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Kaya Kinondo, Sacred Forest, Kenya

Harnessing Local Traditional Beliefs in Environmental Advocacy and Peacebuilding: FORB Interventions in Indonesia and Kenya

Date:07 March 2024
Author:Fathima Azmiya Badurdeen

Freedom of Religion or Belief (FORB) interventions are geared to strengthen locally acknowledged traditional beliefs in environmental conservation and the development of holistic peacebuilding where knowledge and practice are co-created with indigenous...

Carnaval, Maastricht, 2024.

Once upon a time, there was a princess and a priest...

Date:12 February 2024
Author:Kim Knibbe

Last Sunday, I went into the centre of the town of Maastricht with my family to celebrate Carnaval and watch the ‘Bonte Storm’ (the colourful storm, as big parade on Sunday is called). We walked slowly, often stopping to admire a group with particularly...

Image by jcomp on Freepik

The space for bias in the assessment of converted and apostate asylum seekers

Date:22 January 2024
Author:Hannelore Schouwstra

Fearing persecution because of belief 
Migration policy has long worked as the non-psychical border of a state, through which one is allowed access into a process of exclusion or inclusion (Fossum & Olsen, 2021). An asylum seeker has to receive the status...

Interfaith procession against terrorism in Lugano, Switzerland, 2015.

Grammar as a Tool for Overcoming Inter-Religious Misunderstanding: A Philosophical Approach

Date:18 December 2023
Author:Javad Taheri

In the richly diverse context of multicultural societies, inter-religious understanding stands as a crucial pillar for societal harmony. Within this context, one might ask: What key factors contribute to the problems associated with inter-religious...

Sacred Forest - Orthodox Church, Tigray, Ethiopia

From Ethiopia’s Highlands to India’s Villages, How Faith Organizations Are Restoring the World’s Forests

Date:19 November 2023
Author:Elisabet Aylwin, Peter Veit, Alberto Pallecchi and Carrick Reddin

Forests once covered an estimated 40% of Ethiopia’s landscape. Today, only 2% of the country’s original forests remain intact, dotting the country with small pockets of green.

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Playing with Religion: How videogames became the world’s biggest dealer in religion

Date:30 October 2023
Author:Lars de Wildt

Young people in the West are more likely to encounter religion in a videogame, than in a church, mosque or in a synagogue. This is especially startling when we realize that the demographics for non-religion are very similar to the demographics for people...

Photo by Tim Wildsmith on Unsplash

Is religion becoming cool again thanks to technology?

Date:25 September 2023
Author:Zuzana Ľudviková

 One late afternoon, two girls around my age stopped me on the street. They asked if I believed in God and if they could tell me a short reading from the Bible. The next second, I was instructed to look into a mobile screen as one of the girls started...

Picture - Unsplash

The Age of Islamophobia

Date:09 August 2023
Author:Aukje Hopmans

The Netherlands often self-identifies as a tolerant country, being the first to allow homosexuals to get married. However, since 9/11, intolerance and discriminatory behavior towards Muslims, also called Islamophobia, has become more prominent in the West...

Werk en Zingeving

Op zoek naar zingeving: een persoonlijke reis naar betekenisvol werk

Date:28 July 2023
Author:Sanne Koelewijn
Dit jaar maakte Vanessa een grote verandering door in haar professionele leven. Na jarenlang werkzaam te zijn geweest bij een toonaangevend telecommunicatiebedrijf, nam zij de moedige stap om haar baan op te zeggen en uit te kijken naar een meer betekenisvolle carrière. In een interview met Alun Roberts, auteur van de masterthesis “finding Meaning in the workplace", vertelt Vanessa meer over haar motivatie om zingeving en betekenisvol werk na te streven. Een belangrijke vraag die daarbij opkomt is: in hoeverre speelt verveling, ook wel bekend als “bored-out”, een rol bij haar zoektocht?
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Time a Priori and Time a Posteriori: a clash between Farmers and the Dutch State in the Dutch Nitrogen Crisis

Date:19 June 2023
Author: Tanja van Hummel

Dutch farmers’ pressure groups advocate against 'calendar agriculture' (Hiddink, 2023). Calendar agriculture is implemented by the Dutch government to improve water quality, because controlling the planting of nitrogen-absorbing crops, also controls the...