Religious Trends Research Articles

Identyfikacja wyznaniowa i państwowa polityka religijna

The present article seeks to analyze the religious trends in the development of the Belarusian society during the period of the transformation of the former Soviet Union, on the basis of research by Belarusian sociologists. Special attention is paid to the religions identification of the Belarusians, the strength of religious beliefs and the religions behaviour of the citizens. Analysis covers inter alia the confessional, geographical and ethnic factors, which influence the religiousness among certain groups of the population, and the mutual relationship between the State and the Church under the laws concerning the freedom of conscience. In this aspect we analyze the currently propagated idea about the “diversified” model of interaction between the State and individual denominations.

Two Ghazals

Jawid Mojaddedi is a professor of religion at Rutgers University. His area of research is early and medieval Sufism. He has published the first four volumes of Rumi’s magnum opus, The Masnavi, in the Oxford World’s Classics series, as well as a monograph on Rumi, Beyond Dogma (Oxford, 2012). Brad Gooch is a poet, novelist, and biographer whose most recent book is Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love. His previous books include the memoir Smash Cut and the biographies Flannery and City Poet. He is the recipient of Guggenheim and NEH fellowships and lives in New York City. Maryam Mortaz is an Iranian American writer and translator. Her work has been published in such journals as Bomb, New Review of Literature, and Callaloo. She is a trained psychotherapist in New York City. WORLDLIT.ORG 59 accurate and correct than to face Mecca as religious convention dictates. For present purposes, what is important is that his message is not that spiritual disciples can be individualistic and need not bother too much about proper actions, as SBNR adherents seem to prefer. Instead, to follow a spiritual master is actually more challenging than conventional religious practice because the latter is a matter of following rules accepted by the general population, while the former has a greater price to pay—it may appear shocking to others and will be understood only by a few. It also shows total surrender to the inner perception of the “scent” of the spiritual path. There is a lot of correspondence between the teachings of Rumi and the increasing Spiritual But Not Religious trend; the popularity of both are undoubtedly related. However, there is a huge difference between prioritizing the feeling of peace through individualistic practice and developing spirituality under the training of a master, even though neither need be religious in the conventional sense. Rutgers University Two Ghazals by Rumi The sky has never seen such a moon” The sky has never seen such a moon, not even in its dreams, No water could ever extinguish the fire of its light, Look at my body, and look at my soul From his cup of love, my soul is drunk, my body ruined The tavern keeper became my heart’s companion Love turned my blood into wine, and burned my heart As my eyes fill with the image of his face, a voice resounds, “Well done, cup. Excellent, wine.” Looking into the ocean of love My heart suddenly dove in, calling, “Find me!” The face of the sun is Shams, the glory of Tabriz, Our hearts, like clouds, trail after him. If there’s no trace of love” If there’s no trace of love in his heart Cover him like an angry cloud over the moon Dry tree, don’t grow in that garden, Poor thing, left without the shade of a tree Even if you’re a pearl, don’t separate from this love, Love is your father and your family In the world of lovers, a deadly sickness strikes Each day more painful than the last If you see the blush of love in someone’s face Know that he is no longer merely mortal If you see a reed-flute, bent by love, grab it Squeeze the reed until you taste the sweetest sugar Shams of Tabriz lures you into his trap Don’t look left or right, you can’t resist. Translations from the Persian By Brad Gooch & Maryam Mortaz “ “ ...

Festschriften and Collected Essays

Festschriften and Collected Essays Christopher T. Begg, Thomas Hieke, and Lesley R. DiFrancisco 607. Bob E. J. H. Becking and Hans Barstad (eds.), Prophecy and Prophets in Stories: Papers Read at the Fifth Meeting of the Edinburgh Prophecy Network, Utrecht, October 2013 (OTS 65; Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2015). Pp. 285. $142, €110. ISBN 978-90-04-28909-3. As the volume's title indicates, its 15 component papers stem from a conference of the Edinburgh Prophecy Network held at Utrecht in October 2013. In their introduction, the editors provide information concerning the conference and the questions that were its focus, as well as abstracts of the following papers. The essays are organized under three headings: Ancient Near East (1 essay); Hebrew Bible (9); and Afterlife (5). For abstracts of those essays of most direct interest to OTA readers, see ##30, 358, 359, 367, 370, 478, 482, 488, 489, 501, 525, 584, 594, 596.—C.T.B. 608. Ehud Ben Zvi and Christoph Levin (eds.), Centres and Peripheries in the Early Second Temple Period (FAT 108; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016). Pp. xiv + 469. €134. ISBN 978-3-16-154293-0. The 21 papers making up this volume apply the concept of Center/Core-Periphery relationships to a variety of OT texts and traditions. The papers originated in a workshop held in Munich in June 2015 under the joint auspices of the Universities of Munich and Alberta, Canada. Editor B. Z. provides an extended introduction to the collection that includes summaries of the component papers. For abstracts of those papers, see ##7, 68, 78, 219, 238, 267, 336, 338, 342, 354, 361, 362, 369, 371, 417, 422, 423, 502, 543, 552, 553.—C.T.B. 609. Diana Edelman, Anne Fitzpatrick-McKinley, and Philippe Guillaume (eds.), Religion in the Achaemenid Persian Empire: Emerging Judaisms and Trends (ORA 17; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016). Pp. vi + 390. €154. ISBN 978-3-16-153960-2. All but one of the 14 essays making up this volume stem from a workshop held at the University of Sheffield in July 2011. The papers are preceded by editor E.'s introduction which provides information concerning the workshop and the topic as well as summaries of the essays. The essays themselves are arranged under two headings as follows: Trends in Emerging Judaisms (6 essays) and Other Religious Trends in the Persian Empire (8 essays). For abstracts of the essays, see ##233, 234, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 249, 250, 252, 255, 257, 262, 275.—C.T.B. 610. André Gagné, Alain Gignac, and Gerben S. Oegema (eds.), Constructing Religious Identities during the Second Temple Period/Construction des identités religieuses à l'époque du Second Temple. Festschrift for Jean Duhaime on the occasion of his 68th Birthday (Biblical Tools and Studies 24; Leuven/Paris/Bristol, CT: Peeters, 2016). Pp. xiii + 267. €84. ISBN 978-90-429-3372-9. This volume honors a leading Canadian biblicist, known, inter alia, for his work on the DSS. The volume opens with the editors' introduction that provides an appreciation of Duhaime's scholarly activity and an orientation to the work's overall topic and to the individual essays that follow. For abstracts of those essays of most direct interest to OTA readers, see ##74, 340, 372, 380, 537, 568, 570, 581, 592, 603.—C.T.B. [End Page 166] 611. [Exodus, etc.] Judith Gartner and Barbara Schmitz (eds.), Exodus: Rezeptionen in deuterokanonischer und frühjüdischer Literatur (Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies 32; Berlin/New York: de Gruyter, 2015). Pp. 350. €99.95, $140, £74.99. ISBN 978-3-11-041702-9. This collection of 18 essays by 19 authors documents the papers read at an international conference about the reception of the Book of Exodus in early Jewish literature of the Hellenistic-Roman period held in Würzburg, Germany, in 2014. The articles cover a wide spectrum of receptional processes, extending from the original text of Exodus and its Greek translation in the Septuagint to Pseudo-Philo and the NT. Thirteen of these essays...

Związki kulturowe monasteru supraskiego z kulturą serbską w XVI wieku

In the 16-th century the monastery of Suprasl was the second monastic center of the Orthodox Church in the Great Duchy of Lithuania after the Kiev-Caves Monastery. In the history of the Byelorussian culture the monastery in Suprasl occupies unique place. The best achievements of many branches of culture have been concentrated in it. They mirror close contacts with the religious and cultural heritage of other Slavonic nations. The monastery became a place of the reciprocal permeating of various religious trends. Also, here, many national cultures influenced each other. An example of this reciprocal permeating of cultures was the architecture and interior decorations of the Annunciation monastery church. The uniqueness of the architecture of this building consists in the mixing of the Gothic and Byzantine styles. The direct connections of Suprasl with Byzantine and Serbian culture may be proved by the monumental frescos in the Annunciation Church. They were painted by a group of painters under the supervision of Nektorius the Serb (Serb Nekhtarioosh). These frescos were a testimony to dogmatic Orthodoxy. The monastery of Suprasl was visited by many outstanding writers, religious leaders and political notables. This monastery was also visited by the Patriarch of Constantinople – Jeremiash II, the Serbian and Bulgarian patriarch - Gabriel, and many other Church dignitaries from Balkans. In the 16-th century, the monastery of Suprasl became a major ecclesiastical center of all the Slavic nations. The monastery while being the major center of Orthodox theological thought, still remained open for new trends in philosophical thought. During the 16-th century the monastery of Suprasl was in close relationship with Bulgaria, Serbia, The Great Duchy of Moscow and Holy Athos Mount. This found its reflection in sacral art, publishing and literature.

The History of the 1980 Anglican Pastoral Provision

The reception of married convert priests in the catholic church was made possible by a set of policies and permissions established in 1980 that have come to be known as the Pastoral Provision.1 the term provision refers to a privilege or accommodation that is made for pastoral reasons, to remove barriers to or help facilitate the spiritual growth of a person or group. the accommodation for anglican converts provided for them to retain certain cultural practices, such as a traditional anglican liturgy and married clergy, to smooth their entry into the catholic faith. How is it that the catholic church came to make such a generous accommodation for anglicans? and why only for anglicans, and not other christian denominations? this article recounts the events and trends that led to the 1980 decision establishing these policies.Influences on the Pastoral ProvisionThe 1980 decision reflected a unique confluence of short and long term historical and religious trends both within and outside the catholic church. it is a tale that begins in the 16th century religious division between Protestant and catholic and ends in the contemporary religious division between liberal and conservative, with attempts, ultimately futile, to heal the divisions in between. conceived as an ecumenical initiative in the spirit of Vatican council ii, its establishment reflected the character of the centuries-old forces separating catholicism and anglicanism as well as the particular cultural situations of both churches in the 1970s. Most of all, the Pastoral Provision was an idea whose time had come.Five elements stand out as particularly important for understanding this development: 1) the 16th century english Reformation, which separated anglicanism from catholicism in unique ways; 2) the 19th century conversion of the anglican priest John Henry Newman, which set a pattern for future clergy conversions; 3) the second Vatican council, which introduced catholics to a more open stance toward Protestants, and anglicans in particular, and to a married deaconate; 4) the failure of ecumenical engagement amid diverging cultural and religious stances of anglicanism and catholicism in the 1970s; and 5) the particular interest and force of bishop bernard law, who, long before becoming embroiled in sex abuse scandal as cardinal archbishop of boston in the 2000s, was one of the american church's most effective advocates for civil rights and ecumenical unity.From Reformation to NewmanFew dispute that the english Reformation was more a matter of politics than of national conversion. though views differ on how far Protestant ideals had taken hold among the english people prior to the 1530s, no historian goes so far as to attribute the break with Rome to this cause. even a.G. dickens, probably the strongest proponent of the view that receptiveness to Protestantism was well advanced in the popular mind, only claims that changing religious sensibilities meant that when the king quarreled with the Pope over his divorce, a permanent schism did not merely become conceivable; it proved actually manageable without arousing much opposition within the realm.2The Protestant religion was imposed upon, not acquired from, the english people, and was accompanied by a violent and thorough suppression of the catholic faith. the 1535 oath of supremacy, requiring the submission of clergy and religious to the king as the supreme spiritual authority in england on pain of death, was hardly the sign of a popular movement. under elizabeth, beginning in 1559, attending the church of england was enforced by heavy fines, and celebrating a catholic Mass was punishable by death. catholic priests, and laypersons publicly affirming the catholic faith, were subject to painful and humiliating public execution, often without benefit of trial, resulting in almost 300 martyrs by 1670.3 as the oxford catholic historian eamon duffy has asserted in recent years,4 the catholic character and practice of english parishes was systematically dismantled in a stripping of the altars (the title of his study). …

Modern Orthodoxy in American Judaism: The Era of Leo Jung by Maxine Jacobson

Reviewed by: Modern Orthodoxy in American Judaism: The Era of Leo Jung by Maxine Jacobson Adam S. Ferziger (bio) Modern Orthodoxy in American Judaism: The Era of Leo Jung. By Maxine Jacobson. Brighton, MA., Academic Studies Press, 2016. x + 250 pp. Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung was among the most respected and influential figures in the twentieth-century American Orthodox rabbinate. An alumnus of the Rabbiner Seminar in Berlin and numerous European universities, he served for over sixty years at Manhattan's prestigious The Jewish Center, the pioneering Orthodox "shul with a pool" whose founding rabbi was Mordecai M. Kaplan. He was a key player in the nascent Yeshiva College (today Yeshiva University, YU), the Orthodox Union (OU) which transformed American kashrut supervision, the Rabbinical Council of America, and the non-sectarian Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), among others. He was also a prolific author and editor who produced some of the first works of Orthodox historiography, ritual instruction, and popular religious thought in the English language, and his presentations on contemporary religion and ethics were featured on regular national radio broadcasts. One of his most eminent devotees was the author Herman Wouk, whose This is My God (1959) was penned under Jung's mentorship. Maxine Jacobson combed the treasure trove of primary materials stored in the Jung Collection at the Yeshiva University Archives as well as his many publications, and conducted multiple interviews with those who knew him. The result is a copiously documented historical work that places Jung's literary and public activities as a framework for [End Page 316] presenting the evolution of Orthodoxy from a "threatened entity" to a vibrant modern Jewish religious trend that could appeal to second and third generation American Jews (1). The introduction seeks to define "Modern Orthodoxy," portraying the synthesis of loyalty to traditional rabbinic interpretation, openness to general knowledge, and identification with American social and political norms that was emblematic of this stream, including what it drew from its nineteenth century European predecessors such as Samson Raphael Hirsch and Esriel Hildesheimer, along with its distinctive qualities. For Jung, "Orthodox Judaism" was to be "part of the cosmopolitan society and modern culture," and his aim was to make it "appealing to the American psyche" and "acceptable to Jews 'outside the ghetto'" (25). The core of the volume is four chapters that address the events of each distinct decade in Jung's career up through the end of the 1950s, when he was appointed Rabbi Emeritus. From the 1920s, Jung and his cohorts began the process of differentiating their brand of Judaism from the "old school" traditionalists affiliated with the Agudath Harabbonim on the one hand, and the burgeoning Conservative movement predicated on Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) graduates and United Synagogue member congregations on the other. In both cases, only during the 1950s did the boundaries become fully discernible. Before that time, JTS was also perceived by many as a "modern Orthodox" institution whose graduates were fit to serve in Orthodox synagogues, so much so that serious merger negotiations were held between Yeshiva and JTS during the late 1920s. Jung was personally involved in the discussions. Three themes that were already central to Jung's efforts in the 1920s remained at the foundation of his activities throughout his career: the necessity of a decorous and dignified prayer service that would attend to the aesthetic of Americanizing Jews; his belief that "the material successes of Jews in America come at the expense of moral and spiritual failure;" and the importance of demonstrating the rationale behind traditional Jewish practices such as kashrut and family purity laws (57). An area of Jewish adjudication that emphasized his commitment to ethical imperatives was the agunah, the "anchored" wife who was legally prevented from remarrying. Jung supported a solution developed in the 1950s by Eliezer Berkovits, but it did not receive the imprimatur of most Orthodox authorities. For Jung the halakhah was foundational to Judaism, but most of his congregants were "nonobservant Orthodox" and he did not focus his preaching on encouraging more scrupulous religious conduct. According to Jacobson, Jung's version of Modern Orthodoxy was replaced during the 1960s by a more theological and legally-oriented worldview that [End...

Spirituality in Young Adult Literature: The Last Taboo by Patty Campbell and Chris Crowe

Reviewed by: Spirituality in Young Adult Literature: The Last Taboo by Patty Campbell and Chris Crowe Ashley N. Reese (bio) Patty Campbell and Chris Crowe. Spirituality in Young Adult Literature: The Last Taboo. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. Print. In their co-authored text Spirituality in Young Adult Literature, YA literary scholars Patty Campbell and Chris Crowe explore the role of spirituality in contemporary, Anglo-American young adult fiction. This volume differs from traditional co-authored texts in that Campbell is the sole author of the first eight chapters, and Crowe, the sole author of the final chapter on Mormon YA literature. This arrangement permits Campbell and Crowe to offer a successful review of a wide range of texts from various spiritual and religious perspectives. Although the use of "spiritual" in the title denotes a broader understanding of belief, Campbell's chapters generally uses the terms "spiritual" and "religious" interchangeably; some chapters, for example, discuss particular religious traditions and their attendant dogmas whilst others focus on texts that broadly feature Christianity. Their study, however, lacks a scholarly grounding that would position it within traditional literary criticism. Throughout Spirituality in YA, the authors summarize YA texts in such a way that places into relief key spiritual themes or topics; even so, they rarely provide critical comments that might situate the YA texts within a larger methodological framework. Instead, the text serves as a mere overview of twenty-first-century YA novels that include religious or spiritual elements. In an attempt to show the recent religious trends in YA literature, Campbell's study focuses on early twenty-first-century novels that were published for mainstream audiences. Thus, her analysis excludes texts that were published by religious publishing companies, since she maintains that those novels tend to take on a "didactic intent" (xv). The books she instead chooses include "realistic YA fiction" and also "YA literature that deals with the mystical" (xviii). Campbell's other criteria is that the texts must constitute "fine teen literature" and "have been outstanding in integrating spiritual ideas into the plot" (xix). Campbell does not offer the qualities she used to determine what "fine" literature is, nor what makes the integration of spiritual ideas "outstanding." Campbell makes a point to include an appendixed bibliography aptly named the "Godsearch," which offers a more comprehensive list of YA novels published since 1967 that feature spiritual themes. The bibliography's timeline is meant to incorporate the entire history of the YA genre (169). While no reason is given for this particular timeline, it begins the same year that S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders was published, a text which many consider to be the genre's beginning. Hinton's novel is left off the list though, most likely because it does not directly feature spirituality. In her introduction, Campbell posits that although YA literature welcomes a variety of "taboo" subjects, such as "graphic" love scenes and "bloody violence," it is nevertheless "distinguished by its lack of devotion to issues [End Page 418] of—devotion" (xiii). That is, Campbell maintains that YA literature, which is often at the forefront of addressing difficult subjects, frequently fails to discuss religion and spirituality. Observing a lack of cohesiveness between religion's role in American society and the "picture of American religious life that emerges from YA fiction" (xiv), Campbell makes a compelling argument for the inclusion of spirituality in YA and the consequent study of spirituality and religion in YA. Specifically, Spirituality in YA sets out to answer the question: "What authors have had the conviction and the theological literacy to struggle with those spiritual questions that are so intensely private but so intensely troubling and important to thoughtful teens?" (xix). As an answer to this question, Campbell's chapters each address a theme in religion and spirituality, such as "Death and the Afterlife" and "The Divine Encounter." At the beginning of each of her chapters, Campbell offers a concise theological overview of its topic and then identifies two or more relevant YA texts, giving a short summarization of each YA text and then connecting the chapter's topic to the development of each text's respective protagonist(s). The work focuses for the most...

Religion in the Early Nazi Milieu: Towards a Greater Understanding of ‘Racist Culture’

In recent years there has been a renaissance of studies into the diverse relationships between National Socialism and esoteric or occult religious trends, which appears to form a remarkable return to the work of George L Mosse. Yet within these debates there has been surprisingly little space devoted to the question of what specifically ‘counted’ as religion in the early Nazi milieu. This article seeks to address this problem through a detailed study of the views on religion in one of the major antisemitic groups in the 1920s, the German Socialist Party, which had a number of significant connections to the NSDAP. The German Socialist debates on religion have remained largely unexamined, and this article analyses the group’s response to the Nazis’ 25 Point Programme, the German Socialists’ own debates about religion, and their views on the most important völkisch authors who were seeking a ‘religious revival’. It demonstrates that views on religion in the early Nazi milieu were extremely diverse, but commonly adhered to notions of race and a racial spirituality that amounted to a kind of ‘ethnotheism’. It argues that concepts of religion in völkisch groups at the time, including the NSDAP, have to be principally understood as part of a particular and extreme ‘racist culture’.

EVERYDAY QUR’AN DI ERA POST-KONSUMERISME MUSLIM

<p>This paper aims to give a preliminary draft to formulate an innovative concept in the Qur’anic studies world in the age of post-consumerism Muslim. Recent studies on tug of war between globalization and religion have been identifying salient social transformation in some parts of Muslim world, such as the rise of new (media) religious authority, religious commodification trends, varieties of Islamic consumption, the emergence of public Islam and so forth. Apart from these recent scholarships, which successfully grasp the globalization’s influence toward religion (Islam), this paper offers the concept of everyday Qur’an as an alternative basic approach of understanding the cultures of Qur’an in this changing (Muslim) world and at the same time, seeking to briefly explain its emerging issues. Some exemplary issues then have analytically discussed to reflect how the proposed theory applied. Thus, everyday Qur’an can contribute the discourse of cultures based technology in the context of Qur’anic Studies. </p>

Alan Moore’s Promethea: Countercultural Gnosis and the End of the World

Alan Moore’s Promethea (1999 to 2005) is among the most explicitly “gnostic,” “esoteric,” and “occultist” comics strips ever published. Hailed as a virtuoso performance in the art of comics writing, its intellectual content and the nature of its spiritual message have been neglected by scholars. While the attainment of gnosis is clearly central to Moore’s message, the underlying metaphysics is more congenial to the panentheist perspective of ancient Hermetism than to Gnosticism in its classic typological sense defined by dualism and anti-cosmic pessimism. Most importantly, Promethea is among the most explicit and intellectually sophisticated manifestoes of a significant new religious trend in contemporary popular culture. Its basic assumption is that there is ultimately no difference between imagination and reality, so that the question of whether gods, demons, or other spiritual entities are “real” or just “imaginary” becomes pointless. As a result, the factor of religious belief becomes largely irrelevant, and its place is taken by the factors of personal experience and meaningful practice.

Cross-National Trends in Religious Service Attendance.

The nature of religious change and the future of religion have been central questions of social science since its inception. But empirical research on this question has been quite American-centric, encouraged by the conventional wisdom that the United States is an outlier of religiosity in the developed world, and, more pragmatically, by the availability of survey data. The dramatic growth in the number and reach of cross-national surveys over the past two decades has offered a corrective. These data have allowed research on religious trends in the United States, Canada, and Europe, putting American trends into comparative relief. This research synthesis reviews the past quarter century of cross-national comparative survey research on religious behavior, focusing on religious service attendance as a commonly measured behavior that is arguably more equivalent across societies and cultures than other measures of religiosity. The lack of evidence for religious revival is highlighted, noting instead declining rates of attendance in the United States and Canada, and either declining rates or low "bottomed-out" stability in Western Europe, most of Eastern Europe, and Australia and New Zealand. Finally, countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia are discussed to the extent that research allows, before a call for future research-in these places in particular-is made in order to correct for the Western and Christian focus of much of the research on cross-national religious trends.

Rewriting Liminal Geographies: Crusader Sermons, the Katherine Group, and the Scribe of MS Bodley 34

ABSTRACT Much of the Katherine Group's critical history has centered on its West Midlands regionalism and dialect. This article disrupts this regional focus to think more internationally. What is this manuscript's place among the more international events and religious trends sweeping continental Europe in relation to the Crusades? This article will focus on crusader sermons and their connection to the Katherine Group in order to reframe the reading of the manuscript. The author evaluates the Katherine Group's participation in international crusading rhetoric and how it performs an imaginative version of “geopiety.” The author also examines the scribal note at St. Juliana's end and how it directly borrows from a popular circulating crusader sermon. This English text is casting itself as part of an international genre fixated on a different geography—the eastern Mediterranean—that highlights the geographic and generic liminality of these texts.

The Deathbed Experience - Icons as Mental Images Preparations for a Good Death in Late Medieval Kotor (Montenegro)

The paper examines the mentioned icons in the testaments of Kotor citizens from partially explored archival documentary sources from the 14th and 15th centuries. The bequest of paintings within the testaments scheme in which individual item bequests ad pias causas dominate is an exceptionally developed element of the concept of preparing for a good death. The icons primarily become mental images which the dying retain in their consciousness, which designate hope and faith in the support of the Madonna and the saint protectors for the salvation of the soul. Analysed in this context, the icons to which there were only written references, became the framework for the analysis of personal religious preoccupations on the one hand, and foundations for researching the adopting of religious trends on the other.

Islamist Feminism in Morocco: (Re)defining the Political Sphere

Islamist Feminism in Morocco(Re)defining the Political Sphere Meriem El Haitami (bio) introduction Religious trends in Moroccan feminism emerged as a result of the changing sociopolitical scene marked by the rise of political Islam in post-independence Morocco. Islamist movements began to play a significant role in attracting a broad following and absorbing women’s growing demands to be more engaged in political life. They advocate women’s rights while being inspired by religious principles; this, according to Fatima Sadiqi, is a “feminist act” as it allows women’s entry into the historically male-dominated structures.1 Sadiqi further argues that the fact that religious feminism in Morocco was not conceived as a reaction to liberal feminism makes rapprochement possible and constructs polyvocal expressions of political activism.2 In 2011 female Islamist activists gained particularly legitimacy in the context of the Arab Spring, which brought the conservative Party of Justice and Development (pjd) into power. The latter has contributed to a shift from the elite liberal state feminism to a more legitimate religious activism, and has introduced new spaces for contention, such as the emerging nuanced female political and civic expression(s) as well as the prospects for Islamist and secular women’s movements to cooperate and negotiate in order to ensure a democratic approach to gender issues. Therefore this article explores how Islamist women are positioning themselves vis-à-vis universal debates of democratization and women’s rights, especially when a number of academic studies suggest that Islamist or more accurately “post-Islamist” movements are not necessarily anti-democratic.3 Rather, such movements may figure as important forces toward a more democratic transition. Beginning with an overview of Islamist women’s participation as party members and political actors, this article addresses opportunities and impediments to Islamist women’s political integration in Morocco’s official political [End Page 74] sphere in the context of the Arab Spring. I argue that despite Islamist women’s increased insertion into the political sphere, they must yet negotiate two primary political fronts. Islamist women are underrepresented in government due to the resistance of male Islamist political leaders, and this limits the women activists’ influence over governance and policy making and perpetuates the long-standing institutionalized gender-based inequalities. Additionally, Islamist women activists who hope to shape new roles for women in Morocco must also contend with the hegemonic discourses of liberal political groups. The present study draws on ethnographic fieldwork I conducted over the course of two years as part of my doctoral research on women’s religious authority and activism in contemporary Morocco, in which I explore the interplay between religion and politics and how that impacts gender discourses and reconceptualizes debates on Islamic feminism and the modalities of Moroccan Islam. Fieldwork methodologies have entailed interviews with female religious and political actors in a variety of settings as well as observing their different dynamics in different religious and social structures. This essay lays particular emphasis on women’s role within Islamist movements based on the review of various media articles found through the internet and scholarship on the interplay between Islamism and women’s political participation. I limit my analysis to two major groups: the Party of Justice and Development and the Justice and Charity movement (al-Adl wal-Ihsan, also called Justice and Spirituality, js). Though these two groups share a similar vision of Islamizing Moroccan society, they have divergent political stances. I maintain that both groups reconceptualize public religion and promote women’s participation in politics; however, post–Arab Spring changes were not necessarily directed toward the long sought gender equality. Therefore, despite the Arab Spring having brought to the fore Islamist women’s expressions of activism, they are still not achieving equal gains in more formal processes of political action, and their voices have been sidelined under hegemonic state structures. the party of justice and development: islamist feminism redefined The Party of Justice and Development (pjd) was officially formed in 1998, out of the Unity and Reform movement, and became a political force when it won 42 out of 295 seats in the 2002 national legislative elections.4 The pjd accepts the monarchy’s legitimacy and acts within the state...

The Impact of Fear and Authority on Islamic and Baha’iModernisms in the Late Modern Age: A Liberal Perspective

Fear of the late modern world has been a major factor in the rise of authoritarianand violent religio-political movements. This article draws on Anthony Giddens andCharles Taylor’s conceptualisation of the self in the secular age, and applies this to twomodernist religious trends originating in the East in the later nineteenth century in thecontext of western global expansion. Endeavouring to rise to the challenge ofaccommodating Islam to modernity by adopting the tools of rationality and encouragingindependent inquiry, Islamic Modernism has become increasingly embattled. The Baha’ifaith, a movement that incorporates similar perspectives and also developed out of anIslamic context, proposes a theophanic transformation rather than renewal through reformof Islam. After a period of infusion of a progressive catalytic impulse into the Middle East,the Baha’i faith performed its own recalibration of modernism, enunciating apocalypticdenunciation of the modern world similar to that found in Muslim revivalist trends. Thearticle ends by making some suggestions for continuation of a progressive religiousapproach in late modernity.

Content's rethinking and meaning of the M. I. Kostomarov's first thesis work "About causes and nature of the Church Union in Western Russia"

Kostomarov's scientific activity has begun from the theme of the Church Union of Berestia proclaimed in 1596. Since then began the history of scientific searches of the talented historian, publicist, ethnographer, poet, polemicist and publicman who got a rightfull place in the cultural and scientific expanse of Ukraine only recently. Potential of his work is so inexhaustible that inspite of amount materials devoted to his personalia a lot of problems that were posed by him remained inelaborate. His first thesis work is as an example. We are of the opinion that it is a unique work where an author expounded his views to the meaning of the folk history for the first time, being influenced by the prominent persons of the scientific world thought. The thesis work was forgotten by the scientists undeservedly because of the setted stereotypes in a historiography that refered it to the only one unsuccessful Kostomarov's work. The object of an article is a content's rethinking and meaning of M.Kostomarov's master thesis work About reasons and character of the Church Union in Western Russia. It is an important task for us to revise records about de minimis of the master's thesis as a scientific work and to prove originality of the text's subject matter that is entitled to be alongside of the other author's accepted works. It is also necessary to determinate actual reasons of the master's thesis work liquidation, its content's analysing and concern of the thesis work. While analysing the content's thesis work we have found how the historian's scientific opinion became and disclosed his views' novelty. Also his retirement from the scientific standards of the problem's vision were closely associated with the official Russian historical doctrine. Political-ideological reasons gave rise for liquidation of the first author's scientific work. The Church Union of Berestia was the event werethrought an author disclosed the importance of religious aspect for historical science as the event of religious trend that caused radical changes in society's life. It is of interest that not only historical, political and social factors were examined by an author in union's history but he also added psychological and binded them with a mental unicity of the Ukrainian ethnos where nationality and religiousness are identical concepts. Only through a random coincidence the first Kostomarov's thesis work has been ignored by modernity scientists and it orientation on union has denied. In this research we were trying not only to prove work's historical value of the prominent historian but also value and unicity of the content-related filling for theological opinion of Ukraine.

Militant Salafism in Sudan

One of the significant developments to occur after more than two decades of Islamists’ rule in the religious domain in Sudan is the emergence of Salafism. The increasing political pragmatism of the Islamists and the lenient policy towards most of the religious trends have contributed largely to the proliferation of Salafi activities including political militant Salafism. The rise of militant Salafism and Salafi political actors created a space of concurrence with other religious groups particularly with the dominant Sufi brotherhoods leading sometimes to the eruption of violence. This has destabilized the longstanding peaceful cohabitation among opposing religious groups with the Islamists progressively moving towards the centre of the religious spectrum and emerging as a mediator. This article studies two trends of the Salafi spectrum in Sudan representing different models. It highlights their respective relations with the Islamists regime while highlighting the underlying religious driving principles.

That Religion in Which All Men Agree: Freemasonry in American Culture by David G. Hackett (review)

That Religion in Which All Men Agree: in American Culture. By David G. Hackett. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. 317 pp. Cloth, $49.95.)Reviewed by Andrew JohnsonWhere are the Men? (ix). This question puzzled David G. Hackett, professor of American Religious Histoiy at the University of Florida. Hackett asked the question after examining membership lists for churches in Albany, York. What he discovered was that by 1830, 74 percent of the town's male workforce did not belong to church. City directory lists pointed to males occupying an adjacent social within society-a Masonic sphere. Hackett was searching for a male world that might broadly complement the Protestant women's sphere (ix). He noticed that performed its own pivotal part in forging American culture, challenging the conventional religious historical consensus that sets forth Protestantism as the sole protagonist. Hackett contends that Freemasonry played vital role in the American religious past (ix). Ultimately, he believes, changing beliefs and initiation practices within an all-male fraternity closely mirrored broader social and religious trends in American society.Freemasonry provides an interpretive lens to reshape Americans' understanding of their religious past. Historians of American religion have often designated as separate from the American religious experience in the early republic. Hackett, however, argues that this is misrepresentation of Freemasonry. He shows that acted as catalyst within the American Protestant experience.Hackett divides his monograph into two sections and eight chapters. The first section, European American explores the transplantation of Freemasoniy from Great Britain to the American colonies, where it blended with American Protestantism to create distinct religious identity in the New World. Chapter 1 explores how British colonial officials brought the cultural baggage of stonemasons' guilds from which Freemasons claimed to descend and the scientific advancements accruing during the Newtonian Revolution. Freemasonry, more than any other American religion, became almost malleable, as it evolved alongside American Protestantism. As result, Freemasoniy succeeded more than any other colonial association in joining together disparate political and religious leaders (4).Chapter 2 shows how Masonic Brotherhood continued to join competing groups together: Military lodges created during the American Revolution provided space for chaplains and Army officers. After the Revolution, Freemasoniy, unlike other fraternal orders, did not disappear from the public sphere. Masons took part in cornerstone ceremonies and built dynamic social order during this period.Chapter 3 shows Masonry's building upon Christian rituals and internalizing many of these rituals in its own degree work. Chapter 4 traces the Anti-Masonic movement, the attacks of which forced the fraternity to embrace more general Protestant conservatism. The final chapter in Section One explores the relationship between women and American Freemasoniy. …

The Story of a Drunken Mughal: Islam, alcohol, and imperial ambition

This paper examines the commonly held notion that Islam forbids alcohol and therefore Muslims do not drink. This statement contains two very significant and commonly repeated assumptions: first, that Islam prohibits all forms of alcohol consumption and second, that Muslims have always adhered unwaveringly to the tenets of their religion. Alcohol prohibition under Islam has never been as clear-cut as is often portrayed, whereas the idea that all Muslims do not drink paints Muslims as exempt from the diversity of approaches to religious restrictions and regulations found in virtually all societies throughout human history. This paper moves beyond the rhetoric of religious prohibition to explore the role of alcohol in Timurid Central Asia during the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, focusing specifically on the life and times of Babur, a Timurid prince turned South Asian empire builder. By exploring the contexts of alcohol consumption in Babur’s Central Asia, it is possible to not only understand and explain larger cultural and religious trends, but also to move beyond monolithic portrayals of Islam and Muslims throughout history.

The Unquiet Frontier

There are many different diagnoses of what constitutes the “post-secular.” My own view is that it constitutes the unprecedented and paradoxical coexistence of two supposedly contradictory social, religious, and cultural trends: on the one hand, the persistence of secular objections to public religion and on the other, the novel re-emergence of religious actors in the global body politic. John Caputo’s much quoted aphorism — that God is dead, but so also is the death of God — captures this agonistic model of the post-secular, in which what we are looking at is not the revival of religion, or the reversion of secular modernity into a re-enchanted body politic, but something more unprecedented and complex. Yet it also means there is little in the way of agreed discourse about the nature of the public square and the legitimacy of religious reasoning within it. This article considers one possible model, that of “post-secular rapprochement,” as one way of envisaging how newly-emergent forms of religious activism and discourse might be mediated back into a pluralist public domain.