scholarly journals The Repetitive Rhetoric of Miscavige’s Battle: A Preliminary Look at the Church of Scientology

Res Rhetorica ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Porrovecchio
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Negative Publicity ◽  
Short Essay ◽  
The Church

The Church of Scientology is currently experiencing a rash of negative publicity regarding its belief system, organizational structure, and practices. Amidst this controversy, Ecclesiastical Leader David Miscavige has continued to make speeches celebrating the church. But he has remained notably silent regarding the challenges facing his church. This short essay aims to: (a) provide an introduction to the church, (b) examine the rhetoric of Miscavige in light of the church’s practices, and (c) offer up some initial suggestions regarding how the two can, and do, relate to each other. The tentative conclusions drawnsuggest that, at best, Miscavige is providing his followers with a positive vision of the church; at worst, his rhetoric threatens to engender more criticism and further isolate the church.

scholarly journals Struggles for the Character of the Roman Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1989

Eurostudia ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-73
Author(s):  
Miroslav Tížik
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Roman Catholic Church ◽  
Communist Regime ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Power Struggles ◽  
The Church

After the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia came to power in 1948, power struggles followed between political parties and long-running internal struggles within the country’s Roman Catholic Church over the church’s character and organizational structure. These struggles related not only to purely theological issues, but also to the ideals of communism (and, later, socialism), the Communist Party and its program. The internal plurality within the church throughout the whole period of the people’s democracy and state socialism in Czechoslovakia calls into question the dualistic image of struggles between the church and the Communist Party, and it complicates the image of the church as a victim of the Communist regime. In particular, the crucial periods from 1948 to 1952 and from 1968 to 1969 suggest that, throughout much of the communist period there persisted tensions between the higher and lower clergy and there were diverging views on how the church should function; these tensions took on a diversity of shapes and varied in intensity.

Marriage Symbolism and Social Reality in the New Testament

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Rebecca Solevåg
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
New Testament ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
The Church ◽  
Second Coming

The profound and complicated marriage symbolism pervading the medieval West has its roots in the Bible, and particularly a set of images in the New Testament. In Ephesians 5 it is argued that ‘the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church’ (Eph 5:23). Further, both the gospels and the Apocalypse metaphorically describe Christ as a bridegroom (e.g. Matt 22:2–14; Luke 12:36–38; Rev 19:7–9). This chapter seeks to disentangle the two rather distinct images of (1) patriarchal marriage mapped onto the organizational structure of early Christ-believing communities and (2) bridegroom at wedding feast mapped onto the second coming of Christ. These two images mix and merge even in some of the New Testament texts, whereas other texts treat them separately, and with different emphases. The chapter presents the most relevant passages and discusses the various uses and contexts.

Varieties of Mexican Revolutionary Anticlericalism: Radicalism, Iconoclasm, and Otherwise, 1914–1935

2009 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 481-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ben Fallaw
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Christian Belief ◽  
Constitutional Convention ◽  
Catholic Clergy ◽  
Public Market ◽  
Religious Question ◽  
New Nation ◽  
The Church

Two days before Easter 1916, a teacher in the Mérida ferrocarrilleros’ school demolished a pine statue of Saint Joseph with an axe to show “it was simply a monkey on a stick (un tucho de palo)”; students then hacked up smaller icons before approving parents. During the Cristiada, General Eulogio Ortíz ate consecrated hosts with carnitas de puerco in a public market in Zacatecas. Constitutionalist military proconsuls in 1914-15, leftist regional caudillos of the 1920s, and federal educators and some provincial strongmen during the Maximato (1931-35) all believed anticlericalism would build a new nation; these three waves of attacks against the Catholic clergy proved to be decisive moments in revolutionary state formation. At no point, however, did revolutionaries agree on either means or ends. Radicals favored the destruction of the Church (if not organized religion entirely). Their reliance on iconoclasm—literal as well as metaphorical—also distinguished them. Some iconoclastic radicals hoped their attacks would help create a humanistic, post-Christian belief system. More moderate anticlericals advocated less destructive and more persuasive measures, including using education and the law to weaken and/or reform Catholicism. Some moderates promoted alternative creeds; others hoped to remake the Catholic Church in Mexico. Certainly iconoclasts and reformers did collaborate at times, but they also clashed, as in the rancorous debates over the “religious question” at the Querétaro Constitutional Convention and again when anticlerical Reds and moderate Whites battled during the early 1930s.

scholarly journals Marginal Importance

2016 ◽  
Vol 96 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 155-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Mutch
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social Practice ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Church Of Scotland ◽  
Record Keeping ◽  
Self Examination ◽  
Systemic Practices ◽  
Church Governance ◽  
Detailed Record ◽  
The Church

Comparison of the eighteenth century diaries of an English Dissenter and a Scottish Presbyterian indicates a contrast between English watchfulness and Scottish accountability. Attention to the genres of record keeping in Scotland, with a particular focus on the use of the margin, suggests systemic practices of accountability. The self-examination revealed by the diaries of the faithful needs to be set against the context of taken-for-granted practices in the broader church. Governance routines in the Church of Scotland, derived from belief and promulgated in guidance manuals before being shaped by local practice, formed a particular culture of accountability founded on detailed record keeping. The value of examining religion as social practice, as opposed to as belief system or institution, is that it points to enduring influences on the conduct of the faithful.

scholarly journals Conversion Experience of Akan Christian Royals in Ghana

2021 ◽  
pp. 179-190
Author(s):  
Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong ◽  
Michael Kwadwo Ntiamoah
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Belief System ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
African Christianity ◽  
Missionary Work ◽  
Conversion Experience ◽  
Traditional Leadership ◽  
Secondary Methods ◽  
The Church

The study is an examination of the conversion challenges confronting Akan Christian Royals in Ghana. The Western missionaries and missionary established churches demand that as part of their conversion requirements, Akan Royals must reject and disassociate themselves from the Black Stool, ancestors and all ancestral related activities. The Royals who claim that their families have become Christian royal families insist that authority symbols like the Black Stools and ancestral ceremonies like the Adae do not take the place of the sovereignty of God and the Lordship of Christ in their belief system. Moreover, participation in Palace services prepares them for traditional leadership and does not take them away from their faith in Christ. The traditional leadership institutions and the Royals that welcomed the Western missionaries, provided them with hospitality, security and resources for the missionary work have come to be considered as unchristian and an anathema to the Christian faith. The position of the church has created tensions within Akan Christian Royal and put the genuineness of their conversion in doubt. The study which is qualitative in nature uses both primary and secondary methods in its information gathering. Its findings provide responses to some contemporary tensions in gospel and culture studies in African Christianity. Keywords: Akan Royals, Christian Conversion, Cultural Identity, Black Stool, Authority Symbols

Cultural Configurations of Mormon Fundamentalist Polygamous Communities

2004 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Bradley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Belief System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Latter Day Saints ◽  
Learned Behaviors ◽  
Lds Church ◽  
Plural Marriage ◽  
The Church

““The Principle”” or plural marriage, as practiced by the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) during the nineteenth century, evolved to encompass a culture of life practices, ideas and meanings for the fundamentalist Mormon polygamists who continue in the practice to the present day. For the modern-day polygamists, the culture that surrounds this doctrine includes a set of learned behaviors and strategies, symbols, and a compelling vision of an ideal community. This highly effective culture has helped plurality persist and grow in the intermountain western part of the United States, perpetuating a belief system but also a distinctive lifestyle wrapped around the doctrine of a plurality of wives. This article sketches out the parameters of the culture of polygamy, describes the key groups that continue in the practice, and discusses the connection between the fundamentalist polygamist groups and individuals and the LDS Church.

Spiritual Healing, Sick Kids and the Law: Inequities in the American Healthcare System

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 269-299
Author(s):  
Janna C. Merrick
Keyword(s):  
Medical Science ◽  
Spiritual Healing ◽  
Best Interests ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Divine Love ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Human Need ◽  
East End ◽  
The Church

Main Street in Sarasota, Florida. A high-tech medical arts building rises from the east end, the county's historic three-story courthouse is two blocks to the west and sandwiched in between is the First Church of Christ, Scientist. A verse inscribed on the wall behind the pulpit of the church reads: “Divine Love Always Has Met and Always Will Meet Every Human Need.” This is the church where William and Christine Hermanson worshipped. It is just a few steps away from the courthouse where they were convicted of child abuse and third-degree murder for failing to provide conventional medical care for their seven-year-old daughter.This Article is about the intersection of “divine love” and “the best interests of the child.” It is about a pluralistic society where the dominant culture reveres medical science, but where a religious minority shuns and perhaps fears that same medical science. It is also about the struggle among different religious interests to define the legal rights of the citizenry.

Ideas and Leaders in Contentious Politics: One Parish Priest in El Salvador's Popular Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (01) ◽  
pp. 76-101
Author(s):  
PETER M. SANCHEZ
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
El Salvador ◽  
Liberation Theology ◽  
Contentious Politics ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Parish Priest ◽  
Historical Moment ◽  
Resource Mobilisation ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis paper examines the actions of one Salvadorean priest – Padre David Rodríguez – in one parish – Tecoluca – to underscore the importance of religious leadership in the rise of El Salvador's contentious political movement that began in the early 1970s, when the guerrilla organisations were only just beginning to develop. Catholic leaders became engaged in promoting contentious politics, however, only after the Church had experienced an ideological conversion, commonly referred to as liberation theology. A focus on one priest, in one parish, allows for generalisation, since scores of priests, nuns and lay workers in El Salvador followed the same injustice frame and tactics that generated extensive political mobilisation throughout the country. While structural conditions, collective action and resource mobilisation are undoubtedly necessary, the case of religious leaders in El Salvador suggests that ideas and leadership are of vital importance for the rise of contentious politics at a particular historical moment.

Adapting a matrix organizational structure to the College of Dentistry at the University of Kentucky

1989 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 246-252
Author(s):  
DA Nash ◽  
EP Hicks ◽  
HR Laswell ◽  
GP Lewis ◽  
TT Lillich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
University Of Kentucky ◽  
The University
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