Spirituality is one of the forms of religion that seems to thrive in secularised Western societies. It has become an umbrella term for a variety of experience-oriented religious practices in Western societies. The popularity of spirituality is clearly visible within Christian settings, both inside and outside churches. This paper explores the nature of ‘marginal’ Christian spirituality, i.e. Ch...

This paper examines the social base of Christian Right activism, using data on approximately 3,000 members and Ž nancial supporters of a single state-level Christian Right organization: the Oregon Citizens’ Alliance (OCA). The Ž ndings of the study are consistent with theories that identify “status anxiety” among marginal or threatened segments of the middle class as a motivation for right-wing...

The National Embryo Donation Center [4] (NEDC) is a non-profit organization [5] that was established in 2002 in Knoxville, Tennessee. The organization [5] is endorsed and supported by several Christian-based associations such as the Christian Medical Association [6], Bethany Christian Services, and Baptist Health Systems. Its goal is to provide embryo donation [7] and embryo adoption [8] servic...

This article attempts, first of all, to define the concept of human dignity in tandem with a Christian ethics of responsibility. The views on human dignity, held by some proponents of a Christian ethics of responsibility, and a number of South African and Dutch theologians who participated in two joint consultations, are discussed and critically evaluated. Second, this article addresses the fol...

Anthropological, sociological, and psychological theories suggest that religious symbols should influence motivational processes during performance of goal-relevant tasks. In two experiments, positive and negative religious (Christian) symbols were presented outside of participants' conscious awareness. These symbols influenced cardiovascular responses consistent with challenge and threat state...

From News at the "Fields" (Feb. 1973) comes word that Mr. Yasutaro Goto, for many years the president of the Japan Leprosy Mission, passed away. As a young man he came under the influence of Dr. Kagawa and Dr. Mitsuda, two great Christian leaders. Out of this association came Mr. Goto's own Christian commitment and the development of the Japan Leprosy Mission which serves the spiritual and soci...

College students in a South-Korean University responded to measures of Christian fundamentalism and sociopolitical perspectives related to nationalism, internationalism, patriotism, respect for civil liberties, and tolerance of dissent. Religious diversity in the sample permitted subgroup comparisons between Protestants, Catholics, Buddhists, and Atheists on all measures. These subgroups differ...

Since the patristic period, the birkat haminim has attracted Christian attention. This twelfth benediction of the central, thrice-daily Jewish weekday prayer of eighteen benedictions (actually, for most of its history, nineteen), calls for the downfall of various categories of humans who harm the Jewish community. Instituted at Yavneh in the late first century according to talmudic tradition, i...

the phenomenon of revelation and its explanation is one of the most important topics in the field of divine religions. the mysterious and supernatural nature of this phenomenon has led to various approaches being proposed by religious scholars. in christian theology, there are two general approaches to explaining revelation: propositional and non-propositional. according to the first approach, ...