On September 22, 2021, Cinta Laura delivered a commencement speech at the Launching Night for Religious Moderation Action held by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Cinta Laura is known as a young female artist and grew up in an environment of Western education. Her attendance conveys a significant message about what and who the main target of the religious moderation policy is. This article employed a critical discourse analysis method to examine religious moderation through the lens of the hegemonic state policy. Secondary data are obtained from books, articles, opinions, and news in both print and electronic mass media that explain the concepts and ideas of religious moderation, especially since 2020. The question is, how is the policy of religious moderation constructed today? What is the purpose of the policy? The article argues that the state promotes religious moderation to strengthen the legitimacy of the new nationalism. This policy aims to nationalize religious views to influence how people view the relationship between religion and the state. It is accomplished, in part, by implementing policies that promote the debunking of narratives of religious intolerance, especially in educational institutions. Additionally, the state promotes socio-cultural norms that are perceived as beneficial to the state in terms of maintaining stability. The critical contribution of this article is that, through religious moderation policies, the state has managed to mitigate the political impact of intolerance; however, this approach tends to be formalistic and ceremonial.
The paper addresses women's participation in church choral ministries, focusing on women as conductors. Despite the growing recognition of women leaders, women's involvement in music ministries is often challenged by gender- and tradition-based barriers. The study examines how women overcome these barriers, shape worship styles, and enrich the church's spiritual and musical life. This study employs a qualitative research method, utilising in-depth interviews with 15 women choral conductors, surveys of 30 church music directors across various denominations, and a critical analysis of historical and contemporary literature. Thematic analysis was used to interpret qualitative data, identifying key themes related to gender dynamics, leadership experiences, and musical influence within church settings. The research is guided by feminist theory, as outlined by Hooks (2000), and ecclesiological theory proposed by Johnson (2015). The paper outlines how women have shaped worship experiences and congregations' spiritual and artistic identity through historical examples, personal narratives, and contemporary practice. By juxtaposing their leadership within the discourses of religion and art, this article pays tribute to women conductors who employ their batons to glorify God and inspire others in the sacred domain of church ministries. The paper concludes that to tap the full potential of women in church music, there needs to be a deconstruction of the gendered barriers that continue to constrain their leadership opportunities. Churches must proactively offer mentorship, professional training, and equal leadership roles for women. Future research should explore the impact of cultural and denominational variations on women's leadership equality in church music, investigate the long-term career trajectories of women conductors, and examine the role of theological education in shaping gender-inclusive music ministries.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an unprecedented global crisis, affecting every aspect of life. In the difficult times, the role of the media has become even more crucial. However, it has been noted that some Indian media has spread baseless conspiracy theories, exploiting COVID-19 for certain agendas. The role of Indian media during the COVID-19 pandemic has been questioned due to the biased dissemination of information. This study aims to observe how national news channels, through their prime-time debates, propagated the narrative of a Muslim conspiracy by spreading false information during the initial outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in India. It also seeks to understand the role of media narratives and representations in setting the Hindu nationalist agenda and portraying Muslims as anti-national" or the other of the nation. The study sample includes the content of prime-time news programs from six well-known TV news channels in India: Times Now, Republic TV, India TV, Zee News, CNN News 18, and India Today. News media organizations in India tend to favor majoritarian sentiments and ideas while marginalizing and condemning minorities and their beliefs, particularly in relation to religion and religiosity. The overt role of a number of news channels in amplifying the conspiracy against Muslims, particularly in framing them as the ‘other’ or the ‘anti-national’, aligns with the Hindu nationalist agenda. Depending on agenda setting and framing certain issues in a way that demonizes Muslims, the media could perpetuate stereotypes and fuel resentment towards those groups, which are already marginalized or misunderstood.
Communication. Mass media, Religions. Mythology. Rationalism
Interdisciplinary integration at theological faculties, as envisaged in the apostolic constitution Veritatis Gaudium, is a demanding challenge. The empirical-experimental method of the natural sciences, which is based on measurable quantities and their mathematisation, is finding its way into research in the social sciences and humanities. The status of science vis-à-vis philosophy or theology can thus be challenged, which makes the dialogue and interdisciplinary cooperation between different sciences, which is necessary for a holistic understanding of people and their actions, more difficult. The development of psychology is driven by the desire to understand people, their emotions and their actions. To achieve these goals, concepts from philosophy and psychology about people and their function are constantly supplemented by new information from empirical research. The article shows the development of family therapy, which is represented in various study programmes at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Ljubljana. A particular example of interdisciplinary integration is the study programme Human and Interpersonal Relationships, which combines the fields of theology, religion, psychology and therapy.
This paper reports on one part of a larger longitudinal empirical study (2021–2023) that responds to the call for Religious Education (RE) to address religious plurality in the context of senior Catholic schooling within an Australian Archdiocese where students represent multiple faith traditions or no traditions. The research focuses on the level of satisfaction by students across Topics, Pedagogies, and Outcomes within a new and innovative senior school curriculum, Religion Meaning and Life (RML) based on national RE guidelines. Participants included 276 students across 17 schools who completed an online survey with 32 of these students participating in focus group interviews. Data analysis of quantitative data was both descriptive and inferential, and qualitative data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Topics of most interest were Ethics and Other World Religions; pedagogies entailing dialogue and use of media and technologies were rated highly; and learning outcomes entailed awareness of school mission, the religious dimension of the school, and pastoral care. Inferential statistical analyses confirm four core topics, pedagogies, and outcomes as significant to levels of satisfaction and in combination accounted for 42% of the variance of satisfaction with RML. Theoretical propositions for what matters most in senior secondary RE were advanced through four integrating principles (educational, formative, social, communitarian) and practice implications that preference Catholic tradition, and reference religious plurality.
The aim of this research is to deal with the fluid identities of the Muslim migrants settled in America in general and in particular it explores how the conflicts between social and religious values push the protagonist Hayat Shah towards the loss of his personal and religious identity in Ayad Akhtar’s novel ‘American Dervish’ (2012). It describes how the survival in a multicultural society particularly by the Muslim migrants becomes painful. Hayat Shah firstly holds on his remnant tenets of Islamic religion but later he is influenced by the charm of multicultural modern society of America and struggles in sustaining his Muslim identity and finding his new identity for his personal settlement with the surroundings. In this way his identity becomes fluid and keeps on changing. The research concludes that the Muslim migrant Hayat couldn’t retain his Muslim identity because he finds his survival only in the adaptation of new, broader, and multicultural settings. This crisis occurs because he has been struck in the issues like religion, mystic philosophy, and cultural conflicts right in his adolescence. It is examined through textual analysis that the journey of Hayat Shah for becoming a Hafiz, and then a Sufi or Dervish comes to an end by availing a new identity of an American. The qualitative research is designed on descriptive analytic method by utilizing the approach of Identity Crisis presented by Eric Erickson.
English literature, Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar
Ricky Zulfauzan, Charles Hutapea, Nur Elysa Mitharie
This study was motivated by the low voter turnout in the 2020 Regional Head Election for Governor and Vice Governor in Central Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The Banjar ethnicity was chosen because the Banjar ethnicity is the third largest ethnic majority in Central Kalimantan, so the behavior of the Banjar ethnicity can determine political contestation in Central Kalimantan. This study aimed to find out and analyze the behavior of the Banjar Ethnic voters. Qualitative research methods with a descriptive approach. The focus of the research is the behavior of ethnic Banjar voters, with research benchmarks using the Voter Behavior theory as follows: (a) Rational Voters, (b) Critical Voters, (c) Skeptical Voters (d) Traditional Voters. The results of the study, after the informants were interviewed, it was found that the behavior of ethnic Banjar voters mostly claimed to be rational voters, but the characteristics shown were closer to traditional voters. The critical behavior of ethnic Banjar towards prospective candidates did not combine a high orientation towards the performance of political parties and skeptical behavior towards ethnic behavior. Their Banjar is not oriented towards ideology or party and candidate policies. The behavior of traditional voters in Ethnic Banjar can be classified as traditional voters because issuing voting rights prioritizes socio-cultural closeness, origin, ethnicity and religion. This study concludes that the Banjar Ethnic voters’ behavior belongs to the Traditional Voters.
Towards the end of the twentieth century, religion re-emerged as a topic of pressing concern in a number of the most self-consciously secularized states of the global north. From disputes over the wearing of headscarves in schools to debates over accommodations for religious practices in the public sphere, religion, particularly the ‘foreign’ religiosity of migrants and other minority religious subjects, appeared on the scene as a phenomenon whose proper place and role in society required both urgent and careful deliberation. This article argues that in order to account for the affective potency produced by the immanence of the figure of the ‘foreign’ religious subject, it is necessary to understand secularization as fantasy. It is within the fantasy of secularization that the secular emerges as an object of desire—as something that, if attained, appears as a solution to the problem of ‘foreign’ religiosity—and figures of inassimilable religiosity assume the role of scapegoats for the failure to resolve these concerns. In this sense, within this fantasy scene, the secular promises to provide ‘us’ with something that we are lacking. However, this promise has been undermined by the apparent persistence of religious difference. As such, as a result of their continued religiosity, ‘they’ appear to be taking something from ‘us’.
This paper considers how cultural and religious heritage is disseminated in websites presenting British and Italian cathedrals. Sacred places are typically at the intersection of different forms of tourism—cultural tourism and religious tourism—and contribute to the transmission of tangible and intangible assets (“buildings and monuments, artistic objects, and also texts, legends, rites and so on” [Aulet and Vidal 2018, 244]). The study is based on a corpus of webtexts in Italian and English, collected respectively from the official websites of Italian and British cathedrals. The analysis looks at this kind of tourism discourse as a form of expert-to-non-expert communication that makes the visitor take part in an imaginary journey (Bonsignori and Cappelli 2019; Cappelli and Masi 2019; Cappelli 2016) in which different types of explanation (Calsamiglia and van Dijk 2004) are adopted to make specialized vocabulary accessible to visitors. The focus is on definitions and denomination (in relation to both art/architecture and religion). The quantitative study shows that the Italian corpus presents a marked preference for denomination (and denominations in the field of art/architecture in particular), while the corpus of British cathedrals is characterized by a marked preference for definitions. The qualitative analysis suggests that this may also depend on a marked stylistic preference in Italian for introducing the nicknames of the artists or specifying names in the local dialect, as against a clearer intention of disseminating the cultural and religious heritage to non-experts in the corpus of websites of British cathedrals. The cultural and the religious components, however, seem to be equally important in both corpora and are often inseparable for the two often superimposed types of visitors.
Background. Addressing the theme of celebrating the 1000 anniversary of the
Baptism of Rus is relevant in the subject field of the history of modernity and is
explained by both the novelty of the event and the scale of the subsequent transformations
in the central part and in the places of transformation. The purpose of the article
is to determine the information content and representativeness of the historical
sources presented in the federal and regional archives necessary for conducting research
on the preparation and celebration of the anniversary of Christianity as the
beginning of the solution of the “religious issue” in the context of the “capital and
province” dichotomy.
Materials and methods. The study was conducted on the basis of archival
sources from the funds of the Council for Religious Affairs under the Council of
Ministers of the USSR and its representatives in the regions of the central part of the
RSFSR presented in the collections of the State Archive of the Russian Federation
and the state archives of Russian entities. The corpus of sources forms the paperwork
in the form of reports, certificates, memos, information messages. Comparative
historical and historical critical methods, the principle of complementarity of
sources were used.
Results. A diverse array of archival documents has been examined that reveals
the history of the preparation and celebration of the 1000 anniversary of the Baptism
of Rus in the central part and in the places of transformation when the actions of local
authorities came into conflict with the rapidly changing state policy regarding religion.
Conclusions. The materials presented in the collections of the federal and regional
archives recreate a holistic and reliable picture of the preparation and celebration
of the 1000 anniversary of the Baptism of Rus at the level of the capital and
provinces of the center of the RSFSR, where Orthodoxy is the traditional, historically
determined religion of most residents. The analysis of the sources shows the differences
in approaches to organizing anniversary celebrations in the central part and
in the places of transformation: in the capital, foreign policy, organizational, scientific
tasks, and publishing were among the most important; in the provincial regions,
despite a change in state policy regarding religion, a cautious attitude towards the intensification
of religious life and the expansion of the activities of the Russian
Orthodox Church remained.
<p class="abstrak">This study examines the practice of <em>Kenduri Sko</em>,<em> </em>one of the local traditions of the Kerinci people that has been rarely practiced. Since 2017, the government of Sungai Penuh City took over the management of the practice turning it into an annual tourist attraction called as the <em>Festival of Kenduri Sko</em>. This paper argues that the articulation of this indigenous tradition, and its combination with religion and tourism has stimulated the attempt to preserve indigenous practices through a strategic relationship between government officials and local actors. To show how this the case, we discuss the theory of indigenous religions and the theory of articulation. We use qualitative methods and conducted field studies on the Kerinci People who live in Sungai Penuh City. The article concludes that this kind of articulation has succeeded in placing indigenous peoples as the main actors of the initiative, where the government plays a supporting role in preserving the traditions. This article also recommends a synergistic relationship between the local government and the community to maintain the tradition through various events such as festivals, art performances, and other such projects.</p><p class="abstrak"> </p><p class="abstrak"><em>Penelitian ini mengkaji praktek Kenduri Sko sebagai salah satu tradisi lokal masyarakat Kerinci yang sudah jarang dilakukan. Sejak tahun 2017, Pemerintah Kota Sungai Penuh mengambil alih praktik tersebut sebagai ikon pariwisata yang disebut dengan Festival Kenduri Sko yang diadakan setiap tahun. Artikel ini berpendapat bahwa artikulasi adat istiadat, agama, dan pariwisata telah mendorong upaya pelestarian praktik adat melalui hubungan strategis antara pejabat pemerintah dan aktor lokal. Untuk membangun argumen ini, artikel ini mengelaborasi teori agama leluhur dan teori artikulasi. Artikel ini menggunakan metode kualitatif serta melakukan studi lapangan terhadap Masyarakat Kerinci yang berdomisili di Kota Sungai Penuh. Artikel ini menyimpulkan bahwa artikulasi semacam itu telah berhasil menempatkan masyarakat adat sebagai aktor utama dimana peran pemerintah sebagai aktor pendukung dalam pelestarian tradisi. Artikel ini juga merekomendasikan adanya hubungan yang sinergis antara pemerintah lokal dan masyarakat untuk mempertahankan tradisi luluhur melalui berbagai macam acara seperti festival, pergelaran seni dan semacamnya</em></p>
Emile Durkheim, a French philosopher and sociologist, explained the relationship between religion and society in his book »The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life« by examining Australian totemism. According to Durkheim, religion has no divine or revelatory origin, but the origin of religion is society. In his view, society creates religion in order to constantly reproduce its religious sentiments through stimulation And in this view, he goes so far as to say that society is God. in the present article, we will examine and critique his view from the perspective of the " phenomenology of religion " method. According to the findings of the phenomenological method of religion, the structure of primitive religions is different from the structure of monotheistic religions, and the social form of these two structures is fundamentally different; So that the social form fits the primitive religions, "tribe" and the social form fits the monotheistic religions, "society" Accordingly, Durkheim confused religion between the two concepts of "tribe" and "society" and, consequently, the requirements of the two. The type of this research is fundamental-applied and can have a practical aspect for researchers who want to use this method in researching the history of religions by clarifying the theoretical foundations of the phenomenological method of religion. The main hypothesis of the present article is that from the perspective of the phenomenology of religion, Durkheim's view of the relationship between religion and society is consistent only with primitive religions.
Historic quarters have been a significant component in creating the identity of historical cities in Iran. In the contemporary era, many of these historic landscapes have faced the collapse of their traditional and social foundations and been subjected to the degradation of their cultural, social and physical values. Given the dominant role of religion in the orientation of the political system in Iran, this article examines how religious differences have created significant spatial transformations in historic urban landscapes for religious minorities. Selecting the historic Armenian quarter in Isfahan (Julfa) as the case study, a new model for the preservation of historic landscapes in ghettos on a national scale has been proposed after having carried out the relevant research. Given the capacities in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the findings of this research show that the model of federalism, if integrated into public policy, can promote the social freedom and rights of religious minorities in Iran by increasing the participation of local community and consequently, result in the sustainability of historic urban landscapes in the planning process.
From a practice point of view it seems as if there are certain factors that might contribute to the fact that emerging adults tend to negate therapeutic help and services. It also seems to be specifically true with regard to emerging adults at university. Help negation seems to occur albeit the fact that therapeutic intervention is seen as an effective tool in managing distress. The aim of the study therefore was to explore which factors contribute to help negation behaviour in emerging adults at a specific university in South Africa.
A qualitative case study design was employed where participants who complied with the inclusion criteria set out for the study, were selected by means of non-probability target and snowball sampling. Fifteen students residing in campus residences respectively participated in one of three focus group discussions. Creswell’s spiral of data analysis was used to analyse the transcribed data.
The data crystallised into four themes, which contribute to help negation behaviour in emerging adults. Emerging adults have a fear of being judged, stigmatised, recognised, of not being treated confidentially and a fear of being vulnerable and hurt. They prefer to seek help and support from their family and peers and to put their trust in God and their religion; they have internalised beliefs about themselves and therapy and a need for independence; student interns work at the therapeutic centres on campus which specifically contributes to help negation for emerging adults at the university. It is crucial that the professionals revisit their strategies and approaches in order to overcome negation of formal help and create a more understandable, approachable and effective therapeutic service to emerging adults, especially at university therapeutic centres.
The “Pastoral Letter on the forthcoming elections” of August 1980 is inscribed in West German history as the last manifestation of a specific genre, and one which had been regularly deployed by the German Catholic hierarchy in the immediate post-war years and into the 1960’s. On this occasion, however, it led to a media debate in September 1980 that was at once intense and also short-lived. The text of the “Questions to the German bishops”, published subsequently by Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde and three other academics in response to this debate, apparently sought to avoid being seen as an “open letter”. Was that because the “questions” which it raised were intended to be primarily a constructive contribution to an internal discussion within the Church? What were the issues specific to the complex relationships between religion and politics in the public sphere that played into this debate? How representative of Böckenforde’s other theologico-political works are these “questions”? This contribution considers these matters, and questions the specificity of the epistolary genre in the context of the evolving relationship between Catholicism and social democracy in the German Federal Republic.
J. Christoff Erasmus, Anton Klingenberg, Jaco M. Greeff
The Afrikaner population was founded mainly by European immigrants that arrived in South Africa from 1652. However, female slaves from Asia and Africa and local KhoeSan women may have contributed as much as 7% to this population’s genes. We quantified variation at two tandem repeats to see if this historical founder effect and/or admixture could be detected. The two loci were chosen because they are in the promoters of genes of neurotransmitters that are known to be correlated with social behaviour. Specifically, arginine vasopressin receptor 1A’s (AVPR1A) RS3 locus has been shown to correlate with age of sexual onset and happiness in monogamous relationships while the tandem repeat in the promoter of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene correlates with reactive aggression. The Afrikaner population contained more AVPR1A RS3 alleles than other Caucasoid populations, potentially reflecting a history of admixture. Even though Afrikaners have one of the lowest recorded non-paternity rates in the world, the population did not differ at AVPR1A RS3 locus form other European populations, suggesting a non-genetic explanation, presumably religion, for the low non-paternity rate. By comparing population allele-frequency spectra it was found that different studies have confused AVPR1A RS3 alleles and we make some suggestions to rectify these mistakes in future studies. While MAOA allele frequencies differed between racial groups, the Afrikaner population showed no evidence of admixture. In fact, Afrikaners had more 4-repeat alleles than other populations of European origin, not fewer. The 4-repeat allele may have been selected for during colonisation.
Poland, after the Second World War, was in communist bloc. Due to immense political changes which took place against religion and Church. Legal situation of the Church in the Communist Period was extremely difficult because legal status of the Church had not been regulated.
The article includes a legal situation of Catholic Church in Polish People’s Republic. At the beginning it was defined the term of "communist regime" regarding churches and other religious unions. The grounds for communist regime is ideological and political monism . It is characterized by negative opinion of religion’s role in social life. Society was manipulated by big discrepancy between statutory law and its application.
The following article shows the application of communist regime in Poland. Polish society resisted against the application of that system. Political system against the Church were changing within the years. Finally, the Author showed that dialogue between the Church and communist authorities had a material impact on the legal regulation.
This article intends to highlight the topic of the transformation of the religious throughout the modern era using two different biases. First of all, by examining how the idea of religion takes root into the context of the “ultramodernity”, which is qualified by the acceleration of the modernity and makes it necessary to reconsider the concept of secularization. Then, we must also try to grasp a new way of understanding the term “spirituality” which would allow us to understand the new means of access to transcendence. Consequently, we will suggest a more precise definition of the spirituality before confronting it with certain sociological realities: “Spiritual Path” and “Holistic Spirituality”. To conclude, we willquestion the concept of “spirituality” according to what Yves Lambert named a “tournant axial”, in other terms: a general reconfiguration of the religious world.
INTRODUCTION: Contraception is major component of reproductive health. The study aims to document the awareness of contraception and its use in Uyo, South-south Nigeria and provide useful information for future intervention strategies. METHODS: A cross-sectional study using pretested questionnaires among antenatal attendees in a tertiary and a secondary health facility in Uyo. RESULTS: A total of 550 women took part in the study. Majority of respondents (92.4%) were aware of contraception while 52.6% had ever used any form of contraception. The condom (60.3%) and the pill (49.9%) were the most common forms of contraception that the women had heard of, mostly from the doctor (36.9%), radio (33.8%) and nurse (28.5%). The condom (46.7%), withdrawal method (14.1%) and the pills (13.3%) were the most commonly used forms of contraception. Majority of the women (70.5%) planned to use contraception in the future and this intention was significantly related to the woman's educational status (p<0.05) but not to religion or occupation. Fear of side effects, uncertainty about its need, partner objection and previous side effects were the common reasons given for unwillingness to use contraception in the future. CONCLUSION: Our study has shown that while there is good contraceptive awareness in Uyo, Nigeria, this is not matched by commensurate contraceptive prevalence but prospects for improvement exist. There�s need to tackle known obstacles to contraceptive uptake. Also targeted campaigns and every available opportunity should be used to provide reproductive counseling to women especially on contraception.
Abstract. “Religion and science” often is understood as being about the relationship between two given enterprises, religion and science. I argue that it is more accurate to understand religion and science in different contexts differently. (1) It serves as apologetics for science in a religious environment. As apologetics for technology the role of religion‐and‐science is more ambivalent, as competing and contrary responses to modern technology find articulation in religious terms. (2) In the political context of the modern university, some invoke religion‐and‐science in arguing for a place of theology alongside the sciences. In this context, secular studies of religion are a major challenge, which is hardly addressed. (3) Within the religious communities, religion‐and‐science is a battleground between revisionist and traditionalist ways of understanding religion.