
Adam PossamaiWestern Sydney University · School of Social Sciences
Adam Possamai
PhD in Sociology
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198
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Introduction
Adam Possamai FASSA is Professor of Sociology and Deputy Dean in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. He is currently the International Secretary for the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, represents Australasia on the Council of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion, and is a former President of the Research Committee 22 on the Sociology of Religion from the International Sociological Association.
Additional affiliations
February 1999 - April 2020
Publications
Publications (198)
While comics abound with stories of possession, be them from supernatural or alien entities, the tropes tend to often involve finding a technical device or a magical object to free the possessed. It can also involve finding the weakness of the visitor (e.g. Spiderman and his symbiote costume) or getting rid of the unwanted entity and its receptacle...
The debate surrounding the 2019 Religious Discrimination Bill in Australia highlighted a shift in the social construction of the notion of freedom of religion. From a debate that understood such freedom as religious groups and people being able to practice, and believe in, their faith without discrimination, the notion of freedom shifted to mean fo...
Recent works have highlighted that exorcism is not an atavistic ritual but that it has a renewed place in our contemporary Western world. As religious institutions have become more secularized and rationalized, a vacuum has been left for religious professionals to deal with demons. While exorcists claim that there is a higher demand for exorcism, t...
This article discusses theories of post-secularism, which is emerging in affinity with neoliberalism, and the participation of religions in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The study used qualitative research methods with textual analysis approaches. The article argues that the current involvement of religion in achieving the...
To discuss the way Shari’a is perceived and practiced in Western countries, this chapter covers the debates with regards to its more official application in Shari’a courts and councils in the area of family law first in Western countries in general, and then in four specific Anglophone countries: the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and...
While Ramadan in Western societies has been studied extensively in relation to health issues, no research to date has explored its representation through social scientific lenses. This article uses the Greater Western Sydney region in New South Wales, Australia, as a case study. This agglomeration of suburbs from the outer western suburbs of Sydney...
The use of surveys to better understand students’ experiences and teaching quality in higher education has a long history of implementation and critical review. Although research on student feedback surveys has highlighted a number of areas of concern, a well-designed student survey on teaching and learning will produce a strong foundation of evide...
Drawing on the bounded affinity theory – a theory emphasising the shared commonality of religious and paranormal experiences, data from a cross-section of Australian Facebook users were tested. Results reveal that religious Christian individuals who express a strong level of Christian religious practice display less paranormal belief and engage in...
This article uses the case study of Fiji’s border restrictions on Holy Water to think about how even the supernational (like spiritual things) remains subject to international border regimes. In this case, we consider how Fiji’s borders have actually been sacralized in order to securitize Holy Water—inhibiting its importation into the country. Holy...
With the advancement of new technologies, instrumental rationality, as described by Weber and Ritzer, has been carried further towards the self in a process described as the i-zation of society. This is in elective affinity with the expansion of digital capitalism which is aligned with recent global and transnational developments. Religion has not...
While the preference for university by school leavers has been researched extensively, this article seeks to explore if religious influence might also come to play when selecting a university, with particular reference to Australia, a country whose higher education environment is largely made up of public, secular universities. The data used is the...
S’il n’existe qu’une planète terre, le concept de mondialisation en revanche n’est pas monolithique et évolue en fonction de changements sociaux, culturels, et économiques. La mondialisation du XXI e siècle diffère du tout au tout de celle du XX e . Bien que l’interdépendance globale économique et numérique soit plus forte que dans le passé, de nou...
Habermas coined the term post-secularism to reflect a time period in which religions are given a more central part in social and political life. Even if there is more openness to religion, many religious groups would claim that Western societies are nevertheless still dominated by secularism and want to ensure that freedom of religion and belief re...
In this article, we used the meta-metrics approach to analyse research grants in the Religion and Religious Studies field of research (FoR) in Australia, with respect to their metric properties, significance, similarity, and usage characterisation. Whilst comparing and contrasting various results from the dataset of the Australian Research Council...
Qu’en est-il de la conversion dans les marchés religieux de nos sociétés néo-libérales ? Se peut-il que se convertir aujourd’hui dans les sociétés post-industrielles ai une signifiance totalement différente que lorsqu’une personne se convertissait du paganisme au christianisme au 4ieme siècle à Rome, ou du catholicisme au protestantisme au 17ieme s...
https://wrldrels.org/2020/11/30/international-association-of-exorcists/
FOUNDER/GROUP HISTORY
The International Association of Exorcists (IAE), which is today led by Father Francesco Bamonte, was founded in Italy in 1991 by Father René Chenessau, exorcist of the diocese of Pontoise (Paris), and by Father Gabriel Amorth (1925-2016), [Image at righ...
This study examines sociodemographic and wellbeing factors associated with forms of religiosity involving conventional religious belief (CRB) and daily spiritual experience (DSE), and unconventional paranormal beliefs in lifeforms (UPBL) and paranormal beliefs excluding extraordinary lifeforms (UPBEEL). Self-reported data collected from Australian...
Following 9/11 the Australian government instituted an unprecedented raft of counter-terrorism measures, which introduced both preventative mass surveillance and pre-crime offences. We suggest that this development represents part of a broader turn in the West towards a “militant democratic” approach to countering violent extremism that, whilst not...
Susan J. Palmer, Martin Geoffroy and Paul L. Gareau (eds), The Mystical Geography of Quebec: Catholic Schisms and New Religious Movements. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, pp. xiii + 274, ISBN: 978-3-03033-061-3.
This chapter introduces this edited book as a study of exorcism within a social-scientific perspective in Western societies. Applying the sociological work of de Certeau, and the anthropological perspective of Malinowski, this chapter presents a collection of research papers which reexamines the relationship among magic, religion, and science withi...
From different social-scientific perspectives the chapters of this book illustrate that various answers to the inquiry into what kind of meanings the practice of exorcism retains in modern societies can be provided through the analysis of multiple dynamics. We examined how the practices of exorcism undergo secularization process and what kind of in...
This chapter examines the role of spirituality in the relationship between confidence in Australian society and paranormal outcomes involving belief in demons and the practice of exorcism among different religious and non-religious groups of Australian Facebook users (N = 760; Female: 60%). It provides an understanding of the nature of paranormal p...
Australian Universities’ Review 62 (1): 3-9.
This article uses a meta-metrics approach to research the research in Religion and Religious Studies (Field of Research (FoR) Code 2204) in Australia. Comparing and contrasting various results from the data provided by the Australian Research Council (ARC) on its Excellence in Research for Australia (ER...
International Journal of Baudrillard Studies 16 (1)
https://baudrillardstudies.ubishops.ca/hyper-real-religion/
This book presents an academic analysis of exorcism in Christianity. It not only explores the crisis and drama of a single individual in a fight against demonic possession but also looks at the broader implications for the society in which the possessed lives. In recognition of this, coverage includes case studies from various geographical areas in...
Pietism is a historical movement which started within seventeenth‐century German Protestantism and was portrayed as a return to a more pious Christian lifestyle. In its broader understanding, it was linked to other movements such as Puritanism in England. The movement went through various changes in its history, and while it is no longer as strong...
This autobiography addresses how my life experience across citizenshipsand religions has had a profound impact on my Weberian perspective onthe sociology of religion. It also informs how my various mentors acrosscontinents have influenced my work over the years. This was thanks to thepeople I studied with at the Catholic University of Leuven and La...
Various social and cultural changes from modernity to late modernity have been key to
the appearance and development of new spiritualities in Western society. The oftencontested
term of “new spiritualities” is often liked with other no less contested ones
such as “mysticism,” “popular religion,” “the New Age,” and “new religious” movements.
Further...
In a postindustrial world dominated by science, institutional religion is in decline. Yet social actors are more and more interested in practicing their spirituality by themselves for themselves.
This article explores how Shari‘a is conceptualized and experienced by 50 Muslim legal professionals and leaders in Sydney and New York. It analyses qualitative data on issues concerning the experience of Muslims with Shari‘a, on how this can be improved in both countries and on how compatible Shari‘a is with their respective legal systems. While t...
This study investigates whether place attachment (PA) in terms of attachment to Australia as a country is associated with QoL and the extent to which this association is related to attachment to God (AG) among African Christian residents in NSW, Australia. Results reveal that the main effects of PA bear a consistent positive association with QoL. A...
Dans cette suite au 'Crépuscule de Torquemada', le célèbre fanatique prépare sa revanche sur le pape Alexandre VI, le redouté Rodrigo Borgia. Il met en place une armée de possédés pour prendre le contrôle de Rome et faire venir le royaume du Diable sur terre, et ce toujours au service du Tout-Puissant. César Borgia, Léonard de Vinci et Nicholas Mac...
Background:
Despite the increasing number of evidence-based research on relational spirituality (RS) and quality of life (QoL) in medical-health research, little is known about the links between RS and QoL outcomes and the mechanisms by which RS aspects are functionally tied to QoL.
Objective:
To determine how RS is perceived/positioned in relatio...
This article focuses on the marginal extremities – the limits – of Shari’a practices in Australia, through the example of a criminal case in which four Sydney-based Muslim men whipped a Muslim convert to punish him for his excessive consumption of drugs and alcohol. The men claimed they acted in line with the doctrines of Shari’a practice to ‘purif...
This book explores the elective affinity of religion and post-secularism with neoliberalism. With the help of digital capitalism, neoliberalism dominates, more and more, all aspects of life, and religion is not left unaffected. While some faith groups are embracing this hegemony, and others are simply following the signs of the times, changes have...
This chapter addresses how religions, whether or not their adherents want it to be so, are strongly affected by neoliberalism. It concentrates on how religions face new inequalities, exploring the work of faith-based organizations in deprived urban areas and in the developing world. In recent years, the roles of these organizations have been redefi...
This chapter provides a summary of the arguments presented in the book. It then proposes the creation of a global compassionate tax, that is, a tax on non-charitable dealings by religious organizations. Since religion has changed during the era of neoliberalism, we have to think about it differently. As religions are gradually mimicking, and even b...
This chapter makes the statement that just as religion was the sacred canopy in Middle Ages Europe, and as nationalism and its politics were the dominant civil religion during modernity, today, neoliberalism is the dominant, and perhaps the most global, civil religion. It is also hegemonic over both the religious and the civil spheres. The chapter...
This chapter continues the previous chapter’s aggiornamento of the key theories of Jameson, which have provided an explication of capitalism at the end of the twentieth century, to adapt them to the present (twenty-first) century, and, more specifically, to current trends in religion. These theories have been tested and found successful in accounti...
This chapter discusses the explicit involvement of religion in neoliberalism with regard to consumer culture and productivity. It explores religions that are positively engaging with neoliberalism, and details two telling cases—the New Age (also called alternative spiritualties) and the prosperity religious groups. These are both consuming religion...
This chapter (along with Chap. 9) reprises the key theories of Ritzer, which have provided an explication of capitalism at the end of the twentieth century, and adapts them to the present (twenty-first) century, and, more specifically, to religion. Chapter 8 also undertakes a study of how new technologies, specifically in the form of apps, are ‘inc...
This chapter explores various religions that are proposing an alternative view to that of neoliberalism, but does not find in them a strong platform that could lead to significant structural changes. It also raises the paradox that the religious forms which are the most opposed—such as those violently proposed by certain Muslim radicalist groups—ar...
This chapter introduces Jurgen Habermas’s project of post-secularism (i.e. the management of communication between religious and atheist groups in the public sphere) and uses Shari’a as a case study to argue that in ‘i-society’ (see Chap. 8) post-secularism can be thought of as a social model wherein religion becomes more and more standardized to f...
This chapter reviews the history and literature on religion and taxes. It discusses recent surveys of the not-for-profit sector and contention over the definition of religion for tax purposes. Since religion has changed during the era of neoliberalism, we have to think about it differently. We can no longer take for granted that ‘religion’ is intri...
This chapter questions our past ways of understanding religion and suggests that in the contemporary world, our sociological understanding of religion needs to change and adapt to reflect recent changes. The chapter provides a social constructionist understanding of religion—that it is defined according to a context and a time period, rather than b...
Chapter 6 (along with Chap. 7) reprises the key theories of Jameson (those of Ritzer are discussed in Chaps. 8 and 9), which have provided an explication of capitalism at the end of the twentieth century, and adapts them to the present (twenty-first) century, and, more specifically, to religion. These theories have been tested and found successful...
This chapter continues Chap. 8’s aggiornamento of the key theories of Ritzer, which provided an explication of capitalism at the end of the twentieth century, adapting them to the present (twenty-first) century, and, more specifically, to religion. Chapter 9 contains an exploration of the contemporary standardization and branding of religion. This...
This book provides a sociological understanding of the phenomenon of exorcism and an analysis of the reasons for its contemporary re-emergence and impact on various communities. It argues that exorcism has become a religious commodity with the potential to strengthen a religion’s attraction to adherents, whilst also ensuring its hold. It shows that...
[Worked as Associate editor for 32 entries].
Bataille was a French intellectual who was active in various twentieth‐century leftist social and political circles and wrote on philosophy, literature, sociology, and his own fictions. His theory on religion includes the process of transgression which can lead to the sacred. He also theorized mysticism without God in which ecstasy refers to the ex...
Civil religion makes reference to the collective consciousness that brings together people in a society within a common identity or culture. It can live side by side with institutionalized religion in certain contexts or in opposition in others. The two leading sociologists who addressed this concept were Émile Durkheim and Robert Bellah.
This entry covers the social theory of Durkheim, Marx, and Weber on religion, with a focus on the notion of magic, the sacred–profane dichotomy, and secularization. It also discusses the current re‐emergence of religion in the public sphere and introduces new social theories such as those on postsecularism and multiple modernities.
‘Post-secularism’ is a term that has emerged in various disciplines, including sociology, to reflect religion’s move back into the public sphere and the need to take into account the voice of religious actors in any contemporary analysis of society. This article argues that post-secularism is, in fact, a specific type of secularism that deals with...
Baudelaire a mené une vie publique de débauché. Sa vie cachée et secrète était bien plus terrible. Il en a fait vaguement allusion dans ses poèmes et en a trouvé justification dans les nouvelles d'Edgar Allan Poe qu'il a traduites. La vie extraordinaire de ce poète maudit s'est vécue à travers une relation sexuelle et passionnée en longue compagnie...
This article explores how Shari’a is conceptualised and experienced by 27 legal professionals and leaders in Sydney working with Muslims on legal issues. It analyses qualitative data on issues with regards to the experience of Muslims with Shari’a, on how it can be improved in Australia and on how compatible Shari’a is with the Australian legal sys...
This edited book explores the impact of globalisation on the relationship between religion and politics, religion and nation, religion and nationalism, and the impact that transnationalism has on religious groups. In a post-Westphalian and transnational world, with increased international communication and transportation, a plethora of new religiou...
This introduction addresses the contributing chapters of this book and links their argument and findings through a discussion on religion, politics, nationalism and transnationalism within the prism of the multiple modernities theory. It deals with historical and contemporary cases to inform this study of comparative nationalism and transnationalis...
This chapter is a comparative study of well-known transnational Sufi orders, Haqqani and Suleymanci (Naqshbandi), as well as the Khaniqahi (Nimatullahi). This is a preliminary work that draws on in-depth qualitative interviews to examine the process of self-representation and localization of Sufism in Australia and Indonesia. Despite the fact that...
This study takes the documented growth in the ministry of exorcism within the Catholic Church as a significant challenge to some accounts of secularization. After clarifying how, according to Catholic doctrine, the devil can operate in people’s lives, this study offers a sociological interpretation of exorcism. This interpretation is illustrated an...
Drawing on methodologies used to analyse the negative portrayals of new religious movements in the press, this article analyses the way Sharia has been reported in key newspapers in Sydney, New York and Geneva from 2008 to 2013. It differentiates between perceptions of Islamic law as practised in these global cities, as well as in other countries,...