Rural Religion Research Articles

An Investigative Study of Modern Social Attitudes towards the Current Status of Religious Beliefs Associated with the Concept of Shiva (A Study of Selected Major Shiva Temples in Sri Lanka)

Folktales can be recognized as an Ancient Intangible Heritage of the entire Human race. Since time immemorial, man has become a pyramid of collective wisdom built through the practice of systematic thinking. Folk religion, which is a major part of folk culture, can be identified as a set of beliefs and beliefs that are born in each culture and passed down from generation to generation. Also, this concept was a great opportunity to showcase the culture of the common people of society with various religious beliefs and practices centered on Lord Shiva. The primary problem of this research is to study what the modern social attitudes are towards the current status of religious beliefs related to the concept of Shiva. The primary objective of this study is to identify the behavior and religious beliefs associated with Shiva temples in the context of current social changes. As a research method, data was collected using the participatory observation method under the Qualitative Research method. Also, statistically based Quantitative data was used to identify the number of Shiva temples Established in Sri Lanka and their distribution. This study was conducted in connection with some selected major Shiva temples in Sri Lanka. Due to the strong attraction that developed in the human mind towards God in cultural integration, various social trends related to God were created. Lord Shiva, who occupies a prominent position in Hinduism as 'Mahadeva', takes precedence in Linga worship. Expectation of children can be identified as one of the main purposes of Shiva worship in local worship systems. The study revealed that the worship of Lord Shiva, which belongs to the rural religion, has been alienated from the common people. As a Maheshakya deity in the Hindu trinity, Shiva is supreme in his power and respectability. Thus, the overall research results revealed that the worship of Lord Shiva has moved away from the usual beliefs and worship.

The Power of Mammon: The Market, Secularization, and New York Baptists, 1790–1922 by Curtis D. Johnson

When this reviewer first came across Johnson’s Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790–1860 (Ithaca, 1989) in graduate school, it prompted a rethinking of certain standard narratives and methodologies. Johnson’s third book, The Power of Mammon, is a similar work, seeking to overturn Finke and Stark’s argument that the marketplace of religion has been the foundation of American Protestantism’s lasting vitality and relevance.1 Instead, Johnson believes that the marketplace’s influence on American Protestantism has been pernicious, because of how it “secularized New York State Baptist congregations in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,” leaving them “distracted” from the transcendent (xv).Johnson effectively deploys a standard strain of secularization theory, but the strength of The Power of Mammon is its research methodology—a deep dive into the archives of New York Baptists—that mines congregational minutes, membership rosters, church judicial cases, baptisms, conversions, membership demographics, and periodicals to gauge the changing religious activities and perspectives of nineteenth-century congregants. For example, Johnson comprehensively analyzes church discipline records to demonstrate how “collaborative” congregations (those in which women wielded significant power) meted out discipline more frequently. This situation led to concern about the “disorderly” nature of women, and their gradual disempowerment, before the balance of power tilted back toward women in the late nineteenth century as congregations transformed from covenant communities to voluntary associations, relying on women’s proven ability to fundraise.Readers may disagree with Johnson’s reduction of the market to a “distraction” from religious participation. Certainly, the subjects of Hammond’s God’s Businessmen would object, failing to see any distinction between their religious and business lives.2 Valeri’s Puritans would similarly be confused, affirming a theology of vocation that blurred the boundary between secular and sacred in business practices.3 Likewise, Kirk’s portrait of John Wanamaker reveals a retailer extraordinaire who viewed his store and religion as inseparable.4 Johnson’s contention that the COVID-19 crisis supports his thesis—virus lockdowns removed market distractions, thus leading to increased religiosity—is debatable. Apart from the question of how much the “distractions” actually dissipated as workers faced unemployment, businesses struggled to stay open, and consumers moved online, American ministers facing cratering attendance, vanishing tithes, and politically polarized congregations would puzzle over polling that suggests Americans “felt closer to God” during the crisis (xxi). Such polling might simply indicate that people reconsidered God as they experienced a lack of control over their circumstances and were forced to confront their mortality.Johnson’s assertion that “the seeds of American religion’s current fading influence were sown two hundred years ago” is interesting, to say the least (xv). Arguably, in an era of Trump-fixated Evangelicals, the influence of American religion has never been greater. Johnson is more persuasive when he suggests this sort of religious influence is an empty shell, and that the marketplace hastened this transformation.Johnson’s jeremiad is worth reading and pondering. Others have written similar laments about American Christianity, often aimed at post–World War II consumerism.5The Power of Mammon rightly suggests that we should look back even further to discover how the marketplace fundamentally transformed Protestantism in the United States.

Philippine Older Adults’ Attitudes to Love and Remarriage

Attitudes to love in older adults, often operationalized as acceptance of love and re-marriage in their 60s and 70s, is a key yet understudied component of aging in Southeast Asia. Using data from the 2007 Philippine Study on Aging that included 3105 older adults 60+, this study aimed to 1)describe the level of acceptance of love in older adults in the Philippines, 2)assess factors associated with acceptance of love, and 3)assess how acceptance of love is associated with social activity, life satisfaction, and health behaviors. Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine these associations while adjusting for age, gender, urban or rural residence, education, religion, marital status, self-reported health, comorbidity, and physical functioning). Only 1-in-5 older adults in the Philippines reported acceptance of love in older ages. Men and those with good health were more likely to report such acceptance, after adjustment for covariates (P<0.05). Although marital status alone had no association with acceptance of love, marital status interacting with gender showed significant associations with acceptance: unmarried men were more likely than married men to report acceptance. Individuals with lower acceptance of love were more likely to smoke (P<0.01). Attitude towards love was not significantly associated with social activity or life satisfaction after accounting for confounders. By evaluating the health and social outcomes associated with acceptance of love in older adults, this paper provided a better understanding of the utility of attitudes to love in older adults as a metric of elderly health in the Philippines.

CULTURE AND RELIGION ON WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE HEALTHCARE IN RURAL BANGLADESH

Health and healthcare of a community is largely determined by the culture, religion and behavior the people of the community hold. People’s culture including religion, values, beliefs and behavior during health and illness are important variables in studying health and healthcare. The present study has dealt with how and to what extent the culture, religion and practices of rural Bangladesh affect its women’s reproductive health and healthcare. Finally, the study tends to conclude that the rural culture and religion exerts significant negative impact on women’s reproductive healthcare.

THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF PAGUYUBAN NGESTI TUNGGAL

As an independent mysticism community which has an independent system belief and form of praying, etc., Paguyuban Ngesti Tunggal ( Pangestu ) does not force the members to come out of the religion they embraced. Pangestu explicitly declares as a community of mysticism that offering an oasis of spirituality, which is not given by a great religion, such as Islam, Christianity, Catholicism, etc. Thus, the Pangestu members have a dualistic belief at the same time: believing in their religion and believing in Pangestu . This paradox would be interesting to be a problem of research. In this case, I would like to examine Pangestu with the point of Durkheim theory that is the 'basic element' in rural religion. The point of view of the writer would be: system belief, practice relative and sacred thing. In the end, the conclusions of this study are: 1. The system belief of Pangestu including to: the concept of divinity in the form of Tripurusa ; The ritual of worship is nyawiji (emanation) process between man and God; Rules of procedure, including to the orders in the form of Hastasila and prohibited in the form of Paliwara . 2. The practice relatife of Pangestu including to Bawa Raos that it to convey the core of Pangestu teaching and ceremonies held at every August 16th to commemorate the death of the holy man Pak Dhe Narto. 3. The Sacred thing of Pangestu which including to the grave, the house of Pak Dhe Narto which made as museum, the inscription, the flag, akik (the agate stone) that being spread over around the grave, etc. which it would be functioned as a reminder to the teaching of Guru Sejati .

Rural religion, religious places and local identities in Hispania: the sanctuary at Can Modolell (Cabrera de Mar, Barcelona)

Rural cults are an aspect of the religion and culture of Roman Hispania that it is especially difficult to analyze given the paucity of epigraphic and archaeological evidence. This is quite a recent area of research; in addition, we are dealing with often modest religious practices that are difficult to identify in the archaeological record. Particularly problematic is the lack of information regarding cult places, despite the contribution made by some pioneering studies; yet the main problem has been the dominance of a paradigm that defines rural religion as a marginal space for social life, one that followed its own evolutionary rhythm influenced by a resistance to change. According to this paradigm, rural cults seem to comprise an unsystematic accumulation of traditional ritual practices whose preferred sphere of action would have been private.

创新抑或发明：社会建设视角下的乡村基督教*—以广西经堂村为例#

中国生态环境和村庄历史的差异性导致了中国村庄社会结构大致分为南中北三种类型，这种划分有利于从整体上认识中国乡村社会，由于这种划分侧重于传统中国存在的因素，如宗族，而忽视了对宗教信仰因素的考量。当前乡村宗教尤其是乡村基督教的复兴，使得这种划分在民族地区的社会建设中遇到很多困难。只有结合民族地区的特殊历史与环境，从“局内人”的观点出发，才能认识到民族地区社会建设的复杂性，进而有利于政府制定切实有效的政策。 Because of China’s ecological environment and the diversities of village history, the Chinese village society structure is roughly divided into three types: south, center and north, which is helpful to see China’s rural society as a whole. Because the division places emphasis on Chinese traditional factors, such as the clan, but ignores factors of religious belief. The current revival of rural religion, especially rural Christian, makes this division encounter many difficulties in the social construction in ethnic areas. Only by combining with the special history and environment of ethnic areas, and from the viewpoint of “insiders”, we can realize the complexity of the social development in ethnic areas, and promote the enaction of the government’s effective policies.

Rural ministry: historical case studies from mid-nineteenth century Australian colonies

Any study of colonial rural religion meets the continuing influence of immigrant religious traditions. Novel colonial environments reshaped not only patterns of ministry and pastoral care but social assumptions of class, of labour, and principles of farm management, along with the theological emphases that had sustained them back ‘home’. Yet evidence of any such early theological reappraisal is rare. This article examines letters published in the ‘Occasional Papers of St Augustine’s College, Canterbury’, United Kingdom, to show how wrestling with diverse physical and pastoral factors precluded overt and lengthy reflection on the need for any parallel theological adaptation.

Avaliação do perfil de trabalhadores e de condições ergonômicas na atividade de produção de carvão vegetal em bateria de fornos de superfície do tipo "rabo-quente"

Esta pesquisa foi desenvolvida no ambiente de trabalho da produção de carvão vegetal em bateria de fornos de superfície do tipo "rabo-quent"e, localizado na latitude de 17·27' oeste e longitude de 45º11' sul no Estado de Minas Gerais, nos meses de março a junho de 2003. O objetivo geral foi avaliar o perfil de trabalhadores e as condições ergonômicas na atividade de produção de carvão vegetal em bateria de fornos de superfície do tipo "rabo-quente". Os objetivos específicos foram: a) avaliar as características pessoais, sociais, econômicas e profissionais do operador; b) estudar o clima do local de trabalho (temperatura); e c) analisar a capacidade aeróbica do trabalhador. A metodologia empregada foi a proposta por Couto (1996) Apud (1987) e Sant'anna (1998). Pela análise dos dados, pôde-se concluir que o indivíduo da amostra era jovem, mestiço, casado, com poucos filhos e poucos dependentes financeiros, baixo nível de escolaridade, estatura média de 171,40 cm e média de peso corporal de 68,40 kg, 20% de analfabetos, de origem predominantemente rural e que professava a religião Católica. O valor do Indice de Bulbo Úmido Termômetro de Globo (IBUTG) encontrado no ambiente de produção de carvão vegetal estava de acordo com a NR 15. A capacidade aeróbica em mililitros de oxigênio por quilograma por minuto apresentou valor médio igual a 35,17 (ml02/kg/min); o menor valor foi igual a 30,56 (ml 02/kg/min) e o maior, igual a 39,23 (ml02/kg/min).

Rural Religion and the Politeness of Parsons: The Church of England in South Warwickshire, C.1689–C.1820

Joseph Arch, the agricultural trade unionist, was born in 1826 at Barford in south Warwickshire. In his autobiography, he recalled, as a boy, witnessing the Eucharist in the village church: First, up walked the squire to the communion rails; the farmers went up next; then up went the tradesmen, the shopkeepers, the wheelwright, and the blacksmith; and then, the very last of all, went the poor agricultural labourers … [N]obody else knelt with them … ‘[N]ever for me!‘,vowed Arch.

Exploring the roots of village Hinduism in South Asia

This paper explores the roots of contemporary village religion. The eclectic nature and interaction of both rural and orthodox Puranic Hinduism have made any attempt to dissect the traditions difficult. The question arises as to which had the greatest impact, Puranic Hinduism or the non-Vedic cults, on the development of village religion. To answer this, this article will first establish the principal features of village Hinduism. Because of the constraints imposed by a short paper it will focus specifically on the ritual worship of the goddess in her various forms, through the development of an associated iconography. It will also explore historical continuity, through a study of texts, archaeological materials and evidence from ethno-archaeology. The paper concludes that rural religion represents an amalgam of local superstitions, non-Vedic cultic practice and orthodox Puranic Hinduism, which is itself an assimilation of many of these elements.

Modernity and rural religion in the Philippines

The present paper concerns religious beliefs and practices— relating to the national hero of the Philippines Jose Rizal—of a religious community that calls itself Ciudad Mistica de Dios (the Mystical City of God). In the late 1950s, Mistica established its headquarters on the lower slopes of the holy mountain, Mount Banahaw. The paper commences by reading a selection of ‘nationalist’ constructions of the life and death of Jose Rizal through Bauman's conception of ‘modernity’ as ‘cultivating action’ and Foucault's notion of ‘pastoral power’. This is juxtaposed with Mistica's reading of Rizal—a reading that constructs Rizal's life and death as a mirror to the life and death of Christ, and that emerges as a critical engagement with modernity and the state. The paper concludes by suggesting that local religious beliefs and practices must be interpreted in terms of the historical experiences of particular peoples and places.

Légendes du pays de Kae, Zanzibar

The legends of Majipeponi and of Mnyali Mungu, collected at Kae, in the southern part of Zanzibar island, allow for a better understanding of the mizimu cult or ancestor worship. It is the expression of a traditional rural religion which is currently manifest in separate rituals: visits to holy groves, spirit worship initiations and new year celebrations (mwaka). Although despised by town dwellers who prefer to value their Islamic membership, the culture stemming from this traditional religion still lies at the foundation of all the conventions that allow individuals to situate themselves within swahili society.

Research in Progress

Research in Progress Mary Ellen Chijioke and Barbara E. Addison There are several interesting clusters in current research in Quaker history. One is centered around John Woolman and Quakerjournals. Drew Lawson (RMB 3230Eaglehook, Victoria, Australia) is studying Woolman's letters as a source of insight into the nature of the spiritual journey. Continuinghis literary studies ofWoolman, Mike Heller (3156 GarstCabin Drive, SW, Roanoke, VA 24018), faculty member in the Department of English at Roanoke College, is examining the journals read by Woolman and those written by his contemporaries. Joe Mathews (P.O. Box 395, Leesburg, NJ 08327) is transcribing and analyzing one such journal, that of Joseph Smith, for his Ph.D. dissertation at Temple University. Quaker topics in American studies are more diverse. Rosalind Beiler, faculty member in the department ofHistory, University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL 32816-1350) is writing a book, "Becoming American: The Transatlantic World of Caspar Wistar, 1650-1752." John Fea (Chapman Parkway, Stony Brook, NY 1 1794) is including Quakers in his dissertation in History for SUNY Stony Brook on "Rural Religion: Protestantism in Southern New Jersey, 1740-1820." Chris Cascio (610 Stonegate Boulevard , Elkton, MD 21921), graduate student affiliated with the Historical Society of Delaware, is studying Quaker attitudes toward taverns and drinking in eighteenth-century Wilmington. Catherine Blecki (1 607 Bittern Ct., Carlsbad, CA), faculty member in English at San Jose State University, is studying the connection between Quakers and the French from the American Revolution to about 1 800; she is also interested in Quaker women writers. Maria Thompson (1509 Montgomery Avenue, Rosemont, PA 19010) is preparing an interpretive video on the Free Quaker Meetinghouse in Independence National Historical Park. W.J.D. Kennedy (622 Simmons Drive, Boulder, CO 80303-3035) has been studying the journal of Moses Coates as he traveled west of the Alleghenies in 1 805 and 1 806 looking for suitable sites for a Quaker to resettle. Richard MacKinnon (89 Cottage Road, Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada BIP 2C9), Associate Professor in Folklore Studies and Architecture at University College of Cape Breton, is planning a book on Mary Arnold's work in the North American cooperative movement. Researchers are studying the history of a wide field of meetings and localities. Christopher Briggs Klemek (3401 Walnut Street, Apt. 352B, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6228) is working on Easton Monthly Meeting (New York Yearly Meeting) for his graduate studies in History at the Research in Progress79 University of Pennsylvania. Terence Maguire (2605 Brightwell Drive, Wilmington, DE 1981 0), English teacher at Wilmington Friends School, is clerk ofthe committee preparing a book to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the school. Margaret L. Steneck (127 Grandview Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48103), on the faculty of History and Education at the University of Michigan, has funding from the New Jersey Heritage Commission for a source book on Randolph, NewJersey, a Quakercommunity that can claim such members as Jacob L. Brotherton and Benjamin Lundy. Mark C. Ebersole (1166 Country Club Drive, Lancaster, PA 17601) is studying Sadsbury Monthly Meeting and Friends in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Christopher Densmore (67 Randwood, Getzville, NY 14068), Archivist at SUNY Buffalo, is preparing a book on the Genesee Yearly Meeting and the Friends of Human Progress (New York). Seth Hinshaw (1071 Greenwood Avenue, Zanesville, OH 43701) continues his research into Ohio Quakers and especially the Wilburite meetings. In the area of women's studies, Michele Lise Tarter (947 6th Street, Charleston, IL 61920) faculty member in English at Eastern Illinois University , is revising herdissertation forpublication as "The Body as Testimony: Quaker Women's Prophesyings in Early American Culture and Text." Kama Linden (Mejramv. 103, 70218 Örebro, Sweden), member of the Department of Social Studies, University of Crebro, is including feminist Swedish theologian Emilia Fogelklou in her study of women, health, and action. Rolynne Rogers Healey is preparing her dissertation for the Department ofHistory, University ofAlberta (2-28 Tory Building, Edmonton, AB T6G 2H4) on the role of Quaker women in the establishment of community in early Upper Canada. Sandra MacKenzie Lloyd (6835 Gorsten Street, Philadelphia, PA 19119) is conducting research on Alice Paul and her family for the Alice Paul house in Mt. Laurel, NJ. Another cluster in current research is...

Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Edited by Daniel H. Bays. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996. xxii, 483 pp.

Part I. Christianity and the Dynamics of Qing Society: 1. Catholics and society in eighteenth-century Sichuan Robert E. Entenmann 2. Catholic converts in Jiangxi province: conflict and accommodation, 1860-1900 Alan Richard Sweeten 3. Rural religion and village organization in North China: the Catholic challenge in the late nineteenth century Charles A. Litzinger 4. Twilight of the Gods in the Chinese countryside: Christians, Confucians and the modernizing state, 1861-1911 Roger R. Thompson 5. Christian missionary as Confucian intellectual: Gilbert Reid (1857-1927) and the Reform Movement in the late qing Tsou Mingeth 6. The politics of evangelism at the end of the Qing: Nanchang, 1906 Ernest P. Young Part II. Christianity and Ethnicity: 7. From Barbarians to sinners: collective conversion among plains aborigines in Qing Taiwan, 1859-1895 John R. Shepherd 8. Christianity and the Hua Miao: writing and power Norma Diamond 9. Christianity and Hakka identity Nicole Constable Part III. Christianity and Chinese Women: 10. Christian virgins in eighteenth-century Sichuan Robert E. Entenmann 11. Chinese women and Protestant Christianity at the turn of the twentieth-century Kwok Pui-Lan 12. Cradle of female talent: the McTyeire home and school for girls, 1892-1937 Heidi A. Ross 13. An oasis in a heathen land: St. Hilda's school for girls, Wuchang, 1928-1936 Judith Liu and Donald P. Kelly 14. Christianity, feminism, and communism: the life and times of Deng Yuzhi Emily Honig Part IV. The Rise of an Indigenous Chinese Christianity: 15. Karl Gutzlaff's approach to indigenization: the Chinese union Jessie G. Lutz and R. Ray Lutz 16. Contextualizing Protestant publishing in China: the Wenshe, 1924-1928 Peter Chen-Main Wang 17. The growth of independent Christianity in China, 1900-1937 Daniel H. Bays 18. Toward independence: Christianity in China under the Japanese occupation, 1937-1945 Timothy Brook 19. Y. T. Wu: a Christian leader under communism Gao Wangzhi 20. Holy spirit Taiwan: Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity in the republic of China Murray A. Rubinstein Appendices Index.

Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790-1860.

Through an examination of religious life in a typical northern rural locale-Cortland County, New York-from 1790 to 1860, Curtis D. Johnson adds to our understanding of the Second Great Awakening, an intellectual and religious watershed in American history. Offering both quantitative and qualitative analyses of churches' memberships, ideologies, and activities, he maintains that scholars have misunderstood the historical significance of evangelicalism. Johnson contends that these churches did not constitute society, nor were they microcosms of it; rather, they evolved from embattled congregations of the saved-islands of holiness-to ideologically conservative, organizationally unified, integrated parts of society. He uncovers the many diversities of Protestantism in the form of splits between evangelicals and non-evangelicals, formalists and anti-formalists, Arminians and Calvinists, Old School traditionalists and Oberlin perfectionists, church members and religious society members. At the heart of the revivalistic impulse, he argues, was ideological conflict-primarily between Calvinists and Arminians-with gender politics and internal church dynamics also contributing to the evangelical tumult. With a special interest in the Awakening's impact on congregational life, Johnson focuses on rural community experience to challenge the findings of historians who have concentrated exclusively on urban religious expression. He concludes that the importance of the various factions of evangelicalism lies in their common exhortation to republicanism and reform: these congregations, he says, influenced social change out of proportion to their numbers because activism was a central tenet of their religion. Islands of Holiness is a gem of local history. A meticulously researched book, it makes a valuable contribution to an enduring aspect of the social history of American religious expression.

Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790-1860.

Journal Article Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790–1860. By Curtis D. Johnson. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989. xvi + 214 pp. $27.95.) Get access David L. Rowe David L. Rowe Middle Tennessee State University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of American History, Volume 77, Issue 2, September 1990, Pages 657–658, https://doi.org/10.2307/2079231 Published: 01 September 1990

Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790-1860

Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790-1860

Islands of holiness: rural religion in upstate New York, 1790-1860

Islands of holiness: rural religion in upstate New York, 1790-1860

Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790-1860

Islands of Holiness: Rural Religion in Upstate New York, 1790-1860