REQUEST AS ONE OF THE SPEECH GENRES OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATION

The article is devoted to the study of such a speech genre as a request, which is actively used in interpersonal religious communication. The material for the study was the prayers, psalms of King David and the Book of Proverbs of Solomon, which are based on this form of communication. The study shows that the request belongs to the imperative speech genres, is an independent type of motivation, and has a set of specific properties. The specific situation of communication determines the choice of language forms of expression of the semantics of the request, and the addresser's intentions, which are implemented in it, make it possible to distinguish several types of requests. Statements have a spiritual component and are dialogical in nature. Their context directs the addressee to perform a post-communicative action, which is directly related to the addresser's desire to satisfy the necessary request. The paper uses a communicative-pragmatic approach, which allows us to explore the speech genre, taking into account all possible language means, special properties, aimed at implementing the semantics of the request in a communication situation. The results of the study are important for understanding the essence of religious communication.

„Das mustu gleuben, oder der Teufel bescheisset dich.“ Die invektiven Paratexte der protestantischen Lügenden und ihre gattungskommunikative Funktion

The article deals with the Protestant genre ‘Lügende’ (word combined from ‘Legende’ [legend] and ‘Lüge’ [lie]) as a disparagement of Roman Catholic legends in the 16th century. The investigation concentrates on paratextualisation as elementary invective mode of ‘Lügenden’. The analytical focus on titles, marginalia and so called ‘reminders’ (‘Erinnerungen’) shows the correlation between the generic term ‘Legende’ resp. ‘Lügende’ and the invective pattern of language use ‘Lügende’. According to this, the article discusses ‘Lügende’ as a communicative genre. Furthermore, by understanding ‘Lügende’ as a meta genre, whose paratexts are its basic elements of metaization, paratexts refer to text transgressions. Therefore, they are specified as secondary forms of religious communication during the denominational conflicts and negotiation processes in the 16th century.

Transformation of Religious Communication Under the Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The article analyzes the transformation of forms of religious communication against the background of the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus, that is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to the advanced opportunities offered by the virtual space, various religious organizations and individual leaders have the opportunity to acquaint all users with their religious doctrines. But if in ordinary times the virtual religious space often functioned as an "addition" to the real religious space, then in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, it became almost the main channel for broadcasting religious teachings and ideas. In this regard, the capabilities of the virtual environment made it possible to search and experiment. For some people this can lead to a deeper understanding of their religious traditions and practices, while for others it can open up completely new ways of worshiping God, generating a variety of new ideas and trends. The closure of prayer facilities during the coronavirus pandemic has forced most religious institutions around the world to communicate with their followers online, and most of the self-isolated believers have also turned to virtual space in order not to interrupt their religious practices. By itself, virtual religious activity is not a new phenomenon, but in a crisis situation it has become an adequate substitute for real religious activity, making it possible to maintain the epidemiological situation and curb the outflow of the flock, adjusting their religious rituals to the new conditions. On the example of some religious institutions operating on the territory of Russia, it was revealed that during the period of restrictive measures in the country, some forms of religion have undergone significant changes and accelerated digitalization.

Sacralised spaces of Mithras in Roman Dacia

The Roman cult of Mithras is one of the most well documented cults in Roman Dacia, having almost 300 archaeological finds (epigraphic and figurative sources) produced in less than 170 years during the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. Although the rich materiality of the cult attracted European attention already in the 18th century, sacralised spaces of Mithras in Dacia – the mithraea of the province – were rarely analysed. This paper presents a systematic overview of the archaeologically and epigraphically attested sanctuaries. Based on the rich material of the cult it will present a new catalogue of sanctuaries of Mithras in Roman Dacia for the first time contextualising them in a new space taxonomy of Roman religious communication.

Benefits of preserving cultural heritage and its impact on providing national security in Islamic countries

One way to expand social, cultural, and religious communication and interaction in Islamic societies is to preserve cultural heritage and expand the tourism industry. Considering the emphasis of religious sources on the necessity of objective and theoretical study in history and the role that this heritage plays in preserving the identity and civilization of Islamic societies, its preservation is obligatory. Therefore, one of the essential programs that should be considered in this regard is the development of laws derived from books and traditions to preserve cultural heritage. In this article, the author examines the meaning of cultural heritage, national security, the effects of preserving cultural heritage, and methods of preserving this heritage in Islamic societies, takfiri groups to destroy cultural heritage, and their study based on religious sources. One of the critical research findings is the obligation to preserve the past’s cultural heritage in light of military, cultural, and economic security. The development of the tourism industry is not possible without preserving cultural heritage.

Theology of nature: Reflections on the dogmatic doctrine of creation

The doctrine of creation and the knowledge of nature have come into tension in modernity. Against this background, the article discusses the basic problems of a theology of nature starting from a systematic theology of religious communication. Dogmatic statements about the world as God’s creation are not about a description of nature and reality but about a reflexive account of Christian–religious communication. The object of the doctrine of creation is thus the world-related contents of the Christian religion as well as the function these have in it. Thus, both the critique of the representational version of the doctrinal tradition’s conception of creation and its reflexive turn in 20th-century Protestant theology are taken up and carried forward in such a way that the belief in creation is not understood as a general qualification of the world but is related to the concrete contents of religious communication.Contribution: The article proposes a new formulation of the traditional doctrine of creation on the basis of a systematic theology of religious communication. This approach is intended to avoid a coexistence of religious belief in creation and scientific explanation of the world, as well as their being pushed into one another. By transferring the belief in creation to Christian–religious communication, the latter thematises how religious contents are created in the Christian religion.

Category of compositions in the prayer

Linguistics of the turn of the XX – XXI centuries actively studies the religious functional style, which became possible due to changes in Russia’s sociopolitical situation. The subject of this research is the language of religious communication, individual religious genres, and stylistic system. The goal of this article lies in description of the compositional structure of the previously unstudied prayers, as well as in development of their classification. The research was conducted on 120 texts of prayers of the New Apostolic Christians created in the non-liturgical communicative situation. The specificity of creating prayers in this religious community consists in the fact that although each time the texts are written anew, thee are based on the canonical “Lord’s Prayer” , which corresponds to the constructive principle of religious style — proto-textuality. The method of categorical-textual analysis allows establishing that each of the created prayers has compositional structure, containing from one to three compositional blocks in its main part, which correlate with the three key intentions of the prayer — request, gratitude, and praise. The article offers a classification of the prayers based on the number of intentions included in the text, mono-intentional, bi-intentional, and poly-intentional compositional structures of the prayer text. It is determined that the basic compositional structure in the texts of the New Apostolic Christians is the bi-intentional structure, which contains the intentions of gratitude and requests in a strict order. The acquired results can be used in further research of the prayer texts in both, liturgical and non-liturgical communicative situations.

When Facebook Becomes Faithbook: Exploring Religious Communication in a Social Media Context

Processes of digitalization continue to have a profound effect on many old, traditional organizations. In institutions such as banks, theaters, and churches, established structures and practices are being challenged by digitization in general and the participatory logic of social media in particular. This article draws on Mark C. Taylor’s concepts of figuring and disfiguring to analyze empirical data gathered from the Church of Sweden Facebook page. The aim is to discuss how social media affects the conditions for religious communication and what the consequences are for a traditional religious organization such as the Church of Sweden.

Newspapers and Dynamics of Religious Communication: The Test Case of Sufi News

Religion and the print media are two powerful motivators and sources of meaning, information and culture, and their relationship has been there seen since 19th century with the advent of industrial revolution. This research aims to analyze the portrayal of Sufism in the print media by investigating features of Sufi news stories of Urdu newspapers. For this purpose, this study applied qualitative approach to investigate news writings of national newspapers published from the city of saints, Multan. To provide a comprehensive overview, this study has analyzed news stories printed on the occasions of death anniversaries of prolific Sufi saints in four leading newspapers, Jang, Nawa-i-Waqt, Express and Khabrain, to contribute to the contemporary studies of religion and the print media. Probing the dynamics of religious communication, the study found the holy sketch of Sufi saints that portrayed them as great Muslim and spiritual mentors, and a heart of love and religious harmony. Their path and ideologies were recognized as the sources of inspiration for eternal success. The newspaper writings stated that Sufis are the treasures of the divine grace, wisdom and spiritual knowledge whose teachings address the love of God and Prophet Muhammad (SAW), the concept of piety, humbleness, pardon, the uncertainty of the world, and optimism. In this background, this research, with its results, is an important addition for a better understanding of the association of religion and media.