religious art

Viewpoints: Art and Architecture as Locus for Dialogue: Inter-Religious Dialogue Through Art

An Appraisal of Religious Art and Symbolic Beliefs in the Traditional African Context

African arts stem from their themes of symbolism, functionalism and utilitarianism, which describe African art as quite multi-functional. This however does not say that some African art does not have its underlying aesthetic import. In Africa, by virtue of their belief system, their spiritual practices have led to the creation of new artistic imageries. This is in the sense that their various a...

Metaphor, Religious Language and Religious Experience

Is it possible to talk about God without either misrepresentation or failing to assert anything of significance? The article begins by reviewing how, in attempting to answer this question, traditional theories of religious language have failed to sidestep both potential pitfalls adequately. After arguing that recently developed theories of metaphor seem better able to shed light on the nature o...

Religious Beliefs, Religious Participation and Cooperation

The paper analyzes the relation between religious beliefs, religious participation and social cooperation. In particular, we focus on religions that instill beliefs about the connection between rewards and punishments and social behaviour. We show how religious organizations arise endogenously, analyze their e¤ect on social interactions in society and identify a "spiritual" as well as a "materi...

Religious exception for vaccination or religious excuses for avoiding vaccination

Vaccination is considered to be one of the greatest public health achievements in the 20th century, which has helped to build a society free of vaccine preventable diseases and save lives of millions children across the globe (1). However, in the 21st century, pediatric practice in the western world witnesses an era of vaccination refusal (2). Pediatricians, infectious disease experts, and publ...

Representations of Religious Words: Insights for Religious Priming Research

Researchers often expose participants to a series of words (e.g., religion, God, faith) to activate religious concepts and observe their subsequent effects on people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This research has revealed many important effects of experimentally manipulated religious cognition in domains ranging from prosocial behavior to prejudice. However, it is not exactly clear what...