State Religion Research Articles

SUPERIOR PERMISSION IN DIVORCE FOR CIVIL SERVANTS FROM THE VIEW OF RELIGIOUS LAW

Divorce is a complex problem in married life. Whatever problems occur in the household, whether in state law or religious law in force in Indonesia, divorce is the last way to solve them. Divorce can only be carried out before the court if the court fails to reconcile the two parties through mediation. Basically, civil servant divorce is the same as other communities, but the difference is that civil servants must first obtain permission from their superiors before carrying out the divorce. Civil servants must ask their superiors for permission through a hierarchical system, which takes a long time to get permission to divorce. If you look at these requirements for civil servants who are going to divorce, it is very difficult, but if divorce is the only way, then it is certain that the civil servant will receive sanctions. And in practice, permission from superiors as a requirement for civil servant divorce is difficult to issue from superiors who wish to divorce. So that in some cases the court gave divorce decisions to Civil Servants without a letter of permission from their superiors. Whereas in legal religious law in Indonesia, divorce can occur if the terms and conditions are met. This is the topic of the problem that the author wants to examine in this paper. What becomes the formulation of the problem is how is the superior's permission in civil servant divorce from the point of view of religious law? The legal research method used is normative juridical, namely a scientific research procedure to find the truth based on the scientific logic of law from a normative perspective. The approach used is a statutory approach related to the subject matter involved. If viewed from the point of view of religious law that is recognized in Indonesia (Islam and Non-Islam), divorce is indeed not recommended in the rules of religious law, but if circumstances demand this to happen then one must follow the rules and reasons determined by every legal religion in Indonesia. Because this concerns a person's right to determine a peaceful, secure and prosperous life. Through the research process above, it can be concluded that the decision in determining divorce is always given to the decision of each individual. Because freedom in determining life choices and being able to take responsibility for every risk of that choice. Every rule in the official religion in Indonesia considers divorce not a recommended action but if in reality divorce is the final solution, the rules in religion will not prevent it. This is the real basis for each individual, including State Civil Apparatus, in choosing a decision in their marriage, namely ending it in divorce. Permission from superiors is only an obstacle to solving problems in the household of an State Civil Apparatus. From this article, it is hoped that in the future, permission from superiors in the event of an State Civil Apparatusdivorce does not interfere in principled matters in the marital life of its employees, but is only administrative in nature. So that the goal of a peaceful and prosperous State Civil Apparatuslife can be carried out properly.

Cultural and personal channels between religion, religiosity, and corruption

Literature on the effect of religion and religiosity on corruption has failed to distinguish between direct and mediated effect and to determine the different roles of two alternative mediation channels—the personal versus the cultural channel. Using a data set of 102 countries, we found that hierarchical religions have significant positive associations with corruption levels, while the non-hierarchical Protestant Christianity has significant negative associations with corruption levels. Most of the effect is mediated by the cultural channel. However, some hierarchical religions (particularly Sunni Islam and Orthodox Christianity) have both an indirect mediated effect and a direct unmediated effect, suggesting an additional dissociative parameter besides the hierarchical/non-hierarchical parameter, which we suggest is the status of a formal/informal state religion. The findings are closely linked to the modern view of economic development that although institutions give rise to economic growth, it is culture that shapes institutions.

Religious Pluralism and Harmony among Buddhist - Muslim Communities Living in East Lampung, Indonesia

Village communities are usually homogeneous, so the presence of other groups often leads to rejection. In addition, the nature of the majority-minority relationship within the prevailing religious and ethnic background has the potential to cause conflict. However, the people of Sumber Sari village, East Lampung have successfully eluded such a conflict. This paper strives to show the interaction between religious communities that are positively intertwined. It uses a case study approach with a purposive sample. The unit of analysis remains the community of Sumber Sari village, East Lampung, consisting of Buddhists, Muslims, religious leaders, and community leaders. The archives of the Office of the Ministry of Religion of East Lampung Regency are also a source of secondary data in this study. Objectively, harmony in Buddhist and Muslim societies occurs in three forms. Firstly, internal harmony exists in the Buddhist society between assemblies, manifested in joint worship. Secondly, the harmony between the Buddhists and the Muslims is manifested in tahlilan/syukuran, kenduren suroan, and other activities. Thirdly, the relationship with the government can be maintained properly because of the belief that development can work if there is harmony in the community. This study also has certain limitations since it involves only two of the six official religions in Indonesia, namely Islam, Protestantism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. However, a picture of harmony between the two religions is depicted in this study.

Registration, recognition, and freedom of religion or belief

Abstract Violations of religious freedom resulting from how states arrange their recognition and registration policies continue to escalate around the world. States might seek to regulate the religious activities of their citizens and recognition and registration are convenient tools in this pursuit. Registration is sometimes made mandatory; groups may be barred from accessing it and what they must do to first obtain and then to maintain registered status can be onerous. Such restrictive policies serve to preserve a religious or political hegemony by filtering out religions and beliefs deemed unfavourable and unworthy of recognition. After surveying the ways recognition and registration are misused, this article contends that more definitive international standards are necessary to supersede ambiguous guidelines. Furthermore, this article deliberates over the plausibility that recognition, as a mode of state–religion relations, might still have the potential to facilitate freedom of religion or belief. This relies on whether a state uses recognition to facilitate all religions and beliefs by reducing deep-set favouritism and any administrative hurdles imposed during registration.

A process-sociology analysis of religious practices and Japanese martial arts

This paper uses primary and secondary sources to provide a process-sociological analysis of the relationship between religious practices and Japanese martial arts. It problematises the taken for granted role of Zen Buddhism as the sole influence on the development of Japanese martial arts. Such essential connection is inaccurate and anachronistic. Religious and martial practices developed as part of processes of sociogenesis (state formation) and psychogenesis (habitus) during three different key stages: (1) Medieval Japan (1185-1600): during this stage, warriors (bushi) progressively became the predominant rulers across the country, enforcing law by sheer force. Warriors seasoned in combat used esoteric practices (spells, magic rituals) as part of their psychological arsenal for warfare, as practical means of action. The cult of the Buddhist deity Marishiten held special interest for the bushi originating martial traditions (ryu). (2) Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1848): the pacification of the country by the central military court implied a more detached approach to martial arts by samurai. Within this milieu, the samurai acted as a retainer/bureaucrat whose main mission was to keep order in a stratified society and to serve his lord, something that Zen practices helped to incorporate in the samurai ethos. (3) Early Showa period (1926-1945): this stage featured a progressive militarisation of people and the instigation of a strong involvement towards the Japanese nation, considered as the main (symbolic) survival unit. Budo (martial arts) was connected to shinto (functioning as a ‘state religion’) and embodied the imperial bushido message. Zen provided a legitimation of violence for citizen-soldiers with a personality structure that presented self-doubts on killing someone and fear of being killed.

War for God or a War for the Godless?

The French Civil Wars, or ‘Wars of Religion,’ were set primarily in the sixteenth century and enveloped France in a religious conflict. The Civil Wars were a series of violent periods between the French Protestant Huguenots and the Roman Catholics, Catholicism being the official religion of the French Kingdom. The ongoing struggle resulted in an escalation of civil violence and polarity between the religious affiliations, creating a divided French populous that carried out many atrocities, such as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre. The violence subsided in 1598 when King Henry IV enacted the Edict of Nantes, granting substantial conditions and support to the Huguenot population in France. However, this paper argues for the importance of categorizing the wars as ‘civil’ and not ‘religious.’ The dynamic situation involves more than religious differences, including a central reliance on community-based disputes, group association based on mass paranoia, and even political gain for those of the French nobility. It is important to understand the complexity of the Civil Wars. Denoting them as a religious conflict ignores the other civil implications which provoked aggression between French communities and forces.

Individual Liberation in Modern Philosophy: Reflections on Santayana’s Affiliation to the Tradition Inaugurated by Spinoza and Followed by Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

This article evaluates the significance of the personal liberation that Santayana offers in relation to previous proposals in Western modern philosophy. These include the ideas of liberation present in the philosophies of Spinoza, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche. I argue that Santayana endorses Spinoza’s project, as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche did, of a philosophic redemption as an alternative to an established religion. Yet, he also follows Schopenhauer in rectifying Spinoza’s attempt of recapturing the philosophic truth of Christianity, a project undertaken in Medieval times for Judaism and Islam, but not for Christianity. The result is an explicit philosophic reconstruction of the esoteric truth of Christianity. This, I argue, is the content of the lay religion and the deliverance it provides that Santayana sees as genuine philosophy and that is exemplified by the work of his hero and master, Spinoza.

The Place of St. Mary in the Orthodox Christianity of Ethiopia

Ethiopia is one of the countries where Christianity was introduced before the schism of the one Christian Church. Its ancient civilisation was closely associated with Christianity, which strongly shaped the socio-cultural views and habits of its people. Until the mid-20th century, the only legitimate sect of Christianity and state religion was Orthodox Christianity, represented by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahǝdo Church. The church shares the same doctrine, canon, and tradition as the Oriental Orthodox churches. It is also committed to the veneration of the Holy Mary. Its members are also characterised by their devotion, love, and reverence for her. This paper is concerned with the place given to St. Mary by the Church and the Orthodox Christian community. The public views, beliefs and customs that reflect the devotion of the people to Marian veneration, as well as the ecclesiastical rites and celebrations that illustrate the attention the Church pays to her in honour are elaborated in detail in the paper under various topics.

Anna Triandafyllidou and Tariq Modood (eds), The Problem of Religious Diversity: European Challenges and Asian Approaches; Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 2017, $53.61 (Paperback), pp. 352, ISBN 9781474419093

Religion and religious diversity are two of the most critical aspects of European diversity today. Older models of republicanism and multiculturalism appear to be in crisis, but no new “third route” between laicité and state religion is emerging.

Religion and Diplomacy: The ‘Clash of Civilizations’ as Historical Libel

The ‘Clash of Civilizations’ hypothesis suggested that global politics would revert to inter-civilizational (inter-religious) conflict with the end of the Cold War. Conceptual and empirical refutations followed, but the idea that pre-Cold War inter-polity interaction was generally characterized by such conflict was not addressed. We consider this a possible historical libel. First, we briefly review the position of major faith traditions toward making and keeping agreements with those of other faith traditions. Most forms of agreements are sanctioned, and there is inconsistent and minimal support for duplicity. Second, using the MATRS database of multilateral treaties, we identify 79 sovereign entities active between 1750 and 1900 (when multilateral treaties were numerous and official state religions were prominent), link states to their official religions, and analyze the pattern of 385 multilateral treaties’ signings. We conclude that there is no tendency among states with one official religion to avoid entering into treaties with those of other official religions. The ‘Clash of Civilizations’ hypothesis is a historical myth.

This Earthly Frame: The Making of American Secularism by David Sehat

Reviewed by: This Earthly Frame: The Making of American Secularism by David Sehat Mark Mattes This Earthly Frame: The Making of American Secularism. By David Sehat. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2022. x + 330 pp. Cultural and intellectual historian David Sehat argues that American secularism developed as a way to honor religious pluralism. Secularism is a product of inter-religious conflict in public life. Over decades such disputes helped to carve out a secular public square. While the Bill of Rights allowed no "establishment of religion" some states retained an established church in some cases for decades after the ratification of the Bill of Rights. Sehat distinguishes "negative secularism" in which the state holds no hostility toward a religion but the authority of the religion has no standing outside of its own community, from a "positive secularism" that actively establishes unbelief (4). For Sehat, negative secularism is no abandonment of belief but instead a commitment to the privatization of religious ideas (4). Conservative Roman Catholic thinkers see such a perspective as inherently Protestant, and not acceptable. Sehat responds that this criticism would fail to account for its support by many Jews and its opposition by many conservative Protestants (5). Sehat's work describes how the Supreme Court from the 1880s until today mostly undermined the hegemony of Evangelicalism's influence on public life, an influence due to the Second Great Awakening. Evangelicalism's influence was weakened due to Jehovah's Witnesses securing their right to proselytize and not salute the flag, the overturning of Prohibition, the debate over public subsidies for Catholic schools, the expulsion of religious devotions from public schools, and the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage. Sehat presents a detailed history of each case and how the courts handled them. Even so, the story is mostly one of calling [End Page 122] out Evangelical privilege, overturning it, relegating Evangelical or other religious perspectives to a private realm, thereby creating a pluralistic society. That said, there is no doubt that those committed to creating a secular ethos saw their work in virtually eschatological terms in which the progressive, liberating forces of good triumph over the regressive, repressive forces of religion. For John Dewey, unless the world is governed by a non-religious secularism we have a "systematic stultification of the human mind" (117). Unfortunately, Sehat fails to take up the work of a thinker like Robert H. Nelson in Economics as Religion (2001) who documents that democratic capitalism is thoroughly saturated with postmillennial utopian mythology, indebted to, even an avatar of, a religious perspective. The case can be made that no public space exists that is devoid of myth. A blip in the secularist advance is the challenge by Catholic hospitals to the Affordable Care Act over a requirement that would force Catholic hospitals to perform abortions, a worrisome development for Sehat since it permits private religious sensibilities to gain currency in public life (260). Interestingly, up through the 1960s and 1970s, most court decisions favoring secularism were based on the "right to privacy," arguing for individual freedom in private lives without interference from the government. However, since the 1970s, a different, contradictory focus has advanced: the personal is the political, which believes that only by forcing the question of recognition will certain disenfranchised groups, such as gays and lesbians, gain acceptance (221). Surprisingly, religious conservatives increasingly claim disenfranchisement and entitlement. This reviewer questions whether Sehat's perspective undercuts the value of civil associations. Sehat criticizes groups like the American Bible Society as fronts of Protestant imperialism. The implication is that civil associations, especially ones with a religious flavor, threaten individual autonomy; only the state then can protect individuals from such coercive power. But is this true? For example, would congregations of any confession threaten individual autonomy? Sehat's valorization of "autonomy" ignores the idea that humans find meaning and friendship precisely in associations centered on common goals that promote give and take among their members. Overall, such associations enhance civil behavior. The [End Page 123] quest for autonomy or individual liberty assumes that such civic associations are robust and vital. Sehat's vision of America seems to be one where such civil associations potentially jeopardize individual...

Sports and Religion in the Supreme Court: Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Feb 01, 2023

Sports and Religion in the Supreme Court:Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Feb 01, 2023 Cody Musselman (bio), Frank Klose (bio), Eric Bain-Selbo (bio), and Eric Stephen (bio) SUMMARY KEYWORDS Establishment Clause, prayer, coercion, Lemon test, football Background: During the 2021–2022 term, the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case about school prayer called Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, in which Joseph Kennedy, a high school football coach at a public high school in Bremerton, Washington, engaged in public prayer at the 50-yard line after football games. Kennedy had been praying at the 50-yard line since 2008, and what was initially a solo prayer changed over time into nearly the entire team joining him in prayer after shaking hands with the opposing team after every game. The school district feared his actions violated the Establishment Clause and would open up the school district to legal liability: that they could be sued for showing favor to a certain religion. The school district asked Kennedy to stop his public prayers and tried to accommodate his ability to privately pray. Kennedy refused and the school district put him on paid leave. Kennedy sued Bremerton School District, claiming his First Amendment rights to exercise his religion and free speech were violated. In a 6–3 opinion written by Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court sided with Kennedy. This case, about the separation of church and state, raised several questions: Is a public-school employee’s prayer during school sports activities protected speech? And if so, can the public-school employer prohibit it to avoid violating the Establishment Clause? Football in America Cody Musselman I’d like us to begin by talking about the significance of football to American identity. What’s the significance of Kennedy’s prayers happening on the 50-yard line at a football game versus some other kind of sporting event? Eric Bain-Selbo Football is the most popular sport in our country and so everything is magnified if it touches football in ways that it wouldn’t have been if this [End Page 50] had been happening at a lacrosse game. It would still be an incredibly important case, but I think that anything that touches football is going to have a heightened significance. Frank Klose I think regionally, it kind of varies the extent in which [high school] football is has significance. In terms of the mid-Atlantic region and city of Philadelphia, a lot of these big cities around here don’t have college football teams or high school football teams of significance. So, I don’t know if public prayer on the 50-yard line would even go noticed in the city of Philadelphia. But I wonder if the location has something to do with it. I think the culture in the city of Philadelphia, football isn’t big enough for something like that to even get noticed at the high school or college levels because of just where we are geographically. Eric Bain-Selbo If we think about the civil religion of the United States, football plays a really central role in that, as does Christianity. And in this case, we are clearly dealing with something that involves two institutions that are particularly important to a lot of Americans [Christianity and football]. Establishment Religion Cody Musselman Yes, speaking of how prevalent Christianity is in American culture, let’s discuss questions about establishment religion and the role of conservative Christians in pushing to make Christianity America’s establishment religion. Frank Klose I’m actually a little surprised that the Supreme Court would say it’s okay. There’s been a number of cases (including, let’s say, a religious sister—a Catholic sister—who is teaching in a public school who wears her religious garb) that don’t usually go this way because otherwise it would be seen as an endorsement of a religion by the state. But in Kennedy v. Bremerton the fact is that the coach was still essentially an agent of the state because Kennedy was employed by the state. I’m surprised by this decision. [End Page 51] Supreme Court precedent was that anybody giving the impression that the state...

Characteristics of Koreans' view of death in historical and religious contexts

This study reveals the characteristics of the Koreans' view of death formed in historical and religious contexts by analyzing the ancient literature that shows the Koreans' view of life and death well after the Three Kingdoms period. Koreans' thoughts and values of death have changed greatly under the influence of popular religions and ideologies in each era. Based on the original indigenous beliefs, it has been complexly formed by the beliefs constantly imported from outside, and by the Buddhist and Confucian ideas adopted as the state religions. Due to the influence of Confucianism, Koreans focus on the present life rather than afterlife, but at the same time, shamanistic remnants of death rituals and customs that value the afterlife by Buddhism remain. Keywords: Koreans, Perspective on death, Folk religion, Confucianism, Buddhism.

Cancel Culture and Other Myths: Anti-fandom as heartbreak

Cancel Culture and Other MythsAnti-fandom as heartbreak Kathryn Lofton (bio) A friend is about to give a guest lecture. She is paralyzingly nervous: "I don't want to get canceled." A colleague who is about to have an editorial published asks me to make sure there is nothing cancelable in it. When their work occurs without incident, I return to the terror that preceded their success. "You see, you weren't canceled!" "Thank god," they both reply, an oddly unifying utterance for two professed nontheists. The stakes of canceling are such that disbelievers reach for higher powers when spared. I begin to ask everyone I meet what they think of when they think of cancel culture. A student tells me her grandparents [End Page 161] complain, "It's Salem all over again." A friend tells me of a colleague who got fired for something they said on Slack. "Can you believe it?" she snaps. "Cancel culture ruins lives." I gather these instances and wonder whether cancel culture is an encroaching menace against which everyone must defend or a moral panic that inflates the problem. In a 2023 paper published in Political Studies, Pippa Norris poses the question this way: "Do claims about a growing 'cancel culture' curtailing free speech on college campuses reflect a pervasive myth, fueled by angry partisan rhetoric, or do these arguments reflect social reality?"1 Norris finds that contemporary academics may be less willing to speak up due to a fear of cancel culture. Cancel culture is not a myth, Norris decides, because, in silencing people, it does something real. There is no question that cancel culture is real. It is also a myth. Taking myths as real requires resistance to conventional usage. Seven myths about COVID-19 vaccines, yells one headline. Ten mega myths about sex, beckons another. Myth used this way refers to an idea people believe that is not true. This is a relatively recent connotation of myth. In the history of religion, myths are stories people tell about forces more powerful than them described as superhuman. A superhuman force could be a god; it could be meteorology; it could be a corporation or a foreign state. Myths occur when human beings want to explain how mysterious things come to pass. Their explanation is: "Something more powerful than us did something to make this happen." Cancel culture produces a collection of myths within a particular tradition or a mythology. Depending on your political inclinations, the cast of gods and heroes alters considerably. The question is what mystery cancel culture's mythology explains. Thinking about this requires thinking a little about religion, and a lot about what hurts people most. The history of religions is a history of organizing power relations. If this premise isn't especially sexy to you, I commend the many Netflix films about religion where you can watch charismatic figures lull followers with promises of new dawns and off-the-grid [End Page 162] togetherness. A lot of people who Netflix and chill do not identify religiously, but everybody knows a heartbreak authored by a devastating player. "Something in the way you move / Makes me feel like I can't live without you," sings Rihanna in "Stay," her 2012 blockbuster duet with Mikky Ekko. This is just one of hundreds of lovelorn tracks from the Top 40 that would serve well as a soundtrack for religion's depiction in Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey (2022), Unorthodox (2020), and Wild Wild Country (2018). Religion has a fair number of sexual mountebanks, but for a new religious movement to become an established religion, it needs to evolve from one-hit wonder to Beyoncé. New religious movements, sometimes derogatively called cults, offer ritual resolve for persons seeking solutions to their most profound questions and pain. Religions evolve from small cultic movements when, after the initial romance fades, individuals keep repeating things that other individuals repeat, and those communal repetitions come to constitute a form of belonging. If I say the Lord's Prayer, the Jewish blessing over bread, or the Muslim salat, I am speaking individually, but I am speaking in a way many other people speak, and when we hear...

Moderate Islam And Its Influence on Religious Diversity in Indonesia

This article aims to discuss the root of the discourse of religious moderation in various religious traditions in Indonesia. As a multicultural country with diverse ethnicities, races, religions, and cultures, religious tolerance is significant for maintaining religious harmony. Recently, the Indonesian government is greatly promoting and mainstreaming religious moderation programs to prevent any political tension and conflicts among religious groups. The government’s idea of religious moderation is seen as not accommodating all of the religious beliefs held by the Indonesian people. In this regard, this article examines how the language of religious moderation has evolved in each of various Indonesia’s religious traditions. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Confucianism are the official religions recognized by the state. Using discourse analysis, this study concludes that all the established religions in Indonesia essentially share the same notion of religious moderation, yet it is articulated in different terms.

Политические и гендерные аспекты прихода к власти и правления Марии Тюдор

The article examines theconditions of thecoming to power of the EnglishQueenMary Tudor and the peculiarities of herreign, including from the point of view of gender aspects. It is shown that, while condemning Mary I Tudor for her adherence to Catholicism, many historians do not mention the positive aspects of her short reign of England. Mary Tudor came to power at a difficult time for the Kingdom. Having no experience of governing the country, Maria brought the statesmen who had recently opposed her closer to her. Catholicism in England has once again become the state religion. The Queen carried out a number of successful financial reforms, largely laying the foundations for the rule of her successor, Elizabeth I. The policy of rapprochement with the Habsburgs, which culminated in the creation of the Anglo-Spanish Union, was also of no small importance for the country. Maria Tudor made many decisions under the influence of her Spanish spouse, which corresponded to the gender perceptions of that time.

Politics and Religion in Montenegro—From “Theocracy” to a Civic State

The relationship between religion(s) and politics, i.e., religious communities and political authorities, in Montenegro has varied and taken different forms throughout the country’s history. Available research, mostly historical in nature, is predominantly factual and does not provide a clear picture of the nature and forms of this relationship in Montenegro’s history. Through an analysis of legal–historical sources and relevant literature, this paper aims to indicate the complexity of the relationship between politics and religion through the identification and analysis of the different forms of the aforementioned relationship. The fact that Montenegro had pronounced features of a theocracy at the beginning of the creation of the state makes this context specific not only to the Balkan region, but also beyond. The concept of state religion and the period dominated by features of Caesaropapism was replaced by a period of modernisation of the state that gave rise to a separation of political and religious elements. The period of authoritarian socialism, in turn, led to the ideological suppression of religion. The early phases of democratisation in the last decade of the 20th century induced further change in the nature of the relationship between political authorities and religious communities, which continued in the new context of civic and multicultural Montenegro.

Food in painting: From dietetics to symbolism

Since the Antiquity, many artists have represented food in their paintings. Most of them are European painters originating essentially from the Southern Europe. There is no doubt that the Greco-Roman culture and Christianity - that became the official religion of the Roman Empire - influenced these artists since two millenars. Throughout the painting's production, we have tried to discover information of the dietary habits at a particular period, to scrutinize some dietary recommendations but also to detect the symbolic dimension of the represented foods.

On the concept of leadership and the office of Leader of the Zoroastrians (hu-dēnān pēšōbāy) in Abbasid Zoroastrianism

AbstractLike many other religions, Zoroastrianism frequently restructured its priestly organization during its long history, largely because of the environmental changes to which it was exposed. A major shift in status – from being the state religion in the Sasanian Empire to holding only a minor position in the early Islamic period – challenged the Zoroastrian hierarchy of authority. The Abbasid state provided Zoroastrianism with an opportunity to initiate a new office, which was calledhu-dēnān pēšōbāy“Leader of the Zoroastrians”. This article is the first to deal with this office in detail and scrutinizes the concept of leadership (pēšōbāyīh) in Sasanian and Abbasid Zoroastrianism. It sheds some light on the priestly structure of Zoroastrianism in this period and investigates the position of the office within the overall religious organization. It re-examines, moreover, evidence for the officiating Zoroastrian theologians in this office at the Abbasid court in Baghdad. Finally, it searches for the parallels between this office and that of the East-Syrian catholicos and the Jewish exilarch.

The "Party Branch Established in the Wat": Social Cooperation between Local Authorities and Religion in the Theravada Buddhist Community of South-west China

:The Communist Party of China enhanced its local presence by establishing a branch in the Theravada Buddhist wat in Dehong. Such direct political engagement in a religious venue, however, does not lead to grievances from the locals. This article finds that if the purely ideological differences can be well managed at the local level, the religion and the Party can cooperate with each other and maintain a harmonious relationship. This article reflects on the state–religion antagonism paradigm and argues that an alternative paradigm—an interests-based paradigm—should be prioritised when studying relations between the state and religion in China.