The Relationship between Religion and National Culture in Poland in Light of John Paul II’s Philosophical and Theological Reflections

Many historians and politicians acknowledge that John Paul II, along with other world-leaders of the 1980s brought about the destruction of European Communism. One could also say that connection between religion and culture inspired Poles to refuse co-operation with the Communism. According to Karol Wojtyła it is impossible without Christianity to understand the history of the Polish nation and culture. Being the son of Polish nation which has been condemned to death several times, by its neighbors, but which has survived and kept national identity, Pope John Paul II understood very well the important role of religion and culture. On the basis of his experience Slavic Pope laid out a vision for relationship between Christianity and culture as the ‘priority’ of the civilization of love. He pointed out a number of reasons for this, which will be presented in this article. First, religion does not exist in vacuum, but in a certain context. Second, religion played a decisive role in the construction of States and nations. Third, Christianity is a creator of culture in its very foundation, and deep transformation of culture starts when Christianity and culture are linked together. Fourth, Christianity is incomplete if it is not lived out in a culture. Fifth, Polish culture and society has been deeply animated by religious piety. Sixth, culture provides a medium for dialogue between believers and nonbelievers. Seventh, the goal of the engagement of culture in accordance with Christianity is the creating of a civilization of love, which enables the human being to live freely in the truth. The research aim of this article is to present the strong relationship between Christianity and national culture in Poland, to identify the core of the Polish national culture, the ways Polish culture has been growing and communicating in connection with Roman Catholicism in the light of Pope John Paul II’s teaching.

Textual Memorial Temples: Writing Hagiographies for Mothers in Late Imperial China

In Chinese culture, the honor of textual immortality was traditionally reserved for a select, extraordinary few. As Martin Huang points out, however, the Ming-Qing era witnessed a general “secularization” process in which eulogistic writings were increasingly dedicated to women who lived relatively “trivial” lives. Building on Huang’s insights, this paper examines another important evolution within this genre of secularized elegies dedicated to women: the simultaneous sacralizing of deceased mothers by filial sons writing their mothers’ lives as hagiography. As these authors energetically extolled their mothers’ religious piety and identified them with Bodhisattvas/deities, the hitherto lackluster biographies became saturated with supernatural occurrences and miraculous events. Transformed into cultural and emotional sites where ordinary women could be commemorated, immortalized, and apotheosized, these otherwise insignificant life stories evoked a kind of textual memorial temple. Such infusions of spirituality into the writing of Confucian mourning both signal and fuel the broader penetration of heterodox worship (Buddhism) into Confucian society. This practice also allows a glimpse into important gender dimensions in the religious syncretism and secularism of late imperial China.

Solidarity with disabled people in times of crisis: A comparative analysis of Italy and the UK

Against the background of crisis and cuts, citizens can express solidarity with groups in various ways. Using novel survey data this article explores the attitudes and behaviours of citizens in their expressions of solidarity with disabled people and in doing so illuminates the differences and similarities across two European contexts: Italy and the UK. The findings reveal pools of solidarity with disabled people across both countries that have on the one hand similar foundations such as the social embeddedness and social trust of citizens, while on the other hand contain some differences, such as the more direct and active nature of solidarity in Italy compared to the UK and the role of religiosity as an important determinant, particularly in Italy. Across both countries the role of ‘deservingness’ was key to understanding solidarity, and the study’s conclusions raise questions about a solidarity embedded by a degree of paternalism and even religious piety.

PENGARUH AGAMA TERHADAP PERILAKU MEMILIH PEMIMPIN PADA GENERASI MUDA DIKOTA BANDUNG

Masalah yang sering muncul menjelang pemilihan umum adalah banyaknya partai politik yang lebih mengutamakan pencitraan keimanan dan ketakwaan beragama sebagai modal untuk meraih kemenangan. Lamar melamar terhadap orang yang memiliki jabatan yang tinggi dibidang keagamaan akan sangat laris dan akan selalu menjadi orang yang paling dicari ketika menjelang pemilihan umum. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui bagaimana agama mempengaruhi perilaku memilih pada generasi muda?.Pendekatan penelitian yang digunakan adalah pendekatan kuantitatif. Pendekatan tersebut digunakan untuk menggali nilai keyakinan beragama yang dimiliki generasi muda. Penelitian ini akan melibatkan para pemuda yang berada dikota Bandung. Instrument yang digunakan untuk mengukur variable adalah Skala Guttuman dengan menggunakan dua jawaban yang tegas dan konsisten yaitu ya dan tidak, nilai ya (1) dan nilai tidak (0).Adapun hasil penelitian dengan menggunakan korelasi kendall’s tau dapat diketahui bahwa nilai signifikansi 0,021 yang berarti bahwa bahwa tidak ada hubungan secara signifikan antara Agama seseorang dengan perilaku memilih. Kata Kunci: Perilaku memilih, Generasi Muda, Agama The problem that often arises before the general election is that there are many political parties that prioritize the image of faith and religious piety as capital to achieve victory. Applying for people who have high positions in the field of religion will be very in demand and will always be the most sought after people when approaching the general election. This research was conducted to find out how religion affects voting behavior in the younger generation. The research approach used is a quantitative approach. This approach is used to explore the values ​​of religious beliefs owned by the younger generation. This research will involve youths in the city of Bandung. The instrument used to measure the variable is the Guttuman Scale using two firm and consistent answers, namely yes and no, yes (1) and no (0). As for the results of the study using the Kendall's tau correlation, it can be seen that the significance value is 0.021, which means that there is no significant relationship between a person's religion and voting behavior. Keywords: voting behavior, youth, religion

Economics of Faith

This book addresses the role of religious reformers in the development of poor relief in the sixteenth century. During the Reformation, religious leaders served as catalysts, organizers, stabilizers, and consolidators of various programs to alleviate poverty. Although once in line with religious piety, voluntary poverty was no longer a spiritual virtue for many religious reformers. Rather, they imagined social welfare reform to be an integral part of religious reform and worked to modify existing common chests or establish new ones. As crises and migration exacerbated poverty and caused begging to be an increasing concern, Catholic humanists and Protestant reformers moved beyond traditional almsgiving to urge coordination and centralization of a poor relief system. For example, Martin Luther promoted the consolidation of former ecclesiastical property in the poor relief plan for Leisnig in 1523, while Juan Luis Vives devised a new social welfare proposal for Bruges in 1526. In negotiations with magistrates and city councils, reformers shaped various local institutions, such as hospitals, orphanages, job creation programs, and scholarships for students, as well as developed new ways of supporting foreigners, strangers, and refugees. Religious leaders contributed to caring for the vulnerable because poverty was a problem too big for any one group to tackle. As religious options multiplied within Christianity, one’s understanding of community would determine the boundaries, albeit contested and sometimes fluid, of responsible poor relief.

Popular Religion and Modernity

This chapter begins with an account of the famous maskil Moses Leib Lilienblum’s mother-in-law, who sought all sorts of experts to help her bear a son. It discusses how Lilienblum’s mother-in-law epitomizes the complex cultural reality of many Jews in nineteenth-century eastern Europe of being open to modern trends, but at the same time still believing in superstition, popular religion, and magical medicine. It also analyzes the view on the Age of Enlightenment as a period in which European nations adopted new philosophical approaches that directed men and women to take rational control of their own fate. The chapter explores how the age of reason and rationality led to a weakening and eradication of certain religious faiths, including belief in witchcraft, magic, and superstition. It points out that the weakening of religious piety and popular religion amongst Jewish society in Europe over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was a clear sign of cultural change.

Julian the Apostate's interpretation of the religious ecumene of the Empire in the context of the project for the restoration of the Jerusalem Temple

Julian the Apostate carried out his religious reforms, relying on the concept of religious piety, which he developed on the basis of the "Chaldean oracles" and contemporary Neoplatonism. His attempt to find a concordat with the Jewish communities fully fits into this concept. Having discovered the "Chaldean" origins of the religion of Abraham, Julian was able to include even the worship of Yahweh in the framework of neo-Platonic theology. The restoration of the Jerusalem temple was for him one of the elements of the renovation of divine-human communication. The lack of information about these events in medieval Jewish literature demonstrates that his attempt to include Judaism in the imperial religious ecumene was based on a misinterpretation of the Abrahamic type of religion.

Piety, Authority and “Popular Ijtihad” in the Online Space of Russian Muslims during the Pandemic

This article examines the first reactions of the Russian Muslim com‑ munity in the social networks to the spread of the coronavirus (mostly February‑May 2020). We turn to the concepts of authority and legitimacy; the ideas of Brian Turner on the performative role of in‑ formation technology for the institution of religious authority; Gary Bunt’s discussion of the democratization of Islamic knowledge in the online environment; Olivier Roy’s concept of individualization of Islam; and Peter Mandaville’s idea of decentralization of power in the Islamic tradition. This study seeks to answer two interrelated questions: who and how reinterprets the category of Islamic piety in the context of the pandemic and to what extent the online environment transforms the Islamic tradition as a whole. Based on textual analysis of individual publications on social networks and interviews with editors of public websites, the common narratives of Russian Muslim discourse on the pandemic were identified as follows: a retaliation against China for the oppression of Muslim Uighurs; the search for the signs of the coming doomsday; various approaches to the reinterpretation of religious piety. We suggest the term “popular” or “spontaneous” ijtihad to describe the variety of individualized strategies stimulated by the crisis. The construction of these strategies would not have been possible without the virtual environment, characterized by the polyarchic community of “online ulema” and the digitalization of religious practices.

THE AESTHETIC RECEPTION OF THE QURAN IN INSTAGRAM: Variations, Factors, and Religious Commodification

This research discusses the aesthetic reception of the Quran in Instagram including various forms, appearance factors and commodification. This research is included in the qualitative study using Ahmad Rafiq’s reception theory. Using descriptive-analytical method, the study found variations of the Quran’s aesthetic reception in Instagram which are in the form of verse continuation and the Quran recitation. The background factors of the Quran’s aesthetic reception in Instagram include normative factors the Quran’s verses showing kindness to those who teach and practice it; historical factor i.e. the past reality related to the Quran’s aesthetic reception done by the Arab community; and social factors showing high passion of self-expression in preaching. Instagram as a social media has modified the Quran’s aesthetic reception with several available facilities and featuresthat enables its users to express themselves concerning the identity of religious piety and economic commodities through several contents related to the Quran.