Search Results (654)

Religious heritage occupies a distinctive position at the intersection of sacred practice and cultural governance. While existing scholarship often interprets conflicts surrounding religious heritage through value pluralism or sacred–secular opposition, less attention has been paid to how heritagization reshapes religion within regulatory regimes. Drawing on 39 in-depth interviews conducted across Buddhist, Catholic, Protestant, and Confucian contexts in South Korea, this article examines how religious practitioners and heritage experts conceptualize living religious heritage and negotiate governance structures. The findings demonstrate that stakeholders frequently challenge the binary opposition. Instead, they articulate a relational continuum in which ritual continuity sustains heritage significance and historical depth legitimizes religious practice. Tensions arise primarily from regulatory rigidity, fragmented institutional authority, and procedural exclusion rather than doctrinal incompatibility. Heritage designation emerges as an institutional process that contributes to reconfiguring religious authority, spatial control, and public legitimacy within secular administrative frameworks. By conceptualizing religious heritage governance as a site of negotiated rearticulation rather than value conflict, this study contributes to debates on sacred–secular entanglement, religion and governance, and the institutional reshaping of religion in contemporary societies. Full article

This paper critiques the discursive knowledge productions in V. S. Naipaul’s Among the Believers by challenging the authority of its purported firsthand observations of practising Muslims across four Muslim-majority societies. It argues the book’s discursive knowledge production is not grounded in empirical ethnography but is instead manufactured through specific narrative and rhetorical strategies. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (deterritorialization), Homi Bhabha (mimicry and ambivalence), and Paul de Man (prosopopoeia), the study demonstrates how Naipaul constructs a civilizational hierarchy by positioning himself against anthropological knowledge, trivializing or appropriating peripheral writers, selectively manipulating canonical and non-canonical texts, and orchestrating encounters with interlocutors. The analysis examines how these techniques create a narrative backdrop for critiquing Islamic institutions and practices, including Sharīʿah, religious pedagogy, and educational systems such as the pesantren. Through Orientalist framing, selective historicism, and rhetorical ventriloquism, Naipaul consistently represents the Islamic world as a site of civilizational deficiency in contrast to his ideal of a Western ‘universal civilization’. The paper further engages the writings of key intellectuals—Geertz, Illich, Foucault, Iqbal, and Maududi—to counter Naipaul’s civilizational diagnosis and to foreground alternative internal critiques of modernity, politics, and education. It concludes that Naipaul’s treatment of Islam participates in a longer discursive tradition shaped by Enlightenment-derived narratives of cultural hierarchy rather than neutral ethnographic inquiry. Full article

This study analyzes the determinants of marital happiness among 162 religiously married respondents (Catholic and Evangelical) using probit and logit models. Intrinsic religiosity captured by Salvation in God and Faith in God emerges as the strongest predictor of marital satisfaction, with positive and significant effects across specifications. Frequency of prayer has a smaller but positive influence, underscoring the primacy of belief over ritual practice. Household income contributes modestly, while age patterns show younger couples (18–24) report lower happiness, with satisfaction increasing in older age groups. Denominational interactions reveal that evangelicals derive higher marital well-being from intrinsic beliefs, whereas Catholic respondents’ happiness is more tied to income and institutional religious practice. Gender effects also vary: Catholic women benefit more from faith, whereas effects for evangelical women are smaller. Willingness-to-pay (WTP) estimates for marital happiness via prayer highlight these differences: evangelicals exhibit WTP of $4.57 (probit) and $2.05 (logit) per person, compared to Catholics at $0.046 and $0.087, respectively. These findings demonstrate that belief-oriented religiosity, age, and denominational context are primary determinants of marital happiness. Full article

This study examines the intellectual perspectives and thoughts related to education in Indonesia. The most influential Indonesian scholars who completed their higher education in Western and Middle Eastern institutions between 1980 and 2010, with a particular focus on their views regarding Islamic education, are investigated in a deeper perspective. The scholars selected for analysis consist of three graduates from Middle Eastern universities and three from Western universities, all of whom pursued religious or philosophical studies abroad. The findings indicate that the most decisive factor shaping their divergent perspectives is their overseas educational background, despite their shared foundational experience in pesantren (Islamic boarding schools). These differences are reflected in their public statements, published works, and online video content. At the same time, this study also revealed a set of shared values among the scholars, particularly concerning the core principles of Islamic education and their collective commitment to national unity, peace, mutual support, and tolerance. These commonalities emerge as a unifying thread amid their diverse viewpoints. As representatives of Middle Eastern scholars, these included Komaruddin Hidayat, Abdul Shomad, and Adi Hidayat, where the representative of Western scholars included Azyumardi Azra, Nadirsyah Hosen, and Ahmad Syafii Maarif. The analysis offered in this paper presents a constructive discourse, demonstrating that the differing perspectives of Indonesian scholars educated in the West and the Middle East can positively enrich national conversations. Further study about the perspective of scholars is important for building the character of young generations in Indonesia about how multicultural and different perspectives of thinking are free to discuss and write about in academic perspectives. Full article

This article develops the analytical concept of post-liturgical female rituality to examine informal religious practices created by Western Ukrainian female labor migrants in Israel. Drawing on approaches that conceptualize ritual as flexible, embodied, and processual, it focuses on women’s ritual activities that take place in close temporal and symbolic proximity to official church liturgy while remaining outside canonical frameworks. Rather than directly challenging institutional religion, these practices extend and reinterpret patriarchal liturgy through gendered forms of ritual engagement. The analysis is based on qualitative research among Ukrainian Greek Catholic women in Israel, including 27 in-depth interviews, participant observation, and digital ethnography. The findings highlight three interconnected dimensions: collective gatherings following church services; post-liturgical practices involving food, singing, and embodied performance; and national-religious rituals expressing emotional belonging to Ukraine in the context of war. The article argues that post-liturgical female rituals constitute a distinct form of women’s religious agency that operates within institutional Christianity while reworking its meanings, contributing to feminist scholarship on ritual, migration, and war. Full article

Developing reliable Arabic question answering (QA) systems for Islamic fatwas requires datasets that capture the linguistic complexity and multi-step reasoning inherent in jurisprudential inquiries. However, the existing Arabic religious QA datasets primarily focus on direct retrieval or classification, often failing to address the multi-hop reasoning necessary for complex fatwa questions. To bridge this gap, we introduce MAFQA, a benchmark dataset specifically designed for multi-hop Arabic fatwa question answering. MAFQA was constructed from an extensive corpus of authentic fatwa records sourced from authoritative Islamic institutions. The dataset was developed via a semi-automated pipeline that integrates expert-guided identification of complex inquiries with a structured decomposition framework. This framework employs automated reasoning-pattern classification, semantic feature extraction, and template-guided annotation of subquestions and subanswers, followed by rigorous validation to ensure contextual grounding, logical coherence, and structural consistency. To evaluate the utility of the dataset, we conduct an extensive benchmarking study using Arabic-specialized, multilingual, and instruction-tuned language models across two primary tasks: question decomposition (QD) and generative question answering (QA). Performance is assessed using a comprehensive suite of lexical, semantic, relevance, and faithfulness metrics. Experimental results demonstrate that Arabic-specialized models consistently outperform their multilingual counterparts, with AraT5-base and AraBART achieving the highest performance in terms of lexical similarity, semantic alignment, and answer faithfulness. Full article

This study analyzes how state-level anti-conversion laws in India—ostensibly enacted to protect the religious freedom of vulnerable communities—can structurally generate minority–minority conflicts within Adivasi (tribal) populations. Similar patterns have surfaced across multiple regions. This study examines cases from Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Jharkhand as illustrative modalities of this broader pattern: spectacular violence, everyday exclusion, and legal weaponization. The analysis identifies three mechanisms that produce these conflicts. Firstly, the “Hindu-plus” classificatory framework incorporates diverse indigenous traditions into an expanded Hindu category while positioning non-Indic religions as external. Secondly, anti-conversion laws frame religious change as a threat to indigenous cultural identity, and the state delegates enforcement to village councils, customary authorities, and judicial–administrative institutions. Thirdly, the politics of belonging translates these classificatory and enforcement practices into membership boundaries that operate through territorial control and cultural claims to authenticity, producing inclusion and exclusion. The findings suggest that anti-conversion laws operate as a political technology of protection, generating minority–minority conflicts while channeling disputes over rights into nationalist boundary-making over minority identity and belonging. Full article

Stunting remains a major public health challenge in Indonesia, with a national prevalence of 21.6% in 2022. Rural regions such as Madura face heightened vulnerability due to cultural dietary taboos, gendered caregiving structures, intergenerational authority, and digital disparities that shape household nutrition decision-making. This formative qualitative study explores stakeholders’ perceptions to inform the conceptual development of gender-sensitive serious games for nutrition communication in rural Indonesia. Using an exploratory design, 42 informants, including mothers of children under five, brides-to-be, health cadres, midwives, religious and community leaders, and local digital actors, were recruited across rural Madura. Thematic analysis examined trust-based communication patterns, gender dynamics, perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI), and contextual conditions influencing digital health acceptance. Findings indicate that acceptance of gender-sensitive serious games depends on cultural alignment, institutional endorsement, perceived credibility, and usability in low-resource settings. Participants consistently positioned serious games and AI-supported features as complementary communication layers rather than replacements for health workers. Game-based tools were considered potentially relevant when designed to support intergenerational co-play, integrate local narratives and religious values, and function in low-connectivity environments. Rather than evaluating an implemented intervention, this study proposes a conceptual design framework grounded in feminist communication perspectives, serious games scholarship, and technology acceptance theory. The findings provide context-sensitive insights to guide future prototype development and pilot testing within hybrid, community-based nutrition communication systems. Full article

The Ottoman Empire possessed a multi-religious social structure whose continuity was maintained through legal and administrative mechanisms. While Muslims, Christians, and Jews preserved their religious identities within the imperial framework, conversion was a closely monitored and regulated process at both the individual and public levels. Because religious conversion had direct consequences for taxation, legal and social status, family structure, and communal affiliation, it became a matter of concern for the Ottoman legal order. In this context, the sharia courts constituted the primary institutional arena in which cases of ihtidā (conversion) were recorded, supervised, and given legal effect; they also produced the principal documentation that verified the procedural validity of conversion and secured the legal standing of new Muslims. This study examines the social and legal contexts of religious conversion in the Ottoman provinces through cases recorded in the sixteenth- to nineteenth-century court registers of the district of Rodosçuk. It challenges interpretations that portray ihtidā as a coercive and one-directional policy of Islamization, demonstrating instead that legal protection and economic opportunity could function both as outcomes of conversion and as enabling preconditions. The study also questions assumptions about systematic judicial bias against non-Muslims, emphasizing that in the Rodosçuk example the courts operated as a neutral forum accessible to different confessional communities. The evidence suggests that conversion unfolded through slow, gradual, and largely individual processes shaped by the combined influence of religious, economic, and social motivations. Full article

Social media platforms have become central infrastructures for disaster communication, yet their role in shaping ethnic cohesion in post-conflict societies remains insufficiently examined. Sri Lanka, marked by a legacy of ethnic conflict, provides a critical context for exploring how moments of crisis are narratively and symbolically negotiated online. This study employs a qualitative digital ethnographic approach to analyze publicly accessible social media content circulated during a recent national disaster. Data were collected from Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok between 1 and 10 December, yielding an initial corpus of 344 posts, of which 200 were purposively selected for in-depth analysis following the removal of duplicated and near-identical content. Reflexive thematic analysis identified three dominant and interrelated narrative patterns: expressions of solidarity, resource sharing and mutual aid, and visual–symbolic representations of unity. These narratives were articulated through inclusive language, unity-oriented hashtags, depictions of material assistance, and imagery emphasizing co-presence across religious and institutional lines. Engagement metrics were examined as indicators of narrative resonance within platform visibility structures. The findings suggest that social media temporarily foregrounded discursive cohesion and symbolic unity during the disaster period. However, these representations should be interpreted as context-specific and performative rather than as evidence of durable inter-ethnic integration. This study contributes by demonstrating how social media platforms operate as spaces for the performative articulation of ethnic unity during disasters in post-conflict contexts, using a digital ethnographic approach to methodologically and empirically research digital ethnography, disaster communication, and social cohesion in post-conflict settings. Full article

This paper examines the philosophy and practice of interfaith dialogue (IFD) developed by Daisaku Ikeda (1928–2023), a prominent religious leader and peace philosopher. It explores how his dialogical approach can contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and pathways to global peace. Ikeda’s dialogue is not confined to doctrinal debate or temporary reconciliation among faith communities. Rather, it is framed as a transformative process in which participants from diverse religious and civilizational traditions rebuild relationships through mutual respect and understanding, thereby contributing to personal transformation and broader societal change. Focusing on Ikeda’s core concepts—humanism, the dignity of life, and human revolution—this study first clarifies the philosophical foundations of his interfaith dialogue rooted in Nichiren Buddhism and a life-affirming worldview. It then examines major dialogues with global thinkers and leaders (e.g., Arnold J. Toynbee, Linus Pauling, Mikhail Gorbachev, and Johan Galtung) and selected institutional practices associated with Soka Gakkai International (SGI), the Institute of Oriental Philosophy (IOP), and the Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue. These cases illustrate how Ikeda’s IFD functions as praxis for civilizational understanding, social cohesion, conflict transformation, and solidarity for the public good. The paper further analyzes the linkages between Ikeda’s IFD and SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals), SDG 4 (Quality Education—especially Target 4.7 on Global Citizenship Education), and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities). It argues that IFD can operate as both a normative and practical resource for mitigating religious conflict, strengthening inclusion, enhancing global citizenship education and education for sustainable development (ESD), and fostering multistakeholder partnerships. The paper also reflects on the challenges of translating an approach grounded in a particular religious tradition into broader SDG governance contexts. Full article

This article advances a constructive theological account of Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HCAI) for Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) engaged in interreligious dialogue (IRD). Drawing on a practical–theological methodology, the study follows four interrelated steps—descriptive–empirical, interpretive, normative, and pragmatic—to examine how AI-enabled practices such as translation, textual analysis, and cross-scriptural synthesis are reshaping contemporary forms of dialogue among religious and non-religious communities. Through the empirical mapping of current AI applications, interdisciplinary interpretation informed by social and ethical analysis, and normative theological evaluation, the study identifies both the opportunities and risks of AI-mediated IRD. On this basis, it synthesizes three interdependent dimensions that structure the proposed framework: (1) Ethics, which clarifies the moral purpose and values guiding AI use; (2) Technology, which addresses mediation, governance, and power in AI systems; and (3) Humans, which centers institutional responsibility, agency, and sustainability within FBOs. From this synthesis, the article introduces an AI–IRD Integration Framework that translates theological and ethical reflection into practical guidance for responsible AI adoption. The study contributes an original interdisciplinary perspective that equips religious leaders, theologians, policymakers, and faith communities to engage AI not merely as a tool, but as a human-centered partner in fostering inclusive, sustainable, and ethically grounded dialogue in an era of AI–human coexistence. Full article

This study proposes a novel theoretical synthesis, bridging the sociology of lived religion with economic club good theory to explore the high-commitment dynamics in domestic spheres in the analysis of “Amen meals”, a rapidly spreading ritual among Jewish women. Using a qualitative–ethnographic methodology based on 23 participant observations and 53 in-depth interviews with a diverse spectrum of Jewish women in Israel, the research examines the ways this ritual functions as a gendered religious economy. The findings identify emotional stringency as a key mechanism for communal cohesion: unlike traditional religious clubs that filter out free riders through external prohibitions, this economy demands a tariff of emotional exposure and vulnerability, where public tears serve as costly signals of commitment. These enable the participants to gain access to exclusive club goods such as social insurance and spiritual agency. The study concludes that Amen meals challenge the binary between institutional–rational and private–emotional spheres, positioning women’s ritual creativity as a mutual insurance system for risks that formal institutions fail to cover. It reveals the powerful economies operating within the lived religion of women. Full article

This qualitative research examines the systemic dynamics of the abuse of consecrated women in the Loyola Community, analyzing the allegations against the influential sacral artist and theologian Marko Ivan Rupnik within broader scholarly debates on abuse in Catholic ecclesial contexts. Drawing on survivor testimonies, the study explores how clericalism and forms of spiritual authority were instrumentalized within this specific community to produce a sequential chain of harm encompassing sexual, psychological, and spiritual violence against consecrated women. The analysis demonstrates how vulnerance—the systemic capacity to produce harm—is engineered through institutional configurations and theological distortions. This condition normalizes exploitation and silences survivors over extended periods. Moving beyond individual pathology, the study critically examines systemic power asymmetries, hermeneutical injustice, and forms of institutional betrayal that emerge when the protection of religious reputation takes precedence over accountability and human dignity. Finally, the article highlights the significance of public testimony and digital movements such as #NunsToo in disrupting cultures of silence and contributing to the restoration of epistemic justice for survivors. Full article

In contemporary Muslim societies, digital platforms, algorithmic infrastructures, and networked religious content have fundamentally reshaped not only the circulation of fatwas but also the conditions under which religious authority is constituted, recognized, and contested. This article develops an integrated analytical framework that brings Islamic legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh) into sustained dialogue with mediatization theory and digital religion scholarship in order to examine how digital mediation reconfigures fatwa authority. Grounded in a qualitative analytical–comparative methodology, the study reconstructs the classical architecture of fatwa authority—rooted in scholarly qualification, isnād-based transmission, contextual discernment, and institutional oversight—and systematically compares it with contemporary digitally mediated environments structured by visibility metrics, platform logics, audience engagement, and algorithmic amplification. It identifies a series of interrelated transformations affecting the epistemic foundations, institutional gatekeeping mechanisms, communicative forms, and normative accountability of fatwa practice. The analysis demonstrates that digital mediation does not merely expand access to religious guidance; it alters the balance between evidentiary reasoning and infrastructural prominence, reshapes the relationship between muftī and mustaftī, and introduces new ambiguities concerning authority, legitimacy, and moral agency—particularly in the context of AI-assisted religious tools. While digital fatwas may enhance accessibility and transnational connectivity, they also risk epistemic fragmentation, erosion of institutional credibility, and the diffusion of accountability. By articulating a Critical Islamic Legal and Media-Theoretical Framework structured around epistemic, institutional, and communicative axes and evaluated through maqāṣid al-sharīʿah, this article offers a systematic model for analyzing digitally mediated Islamic authority. It concludes by outlining jurisprudential and ethical guidelines for integrating digital technologies into the fatwa domain in ways that preserve methodological rigor, moral responsibility, and the integrity of religious guidance. Full article