Part I. Understanding Secularization: 1. The secularization debate 2. Measuring secularization 3. Comparing secularization worldwide Part II. Case Studies of Religion and Politics: 4. The puzzle of secularization in the United States and Western Europe 5. A religious revival in post-communist Europe? 6. Religion and politics in the Muslim world Part III. The Consequences of Secularization: 7. Religion, the Protestant ethic, and moral values 8. Religious organizations and social capital 9. Religious parties and electoral behavior Part IV. Conclusions: 10. Secularization and its consequences 11. Re-examining the theory of existential security 12. Re-examining evidence for the security thesis.

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Sacred and Secular: Religion and Politics Worldwide

COVID-19 (Corona Virus Disease 2019) has significantly resulted in a large number of psychological consequences. The aim of this study is to explore the impacts of COVID-19 on people’s mental health, to assist policy makers to develop actionable policies, and help clinical practitioners (e.g., social workers, psychiatrists, and psychologists) provide timely services to affected populations. We sample and analyze the Weibo posts from 17,865 active Weibo users using the approach of Online Ecological Recognition (OER) based on several machine-learning predictive models. We calculated word frequency, scores of emotional indicators (e.g., anxiety, depression, indignation, and Oxford happiness) and cognitive indicators (e.g., social risk judgment and life satisfaction) from the collected data. The sentiment analysis and the paired sample t-test were performed to examine the differences in the same group before and after the declaration of COVID-19 on 20 January, 2020. The results showed that negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, depression and indignation) and sensitivity to social risks increased, while the scores of positive emotions (e.g., Oxford happiness) and life satisfaction decreased. People were concerned more about their health and family, while less about leisure and friends. The results contribute to the knowledge gaps of short-term individual changes in psychological conditions after the outbreak. It may provide references for policy makers to plan and fight against COVID-19 effectively by improving stability of popular feelings and urgently prepare clinical practitioners to deliver corresponding therapy foundations for the risk groups and affected people.

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The Impact of COVID-19 Epidemic Declaration on Psychological Consequences: A Study on Active Weibo Users.

Sacred and Secular is essential reading for anyone interested in comparative
religion, sociology, public opinion, political behavior, political development,
social psychology, international relations, and cultural change.

Sacred and Secular

Facts about health in the mountains of Appalachia have been slow to emerge. The formation of the Appalachian Regional Commission in the 1960s led to increased efforts to combat known precursors to poor health (e.g., low income, limited education, geographic isolation) (1). From New York’s southern counties to the foothills of Mississippi, mountain counties were eligible to participate in various federal health programs because of their poor economic status. Critical private investments in health care occurred infrequently during the 1960s and still lag because of Appalachia’s low population density and high percentage of residents without health insurance or with high-deductible plans.

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Appalachia: Where Place Matters in Health

The role of religion and spirituality in health has received increasing attention in the scientific and lay literature. While the scientific attention to this issue has expanded, there continue to be methodological and measurement concerns that often prevent firm conclusions about health and adjustment benefits. Limited attention has been provided to the role of spirituality and religion in cancer. This is true when both disease outcome and adjustment are considered. A recent 'levels of evidence' review examining the link between physical health and religion or spirituality found little overall support for the hypotheses that religion or spirituality impact cancer progression or mortality. Studies examining their impact on quality of life and adjustment are decidedly mixed. In sum, research specifically focusing on the role of religion or spirituality on cancer outcomes has been surprisingly sparse. Such research presents a number of methodological and measurement challenges. Due to these unmet challenges in the literature to date, it is premature to determine what role religion and spirituality play in disease, adjustment, or quality of life outcomes in cancer. A number of suggestions are made for continued research in this area.

Religion, spirituality and cancer: Current status and methodological challenges

A social cognitive perspective on religious beliefs: their functions and impact on coping and psychotherapy

Accurate empathy, long argued to be important in psychotherapy, now is an object of social–cognitive research. Graduate–level psychology students viewed brief portions of a therapy session and inferred the thoughts and feelings of the client. Accuracy scores were the rated similarity of their inferences to the client's reported thoughts and feelings. Throughout the semester course in interviewing, experimental participants practiced such judgments with feedback, while controls did not. Both groups' accuracy increased from pre– to post-test on inferred feelings, in part because the post-test was easier. Nonetheless, experimental participants on the post-test had greater accuracy of inferred feelings than controls. Women were more accurate than men in inferences for thoughts at post-test. Implications for training and future research are discussed.

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David F. Barone

Papers

A social cognitive perspective on religious beliefs: their functions and impact on coping and psychotherapy

Increasing empathic accuracy through practice and feedback in a clinical interviewing course