianity as antiquated, a perspective that resonates throughout Eastern and Western societies. A unique aspect of the book lies in its harmonious interplay with literary and philosophical works, providing the reader with a deep insight into the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary atheism. This analysis is enriched by an examination of the theological foundations of humanism that incorporates perspectives from Islamic and Christian traditions.

Adeyemi John Famoroti

Christian Missions Agency is an organised body of Christians that are making efforts to propagate Christianity among those who have not come into contact with the faith. Christian mission activities need a diversity of thinking and experience in a leadership team. Missions’ agencies also need leadership that meets a new set of societal needs and circumstances. One easy and obvious step toward diversity in such a body is incorporating women into all levels of the organisational leadership matrix, particularly in the top leadership positions. This paper is not to be construed as a campaign against male leadership; instead, it seeks to increase the equal representation of women and men as part of the mission work teams and within the leadership of a Christian missions organisation. There is a need to create a space for all voices to be heard since all are created equal in the sight of God. An effective mission organisation needs to view women and men as equal contributors to the kingdom’s growth and to general social progress. It also aims to encourage women to take on different roles and ensure their skills do not go unnoticed in broader society. Leadership in missions should not in any way be gender-biased. Organisations that do not intentionally create a space for women with leadership gifts to be able to use their gifts for the good of all, will ultimately lose those women’s valuable contributions. Some of the reasons commonly cited to explain why women, either married or single, cannot be considered on the same footing as their male counterparts are unwarranted. These are inter alia gender barriers that hinder them, identity challenges, and a perception that a woman is primarily responsible for only family care and thus gains cultural acceptability. The paper concludes with suggested ways of integrating women into leadership of Christian missions as a critically important addition to them.

Ed Noort

Among the biblical characters used as examples in developing and explaining satyagraha, Daniel is the most important after Jesus. In Gandhi’s speeches and writings from 1909 to 1946, Daniel served as the ideal satyagrahi both in South Africa and in India. Over time, Daniel received company in the gallery of examples in which Socrates occupied a prominent place. Depending on theme, place, and audience, past and present characters from different traditions and scriptures accompanied Daniel. They represented the development of aspects of satyagraha: nonviolent active resistance as a weapon of the strong, courageous actions as a deliberate choice without excitement, love for the antagonist, preparedness to suffer, and no fear of death. All these aspects are embodied by the Gandhian Daniel. Gandhi emphasized the active role of Daniel as a resister, not the traditional view of the victim of court intrigues. In this paper, I argue that the image of the ideal satyagrahi Daniel could be strengthened by combining the court narratives from the first half and the apocalypses from the second one of the biblical book. The article provides context both for Gandhi’s political and religious practice and for the book of Daniel. The strange world of apocalypses seems to contradict the model of the Gandhian figure Daniel. However, they are crisis literature, and it makes sense to observe how the protagonist and his audience in times of occupation, persecutions, and war ask for guidance. Apocalypses show how Jewish resistance to foreign rule was conceived. The result of the survey is a complex image of competing literatures from roughly the same period and the hands, heads, beliefs, and sufferings behind them. The view of the end of history, a program of nonviolence, and hope in the Daniel apocalypse serve as contrast propaganda to contemporary visions on the violent Maccabean revolt and the Seleucid persecutions. They offer a nonviolent counterweight to the ideology of the state propaganda of the Seleucids. They contradict the historiographic idealization of the Maccabean revolt and its armed resistance.

Rev. Jacob Mokhutso – PhD Candidate

Ubuntu is an African philosophy that has held together African communities for a millennium and its ethics ensures that law and order are maintained across different African communities. This philosophy ensured and still to a degree ensures that conflicts amongst tribal communities are resolved amicably. The poor, widows, and orphans have always existed in Africa. However, Ubuntu as a philosophy taught Africans how to treat others with dignity. Ubuntu taught Africans that their existence depends on one another. Having mentioned this, the African continent continues to experience a high level of corruption, ethnicity, xenophobia, and intolerance, especially for the LGBQI+ community. Hence, some scholars have concluded that Ubuntu is dead and no longer exists, paying more attention to high inter alia crime rates, corruption, xenophobia, ethnic wars, and homophobia. This research argues that despite the challenges Africa faces, Ubuntu still exists; however, it has and continues to be under siege due to the legacy of slavery, colonization and apartheid. The research argues that factors that destroy this African philosophy of Ubuntu are the socio-economic factors, which have cost Africans their way of life as they have to ‘swim or sink’ and, in the process, lose who they are as a people. The research is based on a desk research methodology. It concludes that due to the effects of colonialism and apartheid systems and the challenges that persist post-1994, the teachings of black consciousness the interventions of sectors such as education and religion can enforce the teachings that will enforce values of self-sufficiency. African patriotism, which this research argues can assist in keeping African values such as Ubuntu alive.

أحمد محمد زايد

Purpose: This research aims to draw attention to the direct study of nondivine books. The research discusses one of the most important holy books in China and highlights its intellectual and ideological status in the world through analytical insight into some of Book of Tao’s implications and its Arabic translations. This book has been discussed in nonacademic studies by nonspecialist persons, who therefore studied it subjectively. This research identifies the book, evaluates those studies and translates them to the specialized academic arena. Methodology: The research is based on an inductive approach by tracking Arabic translations and explanations of the book; a descriptive approach, which involves reviewing the book; and an analytical and critical approach that examines some of the issues in and studies that have been written about the book. Findings: The research highlights the religious status of the "Book of Tao", the extent of its influence in the international religious field, and the necessity of conducting more studies about it. This research showed that we need further studies on China's culture, religions, and history in many areas, including the issue of prophethood, prophets, and messages in this region. Furthermore, as China is a great civilization competing for dominance in the Islamic world, if we can understand the relevant languages, cultures, history, and religions, we can make religious and civilization outreach more effective in this rising civilization and competition. Originality: The originality of this research comes from many points, such as it is the first academic research to address this holy text directly in Arabic. Moreover, this research reviews, studies, and discusses all of the works in this book in the Arabic language in a nonacademic context.

Dr Bulelwa Maphela

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on mundane daily tasks and significant cultural practices, including funerals and burials. Growing up, I observed that death in my family is a well-respected cultural process. It is believed that those who departed into the spirit world will be joining the living dead in the afterlife. For the deceased to be welcomed into the spirit world in the traditional sense, families perform specific rites of passage rituals during the burial. This is an important exercise to avert the wrath of the spirit world on the bereaved family. Attention to detail during these rituals is vital to assist the bereaved family in expressing their grief while simultaneously showing respect to the spirit world. As a nonpractising sangoma, I had observed traditional funeral and burial processes long before the outbreak of the pandemic and understood their importance. While the pandemic shook traditional burial processes and made some rituals impossible, I found comfort in the knowledge that indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) could be used to appease the spirit world. In this article, I explain how IKS can assist bereaved families during funerals and burials to avert the wrath of the spirit world and find closure.

Maria Frahm-Arp

This essay examines the concerns expressed by students when studying a second-year module on Asian religions and how they thought the facilitation of their learning could be most effective. Following research done with three cohorts of second-year students studying Asian religions from 2015 to 2017, this essay argues that both changes in pedagogy and course content are needed to create spaces where learning about these religions can address the concerns raised by students. Students were particularly concerned about how studying Asian religions would prepare them for the world of work and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The research for this essay is located in a social constructivist pedagogy that forefronts social justice and is grounded in an engaged learning practice. The essay examines why in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, studying Asian religions is important and valuable to students studying for a degree in preparation for entry into the workplace. The essay shows that engagement with different technologies in teaching and learning enables a pedagogy of co-knowledge production and co-sharing of know-ledge where students learn technological skills, critical thinking skills, and a deepening awareness of their worldviews and those of other people. In so doing, this module addressed student concerns about their studies and the skills they considered valuable in preparing them for future careers.

Mogomme Alpheus Masoga

A recent experience, that of the lockdown due to the emergence of COVID-19 in South Africa, resulted in religious groupings, such as Judaism, Islam and Christianity, among others, turning to social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, and YouTube, among others) as a significant means of communication, social interaction, as well as religious teaching. Due to space constraints, this discussion is limited to the homiletics of the Christian church, and does not include religions such as Judaism and Islam. As a precautionary measure against COVID19, many churches used WhatsApp groups to reach out to their diverse membership in various demographic locations. The present study problematises the emergence of WhatsApp as a critical platform to disseminate gospel-related material; this platform presents material in a more fashionable form, and was not utilised much before the advent of COVID-19. The study discusses homiletics through WhatsApp in view of the following three main aims: (1) To demonstrate that COVID-19 is a reality and the lockdown was a necessary ‘evil’ to reduce its impact, (2) To reveal that the WhatsApp platform developed the preachers’ sermon delivery skills without the personal presence of congregants, which is atypical of a conventional church gathering, and (3) To show that the WhatsApp group platform played a key role in church members accessing sermonettes, Bible teachings and prayer sessions, from the comfort of their homes. The research applied qualitative content analysis (thematic analysis), which examined content and themes of recorded human communications; responses were solicited from participants through email conversations. In addition, the study employed the so-called uses and gratification theory to demonstrate that users do derive some gratification from WhatsApp homiletics.

Ginevra Benedetti

In questo lavoro ci si propone di analizzare, attraverso le pagine degli autori latini, la costruzione semiotica sottostante la rappresentazione visuale degli dèi nella cultura romana; ognuno di loro possedeva infatti qualche attributo o combinazione di attributi in grado di identificarli con maggiore o minore certezza, ciò che gli autori antichi definivano insignia, dei “segni speciali” che guidavano l’interpretazione / identificazione di un signum. In particolare,  saranno presi in esame alcuni oggetti concreti impiegati dalla cultura romana per costruire immagini divine nella loro funzione di attributi dotati di una specifica identità semiotica. A Roma vi erano altresì casi specifici in cui il potere dell’insigne risultava traboccante; la marca di riconoscibilità, in questi casi, era identificata con la totalità dell’immagine, così come l’immagine totale era ridotta e identificata con l’estensione della marca di riconoscimento: l’insigne, in questo caso, costituiva l’immagine. Questo ci porterà dunque a discutere i metodi di costruzione, adattamento, prestito e scarto delle immagini divine tra i politeismi antichi, delineando altresì prospettive comparative e analitiche.comparative and analytical perspectives.  

Olga Volodymyrivna Nedavnya

The article informs about the international scientific conference "Universal values of religions of the world: history and modernity", which took place on October 24-25, 2019 in Kyiv.

Iman Ghaderi, Michael Fu, Erin Schwarz et al.