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Looking retrospectively at pre-colonial African marriages and sexualities is critical in the urge to transform the contemporary narratives about marriage and sexuality within African Christian spaces. In Africa, marriage and sexuality had cultural, spiritual, and religious intersectionality. However, the advent of the missionary-colonial enterprise reconstructed the concepts of marriage and sexuality by imposing the supremacy of Christianity and Civilization agendas. Thus, Africans were compelled to discard their views of marriage and sexuality to comply with the prescripts of Christianity, baptism, and church membership. This paper used the Sankofa and Decolonial theories to investigate the perpetual influence of the 19th-century missionary-colonial enterprise within the contemporary African Pentecostal views of marriage and sexuality. It debunked the heterotopias of the born-again experience which propels the supremacy of Christianity and civilization agendas. The findings indicated that these agendas manifest in the form of hetero-monogamous aspirations of missionaries that undermined the African views of marriage and sexuality, thus, rendering them as demonic, backward, barbaric, and something to be forgotten. Lamentably, the same narrative has shaped the views of Pentecostal Christians within the contemporary African context. However, this has created a myriad of problems for both Africans and Christianity in Africa. In conclusion, the study emphasized the need to delink from Western conceptualizations by rethinking African marriages and sexualities. This could be done by revisiting pre-colonial African marriage systems and sexualities to challenge the current distorted narrative while embracing the positive elements of Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the policy of repression of the Soviet authorities against the Roman Catholic clergy in the eastern territories of the Second Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, in particular Volhynia, during the Great Terror. The main attention is paid to the reasons and prerequisites of the anti-religious policy of the Soviet authorities, the analysis of the instruments of the systematic destruction of the material and spiritual base of the Church, including the closure and destruction of churches, repressions against priests and active parishioners, as well as the distribution of propaganda materials with the aim of discrediting the Catholic religion. The relevance of the topic is due to the insufficient development of the problem of repressions against the Roman Catholic Church in domestic historiography, which especially concerns the Volyn region. The article uses an interdisciplinary approach that allows combining the analysis of archival documents, scientific works and conclusions from declassified materials. The results of the study highlight the scale of repressive measures, methods of liquidating religious structures and leaders, and demonstrate the consequences for the religious life of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bylye Gody is the property of Cherkas Global University Press 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.)

Martin Lackovič was born at the end of the 18th century in the small village of Radošovce near Trnava. He came from a large but Catholic family and from an equally nationally conscious background. He graduated from the seminary in Trnava and spent most of his life as a priest in Dobrá Voda. From his youth, he was an active member of the revivalist movement, a supporter of the Bernolaks, who commissioned works by our leading revivalists. Lackovič became especially well known for letting his classmate and friend from his youth, Ján Hollý, live at his rectory after the fire in Madunice. And few people know that it was Martin Lackovič who completed the construction of a new church in Dobrá Voda or even founded a small hospital for poor and abandoned people there in 1849. The visitation from year 1842 also speaks of him as a pious, conscientious man who had a close and warm relationship with his parishioners. There is little written about Martin Lackovič today, but it is necessary to provide as comprehensive view as possible of this almost forgotten but otherwise important figure in our history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Catholics form their consciences together in parishes particularly on topics of gender and sexuality. The data for this project stems from ethnographic observations and forty interviews from a 2010 to 2012 study of two Catholic parishes in Chicago. The first is a progressive parish promoting inclusion of gay and lesbians as well as women's ordination. The second had a small but active Respect Life group attempting to change their parish culture to be more committed to Respect Life issues. The paper suggests that cultural inertia (or lack there of) is one mechanism that drives or halts conscience formation. These collective consciences lead to differing understandings of what it means to be Church and to be a person, and they may motivate actions to change the Catholic Church hierarchy or local parish. Forming consciences together has implications for understanding the role of culture and structure in the Catholic Church. Specifically, these formed consciences, parish cultures, and actions produce different boundaries and partnerships with the Archdiocese which determines what actions are legitimate by setting the conditions for parish actions and constraining parish actions with threats of sanction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the critical role of church membership in the process of economic recovery after high-impact natural disasters. We document a significant adverse treatment effect of the 2005 hurricane season in the Southeastern United States on establishment-level productivity. However, we find that establishments in counties with higher rates of church membership saw a significantly stronger recovery in terms of productivity for 2005–10. We also show that church membership is correlated with post-disaster entrepreneurship activities and population growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the factors influencing continued church membership intention in Ghana, focusing on the key correlates of this behavior. Using structural equation modeling (SEM) the survey data collected were analyzed. The findings highlight charismatic leadership, religious experience, corporate social responsibility, personal needs fulfillment, tangibles, and message credibility as significant determinants of continued church membership intention. Furthermore, the study identifies a willingness to donate as a consequential outcome. The proposed integrative model not only offers scholars essential constructs for future theoretical exploration but also provides church managers with a comprehensive framework to enhance membership retention strategies. This research serves as a critical foundation for both academic and practical advancements in understanding the dynamics of church membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we examine clergy use of verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors of professionalism within the pastor–parishioner dyad. In doing so, we interviewed 21 clergy from disparate Christian denominations—The Episcopal Church, USA, and The Assemblies of God, and analyzed data via modified constant comparative analysis. Findings, conceptualized through Uhl-Bien's Relational Leadership Theory (RLT), produced answers as to why clergy members employ professionalism-based behaviors, which behaviors they frequently employ, and the benefit of professionalism to the pastor–parishioner leadership dyad. Findings theoretically contribute (1) an introduction toward the development of a clergy framework of professionalism, (2) an expansion on the understanding of professionalism, (3) a mechanism of influence and control inside RLT—professionalism, and (4) demonstrates that co-construction within a leadership relationship is guided by underlying assumptions of power within the dyad. The authors conclude with pragmatic implications for all leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the ongoing scholarly debate about the secularisation of Scottish (and British) society, churchgoing is one of the few metrics for which longitudinal data exist, albeit fragmentarily. This article assembles and analyses the evidence about levels of church attendance in Scotland's capital (and second largest) city during the nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries. It draws upon quantitative data (nine religious censuses, with varying methodologies, in 1836, 1851, 1882 and between 1980 and 2016) and qualitative sources (chiefly local newspapers). Relative to population, churchgoing in Edinburgh and Leith appears to have declined continuously since the mid-nineteenth century, in-person attendance standing at an estimated 3.59% of the city's residents on an average Sunday in 2022–3, somewhat lower than in Glasgow. Possible explanations for this decrease are briefly explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a nationally representative, repeated cross‐sectional sample of over 250,000 Americans from 2016 to 2019, we investigate the role that religious and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) identities play in influencing Americans' political attitudes, centering the narratives of religious LGBT Americans. We find that nearly half of LGBT Americans affiliate religiously. Logistic regressions show that identifying as religious is related to more conservative views on LGBT rights and abortion while identifying as LGBT is related to more liberal views on both of these issues. We failed to observe interaction effects, suggesting that religious affiliation influences LGBT individuals' political views in a manner similar to the way it influences cisgender, heterosexual individuals' views. Comparisons of the variation accounted for by religious or LGBT identities show that religious affiliation more frequently accounted for more variation in political views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Living in a world of national upheavals, how did Victorian Baptist pastor Charles Haddon Spurgeon address these tragedies through his sermons? This article focuses on the 1866 Panic when a financial crisis hit the city of London, leading not only to the closure of banks and corporations but also the loss of jobs and the destruction of people’s livelihoods. On the Sunday morning of May 13, 1866, at London's Metropolitan Tabernacle, Spurgeon addressed the crisis with a sermon entitled “A Lesson from the Great Panic.” In offering a close reading of the sermon, we examine how Spurgeon allays his congregation’s fears and anxieties by (1) not trivializing their pain, (2) helping his congregation see that God sometimes uses afflictions to shake off the temporary things, (3) assisting his church members to invest in eternal treasures, and (4) aiding them to trust in God's palatable and sufficient promises. This study concludes with remarks on how, following Spurgeon's example, we can also effectively communicate God's word during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the theological implications of being a church member in a contemporary context that highly values individual autonomy, by engaging with John Zizioulas's ecclesiological framework. Initially, the article elucidates the notion of the 'autonomous self', drawing upon the intellectual contributions and life experiences of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It posits that Rousseau's dilemma of losing self or suffering from loneliness represents the challenge faced by those holding this autonomous anthropological assumption. The article subsequently employs John Zizioulas's constructs of ontological personhood and communion ecclesiology as counterpoints to this quandary. It contends that Zizioulas's trinitarian-informed theological anthropology offers an ecclesial means to surmount this existential dilemma, arguing that church membership is an act of participating in divine and familial communion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay deals with early Mālikī doctrine in Umayyad al-Andalus regarding the Christians. It focuses in particular on "mixed family" issues, that is, those arising from the marriage between a Muslim man and a Christian woman and their children, by analysing masāʾil (sing. masʾala, dialogues among jurists) and fatāwā (sing. fatwā, juridical answers for questions and lawsuits). These materials provide us with rich information about how Andalusī jurists quoted and selected their teachers' opinions, and also about the contents of their own doctrines. I will especially deal with custody (ḥaḍāna) of children born to a Christian mother and with the religious affiliation of children whose Christian father converted to Islam. The sources analysed provide evidence that juridical discussions responded to social issues, including blurred religious identities and pressure to convert in "mixed family" contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pentecostalism, to which the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe belongs, is one of the fastest growing brands of Christianity in Zimbabwe. Most Pentecostal churches promise divine health, deliverance, miracles and prosperity to their members. In the Apostolic Faith Mission of Zimbabwe, women constitute the greater percentage of the church membership. Despite the fact that Pentecostal churches make promises of a good life, a church is generally expected to be a safe haven to its members. This paper wished to examine whether the Pentecostal church response to COVID-19 helped to build or destroy the mental health of its majority members, the women. The findings however show that the church mostly affected women's mental health in a negative way as it grappled with the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article therefore contests the claim of providing a good life as done by some Pentecostal churches. This was a qualitative study and utilized findings from a sample of 15 members of the Apostolic Faith Mission in Zimbabwe who were selected using purposive sampling. The findings suggest that the women were stressed by the teachings on marriage and emphasis on collection of money, discrimination against single women, the prosperity gospel, and patriarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Newspapers from the nineteenth century provide an interesting contemporaneous window into the lives and communities of Black people in Northern states. The advent of Newspapers.com and other indexed collections make these resources much more accessible. Newspapers in Philadelphia, which, as this article points out, had had the largest Black population of Northern cities, according to the 1860 census, represents a rich repository of insightful reading. Among the most compelling, in my experience, is this 1867 article from The Evening Telegraph, published in Philadelphia from 1864-1918. While it begins with an anticipated insult indicating Black people generally "belong to the very lowest orders of society as far as intelligence and bodily comfort are concerned," it goes onto say that "among them are many men of large wealth and considerable refinement, and that their churches and schools are in very flourishing condition." This statement is followed by a seemingly comprehensive list of Black institutions such as schools, churches, and businesses, with details such as church membership and value of church real estate, listings of various professions: physicians, dentists, teachers, artists, musicians, etc., as well as wealthy people and their sources of income. In the case of dentists and others, the writer points out they are "both intelligent and skillful." Readers should note that an 1867 article about Black people in Philadelphia should not be viewed as a profile of a Black population two years post emancipation. Pennsylvania took action to end enslavement by gradual manumission in 1780, and an 1847 law ended legal enslavement for anyone still subject to bondage at that time. Early nineteenth-century Philadelphia is replete with events depicting struggles, discrimination, resilience, and successes and victories of Black Philadelphians. AAHGS Journal extends profound gratitude to copy editor Joan Keyes for transcribing this article, as well as New Jersey historian Paul W. Schopp for calling it to our attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Croatica et Slavica Iadertina is the property of University of Zadar, Department of Croatian & Slavic Studies 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.)

This article analyzes the communication strategies adopted by two working groups based in American Catholic parishes to protect their parishioners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an ethnographic study, it shows how these religious leaders developed mitigation and suppression measures against the virus. The research highlights the important role that religious actors can play in health education during an outbreak of a highly contagious infection like COVID-19. The response of two Catholic parishes, San A and San MG, to the COVID-19 pandemic is described. Both parishes created working groups following diocesan guidelines and received specific training. Mitigation and suppression measures were implemented, such as church closures, social distancing, mask-wearing, and hand and space sanitization. Communication was based on science and carried out through regular meetings and coordination between two communication departments. Messages were adapted for different groups and reviewed to ensure clarity and understanding. Social marketing tools such as social media, emails, online newsletters, and phone calls were used to reach parishioners and promote mitigation measures. Phone calls were particularly effective, but online streaming of masses was not successful for older parishioners. According to the article, the message about contact tracing did not work well in the parishes of San MG and San A. The parishes reported few cases and did not have the means to conduct contact tracing. Additionally, there was resistance to mitigation and suppression measures due to the politicization of the pandemic. Trust in parish communication was an important factor, but there were concerns about the lack of audience segmentation and the rigidity of top-down guidelines. The article analyzes the faith-based response to the COVID-19 pandemic in two parishes. It points out that some members of the working groups should have been public health officials or medical personnel to effectively convey information and health education. The resistance of parishioners and the politicization of the pandemic in the United States are highlighted as obstacles to communication. It is recommended that churches be prepared for future pandemics and have healthcare and communication professionals on their teams. It is also suggested that the Catholic Church adopt a social justice approach in its healthcare assistance. [Extracted from the article]

In this article, we analyse how Communion as a religious ritual is perceived in rapidly changing circumstances. As a case study, we examine the views of Finnish Lutheran ministers and parishioners regarding online Communion and use empirical data (N = 333) collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of focusing on the pandemic period per se, we treat Communion as a religious ritual that is under renegotiation during a time of change. We ask whether there are differences in the stances of pastors and lay people, and in what ways do similarities and differences occur among the respondents. We identified two main stances towards online Communion – preservers and transformers. For preservers, adherence to canonized ritual was most important, whereas transformers were keen to create new ritual practices and consider ritual objects anew. However, the majority of respondents held quite a negative stance regarding online Communion. Ministers and lay respondents had similar arguments about online Communion regarding practical, church ordinal, and doctrinal perspectives, while divergent views emerged on authority and lay agency. It seems that for the vast majority, preserving a key religious ritual serves as a means of maintaining stability in unstable times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the juridical issues concerning the material reparation of churches and sacred objects after the Iconoclastic Fury in 1566–1567, based on the works of Petrus Peckius (1529–1589). The Fury left an unprecedented path of destruction in many towns of the Low Countries. It presented society not only with political and religious challenges but also with a myriad of legal ones. As a Leuven law professor in this time of chaos, Peckius published the treatise "De sacrosanctis et catholicis Christi ecclesiis reparandis ac reficiendis" (1573). Peckius' take on the theme reveals an intricate analysis of the varied circumstances of destruction, the means of funding the repairs, and the liability of different actors – from the perpetrators of the destruction themselves to the prelate, the parishioners, and even town magistrates. After an initial overview of the Iconoclastic Fury and a brief biographical note on Peckius and his works, this paper will present Peckius' ideas in a 'timeline' of three phases: going, respectively, from the assessment of damages and planning the extent of restoration; to considerations on liability; and, finally, to the juridical means of enforcement. Along with each phase, we provide critical reflections on Peckius' influences and positions in the context of the Iconoclastic Fury. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes the notion of 'worldliness' as a necessary companion to the Religion and Worldviews curriculum. We posit that an understanding of 'worldliness', grounded in empirical research, in which the individual negotiates commitments to one's home (filial) and host (affilial) communities, is pedagogically relevant and heuristically beneficial to the lens of the worldview paradigm proposed for Religious Education (RE). We draw on the analysis and synthesis of an earlier ethnographic study, in which 'worldliness' was found to be a socio- and religio-cultural practice whereby diasporic youth navigate complex identities and affiliations. We argue that 1) a pedagogical approach to a worldviews curriculum calls for an understanding of 'worldliness' as a framework for making sense of agency in the construction of one's own worldview; 2) 'worldliness' is a site for RE pedagogical exploration to counter the power imbalance of the dominant affiliative over the filial, and 3) this needs to be made explicit in RE pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discipleship is a key topic for the worldwide Anglican Church. Approaches to Christian learning have varied over the centuries. The time has come to liberate Christian formation, education, and training from the constraints of the clergy and laity dualistic narrative, where lay people are defined negatively as Christians who are not clergy, not ordained, and not qualified. Inequality of discipleship exists in this clergy/laity disposition. The laity need to be educated. The paper explores the biblical, theological, and educational background for the need to emancipate Christian learning in parishes from the 'lay' era, with its limitations on Christian growth, to another 'discipleship' era where equality of discipleship exists, like the early church prior to around 96 ce. Disciples know that they are learners and ministers and engage in Christian learning as people who are ordained through baptism-confirmation, commissioned through Holy Communion, and qualified through their Christian faith, abilities, and skills, uniquely participating in the missio dei. The implications are discussed and illustrated in three practical examples of 'emancipatory space': A Learning Community Approach; Theology and the People of God; and Democratizing Christian Learning. The Church is called to help people become and be disciples, not laity! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the complexities of mission-state and church-state relations from a micro-level perspective, asking how the missionaries, teachers, and pupils at the Lutheran Middle School in Hunan Province negotiated conflicting claims on church membership and national citizenship. However, Hunan is not a microcosm of modern China. When dealing with nationalism in a Hunanese context, it is sometimes more accurate to speak of Hunanese nationalism rather than Chinese nationalism. This micro-level case study sheds light on the general trends of changing mission-state and church-state encounters, but it also emphasizes unexpected expressions of local Christianity in a context that has not so far been given much scholarly attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research discusses the communication strategies adopted by two parish-based COVID-19 task forces in a US Catholic diocese in order to keep their parishioners safe. Through an ethnographic study, the research shows how these faith-based religious leaders developed the mitigation and suppression measures against COVID-19 for their parishioners between March 2020-March 2021 during and after the lockdown period. The research reports on the social marketing tools adopted by these task forces. Through a reflective analysis on the themes discovered through interviews with these faith-based leaders, the research demonstrates how faith-based actors can effectively play an important role in health education during an outbreak of a highly contagious novel infection like the COVID-19 virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Prior research shows that religiosity affects the degree of managers' risk aversion. As a result, religious firms are less likely to invest in R&D activities. Moreover, US GAAP treats these investments as expenses. For this reason, religious firms have fewer expenses in their earnings and are less likely to be in financial distress. Design/methodology/approach: Data are collected from Worldscope and the Churches and Church Membership files of the American Religion Data Archive website from 1985 to 2018. With 18,199 observations in US context, the authors used the marginal effect to test the mediating effect of R&D accounting treatment. Findings: The authors find that the marginal effect of religiosity on financial distress with US GAAP is higher than the marginal effect of religiosity on financial distress with capitalization of R&D costs, which means that accounting treatment can explain the relation between religiosity and financial distress in the US context. Research limitations/implications: The authors used linear interpolation and linear extrapolation data to be able to conduct this research over a period of 1985–2018. For future researches, the authors propose to test other factors which can explain the relationship between religiosity and financial distress based on the ethics element. Practical implications: These results should be of interest to regulators because treating R&D activities as expenses can destroy the accounting performance of firms that prefer investing in risky projects. This favoritism prevents the comparison between two firms in the same industry with different risk-taking behaviors. This problem is more prevalent if the authors have two firms with different ratios of religiosity. This paper suffers from a major limitation related to data availability. Originality/value: This may be the first study that investigates why religious firms are less likely to be in financial distress. This paper notes that religious firms are less likely to be in financial distress because their conservative behavior towards R&D activities coincides with the conservative R&D accounting treatment. In fact, the mismatch between expenses and revenues from R&D activities can cause financial distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines church affiliations and membership of William Faulkner and the extended Falkner family. Faulkner joined the Oxford Methodist Church of Oxford, Mississippi, at age twelve. He attended Sunday school there and his name appeared on Methodist church membership rolls, on different dates, as both "Falkner" and "Faulkner." Although Faulkner and his wife were married in a Presbyterian church, and his wife was Episcopalian, Faulkner was not a regular churchgoer as an adult. His name remained on the Methodist Church membership rolls as late as the 1930s. Most of the living members of Faulkner's family are Episcopalian. Data for this article were collected from the archives of Oxford-University United Methodist Church of Oxford, Mississippi, interviews, and published reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pursuing unity within the diverse landscape of Christian doctrines, beliefs, and practices is a perpetual challenge that has marked the history of Christianity. This paper delves into the intricate dynamics of fostering unity amidst theological diversity, doctrinal traditions, and varied expressions of faith within the Christian community. By analyzing the theological underpinnings of unity in Christianity, including core doctrines like the divinity of Christ and the authority of Scripture, the paper underscores the foundational principles that bind believers together. Despite these shared tenets, divergent interpretations, emphases, and nuances have given rise to doctrinal variations across Christian denominations. Moreover, the paper delves into the historical evolution of doctrinal discrepancies in Christianity, examining the origins of significant schisms, theological disputes, and doctrinal contentions that have influenced the multifaceted tapestry of Christian beliefs and practices. These historical fractures continue to shape interdenominational relations and interactions among Christians. Practical strategies for promoting unity amid doctrinal diversity are also explored, emphasizing the significance of ecumenical dialogues, interfaith collaborations, and initiatives to foster reconciliation and mutual comprehension. Recognizing and honouring the diverse spectrum of beliefs and practices while seeking common ground is pivotal in nurturing unity within the Christian community. In conclusion, the paper underscores the importance of balancing unity and diversity in Christian traditions, celebrating the richness and complexity that diversity engenders while upholding the shared faith that unites believers across doctrinal boundaries. Through respectful dialogue, humility, and an embrace of the diverse facets of the body of Christ, Christians can endeavour towards a more profound unity that transcends doctrinal discrepancies, fostering a spirit of love and fellowship within the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parenting is a herculean task for parents, church and society. The challenge arises from the fact that people always compromise on one aspect of parenting or the other. Whereas the Bible stipulates the standard for proper child upbringing, most Christian parents today raise their children in a way contrary to the biblical standard and this has negative consequences on the church and the society generally. This is evidenced in social vices exhibited by children in the contemporary world. It is from this perspective that this study empirically investigated Christian parenting with a view to espousing the biblical standard of parenting for societal development. The study adopted a descriptive design of a survey type. The data gathered from the questionnaire were quantitatively analyzed using simple percentage while data from the interviews were qualitatively analyzed. Findings revealed that only 26.64% of respondents had proper understanding of Christian parenting. It was also found that the non-compliance with the parenting principles by 74.8% of respondents has resulted into children's lack of commitment to society's values. Some social vices were identified as problems resulting from this non-compliance. Some of the recommendations are: ECWA Church members to develop informed teaching on parenting to serve as basis for instructing Christians generally. Seminars and workshops should be organized for parents on the need to bring this to bear on their children. Parents must not commit the entire responsibility of parenting into the hands of the church, the school or any house help, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text discusses two separate events. The first event is an international colloquium titled "Secularisation, Pluralism and the 'Death' of Religion - A Nineteenth-Century Conversation (Western Europe)" held at the University of Geneva in June 2023. The colloquium aimed to challenge the widely accepted idea that the second half of the twentieth century was a key moment in secularization, instead focusing on the nineteenth century. The second event is the second International Seminar on Catholicism in Latin America in the 20th century, held at the University of the Pacific in Lima in October 2023. The seminar aimed to provide a space for discussion and research on the development of Catholicism in the region. [Extracted from the article]

The Church today faces a shortage of financial resources and a dearth of vocations and active parishioners, and churches may also find themselves with vacant, unused property. Yet the call of the Church has not changed: we are still called to respond to the cry of the poor (New American Bible, Psalm 142:6), participate in the Incarnation, and stay with Christ as He suffers on the cross (New American Bible, Matthew 26:38). Saints, popes, and theologians echo this call, and sociological and behavioral science perspectives align with it. Together, these perspectives lay the groundwork for a model of ecclesial renewal, one in which laity live intentionally in or near local parishes, contributing to parochial resources and responding to the needs of the local neighborhood, thereby leading to transformation and renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent data suggest that many Catholics do not believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Substantial changes in parish norms and liturgical practices since Vatican II may have played a role in Catholics' changing Eucharistic beliefs. The preliminary data presented here suggest that Catholics may be more likely to believe in the Real Presence if their parish offers Eucharistic Adoration, if parishioners witness others genuflecting frequently, and if consecration bells are rung during the Mass. Additionally, previous Traditional Latin Mass attendance correlates with stronger Real Presence belief. These findings highlight practices that merit further investigation regarding how parish experiences may predict belief in the Real Presence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay discusses the life and career of the prelingually deaf painter Jan Jansz. de Stomme (1615-1658) in the context of early modern debates on deafness, oral speech, and gestural communication. A son of a Franeker burgomaster, Jan moved to Groningen in 1643, where he became known for his portraits of Frisian aristocracy, got married twice, and lived in wealth in a prestigious neighbourhood. The theologian Samuel Maresius and scholar Anton Deusing described Jan's devout attendance of services in the Reformed Church, which defended his right to participate in Holy Communion. A similar account was given in a family chronicle written by Jan's grandnephew, who further specified that Jan joined the church as a communicant member expressing his understanding of the doctrine through gestures. By examining these various sources, I argue that church membership played an important role in bolstering Jan's social status and undermining the alleged intellectual and mental inferiority of prelingually deaf people. I further show that despite the belief that oral speech was a sign of intelligence necessary to perform functions deemed normative, Jan established a successful career communicating only through gestures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Middle Ages, the Church punished usurers with excommunication. Excommunication revoked one’s membership in the Church, leading to spiritual, economic, and political consequences. At the dawn of the early modern period, in the context of the Protestant Reformation, excommunication was redefined. While it was intended to carry only spiritual consequences, its practical, secular effects became inevitable. Moreover, various interpretations of the sin of usury coexisted, and pastors employed excommunication to promote one view or another. These differing spiritual directives on usury, enforced through excommunication, sparked significant debates among theologians and jurists. The key issue was whether the sin of usury had been committed. Through the analysis of several “disputes”, this essay explores the challenges linked to these developments, particularly how shifts in the theory of usury and the practice of excommunication worked in parallel to create a sense of moral uncertainty among Christians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traces of changing materiality of a parish church during the late Middle Ages - A case study of the church of Åseda. Åseda is located in the vicinity of Växjö in Småland, and during a restoration of the church in 1936, various archaeological objects were found. These finds have been dated but never discussed in-depth by anyone. This article aims to further the understanding of this church by analyzing stained window glass, coins and what has been interpreted as the remains of a triumphal wall. The nave and western part of the chancel date back to the end of the 15th century, but there is evidence that an older church is located in the same location. The three categories of materiality are not discussed to contest the dating of the 15th-century church. Instead, this article focuses on the reflection of Medieval society and the perception of the church, which can be interpreted through studying these objects. The three chosen categories of archaeological finds help shed light on the church older than the one dated to the late 15th century. Changes to the church architecture and contacts with other areas are highlighted by studying objects not directly tied to the construction of a church. These changes must have radically changed how the parishioners perceived the church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Studia Paedagogica Ignatiana is the property of Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow 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.)

More than 25 years after the previous survey, the state of religion in Italy in 2017 was surveyed. This time a more challenging mixed methodology was used following both quantitative (with 3238 questionnaires administered according to criteria of statistical representativeness) and qualitative (with 164 in-depth interviews, in various Italian locations) criteria. For over half a century, there has been talk of secularization and the end of religion. What is being recorded all this time, actually, is a decline in religious practice. Meanwhile, there has been an expansion of a kind of religious area that goes beyond Church membership. There is also talk of uncertain faith meaning that a troubled and reflexive kind of belief continues to exist. At present, a new conceptual category is emerging more and more, that of Church as religion, meaning that the Church itself has become religion and begun to replace the content of faith. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings and analysis of data collected in a 2010 research study by comparing them with data collected in a replicated study conducted in 2023. Both surveys produced descriptive data from a membership sampling of churches affiliated with the Baptist Missionary Association of America (BMAA) regarding members' attitudes and practices of discipleship. Leadership of the BMAA responded to findings of the 2010 study by introducing a formal discipleship strategy (DiscipleWay) in hopes that it would increase members' practice of discipleship. The replicated study in 2023 was conducted to determine if members' attitudes and practices changed between 2010 and 2023. Analysis of the 2023 data revealed two negative conclusions of the 2010 survey was less true based on the 2023 responses. Two other conclusions of the 2010 survey were not challenged. Implications for practitioners and educators are discussed in the article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper seeks to evaluate the ecclesiology of St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, particularly as it relates to his defense of orthodoxy against false teaching in his five-volume work, Against Heresies. Irenaeus employs sound reason and biblical theology in his battle against Valentinus, Marcion, and other heretics. But Irenaeus also shows himself to be not only a theologian but also a devoted churchman. In all five books, his teaching on the church plays a significant role in exposing and refuting the false Gnostic teaching of his day. This paper will argue that Irenaeus employed his ecclesiology to distinguish between Gnosticism and the apostolic teaching in Against Heresies. He did this in two ways. First, he argued for the doctrinal identity of the church. The true church is built on apostolic teaching, and any deviation from that teaching results in a false church. Second, he argued that the church’s “ecclesiastical constitution,” both in her presbyters and her members, embodied the apostles’ teaching. In all this, the church preserved the truth entrusted to her by Christ and his apostles.

Many questions remain to be answered about the parish clergy who served in England's churches between 1640 and 1660, due to the difficulties of interrogating the complex, ever-changing, singular and often deficient ecclesiastical records of the time. But much can be learned about religious policy and the relationships of clergy with their communities from the legal records of the time. As well as being useful for linking transient clergy to particular locations, assize, quarter and borough sessions reveal clergy's interventions to influence local religious practice or morality, their complaints against parishioners, as well as the objections parishioners made against them in their turn. With evidence of violence and verbal abuse on all sides, disrupted church services, factional struggles within parishes, resistance to Godliness and a continuing propensity of parishioners to denounce their ministers' political opinions, religious practices, drinking, swearing or sexual misbehaviour, these sources show that clergy had a challenging task in negotiating the divided religious landscape of the times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to unpack the role of adolescent religious affiliation in positive and negative youth outcomes. Methods: We used data from Wave 1 (2002–2003) of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Participants were a nationally representative sample of 3290 adolescents from across the United States. Measures were adolescent‐report or parent‐report items of religiousness (individual religiousness, family religiousness, peer religiousness, and religious community supportiveness) and youth outcomes (future orientation, grades, community involvement, alcohol use, sexual activity, and depression). Results: First, ANOVAs revealed that four dimensions of religiousness (individual religiousness, family religiousness, peer religiousness, and religious community supportiveness) and five youth outcomes (future orientation, grades, community involvement, alcohol use, and sexual activity, but not depression), varied significantly across religious affiliation. Second, regressions examining direct effects found that the multicategorical nominal variable of religious affiliation predicted all outcomes except alcohol use and depression after accounting for the four dimensions of religiousness. Third, each of the four dimensions of religiousness mediated relations between religious affiliation and at least one of the outcomes. Conclusions: In short, religious affiliation seems to play a unique role in youth outcomes, above and beyond other dimensions of religiousness. This role of religious affiliation perhaps functions in part via individual and contextual dimensions of religiousness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The boundaries of an Anglican parish were ritualistically set by the bodies of people who belonged to it, and by the eighteenth century its edges could be imagined as looping outward to encompass indispensable parishioners wherever they moved in the world. Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne (1789) brings nonhuman life into this relational model. In extending belonging to his favorite birds, which from his perspective may or may not be migratory, White uses religious concepts to perform a creative remapping of local space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a quantitative analysis of the data collected globally by the World Value Survey. The data is used to study the trajectories of change in individuals' religious beliefs, values, and behaviors in societies. Utilizing random forest, we aim to identify the key factors of religiosity and classify respondents of the survey as religious and non-religious using country-level data. We use resampling techniques to balance the data and improve imbalanced learning performance metrics. The results of the variable importance analysis suggest that Age and Income are the most important variables in the majority of countries. The results are discussed with fundamental sociological theories regarding religion and human behavior. This study is an application of machine learning in identifying the underlying patterns in the data of 30 countries participating in the World Value Survey. The results from variable importance analysis and classification of imbalanced data provide valuable insights beneficial to theoreticians and researchers of social sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore, using a unique Italian survey dataset containing matching parent–child information, the determinants shaping sociability patterns among the children of immigrants. While it is well-known that long-term migration disrupts interpersonal networks, little is known about the consequences of such disruption for the offspring of immigrants. Adopting a multilevel approach that allows for the consideration of different individual and parental characteristics, we investigate such effects. Our findings reveal that the size and diversity of core discussion networks among immigrant parents are strongly associated with those of their children. Contrary to widespread belief, once the actual sociability patterns of parents are taken into account, out-group attitudes, religious affiliation, and religiosity of the parents play no significant role in determining the size and composition of the close relationships of their children. We consequently put forward the hypothesis that parents may lead mostly by example. Consequently, an adequate understanding of the structure of the core discussion networks of the children of immigrants requires paying attention to the actual interpersonal networks that children have been exposed to within their households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]