The relationship between religiosity and educational attainment is an important question in the sociology of religion literature. It is widely contested whether the natural outgrowth of the spreading rational worldview and the increase of educated people can account for the decline of religious adherence. Is there any other explanation for the different opportunities of religious and non-religi...

Meanings of religious and nonreligious spirituality are explored, with implications for death acceptance, death rejection, and life extension. In the first of two exploratory studies, 16 elders low on intrinsic religiosity were compared with 116 elders high in religiosity; they differed both in qualitative responses and on death attitudes. In the second, 48 elders were assessed on religious and...

This article engages the work of one South Africa’s foremost scholars in religion and law—the late Prof. Mary-Anne Plaatjies-Van Huffel. Towards end her life, Huffel published a number important articles on themes related to law. In this we shall trace biographical academic antecedents these later works. The shows how dedication justice, peace integrity (to borrow phrase from World Council Chur...

A common feature of the five faiths discussed in this article is change over time. This allowed diversity within the religions, and generally led to a degree of liberalization, but in some faiths or their sects, resulted in a narrow or rigid interpretation. For example, the golden Vedic Period of Hinduism in India when "women were worshipped" gradually faded, ushering in the social evils of fem...

The study examined how religious beliefs and practices impact upon medication and illness representations in chronic schizophrenia. One hundred three stabilized patients were included in Geneva's outpatient public psychiatric facility in Switzerland. Interviews were conducted to investigate spiritual and religious beliefs and religious practices and religious coping. Medication adherence was as...

The British Bangladeshi community is one of the youngest and fastest growing ethnic minority groups in the UK. Many report poor socio-economic and health profiles with the existence of substantial health inequalities, particularly in relation to type 2 diabetes. Although there is compelling evidence for the effectiveness of lifestyle interventions in the prevention of type 2 diabetes, there is ...

For some time now, the debate over U.S. immigrant policy (which addresses the needs of immigrants already residing here, as opposed to immigration policy, which concerns how many and which immigrants should be admitted) has been stuck in an unproductive and divisive pattern. On one side are immigrant advocates, a relatively well-defined and cohesive coalition of civil rights organizations, immi...

In the post-Suharto Reformasi era, Chinese Indonesians are enjoying new freedom to express their culture. The ethnic Chinese number around three million, making up about 1.5% of the nation’s population (Suryadinata 2004c: vii). Chinese Muslims constitute a minority religious group within this minority ethnic group, and little research has been done on them. Jacobsen (2005) puts forward a pessim...