Journal of Religion & Society

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    Prisms of Palestine: Palestinian Muslim Narratives beyond Reductive Caricatures and Conflict Dichotomies
    (Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University, 2024) Hajj, Nadya; Lybarger, Loren D.
    Narrative simplification of Islam has accompanied the on-going Nakba, or “Catastrophe,” of Palestinian occupation and dispossession. Narrative comprises a closed coherent structure that internally refracts external events thereby illuminating the world and creating a shared identity that motivates action. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork examples, this article challenges the narrative reduction of Islam by showing how Islamic liturgical practices and conceptions of identity generate diverse Palestinian self-understandings amidst a fragmented geography. In so doing, it provides insight into how Islamic practices can generate diverse narratives that may or may not track with dominant discourses about Palestinians. It also shows how these practices (and narratives) can sustain cohesion across political, religious/secular, geographic, and even ethnic/national differences within and beyond conditions of dispersion, occupation, and dispossession.
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    Consequences of Islamophobia: A Systematic Review
    (Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University, 2024) De Nolf, Ans; d’Haenens, Leen
    Far too often, the subtle yet pervasive effects of Islamophobia on Muslims remain largely overlooked within the realm of academic research. The objective of this systematic review is to bridge this significant gap by scrutinizing peer-reviewed studies published from 1990 to 2022. Through a thorough screening process, we assessed 2,402 titles, ultimately including thirty-seven articles in our comprehensive analysis. Guided by the 2020 PRISMA framework, our investigation delves into the multifaceted consequences of Islamophobia on various dimensions of well-being, encompassing mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, as well as tangible and behavioral outcomes. Our analysis reveals that existing literature primarily focuses on the individual consequences of Islamophobia, including mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, and social and economic outcomes. Additionally, we identify significant communal impacts on Muslim communities as a whole, such as reduced social belonging and cohesion.
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    Are African Traditional Religions Salvific?: Can An African Be Saved?
    (Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University, 2024) Orji, Cyril
    This paper argues that Christianity, Catholicism especially, still needs to answer the question regarding how salvation is mediated to our African ancestors. Drawing from Karl Rahner’s theory and going beyond it, the paper suggests a heuristic: a radically-relativized version of “anonymous Christian.” The paper extrapolates from it to demonstrate that the mass movement of contemporary Africans to Christianity is not properly “conversion,” but “Christianization” made possible by the supernatural existential element in African Traditional Religions (ATRs).
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    The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Lockdown Protocols of Social Distancing: Insights into the Church’s Role during Bereavements in Zimbabwe
    (Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University, 2024) Bowa, Makomborero Allen
    The COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown protocols of social distancing disrupted mourning and grieving processes across the African landscape forcing the Church to devise mechanisms to ensure that it remained contextually relevant in this highly restrictive environment. This disruption plunged Christian communities, and bereaving families into a state of cognitive dissonance. Christian communities in Southern African countries such as Zimbabwe faced serious challenges relating to the effective execution of the important role of supporting and consoling the bereaved. This paper reflects on the efforts and strategies that most Christian communities adopted to support bereaved families through engaging Old Testament texts that shed light on social distancing and quarantining. It sheds light on how Christian communities demonstrated resilience and adaptability in the wake of the highly disruptive environment created by the pandemic through the use of social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook and other digital communication platforms such as Zoom, television, and radio.
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    When Christians Do Not Like Other Christians: Outgrouping Between Progressive and Conservative Protestants
    (Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University, 2024) Yancey, George
    Social identity theory indicates that social groups reveal values they accept and reject with their perceptions of outgroups. Previous research suggests that progressive Protestants reject conservative Christians due to political considerations while conservative Protestants’ particularism leads them to reject progressive Christians. The general purpose of this study is to investigate the rationale of progressive and conservative Protestants to outgroup other Christians. Using qualitative analysis of open-ended questions from two data sets, a survey of Protestant college teachers (n = 181), and snowball convenience sampling of Protestants (n = 113) this study finds that conservative Protestants envision progressive Christians as another type of Christian while progressive Protestants question the moral character of conservative Christians. Conservative Christians do not apply a “black sheep” label to progressive Protestants, but progressive Protestants may possess identity subversion that substantiates the split between progressive and conservative Protestants. Conservative Protestants generally only rejected progressive Christians when seen as not faithful to Christianity.