{"title":"Toward Multiscalar Analyses of Religions","authors":"Dominic Wilkins","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12953","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12953","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>The scholarly study of religion has experienced substantial change over the past quarter-century. Central among these was recognizing religions as existing within and shaped by spatial relations—a.k.a. religious studies’ “spatial turn.” Engaging geographic theory offered several benefits, particularly concerning interreligious conflicts, religions and secularisms, and religions’ intersections with other, seemingly divorced facets of lives and livelihoods. Yet religion's spatial turn remains incomplete. One striking omission is that of scale. A nuanced concept central to understanding spatialities and their relations, geographers have recently centered on scale and multiscalar relations when theorizing spatialities. Greater engagement with scale and especially multiscalarity would similarly benefit the scholarly study of religion.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 2","pages":"240-250"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144245116","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Burning Bodies: Religion, Race, and Migrant Funerary Practices in the Early 20th-Century Pacific West","authors":"Jyoti Puri","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12950","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12950","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This article explores the complex intersections of religion and bodies through the lens of Sikh migrant cremations in the early 20th century Pacific West. Sampling English-language from 1900 to 1920, it highlights how racial and civilizational biases shaped discourses on open-pyre migrant cremations, even as cremation was gaining acceptance among white settler groups in the United States and Canada. Reading the news reports critically, the essay spotlights migrants’ efforts to confer dignity on the dead under adverse social and political circumstances by enacting Sikhism's essential tenets. By examining Sikh cremations, the article emphasizes not only the importance of including migrant bodies and experiences but also the need to decolonize and diversify histories of cremation in the United States and Canada.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 4","pages":"375-384"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145666253","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Embodying Tradition and Ascribing Meaning: Israeli Jewish Atheists Choosing to Circumcise Their Sons","authors":"Tammar Friedman","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12964","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12964","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This article explores the meanings Israeli–Jewish atheists ascribe to their choice to circumcise their sons. Despite their lack of religious belief, many choose to engage in this practice, often seen as a typical representation of Jewish physical embodiment. Employing a lived religion approach, which emphasizes the multifaceted nature of human social experience, this study delves into meaning ascribed to their seemingly counterintuitive choice. The research reveals that their decision is driven by a desire to maintain connections to Jewish identity, tradition, peoplehood, and a sense of obligation to future generations. The findings suggest that religious knowledge and identity can be derived from the marking of the body, rather than a declaration of faith. This article contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between religious practices, cultural identity, and individual choices beyond the particular case, highlighting the ways in which disbelieving individuals engage with religious traditions and rituals.</p>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 4","pages":"442-454"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jssr.12964","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145666094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jerome R. Koch, Kevin D. Dougherty, Patricia A. Maloney
{"title":"Religion, Tattoos, and Religious Tattoos: The Body as Sacred Subculture","authors":"Jerome R. Koch, Kevin D. Dougherty, Patricia A. Maloney","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12962","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12962","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Tattoos have evolved into a widely popular form of self-expression in the United States, especially for younger generations. Religious texts and images become increasingly common tattoos that now decorate the body. Surprisingly, previous research on tattoos is largely silent about religion. Given changing perceptions in the United States on tattoos, we ask: do religious people today have tattoos? And, how religious are people with religious tattoos? With a nod to Durkheim, tattoos may be conceptualized as <i>profane</i> and <i>sacred</i>, with religious tattoos functioning as sacralized markers of religious subcultural identity. We analyze tattoos and religion with nationally representative data from the 2021 Baylor Religion Survey. Religious affiliation is largely unrelated to tattoo acquisition or tattoo type, but religious commitment is related to both acquisition and type of tattoo. Highly committed religious people are unlikely to have a tattoo. If they do, it is likely a religious tattoo.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 4","pages":"433-441"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145666095","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Religious Exit Costs","authors":"Jared Bok","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12963","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12963","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Although much research has been conducted on religious exits, most of it focuses on the characteristics of those who have left, the factors prompting them to leave, or the issues they face in their new lives, with little systematic theorizing about the forms and roles of religious exit costs—that is, the penalties religious adherents pay or anticipate paying should they leave their respective religious groups. In this article, I aim to fill this gap by providing a clearer conceptualization for religious exit costs, discussing how they may vary in form, and generating a series of theoretical propositions concerning their role in preventing exit and the implications associated with successful preventions.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 2","pages":"227-239"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144244837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Weak(ening) Link Between Religiosity and Morality: Evidence from Five Western Countries","authors":"Sam Reimer, Galen Watts","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12960","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12960","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Previous research has often found a strong link between religiosity and morality. Specifically, high religiosity results in more restrictive moral positions, and the tendency toward absolutism. In this paper, we use the World Values Survey (WVS) to show a weakening link between three morality scales and religiosity over time in five Western countries (Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand). The exception to this general trend is the area of sexual or body morality, where the correlation remains strong. Further, religiosity does not promote moral homogeneity, as those with high religiosity give no less diverse answers to moral questions than the nonreligious. We suggest that secularization, changing religiosity, and the discursive winnowing of “religion” help explain these trends.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 2","pages":"198-210"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144244881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Intergroup and Contextual Determinants of Real-World Religious Donations: An Experimental Test in Jerusalem","authors":"Ilona Goldner, Shahaf Zamir, Elia Yitzhakian, Tzipi Rosen, Pazit Ben-Nun Bloom","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12961","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12961","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Religious belief commonly relates to prosocial behavior, yet studies suggest that religious individuals tend to limit their prosociality to ingroup members. In this study, we conducted a door-to-door fundraising field experiment to investigate further religious prosociality and ingroup favoritism in a real-world setting. Our results support the association between religiosity and prosociality, showing that religious individuals (compared to secular individuals) were likelier to donate and display hospitality toward fundraisers. However, we also found evidence of ingroup bias by focusing on the role of religiosity level as a boundary of the religious ingroup among co-religionists. Religious people were more inclined to donate to religious fundraisers than secular fundraisers, despite a shared religious affiliation with both. Furthermore, we explored the implications of religious diversity residential context on this nuanced ingroup bias and suggest that the religious community structure alone may not be sufficient to explain the nuances of religious prosocial behavior.</p>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 2","pages":"211-226"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jssr.12961","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144244882","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Religion and Embodiment: How Young Black People With Diverse Sexual Identities Experience Christianity","authors":"Sandra L. Barnes","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12957","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12957","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This qualitative study examines religious experiences linked to embodiment, Christianity, and the Black Church for a cadre of 76 young Black members of the LGBTQIA community ages 18–30 years old based on the questions: How have Black members of the LGBTQIA community experienced religion, in general, and Christianity as well as Black Church life, in particular? What have they learned that can be linked to embodiment? Can a Womanist lens help understand their religious lives? Given its emphasis on individual and collective transformation for historically marginalized groups, a Womanist theoretical framework undergirds this study. Four themes emerge via content analysis in which the bodies of Black sexual minorities are victimized, vilified, validated, and victorious relative to Christianity and body politics. Womanism was also found to be a useful model for interpreting and understanding their views about religion and/or spirituality.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 4","pages":"408-421"},"PeriodicalIF":1.9,"publicationDate":"2025-03-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145666093","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Guardianship in Transition: Contextual Embodiment of Islamic Tenets Among Iranians in Kentucky","authors":"Erfan Saidi Moqadam","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12959","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12959","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This article engages with current discussions on Islamic authority, proposing an approach that regards the bottom-up experiences, agency, and exegetical intervention of ordinary practitioners as equivalent to those of experts. Focusing on guardianship, this article examines how Iranians understand and transform this Quranic concept within the specific context of Kentucky, and how these understandings are shaped by observing local Christian practices that exclusively emphasize biblical authority. Through ethnographic analysis, this article explores how these Iranians have challenged the prevailing exegesis that restricts guardianship solely to the Islamic jurist (<i>faqīh</i>). This specific setting, removed from any institutionalized religious authority, has empowered them to collectively articulate their exegetical tensions, contradictions, and paradoxes over the pertinent verses as Islamic—concerning guardianship in this study—and also to strategically harmonize their interpretations and practices with the Christian context to gain recognition, acceptance, and cultural integration.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 2","pages":"187-197"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144245007","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Democratic Approach to Religion News: Christianity and Islam in the British and Turkish Press","authors":"Ismail Albayrak","doi":"10.1111/jssr.12951","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jssr.12951","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51390,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion","volume":"64 2","pages":"260-261"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-03-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144244736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}