Disciplines Of Religion Research Articles

American utopias in the 19th century: Religious versus ideological farms in the west of the United States

This is a critical-hermeneutical and historical-comparative study on Political Economy, Economic History and Social Thought, applied to the American utopias in the 19th century and its role in the colonisation of the United States (US) west. This review is based on a heterodox economic approach, used in the disciplines of Religion and Economics. It gives a general view of religious and ideological utopias, as cooperative enterprises of intentional life in farms and workshop, making a comparative analysis of efficiency and sustainability. This study attempts to explain the colonial paradox of American utopias because the last established, with more inversion, they were the first to fall. This study shapes the development of the western territories, from the Quaker’s Holy Experiment framework and its support for the utopias experiments in the expansion to Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.Contribution: This review offers a descriptive and explanatory study on the colonisation of the US west, under the hermeneutical turn from heterodox economic approaches, to deal with some current contradictions and anachronism in the mainstream view. Also, there is a systematisation of the American utopias, divided into religious and ideological experiments, with a comparison.

Qur’anic Studies between University Theology and the Humanities: A Field Worth Cultivating?

ABSTRACTThis essay considers some of the past, present and possible future contexts and prospects of qur'anic studies in a Western academic context, particularly within the contested confines of so-called university theology and its sister disciplines of religion and cultural studies. It argues that qur'anic studies can and should cross – but not leave – its traditional borders within the humanities and re-engage with theological studies, and vice versa. This also includes a plea for a new recognition of committed and experimental readings, since scholarship inevitably implies an element of intervention and engagement, even when pursued with the strictest ideals of objectivity or fairness in mind. Therefore, a number of motivations for a renewed relevance of qur'anic studies within the orbit of university theology are adduced.

Minorities in Islam/Muslims as minorities

The author would like to thank the following Wake Forest University departments, programs, and offices for making the conference out of which these articles were drawn possible: the Middle East and South Asia Studies, the C.H. Richards Fund of the Department of Politics and International Affairs, the Center for International Studies, the Carswell Fund of the Department of Philosophy, the Humanities Institute, and the Provost’s Global Affairs Funds. The author would further like to thank the editors of Contemporary Islam and the many anonymous reviewers whose comments and feedback contributed to the further development of these articles. In October 2012, Wake Forest University brought together 25 scholars from across the globe and across the disciplines of religion, anthropology, politics, literature, and sociology for a 3-day conference entitled “Minorities in Islam/Muslims as Minorities.” The conference theme was premised on bringing together two rich and burgeoning areas of inquiry that often seem to be working or thinking through their topic separately: one which aims to enrich our understanding of the experience of Muslims as minorities and another which examines the engagement of Muslims with minorities. The themes of this conference are central to Contemporary Islam, as it demonstrates the interaction between local and global in—and the dynamic character of-contemporary Islamic thought and practice. Some papers (such as Warren and Gilmore’s) deal more with theory, others focus a bit more on practice (such as Leichman’s), and some treat theory and practice in near equal measure (such as Shavit’s and Burhani’s). However, the four papers from that conference, published here for the first time, each speak in various ways to the intersection of Islamic thought and practice on the topic—as well as the ways in which Islamic thought and practice is today a translocal phenomenon, crossing boundaries of Sunni and Shi‘i, and expanding from the Middle East to Africa to Asia to Europe and beyond. The status of Muslim minorities residing in non-Muslim contexts is not a new topic for Islamic thinkers. Abu-Salieh’s study of “The Islamic Concept of Migration” demonstrates how such classical Islamic jurists such as Muhammad Ibn Idris al-Shafi‘i (767–820) and Muwaffaq al-Din Ibn Qudama (1147–1223) both maintained that, in general, “Muslims living in dar al-harb [the land of war; land not governed by Cont Islam (2014) 8:211–215 DOI 10.1007/s11562-014-0299-6

Mapping Interdisciplinary Communication Between the Disciplines of Religion and Public Health in the Context of HIV/AIDS in Africa

While there has been a massive surge of interest and grey literature publication on religion and development and religion and health, especially at an international advocacy level, the academic disciplinary processes for such work remains poorly clarified – and largely uncritical. This paper examines the interdisciplinary intersection of religion and public health (using the example of research on HIV/AIDS in Africa), and considers lingering clashes of disciplinary cultures and power that continue to make collaboration in this space a challenge.

The Religious Philosophy of Jean Price-Mars

Jean Price-Mars was a towering figure in the discipline of Africana studies and a passionate proponent of the revalorization of African retentions in the Black diaspora, especially on Haitian soil. Scholars have identified him as the Francophone counterpart of W. E. B. Du Bois for his activism, scholarly rigor, leadership efficiency, and efforts in the rehabilitation of the Black race. In Haitian thought, he is regarded as the most important Haitian intellectual in the 20th century, having exercised an enduring intellectual influence on the generation of the American occupation in Haiti (1915-1934) and the postoccupation culture from the 1930s to 1970s. While students of Haitian studies and scholars of religion have praised him for his scientific study of the Vodou faith and his intelligent argument for the viability of Vodou as religion, few critics have analyzed the complexity of his religious imagination and ideas. The goal of this essay is to analyze Price-Mars’s engagements with religion beyond the religion of Vodou. Particularly, it will focus on his philosophy of religion and his thought on the nature of belief. The author contends that Price-Mars’s support of cultural relativism theory had shaped his view on religious métissage and religious diversity. The author draws primarily from the religious rhetoric of So Spoke the Uncle and his other works. The author argues to view Price-Mars as a postmodernist religious thinker and a religious syncretist. This essay will show what and how Price-Mars contributed to the disciplines of religion, religious pluralism, and cultural studies and his promotion of religious tolerance.

Citation Characteristics and Intellectual Acceptance of Scholarly Monographs

The present study investigates citations to 750 randomly selected scholarly monographs in disciplines of religion, history, psychology, economics, mathematics, and physics. The objective of the study is to understand distributions of citations to scholarly monographs in various disciplines, to explore disciplinary difference in the citing of books, and to compare citations to monographs with previous results on citations to journal articles. The data revealed interesting citation patterns and aging effects that are in several aspects different from citation data based on the journal literature. While the distribution trend of monographic uncitedness is similar to that of journals across the disciplines, the noncitation ratios are much lower than what has been reported about journal citations. Half-life measures of scientific monographs are greater than those in the humanities and social sciences; this contradicts previous findings. Citation frequency and Price's Index vary from discipline to discipline, and the most significant linear contract occurred between disciplines of religion, history, and economics as one group and psychology, mathematics, and physics as another. When using periods of intellectual acceptance as the unit of analysis, significant disciplinary differences emerged both in terms of citation frequency and the number of books cited. Significant differences also appeared between earlier periods of intellectual acceptance that are within the first 10 years following the original publication year and longer ages of survival that are beyond 10 years.

ANIMALS AS KIN: THE RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE OF MARC BEKOFF'S WORK

Abstract. Although the disciplines of religion and science often may seem to be at cross purposes with each other, some individuals are attempting to bridge the gap, particularly with regard to animals. Cognitive ethologist Marc Bekoff, who studies animals in their natural habitat, has addressed in his work the implications of the findings of animal study for religion and ethics. I provide here an overview of some of his most important ideas for the study of religion and animals. Bekoff argues that the differences between humans and animals are primarily ones of degree rather than kind and that our similarities are greater than our differences-and that this reality should influence our actions. I explore three issues in particular. First, Bekoff's work, with his view of evolution, challenges the traditional Christian hierarchy of beings. Second, this evolutionary connection needs to move us in the direction of modifying our treatment of animals to make it more ethical. Third, our understanding of and relationship with animals can deepen our own spirituality. Applying some of Bekoff's findings to our religious and ethical understandings of and treatment of animals can move us closer to the peaceable kingdom toward which we all strive.

The Passion to Heal: A Theological Pastoral Approach to HIV/AIDS

Abstract. The global pandemic of HIV/AIDS is the most significant challenge of our time. The ongoing conversation between religion and science comes to a critical juncture in this pandemic. The global community has not yet found a vaccine or cure for this virulent virus, which will likely claim five million more lives in the coming year. The global statistics challenge even the most sophisticated imagination, with projections in the tens of millions of people dead, orphaned children, and many more living in various stages of incapacitation or diminished lives. There is a common prophetic religious imperative among Western faith communities that urgently requires both science and religion to respond. Both disciplines define their scope and purpose as universal, and the global pandemic provides a significant challenge to that universal claim. Regardless of the many differences among the nations and peoples challenged by this pandemic, there is a common moral foundation to which the Western religious and scientific traditions must respond. Religion and science cannot deny their respective social responsibilities by claiming the role of neutral bystander. There are several critical ethical choices to be made in response to the pandemic, and the disciplines of religion and science are critical in formulating those choices.

The relevance of archaeology to the study of ancient West Semitic religion

Abstract The paper attempts to reveal a general picture of the state‐of‐the‐art in the disciplines of religion, West Semitic studies, archaeological history and field archaeology in order to shed some light on the future prospects of archaeology for the study of religion. The widespread use of inductive procedures in the fields of religion and archaeology no longer allows us to be satisfied with a temples‐and‐texts concept of ancient West Semitic religions for which archaeology is of little or no significance. On the other hand, a rigorous archaeological procedure is far from being universal in the homelands of those religions. Therefore, we can see that a state of limbo exists and the only real prospect for the future is that archaeology becomes relevant by becoming free.

Problems in the Study of African Independent Churches

Increasing attention is being paid to the study of that large section of modern religious phenomena in sub-Saharan Africa variously known as prophet movements, syncretist cults, separatist sects, or independent churches. These have attracted considerable interest from anthropologists, historians, sociologists, and political scientists, who have quite properly employed their own methods and categories, and faced their own problems of procedure. Too often those with training in the disciplines of religion and theology have adopted a sociological or anthropological approach, or have been satisfied with a general survey and a minimum of interpretation, so that these movements have seldom been examined by the phenomenologist or historian of religion, or analysed and interpreted by the Christian theologian. If, however, these modern developments are primarily religious in nature, rather than political or cultural reactions to the changing situation in Africa of the past century, and if their religious content is in many cases identifiable as Christian rather than as Islamic or pagan -traditional, then it is essential that they be studied as Christian religious phenomena by means of the appropriate religious and theological disciplines. In this essay an attempt is made to identify the particular problems that arise in such a study, and although many of these will be familiar to all who have engaged in research on the living forms of religion the familiar problems are liable to assume a different complexion when they arise in the African context. This is especially true for the student who seeks to understand these movements as forms of the Christian church, and who therefore comes into fullest contact with the phenomena and reaches the deepest understanding if he himself is a member of some Christian communion, and makes this explicit in his relationship with the group he is investigating. This is one of the implications of the fully scientific theologcal method, but it raises