{"title":"Between the Church and the State: Catholic and European Influences on Abortion Governance in Italy and Beyond","authors":"Danielle Pullan, Payton Gannon","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10107","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Supranational cultural institutions and communities play an interesting role in the development of abortion policy both historically and today. In this article we consider two such institutions: the Catholic Church and the European community. The church is famously antiabortion, and we describe the ways in which the Catholic position manifests itself in different countries. Conversely, almost all European countries have liberal laws that allow abortion on demand for twelve weeks of pregnancy. Italy sits at the intersection of European and Catholic identities. Italy adopted European-style liberal abortion laws early, but Italians continue to identify with the church in surveys, which is one of the causes of high levels of conscientious objection by medical professionals. Italy’s abortion policy pleases neither Catholics nor secularists. We explain this by understanding Italy’s abortion law as liberal <em>de jure</em>, but its culture is still heavily influenced by Catholicism, resulting in limited abortion access <em>de facto</em>.</p>","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141568036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Andrius Marcinkevičius
{"title":"Orthodox Christians in Lithuania: Ethnicity, Language and Ethnoreligious Identity","authors":"Monika Frėjutė-Rakauskienė, Andrius Marcinkevičius","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10106","url":null,"abstract":"<p>In this article we will examine how ethnicity (Russians and Russian speakers of mixed ethnic identities) and religion (Orthodoxy) interact and construct ethnoreligious identity in the case of Orthodox Christians in Lithuania. To investigate these aspects, the article will draw on data from qualitative fieldwork (2019–2021) and the analysis of articles from the official journal of the archdiocese of Vilnius and Lithuania. We argue that for the Orthodox community in Lithuania, the historically established close links of Orthodoxy with Russian Orthodox tradition and Russian identity are important today. However, a significant part of the Lithuanian Orthodox community identifies with the global (Byzantium) and/or local (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) Orthodox tradition and faces the challenge of including the Lithuanian language in religious education and practices.</p>","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"14 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141568425","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Aspiring and Becoming","authors":"Maximilian Lasa","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10097","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10097","url":null,"abstract":"Research into Islamic higher education tends to focus primarily on the educational institution as the object of the analysis and neglects the perspectives of students. To tackle this research desideratum, this article investigates students’ educational paths in the field of Islamic higher education. Based on in-depth interviews and extensive fieldwork among German students and alumni from the International Theology Program (Uluslararası İlahiyat Programı) in Turkey, the article has a twofold aim. First, it unpacks the motivations and reasons for students to study Islamic theology. Second, it examines how studying Islamic theology comes to constitute a meaningful endeavor for the students. The analysis shows that students’ complex ways of aspiring to study Islamic theology simultaneously constituted relevant means of becoming. Thus, studying Islamic theology constituted a venue for interlocutors to explore sources of identity and processes of meaning-making.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025100","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Continuously Striving","authors":"Maria Lindebæk Lyngsøe","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10100","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10100","url":null,"abstract":"Engagements in Islamic knowledge search have proved an important aspect of the religious path for Muslim women worldwide. This article testifies that that is also the case for pious Danish Muslim women. Based on extensive fieldwork, it describes how pious Danish Muslim women make an effort to find time for Islamic educational engagements in an everyday life of other obligations to maintain a continuous commitment to learning about Islam, and it describes the various routes to knowledge that the women employ. Throughout, it is argued that temporal and social aspects are key to consider if we are to understand the engagement of the women. First, I show that everyday commitments and time management in relation to such commitments are key for understanding how Danish Muslim women’s engagement in Islamic education unfolds. Second, I consider the engagement as shaped by the women’s social embeddedness in an everyday life of different commitments and ambitions and as cultivated through social bonds.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"16 3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025161","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corruption and Religion in Europe and Beyond","authors":"Carlo Berti","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10095","url":null,"abstract":"The concept of corruption is historically linked to religion, but research on the relationship between religion and corruption is scarce, coming mainly from the fields of economics and statistics, and partially from anthropology and cultural studies. This article aims to offer a critical review of the relevant international literature on religion, religiosity, and corruption, ranging from large, quantitative comparative studies to more focused and in-depth qualitative case studies. It critically reviews the main results and identifies knowledge gaps that could be addressed by future research. Moreover, it discusses the importance of further research in the European area in light of some features of religion and corruption in Europe, as well as recent changes in the religious panorama of the continent.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"51 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Event Religion","authors":"Sára Eszter Heidl","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10094","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines some of the changing forms of religion in contemporary Hungary, with a focus on a case study conducted at a mindfulness and lifestyle festival called Everness. The emerging need for an alternative kind of spirituality supplementing or opposed to traditional forms of religion has generated a new conceptual approach that I call event religion. In inductive empirical research, I used event religion to describe and interpret the participant experience in event-based settings through four dimensions: spatiotemporality, symbols, community, and inward experience. I show some characteristics of contemporary changing religiosity and spirituality through the examination of the four dimensions of experience.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"61 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Being/Having a Muslim Voice","authors":"Simon Stjernholm","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10098","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10098","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates attempts at, and the implications of, speaking publicly for Islam in Denmark, with special attention to the notion of “voice.” First, I present a theoretical framework for an analytical focus on voice, and develop a distinction between “being” and “having” a voice. In the analysis that follows, I focus on three recent Danish podcast series produced by and featuring Muslims that to various extents all address issues related to Islam. Thereafter I discuss the effectiveness of the studied podcasts’ efforts to be and have a Muslim voice in light of the analytical concepts “recognition” and “resonance.”","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"47 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"From the Religious Field to the Alternative Field","authors":"Loïc Bawidamann","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10099","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10099","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines the link between religion and conspiracy theories by focusing on religious agents operating two alternative media outlets in Switzerland, opposing perceived mainstream opinions. Informed by Bourdieu’s field theory, the article elaborates on the agents’ surpassing of field boundaries, spawning an alternative field that accommodates all agents expelled from their initial fields. Through web scraping and qualitative interviews with the content creators, the analysis elucidates the particular significance of religious agents in the production and distribution of conspiracy theories, as they inherently oppose social differentiation, enabling them to contend with dominant authorities convincingly. The article concludes by offering an understanding of the alternative field and, by extension, of conspiracy theories as a process of dedifferentiation, striving for a realignment of the current structure of society.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140025035","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Two Decades of Church Management in the Context of Restitution Processes","authors":"Tereza Parks, Vilem Paril, Vojtech Mullner","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10090","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study examines the transformation of the economic relations between the state and church in the Czech Republic, focusing on changes since 2012 when a legislative framework for the separation of state and church was accepted. Our article aims to assess the changing financial relations between the church and state by emphasizing future development financial scenarios for churches in the Czech Republic based on two decades of financial data describing transfers from the public sector to the church regarding its current economic value and structure of sources. We confront quantitative results with the qualitative reflection of church representatives for whom this situation is very challenging.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"13 51","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135540715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Religiously Pluralistic Milieu in Austria during the Interwar Period","authors":"Karsten Lehmann","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10086","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10086","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The article focuses on what the author describes as a religiously pluralistic milieu. It proposes that religious plurality is very much part and parcel of the recollections of the interwar period in Vienna, Austria. First, the article underlines the significance of sociocultural milieus, family upbringing, and school interaction for the constructions of religious plurality. Second, it raises the question of the social embeddedness of religious plurality in the memories of the interwar period in Vienna. The findings are based upon an oral history project, “Religiöse Vielfalt an Wiener Schulen der Zwischenkriegszeit” (ZwieKrie) (Religious plurality in Viennese schools during the interwar period). The project analyzed individual memories of religious plurality by a set of twenty-four contemporary witnesses attending Viennese schools during the 1920s and 1930s.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"14 55","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135540711","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}