Tradition,morality and community: elaborating Orthodox identity in Putin’s Russia

This paper draws upon a number of official, semi-official and other public texts related to the current views of the Russian Church on social and political issues. Overall, in spite of a variety of opinions and nuances, a certain mainstream becomes apparent, as expressed through this body of texts. The most discussed topics include moral values related to the human body (such as abortion, euthanasia, reproductive technologies and sexuality) and issues such as blasphemy, juvenile courts and new technologies of personal registration for Russian citizens. ‘Traditional morality’ has become the signature discourse of the Russian Orthodox Church which is attempting to construct ‘tradition’ by drawing upon a partly imagined ethos of imperial Russia and the late Soviet Union. Traditional family values are central to the church’s rhetoric. The authors of these texts see a presumed decay of traditional values as the main danger that must be opposed. They usually trace the source of this danger directly to the contemporary West. By contrast, they see Russia as a protective shield against these global influences. Either consciously or involuntarily, they translate their religious language of traditional morality into a political rhetoric of solidarity and patriotism. Such ideological rhetoric has direct political implications and analogies in the agenda of Putin’s regime. This Russian appeal to ‘traditional values’, both religious and political, has recently acquired an extraordinary international relevance.     

Missiological Context of the Eastern Orthodox Churches in Africa

This article focuses on the missiological context of the Eastern Orthodox Churches in Africa under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, which serves the Greek‐, Arabic‐, and Russian‐speaking communities as well as native African Orthodox communities in sub‐Saharan Africa. The apostolic mission to Africa started in the city of Alexandria by St Mark the evangelist around 62–63 AD. The gospel flourished in the Alexandrian church through its famous catechetical school, participation in the ecumenical councils, and monasticism. After Islamic invasion of northern Africa (640 AD), Christianity started to decline and the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria extended its jurisdiction to sub‐Saharan Africa. First it served the Greek communities, but later in 1946 opened up to evangelize to native African communities. Orthodox Church mission engagement in sub‐Saharan African has resulted in different mission approaches, like the creation of new dioceses and archdioceses, theological education, and liturgical, incarnational, and reconciliation approaches. These approaches have prepared the missiological context of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Africa for an Africanized Christianity. Native Africans searched for ecclesial identity by affiliating with Greek Orthodoxy, consequently rekindling the mission of the Orthodox Church worldwide and creating a platform for dialogue between African cultural‐religious particularities and Orthodox theological ethos. This has resulted in a call for inculturation or incarnational process aiming for an “African local church.”     

Pondering “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today's World”: A Protestant Missiological Reflection

The article explores “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today's World” (MOCT), one of the six official documents issued by the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church that took place on the island of Crete in 2016. It is the first official Orthodox statement on mission ever published. The aim of the present article is to offer a reflection of MOCT from a Protestant missiological perspective. The article argues that MOCT interprets mission as the service of the church to the world, motivated by love. It goes on to discuss six major thematic areas of the statement, namely, the dignity of the human person; freedom and responsibility; peace and justice; peace and the aversion of war; the attitude of the church toward discrimination; and the mission of the Orthodox Church as a witness of love through service. The article seeks to provide a constructive critique of MOCT, assessing both its weaknesses and its assets. It concludes by saying that despite certain theological question marks, the new Orthodox mission document represents an invaluable contribution to the ecumenical discussion on mission and evangelism.     

Youth and the Great Recession: Are values,achievement orientation and outlook to the future affected?

This special section brings together leading experts in psychology and sociology to examine the consequences of the Great Recession for young people's values, achievement orientation, and outlook to the future. Evidence from Europe and the United States suggests that the impact of the recession varies for distinct outcomes and by age, the latter pointing to potential sensitive periods for interventions. Although the direct effects of the recession are not strong, they accelerate pre‐existing trends towards more prolonged and precarious transitions to independence, and are likely to bring with them long‐term scarring with respect to health and well‐being. While feelings of self‐confidence and self‐worth have eroded, young people continue to subscribe to the “American Dream,” the belief that in principle it is possible to make it – even if limitations to one's own capabilities are recognised. Trust in institutions has declined, but support and concern for others have increased, suggesting that in times of economic hardship and uncertainty social relationships become more salient. Young people's response to the recession appears to be less of a “me‐first” reaction than “let's help each other”: a form of “collective agency” to counter the inadequacy of social safety nets.     

American undergraduate students' value development during the Great Recession

The Great Recession's influence on American undergraduate students' values was examined, testing Greenfield's and Kasser's theories concerning value development during economic downturns. Study 1 utilised aggregate‐level data to investigate (a) population‐level value changes between the pre‐recession (2004–2006: n = 824,603) and recession freshman cohort (2008–2010: n = 662,262) and (b) overall associations of population‐level values with national economic climates over long‐term periods by correlating unemployment rates and concurrent aggregate‐level values across 1966–2015 (n = 10 million). Study 2 examined individual‐level longitudinal value development from freshman to senior year, and whether the developmental trajectories differed between those who completed undergraduate education before the Great Recession (freshmen in 2002, n = 12,792) versus those who encountered the Great Recession during undergraduate years (freshmen in 2006, n = 13,358). Results suggest American undergraduate students' increased communitarianism (supporting Greenfield) and materialism (supporting Kasser) during the Great Recession. The recession also appears to have slowed university students' development of positive self‐views. Results contribute to the limited literature on the Great Recession's influence on young people's values. They also offer theoretical and practical implications, as values of this privileged group of young adults are important shapers of societal values, decisions, and policies.     

New Concepts for New Dynamics: Generating Theory for the Study of Religious Innovation and Social Change

The Emerging Church movement (ECM) is sociologically interesting—not due to the size of its membership or the centrality of its congregations. Rather, the ECM is significant because it provides an opportunity to generate new concepts for the study religious innovation and social change. Using theoretical language, the ECM consists of institutional entrepreneurs who drive their religiously concerned movement by continually deconstructing and reframing beliefs, practices, and identities from “mainstream” Christianity while at the same time promoting newly formulated and broadly resonant religious imperatives. As Emerging Christians cultivate new or altered religious practices, these must be continually legitimized. Furthermore, their renegotiated beliefs (heterodoxies) require new forms of organization (alternative congregations). Such action is not the work of isolated individuals, nor is it independent of societal conditions. Ultimately, the ECM consists of Emerging Christians who creatively operate through diffuse network structures across wide geographic spaces and among disparate social groups to enact a collective institutional entrepreneurship that seeks to reimagine the assumptions of conventional Christian congregational life.     

The Emerging Church in Transatlantic Perspective

Is the Emerging Church movement (ECM) a single transnational movement? Or is it a series of parallel religious orientations framed by nationally specific contexts? Cross‐national comparisons of the many manifestations of the ECM remain scarce, especially as the development of the ECM across the globe (e.g., in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand) is most certainly affected by divergent histories and socioreligious landscapes. Focusing on a comparative analysis of the United Kingdom and the United States, I trace how these different cultural contexts determine variant patterns of ECM identity formation. Overall, a global perspective on the ECM calls for a theorization of the national development of religious movements and takes seriously the cultural and historical experiences that shape both its emergence in particular nations and the differentiated development of distinctive manifestations of ECM identity.     

Impact of Economic Hardship and Financial Threat on Suicide Ideation and Confusion

The present study tested the extent to which perceived economic hardship is associated with psychological distress (suicide ideation and confusion) after controlling for personal characteristics. It also explored whether perceived financial threat (i.e., fearful anxious-uncertainty about the stability and security of one's personal financial situation) mediates the relationship between economic hardship and psychological distress outcomes. The theoretical model was tested in a sample of Canadian students (n = 211) and was validated in a community sample of employed Portuguese adults (n = 161). In both samples, the fit of the model was good. Parameter estimates indicated that greater experience of economic hardship increased with financial threat, which in turn increased with levels of suicide ideation and confusion. We discuss the practical implications of these results, such as for programs aimed at alleviating the burden of financial hardship, in our concluding remarks.     

The Fortieth Anniversary of Women's Ordination in the Lutheran Church

Abstract : This article offers a perspective on the present and future roles of women in the ELCA. It gives some analysis of women's roles in the trend of declining traditional congregations and rising megachurches while imagining the role of clergywomen in the church's next forty years as new models of ministry emerge.