The Russian Church in Modern Society (On the Example of the Russian Religious Situation)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 327-341
Author(s):  
Dmitry Tsyplakov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Institution ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Main Function ◽  
Social Force ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

The subject of this article is the concept of the Church in the context of the contemporary Russian religious situation and the understanding of the concept by the Russian philosophical ecclesiology. The current religious situation could be described as post-secular. The Church, which survived two waves of secularization in Russia, retained its social subjectivity. The description of the Church as a conglomerate of believers does not correspond with the self-understanding of the Church in Christian thought. The article reveals the ontological self-understanding of the Church in the works of S.L. Frank, A.S. Homjakov, Russian theologians. The mystical reality of the Church could be combined with the empirical expression of it as a social institution. V.S. Soloviev considered the Church as a part of his theocratic utopia. In it he reduced the Church to a simple political social force. And at present, communities of Christians are expected to be embedded in a certain social functional. Meanwhile, arch-presbyter Nicolas Afanasiev pointed to eschatological reality: to the Church as an eschatological subject, as to the City of God (according to St. Augustine) only dwelling in the city of the earth. It forms the social Church ontology on the basis of the Church and society interaction. The social subjectivity of the Church is implicitly present in the framework of social activity in interaction with secular society. The concept of social subjectivity helps to reveal in the social analysis the essence of the dualistic nature of the Church. As an eschatological subject, it is the Body of Christ and at the head of it is the Christ. Therefore, the Church is a divine-human unity. But in the temporal order of things, in the secular aspect, the Church appears as an organization that performs certain social functions, or as one of the parts of the social institution of religion. The article points out the risk of institutionalization for the Church in which it may lose the social dimension of its subjectivity, which does not correspond to the mystical self-consciousness. The risk is that the Church will fulfill the requests of society but will not be able to reveal its main function of being the “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). The article summarizes that in modern Russian society the Church must have its own social subjectivity in order to pass this point of choice and create a working model of interaction with society, including secular society. The subjectivity of the Church is one of the conditions for its sustainable existence in modern Russia.

scholarly journals The Social Mission of the Church

Kairos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-252
Author(s):  
Sorinel Pătcaș
Keyword(s):  
Social Dimension ◽  
Private Sphere ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Original Image ◽  
Social Mission ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church ◽  
Mutual Responsibility

Many theologians and sociologists claim that in order to restore the social and postmodern man’s original image and resemblance to God, turning him into a “complete person,” with spiritual, religious, or cultural needs, a complex theological approach is needed. This approach, known as Social Theology, includes both a social dimension and a theological one in a Chalcedonian unity and morally regulates the relationship between man and society, between Church and modern and postmodern secular society. By means of this term, the Orthodox Church and Theology want to recover the social, just as “secularized culture experiences the recovery of religion, which it has transferred to the private sphere of people’s life;” it summons the social to dialogue, collaboration and mutual responsibility, in order to recover the “contemporary individual.”

The City, the Countryside and the Social Gospel in Late Victorian Nonconformity

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 415-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. W. Bebbington
Keyword(s):  
Church Attendance ◽  
Church Of England ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Late Nineteenth Century ◽  
Working Classes ◽  
The People ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

The late nineteenth-century city posed problems for English nonconformists. The country was rapidly being urbanised. By 1881 over one third of the people lived in cities with a population of more than one hundred thousand. The most urbanised areas gave rise to the greatest worry of all the churches: large numbers there were failing to attend services. The religious census of 1851 had already shown that the largest towns were the places where there were the fewest worshippers, although nonconformists gained some crumbs of comfort from the knowledge that nonconformist attendances were greater than those of the church of England. Unofficial surveys in the 1880S revealed no improvement. Instead, although few were immediately conscious of it, in that decade the membership of all the main evangelical nonconformist denominations began to fall relative to population. And it was always the same social group that was most conspicuously unreached: the lower working classes, the bottom of the social pyramid. In poor neighbourhoods church attendance was lowest. In Bethnal Green at the turn of the twentieth century, for instance, only 6.8% of the adult population attended chapel, and only 13.3% went to any place of worship. Consequently nonconformists, like Anglicans, were troubled by the weakness of their appeal.

scholarly journals Urban social movements in South Africa today: Its meaning for theological education and the church

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan F. De Beer
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Urban Social Movements ◽  
Gustavo Gutierrez ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City ◽  
The Church

In the past decade, significant social movements emerged in South Africa, in response to specific urban challenges of injustice or exclusion. This article will interrogate the meaning of such urban social movements for theological education and the church. Departing from a firm conviction that such movements are irruptions of the poor, in the way described by Gustavo Gutierrez and others, and that movements of liberation residing with, or in a commitment to, the poor, should be the locus of our theological reflection, this article suggests that there is much to be gained from the praxis of urban social movements, in disrupting, informing and shaping the praxis of both theological education and the church. I will give special consideration to Ndifuna Ukwazi and the Reclaim the City campaign in Cape Town, the Social Justice Coalition in Cape Town, and Abahlali baseMjondolo based in Durban, considering these as some of the most important and exciting examples of liberatory praxes in South Africa today. I argue that theological education and educators, and a church committed to the Jesus who came ‘to liberate the oppressed’, ignore these irruptions of the Spirit at our own peril.

scholarly journals Panggilan Sosial Gereja Berdasarkan Pelayanan Yesus dalam Lukas 4:18-19: Sebuah Upaya Merevitalisasi Pelayanan Gereja

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-112
Author(s):  
Herry Susanto
Keyword(s):  
Social Issues ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Church Ministry ◽  
Book Of Isaiah ◽  
The Third ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

Salah satu unsur penting dalam pelayanan gereja yang terabaikan adalah peran sosial gereja untuk mewujudkan kesejahteraan. Padahal warga jemaat berhadapan dengan berbagai isu sosial. Salah satu yang cukup krusial adalah kemiskinan. Dalam upaya merevitalisasi pelayanan gereja, salah satu yang perlu diwujudkan adalah integrasi antara kepedulian sosial dan pelayanan gereja. Artikel ini akan menjelaskan bahwa gereja memiliki panggilan dan tanggung jawab sosial. Fondasi bagi gagasan ini adalah karakteristik pelayanan Yesus yang termuat dalam Lukas 4:18-19, yang merupakan kutipan dari Yesaya 61:1-2; 58:6. Berdasarkan penggunaan Yesaya 61:1-2 yang dikombinasikan dengan Yesaya 58:6, artikel ini menunjukkan bahwa penulis Injil Ketiga memodifikasi kutipan tersebut untuk memperkuat karakteristik sosial dalam pelayanan Yesus. Dimensi sosial pelayanan Yesus merupakan landasan penting untuk membangun pelayanan gerejawi yang memiliki kesadaran sosial untuk membentuk kehidupan umat secara menyeluruh. Dalam menguraikan gagasannya, artikel ini akan menerapkan metode kualitatif yang berorientasi pada studi literatur dan analisis hermeneutika. Adapun pendekatan hermeneutika yang akan diterapkan berfokus pada pembacaan Injil sebagai biografi Yunani-Romawi. Prinsip-prinsip yang umum digunakan dalam metode kritik naratif juga akan diterapkan. Karena adanya kutipan dari Kitab Yesaya, pendekatan hermenutika yang digunakan juga akan menganalisis cara penulis Injil Ketiga menggunakan teks Yesaya tersebut. Artikel ini akan berfokus pada tiga aspek, yaitu karakteristik sosial Injil Ketiga, karakteristik sosial pelayanan Yesus berdasarkan Lukas 4:18-19, dan implikasi dimensi sosial pelayanan Yesus bagi upaya revitalisasi pelayanan gereja. One important element that neglected in church ministry is the social responsibility of the church in realizing the well-being of the community. Whereas the congregation is dealing with various social issues. One that is quite crucial is poverty. In an effort to revitalize church ministry, one that needs to be realized is the integration of social care and church ministry. This article will explain that the church has social calling and responsibility. The foundation for this idea is the characteristics of Jesus' ministry conveyed by Luke 4:18-19, which is a quotation from Isaiah 61:1-2; 58:6. Based on the use of Isaiah 61:1-2 combined with Isaiah 58:6, this article shows that the writer of the Third Gospel modified the quotation to strengthen social characteristics in Jesus' ministry. The social dimension of Jesus' ministry is an important foundation for building church ministries that have social awareness to shape the lives of believers holistically. This article will apply qualitative methods that focus on literary study and hermeneutical analysis. The hermeneutical approach applied here focuses on reading the Gospels as Greco-Roman biography. The principles commonly used in narrative criticism will also be applied. Because of the quotation from the Book of Isaiah, this article will also analyze the way the writer of the Third Gospel used the text of Isaiah. This article will focus on three aspects, namely the social characteristics of the Third Gospel, the social characteristics of Jesus' ministry based on Luke 4: 18-19, and the implications of the social dimension of Jesus' ministry for revitalizing church ministry.

scholarly journals The Politics of Gendered Spatializations: A Study of Cityscapes in Manu Joseph’s Novels

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.S. Parvathi ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
The Body ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
City Image ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Spatial Politics ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

Burton Pike (1981) terms the cityscapes represented in literature as word-cities whose depiction captures the spatial significance evoked by the city-image and simultaneously, articulates the social psychology of its inhabitants (pp. 243). This intertwining of the social and the spatial animates the concept of spatiality, which informs the positionality of urban subjects, (be it the verticality of the city or the horizonality of the landscape) and determines their standpoint (Keith and Pile, 1993). The spatial politics underlying cityscapes, thus, determine the modes of social production of sexed corporeality. In turn, the body as a cultural product modifies and reinscribes the urban landscape according to its changing demographic needs. The dialectic relationship between the city and the bodies embedded in them orient familial, social, and sexual relations and inform the discursive practices underlying the division of urban spaces into public and private domains. The geographical and social positioning of the bodies within the paradigm of the public/private binary regulates the process of individuation of the bodies into subjects. The distinction between the public and the private is deeply rooted in spatial practices that isolate a private sphere of domestic, embodied activity from the putatively disembodied political, public sphere. Historically, women have been treated as private and embodied and the politics of the demarcated spaces are employed to control and limit women’s mobility. This gendered politics underlying the situating practices apropos public and private spaces inform the representations of space in literary texts. Manu Joseph’s novels, Serious Men (2010) and The Illicit Happiness of Other People (2012), are situated in the word-cities of Mumbai and Chennai respectively whose urban spaces are structured by such spatial practices underlying the politics of location. The paper attempts to problematize the nature of gendered spatializations informing the location of characters in Serious Men and The Illicit Happiness of Other People.

PROTESTANT ENVIRONMENT OF UKRAINE: IN SEARCH OF RELIGIOUS TYPOLOGIES (ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE ALLUKRAINIAN UNION OF CHURCHES OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN BAPTISTS)

2021 ◽  
pp. 92-105
Author(s):  
Ivan Kunderenko
Keyword(s):  
Structural Changes ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Level Of Involvement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Nonviolent Resistance ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Political Groups

Applying the typology of R. Niebuhr to the Protestant environment of Ukraine is nearly impossible, because despite the preserved faith statements, the level of involvement of Protestants in Ukrainian society has changed significantly. Thus, the usual classification is not efficient due to the dynamics of the social dimension of Protestants and the background of theological conservatism. Author agrees with the proposed paradigm of D. Hollinger, that in any interaction with society there are two dimensions, in the middle of which we can make a certain ranking. The impact can be individual or structural, as well as reactionary or preventive. The following vectors have become especially common among Protestants: 1. Christian relief; 2. Creating alternative Christian institutions; 3. Evangelism, not just a method to introduce beliefs to others, but also as a vehicle of structural changes in society; 4. Prophetic proclamation as a way to react on existing negative trends; 5. Political lobbying with an attempt to prevent the adoption of certain bills, or vice versa, their promotion; 6. Creation of political parties or political groups; 7. Nonviolent resistance; 8. The practice of Christian incarnation as a manifestation of faithfulness to God with the understanding that the attainability of ethical standards is possible only within the Christian community; 9. Individual impact with understanding that Christians hold views and moral (ethical) principles that differ from secular society, however Christians apply those principles, within and outside boundaries of Christendom.

Body Image Satisfaction and its Relationship to the Reasons Why Young Women  are Undergoing Cosmetic Surgery from their Perspectives: الرضا عن صورة الجسد وعلاقته بأسباب إقبال الشابات على إجراء عمليات التجميل من وجهة نظرهن

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (46) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Fahad Joudeh, Suhaila Mahmood Banat
Keyword(s):  
Body Image ◽  
Marital Status ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Cosmetic Surgery ◽  
The Body ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Body Image Satisfaction ◽  
Economic Level ◽  
Level Of Satisfaction ◽  
The Social

This study aimed to reveal the level of satisfaction of the body image and its relationship to the reasons why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery from their perspectives. The sample of the study consisted of (150) young women who visit private beauty clinic. Two scales were developed: a scale of the level of satisfaction of body image consisting of (34) item and a scale of the reasons of why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery consisting of (39) item. After insured the scales' validity and reliability, the descriptive-correlational approach was used. The results of the study showed that the level of body image was moderate, and for the reasons of why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery; the psychological dimension came in the first rank, While the vocational dimension came in the last rank. The results also found a positive correlation between body image satisfaction and the reasons why young women are undergoing cosmetic surgery. The results did not show differences in the level of satisfaction of the body image to the variable of marital status and economic level. While the results showed dissatisfaction with the body image due to age in favor of the category (31-40) and the educational qualification in favor of a diploma degree and below. As for the reasons for the young women undergoing cosmetic surgery, it was found that there were no statistically significant differences in the marital status and educational qualification variables, also, there were differences due to age only on the social dimension and in favor of (31 - 40), and there were differences attributed to the economic level in the social dimension in favor of the category (500-1000). Considering the results, the researcher recommended reinforcing the body image through nurture and guidance to raise the level of satisfaction with body image and to conduct more surveys, qualitative, and experimental studies related to cosmetic surgery other than the target category in this study, and for both sexes.

La Repubblica sociale italiana come problema storiografico: il caso torinese

2009 ◽  
pp. 101-124
Author(s):  
Nicola Adduci
Keyword(s):  
Key Words ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Local Context ◽  
The Social ◽  
Central Actor ◽  
New Research ◽  
The City ◽  
The Voice ◽  
The Church

- The Italian Social Republic as a historiographic problem proposes an interpretive key for a broader analysis of the Italian Social Republic (Rsi), from its formation to its collapse. The Party is seen both as the central actor of the Social Republic and the voice of its overall political project, within a prolonged confrontation and clash with the State. The relations of the Pfr with the different actors in the city of Turin are also explored: the urban community, the Church, the industrialists, the Germans and the Resistance. The interpretation reflects a micro-historical methodological approach, and proposes themes hitherto ignored, such as juvenile discontent and the generational break that resulted. The purpose is to propose new research tracks that make it possible to go beyond the local context, redefining some wider in historiographic questions.Key words: Fascist Republican Party, Italian Social Republic, Turin, Generation, Community.Parole chiave: Pfr, Rsi, Torino, generazione, comunitŕ.

Reviews of the Literature

1952 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-44
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Social Actions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Many ◽  
The City ◽  
Roman Catholics

With the assistance of ten students and six priests over a period of 12 months, the head of the department of sociology at Loyola University of the South conducted a field study of the social actions of parishioners and clergy in a single Roman Catholic Church unit in the city of New Orleans. The methodology and conceptual framework of the analysis of action within the context of the social institution, viewed structurally and functionally, have been magnificently adhered to. Religious actions, conceived as such by the actors and by others who interpret their behavior, are the substance of this study in parochial sociology. Data were collected by patient observation of the many aspects of the detailed religious patterns of action in which Roman Catholics engage. These are, among others, the typical and atypical behavior associated with church attendance, the sacraments, retreats, missions, recruitment for the priesthood, special devotions and feast-days, and the observances relating to baptism, matrimony and death.

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