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Emergency general surgeons often provide care to severely ill patients requiring surgical interventions and intensive support. One of the primary drivers of morbidity and mortality is perioperative bleeding. In general, when addressing life threatening haemorrhage, blood transfusion can become an essential part of overall resuscitation. However, under all circumstances, indications for blood transfusion must be accurately evaluated. When patients decline blood transfusions, regardless of the reason, surgeons should aim to provide optimal care and respect and accommodate each patient's values and target the best outcome possible given the patient's desires and his/her clinical condition. The aim of this position paper was to perform a review of the existing literature and to provide comprehensive recommendations on organizational, surgical, anaesthetic, and haemostatic strategies that can be used to provide optimal peri-operative blood management, reduce, or avoid blood transfusions and ultimately improve patient outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the views of contemporary Muslim jurists about withdrawing treatment of the terminally ill. Its aim is threefold. Firstly, it analyses jurists' views concerning core themes within the process of withdrawing treatment. Secondly, it provides insight into fatwas about withdrawing treatment. Thirdly, it compares these views with current medical standards in Europe and the Atlantic world on withdrawing treatment. The data consisted of six papers by Muslim jurists presented at the conference of the Islamic Fiqh Council in 2015. We conducted a directed content analysis (DCA) through a predetermined framework and compiled an overview of all previous fatwas referred to in the papers, which are also analysed. The results show that the general consensus is that if health cannot be restored, treatment may be withdrawn at the request of the patient and/or his family or on the initiative of the doctor. The accompanying fatwa emphasizes the importance of life-prolonging treatment if this does not harm the patient. It becomes apparent in the fatwa that the doctor has the monopoly in decision-making, which is inconsistent with current medical standards in Europe. Managing disclosure in view of the importance of maintaining the hope of Muslim patients may challenge the doctor's obligation to share a diagnosis with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents revised versions of papers presented at the International Milton Symposium that convened in Toronto, Ontario in July 2023 with the panel entitled "Is Paradise Lost a Christian Poem," organized by Richard Strier. Topics discussed include Milton's supposed championship of orthodox Christianity in "Paradise Lost" and how Milton's last poems correlate with Christianity and religion more broadly.

This paper discusses the relationship between spiritual and emotional intelligence and eternal happiness, from an Islamic perspective. In Islam, achieving spiritual intelligence first requires a close relationship with God—established, for example, through consistent purification of the soul, repentance, acts of worship, performing good deeds and avoiding evil. Through such action, the light of God—which comes with Divine guidance and the knowledge of truth—touches the hearts of believers, causing them to experience pure contentedness. This study takes a qualitative approach, using the NVivo text analysis tool to analyse texts from 43 references, comprising 31 journal articles and 12 books or chapters. The three most frequently used words were 'Islamic', 'spiritual' and 'happiness', while 'intelligence' was the fourteenth most-used. This finding highlights the fear of God due to the love of God as the highest obedience, as it is the purest and sincerest degree of worship (i.e. for God's sake completely). Spiritual intelligence trains the soul from its prone-to-evil state to become more angelic or serene, thereby increasing emotional intelligence. This will be reflected in a believer's attitude, emotion and behaviours aligning with the conduct commended in Islam, to whom God promises an afterlife of eternal happiness in Heaven. This paper draws on the Qur'an and Sunnah as well as prominent Islamic scholarship to support the Islamic concepts discussed, enriching our understanding and perspective on the Islamic concept of spiritual and emotional intelligence and its role in attaining eternal happiness in Islam. This study also highlights several key concepts pivotal to Islamic spiritual and emotional intelligence as pre-requisites for obtaining eternal happiness, therefore advancing current knowledge on the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The partograph has been endorsed by World Health Organization (WHO) since 1994 which presents an algorithm for assessing maternal and foetal conditions and labor progression. Monitoring labour with a partograph can reduce adverse pregnancy outcomes such as prolonged labor, emergency C-sections, birth asphyxia and stillbirths. However, partograph use is still very low, particularly in low and middle income countries (LMICs). In Bangladesh the reported partograph user rate varies from 1.4% to 33.0%. Recently, an electronic version of the partograph, with the provision of online data entry and user aid for emergency clinical support, has been tested successfully in different settings. With this proven evidence, we conducted and operations research to test the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing an e-partograph, for the first time, in 2 public hospitals in Bangladesh Methods: We followed a prospective crossover design. Two secondary level referral hospitals, Jessore and Kushtia District Hospital (DH) were the study sites. All pregnant women who delivered in the study hospitals were the study participants. All nurse-midwives working in the labor ward of study hospitals were trained on appropriate use of both types of partograph along with standard labour management guidelines. Collected quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 23 statistical software. Discrete variables were expressed as percentages and presented as frequency distribution and cross tabulations. Chi square tests were employed to test the association between exposure and outcome variables. Potential confounding factors were adjusted using multivariate binary logistic regression methods. Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional review board of the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). Findings: In total 2918 deliveries were conducted at Jessore DH and 2312 at Kushtia DH during one-year study period. Of them, 1012 (506 in each facility) deliveries were monitored using partograph (paper or electronic). The trends of facility based C-section rates was downwards in both the hospitals; 43% to 37% in Jessore and from 36% to 25% in Kushtia Hospital. There was a significant reduction of prolonged labour with e-partograph use. In Kushtia DH, the prolonged labour rate was 42% during phase 1 with the paper version which came down to 29% during phase-2 with the e-partograph use. The similar result was observed in Jessore DH where the prolonged labour rate reduced to 7% with paper partograph from the reported 30% prolonged labour with e-partograph. The e-partograph user rate was higher than the paper partograph during both phases (phase 1: 3.31, CI: 2.04–5.38, p < .001 and in phase 2: 15.20 CI: 6.36–36.33, p < .001) after adjusting for maternal age, parity, gestational age, religion, mother’s education, husband’s education, and fetal sex Conclusion: The partograph user rate has significantly improved with the e- partograph and was associated with an overall reduction in cesarean births. Use of the e-partograph was also associated with reduced rates of prolonged labour. This study has added to the growing body of evidence on the positive impact of e-partograph use. We recommend implementing e-partograph intervention at scale in both public and private hospitals in Bangladesh. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how the Chinese customary ritual of burning paper money to commemorate the dead ancestors challenges the nature-culture dichotomy. The paper argues that the practice of burning paper money reflects a Chinese cosmology that is not based on a dichotomy between the living and the dead, instead, the dead is often mobilized to exert influential power over the living. The paper money that people use in such rituals are active actors that participates in people's social, cultural and economic life. The paper also investigates how the conflict between government policy and traditional practice demonstrates that the modernists' efforts to mobilize modern dichotomies have failed to triumph over the entanglement among networks of the living and the dead, the human and the spirit, the object and the subject, nature, culture, and super-nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The designation of Diego Maradona's 'handball' goal, that it was an intervention by God himself, brings the phenomena of sport and religion into an interrelationship. The basic thesis of this paper is that, despite many of their phenomenal similarities, explicit religion is not, and cannot be, substantially related to sport, as the two manifest themselves in different ways of being. This thesis is supported by arguments from three philosophical areas: 1. The ontological dimension of the manifestation of the sacred in the profane through the process of hierophany in sport does not refer to a specific deity or God, and is therefore not a presentation but an indirect representation of the sacred; 2. The epistemological perspective of the intentional relation of consciousness to religious ritual justifies the necessity of situating them in an overall horizon of references and meanings to the horizon of the lifeworld; 3. The existential and experiential aspects of transformative sport experiences transform the horizon of meanings of empirical reality, but lack the sacramental perspective. Implicit religion as a possibility of transition on a continuum of complementary existential states is a suitable explicative framework for analyzing the phenomenal similarities and essential differences of religion and sport. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to explore how the experiences of international volunteer tourists can contribute to the rejuvenation of the concept of pilgrimage in the contemporary world. Through thematic analysis of the individual portraits, this paper identifies the intertwining of the rejuvenation of pilgrimage with the concepts of meaning, ritual, and transformative experiences within the context of international volunteer tourism. The findings suggest that the current understanding of pilgrimage in contemporary tourism surpasses the notion of a journey to a religious destination, transcending religion itself. This paper extends the comprehension of modern pilgrimage and spirituality, and highlights the necessity for further research into the complex interconnections between tourism, religion, and spirituality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen numerous sociological disagreements devolve into heated debates, with scholars openly accusing their peers of being both empirically wrong and morally misguided. While social scientists routinely reflect on the ethical implications of certain research assumptions and data collection methods, the sociology of knowledge production has said little about how moral debates over scholarship shape subsequent research trajectories. Drawing on the new French pragmatic sociology, this article examines how sociologists respond to criticisms of the moral worth of their research. The article outlines three typical responses: (1) accepting the criticism and changing direction completely; (2) accepting the criticism but changing discursive framing to incorporate existing research without being subject to critique; and (3) navigating through the debate by devising new research directions that do not trigger such criticism. To demonstrate, the article looks at how sociologists of religion responded, in their published scholarship, to criticisms of secularization theory as depreciating religious people and spiritual experience. Across the responses, we show that sociologists have included moral considerations in their empirical investigations, and have switched among several diverse moral justifications to address—and also avoid—criticism. We conclude by demonstrating that this model can be extended to other domains of sociological inquiry, including the study of gender-based wage inequality and methodological nationalism. The article highlights the importance of mapping the moral frameworks sociologists use for the sociology of knowledge and the sociology of morality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The poetic and hagiographical works of early modern north Indian saints constitute a rich case study for understanding the relationship among changes in language, material practices of writing, and ideologies of writing. Beginning in the fourteenth century, the commitment of the vernacular language of bhāṣā to writing had the effect of reconfiguring practices and ideologies of writing, posing a serious challenge to the epistemic and cultural privilege formerly accorded to writing in the literary, intellectual, and religious traditions contained in Sanskrit, Persian, and Arabic. Although unable to completely escape the conceptual structures of a postliterate society, these supposedly illiterate, subaltern poet‐saints were able to undermine systems of religious and intellectual authority by questioning the ontological status and epistemic utility of written language and by divesting writing of its aura. They did so by emphasizing the materiality and banality of writing and by characterizing inscription as just another form of worldly labor. Such readings of the saints' poetic works are made possible precisely by their authorial personas as subaltern, illiterate figures, and these personas are in turn established not in the poetry itself but in the hagiographical works that narrativize these saints' lives. Importantly, these hagiographies reflect a concern with historicizing both the saints' utterances and the material processes through which those utterances came to be written down. Perhaps paradoxically, it is this concern with historicity that enables the tradition to establish the transcendent nature of the saints' speech and thought, and to enable those in the present to recreate the transformative speech acts that the hagiographies describe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion-based AI chatbots serve religious practitioners by bringing them godly wisdom through technology. These bots reply to spiritual and worldly questions by drawing insights or citing verses from the Quran, the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, the Torah, or other holy books. They answer religious and theological queries by claiming to offer historical contexts and providing guidance and counseling to their users. A criticism of these bots is that they may give inaccurate answers and proliferate bias by propagating homogenized versions of the religions they represent. These "embodied spiritual machines" may likewise bear bias against women, their gender, and their societal roles. This paper crafts a concept intended to address this GPT issue by reimagining, modifying, and implementing a feminist approach to these chatbots. It examines the concepts and designs of these bots and how they address women-related questions. Along with the challenge of bringing gender and diversity-sensitive religious wisdom closer to the people through technology, the paper proposes a re-engineered model of a fair religion-based AI chatbot. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article serves as an introduction to the special issue on Contemporary Issues in Religious and Spiritual Development in Adolescence, Young Adulthood, and Beyond. First, we give an account of the history of research on religious and spiritual development in adolescence and beyond. Although religion and spirituality have a long history in psychology, it is still an emerging area of research. Second, we summarize the current body of work on religious and spiritual development in adolescence and beyond. Most research in this area has focused on outcomes, particularly religion and spirituality as a protective factor against negative youth outcomes. Some work has also looked at individual and contextual predictors of religion and spirituality. Less is known about processes and trajectories of religious development, particularly in terms of changes in religious identification. Third, we recommend directions for future research in this area. We focus on the need for research to look at the role of religion and spirituality in positive youth development, the religious and spiritual experiences of religious minority youth, religious and spiritual challenges faced by sexual minority youth, and processes and predictors of religious deconversion. Fourth, we outline the four review papers on contemporary issues in religious and spiritual development featured in the special issue. These papers provide literature reviews on four important directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The case of nineteenth-century Buganda opens up a number of assumptions within scholarship about religion, secularity, and politics in African history. Although much scholarship focuses on European colonizers introduced alien categories such as religion and imposed distinctions between religion and politics, this paper foregrounds a different set of historical transformations in what is now Uganda – transformations that ultimately increased rather than diminished connections between the exercise of political power and markedly religious convictions. Along the way, it locates some of the most important pieces of this story in 'the precolonial'. This allows the paper to trace the emergence of the category of religion, as well as analyze the sense in which it is meaningful to think of precolonial Buganda as secular at a particular moment. In so doing, the paper puts an African story in dialogue with wider conversations on the secular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commitment to culturally sensitive practice is an ethical obligation that requires knowledge and skills specific to the practice context. Research shows that incorporating religion and spirituality into mental health practice is central to working effectively with Muslim communities. Practitioners need to consider the unique positionality and intersectionality when promoting mental health among Muslim women living in Western countries. This paper explores the trauma-informed, counseling approach and the integration of spirituality and religion when working with Muslim women living in Western Australia. Using the critical reflection approach, the research focuses on the concept of guilt about mental health and summarizes the main points considered in the counseling framework such as the centrality of spirituality and religion in perceiving guilt. The paper presents some practical strategies to incorporate cultural, religious, and spiritual concepts into the counseling relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study of the experiences of five individuals who explore their unique relationship between music and spirituality. Each participant critically narrates their faith and beliefs and explores how these relate to their experiences with music. The paper begins with a brief exposition of the literature concerning music and spirituality and the linkages between the two. The methodology combines narrative and auto-ethnography, underpinned by a phenomenological approach to reflection on experiences. Using deep self-analysis, the five authors derive and discover lessons concerning their own relationship between faith, spirituality, and music. These are then analysed to produce common themes concerning the intertwining of spirituality with music. Finally, the conclusions present a novel contribution which includes lessons on how through self-exploration, one can use music and spirituality to repair and ultimately enrich the soul. The paper exposes the interplay between faith, spirituality and music, which will be of general interest and provide inspiration to those who intend to use music to enrich their lives and heal themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a 2008 paper, Justin Barrett designed a conceptual scale to measure the level of counterintuitiveness of concepts, "Barrett's counterintuitiveness coding and quantifying scheme". According to Barrett, the higher a concept scores in this scale, the more counterintuitive it is. The scale is meant as an auxiliary tool for one of the mainstream theories in the cognitive science of religion, namely, the Minimal Counterintuitiveness Hypothesis. For a concept to be adherent, i.e., to survive across cultures and across time, it has to score points in the counterintuitiveness scale, but it has to score low. Concepts that score too high or that don't score at all are non-adherent. In this paper the case is made that at least some varieties of religious belief involve concepts that resist accurate measuring. The case study presented here features Spiritual Oneness, the belief that "all things are one", frequently prompted by mystical experiences and frequently described as being very adherent. We purport that the failure of Barrett's scale to allow for an examination of the concepts at stake in Spiritual Oneness is to be explained by the fact that the background assumptions about counterintuitiveness underpinning the scale are too narrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines suicide prevalence among Nigerian youth struggling to find meaning in life. Frustrated by unattainable ideals, they experience despair. The study explores religion's role in providing support for meaning-seeking individuals. Utilizing an explorative approach, the paper highlights how religion can play a role in offering solidarity, morality, and hope as vital resources for creating a meaningful life. It introduces "Pastrotherapy" as a pastoral care approach to addressing existential questions. Findings emphasize the importance of religious communities and leaders in promoting resilience and addressing underlying causes of despair. This study reveals how religious beliefs and practices support Nigerian youth facing existential challenges, shedding light on the intersection of religion, meaning-making, and mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inclusive education is a key global agenda that is primarily driven by concern for children's rights. In China, the term is a translated, introduced, foreign concept. The localised practice of inclusion is encapsulated in the policy of Learning in Regular Classrooms, which not only adopts the narrow sense of inclusion for children with disabilities, but it is also dominated by the medical model of disability. An explicit rights-based philosophical foundation for inclusion that is widely accepted and internalised by local Chinese teachers and schools appears largely absent. This paper explores how Confucianism as a moral philosophy may be compatible with the rights discourse and may provide the necessary moral strengths and philosophical base to support inclusion in Chinese schools. The conclusion highlights the needs to pay attention to how teachers' deeper values, motivation, and drives can facilitate inclusive efforts, and also calls for a more explicit human rights discourse to develop in China in the long term. This paper explores the possibility of using the moral philosophy of Confucianism, rather than relying on the explicit language of human rights, to offer theoretical advocacy for inclusion in China. The rich legacy of Confucianism may offer the necessary moral strengths and philosophical convictions for Chinese teachers and schools to become inspired and empowered to take more inclusive initiatives in a bottom-up approach. Confucianism as a moral philosophy is compatible with the international human rights discourse. While a more explicit human rights discourse in China needs time to develop, Confucian principles such as datong (great harmony), ren (benevolence), as well as its educational believes and human rights ideas, may offer readily-available and more accessible inspiration and support for the inclusive education for children with disabilities in line with the social and human rights models. Re-examining traditional cultural values may shed light on modern effective teaching practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Eric Santner's theory of political flesh is appreciated in its relation to philosophy of religion and Christian theology. In the first part of the paper, Santner's speculative concept is brought into conversation with the debate on embodiment, incarnation, and a hermeneutics of the flesh. Santner's conception of the flesh is shown to follow a logic of excarnation, or rather disincorporation, and thus to be at odds with contemporary harmonistic theories of embodiment that attempt to think body and spirit together without rupture. In contrast, the relevance of Santner's theory lies precisely in its antagonistic reading of the dynamics that constitute human embodied being – a dimension overlooked by most recent theories of embodiment. The second part of the article develops a reading of Protestantism as a "religion of the flesh" in line with Santner's argument. In doing so, it is shown that the Protestant narrative of self-modernization and progress (Hegel's "religion of freedom") can be subverted by the conception of the flesh brought into play by Santner, revealing a much more ambivalent history of Protestantism. In a re-reading of the theologies of Karl Barth, Friedrich Schleiermacher, and John Calvin, it is shown that the Protestant understanding of the church can be made transparent to a figure of the undead that is virulent in it, namely the undead flesh of Jesus Christ. In the end, the question is raised whether this figure of an "undead" Christ might not be interpreted as a paradoxological intervention in the sense of Eric Santner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feng Zikai and Master Kong Hiap in Singapore not only completed and published the masterpiece Protection of Life at the behest of their mentor, Master Hong Yi but also actively contributed to the growth of religions during the P.R.C.. The focus of this paper will be on the Protection of Life, which was completed secretly in socialist China between the 1950s and 1970s, as well as Feng Zikai's overseas cultural practices, to investigate how these helped Feng Zikai to broaden his cultural expressions and preserve his teacher Master Hong Yi's religious thoughts. Through revisiting Feng's creations and other cultural practices, this paper reveals a competing and conflicting revolutionary structure of feeling, across the 1949 geographical fault line as well as in the global Cold War context. Besides, this paper intends to investigate intellectuals' living status and social networking critically in socialist China during the mid-twentieth-century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines vulgarity's cultural significance among the Zeliangrong Naga of Nagaland, Assam and Manipur. It is a sociological analysis of the ritual and social statuses maintained by senexes through ritualised vulgarities. The paper contends that vulgarities are not inherently vile. Vulgarities are believed to have divine power to protect humans by repelling evil spirits and causing them to despise humans who revel in utterly filthy vulgarism. Understanding the mythology of creation by divine intervention and propagation through sexual reproduction necessitates understanding ritualistic vulgarities. Men give something bad, like vulgarity, a divine meaning by giving it a good purpose and controlling how it is used in culture to keep their highest social and ritual statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To map the current evidence about the health concerns and the potential solutions related to the Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. Design: A scoping review was applied. Papers published in English between 2012 and 2023 were included but non‐human research and sources without any related data were excluded. Data charting and extraction were used to map the current evidence. Results: The total of 36 papers were included with the total number of pilgrims of 17,075,887. The majority of studies were published in the Asia Pacific region (36.11%) as original articles (88.89%). The health concerns were grouped into five main aspects. There were 7603 deaths recorded or about 44 incidences of deaths per 100,000 pilgrims during the pilgrimage. There were recorded 11,018; 6178; 3393; and 17,810 cases for communicable diseases; non‐communicable diseases; injuries and trauma; and health services (i.e., cardiac catheterization) and vaccination, respectively. Conclusion: Relating to the five health concerns, this study identified the top seven issues in each category (i.e., hypertension, influenza vaccination), except for the death record. Moreover, there were three solutions (for general health, non‐ and communicable‐diseases) presented. Stakeholders could use this evidence to improve healthcare quality particularly related to the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to make an important contribution to the studies of religious utopianism by considering religions as comprehensive utopian systems which have an ontological and a social utopian mode. It argues that the ontological mode/utopia is related to human finality and that its fantastical content, abstractness and ontological Othering undermine the transformative powers of left religious social utopianism, while it encourages pernicious social Othering in religious fundamentalism. The article has four sections. In Section 1, it clarifies the definition of utopia on which the paper relies and the reasons for this particular choice. Section 2 discusses the religious ontological utopia and religions as utopian systems and utopian programs. Section 3 utilises E. Bloch's considerations about concrete and abstract utopias to explain the reasons for the incapacity of politically left orientated religious utopianism to function as a revolutionary force. Finally, the Section 4 discusses the way religious fundamentalism employs social Othering as a way of defending the universality of its ontological vision against competing religious and pseudo-religious universals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taiwanese folk religion is a complex mixture of Taoism, Buddhism and local indigenous deities. The Buddhist ceremony "普度Pu du" (a mass for the dead) is performed in a Taoist shrine. Ordinary people go to pray there without distinguishing between Taoism and Buddhism. Most Taiwanese believe in this mixed folk religion. Off erings in Taiwanese folk religion consist of incense sticks, candles and paper currency "紙銭 zhiqian" (made from paper, printed or cut with a knife). Based on their wishes, people prepare fl owers and food. Additionally, depending on the event, they prepare "紙紮 zhiza" (off erings made from paper and bamboo). In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, there are events such as "七娘媽生 Qiniangmasheng" (on the 7th day) and "普度Pu du" (on the 15th day). On the 7th day, the worshipers prepare paper off erings called "七娘媽亭 qiniangmating" (the goddess's shrine). On the 15th day, or "普度Pu du", they prepare various kinds of paper off erings for the salvation of the dead. They display spirit-dwellings, statues of deities, ships for ghosts to board, etc. At the end of the ceremony, paper off erings are burnt with fake-paper currency. People believe that they can send off erings to heaven or the underworld by burning them. They believe this can help their relatives who are "living" in the underworld. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I review evidence from published and unpublished sources on Ricardo's theological ideas. The main focuses of interest are the existence of a natural morality independent of religious confessions, morality as the essence of religion, uselessness of theological speculation, justification of toleration for everybody, including atheists, and the miscarriage of any attempt at a philosophical theodicy. The paper explores also the connection between Ricardo's interest for theodicy and his views on the scope and method of political economy and suggests that his opinion that political economy should be a secular and value-free science close to mathematics depends precisely on theological reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper will argue that religion has a special meaning for older adults beyond the findings in the research literature on religion's effects on health outcomes. Research on religious involvement and health from the past several decades shows a strongly beneficial relationship for persons of all ages, and one that is heightened in old age. Given the pace of secularization, however, the future is uncertain and coming cohorts of older persons may not have the same life course experiences to draw on in late life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intricate interactions between heritage and religion in modern China, as well as the broader social and political implications of these interactions in relation to national heritage policies and local developmental practices. By conducting a longitudinal analysis of the social history of Baosheng Temple, this research traces its transformations over the past hundred years from a historically religious site to a local built heritage dedicated to preserving and displaying religious relics. This transformation highlights a shift in the role of religious relics from carriers of practice and thought to focal points for heritage preservation, aimed at supporting nation-building and, more recently, promoting local development through the tourism industry. These changes reflect continuous local responses to broader social transformations towards a modern nation-state as well as the influence of Western ideas and practices. The findings of this research illuminate the evolving values associated with religious heritage and the corresponding implications for Chinese modernity within a secular state context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research indicates that religious parents can have negative, positive, or ambivalent responses to their child’s sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Yet, to our knowledge no research has quantitatively examined patterns of sexual and gender diverse (SGD) youth’s perceptions of their religious parents’ responses to their SOGI. Without examining variations in these patterns, we are unable to better understand the experiences of SGD youth with religious parents. In the current paper, we examined patterns of SGD youth’s perceptions of their religious parents’ SOGI-specific rejection, acceptance, and SOGI change efforts. We also examined if these patterns differed by SGD youth’s individual and contextual factors. The analytic sample consisted of online responses from 5,686 SGD youth (Mage = 15.95). We found four distinct profiles: Positive Parental Response, Moderate Negative Parental Response, Low Parental Response, and High Negative Parental Response. The largest profile was the Positive Parental Response, suggesting that many SGD youth perceived positive responses from their religious parents. SGD youth with diverse gender identities and intersecting identities, such as race/ethnicity, were more vulnerable to religious parents’ negative responses. Findings have implications for existing resources and programs aimed at strengthening SGD youth’s relationship with their religious parents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stigma is a form of injustice that contributes to the worsening course of the symptoms associated with mental health problems. The paper discusses the conceptualization and development of a contemporary theoretical model of stigma. Building on the findings of an initial scoping review, the author developed a theoretical model after thoroughly analyzing and redefining the key concepts of interest. This article proposes that stigmatized individuals are impacted by the religiocultural and structural violence perspectives embedded within social spaces, leading to stigma perception appraisal and subsequent coping mechanisms, which could be adaptive or maladaptive. Current models of mental illness stigma have gaps. It is time to relook at existing stigma frameworks and fill these gaps that have existed for many years for effective anti-stigma strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing participation of faith leaders in environmental debates has led to the renewed interest in the 'greening of religions'. This paper examines the frames employed by religious actors to encourage environmental action, with a focus on the eco-movement within the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. Its narratives are connected to the goals of promoting 'ecological conversion' and encouraging change at the community level. We demonstrate how pro-environmental religious actors navigate between anti-ecological voices within the Church and left-wing activism, applying the following frames: 1) presenting ecological lifestyle as a religious obligation, 2) promoting the idea of 'integral ecology,' rooted in a Christian anthropology, 3) reinterpreting Catholicism by showing green practices as a legitimized element of the Church's tradition. We argue that these activities constitute a form of a counterculture that develops a values-based approach to environmentalism, aiming to transform the culture of the Catholic church and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine how religious mandates of the holy month of Ramadan affect the gendered distribution of time use within Muslim households in India. Using rich data on time use from a nationally representative time use survey and employing a difference-in-differences methodology, we test if Ramadan accentuates gender differences in time use. We find that, contrary to popular belief, Ramadan moderates the gender disparities in intra-household time use for Muslim households. The moderating influence is stronger in districts with a higher Muslim proportion. We find that the reduction in gender differences is due to declines in gender-specific time use in employment, learning activities, domestic work and self-care. Reduction in domestic work time for women, especially food preparation time, is more pronounced in districts with a high Muslim proportion, suggesting 'communalisation of domestic work' due to Ramadan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I focus on designations of 'our culture and heritage' that defend practices and symbols of religious majorities. I consider the entanglement of nationalist narratives, secularity and the 'us' in the claims of social actors and public discussions about culture and heritage. What is understood as being religious and what is culture/heritage is dependent on the social actors involved, their position in society and the interpretive frameworks available to them. I consider the following questions: How are culture and heritage used in legal and public discourse to justify the continued presence of such symbols and practices in Christian majority countries in the West? What are the religious histories implicated in this process? Who is imagined to be included when crosses and prayers are staked out as 'our culture and heritage'? What is the relationship between culture and heritage and national imaginaries? Ultimately, as religious majorities see their numbers dwindle and power relations shift, the attempt to imbricate religious practices and beliefs in public spaces and rituals is quite possibly a translation of the religious to the secular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there is an ample body of literature in the anthropology of moralities there is a surprising dearth of research on conscience per se. In Malta over the last ten years there has been a proliferation of a public discourse of ‘conscience’ – its affordances, freedoms and its legal safeguards. This has been the result of debates over reforms leading to the liberalization of sexual and family life, including most recently debates over the legalization of abortion. While the language of conscience in various human rights instruments claims a universal character its meanings, inflections and significance can vary in important ways. There is a blurred boundary between conscience and religion. This paper examines the ways in which conscience is deployed and the significance of the appeals to a national conscience in a European confessional state. It looks at the specific meanings of conscience in Malta and a brief lexical and political history It then moves on to look at the ways objections of conscience are framed in contemporary Malta in light of theological debates and their ramifications in Catholic Malta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on religion and its practice. This paper aims to examine how the pandemic affects religious activities, donations, and finances over time and across regions within the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the USA. To address this question, we analyze survey data collected during the pandemic from 2963 churches in the USA by United Methodist Communications. Our analysis utilizes several quantitative techniques, including Z-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multinomial logistic regressions. The results indicate a decrease in church attendance over time, with a more pronounced effect observed in non-urban areas (suburban, small town, and rural). Similarly, while church donations and finances mitigate over time across churches, churches in urban areas experience a quicker rebound compared to those in non-urban areas. Lastly, we find that church attendance and donations positively affect finances. These findings hold important implications for churches in various regions, offering insights to develop strategies for navigating the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Livestreaming and filming death rites and funeral ceremonies to enable remote engagement proliferated rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and many expect these options to remain prevalent going forward. This paper draws on interviews with a diverse UK sample of 68 bereaved people, funeral directors, officiants and celebrants. It illustrates how, and explains why, people's experiences and evaluations of hybrid funerals can vary. In a context when in-person gatherings were limited, hybridisation played a valuable role in enabling more people to engage with funerals. However, virtual attendance was often considered less satisfying than in-person attendance because it did not enable people to participate well in the funeral activities that mattered to them or to participate with others as they would in person. Scope for participation was partly contingent on the functionality and use made of technology, including whether and which steps were taken to facilitate engagement and a sense of connection for those joining online. People's evaluations of hybrid funerals could also reflect their relationships to the deceased and their frames of reference – for example, whether they were comparing virtual attendance to attending in person, or to being unable to attend at all, or to an overwhelmingly large funeral. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars theorize the effect of modernization on religious and familial institutions in a parallel way. Some argue that both are irreversibly in decline—as secularization and deinstitutionalization, respectively—while others argue that they have either merely changed or are in fact growing stronger. However, correctly interpreting institutional change depends not only on how one evaluates the empirical starts and endpoints but also on how one defines the domains under change themselves. In this paper, I examine these debates, detail the structural similarities in their arguments, and outline a new analytical approach informed by recent work in institutional logics to better answer the definitional questions. Theorizing both institutions together and their parallel trajectories in modernity reveals unique insights about the scholarly discourse on modernization and is especially important given the unique influence of religion and family on one another as (seemingly) privatized spheres of social life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The WPA position statement is a clear challenge for psychiatrists to recognize how religion/spirituality (R/S) is relevant to their work. North American psychiatry has shown progress related to each principle articulated in the statement, especially in the areas of research and scholarship. However, most advances are yet to be widely implemented or coordinated, so that the statement offers valuable encouragement and direction in moving forward. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The growing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases in the United States (US) has disproportionately affected minority populations more than their white counterparts. A population that is often overlooked is the Asian American population, particularly Southeastern Asian immigrants. Despite having relatively favorable socioeconomic indicators compared to the general US population, Asian Americans, specifically Southeast Asian individuals, face a significant burden of traditional cardiovascular risk factors and are considered a high cardiovascular disease risk group. In addition, most studies have aggregated Asian populations into one major racial group rather than analyzing the different ethnicities among the Asian categorization. While some studies suggest that the acculturation process has some degree of impact on cardiovascular health, there has not been a widely-used tool to measure or ascertain the totality of acculturation. Instead, multiple proxies have been used to measure acculturation, and prior studies have argued for more culturally-tailored acculturation proxies. This paper aims to assess the implications of different acculturation measures on cardiovascular health among Asian Americans, particularly Southeastern Asian immigrants. The following proxies were expanded on in this paper: English spoken at home, length of stay in the US, religiosity and spirituality, and admixed family structures. Previous studies showed that as the length of stay in the US increases, the burden of cardiovascular risk factors increases. However, the impact of English spoken at home, religiosity, and admixed family structure are still inconclusive given the extent of current studies. While most studies suggest that an increase in acculturation increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, it is critical to note that acculturation is a multifaceted process. Therefore, more studies are necessary to appropriately examine the implications of various acculturation processes on cardiovascular risk factors in Asians, specifically Southeastern Asian individuals in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore the intricate relationship between religio-political influence and its impact on social work in contemporary India. The escalating trends of majoritarianism, homogeneity, the instrumentalization of religion for political power, growing inequality, and the prevalence of caste-based violence have contributed to an alarming increase in intolerance among various religious, ethnic, and linguistic groups. These challenges, primarily driven by religio-political factions in India, pose significant obstacles to effective social work practice and intervention. The question arises: Can social work disentangle itself from religion and religio-political influence, or should a new narrative be developed within social work practice to address these concepts? This article underscores the pressing need for a fresh perspective that integrates religion, religiopolitics, and their influence on social work. New narrative can facilitate the development of effective strategies and interventions that mitigate the adverse effects of religio-political factions while promoting social justice and inclusivity. In conclusion, this paper emphasizes the necessity of reimagining the relationship between religion, religio-politics, and social work in India. Thus, social work can play a crucial role in fostering positive societal change, addressing inequality, and countering the rising tide of intolerance fueled by religio-political influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While on paper Zimbabwe has a comprehensive child protection legal framework, the occurrence of child sexual abuse (CSA) is high. Drawing from findings of a qualitative study, a case study design, and a research population consisting of a forum of organizations providing CSA interventions: the Victim Friendly System, this paper presents how some cultural myths, cultural practices, cultural rites, and religious practices may contribute to CSA in Zimbabwe. Purposive sampling was used to select 38 professional working in the VFS, 4 key informants, 17 VFS monthly meeting minutes, and 300 court files of tried and sentenced CSA cases from Harare and Gokwe. CSA is a gross child and human rights violation that places some religions, myths, beliefs, and cultural practices at crossroads with social work principles. Various social work interventions are suggested as ways to navigate the paradox: shaped by cultural, traditional, religious, and mythical factors contributing to CSA and legal frameworks to address CSA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a survey exploring people's understandings and experiences of Spiritual Abuse (SA) in a Christian faith context. The online survey was completed by 1591 individuals from the UK, 1002 of whom identified as having experienced SA. Inclusion criteria were: membership of the Christian faith, being or having been, a Church attender or member of a Christian organisation and having heard of the term SA. Participants detailed features of an effective response to disclosures of SA, many of these are directly relevant to counselling and psychotherapy practice. The findings echo calls in previous research for including discussions of religion and faith in training and CPD for counsellors and psychotherapists. Finally, the paper suggests the establishment of a network of counsellors with training and knowledge about SA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Church's place in modern life has gone a lot beyond its original purpose of giving spiritual advice through religious groups. Through participant observation and a review of the literature, this paper examined how the Church, especially The Church of Pentecost (CoP), has changed over time in modern Ghana to promote patriotism and instil moral values in modern Ghana through its two flagship programmes-"National Development Conference 2023" and the "All Ministers Conference 2023". The findings of the research revealed that morals, unity, and national growth were emphasised at these conferences. There were teachings, prayers, workshops, and the raising of the Ghanaian flag as a symbol of how important it is to work together across party lines for national growth. The study highlighted key recommendations, including employing a holistic approach, promoting patriotic songs, fostering collaboration, upholding moral values, emphasizing the national flag, and transcending partisanship. The study concluded that media influence, equality, punctuality, and unity are essential in fostering patriotism and moral values for Ghana's growth and development. The paper contributes to the proactive role of the church in nurturing patriotism and moral values, providing valuable insights into nation-building and societal cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims The literature review aimed to identify the barriers the Punjabi and/or Sikh community have in accessing support for alcohol addiction. Method A systematic review of the literature was undertaken of four scholarly databases, Google Scholar and grey literature on UK-based research conducted after 1980 into alcohol addiction in the Punjabi and/or Sikh community. Fourteen papers met the inclusion criteria outlined in the paper and were included in the review. Results Ten main barriers to accessing support were found; stigma, religion, lack of understanding of addiction, over reliance on a medical model of treatment and disregard of therapy, cultural implications of being a member of the Punjabi and/or Sikh community and the addiction community, gender and generational differences and a lack of government commitment to alcohol support for BME communities with a lack of culturally specific services. Conclusion Despite the many barriers explored, the role of stigma remained a powerful theme throughout often underpinning other barriers. A key recommendation across many papers was the need for culturally sensitive support services. Several areas for future research were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Northwest Yunnan is nested in the border areas of Tibet, Myanmar, and Southwest China. The religiously and ethnically diverse region has astonishingly seen a lack of "conflict", as is often assumed in regions of ethnic and religious differences. This paper argues that there is an organic form of pluralism through frequent inter-ethnic and inter-religious marriages, multi-lingual daily interactions, and strategic ethnicity registrations. Ethnic and religious boundaries are made permanently or temporarily permeable through the celebration of boundary-crossing rituals such as weddings and funerals and other shared experiences such as collective labor and migrant work. Despite an increasingly strong push to be integrated into the state power through various top-down developmental projects, minority peoples here still use kinship, collective rituals, and other shared experiences to foster group formation that is fluid, porous, and malleable, instilling empathy and obligation as the basis of this pluralistic borderland society. This organic form of pluralism presents an alternative to the nation as the standard modern form of community. This paper ultimately argues that this specific type of plurality requires us to think beyond the normative liberal notions of religious tolerance and diversity that are still promoted within the frame of the exclusivist nation-state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the discourse on Muslim women's rights in India, aiming to trace how policies concerning Muslim women affect their constitutional rights to equality and non-discrimination. In doing so, this paper explores a colonial continuity of policies in the post-independence era and the subsequent governments. The purpose of this paper is to provide an extensive and nuanced discussion on Muslim women's rights in light of their historical evolution, the existence of personal laws, and the ongoing debates on a Uniform Civil Code. This article concludes that Muslim women continue to struggle for their rights to equal citizenship at the intersection of gender, religion, colonialism, and secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper starts from the thought that we cannot take for granted that a society's highest values will survive in the long term as effective motivators within that society. By 'highest values' I mean values such as justice, concern for members of weak and minority groups, and respect for promises and for the attempt to speak truthfully - values that apply at the highest level of generality. If they are to survive and to be effective, two things may be necessary: firstly, unpredictable 'epiphanic' moments in which the power of these values is emotionally experienced by individuals, and secondly, institutions and a vocabulary in which these values can be remembered, discussed and affirmed in emotionally and imaginatively impactful ways. I shall suggest, with reference in particular to the thought of Emmanuel Levinas and Ronald Dworkin, that the second of these factors, the remembering and affirmation of values, marks out the crucial, perhaps even the irreplaceable, contribution of a 'religion' to a society. The failure, within psychoanalysis and also more widely, to appreciate the working of this function in a society over generations may mean that the consequences of 'growing out of religion' (Winnicott) have not yet been adequately recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion still has a great potential and perhaps even a monopoly on explaining life in terms of meaning and significance. In this paper, we argue that neither the development of science nor scientism poses a threat to religion. We suggest, however, that the political entanglement of religion may be a threat. In this paper, we discuss the paradoxical situation in which the political harm of religion is inextricably linked to its beneficial potential to give meaning and significance to life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]