Comparative Study of Religion

Discourses on the Anthropocene generally follow the traditional perspective of human hegemony over the rest of creation. Clearly, this trajectory induces contradistinctions in debate. So, how would the theological re-vision of the religious narratives in the Anthropocene be in this discourse. This is, for the most part, the heart of this work.

Despite long-standing recommendations by public health authorities and studies stating that annual influenza vaccination of healthcare workers (HCWs) is associated with a reduction of morbidity and mortality among patients, 1 influenza vaccination rates among HCWs remain low internationally. 2-4 Vaccination rates among nurses are typically lower than those of physicians. 5,6 While studies show interventions focusing on providing information and easier access to the vaccine have increased vaccination rates among physicians, they seem to have very little effect on nursing staff. 7,8 This has led a number of hospitals to implement more authoritarian approaches, including declination forms, mandatory wearing of masks, unpaid leave during influenza season, switching to another lower-risk unit, and mandatory vaccination for nurses declining influenza vaccination. 9-16 Declination forms and mandatory masks for non-vaccinated HCWs alone have

God on the Brain: Part Three I feel detached from my body. I am floating up. .. there is a kind of vibration moving through my sternum. .. there are odd lights or faces along my left side. My body is becoming very hot. .. tingling sensations in my chest and stomach. .. now both arms. There is something feeling my ovaries. I can feel my left foot jerk. I feel there is someone in the room behind me.[1] This was the report of one test subject in the lab of neuroscientist Michael Persinger, who has made the claim that 'genuine religious experiences' can be artificially induced with a device called the 'Koren Helmet,' more popularly known as the 'God Helmet.'[2] The epithet was bestowed by journalists after discovering that some claimed to have had visions of God under the Helmet's influence and the name stuck.[3] Persinger's God

God on the Brain: Part Two From about the nineteenth century on, mapping brain areas to specific behaviors, or 'localization,' became the predominant frame for the study of the brain and the focus of neuroscientific research as it emerged. Despite the fact that the localization research effort is "based on assumptions […] that cannot be validated either in principle or in practice," it remains one of the main underlying premises to the natural scientific study of religion. It is also the basis for research to find God in the brain. While religion was historically being subjectified and 'placed' in the mind, individual thought and behaviors were being 'located' in the brain.

This article analyses a conflict that erupted in 2021 between the government of Zimbabwe and the people of Chilonga in the south of the country over the expropriation of their ancestral for the production of lucerne grass. The people of Chilonga resisted being displaced from land to which they are deeply attached and have a sacred connection. This conflict provides a rare opportunity to analyze the often marginalized, muted and misunderstood sacred roots of the environmental conflict that shape collective agency. The article uses the concepts of emplacement and disemplacement to comprehend the deeper and more intangible impacts of displacing people from their grazing lands, sources of water and traditional herbs and medicines, and sacred sites—natural resources they claim to be sacred. Thus, while disemplacement has been used to explain why people find themselves moving, the article uses it to show the opposite: why they resist moving and demonstrate the not easily measured losses u...

This article analyses a conflict that erupted in 2021 between the government of Zimbabwe and the people of Chilonga in the south of the country over the expropriation of their ancestral for the production of lucerne grass. The people of Chilonga resisted being displaced from land to which they are deeply attached and have a sacred connection. This conflict provides a rare opportunity to analyze the often marginalized, muted and misunderstood sacred roots of the environmental conflict that shape collective agency. The article uses the concepts of emplacement and disemplacement to comprehend the deeper and more intangible impacts of displacing people from their grazing lands, sources of water and traditional herbs and medicines, and sacred sites—natural resources they claim to be sacred. Thus, while disemplacement has been used to explain why people find themselves moving, the article uses it to show the opposite: why they resist moving and demonstrate the not easily measured losses u...

This paper examines military landscapes as a source of violence, and soldiers' efforts to deal with this violence by using their spiritual beliefs. The paper reveals how Ugandan soldiers who fought in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and South Sudan believed that their survival in war was a consequence of their spiritual beliefs in God rather than the mighty power of the gun and their military knowledge. The paper is based on life histories of former Ugandan soldiers drawing on interviews with nine former soldiers. The soldiers encountered the strange terrains and landscapes of armed conflict, whilst enduring scarcity of the basic necessities in war. The soldiers described how the mighty and supernatural powers of the transcendent, as well as the promise of tradition and spiritual belief, were seen as important in understanding their survival in armed conflict. The paper emphasizes the importance of an understanding of spirituality in explorations of the violence of military landscapes.

In post-independence Zimbabwe, religion has been associated with piety and acquiescence rather than radical confrontation. This has made it look preposterous for religious leaders to adopt seemingly radical and confrontational stances in pursuit of peace and reconciliation. Since the early 2000s, a new breed of religious leaders that deploy radical and confrontational strategies to pursue peace has emerged in Zimbabwe. Rather than restricting pathways to peace and reconciliation to nonconfrontational approaches such as empathy, pacifism, prayer, meditation, love, repentance, compassion, apology and forgiveness, these religious leaders have extended them to demonstrations, petitions and critically speaking out. Because these religious leaders do not restrict themselves to the methods and strategies of engagement and dialogue advocated by mainstream church leaders, mainstream church leaders and politicians condemn them as nonconformists that transcend their religious mandate. These re...

This article used the case of the Pokot community in northern Kenya to argue that focusing only on technical approaches in dealing with conflicts induced by climate change neglects the deeper religio-spiritual mechanisms that motivate actors in such conflicts and give the latter their texture. For example, the sacred connection with cattle, forests, and land, or the spiritual blessings of cattle raiders in times of competition over dwindling resources raise questions concerning whether and how indigenous religions’ sacred beliefs and practices contribute to finding peaceful solutions to such conflicts and advancing the discourse of religious peacebuilding. This article deployed the concept of religious environmental sense-making to argue that framing climate-induced conflicts in sacred terms influences how actors position themselves within them, as well as their level of intensity and intractability. Answering this question is crucial to advancing the field of peacebuilding, underst...

Reconciliation and resilience are intimately connected concepts. They emphasise the agency involved in influencing and enhancing bottom-up social change, and the selfhelp mechanisms that persist despite the disturbances following intrastate conflicts. This article uses a qualitative methodology to examine the absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities of communities as they seek to deal with intrastate conflict. It also assesses the extent to which the government-led reconciliation approach used in Zimbabwe since 2008 has facilitated community resilience. This research suggests that local communities have adapted to the conflict in order to go about their daily lives, but that neither community actions, nor the government-sponsored reconciliation process, have led to the transformation of the status quo that caused the intrastate conflict in the first place. Absorptive and adaptive capacities should not be seen as ends in themselves. Instead, they should provide the basis for facilitating sustainable peace and social change.

The dominant narrative in the study of religion in Africa is that African indigenous religions are non-violent, peaceful and seek to promote healing and integration. In this paradigm, it is militant missionary religions such as Islam and Christianity that promote violence. Such an approach misses the key learning that no religion is violent in and of itself: only the determination of individuals and groups acting in the name of a particular religion is relevant as to whether/the extent to which a religion can be appropriated and deployed to perpetrate violence. This article explores the deployment of a song, 'Zimbabwe Ndeye Ropa Ramadzibaba' to justify 'sacred violence' to 'defend Zimbabwe against witches/enemies'. The central research question is: How is the song, 'Zimbabwe Ndeye Ropa…' appropriated and deployed to sacralise violence in Zimbabwean politics? The article describes the song and analyses some of the contexts in which the song has been strategically performed. The study seeks to underscore the manipulation of indigenous spirituality in justifying violence. Theoretically, the study challenges the naïve claims that indigenous religions are 'pure and upright' in relation to violence.

Recibido el 10 de diciembre de 2008; aceptado el 23 de marzo de 2009 Disponible en Internet el 23 de mayo de 2009 PALABRAS CLAVE Interacciones sociales; Redes sociales; Centro de atención primaria; Estructura organizativa; Antigüedad; Estilo de vida