Traditional Religious Communities Research Articles

Cemaats in the Realm of Social and Civil Activity in Turkey: Historical and Modern Dimensions

Turkish cemaats (jemaats) have a reputation of highly adjusted to the contemporaneity traditional religious communities. Within the last decades the number of their followers has been rapidly rising both inside Turkey and abroad. However, despite an increasing interest in the modern Islam worldwide the phenomena of Turkish cemaats and their impact on the political process and civil society development in Turkey and beyond remain understudied. What are the defining factors of cemaats’ rising socio-political influence? In what way do they contribute to the alternative perceptions of democracy and civil society in the non-Western and Islamic contexts? This article analyzes special features of civic activity in Turkey focusing on a number of influential Turkish cemaats. Based on a detailed study of various normative and narrative sources the author shows, how cemaats have developed high capacities to adapt to the fluctuations of the Turkish political process in the second part of the 20th century. In doing so cemaats also gradually proliferated beyond national borders functioning as parallel structures for secular civil society and state institutions in Turkey and beyond.

Conspiracy as asurrogate for religion? Religiosity, spirituality, and affinity towards conspiracy myths in times of crisis

In times of crisis, alternative interpretations of the world that challenge the public sphere gain impact. During the COVID-19 pandemic, such narratives spread in the form of conspiracy myths. They give explanations for complex questions by assuming that social events are planned and controlled by secret elites. Moreover, they are often based on pseudo-transcendental explanations that defy scrutiny but fill fateful events with meaning. In this context, the question arises whether conspiracy myths contain religious or spiritual elements. In this study, we use arepresentative population survey conducted in April 2022 in German- and French-speaking Switzerland (n = 1221) to examine the relationship between spirituality, religiosity, and affinity toward conspiracy myths. The results show that emotional concern during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important predictor related to conspiracy affinity. The more negative the emotional concern, the higher the affinity towards conspiracy myths. Conversely, positive emotions during the pandemic negatively affect conspiracy affinity. While religious affiliations and religiosity hardly influence conspiracy affinity, spirituality turns out to be the most important predictor in our study. We conclude that in secularized societies spirituality without involvement in traditional religious communities can result in an increased openness to conspiracy myths as asurrogate for religion.

Religion, subjectivity, and societal structure: politics and society according to religious leaders in Slovenia

ABSTRACT The article summarizes major findings of a study on attitudes of 30 broadly ranked religious dignitaries in Slovenia (including four active bishops of the Roman-Catholic Church), exploring their preferred relationship between religion, politics, and society. The study employed ‘Q-methodology’, which allows for a systematic analysis of subjective viewpoints and groups respondents according to their attitudes. The first aim was explorative and enquired about attitudes to the field. The findings show seven significant types of positions, but also that these are not determined by respondents’ religious background, geographical location, or age. The second aim was to examine the integrative or conflictual potential of these types within the context of the modern, multi-religious society, with significant secular segments among the Slovenian population. Despite differences in their specific contents, most viewpoints reflect integrative tendencies. However, the potential for societal conflict can be located within small groups associated with large, traditional religious communities. This article addresses the general orientation of research on the role of religious leaders in domestic politics, which followed the influence of their political perspectives on the electorate and illustrated the links between denominational alignment and political orientation.

The Iconography of Jewish Vilna during the First World War

The aim of the article is to show the picture of Jewish Vilnius/ Vilna created by German artists during the First World War. The research is based on an analysis of works of art published in the press of the time, or stored in institutions in Lithuania, Germany and Belgium, and also on an analysis of writings in German periodicals of that time. The media in Ober Ost during the war took an anti-semitic stance, promoted by the top military leadership, but the author of the article argues that there also existed a different attitude towards the Jews of Vilnius and their heritage. The views and origins of journalists, writers and artists taken on by the editorial boards of German newspapers published in Vilnius and Kaunas influenced the emergence of the Ostjuden discourse. This discourse was rather contradictory, and included both fascination with the traditional religious Jewish community, and its cultural heritage and spiritual values, and at the same time horror at the suffering and poverty of the community. This discourse also remained viable in postwar Germany, and influenced the identity of Jewish art in Vilnius in the interwar period.

Uticaj sudske prakse na zakonsku regulativu u oblasti prava LGBT zajednice

In the light of the announced adoption of the Law on Same-Sex Unions, the question arises whether the draft law is in accordance with the Constitution, especially after the announcements that the law will not be signed. Although the Constitution specifies that marriage is a union of a man and a woman, experts point out that in this case it is not a law on marriage and family, nor does it provide for the possibility of adoption of children by same-sex couples, but that it regulates property, health, pension and other legal relationships of same-sex partners living in the union. At the same time, many public figures have invited traditional religious communities to react in order to defend the "right to freedom and future of the people", emphasizing that contentious issues related to the regulation of mutual rights and obligations of same-sex couples could be resolved by amending the existing laws in those areas. In the countries where similar laws exist, case law has played a significant role, just as various medical and psychological associations. The European case law is not uniform, and cases often end before the European Court of Human Rights, while in the United States at the federal level, all anti-homosexual laws are repealed by a Supreme Court decision (Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 [2003]). Nevertheless, there is no single law in this area and the rights of same-sex couples vary from country to country. The paper will provide an overview of significant court decisions in this area in European countries, as well as the decisions of the US Supreme Court, which may lead us to think about the possible legal consequences of (non)adoption of the disputed Law on Same-Sex Unions, about procedures that could be initiated if partners decided to request judicial protection for the purpose of recognizing their guaranteed human rights, as well as the content and significance of such court judgments.

Nurturing the Culture of Dialogue

Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe the relations between the religious communities in the Republic of North Macedonia. This paper will examine the history of each of the most numerous traditional religious communities in the country, the history of the dialogue between them and its present situation, the communication and mutual influences, as well as the attempts to overcome disagreements and misunderstandings. It is an overview of the most important activities of the dialogues and challenges in relation to the events and changes in the country.

Walking between the raindrops: the role of religion in globalised schooling

ABSTRACT This study applies the notion of ‘alternative futures’ in globalisation and education by focusing specifically on the intersection between religion and education. Through an in-depth exploration utilising a case-study approach, we delve into the organisational dynamics of an Israeli school catering to a closed-off, traditional Jewish religious community while also proactively embedding specific forms of internationalisation. We identify and analyse the conflicting rationales and agenda maintained by this school based on interviews with the school’s community, including teachers, superintendents, school leadership, and parents. We argue that the ideas of segregation, religionalisation, and nationalism are nurtured through the hybridity of the networks of influence, custom-tailored by the school’s leadership to serve this unique community. In particular, we analyse the school’s distinctive practices, norms, and routines designed to overcome the gap between the seemingly contradictory values of universalism vs particularity; globalisation vs nationalism; segregation vs unity; and religion vs modernity, and the ways that these dynamics play out in a country struggling for (self)-recognition as a Jewish and Democratic State, while being situated in an intractable internal and external conflict.

THE LEGAL NOTION OF “TRADITIONAL” RELIGIONS IN LITHUANIA AND ITS SOCIOPOLITICAL CONSEQUENCES

AbstractLithuania formally distinguishes between what it terms “traditional,” “state-recognized,” “registered,” and “unregistered” religions. Though constitutionally Lithuania is a secular state and all religions are declared equal vis-à-vis the state, religious communities recognized as “traditional” have, nonetheless, been favored by the state. They have been granted preferential treatment both in the legislation and extralegal handling by various state actors and institutions. At the same time, traditional religious communities are formally equal among themselves and vis-à-vis the state. However, the size of their membership puts them into two distinct camps. While the Catholic community constitutes 77 percent of the country's population, the remaining eight traditional religious communities together hardly make up 6 percent, of which 4 percent are Orthodox, with Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek Catholics, Old Believers, Judaists, Karaites, and Sunni Muslims making up the remaining numbers. This article focuses on one of the smaller traditional religious communities, Sunni Muslims, and through this example seeks to show looming complications arising from the current legal system for the governance of religion in Lithuania, which, as a country, starts inter alia being affected by the appearance of revivalist and other “nontraditional” forms of Islam on its territory. The article argues that with the changing makeup of the Lithuanian religious landscape—not related only to Islam—the current system of the governance of religion is not only outdated but also unsustainable and needs to be thoroughly overhauled to come more in line with the developing social reality.

The Sociology of Gnostic Spirituality

Abstract This paper owes debt to the field of study known as sociology of knowledge, which is interested in the social location of groups and their constructions of knowledge and reality. This project, however, is not about ordinary knowledge, but how gnosis, the direct knowledge of a transcendent God beyond the traditional Gods, became the foundation of a new form of spirituality in antiquity, and how this form of Gnostic spirituality has reemerged in modern America, impacting traditional religious communities and fostering new religious movements. Several social factors are involved in the emergence of Gnostic spirituality, including the dislocation of the founders and collaborators of Gnostic movements, the prominence of the seeker response, the revelatory milieu in which they find themselves, their reliance on revelatory authority, their push for alternative legitimation, and their flip-and-reveal and do-it-yourself constructions of new knowledge. Gnostic countercultures arise when Gnostic spirituality is mobilized. Much of religion and society are overturned so that we find constructions of the counter-self, calls for counter-conduct, the establishment of counter-cult, the deployment of counter-media, and the emergence of modes of Gnostic esoterization. The final section turns to the awakening, transport, and occulturation of Gnostic spirituality into modernity in America via artifact migration and alpha channels like Blavatsky.

Whence Orthodox Jewish Feminism? Cognitive Dissonance and Religious Change in the United States

A large literature on feminist theology and philosophy of religion has explored the various ways in which feminism has reshaped religious thought and practice within different faith traditions. This study uses Festinger’s (1965) cognitive dissonance theory and the 2017 Nishma Research Survey of American Modern Orthodox Jews to examine the effect of tension between feminism and Orthodox Judaism on lay men and women. For 14% of Modern Orthodox Jews, issues related to women or women’s roles are what cause them “the most pain or unhappiness” as Orthodox Jews. The paper examines the sociodemographic characteristics associated with this response and tests whether those who experience this cognitive dissonance are more likely to (1) advocate for changes in the role of women within Orthodox Judaism and/or (2) experience religious doubt. The analysis reveals that these individuals overwhelmingly take a feminist stance on issues related to women’s roles in Orthodox Judaism, and they also manifest more religious doubt. The paper discusses the dual potential of cognitive dissonance to either spur changes in women’s religious roles in traditional religious communities and/or threaten the demographic vitality of those communities.

Islamic Factors in Inter-State Cooperation of the OIC Members

Aside from its intellectual source in its identification with ‘Ummah,’ a traditional religious community, and its major ideological source in the pan-Islamism in modern times, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation was established against the social background featuring the decline of Arab nationalism, the failure of the Islamic Unification Movement and the rise of Islamic Renaissance Movement. As the second largest inter-governmental organization, second only to the United Nations, it has functions and institutions oriented towards politics, economy, religion, culture, to name a few. Its establishment and development has had significant implications on the international cooperation in political, economic, and cultural dimensions between Islamic countries in the Middle East. Taking into account the establishment and development of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, we must recognize the importance of Islam in promoting the inter-state cooperation between Islamic countries and the fact that the distinctive disparities between the economic levels or political institutions in these Islamic countries and their complicated domestic contradictions make it rather difficult for this organization, which is short of common interests or powerful organizational and financial support, to unite the vast and densely populated Islamic world into a powerful political-economic entity.

Empty Selves and Multiple Belonging: Gadamer and Nāgārjuna on Religious Identity’s Hidden Plurality

AbstractThe reaction to multiple religious belonging has been fraught with anxiety in the monotheistic traditions. Nevertheless, increasing numbers of people report belonging to multiple religions. I propose that it is most useful to think of multiple religious belonging not so much as an expression of choice, but just the opposite. Multiple religious belonging is best explained as the ontological condition of two or more religious traditions constituting the self, so that the self’s possibilities are constrained by those religions. Furthermore, I argue that multiple religious belonging per se does not threaten traditional religious communities. Threats are by definition future possibilities, and ontologically speaking, we always already belong to multiple religions. We belong to multiple religions because every religious tradition is an amalgam of earlier distinct traditions. There is nothing new about multiple religious belonging. It is nearly unremarkable. Two philosophers in particular-one a twentieth-century German phenomenologist, the other a second-century Indian Buddhist-have given particularly careful examination of the phenomenon of belonging. Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept of Wirkungsgeschichte [history of effects] and Nāgārjuna’s teaching of śūnyatā [emptiness] both imply that multiple religious belonging is the ontological condition of all human beings, and that producing any monolithic religious identity requires significant mental gymnastics.

Foreword

Foreword

Cultivating Character: Creating a Multifaith Community of Discourse

I did not learn everything I needed to know in kindergarten. This is especially true when it came to interfaith relations. I did learn much of what I needed to know in graduate school. This was thanks, in no small part, to Professor Leonard Swidler, who, with his creativity and indefatigable energy, provided indelible lessons about our mutual chosen field. I have received many blessings in my life, and I count my training at Temple University's Department of Religion in the late 1970's and early 1980's as one of the finest. I came to Philadelphia to study for the rabbinate at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC), but I soon found myself increasingly excited by my work for the adjunct degree, a doctorate from Temple's Religion Department. Especially compelling was my work with Swidler and the many opportunities within the classroom and outside that he created for us. Leonard tried hard to teach me two things, both of which I neglected to my detriment--to learn computers and to learn German. He also taught me some things that I do try to emulate: Believe in your students; encourage them without let up, even when they appear to be permanently derailed on the mommy track; promote them in every possible way; and always, always be a mensch. He also taught me that, even as we are doing important and satisfying work, we should always be thinking ahead to what is next. What issues are we missing? Who have we yet to invite to the table? What new methods must we explore? This is all fine. What is the next big thing? In an effort to live out that legacy, about three years ago I began the process of discerning what might be a creative addition to the field of interreligious engagement. For decades, I had participated and learned from dialogues whose focus had been helping each better understand the other and, in turn, helping our communities teach, preach, and pray in ways that were more genuinely respectful of our neighbors and their faiths. I also engaged in multiple dialogues about theological issues that deepened my own understandings and that became, for me, a kind of spiritual practice in themselves. For as many years, I had worked side-by-side with interreligious colleagues to advance shared social and political agenda. More recently, I had seen how, along with my students and colleagues, I had benefitted from the exchange of spiritual practices--from meditation to spiritual direction. We had learned from one another valuable tools to help enhance our inner lives and our connections to the divine. What else did the field of interfaith have to teach us? I began to dream, as Leonard had taught us so well to do. Why not? I thought about the questions I was asking myself, personally and in my work as a professor in a rabbinical seminary, and then wondered if people of faiths, especially those involved in training the next generation, were asking themselves the same questions. One question seemed particularly relevant for us to ask together: What are the practices through which we, as heirs to religious traditions, cultivate character in ourselves and in our students? In our highly mobile, globalized world, multi-generational families and traditional religious communities of obligation--two primary transmitters of values and models of human excellence--are in decline. At the same time, a felt hunger on the part of many has led to an explosion of activities under the catch-all heading, spirituality. The focus of this spirituality revival has often been on the individual and his or her experience of wholeness, well-being, and connection to the beyond. Spirituality has increasingly become associated with self-realization. What was once the very heart of spiritual/religious education, that is, the cultivation of character, is now relegated to the margins. While there is much talk of God's showing up in our lives, there is less talk of the cultivation of traits and virtues that make it possible for us to show up for others. …

Religious communities: Addition to interfaith tolerance study

Religious communities, each one respectively, represent a community of believers who have identical confession of faith, a unique organization and spiritual power. Each religious community, as a rule, attracts a certain attention of wider social community. They attract greater attention when they criticise or have different attitudes towards certain types of organization of social relations or ethnic norms. Due to these reasons, and because of different origin, time of occurrence, or the circumstances in which they were conceived, they had a distinct dimension of rebellion against the dominant way of thinking, acting or practicing the principles of religious beliefs. Throughout history, this dimension of their existence was common among mainly non-traditional religious communities which emerged as a product of disagreement of an individual who, with his charismatic appearance, was able to instigate a part of the community to adopt a set of beliefs which to a greater or lesser extent, were not in accordance with the confession of the officially recognized traditional religious community. In such con­ditions, but mainly due to the mutual relations often defined by various forms of intolerance among various traditional religious communities operating in the same areas, the principle of interfaith tolerance became more important because it represents a very important segment of coexistence. Such a state, or non existence of interfaith tolerance, or its not existing sufficiently, can have a negative impact on the state of the society as a whole, creating different challenges in it, including those that can affect its security.

RELIGINIŲ BENDRUOMENIŲ REGULIAVIMO POLITIKA: LIETUVOS SUTARTYS (2000–2012) SU ŠVENTUOJU SOSTU (VATIKANU)

The article analyzes state and church relations in international agreements as a regulation tool. Main attention has been attributed at agreements of the Lithuanian Republic with the Holy See and their meaning in state and church relations. The main problem considered was – if the state performed legal regulations on the basis of international agreements, does this not create discriminatory conditions in respect of other traditional religious communities. This article presents conclusions based on relations between the state and church which are regulated by legislation analysis and qualitative (semi-structured) interview material with traditional religious community representatives and experts.

Spirituality in a Broken World

Spirituality in a Broken World

Dianomy: Understanding Religious Women's Moral Agency as Creative Conformity

This essay seeks to contribute to work on moral agency of religious women through the creative naming of a dynamic that is emerging in recent scholarship. Drawing on fieldwork in Iran in 2004, I argue that prominent models of agency based on autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy are unable take into account both religious influence on and individual creativity of women's actions. I propose the neologism, "dianomy," meaning dual-sources of the moral law, to account for moral agency that relies neither exclusively upon the self as a source of moral authority nor exclusively upon religious traditions. Dianomy also attempts to comprehend creative ruptures in obedience to tradition, even when these innovations are unintentional. Such a concept is particularly important in order to correct past tendencies to ignore or even negate feminist politics that do not resist or strategically reform religious norms. With dianomy, tactical moves, actions that are not "freely chosen," and even happy accidents can be studied as productive within traditional religious communities. I call these types of actions, which confound the actions theorized by autonomy, heteronomy, and theonomy, "creative conformity."

The Muslim-Majority Character of Israeli Constitutional Law

AbstractThis article offers a novel interpretation of Israel's constitutional discourse. It is well-known that despite its Jewish majority, Israel orders marriage and divorce in a manner similar to that prevalent in most Muslim-majority countries: by granting the traditional religious community courts of the various religious groups which make up its population exclusive jurisdiction over community members' matters of marriage and divorce. What is less well known is that Israel's constitutional discourse, too, fits a pattern common in Muslim-majority jurisdictions, in espousing a double commitment to both a religion—in Israel's case, Judaism—and human rights. The Israeli Supreme Court has for decades emphasized Israeli constitutional law's commitment to liberalism and human rights while de-emphasizing its commitment to religion. Consistently with this approach, the Court has considered Israel's marriage regime an anachronistic blot on the law, and has constructed an alternative, civil marriage regime to serve the needs of Israel's secular liberals, whose views the Court often echos. I argue that the Court should strive to render its liberal policy choices more palatable for Israel's conservatives, by presenting them as the results of a harmonization of the religious and human rights pillars of Israel's constitutional discourse, investing in a close analysis of religious texts directed at legitimating those choices, where possible, in religious terms. A recent Israeli case hints in this direction. I conclude by suggesting that Israel's Muslim-majority type marriage regime, updated to include a civil marriage alternative, could be seen as a reflection of its complex constitutional order.

Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn (review)

Reviewed by: Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn Leslie Ginsparg Klein (bio) Mitzvah Girls: Bringing Up the Next Generation of Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn. By Ayala Fader. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009. xvii+260 pp. In Mitzvah Girls, Ayala Fader provides a fascinating and nuanced view of a little-studied population, Bobover Hasidic women and girls. Fader’s ethnographic study demonstrates that language, including content and syntax, can be rich source material for scholars studying culture and society. Her findings challenge previous scholarship’s conceptions of women in traditional religious communities. Fader conducted fieldwork in Boro Park, Brooklyn, observing Hasidic women and girls at home, school, and informal education classes. While her research is solidly grounded in ethnographic theory, Fader presents her findings in jargon-free language that scholars of any discipline can appreciate. In each one of the thematic chapters, Fader applies a strong gender analysis, a necessity when studying a society in which gender influences almost every aspect of life. Fader discusses how Bobover women, in their roles as teachers and mothers, socialize the next generation of girls into proper Hasidic womanhood. She pays close attention to subtleties in the language women [End Page 375] and children use in their daily activities. In Fader’s estimation, these interactions are important because in Hasidic philosophy, daily actions are ways to uplift the mundane into holy and thereby bring redemption. What could easily be simple exchanges about following rules, eating lunch, or playing games instead become religious lessons. For women and girls who do not participate in the male realm of Hasidic public life, socialization comes in the form of the language of everyday interactions. The study of Hasidic women requires scholars to rethink their paradigms of religious women. Fader states that in stereotypical nonliberal communities, women are less educated and more insulated from the secular world than men. But in the Hasidic community, women generally receive a stronger secular education and are more integrated into the outside world than their male counterparts. Furthermore, she believes that scholars have mistakenly assumed that progress and modernity are inexorably linked to individual freedom, autonomy, and secularization. Fader posits that Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn have constructed an alternate modernity. The Hasidic women she studied do not deny modern conceptions of personal autonomy; rather, they socialize girls to use their autonomy to conform to community norms. Fader shows that Bobover women have created a hybrid language of Yiddish and English that serves their social purpose. Depending on the context, women will alternatively choose an English word, a Yiddish word, an English word with a Yiddish pronunciation or a Yiddish word with an American pronunciation. Through this process, these women attempt to safely mediate the secular world while protecting and ensuring the continuity of their religious society. While to the outsider all Hasidim might look the same, and certainly many commonalities exist, Fader demonstrates great diversity within Hasidic sects’ attitudes toward language, dress, religious practice, and secular knowledge. Fader chose to study Bobover and unaffiliated Hasidim, self-proclaimed “moderates” (11). These women contrast themselves to more insular Satmar Hasidim on the right and to more acculturated, non-Hasidic right-wing Orthodox women on the left. To Fader’s subjects, “modern” means wearing a long wig or sheer stockings as opposed to the Bobover style of short wigs and opaque or seamed stockings. Modern Orthodox women who might wear pants and not cover their hair after marriage are not even on the spectrum. One might assume that in this community, the more traditional women would be the most revered. However, while American Bobover leaders advocate replicating their construction of the European Hasidic past, the women and girls Fader studied sought to achieve what they perceive as a balance between American and European Hasidic culture. [End Page 376] They strive to be, as Fader frames it, “with it,” but not “modern” (121). To be “with it,” a woman needs to have the proper level of fluency in American culture. “Nebby” (nerdy) women dress in styles Fader’s subjects consider too “old world” and speak poor, accented English (131). However, Bobover women do not aspire to the more fashionable dress and articulate...