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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > Religious groups
Religion is a racialized category, even when race is not explicitly
mentioned. Modern Religion, Modern Race argues that because the
concepts of religion and race are rooted in the post-Enlightenment
project of rethinking what it means to be human, we cannot simply
will ourselves to stop using these categories. Only by
acknowledging that religion is already racialized can we begin to
understand how the two concepts are intertwined and how they
operate in our modern world. It has become commonplace to argue
that the category religion is not universal, or even very old, but
is a product of Europe's Enlightenment modernization. Equally
commonplace is the argument that religion is not an innocent
category of analysis, but is implicated in colonial regimes of
control and as such plays a role in Europe's process of identity
construction of non-European "others." Current debates about race
follow an eerily similar trajectory: race is not an ancient but a
modern construction. It is part of the project of colonialism, and
race discourse forms one of the cornerstones of modern European
identity-making. Vial focuses on the development of these ideas in
the late-18th and early-19th centuries in Germany. By examining the
theories of Kant, Herder, and Schleiermacher, among others, Vial
uncovers co-constitutive nature of race and religion, and how the
two concepts are used today to make sense of the world. He shows
that while we disdain the racist language of some of the founders
of the religious studies discipline, our continued use of their
theories leads us, unwittingly, to reiterate many of the same
distinctions and hierarchies. Although it may not be time to
abandon the very category of religion, with all its attendant
baggage, Modern Religion, Modern Race calls for us to critically
examine that baggage, and the way in which religion has always
carried within it race.
The United States has long thought of itself as exceptional-a
nation destined to lead the world into a bright and glorious
future. These ideas go back to the Puritan belief that
Massachusetts would be a "city on a hill," and in time that image
came to define the United States and the American mentality. But
what is at the root of these convictions? John Howard Smith's A
Dream of the Judgment Day explores the origins of beliefs about the
biblical end of the world as Americans have come to understand
them, and how these beliefs led to a conception of the United
States as an exceptional nation with a unique destiny to fulfill.
However, these beliefs implicitly and explicitly excluded African
Americans and American Indians because they didn't fit white
Anglo-Saxon ideals. While these groups were influenced by these
Christian ideas, their exclusion meant they had to craft their own
versions of millenarian beliefs. Women and other marginalized
groups also played a far larger role than usually acknowledged in
this phenomenon, greatly influencing the developing notion of the
United States as the "redeemer nation." Smith's comprehensive
history of eschatological thought in early America encompasses
traditional and non-traditional Christian beliefs in the end of the
world. It reveals how millennialism and apocalypticism played a
role in destructive and racist beliefs like "Manifest Destiny,"
while at the same time influencing the foundational idea of the
United States as an "elect nation." Featuring a broadly diverse
cast of historical figures, A Dream of the Judgment Day synthesizes
more than forty years of scholarship into a compelling and
challenging portrait of early America.
In the early sixteenth century, a charismatic Bengali Brahmin,
Visvambhara Misra, inspired communities of worshipers in Bengal,
Orissa, and Vraja with his teachings. Misra took the ascetic name
Krsna Caitanya, and his devotees quickly came to believe he was
divine. The spiritual descendents of these initial followers today
comprise the Gaudiya Vaisnava movement, one of the most vibrant
religious groups in all of South Asia.
In The Final Word, Tony Stewart investigates how, with no central
leadership, no institutional authority, and no geographic center, a
religious community nevertheless came to define itself, fix its
textual canon, and flourish. The answer, he argues, can be found in
a brilliant Sanskrit and Bengali hagiographical exercise: the
Caitanya Caritamrta of Krsnadasasa Kaviraja. Written some
seventy-five years after Caitanya's passing, Krsnadasa's text
gathered and synthesized the divergent theological perspectives and
ritual practices that had proliferated during and after Caitanya's
life. It has since become the devotional standard of the Gaudiya
Vaisnava movement.
The text's power, Stewart argues, derives from its sophisticated
use of rhetoric. The Caitanya Caritamrta persuades its readers
covertly, appearing to defer its arrogated authority to Caitanya
himself. Though the text started out as a hagiography like so many
others-an index of appropriate beliefs and ritual practices that
points the way to salvation-its influence has grown far beyond
that. Over the centuries it has become an icon, a metonym of the
tradition itself. On occasion today it can even be seen worshiped
alongside images of Krsna and Caitanya on altars in Bengal.
In tracing the origins, literary techniques, and dissemination of
the Caitanya Caritamrta, Stewart has unlocked the history of the
Gaudiya Vaisnavas, explaining the improbable unity of a dynamic
religious group.
This volume consists of a collection of twelve empirical studies
that address theoretical and practical issues relating to
pilgrimage and tourism activities in late modernity. As a
contribution to the Religion and Social Order series sponsored by
the Association for the Sociology of Religion, these studies are
particularly directed to assessing both the role of religion in the
pilgrimage/tourism nexus and the ways in which religious
expressions have changed as a result of the technological and
social changes of late modernity that affect human behavior in a
more general sense. The chapters address neo-pagan pilgrimage tours
to ancient pagan temples, travels to spiritual healers, the
development of historical sites by American religious movements of
nineteenth-century origin, labyrinths, pilgrimages that emphasize
walking a journey rather than visiting buildings, virtual
pilgrimage, the Roman Jubilee of 2000, Kyoto's Gion Festival, and
similar topics.
In The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature,
Dr. William James takes aim at the nature of religion from a
scientific/academic point of view-something that had, until this
landmark work, been sorely missed. James believed that the study of
the origin of an object or concept should not play a role in the
study of its value. As an example, he alluded to the Quaker
religion and its founder, George Fox. Many scientists immediately
reject all aspects of the Quaker religion because evidence suggests
that Fox was schizophrenic. Calling this rejection medical
materialism, he insisted that the origin of Fox's notions about
religion should not be considered when placing a value on them. He
pointed out that many believed El Greco to have suffered from
astigmatism, yet no one would dismiss his art based on this medical
detail. "Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as
much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts
intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining
the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of
the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it
alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the
Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."-
Dr. William James
This multidisciplinary study of Scientology examines the
organization and the controversies around it through the lens of
popular culture, referencing movies, television, print, and the
Internet-an unusual perspective that will engage a wide range of
readers and researchers. For more than 60 years, Scientology has
claimed alternative religious status with a significant number of
followers, despite its portrayals in popular culture domains as
being bizarre. What are the reasons for the vital connections
between Scientology and popular culture that help to maintain or
challenge it as an influential belief system? This book is the
first academic treatment of Scientology that examines the movement
in a popular-culture context from the perspective of several
Western countries. It documents how the attention paid to
Scientology by high-profile celebrities and its mention in movies,
television, and print as well as on the Internet results in
millions of people being aware of the organization-to the religious
organization's benefit and detriment. The book leads with a
background on Scientology and a discussion of science fiction
concepts, pulps, and movies. The next section examines
Scientology's ongoing relationship with the Hollywood elite,
including the group's use of celebrities in its drug rehabilitation
program, and explores movies and television shows that contain
Scientology themes or comedic references. Readers will learn about
how the Internet and the mainstream media of the United States as
well as of Australia, Germany, and the UK have regarded
Scientology. The final section investigates the music and art of
Scientology. Discusses Scientology within the framework of popular
culture, which is how most people outside the religion come in
contact with it Approaches the study of Scientology from multiple
viewpoints, enabling readers to have an informed, multicultural
perspective on the religious group's beliefs and practices from
which to form their own opinion Presents information about
Scientology derived from one of the largest university archive
collections on the subject worldwide, with a number of documents
never before having been referenced in scholarship
Designed for both academic and lay audiences, this book identifies
the characteristics of ritual and, via multiple examples, details
how ritual works on the human body and brain to produce its often
profound effects. These include enhancing courage, effecting
healing, and generating group cohesion by enacting cultural-or
individual-beliefs and values. It also shows what happens when
ritual fails.
Drawing on poststructuralist approaches, Craig Martin outlines a
theory of discourse, ideology, and domination that can be used by
scholars and students to understand these central elements in the
study of culture. The book shows how discourses are used to
construct social institutions-often classist, sexist, or racist-and
that those social institutions always entail a distribution of
resources and capital in ways that capacitate some subject
positions over others. Such asymmetrical power relations are often
obscured by ideologies that offer demonstrably false accounts of
why those asymmetries exist or persist. The author provides a
method of reading in order to bring matters into relief, and the
last chapter provides a case study that applies his theory and
method to racist ideologies in the United States, which
systematically function to discourage white Americans from
sympathizing with poor African Americans, thereby contributing to
reinforcing the latter's place at the bottom of a racial hierarchy
that has always existed in the US.
"Between Play and Prayer" launches "Spiritual Performance "as a
term to cover all human performance which in some way refers to
creating the presence of beings or entities from a realm that
transgresses the sensorial. This notion covers a great variety of
performative genres, ranging from funerary services, spiritualist
performances of deceased souls, to spiritual readings. This broad
and deep approach to a range of performances is answering a renewed
craving for spirituality in contemporary culture. By way of
performance theory and aesthetic theory, concepts of "faith," "
belief," " experience," "play," "prayer "and "theatricality," are
set in motion when proposing the necessity of experiencing such
performances on their own terms. In depth descriptions of a variety
of performances in Norwegian and New Zealand local contexts show
the necessity of experiencing and understanding an existential
quality in "Spiritual Performance." "Faith," not "credo," is at the
heart of spiritual practice. The book represents a new, innovative
and trans-disciplinary approach to spirituality in performance. The
reading of this book is a must for scholars in the field of
theatre- and performance studies, ritual and festival studies, for
scholars of religion, and anyone interested in the understanding of
spiritual practices.
This book presents a crisis of religion and belief literacy to
which education at every level is challenged to respond. As
understanding different religions, beliefs and influences becomes
increasingly important, it fills a gap for a resource in bringing
together the debates around religious literacy, from theoretical
approaches to teaching and policy. This timely publication provides
a clear pathway for engaging well with religion and belief
diversity in public and shared settings.
Globalized Religion and Sexual Identity reflects on the ways
religion, gender and sexual identity are framed and regulated in
multiple spheres across the globe. Controversies in the public
arena regarding religion and sexual identity often construct these
categories as inherently oppositional or already in conflict. As
state policies regarding sexuality and sexual diversity develop,
promoting inclusivity and non-discrimination, it is imperative to
develop a more nuanced discussion regarding the relationship of
religion/ideology to sexual diversity and sexuality. The goal of
this volume is to explore religion and sexual identity from a range
of countries across the globe, focusing on the theme of
religious/ideological voices in state policies, such as same-sex
marriage, identification, and education.
The term "revival" has been used to describe the resurgent vitality
of Buddhism in Taiwan. Scholars have particularly been impressed by
the quality and size of the nun's order: Taiwanese nuns today are
highly educated and greatly outnumber monks. Both characteristics
are unprecedented in the history of Chinese Buddhism and are
evident in the Incense Light community (Xiangguang). Passing the
Light is the first in-depth case study of the community. Founded in
1974, Incense Light remains a small but influential order of highly
educated nuns who dedicate themselves to teaching Buddhism to lay
adults. The work begins with a historical survey of Buddhist nuns
in China, based primarily on the sixth-century biographical
collection Lives of the Nuns. This is followed by discussions on
the early history of the Incense Light community; the life of
Wuyin, one of its most prominent leaders; and the crucial role
played by Buddhist studies societies on college campuses, where
many nuns were first introduced to Incense Light. Later chapters
look at the curriculum and innovative teaching methods at the
Incense Light seminary and the nuns' efforts to teach Buddhism to
adults. The work ends with portraits of individual nuns, providing
details on their backgrounds, motivations for becoming nuns, and
the problems or setbacks they have encountered both within and
without the Incense Light community. This engaging study enriches
the literature on the history of Buddhist nuns, seminaries, and
education, and will find an appreciative audience among scholars
and students of Chinese religion, especially Buddhism, as well as
those interested in questions of religion and modernity and women
and religion.
*With a foreword from Tim Keller* A bold vision for Christians who
want to engage the world in a way that is biblically faithful and
culturally sensitive. In Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher
Watkin shows how the Bible and its unfolding story help us make
sense of modern life and culture. Critical theories exist to
critique what we think we know about reality and the social,
political, and cultural structures in which we live. In doing so,
they make visible the values and beliefs of a culture in order to
scrutinize and change them. Biblical Critical Theory exposes and
evaluates the often-hidden assumptions and concepts that shape
late-modern society, examining them through the lens of the
biblical story running from Genesis to Revelation, and asking
urgent questions like: How does the Bible's storyline help us
understand our society, our culture, and ourselves? How do specific
doctrines help us engage thoughtfully in the philosophical,
political, and social questions of our day? How can we analyze and
critique culture and its alternative critical theories through
Scripture? Informed by the biblical-theological structure of Saint
Augustine's magisterial work The City of God (and with extensive
diagrams and practical tools), Biblical Critical Theory shows how
the patterns of the Bible's storyline can provide incisive, fresh,
and nuanced ways of intervening in today's debates on everything
from science, the arts, and politics to dignity, multiculturalism,
and equality. You'll learn the moves to make and the tools to use
in analyzing and engaging with all sorts of cultural artifacts and
events in a way that is both biblically faithful and culturally
relevant. It is not enough for Christians to explain the Bible to
the culture or cultures in which we live. We must also explain the
culture in which we live within the framework and categories of the
Bible, revealing how the whole of the Bible sheds light on the
whole of life. If Christians want to speak with a fresh, engaging,
and dynamic voice in the marketplace of ideas today, we need to
mine the unique treasures of the distinctive biblical storyline.
In Islam in Post-communist Eastern Europe: Between Churchification
and Securitization Egdunas Racius reveals how not only the
governance of religions but also practical politics in
post-communist Eastern Europe are permeated by the strategies of
churchification and securitization of Islam. Though most Muslims
and the majority of researchers of Islam hold to the view that
there may not be church in Islam, material evidence suggests that
the representative Muslim religious organizations in many Eastern
European countries have been effectively turned into
ecclesiastical-bureaucratic institutions akin to nothing less than
'national Muslim Churches'. As such, these 'national Muslim
Churches' themselves take an active part in securitization,
advanced by both non-Muslim political and social actors, of certain
forms of Islamic religiosity.
An updated edition of this influential feminist text.
The Oxford Handbook of Music and World Christianities investigates
music's role in everyday practice and social history across the
diversity of Christian religions and practices around the globe.
The volume explores Christian communities in the Americas, Europe,
Africa, Asia, and Australia as sites of transmission,
transformation, and creation of deeply diverse musical traditions.
The book's contributors, while mostly rooted in ethnomusicology,
examine Christianities and their musics in methodologically diverse
ways, engaging with musical sound and structure, musical and social
history, and ethnography of music and musical performance. These
broad materials explore five themes: music and missions, music and
religious utopias (and other oppositional religious communities),
music and conflict, music and transnational flows, and music and
everyday life. The volume as a whole, then, approaches Christian
groups and their musics as diverse and powerful windows into the
way in which music, religious ideas, capital, and power circulate
(and change) between places, now and historically. It also tries to
take account of the religious self-understandings of these groups,
presenting Christian musical practice and exchange as encompassing
and negotiating deeply felt and deeply rooted moral and cultural
values. Given that the centerpiece of the volume is Christian
religious musical practice, the volume reveals the active role
music plays in maintaining and changing religious, moral, and
cultural values in a long history of intercultural and
transnational encounters.
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