Religious Roots Research Articles

Rhythms of Tradition Explores the Rich Heritage of Folk Music and Dance in Western Odisha

This study explores the rich heritage of folk music and dance in Western Odisha, delving into its cultural, spiritual, and social significance. Western Odisha is home to folk traditions such as Ghumura, Danda, Leela, Dhap, Sankirtan, and Daskathia, all of which reflect the region's deep historical and religious roots. These performances are not merely artistic expressions but serve as vehicles for transmitting cultural knowledge, reinforcing community bonds, and maintaining religious and spiritual practices. Instruments like Ghudka, Sarangi, and Devgunia are integral to these performances, symbolizing identity and tradition. The study reveals that many of these traditions are tied to religious rituals and agricultural cycles, with performances occurring during specific festivals or times of the year. Furthermore, the research highlights the role of these folk traditions in social functions, particularly in promoting community cohesion and facilitating courtship among youth. However, the influence of modernization, coupled with a lack of formal documentation, poses challenges to preserving these traditions. The increasing popularity of classical dance forms like Odissi in the region adds to the cultural transformation. The discussion emphasizes the need for institutional support and more excellent documentation to preserve these folk traditions for future generations. Festivals, workshops, and financial support for folk artists are proposed as potential solutions to safeguard this intangible cultural heritage. In conclusion, while the folk music and dance of Western Odisha continue to thrive, proactive efforts are essential to protect and sustain these traditions in the face of modern challenges.

Can Mindful Politics Be Meaningful Politics? Socially Engaged Buddhism as a Political Project within a Liberal Political Order

Throughout the Western political world, and particularly in the United States, contemporary Buddhist political thought has largely become synonymous with the movement of mindful politics, also known as Socially Engaged Buddhism. Focusing primarily on issues of social, economic, and environmental justice, mindful politics has found a natural ally in Western left-wing and progressive movements to the degree that Buddhist political thought in the United States is now seemingly indistinguishable from these Western political positions as a practical matter. While the practical alliance of Socially Engaged Buddhism and progressivism is well established, what is less clear is what the movement of mindful politics brings to this relationship beyond its Buddhist veneer. By basing its political project on the secularization of Buddhist compassion (karuṇā), mindful politics fails in creating a political project which can be compelling to those outside of the confines of Buddhist religious belief and practice. While the mindful politics movement and contemporary liberal progressivism share an overlap in policy commitments, the religious roots of Buddhist mindful politics ultimately preclude it from properly aligning with the pluralistic requirements of the prevailing liberal political order. This article will examine the foundations of Socially Engaged Buddhism and explore the standing of the possibility of Socially Engaged Buddhism as the foundation for a political project within the confines of a liberal political order.

Contemporary Magic’s Reflection of Religion in Garth Nix's Sabriel

Since the late nineteenth century, with the formalization of religious studies as an academic discipline, the notion of "magic" has assumed a pivotal role in delineating the outlines of religion. Eminent scholars in these fields have engaged in rigorous debates concerning the intricate interplay between magic and religion. Nevertheless, endeavors to establish precise distinctions between these domains have proven to be remarkably unpredictable, subject to persistent scrutiny and deconstruction. The concept of magic has obstinately retained its elusive and enigmatic character. This paper aims at analyzing Garth Nix’s Sabriel as a contemporary work of fantasy, published in 1995. Nix’s intention to incorporate religious elements into the novel was to reflect on the world people live in by including a coherent magical system. He was able to step beyond the novel’s direct meaning to convey what his symbolic elements connote. In this paper, the main characteristics of high fantasy are presented and thoroughly explained. The magical system in the novel takes the spotlight with a descriptive and analytic approach tackling its significance and specifications with regards to the religious roots that it stems from. The religious elements including baptism, sacrifice, Dante’s inferno and the gates of death, bells, and charter stones are also introduced with their defining qualifications compared to the elements in Sabriel.

The Tabot Festival in Bengkulu Indonesia : Synergy between Culture, Religion and Socioeconomic Empowerment

This study investigates the Tabot Festival in Bengkulu Indonesia focusing on its cultural, religious and sosioeconomic impacts, with the aim of demonstrating how local traditions can both preserve cultural heritage and empower the community economically. The study involves examining the festival's transition from a Shiite religious ceremony commemorating Imam Husein bin Ali’s martyrdom, to a broader cultural celebration that attracts significant tourism. Employing a qualitative ethnographic method, data were analyzed through extensive literature reviews. The findings reveal that the festival retains its deep cultural and religious roots, reflecting humanitarian and Islamic values such as courage, sacrifice and justice through its rituals and processions. Despite its evolution into a lively cultural event, the festival continues to uphold significant Islamic traditions and symbols. Economically, the Tabot Festival provides substantial benefits to the local economy, boosting sectors such as hospitality, restaurants and transportation. It also creates a multiplier effect by stimulating the creative economy and generating temporary employment opportunities for vendors, artisans and service providers. The local community's active participation further strengthens social cohesion and economic welfare.

‘Our team will definitely win the cup’: the Keralan support of Brazil and Argentina during Men’s World Cup 2022

ABSTRACT At the end of 2022, the FIFA Men’s World Cup took place in Qatar, and Argentina won its third title. Among thr worldwide supporters, India, a nation that had never played at the event, caught my attention. This study focuses on the state of Kerala, a mainly rural zone in Southwest India, and its massive support for Brazil and Argentina. After a literature review on football in India, the globalization of football, and team rivalries, the study analyzes a few English-written news articles to understand such manifestation of fandom in Kerala, and focuses on the giant cut-outs to find the answer as to why Brazil and Argentina are the teams who received the biggest support. It concludes that the said support has social, political, mediatic, identitarian, and religious roots. The article ends with the question as to how these manifestations differ in different countries, states, championships, and religions.

Revisiting Punjab’s Transformative Journey, 1947-1966: An Appraisal

"Punjab, often referred to as the 'Land of five rivers,' has been a significant player in shaping India's historical narrative, leaving an enduring mark on its trajectory. This imprint stems from the courageous and patriotic endeavours of the people of Punjab, who have etched out a distinctive place for themselves. A comprehensive study of its people becomes imperative to comprehend the nuanced dynamics of Punjab's history. This involves delving into their historical, cultural, and religious roots and understanding their political legacy. The year 1947 marked India's liberation from British rule, coinciding with a partition based on the two-nation theory. Punjab bore a heavy toll during this partition, experiencing substantial human and territorial losses. The partition's catastrophic aftermath overshadowed the jubilation of independence for Punjab. Post-partition, Punjab portrayed a sombre and bleak landscape, with the migration of refugees significantly altering the communal composition of the region. This migration upheaved the administrative, economic, and political structures, introducing many complex challenges. The division of Punjab along communal lines generated a palpable sense of indignation and frustration among the Sikh community. The expectations of establishing a Sikh State in independent India, fervently supported by Sikh, Congress, and Hindu leaders, remained unfulfilled. Perceiving an unequal distribution of territory between Hindus and Muslims, the Sikhs advocated for a Punjabi Suba. In their pursuit of this objective, the Akali Dal employed diverse strategies. This culminated in the reorganisation of Punjab on March 21, 1966, leading to its further trifurcation."

Disasters and the rise of global religious philanthropy

AbstractThis article seeks to make sense of the rise of global religious philanthropy in relation to disaster. Global religious philanthropy refers to the transnational activities of religious organizations to respond to humanitarian crisis. These organizations can be faith-based initiatives or religious groups or denominations that have created humanitarian services for the specific purpose of relief and recovery in other countries. The first part spells out what we mean by the rise of global religious philanthropy in disaster response. It is not so much a shift as it is a rediscovery of the religious roots of humanitarian work. But at the same time, it is also a contemporary development that is part of the globalization of risk, humanitarian aid, and religion itself. The second part will explain the rise in two ways. First, faith-based and religious organizations hold what we describe as a global imaginary. In this imaginary, the world is in crisis and it offers an opportunity to demonstrate global compassion. Second, the rise of global religious philanthropy is also tied to the expansion of religious movements, some of which are in emerging economies. The expansion renders the religious field competitive. This is why, in a paradoxical manner, their humanitarian activities are also acts of strength and power that contend with the state and other players in the religious field.

ПРОСТИТУЦИЯ И СЕКС-ТУРИЗМ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ МИРЕ КАК ПРИМЕР ИНДУСТРИИ ВПЕЧАТЛЕНИЙ

in the modern world, such a social phenomenon as prostitution and sex tourism is widely developed. This specific “experience industry” includes about a dozen states and regions of the world, such as, first of all, Thailand, Vietnam, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, partly China, and a number of other countries, if we talk about male clients. It is customary to consider such services as an unambiguously criminal and negative phenomenon, which must be fought both at the government level and on behalf of international public and human rights organizations, as a modern form of slavery, exploitation and objectification of women. There is also female sex tourism, for example, in Turkey, Zanzibar, therefore, in our opinion, it is impossible to see here only facts of female sexual exploitation. In this regard, we aim to conduct a qualitative analysis of these industries, to rethink the basic clichés about this area, without encroaching on justification, but without condemning both sex workers and their clients. Modern prostitution and sex tourism have long been established as a social phenomenon that has centuries-old historical and even religious roots and has embodied in an almost legalized experience industry.

„Pogaństwo” jako panaceum na przezwyciężenie kryzysu kultury europejskiej. Przypadek Nowej Prawicy Alaina de Benoist

The topic of the article is the concept of “paganism” in Alain de Benoit’s New Right. In the French thinker’s opinion Europe is in a state of a cultural crisis. He believes that Christianity is the greatest disaster in Europe’s entire history as it has alienated the European peoples from their native, pagan spirituality. He states that only a renewed discovery of Europe’s religious roots could enable the overcoming of the current cultural crisis.

Inter- and intra-religious appropriation

Moluccan people arrived in the Netherlands in 1951, as a result of the complicated process of the decolonization of Indonesia. A situation of permanent waiting and political disappointment resulted in this growing Moluccan community remaining. The Moluccan Protestant church reflects the migration experience and generational developments. The Moluccan churches face a decrease in membership and a lack of youth. The Malay language, the adherence to strict, liturgical rules and the unchanging, ‘old-fashioned’ character are possible causes. The challenges result in transformations of the Moluccan Protestant landscape. Moluccan Christians move to evangelical denominations. Here, they appreciate another style of worship against the background of traditional religious roots that cross into the ethnic-cultural domain. In turn, Moluccan Protestant churches experiment with bi- or tri-lingual services and hymns, with a broader range of instruments that accompany congregational singing (including trad-itional Moluccan instruments) and with different styles of song and service. This article discusses the appropriation or borrowing of practices within the Moluccan Protestant landscape. I aim to shed light on generational differences, relations and conflicts. I argue that both inter- and intra-religious borrowing as appropriation is a helpful perspective for analysing religious transformation and embodied religiosity.

Realism, Myth and Spiritual Mestizaje in Las malas by Camila Sosa Villada

Abstract: By reclaiming the power of self-definition and the use of the term travesti to designate their unique experience within the Latin American cultural, economic, and political context, travesti intellectuals have fought the dehumanization of their personhood. In her novel Las malas , the Argentine author Camila Sosa Villada not only reclaims the right to self-definition but also connects the realistic accounts of human rights violations against travesti subjects with the spiritual, mythical, and religious roots of the travesti experience. To make these connections, Sosa Villada appropriates magical realism, a literary mode that provides the space to naturalize the presence of travesti subjects as protagonists of folktales, miracles, and religious narratives while denouncing violence against travesti bodies. In this way, the author unveils and corrects the dichotomic nature of cultural narratives that exclude travesti and trans subjects from religious and cultural spaces in Latin America. Moreover, by rewriting folktales and religious narratives, and by situating travestis as protagonists of narratives of miracles, Sosa Villada deploys "spiritual mestizaje" that dignifies and humanizes travesti personhood, opening previously proscribed spaces for these agents. In this way, Sosa Villada not only disrupts and expands the literary tradition of magical realism by adding the travesti experience to the predominantly heteronormative corpus of magical-realist narratives but exercises religious agency.

Jesus Koothu: A Contemporary Tholpavakoothu Shadow Puppet Performance

ABSTRACT Jesus Koothu is a contemporary shadow puppetry performance that narrates the life story of Jesus Christ through tholpavakoothu. Tholpavakoothu has strong traditional Hindu religious roots of one thousand years but Jesus Koothu narrates the biblical text of Christianity.

A Theological Legitimation of Khusain Faizkhanov’s Pedagogical Project

This article deals with Khusain Faizkhanov (1823–1866) as an Islamic theologian. This aspect of his thought was rarely studied in numerous publications about his work — his orientalist or pedagogical heritage invariably came to the fore, in isolation from its religious roots. This is not accidental, since the thinker did not leave behind explicit theological works. Nevertheless, the complexity of the problem does not relieve us of the need to solve it. As will be shown below, without understanding the theological dimension of Faizkhanov’s thought, essential aspects of his educational activities are also missed. The thinker proposed a kind of theological legitimation of secular knowledge, which was important for him both on a personal level and in the context of social pragmatics. The social consequence of this legitimization, refl ected primarily in the project of reform of religious education, was to be the formation of an educated Muslim elite of the modern type.

Biblical Kingship, Catholic Theology, and the Rights of Indians in the Opening of Las Casas’s Short Account

This article introduces the key issues and scope of the 16th-century debate over the rights of the native American peoples encountered by Columbus and the Castilian conquistadores. The historic attempt by theologians and missionaries to limit imperial expansion and to defend the dignity of conquered peoples is an example of Western self-criticism and a fundamental contribution of the Catholic Church to the slow emergence of human rights discourses. This article then focuses on the first pages of Bartolomé de Las Casas’s Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies, a text that played a pivotal role in the formation of the Black Legend against Spain, but also in the drafting of the Leyes Nuevas (New Laws) of 1542. While the Short Account’s hyperbolic and explosive prose are well-known, its religious roots can be detected in the prologue and preface, with their discussion of biblical kingship, virtuous Indians, mortal sin, and (un)Christian behavior.

A Witchcraft-related cases in India during the Outbreak of Covid 19 Pandemic


 Abstract
 In India the belief in witches is a phenomenon that is linked to specific elements both of Hindu cults, whose devotional expressions and folkloric elements are rooted in the Vedic texts, and the belief systems of some indigenous communities. Indeed, although influenced by the expressions of the Hindu faith, these groups have retained specific characteristics, in which magical elements like the relationship with evil powers, from which the belief in witchcraft practices derives, are paramount. However, a study of witch-hunting episodes must also consider the social dimension in which they occur, as scholars working on this subject over the last decades did. Most witch hunts occur within closed social systems, based on patriarchy (or which have undergone patriarchalization processes in recent decades) and affected by Hinduization and tribalization. Finally, the analysis of beliefs in witchcraft helps to unveil the power relations that underlie these beliefs. On the one hand, this paper aims to reflect on the religious roots of the belief in witches, without neglecting the possible interpretations just mentioned above; on the other hand, it aims to present an initial assessment of the incidence of the phenomenon in 2020, at a particularly dramatic historical moment marked by the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic. The data presented are partial but indicative as they have been collected through daily monitoring of the main Indian newspapers in English and some national and local newspapers in Hindi.

Pädagogik der Hoffnung im ausgehenden Anthropozän?

Abstract Pedagogy of Hope in the outgoing Anthropocene? A Plea for a Pedagogy of Hope within the Boundaries of mere Prognosis The article marks hope as a mode of dealing with the future. It starts from the finding that hope is not particularly popular in pedagogy. Since pedagogy has increasingly emancipated itself from its religious roots in favor of scientific approaches since the 20th century, the article addresses the scientific approach to the future, prognosis, using the example of predictions about global warming. In a second attempt, it is shown that the category of hope is implicitly inherent in pedagogy as practice and theory, due to its reference to the doubly open future of society and the individual to be educated. Such hope, however, can only be justified in secular pedagogical terms if it respects the limits of scientific prognoses and does not illusionary ignore them. In a final section, two variants of such pedagogically responsible hope are discussed with Ernst Bloch and bell hooks.

Negative Impacts of Taegyo: Feminist and Disability Perspectives.

This study examines the origin and religious roots of taegyo, Korean traditional prenatal education, and raises concerns about potential negative impacts of contemporary taegyo practice from feminist and disability perspectives. Taegyo has been accepted without much criticism due to its deep integration into prenatal care culture, and most existing literature focuses on taegyo's positive impacts on fetal health and development from scientific or nursing perspectives. This article analyzes a 19th-century taegyo manual, Taegyo Singi, and Seon and Won Buddhist literatures on taegyo in order to understand the religio-cultural concepts and contexts of taegyo. The article then discusses the potential downsides of taegyo practice today, considering its patriarchal, mother-blaming, ablest roots in Korean history and culture. The author raises concerns about social oppression, the control of women's bodily autonomy, and the disproportionate responsibility burden that taegyo places on Korean women. The article concludes with suggestions for future research and for well-balanced taegyo practice.

Social and moral accountability in action: the religious roots of corporate social responsibility in an Italian entrepreneurial family (1900–1950)

ABSTRACT A company’s most valuable asset is its employees. Since the 1970s, corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a topic of increasing interest in terms of performance and disclosure. However, little attention has been paid to the history of CSR practices, which should be studied within historical and cultural contexts. Based on archival material and secondary sources, and using arguments from moral economics and Catholic Social Theory, this study uniquely investigates the role of religious and ethical beliefs in influencing CSR actions and accountability. We focus on the case of Vaccari, an entrepreneurial Italian Catholic family in the early-twentieth century, which was clearly inspired by upward accountability (to God) and not just economic returns. The family took CSR actions to improve the welfare and living conditions of its workers (downward accountability). Vaccari’s religious value system was strongly based on the principles of Catholic Social Teaching (CST) contained in the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, addressed to ‘all men of good will’. Our historical analysis informs modern CSR practices, revealing that management’s commitment to ethics and sound values is the correct starting point for developing good and sustainable business practices.

The Other Japan: Back to Japan’s Religious Roots for a New Japanese Nationalism?

The purpose of this article is first to elucidate the nature and worldview of theideology of pre–World War II Japan that inspired the Japanese elite to embark on global conquest and that mobilized the Japanese masses to fight to the death even after the dropping of the atomic bombs. Second, the aim is to examine how this ideology first emerged in the Meiji period and how it came to dominate Japanese politics until the end of the war. Third, it will illustrate not only what has survived of this form of ultranationalism in the postwar period, identifying the ideas of core thinkers and organizations, but it will also examine the emergence of different, or perhaps more moderate, forms of Japanese nationalism, pinpointing their key ideas and describing their visions for a future Japan. Finally, I will attempt to shed light on the historical forces and scenarios that might return Japanese ultranationalists to the center of political influence and power in the Japanese state and overturn Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution and noninterventionist military foreign policy.

Karen Coulter and the Religious Roots of Radicalism in North America

Karen Coulter and the Religious Roots of Radicalism in North America