Religion Commons^™

Religious Issues In The Journal "Ukrainian Life" (1912-1917), Olga Polumysna, Mariia Bobro

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article establishes that at the beginning of the 20th century, the journal Ukrainskaia Zhizn became a reliable and unbiased source of information about the social-political and religious life in Ukraine. The reports published in the journal make it possible to state that through the mediation of Russian priests, the authorities imposed the use of the Russian language while holding services in Ukrainian churches. Besides, it is ascertained that those priests who advocated the Ukrainian national idea, the spreading of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of life, who upheld the Ukrainian issue in various state institutions were humiliated and …

Brief Observation Of The General Trajectory Of Western Media Coverage Of The Religious Situation In Ukraine, Petro Livak, Daniil Palij

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article attempts to analyze the general trajectory of Western media coverage of the religious environment in Ukraine. Recently, the religious situation in Ukraine has become one of the strategic issues of national security, since it is relevant and important in the light of not only the religious, but also the political context of Ukraine. The study examines the journalistic activity of Western publications about the religious transformations of Ukraine from 2019 to 2023. This encompasses the intensity of the rapid confessional changes in Ukraine, the style of the journalistic text under study, the intensity of their media representation, and …

Identities Of Women In Indian Art And History, Nalini Rao

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The stereotypical image of Indian women portrayed in the art of stone sculpture is often interpreted as images of beauty that are sensuous, religious as well depict social life. There are historical reasons for depicting her as such. This paper inquires into the changing depiction and social forces that influenced feminine imagery. This paper examines the portrayal of beauty through idealization of female body which has evolved over the centuries in India. It also aims to understand their changing status and explores issues of feminine identity, status, and empowerment largely in ancient and medieval India. It also provides a brief …

The Political Ecology Of Death: Chinese Religion And The Affective Tensions Of Secularised Burial Rituals In Singapore, Quan Gao, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the political ecology of death and the affective tensions of secularised burial rituals in Singapore. Although scholars have recently acknowledged the roles of biopower and affect in shaping environmental politics, religion and death as socio-affective forces have not been substantively engaged with by political ecologists. We argue that death is inherently both a spiritual and ecological phenomenon, as it exposes not only the spiritual geographies that structure how people see the natural world, but also the affective tensions and struggles over what counts as a “proper” form of burial in relation to religion and nature. First, we …

Book Review: Animal Care In Japanese Tradition: A Short History, James Stone Lunde

Asia Pacific Perspectives

No abstract provided.

On The Phenomenon Of Populism And Extremism In The Balkans, Mustafa Cerić

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This paper is based on my personal experience of war and peace in Bosnia. The basic notion is that it is easier to start a war than to stop it. Thus, postwar recovery or peacebuilding is not easy. But thanks to open-minded people who have been all along against a mythical populism that caused the bloody war against Bosnia and its autochthon people, the peace, although unjust, was reached after all. The focus here is on the idea of pluralism in Bosnia as an opposite to "populism" and "extremism." For a positive narrative like pluralism is a good way to …

Media Coverage Of The Peacekeeping Activities Of Pope Francis' Support Of Ukraine In The Russian-Ukrainian Full-Scale War, Bogdan Synchak, Mariia Ovchar, Valentyn Shevchuk, Eleanora Tsurina

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The relevance of the study is due to the significance of the influence of Pope Francis’ peacekeeping activities as the head of the Catholic Church on global geopolitics. This influence is being actively implemented within the framework of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Thus, the study of the international diplomatic activity of the pontiff in the context of supporting Ukraine is aimed at establishing the features of the peacekeeping work of the Holy See. The study presents an analysis of news coverage on the stated issues in popular Ukrainian and foreign publications from December 2021 to October 2022. The Washington Post, Politico, …

The Pattern Of The Transformation Of The Religious Life Of The Armenian Diaspora In Ukraine: Conditions, Causes, Consquences, Iryna Haiuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article reveals the role of the Armenian Church in preserving the ethnic identity of Armenians in the diaspora on Ukrainian land. The transgression or adaptation of the religious and ecclesiastical sphere of Armenians to the new environment in Ukraine was a "soft" process, since it was a transition within a Christian society, and therefore not on religious, but on the confessional basis of "Own"/Christians, although "Others." The specifics of the mentality, general algorithms of migration and incorporation into the new socio-cultural environment determined the main aspects of the transition of the religious and ecclesiastical sphere of Armenians into the …

The Adventist Development And Relief Agency In The Conditions Of War In Ukraine, Valentyna Kuryliak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The study presents two positions of Ukrainian Adventists in relation to volunteer work in the conditions of war. The first position is professional, which involves the provision of charitable assistance to people from the Adventist Relief and Development Agency in Ukraine. Such charitable assistance is based on the principle of charity and is aimed solely at providing the necessary assistance to victims. The second position is to also assist the affected members of the Seventh-day Adventist Churches, as people who do not have professional volunteer training. With the second category of helping Adventists, a number of controversial issues tend to …

Russia’S False Claims To Holiness And Spiritual Superiority, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Among the many reasons given by President Putin and Patriarch Kirill, the secular and spiritual heads of the Russian Federation, for waging a totally unnecessary yet exceedingly cruel war against Ukraine is that Ukraine is allegedly a front for the corrupt and voracious West which aims to partition Russia. These two and their retinue claim that their synthesis of holiness and moral superiority is destined to cleanse the world of decadence.

Frontmatter (Volume 43, Issue 3), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Iron Curtain Of Fear: Theological Interpretations Of Data About Attitudes Of Christians Towards Refugees From Surveys In Central Europe, Michal Opatrný, Paul Michael Zulehner, Jozef Žuffa

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The study aims to combine the data from three different but mutually inspired surveys of theologians about attitudes and feelings of Christians towards the so-called refugee crisis in Europe in 2015. The study combines the data from surveys in German speaking countries and from Czechia and Slovakia and focuses on attitudes (defense, skepticism, welcome) and feelings (angry, worry, hope). Topics like authoritarianism or attending Sunday services show the connections between practicing of Christian faith and readiness to receive or reject refugees. In the second part the study offers an interpretation of the results from the combining of the data for …

Assistance Given To The Ukrainian Refugees By The Polish People After Russian Invasion Of Ukraine On February 24, 2022, Elžbieta Pakszys

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

My task here is to relate the ways in which the Polish population helps Ukrainian refugees since the beginning of the Russian aggression. Who are these refugees? How do they obtain help? I also want to think about the motivations for such spontaneous willingness to help. What are the presumed reasons for it, and what are the true ones? What is the impact of events from the past on the present situation? Also – whom and why are Poles helping less willingly, namely the so-called ‘problem of refugees’ from behind the Byelorussian boarder.

Frontmatter (Volume 43, Issue 5), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Here We Go Again? – Wcc´S Statement On Ukraine, Mio Kivelä

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The aim of this paper is to analyze the statement World Council of Churches, WCC, made on the war in Ukraine as well as the discussion related to the statement at the WCC´s 11^th assembly in 2022. The statement and the discussion around it at the assembly will also open a wider perspective on ecumenical movements. One perspective will be to analyze whether the statement made on Ukraine repeats the problems made in previous ecumenical statements and comments around Second World War, WWII.

Frontmatter (Volume 43, Issue 6), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

"War In Ukraine: Religious, Geopolitical And Cultural Dimensions Of Value-Worldview Clashes At The Beginning Of The 21st Century": International Theological Conference, Vladyslav Fulmes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

On June 15, 2023 Volyn Orthodox Theological Academy (Lutsk, Ukraine) held an international theological conference “WAR in UKRAINE: Religious, Geopolitical and Cultural Dimensions of Value-worldview Clashes at the Beginning of the 21st century”. Brief information about this international scientific conference is given.

Introduction By The Guest Editor, Valentyna Kuryliak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

We bring to your attention a special issue dedicated to Christian denominations on the territory of Ukraine. The issue is dedicated to the most difficult periods in the history of Ukraine, namely three wars, two of which were in the 20th century, and the third of which began in 2014 and has been in an active phase since 2022.

...This August issue of OPREE is divided into two parts. The first part contains articles devoted to the period from 1900 to 1945. During this period, the authors from different denominational backgrounds analyze the state of Christian denominations and the challenges …

Semantics Of The Symbol "Z" In The Religious Ideology Of The Russian Federation, Ivan Ostashchuk, Volodymyr Litkevych

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes for the first time the identification and content of Russian military symbols and their use in Russian Orthodoxy. At the linguistic level, it was found that such word formation Z-Orthodoxy was taken from the publications and public speeches of Archimandrite Kyrylo Govorun. Our study focuses on the proposal to use the neologism Z-Orthodoxy to demonstrate some semantic interpretations in the context of the military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and the entire democratic world. As a result of the analysis of the military symbols of the Russian Federation, Russian Orthodoxy found that after February 24, …

Hope Channel Ukraine As "The Spiritual Front": Mediatization Of Religion In The War Against Ukraine, Maksym Balaklytskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Hope Channel Ukraine (Nadiia TV in Ukrainian) claims to be “the first Christian TV channel in Ukraine.” During the Russian invasion of 2022, its main innovation was the “All-Ukrainian HOPE Marathon” program. It is a live program that is being aired from February 28 to June 22 in morning and evening blocks of one and a half hours. For the first months, the Marathon was broadcast daily without a day off. Since September, it has been aired twice a week under the title “Spiritual Front.” “All-Ukrainian HOPE Marathon ”became the largest live project of Hope Channel Ukraine during its conventional …

Sacralization Of The Image Of The Armed Forces Of Ukraine, Petro Kotliarov, Mariia Ovchar

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article offers a multifaceted analysis of the phenomenon of the sacralization of the image of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), aimed at an in-depth understanding of the influence of the Armed Forces on society and national consciousness in the context of the Russian- Ukrainian war. Sacralization implies the inoculation/infusion of holiness, of a religious or supernatural nature, into institutions or symbols, and in this context, it is studied how this process affects the perception and support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Ukrainian society. The article analyzes the role of the Armed Forces of Ukraine during military …

Hagia Sophia, Religious Freedom, And The Destruction Of The Christian Cultural Heritage In Turkey, Ina Merdjanova

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A lot has happened in the last 10 years in Turkey. The Gezi Park protests in the summer of 2013 started as a peaceful citizens’ demonstration against the government’s plans to demolish a park in Istanbul city center in order to open space for the building of an Ottoman-themed mall and a new mosque, and after disproportionate police violence, turned into a mass movement against an increasingly authoritarian rule. The 2015 break-up of the Kurdish-Turkish peace process botched hopes for ending the 40-year conflict in the country’s Southeast. The failed coup in 2016 lead to ferocious crackdown on oppositional politicians, …

More Muslim, Salman Ahad Khan

Capstones

More Muslim is a show that explores the Muslim experience, with all its messiness.

Each episode is a narrative, transhistorical journey into one aspect of the Muslim experience that defined or is being defined by the modern world. This capstone forms the first two episodes of the series. Episode 1, "When Memes Meet Sufis," explores the question of how Rumi, a Muslim scholar from the 13th century, became the best-selling poet in the US. Episode 2, "The Halal Meat Conundrum," is a firsthand journey into the American halal meat industry and attempts to understand how halal became a $20 billion …

The Yellow Qipao, Feibi Wang

Honors Projects

This is a creative project centered around the pre-production of a short film about queer Asian American Christianity and the research that went into it. The synopsis of the script written for the short film is a life in the day of Aspen. Aspen prepares for church and is indecisive of the clothes they want to wear, because they are gender non-conforming. They come out to their mom and there is conflict. My research going into this project consists of researching media representation of queerness, Asian American identity, and Christianity, and how the three identities intersect in Aspen’s life and …

The Search For Spices And Souls: Catholic Missions As Colonial State In The Philippines, Dean C. Dulay

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A growing literature posits that colonial Christian missions brought schooling to the colonies, improving human capital in ways that persist to this day. But in some places they did much more. This paper argues that colonial Catholic missions in the Philippines functioned as state-builders, establishing law and order and building fiscal and infrastructural capacities in territories they controlled. The mission-as-state was the result of a bargain between the Catholic missions and the Spanish colonial government: missionaries converted the population and engaged in state-building, whereas the colonial government reaped the benefits of state expansion while staying in the capital. Exposure to …

Frontmatter (Volume 42, Issue 9), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Modern Accents Of Theological Reflection Of Representatives Of The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church Regarding The War And Its Challenges, Olga Nedavnya

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the relevant thematic documents and materials with the purpose of determining the ways, means and features of the theological search of the representatives of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (hereafter UGCC) in relation to the challenges of Russia's war against Ukraine. The principles of objectivity and confessional non-commitment became the methodological basis of the research. The hermeneutic method, system and content analysis, and the method of doctrinal verification were used. The scientific novelty of the research is determined by the appeal to a socially important hot topic, which is just beginning to be studied by scientists based …

Two Protestants, Three Churches: Croatian Protestantism: Churches, Denominations, And Theological Institutions, Lidija Matošević, Enoh Šeba, Ruben Knežević

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Using the existing data from the national census (2011 and 2021) and other available data sources, the authors present Croatian Protestantism on the national level as a fragmented minority. In search for possible historic reasons for this fragmentized mode of existence, they proceed with an overview of Protestant presence in the Croatian lands, starting from the early adoption of Protestant ideas, eradicated by the Catholic Counter-Reformation up to the ghettoization of the Protestant congregations during the Communist era (late 20th century). The establishment of an independent Croatian state and the subsequent war proved to be a significant turning point for …

Church And State In Montenegro: From The Serbian Orthodox Church To The Church Of Serbia, Vladimir Bakrač

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The paper deals with the role of religion and the church in the post-socialist transformations of society in Montenegro, focusing on the period from the 1990s to 2022. The goal of the paper is to present the historical and sociological (non-)cooperation between the church and the state in Montenegro and their reflection on social circumstances. According to sociological expertise, secularization and atheization of the society carried out by the then political regime and aligned with Marxist reflections on religion were in force until the 1990s. Subsequently, a period of desecularization of society and revitalization of religion and religiosity followed. Accordingly, …

The Role Of Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytskyi In The Formation Of Ukrainian National Identity, Iryna Krasnodemska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the main statehood ideas and views of the socio-political and Church figure, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytskyi’s contribution to the struggle for the establishment of an independent, united Ukrainian state. The impact of the Metropolitan’s activity as the hierarch of the Greek Catholic Church on the Ukrainian national spiritual revival in Ukraine (at the end of the 19th to middle 20th century) is clarified as the solid foundation which was laid by his ecumenical ideas. The judgment of A. Sheptytskyi regarding the necessary prerequisites for building a strong, independent Ukraine, and his ideas about reforming state authorities, the Church, …