The Communion of the Apostles and the Spiritual Eucharist in the Religious Thought and Art of the Old Believers

The division that occurred in the Patriarchate of Muscovy in the middle of the 17th century resulted in a large part of the believers being alienated from the clergy; in consequence, many communities of the Old Believers, who had come to terms with this loss, renounced most of the sacraments, including the Eucharist. This situation impacted the art of the Old Believers, especially in the Priestless Old Believer communities, for instance, in the interiors of their houses of prayer, where the presbytery area disappeared, and the iconostasis changed its function. This article contains an analysis of how one of the old iconographic themes connected with the Eucharist, namely the Communion of the Apostles, functioned in the Old Believer setting. Sources originating from those circles, especially the 18th-century Pomorian Answers (Pomorskie otvety), indicate that the Old Believers saw the Eucharist as a spiritual experience—the only one that was available to the faithful who lived in communities that lacked a clergy. This is most probably the context in which, for instance, Old Believer versions of the Communion of the Apostles should be understood. The view of the Old Believer identity, and Old Believer art, as proposed in this article takes under consideration not only the tradition but also the change, which was an unavoidable part of their communities’ experience, and which may also constitute an essential key to our reading of the contents and meaning of Old Believer icons.

Pengalaman Spiritual dan Kebahagiaan menurut Nyai Hajah Masriyah Amva

<p class="06IsiAbstrak">This study aims to describe spiritual experiences and happiness according to Nyai Hajah Masriyah Amva, a female cleric and caregiver at the Kebon Jambu Al-Islamy Islamic Boarding School in Ciwaringin, Cirebon, West Java. This research is included in library research using qualitative methods. The results of this study prove that the spiritual experience carried out by Nyai Hajah Masriyah Amva has led her to true happiness. The happiness that Masriyah Amva gets is an empirical process she goes through and then pushes her to do a 'hijrah' or self-transcendence that goes beyond the physical world or the real environment to the Supreme Reality, God. By making God the pinnacle of transcendence, Masriyah finds true happiness. With God, he feels that he is always near to Him and at the same time becomes his support so that he feels no longer alone anywhere and anytime.</p>

Cross Sectional Study on The Association of Daily Spiritual Experience on Mental Well Being During COVID 19 Among The African Students In India

Objectives: The current research focussed to explore the association of daily spiritual experience on the mental well- being of international students hails from Africa and pursuing studies in various higher education institutions in India. The research also tried to explore whether age and gender plays a significant role in the mental well- being of the respondents. Design: The study is an exploratory cross-sectional in nature. The research tool comprised of the Daily Spiritual Experience Scale (DSES) and Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS) along with the demographic details. Post reliability and validity tests, established scales are used to study the variable in the research. The data was analysed using Smart PLS SEM 3.3.2. Setting: The respondents comprise of international students hails from Africa and pursuing various under graduate, post graduate and PhD courses from various institutions at Bhopal, Delhi, Mumbai and Rajasthan in India. The respondents include a cohort of 102 respondents who gave consent to be part of the study during first week of July to first week of August 2021 and were selected through purposive sampling technique. Main outcome measures: The research measures the association of daily spiritual experience and mental well-being during pandemic and also the coping strategies used by the respondents. Findings: The research report shows an insignificant relation of gender to the mental well-being whereas age reported a significant association. A significant association is reported between daily spiritual experience and the mental wellbeing of the respondents amidst pandemic situation. Conclusion: Pandemic outbreaks influences the mental well-being of individuals specially when they are away from the social support system. Hence counselling services and other interventions to cater to the needs of students requires a serious deliberation at the policy level.

Rereading of the Quran in Light of Nursi’s Risale-i Nur Collection: Shuhudi Exegesis

The concept of tafsiri şuhudi (transempirical exegesis) was coined for the first time by Said Nursi (d. 1960) and was reflected throughout his works. In his tafsiri şuhudi (pronounced shuhudi) methodology, Nursi views the Qur’an as an interpretation of the universe, that is Kitab al-Kabir (a big book). According to Nursi, such an exegesis is needed to reach the degree of iman tahkiki (investigative belief), also known as authentic faith. As part of his methodology, Nursi uses spiritual experience (kashf) and secular sciences as evidence for gaining true faith. Tafsiri şuhudi is an offshoot of ishari (inner meaning) tafsir but one that is injected with rationalism. This tafsir type also injects witnessing (şuhudi) into the dry body of scientific and modern tafsir that emerged in the Muslim world after European enlightenment. This article first examines the original hermeneutical concept of tafsir şuhudi in Nursi’s works and then analyses the sound heart, an essential part of iman tahkiki, in light of Nursi’s transempirical experience. The article argues that Nursi injects rationalism into the ishari tafsir methodology and infuses şuhudi experience by making it not only an epistemic but also an existential understanding of modern tafsir methodology.

Spiritual Experience in Dementia From the Health Care Provider Perspective: Implications for Intervention

Spiritual care seeks to counter negative outcomes from spiritual distress and is notably needed in dementia. Such care needs disease-appropriate customization. Employing “cognitive apprenticeship” theory’s focus on learning from contrast, we explored spiritual needs salient within dementia as related to other disease states; we aimed to inform future dementia-focused spiritual care design. Accordingly, we conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 24 providers who serve older adults inclusive of persons with dementia. We sampled participants purposively by discipline (chaplains, nursing staff, social workers, activities professionals) and religious tradition (for chaplains). Our interview guide inquired about the nature of spiritual needs in dementia and stakeholders’ roles in addressing them. Hybrid inductive/deductive thematic analysis was employed. A thematic structure emerged with two themes: 1) spiritual experience in dementia compared to other medical conditions (sub-themes: the salience of (a) fear; (b) loss of self; (c) dementia’s progressive and incurable nature; (d) dementia’s impact on accessing faith); and 2) the need for spiritual intervention at the mild stage of dementia (sub-themes: (a) awareness in mild dementia and its influence on spiritual distress; (b) a window of opportunity). These findings pointed to possibilities for the “what” of spiritual needs and the “who” and “when” of implementing spiritual care. Implications included the imperative for dementia-specific spiritual assessment tools, interventions targeting fear and loss early in the disease, and stakeholder training. Researchers should study the “how” of dementia-appropriate spiritual care given recipients’ cognitive and linguistic challenges. Conjointly, these efforts could promote the spiritual well-being of persons with dementia worldwide.

"The transfomation of the novel Crime and punishment in the V. Pietzuch’s remake The new Moskow philosophy (axiologisation of Russian classics) "

The idea of literariness of Russian culture, of the impact of literature on Russian life, is an axiom of Russian cultural consciousness, which however doesn’t cease to draw the attention of researchers. Russian literature itself, from the 19th century on to this day, manifests this idea, altering the semantics of the life-literature relationship. In Pietzuch’s story the attention is drawn to the metatextual commentary about the role and value of Russian classics (and literature in general), and about the literariness of Russian consciousness – a commentary close to scientific discourse. The writer conceptualises literature as an invariant embodying the spiritual experience of humanity, and reality as an imitation of literature, deprived of structure and meaning. He creates an image of contemporary Soviet reality, which is a travestied variant of the world of Dostoevsky in the novel “Crime and punishment”. The conclusion refers to the development of similar axiologisation of Russian classics in the post-modernist remakes from the 1990s to this day.

Ignatian Pedagogy and Its Religious Inspirations

Research Objective: The aim of this article is to shed light on the religious inspirations that underpin Ignatian Pedagogy. The research problem and methods:The research problems involve questions concerning the most important ideas of Ignatian spirituality, which are based on the existential experience of St. Ignatius Loyola, and which are a source of inspiration for Ignatian Pedagogy. Based on the literature, the fundamental ideas of Ignatian Spirituality and their influence on the emergence and development of Ignatian Pedagogy were analysed. The process of argumentation:Starting from the historical stages of the formation of the key elements of Jesuit spirituality, the key moments of the spiritual experience of St Ignatius of Loyola are shown. The interpretation of the tenets of the Ignatian tradition and its spirituality made it possible to identify the vital ideas that constitute the sources of Ignatian Pedagogy. Research results:The analysis leads to the conclusion that the modern concept of education should be built on the proper concept of the human being. One of the proposals is the concept of a person that we find in Ignatian Pedagogy. It is inspired by Ignatian Spirituality and describes humanity in the perspective of God’s creative act and His love. In this context, the issues of individuality and freedom of each person are especially important. Conclusions, innovations and recommendations: Human existence in the changing and globalised world means a constant need to respond to change. Therefore, education should be understood as the familiarisation of students with change, which is a necessary condition for their development and thus for the progress of society. The Ignatian Pedagogy is effective in this regard, as it assumes an all-round development of a person and involves another person, an educator/mentor, who acts as a kind of witness to the ongoing history of life.

Diversity and Interpretation. Toward a Pluralist Realist Description of Religious Experience

This paper attempts to offer a pluralist realist account of the diversity of religious experience. In the first part, I show that an influential trend in contemporary philosophy of religious experience and religious pluralism is based on the mediational image of knowledge and a problematic notion of interpretation, which generates irresoluble problems. I then attempt a redescription based on an extension of Heidegger’s theory of understanding as pre-theorical engagement with the world, which allows for the conciliation of the diversity of religious experience with its claimed epistemic force. To develop this argument, finally, I present the experience of diversity proper of the contemporary world as a type of spiritual experience in which the traits of a pre-theoretical religious understanding can be found. As a result, the paper suggests a move from epistemology to spirituality for a better understanding of religious experience.