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The encounter of American Protestant evangelicalism and Japanese imperialism formed in Korean society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries became a steppingstone for the acceptance of modern winter sports in Korea. In particular, skates introduced by American Protestant missionaries and the Young Men's Christian Association formed an imaginary space to counter Japanese imperialism in Korea during Japanese colonial era. Ice hockey introduced along with skating is a representative product that evolved in this process. The history of the introduction of American ice hockey to Korea also had a dual imperial influence between the United States and Japan, and in another direction, there was a voluntary acceptance process by Koreans who recognized ice hockey as a modern product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the US evangelical community's ongoing support for Donald Trump despite his controversial actions and views, rooted in their prioritization of issues like religious freedom, pro-life policies, and opposition to LGBT rights. Topics include the alignment of evangelicals with the Republican Party, the impact of Trump's administration on religious issues, and the moral dilemma faced by evangelicals in the political sphere.

In his major works, such as the Florentine Codex and the Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España, Bernardino de Sahagún described the Aztec god, Tezcatlipoca, as the only invisible and impalpable supreme deity. This portrayal aimed to present Tezcatlipoca as a god with Christian-like attributes, but far different from other Indigenous deities. This essay, however, extensively challenges such a presentation of Tezcatlipoca by thoroughly examining the divine traits and roles of Tezcatlipoca in Prehispanic historical and religious traditions. Before the Conquest, Huitzilopochtli, not Tezcatlipoca, held the position of the supreme deity as it was the patron god of the Mexicas, the people of Tenochtitlan, who politically and militarily dominated the Prehispanic world. Additionally, characterizing Tezcatlipoca as an invisible and impalpable god contradicts Prehispanic religious practices as Indigenous people were actively engaged in visualizing their gods through the ixiptlahuan (impersonators) and communicated with them through the tlaquimilolli (sacred bundles or gods' relics). This essay argues that Sahagún assimilated the Indigenous Tezcatlipoca to the Christian god as a strategic move to facilitate his evangelical project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evangelical Christianity is often characterized by concordism in that it attempts to align the Bible with science. Joshua Swamidass' genealogical Adam and Eve hypothesis stands within this tradition as he tries to match the purported timeline in the early chapters of the Book of Genesis with modern genealogical science. Like many evangelicals, he views the account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 2-4 as a historical record of real people and their activities, instead of an ancient account of origins that features de novo creation and a parable-like story with inerrant spiritual truths. In order to fit genealogical science into the opening chapters of Genesis, Swamidass must extend the standard estimated times of this science back by roughly 2000 years. The paper concludes that his genealogical hypothesis is based upon several mistaken hermeneutical assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors argue that the future existence of evangelicalism as an ecclesial tradition depends on its ability and courage to re-imagine the dual nature, human and divine, of the Bible as written revelation and, consequently, to renew the way that this community engages with it. Such an endeavour requires a new way of understanding and engaging with the Bible that can be built around the model of the Incarnation. As mainline Protestants, who ministered for many years in evangelical ecclesial communities and who have conducted extensive doctoral and post-doctoral research in patristic and contemporary theological studies, the authors are convinced that if evangelicalism is to survive and flourish in the complexities of the contemporary world, it requires a new hermeneutic. It should move away from a dominating docetic view of the Scripture, which overemphasises its divine nature, to the detriment, and sometimes the total neglect, of its human authorship, to give a full account of its dual nature, equally divine and human. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alberta, Canada is both a major extractive zone—home to the world's third largest proven oil reserves, mostly in the form of oil sands located in the north of the province—and a place whose political culture has been profoundly influenced by evangelical Christianity. It is both "petro province" and "God's province". Despite these distinct political economic and socio-cultural features, relatively little scholarly attention has been given to the contemporary relationships among them. To explore this, we profile the populist far-right social movement organization Take Back Alberta (TBA), which, by channeling the interlocking "freedom" and separatist movements into the governing United Conservative Party (UCP), played a pivotal role in Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's rise to power. We ask the following question: what role do religion and a populist defense of the fossil fuel industry (or "extractive populism") play, both ideologically and organizationally, within TBA? Drawing from TBA-related documents, including websites, podcasts, social media, and speeches, our analysis produces two key findings: first, that TBA deploys a radical, far-right version of extractive populism, which "anchors" the Danielle Smith government, and, second, that evangelical Christianity contributes to this extractive populism organizationally—by impacting TBA's membership and resource infrastructure—and discursively, by influencing the collective action frames utilized by TBA leaders in advocating for the interests of the fossil fuel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1977, a diverse group of forty-five leaders and scholars drafted the "Chicago Call", urging evangelicals to reconnect with historic Christianity and embrace a richer understanding of worship and sacrament. The Call highlighted tensions between those who understood evangelicalism as a movement within the broader Church and those who prioritized Reformation principles and scriptural authority. This article begins by exploring the origins of the conference, key leaders, and its historical context. It then moves to a comparison of primary documents, revealing points of friction that arose between conference participants as they worked to draft the statement. I conclude by assessing the Chicago Call's limitations, emphasizing the inherent fragility of the evangelical coalition and the ongoing challenge of negotiating a theological consensus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zusammenfassung: Vorliegender Artikel stellt neue Diskurse in der Evangelikalismusforschung im deutschen Sprachraum vor. Im Fokus sind unterschiedliche Sichtweisen und Standpunkte im schöpferischen Spannungsfeld zwischen Theologie und Religionswissenschaft. Nachgezeichnet wird die von angelsächsischen Beiträgen dominierte Forschungsgeschichte der evangelikalen Bewegung unter Berücksichtigung ausgewählter deutschsprachiger Veröffentlichungen. Diese werden dann in Kontrast gesetzt zu Gegenwartsmeinungen aus dem Bereich der deutschsprachigen Religionswissenschaft. Der Artikel fragt nach weitergehenden Perspektiven, die die Dichotomie zwischen emischen Innenorientierungen und etischen Außenorientierungen in der Forschungsperspektive überwinden, wie sie oft in der deutschsprachigen Evangelikalismusforschung vorzufinden sind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this essay we explore the structure of two new Christian movements that emerged as a result of a blending of Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. These movements are ICF and C3, which we study in their German as well as European context. We triangulate theoretical concepts, our own empirical research and existing research on these movements. Referring to the theoretical framework of refiguration, we discuss the potential of the concepts 'eventisation', 'movement' and 'scenefication' from the sociology of religion as frameworks for understanding these typical movements. Our analysis of social form leads to reflections on the adaptability of concepts from confessional studies, such as confessional markers and congregationalism, in relation to the non-denominational self-description of these so-called lifestyle churches. In our conclusion, we explore implications and perspectives of the organisational shift caused by these emerging movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: As a church historian, in this article I use the distinction between the 'etic' and the 'emic' perspective to analyse the historiography of the early Free Evangelical Churches in Germany. The first Free Evangelical Church was founded in Wuppertal in 1854 by Hermann Heinrich Grafe and its first historian was Heinrich Neviandt. Because church history examines the inner-worldly and at the same time other-worldly subject of 'the Church', I am arguing that the emic and the etic method and their respective possibilities should be differentiated and then used. The categories 'etic' and 'emic' do not determine right and wrong, real and unreal, true and untrue. Rather, their transfer from anthropology to historical research creates possibilities to describe the perspective from which scholars make their observations, as the work of Wolfgang Heinrichs shows. The two perspectives do not contradict one another and their distinction enables us to trace inner-worldly processes more clearly without resorting to God too quickly. Determining the driving forces behind history will remain the task of faith-based scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity labels like "woman", "Black," "mother," and "evangelical" are pervasive in both political and personal life, and in both formal and informal classification and communication. They are also widely thought to undermine agency by essentializing groups, flattening individual distinctiveness, and enforcing discrimination. While we take these worries to be well-founded, we argue that they result from a particular practice of using labels to rigidly label others. We identify an alternative practice of playful self-labelling, and argue that it can function as a tool for combating oppression by expressing and enhancing individual and collective agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given its roots in Christian theology, the usage of theodicy as an analytical tool in the study of religions can easily become controversial. This notwithstanding, several scholars in the field have instructively drawn upon the term to conceptually frame reactions to human suffering among religious actors in diverse contexts. This article aligns with this strand of scholarship and studies Persian-language sermons delivered in Iranian evangelical exile churches during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses four major theodicic interpretations advanced by Iranian evangelical pastors, who viewed the pandemic either as divine retribution, a ‘wake-up call’ for humankind, an opportunity for spiritual growth, or a theological lesson. Arguing that theodicies are shaped by the immediate context they emerge in, rather than by static theological paradigms, this article highlights the ex-Muslim identity and the exilic status of Iranian evangelicals in the diaspora as key factors shaping theodicy-making among them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Book of Revelation's place in the popular imaginary has been fueled by both its popularity within evangelical eschatology and its endless evocations within mainstream film and TV. Both evangelicalism and popular culture frequently equate the events of John's Apocalypse with the rapture, a selective reading of New Testament verses which envisions God's faithful being called to heaven in advance of the Tribulation. This paper analyzes three distinct films which mediate on both the rapture and Revelation: The Rapture (1991), Left Behind: The Movie (2000), and This is the End (2013). Analyzing these films within their respective modes of production reveals that each film's presentation of the end-times is informed by their narrative conventions and intended audiences. Of these three films, however, only This is the End, the mainstream studio comedy with the least intellectual pretensions, reflects the ethical rubric for salvation originally emphasized by John in Revelation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the outbreak of disease on the Royal Admiral, this article explores how oceanic voyaging shaped the evangelisation of the South Pacific in the early nineteenth century. Incorporating a microhistorical approach, it argues that missionary experiences on board were embedded in the theological impetus of evangelical overseas expansion; they helped consolidate missionary understandings of cultural difference; and they simultaneously put a strain on missionary connections to Britain. The article contributes to research on missionary knowledge production, narrowing in on evangelical and imperial exchange networks, and exploring how mobility and physical vulnerability could reconfigure ties to the missionaries' home society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In studies of the important contemporary Christian music (CCM) subculture within American evangelicalism, scholars have developed an increasingly robust body of sociological analysis; this article bridges from that scholarship to offer a cultural history of how a decentralized group of ex-hippies coalesced to establish a multimillion-dollar industry. Centring the concept of sublation as used by David Morgan, the article adopts a multimethod approach to study how More Power to Ya by Petra—one of the most popular albums from one of the industry's most influential bands—exemplified the strategy Christian rock artists employed to move from a place of marginalization within evangelical Christianity to one of acceptance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evangelicalism's role in the history of modern discipline can be seen through two genealogical threads: the reforming and the punitive. Michel Foucault's account of the modern self aligns with the reforming thread, where self-examination is central, aiming to transform society by preventing future disruptions through individual self-reflection and narration. This discipline is evident in carceral and therapeutic institutions, and evangelical conversion plays an important historical role in the development of this disciplinary structure. The punitive thread is also deeply connected to evangelical history. Punitive evangelical punishment was practiced through intimate, mutual surveillance, notably in interracial Baptist churches of the antebellum South. Unlike Foucault's narrative of self-narration in discipline, Baptist discipline was verbally limited and face-to-face, emphasizing humiliation and maintaining patriarchal structures. The history of Baptist discipline, or "watch-care," is useful for thinking through the relationship of religion and policing in American history as both developed out of the patriarchal rights of the father and the desire to manage populations on the move. Resumen: El papel del evangelismo en la historia de la disciplina moderna puede verse a través de dos hilos genealógicos: el reformista y el punitivo. La explicación de Michel Foucault sobre el yo moderno se alinea con el hilo reformista, donde el autoexamen es central, con el objetivo de transformar la sociedad evitando futuras perturbaciones a través de la autorreflexión y la narración individuales. Esta disciplina es evidente en instituciones carcelarias y terapéuticas, y la conversión evangélica juega un papel histórico importante en el desarrollo de esta estructura disciplinaria. El hilo punitivo también está profundamente conectado con la historia evangélica. El castigo evangélico punitivo se practicaba mediante una vigilancia íntima y mutua, especialmente en las iglesias bautistas interraciales del sur anterior a la guerra. A diferencia de la narrativa de Foucault sobre la auto narración en la disciplina, la disciplina bautista era verbalmente limitada y cara a cara, enfatizando la humillación y manteniendo estructuras patriarcales. La historia de la disciplina bautista, o "vigilancia", es útil para reflexionar sobre la relación entre religión y vigilancia en la historia estadounidense, tal como ambas se desarrollaron a partir de los derechos patriarcales del padre y el deseo de gestionar las poblaciones en movimiento. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chosen is a wide-reaching series born within American Evangelicalism in 2019, whose academic interest resides in its value as a cultural product that has been gaining influence after the release of its four seasons. This article discusses the reception of Mary Magdalene in two chapters (S1/E1 and S2/E5) on the basis of two key principles that characterise North American conservative Evangelicalism: biblical inerrancy and its "born-again" model of conversion. The last part presents the difficult compromise between these religious values and filmic fictionalism, which leads to maintaining the traditional image of the repentant prostitute, though with a few particularities: the disappearance of all features of sensuality, an ambiguous interpretation of demon possession that is linked to an episode of sexual abuse and the story of Mary Magdalene's childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religion has become an increasingly pronounced force in American politics, most notably among White evangelicals, nearly two-thirds of whom identify with Christian nationalism. This group contends that conservative, biblically rooted Christian values should determine the social and cultural landscape of our society and seeks to pass laws that help actualize this goal. This article explores the fundamental beliefs that enable White evangelicalism's compatibility with Christian nationalism. More specifically, it considers how the myth of America's Christian origins prompts a yearning for Christendom that—when coupled with a theological shift from a strict non-interventionist two kingdoms doctrine to a more fluid conception of kingdoms and laws—allows White evangelicals to cordon off Jesus's life and teachings from their political activities. This relegation of Jesus to the Christian's spiritual life enables White evangelicals to pursue a Christian ordering of society that is estranged from the person of Christ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To operate legally, religious groups must be legally recognized in Vietnam. However, as of 2023, only twelve Protestant groups had been officially recognized, and a few more religious leaders had registered their organizations for legal recognition. Our research data indicate that a significant number of Protestant groups operate without legal recognition, and this article analyzes the reasons for this situation. Based on 49 interviews, the authors argue that legal recognition is particularly important for large Protestant churches, which require legal status to obtain certain administrative powers and to become eligible for material support from the state. However, the administrative process for legal recognition is very complicated. Furthermore, obtaining legal status often implies increased surveillance of religious activities by local administrators, which may inhibit their evangelistic activities. Consequently, many representatives of Protestant religious groups have decided to operate without legal status, even at the risk of legal sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the integration into West Germany of those Germans expelled from Silesia, Pomerania and East Prussia after the Second World War through an emotional perspective. The focus on evangelical communities serves here the purpose of exploring the significant role of evangelical churches and pastors in comforting the expellees, as well as their wishes and expectations. Since expellees used to share existential and intimate questions with their pastors, this correspondence provides a closer look at their multifaced emotional universe, which often diverged from the stereotypical image proposed by the expellee political representatives. The discrepancy between these two images reflected the political rupture that occurred between the expellees and their political leaders from the mid-1950s. The article's aim is to show that significant emotional reasons underlie this progressive political detachment that deals both with the transformation of the expellees' idea of homeland and with the desire to look forward from the Nazi legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evangelical Christians and congregations must deal with highly sensitive, practical questions on how to serve and minister to people with same-sex attraction while upholding the traditional biblical view of marriage and sexuality. This article presents a well-grounded approach to three such issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on evaluating the legacy of Kwame Bediako, a renowned African theologian who has been a significant influence on many African evangelicals. It discusses that Bediako's work has been marked by a commitment to contextual theology; seeking connections between the gospel and African culture; promoting a more inclusive and representative theological debate; and integrating African Christianity into mainstream studies of Christian history and theology.

Christians are often encouraged to figure out which spiritual gifts they do or do not have, so that they can function most effectively within the body of Christ. But we do not apply this concept consistently; for example, many churches make no effort to balance the gifts of various leaders or treat the head pastor as if he or she should possess all gifts. This article seeks to enhance our practical deployment of the diversity of abilities among believers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Christians treat the Ten Commandments as God's law because he gave them to us. But is that a sufficient justification for ethics? Is God an arbitrary lawmaker to whom we must blindly submit because of his power and authority? Is it reasonable to trust God's expertise? In this article, a long-respected evangelical ethicist offers mature reflections on these questions and more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the Lausanne Movement, global network of evangelical Christians that has been in motion since its inception in 1974, & its evolution over the past 50 years. It discusses that the movement has transformed from a gathering to a global network, expanded into various regions & issues, and placed a growing emphasis on engaging & empowering people in the workplace as part of global mission, and focus on proclaiming the gospel & making disciples in an increasingly complex world.

The article focuses on the 50th anniversary of the Lausanne Movement, which emerged in 1974 as a response to the ecumenical movement's shift towards social action and away from evangelism, and its development into a global evangelical movement. Topics discussed include the historical background; theological positions; and impact of the Lausanne Movement, also highlighting its significance in shaping the evangelical identity and its mixed record after 50 years of existence.

This article tracks the emergence, evolution, and decline of the Rhodesian-American religious lobby, a transnational network of churches, magazines, lobbying groups, and other non-state actors that operated during the Rhodesian Bush War from 1965 to 1980. Voicing its concerns in religious, racial, and anticommunist terms, the lobby recruited US combatants into the Rhodesian Security Forces and mobilised US evangelicals to press political leaders to recognise Rhodesian sovereignty. By threading together the post-Vietnam mercenary diaspora with waning segregationist groups and the emerging Christian Right in the United States, the lobby significantly shaped US-Rhodesia relations and global far-right politics in the late Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article illuminates the ramifications of what I call 'groundless theology' for Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ evangelicals. Based on ethnographic research at an igreja evangélica inclusiva (inclusive evangelical church) in São Paulo, I articulate the role of groundless theology in a church that openly accepts LGBTQ Christians as members and church leaders. Although this geographically nowhere-but-everywhere, rootless theology can be found in mainstream Brazilian evangelicalism, it is particularly noteworthy to identify its influence in the theological interpretations of Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ evangelicals. I will illustrate the workings of this theology through analyses of a Black gay man's sermon about Hagar, a figure in the Hebrew Bible, and the theological stances of Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ congregants. These examples elucidate how the geographical selves of Afro-Brazilian LGBTQ evangelicals are shaped, orienting them not towards Brazil, Africa, or even the 'Holy Land,' but towards a spiritually- but not materially- grounded religious geography that can produce ahistorical and acontextual hermeneutical frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A missionary religious tradition such as Christianity is distinguished from some other traditions by a commitment to the goal of converting others. However, the very nature of this goal and the norms that govern the successful realization of this goal are not often explored. In this article, I argue that evangelization can be undertaken for several distinct reasons, including epistemic reasons, particularly in cases in which evangelizers are aiming at the multivalent goal of fellowship. I argue that this account illuminates several possible models of mission, that it can provide resources for further evaluation and modeling of evangelical efforts, and that it might signify the need for theologically informed positions in the contemporary meta-epistemological debate about epistemic reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Foco (Interdisciplinary Studies Journal) is the property of Revista Foco 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 article examines the reactions of cultural evangelicals in Texas to Jimmy Carter's pardon of Vietnam War draft evaders. This article seeks to answer two questions: Did cultural evangelicals agree or disagree with Carter's pardon, and why? This article finds that the vast majority vehemently disagreed with the pardon for a variety of reasons, but one reason loomed above all: These cultural evangelicals thought that the pardon was profoundly disrespectful to veterans of the Vietnam War because, in their minds, it appeared to give draft evaders, whom many cultural evangelicals saw as cowards, moral approval from the White House. To make this argument, this article takes a microhistorical approach and focuses on the cities of Waco and Amarillo, Texas, and uses sources like letters to the editor of local newspapers, news articles, opinion editorials, and, most critically, constituent letters to US members of Congress. Ultimately, this article provides another lens for understanding Carter–evangelicals relations and demonstrates how the understanding of white evangelicalism put forth by Kristin Kobes Du Mez in Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation can be used in a political and religious microhistory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I will ask, how the international networks of peace movements have influenced the development of Quaker pacifism in Fenno‐Scandinavia. The question is answered with qualitative social network analysis when analyzing the vocational development of two Quaker network nodes, Greta Langenskjöld (1889–1975) and Deryck Sivén (1913–2002). Based on the analysis, I argue that the International Fellowship of Reconciliation provided the most important transnational social network to introduce Quakerism to Fenno‐Scandinavia. Before this, Evangelicalism, Tolstoian Christian anarchism, and Theosophist socialism had molded the ground fitting for the Quaker‐Socialist networks of the IFOR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We ask for suffrage that we may stand side by side with our fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons, working with them ... for a noble political life for the country's wealth. Not for a man's place do we ask, but for the fullness of women's. (The Argus, 1891, p. 9) In the late nineteenth century, adult and public learning pedagogy were the key instruments utilised in the campaign to achieve Victorian Women's Suffrage. The democratic process of changing state government legislation on franchise demanded multiple pedagogical methods. Through the actions of Bessie Harrison Lee (1860-1950), this international women's culture (McLean & Baroud, 2020, p. 506). Part of this culture featured Australian women adopting the petition as a political instrument. The petition had already had a long history in Britain, used by groups with little political influence. Ian Fletcher's conception of the British Empire as "a set of relations, rather than the sum of their parts, as frameworks structuring political, economic and cultural exchanges between metropole and colonies" is useful in understanding how political ideas travelled to and were adapted in the Australian context (Fletcher, Levine & Mayall, 2012, p. xiv). This paper argues that new ways of knowing were made possible by Lee, who, empowered by the evangelical faith (her cultural capital) spoke out confidently in public spaces such as town halls, outside public bars, and on the front doorsteps of women's homes in both cities and rural towns. These spaces were the places of learning, or as Bourdieu described, the field. Also, the meeting places of the WCTU, whether private lounge rooms or church halls, enabled women to support each other in the political process of debate, addressing community issues, and devising strategic plans to improve the lives of women. Through critical discourse analysis of newspaper reports, WCTU's publication The White Ribbon, the Victorian Alliance publication Alliance Record, and Lee's autobiography, this paper identifies these learning spaces. It also explores the community of practice in WCTU meetings, doorknocking, pamphleteering and the physical act of collecting signatures for the 1891 'Victorian Monster Petition'. The language and actions used to enact democratic activity that involves women in ways of saying, doing, and being full citizens are unlocked; however, the WCTU was exclusionary of Indigenous and non-Anglo-Celtic ancestry. Therefore, their learning spaces were complicit in the Great Silence (Stanner, 1968). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identity and reality are socially constructed and maintained by both the individual and society. A primary way this occurs is through a process where people adjust their behaviors to meet the expectations of those around them and fit into an assigned place in life. People are not the sole creators of their destinies or their identities. Instead, their choices and how they develop identity are accomplished through social structures, interactions with others, and language used. Whenever people experience an event that damages their identity—like a history of substance abuse—they have difficulty redeeming themself and restoring their reality primarily because society is reluctant to let the person move past the injured or addicted identity. The author utilizes autoethnography and the idea of the antihero to show the social process where a spoiled identity can be reinterpreted into a new one. The article relies on dramaturgical analysis and the concept of social construction of reality, world-building, and world-maintaining. The author explores how his struggle with alcohol and subsequent religious conversion to Evangelical Christianity helped him establish a new identity, interpret previous mistakes, and build supportive connections. This study is significant because it emphasizes the sociological aspects of identity creation and restoration instead of individual ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Annals of Cultural Studies / Roczniki Kulturoznawcze is the property of John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Institute of Cultural Studies 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.)

The study of religion and international relations has achieved renewed attention in the last two decades. This study investigates a specific aspect of this field: religious soft power. It focuses on individuals who were affected by religious soft power and develop a typology of courses of action these individuals can take vis-à-vis their home state. I argue that individuals can take three different types of actions: disruptive, reformative, and transnational. Using the cases of the Catholic Church and its followers, ISIS and Sunni believers, and the relations between Israel and the Evangelicals, I assess how these alternative actions are being manifested by different groups of individuals. Lastly, I offer an answer to the question of when individuals would use disruptive action and when will they use reformative one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Against the background of the assumed polymorphous character of evangelicalism as a trans‐denominational movement, this article aims to construct a typology of Dutch evangelicals and, subsequently, to test whether this religious typology also manifests sociodemographic differences. Two research questions are addressed: Which types can be distinguished among contemporary Dutch evangelicals on the basis of their core religious convictions and religious orientations? and To what extent do these types also display sociodemographic differences? Analyzing survey data on more than 1100 Dutch evangelicals using latent class analysis reveals five types of evangelicals: Proclaiming Orthodox, Engaged Orthodox, Spiritual Orthodox, Seeking Orthodox, and Questing Liberals. These five types basically seem to represent an orthodox‐liberal continuum and mainly differ in terms of gender, age, income, education, and marital status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the importance of parishes in the new evangelization and questions whether their current configuration corresponds to theological principles. The sociological, cultural, and ecclesial challenges faced by parishes in postmodern Europe are highlighted. In addition, the proposals of authors such as Rahner, Borras, Routhier, and Mallon regarding the parish are examined, and the need to preserve the constitutive principles of parishes to maintain their evangelizing function in the current context is raised. The author also suggests the possibility of articulating other means of ecclesial presence in collaboration with parishes in densely populated or nearly empty rural areas. The text analyzes the Instruction of the Congregation for the Clergy on the pastoral conversion of the parish community in service to the evangelizing mission of the Church. The author emphasizes the importance of spiritual renewal and the application of lectio divina in the restructuring of pastoral structures. The need to maintain the principles of the parish and the parish priest is also mentioned, and the creation of lay-organized Christian communities in territories where the priest has an itinerant role is proposed. The responsibility of the entire community in evangelizing action is emphasized, and the concept of territoriality is questioned in favor of stability. The book offers relevant contributions for the work of bishops, priests, religious, and committed laity in the evangelizing action of the Church. [Extracted from the article]

The text is a review of a book on dogmatic theology written by Vladimir Lossky, a Russian Orthodox theologian exiled in Paris. The author highlights the originality and scientific rigor of the work, as well as its influence on studies of Christianity in late antiquity. Lossky emphasizes the importance of theosis and the relationship between God and the human person in Eastern theology, and opposes the sophiological theories of Sergei Bulgakov and Vladimir Soloviev. The importance of Trinitarian theology is also mentioned, and there is discussion about the freedom of man to choose between good and evil. Additionally, a book on the renewal of parishes in postmodern Europe and its importance in the new evangelization is presented. [Extracted from the article]

The present article addresses the interaction between Christian tradition and cultural contextualization in contemporary Christian ministry. The research aims to analyze how Christian tradition, especially in the Brazilian evangelical Protestant context, adapts and interacts with contemporary cultural changes. Through a historical and sociological analysis, covering the evolution of Protestantism in Brazil and its relationship with modernity and postmodernity, the development of Protestantism since its arrival in Brazil is examined, including the influence of European immigrants and its significant growth in recent decades. It is concluded that evangelical Protestantism in Brazil has experienced a vertiginous growth, seen both as a factor of continuity of the Christian tradition and as a force of rupture and adaptation to new cultural realities. Furthermore, both positive aspects, such as the emphasis on preaching and lay participation, and negative aspects, such as excessive pragmatism and a tendency towards individualism, are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By 1816, American Baptists in the South began to voice dissent toward the emergent missionary movement growing largely out of New England Protestantism. Historians have long pointed to antimissionism as an example of theological diversity within early American evangelicalism, treating it as a homogenous theological movement rising out of high Calvinism. This study situates antimissionism in its cultural and political context in order to show that the earliest versions of antimissionism were rooted in a longstanding Jeffersonian political mythology combined with primitivism and only later developed predestinarian grounds. It seeks to reassess antimissionism as a cultural and political protest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides the first extensive study of Emanuel Swedenborg's (1688-1772) views on Africans and slavery. Although significant scholarship has been devoted to Swedenborg's influence on the British abolitionist movement in the 1780s-1790s, comparably little has been written on the ideas and context which inspired this influence in the first place. This article explores Swedenborg's ties to networks and debates about African evangelization, colonization, and slavery during the neglected period of the Swedish Age of Liberty (1719-1772). It shows that Swedenborg was the first Swede to condemn slavery, as early as 1741, explains why he regarded slavery as a divine punishment in the afterlife for European missionaries, and why he presented sub-Saharan Africans as superior, in contrast to the dominant dismissive views of Linnaeus, Bäck, Kant, or Buffon. Like most Lutherans of his time, Swedenborg did not advocate the abolition of slavery, yet within a generation his provocative views about African superiority and spiritual emancipation were used by his followers to articulate their abolitionist agenda. Swedenborg's millenarian doctrines more broadly re-harnessed biblical traditions about Africa and tropes about the bon sauvage, in a counter-example to narratives about the trope's decline in the second half of the eighteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses Christian missionaries working on converting Muslim Iranians to Christianity. Their methods are based on a logic of rupture and discontinuity with Islam, presenting Christianity as the solution to a moral-political crisis of Iranians in the Islamic Republic. Anti-Islam is the focus of this conversion discourse. In a transnational Christian network formed by Iranians and non-Iranians, the evangelical missionaries work with methodology that breaks and dialogues with society and the local culture of their target audience, presenting evangelical Christianity as an alternative for Iranians. This research was carried out based on participant observation in missionary groups and Christian churches for Iranians, via digital media and face-to-face, contributing to the understanding of the conversion of Muslims to evangelical Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dispensationalism is a significant theological movement in the United States, especially within Evangelical Christianity. Dispensations refer to the periods that adherents of this belief separate in explaining world history. These periods are generally designated as seven eras in which the relationship between God and humanity was established in varying ways. The idea of dispensationalism was developed by John Nelson Darby. His literal and futuristic interpretation led him to distinguish the roles of Israel and the Church in the Bible prophecies. After Darby, C. I. Scofield played a crucial role in popularizing Darby's ideas in the United States with the publication of his Scofield Reference Bible. This article examines the historical process of dispensationalism and focuses on its founder, John Nelson Darby, and his views on dispensationalism from a historical perspective. The article concludes that Darby's dispensationalism is widely accepted by Evangelicals, that the rapture and the separation of the Church and Israel in the God's divine plan have provided the theological basis for Evangelical Christians' sup- port for Israel and have had various effects on American popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Support for political violence by fundamentalist religious movements is both wide-spread and problematic, and now especially in Christian fundamentalist circles. To address this, this essay describes important components of the sophisticated ascetic and contemplative theory of spirituality of the fourth-century desert Christian spiritual master Evagrius of Pontus. Then, based on his theory, this essay offers guidance to modern-day Christian and non-Christian clergy who want to avoid alienating their congregations through partisan political stances, but who nevertheless seek to reduce those mental, emotional, and relational pathologies in their congregations which predispose passive and active support for political violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]