Paper is divided in three part: religion and prejudice, religion and social anthropology, polarity of the dress, attempting to describe the Christian attitude toward dress.

Christian women in Western societies are criticized about their manner of dress. The criticisms and debates address issues of “modesty” and “appropriateness,” or a sense of “propriety.” The apparel that is being designed, presented on the secular runways, and subsequently marketed hardly caters to Christian female consumers. This study seeks to answer the question: How do Christian women select, evaluate, and consume so-called modest and/or appropriate clothing in different socio-cultural contexts, particularly for church and other formal occasions? The study focuses on what is considered modest and appropriate clothing for Christian women. The perspectives of 10 Christian women were investigated and evaluated in a qualitative manner. A review of the literature indicates that there are concerns and issues surrounding this topic. Essentially, the purpose of the present research was to investigate and provide insight into how Christian women are expected to dress in a Westernized soci...

The paper reflects on the significance of the shifting identities of women in ministry and how these shifts are embodied in the clothing practices of the Methodist Church of Fiji. The paper was written for an issue of Davuilevu Theological College's academic journal which focused on the significance of clothing practices for the Fijian church.

dictionary entry, outline of monastic clothing

How can we distinguish between christian people and other Romans at first sight in the Later Roman Empire ? According to Peter Brown, it was impossible to differentiate clerics from the rest of the Roman Society. Most of primary sources highlights informations about outward appearance of converted to asceticism. Does it mean that christian converted to asceticism can only be recognized as christians at a glance? It is not so sure since we can assert that christian people were advised by Church Fathers not to wear expensive clothes. In fact, the Fathers encouraged christians to limit the consumption of luxury items, sharing lex Oppia’s Republican views. Roman laws prevented women going outside without their veil from reporting assaults and from pursuing criminal charges against their aggressors. What is at stake is to find out whether Christian people respect these prescriptions or if most of them ignore them. What is sure is that we possess many informations about the outward look of christians converted to asceticism. Following Christian Literature, we will try to reconstruct the outward appearance of lay christian people in Italy and Africa.

The Bible is the standard for Christianity yet the scriptures do not seem to give a normative direction in matters of dressing in general and women’s attire in particular. The main objective of this paper was to examine the Biblical teaching on dressing in general, and for women in particular. The literature review was carried out using themes drawn from the objective. The study was guided by the liberal feminism theory. This theory was used to establish if there were individual rights and equal opportunities as a basis for social justice and reform in Church. This study adopted descriptive survey design to present data thus it was involved in studying the situation as it is in an attempt to explain why the situation is the way it is. The sampling techniques were stratified random sampling, purposive and simple random sampling. Purposive sampling was used to select the clergy and their spouses, stratified random sampling was used to select the representative sample from the target population of the general faithful and the simple random technique was used to sample respondents for the Focus Group Discussion. The study instruments were interview schedule, questionnaires, Focus Group Discussions and document review. The validity of the instruments was established through content validity by experts from the school arts and social sciences, Masinde Muliro University. The study found out that there is gender bias against women in church. Patriarchy of the African society had been carried to, and perpetuated by the church through formulation of rules and erroneous interpretation of the Bible to favor paternalistic positions on issues of dressing translating to a church that is oppressive to the womenfolk. The paper recommended that the church should initiate training programs for the clergy and other leaders in hermeneutics and exegesis for better leadership and training skills on matters of dressing. Women should also be allowed freedom of choice according to the constitution. This study shall add to the existing pool of knowledge in Religious and Gender studies and bring about liberation to oppressed women so that they can freely contribute to development.

How is Jesus alive today? How are the two central events of Christianity (Christmas and Easter) related? How can we make sense of Jesus embodied presence among us today? In trying to articulate a response to the above questions, we first reflect on the embodied nature of Jesus. Then we explore how the disciples of Jesus embody God and Jesus in our culture. Finally, we look at some of the eschatological implications of this experience. And when Paul speaks of "the spiritual body" (1 Cor. 15:44), he is not using an oxymoron but simply referring to the eschatological reality of our bodies.

This paper argues that according to Colossians 3:12-17, a genuine Christian community must reflect Christ-likeness in their character –deeds plus speech. The author first analyses the passage grammatically using Thomas Schreiner’s discourse analysis method. Then, he engages his conclusions with insights from other scholars. After this, he draws applications to the Indian context. The passage exhorts Christians to put on spiritual virtues –that mirror the character of Jesus –like garments. Putting on these virtues would result in a community life where Christ’s peace arbitrates in their hearts. As a result, they will learn to bear with one another, forgive each other, and be thankful to God. Their worship and character must align, and their actions should reflect Christ’s Lordship. With its teachings and songs, Christian corporate worship must equip believers for such a life. It should not become a namesake lip service to God. Overall, the passage highlights the role of Christian corporate worship in transforming Christ-followers into Christ-likeness.

This paper was presented at the Conference on Material Religion at Duke University, September 12, 2015. It offers a brief description of the religious dress practices within the Oneness Pentecostal tradition, and examines the ways in which these practices are developed in relation to secular society.