{"title":"Measuring the strength of belief in the supernatural entities in the Babylonian Talmud. A method based on the Elyonim veTachtonim project","authors":"Wojciech Kosior","doi":"10.1177/20503032231199491","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231199491","url":null,"abstract":"This paper offers a technique for assessing the strength of belief in the traditions involving supernatural entities (angels, demons, ghosts, and monsters) present in the Babylonian Talmud. The method is based on the appreciation of the formal features of the text (genre, language, attribution, etc.) in the theoretical and technical framework of the Elyonim veTachtonim project and allows to grade relatively the perceived reality of particular accounts. The analysis of the quantitative data shows that these are the traditions about the demons, which are usually provided in the form of pragmatic recommendations transmitted in Aramaic and featuring the Babylonian sages. This allows us to infer that the demons appeared to the final redactors (i.e., the Stammaim) as the most real among the supernatural entities: they were presented as posing real danger and as demanding adequate means of action.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46155423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Resurrecting the Jew: Nationalism, Philosemitism, and Poland’s Jewish Revival","authors":"Warren S. Goldstein","doi":"10.1177/20503032231199486","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231199486","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42591239","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: Minority Churches as Media Settlers: Negotiating Deep Mediatization","authors":"Moch. Zainul Arifin","doi":"10.1177/20503032231199485","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231199485","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45845261","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Corrigendum to Japanese divine light in Kinshasa: Transcultural resonance and critique in the religiously multiple city","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/20503032231195720","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231195720","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46659162","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sacred suffering and the construction of political spirituality in the Iranian Shiism discourse","authors":"Zahra Khoshk Jan","doi":"10.1177/20503032231174205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231174205","url":null,"abstract":"This article tries to discuss this claim that Shia or as Henry Corbin puts it, “Iranian Islam,” is a discourse of political spirituality based on sacred suffering and governmentality (in Foucault's terms). The author aims to answer these questions: What do sacred suffering and governmentality mean in Shia discourse? How does sacred suffering articulate and give meaning to concepts related to political spirituality? To answer these questions, the author applied Laclau and Mouffe's discourse analysis, arguing that the sacred suffering constructs Shia antagonistic approach and plays a key role in constructing these discursive moments: the Karbala paradigm as a paradigm of both spirituality and political action, oppression, and martyrdom (as the holy death with spiritual-political goals). Moreover, in this discourse, the suffering of awaiting the Twelfth Imam during his absence becomes an opportunity to restore Shia governmentality through the establishment of a political government by Shia clerics in Iran.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":"11 1","pages":"171 - 186"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48791438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Book Review: An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville","authors":"R. Horsley","doi":"10.1177/20503032231174207","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231174207","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":"11 1","pages":"243 - 250"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-05-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42808296","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"An Islamic framework for animal ethics: Widening the conversation to include Islamic ethical vegetarianism","authors":"M. Mukhtar, Mary-Justine Todd","doi":"10.1177/20503032231174209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231174209","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores normative ways of conceptualizing Islamic ethics, animal ethics, and the divergent positions on the ethical treatment of animals by Muslims within Islamic scholarly discourse. Too often, the literature addressing the intersection between Islamic ethics and animal ethics is narrowly focused on the topic of halal slaughter. Therefore, this article proposes a wider conversation about an alternative relationship between Muslims and nonhuman animals in the industrialized factory farming era, suggesting that an ethical-vegetarian lifestyle may more accurately uphold the Islamic principles of compassion and mercy, as well as the Islamic practice of intellectual effort, ijtihad. At the very least, a reconceptualization to that end deserves rigorous consideration within Islamic scholarship, taking the debate beyond simply the moment and manner of an animal’s death.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-05-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44989091","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Socio-musical acculturation in Igbe and Iyayi religious movements among the Urhobo and Esan of Nigeria","authors":"Charles Onomudo Aluede, Bruno Dafe Ekewenu","doi":"10.1177/20503032231174212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231174212","url":null,"abstract":"This study traces the spread of the Igbe religion of the Urhobo people of Delta State in Nigeria to other ethnic cultures in the Benin Province in Nigeria where Igbe became known as the Osenughegbe and Iyayi religions. In doing this, it examines the religious, social, and musical transitions in this cross-cultural migration. This study adopts descriptive and historical approaches by deploying qualitative research methods; it elicited much of its data from interviews and non-participant observation. Ten temples were studied; five temples each were selected from the Delta and Edo states. The data drawn is descriptively presented and interpreted. The study found that Iyayi borrowed a lot from Igbe in terms of ritual practices, dressing, vocabulary, music, and dance. These greatly facilitated Igbe’s cross-cultural migration to other ethnic cultures. It concludes that Igbe music has a social value which has greatly accounted for Igbe’s influences in its cross-cultural migration with Iyayi as one of the recipients.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":"11 1","pages":"222 - 242"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47963754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A typology of shī ʿī discourses and possibilities of democracy","authors":"Naser Ghobadzadeh, Ali Akbar","doi":"10.1177/20503032231174203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231174203","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a typology of the major religio-political discourses in the Shī ʿī world, namely Shī ʿa orthodoxy, governmental Shī ʿism, and reformist Shī ʿism. We compare the political stance of the former discourse, which has received the least amount of attention in academic circles, with the other two well-researched discourses. The typology offered in this article will be helpful not only in providing a comprehensive picture of Shī ʿī politico-religious discourses, but also in providing a useful framework for further comparative analyses. We investigate the political theology and history of these discourses, as well as their capacity to accommodate popular sovereignty. We argue that while both orthodox and reformist Shī ʿī discourses embrace popular sovereignty, the linchpin of governmental Shī ʿism is divine sovereignty, which cannot be reconciled with popular sovereignty.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":"11 1","pages":"187 - 204"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-05-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45411068","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Heidegger as a Colonial Thinker: Puritanism and Germany’s Errand into the Wilderness","authors":"Markus Weidler","doi":"10.1177/20503032231174206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/20503032231174206","url":null,"abstract":"In the turbulent 1930s, Martin Heidegger gave a lecture on “Logic as the Question Concerning the Essence of Language.” Upon close inspection, this text expounds a form of covenantal thinking guided by the Puritan theme of an errand into the wilderness. The proffered analysis shows how Heidegger invokes a poetic conception of colony to reconfigure Germany’s self-image as a culture nation in search of a “new past.” What can be gleaned from this account is a central but neglected link between Heidegger’s thought and colonial discourse, in uneasy proximity to a special form of eschatological racism which divides humanity into spiritual classes marked by varying degrees of fitness for salvation.","PeriodicalId":43214,"journal":{"name":"Critical Research on Religion","volume":"11 1","pages":"150 - 170"},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-05-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43463814","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}