This paper focuses on the conflicts that arise in relation to “the place” of religious symbols in the public sphere, and, specifically, in State schools. Such conflicts, I believe, do not only reflect most of the dilemmas that liberal democracies face in the attempt to reconcile constitutionalism and religion through adherence to secularism in the public place—they actually challenge the very l...

The current study explored gender differences regarding spirituality by comparing the relative frequency with which male (n = 85) and female (n = 103) professional chaplains experience various facets of the spiritual experience. The women in the sample reported experiencing five of the seven spiritual constructs examined significantly more often than men, including the need for (1) belonging, (...

This article introduces social workers to the beliefs and practices associated with Paganism, Witchcraft, and Wicca and describes how social workers can help to create a welcoming environment for children and youths belonging to these religious minority groups. Drawing on social science research, social work literature, and a case example, the author presents suggestions for working with Pagan ...

This paper has evolved out of a series of community projects that I have initiated in Syria since 1997. My hypothesis is that a knowledge of the archaeological remains and religious traditions of a region bring local people more in touch with their cultural roots and encourage a sense of belonging. This is particularly the case when a religious minority feels disenfranchised by the majority gro...

This paper examines relationships between religion and two forms of homonegativity across 43 European countries using a bivariate response binary logistic multilevel model. The model analyzes effects of religious believing, belonging and practice on two response variables: a) a moral rejection of homosexuality as a practice and b) intolerance toward homosexuals as a group. The findings indicate...

Religion, in both the sense of the institution and religious practices, is embedded in society the social forms of religious life are fully integrated into the structures of society. Secularization is a source of great debate, and is a prominent feature in the sociology of religion literature. The need to examine the extent to which Catholicism in Ireland has been affected by the secular moveme...

In this paper we present the Per-Fide project, aimed at the construction of parallel corpora mapping the Portuguese language to six other languages English, Russian, French, Italian, German and Spanish in various domains including literary, journalistic and religious texts. First we will focus on the corpus design criteria and its main features, particularly those that distinguish this corpus f...

BACKGROUND HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination are significant determinants of HIV transmission in the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), where the adult HIV/AIDS prevalence is 2.5%. T&T is a spiritually-aware society and over 104 religious groups are represented. This religious diversity creates a complex social environment for the transmission of a sexually transmitt...