[pt] As igrejas batistas possuem características singulares, como o princípio da autonomia da igreja local. Cada congregação é uma unidade autônoma, ligada às demais pelo vínculo denominacional, através da Convenção Batista Brasileira, Convenções estaduais e Associações regionais. A autonomia da igreja local favorece a diversidade cúltica, pois cada igreja é livre para adotar o seu estilo. Embora seja um belo e essencial princípio batista, a autonomia favorece a pluralidade litúrgica, muitas vezes com a daninha influência de elementos que comprometem a centralidade cristológica no culto, como a liturgia neopentecostal, as literaturas de mercado e a ausência de reflexão teológica. O conhecimento da Teologia do Culto Cristão, mesmo em tradições diferentes, que até mesmo antecederam à tradição batista, é um caminho necessário para o resgate da centralidade cristológica no culto. Esse resgate das riquezas da tradição cúltica em diálogo com as igrejas batistas permitirá uma leitura justa e coerente da denominação batista, oferecendo respostas para os possíveis problemas de esvaziamento da centralidade cristológica no culto. Uma vez que o universo batista brasileiro, ou até mesmo fluminense, é muito amplo, para fins de análise da realidade litúrgica das igrejas batistas, com dados advindos de momento empírico na pesquisa, fez-se um corte geográfico na região litorânea fluminense, focando a pesquisa exclusivamente com as igrejas vinculadas à Associação Batista Litorânea Fluminense. A pesquisa, que alcançou membros de aproximadamente 90 por cento das referidas igrejas, além de pastores e seminaristas (estudantes de Teologia), revelou realidades que confirmam a necessidade da proposta de resgate da centralidade cristológica no culto, sendo fonte de pesquisa e reflexão para as igrejas batistas. Embora as igrejas batistas não adotem nenhum calendário ou manual litúrgico, mesmo diante do princípio de autonomia de cada congregação local, há uma fé batista , há uma tradição que perdura gerações. Seria um prejuízo às igrejas batistas e seus cultos virarem as costas ao assunto. O objetivo não é uniformizar o culto batista, até mesmo porque isso feriria frontalmente o jeito batista de ser . Pelo contrário, o objetivo é oferecer respostas, é dar subsídio para uma reflexão teológica consistente, capaz de fomentar valores imprescindíveis para o culto verdadeiramente cristológico e expurgar influências negativas. / [en] Baptist churches hold unique characteristics, like the autonomy principle of local churches. Every single congregation is an autonomous unit, bound to the other ones by the denominational tie, through Brazilian Baptist Convention, state Conventions and regional Associations. The local church autonomy benefits the service diversity since each church is free to adopt its own style. Although it may be a beautiful and essencial Baptist principle, the autonomy favors liturgical plurality, often with harmful influence elements that puts into risk the christological centricity at services, like the neopentecostal liturgy, the gospel literatures available on the market and the lack of theological reflection. The knowledge of the Christian service theology, even in different traditions, including those ones that preceded the Baptist tradition, is a necessary way to rescue the christological centricity at services. This rescue of the service tradition wealth together with the Baptist churches will allow a fair and coherent reading of the Baptist denomination, offering aswers to the possibles problems of the emptying in the service christological centricity. Once the Brazilian Baptist universe, or even the Rio de Janeiro one, is very wide, with the purpose of analysing the liturgical reality of Baptist churches, with data resulted from an empirical moment in the research, it was made a geographical cut in the coastal region of Rio de Janeiro, focusing exclusively on the churches linked to the Baptist Association of Rio de Janeiro coastal cities. The research, that reached members of nearly 90 percent of those churches, besides pastors and seminarists (Theology students), revealed realities that confirm the necessity of the proposed rescue of the service christological centricity, becoming source of research and reflection to Baptist churches. Although Baptist churches do not adopt any calendar or liturgical manual, even in the face of the autonomy principle of each local congregation, there is a Baptist faith , there is a tradition that lasts generations. It would be a loss to Baptist churches and their services to ignore the matter. The objective is not to uniform the Baptist service, even because this would completely harm the way of being Baptist. On the contrary, the objective is to offer answers, to give support to a solid theological reflection, capable of fomenting essencial values to a true christological service and expurgate negative influences.

For centuries, music has played an important part in religion. One author has said, "....in religion music always has been a means of reaching the depths of the human heart, even when spoken or written words fail." The Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks and Romans all used music in their ceremonies. The Hebrews used trumpets, cymbals and harps as part of their worship, and some of the most outstanding hymns were written by their King David. The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 5119-20 advised to "speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and sacred songs. Sing praise to God with all your hearts, "2 During the Dark Ages, music was kept alive by the church, and during the Renaissance much of the outstanding music was written for the church. Down through the classical period in music until the present, a great deal of the best music has been written from a religious impetus

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As scholarly interest in family religiosity has grown, scholars have called for a closer look at proximal measures of religiosity that are more connected to the individual and familial daily experience (Mahoney et al., 1999). The purpose of this paper is to explore in detail how religion and family religious rituals relate to, interface with, and affect the day-to-day activity of family life. It includes qualitative analysis of interviews with highly religious parents and children in 67 families that belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Grounded theory was employed to analyze the data and a conceptual model was developed to illustrate how this particular sample experienced religious integration. Findings suggest that for this sample, religion was more than an external influence; it was viewed as an integral part of one's individual, familial, structural, and social systems. This finding challenges traditional human ecological theory which suggests that religion is merely an external influence. Findings also indicate that religious rituals were viewed as being an important part of everyday life for the majority of this sample. Despite challenges of religious rituals, participants indicated that they experienced positive individual and familial outcomes when participating in family religious rituals. No negative outcomes were reported. Comparative analysis between participants in the higher and lower overall family functioning groups suggests that religious ritual properties and perceptions differed for these two groups. Those in the higher family functioning group mentioned more frequently that religious rituals were an enjoyable part of family life while those in the lower family functioning group mentioned more frequently they were motivated by a sense of duty to participate in these rituals. Other differences between these two groups are discussed. Though this sample allowed for a thick description of one particular culture to be produced, findings from this study cannot be generalized beyond highly religious LDS families. Despite limitations, the overwhelming perception that religious integration and religious rituals enhanced individual and family life has potentially far reaching implications. These findings should be strongly considered and applied to future research, clinical practice, and family life education.

The paper argues that the distinction between religious and secular realms of society is not as clear-cut in modern societies as it appears in theories of functional and institutional differentiation. The data used are mainly from China with a short excursion to the United States. The starting point is ancestor worship, which is a central element of traditional Chinese religion. The significance of ancestor worship in Chinese history and culture is briefly explained to illustrate on the one hand its central importance as a ritual practice and on the other hand the ambiguities of interpretation. On this basis, some theoretical considerations about the existence of ancestors are presented. This is followed by a report on contemporary temple festivals focusing on the worship of Fuxi, a mythic figure considered to be the first ancestor of the Chinese people. The next step is the description of official state rituals devoted to the worship of the very same mythological hero in contemporary China. Against this backdrop, the last part of the paper discusses the theoretical questions of classification and distinguishing between the religious and the secular.

Thesis (Ph.D. (Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / The training to become a traditional healer has been under scrutiny because of the symptoms that are experienced during ancestral calling. Ancestral calling usually presents itself in the form of a mysterious physical or psychological illness that will not ordinarily respond to western treatment. The Eurocentric perspective interprets the symptoms of ancestral calling and the resultant process to become a traditional health practitioner as a manifestation of some psychological disturbance. The researcher embarked on a journey with traditional health practitioners to understand their lived experiences and explored the psychological meanings of Vhavenda ancestral calling with a view to identifying and documenting the psychological meanings embedded in this culturally entrenched practice. A qualitative research method located within the interpretative paradigm was used. A descriptive phenomenological research design was adopted to explore the lived experiences of traditional health practitioners who have gone through the process of ancestral calling. Both snowball and purposive sampling methods were used to recruit 17 participants until saturation was researched in the findings. The six major themes that emerged are: a) signs of ancestral calling; b) meaning attached to ancestral calling; c) help-seeking pathway following an ancestral call; d) responding to the ancestral call; e) roles of the master healer; and f) post training realities and experiences. The findings of the study revealed that there are several symptoms that are indicative that one has an ancestral calling. These symptoms are often misunderstood and misdiagnosed when interpreted from the Eurocentric perspective. However, accepting the ancestral calling and going through training is linked with identity formation. The findings also revealed that ancestral calling is a life-transforming and therapeutic experience and a journey of self realisation / South African Humanities Deans’ Association and the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences

At a time when mainline Protestant churches in America are concerned with stagnant or declining worship attendance (Duin, 2008) a better understanding of worshippers' motivations could help church leaders plan and create positive worship experiences (Katt & Trelstad, 2009). This study extends the scope of the previous research of Katt and Trelstad by employing a larger sample of purposively selected churches. It attempts to more clearly answer the following question more clearly: What types of incidents serve as motivator and de-motivator factors in the church worship service setting? A sample of 105 church members from thirty-eight churches participated in a survey, either in person or online. The results indicate that there are motivators and de-motivators for attendees of a church worship service which are specific to the context. This research could provide practical information for churches concerned about member motivation and further extend the scope of Herzberg’s theory into another context.

Thesis (M.A. (Divinity) -- University of Limpopo, 1991

No description available.

No description available.