Electric light and the visualization of Catholic power in Spain during the Restoration Era (1874–1931)

This article analyses the contested adoption of electric lights by the Spanish Catholic church during the Bourbon Restoration era (1874–1931). Through a careful reading of primary sources, namely Catholic popular magazines, and official documents, it will show how Catholic authorities and practitioners resisted, negotiated and, ultimately, engaged with electricity in religious spaces. The article argues that electric light contributed to wider exchanges in a non-monolithic Spanish Catholicism on the observance of traditional values or the possibilities of the church’s modernization. However, amid a particularly tense moment regarding the secular–clerical relations, the systematic use of electric lights in churches at the turn of the twentieth century—but also in other public ceremonies—contributed to the making of religious sensations aimed at attracting new believers and reasserting the presence of the institution in a disputed public space.

The Prosperity Gospel: A Distortion of the Fundamental Evangelical Tenets

Prosperity Gospel is a problematic issue for the Evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity, and it is so in at least two perspectives. First, it influences the teaching of many preachers who employ this approach to capture new believers on the one hand, and it is sharply criticised by many prominent Evangelical theologians who regard it as a serious heresy, a deception of many Christians, on the other. Second, it is a matter of profound theological question raised from the very core of Christian faith and asking how to find a delicate balance between Jesus' calling to bear the cross and his blessing from the Sermon on the Mount. The most frequent framework is the one that considers the prosperity gospel as the distortion of the substantial Evangelical tenets, and that stems from the various ideological and sociological processes in the 19th United States. The article offers a brief outline of the prosperity message and answers the following research questions: What is the prosperity gospel? What are the roots of it? What are the most critical theological points of the prosperity teaching? What charges are raised by the critics from the Evangelical background? The literary analysis of Evangelical literature is the primary method used to solve the problem.

Protestant Rites and the Problem of Religious Difference in Colonial Korea

Colonial Korean society was a crucible of ritual conflict and innovation. The confluence of Protestant expansion, Japanese colonization, and cultural nationalism during the early twentieth century brought sweeping changes to Korean ritual life, especially to the all-important Confucian rites of passage. This article examines print media discussions of Protestant rites from the late 1910s to the early 1930s to trace how religious difference emerged as a political problem for Korean cultural nationalists. Early on, Protestant missionaries had banned ancestral veneration and other folk customs while spreading liturgical (marriage and funerary) ceremonies, in an effort to inculcate orthodox doctrines among new believers. Converts’ rejection of indigenous Confucian rites in favor of their own practices, however, soon became the focal point of heated public debates. When Protestants condemned ancestral rites as idolatry, they maligned fellow Koreans as primitive. Meanwhile, the rapid proliferation of Western-style church weddings excessively disseminated religious practices. Above all, cultural nationalists grew alarmed at how faith communities threatened to splinter society, diverting Koreans away from national concerns toward sectarian interests. I argue that Protestant rites prompted nationalist intellectuals to grapple with the sacred and secular, ultimately producing a narrow vision of religion subsumed under the aegis of the nation.

The Destruction of Orthodox Churches and Religious Buildings in the Modern Folklore Tradition of the Arkhangelsk Region

Статья посвящена анализу устных рассказов о разрушении православных культовых сооружений и уничтожению церковного имущества в повествовательной традиции Архангельской области. В исследовании используется традиционный подход - анализ сюжета и мотивов рассказов. Источниковую базу исследования составили материалы фольклорного архива САФУ. Они относятся к различным районам Архангельской области. Цель статьи заключается в выявлении основных мотивов архангельских рассказов о поругании святынь и их региональных особенностей. Материал неоднороден в жанровом отношении: это как «краткие свидетельства», так и структурно организованные «свидетельские показания». Религиозные рассказы являются частью местной исторической памяти, знание которой свидетельствует о развитой или неразвитой локальной идентичности сообщества. В современной фольклорно-речевой практике существует различное отношение к событиям, связанным с закрытием храмов и гонением на священнослужителей. В советский период была нарушена межпоколенная культурная трансмиссия. Знания и опыт старшего поколения были обесценены, поэтому различные поколения исполнителей демонстрируют различные ценностные ориентиры. В ранний постсоветский период, когда началось церковное возрождение и появилось много неофитов, рассказы о наказании за святотатство и поругание святынь вновь актуализировались. Однако мы приходим к выводу, что в современной фольклорной традиции происходит уничтожение мотива наказания как части фабулы, хотя долгое время рассказы с мотивом Божьей кары за святотатство считались наиболее устойчивой частью этой традиции. This article is devoted to oral narratives about sacrilege (the destruction of buildings and other Orthodox Church property) in the narrative tradition of the Arkhangelsk Region. The research takes a traditional approach, centering on the analysis of plots and narrative motifs. Materials for the study are from the folklore archive of the Northern (Arctic) Federal University and refer to different areas of the Arkhangelsk Region. The article’s aim is to identify the main motifs of these stories and their regional characteristics. The material is heterogeneous in the generic sense: there are both “brief testimonies” and more structurally organized “long testimonies.” Religious stories comprise part of local historical memory, knowledge of which testifies to a community’s sense of identity. In modern folklore and speech practice there are different attitudes to the events associated with the demolition of churches and the persecution of priests. Intergenerational cultural transmission was disrupted during the Soviet period; the knowledge and experience of the older generation was depreciated, so that different generations of informants demonstrate dissimilar value orientations. In the early post-Soviet period, when the church revival began and many new believers emerged, stories about punishment for sacrilege again became relevant. However, the author concludes that in the modern folklore tradition the plot motif of God’s punishment for sacrilege has disappeared, despite the fact that for a long time this motif was considered the most stable part of the narrative.

Jadikanlah Murid: Tugas Pemuridan Gereja Menurut Matius 28:18-20

Make Disciples: The Duty of Church Discipleship According to Matthew 28: 18-20. This article discusses the task of church discipleship according to Matthew 28: 18-20. The author conducted a literature study to understand the intent of Matthew 28: 18-20 and to carry out the construction of the task of discipleship in the church. The task of discipleship, Jesus addressed his disciples, then proceeded to their successors who lived in a community of faith to carry out the task of discipleship. In the task of discipleship, the community of faith in a church as an institution takes action to proclaim the good news so that every nation can be part of a community of faith in Jesus Christ. In discipleship, everyone who enters the community of faith in Christ is accepted without distinction, because this task is a multicultural task. Teaching is an important part of the discipleship task. Teaching is done in order to strengthen new believers or new students enter the community of faith in Jesus, then they become disciples of the Lord Jesus who can be sent to disciple others. Jadikanlah Murid: Tugas Pemuridan Gereja Menurut Matius 28:18-20. Artikel ini membahas tentang tugas pemuridan gereja menurut Matius 28:18-20. Penulis melakukan studi pustaka untuk memahami maksud Matius 28:18-20 dan melakukan konstruksi tugas pemuridan gereja. Tugas pemuridan, Yesus tujukan kepada para murid-murid-Nya, kemudian dilanjutkan oleh pada penerus mereka yang hidup dalam sebuah komunitas iman untuk menjalankan tugas pemuridan tersebut. Dalam tugas pemuridan, komunitas iman dalam sebuah gereja sebagai suatu institusi melakukan tindakan pergi untuk mewartakan kabar baik sehingga setiap bangsa dapat menjadi bagian dari komunitas iman pada Yesus Kristus. Dalam pemuridan, setiap orang yang masuk dalam komunitas iman pada Kristus, diterima dengan tanpa membedakan mereka, sebab tugas ini adalah tugas yang multikultural. Pengajaran merupakan bagian penting dalam tugas pemuridan. Pengajaran dilakukan agar dapat memantapkan orang-orang yang baru percaya atau murid-murid baru masuk ke dalam komunitas iman pada Yesus, kemudian mereka menjadi murid Tuhan Yesus yang dapat diutus untuk memuridkan orang lain.

Grenz and Franke’s Post-Foundationalism and the Religion Singularity

Termed the “religion singularity” by Kenneth Howard, the habitual fragmentation of institutional Christianity has led to the exponential growth in denominations and worship centers despite the annual growth rate of new believers remaining the same. Howard has concluded that denominations are unlikely to survive this crisis, although worship centers are much more likely to survive if they are willing to be flexible. The purpose of this article is to identify the epistemic trends that have led to the destabilization of institutional Christianity over the last century, namely the shifting worldview from modernity to postmodernity, and how this shift has influenced the rise of nondenominational house church attendance in American Christianity.