{"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":"The Art of Resistance in Islam: The Performance of Politics among Shiʿi Women in the Middle East and Beyond, by Yafa Shanneik","authors":"Ingvild Flaskerud","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10105","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10105","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141105606","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":"Learning Islam through the Senses","authors":"Ingvild Flaskerud","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10101","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article discusses how the visual and embodied storytelling methods of the theater may be used in the formation of Islamic knowledge. Examining productions staged by young women in Oslo in the tradition of the Twelver Shia theater, taʿziyeh/shabih, during commemorative rituals, I ask: How did producers and actors perceive theater to generate knowledge? How were visual and embodied storytelling methods used in conveying religious knowledge? What kind of knowledge was generated? Inspired by theater theory and post-structuralist semiotics, the analysis shows that the theater had transformative qualities that could contribute to cultural transmission, education, and moral and spiritual development. Knowledge was produced through sensorial communication, thinking, and understanding, and was held to emerge from the spectators’ and actors’ aesthetic and affective experiences, in addition to their abilities to create emotional relations with holy protagonists and the divine. The learning outcome was therefore presented as open-ended and invited young spectators and actors to take responsibility and reflect on how to act and respond in our time.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141106078","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":"The Freedom of Thought, Conscience, and Religion in the Age of Neuroscience","authors":"Eugenia Relaño Pastor","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10104","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 While the prominence of neuroscience and neurotechnologies has generated intensive debates about the normative analysis of the ethical-legal challenges in public opinion and academia, these debates are relatively scarce among law and religion experts. To overcome the shortfall, this contribution describes the impact of the main neuroscientific applications on the right of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Considering how neurosciences techniques can alter the mind, decode thoughts, and enhance cognitive functions, particularly individual thought and conscience, I suggest revising the traditional dichotomy of forum internum and forum externum of the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion and rethinking the protection of the forum internum, which is at risk in the Age of Neuroscience.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141103128","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":"Crimean Tatars in the Digital Age","authors":"Elmira Muratova","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10102","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10102","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article focuses on how the digital age has affected the Crimean Tatar religious authorities in the emerging cyber-Islamic environment. I argue that despite government restrictions, the internet remains a safe space for public debate and for challenging Muslim authorities in Crimea. I also argue that although online media have allowed traditional Muslim authorities in Crimea to improve communication within their organization and expand their audiences, they have become a platform for challenging their hierarchies, structures, ideologies, and texts. First, the structure of the Crimean Muslim community is outlined. I then describe the Crimean cyber-Islamic environment, before using social-media analysis and interviews with Muslim leaders to analyze the situation in the Crimean Tatars’ cyber-Islamic environment, with a focus on their religious authorities.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-05-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141105576","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":"La secularización en España: Rupturas y cambios religiosos desde la sociología histórica, by Rafael Ruiz Andrés","authors":"Ole Jakob Løland","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10093","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140252613","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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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":null,"pages":null},"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}