Religious Interests Research Articles

Religion under Siege

Last year, shortly before he published The God Delusion, I went to see Richard Dawkins in the Zoology Department in Oxford. I was gathering material for my biography of Alister Hardy and it so happened that Hardy had been head of the Zoology Department when Dawkins arrived there as an undergraduate in 1959. Both were advocates of evolution by natural selection, Hardy defending religion, and Dawkins attacking it on biological grounds drawn from Darwin. Hardy’s deeply religious nature and the juxtaposition with Dawkins’ atheism looked as though it might provide a good story for inclusion in my biography. If I was expecting fireworks, I didn’t get them. Richard remembered Alister as a very loveable man, which indeed he was, and claimed to be entirely unaware of his religious interests. He certainly makes no reference to his old professor in The God Delusion. That is an unfortunate omission, for it means that he never discusses Hardy’s important contribution to the empirical investigation of the biological roots of religion.

Self‐control in Pakistani Muslims: relationships with religious orientation, depression and anxiety

Islam literally refers to a personal ‘surrender’ or submission, and may therefore promote a form of self‐control that some have associated with psychosocial benefits. English‐speaking Pakistani university students (N = 160) responded to the Brief Self‐Control Scale along with measures of religious interest, religious orientation and psychological maladjustment. Self‐control correlated positively with religious interest ratings and an intrinsic religious orientation and negatively with an extrinsic religious orientation, depression and anxiety. These data supported the hypothesis that the ‘surrender’ of Islamic commitments would be associated with a self‐control that predicts religious and psychological adjustment.

Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars. Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007. xii + 341 pp. $34.95 Paper

Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars. Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2007. xii + 341 pp. $34.95 Paper

Born again heathenism enchanted worlds on film

The article discusses films with fantastic elements using evolutionary psychology. The fascination with the fantastic on film is a by-product of different evolutionary mental adaptations, like the interest in causality with the purpose of control, that create interest in fantastic violation of naturalist expectations; the horror fear of being preyed upon by powerful agents (animals or other humans) and the fear of contamination from dead bodies; and the need to enforce moral supervision and submission to powerful others to enhance group cohesion, and these functions get a powerful emphasis by invention of supernatural agents. The prominence of supernaturalism in media is not necessarily linked to an increase in religious interest vis--vis science but could also be caused by a diminished heresy control allowing media to exploit a range of innate dispositions of being intrigued by different supernatural phenomena that might be called heathen because it often reuses all kinds of folk superstitions.

Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University (review)

Reviewed by: Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University Harvey Hill Protestant Theology and the Making of the Modern German University. By Thomas Albert Howard. (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2006. Pp. 468. $135.00.) Reviewing a book devoted solely to Protestant theology in the nineteenth century would perhaps be odd in a journal dedicated to Catholic history. But a book about the making of the modern German university is not, given the remarkable influence that the German university has had on educational institutions throughout the world. The history of the German university in the nineteenth century is surely relevant to the history of higher education more generally, including the history of Catholic higher education. The book under consideration should interest historians of Catholicism for another reason as well.Howard successfully defends what he calls "the foundational thesis" of his book: that the history of the modern university and modern theology "profoundly hang together" (p. 10). As the title indicates, Howard stresses Protestant, not Catholic, theology when he argues that theologians in Germany reconceived of theology as "critical,academic,scientific and . . . statist" rather than "apologetic, practical, confessional, or ecclesial" (p. 408). Even in German universities, Catholic theologians did not typically go as far as their Protestant colleagues in allying themselves with the state rather than with institutional churches. But many Catholic theologians and religious historians, both within and outside Germany,adopted the critical, scientific norms that were the hallmark of academic theology in the Protestant universities of Germany. Indeed,one of the central issues of the so-called "Modernist Crisis,"for example, was the relationship between the scientific authority of the Catholic scholar and the dogmatic authority of the Church.Howard's book provides helpful context for understanding some of the complex issues raised by this episode. [End Page 392] In his discussion of the modern German university, Howard particularly emphasizes two developments: the growing "political authority of the state and . . . social authority of science" (p. 14). State agencies took the lead in reforming German universities and controlled both the funding and the hiring process for professors. By and large, government ministers used this influence to promote "science," that is critical scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Exactly what Germans meant by "science"evolved over time, but throughout the century, virtually all German scholars assumed that science was naturally progressive and open-ended, and that a central scholarly task was therefore the expansion of knowledge.This assumption has been the ideological basis for modern research universities. For theology,Howard emphasizes its "Janus-faced"character.On one hand,the constantly growing erudition and rigor of scientific theology in Germany gave German Protestant theologians an impact and an audience that went far beyond Germany itself. On the other hand, the influence of the theology faculty within the German university itself steadily eroded over the course of the century, ultimately forcing theologians to defend the very existence of scientific theology within the university from both secular and neo-orthodox challengers. Howard ends his book by noting that "this formidable epoch's questions and issues . . . remain alive and well, particularly those concerning the relationship between theology and the university; between deeply held articles of faith and critical-scientific understanding; between the traditions of Christianity and their public, cultural expression; in short, between what Schleiermacher had called the 'religious interest' and the 'scientific spirit'" (p. 418). Indeed they do, and, if this book cannot hope to resolve these questions, it can certainly help us to understand them better. For that,we can be grateful. [End Page 393] Harvey Hill Berry College Copyright © 2008 The Catholic University of America Press

Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson

Journal Article Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson Get access Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Warsedited by Paul A. Djupeand Laura R. Olson. Waco, TX, Baylor University Press, 2007. 353pp. $34.95. Elaine B. Sharp Elaine B. Sharp University of Kansas Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Political Science Quarterly, Volume 123, Issue 1, Spring 2008, Pages 191–192, https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1538-165X.2008.tb01735.x Published: 25 March 2013

What Do the Spiritual and Religious Traditions Offer the Practicing Psychologist?

There has been a remarkable amount of interest in the relationship among spirituality, religion, psychology, and health of late. Contemporary interest in spirituality and religion is hot among not only the general population but among professionals in the mental and physical health disciplines. While most people believe in God and consider themselves to be spiritual, religious, or both, most mental health professionals have little if any training in this area. Psychologists can use spiritual and religious principles and tools to better serve their clients even if they do not share the same religious interests. The purpose of this article is to offer thirteen spiritual and religious tools common among all of the major religious traditions that can be used by contemporary professional psychologists in clinical practice to enhance the already high quality professional services that they provide. Examples of spiritually and religiously integrated treatment along with several ethical precautions are noted as well.

RELIGIOUS INTERESTS IN COMMUNITY CONFLICT: BEYOND THE CULTURE WARS. Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson

Journal for the Scientific Study of ReligionVolume 47, Issue 1 p. 162-163 RELIGIOUS INTERESTS IN COMMUNITY CONFLICT: BEYOND THE CULTURE WARS. Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson RAYMOND TATALOVICH, RAYMOND TATALOVICH Loyola University ChicagoChicago, IllinoisSearch for more papers by this author RAYMOND TATALOVICH, RAYMOND TATALOVICH Loyola University ChicagoChicago, IllinoisSearch for more papers by this author First published: 12 March 2008 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5906.2008.00399_2.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume47, Issue1March 2008Pages 162-163 RelatedInformation

Religious Parties in a Secularizing Political Space: The Case of Italy

The Christian democratic parties in Italy from the end of World War II to 2006 show that while the popularity of religious political parties may diminish due to fewer religious voters, if political institutions facilitate the participation of small parties in government then religious parties can survive, albeit in reduced size. Their political influence may be greater than suggested by their size if they can be a deciding element in a governing coalition's survival. With access to the spoils of office, religious parties are able to distance themselves from the demands of seemingly powerful organized religious interests. Having to compromise with other parties in the government on policy in order to remain in government can also compel a religious party to moderate its platform and even soft-pedal core religious issues. The Christian democratic parties of Italy have, due to ideology and to strategic assessments of security interests, supported Western regional and international security cooperation.

A Retrospective of Hindu-Christian Studies: Establishment of the Journal and Formation of the Society

A retrospective look at "How We Do Hindu-Christian Studies" can be had by going through the issues of our journal from 1988 to the present. In the first issue of the journal the approach was described as follows: "Materials selected for publication will be balanced between historical research and contemporary practice, and, where possible, should employ analytical and theoretical analysis set within the context of our shared human experience." The issue contained two articles illustrating this approach: an overview of Hindu-Christian dialogue in India in the 1970s and 1980s by Anand Amaladass, and an assessment of the various approaches to dialogue in the modern West by Klaus Klostermaier. While Amaladass finds the focus in India in the 1980s to be on church organizations and their theology of dialogue (with some Christians linking dialogue with proselytisation), Klostermaier sees dialogue is the West occurring at the academic level in Religious Studies courses where he feels there is a greater openness and honesty "where formerly dissimulation and hypocrisy were the rule." In each tradition, says Klostermaier, our study requires scholars who are willing "to fight hard against prejudice and pretense, against petrified tradition and vested religious interest" if the Hindu-Christian dialogue is to be open and honest.

Blake, the Famine of 1795, and the Economics of Vision

This study shows that a significant historical context underlying Blake’s prophecies of 1795 was the famine in that year and the era’s pervasive discourse on market economics, whose firm support of agrarian interests provoked serious doubt and much opposition to relying on naturalistic reactions to the crisis and neglecting more imaginative and humane responses. As Blake’s work and the history of 1794–95 show, there permeated a sense of conspiracy about economic, political, and even religious interests colluding in the manipulation of scarcity and abundance. Blake’s response to the crisis involved reformulating the divisive economics of profit and loss in spiritual terms, especially those of Eternity and its inclusive interplay of desire and fulfillment. His re‐vision of the economics of finitude sought to expose—appropriately through the mythic figure Los(s)—its invisible forces, mystifications, and deceptions as represented by Urizen, Fuzon, the Tree of Mystery, and the “Human Illusion.” Witnessing his society’s hard times, Blake advocated a different dispensation—a more valuable economy—in which loss, sacrifice, and brotherhood yield the greatest spiritual and personal gains.

Key issues for the future development of mankind in a globalized and internationalized world

There are still too many wars, armed conflicts, and terrorist attacks going on today. All of these deal with religious issues and/or economic interests.

On Political Theology and the Possibility of Superseding it

The analogies between religious and secular juridical arguments interest political theorists because they suggest a hidden link between religion and politics. However, merely describing analogies does not show that the link is significant. Why are there such analogies? The question matters because answering is a prerequisite for determining whether there can be a neutral political background to religion in the sovereign state. This paper argues that there are such analogies because arguments in theology and arguments in the juridical theory of the state share a common structure. This structure is such that the meaning of some concepts in the theory of the state, like political order and sovereignty, cannot be fully understood without reference to theology. This thesis - Political Theology - has become associated with Carl Schmitt, but the argument in this paper differs importantly from his. Unlike Schmitt, this paper claims that in the contemporary state political theology can be superseded.

Religious interests in community conflict: beyond the culture wars

This volume investigates some of the most visible issues in American politics today, including gay marriage and race, along with ongoing concerns that often fly below the radar of the mass media, such as healthcare and homelessness. The book uncovers explores the political motivations, effectiveness, and interplay of organised religious interests as they confront public problems in their local communities.

Identity in Nepal: Ethnic, Individual, Political

Identity, broadly conceived as ethnic and individual, has traditionally been viewed in Nepal as a given, long-standing, primordial entity that can be used to fill in blank spaces on the ethnographic map. More recently, ethnic identity has been conceived of as forged in the furnace of various contemporary political, economic, social, and religious interests that need to be attended to, while individual identity requires increasingly detailed and exacting procedures to portray it. Both kinds of local identity can be overtaken by national political movements, such as a Maoist insurgency, which, although overlooked by anthropologists, creates powerful identities of its own.

Science, Religion, and Historical Complexity

10 Historically Speaking May/June 2007 Complexity and the History of Science and Religion: A Forum FT IS NO SURPRISE, AS THE DISHNGUISHED HISTORIAN OF scienceJohn Hedley Brooke notes, that in a time when historians are deeply suspicious of metanarratives, there has been a decidedemphasis on historicalcomplexity. Nowhere is this more evidentthan in the history of science andreligion, a subjectto which Brooke has made substantial contributions. Inplace of the warfare metaphor, historians of science andreligion have adoptedan anti-essentialist approach, dubbedthe "complexity thesis" and often associated with Brooke's work. Close examination ofparticular historicalcontexts does not reveal "some timeless inherent relationship" between science and religion. But, as Brooke and Geoffrey Cantor warned in their Gifford Fectures, preoccupation withparticular contexts might dissolve "thegreat issues that have been debated under the banner of 'science and religion' into thefragments of localhistory. " Behind the specific issues at stakefor historians of science and religion loom very important questions that cut to the core of contemporary historical inquiry. Does complexity, with its insistence on the localandtheparticular, necessarily run counterto efforts to synthesize and lookforpatterns? Can historiansfunction without master historical narratives, even though they necessarily blur contextual distinctives? In the followingforum, three prominent historians of science and religion consider these questions. Thisforum was supported by agrantfrom theJohn Templeton Foundation. Science, Religion, and Historical Complexity John Hedley Brooke Few discourses have been as riven with prejudice and polemical intentions as those concerning the mutual bearings of science and religion. The spectacular example of Richard Dawkins's anti-religious mission in The GodDelusion and the scathing reviews it has provoked in both the Fondón and New York Review of Books testify to ongoing battles and high public interest.' In the popular mind, science and religion are still engaged in a centuries-long war. Yet historians, drawing on longer perspectives and a rich diversity of interpretation, have contested the popular claim that science and religion are—and always have been—inevitably in conflict. Some of these historians, motivated by religious sympathies to "set the record straight," have perhaps gone too far in the other direction. In contrast to the conflict thesis, a metanarrative of peace (or at least the potential for peace) has repeatedly found expression, as in a recent essay of David Lindberg, one of our finest historians of science: In those not infrequent cases where Christianity and science have attempted to occupy the same intellectual ground, the historical actors have generally preferred peace to warfare, compromise to confrontation , and have found means—through compromise, accommodation, clarification, reinterpretation, revision and the identification of outright error—of negotiating a state of peaceful coexistence.2 Through the exposure of historical myths, inscribed for example in popular accounts of the Galileo affair or of the ignominious defeat of bishop Samuel Wilberforce at the hands of Darwin's disciple T. H. Huxley, more balanced views have become possible.' Particularly for early modern Europe, when the concerns of natural philosophy and theology were sometimes fused together, a fascinating picture emerges of scientific activity grounded in, and justiDoes the historian not have a duty to detect the patterns, however difficult their discernment might be? tied by, theological considerations.4 In many strands of natural theology, the scientific disclosure of beauty, harmony, and apparent design mediated between scientific and religious interests, as when Isaac Newton insisted that the beauty of the solar system could only have originated in the "counsel" of a divine being.' One consequence of serious historical research is a growing suspicion of metanarratives and an insistence on historical complexity. As one who must plead guilty to fueling such suspicion, I have myself been identified as a purveyor of what has come to be known as the "complexity thesis." I shall raise the question later whether this is a satisfactory appellation . But it may be helpful first to indicate some of the reasons why one cannot suppress reference to complexity. The meaning of the word "science" has changed over time. The word "scientist" was not coined until the 1830s. And the word "religion" draws its modern connotations from Enlightenment ambitions to impose comparative structures on the study of different societies and their rituals." Such facts might not be sufficient to torpedo a philosophical...

Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars. Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2007. 341pp. $34.95

Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars. Edited by Paul A. Djupe and Laura R. Olson. Waco, Tex.: Baylor University Press, 2007. 341pp. $34.95

Illustrating magazines: The crucial and victorious choice of British Utilitarians in the 1830s

In this article, I consider the birth of the first illustrated magazine in the context of editorial trends in England in the 1830s, a period of political and social change. Studying the relationship between the Penny Magazine and its competitors allows me to question the choices made by some political and religious interests concerning the use of images. I also show how the wish to diffuse an encyclopaedist culture to as many people as possible resulted in both the extension of readership towards the middle classes and a secularisation of knowledge. Finally, the article insists on the supranational character of the cultural imaginary that was constructed by magazines published in various countries, in the same format and with very similar content.

Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion 2004 (EBGR 2004)

The 17th issue of the Epigraphic Bulletin for Greek Religion presents the great majority of the epigraphic publications of 2004 and many additions to EBGR 1999-2003. We have placed emphasis on the presentation of new corpora and editions of new texts, but we could not resist the temptation to include information contained in papyri, both magical papyri and other papyri of religious interest that might otherwise remain unnoticed (153. 205). However, we can no longer follow the discussion conce...

The Penitente Brotherhood: Patriarchy and Hispano-Catholicism in New Mexico (review)

Reviewed by: The Penitente Brotherhood: Patriarchy and Hispano-Catholicism in New Mexico Michelle Madsen Camacho The Penitente Brotherhood: Patriarchy and Hispano-Catholicism in New Mexico. By Michael P. Carroll. (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 2002. Pp. vii, 260. $45.00.) A gifted, lucid writer and a great narrator of fiction, the Canadian sociologist Michael Carroll takes a revisionist orientation in examining an often misunderstood group, the Penitente Brotherhood of New Mexico. Notoriously characterized for "public flagellation," the Penitente Brotherhood's practices have been sensationalized, objectified, and labeled deviant. Revisiting history by using secondary sources of data, Carroll presents the Penitentes anew; a final chapter is devoted to a psychoanalytic interpretation of masculinity, repressed desire, and angst among the Brotherhood. While most researchers acknowledge that the Penitente Brotherhood, a community of Hispano men who gathered based on common religious interests, arose out of the lack of priests in the Southwest during the 1800's, Carroll challenges this finding. Carroll asserts the emergence of Penitente activities reflect a search for patriarchal authority in response to changes brought about by Bourbon Reforms. In this vein, he contradicts the long-standing view that the Penitente Brotherhood either emerged as a product of Spanish Catholic settlers or was a carryover of the Franciscan Third Order. Suggesting the Penitente Brotherhood spontaneously emerged from economic and social changes, this compelling political-economic perspective contradicts existing literature, and boldly claims that Penitente rituals were not deeply religiously motivated and further, that Penitentes were not particularly religious at all. Carroll claims that moral guilt has prevented other researchers from attaining the same finding. Perhaps the biggest shocker in the colorful text comes toward the end. Carroll warns readers prior to embarking on that final chapter: "Anyone for whom a good cigar is always and under all circumstances only a good cigar might want to skip the next chapter. . ." (p. 188). Here, Michael Carroll suggests that what fuels the behaviors of the Penitente Brotherhood is a latent homoerotic urge, and that Padre Jesus is the paternal figure in the Freudian analysis of oedipal guilt and rage. The perspective recalls Carroll's theoretical addiction (evidenced by Carroll's former books): psychoanalytic interpretations of religiosity. Given that Carroll makes such suggestions of those Penitentes from generations past, and does not utilize primary sources of data to support such assertions, his ideas can only be interpreted anecdotally, as they are both non-verifiable and lacking substantiation. Carroll acknowledges this limitation and also states, ". . . I am not suggesting that Penitente males were predisposed to overt forms of homosexual behavior involving genital penetration" (p. 205). Presenting his interpretation as "a story" (akin to "ethnographic fictions" popular among some contemporary cultural anthropologists), Carroll's approach refreshes the literature. In this case, however, and different from [End Page 205] other contemporary scholarly writing which attempts to hear the perspective of the subaltern, the Penitente Brotherhood has no voice in the text. Given the lack of empirical evidence, and reliance on conjecture, the story reads as flamboyant melodrama. The consequence of such a textual approach positions the Penitente Brotherhood as a monolith, in precisely the same exoticized terms Michael Carroll claims to challenge in the Epilogue. Michelle Madsen Camacho University of San Diego Copyright © 2007 The Catholic University of America Press