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Religious conversion from Catholicism to a Born Again denomination is an increasingly common phenomenon in the Philippines. Such conversions inspire personal narratives. Using various forms of testimony, new converts use autobiographical methods to narrate both an individual and universal story. The probative and transmissive dimensions of testimony are also affected by power figures, as these narrative forms are produced before the pastors in the new religion. What then of the reflexivity of the author of the testimony? Even if the conversion narrative contributes to the plausibility of the new social structure joined by the conversion, the latter can also be a source of reflexivity since it contains an internal dialogue with oneself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study aims to understanding the origins of religious feelings in early childhood, specifically in children aged 5-6 years who attend Islamic-based schools. This research method is qualitative descriptive research. The number of respondents is 33 children from 3 different schools, namely two Integrated Islamic Schools (IT) and one RA (Raudatul Athfal). Data collection was carried out through image-based interviews. (worship practices and emotional expressions). The research results show that most children engage in religious activities because they believe that after worshiping, they will receive goodness. (rewards). What children like the most is praying and reading the Quran. The most commonly chosen emotional expression is being very happy and joyful while engaging in their favorite worship activities.

This paper examines a live shared-reading group conducted through The Reader Organization, with the approval of the University of Liverpool's ethics committee. It is a revised excerpt from a successful inter-disciplinary Ph.D. thesis undertaken within the School of Psychology.1 The intention in forming the group was to explore the reading of Marilynne Robinson's Home by a wide variety of modern readers of different backgrounds and persuasions, in the light of religious writing in an age of diminished religious tradition. The main research question was to test what literature can do in carrying meaning which can be seen as religious, or was previously deemed religious, among readers who may not think of themselves in such terms. The second was to see how a shared community-group setting can enable collaborative engagement with the challenge to develop different ways of thinking, beyond the individual default of either religious dogma or anti-religious prejudice. The method employed overall in the wider Ph.D. study was Grounded Theory: essentially, empirical analysis rather than top-down conceptualization. Grounded Theory, in refusing to begin from rigidly preassembled categories, is appropriate to a literature-inflected study and, in particular, a literary study that is concerned with religious meaning in situations of humanitarian crisis. It allows the possibility of empirical work and careful detailed analysis, amid a complex of overlapping psychological, spiritual, and family concerns entangled within the experience of modern life. In this particular case study, which may be described as a form of Action Research, the researcher, also acting as the reader leader of the group, brought developed tools taken from psychologist Wilfred Bion, introduced to the reading group itself during the sessions as a means of measurement and navigation through the novel. If the aim was simply to undertake a study of the text, then this paper would be more narrowly literary, but the concern was with wider real-world effects in relation to individuals within the group work. Through close examination of the week-by-week transcripts of the reading group, this study highlights the search for moments of development, or what might have stood in the way of development. The researcher used a consensus group of three supervisors to check the selection of the best moments (failing or succeeding in coming closer to what will be called below, after Bion, “0”) recorded in the written transcripts of the sessions. One of the most powerful findings in this study is what will be called a mini-tradition developed by the group members in praxis, in terms of practices which they find, use, and come back to during their work with more difficult and painful passages in the text.

Der Beitrag ist dem Thema der Kontinuität zwischen Gefühls- und Erfahrungstheologie in der deutschsprachigen nachkantischen Denktradition auf der einen und der späteren Religionswissenschaft (vor allem vergleichender Religionsgeschichte und Religionspsychologie) auf der anderen Seite gewidmet. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt dabei auf methodischen Veränderungen, die das Studium der Religion so empirisch begründet und „unparteiisch" wie möglich machen sollen. Die durch Kant präzisierte protestantische Aufmerksamkeit auf die religiöse Erlebensweise stimmte mit den im europäischen Denkraum immer einflussreicheren Wahrheitskriterien der Naturwissenschaften überein. Die Betrachtung der Erfahrung im historischen und gesellschaftlichen Kontext führte zur Religionswissenschaft (Müllers Theorie versuchte die Frage zu beantworten, wie vielfältig sich der Sinn des Unendlichen in den unterschiedlichen Glaubensweisen und Traditionen gesetzmäßig widerspiegeln kann). Die Betrachtung der Erfahrung im Kontext der Entfaltung der individuellen Erlebnisse fand jedoch in der Religionspsychologie ihren Ausdruck (Vorbrodt versuchte den psychologischen und sogar den biologischen Hintergrund der Religiosität detailliert darzustellen, wie auch zu rekonstruieren). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is devoted to the study of main ideas of philosophy of religion of W. M. L. de Wette (1780–1849), the German and Swiss Protestant theologian and biblical scholar. Two elements of de Wette’s work had a prolonged infl uence on the development of theology and religious studies, i.e. the original and fairly elaborate doctrine of the religious feeling and drafts of topics and methods of the planned scientifi c study of religion in the framework of theological knowledge. The article shows which place de Wette’s constructions occupy in the development of the German-language philosophy of religion of the 19th century. They are close to Fries’s ideas, though they do not go back to them in terms of their origin. De Wette states that the essence and source of religion are the unconveyable, the initially non-conscious feeling that emerges separately in each individual and has its foundation in the perception of the unity and the need for separate objects and phenomena. The natural and at the same time supernatural ability to feel the divine is also termed by de Wette the inner revelation. This complex feeling is comprised by several elements, i.e. the anticipation of the presence and activity in the fi nite world of the eternal, non-conditional, omnipotent Will; the anticipation of God’s kingdom on earth; full trust and self-off ering to God; awe in front of the beautiful and elevated in nature and culture. The feeling is initially image-related, then it is conceptualised by the power of reason on the collective level of community; its symbolisation generates religious institutions. De Wette’s contribution to the development of knowledge of religion is made up of his focus on making clear what religion is, his desire to reconstruct the initially non-conscious religious feeling by means of extremely strict introspection and refl ection; the claim that in order to study religion, one should master the language of its texts; the claim that it is necessary to study history of religion. The article shows that in its conception and methodology, de Wette’s doctrine foreshadows both the later-to-come liberal theology and the early projects in religious studies.

The object of the article is to define the theoretical approach to the conceptual model of empirical study of the influence of religious values of Muslim and Orthodox youth on their attitude to the foundation of family, to determine variables and indicators of this model, to present the results of the sociological research, showing the nature of the influence of religiosity on the values of young people in the conditions of modern Russia. A questionnaire survey was used as a method of empirical research. Based on the analysis of empirical data, the nature of changes in the value paradigm of family and marriage, depending on the degree of religiosity, and the role of internal and external factors of the social environment are shown. The mechanism of their influence is revealed. The significance of religiousness of youth as a factor of formation of attitude to family and marriage is defined, and the probability model of its formation is developed.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept “Consciousness of God” in the system of personalistic views of German philosopher Gustav Teichmüller (1832-1888). The difference between this concept and the similar concepts of “religious feeling” (“Gefühl”) and “knowledge of God” («Gotteserkenntniss») is shown. The evolution of representations of individual religious experience in Teichmüller’s thought in the article is traced in two contexts: in early, or “German” period of his work (the question of the immortality of the soul and the concept of “parousia” in Plato’s thought) and late, “Dorpatian” period, which was mainly devoted to the construction of its own original personalistic and Neo-Leibnizian system of views. The important part of that system was the project of “Philosophy of Religion” («Religionsphilosophie», 1886), which was planned as a part of a more general and un-released project of “Theologica”. The specific of Teichmüller’s thought of individual religious experience is disclosed upon the analysis of his system of “ontological epistemology” and also on the basis of methods of projectivism and perspectivism. On the basis of this methodology also Teichmüller’s distinction between “true” (Christianity as a true God-man religion) and “untrue” (pantheism, materialism, atheism, Buddhism, Brahmanism, etc.) religious and philosophical systems are analyzed. The close connection between Teichmüller’s ideas of individual religious experience and the previous tradition (A. Trendelenburg, R.G. Lotze, German liberal theology, F. Schleiermacher, A. Ritschl, D.F. Strauß, etc.) is demonstrated. Also is shown Teichmüller’s influence on both western (A. von Harnack, R. Eucken, W. Stern) and Russian (“Yuriev's philosophical school”, Ye.A. Bobrov, V.F. Liutoslavsky, V.S. Scilkarsky, A.A. Kozlov, etc.) philosophical and religious thought.

Starting from a reconstruction of the political profile of Paolo Mantegazza as a member of the Chamber of Deputies, this article aims to show how Mantegazza himself had tried to promote the formation of a new and cohesive national identity. As a matter of fact, by his pedagogical project he had tried to reconcile the positivistic faith in science with political education and religious feeling, within a secular, but not for this reason anti-Christian, culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postsecular thought and criticism involves heightened attention to religious feeling as well as to religious practices. Such feeling, often described as spirituality, enjoys broad cultural currency, though it is far less frequently an object of scholarly attention in the humanities. For this reason, spirituality remains an undertheorized and widely misunderstood category in the humanities, even as it implicitly informs several sites of humanistic inquiry. The aim of this essay, therefore, is to shed light on the presence of evocatively (and sometimes overtly) spiritual thinking in humanities contexts, suggesting different ways that spirituality inflects such areas of thought as the humanities in a posthuman age, tensions between ideological and aesthetic theories, and postcritique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the "Sacred Place"—meant as the new space for religions offered by the Internet—demands for continuous investigations on the encounter between traditional narratives and social practices, the rapid growth of Question and Answering websites asks for improving social research about the Authenticity of the religious feeling as well as their responsibility in the construction of a shared knowledge. In this background, the aim of this study is to investigate the role of Q&A websites as additional interpretative resources in accordance with different religious forms of life. About 800 extracts—composed by questions and answers—from the religious pages of Stack Exchange were analyzed, in accordance with social discursive psychology, through bottom-up and top-down pathways. In relation to the different emerging questioners' profiles, the rhetoric of "closeness" and "openness" reveal a dialectic trend of these websites in offering both supplementary and extending religious experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the relationship between science and religion, as an important component of human culture and human mentality. The science is considered to have become closely connected with consciousness and is described in the language of rigid formalisms. Religious language is metaphorical and belongs to a “soft” language that is closely related to the images and archetypes of the collective unconscious. In terms of worldview, science and religion are complementary. The values of forms of “religious diversity” of human culture are noted. It is noted that due to ESR phenomenon (or quantum teleportation), it is possible to transfer (it does not concern the information, the possibility of which is limited due to the huge cosmic distances) quantum states in synchrony. It is hypothesized that the source of religious feeling is the cosmic collective unconscious of extraterrestrial civilizations that are ahead of the Earth regarding the origin and affect the Earth’s evolution implicitly

There were two main types of philosophy and psychology of religion in Russia in the late 19th and the early 20th centuries: the fi rst developed in theological academies, while the second — in universities. In this article we explore the latter tradition, addressing the ideas represented in works of Troitsky (1835–1899), Grot (1852–1899) and Astaf†ev (1846–1893). These prominent Russian philosophers worked in Moscow University and were members of Moscow Psychological Society, their works played an important role in the development of philosophy, as well as psychology, which was still at the early stage of its development at the time. We discuss the connection between their general philosophical ideas and their approach to analysis of religion with emphasis on psychological aspects of their conceptions, particularly related to notions of religious feelings and psychological functions of religion as well as their original views on evolution of religious beliefs. Three thinkers whose ideas are examined in the article are unanimous in their understanding of inner experience as the most important (although not the only one) source of religious faith and beliefs. At the same time, the important diff erence between those authors is related to their understanding of sources and forms of manifestation of inner experience. While Troitsky describes association and abstraction as the most important conditions of development of religious consciousness, Grot focuses on feelings as a source of religious worldview, and Astaf'ev develops an original conception of will as a constituent element of religious consciousness.

The paper is dedicated to the analysis of ideas of Dr. Martha Anatolievna Popova, a famous Soviet specialist in religious studies. Through this analysis, we demonstrate that her theoretical ideas in a sense sum up other studies of Soviet researchers in this field. In the article we show that the goals and lines of investigation defined by Dr. Popova are relevant for contemporary researchers as well, and her theoretical and practical academic heritage related to the understanding of foreign studies in the fi eld is very important today. Dr. Popova’s studies on the history of Western psychology of religion are especially interesting because of her analysis of English and American works on psychology of religion and psychoanalytical theories of religion and culture. In the course of our study of Dr. Popova’s ideas, we found out that in her works she defi ned four general aspects of psychology of religion that are closely related to each other. The first of these aspects is the study of psychology of an individual believer, the study of particular groups and the development of methodology related to it. The second aspect is the specification and precise definition of the fundamental terms and concepts of Psychology of Religion. The third aspect is the practical application of results achieved during the first and second stages. These three problems cannot be solved without study of the theoretical ideas of previous researchers in the field of psychology of religion, or, to put it in other words, without the study of the history of psychology of religion, which is the fourth aspect of research in psychology of religion. In the article, we analyze the ideas of Dr. Popova using her works that are not widely known and this can help us to understand her theoretical ideas deeper than before.

The article is devoted to the relationship between science and religion, as an important component of human culture and human mentality. The science is considered to have become closely connected with consciousness and is described in the language of rigid formalisms. Religious language is metaphorical and belongs to a “soft” language that is closely related to the images and archetypes of the collective unconscious. In terms of worldview, science and religion are complementary. The values of forms of “religious diversity” of human culture are noted. It is noted that due to ESR phenomenon (or quantum teleportation), it is possible to transfer (it does not concern the information, the possibility of which is limited due to the huge cosmic distances) quantum states in synchrony. It is hypothesized that the source of religious feeling is the cosmic collective unconscious of extraterrestrial civilizations that are ahead of the Earth regarding the origin and affect the Earth’s evolution implicitly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Pavel Florensky's views on the psychology of religion derived from both the earlier and later works of this author. Florensky's earlier notebooks as well as his letters were likewise examined. Special attention is given to a comparison of the ideas of Florensky and Jung. The author presumes that Florensky made a vast contribution to the development of the study of religion in Russia

Friedrich Daniel Ernest Schleiermacher (1768-1834) was one of the most notable theologian and philosopher s, who is known for his impressive attempts in modern theology after the age of enlightenment. One of the most important aspects of theological standpoints of Schleiermacher is that he raised the question of the religious nature in the enlightenment for the first time. He tried to develop a systematic theory and He based the religion on the firm foundations which were free from the criticism of rationalism. Therefore, he defines religion as an “absolute dependence feeling”. Schleiermacher’s definition of religion as feeling posses a considerable impact on the thinker’s ideas that live after him such as Otto’s theory. He emphasized a feelings too, but also criticized the absolute dependence of feelings of Schleiermacher. He instead considered the feeling of being creature as the most important criteria of the religion. In this paper, the author’s analyses Schleiermacher’s view about religious feelings and Otto’s criticism on them.

This section of the Osica de Sus commune monograph - Puterea rădăcinilor - The Roots Power, authors: Constantin Roşca - university profesor (coordinator), Ion Sîrbu - preuniversitary teacher, and Ion Paul Popescu - sociologist et al., Craiova, Editura Universitaria, 2009, emphasizes the main elements which characterize Christian belief, religious spirit and the religious feelings of the people in the commune. It underlines the religious traditions, the Christian customs and festivities and presents the worship places (churches and distinct religious communities, such as the Adventist community) in the commune.