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Early modern Catholic shrines were sites of emotional encounters. It was there that the sacred manifested and lives were changed by miracles. This article contributes to our understanding of what made a shrine legitimate in early modern Catholicism through close examination of the sixteenth-century Italian shrine of the Madonna of Lendinara. The role of miraculous shrines in devotional life came under new scrutiny in the period following the Council of Trent (1545–63). By foregrounding the co-productive relationship between emotions and sacred space, I argue that emotional practices endowed the Lendinara shrine with spiritual authenticity and contributed towards its institutional approval. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay investigates the location of silver altarware around the church altar in colonial Mexico to tell a new materialist story about social ordering in this historical context. The article argues that in New Spain at the end of the eighteenth century, the body of Christ incarnate was a shape-shifting central force in this very hierarchical colonial society. The expectation that the mystical body of Christ was frequently (but not always) present in the Eucharist shaped the nature of contestation among the intermeshed yet competing colonial sovereignties of Church and State. Moreover, this spatio-material orientation to colonial power opened possibilities that those occupying a lower status might grab a piece of this sacramental power. This dynamic materialism followed a sacramental logics, a concept that names the way incarnational theology girds the scaffolding and propels the flow of power among competing colonial sovereignties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At some point in the late 1620s or early 1630s, the long-serving naval officer, Sir William Monson, took the time to set down his thoughts about recent history, particularly of the Reformation in the English Church, the success (or lack of it) of the so-called Protestant cause, and of what appeared to him to be a slew of corruption which he associated with an unchecked tendency to puritanism. However, Monson was not just any run-of-the-mill Church-of-England conformist. As his, admittedly, often bizarre and even rambling text made clear, he had internalised some of the sharpest edges of what one might term the ‘Catholic’ account of the post-Reformation. But despite his family’s reputation for having such tendencies, he, it seems, never went into separation. It is, therefore, worth revisiting his words to see how contemporaries in the early seventeenth century could think about their political and religious identity, and how they applied their thoughts in this respect to the political situations in which they found themselves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An activity that is widespread but rarely closely examined in studies of pilgrimage is the enumeration of pilgrims (and related visitors) to shrines and their environs. Such "biopolitics of hosting" can play a significant role in mobilising the religious imagination of shrine administrators, especially in contexts of apparently growing secularity. Number can be deployed by professional hosts to represent undifferentiated visiting publics in terms of spiritual possibility. In these terms, precision in statistics is likely to be less useful than figures that can be viewed through a distanced lens of potentiality. These ideas are developed through an examination of the Christian pilgrimage site of Walsingham, in eastern England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Guanyin/Madonna and Child painting, housed in the British Museum, exemplifies a distinct amalgamation of Catholic and Buddhist elements. This academic study explores the religious syncretism within this artwork, set against the backdrop of Sino-Western cultural dynamics. By integrating socio-religious analysis with iconographic methods, this research highlighted the interplay between the two religious traditions and the broader trends of cultural adaptation and religious amalgamation. It was proposed that the painting, on display at the British Museum, reflects not only the European depiction of the Madonna of Humility but also the Jesuit missionary influence and the clandestine religious practices of Chinese Christians during periods of persecution. This investigation provided new perspectives on the nuances of religious syncretism and the evolution of religious imagery within the contexts of cultural exchanges and missionary initiatives, augmenting scholarly discussions on the dynamics between religious beliefs and societal frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the ethical dimensions of cosmetic surgery, offering a comparative analysis of perspectives from both the Orthodox and the Catholic moral theologies. Both traditions uphold the sanctity of the human body as a creation of God, emphasizing the importance of maintaining its integrity and dignity. However, their approaches to the ethical implications of cosmetic surgery might reveal distinct theological nuances that reflect their unique doctrinal and cultural contexts. By examining the theological foundations, doctrinal teachings, and contemporary ethical debates within both traditions, this study seeks to illuminate how Orthodox and Catholic ethics address the complexities of bodily modification. The analysis highlights the ways in which each tradition navigates concerns related to vanity, identity, and the pursuit of physical perfection, offering insights into their shared values as well as their distinct perspectives. This interdenominational study aims to contribute to ecumenical and intercultural dialogue, fostering greater understanding and respect between the two original Christian traditions. By engaging with the ethical considerations surrounding cosmetic surgery, this article provides a platform for deeper reflection on the role of the body in Christian spirituality and the ongoing relevance of these issues in a diverse and interconnected world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In deeply Catholic Poland, domestic violence (DV) is often denied, downplayed, or justified, hindering its recognition as a pressing societal issue. This study addresses the scarcity of research on the experiences and recovery of Polish women from DV. Through feminist interviews with 13 women in Norway and Poland who survived DV, our findings reveal a complex entanglement of embodied experiences with history, religion, society, and gender hierarchies during their recovery processes. Participants emphasized the significance of "body works," such as running and using makeup, as essential for empowerment and regaining control of their battered bodies and minds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the protest cycle (1978-present) of the Spanish field of Catholic-inspired secular organisations that espouse neoconservative ideology (CISO-Ns) against progressive morality politics. To do so, it relies on a comparative-historical and relational approach that focuses on the evolving interplay between 1) cultural and political opportunity structures; 2) the network structure and dynamics of the CISO-N field, and its "expanded anti-rights field" composed of religious and political organisations; and 3) their tactical-discursive triangulation. The research is based on a qualitative study involving in-depth interviews, participant observation and netnography. Data show that, far from being mere conveyor belts for the ecclesiastical message, or being at the service of conservative political parties, CISO-Ns lead a complex strategy based on the "re-politicisation of religion" following a logic of their own. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article addresses the issue of the level of trust in the Catholic clergy in Poland among the youngest adult Catholics. The authors formulate their conclusions on the basis of a literature review and their own extensive research conducted among young adult Catholics born after 1995 (Generation Z). The research focused on the level of trust assessed with regard to the hierarchical division of the clergy in the Catholic Church as well as scandals involving priests exposed in recent years. The performed analyses took into account the level of religious commitment of young Catholics and their attitudes towards the role of the hierarchical Church in solving their problems. The research results indicate a significant level of trust in the Pope, a slightly lower level of trust in parish priests, and a very low level of trust in bishops and the institution of the Catholic Church in general. The decisive majority of those following religious observances and declaring compliance with the moral principles in line with Church teachings maintain trust in the institution of the Church. The final conclusions point to the need to manage the trust of the faithful as beneficiaries and clients of religious organisations such as the Church. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article challenges longstanding binary explanations for the collapse of Mexico's most important Catholic party, the Partido Católico Nacional (PCN). Most scholarship attributes the collapse either to the persecution of its democratic faction by Victoriano Huerta (1913--1914) or to longstanding political contradictions within the party itself. This article uses the party's official paper, La Nación to argue that neither the PCN's embrace of parliamentary rule nor alleged internal contradictions fully explain its fall and continued irrelevance after the Huerta dictatorship. The article elaborates on the guiding vision of ordered liberty shared by its various factions, a vision which justified both its embrace of Francisco I. Madero and its later embrace of Huerta. The PCN's Catholic-infused vision of liberty made it open to democracy but also skeptical of Madero's attempts to bring together a broad coalition which included culturally anticlerical elements of society. The importance even the allegedly "anti"-Huerta faction placed on ordered liberty shows through in its initial embrace of the Huerta regime well into 1913 when persecution and the PCN's presidential aspirations soured the relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Deception and Danger: Women and Cross-border Espionage in Mexico, 1923-1929" focuses on women's roles in cross-border espionage in exile in the United States and the Confidential Department agents who labored in the offices of state, and along the US-Mexico border, tasked with countering their work. Women who became the political standard-bearers of Catholic social action and those who were respected as intelligence brokers among political Catholic exiles operated within, but also despite, extant patriarchal structures. While recent scholarship has clearly demonstrated that women's Catholic social action in favor of the Mexican clergy was not the product of clerical manipulation, but rather motivated by a host of political, social, economic, and gendered factors in the revolutionary and postrevolutionary periods, this research demonstrates that Catholic social action provided the same platform for women to become essential players in the political and military intrigue of the 1920s and 1930s. Catholic women were powerful actors, not only in matters of charity, church, and state, but also espionage. The conflicts of the 1910s and 20s, the variety of distinct visions for the future of the nation, and the negotiation of the contours of post-revolutionary state-civil society relations created the space for women to engage in myriad forms of public, political, and sometimes contradictory activism. Women engaged in Catholic social action understood this moment of conflict in the course of the Mexican Revolution as propitious for their own forms of political participation and social activism, including in the dangerous field of espionage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary literature and practice, the first principle of bioethics, autonomy, which is defined as the right of individuals to self-determination and self-government, is often idolized and regarded as a moral absolute that must, under no circumstances, be violated. For Christianity, personal free will and individual autonomy stem from our creation in the image and likeness of God; thus, should be highly respected. On the other hand, modern phrases such as "my body, my choice" and "keep your laws off my body," which are mostly aimed at supporting practices traditionally incompatible with Christian teaching, such as abortion, euthanasia, and gender reassignment, are on the rise in contemporary societies, especially in the West. This article deals with the modern "absolutization" of the principle of autonomy from the standpoint of Christian morality and attempts to comparatively examine the stance of Eastern Orthodox and Catholic ethics on the matter. So, where exactly do the two traditional Christian Churches stand between the respect and the absolutization of autonomy? This question is considered in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Catholic Subject Headings, a list of subject headings focused on describing and representing Catholic belief, ritual, and culture, was first published in 1942 by the Catholic Library Association for use in Catholic libraries. The creation of a cataloging tool solely to represent and serve a distinct religious population allows for an imposition of religious worldview by those utilizing Catholic Subject Headings onto the materials they interacted with. The need for a specifically Catholic cataloging system is also revealing of the complex tensions between Catholics and Protestants and within the American Catholic community in twentieth century America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue of Review of Religious Research, titled "The Catholic Priesthood in Times of Change," is dedicated primarily to social-scientific inquiry into the Roman Catholic presbyterate in the United States. The issue's main focus is to analyze and discuss data from a new and original nationally representative study, The National Study of Catholic Priests. The rationale for dedicating a special issue to this topic stems from the considerable new quantitative and qualitative data made available through this study, which presents a unique opportunity for scholars and practitioners interested in Catholicism to examine contemporary issues facing the priesthood. The issue also aims to place this study within its broader context by including recent research on lay American Catholics, as well as reviewing new books on Catholicism in Europe and Asia. The issue thus comprises three original research articles, two research notes, and four book reviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

The article provides a comparative analysis of lexical and certain grammatical peculiarities in the Catholic and Orthodox editions of the Belarusian translation of chapters 6–9 of the Gospel of Matthew. The study is based on biblical textual sources in Belarusian, Polish, Russian, Greek, and Hebrew, including explanatory and other dictionaries, as well as works on modern Belarusian literary lexicology. The study reveals that while adapting the Gospel of Matthew into Belarusian, translators exhibit a certain dependence on foreign languages’ influence and confessional writing traditions, thus sometimes disregarding encyclopedic variants, or ignoring lexical, semantic, and grammatical processes characteristic for the modern Belarusian standard language. Original title in Belarusian: Лексічныя асаблівасці перакладу глаў 6–9 Евангелля паводле Мацвея на беларускую мову (праваслаўная і каталіцкая рэдакцыі).

The article is focused on the goals and circumstances of the restoring of the French university in Strasbourg in the context of the return of Alsace after the First World War, in particular, on the activities of two theological faculties – Catholic and Protestant. The activities of the renewed University of Strasbourg that represented the widest range of higher education programs in France due to the theological faculties, as well as its development during the whole interwar period were considered by the French authorities as an important part of the realization of the concept of “the French Alsace” and, so, of the entire French national idea. The particularities of the political role of the University of Strasbourg are discovered in the article by its characteristics as a self-regulated system on the base of special leaflets and periodical editions. The university opening report (1919), the reports on results of the scientific papers’ competitions (1921, 1922), the university guide for the foreign students (1922), the book dedicated to the history of protestant higher education in Strasbourg (1923), the overviews of the German press that were published in Strasbourg (early 1920s), the special issue of the newspaper «French Alsace» (1927) and the program of courses on the faculty of Protestant theology (1938) are among the analyzed sources. In addition to the listed materials, there are historical works on interwar University of Strasbourg represented by the special issue of the faculty of Catholic theology journal, published for the 50 years anniversary of its reopening, as well as several other articles.

The article is devoted to the transformation of confessional images into national ones in German visual journalism during the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). This is most clearly seen in a unique German monument from the Thirty Years' War era - illustrated single-leaf woodcuts on which images were combined with text below. The engravings of the illustrated single-leaf woodcuts reflected all the most pressing processes and events of the early modern period, including the crisis of religious consciousness and the collapse of the idea of a “universal monarchy” - a single Christian state under the auspices of the Holy Roman Emperor. During the era of the Thirty Years' War, politics could not be imagined without religion, and religious motives were not separated from political ones. The Thirty Years' War, which turned into the first pan-European catastrophe, became a new step in the secularization of consciousness, which contributed to the metamorphosis of political teachings of the 17th century. The Thirty Years' War, which turned into the first pan-European catastrophe, became a new step in the secularization of consciousness, which contributed to the metamorphosis of political teachings of the 17th century. The gap between politics and religion that began at this time was expressed, among other things, in the emergence of the idea of the nation as one of the leading leitmotifs of state development. National consciousness gradually turned into a kind of foundation for politics. During the era of the Thirty Years' War, this was reflected in the interpretation of Christian symbols and confessional images in visual media. In illustrated single-leaf woodcuts, they were increasingly associated with claims to the uniqueness of one’s own nation and the need for state sovereignty. Traditional religious meanings and motives were used to create images of both national heroes and “anti-heroes” - enemies of the state and nation

This publication is devoted to one of the topics representing the vocabulary of monasticism. In previous issues two parts of the “Monasticism” section were published. This work can be considered a deepening of the previous one, since it contains vocabulary describing the features of the inner life of monastics. Some sections touching on the topic of asceticism appeared earlier (attitudes to prayer, humility, hope in God, love for Him, etc.), but in relation to monastics, the vocabulary takes on a more specific, strict coloring, as it describes vigils, severe fasts, the practice of wearing a hair shirt, self-flagellation (in Catholicism). As in previous publications, archaisms are sometimes used because they are found in religious literature in Russian. As in previous publications, the reader may encounter possible unevenness and unsystematicity in the selection of vocabulary. This is due to the fact that we are not dealing with a translation of a theology textbook, but with vocabulary and concepts most often found in religious literature. At the same time, their relative weight in individual subtopics, as well as in both faiths, may be different: some topics are more emphasized in religious life and attract the attention of writers and speakers of these languages. The work was submitted for review to Archpriest Igor (Vyzhanov), candidate of theology, rector of the St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York, and Bruno Bisson, candidate of philological sciences, simultaneous translator, who made very valuable comments. Since work on the dictionary continues, the author will be grateful for all comments and, especially, corrections.

Objective/Context: This article examines dimensions of sensoriality within the writings of Thomas Gage (c. 1603–1656) regarding his experiences as a Dominican friar in Mexico and Guatemala between 1625 and 1637. His 1648 travelogue, The English-American His Travail by Sea and Land, is the first detailed eyewitness report of daily life in the Spanish colonies by an English writer. Yet this work and his other writings were published after he converted to Protestantism and formed an explicit part of anti-Catholic discourse in England. Methodology: Written from a historical-musicological perspective, this study is informed by the approaches of sensory history to identify and critique the sonic episodes and metaphors in Gage’s texts. It critically analyzes his travelogue and investigates how his accounts of musical, gastronomic, and religious experiences underpinned and influenced his political and theological views. To draw out his unique perspectives on music, it also considers soundscapes and the material and cultural dimensions in his descriptions. Originality: Recent scholarship has shown how Gage’s transnational and transconfessional identities did not fit traditional frameworks of analysis and limited scholarly attention to him. Lately, however, researchers have highlighted his mention of the senses. This article focuses specifically on hearing to show that his writings contain unique viewpoints and data on music and sound. Conclusions: Assessment of Thomas Gage within the frameworks of musicology and sensory history demonstrates that he invoked the senses in seemingly unique ways, especially by conflating their physical and metaphysical dimensions when critiquing Catholic practices in colonial contexts.

Catholics hold Mary, the mother of Jesus, in high esteem. The widespread presence of Marian devotions, teachings, dogmas, symbols, titles, art, and places of pilgrimage in various church regions across the globe demonstrates this phenomenon. This study investigates the portrayal of Mary at the Manggarai Catholic Church, which is situated in the Diocese of Ruteng, Flores. This study aimed to analyze the songs performed by Maria that are featured in the book “Dere Serani.” The central investigation focused on whether the depiction of Mary in songs is impacted by the representation of women in the local culture or not. This study utilized two main approaches, namely text content analysis and cultural studies. This study discovered that the depiction of Mary that is adopted by the local community extends beyond local perspectives and incorporates global viewpoints.

The article offers an examination of the doctrine of the virgin birth in Christianity within the framework of intra-confessional discussion. Paying attention to the emphasis of the doctrine of the virgin birth in the modern Protestant tradition, the question of the place and significance of the doctrine of the virgin birth in the church tradition (Orthodox and Catholic) is introduced into the problem field of the study. Separately, the question of the possibility of the new birth in an age of “the waning of faith” is raised. The interdisciplinary approach in the study allows us to identify a number of important provisions that determine the difference and commonality in the interpretations of the two traditions: the authority of holy theological exegesis, the significance and place of the oral tradition in modern Protestant communities, the primary and secondary in the understanding of the hierophanic, the rational and mystical in the spiritual experience of the believing Christian. The works of such scholars and researchers as: M. Weber, D. Melton, M. Eliade, M. Foucault, L. Harrison, D. Bogolepov, S. Horuzhiy, I. Yablokov. An important place in the study of the issue is occupied by the holy theological heritage - the works of John Chrysostom and Simeon the New Theologian. As methods of research were used: the method of comparative religious studies, hermeneutic-textual analysis, socio-historical and cultural approaches. In the course of the work, a number of important conclusions have been drawn about the understanding and place of the doctrine of the virgin birth in Christian doctrine. The most important of which are: the significance of explicitness and understanding of the virgin birth in Protestantism; the complexity and implicitness of the Church's exegesis of the virgin birth, expressed in two main vectors of understanding of this question. These articles can be used in the research activities of philosophers-religionists on the history of Christianity. The practical value of the study lies in the possibility of incorporating the results into classes in philosophy, religious studies and theology, as well as directly in missionary activities.

This article presents an ethnographic study of diasporic nationhood, Catholicism, and ethical navigation among Polish migrants in Denmark. Focusing on a vibrant Polish Catholic community in Copenhagen, the study utilises fieldwork and 25 semi-structured interviews gathered from 2021 to 2023 to explore the under-researched role of a nationalised Catholicism as a repertoire of guidance in a migratory setting. The conceptual framework combines a praxiological approach to diasporic nationhood with the notion of ethical affordances. Foregrounding specific modalities of connections between Catholic Polish nationhood and ethical guidance, the study expands the perspectives on how migrants actively engage Catholicism amid their lives of transition and accommodation in Denmark. Based on such focus, the analysis shows how this connection enables both an ethical navigation in new terrain, but also an opposition to the secular public outside the church environments. Within the nascent social scientific study of Catholicism and migration, the study contributes by analytically combining these elements – diasporic nationhood and ethical navigation – thereby providing novel insights into the often overlooked ethical and religious experiences of post-accession Polish migrants, and the ethical difference a nationalised form of Catholicism makes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the phenomenon of lapsing among young Japanese Catholics, highlighting how both local and translocal experiences of Roman Catholicism shape the ebbs and flows of faith for our interlocutors. While global Catholic events such as World Youth Day can reignite faith by fostering a sense of belonging to a larger, global Church, the contrast with the small and socially isolated Catholic community in Japan often precipitates lapsing. This study examines the influence of the New Evangelisation, which promotes active belief and translocal unity, and argues that this movement can both strengthen global Catholic identity and exacerbate feelings of alienation in local, non-Catholic societies. Ultimately, we stress, in the context of Roman Catholicism, that lapsing should not be seen as simply a rupture in faith but as part of a continuous, if turbulent, Catholic identity, mediated by translocal flows of belief and institutional authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers religion in extractive zones by focusing on a religious practice in an extractive zone, namely, an Afro-Brazilian Irmandade (Catholic lay religious association) devoted to Our Lady of Mercy in Diamantina, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It adopts approaches from history and cultural studies to examine art, architecture, archives, and material culture, and brings these methodologies into conversation with Mary Louis Pratt's notion of contact zones, Charles Long's connection between these zones and new religious practices, Eduardo Gudynas' definition of extraction, and Macarena Gómez-Barris' decolonial methodologies for approaching the study of extractive zones. This study is contextualized in the history of mining in Brazil, the connection between mining and enslavement of Africans in the Americas, and the enduring legacy of lay religious associations in Brazil. The article then examines the association's church, focusing on its late 18th and early 19th century façade and the statues at its main altar, and its 19th and 20th century maintenance records. It suggests that the Irmandades are engaged in a unique religious practice that arises within an extractive region because of specific historical, political, and social reasons, and that they give their members a place within the existing structures even as they challenge them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In colonial Yucatán, Mexico, the owners of plantation-like estates known as haciendas conscripted saints and cows to expropriate land from Indigenous Maya farming communities. In this paper, I trace the role of hacienda saints by framing them as an introduced or adventive species, capable of forming both mutualistic and invasive interspecies relationships in their new habitat. I examine the introduction of saints to the region by Franciscans, early attempts by Maya people to build anticolonial coalitions with saints and cows, the participation of hacienda saints in extractivist ranching practices, and the ultimate reclaiming and possible naturalization of saints by Maya rebels. This paper extends conceptualizations of the plantation—as both a site of species extinction and a site of interspecies collaboration—to include Catholic saints, so as to interrogate the dynamic role of supernatural entities in deep and ongoing histories of extractivism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent examination of visual displays and documentary accounts of Catherine of Braganza's creation of her royal image reveals that consideration of the importance of civility in the representation of her queenship is overdue. Catherine cultivated and pushed the boundaries of culturally and socially prescribed norms of behaviour to display both service and strength. These include well-known ones like social gatherings, portraiture, and patronage of Italian music, and less well-known ones like her adoption of partially dressing and undressing in front of others and reorganisation of her household. Promoting a personal agency that combined civility, Catholic piety, and political pragmatism enabled Catherine to ensure recognition of Portugal's nationhood, the primary purpose of the royal marriage. Yet it was her promotion of English Catholicism at court and among English recusants in the decade preceding the political and religious crises of the late 1670s and early 1680s that also challenged her strategies of civility and personal agency and required Catherine to examine if she could be both a royal consort and a royal politician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the first decade of the eighteenth century, two converts to Catholicism from Western Asia sought Louis XIV's patronage. One was Vakhtang VI, a crypto‐Catholic Georgian regent imprisoned by Persia's Soltan Hosayn. He hoped to secure his release with the French king's help and establish himself as a political and religious ally in the Caucuses. The other was Avétik, an Armenian Orthodox patriarch from the Ottoman Empire imprisoned at the Bastille. He abjured Orthodoxy and became a Catholic priest in Paris. Ethnic and religious minorities from the Safavid and Ottoman Empires, Vakhtang VI and Avétik relied on conversion to forge partnerships with French representatives. They failed. This article explains why the French king snubbed these prominent converts from the Islamic world while unifying France under the banner of religious uniformity and projecting himself as the world's preeminent Catholic ruler. It centers the lives, voices, and writings of traditionally overlooked minorities who shaped French diplomatic conversations with Islamic empires from the margins and who remained particularly vulnerable to imperial violence. It also shows how including ethnic minorities in studies of France's engagement with the Safavids and Ottomans complicates our understanding of France's relationships with Islamic empires in the Mediterranean world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the case of the Society of Saint Pius X which I studied ethnographically for my undergraduate thesis, I aim to understand how traditional identity is constructed within this particular sector of Catholicism. As will be seen throughout the text, it is through various educational instances of different kinds and levels of formality and through sociability that certain notions about sexuality, expected family models, and gender roles are transmitted, based on specific moral values. Additionally, a sort of myth of origin is constructed to reinforce the idea of an 'everlasting' Catholicism. The Mass ritual, besides synthesising all these elements, helps to remember the myth and reinforce belonging. According to the arguments of its members, this demonstrates a willingness to preserve the forms and maintain a specific order – that of tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article recovers tensions and controversies that arose within Catholicism in the sixties. In particular, it focuses on the secular nucleus of French origin, Ciudad Católica (CC) and its counterpoint with other sectors of that confessional identity in the heat of the Cold War, decolonization and the beginnings of the Second Vatican Council. Thus, through a detailed analysis of the Verbo printed in Argentina (organ of the local CC), it recovers the reverberations of the conflict aroused by the Algerian struggle and the counterpoint of that circle with the magazine Criterio. In this framework, it taps into the tensions underlying the deployment of that group of lay people who, although they based their actions on the social doctrine of the Catholic Church, acted outside its institutional frameworks and acted as the spearhead of the doctrine of Counter Revolutionary War. On the other hand, it looks at the perspectives of this nucleus in the face of the internal confrontations of the Armed Forces - between "blues and reds"-. This will reflect on the way in which CC interprets the conflict from its counterrevolutionary Catholic perspective. Finally, the proposals of this circle at the beginning of the Second Vatican Council are visualized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is inspired by a moment at the conclusion of Julia Watts Belser's Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole (2023). It takes Belser's stated desire to "know the sacred through a thousand disabled languages" as an invitation to think about the risks and rewards of imagining the divine in and through others' differences. It places Belser's insights in conversation with the author's own research into mid-twentieth century Catholic engagements with cognitive impairment in the United States, what the essay calls "disability theology before disability theology," and uses that conversation to return to what have been some enduring impasses in disability studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest historiographical trends are revealing how the end of colonialism has influenced the political and social configuration of former metropolitan centres. In particular, the return of former colonial settlers has raised a series of issues that have resonated in European political debates and societies. In Italy, these processes were shaped by a peculiar decolonization process, coinciding with the equally tortuous transition from fascism to the Republic. Drawing on recent historiography on the return of colonial settlers, and expanding the chronological span and methodological scope of previous works through original archival sources, my intervention aims to reconstruct how imperial nostalgia became a political resource exploited by both repatriate associations and conservative political factions. Although similar to contemporaneous cases, in Italy colonial commemorative practices had peculiarities linked to the role of Catholicism and to the fact that far right and even neo-fascist movements exploited the demands of repatriates for their own political benefit. This article thus broadens the historiographical understanding concerning the decline of Italy's empire and deepens the analysis of its lasting impacts on the politics and society of Republican Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides an intellectual history of Jean Meyer as an effort to shed light on the role that foreign historians played in the shaping of the Global Sixties in Mexico. His three-volume text composing La Cristiada (1972–74) has endured as one of the most cited and reprinted books in Mexican history, and to this day, its author has remained a hegemonic voice in Mexican academia. Yet little is known about the making of this groundbreaking book. In this effort, this article situates its methodology, revisionist arguments, and immediate perception in the political context of the era. It brings attention to Meyer's rise in Mexican academia and examines the intellectual impact that three culminating events—the Cuban Revolution (1959), the progressive Catholicism of the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), and the Tlatelolco massacre of 1968—had on his generation and in the shaping of the Global Sixties in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The essay deals with the relationship between nationalism and Catholic religion in Alessandro Manzoni's work in the light of his comparison with Charles-Léonard Simonde de Sismondi's Histoire des républiques italiennes du Moyen Âge. It attempts to reopen the old dossier on the nature of the Italian «national character» by shedding light on the threefold cultural conflict that the publication of the Histoire sparked in the future author of The Betrothed. The hypothesis is that this cultural conflict spanned three dimensions of Manzoni's intellectual evolution: the correction of the Enlightenment of his youth, the correction of the liberal judgement on the Catholic religion and the correction of the implications that this judgement carried on the evaluation of the national character of the Italians. Through a precise analysis of the Osservazioni sulla morale cattolica, the boundaries of Alessandro Manzoni's patriotism are sketched in the light of his peculiar Catholicism, noting the precarious resolution of the author's political aporias in the mobilisation of a Catholic universalism that rejects the earthly dimension in order to ground human action in a transcendent perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Midnight Mass, Mike Flanagan's horror miniseries, engages with profound spiritual and philosophical questions about existence, deploying an unconventional approach of extended personal testimonies and interpersonal dialogues. The show harkens back to television's roots by featuring lengthy, sermon-like speeches that challenge hegemonic power structures and normative ideologies. Key characters like Erin, Hassan and Riley deliver rhetorical disruptions through extended monologues that vocally resist religious and societal oppression. By centring stories from marginalized communities often relegated to the periphery of popular culture, Midnight Mass taps into horror's ability to re-conceptualize 'monstrous' identities. It positions audiences to empathize with the oppressed, encouraging them to defy dominant ideological norms. The series' talky, homiletic style enables a deconstruction of Catholic dogma and socially ingrained prejudices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supranational cultural institutions and communities play an interesting role in the development of abortion policy both historically and today. In this article we consider two such institutions: the Catholic Church and the European community. The church is famously antiabortion, and we describe the ways in which the Catholic position manifests itself in different countries. Conversely, almost all European countries have liberal laws that allow abortion on demand for twelve weeks of pregnancy. Italy sits at the intersection of European and Catholic identities. Italy adopted European-style liberal abortion laws early, but Italians continue to identify with the church in surveys, which is one of the causes of high levels of conscientious objection by medical professionals. Italy's abortion policy pleases neither Catholics nor secularists. We explain this by understanding Italy's abortion law as liberal de jure , but its culture is still heavily influenced by Catholicism, resulting in limited abortion access de facto. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nearly half of all countries have official religions or give preference to specific religious traditions. Most countries with an official religion are majority Muslim; however, most of those with a preference for particular religious traditions are majority Christian. This paper considers empirical data related to constitutional references to specific religions as a framework for a discussion of the comparative constitutional histories of Turkey and the Republic of Ireland. Both moved from systems that preferred their majority religions to ostensive neutrality. This analysis reinforces the importance of religion in law and policy regardless of cultural context and constitutional choices. Constitutional drafters have established a number of approaches to the treatment of religion, including freedom of religion, establishment of religion, separation of religion and state, neutrality, official religion, conformity, repugnancy, and sources of law/legislation. Although these linguistic choices are significant, they may not result in consistent practices across jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal 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.)

While religion constituted one of the main topics of interest for early social scientists, faith traditions have silently slipped from this central role. When religion now appears in psychological research, it is usually relegated to the position of either the object of psychological investigation (which psychology purports to "explain") or a static piece in the empirical puzzle (as one variable among many when explaining clinical or social outcomes). In either case, religion is generally no longer seen as an equal partner to the social sciences in our attempts to better understand of the human condition. However, there are and have been voices within psychology that see this as unnecessarily myopic. James Jackson Putnam (1846–1918), an early supporter of the emerging field of psychoanalysis, advocated that psychology take seriously philosophy, metaphysics, and religion. Putnam's objections to the narrowing of our view of human life in the spirit of scientism fell largely on deaf ears, and his call for psychology to include that which lies beyond the walls of empirical naturalism and reductionism remains relevant today. In as far as theoretical innovation in psychology is more of a creative recognition than true scientific discovery, philosophy and religion constitute tremendously rich, and unfortunately underappreciated, fonts of inspiration. Putnam saw in religion the "dim recognition" of "the creative spirit of the universe." We briefly reflect on the example of obsessive–compulsive disorder and the much older religious concept of scruples, including approaches to mindfulness. This example is suggestive of the richness of psychological insights to be found in religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Musician, producer, and songwriter Jack White has frequently drawn on stories of his Catholic upbringing in media appearances. However, White's Catholicism has generally been overlooked in both scholarly and popular evaluations of his work and career. I argue that, building on the literary scholar Kimberly Mack's work on the blues as a narrative tradition, White uses his own Catholic narratives to participate within that narrative tradition and construct his public image. Through engaging White's self-presentation in his music, interviews, television appearances, and other media, I examine the work that White's use of his Catholic identity does, with particular attention to its class and racial dimensions and his devotion to his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. Resumen: El músico, productor y compositor Jack White se ha basado con frecuencia en historias de su educación católica en sus apariciones en los medios. Sin embargo, el catolicismo de White generalmente ha sido pasado por alto en las evaluaciones tanto académicas como populares de su trabajo y carrera. Apoyándome en el trabajo de la académica literaria Kimberly Mack sobre el blues como tradición narrativa, sostengo que White utiliza sus propias narrativas católicas para participar dentro de esa tradición narrativa y construir su imagen pública. Recurriendo a la auto presentación de White en su música, entrevistas, apariciones en televisión y otros medios, examino el trabajo que hace el uso que hace White de su identidad católica, con especial atención a sus dimensiones raciales y de clase y su devoción a su ciudad natal de Detroit, Michigan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper characterizes four Polish and Italian Catholic organizations that operate within the ecological field. The study of these organizations zooms in on the process of "greening of Catholicism" in Poland and Italy taking place. Studied Catholic organizations in Poland and Italy operate within different social and religious contexts. They face challenges, including resistance from traditionalists who view ecology as a leftist notion. To overcome this, the organizations studied frame ecological issues as religious duties, drawing on diverse traditions within Catholicism and emphasizing figures like John Paul II. They use religious resources such as Catholic identities, values, and symbols to appeal to a broader audience beyond traditional activists. Yet, their emphasis on Catholicism hinders cooperation with secular environmental groups and limits engagement with left-wing environmental politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this work is, based on the epistemological distinction of the notions of representations and social imaginaries, to explain how the Catholic religious imaginary that coexists since the return of democracy in the Argentine magazines Cabildo, Criterio and Nueva Tierra is verified. For this, a corpus was built consisting of its editorials in the period in which the three were published. At the same time, in the period that extends from 1987 to 2011, the years in which a change of ownership of the Executive Branch in Argentina occurred, although not necessarily through an electoral process: 1989, 1995, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007 and 2011. The methodological approach that guides the research is discourse analysis. Two categories of analysis are identified: the social representations of the discursive tradition, on the one hand, and of the Argentine Church, on the other. That is, what magisterial documents they cite and consider legitimate, and what links they establish with the ecclesial institution, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Recent scholarship on the Philippines has called into question the degree of colonial control which Spain held over the Philippines from 1521 to 1899. At the same time, scholars of colonial Latin America have been increasingly reaching out across the Pacific to incorporate Philippine materials into comparative analyses of Iberian colonialism in the Atlantic world. This paper examines the blood oaths of Rajah Humabon (1521) and Datu Sikatuna (1565) alongside other episodes from Philippine history to argue for the study of the Iberian colonialisms in former Pacific colonies alongside the Americas. Furthermore, this paper analyzes these materials through the lens of Filomeno Aguilar's 'clash of spirits' to better understand the range of Filipino responses to Spanish power during the colonial period and attempts to recover local agency via Indigenous sincerity, specifically in narratives of local conversion to Catholicism and other various forms of collaboration with Spanish authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Politica y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid 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.)

Copyright of Economic History Research / Investigaciones de Historia Económica is the property of Asociacion Espanola de Historia Economica 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 uses terminology from The Catholic Imagination by Andrew Greeley to explore the influence of Catholicism on the writings of Oscar Wilde and J.R.R. Tolkien. Greeley asserts that Catholics see metaphors for the transcendent in matter, value community within a well-ordered hierarchy, and sanctify suffering--qualities that abound in the writings of Wilde and Tolkien. I begin with short biographical sketches of both authors, paying special attention to Wilde's and Tolkien's varied involvement with orthodox Catholicism. I then move into a discussion about both authors' aesthetic philosophies and the similar value they see in art. Next, I detail the authors' transubstantiation of matter into the divine and demonic. I then examine various poems, letters, and essays of both authors to determine how the Catholic sense of community informed their political outlooks. Finally, I examine the Catholic insistence on the value of suffering as it appears in the writings of these authors. This study reveals the extent to which the Catholic worldview affected the aesthetic quality of Tolkien's and Wilde's works, deepening our understanding of the interplay between religion and fantasy. While the critical conversation surrounding the commonalities between these hitherto incongruous authors is small, recent scholarship is beginning to note the striking connections between these two masters of fantastical literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]