Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life
Abstract
What are we to make of the Latina schoolteacher who considers herself a good Catholic, rarely attends Mass, but meditates daily at her home altar (where she mixes images of the Virgin of Guadalupe with those of Frida Kahlo, and traditional votive candles with healing crystals), yet feels particularly spiritual while preparing food for religious celebrations in her neighborhood? Diverse religious practices such as these have long baffled scholars of contemporary religion, whose research started with the assumption that individuals commit, or refuse to commit, to an entire institutionally-defined package of beliefs and practices. Social surveys typically ask respondents to self-identify by denominational or other broad religious categories. Sociologists attempt to measure religiosity according to how well individuals conform to the official religious standards, such as frequency of church attendance, scripture reading, or prayer. This book points the way forward toward a new way of understanding and studying religious behavior. Rather than try to fit people into prearranged packages, the book argues, scholars must begin to study religion as it is actually lived and experienced in peoples' everyday lives. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, as well as recent work by other scholars, the book explores the many ways that people express themselves spiritually and shows that they rarely fit neatly into the categories developed. Challenging those who see declining church attendance as the death of religion in the Western world, the book demonstrates that religion is as widespread and vital as ever, if you know where to look.
... For one, differences in lived religion (one's everyday, individual religious practices) and religiosity (one's level of religious belief) have the potential to disrupt the social fabric of a community (Knibbe & Kupari, 2020). McGuire (2008) provides an example of this within the abstract of Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday ...
... Catholic woman yet does not often attend Mass (McGuire, 2008). Instead, she opts to pray at her home's altar, which features a mixture of crystals, Catholic iconography, and photographs of celebrities (McGuire, 2008). ...
... Catholic woman yet does not often attend Mass (McGuire, 2008). Instead, she opts to pray at her home's altar, which features a mixture of crystals, Catholic iconography, and photographs of celebrities (McGuire, 2008). This woman's lived religion (i.e. ...
This thesis examines hazard resilience and its relationship to rural Amazonian Christianity by documenting the social dynamics of two rural floodplain communities in Ucayali, Peru. It examines community-level environmental and social challenges, as well as the role of lived religion and beliefs in shaping cohesion and fragmentation. A mixed methods approach is used, incorporating qualitative interviews (n=42), participant observation, and ethno-case studies based on fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon. Findings suggest that rural Amazonian Christianity simultaneously weakens and strengthens community cohesion, with potential implications for social life, development, and resilience. It finds that fragmentation arises from denominational differences, social tensions, and distrust. However, meaning making through lived religion also provides comfort and hope in the face of various challenges as an 'affective therapeutic.' Overall, this thesis finds that rural Amazonian Christianity both constrains and builds resilience to a variety of challenges, including hazards, with implications for research and policy.
... Whereas theology is understood through religious texts and institutions, for this article, Islam is framed through the "lived" everyday negotiations that take place as people (social workers, children, carers). How they live and how their lives are informed by their religion in ways that contextualise who they are, where they live, who they interact with and their personal circumstances (Ammerman, 2013;McGuire, 2008). Islam then becomes meaningful through the diverse meanings it holds for children in care, through their experiences of faith and the consequences it has on their journeys. ...
... This approach allows us to uncover the extent Islam shapes the perceptions and understandings of diverse British Muslim communities around the needs of children in care. Whereas theology is understood through religious texts and institutions, for this article, Islam is understood through the "lived" everyday negotiations that take place as people (social workers, children, carers) live and inform their religious understandings in ways that contextualise who they are, where they live, who they interact with and their personal circumstances (Ammerman, 2013;McGuire, 2008). ...
All children need permanent, caring and secure homes in which they can grow and thrive. There are more than 4500 Muslim-heritage children in the UK who cannot live with their biological families. For some of these children, ethnically and religiously matched homes can lead to more secure futures; however, there is a shortage of Muslim-heritage carers. This article examines the reasons for the lack of Muslim-heritage adopters or foster carers in the UK by combining understandings from Islamic religious texts, contemporary British social work practice and sociological analysis of children’s experiences. The empirical findings presented here are based on semi-structured qualitative interviews (n = 41) with various professionals and carers involved in the care of Muslim-heritage children. Our evidence uncovers specific socio-cultural, political and theological barriers that hinder carers of Muslim backgrounds from coming forward to adopt or foster. By better understanding these barriers, this article provides an evidence base to inform social work policy and practice to enhance recruitment of carers from Muslim backgrounds. The data presented in the paper also contributes to raising awareness within social work practice and Muslim communities around the needs of vulnerable children, to improve their life outcomes.
... However, the absence of close communication led to paradoxical and ambiguous situations regarding religious activities. This chapter also explores the impact that COVID-19 had on religious observation and the new challenges posed in ways of 'lived religion' (McGuire 2008). Among other things, the new situation raised awareness of issues such as the use of digital platforms and the participation of young people. ...
... In most cases, the use of virtual tools also meant a greater involvement of young people in religious activities. Thus, this new situation forced several people to adapt to new ways of observing and 'living religion' (McGuire 2008). Nevertheless, the use of online platforms also posed several challenges, especially as the pandemic advanced and persisted in time. ...
Religion, Law, and COVID-19 in Europe investigates how the pandemic and the subsequent legal restrictions on collective activities influenced religious life in the region. The 19 in-depth country case studies combine legal and sociological analyses and reflect the plurality of religious and secular contexts. They detail how the pandemic curbed the collective aspects of religion and how the religious communities adapted, especially via innovations in online religion and new forms of religious leadership. The volume looks at how ordinary devotees’ religious behaviours changed during the pandemic and reveals shifts in religion–state interactions. In so doing, it shows how the pandemic challenged both religions and societies and how this was influenced by varying religious landscapes, political histories and legal cultures. More broadly, this volume makes three important contributions to the extant literature. First, it presents a novel analytical framing for making sense of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected religion. Second, it provides an empirical account of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted religious groups across Europe. Third, it reveals the importance of sudden, large-scale events in understanding religious change in the modern world.
... Throughout this study, religion is defined from the lived religion perspective. The focus of this perspective is on people's everyday practices rather than studying only official texts, gods, institutionalized moral authorities, holy texts, sacred places, organizations, and experts (Ammerman 2021;McGuire 2008). For this reason, our content analysis looked beyond denominations and labeled text based on a taxonomy that attempts to identify religious practices, communities, and contextual factors. ...
... This bias is reflected in the finding that 36% of papers predominantly feature institutional structures and textual doctrines, further calling into question the recognition and validation of religious practices such as those found in indigenous religions. Nevertheless, recent scholarship on lived religion has sought to rectify this imbalance by acknowledging the multifaceted expressions of religious faith, including text-based and non-text-based traditions, within the broader framework of religious studies (Ammerman 2021;McGuire 2008). The mention of religious communities in 30% of papers and the presence of religious leaders in 22% reflects a growing recognition of the importance of engaging diverse religious actors in areas such as climate action and security. ...
This study explored the significance of religion in the climate security discussion. Despite being extensively explored in conflict studies, the role of religion in climate security discourse is still largely overlooked. This is surprising, given that it significantly impacts decision-making during crises. The intersection of climate change and religious beliefs and diversity exacerbates conflicts across Africa. Recent studies have highlighted the pivotal role of religion in shaping responses to climate-induced security risks, yet it is often sidelined in climate security discourse. Through a systematic literature review, this study identifies gaps and proposes future research directions. The findings underscore the peripheral role of religion in climate security literature and the lack of interdisciplinary coherence. By recognizing the multifaceted role of religion in crises, this study aims to provide crucial insights into the complex dynamics of the religion-climate-climate security nexus.
... From a more international perspective, there have been several prominent studies that touch upon a faith in motion (Ammerman, 2007(Ammerman, , 2014Bengtson, 2017;Bengtson et al., 2018;McGuire, 2008;Perrin, 2020;Smith & Snell, 2009;Zuckerman, 2008Zuckerman, , 2012. Most of them are qualitative studies, but Bengtson (2017) employs a longitudinal mixed-method approach, primarily examining how religion is passed down, while Smith & Snell (2009) focus more generally on spirituality within a younger age group. ...
This study explores the dynamic relationship between fluctuations of faith and the quest for community among Norwegian millennials using a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative data from a survey of 585 participants with follow-up interviews. The research reveals that faith is not static but evolves throughout life, and for many, it changes back and forth several times. The study also looks at when these changes seem to happen and elaborates on what lies behind them. The application of McAdams' Life Story Theory suggests that these faith narratives are integral to individuals' broader life stories and identity formation, where one looks back at different vantage points in life, and what you see may be different from how you once saw it. The relation aspect seems to be an important point, where warmth, trust and integrity play a central role, which makes it interesting to look at this also through the lens of the integrative model of organizational trust. Among the stories of those who have distanced themselves to a greater extent from the faith, an interesting aspect nevertheless emerges. It seems to be a form of longing for the community that once was a part of their life, at least where trust re-emerges, even if the community was perhaps left intentionally at an earlier point in life. Perhaps faith does not stand alone? Perhaps the Christian community has an attraction in itself that should not be underestimated, at least for those who have once experienced it. How can the church meet fluctuation of faith, be experienced as relevant through the different seasons of life, and help the individual with the transition from mere longing to actual reintegration with a community?
... At the individual level, it offers a sense of autonomy and personal agency in spiritual matters, allowing people to explore diverse beliefs and practices without being bound by institutional norms. Furthermore, non-institutional religion promotes inclusivity by welcoming people who may feel marginalized or alienated by traditional religious institutions, thus promoting diversity and tolerance in society (see: McGuire, 2008). ...
The article discusses features of individual religiosity in the context of the New Age Movement. In modern society, the structure of religiosity is undergoing significant changes as traditional religious institutions face problems with a rise in non-institutional forms of spirituality. One of the main factors contributing to the growth of non -institutional religion is the growth of secularization of society. It was this process that led to a decrease in the influence and authority of traditional religion and contributed to the revival of new ways of actualizing religiosity. The New Age Movement, combining ele-ments of different religions, philosophy, and practices, becomes a kind of an answer to this issue. The authors draw attention to key religious and spiritual tendencies that affect the individual beliefs and practices of the Movement’s participants. The philosophical, social and cultural, as well as psychological aspects of this phenomenon are analyzed. The influential factors that contribute to the emergence and development of the New Age Movement, as well as the Movement’s place and role in the modern religious landscape are discussed. The authors argue that the New Age Movement is a form of non-institutional religiosity and as such is a unifying idea for those forms of religiosity that do not fall under the paradigm of institutional religiosity. The authors argue that the in-tersections of spirituality and morality in the New Age Movement and non-institutional religions create both opportunities and problems. While this Movement offers people the freedom to explore different spiritual paths and ethical dilemmas, it also raises ques-tions regarding the nature of moral authority and the possibility of reaching a consensus on ethical principles.
... 1 This article presents findings of the first 5Rhythms study in the sociology of religion, centred on the accounts of the two authors (see above) and the narratives of six women who all regularly dance 5Rhythms in Melbourne, Australia. Building on Meredith McGuire's (2008) and Nancy Ammerman's (2013aAmmerman's ( , 2013b sociological theories of lived religion and everyday spirituality, respectively, and Kimerer LaMothe's (2012) 'philosophy of bodily becoming', we argue that our case study provides additional evidence that the focus on the embodiment of contemporary lived spirituality can contribute to personal and relational wellbeing at individual, collective, and potentially planetary level. Our data analysis also reveals how an 'ethical spirituality' (Ammerman 2013a(Ammerman , 272-273, 2013b infuses 5Rhythms philosophy and practices, promoting self-care and healing, with the intention of contributing to wider social and ecological wellbeing. ...
... Religion and spirituality play a central role in healing, care, and recovery across cultures and communities. Different religions and cultural traditions have developed various texts, rituals, and practices to address illness and loss (Powell et al. 2003;McGuire 2008). In the sexual/gender context, since the mid-20th century, the LGBTQ+ community has sought to transform religion from a source of ostracism and rejection to one of healing and queer remembrance. ...
Various religious responses to the AIDS epidemic were and still are often laden with stereotypes and homophobic attitudes, sometimes justifying the disease as a divine response to “sin”. This study is dedicated to examining prayers written by non-Orthodox gay rabbis to commemorate those lost to AIDS-related causes and to pray for healing and robust health for those living with the virus. In each of these prayers, most of which are recited on World AIDS Day (WAD), the worshiper is invited to remember the deceased and the hardships they endured, as well as to bless the present moment; those struggling with the virus; and the medical teams treating it. The textual analysis illustrates how AIDS liturgy reveals the congregation’s distinct religious–therapeutic egalitarian culture. These prayers serve as political instruments of resistance against AIDS-phobia and related stereotypes, demonstrating how LGBTQ+ collective memory can be constructed through religious liturgical texts rather than exclusively within secular frameworks. This is another way for non-Orthodox Jewish communities to signal their liberal agenda and distinguish themselves from conservative communities.
... This lack of studies is of course in line with the general lack of studies examining men's body image (Quittkat et al., 2019). Furthermore, following the lived religion theory that stresses the transition from studies about religion as institutions, beliefs, norms, and doctrines toward the daily practices of ordinary people (McGuire, 2008), who experience many different feelings in performing religious rituals and practices (Neriya-Ben Shahar, 2019), it is important to investigate the association between Jewish rituals and practices and body image among Jewish men and women in different cultural environments and settings and from various denominations (and not only in Israel and the USA). These studies should be conducted using the whole array of measures of body image, including both positive and negative aspects, implicit as well as explicit, as well as different conceptualizations of religion and religiousness. ...
... Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa puutarhanhoitoa on pidetty hyvänä paikkana tutkia elettyä uskontoa eli sitä, kuinka uskonto kohdataan ja kuinka sitä harjoitetaan jokapäiväisessä elämässä (Knibbe ja Kupari 2020, 176;Ammerman 2013). Esimerkiksi Ganzevoort ja Roeland (2014) ja McGuire (2008) kehystävät puutarhanhoidon uskonnolliseksi tai hengelliseksi toiminnaksi. Puutarhanhoidon ja uskonnon yhdistävät näkökulmat ulottuvat aina hengellisistä merkityksistä (Unruh ja Hutchinson 2011) arkiseen uskonnonharjoitukseen (Mazumdar ja Mazumdar 2012) ja kutsumuksellisiin kysymyksiin (Cogan 2022). ...
Tässä tutkimuksessa tarkastelemme lajienvälistä kohtaamista puutarhaa hoitavan ihmisen ja espanjansiruetanan välillä. Samalla pohdimme kriittisesti uskonnontutkimuksen rajoja. Tutkimus perustuu kansainvälisen tutkimushankkeen yhteydessä vuosina 2021–2022 kerättyyn aineistoon, joka koostuu laadullisista haastatteluista yhteensä 120 puutarhaa hoitavan ihmisen kanssa kahdeksasta eri maasta. Suomesta tutkimukseen osallistui kymmenen Helsingissä yhteisöpuutarhaa tai viljelypalstaa hoitavaa ihmistä. Analyysissä luemme aineistoa vastakarvaan suhteessa sellaisiin uskonnontutkimuksen konventioihin, joissa laadullisesta aineistosta etsitään viitteitä uskonnosta sekä ja sellaisiin lajien välisiä suhteita koskeviin tarkasteluihin, jotka korostavat myönteistä suhteiden vaalimista. Toisin sanoen samalla kun tutkimme ulossulkemisen etiikkaa puutarhakontekstissa tapaustutkimuksen tasolla, performoimme sitä uskonnontutkimuksen kontekstissa teoreettisella tasolla. Tuloksemme korostavat ulossulkemisen merkitystä puutarhayhteisön konstellaatiossa. Espanjansiruetanan sulkeminen ulos puutarhasta ja lajienvälisten vastavuoroisten suhteiden piiristä voidaan nähdä vastuullisena tekona, joka tuottaa toivottua tulevaisuutta muulle puutarhalle. Analyysimme osoittaa, ettei ulossulkemisiin liittyvä eettinen pohdinta keskity vain tappamisen oikeutukseen, vaan laajenee ruumiillisen toisteisuuden, turhuuden ja välttämättömyyden kysymyksiin. Espanjansiruetanoiden tuhoaminen ei ole yksittäinen teko, vaan jatkuvaa, turhauttavaa ja välttämätöntä työtä, joka uusintaa puutarhaa hoitavien ihmisten keskistä sekä ihmisten ja puutarhaan tervetulleiden lajien välistä sopuisaa yhteiseloa. Tämä kielii poissaolon vahvasta sosiaalisesta, suhteita konstituoivasta merkityksestä ja tämän konstituution vaatimasta toisteisesta, uusintavasta työstä. Huolimatta suomalaisten puutarhureidemme moninaisesta uskonnollisesta identifioitumisesta, kukaan heistä ei maininnut uskontoa tai hengellisyyttä keskustellessaan espanjansiruetanoista. Haastattelemamme ihmiset kuitenkin pohtivat monitahoisesti suhteita ei-toivottuihin toisiin, omaa asemaansa maailmassa, käyttäytymistään ja arvojaan – siis elämänasentojaan. Tulostemme perusteella espanjansiruetanoihin liittyvät elämänasennot ovat suomalaisissa puutarhoissa käyttäytymiseltään toisteisia, suhteiltaan ulossulkevia ja uskomusten näkökulmasta rajoja ylittäviä. Analyysissämme uskonnon ja uskonnottomuuden poiskirjoittaminen konstituoi mahdollisuuden tarkastella erilaisia katsomuksia ja identiteettejä omaavien ihmisten jakamaa yhteistä aluetta tasavertaiselta pohjalta.
... This shift is mainly due to the fact that body-focused spiritualism no longer aims solely at the unity of the soul. Instead, as Meredith McGuire, a pioneering author in this field, argues, it seeks a "mindful body" (McGuire 2008), where the physical body and its experiences play a central role, challenging the traditional dualistic conception. The body thus becomes the focal point of (self-)healing, and this altered understanding of the body brings new meaning and context to the healing process itself. ...
Drawing on insights from the spatial turn, this analysis examines the role of spirituality in religious experience, particularly focusing on how the body becomes central to transcendent experience in relation to spatial structural changes. It investigates how the emergence of hybrid social spaces contributes to the decline of institutionalised religiosity and how new forms of religiosity amplify the role of individual meaning-making. The paper focuses on how changes in the spatial structure of religious spaces are transforming the perception of the body among religious persons and how body-centred spiritualism is becoming central to religious experience. In this context, the paper discusses both the secular sources of spiritual bodily experience and the new features of sacred experience associated with the changed spatial structure. The analysis interprets this complex phenomenon in terms of body-focused spiritualism. The theoretical novelty of the analysis lies in the fact that, while interpreting spirituality and embodied transcendental experience, it not only relies on classical authors of spatial theory, but also draws on insights from phenomenological analysis in its interpretation of social spaces, the conceptual (spatial) domains of reality, and the body.
... Because such public practices blur the boundaries between sacred and profane, they also challenge the boundaries between religious and political ritual. 28 ...
Although the history of Indonesian music has received much attention from ethnomusicologists and Western composers alike, almost nothing has been written on the interaction of missionaries with local culture. This study represents the first attempt to concentrate on the musical dimension of missionary activities in Indonesia. In fourteen essays, a group of distinguished scholars show the complexity of the topic: while some missionaries did important scholarship on local music, making recordings and attempting to use local music in services, others tried to suppress whatever they found. Many were collaborating closely with anthropologists who admitted freely that they could not have done their work without them. And both parties brought colonial biases into their work. By grappling with these realities and records, this book is a collective effort to decolonize the project of making music histories.
... Both Idżys and Natalia, while creating and sharing their online personas, self-identify as contemporary witches and show that the social identity of being a Witch can be deeply implemented in everyday life. Spiritual practices embedded in everyday life have been studied in the research paradigm known as the lived religion approach (see for example Knibbe & Kupari, 2020;McGuire, 2011). My previous analysis, based on field research among Polish Traditional Wiccans, proved that the lived aspect of being a Witch and implementing the magical in one's life are of great significance (Malita-Król, 2021). ...
... The extent of sea level rise is determined by the location of warming about the average warming of the ocean. The greatest increase in sea level will occur if warming is focused in these areas [13]. According to report [10], global sea levels rose by approximately seven inches during the last century because of the world's melting ice and heated water. ...
Concerning global warming, sea level rise is one of the most critical problems. Therefore, it is necessary to find reliable projections for estimating coastal flooding to help manage coastlines more effectively, as the future implications of climate change are uncertain. So, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports, the rise in sea level poses a significant problem in many coastal areas; hence, studying flooding of low-lying lands along coasts has become a crucial issue and a matter of urgency for countries such as Egypt, which is highly vulnerable to Sea-Level Rise (SLR), raising the temperature and reducing precipitation due to climatic changes. According to IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), Sea levels will increase by 2100, 78 cm, and up to 100 cm by the end of this century. However, their magnitude remains indefinite. This study establishes limits on the level of uncertainty in sea-level rise variability. The uncertainty is derived from the analysis of future projections using twenty-eight (28) Global Circulation Models (GCMs) on an annual basis. This study focuses specifically on the coastal zones along the Egyptian Red Sea, from Suez to Hurghada. Based on AR5, four Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) scenarios were considered until 2100. It was found that there are ranges of possible rises in sea level concerning some models projecting very few centimeters while others go beyond a meter. Using optimal GCM ensembles significantly reduces the uncertainty about predicted values on SLR. Moreover, these results indicate that under each scenario, RCPs 2.6, 4.5, 6, and 8.5, the sea level will increase by 60.5 cm, 71 cm, 77 cm, and 104 cm, respectively.
... These are not mutually exclusive identities, but rather identities characterized by flexible and situational standpoints (Mauritsen, 2022). The research shows a need to take a broader perspective on religion and, for example, include the phenomenon of lived religion (McGuire, 2008). Emotions, narratives, embodiment, and practices must be considered when talking about religion. ...
In Religious Education (RE), it is not possible to talk about the role of religion today without addressing the concept of secularization. Using an explorative methodology, this article explores the potential of approaching key topics in RE, in this case secularization, with a narrative approach. The article presents four narratives of secularization and explores their possible implications based on research literature on RE.
... These shifts and the turn to studies of 'lived religion' (Hall 1997;McGuire 2008) have required new methods of research to emerge. Therefore, in this paper, I am using an autoethnographic approach which enables me to engage in critical self-reflection in light of a wider cultural context. ...
This article explores the question, ‘What is distinctive about doing theology as an evangelical?’ It takes an autoethnographic approach, recounting how this practical theologian has wrestled with how evangelical conviction should shape the stance for practicing theology. This article will work with the findings of the writer’s own empirical studies to develop an argument for how two stances create a distinctively evangelical practice of interpretation. First, the stance of biblicism is explored in terms of how it functions for evangelicals carrying out theological reflection. Second, the article discusses how evangelicals practice theology as though divine revelation is on-going, as Andrew Root writes, ‘Jesus still does stuff’ (2014). This leads to a stance of expectancy that God is still at work in the world and ‘talks back’. This article concludes that the implication of the stances means that practicing theology entails hermeneutics and research which decentralize the self.
... Religion plays a pivotal and multifaceted role in the way of life of Afghan immigrants. The faithfulness to religious rules serves as a fundamental component of a person lives, influencing everything from clothing choices to dietary practices [89]. Religious identity emerges as a significant social marker, fostering a sense of community within the immigrant population while simultaneously influencing their interactions with the host society [90]. ...
The involuntary migration of Afghans has emerged as a pressing global concern, presenting a complex interplay of social, legal, and economic challenges. This mass exodus, fueled by the pursuit of safety and refuge, has strained social and economic infrastructures, necessitating a comprehensive sociological analysis. This study investigates the lived experiences of Afghan immigrants and explores their coping strategies for overwhelming situations in the host community (Peshawar, Pakistan). Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach, the study synthesizes insights from migration sociology, cultural studies, and immigrant’s studies to comprehensively understand this complex intersection. By adopting a mixed research design using both survey and semi-structured interviews, and integrating legal, economic, and social perspectives, our investigation unveils the sociological dimensions shaping livelihood challenges and social impacts. The finding revealed the challenging legal and administrative hurdles faced by Afghan immigrants, the economic disparities, the complex dynamics of social integration, and accommodation issues within the host community. Amidst these challenges, this study found coping strategies of Afghan immigrants, which they had on individual, family, and community level. This study transcends academic inquiry, inviting us to embrace a holistic understanding that guides us toward more equitable and inclusive societies. This study contributes to migration sociology, and offers practical insights for policymakers and practitioners engaged in the complexities of involuntary migration and community development. It indorses sociologically grounded implications that call for inclusive policy interventions, cultural bridge-building initiatives, and community-driven efforts for long-term resilience. Charting future territories, we advocate for longitudinal and comparative analyses, recognizing the uncharted realm of gendered experiences in involuntary migration.
... Within this context, the ambivalent nature of religious symbols becomes a lens which helps to understand the intricate dance between tradition, personal autonomy and quest for authenticity. As individuals grapple with the formation of their worldview and identity, religious symbols act as potent catalysts, shaping perceptions, beliefs and values (McGuire, 2008;Tatala & Wojtasiński, 2023). The theoretical underpinning is rooted in the premise that understanding the dynamic relationships with religious symbol is key to unraveling the complexities of developmental process. ...
Egeria's Itinerarium is a unique document. It is one of the few surviving works from antiquity written by a woman and is one of the first Christian travelogues depicting a pilgrimage to and in the Holy Land. In her Itinerarium, Egeria describes not only her travels but also the practices of pilgrimage and the liturgical life in Jerusalem at a time when both of these were developing rapidly. As Egeria's explicit goal is to communicate her observations and thoughts to her friends, a community of women in the west, this study focusses on Egeria's role as a communicator. Both the contents of her text – what she wanted to communicate and the techniques she used to mediate her experiences and learning to her friends, that is, how she chose to communicate, are scrutinized. Special attention is given to how Egeria describes lived religion in antiquity.
This article explores and identifies an organized and collective type of(inter)religious movement, that evolves around coexistence and interreligious relations,expressing themselves through aesthetics, dialogue, motorcycles and/ormusic. It seeks to explore the concept religious coexistence, based on empiricalstudies of groups in Copenhagen that work with interreligious activities, dialogueand relations – Goldschmidts Musikakademi, Islamisk-Kristent Studiecenter andMuJu & Co. MC Danmark. I argue that these groups are examples of a type of interreligiouslived religion drawing on theoretical perspectives from Meredith B.McGuire, Brian A. Jacobsen and Nancy T. Ammerman. Second, I find that thegroups have similar understandings of religious coexistence as a form of knowledge.However, they differ in their methods of achieving it, using respectively verbaland non-verbal communication strategies, which I explain drawing on SaraAhmed’s affect theoretical framework.
This unique book investigates the real-world complexities, challenges, and mistakes that are often encountered when researching religion, values, and culture. Featuring the reflections of researchers from across the social sciences and humanities, it offers vivid accounts of designing and executing both small-scale and much larger projects. Some chapters describe in detail the process and rationale behind methodological decisions, including challenges, adaptations, and revisions. Others reveal how things went wrong in the research process, even past the point of recovery, and what was learned. There is reflection on wider conceptual, theoretical, and ethical debates about ‘religion’ and what they mean in practice. In acknowledging the messiness of researching religion, the volume seeks to humanize and improve it. The honest reflections it contains will help researchers avoid some common mistakes and messes, and face others openly without losing heart.
This unique book investigates the real-world complexities, challenges, and mistakes that are often encountered when researching religion, values, and culture. Featuring the reflections of researchers from across the social sciences and humanities, it offers vivid accounts of designing and executing both small-scale and much larger projects. Some chapters describe in detail the process and rationale behind methodological decisions, including challenges, adaptations, and revisions. Others reveal how things went wrong in the research process, even past the point of recovery, and what was learned. There is reflection on wider conceptual, theoretical, and ethical debates about ‘religion’ and what they mean in practice. In acknowledging the messiness of researching religion, the volume seeks to humanize and improve it. The honest reflections it contains will help researchers avoid some common mistakes and messes, and face others openly without losing heart.
Les prêtres de plus de 75 ans sont en voie de constituer la majorité du clergé catholique tant en Suisse qu’en France. Or c’est à cet âge qu’ils quittent, selon le droit canon, leurs responsabilités paroissiales et peuvent se mettre en retrait de la vie ecclésiale. Face au spectre d’une Église sans prêtres ainsi qu’en continuité d’un discours moral alliant dignité humaine et exemplarité du clergé, les organisations diocésaines ne se sont préoccupées que récemment de l’entrée de leur clergé dans le troisième, voire le quatrième âge. Nous esquissons ici les lignes programmatiques d’une sociologie du prêtre âgé, dans leurs contextes nationaux et diocésains. Notre objectif est de réinvestir cette catégorie de « prêtre âgé » à travers son hétérogénéité contemporaine. Suivant une approche ancrée de sociologie qualitative, différentes situations de cette catégorie sont explorées. Entre une exemplification théologique des prêtres âgés par l’Église, les témoignages des paroissien·nes accompagnant ces prêtres et l’hétérogénéité « vécue » des prêtres eux-mêmes, nos considérations autour de cette catégorie sociale mettent en lumière tant les ressources mobilisables en Suisse et en France que les adaptations plus générales du Catholicisme postconciliaire aux réalités socio-sanitaires de son clergé vieillissant.
The Cambridge Companion to Women and Islam provides a comprehensive overview of a timely topic that encompasses the fields of Islamic feminist scholarship, anthropology, history, and sociology. Divided into three parts, it makes several key contributions. The volume offers a detailed analysis of textual debates on gender and Islam, highlighting the logic of classical reasoning and its enduring appeal, while emphasizing alternative readings proposed by Islamic feminists. It considers the agency that Muslim women exhibit in relation to their faith as reflected in women's piety movements. Moreover, the volume documents how Muslim women shape socio-political life, presenting real-world examples from across the Muslim world and diaspora communities. Written by an international team of scholars, the Companion also explores theoretical and methodological advances in the field, providing guidance for future research. Surveying Muslim women's experiences across time and place, it also presents debates on gender norms across various genres of Islamic scholarship.
This chapter discusses the development of an embodied approach to semi-structured interviewing. It emerged from a PhD thesis that considers the significance of embodied knowing in Eco-Paganism. Since embodied knowing is tacit and hard to express in language, the research demanded a simple means to facilitate the participant's capacity to access and articulate it. The chapter outlines an initial approach and why that failed when it came to practical fieldwork application. It then introduces Focusing, a therapeutic technique that facilitates access to embodied knowing, and explains how this was adapted to semi-structured interviewing. The bulk of the chapter sets out each stage of this Focusing based methodology, from interviews to interpretation and validation. It concludes with a consideration of the limitations of this approach.
This essay examines how the now-adult children of the disappeared in The Gambia express their grief through various art forms, focusing on the elegy. Peter Sacks, defines the elegy as “a poem of mortal loss and consolation” (Sacks 3). The traditional functions of the elegy—lament, praise, and consolation—respond to loss by expressing grief and honoring the deceased. The essay explores the mourning process of three young adults through songwriting, letter writing, and memorial tattoos dedicated to their fathers who disappeared during Yahya Jammeh’s dictatorship. In an Islamic context, where retaining objects of the deceased is discouraged, these children find ways to remember their lost parents without material objects. Cathy Caruth argues that “to be traumatized is precisely to be possessed by an image or event” (Caruth 4–5). Here, it is the absence of a clear image and event that haunts these children, leading to artistic creation through elegiac writing and embodied meaning-making.
This article explores the complex intersections of religion and bodies through the lens of Sikh migrant cremations in the early 20th century Pacific West. Sampling English‐language from 1900 to 1920, it highlights how racial and civilizational biases shaped discourses on open‐pyre migrant cremations, even as cremation was gaining acceptance among white settler groups in the United States and Canada. Reading the news reports critically, the essay spotlights migrants’ efforts to confer dignity on the dead under adverse social and political circumstances by enacting Sikhism's essential tenets. By examining Sikh cremations, the article emphasizes not only the importance of including migrant bodies and experiences but also the need to decolonize and diversify histories of cremation in the United States and Canada.
This essay attempts to critically examine the idea of ‘declaration of faith’ in the contemporary South Indian social context, primarily to analyze and bring forth new patterns of social conflict between ‘believed religion’ and ‘lived religion’ in the process of raising Christian testimony by students on University/College campuses. Furthermore, it looks at how the State-declared religious identity could effectively undermine the personal religious convictions of individuals and social groups, in this particular case, the Dalit Christians, when minority religious institutions and organizations transform themselves into subordinate bureaucratic structures of the State. This paper also explores how the essentializing aspects of identity tend to suppress the social aspirations of individuals/social groups by transforming the imposed boundaries of identity, identity politics, and associated stereotypical perceptions into active sources of internal social conflict. The central arguments of this paper are primarily informed and guided by empirical field data collected from the coastal region of Andhra Pradesh, India.
Stories about witches are by their nature stories about the most basic and profound of human experiences—healing, sex, violence, tragedies, aging, death, and encountering the mystery and magic of the unknown. It is no surprise, then, that witches loom large in our cultural imaginations. In academia, studies of witches rarely emerge from scholars who are themselves witches and/or embedded in communities of witchcraft practitioners. The Witch Studies Reader brings together a diverse group of scholars, practitioners, and scholar-practitioners who examine witchcraft from a critical decolonial feminist perspective that decenters Europe and departs from exoticizing and pathologizing writing on witchcraft in the global South. The authors show how witches are keepers of suppressed knowledges, builders of new futures, exemplars of praxis, and theorists in their own right. Throughout, they account for the vastly different national, political-economic, and cultural contexts in which “the witch” is currently being claimed and repudiated. Offering a pathbreaking transnational feminist examination of witches and witchcraft that upends white supremacist, colonial, patriarchal knowledge regimes, this volume brings into being the interdisciplinary field of feminist witch studies.
Contributors. Maria Amir, Ruth Asiimwe, Bernadette Barton, Ethel Brooks, Shelina Brown, Ruth Charnock, Soma Chaudhuri, Carolyn Chernoff, Saira Chhibber, Simon Clay, Krystal Cleary, Adrianna L. Ernstberger, Tina Escaja, Laurie Essig, Marcelitte Failla, D Ferrett, Marion Goldman, Jaime Hartless, Margaretha Haughwout, Patricia Humura, Apoorvaa Joshi, Govind Kelkar, Oliver Kellhammer, Ayça Kurtoglu, Helen Macdonald, Isabel Machado, Brandy Renee McCann, Dev Nathan, Mary Jo Neitz, Amy Nichols-Belo, Allison (or AP) Pierce, Emma Quilty, Anna Rogel, Karen Schaller, Jacquelyn Marie Shannon, Shashank Shekhar Sinha, Gabriella V. Smith, Nathan Snaza, Shannon Hughes Spence, Eric Steinhart, Morena Tartari, Nicole Trigg, Katie Von Wald, Tushabe wa Tushabe, Jane Ward
Christianity is often considered prevalent when it comes to defining the key values of late antique society, whereas 'feeling connected to the Roman past' is commonly regarded as an add-on for cultivated elites. This book demonstrates the significant impact of popular Roman culture on the religious identity of common Christians from the fifth to the seventh century in the Mediterranean world. Baptism is central to the formation of Christian identity. The decoration of baptisteries reveals that traditional Roman culture persisted as an integral component of Christian identity in various communities. In their baptisteries, Christians visually and spatially evoked their links to Roman and, at times, even pagan traditions. A close examination of visual and material sources in North Africa, the Iberian Peninsula, and Italy shows that baptisteries served roles beyond mere conduits to Christian orthodoxy.
Religious celibate monks at the household level possibly reduce all-cause mortality risk among non-monk older Tibetans. This study aims to investigate the association between having a celibate monk in a family and the all-cause mortality of non-monk household members in a Tibetan population. Baseline interviews were conducted for 713 agropastoral Amdo Tibetans aged ≥50 years residing in the eastern Tibetan Plateau from 2016 to 2017. The Cox mixed-effects regression model was used to estimate the association between having a celibate monk in a household and the mortality risk of other non-monk household members. Potential confounders included age, sex, household size, educational attainment, household wealth (measured as the number of yaks), marital status, and annual expenditure. During a median follow-up of 7 years, 54 deaths were identified. The results showed that people living in households with celibate monks had a lower risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio: 0.31, 95% confidence interval: 0.14, 0.67) as compared with those living in households without celibate monks. The results remained robust after controlling for confounders, suggesting that religious celibate monks at the household level were associated with lower all-cause mortality among non-monk older household members.
In the last twenty-five years there have been so many ‘turns’ in how the ancient world is approached that you could be forgiven for wondering whether research has tended to simply spin on the spot rather than move forwards in any decisive or meaningful direction. Amongst other things, and in no particular order, the discipline of archaeology, for instance, has undergone spatial, embodied, digital, mobility, ecological, material, symmetrical, relational, ontological, sensory, posthuman and cognitive turns. The specific theoretical and methodological concepts that underpin these directions can vary considerably, but collectively they reflect a shared concern to foreground the complexities of different types of matter in interpretations of past worlds. Many, although not all, also share interests in combining those material complexities with perspectives on experiences of embodiment and/or forms of ‘being-in-the-world’. Within ancient religious studies, a re-orientation towards the sensory, embodied and experiential is well evidenced across recent scholarship, where it is accompanied by a significant paradigm shift away from top-down models of so-called ‘ polis ’ or ‘civic’ religion, which stress the organising principles and socio-political aspects of religion, towards a focus on ancient rituals as ‘lived’. Both trends have simultaneously stimulated the need to pay close and critical attention to the role of materials in generating ancient religion not as a set of shared beliefs or practices, but as a collection of dynamic and situational lived experiences emerging from ancient people's mutually constitutive relationships with the world.
This essay analyzes how young urban elites spiritualize their LGBTQI+ sexualities through the recent popularization of Tibetan Buddhism in Vietnam. New market conditions have commodified Tibetan Buddhism as an alternative to normative Mahayana practices. For the cohort in this study, a tension has emerged between the perceived inadequacies of state-run Vietnamese Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, the latter of which is experienced as individualizing, fast, elite, and wealth-attracting. The essay focuses on three interrelated case studies of lived religiosity: how a Vietnamese-run Tibetan Buddhist sangha has positioned itself as queer-friendly, how trans followers use Tibetan Buddhism to reconcile gender dysphoria, and how Đạo Mẫu is syncretically combined with Tibetan Buddhism. Drawing on fieldwork between 2018 and 2024, the essay explores the overlapping development of sexual and spiritual cosmopolitanism in late socialism.
This article proposes the concept of dissolution—in its threefold dimension as cessation, suffusion, and dissipation—as a heuristic analytical key for the study of (neo)Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity in Brazil. After introducing the main themes that will be developed in the discussion, the article presents ethnographic insights from the author’s long-term field research with quilombolas in the eastern Amazon (Maranhão). These are then discussed in relation to the notion of dissolution in the literature on evangelical Christianity. Finally, the article attempts some exploratory connections between the notion of dissolution, the New Right, and evangelical Christianity, pointing to the usefulness of this analytical concept for gaining insights into the interplay between religion and politics as it currently unfolds in Brazil.
This qualitative study examines how a group of Muslims in a conservative community in Lenasia, Johannesburg, engaged with Islam and gender-based violence (GBV). Drawing on the framework of lived religion and Saba Mahmood's conceptualization of agency and embodiment, the article highlights how the 13 interviewees actively negotiated their perceptions of and approach to GBV within their religious and cultural environment. First, the participants actively chose their religious authorities and illustrated how these authorities portrayed an Islam that is gender-just. Second, while largely opting to rather ignore than criticize probable patriarchal tones in their religion, participants freely expressed their critical views on patriarchy and GBV in relation to their culture. Through highlighting the agency and logic in the participants' engagement with GBV, the article underscores the importance of involving conservative religious communities in combating GBV in their own terms.
Este artigo consiste em um esforço circunscrito de sistematização dos debates a respeito da chamada religião material. Tal empreendimento se justifica por duas razões. A primeira diz respeito ao crescente interesse dos pesquisadores latino-americanos pelas relações entre religião e materialidade.. A segunda se refere ao fato de que paira sobre as reflexões feitas a partir da religião material duas desconfianças: a de que não há nada de novo em suas formulações, afinal, não é contemporânea as reflexões sobre objetos religiosos; e a de que a atenção demasiada às materialidade obliteraria a atenção às pessoas. Não se trata, portanto, de um texto que pretende esgotar e tampouco fazer uma revisão do campo ou descrever sua gênese. Na primeira parte deste artigo, que compreende as duas primeiras seções, explicito as justificativas teóricas, para os estudiosos do campo da religião material, que sustentam o argumento de que suas contribuições não podem ser reduzidas à mera atenção aos objetos religioso. Na sequência, ainda nesta primeira parte, recorro ao debate sobre representação para diferenciá-lo daquilo que está implicado na virada material, movimento teórico mais amplo no qual a religião material está também implicada. Na segunda parte do texto argumento que a atenção às materialidades religiosas passa, necessariamente, por uma retomada da atenção às pessoas, a partir de seus corpos e de suas experiências. Por fim, numa breve seção conclusiva, aponto para desdobramentos possíveis das formulações apresentadas neste artigo.
Three models of community organizing (CO) are commonly used as paradigms: the conventional Alinsky’s, faith-based community organizing (FBCO), and the women-centered model. However, few studies on CO that focus on integrating these three models as a comprehensive lens of analysis. The women-centered community organizing paradigm lacks religio-spiritual complexity, which hinders the acceptance of women empowerment’s message among religious communities. This study aims to propose a practical community-organizing model by synthesizing three different community-organizing models carried out by religious-based women non-governmental organizations. This study combines a systemic literature review method and a qualitative approach to study women-based CSOs. The finding indicates that integrating three community organizing (CO) models effectively empowers women.
A partir de un interés general por comprender los dispositivos de delimitación de lo religioso respecto a otras esferas sociales, el artículo indaga en el papel del campo judicial en la regulación de lo religioso en la Argentina. El autor considera que los límites entre lo religioso y lo no religioso no son evidentes sino producidos por la acción de varios dispositivos, entre ellos las sentencias judiciales a las que define como instancias de delimitación de lo religioso con alto grado de formalidad. Se analizan situaciones que fueron definidas sea como pertenecientes a la esfera económica, sea como inherentes a la esfera de lo religioso. Estas definiciones contrapuestas generaron tensiones y disputas que fueron resueltas desde la instancia judicial, la cual fue posicionada como actor definitivo en la gestión de lo religioso. Las sentencias analizadas hacen referencia a casos judicializados relativos a la delimitación de lo religioso y lo laboral y a la diferenciación entre prácticas religiosas y mercantiles. En las conclusiones, se indaga en cómo el concepto de comunidad opera como referencia de sentido en las sentencias judiciales.
The crosses and crucifixes that had gained a miraculous reputation did not exist in a spatial vacuum. The focus for this chapter is on the miraculous crosses and crucifixes’ cultic material environment that might be credited with agency of its own. Their cultic environment is understood as their material surroundings, including their placement inside the church, material traces of devotional touching found on the objects, as well as the rituals and actions they took part in. Yet, these aspects might not explain why or how an object gained a miraculous reputation in the first place, but will rather provide insight as to how the cult sustained and shed light on the continuous treatment and function of the sculptures once a cult had already been established.
Durante buena parte del S. XX el desarrollo se entendió como crecimiento económico, comercio, instituciones modernas, etc. La idea era que los países subdesarrollados debían seguir el sendero de la modernidad marcado por los países desarrollados. Frente a esta mirada economicista del desarrollo (y también colonialista), han surgido varias propuestas que hablan de un Desarrollo Humano Integral. La Iglesia Católica, a través de su Doctrina Social, ha insistido profusamente, por casi 60 años, en este tema. El desarrollo no puede ser meramente económico, sino que debe mirar la totalidad del ser humano. En relación con esto, las espiritualidades pueden ser un aporte a un Desarrollo Humano Integral que tenga en cuenta la liberación de la opresión, el bien común y la búsqueda de trascendencia.
Religion, Law, and COVID-19 in Europe investigates how the pandemic and the subsequent legal restrictions on collective activities influenced religious life in the region. The 19 in-depth country case studies combine legal and sociological analyses and reflect the plurality of religious and secular contexts. They detail how the pandemic curbed the collective aspects of religion and how the religious communities adapted, especially via innovations in online religion and new forms of religious leadership. The volume looks at how ordinary devotees’ religious behaviours changed during the pandemic and reveals shifts in religion–state interactions. In so doing, it shows how the pandemic challenged both religions and societies and how this was influenced by varying religious landscapes, political histories and legal cultures. More broadly, this volume makes three important contributions to the extant literature. First, it presents a novel analytical framing for making sense of how the COVID-19 pandemic affected religion. Second, it provides an empirical account of how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted religious groups across Europe. Third, it reveals the importance of sudden, large-scale events in understanding religious change in the modern world.
This article explores aspects of Latina culture and how it shapes dimensions of Latina religiosity. This issue is important, because as the authors argue more often Latinas are discussed as victims of their societies and less often as agents of social change. Latinas play central roles in their communities, particularly in the religious cultural sphere where their influence has shaped religious practice and beliefs. We argue that analyzing cultural beliefs and practices are necessary elements of understanding religiosity that have implications for measuring religiosity.
The author analyses certain forms of religion which can be characterized as “neo-magic-religion”. In the course of the shift towards post-industrial society magic has been updated and religion has been transformed. It is not a question of the “return” of magic but rather of a mutation of institutionalized religion largely in response to the scientific and technological revolution that has occurred within the context of globalization. New forms of religious belonging and of believing “in my own fashion” or “without the Church” are evidence of new types of syncretisms in which Christianity is combined with New Age and indigenous shamanism. Judging by its characteristics, the spirit of “neo-magic-religion” springs from an elective affinity with the ethos of science and post-industrial techniques. The concept of “neo-magic(s)” (in the singular or plural) should be considered as a sociological type based on empirical foundations and a large number of appearances.
Hybridity inflects Jewish and Christian identity in precisely the places where ‘‘purity’’ is most forcefully inscribed. In the formative texts of both traditions, heresy is pushed ‘‘outside’’ via its syncretistic representation, even as the other religion is brought ‘‘inside’’ through its close identification with heresy. Athanasius of Alexandria’s 4th-century construction of doctrinal orthodoxy in opposition to the ‘‘Judaizing’’ heresy of Arius here serves as a case study of the imperializing hybrid identity inscribed by Christian heresiology. Talmudic tales of contested martyrdom in turn offer examples of the Jewish representation of heresy as a problem of ‘‘Christianizing’’ practice that produces the Rabbi as a resistant hybrid subject. Bringing the discursive analysis of ancient texts into dialogue with present contexts, the authors acknowledge both the promise of a ‘‘Third Space’’ of hybridity opening onto inter-religious negotiation and the menace potentially conveyed by such hyphenated identities as the ‘‘Judeo-Christian’’.
Les icones sont les symboles de base de la communication et de l'expression de la foi chretienne dans la tradition orthodoxe. Elles jouent un role essentiel dans l'enseignement et dans les pratiques non-verbales de l'Eglise orthodoxe. Dans son etude des icones comme symboles religieux, l'A. adopte une methode semiologique et phenomenologique qui releve par la-meme l'importance methodologique de l'etude des icones pour les sciences humaines. L'article parcourt tout d'abord l'evolution des icones en les resituant dans leur contexte historique et theologique. Leur caractere religieux et artistique est explore ensuite et mis en relation avec la religion populaire grecque. Enfin, le rapport entre les icones, la question de la modernite et la modernisation de la societe grecque y est egalement traite
L'article montre que la fonction premiere des nouveaux mouvements religieux est d'introduire un changement et une restructuration de la societe en general. Il etudie de quelle maniere cette vocation est limitee dans les faits par la presence simultanee de facteurs qui constituent des obstacles aux changements voulus. Ces obstacles sont lies a la fois a l'environnement exterieur et au fonctionnement meme des nouveaux mouvements religieux
L'A. analyse la situation des religions au sein de la societe americaine qui tend a prendre un caractere volontariste. Il envisage la pratique religieuse individuelle dans ce pays. Il examine l'organisation des communautes religieuses. Il evoque les pratiques sociales organisees liees a la religion que l'on peut observer aux Etats-Unis
On a rainy July day at MacRae Meadows on North Carolina's Grandfather Mountain, a small crowd clusters tightly together under Donald MacDonald's Gàidhlig Céilidh tent, straining to hear a single, clear voice raised in a Gaelic lament. They have come to listen to the annual Mòd (a solo singing competition in the Gaelic language) at the Grandfather Mountain Scottish Highland Games, a four-day event that MacDonald cofounded in 1956. A native of South Carolina, MacDonald married a Gaelic speaker from the Hebridean island of Lewis. His nephew Jamie traveled to the island of North Uist to learn Gaelic and has sung competitively at Mòds in Scotland. Together they began the Mòd at Grandfather in 1997 in response to Scottish Americans' growing interest in the language of their ancestors and to encourage further transnational interest in what they consider "the mother tongue."1 The céilidh tent (pronounced "kay-lee," a céilidh is a get-together or party) is also the venue for the MacDonalds' popular Gaelic lessons. Those who do not already "have the Gaelic" can pick up a few token phrases such as Ciamar a tha sibh? (How are you?); Tha I blath ah diugh, nach eil? (It's warm today, isn't it?); and An toir thu pog dhomh? (Will you give me a kiss?). Interspersed with the linguistic tutorials are "Gaelic sing-alongs" through which participants learn already familiar songs of the Scottish clans such as "The Campbells Are Comin'" or "Morag of Dunvegan" in "the language of the homeland." Over the constant skirl of the bagpipes and the sounds of the nearby harp and fiddle competitions, Donald MacDonald invites newcomers to his tent, explaining "'Thigibh!' . . . it's pronounced like 'heek-ivv' and it means 'Y'all come!'" Many of the Mòd competitors come not from the Scots-Irishsettled Blue Ridge Mountains where the games take place but from the sandhills of the Carolina Piedmont where tens of thousands of Gaelic-speaking Scottish Highlanders began arriving in the 1730s. In North Carolina's Cape Fear Valley, where more Scots settled during the colonial period than in any other state, Scottish Americans still attend Presbyterian churches founded by their ancestors in the mid-eighteenth century, farm land purchased by the same ancestors, and may trace their genealogies back to colonial times with few exceptions to Scottish and Scots-Irish names in their family trees. While a few older residents of the valley could recall bits of the Twenty-third Psalm in Gaelic in the early 1990s, the language had last served a public role in sporadic Gaelic church sermons around World War I and faded from general use about the time of the Civil War ( J. MacDonald 1993, 134). Many contemporary Gaelic-learners seek a stronger sense of ethnic identity through linguistic heritage, embracing the Scottish and Irish popular and scholarly critique of hyphenated "Celtic-Americans" by declaring, "You are not a Celt unless you speak a Celtic language!" Other Americans connect with a Scottish ethnic identity through religious heritage, heritage tourism to clan lands in Scotland, ethnic dress, and genealogical research. When I began fieldwork with Scottish Americans in the Cape Fear Valley and across the South over a decade ago, I found southerners taking a regional approach to ethnic identity and in their interpretation of Scottish heritage. In the American South, hyphenated Scots celebrate, reclaim, or construct their ethnic identities through the lens of southern heritage. In this chapter I consider the historic and contemporary blending of two regional identities, a Highland Scottish identity that evolved as a national identity for Scotland and a southern regional identity drawn from myths of the Old South. As perceptions of a Scottish identity in the American South are almost three centuries in the making, I consider the historical interweaving of mythic visions of what it means to be Scottish and what it means to be southern. Exploring the gendered dimensions of regional identities, I examine the ways in which public heritage celebrations reveal the selective processes involved in producing identity. This case study considers the celebration of an ethnic identity not only as an aspect of southern regionalism but also as one that celebrants consider formative of the southern region.
In late-twentieth-century America, there is a surprisingly large and varied number of pilgrimage centers. This article organizes them into three groups (pilgrimages of organized religion, civil religion, and cultural religion) for comparative description. It includes descriptions of Catholic, Mormon, and Hindu pilgrimages, as well as the sites of Gettysburg, Mount Rushmore, and Graceland as pilgrimage centers. Modernity, rather than displacing pilgrimages, has actually been responsible for globalizing them, a process that involves their appropriation by expert systems, the fostering of diverse and sometimes contending interpretations of their significance, and the actual production of new pilgrimage landscapes. Drawing upon original fieldwork, published research, and resources on the World Wide Web, the author proposes that by placing pilgrimages in global perspective, we are better able to discern both the roles played by immigrant groups in the formation of American pilgrimage landscapes and the contours of American participation in pilgrimages abroad, such as the hajj to Mecca.
Using three different samples, self reports of sexual and mystical experiences, and forced choice utilization of agentive and receptive words to describe both mystical and erotic experiences, this research offers at least partial support for predicted gender differences in descriptions of erotic and mystical experiences. As predicted, females used receptive language to describe both erotic and mystical experiences. While males, as predicted, used agentive language to describe erotic experiences, they did not use agentive language to describe mystical experiences. The failure of males to use agentive language for mystical experiences is discussed in terms of the historically documented difficulty of males to experience union, agentively expressed, with a masculine conceptualized god image.
Recent work calls attention to religious globalization -- the proliferation of transnational religious structures and movements that challenge the nation state. But contemporary migration prompts a different type of religious transnationalism that has not been sufficiently explored. Sustained connections between communities of origin and destination give rise to a set of transnationalized institutional relationships, discourses, and practices that globalize everyday religious life at the local level. This articles aims to contribute to a more systematic understanding of local-level religious globalization by exploring the case of Catholic church ties spanning Boston and the Dominican Republic. It also stresses the importance of taking into account sustained homeland attachments in understanding everyday immigrant religious life. Strong ties between migrants and nonmigrants created a transnational religious sphere within which people, resources, and social remittances were constantly exchanged. Religious life in Boston and the Dominican Republic were reciprocally transformed as a result. Subsequent emigres continue to infuse fresh "Dominicanness" into the Boston church, though it is a "Dominicanness" that is increasingly pan-Latino in tone. In this way, transnational ties reinforce religious pluralism at the same time that they limit its scope.
This article offers a sociohistorical description of the evolution of Marian devotion after the sixteenth-century rift in Christianity that generated today's Catholicism and Protestantism. The analysis departs from the premise that there were two reformations, each responding to separate socioeconomic conditions. In order to analyze the evolution of Marian devotion, I utilize what I call "material theology" in order to measure the mediation of formal theology and popular religion. I show that the printed prayers, books, pictures, statues, and medals produced to accompany Marian devotion also projected specific notions that corresponded to the Ibero-Mediterranean polity of the sixteenth through the first half of the eighteenth century. Utilizing the notion of a "baroque mentalité" the ethos of the age is explored for examples of how theology and popular culture intersected. I emphasize that Marian devotion brought universalism to Catholicism, which contrasts with the Eurocentrism of Protestantism at the time. The use of Mary as a symbol of universal Catholic belief was matched with an emphasis upon her appearance and/or miracles in specific locations, especially those in the colonies at the outer reaches of the Ibero-Mediterranean polity. Although this baroque mentalité was superseded by other trends within Catholicism toward the nineteenth century, I conclude that new terminology less dependent on concepts derived from Weber and Durkheim may be required to understand Catholicism of this period and the Marian devotion which animated it.
Recent research on Hispanic Pentecostal congregations in Newark (NJ) brought to my attention how both realities and notions of "religion" are constructed under imperial duress (adopting and/or resisting racial, ethnic, class, gender, cultural, political, economic and religious biases deeply tied to imperial relations). In this essay, I try to stimulate reflection on how notions of "religion" in the U.S. are linked to U.S. imperial policies (including specific religious policies) developed over the last century toward, among others, our southern neighbors. Further, I suggest that those very imperial policies contribute to a deep disruption of life (religious and otherwise) in Latin America and the Caribbean. This dislocation is now impacting the U.S. with massive demographic, political and economic changes, as well as with major transformations in the ways in which religion is reconstructed, lived out, and understood by recent immigrants, as it happens in Latina/o Pentecostal congregations. After underscoring new forms of religious resistance to empire in these congregations, I close by proposing some ways of seeing "religion" that both critically acknowledge and responsibly attempt to overcome the ways in which certain understandings of "religion" have hitherto expressed and reinforced imperial views, relations and policies toward the least among us.
This research analyzes the effects of ritual healing on women who have been victims of abuse, including incest, rape, and
battering. The study was conducted through participant observation of a women's spirituality group. The focus of the analysis
is on the process of empowerment as it is experienced in a ritual context that provides a means for cathartic expression as
well as participant identification with female symbols of power. The findings of this study suggest that women-centered rituals
are effective in reducing fear, releasing anger, increasing one's sense of power, and improving the overall mental health
of those who have experienced the trauma of victimization.
The sociology of religion has, by and large, treated religious experiences as personal, having in themselves little social
relevance. To this line of thought, experiences become social only when they are so defined by beliefs and/or institutions.
This article outlines a sociology of religious experience that erodes the experience-is-private/belief-is-social dichotomy.
It is based on the work of Alfred Schutz, who argues, in brief, that there are several kinds of sociality, of which sharing
ideas and sharing institutions are only two. Sharing ideas and institutions do indeed distance one from experience, as the
standard paradigm suggests. But in certain “life-worlds” experiences themselves may be social, not private. There, social
actors share “inner time”: a vivid present in which they “tune-in” to one another. The world of musical performance, to use
Schutz's example, involves a polythetic sharing of consciousness that unites composers, musicians, and audiences across the
generations. Religious experience, I argue, parallels making music: it is, in its nature, a social act. The second half of
this paper applies this perspective to traditional Navajo religion. It shows how Navajo “chants” reorient their participants'
inner time to create the experience of the harmony between self, society, and world that lies at the core of Navajo philosophy.
‘Popular religion’ has of late been a much-discussed subject among historians of early modern Europe. Most of the best work has been on France, by French and North American scholars, while for Germany the subject is virtually ignored. Oddly enough, serious scholarship on ‘popular’ or ‘folk’ religion began in Germany at the opening of this century, and by the 1920s a major new field of historical enquiry had been established under the banner of religiöse Volkskunde. However, historians left the study of German popular religion to folklorists, a tendency perhaps reinforced by the rather dubious reputation the discipline of Volkskunde acquired under the Nazi regime. Both before and after 1945, folklore scholars have contributed numerous important studies of popular religion in early modern Germany, but historians have been reluctant to follow in their footsteps. Some of this reluctance may be explained by the absence of precise definition as to what is meant by ‘popular religion’. It is often defined through the use of polar opposites, in terms such as ‘official’ and ‘popular’ religion. The former is institutional religion, the latter that which deviates from institutional norms. Another definition invokes an opposition between theory and practice.
The sociology of religion claims to possess a cross-culturally valid objectivity that is belied by its paradigm shifts in both classical and recent times. Its sequential emphasis on such issues as the changing bases of religious authority, secularization and rational choice depends in large part on Western models of religion, of the relationship between the individual and society, and on key Western values. These are not shared by other traditions. Classical Confucianism provides sociological models, core concepts and values that are distinctly different from those of the West. It has the potential to generate a sociology of religion altogether unlike the one to which we are accustomed. This article begins the task of outlining such a potential sociology.
Religion has re-emerged on the worldwide political arena. This should not be written off as a temporary reaction against a necessary process of modernization. An advanced industrial society does not require religion to be separated from politics. The borderline between religion and politics is fluid and constantly contested. Even absolutist regimes in modern societies have sought legitimacy through religion. Today, religion mainly re-emerges voicing a moral protest against political elites who are seen as corrupt and immoral. Such a protest may refer to ethical standards from the past. However, a religious protest does not necessarily try to re-establish the old social structures. The functional logic of secularization can be regarded as an ideology which supports a specific power structure, and which tries to insulate a political elite from a moral critique.
The article posits that central to contemporary notions of religion and religions has been the gradual development of a differentiated global social system for religion that manifests itself in a plurality of mutually distinguished religions. What counts as religion within this globalizing system and the globalized cultural model for what constitutes a religion are both the product of a highly selective historical process. The presentation of the hypothesis has three parts: a look at the historical development of a particular notion of religion and religions in the context of modern Western Christianity, an analysis of religion that adapts concepts from Luhmannian systems theory to argue that systemic religion uses binary codings as strategies for closure or recursiveness, and an examination of how other religions around the world have formed or not formed according to the systemic and cultural model of what a religion looks like. Throughout all the sections, the concern is not only with the existence of this religious system and its structure, but also with its fragility. The article concludes with implications of the hypothesis for research.
English
The author deals with the following thesis: salvation goods are governed not only by the exchange economy, but also by the gift economy. They have less to do with the logic of social action aimed at profitable returns and more to do with the non-utilitarian aspects of behaviour. The salvation goods have features that cast serious doubts on the hypothesis that they are basically governed by market forces. On the basis of these considerations, the author attempts to verify whether a sociological approach to liturgy of a charismatic performance might be able to discover how salvation gift or goods work. Two case studies have been selected: the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the Catholic Neo-Pentecostal movement.
French
L'auteur avance l'hypothèse suivante: les biens reliés au salut ne sont pas régis uniquement par l'économie de l'échange mais également par l'économie du don. Ils ont moins à voir avec la logique de l'action sociale axée sur la rentabilité et plus à voir avec les aspects non utilitaires du comportement. Les biens reliés au salut possèdent des caractéristiques qui jettent des doutes sur l'hypothèse voulant qu'ils soient fondamentalement régis par les forces du marché. A partir de cette argumentation, l'auteur tente de voir si une analyse sociologique de la liturgie d'une cérémonie charismatique permet de découvrir le fonctionnement du don du salut ou des biens reliés au salut. Il a choisi deux études de cas: l'église universelle du royaume de Dieu et le Mouvement catholique néopentecô'tiste.
The author argues that syncretic or hybrid cultural and religious forms should be understood in terms of the ‘‘purities’’ that they supposedly combine. Constructing and maintaining pure forms is one side of an ongoing and contingent historical process of which syncretization is the other. Pure forms are but previous and legitimated syncretizations and purity is an argument which seeks to protect its self-evidence and thereby disguise the contingency of important social forms such as cultures and religions. The proposed analysis of syncretizations and hybridizations is done in terms of three dimensions: identity, history, and power. They are particularly important in the context of globalization because identity and power are closely related and because the institutionalized reflexivity of modernity allows everything to be seen as contingent construction. The main points are illustrated with reference to religious formation processes in Islam and Buddhism.
This article explores the ways in which the widely perceived “need for healing” at individual and global level have given rise to a range of new professions within the spiritual marketplace. It examines attitudes to money, the provision of training and the growth of credentialism in this sector of the spiritual service industry, where both clients and practitioners regard healing as important elements in their spiritual quest.
Now nearly 90 years old, Latin American Pentecostalism has become a mass phenomenon. Academic interest in religion, previously focused on progressive Catholicism, has turned to the Pentecostals. Pentecostalism has become a new form of popular religiosity and has an uneasy relationship with parts of academia, which is reflected in academic work. After presenting its main characteristics, the author surveys some key controversies: the extent of foreign influence; explanations for growth; the contrasting fortunes of Pentecostal churches and base communities; the role of the media; implications for women and for indigenous peoples; economic effects; and the aptness of characterizing Latin American Pentecostalism as “Protestant”. He reminds readers of the importance of including Brazil in research because of its richness in autochthonous processes which may emerge later in other parts of the region.
In recent years the religious scene in Sub-Saharan Africa has changed enormously. Everywhere new (charismatic) churches are proliferating, and at the expense of other strands of Christianity. It is possible to see this as generational change; the .rst generation being the mission churches, the second, the African Independent (or Instituted) Churches which peaked about the 1960s, and the third, these charismatic churches. The author examines the nature of this new Christianity, in all its diversity. He argues that its main characteristics are an emphasis on success or wealth, and the persistence of the “enchanted” imagination which sees spiritual forces at work everywhere. He claims that the emergence of this Christianity cannot be divorced from the economic plight of Africa and its political marginalization.
Pour comprendre le lien entre religion et sante, il convient de depasser le theme de la regulation du corps. Bien que la religion implique la regulation et le controle du corps et bien que les pratiques de guerison refletent ces fonctions, les relations entre le corps humain et la religion s'operent encore de bien d'autres manieres. Nous parviendrons a une comprehension plus riche de ce lien en recourant a une approche sociologique large du corps humain, de ses maladies et de sa guerison en posant cette vaste question : comment la religion est-elle impliquee dans ces processus complexes ? Plus encore, l'A. pretend que pour comprendre la nature de la guerison, nous devons considerer non seulement le corps physique, mais encore les relations entre ce dernier, l'esprit, le moi et la societe. Des raisons theoriques et empiriques militent en faveur de cette conceptualisation unitaire. Lors de ses observations touchant des pratiques de guerison non medicales, dans le cadre d'un faubourg residentiel d'une cite americaine, par exemple, l'A. a decouvert que pour les partisans de differentes pratiques de guerison, le but attribue a cette derniere etait la transformation du moi, voire dans certains cas sa transcendance (McGuire, 1988). Notre discipline dit non seulement considerer que l'esprit, le corps et la societe sont relies, mais encore les reconceptualiser en tenant compte de leur profonde interpenetration, c'est-a-dire les saisir comme s'ils formaient un phenomene quasi unitaire (McGuire, 1990)
One theme of particular importance in contemporary U.S. religion and quasi-religion is health and healing. Groups as diverse as Pentecostal Christians and New Age groups, women's spirituality groups and New Thought churches are promoting non-medical approaches to health and healing. Indeed, to many contemporary Americans, health and healing appear to be salient metaphors for salvation and holiness. Religious and quasi-religious attention to health is adamantly holistic in the belief that spiritual, emotional, social, and physical aspects of well-being are fundamentally interconnected. To understand the significance of this widespread focus on health and healing, we need to look beyond the religious groups themselves and appreciate some twentieth-century structural and cultural changes in the meanings of the body, the self, and the nature of well-being.
It is hardly novel to suggest that scientific theories can be shaped by prevailing cultural values. Writing in 1862, just three years after the publication of Origin of species, Marx noted how remarkable it was that "Darwin recognizes among beasts and plants his English society with its division of labor, competition, opening up of new markets [and] inventions" (cited in Schmidt 1971:46). Engels was even blunter, saying that "the whole Darwinist teaching of the struggle for existence is simply a transference from society to living nature . . . of the bourgeois-economic doctrine of competition" (cited in Schmidt 1971:47). Any number of subsequent commentators have made similar remarks about other theories in both the natural and the social sciences. Yet despite this long-standing recognition of the cultural underpinnings of scientific thought, it has been the distinctive contribution of modern feminist theorists to demonstrate that scientific theories are often permeated by specifically Earocentric and androcentric biases that were missed entirely by earlier commentators. "Eurocentric bias" initially meant biases that seemed characteristic of middle-class European intellectuals but its meaning has since been expanded to include biases associated with the white middle class in any Western industrial society, including the United States. "Androcentric bias" refers tO emphases or conceptualizations that derive from a distinctively male experience in society or that work to reinforce patriarchal arrangements. In this article I will be drawing upon feminist discussions of Eurocentric and
Cet article examine le mouvement americain Wicca, religion neo-paienne et attachee a la sorcellerie. L'A. presente ce mouvement comme une religion non patriarcale en raison de sa cosmologie centree sur une deesse. La description d'un rituel, les femmes a cornes lors de la Fete du Dragon, conduit l'A. a souligner la place accordee a la sexualite dans ce mouvement, le defi lance au patriarcat ainsi que son caractere queer
Les AA. analysent la relation entre alimentation et spiritualite parce que ces deux elements sont tres lies dans les societes africaines, notamment dans les communautes afro-americaines. Il est possible que la tradition americaine de l'Eglise-aliment soit une remise en acte ou une redirection des fetes de la tradition religieuse africaine. Les membres de l'Eglise afro-americaine alimentent leurs corps comme ils alimentent leurs esprits. Dans ce processus, une ethique de l'amour et de l'hospitalite emerge notamment dans le partage de la nourriture. Au moment des repas, la communaute est ainsi rappelee jusque dans ses origines africaines
The dominant historiographical trend in Puritan studies, started by Patrick Collinson, stresses the conservative nature of Puritanism. It notes Puritanism's strong opposition to the separatist impulses of some of the godly and the ways in which it was successfully integrated into the Church of England until the innovations of Charles I and Archbishop Laud. Far from being revolutionary, Puritanism was able to contain the disruptive energies of the Reformation within a national church structure. This picture dovetails nicely with the revisionist portrayal of an early seventeenth-century “Unrevolutionary England,” but it sits uneasily with the fratricidal cacophony of 1640s Puritanism.
The picture also sits uneasily with the Antinomian Controversy, the greatest internal dispute of pre-civil wars Puritanism. That controversy shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Accusations of false doctrine flew back and forth, the government went into tumult, and by the time the crisis had subsided, leading colonists had voluntarily departed or had been banished. In terms of its cultural impact in England, it was probably the single most important event in seventeenth-century American colonial history; publications generated by the controversy were reprinted in England into the nineteenth century.
The Antinomian Controversy, evoking civil wars cacophony but occurring in the previous decade, offers a bridge across the current interpretive chasm between civil wars and pre-civil wars Puritanism. The crisis has generated a wide range of scholarly interpretations, but there is broad agreement that the Boston church, storm center of the crisis, was the source of its disruption.
The objective of this paper is to describe and explain the historical origin of the native Pentecostal Luz del Mundo Church as a typical religious movement which emerged during times of social and political conflicts, but unlike most radical and counter-ideological social movements, this church has been able to develop and transform itself into a long-term religious project. Taking elements from Mexican culture and even from the dominant Catholic culture, it has created a syncretic religion that is attractive to a significant spectrum of people within the country and among Latin people beyond Mexican frontiers. It has evolved into an authoritarian church which functions around two powerful charismatic figures, able to inspire the construction of strong new identities in the believers. The Church has developed a coherent system of hierarchy in order to sustain its authority and control over the membership. The religious movement has maintained to present times its original holistic project which provides people with spiritual as well as material needs. Within a dominant Catholic culture where protestant churches have a low status, La Luz del Mundo has managed to create a strategic alliance with the Mexican state in order to counteract the Catholic influence, and its friendly relation with government has given acknowledgement and legitimation to this particular pentecostal church.
There are a growing number of attempts to reconsider the nature and role of contemporary religion with reference to the issues of ‘postmodernity’ and ‘postmodernism’. Against these, it is suggested here that efforts to reconstruct the study of religion within the framework of an assumption that we are entering a postmodern social order would be fundamentally misconceived. While the emergence of features within the present social order are acknowledged, which undermine major components of the modern project, and are manifest as problematizations of the questions of reality and meaning which concern the postmodernists, it is not accepted here that this order itself is in a state of decay. Instead, that postmodernity is a fundamentally modern construct is argued, how the very idea of postmodernity becomes possible is explored, suggesting that it is, in part, the product of a process of ‘disembodiment’ which has gradually come to dominate Western cultures since the time of the Protestant Reformation. Postmodernism is characterized by a mentalism which ignores the anthropological in reality of what we term the religious body; the necessary implication of embodiment in the human construction of meaning and identity. It is proposed therefore, that the study of contemporary religion should be shaped not by postmodernism but by an awareness of both the reality‐threatening impulses of reflexive modernity and the continuing anthropological reality of the religious body.
During the experimental induction of changed states of consciousness in student volunteers, the physical changes and experiential reports were somewhat comparable to those observed also in religious ritual, especially in Pentecostal services. There were a number of inconsistencies, however. I hypothesized that these might have arisen due to neglecting posture as a component. Subsequently, I conducted five series of experiments using postures from religious rituals from the ethnographic literature, as well as some neutral postures as controls. With the ritual postures, there was a striking agreement between the ethnographic data and the self-reports of experimental subjects. The method seems suited for investigating the religious altered state of consciousness without recourse to religious dogma.
This article examines the experiences of pilgrims walking to the shrine of St James in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. It argues that walking is a social practice operating at the nexus between body and self. Pilgrims do not generally regard walking as a spiritual practice at the journey's outset. They do, however, develop a deep awareness of the multiple effects of walking as they progress along the route. Pilgrims report a variety of techniques in relation to their walking including using rhythm, `being' in the moment and narrating. Various social borders also establish a space for self-reflection that is both individualistic as well as marked by wider social meanings. Walking is thus simultaneously a bodily, social and spiritual practice.
The ritual at Saint Patrick's Purgatory offers insights into two aspects of medieval Christian pilgrimage which warrant further attention in pilgrimage scholarship: gender and power relations. My examination of texts related to the pilgrimage site reveals the institution of exclusive and arduous rituals in the 12th century which excluded all but a select group of men.The discovery of an exclusive male pilgrimage site raises the question of whether or not pilgrimage centers reflected and reinforced social strata rather than minimized them as Victor Turner suggests. An inquiry into the power strategies at work behind the ritualization of Saint Patrick's Purgatory reveals the stake the Cistercian order had in simultaneously popularizing and carefully restricting access to the center.
Over the past 20 yr, researchers have attributed the apparent underutilization of institutional health and mental health services by Hispanics to barriers to service and cultural factors preventing service utilization. Current research in the Puerto Rican community of Hartford, coupled with a review of national statistics during the 1970s and early 1980s reveals an increasingly heavy utilization of institutional health and mental health services. Variation in utilization of both curative and preventive health care services in this population is attributed to the strength and proximity of kin and fictive kin networks. Overall increases in utilization rates are closely related to the declining socioeconomic status of the Puerto Rican community.-from Authors
It seems that the revitalization of traditional rituals has been an effective way of developing a new embodiment and identity. The ability of the Canadian Mi'kmaq Indians to rework the cultural body, historically imposed on them by the dominant society, opens the way to weeding out destructive patterns unconsciously or consciously embedded historically in their bodies. The ritual opens up opportunities to explore new habitus and to employ the body in a domain shared with like-minded peers so as to facilitate new ways of approaching the world. The rituals thus provide redemptive opportunities for bodies that have been disempowered by hegemonic contexts, and simultaneously offer social affirmation of the new way of being in the world.
This article applies Susan Blackmore's model of brain self-modeling to explain how people experience altered states of consciousness in meditative religions. Against the experience vs. over-belief model put forth by William James and Wayne Proudfoot, Blackmore's model provides a theoretical base for a social role in the formation of meditative experience itself, not just in its interpretation. Learning to meditate involves learning to attend to certain bodily and feeling states, which involves learning to construct a brain model that produces a different experience of the self. This is not just a matter of socially learned labeling, but of learning to generate authentic psycho-physical experience. Examples are drawn from the author's study of Quakers and practitioners of the Gurdjieff Work.
During the late nineteenth century, James Walker Hood was bishop of the North Carolina Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and grand master of the North Carolina Grand Lodge of Prince Hall Masons. In his forty-four years as bishop, half of that time as senior bishop of the denomination, Reverend Hood was instrumental in planting and nurturing his denomination's churches throughout the Carolinas and Virginia. Founder of North Carolina's denominational newspaper and college, author of five books including two histories of the AMEZ Church, appointed assistant superintendent of public instruction and magistrate in his adopted state, Hood's career represented the broad mainstream of black denominational leaders who came to the South from the North during and after the Civil War. Concurrently, Grand Master Hood superintended the southern jurisdiction of the Prince Hall Masonic Grand Lodge of New York and acted as a moving force behind the creation of the region's black Masonic lodges—often founding these secret male societies in the same places as his fledgling churches. At his death in 1918, the Masonic Quarterly Review hailed Hood as “one of the strong pillars of our foundation.” If Bishop Hood's life was indeed, according to his recent biographer, “a prism through which to understand black denominational leadership in the South during the period 1860–1920,” then what does his leadership of both the Prince Hall Lodge and the AMEZ Church tell us about the nexus of fraternal lodges and African American Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century?
Modern nations are products of nationalism, and can be defined only as such, rather than by their own distinctive traits - which anyway vary over an extremely wide range. Nationalism was, sociologically, an attempt made by the modern elites to recapture the allegiance (in the form of cultural hegemony) of the ‘masses’ produced by the early modern transformations and particularly by the cultural rupture between the elites and the rest of the population by the ‘civilizing process’, whose substance was the self-constitution and the self-separation of new elites legitimizing their status by reference to superior culture and knowledge. In the same way in which the modern state needed nationalism for the ‘primitive accumulation’ of authority, nationalism needed coercive powers of the state to promote the postulated dissolution of communal identities in the uniform identity of the nation. In the practice of both, there was an unallayed tension between the ‘inclusivist’ and ‘exclusivists’ prongs of the nation-state project; hence the never fully effaced link between nationalism and racism, nationalism being the racism of the intellectuals, and racism - the nationalism of the masses. Currently our part of the world undergoes the process of the separation between state and nation, effected by lesser reliance of state power on culturalist legitimation and a degree of de-territorialization of communal affiliations, which fills the efforts of nation-building, invention of heritage, tribal integration etc. with a new urgency and may lead to the sharpening of either of the two prongs of the nationalist project.