Religious Reform Research Articles

Проповедь личного безличного Бога в учении Свами Вивекананды

The article examines the concept of God presented in the teachings of the world famous Indian religious reformer and public figure Swami Vivekananda. The thinker seeks to reconcile the understanding of God in Hinduism and Western religious traditions, and therefore argues that God has both personal and impersonal aspects at the same time. The purpose of the research is to reveal the essence of the idea of a personal impersonal God proposed by Vivekananda, as well as to clarify the possibilities and conditions for the predominance of one aspect of God over another. Modern philosophers distinguish three approaches to the consideration of God as a person: God is a person and so personal, God is non-personal, and so is not a person, God is a personal non-person. The article takes the characteristics of the personal existence of God in Christianity as the basis for understanding God as a person in the views of the Indian thinker. To estimate the presentation of the personal aspect of God by Vivekananda, a combination of approaches is used: declarative, anthropocentric, attributive, substantive-hypostatic and biographical. The declarative approach points to the equivalence of the personal and impersonal aspects of God in Vivekananda's views, the anthropocentric and attributive approaches speak of the predominance of the personal aspect of God. The substantial-hypostatic approach demonstrates the philosopher's attitude to God as a substance, but not a hypostasis, which is characteristic of Indian religious metaphysics. The biographical approach indicates the displacement of the impersonal aspect of God by the personal aspect. The study concludes that Vivekananda's views on the idea of a personal impersonal God must be placed between the ideas of proponents of the impersonal Absolute and theistic personalists who consider God as a person and so personal. The author considers the influence of socio-historical conditions of the formation of Indian society at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries to be the reason for the closeness of the philosopher's views to theistic personalism. The philosopher built his religious and philosophical teaching taking into account the need to educate a free personality for a future independent India. Therefore, God in Vivekananda's views has acquired the characteristics of a personality in its modern understanding.

Religious Reform in the Late Ottoman Empire: Institutional Change and the Professionalisation of the Ulema By Erhan Bektaş

<i>Religious Reform in the Late Ottoman Empire: Institutional Change and the Professionalisation of the Ulema</i> By Erhan Bektaş

The Impact of Martin Luther’s Religious Reform on the Conversion of New Chinese Immigrants to Christianity

Abstract Through a study of the M Church in Bangkok, this research paper explores the influence of Martin Luther’s Reformation spirit of freedom of religion on the conversion of new Chinese immigrants to Christianity. With the increase in the number of Chinese who have emigrated overseas since the reform and opening up, Christianity has become increasingly popular among new Chinese immigrants, and the concept of freedom of religion advocated by Martin Luther’s Reformation has played an active role in this process. This study first, introduces the background of Martin Luther’s Reformation and his advocacy of religious freedom. Then, the literature related to Martin Luther’s Reformation, the Christian faith of new immigrants in China, and the Christian faith of Chinese in Thailand is reviewed. Then, through field research, the history and current situation of the new Chinese immigrants’ participation in the M Church in Bangkok are analyzed, and the transmutation of their beliefs in this chapel is discussed. Through interviews and surveys, the paper further analyzes the reasons for the conversion of Chinese new immigrants to Christianity. The study shows that the concept of religious freedom advocated by Martin Luther’s Reformation has played a positive role in the conversion of Chinese new immigrants to Christianity. However, Chinese new immigrants face many difficulties and challenges in the process of converting to Christianity, such as understanding and identifying with the faith and understanding the cultural differences between China and the West. Therefore, this paper argues that the concept of religious freedom advocated by Martin Luther’s Reformation has played an important role in the conversion of new Chinese immigrants to Christianity, but this process also needs to be combined with the integration and development of traditional Chinese culture.

Fragmented Hours: The Biography of a Printed Devotional Book by Thielman Kerver

As the most richly illustrated and widely-owned texts of the late medieval and early modern eras, books of hours are essential to the study of art, religion, and the history of the book. Fragmented and altered books, while perhaps less coveted, are of particular value for what they may reveal of book owners and the changing meanings and uses of devotional texts and images over more than five centuries. This paper explores the compelling biography of a book of hours in the University of Florida Library that has undergone such extensive alteration prior to its acquisition in 1989 that cataloguers could not identify the printer and edition, leaving the book’s many dislocations, redactions, and annotations unexplored. Engaging with scholarship on the social history of books of hours, I identify the fragmented book as possibly the sole surviving copy of an edition produced by Thielman Kerver in Paris around 1510 and reconstruct its missing contents through comparison with relevant editions. Next, I examine the book’s complex web of redactions, erasures, and annotations in the context of sixteenth-century religious reform before turning to the book’s dislocations and the spoliation of images in the context of nineteenth and twentieth-century collecting trends.

Religious Reform: Parallels between the European Reformation and Contemporary Challenges in Muslim-Majority Societies

This article delves into the profound dynamics of religious reform by drawing parallels between the European Reformation and the contemporary challenges facing Muslim-majority societies. While recognizing the unique contexts of these historical periods, the analysis sheds light on essential elements such as freedom, individualism, and the separation of religion from the state. It explores how these principles have played transformative roles in shaping Western modernity and their potential relevance in addressing current issues in Muslim-majority countries. The absence of a centralized religious authority in the latter context presents distinctive challenges, emphasizing the need for decentralized and context-specific reform strategies. The article underscores the importance of a multifaceted approach to reform, involving scholars, religious leaders, intellectuals, and civil society actors, in navigating the intricate path toward progress and renewal. Ultimately, this examination reaffirms the timeless pursuit of reform as a testament to human resilience and the enduring quest for positive change.

Russian Religious Reformation Process of Early 20th Century through Prism of Ideological Quests of Fr. Mikhail (Semenov)

The article examines the development of views on the reform of Russian Orthodoxy in the early 20th century by one of the prominent and unconventional religious thinkers of that time, Father Mikhail (Pavel Vasilievich Semenov, 1873-1916). It traces his journey from official Orthodoxy to the movement for religious renewal, and then to the Belokrinitskaya (or Austrian) Old Believer hierarchy, after which he becomes the main ideologist of “Golgotha Christianity” — a unique religious-reformist movement advocating for the revival of social and moral ideals of the early Christian community. As contemporaries noted, these “oscillations” of Father Mikhail (Semenov) became a natural expression of his intense quest for the kerygma of Christianity, capable of overturning the social ontology of the Orthodox Church — finding an Orthodox formula for individualizing faith and making the world the goal of salvation. The author concludes that the life path and ideological quests of Father Mikhail (Semenov) reflect an important regularity of the Russian reformation process. This regularity lies in the fact that the search for “foundations” of faith, theological foundations of doctrine, or religious foundations of culture and society is simultaneously associated with the actualization of a fundamentalist impulse in religion and to some extent with the modernization of the religious complex (this is a kind of religious swing: “fundamentalism — modernism,” “Old Believers — religious renewal,” etc.).

Becoming the Father of Modern India: Rammohun Roy and the Politics of Paternity

Abstract This article examines the posthumous reception of India’s most famous religious reformer, hailed as the ‘Father of Modern India’, Raja Rammohun Roy, from the 1830s to the present decade. During the late colonial period, the British administration and Bengali elites used class networks and print capitalism to establish Roy as the father to show compradorship amidst calls for independence. After independence, the INC retained Roy to counter the rise of more popular Hindu movements. In the period of INC decline, the BJP elevated Swami Vivekananda instead of Roy as a representative of majoritarian Hinduism. Economic and political coalitions in control of legitimating institutions elevate and sustain fathers as positive cultural symbols in response to competing claims. By emphasising party competition and issue ownership within multi-national federalism, this article complements decolonisation, cult-of-personality, and regime change as explanations for the rise and fall of public fathers.

Thoroughness of philosophy and return to religion in Tanabe Hajime

Japanese philosopher Tanabe Hajime (1885–1962) not only discussed religion in ways that were rooted in the fundamental claims of his writings, such as Shinran in Philosophy as Metanoetics (1946), but he also made proposals on religion, as in Demonstration of Christianity (1948), where he advocated for the need for a “second religious reformation.” For Tanabe, philosophy and religion (along with science) are fused in a specific way, and it is possible to find a vision of religion to be aimed for that is worth considering as a theory of religion among Japanese philosophers. To examine the theory of religion in Tanabe, this study focuses on the work, Demonstration of Christianity, and other works from the perspective of religious studies. In Demonstration of Christianity, the concept of absolute religion toward the second religious reformation is envisioned based on Tanabe’s dialectics of the absolute mediation, and a discussion on his world religion can be found, although it is limited to Christianity and some Buddhist sects. Reflecting his absolute dialectic, Tanabe says that this world religion was established through the absolute mediation of Christianity with “Nembutsu-Zen” (the unification of Pure Land Buddhism and Zen Buddhism). One cannot deny the impression of Christocentrism in these discussions, but they are in fact the result of Tanabe’s thoroughness in philosophy. What can be drawn from these discussions is that Tanabe's theory of religion is strongly connected to Platonism, which he considered the root of his dialectics. For example, by the third article in Existence, Love, and Practice (1947), “Self-Transcendence in Platonism and Faith in Gospel.” Tanabe’s argument reveals the characteristics of conceiving a new religion that combines Eastern and Western ideas, philosophy, and religion through a creative interpretation of Platonism, the source of Western thought where philosophy and religion are inseparably linked.

Economics and the Cult of Death in Late Medieval England: The Guild of St. George in Nottingham, 1459-1546

ABSTRACT This paper examines the decline of the fraternity of St. George in Nottingham between 1459 and 1546. It uses the guild’s accounts in conjunction with Nottingham’s rich surviving documentary materials to investigate the financial management of the fraternity by its officers. It argues that the officers were adept at negotiating shifting economic conditions by switching between various revenue streams. However, this adroit management did not stem the tide of membership decline. It discusses the role of religious reform in the guild’s ultimate demise. It investigates why the decline in membership started long before any moves towards state-sponsored religious reform in the 1540s. It examines the impact of key individuals upon the guild’s history. It argues that, for a more nuanced view of the decline of fraternal organizations in this period, a recognition of individuals’ impact upon institutions needs to be incorporated into our understanding of institutions’ influences upon the economy.

ISLAM SEKULER DI TURKI DAN PEMIKIRAN KEMAL ATATURK

There are three areas that can be observed in applying secularism in the era of the Kemalis reforms. First, is the secularization of the state, education, and the law in the form of attacks on the traditional power centers of the institutionalized clergy. Second, is the attack on the symbols of European civilization. Third, is the secularization of social life and attacks on Islam that its people adhere to. The aspects of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's thinking include those in the political system. At that time, Turkey was a very dictatorial one-party regime. Second, in religious reform. The state guarantees freedom of worship, for citizens, in its implementation carried out in the spirit of radical nationalism and imposed by Kemalis. And the third, in the field of education. Kemal's efforts in his policy showhow his desire should be completely sterile from sharia interference. &#x0D; However, the author at this point agrees with Al-Attas's opinion that Islam rejects any application of a secular concept in any form. Because all of that does not belong to Islam and is contrary to everything.

Society and Religion in 20th Century Algeria : Ibadite Reform, Between Modernization and Conservation

Ibadite religious reform in the M’zab, is precocious and internal. It starts from the established fact that the Ibadite rite in its initial version doesn’t correspond to the demands imposed by XXth C changes. In this sense it is closer to, the renaissance (Nahda) which germed in the orient at the end of the 19th C early 20th C. It shares many principles with the Badissian reform to which it is allied.However, the Ibadite community’s particularity, imposes the respect of community preservation on its reformers .It also finds there a powerful factor for legalizing to captivate innovations for economic and material modernization. The advancement of the religious reform doesn’t happen without offending conservators of the rite in its purity and its references judged as untouchable.This contribution intends to draw a picture which shows how little by little this reform is outlined, takes shape then takes root, opening an alternative, adapting to change, which is captivated and used as a conservation tool by this particular community.

Testamentul doamnei Agnes, văduva lui Petrus Moldner din Bistrița (1531)

The last will and testament, situated on the border between oficial and private, becomes a privileged source for the reconstruction of what is generically called „microhistory”. Less studied Transylvanian urban testaments from the medieval and pre-modern periods provide ample support for the identification of the testator's family cosmos, his community of residence, the ties he formed therein, etc. The testament of Mrs. Agnes (1531), the widow of Petrus Moldner, a merchant whose ascension ensured his access to the city council of Bistrița, becomes an important source for the restitution of some aspects of material civilization characteristic of the urban elite, of the interpersonal relationships that family members had established, and not ultimately for outlining the piety that was characteristic of the testator. Heiress to a sizable fortune, Mrs. Agnes donated it primarily to save her own soul at a time when the religious Reformation is also felt in Bistrița. This fact caused the „reaction” of 19th century historians, who were astounded by this woman's adherence to the values of the Catholic Church. Beyond the already existing rivalries, the magistrate's objection reflectes the lay authority's attempt to halt these donations pro salute anime, in accordance with the Saxon University's ruling in 1525 and the new reforming atmosphere.

“We are with Mexico”, the change in discourse of the Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist Churches in the face of the religious reforms of 1988-1992

In December 1988, during his inauguration speech, Carlos Salinas de Gortari proposed the modernization of relations between the Mexican State and the Church. From that moment on, and during the following four years, academics, legislators, and leaders of different Protestant Churches participated in discussions about the relevance and perils of making legal changes in religious matters. This debate led to the transformation of the relationship between the Mexican State and the creation of the legal figure of Religious Associations. Based on research in newspaper sources such as documents and official announcements of the Churches, the change in the discourse during the four years that the debate on the reforms in religious matters lasted is analyzed. Keys words: Protestantism, Protestant Churches, constitutional amendments, Religious Associations.

K. H. Ting’s One-Sided Interpretation of Xin (信) as a verb

K. H. Ting has challenged traditional Reformed theology with xin (信), since he understood the Chinese word xin so differently from the Religious Reformers, e.g., Martin Luther, understanding the NT Greek concepts πιστεύω, πιστός and πίστις to the point that Ting proposed to dilute its role in justification (danhua yinxin chengyi；淡化因信称义). I hereby aim to explore the distinction of and reason for Ting’s understanding which departs from traditional Reformed theology from within the framework of traditional “Chinese” conception of religion and ethics; in the meanwhile the NT Greek and Reformation Latin traditions have also been studied as a subsidiary role insofar as they illumine the Reformers’ positions. This study is not conducted through political theology, but in the light of systematic and semantical, especially conceptual analysis, because the former has been well studied but the latter approach has not been explored well enough. Both πίστις and xin have many layers of meaning in NT Greek and Chinese classics, literature, or even common parlance, but Ting paid attention only to the connotation of xin as a verb. When Ting discussedthe doctrine of justification by faith, he had neither distinguished clearly enough the differences among πιστεύω, πιστός and πίστις, nor among credo, fidelium and fides. In addition to a verb, xin is used also as an adjective, a verb-noun, an adjective-noun and a noun, but because of his one-sided interpretation Ting has understood xin differently from Martin Luther and other Western predecessors.

A Waldensian Pastor Between the Confessional Myth and National Genealogy History and Religious Reform in Emilio Comba (1839–1904)

AbstractEmilio Comba, a leading Waldensian historian in the nineteenth century, was a strong advocate for nation-building in post-unification Italy. This article examines the relationship between Comba's “making Italians” endeavors and his historical writings, focusing mainly on his appropriation of the preceding confessional framework. As a fervent nationalist and evangelical pastor, Comba believed that true Risorgimento required not only political independence but also a religious reform of the Italian nation that would restore Italians to the original Religion of Christ. He envisioned this national reform as a realization of both liberty and the Gospel within the universal history of the Christian religion. Comba employed historical writings to support his claims, attempting to demonstrate how Italy was a perennially Protestant nation on the one hand and to serve as a magistra vitae for fellow citizens on the other. This article argues that Comba relied on a genealogical narrative structure inherited from the early modern protestant historiography in presenting his national history. By recasting its composition according to a category of the nation, he transformed a confessional genealogy of the true church into a national one. From a broader perspective, this article calls for further reflection on the role that the early modern intellectual framework played in the process of modern nation-building.

The Forgotten History of Our Times: Revisiting Utpal Dutt's Titu Mir in Contemporary India

This paper is an exploration of the most recent revival of Utpal Dutt's play Titu Mir in 2019 by the ensemble group Theatre Formation Paribartak in India. Islamic religious reformer Titu Mir led a peasant rebellion from 1827 to 1831 in the Barasat region of Bengal and the play focuses on a narrative of revolutionary resistance to colonialism. Titu Mir becomes an articulation of political theatre against the Hindu right-wing agenda of expunging Muslim national heroes from Indian history. This essay seeks Titu Mir's relevance as a site and theory of materializing historical contradictions, and as part of a ‘gestic’ feminist criticism of theatre. The essay attempts to understand how critique of patriarchal ideology is enmeshed in critique of colonialism in Titu Mir, especially in those moments where the play addresses complexities of political violence, interracial romance, martyrdom, alienation in the colony and deep-rooted misogyny in the project of colonialism.

Why did the Romans need Venus Erucina?

The study is devoted to the origins of the cult of Venus of Eryx, whose temple was erected on the Capitol during the Hannibal War. After analyzing the sources, the author studied both the specific historical context of the establishment of a new cult, and the connection of the new deity with various hypostases of Venus, which became widespread in the territory of ancient Italy. The author associated the creation of the cult of Venus Erucina, firstly, with victories during the struggle between Rome and Carthage and, secondly, with an attempt to integrate Rome into the cultural space of the Greek world, since Venus was identified with Aphrodite. The scientific novelty of the undertaken study lies in the fact that the author, taking into account the famous senatusconsultum on bacchanalia, put forward a hypothesis about the conduct in 186-184 BC by the Porcii clan and their allies, a kind of religious reform, which made it possible, on the one hand, to preserve the Greek traditions of the veneration of Venus of Eryx, and on the other hand, to “cleanse” the cult of Venus Capitoline from foreign influences.

A Social Space for Religious Reform: Maktaba-i Durkhan and the Emergence of a Vernacular Print Culture in Colonial Balochistan (1882–1948)

Abstract The development of manuscript and print cultures in colonial Balochistan have eluded scholarly attention due to the representation of the princely state of Kalat as a savage frontier space. Despite a Baloch nationalist awakening in the late colonial period and the flourishing of Balochi and Brahui language books and periodicals in postcolonial Pakistan, only a handful of scholars have taken note of these developments and their transformative effects on Baloch society. Understanding these dynamics in a frontier space is important not only in its own right but also to help shed light on the politics of religious and nationalist reform in South Asia. This paper seeks to understand these dynamics by exploring the emergence of the Maktaba-i-Durkhan (1883–1960), a madrasah and publishing house in the village of Durkhan in eastern Balochistan that pioneered the use of books in Balochi and Brahui languages for teaching Quran, Hadith, and other religious literature.

Heraka: historical memory and new mythology of naga tribes

In the late 1920s, on the territory where Naga tribes resided in the North East India, there emerged a mass religious reformation movement triggered by certain political and economic factors. Over the hundred years that have passed since, this movement has undergone changes. There appeared a new mythology and new religion called Heraka. Not only did heroes of past times remain in the social memory, but they continued to live their own lives and keep playing important roles in the political arena of the region and the country. I attempt to examine the images of real human characters in the context of evolution of the historical memory and gain the understanding of the place that Heraka occupies in the new official mythology. I argue that the development of Heraka is related to the split between the dividing lines of two nationalist ideologies: the ideology of forming an independent Christian state of Nagalim within the territory of residence of Naga tribes and the ideology of Hindutva.

Religious reforms and large-scale rebellions (via the case of the Honganji sect of the True Pure Land Buddhism)

The paper explores the economics behind two large-scale rebellions in Japan throughout 1532–1536 and 1570–1580, launched by a religious organization called Honganji. The paper argues that Honganji’s large-scale rebellions took off primarily due to religious reforms, particularly, the creation of an after-life pardon doctrine, which enabled the functioning of more potent incentives that fostered participation. First, the doctrine raised the costs of not joining a rebellion by excluding the non-participants and consigning them to hell. This resulted in immediate spiritual, social and economic penalties, as condemned individuals were considered religiously corrupt and were expelled from the sect’s temple towns and sect-dominated village communities. Second, the after-life pardon doctrine reduced the costs of rebellious participation by guaranteeing an instant rebirth in paradise after dying for the sect’s cause. As many individuals at the time saw the world through the lens of religion and spirituality, the guarantee of paradise was an especially potent incentive to join a rebellion.