Organized Religion Research Articles

The Religious Landscape for LGBTQ+ Persons.

Navigating the world of organized religion is difficult under the best of circumstances given the wide array of expressions, interpretations, ideology, tolerance, and willingness to include all persons. For a member of the LGBTQ+ community, a negative experience can range from merely uncomfortable to intensely and emotionally damaging. To mitigate the negative and increase propensity for a positive experience, markers as to a faith community’s degree of openness and inclusion not only exist, but are clear, identifiable, and to a large degree, dependable. This brief review of the major religions and faith traditions in Delaware provides some of those markers along with guidelines for understanding. The focus of this review is based on demographic data from the 2014 Religious Landscape Study conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Religion and Public Life Section.

Songs of the Bauls: Voices from the Margins as Transformative Infrastructures

Bauls, the rural minstrels who sing songs of transformation, are a socio-economically and politico-religiously marginalized cultural population from rural Bengal (both from eastern and north-eastern, India and from Bangladesh). They identify themselves outside of any organized religion or established caste system in India, and therefore are constituted at the margins of contemporary global South. Voicing through their songs and narratives of emancipation, they interrogate and criticize material and symbolic inequalities and injustices such as discrimination and intolerance (including class and caste hierarchies, and other forms of disparities) perpetuated by hegemonic authorities and religious institutions. Embracing a critical communication lens, this paper pays attention to material and discursive marginalization of Bauls and Fakirs, foregrounding voice as an anchor to communicative interrogation of structural and cultural inequalities. Through voice, Bauls and Fakirs foreground reflexive spiritual and humane practices that raise societal consciousness and cultivate polymorphic possibilities.

How Do Religious People Become Atheists? Applying a Grounded Theory Approach to Propose a Model of Deconversion

The influence of organized religion is decreasing in the West, and trends show a growing number of people abandoning their religious beliefs, or deconverting. However, this phenomenon has received relatively little attention in the psychology of religion. The current study asks “How do religious people become atheists?” and aims to further the understanding of the process of religious deconversion by offering a proposed model of deconversion. The main findings within the literature are examined, and consideration is given to the concept of deconversion itself and to biases within the psychology of religion. Employing an inductive grounded theory approach based on Strauss and Corbin’s guidelines, we investigated the process of deconversion among a sample of atheist individuals who previously identified as religious. The data consists of 30 testimonies obtained from former clergypersons and six semi-structured interviews with atheist participants recruited through an advocacy group. The resulting model of deconversion is comprised of three core categories: reason and enquiry, criticism and discontent, and personal development. Despite being closely interlinked, these categories were clearly distinct and represent an intellectual impetus, moral and ethical judgments of religion, and overcoming personal issues, respectively. For all participants deconversion developed gradually within the close context of family and local community and the wider cultural context of society at large. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research and psychological theory.

Religiosity, Spirituality, Mindfulness, and Mental Health in Social Work Students

Social work education is a disequilibrating experience that is stressful. The literature identifies religiosity, spirituality, and mindfulness as potential resources for coping in the general population. The current study examines their relationship with depressive and anxiety symptoms in social work students. A total of 65 MSW students participated in a paper-pencil survey. Only half claimed a membership in an organized religion. On average, students endorsed spirituality and mindfulness more strongly than religiosity. While religiosity and spirituality were highly correlated, mindfulness was not. Using multivariate analysis, it was discovered that mindfulness significantly reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms while religious strain increased anxiety symptoms. Implications of study findings for social work education are discussed.

New Spirituality in Japan and Its Place in the Teaching of Moral Education

This paper begins by examining so-called “spirituality movements and/or culture” in Japanese society today. It then focuses on research into spirituality as it relates to Japanese education, and specifically moral education, where, for example, our connectedness to the sublime and lofty is one of the four themes of the new moral education classes introduced into Japanese elementary schools in 2018. It is far from easy, however, to teach such a subject, since Japanese moral education is required to keep its distance from popular spirituality as well as from the institutionalized spirituality of organized religions. Furthermore, the conventional knowledge that underpins modern Japanese moral education struggles to deal with spirituality and the vast range of human existence, including our search for the purpose and significance of life. Accordingly, this paper will examine current work on such issues and attempt to outline the future role that scientific and academic approaches to religion and spirituality might play in moral education in Japan, especially from the viewpoint of human connectedness to nature and the sublime.

The Road to Redemption: Killing Snakes in Medieval Chinese Buddhism

In the medieval Chinese context, snakes and tigers were viewed as two dominant, threatening animals in swamps and mountains. The animal-human confrontation increased with the expansion of human communities to the wilderness. Medieval Chinese Buddhists developed new discourses, strategies, rituals, and narratives to handle the snake issue that threatened both Buddhist and local communities. These new discourses, strategies, rituals, and narratives were shaped by four conflicts between humans and animals, between canonical rules and local justifications, between male monks and feminized snakes, and between organized religions and local cultic practice. Although early Buddhist monastic doctrines and disciplines prevented Buddhists from killing snakes, medieval Chinese Buddhists developed narratives and rituals for killing snakes for responding to the challenges from the discourses of feminizing and demonizing snakes as well as the competition from Daoism. In medieval China, both Buddhism and Daoism mobilized snakes as their weapons to protect their monastic property against the invasion from each other. This study aims to shed new light on the religious and socio-cultural implications of the evolving attitudes toward snakes and the methods of handling snakes in medieval Chinese Buddhism.

Lessons from the Megachurch: Understanding Journalism’s Turn to Membership

ABSTRACTA number of journalism stakeholders have begun advocating for news organizations to adopt membership models as a means to solving the industry’s audience trust and revenue problems. This small but growing group distinguishes “membership” from more traditional subscription models by emphasizing the former’s focus on collaborative – rather than transactional – relationships with the audience. In this paper, we argue that this conceptualization of membership, while uncommon in journalism, has been widely embraced within another institution: organized religion. In light of this connection, this study draws on in-depth interviews with megachurch membership directors, membership consultants and members themselves to answer the question: What does this conceptualization of “membership” look like in practice? Despite the obvious differences between news and religious organizations, we argue that understanding the latter’s approach to membership is useful for understanding the implications for the news industry and the public, should membership models become increasingly popular.

Securitization, Islamic chaplaincy, and the issue of (de)radicalization of Muslim detainees in Dutch prisons

What position does organized Muslim chaplaincy in Dutch prisons take with respect to the prevention of radicalization and to the de-radicalization of detainees with a Muslim background? After describing the process of securitization of Salafism in the Netherlands, discussing the use of context-related concepts as radicalization, extremism and terrorism, and sketching the context and the making of Muslim chaplaincy, the article provides a brief overview of recent research on the relation between detention and (de)radicalization. Then, the stance of Islamic prison chaplaincy towards (de)radicalization of Muslim prisoners is described and analyzed in terms of goals, policy and practice. An expansive oligopolistic system of chaplaincy, representing various organized religions, seems to facilitate a relatively a-political type of Islamic chaplaincy, which often acts as a countervailing force to the dominant trend of securitization.

Η διαμόρφωση θρησκευτικών ταυτοτήτων σύμφωνα με τις αλλαγές του μοντέλου διδασκαλίας του μαθήματος των Θρησκευτικών στην Ελλάδα από το 2011 και μετά

There are changes in the West Europe concerning religion such as the drastic decline of organized religion, secularization, the emergence of the individualized religion, and the new age spiritualties. These trends are reflected in Religious Education models applied in Great Britain. In 2011, the introduction of these models in the religious education in Greece results to dissemination of new religious movements, causing problems such as religious syncretism. Discourse analysis was utilized as a research tool in order to reveal policies/ideologies connected to religious education reform in Greece.

The Inclusion of Religion in Organizations

The aim of this research paper is to understand how organization are religion ready. Face to a world changeregarding terrorism and demographic change, organizations and more precisely companies have to face new culturalsituations. We will present a review of literature on ethnocentrism and multiculturalism to build a qualitativeapproach to understand how human resources and representatives react to this phenomenon.

Spirituality and Religiosity of Pharmacy Students

Objective. To characterize the religiosity and spirituality of final year pharmacy students and examine the impact on performance in pharmacy school and future practice. Methods. An electronic survey was sent to 308 students in their final year of pharmacy school at four universities (two private and two public institutions). Results. There were 141 respondents to the survey for a response rate of 46%. Key findings are religiosity/spirituality did not impact academic performance, students felt supported in their spiritual/religious beliefs, religiosity/spirituality had a positive impact on students' emotional/mental well-being, attending pharmacy school decreased organized religion, less than half of the students would work for a pharmacy not allowing the "right to refuse to dispense," students felt religiosity/spirituality could affect health/medication adherence, and most students were not familiar with how to conduct a spiritual assessment. Conclusion. Pharmacy schools should find ways to acknowledge and support religiosity/spirituality for pharmacy students and for promoting holistic patient well-being.

Transcendence, Consciousness and Order: Towards a Philosophical Spirituality of Organization in the Footsteps of Plato and Eric Voegelin

There is an evident lack of rigorous frameworks for making sense of the role and status of spirituality and religion in organizations and organizing, in particular from the perspective of spiritual philosophies of the social. This paper suggests that the philosophy of Plato and his modern follower, political theorist Eric Voegelin could offer a viable perspective for understanding organizational spirituality in its metaphysical, political and ethical contexts. Essential for such a philosophical reflection is the postulation of the transcendental realm as the ultimate reality that provides the fullest templates for order, knowledge and ethicality. It is argued, in the footsteps of Voegelin, that modern organizations and modern organization theory should seek to re-awaken the lost experiences of the divine Beyond by re-animating religious symbols and myths of transcendence as devices for a spiritually opened consciousness.

Abstract Art-An Exploration of the Spiritual and the Divine

The relationship between art and spirituality has been historically mediated through the relationship between art and religion, something which has been periodically problematic throughout the centuries. But in spite of the decline of organized religion in Western Europe, there has been growing interest in spirituality in areas of cultural life, especially in art. Many people no longer view traditional religion, in the sense of institutionalized religion, as adequate for exploring their spirituality and look to new forms of spirituality as alternatives for finding ultimate meaning and addressing the profound needs of humanity.1 Central to the role of the artist has been a preoccupation with the deeper questions of life, often to reveal sights that are normally kept hidden from the public gaze and to challenge entrenched beliefs. The process of creating art is often described in quasi-mystical terms, whereby the artist-as-shaman unleashes or channels special creative powers in a process of making that transports the viewer to a different realm of the imaginary. Given these affinities between the roles of art and spirituality, it is unsurprising that spirituality is an enduring feature of contemporary art.

Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight

Reviewed by: Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight L. Diane Barnes (bio) Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. By David W. Blight. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018. Pp. 888. Cloth, $37.50.) David W. Blight dons his public intellectual hat in this long-awaited new biography of Frederick Douglass, one of the nineteenth century's most important human rights activists. The first major biography of Douglass [End Page 642] in more than a generation, Blight's book was ten years in the making, and well worth the wait. The last major Douglass biography, William S. McFeely's Frederick Douglass (1991), overreached in interpretation and introduced a host of minor and unnecessary inaccuracies into the canon of Douglass scholarship. Blight's volume adds to other recent works in providing a major corrective to the historiography dominated by McFeely and others who relied almost exclusively on Douglass's own writings, especially his three autobiographies. This mellifluous biography joins Women in the World of Frederick Douglass (2017), by Leigh Fought, and The Lives of Frederick Douglass (2016), a close read of Douglass's own words by Robert Levine, to demonstrate that there is still much to learn about the Lion of Anacostia. By incorporating the copious correspondence surrounding Douglass's circle of reformers, friends, family, and even critics, Blight and other recent Douglass scholars are opening a new window into the life and experiences of this oft-studied American. Blight's hefty volume offers a considerate portrayal of Douglass's "life and times," contextualizing his familiar life story in the larger history of the century in which he lived. In so doing, it brings Douglass's story to life in a way that will appeal to both scholars and general readers. With a sometimes-flourishing writing style, Blight moves readers into Douglass's world and lets them walk through his years as a slave in Maryland, as a free man, and as a famous orator and reformer. When necessary, Blight deviates from the biographical narrative to explain the larger scope of nineteenth-century history, which will be useful for general readers. For example, he details just how Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation led to the formation of the Fifty-Fourth Massachusetts Regiment and Douglass's role as a recruiter of black troops, and later offers a rundown of the power struggle between Andrew Johnson and Congress in the early days of Reconstruction. Blight envisions Douglass as a prophet of freedom, and throughout the book he places more emphasis on the great man's connection to religion and Christianity than previous scholars have allowed. Yet this seems to work more as an organizing device than as an actual argument guiding the biography. Douglass maintained an association with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and at one point acted as a lay preacher, but Blight uses Douglass's command of the text and parables of the King James Bible to provide an organizing thread. Beyond pointing out Douglass's frequent use of Bible quotes and allusions in his speeches and writings, however, Blight offers little convincing analysis to contradict received scholarship on Douglass's tangential connection to organized religion throughout most of his adult life. Indeed, for Douglass, scripture was one of many literary [End Page 643] canons in his repertoire. Douglass quoted an amazing range of literature, including works by Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Alexander Dumas, and others familiar to his nineteenth-century audiences and readers, yet Blight gives those influences almost no attention. Tracing the full narrative of Douglass's life and immersion in the annals of nineteenth-century American history, the first two-thirds of Blight's book forms a comfortable retelling of the great man's life familiar to scholars. But in the last third of the book, which corresponds to Douglass's post–Civil War experiences, Blight's unique access to a treasure trove of privately held materials affords him a means to offer a new telling of the last decades of Douglass's life. His access to Walter O. Evans's private collection of family-created scrapbooks and correspondence allows Blight to comment newly on the postwar relationships between Douglass and his growing extended family of children and their...

Spinozist ideas in the greek enlightenment

In this paper I discuss the religious ideas and religious criticism voiced by a Greek eighteenth-century philosopher, Christodoulos Efstathiou from Acarnania, also known by the pejorative surname Pamblekis (1730?-1793). He is known in Greek intellectual history on the basis of three works, ?????? ???????? (True Politics) published in 1781, ???? ????????? (On Philosopher), published in 1786, and ???? ?????????? (On Theocracy), published in 1793. The paper presents an analysis of the criticism of the clergy, the Church and organized religion voiced in the latter work. It is argued that Christodoulos?s religious ideas were inspired by the historical criticism of religion that emanated from the ideas of Spinoza and thus he could be considered a rare representative of the Radical Enlightenment in the Greek Enlightenment tradition and its broader Southeastern European context.

A Match Made in Heaven? Southern Evangelicalism and the Rise and Fall of Agrarian Populism in the 1890s

The agrarian populist movement of the late nineteenth century remains among the largest social movement and third-party revolts in American history. It embodied a full-scale critique and mobilization against the inequities of the Gilded Age, and its influence stretched well into the Progressive and New Deal eras. While most accounts of the movement and party’s emergence and rapid demise have centered on economic conditions and interests, we link movement and third-party emergence and failure to the institutional arena second only to partisan politics in its impact on southern society at large, namely organized religion, particularly evangelical Protestantism. This article offers the first systematic analysis of the extent to which organized religion in the South channeled the mobilization of agrarian populism. The results both support and contradict the argument that agrarian populism was rooted in organized southern religion by suggesting that evangelical Protestantism channeled the mobilization of the Farmers’ Alliance movement but not the People’s Party. While white southern evangelical religion served as a potent cultural resource and mobilizing structure for the movement, the move to partisan politics helped create a disjuncture between movement and party from which Populism never recovered.

Secularizing Philanthropy in the Twentieth Century: The Pew Family as Trustees of Divine Endowment

Planning for the Pew family trusts (founders of Sun Oil) dates to at least 1932 when estate work began for the four Pew children. Fear of inheritance “super-taxes” proposed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt to finance his New Deal was in the air in the 1930s and drove a number of wealthy families to find novel ways to shield their assets from Roosevelt’s various revenue acts. These trusts were meant only to come into effect after the death of each family member, and it was not until 1948 when the four Pews sat down to invest into existence the Pew Memorial Foundation (their father’s posthumous memorial) that they made headlines in terms of secular philanthropy. The Pews saw Roosevelt’s taxes as not only the first blow in a new type of class warfare, but also as a pointed attack against the free market ideologies that allowed individual choice in the ultimate investment of one’s money. This article follows the Pews’ attempts to navigate their responsibilities to family wealth. By examining the logic and theological contours of the Pews’ insistence upon a separation between public and private, profit and loss, and secular market, political lobbying, and religious interest, we learn not only about conservative Protestant influence on American law, but also about the context for the creation of an independent philanthropic “third sector” tied to the evolving role of organized religion in twentieth-century American society.

Wilfred Cantwell Smith (1916–2000) on Islam in India

Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s influential conclusions concerning the nature and critical understanding of religion were developed during many years studying Islam, combining close attention to texts with ongoing discussions with contemporary Muslim scholars in India and elsewhere. He convinced subsequent scholars not to talk of “religions” as reified cultural artifacts but of living faith and its expressions in cumulative traditions. During his first phase, he registered more sympathy for Marxist deconstructions of organized religion than critics of his later crusades against dehumanizing sciences have noticed. Throughout, his paramount concern was for social justice, heeding the voice of conscience heard in dialogue with all who read “world history” as a challenge to every vestige of religious and political provincialism, in the academy and in government. The rules he deemed mandatory for realizing global community were, above all, moral rules, forever driven home by the traumatic partition of India in 1947.

Accounting and pseudo spirituality in Islamic financial institutions

The global financial crisis was followed by calls for a transformation of conventional finance, towards more ethico-aesthetic models. One avenue was to consider the alternative aesthetic of Islamic financial institutions (IFIs). IFIs offer profit-loss sharing (PLS) schemes as a distinctive spiritual alternative to conventional investment products. IFIs ontotheology clashes with the epistemology of modern banking and finance. The accounting for PLS creates tensions due to practical complexity that militates against implementation of the authentic Islamic financial contracts. This paper seeks to identify the role of accounting in IFIs' practice of interpretation to resolve the struggles that have taken place around the implementation of PLS schemes as a means of spiritual based financial alternatives. We explore how IFIs use accounting in rendering notions of spiritual/prophetic values applicable to practice or how it colludes against their implementation. Our study adopts a qualitative research methodology, framed around 40 interviews and observations of PLS implementation in IFIs in five Muslim countries in Asia and the Middle East, and one in the United Kingdom. We combine the literature on accounting and religion with the ideas/concepts from the literature on religion in organizations, political economy and Islamic law/finance. These perspectives enable us to better reveal how accounting works to reinvent spirituality. In our context we show how accounting mediates the conflicting interests and intentions that arise within the epistemological clashes that happen as the scared/religious strives to take its place in the capitalistic context of the conventional finance industry.

The Borderlands of Belief: Phil Rickman’s Merrily Watkins Mysteries

Merrily Watkins is a highly unconventional Anglican priest and exorcist, and her eponymous mystery series represents the church she serves as hopelessly out of touch culturally and morally. Such distance from conventional Christianity manifests a sensibility increasingly called postsecular: distaste for the power moves of organized religion alongside acknowledgement that the ongoing contemporary quest for and experience of transcendent meaning disproves triumphalist secularization. The series prioritizes Christianity within this anti-dogmatic religious landscape because of Christianity’s stable systems of symbol and ritual and its cruciform ethics of humility and faithfulness uniquely appropriate to approach the most important mysteries in the world.