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This paper focuses on the response of the global Anglican Communion to the issue of homosexuality, drawing on case studies of parishes in three different national contexts (UK, USA and South Africa). It traces some of the complex connections (e.g. through flows of money, resources and discourses) between places differently located within this transnational religious network to identify a complex geometry of power. Through its attention to the deployment of racist, disablist, colonial and sexist discourses in debates about homosexuality, this paper contributes to geographies of difference by showing how prejudices can intersect in complex ways to facilitate but also to undo or cancel each other out. The conclusion reflects on issues of authority, the meaning of 'communion' and how local insights might be scaled-up to imagine a practical response to the institutional crisis about homosexuality in the global Anglican Communion. In doing so, the paper contributes to understanding how differences may be reconciled within a transnational religious context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws together emerging literature within Geography, and from across the broader social sciences, around contemporary mission and missionaries. It argues for the importance of recognising mission organisations and missionaries not just as historic relics, but as important, active, and geographically far ranging actors in the modern world. In mapping out the little work that has been conducted, three themes are addressed, missionary geopolitics; mission, welfare and development; and transnational migration, religion and cosmopolitanism. The article highlights the potential contributions that a (re)examination of missionary lives, beliefs and praxis can make to these disparate bodies of literature, and calls for further research in these directions within geographical scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article surveys W. E. B. Du Bois's encounters with the Baha'i religion, from 1910 to 1953. Sections one and two focus on Du Bois and 'Abdu'l-Baha (1844-1921), while section three treats Du Bois's indirect connection to the New York Baha'i community through Nina Du Bois's documented affiliation with that group. Section four chronicles the 1937 Nashville incident involving reportedly segregated Baha'i meetings, and section five looks at Du Bois's later Baha'i contacts, completing the trajectory. Originally attracted to Baha'i teachings on interracial unity - with Du Bois prominently featuring 'Abdu'l-Baha with full-page photograph in Du Bois's 'Men of the Month' column - Du Bois later waxed indignant, openly criticizing the Baha'i movement in a Pittsburgh Courier editorial. Drawing on press reports, Baha'i records, and archival correspondence between members of the Baha'i community and Du Bois, primary sources establish that Du Bois's righteous indignation was based on misinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY Barro and McCleary (2003, Religion and economic growth across countries. American Journal of Sociology 68: 760-781) is a key research contribution in the new literature exploring the macroeconomic effects of religious beliefs. This paper represents an effort to evaluate the strength of their claims. We evaluate their results in terms of replicability and robustness. Overall, their analysis generally meets the standard of statistical replicability, though not perfectly. On the other hand, we do not find that their results are robust to changes in their baseline statistical specification. When model-averaging methods are employed to integrate information across alternative statistical specifications, little evidence survives that religious variables help to predict cross-country income differences. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the conservative critique of higher education in the USA. I argue, first, that the right's call for greater 'intellectual diversity' in American higher education should be understood as an attack on the professional self-regulation and disciplinary autonomy that are central to academic freedom in this country. Second, I suggest that the right's politicization of politics in the academy brings to light the importance of our developing a vision of the university that accounts for rather than disavows the political nature of the work we do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discovery of DNA paternity tests has stirred a debate concerning the definition of paternity and whether the grounds for such a definition are legal or biological. According to the classical rules of Islamic law, paternity is established and negated on the basis of a valid marriage. Modern biomedical technology raises the question of whether paternity tests can be the sole basis for paternity, even independently of marriage. Although on the surface this technology seems to challenge the authority of Islamic law in this area, the paper argues that classical Islamic rulings pertaining to paternity issues continue to hold higher authority even in cases of conflict with modern technology-based alternatives. Through closer analysis, the paper traces the emergence of a differentiation in the function of DNA tests between identity and paternity verification. While the former is accepted without reservation, the latter is approved only when it does not violate the rulings of Islamic law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific, technological, ethical, and religious issues confronting the human prospect are emerging as we encounter the inevitable shift from fossil to renewable fuels. In particular, we are entering a period of monumental transition with respect to both the forms and use of energy. As for any technological transition of this magnitude, ultimate success will require good ethics and religion, as well as good science and technology. Economic and political issues associated with energy conservation and renewable energies are arising in the context of climate change, sustainability, and human purpose. Specifically, we must consider (1) ethical and religious perspectives which might guide future energy choices and (2) energy choices which, in turn, might challenge ethical and religious perspectives. In this paper, I set the stage for subsequent articles by introducing thermodynamic and theological considerations relevant to our energy future. Scientific and technological aspects are covered within the context of the first and second laws of thermodynamics. Ethical and religious aspects are covered within the context of basic philosophical and theological motifs within our secular culture. My intention is to provide the necessary background, motivation, and perspectives for a fuller discussion of pertinent issues in the remainder of the conference papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper begins with an introduction to the ancient spiritual tradition of India. The focus is upon aspects of ancient Indian philosophy relevant to modern society. In the Indian context, science and spirituality are complementary. The application of ethical and religious motivations derived from these ideas is delineated with respect to the practical implementation of energy projects. The efforts of religious and social groups in promoting renewable energy in India are included. A few bioenergy technologies relevant to rural communities in developing nations are then described. The paper argues that though scientific research, technology development, community-based efforts, environmental activism, and renewable energy policy making are important elements in dealing with the energy crisis, they are not sufficient to solve the crisis. The paper closes with the premise that the main wisdom to be drawn from the religious, spiritual, and philosophical traditions concerns the inner transformation that is key to meeting today's energy and environmental crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our human condition is often defined in terms of human fallibility; we are human specifically because we fail to live up to our own expectations. This paper explores various conceptions of one form of human fallibility: self-control failure. Self-control failure is examined through two conceptualizations, with each conceptualization observed through a corresponding theological and psychological lens: first, as the result of a divided, conflicted humanity, as understood by the Catholic Doctrine of Original Sin and psychological Dual-Process Theories of Cognition; and second, as the result of limited goal perception, as understood by Islamic conceptions of human memory and psychological Construal Level Theory. A concluding discussion considers two broader implications of the preceding analysis: first, that an appropriate understanding of human fallibility can help us to mitigate its effects, and second, that a conversation regarding overlapping concepts across academic disciplines and religious traditions can enrich understanding of said concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attempting to revitalize the substantive approach to economics in the tradition of K. Polanyi, this paper revives the neglected substantive theory of money's origins by Bernhard Laum and thus disputes the formal approaches that see the origins of money in the context of trade. A wide range of evidence, from archeological to etymological, is utilized to demonstrate that relations between men and God, carried out through the intermediary of state-religious authorities, played a causal role in the genesis of the ox-unit of value and account, and, further, in the origins of money, and, subsequently, coinage. The substantive state-religious approach presented in this paper is also compared and contrasted to the Chartalist perspective on money's origins. It is concluded that the substantive approach presented in this paper differs from the more formal approaches (e.g., Metallism) because it does not rely upon a projection of modern institutions and habits of thought (e.g., a medium of exchange; monetary taxation) into ancient societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beginning with the often overlooked fact that the establishment of one of the largest Pentecostal churches in the world, Brazil's Assembléia de Deus (Assembly of God), was not the result of missionary activity by the U.S.-based Assemblies of God, this paper makes creative use of Southern Baptist missionary sources to examine the first twenty-five years of Pentecostalism in Brazil. Considering not only what the first Pentecostal missionaries did but also what they did not do, it suggests the following reasons for the extraordinary growth of the emergent movement: early Pentecostals had neither the funds nor the theological need to focus on education; their personal class affiliations did not incline them to privilege efforts to evangelise the upper classes; there was no strong female Pentecostal missionary presence; and the Pentecostals were able to 'poach' from the Baptists' 'flock.' The paper concludes that greater attention needs to be paid to the specific historical circumstances of Pentecostal growth in Brazil, especially during the decade of the 1930s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews policies promoting faith-based organizations' (FBO) participation in publicly-funded programs since the Charitable Choice statute was enacted during the Clinton administration and then additional faith-based initiatives were implemented by the Bush administration. The paper focuses on research findings on FBO participation in publicly-funded human service programs under these policies. It then proposes a framework for evaluation to assess the appropriateness of public funding for behavioral health services delivered by FBOs, in order to address: (1) the programmatic and systemic effects resulting from the infusion of new players from the faith community, and the consequences to the profile of services and who gets served; and (2) the content and effectiveness of faith-infused services as a basis for identifying interventions appropriate for public funding. The analysis considers classification issues, theoretical bases of measured effects of faith-infused services, and the transferability of faith-based interventions across religious and secular applications in order to satisfy constitutional issues and client choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the second part of a paper that explores a range of magico-religious experiences such as immaterial voices and visions, in terms of local cultural, moral and socio-political circumstances in an Aboriginal town in rural Queensland. This part of the paper explores the political and cultural symbolism and meaning of suicide. It charts the saliency of suicide amongst two groups of kin and cohorts and the social meaningfulness and problematic of the voices and visions in relation to suicide, to identity and family forms and to funerals and a heavily drinking lifestyle.I argue that voices and visions are used to reinterpret social experience and to establish meaning and that tragically suicide evokes connectivity rather than anomie and here cannot be understood merely as an individualistic act or evidence of individual pathology. Rather it is about transformation and crossing a threshold to join an enduring domain of Aboriginality. In this life world, where family is the highest social value and where a relational view of persons holds sway, the individualistic practice of psychiatric and other helping professions, is a considerable problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper examines the argument that moral approval of homosexuality is analogous to the early church's inclusion of gentiles. The analogy has a long but often overlooked history, dating back to the start of the modern gay-rights movement. It has recently gained greater prominence because of its importance to the Episcopal Church's debate with the wider Anglican Communion. Beginning with the Episcopal Church argument, we see that there are five specific areas most in need of further clarification. In this essay I examine significant uses of the analogy from the prior 25 years to see how effectively they address these five areas. I conclude that the conversation surrounding the Gentile Analogy is the current, best hope for mutual understanding among Christians about homosexuality. However, if the analogy is to advance the Christian conversation, much greater care and precision is needed in its application from traditionalists and revisionists alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that missio Dei theology must continue to provide the basis for an ecumenical missiology, provided certain problems are revisited, in line with themes of the 2010 Edinburgh study process. Among them is the need for emphasizing the vertical dimension of a transformative spirituality, somehow neglected in earlier ecumenical theologies. Only this will prevent an over-estimation of humanity's capacities. Within a missio Dei theology the specific role of the church is to be reaffirmed: there is no way back behind integration, which remains a cornerstone of an ecumenical approach, provided it keeps a critical distance to dogmatic ecclesiologies that tend to hinder progress towards visible unity. The debate on gospel and culture has to be urgently taken up again, through a positive appreciation of syncretism and the related search for criteria in intercultural hermeneutics. This will lead to articulating pneumatological approaches to mission with Christologies. Indeed, the New Testament texts with the most universal horizon refer to Christ as Word or Wisdom and not to the Holy Spirit. The paper moves on to ask whether then the relevance of the biblical wisdom tradition should not feature more in missiology. It could provide fertile approaches to witness in a religiously plural and ecologically damaged world. Ecumenical mission should in future be shaped by wisdom as much as it has been by prophecy, and keep both traditions in creative tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the latter half of the 20th century, Western medicine moved death from the home to the hospital. As a result, the process of dying seems to have lost its spiritual dimension, and become a matter of prolonging material life by means of medical technology. The novel quandaries that arose led in turn to medico-legal regulation. This paper describes the recent regulation of dying in Israel under its Dying Patient Law, 2005. The Law recognizes advance directives in principle, but limits their effect and form through complex medico-legal artifices. It reflects a culture that places high value on both scientific medicine and the sanctity of life as such, and illustrates a medical culture that pitches battle against death. At the same time, the Law constructs the will of the individual in a medico-legal language that is alien to the lay person. The paper suggests an alternative approach to advance care planning that is patient-centred and addresses the psycho-social needs of the individual in terms of her relational autonomy. From this perspective, advance care planning becomes an opportunity to extract the patient from the medical context and allow her to speak about her approaching death with close ones in her own terms of reference. To this end, there is a need for facilitation of an intimate encounter where patients can speak about their concerns with their loved ones. The paper also presents a methodological approach of attentive listening, which can be applied across diverse cultures and circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reviews the literature on the education, gender, and religion nexuses and identifies plausible hypotheses that religion adversely affects female education. The link between major religions and female educational attainment is examined using the Barro-Lee data set for a sample of 97 countries. The estimates include control variables for colonial heritage, urbanization, labor force participation, and young adult mortality. The estimates show powerful negative links between female educational attainment and the proportion of ethnoreligions, Hindu, and Muslim adherents in a country, with similar results for the gender gap. The paper offers some interpretative thoughts and research agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though interest in religious faith is growing in development studies, more needs to be done to show how faith commitments shape approaches to development. This paper models for non-specialists ways in which the content of one particular faith tradition, the Christian tradition, might be brought to bear on development theory and practice. The particular issue explored is the belief in progress implicit in development. The paper argues that belief in the capacity of human beings to effect their own progress sits uneasily with the Christian tradition. It concludes that an authentically Christian account of hope may lead to a richer Christian understanding of the good of development. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstinence from alcohol is a way of life for many American evangelicals, with rates of abstention running at over 70% among some Pentecostal denominations. This paper examines the religious beliefs that, historically, have supported teetotalism. The most notable of these is Christian perfection, a doctrine that originated in 18th-century England, that was then radicalized in America in the early 19th century. Abstinence from alcohol is highest among denominations that make Christian perfection the cornerstone of their teachings, and lowest among those that discount human agency. The paper also argues that 19th-century American evangelicals were by no means committed uniformly to temperance as a way of life, and that this was especially true of the various Methodist churches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article responds to a research paper that examined the motivation behind the actions of suicide terrorists. The author explores how the quest for personal significance, used in the paper as a unifying concept that explains the motivation of suicide terrorists, is exploited by terrorist organizations in order to fulfill this motivation. The author examines how martyrdom fits into Islamic tradition, scripture and literature as well as how it has been used by non-Muslim groups. The author also discusses how the concept of jihad has developed and how martyrdom now falls within what Islamic theologians considered effective means of conducting jihad.

The article responds to a research paper that examined the motivation behind the actions of suicide terrorists. The author discusses some of the problems that have been associated with previous psychological studies that have examined terrorism and the terrorists that carry out these acts. The author believes that this paper has committed several errors in terms of the case they present and how it has been constructed. The author explores the evidence that is presented and questions how effectively it supports the argument set forth. The paper also discusses the contextual nature of psychological studies of motivation.

The authors of a research paper that examined the motivation behind the actions of suicide terrorists respond to commentaries on their paper. The authors reflect on the opinions that are presented in the commentaries, attempt to clarify points of misunderstanding and address the philosophical differences associated with how they approached the issue of suicide terrorism. They offer a broader view of what the quest for significance is, explore the individual, organizational and social processes involved in suicide terrorism and debate issues related to motivation and ideology.

In recent years, there has been increased interest in the role of religion in the reform of nursing during the mid-nineteenth century. However, less is known about how ‘party’ disputes between evangelicals and followers of the ‘Oxford Movement’ may have affected nursing. This study examines a proposal to create a nursing association for the Diocese of Lichfield in 1864, which leads to a public dispute concerning the ‘ecclesiastical’ nature of the organisation. Leading evangelicals in Derby campaigned against the idea of nurses belonging to a ‘sisterhood’. This resulted in two rival organisations being created in 1865. This paper reports upon the nature and origins of the dispute within the diocese, unsuccessful attempts to draw Florence Nightingale into the dispute and the relative success of the two institutions. The results of this research indicate that the importance of context and of place must be recognised when studying the history of nursing. This research is based mainly, upon newspaper reports, correspondence and miscellaneous sources, including biographies as there are few surviving records from the two organisations under scrutiny. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the concept and practice of “embodied pedagogy” as an alternative to the Cartesian approach to knowledge that is tacitly embedded in traditional modes of teaching and learning about religion. My analysis highlights a class I co-teach that combines the study of Aikido (a Japanese martial art) with seminar-style discussions of texts that explore issues pertaining to embodiment in the context of diverse spiritual traditions. The physicality of Aikido training makes it an interesting “case study” of embodied pedagogy and the lessons it offers both teachers and students about the academic study of religion. Ultimately, the questions and insights this class generates illustrate how post-Cartesian pedagogies can expose, challenge, and correct epistemological assumptions that contribute to one-dimensional views of religion and that fail to address our students as whole persons. A final part of the paper considers other possible venues for embodying teaching and learning in the academic study of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces a symposium discussing Michael Oakeshott's understanding of the relationship of religion, science and politics. Essays by Elizabeth Corey, Timothy Fuller, Byron Kaldis, and Corey Abel are followed by a review of Corey's recent book by Efraim Podoksik. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of religion in adolescence for shaping subsequent family formation. Data were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 13,895). We explored the role of three dimensions of religious life—affiliation, attendance, and religious fervor—both singly and in combination for the transition to either marriage or cohabitation. Although each dimension predicted subsequent union formation, it was the particular combination of these dimensions that was important for understanding the likelihood of cohabiting. We also found evidence that patterns of religious identity, attendance, and fervor in adolescence were associated with the length of cohabitation, the likelihood of the cohabitation ending in marriage, and beliefs about the purpose of cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is common for scholars sympathetic to religion – from Friedrich Schleiermacher to the present – to describe the modern critics of religious experience as reductionist. By this they mean these critics do not respect religion for what it is; they rather ‘attempt to assimilate religion to nonreligious phenomena’, 1 say, primitive science or metaphysics. Needless to say, these scholars consider this incorrect. Into this scene strides Wayne Proudfoot. In his award-winning book Religious Experience 2 he sets out to scrutinize this accusation and rehabilitate the modern critics. He dismisses this accusation as a protective strategy to render religious claims immune to rational critique. His rehabilitation program is based on a distinction he draws between two kinds of reduction – descriptive and explanatory. This distinction has so caught the imagination of philosophers that it has found its way into textbooks. 3 On the other hand, the book is also controversial; needless to say, its claims are problematic for believers. The purpose of my paper is not to offer a comprehensive critique of his book, but only of his methodology, or the lack thereof, where methodology is understood as an integrated set of tools used for inquiry. I argue that although he proposes description and explanation as appropriate instruments for the study of religious experience, the two do not constitute a methodology, because his descriptions play no role in his explanations; rather, both go their separate ways. I argue that explanation must be guided by description. Moreover, I distinguish three kinds of inquiry, each calling for a different kind of description. The kind of description Proudfoot recommends is appropriate for genetic inquiry into how particular experiences came about, but not for a conceptual inquiry into the constitutive elements of religious experience. He knows lots of trees (particular experiences), but misses the wood (the nature of religious experience). Thus my title. The paper is divided into three parts. First is a brief presentation of Proudfoot's thesis. A second part analyses three different kinds of inquiry; it shows that genetic and epistemic explanations are logically independent and irreducible one to another. These different types of inquiry call for distinct types of description, and these descriptions in turn guide the explanation that will be considered satisfactory. The context-sensitivity of descriptions, and their relation to explanation is dealt with in the final part. Let us start with Proudfoot's contention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on an analysis of in-depth interviews with returned migrant women from East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, this paper considers the links between migration, religious beliefs and subjectivity. Low-skilled migrant women, including domestic workers, have often been represented as marginalised. This paper argues that in the context of migration, women constantly move through trajectories of power using religion as a spiritual resource. Against the commonly patriarchal characteristics of their religion and community, the women employ cognitive strategies to face challenges in migration. In each stage of their transnational migration, the women's experiences reveal the multitude of ways in which they continue to invest in their beliefs through everyday practices, rituals and networking. These experiences highlight the women's strategies in accessing different forms of power. This study demonstrates the significance of focusing on these women's experiences, including their everyday religious practices and their shifting sense of self, as a way of broadening the conceptual basis of our understanding of female migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A popular view is that international terrorism is on the increase, that it is religiously motivated and that it has important adverse consequences. This paper investigates this view. It examines the empirical evidence on the causes of international terrorism from the late 1960s to the early 2000s and discovers that, while religion has had a part to play, explanations based on economics and politics appear to be consistent with the facts. Terrorists come from relatively poor and undemocratic countries and commit attacks in relatively rich and democratic ones. The paper then examines the micro, macro and global economic effects of international terrorism from both a theoretical and empirical angle, and discovers that the negative effect on domestic aggregate demand is temporary and the effect on aggregate supply insignificant. Finally, the paper explores policies to deal with international terrorism and demonstrates that this is complex. Analogies with conventional crime may be unhelpful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper is presented about the church as the body of Christ from the Orthodox perspective. The words of Afro-American educator Anna Julia Cooper is cited indicating the importance of hearing the voices of women that make up half of those baptized into the body of Christ and taking on Christ in order to fulfill the vision of the church. The authoritative and hierarchical nature of the Orthodox Church is discussed which is said to limit the potential and participation of all non-ordained members of the body of Christ.

The article discusses the papers of the Bossey Seminars from 1992 to 1997 which are published within the issue as well as the lessons learned from the process.

This article argues that discourse on community as a socio-political problem needs to be located within historical, institutional, and socio-structural contexts if it is to be properly understood. In particular, it suggests that the role of religion in promoting forms of communitarian discourse and practice needs to be given greater attention than it has hitherto received within the social sciences. The article pursues this argument through examination of the religious discourse on community cultivated and promoted by the Catholic Church in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. By providing an analysis of its role in Catholic responses to three major socio-political crises in Ireland between the 1890s and 1960s, the paper suggests that not only does socio-religious discourse on community constitute a powerful alternative to secular social-scientific discourses, but that such discourse is particularly effective in helping to constitute specific groups as communities, given favourable sociological conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of minorities is central to research in ethnicity and nationalism. But there are cases where the precise nature of the minority is not easy to determine. One view of Southern Irish Protestants is that in the decades after independence they transformed themselves (or were transformed) from British nationals to Irish nationals or, alternatively, from a British ethnic to an Irish religious minority. This paper argues that treating the (past) British dimension of Irish Protestant identity as ethnic or national misconceives it and overlooks the historically deep Irish context of Protestant identity. One consequence of this is the neglect of the specifically Irish roots of residual tensions in Catholic–Protestant relationships. The themes of the paper are exemplified with case material drawn from research on Protestants and Catholics in rural West Cork. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite considerable ethnographic research with young people in street situations and a growing interest in violence, little attention has been paid to suicide. The occurrence of suicide is a dramatic event that reveals weaknesses in support systems established by governments and civil society organisations, as well as perceived failings of friends. While an interest in suicide usually considers cause, in this paper we explore effect. How does the death of a member of a tightly knit group of street youth affect others and what does the suicide tell us about their identification with death more generally? Research for the paper was part of an in-depth study of identities among street youth in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Auhelawa people of Normanby Island (Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea) typically observe the death of an individual through a series of feasts in which the lineage of the deceased and its lateral relatives exchange food and perform rituals of mourning. Recently, a number of people have decided to reject all forms of 'custom' in favor of a practice of 'Christian custom' in which no food is exchanged and no rituals are performed. This paper examines the way people view custom and its Christian alternative. It argues that the basis for Christian forms of mortuary feasting is a shift away from thinking of feasts in terms of reciprocity and towards thinking of them in terms of traditional customary rules. In this context, active church members have begun to represent the absence of markers of custom as itself a marker of an alternative Christian custom. I argue that this reformulation of the relationship of custom and change is meant to give concrete form to the value of Christian individualism as the basis for sociality. The paper then concludes that in order to explain historical changes in ritual systems, the study of ritual needs to examine ritual in relation to the values that underlie it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim. This paper is an exploration of the challenge of negotiating the highly personalized concept of spirituality within the public sphere of professional-patient interactions. Background. Spirituality has become increasingly prominent within the nursing discourse, and providing spiritual care is often positioned as an ethical obligation of care. However, bringing such a personal concept into the public domain of care creates some unique tensions and ethical risks. Discussion. Nurses bring three potentially competing identities to spiritual care encounters with patients. Firstly, they are professionals with a public trust in health promotion and restoration, including those areas that intersect with spiritual health. Secondly, they are citizens of a liberal society where non-judgmental pluralism as it relates to spirituality is enshrined. Thirdly, they are individuals who hold particular beliefs and values about spirituality. Each of these identities may result in particular, and potentially conflicting, approaches to spiritual care. Ultimately, the identity which nurses choose to adopt is often determined by how they view themselves in the spiritual care encounter, either as experts with legitimate authority to intervene in the spiritual lives of patients or as people in a shared relational encounter. Each of these approaches carries ethical risks, although the nature of these risks is different. Conclusion. The identities which nurses bring to spiritual care encounters have far-reaching implications for patient experiences in those encounters. Nurses who position themselves as experts run the risk of objectifying the spiritual, being experienced as coercive and transcending nursings' competence. The work of Martin Buber is presented as a model that, while acknowledging competing identities, sets forth a vision of spirituality and spiritual care based upon relational reciprocity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A number of anthropologists have argued that religious concepts are minimally counterintuitive and that this gives them mnemic advantages. This paper addresses the question of why people have the memory architecture that results in such concepts being more memorable than other types of concepts by pointing out the benefits of a memory structure that leads to better recall for minimally counterintuitive concepts and by showing how such benefits emerge in the real-time processing of comprehending narratives such as folk tales. This model suggests that memorability is not an inherent property of a concept; rather it is a property of the concept, the context in which the concept is presented, and the background knowledge that the comprehendor possesses about the concept. The model predicts how memorability of a concept should change if the context containing the concept were changed. The paper also presents the results of experiments carried out to test these predictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jean-Luc Marion has recently established himself as one of the most important and theologically fertile thinkers within the phenomenological tradition. With his study of ‘the gift’ and ‘the saturated phenomenon’, Marion presents a challenge to theology to rethink revelation in its surprising givenness, as exceeding the boundaries often set up in advance by metaphysics and a priori anthropological foundations. This paper examines Marion's mature thought, particularly within the perspective of Christology. The paper argues that Marion's phenomenological style of reflection, as adapted to theology, is deeply contemplative and markedly Johannine in sensibility. As a strategy for theology, the phenomenological style gives to it important incentives and skills for reading off God's self-revelation in Christ in its surprising and counter-intuitive beauty. Marion's challenge/gift to theology is, however, in need of a balancing emphasis, one that appears too infrequently in his work: the ethical-prophetic dimension of the Christ event. In view of keeping both the mystical and prophetic poles of theology closely linked, the paper argues that just as beauty is a key category for saturated phenomena, so too is the reality of suffering and evil. However, whereas beauty invites a humble receptivity to and contemplative enjoyment of the gift, the inscrutable reality of suffering and evil, which so often exceeds comprehension, touches off a critical and practical response. In broadening the study of saturated phenomena to include the refractory character of experience, especially that which threatens humanity, Marion's valuable contributions to theology require a complementary emphasis from those narrative-practical Christologies that highlight the prophetic aspects of the tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public health researchers have used a number of concepts derived from the work of Durkheim, such as anomie and social capital. One concept that has not been deployed in public health discourses is that of the cult of humanity-Durkheim's religion in a society organised around organic solidarity. This paper discusses Durkheim's views on religion and science, and the cult of humanity. The cult of humanity is characterised as having humanity at the centre of worship and combining elements of religion and science. Medicine and complementary therapies are identified as possible candidates to fulfil the role of the cult of humanity, but the institution of public health seems to be a particularly apt candidate. The paper concludes by discussing the way in which this analysis provides insight into the dual advocacy and academic functions of public health, the tension between individual choice and constraint and the buffering role of public health in relation to other social institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theism is often supposed to be distinguished from atheism by the heavy weight of metaphysical belief that it carries. This paper argues that this is not as illuminating a way of distinguishing the theist's from the atheist's outlook as is often supposed. The key divergence consists not so much in matters of theoretical belief or philosophical argument as in practical differences in affective response and in the adoption of certain models for living. Two characteristically religious virtues, humility and hope, and two distinctively religious responses, awe and thanksgiving, are discussed in order to illustrate this. The paper's conclusion, while not denying a cognitive core to theism, argues that warranted assent to the metaphysical truth of God's existence cannot be a precondition for theistic hermeneusis and praxis. 1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following is a synopsis of the paper presented by Alvin Plantinga at the Ratioconference on The Meaning of Theism held in April 2005 at the University of Reading. The synopsis has been prepared by the Editor, with the author's approval, from a handout provided by the author at the conference. The paper reflects on whether religious belief of a traditional Christian kind can be maintained consistently with accepting our modern scientific worldview. Many theologians, and also many scientists, maintain that the idea of divine intervention is at odds with the framework of natural laws disclosed by science. The paper argues that this notion of a ‘religion/science problem’ is misguided. When properly understood, neither the classical (Newtonian) picture of natural laws, nor the more recent quantum mechanical picture, rules out divine intervention. There is nothing in science, under either the old or the new picture, that conflicts with, or even calls in to question, special divine action, including miracles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the emergence of a distinctly "modern" style of history and some of its uses as applied to Buddhism by Buddhist scholars within the early Meiji period (late nineteenth century) in Japan. After a discussion of the importance of "area studies" in the formation of conceptions germane to history as practiced in Japan, the paper proposes a new category of the "non-modern" as a means to counter the historiographical dominance of modern categories in the formation of the historical discipline, especially as formulated in Japanese studies. As a case study, the emergence of the discourse dealing with the quest for the historical Buddha is examined. By showing the methods and accomplishments of modernist historians, and the concomitant slippage of non-modern categories in their work, this paper sketches a method of analysis particularly applicable to the intersection of religion and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the Iraq ‘liberation’ in 2003, many asked, ‘Could Sunni, Shi'a and Kurdish factions be brought together, or is it likely that ethnic conflicts would lead to civil war?’ This pilot project addressed: 1) How do Iraqis' self-reported ethnic/religious identities (their membership in their personal in-groups) relate to their perceptions of other unlike groups (out-groups)?, and 2) How does a place of residence relate to Iraqi perceptions of out-groups? My team collected 479 surveys of Iraqi opinions in Iraq, Jordan, and The Netherlands, asking for perceptions of Those Other Groups, their out-groups. I found that background items of religion, ethnic origin, and location, taken by themselves, did not relate strongly to respondents' attitudes towards out-groups. But, some combinations of background items did give significant differences in perceptions towards other groups. For example, moderate Arabs (with respect to ethnic importance) in Iraq were the group most opposed to foreigners, and were the group most opposed to expatriate Iraqis returning to Iraq. In this paper I explain important terms (out-group and wiki); report on my findings in the midst of a period of regime change in Iraq; mention the use of an alternate way to disseminate research findings over the internet via a wiki; and describe follow-up projects on social capital among Iraqis. My hope is that this will contribute to a base from which researchers and fieldworkers can develop theories to explore and explain elements of civil society in Iraq and other societies. This paper presents the following major sections: Abstract; Introduction; Purpose; Background; Methodology; Results; Conclusions; Further; Work; Appendixes; and End Notes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the emerging bioethical debate on assisted reproductive technology (ART) in Ireland, which is shaped by the long-standing contentious issue of abortion and the constitutional protection afforded to the ‘unborn’. The focus of the paper is on the way in which the terms of this debate are shaped and constrained by the historical relations of power between church, state and medicine. Since the representation of Ireland as a post-Catholic, plural republic is becoming increasingly mainstream to cultural and political discourse, we pay particular attention to how the Catholic Church embraces bioethics as a meta frame or code for refocusing questions of values, beliefs and meanings to sustain the ideal of Ireland as a ‘pro-life’ and essentially Catholic nation. The Catholic Church is not simply asserting its voice of dissent in the context of public debate as one voice amongst a plurality of other voices, but to shape the emerging debate as a powerful, institutional actor. The opportunity to do so is afforded by the lack of public debate on bioethical issues and the exceedingly slow pace at which bioethics is moving towards an institutionalised framework in Ireland. These events can be explained by the legacy of the social power of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the direct and indirect influence it has long exercised over public policy vis-à-vis the state and its institutions, including medicine. There are two interconnected threads to the contextual analysis presented in our case study: first, the legacy of the social power wielded by the Catholic Church, and its slow and incremental demise reflected in the pace of secularisation in Ireland and the privatisation of morality; second, the emergence of a bioethical regulatory debate on ART, which is mired in the abortion controversy. Our analysis focuses on a number of key contradictions and tensions in the way in which the key institutions of church, state and medicine navigate their own positions vis-à-vis a bioethics debate, and how this constrains public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims. This paper explores certain key critiques of spirituality-in-nursing as they have been offered by people outside of the discipline. It argues that nurses have not taken seriously enough the recent criticism of the nature and role of spirituality in nursing. Not to listen to the ‘enemies’ of spirituality-in-nursing is to risk stagnation and a drift into obscurity. Background. The area of spirituality has become a growing field of interest for nurses and has produced a burgeoning body of research literature. Yet, whilst much has been written about the positive aspects of spirituality, nurses have offered almost no critique of the ways in which spirituality and spiritual care are understood, despite the fact that there are clearly certain key issues that require robust critique and thoughtful reflection. Almost all of the major criticisms of spirituality-in-nursing have come from people outside of the discipline of nursing. The paper argues that nurses need to listen carefully to the criticisms of spirituality and spiritual care offered by the ‘enemies’ of spiritual care in nursing. When listened to constructively, they highlight issues that are vital for the development and forward movement of this important area of nursing practice. Methods. Literature review and critical reflection on current critiques of spirituality in nursing practice. Conclusions. The paper concludes that nurses need to begin to develop spirituality as a specific field of enquiry with its own bodies of knowledge, methodologies, assumptions and core disciplines. Relevance to clinical practice. In listening to and taking seriously its ‘enemies’, nursing has the opportunity to establish spirituality as an important, creative and vibrant aspect of nursing practice that has the capacity to grow and respond constructively to its ‘enemies’, in ways that make whole-person-care a real possibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At times decisions are made in the field of genetics that are presented as if the ethical debates have been adequately treated and so all moral considerations have been addressed, when the truth is very different. Nor is it always easy or desirable to separate the ethical, legal and social questions posed by new developments. The impact of developments in genetic science upon communities is one field of enquiry that envelops each of these areas. This paper explores the impact of genetics upon communities through focusing, in particular, upon certain developments in reproductive science. After introducing core issues and technologies, it discusses particular ethical concerns in relation to the ‘shadow’ of eugenics over such developments, before exploring the role of legislative debates and procedures in transforming social attitudes, values and hence norms. It then turns to consider debates concerning the ‘quality of life ethic’ now prevalent in healthcare, and moves on to discuss the issue of genetic discrimination – focusing, in particular, upon discrimination against disabled persons as a representative instance of the actual ethical and social/communitarian implications of the foregoing. It ends by highlighting the need to discern the ways in which the ethics of genetics is presently shaped and practised in order to discern better the particular social and communitarian implications of certain technological advances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the most of enormous challenges threatening the public health systems in sub-Saharan Africa, faith-based organizations (FBOs) are making a substantial contribution to the health of communities. This paper offers a brief retrospective into the development of such collaboration, and how scientific "religion blindness" made it all but invisible. In this context, the African Religious Health Assets Programme (ARttAP) was initiated to research and understand "religious health assets" (RHAs), to probe how such assets can be drawn into public health systems, and to develop appropriate language for this field. First, we explain the turn to "assets" in contrast to the more common discourse of "needs" or "deficits", and show the importance of both tangible and intangible RHAs for a proper understanding of their significance. Second, we are interested in how religion might strengthen the "leading causes of life", rather than focusing in the first instance on illness and the burden of disease. We sta3gest that the potency of an FBO for health will depend on the extent to which these leading causes of life are present. A third innovation arose once we contemplated that fact that many African languages have no direct equivalents for either 'religion' or 'health', but use comprehensive concepts like b0phelo, that encapsulate both religion and health in terms of holistic, relational well-being. To express this, we have coined the term "healthworlds'; which describes the way in which religion and health are intertwined with each other, and impact on the choices people make about their health. The paper emphasizes the connection between (ill-) health, power and justice as essential areas of concern for people of faith. It closes by stressing the need for collaboration, not only between the religious and public health sectors, but also among those who are seeking to understand this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critiqued as being a-historical, current social movement theorists argue for a more dynamic, theoretical model that focuses on processes within historical contexts (). This paper seeks to apply existing social movement theory on framing to the historically, embedded case of the American abolitionist movement. Specifically, this paper analyzes the influence of the adopted religious masterframe of the abolitionist movement on the trajectory of the movement through a case study of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AAS). Prior to the Civil War, the good versus evil framework encouraged by the religious masterframe effectively mobilized movement followers against slavery. However, with Emancipation and the onset of the muddled political environment of Reconstruction, the religious masterframe no longer resonated well with the changed context or mustered the same degree of support. Attempts to alter the masterframe to a rights-based masterframe compromised the integrity of the movement’s framing process. Ultimately, the movement dissolved, unable to remedy their collective action frame with the new political reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The geography of religion can be explored from a number of different perspectives. This paper takes an autobiographical approach to explore the numinous experience of God from the point of view of a practising Christian geographer. Such geographical aspects of faith experience remain an under-researched area. The context for the exploration is an academic conference in the city of Bologna, which became, in turn, an experience of religious tourism, a pilgrimage and an unexpected encounter with God. It is contextualized in terms of debates on identity, the nature of pilgrimage, memorials of death, and time–space continuums and fractures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]