Comparative Religion

Religious exclusivism is the biggest threat for multi-religious society at the same time, ambivalent thoughts among religion in religious pluralism due to religious diversity, often yields religious violence. In both of the extreme, (religious exclusivism and religious pluralism) there is the possibility of religious violence, i.e., religious riots, terrorism, mob lynching, and communalism. The objective of this paper is to discuss the significance of interreligious dialogue (IRD), its basic principle, how IRD will help us for addressing the problems of humanity (i.e., Religious diversity and contradictory thoughts in major religions, Religious Dogma, superstition, and terrorism). If there is any biggest challenge for religion in the 21 st century, is this one that how religion can deal with these problems and became a good tool for establishing peace and prosperity in the region.

Engaging with debates about lived religion, pluralism, and secularism, this book presents an ethnographic study of committed young Muslims and Christians in the predominantly secular context of the Netherlands. Daan Beekers breaks with conventional frameworks that keep these groups apart by highlighting the common ground between revivalist-minded Protestant Christians and Sunni Muslims.

Based on in-depth fieldwork, Young Muslims and Christians in a Secular Europe shows that these young adults embark on reflexive projects of cultivating personal faith that are rife with struggles, setbacks, and doubts. Beekers argues that this shared precarious condition of everyday religious pursuits is shaped by young believers' active participation in today's high capitalist and largely secular society where they encounter other modes of imagining and
living in the world. Yet he reveals that this close engagement with secular culture also fosters a reinvigorated religious commitment that demands constant care and nourishment.

Written in a clear and accessible style, this book reaches beyond longstanding divisions in the study of religion in Europe. It both provides rich insights into everyday religious lives and disrupts persistent binary oppositions between categories such as minorities and majorities, migrants and natives, and Islam and the West.

Three books arguing that the Jesus story is really the story of a Roman Emperor include Gary Courtney’s 'Et tu, Judas? Then Fall Jesus!' (1992), and Francesco Carotta’s 'Jesus was Caesar: On the Julian origin of Christianity, an Investigative Report' (2005), both of which argue that the Jesus story is based on the story of Julius Caesar, and Joseph Atwill’s 'Caesar’s Messiah', which makes the case that the Jesus story is the story of Titus. The aim of my paper is to suggest that there are major Buddhist elements in the New Testament that can in no way be accounted for by their theories. This inability, i believe, poses a fatal flaw for them.

The anthropological theory of religious meaning proposed in this paper is based on a multimodal approach to human communication. According to this approach, meaning originates not in a set of propositions about the world but in modes of experience of and engagement with it. These modes of experience include different forms of communication in which their performative component trumps their propositional content, modes of communication that are normally defined as ‘symbolic languages’ when religious scholars try to translate them into explicit verbal statements, that is, into a set of propositions. Of all these modes of communication or symbolic languages, in this article the focus is on sacred objects, that is, objects that evoke their absent signifieds by being simultaneously objects of thought and instruments of thought.

I was greatly relieved when my September 2006 issue of Quadrant arrived in Jeddah, in its clear plastic envelope. Moreover I was delighted that it had made its way past the censors, particularly with its bold subheading 'The Growing Problem with Islam' in at least a size 18 black type font, just below the magazine title.

ABSTRACTIn today's fast moving world, everyone tries to be ahead of their competitors, friends and social circle. Considering the fact, there are so many burning issues around us which we need to think upon and act, it's an alarm for us to be aware about the society and its issues. Current issues like violation of human rights, girl's education, adverse effects of global warming, wrong deeds of political leaders, crime against women, corruption etc. need to be discussed openly with the society in an effort to do something about it and bring a revolution.Social Networking sites provide a platform for discussion on such issues as it is this media which majority mass rely on and extend warm support. One such burning issue that has been overlooked in today's scenario is the impact of social networking sites in the changing mind-set of the youth. Our research is conducted on youths between age group of 18-30 years with a view to know the level of awareness on the social i...

This study examines the mediator and indirect effect of the Practice of Religion in Religious Attitude on Environmental Attitude. The participants were 147 college students, 78 were females (M age = 19.64, SD= 1.01) and 69 were males (M age = 20.06, SD= 1.55). The FSAR Scale (Baring et al., 2018) and the EAI-24 (Milfont & Duckit, 2010) were used to measure Religious Attitude and Environmental Attitude, respectively. A single-item self-report was used to measure the Practice of Religion. Baron and Kenny's (1986) procedure on mediation analysis was followed and Sobel Test and bootstrapping procedures were used to test the significance of the indirect effect. Results indicated that Religious Attitude predicts Environmental Attitude significantly (path c=.293, p<.001), and the same significant prediction was observed when the Practice of Religion was regressed on Religious Attitude (path a = .440, p < .001). However, a significant prediction between Religious Attitude and Environmental Attitude (path c' =.213, p=.007) was observed when both the Religious Attitude and Practice of Religion regressed on Environmental Attitude. Thus, only a partial mediation effect was observed. The Sobel Test was significant (t = 1.961, p=.0498) and the bias-corrected bootstrap (n=1000) procedure also found the indirect effect significant with a 95% CI range of 0.0151 to 0.0975. Therefore, the Practice of Religion has a significant partial mediation effect in the variation of Religious Attitude on Environmental Attitude. The results also suggest the presence of multiple mediating variables between Religious Attitude and Environmental Attitude. Further study using other possible mediator variables is proposed.

The chapter explores the relationship between young adults’ religious engagements and social media use in the context of Peru. Focusing on the impact of the present-day media sphere on established and received mechanisms of religious socialization, the chapter highlights how social media have come to play an increasingly important role in the forming of critical religious outlooks toward traditional religion among Peruvian young adults. It concentrates, in particular, on the effects of increasing individualization and a gradual transition from “narrow” to “broad” forms of socialization in Peru on the religious outlooks and identifications of younger age groups.

The Jamaican government reconsidering the Obeah Act in the summer of 2019 highlighted the legacy of prejudice and criminalization of Africana religious systems and practices left by colonization across ethno-linguistic borders and the broader Black Atlantic. It also highlighted how some traditions such as Béninois Vodun, Candomblé, Santería, and oriṣa worship in parts of Nigeria have successfully managed to combat state policing and prejudice to gain official recognition and legal protection. However, this article analyzes the way even the legal and conceptual success of Africana religions in the modern world places them in a Catch-22. Drawing attention to the fundamental differences between modern conceptions and assumptions of what constitutes “religion,” the article traces the history of how modern political and legal structures either exclude and oppress Africana traditions or exert subtle pressure on them to conform to conceptions of “religion” that are more intelligible and ac...

This essay analyzes the creation of the empires of Rome over the Mediterranean and of the Han dynasty over the Central Plains between the third and the second centuries BCE. It focuses on the historiographical oeuvres of Polybius and Sima Qian, as the two men tried to make sense of the unification of the world as they knew it. The essay does away with the subsequent methodological and conceptual biases introduced by interpreters who approached the material from the vantage point of Abrahamic religions, according to which transcendent personal entities could favor the foundation of unitary political and moral systems. By considering the impact of the different contexts and of the two authors’ subjective experiences, the essay tries to ascertain the extent to which Polybius and Sima Qian tended to associate unified rule with the triumph of universal values and the establishment of superior, divine justice. All profound changes in consciousness, by their very nature, bring with them ch...

The aim of the article is to establish if pre-Christian beliefs in Zambia are influencing the Pentecostal Christianity, and to establish what the healers-diviners' relationship with different Pentecostal churches is. During field studies undertaken by both authors, it has been established that many Bantu speaking people still believe in some aspects of their native religions, especially in the powers of the ancestral spirits. Christianity is the dominant religion in Zambia, but it is far from homogenous. Apart from world religions like Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, there is a plethora of Pentecostal, Charismatic, and grassroot churches, many of them not immune to ancient spirit veneration. People who are believed to cooperate with spirits are called healers-diviners who are believed to be called to their profession by spirits. A great majority is Christian who combines Christianity with their native beliefs. The field studies in 2021 were sponsored by the Polish National ...

The thesis deals briefly with the Buddha's Dharma (Religion), its unrivaled impact upon the spiritual canvas of Asia, the fundamental motivation of its Founder, its flowering "springtime", its "summer" heat and its present "winter", and most importantly the portents for its revivification and the return to its pristine glory through the only possible process a recurrence of the "Buddha-rising" the advent once again of the Divine Teacher in this instance, the Buddha Maitrya-Amitabha.

Krscani su od najranijih pocetaka Crkve prepoznavali posebnu ulogu koju povijest ima u razumijevanju Božjega djelovanja među ljudima. Krscansko pridavanje važnosti povijesti preuzeto je iz hebrejske Biblije i naslijeđeno od židovstva, koje je iznjedrilo krscansku vjeru. Zatim su teolozi i povjesnicari nastojali definirati koja povijest i na koji nacin je važna. Usprkos raznim razmimoilaženjima, mnogi su imali nacelan stav da je povijest izravno ili neizravno otkrivanje Božje volje, planova, putova i karaktera, kao i da se u njoj može naci legitimitet za postojanje vlastite denominacije. S pojavom karizmatsko-pentekostalnog pokreta u dvadesetom stoljecu, velik dio krscana toga profila postao je izložen drukcijem stavu prema povijesti: nezainteresiranosti. U karizmatsko-pentekostalnim zajednicama naglasak se stavljao na osobni doživljaj i iskustvo koji su vidljivi i mjerljivi u prostoru i vremenu (ovdje i sada), pa je povijesna perspektiva nerijetko ostala zanemarena. Buduci da je u c...

U ovom clanku autor predstavlja uvod u tezu kako je suvremena srednjestrujaska zapadna orijentalistika cesto usredotocenija na promoviranje apologetske slike islama ad hoc osmisljene za zadovoljenje aktualnih ideoloskih, politickih i sigurnosnih potreba Zapada, nego na zadržavanje uloge akademske discipline u kojoj se primjenjuju znanstvene metode istraživanja i uobicajeni kriticki pristup izvorima. Iz razumljive i legitimne želje da se ublaži intenzitet konflikta s dijelom muslimanskoga svijeta, politikom zapadnih, osobito europskih drustava dominira stav podrske orijentalistickom predstavljanju islama kao religije koja je u potpunosti sukladna s temeljima židovsko- krscanske etike, teologije i svjetonazora. Stoga su i najprominentniji suvremeni orijentalisti cesto oni koji svoje studije usklađuju s tom pretpostavkom. U djelima tih orijentalista može se prepoznati nekoliko zajednickih nacela. Jedno je selektivno ignoriranje pojedinih aspekata islama ili karijere proroka Muhameda ko...

"Sažetak Kršćani su od najranijih početaka Crkve prepoznavali posebnu ulogu koju povijest ima u razumijevanju Božjega djelovanja među ljudima. Kršćansko pridavanje važnosti povijesti preuzeto je iz Biblije a naslijeđeno od židovstva, koje je iznjedrilo kršćansku vjeru. Zatim su teolozi i povjesničari nastojali definirati koja povijest i na koji način je važna. Usprkos raznim razmimoilaženjima, mnogi su dijelili načelan stav kako povijest predstavlja izravno ili neizravno otkrivanje Božje volje, planova, putova i karaktera, kao i da se u njoj može naći legitimitet za postojanje vlastite denominacije. S pojavom karizmatsko-pentekostalnog pokreta u dvadesetom stoljeću, velik dio kršćana toga profila našao se izložen drukčijem stavu prema povijesti: nezainteresiranosti. U karizmatsko-pentekostalnim zajednicama naglasak se stavljao na osobni doživljaj i iskustvo koji su vidljivi i mjerljivi u prostoru i vremenu (što je često značilo ovdje i sada), pa je povijesna perspektiva nerijetko ostala zanemarena. Kako je u crkvama toga profila često bila prisutna i barem latentna nepovjerljivost prema akademskim izučavanjima općenito, što se osobito na početcima pentekostalizma smatralo uzročnikom zamiranja pobožnosti, tradicionalno kršćansko zanimanje za izučavanje povijesti je splasnulo. Bespovijesnost koja je iz tog proizišla vidljiva je, u određenoj mjeri, i danas. Neupitno je kako mnoge crkve karizmatsko-pentekostalnog profila njeguju žar pobožnosti i evangeliziranja, što i jeste najvažnija zadaća Crkve. No, nepoznavanje povijesti može imati posljedice koje su dugoročno gledano potencijalno vrlo štetne: prijezir prema tradicionalnim crkvama i općenito prema drugim kršćanskim zajednicama i denominacijama. Mišljenje kako Bog u “našoj” crkvi radi nešto što nikad i nigdje drugo nije, što će većina povjesničara Crkve prepoznati kao apsurdnu tvrdnju, lako će uroditi duhovnim ekskluzivitetom, nepovjerenjem prema drugim crkvama i nezainteresiranošću za jedinstvo kršćana. U vrijeme u kojem je važno stvoriti ispravan identitet i razumjeti svoje mjesto u sve intenzivnijoj interakciji različitih kršćanskih denominacija, Izraela i poganskih naroda, bespovijesnost bi se u životima mnogih predanih kršćana mogla pokazati kao generator loše prosudbe. No s druge strane, pridavanje važnosti povijesti moglo bi pridonijeti jedinstvu među kršćanima. Abstract Since the earliest Church age, Christians have recognized the unique role of history in Christian understanding of God’s ways and plans with the humankind. High esteem of history and historicity was inherited from the Jews and Judaism. It is an important part of the Biblical message of both Testaments. Subsequently, Christian authors and scholars strove to define which history (ancient Israelite history, Church history, world history etc.) and in which way, was significant. Notwithstanding many differences, most theologians agreed that God’s will, plans, purposes and character are in some way, directly or indirectly, perceptible in history. History has also often been invoked by different Christian denominations as one of their raisons d’être. Within the Charismatic-Pentecostal movement, however, a different attitude toward history developed: indifference. Emphasis in those churches was put on personal experience measurable in time and space (here and now), in which historical perspective had no immediate significance. As there also existed at least latent suspicion toward academic enterprise, which was at the dawn of Pentecostalism often regarded as agent of disbelief and skepticism, traditional Christian interest in study of history faded. A lack of sense of history which soon settled in has been visible until the present day. Most Charismatic-Pentecostal churches foster among their members zeal of evangelization and piety, which is without any question the most important Christian task. However, lack of historical perspective could have some potentially harmful consequences, such as contempt for traditional churches and other denominations. View of one’s own church as a place in which God moves in ways unprecedented ever, which any Church historian would easily recognize as unwise and absurd, almost certainly produces spiritual exclusivity, suspicion toward other Christians and unconcern or even hostility toward Christian unity. In a time in which a sound identity and understanding of one’s place in the ever increasing interaction of different Church denominations, Israel and the Gentiles is perhaps more important than ever, lack of historical perspective may easily contribute to some poor judgment, even in devout Christians’ lives. On the other hand, appreciation of historical perspective may prove to be an important factor in pursuit of Christian unity."

U clanku je predstavljen nastanak krscanskog filosemitizma, te je postavljeno pitanje može li se, po istoj spranci, potaknuti proces boljeg razumijevanja među krscanskim denominacijama. Posebice je pitanje, može li se po tome uzoru produbiti veza katolika i pravoslavnih na podrucju bivse države.