Browsing by Subject "Christianity"
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(2019)In the context of newly introduced secularism in Nepal, the qualitative study discuss different aspects of Nepalese society where religious tension is emerging. The objective of the study is to explore the understanding of religious leaders on secularism and their idea of religious rights. Based on interviews with these leaders (Islam, Hindu and Christian), the thesis describes how their understanding of secularism contrasted in daily life. Based on primary and secondary information, the study further deals about how religious tensions are evolving among different religious groups. Furthermore, it helps to understand how Nepalis secularism differs from western modal of secularism and explains different reasons why the ideal definition of secularism (separation of church and the state) could not be practical one in Nepalese society. The hope of religious equality beaten when the constitution barred to religious conversion. Though conversion is not allowed, different Christian organizations are conducting missionary activities. Consequently, police actions are increased against Christians on the charge of conversion. Christians are raising voice against state interference in religion. They are demanding conversion right if the state is secular. Secularism has been interpreted as a right to convert people, other features of secularism has become minor. Hindus have perceived secularism as a threat to Hinduism. Hindu nationalism emerged against secularism, it has created fear among minority groups. The thesis also explains the view of the Muslims community in the context of the rise of Hindu nationalism and missionary activities of Christians. Contestation on Secularism not only polarize people of religious groups but also political parties. Religion has become a political agenda, the demand for a referendum against secularism has become an issue of the political campaign of non-communist and pro monarch parties. These anti-secular movements are supported by Indian political parties, Indian leaders and different Hindu organizations around the world. In the end, this thesis concludes that there is a need for the interference of the state to end the dominance of Hinduism as well as protect the basic human rights of people where religion suppresses it. The state needs to support minority religious groups to flourish it. The thesis also signifies the need for interreligious dialogue among religious groups to restore harmony and tolerance.
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(2017)This thesis examines perspectives that Christians in Western Kavango in Namibia have about Christianity and their past religious traditions. The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (former Finnish Missionary Society) has been working there since 1926. The latest Finnish missionaries left the area in 2013. The Catholic mission was already active in Kavango when the Finns arrived, but Catholicism has been more influential in the eastern part of Kavango. Nowadays new, Pentecostal type churches are attracting a lot of people. The basic research method has been interviewing people in Kavango. First, I wanted to know why they are Christians and what Christianity means to them. Second, I interviewed them about what they know or remember about old cultural traditions and how they evaluate them. I also wished to get deeper into the process of conversion, but I was not able to do so, mainly because almost all the informants had been Christians since their childhood. It seems that people in Kavango have taken Christianity as their own. Christianity in Kavango also has longer and deeper roots than I expected. All the informants said that they are Christians and all consider Christianity as important for themselves. There was more variation in how they expressed the basic meaning of Christianity: salvation to heaven after death, getting daily bread from God, or having order and purpose in life. Prayer is very important to Christians in Kavango; almost every informant spoke something about prayer although I did not ask about it. This may have something to do with the tradition of offering and praying to ancestral spirits. Now Christians feel they have direct contact to God through prayer, as there is no more need to approach him through a mediator. Early missionaries required a Christian way of life from converts. Women had to cut away their traditional hairdo, and polygamous men had to send extra wives away. Concerning the hairdo the missionaries thought that it involves a lot of magic, whereas the local people saw it only as a matter of beauty until they adopted new ideals of hygiene. Polygamy has been more common than I expected and is still found in Kavango. The church still follows the guideline on polygamy given by the missionaries. The moral code of the church is strict in particular on cohabitation before marriage. Strict morals are not, however, only a product of the mission; the traditional society used to have harsh punishments. Traditional healing divides opinions. On one hand Christians also admit there are true herbal remedies that healers know. On the other hand many healers are only cheating people to get money, and even today some point out “witches” as the cause of illness or injury, leading to blaming of innocent people. In general, it can be said that Christians in Kavango consider Christianity and traditional African religion as a continuum, not as opposites. They compare their pre-Christian era with the Old Testament. When they prayed God through their forefathers, it was like praying the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In fact, the world of the Old Testament is close to that of African traditional life in many aspects. Even so, Christians in Kavango see Christianity as something brought to them by God’s power, so they can confess faith in Jesus whom they did not previously know.
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(2015)The purpose of this thesis is to problematize the complexity and the variety of voices that dialogued by the end of the third century a.D. in Rome in order to contribute to shape the phenomenon we have come to know as Christianity. The research question is:as opposed to using just a source associated with the Church, what additional perspectives are provided by the juxtaposition of more voices in order to conceptualise alterity within Christianity in this foundational moment? In order to answer it, I use three sources (Eusebius’ Historia Ecclesiastica, Lactantius’ De Mortibus Persecutorum and the Memoria Apostolorum graffiti in Via Appia, Rome), which provide a variety of voices associated with a range social actors. The objective is to give a broader account of Christian alterity in late antiquity by means of applying a dialogic approach. Originally proposed by Mikhail Bakhtin, this hermeneutic paradigm seeks to juxtapose the voices of all the social actors implied in order to show the conflict between. Given that it would not be possible to juxtapose all the possible sources, I base my analysis in a historical framework grounded on secondary literature that also acts as a metadiscursive context to interpret the sources. I make use of mixed methods based on content analysis, using MaxQDA to code segments in all three sources and then analyse their frequencies in order to delineate which variables are more relevant to analyse. I thereafter present comments; first analysing only Eusebius’ text, then analysing all three together and showing the conflict between them. Finally, I contrast both conceptualisations. My main conclusion is that an open ended account of history represents alterity in a more complex way that allows researchers to make folk discourses visible, as was the case for these three sources, despite having the risk of being more chaotic.
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