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Over the last 50 years, the Netherlands has undergone a process of massive secularisation, in terms of the decline of institutionalised religion. This study tests a wide range of explanations for this process, built on modernisation theory, with high quality survey data. In addition, despite modernisation and the rise of gender equality in the area of social structural location, a religious gender gap persists in the Netherlands with women being more religious than men. With a comprehensive model of social and psychological differences between Dutch men and women, this study contributes to an explanation for this gap.
The authors discuss the religious spiritual healing practice Reiki, revealing components of it that help transform the message held by the alleged life-force called reiki energy into meaning expressed in efficacy for the recipient's body, mind and spirit. Components that are analyzed include but are not limited to, touch, symbols, initiation, and precepts. The practitioner's surrender to a combination of internal and external authority - with reiki energy being part of that - is a crux in Reiki practice and one means with which practitioners speak of beneficial effect. This work contributes to academic knowledge about how practicing a religious or spiritual practice may contribute to one's well-being and flourishing life. Moreover, it explores the question of the nature of Reiki in academic definitions of religion.
This book discusses Ravanisation: the revitalisation of Ravana among Sinhalese Buddhists in post-war (after 2009) Sri Lanka. The Hindu Ramayana generally portrays Ravana as a cruel king. How and why, then, has Ravana gained the interest of Sinhalese Buddhists? This study takes an ethnographic perspective to answer these questions. The book discusses multiple Ravana representations that have emerged at an urban Buddhist site (the Sri Devram Maha Viharaya) and a rural site (Lakegala), and discloses how Ravanisation relates to Sinhalese Buddhist ethno-nationalism. In addition, the material, ritual, and spatial perspectives offer unique insights in the personal and local relevance of Ravana. Dr. Deborah de Koning holds a PhD degree in Religious Studies (Tilburg University, research funded by the Dutch Research Council) and currently works as lecturer Intercultural Communication and Hinduism and Buddhism at the Christian University of Applied Sciences (CHE, The Netherlands).
The Netherlands is the first concise, authored introduction available on the topic. The Netherlands has been a key entrepot in the world capitalist system for centuries, but because of relatively recent demographic changes, it has become symbolic of the clash of European and Islamic cultures. Perhaps the most secular nation in the world, it now houses a very large Islamic population. That population is the fruit of globalization, and how the Dutch have responded to this broad cultural shift tells us a great deal about the changing nature of national identity in the age of globalization. In particular, Frank Lechner explains how globalization calls forth very particularistic and localist responses. Along with providing a broad overview of the contemporary Netherlands, Lechner will focus on how globalization is generating new discourses, cultures, and state policies. Among other topics, the book will feature chapters on soccer culture, religion (and the lack thereof), the media, the welfare state, multiculturalism, and the Netherlands place in the larger European Union.
In Religion, Migration and Identity scholars from various disciplines explore issues related to identity and religion, that people - individually and communally -, encounter when affected by migration dynamics; the volume foregrounds methodology as its main concern.
The relatively peaceful interreligious relations in Indonesia seem to be shattered ever since Suharto's fall in 1998. Religious cleavages grew and quickly became sources of conflict. Exclusive religious truth claims have led people to support interreligious violence. Yet, benevolent religious values continue to encourage people for mutual solidarity and to shy away from violence. Religious minority groups are often perceived as a threat by the religious majority. Although living side by side allows different groups to develop positive interreligious contacts, this may differ for religious majority and minorities. This study scrutinizes the role of religion in interreligious conflicts in Indonesia.
Analecta Bruxellensia has been since 1996 the annual review of the Protestant Faculties of Theology and Religious Studies (FUTP (French) and FPTR (Dutch)) in Brussels. Analecta 21 is a varied number. Three themes are developed covering exegetical, historical, sociological, theological and philosophical fields. The first explores hermeneutics related to the understanding and assimilation of the biblical text; the second addresses the weight of ideology in the construction of narratives invoked in the representation of the Other; the third pursues this theme of encounter and otherness in various historical perspectives. From a queer exegesis of the narrative of Acts 8 to the question of the extent of Christ's salvation in the hypothesis of inhabited worlds in science fiction literature, the eclecticism of these academic contributions, as well as their relevance to contemporary debates, promise the reader multiple changes of scenery and genuinely new thinking. This issue also includes a previously unpublished contribution by Paul Ricur, a restitution of a three-speaker conference given in January 2000 on the theme of justice between ethics and law.
This dissertation is a study of kenosis spirituality aimed at determining how the spiritual formation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) can be effectively infused with a more profound and genuine understanding of kenosis spirituality. Employing a communication-oriented method involving three interconnected and progressive steps, namely, an analysis of syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and concentrating on the role of the text-immanent reader, this study conducts an in-depth textual analysis of five key texts. These have been chosen from the Bible, the Eastern and the Western monastic traditions, the early writings of the CMI, and the Indian Christian Ashram to ascertain a deeper understanding of kenosis spirituality. The study subsequently considers how to introduce insights regarding kenosis into the CMI's spiritual formation. Pratheesh Michael Pulickal, from Kerala, India, a Catholic priest of the Syro-Malabar rite, belongs to the CMI Congregation.
Interfaith marriage is a sensitive and crucial issue for churches in Indonesia and for the religiously plural Indonesian society. This study first deals with the development of civil law, specifically from Marriage Law No. 1/1974. The stances of the churches in Indonesia are wide ranging and include the history of church teaching, biblical interpretation, and church regulations. This contextual church polity study presents a new effort to formulate both a theology of marriage and a family theology, specifically a theology of interfaith marriage, and to formulate a relevant and contextual church order.