“Windows To Spirituality”
Rabbinic Judaism Rabbinic Judaism (יהדות רבנית Yahadut Rabanit), also called Rabbinism, or Judaism espoused by the Rabbanites, has been the mainstream form of Judaism since the 6th century CE, after the codification of the Babylonian Talmud. Growing out of Pharisaic Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism is based on the belief that at Mount Sinai, Moses...
Jewish Religious Movements Jewish religious movements, sometimes called “denominations” or “branches“, include different groups which have developed among Jews from ancient times. Today, the main division is between the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist movements, with several smaller movements alongside them. This denominational structure is mainly present in the United...
Judaism Judaism (יהודה, Yehudah, “Judah”) is the religion of the Jewish people. It is an ancient, monotheistic, Abrahamic religion with the Torah as its foundational text. It encompasses the religion, philosophy, and culture of the Jewish people. Judaism is considered by religious Jews to be the expression of the covenant that...
Religious Denomination A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity. The term refers to the various Christian denominations (for example, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and the many varieties of Protestantism). It is also used to describe the four major branches of Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative,...
Church As Congregation A church is a Christian religious organization or congregation or community that meets in a particular location. Many are formally organized, with constitutions and by-laws, maintain offices, are served by clergy or lay leaders, and, in nations where this is permissible, often seek non-profit corporate status. Local churches often relate with, affiliate with, or...
Women In Islam versus Judaeo-Christian Tradition This article explains the women in Islam versus Judaeo-Christian tradition. The Myth & the Reality Introduction Five years ago, I read in the Toronto Star issue of July 3, 1990 an article titled “Islam is not alone in patriarchal doctrines”, by Gwynne Dyer. The...
Women In Islam Situation of women in Islam is vary widely between and within different Muslim societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree and gives them a common identity that may serve to bridge the wide...
Authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by strong central power and limited political freedoms. Political scientists have created many typologies describing variations of authoritarian forms of government. Authoritarian regimes may be either autocratic or oligarchic in nature, and may be based upon the rule of a party or...
What Is Sharia? Sharia, Sharia law, or Islamic law (شريعة) is a religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God’s immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations. It has been described as “one of the major intellectual...
Criticism Of Islamism This article covers the criticism of Islamism. The ideas and practices of the leaders, preachers, and movements of the Islamic revival movement known as Islamism (also referred to as Political Islam) have been criticized by Muslims (often Islamic modernists and liberals) and non-Muslims. Among those authors and scholars who have criticized Islamism, or...
Islamism Islamism is a concept whose meaning has been debated in both public and academic contexts. The term can refer to diverse forms of social and political activism advocating that public and political life should be guided by Islamic principles or more specifically to movements which call for full implementation of sharia. It is...
Religious War A religious war or holy war (Latin: bellum sacrum) is a war primarily caused or justified by differences in religion. In the modern period, debates are common over the extent to which religious, economic, or ethnic aspects of a conflict predominate in a given war. According to the Encyclopedia of Wars, out...
Jihad With Different Aspects Jihad literally means striving or doing one’s best to achieve something, and its practitioners (mujahidin) are those who devote themselves fully to obtaining God’s good pleasure by opposing those forces that seek to defeat His religion and the upholding of His word. It is far more...
Islam And Secularism This article covers the relationship between Islam and secularism. Secularism has been a controversial concept in Islamic political thought, owing in part to historical factors and in part to the ambiguity of the concept itself. In the Muslim world, the notion has acquired strong negative connotations due to...
Jihad Jihad is an Arabic word which literally means striving or struggling, especially with a praiseworthy aim. In an Islamic context, it can refer to almost any effort to make personal and social life conform to God’s guidance, such as the struggle against one’s evil inclinations, proselytizing, or efforts toward the moral betterment of the...
Tanzil Tanzil (تنزيل) “sending down”, Inzal (انزال) “bringing down”, and nuzul (نزول) “descending”, and other words based on the triconsonantal root verb nazala (نزل ) “to descend”, refer to the descent of God’s message from heaven to earth where it was revealed to the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad. See also: Prophet Muhammad and Hadith In the Qur’an — where...
Secularization In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions. The secularization thesis expresses to the idea that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religious authority diminishes in all aspects of social life and governance. The...
Civil Religion Civil religion, also referred to as a civic religion, is the implicit religious values of a nation, as expressed through public rituals, symbols (such as the national flag), and ceremonies on sacred days and at sacred places (such as monuments, battlefields, or national cemeteries). It is distinct from churches,...
Sociology Of Religion Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. This objective investigation may include the use of both quantitative methods (surveys, polls, demographic and census analysis) and qualitative approaches such as participant observation, interviewing, and analysis of archival, historical...
Happiness At Work Despite a large body of positive psychological research into the relationship between happiness and productivity, happiness at work has traditionally been seen as a potential by-product of positive outcomes at work, rather than a pathway to business success. During the past two decades, maintaining a level of...
