Freedom of Religion and The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark

This article investigates how Africans in Zululand, South Africa, viewed Lutheran missionaries in the 1950's. The main source is a thorough report Zulu pastor S. A. Mbatha gave in answer to a survey initiated by the Swedish missionary Helge Fosseus in 1957. Fosseus wanted to find out more about the causes of increasing African resistance to mission, church and Christianity. Mbatha replied that missionaries were seen by Africans as enemies in that they shared white South African society's prevailing attitude toward blacks. Missionaries were characterized as exploiters and betrayers. This negative image contrasts strongly with the picture the missionaries painted of themselves as Africans' friends and allies in the struggle against increasing discrimination. The last part of the article discusses possible causes for the large difference between the missionaries' self-understanding and the Africans' image of the missionaries.     

Democracy and the Church of Sweden

The Church of Sweden was democratized in the 1930s when party politics was introduced into church elections. Since then, party politics have more and more been part of the governing style of the Church of Sweden. In 2000 the church was disestablished and a new election system was introduced with direct elections to the General Synod. The system of political parties remained. This article questions the democracy of the church using criteria for democratic structures. It also focuses on the role of the ordained ministry in the governance of the church, as the bishops have not been full members of the Synod since 1982. The conclusions are that the Church of Sweden is not fully democratic since participation in elections is at about 10% and the electorate has few chances to understand what the elections are about. The bishops’ weak formal position in the Synod is not in accordance with the teachings of the church on episcopacy. The conflict between democratic principles, inherited from the Swedish constitution, and church teaching on the ordained ministry and its role has not been fully resolved so far.     

Religion,Personality, and Well-being: The Relationship Between Church Attendance and Purpose in Life

A sample of 517 first-year, undergraduate students attending an Anglican College in Wales completed the Purpose-in-Life Scale (PILS) together with the short-form Revised Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQR) and a measure of church attendance. After controlling for individual differences in personality, the data demonstrate a significant positive correlation between church attendance and scores on the PILS. A growing body of evidence indicates that attendance at religious services tends to promote the psychological wellbeing of college students.     

Religion,Identity and Freedom of Expression

This article examines the issues raised by religious adherents’ wish to express their beliefs in the public domain through, for example, their modes of dress, their performance of public roles, and their response to homosexuality. It considers on what grounds religion might merit special treatment and how special that treatment should be. A common approach to these issues is through the notion of religious identity, but both the idea of religious identity and its use to ground claims against others prove deeply problematic. An alternative and more productive approach is through the notion of harm. People should enjoy the freedom to express their religious convictions subject to the harm principle, but harm should include the undermining of people’s status as free and equal citizens. The article concludes by considering the grounds upon which this alternative approach might recognize religion as special and might justify giving an overriding status to civic equality.     

Church and State After Christendom

Abstract

At a time when traditional markers of Christian identity are in decline, renewed attention has been devoted to the relationship of the church to state and society. In particular, there has been a marked rise in counter-cultural ecclesiologies stressing the distinctiveness of the church over against its host society. The article argues that there is a rich resource of Scriptural and traditional materials for fruitful reflection upon the political nature of the Christian community and its relationship to the state and civil society. Particular attention is devoted to the kingship of Yahweh in the Old Testament, the ministry of Jesus, and several leading writers of the early church. It is claimed that these historical attempts to express a positive account of stratified citizenship are significant for the increasingly post-Christendom context of Western churches.     

Managing Religion and the Judicialization of Religious Freedom

Religious freedom is a highly valued goal for many citizens and political leaders around the world, especially in Western‐oriented nations. Much ink has been spilled in defense of religious freedom and many have waxed eloquent about the virtues of promoting religious freedom. Most constitutions and other international documents around the world guarantee religious freedom even if those guarantees are sometimes honored in the breach. Why this focus on religious freedom is occurring and how it is being addressed are the focus of this article.     

自由与功利之间——密尔伦理思想的双重诉求

约翰·斯图亚特·密尔是一个功利主义者,更是一个自由主义者.功利原则与自由原则是密尔伦理思想中的两个密切相关的基本原则,功利原则以最大多数人的最大幸福为终极价值诉求,自由原则则赋予个体的自由权利以价值优先性.密尔的一生都致力于以功利原则为哲学基础来证明个体自由,致力于论证功利主义与自由主义的一致与契合,但实际上若要追求功利原则和自由原则的融合就决定了他既不能执守严格的功利主义,也无法坚持一般的自由主义.因此,功利主义不是自由主义最好的哲学基础.     

Researcher Degrees of Freedom in the Psychology of Religion

ABSTRACT

There is a push in psychology toward more transparent practices, stemming partially as a response to the replication crisis. We argue that the psychology of religion should help lead the way toward these new, more transparent practices to ensure a robust and dynamic subfield. One of the major issues that proponents of Open Science practices hope to address is researcher degrees of freedom (RDF). We pre-registered and conducted a systematic review of the 2017 issues from three psychology of religion journals. We aimed to identify the extent to which the psychology of religion has embraced Open Science practices and the role of RDF within the subfield. We found that many of the methodologies that help to increase transparency, such as pre-registration, have yet to be adopted by those in the subfield. In light of these findings, we present recommendations for addressing the issue of transparency in the psychology of religion and outline how to move toward these new Open Science practices.     

The Church in the State We're In

The state (more specifically, the British state) is in a crisis it seemingly cannot recognize. But the issue is not one of "Church and State" or even modern "religion". The issue is the Church's fidelity to its vocation to narrate, announce, and dramatize the identity of humankind as communion in God. Newman's refraction of Christ's threefold office provides a framework for the Church's identity and vocation. The Church is a school of priestly forgiveness, offering resistance to nationalism, and prophetic thought against the anti-intellectualism of the merely devout as well as the patronizing ignorance of the irreligious.     

信仰和知识之间的宗教——德里达与宗教

世界的意义存在于世界之外。——维特根斯坦:《逻辑哲学论》在今天这个经常以宗教名义各行其是的纷乱世界,如何能够不割断哲学传统进行宗教思考?这是德里达在《信仰与知识》!"中要探讨解决的问题。德里达其实很早就开始对宗教进行思考。宗教问题成为他深入运用他的解构策略的重