The richness of ordinary life: Religious justification among Chile's business elite

Based on the analysis of 75 in-depth interviews with managers and businessmen of Chile's main economic conglomerates, this article is concerned with the justification, on religious and moral grounds, of the establishment of a neo-liberal economic model during Augusto Pinochet's regime (1973-1989) and, most importantly, with the representation of business as a religious vocation. The value granted to wealth creation as a path to salvation, as formulated by the conservative religious movements Opus Dei and the Legionaries of Christ, is one possible response to the Church's call in Vatican II for the greater involvement of the laity in their cultures and societies. In the context of an increase in pluralism during the 1960s and 1970s, the perceived shift of the Catholic Church to the Left, and the threat that the political project of Salvador Allende's socialist government (1970-1973) posed to the elite's centenary lifestyle, the practice of more conservative forms of Catholicism has allowed for a restoration of the historical bond between the elite and its religious tradition. The case of Chile's elite can be seen as an example of an increase in pluralism which does not lead to a weakening of religious belief and practice, but to their strengthening.     

Being Young and Strictly Religious: A Review of the Literature on the Religious Identity Development of Strictly Religious Adolescents

Strictly religious adolescents grow up in highly religious contexts with orthodox beliefs and practices that usually contrast with those of pluralist and secularized societies that can be perceived as promoting unhealthy religious identity development. For these adolescents, religious identity development may be a challenge; however, there seems to be a lack of theoretical and empirical understanding of how these adolescents develop their religious identities. To address this, a literature review was conducted, and 15 studies were selected after the application of selection criteria. This review focuses on the characteristics of these studies to understand the religious identity development of strictly religious adolescents. Implications for theory development and further empirical research are discussed.     

The Effect of New Religious Movement Affiliation and Disaffiliation on Reflexivity and Sense of Self

Challenging the contemporary belief that emotional damage invariably results from new religious movement (NRM) participation, this study shows that membership in and exit from a world‐rejecting NRM may initiate the development of increased reflexivity and a personal sense of self for some former members. Out of a sample of 23 former members, 12 participants were identified who report prior histories of “other‐directedness” and for whom exit from an NRM instigated a shift toward increased independence and individuality. Employing symbolic interactionist theories of self, this article conceptualizes the process through which these participants may be understood to have gained in reflexivity and personal autonomy. Four case studies demonstrate how the identity loss and uncertainty suffered following exit can “shock” former members into self‐awareness and reflexivity, instigating a period of active learning about personal emotions, thoughts, and beliefs that leads to the active construction of a stronger personal self.     

Taking religion to heart: the relationship between the Five Factor Model and the New Indices of Religious Orientation among religious students

The relationship between religious orientation and personality has been investigated using several different measures and diverse samples. As part of a larger study, 114 undergraduate students were given the Duke University Religion Index (DUREL) to include only those participants who were considered religious. The final sample of 80 participants were given the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R) and the New Indices of Religious Orientation (NIRO). Based on the results of the bivariate correlations, higher levels of intrinsic religious orientation were associated with greater Agreeableness and Conscientiousness. Multivariate analyses further revealed that Agreeableness was the most important personality variable when predicting intrinsic and quest religious orientations, with higher levels of Agreeableness predicting greater intrinsic and lower quest orientations. While lower levels of Neuroticism predicted greater intrinsic orientation, higher levels of Neuroticism predicted greater quest orientations. Higher Conscientiousness predicted greater intrinsic and lower quest orientations. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cosmic Justice and Sanctioned Violence: The Huangdi Yinfujing and the Legitimacy of War in Religious Daoism

《黄帝阴符经》或《阴符经》是道教传统中一部极为主要的文本。虽然文本作者不详,而且篇幅短小、语义晦涩,但自唐代以来一直被当作奇书,引发多种注释与解读:内丹修炼抑或兵家谋略。本文以(唐)李荃注释本为主,阐述《阴符经》有关阴阳、生杀、机时、五贼、三盗等所涵盖的道家/道教的本体-宇宙观,并以此论述就有关暴力与战争议题所展示的道教伦理观。笔者认为,《阴符经》在重玄思辨中,强调道教"治身治国"的理念,其暗含的"义战"思想亦带有一定的黄老印记。     

The Duality of American Christian Nationalism: Religious Traditionalism versus Christian Statism

While posited as a unified ideology, Christian Nationalism (CN) actually contains two distinct views of what it means to be a “Christian Nation”—one which envisions a Christian civil society separate from the profanities of politics, what we call “Religious Traditionalism.” The other envisions a Christian federal government where power is wielded exclusively by ethno-religious insiders, or “Christian Statism.” Multiple waves of two national surveys confirm that current measures of CN contain these two factors, which have become increasingly divergent in the past 20 years. In addition, we find that Christian Statism predicts nativism, Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, and racial distrust while Religious Traditionalism, in most instances, predicts the opposite. Historically, Religious Traditionalists have always sought to influence civil society and focused mainly on family/sexual issues. But a different brand of CN has emerged, wherein all federal and state authority should rightfully and exclusively belong to Christian Statists.     

The Effect of Pastoral Care Services on Anxiety,Depression, Hope,Religious Coping,and Religious Problem Solving Styles: A Randomized Controlled Study

This randomized controlled study measured the effect of chaplain interventions on coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients over time. One hundred sixty-six CABG patients, received pre- and post-surgery testing at 1 month and 6 months with four instruments. Five chaplain visits were made to the intervention group, the control group received none. Comparison scores for anxiety, depression, hope, positive and negative religious coping, and religious coping styles were analyzed. Significant difference was found between groups in positive religious coping (PRC) (p = .023) and negative religious coping (NRC) (p = .046) scores over time. PRC increased in intervention group, decreased in the control group while NRC decreased in intervention group and increased in the control group. Demographics were comparable between groups. Moderate chaplain visits (average total visits time, 44 min) may be effective in helping CABG patients increase positive religious coping and decrease negative religious coping.

Making Muslims: The Politics of Religious Identity Construction and Victoria's Islamic Schools

Islamic schools in Australia have become a subject of notable societal and academic interest, but discussions on the purpose of these schools are often approached from the perspective of concerns about national security or the integration of ethnic minorities. Given the growing popularity of Islamic schools in the Australian educational landscape, critics of such schools often assume that their pedagogical climate, curriculum and “separatist” environment does not foster the formation of cultural citizenship. This essay analyses the complex interplay between religion, Islamic identity formation and the politics of schooling in diasporic settings on the basis of an analysis of the experiences of graduates of Islamic schools in Victoria. It provides an insight into the multidimensional role Victoria's Islamic schools play and enables a better understanding of how the schooling of Muslim students in Victoria's Islamic schools relates to the development of an Islamic identity, which is critical to a conceptualizing of how Islamic schools are considered sites for religious identity construction.     

Micro Practice and Faith-Based Initiatives: The Role of Religious Congregations in the Social Service System

SUMMARY

Religious organizations have provided services for older adults for thousands of years. For the sons and daughters of Abraham, this is Biblically mandated. Charitable Choice and the President's Office of Faith-Based Initiatives is only the most recent effort to bring this informal caregiving system into dialogue with the remainder of the formal social service system in the United States. At this time, religious congregations play a gap-filling role in the community service system. Their services range from informal volunteer-driven approaches to a local need, to large formal service systems. From the first draft of the Older American's Act, nutrition sites have specifically named religious congregations in partners with the service system. Today this system continues to be ready to support at least the seniors in their own congregations.     

The Rhetoric of Religious Dissent: Anti-Calvinism,Satire and the Arminian Controversy in the Dutch Republic

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of the Arminian controversy (1609-1619) on the literary culture of the Dutch Republic. Focusing on the work of pivotal figures like Dirck Coornhert, Reinier Telle, Samuel Coster and Joost van den Vondel, it is argued that political and religious controversy gave rise to a culture of religious satire that directly shaped the outcome of the conflict. Analyzing the similarities between satire and the practice of religious parrhesia, it aims to examine the paradoxes inherent in the early modern debate on toleration.     

Cultural Influences in the Aetiological Beliefs of Saudi Arabian Primary Care Patients About Their Symptoms: The Association of Religious and Psychological Beliefs

Objective To develop a self-report questionnaire to measure the beliefs of Arabic primary care patients about the causes of their physical symptoms; to use this to quantify the beliefs of patients consulting their general practitioners (GPs) in Saudi Arabia; and to test whether patients with psychological problems differ from others in their beliefs, particularly religious and supernatural beliefs. Methods Consecutive patients (N = 224) completed a specially developed aetiological beliefs’ questionnaire. Patients were divided into two groups (cases and non-cases of emotional disorder) according to the GHQ-12. Results Religious and supernatural aspects of culture colour patients’ symptom beliefs: that their symptoms were a test or punishment from Allah’ was the most common belief. Even in non-cases, around half the patients also endorsed nerves and stress as a cause of their physical symptoms. Cases were more likely than non-cases to endorse items related to both religious and psychological factors. Conclusion There is no support for the view that Saudi Arabian patients explain symptoms supernaturally as a way of denying psychological factors. GPs and health professionals in Saudi primary care need to understand what patients believe to be the cause of their problems and to appreciate that religious and psychological beliefs are both very common. GPs should address psychological beliefs and concerns even with those patients who present physical symptoms.     

The Presuppositions of Religious Pluralism and the Need for Natural Theology

In ‘The Presuppositions of Religious Pluralism and the Need for Natural Theology’ I argue that there are four important presuppositions behind John Hick’s form of religious pluralism that successfully support it against what I call fideistic exclusivism. These are i) the ought/can principle, ii) the universality of religious experience, iii) the universality of redemptive change, and iv) a view of how God (the Eternal) would do things. I then argue that if these are more fully developed they support a different kind of exclusivism, what I call rational exclusivism, and become defeaters for pluralism. In order to explain rational exclusivism and its dependence on these presuppositions I consider philosophers J.P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, and Alvin Plantinga, who offer arguments for their forms of exclusivism but I maintain that they continue to rely on fideism at important points. I then give an example of how knowledge of the Eternal can be achieved.

The role of movement leaders in building intergroup solidarity for social change: A case of the electoral reform movement in Malaysia

Leaders of social movements play a critical role in mobilizing broader society for social change. However, we know little about how movement leaders strategize to build a movement. To examine this issue, we interviewed the central leadership team of the electoral reform movement (Bersih) in Malaysia, before and after a mass protest organized by the movement. We then used thematic analysis to provide theoretically derived insights into how the leaders fostered intergroup solidarity among multiple racial groups. Specifically, they (a) expanded the movement's boundaries to include new groups within its support base, (b) shared the demands of the movement with multiple groups, and (c) highlighted leaders that were representative of different groups the movement sought to unite. These findings demonstrate how leaders attempt to craft an inclusive movement identity (i.e., who we are, what we do, who stands for us) to mobilize a diverse society for social change.     

Narrating the other: Self-other agreement of affective qualities and manifest events among personal life stories and the vicarious life stories provided by informants

Life stories are psychosocial constructions of one’s past, present, and future. Vicarious stories are mental representations of others’ life stories. Across two studies, we examined self-other agreement among features of participants’ personal and vicarious stories and whether agreement corresponded with relationship closeness. Agreement was quantified via the affective qualities and manifest events of key scenes. Targets’ personal and informants’ vicarious stories demonstrated agreement in tone, but not in redemption or contamination (Study 1). The manifest events within informants’ vicarious scenes corresponded with participants’ personal life stories 25% of the time, and this agreement increased with greater relationship closeness (Study 2). Our findings support the notion that an understanding of the important events in someone’s life may facilitate interpersonal closeness.     

Social identity and cycling among women: The case of Tel-Aviv-Jaffa

Through the lens of the Social Identify Theory (Tajfel, 1974), this research aims to understand how social identity affects the perception of cycling as a mode of transport among women from different socio-income backgrounds. Using the case study of Tel-Aviv-Jaffa (Israel), we found that cycling is associated with distinct social categories rather than seen as a 'socially neutral' practice. In particular, we found cycling to be associated with 'being a Tel-Avivian' and with a healthy and active lifestyle. Such distinct identification of cycling is likely to enhance cycling uptake among more privileged groups, who are often able to identify with these social categories. In contrast, it may create a barrier for underprivileged groups, who do not identify with these social categories. In addition, we show how e-bikes – which are not identified with privileged groups – do not provide an identifiable alternative for women from all groups, as it is identified with “tough” and “violent” men. Furthermore, we show how cycling, in general, is perceived as “tough”, “dangerous” and as requiring a “constant struggle” over space with other road users, and hence fits a typical “masculine” behavior. Finally, we show how currently cycling is perceived by the underprivileged as a threat to their way of life or even as a symbol of them being pushed out of their neighborhood – a perception that limits cycling uptake among these social groups. These findings underscore the importance of accounting for social identity in cycling research and policymaking, especially in low-cycling contexts.     

The Spirit(s) of Science: Paradoxical Positivism as Religious Discourse among Spiritualists

This article examines a narrative dilemma that popular texts on evolution face. On the one hand, popular science tends to privilege linear and culturally familiar narrative structures, as previous studies of popularization have often emphasized. On the other hand, however, the Darwinian idea of natural selection resists linear narration, as narrative theorist H. Porter Abbott has argued. This resistance arises from the fact that evolution by natural selection lacks proper narrative entities and narrative events and that it relies on two parallel narrative levels, the levels of species and organism. This paper explores how two popular science books on evolution negotiate this narrative dilemma by introducing a third narrative level. Both texts appropriate characteristics from the narrative levels of species and organism and project them on molecular and minute scales by portraying evolution as a micro-narrative that takes place in chromosomes, genes, cells and microscopic details of human organs. While this textual strategy produces a coherent and compelling narrative that for the most part succeeds in masking the structural gap between the narrative levels of species and organism, it also risks naturalizing cultural imagery. In particular, this micro-narrative tends to represent popular gender ideologies as biological truths embedded in molecular processes within our bodies.     

流动儿童心理韧性对文化适应的影响:社会认同的中介作用

本研究旨在探讨流动儿童心理韧性、社会认同及文化适应的关系。采用青少年心理韧性量表、流动儿童社会认同量表、流动儿童文化适应困难量表对北京市932名流动儿童进行了调查。经过分析发现：（1）女生、未转学、家庭收入高、父母教育程度高、公立学校的流动儿童文化适应更好;（2）流动儿童的心理韧性对其文化适应的直接预测效应显著;（3）流动儿童的心理韧性可以分别通过老家总认同和城市总认同间接影响文化适应,也可以通过老家总认同和城市总认同的整合更好地间接影响文化适应。     

The role of syllables in word recognition among beginning Finnish readers: Evidence from eye movements during reading

The eye movements of Finnish first and second graders were monitored as they read sentences where polysyllabic words were either hyphenated at syllable boundaries, alternatingly coloured (every second syllable black, every second red) or had no explicit syllable boundary cues (e.g., ta-lo vs. talo vs. talo = “house”). The results showed that hyphenation at syllable boundaries slows down reading of first and second graders even though syllabification by hyphens is very common in Finnish reading instruction, as all first-grade textbooks include hyphens at syllable boundaries. When hyphens were positioned within a syllable (t-alo vs. ta-lo), beginning readers were even more disrupted. Alternate colouring did not affect reading speed, no matter whether colours signalled syllable structure or not. The results show that beginning Finnish readers prefer to process polysyllabic words via syllables rather than letter by letter. At the same time they imply that hyphenation encourages sequential syllable processing, which slows down the reading of children, who are already capable of parallel syllable processing or recognising words directly via the whole-word route.