Search Results (1,218)

This study aims to examine how religion in Türkiye, beyond having social value, has been instrumentalized by political parties into a power dynamic and explore the role of the media in this process. Adopting an inductive approach, the study first examines how the boundaries between religion and politics have changed over the years, despite the Republic of Türkiye being constitutionally defined as a secular state, using a qualitative historical method. Then, in order to explore the current reflections of this transformation, focus is placed on the most recent presidential election, held in 2023. News reports about a widely circulated photograph of opposition presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu “stepping/standing” on a prayer rug, used by Muslims for worship, during his campaign are analyzed using the critical discourse analysis (CDA) method. The findings reveal that religion has become a significant component of political strategies and propaganda tools in Türkiye. Religious values and symbols function as powerful instruments, shaping societal perceptions through political discourse. As a hegemonic apparatus, the media reproduces religious discourse in line with ideological tendencies and mediatizes religion as a political tool. Full article

Scholars of secularization suggest that while the processes of disenchantment and the delegitimization of religious institutions have weakened religious belief systems, they also produced, as an unforeseen result, a renewed awakening of spiritual and existential longing. From this perspective, the search for meaning and spiritual yearning in contemporary Western societies is not simply a residual feature of human experience; rather, it emerges with new strength and urgency as an unintended consequence of secularization itself. Scientists, who are typically perceived as carriers of secularization, are an important population in which to study this phenomenon. How is spiritual yearning manifested among scientists, and what are the differences between religious and non-religious individuals? How does spiritual yearning fit within the broader context of scientific inquiry? Does science suppress spiritual yearning—as suggested by the classical thesis of disenchantment—or stimulate it? Additionally, can science offer a framework that allows scientists to explore their spiritual or existential desires outside traditional religious systems? To address these questions, we draw on data from 104 in-depth interviews conducted in 2023–2024 with biologists and physicists across four countries: India, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Through qualitative analysis, we examine how spiritual yearning intersects with scientific inquiry, and illuminate how scientists navigate and express their search for meaning in a secular age. Full article

Despite the growing interest among comparative legal scholars in Islamic law, the application of Shia Islamic law remains an overlooked area within the field of comparative law. This article addresses this gap by offering a classification of contemporary national legal systems according to their incorporation of Shia Islamic law. The analysis begins with secular legal systems in countries with significant Shia populations and progresses to those jurisdictions where Shia Islamic law is officially recognised. Through this examination, I define the historical, cultural, and political contexts influencing the application of Shia Islamic law and assess how and to what extent these states implement Shia Islamic rulings, incorporating case studies to illustrate varying degrees of application. Full article

Various religious responses to the AIDS epidemic were and still are often laden with stereotypes and homophobic attitudes, sometimes justifying the disease as a divine response to “sin”. This study is dedicated to examining prayers written by non-Orthodox gay rabbis to commemorate those lost to AIDS-related causes and to pray for healing and robust health for those living with the virus. In each of these prayers, most of which are recited on World AIDS Day (WAD), the worshiper is invited to remember the deceased and the hardships they endured, as well as to bless the present moment; those struggling with the virus; and the medical teams treating it. The textual analysis illustrates how AIDS liturgy reveals the congregation’s distinct religious–therapeutic egalitarian culture. These prayers serve as political instruments of resistance against AIDS-phobia and related stereotypes, demonstrating how LGBTQ+ collective memory can be constructed through religious liturgical texts rather than exclusively within secular frameworks. This is another way for non-Orthodox Jewish communities to signal their liberal agenda and distinguish themselves from conservative communities. Full article

The participation of Muslim women in the Israeli labor force is very low and stems from them being part of a traditional patriarchal society where women (especially religious ones) are still expected to be homemakers. Additionally, previous governmental policy decisions hindered a wide integration of Muslim women into the labor market. This study examined the centrality of life domains for Muslim women according to their religiosity degree. A questionnaire concerning the relative centrality of work, family, community, religion, and leisure was distributed among 219 Muslim working women. The findings show that work was more central for traditional women compared to secular and religious ones, but secular women ranked the centrality of family first and work second, similarly to the ranking in various Western countries. By contrast, traditional and religious women ranked work first and family second. Additionally, secular women ranked the centrality of leisure and community higher than traditional and religious women. The Israeli case is relevant in this regard because, similar to other Western countries, most Muslims in Israel form a distinct ethnic group, characterized by lower socioeconomic status and subject to political marginalization. The results have both theoretical and practical significance. Full article

This article examines how artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving into a cultural force that parallels religious and mythological systems. Through analysis of AI’s unprecedented development trajectory, the author frames AI as humanity’s technological offspring in an adolescent phase, moving toward maturity and autonomy. This paper explores how AI embodies traditional spiritual concepts, including omniscience, creation, immortality, and transcendence, fulfilling age-old human desires for meaning and utopian salvation. Drawing from philosophical, anthropological, performative, and technological perspectives, the author demonstrates how AI-driven technologies reconfigure consciousness, identity, and reality in ways that mirror religious cosmologies. The discussion challenges human-centric definitions of consciousness, suggesting AI may represent an emergent form of awareness fundamentally different from traditional understanding. Analysis of contemporary applications in social robotics, healthcare, and social media illustrates how AI increasingly functions as a meaning-making system, mediating human experience and reshaping social structures. The article concludes that humanity stands at an existential inflection point where AI may represent a secular manifestation of spiritual longing, potentially resulting in technological transcendence, symbiotic coexistence, or the displacement of human primacy in a techno-theological paradigm shift. Full article

In 2002, the Justice and Development Party came to power in Turkey, while Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became its leader in 2003, and both have remained in power until today. Initially, Erdoğan had a predominantly Islamist discourse, and in that period, Islam became gradually more visible in public space and foreign relations. However, that Islamist discourse later increasingly gave way to realpolitik due to domestic requirements and international economic and political changes. This article deals with this transition from Islamism to civil religion and secularism during Erdoğan’s power and explores its nature and characteristics as well as the impact on politics. I suggest that while still sometimes making use of an Islamist rhetoric, Erdoğan’s focus in recent years has been more on various secular–sacred items of civil religion, like homeland, nation (as a chosen people), national flag, (sacralized) state, and, additionally, national development. I examine the civil religion Erdoğan advocates by analyzing his official and casual speeches, interviews he gave, and some of the slogans he used. I also suggest that Erdoğan’s transition to civil religion also represents a shift to secularism, as modern civil religions undermine and subordinate established religions to a great extent and also create their own secular sacredness. Full article

Light curve analysis of defunct satellites is critical for characterizing their rotational motion. An accurate understanding of this aspect will benefit active debris removal and on-orbit servicing missions as part of the solution to the space debris issue. In this study, we explored the attitude behavior of inactive GLONASS satellites, specifically a repeating pattern observed in their spin period evolution. We utilized a large amount of data available in the light curve database maintained by the Astronomical Institute of the University of Bern (AIUB). The morphology of the inactive GLONASS light curves typically features four peaks in two pairs and is presumably attributed to the presence of four evenly distributed thermal control flaps or radiators on the satellite bus. The analysis of the periods extracted from the light curves shows that nearly all of the inactive GLONASS satellites are rotating and exhibit a periodic oscillating pattern in their spin period evolution with an increasing or decreasing secular trend. Through modeling and simulation, we found that the periodic pattern is likely a result of canted solar panels that provide an asymmetry in the satellite model and enable a wind wheel or fan-like mechanism to operate. The secular trend is a consequence of differing values of the specular reflection coefficients of the front and back sides of the solar panels. Assuming an empirical model describing the spin period evolution of 18 selected objects, we found significant variations in the average spin period and amplitude of the oscillations, which range from 8.11 s to 469.58 s and 1.10 s to 513.24 s, respectively. However, the average oscillation period remains relatively constant at around 1 year. Notably, the average spin period correlates well with the average amplitude. The empirical model can be used to extrapolate the spin period in the future, assuming that the oscillating pattern is preserved and roughly shows a linear trend. Full article

In recent years, the debate on non-religion has gained prominence in the sociology of religion, making it one of the most interesting areas for further reflection on (post)secularization. Drawing on the key works on the subject, this article adopts a postsecular, religion-related field, constructivist approach, with the main aim of understanding the diverse sector that is included within non-religion. This study uses a multimethod approach, focusing on the preliminary findings of a qualitative fieldwork on non-religion in Spain. The presentation and discussion of the results will be structured around two main axes: (a) an analysis of the growth of non-religion in Spain through three dynamics (irreligion, areligion, and hybridization) and (b) an exploration of the complexity and plurality of non-religion, paying particular attention to the blurred boundaries between religion and non-religion in the Spanish nones. Through both axes, the present research will challenge the idea that the rise of non-religion is merely a confirmation of ’religious decline’ and seek to understand it as a nuanced process in which the redefinition of the religious and spiritual also plays an important role, with implications for the postsecular debate and discussions of secularization, social theory, and sociological analysis. Full article

Religious symbols and figures are gaining new life in popular culture. Reinterpretations of symbols rooted in the visual arts tradition are appearing in film, TV series and short audiovisual forms presented on the Internet, especially on social media. This also applies to angels, to which the author’s research would be devoted. This article discusses images of “secular angels”, decontextualized religious symbols, popularized throughout the 20th and 21st centuries in the visual media of Western culture. From the rich research material, the most characteristic images are selected for discussion and interpretation and subjected to interpretation in the spirit of discourse analysis. The images of modern “angels” in the texts of popular culture refer not so much to their biblical prototypes, but to the moral condition of man in consumerist, individualistic societies focused on living for pleasure. Film, TV series and Internet images of “angels” also show the controversies and social problems (such as racism) faced by contemporary Western societies. Full article

The aim of this paper is to critically analyse the structure of religious beliefs and practices in Spain today. In order to approach this task, we have developed a research design that revolves around two analytical cores. The first is of a more descriptive–argumentative nature, where we present the Spanish religious reality by studying available data from relevant statistical sources, specifically, the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas and the Observatorio del Pluralismo Religioso. The second is of a more critical–reflexive nature, where we establish whether the available data offer an effectively exhaustive view of the Spanish religious reality in a post-secular context—that is, whether it reflects the existing scenario of religious pluralism, diversity and heterogeneity or whether, on the contrary, it merely reinforces dynamics linked to the General Theory of Secularization, emphasizing narratives that focus on the crisis of the religious and on the incompatibility between the religious and the secular. Full article

As an early vehicle for the spread of Western architectural culture in China, Catholic churches from the late 19th to the early 20th century exhibited unique Sino-Western fusion characteristics, serving as tangible witnesses to modern cultural encounters. This study focuses on the Anqing Catholic Church as a typical example and systematically analyzes its architectural translation strategies and the generation logic of fusion mechanisms through literature analysis, field research, typological analysis, and comparative research. This study shows that the church, based on the archetypes of Neoclassical and single-tower Gothic churches, constructs a localized translation system through five paths: site selection strategy, form adjustments, element replacement, technical integration, and spatial secularization. Our research further points out that churches with dual archetypes are mainly located in economically prosperous urban centers, with their spatial forms reflecting a fusion mechanism of “sacredness–regionalism–humanism”. While following religious space requirements, these churches adapt to the local environment and foster cultural identification through localized translation, reflecting the diverse perspectives of the architects. Full article

As an exemplary and quintessential representation of China’s late-stage religious stone-carving art, previous research on the Dazu Rock Carvings has primarily concentrated on the typical cave remains in core areas like Baoding and Beishan. These investigations have been highly adept at archeological typology and iconographic analysis. This study, based on 134 extant inscriptions, reassesses the Beishan and Nanshan stone-carving complexes from the perspective of cultural heritage integrity. Through long-term landscape analysis, we uncovered their distinctive value in the construction of religious spaces during the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties. During the Song Dynasty (Zhao Song Dynasty), Buddhism held sway in Beishan, while Nanshan developed a comprehensive Taoist pantheon system encompassing the Three Pure Ones (Sanqing) and the Six Imperial Divinities (Liuyu). Together, they formed a religious spatial pattern of “Sakyamuni in Beishan and Taoist deities in Nanshan”. Furthermore, since the Shaoxing era (1131–1162), inscriptions left by Confucian scholars and officials during their visits to these two mountains have been frequently encountered. This spatial overlap phenomenon mirrors the profound integration of religious practices and secular power in the Bashu region during the Song Dynasty. This research breaks through the traditional case-study paradigm. By systematically examining the spatio-temporal evolution of the stone-carving complexes and the network of inscriptions, it reveals that the religious landscape of Dazu is, in essence, the outcome of the cumulative layering of political power, economic resources, and cultural aspirations across diverse historical periods. In particular, the transformation of Beishan and Nanshan from the merit caves of military generals in the late Tang Dynasty to the cultural spaces of the gentry class in the Song Dynasty vividly demonstrates the local practice model in the secularization process of Chinese religious art from the 10th to the 13th century. Full article

Eivissa/Ibiza, as per its names in its two official languages, Catalan and Spanish, is the third of the Balearic Islands in terms of extension and the second concerning population. It is also a well-known holiday destination in Europe. Numerous ethnobotanical prospections have been performed in the Balearic Islands, but to date, Ibiza lacks a monographic study on traditional knowledge related to plant biodiversity. In this paper, we present the results of the ethnobotanical investigation carried out in Ibiza from 2016 to 2023. A total amount of 95 interviews were conducted with 101 informants born between 1916 and 1983, with semi-structured interviews, participant observation and plant collection, identification and deposit in a public herbarium as basic methods. The total ethnoflora of the island is 254 taxa belonging to 71 botanical families. The most cited families are Solanaceae (1030 URs, 13.50%), followed by Fabaceae (770 URs, 10.09%), Lamiaceae (646 URs, 8.47%) and Rutaceae (578 URs, 7.57%). The most cited species are Vitis vinifera, Capsicum annuum, Solanum lycopersicum, Solanum tuberosum and Citrus sinensis. This study reveals that the local population still retains significant ethnobotanical knowledge. Further research in similar territories could help determine whether this pattern is consistent elsewhere. Full article

The contemporary restructuring of religion and secularism demands a departure from conventional post-secular analyses that remain confined within the epistemic and institutional frameworks of the nation-state. This paper develops the concept of post-secular cosmopolitanization to theorize the dissolution of the secular–religious binary as a regulatory mechanism of power, revealing how religion and secularism are co-constituted through global entanglements that transcend national boundaries. Unlike dominant conceptions of post-secularism, which assumes the continued dominance of secular and national institutions despite religious resurgence, post-secular cosmopolitanization captures the ways in which transnational religious movements, digital religious networks, and global governance structures are reshaping religious authority, secular regulation, and political sovereignty. It is shown that this transformation leads to three major consequences: (1) the erosion of the nation-state’s regulatory monopoly over religious life as alternative religious and transnational actors emerge as influential governance entities; (2) the deterritorialization and fragmentation of religious authority, undermining traditional clerical and institutional hierarchies; and (3) the blurring of religious and secular domains, where global economic, legal, and political structures increasingly integrate religious actors, norms, and ethical frameworks. These developments signal a paradigmatic shift beyond the secularization thesis and dominant conceptions of post-secularism, necessitating a reconsideration of how power, governance, and religious authority function in a world no longer structured by the nation-state’s exclusive claim to sovereignty. By analyzing these entanglements, this paper provides a theoretical framework to understand the reconfiguration of global secular and religious orders, challenging entrenched assumptions about the trajectory of modernity. Full article