{"title":"Review: <i>Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion: A Critical Exploration</i>, edited by George D. Chryssides and Amy R. Whitehead","authors":"John Mauger","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.129","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.129","url":null,"abstract":"Book Review| November 01 2023 Review: Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion: A Critical Exploration, edited by George D. Chryssides and Amy R. Whitehead Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion: A Critical Exploration. Edited by George D. Chryssides and Amy R. Whitehead. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. 183 pages. $90.00 hardcover; $29.95 softcover; ebook available. John Mauger John Mauger Claremont Graduate University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 27 (2): 129–131. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.129 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation John Mauger; Review: Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion: A Critical Exploration, edited by George D. Chryssides and Amy R. Whitehead. Nova Religio 1 November 2023; 27 (2): 129–131. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.129 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search Contested Concepts in the Study of Religion is an anthology of 25 short articles, by 23 scholars, on significant concepts in religious studies which can be contested among researchers or practitioners. Each essay is about 5 to 6 pages and covers a single topic. The editors say that the book should not be thought of as a dictionary or keywords book. Rather, its purpose is to critically explore various uses or misuses of religious concepts and terminology to shed light on those topics. These include general topics such as religion, belief, spirituality, world religion, and worship, having applicability across religions. Others include charisma, cult, magic, new age, prophecy, violence, and so on. All the terms selected are “problematic” for a variety of reasons, but typically this book focuses on how they are being used in scholarly and popular literature. The writers were asked to explore the origins of the concept,... You do not currently have access to this content.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"18 22","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135112310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review: <i>The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession</i>, edited by Diana Espírito Santo and Matan Shapiro","authors":"Jeffrey E. Anderson","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.123","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.123","url":null,"abstract":"Book Review| November 01 2023 Review: The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession, edited by Diana Espírito Santo and Matan Shapiro The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession. Edited by Diana Espírito Santo and Matan Shapiro. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022. x + 226 pages. $115.00 hardcover; $39.95 paper; ebook available. Jeffrey E. Anderson Jeffrey E. Anderson University of Louisiana Monroe Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 27 (2): 123–125. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.123 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Jeffrey E. Anderson; Review: The Dynamic Cosmos: Movement, Paradox, and Experimentation in the Anthropology of Spirit Possession, edited by Diana Espírito Santo and Matan Shapiro. Nova Religio 1 November 2023; 27 (2): 123–125. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.123 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search The Dynamic Cosmos is a collection focused on spirit possession, a phenomenon that has long fascinated both academic and popular audiences. The introduction to the work, composed by Diana Espírito Santo and Matan Shapiro seeks to provide structure to the wide-ranging essays by proposing that their works collectively examine the phenomenon through the concepts of play, paradox, and simultaneity. The first is most prominent in the editors’ description of their goal with their use of play conveying the idea that spirit possession embodies aspects of uncertainty and contradiction much as a mock combat is intended both to represent genuine fighting while being understood as decidedly not meant to harm. Closely allied with play is the concept of paradox, which the editors link most strongly to the idea that spirit possession represents both the volition of the person possessed and the alleged spirit possessing him or her. The ten essays that... You do not currently have access to this content.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"19 7","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135112491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Black Secular Humanism and Its Significance for Contemporary Methodologies in Religious Studies","authors":"Roy Whitaker","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.101","url":null,"abstract":"Review| November 01 2023 Black Secular Humanism and Its Significance for Contemporary Methodologies in Religious Studies Black Freethinkers: A History of African American Secularism. By Christopher Cameron. Northwestern University Press, 2019. 256 pages. $99.95 hardcover; $34.95 softcover; ebook available.Emancipation of a Black Atheist. By D. K. Evans. Pitchstone Publishing, 2017. 176 pages. $14.95 softcover; ebook available.Humanists in the Hood: Unapologetically Black, Feminist, and Heretical. By Sikivu Hutchinson. Pitchstone Publishing, 2020. 135 pages. $14.95 softcover; ebook available.A Qualitative Study of Black Atheists: “Don’t Tell Me You’re One of Those!” By Daniel Swann. Lexington Books, 2020. 208 pages. $100.00 hardcover; ebook available. Roy Whitaker Roy Whitaker Roy Whitaker, San Diego State University dwhitaker@sdsu.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar dwhitaker@sdsu.edu Nova Religio (2023) 27 (2): 101–110. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.101 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Roy Whitaker; Black Secular Humanism and Its Significance for Contemporary Methodologies in Religious Studies. Nova Religio 1 November 2023; 27 (2): 101–110. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.101 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search Throughout the tragic and dreadful onslaught of Western colonialism causing the Atlantic slave trade, the Black Church has been—as Henry Louis Gates Jr. chronicles in both the book and the PBS series The Black Church (2021)—a primary source of strength and solace. But this option is not the only viable life-choice, as humanists like to say. D. K. Evans’ Emancipation of a Black Atheist, Christopher Cameron’s Black Freethinkers, Sikivu Hutchinson’s Humanists in the Hood, and Daniel Swann’s A Qualitative Study of Black Atheists offer compelling counternarratives of segments in the Black community negotiating (post)coloniality, religion, and race through the prism of secularity. A major contribution of the research by Evans, Cameron, Hutchinson, and Swann is their enrichment of a burgeoning academic identity subfield in religion: Black secular humanism. Black secular humanism consists of a growing body of epistemologies, discourses, ethics, and literature grounded in an African diaspora... You do not currently have access to this content.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"19 17","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135111198","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Three Spirit Mediums","authors":"Natasha L. Mikles","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.86","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.86","url":null,"abstract":"Based on interviews with three American spirit mediums during the COVID-19 pandemic, this research note serves as a case study on the role of spirit mediumship during the pandemic. Because they serve clients rather than congregations, spirit mediums were able to develop more nuanced and immediate responses to clients’ grief surrounding the loss of a loved one to COVID-19. Spirit mediums also had an important role during the pandemic as interpreters for creating theodicies explaining why a loved one died and individuals experienced grief. In this meaning-making work, spirit mediums sometimes reflected a “conspiritual” perspective, framing the pandemic’s origins and subsequent vaccine development through conspiratorial thinking. This research note ultimately suggests, therefore, that spirit mediums have an important role in American grief that has been largely overlooked and needs further dedicated research.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"18 14","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135112315","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Review: <i>Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad</i>. Volume I, <i>Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination</i>, by Tracey E. Hucks; <i>Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad</i>. Volume II, <i>Orisa: Africana Nations and the Power of Black Sacred Imagination</i>, by Dianne M. Stewart","authors":"Alexander Rocklin","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.120","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.120","url":null,"abstract":"Book Review| November 01 2023 Review: Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad. Volume I, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination, by Tracey E. Hucks; Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad. Volume II, Orisa: Africana Nations and the Power of Black Sacred Imagination, by Dianne M. Stewart Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad. Volume I, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination. By Tracey E. Hucks. Duke University Press, 2022. 280 pages. $26.95 softcover; ebook availableObeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad. Volume II, Orisa: Africana Nations and the Power of Black Sacred Imagination. By Dianne M. Stewart. Duke University Press, 2022. 368 pages. $28.95 softcover; ebook available. Alexander Rocklin Alexander Rocklin Otterbein University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (2023) 27 (2): 120–123. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.120 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Alexander Rocklin; Review: Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad. Volume I, Obeah: Africans in the White Colonial Imagination, by Tracey E. Hucks; Obeah, Orisa, and Religious Identity in Trinidad. Volume II, Orisa: Africana Nations and the Power of Black Sacred Imagination, by Dianne M. Stewart. Nova Religio 1 November 2023; 27 (2): 120–123. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.2.120 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentNova Religio Search In many ways these two volumes are an enactment of the vision that Tracey Hucks and Dianne Stewart laid out ten years ago in the inaugural issue of Journal of African Religions in their article “Africana Religious Studies: Toward a Transdisciplinary Agenda in an Emerging Field.” Taking a phenomenological approach following Charles Long, as well as drawing on the methodologies of history and Africana theology, these dual studies of Orisha and obeah in Trinidad bring to life the internal diversity, complexity, and historical transformation of African diaspora cultures on the island. The first volume is, and is not, about Obeah. Tracey Hucks began her and Stewart’s research in Trinidad trying to find evidence of Obeah, a mostly unspecified set of African diaspora ritual and healing repertoires now largely lost, denied, or forgotten. Instead, what she found evidence for was what the two authors call obeah (in the lower case), a... You do not currently have access to this content.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"19 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135112494","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Chaos Untold: The Use of Gnosticism in the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (MLO)","authors":"Paul Linjamaa, Johnny Olsson","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.29","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article analyzes the utilization of the concept “Gnosticism” in a form of Satanism that has come to be known as “Chaos Gnosticism,” or “Gnostic Satanism.” The topic of the study is the Swedish expression of this phenomenon attached to Current 218 and the Temple of Black Light, previously named the Misanthropic Luciferian Order (MLO). The group is known as one of the more radical and violent forms of Satanism. The aim here is to show how MLO relates to ancient Gnostic myths and how the particular and at times sinister worldview of MLO is legitimized by the use of Gnosticism. We also argue that the way the concept “Gnosticism” is understood within the group is reminiscent of the way it is constructed in certain scholarly circles. This brings to attention the relationship between modern academic publications and the construction of new religious movements.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"27 1","pages":"29 - 50"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44649970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“We Don’t See Our Past as a Mistake”: Changes in the Religious Identity and Organizational Pattern of a Community of Baalei Teshuvah","authors":"Yitzhak Dahan, Janet Cohen","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.51","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.51","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This study discusses the religious identity and organizational patterns of a community of baalei teshuvah as a unique form of new religious movement. Findings over time show that community members originally took steps to integrate and merge with the dominant group of ultra-Orthodox in Israel (the Haredim), later adopted a sectarian pattern, then moved toward an alternative way of religious life, in time even challenging and criticizing the dominant Haredi stream. An additional objective of the study was to identify the sources and mechanisms of organizational and identity changes experienced by this community. The empirical analysis reveals that these changes were influenced by universal, local, national, and personal factors, such as the leaders’ worldview and biography. In light of these findings, we claim that when analyzing new religious movements, researchers must integrate and synthesize several aspects: structure and agency, macro and micro, and intentionality and contingency.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"27 1","pages":"51 - 78"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48082952","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Saving Religion from Ballardhoo: Metaphysical Religion, the Government, and the Creation of Religious Criminals","authors":"Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.5","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article examines the 1942 federal trial and convictions of Edna and Donald Ballard as an example of the way legal processes can create new types of religious criminals. Scholarship has tended to focus on the landmark US Supreme Court decision United States v. Ballard (1944), which contributed to an expansion of religious freedom protections to individuals and groups previously not considered for First Amendment protection. Through a close reading of the prosecution’s case against the leaders of the I AM Movement, we see the courtroom as an active space of subject formation at a critical time in the history of religious freedom in the United States. I argue that trials, such as this one, demonstrate how the expansion of First Amendment rights also results in the expansion of religious illegality.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"27 1","pages":"28 - 5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44761751","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sun the Mother and Moon the Father: Gender Roles and Family Practices in Romuva","authors":"Milda Ališauskienė","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.79","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.79","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:This article discusses the construction of gender roles in contemporary Baltic Paganism through a case study of teachings and everyday practices among female members of the Ancient Baltic Religious Association Romuva in contemporary Lithuania. Reconstructionist Pagan religious groups usually represent a traditionalist worldview, while the impact of feminist ideas is mostly observed within goddess-oriented Pagan traditions like Wicca. Romuva represents a mixture of the two concerning gender roles. One of the main factors in this mixture is the influence, in her person and ideas, of archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921–1994), probably the only Lithuanian representative of second-wave feminism. Interviews with Romuva female members conducted in 2021 show that their conceptions of preferred gender roles and family practices varied. Factors like the interviewee’s age and education, experiences of Soviet so-called “gender equality policies,” and social conservatism all made an impact on them.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"27 1","pages":"79 - 98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47940028","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Branch Davidian Press Conference and Thirtieth Anniversary Memorial, 19 April 2023","authors":"J. Laycock","doi":"10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.99","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.2023.27.1.99","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT:The year 2023 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the Branch Davidian-federal agent conflict at Mount Carmel Center in Texas. In 1993, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (BATF) raided the Branch Davidians’ residence in an attempt to serve warrants, but it resulted in a shootout. Afterward, the FBI oversaw a 51-day siege of the residence that culminated in a fire on April 19 in which 76 Branch Davidians of all ages died. Since then, numerous books and documentaries have come out about these events. Scholars now know much more about what happened, but the event has also become increasingly politicized. This Field Note recounts a press conference and memorial service that were held on 19 April 2023 at the Taylor Museum of Waco History in Waco, Texas, at which both scholars and survivors spoke.","PeriodicalId":44149,"journal":{"name":"Nova Religio-Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions","volume":"27 1","pages":"108 - 99"},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2023-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44205256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}