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
Algorithms and Faith: The Meaning, Power, and Causality of Algorithms in Catholic Online Discourse
Religions 2024, 15(4), 431; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040431 - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to present grassroots concepts and ideas about “the algorithm” in the religious context. The power and causality of algorithms are based on lines of computer code, making a society influenced by “black boxes” or “enigmatic technologies” (as
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The purpose of this article is to present grassroots concepts and ideas about “the algorithm” in the religious context. The power and causality of algorithms are based on lines of computer code, making a society influenced by “black boxes” or “enigmatic technologies” (as they are incomprehensible to most people). On the other hand, the power of algorithms lies in the meanings that we attribute to them. The extent of the power, agency, and control that algorithms have over us depends on how much power, agency, and control we are willing to give to algorithms and artificial intelligence, which involves building the idea of their omnipotence. The key question is about the meanings and the ideas about algorithms that are circulating in society. This paper is focused on the analysis of “vernacular/folk” theories on algorithms, reconstructed based on posts made by the users of Polish Catholic forums. The qualitative analysis of online discourse makes it possible to point out several themes, i.e., according to the linguistic concept, “algorithm” is the source domain used in explanations of religious issues (God as the creator of the algorithm, the soul as the algorithm); algorithms and the effects of their work are combined with the individualization and personalization of religion; algorithms are perceived as ideological machines.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rethinking Digital Religion, AI and Culture)
Open AccessArticle
Postsecular Jewish Thought: Franz Rosenzweig, Alexander Altmann, Leo Strauss
by
Philipp von Wussow
Religions 2024, 15(4), 430; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040430 - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
This article traces the emergence of what is nowadays called “postsecular” religion from German-Jewish philosophy of the 1920s and 1930s. The three different cases of Franz Rosenzweig, Alexander Altmann, and Leo Strauss impel us to pay particular attention to a few recurring argumentative
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This article traces the emergence of what is nowadays called “postsecular” religion from German-Jewish philosophy of the 1920s and 1930s. The three different cases of Franz Rosenzweig, Alexander Altmann, and Leo Strauss impel us to pay particular attention to a few recurring argumentative and rhetorical strategies. The emergence of postsecularism marks a shift in the epistemic foundations of Jewish religious thought, which had long been under pressure from secular European thought. Beginning with Rosenzweig, Jewish philosophy used secular categories of European philosophy to facilitate a return to the foundations of Judaism, eventually turning against what it sees as the epistemic weaknesses of secularism itself. This article traces the new phenomenon to Rosenzweig’s evolving view of secularism, especially to his ridicule of Siegfried Kracauer’s secular messianism, before examining a few key arguments in his book The Star of Redemption (1921). A brief discussion of Alexander Altmann’s writings of the early 1930s provides that even modern Orthodox Jewish thought, which had never been “secular”, used postsecular categories and arguments to make the philosophical case for orthodoxy. Leo Strauss’s introduction to his Philosophy and Law (1935) provides a far more elaborated form of Rosenzweig’s argument. As this article seeks to show, postsecular Jewish thought comes with a slight twist of epistemic relativism, particularly when it comes to the juxtaposition of the Biblical and scientific “world-views”. But here it merely draws the full consequences of modern science, beating scientism with its own weapons. Furthermore, religious thought in the 20th century had no other option than to rebuild itself on postsecular grounds.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theism in the Language of Humanism: Reincarnations of the Transcendent God in the Secular Subject)
Open AccessReview
Cooperation of the Commune and Parish in Poland in XXI Century as the Implementation of Community Activities
by
Dorota Tokarska
Religions 2024, 15(4), 429; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040429 - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
The commune and the parish are units of two divisions: government and church administration. Both were created for the better functioning of structures and the implementation of central activities: government and the mission of the Church. Their functioning is based on meeting the
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The commune and the parish are units of two divisions: government and church administration. Both were created for the better functioning of structures and the implementation of central activities: government and the mission of the Church. Their functioning is based on meeting the needs of the local community. In turn, their goals, although seemingly divergent, often overlap, because the main mission of both types of units is the good of community members. Therefore, it was deemed necessary to address in this article the issue of methods of cooperation at the lowest level between local government authorities and parish priests operating in the commune. This article presents a theoretical introduction, analyzing the ways in which both spheres operate, with an emphasis on places of cooperation in order to create a unified community, which is defined as both a commune and a parish. The aim of this article is to outline a framework for future empirical research that could clearly indicate the factors shaping the methods and forms of cooperation between these two entities.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christian Prayer: Social Sciences Perspective)
Open AccessArticle
Early Modern Imperial Philologies: Ahmad al-Hajarî and the Lead Books of Granada
by
Oumelbanine Zhiri
Religions 2024, 15(4), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040428 - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
The Morisco polymath Ahmad ibn Qâsim al-Hajarî (c.1569–c.1640) was a diplomat, a writer and translator. His engagement with philology, i.e., the edition, annotation and translation of texts, especially the Lead Books of Granada, is an important part of his work. This article examines
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The Morisco polymath Ahmad ibn Qâsim al-Hajarî (c.1569–c.1640) was a diplomat, a writer and translator. His engagement with philology, i.e., the edition, annotation and translation of texts, especially the Lead Books of Granada, is an important part of his work. This article examines his philological practices and how he deployed them in order to defend Islam and Islamic power and to counter the hegemonic claims of the Spanish Catholic Empire.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
Open AccessArticle
Church Governance—A Philosophical Approach to a Theological Challenge in an Anglican Context
by
Peter D. G. Richards
Religions 2024, 15(4), 427; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040427 - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
Church governance is not often debated within a philosophical or theological sphere. This is perhaps because church governance has been part of tradition since Constantine and the initial Greek philosophical world view of sovereignty and hierarchy. Such a stance has led towards a
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Church governance is not often debated within a philosophical or theological sphere. This is perhaps because church governance has been part of tradition since Constantine and the initial Greek philosophical world view of sovereignty and hierarchy. Such a stance has led towards a managerial mindset that follows and conforms to the world, which plays out within the Anglican polity in the setting of an adversarial parliamentary style synod. This style encourages bounded communities of power that often refute the burgeoning inspirations of the Spirit. In changing the underlying theological basis of such a stance, by invoking the understanding of an undeniable community in the singularity of the Triune God, governance becomes more open. Engaging with, primarily, Agamben but also others from philosophy, a new viewpoint is presented to challenge the manner through which tradition is wielded as the only possibility. In seeing through a differing lens, communities can be conceived as both porous and interconnected, thus allowing the body of Christ to respond with transformative action as opposed to a continuum of conformance with secular legality. In this manner, the bishop’s role may become more centralised towards a Eucharistic one, as opposed to the managerial mindset and role, to enhance the possibilities of God’s love. This then removes the need for a hierarchy driven by a sovereign mindset that tradition bolsters, whilst maintaining loving and authoritative oversight that tradition suggests.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
Open AccessArticle
Revolution and Nation: Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s Late Philosophy of Religion
by
Christoph Asmuth
Religions 2024, 15(4), 426; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040426 (registering DOI) - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s philosophy of religion combines revolutionary pathos with Christian convictions and transcendental philosophical insights. The result is a bourgeois philosophy of religion that preaches freedom, equality and brotherhood, expects the national upswing of a still-longed-for Germany based on the example of
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Johann Gottlieb Fichte’s philosophy of religion combines revolutionary pathos with Christian convictions and transcendental philosophical insights. The result is a bourgeois philosophy of religion that preaches freedom, equality and brotherhood, expects the national upswing of a still-longed-for Germany based on the example of revolutionary France, and praises all this as a continuation of Kant’s philosophy.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of German Idealism on Religion)
Open AccessArticle
Vincent van Gogh’s Theological Chromatology: A Critical Reader of the Bible from His Option for the Poor Avant la Lettre
by
Alex Villas Boas
Religions 2024, 15(4), 425; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040425 (registering DOI) - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
The aim of this article is to show how Vincent van Gogh developed a theological reflection that is mainly present in his paintings with religious motifs. This reflection is the fruit of his religious experience, which combines his spirituality with a social commitment
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The aim of this article is to show how Vincent van Gogh developed a theological reflection that is mainly present in his paintings with religious motifs. This reflection is the fruit of his religious experience, which combines his spirituality with a social commitment to the miners in Borinage, Belgium, which can be seen as an option for the poor avant la lettre in the 19th century. This experience, far from strengthening his institutional relationship, rather provoked a critical attitude towards the theological discourse of the ecclesial context in which he lived and led the aspiring pastor to become a genius in painting. His theological interpretation as a critical reader of the Bible can be translated into what will be called here a theological chromatology, to be identified through the intersection of letters and paintings of Vincent van Gogh. Given the influence of the Dutch painter genius on contemporary culture, the process through which his reflection on the religious and theological issue emerges can be seen as a significant element in understanding the present in post-secular societies.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christian Spirituality and Its Contributions to 20th and 21st Century Theology)
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All or Nothing: Polemicizing God and the Buddhist Void in the Jesuit Mission to East Asia
by
James Matthew Baskind
Religions 2024, 15(4), 424; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040424 (registering DOI) - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
The Jesuit mission to East Asia highlights the polemical difficulties inherent in the process of introducing, translating, and creating a new theological paradigm within a host culture without a common religious worldview. Both Matteo Ricci in China and Ricci’s erstwhile teacher, Alessandro Valignano,
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The Jesuit mission to East Asia highlights the polemical difficulties inherent in the process of introducing, translating, and creating a new theological paradigm within a host culture without a common religious worldview. Both Matteo Ricci in China and Ricci’s erstwhile teacher, Alessandro Valignano, in Japan, both inveighed against Buddhism for positing a “void” as the Absolute rather than God. The East Asian Jesuit mission had an incomplete understanding of what emptiness/nothingness/void referred to until the native Japanese convert and former Zen monk, Fukansai Habian, took up the mantle as the Jesuit polemicist against native systems of thought, in particular, Buddhism. Whereas Ricci and Valignano attacked the “void” within the context of a negation of “something”, Habian correctly understood the void as akin to the pleroma, the fullness of possibility, and the creative principle, but used his more nuanced understanding as a polemical expedient to deny or negate all Buddhist doctrines as expressing nothingness (which he erroneously equates with the void), even such form-affirming schools as the Pure Land school with its clearly defined goal of a physical post-mortem Pure Land. The polemical paradigm engendered by this encounter also served as the starting point for Buddhism’s appearance in the Western imagination. This paper will make a comparative investigation of the polemical discourse between the Jesuits and Buddhists regarding the Absolute and demonstrate how this historical instance would have far-reaching consequences that have ongoing relevance regarding the interplay of Christian and Buddhist teachings.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Interfaith Encounters: Religious Polemics from the Middle Ages to the Modern Period)
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Biographically Anchored Liturgies as a Starting Point for Liturgical Formation
by
Stephan Winter and Lisa Kühn
Religions 2024, 15(4), 423; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040423 (registering DOI) - 29 Mar 2024
Abstract
The liturgical professional development project for pastoral workers and clergy in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart has been developed in collaboration with the Department of Liturgical Studies at the University of Tübingen. The concept of biographical learning is the innovative element that explores a
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The liturgical professional development project for pastoral workers and clergy in the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart has been developed in collaboration with the Department of Liturgical Studies at the University of Tübingen. The concept of biographical learning is the innovative element that explores a new type of liturgical formation (Bildung) where the learning content explores the participant’s unique biography of learning, faith development, and theological education and the impact of these on their understanding of the liturgy and their liturgical practice. The learning process aims to equip professional pastoral theologians to reflect on and be responsive to the liturgical–pastoral contexts in which they work. The Department of Liturgical Studies provides the learning structure and context, while the diocese provides the teaching space and enables the participants to attend. The learning outcomes are unrelated to a specific professional or employment structure or associated with a points system, management, or career progression process. The project provides a learning process rather than a program of learning, distinguishing itself from many traditional approaches to liturgical formation. The challenge for the teaching team is to provide the participants with conceptual or theoretical material to reflect on their biographical narrative of theology and then apply this concept of biographical learning in their specific and diverse pastoral contexts. As part of the biographical learning process, participants contribute to “feedback loops” to the diocese and the teaching team. This paper does not address the competency framework for career development, employment assessment, or learning comprehension. All evaluations of professionalism, role attainment, career development, and competency are employment matters and are the purview of the Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart. However, the learning process provides participants with frameworks for self-assessment and feedback loops to evaluate the teaching team, the process, and the content.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liturgical Formation, Culture and Christian Imagination)
Open AccessArticle
Thomas Aquinas and Some Neo-Thomists on the Possibility of Miracles and the Laws of Nature
by
Ignacio Silva
Religions 2024, 15(4), 422; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040422 (registering DOI) - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
This paper discusses how Thomas Aquinas and some Neo-Thomists scholars (Juan José Urráburu, Joseph Hontheim, Édouard Hugon, and Joseph Gredt) analysed the metaphysical possibility of miracles. My main goal is to unpack the metaphysical toolbox that Aquinas uses to solve the basic question
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This paper discusses how Thomas Aquinas and some Neo-Thomists scholars (Juan José Urráburu, Joseph Hontheim, Édouard Hugon, and Joseph Gredt) analysed the metaphysical possibility of miracles. My main goal is to unpack the metaphysical toolbox that Aquinas uses to solve the basic question about the possibility of miracles and to compare how his late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century followers solved the issue themselves. The key feature to differentiate the two approaches will reside in their use of different notions to account for the possibility of miracles, namely obediential potency for Aquinas and the laws of nature for the Neo-Thomists. To show why neo-Thomist scholars source to this notion, I also briefly discuss how the notion of the laws of nature emerged in the seventeenth century.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Aquinas and the Sciences: Exploring the Past, Present, and Future)
Open AccessArticle
Rebooting Ecumenism, the Theological Equivalent of the Climate Crisis: The Role of Urgency and Accountability on the Road to Ecclesial Interdependence
by
Dragos Herescu
Religions 2024, 15(4), 421; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040421 - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
This article puts forward the argument for the acute and urgent need to move from ecclesial self-sufficiency to ecclesial interdependency in the ecumenical process. The difficulties in ecumenical cooperation mirror those in the climate crisis, as despite a global crisis of relevance for
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This article puts forward the argument for the acute and urgent need to move from ecclesial self-sufficiency to ecclesial interdependency in the ecumenical process. The difficulties in ecumenical cooperation mirror those in the climate crisis, as despite a global crisis of relevance for Christianity and for the ecumenical movement, individual Churches, much like individual states, fail to work together effectively as they negotiate their own internal challenges. Not dissimilar to the ecological climate breakdown, what we understand as the history-bound reality of the Church will not be safeguarded and will not be made relevant in a today’s globalised, pluralistic, interconnected, and dominantly secular, in many contexts, world, except by concerted action from all Churches.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Rebooting Ecumenism - New Paradigms for the 21st Century)
Open AccessArticle
Morisco Catechisms: Religious Incorporation and Differentiation in Early Modern Spain
by
Claire Gilbert
Religions 2024, 15(4), 420; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040420 - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
In the debate over the theory and practice of the Spanish empire at the beginning of the sixteenth century, political, religious, and legal discourses differentiated conquered peoples and recent converts to Christianity from so-called “old Christians”, thereby creating distinct categories of Spanish subjects.
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In the debate over the theory and practice of the Spanish empire at the beginning of the sixteenth century, political, religious, and legal discourses differentiated conquered peoples and recent converts to Christianity from so-called “old Christians”, thereby creating distinct categories of Spanish subjects. In Spain itself, cultural markers like language, dress, and diet became the foundations of fiscal and legal differences, while normative codes were promulgated and negotiated across a range of documents, e.g., legal instruments, civic and ecclesiastical records, university debates, and juridical theory. Concomitant with this process, a set of Christian catechisms was produced in Spain, both before and after the promulgation of Tridentine reforms, that were directed especially at the converted morisco populations in Granada and Valencia. These catechisms were produced in Iberian Arabic and Romance languages and included instructions about how new converts from Islam should behave, as well as what they should believe in order to participate in liturgical activities and to be recognized as full members of the Christian community. This article examines the morisco catechisms produced in Spain between 1496 and 1566, as these documents are representative of a unique period in both the history of Latin Christianity and the burgeoning Spanish empire. Through the emergence of this corpus and against the backdrop of targeted legislation and new policies aimed at Arabic-speaking moriscos, first in Granada and later in Valencia, the ideological foundations constraining the morisco experience were forged.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology and Aesthetics in the Spanish and Portuguese Empires)
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Catholicism, Psychedelics, and Mysticism: Correlations and Displacements
by
Mark Slatter
Religions 2024, 15(4), 419; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040419 - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
This article charts some of the conversations around psychedelics, mysticism, Catholicism, and the Catholic mystics. The first part, “Background and Orientation”, gives context for the current “psychedelic renaissance” and brings the focus to psychedelics and Catholicism. The literature’s frequent comparisons of psychedelic mystical
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This article charts some of the conversations around psychedelics, mysticism, Catholicism, and the Catholic mystics. The first part, “Background and Orientation”, gives context for the current “psychedelic renaissance” and brings the focus to psychedelics and Catholicism. The literature’s frequent comparisons of psychedelic mystical trips with Catholic mysticism raises questions about the legitimacy of religious ways of knowing, the status of the discipline of theology in Western academic cultures, and how Catholicism is often depicted in the psychedelic literature. The first part closes with a survey of the challenges of defining mysticism and some of the patterns perennial to the Catholic mystical experience. In the second part, “Through the Eye of the Methodology Needle”, I look at the problem of methodological displacement, that is, how a researcher comes to conclusions with material that is formally outside of their discipline’s boundaries. This is a challenge for scholars of every stripe when they countenance subject matter that is beyond their expertise—and the lure to still read that material through their known methodology and worldview—but the problem of displacement is conspicuously compounded when the sciences countenance theological and religious themes. I provide concrete examples of displacement with psychedelic and Catholic mysticism, how it can be corrected, and how this would benefit dialogue. In the Conclusions, I outline persistent concerns and theological objections about some of the claims of psychedelic mysticism but hold onto the hope for further dialogue. My sustained attention is to the comparisons that are frequently made between the psychedelic and Catholic mystical experiences and whether these correlations are critically warranted.
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(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
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The Efforts of Government-Driven Reform of Both State and Personal Rites in Early Chosŏn: A Historical Shift from Spiritual Efficacy to Meritorious Practice
by
Ch’oe Chongsŏk
Religions 2024, 15(4), 418; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040418 (registering DOI) - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
In the fifteenth century, the government of Chosŏn, Korea, influenced by the new religious understandings from early Ming China, strived to reform state and personal rites by eliminating elements of spiritual efficacy to align with contemporary religious perspectives. This series of ritual reforms
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In the fifteenth century, the government of Chosŏn, Korea, influenced by the new religious understandings from early Ming China, strived to reform state and personal rites by eliminating elements of spiritual efficacy to align with contemporary religious perspectives. This series of ritual reforms mirrored various Ming policies that, despite being appealing theoretically, struggled with implementation due to a mismatch with local and personal realities. This suggests that Chosŏn’s government-led reforms, diverging from traditional beliefs, faced similar challenges in Korea, leading to various problems. This study delves into the ritual transformations prompted by the reforms in the early Chosŏn era. It highlights the government’s partial success in reforming state rites by removing elements of spiritual efficacy despite potential hindrances and deviations from traditional practices. However, this study also notes the failure of reforms concerning personal rites, which did not yield significant results. It reflects on the complexities and implications of these reforms, considering the socio-religious context of the time and the influence of contemporary Ming China.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Supernatural in East Asia)
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Does God Intervene in Our Lives? Special Divine Action in Aquinas
by
Mirela Oliva
Religions 2024, 15(4), 417; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040417 - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
Does God intervene in our lives? In this paper, I respond “yes” and work out a Thomistic account of special divine action in human life. I argue that God intensifies His action in moments that are particularly significant for our salvation. In such
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Does God intervene in our lives? In this paper, I respond “yes” and work out a Thomistic account of special divine action in human life. I argue that God intensifies His action in moments that are particularly significant for our salvation. In such moments, God intervenes in a contingent mode and reorients our lives for the sake of our final good. First, I present Aquinas’ terminological choice of specialis and intervenire and address concerns expressed in the contemporary divine action debate against the term “intervention”. Second, I discuss the special divine action as a subtype of the special providence that rules over human beings. The special providence mirrors the special place of humans in the created order on account of their reason and freedom. Third, I show that divine interventions occur through irregular contingency. I refer to several interventions: test, habitual grace, God’s moving of the will, God’s enlightenment of the intellect, and punishment. Since it occurs contingently, the special divine action can be known through interpreting signs (a kind of conjectural knowledge). Fourth, I show that not all contingencies are divine interventions. To differentiate between them, I introduce an orientational criterion of interpretation: the transfiguration of a person’s life toward her final good.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Medieval Philosophy and Religious Thought)
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Institutions and Countercultures: Christianity’s Impact on South Korean Modernization
by
Andrew Eungi Kim and Daniel Connolly
Religions 2024, 15(4), 416; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040416 - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
The relationship between modernization and religion is contested, with the literature differing in how and in what ways religion helps or hinders countries’ social, economic, and political development. This paper draws upon the history of Christianity in South Korea to critically explore the
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The relationship between modernization and religion is contested, with the literature differing in how and in what ways religion helps or hinders countries’ social, economic, and political development. This paper draws upon the history of Christianity in South Korea to critically explore the links between religion and modernization. It makes two arguments. First, discussions of the link between religion and modernization frequently employ static definitions of religion, but Christianity is characterized by oscillations between worldly (institutionalizing) and unworldly (countercultural) impulses that theoretically make very different contributions to social, economic, and political development. Second, in the case of South Korea, it is shown that both impulses have made vital contributions to the country’s modernization at different times. This suggests that the dynamic tug-of-war between the institutional and countercultural facets of Korean Christianity, although problematic for individual believers and religious leaders, helped it become an important contributor to the country’s success story. However, this paper concludes on a cautionary note by warning that extreme instances of these impulses have caused cleavages between Christianity and the Korean state and society and could undermine its future contributions. This suggests that diversity and toleration—a hallmark of Korean Christianity—will continue to be the best pathway forward.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Protestant Christianity in South Korea: The Dynamic Relationship of Church and State)
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The Double Identities of the Shaman and the Dualistic Attitudes of the State: An Exploration of Contemporary Organizational Shamanism in Northeast China
by
Feng Qu
Religions 2024, 15(4), 415; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040415 - 28 Mar 2024
Abstract
This paper presents a case study of the first shamanic organization in China and argues that organizational shamanism in Northeast China is characterized by the double identities of the shaman and the dualistic attitudes of the national authorities. The analyses in this paper
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This paper presents a case study of the first shamanic organization in China and argues that organizational shamanism in Northeast China is characterized by the double identities of the shaman and the dualistic attitudes of the national authorities. The analyses in this paper reveal how the shamanic organization created a modernized and globalized space for traditional shamans and specialists to connect with the outside world, enabling them to gain empowerment, legitimacy, and agency. Chinese authorities hold dualistic attitudes towards shamanism: the positive attitude of seeing shamanism as part of cultural heritage has always been coupled with the negative attitude of seeing shamanism as superstition. The studies in this paper demonstrate that organizational shamanism in Northeast China has played a crucial role in negotiating with political authorities and linking local traditions with global discourse. In this sense, the traditional eco-cosmological way of maintaining relationships with natural forces and nonhuman beings has been irrevocably transformed into a cosmopolitical form for the shaman, where the animistic world engages with the outside world, global currency, and political forces.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion, Ritual, and Healing)
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“Christ Is Speaking”: The Psalms as the Grammar of Augustine’s Sermons
by
Matthew D. Love
Religions 2024, 15(4), 414; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040414 - 27 Mar 2024
Abstract
The Psalms saturated Augustine’s sermons. He believed they were God’s words to the church as inspired Scripture, and the church’s words to God as prayer and praise. In the Psalms, he saw kenosis, the downward-directed God in Christ who emptied himself to
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The Psalms saturated Augustine’s sermons. He believed they were God’s words to the church as inspired Scripture, and the church’s words to God as prayer and praise. In the Psalms, he saw kenosis, the downward-directed God in Christ who emptied himself to take on human nature to stand in solidarity with the church and creation. He saw, too, the possibility of deification, the upward-directed church in Christ raised to share in the divine nature. Furthermore, Augustine believed that Christ himself spoke in the Psalms so that in them the church could hear his voice and come to know its own voice. In this essay, I examine why Augustine cherished the Psalms, and I consider how this might inspire contemporary preachers to cherish them and preach them. Moreover, I offer Augustine’s Christocentric preaching of the Psalms as a paradigm for how preachers might facilitate Christological formation among their congregants.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Homiletical Theory and Praxis)
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Stability of the Roman Catholic Church Financing System Based on Germany
by
Anna Mizak and Mariusz Sokołek
Religions 2024, 15(4), 413; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040413 - 27 Mar 2024
Abstract
To effectively carry out its tasks, the church needs a stable financial system. The aim of this article is to present issues related to ensuring the stability of the Catholic Church financing system in times of significant demographic and socio-cultural changes. This study
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To effectively carry out its tasks, the church needs a stable financial system. The aim of this article is to present issues related to ensuring the stability of the Catholic Church financing system in times of significant demographic and socio-cultural changes. This study identifies and characterizes the main sources of income and directions of expenses of the available financial resources. The challenges faced by church authorities in this regard are also described. State authorities finance places of prayer for social, cultural, and psychological reasons. Churches have been places of support in difficult times for centuries as well as places of survival and mental support for society.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christian Prayer: Social Sciences Perspective)
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A Forgotten Eminent Buddhist Monk and His Social Network for Constructing Buddhist Statues in Qionglai 邛崍: A Study Based on the Statue Construction Account in 798
by
Mingli Sun
Religions 2024, 15(4), 412; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15040412 - 27 Mar 2024
Abstract
By transcribing, punctuating, and analyzing the Statue Construction Account undertaken in 798, this article attempts a refreshed study of the construction background of the Buddhist statues and niches at Huazhi Temple 花置寺 in Qionglai. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it
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By transcribing, punctuating, and analyzing the Statue Construction Account undertaken in 798, this article attempts a refreshed study of the construction background of the Buddhist statues and niches at Huazhi Temple 花置寺 in Qionglai. The aim of this article is twofold. Firstly, it brings to light an eminent monk named Sengcai, who has been forgotten in both secular and monastic histories. Secondly, it tries to clarify the social network formed by various figures recorded in the Statue Construction Account by tracing their roles and relationships in the course of constructing the Buddhist niches. The analysis of this article expounds that in the process of the statue construction project, Sengcai made full use of his social network to support this project and to seek protection for Huazhi Temple. The construction activities of the Buddhist niches at Huazhi Temple not only brought people of different identities together through politics, Buddhism, economics or kinship, but also connected Qiongzhou (in Sichuan) and the capital of Chang’an to the formation of a multi-identity and cross-regional network of power in which emperor, officials, monks, military generals, craftsmen, literati, and so on, participated and interacted with each other. The whole social network can be divided into two sub-networks in Chang’an and Qiongzhou, with Sengcai as the central figure connecting these two sub-networks. Although the Buddhist niches of Huazhi Temple were carved in Qiongzhou, both the decisive preparatory work and the composition of the Statue Construction Account took place in Chang’an. Hence, the power of the Chang’an sub-network was greater than that of the one based in Qiongzhou. This means that the Buddhist niches at Huazhi Temple from Sengcai’s project were not merely a local project, but one that was strongly connected with the capital Chang’an in 798. Lastly, the Statue Construction Account in 798 at Huazhi Temple indicated mutual aid and support between Sichuan Buddhism and Chang’an Buddhism.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Social Life History of Chinese Buddhist Monks)
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