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Topic Review
Seongcheol
Seongcheol (April 6, 1912 – November 4, 1993) is the dharma name of a Korean Seon (Zen) Master. He was a key figure in modern Korean Buddhism, being responsible for significant changes to it from the 1950s to 1990s. Seongcheol was widely recognized in Korea as having been a living Buddha, due to his extremely ascetic lifestyle, the duration and manner of his meditation training, his central role in reforming Korean Buddhism in the post-World War II era, and the quality of his oral and written teachings.
  • 520
  • 12 Oct 2022
Topic Review
New Vrindaban
New Vrindaban is an unincorporated area and an ISKCON (Hare Krishna) intentional community located in Marshall County, West Virginia, United States, near Moundsville. The town consists of 1,204 acres (4.87 km2) (of which 0.1 km² is of water), and several building complexes, homes, apartment buildings, and businesses including the Sri Sri Radha Vrindaban Chandra Temple (RVC Temple) and Prabhupada's Palace of Gold. New Vrindaban was founded in 1968 under the direct guidance of A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder of ISKCON, by his disciple Kirtanananda Swami. It is named for the Indian city of Vrindavan.
  • 514
  • 31 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Pontifical Academy of Sciences
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences (Italian: Pontificia accademia delle scienze, Latin: Pontificia Academia Scientiarum) is a scientific academy of the Vatican City, established in 1936 by Pope Pius XI, and thriving with the blessing of the Papacy ever since. Its aim is to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences and the study of related epistemological problems. The Academy has its origins in the Accademia Pontificia dei Nuovi Lincei ("Pontifical Academy of the New Lynxes"), founded in 1847 as a more closely supervised successor to the Accademia dei Lincei ("Academy of Lynxes") established in Rome in 1603 by the learned Roman Prince, Federico Cesi (1585–1630), who was a young botanist and naturalist, and which claimed Galileo Galilei as its president. The Accademia dei Lincei survives as a wholly separate institution. The Academy of Sciences, one of the Pontifical academies at the Vatican in Rome, is headquartered in the Casina Pio IV in the heart of the Vatican Gardens. The academy holds a membership roster of the most respected names in 20th century science, including such Nobel laureates as Ernest Rutherford, Max Planck, Otto Hahn, Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Charles Hard Townes.
  • 512
  • 09 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Shenxian Zhuan
The Shenxian Zhuan, sometimes given in translation as the Biographies of the Deities and Immortals, is a hagiography of immortals and description of Chinese gods, partially attributed to the Daoist scholar Ge Hong (283-343). In the history of Chinese literature, the Shenxian Zhuan followed the Liexian Zhuan ("Collected Biographies the Immortals").
  • 500
  • 11 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Elan Vital
Elan Vital is the name shared by several organizations that support the work of Prem Rawat, a spiritual leader also known by the title "Maharaji". Independent Elan Vital organizations in several countries raise funds, organize speaking engagements by Prem Rawat and in some cases broadcast his public addresses. The "Divine Light Mission" in the United States changed its name to Elan Vital in 1983, by filing an entity name change. According to the Encyclopedia of American Religions, the mission was disbanded [when] Prem Rawat personally renounced the trappings of Indian culture and religion, to make his teachings independent of culture, beliefs and lifestyles. According to Glen Whittaker, a former spokesperson for the organization in the United Kingdom , Elan Vital no longer has any connection to its originally Hindu or Sikh religious background. The Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements states that Elan Vital insists that it is not a religion and that Maharaji's teachings are independent of culture and by no means bound to the traditions of India . Elan Vital, Inc. in the U.S. is registered as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. It has been labelled a "church" in reference to its tax status. Its 2005 articles of incorporation described its purpose as performing "religious, charitable and educational activities". The Elan Vital website states that Elan Vital ceased operations in 2010, and has been succeeded by new entities such as Words of Peace International, Inc.
  • 494
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Transcendence: My Spiritual Experiences with Pramukh Swamiji
Transcendence: My Spiritual Experiences with Pramukh Swamiji (June 2015) is the second last book written by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the eleventh President of India and a pioneering scientist. Co-authored by Professor Arun Tiwari and published by HarperCollins India, the book describes Kalam’s spiritual experiences with and reflections on Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the guru and spiritual leader of the BAPS Hindu organization. Kalam recounted the spiritual transformation he experienced during his fourteen-year association with Pramukh Swami, described the inspiration he obtained from Pramukh Swami’s leadership of BAPS, and expressed his vision for a society in which science and spirituality are fused. Kalam stated that he saw in Pramukh Swami “a true embodiment of transcendence,” and titled the book to reflect his belief that Pramukh Swami is gunatit, a term signifying transcendence of ephemeral qualities and the modes of nature.
  • 492
  • 29 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Jubilee (Christianity)
In Judaism and Christianity, the concept of the Jubilee is a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon. In the Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year (Hebrew: יובל‎ yūḇāl) is mentioned to occur every fiftieth year, during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. In Western Christianity, the tradition dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII convoked a holy year, following which ordinary jubilees have generally been celebrated every 25 or 50 years, with extraordinary jubilees in addition depending on need. Christian Jubilees, particularly in the Latin Church, generally involve pilgrimage to a sacred site, normally the city of Rome. The Catholic Church declared the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy for 2015–2016.
  • 483
  • 24 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Atash Behram
An Atash Behram (Fire of Victory) is the highest grade of a fire that can be placed in a Zoroastrian fire temple as an eternal flame, the other two lower graded fires are Atash Adaran and below Adaran is the Atash Dadgah- these three grades signify the degree of reverence and dignity these are held in. The establishment and consecration of the Atash Behram fire is the most elaborate of all the grades of fire. It involves the gathering of 16 different types of fire, including lightning, fire from a cremation pyre, fire from trades where a furnace is operated, and fires from the hearths as is also the case for the Atash Adaran. Each of the 16 fires is then subject to a purification ritual before it joins the others. A large team of priests are required for the purification and consecration ceremonies, which can take up to a year to complete. The religious significance of gathering purifying and consecrating several fires is to purify and “return back” to Ahura Mazda His first pure creation in its pristine form, to become a focus of worship and His eternal pure symbol, never allowed to go out. The sacred Udvada Atash Behram, the Fire temple at Udvada, for example, kindled in 721 AD in Sanjan, burns continually to this day, now in Udvada since 1741, and housed in a magnificent Persian style temple building since 1742
  • 480
  • 28 Sep 2022
Topic Review
The Sikh Awards
The world’s first annual Sikh Awards ceremony was held on October 10, 2010 as a tribute to the skills, achievements, and successes of the Sikh community. The event was organized by The Sikh Directory.
  • 476
  • 18 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Isra'iliyyat
In hadith studies, Isra'iliyyat (in Arabic: اسرائیلیات "of the Israelites") are narratives assumed to be of foreign import. Although indicating such stories develop from Jewish sources, narratives designated as Isra'iliyyat might also derive from other religions such as Christianity or Zoroastrianism. Isrā'īlīyāt are especially in modern times critizised as "unislamic", while they had been commonly used in pre-modern times. These narratives appear frequently in Qur'anic commentaries, Sufi narratives and history compilations. They are used to offer more detailed information regarding earlier prophets mentioned in the Bible and the Qur'an, stories about the ancient Israelites, and fables allegedly or actually taken from Jewish sources. Muslim scholars generally classify the narratives of the Isra'iliyyat into three categories:
  • 475
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Superintendent (Ecclesiastical)
Superintendent is a title for the head of an administrative division in some Protestant denominations. A superintendent is one who superintends (oversees) the work of less-senior clergy. The title took the place of bishop in Northern Germany and Scandinavia after the Protestant Reformation, since bishop (from Greek: ἐπίσκοπος, romanized: epískopos, lit. overseer) was associated with Roman Catholicism. It was also used in the early days of the Church of Scotland. Later, the title was adopted to describe clerical positions in the hierarchy of Methodist churches.
  • 474
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Hong Meng
Hong Meng, Hung Meng, or Hung Mung (simplified Chinese: 鸿蒙; traditional Chinese: 鴻蒙; pinyin: Hóngméng; Wade–Giles: Hung-meng), literally the Vast Mist, is a character in the Daoist text Zhuangzi and a metaphor for the "primordial world, primeval chaos" in Chinese creation myths. Like many Zhuangist names, Hong Meng is a word play, translated as "Mists-of-Chaos", "Vast Obscurity", "Big Concealment", "Vital Principle", "Natural Energy" and "Big Goose Dummy".
  • 468
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bible Study (Christian)
In Christian communities, Bible study is the study of the Bible by ordinary people as a personal religious or spiritual practice. Some denominations may call this devotion or devotional acts; however in other denominations devotion has other meanings. Bible study in this sense is distinct from biblical studies, which is a formal academic discipline.
  • 468
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Provost
A provost is a senior official in a number of Christian Churches.
  • 467
  • 25 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Kanjin
Kanjin (勧進, Kanjin) (or Kange) is a Japanese term for the many and various methods of a Buddhist monk to solicit donations. It generally indicates the recommendation or encouragement through chanted sutras. Solicited donations are usually intended for the establishment of new temples or statues or their renovations. Since the medieval age, Kanjin has come to mean "fund raising".
  • 461
  • 02 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Shanrendao
Shanrendao (善人道 "Way of the Virtuous Man") is a Confucian religious movement in northeast China. Its name as a social body is the Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue (万国道德会 Wànguó Dàodéhuì) or simply the Church of the Way and its Virtue (道德会 Dàodéhuì), which is frequently translated as the Morality Church. Shanrendao can be viewed as one of the best examples of the jiàohuà (教化 "spiritual transformation") movements. It is one of the most prominent religions of redemption of China , and was formally established as the Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue in Shandong in 1921 by Jiang Shoufeng (1875-1926), a member of the Confucian Church (孔教会 Kǒngjiàohuì) of Kang Youwei. Kang Youwei himself was the president of the church during the last year of his life. The movement was concerned with a reconstitution of morality, at a time in which people no longer understood what morality means because of the decline of religion. By the 1930s the religion had a strong presence in Manchuria, where it persists to the present day.:10 A great contribution came from Jiang Shoufeng's son, Jiang Xizhang (1907-2004), an intellectual prodigy who composed commentaries on the Confucian classics before the age of ten. Father and son composed vernacular versions of the classics in order to disseminate Confucianism among the Chinese masses. After the World War I, Xizhang wrote a leaflet, the Xizhanlun with anti-war teachings inspired by the content of the world religions. The strongest impetus in the social importance of the movement, however, came from Wang Fengyi (王凤仪 1864-1937), a charismatic healer and preacher of peasant origins who led the Universal Church of the Way and its Virtue in the 1930s. He is celebrated as a peasant saint throughout northeast China, a shànrén (善人 "virtuous man") with the epithet "Wang the Good" or "Virtuous King" (王善人), a wordplay as his surname means "king" or "ruler".
  • 457
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Landesrabbiner
Landesrabbiner (German: [ˈlandəs.ʁaˌbiːnɐ]; Hebrew: רב מדינה‎, romanized: Rav Medinah) are spiritual heads of the Jewish communities of a country, province, or district, particularly in Germany and Austria. The office is a result of the legal condition of the Jews in medieval times when the Jewish communities formed a unit for the purposes of taxation. As the community had to pay certain taxes to the government, the latter had to appoint some one who should be responsible to it for their prompt collection, and who consequently had to be invested with a certain authority. The office of Landesrabbiner had no ecclesiastical meaning until the 18th century, when the various governments began to consider it their duty to care for the spiritual welfare of the Jews. Such ecclesiastical authority, owing to the strictly congregational constitution of the communities, never took root among the Jews (see, however, on the chief rabbinate of Moravia after the death of Marcus Benedict, Moses Sofer, Responsa, Oraḥ Ḥayyim, 13).
  • 457
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Linji School
The Línjì school (Chinese: 臨濟宗) is a school of Chan Buddhism named after Linji Yixuan (d. 866). It took prominence in Song China (960–1279), spread to Japan as the Rinzai school and influenced the nine mountain schools of Korean Seon.
  • 449
  • 30 Sep 2022
Topic Review
Catholic Views on God
The Catholic Church teaches that God is All-Perfect; this infinite Perfection is viewed, successively, under various aspects, each of which is treated as a separate perfection and characteristic inherent to the Divine Substance, or Essence. A certain group of these, of paramount import, is called the Divine Attributes. The position of the Catholic Church declared in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), is again clearly stated in the following pronouncement of the Vatican Council:
  • 448
  • 01 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Barefoot Immortal
Barefoot Immortal (Chinese: 赤腳大仙), also known as Barefoot Master, is a Taoist deity in Chinese religion. He is known for his numerous appearances in Chinese operas and Chinese ancient literature Journey to the West and Outlaws of the Marsh. The ancient images and ceramic works that people found about the conception of the appearance of Barefoot Immortal demonstrate that in the minds of most people, Barefoot Immortal is a kind god who always has a gracious smile on his face. Never wearing any shoes and half bald head are his unique marks and looks. There are several stories and legends about Barefoot Immortal that have spread until now, have become the widely known classical folk oral literature in China. Therefore, it can be seen that Barefoot Immortal plays a familiar role in the minds of Chinese people. His original name is Liu Hai before he was widely known as Barefoot Immortal. and Liu Cao
  • 436
  • 15 Nov 2022
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