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This paper examines the socio-political history of the discrimination suffered by the group called Burakumin (部落民) in the city of Nagasaki in early modern and modern Japan (1600–present). More specifically, it looks into, first, the emergence and evolvement of hostility and antagonism between Burakumin and Catholics in Nagasaki, and second, how discrimination against Burakumin became socially invisible in post-1945 Nagasaki when post-atomic bomb reconstruction transformed the urban landscape of Nagasaki and representations of the city came to be dominated by the Catholic imagery of prayer. The paper argues that, on the one hand, the modern nation-state, established on the principles of the freedom and equality of citizens, did not eradicate discrimination, but instead concealed it, resulting in discrimination continuing in changed forms, and on the other hand, Catholics in Nagasaki, while having themselves suffered political persecution in Japanese history, have been involved in practices of discrimination against the Burakumin. There is, however, not an innate relationship between religion and discrimination, but rather the relationship is historically contingent. Understanding its contingent nature requires us to address the historical conditions contributing to discrimination. By so doing, we can start imagining new ways to tackle and eliminate discrimination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on Wittgenstein's theory of ordinary language use and Lamin Sanneh's insights into the effects of biblical translations in vernacular languages, this essay examines how the translation process in Niu Tireni (New Zealand/Aotearoa) in the 1830s contextualized or indigenized Christian concepts of the sacred/holy (tapu), the price (utu) paid by Christ for the sin of the world, and God's forgiveness (muru) due to that sacrifice (utu). Through translation, therefore, Christian scripture was changed, or acquired new cultural referents. On the Māori side of the translation process, the result of reapplying fundamental Māori concepts to Christian narratives and theological categories was to re-map the Māori mental universe—so that it, also, was not the same as it was before the translation came into being. Through translating the scriptures into the indigenous tongue, they had become a Māori (native/indigenous) possession. In so doing, however, the original cultural framework had flexed towards—if not become drastically reformed by—a biblical understanding of sacred and redemptive time and the actions of a Supreme Creator/Te Atua acting within human history but neither identical with that history nor with creation itself. Nevertheless, we are also presented with a picture of intersecting but not always corresponding meanings as the result of cross-cultural translation—with creative misunderstandings or an epistemic "middle ground" (following Richard White) of multiple meanings being one of the inevitable results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to find an answer to the question of how prayer develops in children, adolescents and young adults and which psycho-pedagogical factors are conducive to its development. Czesław Walesa's cognitive developmental psychological theory of the integral development of religiosity and Marcelina Darowska's concept of religious education served as the theoretical basis of the proposed analyses. The authors showed changes in the development of prayer and expanded upon them in terms of pedagogical and religious aspects. It is proposed that pedagogical interventions aimed at the development of prayer should focus on supporting independence and responsibility in children, adolescents and young adults. In educational work, one should be aware of the close relationship between the psycho-social conditions of human functioning and the development of prayer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who are the religious Nones, given their representation as both a minority and a majority group within the religious landscape? This article presents findings from a comparative study of Italian and Uruguayan youth (n = 2047, with 844 Nones), focusing on sociodemographic profiles of "Nones", their spirituality, religious belief, practice, and atheist and agnostic identities. The findings suggest that regardless of cultural context—whether in predominantly Catholic Italy or more secular Uruguay—young "Nones" tend to be males, hold beliefs, and engage in religious practices, albeit with varying degrees. Among participants in this study, those originating from Uruguay exhibit a stronger degree of belief and slightly more pronounced engagement in private prayer and attendance of religious services compared to their counterparts from Italy. Additionally, the endorsement of spiritual identity is notably stronger among religious Nones in the Uruguayan sample than in the Italian one. Instead, atheism is more prevalent among Italian Nones, whereas agnosticism constitutes a larger proportion within the Uruguayan sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the evidence for performative prayer in early Roman catacomb painting from the perspective of an art historian. Praying (orant) figures are a dominant theme of third-century painting. Although the orant pose is generally regarded as symbolic, strong evidence connects at least one of the figures with the intercessory prayers offered by the order of widows. Following the "Constantinian turn" in the fourth century, a different form of performative prayer prevailed at the tombs of martyrs, with worshippers lying in prostration (proskynesis) pouring out copious tears. Two much-discussed poems by Prudentius (Peristephanon IX and XI) describe this form of prayer in conjunction with paintings of the gruesome martyrdoms of St. Cassian of Imola and St. Hippolytus. Arguments that the paintings inspired the weeping are incompatible with the nature of catacomb painting at the time, and with testimonies to the power of the tomb itself to compel such displays. The more fruitful suggestion that the ekphrasis in Peristephanon XI reflects a painting of the death of the mythical Hippolytus leads to a grove in the Temple of Diana at Nemi and the legend that the hero was resurrected by Aesculapius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While scholars have long recognized the central importance of the cross within Syriac-speaking Christian communities in late antique Mesopotamia, the question of how physical crosses functioned as aids for prayer has only recently begun to be explored. The present article addresses this question with respect to East Syrian monastic communities in seventh-century Mesopotamia, focusing on the context of the monastic cell. Bringing together accounts of cross-directed prayer in Syriac monastic literature with archaeological evidence for crosses from the region, the article concludes that physical crosses played an important role as mediating devices of divine presence that were both always at hand and the frequent objects of monastics' sensorial attention. These conclusions are subsequently discussed through the lens of recent research from the field of new media studies toward the goal of understanding how cross-directed prayer may have served to bridge monastic spirituality and sociality in Mesopotamia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the first millennium of Christian presence in Ethiopia (from the fourth century), church architecture was first in accordance with, and later partially based on, the basilica plan. Circa the early sixteenth century, a new and unique church plan appeared, circular, concentric, and with a square sanctuary, and became the dominant church plan in the northwestern Ethiopian Highlands. This church plan has been referred to in scholarship as an innovation, and its sources of inspiration have not yet been definitively established. In this article, I will argue that this plan is a culmination of a process with roots in the Late Antique and Medieval Holy Land, by which the concentric prayer house plan came to be associated with the Jerusalem Temple. This process transcended religious boundaries and is expressed in the religious architecture of three monotheistic religious traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past, the Romani in Slovakia identified with the prevailing religion, mainly with the Roman Catholic Church. However, the missionary activities of various Christian denominations after 1990 resulted in the conversion of the Romani to Pentecostal Christian communities. This launched a long, creative process of the formation of Pentecostal Romani music. Romani believers consider music and the ability to play and sing to be a gift from God and view these as a form of prayer that should serve for the praise of God. That is why many have given up their worldly music making and now play only praise songs. They gradually modified the hymns they borrowed and replaced them with their own creations. The soundscape of religion does not lie only in religious singing and music, as the emotional sermons and prayers, glossolalia and sounds during the healing and blessing rituals can also be considered religious sounds. During the worship services, this mixture of various sounds leads to the gradual spiritual and emotional unification of the community. The music and the rituals create feelings of intense sensory and emotional character that reflect in bodily expressions. Movements, dance, and the positions of the hands can help glorify God and experience the worship service more intensely. However, under certain circumstances, they might become sources of temptation and sin. This is related to the concepts of "purity" and "impurity". The premises, whether sacral or profane, interior or exterior ones, also play a significant role in creating the sound. In writing this paper, I have also drawn on my own research on Romani Christian songs, which I carried out in (2012–2013 in Eastern Slovakia). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2 Kings 20:1–11; Isaiah 38:1–22 and 2 Chronicles 32:24–26 discuss Hezekiah's sickness and the power of healing prayer. They are called Hezekiah-Isaiah narratives since they deal not only with (a) the threats and salvation of Jerusalem from Assyria, (b) the disease and the miraculous recovery or healing (ḥāyâ/rāքā') of Hezekiah and description of the representatives from Babylon, but share a common narrative pattern in which Hezekiah is healed with a poultice/lump of fig tree (dəbelet təʾnim), having received advise and healing support from God's messenger, Isaiah. Past scholars have approached this text differently, searching for its dating, literary growths, differences, originality with the desire to reveal the history of the various traditional components and relationship among parallel texts, as well the prophetic and kingly images of Isaiah and Hezekiah. Built on this past scholarship and African cultural perspectives and experiences, this work contextually, historically and theologically study, develop and analyze the story of Hezekiah's sickness and healing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interest in studying prayer has significantly increased because of the belief that it helps humanity to cope, particularly in times of crisis. Prayer is not just a communication with God, it is also an instrument of bond and embodied ritual among prayer litigants or people who belong to the same religious community. This article argues that divine violence, a sovereign act of God, was crucially needed by the litigants in order to guarantee human flourishing in the face of existential threat. The article studied how violent prayer—a genre of prayer that is targeted at the spirits underlying physical manifestation of suffering, pain, or crisis—was utilised by the Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries (MFMM) in Nigeria to cope with the fear and uncertainties occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article is part of an ongoing ethnographic research on "The Politics and Poetics of Violent Prayer in the Nigerian Pentecostal Churches", which began in 2021. I utilised ethnographic engagement, particularly interviews and participant observation, to attempt to understand what these prayer litigants are doing when they pray violently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of socially responsible consumer behavior has been of great interest to researchers for years. It seems important to acquire knowledge about consumer behavior, especially among young people, who are a special group of consumers. In recent years, it is not only the purchasing power of young people that has been growing, but also the range of market choices they make. In this context, it is important to identify the determinants of consumer behavior to predict the directions of changes in the behavior of young people as consumers. One of the interesting research areas is determining the role of prayer, or more broadly, human spiritual development, in shaping consumer behavior. Some research suggests that there is a relationship between religion, or more precisely, religious practices and consumption. This work presents the most important definitions of a socially responsible consumer, presenting the most important aspects of this attitude. This work also presents previous research on the relationship between religiosity, prayer and consumer behavior. This research on the SRC attitude among young people was conducted using an online survey. The collected data were tested using the χ2 test of independence. Owing to the obtained results, it was possible to indicate the aspects of SRC in which the attitude to prayer is important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prayer in human life enables directing attention to God and a transcendent goal beyond Earthly life. Singing has been present in the life of Israel since the oldest times, which is proved on the pages of the Holy Scriptures, in the Books of Exodus and Psalms. In the New Testament, there is a lot of encouragement to sing the glory of God in psalms and songs, as well as praising God Most High in Revelation. The Catholic Church is concerned with the quality of liturgical music through a number of recommendations and requirements defining the pieces that may become a part of the liturgy. Liturgical choir singing is a special form of common prayer. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effect of prayer by choral singing on human flourishing. The aim was achieved by analyzing recommendations of the Church on liturgical music, presenting the assumptions of the theoretical model investigating the effect of art on human flourishing, and then conducting empirical studies. Sixteen in-depth interviews were carried out with members of fourteen choirs. There were four groups of respondents according to their gender and family status. All obtained codes were organized into five main themes with four subcategories. They confirmed the assumptions of the model presented in the theoretical part and made it possible to identify the effect of choral singing on the performers' health and the improvement of their skills. In addition, they showed a direct relation between prayer and spiritual well-being when singing in a choir, a coherence of activities with values as well as the striving for happiness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to describe Poles' attitudes towards AI in the development of Christian prayer as a technology supporting prayer practices. Four research questions were formulated: 1. Do the frequency of prayer and engagement in religious practices influence the attitudes of Poles towards prayer programs/applications based on AI technology? 2. Does believers' age affect Poles' attitudes towards prayer programs/applications based on AI? 3. Does believers' place of residence affect the attitude of Poles towards AI-based prayer programs/applications? 4. Do current users of the prayer-supporting applications plan to continue using it, and are new believers considering using it in the future? Research hypotheses were adopted to verify the research problem, with the first, second, and third being positively verified. H1: The higher the level of prayer frequency and engagement in religious practices of respondents, the more conservative the attitude towards prayer programs/applications based on AI; H2: The age of respondents differentiates the attitudes of Poles towards prayer programs/applications. H3: The respondents' place of residence differentiates Poles' attitudes towards prayer programs/applications. H4: Most AI users plan to continue such usage in the future, while new practitioners will appear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the role of selected motifs of prayer depicted in the works of first-wave Russian emigrants in the creation of a certain type of national mythology. The starting point of the considerations is a reflection on the status of emigrant literature at the time of its creation, during the period of political changes in the Soviet bloc, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and today. From the beginning, émigré literature has served as a certain treasury of images and symbols, which are treated as necessary elements for maintaining the national identity of emigrants. The article presents selected motifs from the works of Ivan Shmelev's The Year of the Lord and Pilgrimage, and Boris Zaitsev's Saint Sergius of Radonezh, showing prayer as an element of ritual, as a collective request, and as an act of deep contact with God. The analysis of the selected examples shows that regardless of the literary form, narrative perspective, or the way the subject was presented, the writers showed prayer motifs in a patriotic context, while mythologizing pre-revolutionary Russia and bringing the idea of "Holy Rus" to life. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been an increased interest in emigrant literature, and the ideas contained therein have proven to be very important for the formation of the new national consciousness of Russians. Today, due to another political change in Russia and its political isolation, émigré literature is of renewed importance in Russian circles. The writers whose works are discussed in this study are regarded as the main Orthodox writers of the twentieth century, and the image of praying Russia is again the basis for building a new national identity. The study concludes with the observation that the value of emigrant literature should be studied in the context of the time of its creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the historical and philosophical roots of economic thought, drawing connections between the entrepreneurial mindset and the scholastic traditions that have shaped the conceptual landscape of free markets. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the paper examines how religious and scholastic influences have contributed to the development of economic ideas, providing a nuanced understanding of the ethical dimensions inherent in entrepreneurial endeavors. By unraveling the threads that connect entrepreneurship, prayer, and scholasticism, this paper also seeks to illuminate the symbiotic relationship between faith, intellectual heritage, and the principles that underpin free-market economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ditsi Carolino's "Huwag Kang Papatay" (Thou Shall Not Kill, 2017) is an unconventional Jesus film. As a documentary, it presents the problems and the responses by members of the Roman Catholic Church in Metro Manila to the so-called "War on Drugs" (commonly known as Tokhang) of the Duterte government that resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killing (EJK) victims. From a biblical lens, this paper analyzes examples of grassroots recontextualizing interpretations of select Matthean passages like (1) Mt 6:9−13, the Lord's Prayer, in the context of praying for an extrajudicial killing victim; (2) Mt 2:1−18, a street theater adaptation showing the massacre of the innocents, representing the beginning of the EJKs; and (3) Mt 27:27−50, a street theater adaptation of Jesus' passion recontextualized in the plight of the victimized drug personalities. These episodes are examined using insights from biblical narrative criticism, performance criticism, empire studies, ritual studies and a liberationist approaches. The paper concludes that biblical interpretations from the ground in this documentary film demonstrate Matthew's anti-empire message by recontextualizing Jesus's story in the context of extrajudicial killings to advocate for political dialogue and action-response against human rights violations and development issues caused by the EJKs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present article is to approach religiousness and prayer with the aid of the conceptual apparatus of K. Twardowski's concept of actions and products. Both actions and their products are psychic phenomena, so the idea is to present the psychological mechanism of the formation of religiousness as a product of a person's actions. This requires a description of the phenomena that are the object of morality, as well as of religion, which is a special aspect of morality. In order to make this description clear, a psychological model of the personal subject will be outlined to explain not only the essence of morality, i.e., how man becomes good, but also how he comes to partake in eternal life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the presented research was to test the relationship between basic beliefs about a religious object (Transcendence, God) operationalized by Hutsebaut and various forms of civic engagement. In discovering these relationships, the mediating role of prayer importance, understood as an indicator of the strength of commitment to the relationship with God, was taken into account. In the study conducted with 535 young adults, the following tools were used: Post-Critical Belief Scale, Civic Engagement Questionnaire and Prayer Importance Scale. The results showed that social activities were more strongly associated with beliefs accepting the existence of God, while political activities were more strongly linked with attitudes rejecting the existence of God. Prayer importance was shown to mediate the relationship between beliefs accepting the existence of God and social activities and to increase the strength of service-oriented activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study's main objective is to identify and analyze the attitude toward prayer of teenagers in a denominational school in Romania and the need to use AI-assisted tools. To find a satisfactory answer, we considered it necessary to identify how they pray, i.e., freely or by calling on the prayer book, and whether they questioned whether artificial intelligence could be an agreeable support. The research also takes into account the documents of the Romanian Orthodox Church from which the attitude of the Hierarchy towards new technologies in general and artificial intelligence in particular emerges. How attentive is the Church to these realities, and how open is it to incorporate them? Does it have any good reason to consider tools like e-rosary in the Catholic world or Alexa Pray in the Anglican world in the near future? The introduction addresses Romania's socio-political, educational, and theological context, and the discussion focuses on how the literature on digital religion and its subchapters is received in the Romanian theological landscape. The research method includes qualitative, questionnaire, and textual analysis; it is an interdisciplinary approach, namely practical theology and the study of digital religions. The questionnaire was administered to 216 respondents, respecting all research ethics requirements. The results reveal that young people prefer to pray freely, use the prayer book moderately, and have not gathered information regarding artificial intelligence that could help them. However, they are open to a future offers from the Romanian Orthodox Church, including AI-assisted tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to find an answer to the question of how prayer develops in children, adolescents and young adults and which psycho-pedagogical factors are conducive to its development. Czesław Walesa’s cognitive developmental psychological theory of the integral development of religiosity and Marcelina Darowska’s concept of religious education served as the theoretical basis of the proposed analyses. The authors showed changes in the development of prayer and expanded upon them in terms of pedagogical and religious aspects. It is proposed that pedagogical interventions aimed at the development of prayer should focus on supporting independence and responsibility in children, adolescents and young adults. In educational work, one should be aware of the close relationship between the psycho-social conditions of human functioning and the development of prayer.

Choral music and the sacred have been intertwined since the Middle Ages. With the increasing secularisation of society, it is notable that the sacred choral canon continues to expand and attract audiences in religious and secular spaces, underlining the enduring importance of tradition and the human desire to search for something beyond our existence. The practice of setting sacred texts to music abounds in the work of contemporary composers, continuing the historic tradition into the present day via a wide range of compositional and stylistic approaches. In his sacred works, Irish composer Eoghan Desmond achieves a sound that fuses the past and present, exhibiting both the visceral and meditative aspects associated with the texts that he sets. This article focuses on the composer's choral work Nothing in Vain (2021), a setting of John Henry Newman's 'A Meditation on Trust in God'. Through critical score analysis, I highlight Desmond's ability to reflect Newman's devotion to God and to evoke a sense of the spiritual through his formal organisation and application of harmonic, rhythmic, and textural techniques, drawing on influences from the Renaissance tradition, the contemporary style of ambient music, and the work of well-known composer James MacMillan. Desmond's synthesis of ancient and contemporary compositional practices invites all listeners to engage in this musical meditation and contemplate the message of the spiritual text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music is an essential part of human life, but it is also integral to the experience of faith. From its beginnings, music has been associated with religious expression and worship. One of the oldest Christian hymns is the hymn "Gloria in excelsis Deo"-"Glory to God in the highest", which was originally a component of morning and evening prayer. Later, it became part of the Holy Mass and is still sung during the celebration of the Eucharist on Sundays and feast days. The aim of this study is to provide a comprehensive view of this precious hymn in terms of its historical use. The study pays special attention to the sources of the text of this ancient hymn. A theological analysis of the text is also an indispensable prerequisite for a deeper understanding. Finally, the study offers up-to-date guidelines for the hymn's use today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present and compare contemporary concepts of the common good formulated by economists with reference to the understanding of the common good by the great men of prayer: Augustine of Hippo; Thomas Aquinas; Jacques Maritain; and Popes John XXIII, John Paul II, and Francis. It seeks to determine in what direction the economic theory of the common good can develop, taking into account inspiration drawn from Catholic social teaching (CST). Given the interdisciplinary nature of the common good, a historical and interdisciplinary approach, along with the descriptive method, was adopted. The paper highlights the tendency of economic theory toward one-dimensional and relativistic concepts of the common good and suggests a search for economic ideas of the common good that are simultaneously multidimensional and universalistic. It recognizes the achievements of CST, created by the great men of prayer, in enhancing the understanding of the category of the common good and posits that these teachings can serve as research inspiration for economists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who are the religious Nones, given their representation as both a minority and a majority group within the religious landscape? This article presents findings from a comparative study of Italian and Uruguayan youth (n = 2047, with 844 Nones), focusing on sociodemographic profiles of “Nones”, their spirituality, religious belief, practice, and atheist and agnostic identities. The findings suggest that regardless of cultural context—whether in predominantly Catholic Italy or more secular Uruguay—young “Nones” tend to be males, hold beliefs, and engage in religious practices, albeit with varying degrees. Among participants in this study, those originating from Uruguay exhibit a stronger degree of belief and slightly more pronounced engagement in private prayer and attendance of religious services compared to their counterparts from Italy. Additionally, the endorsement of spiritual identity is notably stronger among religious Nones in the Uruguayan sample than in the Italian one. Instead, atheism is more prevalent among Italian Nones, whereas agnosticism constitutes a larger proportion within the Uruguayan sample.

While scholars have long recognized the central importance of the cross within Syriac-speaking Christian communities in late antique Mesopotamia, the question of how physical crosses functioned as aids for prayer has only recently begun to be explored. The present article addresses this question with respect to East Syrian monastic communities in seventh-century Mesopotamia, focusing on the context of the monastic cell. Bringing together accounts of cross-directed prayer in Syriac monastic literature with archaeological evidence for crosses from the region, the article concludes that physical crosses played an important role as mediating devices of divine presence that were both always at hand and the frequent objects of monastics’ sensorial attention. These conclusions are subsequently discussed through the lens of recent research from the field of new media studies toward the goal of understanding how cross-directed prayer may have served to bridge monastic spirituality and sociality in Mesopotamia.

What was the nature of ritual in ancient Yahwism? Although biblical sources provide some information about various types of cultic activity, we have thus far lacked any extra-biblical ritual texts from Yahwistic circles prior to Greco–Roman times. This article presents such a text—one that has been hiding in plain sight for almost a century on a small ostracon found on the island of Elephantine. It has variously been interpreted as dealing with instructions regarding a tunic left at the "house of Yhw"—the temple to Yhw(h) that flourished on the island from the middle of the sixth to the end of the fourth century BCE. While there is little debate regarding the epigraphic reading of this text, it has hitherto failed to be correctly interpreted. I present an entirely new reading of this important document, revealing it to be written in poetic form and to match the characteristics of a "prayer for justice" curse ritual. It is, in fact, the oldest known example of this genre; its only known specimen in Aramaic, its unique witness in a Yahwistic context, and the sole record of any ritual performance at a temple to Yhw(h). Significantly, it is administered by a priestess. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In The Christian Life, his unfinished volume of Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth describes sport as "a special form of derangement". Barth identifies sport as a lordless power, an element of society that humans believe they control, but ends up dictating the terms of engagement. Situating his discussion of these powers in his discourse on the third petition of the Lord's Prayer, Barth calls on Christians to revolt against these things. Readers may shake their heads at Barth's rhetoric regarding sport and the labeling of it as 'lordless power'; however, in situating his remarks on the topic in the Lord's Prayer, Barth provides a new lens through which Christians might view sport. This paper focuses on Barth's approach to sport, suggesting that Christians can, through invocation and correspondence, rebel against the lordless power that is sport. It begins by situating Barth's approach to sport within the context of the sport and Christianity interface, the wider corpus of Barth studies, and his own work. After assessing Barth's writings on sport, the paper shifts to a discussion of what Barth suggests God does and what we, as humans, are called to do when we pray "Thy kingdom come". The paper concludes with reflections on how Barth's approach to sport, rooted in prayer, can affect our understanding of the subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By the end of early childhood, children indicate that prayer is more effective than wishes or magic to prevent an unwanted, negative outcome from occurring. However, research has not yet delineated whether children would ask God to resolve a problem by changing the internal state of the person facing the problem (e.g., changing someone's desires or emotions) or changing the external state of the world (e.g., physical or biological change). The current study examined if children request God to act through psychological or physical mechanisms. The participants were 122 4-to-8-year-old children (M = 6.160, SD = 0.918; 63.0% female) who returned to be interviewed for the third wave of a six-wave longitudinal study. The sample was racially–ethnically and religiously diverse. Children heard stories about characters facing two different problems. The results revealed that the children demonstrated a preference for petitioning for physical solutions, rather than biological, psychological, or emotion regulation solutions. The preferences did not vary by religious affiliation, religious exposure, or age. However, children with a more sophisticated social cognition ranked petitioning for physical changes higher. These findings suggest that children's understanding of prayer (in this case, the most efficient ways for God to answer prayers) involves their coordination of developing folk theories about the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is founded on two philosophical assumptions. The first is that there is a difference between two patterns of recognition: the dialectical and the dialogical. The second assumption is that the origins of the dialogical pattern may be found in the relationship between human beings and God, a relationship in which prayer has a major role. The second assumption leads to the supposition that the emphasis of the dialogic approach on moral responsibility is theologically grounded. In other words, the relationship between humanity and God serves as a paradigm for human relationships. By focusing on Hermann Cohen and Franz Rosenzweig, in the context of prayer and dialectic, this paper highlights the complexity of these themes in modern Jewish thought. These two important philosophers utilize dialectical reasoning while also criticizing it and offering an alternative. The conclusions of their thought, in general, and their position on prayer, in particular, demonstrate a preference for a relational way of thinking over a dialectical one, but without renouncing the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

2 Kings 20:1–11; Isaiah 38:1–22 and 2 Chronicles 32:24–26 discuss Hezekiah’s sickness and the power of healing prayer. They are called Hezekiah-Isaiah narratives since they deal not only with (a) the threats and salvation of Jerusalem from Assyria, (b) the disease and the miraculous recovery or healing (ḥāyâ/rāքā’) of Hezekiah and description of the representatives from Babylon, but share a common narrative pattern in which Hezekiah is healed with a poultice/lump of fig tree (dəbelet təʾnim), having received advise and healing support from God’s messenger, Isaiah. Past scholars have approached this text differently, searching for its dating, literary growths, differences, originality with the desire to reveal the history of the various traditional components and relationship among parallel texts, as well the prophetic and kingly images of Isaiah and Hezekiah. Built on this past scholarship and African cultural perspectives and experiences, this work contextually, historically and theologically study, develop and analyze the story of Hezekiah’s sickness and healing.

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.

The issue of socially responsible consumer behavior has been of great interest to researchers for years. It seems important to acquire knowledge about consumer behavior, especially among young people, who are a special group of consumers. In recent years, it is not only the purchasing power of young people that has been growing, but also the range of market choices they make. In this context, it is important to identify the determinants of consumer behavior to predict the directions of changes in the behavior of young people as consumers. One of the interesting research areas is determining the role of prayer, or more broadly, human spiritual development, in shaping consumer behavior. Some research suggests that there is a relationship between religion, or more precisely, religious practices and consumption. This work presents the most important definitions of a socially responsible consumer, presenting the most important aspects of this attitude. This work also presents previous research on the relationship between religiosity, prayer and consumer behavior. This research on the SRC attitude among young people was conducted using an online survey. The collected data were tested using the χ2 test of independence. Owing to the obtained results, it was possible to indicate the aspects of SRC in which the attitude to prayer is important.

Prayer in human life enables directing attention to God and a transcendent goal beyond Earthly life. Singing has been present in the life of Israel since the oldest times, which is proved on the pages of the Holy Scriptures, in the Books of Exodus and Psalms. In the New Testament, there is a lot of encouragement to sing the glory of God in psalms and songs, as well as praising God Most High in Revelation. The Catholic Church is concerned with the quality of liturgical music through a number of recommendations and requirements defining the pieces that may become a part of the liturgy. Liturgical choir singing is a special form of common prayer. The aim of the present paper is to examine the effect of prayer by choral singing on human flourishing. The aim was achieved by analyzing recommendations of the Church on liturgical music, presenting the assumptions of the theoretical model investigating the effect of art on human flourishing, and then conducting empirical studies. Sixteen in-depth interviews were carried out with members of fourteen choirs. There were four groups of respondents according to their gender and family status. All obtained codes were organized into five main themes with four subcategories. They confirmed the assumptions of the model presented in the theoretical part and made it possible to identify the effect of choral singing on the performers’ health and the improvement of their skills. In addition, they showed a direct relation between prayer and spiritual well-being when singing in a choir, a coherence of activities with values as well as the striving for happiness.

This article presents the role of selected motifs of prayer depicted in the works of first-wave Russian emigrants in the creation of a certain type of national mythology. The starting point of the considerations is a reflection on the status of emigrant literature at the time of its creation, during the period of political changes in the Soviet bloc, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and today. From the beginning, émigré literature has served as a certain treasury of images and symbols, which are treated as necessary elements for maintaining the national identity of emigrants. The article presents selected motifs from the works of Ivan Shmelev’s The Year of the Lord and Pilgrimage, and Boris Zaitsev’s Saint Sergius of Radonezh, showing prayer as an element of ritual, as a collective request, and as an act of deep contact with God. The analysis of the selected examples shows that regardless of the literary form, narrative perspective, or the way the subject was presented, the writers showed prayer motifs in a patriotic context, while mythologizing pre-revolutionary Russia and bringing the idea of “Holy Rus” to life. In the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, there has been an increased interest in emigrant literature, and the ideas contained therein have proven to be very important for the formation of the new national consciousness of Russians. Today, due to another political change in Russia and its political isolation, émigré literature is of renewed importance in Russian circles. The writers whose works are discussed in this study are regarded as the main Orthodox writers of the twentieth century, and the image of praying Russia is again the basis for building a new national identity. The study concludes with the observation that the value of emigrant literature should be studied in the context of the time of its creation.

The paper explores the historical and philosophical roots of economic thought, drawing connections between the entrepreneurial mindset and the scholastic traditions that have shaped the conceptual landscape of free markets. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the paper examines how religious and scholastic influences have contributed to the development of economic ideas, providing a nuanced understanding of the ethical dimensions inherent in entrepreneurial endeavors. By unraveling the threads that connect entrepreneurship, prayer, and scholasticism, this paper also seeks to illuminate the symbiotic relationship between faith, intellectual heritage, and the principles that underpin free-market economies.

This article attempts to describe Poles’ attitudes towards AI in the development of Christian prayer as a technology supporting prayer practices. Four research questions were formulated: 1. Do the frequency of prayer and engagement in religious practices influence the attitudes of Poles towards prayer programs/applications based on AI technology? 2. Does believers’ age affect Poles’ attitudes towards prayer programs/applications based on AI? 3. Does believers’ place of residence affect the attitude of Poles towards AI-based prayer programs/applications? 4. Do current users of the prayer-supporting applications plan to continue using it, and are new believers considering using it in the future? Research hypotheses were adopted to verify the research problem, with the first, second, and third being positively verified. H1: The higher the level of prayer frequency and engagement in religious practices of respondents, the more conservative the attitude towards prayer programs/applications based on AI; H2: The age of respondents differentiates the attitudes of Poles towards prayer programs/applications. H3: The respondents’ place of residence differentiates Poles’ attitudes towards prayer programs/applications. H4: Most AI users plan to continue such usage in the future, while new practitioners will appear.

The aim of the present article is to approach religiousness and prayer with the aid of the conceptual apparatus of K. Twardowski’s concept of actions and products. Both actions and their products are psychic phenomena, so the idea is to present the psychological mechanism of the formation of religiousness as a product of a person’s actions. This requires a description of the phenomena that are the object of morality, as well as of religion, which is a special aspect of morality. In order to make this description clear, a psychological model of the personal subject will be outlined to explain not only the essence of morality, i.e., how man becomes good, but also how he comes to partake in eternal life.

The aim of the presented research was to test the relationship between basic beliefs about a religious object (Transcendence, God) operationalized by Hutsebaut and various forms of civic engagement. In discovering these relationships, the mediating role of prayer importance, understood as an indicator of the strength of commitment to the relationship with God, was taken into account. In the study conducted with 535 young adults, the following tools were used: Post-Critical Belief Scale, Civic Engagement Questionnaire and Prayer Importance Scale. The results showed that social activities were more strongly associated with beliefs accepting the existence of God, while political activities were more strongly linked with attitudes rejecting the existence of God. Prayer importance was shown to mediate the relationship between beliefs accepting the existence of God and social activities and to increase the strength of service-oriented activities.

Ditsi Carolino’s “Huwag Kang Papatay” (Thou Shall Not Kill, 2017) is an unconventional Jesus film. As a documentary, it presents the problems and the responses by members of the Roman Catholic Church in Metro Manila to the so-called “War on Drugs” (commonly known as Tokhang) of the Duterte government that resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killing (EJK) victims. From a biblical lens, this paper analyzes examples of grassroots recontextualizing interpretations of select Matthean passages like (1) Mt 6:9−13, the Lord’s Prayer, in the context of praying for an extrajudicial killing victim; (2) Mt 2:1−18, a street theater adaptation showing the massacre of the innocents, representing the beginning of the EJKs; and (3) Mt 27:27−50, a street theater adaptation of Jesus’ passion recontextualized in the plight of the victimized drug personalities. These episodes are examined using insights from biblical narrative criticism, performance criticism, empire studies, ritual studies and a liberationist approaches. The paper concludes that biblical interpretations from the ground in this documentary film demonstrate Matthew’s anti-empire message by recontextualizing Jesus’s story in the context of extrajudicial killings to advocate for political dialogue and action-response against human rights violations and development issues caused by the EJKs.

Sacrifice as a practice aimed at honoring deities by offering them something as a sign of propitiation or worship is usually studied from the viewpoint of numerous disciplines and religious cultures, from which equally numerous interpretations follow. However, the view of sacrifice as able to shape life in its entirety, which means that every act taken by believers may be seen in sacrificial terms, does not seem to be sufficiently considered. This is a view that I believe emerges from various reflections on sacrifice, especially the ones offered by thinkers of the past such as Augustine and Aquinas. In this essay, I first focus on these reflections and more specifically on Augustine's and Aquinas's view that religious believers should order everything to God. I then argue—in the footsteps of Aquinas—that this view applies to important acts taken by believers. These acts are prayer, faith, and intellectual activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion/Spirituality (R/S) has been associated with mental health. Although most Filipinos are Christian, little research has been done on how R/S affects their mental health. To address this research gap, an open-ended questionnaire was conducted on forty-three Filipino Christian youths regarding their thoughts, motives, and emotions about private prayer. Responses were coded and analyzed with the qualitative data analysis software NVivo. A traditional coding method was also employed to contextualize the data. Results show that most respondents define prayer as a way to communicate with God and personally encounter the transcendent. In general, prayer was used to express gratitude, request something, seek guidance, ask for forgiveness, or find psychological comfort. In most cases, participants prayed when they were feeling down or troubled. The majority prayed in silence and with their eyes closed. Most respondents felt calm and relaxed when praying. Many respondents also noted that their conversation with God provided comfort, reassurance, and relief. A theoretical model of causal pathways for the effects of prayer on mental health was used to examine how Filipino Christian youths' emotional health—a component of mental health—is affected by prayer. Research suggests that prayer guides many respondents in their decisions and life choices. Prayer also may evoke human virtues, such as gratitude, patience, and honesty. For many, prayer is critical to their cognitive appraisal of stressful events and serves as a coping resource. This study has important implications for R/S as a resource for mental well-being among youth in a country with limited mental health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into the concept of tawajjuh through a poem and a prayer ascribed to the Arabic letter rāʾ, which expresses key themes in the Akbarian tradition. Using the hermeneutical approach of Ibn ʿArabī to interpret word polysemy in the texts, the article sheds light on the science of letters and key metaphysical ideas cultivated in this tradition. The letter rāʾ represents various aspects of cosmic duality and hence a strong desire for intimacy. The Arabic word tawajjuh, meaning the projection of spiritual energy, orientation, or attentiveness, refers to turning to face God. There is contemplation and continuous turning, like the phases of the moon facing the sun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper looks at the mystical topic of munājāt, or intimate dialogue, typically between a worshipper and their Lord, and how it relates to Ibn al-'Arabī's waḥdat al-wujūd (Unity of Being). The paper first works to situate munājāt within the current surrounding body of Sufi devotional literature and within the Islamic intellectual tradition. Then the paper goes on to examine how munājāt as prayer reflects and relates to Ibn al-'Arabī's larger metaphysical treatises, particularly waḥdat al-wujūd, using crucial concepts such as Barzakh, Imagination, and dhikr (remembrance). From this it may be understood that munājāt is direct communication occurring from God to Himself through the form of man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Voas and Crockett (2005), a consensus has emerged in the sociology of religions on the fact that secularization is largely due to a cohort effect. That is, each birth cohort is less religious than the previous one. We use data from the Swiss Household Panel (SHP), a multi-thematic survey based on a random sample representative of the general population since 1999, to understand what is the cohort effect in Switzerland on three indicators of religiosity: religious affiliation, frequency of religious service attendance, and personal prayer, taking into account the socio-demographic characteristics of individuals, which could interfere with cohort, period, or age effects. A first general observation can be drawn from the SHP: for the three religious indicators, a cohort effect is a key factor in explaining the decline of religiosity. Each birth cohort is less religious on all three indicators, that is, younger individuals are less affiliated, practice less often, and pray less than the older cohort. More subtly, we also observe an effect of age or life cycle, especially on the practice, and a period effect on the religious disaffiliation of individuals. Each birth cohort shows a more religious profile of individuals at the start of the cohort than at the end. There is, therefore, an initial movement of distancing from religion by birth cohorts, but this is further accentuated by a period effect for disaffiliation and sometimes accelerated and, at other times, slightly contained by a life-cycle effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most interpretations of the Temple and Torah in the Gospel of Mark have held a negative view toward the Jewish institutions, declaring that the old has been replaced by the new, meaning Jesus is the new Temple and the Church has replaced the Jewish people. This article presents a post-supersessionist reading of the Temple and Torah in Mark's Gospel, focusing on the Parable of the Vineyard (Mk 12:1–12) in the broader narrative context (11:1—13:1) and the canonical narrative, thereby maintaining the Gospel's connection with the Jewish people and their covenant relationship with God. These two contexts frame the parable and set parameters for its interpretation, thereby preventing anti-Torah and anti-Temple interpretations and the theological belief that Christians are Abraham's true and rightful heirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dimensions of religion contribute in different ways to the in general protective effect of religiosity and spirituality (R/S) against suicidality. Few studies have included a substantial number of dimensions, and even fewer a follow-up, to clarify the stability and contribution of R/S over the course of psychopathology. In this follow-up study among 155 religiously affiliated in- and outpatients with major depression, religious service attendance, frequency of prayer, type of God representation, moral objections to suicide, and social support were re-assessed in 59 subjects. Diverse statistical analyses show a partial change in R/S parameters. Supportive R/S is persistently associated with lower suicidality. R/S at T0 or change in R/S is not associated with additional changes in suicidality over time. The results suggest that the most important change in suicidality can be understood as an effect of a decline in depressive symptomatology, not of changes in R/S. Despite the limited follow-up and sample size, these results emphasize the importance of longitudinal and dynamic evaluation of especially affective and supportive aspects of R/S in suicidal persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prayer is a spiritual coping method that can be effective both in extraordinary, life-threatening circumstances and in ordinary, stressful situations. To be beneficial, it requires a bond with God or the divine based on trust and faith. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediated moderation model in which spiritual experiences moderate the link between prayer and stress, which in turn, is negatively related to the subjective well-being of Chilean students. The study's participants were 177 students from Chile. The following tools were used: Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, two measures regarding the quality of life and negative feelings from the World Health Organization Quality of Life—BREF, one tool verifying stress from the National Health Interview Survey and one-item scale in reference to frequency of praying. This study confirmed the mechanism underpinning the relationship between prayer and subjective well-being, as well as the benefits of a bond with God and the harmful role of stress in this relationship. When students more frequently felt God's love and direction, prayer was negatively related to stress, which in turn, negatively predicted subjective well-being. For students with a poor bond with God and fewer spiritual experiences, prayer was positively linked with stress. This study confirms the benefits of a close, trusting bond with God or the divine and the detrimental effects of lacking a positive connection with God on students' stress when students used prayer as a coping method. The practical implications of this study are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Every year, the member Churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) are called to actively participate in the meetings organized in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. From my perspective, these moments are an extraordinary opportunity to share in the richness of the Orthodox tradition, which means an act of confession and authentic witness. In the first part, I will present critically the canonical synthesis of the Orthodox, the concept of "Ecumenical Eucharist" and of Lima Liturgy, followed by the recommendations of the Special Commission for Orthodox participation in the WCC regarding confessional and interconfessional common prayer. Then, this article will make a historical presentation of the week of prayer. It is very important to know how this initiative started and how it was accepted at the beginning and over the years. At least in Romania, where we have an Orthodox majority, this week has become a controversial issue produced by those who are against ecumenical dialogue. A special attention is for the actual practice approved by the Romanian Patriarchate. Finally, the article will present the statements of the new Orthodox documents and it will end with some conclusions about this moment of common Christian witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Luke sets up Jesus as an example of spirituality in Luke-Acts. In Luke, Jesus does not simply tell his disciples to adopt spiritual practices; he models them, inviting readers to imitate him as well. The first century world was familiar with the power of example. Leaders in Luke's literary world were often idealized because they taught or legislated not just through words, but through the virtuous example of their lives. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus invites his followers to follow him on the pathway to prayer and simplicity in a similar manner. Like the Lukan Jesus, Numa and Lycurgus, Plutarch's legendary kings, legislate piety and simplicity through their own lifestyles during their lifetimes. Plutarch devotes significant attention to the issue of their influence after their deaths. Luke's authorial audience also might have wondered how the powerful effect of Jesus' exemplary instruction might be sustained after his crucifixion and ascension. In Acts, we see that Jesus' followers have internalized his instruction and example of prayer and simplicity through the power of the Holy Spirit, adopting Jesus' spiritual patterns as their own. Early receptions of Lukan texts on prayer and simplicity in Luke-Acts show that the early church continues to follow this practice, looking to Jesus as a model of spirituality for their own lives and the lives of their communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]