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After Lives: A Guide to Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory

John Casey

Christianity from its earliest times taught the existence of heaven and hell as places where good and evil deeds in this life were judged, rewarded and punished. In the course of time ideas both of ... More

Christianity from its earliest times taught the existence of heaven and hell as places where good and evil deeds in this life were judged, rewarded and punished. In the course of time ideas both of promised bliss and threatened woe went beyond anything than can have a purchase on human experience. Nevertheless, in their most developed form, doctrines of heaven and hell were explorations of moral psychology, as seen in their greatest imaginative expression, Dante's Divine Comedy. The present book explores and comments on ideas about post-mortem existence from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece and Rome, as well as in Christianity and (more briefly) Islam. Having traced the early history, growth, and refinement of these ideas over five millennia, it ends with the discordant voices of spiritualism, liberal theology, Mormonism, Evangelical Christian preachers of Rapture and Armageddon, modern Muslim apocalyptics, and Coptic visions of the Last Days. In a Prologue and an Epilogue the ironic treatment of some of these themes in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce is evoked to set them in a context of modernity.Less

Akhenaten and the Origins of Monotheism

James K. Hoffmeier

Akhenaten is one of the most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt, and one of the most fascinating individuals from the ancient world. His odd appearance in representations that he commissioned and his ... More

Akhenaten is one of the most intriguing rulers of ancient Egypt, and one of the most fascinating individuals from the ancient world. His odd appearance in representations that he commissioned and his preoccupation with worshiping the sun-disc, or Aten, have stimulated a vast amount of academic discussion and controversy for more than a century. The focus of this book is on Akhenaten’s religion and how it developed. Here, too, opinions vary. Was he a crazy fundamentalist, a zealous ideologue, a true believer, or did politics and power motivate his actions? The main questions addressed here include: How did Akhenaten’s religion develop? What prompted his program of persecution against Amun who had been the imperial god of Egypt in the centuries prior to Akhenaten’s? What was the significance of the temples built at Karnak Temple (the domain of Amun), and what role did they play? Why did the king abandon the imperial city of Thebes and build a new capital at Amarna? Was he a monotheist? If so, what if any influence did his religion have on the origin of Israel’s religion? These probing questions will be addressed by a careful reading of texts of Akhenaten and by examining his artistic representations.Less

Among the Scientologists: History, Theology, and Praxis

Donald Westbrook

The Church of Scientology is one of the most recognizable American-born new religious movements, but perhaps the least understood. Based on six years of interviews, fieldwork, and research conducted ... More

The Church of Scientology is one of the most recognizable American-born new religious movements, but perhaps the least understood. Based on six years of interviews, fieldwork, and research conducted among Scientologists in the United States, this groundbreaking work examines features of the new religion’s history, theology, and praxis from 1950 to 2018. While academics have begun to pay more attention to Scientology, the subject has received remarkably little qualitative attention in the secondary literature. Indeed, no work has systematically addressed questions such as: What do Scientologists have to say about their religion’s history, theology, and practices? How does Scientology act as a religion for them? What does “lived religion” look like for a Scientologist? When Scientology is viewed from the standpoint of its members, how might that perspective inform and modify existing scholarship? In response to these and other questions, this work puts forward an ethnographically informed historical and theological narrative of how and why Scientology functions as a religion in the lives of practicing members of the church, who are usually on the margins of discourse on the subject.Less

The Apocalyptic Year 1000: Religious Expectation and Social Change, 950-1050

Richard Landes, Andrew Gow, and David C. Van Meter (eds)

The chapters in this book challenge prevailing views on the way in which apocalyptic concerns contributed to larger processes of social change at the first millennium. Several basic questions unify ... More

The chapters in this book challenge prevailing views on the way in which apocalyptic concerns contributed to larger processes of social change at the first millennium. Several basic questions unify the chapters: What chronological and theological assumptions underlay apocalyptic and millennial speculations around the Year 1000? How broadly disseminated were those speculations? Can we speak of a mentality of apocalyptic hopes and anxieties on the eve of the millennium? If so, how did authorities respond to or even contribute to the formation of this mentality? What were the social ramifications of apocalyptic hopes and anxieties, and of any efforts to suppress or redirect the more radical impulses that bred them? How did contemporaries conceptualize and then historicize the passing of the millennial date of 1000?Less

Catholicism and Interreligious Dialogue

James L. Heft (ed.)

How can the world’s many religions overcome ideological differences and come together to promote understanding, justice, and peace? This book shows how to answer this crucial question. The book ... More

How can the world’s many religions overcome ideological differences and come together to promote understanding, justice, and peace? This book shows how to answer this crucial question. The book contains chapters by five Catholic scholars who have committed to the extensive study of and dialogue with another world religion. Each chapter presents an assessment of the present state of interreligious dialogue between the Catholic Church and practitioners of a particular faith, including Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. These assessments are followed by critical responses from two scholars of the tradition under discussion, as well as concluding comments from the Catholic scholar who offered the assessment.Less

China and the True Jesus: Charisma and Organization in a Chinese Christian Church

Melissa Wei-Tsing Inouye

This book examines the dynamic between charisma and organization in the history of the True Jesus Church, China’s first major native church, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The True ... More

This book examines the dynamic between charisma and organization in the history of the True Jesus Church, China’s first major native church, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The True Jesus Church is one of the earliest Chinese expressions of charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity, now the dominant mode of twenty-first-century Chinese Christianity. The book argues that the charismatic mode of Christianity is not merely a reflection of native religious traditions or conditions of socioeconomic deprivation, but a powerful tool for organizing and sustaining community. The book’s chapters explore the relationship between charismatic experience and collective action from a variety of different angles, including transnational communications and transportation technology, the context for charismatic religious experience, women’s agency in patriarchal religious traditions, Christian churches during the Maoist era, clandestine culture, civil society groups, and the relationship between religion and the state from imperial times to the present. Although existing scholarship on global influences within modern Chinese history has tended to focus on elites such as political leaders or well-known intellectuals, this history illuminates global networks of interaction and exchange at the grassroots. Throughout the turbulent modern era, women and men of the True Jesus Church faced situations and made choices that highlight shifts and tensions within Chinese society on a human scale. Their various collective responses to the concerns of their day highlight the significance of charismatic religious community as a resource for empowerment and agency.Less

Chinese Public Theology: Generational Shifts and Confucian Imagination in Chinese Christianity

Alexander Chow

It has been widely recognized that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in one of the last communist-run countries of the world: the People’s Republic of China. Yet it would be a mistake to ... More

It has been widely recognized that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in one of the last communist-run countries of the world: the People’s Republic of China. Yet it would be a mistake to describe Chinese Christianity as merely a clandestine faith or, as hoped by the Communist Party of China, a privatized religion. Alexander Chow argues that, since the end of the Cultural Revolution (1966–76), Christians in mainland China have been constructing a more intentional public theology to engage the Chinese state and society. Chinese Public Theology recalls the events which have led to this transformation and examines the developments of Christianity across three generations of Chinese intellectuals from the state-sanctioned Protestant church, the secular academy, and the growing urban renaissance in Calvinism. Moreover, Chow shows how each of these generations have provided different theological responses to the same sociopolitical moments of the last three decades. This book explains that a growing understanding of Chinese public theology has been developed through a subconscious intermingling of Christian and Confucian understandings of public intellectualism. These factors result in a contextually unique understanding of public theology, but also one which is faced by contextual limitations as well. Mindful of this, Chow draws from the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis and the Chinese traditional teaching of the unity of Heaven and humanity (Tian ren heyi) to offer a path forward in the construction of a Chinese public theology. Chinese Public Theology promises a new perspective into the vibrant and growing area of Chinese Christianity.Less

Comparative Theology and the Problem of Religious Rivalry

Hugh Nicholson

This book concerns the problem of the ineluctability of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ relations in theological discourse. It argues that liberal theologies — from the Christian fulfillment theology of the ... More

This book concerns the problem of the ineluctability of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ relations in theological discourse. It argues that liberal theologies — from the Christian fulfillment theology of the nineteenth century to the pluralist theology of the twentieth — have sought to transcend this “political” dimension of religion only to see it reappear in the more subtle, though arguably more insidious form of unacknowledged exclusion or hegemonism. This phenomenon of the ineluctability of the political in theological discourse is perhaps most clearly manifest in the current standoff between inclusivists and pluralists in the “theology of religions” debate; each of these parties has successfully exposed the unacknowledged exclusions of the other while generally being unable to refine their own positions to satisfy the criticism of their adversary. The book proposes a model of comparative or interreligious theology that seeks a way around this impasse. Instead of vainly attempting to negate the agonistic dimension of religious identity, this theological model focuses its critical attention on the tendency of religious identities, once formed, to disavow their relational nature and ossify into essentialized, ideological formations. This shift in critical focus reflects the thesis that religious intolerance, understood as the refusal to respect religious difference, stems less from the first “political” moment of exclusion in which religious identities are initially constructed, as from a subsequent moment of naturalization in which, as the political theorist William Connolly puts it, “relations of difference are converted into modes of otherness.”Less

Considering Comparison: A Method for Religious Studies

Oliver Freiberger

This book seeks to rehabilitate the comparative method in the study of religion by highlighting its fundamental role for the academic mission of religious studies and by proposing both a responsible ... More

This book seeks to rehabilitate the comparative method in the study of religion by highlighting its fundamental role for the academic mission of religious studies and by proposing both a responsible theoretical approach and a methodological framework. Analyzing the ways in which comparison is used in the study of religion, the book identifies the primary goals of this method and argues that it is constitutive for religious studies as an academic discipline. Revisiting various critiques of comparison—decontextualization and essentialization charges, postcolonialist and postmodernist critiques, and the perspectives of recent naturalistic approaches—the book incorporates insights gained from such debates into an approach that is based upon thorough epistemological analysis of comparison and that takes the scholar’s situatedness and agency seriously. Few scholars have reflected deeply upon how comparison works in practice. The book argues, and tries to demonstrate, that such reflections are useful both for producing and for evaluating comparative studies. It proposes a methodological framework for the analysis of comparison that is meant to prove relevant both for theoretical reflections and for the pragmatics of comparative work. In addition, it suggests a comparative approach—discourse comparison—that helps to confront the omnipresent risks of decontextualization, essentialization, and universalization. Arguing that the comparative method is indispensable for a deeper analytical understanding of what we call religion, this book makes a case for comparison. It seeks to enrich the considerations of both aspiring and seasoned comparativists, stimulate much-needed further discussions about methodology, and encourage scholars to produce responsible comparative studies.Less

Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway

Trude Fonneland

This book examines Sámi shamanism in Norway as a uniquely distinctive local manifestation of a global new religious phenomenon. It takes the diversity and hybridity within shamanic practices ... More

This book examines Sámi shamanism in Norway as a uniquely distinctive local manifestation of a global new religious phenomenon. It takes the diversity and hybridity within shamanic practices seriously through case studies from a Norwegian setting and highlights the ethnic dimension of these currents, through a particular focus on Sámi versions of shamanism. The book’s thesis is that the construction of a Sámi shamanistic movement makes sense from the perspective of the broader ethno-political search for a Sámi identity, with respect to connections to indigenous peoples worldwide and trans-historically. It also makes sense in economic and marketing terms. Based on more than ten years of ethnographic research, the book paints a picture of contemporary shamanism in Norway in its cultural context, relating it both to the local mainstream cultures in which it is situated and to global networks. By this, the book provides the basis for a study revealing the development of inventiveness, nuances, and polyphony that occur when a global religion of shamanism is merged in a Norwegian setting, colored by its own political and cultural circumstances.Less

Controversial New Religions

James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen (eds)

This book features a collection of essays that discuss in detail the new religious groups that emerged during the 20th century. The essays provide an overview of each religion, their historical ... More

This book features a collection of essays that discuss in detail the new religious groups that emerged during the 20th century. The essays provide an overview of each religion, their historical development, leaders, doctrines, and activities. The groups covered are: the Family Unification Church, People’s Temple, Branch Davidians, ISKCON (Hare Krishnas), Osho Rajneesh, Soka Gakkai, Aum Shunrikyo, Falun Gong, Aumism, Scientology, Theosophy, Order of the Solar Temple Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness, Heaven’s Gate, Raëlians, White racist religions, and Satanism. The book is divided into four parts. Part I discusses groups in the Christian tradition. Part II focuses on Asian and Asian-inspired groups. Part III examines esoteric and New Age groups. Part IV looks at other group movements.Less

Controversial New Religions

James R. Lewis and Jesper Aa. Petersen (eds)

In terms of public opinion, new religious movements are considered controversial for a variety of reasons. Their social organization often runs counter to popular expectations by experimenting with ... More

In terms of public opinion, new religious movements are considered controversial for a variety of reasons. Their social organization often runs counter to popular expectations by experimenting with communal living, alternative leadership roles, unusual economic dispositions, and new political and ethical values. As a result the general public views new religions with a mixture of curiosity, amusement, and anxiety, sustained by lavish media emphasis on oddness and tragedy rather than familiarity and lived experience. This book looks at those groups that have generated the most attention, including some very well-known classical groups like The Family, Unification Church, Scientology, and Jim Jones's People's Temple; some relative newcomers such as the Kabbalah Centre, the Order of the Solar Temple, Branch Davidians, Heaven's Gate, and the Falun Gong; and some interesting cases like contemporary Satanism, the Raëlians, Black nationalism, and various Pagan groups. Each chapter combines an overview of the history and beliefs of each organization or movement with original and insightful analysis.Less

Death Rituals and Politics in Northern Song China

Mihwa Choi

This study inquires into a historical question of how politics surrounding death rituals and ensuing changes in ritual performance shaped a revival of Confucianism during eleventh-century China. It ... More

This study inquires into a historical question of how politics surrounding death rituals and ensuing changes in ritual performance shaped a revival of Confucianism during eleventh-century China. It investigates how polarizing debates about death rituals introduced new terrain for political power dynamics between monarchy and officialdom, and between groups of court officials. During the reign of Renzong, in reaction to Emperor Zhenzong’s statewide Daoist ritual programs for venerating the royal ancestors, some court officials maneuvered in the imperial court to return Confucian canonical rituals to their place of primacy. Later, a faction of scholar-officials took a lead in reviving the Confucian rituals as a way of checking the power of both the emperors and the wealthy merchants. By perceiving Confucian rituals as the models for social reality as it ought to be, they wrote new ritual manuals, condemned non-Confucian rituals, took legal actions, and established public graveyards.Less

Denying Divinity: Apophasis in the Patristic Christian and Soto Zen Buddhist Traditions

J. P. Williams

The classical texts of Christianity and Zen Buddhism contain resources with potent appeal to contemporary spirituality. The ‘apophatic’, or ‘negative’, may offer a means to integrate the conservation ... More

The classical texts of Christianity and Zen Buddhism contain resources with potent appeal to contemporary spirituality. The ‘apophatic’, or ‘negative’, may offer a means to integrate the conservation of traditional religious practices and beliefs with an openness to experience beyond the limits of doctrine and of rational thought. This book argues for a new understanding of what is meant by apophatic theology, supported by extensive analysis of the texts of Dionysius the Areopagite, St Maximus the Confessor, and Zen Master Dogen. It demonstrates how an apophatic spirituality might inform personal and communal spiritual development, and sketches out the contribution it can offer to modern debate on theology and postmodernism, entropy, and interfaith dialogue, and to development of an active theological commitment to humanity.Less

The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity

Per Faxneld and Jesper Aa. Petersen (eds)

Self-declared Satanism is a controversial topic, which has largely been neglected by academia. This book fills that gap, with twelve scholars presenting cutting-edge research from the emerging field ... More

Self-declared Satanism is a controversial topic, which has largely been neglected by academia. This book fills that gap, with twelve scholars presenting cutting-edge research from the emerging field of Satanism studies. Topics covered range from early literary Satanists like Blake and Shelley over the Californian Church of Satan of the 1960s to the radical developments the Satanic milieu have undergone in recent decades. With a levelheaded and detached approach, the contributors analyze facets of the phenomenon such as conversion to Satanism, connections between Satanism and political violence, 19th century decadent Satanism, transgression, conspiracy theory, and the construction of Satanic scripture. A wide array of methods are employed to shed light on the Devil's disciples: statistical surveys, anthropological field studies, philological examination of The Satanic Bible, contextual analysis of literary texts, careful scrutiny of obscure historical records, and close readings of key Satanic writings. The book will be an invaluable resource for everyone interested in Satanism as a philosophical or religious position of alterity rather than an imagined other.Less

Fabulous Females and Peerless Pirs: Tales of Mad Adventure in Old Bengal

The mythic figure Satya Pīr has a wide following among Hindus and Muslims alike in the Bangla-speaking regions of South Asia. Believed to be an avatara of krsna, or a Sufi saint, or somehow both, he ... More

The mythic figure Satya Pīr has a wide following among Hindus and Muslims alike in the Bangla-speaking regions of South Asia. Believed to be an avatara of krsna, or a Sufi saint, or somehow both, he is worshipped for his ability to bring wealth and comfort to a family. At the heart of this worship is the simple proposition that human dignity and morality are dependent upon a proper livelihood-without wealth, people cannot be expected to live moral lives. Men have a special responsibility to create that stability, but sometimes fail miserably, making ill-advised decisions that compromise the women who are dependent upon them. At these threatening junctures, women must take matters into their own hands, and they call on Satya Pīr to help them right the wrongs done by their husbands or fathers. This book presents lively translations of eight closely related 18th- and 19th-century Bengali folk tales centered on Satya Pīr and the people he helps. While the worship of Satya Pīr is the ostensible motivation for the tales, they are really demonstrations of the Pīr's miraculous powers, which authenticate him as a legitimate object of worship. The tales are also very amusing, parodying Brahmins and yogis and kings and sepoys. These stories fly in the face of conventional wisdom about the separation of Muslims and Hindus. Moreover, the stories happily stand alone, speaking with an easily recognized if not universal voice of exasperation and amazement at what life throws at us.Less

Falun Gong and the Future of China

David Ownby

This book treats Falun Gong as an example of one form of Chinese popular religion, and the core of the volume, based on a close reading of founder Li Hongzhi's writings and on fieldwork among Falun ... More

This book treats Falun Gong as an example of one form of Chinese popular religion, and the core of the volume, based on a close reading of founder Li Hongzhi's writings and on fieldwork among Falun Gong practitioners in the Chinese diaspora in North America, offers a detailed description of the doctrine, practices, and appeal of Falun Dafa (the term practitioners use to describe their “cultivation practice”). It is argued that Falun Gong, and the larger qigong movement out of which Falun Gong emerged, should be understood as part of reform era China's religious revival and that the historical roots of Falun Gong may be traced through qigong to the redemptive societies of the Republican period and even to the White Lotus sectarian tradition of late imperial times. The nature and historical importance of these groups has often been obscured by a state discourse of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, which the study of Falun Gong allows us to problematize. The ongoing campaign of suppression waged by the Chinese state against Falun Gong suggests that this discourse is alive and well and illustrates the state's role in the politicization of popular religious organizations. The volume concludes that religions like Falun Gong have played a more important role in China's modern history than has been recognized and are likely to continue to play such roles in China's future.Less

Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History

John Cort

This book is an interpretive analysis of the role of icons (images) of the Jina (the perfected, liberated, and enlightened teachers) in Jainism. The book places different interpretive frames around ... More

This book is an interpretive analysis of the role of icons (images) of the Jina (the perfected, liberated, and enlightened teachers) in Jainism. The book places different interpretive frames around the icon to understand some of the many ways that Jina icons have functioned in Jainism. Most of these frames are iconophilic narratives to account for and defend the origin, presence, and history of the Jina icons. There are also iconoclastic critiques of icons as idols that depict the introduction and worship of icons as a corruption of original Jainism. The Jain narratives include cosmological depictions of the universe, “mythical” accounts from Jain narrative history, and “historical” accounts located within India. Interpretation of the frames involves comparative discussions of materials from Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam. It also involves comparative analysis of scripture and mandalas. The book fits within the growing field of scholarship on images and icons in the world's religious traditions.Less