Alternative Religion Research Articles

Rastafari: Alternative Religion and Resistance against “White” Christianity

Since the early sixteenth century, the history of Jamaica has been associated successively with slavery, Christian Evangelization, colonialism and neocolonialism, which gave rise to numerous revolutions, riots and various other forms of social unrest. Black Jamaicans have always lived in a constant state of resistance, a mentality that gave birth, in the early thirties, to a Jamaican religion called Rastafari. Besides studying the roots and symbolism of Rastafari, my paper is aimed at defining the Rasta movement as a religion born as a legitimate response to oppression and Christian Evangelization. In other words, my work examines Rastafari as a Pan-African and Afrocentric version of “White” Christianity.

Alternative identity, alternative religion? Neo‐paganism and the Aryan myth in contemporary Russia

ABSTRACT. As in all post‐Soviet states, the Russian intelligentsia has been preoccupied with the construction of a new national identity since the beginning of the 1990s. Although the place of Orthodox religion in Russia is well documented, the subject of neo‐paganism and its consequent assertion of an Aryan identity for Russians remains little known. Yet specialists observing the political and intellectual life of contemporary Russia have begun to notice that the development of references to ‘Slavic paganism’ and to Russia's ‘Aryan’ origin can be found in the public speeches of some politicians and intellectual figures. This article will attempt, in its first section, to depict the historical depth of these movements by examining the existence of neo‐pagan and/or Aryan referents in Soviet culture, and focusing on how these discourses developed in different spheres of post‐Soviet Russian society, such as those of religion, historiography, and politics.

Custody Disputes and Alternative Religions in the Courts of England and Wales

The courts in England and Wales have repeatedly claimed that they occupy a position of religious neutrality when faced with a case involving parties from two differing religions. While this assertion may well be true, when established, traditional religions are involved, it does not appear to be so clear cut, when one of the religions could be described as a ‘new religious movement’ or an ‘alternative religion’. Perhaps the most telling area of law in which to examine the courts’ alleged neutrality is in custody disputes in family law, as it is in these cases that the religious practices of the parents have sometimes become a factor in the case and judges have been more likely to express their opinion of such religious practices. This article analyses the approach of judges to such disputes and demonstrates that the judges tend to maintain a bias towards Judaeo-Christian morality.

Help-seeking and paranormal beliefs in adherents of mainstream religion, alternative religion, and no religion

This study explored the relationship between help-seeking and adherence to mainstream religion (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), alternative religion (for example, New Age spiritual belief and Paganism) and no religion (including agnosticism and atheism). Four-hundred and fourteen participants completed an online survey which included questions on demographics, help-seeking beliefs and paranormal beliefs (a modified form of the Paranormal Beliefs Scale was used). Previous research had explored adherence to various religions and compared aspects of help-seeking and paranormal beliefs separately. Comparisons were made between basic theoretical differences in belief (e.g., monotheism vs. polytheism vs. rationalism) and help-seeking beliefs. Implications of this research for therapeutic practice are discussed.

Alternative religion and outcome of alcohol dependence in Brazil

Alternative religion and outcome of alcohol dependence in Brazil

In Search of Deeper Identities Neopaganism and "Native Faith" in Contemporary Ukraine

This article examines the growth of Neopaganism and Native Faith in post-Soviet Ukraine. It traces the historical development of Neopagan ideas and contextualizes their emergence within the cultic milieus of alternative religion and ethnic nationalism. It surveys the main contemporary Ukrainian Neopagan and Native Faith groups and movements, assessing their future growth possibilities and comparing them with more familiar forms of Western Neopaganism. The author argues that these Ukrainian movements have become caught up within a set of ideas which are ideologically right-wing and scientifically insupportable, but that this represents a phase of development comparable to an earlier phase of Anglo-American Neopaganism, at least in its reliance on "alternative" scholarship and on a strong form of "identity politics." Like those Western movements, Ukrainian Native Faith might overcome its present-day limitations, but this will be difficult as long as the country continues to face the economic and political struggles within which it has recently been mired.

Odin og Hvide Krist: Om Sune Aukens bog Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig, København, 2005

Odin og Hvide Krist: Om Sune Aukens bog Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig, København, 2005[Odin and the White Christ: On Sune Auken ’s book Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig, Copenhagen, 2005]By Thorkild C. LybyThe article gives a short account of Sune Auken’s published doctoral thesis, Sagas spejl. Mytologi, historie og kristendom hos N. F. S. Grundtvig [Saga’s mirror. Mythology, history and Christianity in N. F. S. Grundtvig] in which he investigates Gr’s preoccupation with Norse mythology and its relationship to history and Christianity. In Auken’s view Norse mythology during the years 1806-10 became something like an actual religion for Gr, a basis for an entire concept of life. As he could not give up traditional Christianity, he was forced to try to harmonise it with Christianity. In this attempt he failed, which was the main reason of his mental breakdown in 1810. After 1815 he did not work theoretically with the myths, but in his poetry they still played an important role. Not until 1832 was a sort of harmony established between his theoretical and his poetic relationship to the myths.Furthermore, the article gives a short account of the public examination on 3 June 2005, when Auken defended his thesis. The contributions of the different opponents at this occasion are mentioned.Finally, the author elaborates his own contribution as the third opponent. Two points are discussed: (a) What did Gr mean by the expression “the image of God”? (b) Is Auken’s view of Norse mythology as an alternative religion justified? Would it not be better to characterize it as “quasi-religious” than to label it “a religion”?

The priesthood of creation: the Hulsean Sermon 2004

The sermon begins by explaining the origins of the benefaction, and setting it in the context of contemporary writings on God and nature. It then describes the radical shift from the search for God as visible in creation, to the modern elevation of the environment to the status of alternative religion. In the light of that movement, it asks about the nature of nature, and about an appropriate way of understanding the relationship between nature and God. In this respect, the Judaeo-Christian record has not set a good example by seeing nature as made for humanity's benefit. A more recent view thus provides an important corrective, arguing for the givenness of the natural world, and for human beings as part of that. Simultaneously, accounts of nature itself have returned to a picture of an entity which is female, sacred, dynamic, and capable of fighting back if attacked. The sermon concludes by proposing that humanity is distinct from, but not placed in god-like control over the natural world. Our model for this is found in the persona of Christ as high priest and mediator between God and creation. It is this model, applied to men and women, that will enable them to live in a priestly and ultimately redemptive relationship with the natural world, all of them creatures of a loving God.

Factors influencing acceptability of voluntary counselling and HIV-testing among pregnant women in Northern Tanzania

Guided by the conceptual framework of the Health Belief Model, this study aimed to identify factors associated with pregnant women's expressed willingness to accept voluntary counselling and HIV-testing (VCT). A cross-sectional interview survey of 500 pregnant women, complemented by focus group discussions, was conducted in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. Constructs derived from the Health Belief Model explained 41.7% of women's willingness to accept VCT. Perceived high personal susceptibility to HIV/AIDS, barriers related to confidentiality and partner involvement, self-efficacy regarding alternative feeding methods and religion were all shown to be associated with willingness to accept VCT. The women's acceptance of VCT seems to depend upon their perceiving that VCT and alternative feeding strategies provide clear benefits, primarily for the child. Whether a positive attitude to VCT and alternative feeding strategies are transformed into actual behaviour depends on a set of complicated decisions in which several potential psychological consequences are assessed. Sharing the diagnosis with partners may not have the intended effect if there is a lack of sensitivity to the women's fear of blame and rejection. If pregnant women are to fully participate in and benefit from mother-to-child-transmission prevention efforts, their partners must be committed and involved in the process.

Some Ideas on Wild Religion

It is gradually becoming clear that what is happening to religion today is ‘disembedding’ rather than ‘secularization’. In this article four categories of disembedded religion are developed. These are described in the order of their distance from of fi cial religion: alternative religion; subdogmatic religion; optional religion; and implicit religion. I refer to these ‘ unof fi cial’ forms of religion as ‘wild religion’.

The Virgin and the Dynamo: Use and Abuse of Religion in Environmental Debates by Robert Royal

328 BOOK REVIEWS but as a matrix of symbols which serves to re-contextualize one's experiences entirely" (135). Certainly. But without denying that Christian spirituality is not simply an inventory of the self (even the spiritual self!), and that it is inherently communal and generative of "concrete, historical meaning" (62)-thus Mcintosh's acknowledgment of the contributions of liberation and feminist theologies-might not we attend more to the pneumatological texture of Christian experience? In fact I believe that is where Mcintosh is directing us. Ifthere is a caveat here, it is simply that out of gratitude for his work we might also experience the Spirit anew where theology and spirituality blend together again. Marquette University Milwaukee, Wisconsin RALPH DEL COLLE The Virgin and the Dynamo: Use and Abuse of Religion in Environmental Debates. By ROBERTROYAL. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1999. Pp. xi + 271. $25.00 (paper). ISBN 0-8028-4468-5. When assessing this book it is important to bear in mind that Robert Royal is vice president for research and a senior fellow in religion and society at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., was assisted by George Weigel and Elliott Abrams in shaping its contents, and that a major part of the work derived from the author's delivering the Bradley lectures in 1997 at the American Enterprise Institute. As such it is less an integral whole than a series of essays edited with recurring themes. The author lays no claim to being a theologian. In the introduction he states "I am no theologian, and I do not think it would be wise to spend much time reading modern theology for enlightenment on environmental or other human problems" (9). Thus is the tone set for a wide ranging tour de force about the "use and abuse" of religion in environmental debates today. The book's title derives from Henry James's assertion that our age is torn between "the Virgin and the Dynamo." For James "the Virgin" is an image of the fullness of religious belief and human meaning as well as beauty and nature itself, representing a spirituality that James could no longer accept. James judged that "the Dynamo" was the efficient and powerful achievement of modern science and technology which had forever destroyed the plausibility of truths associated with the Virgin. The Dynamo had in effect become an alternative religion, unrecognized as such by most people, but dominant in its power and effects all the same. Royal uses this framework to characterize the BOOK REVIEWS 329 polarities evident in the stance of many authors on the role of religion and theology in environmental debates today. He rightly cautions that all too frequently some "environmentalists" assert a romantic opposition of nature to civilization. He asserts that his approach in this book does not fit easily in the usual dichotomy of environmentalism or developmentalism. This assertion rings true throughout the book's introduction (containing a most useful overview of the work) and seven chapters. More often than not Royal juxtaposes biblical insight with descriptions of evidences of today's ecological crises which concern, among other things, global warming, gas emissions, endangered species, wetland preservation, and the ozone layer. (These are summarized in the introduction and rather fully developed in the first part of chapter 3.) While affirming the command of Genesis that humans are to be stewards of creation Royal asserts that such an admonition "does not give us much concrete guidance" (2) in what to do about environmental crises today. True as far as it goes, this is the kind of assertion (which recurs throughout the book) by which Royal asserts that theology and religion ought to limit what is said and argued about what human stewards ought to do about the environment. Obviously those from a rich theological tradition such as Catholicism need to avoid any kind of "prooftexting" and fundamentalism of the biblical or any other sort. But is it not precisely the contribution of a living, teaching, theological tradition to face contemporary issues on the basis of the scriptural and magisterial tradition it represents? Royal often opts for the simplistic, dismissive comment and tone about theology and...

Alternative religion and outcome of alcohol dependence in Brazil

Alternative religion and outcome of alcohol dependence in Brazil

Satanism in Contemporary America: Establishment or Underground?

Sociological discourse has generally represented Satanism as a harmless, law-abiding alternative religion. Conversely, the antisocial and criminal aspects of Satanism have been the focus of most la...

Social Control in Alternative Religions: A Familial Perspective

This article highlights the pervasiveness of family models in both the theological self-conceptions of alternative religious organizations and the sociological scholarship on them. We argue that these models provide useful directions for studying alternative religions, since both institutions frequently enmesh their members in constraining social environments that facilitate the occurrence of sustained and systematic abuse. Noteworthy, therefore, is the failure of alternative religion scholars to incorporate insights from standard family violence literature in their analyses of various religious groups. We outline three approaches to family violence literature -- social structural, social systems, and feminist -- that provide explanations about why members remain in abusive social relationships. These explanations shed light on the reasons why members remain in abusive alternative religions, and they establish clear conceptual links between the sociology of religion and the sociology of the family.

Cults and the Ideology of Individualism in First Amendment Discourse

Ever since the Puritans sighted their earthly Paradise somewhere near Plymouth Rock, the New World has been a nesting ground for sects, cults, revivals and alternative religions, both homegrown and imported. Today's cult religious groups, such as the Unification Church or the Church of Scientology, are like their predecessors in offering their adherents not merely an alternative religion but an alternative life style. The English Puritans, for example, were a small sect, most of whose members lacked political and economic status in the dominant culture. Their religion offered them an alternative vision of human worth that required their removal from the larger culture and acceptance of a counter-cultural life, including homogeneity in dress and demeanor, and a daily regimen in which most of their thoughts and activities focused on the religious community and its goals. In return for their immersion in the sect, adherents were granted membership in a family of like-minded people and the sense that their lives had meaning and value.

The Renaissance Movement in the U.S.A. Today : an Account of Alternative Religion in Popular Media

L'auteur de cet article s'intéresse moins à la manière dont les masse-médias accordent une place au phénomène religieux qu'à la capacité qu'ont certains mouvements religieux d'utiliser les masse- médias populaires pour se propager. Il étudie pour ce faire le cas de «Renaissance Movement», l'un des nouveaux mouvements religieux qui, vers la fin des années 60, ont utilisé de manière très habile le discours et la musique comme instruments de propaga tion d'une religiosité du « nouvel âge ». Il y a plus dans ce cas qu'une simple instrumentalisation des médias: la véritable consti tution d'un message religieux au travers d'une pratique médiatique.