"Food is the raw material of religion" (Moro, Niola 2023, p. x). In the history of humanity, food and the sacred have always found in the ritual (sacrificial, festive, celebratory or food preparation) the privileged symbolic space where they can best express their deepest connection. Aim of this paper is to analyze the symbolic-cultural function of the relationship between sacred and food whose rituals are a direct manifestation, first in the Christian tradition, then in the contemporary food festivals. In particular, the county fair, which is quite successful today, will be explore as peculiar expression of the transformations affecting (at the same time) food and the sacred. These would be celebrations in which the sacred merges with the profane and the individual enters into communion with the Other, sometimes showing "narcissistic" postures typically postmodern (Camorrino 2024a).
Digital immortality can be seen as a new cognitive frontier that AI has opened up. It can help both disenchantment and reenchantment happen. The emergence of a topic as pertinent as death in the third space of digital religion can be interpreted as a chapter in the process of secularization, as it has the potential to undermine the interpretive role that religions continue to hold in contemporary society with respect to the meaning of life and death. The article is divided into two parts : after reviewing the main websites on digital immortality, the analysis focuses on the challenges that new digital media in the age of AI pose to Catholicism's grand narrative of the afterlife.
center dot This article explores the challenges Christianity faces amid global disruption, secularization, and cultural fragmentation. Emphasizing the need for spiritual renewal and synodal reform, it argues for a Church that listens, discerns, and engages with both believers and the religiously indifferent in a changing world.
The article analyses Pope Francis' pontificate in relation to the Orthodox Churches, highlighting two dimensions of his ministry for unity : the personal dimension, based on fraternal relations and symbolic gestures, and the institutional dimension, expressed in the launch of the Catholic synodal journey. These aspects are analysed against the background of the official Catholic-Orthodox theological dialogue, with reference to the documents of Ravenna (2007), Chieti (2016) and Alexandria (2023) on primacy and synodality. The impact of inter-Orthodox tensions, particularly the schism between Constantinople and Moscow following the granting of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, on relations with Rome is also examined. Francis' "diplomacy of the peripheries" played a key role with trips, meetings and statements that have sought to overcome divisions, including the historic meeting with Patriarch Kirill in Havana in 2016. The article discusses the structural challenges of synodality in the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, emphasising the risk of perceived unionism and the need for a "conversion" of primacy in terms of communion. While acknowledging limitations and missed opportunities, Francis' legacy for the Petrine ministry emphasises the urgent need to maintain the synodal way as an essential means of achieving visible and credible unity within the Churches.
The last Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983) deployed its repressive policy within the framework of different projects that coincided in the need for a profound transformation of society. The proposals converging within the civil and military front that had seized power recognized catholicism among the pillars upon which the projected Argentina was to be built, and from this certainty, they encouraged or approved various manifestations of religious persecution. The objective of this article is to contribute to the understanding of this dimension of repressive action by considering the persecution to which Jehovah's Wimesses were subjected. The proposed approach starts from the premise that this persecution must be understood within the general framework of mechanisms for the regulation of religion, and it offers an analysis that reduces the scale of observation to understand how different actors and discourses are articulated and how the mechanisms through which regulation is constructed in more global terms are deployed locally. The arguments presented are based on a critical analysis of a set of qualitative sources, among which general periodical press, magazines published by Jehovah's Witnesses, testimonies, decrees, laws and official resolutions, reports, and security force archives stand out.
This article describes the transformation of Tiziano Terzani from a journalist to a spiritual seeker. Despite his continual references to Hindu, Buddhist, and Sufi doctrines, Terzani maintained an ambivalent relationship with religion, repeatedly asserting that he was a secular individual and had not converted to any faith. At the same time, his teachings on life, death, morality, and society echo religious doctrines. This article will show that this ambivalence should not be interpreted as a form of secularization. Instead, it represents one of the hallmarks of new forms of spirituality, which do not conceal doubt or unease but rather place at the center a perpetual search for meaning that does not culminate in a theodicy and remains incomplete by choice an unsettled knowledge.
In this article, I introduce the concept of bio-pedagogy as the outcome of a research and theoretical elaboration carried out both with and against the theories of Foucault and Bourdieu. The interpretation offered differs from the dominant biopolitical reading of the concept by advancing a dispositional perspective-based on the recognition of the subject's interiorization, often preconscious, of schemes of perception, categorization, and action-of learning processes within specific pedagogical contexts. These learning contexts, embedded in the current neoliberal order, constitute privileged environments for the emergence of different forms of bio-pedagogy, which can be articulated along analytical axes that reveal their plurality and internal tension: secular-religious; collective-individual; routi-nized-experimental; conservative-progressive. Through these axes, it becomes possible to map the ways in which yoga is taught, learned, and embodied, highlighting some of the micro-politics of the body and subjectivity that characterize different pedagogical settings.
The political history of Central America during the latter half of the 20th century is marked by the prevalence of dictatorial and military regimes alongside social revolutions aimed at addressing the political crises that had been developing since the 1950s. In the process of social and political reconfiguration within Central American countries, religion assumed a distinct role - either by supporting the prevailing regimes, endorsing social movements, or participating in peace negotiations within the region. In the 21st century, religion continues to influence the regional political landscape, holding a prominent position within the framework of both right-wing governments and left-wing regimes, each characterized by absolutist approaches to governance. This article aims to analyze the role of religion in the contemporary political history of Central America, from the 1950s to the present, examining how its role is shaped by the historical context in which it operates. The study is framed from a historiographical perspective, which honors the historical processes involved, thereby enabling a socio-historical analysis of the phenomenon under investigation.
This contribution seeks to draw upon the lessons of history to explore the journey the Family of God Church has traveled together in Africa on the issue of women's status, which is part of its mission, its decision-making processes, and its pastoral orientations. We will clearly address the problems we perceive in the Church by listening to the situation of women. Without losing sight of Africa's socio-cultural and religious diversity, our focus will be Senegal.
This article retraces the evolution of the Catholic Church over the past fifty years, highlighting how the "second secularization" has led to a growing detachment from re-ligious institutions, with a decline in both practice and vocations. Alongside this decline, however, figures of strong charismatic leadership have emerged : John Paul II and Francis, who influenced the global stage beyond confessional boundaries, unlike Benedict XVI, whose pontificate marked a phase of stasis and rigidity. The contribution underlines how Francis introduced significant open-ings by promoting "synodality" and envisioning a less self-referential Church, closer to the existen-tial peripheries. His vision, encapsulated in the image of the Church as a "field hospital," seeks to move beyond a normative logic toward a pastoral approach centered on compassion, discernment, and the healing of human wounds, encouraging believers to live faith as active testimony rather than mere observance of rules.
The Pontificate of Pope Francis and Women : Considerations from a Latin American Perspec-tive This article examines the presence of women`s issues during Pope Francis' pontificate and offers a Latin American perspective. Through analysing his words and actions during his 12-year pontificate, it examines the Bishop of Rome`s efforts to promote a more prominent presence for women in society and the Church. The text is structured into three sections. The first focuses on Pope Francis`teachings on women`s issues, highlighting his recognition of women`s equal dignity and rights. The second section analyses significant gestures made by Pope Francis in favour of women`s inclusion in the Church. The third section offers a critical perspective from Latin America, emphasising the importance of women`s issues in Pope Francis` pontificate and the necessity of continuing to advance institutional reforms to effectively include women in the Catholic Church.
The Sacralisazion of the Airwaves. The Records of Religious Ceremonies on Radio Maria center dot The Radio Maria Association is one of the most enduring and striking manifestations of religious vitality in Italy, clearly countering the growing uncertainty that, on average, characterizes Italians' identification with Catholicism. This phenomenon allows for an original interpretation of the re-lationship between secularization and charisma. Here, we attempt to interpret it by theoretically placing it within the framework of the post-secular condition and focusing on participation in religious ritual, experienced through the mediation of the radio parish, in an ambivalent register, both ordinary and extraordinary.
In this article, I analyze sacred rituals, highlighting similarities and differences between celebrations in archaic communities on the one hand and in contemporary Western society on the other. Regarding the latter, I will give special attention to new forms of spirituality. I will discuss the power of ritual, starting from the Otherness from which it emanates. Through a comparative and contras-tive analysis, I will seek to demonstrate how the weakening of authority witnessed in postmodern Western society impacts the transformation of the relationship with the sacred domain and with related practices, especially ritual ones. I will focus on the changes that have affected the symbolic dimension, especially attempting to define sacred ritual. The thesis in summary is this : in archaic cultures, rituals summon the community ; in new forms of spirituality, it is individuals who sum-mon the rituals.
Much has been said and written about Pope Francis' disruptive but also highly problematic pontificate. Very little, however, can be said about Leo XIV. In this "middle ground" separating the two pontificates, however, questions remain.
Digitisation has profoundly affected the ways in which people interact socially, both religiously and politically. Both of these areas have responded to the challenges brought about by the globalisation process by making innovative use of technology in an increasingly interconnected and pluralistic scenario. Communication represents a fundamental link between religion and politics, two worlds that, although distinct, have had to adapt to the complexity of society and the spread of new media, in which net-media play a preponderant role. The mutual influence between these spheres is manifested through the language and discursive strategies adopted to contribute to the formation of public opinion and collective identities.
The essay focuses on the dynamic relationship between religion and mass media, a relationship that has become even more pronounced in the age of digital communication. Beginning with a reflection on the ways in which modern individuals, whether consciously or not, reckon with religious affiliation and spiritual meaning, the text acknowledges the rapid transformation of values and key concepts that has already taken place in late modernity-namely, during the era of mainstream media. A much more radical shift, however, is observed in the new phase marked by the dominance of digital life-or, to use Luciano Ploridi's term, the onlife condition. It is within this framework that the essay explores a kind of religious abstentionism, which bears similarities to other forms of individualistic withdrawal and appears to be largely linked to the cultural traits of our time of generalized communication. The essay develops the idea that, just as the media have drastically diminished the perceived value of traditional schooling and socialization, the same could happen with respect to symbolic dimensions that adults-and especially younger generations-increasingly associate with the past and therefore see as "outdated." This leads us to a crucial question : how is the contemporary subject formed in a world that is increasingly lacking in foundations and points of reference? In such a context, where even social-ization struggles to support paths of autonomy and personal development, it seems reasonable to assume that religious formation is also, by definition, in crisis relegated to minimal or even residual time and space within the "attention economy."
This article offers an overview of the different phases of the debate that the Catholic Church has conducted in response to the development of Informa-tion and Communication Technologies (ICT): from radio to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Through a chronological reconstruction and the analysis of official Vatican documents, this study aims to show how the Church has addressed and integrated emerging technologies into its social teaching. Using mostly primary source but also secondary, namely papal speeches and Vatican documents, as well as other historical and critical sources, this analysis aims to show how the Church of Rome has, over the decades, constantly sought a balance between the potential ethical risks and consider-able practical benefits to which technological progress exposes societies. A hundred years in which the view of the new ICTs has gradually shifted from a cautious consideration as "gifts from God" to a broader critique of the "technocratic paradigm". An approach that has recently brought the Church of Rome a new positioning compared to the past, with which it wants to influence in a concrete way politics, governments, but also the new processes of technological innovation.
This reflection explores the educational experience within the Universitas magistrorum et scholarium, understood not merely as a place for the transmission of technical and disciplinary knowledge, but as an educational community and a space for advanced socialization. The university is analyzed as an institution capable of influencing the construction of both individual and collective identity, the relational fabric, and the symbolic representations of reality. The contribution is structured into three sections: the first delves into the educational purpose of the university, highlighting its role in the integral formation of the person; the second investigates the concrete experience of university life, focusing on relationships, autonomy, and contemporary transformations; the third examines the relationship between the university and Christianity, addressing key themes such as the pursuit of truth, the unity of knowledge, the holistic development of the person, and the promotion of a critical, ethical, and socially responsible form of knowledge.
In our civilization of perpetual metamorphosis, the University can still represent a place of "redemption" from educational poverty, of non-submission to the new "communicative cosmologies," of stability of thought, and of an "orderly expansion of knowledge." At a time when educational processes seem to be conceived as an integral part of the economic-productive system, and emphasis is placed on the "dictatorship" of procedures-which affects the very notion of knowledge by both extremizing and narrowing it-it becomes necessary, within the academy, to revalue complex thought and to reclaim the pleasure of knowledge for its own sake.
