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Abstract: Theodicy is often rejected because a suffering person is hardly interested in abstract arguments—even if these arguments were convincing, they might not change the suffering she is experiencing. I propose a twofold theodicy. First, Christians are invited to promote positive apologetics—they should show the internal consistency of divine revelation, which recommends that they should alleviate suffering and promote flourishing. Second, Christians should develop negative apologetics and show the untenability of objections to the Christian view of evil and suffering, including the seemingly uncontroversial objection that a world without innocent suffering would be better in terms of justice than the one we live in. My argument is that in both positive and negative apologetics believers should be guided by devotion and commitment to God. The more they love and trust God, and consequently believe what God has revealed, the more they are expected to encourage both flourishing and rational confrontation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an interview with Hadassah Schnepp, who shares her experiences growing up in a Christian family and her struggles with faith and church involvement. She discusses the positive and negative aspects of her upbringing, including changes in her church's culture during her teenage years. Hadassah also talks about how a life-altering car accident and subsequent challenges affected her view of Christianity and her relationship with God. She shares her journey of finding hope and healing through therapy and a new understanding of faith. The article also explores the difficulties that young adults face in staying engaged with the church as they transition into adulthood. It discusses the experiences of Adventist kids who have been hurt by the church and Adventist education, often leading them to reject or ignore the teachings. The article emphasizes the importance of addressing mental health, identity struggles, and sexuality within the church, rather than avoiding or dismissing these issues. The author envisions a future church that focuses on meeting young people where they are and providing support for their mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. They suggest implementing support groups and programs that address depression, anxiety, addiction, and other challenges faced by young people. The author believes that by being authentic and understanding, the church can attract others and create a safe and supportive environment. [Extracted from the article]

This document provides reflections on the readings for Sundays and feasts from September to November 2024. It explores various themes such as religious obligations, pure religion, Jesus' teachings and healing activities, suffering and vindication, discipleship, good works, and the consequences of sinful behavior. The readings highlight the importance of love, self-sacrifice, and the fulfillment of the law. The document also discusses the significance of widows' actions and encounters with prophets, as well as the themes of the end times and the kingdom of God. It concludes with a reflection on Jesus' encounter with Pilate and the true meaning of his kingship. [Extracted from the article]

The Muslim conquest of Jerusalem in 1187 was profoundly emotional for Catholics, who collectively responded with grief and despair. The loss interrupted easy assumptions of divine goodness and support for Christian occupation of Jerusalem, and therefore required explanation. This article traces several claims of atheism, faithlessness, and polytheism among Christians and Muslims, which was part of the causative dialogue that followed the conquest. We will focus on four claims: that the Christian armies at Hattin did not trust in God; that Saladin was an atheist who paradoxically believed in a God named Muhammad; that Christians had become polytheists; and that the Christian God was dead. Although these claims do not necessarily reflect an underlying reality, they are useful evidence of emotion and mentality. They permitted authors to contemplate the loss of Jerusalem without explicit discussion of the vexed theodical questions that 1187 engendered. They can also be read as allowing authors the opportunity to voice their own cosmological anxieties following the conquest, which may have crossed strong lines of taboo around divine goodness, unicity, or existence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Obnovljeni zivot is the property of University of Zagreb, Society of Jesus and Faculty of Philosophy & Religious 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.)

In this consensual qualitative research study, we investigated the role of refugees' Christian faith in meaning‐making coping. High percentages of religiosity in refugee populations support the need to understand the role of religion in their coping processes. Interviews with 20 Christian refugees from 10 African and Asian countries revealed that participants drew heavily from their faith resources to cope with their experiences. Specifically, refugees reported coping practices that included trust in God, prayer, intimacy with God, spiritual surrender, lament, worship, and social support. Although many participants described spiritual struggles, including doubting God, feeling distant from God, and questioning God, most found meaning amid refugee‐related suffering and reported perspective shifts, a deepening of faith, seeing suffering as part of God's plan, experiencing a deepened sense of purpose, and growing in the likeness of Christ. Refugees also reported growth through suffering in the form of gratitude, altruism, testimony, and humility. Clinical implications include encouraging the use of religious resources for meaning‐making and supporting the resolution of spiritual struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that the different aspects at play in Rom 4 come together to depict Abraham as a paradigm, mirrored in both the Isaac story and in Ps 31 LXX. Abraham is not only an example of faith but also of how God justifies sinners. Abraham was ungodly, a trait that Paul develops in line with Rom 1,18–3,20 on universal sinfulness. The birth story of Isaac, his physical σπέρμα, illustrates how God makes the impossible possible and how the ungodly are reckoned righteous. Abraham trusts God, who calls into being what does not exist; in so doing, he mirrors the sinner in Ps 31, cited in Rom 4,7–8, who trusts and puts his hope in God. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Choral music and the sacred have been intertwined since the Middle Ages. With the increasing secularisation of society, it is notable that the sacred choral canon continues to expand and attract audiences in religious and secular spaces, underlining the enduring importance of tradition and the human desire to search for something beyond our existence. The practice of setting sacred texts to music abounds in the work of contemporary composers, continuing the historic tradition into the present day via a wide range of compositional and stylistic approaches. In his sacred works, Irish composer Eoghan Desmond achieves a sound that fuses the past and present, exhibiting both the visceral and meditative aspects associated with the texts that he sets. This article focuses on the composer's choral work Nothing in Vain (2021), a setting of John Henry Newman's 'A Meditation on Trust in God'. Through critical score analysis, I highlight Desmond's ability to reflect Newman's devotion to God and to evoke a sense of the spiritual through his formal organisation and application of harmonic, rhythmic, and textural techniques, drawing on influences from the Renaissance tradition, the contemporary style of ambient music, and the work of well-known composer James MacMillan. Desmond's synthesis of ancient and contemporary compositional practices invites all listeners to engage in this musical meditation and contemplate the message of the spiritual text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Babylon Center for Humanities Studies is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) 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.)

Trust is a primary component of faith and may be helpful for initiating, maintaining, and even repairing a relationship with God. In this study, we take up the task of expanding the empirical basis of trust in God and its relationship to well-being. Using a nationally representative sample of middle-aged and older adults from the United States, we examined whether trust in God is associated with well-being, and if this association may be conditioned by a key marker of socioeconomic status-education. Trust in God was associated with lower depressive symptoms and better self-rated health. Trust in God was more strongly associated with well-being for the less educated (high school education or less). We discuss the implications of our results for pastors and religious ministers noting the importance of trust in God as a religious construct, especially for less educated respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding spirituality as "the sense or experience of God and the way one lives in response to that experience", Jesus' spirituality according to Mark may be described as relational and communal, with less attention given to the interior spiritual lives of individuals in favor of a way of relating to "all nations and all people" as beloved children of God which can renew all creation. Mark shows Jesus shaped by the experience of the God of the Exodus, Isaiah, and Daniel so that when he announced that "The Kingdom of God has drawn near", he was proclaiming the fulfillment of the promises of this God. Furthermore, Mark shows Jesus living into this fulfillment, not merely saying it. The result is his teaching and modeling a renewing way of living among his followers, which dismantles hierarchies in favor of welcome, service, justice, etc., and enables resistance to Roman oppression without violence and death. He called followers to see how powerful this renewal of God is. When Rome recognized its power and turned their violence against him, he continued on "the Way of the Lord", trusting in resurrection and God's life-giving power. Thus, Mark presents Jesus as demonstrating a life-filled, communal spirituality of renewal for his followers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

This paper investigates the effects of religiosity distance on trade in environmental goods (EGs) using 5,297 pairs of 88 countries during the 1996–2019 period. Religiosity reflects the level of personal trust in God and the values and ideals of his religion. Environmental goods consist of environmental products and services with production, usage, or disposal features that escape from devastating the environment. We use the APEC List of Environmental Goods to define the EGs. We measure religiosity by using a combined index covering three components, including members of a religion, the importance of religion, and religious service attendance. Our empirical results show that countries with religious proximity are more likely to trade EGs. Among three dimensions, only the member of religion and importance of religion play a role while attendance to religion service has no effect on the export of green goods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many people see weakness as synonymous with failure and humiliation, linking it to a deep sense of worthlessness. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini contradicts this thinking, stating that God’s love makes itself felt above all in weakness. It is precisely in our weaknesses that God manifests his help and love for humanity in an eminent way. The experiences that Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini experiences in his life (on a personal level, in his ministry, in his relationship with the Church, in his illness and old age) lead him to a greater trust in God to the point of abandoning himself into the Lord’s hands, as he is increasingly aware that power comes from God’s hands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last several decades have witnessed the topic of wisdom gaining momentum in the field of positive psychology. In this study, we focus on the potentially important role of religion/spirituality, specifically beliefs about God, as a mediating mechanism underlying the relationship between practical wisdom and depression among older adults. Drawing on a nationally representative sample of older adults from the 2013 wave of the Religion, Aging, and Health Survey (n = 1,497), our results show that practical wisdom is associated with lower depressive symptoms. We also document that three God-related constructs, God-mediated control, trust in God, and gratitude towards God each partially explained the relationship between wisdom and well-being. Taken together, Christian conceptions of God as a personal, divine being, the ultimate attachment figure who is an unconditional source of love and support for believers, may be a target of older adults who have cultivated practical wisdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since World War II, the countries of Western Europe have gradually gone towards economic, social, and political integration. This was influenced by states, institutions, social partners, and churches. The Christian trade unions also contributed to that end. This contribution was the result of the interaction between the laborers' religion and their desire to act collectively. Those unions followed the social doctrines of the Catholic Church and/or Protestant Churches while strongly disagreeing with socialist or communist unions. During the Interwar period, their members were subjected to the violent actions of the totalitarian governments in many European countries. Those governments eliminated Christian unions and, in some cases, persecuted their leaders. After the war, Christian unions embraced the "Peace Project", advocating for European and global peace. They also cooperated with many political and social leaders during the formation of the EEC. Christian unions aimed at improving political systems in Western Europe, promoting freedom of religion, and defending the Communist threat. In this article, we describe the ways in which the Catholic and Protestant labor unions tried to promote political, economic, and social cooperation in Europe. To this end, we will examine their pertinent material and actions on the Old Continent. Finally, we will discuss the current challenges faced by the Christian unions and their stance towards neoliberal capitalism and globalization—these new developments in the long history of Christian Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

Copyright of Arts Magazine is the property of Thamar University 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.)

Pope Francis presents his vision of holiness in the Apostolic Exhortation "Gaudete et exsultate". Throughout the document, six explicit and implicit definitions of what he considers holiness in today's world are presented. It is emphasized that holiness involves recognizing one's own fragility and allowing grace to act. The Pope warns against pelagianism and emphasizes the importance of trusting in God's grace and cooperating with it to grow in holiness. The importance of cooperating with God's work through small gestures in everyday life and living love through ordinary actions is also discussed. Furthermore, the importance of walking together as a community on the path to holiness and participating in the mission of Christ is highlighted. The Pope also emphasizes the importance of spiritual combat and discernment in the Christian life, as well as the importance of prayer on the path to holiness. Finally, the idea that human weakness calls for the strength of God and that human smallness is the path to the greatness of eternal life is emphasized. [Extracted from the article]

From the systemic issues of race and class division to political partisanship and religious identity, the pandemic has affected many aspects of American social and political life. I interrogate the role that religions have played in communal identity-making during the pandemic, and how such identities shaped ideological responses, particularly in the US, stymying public health efforts to stop, or at least significantly slow, the spread of COVID-19. Drawing from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera as a historical case study, I use Garcia Marquez's depiction of religion's identity-making power during the cholera pandemic depicted in the novel as a comparison by which to understand current experiences of white Evangelical Christians in America during the current COVID-19 pandemic, particularly those who reject risk-minimizing practices such as mask wearing, quarantining, and vaccination. Drawing both from representations of Roberto Esposito's theory of immunity and community, and from Lauren Berlant's concept of "cruel optimism", as well as sociological understandings of religion and identity, I argue that the boundary-making practices of religion and of communal and national identity are related to the complex and often contradictory set of moral practices that led many white Evangelicals to disregard public health policies surrounding COVID-19. A concurrent analysis of Garcia Marquez's novel and of current events will allow me to explore this phenomenon, as Lauren Berlant would put it, both through the historically affective aesthetic and through the affective present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prayer is a spiritual coping method that can be effective both in extraordinary, life-threatening circumstances and in ordinary, stressful situations. To be beneficial, it requires a bond with God or the divine based on trust and faith. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediated moderation model in which spiritual experiences moderate the link between prayer and stress, which in turn, is negatively related to the subjective well-being of Chilean students. The study's participants were 177 students from Chile. The following tools were used: Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, two measures regarding the quality of life and negative feelings from the World Health Organization Quality of Life—BREF, one tool verifying stress from the National Health Interview Survey and one-item scale in reference to frequency of praying. This study confirmed the mechanism underpinning the relationship between prayer and subjective well-being, as well as the benefits of a bond with God and the harmful role of stress in this relationship. When students more frequently felt God's love and direction, prayer was negatively related to stress, which in turn, negatively predicted subjective well-being. For students with a poor bond with God and fewer spiritual experiences, prayer was positively linked with stress. This study confirms the benefits of a close, trusting bond with God or the divine and the detrimental effects of lacking a positive connection with God on students' stress when students used prayer as a coping method. The practical implications of this study are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tribal fanaticism and lack of transparency is a phenomenon that has invaded contemporary societies, and Jordanian society, like other societies, has been affected by this dangerous phenomenon. When tribal fanaticism shifts from the positive side to the negative, the level of classism and nepotism increases, and the deviation from the correct Islamic foundations increases. Omar bin Abdul Aziz motivated by the fear of God took care of the citizens, and he made sure that everyone was equal. Omar's justice appears through holding the workers accountable in the state, and it was from what Wahb bin Munabbih wrote to Omar bin Abdul Aziz: "I lost one dinar from the Muslim treasury, and Omar replied to him with a letter saying: "I do not accuse you of your religion and trust, but I accuse you of wasting and negligence, and I am responsible for the Muslims' money before God, and peace be upon you." (Ibn Abd al-Hakam, 1984, p. 65). The study aimed to highlight the class and nepotism in Jordanian society and a showing the impact of Omar bin Abdul Aziz's approach in eliminating them, and the study reached results, the most important of which is that despite the royal directives in Jordan and the legislative laws to eliminate the consequences of clan fanaticism, its impact is still present and these effects can be observed through class, nepotism, and lack of transparency among the responsible authorities in Jordanian society which led to an increase in poverty, lack of services for it, and the increasing deficit of the state treasury every year, and it also led to weak community cohesion and the creation of social stratification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to analyze the problems that religious truth, particularly Christian truth understood as an event, poses to the category of de re truth. How does the conception of truth 'as event' stand phenomenologically in relation to the contemporary analytical debate on truth? Statements in the catechism such as "true God and true man" referring to Jesus, or the same words attributed to Jesus in John's gospel (14:6) such as "I am the way, the truth or the life" how can they be understood in relation to the category of recently called 'dual character concepts'? Is there a difference between the notion of 'true warrior' and that of 'true God'? When is a person appropriately categorized as a true man? When is a person appropriately categorized as a true God? What is the relationship between faith and truth? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the theological antinomy that characterizes the wisdom tradition reflected in the book of Proverbs: the reasoning activity which allows the wise man to discover the constant laws of life; the warning not to expect any guarantee of success from human reason, in view of entrusting one's works to God. The research takes place on a philological and exegetical level, showing two opposing and difficult to reconcile situations: trust in reasoning and the denial of it. We come to the conclusion that these two perspectives do not represent the mentality of two different eras, nor do they derive from an extra-biblical wisdom influence: they have coexisted in the wisdom tradition of Israel since the monarchic era and will finally lead to the personification of Wisdom as a primordial creature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One can have faith in someone, believe in someone and trust someone, and these notions seem closely related. Any account of faith should then address its relation to trust and belief. Like trust, faith can similarly have propositional and relational forms. One can have faith that God is good and faith in God; one can trust that another will do something and trust them to do it. Starting from a comparison between these forms of faith and trust, this paper proposes a philosophical analysis of faith and its relation to trust and belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If the church is to be plausible to the society around, it must itself be a community where trust is honestly present – among its individual members, leaders and laymen, toward its surroundings, future, and God himself. This statement is illustrated by a description of trust in life of a parish which reflects its trust in God. The author uses updated biblical story about experience of Moses and the chosen nation being visited by Jitro, Moses´s father­in­law (Ex 18:13–23). He analyses trust included in the constitution of the Eucharist; following Bonaventura Bouše he is thinking about the sacrament of penance being practiced in the atmosphere of deeper trust; and focuses on trust in the teaching of pope Francis, e.g., exhortation Evangelii gaudium 88. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author examines trust as a term and its meaning in context of sociology, psychology, and mainly philosophy and theology. The text is written from the perspective of Christian philosophical and theological anthropology, or rather philosophy and theology of religion. Trust is thematized in the three typifying contexts (society, life of an individual, and question about God) and an important idea of certain work or thinker within each of them is analysed. Trust is understood as something indigenous and irreducible, an irreplaceable, indispensable, and uniting element of society (Luhmann); personally formative (Erikson); inward and fundamentally corresponding with the empirical structure of human person (Landsberg); deep, borderline, transcending (Schillebeeckx); opening access to reality, lifegiving, and referring to God (Küng). The author systematically reflects the term and its anthropological and theological relevance with respect to historical variability of life and thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An excursus on biblical images of trust begins with genesis of mistrust in the story of the temptation and fall of the first man and woman (Gn 3), continues with danger of uniformity being an expression and accelerator of mistrust within images of the Tower of Babel and the body of Christ (Gn 11; 1Cor 12), and is heading toward the themes of trust in God and trust in the world and man as they are found in psalms and in the character of Naaman. It is observed that trust is closely connected with a testimony culminating in the testimony of the resurrection. However, testimony is also dependent on its acceptance (Marian dimension). The complete expression of trust in God is represented by theology of Sabbath and its Christian revision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Last Days in the Desert (Rodrigo García, US 2015) portrays the devil as Jesus’s doppelganger, demonstrating the rivalry between good and evil as the two compete over the efficacy of Jesus’s faith. With Jesus assessing himself as he responds to the devil, the film offers a self-reflexive evaluation of faith as it is challenged by skepticism. By analyzing the film using the idea of an evolutionary faith instinct, the article presents Jesus’s trust in God as empowerment that allows him to endure elements of nature and find signs of divinity. The devil’s eventual exhausted impatience and his loss of his wager with Jesus bolster the applicability of a faith instinct. Ultimately, the film is an opportunity for this rendition of Jesus to be articulated in terms of evolutionary discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]