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Journal articles on the topic 'Small Christian communities'
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1
Smith, Susan. "Small Christian Communities Today: Capturing the New Moment." Mission Studies 24, no. 2 (2007): 357–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157338307x235030.
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Gorski, John F. "Book Review: Small Christian Communities Today: Capturing the New Moment." International Bulletin of Missionary Research 30, no. 4 (October 2006): 209. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/239693930603000412.
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Leopold, CSC, Rev Fr Temba. "THE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY AND ITS RELELVANE IN AFRICA." International Journal of Culture and Religious Studies 2, no. 2 (September 10, 2021): 1–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.47941/ijcrs.317.
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This paper seeks to delineate the doctrine of purgatory from dogmatic perspective and show its relevance in Africa from pastoral perspective. The work presents the scriptural and traditional teaching of the Catholic Church on the dogma of purgatory and then explores the elements in which Christians can find the meaning of the doctrine especially in relating the Christian faith, to the practical and pastoral ways of understanding and facing with hope the reality of death in the African families and Small Christian communities.
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Healey, Joseph G. "Small Christian Communities Promote Family and Marriage Ministry in Eastern Africa." Roczniki Teologiczne 63, no. 10 (2016): 201–15. http://dx.doi.org/10.18290/rt.2016.63.10-18.
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Shepetyak, Oksana. "Statistical Analysis of the Relationship between the Numbers of Christian Churches of the Middle East." Ukrainian Religious Studies, no. 86 (July 3, 2018): 4–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.32420/2018.86.702.
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In the Article of Oksana Shepetyak "Statistical Analysis of the Relationship between the Numbers of Christian Churches of the Middle East"is analyzed the modernity of the Christians communities in their historical regions and tendency in their development. The diversity of Eastern Christianity requires a broad and multifaceted study. Most researchers focus on the history of formation, theological and liturgical aspects, and contemporaneity. This study is devoted to the comparison of only statistics, which, however, reveal an entirely new picture of the Christian East. The comparison of the number of believers in the Eastern Churches shows that the Oriental non-orthodox churches dominate in the Alexandrian tradition, while the Eastern Catholic Churches predominate in the East Syrian and Western-Syrian tradition. Instead, the Churches of the Byzantine tradition in the Middle East turned into small religious communities.
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Healey, Joseph. "How Small Christian Communities Promote Reconciliation, Justice and Peace in Eastern Africa." Journal for Peace and Justice Studies 20, no. 2 (2010): 43–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/peacejustice201020219.
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Nyanto, Salvatory S. "Ujamaa, Small Christian Communities, and Moral Reform in Western Tanzania, 1960s–1990." Catholic Historical Review 106, no. 2 (2020): 312–34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cat.2020.0043.
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Pilarska, Dr Justyna. "Bosnian multiconfessionalism as a foundation for intercultural dialogue." European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research 10, no. 2 (May 19, 2017): 24. http://dx.doi.org/10.26417/ejser.v10i2.p24-33.
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Muslim communities in the Balkans where the practice of Islam had been developed in the European context, can be used as an exemplification of the bridge between the Islamic East and the Christian West. Although for over 400 years Bosnia was under the Ottoman rule, Muslims became one of the many first Yugoslav, and then Bosnian communities, contributing to the dynamic, yet moderate area of ontological and axiological negotiations within the cultural borderland, sharing the living space with members of the Orthodox church, Catholics, a small Jewish community, and even Protestants. The history of the Muslim-Christian contacts in Bosnia involves both the examples of collisions, as well as encounters, initiated both by Christians, and by Muslims. This article analyzes the religious diversity (multiconfessionalism) in the historical and contemporary cultural and social context of Bosnia-Herzegovina, revealing its specificity, dynamics and (often unsuccessful) attempts to conceptualize it from the perspective of the Eurocentric discourse. The aim is not only to portray this religiously diverse makeup, but also to emphasize its potential for establishing ground for intercultural dialogue.
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Carney, J. J. "The People Bonded Together by Love: Eucharistic Ecclesiology and Small Christian Communities in Africa." Modern Theology 30, no. 2 (March 24, 2014): 300–318. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/moth.12097.
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Maynard, Beth. "Learning from Paris." Anglican Theological Review 103, no. 1 (February 2021): 60–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0003328621993019.
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While Christianity in France continues to decline overall, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paris seems to be experiencing a small-scale revival among a “creative minority” of often younger Christians. Rooted in the vision and leadership of Jean-Marie Cardinal Lustiger, these pockets of vitality exhibit several common themes, among them intentional formation, rootedness in prayer, the importance of beauty, pilgrimage, and the influence of monastic or neo-monastic movements. Despite many French cultural distinctives, some of the emphases of these flourishing communities and initiatives might be useful as American Episcopalians attempt to reshape ministry and community life for an increasingly post-Christian culture.
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Kimeli, Richard. "Evaluation of Male Presence in Small Christian Communities in Kapcherop Parish, Diocese of Eldoret, Kenya." South Asian Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 2, no. 5 (October 8, 2020): 406–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.36346/sarjhss.2020.v02i05.008.
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Watts, James W. "Biblical Rhetoric of Separatism and Universalism and Its Intolerant Consequences." Religions 11, no. 4 (April 9, 2020): 176. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel11040176.
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The long history of the Jewish and Christian use of separatist rhetoric and universal ideals reveals their negative consequences. The Hebrew Bible’s rhetoric about Israel as a people separated from the Egyptians and Canaanites is connected to Israel’s purity practices in Leviticus 18 and 20. Later communities wielding greater political power, however, employed this same anti-Canaanite pollution rhetoric in their efforts to colonize many different parts of the world. Separatist rhetoric was used to protect small Jewish communities in the early Second Temple period. The Christian New Testament rejected many of these purity practices in order to makes its mission more inclusive and universal. However, its denigration of concerns for purification as typically “Jewish” fueled intolerance of Jews in the form of Christian anti-Semitism. The violent history of both separatist and universalist rhetoric provides a cautionary tale about the consequences of using cultural and religious comparisons for community formation.
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Breen, J. L. "Shintoists in Restoration Japan (1868–1872): Towards a Reassessment." Modern Asian Studies 24, no. 3 (July 1990): 579–602. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0026749x00010477.
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In April of 1868, the Restoration government issued an anti-Christian proscription—‘a fixed law for all ages’ it was styled. Christianity was declared a pernicious sect; rewards were offered for information leading to the discovery of Christians. In the name of the proscription, the government carried out a persecution which, in the first four years of the new era, resulted in the deaths of as many as 500 native Christians. These men, women and children died from torture, starvation or from sickness induced by the conditions in which they were kept. The native Christians were, of course, from the recently discovered hidden Christian communities around Nagasaki. The Nagasaki Christian affair is a fascinating one to which I shall return, but I mention it at the outset since it serves usefully to stress the climate of the times as far as Christianity was concerned. Given this climate, it is remarkable that there emerged by 1871, or thereabouts, a small number of enlightened intellectuals who criticized government policy on Christianity and went so far as to advocate religious freedom. The most famous of the few were Mori Arinori, Nakamura Keiu, Fukuzawa Yukichi and Nishi Amane—names known to anyone familiar with early Meiji intellectual history. There is, however, one other name that needs to be added to this short list. That is Fukuba Bisei. The little known Fukuba Bisei was, perhaps, the most remarkable of these men since he was an early Meiji Shintoist.
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GRAY, RICHARD. "POPULAR THEOLOGIES IN AFRICA: A REPORT ON A WORKSHOP ON SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN SOUTHERN AFRICA." African Affairs 85, no. 338 (January 1986): 49–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097770.
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Ford, John T. "Small Christian Communities Today: Capturing the New Moment ? Edited by Joseph G. Healey and Jeanne Hinton." Religious Studies Review 33, no. 1 (January 2007): 34–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-0922.2007.00144_3.x.
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Lott, Anastasia. "Recovering the Word of God Today with and among the Poor." Missiology: An International Review 16, no. 3 (July 1988): 321–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/009182968801600305.
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The author explores the tension between popular biblical reflection in small, informal groups and professional exegetical interpretation as a challenge to openness and collaboration. Some ideological and methodological errors may occur in popular interpretation and also many wonderful experiences as the community responds to authentic biblical challenges to Christian action. Literature on the Exodus, creation, prophetic themes, wisdom, early Christian community, and Jesus of the poor have been especially fruitfully pursued by these communities. The exegete is challenged to put professional expertise at the service of these groups to help support, integrate, and authenticate the interpretive reflection process.
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Lindemann, Andreas. "… κτρϕϵτϵ αὐτὰ ν παιδϵίᾳ καὶ νουθϵσίᾳ κυρίου (Eph 6.4): Kinder in der Welt des frühen Christentums." New Testament Studies 56, no. 2 (March 4, 2010): 169–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0028688509990257.
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This paper inquires into the situation of small children during the Hellenistic-Roman era, including NT texts and later Christian writings in the first two or three centuries. There was an early form of ‘Christian education’, and probably, children of baptized parents belonged to the Christian communities. In 1 Cor 7.14, Paul indirectly argues in favour of a ‘Christian influence’ on the ‘holy children’ by the ‘believing’ father or mother. In Eph 6.4, the author, speaking about παιδϵία καὶ νουθϵσία κυρίου, argues that in a Christian household children should have instruction in the Christian faith. The question of the baptism of small children might be answered by the interpretation of 1 Cor 1.14–16, where Paul precisely distinguishes between baptism of individuals (1.14) and baptism of the ‘house of Stephanas’. Mark 10.13–16 is a mirror of a discussion between those who ‘rebuke’ people for bringing children to Jesus, and Jesus himself who interprets their action as a ‘prevention’, thus escalating the conflict to a fundamental one, which probably refers to the question of baptism of children. During the last century, we have learned (again?) to see childhood not only as a transitional period of human life but one to be protected by society. Possibly similar ideas existed during the times when our texts were written.
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Hewitt, W. E. "The Influence of Social Class on Activity Preferences of Comunidades Eclesiais de Base (CEBs) in the Archdiocese of São Paulo." Journal of Latin American Studies 19, no. 1 (May 1987): 141–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022216x0001717x.
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A number of interpretations have recently emerged which attempt to explain the nature and sociopolitical implications of Roman Catholic base Christian communities (CEBs) in Brazil. Most studies have tended to describe these small, informal lay groups as a predominantly lower-class phenomenon which is facilitating the self-liberation of the poor from the weight of centuries-old political and economic oppression.
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Czermak, Gerhard. "Grundfragen des deutschen Religionsverfassungsrechts in Theorie und Praxis Ein kritischer Überblick." Zeitschrift für Religions- und Geistesgeschichte 63, no. 4 (2011): 348–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157007311798293665.
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AbstractThe article outlines the development and most important features of the religious constitutional law of the Federal Republic of Germany, as constituted in the Grundgesetz (the German Costitution) and the decisions of the Federal Constitutional Court. Under the basic principle of neutrality, it constitutes a system of separation with single aspects of cooperation of the state and religious communities. It is also a system of wide freedom and of kindness to religion. Non-religious worldviews are explicitly equated for individuals as well as for religious and non-religious associations. This system is in theory exemplary, but holed by contradictory laws, church-state-treaties and one-sided financial subventions in a huge dimension. The indirect influence of the large Christian churches is remarkable. Christian institutions dominate the social services – with unpleasing consequences for over 1 million employees, who are subject to a special employment law. Meanwhile, low-level discrimination of small religious communities continues.
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Brown, Jason M. "The ‘Greening’ of Christian Monasticism and the Future of Monastic Landscapes in North America." Religions 10, no. 7 (July 16, 2019): 432. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel10070432.
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Christian monasticism has an ancient land-based foundation. The desert fathers and later reform movements appealed to the land for sustenance, spiritual metaphor, and as a marker of authentic monastic identity. Contemporary Roman Catholic monastics with this history in mind, have actively engaged environmental discourse in ways that draw from their respective monastic lineages, a process sociologist Stephen Ellingson calls ‘bridging’. Though this study is of limited scope, this bridging between monastic lineages and environmental discourse could cautiously be identified with the broader phenomenon of the ‘greening’ of Christianity. Looking to the future, while the footprint of North American monastic communities is quite small, and their numbers are slowly declining, a variety of conservation-minded management schemes implemented since the 1990s by some communities suggests that the impact will remain for many decades to come.
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Njoroge, Rose. "Effectiveness and Challenges in Evangelization in the Small Christian Communities in the Catholic Church in Vihiga County, Kenya." South Asian Research Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences 01, no. 02 (August 30, 2019): 173–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.36346/sarjhss.2019.v01i02.026.
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Chavdar, Kimo, Marina Andeva, and Karolina Kedeva. "The Influence of Religion Over Family Planning: the Case of the Republic of Macedonia." European Scientific Journal, ESJ 13, no. 35 (December 31, 2017): 112. http://dx.doi.org/10.19044/esj.2017.v13n35p112.
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Religions have been dominant for thousands of years in each and every aspect of human life, particularly in the domain of the family communion. The influence of religion as a specific form of collective consciousness, and as a system of moral rights and norms, since their appearance until today, is particularly interesting for the Republic of Macedonia. In this small territory, despite the fact that a variety of different religious communities have coexisted throughout the centuries, yet there is a major difference in the approach of family planning customs. This is mostly evidenced in the cases of the population representing the Orthodox Christian and Muslim religions. In this article we elaborate, firstly the viewpoints on family planning and reproduction of the Orthodox Christian and Muslim religions as the dominant religions in the Republic of Macedonia and discuss viewpoints and attitudes towards family planning (abortion) among the Macedonian citizens.
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Hsia, R. Po-chia. "Elisheva Carlebach. Divided Souls: Converts from Judaism in Germany, 1500–1750. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2001. xii, 324 pp." AJS Review 29, no. 2 (November 2005): 388–89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0364009405350173.
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Unlike the Sephardim, who accepted the concept of taqiyya and the practice of marranism to cope with forced conversions under Islam, the Ashkenazim, especially the Jewish communities of Germanophone Central Europe, developed an uncompromising rejection of Christian baptism. Instead of marranism and deception under Islam, the Ashkenazim, in the persecutions of the Crusades and after, developed a strong sense of martyrdom and detested baptism, whether forced or voluntary, as ritual and spiritual defilement and pollution. The small number of Jewish converts to Christianity were not so much sinners but apostates (meshummadim or the vertilgten). Given this Ashkenazi tradition, it is not surprising that converts were marginalized in Jewish historiography and scholarship. Nevertheless, as Carlebach argues persuasively in this book, they played a significant role in Jewish–Christian relations in early modern Germany; and given the fact that conversions rose rapidly in the late eighteenth century, it is all the more important to understand the prehistory of Jewish conversion and integration in Germany after Emancipation.
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Kuruvilla, Samuel J. "Church–State Relations in Palestine: Empires, Arab Nationalism and the Indigenous Greek Orthodox, 1880–1940." Holy Land Studies 10, no. 1 (May 2011): 55–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/hls.2011.0003.
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The need to negotiate and resolve ethno-nationalistic aspirations on the part of dependent and subject communities of faith-believers is a complex issue. The Ottoman Empire formed a classic case in this context. This article is a historical-political reflection on a small group of Christians within the broader Arab and ‘Greek’ Christian milieu that once formed the backbone of the earlier Byzantine and later Ottoman empires. The native Arab Orthodox of Palestine in the twilight years of the Ottoman Empire found themselves in a struggle between their religious affiliations with Mediterranean Greek Orthodoxy and Western Christendom as opposed to the then ascendant star of nationalist pan-Arabism in the Middle East. The supersession of the Ottoman Empire by the British colonial Mandatory system in Palestine and the loss of imperial Russian support for the Arab Orthodox in the Holy Land naturally meant that they relied more on social and political cooperation with their fellow Palestinian Muslims. This was to counter the dominance extended by the ethnic Greek ecclesiastical hierarchy in the Holy Land over the historically Arab Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem with support from elements within the Greek Republic and the British Mandatory authorities.
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Downing, F. Gerald. "Jesus of Nazareth in a Nuclear Age." Scottish Journal of Theology 43, no. 2 (May 1990): 207–24. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s003693060003249x.
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It has always been possible for members of Christian communities to find ways to avoid the force of teachings ascribed to Jesus and to his first followers, short of open repudiation. These days we have some new devices. We can stress the gulf of nineteen centuries separating us, (and our historical reconstructions are so insecure). We can point to our nuclear age as creating a gulf even between us and our parents or grandparents: the ‘godlike’ power a small number of us have to end most or all life on our planet can seem to put everything into a quite new perspective. And we can combine these arguments with enhanced versions of old ones, confining our Christian concern to an ever narrower private and religious sphere, perhaps shaping our public character, but making no specific demands on the expanding areas mapped as autonomously social, political and economic. Then we can go back to the New Testament and ‘read’ Jesus and his first followers in the light of our chosen restrictions.
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Wong, Briana. "“We Believe the Bible”." Indonesian Journal of Theology 9, no. 1 (August 12, 2021): 23–40. http://dx.doi.org/10.46567/ijt.v9i1.170.
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Christianity is a small but growing minority in Cambodia, accounting for only about 3% of the population yet growing there at a rate faster than in any other country in Southeast Asia. In Cambodian Christian communities, it is not uncommon to find more women than men in the churches. Cambodian boys often spend a brief period of their youth as novice monks at Theravada Buddhist monasteries, during which time they have the opportunity to become familiar with the Pali language and holy texts. Girls are not afforded this same opportunity, as there are no nuns (bhikkhuni) in contemporary Theravada. Within the Christian community in Cambodia, women carry out much of the service work in the churches, but only rarely are they invited to preach, let alone to become pastors—as is the case in much of the world. This article, based on interviews and participant observation with evangelical churches in Cambodia in 2019, demonstrates the ways in which ministry carried out by women has been characterized by courageous creativity, empowered through physical distance, and undergirded by a resoluteness of vocation.
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Tiedemann, R. G. "Protestant Revivals in China with Particular Reference to Shandong Province." Studies in World Christianity 18, no. 3 (December 2012): 213–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2012.0022.
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Revivals have been a regular feature of the missionary enterprise. The modern Catholic and Protestant missionary movements themselves emerged from major religious revivals in the Western world. On the nineteenth-century China mission fields, Protestant missionaries from the mainline denominations frequently lamented the fact that their often nominal convert communities were lacking in Christian spirit and called for reinvigoration campaigns. It was, however, in the twentieth century that several large-scale revival movements occurred, starting with the ‘Manchurian revival’ of 1907–8 and culminating in the great ‘Shandong revival’ of the 1930s. The years after 1908 saw the rise of Chinese ― as well as some foreign ― full-time revivalists engaging in evangelistic efforts to reach the native Christian as well as non-Christian populations. The Canadian Presbyterian Jonathan Goforth (1859–1936) and the Shandong evangelist Ding Limei (1871–1936) are the most prominent representatives of the early campaigns of Christian renewal. In the 1920s, in spite of the fundamentalist/modernist controversy and anti-Christian agitation by nationalist and revolutionary forces in China, revivalism actually intensified. The principal focus of this paper will be on the new currents of spiritual regeneration that came with the proliferation of mostly small and sectarian missions of Holiness or Pentecostal provenance. Pentecostal ideas, in particular, contributed to the growth of Chinese independent churches and the wave of revivalism that swept across parts of China in the early 1930s. Such ‘gifts of the spirit’ as prophecy, divine healing and speaking in tongues, as well as a strong pre-millenarian belief, energised many of the more radical indigenous revivalists at this time. Other well-known Chinese evangelists had been influenced by the Holiness movement or Plymouth Brethren ideas. The Chinese dimension, especially in the context of Shandong province, is receiving particular attention in this paper.
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Luka, Oksana Victoria. "On Western Ukrainian Iconographic Practice." Studies in World Christianity 17, no. 2 (August 2011): 119–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/swc.2011.0016.
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Standard works on the theology of icons and histories of Byzantine art usually present us with well-known and prominent examples of Byzantine iconography. Often overlooked, however, are the many and various traditions of iconography that have flourished in small and distant regions. These little-known local iconographic traditions, however, have great value. The aim of this paper is to present reflections on the importance of local iconography in the life of faith of Eastern Christian communities by drawing attention to the unique iconographic tradition developed in Western Ukraine. Emphasis is given to the development of local iconographic traditions, the use of icons in communal and private religious practice, and the challenges encountered by contemporary efforts to revive local iconography.
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Kaufman, Tone Strangeland. "A New Old Spirituality for Youth Ministry? Christian Discipleship and Practice in the Norwegian CrossRoad Movement." Journal of Youth and Theology 11, no. 1-2 (January 17, 2012): 40–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/24055093-90000051.
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Making the case that Christian discipleship in the Scandinavian movement Korsvei (CrossRoad Movement, abbreviated CRM) is enacted and understood as a new old spirituality, this article asks why the CRM is considered relevant by an increasing number of people, including youth. This small scale research is designed as a case study of the CRM based on document analysis of the spirituality of the movement in dialogue with Diana Butler Bass’ research on practicing or pilgrimage congregations in the US context and in light of the concepts subjectivization and retraditionalization. It draws on Paul Heelas and Linda Woodhead’s work The Spiritual Revolution, yet questions their conclusion that traditional religion is giving way to holistic spirituality. The present article rather argues that a cultural climate of subjectivization also within the Christian context in Norway has led to the negotiation of tradition and to old spiritual practices being approached in a new way, here called retraditionalization. It further suggests that the new old spirituality of the CRM might be considered a resource for youth ministry in a time when an emphasis on spiritual practice and communities has entered the curriculum of youth ministry.
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Jaworski, Piotr. "Kluby Inteligencji Katolickiej jako instytucje wsparcia wykształcenia i wychowania w Diecezji Tarnowskiej." Kultura - Przemiany - Edukacja 8 (2020): 47–61. http://dx.doi.org/10.15584/kpe.2020.8.4.
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Among the various forms of association of the Catholic laity in the Church, one can distinguish associations and organisations – whether they are based on canonical or civil law on associations – and informal circles: religious movements, groups, circles and small groups. The difficult situation of the Church in Poland after World War II was not conducive to the creation of organisations whose activities would be approved by both the church authorities and the state authorities. If, however, quasi-ecclesiastical or religious organisations were to emerge that were recognised by the civil authorities, these were unfortunately organisations that had very little in common with the good of the Church and the faithful. Against this backdrop, the Catholic Intelligence Clubs were a kind of phenomenon. They enjoyed the approval of the Church authorities and, to some extent, the unintentional recognition of the state authorities, and sought to strengthen religious education by forming people and communities in the Christian spirit, shaping social attitudes, creating and deepening Christian culture, intellectual development and various forms of charitable activity. Three Catholic Intelligentsia Clubs were established in the Tarnów Diocese: in Nowy Sącz, Tarnów and Mielec.
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Doyle, Dennis M. "Small Christian Communities: Imagining Future Church. Edited by Robert S. PeltonC.S.C., Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1997. xi + 132 pages. $14.00 (paper)." Horizons 26, no. 1 (1999): 149–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0360966900031704.
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Kolodnyi, Anatolii M. "Familiarity: Origins, trends, trends." Ukrainian Religious Studies, no. 1 (March 31, 1996): 41–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.32420/1996.1.15.
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Familiarity creates its own specific continuum of spiritual life in Ukraine, becomes a notable phenomenon in the field of Ukrainian national revival. With this phrase, we identified a group of related phenomena in the spiritual life of present-day Ukraine, based on the idea of a revival in one form or another of pre-Christian religion, which is considered by the organizers of the Homeland Movement as the authentic worldview of Ukrainians. It is impossible to call each of the currents of native religion a neo-religious denomination, because, first, some of them, by virtue of their belief-conceptions of monotheistic religions, do not accept such an assessment of themselves; and secondly, some of these trends are still not religiously determined, but exist at the level of some educational institutions, they appear in the form of peculiar clubs of interest; Thirdly, a number of them functions in a very limited religious space, consisting only of several communities and a relatively small number of followers.
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Rutgers, Leonard V., Arie F. M. De Jong, and Klaas van der Borg. "Radiocarbon Dates from the Jewish Catacombs of Rome." Radiocarbon 44, no. 2 (2002): 541–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0033822200031891.
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This paper reports on the first chronological assessment of the Jewish Catacombs of the ancient Rome performed by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of small-size charcoal fragments scattered in the mortar used for sealing off the graves in the Villa Torlonia Catacomb complex. The significance of the obtained 14C readings has been carefully evaluated by taking into consideration the known technologies of quicklime production during Roman and recent times. The new data are of great concern for providing evidence that the Jewish catacombs were used for burial since the first century AD, thus some two centuries prior to the period traditionally believed to be the starting point of burial in the Jewish catacombs of ancient Rome. Such a significant aging of the Jewish catacombs could result in a deep re-examination of the current understanding of the beginning and the evolution of the custom of catacomb burial in both Jewish and early Christian communities in Rome.
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Levy-Rubin, Milka. "NEW EVIDENCE RELATING TO THE PROCESS OF ISLAMIZATION IN PALESTINE IN THE EARLY MUSLIM PERIOD THE CASE OF SAMARIA." Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 43, no. 3 (2000): 257–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/156852000511303.
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AbstractThere is an ongoing discussion among scholars concerning the date and the pace of the process of Islamization in Palestine during the early Muslim period. Evidence concerning this subject is rare. Muslim sources relate that there was a substantial presence of Muslims in the area of Samaria from the tenth century onwards. It has been presumed until now that this was solely a result of immigration of Arab Muslims to this area. Basing itself upon new evidence found in a local Samaritan chronicle, this article strives to show that a small part of this Muslim population originated in Samaritan population which converted to Islam during the early Muslim period mainly as a result of difficult economic conditions. As of now, this is the only evidence we have of mass conversion to Islam in Palestine during the early Muslim period. It should be emphasized that this evidence cannot be applied automatically to the Jewish and Christian communities in Palestine whose circumstances, though similar, were nevertheless somewhat different.
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Paas, Stefan, and Marry Schoemaker. "Crisis and Resilience among Church Planters in Europe." Mission Studies 35, no. 3 (October 18, 2018): 366–88. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15733831-12341590.
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Abstract Church planting – the creation of new Christian communities for missionary reasons – is becoming increasingly accepted among the larger churches and denominations in Europe. As church plants in the secular parts of Europe are usually under-resourced, and remain small, the normalization of this entrepreneurial approach of church and mission raises the question of its sustainability. Part of the answer to this question lies in the resilience of church planters; that is, those who lead these enterprises. In this paper we present the results of a qualitative study of European church planters, with a view to their coping with what often appears to be a mixture of high expectations, unclear structures, and a difficult “market.” This research shows the particular nature of crises in the life of a church planter, while identifying sources of resilience. Its results are relevant both for the assessment of church planting projects, and for the training and coaching of church planters.
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Van Niekerk, PI. "God en armoede in die Karoo – ’n Besinning oor ’n teologie van transformasie." STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal 1, no. 1 (July 31, 2015): 321. http://dx.doi.org/10.17570/stj.2015.v1n1.a16.
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<strong>God and poverty in the Karoo – A reflection on a theology of transformation</strong> <br /> The Karoo is an outstretched arid area characterised by poverty and underdevelopment. This article focuses on the poverty of the Karoo people and the effect of their faith in God on social development and transformation. The future of the Karoo is vested in its people and religious communities. Previous research indicated that believers’ image of God had an effect on their attitude towards social development and transformation. A small sample of women in a Karoo town experienced God as loving, but not as a God that inspired people towards transformation. The test for the church lies in her social involvement in the world as its salvation is God’s concern. In Christian humanism the integrity of creation in a world filled with injustice and poverty is emphasised. Churches in the Karoo are encouraged to utilise a theology of transformation that is developmentally driven and inspired by a transforming image of God.
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Hermkens, Anna-Karina. "Rosaries and Statues: Mediating Divine Intervention in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea." Religions 12, no. 6 (May 21, 2021): 376. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel12060376.
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In the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (ARoB) in Papua New Guinea, the changes of Vatican II led to significant Church reform, creating “Liklik Kristen Komuniti” (small Christian communities) that gave more responsibility to the laity. Moreover, as elsewhere in the world, Charismatic Catholicism was introduced and embraced. At the same time, private devotions, and in particular devotions to Mary, became immensely popular and powerful in Bougainville. This is partly due to the Bougainville crisis (1988–1998), which caused immense suffering, but also triggered a surge in popular devotions as people looked for spiritual guidance to deal with the hardships of the crisis. This paper shows how in the context of social and economic upheaval, charismatic popular devotions became increasingly influential with rosaries and statues becoming important mediums in facilitating healing and socio-political renewal. This shows the strength of popular devotions and the importance of material religion in particular. It also elucidates how popular devotions in Bougainville are part of global Catholic developments, as well as transnational practices that place Mary in the center of devotional practices.
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Pritula, Anton. "From Tigris to Jerusalem: East Syriac Poetic Notes from the Ottoman Time." Hugoye: Journal of Syriac Studies 22, no. 1 (January 1, 2019): 193–234. http://dx.doi.org/10.31826/hug-2019-220106.
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Abstract The poems published and studied here - most of them for the first time - represent literary tastes of East Syriac educated circles of the Ottoman period. These text collections appeared as later additions in the manuscripts written by ʿAbdīšōʿ of Gāzartā, the Uniate East Syriac Church poet and the second patriarch (1555-1570). These small texts, usually having very little or even nothing to do with the main manuscript text, represent a kind of verse notes made by different pilgrims, and reflect popular poetic tastes of the period. Short poems, especially quatrains, are an ideal form for such poetic activities. Judging from their great number, the spread of short poems was constantly increasing since the time the Syriac Renaissance, when they were first borrowed from Arabic and Persian poetry. Apparently, the multi-lingual poems of the Mongol period (second half of the 13th-early 14thcentury) - the heyday of the Syriac tradition in the Islamic period - were treated as appropriate models to portray contemporary cultural life of the multi-lingual Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire.
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Baum, Robert M. "The emergence of a Diola Christianity." Africa 60, no. 3 (July 1990): 370–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1160112.
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Opening ParagraphAfrican religious history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been dominated by the rapid growth of Islam and Christianity. This has been especially true of the Senegambia region of West Africa, which has witnessed the adoption of Islam by approximately 80 per cent of the region's populace and the development of a small, but influential Christian minority. Among the Diola of the Casamance region of Senegal, Islam and Christianity have both enjoyed rapid growth. The approximately half million Diola, however, include the largest number of adherents of their traditional religion within the Senegambian region. They are sedentary rice farmers and are usually described as acephalous peoples. While Muslims and Christians have been in contact with the Diola since the fifteenth century there were few conversions during the pre-colonial era (Baum, 1986). During the colonial era Islam became the dominant religion among the Diola on the north shore of the Casamance river, and Christianity also attracted a considerable following (Mark, 1985). Among the south shore communities neither Islam nor Christianity became important until after the Second World War. Seeing the increased momentum of recent years, many observers are confident that the south shore Diola will follow the northern example and convert to Islam or Christianity. Louis Vincent Thomas, the doyen of Diola ethnographers, described Diola traditional religion as ‘a false remedy to a very real crisis; fetishism will become a temporary response that will be quickly swept away by another attempt, even larger and undoubtedly more profound: Islam and perhaps we could add, Christianity’ (Thomas, 1967: 225; translations are my own, unless otherwise stated).
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John, Helen C. "Christianization, the New Testament and COVID-19 in Owambo, Namibia." Journal for the Study of the New Testament 44, no. 1 (July 5, 2021): 112–33. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0142064x211025484.
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This article explores religious and cultural responses to the COVID-19 crisis in Namibia, focusing particularly on the northern region of Owambo. Since the 1870s, Owambo has experienced a rapid and widespread process of Christianization. Today, the vast majority of the population (both in Owambo and in wider Namibia) identify as Christian. In this context, the supremacy of the Bible and Christianity was established, in no small part, through the instigation of cultural crisis – the upending of social norms and the demonization of African Traditional Religion (ATR) and local cultural practice. From foodstuffs to family structure, from initiation to forms of dress and adornment – the overtly ‘traditional’ became taboo. And yet, responses to the COVID-19 pandemic illustrate the endurance of ATR and demonstrate that the cultural ‘text’ is at least as significant as the biblical text in the current crisis, whether as sphere of impact or source of resilience. This article therefore reflects on responses to the current COVID-19 crisis in light of the historical cultural crisis, exploring how Christianity and ATR are perceived to be affected by COVID-19, and how communities are drawing on Christianity/the Bible and ATR as sources of resilience.
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van der Panne, Esther. "Mijn God trouwt ook homo’s." DNK : Documentatieblad voor de Nederlandse kerkgeschiedenis na 1800 44, no. 94 (June 1, 2021): 51–73. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/dnk2021.94.003.vand.
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Abstract My God also weds gays The Remonstrantse Broederschap, a small liberal church, was the first church in the world that opened the wedding blessing for not-wedded couples. At the time they did so, in November 1986, that also meant: for homosexual and heterosexual couples. The process that led to this decision took a long time and was carefully structured and monitored. It went along two tracks: a discussion project in the local church communities and the realization of a new church order. This decision to give a blessing ‘to all couples that promised in the midst of the congregation to share their lives in love and faithfulness’, fits into the liberal tradition of the Remonstrant faith. This is inspired by the humanist and the protestant Christian tradition, and characterizes itself by the appreciation of openness (to contemporary society, culture, science), freedom, tolerance and responsibility. The search for collective responsibility and active tolerance, including taking a stand against discrimination (for instance of homosexuals) in public, as a church, caused internal disagreement. This disagreement seems to have its roots in a classic bourgeois decency culture on the one side and a more plural, progressive liberal culture on the other side.
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Ciarocchi, Valerio. "Fede cristiana, devozione mariana e pandemia da covid-19. Il “caso” della comunità di Biancavilla (Ct)." Comparative Cultural Studies - European and Latin American Perspectives 6, no. 13 (April 13, 2021): 119–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.36253/ccselap-12764.
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The crisis dramatically resulting from the sudden pandemic for Covid-19 had immediate and long-term consequences. From a religious point of view, what were the answers? The civil and ecclesial community of Biancavilla country is unique in the Etna province and in Valdemone, since it is the only one of Arbëreshë origin, although now Latinized, arrived and finally settled at the foot of Etna, after the exile following the fall of Byzantium. The exiles brought with them an icon of the Mary of almsgiving, which is to some extent at the origin of the foundation of the town. The local historical, social and religious history is linked to the cult, first Byzantine, then Latin, of the Virgin of Mercy, and its icon. The people of Biancavilla country have always devoted their devotion to it, especially on the occasion of wars, famines, plagues, obtaining, according to the faith of the people, the favor of the Virgin, despite the fact that neighboring communities were equally affected. We want to report the “case” of the Biancavilla community, which faced the health emergency caused by Covid-19, also from a religious point of view with a constant, broad, varied commitment, not only liturgical or devotional, but also educational. Expressing once again its Christian faith in devotion to the Virgin of Alms, her patron. While the commitment of the clergy to a constant liturgical and pastoral activity has not been lacking, the faithful also maintained the oratorio and educational activities through the use of the internet, using all the communication channels available, with positive results also with respect to other civil and religious communities, during the long period of isolation, keeping personal and community relationships alive. The biancavillese marian devotion therefore permeated and acted as an agglutinant of the overall estate of the small town of Biancavilla.
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Rozentāls, Linards, Ieva Salmane-Kuļikovska, and Ilze Ūdre. "Vai liekam punktu?" Ceļš 71 (December 15, 2020): 87–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.22364/cl.71.06.
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The article “Do We Put a Full Stop?” describes the development of digitalization within the Christian church, which was significantly accelerated by the impact of the crisis caused by Covid-19, based on several surveys conducted in Europe, including Latvia. The Covid-19 crisis has necessitated the rapid development of various digital formats of proclaiming the Gospel. They attracted more people than the previous analogue worship services. However, a distinction should be made between streaming analogue formats and creating a specific digital offer characterized by digital belonging, participation, and interactive relationships. It is not clear at this moment whether these formats have a sustainable character or whether they are a transitory phenomenon. The digitalization of church work has also raised issues such as digital Holy Communion, the advantages of a network of small, horizontally structured communities versus large, hierarchically formed congregations and churches with a large analogue infrastructure. The development of the digital church alongside the proclamation in analogue formats is inevitable. The future of the church is hybrid – analogue and digital. Digital formats will develop alongside analogue without replacing them, while the analogue church will be enriched by the influence of public digital church platforms. The digital church is not an adjunct, but an important and essential part of the work of the congregation and the church.
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Поздеева [Pozdeeva], Ирина [Irina]. "«Воспой гласом, воспой духом». Духовная лирика старообрядческих поморских общин Верхокамья." Acta Baltico-Slavica 37 (June 30, 2015): 221–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.11649/abs.2013.015.
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«Воспой гласом, воспой духом». Spiritual lyric poetry of Old Believers Pomors communities inhabiting Upper Kama RiverThe article contains broad discussion of well-preserved traditional Christian culture in the community of Priestless Old-Believers of the ‘Pomortsy-Vygovtsy’ faction located at the springhead of Kama River. The community of the Kama Old-Believers is situated on a small area (60 x 60 kilometers) where numerous oral and written relics of spiritual culture were found by the Moscow State University archaeographers. Unique richness and good preserving of a spiritual poem results from the division of the community in the middle of the 19th century into two groups – ‘dyomintsy’ and ‘maximovtsy’ for personal and geographical and not doctrinal reasons. Each group despite unity of faith tried to be more religious and better preserve their tradition. The introductory part contains general description of the lyrics which are the result of spiritual life of the Old-Believers community as well as detailed discussion of the research work and publications devoted to Kama Old-Believers. What follows is a deep analysis showing the character, depth of faith and preserving traditions which are included in the spiritual poetry of people working the soil who are directly connected with nature. Significant space devoted to quoting the proems and discussing the essence of numerous spiritual lyrics in the analytical frame proposed by the author.
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Versaci, A., A. Lo Cascio, L. R. Fauzìa, and A. Cardaci. "STUDIES FOR THE CONSERVATION AND VALORISATION OF THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ROCK HERITAGE OF CALASCIBETTA IN SICILY, ITALY." ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences XLIV-M-1-2020 (July 24, 2020): 311–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-xliv-m-1-2020-311-2020.
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Abstract. The rock settlement of Vallone Canalotto, which stands in the valleys surrounding the town of Calascibetta – about three kilometres north from Enna, Sicily, Italy – testify to a widespread population of the area from prehistoric times up to the Middle Ages, probably linked to the agricultural and pastoral exploitation of its fertile land. This valuable heritage, dug into very soft limestone banks, is now threatened by significant erosion and disruption phenomena, which, in the absence of adequate safeguarding and maintenance actions, will lead to a progressive loss of material and the consequent collapse of some portions, making the documentable traces more and more paltry. The archaeological complex demonstrates the continuity of the funerary use from the remotest ages to the early Christian era, as testified by the excavation of rupestrian columbaria. In the early medieval period, small rural communities used the hypogeal structures for residential and religious purposes. In the present work, integrated procedures have been put in place for the 3D documentation of these artefacts, whose effectiveness has already been tested by the same team in other Sicilian rock sites. The research aims at the knowledge and cataloguing of places, which are important for the Island’s history but to date only marginally explored. It intends to stimulate and plan adequate conservation and enhancement activities. To improve the attendance of the sites, design proposals have been developed to guarantee greater accessibility to the archaeological areas and their understanding by visitors.
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Matitashvili, Shota. "The Monasteries Founded by the Thirteen Syrian Fathers in Iberia." Studies in Late Antiquity 2, no. 1 (2018): 4–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/sla.2018.2.1.4.
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A new step in the history of Christian monasticism in eastern Georgia is associated with thirteen Syrian monks, led by John, who came to Iberia (K‘art‘li) in the mid-sixth century C.E. They were the bearers of a Syrian tradition that implied the combination of an heroic ascetic endeavor and an apostolic mission. They came as spiritual heirs of St. Nino, a Cappadocian virgin who converted Georgia to Christianity in the beginning of the fourth century. Their vitae were first composed by a certain hagiographer named John-Martyrius, but this work does not survive. In the tenth century, the head of the Georgian Church and the distinguished ecclesiastical writer Arsenius II (955–980) depicted their lives and deeds based on different oral and written sources. Later, other unknown authors also wrote additional hagiographical works about these Syrian ascetics. At the beginning of their ascetic and ecclesiastical careers, the thirteen Syrian monks settled on Zedazeni mountain with their spiritual supervisor, John. John later sent them to different corners of the Iberian kingdom in opposition to paganism and Zoroastrianism. They founded monasteries and became influential religious leaders during the second half of the sixth century. Through their vitae, composed by Arsenius and other unknown authors, it is possible to trace the process of transforming the small ascetic communities established by Syrian monks into great feudal organizations. These monasteries had an important impact on the Georgian social and cultural landscape during the Middle Ages.
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Ruman, Natialia Maria. "Solidarity as a virtue: Attitudes and principles of human life in the thoughts of John Paul II from the pedagogical perspective." Forum Pedagogiczne 4, no. 1 (November 13, 2016): 209–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.21697/fp.2014.1.13.
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For the proper functioning of society and the peaceful coexistence of different groups of people, communities and the state, it is essential to educate young people towards the readiness for mutual solidarity. In the absence of willingness to show mutual solidarity, a society can neither function properly nor live, however small this willingness may be. The common objectives of a nation, cultural heritage and tradition build awareness of solidarity within the particular society or nation. Therefore, the functionally conditioned consciousness of solidarity should be rooted and ultimately motivated by the universal solidarity of all men. In his teaching, John Paul II deepened the motivation for solidarity as a human and Christian virtue, emphasising its social dimension. The pope drew attention to the theological understanding of solidarity, developing the theme of solidarity on the deep background of social issue and its global dimension. Young people should be educated to participate in social and cultural life in the spirit of solidarity. They should be led to realization that the welfare of the nation depends on their moral attitude, the will to survive, the fidelity to values which have shaped the history and culture of the community over the centuries. Solidarity is motivated by a natural openness of human beings to other persons with whom there is a need to cooperate in pursuit of the common good. Hence, there is a need for constant readiness to accept and complete the tasks which result from the participation of the individual in social life.
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Vučinić-Nešković, Vesna. "The Stuff of Christmas Homemaking: Transforming the House and Church on Christmas Eve in the Bay of Kotor, Montenegro." Issues in Ethnology and Anthropology 3, no. 3 (December 1, 2008): 103–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.21301/eap.v3i3.6.
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The domestic burning of Yule logs on Christmas Eve is an archaic tradition characteristic of the Christian population in the central Balkans. In the fifty years following World War Two, the socialist state suppressed these and other popular religious practices. However, ethnographic research in Serbia and Montenegro in the late 1980s showed that many village households, nevertheless, preserved their traditional Christmas rituals at home, in contrast to the larger towns, in which they were practically eradicated. Even in the micro-regions, such as the Bay of Kotor, there were observable differences between more secluded rural communities, in which the open hearth is still the ritual center of the house (on which the Yule logs are burned as many as seven times during the Christmas season), and the towns in which only a few households continued with the rite (burning small logs in the wood-stove). In the early 1990s, however, a revival of domestic religious celebrations as well as their extension into the public realm has occurred. This study shows how on Christmas Eve, houses and churchyards (as well as townsquares) are being transformed into sacred places. By analyzing the temporal and spatial aspects of this ritual event, the roles that the key actors play, the actions they undertake and artifacts they use, I attempt to demonstrate how the space of everyday life is transformed into a sacred home. In the end, the meanings and functions of homemaking are discussed in a way that confronts the classic distinction between private and public ritual environs.
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Issa, Ghassan. "The Typological Classification of the Old Lebanese Churches in Koura, Batroun and Byblos, from the 8th Century to the 13th Century." Lebanese Science Journal 21, no. 1 (June 27, 2020): 95–118. http://dx.doi.org/10.22453/lsj-021.1.095-118.
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The influence of the ecclesiastical architecture was very obvious on the community; it was used for proselytizing purposes and to express the greatness of the church. The church became a link between believers and heaven and a small-scale representation of the universe, where the kingdom of God extends.Forexample, theceilingof churches, especially the domes,symbolizesheaven, which is the throne of God. An indispensable analysis was carried out to understand the typology of churches,based on the plan and spatial composition, therefore to make them easily recognizable. This paper primarily aims to define the typological classification of the historicLebanese churches, to monitor the different characteristicsandto develop a wider understanding of these architectural features. This study relates to ecclesiastical temples from the 8th century to the 13th century in Koura, Batroun and Byblos. Most of the historicchurches and monasteries of Lebanon are located in the north of Lebanon,especially in the areas of Koura, Batroun and Byblos (Jbeil), where the majority of Christian communities still reside until now.Unfortunately, there are no remaining churches before the 8th century, especially after the great earthquake that struck Lebanon in 551 AD. The Crusader period takes place from the end of the eleventh century to the end of the thirteenth century (between 1095 and 1291 AD). In the 13th century, the Fourth Crusade left behind a series of important churches that had a great impact on the architecture of Lebanon. In total, 128 temples were studied in my article;later, I will identifythemand represent theirtypology in six tables.
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Wiśniewski, Robert. "How Numerous and How Busy were Late-Antique Presbyters?" Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity 25, no. 1 (July 1, 2021): 3–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/zac-2021-0011.
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Abstract This article seeks to count late-antique clergy and assess their workload. It estimates the number of clerics, and particularly presbyters, in Christian communities of various sizes, and investigates how and why the ratio of clerics to laypersons changed over time. First, by examining the situation in the city of Rome, it demonstrates that the growth in the ranks of the presbyters from the third to the fifth century was slow, and argues that this resulted from the competing interests of the bishops, lay congregation, rich donors, and above all the middle clergy. It is the last group who were reluctant to raise their number as this had a negative impact on their income. The results of this phenomenon can also be seen in other big sees of Christendom, in which, in Late Antiquity, there was one presbyter per several thousand laypersons. Interestingly, in smaller towns, this ratio was significantly lower, and in the countryside, it remained in the lower hundreds. Second, this article shows how the changing ratio of clerics to laypersons affected the level of professionalization of the former. In the big cities, the ecclesiastical duties of presbyters who served in a growing community were getting heavier. This turned the presbyters into full-time religious ministers, at the same time making them even more dependent on ecclesiastical income. In the towns and villages, however, the pattern was different. In the places in which one presbyter served a very small community, his job was less time-consuming but also brought him less income. In consequence, rural presbyters had to support their families through craft work, commerce, or farming, and they had time for this.