Journal of Contemporary Religion最新文献

{"title":"Old Religion, New Spirituality: Implications of Secularisation and Individualisation in Estonia","authors":"Kaarina Aitamurto","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2100132","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2100132","url":null,"abstract":"chronically contested the territorial pattern of what we call Europe has been throughout its long history and how varied the cultures are that have found a sometimes precarious home on the Continent. Miri Freud-Kandel, for example, points out in her chapter on “Judaism and Europe” that, until the Second World War, Europe had been the primary home of Judaism for centuries and, despite all the expulsions and pogroms Jews suffered, the Continent’s history was intimately intertwined with Judaism’s development right up to the Enlightenment and beyond; today, after the Shoa and then the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948, most Jews now live in Israel or the USA. ‘West’ and ‘East’, as applied to Europe, are revealed by this book as an oversimplified and contentious dichotomy. Migration and violently contested borders feature as a chronic element in European life rather than a recent ‘problem’. The complex intertwining and competition of religion and politics is a central ongoing fact of European life, even in the present era of increased secularisation at the level of many individual lives. Religion is still liable to be ‘weaponised’ or ‘misappropriated’ by rulers to prop up their power or by demagogues to boost their appeal to ethno-nationalism, notably in projects to ‘homogenise’ populations living in particular territories. The book makes one wonder again to what extent what we claim as ‘Western values’ are distinctively Christian in origin. How far does Europe’s religious heritage still invisibly shape aspects of Europe’s contemporary ‘secular’ culture? What aspects of that heritage are actually jettisoned by the growing numbers of the ‘non-religious’? How significant is their distinctive religious history for the contemporary politics of European societies? These questions and many others are raised and discussed in this Handbook even if they can seldom be definitively resolved. The Oxford Handbook of Religion and Europe is an exemplary encyclopaedic project and will be an invaluable resource for historians, social scientists, theologians, and scholars of religious studies for some years to come, although, as editors of other encyclopaedias have found, updating is now easier in digital than in printed format. At a cost of over £100 most students will need to hope that this volume will be acquired by their institution’s library.","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"157 - 159"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47641171","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":"Anyone can make a religious object: undoing spirituality and contemporary art","authors":"M. Graham, Clark Goldsberry, Isaac Calvert","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2150002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2150002","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The spiritual dimensions of art and education have been explored for their potential to offer different ways of understanding or representing knowledge and their potential to inspire transcendence or cultivate wholeness. This article examines connections between transcendent or sacred territories of human existence, teaching, and contemporary art. Experiences of walking in the Himalayan mountains with Tibetan Buddhist monks, conversing with rabbis in Jerusalem, and teaching in state school classrooms are used to illustrate connections between education, spirituality, religion, and contemporary art. We seek to understand how the spiritual dimensions of education and contemporary art could be understood through the lenses of different spiritual traditions and cultures.","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"137 - 154"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48177714","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":"Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land","authors":"Dan McKanan","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2138028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2138028","url":null,"abstract":"dramaturgical production. His elaboration of embodied spiritualities related to outdoor recreation bears additional scholarly analysis (as he suggests). He focuses specifically on surfing, but there are resources that highlight (although not in the depth that LeVasseur does here) the religious cultural production stemming from other activities such as skiing, rock climbing, kayaking, and hiking. There are few ethnographies, unfortunately, about these embodied modes of spirituality. Two case studies of post-Anthropocene dramaturgies which combine environmentalism, sex, and gender include the advocacy group “FuckForForest” (FFF) and the emergence of people who self-identify as EcoSexuals. For some scholars of religions these are described as new modes of performance and identification. LeVasseur suggests that these are instantiations of dark green religious production at the cultural margins. Yet will they stay marginal as the impact of climate disruption persists and worsens? “The challenge to the academy, and especially religious studies”, LeVasseur argues, “is to see how studies such as these can possibly, or will actually contribute to resilient transformations, if at all” (136). Towards the end of his introduction, LeVasseur asks his reader to consider the following questions: “How do we bring beauty to the academy? How do we ask questions appropriate to the Anthropocene, so we can better understand how human animals are trying to protect such beauty, or are seeking to rediscover it? How can we help create institutions where knowledge of and ceremony with beauty are their reason for being?” (xxx). Indeed, as he artfully articulates, we have not yet developed an academic culture that can even reflect on how something like beauty, imagined as a harmonious embodied interbeing of material and non-material agents, might be codified, sought after, and studied. Climate Change, Religion, and Our Bodily Future provides the first steps towards an academy that might be able to ask and answer such poignant questions.","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"167 - 169"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47290315","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":"Toward a sociological hermeneutics of narrative secularization: secular stories in the Spanish case of religious transformation (1960–2019)","authors":"R. Andrés","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2023.2180926","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2023.2180926","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to present a dimension of the study of religious transformation that can help us to continue the debate on secularization from an approach of sociological history: narrativity. After the presentation of the conceptual and methodological bases that support this study, I explore a specific case of secularization: Spanish society between 1960 and 2019. The acceleration of the secularization process in the second half of the century was particularly condensed in the gestation of a whole series of narratives, which led to the formation of an ‘epistemic secular regime’. This article will reflect on the particularities of three specific historical moments: the late 1960s, the period immediately after Franco’s death (from 1975 until the end of the 1980s), and the beginning of the twenty-first century. My research concludes by confirming the importance of narrative secularization to understand this process from a socio-historical perspective and proposes the study of the narrative dimension as a line of explanation for the particular acceleration and extension of secularization in other European societies.","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"97 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41910447","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":"Becoming Jewish, Believing in Jesus: Judaizing Evangelicals in Brazil","authors":"A. Engberg","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2107264","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2107264","url":null,"abstract":"sections that are ‘heavy’ with anthropological theory. He indicates which parts are the most onerous and encourages readers who are not interested in that content to skip those sections. Perhaps they are engaging for cultural anthropologists, but they read largely as wordplay for the sake of wordplay. I failed to discern coherent arguments in these relatively short sections and to see why some anthropologists choose to write in such incomprehensible ways. Other problems are relatively minor. There are a number of small errors. Bialecki uses ‘secularism’ as a catch-all term for secularity, secularisation, nonreligion, irreligion, and all things that are not religion, which is not the way most scholars understand the term. He mistakenly describes the Salt Lake Tabernacle as a former temple site (67) and occasionally uses terms like ‘disfellowshipped’ erroneously (ibid). Finally, Bialecki suggests that Mormonism and transhumanism are inherently compatible (161). There may be some possible links thanks to Mormon theology, but the author’s primary source for determining this compatibility is individuals who have found a way to make them compatible—informants who are Mormon transhumanists. This argument would have been much stronger had the author interviewed or studied other Mormons who do not identify as transhumanists. Overall,Machines for Making Gods is intriguing because the subject matter is unique— Mormons who embrace cryonics, the singularity, technology, and human enhancement. As indicated, the book could be much tighter, closer editing would have strengthened it, and a clearly discernible overarching argument would have helped. The book is strongest when describing the MTA and its members; the subtle errors creep in more commonly when Bialecki discusses the LDS Church more generally. However, for those interested in either Mormonism or transhumanism, this book is worth the read.","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"173 - 175"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49358942","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":"Machines for Making Gods: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds without End","authors":"Ryan T. Cragun","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2107259","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2107259","url":null,"abstract":"poses difficulty with what ‘Mennonite’ means in such contexts. The most obvious statements made by Loewen that he may agree are in Chapter 4, “Making Peace on Earth”, where he concludes that “Perhaps these texts refrain from making a case for a specifically ‘Mennonite’ approach to the land” (118) and that “the link between nonviolence and environmental care is a more recent concern” (123). In his conclusion, he writes: “The stories in this book speak to a common challenge faced by Mennonite farmers around the world, but they also relate to all farmers compelled by the question of sustainable agriculture” (269). I agree with this conclusion, but it undercuts his other assertion that the “lived religion” of “the seven Mennonite communities” play a “crucial role” in their “everyday environmental relations” (265, emphasis in original), at least in terms of any specific ‘Mennonite’ approach. This tension is an interesting conclusion that deserved more attention. Nevertheless, the ethnographic work Loewen and his team have done has produced an impressive collection of reflections on these seven communities that deserve attention by those interested in Mennonite studies and the relationship between religion and agriculture. His description provides an excellent starting point for normative questions—such as: what is a Mennonite understanding of sustainability and how should that understanding guide agricultural practices in diverse Mennonite communities?—but that is not necessarily the work of an historian.","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"171 - 173"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48433406","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":"Salafism and the State: Islamic Activism and National Identity in Contemporary Indonesia","authors":"Daniel Andrew Birchok","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2096757","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2096757","url":null,"abstract":"space of boundless freedom and unbridled opportunity. After an initial period marked by suspicion, notes Gary R. Bunt, established authorities and institutions changed course and began engaging in internet-based activities, often by embedding themselves in existing web sites. This trend is not limited to Sunni Islam. In his contribution, Babak Rahimi documents the internet presence of Shia clerics, many of whom, following the lead of the Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, have established their own web sites and Instagram accounts. Such gatekeepers raise barriers that restrict the agency of new entrants. Neither should cyberspace be considered independently from physical space. In his study of Habib Luthfi Bin Yahya, Ismail Fajrie Alatas shows how the Indonesian Sufi shaykh uses his web site to attract new participants to the monthly gatherings held at his congregational centre where his disciples fulfil the requirement of ‘companionship’ (suh ba) with their master. Other contributions, such as Andrea Stanton’s study of pilgrimage apps and Rosemary Pennington’s survey of Eid alAdha videos on Instagram, suppose a relationship between the digital and analogue worlds. Although the authors register the popularity of these media, they make no attempt to link digital use to behaviour in real life (IRL). How many Cyber Muslims will make the journey to Mecca or attend a celebration at their local mosque? The question is of empirical and theoretical importance, for, if Durkheim is right that religion is always a collective phenomenon, we can expect communal ritual practice to increase with the use of Islamic digital media—a trend that, if confirmed, would belie more widely received notions which associate internet use and social isolation. The web sites, apps, and social media accounts detailed in this volume represent a small fraction of Islamic cyberspace. Wisely, Rozehnal makes no claims to exhaustivity. Rather, he and his contributors have produced an original work that opens up new lines of inquiry in an ever-expanding field.","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"178 - 180"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42427249","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":"Invitation and Belonging in a Christian Ashram: Building Interreligious Community in Northern India","authors":"Matteo Di Placido","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2105521","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2105521","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"159 - 161"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45918090","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":"Pulpit, Mosque and Nation: Turkish Friday Sermons as Text and Ritual","authors":"Jeremy F. Walton","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2127568","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2127568","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"180 - 183"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43920575","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":"Redeem All: How Digital Life is Changing Evangelical Culture","authors":"Susan L. Trollinger","doi":"10.1080/13537903.2022.2107260","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2022.2107260","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45932,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Religion","volume":"38 1","pages":"175 - 177"},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48754148","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}