Religious History Research Articles

Materializing the public sphere in American religious history

AbstractThis article reviews scholarship in American religious history around the concept of the public sphere. Considering that the public sphere was readily aligned with the productions of the printing press, ‘materializing’ surveys works that have relied upon, expanded, and critiqued print's centraility to early American religious public culture. Recent attention to materiality has also encouraged greater attention to contingencies, locality of circulation, and specificity of audiences in our studies of public texts that would trouble technological determinisms that readily aligned Protestant ascendance, secular modernity, and print publishing with democratization. The essay concludes with new questions regarding print culture, calls for greater multimedia approaches to our study of media objects, and posits the importance of critically evaluating what we count as public or private in our historical narratives about religious communities.

Priests and their Bodies after Trent: (Dis)abilities, Masculinities, Sexualities

This article discusses the impact of a “corporeal turn” in early modern religious history on recent publications in Counter‐Reformation Catholic History. Scholars increasingly look towards the Church's legal archives in Rome as a source of information about ecclesiastical and theological attitudes to the body and sexuality. The figure of the priest has emerged as one of the most interesting subjects in that inquiry because of the richness of material about clerics which those archives hold. Scholars are now engaged in study of how past generations of theologians, ecclesiastical magistrates, and medics assessed priestly abilities and disabilities, priests' engagement in sexual acts, and their wider performances of masculine identities. Rome's role as a major centre in shaping Catholic masculinities is reinforced in this scholarship but a new study underscores the blurred boundaries between the lay and ecclesiastical in masculinities there. Overall, this research provides much new material both for rethinking historical questions about Trent's impact on reform discourses and also for commenting on contemporary debates in theology and Church politics about the nature of Christian priesthood.

The Sunday School movement in Britain, 1900–1939. By Caitriona McCartney. (Studies in Modern British Religious History, 46.) Pp. xvi + 210 incl. 10 graphs and 3 tables. Woodbridge–Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2023. £80. 978 1 78327 765 0

The Sunday School movement in Britain, 1900–1939. By Caitriona McCartney. (Studies in Modern British Religious History, 46.) Pp. xvi + 210 incl. 10 graphs and 3 tables. Woodbridge–Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2023. £80. 978 1 78327 765 0

Beyond the Theosophical Paradigm: Ilme kṣnum and the Entangled History of Modern Parsis

Abstract In the early twentieth century, an esoteric interpretation of Zoroastrianism known as Ilme kṣnum became popular among the Parsis of India. Although research on the subject is scant, most scholars suggest that Ilme kṣnum draws largely upon the ideas promoted by the Theosophical Society in India. By examining primary sources in Gujarati, the present article illustrates the interpretation of the Zoroastrian cosmology proposed by Ilme kṣnum. Through a comparative analysis of its main concepts and terms, Ilme kṣnum is historicized in the context of the relations of the Parsi community with the Persianate and Western worlds. By framing Ilme kṣnum as a reconciliation between Persianate and Western forms of knowledge, the present article looks at historical entanglements as resources for the Parsi quest for religious authenticity, placing Zoroastrianism in global religious history.

SCHOOLS AND THEMES OF ANTHROPOLOGY, ETHNOLOGY, AND HISTORY OF RELIGION IN ROMANIA

The article represents a brief presentation of the evolution of religious studies in Romania during the 19–20 centuries. The studies on the religious phenomenon written in Romania in the 19th century were closely related to the national problem. One of the fundamental questions that arose at the time was whether Christianity is an integral part of national identity. At the end of the 19th century Christianity was seen as a popular tradition, part of what was beginning to be known as folklore. As folklore represented the Romanian identity, it had to be preserved at all costs, therefore also the Christian elements found in popular traditions. Tudor Pamfile is the scholar who shows that folklore is not just a sum of superstitions that must be preserved because it represents tradition. He says that folklore represents a complex universe of meanings, a coherent world, which modern people no longer understand. After the First World War, Christianity is reconsidered. The rationalism of the 19th century is rejected, and "spiritualism" is adopted. Ernest Bernea, Ovidiu Papadima and other scholars wanted to show that the Romanian popular tradition, the basis of national identity, is permeated with the most authentic Christian vision. The Romanian popular tradition was no longer a matter of "superstition", but of the most authentic truth of life. Such an idea is spreading that the authentic man is a religious man. It is the basis of the conception of Mircea Eliade, who will become one of the most important researchers in the field of the history of religions in the world. He overcomes the issue of Romanian identity and its relationship with Christianity. He will be concerned in his works to show the universality of religious feeling, studying religious manifestations at a global level, from prehistory to the present. After 1945, the communist period was established in Romania. Religious history studies have been replaced by atheistic propaganda. However, scholars from the interwar period sought to study the religious phenomenon in Romania and the rest of the world. Also, many young people learned about Mircea Eliade and his work, carried out in France and the United States. One of them was Ioan Petru Culianu who managed to escape from Romania and become one of the great scholars in the field of history of religions. After the fall of the communist regime, religious history studies in Romania experienced a remarkable development.

Global Religious History and Religious Comparison: a Programmatic Outline

Abstract This introduction outlines the contributions of Global Religious History, or Global History of Religion, to the issue of religious comparison. First, it argues for religious comparison as an integral part of religious studies that should not be abandoned but revised. Second, it addresses the larger framework of debates in religious studies and global history, arguing for the value of Global Religious History in avoiding Eurocentrism, but also tendencies within the postcolonial spectrum that mirror Eurocentric shortcomings. What is often perceived as a crisis in religious studies is understood here as an ongoing process of reflection and refinement that allows us to contextualize both the object of study and its researcher. Finally, this outline presents concrete elements that can inform revised approaches to religious comparison, including a genealogical method, entanglement and decentered historiography, and translingual practice. This allows us to expand our scope not only geographically, but also temporally.

The RHA Newsletter of the Religious History Association

The RHA Newsletter of the Religious History Association

The Celestial Masters and the Origins of Daoist Monasticism

The Daoist monasteries, which were first popularized in southern China in the late fifth century, reflected major changes in the structure of medieval Daoism. From the perspective of comparative religious history, the rise of Daoist monasteries bears some similarity to the monasticisms that came into being in the Christian and Buddhist traditions; all three originated in hermitic and ascetic practices. However, Daoist monasticism did not naturally stem from the hermetic Daoism tradition; instead, it underwent a two-stage process of “grafting” in terms of its spiritual beliefs and values. The first stage saw the emergence of Daoist scriptures in the Jin and Song periods; in particular, the Lingbao scriptures, which transformed and distilled the tradition of hermetic Daoism practiced in the mountains and invested hermitic practice with a more complete and sacrosanct doctrinal foundation. The second saw the Southern Dynasties’ Celestial Masters order embrace and experiment with the beliefs and values within the Lingbao scriptures; this process introduced the inherent communitarian nature of the Celestial Masters into the development of Daoist monasticism and resulted in the large-scale transformation of religious practice among the Celestial Masters of the period. This change of direction among the Celestial Masters order in the Jin and Song periods toward mountain-based practice led to the establishment of Daoist monasticism, but also to a loss of purity therein.

The Semantics of Religious Borders in Early Modern Confessions

ABSTRACT In order to provide a nuanced understanding of early modern religious history, the metaphors of ‘border’ and ‘layer’ have proved particularly useful. This article proposes utilizing Nicolai Hartmann's ontology and Helmuth Plessner's anthropology to deepen our comprehension of these metaphors. It also highlights the existence of competing metaphors, such as ‘confessional osmosis,’ which can mislead or downplay personal agency. To test the efficacy of stratigraphic metaphors, two case studies are presented: the multi-confessional city and multiple conversions. These case studies demonstrate how stratigraphic metaphors can capture the simultaneity of the simultaneous, commonalities and differences within the lives of historical agents. The conversions of the nun Martha Zitter provide a particularly insightful illustration for the use of such metaphors.

Equiano's African Methodist Appetite: Feasting and Purification Rituals as Community and Resistance

Abstract: This article draws on food studies, religious history, and research on Equiano's religious orientation to argue that Equiano's Interesting Narrative describes a creolized African and Methodist asceticism in relation to food and ritual practice. His introduction to the Moravian-Methodist love feast before his conversion resonates with his earlier textual recollections of commensality and feasting practices in his eastern Nigerian homeland. Equiano's early textual descriptions of feasting rituals suggest that he was attracted to Methodism because of his experiences through the Middle Passage and his memories of feasting practices, purification rites, and sacrifices and offerings from his childhood in Igboland. Equiano's experiences of sacrifice and his portrayals of hunger and hunger strikes as a form of resistance on the slave ships mark his choice of religious and ascetic orientation. His reclamation of the ocean as a free Black sailor, an Atlantic Creole, contributes to his interest to a temperate Methodist orientation and inner-worldly asceticism.

Impact of religion and spirituality on the incidence of depression and mental health among young adults in the Czech Republic.

The issue of the impact of religion and spirituality on mental health is a phenomenon which has recently become increasingly more accentuated. Despite the attention given to the topic, many questions still remain as to whether and how religion and spirituality affect a person's mental wellbeing. In the text below, we have focused on examining the relationship between religion and spirituality and mental health among young adults in the Czech Republic. Research also explored the idea that forgiveness can be viewed as a component of religion or spirituality. The research project was executed in close cooperation with STEM/MARK, a renowned data collection agency. The methodological framework was constructed with a dual focus: leveraging standardized questionnaires to ensure data reliability and comparability while also incorporating tailored questions that delve into the participants' socioeconomic status (SES) and background details. The study unfolded across four online sessions, a format chosen for its convenience and effectiveness in facilitating participant engagement while accommodating our respondents' diverse schedules. The total sample approached comprised of 270 young adults that expressed certain form of religiosity. Forgiveness and the depth of one's personal religious or spiritual history emerged as the most influential factors. Forgiveness was significantly associated with an increase in self-blame (positively), and decrease in refocusing, planning (both negatively), and putting things into perspective (negatively) (Beta = 0.25, Beta = -0.06, and Beta = -0.16, respectively). In contrast, a deeper personal religious history was positively associated with self-blame, rumination, and refocusing (Beta = 0.22, Beta = 0.13, and Beta = 0.15, respectively). The finding that forgiveness may be a risk factor associated with regularly elevated depressive symptoms, stress, and maladaptive coping strategies such as self-blame and ruminating over problems, while negatively affecting physical, psychological, and environmental quality of life, clearly points to the need to examine the inner aspects of individual religions and spiritualities. These findings suggest that religious and spiritual beliefs may play a key role in how people experience and manage the emotional burdens and difficulties of life.

A Tibetan window into the twentieth-century Himalayan world

This article examines interconnections between parts of the Indian Himalaya and Tibet in the period encompassing the escape of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama to India in 1959. While Buddhism served as connecting tissue binding together communities across recently drawn national borders, networks linking families in Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet were also forged through monastic patronage, colonial education, intermarriage, seasonal migration and trade. Through a reading of colonial and postcolonial archives from Delhi, London and Gangtok, as well as the private papers of Indian political appointees in the Himalaya, the article shows how, far from blazing a trail, the Dalai Lama and the Tibetans who followed him into exile were treading well-worn migration routes and leaning on relationships forged over centuries. Archival evidence from press and parliamentary proceedings in the 1950s and 1960s reveals a shared religious history and information that India claimed to be the cradle of the subcontinent’s Buddhist heritage, which helped garner greater support for the Dalai Lama and his countrymen.

Michael Snape and Stuart Bell, eds.British Christianity and the Second World War. Studies in Modern British Religious History 45. The Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2023. Pp. 242. $99.00 (cloth).

Michael Snape and Stuart Bell, <scp>eds.</scp>British Christianity and the Second World War. Studies in Modern British Religious History 45. The Boydell Press: Woodbridge, 2023. Pp. 242. $99.00 (cloth).

YHWH: A győzedelmes harcostól Izrael Istenéig

The aim of the study is to present the genesis of the name and concept of YHWH, primarily based on the results of the most recent research into the viewpoints of religious history. The significance of the Shasu nomads is primary in this regard, as the name YHWH occurred in connection with them in Egyptian inscriptions. It is highly likely that Moses and the group led by him in the southern areas (Sinai, Paran, Midian, Seir, Edom) encountered the YHWH warriors and the earlier form of the name YHWH. After entering the land of Transjordan and Canaan, the god-warrior YHWH adopted the attributes of the highest Canaanic god, El; moreover, it may be stated that a fusion – in the sense of religious history – was completed. In Genesis 49, Jacob asked for the blessings of El-Shaddai for Joseph. The Shaddai deities were the escorts of the storm-god Amurru. The next phase in religious history was the struggle between YHWH and Baal. Although the adoption of the attributes of the Canaanite storm-god was realised, the fusion was not perceived. The glorious divine warrior YHWH now also personified the storm-god, bringing rain and fertility. The YHWH divine image encountered the attributes of the Sun (solarisation) in Jerusalem, as attested by the archaeological finds from the period of pre-exile Israel.

Britain and the German Churches, 1945–1950. The role of the Religious Affairs Branch in the British zone. By Peter Howson. (Studies in Modern British Religious History, 43.) Pp. xx + 285 incl. 1 map, 1 chart and 10 tables. Woodbridge–Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2021. £75. 978 1 78327 583 0

Britain and the German Churches, 1945–1950. The role of the Religious Affairs Branch in the British zone. By Peter Howson. (Studies in Modern British Religious History, 43.) Pp. xx + 285 incl. 1 map, 1 chart and 10 tables. Woodbridge–Rochester, NY: Boydell Press, 2021. £75. 978 1 78327 583 0

‘Thy Servant Forever’

Abstract This article expands scholarly definitions of female religious authority—conversations that typically focus on women—by situating girlhood as an equally important site of receiving, developing, and performing religious agency. Using a biographical case study approach, the article examines the life of Mary Chrystie, a deeply pious American girl who lived from 1825–1841 in the mid-Atlantic region and left one of the most substantial extant primary source collections produced by a child from this period. Her life represents the religious potency of girlhood’s “in-between status” to building female-centric sacred repositories. To demonstrate this dynamic, the article analyzes Mary’s stewardship over her spiritual interiority, participation in religious communities, and her engagement with voluntarism. Ultimately, this article demonstrates the necessity of incorporating age as a category of analysis into gendered reformulations of religious authority, allowing girls to be integrated into scholarly narratives of women’s religious history as actors in their own right.

Aśvattha and śamī. The Evolution of the Meanings of an Arboreal Couple in Indian Religious History

In this article I will explore some mythological and ritual aspects related to a pair of trees, the aśvattha and the śamī. In India, since the time of the Vedic culture, these two trees have often been the protagonists of myths and rituals in which they are conceived of as a couple. In various contemporary religious contexts, one finds dendrolatric practices (vanaspatipūjā), which sometimes result in the celebration of actual tree marriages (vr̥kṣa vivāha), whereby trees grow by intertwining with each other. The aśvattha and the śamī, though in today's context separately, are also subject to dendrogamic practices. In particular, the aśvattha is subject to a gender-shift whereby in some contexts, though traditionally regarded as the male tree, it acquires a female role within the couple. This phenomenon finds a parallel in various myths and rituals handed down in the Vedic texts. In fact, the araṇis, that is, the two sticks that were rubbed together during the ritual of lighting the fire, were made from the wood of the two trees. The analysis of the symbolic values linked to the coupling of the two araṇis and the many variants that this motif generated allows us to highlight, on a mythical level, the emergence of a sexuality that is not necessarily heteronormative. These versions, in fact, lead us to reflect on an arboreal nature that alludes to a sexuality that bypasses and transcends the gender binary and accounts for the fluidity found in certain contemporary arboreal ‘marriages.

Christian motives in Soviet cinema

The paper highlights the history of emergence and development of Christian motives in Soviet cinema, from the times of persecution against the Church in 1920–1930 up to the era of Perestroika. There is a difference in the perception of Christianity as the basis of traditional ethno-cultural identity and as the basis of universal moral values, which in both cases contributed to the gradual legitimization of Christian subjects in Soviet culture in spite of the multilevel system of ideological censorship. This paper analyzes the deep ideological trends in the evolution of Soviet culture, which allowed, on the one hand, the atheistic authorities themselves and, on the other hand, the experimenting filmmakers to address the topic of religion in general, Christianity in particular and specifically the Russian Orthodox Church in different ways in different periods of Soviet history. The illustrative examples of using various Christian symbols, Biblical quotations, events of religious history, the representation of the image of a Christian priest and a believer as such in Soviet films, as well as the increasingly noticeable appeal of Soviet filmmakers to Christian associations and allusions are also shown here. The author pays special attention to contradictory ideological trends during the three basic periods of Soviet history in the second half of the twentieth century: The Khrushchev Thaw, the Era of Stagnation and Perestroika. All three contributed to the legitimization of religious themes in Soviet cinema and determined the specifics of the attitude to religion in the late Soviet period. The films by such directors as Mikhail Romm, Marlen Khutsiev, Andrei Tarkovsky, Michael Kalik, Andrei Konchalovsky, Nikita Mikhalkov, Gleb Panfilov and others are considered in the paper as the most significant precedents. Hypotheses are put forward about further ideological strategies of the Soviet state regarding Orthodox Christianity, if the Communist Party had been able to retain its power.

Human capital affects religious identity: Causal evidence from Kenya

We study how human capital and economic conditions causally affect the choice of religious denomination. We utilize a longitudinal dataset monitoring the religious history of more than 5000 Kenyans over twenty years, in tandem with a randomized experiment (deworming) that has exogenously boosted education and living standards. The main finding is that the program reduces the likelihood of membership in a Pentecostal denomination up to 20 years later, when respondents are in their mid-thirties, while there is a comparable increase in membership in traditional Christian denominations. The effect is concentrated and statistically significant among a sub-group of participants who benefited most from the program in terms of increased education and income. The effects are unlikely due to increased secularization because the program does not reduce measures of religiosity. The results help explain why the global growth of the Pentecostal movement, sometimes described as a “New Reformation”, is centered in low-income communities.

Perspectives on Religious History in Early Modern Portugal: Problems, Historiographic Production and Challenges

This article aims to outline a panoramic view of the paths taken by researchers, in the last 15 years, in the field of the religious history of the Modern Period in Portugal. Starting from the identification of the scientific production and activities that have achieved a more relevant place in the framework of the study of the religious history in early modern Portugal, since the 1950s, this article draws attention to a set of subjects that urgently need to be debated. It will be argued that research in the area in question continues to constitute a challenge. The focus of this article is the European space of Portugal, not considering productions and research about Portuguese imperial spaces, namely Asia and Brazil.