Journal Description
Religions
Religions
is an international, interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, open access journal on religions and theology, published monthly online by MDPI.
- Open Access— free for readers, with article processing charges (APC) paid by authors or their institutions.
- High Visibility: indexed within Scopus, AHCI (Web of Science), ATLA Religion Database, Religious and Theological Abstracts, and other databases.
- Journal Rank: CiteScore - Q1 (Religious Studies)
- Rapid Publication: manuscripts are peer-reviewed and a first decision is provided to authors approximately 22.8 days after submission; acceptance to publication is undertaken in 4.6 days (median values for papers published in this journal in the second half of 2023).
- Recognition of Reviewers: reviewers who provide timely, thorough peer-review reports receive vouchers entitling them to a discount on the APC of their next publication in any MDPI journal, in appreciation of the work done.
Impact Factor:
0.7 (2023)
Latest Articles
Unveiling the Inner World: Exploring Emotional Intelligence, Faith, and Time Perspective among Italian Nuns
Religions 2024, 15(7), 796; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070796 (registering DOI) - 29 Jun 2024
Abstract
The aim of this study was to verify whether emotional intelligence and intrinsic religious orientation have a positive influence on a balanced time perspective (BTP) in the lives of Italian consecrated women. A positive, balanced time perspective, together with the ability to recognize
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The aim of this study was to verify whether emotional intelligence and intrinsic religious orientation have a positive influence on a balanced time perspective (BTP) in the lives of Italian consecrated women. A positive, balanced time perspective, together with the ability to recognize one’s own emotions and those of others, is integral to people’s experience of religiosity in their lives. In this way, a balanced time perspective can open the experience of religiosity, contributing to a better world, along with all those who are engaged in a religious sentiment that is no longer limited to single segments of self-interest. In this study, we provided evidence that religious beliefs (not just participation in corporate religious life) can provide an alternative source of understanding emotions and perceiving time, for the religious people who live their consecrated life together. We tested whether this phenomenon was specific to the potential associations between various aspects of religious belief, emotional intelligence, and time perspective. This research was conducted on a sample of 283 Italian nuns, and it was verified that both emotional intelligence and intrinsic religiosity contribute significantly to a BTP. Furthermore, the fact that emotional intelligence is mediated by intrinsic religious orientation increases the benefits of emotional intelligence on the BTP of Italian nuns. Altogether, our results suggest that religiosity is linked to a balanced temporal profile and to a positive way of understanding emotions. More specifically, the pattern of relationships between religion, emotions, and time can influence and deepen both the individual and collective understanding of humanity among these religious women and create space for mutual engagement despite obvious differences. These results are in line with the requisites of Public Theology, as they allow us to specify selectively the developments on a more secure and empirical basis of how religiosity can affect the life of people, by exposing the submerged theological assumptions that characterize the internal beliefs of religiosity. Moreover, the research data indicate that the deep aspects of religiosity influence greatly the day-to-day living of religious women. This practical influence of religiosity confirms the urgency of opening up theological reflection in the public sphere of life. In fact, as long as the religiosity of the nuns is not reduced to private practice, theological reflection will also be opened to its public significance in the different fields of their apostolic mission.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theology ‘In Exit’ for a Better World: Consolidating the Intersecting Features of Public Theology)
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Open AccessArticle
Unraveling Prapañca: A Yogācāra Examination of Consciousness, Language, and Liberation in the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra
by
Tiantian Cai
Religions 2024, 15(7), 795; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070795 (registering DOI) - 29 Jun 2024
Abstract
In Yogācāra epistemology, the term prapañca refers to various dimensions of the cognitive process in aspects ranging from consciousness, language formation, the conceptualization of subject–object duality, mental defilements, and ignorance. Given that the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra conveys the richness of early tenets for both
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In Yogācāra epistemology, the term prapañca refers to various dimensions of the cognitive process in aspects ranging from consciousness, language formation, the conceptualization of subject–object duality, mental defilements, and ignorance. Given that the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra conveys the richness of early tenets for both the Yogācāra and Madhyamaka traditions, an investigation of the meaning and discourse context of prapañca is a necessity. This paper conducts a contextual examination of the word prapañca, primarily addressing (1) a range of meanings, (2) possible characteristics, (3) conditions and consequences, especially the associations with the conceptualization (vikalpa) process, and (4) the significance of the elimination of prapañca that the corresponding dialogue implies. This paper finds that prapañca is associated with dualistic conceptualization and the evolution of consciousness within saṃsāra. It shows some qualities of the beginningless conceptual structure of saṃsāric conditioned negativity and is related to language formation. As the discourse in Laṅka adduces it as the root of suffering, liberation from it is a prerequisite for reaching enlightenment and achieving the state of Buddhahood.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Open AccessArticle
What Kind of God Does Buber’s “I-Thou” Offer to the World: An Introduction to Buber’s Religious Thought
by
Admiel Kosman
Religions 2024, 15(7), 794; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070794 (registering DOI) - 29 Jun 2024
Abstract
This article has three main goals: (1) To explain in a clear and comprehensible way the difficult basic-word “I-Thou”, which is the basis of Buber’s concept of dialogue, and in fact is the core of his entire teaching (even though it eventually spread
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This article has three main goals: (1) To explain in a clear and comprehensible way the difficult basic-word “I-Thou”, which is the basis of Buber’s concept of dialogue, and in fact is the core of his entire teaching (even though it eventually spread over many fields). My main argument in this article is that “I-Thou” is not the “dialogue” that is often spoken of in the name of Buber (not only on the popular level but also in academic circles, and even commonly among those who deal directly with Buber’s teaching) but, rather, that “I-Thou” is a pointing-toward-word—pointing the way for the one whose heart is willing to direct his life to the path of devotion to God—a life whose practical meaning according to Buber is the effort to make room for the presence of the divine (“Shekhinah”) within the stream of earthly normal life, the flow of physical, instinctive life, the flow of life as they are, within “This-World” as it is. (2) This article attempts to follow the sources in Buber’s writings to clearly explain Buber’s faith (which Buber saw as the core of the movement of Hasidism that preceded him). Who is the God that Buber clings to? Why did Buber try to replace the common appellation “God” with a new term of his own: “The Eternal Thou”? (3) It aims to show how the researchers who tried to present Buber as a social or political thinker and removed from his teaching the centrality of his faith entirely distorted his teaching and displaced from it the core of the foundation on which all of Buber’s teaching rests.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Theism in the Language of Humanism: Reincarnations of the Transcendent God in the Secular Subject)
Open AccessArticle
Christian Perfection in Basilian Monastic Hospitals from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries
by
Sung Hyun Nam
Religions 2024, 15(7), 793; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070793 (registering DOI) - 29 Jun 2024
Abstract
The purpose of Byzantine hospitals—whether primarily curative facilities or caring hospices—has long intrigued scholars. This paper proposes a third perspective on Byzantine hospitals, suggesting that the Basilian monastic hospitals of the fourth to sixth centuries were not merely philanthropic facilities for the sick
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The purpose of Byzantine hospitals—whether primarily curative facilities or caring hospices—has long intrigued scholars. This paper proposes a third perspective on Byzantine hospitals, suggesting that the Basilian monastic hospitals of the fourth to sixth centuries were not merely philanthropic facilities for the sick and destitute but also centers for ascetics’ spiritual growth. Basil of Caesarea incorporated charitable actions by ascetics as essential to achieving Christian perfection within the coenobitic community, developing a theology of compassion that advocated for the purification of harmful passions like anger and pride through the virtue of compassion. In the fifth and sixth centuries, Theodosius the Cenobiarch, who founded a coenobium and hospitals in the Judean Desert, upheld Basil’s idea of the purification of the soul through compassion for the sick. Additionally, the nosokomeion (hospital) of the sixth-century Monastery of Seridos in Gaza emphasized the healing of spiritual diseases through compassion for the sick, as reflected in various epistles. Thus, Basil of Caesarea’s theology of compassion in pursuit of Christian perfection was a foundational element in the emergence and development of hospital spirituality in Christian Late Antiquity.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Early Church Fathers: Their Contributions and Legacy in Christian Thought)
Open AccessArticle
From Medieval Religious Pageantry to Contemporary Social Messaging: The Medieval Cycle Plays in Honduras’ Teatro La Fragua
by
Elena M. De Costa
Religions 2024, 15(7), 792; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070792 (registering DOI) - 29 Jun 2024
Abstract
Using medieval religious drama as a model, Honduras’ Teatro La Fragua has developed a Gospel dramatization program that both reflects the practices of medieval theater in style and expresses the issues of a modern-day world in message. Their vernacular cycle plays are performed
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Using medieval religious drama as a model, Honduras’ Teatro La Fragua has developed a Gospel dramatization program that both reflects the practices of medieval theater in style and expresses the issues of a modern-day world in message. Their vernacular cycle plays are performed in public spaces by local people, written by and for the community, and staged in the streets and public spaces for ordinary people in both urban and remote rural areas. Medieval vernacular drama thus maintains an enduring stylistic presence in a modern-day counterpart as it underscores the Gospel’s message of inclusion, equity, and diversity while incorporating elements of agency and native culture.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religions in Ritual, Spectacle, and Drama in the Medieval & Early Modern World)
Open AccessArticle
Religious and Spiritual Communities Must Adapt or Die: Surviving and Thriving during Challenging Contemporary Times
by
Thomas G. Plante
Religions 2024, 15(7), 791; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070791 (registering DOI) - 28 Jun 2024
Abstract
Current trends within both religious and secular communities suggest that contemporary times mean that people spend more time alone than with others. Community engagement in general has been declining, while religious and spiritual community engagement in particular has dropped off significantly in recent
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Current trends within both religious and secular communities suggest that contemporary times mean that people spend more time alone than with others. Community engagement in general has been declining, while religious and spiritual community engagement in particular has dropped off significantly in recent decades, and most especially following the COVID-19 global pandemic. Although humans are social beings and benefit from community engagement, we tend to avoid or minimize our affiliations and associations, including our religious and spiritual ones today. Religious and spiritual communities must adapt to changing times or risk becoming irrelevant, diminishing further, and losing their sustainability to continue with their activities and services. Religious communities might wish to consider the best state-of-the-art evidence-based practices to engage their members, as well as appeal to those who might be interested in joining with them. There are many mental and physical health benefits to active engagement with spiritual religious practices and communities. The world could use more rather than less community engagement, including religious and spiritual engagement, during our challenging contemporary times.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Spirituality for Community in a Time of Fragmentation)
Open AccessArticle
Early Biblical Fundamentalism’s Xenophobic Rejection of the Subject in European Philosophy: How Rejecting the Knowing Subject Formed Fundamentalism’s Way of Thinking
by
Matthew C. Ogilvie
Religions 2024, 15(7), 790; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070790 (registering DOI) - 28 Jun 2024
Abstract
This article is part of a wider project that addresses gaps in the scholarly knowledge of the philosophical and theological foundations of the Biblical Fundamentalism that originated in North America. Through exploring the relevant literature, including primary sources from within Fundamentalism, the article
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This article is part of a wider project that addresses gaps in the scholarly knowledge of the philosophical and theological foundations of the Biblical Fundamentalism that originated in North America. Through exploring the relevant literature, including primary sources from within Fundamentalism, the article examines the anti-European sentiment in early Fundamentalism and how this sentiment led to a rejection of philosophical values associated with Europe, especially with Germany. The article will show that anti-European, especially anti-German, sentiment bolstered Fundamentalism’s rejection of subjectivity in thinking, and even its rejection of human subjects themselves. In the place of subjectivity associated with European philosophy, Fundamentalism embraced an extreme objectivity that claimed the heritage of Reid and Bacon but eliminated subjectivity from the Fundamentalist horizon. This article thus shows how Fundamentalism radically opposes God and human beings, and faith and philosophy, with the resulting way of thinking that can be characterised as “naïve realism”, an approach to thinking that excludes the active thinking subject and does not allow for critical judgement or personal understanding.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Continental Philosophy and Christian Beliefs)
Open AccessArticle
Towards Effective Pastoral Caregiving within Contemporary Post-Colonial Praxis in Africa: A Discernment of Care Needs for ‘Now’ and ‘Intervention’ Propositions
by
Vhumani Magezi
Religions 2024, 15(7), 789; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070789 (registering DOI) - 28 Jun 2024
Abstract
Post-colonial Africa and its attendant challenges, including disillusionment during democratic dispensation and racial tensions among black and white people, constitute a problem that calls for interventions from all social actors. Theology, especially pastoral care, is challenged to broaden its vision and focus on
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Post-colonial Africa and its attendant challenges, including disillusionment during democratic dispensation and racial tensions among black and white people, constitute a problem that calls for interventions from all social actors. Theology, especially pastoral care, is challenged to broaden its vision and focus on health, healing, and human flourishing by adopting a public dimension. Thus, public pastoral care can emerge as a critical approach through which to make a meaningful contribution to fostering holistic personal care. This assumption prompts an examination of the place and role of pastoral care as a science and art of fostering social health and well-being. Public pastoral care practices are used to encourage, promote, and foster ‘coexistence’ and ‘being with’ other people in the same geographical spaces where tension and disillusionment exist. Using the South African lens, this article aims to pastorally address challenges emerging from post-colonial African public contexts by developing a public pastoral care approach. Pastoral care principles of empowerment care, prevention care, conversational care, and care by being with the other in shared spaces of coexistence are proposed.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Theologies)
Open AccessArticle
Re-Imagining Catholic Ethics: Beyond ‘Justification’ of Violence and toward Accompaniment
by
Eli McCarthy
Religions 2024, 15(7), 788; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070788 - 28 Jun 2024
Abstract
This paper will focus on one way of re-imagining Catholic ethics through the praxis of accompaniment, especially in situations that lend themselves to moral dilemmas and potential justifications of significant harm. The growing integration and shared discourse of scholars from the global south
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This paper will focus on one way of re-imagining Catholic ethics through the praxis of accompaniment, especially in situations that lend themselves to moral dilemmas and potential justifications of significant harm. The growing integration and shared discourse of scholars from the global south with those from the global north has given rise to deeper ethical insight about the praxis of accompaniment. In turn, I analyze some predominant ways of wrestling with justifications of significant harm or violence, particularly recent contributions by Lisa Sowle Cahill and Kate Jackson-Meyer on moral dilemmas. I build on their contributions by critically reflecting on the praxis of accompaniment in particularly difficult moral situations. I argue that accompaniment offers a way forward that is consistent with and illuminates our dignity as well as the Love of Christ. This approach may better meet needs, break cycles of violence, and lean us into a more sustainable just peace.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reimagining Catholic Ethics Today)
Open AccessArticle
The Non-Dual Path of Negation
by
Alexandre Couture-Mingheras
Religions 2024, 15(7), 787; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070787 - 28 Jun 2024
Abstract
The non-dual path—which runs through the undercurrent of all the great traditions and religions at their esoteric and initiatory level—is underpinned by the doctrine of Unity, namely the fact that the ultimate Reality is one. In this respect, negation is neither local
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The non-dual path—which runs through the undercurrent of all the great traditions and religions at their esoteric and initiatory level—is underpinned by the doctrine of Unity, namely the fact that the ultimate Reality is one. In this respect, negation is neither local nor tied to a positive content (simple negation), nor does it affirm elsewhere the existence of what it denies (presuppositional negation), but it presents itself, in a more original way, as the neutralization of all determination and dualism, i.e., of false assumptions on what there is that prevent us from accessing to that which, being unqualifiable, really is. In order to grasp the meaning of the via negativa as a path of deconstruction and disidentification (Neti-Neti) and of the apparent obscurity of non-knowledge (Agnosia), which is expressed in the lexicon proper to negative theology (silence, abyss, inexpressible, unrepresentable, non-manifest), the questioning about the Being-in-itself must not be separated from that about one’s own Self. This original negativity, which proceeds from the metaphysical ignorance of the truth of the self and the truth of what is (Avidyā), once lifted, opens the way to the subjective apprehension of Reality, i.e., the perspective of transcendental interiority: the Supreme Identity between the Being-in-itself and Oneself.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mystical Theology: Negation and Desolation)
Open AccessArticle
Natural Cycle, Sacred Existence, the Source of Power: A Study on the Mo Religion’s View of Time
by
Weipeng Ya
Religions 2024, 15(7), 786; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070786 - 28 Jun 2024
Abstract
The Zhuang people, a significant ethnic minority in China, practise a unique Mo religion that profoundly shapes their spiritual and daily lives. Although the theology and rituals of the Mo religion have been extensively studied, its temporal perspectives still need to be explored.
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The Zhuang people, a significant ethnic minority in China, practise a unique Mo religion that profoundly shapes their spiritual and daily lives. Although the theology and rituals of the Mo religion have been extensively studied, its temporal perspectives still need to be explored. This study addresses this gap by comprehensively analyzing how the Mo religion integrates natural, cultural, calendar, and theological elements to create a sacred temporal framework central to the Zhuang people’s social life and material production. Drawing from primary sources such as religious texts, a rigorous text-based research approach is employed to gain a profound understanding of the Mo religion’s temporal perspectives. The significance of this study lies in its contribution to enriching our knowledge of the Mo religion’s sacred temporal frameworks, providing valuable insights for interdisciplinary research, and fostering mutual respect and appreciation among diverse cultures.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Interplay between Religion and Culture)
Open AccessReview
Reconceptualizing Houses of Worship to Advance Comparisons across Religious Traditions
by
Danielle N. Lussier
Religions 2024, 15(7), 785; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070785 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
The study of religion and politics has struggled to find concepts, methods, and approaches that advance productive comparisons of phenomena across different religious practices and traditions. Consequently, scholars who seek to understand the impact of religious practice on political outcomes across religious traditions
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The study of religion and politics has struggled to find concepts, methods, and approaches that advance productive comparisons of phenomena across different religious practices and traditions. Consequently, scholars who seek to understand the impact of religious practice on political outcomes across religious traditions encounter challenges in aggregating findings and advancing scholarly inquiry. A reconsideration of the role of houses of worship as an intermediary variable connecting religious practice to political outcomes yields a potentially fruitful avenue for comparative investigation. While social processes that take place within worship spaces are frequently presumed in the mechanisms linking religious variables to political outcomes, these worship spaces are generally undertheorized and overlooked within the study of religion and politics. A body of scholarship has substantiated the significance of congregational variation within the study of Christianity, yet the most commonly cited quantitative literature on religion and political participation omits discussion of this level of variation. Drawing on the shared conceptual space across worship domains from several religious traditions, this article examines houses of worship as an organizational concept that can be employed productively for theoretical and empirical analyses of religion and politics.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Politics: Historical Developments and Contemporary Transformations)
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Open AccessArticle
When the Integral Meets African Ethics: Contextualizing Laudato SI’
by
Isaiah Aduojo Negedu and Ameh Pius Faruna
Religions 2024, 15(7), 784; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070784 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
The concept of the integral speaks to the holistic nature of the globe. It is predicated on the claim that everything/everyone is related, and the destruction of one is the destruction of the whole. As such, it places a moral burden on each
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The concept of the integral speaks to the holistic nature of the globe. It is predicated on the claim that everything/everyone is related, and the destruction of one is the destruction of the whole. As such, it places a moral burden on each part to work towards the preservation and dignity of the whole. This ethics of union is aptly captured in Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home), a papal encyclical of Pope Francis. African moral theory perfectly captures this ethic: I am because we are. What this communal ethic does is constantly maintain the view that humans are interconnected to one another. We interrogate how this communalistic approach of the African is implicated and vindicated in integral ecology and the special place Laudato Si’ holds in the world. The end is to justify both the African and ecclesiastical approaches as decolonial ecology and then see how the uniqueness of both approaches can birth a universal approach. However, to achieve our aim, we employ the method of conversation that comes from the African place. We choose conversation because we believe that Laudato Si’ promotes a ‘theology from the borders’. If our statement is true, then we will best be able to project our argument using a method that comes from the borders but is universally possible in its application.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Reimagining Catholic Ethics Today)
Open AccessArticle
Markers and Tools to Facilitate Decolonisation of Theological Education in Africa
by
Khamadi Joseph Pali
Religions 2024, 15(7), 783; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070783 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
This article discusses the decolonisation of (theological) education in Africa, with special emphasis on South Africa. Colonialism is a complex power system that subjugated space, human beings and the minds of the colonised. Decolonisation has a responsibility to remove colonial governance, liberate the
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This article discusses the decolonisation of (theological) education in Africa, with special emphasis on South Africa. Colonialism is a complex power system that subjugated space, human beings and the minds of the colonised. Decolonisation has a responsibility to remove colonial governance, liberate the colonised being and decentre the colonial knowledge and recentre the indigenous knowledge of the native people. Furthermore, the most difficult form of decolonisation is the decolonisation of the mind because colonialism in this context tends to manifest itself into other forms of social structure. This study suggests that there is a need to relearn the meaning of decolonisation and its implications, as there are some students and academics who still do not know much about decolonisation, and this hinders the process. Furthermore, theological education needs to use engaged scholarship and community-based practical research (CBPR) methods as tools to facilitate decolonisation of theological education, as present studies indicate that the Christian religion is failing to make an impact in many African communities. Lastly, this article highlights markers of decolonised (theological) education in Africa. This article has two objectives. The first objective is to highlight markers of decolonised theological education. The second objective is to give special emphasis to the role of engaged scholarship and CBPR in the decolonisation of theological education. This article will use a literature review approach and highlight examples of the decolonisation of (theological) education. The decolonisation theory will underpin this literature review.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Decolonization of Theological Education in the African Context)
Open AccessArticle
The Augustinian Concept of Love: From Hannah Arendt’s Interpretation to Impartial Love of Mozi
by
Shufeng Tian
Religions 2024, 15(7), 782; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070782 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
Augustine and Mozi are doubtlessly two of the most important theorists about love in the Western and Chinese traditions. Augustine has made a sharp distinction between caritas and cupiditas, whereas Mozi proposes the theory of impartial love (jian’ai 兼爱). Hannah Arendt
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Augustine and Mozi are doubtlessly two of the most important theorists about love in the Western and Chinese traditions. Augustine has made a sharp distinction between caritas and cupiditas, whereas Mozi proposes the theory of impartial love (jian’ai 兼爱). Hannah Arendt has made her irreplaceable contribution to the understanding of the Augustinian concept of caritas in her work with the title Der Liebesbegriff bei Augustin, Versuch einer Philosophischen Interpretation (1929). She treats the central question of whether for Augustine love towards neighbors has an independent value. In the Chinese tradition, Mozi proposes the theory of impartial love as a remedy for disposing of the disorders of society on the one hand, but on the other hand to love others impartially comes ultimately from the divine command of tian or Heaven, and tian seems to be the final authority or standard for being morally good and righteousness. It needs explanation or clarification if Mozi commits an inconsistency by holding two different ethical principles. In this article, I will first concentrate on discovering the fundamental characteristics of caritas and cupiditas, and then turn to dealing with the problem of the instrumentalization of the others in the love towards neighbors if they are used as tools to ascend to God’s love. In the last part, I will discuss the impartial love of Mozi and compare it with that of Augustine to see their distinctions and similarities. We will see that through the comparison we can obtain a better understanding of the concept of love in different traditions.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Augustine and East Asian Thoughts)
Open AccessArticle
An Ethics without God That Is Compatible with Darwinian Evolution
by
James P. Sterba
Religions 2024, 15(7), 781; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070781 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
Building on my recent argument that an all-good, all-powerful God is logically incompatible with all the evil in the world, I explore what grounding ethics can have without the God of traditional theism. While theists have argued that ethics is grounded either in
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Building on my recent argument that an all-good, all-powerful God is logically incompatible with all the evil in the world, I explore what grounding ethics can have without the God of traditional theism. While theists have argued that ethics is grounded either in God’s commands and/or in his nature, I show that no such adequate grounding exists, even if my argument—showing that the God of traditional theism is logically incompatible with all the evil in the world—were shown to be unsuccessful, and I further show that such a grounding is impossible, given that my argument is successful. I then go on to provide an account of the norms on which an ethics without God can be appropriately grounded and show how an ethics, so grounded, can be appropriately related to our biological and cultural past, present, and future, as understood through Darwinian evolutionary theory. In this way, I hope to undercut a recent attempt to use Darwinian evolutionary theory to debunk ethics.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Section Religions and Humanities/Philosophies)
Open AccessArticle
Rethinking Asceticism in Nietzsche with Zhuangzi: A Physio-Psychological Perspective
by
Manhua Li
Religions 2024, 15(7), 780; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070780 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
This article proposes a reconsideration of the physio-psychological dimension of the notion of asceticism in Nietzsche in the light of classical Daoist philosophy. Nietzsche famously criticises the nihilistic ascetic ideal for negating the body-self (Leib-Selbst) in the Christian religion as well as in
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This article proposes a reconsideration of the physio-psychological dimension of the notion of asceticism in Nietzsche in the light of classical Daoist philosophy. Nietzsche famously criticises the nihilistic ascetic ideal for negating the body-self (Leib-Selbst) in the Christian religion as well as in Socratic metaphysics. Nietzsche critiques the metaphysical language that presupposes an opposition between the good (as the useful) and the evil (as the useless). However, the Nietzschean ascetic person who says yes to life remains mostly conceptual within the philosophical framework where physio-psychology stands as the superior form of thinking. To contrast such asceticism that bears traces of Greek Stoicism and Epicureanism, I argue that Zhuangzi’s self-cultivating practices such as mind-fasting (xinzhai 心齋) can be incorporated into the Nietzschean physio-psychological notion of asceticism that goes beyond askesis with Stoic and Epicurean therapeutic connotations, given that both Zhuangzi and Nietzsche are more concerned with cultivating a lived body rather than purifying souls.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religiosity and Spirituality in Philosophical Practice: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives)
Open AccessArticle
From Monks to Educators: Venerable Zongyue and Buddhist Charitable Educational Activities in Early Twentieth-Century Beijing
by
Wei Wu
Religions 2024, 15(7), 779; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070779 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
This article explores the charitable activities of Chinese Buddhists in Beijing in the first decades of the twentieth century, with a focus on Buddhists’ efforts in building schools and promoting modern education. Specifically, the activities led by Venerable Zongyue 宗月 (1880–1941) are examined,
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This article explores the charitable activities of Chinese Buddhists in Beijing in the first decades of the twentieth century, with a focus on Buddhists’ efforts in building schools and promoting modern education. Specifically, the activities led by Venerable Zongyue 宗月 (1880–1941) are examined, in his role spearheading various Buddhist charitable activities in Beijing, including building several schools for commoners (pingmin xuexiao 平民學校) in the 1920s. Zongyue also established a library and a Buddhist newspaper called Fobao Xunkan 佛寶旬刊 to promote ideas about philanthropy. In the late 1920s, inspired by Zongyue’s example, as well as under pressure from the government during the anti-superstition campaigns, many other temples in Beijing began building schools to offer educational opportunities to students. This article investigates the interactions between Buddhism, education, and the government. By examining the initiatives started by Zongyue and the role of Chinese Buddhists in promoting charitable educational activities and social change, this article sheds light on the broader impact of Buddhism on Chinese society in the early twentieth century.
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engaged Buddhism for an Engulfed World: New Perspectives on Humanistic Buddhism)
Open AccessCorrection
Correction: Borowski, Michael. 2023. Doctrine and Change in Western Dogmatics: The Examples of Michael Seewald and Kevin J. Vanhoozer. Religions 14: 524
by
Michael Borowski
Religions 2024, 15(7), 778; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070778 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
Following the request of the Academic Editor, the title should be corrected to the following:Doctrine and Change in Western Dogmatics: The Examples of Michael Seewald and Kevin J [...]
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(This article belongs to the Special Issue Religion and Change)
Open AccessArticle
Griby i Mukhi: A Historical Contextualization of the Esoteric Mushroom Religion of Moscow Conceptualism: Fungal Erotic Imagery of Entheogens and Insects
by
Dennis Ioffe
Religions 2024, 15(7), 777; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel15070777 - 27 Jun 2024
Abstract
This paper aims to observe, contextualize, and analyze the multifaceted religious fungal foundations of Moscow Conceptualism within the context of Slavic and European esoteric mythological praxis. By unveiling the thematic basis of their transgressive spiritual endeavors, this study seeks to enhance our comprehension
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This paper aims to observe, contextualize, and analyze the multifaceted religious fungal foundations of Moscow Conceptualism within the context of Slavic and European esoteric mythological praxis. By unveiling the thematic basis of their transgressive spiritual endeavors, this study seeks to enhance our comprehension of this artistic and literary movement in the Western world. Besides exploring the erotic aesthetics associated with mushrooms, significant attention is devoted to various flies, as the biological vitality of the mukhomor (‘fly agaric’ or amanita muscaria) is inconceivable without them. Moscow Conceptualist visionaries, including Andrey Monastyrsky, Ilia Kabakov, Elagina and Makarevich, and the Mukhomor Moscow collectives, along with their no less famous colleague from Leningrad, Sergey Kuriokhin, emerge not only as artists but also as literary innovators. They seamlessly integrate advancements from the realm of art, giving rise to a novel form of religiously symbiotic semiosis. Consequently, the traditional boundaries between diverse art forms become blurred, marking a distinctive characteristic that aligns with international contemporary avant-garde aesthetics.
Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Slavic Paganism(s): Past and Present)
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