"The Beauty of Human Life Against Which Injustice is a Blasphemy": An Exploration of Representations of Religious Expression and Their Critical Engagement With Modernity in Elizabeth Knox's The Dreamhunter Duet

<p>Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter and Dreamquake show a variety of ways in which expressions of religion both critique modernity and suggest alternatives to it. I approach these texts through a religious rather than a literary lens, using the work of theorists such as Kierkegaard, Levinas, and Ricoeur in order to demonstrate how, in spite of its subjectivity and unobservable source, religious expression may be necessary in and to a deeply rational modernity. My argument looks at the relationship between church, culture, and state, examining how the criticism levelled by both institutional and secular expressions of religion can be seen to challenge the dehumanising objectivity of the will to power, profit, and progress. This notion of a religious challenge is then developed through the figure of the prophet, using a variety of tropes from the Jewish and Christian traditions to tease out the texts' enactment of redemptive social critique.</p>

Reimagining Adult Religious Education and Faith Development in a Detraditionalised Ireland

The culture of provision of adult religious education and faith development, whereby talks or courses are made available at parish level and/or in formal educational settings, has undoubtedly dominated the Irish scene for many years. The low level of uptake of such opportunities or long-term engagement, however, coupled with the recognised decrease in regular church attendance would suggest that this culture of provision does not meet the needs of the adult population. This mismatch was a key driving force behind the inception of the Adult Religious Education and Faith Development (AREFD) project. Cognisant of cultural and societal changes, a core aim of the project was to assess this traditional culture of provision within a detraditionalised context. The present study is based on data gathered in phase two of the AREFD project consisting of fourteen semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted between December 2019 and April 2021. The participants were involved for a number of years in adult religious education and faith development in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and across a variety of settings. The purpose of these interviews was to gather together the rich insights from the wealth of experience of the interviewees on the practicalities and possibilities central to adult religious education. The findings affirm dissatisfaction amongst participants with the current state of AREFD in Ireland, but indicate that there is hope for the future. Fresh and innovative engagement with adults is called for. This paper outlines key themes emerging from the data which contribute to the conversation of how innovative engagement with adults can revitalise church culture in Ireland.

Utilizing Brief Spiritual Assessments with Clients who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

In recent years social work has increasingly focused on spirituality and religion as key elements of cultural competency. The Joint Commission—the nation's largest health care accrediting organization—as well as many other accrediting bodies require spiritual assessments in hospitals and many other mental health settings. Consequently, specific intervention strategies have been fostered in order to provide the most appropriate interventions for religious clients. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest and one of the faster growing churches in the United States. In an effort to facilitate cultural competence with clients who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ, a brief spiritual assessment instrument was developed. This mixed-method study asked experts in Church culture (N = 100) to identify the degree of cultural consistency, strengths, and limitations of the brief spiritual assessment instrument. Results indicate that the framework is consistent with Church culture and a number of practice-oriented implications are offered.

Medieval origins of street art

The article deals with "street art" as a kind of urban culture, outrageous self-expression of urban youth. Its study is condensed mainly on modern modifications of phenomena such as graffiti, video projection, art intervention, flash mob and more. But the historical forms of this phenomenon, whose roots go back to cave times, are much more diverse and unexpected. The ancient street art is pretty well known to us, however the medieval street art, even the closest ‒ European, scientists were much less interested. However, the Soviet-era disregard for the experience of the Middle Ages, which was one of the most important links in the progress of our culture, is deeply flawed. The aim of this study is a scientific description of the street art of medieval Europe, its structure, spiritual orientation, genre originality and potential for further development. The article gives a detailed analysis of the theoretical projection of the problem (formation of the phenomenon of "street art" on the border of folklore and experience of professional art) and the practical need to expand the concept of street art in its historical diachrony in the study and teaching of world and domestic culture. The main idea of the articles is a comparison of medieval street art with its folklore and, in part, ancient origins, as well as the establishment of points of contact with the future Proto-Renaissance world. The article emphasizes that religious-Christian consciousness prevailed in medieval Europe, and this meant a radical change in worldview. Being ceased to be perceived as an "eternal whirlpool": the eschatological concept of the Bible prompted us to realize the temporality of the material world and the need to find ways to Eternity. Thus, street art, which used to be a signification of the everyday interests of citizens, has now received the status of a "signpost to Heaven", expressing a predominantly pious spiritual search for the urban community. This can be seen even in various inscriptions, signs, craft communities, etc. At the same time, phenomena marginal to the dominant church culture, such as "carnival culture", which condensed the hedonistic motives of pagan heritage, developed certain traditions of chivalric culture and were sometimes an echo of heretical teachings, are carefully analyzed. This article reports the results of a medieval street art as a powerful component in the formation of European culture and contributed to the involvement of broad sections of uneducated citizens in the spiritual life of the era. This situation largely became the foundation of the formation of the Renaissance process. The article is of great help to a more detailed and in-depth study of this important historical and cultural phenomenon.

Áhrif siðbótarinnar á Íslandi: Tilraun til jafnvægisstillingar. Síðari grein

In 2017 the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation was celebrated. Then there was a huge discussion about the impact of the Reformation on church, culture and society. In this article and in an another one published in last number of this journal, this question will be raised, especially in Icelandic context. Here it is assumed that it is only possible to state that a change has occurred or a novelty has arised because of Lutheran influence if it can be demonstrated that the Reformation is a necessary prerequisite for the change / innovation being discussed. Here it is particularly pointed out that various changes that until now have been traced to the Reformation can have been due to the development of the central-controlled state power. It is also pointed out that, due to the small population, rural areas and simple social structure, various changes that occurred in urban areas did not succeed in Iceland until long after the Reformation. Such cases are interpreted as delayed Lutheran effects. Then, in Iceland, many changes, which were well matched to the core areas of the Reformation, did not work until the 18th century and then because of the pietism. Such cases are interpreted as derivative Lutheran effects.In Iceland two generalizations have been evident in the debate on the influence of the Lutheran Reformation. The first one emphasizes extensive and radical changes in many areas in the Reformation period and subsequent extensive decline. It is also stated that this regression can be traced directly to the Reformation and not to other fenomenons, e.g. the development of modern, centralized state. The other one states that the Reformation was most powerful in the modernization in both the church and society in Iceland.This article focuses on the influence of the Reformation in the field of culture and society. These include e.g. the closure of monasteries and the consequences of it in the field of welfare, which have been widely discussed in recent times.The final conclusion of these two articles is that the main influence of the Reformation is found in the field of faith itself, and that the Reformation made it easier for the Lutheran Church than the two traditional denominations, the Roman Catholic Church and that Orthodox one, to meet the modernization in culture and society.

The Child at the Center: What Can Theology Say in the Face of the Scandals of Abuse?

Approaching the subjects of child safeguarding and children through a theological lens, the author shows the devastating scale, impact, and ramifications of the Catholic Church’s failures in safeguarding children, which become apparent in the current child abuse scandals, and how this crisis creates an opportunity to bring the child (back) into the church’s focus. This leads to a focus on core reasons or factors for the scandals and how these are linked to a lack of attention given to children in the scientific thought of the church. There exists a lacuna in systematic theology when it comes to children, but one can find promising theological grounds for exploring and promoting a more child-centric theology and church culture.

Perempuan Dalam Kepemimpinan Agama: Pengalaman Kristen

Saat ini perempuan yang menjadi pemimpin sudah semakin meningkat di hampir semua aspek kehidupan. Negara Indonesia pernah dipimpin oleh presiden perempuan dan saat ini kaum perempuan juga ada yang menjabat sebagai walikota, bupati, camat dan kepala desa di beberapa daerah. Mereka juga mengisi kursi-kursi di badan legislatif dan menjabat sebagai pimpinan di lembaga-lembaga pemerintah dan perusahaan-perusahaan. Memang harus diakui bahwa jumlah mereka belum sebanyak laki-laki dan ini tentunya menjadi tantangan ke depan. Tantangan yang terbesar selalu berasal dari agama dan budaya. Agama dan budaya yang patriarkhi ini juga didukung dengan konsep politik yang patriarki, feodalistis & berwarna maskulin, di mana kekuasaan politik ada pada laki-laki, yang akan mengambil keputusan baik di dalam rumah maupun di luar rumah. Kondisi perempuan dalam kepemimpinan gereja nampak tidak jauh berbeda dengan kepemimpinan dalam bidang politik dan masyarakat. Kendati mayoritas warga jemaat di gereja adalah perempuan, namun mereka lebih banyak bertindak sebagai pelaksana keputusan dan kurang terlibat dalam pembuatan keputusan. Sehubungan dengan hal itu, maka paper ini akan mengulas tentang kepemimpinan perempuan Kristen di Indonesia dengan melihat tantangan dan peluang yang ada baik dari ajaran gereja, budaya, dan perempuan sendiri. Selain itu, akan dipaparkan juga tentang gaya kepemimpinan perempuan untuk menjawab tantangan Indonesia saat ini. Tulisan ini akan dibahas dengan menggunakan teori gender dengan pendekatan teologi feminis. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah metode penelitian literatur.[Nowadays the number of women who become leaders have increased in almost every aspects of life. Indonesia was once led by a female president and a lot of women serves as mayors, regents, sub-district heads and village heads in several areas. Though not as many as the men, women also get position in the legislature and serve as leaders in government institutions and companies. However, among religious institution, especially in the church, getting the highest position is kind of challenging for women. Supported by the concept of a patriarchal, feudalistic & masculine political concept, where political power is on men, women are difficult to get position as the leaders of the Churches. Although majority of church members are women, they are less involved in decision making. In this regard, this paper will review the leadership of Christian women in Indonesia by looking at the challenges and opportunities that exist both from the teachings of the church, culture, and women themselves. This paper will be discussed by using gender theory with a feminist theology approach and the literature review as the method.]