The Psychological Outcome of Religious Coping with Stressful Life Events in a Swiss Sample of Church Attendees

Background: Recent research suggested thatreligious coping, based on dispositional religiousness and spirituality (R/S), is an important modulating factor in the process of dealing with adversity. In contrast to the United States, the effect of R/S on psychological adjustment to stress is a widely unexplored area in Europe. Methods: We examined a Swiss sample of 328 church attendees in the aftermath of stressful life events to explore associations of positive or negative religious coping with the psychological outcome. Applying a cross-sectional design, we used Huber’s Centrality Scale to specify religiousness and Pargament’s measure of religious coping (RCOPE) for the assessment of positive and negative religious coping. Depressive symptoms and anxiety as outcome variables were examined by the Brief Symptom Inventory. The Stress-Related Growth Scale and the Marburg questionnaire for the assessment of well-being were used to assess positive outcome aspects. We conducted Mann-Whitney tests for group comparisons and cumulative logit analysis for the assessmentof associations of religious coping with our outcome variables. Results: Both forms of religious coping were positively associated with stress-related growth (p < 0.01). However, negative religious coping additionally reduced well-being (p = 0.05, β = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.27–0.99) and increased anxiety (p = 0.02, β = 1.94, 95% CI = 1.10–3.39) and depressive symptoms (p = 0.01, β = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.27–4.06). Conclusions: The effects of religious coping on the psychological adjustment to stressful life events seem relevant. These findings should be confirmed in prospective studies.

Muslimische Theologen und Philosophen im Wett- und Widerstreit um die Ratio - Ein Thesenpapier zum Diktum der 'Vernunftreligion' Islam im 11.-14. Jahrhundert

In this paper I investigate the vivid discussions among Muslim theologians and philosophers about the relationship of reason and religion from the 11th to the 14th centuries – which continue to be used as points of reference today. I argue that the idea of Islam as a religion which is in harmony with reason was one of the key postulates of the dominant thinkers of that period, regardless of their school of thought or their attitude towards literal or allegorical ways of understanding the Coran. In consequence, religion has been rationalized or even intellectualized to a high degree while philosophy in turn has been deeply coloured by religious images and concepts. Yet the understanding of religion as well as of reason and its instruments has been so heterogeneous that rationalization could bear very different, even conflicting meanings, thereby undermining the postulated harmony. In seven theses I foreground several striking similarities and differences between theologians and philosophers who diverge in their usage and understanding of reason as well as of the nature of religion.

Religiosity, family orientation, and life satisfaction of adolescents in four countries

This study examined the rarely investigated interplay between religiosity, family orientation, and life satisfaction of adolescents across four countries with a Christian tradition and different religious contexts.A mediation relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction through family orientation moderated by the country context of religiosity was examined. In a sample of 1,077 adolescents from France (n = 172), Germany (n = 270), Poland (n = 348), and the United States (n = 287), we found that in all cultures, religiosity had a positive impact on adolescents’ family orientation, which was in turn related to a higher life satisfaction.This link was stronger in cultures with a high overall religiosity (Poland and the United States) as compared to one of the two cultures with the lowest importance of religion (Germany).

Norm and Anomaly in the Jewish Life of Jesus (Toledot Yeshu)

The Toledoth Yeshu, the “Generation,” or “Life of Jesus,” have been described as an anti-Gospel, or a parody of the Gospel. This protean tradition, witnessed in more than hundred manuscripts and printed editions, offers a “counter-history” of the life of Jesus and the origins of Christianity. According to this mischievous narrative Jesus was an illegitimate child turned charlatan, and his disciples a bunch of violent and senseless rogues who continued to stir up trouble in Israel even following their leader’s shameful hanging. The Toledoth Yeshu is the story of an anomaly (Jesus and the birth of Christianity). It is also a story about confusion: marital confusion, social confusion, and religious confusion. As an exercise in “historical imagination,” the Toledoth Yeshu offers a narrative of religions compared, and a reflection on social and religious borders, on their instability and fragility, and ultimately on their necessity. The present paper will explore the normative dimension of the Toledoth Yeshu tradition: the way the “disorder of things” the narrative relates also conveys a powerful discourse on social and religious norms. We will also seek to map this tradition in the broader context of medieval Jewish discussions on Jesus (particularly Maimonides) as a “case” in the religious history of mankind, addressing issues of false prophecy, religious deviation, transgression, and heresy.

Reactive Co-Radicalization: Religious Extremism as Mutual Dicontent

Extremist rhetoric and behaviour, including violence, emanating from those fearing and opposed to Islamic extremism—and typically generalising that to Islam or Muslims—is undeniable. Equally, there is evidence of Muslim rhetoric that fires up fears of a threatening West and antipathy to religious ‘others’ as damned infidels, including Christians and Jews who are otherwise regarded as co-religionists—as ‘peoples of the Book’. Mutual discontent and antipathy abound. On the one hand, Islamic extremism provokes a reactionary extremism from parts, at least, of the non-Muslim world; on the other hand, Muslim extremism appears often in response to the perception of an aggressive and impositional colonising non-Muslim world. ‘Reactive Co-Radicalization’, I suggest, names this mutual rejection and exclusionary circle currently evident, in particular, with respect to many Muslim and non-Muslim communities. This article discusses reactive co-radicalization as a hermeneutical perspective on religious extremism with particular reference to two European cases.