INTRODUCTION A growing research literature associates various religious factors with positive mental and physical health, and even suggests that aspects of religious involvement may reduce mortality risk (for reviews, see Ellison, 1994; Koenig, 1994; Levin, 1994). Although there is wealth of evidence that religious institutions continue to play important social and political roles in the Africa...

This study critically examines the ways in which technological modernization and religion co-exist and mutually reinforce one another within the Singaporean context. Interviews with religious leaders of a diverse set of faiths in Singapore about how they understand the role of information technology in religious practice reveal a broad-based acceptance of the Internet and other information tech...

Sociologists know surprisingly little about the religious lives of adolescents in the United States. This article begins to redress that unfortunate lack of knowledge by examining descriptive findings on adolescent religious participation from three recent, reputable national surveys of American youth. We present descriptive statistics on three fundamental aspects of youth religious participati...

Rheumatic conditions have affected, among others, emperors, kings, politicians, religious personages and artists. Knowledge about their articular illnesses has increased with a multiplicity of source documents on these personalities: ancient texts, letters, drawings, paintings, sculptures, songs and pictures. Here the case of the most important Brazilian visual artist is described, namely the s...

I was asked by ISNA to produce a short guide to Islamic Banking and Finance for the Muslims of North America. To keep this guide short, we had to define our target audience rather carefully. This introductory guide is meant to address the Muslim who is familiar with the fundamental tenets and sources of legislation in Islam. The reader is not assumed to have elaborate prior knowledge of Islamic...

The CECA Approach to teaching religion, unlike other approaches, is not specifically related to content but rather to the way students are invited to take part in the process of learning through critical engagement with the arts. The proposed CECA Approach comprises three movements, an Inquiry movement, an Investigation movement, and an Appraisal and Demonstration movement. It begins with namin...

in this paper the practice of medicine in ancient iran is studied. mythology of ancient iran has many references to how diseases were treated and medicine dispensed. there is even a mention of surgery; presumably the rst caesarian section in the history of medicine is performed for the birth of mythological persian hero, rostam. this study looks at mythology, ancient persian religious texts an...

The negative assessment of lesbian/gay relationships in Catholic circles is most often based on scanty information gathered from folklore, the commercial media, and a narrow, literal reading of Biblical texts. Assumptions are made about the personal adjustment of individual gay/lesbian persons and the quality of their relationships without recourse to actual lived experience. This survey of 263...

The article examines Cate Tiernan’s ‘Wicca’ series. This series and the ‘Circle of Three’ books by Isobel Bird explore the experiences of teenage girls who embrace the pagan religion, Wicca. The texts reflect the growing interest in spirituality expressed by many young people and extend the literary representation of witchcraft. Tiernan produces stories of spiritual growth entwined with fantasy...