Introduction: W. E. B. Du Bois: Religion and Social Inequality

W.E.B. Du Bois understood the critical role religion plays in power inequities in the, world. He was very acquainted with how it is used as a tool to exclude and subordinate human beings and yet, at the same time, serve as a source of refuge. This special issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion is a collection of articles that examines religion and social inequality from a variety of different angles with a Du Boisian lens. When we focus our lens on religion and social inequality, we are highlighting the ways in which religion plays a part in the unequal distribution of power across social groups in society. This special issue focuses on how religion impacts social life and the way individuals and groups embody or struggle to reclaim their agency within a context of silent oppression at times and not-so-silent oppression at others times at the personal-, group-, and global levels.     

The Religious Right and Russia: Christian Nationalism and Americans’ Views on Russia and Vladimir Putin Before and After the Ukrainian Invasion

Since 2016, Americans’ attitudes toward Russia and Vladimir Putin have shifted, with Republicans becoming far more supportive of both. And though condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 remains bipartisan, many Christian-right leaders still support Putin and Russia. What undergirds this support? Drawing on three national data sets, we theorize Americans’ warmth toward Putin and Russia is reinforced by an ideology that seeks to institutionalize America's mythical Anglo Protestant ethno-culture—Christian nationalism. Though we propose Christian nationalism's relationship with Russia is more contingent on Russia's geopolitical activity vis-à-vis the United States, we theorize that Christian nationalism consistently predicts Putin support due to his authoritarian ethno-nationalism. April 2018 data show those who affirm America's Christian heritage in the past and/or present are more likely to view Putin and Russia favorably and Russia as our ally. March 2021 data also reveal a linear positive association between Christian nationalism and favorability toward Putin. And March 2022 data reveal a linear positive association between Christian nationalism and admiring Putin's leadership. They also show a U-shaped curvilinear relationship with viewing Russia as a threat. Paradoxically, Christian nationalism may warm Americans toward foreign authoritarians like Putin even when it compels Americans to perceive their nations as threats.     

The Cost of Being Christian: The Association between Christian Affiliation and Discrimination Experiences among Asians in the United States

Whether religion contributes to or mitigates social inequality is ongoing. This study provides new evidence by examining the association between Christian affiliation and Asian citizens’ discrimination experiences. Using data from the National Asian American Survey and employing the Inverse Probability Treatment Weighting approach, this study finds that having a Christian affiliation is significantly associated with more interpersonal discrimination experienced by Asians in the United States. Strengthened ethnic identity and intraracial contact largely explain the association. Results from several robustness tests confirm this finding. There is a cost of being Christian for Asians in the United States.     

The Others: Finding and Counting America's Invisible Churches

The 2010 U. S. Religious Census: Religious Congregations and Membership Survey (RCMS) is the most comprehensive picture of U.S. religious life, county by county. How thorough is the RCMS in covering local religious groups? To answer this question, three county snapshots were performed with collected data compared to the RCMS 2010 reported numbers. Data suggest that there has been an underreport by as much as 25 percent of the number of local congregations in these counties. New and emerging religious movements and denominations as well as ethnic congregations comprise much of this percentage, making it more imperative for scholars to develop methodologies and frameworks in order to capture these “others” and invisible churches in America.     

The miracle of Maglavit (1935) and the Romanian psychology of religion

This paper examines the debates around the “miracle of Maglavit”, a shepherd's vision of God that took place in 1935 in Romania and attracted much contemporary popular and intellectual interest. The debates drew in arguments from doctors and theologians, who discussed the psychology of divine revelation and tried to elaborate the implications that such an event could have for the life of the Romanian nation. The paper places these debates in the context of wider contemporary discussions about psychology and religion. I argue that what Maglavit shows is that, in Romania at least, public debates about visionary experience in the 1930s were not only debates about its psychology, but of a psychology thoroughly imbricated with political concerns.     

Comparing language and religion in normative arguments about linguistic justice

Many of the most influential theorists of linguistic justice make arguments on the basis of comparisons between language and religion. They claim either that (1) language, by contrast with religion, cannot be separated from the state or that (2) unequal official linguistic recognition, just like unequal official religious recognition, is morally problematic. This article argues that careful attention to debates about liberalism and the place of religion in public life invites us to question the two above-mentioned liberal assumptions about religion underlying many arguments concerning linguistic justice based on (dis)analogies between language and religion. The hope is that such critical scrutiny is likely to shed some light on normative questions of linguistic justice, more precisely on questions about the legitimacy of granting more recognition to certain languages, usually those of national native groups (as opposed to groups resulting from more or less recent immigration).     

Belief in gene technology: The influence of environmental attitudes and gender

In the past, different items for measuring acceptance of gene technology were used, making comparison of results from different opinion polls rather difficult. A scale consisting of five items for assessing belief in gene technology was developed. Analysis yielded that the items form a strong Mokken scale. Results indicated that environmental attitudes and gender predict acceptance of gene technology. Participants who value nature for its own sake had negative attitudes and participants valuing nature because of its usefulness and benefits to humans had positive attitudes toward gene technology. Participants were randomly selected students from a Swiss University (N = 891).     

现代科学技术与角膜屈光性手术的发展

通过回顾角膜屈光性手术的发展历史,从中可以看出角膜屈光性手术的发展过程是一个实践－认识－再实践－再认识的过程,相关学科的进步以及新科技的引进,是认识的不深化以及实践的理论和物质基础,激光,电子计算机,材料学及制作工艺等现代科学技术的进步在角膜炎屈光性手术发生中起了决定性的作用。     

Hermeneutics and Experiences of the Body. The Case of Low Back Pain

The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on the notion of clinical medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise and to bridge the gap between the general perspectives of hermeneutics and the particularities of medical practice. The case of a patient with low back pain is analyzed. The discussion centers around the metaphor of the patient as a text and a model of five social discourses about low back pain. The problems addressed are: (1) the nature of a moral experience, (2) the variety of available texts, (3) the difference between the doctor's and patient's narratives, and (4) the patient's and doctor's responsibility regarding the existential, biographical meaning of an illness. Although many problems are left unsolved, it is argued that from a philosophical point of view the notion of medicine as a hermeneutical enterprise opens up the possibility of gaining insight in the foundations of the clinical encounter.     

The empirical relationships between standardized measures of religiosity and personality/mental health

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between standardized, factor-based measures of religiosity and personality/mental health. In a sample of 471 self-identified Christian subjects, 303 females and 168 males, 79 non-psychotic psychiatric in-patients and 392 non-patients, personal extrinsicness was partially positively correlated with the BCI Obsessive score. In multiple regression analyses some of the factor-based religious orientation indices related differently to the BCI Oral, Obsessive and Hysterical Scales and the SCL-90 Global Symptom Index as dependent variables. The religious orientations explained 8.8% of the variance of the BCI Oral Score, 4.2% of the BCI Obsessive score, 3.3% of the BCI Hysterical score, and 12.3% of the SCL-90 Global Symptom Index score. Of the doctrinal belief and morality indices only Moral conservatism was significantly related to the BCI Hysterical score, and then negatively.