Where Men Appear More Religious Than Women: Turning a Gender Lens on Religion in Israel

Past research, typically focused on Christians in Christian nations, has found that women tend to be more religious than men. This study uses original nationally representative data (N = 5,601) with strategic oversamples of minority groups to examine variation in how religion and gender intersect across ethnoreligious identities in Israel. We demonstrate that Israel diverges from the typical pattern of women appearing more religious than men. In fact, Israeli men are consistently more religious than Israeli women on commonly used measures and frequently more religious on a broader set of questions specific to Judaism and Israel. Subgroup analyses highlight the intersectional nature of gender and religion, showing that men's greater religiosity in Israel is limited to Jews, and, more specifically, nonsecular Jews. We suggest that gender gaps arise, at least in part, because religions are gendered institutions with gendered norms, expectations, and incentives, and that these norms, expectations, and incentives vary from religion to religion.     

Marcus Borg's Emerging Paradigm for Christianity: The Interplay of GLBT Readers,Religious Text,and Social Environment

This study considered how participants affiliated with a Christian church responded to and socially constructed information while reading and discussing Marcus Borg's book The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith. Borg argues that the traditional paradigm of American Christianity must be replayed with a more progressive Christianity. This church serves a largely (but not exclusively) gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender congregation (GLBT). The entire reading church cohort consisted of twelve groups with 96 participants and an outside comparison group of six readers. Group 10 of the church groups was studied using a field-based, research-participant approach. Members of Reading Group 10 reacted positively to Borg and appeared to have personally accepted levels of social constructionism. Other reading groups reacted more negatively to Borg. Pastoral assessments of the effectiveness are also offered.     

Patterns of Religious Education Policy in Switzerland: The Long Arm of Distanced Christians?

In spite of its different cantonal jurisdictions and traditions, the development of religious education in Switzerland over the past decade has taken a common direction: the state has assumed a more active role in the field of religious education in public (state‐run) schools. In this article, we ask the question: How do key social actors interpret these reforms and how do these interpretations relate to the social structure of religion in Switzerland, in particular with respect to the majority category of the so‐called distanced Christians? Drawing on qualitative interviews with members of the schools’ teaching staff, school administrators, and church representatives, the article highlights a dominant interpretative pattern that frames the socially accepted representation of religion in public schools. Thus, rather than addressing the pedagogical dimension of religious education, we discuss the significance of this pattern for the debate on the public presence of religion in Switzerland and Europe.     

Chinese Christianity in international perspective: some remarks on ecclesiology and fundamental concepts engaging East and West

ABSTRACT

In Chinese legislation on the Church as well as in the theological debate in China and, the concepts of religion and Christianity predominate, depending, from a historical perspective, on the influence of nineteenth-century philosophical and theological ideas from the West, conveyed by socialist political theory, by the weak ecclesiology in missionary societies operatingin China before 1949, and influential theologians setting the scene. The idea of Sinicisation contributed to the perpetuation of the nineteenth-century ideas of religion and Christianity in China. Today, however, there are signs of change. The churches in the accelerating multi-modernity in China wishto clarify what is unique for the Christian Church. Sometimes, however, what is characteristic of the Church in China is also characteristic of the Church in many other places in the world.     

The ideological manipulation of Hebrew literature in English translation in the 1970s and 1980s

In the past two decades, the field of translation studies has increasingly focused on the role of ideology in literary translation and cross-cultural transfer. This paper presents findings from the close textual comparison of original works of Hebrew literature and their English translations published in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. I specify translation strategies that have had ideological effects on the source texts, and demonstrate how historically or ethically charged subject matter was manipulated so as to subdue “problematic” aspects of the text for the (largely Jewish) target audience. The two major categories of manipulations had to do with the moral dimension of the portrayal of Israel and Israeli society, particularly in subject matter related to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; and with the relationship between Israel and other nations, and between Israel and Diaspora Jews. As stressed by recent sociological studies of translation, the translations can be seen both as reflective of contemporary socio-political trends of thought, and as practices playing an unseen role in strengthening these trends.     

Religion,Statelessness, and Belonging

Before 1948, and stretching back more than 1800 years, the Jewish people suffered all the problems of statelessness. The Zionist movement, 1897–1948, strove to end the condition of Jewish exile and statelessness. The great historical irony and tragedy is that the establishment of the State of Israel brought about the Nakba, the catastrophe, of the Palestinian people. Both the Israelis and the Palestinians see themselves as the victims of the conflict. They seem to be competitors in what I call a “suffering sweepstakes.” One of the problems with victimhood is that it prevents victims from assuming responsibility for their actions, including the victimization of others. In the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, both sides are victims and both sides are victimizers. The least helpful thing people can do – and regrettably many well‐meaning people do this – is to portray the situation in terms of a zero‐sum game, in which, if you’re pro‐Palestinian, you must be anti‐Israeli, and vice versa. We must be both pro‐Palestinian and pro‐Israeli, because we are pro‐people and, therefore, pro‐peace. The achievement of peace necessitates a two‐state solution based on some recognition of the two narratives. The best fulfilment of Zionism will come when there is a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.     

Well‐being and pressures of daily life in two West Bank villages—Exploring context and history

Interest in the well‐being of people exposed to long‐term violence and conflict has tended to focus on measurable effects of acute traumatic events, while attention to the pressures of their daily living context is relatively new. Using qualitative and quantitative data from a 2005 survey of all female family caretakers in 2 neighbouring Israeli‐occupied West Bank villages (n = 820), we explored the associations of demographic, health‐related and contextual factors with reported pressures and WHO‐5 well‐being index scores. The final model explained 17.8% of the variance with negative associations between health‐related factors (“back‐aches,” “stomach aches” “psychological illness in the family”) and family‐related factors (“male head of household aggressive”, “male head of household physically violent”) and the WHO‐5 well‐being index scores. We found positive associations between socio‐economic factors (“standard of living”; “number of rooms”) and village‐related factors (“residency in village A/B”) and the WHO‐5 well‐being index score. Exploring the daily living context of villages A and B illuminated how the impact of historical and political events differed, even in villages that are geographically close. The paper lends support to calls for including politics and history in research on well‐being in contexts of long‐term violence and conflict.     

A Clash of Civilizations? Muslims,Christians, and Preferences for Democracy

The incompatibility of Islam with democracy has been the focal point of many public and scholarly debates. However, very few studies have attempted to investigate empirically whether the followers of Islam are less favorable to democracy than the followers of Christianity. This study extends previous research by conducting empirical and representative analyses of whether Muslims in general and religious and practicing Muslims in particular prefer democracy less than their Christian counterparts. Using country fixed effects regression and data from the World Values Survey (WVS6) that include 52,326 Muslims and Christians, the analyses show that Muslims in general, as well as religious and practicing Muslims, endorse democracy to the same extent as do Christians. Thereby, this study is the first to provide comparative, individual‐level evidence of the influence these religions may have on democratic attitudes.     

Study on a Christian Chinese sample: sense of self-worth,well-being and locus of control

The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese Christians’ sense of self-worth, well-being, locus of control and the correlations between these variables. One hundred and two Chinese Christians with a range of 18–40 years old were surveyed by the Scale of Self-worth, Chinese version of General Well-Being Scale and internal–external Locus of Control Scale. A control group of 134 Chinese non-Christians participated in the same survey. Christians scored lower on locus of control and higher on self-worth than the non-Christians. No significant general well-being difference was between the Christian and non-Christian samples. The correlations were significant between locus of control and self-worth/general well-being (negative) and between self-worth and general well-being (positive). Results suggest that Christians experience better self-worth and tend to be internals on locus of control.     

“We Deal With Symptoms Rather Than Causes”: Antipoverty Policy Making in Occupied Palestinian Territories

Since the Palestinian National Authority assumed governance, antipoverty reforms implemented to combat social problems and traumatic stressors have had limited success. Few empirical studies have investigated policy-making obstacles in this context. Using a social protection framework, this study examined the policy-making environment in Occupied Palestinian Territories. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with Palestinian ministry officials and archival records. Findings revealed a restrictive, obstacle-ridden environment that severely constrains development of high-quality policies for meeting needs of Palestinian citizens. Some limitations were similar to those in other emerging nations; others were unique to the case of Palestine. Policy and research implications are discussed.