广东 扎实推进宗教院校公共课程规范化建设

近年来,广东省深入贯彻落实习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想和全国宗教工作会议精神,按照中央统战部有关部署要求,坚持铸魂育人,注重四性,推动宗教院校公共课程守正创新,确保宗教院校正确办学方向,积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应。     

The Role of Small and Medium-Sized African-American Churches in Promoting Healthy Life Styles

The issues of poor health care, poverty, crime, and HIV infection make it more difficult for minority communities to combat substance abuse and other diseases that are prevalent in the African-American community. Faith communities in general, and African-American churches in particular, are a largely untapped, but potent, resource to reduce the toll of substance abuse and other health issues. Information about ministers' knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding leading health indicators, the frequency with which they discuss these issues from the pulpit, and organizational readiness to develop and implement interventions can be the foundation of clergy training and health intervention efforts.     

Elements of Healthy Religious Beliefs

Rather than characterizing religious beliefs in general as healthy or unhealthy, this article suggests criteria by which one might differentiate between healthy and unhealthy religious beliefs.     

论中国共产党第一代领导集体的宗教观

以毛泽东为核心的中国共产党第一代领导集体将马克思主义宗教观与中国宗教的具体实际相结合,对宗教问题进行了积极的探索,提出宗教具有有神论的世界观、群众性的信仰和文化内容的本质特征,具有自身起源、演化及其消亡的发展规律,具有一定的社会功能和双重性的社会作用;宗教在新中国将长期存在,必须处理好两者的关系,宗教应在一定范围内活动,要发挥其积极作用,为此,必须要改革与新中国不相适应的宗教制度;无产阶级政党必须坚持宗教信仰自由、与宗教界结成统一战线的原则,也要明确共产主义信仰与宗教信仰的区别。     

Religious Institutions and Political Participation in America

Previous research on religious institutions and political participation finds that churches can increase participation among their members through the development of civic skills and the distinct political histories of religious traditions. This paper examines the various ways religious institutions promote the political participation of their members. We utilize the 1990 Citizen Participation Study to test seven hypotheses about the connections between religious institutions and political participation. We find, contrary to previous work, that church-gained civic skills and religious tradition do not directly affect political participation among those currently active in religious institutions. Rather, churches bring their parishioners more effectively into the political process through the recruitment of members to politics and when members come to see their church activity as having political consequences.     

Confidence in Religious Leaders in Korea: A Research Note

Korea may provide an important testing ground for assessing religious growth as a correlate of religious authority. In Korea from 1985 to 1995, all religious groups experienced growth, but from 1995 to 2005 only the Catholic population did so. Favorable images of Korean Catholicism compared to other Korean religions point to one factor that may account for this trend, namely, confidence in religious leaders. Up to now there has been no empirical test measuring confidence in religious leaders among different religious groups in Korea. Using the 2003–2007 Korean General Social Surveys cumulative data, we found a hierarchy of confidence in religious leaders ranging from highest to lowest as follows: Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists, no religion. Our finding may suggest the continued vitality of Catholicism in Korea.     

The Space Between: Exploring How Religious Leaders Reconcile Religion and Politics

Religious leaders, across religious traditions and demographic backgrounds, engage in politics in America. However, making sense of this is not an easy task, especially when their religious and political positions do not align. In these instances, they must somehow reconcile their incongruous positions. This article draws upon interview conversations with black religious leaders to explore how this is achieved. It is revealed that respondents bridge the space between their religious and political positions mainly by deploying three mechanisms: religious sequestration, issue minimization, and selective denial. This study contributes to our understanding of how religious leaders make sense of privileging civic and political positions over religious orthodoxy. It outlines the implications of this for black religious leaders specifically and the role of religious leaders in civic and political spheres more broadly.     

宗教团体管理办法

<正>国家宗教事务局令《宗教团体管理办法》已于2019年11月1日经国家宗教事务局按规定程序审议通过,现予公布,自2020年2月1日起施行。局长王作安2019年11月20日第一章总则第一条为了规范宗教团体管理,促进宗教团体健康发展,积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应,根据国家社会团体管理和宗教事务管理有关规定,制定本办法。第二条本办法所称宗教团体,是指信教公民自愿组成,为团结信教公民爱国爱教、促进宗教健康发展,按照其章程开展活动的非营利性社会组织。宗教团体是中国共产党和人民政府团结、联系宗教界人士和广大信教公民的桥梁和纽带。     

Religious Character in Church of England Schools: The Relationship Between a Religious Tradition and Its Educational Institutions

Research into the relationship between the Anglican tradition and its schools is relatively undeveloped in England. The research reported here draws on Benne's (2001 Benne , R. ( 2001 ). Quality with soul: How six premier colleges and universities keep faith with their religious traditions . Cambridge , UK : Eerdmans . [Google Scholar]) significant components of the relationship between educational institutions and their founding religious tradition to examine whether these components are a helpful way of describing religious character in Anglican schools. While school leaders and staff are committed to the Christian faith and seek to establish an ethos informed by Christian beliefs and practices, they are less able to articulate a distinctive philosophy of education particularly with respect to teaching, learning and the curriculum; some reasons for this are discussed.     

Relational Spirituality and Forgiveness of Offenses Committed by Religious Leaders

In the present article, we extend a model of relational spirituality and forgiveness to the context of major offenses by clergy. In Study 1, undergraduate students (N = 208) described a major offense that they had experienced by a religious leader and then completed several questionnaires in relation to the offense and the religious leader. Appraisals of relational spirituality were significantly associated with forgiveness, after controlling for known predictors of forgiveness (i.e., hurtfulness, time since the offense, and commitment to God or another source of spirituality). In Study 2, we replicated and extended the findings from Study 1 using an independent sample of undergraduates (N = 365). In a series of structural equation models, we found that relational engagement of God (or another source of spirituality) partially mediated the relationship between anger toward God (or another source of spirituality) and unforgiving motivations. We conclude by discussing implications for future research.     

Women Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: Effects of Confiding in Religious Leaders

IPV is the most challenging mental health problem facing clergy. Abused women (n = 476), most of whom are Christians living at home (not in shelters), sought assistance from domestic violence centers. Data obtained from questionnaires demonstrated that confiding in clergy predicts higher self-esteem and reduces the impact of lack of social support on self-esteem, self-efficacy, and life satisfaction. Compassionate clergy counseling can have a positive influence on psychological outcomes of women in abusive relationships.     

“倡导宗教和谐座谈会”在北京召开

1月28日下午,中国五大宗教在北京举办"倡导宗教和谐座谈会",发表了<倡导宗教和谐共同宣言>.会议认为,宗教和谐是宗教关系的新境界,是全球化时代的新理念.保持和促进宗     

The Role of Religious Beliefs in Coping With Chronic Illness

The authors examined the ways in which 40 women with chronic illnesses (rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, or a combination of these disorders) used religious beliefs as a means of coping with their illnesses, The participants, all between the ages of 28 and 79 years, were interviewed about the role religious beliefs played in their experiences and the ways in which they made meaning in their lives or coped with their illnesses. The majority of the women reported that religious beliefs were important in living with a chronic illness. In addition, more women who were identified as coping well with their illness reported strong religious beliefs, whereas the majority of women identified as poor copers reported that religion was unimportant or that they had no religious beliefs.     

宗教道德对建设社会核心价值体系的作用

一个人的行为能否合乎道德标准,是通过外在的社会条件和内在的道德意识来确保其实现的。这里所谓的社会条件,涉及社会经济发展、民主与法制的建设、社会和家庭的教育以及社会道德整体的水平等等;而内在的道德意识,有一个基本内涵,就是人们内在的道德意识的自觉和信仰。     

Altruistic Celibacy, Kin-Cue Manipulation, and The Development of Religious Institutions

Abstract. Building on a model first proposed by Gary Johnson, it is hypothesized that religious institutions demanding celibacy and other forms of altruism from members take advantage of human predispositions to favor genetic relatives in order to maintain and reinforce these desired behaviors in non‐kin settings. This is accomplished through the institutionalization of practices to manipulate cues through which such relatives are regularly identified. These cues are association, phenotypic similarity, and the use of kin terms. In addition, the age of recruits and their contact with actual kin are factors that relate to kinship recognition and that are similarly manipulated by institutions in order to reinforce altruistic behavior directed toward non‐kin. Support for this set of predictions is presented from historical and ethnographic sources on monastic life in Buddhism, Christianity, and Hinduism, as well as Islamic dervish groups, the Essenes, Shakers, and others. Potential implications of the model for understanding the development of religious institutions are preliminarily explored by reviewing Joachim Wach's model of religious developmental stages as well as some of the literature on the relationship between individualism and communalism in incipient religious organizations, in light of the kin‐cue manipulation model.     

Health Promoting Habits of People Who Pray for Their Health

To determine the health habits of people who pray for their health, data from the National Health Interview Survey was analyzed for health habits of people who prayed or did not pray for their health. Of the 22,314 respondents, 13,179 (59%) prayed for their health. These individuals saw a physician more frequently, participated more frequently in vigorous exercise and used more relaxation techniques, support groups, meditation and complimentary and alternative medicine therapies. People who pray for their health participate in more health promoting behaviors than people who do not pray for their health.