Journal Description
Religions
Religions
is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal on religions and theology, published monthly online by MDPI.
- Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, AHCI (Web of Science), ATLA Religion Database, Religious and Theological Abstracts, and other databases.
- Journal Rank: CiteScore - Q1 (Religious Studies)
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 22.8 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 4.6 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2023).
- Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Impact Factor:
0.8 (2022)
Latest Articles
Naskh (“Abrogation”) in Muslim Anti-Jewish Polemic: The Treatise of Rashīd al-Dīn Hamadānī (1247–1318)
Religions 2024, 15(5), 547; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050547 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
A strong case can be made that the concept of naskh, “abrogation” or “annulment”, was the most potent weapon in the arsenal of Muslim polemicists seeking to convert Jews (Burton‘s Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān is highly informative but deals almost exclusively with naskh
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A strong case can be made that the concept of naskh, “abrogation” or “annulment”, was the most potent weapon in the arsenal of Muslim polemicists seeking to convert Jews (Burton‘s Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān is highly informative but deals almost exclusively with naskh in its internal Islamic contexts, e.g., hermeneutics and legal theory). Naskh did not necessarily involve any rejection of Jewish scripture or tradition as fraudulent or corrupt. It rested on the simple premise, explicitly confirmed by the Qur’an, that the deity may alter or replace His legislation over the course of time. In the first part of this paper, I will briefly review the topic, adding some texts and observations that, to the best of my knowledge, have not appeared in the academic literature (comprehensively surveyed in Adang’s Muslim Writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible: From Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm, 1996; also in Adang and Schmidtke’s Polemics (Muslim-Jewish) in Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World, 2010). The bulk of this paper will consist of a fairly detailed summary of an unpublished tract on naskh written by Rashīd al-Dīn Faḍlullāh Hamadānī (RD) (1247–1318), himself a Jewish convert to Islam and a monumental politician, cultural broker, historian, and author.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interfaith Encounters: Religious Polemics from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period)
Open AccessArticle
Secularism as an Anti-Religious Conspiracy: Salafi Challenges to French laïcité
by
Abdessamad Belhaj
Religions 2024, 15(5), 546; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050546 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
Regarding organizational power, Salafism in France is a minority of dispersed groups emerging on the periphery of the Muslim French space. However, it can be regarded as a discursive force that has influenced significantly French discussions about Islam. Specifically, one of the most
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Regarding organizational power, Salafism in France is a minority of dispersed groups emerging on the periphery of the Muslim French space. However, it can be regarded as a discursive force that has influenced significantly French discussions about Islam. Specifically, one of the most contentious positions in French political and intellectual discourse at the moment is Salafi vehement rejection of laïcité as a conspiracy against religion in general and Islam in particular. This article provides a close reading of three Salafi and neo-traditionalist discourses on secularism written by well-known theologians and intellectuals associated with this school of thought: Youssef Hindi, Kareem El Hidjaazi, and Aïssam Aït-Yahya. Investigative in nature, our aim is to comprehend the fundamental criticisms of French secularism and the rhetorical devices these Salafi and neo-traditionalist discourses have been using for the past ten years.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)
Open AccessArticle
An Imaginary Byzantium in Early Islam: Byzantium as Viewed through the Sīra Literature
by
Yassine Yahyaoui
Religions 2024, 15(5), 545; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050545 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article examines the emergence of new representations of Byzantium in early Arabic literature, with a focus on the Sīra, the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad. This historical investigation leads to a dual conclusions that the Arab perception of Byzantium not only
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This article examines the emergence of new representations of Byzantium in early Arabic literature, with a focus on the Sīra, the biography of the Prophet Muḥammad. This historical investigation leads to a dual conclusions that the Arab perception of Byzantium not only forged an “imaginary Byzantium” but also marked the emergence of Arab self-consciousness. This process significantly influenced the Arab historical and cultural narratives, framing them within the context of the Arabic identity that emerged in late antiquity. Nevertheless, this relationship between the early Islamic community and Byzantium does little to confirm accurate knowledge about Byzantium, rendering the emerging representations as not truly reflective of “reality”, but rather presenting us with an “imaginary Byzantium”. This applies whether related to events in the 1st/7th century or the transition from oral to written texts during the 2nd/8th and 3rd/9th centuries. Furthermore, these representations reveal more about the creators of this imaginary than the other itself, shedding light on the motives of early Muslim writers who used the Sīra as a vehicle for these imaginaries. Ultimately, the article identifies, through the textual analysis and historical contextualization of Sīra, two narrative layers therein that are related to the imaginary Byzantium. The first layer reflected a pervasive fear of Byzantium, while the second layer represented an attitude of challenge and rivalry.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Open AccessArticle
Hidden Corners: Religious Beliefs in Chinese Prisons
by
Shuchen Tang and Zilong Li
Religions 2024, 15(5), 544; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050544 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
The exploration of religious beliefs within the confines of Chinese prisons presents a nuanced inquiry into the intersection of faith, correctional policies, and human rights. This study delves into the underexplored domain of how religious practices and beliefs are navigated within the Chinese
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The exploration of religious beliefs within the confines of Chinese prisons presents a nuanced inquiry into the intersection of faith, correctional policies, and human rights. This study delves into the underexplored domain of how religious practices and beliefs are navigated within the Chinese penal system. Despite constitutional assurances for religious freedom, practical applications within prison walls reveal a nuanced tapestry of control, accommodation, and, at times, suppression. This paper aims to shed light on these complexities through interviews with prison officers, offering a rare glimpse into the ‘hidden corners’ of religious observance in Chinese prisons. It critically examines the balance between state control, the rehabilitation agenda, and the individual’s right to spiritual belief and practice, proposing a more inclusive approach to fostering religious diversity and freedom within the correctional environment.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Prison: Practices, Actors, Spaces, and Challenges of Pluralism)
Open AccessArticle
Normative Spirituality in Wahhābī Prophetology: Saʿīd b. Wahf al-Qaḥṭānī’s (d. 2018) Raḥmatan li-l-ʿĀlamīn as Reparatory Theology
by
Besnik Sinani
Religions 2024, 15(5), 543; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050543 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
The Wahhābī movement within Sunni Islam—a substantial section of the larger Salafi movement—has been often depicted in both western academic studies and Muslim polemical writings negatively as devoid of spirituality, obsessed with a particular creedal understanding that drives its well-known salvific exclusivism, and
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The Wahhābī movement within Sunni Islam—a substantial section of the larger Salafi movement—has been often depicted in both western academic studies and Muslim polemical writings negatively as devoid of spirituality, obsessed with a particular creedal understanding that drives its well-known salvific exclusivism, and with rigid legalism. This depiction is partly due to Wahhābism’s historical opposition to Sufism, the branch of Islamic knowledge and practices that has theorized, defined, and delineated Islam’s vision of the spiritual transformation taking place in the believer’s journey towards God. That opposition notwithstanding, the article argues that beyond terminological distinctions, one can locate in Wahhābī texts common Islamic themes of spiritual transformation. Primarily, such texts can be found in Wahhābī publications of the writings of 13th century Damascene Muslim scholars like Ibn Taymīya (d. 728/1328) and his most celebrated student, Ibn Qayyim al-Jawzīya (d. 751/1350). Building on that tradition, Wahhābī scholars have additionally produced texts that display core ideals of the Muslim spiritual goals. Such texts have additionally advanced the movement’s theological concerns and have driven the efforts towards “the purification” of Islamic sources from what Wahhābis deem to be heretical practices and beliefs accumulated throughout the centuries. Wahhābī prophetological texts, the article argues, serve as primary sources where both Wahhābī spiritual ideals and their sectarian reparatory agenda can be identified. The book of the late Saʿīd b. Wahf al-Qaḥṭānī (1952–2018), a well-known Saudi Wahhābī author of the second half of the twentieth century, Raḥmatan li-l-ʿĀlamīn Muḥammad Rasūl Allāh, serves as a representative text of these aims and ideals. Wahhābī spirituality, as identified in the work of al-Qaḥṭānī, has been depicted here as “normative spirituality” in order to point to its intended purpose of engendering praxis that is grounded in Islam’s well-known notion of prophetic imitatio.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Prophetic Spirituality: Towards an Understanding of the Paradigmatic Meaning of Prophecy for the Study of Muslim Piety)
Open AccessArticle
Harmonious Accommodation among Coexisting Multicultural Ethical Frameworks through Confrontation
by
Yuchen Liang
Religions 2024, 15(5), 542; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050542 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
This paper interrogates the skepticism surrounding comparative ethics, particularly the question of its relevance in a world where ethical decision-making processes are primarily presumed to be dictated by one universalist culture. The paper argues that all cultures are inherently intercultural, evidenced by the
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This paper interrogates the skepticism surrounding comparative ethics, particularly the question of its relevance in a world where ethical decision-making processes are primarily presumed to be dictated by one universalist culture. The paper argues that all cultures are inherently intercultural, evidenced by the historical coexistence of ideas and practices. Post-comparative ethics, which emphasizes the situational application of intellectual comparison and integration, is inevitable for postcolonial, non-Western societies. Historically, societies have navigated a variety of ethical frameworks, with some, like medieval Chinese society, embracing a plurality of beliefs. This pluralism is exemplified by the harmonious accommodation (yuanrong 圓融) of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. Using the example of Song Dynasty Chan master Dahui Zonggao 大慧宗杲, this article illustrates that intercultural ethics can be both diverse and sincere. Dahui’s pluralistic approach demonstrates that sincere commitment to multiple ethical systems is possible in our multicultural situation. I will discuss common approaches to the multicultural situation, such as expedient synthesis, theoretical synthesis, and crude syncretism, before illustrating the advantage of Dahui’s kanhua 看話禪method as harmonious accommodation through confrontation. This underscores the importance of shifting the debate from “Why compare?” to “How to compare?” in achieving the accommodation of different ethical frameworks.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Going Beyond Comparative Ethics: Post-Comparative Ethics in Philosophic and Religious Traditions)
Open AccessArticle
Challenges of Using Artificial Intelligence in the Process of Shi’i Ijtihad
by
Hasan Latifi
Religions 2024, 15(5), 541; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050541 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article aims to explore the potential challenges that may arise when employing generative AI models in the process of Shi’i ijtihad. By drawing upon academic literature and relevant primary sources, the essay surveys the most critical AI-related hurdles in this field,
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This article aims to explore the potential challenges that may arise when employing generative AI models in the process of Shi’i ijtihad. By drawing upon academic literature and relevant primary sources, the essay surveys the most critical AI-related hurdles in this field, including issues of accessibility, privacy concerns, the problem of “AI hallucination” and the generative nature of AI models, biases in AI systems, the lack of transparency and inexplicability, the intricacies of interpreting and understanding sensitive topics, accountability, authority, trust and acceptance among lay believers. Using discourse and content analysis as method, the article concludes that, given these challenges, generative AI models are not yet suitable for utilization in this process. However, the rapid progress in AI may eventually make it an effective tool for this purpose.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Science: Loving Science, Discovering the Divine)
Open AccessReview
Defences, Human Nature, and Spiritual Awakening: A Christian Counselling Perspective
by
Angel Suet Man Lam
Religions 2024, 15(5), 540; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050540 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article delves into the intricacies of human defences in various domains, including the biological and psychological responses to protect oneself, and the abstract concept of sacrificing one’s life to uphold ethical, moral, religious, and spiritual values. While physical, psychological, and moral values
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This article delves into the intricacies of human defences in various domains, including the biological and psychological responses to protect oneself, and the abstract concept of sacrificing one’s life to uphold ethical, moral, religious, and spiritual values. While physical, psychological, and moral values have been attended to in counselling, regard for the religious and spiritual aspects is still developing. As the author writes from a Christian perspective, Christian faith and values are considered. It is posited that a study of human nature, as presented in the Christian Bible, can facilitate a profound comprehension of human defences. The paper scrutinizes the correlation between “human defences” and “Christian spirituality” through a Christian lens on human nature. Furthermore, it introduces the idea of “spiritual defence” and how it is related to a spiritual awakening.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Health/Psychology/Social Sciences)
Open AccessArticle
“If You Can Change Your Name, You Can Write”: Pseudepigraphy in Antiquity and Its Function in 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John
by
Cristian Daniel Cardozo Mindiola
Religions 2024, 15(5), 539; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050539 (registering DOI) - 28 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article attempts to answer the following question: why did the author of the apocryphon called 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John choose to efface himself and adopt John as his pseudonym? Why not Peter or Paul? This paper argues that the author of 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John intended to harness
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This article attempts to answer the following question: why did the author of the apocryphon called 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John choose to efface himself and adopt John as his pseudonym? Why not Peter or Paul? This paper argues that the author of 1 Apocryphal Apocalypse of John intended to harness the audience attached to John, the seer of Revelation, by taking his name as a pseudonym. This paper sustains this claim by demonstrating that, in antiquity, each author had a specific pool of readers, often made out of friends and accolades of the author. Thus, authors’ names evoke an audience attached to them. When an author takes another person’s name to write under, he does so out of necessity, because he does not have an audience. But, when he takes another’s person name, he does so hoping to trick the audience of the impersonated into reading him. Based on this insight, this article concludes that the author of 1 Apocr. Apoc. John wanted the readers of canonical Revelation to engage with his work and that he achieved his purpose as evinced by the fact that the titles of both works share an uncanny resemblance, ranging from identical titles to similar wording. Since titles in antiquity were given to the works by their readers, the most logical explanation for canonical Revelation and 1 Apocr. Apoc. John having the same titles is that they both shared the same readers. Finally, this article argues that, in line with recent research on the use of pseudepigraphy in Jewish, Christian, and Roman contexts, the author of 1 Apocr. Apoc. John wanted to be read by CR’s readers because he wanted to expand, criticize, rework, and update CR’s eschatological discourse, exemplified by a close reading of how 1 Apocr. Apoc. John criticized, reworked, and updated CR’s presentation of the resurrection to bring it in harmony with late Christian reflection on the subject.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
Open AccessArticle
Group Formative Processes in 2 Cor 6:14–7:1
by
Gijsbert van Appeldoorn
Religions 2024, 15(5), 538; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050538 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article offers a fresh interpretation of the intended impact of 2 Cor 6:14–7:1 on the group formation of the Corinthian Christ community. To achieve this interpretation, it will first determine the most likely social reference of the term οἱ ἄπιστοι. Secondly, it
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This article offers a fresh interpretation of the intended impact of 2 Cor 6:14–7:1 on the group formation of the Corinthian Christ community. To achieve this interpretation, it will first determine the most likely social reference of the term οἱ ἄπιστοι. Secondly, it will describe a methodological tool from the Social Identity Approach that will help to visualise how groups are formed and reformed when the context changes. Finally, it will apply this tool to determine how 2 Cor 6:14–7:1 affected the boundaries of the Christ community in Corinth.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring the Complexity of Identities and Boundaries within the New Testament World)
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Open AccessArticle
Psychedelic Mysticism and Christian Spirituality: From Science to Love
by
Ron Cole-Turner
Religions 2024, 15(5), 537; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050537 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
The scientific claim that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin reliably occasion mystical experiences was justified using the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (the MEQ), a survey first developed in the 1960s by Walter Pahnke using W.T. Stace’s Mysticism and Philosophy. Scholars in Christian mysticism reject
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The scientific claim that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin reliably occasion mystical experiences was justified using the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (the MEQ), a survey first developed in the 1960s by Walter Pahnke using W.T. Stace’s Mysticism and Philosophy. Scholars in Christian mysticism reject the adequacy of Stace’s work for Western theistic mysticism, especially Christianity. One objection is that Stace follows William James in focusing on intense and unusual moments of mystical experience rather than the somewhat more ordinary mystical life. A greater concern is that Stace more adequately reflects non-Western traditions than Western theistic traditions like Christianity. For Stace, mysticism centers on the concept of union with external reality or with the absolute, a union in which the human creature is absorbed or fused. Christian mysticism, by contrast, involves a sense of presence rather than union, experienced in a most intimate relationship as a felt loving closeness with the divine, but not as fusion or absorption into the divine. While love of God is central to the Christian view, it is ignored in Stace and the MEQ30. Finally for Christianity, mysticism is not found in the momentary experience, but in the lifelong interpretation that leads to transformation.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Science: Loving Science, Discovering the Divine)
Open AccessArticle
The St. Honoré Portal at Amiens Cathedral and Its Reception
by
Gili Shalom
Religions 2024, 15(5), 536; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050536 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
This article discusses the depictions of healings on the St. Honoré portal at Amiens Cathedral (post-1240) and the visual strategies by which its viewers were invited to participate in the saint’s cult. I contend that the carved figures who gaze or gesture beyond
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This article discusses the depictions of healings on the St. Honoré portal at Amiens Cathedral (post-1240) and the visual strategies by which its viewers were invited to participate in the saint’s cult. I contend that the carved figures who gaze or gesture beyond the borders of the tympanum invited the active participation of a broad audience of spectators: male and female, young and old, rich and poor, clerical and lay, and disabled and hale. Moreover, I argue that by referencing both the saint’s vita and more contemporary miracle accounts, the sculptures negotiated between the historical past and the Gothic present, allowing the viewers to share in the hope for a miraculous cure.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Devotion Practice and Performative Expression in the Religious Art of Medieval Europe)
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Open AccessArticle
An Organic System Open to an Intelligible Reality: The Concept of Method in Antonio Rosmini
by
Lucia Bissoli
Religions 2024, 15(5), 535; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050535 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
Oftentimes, reality seems to us a chaos that we try to control with our theories. This article starts from the antithetic standpoint, inspired by Antonio Rosmini’s works: reality is intelligible, and originates our thinking. From this perspective, any research that tries to reach
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Oftentimes, reality seems to us a chaos that we try to control with our theories. This article starts from the antithetic standpoint, inspired by Antonio Rosmini’s works: reality is intelligible, and originates our thinking. From this perspective, any research that tries to reach the truth is determined by the real, not the contrary. Moreover, interdisciplinarity, far from being a solipsistic enterprise, aims at achieving truth and guaranteeing scientific advancement. Here, we analyze the distinctive character of Rosminian encyclopedism and his principles for preventing human errors. We then clarify why it is impossible to achieve perfection, and why such an impossibility is not problematic for the interdisciplinary dialogue.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Intelligibility of Reality: Theology and Science between Mystery That Calls and Research Humility)
Open AccessArticle
Llamas, Barter and Travel Rituals: An Ethnographic Study on the Esquela Tusuy Dance of the Uchumiri Peasant Community, Condesuyos, Peru
by
Aleixandre Brian Duche-Pérez and Lolo Juan Mamani-Daza
Religions 2024, 15(5), 534; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050534 - 26 Apr 2024
Abstract
The “Esquela Tusuy” dance is a cultural manifestation deeply rooted in the Uchumiri Peasant Community (Condesuyos, Peru), reflecting the intersection between traditional cultural practices and community identity. This ethnographic study reveals how the dance, beyond being a mere artistic expression, is a complex
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The “Esquela Tusuy” dance is a cultural manifestation deeply rooted in the Uchumiri Peasant Community (Condesuyos, Peru), reflecting the intersection between traditional cultural practices and community identity. This ethnographic study reveals how the dance, beyond being a mere artistic expression, is a complex system of meanings that articulates social relations, economic practices of barter, and Andean spirituality, through the veneration of Pachamama and Apu Coropuna. The dance is organized around rituals that include the preparation, journey, and return of the llama herders, being a living expression of collective memory and a mechanism of social cohesion. The adopted methodology was based on participant observation and semi-structured interviews, allowing a detailed understanding of Uchumiri’s cultural dynamics. Despite contemporary challenges, “Esquela Tusuy” remains a central pillar for the affirmation of cultural identity and community resistance, underlining the importance of dance in the conservation of cultural heritage and in the articulation of local identities against national narratives.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Contemporary Religion, Media and Popular Culture)
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Open AccessArticle
Between a Rock and a Hard Place: The Intersectional Experiences of Iranian Feminists from Minoritized Ethno-National Backgrounds
by
Donya Ahmadi
Religions 2024, 15(5), 533; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050533 - 25 Apr 2024
Abstract
Over the past decades, Iran has been witnessing the growth of a burgeoning feminist movement. With its origins deeply rooted in the early 20th century, the Iranian feminist movement, as such, is not a uniform body: it embodies various, opposing even, political ideologies
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Over the past decades, Iran has been witnessing the growth of a burgeoning feminist movement. With its origins deeply rooted in the early 20th century, the Iranian feminist movement, as such, is not a uniform body: it embodies various, opposing even, political ideologies under the umbrella of feminism, reflecting the divergent social locations of its protagonists. While the movement has been criticized for its centralist, middle-class and at times apolitical tendencies, academic scholarship has yet to offer intersectional analyses that problematize historically rooted and daily materialized relations of power within the movement, particularly in relation to axes such as ethnicity (and race), religion, gender identity, sexuality, and (dis)ability. In light of this gap, the present article aims towards documenting and theorizing the intersectionality of the challenges facing Iranian feminist activists belonging to various ethnic nations and religious beliefs. Drawing on ethnographic research, it argues that minority feminists find themselves between a rock and a hard place: the rock being masculinist politics within their minoritized communities, which prioritize ethno-nationalist demands over gendered ones; the hard place being a centralist liberal feminist movement that fails to reflect the intersectionality of their experiences as non-Persian non-Shia women, thereby reproducing hierarchies of power in relation to ethnicity, religion, and class.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Race–Religion Constellations: Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Antiblackness)
Open AccessArticle
Sounds, Emotions, and the Body in Pentecostal Romani Communities in Slovakia
by
Jana Belišová
Religions 2024, 15(5), 532; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050532 - 25 Apr 2024
Abstract
In the past, the Romani in Slovakia identified with the prevailing religion, mainly with the Roman Catholic Church. However, the missionary activities of various Christian denominations after 1990 resulted in the conversion of the Romani to Pentecostal Christian communities. This launched a long,
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In the past, the Romani in Slovakia identified with the prevailing religion, mainly with the Roman Catholic Church. However, the missionary activities of various Christian denominations after 1990 resulted in the conversion of the Romani to Pentecostal Christian communities. This launched a long, creative process of the formation of Pentecostal Romani music. Romani believers consider music and the ability to play and sing to be a gift from God and view these as a form of prayer that should serve for the praise of God. That is why many have given up their worldly music making and now play only praise songs. They gradually modified the hymns they borrowed and replaced them with their own creations. The soundscape of religion does not lie only in religious singing and music, as the emotional sermons and prayers, glossolalia and sounds during the healing and blessing rituals can also be considered religious sounds. During the worship services, this mixture of various sounds leads to the gradual spiritual and emotional unification of the community. The music and the rituals create feelings of intense sensory and emotional character that reflect in bodily expressions. Movements, dance, and the positions of the hands can help glorify God and experience the worship service more intensely. However, under certain circumstances, they might become sources of temptation and sin. This is related to the concepts of “purity” and “impurity”. The premises, whether sacral or profane, interior or exterior ones, also play a significant role in creating the sound. In writing this paper, I have also drawn on my own research on Romani Christian songs, which I carried out in (2012–2013 in Eastern Slovakia).
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soundscapes of Religion)
Open AccessArticle
The Forgotten Language of Nontheistic Mysticism: Religious Factors in Erich Fromm’s Humanism
by
Ronen Pinkas
Religions 2024, 15(5), 531; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050531 - 25 Apr 2024
Abstract
In You Shall Be as Gods, Erich Fromm (1900–1980) defines his position as nontheistic mysticism. This research clarifies the term, considers its importance within Fromm’s humanism, and explores its potential origins. The nontheistic mystical position plays a central role in Fromm’s understanding
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In You Shall Be as Gods, Erich Fromm (1900–1980) defines his position as nontheistic mysticism. This research clarifies the term, considers its importance within Fromm’s humanism, and explores its potential origins. The nontheistic mystical position plays a central role in Fromm’s understanding of the relationship between mysticism and organized religion, religion and religiosity, and it clarifies the relationship between religion, philosophy, and social psychoanalysis, whose combination constitutes his humanistic ethics. Nontheistic mysticism relates, as well, to Fromm’s understanding of human nature; it involves the question of the relationship between language, perception, and experience. The nontheistic mystical position is linked to Fromm’s negative theology, the x experience, and idolatry. Hence, the nontheistic mystical position is relevant to Fromm’s understanding of self-realization and his vision of a sane society. Unlike some scholarly opinion, the conclusions of this paper suggest that Fromm’s humanism is not radical, as long as radical is defined as an absolute atheistic secular feature that eliminates the range of religious language and experience. Rather, it is a broad and cautious humanism that, on the one hand, internalizes the transcendent divinity into the human subject and transforms it into anthropological–ethical phenomena, but, on the other, implies that atheism carries the risk of an idolatrous identification of the human being with God. Consequently, this humanism requires a religious–mystical component to adequately portray the spiritual and ethical potentials of humanity and its challenges. Nontheistic mysticism is a consciousness mechanism aimed at the fine-tuning of the individual’s moral compass, which is affected by the pathologies of normalcy that prevail in all societies.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theism in the Language of Humanism: Reincarnations of the Transcendent God in the Secular Subject)
Open AccessArticle
Metaphorical Language and Function of the “Bridal Pick-Up” Ritual in Anatolian Traditional Weddings with Its Origin and Reflections
by
Atila Kartal, Kemal Şimşek, Emine Atmaca and Haktan Kaplan
Religions 2024, 15(5), 530; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050530 - 25 Apr 2024
Abstract
In the urban centers of Türkiye, where cultural changes are more widespread and effective, wedding processional is replaced by the solemnization of the marriage at indoor weddings, and the Kūdegū (old Turkic language; refers to bridegroom, son-in-law) awaiting the bride’s arrival at the
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In the urban centers of Türkiye, where cultural changes are more widespread and effective, wedding processional is replaced by the solemnization of the marriage at indoor weddings, and the Kūdegū (old Turkic language; refers to bridegroom, son-in-law) awaiting the bride’s arrival at the boy’s house is replaced by differences in the way of the bride and groom’s entry together; moreover, while wedding rituals such as the bridal bath and groom’s hammam are being forgotten, bachelor/bachelorette parties are on the rise. The beliefs and practices related to the bride being taken out of the girl’s house with a special ceremony have deep meanings, such as blessing the bride who has just joined the family, acclimatizing the bride who feels like an outsider and avoiding her from these feelings, and protecting the bride and groom from the körmös (spirits in Turkic mythology, devilish entities living in the underworld), bad spirits, and the evil eye. In this paper, the structure, function, practices, and beliefs of the rituals surrounding the bride and groom on the last day of Anatolian Turkish weddings are analyzed using a qualitative research method. In addition, this study identified the betrothal, performance, beliefs, and practices surrounding the ritual of “bridal pick up” among Anatolian Turks and evaluated the symbols and signs in the ritual procedures in the functional context of the origins and reflections of traditional Turkish beliefs.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Role of Religion in Marriage and Family Life)
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Paganism as a Political Problem: Levinas’s Understanding of Judaism in the 1930s
by
Michael Fagenblat
Religions 2024, 15(5), 529; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050529 - 25 Apr 2024
Abstract
In response to the rise of neopagan fascist political theologies in Europe in the 1930s, the young Emmanuel Levinas developed a novel conception of the theopolitical role of Judaism. The existing scholarly consensus maintains that (1) Levinas responded to the rise of pagan
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In response to the rise of neopagan fascist political theologies in Europe in the 1930s, the young Emmanuel Levinas developed a novel conception of the theopolitical role of Judaism. The existing scholarly consensus maintains that (1) Levinas responded to the rise of pagan Hitlerism by opposing it to a Jewish conception of transcendence and (2) this putative contrast involved a critique of Heidegger’s thought, which Levinas identified with pagan Hitlerism. By focusing on under-examined occasional pieces Levinas wrote in the 1930s, I offer a significantly revised understanding of Levinas’s position in the 1930s. The argument shows how Levinas describes Judaism as a way of ‘being riveted’ that does not resort to transcendence, as does the Greco-Christian West, but rather affirms the immanence of existence while breaking with its disposition to paganism. This places Levinas’s conception of Judaism on the same plane as paganism and within the terms of Heidegger’s philosophy. From this perspective, a new way of understanding Levinas’s theopolitical view of Judaism as “the anti-paganism par excellence” takes shape.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Modern Jewish Thought: Volume II)
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Lessons from Master Hongyi’s Experiences with Impermanence for Death Education
by
Fazhao Shi (Hsu-Feng Lee)
Religions 2024, 15(5), 528; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15050528 - 25 Apr 2024
Abstract
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Show Figures
This paper explores the life and teachings of the renowned Chinese Buddhist monk Master Hongyi (1880–1942), focusing on his transformative encounters with impermanence and their relevance for contemporary death education. Drawing upon historical records, personal writings, and the accounts of his contemporaries, this
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This paper explores the life and teachings of the renowned Chinese Buddhist monk Master Hongyi (1880–1942), focusing on his transformative encounters with impermanence and their relevance for contemporary death education. Drawing upon historical records, personal writings, and the accounts of his contemporaries, this study traces Master Hongyi’s profound spiritual journey from intense grief and existential crisis to enlightened equanimity in the face of mortality. It examines how his skillful application of Buddhist practices enabled him to find meaning, purpose, and liberation amidst the challenges of aging, illness, and dying. Through an in-depth analysis of Master Hongyi’s wisdom and lived experience, this paper proposes the “Hongyi Model”, an innovative paradigm for integrating the spiritual, psychological, and artistic dimensions of his approach into modern death education. The findings underscore the transformative potential of Buddhist teachings for fostering a more authentic, meaningful, and spiritually grounded engagement with mortality, offering valuable insights for educators, counselors, and healthcare professionals working in end-of-life care.
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