Specific Religious Traditions Research Articles

A Qualitative Study of the Meaning of Food and Religious Identity

ObjectiveTo identify common themes of the meaning of food among people who identify with a specific religious tradition, particularly focusing on potential applications for nutrition education and professional practice at multiple levels of the Social-Ecological Model. DesignVirtual and in-person focus groups were used to collect qualitative data. SettingA midsized city in eastern Washington State. ParticipantsNine focus groups (n = 35), each representing a distinct religious congregation. Phenomenon of InterestMeaning of food in the context of religion. AnalysisQualitative, reflexive thematic analysis using web-based software to organize data. ResultsFour key themes were identified that applied to both of the overarching focus group topic areas (general and religious): (1) food fosters connection, (2) food influences health, (3) relationships with food are complicated, and (4) food choices reflect values. Subthemes were specific to topic areas. In religious contexts, the meaning of food was more likely understood at a community level in addition to individual and relational levels of the Social-Ecological Model. Conclusions and ImplicationsAcknowledgment and consideration of the religious identities of patients and clients may provide greater opportunities for community connection, which may have potential implications for community-level nutrition interventions.

Religious Approaches to Constitutionalism: Empirical Scholarship and Exceptionalism

Abstract Nearly half of all countries have official religions or give preference to specific religious traditions. Most countries with an official religion are majority Muslim; however, most of those with a preference for particular religious traditions are majority Christian. This paper considers empirical data related to constitutional references to specific religions as a framework for a discussion of the comparative constitutional histories of Turkey and the Republic of Ireland. Both moved from systems that preferred their majority religions to ostensive neutrality. This analysis reinforces the importance of religion in law and policy regardless of cultural context and constitutional choices. Constitutional drafters have established a number of approaches to the treatment of religion, including freedom of religion, establishment of religion, separation of religion and state, neutrality, official religion, conformity, repugnancy, and sources of law/legislation. Although these linguistic choices are significant, they may not result in consistent practices across jurisdictions.

CHURCH ATTENDANCE AND PROTEST PARTICIPATION IN THE UNITED STATES

While church attendance is linked to many forms of civic and political engagement, the relationship between church attendance and protest participation is underexplored. Drawing on three waves of the Cooperative Election Study, I examine whether church attendance is positively and significantly associated with protest participation among both the general US adult population and specific religious traditions. I find that church attendance is a positive and significant predictor of protest participation among the general population, Catholics, Mainline Protestants, Black Protestants, and Jews. However, church attendance is only moderately associated with protest participation for Evangelicals. These findings further our understanding of the relationship between church attendance and protest participation and civic engagement more broadly.

Individual‐Level Determinants of Religious Intergenerational Transmission: Evidence from Catholic Europe1

Although there is a rich body of research on religious transmission, relatively little attention has been given to studying this within specific religious traditions such as Catholicism, especially in Europe. Using data from the 2018 round of the International Social Survey Programme (ISSP), this study uses regression analysis to investigate individual‐level determinants of religious transmission in 12 European countries with a Catholic tradition. We find support for the idea that parental religious socialization impacts adults' religiosity. More specifically, we find that childhood religiosity has explanatory effects separate from the impact of parental religiosity and that the religiosity of the father has a greater impact on offspring religiosity than the religiosity of the mother. We also find that childhood church attendance has a stronger effect in former communist countries than in western European countries. Overall, this study suggests the religious socialization perspective should be considered more in religious group‐specific terms.

The Role of Region and Religious Tradition in Predicting Individuals’ Expressions of Faith in the Workplace

While many variables might influence an individual’s willingness to express their faith in the workplace, the role of regional context has not been fully considered. The different geographical regions in the U.S. consist of unique demographics and cultures that could shape an individual’s expression of faith at work. Moreover, these regional effects might be moderated by an individual’s specific religious tradition. Using data from a survey of U.S. adults featuring oversamples of Jewish and Muslim individuals, we utilize two unique measures of religious expression—displaying/wearing religious items at work and talking about religion at work—to assess the roles of region and religious tradition in expression of faith at work. We find that regional cultures can sometimes override religious subcultures to determine if and how people express their religion in the workplace. We find that evangelical-conservative Christians are more likely than those following most other religious traditions to say that they talk about their faith at work, regardless of the region in which they reside. However, we also find that individuals in the South tend to be more likely to express their faith in the workplace independent of their religious tradition while evangelicals in the Northwest are less so. The findings have broader implications for subcultures related to religious pluralism in an increasingly diverse U.S. society.

The Marble Faunin a Secular Age

ABSTRACTThis essay examines Hawthorne’s The Marble Faun as an early expression of (post)secular imagining. Scholars have tended to frame Hawthorne’s engagement with religion as yet another example of the ambivalence that drives much of his writing. On the one hand, they identify the persistence of religious critique in his novels—his criticism of Puritanism in The Scarlet Letter or Transcendentalism in The Blithedale Romance, for example. On the other hand, they have noted his fascination with such traditions, offering readings that uncover the historical specificity of his Puritan sources and his temporary investment in Transcendentalism. Rich as they are, such readings tend to focus on his engagement with these specific religious traditions rather than note his novels’ oscillation between enchantment and disenchantment. This essay takes up this charge by examining The Marble Faun’s depiction of Catholicism, a depiction that critics have similarly read in terms of Hawthorne’s admiration or criticism of Catholicism. This essay suggests, instead, that both impulses represent Hawthorne’s lasting search for what secular studies philosopher Charles Taylor calls “a third way”; that is, a space between orthodoxy and unbelief. Rather than locate The Marble Faun as another instance of Hawthorne’s chronic ambiguity, then, this essay locates it as a prime example of the spiritual tensions marking our “secular age.”

Review: Black Transhuman Liberation Theology: Technology and Spirituality, by Philip Butler

In Black Transhuman Liberation Theology, Philip Butler considers the role that technology may play in the role of African American spiritual life and liberation in a society under technocratic rule, a form of “electronic governance (e-governance) by an elite class of technical and technological experts” (5). Butler addresses the issue of Black (trans)humanity. He argues that the denial of African American people from human status is a problem of language and epistemology, with the most prevalent forms of technology being used to subvert Black bodies. Black folk should therefore no longer attempt to become accepted as human and, instead, embrace being transhuman.Transhumanism is a philosophical and cultural movement that uses technology to expand one’s physical, intellectual, or psychological capabilities. It may also be defined as the acceptance of technology within the body itself. That is, one must welcome the reality that the body is a collection of complex systems that involve organs, cells, neurons, and protons that exchange electricity and work together to sustain both life and health. For Black people to become physically liberated, they must first free themselves from the cognitive bondage of the language and meaning of being human. Ultimately, society’s concept of human delineates who is included in that category and employs a technology that excludes certain groups as nonhuman. Instead of wrestling over and struggling to be included as human, Butler suggests that Black people should recognize that the human body is a form of biotechnology.Continuing from the perspective that human bodies are forms of biotechnology, Butler then lays out the foundation for his Black transhuman liberation theology. He introduces vitality, the underlying energy permeating all of existence, as the electrical force that propels and sustains the human biotechnical systems and inanimate objects. It is the recognition that vitality is present in all things that establishes how Black (trans)humans relate to one another and the world. Vitality is the power of the divine. It is incarnate in the body and gives Black (trans)humans the divine capacity for both individual and communal liberation. Responsibility for liberation, therefore, is not the task of a deity or that which is beyond the self. It is the responsibility of those who have vitality flowing through our bodies. Butler writes, “If Black biotech is vitality incarnate, then an appeal to God, or that which is beyond the self, for an intervention against systemic oppression becomes problematic” (69).Spirituality, then, must be understood as an embodied practice beyond Christianity or any other religious doctrine, creed, and tradition. For Butler, spirituality is grounded in human physiology and materiality, stemming from the metabolic process of the body and its cells. It is the means by which individuals train the body to respond in particular ways to internal and external stimuli. As a result, spiritual practices have both neurological and somatosensory effects which allow individuals to accept their self-worth and enhance physiological change. Because each person’s biochemical makeup is unique, each must determine which spiritual practices have the greatest, most positive physical and neurological impact.Butler then suggests spiritual practices that Black (trans)humans ought to practice in order to promote individual and communal vitality and materialize liberation. These include ancestor veneration, cooking and eating, praying, cleansing, crisis contemplation, dancing, ecstatic singing, listening to sermons, mindfulness, mimicry, preaching, and yoga. Although some of these practices are associated with religious traditions, the importance of these spiritual practices for Butler is their impact on neurological and physical health of the body, their ability to promote vitality, and their effectiveness to aid individuals and communities toward liberation.Spiritual practices should occur, however, under constant evaluation. Butler suggests the use of various forms of technology (e.g., mobile phone applications, heart rate measurements, and more) to measure the body vitality and overall fitness. Practices that do not maintain or improve the overall wellness of the individual’s body should be abandoned. Butler ultimately wants Black communities to develop revolt spirituality, which he defines as “a call to demand the most of what makes you while engaging in the absolute violence that dismantles the system,” as a way of pushing against ways of living that maintain white supremacy (138).Philip Butler’s text is essential reading for theologians and scholars of religion who are considering the implications that various forms of technology have on the body and how technology can aid those in oppressed communities move toward liberation. He highlights the use of technology in oppression and introduces practical, embodied ways to measure the effectiveness of spiritual practices for preparing Black (trans)humans to deal with the mental and physiological strains of facing that oppression. Butler’s formation of theology is both interfaith and universal because it is grounded in embodiment instead of specific religious traditions. It is a theology that can be useful to people of faith and to nonbelievers alike.

Review: Sincerely Held: American Secularism and Its Believers, by Charles McCrary

Review: <i>Sincerely Held: American Secularism and Its Believers</i>, by Charles McCrary

The Lonely Letters

The Lonely Letters

Abstracts

Abstracts

The Presence of the Ascended Son in the Gospel of John

The Presence of the Ascended Son in the Gospel of John Markus Bockmuehl The Fourth Gospel distinctively articulates the shared Christian conviction that Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead after his crucifixion and was exalted to heaven.1 As for other New Testament writings, that belief also raises the fundamental question of how this same Jesus continues to relate to ongoing Christian faith and experience. Where is Jesus now? Is he here or somewhere else, at a spatial and perhaps temporal remove from the lives his followers lead now? In scholarly and critical study of the Gospels, that rather basic question is further complicated, made more strange and complex by its methodological elusiveness. There are many possible ways to try and contextualize it in either ancient cultural or modern analytical settings. A century ago, standard approaches to the comparative study of ancient religion tended to focus on expressions of divine presence either in terms of "the numinous" (Rudolf Otto),2 of social ritual as expressing the power of society (Emile [End Page 1301] Durkheim), or in history-of-religions comparisons with providential or animistic conceptions. Today the comparative bird's eye view has for the most part surrendered to more focused textual and empirical study of the texts and phenomena in view. So, for example, one frame of reference might be Jewish, early Christian, and Graeco-Roman mysticism, on which a good deal of work has been done in recent years. Others have studied the role of interiority and cognitivity in specific religious traditions. There have been books on ascetical, shamanistic, and neurobiological aspects of ecstatic experience, especially in relation to the Apostle Paul. And a series of recent studies has called for fuller discussion of the role of religious experience in the formation of early Christian belief and theology. The broader theme of divine presence and absence has also repeatedly attracted the attention of scholarship on ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism. A clearer methodological account must be left for another occasion. I do not doubt that many of these modes of characterizing divine presence are relevant to a description of early Christian realities: quite likely they are. This paper probes the focused and in a sense "dogmatic" question about how the Gospel of John envisages the location of Jesus after his earthly lifetime. How does the Fourth Evangelist handle the dialectic between affirmations that Jesus is present with the disciples or on the other hand that he has gone to another place? I am for present purposes not as concerned with abstract definitions of absence or presence in metaphysical or personalist terms,3 nor with a comparative phenomenology of Johannine religious experience. Instead, my focus will be on the Gospel of John's stated ("emic") affirmations about the presence or the absence of the post-Easter Jesus—the convictions that shaped and were in turn shaped by this evangelist and his community. The Fourth Gospel's manuscript distribution and especially its reception in the exegetical disputes and deliberations leading up to the great Christian creeds leave no doubt that this text had an inestimable effect on [End Page 1302] the formulation of Christian doctrine about the person of Jesus Christ. Among the company it keeps in the library of early Christian sacred texts, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are clearly paramount. Richard Bauckham and others have plausibly argued for John's knowledge of something rather like the Gospel of Mark in particular; and despite some useful criticisms, that view may represent a growing consensus.4 But beyond this there has long been a notable trickle of New Testament scholarship which would affirm the historical priority of John over the Synoptics,5 or even just over Luke.6 Others more cautiously propose stages of composition in which each stream of Gospel tradition influenced the other, possibly through the continuing interrelationship between writing and primary or secondary oral tradition.7 But rather more revealing than this Gospel's inscrutable literary relationships with other New Testament texts is its formative influence on early Christian belief. One thinks here of the prologue's exegetical pressure on the creedal language of Jesus as the only-begotten Son...

Making the Gods Speak: The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History by Vincent Goossaert (review)

Reviewed by: Making the Gods Speak: The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History by Vincent Goossaert Gilbert Z. Chen (bio) Vincent Goossaert. Making the Gods Speak: The Ritual Production of Revelation in Chinese Religious History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2022. 368 PP. Hardcopy $60.00, isbn 978-067-427-094-7. For any students of Chinese religious history, the sheer number of various kinds of religious texts (canonical scriptures, ritual manuals, etc.) supposedly handed [End Page 181] down by an assorted group of divine entities to mankind is nothing but overwhelming: thousands, if not tens of thousands, of them have appeared since the early medieval era. Until recently, however, this vast body of revelation texts, except for a few prominent titles which have secured canonical status within their respective religious traditions, has largely remained unscrutinized. Part of the reason for this scholarly neglect was the widely shared assumption that these texts usually fall into the amorphous category of folk or popular religion, which for long has occupied a marginalized position in the field of religious studies. Fortunately, a small but growing group of scholars has begun to address the omission over the past decades.1 Even though their works have greatly augmented our understanding of revelation texts and their significance in Chinese religious history, they collectively suffer from several noticeable limitations. First, scholars often focus on a selected number of texts produced within a specific religious or sectarian tradition. Consequently, we have a number of fine case studies but lack a framework for a more holistic and comparative perspective. Moreover, previous scholarship has primarily analyzed the content of revelation texts with little consideration of the ritual context in which revelations took place. Vincent Goossaert's new book under review here, which is the culmination of years of meticulous research, squarely addresses these shortcomings. Consequently, it succeeds in providing the hitherto most systematic and comprehensive study of the subject, significantly deepening our understanding of the evolution of the ritual production of revelation throughout Chinese history. Making the Gods Speak consists of two parts besides the introduction and the conclusion. In the first part (chapters 1 and 2), the author mainly introduces an overarching theoretical framework to account for different modes of human-divine interaction or "divine presence" (p. 6) and offers a typology to classify different types of revelation. Building upon these analytical tools, the second part (chapters 3–8) zooms in to provide a more dynamic narrative to chart and explain several turning points of far-reaching significance in the history of revelation. Goossaert begins the book by identifying two paradigms of divine presence in Chinese religious history. The first is that of spontaneous presence in which gods come to interact with humans on their own initiative without any forewarning. This type of presence may take various forms. In a typical scenario, a person unexpectedly encounters a god in a reclusive area (e.g., remote mountains), and the latter then bequeaths a sacred text to the former. In contrast to spontaneous presence underlining divine agency in the process of divine–human interaction, the second model of ritualized presence foregrounds human agency; that is, religious practitioners employ a set of ritual techniques to initiate communication with divine beings. [End Page 182] Divine presence often, but not necessarily, generates revelation. The author defines revelation as discursive content that is depicted as originating from a spirit and is of general interest to humanity, which is analytically opposed to divine response answering an individual's specific needs. Based on three criteria of the ritual technique used, the scenario of the event of revelation, and the form and content of the revealed text, Goossaert proposes a typology of five ideal-typical categories of revelation. In the sutra type, there is no mention of how a revealed text reached humanity. By contrast, in the encounter type, the reader is informed of the details surrounding the revelatory event. Nevertheless, the receiver apparently does not employ any ritual technique to materialize the revelation. In the possession type, divine pronouncements are made through possessed mediums. Occasionally, rituals are performed to bring about spirit possession. Ritual techniques, however, become crucially important in the visualization type in...

Laws, doctrines and practice: a study of intermarriages and the ways they challenged the Jewish Community of Helsinki from 1930 to 1970

The identities, customs and habits of religious congregations are tightly connected to the history of these congregations and to the specific religious tradition or denomination they consider themselves to be a part of. They are also shaped by the legislative and bureaucratic regulations and processes of the secular society that is surrounding them. The aim of this study is to further our knowledge of some of these aspects of Jewish life as they relate to the Jewish Community of Helsinki in the period 1930–70 by showcasing two examples that emerged as a result of the rising number of intermarriages in the congregation.

The Goals of Philosophy of Religion: A Reply to Ireneusz Zieminski

In a recent article, Ireneusz Zieminski (2018) argues that the main goals of philosophy of religion are to (i) define religion; (ii) assess the truth value of religion and; (iii) assess the rationality of a religious way of life. Zieminski shows that each of these goals are difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. Hence, philosophy of religion leads to scepticism. He concludes that the conceptual tools philosophers of religion employ are best suited to study specific religious traditions, rather than religion more broadly construed. But it’s unclear whether the goals Zieminski attributes to philosophy of religion are accurate or even necessary for successful inquiry. I argue that an essentialist definition of religion isn’t necessary for philosophy of religion and that philosophers of religion already use the conceptual analysis in the way Zieminski suggests that they should. Finally, the epistemic standard Zieminski has in view is often obscure. And when it is clear, it is unrealistically high. Contemporary philosophers of religion rarely, if ever, claim to be offering certainty, or even evidence as strong as that found in the empirical sciences.

Some issues in understanding spirituality as relational

ABSTRACTIn the present literature, understanding and interpretation of spirituality has moved from the transcendent to the relational aspect of the human being. This movement has been necessitated by shortcomings in understanding spirituality as transcendent. The idea of transcendent is unverifiable and subjective. Moreover, it is possible in the context of specific cultural and religious traditions, but not in a multicultural context. Spirituality in its relational sense is interpreted as a process of developing an intrinsic human capacity that motivates people to search for meaning, purpose, and contribution to life in a social context. The relational aspect of spirituality can be understood as ‘thoughtful love of life’ leading to what may be termed ‘naturalized spirituality’. However, understanding the relational aspect of spirituality has its own problems. This paper indicates some limitations to understanding spirituality as relational and argues that, rather than aiding an understanding of the concept, it creates more confusion. This is because the notion of ‘relational’ (i) does not exclude the transcendent, and (ii) does not distinguish between what is spiritual and what is not.

Trialogue in an Interreligious Context: Reinterpreting the Dialogue Model of Martin Buber

AbstractIn this article it is proposed to reflect on the structures of all dialogue by using a Trialogue model: in the encounter between the dialogue partners the presence of a third dimension, Ultimate Reality, as well as the Ultimate Self of each of the dialogue partners are postulated and reflected upon. Trialogue, with this meaning, is a new model and is reinterpreting the core concepts used in the dialogical thinking of Martin Buber: I-It; I-Thou; and the eternal Thou. The concepts used in the Trialogue model are appropriate for an interreligious context: Ultimate Self and Ultimate Reality are concepts not limited to a specific religious tradition. Trialogue, understood as a universal type of encounter between persons, goes beyond the confines of Abrahamic traditions and a Western Enlightenment understanding of selfhood.

Religious Inequality in America

Sociology has largely ignored class differences between American religious groups under the assumption that those differences “are smaller than they used to be and are getting smaller all of the time” (Pyle &amp;amp; Davidson, 2014, p. 195). This article demonstrates that profound class differences remain amongst American religious groups. These differences are as large as—or larger than—commonly examined forms of inequality such as the gender pay gap and the race achievement gap. Using the most popular categorization of American religious groups, we find that regardless of the particular measure examined (years of education, income, socioeconomic index score, and proportion of members with at least a bachelor’s degree) Jews and Mainline Protestants are at the top of the socioeconomic ladder and Evangelical Protestants, both black and white, are at the bottom. Furthermore, religious group significantly predicts both years of education and the overall socioeconomic standing of respondents by itself with basic controls. Likewise, both socioeconomic indicators and education significantly predict the likelihood of being in a specific religious tradition on their own with basic controls. Some religious groups, namely Evangelical Protestants at the low end and Jews and the high end, are relatively educationally homogeneous. Others, such as Catholics, Mainline Protestants and the nonreligious are much more educationally heterogeneous. The picture is the same when socioeconomic heterogeneity is examined, except that Mainline Protestants emerge as more clearly advantaged socioeconomically. In sum, religious inequality remains in America, it is robust, and it appears to be quite durable.

Representing the Good: Pastoral Care in a Secular Age

In ‘a secular age’ (Taylor 2007), pastoral care is no longer exclusively associated with specific religious traditions and communities. Pastoral caregivers who work in secular institutions provide care to religious and nonreligious people alike, and in several Western societies the term pastoral care is used in relation to nonreligious (humanist) care. In secular contexts, the term ‘pastoral care’ is often replaced by the term ‘spiritual care.’ Spiritual care, however, is provided by various professionals, so pastoral caregivers face the challenge of developing adequate and convincing language to explain what is distinctive about their work. In this article, the authors turn to philosophical language in order to develop a conceptual understanding of pastoral care that does not depend on the specific worldview—religious or nonreligious—of either pastoral caregivers or receivers of pastoral care. Using the work of Taylor (1989, 2007) and Murdoch (1970), we explain pastoral care as engaging with people’s attempts to orient in ‘moral space’ and the distinctive quality of pastoral care as ‘representing the Good.’ Murdoch associates ‘the Good’ with a secular idea of transcendence that is both a movement beyond the ego and an engagement with the reality of human vulnerability, suffering, and evil. We argue that pastoral caregivers who ‘represent the Good’ have the task not only of supporting the existential and spiritual processes of individuals but also of promoting dialogue and social justice and of critiquing dehumanizing practices in the organizations in which they work and in society at large.

The Clash of Rights: Explaining Attitudes toward a Religious Exemption to the HHS Contraception Mandate

ABSTRACTIn recent years, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contraception mandate associated with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been a contentious issue that has created clash-of-rights claims between advocates of reproductive freedom and advocates of religious freedom. Americans differ considerably in their views toward whether religiously affiliated institutions that object to the use of contraceptives should be granted an exemption to the HHS contraception mandate. This article explores the determinants of Americans’ support for or opposition to the religious exemption. We focus particularly on the effects of individuals’ religious orientations, gender, and political attitudes that generate support for competing rights claims. Using data from a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, we (surprisingly) find little evidence of a gender effect. Rather, we find that support for the religious exemption is driven largely by church attendance and moral conservatism, with adherence to specific religious traditions having relatively minor effects. We also find that support for the religious exemption to the HHS contraception mandate is influenced by political variables (i.e., partisanship and ideology, attitudes toward President Obama, and Tea Party support) and demographic attributes (i.e., number of children in a given household, racial/ethnic identity, education, and age). We conclude that the clash of values over the contraception mandate is driven largely by religion and political attitudes.

Acceptance of evolution among American Mormons

Low public acceptance of evolution among Americans in general, and conservative Protestants specifically, has recently received increased attention among scholars of both religion and the public understanding of science. At the same time, members of another major religious tradition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), reject evolution at rates similar to evangelical Christians, yet there remains a dearth of studies examining the lack of acceptance of evolution among Mormons. Using a nationally representative survey of Americans that contains an adequate number of LDS respondents for advanced statistical analyses, this study examines patterns of evolution acceptance or rejection among Mormons. Findings reveal a moderating relationship between political identity and education, such that educational attainment has a positive relationship with evolution acceptance among political moderates and liberals, but a negative association among political conservatives. These findings highlight the central role played by the politicization of evolution in low rates of evolution acceptance among American Mormons and emphasize the need to—where possible—examine relations between ‘science and religion’ within and across specific religious traditions.