Religious Identity Formation Research Articles

环境因素对建立关系和宗教身份的影响∶中国研究生在美国两个社会文化环境中的个案分析

Linking concepts from networks, identities, and ecology, I draw on material collected during sixty interviews to show how a group of culturally homogeneous Chinese graduate students, when placed in two sociocultural environments in the United States, displayed different processes of religious identity network formation. In a large and heterogeneous community with more possible identities, students showed human agency by forming religious identities less constrained by networks. Human agency is also exemplified in the expansion of their religious circle of friends once they developed a religious identity. Religious identity often preceded networks. However, in a small and homogeneous community, students did emotion work to stay in pro-religious groups, presumably due to the limitations they had in choosing friends, particularly Chinese friends. The formation of networks more likely preceded the emergence of religious identities premised on the coexistence of multiple relationships in dyads and solidarity within primary groups. The narratives demonstrate how ecology matters for the formation of network ties and religious identity. 根据对60个对硕士博士研究生的采访，通过运用网络分析、身份研究、和环境研究领域的概念，本文详述同属一个文化的中国留学生当处于美国两个不同城市文化环境中时，通过生活圈子发展特定身份的不同过程。在一个大型、充满差异的城市里，留学生的身份选择具有多样性。其主体性表现在自主选择宗教认同并扩大有宗教信仰的朋友圈子。他们的宗教认同常常先于他们的宗教朋友圈。而在一个小型、倡导同化的城市里，由于可选择的中国朋友人数少，留学生常常通过控制自我感情来维系与亲宗教的朋友的关系。他们的宗教网络常常先于他们的宗教认同。在这种环境中，当两人有多重社会关系，并处于一个高度团结的小群体中时，宗教认同才得以传播。本研究显示社区规模和文化是重要的影响身份和社会网络的环境因素。 (This article is in English.)

The Quranic Noah and the Making of the Islamic Prophet. A Study of Intertextuality and Religious Identity Formation in Late Antiquity, written by Carlos A. Segovia

The Quranic Noah and the Making of the Islamic Prophet. A Study of Intertextuality and Religious Identity Formation in Late Antiquity, written by Carlos A. Segovia

Narrativas apócrifas e Linguagem religiosa como memória e sentidos das Comunidades Cristâs Primitivas, pela égide das Teorias da Linguagem.

<p>Os conceitos concebidos das Teorias da Linguagem tornam-se um material pedagógico e metodológico de fundamental importância para a análise da narrativa sagrada, onde o texto poderá ser interpretado e compreendido com outros significados e sentidos, a partir das diferentes experiências individuais e coletivas dos grupos religiosos cristãos, incorporados no exercício de memórias e na reelaboração de novas narrativas e que possibilitará a formação e a preservação das identidades socioculturais e religiosas. O estudo dos textos apócrifos se torna uma valiosa ferramenta metodológica de profunda relevância para a pesquisa do Cristianismo primitivo, definido e incorporado no conjunto das diferentes metodologias com força de equivalência e de complementaridade, firmado pelo seu caráter literário de gênero exótico e de diferenciação. É nessa perspectiva que aqui abordaremos a obra de Atos Apócrifos de André como contribuição para a pesquisa do Cristianismo primitivo e como forte expressão da construção das diferentes formas de linguagens religiosas.</p>

Role of saint's impairment in their religious identity formation

중세후기 성인들의 신체적 손상과 장애는 성인의 종교적 정체성을 확립하는데 결정적 역할을 하였다. 성인의 장애와 신체적 손상은 태생적인 경우와 후천적인 사고 등의 다양한 원인에서 기인하였다. 신체적 손상을 통한 장애를 가장 광범위하게 다루는 중세 자료는 성인전기 (hagiography)이다. 성인전기는 성인의 생애와 생전과 사후의 기적의 내용을 포함한다. 성인전기의 기적의 90%는 치료에 대한 내용이다. 그리고 성인전기에는 성인들의 고난의 내용을 담은 삶에 대한 기록을 살펴볼 수 있다. 성인전기를 통해서보면 성인들이 의도적으로 예수의 고난에 참여한다는 의미로 신체적 장애를 경험하기를 간절하게 원하여 기도하는 것을 볼 수 있다. 그리고 프란체스코와 같은 경우는 심각한 시각장애를 경험하지만 치료를 거부하고 시각장애를 선택하는 것을 볼 수 있다. 또는 로욜라와 같은 몇 성인들의 경우는 군인으로 전쟁에서 심각한 손상을 입고 장애로 삶을 살아가는데 이러한 과정에서 자신들의 종교적인 정체성을 찾는 것을 볼 수 있다. 그리고 태생적으로 심각한 장애를 가지고 태어난 성인들의 경우 (대부분의 성인들은 귀족출신임) 가족으로부터 버림을 받지만, 장애를 통해서 종교적인 정체성을 확립하는 것을 볼 수 있다. 중세에는 장애를 죄의 결과로 이해하였다는 것이 상식적인 수준에서 받아들여지지만, 실제로 11세기 이후의 작품이나 성인전기에서는 장애를 죄의 결과로 이해하는 것을 거의 찾아 볼 수 없었다. 그뿐 아니라 성인들은 예수의 수난에 동참하기를 원하는 가장 이상적인 것으로 신체적 손상이나 장애를 경험하는 것을 볼 수 있다. 장애는 중세 성인들에게 있어서 종교인이 추구해야하는 가장 이상화된 삶의 형태로 받아들여졌다.

RELIGIOUS IDENTIFICATION AND SOCIAL DISTANCE BETWEEN RELIGIOUS GROUPS IN YOGYAKARTA

This paper explains how political, religious, and economic changes in Yogyakarta affect the formation of religious identity and social distance between different religious groups. The strengthening of religious identity in this area took place in the period of the Diponegoro War (1825-1830) when religious issues were used in the mobilization against the Dutch colonialist. Then, the spread of Christianity in Java at the end of 19th led to several tensions between missionaries and several Islamic organizations, but never developed into communal violence. In 1930s, the relation between religious groups remain harmonious due to the development of tolerant culture and pluralism. During the 1980s, the use of religious identity grew both in urban and rural areas in line with social processes of modernization. Da’wat activities on Campus (Lembaga Dakwah Kampus) plays important roles in promoting religious life in urban areas. The 1998 political reform marked the rise of religious fundamentalist movements that to a certain degree contributes to social distance between religious groups.

From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the Arab Conquest by Maged S. A. Mikhail

Reviewed by: From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the Arab Conquest by Maged S. A. Mikhail Lev Weitz From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt: Religion, Identity and Politics after the Arab Conquest. By Maged S. A. Mikhail. [Library of Middle East History, vol. 45.] (London: I. B. Tauris; distrib. Palgrave. 2014. Pp. xiii, 429. $100.00. ISBN 978-1-848-85938-8.) Maged Mikhail’s From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt examines the transformations in Egyptian society, religion, and politics occasioned by the Arab-Muslim conquests of the seventh century. It is an ambitious undertaking. In twelve chapters spanning the seventh to the tenth centuries, the book seeks to examine an extensive range of historiographically significant subjects. These include relations between the conquerors and indigenous Christian elites; religious conversion; linguistic change; Muslim rulers’ reforms to the Byzantine administrative system; law and justice in the cities and countryside; the settlement and evolution of Egypt’s Muslim population; relations with the churches of Nubia, Ethiopia, and Syria; the reconstitution of ecclesiastical authority under Muslim rule; and the practical and discursive construction of Coptic, Melkite, and local Muslim religious identities. In many respects, the book succeeds in accomplishing its ambitious goals. Its greatest strength is its full use of the exceptionally wide range of textual sources Egypt has to offer—narrative texts in both Coptic and Arabic, as well as Greek, Arabic, and Coptic documentary papyri—in the service of its broad historical vision. The source material and historiographical debates related to Egypt are extensive enough that the subject of any of the book’s chapters could be a monograph of its own. Mikhail’s signal contribution is to bring such a diverse array of material together to offer both compelling and coherent syntheses of his chosen topics and a number of new arguments of his own. Chapter 9’s discussion of the Coptic Church’s relations with Nubia and Ethiopia is noteworthy; Mikhail ably makes the case that those relations fundamentally structured the Coptic hierarchy’s political position vis-à-vis the Muslim rulers back in Egypt. Although other provinces of the early Islamic caliphate have received treatments comparable in their breadth (Michael Morony’s seminal Iraq after the Muslim Conquest [Princeton, 1984] comes to mind), Egypt was surely in need of one. Mikhail has made an important contribution in this regard. From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt will be most readily accessible to specialists in late antiquity and early Islam. On the whole, its chapters tend to dive straight into historiographical debates; students or nonspecialists might want to read a more general history before engaging with Mikhail’s arguments. Certain limitations arise in the book’s approach to the formation of communal religious identities. Mikhail frequently and laudably objects to primordialist narratives of Egyptian history (although which contemporary scholars actually hold such views is not always clear), and tends to emphasize the constructedness of religious identities. Despite this framework, however, the book uses the terms Coptic and Melkite interchangeably with anti-Chalcedonian and pro-Chalcedonian throughout. This becomes problematic at times. For example, Mikhail justly argues that Coptic religious elites began to portray Byzantine rule as exclusively persecutory only in the [End Page 379] ninth century and that doing so was an effort to define the Church’s place in both the Egyptian past and the Islamic order (p. 36). It would have been useful, however, to consider whether indigenizing discourses like this played some role in producing the very idea of Coptic Christianity as a discrete religious tradition and in transforming anti-Chalcedonian Egyptians into Copts as an ethno-religious category. In this respect, the book’s terminological conventions sometimes obscure the cultural transformations it otherwise documents so well. These limitations are not an indictment of the book’s overall quality. It is a very impressive success to provide both broad syntheses and detailed examinations of a topic so vital to the history of the Middle East and Christianity. From Byzantine to Islamic Egypt is a welcome contribution to the historiography of the early Islamic world, Coptic Christianity, and late-antique and medieval Egypt. Lev Weitz The Catholic University of America Copyright © 2016 The Catholic University of America Press

Ancient Wilderness Mythologies—The Case of Space and Religious Identity Formation in the Gospel of Matthew

Abstract This article discusses the nexus of religion and wilderness by analyzing the reception and transformation of wilderness mythology from The Hebrew Bible in early Christian literature. It focuses on the impact of the Torah wilderness space on religious identity formation in the gospel of Matthew. Drawing on theories of social space and narrativity, the article compares the Torah wilderness space with that of Matthew and argues that wilderness mythology is of central importance for how the gospel of Matthew becomes effective as a religious text, which strives to form religious identity and practice.

A Comparative Method for Sixteenth-Century Polemicists: Cults, Devotions, and the Formation of Early Modern Religious Identities

This article retraces the roots of the modern comparative history of religions to the sixteenth-century controversy between Catholics and Protestants. By looking at one case study, that of a treatise on cults and devotions by Heinrich Bullinger, one of the most important Swiss Reformers of the early Reformation, it will show how the confrontational method of comparison inherent in the Christian tradition of religious polemics became a flexible means of creating and defending different religious identities. This change allowed both the reinforcement of confessional boundaries between Catholics and Protestants, and, unintentionally, made it possible to place the Christian idea of truth in context. By broadening the perspective to another religious history of the period, the Apologética historia sumaria by Bartolomé de las Casas, the article will identify a common line of thought in sixteenth-century comparative history of religions, which paved the way for the reconsideration of religious phenomena through a careful readaptation of patristic and classical thought.

Детерминанты формирования религиозности личности

Детерминанты формирования религиозности личности

Doubts about Religious Education in public schooling

This article considers potential problems concerning Religious Education in public (state-funded) secondary schools in England in order to inform ongoing debates about religion in public education in the United States and elsewhere. Findings of empirical studies conducted in England are discussed in relation to arguments that critique Religious Education. It is argued that Religious Education as it is currently conceived and practised in England may be problematic for religious believers because it can misrepresent and critique religions, particularly Christianity. It is also suggested that the subject may be confused in its aims and purpose because it is not based upon any theological or religious authority. It is suggested that these problems may present challenges to religious identity formation among adolescents and therefore may be a cause of concern for religious communities.

Lietuviškosios religinės tapatybės raiškos užuomazgos ir jų ženklai XVII amžiaus LDK poezijoje: M. K. Sarbievijaus religinės tematikos tekstai

The subject-matter of this research is a Latin religious poetry written at the 17th century, primarily by Jesuit authors, in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The texts analysed in the paper are seen as important to the further formation of Lithuanian religious identity and its poetical expression. It is possible to trace the influence of some Baroque Latin texts, especially of those written by M. C. Sarbievius (Sarbiewski), the most popular Latin poet in Lithuania through following centuries, on the religious poetry of the 19th century. Some topics, as presented in the later religious texts and often being explained as a mere reflection of Romantic discourse, seem to be derived from the baroque expression.

Creating Space to Engage Black Pentecostal Clients in Multicultural Counselling Practices

The Pentecostal worship tradition has been a neglected topic in literature on religious diversity. This tradition, including the practice of speaking in tongues (glossolalia), plays an essential role in the lives of Black Pentecostals. The goal of this paper is to acknowledge the importance of worship practices in the formation of religious and spiritual identities of Black Pentecostals. Key strategies for working with this faith group are outlined, with suggestions for multicultural counselling.

Minahasa Identity: A Culinary Practice

The geographic area I will focus on is the Minahasa region in North Sulawesi. There, in the eighteenth century the eight 'tribes' inhabiting the area were united into a single 'ethnic group' known as 'Minahasa' until today. Not only the Dutch colonial government but also the Protestant church put great efforts into this unifying and homogenizing process that was supposed to create a common identity for all Minahasan people. The effectiveness of those efforts can hardly be denied. Nevertheless, internal differences have continued to exist and they are based not only on 'traditional' concepts that divided the 'original' Minahasan tribes but also on the local population's experiences with immigrants from other parts of Indonesia and overseas (e.g. the Philippines and China). Although this is not a recent phenomenon, political and socio-economic developments during the last few years have had further impacts on demographic conditions and relations between different ethnic and religious 'groups'. Thus, the Minahasa-like other 'ethnic groups' in Indonesia-are confronted with a double binding of supposed needs and requests for diversity under a unifying umbrella-on the regional as well as national level. The paper will address the 'problem' from the perspective of a rural community in the south-eastern part of the region. Hence, local concepts of identity, their constructions and markers in everyday life, as being manifested in food and clothing for instance, will be given special consideration. It will also be taken into account that the media (esp. television) plays an important role in the formation and representation of ethnic and religious identity. The paper aims at showing how 'unity' and 'diversity' in this context are produced and reproduced on the village level and its relation to the national discourse.

Identitas Minahasa: Sebuah Praktik Kuliner

The geographic area I will focus on is the Minahasa region in North Sulawesi. There, in the eighteenth century the eight 'tribes' inhabiting the area were united into a single 'ethnic group' known as 'Minahasa' until today. Not only the Dutch colonial government but also the Protestant church put great efforts into this unifying and homogenizing process that was supposed to create a common identity for all Minahasan people. The effectiveness of those efforts can hardly be denied. Nevertheless, internal differences have continued to exist and they are based not only on 'traditional' concepts that divided the 'original' Minahasan tribes but also on the local population's experiences with immigrants from other parts of Indonesia and overseas (e.g. the Philippines and China). Although this is not a recent phenomenon, political and socio-economic developments during the last few years have had further impacts on demographic conditions and relations between different ethnic and religious 'groups'. Thus, the Minahasa-like other 'ethnic groups' in Indonesia-are confronted with a double binding of supposed needs and requests for diversity under a unifying umbrella-on the regional as well as national level. The paper will address the 'problem' from the perspective of a rural community in the south-eastern part of the region. Hence, local concepts of identity, their constructions and markers in everyday life, as being manifested in food and clothing for instance, will be given special consideration. It will also be taken into account that the media (esp. television) plays an important role in the formation and representation of ethnic and religious identity. The paper aims at showing how 'unity' and 'diversity' in this context are produced and reproduced on the village level and its relation to the national discourse.

Can One Person Belong to Two Faiths? The Experience of Three Catholic Monks

In the last decade, the question of multireligious identity has begun to receive academic attention. In particular, scholars are beginning to explore examples of people who have experienced two religious traditions equally seriously – that is, the experience of ‘double religious belonging’. This paper reframes, in the light of the notion of double belonging, the lives and experiences of three Roman Catholic priests and monks who moved from Europe to India in the twentieth century and are regarded as ‘founders’ of the Saccidananda Ashram in South India, while providing insights on how we understand double religious identity and the process of religious identity formation.

“Coming Out Religiously!” Religion, the Public Sphere, and Religious Identity Formation

In this Presidential Address 2013 the author's plea is threefold. First, to strive for a legitimate place of religions and worldviews in the public square within the playing field of liberal-democratic societies. Second, to foster the religious or worldview identity formation of students as an inclusive part of the embracing personhood formation for all students in both public and denominational schools, and to strengthen the development of their self responsible self-determination in respect to religions and worldviews. Third, dialogue, encounter, and understanding each other should be seen as the devices, instead of policies and practices fostered by anxiety, fear, and disrespect. Thus, pedagogues, politicians, administrators, teachers, and leaders of religious and worldview communities and societal organizations should join forces for the best educational arrangements to let the religious and worldview identity formation of students flourish. This will also be beneficial for the common good, for society broadly speaking.

WE ARE FROM THE SAME ANCESTORS: CHRISTIAN-MUSLIM RELATIONS IN CONTEMPORAY ACEH SINGKIL

The following Paper discusses the Muslim-Christian relations in Aceh Singkil Regency as well as the process of religious identity formation in the context of the debate over the Islamic Sharia in Aceh. First of all I will present the overview of the socio-political context of the regulations of Islamic jurisprudence in Aceh and the position of non-Muslims in such regulations. Next, I will trace the impact of the regulations on the format of the Muslim-Christian relations. Based on the Goffman theory of dramaturgy, this paper found that Muslim-Christian relations in Singkil were a complex narrative, often opposite between the appearance of the front stageand the backstage. Amid suspicions of the majority of the Aceh Singkil Muslims and the local Government of the existence of Christians, Interfaith communities at the grassroots level are precisely trying to build harmony and co-existence. I conclude that the consciousness about the similarities of ethnic origins has so far contributed effectivelyto suppressing the conflict between the two religions in Aceh Singkil.
 
 Keywords: Ethnicity, Muslim-Christian Relations, Aceh Singkil

The stages of formation of religious identity

І.М. Klimuk. The stages of formation of religious identity. This paper analyzes the features of formation of religious identity of personality. The specificity of the religious identity of individuals at different stages of age are found out. The author considers the evolution of the interrelation of the individual identity with its religious identity.

Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism: Resistance, Identity, and religious Change in Israel by Yael Israel-Cohen (review)

Reviewed by: Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism: Resistance, Identity, and religious Change in Israel by Yael Israel-Cohen Margalit Shilo Bar-Ilan Between Feminism and Orthodox Judaism: Resistance, Identity, and religious Change in Israel Yael Israel-Cohen . Brill: Leiden, Boston, 2012. 149 pp. The main aim of Yael Israel-Cohen's book, the product of a PhD dissertation at Tel Aviv University, is to present the relatively new phenomenon of Israeli modern Orthodox women who struggle with the oxymoron of Jewish Orthodoxy and feminism. The author is a sociologist who analyzes these women's religious conceptions, identity formation, and various strategies for solving their inner conflict, as adherents to a patriarchal religion who resist its patriarchal nature. Israel-Cohen bases her study on theoretical writings concerning the question of religions and feminism and on 45 interviews with men and women who are active members of some innovative organizations who deal with this oxymoron. The book is well written and the many citations from the interviews are illuminating. I have to admit that since I am both orthodox and feminist, I was among the interviewees. Moreover, I was an active member of the most prominent organization which is dealt with extensively in this book—Kolech—and I also published a number of papers discussing Kolech. For someone who is not acquainted with this topic, Israel-Cohen's book is an eye opener. In her introduction the author discusses the nature of religious change in modern times. It sheds light on Jewish Orthodoxy's stagnation or sometimes even its retreat concerning its attitude towards the status of women. The author explains that the rabbis' attitude towards women is not only a result of halachic considerations, but not less so seeing women's inferior halachic status as a symbol of adherence to the Orthodox way of life. Modern Orthodox women dwell in a paradoxical world. They are considered equal partners in the secular world, but in their religious public sphere, they are considered inferior. How can they bridge the gap which lies between their two worlds? The author focuses mainly on the female voice, and on the ideas and actions which women developed in order to be able to live in their religious Orthodox world, while trying to reshape it. The book describes new egalitarian synagogues, new institutions which promote women's Talmudic learning, new professions, like halachic consultants and female advocates in the religious courts, and above all, a new women's organization, Kolech, (your voice). Kolech's aim is to solve problems, like those of deserted women (agunot), prenuptial agreements, and many other issues including the problem of Orthodox women's right to practice as rabbis. Most of the activists mentioned in the research are learned women who based their demands on a halachic basis. Israel-Cohen points out [End Page 145] their two strategies: passive resistance, which tries to avoid clashes with the rabbis, and active resistance, which causes some harsh clashes with the rabbinic establishment. Both strategies have brought about some desired outcomes. Passive resistance raised the consciousness of men and women alike to women's agony at being looked down at. Active resistance was instrumental in founding new creative ways to introduce equality into Orthodox rituals. Perhaps the best known achievement is the egalitarian synagogue named Shira Chadasha (a new song), in which women take part in reading the Torah for all the congregation together, men and women. This raised a lot of controversy, but it also attracted a few hundred followers and was the trailblazer of around twenty more similar synagogues around the world. Israel-Cohen concludes that both strategies, the passive and the active, were influential in promoting women's equality in the modern Orthodox world. The author asks, why do these feminist women cling to Orthodoxy, even though they completely negate its patriarchal basis? The interviewees admitted that their attachment to their Orthodox community and their attachment to their Orthodox way of life outweighed their feminism. Moreover, they explained that their wish totransform Orthodoxy was conceived by them as a way of Tikkun Olam, of improving the world. This research's interesting conclusion is that analyzing the issue of Orthodoxy and feminism shows the emerging...

Teachers and the religious socialization of adolescents: Facilitation of meaningful religious identity formation processes

This study investigated the effects of religious education on student religious identity over and above parent religiosity by examining student perceptions of two aspects of teacher functioning: teacher caring and teacher as role-model. We posited that effects of these variables on students' religious identity are mediated by student perceptions that the school provides a non-alienating religious atmosphere and meaningful religious studies. Participants were 2691 male and female students (grades 9–12) in 152 classes of 25 schools from the Jewish public-religious sector in Israel. Results indicate that in addition to their parents' religiosity, adolescents' perceptions of their teachers as role models and their religious studies as meaningful are important variables affecting their religious identity. Moreover, this research suggests that religious identity formation processes flourish in an educational environment which students perceive as accommodating religious exploration.