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Lengger Banyumasan dance is a traditional performing art that has been practiced in the Banyumas region, Central Java, for centuries. This dance is known for its distinctive style characterized by graceful and sensual movements of female dancers called "Lengger". Originating from the pre-Islamic era, this dance was originally closely related to the spiritual and religious beliefs of the Banyumas people. This study aims to explore the religious and traditional aspects of the Lengger Banyumasan dance, as well as the transformations that have occurred in its form and function over time. The method used in this study is a qualitative approach with a focus on analyzing the religious and traditional aspects of the Lengger Banyumasan dance. This study involved a literature review covering a variety of academic sources, reports, and cultural resources to gain a comprehensive understanding of the historical, cultural, and religious context of the Lengger dance. The results of this study indicate that the Lengger Banyumasan dance has strong roots in the religious and cultural traditions of the Banyumas people. This dance was originally performed as part of rituals and ceremonies aimed at promoting fertility, prosperity, and community well-being. Although the dance has undergone significant transformation, from being initially ritual-based to being more entertainment-oriented, it still maintains a strong connection to the religious beliefs of the Banyumas people. The conclusion of this study is that the Lengger Banyumasan dance is a rich and multifaceted performing art, rooted in the religious and cultural traditions of the Banyumas region. Despite changes over time, the dance remains an important part of the social and cultural fabric of the region and is increasingly recognized for its significance as a unique and valuable form of cultural expression. Conservation and promotion efforts for this dance are ongoing to ensure its sustainability as a valuable cultural heritage.

The article analyzes the main issues of individualization, self-actualization of personality and return to moral and religious foundations. The process of self-awareness and return to moral traditions in the key of basic beliefs is considered as a way out of a difficult situation caused by a pandemic. The transition from individualization through self-actualization of the personality to the basic basic moral principles and to religion, which historically acts as one of the main guardians of traditional human values. Particular attention is paid to the external challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and the processes of isolation, disunity of society, increased fears, anxiety, growing distrust and negative thinking associated with it. The response to such realities was the increased interest of a certain part of society in religious topics. At the same time, religious life and practice itself has also undergone significant changes under the influence of covid restrictions and global political, economic and psy­chological transformations of society. Such an experience of turning to the religious sphere in difficult periods of life is of great importance for us to preserve the basic foundations of historical, cultural and ethnic identity.

In the wake of increasing secularization and religious pluralism, the Slovak-Canadian community offers a compelling case study on the role of religion and religious institutions in shaping immigrant identities and contributing to broader societal cohesion. Drawing upon an interdisciplinary array of scholarly works, historical documents, and statistical data, this paper aims to explore the multifaceted relationship between the Slovak diaspora in Canada and their religious affiliations. It delves into the historical background of Slovak immigration to Canada, the social and cultural impacts of religious practices, and the complex interactions between religious identity and modern secular Canadian society. Our approach reveals that religious institutions serve not merely as spiritual sanctuaries but also as vital agents in preserving cultural heritage, fostering social integration, and contributing to the moral fabric of Canadian society at large. Our findings suggest that religiosity among Slovak-Canadians serves as a microcosm that reflects broader themes in the dialogue between faith and multiculturalism in contemporary Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the problem of transformation of religious fundamentalism in the present-day world. The main attention is paid to the qualitative characteristics and comparative analysis of the so-called “second wave” fundamentalism (1970– 1990) and the “third wave” fundamentalism that conventionally has its starting point on September 11, 2001. The article was written in the context of the two competing discourses of “modernity”, each of them gives its own vision of fundamentalism, i.e. the idea of the postmodern coping with the “modernity” drawing upon the restructuring of F. Nietzsche’s ideas and socio-philosophical concept which is based on the conviction about the incompleteness of the “modern project” (J. Habermas, A. Giddens, J. Mensch). Choosing the fi rst option, we should speak about the “death/ resignation of fundamentalism”. In the second case, we would speak about the late modern fundamentalism. This dilemma could be solved only by the discovery of the “generic features” of fundamentalism, of the “fundamental structures” that made up fundamentalism. These discourses are about the “foundations” and principles of “returning” to the foundations that create “duality”/ambivalence of fundamentalism as well as the modernity itself. Using this criterion, the article shows that the “second wave” fundamentalism grows out of the dialectics of the so-called “organised modernity” and comes as its self-refl exive alternative. It is characterised by the desire to renew the religion and the society through going back to the “foundations”. That is why it does not desire to keep the religious tradition but to reshape and re-actualise it in the new social and cultural situation. That is why it is designated by the term “post-traditional fundamentalism”. The “third wave” fundamentalism is an internal dialectical moment of the late modern culture. Counteracting its challenges and problems it includes the important elements of the late modernity itself: the extreme subjectivity and criticism. That is why it overcomes the religious tradition and rejects the theological doctrinal foundation (Orthodoxy). Nevertheless, it does not abandon the discourse of the “foundations” and “returning”, although it reinvents them according to the specifi c situation guided by specifi c pragmatic goals. As a result, the “third wave” fundamentalism may be called a fundamentalism without tradition/Orthodoxy. This proves that it is too early to speak about the “death of fundamentalism”. Regardless of the fact that fundamentalism in the modern world is transforming radically, it still preserves the “generic features” of fundamentalism, although with the prefi x “post”.

Gender equality still becomes a sensitive issue in Islamic educational institutions, especially in pesantren, a traditional Islamic educational institution. There is a strong assumption that in the socio-religious tradition of pesantren, women's subordination still practices widely. However, some pesatren take serious attention to overcome this issue through their daily activities within pesantren. One of which is Pesantren Sabilurrosyad in Malang, East Java. This article aims to elaborate on the realization of gender justice in the pesantren. This research uses a qualitative approach through observation and in-depth interviews with the board members of pesantren, as well as its male and female students. The results showed that the Pesantren Sabilurrosyad had implemented the values of gender justice in their socio-religious activities. The implementation forms include providing opportunities for female students to become head of student association; female students are given freedom to recite the Koran directly to the kyai; and female teachers (ustadzah) are given the opportunity to share in one forum with male students. Kesetaraan gender masih menjadi isu sensitive di lembaga pendidikan Islam, khususnya di pondok pesantren. Terdapat anggapan bahwa dalam tradisi sosial-keagamaan di pesantren subordinasi perempuan masih terjadi. Hal ini menjadi perhatian bagi beberapa pesantren yang ingin menjadikan isu ini sebagai bagian dari aktivitas pesantren, salah satunya adalah Pondok Pesantren Sabilurrosyad di Malang. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk mengelaborasi perwujudan keadilan gender di pondok tersebut. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif melalui observasi dan wawancara mendalam terhadap para pengurus ponpes dan santri putra dan santri putri. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pondok pesantren Sabilurrosyad telah mengimplementasikan nilai-nilai keadilan gender dalam tradisi sosial-keagamaan pesantren. Wujud implementasi tersebut diantaranya adalah memberikan kesempatan kepada santri putri untuk menjadi ketua pondok, santri putri diberikan kebebasan untuk mengaji langsung kepada kyai, serta pengajar putri (ustadzah) diberikan peluang untuk bersama 1 (satu) forum dengan santri putra.

This work sought to address the question of where religious violence is located in our constitution of experience, so as to show how transcendental phenomenology can help us begin to better understand religious violence. The paper begins with an outline of four distinct levels of phenomenological analysis provided by transcendental phenomenology. It then relates those four levels to religious experience, showing that religious violence can refer to violence occurring on all four of those levels. In doing so, it also shows that "religious experience" can refer both to particular experiences we call 'religious' and to a dimension of all experiencing. Finally, the paper ends with the suggestion that religious communities wishing to address the question of religious violence must pay attention both to the spiritual force that animates them and to the cultural context in which they express that force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between the propensity to forgive and self-esteem in Italian (Christian tradition) and Turkish (Islamic tradition) samples. Italian and Turkish versions of the Heartland Forgiveness scale (HFS) and Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale (RSES) were used. The sample consisted of 837 university students aged 18–35 (49% women and 51% men). Correlation analysis, for the total sample and for Italian and turkish students separately, and 2-way between groups ANOVA were used to examine the association between self-esteem and forgiveness and main effects and interactions of country and gender as they relate to HFS and RSES scores. Post-hoc analyses were performed where appropriate. The results revealed that self-esteem correlated strongly with self-forgiveness and forgiveness of situations; however, we found no significant relationship between forgiveness of others and self-esteem. Further, Italian and Turkish respondents did not differ in their levels of self-esteem or in their levels of self-forgiveness, but we found that Italian students have a higher propensity to forgive others and situations than Turkish students. Future research will need to explore how other religious traditions are linked to the propensity to forgive, as well as the relationship between self-esteem and propensity to forgive in other countries, including participants of different ages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aimed to examine the types and sustainable use of plants in religious traditions in Wangi-Wangi District, Wakatobi Regency, and to determine the feasibility of using related learning media for biology class X at Madrasah Aliyah 1 Wakatobi. Qualitative descriptive methods were used and data were collected through interviews and observations. The results found that there are 13 plant families of 14 species that are most widely used in these religious traditions. The most widely used plants are two species in the Graminaceae family, while one species from the following families are also used: Arecaceae, Palmae, Musaceae, Crassulaceae, Poaceae, Zingiberaceae, Lytheraceae, Euphorbiaceae, Rubiaceae, Solonaceae, Piperaceae and Malvaceae. The habitat of the area consists of trees, shrubs and herbs. Of the plants that are most widely used in religious traditions, 43% are trees, 36% are herbaceous, and only 21% are shrubs. The parts of plants that are used include flowers, leaves, stems and tubers. 29% of use is of the fruit, 29% is of the leaf and 14% is of the tuber. Only 7% of use is of the stems. Of the sustainable plants, 11 species are cultivated plants (85%) and three species are non-cultivated plants (15%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A cultural landscape, a configuration produced by human actions and cultural structures in a physical setting, has a significant role to play as a vital feature of cultural tourism in Bali. However, this configuration has become the most heavily commoditized elements of the development of tourism. Construction of tourist amenities has exploited the notion of a cultural landscape that has been integrated into cultural practices, the environment and agriculture. This development and planning are a paradoxical phenomenon and a challenge for people to retain the identity of their cultural landscape while also seeking economic benefits from tourism. The struggle between the protection of the identity of the cultural landscape translated and manifested in the context of agriculture and its transformation in the context of designing tourist facilities has shaped the fundamental argument for preservation. Since there are different cultural traditions and practices in many Balinese cultural landscapes, the relationship between tourism and the diversity of cultural areas has become a key objective in the development of tourism and planning tourist facilities. This paper explores the current struggles between the concepts of tourism development and planning, and the conservation of Bali's cultural landscape. The paper argues that the focus of Bali's tourism development is to maintain and reinvigorate the integration of natural landscapes and cultural practices that present a persistent link between the agricultural system and religious practices.

In religious traditions, emphatic utterances that activate good feelings are referred to as blessings. Interviews with a wide variety of service providers indicate that they routinely use such utterances regarding the choices and prospective choices of their customers. Further, such service blessings typically show characteristics that are consistent with both religious traditions and rituals of everyday politeness. A controlled experiment indicates that service blessings can have substantial and broad benefits to customer satisfaction. These findings have both theoretical and practical implications for improving the management of retail customer service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to understand and describe the religious traditions of fishers in Pesisir Utara Lamongan, East Java in their daily realities that shape transcendental experiences. This study uses a phenomenological approach to describe the experience of the religious practice of the fishers in Pesisir Utara Lamongan, East Java. The data were collected through in-depth interviews and were analyzed using flow models with the viewpoint of symbolic interaction theory that explored the symbolic meaning of the fishers’ behavior. The results of this study described that the daily experience of the fishers in social life is constructed in three religious practices, namely monotheism, social life, and worship. The monotheistic dimension of the fishers is transformed from offerings to monotheism. The dimension of the social life of the fishers is constructed based on the monotheism of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah teachings. The dimension of worship of the fishers is portrayed in the practice of religious prayer, fasting, and going to wise persons formed by the results of interaction with the surrounding social world. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk memahami dan mendeskripsikan tradisi keagamaan nelayan Pesisir Utara Lamongan, Jawa Timur dalam realitas keseharian yang membentuk pengalaman transendental. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan fenomenologi untuk mendeskripsikan pengalaman praktik keagamaan nelayan Pesisir Utara Lamongan, Jawa Timur. Pengumpulan data dilakukan dengan wawancara mendalam dan dianalisis dengan menggunakan model alir dengan sudut pandang teori interaksi simbolik yang mengeksplorasi makna simbolik perilaku nelayan. Hasil penelitian ini mendeskripsikan bahwa pengalaman keseharian nelayan dalam kehidupan sosial terkonstruksi dalam tiga praktik keagamaan yaitu dimensi tauhid, kehidupan sosial, dan ibadah. Dimensi tauhid nelayan mengalami transformasi dari sesajen ke tauhid. Dimensi kehidupan sosial nelayan dikonstruksi berbasis tauhid ajaran Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) dan Muhammadiyah. Dimensi ibadah nelayan terpotret dalam praktik keagamaan sholat, puasa, dan pergi ke orang pintar yang dibentuk atas hasil interaksi dengan dunia sosial di sekitarnya.

The article considers the younger generations’ perception of religion and the role of religious values. The authors argue that in the last decades the attitudes to religion in the Russian society have transformed. Religion determines values of every culture that influence the worldview of different generations. In the contemporary secularized society, religion plays the role of a moral referee, forms a national mentality and a worldview. Younger generations as a dynamic social group do not tend to follow conservative traditional values, which allows to understand further trajectories of social development. The youth’s interpretation of key life values significantly differs from the understanding of the same values by older generations. Younger generations are usually characterized by social dynamism, psychological lability, changing perception of cultural traditions and values, constant search for innovations and revision of the established traditions. Religious values are traditional and conservative by nature, thus they turn people to the past rather than to the future, that is why the youth is often unclear about religion. The data of international and Russian surveys prove that the youth consider religion quite pragmatically, as a kind of psychotherapy. The article presents the results of the sociological research, in which religious values were compared with other cultural values - artistic, scientific, moral and practical. According to the data, the number of people interested in religion and faith issues has significantly increased compared with the late Soviet period but religious values for younger generations are not a priority for other cultural values seem to be more important.

A cultural landscape, a configuration produced by human actions and cultural structures in a physical setting, has a significant role to play as a vital feature of cultural tourism in Bali. However, this configuration has become the most heavily commoditized elements of the development of tourism. Construction of tourist amenities has exploited the notion of a cultural landscape that has been integrated into cultural practices, the environment and agriculture. This development and planning are a paradoxical phenomenon and a challenge for pe ople to retain the identity of their cultural landscape while also seeking economic benefits from tourism. The struggle between the protection of t he identity of the cultural landscape translated and manifested in the context of agriculture and its transformation in the context of designing tourist facilities has shaped the fundamental argument for preservation. Since there are different cultural traditions and practices in many Balines e cultural landscapes, the relationship between tourism and the diversity of cultural areas has become a key objective in the development of tourism and planning tourist facilities. This paper explores the current struggles between the concepts of tourism development and planni ng, and the conservation of Bali's cultural landscape. The paper argues that the focus of Bali's tourism development is to maintain and reinvigorate the integration of natural landscapes and cultural practices that present a persistent link between the agricultural system and r eligious practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"This article identifies two important conditions under which participation in religious congregations influences active involvement in civic organizations that provide charitable services to and establish other types of linkages with residents in the wider community. We find that while the frequently employed measure of religious service attendance has minimal effects on participation in bridging types of civic organizations, congregation activity beyond religious service attendance has a substantial positive effect on participation in charitable and linking types of civic organizations. In addition, our findings demonstrate that religious tradition significantly moderates the extent to which congregation activity channels bridging civic engagement. While active involvement in black Protestant, mainline Protestant, and Catholic congregations predicts participation in substantially more bridging civic organizations, active involvement in evangelical Protestant congregations has little effect on this participation."

I first met Pamela way back in the 1980s, when I found myself acting as supervisor of her doctoral thesis on the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. As I read her later writing and look back on her career, I am most struck by, on the one hand, the marked contrast between the vulnerability and uncertainties, both philosophical and personal, of her earlier time and the assurance of her later writing; and, on the other, the persistence throughout the continuing narrative of her life of an essential interconnection between her deepest philosophical and personal concerns. These include, most notably, the importance of taking, each of us, one's sense of one's own vulnerability not as a reason for the construction of walls behind which to shelter from others but rather as a base from which to reach out to them in a spirit of what Pamela did not hesitate to call "love." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of multiple religious belonging is studied from different perspectives, each of which reveals a different understanding of religion, religious diversity and religious belonging. This shows that the phenomenon of multiple religious belonging is challenging the applicability of these central notions in academic enquiry about religion. In this article, I present the different perspectives on multiple religious belonging in theology of religions and show how the understanding of some central scholarly notions is different. In Christian theology, the debate on multiple religious belonging is conducted between particularists, who focus on the uniqueness of religious traditions, and pluralists, who focus on the shared religious core of religious traditions. Both positions are criticized by feminist and post-colonial theologians. They believe that both particularists and pluralists focus too strongly on religious traditions and the boundaries between them. I argue that the hermeneutic study of multiple religious belonging could benefit from a more open understanding of religious traditions and religious boundaries, as proposed by these feminist and post-colonial scholars. In order to achieve this goal we could also benefit from a more intercultural approach to multiple religious belonging in order to understand religious belonging in a nonexclusive way.

This paper examines some historical, cultural, and institutional processes involving a Jewish minority from the Russian and Azerbaijani Caucasus, now mostly displaced in the huge and multiethnic Moscow: the Mountain Jews, or Juhuro. These Jews were subjected to a historically multifaceted and endangering diaspora, but they have been making big efforts to preserve their identity and survival by means of accommodating, mimetic, and cultural strategies. In the present day, despite the few representatives living in the Russian capital, the community is striving to find its own niche to transmit its history, language, and tradition within the multicultural “salad bowl” city of Moscow. More changes and transformations are at stake to preserve their long-lasting ethnic, religious, and linguistic characteristics. This paper is devoted to analyzing such elements, in an attempt to explain why and how Juhuro seem likely to succeed in preserving their religious community by innovating it in spite of their minority position within a globalized society.

Historical evidence shows that Batswana possessed rich cultural and religious traditions that contributed to the rapid spread of Christianity in Bechuanaland Protectorate (the present Botswana). The Western missionaries chose to reject or marginalize these traditions, which were based on the concept of the Supreme Being from time immemorial. The underlying patterns of these cultural and religious traditions and systems of the Batswana provided a firm foundation upon which Christianity was conceived, understood and received. However, some missionaries gave the impression that no such religious traditions and heritage existed prior to their arrival on the African continent. This paper argues that the Batswana, had an absolute belief in a Supreme Being, they referred to as Modimo and also points out that the cultural context, which the missionaries rejected, provided important conditions that led to the rapid growth of Christianity among the Batswana. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that through misconceptions that saw education, commerce and trade as integral to their work, the missionaries tried to impose their Western cultural values on the Batswana. They thus adopted a western superiority complex, which the Batswana challenged and rejected as unacceptable and undermining their integrity. It must be pointed that through their pre-conceived ideas and desire to see Christianity dominating the Batswana, they supported and facilitated foreign rule.

The mourning tradition in Muharram is considered as one of the most significant religious-national traditions in Safavid era. The official establishment of Twelvers Imam Shiism, the strength of Iranian’s national tendencies towards Othman powerful neighbor as well as the great universal role of Iran provided the ground in favor of the change of ancient traditions of mourning into the modern ones in Safavid era. This revolution was along with some destruction in the structure, content, emotional, social as well as the spiritual and mental aspects of mourning in Muharram. This writing presents some examples related to the damages in each of these aspectsandtries to search the reasons and grounds of the advent of these damages relying on the present historical data.

This paper aims at bringing to light a presentation of the nature of religious education in Poland. This study will therefore present a brief historical outline of religious upbringing in Poland, its current organisational regulations and the principles of religious education in schools. In our summary, we will present the level of effectiveness of religious education in Poland, and we will also explore the discussion on the reformation of religious education in Poland which is being worked upon.

In the last few decades, various branches of science, especially philology with the analysis of ancient ritual texts, toponomastic research and comparative studies of oral tales in the folklore tradition of different populations, have significantly contributed to the new knowledge of ancient beliefs and gods worshiped throughout Europe, in the period before Christianity was completely established. I have discussed these issues on several occasions, by classifying such remains in Croatia, in the new finds or the monuments that were previously known, but were interpreted differently - both chronologically and iconographically. I relied on several interesting artefacts from Dalmatia: the bronze gilded cross-shaped shackles from the early medieval cemetery in Nin, the four-headed idol from Vaćan and the equestrian relief from Žrnovnica, and, for this occasion, an old find from the area of Ljubuški, now kept in the Museum of Humac. Namely, there is a rustic and almost schematically carved head on the fragment of one pillar, which can be said to be part of the idol of a Slavic deity, with great likelihood, given several artistic analogies. The text also draws attention to the iconographic features of the face, such as the prominent mustache and triangular beard, which have some other characterizations that can be assumed to represent precisely the pre-Christian deities - in our case Perun. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some U.S. surveys measure many religious identities, including detailed Protestant affiliations. Researchers must decide how to aggregate these diverse identities. There are now a variety of options for aggregating religious groups into categories. Depending on the research question, it may be appropriate to use one of the existing options or to develop an aggregation strategy tailored to the project in question. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The covenant connection thesis forms an important basis from which to understand the religious source of federalism. Yet with its Judeo-Christian roots, to what extent does it apply to Asian countries that have different religious traditions? In this article, we explore whether the covenant connection thesis is relevant to Asian federalism in the context of Muslim-, Hindu-, and Buddhist-majority countries. We find that while the presence or absence of a covenantal tradition within a religion can partially explain acceptance of, or resistance to, federalism, there are other religious features that also play a role. These include the extent to which traditional religious organizations are internally centralized, the extent to which religion and state governance are intertwined or separate from each other, and the extent to which a religion that constitutes the core national identity is threatened by other religions that are or may be empowered by federal arrangements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in religious traditions, the soul organizes entirely the human condition horizon; postmodern culture sets the body as the organizing centre of its sacralizing mechanisms. Some even speak about a cult and about ritual mechanisms having a religious charge. On the one hand, the body is attributed a symbolic dimension surfacing in the fight against the finite and life's lack of meaning. On the other, turning the body into a centre of the existential universe triggers a better delineation of the functions it may fulfill. An important role belongs to the networking function that crosses over the human inhabited worlds, from the physical one to the spiritual and religious one. To highlight these aspects, I called on the reflections in Aurel Codoban's communication philosophy. The new view on corporality brings the image of body as language, as communication instrument and as significant surface. Against this background, the body sets a self-concern whose consequence, symbolically, is a dialectic movement of body and soul nourishing one other and improving one another in light of authenticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is devoted to the conception of power in religious systems. It deals with the functions of rulers and their responsibility to the population as well as the control mechanisms in the different religious systems. The authors conclude that in the framework of the different religious traditions boundless, at first glance, ruler / political leader’s power is limited by rigid religious rules and standards with that they must comply. Despite the fact that a political leader doesn’t have sacral status in the modern society belief in spiritual authority is preserved.

This material, presented in a scientific article, is part of a scientific study on the topic “Self-Destruction of the Person as an Object of Philosophical Anthropological Reflection”, reveals the actual problem in modern culture - suicide as a selfdestructive act and the reflection of the scientific world, society on this existential challenge. The article provides an analysis of cultural and historical views on the phenomenon of suicide in religious traditions of different times and peoples, as well as in the philosophical view. Particular attention is paid to the condemnation of suicide by Christian denominations, the ambivalent attitude of Islam towards him and the need to react in a timely manner to society and man for the manifestation of this evil. Such a methodological approach makes it possible to trace the continuity of the moral and ethical component of the attitude to human life, the essence of human existence, to understand some common causes and origins of the phenomenon of suicide, and to actualize and boost the search for ways to overcome the growing dynamics of suicides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Religious traditions can inhibit the rent-seeking of enterprises. • Integrity sense and risk aversion are internal mechanisms of religious traditions. • Corruption and market monopoly weaken the negative relationship. • This study helps to understand the complementary role of informal institutions. This study investigates the impact of religious traditions on enterprise rent-seeking and the mechanism of this impact. The benchmark analysis shows that the stronger religious traditions are, the weaker rent-seeking behavior becomes. The mechanism analysis shows that religious traditions can inhibit the rent-seeking behavior of enterprises by improving their sense of integrity and strengthening their risk aversion. The moderating effect analysis shows that regional corruption and market monopoly weaken the negative relationship between religious traditions and rent-seeking behavior. This study helps clarify the complementary role played by informal institutions in countries around the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I define the plain Anabaptists by answering two essential questions: “Who are the plain Anabaptists” and “What are the plain Anabaptists?” In asking “Who are the plain Anabaptists?” I investigate several dimensions of identity. First, I trace the history of seven religious traditions within Anabaptism: the Swiss Brethren/Mennonites, the Low German/Russian Mennonites, the Hutterites, the Amish, the Brethren, the Apostolic Christian Churches, and the Bruderhof. Second, I explore three categories of people in each group—mainline, conservative, and Old Order—describing the last two as “plain.” Third, I explore scales and indices on which plainness is measured, as well as other measures of who the plain Anabaptist people are. In asking “What are the plain Anabaptists?” I define several ways social scientists conceptualize and describe the plain Anabaptists. I organize the sundry definitions and frames under three categories: the plain Anabaptists as a religious group, as an ethnicity, and as a social system.

A major conceptual dynamic in all major religious traditions is the need for purification and transformation of the individual in order to effect integration and maturation of the personality in the divine. Although the means by which this purification takes place differs according to the cultural and religious configurations of any given tradition, nevertheless a recurring image is that of an inner and outer odyssey. A major example is the threefold path of John of the Cross, which presents a psycho-spiritual journey by which ‘divine osmosis’ can be realised, passing through the ‘dark night of the soul’, and culminating in ‘spiritual marriage’. Although not accepted by many theoreticians and practitioners of mysticism, nevertheless the value of the Sanjuanist schemata still holds sway in contemporary society.

A doutrina contemporânea dos direitos humanos vem sendo construída a partir de consensos estabelecidos entre os países integrantes da Organização das Nações Unidas, que possibilitaram a Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos de 1948, aceito como mais importante documento em relação ao tema. Neste artigo, retratamos a análise de cientistas sociais que procuram verificar se existiria uma base comum entre esta doutrina e as diferentes tradições religiosas por eles professadas: islamismo, budismo, confucionismo e hinduísmo.Defendemos a idéia de que as identidades tradicionais precisam ser explicitadas e valorizadasno espaço público, onde a dimensão espiritual do ser humano merece ser contemplada. // The contemporary doctrine of human rights has been constructed from the consensus established among the member countries of the United Nations, which allowed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948, accepted as the most important document in this regard. In this article we have depicted the analysis of social scientists who seek to verify whether there was common ground between this doctrine and the different religious traditions which they professed: Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism and Hinduism. We support the idea that identities need to be spelled traditional and valued in the public space, where the spiritual dimension of human being deserves to be considered.

This article explores the moral characteristics of managers in the context and content of Quranicverses and religious traditions.To achieve this aim, we have contemplated the apparent and internal content of verses and traditions from the viewpoint of subject analysis. Accordingly, the managers' morals and their internal/external organizational behaviors and also the quality of applying management methods and techniques such as consultation, modesty, loyalty and the appreciation of the past traditions as well as the impact of these behaviors on organizational factors have been explored.