At interreligious meetings in the Netherlands, very little attention is paid to interaction. How can people express their experiences, religious images and practices so that others are able to understand them? Religious differences complicate the potential for understanding one another; if there is no common ground, people should communicate in such a way that common ground is created. This study explains the contribution of a curriculum to knowledge of the interaction styles and hermeneutic distinctions that are used to express and interpret views on religious phenomena. The focus of this book is not solely religious phenomena, but the way in which participants express and interpret these phenomena. Dissertation. (Series: Interreligious Studies, Vol. 11) [Subject: Adult Education, Religious Studies]

This collection of essays presents the reader with a fine overview and detailed discussion on the impact of interreligious studies and intercultural theology on methods and methodologies. New fields of study require new methods and methodologies, and, although these two new fields draw from a host of existing other disciplines and areas of thought and are almost transdisciplinary in nature, they nonetheless influence existing methodologies and help them evolve in new directions.

The relatively peaceful interreligious relations in Indonesia seem to be shattered ever since Suharto's fall in 1998. Religious cleavages grew and quickly became sources of conflict. Exclusive religious truth claims have led people to support interreligious violence. Yet, benevolent religious values continue to encourage people for mutual solidarity and to shy away from violence. Religious minority groups are often perceived as a threat by the religious majority. Although living side by side allows different groups to develop positive interreligious contacts, this may differ for religious majority and minorities. This study scrutinizes the role of religion in interreligious conflicts in Indonesia.

The authors discuss the religious spiritual healing practice Reiki, revealing components of it that help transform the message held by the alleged life-force called reiki energy into meaning expressed in efficacy for the recipient's body, mind and spirit. Components that are analyzed include but are not limited to, touch, symbols, initiation, and precepts. The practitioner's surrender to a combination of internal and external authority - with reiki energy being part of that - is a crux in Reiki practice and one means with which practitioners speak of beneficial effect. This work contributes to academic knowledge about how practicing a religious or spiritual practice may contribute to one's well-being and flourishing life. Moreover, it explores the question of the nature of Reiki in academic definitions of religion.

Interfaith marriage is a sensitive and crucial issue for churches in Indonesia and for the religiously plural Indonesian society. This study first deals with the development of civil law, specifically from Marriage Law No. 1/1974. The stances of the churches in Indonesia are wide ranging and include the history of church teaching, biblical interpretation, and church regulations. This contextual church polity study presents a new effort to formulate both a theology of marriage and a family theology, specifically a theology of interfaith marriage, and to formulate a relevant and contextual church order.

This dissertation is a study of kenosis spirituality aimed at determining how the spiritual formation of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI) can be effectively infused with a more profound and genuine understanding of kenosis spirituality. Employing a communication-oriented method involving three interconnected and progressive steps, namely, an analysis of syntax, semantics and pragmatics, and concentrating on the role of the text-immanent reader, this study conducts an in-depth textual analysis of five key texts. These have been chosen from the Bible, the Eastern and the Western monastic traditions, the early writings of the CMI, and the Indian Christian Ashram to ascertain a deeper understanding of kenosis spirituality. The study subsequently considers how to introduce insights regarding kenosis into the CMI's spiritual formation. Pratheesh Michael Pulickal, from Kerala, India, a Catholic priest of the Syro-Malabar rite, belongs to the CMI Congregation.

In recent decades, the Netherlands and Flanders have faced challenges in how to deal with a multicultural society. As far as worldviews are concerned, the question arises whether the state should guarantee a maximum level of choice concerning religion and humanism to individuals or leave a free space to the religious and humanist communities. This study explores in how far committed Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and humanist youth agree with different models of the relationship between worldviews and the state against the backdrop of their religious and humanist beliefs, as well as social determinants. It does so by drawing on quantitative and qualitative empirical research. The analyses show that, overall, most religious and humanist youth prefer the state to guarantee a maximum level of choice to individuals, but also want the state to respect a substantial free space for communities. Above all, they want the state to treat worldviews equally before the law. Their religious and humanist beliefs are the most significant determinants. Jeroen Jans (*1990) works at the Diocese of Hasselt and is a visiting researcher at Radboud University. He performed his doctoral research at the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies.