Dumping Sites, Witches and Soul-Pollution

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-103
Author(s):  
Abamfo Ofori Atiemo
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Electronic Waste ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
African Context

Abstract The generation of waste and how to manage it pose challenges to municipal and district authorities in many parts of the world. In the African context, poverty, bad management practices, and increasing consumerist culture have conspired to render the situation even more complex. Complicating the situation further is the addition of synthetic and electronic waste, non-biodegradable and, in several cases, hazardous. Drawing on personal first hand experiences in Ghana from the perspective of a pastor and a scholar of religious studies, the author reflects on contemporary waste and its (mis)management in Africa and how these affect the dignity and security of present and future generations. He draws on relevant theological motifs from Christianity and indigenous African religious beliefs and practices as well as insights from sociology and eco-theological ethics to analyse the challenge and explore ways in which African Christian public opinion may be mobilized to help address the challenge.

Understanding a “Broken World”

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianna Bell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Religion And Ethics ◽  
The World ◽  
Broken World

The chapter and the Mali field research it is based on reveal how Muslim subjects in Mali encounter climate change and respond to it with a fascinating and creative blend of religious and political ideas. Ethnographic anecdotes relate the environmental changes that people in Ouélessébougou have confronted during their lifetimes and illustrate how residents dealt with the causes of climate change. In southern Mali, residents’ religious beliefs and practices played a central role in their interpretations of climate change and their criticisms of the moral state of the world in their blend of politics, religion, and ethics to assess causality and find meaning in chronic, climate-change-related drought.

Believing in Bits

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Media Studies ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Mind Reading ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Traditional Religions ◽  
Digital Media Studies ◽  
Theoretical Standpoint

Situated at the theoretical interface between the fields of media studies and religious studies, Believing in Bits advances the idea that religious beliefs and practices are inextricably linked to the functioning of digital media. Digital media—conceived as technologies and artifacts, as well as the systems of knowledge and values shaping our interaction with them—cannot be analyzed outside the system of beliefs and performative rituals that inform and prepare their use. How did we come to associate things such as mind reading and spirit communications with the functioning of digital technologies? Does the dignity accorded to the human and natural worlds within traditional religions translate to gadgets, avatars, or robots? How does the internet’s capacity to facilitate the proliferation of beliefs help blur the boundaries between what is considered fictional and factual? The chapters in this volume address these and similar questions, challenging and redefining established understandings of digital media and culture by employing the notions of belief, religion, and the supernatural. From a theoretical standpoint, this book relies on two different approaches that complement each other: a media archaeological approach that looks at the continuities and at the subtle relationships between earlier media histories and the contemporary landscape, and a perspective informed by digital media studies that takes into account the technical and social specificities of digital technologies.

scholarly journals "Hinduism" and the History of "Religion": Protestant Presuppositions in the Critique of the Concept of Hinduism

2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 329-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will Sweetman
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

AbstractThe claim that Hinduism is not a religion, or not a single religion, is so often repeated that it might be considered an axiom of research into the religious beliefs and practices of the Hindus, were it not typically ignored immediately after having been stated. The arguments for this claim in the work of several representative scholars are examined in order to show that they depend, implicitly or explicitly, upon a notion of religion which is too much influenced by Christian conceptions of what a religion is, a conception which, if it has not already been discarded by scholars of religion, certainly ought to be. Even where such Christian models are explicitly disavowed, the claim that Hinduism is not a religion can be shown to depend upon a particular religious conception of the nature of the world and our possible knowledge of it, which scholars of religion cannot share.

Expansion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asonzeh Ukah
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Church Of God ◽  
Religious Authority ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
And Migration

Religions expand via many pathways, including mission activities, transmission of faith, conversion of non-members, and the constitution of new communities of believers. They also expand through military conquest, revival, and migration. Religions may expand geographically or doctrinally and ritually. In both ways, mission and revival activities are important strategies of expansion, which often incorporate migration and mobility of religious believers and preachers. Technologies of transportation and communication as well as a free market of goods and beliefs facilitate religious expansion. The Muslim group Tablīghī Jamā’at, founded in India in 1927, exemplify religious expansion by revival; while the Christian group Redeemed Christian Church of God, founded in Nigeria in 1952, illustrate religious expansion by evangelism. Increased democratization of religious authority means that believers generally, rather than leaders, are taking up the responsibility of spreading religious beliefs and practices around the world.

The Impacts of Globalization on Mental Disorders: An Effective Solution From Islamic Perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 477-490
Author(s):  
Abdul Latif Abdul Razak
Keyword(s):  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Effective Solution ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Islamic Perspective ◽  
The World ◽  
Meaning And Purpose

Nowadays, the world in general is witnessing the frightening increase of psychological problems.  This is due to the fast developmental changes brought by globalization and the marginalization of religion. Secular and irreligious psychological approaches which reject the spiritual aspects of man could not resolve the problems.  Religion with its beliefs and practices guarantees the best and effective solutions to the problems. The challenge is how to apply those religious beliefs and practices in remedying those psychological problems. This requires right understanding of religious concepts and principles and the internalizations of these principles into daily life.  This paper tries to embark upon discourse on the true understanding of the nature of man, his uniqueness compared to animal, and the meaning and purpose of his life.  This true understanding of the nature of man leads to the understanding of the root causes of the problems and not the symptomatic ones.  Consequently, the proper remedy can be given to cure these illnesses. 

Some Concrete, Practical Implications

2018 ◽  
pp. 69-80
Author(s):  
Finn Fuglestad
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Alternative Source ◽  
Severe Problem ◽  
Modus Vivendi ◽  
The World ◽  
African Context ◽  
The Right ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Rules Of The Game

This chapter presents the religious beliefs, and more generally the world outlook, of the local inhabitants in a comparative African context. It explores these “sacred societies”, and the way in which rulers of Dahomey tried to get around the inbuilt constraints that impeded the establishment of a genuinely centralized polity ruled by an all powerful monarch/sacred king. Among those constraints was that of “contrapuntal paramountcy” which implies that the right of conquest did not apply; incoming conquerors had to reach a modus vivendi with the indigenous population, and had to rule with the consent and collaboration of that population, the “owners of the land”, who exercised ritual control over the land, a divinely sanctioned inalienable right. But the rulers of Dahomey, who refused to abide by the rules of the game, were not really successful in establishing an alternative source of legitimacy, and were, therefore, faced with a severe problem of legitimacy – one which never went away. It forced the rulers to resort to terror.

Phenomenology of religion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merold Westphal
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Scientific Objectivity ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
Phenomenology Of Religion ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
Mode Of Being ◽  
Religious Differences

The phenomenology of religion is a descriptive approach to the philosophy of religion. Instead of debating whether certain religious beliefs are true, it asks the question ‘What is religion?’ It seeks to deepen our understanding of the religious life by asking what (if anything) the phenomena we normally take to be religious have in common that distinguishes them from art, ethics, magic or science. Since the search for what is common presupposes difference and brings to light an astonishing array of divergent beliefs and practices, the quest for the essence of religion unfolds quite naturally into questions of typology ‘What are the most illuminating ways of classifying religious differences?’ Sometimes the phenomenology of religion is motivated by a desire for quasi-scientific objectivity, combined with at least a soft scepticism about metaphysical speculation; if we cannot decisively resolve the metaphysical mysteries of life, people with this approach argue, at least we can give an unbiased description of those interpretations of the world we normally designate religious. At other times the phenomenology of religion has a more existential orientation: whether or not our arguments can settle questions about the ultimate shape of being, we have to choose our own mode of being-in-the-world; and if we are to decide intelligently whether or not to be religious, we need to be as clear as we can about what it means to be religious – ineluctable uncertainty may make faith something of a leap, but the leap need not be blind.

Phenomenology of religion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merold Westphal
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
Religious Life ◽  
Scientific Objectivity ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
Phenomenology Of Religion ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
Mode Of Being ◽  
Religious Differences

The phenomenology of religion is a descriptive approach to the philosophy of religion. Instead of debating whether certain religious beliefs are true, it asks the question ‘What is religion?’ It seeks to deepen our understanding of the religious life by asking what (if anything) the phenomena we normally take to be religious have in common that distinguishes them from art, ethics, magic or science. Since the search for what is common presupposes difference and brings to light an astonishing array of divergent beliefs and practices, the quest for the essence of religion unfolds quite naturally into questions of typology ‘What are the most illuminating ways of classifying religious differences?’ Sometimes the phenomenology of religion is motivated by a desire for quasi-scientific objectivity, combined with at least a soft scepticism about metaphysical speculation; if we cannot decisively resolve the metaphysical mysteries of life, people with this approach argue, at least we can give an unbiased description of those interpretations of the world we normally designate religious. At other times the phenomenology of religion has a more existential orientation: whether or not our arguments can settle questions about the ultimate shape of being, we have to choose our own mode of being-in-the-world; and if we are to decide intelligently whether or not to be religious, we need to be as clear as we can about what it means to be religious – ineluctable uncertainty may make faith something of a leap, but the leap need not be blind.

The Virtues of Sustainability

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Character Traits ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
The Third ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
Excessive Consumption ◽  
Ways Of Life

With a growing recognition of the potentially catastrophic impacts of human actions on current and future generations, people around the world are urgently seeking new, sustainable ways of life for themselves and their communities. What do these calls for a sustainable future mean for our current values and ways of life, and what kind of people will we need to become? Approaches to ethical living that emphasize good character and virtue are recently resurgent, and they are especially well-suited to addressing the challenges we face in pursuing sustainability. From rethinking excessive consumption, to appropriately respecting nature, to being resilient in the face of environmental injustice, our characters will be frequently tested. The virtues of sustainability—character traits enabling us to lead sustainable, flourishing lives—will be critical to our success. This volume, divided into three parts, brings together newly commissioned essays by leading scholars from multiple disciplines—from philosophy and political science, to religious studies and psychology. The essays in the first part focus on key factors and structures that support the cultivation of the virtues of sustainability, while those in the second focus in particular on virtues embraced by various non-Western communities and cultures, and the worldviews that underlie them. Finally, the essays in the third part address further particular virtues of sustainability, including cooperativeness, patience, conscientiousness, and creativity and open-mindedness. Together, these essays provide readers with a rich understanding of the importance and diversity of the virtues of sustainability.

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