Early Religion Research Articles

Fulfillment of Student Religious Education Services as a Strategy in Installation of Religious Moderation Values from Early Religion in Jayapura, Papua, Indonesia

The purpose of this study was to find out how the fulfillment of religious education learning services at Elementary School (SD) Inpres I Nimbokrang 2, Nimbokrang District, Jayapura Regency, Papua, Indonesia, is in accordance with each student’s religion from an early age in the context of instilling the values of religious moderation in a multicultural society. This study uses descriptive qualitative methods so that researchers can see directly the problems that occur in the field with data collection techniques in the form of observation, interviews, and documentation. The results showed that even though the school did not provide teachers for one of the students’ religions due to limited human resources, namely Buddhism, the school worked closely with non-formal educational institutions at the Vihara. The attitude of religious moderation can be realized through fulfilled religious education. Such as an understanding of living side by side amidst cultural differences in the school environment and the community environment, applying an attitude of tolerance, loving one another, and understanding the concept of karma. Strengthening the values of religious moderation needs to be taught to children from the elementary school level on so that they are able to behave moderately and prevent conflicts that ignite due to cultural, ethnic, and religious differences in the future when they go through the stages of maturation.

Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe

Magic, Science, and Religion in Early Modern Europe

COMMONWEALTH OF AVESTA AND RIGVEDA

This article focuses on the history of early religions. The earliest written sources on the history of Central Asia and Ancient India describe the history and similarities between the creation of the Avesto and the Rig Veda. Avesta and Rigveda give a scientific understanding of the archaeological culture of the Aryans.

Islamic Value In Culture (IVIC) Animation

Islamic culture is evidence of the history of the development of Islam. Starting from the technology used in the past until now. Islamic culture is also a custom or behavior that is maintained until now which is evidence that Islam is an earlier religion. There are many cultures that have survived until now, Indonesia is one country that has experienced Islamic culture for its spread. Unbeknownst to many people, it turns out that many Islamic cultures have social values ​​that are actually important in this life. Indonesia as a witness who has used Islamic culture as a way to spread Islam in the archipelago has forgotten many of the values ​​of that culture, for example in Eid we have a culture of shaking hands which is a form of friendship using Islamic culture. IVIC is an animation medium where IVIC is used to make people aware of these forgotten cultural values ​​in Indonesia.

История идеологии: Ю.П. Францев о древневосточной философской мысли

The author of the article focuses on the analysis of an unpublished chapter for a collective work on the history of philosophy, written by Yu.P. Frantzev (1903–1969) in 1951 and dedicated to the formation of ancient Eastern ideologies. The author of this unpublished text began his scholar career as an Egyptologist and researcher of early religions; he was a student of the Orientalist V.V. Struve, whose works played an important role in the genesis of Soviet ideas about the sequence of socio-economic formations in world history. After WWII Frant­sev almost completely departed from historical studies, and the unpublished chapter can be considered his farewell to the topics of early career. Frantsev con­structed a text that maximally consistently pursued the idea of the opposition of idealism and materialism in the philosophy of ancient Egypt, Babylonia, India and China. The fate of the author, the peculiarities of the construction of the text, analyzed through the context of the development of Soviet humanitarian thought by the end of Stalin's time, allow us to see how the Soviet historical narrative came to the clearest and most logical vision of ideology as a tool for analyzing social thought within its own frame of reference. The benefit for the modern ap­peal to this plot is that reaching this point of narrative unification was identified as a dead end – mostly intuitively, in the case of Frantzev, possibly intellectually.

Jewish and Hebrew Books in Marsh’s Library: Materiality and Intercultural Engagement in Early Modern Ireland

Marsh’s Library in Dublin, Ireland, is an immaculately preserved library from the early eighteenth century. Founded by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh, the library has an extensive collection of Jewish and Hebrew books which includes Hebrew Bibles, Talmudic texts, rabbinic writings, and Yiddish books that date back to the early modern period. This study explores a cross section of the Jewish and Hebrew books in Marsh’s collection, with particular focus on issues of materiality—that is, how these books as material artefacts can inform our understanding of early modern history, religion, and intercultural engagement. We suggest that these books, a majority of which come from Marsh’s personal collection, are a valuable resource for reflection on (1) Christian engagement with Jewish culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, (2) the production, use, and travel of Jewish books in early modern Europe, and (3) snapshots of Jewish life in early modern Ireland and beyond.

Cultural and Socio-economic Status Factors Affecting Female Education in Sokoto State, Northern Nigeria: Implication for Counselling

Despite Nigerian government's initiatives such as Northern Education Initiative (NEI), Girl Education Project (GEP) and Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in bridging the massive educational gap between males and females in Sokoto state it remains one of the states with high illiteracy level due to cultural and socio-economic status factors affecting female education. The study investigated the attitudes of parents towards female education and cultural and socio-economic factors responsible for low enrolment and recurrent withdrawal from school. Simple survey design was used, population of 800 students from Women centre for continuing education (WCCE). A sample of 260 students was drawn using Krejcie and Morgan table. Attitudes of parents towards female education questionnaire (APTFEQ) with a reliability of 0.76 and effect of socio-cultural and socio-economic factors on female education questionnaire (ESCSEFFEQ) with 0.84 reliability were the instruments used in collection of data. The study found out that parents have negative attitude towards female education and poverty is the major reason for low enrolment of female students and recurrent withdrawal. Early marriage, gender inequality, religion, child labour and uneducated parents also contributed to such situations. Recommendations were that government should provide free education to females, provision of job opportunities to reduce poverty rate and public awareness campaign on the importance of female education. Female counsellors are required to counsel female students to be successful Academicians in their society. Counsellors should organize conferences and use such forums in conversing with parents about the importance of female education as the major implications for counselling.

ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE CONCEPT OF A CIVIL CONTRACT

The article is devoted to the analysis of the development of the concept of a civil law contract.Although the doctrine of a civil contract has a long history of development, it is characterized by insufficientelaboration. Interest in this issue in legal science is still preserved.Initially, people received information about the institution of the treaty from myths, early religions,and ethical attitudes. The civil law contract is the subject of research of both domestic and foreign civillaw and the general theory of law. Analysis of scientific, monographic, educational and methodologicalliterature, legislation shows how ambiguous the views of researchers on the definition of the concept of“contract”. Particularly, the article emphasizes that a significant role in the development of contract lawbelongs to Roman lawyers.However, an analysis of the various types of contracts that existed in the Laws of 12 tables and inthe Justiniаn Code allows us to conclude that Roman lawyers did not develop a unified understandingof the contract.The Roman treaty system distinguished two types of treaties: contracts and pacts.Studying and researching foreign civil legislation shows that the civil legislation of different statesalso has different formulations of the meaning of the concept of “agreement”.Key words: state, law, contract, legal system, legal institution, civil law, legal fact, legal relationship.

The Snake and the Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion by Nathan McGovern

This contribution offers a review of The Snake and the Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion by Nathan McGovern (2019).

The evolution of religious cognition

Several accounts of the evolution of religion distinguish two phases: an earlier shamanic stage and a later doctrinal stage. Similarly, several theories of human cognition distinguish two cognitive modes: a phylogenetically older system that is largely intuitive and a later, more distinctively human system that is more rational and articulate. This article suggests that cognition in the earlier stage in the evolution of religion is largely at the level of intuition, whereas the cognition of doctrine or religion is more conceptual and rational. Early religious cognition is more embodied and is more likely to carry healing benefits. The evolutionary origins of religion in humans seem to depend on developments in the cognitive architecture. It is further suggested that the cognition of early religion shows less conceptual differentiation, is characteristically participatory rather than objectifying and is less individualistic. The development of religion in recent centuries appears to show some approximate recapitulation of the stages through which religion originally evolved.

Paradigm Shifts in Early and Modern Chinese Religion: A History, written by John Lagerwey, 2018

Paradigm Shifts in Early and Modern Chinese Religion: A History, written by John Lagerwey, 2018

How Anne Askew Read the Bible

ABSTRACT The two parts of Anne Askew's Examinations (1546–47) offer a first-hand retrospective narrative of the interrogation, condemnation, and execution of a woman who ran afoul of English clerical and secular authorities because she violated prohibitions on public Bible reading when she read the scriptures at Lincoln Cathedral. This was not a capital offense in itself, but her devotion to Luther's doctrine of sola scriptura (“by scripture alone”) led to her execution for denying orthodox belief in transubstantiation and the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Mass. Her experience provides an outstanding example of how reading and interpretation of the English Bible as it was translated by William Tyndale (1494–1536), individuals associated with him, and their successors led a literate laywoman to being burnt alive for heresy. This investigation clarifies our understanding of reading practices, the materiality of early modern books, book editing, contemporary politics and religion, and other subjects related to her Bible reading.

Literary Responses to Religious Debates at the Northern Zhou Court

In the fifth and sixth centuries, the status of the Buddhist and Daoist teachings underwent constant change. The tension between the two religious groups over state sponsorship heightened during the Northern Zhou dynasty, especially under the reign of Emperor Wu 北周武帝 (r. 560–578). While records about these events abound in historical and religious texts, very few literary pieces have survived and thus have received little attention. This article investigates three literary texts against this background, a bell inscription by Emperor Wu, and two poems by Yu Xin 庾信 (513–581 CE). My reading of Yu Xin’s allusions to Buddhism and Daoism reveals a complex attitude of the poet, who voiced veiled criticism of the sovereign through layers of allusions, and provides a rare window onto ways in which early medieval religions expanded the vision of literature of the time and enriched its imaginative realm.

Isaac Olsen – The First Missionary among the Sami People in Finnmark?

This article deals with Isaac Olsen, a Norwegian who was an itinerant catechist and teacher among the Sami people in Finnmark, Northern Norway. The author claims that Isaac Olsen, as a forerunner to the Sami missionary Thomas von Westen, in fact was the first missionary among the Sami people in Finnmark. Isaac Olsen came to Finnmark just after 1700, learned the Sami language and started his work among the Sami population in Eastern Finnmark. He got to know the Sami people well, and they gave him information about Sami pre-Christian religious practice, among other names of places of sacrifice. These names, in addition to many other pieces of information, were written down by Isaac Olsen in a copybook that has been preserved. The article discusses in great detail the contents of this book, which contains valuable knowledge about Early Modern Sami culture and religion. Isaac Olsen, also as a pioneer, translated Danish religious texts into the Sami language, called to Copenhagen to perform translation work by the Missionary College.

Milton and the Creation of England’s Long Reformation

ABSTRACTThis essay considers how Milton's perspectives on the Long Reformation, including its messy process, can reshape debates, dominated by historians of early modern religion, over how to conceptualize England's Long Reformation or Reformations. The religious upheavals of the English Revolution, as the fragmented world of faith in England was becoming more fragmented than ever, gave Milton and his Puritan contemporaries the opportunity not only to assess the painful progress of the Long Reformation, but to think about how they might reconstruct the Reformation itself. This essay examines Milton's bold ideas and striking metaphors for reconceiving the Reformation, including in Areopagitica where he is thinking in creative ways about pluralism and division in religious culture, and about how to engage with the tensions generated by that division. Milton perceives that the Reformation is not only a long process and struggle, but that reconstructing the Long Reformation remains precarious. In his controversial writings Milton makes a distinctive contribution to the creation of the Long Reformation.

Book Review / Comptes rendu: The Snake and the Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion

Book Review / Comptes rendu: The Snake and the Mongoose: The Emergence of Identity in Early Indian Religion

ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGION - (P.) Pakkanen, (S.) Bocher (eds.) Cult Material from Archaeological Deposits to Interpretation of Early Greek Religion. (Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens 21.) Pp. viii + 155, fig., ills, maps, colour pls. Helsinki: The Finnish Institute at Athens, 2015. Paper, €30. ISBN: 978-952-67211-9-4.

ARCHAEOLOGY AND RELIGION - (P.) Pakkanen, (S.) Bocher (eds.) Cult Material from Archaeological Deposits to Interpretation of Early Greek Religion. (Papers and Monographs of the Finnish Institute at Athens 21.) Pp. viii + 155, fig., ills, maps, colour pls. Helsinki: The Finnish Institute at Athens, 2015. Paper, €30. ISBN: 978-952-67211-9-4.

Early Iron Age Pyramidal Kurgans in Western Siberia

Ditches encircling the Early Iron Age Sargatka kurgans in the Western Siberian forest-steppe are described. Most of them are nonagonal, decagonal, and dodecagonal, but hexagonal, heptagonal, octogonal and those with 14 angles occur as well. Kurgan shape does not correlate with size, platform diameter, or number of burials. The analysis of data regarding the micro-relief of the kurgan surface and of sources relevant to early nomadic religion enables us to interpret various types of ditches. Those of the hexaand heptagonal type encircled a wooden and earthen pyramid, presumably symbolizing the World Mountain. Those with 9, 12, and 14 angles result from a proportionally larger size of elite kurgans. Indeed, inside such kurgans, hexa- and heptagonal wooden platforms are found. Unclosed ditches likely indicate unfi nished kurgans, and those with 11 and 13 angles result from a distortion of the initial layout by secondary burials. Ditches are associated only with male burials and were apparently meant to protect the dead against evil forces and against the possible intrusion of potentially hostile ancestors, whose cult was reconstructed on the basis of offerings in elite burials. The architecture of the Sargatka kurgans evidences remnants of Indo-European myths transformed by inter-ethnic contacts and cultural innovations on the periphery of the Scytho-Siberian world.

REMEDIOS “LA BELLA”, UNA ANTIGUA DIOSA ALADA EN LA OBRA DE GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ

Undoubtedly, the “Assumption” of Remedios the Beauty is one of the most fascinating and discussed episodes within the work of Garcia Marquez. Nevertheless it can not be considered among the best understood. In this essay we’ll examine it carefully, focusing on analogies with Catholic tradition and other earlier religions that can be detected in it. Since, in fact, consciously or unconsciously, all things considered, Remedios appears as heiress of an ideological and graphic legacy that dates back to prehistoric times, when a goddess with avian traits arises.

Editing the Soul: Science and Fiction in the Genome Age by Everett Hamner

BOOK REVIEWS 269 Editing the Soul: Science and Fiction in the Genome Age Everett Hamner The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2017. xii + 264 pp. $27.95 paperback. $94.95 hardcover. In openly rebuffing a strict binary between the secular and the religious/ metaphysical, postsecularism rejects both militant atheistic science (such as the scientism of Richard Dawkins) and religious fundamentalism (for example, Young Earth Creationism). In this, his first monograph, Everett Hamner successfully draws upon his interdisciplinary teaching and research as he utilizes a postsecular lens to investigate the myriad and complex intersections between literature, science, religion, and popular culture in the realm of genetics. In particular, he employs a combination of historical and theoretical approaches (in addition to meticulous close readings of a variety of visual media and written texts) to highlight how genetic fiction engages in “reshaping twenty-first-century conceptions of the self, the body, and various identity categories” (5). Indeed, the term “soul” that is prominently displayed in the book’s title rarely appears within its pages, an endnote explaining that Hamner was “consciously using self and soul almost interchangeably” as a way to blur “the lines between the secular self… and the religious soul” (226). Throughout the work Hamner defines, explicates, and traces a “successive ” rather than “cumulative” evolution through three subgenres of genetic fiction: fantasy, realism, and metafiction (10). Using a variety of representative works from all three genres, he explores two overarching questions: how humanity might “best use its rapidly growing knowledge of the genome” without “sacrificing our ethics,” and “what constitutes free will as knowledge of biological inheritance accelerates” (185). Hamner prepares the reader to ponder these weighty issues throughout a thoughtful introduction that could easily serve as a stand-alone essay in a course on science and science fiction. In a refreshingly honest summary of the state of science communication , Hamner leaves aside issues of media representations and focuses attention on the role scientists themselves play in propagating sensationalized “metaphysical rhetoric” in order to interest the public and potential funders in their research (3). As he insightfully notes, the danger is that “a prominent scientist’s hyperbole is more likely to be mistaken for a literal claim about reality” (3). In preparation for his detailed examination of the three subgenres of genetic fiction, Hamner provides elementary examples, such as the genetic fantasy of the X-Men franchise. The author’s deep appreciation for the works of Richard Powers is on display from these early Religion & Literature 270 pages, with the short story “Genie” (2012) offered as an exemplar of genetic metafiction. It is in this example that we also glimpse a minor drawback in Hamner’s somewhat myopic selection of works, as this short story has much in common with a work that Hamner ignores, the Ridley Scott film Prometheus released the same year. The classic science fiction film Gattaca (1997) begins Hamner’s foundational first chapter as an illustration of the very human fear of predetermination , an ancient dread that is potentially resurrected by science rather than religion in the wake of the Human Genome Project. Hamner patiently explains that connections between genes and medical conditions, gene expression, and environmental factors are not as simple as science fiction would suggest (with single-gene disorders being the vast minority). He warns that common misconceptions lead to the two unfortunate extreme positions, a fatalistically deterministic “astrological genomics” (37) and the likewise unhelpful “genetic dismissivism” in which genetic influence is ignored . He argues that while the latter may be related to biblical literalism or anti-vaccine fears, it could also be caused by simple ignorance of the basic science (40). Hamner then devotes the following chapters to investigating genetic fantasy, genetic realism, and genetic metafiction in turn. While chapter two predictably focuses on genetic fantasy featuring the “Carbon-Copy Clone Catastrophe masterplot” (92), Hamner seizes this opportunity to give the tired trope a fresh perspective by concentrating on how feminist authors (including Ursula Le Guin and Octavia Butler) have successfully exploited the genre to explore issues of culturally defined privilege (e.g. race, gender, sexual preference, and class). Deterministic fears play a key role in early twenty-first-century genetic realist literature, for example...