Religious Addiction: Obsession with Spirituality

Religious addiction is a disease only recently recognized; however, it has been with humanity throughout the ages. This obsession with spirituality not only has harmful effects for the individual but also a devastating effect on his/her family. As with any addiction, recovery is possible. This article covers the history of religious addiction, its symptoms and characteristics, and also its downward spiral. The effects on the addict, the codependent spouse, and children are discussed. Recovery, including intervention and treatment, is also covered.     

Social Perceptions of Religiosity: Dogmatism Tarnishes the Religious Halo

Researchers have provided much evidence in support of a religious halo effect—the tendency for people to evaluate a religious target more favorably than a nonreligious counterpart. This experimental study (N = 361 U.S. adults) extended previous work beyond the dichotomy of religious versus nonreligious by varying a fictional target's degree of belief. Only religious participants exhibited a nonspecific pro-religious bias consistent with the religious halo effect, favoring religious over not religious and very over somewhat religious targets. However, indicators of dogmatic thinking (e.g., I am so sure I am right about the important things in life, there is no evidence that could convince me otherwise) degraded target evaluations by religious and nonreligious participants alike. Results suggest that religiosity's positive associations depend upon an assumption of strong but flexible belief and underscore the importance of studying social perceptions of religious fundamentalists.     

Unexpected death,religious coping and conjugal bereavement outcomes in Africa (Togo)

This pioneering study in sub-Saharan African context examined the role played by religious strategies (religious coping, religious community support (RCS)) in the conjugal bereavement process and its outcomes depending on the expected or unexpected death. Based on cross-sectional approach, the study targeted Togolese bereaved spouses (N?=?162). The mean period of mourning was 112.52 months (SD?=?94.72). The results of a hierarchical regression revealed that RCS was positively associated with grief symptoms when the death was expected and, unsurprisingly, the negative religious coping predicted grief symptoms when the death was sudden and unexpected. Religious strategies would play a threefold role: providing refuge and comfort, regulating the bereavement distress and serving resources to give meaning to the loss of the beloved. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Attitudes to Death during the Holocaust: writings from the ghettos

This study explores perspectives on death from ‘within’ the Holocaust, works written in the midst of suffering which were not tempered by or influenced by survival and its traumas. The focus on thinking during the Holocaust will look at two categories of literature written during the Holocaust, which were hidden or distributed by their authors who did not survive. The first involves secular diarist accounts of life in ghettos and the second is the ‘theological’ writing of religious leaders writing for their followers (Rabbi Shapiro'sEsh Kodesh (The Holy Fire) from the Warsaw Ghetto and Rabbi Tiechtall'sEm Habanim Smecha (The Happy Mother of Children) from Budapest). This literature is studied in relation to a number of key questions: how death was recorded; evidence of religious rituals concerning death; how the rituals helped people to cope with death; and the nature of theological debate at the time.     

Fostering critical religious thinking in multicultural education for teacher education

Religious diversity as a consequence of global immigration has become a cultural phenomenon of pluralism in society. The fear of indoctrination and the desire for religious freedom fuel the debate on whether to remove religion from school education. Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed offers a positive perspective on the debate by calling attention to the pedagogy of religious education in the pursuit of religious freedom for all human beings. Rather than transferring religious knowledge to students, the challenge for religious education is to foster critical religious thinking in them. Unfortunately, many teachers lack the confidence to address religious issues, as well as lacking support in the professional development of critical religious thinking. Hence, this article proposes a tentative model for fostering critical religious thinking that might fit into a course in multicultural education for teachers.     

Recovering enchantment: addiction,spirituality, and Charles Taylor’s malaise of modernity

This article illuminates the nature of ‘spirituality’ as it relates to addiction in modernity. It does so by using philosopher Charles Taylor’s conception of the malaise of modernity and the meta-narrative he presents in A Secular Age as theoretical starting points. It then draws from qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews and ongoing ethnographic fieldwork conducted with Canadian millennials who self-identify as ‘spiritual but not religious’. The young people’s experiences of addiction provide insight into the trappings of free-market capitalist modernity and its inability to provide an overarching source of meaning to their lives. Addiction becomes the means by which these individuals experience the malaise of modernity, which in turn leads them to seek an alternative understanding of the good life—a process they equate with ‘spirituality’. Therefore, an interest in ‘spirituality’ ought to be understood as a personalized attempt to re-enchant what is experienced as a disenchanted world.     

Jehovah's Witnesses in Germany: Prisoners during the Communist Era ∗

Abstract

Commentators on religious freedom disagree on the rationale for its protection. This question of why we protect religious freedom is important because it influences the manner and scope of the protection of religious freedom by the state. The legal philosopher Timothy Macklem argues, in line with some fideistic approaches to the study of religion, that the value of ‘faith’– of belief without reason to believe – justifies the protection of religious freedom. This paper offers a critique of Macklem's account. It argues that this account is inconsistent with a correct view of the nature of reasons, that it overestimates the circumstances in which faith is valuable, that it fails adequately to consider the connections between faith and false beliefs, and that its conclusions imply a much weaker protection of religious freedom than is common in liberal states. This paper also indicates aspects of faith that are valuable, beyond those discussed by Macklem. It is hoped that it will contribute to the debate on the value of faith as well as the broader debate on the justification of religious freedom.     

On religious and cultural objects: Articulate and inarticulate bodies in Spinoza's philosophy of nature

Spinoza's philosophy is often overlooked when it comes to thinking about matters concerning art and culture. While recent work has done much to address this, his philosophy remains ambiguously related to the theorisation of things such as temples, poems, and paintings. This article argues that it is by turning to Spinoza's theorisation of the sacred in the Theological‐Political Treatise, that we can best derive his philosophical position on culture and its objects. I argue that Spinoza locates the sanctity of a religious object–what he calls its “articulateness”–in its particular use‐relation with a people. In a similar manner, Spinoza locates the “meaning” and articulateness of words in the use that people make of them, thereby secularising the sanctification process for cultural objects. I argue that this relation of “use” between cultural‐religious objects and human beings and their societies is the way in which we can best discern Spinoza's philosophical position regarding art and culture, as well as further develop his potential contribution to cultural and art theory.     

The Worlding of Addiction

Addiction can be partially seen as a worlding; as a lived-out set of ecological relations. Based on existential-phenomenology, the lived-world of the addict is described as a particular way of being in the world. Although attained through active addiction, this way of being endures beyond active addiction into recovery. Active addiction is characterized by narrowness and withdrawal from the world; recovery from addiction entails an embrace of the world. This movement into recovery is described as broadening and reaching out, a way in which the world is opened up to be experienced in all its breadth and spiritual significance. The clinical implications of this perspective are described and explored.     

Erikson,psychology, and religion

The writings of the late Erik H. Erikson (1) have contributed directly to the psychological study of religion, (2) were amenable to the efforts of others to develop normative theological arguments, and (3) might be seen as themselves examples of contemporary, nontheological accounts of the religious dimension of human existence. This paper begins by reviewing the principal contributions that Erikson made to the psychological study of religion, followed by a review of the uses that have been made of Erikson's work for normative/constructive activities in such areas as practical theology and pastoral counseling. I will then argue that Erikson's writings — when viewed in the vein of William James's radical empiricism and functionalist accounts of human religiosity — identify an irreducibly religious dimension to normative human functioning. Erikson's functionalism constitutes a form of nontheological religious thinking that speaks directly to concerns presenting themselves in contemporary culture.     

Religious/Spiritual Well-Being,Coping Styles,and Personality Dimensions in People With Substance Use Disorders

Religiosity and spirituality have been found to be negatively associated with a range of addictions. It has been suggested that religious/spiritual well-being might play an important role in the development, course, and recovery from addictive disorders. A sample of addiction in-patients (N = 389) was assessed using the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (MI-RSWB) and compared with a matched group of nonaddicted community controls (N = 389). RSWB was found to be substantially lower in people with substance use disorders compared to the normal sample. Discriminate functional analysis showed that Experiences of Sense and Meaning, General Religiosity, and Forgiveness were the dimensions of RSWB that strongly distinguished the groups. Within the group of people with substance use disorders, RSWB was strongly positively associated with the personality dimensions of Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Openness as well as Sense of Coherence and positive Coping styles. The study suggests that therapeutic intervention programs focusing on building a positive and meaningful personal framework, akin to that of a religious/spiritual orientation, may contribute to positive outcomes in addiction treatment.     

RELIGIOUS HYPOTHESES AND THE APOPHATIC,RELATIONAL THEOLOGY OF CATHERINE KELLER

In one of its most urgent folds, Catherine Keller's Cloud of the Impossible juxtaposes negative theology with relational theology for the sake of thinking constructively about today's global climate of religious conflict and ecological upheaval. The tension between these two theological approaches reflects her desire to unsay past harmful theological speech but also to speak into the present silences about the (perhaps im)possibility of a future that is not only to be feared. Suffusing Keller's Cloud is the related (perhaps im)possibility of living out one's life in conversation with a religious tradition having accepted the nonknowing character of its wisdom. Here, I develop the notion of “hypothetical faith” as an epistemic posture that commits itself to some particular religious tradition even as it acknowledges the unverifiability of that tradition's deepest truths. Understood as operating at the opposite end of the testability spectrum from science, religion‐as‐hypothesis provides a way of saying and unsaying one's tradition at the same time.     

Fried and Freud on the Acropolis; on duality in the base of psychoanalytic thinking

Freud was conflicted in relation to his religious background. On the one hand, he was very clear on his adherence to a scientific Weltanschauung. On the other, he was fascinated by the Moses figure and one may see a Judaist structure in his way of thinking. The aim of this paper is to reflect on this conflict and the question of faith in psychoanalysis. After looking at object and method in religion and psychoanalysis, the authors go into the concept of ‘psychic reality’ and its change in the history of psychoanalysis. Through an analysis of Freud’s A Disturbance of Memory on the Acropolis and the function of literature, it is claimed that faith may be seen as a condition for the sense of experiential reality.     

Conversations about religious education

The wide‐ranging field of theory about religious education may be thought of as a series of ongoing and at times overlapping conversations (Foster, 2003 Foster, C. (2003). Where shall we sit? The vocational conversation of a religious educator. Religious Education, 98(3): pp. 311–330[Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]), each most meaningful within its own context, whether this context is educational, ecclesial or societal. This paper begins by mapping these conversations, then uses them as a lens through which to view the perceptions of 57 student teachers of religious education, as they describe critical incidents that occurred for them in their teaching practice. In this way it is possible to see where, in the ongoing conversations about religious education, the student teachers' perceptions fall. This brings insights to theory development in religious education, and the educational as well as social factors that influence it. Along the way the task requires a discussion of the role of reflective techniques in promoting teacher thinking, and an explanation of the processes through which the student teachers' perceptions were collected. A critical analysis of the student teachers' thinking about religious education concludes the paper and sets direction for further research.     

Teaching the Millennial Generation in the Religious and Theological Studies Classroom

This essay provides an overview of the distinctive challenges presented to teaching and learning in religious and theological studies by the conditions and characteristics of “millennial” students. While the emerging literature on this generation is far from consistent, it is still instructive and important to engage, as students that are immersed in technology and social networking have different facilities and difficulties that educators would do well to carefully address and critically employ. Teachers in theological and religious studies are distinctly positioned to grapple with such conditions, particularly around the practices of identity formation, media literacy, and embodiment. Attention to the development of such practices engages key issues for both the millennial students and the religious and theological studies teacher: virtual reality, spiritual identity, globalization and violence, critical consumption and ethical creativity, focused and contemplative thinking, and intercultural and interpersonal respect.     

Political Buddhism and the Modernisation of Thai Monastic Education: From Wachirayan to Phimonlatham (1880s–1960s)

This article focuses on the transformation of monastic education in Thailand through its modernisation from the 1880s to the 1960s. During this period two of the country's most prominent monks rose to power: Wachirayan of the Thammayut (Dhammayutika) branch of the Sangha and Phimonlatham of the Mahanikay (Mahānikāya) branch. The former was at the height of power in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century and the latter in the mid twentieth century. Through my examination of monastic education during these two periods, taking the influence of these two important monks as case studies, I argue that Sangha education is not just the inherited knowledge transmitted down the generations to monastic learners for religious ends and the preservation of Buddhism. Rather I show how political discourse can transform monastic education. Temporal and ecclesiastical politics have shaped, dominated and reformed Thai monastic education. This process has altered expectations—on the part of Thai Sangha as well as the laity at elite and popular levels—of what should be learned by monks. Here we shall see how Pali, vinaya (monastic discipline), abhidhamma (Buddhist philosophy and metaphysics), meditation and modern Western-derived subjects became prominent in Thai monastic education at different periods in the broader national and international contexts. This means that both the scope and arena for critical thinking are heavily determined by factors that are not solely religious by nature. Put another way, critical thinking has not been a priority in an intellectual arena dominated by political agendas and has been strongly curtailed by those agendas.     

Diverse Cognitive Profiles of Religious Believers and Nonbelievers

The factors that make people religious or atheistic are currently much debated, and empirical evidence is limited. Further, the possibility that both religious believers and nonbelievers comprise diverse subtypes with different characteristics has seldom been considered. In this study, characteristics of religious believers (N = 984) and nonbelievers (N = 1,000) were analyzed with latent class analyses. These analyses identified five religious subgroups and five nonbeliever subgroups that differed in analytical thinking, empathizing, mechanistic cognition (i.e., systemizing), and autistic and schizotypal traits. The results highlight the strengths and limitations of current theoretical arguments about religious beliefs.     

THE SERMON ON MOUNT MORIAH: FAITH AND THE SECRET IN THE GIFT OF DEATH

This essay is an investigation of three attempts to think faith. I find my starting place in Jacques Derrida's The Gift of Death, 1 one of the most important treatments of Christianity in Derrida's later thought, which was increasingly insistent in its engagement with religious questions up until his death in 2004. This reading of The Gift of Death will focus particularly on the question of secrecy and its relationship with faith, leading necessarily to an account of Derrida's reading of two of his primary references in this text: the second essay of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals 1 and Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling. 1 Rather than simply rendering a judgment on Derrida's reading, I will endeavor to read these texts together, extending (or expanding upon) Derrida's reading while questioning some of the positive formulations he makes in his own name – all the while remaining attentive to the gambles involved in thinking faith.     

Work Craving: A Conceptualization and Measurement

Obsessive-compulsive models of workaholism do not allow diagnosing it as an addiction. We introduce an empirical evidence for conceptualization and measurement of work addiction as work craving. The Work Craving Scale (WCS) comprises: (a) obsessive-compulsive desire for work, (b) anticipation of self-worth compensation, (c) anticipation of reduction of negative affect or withdrawal symptoms resulting from working, and (d) neurotic perfectionism. Results (N = 1,459) confirmed the four-factorial structure of the WCS and indicated its good validity and reliability. The conceptualization of work craving significantly contributes to understanding of workaholism as an addiction, and should stimulate future research on work craving.