Understanding Americans' abortion attitudes: The role of the local religious context

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 ◽  
pp. 129-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Adamczyk ◽  
Margrét Valdimarsdóttir
Author(s):  
Walter Pohl

When the Gothic War began in Italy in 535, the country still conserved many features of classical culture and late antique administration. Much of that was lost in the political upheavals of the following decades. Building on Chris Wickham’s work, this contribution sketches an integrated perspective of these changes, attempting to relate the contingency of events to the logic of long-term change, discussing political options in relation to military and economic means, and asking in what ways the erosion of consensus may be understood in a cultural and religious context. What was the role of military entrepreneurs of more or less barbarian or Roman extraction in the distribution or destruction of resources? How did Christianity contribute to the transformation of ancient society? The old model of barbarian invasions can contribute little to understanding this complex process. It is remarkable that for two generations, all political strategies in Italy ultimately failed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 318-333
Author(s):  
Hetty Zock

Summary This contribution considers the functionality of religious beliefs and practices from the angle of the psychology of religion. The role of religion in the main standard for mental health (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) is discussed and research findings about the relation between religion and mental health are summarized. It is argued that to determine if a specific religious belief or practice is healthy or unhealthy, we need a fundamentally contextual approach, which takes into account not only the cultural and religious context but also the life-history and personal stance (normativity) of religious authorities, care professionals, patients and believers. The case of depression serves as an example.


Exchange ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezra Chitando ◽  

Abstract Many scholars have examined masculinities in African societies. However, these examinations cannot be generalised across Africa, given the socio-cultural, economic, political and historical factors that infringe with religious beliefs. This article offers a case study of masculinities in a specific religious context, the Zimbabwe Assemblies of God Africa (zaoga), a Pentecostal church. It utilises zaoga’s teachings on masculinities against the background of Shona religion and culture (the dominant ethnic group in Zimbabwe). The analysis specifically focuses on the role of the Jesus-figure in the discourse on masculinity in zaoga, exploring whether Jesus presents a model of ‘redemptive masculinity’ or rather reinforces hegemonic notions of masculinity. The article highlights the ambiguity of Pentecostal masculinity and offers an overall critique of the effects of masculinities upon Pentecostal faith and practice.


2016 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebekah A. Richert ◽  
Anondah R. Saide ◽  
Kirsten A. Lesage ◽  
Nicholas J. Shaman
Keyword(s):  

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (8) ◽  
pp. 1137-1160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Drakeford

Most of the research into religious influences on inmate misconduct has been undertaken with respect to personal religious participation. However, the religious environment of prisons offers potential influences on inmate behavior by providing social control and support. Currently, the literature is mixed regarding the association between religious context and inmate behavior. This article reconciles the divergent findings regarding religious contexts, and integrates recently emergent directions in religious contextual research. Using nationally representative data of inmates in state and federal prisons, I estimate multilevel models of several different forms of misconduct. The results indicate a relationship between religious context and each form of misconduct, highlighting the role of cultural contexts on inmate behavior.


2013 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 261-281
Author(s):  
Judith M. Lieu

The question posed in the title deliberately reverses one that has accompanied me through my academic career: what did the early church do for women? The reversal signals what will prove to be an underlying theme of what follows, namely the role of women in history as objects or as the subjects of action and of discourse. Yet already the question as conventionally phrased highlights different points of stress that reflect where it belongs within reflective historiography, the subject of this volume. Firstly, ‘What did the early church do?’ The coming of early Christianity, it is implied, brought blessings or perhaps curses, evoking a way of writing church history which goes back to Eusebius and which continues both through Edward Gibbon and through those who still portray the social and religious context of the time as one of the inarticulate search for alternative conceptions of the divine or for alternative social values that Christianity would answer. Secondly, ‘for women’: thus, a deliberate rejection of any universalizing interpretation of such effects; a recognition, or at least a suspicion, that any apparently universalizing claim is actually spoken from a ‘normal’ that is already gendered as male; an invitation to ask how women’s experience could be recovered, what the sources would look like, and, indeed, whether it can be recovered from the extant sources.


2013 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 23-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koen Van der Bracht ◽  
Bart Van de Putte ◽  
Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe
Keyword(s):  

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Jean Weaver

To read the Gospel of Matthew within its 1st century religious context is to read an intensely Jewish narrative. Central to the world of this Gospel are the Jerusalem temple, its administrators, the chief priests, and the sacrificial system which they are charged by Jewish law to officiate. This article assesses the Matthean portrait of the Jewish chief priests of Jesus’ day against the scriptural backdrop which lays out their prominent role within Jewish religious life, namely ‘making atonement’ before God for the ‘sins’ of the people. In section one I sketch out the Matthean portrait of the scripturally assigned role of the priests, connecting this portrait to its biblical antecedents. In section two I assess the overall performance of the Matthean chief priests against the backdrop of their assigned role. In section three I address the question of atonement. Crucial here is 27:3–10, the account of Judas Iscariot, who returns his 30 silver coins to the chief priests and says (27:4a; emphasis mine), ‘I have sinned, because I have handed over innocent blood’. Here I highlight Matthew’s ironic modus operandi as he portrays the chief priests’ non-priestly response to Judas. Additionally, I contrast Matthew’s portrait of the Jewish chief priests with a brief portrait of Jesus’ own ministry within the Jewish community, a ministry which fulfils the priestly role abandoned by the chief priests. I conclude my article in section four with brief reflections on the rhetorical impact of Matthew’s portrait of the Jewish chief priests within his overall narrative.


Pneuma ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rubia R. Valente

This article provides the first historical analysis of the role of women in the Congregação Cristã no Brasil, the oldest pentecostal church in Brazil and the largest in the state of São Paulo. Drawing on qualitative data, this study also explores the diverse views of church members and their attitudes in regard to the current status of women in the church. Although not long ago women were allowed to preach in the church and to hold ministerial positions such as cooperators, youth cooperators, deaconesses, musicians, music directors, and Bible school directors, in recent decades the role of women has quickly diminished. In addition to providing empirical data on this denominational group, the article engages the wider debate about the role of women in the pentecostal religious context.


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