World Religions : oso

To the Ends of the Earth

Allan Heaton Anderson — 2013-05-23

Author:: Allan Heaton Anderson
ISBN:: 9780195386431
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386431.001.0001
Published in print:: 2013
Published Online:: 2013-05-23

Scholars have commented for years on the southward shift of Christianity during the twentieth century. The majority of Christians worldwide are now found in the continents of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. But the nature of that shift and the actors involved have not been fully explored. This book maintains that a transformation of Christianity has occurred that is far more than demographical or geographical — a profound reformation in the character of Christianity itself has taken place. The emergence, growth, and impact of Pentecostalism in the past hundred years played a major role in this transformation of a European and North American religion into a non-Western, charismatic, and predominantly female one. Key figures and movements, the many divisions and proliferations, and the resourcefulness and challenges of its leaders and members in the majority world are examined. The book discusses the historical origins, characteristics, ideologies, theologies, and emphases of Pentecostalism as it developed from a small number of obscure Christian revivalist sects at the beginning of the century, to representing, in many different forms today, possibly as much as a quarter of the world’s Christian population. How this has happened is what this book is all about.

The Quest for Ecstatic Morality in Early China

Kenneth W. Holloway — 2013-05-23

Author:: Kenneth W. Holloway
ISBN:: 9780199744824
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199744824.001.0001
Published in print:: 2013
Published Online:: 2013-05-23

The recently excavated Guodian manuscript “Xing zi mingchu” understands morality as something that is inherently expansive and not restrictive. Dating from China’s Warring States Period, this text has a hybrid of beliefs that later come to be called Confucianism and Daoism. One contribution of this book is its clarification of the role of the term “qing,” a concept that in some passages could be translated as “emotions” save for the fact that it is seen as having a surprising power to enable us to become more connected to our world. Becoming a moral person is seen as involving reaching the Dao by leveraging our qing and the teaching of the sages. These two levels, immanent and Dao, represent truths and higher truths. Both are crucial elements of our quest for morality, but the path we follow is not a linear progression since conflict on a lower level becomes irrelevant when we reach the Dao. The text does not seek to ameliorate the friction we commonly encounter from our mundane view of problems; rather the goal is to transcend it with the Dao.

A Portrait of Five Dynasties China

Glen Dudbridge — 2013-05-23

Author:: Glen Dudbridge
ISBN:: 9780199670680
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199670680.001.0001
Published in print:: 2013
Published Online:: 2013-05-23

The anecdotal literature of late-medieval China is not unknown, but it is under-used. This study explores two collections of anecdotal memoirs to construct a portrait of the first half of the tenth century as seen by people who lived through it. The author Wang Renyu’s adult life coincided closely with that period, and his memoirs, though not directly transmitted, can be largely reconstructed from encyclopaedia quotations. His experience led from early life on the north-west border with Tibet, through service with the kingdom of Shu, to a mainstream career under four successive dynasties in northern China. He bore personal witness to some great events, but also travelled widely and transcribed material from a lifetime of conversations with colleagues in the Hanlin Academy. The study first sets Wang’s life in its historical context and discusses the nature and value of his memoirs. It then pursues a number of underlying themes that run through the collections, presenting nearly 80 distinct items in translation. What emerges is a characterization of an age of inter-regional warfare in which individual lives, not grand historical narrative, form the focus. A nuanced self-portrait of the author emerges too, combining features that seem alien to modern values with others that seem close to them. Four appendixes give the text of the author’s tombstone epitaph; a detailed list of his surviving memoir items; data from Song catalogues on the early transmission of his writings; and Wang Renyu’s own definition of the four musical modes inherited from the Tang dynasty.

The Devil’s Party

Per Faxneld and Jesper Aa. Petersen — 2013-01-24

Author:: PerFaxneldStockholm UniversityJesper Aa.PetersenNorwegian University of Science and Technology
ISBN:: 9780199779239
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199779239.001.0001
Published in print:: 2012
Published Online:: 2013-01-24

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.

Catholicism and Interreligious Dialogue

James L. Heft — 2012-01-19

Author:: James L.HeftInstitute for Advanced Catholic Studies
ISBN:: 9780199827879
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199827879.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2012-01-19

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.

Zoroastrians in Britain

John R. Hinnells — 2011-10-03

Author:: John R. Hinnells
ISBN:: 9780198261933
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions, Religious Studies
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198261933.001.0001
Published in print:: 1996
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Zoroastrianism is the religion of ancient Iran, dating back over a thousand years before the time of Christ. It is also the religion of Britain's oldest South Asian minority, with a history going back to 1724, From the contribution to the Zoroastrian MPs Naoroji and Bhownagree in the 19th century to the transmission of their heritage and concerns in the 1990s, this book studies the community. With the largest Zoroastrian population outside the ‘old countries’ living in London, the British community has played an important part in the modern history of Zoroastrianism. They furnish a unique opportunity to trace the history and experience of an Asian community in the West for well over a hundred years, with a wide variety of members from rural and urban India, Pakistan, East Africa, as well as the original homeland, Iran, and a substantial proportion of Zoroastrians who are British-born. The book is based on an extensive study of archival sources, a large survey questionnaire, a programme of structured interviews, and over twenty years of the author's personal contact with the community. The book includes discussion of many important contemporary issues, such as racial prejudice, gender issues, generational differences, attitudes towards British society and to the ‘old country’ — and argues that religion is an increasingly important concern among British South Asian minorities.

The Zoroastrian Diaspora

John R. Hinnells — 2011-10-03

Author:: John R. Hinnells
ISBN:: 9780198267591
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions, Religious Studies
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198267591.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

What is the distinctive Zoroastrian experience, and what is the common diasporic experience? This book is the outcome of twenty years of research and of archival and fieldwork in eleven countries. It has involved a survey questionnaire in eight countries, yielding over 1,840 responses. It attempts a global comparison of Diaspora groups in six continents. Little has been written about Zoroastrian communities as far apart as China, East Africa, Europe, America, and Australia or on Parsis in Mumbai post-Independence. Each chapter is based on unused original sources ranging from 19th century archives to contemporary newsletters. The book also includes studies of Zoroastrians on the Internet, audio-visual resources, and the modern development of Parsi novels in English. As well as studying the Zoroastrians for their own inherent importance, this book contextualizes the Zoroastrian migrations within contemporary debates on Diaspora studies. The book examines what it is like to be a religious Asian in Los Angeles or London, Sydney or Hong Kong. Moreover, he explores not only how experience differs from one country to another, but also the differences between cities in the same country, for example, Chicago and Houston. The survey data is used firstly to consider the distinguishing demographic features of the Zoroastrian communities in various countries; and secondly to analyse different patterns of assimilation between different groups: men and women and according to the level and type of education. Comparisons are also drawn between people from rural and urban backgrounds; and between generations in religious beliefs and practices.

With Reverence for the Word

Jane Dammen McAuliffe, Barry D. Walfish, and Joseph W. Goering — 2011-10-03

Author:: Jane DammenMcAuliffeGeorgetown UniversityBarry D.WalfishJoseph W.Goeringboth at the University of Toronto
ISBN:: 9780195137279
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195137279.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book explores medieval scriptural interpretation. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are often characterized as religio-cultural siblings, traditions whose origins can be traced to the same geographical region and whose systems of belief and institutional structures share much in common. A particularly important point of commonality is the emphasis that each of these traditions places upon the notion of divine revelation, especially as codified in the text. During the medieval period, the three exegetical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam produced a vast literature, one of great diversity but also one of numerous cross-cultural similarities. The three sections of this book, each of which begins with an introduction to one of these exegetical traditions, explore this rich heritage of biblical and Quarʼanic interpretation.

The Western Esoteric Traditions

Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke — 2011-10-03

Author:: Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
ISBN:: 9780195320992
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195320992.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Western esotericism combines spirituality with an empirical observation of the natural world while also relating humanity to the universe through a harmonious celestial order. This introduction to the Western esoteric traditions offers a concise overview of their historical development. It explores these traditions, from their roots in Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism, and Gnosticism in the early Christian era up to their reverberations in today's scientific paradigms. While the study of Western esotericism is usually confined to the history of ideas, the book examines the phenomenon much more broadly. It demonstrates that, far from being a strictly intellectual movement, the spread of esotericism owes a great deal to geopolitics and globalization. In Hellenistic culture, for example, the empire of Alexander the Great, which stretched across Egypt and Western Asia to provinces in India, facilitated a mixing of Eastern and Western cultures. As the Greeks absorbed ideas from Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, and Persia, they gave rise to the first esoteric movements. From the late 16th to the 18th centuries, post-Reformation spirituality found expression in theosophy, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry. Similarly, in the modern era, dissatisfaction with the hegemony of science in Western culture and a lack of faith in traditional Christianity led thinkers like Madame Blavatsky to look east for spiritual inspiration. The book further examines Modern esoteric thought in the light of new scientific and medical paradigms along with the analytical psychology of Carl Gustav Jung.

Storytracking

Sam D. Gill — 2011-10-03

Author:: Sam D. Gill
ISBN:: 9780195115871
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195115871.001.0001
Published in print:: 1998
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This work takes a narrative technique (known as “storytracking”) practiced by Australian aboriginal people and applies it to the academic study of their culture. The book's purpose is to get as close as possible to the perceptions and beliefs of these indigenous people by stripping away the layers of European interpretation and construction. Techniques involve comparing the versions of aboriginal texts presented in academic reports with the text versions as they appear in each report's cited sources. Comparative studies reveal the various academic operations—translating, editing, conflating, interpreting—that serve to build a bridge connecting subject and scholarly report. The book begins by examining Mircea Eliade's influential analysis of an Australian myth, “Numbakulla and the Sacred Pole.” It goes back to the field notes of the anthropologists who originally collected the story and by following the trail of publications, revisions, and retellings of this tale, it is able to show that Eliade's version bears almost no relation to the original and that the interpretations Eliade built around it is thus entirely a European construct, motivated largely by preconceptions about the nature of religion.

The Religious Imagination and the Sense of God

John Bowker — 2011-10-03

Author:: John Bowker
ISBN:: 9780198266464
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Religious Studies, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198266464.001.0001
Published in print:: 1978
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book asks why, since so many characterizations of theistic reality have gone to extinction, do some, not simply survive, but undergo considerable recharacterization, when they have come under the strain of implausibility? One feature seems to be recurrent and of importance: the extent to which those who transact major transformations in existing characterizations of God are themselves dislodged by a sense of theistic reality external to themselves, insisting on its own nature and presence, often in contrast to the existing ideas about God which they have held up to that time. The initial sense of God for most people is almost invariably a consequence of the culture and the circumstances in which they were born. What, then, moves some people beyond their point of departure into new discoveries and new landmarks in their exploration of relationship with God? To explore these themes, the book focuses on four traditions in which dramatic transformations occurred: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

Religion and Human Nature

Keith Ward — 2011-10-03

Author:: Keith Ward
ISBN:: 9780198269618
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Theology, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269618.001.0001
Published in print:: 1998
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Continuing the author's series on comparative religion, this book deals with religious views of human nature and destiny. The beliefs of six major traditions are presented: the view of Advaita Vedanta that there is one Supreme Self, unfolding into the illusion of individual existence; the Vaishnava belief that there is an infinite number of souls, whose destiny is to be released from material embodiment; the Buddhist view that there is no eternal Self; the Abrahamic belief that persons are essentially embodied souls; and the materialistic position that persons are complex material organisms. Indian ideas of rebirth, karma, and liberation from samsara are critically analysed and compared with Semitic belief in the intermediate state of Sheol, Purgatory or Paradise, the Final Judgement and the resurrection of the body. The impact of scientific theories of cosmic and biological evolution on religious beliefs is assessed, and a form of ‘soft emergent materialism’ is defended, with regard to the soul. In this context, a Christian doctrine of original sin and atonement is presented, stressing the idea of soterial, as opposed to forensic, justice. Finally, a Christian view of personal immortality and the ‘end of all things’ is developed in conversation with Jewish and Muslim beliefs about judgement and resurrection.

Religion and Creation

Keith Ward — 2011-10-03

Author:: Keith Ward
ISBN:: 9780198263937
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Theology, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263937.001.0001
Published in print:: 1996
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book is the second part of a major project of comparative theology begun with Religion and Revelation, which was published in 1994, which looks at major concepts of faith in all four of the main scriptural religions of the world. This book explores the idea of a creator God in the work of 20th-century writers from Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. He develops a positive concept of God which stresses God's dynamic and responsive relation to the temporal structure of the universe, and the importance of that structure to the self-expression of the divine being. He goes on to present a Trinitarian doctrine of creation, drawing inspiration from a wider set of theistic traditions and recent discussions in physics in the realm of cosmology.

Priestess, Mother, Sacred Sister

Susan Starr Sered — 2011-10-03

Author:: Susan Starr Sered
ISBN:: 9780195104677
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195104677.001.0001
Published in print:: 1996
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This book provides an examination of the critical impact of the social rather than the biological aspects of motherhood on women's religions. Women's social roles as nurturers, healers, primary child care providers, and emotional supporters are celebrated in women's religions more so than in traditional religions. This book explores the shared experiences of women across great cultural divides and offers a new understanding of the role gender plays in determining how individuals grapple with the ultimate questions of existence.

Mystics

William Harmless — 2011-10-03

Author:: William Harmless
ISBN:: 9780195300383
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195300383.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

Mystics are path-breaking religious practitioners who claim to have experience of the infinite, word-defying mystery that is God. Many have been gifted writers with an uncanny ability to communicate the great realities of life with both a theologian's precision and a poet's lyricism. They use words to jolt us into recognizing ineffable mysteries surging beneath the surface of our lives and within the depths of our hearts and, by their artistry, can awaken us to see and savor fugitive glimpses of a God-drenched world. This book introduces readers to the scholarly study of mysticism. The author explores both mystics' lives and writings using a case-study method centered on detailed examinations of six major Christian mystics: Thomas Merton, Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, Bonaventure, Meister Eckhart, and Evagrius Ponticus. Rather than presenting mysticism as a subtle web of psychological or theological abstractions, the author's case-study approach brings things down to earth, restoring mystics to their historical context. He highlights the pungent diversity of mystical experiences and mystical theologies. Stepping beyond Christianity, he also explores mystical elements within Islam and Buddhism, offering a chapter on the popular Sufi poet Rumi and one on the famous Japanese Zen master Dōgen. The author concludes with an overview of the century-long scholarly conversation on mysticism and offers an optic for understanding mystics, their communities, and their writings.

Mysticism and Sacred Scripture

Steven T. Katz — 2011-10-03

Author:: Steven T.KatzBoston University
ISBN:: 9780195097030
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195097030.001.0001
Published in print:: 2000
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

This is the fourth in an influential series of volumes on mysticism, presenting a basic revaluation of the nature of mysticism. Each book in the series presents a collection of chapters by experts in the study of religion. This volume explores how the great mystics and mystical traditions use, interpret, and reconstruct the sacred scriptures of their traditions.

Denying Divinity

J. P. Williams — 2011-10-03

Author:: J. P. Williams
ISBN:: 9780198269991
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Theology, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198269991.001.0001
Published in print:: 2000
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

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.

The Apocalyptic Year 1000

Richard Landes, Andrew Gow, and David C. Van Meter — 2011-10-03

Author:: RichardLandesBoston Universityhttp://www.bu.edu/mille/people/rlpages/personlandes.htmlAndrewGowUniversity of AlbertaDavid C.Van Meter
ISBN:: 9780195161625
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195161625.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2011-10-03

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?

Heaven on Earth

Richard Landes — 2011-09-22

Author:: Richard Landes
ISBN:: 9780199753598
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199753598.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-09-22

Millennialists through the ages have looked forward to the apocalyptic moment that will radically transform society into heaven on earth. They have delivered withering critiques of their own civilizations and promised both the impending annihilation to the forces of evil and the advent of a perfect society. And all their promises have invariably failed. We tend, therefore, to dismiss these prophets of doom and salvation as crackpots and madmen, and not surprisingly historians of our secular era have tended to underestimate their impact on our modern world. This book offers analysis of this widely misunderstood phenomenon. This book shows that many events typically regarded as secular—including the French Revolution, Marxism, Bolshevism, Nazism—not only contain key millennialist elements, but follow the apocalyptic curve of enthusiastic launch, disappointment and re-entry into "“normal time. ” Indeed, as the book examines the explicit millennialism behind such recent events as the emergence of Global Jihad since 1979, it challenges the common notion that modern history is largely motivated by secular interests. By focusing on ten widely different case studies, none of which come from Judaism or Christianity, the book shows that millennialism is not only a cultural universal, but also an extremely adaptive social phenomenon that persists across the modern and post-modern divides. At the same time, the book also offers valuable insight into the social and psychological factors that drive such beliefs.

Comparative Theology and the Problem of Religious Rivalry

Hugh Nicholson — 2011-09-22

Author:: Hugh Nicholson
ISBN:: 9780199772865
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199772865.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-09-22

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.”

Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing

Candy Gunther Brown — 2011-05-01

Author:: Candy Gunther Brown
ISBN:: 9780195393408
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195393408.001.0001
Published in print:: 2011
Published Online:: 2011-05-01

This book explains why Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity is a rapidly growing global phenomenon. Although often caricatured and reduced to speaking in tongues (glossolalia), prosperity, or snake handling, this volume reveals that the primary appeal of pentecostalism is divine healing and deliverance from demons. Globalization heightens the threat and fear of disease, fueling growth of religions that are centrally concerned with healing. In Latin American, Asian, and African countries where world Christianity is growing most rapidly, as many as 80 to 90 percent of first-generation Christians attribute their conversions primarily to healing for themselves or family members. Even in the United States, 62 percent of Pentecostals report healing experiences. Contrary to popular stereotypes of flamboyant, fraudulent, anti-medical “faith healing” televangelists who preach a materialistic, “health-and-wealth gospel” or sensational “exorcism” of demons, this book offers a more nuanced portrait. The chapters illumine local variations, hybridities, and tensions in practices, depict human suffering and powerlessness, and explain the attractiveness to many of a global religious movement that promises material relief and empowerment by invoking “miracles” and spiritual resources. Achieving the twin goals of thick description and comparative analysis of global practices is best achieved by bringing area experts into conversation. Sociologists, anthropologists, historians, political scientists, theologians, and religious studies scholars from the United States, Europe, and Africa write about illness and healing on six continents. Read together, these chapters generate and set the agenda for a new program of scholarly inquiry into some of the largest forces of change reshaping today’s world—globalization, pentecostalism, and healing.

Jesus and Muhammad

F. E. Peters — 2011-01-01

Author:: F. E. Peters
ISBN:: 9780199747467
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199747467.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2011-01-01

After thirty years of research and publishing on the monotheistic faiths, the author turns here to a comparative study of the founders of Christianity and Islam. Jesus and Muhammad, as two of the most important figures in human history, have also been among the most studied. Their followers “found” both men in their lifetimes, but it was only in the nineteenth century that the search for the “historical Jesus” and, soon after, for the Prophet of Islam began. The resultant “quest,” as it was called, has proven to be a virtual laboratory for Western historiography. This book looks into that laboratory. First it puts the sources for the two side by side and traces the historians’ parallel efforts to understand the men behind the sources. But comparative historiography leads inevitably to comparative history, and the bulk of the work is devoted to a side-by-side study of the remarkable careers of Jesus of Nazareth and Muhammad of Mecca.

Understanding the Book of Mormon

Grant Hardy — 2010-05-01

Author:: Grant Hardy
ISBN:: 9780199731701
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions, Religion and Literature
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199731701.001.0001
Published in print:: 2010
Published Online:: 2010-05-01

While the significance of the Book of Mormon in American history and religion is universally acknowledged, its complicated narrative can be bewildering to outsiders. In addition, controversy over its historical claims tends to overshadow its contents. This book argues that whether the Book of Mormon is approached as history, fiction, or scripture, focusing on its narrative structure, and in particular on the contributions of the major narrators, allows for more comprehensive, detailed readings. The Book of Mormon is nearly unique among recent world scriptures in that it is presented as a lengthy, integrated narrative rather than a series of doctrinal expositions, moral exhortations, or devotional hymns. Joseph Smith, whether regarded as an author or translator, never speaks in his own voice in the text; nearly everything is mediated through the narrators Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni. This study takes readers through the basic characters, events, and ideas in the Book of Mormon by focusing on each of the major narrators in turn and identifying their characteristic literary techniques. Critics and believers alike can agree that someone, sometime, decided how to tell the story—where to employ direct dialogue, embedded documents, parallel narratives, allusions, and so forth. This introduction sets aside questions of ultimate authorship in order to examine how the text operates, how it makes its points, and what its message is. Despite its sometimes awkward style, the Book of Mormon has more coherence and literary interest than is often assumed.

Heroic Wives Rituals, Stories and the Virtues of Jain Wifehood

M. Whitney Kelting — 2010-02-01

Author:: M. Whitney Kelting
ISBN:: 9780195389647
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389647.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

Being a good Jain woman involves negotiating between the mutually exclusive ideologies found in the South Asian discourse of devoted wifehood and in the Jain discourse of renunciation. This book draws from a diverse collection of oral tellings, popular tracts, songs, verse narratives, fasting rituals, religious dramas, and large‐scale worship to provide new perspectives on the inherent tension between these ideologies and the space that tension creates for laywomen's agency. Heroic Wives suggests that women creatively and selectively negotiate their identities as wives at different moments on the trajectory of wifehood. In part I, women in established marriages use piety and ritual practices to protect their husband's health, to transform bad marriages into good ones, and to create and maintain ideal marriages. Part II examines how Jains reconfigure the relationship between wifehood and renunciation: on one hand, reconciling the two through stories of renunciation as a form of devoted wifehood, and, on the other, deploying the discourse of both in order to construct their identities as women who don't renounce, but instead choose to become wives. On a broader level, Heroic Wives discusses Jain narrative/ritual complexes as the site of laywomen's negotiations between multiple discourses that shape their thinking about wifehood, and in this context, Jain women position themselves as the agents of their futures. This book provides new perspectives on the experience of wifehood, South Asian women's lives, and Jain religious practices and narratives. It further advances ongoing dialogues about interactions of ritual, narrative, selfhood, and identity.

Framing the Jina

John Cort — 2010-02-01

Author:: John Cort
ISBN:: 9780195385021
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385021.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

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.

After Lives

John Casey — 2010-02-01

Author:: John Casey
ISBN:: 9780195092950
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195092950.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2010-02-01

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.

The Myth of Religious Violence

William T. Cavanaugh — 2009-09-01

Author:: William T. Cavanaugh
ISBN:: 9780195385045
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195385045.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-09-01

The myth of religious violence is the pervasive secularist idea that there is something called “religion,” endemic to all human cultures and eras, that has a tendency to promote violence because it is essentially prone to absolutism, divisiveness, and irrationality. Religion must therefore be separated from “secular” phenomena like politics for the sake of peace. This book argues that the myth of religious violence is a piece of Western folklore that underwrites Western violence. The book shows that religion is not a universal and transhistorical phenomenon. Religious-secular and religion-politics distinctions are modern Western inventions. The book shows that what counts as religious or secular in any context corresponds to how power is arranged. The myth of religious violence helps to construct a religious Other, prone to fanaticism, to contrast with the rational, peace-making, secular subject. In domestic politics, the myth underwrites the triumph of the state over the church in the early modern period and the nation-state’s subsequent monopoly on its citizens’ willingness to sacrifice and kill. In foreign policy, the myth of religious violence reinforces the superiority of Western social orders to nonsecular—especially Muslim—social orders. Their violence is seen as fanatical; our violence is seen as rational and peace making. In academic, government, and journalistic sources, the book shows how the myth of religious violence is used to justify U.S. diplomatic and military actions, including the Iraq War. Peace depends on recognition that so-called secular ideologies and institutions can be just as prone to absolutism, divisiveness, and irrationality.

Religion of the Gods

Kimberley Christine Patton — 2009-05-01

Author:: Kimberley Christine Patton
ISBN:: 9780195091069
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195091069.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-05-01

In many of the world's religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, a seemingly enigmatic and paradoxical image is found—that of the god who worships. Various interpretations of this seeming paradox have been advanced. Some suggest that it represents sacrifice to a higher deity. Proponents of anthropomorphic projection say that the gods are just “big people” and that images of human religious action are simply projected onto the deities. However, such explanations do not do justice to the complexity and diversity of this phenomenon. This book takes up anew a longstanding challenge in ancient Greek religious iconography: why are the Olympian gods depicted on classical pottery making libations? The sacrificing gods in ancient Greece are compared to gods who perform rituals in six other religious traditions: the Vedic gods, the heterodox god Zurvan of early Zoroastrianism, the Old Norse god Odin, the Christian God and Christ, the God of Judaism, and Islam's Allah. The book examines the comparative evidence from a cultural and historical perspective, uncovering deep structural resonances while also revealing crucial differences. Instead of looking for invisible recipients or lost myths, the book proposes the new category of “divine reflexivity.” Divinely performed ritual is a self-reflexive, self-expressive action that signals the origin of ritual in the divine and not the human realm. Above all, divine ritual is generative, both instigating and inspiring human religious activity. The religion practiced by the gods is both like and unlike human religious action. Seen from within the religious tradition, gods are not “big people,” but other than human. Human ritual is directed outward to a divine being, but the gods practice ritual on their own behalf. “Cultic time,” the symbiotic performance of ritual both in heaven and on earth, collapses the distinction between cult and theology each time ritual is performed.

Guodian

Kenneth Holloway — 2009-05-01

Author:: Kenneth Holloway
ISBN:: 9780195371451
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195371451.001.0001
Published in print:: 2009
Published Online:: 2009-05-01

The Guodian manuscripts were buried with the teacher of the heir apparent to the Chu throne. The tomb was closed around 300 BCE shortly before one of the most significant period-defining events in ancient history, the Qin conquest of China. Unseen for two millennia, before their discovery in October 1993, these manuscripts challenge many assumptions about Chinese religion, philosophy, and Confucianism. Guodian texts are interested in unity, but this is not surprising from a time when many were becoming concerned that the First Emperor would soon succeed in his campaign of conquest. What is surprising is that in this time of crisis, unity could continue to be described as achievable only through individual empowerment. In the Guodian, the most important function of government is to assist in the harmonization of state and family relations. It sees the relationship between these two entities—the family and the collection of families that ultimately constitute the state—as being inherently problematic; they are conflicting social groupings. The Guodian posits an interesting solution: state and family disharmony can be overcome by developing a hybrid government that employs both meritocratic and aristocratic methods. The latter emphasize rulership that is based on the family and humanity; the former emphasize meritocratic methods that promote the good of the state and righteousness. This new understanding illuminates central issues of government, religion, and philosophy in early China that were overlooked prior to the discovery of Guodian.

Teaching Spirits

Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins — 2009-01-01

Author:: Joseph Epes Brown, Emily Cousins
ISBN:: 9780195138757
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.001.0001
Published in print:: 2001
Published Online:: 2009-01-01

This book offers a thematic approach to looking at Native American religious traditions. Within the great multiplicity of Native American cultures, the book observes certain common themes that resonate within many Native traditions. It demonstrates how themes within native traditions connect with each other, at the same time upholding the integrity of individual traditions. The book illustrates each of these themes with explorations of specific native cultures including Lakota, Navajo, Apache, Koyukon, and Ojibwe. It demonstrates how Native American values provide an alternative metaphysics that stand opposed to modern materialism. It also shows how these spiritual values provide material for a serious rethinking of modern attitudes—especially toward the environment—as well as how they may help non-native peoples develop a more sensitive response to native concerns. Throughout, the book draws on the author's extensive personal experience with Black Elk, who came to symbolize for many the greatness of the imperiled native cultures.

Imagining the Fetus

Jane Marie Law and Vanessa R. Sasson — 2009-01-01

Author:: Jane Marie Law, Vanessa R. Sasson
ISBN:: 9780195380040
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, Religion and Society, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195380040.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2009-01-01

In contemporary Western culture, the word “fetus” introduces either a political subject or a literal, medicalized entity. Neither of these frameworks gives sufficient credit to the vast array of literary and oral traditions emerging from religious cultures around the world that see within the fetus a symbol, a metaphor, an imagination. The editors maintain that the fetus has been hijacked by two dominant and powerful modes’the political and the medical’and the potential of the fetus as symbol to serve as a gateway to imagination has been reduced as a result. This volume grows out of the acknowledgment of the fact that, throughout much of human history and across most of the world’s cultures, when the fetus was imagined, it enjoyed a much wider range of symbolic and cultural subjectivities, often contributing possibilities of inclusivity, emergence, liminality, and transformation. The purpose of this book is to restore the nuance of fetal symbolism and liberate it from the stultifying parameters of the abortion/embryonic stem cell debate, giving it room once again to function as a symbol of greater and more complex human emotions, dilemmas, and aspirations.

Teaching Confucianism

Jeffrey L. Richey — 2008-05-01

Author:: Jeffrey L. Richey
ISBN:: 9780195311600
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311600.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2008-05-01

Teaching Confucianism presents pedagogically oriented essays that are informed by the latest scholarship, as well as practical experience in the religious studies and theology classroom, attentive to various settings within which religious material is taught, and sensitive to both expert (e.g., those in Confucian studies) and lay (e.g., those with no background in Asian studies who nonetheless are charged with teaching Asian traditions) audiences. The volume includes reflections by scholars in all arenas of Confucian studies: specialists in early Chinese thought (dealing with the “historical Confucius” and early texts such as The Analects), historians of medieval and late imperial China (addressing the ways in which the Confucian tradition helped shape Chinese popular culture and social history), and scholars of contemporary Confucian thought and practice (discussing how Confucian orientations underlie and inform civic and familial traditions in East Asia and throughout the East Asian diaspora).

Ritual and Its Consequences

Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. Weller, Michael Puett, and Bennett Simon — 2008-05-01

Author:: Adam B. Seligman, Robert P. Weller, Michael Puett, Bennett Simon
ISBN:: 9780195336009
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336009.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2008-05-01

This book shows how rituals allow us to live in a perennially imperfect world. The book, building on anthropological theories, draws examples of ritual attitudes from a variety of cultural settings, including original comparisons of Chinese and Jewish discussions of ritual and its importance. The book utilizes psychoanalytic and anthropological perspectives on how ritual, like play, creates “as if” worlds, drawing upon the imaginative capacity of the human mind to create a subjunctive universe. This ability to cross between imagined worlds is central to the human capacity for empathy. The limits of this capacity mark the boundaries of empathy. The chapters juxtapose this ritual orientation to a “sincere” search for unity and wholeness. The sincere world sees fragmentation and incoherence as signs of inauthenticity that must be overcome. Our modern world has accepted the sincere viewpoint, at the expense of ritual, to a degree rarely seen in other times. It has often dismissed ritual as mere convention. The chapters point to the modern disavowal of ritual in the creation of fundamentalist movements as well as other extremist positions. Portions of the book take up questions of music, architecture, and literature, which also show the tensions between ritual and sincerity. The book shows that ritual, at least in its relationship to the rest of experience, is never totally coherent and never complete. Ritual is work, endless work. But it is among the most important things that we humans do.

Falun Gong and the Future of China

David Ownby — 2008-05-01

Author:: David Ownby
ISBN:: 9780195329056
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195329056.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2008-05-01

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.

Evangelical Christianity and Democracy in Africa

Terence O. Ranger — 2008-05-01

Author:: Terence O.RangerSt. Antony's College, Oxford (Emeritus)
ISBN:: 9780195174779
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195174779.001.0001
Published in print:: 2006
Published Online:: 2008-05-01

In recent decades, Christianity has acquired millions of new adherents in Africa, the region with the world's fastest expanding population. What role has this development of evangelical Christianity played in Africa's democratic history? To what extent do its churches affect its politics? Taking a historical view and focusing specifically on the events of the past few years this book seeks to explore these questions, offering individual case studies of six countries: Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Kenya, Zambia, and Mozambique. Unlike most analyses of democracy which come from a secular Western tradition, the contributors to this book, who are mainly younger scholars based in Africa, employ both field and archival research to develop their data and analyses.

African Pentecostalism

Ogbu Kalu — 2008-05-01

Author:: Ogbu Kalu
ISBN:: 9780195340006
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195340006.001.0001
Published in print:: 2008
Published Online:: 2008-05-01

Across Africa, Christianity is thriving in all shapes and sizes. But one particular strain of Christianity prospers more than most — Pentecostalism. Pentecostals believe that everyone can personally receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit, such as prophecy or the ability to speak in tongues. In Africa, this kind of faith, in which the supernatural is a daily presence, is sweeping the continent. Today, about 107 million Africans are Pentecostals — and the numbers continue to rise. This book reviews Pentecostalism in Africa. It shows the amazing diversity of the faith, which flourishes in many different forms in diverse local contexts. While most people believe that Pentecostalism was brought to Africa and imposed on its people by missionaries, the book argues emphatically that this is not the case. Throughout, the book demonstrates that African Pentecostalism is distinctly African in character, not imported from the West. With an even-handed approach, the book presents the religion's many functions in African life. Rather than shying away from controversial issues like the role of money and prosperity in the movement, it describes malpractice when it is observed. The book touches upon the movement's identity, the role of missionaries, media and popular culture, women, ethics, Islam, and immigration.

The Mind Possessed

Emma E. A. Cohen — 2007-09-01

Author:: Emma E. A. Cohen
ISBN:: 9780195323351
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323351.001.0001
Published in print:: 2007
Published Online:: 2007-09-01

The Mind Possessed examines spirit concepts and mediumistic practices from a cognitive scientific perspective. Drawing primarily, but not exclusively, from ethnographic data collected during eighteen months of fieldwork in Belém, northern Brazil, this book combines fine‐grained description and analysis of mediumistic activities in an Afro‐Brazilian cult house with a scientific account of the emergence and the spread of the tradition's core concepts. The book develops a novel theoretical approach to questions that are of central importance to the scientific study of transmission of culture, particularly concepts of spirits, spirit healing, and spirit possession. Making a radical departure from established anthropological, medicalist, and sociological analyses of spirit phenomena, the book looks instead to instructive insights from the cognitive sciences and offers a set of testable hypotheses concerning the spread and appeal of spirit concepts and possession activities. Predictions and claims are grounded in the data collected and sourced in specific ethnographic contexts. The data presented open new lines of enquiry for the cognitive science of religion (a rapidly growing field of interdisciplinary scholarship) and challenge the existing but outdated theoretical frameworks within which spirit possession practices have traditionally been understood.

Teaching African American Religions

Carolyn M. Jones and Theodore Louis Trost — 2006-09-01

Author:: Carolyn M.JonesUniversity of Georgiahttp://afam.uga.edu/directory/faculty/medine.phpTheodore LouisTrostUniversity of Alabama
ISBN:: 9780195167979
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/019516797X.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2006-09-01

The variety and complexity of its traditions make African American religion one of the most difficult topics in religious studies to understand. The sheer scope of the subject is daunting to anyone wanting to learn about it, especially if they are not experts in African American religious traditions. Also, the unfamiliarity of the subject matter to the vast majority hoping to investigate the subject makes it difficult to achieve any depth of understanding. The chapters in this book will supply functional, innovative ways to teach African American religious traditions in a variety of settings.

Controversial New Religions

James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen — 2006-05-01

Author:: James R.LewisUniversity of Wisconsin, Stevens PointJesper AagaardPetersenUniversity of Copenhagenhttp://www.ntnu.edu/employees//jesper.petersen
ISBN:: 9780195156829
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/019515682X.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2006-05-01

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.

Three Eyes for the Journey

Dianne M. Stewart — 2005-07-14

Author:: Dianne M. Stewart
ISBN:: 9780195154153
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/0195154150.001.0001
Published in print:: 2005
Published Online:: 2005-07-14

Studies of African-derived religious traditions have generally focused on their retention of African elements. This emphasis slights the ways in which communities in the African diaspora have created and formed new religious meaning. In this fieldwork-based study, this book shows that African people have been agents of their own religious, ritual, and theological formation. The book examines the African-derived and African-centered traditions in historical and contemporary Jamaica: Myal, Obeah, Native Baptist, Revival/Zion, Kumina, and Rastafari, drawing on them to forge a new womanist liberation theology for the Caribbean.

Fabulous Females and Peerless Pirs

Tony K. Stewart — 2005-04-20

Author:: Tony K. Stewart
ISBN:: 9780195165296
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/0195165292.001.0001
Published in print:: 2004
Published Online:: 2005-04-20

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.

Singing to the Jinas

M. Whitney Kelting — 2003-11-01

Author:: M. Whitney Kelting
ISBN:: 9780195140118
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/0195140117.001.0001
Published in print:: 2001
Published Online:: 2003-11-01

This book draws upon 14 months of field research centered on devotional singing and Svetambar Jain laywomen's religiosity in Pune, Maharashtra. These women balance their lives between received ideals of womanhood (Jain, Gujarati, Indian, middle‐class) and their own personal understandings of what it means to be a good Jain. This book argues that the Jain laywomen's theologies are developed in the practice and performance of Jain hymn singing. The devotional songs articulate theology through their lyrics and through the contexts in which each is sung, which reflects the women's interpretations of these contexts and songs. The performance contexts were chosen according to theological and musicological appropriateness and prepared performance patterns were broken specifically to infer theological challenges. Finally, hymn singing and public worship contexts provide locations for negotiations over religious authority between the spheres of expertise and prestige. Jain laywomen negotiate between the competing spheres of expertise and prestige, to find a balance that privileges their praxis‐oriented approach to Jain religiosity and highlights the grace and compassion of the Jinas.

Secrets, Gossip, and Gods

Paul Christopher Johnson — 2003-11-01

Author:: Paul Christopher Johnson
ISBN:: 9780195150582
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/0195150589.001.0001
Published in print:: 2002
Published Online:: 2003-11-01

This book is about secrecy in religion and the process by which traditionally secretive religions become public, taking as its case the Afro‐Brazilian religion of Candomblé. The book argues that Candomblé's entrance to the national public sphere of Brazil entails a two‐part process: (1) Practitioners become active participants in the dissemination of knowledge about the religion, including protected knowledge or secrets, and thus choose to enter the public sphere; and (2) the metropole turns toward indigenous religions like Candomblé as a source of exotic fascination and a set of religious practices from which outsiders may selectively appropriate. The result is religion innovation that nonetheless evokes strident discourses of traditional continuity – here in the form of claims to authenticity, depth, and secret knowledge. The book explores secrecy as a form of social boundary making and the social processes through which such boundaries are both ritually and discursively forged. The book coins and explicates the neologism of secretism. If secrecy is the act of restricting information and the establishment of sanctions against the uncontrolled flow of information, secretism is, contrariwise, a dissemination or placing into circulation the reputation of secrets and claims of their possession and location. The contemporary meanings of secrecy and secretism become legible when read against the historical stages of Candomblé's relation to the nation of Brazil as a whole and the purposes secrecy served during successive historical stages: (1) the secrecy of African hermeneutics carried by slaves to the shores of Brazil; (2) the secrecy‐as‐resistance to the slave colony and kingdom of Brazil; (3) the secrecy of hidden affiliations with the newly formed Afro‐Brazilian religion under the First Republic; (4) the gradual replacement of secrets by secretism, the discourse of “depth” and “foundation” after Brazilian Candomblé became known and “national” under the Second Republic; and finally, (5) the layering of these uses of secrets and secretism to adjudicate religious meanings, orders, and privileges in contemporary practice. The book argues that as Candomblé has become a national and public religion during the last decades through radically augmented forms of disclosure, freely circulated discourses of secret, African knowledge have begun to eclipse ritual practices and locales formerly regarded as traditional, generating new modes of religious affiliation.

Rastafari

Ennis Barrington Edmonds — 2003-11-01

Author:: Ennis Barrington Edmonds
ISBN:: 9780195133769
Publisher:: Oxford University Press
Subjects:: Religion, World Religions
DOI:: 10.1093/0195133765.001.0001
Published in print:: 2003
Published Online:: 2003-11-01

Since its emergence in the margins of 1930s Jamaican society, Rastafari has moved to the forefront of Jamaican popular culture. This transition has been occasioned by Rastafari's own internal dynamics, by the gradual shift from a more conflict‐ridden relationship to rapprochement between the movement and the wider society, and by the ability of the movement to insert itself in the cultural life of the society. With regard to its internal development, Rastas have evolved a dynamic social ethos with informal social relationships facilitated through a network of “houses” and “mansions,” a highly developed view of the world expressed in a variety of symbols, and period ritual activities that initiate and confirm individuals in the principles and ethos of Rastafari. The relationship between Rastafari and the wider society has evolved from outright confrontation in the early years of the movement, to a more accommodating posture in the 1960s, to a more aggressive cooptation and use of Rastafarian symbols in the 1970s, and finally, to a positive embrace of Rastafarian contribution to the indigenous culture and the commodification of the Rastafarian image and symbols for “culture tourism” since the 1980s. Rastafarian influence on Jamaica's indigenous culture is quite pervasive, but the most celebrated influence has been on reggae, Jamaican popular music, made famous around the world by Bob Marley and the Wailers, Jimmy Cliff, Third World, and others. Though Rastafari does not have the centralized institutions that Max Weber regarded as necessary for routinization, the factors outlined above have contributed to its entrenchment in the fabric of Jamaica's cultural life.