Conversions to Christianity in Pre-revolutionary Iran

Conversions to Christianity in Iran before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, being an evident result of the missionary activity conducted in this area from the 19th century, could be studied as part of the history of Christianity among Iranians. Conversions to Christianity, rather rare in the period analysed, are connected to the social and political changes in the whole country. There are two moments which seem to have given the best opportunity for spreading Christianity among Iranian people: 1) the political transformation starting in the 1920s – the end of the Qajar dynasty and the beginning of the reign of Reza Pahlavi, before he started to implement his national policy and 2) the 1960s – the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Among all Christian churches existing in Iran at that time, only the Anglican Church was focused mainly on proselytising and turning Iranian Muslims, Jews or Zoroastrians to the Christian faith. However, the statistics indicate that, in spite of such activity, the total number of converts prior to the revolution did not exceed 1000.

Wittgenstein, Last Judgement and German Aeroplanes. The Concept of Distance in Lectures on Religious Belief

This paper investigates different accounts of the distance between religious and nonreligious persons, postulated by Wittgenstein in his Lectures on Religious Belief: the hypothesis that religious and nonreligious language is incommensurable, the supposition about “ordinary” and “extraordinary” uses of word “belief,” and the non-cognitive approach to religious language. I argue (after Cora Diamond) that none of these accounts can be regarded as sufficient, because the text of Lectures does not contain any general theory of disagreement between believer and nonbeliever. Instead of that, Wittgenstein offers a picture of several different relationships that may occur between them.

Private Revelations and the Web. Analysis using the Example of Vassula Ryden

The theme of this article is the problem of private revelations presented on the Internet, and it is based on the example of Vassula Ryden. Ryden has been a visionary for two decades. Although the visions she presents are addressed primarily to Catholics, the Roman Catholic Church consistently refuses to accept her revelations as real ones. Despite this, Ryden is active in promoting her revelations in the real and the virtual world. The article shows two main contexts which influence research on private revelations on the Web: religious and communicative. It focuses on the communication aspect (the way the Internet is used) and the religious aspect (which is in permanent conflict with the doctrine of the Church to which she refers). Modern spirituality inspired by private revelations can be built individually on the basis of the main traditional religions. This not only reflects the changes to today’s spirituality, but in this way also builds it.

Religion, Science, Parascience. Science-based Fears in the Russian-language Internet

This paper aims at reconstruction of the main fear patterns that have arisen as a side effect of scientific achievements. We try to show that a significant number of them refer to the image of the world as inanimate mechanism. To relieve these fears and integrate scientific claims into a coherent worldview, one must use other types of rationality, such as the theological one, or rely on a nonrational response. These processes, however, are deeply embedded in the social context. The analysis focuses on the internet discursive practices of the three important actors (science, parascience and traditional religion) competing for their expert monopoly to define the world and offering their own answers to science-based fears. We learn that the boundaries of the discourses are closely guarded, while the tension appears where they are violated explicitly. This fact probably explains why “orthodox” authors (science and religion) treat parascience so aggressively. In trying to be “native” in each discourse, everywhere parascience remains “heretic,” the one threatening the status quo, the disturbing and annoying Stranger.

“Creating tradition” in Slavic Neopagan Groups

This article describes the process of forming traditions in Slavic neopagan religious groups as a fundamental element constituting the identity of the community’s members. The lack of source materials means that modern Slavic rituals and ceremonies are often more ideas and variations on a theme than actual reconstructions of pagan festivities. Imagined communities (Hobsbawm), which include neopagan movements, are involved in practices of a symbolic and ritual nature which aim to create historical continuity. In this case, tradition (Shils) is treated instrumentally. Its various parts are preserved not because of their supposed ancientness, but because they are seen as deserving of the name of tradition. In this way, tradition is continued, transformed and applied to the dimensions of modern life.

Factors Affecting People’s attitude to the Hope of Universal Salvation

The hope of universal salvation is the view that all people will one day be saved. A study of 573 people aged 13–86 showed that the greater the frequency of their religious practices, the more likely they were to have a decidedly positive attitude towards the hope of universal salvation. Women were more in favour of this idea than men, and people aged 60 more than those under 30. In the second study it turned out that the declared attitude of students towards the hope of universal salvation is influenced by the information transmitted to them. Subjects (N = 115) to whom two sentences from the Catechism of the Catholic Church were quoted – “God desires the salvation of all people” and “Everything is possible with God” – expressed a positive attitude to this idea considerably more often than those (N = 119) who were informed that Fr Wacław Hryniewicz, who propagates this idea in Poland, was disappointed with Benedict XVI’s statements on Christian hope.