Search results for " rationalism."
showing 10 items of 37 documents
Modeling the Effects of Religious Belief and Affiliation on Prosociality
2021
To what extent do supernatural beliefs, group affiliation, and social interaction produce values and behaviors that benefit others, i.e., 'prosociality'? Addressing this question involves multiple variables interacting within complex social networks that shape and constrain the beliefs and behaviors of individuals. We examine the relationships among some of these factors utilizing data from the World Values Survey to inform the construction of an Agent-Based Model. The latter was able to identify the conditions under which – and the mechanisms by which – the prosociality of simulated agents was increased or decreased within an “artificial society” designed to reflect real world parameters. …
Post-Supernatural Cultures: There and Back Again
2020
The abandonment of supernatural religious beliefs and rituals seems to occur quite easily in some contexts, but post-supernaturalist cultures require a specific set of conditions that are difficult to produce and sustain on a large scale and thus are historically rare. Despite the worldwide resurgence of supernaturalist religion, some subcultures reliably produce people who deny the existence of supernatural entities. This social phenomenon has evoked competing explanations, many of which enjoy empirical support. We synthesize six of the most influential social-science explanations, demonstrating that they provide complementary perspectives on a complex causal architecture. We incorporate t…
From causal thinking to wisdom and spirituality: some perspectives on a growing research field in adult (cognitive) development
2015
This article concentrates on the latest international trends in the research on psychological development of adults, and especially on the development of cognition. The field of research has been very fragmented, and researchers have kept creating new models one after another to describe their own lines of thought and also seeking for empirical evidence for their models. This has created a rather equivocal picture of the phenomenon itself. The present article attempts to identify the historical roots of the field, and introduces descriptive factors that could conceptually determine the gist of the phenomenon. In this context we will discuss, mainly, research going back to Piaget and Perry, …
Post-Secular Identity? Developing a New Approach to Religion in International Relations and IR Studies
2021
In spite of the increasing presence of religion in international relations with various publications observing this presence and numerous authorities calling for the inclusion of religion into mainstream research, there is no universal consent to recognize religion’s role in IR. In our opinion, the only way to reconcile IR with the international reality in which religion has been and will remain present in the foreseeable future is for the researchers themselves to construct—especially those oriented towards broad, non-Western perspective—a new face of the discipline, the face which in this article we call the post-secular identity of IR study. Assuming that identity is first and foremost a…
Abraham Bids Farewell to Hagar and Ishmael: Continuity and Variation of the Iconographic Type
2021
In traditional Christian artistic visualization, the episode of Hagar and Ishmael in the desert has given rise to various iconographic types: “The feast for the weaning of Isaac and Sara’s protests,” “Abraham bids farewell to Hagar and Ishmael,” “Hagar and Ishmael in the desert” and “Divine salvation for Hagar and Ishmael”. This study looks into the continuity and variation over time of the second of these types: “Abraham bids farewell to Hagar and Ishmael,” the one most depicted out of this entire biblical topic or episode. Since the Byzantine Octateuch in the East (11th century.) and the Canterbury Hexateuch (ca. 1025&ndash…
The Anti-Samaritan Attitude as Reflected in Rabbinic Midrashim
2021
Samaritans, as a group within the ranges of ancient ‘Judaisms’, are often mentioned in Talmud and Midrash. As comparable social–religious entities, they are regarded ambivalently by the rabbis. First, they were viewed as Jews, but from the end of the Tannaitic times, and especially after the Bar Kokhba revolt, they were perceived as non-Jews, not reliable about different fields of Halakhic concern. Rabbinic writings reflect on this change in attitude and describe a long ongoing conflict and a growing anti-Samaritan attitude. This article analyzes several dialogues between rabbis and Samaritans transmitted in the Midrash on the book of Genesis, Bereshit Rabbah. In four larger sections, the f…
Humility: Virgin or Virtue?
2021
Este trabajo considera la iconografía mariana en la que se representa a la Virgen sentada en el suelo, conocida como la Virgen de la Humildad. La creación de este tipo mariano coincide con la sistematización de las virtudes de Santo Tomás, que dio lugar a una disminución en la importancia de la virtud de la humildad. La combinación de ambas tradiciones culturales ha llevado a una correspondencia entre la virtud de la Humildad y las imágenes de la Virgen de la Humildad. La génesis de este último tipo se basa en las fuentes textuales y parte de la representación visual de la Humildad, que fue sustituida durante los siglos XIV y XV. GV/2021/123 This paper considers Marian iconography in which …
A lack of meaning?
2020
This article explores the ‘lack of meaning’ in contemporary society as a consequence of Western dualist thought paradigms and ontologies, via Gilles Deleuze’s concept of ‘reactive nihilism’ following the colloquial murder of God. The article then explores processual and new materialist approaches in the understanding of the lived and carnal self, arguing for immanent and senseful materiality as an ethical platform for religious, environmental, and societal solidarity for tomorrow. For the theoretical justification of the processual approach in understanding the enfleshed self, the article employs John Dupré’s processual approach in the philosophy of biology, as well as Astrida Neimani’s cri…
Civil Religion or Nationalism? The National Day Celebrations in Norway
2021
The Norwegian National Day (17 May, also referred to as Constitution Day) stands out as one of the most popular National Day celebrations in Europe. According to surveys, around seven out of every 10 Norwegians take part in a public celebration during this day. This means that the National Day potentially has an impact on the way people reflect upon national identity and its relationship to the Lutheran heritage. In this paper, I will focus on the role religion plays in the Norwegian National Day rituals. Researchers have described these rituals as both containing a significant religious element and being rather secularized. In this article, I discuss the extent to which the theoretical con…
Mazzoni a Messina tra Modernismo e Futurismo
2015
Il panorama dell’architettura europea del Novecento è stato particolarmente segnato dalle istanze innovatrici dettate dal Movimento Moderno. In Italia, a partire da questo nuovo scenario, si è costituita una componente specifica, meglio nota come Razionalismo Italiano che ha trovato ulteriori implicazioni di riflessione compositiva e figurativa dell’architettura attraverso i temi propri della ricerca Futurista. Una esperienza quest’ultima che nei principali testi di storia dell’architettura contemporanea, ruota principalmente attorno alla figura di Antonio Sant’Elia, interprete di rilievo di questa corrente che ha rappresentato riferimento fondamentale all’opera di Angiolo Mazzoni. Il Futur…