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Horticultural Diplomacy: A Framework For Growing Culturally Aware Gardeners, Stephen Stresow-Cortez, Stephen Reiners, Ashley Miller Helmholdt

Journal of Extension

Derived from person-to-person diplomacy models, a ``horticultural diplomacy'' framework was implemented in a statewide vegetable variety trial program for two seasons to introduce Master Gardeners to diverse crops and cultures. Scaffolding learning with relevant recipes, bed groupings, community tasting events, and collecting community (citizen) science data helped participants build garden skills, gain a greater appreciation for other cultures, and inform new educational materials. Horticultural diplomacy is part of a deliberate effort aimed at growing food and building understanding among (primarily White) volunteers. The techniques that helped make this program successful, adaptable to other garden programs, and aspects that require improvements …

The Great Right North: Inside Far-Right Activism In Canada, By Stéphane Leman-Langlois, Aurélie Campana, And Samuel Tanner. Mcgill-Queen’S University Press, 2024. 288 Pages. $29.95. Isbn 978-0228022848, Carmen Celestini

Journal of Hate Studies

Carmen Celestini, a scholar of religion, reviews The Great Right North: Inside Far-Right Activism in Canada, co-authored by Stéphane Leman-Langlois, Aurélie Campana, and Samuel Tanner. The Great Right North traces the history of the far right in Canada, mapping hate groups by their relationships to political and social institutions and violence as well as their construction of otherness, thereby revealing how such groups are not insular but are in fact responsive to social phenomena. After defining groups as ultra right, racial right, xenophobic right, anti-state militias, freedom conspiracists, or nostalgic racists, The Great Right North identifies commonalities and differences …

The Violent Take It By Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, By Matthew D. Taylor. Broadleaf Books, 2024. 292 Pages. $32.99. Isbn 978-1506497785, Jefferson Calico

Journal of Hate Studies

Jefferson Calico, a scholar of religion, reviews Matthew D. Taylor’s The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy, an analysis of how the apostolic and prophetic movement within American Protestantism is reshaping religious politics. Charismatic, both theologically and personally, religious entrepreneurs like Paula White, C. Peter Wagner, Cindy Jacobs, Sean Feucht, and Dutch Sheets lead market-driven faith-based efforts to undermine democracy. With their emphasis on spectacular displays of spiritual gifts, they often embarrass other Christian nationalists, while the leadership of women and people of color in the movement scandalizes them—yet they are, in …

Introduction To “Reviews & Interviews”, Rebecca Barrett-Fox, Jennifer Schlegel

Journal of Hate Studies

An introduction to the 25th anniversary of the Journal of Hate Studies from Rebecca Barrett-Fox, editorial board chair, and Jennifer Schlegel, managing editor.

Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion And The Myth Of The Vigilante Messiah, By Rachel Wagner. New York: Nyu Press, 2023. 320 Pages. $35.00. Isbn 978-1479831623, Scot Loyd

Journal of Hate Studies

Scot Loyd, a heritage studies scholar, reviews Rachel Wagner’s Cowboy Apocalypse: Religion and the Myth of the Vigilante Messiah. An Interdisciplinary study drawing from religious studies, media theory, and cultural analysis, Cowboy Apocalypse examines how American video games, film, television, and other forms of popular culture engage redemptive violence, particularly at the hands of lone heroes.

Relationship Between Language, Culture, And Thinking Of The Kajang Community From The Perspective Of Anthropological Linguistics, Harlinah Sahib, Jumardin Muchtar, Herawati Abbas, Ferawaty Syam

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

In terms of anthropological linguistics, the study aims to explore the interaction of language, culture and cognitive tendencies in the community of Kajang. It particularly looks into the traditional oral expressions (kelong) of the community, including Kelong Basing Rikong, Lok-lok, and Ati-ati Raja, as their understandings of life, death, spirituality, and social values are expressed. A qualitative ethnolinguistic approach, informed by anthropological linguistics, was used in this study. Data collection methods included field observations, in-depth interviews with traditional leaders (Ammatoa), cultural practitioners and community elders, and a documentary analysis of oral texts, especially Kelong. …

Regulating Religious Coexistence : The Intricacies Of Interfaith Cooperation In Coastal Kenya, Erik Meinema

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Regulating Religious Coexistence offers a compelling ethnographic analysis of how Muslims, Christians, and practitioners of indigenous African religions negotiate coexistence in Kenya’s coastal region. The book conceptualizes religious diversity as a dynamic field shaped by multiple partly intersecting and partly conflicting models of interaction. These include the political secularism promoted by the Kenyan state and civil society organizations focused on interfaith harmony, forms of competition between religious groups, and pluralistic practices in which individuals draw on multiple traditions to meet spiritual needs.

Through a close examination of civil society initiatives funded by Western donors to foster peacebuilding and to counter …

The Psychosocial Experience Of Black Pentecostal Pastors In Western America Post-Pandemic, Isaiah Kelley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted religious institutions, altering how Black pastors provided spiritual leadership, community support, and social connection. Limited research has examined how these disruptions affected the social identity and psychosocial well-being of African American Pentecostal pastors. This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of 11 African American Pentecostal pastors in the western United States following COVID-19 church closures. Guided by social identity theory, semi-structured interviews examined changes in participants’ social identity. Data were analyzed using Moustakas’s phenomenological approach: first- and second-cycle coding, member checking, reflective journals, and thematic analysis. Four themes emerged: psychological and emotional burden, social isolation …

The Lived Liturgical Experience Of Non-Catholic Participants In The Roman Catholic Mass: Tactical Ecumenism In Overlapping Ritual Systems, Sarah Kathleen Johnson

Journal of Global Catholicism

In religiously diverse social contexts, liturgical practices anchored in one reli-

gious tradition often gather diverse communities. In such contexts, it is wise to

assume that people who are not Catholic may be present at any Roman Cath-

olic Mass. This article explores the lived liturgical experience of non-Catholic

Christians who participate routinely in the Roman Catholic Mass through a

mixed-methods study of a religiously diverse treble vocal ensemble that sings

weekly at Mass on a Catholic university campus. It describes how Catholic and

non-Catholic Christian singers interpret practices surrounding the eucharistic

meal in contrasting ways: non-Catholic Christians experience the …

Negotiating Plurality: Korean Catholic Funerals As Lived Religion, Jieun Han

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines Korean Catholic funeral rites through the lenses of ritual

guidebooks and lived religion, arguing that Catholic funerary practice in Korea

has emerged through sustained engagement with Confucian and Buddhist tradi-

tions as well as modern nationalism. Focusing on Catholic manuals such as the

Sangjang yesik [Rites for Mourning and Funerals] and related texts, it traces how

officially sanctioned liturgical forms coexist with, accommodate, and reinterpret

indigenous ritual logics surrounding mourning, burial, ancestor veneration, and

care for the dead. Rather than viewing Korean Catholic funerals as a simple

localization of Roman rites, the article conceptualizes them as a …

Religious Change In The Context Of Modernity: Innovation, Restoration, And Decline, Feyza Akova, Amy Lawton, Diane Winston

Sociology Faculty Research and Scholarship

In this paper we examine how the modern conditions of the twenty-first century and the contemporary United States context shape religious change and religious life. Rather than treating modernity as a force that only weakens religion, as classical secularization accounts have largely argued (Berger 1963; Chaves 1994; Wallis and Bruce 1992), or as a context that promotes vitality primarily through pluralism and competition, as the religious economy paradigm suggests (Finke and Iannaccone 1993; Finke and Stark 1992, 2000; Iannaccone 1994), we show how it can also shape and produce broad patterns of religious change with particular attention to various characteristics …

Practical Aspects Of Religious Social Work In Modern Ukraine, Inna Vladislavivna Kovalchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This work analyzes the current state and specifics of the activity of religious organizations in the social sphere of Ukraine. Special attention is paid to the transformation of religious social work in the conditions of a full-scale war, where religious communities have become key agents of humanitarian, psychological and spiritual assistance. The article examines the mechanisms of interaction between the church, the state and non-governmental organizations in solving social problems. The findings are based on the practical experiences of those working with internally displaced persons (IDPs), veterans, large families, and individuals facing difficult life circumstances. Unique methods of denominational assistance …

Solidarity In Action: Social Service Of Caritas Organizations In Ukraine In Wartime, Andrii Marchenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to the analysis of the activities of Caritas charitable organizations in Ukraine, which are affiliated with the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (Caritas Ukraine) and the Roman Catholic Church (Caritas-Spes Ukraine), in the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Particular attention is focused on considering how the fundamental ideas of Christian love, mercy, common good, and solidarity are embodied in the various practices of humanitarian, spiritual, and other support that these institutions provide to different categories of the population of Ukraine, especially those who have suffered from the destructive consequences of the war. Types of such support include, …

When Everything Falls Apart: On Core Values, Religion, And What Holds Societies Together, András Máté-Tóth

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Right now my region, like much of the world, is living through upheavals that reach both nature and politics at their foundations. When I look around and take the political crises seriously — the mass protests in Serbia, the long erosion of checks and balances in Hungary, the bitter fight over the courts and the rule of law in Poland — one question keeps surfacing: are we witnessing genuinely fundamental change, or only a reshuffling on the surface of power? That question is exactly what makes the problem of core values so urgent, and so current.

Bridging The Abyss: Reclaiming Spirituality In Academic Knowledge Production, Neil Boland

Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education

Over recent decades, Western academia has shown a growing interest in spirituality, accompanied by methodological innovations and epistemological expansion. Nevertheless, spiritual inquiry continues to be subtly subordinated to scientific rationalism, with Western science often presiding as gatekeeper over what is considered legitimate knowledge. Drawing on Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ concept of abyssal thinking, this article argues that spiritual and experiential forms of knowing remain largely relegated to the far side of an epistemic divide, valued only insofar as they can be reframed within scientific norms. Despite increasing institutional recognition of spirituality in fields such as education, psychology, and medicine, …

Interstellar Faith: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Christian Reconciliation With Uaps And Nonhuman Intelligence, Christian Pedersen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The researcher examined how Christian leaders interpret, respond to, and navigate questions surrounding Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and nonhuman intelligence (NHI) within their theological and ministerial contexts. Despite growing cultural and governmental attention to these phenomena, little empirical research has explored how Christian leaders engage these questions pastorally or theologically. Using a transcendental phenomenological design informed by Moustakas (1994), the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve Christian leaders across multiple traditions. Analysis produced ten major themes organized around three research questions addressing theological interpretation, pastoral ministry, and lived experience. Findings revealed a participant group marked by intellectual humility, theological seriousness, …

Spiritual Abuse: A Qualitative Study On The Lived Experience Of Survivors And Their Attachment To God, Danielle Farra Bingham

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Christian survivors of spiritual abuse and their relationship with God. The study also examined whether participants described those experiences using language comparable to Attachment Theory. Ten adult Christian survivors participated in semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using Smith et al.'s (2022) interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) framework. Six Group Experiential Themes (GETs) emerged from the analysis: (a) wondering whether God was safe after sacred harm; (b) keeping God close enough to need Him and distant enough to survive; (c) trying to separate God's heart from the voices …

The Honored Children Of Adam: A Muslim Reading Of Magnifica Humanitas In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence, Iqbal Akhtar

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Sac Newsletter 2026, South Asia Center

Newsletters from the South Asia Center

No abstract provided.

Family Religious Socialization Index: Development And Preliminary Validation, Kaelie Rene Crockett

Theses and Dissertations

A key area of interest for religious scholars is how religious beliefs are passed across generations, or religious socialization. To expand this field of study, a theoretically grounded, validated measure of this construct is needed. This article describes the development and validation of the Family Religious Socialization Index (FRSI), a multi-informant, multidimensional assessment of the processes through which parents socialize religion and faith in their children. Based on Social Cognitive Theory and through a rigorous development and validation process, three subscales were developed to represent the primary processes of religious socialization. The FRSI consists of two parallel scales, a parent …

Georgia Library Association Executive Board Officer Candidates For 2026, Karen Manning

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Jewish Women’S Folk Memory Of Argentine Schooldays, 1900–1955, Jacqueline Laznow

Jewish Folklore and Ethnology

This essay explores the folkloric formation of Jewish-Argentine female identity through schoolyard experiences and domestic resistance in the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with women who later made aliyah, the study analyzes these accounts as personal experience narratives, arguing that painful memories of antisemitism and “otherness” are cognitively restructured through folk processes into a symbolic frame for communal interpretation. These narratives function as “legend discourse,” sparking commentary and intergenerational transmission, and serve as mechanisms for reconstructing daily life within a dominant Christian culture. They reveal a “hyphenated” Jewish-Argentine identity reimagined from the perspective of the narrators’ …

Ikenga: Symbolism, Spirituality, And Sociocultural Importance In Igbo Traditional Belief Systems, Chinyere Ndubuisi

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

The Ikenga, a noteworthy relic of the Igbo people of southern Nigeria, is examined in this paper as a major art object for a better understanding of African traditional religions and belief systems. Ikenga is a wooden sculpture traditionally made to represent an individual's power, achievements, and spiritual essence among the Igbo. Ikenga is ascribed the embodiment of the relationship between personal action, ancestral respect, and divinity within Igbo mythology. Within the framework of Igbo traditional religion, this paper examines the ontological significance, spiritual purposes, and social consequences of the Ikenga. The symbolic relevance of Ikenga as both a personal …

Editors’ Note: Introducing The Inaugural Edition

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

No abstract provided.

Switching Sides: A Grounded Theory Study Of Transition From Christian To Atheist, Joel C. Furches

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study developed a data driven, six stage model of deconversion, defined as the transition from publicly identifying as a Christian to publicly identifying as an atheist. Using a Grounded Theory approach for analysis, and an archival approach for data collection, the research analyzed 35 autobiographical accounts of deconversion to identify common psychological, social, and behavioral processes underlying religious-deidentification and atheist identification. The findings revealed six background features characteristic of religious environments with higher likelihood of producing deconverts, four categories of objections that precipitate dissonance, and six coping strategies individuals employ in response to that dissonance. Central to the model …

Our Children Are Sacred: Faith, Disability Justice, And Educational Hope, Charles E. Becknell Jr., Pricella Morris, Monique Matute-Chavarria, Deirdre A. Williams

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

This manuscript examines how Black families interpret dis/ability through faith, caregiving, and communal life using Sacred Narrative Inquiry (SNI), a collaborative approach that treats family stories as sources of sacred and cultural knowledge. Grounded in disability theology and informed by Black liberation theology and Womanist epistemology, the study explores how families understand dis/ability as sacred and embodied, shaped by struggle, endurance, and hope. Through shared storytelling and collective interpretation, the analysis identifies recurring patterns of early moral formation, embodied knowledge that precedes institutional recognition, faith as a sustaining practice under constraint, and moments of recognition that affirm dignity and interrupt …

Illuminating Sanja Matsuri: Lived Religion And Festival Practice In Asakusa, Caleb R. Merckle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Sanja Matsuri, a major Shintō and Buddhist festival in Asakusa, Tokyo, through the lenses of lived religion, participant observation, autoethnography, and anthropology. Departing from institution-centered approaches, it foregrounds the experiential dimensions of festival participation, showing how physical devotion, collective movement, and festive intensity function as expressions of spiritual meaning. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2023 and 2025 included participant observation, informal interviews with local and foreign participants, and Reflexive Discourse Analysis of fieldnotes and bilingual transcripts. Analysis reveals a dynamic interplay between formal sacralization strategies — such as mitama-ire rituals and structured processions — and spontaneous, informal participant …

Jainism And Catholicism – Dialoguing Spiritually, Bryan Lobo

Journal of Global Catholicism

The inter-spiritual dialogue between Jainism and Catholicism lends itself towards discovering similarities and dissimilarities between the two spiritualities. Recognizing this discovery, this paper, without claiming to be exhaustive as regards the spiritual themes, discusses the chosen themes to facilitate greater reflection and potential to re-discover elements that can help the growth of understanding and practicing the preferred spirituality.

Overview And Acknowledgments, Mathew Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

An overview and introduction to the present issue on Inter-Spiritual Dialogue.

Of Slash Pines And Manatees: A Highly Selective Field Guide To My Suburban Wilderness, Ashley Roach-Freiman

The Southeastern Librarian

Of Slash Pines and Manatees: A Highly Selective Field Guide to My Suburban Wilderness
Andrew Furman
Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2025
ISBN: 9780813080963
208 pp., $28.00 (Pbk)