Religions

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Open AccessArticle

Redeeming Emotion-Focused Therapy: A Christian Analysis of Its Worldview, Epistemology, and Emphasis

by Todd Hardin

Religions 2014, 5(1), 323-333; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010323 - 10 Mar 2014

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 10486

While emotion-focused therapy (EFT) offers clinically useful information to Christian practitioners, its underlying worldview, epistemology, and emphasis present challenges for Christian therapists. This article advocates that Christian practitioners can redeem EFT for Christ by evaluating and translating these presuppositions in light of Christian [...] Read more.

While emotion-focused therapy (EFT) offers clinically useful information to Christian practitioners, its underlying worldview, epistemology, and emphasis present challenges for Christian therapists. This article advocates that Christian practitioners can redeem EFT for Christ by evaluating and translating these presuppositions in light of Christian alternatives. In offering these alternatives, the article encourages the creation of a distinctively Christian emotion-focused therapy (CEFT). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christian Psychology: Past, Present, and Future)

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Open AccessEditorial

Acknowledgement to Reviewers of Religions in 2013

by Religions Editorial Office

Religions 2014, 5(1), 321-322; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010321 - 3 Mar 2014

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3496

Abstract

The editors of Religions would like to express their sincere gratitude to the following reviewers forassessing manuscripts in 2013. [...] Full article

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Open AccessArticle

Theodramatic Rehearsal: Fighting Self-Deception through the Dramatic Imagination

by Brett Vaden

Religions 2014, 5(1), 304-320; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010304 - 3 Mar 2014

Viewed by 6383

Abstract

This paper seeks to appropriate the insights of dramatic theology for Christian psychology and soul care. According to Kevin Vanhoozer, Scripture is the ‘script’ for human beings’ fitting participation in the acts and deeds of God in the world (i.e., ‘theodrama’). [...] Read more.

This paper seeks to appropriate the insights of dramatic theology for Christian psychology and soul care. According to Kevin Vanhoozer, Scripture is the ‘script’ for human beings’ fitting participation in the acts and deeds of God in the world (i.e., ‘theodrama’). Keeping with this dramatic paradigm, the author will explore what ‘rehearsal’ might entail by drawing from a branch of psychotherapy called ‘psychodrama.’ The main question to be addressed in this appropriation of dramatic theology is, “How might dramatic rehearsal combat self-deception?” The author will only begin to answer this question, but in the attempt it is hoped that further reflection and clarity will be induced. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christian Psychology: Past, Present, and Future)

169 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Discipline, Resistance, Solace and the Body: Catholic Women Religious’ Convent Experiences from the Late 1930s to the Late 1960s

by Christine Gervais and Amanda Watson

Religions 2014, 5(1), 277-303; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010277 - 3 Mar 2014

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 9425

Abstract

This paper examines the corporal forms of discipline and techniques of resistance exercised through and by Catholic women religious (sisters/nuns) in Ontario, Canada. Borrowing from Foucault’s conception of controlled activity as a technique for disciplining the body, as well as Cvetkovich’s notion of [...] Read more.

This paper examines the corporal forms of discipline and techniques of resistance exercised through and by Catholic women religious (sisters/nuns) in Ontario, Canada. Borrowing from Foucault’s conception of controlled activity as a technique for disciplining the body, as well as Cvetkovich’s notion of repetitive activity as imbued with possibility for knowledge and hope, this paper demonstrates how Catholic women religious, due to their unique position as both leaders and subjects of the institutional church, have been agents of, and subjected to particular forms of disciplinary ritual, both in the Church and in their lived religion. Drawing on the experiential accounts of thirty-two current and former women religious in Canada, the paper demonstrates more or less overt forms of embodied, ritualistic discipline and the extent to which women have resisted this disciplinary power both in convent life and in their later years. The paper sheds light on how women’s perception of discipline is related to disobedience and compliance, nuancing the well-known “old norms” of convent life before the Second Vatican Council. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Body and Religion)

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Open AccessArticle

Becoming Ourselves: Anthropological Musings for Christian Psychologists

by Charles DeGroat

Religions 2014, 5(1), 268-276; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010268 - 3 Mar 2014

Viewed by 7331

Abstract

A Christian narrative of the self provides a critique of a contemporary highly ennobled therapeutic and individualistic understanding of the self. Within a Christian anthropological narrative, the self is ennobled not in and of itself, but by virtue of its union with God. [...] Read more.

A Christian narrative of the self provides a critique of a contemporary highly ennobled therapeutic and individualistic understanding of the self. Within a Christian anthropological narrative, the self is ennobled not in and of itself, but by virtue of its union with God. This leads theologians, both ancient and contemporary, to speak boldly about becoming fully human, and even more, becoming God. Herein, this Christian story of the self is explored, with implications for Christian psychology and its dialogue with other psychological perspectives. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christian Psychology: Past, Present, and Future)

1637 KiB

Open AccessArticle

‘Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion within the Harry Potter Fandom

by Zoe Alderton

Religions 2014, 5(1), 219-267; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010219 - 3 Mar 2014

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 371061

Abstract

The book and film franchise of Harry Potter has inspired a monumental fandom community with a veracious output of fanfiction and general musings on the text and the vivid universe contained therein. A significant portion of these texts deal with Professor Severus Snape, [...] Read more.

The book and film franchise of Harry Potter has inspired a monumental fandom community with a veracious output of fanfiction and general musings on the text and the vivid universe contained therein. A significant portion of these texts deal with Professor Severus Snape, the stern Potions Master with ambiguous ethics and loyalties. This paper explores a small community of Snape fans who have gone beyond a narrative retelling of the character as constrained by the work of Joanne Katherine Rowling. The ‘Snapewives’ or ‘Snapists’ are women who channel Snape, are engaged in romantic relationships with him, and see him as a vital guide for their daily lives. In this context, Snape is viewed as more than a mere fictional creation. He is seen as a being that extends beyond the Harry Potter texts with Rowling perceived as a flawed interpreter of his supra-textual essence. While a Snape religion may be seen as the extreme end of the Harry Potter fandom, I argue that religions of this nature are not uncommon, unreasonable, or unprecedented. Popular films are a mechanism for communal bonding, individual identity building, and often contain their own metaphysical discourses. Here, I plan to outline the manner in which these elements resolve within extreme Snape fandom so as to propose a nuanced model for the analysis of fandom-inspired religion without the use of unwarranted veracity claims. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion, Film, Methodology)

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Open AccessArticle

From Clichés to Mysticism: Evolution of Religious Motives in Turkish Cinema

by Hülya Önal

Religions 2014, 5(1), 199-218; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010199 - 3 Mar 2014

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 7872

Abstract

As an art form, an academic discipline and an ideological instrument that finds a place in cultural studies and social sciences, film plays a significant role both in the creation and as a reflection of the culture in which it is produced and [...] Read more.

As an art form, an academic discipline and an ideological instrument that finds a place in cultural studies and social sciences, film plays a significant role both in the creation and as a reflection of the culture in which it is produced and sustained. Within the relationship between religion and the cinema in the Turkish context, religion has ironically become an ideological discourse contrasting with the Islamic attitude prohibiting human depiction. This paper seeks to examine the transformation of both religious and secularist clichés and stereotypes in the Turkish cinema, by means of ideological and sociological critiques of some sample films. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion, Film, Methodology)

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Open AccessArticle

A Qur’anic Framework for Spiritual Intelligence

by Benaouda Bensaid, Salah Ben Tahar Machouche and Fadila Grine

Religions 2014, 5(1), 179-198; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010179 - 26 Feb 2014

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 14329

Abstract

This paper examines the perspective of the Qur’an on spiritual intelligence in an attempt to understand its foundations, meaning and nature, as well as derive its indicators, in an effort to develop a competency-based criterion for it. This paper draws on some illustrations [...] Read more.

This paper examines the perspective of the Qur’an on spiritual intelligence in an attempt to understand its foundations, meaning and nature, as well as derive its indicators, in an effort to develop a competency-based criterion for it. This paper draws on some illustrations that effectively highlight the Qur’anic perspective on the subject of spiritual intelligence. The paper concludes that spiritual intelligence developed in accordance with a Qur’anic framework that incorporates spiritual consciousness into a system of belief, worship, morality and social responsibility. The understanding of the Qur’anic perspective helps uncover some of the broad underlying theoretical principles and values of Islamic spiritual intelligence which shapes much of Muslim spiritual undertaking with relation to a wider spectrum of interaction with faith-groups and society; effectively developing more inclusive models of evaluation and capacity-building in contemporary multi-religious societies. Full article

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Open AccessArticle

The Body in Grief: Death Investigations, Objections to Autopsy, and the Religious and Cultural ‘Other’

by Belinda Carpenter, Gordon Tait and Carol Quadrelli

Religions 2014, 5(1), 165-178; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010165 - 26 Feb 2014

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 9473

Abstract

Sudden, violent and otherwise unexplained deaths are investigated in most western jurisdictions through a Coronial or medico-legal process. A crucial element of such an investigation is the legislative requirement to remove the body for autopsy and other medical interventions, processes which can disrupt [...] Read more.

Sudden, violent and otherwise unexplained deaths are investigated in most western jurisdictions through a Coronial or medico-legal process. A crucial element of such an investigation is the legislative requirement to remove the body for autopsy and other medical interventions, processes which can disrupt traditional religious and cultural grieving practices. While recent legislative changes in an increasing number of jurisdictions allow families to raise objections based on religious and cultural grounds, such concerns can be over-ruled, often exacerbating the trauma and grief of families. Based on funded research which interviews a range of Coronial staff in one Australian jurisdiction, this paper explores the disjuncture between medico-legal discourses, which position the body as corpse, and the rise of more ‘therapeutic’ discourses which recognise the family’s wishes to reposition the body as beloved and lamented. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Body and Religion)

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Open AccessArticle

Structural Validity of ‘Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire’ in Greek Sample

by Maria Dianni, Miltiadis Proios and Charilaos Kouthouris

Religions 2014, 5(1), 157-164; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010157 - 26 Feb 2014

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4634

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the structural validity and reliability of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ) instrument in the Greek population. One hundred and three individuals (men n = 45, and women n = [...] Read more.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the structural validity and reliability of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ) instrument in the Greek population. One hundred and three individuals (men n = 45, and women n = 58) participated in this study. Their age ranged from 17 to 86 years. More specifically, the study investigated the fit of both versions of SCSRFQ (10-item and 5-item). The results of the present study revealed that both versions have adequate fit and can be used by Greek researchers as a measure of strength of religious faith in the Greek population. Full article

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Open AccessArticle

Rhetorical Conflicts: Civilizational Discourse and the Contested Patrimonies of Spain’s Festivals of Moors and Christians

by David A. Shefferman

Religions 2014, 5(1), 126-156; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010126 - 20 Feb 2014

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 9547

Abstract

The title of this essay identifies a series of verbal scuffles—or “rhetorical conflicts”—that developed in the fall of 2006 within Spain’s larger culture wars. The political skirmishes coalesced around an announcement by the Popular Party (PP) to champion a class of regional festivals [...] Read more.

The title of this essay identifies a series of verbal scuffles—or “rhetorical conflicts”—that developed in the fall of 2006 within Spain’s larger culture wars. The political skirmishes coalesced around an announcement by the Popular Party (PP) to champion a class of regional festivals for U.N. designation as indispensible elements of “human patrimony.” The war of words stemmed from the PP’s politicization of cultural designations, but the celebrations in question—the fiestas of Moors and Christians common in the south of Valencia region—already generated controversy since they display “rhetorical conflicts” of a different sort: In potentially offensive fashion, the festivals present carnivalesque re-enactments of battles in the medieval “Reconquest” of Iberia by Christian armies over Islamic “Moors.” The essay situates these entangled controversies in the broader context of waves of immigration that have accompanied, or even fueled, a trans-Atlantic discourse centered on notions of a geopolitical “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West. Accordingly, the debates about the Moors and Christians festivals—like the celebrations themselves—reveal deep ambivalence about the role of Islam and of Muslims in Spain’s past and present. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Islam, Immigration, and Identity)

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Open AccessArticle

Aspects of Spirituality in German and Polish Adolescents and Young Adults—Factorial Structure of the ASP Students’ Questionnaire

by Arndt Büssing, Iwona Pilchowska, Klaus Baumann and Janusz Surzykiewicz

Religions 2014, 5(1), 109-125; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010109 - 14 Feb 2014

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 7499

Abstract

To cover a wider variety of specific aspects of spirituality, which are of relevance also in secular societies, the ASP (“Aspects of Spirituality”) questionnaire was developed. While it was used so far with healthy adults and with adolescents living in a secular society, [...] Read more.

To cover a wider variety of specific aspects of spirituality, which are of relevance also in secular societies, the ASP (“Aspects of Spirituality”) questionnaire was developed. While it was used so far with healthy adults and with adolescents living in a secular society, it was meanwhile used also with Polish students who were predominantly Catholic. Here we compare the factorial structure of the ASP questionnaire in a sample of 871 German (73% non-religious) and 1,017 Polish adolescents/young adults (50% non-religious despite their Catholic denomination). The factorial structure of the ASP questionnaire with its four scales Religious Orientation: Prayer/Trust in God, Search for Insight/Wisdom, Conscious interactions/Compassion, Transcendence Conviction, were similar in the sample of German students and in the Polish students. By means of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) we were able to use the number of items of the ASP in its student version (ASP-Students). Overall, the instrument is suited to measure a wide variety of vital aspects of spirituality, both religious and secular forms of spirituality. As the instrument avoids exclusive language and operationalizes also non-formal aspects of spirituality in terms of relational consciousness, it is suited, not only for individuals with a skeptical or a-religious attitude, but also for religious individuals. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measures of Spirituality/Religiosity)

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Open AccessArticle

Saint Anselm of Canterbury and Charismatic Authority

by William M. Aird

Religions 2014, 5(1), 90-108; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010090 - 10 Feb 2014

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 6738

Abstract

The early career of Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109) provides an opportunity to explore the operation of charismatic authority in a monastic setting. It is argued that the choice of Anselm for the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury in 1093 was [...] Read more.

The early career of Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury (c. 1033–1109) provides an opportunity to explore the operation of charismatic authority in a monastic setting. It is argued that the choice of Anselm for the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury in 1093 was the result of his growing reputation cultivated during his years as prior and abbot of the influential Norman monastery of Bec. The article explores various aspects of Anselm’s charismatic authority including his performance of charisma, the charisma derived from his fame as a scholar, and his reputation as a miracle-working holy man. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Charisma, Medieval and Modern)

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Open AccessArticle

Are Spiritual Experiences through Music Seen as Intrinsic or Extrinsic?

by Peter Atkins and Emery Schubert

Religions 2014, 5(1), 76-89; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010076 - 29 Jan 2014

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 8769

Abstract

Music has a great capacity to afford spiritual experiences, but are those experiences intrinsic or extrinsic to the music? This paper reports the results of research aimed at answering that research question. One hundred and seventeen self-reported Christian religious people completed a survey, [...] Read more.

Music has a great capacity to afford spiritual experiences, but are those experiences intrinsic or extrinsic to the music? This paper reports the results of research aimed at answering that research question. One hundred and seventeen self-reported Christian religious people completed a survey, answering eight rating-item questions about strong musical experiences, both in a religious and a non-religious context. Factor analysis revealed that ratings related to spirituality grouped together, but were separate from intrinsic and extrinsic semantic groupings, suggesting that there is something special about the phenomenon of spiritual experiences with music that is beyond a simple identifiable source. We concluded that spirituality, therefore, appears to be something profound and transcendent that comes to life with the musical forms, rather than being perceived as either explicitly intrinsic or extrinsic to the music. In the religious context, experiences were stronger, more spiritual, and more emotional, but in the non-religious context experiences elicited similar features, just to a lesser degree. This suggests the phenomenon is not merely a product of religion. This research, although limited due to its quantitative nature, demonstrated an important place for spirituality within the experience of music, and therefore places a call on the research community to invest more in understanding this phenomenon. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Music and Spirituality)

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Open AccessArticle

Global Halal: Meat, Money, and Religion

by S. Romi Mukherjee

Religions 2014, 5(1), 22-75; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010022 - 29 Jan 2014

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 23828

Abstract

The following article deconstructs (and demystifies) Halal with a view to unraveling how the religious, racial, economic, and ethico-political are articulated in and around material technologies of meat production and bodily techniques of religious consumption/the consumption of religion. It, thus, attempts to rethink [...] Read more.

The following article deconstructs (and demystifies) Halal with a view to unraveling how the religious, racial, economic, and ethico-political are articulated in and around material technologies of meat production and bodily techniques of religious consumption/the consumption of religion. It, thus, attempts to rethink the nexus of food, politics, and contesting visions of the sacred and the profane, from within the folds of the global and global Islam. Halal emerges as a terrain replete with paradigmatic juridical and political questions about the impasses of social and culinary conviviality and cosmopolitanism. Although there is certainly nothing new about religious taboos on food on the body, Halal is far from being a personal or strictly communal set of strictures and practices. On the contrary, global Halal emerges as a new agonistic field typified by charged debates concerning the place of secularism, recognition, and “food diversity” in the global marketplace. This paper offers a cartography, both phenomenological and social scientific, of this multi-tiered site of meat, power, and belief. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion & Globalization)

140 KiB

Open AccessCorrection

Bickmann, Claudia. “The Idea of a Highest Divine Principle—Founding Reason and Spirituality. A Necessary Concept of a Comparative Philosophy?” Religions 3 (2012): 1025–40

by Claudia Bickmann

Religions 2014, 5(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010021 - 16 Jan 2014

Viewed by 4833

Abstract

The author wishes to add the following correction to her paper published in Religions [1]: Reference [28] on pages 1035 and 1040 should be [27] and the citation to [27] on p. 1035 should be removed. The author apologizes for any inconvenience. [...] [...] Read more.

The author wishes to add the following correction to her paper published in Religions [1]: Reference [28] on pages 1035 and 1040 should be [27] and the citation to [27] on p. 1035 should be removed. The author apologizes for any inconvenience. [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue European Perspectives on the New Comparative Theology)

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Open AccessArticle

Varieties of Quest and the Religious Openness Hypothesis within Religious Fundamentalist and Biblical Foundationalist Ideological Surrounds

by P. J. Watson, Zhuo Chen and Ronald J. Morris

Religions 2014, 5(1), 1-20; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel5010001 - 24 Dec 2013

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 6017

Abstract

According to the Religious Openness Hypothesis, the religious and psychological openness of American Christians is obscured by a defensive ghettoization of thought associated with a Religious Fundamentalist Ideological Surround and can be discovered instead within a Biblical Foundationalist Ideological Surround. A test of [...] Read more.

According to the Religious Openness Hypothesis, the religious and psychological openness of American Christians is obscured by a defensive ghettoization of thought associated with a Religious Fundamentalist Ideological Surround and can be discovered instead within a Biblical Foundationalist Ideological Surround. A test of this claim examined Religious Fundamentalism, Biblical Foundationalism, Quest, and Multidimensional Quest Scales in 432 undergraduates. Christian Religious Reflection, Religious Schema, and Religious Orientation measures clarified these two ideological surrounds. Partial correlations controlling for Biblical Foundationalism described a Religious Fundamentalist Ideological Surround that more strongly rejected Quest and that more generally displayed a failure to integrate faith with intellect. Partial correlations controlling for Religious Fundamentalism revealed a Biblical Foundationalist Ideological Surround that was more open to Quest and that offered numerous demonstrations of an ability to unite faith with intellect. These data supplemented previous investigations in demonstrating that Christianity and other traditional religions have ideological resources for promoting a faithful intellect. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Christian Psychology: Past, Present, and Future)

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Religions, Volume 5, Issue 1 (March 2014) – 17 articles , Pages 1-333

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