Music,Tradition, and Cultural Adaptation among the Maronites of Lebanon: The Reform of the Funeral Liturgy

The Maronite Church is a branch of the Syro-Antiochean Church and one of the oldest among the Eastern churches. Modernisation, globalisation, emigration, civil war and other factors have together influenced many aspects of local religious expression, but the Maronite Church has succeeded in adapting to the social changes and the spiritual needs of its followers without losing its identity. This is reflected in the Maronite funeral liturgy, which is here examined. I aim to show how the role of music and poetry is perpetuating a sense of communal identity among the members of this religious group, and is creating boundaries with other ethnic and religious groups.     

当前我国的宗教政策现状及其法治化探讨

我国对宗教问题的认识经历了一段曲折的道路,至于宗教消亡论的论述已经被历史所否定,毋庸置疑,宗教仍然会继续存在相当长的时间,并且影响着社会生活的各个方面。与此同时,随着新兴宗教在国内的迅速发展,宗教越来越引起人们的关注。因此,宗教政策的制定就必须考虑到这些因素,而西方法治化宗教的成功经验则为我们制定具有中国特色的宗教政策提供了有益的启示。以“礼”为核心辅以儒释道三教合一的中国文化决定了中国宗教的特殊性,因此重新构建中华民族精神文化信仰也必须基于此才能够实现。     

Faith and education in Bangladesh: A review of the contemporary landscape and challenges

Relationships between religious beliefs, institutions, educational strategies, and delivery pose practical challenges for policy makers in all countries. They have particular significance today in Bangladesh given the national and regional developments that shine light on religious roles within national identity and minority communities. Challenges range from coordination of different systems for purposes of employment credentials, equity, and quality assurance to fundamental questions about the values that underlie curricula. A related challenge involves national objectives to instill shared civic values through education and to address mounting intergroup tensions. How the wide variety of religiously managed education institutions in Bangladesh approach these issues is poorly understood and subject to significant misunderstandings. Knowledge about different types of schools and programs led by religious institutions in Bangladesh is incomplete in terms of numbers, approach, and results. Knowledge gaps contribute to misunderstandings and social and political tensions. This review describes and analyzes faith-inspired education providers in Bangladesh, the most prominent of which are Islamic madrasas and Catholic schools. It sets faith-inspired education in a historical context and highlights contemporary issues for policy makers that arise from their approach and that feature in public discourse about the links between religion and education. The aim is to build constructively on the legacies of religious contributions to education, address both articulated and unarticulated tensions, and to identify ways in which contemporary innovations among religiously inspired education providers contribute to broader national education goals.     

Sunday democracies: a mixed methods analysis of members’ perceptions of church authority and organizational dissent

Previous research has emphasized differences between churches and other types of organizations including the potential for leaders’ authority to be based on unassailable interpretations of Scripture and on divine callings. The present study examined members’ perceptions of church authority and the degree to which those perceptions affected their willingness to express dissenting opinions, a key feature of organizational democracy. Focus group participants described a fluid process as they negotiated how their voices would be heard in decision-making while simultaneously entrusting some decision-making to ordained leaders. That process sometimes involved seeing members’ voices as one expression of divine authority or compartmentalizing pastoral leadership to spiritual matters and democratic leadership to practical matters. Focus groups also emphasized the importance of church committees and transparency as integral practices for members’ voice in church decision-making. Surveys of a wider group of church members demonstrated that perceptions of democracy and divine authority influenced members’ willingness to express upward dissent, and to a lesser extent, lateral dissent. Results revealed how church members conceptualize their roles in decision-making, highlighting potential areas of conflict when leaders deviate from members’ expectations.