Political authorities have historically had a mysterious tendency towards theocracy, exemplified by their religious titles, close affiliations with religious figures, or even divine powers. To examine theocracy over time, we constructed two unique datasets, one that includes information on the political and religious characteristics of over five hundred polities observed in history and another ...

Requests by patients or their families for treatment which the patient's physician considers to be "inappropriate" are becoming more frequent than refusals of treatment which the physician considers appropriate. Such requests are often based on the patient's religious beliefs about the attributes of God (sovereignty, omnipotence), the attributes of persons (sanctity of life), or the individual'...

How do Christians, Muslims and Hindus interpret religions other than their own? The theoretical framework of the research is models of religious pluralism developed by scholars in the field of theology of religions, especially Knitter. The authors pay special attention to pluralistic models, which have so far remained rather unclear. Special attention is paid to gender as a factor influencing l...

INTRODUCTION This paper explores definitions of death from the perspectives of several world and indigenous religions, with practical application for health care providers in relation to end of life decisions and organ and tissue donation after death. It provides background material on several traditions and explains how different religions derive their conclusions for end of life decisions fro...

Animal welfare has become a growing concern affecting acceptability of agricultural systems in many countries around the world. An earlier Judeo-Christian interpretation of the Bible (1982) that dominion over animals meant that any degree of exploitation was acceptable has changed for most people to mean that each person has responsibility for animal welfare. This view was evident in some ancie...

Moral consciousness is an undeniable fact of human experience. The moral sensibility is something essential for the peaceful society and the work. Even gods are believed to incarnate to restore righteousness and peace in the society. Down through the centuries, many religious teachers, and philosophers were interested in the rational ground of morality. The caste duties of the Hindus prescribed...

In An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent, John Hick presents an impressive theory of religious pluralism. His theory is intended to explain how it may be that all of the great religious traditions are essentially true despite their apparent contradictions. Hick points out that there are many religions in the world, each of which seems to be incompatible with others....

Japanese Religion, in general, refers to the multiplicity of religions in Japan. Different religious traditions coexist in Japan for centuries after centuries without breaking interreligious harmony among them. The present work especially focuses the Traditional Japanese Religions as major elements of culture that are basically a mixture of folk religions, early Shinto, Confucianism, Daoism and...