Popular Christianity Research Articles

Народне богослов’я людської діяльності та праці в українських приказках і прислів’ях

The author of this article analyses a stratum of Ukrainian proverbs which by its semantic content constitutes a kind of popular theology of human activity and labour. The meaning of a number of paremies reflects the inner world of a religious person, wherein the individuality's development via daily labour is consistent with the plan of providence. According to popular Christian conceptions of God, He provides aid in every deed, word, thought, and wish. In popular religious cultural traditions, as well as in ecclesiastical traditions, rational activity is the aim and norm of all earthly human life; economic activity is included in God's plan, and is considered a positive value.

In search of the Christian Buddha: how an Asian sage became a medieval saint

The story of Saint Josaphat, a prince who gave up his wealth and kingdom to follow Jesus, was one of the most popular Christian tales of the Middle Ages, translated into a dozen languages, and cited by Shakespeare in The Merchant of Venice. Yet Josaphat is only remembered today because of the similarities of his life to that of the Buddha. In Search of the Christian Buddha is set against the backdrop of the trade along the Silk Road, the Christian settlement of Palestine, the spread of Islam, and the Crusades. It traces the path of the Buddha's tale from India and shows how it evolved, adopting details from each culture during its sojourn. These early instances of globalization allowed not only goods but also knowledge to flow between different cultures and around much of the world. Eminent scholars Donald S. Lopez Jr. and Peggy McCracken reveal how religions born thousands of miles apart shared ideas throughout the centuries. They uncover surprising convergences and divergences between these faiths on subjects including the meaning of death, the problem of desire, and their view of women. Demonstrating the incredible power of this tale, they ask not how stories circulate among religions but how religions circulate among stories.

Re-imagining bisexuality and Christianity: The negotiation of Christianity in the lives of bisexual women and men

Research exploring non-heterosexual sexuality and Christianity has tended to conflate ‘lesbian and gay’, with ‘bisexual’, effacing the latter. This article explores how bisexual women and men in particular understand their Christianity, where they have been denied access to institutionalised Christianity and have re-imagined their faith. I examine how bisexuality is understood by popular Christian denominations and how respondents challenge these standpoints. The respondents reshaped their faith to be more inclusive of bisexuality and re-imagined their sexuality to fit with their religious faith. I draw upon data from 80 self-completion questionnaires and 20 in-depth interviews.

Gendered Purity and Embodied Sexual Flourishing: Moral Agency, Development, and Prudence

Current popular accounts of sexual morality for adolescents based simply on purity or self-determination cannot adequately anchor a Christian sexual ethic, although positions based on both notions hope to facilitate sexual health among young females. Here I critique both popular Christian purity movements and a popular feminist critique of these purity movements (based upon self-determination) and suggest the virtue of prudence as a corrective. Situated within the Catholic theological tradition, prudence (practical wisdom) acknowledges the process of human moral and sexual development and is robust enough to negotiate the concrete complexities of sexual activity and the social realities in which such activity takes place. Further, it honours an embodied sense of female sexual self-determination: females as moral agents directed towards sexual flourishing.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF ISAIAH MOTEKA: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF A TWENTIETH-CENTURY SOUTH AFRICAN ZIONIST MINISTER

ABSTRACTSouth African Zionism, one of the most popular Christian movements in modern South Africa, has frequently been interpreted in narrowly indigenous terms, as a local, black appropriation of Christianity, heavily invested in orality and ritual performance. The correspondence of the twentieth-century Zionist minister Isaiah Moteka tells a different story. Moteka honed the craft of letter-writing in order to build and sustain his relationship with Zion, Illinois, the headquarters of the worldwide Zionist church. Through the exchange of letters across the Atlantic, Moteka affirmed his own and his congregants’ place within a multiracial Zion diaspora. And through their complex invocation of overlapping local and global affiliations, Moteka's writings proclaimed his standing both as a regional clergyman and as a cosmopolitan internationalist. In particular, these ambiguous missives became the platform for Moteka's engagement with apartheid-era state officials. Seeking to persuade state officials that his organization fell under ‘white’ supervision, Moteka's letters proclaimed his accreditation by Zion, Illinois, thereby casting himself as a deputy of the worldwide movement. But these documents’ citation of transatlantic loyalties also suggests Moteka's own conflicted loyalties. His letters asserted loyalty to the nation state while they simultaneously subordinated earthly power to the Kingdom of God.

Thomas Aquinas, 2 Corinthians 5, and the Christian Hope for Life after Death

ABSTRACT The question of the afterlife in Christian life and thought has once again become the focus of a number of recent works, both popular and academic. Today, this question typically focuses on the relationship of body to soul and the content (or even the purpose) of the intermediate state in light of the professed—though not necessarily popular—Christian belief in the resurrection of the body. Much of the discussion is directly concerned with the immensely practical version of this question: what hope do we give to the dying and the bereaved? In this article, I suggest that the exegetical and philosophical insights of Thomas Aquinas, as found most particularly in his relatively unmined biblical commentaries, provide not only a refreshing reading of 2 Cor 5 but also a more pastorally astute explication of the hope Paul finds in both the intermediate and resurrection states.

Thomas Aquinas, 2 Corinthians 5, and the Christian Hope for Life after Death

ABSTRACT The question of the afterlife in Christian life and thought has once again become the focus of a number of recent works, both popular and academic. Today, this question typically focuses on the relationship of body to soul and the content (or even the purpose) of the intermediate state in light of the professed—though not necessarily popular—Christian belief in the resurrection of the body. Much of the discussion is directly concerned with the immensely practical version of this question: what hope do we give to the dying and the bereaved? In this article, I suggest that the exegetical and philosophical insights of Thomas Aquinas, as found most particularly in his relatively unmined biblical commentaries, provide not only a refreshing reading of 2 Cor 5 but also a more pastorally astute explication of the hope Paul finds in both the intermediate and resurrection states.

Socrates and St. Paul: Can Christian Apologetics be Public Philosophy?

Can popular Christian apologetics be public philosophy? This paper argues that it can be partly because the criteria for what counts as public philosophy are so vague but also partly because popular Christian apologetics parallels much that counts as public philosophy both in terms of its historical roots in Socrates but also how public philosophy is practiced now. In particular, there are parallels on the role of amateurs vs. professionals, the sorts of topics, the quality of the discussions, and the passion vs. the neutrality of its

Osoba i przesłanie św. Franciszka

St. Francis is undoubtedly one of the most popular Christian saints. There are two different biographies of St. Francis. The biography by Thomas da Celano is a historical description of St. Francis` life although written according to the medieval hagiographical canons. St. Bonaventure was a theologian and philosopher first of all. He shows us St. Francis as a perfect follower of Jesus. The other biographies relied heavily on Vita prima, Vita secunda or Legenda maior. Notwithstanding the first biographies based on the very first documents and contemporary relations, some questions still linger. Nevertheless, St. Francis message is clear: equality of all before God, everyone is called for the evangelical life, evangelism through good example rather than through words alone. Important is an emulation the radical poverty of Jesus, fidelity and obedience to the Church, which is represented and guided by pope.

The Conception of Popularity in the Enlightenment and Romanticism

<p>It can hardly be disputed that the theme of popularity is central to the Enlightenment. Popularity is the sociality equivalent to the individual appeal: ‘Dare to know.’ Parallel to this runs the following imperative: ‘Dare to encourage your neighbour and your fellow man and woman to think on their own – even though they do not belong to the erudite elite.’ It is also undeniable that Romantic authors and philosophers polemically attempted to tear down the popularity project of the Enlightenment, their main criticism being its tendency towards mediocrity. It is less well known that Romantic authors and philosophers themselves, around the turn of the nineteenth century, made popularity their central concern. To quote Friedrich Schlegel in the journal Athenaeum: ‘The time of popularity has come.’ This article explores the Romantics’ alternative conception of popularity, with especial reference to Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the Grimm brothers. To this end, it is helpful to reconstruct the background of the Romantic attempt to create an independent<br />concept of popularity: the debate between Immanuel Kant and the German popular philosopher Christian Garve on the necessity, possibilities, and limits of popularity.</p>

Satan in the Pulpit: Popular Christianity during the Scottish Great Awakening, 1680-1750

This essay places one of the most important events of recent Christian history, the First Great Awakening, into context with another, seemingly unrelated experience: the end of Scottish witch hunting. Beyond the fact that many enemies of the reviv- als labeled them as demonic, the ordinary people who participated in them fre- quently encountered Satan, sometimes in physical form, who tried to win their souls as he had done with witches and demoniacs in the previous century. These individuals struggled to find a path to God, but were deluged with doubts and temp- tations that made them believe, in some cases, that they were slaves of Satan. The Great Awakening cannot be understood if we ignore the era of witch hunting because revivals proved, on the whole, a successful, nonviolent substitute for the earlier tradition. The Enlightenment should not receive sole credit for burning away the darkness and violence that preceded it. Christians substituted an exter- nally oriented, violent tradition for an internally focused, nonviolent one. This essay uses an important collection of more than 100 spiritual autobiographies of ordinary Scots who attended the revivals in the 1740s, shortly after the old witch- craft laws were abolished in the British Isles. It also places the Scottish religious experience within the broader context of spiritual discernment in Europe.

“We didn’t call it dating”: The disrupted landscape of relationship advice for evangelical Protestant youth

Studies of religious meaning-making, especially on young adults, tend to prioritize the views of religious elites and orthodox doctrines. By focusing on the everyday activity of romantic relationships, a topic that has no orthodox position, this article analyzes both how religious elites construct discursive fields of meaning and how laity negotiate this field. Drawing on a study of popular Christian relationship advice books and interviews with young evangelicals, I describe a disrupted landscape produced by evangelical cultural elite discourses that becomes an important context for how young adults imagine and pursue relationships. Yet these efforts, for both evangelical elites and young adults, operate within a broader cultural context of secular “hooking up” practices which serves to create some cohesion among the two groups while also challenging the relevance of the evangelical cultural elite discourses, requiring young adults to engage in their own process of religious meaning-making.

Reclaiming the Integration of Body and Mind

The week before New Year's Day has often spurred me to evaluate my personal path. I courted my own permission to apply to graduate school, charting scenarios, figuring options, but still I held back. Browsing the Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School website, I found a unique course offering: Deepening the Heart of Wisdom: Bud- dhist Christian Contemplative Practice and Dialogue. I knew I had to take it! Class was going to start in a week and as yet I hadn't even applied to the school's graduate program. In a flurry I requested transcripts, garnered recommendations, and consid- ered childcare options. My desire to engage this particular dialogue grew through my Christian practice of Centering Prayer 1 and my Episcopal parish's contemplative interfaith Vital Conversations program. These vital conversations began with an intentional time of silence in which we prepared the eye of the heart to perceive the conversation at a deeper level. Our rec- tor invited a guest from a different faith tradition each month. 2 He engaged the guest in questions and dialogue regarding his or her spiritual practices and personal story. Then, the guest received questions from the group. After hearing a Buddhist guest and visiting the local Zen center, I knew my own spiritual formation would be broad- ened and deepened by taking the two-week, intensive format course. Because actual spiritual practice from both traditions comprised a significant portion of the class, I surmised this course would foster a more complete, integrated form of understanding the two traditions. This essay will explore the contemplative pedagogy of this course, wherein the instructors hoped students (would) walk away with a visceral understanding of these traditions as full-body disciplines for transforming the mind and heart. 3 First, I will give a brief description of the class participants and discuss the types of spiri- tual practices we encountered from each tradition. Then, I will share my experiences related to those practices and how the structure of the course supported an integrated epistemology. Finally, I will consider the phenomenon of Christian interest in Bud- dhist practices and what that implies about popular Christianity and its potential to become a fuller version of itself.

U.S. war-culture, sacrifice, and salvation

U.S. War-culture, Sacrifice and Salvation by Kelly Denton-Borhaug. Equinox Publishing, 2011. Paper, viii + 279 pages, $29.95. ISBN: 9781845537111Many peace educators have struggled with pervasiveness of war and violence in this world. Too often it seems that, in popular consciousness, unchallenged assumption is that this pervasiveness translates into a situation where violence becomes a necessary and natural means to fight fire with fire. According to biblical theologian, Walter Wink, this response is underlain by a false belief in of redemptive violence, briefly that violence can save and bring about peace. In present volume, Kelly Denton-Borhaug convincingly shows that U.S. war culture is buttressed by this belief. In particular, she draws our attention to how a discourse of necessity of sacrifice, both in terms of military service and ways of understanding Jesus' death on cross, reinforce each other in U.S. context, monopolistically serving to quell dissenting and alternative positions.In forming her argument, Denton-Borhaug provides many examples that show how militarism is connected not only to industry in United States, but also to film, video gaming, education, and other aspects of culture. She also cites predominance of a penal substitution model of atonement in popular Christianity. Namely, this model is centered on view that to open a path for salvation, Jesus needed to die for us in order to pay a debt (or serve penalty) that was required as a matter of justice because of human sin. Here, Denton-Borhaug makes link with way soldiers' deaths have been explained throughout U.S. history as a necessary sacrifice, in order to protect freedom at home (in particular) and abroad. Not only are war and death of U.S. soldiers required outcomes within this framing but deaths of enemy combatants and civilians in theatre of combat also become necessary. The absence of loved ones serving or dying abroad is also often represented within language of necessary sacrifice. Additionally, massive military budgets are justified in similar terms, even as social programming is cut or ill-funded in favor of the needs national security.The end result of these intersections, perhaps not surprisingly, given an all-volunteer army, is that it is those on margins of U.S. society who most often pay highest cost of military culture. Bearing brunt of an unequally shared sacrifice are representatives of lowest socio-economic groups who are disproportionately represented in terms of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq even as those same groups are squeezed by lack of a wider social safety net at home. At same time, military contractors grow wealthy and those who directly choose to send troops into war remain aloof from immediate dangers of armed conflict. Lest some might be tempted to think that rhetoric and effects of myth of sacrifice are problems particular to one side on political divide in United States, Denton-Borhaug cites both Republican and Democratic use of sacrificial language when praising dead soldiers' valor, justifying necessity of particular wars, and acknowledging sacrifice of loved ones via images of homes with empty chairs at dinner table. …

Review: Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China, by Lian Xi

Review: <i>Redeemed by Fire: The Rise of Popular Christianity in Modern China</i>, by Lian Xi

Seeking the straight and narrow: weight loss and sexual reorientation in evangelical America

Losing weight and changing your sexual orientation are both notoriously difficult to do successfully. Yet many faithful evangelical Christians believe that thinness and heterosexuality are godly ideals - and that God will provide reliable paths toward them for those who fall short. Seeking the Straight and Narrow is a fascinating account of the world of evangelical efforts to alter our strongest bodily desires. Drawing on fieldwork at First Place, a popular Christian weight-loss program, and Exodus International, a network of ex-gay ministries, Lynne Gerber explores why some Christians feel that being fat or gay offends God, what exactly they do to lose weight or go straight, and how they make sense of the program's results - or, frequently, their lack. Gerber notes the differences and striking parallels between the two programs, and, more broadly, she traces the ways that other social institutions have attempted to contain the excesses associated with fatness and homosexuality. Challenging narratives that place evangelicals in constant opposition to dominant American values, Gerber shows that these programs reflect the often overlooked connection between American cultural obsessions and Christian ones.

The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Identities, by Kristy Maddux

The Faithful Citizen: Popular Christian Media and Gendered Identities, by Kristy Maddux

Permission to Dissent: Civil Religion and the Radio Western, 1933–1960

AbstractRadio drama gave Americans a new form of commercial entertainment in the 1930s, but the stories themselves contained time-honored elements. One of these was the rhetorical tradition scholars have identified as American civil religion. Radio Westerns were particularly well suited to promulgate familiar civil religion themes. They described the United States as an instrument of divine will in history, celebrated Americans as pious people, and associated national expansion with the implementation of God's will.The Lone Rangerwas the most famous Western to articulate these themes. The show's writers consciously sought to create in their hero a “composite of all men who uphold the laws of God and man.” During its long broadcast history from 1933 to 1954, the show attracted a large audience and inspired publishing, film, and television ventures. By the late 1940s, however, owing in part to World War II and in part to the Cold War, some Americans on both sides of the microphone found the old formula unsatisfactory.Gunsmoke, which premiered in 1951, exemplified a second generation of radio Westerns. Though still civil religious, these Westerns located the United States' religious significance less in national triumph than in personal triumphs of its citizens. In doing so, they critiqued the earlier Westerns and shifted from what Martin E. Marty has called the “priestly” to the “prophetic” form of civil religion. Their impatience with the older Westerns' use of civil religion also paralleled theological critiques of the popular Christianity of the 1950s.

Review: Popular Christianity in India: Riting between the Lines, edited by Selva J. Raj and Corinne C. Dempsey. State University of New York Press, 2002. 284pp. Pb. $31.95/£25.00, ISBN-13: 9780791455203.

Review: Popular Christianity in India: Riting between the Lines, edited by Selva J. Raj and Corinne C. Dempsey. State University of New York Press, 2002. 284pp. Pb. $31.95/£25.00, ISBN-13: 9780791455203.

Redeemed by fire. The rise of popular Christianity in modern China. By Xi Lian. Pp. xv+333 incl. 1 map and 20 figs. New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 2010. £30. 978 0 300 12339 5

Redeemed by fire. The rise of popular Christianity in modern China. By Xi Lian. Pp. xv+333 incl. 1 map and 20 figs. New Haven–London: Yale University Press, 2010. £30. 978 0 300 12339 5