The study examines the relationship between the digital media environment, sociopolitical contexts, and information resilience in Muslim communities. The study is a systematic literature review and theoretical synthesis using comparative-historical, discursive, and systems approaches. The findings show that digitalization has transformed online space into a key sphere for religious practice and religious socialization, contributing to the emergence of “digital Islam.” Among young people, religious socialization and the choice of preachers increasingly occur online within “information cocoons.” In Central Asia, the influence of the internet and social networks has nearly equaled television: 56% of the population receive news from television and 50% from social networks, mainly via smartphones. Television remains dominant among people aged 55+, while younger audiences rely primarily on online sources. Young people, elderly people, and linguistic minorities are especially vulnerable to disinformation and manipulation and often become targets of Islamophobic and radical narratives. In Tatarstan, Islam is understood mainly as heritage or ethnic Islam, associated with Tatar identity and cultural heritage rather than strict ritual observance. States and organizations combine control measures with media-literacy programs, although excessive securitization can push users into closed online spaces and increase radicalization risks. The study concludes that digital technologies do not generate radicalism but accelerate its spread and transform its forms within the intersection of religion and security policy.
This article examines how American Catholics during the Progressive Era responded to what they understood as moral and theological decline, particularly through an analysis of public discourse on blasphemy. Drawing on newspapers, theology, and state laws, this article argues that blasphemy was recognized not only as profane speech but also as a challenge to religious authority and doctrinal orthodoxy that needed to be policed. The American Catholic Church condemned vulgarity and the denial of Christ’s divinity as symptomatic of a broader cultural crisis rooted in a break from God, caused by the rejection of clerical doctrine. During the first decades of the twentieth century, Christianity found itself challenged by an increasingly influential scientific worldview that denied Christ’s divinity and viewed Catholic beliefs as untenable, in light of discoveries in the natural and social sciences. In response, Catholics cajoled, sued, and established a medieval organization designed to fight against blasphemy in America: the Holy Name Society, which encouraged the laity to police their speech and participate in the sacraments to support the credibility of the Catholic message. The laity understood that through prayer and collective organization they could shape a public image of grievance and work toward the salvation of humanity in the face of what they defined as blasphemy.
The Balinese culture acknowledges and provides socio-religious meaning to grave goods rituals as a practice related to the belief in a soul’s passage to the afterlife. The practice, both globally and locally, has undergone change as modern additions, such as packaged food, photographs, gold replicas, and other contemporary items of the modern world, become part of such processions. This research focused on the type of hybrid values arising from a traditional modernity perspective concerning the grave goods ritual. This research also sought to understand the implications of such hybrid values for the Balinese people. This research was descriptive and qualitative, using participant observation, structured interviews with traditional leaders and ceremony-hosting families, and analysis of lontar and customary texts. The approach also included thematic analysis for the transcription, coding, and categorization of data, with source and method triangulation serving to validate the findings. The findings show that contemporary additions to the goods do not hybridize and hence nullify the social and spiritual purposes of social goods. Rather, the value of such goods in the “social goods funeral” context is expanded within a traditional perspective. In a “third space” intersection of tradition and contemporary practices, new symbols and identities are formed. This study represents the first attempt to interpret the practice of grave goods through the lens of Bhabha’s theory of cultural hybridity, viewing it as an adaptive strategy rather than as a cultural regression. It illustrates the deep spiritual expression of the Balinese people as they grapple with cultural identity in a globalized context.
Modernization is often understood as a process that undermines traditional authority and ritual practices. However, the Labuhan Ritual performed by the Keraton Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat reveals a different dynamic. This study aims to analyze how the Labuhan Ritual functions as a form of institutionalized cultural resilience, as well as a mechanism for reproducing spiritual authority and community dynamics within contemporary Javanese society. This study employs a qualitative approach using interpretive ethnography, which emphasizes analysis of institutional structures, hierarchical roles, and symbolic configurations in ritual performance. Data were collected through digital ethnography, including observation of official visual documentation, archival sources, and relevant scholarly literature. The study’s findings indicate that the Labuhan Ritual functions as a ritual practice centered on the Keraton, characterized by strictly limited participation, standardized ritual protocols, and an ethos of devotion as the primary foundation for the tradition’s continuity. Spiritual authority is maintained through a stable hierarchical structure and tradition-based legitimacy, thereby preserving symbolic coherence and cosmological order. At the community level, this ritual generates a process of symbolic reception and collective meaning-making without undermining its core sacredness. This study contributes to the anthropological study of ritual by demonstrating that cultural resilience is not always manifested through open opposition to modernity but can operate effectively through the institutionalization and symbolic regulation of tradition.
This article examines the structural relationship between religion and philosophy through a focused comparative analysis of five influential thinkers: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Maimonides, and Immanuel Kant. Rather than approaching the question in general or rhetorical terms, the study investigates how compatibility between reason and faith is constructed within distinct epistemological frameworks. The central research question guiding this inquiry is: How do different intellectual traditions conceptualize the relationship between rational inquiry and revealed truth, and under what conditions is compatibility affirmed, limited, or redefined? Employing a comparative intellectual-historical methodology, the article analyzes primary texts to identify the epistemic hierarchies, methodological distinctions, and theological commitments underlying each model. The study argues that compatibility between philosophy and religion is neither universal nor symmetrical; instead, it emerges as a structured construction shaped by assumptions about authority, interpretation, and the nature of truth. By clarifying these differences, the article contributes to contemporary debates in philosophy of religion and comparative intellectual history, offering analytical precision to discussions often framed in overly generalized or harmonizing terms.
This article examines the shifts in Latvia’s religious landscape in the twenty-first century, focusing on the interplay between secularization, post-secularization, and emerging spiritual practices. Here, the religious landscape mainly refers to the spatial, social, and symbolic organization of faith within society, highlighting how secular and religious elements continue to coexist and shape public life in contemporary Latvia. The article considers how the specific historical context of Latvia, particularly the forced secularization of the Soviet period, has contributed to its fragmented, pluralistic religious landscape, where traditional Christian churches coexist with alternative spiritual movements, individualized spiritual practices, and hybrid forms of spirituality. The article also considers the declining cultural authority of institutional religions, the rise of “soft spirituality,” and the increasingly normalized acceptance of esotericism in public discourse, wellness culture, and popular culture. The article examines the dual trajectory within churches, in which religious conservatism is combined with a greater acceptance of experiential, contemplative, and spiritual practices, such as meditation, retreats, and activism. Finally, the discussion places the transformation of Latvia’s religious landscape within a broader context, highlighting how post-socialist societies reshape collective and individual identities by drawing on various spiritual resources. This process reflects a deeper, dynamic, relational interaction that demonstrates the resilience and adaptability of spirituality in a post-secular space.
This study validates the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire-Revised (MQOL-R) in Ecuadorian patients with non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs), recognizing that quality of life (QoL)—particularly in the context of advanced illness—constitutes a culturally situated experience shaped by spiritual, relational, and contextual factors. Through a rigorous process of linguistic and cultural adaptation, the four-dimensional structure of the questionnaire (physical, psychological, existential, and social) was confirmed by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, with the exclusion of one existential item due to low factor loading. The instrument demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency (α = 0.81) and adequate temporal stability in the test–retest analysis. Additionally, a statistically significant gender difference was identified in the psychological dimension (p = 0.039), while no significant differences emerged in the remaining dimensions. Beyond its psychometric validation, this research underscores the importance of integrating local epistemological frameworks into QoL assessment, where spirituality, community ties, and ancestral knowledge inform how individuals experience, cope with, and assign meaning to illness. The Ecuadorian version of the MQOL-R thus constitutes not only a valid and reliable instrument but also a methodological articulation between contemporary clinical models and culturally grounded understandings of well-being in the Andean context.
This article develops the concept of moral circulation to explain how ritualized debt repayment mediates relations among humans, spirits, animals, and the environment. Based on multimethod ethnography among the Bố Y of Hà Giang, northern Vietnam (2021–2024)—including forty-six interviews, six funerary observations, and integrated NVivo and SPSS analyses—the study theorizes multispecies religion as an ethical system in which obligation and reciprocity circulate across visible and invisible realms. The Cúng Yêu Tinh ritual, where food debt and repayment are enacted through offerings, fuses material exchange with cosmic rebalancing, sustaining a moral order that holds together the living, the dead, and nonhuman beings without fixed hierarchy. Findings reveal a generational re-articulation of ethics: elders emphasize communal honor and intergenerational duty, while younger participants adopt a more flexible ethos of repayment without abandoning the ritual’s moral core. The Bố Y model parallels indigenous ritual economies in the Amazon, Andes, and Southeast Asia, extending comparative anthropology of religion beyond anthropocentric and dualist paradigms. Conceptually, the article advances moral circulation as a framework for understanding how indigenous cosmologies generate ethical reasoning through exchange, contributing a Southeast Asian perspective to global debates in moral and posthumanist anthropology.
In the contemporary university context, marked by spiritual pluralism and a growing crisis of meaning, there remains limited understanding of how young people sacralize particular realities and how these processes shape their spiritual development and pursuit of personal fulfillment. Against this backdrop, the study aimed to analyze the realities that university students regard as sacred or absolute, the mechanisms involved in their sacralization, and the ways in which these realities influence decision-making, behavior, sense of moral obligation, and spiritual development. The study employed a qualitative approach with an exploratory, descriptive phenomenological-hermeneutic design, based on semi-structured interviews with sixteen advanced-cycle students at a Peruvian university from diverse academic programs, all self-identified as nontheistic and unaffiliated with any religion. Data were analyzed through thematic and categorical coding. Findings indicate that participants primarily sacralize family, personal values, significant life experiences, emotional well-being, and personal identity, which function as ethic-affective cores and internal normative reference points. In addition, five mechanisms of sacralization were identified: family and educational influence, transformative biographical experiences, intense emotional experiences, generational contrast, and subjective reflection on meaning. The study concludes that the sacralization of contemporary realities configures an autonomous, subjective, and largely noninstitutional spirituality, exerting a significant influence on identity formation, the processing of suffering, and the structuring of young people’s ethical frameworks.
This article analyzes anti-Catholic religious hatred on the social network X (formerly Twitter) based on 53,787 comments posted in response to news articles from six Spanish digital media outlets (ABC, OKDiario, El Confidencial, 20Minutos, El País, and Público). Of the total, 19,121 messages contained hostility; 3.5% expressed religious hatred, and within this category, 28% were anti-Catholic. Using double-masked labeling and a mixed-methods approach (quantitative and discourse analysis), the messages were classified by type of hatred, intensity, and the ideological orientation of the media outlet. The results show that anti-Catholicism operates primarily in combination—especially with political hatred—and that its intensity is generally low to medium. The greatest virulence is observed in progressive environments, where rhetorical frameworks of politicization, conspiracy theories, and clergy criticism predominate. In conservative contexts, expressions are more moderate and often integrated into mixed forms of hostility. The phenomenon also manifests as reactive discourse: it almost always appears in replies within already active threads, amplifying the accumulation of “mild hatred.” It is recommended to develop detection models sensitive to conversational context and temporal persistence, and to systematically compare anti-Catholicism with other forms of religious hostility to refine understanding of its dynamics and social implications.
Today, suicide is the leading cause of unnatural death among young people aged 15 to 29 years. Spirituality and religiosity have been identified as potential protective factors against suicide in several studies. A total of twenty-six studies were identified and analyzed through a qualitative synthesis, followed by a meta-analysis of twenty studies (154,933 participants). The results showed a statistically significant, though modest, negative association (ES = –.12; 95% CI [–.15, –.08]) between spirituality/religiosity and suicidal behavior. The protective effect appeared stronger among women, particularly when parental religious involvement was high. However, the influence of spirituality and religiosity varied depending on specific moderating variables, including sexual minority status and psychological maladjustment, suggesting that their role is not universally protective. Key mechanisms identified included a personal sense of meaning and belonging, which may buffer suicide risk in some youth populations. These findings underscore the potential relevance of spirituality and religiosity in resilience processes, but should be interpreted cautiously in light of cultural differences, population diversity, and the heterogeneity of the included studies.
This study explores the development of Muslim cosmopolitanism in the urban Sufi movement, and focuses primarily on the Sulaymaniyah community in Jakarta, Indonesia. Previous studies on the nature of urban Sufism have mainly examined how Sufi orders (known as tariqa) adapt their lives to fit a modern urban context. However, little attention was paid to the method by which those communities were able to cultivate cosmopolitan ethics and practices in each location. The purpose of this research is to address that gap, by exploring how the Sulaymaniyah community (rooted in the Naqshbandiyah tradition from Türkiye) has been able to create and maintain Muslim cosmopolitanism in a transnational setting. This study uses qualitative participatory action research to identify four related aspects that shape Sulaymaniyah’s cosmopolitan ethos, namely, ethical, institutional, civic, and cultural aspects. The findings from this study yield the following results: ethical cosmopolitanism is shown via their inclusive respect for a diverse range of the schools of thought that exist within Islamic jurisprudence (madhhabs); institutional cosmopolitanism is exhibited through their transnational management and acts of philanthropy; civic cosmopolitanism is presented via their democratic ritual practices; and cultural cosmopolitanism is visible through cross-cultural engagements, via such events as charitable fairs or bazaars (kermes). The study concludes that the continual success of the Sulaymaniyah community lies in its ability to combine a spiritual universalism together with a modern transnational approach to its organization, and this combination offers an alternative model for the understanding of cosmopolitan Islam in a contemporary urban setting.
In the contemporary era, globalization is a leading force, especially in the economic domain. Its drive toward economic expansion and technological advancement has repeatedly pushed ecological concerns to the margins while amplifying anthropocentric patterns of life. Through a constructive theological method that brings pneumatological analysis into dialogue with Enrique Dussel’s vision of trans-modernity, this research seeks to discern how Christian understandings of humanity and spirituality can be reoriented to embody ecological responsibility. This research highlights how trans-modernity establishes a conceptual framework that acknowledges ecology as a subject worthy of respect. Simultaneously, theological reflection identifies the Holy Spirit as the sustaining presence who renews human consciousness and reshapes ecological ethics toward a non-anthropocentric way of life, enabling humanity to live in solidarity with a groaning world. The research therefore concludes that a trans-modern ecological spirituality, built on interdependence and Spirit-empowered ecological commitment, offers a necessary theological framework for responding to the ecological crisis of the Anthropocene.
This article examines the circumstances of the resistance of the Armenian Church to the religious policy of Byzantium in Armenia in the mid-tenth century. Through the spread of the Chalcedonian doctrine, the empire sought to create an alliance of Caucasian Christians against its main enemy, the Arabs. The leading role in this matter was reserved for the Georgian Chalcedonian Church, which was under the influence of Byzantium. Through the Georgians, Chalcedonianism spread significantly in the Syunik‘and Aluank‘ provinces of Armenia. The ecclesiastical authorities of these provinces rejected the supremacy of the Armenian Catholicos and sought to separate from the hierarchy of the Armenian Church. Chalcedonian tendencies in Armenia became stronger when Vahan Syunec‘I became Catholicos. Following the religious rites of the Byzantine Church, he initiated changes in the liturgical order of the Armenian Church, which were considered a violation of the traditional order and canonical decisions. Vahan ordered the introduction of icons from the Georgian Church into the Armenian Church. The traditionalist fathers of the Armenian Church considered his changes unacceptable and condemned them. Vahan's innovations were also unacceptable to the political authorities of Armenia, since the creation of an ecclesiastical union with Byzantium and Georgia did not correspond to the Bagratids' policy of balancing regional powers. Consequently, he was deposed at the Ani Church Council of 969. The threats to the hierarchical unity and religious-ritual uniqueness of the Armenian Church were eliminated.
This project examines representations of Simeon Stylites, also known as Saint Simeon (Syméon), and Simeon the Elder, as these representations draw parallel similarities to mythologies of ancient Greece. Simeon was an ascetic saint who spent more than three decades living upon pillars in the region of Syria during the Byzantium empire. Although the saint’s ascetic discipline is fascinating in its own right, this research focuses more closely on the depictions of Simeon upon the “Serpent Pillar.” This pillar is depicted by the Plaque de Saint Syméon that is currently on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. The plaque is thought to have been crafted in the late sixth century AD and shows Simeon upon a tall pillar, sitting beneath a seashell that represents the sun, and with a giant snake climbing up the column. Upon seeing this, one cannot help but be reminded of the Greek myth concerning Python of Mount Parnassus, Apollo, and his temple at Delphi. It is this connection between the Greek myth and Saint Simeon that this project intends to explore. The goal of this research is to illustrate how Greek culture influenced early figures of Christianity in a region that was predominantly ruled by Arab politics and Muslim religious influence.
This study examines the linguistic and communicative complexity of Matthew 5:1–12, commonly known as the Beatitudes, through the lens of Functional Sentence Perspective (FSP), a Praguian framework for analyzing information structure. As the opening segment of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes introduce a vision of blessedness that is both spiritually resonant and rhetorically rich. The traditional title anticipates the central motif of the passage: a series of declarations describing who is blessed and why, framed within the eschatological context of the kingdom of heaven. Despite their apparent simplicity, these statements are semantically and pragmatically dense, even ambiguous—a feature that becomes particularly significant in FSP analysis. Situated within the broader sub-genre of biblical poetic texts, the Beatitudes are marked by ritualization, syntactic repetition, and a high degree of semantic condensation. These characteristics, while serving their pedagogical and liturgical functions, also pose challenges for FSP, especially given the fixed and culturally embedded nature of sacred texts. The study argues that the more a text is ritually and formally stabilized, the less amenable it becomes to unequivocal FSP interpretation. In the case of the Beatitudes, multiple plausible distributions of communicative dynamism (CD) exist, none of which can be definitively privileged. Thus, this analysis highlights the need for a nuanced interpretative approach that accounts for the unique structural and theological properties of poetic religious texts, deepening our understanding of how these texts continue to communicate meaning and authority across diverse contexts.
This study revolves around the most appropriate architecture for developing sustainable social harmony through interreligious dialogue in a multi-religious cohabitation in Indonesia, particularly in Medan City. Although this research is based in Medan, its objectives are relevant to other regions in Indonesia, which tend to be multi-religious, and also to other countries around the world. This research provides insights needed to build sustainable social harmony and a peaceful world. This study is motivated by the low frequency and intensity of religious-based radicalism, terrorism, and intolerance compared to other regions in this country to find the treasures, prerequisites, and mechanisms for developing sustainable social harmony. Data collection was carried out through participatory observations, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and questionnaire. All data was analyzed based on interpretive phenomenology and the findings showed cross-sectoral relationships, prerequisites, interreligious dialogue mechanisms, and the development of sustainable social harmony. It was found that the canalization of cross-cutting affiliations fosters the accumulation of alliances in creating cross-cutting loyalties that contain the same rights and obligations. In addition to multiculturalism education in educational institutions, multi-religious and ethnic associations need to be built early through youth organizations. It is concluded that social harmony in a multi-religious cohabitation order requires prerequisites and mechanisms that contain universal morality and spirituality embedded in grassroots society. A pluralistic religious order supports social harmony, which is considered relevant to “Unity in Diversity,” the founding principle of this country.
This article explores the intersection of subjectivity, spirituality, and care networks in contexts of contemporary fragility from a critical and poststructuralist perspective. In societies marked by multiple crises, religion does not disappear but is transformed into a resource for reconfiguring vulnerability—either as a balm or as a disciplinary device. The text develops four axes: the ambivalent role of religious dispositive in biopolitics; spirituality as resistance in contexts of exclusion; the production of believing subjectivities shaped by power; and affective spiritual cartographies in Latin America. Through case studies and dialogue with theorists such as Foucault, Agamben, Butler, Deleuze, and Latin American scholars, the article argues that lived religions function as signifying practices that territorialize suffering and rearticulate the common. Vulnerability is approached not as a passive condition but as a relational and political dimension capable of generating new ethics of care, micropolitical resistance, and non-normative subjectivities.
The chromatic reconfiguration of angelic iconography provides a critical lens for examining how sacred imagery negotiates continuity and rupture within cultural memory. Nowhere is this clearer than in D. J. Caruso’s Netflix drama Mary, where the Archangel Gabriel appears not in the traditional white garment but in blue. While blue is often associated with depth, peace, and the celestial realm, its application to Gabriel destabilizes conventional religious symbolism. Through Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic lens, the analysis traces how the chromatic shift operates across iconic resemblance, indexical reference, and symbolic convention. Traditionally, white signifies purity, holiness, and divine messengers, reinforcing a spiritual connection between angels and God. The use of blue, however, introduces a modernized interpretation that reshapes audience perceptions, detaching angelic representation from its transcendental significance. By situating this reinterpretation within the discourse of religious iconography, the study contends that such deviations, while innovative, also risk reconfiguring the theological foundations of angelic symbolism. This study interrogates the evolving nature of sacred imagery in contemporary media, questioning whether reimaginings like Caruso’s reinforce divine associations or contribute to the secularization of religious figures in visual culture.
