Volume 2017 No. 1

Roman Catholic Ambivalence Toward Religious Freedom: Harmonizing Change and Continuity in Dignitatis Humanae Personae

Donald H. J. Hermann, Professor of Law and Philosophy, DePaul University, US

Enabling UAE Maternal and Child Health Policy Influence: Usage of the Anderson Model

Immanuel Azaad Moonesar, Assistant Professor, Health Policy, Mohammed Bin Rashid, School of Government, UAE, and Jim Goes, Professor, Walden University, US

Heritage Languages in English-dominated Contexts: Creating Barriers or Opportunities?

Nataliya Kharchenko, Graduate Student, University of Manitoba, Canada

From a Concealed Face to Parliament Member: A Question into History of Gender and Meaning of Feminism in Sudan

Mawahib Ahmed Bakr, Research Associate, Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, Qatar

Emigrant Experiences: Zoroastrians in the USA

Khodadad Kaviani, Associate Professor, Central Washington University, US

Towards a Feminist Theology of Liberation from Anorexia Nervosa

Hannah Stammers, Graduate Student, University of Birmingham, UK

Gender Dynamics in Family Entrepreneurship: A Socio-Legal Perspective

Shubha Sandill, Graduate Student, York University, Canada

Paradigms of Masculinity in Late Antique Cosmological Narrative

Susanna Towers, Graduate Student, Cardiff University, Wales

Hard to Reach Communities and A Hard to Reach University

Laurence Lasselle, Corresponding Author, Senior Lecturer, University of St Andrews, and Robert Macpherson, School of Geography & Geosciences, University of St Andrews, UK

COMMENTARY

What Could Icons of the Mother of God Really Have to Do with Interdenominational and Interreligious Wars?

Hellen Dayton, Independent Scholar, U.A.E

Roman Catholic Ambivalence Toward Religious Freedom: Harmonizing Change and Continuity in Dignitatis Humanae Personae

Donald H. J. Hermann, Professor of Law and Philosophy, DePaul University, US

“The Declaration on Religious Freedom” adopted by the Second Vatican Council represents a significant but limited development in the Roman Catholic Church’s embracing religious freedom. The historical position favoring union of church and state was rejected; however, the view was taken that Church teaching should operate as a constraint on the state. The contemporary position is that religious freedom should be understood as an immunity from state coercion requiring a person to act contrary to personal belief in matters of religious practice so long as public order is maintained.
However, the Church continues to favor state support for the practice of religion. Moreover, the Church has taken disciplinary action against its members who support state policies or practices violative
Hermann_D.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [543.4 KB]

Enabling UAE Maternal and Child Health Policy Influence: Usage of the Anderson Model

Immanuel Azaad Moonesar, Assistant Professor, Health Policy, Mohammed Bin Rashid, School of Government, UAE, and Jim Goes, Professor, Walden University, US

Maternal and child health mortality is a formidable challenge for health systems around the world, according to the World Health Organization. Health professionals and practitioners within the United Arab Emirates were studied to determine the extent to which they were involved in the policy-making process, and the potential impact that involvement may have on new or revised MCH policies. The Andersen model of healthcare services utilization provides an appropriate framework for this research, enabling the analysis that influences the policy-making process in the area of MCH. Independent variables measured nationality, education, work experience, and organizational support. The dependent variable included policy-making process.
The quantitative methodology included data collection from a
Moonesar _Goes.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [483.3 KB]

Heritage Languages in English-dominated Contexts: Creating Barriers or Opportunities?

Nataliya Kharchenko, Graduate Student, University of Manitoba, Canada

The following paper conceptualizes the notion of “othering” minority languages and cultures, which is a long-time borrowed tradition of colonialism. The first section of the paper reviews debates among scholars regarding the role of English as an imperial language on the one hand, and the language of globalization on the other hand; consequently, the elevated status of English could be linked to marginalizing certain groups who are not entitled to legitimate linguistic rights. The second section of the paper presents insights into possibilities to empower language minority students by emphasizing the value of bi/multilingualism by maintaining heritage languages while acquiring English. In post-colonial context and multifaceted, multicultural modernity, heritage languages may be viewed
Kharchenko_N.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [371.0 KB]

From a Concealed Face to Parliament Member: A Question into History of Gender and Meaning of Feminism in Sudan

Mawahib Ahmed Bakr, Research Associate, Research Center for Islamic Legislation and Ethics, Qatar

This paper aims to historicize and contextualize the life experiences of women activists in Sudan with reference to their heterogeneity and understanding of feminism in the period of 1947–1969. This era represented the organized start of women’s activism in Sudan with the nationalists’ quest for independence. The objective of this paper is not only to track the history of the movement but also to investigate the meaning of feminism in the context of the women’s movement in Sudan within the framework of nationalism. The author concurs with Zeleza (2005) in his study of the gender biases in African historiography when he emphasizes that feminist historians are faced with two interrelated challenges which are to retrieve and to gender the history of women in Africa (208).
Bakr_M.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [410.5 KB]

Emigrant Experiences: Zoroastrians in the USA

Khodadad Kaviani, Associate Professor, Central Washington University, US

This research focuses on the immigrant experiences of the Zoroastrian Iranian-Americans in California and Washington State in 2010-2013. Group identity is deployed as the conceptual framework, and a combination of surveys, fieldwork, and interviews are used to gather the needed data. The central finding is that the Zoroastrian dialect is disappearing as they try to assimilate into American society. The new environment in the United States offers the youth more choices that compete with community-sponsored activities. The Zoroastrian community has a unique opportunity to identify its core beliefs based on the Gatha and accept new members.
Kaviani_K .pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [526.3 KB]

Towards a Feminist Theology of Liberation from Anorexia Nervosa

Hannah Stammers, Graduate Student, University of Birmingham, UK

Initial studies in the US and UK combined with anecdotal evidence from healthcare professionals demonstrate a surprising – and alarming – hypothesis: that a Christian faith can exacerbate (or even be a causal factor for) anorexia nervosa. One of the paradoxes of Christianity is that while promoting a Eucharistic, table-centred faith, it also has, albeit unwittingly, facilitated the ‘spiritual starvation’ displayed by the medieval ‘holy anorexics.’ However, research also indicates that an active faith can be beneficial in recovery. This paper is an interim report on a doctoral thesis working with NHS chaplains to construct a practical method for spiritual care for Christian women with anorexia nervosa within the NHS as part of a multi-dimensional treatment model. The study u
Stammers_H.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [440.9 KB]

Gender Dynamics in Family Entrepreneurship: A Socio-Legal Perspective

Shubha Sandill, Graduate Student, York University, Canada

The available literature on gender and entrepreneurship focuses on two diametrically opposite ends of a spectrum. On one end, the research tells the story of women in leadership positions facing gendered organizational challenges on their way to shattering the glass ceiling. Conversely, the other end focuses on the devaluation of unpaid care work in the home, termed by some scholars as the “second shift” (Hochschild 1989; Wharton 1994). This paper draws from case law, textual analysis, and a range of secondary sources to shed light on the thus far under-researched grey area between these two ends; namely, the disadvantages and challenges faced by women in family owned businesses. Taking on the responsibility of unpaid care work in this context then spills over to another role of runnin
Sandill_S.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [488.8 KB]

Paradigms of Masculinity in Late Antique Cosmological Narrative

Susanna Towers, Graduate Student, Cardiff University, Wales

The religion of Manichaeism, the creation of the self-proclaimed prophet and “apostle of Jesus Christ,” Mani, grew from the heartland of Persian Mesopotamia in the 3rd Century C.E. Practised by followers across and beyond the Persian and Roman empires between the 3rd and 9th centuries, Manichaeism finally succumbed to persistent persecution from rival faiths. Manichaeism is famous for a complex cosmological mythology that predicates a primordial conflict between two kingdoms of darkness and light. The divinities of the Kingdom of Light are hypostasised as a series of emanations from the Father as Mother, Son, and daughters.
This paper will explore an apparent paradox in the characterisation of the Manichaean First Man, beloved son of the Father, in whom two conflicting personae of k
Towers_S.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [454.4 KB]

Hard to Reach Communities and A Hard to Reach University

Laurence Lasselle, Corresponding Author, Senior Lecturer, University of St Andrews, and Robert Macpherson, School of Geography & Geosciences, University of St Andrews, UK

We propose a methodology capturing the perception of geographical, monetary and transportation distance between secondary state schools in some Scottish remote communities and a hard to reach university located in a small town on the north-east coast of rural Fife, i.e., the University of St Andrews. The location of St Andrews and the absence of a railway station mean that it is often interpreted as being geographically isolated. As a result, the University of St Andrews is frequently perceived as hard to reach.
We show that by combining representations in terms of mileage, journey duration and fare, we can create an index that reflects the difficulty of geographical access to the University of St Andrews from these Scottish communities. This index is not dependent on the local authority
Lasalle_Macpherson.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [630.1 KB]

What Could Icons of the Mother of God Really Have to Do with Interdenominational and Interreligious Wars?

Hellen Dayton, Independent Scholar, U.A.E

I was perplexed as a graduate of Harvard Divinity School when I first took in my hands the Old Printed Russian Orthodox Menologies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the library of Pontifical Institute of Oriental Studies, which were bought and delivered to this Vatican library by Jesuits about 1917. Even though I was familiar as a laywoman with the Russian Orthodox liturgical services related to the Icon of the Mother of God, I found the red lines under the names of the services in Church Slavonic that are not read for Orthodox laics now, which dedicated these services to the victories over representatives of other denominations and faiths. “What could icons of the Mother of God really have to do with Interdenominational and Interreligious Wars?” – thought I.
The celebr
Dayton_H.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [556.8 KB]

Volume 2017 No. 1

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