Scholarly Study Of Religion Research Articles

Scientific Study of Islam for Its Understanding and Dialogue of Cultures

Heightened interest in modern Islam, its philosophy, and its culture is substantiated by the complex transformations in Islamic countries and Muslim regions of post-Soviet Russia. Some countries see a rise in the political role of Islam: religion has become a driver of international politics, and adaptation of the Muslim world to the global transformational processes of the century is still on the agenda. Some argue that the scholarly study of religion is ineffective for solving global issues. Muslim scholars take a dim view of non-Muslims attempting to study Islam. Russian academic approach lies in between Western and Muslim religious sciences; thus, new Russian works on Islam not only promote religious studies but also strengthen Russia as an international actor. Doctor of Philosophy, professor Taufik Ibragim is one of the eminent researchers of Islam. In 2009, he was a co-author of the biography of Muhammad. In 2015, he published a much-talked-about work on religious pluralism in the Quran. T. Ibragim’s works conflate encyclopedic knowledge and academic scrutiny with clarity and are of interest to both specialist audiences and general readers. In 2022, he published the book Names of God according to Islam, in which he attempted to translate Muslim concepts into the language of another monotheistic religion. The nature of God—personal and/ or impersonal—is subject to heated discussions, and T. Ibragim gives his interpretations of Quranic verses. The introduction presents an overview of the characteristics of God in the Quran and also gives the first comprehensive index of the names of God. The methodology, systematization, structure, and content of the book make it significant for Russian Islamic and Oriental studies. It will be helpful for theologists, Arabic and Islam scholars, as well as students. T. Ibragim’s works shed light on one of the most numerous and dynamic world religions and let everyone look into the hidden treasures of Islamic tradition.

Disseminating Daesoon Thought: A Comparative Analysis

The author examines three new religious movements in South Korea: Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Unification Church, and the Daesoon Jinrihoe, and aims to identify the factors that are conducive to the growth of each. All three organisations believe in a coming paradise, and the article explores their respective attempts to interest the populace in their appeal. Discussion is given to membership statistics and the problems of measuring allegiance and moves on to consider methods of propagation. Most obviously, evangelisation strategy is important: Jehovah’s Witnesses and Unificationists have tended to engage the interest of strangers, while followers of Daesoon Jinrihoe are more inclined to evangelise family and friends. Additionally, there are other factors that determine an organisation’s progress: cultural appropriateness, engagement in social and educational work, and attitudes to conflict and peace, the latter being particularly important in a society that has experienced war and occupation. Reference is made to the ways in which these three organisations finance themselves, and it is argued that financial resources merit greater attention in the scholarly study of religion, since monetary assets are needed to secure a spiritual movement’s existence. Of the three organisations under discussion, the Daesoon Jinrihoe has been the most successful, being South Korea’s largest new religion, while Jehovah’s Witnesses are in steady state, and the Unification movement is experiencing slight decline.

Pastoralt ledarskap och konvertiter

Pastoral leadership and converts: A discussion of church leadership in relation to converts and the Swedish Board of Migration
 The purpose of this article is to support the pastoral leadership and church ministry in relation to converts by providing knowledge and experience when leading people cross-culturally. The churches in the society of today are facing issues relating to the leadership of converts. Church leadership is culturally bonded with traditions of ministry and traditional behaviour and therefore risks jeopardizing the leadership vision in ministry. The main empirical material in the article is based on a revision of my essay “Asylum seeking converts and the catechism of the authority – a study of converts’ asylum process with the Board of Migration” (Svensson, 2017). Firstly, I will begin to address the article´s subject and then describe the essay. The aim of the essay was twofold: To understand the Migration Board´s perception of Christian faith, and to explore how the Board can work with these issues in the future with the help from the church. Through the method of content analysis, I analysed the interview protocols and discussed the results using the theoretical concepts of ”thick” and ”thin”. Further I present the essay´s results and within the area of religious studies I show that the Board of Migration has an outdated view on conversion and Christian faith. The Board’s understanding also does not reflect the scholarly study of religion. Finally, in the article I discuss the study´s result in relation to church leadership and pastoral ministry when leading converts of several cultures at hand.

Powerful Yet Powerless, Powerless Yet Powerful: The Burmese Exorcist

One of the most typical forms of weikza cult consists in congregations ( gaing ) specialized in the practice of exorcism. Relying on the monographic study of such a congregation — the Shweyingyaw Congregation? the article explores the Burmese exorcist's identity. It describes the parameters of this identity in accordance with the way the exorcists themselves conceive their role and their efficacy. The article eventually compares the Burmese exorcist with three archetypal figures in the scholarly study of religion (the possession specialist, the shaman and the Church priest) in order to offer a generic characterization of his exorcistic faculty.

James Turner. Religion Enters the Academy: The Origins of the Scholarly Study of Religion in America. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2011. 132 pp. Cloth $26.95

James Turner. Religion Enters the Academy: The Origins of the Scholarly Study of Religion in America. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2011. 132 pp. Cloth $26.95

Religion enters the academy: the origins of the scholarly study of religion in America

Religion enters the academy: the origins of the scholarly study of religion in America

Book Review: Religion Enters the Academy: The Origins of the Scholarly Study of Religion in America

Book Review: Religion Enters the Academy: The Origins of the Scholarly Study of Religion in America

Frederick Streng, Madhyamika, and the Comparative Study of Religion

Frederick Streng's contributions to the comparative study of religion lie in his work as translator and interpreter of key Madhya- mika texts and as a methodologist in the study of religion. He did in- valuable work in his interpretation of Nagarjuna's doctrine of empti- ness and then apparently used insights gained in that work to detail an approach to the scholarly study of religion that attempted to chart a middle course between objectivism and relativism.

‘Why the Academic Study of Religion?’ Motive and Method in the Study of Religion

The methodological implications of the motives that underlie the study of religion and, more particularly, the academic study of religion have not, I think, received the attention they deserve. They are of the utmost importance, however, for the differences of motivation between the study of religion legitimated by the modern university and the scholarly study of religion that antedates it, sponsor radically different, if not mutually exclusive, approaches to its study. In asking why the study of religion is undertaken as an academic exercise – which is, after all, a comparatively recent development – I shall be attempting to delineate, to some extent, the relation of motive to method in what has come to be called Religious Studies. In clarifying that relation I hope also to show that Religious Studies – that is, the academic study of religion – must be a vocation in very much the same sense that Max Weber speaks of science as a vocation and, therefore, that such study must take as merely preliminary a ‘religious studies’ that is concerned only to ‘understand’ rather than to explain the phenomenon of Religion.

Phenomenology of Religion: A Bridge between the Scholarly Study of Religion and Religious Education

Summary How is it possible to integrate the teaching of Christianity and other religions in a common perspective? How this question gradually has imposed itself upon teachers of religion is illustrated by reference to the Danish experience. A similar question has challenged scholars of religions, resulting in the emergence of a new approach, called the Phenomenology of Religion. Finally, it is suggested how teachers might benefit from this scholarly enterprise.

The Role of 'Belief' in the Study of Religion: A Response to W. C. Smith

The concept of belief as an interpretive category in the scholarly study of religion has recently come under heavy criticism from various quarters. The concept of belief, it is argued, is not merely useless in the task of interpreting the meaning of the historical religious traditions, but rather is positively misleading. Consequently, a 'call' is issued to students of religion to move beyond belief in their attempts to understand the religious dimension of man's existence. The 'call' has been sounded in the past in such work as R. Bellah's Beyond Belief: Essays on Religion in a Post-Traditional World, (I970); and R. Needham's Belief, Language and Experience, (I972); and more recently in D. Z. Phillip's Religion without Explanation, (1976); and W. C. Smith's Belief and History, (I977). It is not an easy matter to classify and analyze the arguments raised against 'belief' in these and other works. They are often confused in such a way that it is difficult to determine whether the criticism is the product of empirical reasoning, philosophical argument, or intuitive or religious insight. It is extremely important, to respond, however, for the 'call' to move beyond 'belief' amounts to a 'call' for a revolution in the study of religion for a radical change of paradigm for interpreting the meaning of religious phenomena. 1 And like most revolutions, the undertaking would be costly. The initial step in such a response, given the presently irresolvable complexities in the multi-

The Scholarly Study of Religion in College and University. The Study of Religion in American Universities: Ten Case Studies with Special Reference to State Universities

The Scholarly Study of Religion in College and University. The Study of Religion in American Universities: Ten Case Studies with Special Reference to State Universities

Seminary and University: Two Approaches to Theology and Religion

S THEOLOGIANS, scholars of religion, and educators we are facing challenges on two fronts: (1) scholarship in our seminaries for the church and its mission in the world and (2) the scholarly study of religion in the university. Churchmen are seeking those revisions in theological education which would better prepare men for the ministry of the church today. An increasing interest in the scholarly study of religion, particularly in tax-supported colleges and universities, and revolutionary changes in American higher education, are forcing a new look at the nature of religion as an academic discipline and its place in the college and university curriculum. The purpose of this essay is to consider some of the ways in which the two educational tasks seminary and the university differ. Largely as a result of historical factors, the distinction of the two tasks has not been clear. Up to the present, most of the significant scholarship in theology and religion has been done in Protestant-oriented graduate schools who train both ministers of the Gospel for the churches and scholars of religion for college and university faculties. Both groups are prepared in substantially the same curriculum and with the same faculty. Out ability to meet the two distinct challenges of the church and the university will be jeopardized unless the historically inherited situation is readjusted to present needs. I wish to make very clear from the beginning that in my judgment given the distinction between the seminary as part of the Church and the university as part of the common heritage of Western society, and given the unique character and purpose of each, the educational tasks are radically dissimilar. After several years of teaching experience in both college and seminary and several years of observation of both communities of learning, it is evident to me that the two institutions coincide with regard to the study of religion and theology only insofar as some of the same subject matter is appropriate to both. And even where there is a common subject matter, the reasons for its inclusion in each curriculum are, or should be, different; that difference being dictated by the unique ends for which each community of learning exists.