Journal of Religion and Society 2024

The Church of Christ, Scientist offers a spiritual practice centered around metaphysical healing. This study applied a media framing analysis to stories in church periodicals published during COVID-19. The review identified four types of metaphysical practice, four communication strategies, and six authority figures. Most stories reflected a calm, non-confrontive approach consistent with the social order of Christian Science. Several interesting exceptions were noted. Study findings add to the body of literature regarding Christianity’s response to COVID-19 and contribute to knowledge of a church that tightly controls its public communication and has sometimes struggled to adapt in the modern world.

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.

Haridas was an early nineteenth century Hindu hatha yogi who reportedly survived interments for months at a stretch. His incredible feats had received wide publicity in Europe and America. Through a survey of nineteenth and early twentieth century writings on Haridas’s so-called “live burials,” this paper scrutinizes how the West tried to make sense of such a peculiar ascetic practice. It emerges that Western conceptualization of this ascetic practice was informed both by colonial discourse and power relationship as well as by the prevailing anxiety about premature burials. The paper reveals that religious and cultural practices acquire new meanings when lifted out of their proper contexts. By highlighting the ways in which Haridas’s samadhis were (mis)conceptualized abroad, it ventures into a hitherto uncharted territory. Of particular interest is the equation of the samadhis with human hibernation. The paper concludes by explaining why Haridas was subsequently forgotten in both India and abroad, and why he needs to be remembered in our present times.

Transitioning from a high-demand religion such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS; Mormon) is a complex process that includes many losses and personal evolutions. Among those losses is a transition from values taught by the LDS Church to personally identified values. Coupled with this, the period of emerging adulthood is generally a time of self-exploration and change. This qualitative study explores the relationship between reasons for leaving the LDS Church and subsequent value transitions among 24 emerging adults (18-29) who had transitioned or were transitioning from the Church. The findings from this study indicate a change in value priority for individuals who have left the LDS Church. Through qualitative analysis, responses show that individuals’ reasons for leaving the Church can relate to the values’ priority movements. The findings emphasize the need for mental health professionals to assist individuals in affirming and understanding their values and personal identities after disaffiliation.

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.