Public and Private Forms of Religious Commitment among Byzantine Women

Author(s):  
Judith Herrin

This chapter examines the development of the different forms of religious commitment expressed by women who lived in the Byzantine Empire between the sixth and eleventh centuries AD—a development predicated on their gradual exclusion from displays of public religiosity. Over this long period, as the church consolidated its organization through an administration grafted on to Roman imperial government, the ecclesiastical hierarchy of male bishops effectively excluded women from prominent public positions. This development can be traced through canonical rulings laid down at ecumenical and local church councils, which defined the Christian practice appropriate for women. It is also documented by women's participation in religious activities as recorded in a variety of sources, especially the lives of female saints.

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-60
Author(s):  
John W. Compton

This chapter examines how Protestant elites responded to the political and cultural turmoil of the 1920s. It argues that while the failure of prohibition and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan shattered Protestantism’s sense of unity, the mainline churches nonetheless emerged from the decade with their core ideals and institutions intact. The 1920s also witnessed the birth of several new ecumenical initiatives, including an extensive network of state and local church councils, that worked to direct believers’ energies toward urgent social problems. The church councils, in particular, would later play an important role in building support for New Deal-era economic programs and postwar civil rights reforms.


Author(s):  
Kostis Smyrlis

The chapter provides an overview of the social, political, and economic functions of Byzantine monasteries from the ninth to the fifteenth century. Relations between monasteries and the state, the Church, and lay society were complex. The monks received donations and protection in exchange for various spiritual and material services. The great landowning monasteries engaged in large-scale agrarian production and trade, and they played a substantial role in local and regional economies. Finally, the chapter addresses the fate and significance of monasteries in the long period of crisis that began in the middle of the fourteenth century and ended with the replacement of the Byzantine by the Ottoman Empire.


Innova ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 24-27
Author(s):  
С.В. Филимонов ◽  

An Orthodox Christian with a higher medical education, living according to the commandments of God, a full-fledged church life, regularly (at least 1-2 times a month) partaking of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, professing the Orthodox faith in accordance with the Holy Gospel, apostolic rules, rules of the Ecumenical Councils and the Holy Fathers of the Church, by decisions of the Local Church Councils, recognizing the hierarchy (the Most Holy Patriarch, Synod, ruling bishops), attending church on Sundays and holidays, praying in the morning and evening, having or looking for a confessor, being in a married marriage or striving for such, praying for his patients, studying spiritual literature or studying at catechism or theological courses, taking care of both medical and spiritual education, regularly purifying his soul in the Sacrament of Repentance, repenting, among others, of medical sins.


Author(s):  
Ruth Rubio-Marín

This chapter explores how human rights law has contributed to the shift towards participatory gender equality by legitimating the adoption of quotas and parity mechanisms to ensure women’s equal participation in decision-making. Since the adoption of CEDAW, human rights law has moved away from formal equality notions that simply affirm women’s equal political rights. Instead, we see growing endorsement of substantive equality doctrines that validate the adoption of gender quotas, initially as temporary special measures to ensure women equal opportunities, and, more recently, as permanent measures targeting the gender-balanced composition of an ever-expanding range of public and private governance bodies. The chapter explores how human rights law connects this participatory turn to issues of pluralism, calling attention to the need for public bodies to represent the full diversity of the population, and calling on state parties to increase the participation of women from ethnic minorities, indigenous groups, and religious minorities.


Author(s):  
Ben Clements ◽  
Stephen Bullivant

Abstract Background The attitudes of Catholics in Britain have undergone significant liberalisation on social moral issues across recent decades, whilst the reputation of the Catholic Church has suffered due to public opposition to its traditional teachings on such issues. But there has been comparatively little recent investigation into British Catholics’ views on these debates using surveys aimed at this religious community. Purpose This article examines the sources of attitudinal heterogeneity amongst Catholics in Britain on core debates affecting the Catholic Church. The aims are to examine, firstly, which groups within the British Catholic Community are more likely to conform to or to dissent from the Church’s teachings and, secondly, whether the socio-demographic and religious correlates of attitudes vary across different types of issue. Methods This article uses a new, nationally representative survey of Catholic adults in Britain (n = 1823). The survey is used to examine the sources of variation in Catholics’ attitudes towards a range of issues relating to the Roman Catholic Church. These issues relate to the priesthood, personal morality, and sinful behaviours. OLS models are used to assesses the relative impact of socio-demographic, religious socialisation, and religious commitment variables. Results The findings show that women are consistently more liberal in their views than men. Greater religious commitment is always associated with support for the traditional teachings of the Church. Conclusions and Implications Exploring the sources of attitudinal heterogeneity among Catholics, we provide new insights into the internal dynamics of ‘Britain’s largest minority’. We conclude by discussing the potential effects of increasing ‘nonversion’ for interpreting religious statistics—a topic of relevance beyond the denominational and geographical confines of this study’s explicit focus.


2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-463
Author(s):  
David W. Priddy

In this essay, I pose the question, “How might local congregations participate in food reform and agricultural renewal?” Given the problems of industrial agriculture and the wider ecological concern, this question is pressing. Instead of advocating a specific program, I focus on how the Church might address this question while keeping its commitment to being a repentant Church. First, I discuss the significance of attention and particularly the habit of attending to the Word and Sacrament. This posture, I argue, maintains the Church’s integrity, preventing it from merely branding itself or relying on its own resources. Second, I briefly explore the association of eating with the mission of the Church in the New Testament, highlighting the repeated theme of judgment and call to humility in the context of eating. Third, I draw out the importance of continual remorse over sin. This attitude is essential to the Church’s vocation and rightly appears in many historic liturgies. I argue that this posture should extend to the question of eating responsibly. Penitence demonstrates the Church’s relationship to the wider world and testifies to the source of the Church’s own life, the Holy Spirit, who does the work of renewal.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 103-115
Author(s):  
Robert McBain

This article explores the silent nature of depression in the local church and suggests that developing Jesus-style friendships can break the silence. It adapts the author’s Doctor of Ministry (DMin) research project, which explored the silent nature of depression in the local church and Christianity’s interpretive healing qualities. This article argues that the church has a rich history of helping sufferers interpret their experiences of depression, but changing worldviews, the growth of the modern medical model, and the effectiveness of pharmaceuticals monopolized health and shoved the church to the periphery of the conversation. Silence became the church’s typical response, which promoted an attitude of stigma and avoidance. The article suggests that developing Jesus-style friendships can help break the silence because social or religious barriers do not restrict such friendships. This model of friendship is crucial for giving depression sufferers a sense of identity, meaning, and purpose within the church community.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-63
Author(s):  
Hardi Budiyana

Abstrak Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menggambarkan dan mengetahui Misi Pendidikan Kristen dalam Mewujudkan Murid Kristus, yang tentunya Murid Kristus yang memiliki karakter Kristiani dalam jemaat melalui proses pengajaran di gereja lokal. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian bersifat kualitatif dengan cara studi pustaka yakni mengkaji tentang Misi Pendidikan Kristen yang berpusat pada Kristus akan mewujudkan Murid Kristus yang memiliki wewenang untuk membangun karakter jemaat sesuai dengan ajaran iman Kristiani. Hasil penelitian ini memberikan pemahaman bahwa Misi Pendidikan Kristen berperan baik dalam Mewujudkan Murid Kristus yang memiliki pembentukan karakter kristiani dalam jemaat. Oleh karena itu, disarankan agar Para hamba Tuhan dalam hal ini Gembala Jemaat memiliki loyalitas yang tinggi dalam melaksanakan tugas dan tanggung jawab sebagai rekan kerja Allah yang bukan hanya berkotbah semata, tetapi juga menyampaikan pengajaran dengan hasil terwujud adanya murid Kristus yang memiliki karakter Kristiani nyata dalam diri Jemaat, sehingga jemaat mau melibatkan diri dalam pelayanan maupun dalam penginjilan baik dalam gereja maupun di luar gereja. Kata Kunci: Misi Pendidikan Kristen, Murid Kristus, Gereja Lokal. AbstractThis study aims to describe and know the Mission of Christian Education in Realizing Christ's Disciples, which is certainly Christ's Disciples who have Christian character in the congregation through the teaching process in the local church. This research is a qualitative study by means of literature study that examines the mission of Christian Education centered on Christ will realize Christ's Disciples who have the authority to build the character of the church in accordance with the teachings of the Christian faith. The results of this study provide an understanding that the Christian Education Mission plays a good role in realizing Christ's disciples who have the formation of Christian character in the congregation. Therefore, it is recommended that the pastors of the Church of the Church Shepherd have a high loyalty in carrying out their duties and responsibilities as partners of God who not only preach, but also deliver teaching with the results of the realization of disciples of Christ who have a real Christian character in themselves Congregation, so that the congregation wants to be involved in ministry and in evangelizing both in the church and outside the church. Keywords: Christian Education Mission, Christ Disciples, Local Church


2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Van der Merwe

Poverty is one of the greatest threats to society. In South Africa it is also one of the biggest challenges. This article starts with the challenges put to society by Mr Trevor Manuel at the Carnegie 3 conference. It then explores the possibility of if and how the church can act as a non-governmental organisation in the fight against poverty. A historical overview of the actions of Rev. E.P. Groenewald, during the drought of 1933–1934 in the Dutch Reformed Church Bethulie, serves as a case study of how the church can make a difference. It, however, also illustrates the many pitfalls on this challenging road. The article comes to the conclusion that the main challenge of the church in the fight against poverty is to act as a non-governmental organisation, which transforms values and assists society with good organisation and administration.


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