Religiosity and Spirituality of German-Speaking Pilgrims on the Way of St. James

The article examines the intensity and structure of religiosity and spirituality of German-speaking foot and bicycle pilgrims on the Way of St. James within the framework of a multidimensional model of religiosity. The following nine aspects are distinguished: religious questions, faith, religious and spiritual identity, worship, prayer, meditation, monistic and dualistic religious experiences. Data of N=425 German-speaking pilgrims of the Way of St. James from the years 2017 and 2018 are analyzed. The data of the Religion Monitor 2017 from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (N=2837) serves as a population-representative comparison sample. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and multiple regression analyses are used to analyze and to compare the two groups. The results show that German-speaking pilgrims in the analyzed sample have substantially higher values on all dimensions of religiosity than the general population in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. This difference is most pronounced in the spiritual self-concept. However, for most pilgrims, the categories religious and spiritual are not mutually exclusive. Rather, spirituality forms a basis shared by almost all pilgrims in the sample, to which religiousness is added for many. Further, results are discussed in the light of the existing foot and bicycle pilgrimage research. Conclusively, it can be said that tourism and church actors should consider the religious character of pilgrims, which remains despite all changes in the religious landscape.

THE AESTHETIC DISCOURSE OF DECORATIVE ART )ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION AS A MODEL)

Islam is a major turning point in the life of the nation in particular and humanity in general, because the impact of the Arab-Islamic civilization on human life as a whole is still visible. Art was a manifestation of the Arab Islamic culture and that it represents a pattern of human civilization patterns. Arab Islamic art is one of the important tributaries that accompanied the life and development of the Arab Muslim man. Islamic religious buildings, such as statues, pictures, and other tools used by the Christian churches in their rituals, as these teachings prevented from imitating nature completely. The abstract of the reality of the Creator. This spiritual identity of art is the prominent feature that has marked the history of Islamic art, in all its diverse fields, from diagnosis to abstraction. The Arab-Islamic personality crystallized under the Islamic religion, and art and its aesthetics became a source of interest for Muslim philosophers of beauty, including Al-Ghazali, Abuhyan Al-Tawhidi and Al-Farabi, because Islamic religious thought is far from everything that is analogous in Islamic art so as not to be an emulation of the Creator. From here, the research problem started with the following question: What distinguished the decorative art from the rest of the Islamic arts through its vast civilization from the other arts? And to what extent does it include the aesthetic dimension within the opinions of Muslim philosophers who are interested in the aesthetics of art? 1-As for the importance of the research, it focused on: the possibility of considering it a source for those interested in studying decorative. 2-The possibility of seeing the aesthetics of decorative art and the artist's orientation to this type of art.

‘IN ANY CASE WE ARE SUFIS’: THE CREATION OF HIJRA SPIRITUAL IDENTITY IN SOUTH ASIA

Providing spiritual ‘safe spaces’, the Sufi shrine-world throughout the Indian Subcontinent is generally open to those who do not identify with conventional gender categories. Ajmer Sharif Shrine (dargāh) in the northern Indian town of Ajmer in Rajasthan is renowned for being particularly ‘inclusive’. It accepts all pilgrims without discrimination, including the so-called ‘third gender’, often referred to as hijras or kinnars, terms that transgress the socially-defined binary gender divide. Marginalized, and often socially stigmatized, these groups are naturally drawn towards liminal spaces such as Sufi dargāhs which encourage the transcendence of socio-religious boundaries. This paper explores certain typological aspects of traditional Sufi ritual and belief that make it particularly receptive to hijras, and the way in which hijras in turn appropriate and reconfigure Sufi religious belief to negotiate the tension between the liminality of their lived experience and the exclusive duality of the society around them. As well as utilizing fieldwork undertaken at the 808th

In the shadows of interpretation: manipulative nature of translation in colliding of sacral and marginal

Aim. Aim of the article is to provide critical examination of manipulation process as multidimensional phenomenon related to imagination, representation, translation and interpreting of original texts in light of assurance of informational safety that is our research object. Our research corresponds to theory and practice of translation, psychology, comparative religious studies, international relations, public diplomacy and national security. Methods. Research methodology is based on critical analysis of manipulations with texts; the methods have been borrowed from works of Gilbert Durand (1999), Michel Maffesoli (1996) and James Frazer (2012) on social anthropology. Results. Practical value of obtained results consists in proposed algorithm for critical analysis of translated or interpreted texts that allows to evaluate their quality according to context, meaning and semiotics of the source texts. The notion of empire as an archetype that was implemented into contemporary international relations is also revised and extended. That can help in analysis and prevention of different forms and means of outside and inside tactics of deviant influence on societies and to illuminate threats for cultural identity and spiritual diversity of the global community. Conclusions. Phenomenon of marginalization of cultural and spiritual identity (sacral sphere) under the influence of globalization by the means of soft power pressure can be evaluated today as the unspoken impact of influence agents implemented into new societal institutes in the form of alien cultural imperatives that are enforced to different communities as common for all agendas in the frameworks of postmodern stream.

The need to include indigenous peoples as ‘expert’ consultants in India's Apex Committee for Implementation of the Paris Agreement

This opinion argues for including indigenous peoples as ‘expert’ consultants in India's Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement. Alongside its monitoring and reporting functions, the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement is expected to perform substantive functions, including, developing policies and programmes to make India's domestic climate actions compliant with its international obligations under the Paris Agreement. The argument is based on the understanding that indigenous peoples possess a deeper understanding of their ecosystems and share a special relationship with it. Therefore, their knowledge is key to sustainable ecosystem management. At the same time, a co-dependent relationship with Nature makes them disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Unlike other vulnerable groups, the impact on indigenous peoples ripples beyond their economic survival, and threatens their collective physical and spiritual identity. Accordingly, this opinion suggests direct participation of indigenous peoples in conceptualising and implementing policies and programmes aimed at addressing climate change. To that end, it problematizes the narrow understanding of ‘experts’ reflected in the gazette notification establishing the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement, and draws upon United Nations’ practice(s) enabling participation of indigenous peoples as 'experts' in its specialised agencies and organs. Accordingly, the opinion also suggests a potential means to operationalize their inclusion in the Apex Committee for Implementation of Paris Agreement.

Changes Over Time in Parental Self-identity After the Loss of an Adolescent Child

This study explored bereaved parents’ responses to their child’s death in the 2014 Sewol Ferry sinking incident, focusing on identifying changes in parental self-identity two and five years after their loss. To understand the unique meaning of their loss and its impact on their self-perception, in-depth interviews were conducted with eight mothers and four fathers at two timepoints. Three patterns of parental self-identity: reintegration, disintegration, and coexistence emerged. Patterns emerged in five domains: (a) relational identity, (b) physical identity, (c) financial identity, (d) professional identity and (e) spiritual identity. Each of these domain-associated themes provided insights into the patterns and characteristics of the changes in bereaved parents’ self-identity following their loss. Recommendations for future research and potential implications are discussed.

Comfortably Numb: A Short History of New Zealand Muslim Discourse and Thought

This article intends to sketch a history of some of the principle ideas, themes and values buttressing New Zealand Muslim thought and Weltanschauung. The argument is predicated upon the hypothesis that in defining religious and spiritual identity one of the most vital aspects to be taken into consideration are the multiple differences in epistemological, methodological and ontological assumptions as we try to comprehend the primary sources of religious knowledge and practice. In the first section of the article, the general heuristic and methodology of describing and demarcating the identities of Muslims, or ways of being a Muslim in New Zealand, in an existential sense, is presented. The second part discusses research that has detected and delineated Muslim identity among New Zealand citizens. The third section attempts to present an elucidation on some of the main topics underpinning the worldview of local Muslims, including the precepts of religio-communal authority, autonomy and agency, and ideas related to the conceptualisation and interpretation Islamic traditions.

The Psychology and Parapsychology of Spiritual Emergency

A defining aspect of Spiritual Emergency (SE) is ‘psychic opening’ which may predict psi performance. This study tested paranormal (psi) performance of individuals who have or have had experiences of spiritual emergency (i.e., ‘SE-Experients’), and compared their performance against controls. The study also assessed psychological aspects of SE to differentiate it from psychosis and other proposed psi-inhibitive symptoms—namely, alogia (i.e., poverty of speech), depression, anxiety, and stress. Two groups of participants were formed: controls (mainly Psychology students) and SE-Experients. Participants either completed the study on computer in the laboratory or online. Questionnaires on spiritual emergency (which includes a subscale on psychic opening), positive symptoms of psychosis, alogia, spiritual identity, paranormal belief, mysticism, depression, anxiety, and stress, were administered to participants, who then completed the Imagery Cultivation (IC) picture-identification psi task, which uses a shamanic-like journeying protocol (Storm & Rock, 2009). The differences between controls and SE-experients on the psi measures, direct hitting (as a percent hit-rate) and mean rank scores, were not significant, but the sum-of-ranks difference was highly significant. Also, SE-experients had a marginally significant mean rank score. Direct hitting did not correlate significantly with any variable, except rank scores, which correlated significantly with psychic opening, spiritual identity, and paranormal belief, and marginally significantly with spiritual emergency. Direct hitting, rank scores, and SE did not correlate significantly with alogia, depression, anxiety, or stress, but the psychosis measure did correlate significantly with alogia, depression, anxiety, stress, and SE. The statistical evidence suggests some proportion of SE-experients experience psychic opening. While SE and psychosis overlap, only SE was predicted by spiritual identity, extrovertive mysticism, and paranormal belief (but not alogia), whereas psychosis was predicted by alogia only.

Developing Social Work Students’ Awareness of their Spiritual/Religious Identity and Integrating It into Their Professional Identity: Evaluation of a Pilot Course

Recent literature on social work reveals an increasing interest in including spirituality/religion in practice and social workers’ need to engage more actively with clients’ religious traditions and spirituality. However, very few current practitioners have been taught how to do so. This qualitative study, conducted in a school of social work in southern Israel, evaluates the effect of an elective pilot course on social work and Judaism aimed at enabling students to develop an awareness of religion and spirituality. The data were gathered through a brief questionnaire administered at the end of the course, after final grades were assigned. The findings indicate that at the start of the course the students’ perception was that a separation existed between religion/spirituality and social work. As the course progressed, they reflected on their religious/spiritual identity in its encounter with their professional identity. They were able to connect religion/spirituality and social work and to consider the spiritual/religious world of clients. It is recommended that social work schools develop courses that link religion and spirituality to the profession.

“All the Different Pieces of Me Being Integrated”: Religion/Spirituality and Identity in Working Christian Mothers

The current qualitative study explored experiences of religion/spirituality and their impact on women’s identities among Christian working mothers in academia. Thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted and the data analyzed using the grounded theory method. The resultant themes reflected the roles and functions of religion/spirituality in women’s lives and in their identities, primarily by establishing a core sense of self that unified all of their roles and “selves.” Religion/spirituality also served as meaning-making frameworks that provided purpose both to the self and to each of the women’s roles, while religion/spirituality also pervaded every aspect of the self, coloring women’s experience and driving their decisions. Further, women discussed religion/spirituality providing a sense of purpose by which they could pursue actualization and transcendence through generative means in each of their roles. The results indicate that spiritual identity may be a broader and more fundamental element of identity than previously considered. Implications of the current data and suggestions for future research are discussed.