"This article analyzes discourses of conversion involving members of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) in the city of Madrid, Spain. Drawing on the biographies of members and religious leaders and focusing on their testimonials of conversion in particular, I observe how the church’
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s message of a better life after conversion always relates to a misguided past. I have proposed the concept of self-othering to link the process through which members internalize and interpret their transformations through religion with othering, as the first step, and individual salvation, as the second step. This study observes specific rites of passage, namely baptisms, which induce an individual to become a member of the church. Self-othering as a concept helps to explain how individuals reinterpret their past and present lives through the lens of religious conversion." (Abstract)
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"Un sueño ha tenido su cabal cumplimiento. Un proyecto ha llegado a su meta. Un reto ha logrado vencer obstáculos y escollos. Ese sueño, proyecto y reto tienen un nombre: Biblia de la Iglesia en América (BIA), que fue publicada en mayo del 2019. Esta Biblia, que es del CELAM, es la que hoy ocupa
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estas páginas de la revista MEDELLÍN del CEBITEPAL, el Centro Bíblico Teológico Pastoral de América Latina y El Caribe, que fue fundado como CEBIPAL poco antes de iniciarse esta obra. Una de las tareas fundamentales de ese centro fue la realización de la BIA. Todas las personas que colaboraron en este centro son testigos vivos de proyectos y planes, de trabajos y reuniones que han quedado plasmados en esta Biblia. Los tres primeros artículos tocan el tema histórico. Otros cuatro ayudan a entender los criterios fundamentales que guiaron esta obra. Por último cuatro notas breves se refieren a ejemplos de unas traducciones concretas del Antiguo y Nuevo Testamento." (https://revistas.celam.org)
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"The handbook is divided into five parts, each taking global developments in the field into account: Theoretical Reflections, Power and Authority Conflict, Radicalization and Populism, Dialogue and Peacebuilding, Trends. Within these sections, central issues, debates and developments are examined, i
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ncluding: religious and secular press; ethics; globalization; gender; datafication; differentiation; journalistic religious literacy; race, and religious extremism." (Publisher description)
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"The intersection of media with theology is reciprocating: media boosts theology in its functions to inform, connect and educate; theology humbles the globalizing media with a reminder – media is in mediation but not in domination. Media and theology thus intersect at mediating (negotiating, inter
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ceding, resisting, protesting) and they should avoid the temptation to colonize. The essays are presented in two overlapping clusters: Mediascapes (intersection of media and a selection of land- and sea-scapes) and Mediations (implications of mediating theology for interrogating hegemonies). The topics addressed include social media and #tag cultures, the fourth industrial revolution and artificial intelligence, homiletics, social resistance, Palestine, Latin America, climate change, and Covid-19." (Publisher description)
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"Muslims in the Movies provides a series of essays that explore the portrayal and reception of Muslims in Euro-American film, transnational productions, and global national cinemas. The volume brings together a group of internationally recognized experts to introduce Muslims in the films of Europe,
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North America, Australia, Iran, Egypt, North Africa, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The interdisciplinary collection explores issues of identity, cultural production, and representation through the depiction of Muslims on screen and how audiences respond to these images. Together, the essays operate as an introduction to the subject of Muslims and film for new readers while also serving as new works of critical analysis for scholars of cinema." (Publisher description)
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"Catholic social thought offers a vision and principles for a community wherein all creation flourishes. An important principle in Catholic social thought is the option for the poor, which describes the commitment of the Catholic Church to the well-being of the marginalized and vulnerable. However,
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the body of Catholic social thought does not necessarily focus on models or concrete practices to actualize said principles, as these will be dependent on the particular context of the people living out the principles of Catholic social thought. Catholic social ethicists require resources and tools to help put these principles into practice, especially in the face of complex social issues such as poverty or economic inequality. One such possible tool is design thinking, a problem-solving methodology used by organizations in the face of wicked problems. Design thinking offers concrete tools that can help communities solve challenging problems and has been used in the social sector as well as in business. Thus, this article argues that design thinking offers a concrete methodology that encourages creativity and systems thinking in crafting solutions to unprecedented and complex problems in order to help people exercise the option for the poor more readily. Design thinking can help provide language and strategies that can illuminate and operationalize the option for the poor in ways that are understandable and helpful for all, even those who may not necessarily subscribe to Catholicism." (Abstract)
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"The secular, pluralist culture of the West encourages a subjective approach to spiritual truth where stimulating emotional experiences, such as those provided by film, can contribute to personal conceptions of the sacred. Examining Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) as the principal cas
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e-study and Gaspar Noé's Enter the Void (2009) and Lars von Trier's Melancholia (2011) as comparative examples, Sarah Balstrup argues that these directors harness the affective properties of film to generate altered states of perception in a manner analogous to religious practice. Powerful feelings of dissociation and indescribable significance typical of mystical testimony appear in viewer responses to these films, demonstrating the continued sacralisation of such states of mind. In their own way, each film confronts the viewer with an apocalyptic revelation of the impersonal forces of the universe, moving away from personhood and the human narrative, into pure sensation. They present a non-deterministic spiritual truth that can be intuited but not explained, mirroring developments in the religious sphere. Investigating the relationship between cinematic technique and religious experience, Spiritual Sensations offers an alternative approach to the study of religion and film that has been principally focused on narrative symbolism and the dramatisation of values. Spiritual Sensations makes a further contribution to the field by analysing films contextually, considering viewers' subjective responses in light of religious and cultural change." (Publisher description)
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"The tension between the two historical realities, Hinduism as an ancient Indian religion and Christianity as a religion associated with foreign power and colonialism, continues to animate Hindu-Christian relations today. On the one hand, The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations describes
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a rich history of amicable, productive, even sometimes syncretic Hindu-Christian encounters. On the other, this handbook equally attends to historical and contemporary moments of tension, conflict, and violence between Hindus and Christians. Comprising thirty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, this handbook is divided into seven parts: theoretical and methodological considerations; historical interactions, contemporary exchanges; sites of bodily and material interactions; significant figures; comparative theologies; responses. The handbook explores: how the study of Hindu–Christian relations has been and ought to be done, the history of Hindu–Christian relations through key interactions, ethnographic reflections on current dynamics of Hindu–Christian exchange, important key thinkers, and topics in comparative theology, ultimately providing a framework for further debates in the area." (Publisher description)
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"Wie steht es aus Sicht der Katholikinnen und Katholiken um ihre katholische Kirche? Betrachten sie diese überhaupt als "ihre" Kirche? Welche Medien nutzen Katholikinnen und Katholiken, um kirchliche und religiöse Inhalte und Botschaften zu erhalten? Diesen und weiteren Fragen geht der "MDG-Trendm
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onitor - Religiöse Kommunikation 2020/21" nach. Die Trendstudie wird seit 1999 zum vierten Mal im Auftrag der MDG erhoben und kann somit Daten aus ca. 20 Jahren vergleichen. Durchgeführt wurde sie vom Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach in Kooperation mit der SINUS Markt- und Sozialforschung. Dem Wandel der Zeit folgend fokussiert der neue Trendmonitor insbesondere die digitalen Angebote und Kommunikation der katholischen Kirche. Darüber hinaus werden auch kirchliche Medien betrachtet, die erst seit wenigen Jahren am Markt sind, wie zum Beispiel Mitgliedermagazine. Eine weitere Neuheit des neuen Trendmonitors ist das letzte Kapitel. Hier finden sich Kommentare von renommierten Medienexperten und Wissenschaftlern: Die Daten der beiden Institute werden durch unterschiedliche Perspektiven wie eine religionssoziologische, kommunikationswissenschaftliche oder pastoraltheologische betrachtet." (Verlagsbeschreibung)
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"Can religious messages be transmitted through the media? If so, how and why? Taking these questions as its starting point, and focusing on the relationship between media and religion, this book presents an analysis of the relationship between religion and the media. It explores the inherent qualiti
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es of media communication channels and codes and the ways in which they affect the dissemination of religious messages, as well as the arguments over religion used in public discourse. The book also presents a critical analysis of church media in Slovakia, and shows that although the media do have the capacity to convey religious messages, they can only do so in a superficial manner and thus do not represent a suitable instrument for mediating deep spiritual content or serving as a vehicle for evangelization. Another key finding here is that the differences between the basic argumentation structures of the religious and secular worlds are irreconcilable, meaning that conservatives and progressives can expect little more than a basic sense of tolerance and decency from each other." (Publisher description)
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"Esperançar é missão de todo cristão, mas é, por excelência, a missão do agente da Pastoral da Comunicação. Mais do que um trabalho técnico, é uma dádiva de Deus poder transmitir uma mensagem-Pessoa: Jesus Cristo. Este livro quer dar impulso aos agentes da Pascom em sua vivência da espi
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ritualidade como base para sua atuação na Igreja. Como Ecclesia digitalis, precisaremos intensificar ainda mais nossa intimidade com Deus e vivê-la de forma testemunhal em nossas comunidades off -line e on-line." (Descrição da editora de livros)
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"No pocas veces nos hemos preguntado, ante la avalancha de informaciones y opiniones sobre la vida de la Iglesia y sobre el pontificado del Papa Francisco, si los enfoques de las noticias son adecuados y sin sesgos, si la atribución de las declaraciones se ha hecho correctamente, o si la informaci
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n religiosa es distinta a la de la política, la salud o la cultura. Es hora de formarnos un criterio sobre las noticias, las opiniones y los medios que hablan de la Iglesia. Es la hora del protagonismo activo de los lectores." (Cubierta del libro)
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"Comunicar o Evangelho apresenta de modo conciso os diversos momentos históricos da relação Igreja e comunicação, a partir de três chaves de leitura que representam as grandes mudanças de paradigma nessa relação: 1) Das praças ao púlpito; 2) Do púlpito ao estúdio; 3) Do estúdio de volt
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a às praças (ágora física e digital). O autor procura mostrar, de forma simples e pastoral, os encontros e desencontros no percurso evolutivo feito pela Igreja no âmbito da comunicação ao longo dos seus dois milênios de história, do Pentecostes ao papa Francisco. Um caminho belo, mas nem sempre ideal, marcado por acertos e erros, luzes e sombras. Caminho de ideias, doutrinas, expectativas, sentimentos, fé, vida. Um itinerário que certamente ajudará a compreender melhor a própria missão da Igreja e como os batizados (e, de modo particular, os comunicadores católicos) são chamados a atuar na missão de comunicar o Evangelho, especialmente na cultura da comunicação e na sociedade em rede." (Descrição da editora de livros)
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"O livro busca oferecer um caminho de compreensão das mudanças humanas, culturais, comunicacionais e teológicas que a realidade atual traz como desafio e oportunidade para a catequese. A reflexão é dividida em seis eixos temáticos: Cultura Digital, Ciberteologia, Gerações Digitais, Cibergra
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a, Missão Evangelizadora e Catequese Digital. Para colocar as ideias em prática, no final de cada capítulo há sugestões de atividades chamadas de “Laboratório do Diálogo”, expressão retirada do Novo Diretório para a Catequese (2020). Assim, esta obra deseja dar ao leitor os alicerces fundamentais para construir uma experiência de encontro catequético no ambiente físico e digital, que possa se adaptar à realidade de cada comunidade e grupo de catequese. Catequese digital: por onde começar? é o pontapé inicial para uma nova pedagogia catequética, aberta ao aprimoramento contínuo, caracterizada por interatividade, participação e diálogo." (Descrição da editora de livros)
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"The content of the book is organized into four sections. The first three sections are essays recounting real-world experiences of pastoral agents. These essays are roughly divided into three sub-groups. The first group of essays focus on the parish setting and the ministries that each parish attemp
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ted to implement in response to the crisis. The second group of essays highlight the education and formation ministry, which includes both catechism teaching and other educational settings such as theology schools and formation houses. The third group of essays primarily depict outreach ministries such as those with the poor, migrants, and other marginalized groups. The pastoral workers carrying out these ministries may do so in context of a parish/diocesan setting or as part of a nonparochial program. The final section, comprised of five essays are responses to the experiences presented in the previous three sections. The aim of this section is to dialogue with the experiences recounted in the essays originating from a variety of countries around the world. Some of the issues that the writers of the responses were asked to consider include presenting theological insights gained from these experiences; lessons to be learned from what has been shared; the understanding of “pastoral creativity” in the contemporary world; and implications that these experiences hold for the post-pandemic Church." (Preface, page viii-ix)
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"This eBook provides a follow-up conversation with key contributors from The Distanced Church, published in April 2020, which explored how church leaders were responding and adapting to the need move their traditional services online during the first lockdown of the covid-19 pandemic. Revisiting the
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Distanced Church offers not only a "then and now" reflection on how pastors and scholar see the evolving relationship between the church and digital media one year later after the global migration of the church online. It also provides a unique look into the long term implications of these technology choices and experimentation on the church, how leaders and scholars are reflecting on the present-future of digital ministry, and the areas in need of further theological reflection due to these changes." (Abstract)
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