Religion Commons^™

Marriage Governance In Kyrgyzstan: Convergence And Divergence Between Secular Law, Islamic Norms, And Customary Practices, Aisuluu Adylbekkyzy, Zailabidin Azhimamatov, Aiitmamat Kariev

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Marriage governance in Kyrgyzstan is shaped by the coexistence of secular law, Islamic norms, and customary law), creating a plural legal environment in which multiple sources of authority regulate family relations. This study examines how these normative systems interact in the governance of marriage, identifies areas of convergence and divergence, and explores their implications for legal legitimacy and family regulation. Employing a qualitative socio-legal methodology grounded in legal pluralism theory, the research draws on documentary and comparative analysis of legal texts, Islamic sources, official religious guidance, and relevant scholarly literature. The findings demonstrate that marriage governance in Kyrgyzstan operates through …

Book Review: Ryszard Tyndorf With Rev. Zygmunt Zieliński, Wartime Rescue Of Jews By The Polish Catholic Clergy: The Testimony Of Survivors And Rescuers, John M. Grondelski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

A review of Ryszard Tyndorf with Rev. Zygmunt Zieliński, Wartime Rescue of Jews by the Polish Catholic Clergy: The Testimony of Survivors and Rescuers. Lublin, Poland: Heschel Center, Wydawnictwo KUL, 2023. 2 vols., HB. ISBN 978-83-8288-087-8//088-5.

Going On Vocation, Rodney Palmer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Lucretius, Ovid, And Milton In Seventeenth-Century England: First Matter, Creation, And Food Of Angels, Conny M. Pfeifer

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Paradise Lost is a complex poem that not only contains John Milton’s rendition of the Genesis creation narrative and the Fall of humankind but also provides a voice for his unique theology. This dissertation argues that Milton’s creative use of the three disparate concepts of consuming and digesting knowledge, chaos, and the night sky allows him to respond to Lucretian atomism, to address questions regarding the mortality of the soul, and to navigate the scientific discoveries of the seventeenth century, especially the astronomical discoveries of Galileo Galilei. An examination of digestion, chaos, and night helps shed light on Milton’s unique …

The Religious Landscape Of Ukraine During The War: Consolidation Potential And Destructive Imitations, Vadym Dyiak

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the transformation of religion’s functional role in the context of the russian-Ukrainian war. The author analyzes how the extreme circumstances of armed conflict catalyze the polarization of Ukraine’s religious landscape, clearly distinguishing between authentic religiosity and its ideological imitations. The main focus is on conceptualizing the differences between churches that serve as a resource for spiritual consolidation and social therapy (the OCU, the UGCC) and religious institutions that are used as instruments of hybrid aggression. To describe the latter phenomenon, the author introduces and adapts Oswald Spengler’s concept of “historical pseudomorphosis.” It is argued that the activities …

The Ukrainian Religious Diaspora In Countering Russian Aggression, Liudmyla Fylypovych, Georgii D. Fylypovych Mr.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes the activities of the Ukrainian religious diaspora during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, its involvement in humanitarian support, and information-media opposition to Russia. It examines the initiatives of various churches, including the UGCC, the Orthodox Church in America, and Protestant congregations abroad, in providing concrete assistance to Ukraine, specifically to refugees, displaced persons, medical institutions, and units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The assistance provided is multi-vector in nature, ranging from financial support for individuals or institutions to psychological aid for those suffering from various traumas. The article highlights the necessity of creating inter-confessional coordination centers for …

Religious Television Of Ukraine In Shaping Spiritual Identity In The Context Of Contemporary Media Practices, Oleh Sokolovskyi, Vadym Slyusar, Maksym Melnychuk, Yuliia Kondratiuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to analysing religious television in Ukraine as a key institution of contemporary sacred communication, which shapes a new configuration of spiritual presence within the digital media space. Religious TV channels are examined as mediatized spaces for producing and transmitting symbolic meanings, within which traditional theological narratives are adapted to the demands of audiovisual culture, and the sacred acquires new forms of visualisation, emotional accessibility, and communicative dynamism. It is demonstrated that television broadcasting provides a unique format of spiritual support, enabling faith communities to participate in prayer practices, catechetical programmes, and moral-ethical discourse beyond the boundaries …

The Human Rights Argumentation Of The Uoc-Mp As A Strategy Of Institutional Self-Preservation Under Conditions Of Armed Aggression, Mariia Rudiuk, Valeriy Bulatov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article examines the strategy of institutional self-preservation employed by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) under conditions of Russian armed aggression. The relevance of the topic is determined by the adoption of Law of Ukraine No. 3894-IX “On the Protection of the Constitutional Order in the Sphere of Activities of Religious Organizations,” aimed at limiting the influence of religious structures affiliated with the aggressor state. Particular attention is devoted to the ways in which the UOC-MP utilizes democratic legal mechanisms and European human rights rhetoric in order to delay or neutralize Ukraine’s national security measures. The …

Hybrid Identity And Religious Radicalization: On The Effectiveness Of Kazakhstan's State Policy, Sholpan Zhandossova, Marhabbat Nurov

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines the relationship between hybrid identity and religious radicalization in Kazakhstan, arguing that state policy has been built on a systematically inverted risk hierarchy. Drawing on secondary analysis of longitudinal sociological surveys, expert assessments, and official statistics, the article demonstrates that the intensity of religious practice is a statistically non-significant predictor of radicalization (ρ=+0.18; p>0.05), whereas identity fragmentation– the internal incoherence between competing ethnic, Soviet-secular, Islamic, and civic- Kazakhstani identity layers–carries the strongest positive correlation (ρ=+0.61; p<0.001). The normative architecture constructed between 2011 and 2024 is evaluated against these empirical predictors across four analytical levels: longitudinal trend analysis, regional identity profiling, factor correlation analysis, and institutional trust trajectories. The article finds that successive policy instruments have concentrated institutional resources on the weakest risk factor while leaving the strongest predictors structurally unaddressed. The post-2016 decline in registered criminal cases is attributed primarily to the organizational collapse of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant as a recruitment structure rather than to domestic policy effectiveness. Trust in the state-affiliated religious authority declined by twenty percentage points over the period of maximum normative intensity–an outcome directly contrary to policy intent. The article concludes with three evidence-based corrective directions: reorienting the diagnostic framework toward monitoring identity fragmentation, recovering protective social factors as explicit policy targets, and restructuring formal religious authority to allow community-derived legitimacy to carry preventive functions.

Religious Conversion From Islam To Christianity In Kazakhstan, Kalmahan Yerzhan, Didar Mamyrbayev, Yelaman Karibekuly

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The phenomenon of religious conversion constitutes a significant topic of inquiry within the realms of social and psychological research in contemporary society. This article investigates the experiences of Muslims in Kazakhstan who have transitioned to Christianity, specifically within the Baptist denomination. The study employed a qualitative approach and was executed through semi-structured interviews with participants. The primary objective of the interview was to ascertain how familial upbringing, emotional experiences, as well as social and psychological factors, influence the conversion process. The findings indicated that the act of changing one's religion is frequently correlated with an individual's personal spiritual quest, existential …

Frontmatter (Volume 46, Issue 1), Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Socio-Psychological Portrait Of Muslim Women Who Joined Radical Religious Organizations, Akerke Sakbayeva, Nagima Baitenova, Zhuldyz Zhorabek, Assel Alimkhanova, Raimbek Zeinullin

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines the socio-psychological characteristics, motivations for radicalization, and the legal and social status of Muslim women who have joined radical religious organizations from gender and cultural studies perspectives. In recent years, the increasing involvement of women in violent extremist movements has intensified the need to investigate this phenomenon not only as a security issue, but also as a complex social, cultural, psychological, and gender-related phenomenon. The study analyzes both internal and external factors influencing the radicalization of women, including social marginalization, identity crises, emotional dependency, limited religious literacy, and perceptions of social injustice. Particular attention is given to …

Disenchantment Of The World In The Context Of The Russian-Ukrainian War,, Olga Dobrodum, Eduard Martyniuk, Olena Nykytchenko, Mykola Palinchak, Ruslana Tkachenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article analyzes Max Weber's concept of the "disenchantment of the world" («Entzauberung der Welt») in the context of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, which began with Russia's invasion in February 2022 and continues to the present. The author examines disenchantment as a process of rationalization and desacralization of society, tracing its development from ancient origins (Epicurus) and monotheistic traditions to contemporary interpretations (Adorno and Horkheimer, Barthes, Baudrillard, Habermas, Taylor, Haraway, Latour). The paradoxical nature of the process is emphasized: secularization does not eliminate the sacred but transforms it into new forms—from commodity fetishism to digital eschatology and posthumanist animism.

The …

The Symbolic Language Of Militarized Orthodoxy In Patriarchal Sermons, Architecture, And Pseudo-Historical Memory, Oleksandr Lukyanenko

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article is devoted to a comprehensive cultural and religious analysis of the processes of militarization of religious worldview in modern Russia using the example of public speeches of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, as well as the symbolic space of the Main Temple of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Particular attention is paid to the study of the mechanisms of sacralization of war through the integration of historical memory, Orthodox rhetoric and the state ideology of the “Russian world”. The study analyzes the peculiarities of the interpretation of World War II as the sacred foundation of modern Russian …

The Russian Orthodox Church In The Ukrainian Ssr, 1946–1951: Activity And State Relations In Vinnytsia Region, Natalka Zhmud, Anatoliy A. Voynarovskiy Skiy

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church (hereafter, ROC) and its relations with Soviet authorities in the Ukrainian SSR between 1946 and 1951. It draws on archival materials introduced into scholarly circulation for the first time–specifically, reports by commissioners of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Council for the Affairs of Religious Cults in the Ukrainian SSR, with particular reference to Vinnytsia region. Relations between the ROC and the Soviet authorities, in authors opinion, should be regarded in the context of a noticeable easing of anti-religious pressure under Stalin’s totalitarian regime …

A Neurophenomenological Perspective On The Self And Spirituality: The Role Of The Affective Core Self, Michael J. Winkleman, Andrew B. Newberg

Marcus Institute of Integrative Health Faculty Papers

The self is central to spirituality because the self is necessary for consciousness, and spiritual relations are fundamentally about the self. Diverse research illustrates the role of the downregulation of the right parietal lobe (rPL) in the spontaneous manifestation of spiritual experiences and during meditative practices. The functions of the rPL are central to the self, especially the embodied self. Disturbances of the rPL and embodied self-functions are associated with spiritual experience, exemplified in their association with “selflessness.” Many forms of self appear incompatible with spiritual and mystical experiences. An exception is the affective core self, the most ancient form …

Ten Signatories, A Hundred Communities: Pluralization Without Consolidation In Slovenian Protestantism, Katja Brkič Golob

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This article examines why contemporary Slovenian Protestantism exhibits a dual structure: a low‑variance Lutheran core (the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession - ECAC) and a high‑variance neo‑Protestant field (mainly Pentecostal, Charismatic, Evangelical, and some Baptist communities). Using the public Register of Churches and Other Religious Communities as an administrative tracer of organizational volatility (first registrations, renamings, deletions), and situating findings in census/survey context, the study shows that post‑1991 legal liberalization enabled rapid formalization without automatic consolidation. A four‑lens framework—historico‑legal, sociological (church–sect–mysticism; religious‑economy), ecclesiological (order vs. movement), and psychological (charisma and its routinization; risks of authoritarian patterns)—explains why tensions in …

Spirituality And Psychological Well-Being In College Students: Does Resilience Mediate This Relationship, Kevin C. Snow, Jessica Starken, Lindsay A. Phillips

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

Given continued challenges of college transition and recent changes (e.g., COVID) leading to increased use of college counseling services and past studies exploring spiritualty/religion and resilience pertaining to psychological well-being (PWB), this study explored the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB in college students. Three scales, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Daily Spiritual Experience Scale, and the Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale, were used to measure the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB. Results of this study showed support for the relationship between spirituality, resilience, and PWB in college students. Results also lend support for future research exploring therapeutic incorporation of spirituality …

The Birth Of Afghanistan: From Ancient Persia To A Modern-Day Multiethnic And Linguistic Country, Tyler A. Worm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the formation and evolution of Afghan identity from antiquity through the early medieval period, emphasizing the region’s role as a dynamic crossroads of civilizations. It traces the origins of Afghan populations to Indo-Iranian pastoralist migrations and examines the successive influence of major imperial formations, including the Median and Achaemenid Persian empires, the conquests of Alexander and the Seleucid period, and the rise of the Kushan, Parthian, and Sasanian states. Through this longue durée approach, the study demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geographic position facilitated continuous cultural interaction, economic exchange, and political contestation, producing a …

An Imperial Pivot: How The Qing Court Shaped The Kapāla And Its Global Value, Haiyi Wang

MA in Art Business Dissertations

This thesis examines the journey of the kapāla, a Tibetan Buddhist ritual skull cup, from a sacred implement to a global commodity. It argues that the modern identity, display, and commercial value of the kapāla in the Western world are not a natural extension of its original religious meaning but are fundamentally a product of its aesthetic and political re-creation by the Qing imperial court. This study posits the Qing court's intervention as the "decisive pivot" that systematically replaced the object's native "religious value system," based on ritual efficacy, with a new "imperial value system" rooted in craftsmanship, precious materials, …

Faculty Fellowships: River Dolphins In Bangladesh., Daniel Gonzalez-Socoloske

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Can You Hear Me Now?, Daniel Gonzalez, Amanda Moore

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Need To Identifying An Assessment Method To Evaluate Narcissistic Leadership Traits In Christian Churches In The Minneapolis Area And Determining Their Impact On Assemblies From The Perspective Of Congregants, Rita Lekova

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined the need for effective assessment methods to evaluate narcissistic leadership traits in Christian congregations in the Minneapolis area and the consequential effects of these traits on assemblies, as perceived by the congregations. This study addressed growing concerns about destructive leadership behaviors that compromise spiritual well-being, organizational trust, and biblical paradigms of servant leadership, as exemplified by Jesus. Employing an interdisciplinary framework that includes the theological, psychological, and leadership studies literatures, the research examined the expression of narcissistic traits by ecclesiastical leaders and ministers and how these tendencies are perceived by congregants and attendees. Qualitative and quantitative research …

Toward A Transformative Church: The Role Of Elders In Church Growth In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Brian Kwalela Mungandi

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addressed the need for a transformational leadership strategy that engages elders in membership retention and church growth for a Seventh-day Adventist Church. This mixed-method study aimed to identify factors contributing to declining membership in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, with the goal of informing strategies for improved member retention and potential church growth. A survey involving 30 active members was administered to gather insights into the target church’s profile. Additionally, interviews were conducted with 18 elders across four churches to evaluate leadership perspectives concerning membership retention and church growth. These data sources offered a snapshot of the target church's …

Modern Research Tools Supporting Science At Andrews University, Peter Lyons, Henry Navarro

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Faculty Fellowships: Knot Theory In The Bay Area, Anthony Bosman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Cultivating An Evangelistic Culture At Mountain Chapel Methodist Church Through Preaching, Nicholas Channing Hughes

Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to examine the effectiveness of an intentional sermon series, Everyday Evangelism, in cultivating an evangelistic culture at Mountain Chapel Methodist Church, a Global Methodist congregation. The study used a program evaluation model and addressed the question, How does preaching cultivate an evangelistic culture in the local church, along with questions concerning growth in prayerfulness for the lost, gospel conversations, acts of compassion, invitations to Christian community, follow-up with seekers, and whether leaders exhibited greater change than the congregation as a whole. The project employed a pre- and post-series survey design using two participant groups, …

Responding To Social Isolation: The Tole Of Chaplaincy In Addressing Social Determinants Of Health (Sdoh) In Pediatric Contexts, Adam Lubbers, Forest Melton, Simbarashe Sigauke, Sophie Le

2026

This poster describes a pilot program that integrated chaplaincy services into the care pathway for pediatric patients and families who screened positive for low social support, a key social determinant of health. The findings suggest chaplain-led interventions provide effective emotional, spiritual, and practical support, helping address social isolation, caregiver burden, financial insecurity, and other health equity concerns while offering culturally responsive care.

A New Kind Of Muslim?: Islamic Identity, Digital Media And Youth In Oman, The "Switzerland Of The Middle East.", Paulo C. Oliveira

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Lived Experience Of Tenders Of Community Grief Rituals, Margaret Y. Wilson

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this research study is to gain an understanding of the lived experience of tenders of community grief rituals, and how tenders make meaning of their experiences. This study utilized photo elicitation and a reflexive thematic analysis. Participants (N = 11) provided one to three photographs that captured their experience of grief and/or tending grief rituals. The results identified 10 themes supported by subthemes: (a) Grief Tender Wisdom About the Nature of Grief, (b) Life’s Many Experiences are Sources of Grief, (c) The Multifaceted Impacts of Grief-Body, Anger, Compassion, Empathy, Resilience, Gratitude, Joy, and Love, (d) The Nuances …