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Topic Review
Legends of the Jews
Legends of the Jews is a chronological compilation of aggadah from hundreds of biblical legends in Mishnah, Talmud and Midrash. The compilation consists of seven volumes (four volumes of narrative texts and two volumes of footnotes with a volume of index) synthesized by Louis Ginzberg in manuscript of German language. In 1913, it was translated by Henrietta Szold.
  • 781
  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Catholic Theology of Scripture
The theology of Scripture in the Roman Catholic church has evolved much since the Second Vatican Council of Catholic Bishops ("Vatican II", 1962-1965). This article explains the theology (or understanding) of Scripture that has come to dominate in the Catholic Church today. It focuses on the Church’s response to various areas of study into the original meaning of texts.
  • 764
  • 28 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.
  • 763
  • 10 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Vidya (Knowledge)
The Sanskrit word, Vidya, figures prominently in all texts pertaining to Indian philosophy - to mean science, learning, knowledge and scholarship; most importantly, it refers to valid knowledge which cannot be contradicted and true knowledge which is the knowledge of the Self intuitively gained. Vidya is not mere intellectual knowledge, for the Vedas demand understanding.
  • 759
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Essays and Reviews
Essays and Reviews, edited by John William Parker, published in March 1860, is a broad-church volume of seven essays on Christianity. The topics covered the biblical research of the German critics, the evidence for Christianity, religious thought in England, and the cosmology of Genesis. Essays and Reviews was a popular book title in the 19th century and there are many similar books available, but none made the same impact.
  • 758
  • 30 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Nūr (Islam)
Nūr (Arabic: النور) may refer to the "Light of God". The word "nūr" is Arabic for "heatless light", and has been passed on to many other languages. It is often used in the Quran, notably in a verse that states has been the subject of much discussion. Many classical commentators on the Quran considered that this should be taken metaphorically, as in the sense that God illuminates the world with understanding, rather than literally. The first and foremost to representatively stand to the concept of Nur Muhammad (the essence of Muhammad) being the quintessence of everything was Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani, who described this idea in his book Sirr ul Asrar. This concept was then preached by his disciples. One of Sayyid Abdul Qadir Gilani's disciples was the Andalusian scholar Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi, who categorized nūr into different levels of understanding from the most profound to the most mundane. Shias believe nūr, in the sense of inner esoteric understanding, is inherited through the Imams, who in turn communicate it to the people.
  • 733
  • 25 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Chu (Daoism)
Chu (廚, lit. "kitchen") is a Daoist name used for various religious practices including communal chu (Kitchen) banquet rituals in Way of the Celestial Masters liturgy, the legendary xingchu (行廚, Mobile Kitchen) associated with Daoist xian ("transcendents; 'immortals'"), and wuchu (五廚, Five Kitchens) representing the wuzang (五臟, Five Viscera) in neidan meditation techniques.
  • 718
  • 28 Oct 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
  • 710
  • 15 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Crown Rabbi (Iberia)
In the Iberian peninsula, the crown rabbi (Spanish: rabino mayor or Old Portuguese: arrabi mor (chief rabbi) ) was a secular, administrative post occupied by a member of the Jewish community for the benefit of the governing state, and existed in the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Kingdom of Portugal as far back as the 13th century, and is referred to as crown rabbi by historians in English, as well as by court rabbi and other terms.
  • 710
  • 29 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Crown Rabbi (Russia)
Crown rabbi (Russian: казённый раввин) was a position in the Russian Empire given to a member of a Jewish community appointed to act as an intermediary between his community and the Imperial government, to perform certain civil duties such as registering births, marriages, and divorces. Because their main job qualification was fluency in Russian, crown rabbis were typically considered agents of the state by members of their own communities, not true rabbis, and they often had no education in or knowledge of Jewish law.
  • 703
  • 17 Nov 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".
  • 686
  • 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).
  • 675
  • 22 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Baianism
Baianism is a term applied to the theology of Catholic theologian Michael Baius (1513-1589). It claims thorough Augustinianism over the scholasticism which held sway over most Catholic theologians at the time. It is the immediate historical predecessor of Jansenism, and with Jansenism it has been deemed non-orthodox by the Catholic Church.
  • 670
  • 09 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Tattvasiddhi
The Tattvasiddhi-Śāstra ("The Treatise that Accomplishes Reality"; Chinese: 成實論, Chengshilun; Japanese pronunciation: Jōjitsu-ron, also reconstructed as Sādhyasiddhi-Śāstra), is an Indian Abhidharma Buddhist text by a figure known as Harivarman (250-350). It was translated into Chinese in 411 by Kumārajīva and this translation (Taishō number: T1646) is the only extant version, which became popular in China. This text was translated into English by N. Aiyaswami Sastri in 1978.
  • 612
  • 16 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Religiosity and Subjective Well-Being among Middle-Aged Korean Women
Existential consciousness and savoring beliefs were positively correlated with the subjective well-being of middle-aged women, whereas their intrinsic religiosity was not significantly correlated with subjective well-being because it was positively correlated with negative emotions, as well as with life satisfaction and positive emotions. In middle-aged women, the direct effect of intrinsic religiosity on savoring beliefs was negatively significant after adjusting for indirect effects through existential consciousness. The sequential indirect effect of existential consciousness and savoring beliefs on the intrinsic religiosity and subjective well-being of middle-aged women was significant.
  • 608
  • 06 Jun 2022
Topic Review
Chapter and Conventual Mass
As currently used, the terms Chapter Mass (for chapters of canons) and Conventual Mass (for most other houses of religious) refer to the Mass celebrated by and for a community of priests or for a community of priests and brothers or sisters. Such Masses are normally concelebrated by most or all of the priests in a house in the case of a house of an order or other religious community that includes priests. The conventual Mass is therefore the daily "community Mass" for a local religious family – whether a convent, monastery or other house. It is normally linked with the Liturgy of the Hours, at which the community gathers to worship as a body: there are special norms in the rubrics for combining any one of the hours of the Divine Office with the celebration of Mass. The Mass and Office celebrated are those of the day, according to the rubrics and ordo of the order or house. The modern concept of the conventual Mass is laid out in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal.
  • 542
  • 01 Nov 2022
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Loyalty in Islam: A Critical Survey
Up until recently, research on loyalty and Islam—here considered as the discourses and practices of Muslims in regard to the Muslim tradition—had ignored the topic of loyalty. Interest in loyalty in Islam has just lately grown sufficiently and extensively. This entry is both bibliographical and thematic. It seeks to identify the principal themes that have dominated Muslim loyalty studies for the past thirty years or so. Additionally, it provides a thorough synopsis of over 100 studies on loyalty that were published during the same time span in Arabic and European languages. Allegiance in Muslim political ethics always had more than one connotation and the religious component of loyalty, while not strictly defined, allowed and even justified the overlap of multiple loyalties. A person’s or a family’s, ruler’s, or dynasty’s power to govern an area or defend religious institutions and symbols was intimately linked to the loyalty they could claim. Most studies agree on the diversity of political allegiance in modern Islam with regard to perceptions of religion, ethnicity, self-interest, etc.; it is also co-relative in the sense that it is mixed with other allegiances, such as those of family, tribe, leadership, or country.
  • 496
  • 30 Oct 2024
Topic Review Peer Reviewed
Spiritual Intelligence: A New Form of Intelligence for a Sustainable and Humane Future
Spiritual intelligence (SI) is defined as a unique form of hermeneutic–relational intelligence that enables individuals to integrate cognitive, emotional, and symbolic dimensions to guide their thoughts and actions with reflection, aiming for existential coherence rooted in a transcendent system of meaning. It functions as a metacognitive framework that unites affective, cognitive, and symbolic levels in dialog with a sense of meaning that is considered sacred or transcendent, where “sacred,” in this context, refers inclusively to any symbolic reference or value that a person or culture perceives as inviolable, fundamental, or orienting. It can derive from religious traditions but also from ethical, philosophical, or civil visions. It functions as a horizon of meaning from which to draw coherence and guidance and which orients the understanding of oneself, the world, and action. SI appears as the ability to interpret one’s experiences through the lens of values and principles, maintaining a sense of continuity in meaning even during times of ambiguity, conflict, or discontinuity. It therefore functions as a metacognitive ability that brings together various mental functions into a cohesive view of reality, rooted in a dynamic dialog between the self and a value system seen as sacred.
  • 471
  • 29 Jul 2025
Topic Review
The Revelation Protocol of k systems
This paper interprets the symbolic and prophetic structure of the Book of Revelation through the lens of K-Mathematics. The resulting Revelation Protocol is conceived as a rigorous model for the transformation of a complex system from a state of encoded potential through sequential phases of deconstruction, judgment, and final resolution, culminating in the initialization of a perfected successor system. The protocol is defined as a cryptographically sealed, five-phase process that executes a total system state transition, governed by K-Operators and executed via the encrypted scroll (𝒮). This framework bridges metaphysics, mathematics, symbolic archetypes, and systemic transformation, offering a paradigm for understanding recursive collapse and renewal across civilizations, cognitive architectures, and ontological domains.
  • 88
  • 02 Sep 2025
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