ABSTRACTS
The Oppositional Impact of Feminism and
Religious Fundamentalism:
Gendered Variations in Ideological Processes
on US National Identity
Carrie L. Alexandrowicz, Brown
University, carrie_alexandrowicz@brown.edu
The coexistence of religion and government in the US has
historically informed both social institutional development as well as
individual ethics and citizenship. More recently, religious fundamentalism in
particular has functioned as both a social movement and a political entity by
defending traditional family values and emphasizing moral certainty. For these
reasons, research on personal ideology has often linked fundamentalism to
nationalistic self-identity. This paper not only considers the divergent
effects of religious fundamentalism on nationalism, it also introduces a
seemingly competing ideology into the analysis: feminism. Using data from the
1996 General Social Survey, I examine how fundamentalism and femin-ism
differentially affect nationalism by gender. Preliminary results indicate that
the influence of these ideologies not only differs substantially for men and
women, but they also may not be as oppositional as previously theorized.
The Mobilization of “Anti Anti-Cult
Movements”: A Turning Point in the
French Cult Controversy?
Véronique Altglas, University of
Warwick, v.altglas@warwick.ac.uk
This paper is based on data very
recently collected in France. It will concentrate on an organization called CAP pour la Liberté de Conscience (Coordination
of Associations and Peo-ple for Freedom of Conscience), which took legal action
last September against the main anti-cult organization in France, the UNADFI
(National Union of Associations for the Protection of the Family and the
Individual). Although the UNADFI is a state-funded charity and official partner
of the French Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and Combat against
Sectarian Deviations (MIVILUDES), the CAP demanded UNADFI’s dissolution on the
assumption that their practices infringed religious liberty. Not only did the
CAP lose its case, but it was also found guilty of abusive procedure by the
Tribunal of Paris. Nevertheless, this is the first time that individuals
involved in religious movements and alternative therapies in France have struck
back and accepted social visibility. This empirical case will shed light on the
current dynamic of the cult controversy in France and its possible future. More
broadly, it contributes to an understanding of the management of religious
diversity in France.
Evangelical Alternative Science: Parallels
between Intelligent Design
Theory and the National Association for
Research and Therapy of
Homosexuality
Antony Alumkal, Iliff School of
Theology, aalumkal@iliff.edu
When mainstream science has conflicted with evangelical
doctrine, evangelicals have often responded not by renouncing science but by
creating alternative scientific paradigms. This paper discusses two scientific
movements started in the late twentieth century that are popular with American
evangelical leaders—Intelligent Design Theory (IDT), which advances a critique
of Darwinism, and the National Association for Research and Therapy of
Homosexu-ality (NARTH), which differs from mainstream psychiatric guilds by
arguing that homosexu-ality is a treatable illness. I note that both movements:
(1) include non-evangelical Christians (Catholics is particular) in leadership
and attempt to persuade non-Christians; (2) accuse their opponents of
propagating politics and/or philosophy disguised as science; (3) downplay their
own religious bases; and (4) claim to be defending the moral foundations of
society. I discuss what these movements reveal about the current state of
American evangelicalism.
The Religious Mainline as a
Non-Historiographic Touchpoint
Yakov Ariel, University of North Carolina,
yariel@email.unc.edu
In the last decade, the historiography of religion in
America has abandoned its traditional touchpoint and adopted a new narrative in
which Protestantism is presented as merely one component of the American
religious story. While awareness of the broader pic-ture as well as an
inclusive attitude is admirable, this historiographic shift has been too
radical. Historians have replaced a narrow narrative with an extremely broad
one, giving up on a “touchpoint” altogether. The result is often a lack of
sound historical perspective. I argue that while we should pay much attention
to the place of other religious communities in American society and culture,
ultimately one cannot tell the story of religion in America without pointing to
the centrality of Protestant groups and modes of thinking in shaping American
institutions and values.
Religious Beliefs and Illness Behavior of
Africans in the 21st Century
Augustine A. Aryee, Fitchburg State
College, aaryee@fsc.edu
The
study of people’s patterns of behavior is generally tied to the study of
systems of belief. This paper will examine some aspects of the philosophical
and religious beliefs that permeate every facet of the African’s pattern of
behavior and which affect his views of illness and health. Accra, Ghana, was
the focus of this research. A subsample of 1017 informants provided data on the
mixed use of new and old medical systems. Religion is intricately tied to
African medicine. African health depends on physical, spiritual, and social
wellbeing. Natural and supernatural elements are inextricably interwoven.
Health is not seen merely as a biological matter, but one bonding the human
body and the soul in total harmony. What governs health and illness is not germ
theory as in the Western world. Tensions and aggres-sions found in social
relations cause troubles. So, too, supernatural forces can bring evil to human
beings. Good health can be preserved only by the observance of social norms and
taboos, the maintenance of a harmonious relationships with the members of the
supernatural world, and the resolution of interpersonal and group strains and
tensions.
Denominational Variations in Spiritual Capital
among American Youth,
1976-2006: Identifying Trends from Monitoring
the Future
John P. Bartkowski, Xiaohe Xu, and
Kristi McLeod, Mississippi State University,
bartkowski@soc.msstate.edu
This
study extends the burgeoning body of scholarship on youth religiosity by
analyzing evidence from several decades of Monitoring the Future (MTF). Using trend
data from MTF, we explore denominational variations in spiritual capital among
American high school seniors from the 1970s to the present. Spiritual capital
is defined as (1) exposure to and internalization of religious norms, (2)
integration within religious networks, and (3) expressions of religious trust.
We find that stocks of spiritual capital among American teens are generally
robust but subject to distinctive temporal variations across denominational
families. We pinpoint those denominations that have successfully sustained the
trans-mission of faith to the next generation during the past four decades—and
those that have failed to do so.
Religious Freedom in Contrast: A Comparative
Analysis of Canada and
the United States
Lori G. Beaman, University of Ottawa,
beaman@alcor.concordia.ca
This paper includes a comparison of
key Supreme Court cases from the United States and Canada on the issue of
religious freedom. Recent Canadian cases indicate that the Supreme Court of
Canada is moving toward greater latitude in interpreting the religious freedom
guarantee contained in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In
contrast, the situation in the United States is less promising. Both countries,
however, still work within a predominantly Christian framework. Moreover, the
Supreme Court of Canada has imported several problematic concepts from United
States jurisprudence, including the notion of sincerely held belief.
Early Dissertations in American Sociology of
Religion
Anthony J. Blasi, Tennessee State
University, blasi3610@cs.com
Taking a reference-work approach,
this paper describes American dissertations in the sociological study of
religion that were written before 1930. The earliest (Pelton, NYU 1895) is
homiletic in nature. The others better resemble the sociology of our day, but
they reveal no conceptual development for the subdiscipline. Rather, they
reflect typical studies found in general sociology in the US at the time: a
history of local charities sponsored by a denomination (Appleton, Columbia
1906), an evaluation of ministries in an inner-city setting (Young, Penn 1912),
a handbook for conducting community studies (Carroll, Denver 1914), religious
demography (Bossard, Penn 1918), a history of a social institution (Jansen,
Chicago 1920) and of a reform impulse (Barnhart, Chicago 1924), studies of a
cultural contact (Price, Chicago 1924), ethnic settlement (Janzen, Chicago
1926), and a category of organizations (Daniel, Chicago 1925), anthropological
reconstruction of a culture (Gower, Chicago 1928), and a development of a pure
type (Kincheloe, Chicago 1929). The hegemony of the University of Chicago in
the 1920s in the sociological study of religion, if not in sociology more
generally, is evident.
Prostitution, Parenting, and Pedophilia: An
Exploratory Study of
Women’s Accounts of Life in a Sex Cult
Miriam Williams Boeri, Kennesaw State
University, mboeri@kennesaw.edu
Using accounts from in-depth interviews with women who
lived in the Children of God/The Family, I present personal testimony from
women who reared children in this group while simultaneously engaging in
“Flirty Fishing,” a form of sacred prostitution. Some of the women gave birth
to nine or more children, some were not sure of the fathers, and others
reported that their children were sexually and physically abused by male
members of the group. Preliminary findings from this ongoing study support
previous research suggesting that male-dominated new religious movements are
associated with the sexual exploitation and abuse of women and children,
specifically that this type of cult environment not only attracts pedophiles
but also encourages adults to engage in activities associated with pedophilia
and child abuse.
Foundational Issues in the Study of
Christianity and Ethnicity in Canada
Paul Bramadat, University of Winnipeg,
paul.bramadat@uwinnipeg.ca
While
a great deal has been written about ethnicity and Christianity, very little has
been written about the complex interaction between these two forces within
contemporary Canadian communities. In this paper, I will introduce the
three-volume “Religion and Ethnic-ity in Canada” project, and I will use my
experience as co-editor of Christianity
and Ethnicity in Canada to reflect on some of the foundational issues we
face when we examine the relationship between these two powerful forces. Some
of these are: the crisis of membership and involvement within the major
Christian traditions in Canada, the de-Christianization of the broader society,
the emergence in the census process of “Canadian” as an ethnic
self-identification, and the implications of the de-Europeanization of
Christian communities.
“We’ve Always Had Human Rights”: Religious
Movements and Discursive
Change in the Global Human Rights Regime
David V. Brewington, Emory University,
david.brewington@emory.edu
Religious voices have long been a significant part of human
rights movements and discourse, yet they have often been neglected in empirical
and theoretical efforts to understand global human rights and globalization.
This paper documents the long history of involvement of these religious voices
in human rights efforts, and attempts to recognize and theorize how religious
voices begin to make theological and religious sense of the secularized global
human rights regime. Protestant, Catholic, Islamic, Judaic, and Buddhist
discourse about human rights implies “we’ve always had human rights,” there
theorized as a Meyerian and Robertsonian response to a secular global human
rights regime begun in earnest after World War II.
From A
Beautiful Mind to a Critical Theory of Religion: Rational Choice,
Religion, and Adorno
Christopher Craig Brittain, Atlantic
School of Theology, chris.brittain@utoronto.ca
This paper examines the presuppositions of rational choice
explanatory models of human behavior, as they are applied to religious
practice. The work of two scholars is ana-lyzed in particular: Rodney Stark and
Lawrence Iannaccone. The reliance of this approach on macroeconomic assumptions
will be explored, and their reduction of religious behavior to “consolation”
will be challenged. The limitations of rational choice theory are illuminated
through a comparison with the social theory of Theodor W. Adorno. This
criticism will be illustrated by drawing from a popular depiction of the presuppositions
of rational choice theory, in the form of a scene from the Academy
Award-winning film A Beautiful Mind.
This analysis will show that, rather than assisting the study of religion to
escape from theological and metaphysical assumptions, rational choice theory is
itself laden with problematic presup-positions.
How Religious Institutions Enable Internal
Reform Movements: Voice of
the Faithful and the Enabling Mechanisms of
the Catholic Church
Trica Colleen Bruce, University of
California Santa Barbara, mein@umail.ucsb.edu
When religious institutions become the target of social
movements, the onus typically falls upon movement participants to negotiate a
place at the bargaining table. The absence of participatory features within
highly centralized religious institutions are legitimately cited as restrictive
to an internal movement’s tactical choices and outcomes. So too, however, must
more subtle enabling mechanisms of
religious institutions be recognized for their role in actually facilitating internal movements. Drawing
from a three-year study of “Voice of the Faithful,” a Catholic lay movement
formed in response to revelations of sexual abuse and nondisclosure within the
Catholic Church, this paper highlights the process by which internal movements
re-purpose existing church structures in order to advance movement goals.
Findings reveal that even while official church sanctioning remains at bay,
institutional avenues can serve as intermediary enabling mechanisms for reform
occurring from within.
Religious Involvement, Race, and Adolescent
Sexual Behavior
Amy M. Burdette, University of Texas,
burdamy@prc.utexas.edu
Studies
show that religious involvement delays and limits adolescent sexual behavior;
however, these effects are not uniform across racial and ethnic groups. For
example, research suggests that religious involvement may not delay sexual
intercourse among African Ameri-cans (particularly males). Although scholars
have begun to acknowledge racial and ethnic variation in the effects of religious
involvement on adolescent sexual behavior, several issues call for further
investigation, including (1) limited measures of religious involvement (i.e.,
church attendance); (2) limited racial and ethnic groupings (i.e., African
American and Cauca-sian); and (3) limited measures of sexual activity (i.e.,
sexual intercourse). The National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR) contains
several measures of religious involvement, race and ethnicity, and adolescent
sexual behavior. Using these data, the present study seeks to overcome the
limitations of prior research on religion, race/ethnicity, and sexual activity
among US adolescents.
The Meanings of Mary: Tourism, Faith and
Cultural Dimensions of
Marian Apparitions
Michelle Madsen Camacho, University of
San Diego, mcamacho@sandiego.edu
This
paper explores the social and cultural dimensions of pilgrimages to Virgin Mary
apparition sites in Latin America. Meanings of these pilgrimages vary by race,
gender, and class. I examine how tourism to these sites contributes to cultural
productions of spiritual practice. Two sites will be compared: the festival of
the Virgin of Urkupiña in Cochabama, Bolivia (unrecognized by the Catholic
Church) and the Marian apparitions at Betanía, Venezuela (an “official” site in
the eyes of the Church). Comparing both sites with fieldwork and ethnographic
interviews, I examine ideas of syncretism and cultural fusion and analyze local
responses and interpretations of these “miraculous” sites.
The Man Who Has Will Always Be Given
More? Winners of the Protestant
Market in Taiwan
Hsing-Kuang Chao, Tunghai University,
wade0429@mail.thu.edu.tw
Beginning with the mid-1960s, Taiwanese Protestant
Christianity had been stagnant for about thirty years. New statistical data,
however, show a moderate growth during the last decade of the twentieth
century. This paper will investigate whether the growth of Taiwanese Protestant
Christianity, especially of small denominations and independent churches in the
urban areas, can be explained using a supply-side framework. Two levels of
factors are involved: First are contextual factors, such as industrialization
and rural-urban migration. Second are institutional factors, such as churches’
theological stands, ritual practices, and growth strategies. The contextual
factors may be important to increase the prospect pool for recruiting new
members to Protestantism. This paper argues that institutional factors may be
more important than contextual factors to understanding the growth of small
denominations and independent churches in urban areas. These churches not only
provide a substantive meaning system to rural-urban immigrants, but they also
launch different evangelical move-ments and organize community programs to
satisfy these prospects’ needs.
True Buddhism is Not Chinese: Taiwanese
Immigrants becoming “True
Buddhists” in the US
Carolyn Chen, Northwestern University,
cechen@northwestern.edu
The
majority of Taiwanese immigrants who are practicing Buddhists begin practicing
after migrating to the US. Despite the claim in the immigration and religion
literature that religion preserves ethnicity, Taiwanese immigrant Buddhists
adamantly deny any link between their ethnic traditions and “true” Buddhism.
Rather, Taiwanese American Buddhists appeal to western values and science to
legitimate their religious choices. This paper explores how contextual factors
shape the discourse of true Buddhism in the US and further argues that
religions may challenge rather than preserve ethnic traditions.
Confucian Marxism and the Weberian Thesis
Weigang Chen, University of Vermont,
wxchen@pop.uvm.edu
The increasing salience of cultural conflicts in the
post-Cold War era brings the Weberian legacy of comparative religion to the
center of current debates on globalization. Specifically, these conflicts force
us to confront directly the toughest challenge posed by the Protestant ethic
thesis: If the principles of justice and equality are beyond the peculiarity of
Occidental civilization, how then can we give a full explanation as to why in
the West, and only in the West, the ideal of public reasoning by private people
has materialized? The present study seeks to address this fundamental challenge
by drawing on Confucian Marxism—a distinctive Marxist school that seeks to combine
Marxist aspirations for radical justice and the Confucian ethical tradition. I
argue that at the core of the problem of “the clash of civilizations” is an
intrinsic linkage between Eurocentrism and the liberal paradigm of “civil
society.” The prospect of global justice, therefore, hinges on the development
of a new conception of the “social” that reverses the liberal interpretation of
the relationship between bourgeois subjectivity and public reasoning, and
derives instead directly from the primacy of ethic life for social formation.
Sacred Sacrilege: Religion and Popular Culture
in Singapore
Lloyd Chia, University of Missouri,
lloydchia@mizzou.edu
Religion
and popular culture are often seen as mutually exclusive domains. But Singapore
has pop-star and magician pastors; Malaysia has Islamic boy bands; Iran has
officially sanctioned pop concerts; and England has seen “Harry Potter” church
services. Are these isolated anomalies, or do they portend a religiously
inspired sociocultural shift? This study explains finding religious practice in
“strange places” and finding “strange practices” in religious places. It
accounts for monotheistic religions making their stake in popular culture
industries and expressive genres. How do these social agents deal with the
perceived sacrilegious mixing of sacred and profane? The research employed
in-depth interviews of producers, consumers, and critics of religious popular
culture; it included observations of sites and events. This paper explores a
“crisis of meaning” that occurs between for
and against postures of the
confluence of religion and popular culture. It also seeks to account for intra-religious pluralization by
examining the tensions between factions to define the sacred.
Emergent Global Ethics: Reenchantment and the
Rhetoric of the
Dispossessed
JoAnn Chirico, Pennsylvania State
University, jxc64@psu.edu
A global ethic is emerging, rooted in the religious and
quasi-religious experiences of disenfranchised groups within developing
societies. For them, globalization has not only failed to alleviate poverty and
suffering; it has worsened it. Violent conflict, starvation, the AIDS pandemic,
and environmental destruction threaten their survival. The emergent global
system is not far, economically, politically and strategically, from the “war
of all against all.” We lack adequate meaning at the level of the globe and
increasingly within societies to sustain satisfactory social systemic function.
Disaffected groups are promoting an ethic that transcends the instrumental rational
models, in particular the Washington Consensus, that resulted in their
disaffection. They are forcing more substantive, value rational (reenchanted)
concerns into local and global debate. For many groups, particularly grassroots
women’s labor movements, these emergent ethics have religious roots.
The Charismatic Movement and the Contemporary
Worship Style: How
their Impacts on Church Growth Differ between
Mainline and
Conservative Congregations
Hui-Tzu Grace Chou, Utah Valley State
College, chougr@uvsc.edu
It has been observed that congregations involved with the
charismatic movement or using the contemporary worship style grow faster than
other congregations. However, there are still questions to be answered. First,
are the impacts of the charismatic movement and the contemporary worship style
on church growth caused by other factors? Second, are their impacts on church
growth similar for both mainline and conservative congregations? Analyzing the
data of the National Congregations Study, the results of logistic regression
show that the charismatic movement and the contemporary worship style work
differently on church growth between mainline congregations and conservative
congregations. The contem-porary worship style has a significant impact on church
growth among conservative congrega-tions, while the charismatic movement has a
significant impact among liberal congregations, after controlling for the age
of congregations and other variables. Different religious needs between liberal
and conservative congregations and the definition of disinherited groups are
also discussed.
Strong Religion and the Hard Sciences:
American Muslims and Hindus
and the Applied Sciences
Richard Cimino, New School for Social
Research, relwatch1@msn.com
Many American Muslims and Hindus have training and/or work
experience in the applied sciences, particularly engineering, medicine, and the
hi-tech fields. This paper will examine the religious discourse of these
applied science professionals and the impact it has had in the Muslim and Hindu
communities of the US. Through content analysis of their writings in
publications and online, and interviews with these professionals, I will seek
to understand the relationship and interaction between applied scientific
knowledge and religious belief and practice. I am particularly interested in
the way members of this “new technical knowledge class” have taken up an
autodidactic approach to their faiths while assuming leadership positions in
the Muslim and Hindu immigrant communities (often due to the shortage of
trained clergy and leaders).
The New Buddhism
James William Coleman, California
Polytechnic State University, jcoleman@calpoly.edu
As
Buddhism moves from Asia and the ethnic enclaves of Asian immigrants into
postmodern Western culture, it is undergoing a transformation as sweeping as
any in its long history. In the new Buddhism that is emerging among western
converts, the classic distinc-tion between monks and laity is becoming blurred.
Meditation is no longer the primary domain of monastics but is the central
religious practice among all members. Moreover, celibate monasticism itself is
a far less common and less revered practice. At the same time, institutional
structures are being redefined, and women have moved into leadership roles
unprecedented in patriarchal Asian traditions.
Rescuing Weber: A Critique of the Culturalist
View of Protestantism and
Progress in Latin America
Madeleine Cousineau, Mount Ida College,
mrcousineau@comcast.net
During the past fifty years millions of Latin Americans
have been converting to Protestantism. A number of social scientists and
religious observers have defined this phenomenon as a new reformation that will
bring democracy and prosperity to the region. They frequently turn for their
inspiration to Max Weber’s Protestant ethic thesis. However, their analyses are
limited in several ways: (1) They are one-sidedly idealistic (or culturalist),
in contradiction to Weber’s more nuanced view of the relationship between
religion and economics; (2) they neglect to distinguish between the rational,
inner-worldly ethic of eighteenth-century English Calvinists and the more
emotional, world-rejecting beliefs of contemporary Pentecostals, who constitute
the majority of Latin American Protestants; (3) they fail to consider the
socioeconomic context; (4) they are not supported by empirical research. This
paper provides evidence of these limitations, along with a critique of the
ideological underpinnings of the culturalist view.
Material Culture and the Sociology of
Religion: Speaking the Language
of Objects
Douglas E. Cowan, Renison College,
decowan@uwaterloo.ca
Until very recently, relatively
little attention was paid to the material culture of religious traditions
except as adjuncts to specific beliefs and practices. Hundreds of thou-sands of
books and countless millions of words have been written about the various
beliefs, doctrines, ritual practices, and organizational structures of
religious traditions worldwide, but the objects that make those traditions
recognizable to the rest of the world—and to practition-ers—have been largely
ignored. Can we learn things from the social life of material objects that we
cannot learn in other ways, things that other species of data either cannot
disclose or cannot disclose as clearly or as easily? Using examples drawn from
research on the material culture of modern Paganism, this paper will lay out
what Baudrillard called a “language of objects” as a meaningful approach to the
sociological study of religious belief and practice.
Religious Leadership under Fire: Conflict and
Tension in the Air Force
Chaplain Service
Barbara J. Denison, Shippensburg
University, bjdeni@ship.edu
Recent reports from the USAF Academy
in Colorado have focused attention on evangelical Protestant Air Force
chaplains engaged in proselytizing activity among academy cadets. Training
chaplains receive at Air Force Chaplains’ School reinforces the governing
paradigm that denounces any attempt to proselytize as an illegitimate activity
for chaplains. Additionally, the mandate for Air Force Chaplains in the AF
Chaplain Service has focused on the free exercise of religion and providing
spiritual support, comfort, counseling and other services for all, regardless
of religion, faith, or creed. This paper is an initial attempt to use source
materials from USAF Chaplain Service documents and directives as well as news
reports to examine this crisis created by competing models of religious
leadership among USAF chaplains.
God Matters, Ritual Doesn’t: The Effects of
Importance of Religion and
Church Attendance on Moral Beliefs
Scott A. Desmond, Purdue University,
and Rachel Kraus, Ball State University,
sdesmond@purdue.edu
According
to Durkheim, religious rituals such as church attendance help to support the
moral order. In contrast, Rodney Stark has recently argued that religious
beliefs (impor-tance of religion) are significantly related to moral beliefs,
while religious rituals are not. We used a sample of adolescents to test
Stark’s hypothesis that church attendance is unrelated to moral beliefs.
Preliminary results provide partial support for Stark’s hypothesis. Consistent
with Stark’s argument, a measure of religious importance had a significant
effect on moral beliefs about violence, property offenses, marijuana use, and
drinking. Adolescents who reported that religion was important to them were
more likely to believe that these behaviors are wrong. Contrary to Stark,
however, church attendance had a significant effect on moral beliefs about
marijuana and alcohol use. Therefore, religious rituals may have a significant
effect on some moral beliefs but not others.
Muslim Discourses in the Public Sphere in
Québec
Ali G. Dizboni, Royal Military College
of Canada, dizboni-a@rmc.ca
The Muslim presence in the West, and
in Québec in particular, raised a number of serious challenges and questions
ranging from security concerns to sociocultural issues (identity, integration,
etc.). Depending on particular circumstances, Western democracies adopted
different approaches ranging from laisser-faire to interventionism. My paper
will discuss the leading discourses of Muslim intellectuals living in the West, like Tareq Ramadan, about the
place of Islam in the Western public sphere. My discussion will deal with
fundamental issues of identity, laws (Shari‘a), and cultural integration. The
mediatized controversies around issues of Kirpan and headscarf in Québec and
Islamic Courts in Ontario show the policy-relevance and the social sensitivity
associated with these questions. My objective is to assess the theoretical and
empirical implications of Muslim intellectuals’ discourses both for Québec’s
experience of social integration and for the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms.
“Spiritual but not Religious”? Spiritual and
Religious Identities among
Academic Scientists
Elaine Howard Ecklund, SUNY Buffalo,
and Elizabeth Long, Rice University,
ehe@buffalo.edu
Science is often perceived as incompatible with religion.
Rarely, however, do scholars examine the place of spirituality in relationship to science. This paper compares
religious to spiritual identities among academic scientists in the natural and
social sciences at twenty-one different elite US research universities. Using
recently collected data from a national survey of over 1600 academic scientists
and in-depth interviews with 250 scientists, we specifically compare faculty in
the natural science disciplines of physics, chemistry, and biology as well as
the social science disciplines of sociology, psychology, political science, and
economics. Findings reveal several distinct frameworks for the place of
spirituality, when compared to religion, in the lives of elite scientists. We
situate these results in the midst of studies of spirituality in the general US
population and make projections about the relevance of findings for issues
related to secularization and higher education, as well as those related to the
intersection of religion and science.
Spiritual Dimensions of Everyday Life:
Perspectives from Elders
Susan A. Eisenhandler, University of
Connecticut, susan.a.eisenhandler@uconn.edu
Though reliance on attendance and other measures of formal
religious participation is widely acknowledged to be of limited scope in
understanding the meaning and salience of faith for people of all ages,
continued preference for such measures profoundly inhibits our understanding of
how religion and spirituality are perceived in the daily life and lived
experi-ence of older adults. The social milieu or context surrounding older adults
is an important factor that shapes faith practice and the spirituality evoked
in daily life. This paper addresses some spiritual dimensions of faith that
emerged during an ongoing study (2005-2006) that includes face-to-face
interviews and participant observation with fifteen elders from one residential
community. A special focus is a discussion of gardening and other intrinsically
valued secular activities and the construction of transcendent meaning in late
life.
Mellowing with Age? Exploring Age Variations
in Anger toward God
Christopher G. Ellison and Wei Zhang,
University of Texas, cellison@prc.utexas.edu
Although
many studies have reported salutary associations between religion and health, a
modest literature has begun to identify aspects of religiousness that have
harmful health consequences. Much of this work focuses on “religious struggle”
or negative relation-ships with God (e.g., feelings of anger, abandonment,
etc.). Researchers have called for more attention to the social sources and patterning
of “religious struggle.” Our study contributes to this area by developing and
testing a series of hypotheses concerning the age distribution of anger toward
God. We address the following questions: (1) Are there age variations in this
type of anger? (2) Can these variations be accounted for in terms of
individuals’ social location, exposure to chronic stressors or personal crises,
or religious background? (3) Do the effects of these factors on individuals’
anger toward God vary by age? Data come from the 1988 NORC General Social
Survey, a nationwide sample of US adults—to our knowledge, the only large-scale
representative database containing information on this topic. Findings are
discussed in terms of the interplay of psychological and sociological perspectives,
and study limitations and future research directions are elaborated.
Wrestling with the Meaning of Multiracial
Congregations
Michael O. Emerson, Rice University,
moe@rice.edu
Based
on seven years of research, key findings from the Multiracial Congregations
Project will be discussed with a focus on the implications for race relations,
racial inequality, religion, and other aspects of social life. An important
question guiding the presentation and subsequent discussion will be whether
more of such congregations would be beneficial to US society and to groups
within the society.
Muslim American Politics and Presidential
Elections: Discourse,
Strategies, Orientations
Marcel Fallu, Université Laval,
marcel.fallu.1@ulaval.ca
Muslim organizations “advocate active engagement in the
political process.” In 2004, the American
Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT), a coalition of
several American Muslim advocacy groups, endorsed Democratic presidential
candidate John Kerry; in 2000, a similar coalition had advocated bloc-voting
for George W. Bush. Defending a “Civil Rights Plus agenda” in a context of
increased scrutiny, these organizations—who claim to speak on behalf of a
strikingly diverse minority—have engaged in the American system through, among
other means, the formation of Political Action Committees (PACs). Through
content analysis, I will provide insight on how their Islamic orientation is
articulated with American citizenship, patriotism, and nationalism in an
institutional context marked simul-taneously by the separation of state and
religious institutions and the omnipresence of religious values in the public
sphere.
Religious Coping, Family Stressors, and
Elderly Depression in Taiwan
Daisy Fan and Gang-Hua Fan, University
of Texas, daisy@mail.la.utexas.edu
The purpose of this study is to
examine the buffering effect of three dimensions of religion (attendance,
coping, and private practice) on psychological distress in the presence of
family stressors among elderly Taiwanese. Using the 1999 Survey of Health and
Living Status of the Elderly in Taiwan, results thus far suggest that religious
attendance may buffer the deleterious effect of financial hardship and negative
family interaction on distress; while, sur-prisingly, religious coping turns
out to exacerbate the stress experience related to negative family
relationship. The nature of religious behaviors in Taiwan and the salience of
family relationship to Taiwanese elderly may account for some of the findings.
Are Religious Revivals Over in France and the
UK? When History and
Sociology Compete for the Answer
Sebastien Fath, École Pratiques des
Hautes Études, faths@wanadoo.fr
Are
religious revivals over in France and the UK? Comparing the contemporary
Evan-gelical scene in Britain and in France reveals a striking difference. In
the first case, Evangeli-cals seem condemned to decline. In this national
context, revivals appear to be clearly over. In the French case however,
Evangelical figures have multiplied by seven in the last 50 years. This
contrast will be described and addressed in the first part of the paper. How
does sociol-ogy of religion address these two national cases? In the second
part of this analysis, I will highlight the contrast between two sociological
frameworks. At this stage, should be give up the possibility of unifying the
analytic framework? Does sociological truth on one side of the Channel become
sociological error on the other side? Maybe not. In the last part of the paper,
I will evaluate the opportunity of “rescuing” sociology with comparative
history.
The Place of the Charismatic Renewal in the
Formation of the Coalition
of Opposition to the Consecration of V. Gene
Robinson as Episcopal
Bishop of New Hampshire
Dana Fenton, Lehman College CUNY,
ddfen@juno.com
In the course of my research on
Evangelical and Anglo-Catholic Episcopalians both before and after the approval
of the election of Gene Robinson, a gay man with a partner, to the episcopate
in the Episcopal Church, I started to hear about the healing movement that
started with the Bennets and continued with the McNutts. I quickly learned that
the healing movement was intimately connected with the charismatic renewal in
the Episcopal Church in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I later realized that many
of the current leadership of the “Biblically Orthodox” Episcopalians first
worked together in the loose network of the Charismatic Renewal.
The Mormon Work Ethic and the Spirit of
Capitalism
Michelle Fether-Samtouni and Barry
Goetz, Western Michigan University,
michelle.fether@wmich.edu
One hundred years after its publication, Weber’s theory of
the Protestant ethic contin-ues to have tremendous force for debating the links
between ideas, economic structures, and social behavior. This paper will discuss
how religious ideas continue to influence human action, particularly economic
action within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Mormon
Church is well known for its financial success and work ethic. Church leaders
frequently stress that work is a blessing from God and a fundamental principle
of salvation, while idleness is condemned. The unemployment rate in Utah, where
the majority of the population is Mormon, is 3.8% compared to the national
average of 4.9%. In this paper we will conduct a content analysis of church
scriptures, Sunday school textbooks, and official church magazines that reveal
linkages between Mormon doctrine and the stimulation of a strong work ethic. We
conclude that Weber’s argument about religious ideas influencing social and
economic outcomes is still relevant for understanding Mormons and other social
groups, and also show that Weber’s ideas about the Protestant ethic in particular has special resonance for
understanding the cultural life of Mormonism today.
Drumming as Embodied Spirituality: Focus on
Religious Venues
Tanice G. Foltz, Indiana University
Northwest, tfoltz@iun.edu
This paper is part of a larger project that centers on
drumming in its multiple uses for healing, serving special populations, and
creating a global drum community. My analysis of drumming as embodied
spirituality addresses Weber’s concern with the disenchantment of the rational
world and proposes that drumming is one pathway of spiritual re-enchantment.
Drumming connects participants and leads them into a “flow” state that can be
likened to Turner’s conceptualization of “communitas,” defined by a feeling of
unity and bonding often found in spiritual settings. I draw upon studies of
trance and entrainment, as well as my participant-observation experiences in
experiences in several religious and spiritual venues. These include Yoruba
Candomble House ceremonies in Bahia, Brazil, as well as Pagan rituals and
Christian worship services in the US, where drumming is employed to enhance
parti-cipants connection with the spirit world.
How Congregations Advertise and Market
Themselves
Steven Frenk, Duke University, and
Wayne Luther Thompson, Carthage College,
wthompson@carthage.edu
This paper identifies types of congregational communication
strategies and activities. Religious congregations enter into relationships
with the social environment. Evangelism and other attempts of congregations to
project an image are clues to theological stances, growth and survival
strategies, scope and targets of programming and market niches. Congregations
range from inward orientations to enthusiastic and extensive activities to
communicate about themselves and what they have to offer. Do growing,
evangelical, or newer congregations act more aggressively to communicate and
advertise themselves than other congregations? Do the content and style of
advertising and other communications of congregations affect worship and the
creation of sacred space for those groups? How do congregations cultivate and
project images of themselves in lieu of demand for privatized, personal meaning
in modern societies, and with what results? Data for this analysis come from
the Social Ecology of Congregations project. This study combines fieldwork in
dozens of congregations with surveys of congregational lay leaders and
professional staff in those congregations and broader samples. The initial wave
of data comes from three urbanized Southeastern Wisconsin counties.
Views on Marriage among Immigrant Muslim Women
in the Los Angeles
Area
Inger Furseth, KIFO Centre for Church
Research, inger.furseth@kifo.no
This paper explores the experiences of and discourse on
marriage among Muslim women in the Los Angeles area. The study is based on
in-depth interviews with a small sample of immigrant women. The women are
divided into four categories, based on their orientation toward society and the
religious community: the Representatives, the Communi-cators, the Belongers,
and the Ambivalent. Analysis shows that the Representatives tend strongly to
favor arranged marriage. The Communicators are more hesitant toward arranged
marriage. The Belongers have a diverse view on this issue, while the Ambivlent
are negative to arranged marriage. The latter group favors marriage based on
love and individual choice. This study suggests that there is a link between
these immigrant women’s religious orientation and their view on marriage.
Whereas most of the women wore the hijab on a daily basis, some had never done
so, and some had quit. Their discourse on the hijab centers on religious
obedience, oppression, identity, and dialogue. This study suggests that women
use the hijab to position themselves in the religious landscape, inside and
outside the religious community.
Canadian History of Wicca: Obstacles on the
Path of the Uninitiated
Researcher
Mireille Gagnon, Laval University,
mireille.gagnon.1@ulaval.ca
How does one retrace Canadian Wiccan
history without being a Wiccan? Though the researcher might be welcomed in the
communities, it will soon become apparent that information will be harder to
gather than one would think. Troubled pasts of communities, rivalry between
members involved in witch wars, informants with several pagan names are just
some examples of issues with which the researcher has to deal. In order to understand
the Wiccan presence in Canada, one must be able to dig in its past and find out
how it got here and how it developed. How does an uninitiated avoid the many
obstacles? In this paper I will show the challenges of working in such an
environment, while keeping in line with our professional ethics and our
continual search for balanced information.
Evangelicalism and Change in the DUP:
Implications for the Northern
Ireland Peace Process
Gladys Ganiel, Trinity College Dublin,
gganiel@tcd.ie
In 2005 the Democratic Unionist
Party (DUP) became the largest political party in Northern Ireland. Since its
inception in 1971, it has been regarded as a vehicle for Protestant
fundamentalism and as a destabilizing force in the peace process. This paper
presents new research about the changing role of evangelicalism within the DUP.
It highlights the DUP’s shift away from “evangelical” issues, demonstrating how
evangelicals within the party are pursuing those issues through interest groups
rather than the party. This has increased the party’s secular appeal and
ability to negotiate with the republicans, while keeping evangeli-cals on
board. I also draw on interviews to explore how evangelicals’ personal
convictions intersect with pragmatic political decisions. As the DUP attempts
to appeal to a wider base, the evangelical convictions of key individuals will
be sources of tension, contradictory stances, and ideological confusion that
may hinder its ability to reach accommodation with republicanism.
Beyond Identity: A Framework for Understanding
the Dynamics of
Religious Journeys
Gladys Ganiel, Trinity College Dublin,
and Claire Mitchell, Queen’s University Belfast, gganiel@tcd.ie
Scholarship on evangelicalism has focused on explaining the
persistence of this so-called “old time religion.” Evangelicalism has been
conceived as a reaction to modernity and as providing people with a meaningful
social identity. In this paper, we move the debate beyond religious persistence
and social identity, presenting a more dynamic analysis of evan-gelicalism.
Drawing on research among Northern Irish evangelicals, we argue that
evangeli-calism is better understood as a journey or process rather than a
social identity category. We develop a theoretical framework for understanding
evangelicalism as a process, identifying and highlighting the dynamics of
change at various stages of the journey: conversion, con-servatism,
privatization, moderation, and transformation. This allows us to make
conclusions about both the persistence and the fluctuation of evangelicalism in
Northern Ireland over time. It also allows us to contribute to the theoretical
debate about how to conceive religion’s role in the contemporary world.
Turkey’s Quest for European Union Membership:
Will the EU Accept a
Muslim Candidate?
Brent Garrett, US Department of
Homeland Security, wbrentgarrett@aol.com
Ankara is currently in the process of institutionalizing
far-reaching reforms required by Brussels in order to be considered a serious
candidate for membership in the European Union. Many Turks are convinced,
however, that even if Turkey succeeded in the reforms required for EU
accession, Brussels would ultimately reject Ankara’s application due to the
fact that Turkey is a Muslim candidate. Ankara’s accession to the EU would
indubitably buttress Turkey’s chances of becoming a successful modern democracy
in the Muslim world. This paper will examine the following: to what extent does
religion play a role in determining Turkey’s eventual acceptance or rejection
as a member of the EU? Turkey’s acceptance into or rejection from the EU will
certainly cause reverberations throughout the Muslim world, as well as
throughout Europe’s Muslim communities.
The Impact of Race on Denominational
Variations in Social Attitudes:
The Issue and its Dimensions
David A. Gay, John P. Lynxwiler, and
Warren S. Goldstein, University of Central
Florida, dgay@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu
Although the impact of religious affiliation on social
attitudes is a popular research topic in the sociology of religion, few
scholars have examined the role that race plays in this relationship. Moreover,
studies that do explore the interplay of race and religious affiliation seldom
move beyond the general categories of conservative, moderate, and liberal
denomina-tional families. Our research uses recent General Social Survey data
to compare the social attitudes of African Americans and their White
counterparts within established designations of religious affiliation. Along
with control variables, we include attitude measures for political tolerance,
legalized abortion, gender equality, premarital sex, homosexual lifestyles, and
extramarital sexual relations. Our analysis isolates levels of support for
these attitudes within categories of race and religious affiliation to determine
if variations emerge and whether they are nested within specific issues or
denominations or reflect more general patters of race differences.
The Secularist Movement in Québec
Martin Geoffroy, Université de Moncton,
geoffrm@umoncton.ca
The Secularist Movement in Québec has been gaining ground
in the last ten years by successfully pushing the Québec government to complete
the secularization of the public school system in the province. The movement is
mainly represented by a militant organization called the Mouvement Laïque
Québécois. The dream of its president, Daniel Baril, would be to have a system
similar to the “secularist” regime in France to deal with Québec’s dealings
with religion. This paper is based on interviews done with the leaders of this
organization and on content analysis of their documents. It will show that
despite some gains on the political front, the secularist movement in Québec
remains relatively marginal.
Worlds Apart? A Comparative Study of the Place
of Religion in Canadian
and American Public Space
Martin Geoffroy, Université de Moncton,
and Jean-Guy Vaillancourt, Université de
Montréal, geoffrm@umoncton.ca
Based on many years of fieldwork in Canada and the US, this
paper will attempt to point out both the differences and similarities in the
way these two neighbors deal with reli-gion on an everyday basis. In Canada, it
seems religion has been perceived as a symbol of individual choice rather than
a collective one as in the US. But is that really totally true? In recent years
the Canadian court system has seen more and more cases of collective demands
based on religious believers. These demands are confronting the so called
Canadian concep-tion of political non-involvement in religious affairs, and
with a new Conservative Canadian government with ties to western
fundamentalism, the question of these differences can be asked without sounding
as out of place as before. Is religion becoming more political in Canada, as it
can be in the US?
Muslims of the West: Loyalty to Faith and
Membership in Western
Society
Kamel Ghozzi, Central Missouri State
University, ghozzi@cmsu1.cmsu.edu
The
growing presence in Europe and North America of a second and third generation
of western Muslims deeply challenges the West’s traditional image of Islam as
an “Eastern Religion,” as well as western Muslims’ traditional self-image as
“immigrants” in foreign lands. Nevertheless, western Islam remains deeply
problematic and somewhat irritating to the west-ern mind. Many in the West
question the adaptability of Islam as a new religious component in the
religious pluralism of western societies. Given its organic nature, Islam
equates religion and society, and merges religious law and social structure;
hence, it may not easily accept the western principle of separation of realms
or any notion of civil religion. This paper explains the dilemma lived by large
numbers of western Muslims as they struggle to bridge the gap between loyalty
to faith and membership in western society.
The Night the Guru Spanked Natalie Wood:
Emotion and Legend at
Esalen
Marion S. Goldman, University of
Oregon, mgoldman@uoregon.edu
Esalen
Institute in Big Sur, California is a legendary community, retreat, spa, and
think tank founded in 1962. Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, Abraham Maslow,
Alan Watts, Allen Ginsberg, Bishop James Pike, and Timothy Leary were among
dozens of well-known fig-ures associated with the institute. Since the late
1960s, three central informal narratives have supported the institute’s
foundational mission, encouraging personal spiritual growth and social
sensitivity. One of these three contemporary legends is the “wise father”
story, about the Hollywood party where Fritz Perls, a gestalt therapy guru,
turned a gorgeous movie star, Natalie Wood, over his knee and spanked her. She
responded with a satirical movie, Bob and
Carol and Ted and Alice, and a personal search that led her back to Esalen
almost two decades later. This narrative reveals ways in which Esalen
encouraged emotional intelligence through exploring personal vulnerabilities.
Sweet Potato Latkes and Other Southern Jewish
Delicacies: Exploring
the Myriad Flavors of Jewish Identity
Formation in the American South
Dana M. Greene, Appalachian State
University, greenedm@appstate.edu
This
paper addresses the richness of Jewish American identity formation in the
Ameri-can South by focusing on the socioreligious definition that has been
adopted by members of Southern Jewish communities that link their regional
identities to their religious heritage, thereby becomingly “Jewishly Southern.”
This process of self-definition, coupled with the meaning of having a religious
tradition that links ethnicity and geographic regionality repre-sents the crux
of this study. Thus, drawing on Bourdieu’s concept of habitus, this paper addresses the myriad social considerations
linked to cultural capital—e.g., opportunities for upward mobility; experiences
with racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of ethnically entrenched bias;
religious freedom; interactions with differing denominations within Judaism;
and most important, Southern pride and Southern history—to define a
contemporary Jewish American identity in the South that is tied to collective
group historical memory and an understanding/interpretation of the lived experience
of being both Jewish and American, as well as residing in the Southern US.
What is Religion for Americans?
T. Jeremy Gunn, Emory University,
jgunn@law.emory.edu
Several religious identity symbols are part of the 21st
Century culture wars in the US: Ten Commandment monuments, “intelligent design”
as an alternative to the theory of evolu-tion, crèches and holiday images, and
the phrases “in God we trust” and “one nation under God.” These symbols are
largely uncontroversial when they are a matter of individual expression, but
they elicit a firestorm when some citizens insist that governments adopt or
promote them. Curiously, the proponents of such symbols do not base their
arguments on religious requirements (e.g.,
that scripture or theology demands it), but on nationalist or identity grounds. The arguments are “our country was
founded on religious principles” and “we are a religious people,” not “the
Bible commands us to do this.” Theology is thin; identity conflicts control.
Where the Babies Are: Patterns of
Congregational Fertility
Conrad Hackett, Princeton University,
chackett@princeton.edu
Since
children usually inherit parental religious identity, fertility patterns are
consequential for religious institutions. Despite scholarly and popular
interest in church growth and decline, the relationship between congregations
and fertility has been neglected. Using the Congregational Life Survey, an
innovative, large-scale study of American congrega-tions, I report and analyze
congregational fertility patterns. High fertility is found in congrega-tions
affiliated with small denominations, whose members are not identified in
standard demographic surveys. Using regression analysis, I estimate the
influence of theology, compo-sitional characteristics, and pro-natalist
congregational culture upon congregational fertility rates. Within
congregations, there is a close relationship between completed fertility rates
and current fertility rates among women of childbearing age.
How Theology Matters for Congregants in Presbyterian
Churches
Jennifer Campbell Hackett, Princeton
Theological Seminary,
campbell.hackett@ ptsem.edu
This
study investigates how the theology and culture of eight Presbyterian (PCUSA)
congregations influence the way members frame ethical issues. Anticipating that
many Pres-byterian congregations may shy away from providing theological
resources to address sub-jects such as political behavior and medical ethics, I
study “typical” congregations as well as congregations distinguished by strong
evangelical or liberal theology. I find that members of the evangelical
churches think theologically about a narrow range of topics and tend to frame
social problems on a personal level. Members of liberal congregations think
theology is relevant to a broad range of topics and tend to think structurally
about social problems.
Evangelicalism as the Future of an “Illusion”?
An Evolutionary
Perspective
Durk Hak, Enschede, Netherlands,
durkhak@home.nl
It is supposed (a) mainline modern Christianity as described, e.g.,
by Bellah will result in secularization, unchurching, and unbelief, and (b) the
soteriology of both historic Christian
religion and early-modern Christianity
are no acceptable any longer to modern Christian
believers. Two orthodox Christian reactions to modern Christianity are observed: one “reform-ative” fundamentalist
(and regressive); the other evangelical. The question addressed in the paper is
whether the adaptive capacity of evangelicalism to the requirements of modern soci-ety is great enough to last
until the end of the century. Evangelicalism (and “reformative” fundamentalism)
is seen as a “family of denominations” with a hard core consisting of (1)
accepting Jesus Christ as savior, (b) personal conversion, (c) reaching out to
the world, and (b) the Bible as God’s word, “inerrant in matters of faith and
practice”—to which evangelicals subscribe to a lesser or greater degree. It is
assumed that evangelicalism is instrumental to a modern religious person’s needs for physical and social wellbeing.
The kingdom of heaven can be achieved because of the believer’s voluntary
decision to accept Jesus Christ as savior. Evangelicalism is supposed to have
the greater adaptive capacity to modern
society of the two, and consequently is supposed to “have” the future. Yet,
it is institutionally relatively weak, and we cannot yet foresee the
consequences of institutionalization or oligarchy formation, nor the effects of
the coming generation of evangelical academics
and academic evangelical
theologians.
Catholic Decline and the Challenge of
Liberalism
Pierre Hegy, Adelphi University,
hegy@adelphi.edu
This paper reviews major findings about Protestant decline
since the 1960s and then concentrates on Catholic decline in more recent years.
I review the literature on strictness and rational choice, and find that they
have little explanatory power. I hypothesize that secular liberalism and
internal secularization have played a major role in mainline Protestant
decline. I then apply these criteria to Catholic interview data.
Bringing Theology Back In: Building a Swedish
Lutheran Parish in an
Industrializing City
Michael Hillary, University of
Wisconsin–Waukesha, mhillary@uwc.edu
Early
in the study of immigration communities of the late 19th and early
20th centur-ies, a general model of immigrant churches emerged,
describing them as central institutions in the creation of ethnic communities,
providing essential services to members of the com-munity, organizing responses
to challenges from the surrounding society, variously facilitat-ing,
regulating, and resisting assimilation. A vast array of historical work
documents varia-tions and exceptions among churches, based on ethnicity,
leadership, various characteristics of local context, political challenges, and
historical timing. This paper gives attention to a difference curiously
neglected or left out of focus in the literature on immigrant
churches—theology. Historical research on Swedish Lutherans in an
industrializing city is used to examine how a distinct theology gives shape to
ethnic parishes with practices and structures both similar to and different
from common patterns found in Catholic parishes. While aspir-ing to the
inclusiveness of many ethnic Catholic parishes, theological constraints
systemati-cally undermined this ideal.
Buddhism in the HomeSpace
Jane N. Iwamura, University of Southern
California, iwamura@usc.edu
In the sociological study of Asian North American Buddhism,
the temple has served as the primary site of research. While there are good
reasons for this focus, examining Buddhist practice in the home can prove
equally illuminating. Drawing from a pilot study of Japanese American Buddhists
and their home shrines (obutsudan), I
discuss how Buddhist altars and altar practice play an understated, but important
role in mediating family relations, ethnic identity formation, and religious
attitudes. Monitoring Buddhism in the “homespace” also reveals much about the
way in which practices change in diaspora and over time. In addition to looking
at Japanese American home altars, I will also consider other examples (e.g.,
Chi-nese, Vietnamese) to discuss the relevance that these alternative spaces
hold for the study of (Asian) North American religions broadly conceived.
A “New” Religious Movement: The Dutch Prophetess
and Healer, Mrs.
Sonja de Vries
Lammert G. Jansma, Foundation Forces
(Netherlands), f2hlgjansma@hetnet.nl
In my paper I will discuss the
movement that has assembled around the prophet and healer Mrs. Sonja de Vries,
which has its center in the village of Oudehorne (Friesland, Netherlands).
Important elements in the doctrine of the movement, which considers itself a
Christian movement, are personal growth, reincarnation, and health/illness.
This movement has a firmly established structure and a belief system
collectively shared by its adherents. This type of highly institutionalized
movement seems to be an exception among current emerging religious groups,
where loosely organized groupings seem to be the rule. In this paper both the
organization and the belief system are discussed, and an explanation is given
why this particular movement developed into a full-fledged organization.
The Political Past as Sacred Past: Making
Shivaji a Sacred King in
Western India
Daniel Jasper, Moravian College,
djasper@moravian.edu
In this p