Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God!
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IPSEC RESEARCH

IPSEC develops and conducts qualitative and quantitative research projects using a methodology designed by Dr. Marian Simion. This research methodology is interdisciplinary in nature and process oriented in structure; focusing on inputs, meaning-making, and outputs. While the inputs are treated as independent or causal variables, the meaning-making is treated as an intervening variable, and the outputs are treated as dependent, or effect variables.

religion and political conflict Religion and Political Conflict:
From Dialectics to Cross-Domain Charting

Author: Marian Gh. Simion
Foreword: Ecumenical Patriarch BARTHOLOMEW
Contributors: Ambassador Mihnea Motoc and David Little
Montréal: Presses internationales Polytechnique, 2011

This book offers a charting of the theoretical field of collective violence in political science and religious studies, with a proposal for an integrative approach to the study of collective violence in the two fields, followed by an application of the proposed research model to Orthodox Christianity. 
research methodology in orthodox peace studies

 

Research Methodology in Orthodox Peace Studies - University Textbook (Romanian language)
Author: Marian Gh. Simion
Foreword: Laurențiu Tănase, Introductory Study &
Coordination by Cristian-Sebastian Sonea)
Cluj–Napoca: Presa Universitară Clujeană, 2016

(download)
This university textbook is organized around the structure of process (inputs, meaning-making, and outputs) on the basis of which the researcher will understand the basic elements of qualitative research in Orthodox peace studies. 

Research on the inputs involves the analysis of the standard information imparted by the institutionalized religion concomitant with relevant faith phenomena. While the research on the standard information involves document analysis of resources such as sacred writings, doctrines, visual representations, engravings, polity, etc., the research on faith phenomena focuses on devotional sources of spiritual meaning found within the subcultures of the organized religion, which affect the believers’ worldviews on evil, dualism, sacrifice, martyrdom, death, rituals, funerals, mythologies, taboos, and so on.

Research on the meaning-making process focuses on how the inputs are interpreted by groups and individuals in position of power, under conditions of crisis. The research process uses direct and indirect observations of devotional behavior, as well as surveys designed to measure the interpretative switch between soft religion and hard religion, on the ideals of religious life, social consequences, psychological tonalities and strategic action.

The outputs are the byproducts of the inputs’ refinement through meaning-making, which generate new cognitive and affective realities. The analysis of the outputs is crucial because it reflects the institutional change which becomes visible in new public policies, new educational curricula, new perspectives on political theology, new pastoral guidelines, new symbolic acts, speeches, declarations, jurisprudence, and so on.

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Institute for Peace Studies in Eastern Christianity

Harvard Square
P.O. Box 380246,
Cambridge, MA 02238-0246, U.S.A.

office@ipsec.education

 

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