Religious Change Research Articles

Young People, Being Catholic, and Religious Change in the Philippines: A Response to Critics

ABSTRACT This article is a response to the comments offered by Giovanni Maltese, Peter Bräunlein, Rosa Cordillera A. Castillo, and Scott MacLochlainn on the book Being Catholic in the Contemporary Philippines: Young People Reinterpreting Religion. It addresses several areas including the limits and potential of conducting research on religious identity and the book’s arguments about reflexive spirituality and individualization. It ends by reflecting on the urgency of assessing religious change in the Philippines, which involves diversification and the rise of militant Christianity.

Urban Religion in Mediterranean Antiquity: Relocating Religious Change

The claim formulated in this article is that city-space and interaction with city-space engineered the major changes that revolutionised ancient Mediterranean religions. Whereas previous research on ancient religion has stressed the role of religion for cities and urban topography, we are suggesting a new focus on the impact of cities on religion and on how the interaction with city-space changed religion. This side of the dialectic is what we call urban religion. This concept is paramount, since it encompasses the development of specific religious agencies and practices (e.g. neighbourhood shrines, theatrical processions; text production and supply of religious services), specific forms of religious knowledge and imaginaries (imaginative places; imagined communities, heavenly cities) and societal phenomena such as civic rituals or religious communities in the appropriation (and hence modification and formation) of urban space in cities of different size and character. The major questions that we propose are: how and to what extent is religion shaped by density, urban aspirations, diversity and conflict, city governance, heterarchical distribution of power and division of labour, and urban identity, that is urbanity? The basic assumption is that religious change needs to be investigated in terms of the ongoing interaction between the city-space and a variety of different agents, including residents, immigrants, and people who live off religion.

Marcus Moberg. 2017.: Church, Market, and Media: A Discursive Approach to Institutional Religious Change.

Marcus Moberg. 2017.: Church, Market, and Media: A Discursive Approach to Institutional Religious Change.

Religious Change and Print: 1450–1700(Chicago, The Newberry Library, 14 September – 27 December 2017). Online exhibition: https://www.newberry.org/religious-change-and-printRemembering the Reformation(London, Lambeth Palace Library, 28 September – 23 December 2017). Online exhibition: https://exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/reformation/.

Religious Change and Print: 1450–1700(Chicago, The Newberry Library, 14 September – 27 December 2017). Online exhibition: https://www.newberry.org/religious-change-and-printRemembering the Reformation(London, Lambeth Palace Library, 28 September – 23 December 2017). Online exhibition: https://exhibitions.lib.cam.ac.uk/reformation/.

Wychowanie moralne w kontekście przemian cywilizacyjnych

The ecclesiastical context appears to have a special importance for moral education. This is obvious as moral education is carried out in the life of a specific religious community. The second half of the 20th century, i.e., the period introducing us into the new millennium, has been a time of deep transformations in Christianity and particularly in the Catholic Church. Needless to say, these transformations have had a remarkable impact on the process of moral education of the young generation. It may be said that the political, economic, social, cultural and religious changes of the 20th century have a specific character. A symptomatic feature of these changes, observed especially nowadays, is their rapid pace as well as their universal character. Industrial civilization transformed not only people’s external living conditions, but has had an influence on man’s inner life and on his behaviour in both moral and religious spheres. The occurrence of these changes can be noted not only in particular nations, but indeed in the whole of mankind. The new conditions exert an influence also on religious life. On the one hand they enhance the ability of a critical judgment and have a purifying effect on the world outlook, ridding it of magical elements and occasional superstitions which happen to darken it. On the other hand there is required a more personal and active clinging to faith, which helps many people to adopt a more vital relationship with God; many others, however, practically abandon religion.

Faith in forgiveness? Exploring conversions to Christianity within a former Khmer Rouge community

ABSTRACTThis article explores stories of former members of the Khmer Rouge who have converted to Christianity. It sheds light on the intersections of patterns of religious change in Cambodia, which implicates peace-building, redress, and development trajectories in the wake of conflict and atrocities. The case raises important questions about why former members of the Khmer Rouge convert to Christianity and the social, political, and ethical implications of their conversions. We explore these questions to show that, while transitions and attendant redress efforts in Cambodia have been principally explained at the level of the state, we should pay closer attention to the granular experiences of former Khmer Rouge members as they navigate Cambodia’s changing post-conflict terrain, and the social and cultural sites through which they have made their experiences of the past meaningful.

The Adoption of Christian Names and Surnames in the Moravian Communities of Nunatsiavut, Labrador

ABSTRACT The process of assigning personal names throughout Nunatsiavut, Labrador, in response to ecclesiastical and public desiderata is discussed in this article. Naming among the Inuit of Labrador's north coast changed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries because of the Moravian mission. The adoption of German Christian names for children and adults was to indicate a religious identity change. The system that existed throughout the nineteenth century paired Christian names. Among married couples, the husband was named together with his wife and the wife with her husband in the possessive case, while the son's name was paired with that of his father and the daughter's name with that of her mother. Atitsiak-based naming among Labrador Inuit extended the kinship group as it had in other Inuit societies. It remained relevant and was accepted also by missionaries since Christian Inuit, unlike European Moravians, had no baptismal witnesses or sponsors who would have felt formal responsibility for the child beyond the primary caregivers. Traditional Christian double names for Moravian Inuit lasted in Labrador until the early 1890s when Christian first names began to be supplemented by surnames in response to governmental needs for bureaucratic identification.

SACRED LANDSCAPES, SPIRITUAL TRAVEL: EMBODIED HOLINESS AND LONG-DISTANCE PILGRIMAGE IN THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION

ABSTRACTLong regarded as a medieval tradition which declined into insignificance after Luther, pilgrimage expanded considerably from the mid-sixteenth century, until well after 1750. This paper examines long-distance journeys to shrines, rather than sacred sites themselves, to explore how landscapes travelled were perceived, experienced and used by pilgrims in the Counter-Reformation. Using theory such as phenomenology, the focus is on autobiographical accounts of pilgrimages to two case-study sites, the Mont Saint-Michel in Normandy, northern France, and Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, north-west Spain, roughly between 1580 and 1750. These were shrines with origins in the early medieval period and which attracted a clientele over long distances. These pilgrimages were also in some way affected by religious conflict in the sixteenth century, whether by direct attack by Huguenots as at the Mont, or by war-time disruptions of its routes as with Compostela, as well as the theological and polemical attacks on the practice of pilgrimage itself by Protestant authors. Pilgrimage studies have examined ‘place’ – the shrine – but a focus on ‘landscape’ allows for a consideration of wider religious and cultural contexts, relations and experiences in this period of religious change.

Whence Orthodox Jewish Feminism? Cognitive Dissonance and Religious Change in the United States

A large literature on feminist theology and philosophy of religion has explored the various ways in which feminism has reshaped religious thought and practice within different faith traditions. This study uses Festinger’s (1965) cognitive dissonance theory and the 2017 Nishma Research Survey of American Modern Orthodox Jews to examine the effect of tension between feminism and Orthodox Judaism on lay men and women. For 14% of Modern Orthodox Jews, issues related to women or women’s roles are what cause them “the most pain or unhappiness” as Orthodox Jews. The paper examines the sociodemographic characteristics associated with this response and tests whether those who experience this cognitive dissonance are more likely to (1) advocate for changes in the role of women within Orthodox Judaism and/or (2) experience religious doubt. The analysis reveals that these individuals overwhelmingly take a feminist stance on issues related to women’s roles in Orthodox Judaism, and they also manifest more religious doubt. The paper discusses the dual potential of cognitive dissonance to either spur changes in women’s religious roles in traditional religious communities and/or threaten the demographic vitality of those communities.

The converting sea: Religious change and cross‐cultural interaction in the early modern Mediterranean

AbstractThis review article explores conversion, construed as any change that fundamentally recalibrated the religious, political, and cultural landscape of the early modern Mediterranean. By expanding the concept of conversion to include shifts in collective identity construction, institutional anxieties, literary culture, intellectual traditions, and the visual arts, we can approach a more lucid understanding of the processes of religious change, acculturation, and cross‐cultural interaction in the early modern Mediterranean. We can then speak of the early modern Mediterranean as a converting sea: one that shaped the lives of its inhabitants who in turn shaped the cultural landscape of the Middle Sea itself.

The Moorehead Phase Occupation at the Emerald Acropolis

Abstract The Emerald site, also known as the Emerald Acropolis, was an early Mississippian pilgrimage center key to Cahokia’s development. This paper presents the hitherto unpublished results of two archaeological projects conducted at the site, one led by Howard Winters and Stuart Struever in 1961 and the other by Robert Hall in 1964. These investigations produced the most comprehensive information on Emerald’s Moorehead phase (1200–1300 CE) occupation, during which two of its mounds were capped, a secondary mound was constructed on the central mound, and a mound-top structure was erected on this secondary mound. Similar activities took place throughout the region during the thirteenth century, a time marked by dramatic social, political, and religious change in Greater Cahokia. Based on these data, we argue that people returned to Emerald to memorialize or draw on the powers inherent there and thus reincorporate this place into the newly imagined thirteenth century Cahokian world.

‘Reading the ads in al-Daʿwa magazine: commercialism and Islamist activism in al-Sadat’s Egypt’

ABSTRACT This article probes the return of the Muslim Brotherhood to prominence in 1970s Egypt through a systematic analysis of advertisements in the organization’s flagship periodical, al-Daʿwa (The Call). In every issue of the magazine, which was published between June 1976 and October 1981, entreaties to proper conduct and appeals to Islamic solidarity appeared alongside advertisements for everything from Pepsi to breakfast biscuits to automobiles. We utilize the methodological insights of social and cultural historians to the value of advertisements to cast new light on the reconstruction of the Brotherhood, its relationship with the diverse institutions comprising the Egyptian state, and on how the Muslim Brotherhood’s vision of piety both reflected and challenged a changing economic reality. Moving beyond a story of the Brotherhood’s return as a product of independent Islamist enterprise that had emerged due to both the Gulf oil boom and Egypt’s economic liberalization programme, significant public sector advertising in al-Daʿwa, especially prominent across the most valuable advertising real estate, underscores both internal divisions within the Egyptian state as well as the tangible ways that various state institutions were patrons of religious change.

Signs, Tokens, and Points of Contact: Religious Symbolism and Sacramentality in Non-Western Christianity

The development of Christianity as a non-Western religion since the middle of the 20th century has generated changes that distinguish it from the expressions of faith inherited from the West. Christian religious innovation and new ways of expressing the faith have become the hallmarks of African Christianity. One way in which these religious changes are discernible is the use of “signs and tokens”, that is, physical substances that in the hands of religious functionaries acquire a sacramental value and that for example serves as support to the sorts of interventionist ministries associated with Pentecostal/charismatic ministries. A classic example of the new sacramental substances is the widespread use of the anointing oil. The anointing oil has become an important “point of contact” in African Christian rituals of healing and supernatural interventions. The use of oil for anointing is not necessarily new in the historic Christian traditions. However, in contemporary African Christianity, it has been reinvented and instituted in healing and deliverance and exorcism rituals that go beyond what was familiar in the older religious traditions. In this essay, we reflect on new sacraments also re-designated as signs and tokens such as the reinvention of the anointing oil as a therapeutic substance in contemporary forms of African Christianity. The new ritual order and the perception of sacraments as therapeutic substances helps us to understand what non-Western Christians, through popular religious innovations, consider important in a faith whose liturgical standards were originally set by Western missionaries.

:Conversions: Gender and Religious Change in Early Modern Europe

:<i>Conversions: Gender and Religious Change in Early Modern Europe</i>

Christianity, Generation and Narrative. Religious Conversion and Change in Sidama, Ethiopia, 1974-2012, by Erik Egeland

Christianity, Generation and Narrative. Religious Conversion and Change in Sidama, Ethiopia, 1974-2012, by Erik Egeland

Losing or Choosing Faith: Mother Loss and Religious Change

AbstractMaternal religiosity is associated with children's religiosity even as they grow into adults. Yet, experiencing the death of one's mother during the transition to adulthood could modify the transmission of maternal religiosity across the life course. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), I find that the relationship between mother loss and religiosity is bidirectional. Results from longitudinal models of child religiosity across the transition from adolescence to adulthood show that mother loss is negatively associated with service attendance but is positively associated with salience. Further, mother loss predicted higher frequency of prayer among bereaved children at lower levels of maternal religiosity but lower prayer frequency at higher levels of mothers’ religiousness. Overall, these findings direct attention to differences in the associations between mother loss and indicators of religiosity and to the interplay between mother loss and maternal religiosity as important factors in the transmission of religiosity across generations.

ONLY CONNECT? NETWORK ANALYSIS AND RELIGIOUS CHANGE IN THE ROMAN WORLD

The emergence during the Roman Empire of new religious forms and groups alongside the collective cults of the city and ruler worship invites analysis in terms of various kinds of network theory. Some of the main version of network theory currently in use are examined, and their applicability to ancient material is discussed and assessed. Network thinking turns out to be very useful, but the problems in conducting a more formal network analysis are formidable. Network theory does allow us to approach religious change from new directions and two models of change in current use – conversion as contagion, and religious change as the spread of idea – are examined. Thinking about religious change in these terms forces historians to formulate more precise descriptions of change as a process that involves socialization and the routinization of new habits and rituals, as well as a process of learning a new way of imagining and describing the cosmos.

The English Reformation in Wittenberg: Luther and Melanchthon’s Engagement with Religious Change in England 1521–1560

ABSTRACTExploring the reception in Wittenberg of the historiographically often puzzling English Reformation, this article examines Luther’s and Melanchthon’s reactions in their correspondence. Relationships between Henry VIII and the Wittenberg Reformers deepened with an English embassy, led by Edward Foxe, to the Schmalkaldic League. The delegation was based in Wittenberg 1537–38; German deputations were in England in 1538 and 1539 (the year of the conservative Act of Six Articles). The Reformers’ responses show good general knowledge of events in England. Although Wittenberg had hoped for English conversion, Henrician theological ambiguity impeded negotiations with the League. The executions of Thomas More, Anne Boleyn and Thomas Cromwell caused the Wittenbergers to regard Henry with scepticism. Finally, Melanchthon's relationships to England after the deaths of Luther and Henry VIII are discussed. Developments under Edward VI made the English Reformation recognizable as part of the wider movement, and Melanchthon advised that English exiles in Germany should be treated as fellow-believers.

Mediatization of Religion in Kyrgyzstan: Diffusion of Religious Authority and Changing Perceptions of Religion

This article explores the media’s role in facilitating religious change in Kyrgyzstan. Taking Stig Hjarvard’s theory of mediatization as its point of departure, it goes on to examine how his thesis works when applied to the case of Islam in Kyrgyzstan. It argues that the media facilitates religious transformation in Kyrgyzstan by redefining the power constellation between various religious actors and bridging the gap between ethnic and religious identities, mainly through language. By reinforcing people’s religious identities, the media creates more intricate ways for Kyrgyzstan’s Muslims to relate to each other.

Shifts in religiosity across cohorts in Europe: A multilevel and multidimensional analysis based on the European Values Study

Religious change continues to be a controversial topic that involves both theoretical and methodological issues. As to the European context, the main dispute is between secularization and individualization theory, especially considering the ‘believing without belonging’ thesis. This article will tackle this dispute given these three choices: firstly, we assume that cohort replacement is the main driver of religious change; secondly, religious tradition has to be taken fully into account to explain religious change; thirdly, we consider religiosity as a complex phenomenon that requires a multidimensional approach. Results from a multilevel multiple responses model based on EVS (European Values Study) data show that practice is declining across cohorts in all the countries whereas trends for belief and self-definition diverge only for Eastern Orthodox countries. Depending on the interpretation, such exception seems supporting rather than undermining the ‘believing without belonging’ theory.