Is it possible to talk about God without either misrepresentation or failing to assert anything of significance? The article begins by reviewing how, in attempting to answer this question, traditional theories of religious language have failed to sidestep both potential pitfalls adequately. After arguing that recently developed theories of metaphor seem better able to shed light on the nature o...

Through the example of contemporary Buddhist nationalist groups in Myanmar, this article draws attention to the cultural authorization of religio-political discourse. The symbolic power of a monk's pronouncements is amplified because of the cultural reverence attached to his vocation as a Buddhist monk, even without doctrinal references or ritual practices. A monk’s cultural position within Bur...

This paper explores neurotic and religious components of conversion and psychophysiological sequelae of Holocaust trauma in a child of concentration camp inmates. The patient is a 26-year-old married woman of orthodox Jewish faith, whose presenting symptom was noncyclic uterine bleeding. The uniqueness of the symptom is emphasized within the defensive use it represents of the ritual menstrual c...

Religious beliefs and institutions are central to Senegalese society and culture, and their outward and visible manifestations are omnipresent. A 2010 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study found that 98 percent of Senegalese surveyed said that religion is ‘very important’ in their daily lives.1 Contemporary roles of religious leaders and communities are intricately interwoven into society...

social development undoubtedly requires people participation in different domains. it seems without participation, we cannot achieve a people-centered, inclusive and sustainable social development. in the social development process, all citizens with various ethnic and religious interests are able to affect on all the social phenomena and variables, based on their competencies and mental capaci...

Sociologists know surprisingly little about the religious lives of adolescents in the United States. This article begins to redress that unfortunate lack of knowledge by examining descriptive findings on adolescent religious participation from three recent, reputable national surveys of American youth. We present descriptive statistics on three fundamental aspects of youth religious participati...