Religion and Society

Science and Catholicism in Argentina (1750–1960) is the first comprehensive study on the relationship between science and religion in a Spanish-speaking country with a Catholic majority and a "Latin" pattern of secularisation.

The text takes the reader from Jesuit missionary science in colonial times, through the conflict-ridden 19^th century, to the Catholic revival of the 1930s in Argentina. The diverse interactions between science and religion revealed in this analysis can be organised in terms of their dynamic of secularisation. The indissoluble identification of science and the secular, which operated at rhetorical and institutional levels among the liberal elite and the socialists in the 19^th century, lost part of its force with the emergence of Catholic scientists in the course of the 20^th century.

In agreement with current views that deny science the role as the driving force of secularisation, this historical study concludes that it was the process of secularisation that shaped the interplay between religion and science, not the other way around.

Italy, seat of the Pope and Vatican City, has a long and difficult relationship with religious freedom. Often identified as a Catholic nation par excellence, Italy owes its unification to a political class that advocated the separation of Church and State. Home of the Concordat, contemporary Italy recognises a peculiar notion of legal secularism (laicità) as the supreme principle of its constitutional order. Through the glasses of law, tracing the history of the right to religious freedom from the Unification to the present day, the nine chapters of the book allow an insight on paradoxes and contradictions of a complex system made of unresolved stratifications where a strong constitutional recognition of religious freedom is accompanied by a weak legislative protection of religious pluralism and, at the same time, a vigorous religious agency in the public space. Religious freedom in Italy offers an interpretation of a model of religious freedom that is not only a paradigm for many European experiences but also a possible interpretative parameter to better understand the dynamics of religious freedom between the two shores of the Mediterranean.

In premodern Japan, legitimization of power and knowledge in various contexts was sanctioned by consecration rituals (kanjō) of Buddhist origin. This is the first book to address in a comprehensive way the multiple forms and aspects of these rituals also in relation to other Asian contexts.
The multidisciplinary chapters in the book address the origins of these rituals in ancient Persia and India and their developments in China and Tibet, before discussing in depth their transformations in medieval Japan. In particular, kanjō rituals are examined from various perspectives: imperial ceremonies, Buddhist monastic rituals, vernacular religious forms (Shugendō mountain cults, Shinto lineages), rituals of bodily transformation involving sexual practice, and the performing arts: a history of these developments, descriptions of actual rituals, and reference to religious and intellectual arguments based on under-examined primary sources. No other book presents so many cases of kanjō in such depth and breadth.
This book is relevant to readers interested in Buddhist studies, Japanese religions, the history of Japanese culture, and in the intersections between religious doctrines, rituals, legitimization, and performance.

This volume brings together for the first time case studies on secularists of the 19th and early 20th centuries in national and transnational perspectives including examples from all over Europe. Its focus is on freethinkers taken as secular avant-gardes and early promoters of secularity. The authors of this book deal with multiple historical, religious, social, and cultural backgrounds and, in these contexts, analyze freethinkers' organizations, projects, networks, and contributions to forming a secular worldview, in particular, the promotion of concrete undertakings such as civil baptism or initiatives to leave church. Next to this secularist agenda, the contributions also take into account ambivalences and difficulties freethinkers were faced with, namely, the tensions between a national self-image and the transnational direction the movement has taken; the regional base of many projects and their transregional horizon; freethinkers' cultural programs and their immanent political mission; and the dialogue with respectively the conceptual distinction from other secularist groups. Readers interested in the history of secularity will learn that it was a heterogeneous enterprise already in its beginnings. This set the course for later European and global developments.

Islam is more than a system of rigid doctrines and normative principles. It is a diverse mosaic of subjective, often contradictory interpretations and discrepant applications that prohibit a narrow, one-dimensional approach. This book argues that to uncover this complex reality and achieve a more accurate understanding of Islam as a lived religion, it is imperative to consider Islam from the point of view of human beings who practice their faith. Consequently, this book provides an important contribution through a detailed ethnographic study of two contemporary Sufi communities.

Although both groups shared much in common, there was a fundamental, almost perplexing range of theological convictions and ritual implementations. This book explores the mechanism that accounts for such diversity, arguing for a direct correlation between Sufi multiformity and the agency of the spiritual leader, the Shaikh. Empirical research regarding the authority by which Shaikhs subjectively generate legitimate adaptations that shape the contours of religious belief are lacking. This study is significant, because it focuses on how leadership operates in Sufism, highlighting the primacy of the Shaikh in the selection and appropriation of inherited norms.

The book is set in the anthropologically much-neglected multi-ethnic interior of Highland Middle India. It is the result of fieldwork done over a period of more than a decade among the Ho, an indigenous community of approximately one million people, who have shared cultural norms and the space of the hilly region of the Chota Nagpur Plateau with other aboriginal (adivasi) and artisan communities for ages. The book explores the structured tapestry of Ho people’s relations and interrelatedness within their culture-specific sociocosmic universe ensuring their social reproduction in the present and affording them the means for and the awareness of living in a world of plenty. This world of abundance – with the Ho as its conceptual centre – includes the Ho’s dead, their complex spirit world and supreme deity, and their tribal and nontribal fellow humans, and it manifests itself in manifold facets of their lives: socially, ritually, economically, and linguistically.

"This is an important piece of work. The ethnographic details in it are invaluable. The fieldwork is superb. What comes across so magnificently is that unique quality of the author's human and emotional contact and shared understanding with the people." MICHAEL YORKE: University College, London; Upside Films

This book is about the legendary Rajput chieftain Hammira Chauhan, the king of the impregnable fortress of Ranthambore in southern Rajasthan who died in 1301 CE after a monumental battle against Alauddin Khalji, the sultan of Delhi. This singular event reverberates through time to the point of creating a historical and cultural region that crystallizes through copious texts composed in different genres and languages (Persian, Sanskrit, Hindi, Rajasthani, English) in shifting religious and political contexts, medieval as well as modern.

The main poetical-historical work composed in Sanskrit, the Hammira-Mahakavya (‘great poem’) by the Jaina poet Nayachandra Suri (15th century), is propelled by a dream in which the dead king urges the poet to write about his deeds. Can history with its preoccupation for the factual, begin in a dream? What does it mean to think about history and time via the imagination? Is time, whether past, present or future linked to imagination? Do imagination, time, and history arise together? What are the implications of thinking of history as something that appears in our experience? What does it mean to write a history as a historical being in whom diverse temporalities intertwine in the here and now?

This book demonstrates the close link between medicine and Buddhism in early and medieval Japan. It may seem difficult to think of Japanese Buddhism as being linked to the realm of medical practices since religious healing is usually thought to be restricted to prayers for divine intervention. There is a surprising lack of scholarship regarding medicinal practices in Japanese Buddhism although an overwhelming amount of primary sources proves otherwise.

A careful re-reading of well-known materials from a study-of-religions perspective, together with in some cases a first-time exploration of manuscripts and prints, opens new views on an understudied field. The book presents a topical survey and comprises chapters on treating sight-related diseases, women’s health, plant-based materica medica and medicinal gardens, and finally horse medicine to include veterinary knowledge.

Terminological problems faced in working on this material – such as ‘religious’ or ‘magical healing’ as opposed to ‘secular medicine’ – are assessed. The book suggests focusing more on the plural nature of the Japanese healing system as encountered in the primary sources and reconsidering the use of categories from the European intellectual tradition.

In The Netherlands, the arts have gained a sacralized status, while religion is increasingly viewed through the lens of heritage. The dynamic resonance of sacred forms this results in, is exemplary for the postsecular. Exploring this resonance, this book offers a strong counterweight to the popular trope of the arts having replaced religion in secularized societies. Instead it approaches artistic performance, religion, and its heritage as mutually engaging sacred forms.

Lieke Wijnia thoroughly connects theoretical perspectives on the sacred with ethnographic research at the annual festival Musica Sacra Maastricht. She explores the continued relevance of a broad conceptual approach to the sacred, as well as the practical side to negotiating the sacred at the festival. The resulting analyses shed new light on topics like musical performance as generator of the sacred, how art and heritage impact the continuity of religion in secularized societies, and the fragility of artistic performance in the contemporary fragmented framework of the sacred. This book offers an innovative and interdisciplinary interpretation of the continuing significant role of art and religion in postsecular societies.

In recent years, the study of modern Chinese religions has developed into a highly innovative yet challenging field. One of the main reasons for this involves an ongoing (and largely unresolved) debate regarding what methods and theories are appropriate for analyzing the wide range of beliefs and practices we encounter.

This series of three volumes is based on the conviction that, in this critical period of research on modern Chinese religions, it is time for scholars to review the development of our field, reconsider its present state of theories and analytical models, and open a new chapter in the understanding of methodologies we employ. Our research is grounded on the need to re-evaluate concepts and practices that inform both the religious sphere and contemporary scholarship, including endogenous Chinese concepts and exogenous ideas from the West and Japan that have been foundational in shaping our knowledge of the Chinese religious landscape.

In this third volume of our series, we examine a variety of key concepts through their praxis in modern Chinese lived religions.

The three-volume project 'Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions' is a timely review of the history of the study of Chinese religions, reconsiders the present state of analytical and methodological theories, and initiates a new chapter in the methodology of the field itself. The three volumes raise interdisciplinary and cross-tradition debates, and engage methodologies for the study of East Asian religions with Western voices in an active and constructive manner.

Within the overall project, this volume addresses the intellectual history and formation of critical concepts that are foundational to the Chinese religious landscape. These concepts include lineage, scripture, education, discipline, religion, science and scientism, sustainability, law and rites, and the religious sphere.

With these topics and approaches, this volume serves as a reference for graduate students and scholars interested in Chinese religions, the modern cultural and intellectual history of China (including mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Chinese communities overseas), intellectual and material history, and the global academic discourse of critical concepts in the study of religions.

The three-volume project 'Concepts and Methods for the Study of Chinese Religions' presents a history of the study of Chinese religions. It evaluates the current state of scholarship, discusses a variety of analytical approaches and theories about methodology, epistemology, and the ontology of the field. The three books display an interdisciplinary approach and offer debates that transcend national traditions. It engages with a variety of methodologies for the study of East Asian religions and promotes dialogues with Western and Chinese voices.

This volume covers successive historical stages in the study of religion in modern China, draws out the genealogy of major figures and intellectual achievements in a variety of research traditions, and highlights as well the challenges and evolutions experienced by the main disciplines in the last 30 years.

This volume serves as a reference for graduate students and scholars interested by religions in modern Chinese societies (i.e., mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Chinese communities oversea). Using a wide range of methods, from textual analysis to fieldwork, it presents case studies via the disciplines of religious studies, anthropology, sociology, history, and political science.

What does it mean to be modern? This study regards the concept of ‘society’ as foundational to modern self-understanding. Identifying Arabic conceptualizations of society in the journal al-Manar, the mouthpiece of Islamic reformism, the author shows how modernity was articulated from within an Islamic discursive tradition. The fact that the classical term umma was a principal term used to conceptualize modern society suggests the convergence of discursive traditions in modernity, rather than a mere diffusion of European concepts.

Indian indigenous societies are especially known for their elaborate rituals, which offer an excellent chance for studying religion as practice. However, few detailed ethnographic works exist on the ritual practices of these societies. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Jharkhand, India this book offers insights into contemporary, previously not described rituals of the Santal, one of the largest indigenous societies of Central India. Its focus lies on culturally specific notions of place as articulated and created during these rituals.

In three chapters the book discusses how the Santal "make place" on different local, regional and global levels through their rituals: They reaffirm their ancestral roots in their land during large sacrificial rituals. They offer sacrifices to the dangerous deities of the forest in exchange for rain. And they claim their region to be a "Santal region" through large festivals celebrated in sacred groves, which they link to national and global discourses of indigeneity and environmentalism.

Through an analysis of the rituals of a specific society, this book addresses broader issues. It presents an example of how to study religion as a practical activity. It portrays culture-specific perceptions of the environment. And last, the book underlines the potential that lies in choosing place as a lens to study social phenomena in context.

This volume considers the mediation of religion in the context of global relations of power, culture, and communication. It takes a nuanced, historical view of emergent religions and their mediation in various forms. The wide range of chapters provides valuable insight into particular contexts while also offering connections to other cases and contexts. Together, they form a snapshot of religious evolution in the media age.

The whole world is changing with incredible speed towards something radically new, yet people across the globe also show resistance to the forces that homogenize our lives. This book deals with a community that has found its niche in the remote Niamgiri mountain range of Odisha (India) and is struggling to preserve its way of life: the Dongria Kond. In recent years, they made the headlines as the real “Avatars” because they successfully fought a multinational company’s plans to mine the mountains. From the perspective of the Dongria Kond, these mountains are the seat of gods, and the whole environment is animated by spiritual forces. This highly complex cosmic order includes humans and non-humans and rests on a divine law (niam). This book captures the viewpoint of the Dongria Kond and provides deep insights into their vision of the world. It offers elaborate accounts of how the Dongria relate to the outside world, conceive of their own society and engage in complex rituals in order to (re-)establish the cosmos. The book confronts the reader with radically different imaginings of familiar human concerns: love, fertility, wealth, status and well-being.

The book is an anthropological study of a phenomenon observed within the range of contemporary Polish Catholic religiosity. The Crucified focuses on two fundamental issues: passion plays and performance theory. It presents an analysis of material collected during five years of field research, which sheds light on the varied world of religious performances. The phenomenon of passion plays is extremely complex and to some extent heterogeneous, hence its in-depth analysis reveals much not only about its own nature, but also about the entire modern religiosity. As a result, the book is constructed in such a way as to focus on a single phenomenon, but with conclusions extending to a much wider range of contemporary religious practices. The book reveals the need for self-expression of one’s own attitudes observable in contemporary spirituality, as well as the increasing participation of believers in the development of their religious life and thus in the formation of their own religious identity. All these processes are interpreted in terms of performance theory. Applying this approach makes it possible to capture the believers’ need for activity and creativity in the field of practices alternative to the liturgy.

The book explores the complex world of Islam from the perspective of its adherents and activists in Azerbaijan. Baku, the most secular Muslim capital city, is a battlefield for the minds and souls of „ethnic Muslims.” Visiting pirs was till now the typical expression of religiosity among Azerbaijani Muslims. Sunni-Shia division was blurred. Nowadays, Shia and Sunni Muslim movements propose new distinctive identities. Foreign and local preachers took advantage of liberal religious policies of the 1990s to promote their ideas. Salafis stress the „pristine” Islam and the idea of universalism, while Shias underline rationality in their faith tradition. Turkish model of Islam is more inclusive towards local customs. Sufism, although not as powerful as before, also finds a committed audience. Finally, independent charismatic local leaders gain supporters. The book investigates how this pluralism affects both religious groups and believers. Competitive environment requires effective strategies and flexibility. In this process, the traditional dominance of Shiism is challenged by Sunni movements. Shiism, however, is not giving up and adapts its concepts and practices to contemporary contexts.

There has not been conducted much research in religious studies and (linguistic) anthropology analysing Protestant missionary linguistic translations. Contemporary Protestant missionary linguists employ grammars, dictionaries, literacy campaigns, and translations of the Bible (in particular the New Testament) in order to convert local cultures. The North American institutions SIL and Wycliffe Bible Translators (WBT) are one of the greatest scientific-evangelical missionary enterprises in the world. The ultimate objective is to translate the Bible to every language. The author has undertaken systematic research, employing comparative linguistic methodology and field interviews, for a history-of-ideas/religions and epistemologies explication of translated SIL missionary linguistic New Testaments and its premeditated impact upon religions, languages, sociopolitical institutions, and cultures. In addition to taking into account the history of missionary linguistics in America and theological principles of SIL/WBT, the author has examined the intended cultural transformative effects of Bible translations upon cognitive and linguistic systems. A theoretical analytic model of conversion and translation has been put forward for comparative research of religion, ideology, and knowledge systems.

The edited volume aims to present a critical analysis of the current state of research on religion and belief systems in the realm of the ‘Digital Social’. The rapid expansion and democratization of digital technologies in conjunction with the significant shifts taking place within the practices of religion and belief through digital technology demand a critical examination across the social sciences and humanities. These changes call for an overview of not only our current methodological tool box but also the epistemological and ethical considerations that researchers must contend with. The proposed volume provides a critical framework that recognizes that the social, and therefore the religious, cannot be fully understood without recognizing how the digital world actively constitutes notions such as identity, social networks, embodiment, and social institutions. While some specific methods will be discussed, the volume’s emphasis remains on the critical epistemological and logistical considerations that are needed when undertaking this form of research.

Different religious groups in Central and Eastern Europe influenced societies in the region after the fall of Communism and continue to play a crucial role in culture, politics, social networks and value transformations. As part of the REVACERN (Religion and Values in Central and Eastern Europe Research Network) project – supported by the EU Sixth Framework Program – more than 70 researchers from 15 countries in the region analyzed and discussed the most important trends in values, religions and religious communities and presented their findings in a comparative way. They tested well-known theories of secularization, nationalism, democracy and pluralism in the colorful region Central and Eastern Europe. This book summarizes their most important findings in seven chapters, addressing religion and its entanglements with geography, values, nationalism, Orthodoxy, education, legal regulation, civil society, social networks, new religious movements and new forms of religiosity. Each chapter also provides a regional overview.

This volume examines the different and sometimes contradictory approaches of four UN human rights committees to the concept of religion. Drawing on critical perspectives from religious studies, the book combines a genealogical assessment of the role of religion in international law with a detailed textual study of the reporting practice of the committees monitoring racial discrimination, civil and political rights, women's rights, and children's rights. Årsheim argues that the role of religion within the rights traditions monitored by the committees varies to the extent that their recommendations risk contradicting one another, thereby undermining their credibility and potential to bring about real change on the ground: Where some committees view religion singularly as a core individual right, others see religion partly as an inherent threat to the realization of other rights, but also as a potent social force to be reckoned with. In order to remedy this situation, Årsheim proposes the publication of a joint general comment by all the committees, spelling out their approach to the role of religion in the implementation of human rights.

The vast and ancient topic of kingship in India has mostly been studied from the perspectives of rulers and other elites. But what constitutes sovereignty viewed from "below"? This book — ethnographic and comparative in its essence — deals with indigenous conceptualizations of sovereignty taking as its starting point a local proverb that connects the ritual (Dasara) of the king with festivals performed by his "tribal" subjects. The first part of the book initially introduces some pan-Indian ideas of kingship and proceeds to discuss indigenous notions of sovereignty as represented in rituals and myths in the region concerned (highland Odisha). The second part is devoted to the investigation of the proverbial performances. Mainly based on historical sources first the Dasara festival of the king is discussed, subsequently the indigenous rituals are described and analyzed, which the author ethnographically documented around the turn of the millennium. Ultimately, the proverb and the rituals constitute the idea of a sacrificial polity in which rulers and ruled share sovereignty in the sense that they are co-responsible for the flow of life.

For over 2500 years, Buddhism was implicated in processes of cultural interaction that in turn shaped Buddhist doctrines, practices and institutions. While the cultural plurality of Buddhism has often been remarked upon, the transcultural processes that constitute this plurality, and their long-term effects, have scarcely been studied as a topic in their own right. The contributions to this volume present detailed case studies ranging across different time periods, regions and disciplines, and they address methodological challenges as well as theoretical problems. In addition to casting a spotlight on topics as diverse as the role of trade contacts in the early spread of Buddhism, the hybrid nature of religious practices in Japan or Indo-Tibetan relations in Tibetan polemical literature, the individual papers jointly raise the question as to whether there might be something distinct about how Buddhism steers and influences forms of cultural exchange, and is in turn shaped by modalities of cultural interaction throughout Asian, as well as global, history. The volume is intended to demonstrate the need for investigating transcultural dynamics more closely in the study of Buddhism, and to suggest new avenues for Buddhist Studies.

Dealing with different regions and cases, the contributions in this volume address and critically explore the theme of borders, educations, and religions in northern Europe. As shown in different ways, and contrary to popular ideas, there seems to be little reason to believe that religious and civic identity formation through public education is becoming less parochial and more culturally open. Even where state borders are porous, where commerce, culture, and trade as well as associative, personal, and social life display stronger liminal traits, normative education remains surprisingly national. This situation is remarkable and goes against the grain of current notions of both accelerating globalisation and a European regional renaissance. The book also takes issue with the foundational tenet that liberal democracies are by definition uninvolved in matters concerning faith and belief. Instead, an implied conclusion is that secular liberal democracy is less than secular and liberal - at least in education, which is a major arena for political-cultural-ethical socialisation, as it aims to confer worldviews and frameworks of identity on young people who will eventually become full citizens and bearers/sharers of prevailing normative communities.

Two unprecedented, striking developments form part of the reality of many Latin Americans. Recent decades have seen the dramatic rise of a new religious pluralism, namely the spread of Pentecostal Christianity - Catholic and Protestant alike - and the growth of indigenous revitalization movements. This study analyzes these major transitions, asking what roles ethnicity and ethnic identities play in the contemporary process of religious pluralism, such as the growth of the Protestant Pentecostal and neo-Pentecostal movements, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, and the indigenous Maya movement in Guatemala.

This book aims to provide an understanding of the agenda of religious movements, their motivations, and their impact on society. Such a pursuit is urgently needed in Guatemala, a postwar country experiencing acrimonious religious competition and a highly contentious debate on religious pluralism. This volume is relevant to scholars and students of Latin American Studies, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Practical Theology, and Political Sciences.

Based on the author’s cross-regional fieldwork, archival findings, and critical reading of memoirs and creative works of Tibetans and Chinese, this book recounts how the potency of Tibet manifests itself in modern material culture concerning Tibet, which is interwoven with state ideology, politics of identity, imagination, nostalgia, forgetting, remembering, and earth-inspired transcendence. The physical place of Tibet is the antecedent point of contact for subsequent spiritual imaginations, acts of destruction and reconstruction, collective nostalgia, and delayed aesthetic and environmental awareness shown in the eco-religious acts of native Tibetans, Communist radical utopianism, former military officers’ recollections, Tibetan and Chinese artwork, and touristic consumption of the Tibetan landscape. By drawing connections between differences, dichotomies, and oppositions, this book explores the interiors of the diverse agentive modes of imaginations from which Tibet is imagined in China. On the theoretical front, this book attempts to bring forth a set of fresh perspectives on how a culturally and religiously specific landscape is antecedent to simultaneous processes of place-making, identity-making, and the bonding between place and people.

Few thorough ethnographic studies on Central Indian tribal communities exist, and the elaborate discussion on the cultural meanings of Indian food systems ignores these societies altogether. Food epitomizes the social for the Gadaba of Odisha. Feeding, sharing, and devouring refer to locally distinguished ritual domains, to different types of social relationships and alimentary ritual processes. In investigating the complex paths of ritual practices, this study aims to understand the interrelated fields of cosmology, social order, and economy of an Indian highland community.

Scholarly interest in print culture and in the study of religion in modern China has increased in recent years, propelled by maturing approaches to the study of cultural history and by a growing recognition that both were important elements of China's recent past. The influence of China in the contemporary world continues to expand, and with it has come an urgent need to understand the processes by which its modern history was made. Issues of religious freedom and of religion's influence on the public sphere continue to be contentious but important subjects of scholarly work, and the role of print and textual media has not dimmed with the advent of electronic communication. This book, Religious Publishing and Print Culture in Modern China 1800-2012, speaks to these contemporary and historical issues by bringing to light the important and abiding connections between religious development and modern print culture in China. Bringing together these two subjects has a great deal of potential for producing insights that will appeal to scholars working in a range of fields, from media studies to social historians.

Each chapter demonstrates how focusing on the role of publishing among religious groups in modern China generates new insights and raises new questions. They examine how religious actors understood the role of printed texts in religion, dealt with issues of translation and exegesis, produced print media that heralded social and ideological changes, and expressed new self-understandings in their published works. They also address the impact of new technologies, such as mechanized movable type and lithographic presses, in the production and meaning of religious texts. Finally, the chapters identify where religious print culture crossed confessional lines, connecting religious traditions through links of shared textual genres, commercial publishing companies, and the contributions of individual editors and authors. This book thus demonstrates how, in embracing modern print media and building upon their longstanding traditional print cultures, Christian, Buddhist, Daoist, and popular religious groups were developed and defined in modern China. While the chapter authors are specialists in religious traditions, they have made use of recent studies into publishing and print culture, and like many of the subjects of their research, are able to make connections across religious boundaries and link together seemingly discrete traditions.

What is the significance of sustainable resource management for the functioning of Mediterranean island societies? How do human-environment relations reflect in a multi-ethnic religious landscape? This book poses these questions in the context of the Ottoman, British, and modern history of Cyprus. It explores the socio-ecological dimension of the Cyprus conflict and considers the role of local environmental practices for historical coexistence and modern division. The book synthesizes theoretical approaches from the research on 'religion and ecology' with the anthropology of Cyprus, with the goal to develop and establish an ecological perspective on coexistence and conflict in the Mediterranean. Religion is seen as the place where local representations of nature and traditions of resource management are generated and maintained. The work takes a comparative look at the impact of Eastern Orthodox and Islamic institutions on the island's landscape, as well as the religious and economic practices of the rural peasant communities. The findings are then spelled out in the context of current discourses on religion, environmental ethics, and social justice.

This book explores the religious identity of the indigenous Gujjars living in Rajaji National Park (RNP), Uttarakhand, India. In the broader context of forest conservation discourse, steps taken by the local government to relocate the Gujjars outside RNP have been crucial in their choice to associate with NGOs and Deobandi Muslims. These intersecting associations constitute the context of their transitioning religious identity.

The book presents a rich account of the actual process of Islamization through the collaborative agency of Deobandi madrasas and Tablighi Jama‘at. Based on documents and interviews collected over four years, it constructs a particular case of Deobandi reform and also balances this with a layered description of the Gujjar responses. It argues that in their association with the Deobandis, the Gujjars internalized the normative dimensions of beliefs and practices but not at the expense of their traditional Hindu-folk culture. This capacity for adaptation bodes well for the Gujjars, but their proper integration with wider society seems assured only in association with the Deobandis. Consequently this research also points toward the role of Islam in integrating marginal groups in the wider context of society in South Asia.

Wilderness is one of the most abiding creations in the history of religions. It has a long and seminal history and is of contemporary relevance in wildlife preservation and climate discourses. Yet it has not previously been subject to scrutiny or theorising from a cross-cultural study of religions perspective. What are the specific relations between the world’s religions and imagined and real wilderness areas? The wilderness is often understood as a domain void of humans, opposed to civilization, but the analyses in this book complicate and question the dualism of previous theoretical grids and offer new perspectives on the interesting multiplicity of the wilderness and religion nexus. This book thus addresses the need for cross-cultural anthropological and history of religions analyses by offering in-depth case studies of the use and functions of wilderness spaces in a diverse range of contexts including, but not limited to, ancient Greece, early Christian asceticism, Old Norse religion, the shamanism-Buddhism encounter in Mongolia, contemporary paganism, and wilderness spirituality in the US. It advances research on religious spatialities, cosmologies, and ideas of wild nature and brings new understanding of the role of religion in human interaction with ‘the world’.

In present-day pluralistic and individualized societies, the question of how individuals appropriate religious traditions has become particularly relevant. In this volume, psychologists, anthropologists, and historians examine the presence of religious voices in narrative constructions of the self. The focus is on the multiple ways religious stories and practices feature in self-narratives about major life transitions. The contributions explore the ways in which such voices inform the accommodation and interpretation of these transitions. In addition to being inspired by Dan McAdams’ approach to life stories as ‘personal myths’ that inform us about the quests of individuals for a satisfactory balance between agency and communion, most of the contributors have found the theory of ‘the dialogical self’ developed by Hubert Hermans particularly useful. Thus the contributions explore the ways in which identity formation is shaped by internal dialogues between personal and collective voices in the context of the specific constellations of power in which these voices are embedded. The volume is divided into three parts addressing theoretical and methodological considerations, religious resources in narratives on life transitions, and religious positioning in diaspora.

This volume offers unique insights into the mutually constitutive nature of social media practices and religious change. Part 1 examines how social media operate in conjunction with mass media in the construction of discourses of religion and spirituality. It includes: a longitudinal study of British news media coverage of Christianity, secularism and religious diversity (Knott et al.); an analysis of responses to two documentaries 'The Monastery' and 'The Convent' (Thomas); an evaluation of theories of the sacred in studies of religion and media within the 'strong program' in cultural sociology in the US (Lynch); and a study of the consequences of mass and social media synergies for public perceptions of Islam in the Netherlands (Herbert). Part 2 examines the role of social media in the construction of contemporary martyrs and media celebrities (e.g., Michael Jackson) using mixed and mobile methods to analyse fan sites (Bennett & Campbell) and jihadi websites and YouTube (Nauta). Part 3 examines how certain bounded religious communities negotiate the challenges of social media: Judaism in Second Life (Abrams & Baker); Bah'ai regulation of web use among members (Campbell & Fulton); YouTube evangelists (Pihlaja); and public expressions of bereavement (Greenhill & Fletcher). The book provides theoretically informed empirical case studies and presents an intriguing, complex picture of the aesthetic and ethical, demographic and discursive aspects of new spaces of communication and their implications for religious institutions, beliefs and practices.

The essays in this volume, written by specialists working in the field of tantric studies, attempt to trace processes of transformation and transfer that occurred in the history of tantra from around the seventh century and up to the present. The volume gathers contributions on South Asia, Tibet, China, Mongolia, Japan, North America, and Western Europe by scholars from various academic disciplines, who present ongoing research and encourage discussion on significant themes in the growing field of tantric studies. In addition to the extensive geographical and temporal range, the chapters of the volume cover a wide thematic area, which includes modern Bengali tantric practitioners, tantric ritual in medieval China, the South Asian cults of the mother goddesses, the way of Buddhism into Mongolia, and countercultural echoes of contemporary tantric studies.

People observe and transgress religious borders when they relate with faith and other faiths, when they shape communities, when they make decisions. A group of researchers have joined an inquiry into the forces of religious closure and openness in present-day Central and Eastern Europe.
The volume is a result of a research community constituted within the REVACERN project – Religion and Values in Central and Eastern Europe Research Network, supported by the 6th framework program of the European Union. Chapters are structured in three sections, focusing on individual experiences of religion and spirituality, on religious elites, and on the interaction of religion with politics. Sociology, political science and history are triangulated to render a clear understanding of the individual experiences of religion and secularity, and of the strategic choices of religious and political elites, taking readers along an exploration of religious identity and otherness.

Intended as a methodological and theoretical contribution to the study of religion and society, this book examines Buddhist monasticism in Myanmar. The book focuses on the Shwegyin, one of the most important but least understood monastic groups in the country. Analyzing the group as a tradition constructed around ideas of continuity and disruption/rupture, the study illuminates key aspects of monastic and wider Burmese Buddhist thought and practice, and ultimately argues for the distinctiveness of elements of that thought and practice in comparison to the Buddhist cultures of Sri Lanka and Laos.
After situating the Shwegyin within the history of Buddhist monasticism more generally, and within the vicissitudes of modern Burmese political history, the book proceeds along two scholarly avenues. It adopts an interdisciplinary method with attention to biographical, administrative, doctrinal, and ethnographic evidence. Theoretically, the book engages scholarly discussion about “traditions” and their “traditionalisms” and advances a specific type of interpretive approach built on bringing the viewpoints and practices of the Shwegyin into conversation with the enterprise of understanding larger historical and cultural patterns in the Buddhist societies of South and Southeast Asia.

Saints and Signs analyzes a corpus of hagiographies, paintings, and other materials related to four of the most prominent saints of early modern Catholicism: Ignatius of Loyola, Philip Neri, Francis Xavier, and Therese of Avila.
Verbal and visual documents – produced between the end of the Council of Trent (1563) and the beginning of the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623) – are placed in their historical context and analyzed through semiotics – the discipline that studies signification and communication – in order to answer the following questions: How did these four saints become signs of the renewal of Catholic spirituality after the Reformation? How did their verbal and visual representations promote new Catholic models of religious conversion? How did this huge effort of spiritual propaganda change the modern idea of communication?
The book is divided into four sections, focusing on the four saints and on the particular topics related to their hagiologic identity: early modern theological debates on grace (Ignatius of Loyola); cultural contaminations between Catholic internal and external missions (Philip Neri); the Christian identity in relation to non-Christian territories (Francis Xavier); the status of women in early modern Catholicism (Therese of Avila).

Reiterated international comparative surveys offer evidences about developments of religion-related scene in Central and Eastern Europe. The present volume is the first one, which presents an extensive and detailed cross-national analysis of sociological data comparing extensively countries, regions and denominations in the past two decades.
It displays achievements and shortages of a religious revival in the post-communist region, as well as religion’s role in family life, social responsibility and public commitment. It proves the combination of de-Christianization based on previous persecution of religion and an ongoing modernization and the rise and the transformation of religion. In some countries popular religiosity of traditional social strata is dominant. In other countries there is a visible transition from old and low strata religiosity to a more restricted but socially more influential religiosity of young middle and upper strata groups. In final outcome the volume substantiates the growing public role of religion in Eastern and Central Europe as well as the distinct impact of religiosity on individual behaviour. These results contradict the idea of an overwhelming secularization but argue for a more complex process overcoming the communist past.

Sectarianism in Qumran: A Cross-Cultural Perspective explores the sectarian characteristics of the system of beliefs and laws of the two major Qumran sects of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the yahad and the Damascus Covenant, using theories of sectarianism and related topics in sociology, anthropology and the study of religion. It discusses Qumranic moral and purity boundaries, cultic rituals, wealth, gender, atonement, revelation mysticism, structure and organization and compares them with those of seven sects of the same (introversionist) type: the early Anabaptists, Mennonites, Hutterites and Amish, Puritans, Quakers and Shakers.

The sociological and historical relationship between the Qumran sects and the related movements of 1 Enoch, Jubilees and the Essenes are analyzed in detail, in order to understand the socio-religious background of sectarianism in Qumran and its subsequent variations.

Throughout the chapters, differences between the yahad, the Damascus Covenant and the Essenes are observed in relation to social boundaries, social structure, gender relations, revelation and inclination towards mysticism. Points of resemblance and difference are traced between the Qumran sects and the early-modern Christian ones, and several different patterns of sectarian ideology and behaviour are noticed among all these sects.

In this book Christoph Stumpf investigates theological influences upon the legal theory of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), who is regarded by many as the "father of modern international law". The author analyses how Grotius has contributed to the transformation and further development of international law from its roots in Christian theology to a trans-religious law of nations. From the theological substance in Grotius' views on international relations the author concludes that Grotius' legal theory can be perceived as a theological system of international law.

This collection of essays analyzes ‛tradition’ as a category in the historical and comparative study of religion. The book questions the common assumption that tradition is simply the “passing down” or imitation of prior practices and discourses. It begins from the premise that many traditions are, at least in part, social fabrications, often deliberately serving particular ideological ends. Individual chapters examine a wide variety of historical periods and religions (Congolese, Buddhist, Christian, Confucian, Cree, Esoteric, Hawaiian, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, New Religious Movement, and Shinto). Different sections of the book consider tradition's relation to three sets of issues: legitimation and authority; agency and identity; modernity and the West.

This volume examines the specific role of horoscopic astrology in Western culture from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Focusing on the public appearance of astrological rhetoric, the essays break new ground for a better understanding of the function of horoscopes in public discourse. The volume's three parts address the use of imperial horoscopes in late antiquity, the transformation of doctrines and rhetorics in Islamic medieval contexts, and the important status of astrology in early modern Europe. The combination of in-depth historical studies and methodological considerations results in an important contribution to religious and cultural studies.

In Hindu India both orality and sonality have enjoyed great cultural significance since earliest times. They have a distinct influence on how people approach texts. The importance of sound and its perception has led to rites, models of cosmic order, and abstract formulas. Sound serves both to stimulate religious feelings and to give them a sensory form. Starting from the perception and interpretation of sound, the authors chart an unorthodox cultural history of India, turning their attention to an important, but often neglected aspect of daily religious life. They provide a stimulating contribution to the study of cultural systems of perception that also adds new aspects to the debate on orality and literality.
The audio samples, originally included to the book as a music CD, can be downloaded from this website under "Supplementary Materials".

This book critically explores the idea of Europe since the French Revolution from the perspective of intellectual history. It traces the dominant and recurring theme of Europe-as-Christendom in discourse concerning the relationship of religion, politics and society, in historiography and hermeneutics, and in theories and constructions of identity and ‘otherness’. It examines the evolution of a grand narrative by which European elites have sought to define European and national identity. This narrative, the author argues, maintains the existence of common historical and intellectual roots, common values, culture and religion. The book explores its powerful legacy in the positive creation of a sense of European unity, the ways in which it has been exploited for ideological purposes, and its impact on non-Christian communities within Europe.

This work deals with the identification and integration process of immigrants in Australia and the role that religion plays in this process. Viktor Zander investigates the immigrant community of Slavic Baptists in Victoria and analyzes the relationship between ethnic and religious identities as well as their social dynamics. "Identity" and "marginality" are addressed as crucial issues for Slavic immigrants and their Australian-born children. The work is based on the author’s field-research in the Slavic Baptist community in Victoria.

Key Features

Second volume in relaunch of the series "Religion and Society" (RS)