Engaging with the Guru

2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 201-224
Author(s):  
Kristina Myrvold
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Social World ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
Sacred Scripture

The Sikhs have perhaps taken the concept of a sacred scripture much further than any other religious community by treating the Guru Granth Sahib as a living guru. This essay analyzes various religious beliefs and practices by which contemporary Sikhs construct and maintain conceptions of their scripture as a guru with spiritual authority. A distinction is made between religious practices that serve to mediate and interpret the semantic content of the scripture, performative acts that are enacted to transform the social world, and rituals that aim to give the scripture a careful ministration and celebrate different stages of its worldly life. The various ritualized uses of Guru Granth Sahib can be approached as external strategies by which the Sikhs personify their scripture and make it socially alive as a living guru.

scholarly journals Vegan YouTubers Performing Ethical Beliefs

Religions ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7
Author(s):  
Kim Harding ◽  
Abby Day
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Digital Content ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Ethical Beliefs ◽  
Relational Practice ◽  
The Social ◽  
Youtube Videos ◽  
Question Survey

In Great Britain, “religion or belief” is one of nine “protected characteristics” under the Equality Act 2010, which protects citizens from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. This paper begins with a discussion about a 2020 ruling, “Jordi Casamitjana vs. LACS”, which concluded that ethical vegans are entitled to similar legal protections in British workplaces as those who hold philosophical religious beliefs. While not all vegans hold a philosophical belief to the same extent as Casamitjana, the ruling is significant and will be of interest to scholars investigating non-religious ethical beliefs. To explore this, we have analysed a sample of YouTube videos on the theme of “my vegan story”, showing how vloggers circulate narratives about ethical veganism and the process of their conversion to vegan beliefs and practices. The story format can be understood as what Abby Day has described as a performative “belief narrative”, offering a greater opportunity to understand research participants’ beliefs and related identities than, for example, findings from a closed-question survey. We suggest that through performative acts, YouTubers create “ethical beliefs” through the social, mediatised, transformative, performative and relational practice of their digital content. In doing so, we incorporate a digital perspective to enrich academic discussions of non-religious beliefs.

scholarly journals Religious individualization among the catholics from Miercurea Ciuc.

2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-101
Author(s):  
Ildikó Fejes
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Small Town ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
The Social

The study focuses on the 21st century practices of religion of a traditionally religious community. The study was carried out in a small town in Székely Land, Miercurea Ciuc or Csíkszereda, where the social changes are rather slow compared to the centres, however the religious changes are marked by the territory’s homogenous and outstanding religious character. The study offers a brief theoretical review of the causes of the social changes in the religious practices, after that presents the town’s external-premodern and internal-modern religious practitioners

Time of Change? The Spiritual Challenges of Bereavement and Loss

2006 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard G. Tedeschi ◽  
Lawrence G. Calhoun
Keyword(s):  
Social Systems ◽  
Social World ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Spiritual Beliefs ◽  
Social Domain ◽  
Spiritual Meaning ◽  
Community Or ◽  
The Social

Coping with grief can include, in part, trying either to assimilate the loss into the existing worldview and its spiritual and religious components, or changing those components in congruence with the new reality. This spiritual or religious challenge can lead to loss of faith and a loss of spiritual meaning, but it can also provide a struggle that eventually leads to growth in the religious and spiritual domains. In a similar way, the bereaved person's experiences with their proximate culture and social world, particularly if their social systems include a religious community or shared spiritual beliefs with others, can lead to negative changes, but there is the possibility for growth in the social domain as well. Clinicians who work with bereaved persons need to be aware of the possibility that such themes may be important to their clients, and some suggestions are made to assist clinicians in this kind of work.

The Delphic Oracle: Belief and Behaviour in Ancient Greece—and Africa

1965 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Whittaker
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Modern Trend ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
The Real ◽  
Cultural Institution

Until comparatively recently writers on religion were absorbed by questions concerning the origins of religious beliefs and practices. They endowed primitive man with a kind of rational logicality in his belief, or, like Frazer, they saw his religious practices as simply the application of erroneous reasoning. The modern trend is to try to view the religious or cultural institution as an essential part of society, existing because of the needs of that society. This is the theme, for instance, of Malinowski when he says that “religion is not born out of speculation or reflection, still less out of illusion or misapprehension, but rather out of the real tragedies of human life, out of the conflict between human plans and realities.”

scholarly journals Cultural and Religious Beliefs and Practices Abusive to Children With Disabilities in Zimbabwe

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 103
Author(s):  
A. T. Mukushi ◽  
J. C. Makhubele ◽  
V. Mabvurira
Keyword(s):  
Support Groups ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Children With Disabilities ◽  
People With Disabilities ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Continuous Training ◽  
Descriptive Case Study ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Frontline Workers

This study sought to explore religious practices and beliefs that violate the rights of children with disabilities in Zimbabwe. The authors employed a qualitative approach in exploring cultural and religious beliefs and practices abusive to children with disabilities. Authors used exploratory-descriptive case study design and purposive sampling in selecting participants. Data collection took place in Dzivarasekwa, a high-density suburb in Harare among children who were receiving rehabilitation services at Harare Hospital and their caregivers. The study established that children with disabilities who come from some apostolic families are disadvantaged, as their parents believe that demonic spirits causes disability. This then leads to heightened levels of discrimination. The study also found out that there are remedial but harmful cultural and religious practices. The study recommends that rigorous awareness raising is needed for communities to support people with disabilities, formation of support groups amongst people with disabilities themselves, introducing holistic interventions that address issues of cultural and religious beliefs and continuous training for frontline workers to keep in touch with current best practices, policies and laws around disabilities.

Body Modifications, Sexual Activity, and Religious Practices

2010 ◽  
Vol 106 (2) ◽  
pp. 467-474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark G. Rivardo ◽  
Colleen M. Keelan
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Activity ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Liberal Arts College ◽  
Body Modification ◽  
Sexual Partners ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Body Modifications

Relations among body modifications (i.e., tattoos and piercings), sexual activity, and religious practices and beliefs were examined. In previous studies, Koch and colleagues found the type of body modification seemed to interact with sex to predict sexual activity; but only weak, negative correlations were found between tattoos and religious beliefs and practices. In a sample of 236 students ( M age = 20.1 yr.) from a small Catholic liberal arts college, numbers of tattoos and sexual partners were correlated statistically significantly. Other results differed by t sex: men with piercings were more likely to have had premarital intercourse, and women who had had premarital intercourse had more piercings than women who had not. There were no statistically significant correlations among body modifications and religious variables.

scholarly journals Necropoli o santuari?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Crescioli
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Interesting Phenomenon ◽  
The Social ◽  
Burial Mounds ◽  
Scythian Period

Beliefs and religious practices of the steppes people between the Bronze and the Iron Age represent one of the most interesting aspects of these cultures, which spread over a huge and highly varied territory. They are characterised by a series of local expressions, in which Iranian and Zoroastrian influences do not affect the originality of the sanctuaries and of the relevant religious practices. These are sometimes difficult to interpret, as for example the Kirighsuur and Deer Stones contexts, or rock art sites: these introduce very complex and highly debated issues, which are difficult to be fully understood, as for instance the question of shamanism. The most interesting phenomenon of the Iron Age (Scythian period) consists of massive burial mounds, that seem to acquire the role of real sanctuaries, which are strongly related to the landscape and to the natural elements, thus becoming the focus for the social and religious community. This hypothesis is proposed by some scholars, who argue that it may be supported by Herodotus’ description of the sanctuary of Ares.

On Religious Change: the Situational Analysis of Symbolic Action

1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shlomo A. Deshen
Keyword(s):  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
Anthropology Of Religion ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Symbolic Action ◽  
The Social ◽  
Jewish Immigrants

In recent years I have been engaged in research in the social anthropology of religion. In the course of investigating the changing religious beliefs and practices of Jewish immigrants in Israel from rural Tunisia and Morocco I initially sought to conceptualize the phenomena encountered in terms of ‘secularization’. This study is a consequence of the problems that arose.

Religious Orientations in the Lives of Indian Entrepreneurs: Three Case Studies

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-108
Author(s):  
ALINA BAKUNINA
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Religious Beliefs ◽  
Religious Practices ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Religious Orientations ◽  
Economic Elite ◽  
Urban Indian ◽  
Business Setting ◽  
Religious Elements

AbstractThis paper aims to demonstrate how ‘the religious’ is conceptualized and practiced among urban Indian entrepreneurs. It investigates a continuum of religious sentiment and practice, including non-religious elements, rather than a fixed repertoire of belief and ritual. These religious orientations range from the incorporation of certain Hindu religious practices into the business setting to a denial of any substantive role religion may play in the lives of entrepreneurs and the imbuing of religious dispositions with secular meaning. I argue in this paper that the religious and quasi religious practices of India's new social and economic elite are geared primarily towards the enhancement of their ‘flexible’ lifestyles. The study also makes a claim that modern urban Hinduism accommodates hybrid secular-sacred religious beliefs and practices.

scholarly journals The social ideal of F. M. Dostoevsky and theocratic project of V. S. Solovyov in assessments of thinkers of the Silver age

2021 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 115-126
Author(s):  
Ksenia V. Vorozhikhina
Keyword(s):  
Religious Community ◽  
Silver Age ◽  
Human Power ◽  
Religious Consciousness ◽  
The Social ◽  
Spiritual Authority ◽  
Further Development ◽  
The Church ◽  
Made In

The paper studies the reception of social and theocratic ideas of F. M. Dostoevsky and V. S. Solovyov by Silver Age thinkers (N. A. Berdyaev, S. N. Bulgakov, V. V. Rozanov, Vyach. I. Ivanov, D. S. Merezhkovsky, D. V. Filosofov, E. N. Trubetskoy, A. S. Volzhsky (Glinka), S. A. Askoldov (Alekseev) and others). Dostoevsky and Solovyov developed the ideal of “Christian politics,” according to which the state and public spheres are sanctified by spiritual authority of the church and are directed towards the highest goal — the erection of the Kingdom of God on earth. The call made in Dostoevsky’s Pushkin speech, as well as Solovyov’s theocratic prophecies, remained almost unappreciated and unclaimed by contemporaries; at the beginning of the 20th century these ideas began to be discussed again. Dostoevsky and Solovyov are key figures for thinkers of religious renaissance. The great novelist became a forerunner of Christian freedom, rejecting all earthly authorities, as well as a precursor of the religious revolution, denying any human power in the name of divine authority. Despite the fact that Silver Age thinkers were largely unaffected by Soloviev’s philosophical doctrines, he became the prophet of a “new religious consciousness,” setting main topics for the further development of Russian thought and raising questions about the religious community, the role of the church, religious justification of culture, the sense of marriage and sexual love, as well as giving faith in the possibility of renewal of historical Christianity.

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