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Most people practice a religion, often multiple times daily. Among the most visible aspects of these practices are body postures, which according to embodiment theories, likely shape the psychological experience of religion. In a preregistered study, we test this idea among Christians, Muslims, and Hindus in the United States, Turkey, and India (N = 2,458). In a repeated-measures experimental design, participants imagined praying in various typical postures, then reported their affective experiences, perceived relationship with deity, and prayer content for each posture. Compared to downward and constrictive postures, expansive and upward postures led to more positive emotions, dominance, and praise-focused prayers, yet fewer introspective or intercessory prayers. Interestingly, these effects varied based on religious context (e.g., many Hindus found upward and expansive postures offensive, causing no positive affect). We further explored whether these effects varied based on posture familiarity, religiosity, interoceptive sensibility, and personality traits. This research provides unique data on embodied processes shaping affect and cognition in religious practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focused on pilgrimages as part of religious tourism and aimed to achieve the following objectives: identify the main motivational factors of religious tourism focused on pilgrimages; analyze the motivational dimensions that predict satisfaction in religious tourism focused on pilgrimages; analyze the motivational dimensions that predict loyalty in religious tourism focused on pilgrimages. The study was conducted during the pilgrimage to the Virgin of Chaguaya in Bolivia. The sample consisted of 384 tourists who were surveyed on-site. The statistical techniques used included factor analysis and multiple regression. The results revealed four motivational dimensions: Tourism and Escape, Religious Experience, Belief Experience, and Shopping. Additionally, specific motivations that influence the satisfaction and loyalty of attendees at religious events such as pilgrimages have been identified, among them the "Religious Experience" and the "Belief Experience" motivational dimensions. The findings will contribute to planning and management guidelines for religious event administrators and provide information to academic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the nonconceptual theory of mystical ineffability which claims that mystical experiences can't be expressed linguistically because they can't be conceptualized. I discuss and refute two objections against it: (a) that unconceptualized experiences are impossible, and (b) that the theory is ad hoc because it provides no reason for why mystical experiences should be unconceptualizable. I argue against (a) that distinguishing different meanings of 'object of experience' leaves open the possibility of non-empty but objectless nonconceptual experiences. I show that (b) is a valid objection but can be countered by a new theory of mystical non-conceptuality: mystical experiences are not conceptual because the specific mode of mystical consciousness prevents conceptualization. The dissolution of the subjectivity of consciousness during mystical experiences undermines the very foundation of the possibility of conceptual thought and thus renders them ineffable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tanya Marie Luhrmann's book, "How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others," explores the psychological and anthropological aspects of religious experiences. Luhrmann argues that believers make the experience of God phenomenologically real through intense spiritual practices, which offer benefits similar to ordinary social relationships. However, the article critiques Luhrmann's approach for bypassing communal dialogue and moral concerns, ultimately supporting a modern individualism that undermines ethical grounding. The article draws on Charles Taylor's ideas of individualism and narcissism to argue that Luhrmann's work risks reducing the believer's relationship with an invisible other to a mere instrument for self-fulfillment. Additionally, the article highlights the importance of dialogical relations and shared ideals in shaping meaningful action and political engagement within spiritual communities. The article also critiques Luhrmann's emphasis on self-absorption and the instrumental utility of spiritual practices, which can contribute to a culture of narcissism and alienation. Overall, the article suggests that Luhrmann's perspective overlooks the dialogical nature of human experience and the broader social and moral obligations of religious believers. [Extracted from the article]

William James delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1901 and 1902, and his 20 lectures were published as The Varieties of Religious Experience. While the book is a classic in the psychology of religion, little to no attention has been given to the immediate context of James's lectures or his state of mind and perspectives during his delivery of each. This study aimed to understand James's 20 Gifford Lectures as separable performances and to uncover his experience of delivering each. We placed in conversation two first-hand accounts of the lectures—The Scotsman newspaper reports and James's correspondence. A word-count methodology was used to compare the newspaper reports among themselves. The results showed that the separate reports by James and The Scotsman were strongly correlated. For instance, both James and The Scotsman reported that the 1901 lectures were better received than the 1902 lectures. Further, both confirm that James and his audience engaged each other in a complicated dance involving competing expectations and worldviews. The results demonstrate that viewing the lectures as performance events experienced by James within personal and societal historical contexts clarifies our understanding of James, each of his 20 lectures, and the book that enshrined them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The experiential bias in modern understandings of spirituality has led to readings of the pre-modern texts of Pseudo-Dionysius as referring to "negative experiences" of faith. Denys Turner, Bernard McGinn, and others have outlined the mistaken "spiritual positivism" of such readings and their contrast with the negative dialectics of the classical apophatic tradition. Indeed, the philosophical parameters of the Christian mysticism of the Dionysian tradition would deny "mystical experience" to be "experience" as such. Nevertheless, several modern theologians have attempted to integrate interpretations of the experiential in Christian mysticism into their theology. These include Sara Coakley in the idea of spiritual sense in her theology of the body, Karl Rahner in the conception of spiritual touch within his theology of grace, and Louis Dupré's view that there is religious significance in the experience of "emptiness" in modern-day atheism. I shall contrast these attempted integrations with the critique of "mystical experience" within classical understandings of apophaticism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenomenological research has focused on embodiment. This paper examines how the body is experienced in passive contemplation, understood as a finite province of meaning in Alfred Schutz's sense. The six features characteristic of any province of meaning (epoché, form of spontaneity, tension of consciousness, sense of self, temporality, and sociality) function distinctively in each province of meaning and alter one's experience of one's body. In the foundational province of pragmatic everyday life, one transforms deliberately and bodily the surrounding world, but this experience undergoes modifications in the religious/spiritual contemplative province. To clarify passive contemplation, the paper develops, as a contrast, active contemplation, the active, restless pursuit of chains of appresentational symbols and images. In passive contemplation, one separates from everyday life, orients toward unity rather than dialogue with God, refrains from following appresentative chains, and relaxes one's tension of the consciousness/body (e.g., through breathing), single-mindedly attending to God's presence. One can trace passive contemplation genetically to a primordial entwinement with one's mother's body, in which subjective/objective boundaries are blurred (as in Merleau-Ponty's "flesh"). In passive contemplation, one assumes an often-wordless social role (child, lover) toward God and abides tranquilly in the present rather than moving distractedly toward any future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the intricate interplay between empathy and religious experience within the Brazilian Umbanda religion. Umbanda is a syncretic faith that integrates elements from African spiritual practices, Catholicism, and Kardecist spiritism, reflecting the diverse cultural and social dynamics of Brazilian society. The religion emphasizes communication with spirits, particularly the pretos velhos—spirits of old slaves—who are revered for their wisdom and connection to the divine. These spirits engage with practitioners through mediums in rituals held in terreiros, offering guidance and comfort. Central to our discussion is the concept of embodied empathy, which is vital for understanding the deep emotional connections between the practitioners and the spirits. We seek to understand why Umbanda rituals are not just spiritual sessions, but profound empathic exchanges that facilitate communal healing and personal transformation. Through the lens of the predictive processing theory and the concept of embodied cognition, we argue that these empathic interactions are not just psychological but are deeply rooted in the physical and social embodiments of the participants. This perspective helps in understanding how Umbanda serves both as a spiritual practice and a socio-cultural mechanism that aids individuals in navigating their personal and collective life challenges. The empathy experienced within Umbanda rituals exemplifies how religion can serve as a powerful conduit for social cohesion and personal introspection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Especially in The Varieties of Religious Experience, William James developed the polar categories of healthy-minded individuals content with their once-born religion versus sick souls who need to become twice-born in order to find religious peace. Biographers of James have concluded that he does not fit well under either of his polar categories. Drawing on both data about James' life and on his philosophical and theological writings, I demur from the biographers' conclusion and instead advance the thesis that the overall pattern of William James' life is best understood as a sick soul searching for—and ultimately finding—twice-born religion in connection with mystical experiences. Notably, James attempted to theorize about mystical experiences as connecting with divine reality/ies in naturalistic ways compatible with scientific knowledge of his time. Scientific knowledge today makes it more difficult to find evidence of direct divine input in religious experiences, yet one might find value in religious experiences in terms of James' pragmatic criterion for truth: their beneficial or adaptive effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While a universal definition of religion eludes the field of religious studies, it certainty seems that people are becoming differently religious rather than a-religious, especially since the latter half of the twentieth century. To explain the enduring relevance of religion in human experience, this article expands on recent evolutionary and sociological research in the systems theory of religion and develops a philosophical approach to understanding religion as a complex adaptive system. Frameworks of meaning and beliefs communicated by religious systems emerge and adapt in relation to interpretive selection pressures communicated by individuals-in-community relative to entropy's role in one's contingent experience as a "teleodynamic self" in the arrow of time. Religious systems serve an entropy-reducing function in the minds of individuals, philosophically speaking, because their sign and symbol systems communicate an "anentropic" dimension to meaning that prevents uncertainty ad infinitum (e.g., maximum Shannon entropy) concerning matters of existential concern for phenomenological systems, i.e., persons. Religious systems will continue to evolve, and new religious movements will spontaneously emerge, as individuals find new ways to communicate their intuition of this anentropic dimension of meaning in relation to their experience of contingency in the arrow of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document titled "Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs: Truth in Being" examines the connection between continental philosophy and Christian beliefs. It explores how concepts like time, truth, existence, death, alterity/otherness, and God are approached in phenomenological, ontological, and theological perspectives. The document highlights the contributions of philosophers like Emmanuel Levinas and Martin Heidegger to the conversation between philosophy and theology. It emphasizes the role of imagination in understanding truth in being and how this understanding can inform Christian beliefs. The document concludes by presenting twelve papers that offer different viewpoints on the relationship between continental philosophy and Christian beliefs, encouraging readers to delve deeper into these themes. The text also discusses religious experience, the dangers of self-interest and idolatry, the importance of dialogue and dissent in the Church, and the need for a more inclusive and egalitarian approach to governance. It addresses the challenges of living in a secular and post-Christian world, emphasizing the sacredness of the divine presence and the hope for a future of truth and goodness. Overall, the text provides valuable insights into the intersection of Christian beliefs and continental thought. [Extracted from the article]

AbstractAgeing in a non-native land brings numerous challenges that may complicate adaptation and health for older Latin American immigrants in Australia. While religiosity emerges as a protective factor for mental health, there is scarce research focused on exploring the multifaceted dimensions of religiosity in this population. As part of a broad Constructivist Grounded Theory study, the aim of this qualitative descriptive analysis was to explore and understand this population’s religious practices and experiences, focusing on the impact on their mental health. Following ethical approval, 23 Spanish-speaking Latin American immigrants aged 60 and older living in Australia were interviewed. Data analysis was performed on a constant comparative basis and concurrent with data collection to understand the findings. Three key categories were identified: “Being involved in religious groups and communities,” “Connecting with God,” and “Changing how one lives one’s faith.” Regardless of their religious practices, all participants engaged in social activities that helped them integrate into their communities. Several barriers to religious practices were identified. The findings add to the field of religiosity as a protective factor in older Latin American immigrants’ mental health. Future research should identify barriers to religious practices and targeted interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to untangle the relationship between religion, humour, and feminism by analysing the humour which underscored the campaign for women’s ordination in the Church of England. By examining the wordplay, the cartoons, and the physical objects through which humour was expressed, this article highlights the creativity which underscored the activism of these lesser-known activists. Through centring the experiences of these religious activists, this article extends existing scholarly conversations which seek to diversify understandings of who and what should be considered part of the ‘women’s movement’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This comparative study explores the significance of Catholic material religion of the Tamils in India and Malaysia in the celebration of Our Lady of Vēlānkaṉṉi feast which involves a complex interplay of materiality, religious beliefs, and embodied practices. Employing Plate and Bruland's understandings of material religion, and based on ethnographic study, this essay seeks to unravel the power of material objects and embodied practices to replicate sacred spaces in new locales and to deliver the pilgrims new experiences of religious sensibilities and personal fulfilment in the sphere of divine and human relations. The findings reveal that material religion functions as a tangible, religious and nostalgic link to the original shrine of Vēlānkaṉṉi and as a symbol of filial piety to the motherhood of Mary for the Tamil community in both sites. This paper highlights the role of material Catholicism in fostering Marian devotion and in shaping and displaying people's personal, religious and cultural identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious tourism is one of the oldest forms of mobility for travel. This study aims at validating the motivational dimensions of demand in religious tourism. The present research was carried out with tourists who had attended the pilgrimage of the Virgin of Montserrat in the city of Montecristi (Ecuador), an important tourist destination that stands out for its culture and intangible heritage. This quantitative study had a sample of 298 valid questionnaires that were analyzed through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The results identified five motivational dimensions: experience belief, experience religion, social exploration, escape, and shopping. The results will serve as a guide for private companies to develop products from religious tourism. Likewise, the research contributes significantly to the academic literature on religious tourism in emerging destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to expand the experience economy model and to determine if this model provides a better understanding of the process of growing intention to continue using religious cultural heritage content delivered digitally and intention to visit religious cultural heritage sites. In particular, it examines the influence of spiritual experience on the evaluation of religious cultural heritage content, comparing delivery via virtual reality (VR) to a web-based experience. Design/methodology/approach: In this study, a representative religious cultural heritage destination, Jerusalem, was chosen as an example for the application. Participants (n = 292) were randomly divided into two groups, one group using the web and the other group experiencing VR. After experiencing the destination virtually, participants completed a survey, the results of which were analyzed using path analysis and multi-group analysis. Findings: The results suggest that spiritual experience mediates the four elements of Pine and Gilmore (1998) experience economy model and the intention to continue engaging with the content virtually. Intellectual awareness of religious cultural heritage strengthens the spiritual experience, which mediates educational and aesthetic experiences and the successful use of VR and the web. Additionally, for participants experiencing VR, the influence of spiritual experience on the intention to continue using the virtual media to consume content related to religious cultural heritage sites and to visit actual religious heritage sites was stronger than for participants using the web. Originality/value: This study based on an expanded experience economy model explores the use of digital technologies for the enhancement of spiritual experience. Comparison of web-based and VR content delivery provides important implications for destination marketers in terms of promoting destinations online and encouraging intention to visit actual sites in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Muslims in Italy are an increasingly large and relevant part of the social fabric, although their social condition is still characterized by a "precarious" status. This is explained by a relationship with State institutions that is not yet fully defined in formal terms and by resistance to legitimizing their presence in the public space. In addition, international events have led to the spread of a securitarian political rhetoric and to the intensification of "control" devices on the organized forms and public manifestations of Muslim religiosity. One issue that has concerned political interlocutors has been the training of "imams". This paper presents the Italian case of training "on" and "of" Islam, analyzing it as a contested field, albeit in a not open and hostile form, between the different social and institutional actors, that is Italian universities, Islamic organizations and transnational Islam and Islam "of the States". It then analyzes the approach that has been developed and experimented by an Italian State university for the training of imams and murshidat, in collaboration with Italian Islamic organizations and some universities in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation countries, and it also discusses how it fits in as a possible innovative model among the various "assemblages" that have emerged in Europe in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pragmatist philosophy of religion has, since the early days of the tradition, developed distinctive accounts of (what we now call) "situated" religious cognition highly relevant to currently ongoing discussions in this developing field. This paper focuses on William James's pragmatism as an important example of such an approach in the philosophy of religion. Some central "situational" themes in James are identified, and special attention is given to the relation between the (situation-dependent) concepts of belief and hope in Jamesian pragmatism. The ontological status of the "objects" of situated religious cognition is thereby also briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research delves into the realm of Religious Tourism Service Quality, specifically focusing on the Navagraha Temples in the culturally rich Thanjavur District. As the oldest form of tourism, religious pilgrimage has witnessed substantial growth in recent years. The study employs the World Tourism Organization's standards to assess safety, hygiene, accessibility, transparency, authenticity, and harmony in the context of these temples. Using a structured questionnaire and statistical analysis, the research unveils pilgrims' perceptions of service quality across various dimensions and establishes correlations with overall satisfaction. The findings provide valuable insights for practitioners, temple management, and policymakers in enhancing the religious tourism experience in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article argues that theology (systematic or otherwise) is ultimately grounded in (religious) experience. To that end, I methodologically demonstrate that theological inquiry cannot coherently be pursued without attention to people’s experience of the divine/sacred. Thus, this article stands as a methodological development and defense of a family of theological viewpoints that I call context-attentive theologies. In order to do so, I examine the writings of three authors whose different approaches to the problem of divine revelation will help me to clarify the meaning of context-attentive theology: Jean-Luc Marion, H. Richard Niebuhr, and Gustavo Gutiérrez. I proceed in four steps. First, I provide an account of context-attentive theology through an examination of the task of theology. Second, I focus on Marion’s phenomenology of revelation to ascertain to what extent it incorporates contextual analysis. Third, I turn to Niebuhr’s account of revelation, which I construe as a context-attentive theology shaped by the “historical turn.” Fourth, I turn to Gutiérrez’s liberation theology to show how Niebuhr’s “radical reconstruction” within the context of the historical turn is further radicalized by liberation theology, which I take as a prime example of context-attentive theology.

This article approaches the relationship between theory and practice based on Lived Theology. The concept is introduced through empirical insights and an overview of various definitions. Additionally, the article highlights the implications of Lived Theology on the field of academic theology and the concept of theology itself. Subsequently, Lived Theology is juxtaposed with the research field of Empirical Theology. The article explores how Lived Theology can be researched adequately, revealing that Empirical and Lived Theology are interdependent from one another.

The article analyzes the genesis and transformation of the concept of «religious experience» in the philosophical and theological heritage of V. S. Solovyov. It is proposed to reconstruct the content and meaning of the concept of «religious experience», initially perceived by V. S. Solovyov, later reworked by him in the context of the general logic of the history of Russian religious studies. In the course of the study, the authors raise the question of whether the concept of «religious experience» is possible in the works of V. S. To comprehend Solovyov in the theoretical space of the revealed contradiction of two positions: as a historical and philosophical phenomenon and as a semantically organized concept of fundamental importance for Russian religious philosophy. As a result, it is shown: the influence of the existential experience of the thinker on the formation of the semantic diversity of the concept of «religious experience»; the presence of polemical potential in the genesis of this concept, since V. S. Solovyov uniquely reworks the ideas of Yu. F. Samarin and P. D. Yurkevich. The fundamental importance of the ideas of Yu. F. Samarin and P. D. is shown. To understand the origins of the spectrum of meanings of the concept of «religious experience» in the ideological heritage of V. S. Solovyov. To this end, the characteristics inherent in a purely personal principle in the form of a «personal revelation» are revealed, which is the basis for accepting religious experience as the most reliable. In the late period of his work, the philosopher uses a method of describing religious experience as an experience of feelings, the authors of the article suggest that this is an original approach to the transformation of the system and the ideological heritage of the famous thinker F. Schleiermacher, which has a theological significance. Within the framework of the proposed methodology, the thesis is expressed that the ideological content of the concept of «religious experience» is not only the basis for defining related concepts such as mystical experience, but also has a cognitive potential in its meaningful meaning in relation to individual religious experience. Thus, the fact of the transformation of F.’s ideas is uniquely presented. Schleiermacher in Russian religious studies, namely, the possibility of understanding the nature of «religious experience» is stated based on the meanings given by the author himself (in our case, Solovyov) to the experience of experience that changes a person’s worldview. This shows the value aspect of the «religious experience».

AbstractThe challenges faced by mothers in parenting children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are gaining attention in psychological analyses. Few reviews have examined the role of religion in assisting mothers to cope with such challenges, particularly in Medan City, Indonesia. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the positive impact of religion on motherhood, specifically focusing on religious coping, in the context of parenting children with ASD. A total of seven biological mothers of children diagnosed with ASD in Medan City were selected as the participants. An interpretative phenomenological analysis was adopted to analyze their parenting experiences. The results showed that there were nine categories of religious experiences with positive impacts, including (1) husnuzan, (2) sabr, (3) ikhlas, (4) ikhtiar, (5) tawakkul, (6) sholat, (7) zikr, (8) reading the Qur’an, and (9) praying and giving thanks. In conclusion, this study explained the impact of religious coping on Muslim mothers caring for children with ASD, shedding light on several key insights such as (1) religion served as a source of strength and support in managing the stress of caregiving, (2) it enhanced mothers’ appreciation of life and fostered a positive outlook, and (3) religion promoted positive coping strategies and acceptance of children with ASD, potentially leading to joyful caregiving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the religious coping strategies among forced migrant women survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). While it is acknowledged that faith and religion help people to survive crises, the patterns of religious coping with SGBV and displacement are little understood. I explore how displaced women use their faith and religious resources to cope with SGBV and migration-related daily stressors. Using qualitative methods and data collected in Turkey and Tunisia with thirty-eight Levantine and African women, I introduce the concept of adaptive religious coping, which they deployed over time and place as one main coping mechanism in experiences of SGBV and displacement. Survivors used cognitive, behavioural and spiritual/emotional religious coping strategies, drawing on their available religious resources—ideas, practices and experience. The study highlights the importance of religious coping in supporting displaced populations emotionally and spiritually, and offers implications for mental health responses in forced displacement contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neuroscience has become a well-accepted methodological modality in the study of religion, especially of religious behavior, personal prayer, meditation, mysticism, spiritual experience, and personal religious experiences. However, such studies have been performed on individuals only; none have helped scholars understand the neuro-physiological correlates of religious communities, religious interactions, collective liturgical action, or the like. This article introduces the new field of social neuroscience, showing how its primary tool, hyperscanning, is revealing surprising levels of "brain-to-brain synchrony." Though there are no hyperscanning studies of religious communities yet, the authors suggest that findings about shared attention, interpersonal coordination, and feelings of closeness all have clear parallels in and implications for religious communities. The authors then suggest both directions and cautions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article claims that the Anthropocene Age reveals the tragic insanity that lies at the core of religious experiences informed by Hebrew and Christian scriptures. In brief, I claim that Western Christianity and its apparatuses produce beliefs, which are an integral part of persons' religious experiences, that give rise to an ontological rift between human beings and other species. This rift and its attendant beliefs are evident in how religious individuals and communities have (1) overlooked or disavowed the singularities and sufferings of other species, (2) used attendant instrumental epistemologies to justify the exploitation of Othered species (and Othered human beings) and the Earth, and (3) sought to force nature to adapt to human needs and desires. The article addresses the psychological dynamics and consequences of the ontological rift, which further exposes the madness that attends religious experiences that rely on apparatuses of the ontological rift. The article ends with a brief discussion of an antidote, namely, inoperativity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interpretation of experiences relies heavily on an individual's religious framework and developmental characteristics. One's conception of God and the way one behaves are central. The nature and diversity of religious experiences reflect the significance that the individual attributes to religion and religious principles in their own life. This investigation presents valuable empirical evidence regarding the role of religion in the lives of young individuals amidst the prevailing trend of increasing secularism in contemporary society. The objective of this study is to gain insight into the role of religion in the lives of young people and to identify recurrent religious experiences. Through this qualitative examination encompassing young individuals in early adolescence, certain religious experiences were found to align partially with the structures associated with their religious affiliations. Additionally, some alterations corresponding to the developmental inclinations of adolescents were observed within the content of certain religious experiences. Because this period is the period in which some rapid intellectual, affective and behavioural changes are seen in the development of humanity. Therefore, it is possible to come across a number of different effects specific to adolescence. In addition, discrepancies were identified in the configuration and variety of religious encounters based on gender. Religious doubts and hesitations increase or decrease according to the degree of religious commitment of the individual. In addition, since this study was conducted immediately after the 6 February earthquake, it was seen that this traumatic event was reflected in the way young people interpreted their experiences. In this study, phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research designs, was used. The data obtained were analysed by thematic coding and content analysis method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between mental health dimensions such as meaning in life, life satisfaction, and job satisfaction, and the religious experience of God's presence and God's absence in the lives of Polish nurses with a bachelor and master's degree. The research was carried out in the city of Kraków, Poland. All nurses were brought up in Catholic families and declared themselves believing and practicing. The following research tools were used: the Meaning in Life Questionnaire, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Satisfaction with Job Scale, and the Intensity of Religious Experience Scale. Data analysis showed that the education level of Polish nurses does not significantly differentiate the analyzed variables. The correlation analysis showed that the strongest relationship was between satisfaction with life and satisfaction with job in the group of nurses with a bachelor's degree and nurses with a master's degree. The regression analysis showed that the strongest predictor of God's presence in the group of nurses with a bachelor's degree was satisfaction with job, and in the group of nurses with a master's degree it was satisfaction with life. The structural equation analysis revealed that the satisfaction with life plays an important and positive mediation role between the presence of the meaning in life and the search for the meaning in life, and the experience of God's presence and the experience of God's absence in the life of nurses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the potential benefits of incorporating monastic theology into contemporary catechesis. It emphasizes the importance of personal religious experience and the role of a prayerful community in monastic theology. The article suggests that catechesis should involve prayer and reflection, and highlights the significance of encounters with the divine. It also emphasizes the importance of a supportive community and trusted adults in the faith development of young people. The article concludes by advocating for a holistic approach to catechesis that incorporates elements of monastic theology. [Extracted from the article]

"The Experience of Atheism: Phenomenology, Metaphysics and Religion" is a book that explores atheism as a lived experience rather than just a collection of philosophical arguments against the existence of God. The book, edited by Robyn Horner and Claude Romano, is a result of the project 'Atheism and Christianity: Moving Past Polemic' led by the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at the Australian Catholic University. The authors, following the tradition of French phenomenology, delve into different varieties of atheism, including literalist atheism and atheism as a loss of God. The book also examines atheism from a theistic perspective and explores different phenomenological treatments of religious experience. Overall, the book provides a useful map for understanding the various discussions surrounding atheism and religious experience. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the structure of cultivated religious experience. For the Buddhist philosopher Jñānaśrīmitra (c. 980–1040), the religious experience of the Buddhist yogin (yogipratyakṣa) is not spontaneous or sporadic but must be intentionally and rationally cultivated. I argue that Jñānaśrīmitra's picture parallels certain contemporary constructivist accounts of religious experience, according to which the prejudices, expectations, and interpretative structures of the practitioner shape the character of the experience in question. Despite this, however, Jñānaśrīmitra maintains that religious experience is direct, non-conceptual, and ineffable. Even though cultivation begins by focusing on rationally understood, effable conceptual content (the Buddha's teaching of the Four Nobles' Truths, for instance), the yogin's relation to that content is transformed through cultivation (bhāvanā). Cultivation makes awareness-events with conceptual content vivid (spaṣṭa) in such a way that they lose their conceptual character, coming to affect the practitioner's mind as if they were external to it. In this way, precisely in virtue of beginning the process of cultivation with certain expectations about the Buddha's teaching, Buddhist yogins come to have a direct and non-conceptual experience of the breakdown of their own mental streams and the dissolution of the sense of self. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to make an evaluation by introducing the views on the definition of religious experience, which has been the main reason of religious belief since the existence of human beings. The God-human relationship is one of the most important problems in the history of thought. In fact, the exclusion of the problem of “possibility” in the issue of definition, which cannot be handled separately from the problem of “the possibility of religious experience”, is intended to keep the subject within the limits of the study. Because the possibility of religious experience, which can be understood as any religious person’s encounter with the Divine and experiencing it in an extraordinary way, regardless of the religion through which he establishes his relationship with God, is another subject of discussion. The meanings attributed to the concept of religious experience are so diverse that they can vary from person to person because they contain subjective essence. An important problem in discussions of religious experience is the definition of religious experience, while another issue is whether personal religious experiences provide sufficient reason to believe in God. The diversity of religious experience is another issue that preoccupies thinkers. The state of experience in theological inquiry and its function in theological systems draw attention as areas where theologians are intensely interested in the subject. The focus of recent debates on religious experience is whether there is the same universal religious experience at the root of all cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in analyzing the manufacturing techniques of Byzantine church doors in laboratory settings. However, the connection between the iconography and significance of the décor of church doors and their liturgical performativity, as well as their parallels with iconostases in Byzantium, remained a relatively underexplored area of study. This article seeks to delve deeper into these intersections. By focusing on the relationship between the iconography of church doors in Middle to Late Byzantium and their connection to the sacred space and liturgical practices, I aim to shed light on how these artworks played a crucial role in the sacred experience of the Byzantines. This exploration will not highlight only the aesthetic evolution of church door artwork but also emphasize the communal and embodied nature of the religious experience during the Byzantine era. Their intricate designs were not merely decorative elements but served as portals to the divine, enriching the salvation journey of worshippers as they crossed the threshold into the liturgical spaces. By conducting an examination of the development of door iconography and their symbolism throughout the empire's history, the transformation of narrative depictions from the Middle Byzantine era to the Palaiologan period, culminating in a convergence of symbolic meanings within the sacred space of the church, is delineated. This transformation is further exemplified by a sculpted church door from the Principality of Wallachia. By bridging the gap between art history and religious studies, this article aims to rekindle interest in the profound symbolism and significance of Byzantine church doors and their relation to sacred liturgical space, offering a broader perspective on an important aspect of Byzantine heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores the idea of symbolic wondering and its courting to a spiritual experience as presented inside the works of Moshe Idel. Through an intensive evaluation of Idel's writings, they look at ambitions to clarify how symbolic thinking transcends traditional boundaries and shapes the spiritual studies of individuals. By inspecting Idel's precise angle at the interplay between symbols and spiritual encounters, the observer seeks to shed light on the profound impact of symbolic thinking on religious know-how and practice. Furthermore, it sheds light on the transcendent nature of symbolic ideas and their profound effect on the spiritual reviews of individuals and groups. In conclusion, Moshe Idel's work stands as a testament to the long-lasting relevance of symbolic wondering and spiritual experience in both educational and broader cultural spheres. By highlighting the significance of his contributions, we can make certain that Idel's legacy continues to inspire and tell future generations of scholars, practitioners, and seekers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study, focused on pilgrimages as part of religious tourism, aimed to achieve the following objectives: Identify the motivations of the demand for religious tourism focused on pilgrimages; analyze the segmentation of the demand; identify the relationship between demand segments with satisfaction and loyalty; and establish the sociodemographic aspects that characterize demand segments. The study was conducted during the Pilgrimage of the Christ of Miracles in Lima, Peru. The sample was taken on-site from 384 tourists. The statistical techniques used were factor analysis and the k-means clustering method. The results reveal five motivational dimensions: Religious Experience, Belief Experience, Escape, Touristic Experience, and Shopping. Three attendee segments were also identified: Believers, related to belief experience; Religious, related to religious experience; and Passive, tourists with low motivations. The Religious segment had the highest satisfaction and loyalty levels among these groups. Sociodemographic differences were also found in the demand segments. The findings will contribute to management guidelines for destination administrators with religious events and provide insights into academic literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do intense religious experiences increase or decrease terrorism? We argue that fasting during the month of Ramadan offers an ideal setting for studying this question empirically. Reasons are twofold: first, daily fasting from dawn to sunset during Ramadan is considered mandatory for most Muslims. Second, the Islamic Hijri calendar is not synchronized with the solar cycle. Therefore, the daily fasting duration during Ramadan is exogenous once we control for latitude and the seasonality of Ramadan, which we can do by using district and country-year fixed effects. Focusing on predominantly Muslim countries, we document three main findings: first, longer and more intense Ramadan fasting has a robust negative effect on the likelihood of local terrorist events and terror deaths over the next year. Second, this negative effect is particularly pronounced for operationally more difficult attack types, which are more dependent on public support for terrorism. Third, using survey data, we show that longer and more intense Ramadan fasting lowers the share of respondents who consider religiously motivated violence to be justified. These findings imply that intense religious experiences may not be a breeding ground for terrorism. Quite the opposite, they can decrease public support for terrorism and, consequently, terrorist attacks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By religious experiences I mean those human experiences characterised by a kind of intuitional seeming to the effect that a transcendent or all‐encompassing being—God—exists. After explaining two significant similarities between religious and perceptual experiences, I will argue that the doctrine of phenomenal dogmatism about perceptual experiences can be applied to religious experiences as well. In the following two sections, the challenge arising from the objection from cognitive penetration is extended to the case of religious experiences. I show that the importance of this challenge may be dependent on a debate over the proper content of experience—namely the debate over low‐level vs. high‐level content. In the subsequent section, I argue that even if the religious experience is deemed an experience with low‐level content, then the charge of cognitive penetration may not be avoided. Drawing upon the doctrine of divine simplicity, in the penultimate section, I argue that the experience of God has a specific characteristic which, in companion with its thin content, enables it to escape the charge of cognitive penetration. Alternatively put, the experience of God possesses an important epistemological advantage owing to its distinctive object, which makes it significantly reliable. In the final section, three possible objections are briefly addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article seeks to engage the often-overlooked voices of mothers and daughters in the face of patriarchal dominance. Conversations between mothers and daughters are important spaces for the exploration of faith experiences and provide transformative power. Through these conversations, the practice of story-linking comes to life, enabling re-listening to and re-telling Christian faith stories in the Bible entrenched in church tradition. This endeavor promotes a life-affirming approach to transformative learning. Reflecting on these conversations, this study contributes to Christian religious education within the family context, casting ripples of transformation throughout the church and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the formation and preservation of a distinctive "Moroccan Judaism" ethos, rooted in a connection to the homeland and an idealized Moroccan past. Through an examination of secularism, traditionalism, and modernity in Israel and France, alongside the resurgence of religiosity in secular societies, it assesses the impact of diasporic experiences on the religious practices of Moroccan-origin families in these countries. The argument posits that diasporic sentiments and the allure of Moroccan heritage significantly influence the negotiation and affirmation of religious identities within these families. Rituals and religious practices serve as expressions of this identity, undergoing adaptation and transformation both in Morocco and abroad. Consequently, "Israeli" and "French" approaches to Moroccan Jewish observance reflect distinct socio-political and historical contexts. The analysis draws from five family cases, illustrating a range of experiences within national and transnational frameworks, enriching our understanding of the dynamic interplay between personal narratives and broader social and historical landscapes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current psychedelic renaissance intersects with Christian practices in two key ways. First, as psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) becomes more common, Christians undergoing therapeutic medical treatment may seek outside support for integrating into their religious lives mystical experiences that occur during psychedelic sessions. Second, with increasing legal access to psychedelics, more Christians may explore their spiritual potential outside of a medical context, either individually with spiritual guides or collectively in organized retreats. Many will have mystical encounters related to the Divine. Whether the experience involves the overwhelming presence or absence of the Divine, these Christians, too, will seek integration support. This essay argues that the Bible can serve as a rich source for such integration, because it contains significant material about mystical experiences marked by altered states of consciousness. First, I summarize the importance of the psychedelic renaissance, especially the scientific studies being conducted, as it relates to Christian practices of spiritual formation. Second, I explore new work being conducted by biblical scholars regarding embodied religious experiences with the Divine (and others), including mystical experiences. Third, I consider the Apostle Paul's embodied mystical experience, with special attention to 2 Corinthians 12:1–10, as one example of biblical material that might intersect with or inform psychedelic mystical encounters that contemporary Christians might experience (whether in a medical therapeutic or non-medical spiritual formation setting). Finally, I indicate directions for further research and discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific claim that psychedelic drugs like psilocybin reliably occasion mystical experiences was justified using the Mystical Experiences Questionnaire (the MEQ), a survey first developed in the 1960s by Walter Pahnke using W.T. Stace's Mysticism and Philosophy. Scholars in Christian mysticism reject the adequacy of Stace's work for Western theistic mysticism, especially Christianity. One objection is that Stace follows William James in focusing on intense and unusual moments of mystical experience rather than the somewhat more ordinary mystical life. A greater concern is that Stace more adequately reflects non-Western traditions than Western theistic traditions like Christianity. For Stace, mysticism centers on the concept of union with external reality or with the absolute, a union in which the human creature is absorbed or fused. Christian mysticism, by contrast, involves a sense of presence rather than union, experienced in a most intimate relationship as a felt loving closeness with the divine, but not as fusion or absorption into the divine. While love of God is central to the Christian view, it is ignored in Stace and the MEQ30. Finally for Christianity, mysticism is not found in the momentary experience, but in the lifelong interpretation that leads to transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In You Shall Be as Gods, Erich Fromm (1900–1980) defines his position as nontheistic mysticism. This research clarifies the term, considers its importance within Fromm's humanism, and explores its potential origins. The nontheistic mystical position plays a central role in Fromm's understanding of the relationship between mysticism and organized religion, religion and religiosity, and it clarifies the relationship between religion, philosophy, and social psychoanalysis, whose combination constitutes his humanistic ethics. Nontheistic mysticism relates, as well, to Fromm's understanding of human nature; it involves the question of the relationship between language, perception, and experience. The nontheistic mystical position is linked to Fromm's negative theology, the x experience, and idolatry. Hence, the nontheistic mystical position is relevant to Fromm's understanding of self-realization and his vision of a sane society. Unlike some scholarly opinion, the conclusions of this paper suggest that Fromm's humanism is not radical, as long as radical is defined as an absolute atheistic secular feature that eliminates the range of religious language and experience. Rather, it is a broad and cautious humanism that, on the one hand, internalizes the transcendent divinity into the human subject and transforms it into anthropological–ethical phenomena, but, on the other, implies that atheism carries the risk of an idolatrous identification of the human being with God. Consequently, this humanism requires a religious–mystical component to adequately portray the spiritual and ethical potentials of humanity and its challenges. Nontheistic mysticism is a consciousness mechanism aimed at the fine-tuning of the individual's moral compass, which is affected by the pathologies of normalcy that prevail in all societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Novel developments in neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology have spawned a thriving empirical literature on religious experience. Previous literature in the cognitive science of religion has largely ignored empirical results from these fields, focusing narrowly on results from evolutionary psychology. Additionally, it has ignored the epistemological relevance of non‐paradigmatic cases of religious experience discussed in the literature from these subspecialties. In this article I submit that philosophical research on religious experience should take empirical work outside of evolutionary psychology as its primary foci towards uncovering fresh perspectives. I focus on three different literatures from neuroscience, psychology, and anthropology as case studies for generating novel philosophical research. I show that empirically‐discovered factors related to non‐paradigmatic religious experiences raise crucial and unique epistemological questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]