Local studies

Abstract

In spite of the enduring dominance of Catholicism in Philippine society, religious diversity increasingly
characterizes its social and political life. This diversity is predominantly Christian, given the rise of
evangelical, independent, and even nontrinitarian churches around the country. Is covenantal pluralism
possible? This article answers this question by focusing on what Filipino Christians believe about religion
and pluralism. It draws on the 2018 ISSP Religion module to analyze the relationship between
denominational affiliation and attitudes about religion and coexistence. Our argument is that Filipino
Christians, as a whole, are divided on whether they can live amicably with one another. Two
observations substantiate this point. First, Catholics believe that religion brings conflict and that
religious people tend to be intolerant more than do members of other churches. Second, in comparison
to Catholics, Protestants/Evangelicals and Nontrinitarians are more inclined to believe that practicing
religion fosters friendships. Taken together, these dispositions present challenges and opportunities for
covenantal pluralism in the country. This article ends by reflecting on covenantal pluralism as a
relational call in a society where emerging religious minorities are increasingly influential and
competitive.

In the article, the authors consider the territorial and administrative structure of the Philippine’s Roman
Catholic Church and the factors of its transformation at the present stage in the context of the
importance of the religious institution in the economic and social life of society. The purpose of the
comprehensive study is to characterize the economic and social manifestations of the activities of the
RCC and the role of this religious institution in the life of the state and Philippine society. With the use of
mathematical and statistical methods adopted in regional studies, authors identifies the territorial
transformation of the distribution of the cult infrastructure of Catholicism in the Philippines. The
confessional space of the Philippines is developing according to a special model, where the role of the
Church in society is great and the secular processes characteristic of the European population have not
yet touched it, although some trends have emerged. With the help of the analysis of the reporting data
published in English, the features of the confessional space of the country are revealed and the features
of its functioning within its main component-the Roman Catholic Church-are analyzed. The authors
conclude that the RCC in the Philippines is an influential institution that plays a significant role in
different areas of the country's economy and contains prospects for expanding the field of its activities
in this direction.

Q1 Introduction. In recent decades, various fields of Russian and foreign science have increasingly
shown a high and steady interest in issues related to the study of the functioning of social institutions
and other elements that form the confessional space of countries and regions [10; 16; 23; 24], etc. Since,
as the researchers note, in our country in the 1990s, the "process of religious revival" was marked out in
a variety of areas [11, p. 130], which continues to this day, the experience of organizing Church
administrative management, especially the financial and social activities of Christian churches in foreign
countries, is of scientific and practical interest to Russia. 2 Such research is particularly important for the
Far East, where, according to the expert in this matter S. M. Dudarenok, the religious space is formed
and developed according to a special model, much more actively accepting the doctrine of Western
directions of Christianity than the population of the European part of the country [12]. 3 Considering in
their works aspects related to the religious space, scholars mainly pay attention to religious
characteristics, the history of proliferation, the basics of the right state of religions in the state [7; 10; 11;
13; 15; 16; 19] etc., and the economic activities of religious associations, the administrative and
territorial organization and the system of governance of religious institutions, their social role in society
and the subject of study are quite rare [5; 6; 8; 18], in addition, at the national and regional level is
considered at the examples of foreign European countries [2; 3; 15]. 4 In the Asia-Pacific region,
meanwhile, there is an example of a State whose religious space deserves special attention because of a
number of distinctive features of its functioning and development. We are talking about the Philippines,
the third largest country in the world in terms of followers of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC), after
Brazil and Mexico. 5 Referring to the study of the religious space of the Philippines, domestic scholars
emphasized the political role of the RCC in the country [14], the ethno-religious conflicts of the regional
level [1; 14; 20] or the history of the spread of Catholicism on its territory [19], without aiming to
highlight the social, economic, territorial and organizational issues associated with it. In turn, foreign
authors paid close attention to the transformation of the relationship between the RCC and the state in
the Philippines, the change in its role in Philippine society in recent years, pointed to the social problems
associated with territorial differentiation in the standard of living of Catholic clergy and poverty of
parishes in the peripheral areas of the country [25], also bypassing the topic of financial or institutional
features of the RCC in the Philippines [22]. Meanwhile, an objective assessment of the trends in the
development of the religious space and the extent of the influence of a religious institution on the life of
society requires its complex and multifaceted characterization. The need for such and determined the
purpose of this study, which should identify the features of the institutional structure of the RCC in the
Philippines, analyze the factors of its formation and development trends, identify the features of
economic and social activities.
The presence of different religions and the freedom of people to navigate the religious space shows that
religion in the Philippines is not a monolithic entity. This study validated three versions of the Centrality
of Religiosity Scale (CRSi-7, -14, and -20) which propose an adequate assessment tool for the diversity of
religious belief systems co-existing in Philippine society. The sample (N = 514) was drawn from the
young population of the country in an online survey. Descriptive statistics and Cronbach’s alpha values
were calculated for the five subscales (ideology, intellect, experience, private and public practice) of the
Centrality of Religiosity Scale. The factor structure of the interreligious Centrality of Religiosity Scale was
tested using confirmatory factor analysis. The results show that CRSi-7 denotes internal consistency
while CRSi-14 and CRSi-20 indicate good internal consistency. Models of CRSi-7, -14, and -20 show a
good global fit. Despite two models of the CRSi-20 being identical in fit, the researchers defer to the
CRSi-20 model with correlated factors since it is a simpler model. All versions of the CRSi demonstrate a
valid and reliable measure for the centrality of religiosity in the Philippines and support the usefulness of
the CRS for the study of religiosity.

Foreign Studies

How gender and religion impact uptake of family planning: results from a qualitative study in
Northwestern Tanzania

Radhika Sundararajan, Lauren Mica Yoder, Albert Kihunrwa, Christine Aristide, Samuel E Kalluvya, David
J Downs, Agrey H Mwakisole, Jennifer A Downs

BMC Women's Health 19 (1), 1-10, 2019

Women in Tanzania report a high unmet need for both information about and access to family planning.
Prior studies have demonstrated the complex and variable relationship between religious faith and
beliefs about family planning in sub-Saharan Africa. We hypothesized that a major reason for the poor
uptake of family planning in Tanzania is that women and their partners are uncertain about whether
pregnancy prevention is compatible with their religious beliefs. Twenty-four focus group discussions
with 206 participants were conducted in Mwanza, Tanzania between 2016 and 2017: six groups were
conducted among Christian men, six among Christian women, six among Muslim men, and six among
Muslim women. Among Christians, 98% were Protestants. Focus groups were also divided by gender and
religion to facilitate discussion about gender-specific and religion-specific factors influencing family
planning utilization. Qualitative data were analyzed using a thematic, phenomenological approach. We
identify two important themes regarding the intersections of religion and family planning practices.
First, we report that dynamics of family planning are experienced differently based on gender, and that
male authority conflicts with female embodied knowledge, leading to negotiation or covert
contraceptive use. Second, religious acceptability of family planning methods is of central importance,
though participants differed in their interpretations of their religion’s stance on this question. Most who
found family planning incompatible with their faith affirmed their responsibility to give birth to as many
children as God would give them. Others found family planning to be acceptable given their moral
responsibility to care for and protect their children by limiting the family size. Both religious tradition
and gender dynamics strongly influence the uptake of family planning, with a wide range of
interpretations of religious traditions affecting the perceived acceptability of family planning. Regardless
of gender or religious affiliation, participants were unified by a desire to live according to religious
tradition. Future efforts to improve uptake of family planning are likely to have maximal impact if they
are tailored to inform, involve, and empower male heads of households, and to address questions of
religious acceptability.

Religion in Western society

Stephen J Hunt

Bloomsbury Publishing, 2017

This book offers a comprehensive account of the nature and expression of contemporary forms of
religion in Western societies. Drawing both on recent original work and classical and contemporary
conceptual frameworks, it examines the beliefs, practices, patterns of organisation and significant trends
in both mainstream and fringe religions including cults and quasi-religions. Competing arguments and
theories about key developments are treated fully and fairly and there is a clear sense throughout of the
social context. The approach is broadly sociological and the well-paced, jargon-free writing style and
clearly sectioned chapters make this an ideal text for teaching and study purposes, both in sociology and
religious studies. Amongst the themes and concerns covered are:-What we mean in the first place by
religion-Secularisation and new expressions of religiosity-The effect of religion on society and the
relationship between religion and social change-The links between belief, belonging and social identity-
Contemporary Christianity and the religions of ethnic minorities in the West-Globalisation, religious
pluralism and postmodernity STEPHEN J. HUNT is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of West
of England, Bristol. He has written widely on contemporary Christianity and new religious movements.

Religion, spirituality, and youth thriving: Investigating the roles of the developing mind and meaning-
making
Pamela Ebstyne King, Susan Mangan, Rodrigo Riveros

Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality, 263-277, 2023

A burgeoning body of research reveals the many ways religion and spirituality (hereafter, R/S) contribute
to the positive development of youth (Hardy et al., 2019; King & Boyatzis, 2015; Schnitker et al., 2019).
With increasing awareness of the importance of promoting trajectories of human thriving that
contribute to flourishing societies, scholars are looking for approaches to thriving that include not only
individual well-being and life satisfaction but also a beyond-the-self orientation and actions that
strengthen the surrounding systems. One such approach, the reciprocating self, orients human
development towards a telos (ie, ultimate goal) that furthers an ongoing, mutually beneficial fit between
self and society and requires continual individual, relational, and aspirational development (King &
Mangan, in press). Although research affirms the importance of moral ideals and spiritual commitments
in this process (King et al., 2020; Schnitker et al., 2019), little is understood about how youths’ beliefs
turn from ideas into lived action. Meaning-making may be one helpful explanation (Furrow et al., 2004;
Immordino-Yang et al., 2019; see Park & Van Tongeren, Chap. 6, this volume). Synthesizing brain
development research in this area, we explain how meaning-making is the process of constructing and
internalizing salient beliefs into a youth’s narrative identity and core values. In turn, these values guide
prosocial behaviors that are a mechanism and marker of thriving.

royalsocietypublishing.org

Acquiring religious words: dialogical and individual construction of a word's meaning

Franziska E Viertel, Oliver Reis, Katharina J Rohlfing

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 378 (1870), 20210359, 2023

By the age of eight, there is a significant increase in abstract words in the child's lexicon. A crucial
contribution can be seen in the linguistic input, i.e. the way how abstract words are presented by
caregivers by means of linguistic perspectivation and emotionalization. Following an interactionist way,
we were interested in how the semantics of abstract words is constructed by child and caregiver in duet.
We focused on a subset of abstract words and studied the acquisition of meaning of the religious
concept mercy. We expected religious words to be emotionally anchored and presented with
perspectivation, both contributing to learning. Exploring the dialogic constructions, we investigated
eight 7- to 8-year olds and their parents during dialogic reading and studied their strategies focusing on
the linguistic means of emotionalization and perspectivation in contextualizing the word. In a
subsequent test, we analysed these means used by the children and assessed their individual
understanding of mercy. Our analyses indicate that during reading, the enrichment of semantics by
emotionalization was related between child and caregiver, whereas cross-situationally, a simultaneous
enrichment of emotionalization and perspectivation was present. Moreover, the children demonstrated
a conceptual understanding of mercy in religious contexts, but not in secular contexts.

This article is part of the theme issue ‘Concepts in interaction: social engagement and inner
experiences’.

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library.oapen.org

Positive psychology and religion/spirituality across cultures in Africa, Asia, and Oceania

Richard G Cowden, Victor Counted, Man Yee Ho

Handbook of Positive Psychology, Religion, and Spirituality, 243-259, 2023

Positive psychology (PP) developed into a mainstream psychology subfield about two decades ago. At
that time, its emphasis on strengths, virtues, and well-being represented a fundamental shift in the way
psychologists had traditionally approached science and practice (Downey & Henderson, 2021). Beyond
the rebalance that PP has brought to the field’s historic emphasis on psychopathology, PP has served as
a bridge that connects psychology to other disciplines, partly because many PP concepts have historical
roots in philosophy and theology. For example, the four cardinal virtues—prudence, justice, fortitude,
and temperance—have been integrated into the character and virtue domain in VanderWeele’s (2017)
framework of human flourishing (see Ratchford et al., Chap. 4, this volume). PP has also had an
important role in linking subfields within psychology, most notably through its ties with the psychology
of religion/spirituality (PRS). A direct indication of this is provided in Peterson and Seligman’s (2004)
groundbreaking work on character strengths and virtues, in which they classified spirituality as one of 24
universal character strengths. Many other character strengths in their classification scheme (eg,
forgiveness, gratitude, humility) are emphasized by major religious/spiritual (R/S) traditions (eg,
Christianity, Islam) as desirable attributes that