Abstract This article reports on the first exploratory quantitative survey among Swiss Protestant ministers (n = 429) in parishes and health care institutions on their involvement with assisted suicide. Most ministers appear to have already been approached about assisted suicide and over half of them have specifically been asked to provide pastoral care in this context. The data shows a high level of differentiation in their moral beliefs: Even though the ministers’ opinion on the acceptability of assisted suicide is split, most of them would still be willing to act as pastoral caregivers.
Abstract Recent research across Europe has repeatedly emphasized the potential of Religious Education to foster young people’s capacity for political critique. Particularly in the German-speaking context, this topic has generated an extensive theoretical discourse. However, there is still limited empirical evidence on how critical engagement with the norms governing social life is understood and enacted in classroom practice. Against this background, this article investigates how RE teachers conceptualize political critique within their subject and how they perceive its didactic opportunities and challenges. The study draws on qualitative interview data from Germany to explore teachers’ perspectives on standards of critique, religio-political self-critique and controversial discussions about the norms that govern social life. The findings reveal a considerable degree of correspondence between the theoretical framework and teachers’ perspectives as reflected in the data. At the same time, the data indicate that fostering political critique in classroom settings is more challenging for them than theory has thus far suggested.
Abstract The number of Muslims in Belgium requiring end-of-life care is expected to increase. Our goal was to identify characteristics distinguishing palliative care for Muslim patients according to healthcare providers. In 2022 semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 15 multidisciplinary healthcare professionals in a Belgian hospital. Questions addressed attitudes towards palliative care and palliative sedation. Our study confirmed the role of religion in attitudes towards end-of-life care. Of particular importance was the desire to avoid interventions that could infringe upon the divine prerogative over life and death. Often this translated into a desire for maximum curative therapy and resistance to palliative sedation. Participants reported tension when families withheld diagnoses and when their desire for maximum curative therapy risked patient comfort. Whilst healthcare professionals prioritised pain relief, families sought to help patients accept and endure divine will. Healthcare professionals require guidance on addressing spiritual needs of Muslim patients without compromising ethical standards.
Abstract This study is an interdisciplinary work, blending theological investigation with linguistic analysis. It aimed at exploring the concept of ‘salvation’ and expounding its meaning. It begins by observing that the average Christian may not fully grasp the meaning of this concept. As evidence, the paper presents the findings of a questionnaire study assessing the understanding of the target concept among 37 Arabic-speaking Catholics residing in the town of Jish in northern Israel. The results show a range of interpretations of ‘salvation’ and reflect a partial grasp of this key Christian concept. Building on this observation, the paper sets out to expound the meaning of ‘salvation’ in an accessible way. To this end, the Minimal Language approach (an approach within the Natural Semantic Metalanguage ( NSM ) framework) is employed, and an explication of the target concept is constructed in Minimal English (a highly reduced version of English that uses primarily self-explanatory and cross-translatable terms). This study contributes to contemporary theological method by demonstrating how the Minimal Language approach can serve as a practical tool for doctrinal clarity and catechesis. It also contributes to systematic theology, conceptual semantics, inter-faith dialogue, and religious anthropology. It is hoped that this study will trigger other studies that investigate Christian understandings of theological concepts and explicate them clearly and meaningfully.
Abstract Like everyone, adolescents have ideas and perceptions of life, its meaning and its potential relationship with God. This set of ideas can be described by the broad term ‘theology’, which is normally used to refer to a professional and expert approach to the divine. It is meant rather as a way to place ourselves within a transcendent framework. Understanding adolescents’ theological ideas or mindsets involves more than assessing their basic beliefs, as most scales used to study their religiosity do. It involves understanding the underlying logic and coherence, or lack thereof, in their approach to a world of beliefs, which can be structured in various ways and connected in one way or another with their concerns and expectations, and personal traits. This study uses a survey with multiple scales to delve into adolescents’ religious minds, showing a less structured religious mind, but open to important connections especially with others.
