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Recently, political philosophers have debated the role of religious reasons in public deliberations, such as appealing to religious convictions and religious classics. Exclusivists, such as Rawls, Quong, Hartley, and Watson, argue that democratic governments and citizens should restrict or exclude the use of religious reasons in making laws and policies, while inclusivists, such as Gaus, Vallier, and Billingham, oppose such categorical exclusion. Nevertheless, the debate mainly focuses on the role of religious reasons in public deliberation. In this paper, I will argue that religious behaviors—defined as highly altruistic actions motivated by religious beliefs, such as dedicating substantial time and effort to serving the poor and advancing the common good—can exert positive influences on public deliberation. Through this kind of altruistic action, religious believers can subtly influence non-religious citizens. While religious believers may not rationally persuade non-religious citizens through religious reasoning, the altruistic actions exhibited by religious believers could emotionally inspire admiration and motivate non-religious citizens to learn more about those religions. This enhances mutual understanding among different religious and secular sects and thus improves public deliberation. Furthermore, I argue that the improved understanding fostered by religious behaviors can facilitate exclusivism and inclusivism to overcome certain philosophical challenges, such as the problems of incompleteness and anarchy, which are among the most frequent criticisms directed at exclusivism and inclusivism. Hence, this paper highlights an aspect overlooked in the exclusivism–inclusivism debate: no matter whether the democratic government and citizens should permit or restrict religious reasons, religious behavior is still beneficial in public deliberation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 30 June 2017, the German Bundestag voted in favor of the introduction of marriage for same-sex couples—a historic moment. Only a few days earlier, the then Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel had released the vote as a decision of conscience and thus dissolved the usual underlying factional compulsion—does this mean that rights for homosexual people are a question of personal conscience and values? Such a localization arouses the interest of religious studies to investigate how the discourse actors from the fields of politics, church and society formulate the decision of conscience as a discursive strategy in the negotiation process of same-sex marriage in Germany argumentatively and which positionings as well as descriptions of others and themselves are derived from this. The starting point is a modernity in which the actors move, understand and articulate themselves. This understanding of modernity is based on the process of a vertical transfer (Gladigow) of sociological theories of religion, among others, whereby narratives of secularization, overcoming religion (as a necessary precondition of modernity) and narratives of an opposition of religious vs. secular or religious vs. homosexual reappear as positions and arguments in the discourse. Using the approach of discursive religious studies (von Stuckrad) in conjunction with sociological discourse analysis (Keller), these processes of positioning, demarcation and negotiation based on the premises of modernity will be analyzed for the period from 2013 to 2017 on the basis of the public debate on religious, political, and social actors in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a new dispositive of power, the vulnerability dispositive, and it clears up what a power dispositive is. It then explains what theology can contribute to this new dispositive. The paradox of expenditure (creation by means of loss) plays a special role here. Human vulnerability is an unprecedented power in personal and political life, social and cultural life, and not least in religion. It is therefore not surprising that it has become a key concept in international, interdisciplinary research in recent decades. At least since the 1980s, it has resulted in an enormous number of scientific publications in almost all scientific disciplines. For Christian theology, this has particular significance because of the doctrine of the Incarnation: when God becomes human in Jesus Christ, God risks being wounded. Christianity ascribes salvific significance to this path into vulnerability. But what significance does this have for interdisciplinary discourse beyond theology? What can theology contribute to interdisciplinary vulnerability research? The starting point for the following considerations is a specific point in vulnerability discourse: the new dispositive of vulnerability that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. It made vulnerability an important argument in social, political, and religious debates. The vulnerability paradox is particularly important in this context. This paradox holds that strategies designed to protect against certain dangers paradoxically intensify the damage if that damage nevertheless occurs. Theology can supplement this paradox, which is highly destructive, with a paradox that in turn promotes and strengthens life: the expenditure paradox that says that creation can occur by means of loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesia’s cultural acculturation and Christianity left behind by Islam are undeniable social realities that could be harmonised through puppetry. However, the propagator of Islam has used wayang (puppet) as a national symbol and original face. It has raised a polemic that involved serious conversations and sharp debates between religious and customary communities and invited the struggle of religious-cultural groups. Efforts to acculturate Christianity and culture in Java have not received serious attention. However, various opportunities could be used as media or objects of encounter such as wayang. Christian inculturation with a wayang perspective could contribute to the contextualisation of mission in Java, promoting smooth conversations with the community. This study aims to capture the potential that contributes to wayang for the mission and contextualisation of Christianity. A qualitative method with an analytical-descriptive approach was used to examine the past mission of Islam as well as wayang and model contextualisation in church traditions. The findings show that wayang is an opportunity for Christianity to take root and grow together with its culture. It must be an aim in the contextualisation mission to civilise Christianity in society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I want to thank Dale Cannon for initiating and continuing this conversation and for his important, careful, and insightful work in this paper as well as in his earlier volume, Six Ways of Being Religious (1996). Cannon calls his paper "A Polanyian-Participatory Approach to the Comparative Study of Religion," a title that may suggest the ambition of the paper. His paper is not just a study of this or that figure but presents something of an intervention in a series of debates within religious studies about the proper way to conduct comparative work, if in fact any such proper comparativism exists. In order, then, to engage with Cannon's paper, I begin this response by offering a few words in part I about the scholarly debate over the very possibility of the comparative religion model as the context for Cannon's Polanyian intervention. Then, in part II, I consider some of the constructive aspects of Cannon's proposal itself, noting particularly how it responds to the problems identified in part I by shifting attention from static categories of comparison to dynamic ways of being. Finally, in part III, I prod the model a bit to see whether and how well it fulfills its promises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the topic of Sufi intellectual resistance through some emblematic case studies of Sufi authors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. First, it analyses Fitna al-Wahhabiyya, a treatise that was written by Aḥmad Zaynī Daḥlān (1817-1886) in 1878, which proved to be a seminal work for later Sufi authors, and shows that some of the issues addressed in this text are recurrent ones in anti-Wahhabi polemics. Indeed, the cultural resistance of Sufism from the 19th century to the present day has been primarily directed against the doctrines of Wahhabism, the first current of Islamic thought to be structurally anti-Sufi. The fact that Aḥmad Zaynī Daḥlān was the Mufti of Mecca and a recognised scholar shows that these polemics were fully integrated into the scholarly religious debate of official Islam, in which Sufism and its doctrines occupied a prominent position. Furthermore, some Sufi masters set themselves the goal of refuting the theories of materialism and rationalism that were in vogue in the Islamic world in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The work of the Egyptian Sufi master Sīdī Salāma ar-Rāḍī (1866-1939) entitled al-Insāniyya, published in 1938, is a polemical treatise against materialism, atheism and spiritualism that probably reflects the influence of René Guénon. The third case study examined is that of the Sudanese master Muḥammad ʿUṯmān ʿAbduhu al-Burhānī (1904-1983). The latter is an exemplary case of Sufi resistance in the second half of the 20th century, both in the face of censorship and in the face of the attempt to bring Sufi brotherhoods under government control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the years 1823-1833, after the War of Independence, Chile had an intensive debate related to the issue of religious toleration, which was conducted in various pamphlets and newspapers, with two major political groups clashing over the subject: Conservatives and Liberals. While the former thought that Chile should not even recognize these practices because it was essentially a Catholic country, the latter wanted to grant a certain recognition to the Protestant practices brought to the country by the Americans and British. Following François-Xavier Guerra, the central thesis of this article states this debate expresses a major conflict among two conceptions of modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The view of women has long been questioned and debated in religious circles. Four main views have been recognized and labeled as traditionalism, complementarianism, egalitarianism, and feminism. These four views accuse their opposing counterpoints of prejudice while maintaining their view is biblical and balanced in favor of both genders. The question is asked, does each view preach and teach the positive value and worth of both men and women? While generally categorized according to philosophical ideals, the application of roles and responsibilities by each of these gender views suggests a corresponding affect on the biased view on men versus women. Whether the view is extreme patriarchy or matriarchy, the circular spectrum demonstrates a shifting value of which gender is more positively favored and which is negatively cast. To support awareness that gender views prejudice interpersonal interaction between genders, a survey was conducted with participants from each gender view to determine if their individual theological conviction about the roles of men and women in the church influenced their general sentiment of all actions of men and women. The goal of the survey was to corroborate the observation that one's gender ideology unduly distorts their general attitude about men and women. The survey requested first impressions of various biblical characters and then asked participants to rank them according to morality or godliness. The results confirm the stereotypes held by each group. The challenge is given to the religious community to recognize and confront the underlying implications in their gender teachings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research methods and concepts in religious studies are conventionally understood as procedures and rules for representing religious and social worlds. However, religious and social worlds are simultaneously messy, lively and elusive, and arguably transreligious ones are especially so. In this essay I reflect on Panagiotopoulos and Roussou's concept of "transreligiosity" as a means for re-thinking classical and contemporary methodological debates in religious studies, and for reflecting on methods as social practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Anuario Turismo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia, Facultad de Empresas Turísticas y Hoteleras and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Cultura y Religión is the property of Miguel Angel Mansilla Aguero and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Indonesian Buddhism has many sects such as Theravada, Mahayana, Buddhayana, Tantrayana, Maitreya, Tridharma, Kasogatan, Nichiren and so on. These sects historically come from the same source, the Buddha’s teachings, but now they have differences in terms of doctrines and practices. This article analyses the differences with regard to their doctrines and beliefs in relation to the concept of God as required by the Indonesian Constitution. The discussion focuses on the debate among three sects, namely, Buddhayana, Theravada and Mahayana, about the name and nature of God and sources of doctrines on which they rely. The research was conducted in Jakarta and Bogor which focused mainly on the organisation of Nichiren Shoshu Indonesia (NSI). The data were collected through book and document study, observations and interviews with NSI followers. Additional data was performed in Bandung in 2019 by interviewing Buddhayana and Theravada adherents. The research finds that Buddhayana was successful in formulating the concept of God based on an old manuscript, Sang Hyang Kamahayanikan, so that Buddhism has met constitutional requirements and eventually has been accommodated as one of the official religions. However, it has been challenged by both Theravada and Nichiren, which rely on other sources of doctrines. Contribution: This article contributes to the theological discourse among Buddhist sects, which are rarely discussed by Buddhist scholars. Buddhist adherents in Indonesia not only have political responsibility as required by the Constitution, but also have a socio-ethical responsibility in terms of religious tolerance both within and outside other religions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the extensive information known about suicide bombings, widely-varying intentions have been used by many scholars to explain the religious motivations for the violence: these events are framed by participants as religious experiences, raising complex questions about the relationship between religious experience and violence. Recent studies use the vocabulary of religious studies—sacrifice, martyr, witness—to locate "cultures of violence" in a specific psychic structure, in a specific religion, or in religion in general; this paper compares three major studies that are representative of contemporary debate about religious experience. Ivan Strenski's approach offers the broadest view, grounding suicide bombings in specific Islamic shaping of religious experience by a (non-normative) view of self-sacrifice emboldened by notions of jihad. Gideon Aran reconstructs a much narrower frame, a mutual attachment by bombers and their enemies around motivations from the redemptive capacity of blood (spilling and collecting). Ruth Stein psychoanalyzes the mind of a specific suicide bomber, Mohammed Atta, locating a complex web of love and hate as a motivation. These studies, each in a different way, demonstrate just how elusive the intentions of bombers remain and the sheer range of frameworks that might illuminate the aims of individuals who engage in suicide bombings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Pontifical Gregorian University hosted the Religious Freedom Summit, promoted by the American University of Notre Dame, to discuss the future of religious freedom in the world. The United Kingdom government also organized a conference to strengthen efforts in guaranteeing freedom of religion or belief. The summit focused on the declaration of the Second Vatican Council, Dignitatis humanae, which expresses the Catholic Church's support for the protection of religious freedom. The goal of the summit is to stimulate debate on religious freedom in the United States and worldwide. The conference also brought together members of the International Alliance for Religious Freedom or Belief to promote religious freedom and protect individuals persecuted or discriminated against for their religion or beliefs. [Extracted from the article]

The video producer "Porta dos Fundos" is a vehicle of cultural policy. In this article we undertake an analysis of its cultural policy along the axis of the religious theme, which is as challenging for democratic laicism as a strong expression of common culture. The audiovisual production actively and politically mobilizes the viewer's imagination, contributing, in this case, to the debate on the religious theme and providing an opportunity to shift the viewer's worldview to expand his interpretative capacity on the "religious sacred" that, as a political-cultural expression, it has nothing "sacred" or separable from the elements of the public sphere marked by democratic laicity. For this reason, the multiple and inclusive approach present in the religious-themed videos of the collective Porta dos Fundos are ways of qualifying the level of effective democratization of Brazilian society. The inability to laugh about "sacred" themes for the short films and Christmas specials at Porta dos Fundos points, in addition to a healthy tension, the narrow political-cultural limits of a country that has not yet matured in its institutional and democratic principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal for Religion in Education / Religionspädagogische Beiträge is the property of Arbeitsgemeinschaft Katholische Religionspadagogik & Katechetik (AKRK) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti is the property of Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba Jose Marti and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Al-Adab / Al-ādāb is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2018, news of a 41-year-old Malay man's marriage to a Thai girl of 11 as his third wife broke out in the Malaysian media, catalysing nationwide concerns on the state of affairs of child marriage in Malaysia. This article analyses the news reports on this child marriage scandal and draws on my own long-term ethnographic fieldwork studying marriage and intimacy in the state of Kelantan to examine the ensuing public and religious debates concerning the amendment of Malaysia's Islamic family law enactments. I demonstrate that state- and federal-level efforts at curbing child marriage have failed largely due to the lack of consensus amongst the religious and political elite, as well as members of the Muslim community, on what the purpose of marriage is, who – and whose interests – it is meant to protect, and what measures should be implemented to prevent its abuse. Furthermore, child marriage in Malaysia has been ideologically sustained by a rhetoric of 'masculinist protectionism' in which men justify their marriage to young girls as an act of care and benevolence to mask a reality of coercion and violence. However, legal reform on child marriage will not only be ineffectual but also inadequate if it is not enforced in tandem with other initiatives such as seeking poverty eradication in rural regions; looking at the feasibility of contracting eloped marriages in Southern Thailand; and carefully reconsidering Malay adat and Islamic norms promoting young and early marriage as alternatives to prolonged periods of courtship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Alternative Politics / Alternatif Politika is the property of Alternatif Politika and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The insistence that the prophets of the Hebrew Bible were "forthtellers, not foretellers" is ubiquitous in academic, liberal Christian, and even secular circles. It categorically denies that the prophets of ancient Israel predicted the future and characterizes them instead as voices of social critique. This article explains the origins of the phrase, its philosophical and religious underpinnings in Protestant, Enlightenment, Romantic, "scientific" and "modern" thought and traces its rhetorical usage in religious debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through exploring the representations and political participation of the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order of Montreal, this article analyses the relationship between Sufism, secularity, and political authority in Quebec in ongoing debates around religious "moderation" and State neutrality laws post-9/11. I offer an in-depth but necessarily bounded ethnographic account of this Sufi group in an attempt to expose a process of localisation and instrumentalisation of a particular Muslim identity in Quebec reflecting local pressures of religious reformation. I will argue that the charisma attached to the Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi order, as articulated by politicians as well as non-Muslim Montrealers, is one that has emerged most particularly in the past 15 years and is embodied in the current local leader of the community, Shaykh Omar Koné. Yet, this charisma operates within centuries-old Orientalist discourses about Sufism and Islam, and most notably is validated in Quebec through recent secular politics of "moderation" and State neutrality bills as heritage of the 1960 Quiet Revolution. Writing as a French-Canadian, in this article, I will offer an insight into the construction of a Sufi consciousness in Quebec, a tale that I trace through multiple accounts, though primarily through my interactions at the Montreal Naqshbandi-Haqqani Sufi Centre and with their imam, Shaykh Omar Koné from 2014 to 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Ottoman state continued the traditions of previous Islamic states with its own specific additions. One of these was the tradition of refutation, which included religious criticisms of Judaism and Christianity. The historical sources mention two religious disputes that Ottoman Muslims had with Gregory Palamas and Manuel II Paleilogos from the beginning of the Ottoman state to the conquest of Istanbul by Mehmed II. Risālah, which is fairly certain to have been written one or two years after Mehmed II’s conquest of Istanbul (1454/55) and which is the subject of this article, is the first antiChristian refutation of the Ottoman period. The numbers of such refutations will increase later. David Thomas mentions the name of the Risālah as Hücecü’l-milleti’l-Hanifiyye wa cevābu kulli suāl. However, It provides no information about the reason for writing in the text or the name of the text itself or the author. It is understood from the contents of the Risālah that it is a direct defense of Islam through a criticism of Christianity. The conqueror Mehmed II had several religious talks with the Patriarch II. Gennadios Scholarios. The text in question was written upon a request for Gennadios to write a text that would summarize the Orthodox faith. The title of Gennadios’ text as “The Only Way to the Salvation of Humanity” and the orthodox belief principles it sets forth contain a direct challenge to the claims of Islam as the last religion and its criticisms of Christianity. Therefore, it can be said that the Risālah was request to write by Fatih in response to these challenges. The Risālah, which was composed based on Zāhidī’s er-Risālatü’n- Nāsıriyyah, consists of three parts. The first section is devoted to how the religious debate in the presence of the sultan would be conducted and answered to the questions asked by the Christians. The second part contains the miracles of Muhammad. (p.b.u). The third section deals with those who oppose his prophethood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focused on the burning issue of the authority of Scripture and the way that it is currently used in the Christian and theological community. The research was necessitated by the gap between academic epistemology and the use of the Bible in religious activity. The research illustrated how a different understanding of the authority and interpretation of the Bible caused a clear division in church and society, particularly in the Reformed churches. The aim of the research was to illustrate the current abuse of the Bible in religious debate to legitimise preconceived convictions on theological and ethical issues. It was found that, even within the Reformed tradition, the opposing use of Scripture has caused diversity in the church community; thereby causing a serious break in the unity of the church. During the research process, it became clear that a radical new approach to Scriptural interpretation opposed the traditional Reformed understanding of the application of the Bible as per the three main confessions of the Reformed faith. What influenced such a radical new way of Scriptural authority? It was found that an analysis of philosophical systems, leading to the postmodern era, clearly prepared the way for an approach to search for the so-called true meaning of the text behind the text. This new approach was juxtaposed against the Reformed use of Scripture in the immanent text of the Bible and application thereof in the Reformed confession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the article, the author discusses the concepts in the development of Christian doctrine. Other topics include the views of theologian John Henry Newman on the topic, eschatological teleology, the Eucharistic conception of Tradition, the comment of theologian Yves Congar on liturgy, and the Eucharistic metaphor of Tradition as per French philosopher Maurice Blondel and Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar.

Biblical and missionary societies began to distribute Protestant Bibles and texts in Spain on a regular basis in the 1830s, through agents. One of the most important of these agents was James Graydon. He operated in Barcelona, where he published the Nou Testament in Catalan (1836) and the Biblia (1837) in Spanish. Both works were printed at the workshop of Antonio Bergnes de las Casas, in addition to other polemic and apologetic Protestant, which the colporteur distributed throughout the Mediterranean coast. Bergnes' network of agents and the role played by press advertising were essential for the distribution of these Protestant works. They were met by a notable response from Catholics, in newspapers and in anti-Protestant texts, which deepened the debate on religious freedom and the freedom of worship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution assesses the impact of the Protestant Reformation and iconoclasm on the memorial culture of tombs, epitaphs, and rituals in the Low Countries (c. 1520-1585), and analyses the consequences these events had on ancestral remembrance. Demonstrating how Protestant critiques and iconoclastic attacks fundamentally endangered the archival function of churches, it argues that this imminent threat to memory provoked a heightened awareness of the ancestral past in the later sixteenth century. Most significantly, it shows that this precarious situation led to the genesis of a new type of commemorative manuscript, the épitaphier, in which heraldic, genealogical, and other information on various types of memorial monuments in churches was recorded. In tracing the production and dissemination of these épitaphiers, the article casts new light on the pan-European heraldic and 'genealogical craze' in this period: while English scholars have emphasized social dynamics as explanation, this essay puts forward the religious debates as a hitherto neglected factor, and demonstrates how the two interlocked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article enters the current heated debates on religious exemptions with a modest proposal: political power should be central to religious exemption analysis. The Article proposes a factor familiar from equal protection law--the Political Power Factor--to be used in the adjudication of religious exemptions. Drawing on recent Supreme Court cases, the Article explores how and when political power becomes a democratic problem and an Establishment Clause challenge. It argues that extra-accommodation of objectors whose views are backed by political power in political processes may violate the Establishment Clause's mandate against favoritism of particular religions or religion in general. The Political Power Factor is proposed as a tool to adjudicate political power and thereby address the identified Establishment Clause concerns. The Political Power Factor gauges the representation of the religious objector's viewpoints in the given polity's political processes. When a viewpoint is well-represented in political processes, the factor weighs against granting an exemption, and vice versa. While difficult boundaries must be drawn, judges can engage in this line of inquiry without violating long-standing principles of judicial restraint in this area of law. The time to engage in a careful political power analysis is now. Religious exemptions have been caught in the crossfire of the culture wars, and political discourse on the boundaries of the current religious exemption regime is polarized. Facilitating boundary-drawing for an evolving religious exemption regime is in the interest of both those who fear this regime's rapid expansion and those who are concerned with its long-term stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores a central chapter in the history of the Catholic reception of Shakespeare‟s work during the contemporary age: the Catholic readings in 2016 of Shakespeare‟s dramatic presentation of mercy in the context of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare‟s death and the Holy Year of Mercy. This study directs its focus first to Catholic public manifestations on mercy −such as printed volumes, articles and cycles of lectures− which incorporated Shakespeare‟s reflections on mercy within their religious debate. Second, it studies how the Globe to Globe Hamlet performance at the Holy See on 13 April 2016 triggered the interpretation within the Vatican context of Hamlet as a play which, despite its focus on revenge and crime, opens up glimpses of mercy that allow a redefinition of justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Babylon Center for Humanities Studies is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article traces the motives and reasoning of several national Evangelical Alliances (EAs) in Europe in establishing the European Evangelical Alliance (EEA), that are predominantly theologically and partially culturally driven. Topics include examines that British EA had been the coordinating body of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) since the British EA's beginnings in 1846; and considered that research on the history of the evangelical alliances focus on the nineteenth century.

The role of regenerate men and women in the church remains an ongoing, intensely-debated subject within evangelical faith communities. The preceding also includes the narrower issue of church services involving the dynamic relational tension between the genders centred around ecclesial hierarchy and subordination. Pivotal to the preceding disputation is Paul's discourse in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16 and 14:33b-36 regarding male and female believers in congregational gatherings. My disquisition takes a renewed look at these two passages to discern what they do and do not teach on the topic mentioned above. A key premise is that when these texts are examined within the context of their first-century AD, Greco-Roman setting, Paul taught Christians to observe common cultural conventions of the time regarding the practice of wearing head coverings and maintaining decorum within public worship. A corresponding premise is that the apostle was not mandating a corporate practice that is directly applicable to 21st-century believers, regardless of whether they reside in the global north or the majority world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to examine the contemporary presence of religions in the Brazilian public space, having as its axis of debate in this process the Religious Teaching. In this aspect, it is in dialogue with the secular dimension of educational establishments, specifically public, questioning the relevance or not of the discipline in question in them and emphasizes, along the way, reflections that can broaden this discussion, especially with the curriculum. Thus, it is assumed that the current Religious Teaching curriculum advocates the sociability of the discipline as it suggests that it promotes the development of teaching-learning mechanisms in which the human being turns to the memory of his own culture, returning, consequently, his search for the understanding of symbolic and diversified foundations that are present in this. It is understood that the Religious Teaching requests integrated action inside and outside the school environment, with an interdisciplinary proposal involved by the relationship between religion, science, culture and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work investigates how the orisha Ogum, worshiped in religions of African origin, is represented in three songs by rappers Criolo and Emicida, according to the context in which the divinity is inserted and how it is re-signified through language Rap. In order to reach a satisfactory understanding, a brief history was made about the influence of Afro music in Brazil, as well as how it was influenced by religiously African origin. Content Analysis was used as a methodological tool, guided by the studies of Lawrence Bardin (2016), which enabled the survey of categories and through this analysis it was possible to verify that the presence of Ogum in the musical compositions of Criolo and Emicida shows Afro knowledge religious, but in a different way compared to the terreiros and contributes to the debate on religious intolerance and black resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paternalism was exerted by American missionaries towards local Christians; patriarchy emanated from American men towards Syrian and American women, but also from Syrian men towards the women of their own communities. By creatively using both mission and university archives, and reading against the grain sources produced by Arabic-speaking Christians and international missionaries, Womack highlights the contribution of local Protestants to the Nahda. It is the merit of Deanna Womack's meticulously researched and compellingly argued book Protestants, Gender and the Arab Renaissance in Late Ottoman Syria, which is based on her dissertation, that it gives voice to a range of new and hithertho understudied personalities, particularly Syrian women. [Extracted from the article]

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During the Flacian controversy over the definition of original sin (1560s-70s), a doctrinal debate took place that proved to be foundational for Lutheran theology: a number of the laity from the central German territory of Mansfeld wrote confessions in which they articulated their views on the matter. The mere existence of these statements from the likes of counts, city officials, artisans, and laborers raises the question of lay participation in the doctrinal controversies of the latter sixteenth century, a question rarely asked by historians. Moreover, an examination of why these people wrote their confessions reveals a desire to engage in questions of doctrine during this period of the late Reformation, while an analysis of their writings demonstrates a surprisingly complex understanding of the controversy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fierce debates about the Eucharist during the Reformation era highlight a central tension between individuals' desire to secure confessional purity and their instinct to protect the communal nature of Christian worship. Preserving confessional coexistence required balancing these forces, often by expelling nonconformists or driving them underground. Instead, civic leaders in sixteenth-century Wesel demanded that residents of all confessions attend communion together. This policy emerged as a result of leaders' fear of unmanageable disorder in the face of waves of Calvinist immigrants, even as the town was still reeling from struggles between Lutherans and Catholics. In practice, this policy preserved the sacral communalism of the pre-Reformation church, while leaving individuals latitude to express confessional difference in informal but visible ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early age of orthodoxy in German Lutheranism was a crucial period of transition and solidification between the conciliatory Formula of Concord in 1577 and the work of early seventeenth-century dogmaticians such as Johann Gerhard (1582-1637). During this "confessional age" Lutheran theologians struggled to protect the "pure teachings of Luther" while consolidating religious reforms and engaging in polemical battles with Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Anabaptists, and Jews. This article sheds new light on early orthodoxy by examining the career of Heinrich Heshusius (1556-97), a Lutheran superintendent in the north German city of Hildesheim. Together with the town council, mayor, and a network of Lutheran pastors, Heshusius fought what he saw as the dangerous inroads of local Jews and Jesuits, using a variety of political and polemical tactics. This article explores the confessional literature related to the controversy, explains attempts at conversion as well as expulsion, and contributes to ongoing discussions about how clergymen shaped and controlled community in urban, parish, and academic settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyzes the senses of the secularity and religion categories in the public controversies operated by social actors. Will take as the main object of analysis the debate about religious teaching in public schools held at the public hearing organized by the Supreme Court in 2015. We assume that the systematic description of how the actors articulate these categories in this public arena illuminates the secular settings embodied by the actors. In this case study, we will map the various uses of these categories by representatives of 32 different organizations in civil society and the state, to understand how the characteristics inherent to their social position affect the way they articulate their justifications and the implicit meanings they attribute to the secular and its counterpart, the religious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various articles published within the issue on topics like philosophies in education, Thomas Aquinas' method of disputation, and subjectivity in education.