THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE FUNERARY COMPLEXES OF THE ZMEYSKIY CATACOMB CEMETERY REVISITED

При изучении катакомбных позднеаланских некрополей Центрального Кавказа, одним из которых является Змейский катакомбный могильник, наиболее остро стоит вопрос хронологии. В данной статье затрагивается тема хронологии погребальных комплексов Змейского катакомбного могильника. Для решения этого вопроса были взяты для радиоуглеродного датирования образцы костей животных из погребений на разных участках могильника. Анализ показал диапазон с конца X до начала XIII в., однако на основании датировки отдельных предметов верхней датой существования могильника следует считать конец XIII в. В заключение делается вывод о нескольких первоначальных центрах роста могильника, об уменьшении количества инвентаря в погребениях, что, возможно, связано с религиозными факторами, а также о синхронности различных типов погребальных сооружений. When studying the late Alanic catacomb necropolises of the Central Caucasus, one of which is the Zmeiskiy catacomb cemetery, the issue of chronology is most important. The paper raises an issue of chronology of burial assemblages of the Zmeyskiy catacomb cemetery. To address this issue, samples of animal bones were taken for radiocarbon dating from burials at different areas of the burial ground. According to the analysis, the dating ranges from the end of the 10th century to the early 13th century. However, based on the dating of some individual finds, late 13th century should be considered the upper limit of this chronological span. The paper concludes that the cemetery had some several separate centers of growth, reducing the quantity of equipment in the graves that may be explained by religious factors, and the synchronicity of different types of burial constructions.

Theodicy and Crisis: Explaining Variation in U.S. Believers’ Faith Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Based on a national survey of U.S. adults conducted six weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic, this article investigates how crisis affects religious faith. Almost no Americans reported losing or a weakening of faith in response to the pandemic at this time. By contrast, nearly one-third of believers indicated that the coronavirus outbreak had strengthened their faith. We theoretically develop and empirically test three religious factors—theodicy, practices, and tradition—to explain variation in the strengthening effect of the COVID-19 pandemic among believers. Results from statistical models show that two theodicic interpretations—believing that God: is using the pandemic as a way to tell humanity to change; and will personally protect you from the virus—significantly increased believers’ reports of faith strengthening, controlling for other factors. We also found that Black Protestants were more likely to report these interpretations, which in turn strengthened their faith in response to the pandemic.

THE RELIGIOUS FACTORS OF THE UKRAINIAN MENTALITY FORMATION

In the modern global world, a study on mentality as a main characteristic of the nation which defines the unity of the religious and cultural tradition of the society is conditioned with the need to develop an effective international religious and cultural cooperation. The purpose of the analysis is to determine religious factors in shaping the Ukrainian mentality taking into account its historical background and the challenges of modernity. The study methodology is based on the principles of the non-confessional approach and philosophical pluralism, involving a system of methods, namely: historical, dialectical, comparative methods, synthesis, and generalization. In the conclusions it is emphasized that mentality is one of the forms of the social experience accumulation, the set of historically accepted ideas, viewpoints, stereotypes, forms and behavior which are laid down is the public consciousness by means of education, culture, religion, a language through the years. Every mental formation has its imaginary lines of a friend and foe which were formed by ideologies, beliefs, and religious values. The religious factors in the formation of mentality reflect the role of the Church as the main regulator of the social life. In the social environment of the Ukrainian nation, a temple can be seen as a peculiar archetypical formation, the part of the landmark, symbolic, communicative, and informational religious system which regulates the public consciousness and it is an integral part of the national memory. The mental archetypes of the national identity stem from the phenomenon of the borderlands, and have shaped in the social context the desire for personal freedom, patriotism, social activity; in the spiritual dimension, it is a willing for the inner world to be protected, sacrifice, mercy, non-violence.

Analyzing Factors Inhibiting the Growth of the Church According to the Apostles and Their Relevance to the Challenges of the Church Today

Church growth is a phenomenon that is very commonly discussed by people, especially in the Christian world. Often church growth is seen from the quantity (the number of congregations growing rapidly and many) without regard to the quality of the congregation. Although the Bible does not specifically talk about church growth, the principle of church growth is understood in the words of Jesus "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overpower it", (Matt. 16:18), the church can live and grow even though the number of membership / attendance do not change. According to Rick Warren, healthy church growth is multi-dimensional growth, namely a church that grows closer to each other through fellowship, grows more earnestly through discipleship, and grows stronger through worship (Waren, 2019). He further said that the growth of the church is the result of a healthy natural where the preaching of the Bible and the mission carried out are balanced. In the church there are factors that inhibit church growth, namely: quantitative factors, qualitative factors, organic factors, historical trauma factors, theological misunderstanding factors, religious factors. For this reason, the Church must experience changes in dealing with any situation and influence the world. The church can not only rotate in one place. The church must make a difficult change, namely by preaching the gospel of salvation to those in need, in order to be saved. The church must make new breakthroughs in an increasingly changing world.

Radicalization potentials of young Muslims in prison: What role do religious factors play?

Zusammenfassung Wie steht es um das Ausmaß islamistischer Einstellungen unter jungen Muslimen im deutschen Justizvollzug? Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es, Radikalisierungspotenziale und damit in Verbindung stehende mögliche religionsbezogene Einflussfaktoren sowie die Dauer der bisher verbüßten Haft anhand einer Stichprobe von 87 jungen muslimischen Inhaftierten explorativ zu untersuchen. Die Teilnehmer bearbeiteten hierfür einen Fragebogen, in dem wir Fragen zu religiösen Sozialisationserfahrungen und aktueller Religiosität stellten, sowie Zustimmung zu fundamentalistischen und religiös-militanten Aussagen erhoben. Wir untersuchten die Häufigkeitsverteilungen fundamentalistischer und militanter Einstellungen und verglichen die Skalenmittelwerte von Muslimen mit einer nicht-muslimischen Vergleichsgruppe (n = 255). Anschließend berechneten wir Regressionsmodelle und modellierten Kausalketten, die die von uns untersuchten Konzepte durch Mediation miteinander verknüpften. Unsere Ergebnisse geben Hinweise auf eine erhöhte Vulnerabilität von muslimischen Gefangenen für Radikalisierung. Weiterhin geht aus unseren Ergebnissen hervor, dass Sozialisationseinflüsse zwar offenbar keinen unmittelbaren Einfluss haben, sich aber indirekt auf das Ausmaß militanter Einstellungen auswirken. Die bisher im Gefängnis verbrachte Zeit spielt eine untergeordnete Rolle. Wir diskutieren die Verallgemeinerbarkeit unserer Ergebnisse und mögliche Implikationen für den Strafvollzug.

The Flourishing of New Religions in Korea

This issue of Nova Religio explores the success, in several cases spectacular, of different new religions in South Korea, and the controversies they generated. In this introduction I suggest that, notwithstanding their different Christian and non-Christian backgrounds, most Korean new religions share some common features, including messianism, millenarianism, and proposals for social reform. I introduce a typology of four major groupings: Christian new religions, “traditionalist” groups that call for a restoration of Korea’s ancient spirituality, Won Buddhism, and Jeungsanism. Finally, I suggest that both political and religious factors contributed to the flourishing of new religions in twentieth and twenty-first century Korea.

Barriers to Premarital Thalassemia Screening in Asia

Thalassemia is a genetic disorder of hemoglobin synthesis. Every year 70,000 infants are born with beta thalassemia globally. Its incidence can be reduced by premarital thalassemia screening This review aims to focus on barriers to premarital thalassemia screening and to observe the current thalassemia practices in Asian countries. This study was conducted on six countries of Asia based on economic status according to World Bank criteria. High income states included Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and Oman, Iran constituted an upper middle-income country and in lower middle-income category Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh were considered. Search engines like PubMed, Research Gate and Google scholar were used to look for relevant articles from 2005 to 2019. A total of (89) articles were reviewed and (61) articles were finally selected to be included in this review. In Saudi Arabia, major obstacles for premarital thalassemia screening included planned weddings (43%), fear of social disgrace (21%), pressure from family (17%), and religious factors (14%). While in Oman, 4% of the people feared positive results and also considered it as an insult. Amongst the Iranian population, financial burden on couples, disease phobia, fear of positive results, difficulty in accessibility, tribal variances and sociodemographic factors were frequent hindrances to a screening program. Religious factors, financial constraint and lack of awareness cause reluctance in Pakistan and Bangladesh. Moreover, in Sri Lanka, factors like cancellation of marriage and sociocultural norms were identified as negative outcomes of the screening. In conclusion, a negative attitude and reluctant response to premarital thalassemia screening was observed in people belonging to all the countries included. Major contributing factors were religious misconceptions, social stigma, varying ethnicities, low financial status and poor accessibility to screening programs. Key words: Beta thalassemia, thalassemia screening, premarital screening, consanguineous marriage, social impact