Modern Religion Research Articles

Pragmaticism, Science, and Theology or How to Answer the Riddle of the Sphinx?

This text is written in the honor of my scholarly friend John Deely, discussing the claims regarding the relation of modern science and religion put forth in Ashley and Deely, How Science Enriches Theology. I view it as the confrontation of a Peircean and a Thomist philosophical view of modern science and its relation to religion. I argue that the book demonstrates the problems inherent in the dialogue between a Thomist theist and a Peircean panentheist process view. Furthermore, that they are central to the contemporary philosophy of science discussion of the relation between the types of knowledge produced in the sciences and in theology. The important choice seems to be whether the link between science and religion should be based on a panentheist process concept of the divine as arising from a pure zero or on a theology with a personal god as the absolute and eternal source. I argue that Peirce’s triadic semiotic process philosophy is a unique form of panentheism in the way it draws on a combination of Schelling, Unitarianism, plus Emerson, and the transcendentalist’s spiritual ecumenical reading of Buddhist emptiness ontology and non-dualist Advaita Vedanta. This and Peirce’s synechism produce a non-confessional theological process philosophy. The surprising conclusion is that, because of its extended process philosophical grounding in emptiness, this panentheism does not assume any supernatural quality about the divine force of reasoning that drives Cosmogony. Rather Peirce’s pragmaticist formulation stands out as a true non-reductionist alternative to logical positivism’s reductionist unity science, especially in its form of mechanicism based on a concept of transcendental absolute law. The panentheism process view is also an alternative to the many forms of radical constructivism and postmodernism on the other hand. This is one of the reasons why Deely insightfully named Peirce the first true postmodernist.

Death in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: The Material and Spiritual Conditions of the Culture of Death ed. by Albrecht Classen

Reviewed by: Death in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: The Material and Spiritual Conditions of the Culture of Death ed. by Albrecht Classen Stephen Gordon KEY WORDS Stephen Gordon, Albrecht Classen, end of life studies, death, early modern magic, early modern religion, Medieval religion, religion in the Middle Ages albrecht classen, ed. Death in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times: The Material and Spiritual Conditions of the Culture of Death. Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016. Pp. vi + 545. The cultural conception of death is a topic that bears strong resonance for researchers on the supernatural. With contributions from scholars working in the fields of art history, history, literary studies, and drama, the nineteen chapters comprising Death in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Times provide a truly multidisciplinary framework for understanding how premodern populaces perceived and managed the physical/spiritual issues surrounding death. Beginning with an introductory chapter by the editor, Albrecht Classen, the essays themselves are arranged in a roughly chronological rather than disciplinary or thematic order, ranging from the early Middle Ages to the late eighteenth-century. Chapter 2 by John M. Hill begins with an analysis of heroic death in Old English poetry and prose, focusing on how texts such as Beowulf and The Battle of Maldon memorialize fallen heroes. Acting as an obverse to these self-consciously literary representations, the following chapter by Mary Louise Fellows explores how the evidence from wills can tell us a great deal about how death was understood and ritualized in the rhythms of daily Anglo-Saxon life. The Liber Eliensis—a twelfth-century chronicle that contains an account of the will-making rituals of a certain “Siferth” (c. 975)—is the main case study under discussion. Taking leave of Anglo-Saxon England (and, indeed, written sources), Rosemarie Danziger (Chapter 4) re-evaluates the false, painted arch incorporated into the vault of Saint-Savin-sur-Gartempe in Poitou, France (c. 1151). As well as serving to mask a serious design flaw, Danziger argues that the arch’s ornamentations—busts of anonymous saints—act as exemplars of martyrdom and how to die well. Moving from “good” death to “bad” death, the following chapter by Katharina Baier and Warner Schäfke examines the Icelandic belief in the walking corpse, discussing how “revenant” stories can be grouped into four distinct typological units: Christian revenants that walk after death until receiving proper burial; unsocial/heathen revenants whose defeat promotes Christian values; revenants whose [End Page 125] destruction functions as a test of heroic/politic power; and revenants that foreshadow the death of other characters. The next series of essays concerns material from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Nurit Golan (Chapter 6) explores the use of cosmological iconography on the north portal of Freiburg Minster, specifically how the synthesis of scientific theory and theological thought advertised the erudition of the local lay populace. Whereas Golan focuses on a single case study, Jean E. Jost (Chapter 7), embarks on a micro-historical survey of the ways in which the traumas of the Black Death (c. 1348) were made manifest in religion, literature, and art. This, indeed, acts as a useful jumping off point for Dominique DeLuca’s essay (Chapter 8) on the didactic meanings attached to “double macabre” portraits, where viewers are invited to ruminate on the transient nature of mortality though the juxtaposition of images of the living and the rotting, worm-filled dead. Similarly, Jost’s essay provides context for Daniel F. Pigg’s explorations into the use of Eucharistic parody in Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale (Chapter 9), where, famously taking place during a time of plague, Pigg notes that the protagonists kill each other after performing a series of “mock masses.” Chaucer was not the only medieval author to use death as a vehicle for satire. Albrecht Classen’s essay (Chapter 10) examines a previously unheralded German debate poem, Des Teufels Netz (“The Devil’s Net,” c. 1414–1418). Operating in a similar vein to the near-contemporary danse macabre motif (281), Des Teufels Netz details the types of sins committed by each social class, gender, and age group—a comprehensive form of estates satire—and warns the reader about the...

Is Pacifism an Ideology?

This article takes up the current debate on populism and democracy and deals with the philosophical critique that the twentieth-century idea of pacifism represents an (apolitical) ideology, the misguided nature of which must be debunked. In this context, the term ideology is referred to with a post-Marxist understanding, which interprets ideology as a collective fantasy structuring our social reality by way of a practice of disguise. Hence, the question will be raised as to whether modern religions, such as neo-Buddhism or Christianity, are well advised to appropriate the idea of pacifism in order to renew their imaginary register of peace and non-violence. In conclusion, it will be argued that the imagination and promise of a peaceful community is among the biblical motives that are the source of Christian faith. However, in order to prevent a political force from turning into an ideology, biblical motives have to be interpreted from the perspective of a negative Christology, which sees pacifism as an impossible project and thus liberates us from the pitfalls of human desire.

Spiritualitas Sains Modern: Pembacaan Terhadap Relasi Agama dan Sains

Modern science receives a diverse response from the religionists. This is motivated by the reading of religious texts which are often contrary to recent science research. Modern science advancement is not connected with spirituality improments. Spirituality becomes another dimension of science. In that situation, the integration theory of Ian G. Barbour tries to unravel the patterns of modern science and religion relation. There are four types of relationships: conflict; independent; dialog; and integration. This approach is rarely implemented in the realm of Islamic studies. This research seeks to implement the approach in Islamic studies by using descriptive-analytical method. The authors found the tendency of Muslim scientists more dominant in the exploration of Islamic studies than scientific aspect. So the dominant relation between science and religion is conflict; dialogue and natural theology. The factors are the educational background of Muslim scientists who are dominant in religious studies; limitations of interdisciplinary study and lack of openness and renewal of views (tajdīd) on religious texts.

David Loewenstein and Michael Witmore, eds. Shakespeare and Early Modern Religion

David Loewenstein and Michael Witmore, eds. <i>Shakespeare and Early Modern Religion</i>

Paths to Modernity and the Secularization Issue

Abstract In the lively debate of the last two decades about the validity of the ‘secularization thesis’, the comparison between Europe and the USA plays a central role. The high level of religiosity beyond the Atlantic has put under pressure the assumption of the loss of importance of religion in modernity, which had been prevalent for a long time. In this debate, the connection between the differentiation theory and sociology of religion, which has already been discussed by the classics of the discipline, has attracted too little attention. This article takes up this desideratum and proposes, following Max Weber, a theory of differentiation which is able to cover the variety of religious processes. This proposed analysis will be made concrete with reference to the different paths to modernity of Europe and the USA and the related importance of religion.

Religion, Mediatization, and ‘Complementary Learning Processes’ in Swedish Editorials

This article analyzes positions and arguments in editorials from Swedish newspapers during the period of 1976–2010 regarding the place of religion in modern, democratic society. Starting from Habermas’ call for changes in European political discourse in a post-secular situation, the article analyzes whether signs of ‘complementary learning processes’ can be found in the editorials, where alternatives to a secularist understanding of religion are expressed. Findings suggest that mediatization through increased politicization of the daily press contributes to a re-articulation of the former secularist discourse in Swedish editorials. A salient theme in this alternative discourse is the tension between religious freedom and other citizen rights.

Disciplinary Measures from the Metrical Psalms to Milton. Kenneth J. E. Graham. London: Routledge, 2016. Pp. xiv+206.

<i>Disciplinary Measures from the Metrical Psalms to Milton</i>. Kenneth J. E. Graham. London: Routledge, 2016. Pp. xiv+206.

Changes in Relation between Religion and Politics in Modern and Contemporary Constitutions in Western Countries - From the Strict Separation to the Accommodation -

Changes in Relation between Religion and Politics in Modern and Contemporary Constitutions in Western Countries - From the Strict Separation to the Accommodation -

澤博勝著, 『近世宗教社会論』, 吉川弘文館, 二〇〇八年一月一日刊, A5判, 六+三五三+一三頁, 九五〇〇円+税

澤博勝著, 『近世宗教社会論』, 吉川弘文館, 二〇〇八年一月一日刊, A5判, 六+三五三+一三頁, 九五〇〇円+税

Red catechisms: socialist educational literature and the demarcation of religion and politics in the early 19th century

ABSTRACTThe catechetical genre not only has a long history in religious but also in political discourse. During the 18th century, catechisms were produced on a vast number of diverse subjects, ranging from secular ethics to sheep breeding. The catechism persisted throughout the 19th century and almost gave shape to the Manifesto of the Communist Party. By this time, however, some socialists were also sceptical of the genre; it was perceived as ambiguous. Catechisms are thus a focal point for changing understandings of politics and religion in 19th-century discourse. This article discusses the production and reception of early 19th-century ‘red’ or socialist catechisms to reveal how the ambiguity of the concept religion was negotiated in the context of the catechetical genre. By locating the debate on catechisms in the discourse on ideology, I show that this genre was a focal point for structural change in the semantic field of religion in modernity.

Идея антропологии ислама

In his article The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam, written in 1986, Talal Asad focuses on the conceptual basis of the literature on this problem. What, he asks, exactly, is the anthropology of Islam? What is its object of investigation? There appear to be at least three common answers to the question, according to the author: (1) that in the final analysis there is no such theoretical object as Islam; (2) that Islam is the anthropologist’s label for a heterogeneous collection of items, each of which has been designated Islamic by informants; (3) that Islam is a distinctive historical totality which organizes various aspects of social life. We will look briefly at the first two answers, and then examine at length the third, which is in principle the most interesting, even though it is not acceptable. Talal Asad criticises the textualization of social life, and redirects analysis away from the interpretation of behaviors and toward inquiry into the relation of practices to a discursive tradition. Asad’s new concept became important not only for anthropology of Islam, but also for a number of fields, concerned with ethics and religion in modernity: anthropology, religious studies, postcolonial studies, critical theory. Despite it was written three decades ago, the article is still a must read for any scholar in the field of Islamic Studies, especially in Russia.

Skin of an Innocent Lamb: Shakespeare, Sacrament, and the Absence of Sin in Early Modern Literary Criticism

The critical fields of early modern English literature and religion define the term “sacrament” as a range of linguistic, didactic, and metaphorical moves. However, studies of sacramental rhetoric in Shakespeare and others fail to tie linguistic sacramental features to relevant, Reformed, historical notions of personal, answerable sin. This essay responds by considering how Shakespeare reflects on sin, confession, and literary expression through his Henry VI plays. Shakespeare employs the form of the book to stage his characters’ confessional struggles, offering rich articulations of literature’s interactions with sin and the sacramental practices syncopating the lives of readers.

Martyrs and Players in Early Modern England: Tragedy, Religion, and Violence on Stage A Will to Believe: Shakespeare and Religion Shakespeare and Early Modern Religion

Martyrs and Players in Early Modern England: Tragedy, Religion, and Violence on Stage A Will to Believe: Shakespeare and Religion Shakespeare and Early Modern Religion

The Dialogue between Science and Religion: A Taxonomic Contribution

Many present day scientists think that religion can never come to terms with science. In sharp contrast with this widespread opinion, this paper argues that, historically, scientific reasoning and religious belief joined hands in their effort to investigate and understand reality. In fact, the present-day divorce between science and religion is nothing else than the final outcome of a gradual, long-term, and deliberately assumed process of the secularization of science. However, especially during the last two decades, we have all been equally confronted with the advance of a new concern that some contemporary scientists have, namely reviewing the sphere of problems specific to the domains of investigation in which they are involved while now facing themes that are usually addressed by theological thought. The paper describes this recent development as being captured by an emerging new field of investigation within the modern scientific epistemology, Science and Religion. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to briefly look over the large number of typologies that have been suggested to classify various ways of relating science and religion; and secondly, to highlight the dual taxonomical nature of the contemporary science and religion dialogue.

Social and Pragmatic Rules of Cursing and Other Routine Formulas in Gurage and Norwegian Culture

The Gurage are South Ethiosemitic speakers living in the Gurage Zone in Ethiopia. In the Gurage culture, cursing expressions have differing sociological significance. They are used both literally and pragmatically. Although the cursing expressions are endangered due to modern religions, they are not well studied and documented. The objective of this article is to describe the sociolinguistic and pragmatic meanings and the structural patterns of cursing expressions in the Gurage culture, and then to compare the expressions with Nordic countries’ cursing to uncover if there are universal tendencies in the rules and routines of cursing. The study follows qualitative research methodology. The cursing expressions were partly collected from literature and largely elicited from key informants. For the cursing in Gurage, the Gumer variety, from among other 12 dialect clusters of Guragina, was chosen to maintain uniformity in description. The findings showed that self-cursing in Gurage is used to express regret, encouragement, admiration, congratulation, condolence and politeness. Alter cursing is used to cause fear, to express emotions and negative attitude towards others. Age and gender determine cursing practice. Only elder men can take part in formal group alter cursing. Women generally curse themselves and individuals in informal situations. Formal alter cursing in Gurage is graded by elders for its severity. Cursing in the Nordic countries of today is more restricted to psychological functions and a kind of identity construction. In the past, however, several of its functions were similar to the ones in Gurage.

The place of religiosity after modernity in Buber and Rosenzweig’s approach to Christianity

When Buber and Rosenzweig conceived their insights about the nature of the relations between Judaism and Christianity, some 80 years ago, the term “interfaith theology” did not exist, yet they can be considered as precursors to this new field in theology that made its first steps in the past two decades in Jewish and Christian scholarship. In the present account I suggest reconsidering this aspect, among others, in Buber and Rosenzweig’s thought, as a potential contribution to a possible solution to the tension between culture and religion in modernity, which radicalized in the last decades in the form of religious and secular extremism. It is not only their unique perception of revelation that creates a new religious language but also their pioneering analysis of religious zealotry as a theological defect (rather than a political problem). That is my main observation: that the similarities between their dialogical approach to Christianity to that of a certain Christian scholarly trend that appeared shortly after them, signifies, in my view, the beginning of a new age in relations between the two religions, which can serve as a model for dealing with ideological conflicts in our age.

Embodied childbirth

Abstract Worship of the body and its wisdom was slowly phased out as modern religion and science came to power. The impact of this destruction of reverence for the body is still felt today in our violent and disembodied culture of childbirth. Women’s wisdom is resisted by modern medical practices, and the natural process of birth is largely treated as a medical emergency. This shift away from embodied wisdom has shamed women for embracing their bodies and created unnecessary risk in child-birth. In the United States of America, the maternal mortality rate is on the rise, which is unusual for developed countries. Embodied wisdom is needed to return sanctity to childbirth. It can be resurrected through the use of embodiment practices such as the Feldenkrais Method, Leadership Embodiment and Bones for Life with birthing mothers.

Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History ed. by Zev Eleff

Reviewed by: Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History ed. by Zev Eleff David Ellenson (bio) Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History. Edited by Zev Eleff. Lincoln, NB: Jewish Publication Society and University of Nebraska Press, 2016. xliii + 520 pp. Modern Orthodox Judaism: A Documentary History , part of the Jewish Publication Society/University of Nebraska Series JPS Anthologies of Jewish Thought, edited by Zev Eleff, is a superb volume. As I read its pages, I thought back to an autobiographical piece sociologist Samuel Heilman published in Response in 1975, in which he described being warned by his doctoral adviser that he would be “shunted away from the mainstream of sociology and the modern world,” and that both he and his “work would be ignored” if he wrote on Jewish life in a contemporary American Orthodox synagogue. Behind this episode lay the judgment that traditional expressions of religion in the contemporary setting were at best vestigial remnants from earlier epochs. After all, the modern age was marked, in the felicitous phrase coined by Max Weber, by a “disenchantment of the world” in which a secular ethos was triumphant. How much things have changed! As the eminent sociologist Peter Berger has “confessed” in several recent volumes, the world has become “re-enchanted” and he erred when he earlier believed that modernity was the solvent in which religious traditionalism would inexorably disappear. Orthodox Judaism in America provides ample testimony to the truth of this last observation. While the 2013 Pew Survey of the Jewish community in the United States reported that only 10% of adult Jews in America are Orthodox, 25% of all Jews between 18 and 29 are Orthodox. The same survey reveals that Orthodox Jewish couples have a birthrate of 4.1 children per couple, as opposed to a birthrate of 1.7 children per couple for non-Orthodox Jews. All this makes an understanding of Orthodox Judaism and its history all the more important to students of modern religion and contemporary Judaism, and we are fortunate that Zev Eleff has turned his attention to presenting and analyzing this phenomenon. It is against this larger backdrop of renewed interest in traditional religion and the exponential growth of Orthodox Jews that this documentary history takes on added import. Modern Orthodox Judaism commands special attention precisely because it illuminates the course of how a specific manifestation of religious traditionalism has evolved on [End Page 401] American shores during the last two hundred years. The wide range of documents Eleff selects for this history indicates that traditional religious resurgence in general and Modern Orthodox Judaism in particular cannot be comprehended in monochromatic hues. For, as Jacob J. Schacter of Yeshiva University observes in his graceful foreword to the book, modern Orthodox Judaism is both rooted in tradition and open, unlike Haredi Orthodoxy, “to new ways of thinking and acting” (xxviii). Religious traditionalism, even as it boasts of “changelessness,” is not hermetically sealed off from the larger world. Instead, traditional religion constantly responds to new challenges and events. Eleff documents these twin poles of fidelity to the past and openness to the present throughout the course of this book. He provides a comprehensive portrait of the development of Modern Orthodox Judaism in this country and offers insightful and succinct introductions and analyses that frame the documents and illuminate the understanding of the reader throughout his work. Eleff divides his anthology into three major parts. In the first part, “Orthodox Judaism and the Modern American Experience,” he appropriately places the nineteenth-century origins of Modern Orthodox Judaism in the context of contemporaneous struggles between Reform and traditional Judaism. While the terms “Reform” and “Orthodox” had already appeared, Eleff notes in his preface that the lines then separating them were indeterminate. Yet even if the boundaries between “Reform” and “Orthodox” Movements were not then absolute, Eleff presents a wide range of critiques traditionalist spokespersons hurled against those who would “reform” the tradition. He also offers telling statements that reflect the personal folk piety that marked traditionalist Jews of this era. Eleff further indicates how elite traditionalist leaders and rabbis like Abraham Rice and Bernard Illowy defended the authority of the Talmud and the Oral Law against the attacks...

Kommunikative Vernunft

Abstract Jürgen Habermas explicates the concept of communicative reason. He explains the key assumptions of the philosophy of language and social theory associated with this concept. Also discussed is the category of life-world and the role of the body-mind difference for the consciousness of exclusivity in our access to subjective experience. as well as the role of emotions and perceptions in the context of a theory of communicative action. The question of the redemption of the various validity claims as they are associated with the performance of speech acts is related to processes of social learning and to the role of negative experiences. Finally the interview deals with the relationship between religion and reason and the importance of religion in modern, post-secular societies. Questions about the philosophical culture of our present times are discussed at the end of the conversation.