religion

SUBJECT & OBJECTIVES : The enhancement and progress of Uganda's higher education system necessitate a foundational integration of religion and spirituality, the vital components that uphold the interests and dignity of Ugandan citizens. This research aims to scrutinize the profound effects of a religious and spiritual-based higher education system on both individuals and the broader societal framework.   METHOD & FINDING : Employing a descriptive-analytical approach, this study conducts a comprehensive investigation into Uganda's higher education system through case studies and document analysis. Additionally, it explores the multifaceted dimensions of religion and spirituality within this context. The findings indicate a positive correlation between implementing a holistic religious and spiritual lifestyle and its constructive impact on the personal and communal aspects of Ugandan citizens' lives within the higher education sphere.   CONCLUSION : Uganda's higher education system faces challenges that significantly impact individual and societal prosperity, leading to widespread criticisms and skepticism. Consequently, it has garnered low scores both locally and internationally. The cultivation of a lifestyle guided by religious and spiritual principles such as freedom, dignity, equality, and justice demonstrates a beneficial influence on the lives of Ugandans. Therefore, integrating religion and spirituality within higher education is a potential avenue to positively transform individual trajectories and societal paradigms, fostering the emergence of independent, esteemed, and morally grounded Ugandan citizens.

Many people travel in search of life-altering experiences, which, in the form of epiphanies, lead to a profound and positive transformation in their daily lives. This paper focuses on the intersections of religion, spirituality, and wellness, and how similar experiences in these areas can be interpreted through viewing people through the lens of the human “soul”. After briefly defining religion, spirituality, and wellness, attention is turned to the medicalization of religion and spirituality in the form on wellness. The relationships between the soul, spiritual health, and travel are then briefly discussed before concluding.

According to The Phenomenology of Spirit , the religion and philosophy are considered as important stages of the history of consciousness, and the absolute spirit is to become self-conscious of itself, as spirit, in the process of genesis of these two stages. The central issue of the present article is answering the following questions: “What relationship does Hegel establish between delicacies of religion and philosophy?” “Are religion and philosophy considered, in his thought, as double truths for each of which separate realms exist or these two are different stages of one single truth that express the spirit’s self-consciousness of itself in two stages?” To answer these questions, the writer attempts to show, through a descriptive-analytical method, how Hegel offers a theoretical explanation for substituting the image of national and ethnic religion for its traditional image by making the absolute affair to the ethnic spirit. Besides, it shows how Hegel – unlike the transcendental philosophy and exalted philosophy – on the one hand turns God and absolute spirit from non-understandable ideas to cognitive and conceptual ones, and on the other hand, removes – in this way – the duality of the realm between religion and philosophy and establishes an internal relationship between them. Through creating a dialectic relationship between religion and philosophy, he finds the possibility to remove the contrast between the myth and the realm of systematic knowledge. And by making it close to the framework of system of knowledge, he introduces the myth not in contrast to rational knowledge, but as the outset of the way whose truth the rational knowledge is going to explain.

 Religion has always been an inseparable component of political, social, and cultural life of Iranian people. Democracy as a western phenomenon has also been theoretically and in spoken as well as written form publicized in Iran for 100 years. The present article is an attempt to show to what extent religion has served democracy in Iran and vice versa. Elaborating on the type of interaction between religion and democracy in Iran, this article concludes that religion has believed democracy more than the latter having served the former. As a result, if religion had not entered the field of politics in Iran, it was quite likely that there would not have been any manifestations of democracy here.

The idea of religious democracy as emerging from the thinking style of leaders of the Islamic republic, is going to create an ideal relationship between democracy and religion. The present paper will explain the religious democracy in the ideologies of leaders of the Islamic republic of Iran (Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei), within three theoretical, principles and components of religious democracy, and practical realization principles of religious democracy areas. In the thoughts of Imam Khomeini and ayatollah Khamenei there is a firm link between religion and politics, and democracy originates from religion. Since democracy is in the length of God's leadership, and people have chosen religion as their democracy framework, the link between Islam and democracy materializes. The leaders of the Islamic republic believe in human dignity and in the role of public participation of all men and women in realization of democracy. For them, participation in elections and political issues is both, a right, and an obligation. Thus, it can be claimed that elections have a key position in the realization of democracy. In fact, even the protector of the Islamic juristics who in the thought of Shiism and during the absence of Imam Zaman is in charge of religious affairs is elected through the votes of the Constituent Assembly (who are elected by people). Therefore, in the thoughts of leaders of the Islamic republic there is a link between the components and bases of Islam and democracy.

In security studies school, there are different viewpoints toward religious and its role in domestic and international security systems. From Peace of Westphalia until beginning of 21 century, many experts has thought Talking about the role of religious is meaningless. After 9/11, most politicians were talking about Islamic terrorism. At this time, there are two types of role for Islam in the field of security: first in Daesh as a big terrorist organization that create insecurity in Iraq and second in Hashd al-Sha’bi as a big volunteer organization that try to make Iraq more secure. This paper discuss these two different perspectives on the role of Islam in security.

The relationship between religion and politics is the most important issue that has nowadays engulfed the minds of many theorists of political science. This issue becomes more important when it comes to the phenomenon of Islamic Government (State). In the present world, there are many different interpretations of Islam. Some traditionally believe in the religion’s wide-ranging intervention in politics and some believe in the non-intervention of religion in politics based on the human experience. Theorization on the realm of the presence of religion in politics has entered a new stage. The present research sought to answer the following question: “How religion plays a role in the politics?” Answering the research question, the hypothesis is that the Islamic law, based on the human needs and the epistemological source of revelation, with a maximally reading and interpretation of Islam and in the refuge of the divine theory of the state, has developed a new concept called the “Political Islam”, which is considered the evolved form of the divine theory of government.

Due to its specific location, the Persian Gulf has been at the center of attention throughout Iran’s history. Apart from commercial ships that passed through this strategic waterway, the Persian Gulf turned into a major point for the emergence and export of various thoughts and religions from one place to another in the region and beyond. In addition to historical texts, burial practices and rites seem important enough to evaluate and assess religious tendencies of the people who lived in this area. Among these rituals, those belonging to Zoroastrians on the edge of the Persian Gulf are of immense importance, which include some known samples found in Khark Island, Siraf Port, and Bushehr’s Shoghab. Man-made caves located on the Persian Gulf shores near the Parsian (=Gavbandi) next to cultural remnants of Islamic periods called “Javad Al-Aemeh Fishing Port” near the Bostanu Village help us know this kind of architecture. It seems that Bostanu caves served as rock-cut tombs and were included in the burial tradition of the Sassanian period that was also used in the Islamic period. Also, the location of Bostanu can be matched with the ancient Apsaneh and take its history back to the era of Alexander of Macedonia.  

For years, various researchers, including theologians, cultural anthropologists, linguists, and archaeologists, have been studying the Zoroastrian religion. These studies provide valuable insights into this religion and those who believe in it. However, there are still researchers who are trying to shed light on the sometimes-unclear aspects of this religion. In the past, researchers focused solely on historical and religious texts to express their views on this subject. Today, archaeological excavations and previous researches assist in shedding new light on this religion. One of the most important books in this regard that uses historical and religious texts and archaeological findings is Zoroastrianism: An Introduction by Jenny Rose. This book was published in 2011 by I. B. Tauris Publisher. 

SUBJECT & OBJECTIVES: The emergence of the epistemic system of modernism and its epistemological requirements has caused Eastern societies, including the Islamic world, conflicts such as the conflict between religion and development and efforts to resolve it. This research aims to explain the pattern of the new Islamic civilization by emphasizing the views of Muẓaffar ‘Iqbāl from the book Islam and Science. Also, most Muslim thinkers view the relationship between Islam and its efficiency in new scientific topics, including development, as positive and admirable.METHOD & FINDING:  Using the method of qualitative analysis and referring to his books, essays, and other thinkers, it has been found that the Islamic scientific tradition began at the time of the Prophet. Additionally, Islamic scientists have continued this movement throughout history with ups and downs and have rejected the discussion of conflict that has been raised by Westerners, especially Goldzihar's theory which denied the connection between Islam and science.CONCLUSION:  According to Muẓaffar ‘Iqbāl, Islam is a comprehensive religion and these views and scientific theories are always changing and can be modified. Therefore, he does not consider them comparable to Islamic texts. In Muẓaffar ‘Iqbāl 's view, the Islamic tradition, relying on the approach of complementarity, can create and guide a comprehensive civilization and provide a pattern of progress in the new era.

The post-black playwright, Marcus Gardley has been concerned with the concept of African American identity as defined within the nexus of diverse socio-cultural elements. This study explores the role of religion as an integral and indispensable constituent of African American identity in three of Gardley’s plays, namely, And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi, The House That Will Not Stand, and A Wolf in Snake Skin Shoes, while considering the relevant cultural and sociological studies on the role of religion in African American communities. Drawing upon the conception of identity in the framework of African American criticism, the focus of this paper is on Gardley’s intricate portrayal of the function of church and religious beliefs in shaping black identity. It is argued that Gardley’s insightful and multilayered depiction of religion in his drama delineates a rather complex and paradoxical function where African American identity both benefits from, and bears the negative impacts of, religiosity. This study reveals that, in Gardley’s plays, Christianity sometimes acts as a soothing balm to African Americans who have for long fought not only racial discrimination but also collective and individual traumas in various stages of their lives, as in the cases of Free, Maud Lynn and Miss Ssippi. In some cases, however, a type of Christianity promoted by the black church is presented as an obstacle in the way of some African Americans’ recognition of their true identity, as observed in the case of Gumper.

This paper discusses the role of religions and specifically, religious leaders, in peacebuilding. To achieve the purpose, in the first place, the authors shed light on the controversial issue among scholars perceiving religion more commonly as a source of conflict, or rather than  a tool for peacebuilding. Accepting the constructive and productive role of religions in general, and Islam in particular, in peacebuilding, the paper also explores the role of concepts such as forgiveness, patience, and human dignity in peacebuilding. Having applied this conceptual framework, this article studies peacebuilding in post-war Iraq. The findings revealed that the role of religious leaders (Marjaiah), mainly Ayatollah Sistani, has been significant in the process of peacebuilding in Iraq. He has played a crucial role in this process through the revival of human dignity in light of public will, pursuing justice in terms of the Constitution, self-restraint as a basis for political stability and, religionization of forgiveness and tolerance. Data is accumulated through content analysis of Ayatollah Sistani’s speeches and Fatwas.

Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali is one of the most important thinkers of the Seljuk period in Iran. Ghazali’s Thought, based on his works, is very wide-ranging in various fields of religious sciences. At the beginning of his scientific life, he wrote a book entitled “Maqasid al Falasifa” (The Aims of Philosophers), but in the final period of his research, he wrote the “Tahafut al-Falasifah” (The Incoherence of the Philosophers) and joined the opponents of philosophy, in which he expressed the contradictions of philosophers. Consequently, many thinkers believe that he is not only against philosophy but also against reason, and as a result reach the conflict between reason and religion or the sharia of religion.This article examines the question of whether there is a conflict between reason and sharia in Ghazali's thought? Does al-Ghazali mean the philosophical views of philosophers only those that are incompatible with the Shari'a? And what should be done if there seems to be a contradiction? This article tries to address these questions by referring to Ghazali's intellectual works.