Traditional Religious Culture Research Articles

Nahdlatul Ulama’s Domination in Madura: An Eco-Anthropological Perspective

On the basis of the ecological anthropology perspective, this study analyzes the complex relations between the environmental environment and the Muslim population in Madura so that traditionalism Islam dominates their religious culture in the Nahdlatul Ulama model. This study reveals that Islamization history in Madura, kiasi's social, religious role, and Syaichona Kholil’s figure became the three main lead factors that drive traditional religious culture in Madura, especially in Bangkalan. Two of the three factors mentioned earlier are closely related to the geographical location and ecological condition of Bangkalan.

Are we there yet? Probing the notion of contextualising practical theology and pastoral care in a post COVID-19 glocal African context

The article is a concise rendition of the author’s inaugural lecture and tracks his academic journey with the contextualisation of practical theology and pastoral care in an African context. It latches onto the inter-contextual dialogue between Western and African notions of practical theology and pastoral care, and positions it in a post coronavirus disease (COVID-19) glocal African context. It is argued that the post COVID-19 era signalled significant changes that will influence the path of future endeavours in the subject field, especially when it strives to be relevant in both the local and global contexts. A preliminary agenda for future deliberations is presented which focusses on the consequences of intensified pre-COVID-19 socio-economic realities, the implications of the disruption of traditional religious culture, and post COVID-19 challenges to higher education. The article concludes that the hallmark of contextualised practical theology and pastoral care in the African context is to be sought in being mindful of the challenges of the immediate local context as well as that of the global context.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: By engaging a post COVID-19 glocal African context from a practical theological and pastoral stance, the research engages social, economic and educational sciences to come to its findings. The resultant view that post COVID-19 practical theology and pastoral care should be mindful of both local and global contexts has implications for both academic practical theology and theological higher education.

Religious Equality: From the Perspective of School Canteens

In recent years, rampant terrorism supported by racist Islam has provoked heated discussions on religious equality. Ina global context, inequalities against religious people occur all the time,but few studies have explored this issue from a microperspective. Following the definition of equality given by Modood, this study examined religious equality from the perspective of school canteen operations. Focusing on the current situationof university school canteens, the study pointed outone of the major problems, that is, the insufficient attention to or the neglect of the religious students specific needs. The study then analyzed the reasons why it is important to take the needs of students with different religious backgrounds into consideration from three aspects: equality aspect, legal aspect ,and cultural aspect. In the end, this study proposed solutions to the existing problems based on interviews with religious students, aiming to provide insights into the protection of traditional religious culture. The problems concerning religious inequality in primary and secondary school canteens should also attract the attention of future studies. More importantly, topropose more reasonable suggestions, the voice of religious students and staff should be heard.

Actual problems of buddhist studies in the researches of scientists of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The article analyzes Buddhist studies conducted by scientists of the Institute for Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The issues of the emergence and formation of the institution itself, its main divisions of the institute and the activities of the leading scientists of the institute related to collecting, cataloging and studying written monuments that are kept in the funds of the unique Center of oriental manuscripts and xylographs are considered. The contribution and results of the researches of philosophers, historians, ethnographers, literary critics and linguists engaged in the study of traditional religious culture, rites and rituals, Buddhist philosophy, as well as the features of the socio-political processes of the development of Buddhism in Russia and the countries of Central and East Asia are examined. The legal status of the Buddhist church, monasteries and clergy is considered on the basis of the analysis and translation of a number of archival documents and sources in the Mongolian language, and a brief assessment of the current state, role and influence of the Buddhist church, culture and traditions on society is given. The history of translation activities, in particular, the translation of the Buddhist canon into Mongolian from Tibetan, is highlighted. Attention is drawn to the methods and means of electronic cataloging of written monuments in the Tibetan and ancient Mongolian languages, archival documents developed at the institute, as well as methods for digitizing multimedia sources of technotronic information. It is noted that modern Buddhist monasticism, as well as lay Buddhists in Russia, maintain loyalty and trust in relation to the institutions of state power and law at a fairly high level. The place and role of ethnicity in the historical past and modern social processes are studied, a new view of the key moments of the ethno-political history of the Buryat people in their inextricable connection with the general development of Russian statehood and society is substantiated. It is concluded that the Buddhist studies conducted by scientists of the IMBT SB RAS are aimed at solving urgent problems in the field of religious relations, cultural and social development, and international relations.

“Almost Soviet Father”: An Experience of Microhistorical Research of Rural Confessional History in 1940s—1970s

The problem of the possibility of a fruitful study of the rural parish history of the Soviet period through microhistorical analysis is raised. For discussion, the experience of researching the fate of a small Old Believer community is proposed. Both archival documents and interview materials are used. The purpose of the publication is to show some factors of the reproduction of traditional religious culture on the Soviet collective farm of the 1940s—1970s and at the same time demonstrate the heuristic potential of combined archival and field work. The author focuses on the figure of a priest who managed to restore and strengthen his parish, despite the previous dispossession and destruction of the prayer house. The cohesion of the community, outstanding personal qualities, as well as the ability of believers to practically harmonize Christian and Soviet values became the conditions for his success is shown in the article. The adoption of Soviet cultural norms, excluding atheism, is considered in the work as the most important factor in the survival of the Old Believer community. The expediency of verifying the data of official Soviet documentation by referring to oral history is demonstrated in the study. It is pointed out that in the materials of the USSR civil servants devoted to confessional phenomena, strict facts could be combined with false interpretations.

Does the "Tian-Ren-He-Yi" Belief System Promote Corporate Environmental Performance?

Buddhism and Taoism are among two of the major religions in China. Their “Tian-ren-he-yi” belief system promotes a conception of harmony between man and nature, which is an important guide for the construction of ecological civilization in China. Using data from Chinese listed manufacturing companies, this paper explores the impact and mechanism of Chinese local religious beliefs on corporate environmental governance. The results indicate that this belief system can improve corporate environmental performance. Furthermore, mechanism tests show that the “Tian-ren-he-yi” belief system promotes corporate environmental practices by reducing the pressure on management to achieve economic performance goals and increasing investment in environmental protection. Finally, the impact of the belief system on corporate environmental performance is more efficacious when the enterprises are under weak external supervision. Our results imply that the traditional religious culture is an important factor that influences corporate environmental performance in Chinese business practices.

ОРУСИЯНЫН ЖАЛПЫ БИЛИМ БЕРҮҮЧҮ МЕКТЕПТЕРГЕ “ДИНИЙ МАДАНИЯТТЫН НЕГИЗДЕРИ ЖАНА СВЕТТИК ЭТИКА” КУРСУН КИРГИЗҮҮДӨГҮ ТАЖРЫЙБАСЫ ЖАНА КӨЙГӨЙЛӨРҮ

The article analyzes data on the introduction of the course "Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics" in secondary schools of the Russian Federation in 2009, first in the form of an experiment, and then the results of approbation. Since 2012, the introduction of the Fundamentals of Religious Cultures and Secular Ethics as a federal component of the school curriculum has been hailed as the greatest achievement in religious education in the last 30 years of Russia's pluralistic independence. The main problem was the problems of full implementation of 6 modules. This is due to the fact that the course covers the basics of law, teaching methods, the basics of traditional religious culture and secular ethics, and so on. contained. It was stated that it is impossible to fully implement the six modules of the FRCS model proposed by the Ministry of Education and Science, given that only 3 modules work in general education institutions.

John Mbiti on the Monotheistic Attribution of African Traditional Religions: A Refutation

John Mbiti, in his attempt to disprove the charge of paganism by EuroAmerican ethnographic and anthropological scholars against African Traditional Religions argues that traditional African religions are monotheistic. He insists that these traditional religious cultures have the same conception of God as found in the Abrahamic religions. The shared characteristics, according to him are foundational to the spread of the “gospel” in Africa. Mbiti’s effort, though motivated by the desire to refute the imperial charge of inferiority against African religions ran, I argue, into a conceptual and descriptive conflation of ATRs with monotheistic faiths. In this paper, I challenge the superimposition of Judeo-Christian categories upon African religions. I argue that monotheism is just a strand, out of many, that expresses belief in God(s), and that it differs substantially from the polytheistic pre-colonial African understanding of religion. I provide a panentheistic paradigm using traditional Igbo ontology and religion to refute Mbiti’s generalization.
 Keywords: Monotheism, African Traditional Religion, Igbo, Paganism, Theology.

Cultural religiosity as the moderator of the relationship between affective experience and life satisfaction: A study in 147 countries.

People in different cultures may give different weights to emotional experience when evaluating their lives. In modern secularized cultures, people are more likely to focus on maximizing the experience of positive emotions and minimizing the experience of negative emotions to achieve well-being. In contrast, in traditional religious cultures, people are more likely to use religious standards to evaluate their lives. Therefore, the present study predicted that the frequency of positive and negative affect would be a better predictor of life satisfaction in secular (vs. religious) cultures. A sample of 295,933 participants from 147 countries was used to test this prediction. The data were extracted from the Gallup World Poll. As expected, the results of multilevel modeling showed that the association between affect and life satisfaction was weaker in religious than secular cultures. Therefore, the socioreligious context partly determines the extent to which affective information is relied on in life evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Shape-shifting: TheoArtistry Poetry as Theological Action Research

Abstract This paper describes a creative partnership between a theologian and a poet arranged by the Institute for Theology, Imagination and the Arts at the University of St Andrews in 2018. The TheoArtistry project seeks to reintroduce artists to traditional religious culture and to foster collaborations between academics and art practitioners (Corbett). In this article we discuss and utilise Theological Action Research methodology (Cameron et al.), to explore the process and outcomes of one such collaboration tasked to produce a poem inspired by an Old Testament passage and the theme of “Annunciation.” The researchers in this collaboration drew on a diverse range of cultural forms and accommodated a position of scepticism towards Christian faith. An examination of the cycles of action and reflection in the production of the poem enables conclusions to be made concerning the impact of this interaction upon the collaborators’ theological thought and practice. This section closes with the final poem and a brief team commentary. The final section evaluates the partnership in terms of the TheoArtistry goals and shows how it both supported the project and set a challenging precedent for broadening the scope of theological openness and inclusivity in future collaborations.

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and the Role of Women in Igbo Traditional Religious Culture

The paper examines the role of women in Igbo religious culture as portrayed by Chinua Achebe in his classic novel, Things Fall Apart. It explores the position of women in Igbo cultural practice by highlighting the valuable and indispensable role of Igbo women as derived from the novel. Achebe’s portraiture of the feminine gender has continued to draw a lot of attention as a result of their largely perceived degrading roles. This was done by a critical analysis of the novel, Things Fall Apart, which ultimately formed the fulcrum of the study, as well as other relevant documents. Based on the key religious, educational, socio-cultural and other roles of women as derived from the novel, the paper finds out that contrary to the general notion that women are to be seen and not to be heard, women are actually seen and heard especially, as a result of their indispensable roles in the traditional Igbo society. The place of women in Igbo cultural society is pivotal and very critical in the sustenance and continuance of human society.

Traditional Religious Culture in the Spiritual Life of Ethnic Minorities in the Mountainous North of Vietnam Today

Traditional religious culture is a constituent element of the national culture. Under specific historical conditions, traditonal religious culture has a great impact on people and society, contributing to the creation of special nuances for the spiritual life of humanity. The traditional religious culture of ethnic minorities in the mountainous north of Vietnam, that is reflected in various forms of relics, customs, traditions, ethics, performance, literature - art, scripts, festivals, etc. has been playing an important role in the spiritual life of people here, contributing to the unique cultural nuance of each ethnic group and the diversity of Vietnamese culture.

АРТХАУСНОЕ КИНО О БУДУЩЕМ ЮЖНОЙ КОРЕИ: КИМ КИ ДОК

Analyzing different segments of modern Korean cinema it may be affirmed that its relevant topics are the following: religious ideologies, ideological choice, value orientations of individual life and biography. Within the frame of the Korean history, it becomes obvious that an authentic cultural and religious self-reflection is a major ideological trend of modern South Korean society. This is also true for the films created by South Korean film directors popular in the West. Among them is Kim Ki Duk, whose works focus on the reflections about South Korean Modernity. This article deals with his film "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring" (2003), devoted to the comprehension of the role of traditional ideology in constructing the life project of a modern man. The author of the article proposes the detailed discourse analysis, revealing the key discourse, key ideologemes and the director's central message. According to the author's conclusion, the nodal discourse is devoted to the consideration of Buddhism as a traditional religious culture and world outlook framework for Korean culture. According to Kim Ki Duke's central message, the modern Korean society ought to search for Weltanschauung in its historical religious tradition, which is presented by Buddhism. One can always return to it, and its resource is able to provide support in a situation of desperation and choice.

Christianity Encounters Confucianism : Spiritual Formation in a Comparative Perspective in Korea

A religious pluralism is not a strange phenomenon in Korea because the Korean society consists of various living religions. Christianity is just one of those religions. Although Korean Christianity’s history, Catholic and Protestant, is not long, it has occupied a quarter of the whole population in south Korea. So, Christianity, a foreign Western religion, now exists as one of the main religions in Korea. Although Christianity is now a Korean people’s religion, it is also true that the Christianity introduced from Western countries is still not indigenized or inculturized into Korean culture in a true sense. That is, Christianity in Korea does not fully understand Korea’s pluralistic religious culture, so it still regards it as heretical. In this context, achieving a true encounter between Christian faith and Korean religious cultures is an important task for Christianity in Korea. It is extremely significant for Korean Christians to study comparatively other religions as living partners for Christian faith in order to make Christianity spiritually rich and fruitful in the Korean context. Although the main streams of Christianity are conservative and still opposed to other traditional religions, it is evident that Christianity in Korea has been influenced by other traditional religious cultures in whatever. In particular, the Confucian influence on Christianity in Korea was so strong because the state religion of the Choson dynasty, which lasted until the Japanese occupation in the modern times of Korea, was Confucianism. Even though many people don’t confess Confucianism as their religion, it is undeniable that Confucianism is functioning as a core and basis of Korean lives and cultures. The purpose of this paper is to explore spiritual formation for Korean Christians by doing a comparative study of Christianity and Confucianism in Korea. In this paper, I have dealt with the important issue, “Confucian-Christian dialogue” in the Korean context, focusing on the theme of spirituality. I first tried to define the term ‘spirituality’ from a comparative perspective. Second, with reference to the experience of interfaith encounters in Korea, I have searched for some models of Christian spirituality and spiritual formation which are desirable in the context of Korea. As conclusion, I have discussed about several tasks for the encounter between Christianity and Confucianism, especially for a spiritual formation in the context of the Korean Churches.

Traditional religious culture, popular and official orthodoxy

Revitalisation of official orthodoxy is a process running in parallel with the revitalisation of popular orthodoxy and popular religiousness, where the supremacy of one over the other depends on a number of factors, social and political circumstances and cultural preferences. Reception and interpretation of the Orthodox church massages reflect in the approximation of the committed church-going believers to the ecclesial orthodoxy, while most declarative believers adopt, understand and interpret the orthodox learning, church rules, rituals, ethic norms and the importance of religion in everyday life in their own individual ways.

Social Capital of Regional Traditional Religious Culture(Religion as Social Capital: The Current Situation in Japan, Korea, UK, and USA,Panels,THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTY-NINTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES)

Social Capital of Regional Traditional Religious Culture(Religion as Social Capital: The Current Situation in Japan, Korea, UK, and USA,Panels,THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SIXTY-NINTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE JAPANESE ASSOCIATION FOR RELIGIOUS STUDIES)

Randall Kenan Beyond the Final Frontier: Science Fiction, Superheroes, and the South in A Visitation of Spirits

Randall Kenan's A Visitation Spirits (1989) opens with two epigraphs, one from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and another from William Gibson's landmark 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer. Critics have frequently remarked upon the significance the Dickens quotation, noting that it anticipates the Scrooge-like evening visions endured by protagonist Horace Cross as part his attempt to come to terms with his homosexuality in traditional religious culture that abhors any form sexuality it deems aberrant. (1) The quotation from Neuromancer, however, has drawn almost no comment at all. This omission may seem minor, yet it becomes more glaring when we consider how densely the novel is woven with allusions to science fiction tales and superhero books--literary genres that we might include along with fantasy narratives under the broad category speculative fiction. (2) Although such narratives are not conventionally associated with the rural settings and African American folkways that figure prominently in Kenan's work, A Visitation Spirits implicitly argues for reconsideration those conventions. At the heart many such texts and at the heart Kenan's novel lies the highly vexed issue embodiment: the complex relationship between what we define as mind and what we define as body, and how African American southerners such as Horace have learned from multiple sources either to see themselves as all body with no mind or as minds housed in bodies that are no more than wayward and unreliable vehicles. Kenan's novel draws upon tropes from book superheroes and science fiction not only to dramatize this dilemma but also to reconceptualize the very notion embodiment. Kenan's earliest writerly ambition was to be science fiction novelist. He writes growing up in Chinquapin, North Carolina: had been dreamy kid, aloft in fantasy and make-believe. Comic books, fairy stories, tales the amazing and especially the fantastic were my real world. Paying little attention to the outside world, I lived for Star Trek and Spiderman and the vampires, werewolves, and bigfoots horror (Mr. Brown 65). Kenan describes himself in his teenage years as besotted and beset by science fiction (Walking 610); he even composed novels in that genre while still in high school, and his ambitions remained focused on science fiction as he entered college. He enrolled in the University North Carolina with the desire to become a black Arthur C. Clarke or Isaac Asimov (614). Although Kenan has not gone on to write science fiction--at least as the genre is traditionally conceived--neither did he abandon his interest in it. He stresses that his literary turn toward the rural settings his childhood did not come about because he began to think any less of science fiction (qtd in Rowell 141). Kenan describes himself as still an avid book collector (Identity 9) and an unapologetic fan science fiction (qtd in Cornett 62), and in The Fire This Time (2007) he writes, comic books were my original vice, and they still have more allure to me than sex or drugs (82). Given Kenan's frequent emphasis on the importance these fantastic modes for the development his imagination and his ambitions as writer, the critical silence on his references to them in A Visitation Spirits is all the more striking. One reason for this silence may simply be that these allusions do not seem southern enough. In the various literary-critical subfields in which Kenan's work is most often discussed, the regional nature his work is frequent locus interest. Queer studies scholars such as Robert McRuer (Queer Renaissance) and Sheila Smith McKoy (Rescuing the Black Male Homosexual Lambs) find in Kenan's work model black gay masculinity different from those found in works with more urban settings. Within literary studies, where Kenan enjoys high profile, scholars have been particularly interested in those aspects his fiction that recall some the field's sturdiest tropes: his evocation place and the tension between the individual and the community, his chronicling agrarian traditions as they are lost in the wake encroaching modernization. …

REGISTRATION OF RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

In the text regimes of religious community registration by statutory law in European countries is reviewed. Although freedom of religion is declared as a pricniple at the European level and individual constitutional provisions, varied obstacles to registering religious communities are set. They may reflect fear of abuse of religion or the intent to safeguard the hegemony of a traditionally entrenched religion. Some of these obstacles are historically entrenched, whereas in post-Communist countries they have been set during democrratic reconstruction. States differ in conditions for registration, in bodies competent to act upon such supplications, procedures in reviewing them and in practice. A trend toward reaching the standards set by the Europeaн Convention on Human Rights may be discerned. The major policies of the Venice Commission regarding religious liberty and a number of standard setting judgments by the European Court of Human Rights, regarding religious liberty, particularly within the registration of religious groups are reviewed in continuation. These policies and judgments ensue from a strict vision of individual and collective religious rights and may collide with traditional religious cultures favouring an entrenched church, within various confessional traditions in Europe. These opinions and judgments present a limited but important instrument of affirmation of religious liberty and suppressing state arbitrariness in the treatment of religious freedom, particularly of minority groups and beliefs. Problems of Orthodox cultures are stressed.

The Aesthetic Feeling in Javanese Islam

Our examination of Javanese Islam has attempted 1) to assess aesthetics as a major component of religious revelation, 2) to establish aesthetic elements as major factors in motivating religious conversion into Islam for the Javanese (or others), and 3) to delineate aesthetic elements as stimulants to subsequent spiritual growth for the born-Muslims. We attempt to describe a highly sophisticated sensitivity to aesthetic elements within their religious rites and rituals among the village Javanese, along with sometimes eloquent expressions of these understandings. Hopefully, our results will serve to inspire further studies of aesthetic rather than theological validation of Revealed or Prophetic Knowledge, a form of cognition and knowledge long familiar to traditional religious cultures that is now coming to be considered a valid form of reality even in the western world, by such influential scholars as Leo Strauss.

The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500–1648 (review)

Reviewed by: The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500–1648 Marc R. Forster The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety, 1500–1648. By Bridget Heal. [Past and Present Publications.] (New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007. Pp. xvi, 338. $99.00. ISBN 978-0-521-87103-7.) Bridget Heal’s study of the cult of the Virgin Mary reinforces the trend in early-modern religious history that has emphasized the diversity of religious practice across confessional lines. Heal traces the evolution of Marian theology and piety (sometimes calling it “Marianism”) through the Reformation, using a variety of sources, most particularly visual sources. This study examines pre-Reformation piety, Protestant practices, and changes within Catholic Marianism in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Heal begins her study by tracing developments within Lutheran Germany. Here she contrasts continuities in Marian imagery and practices in the conservatively Lutheran city of Nuremberg with the more radical changes in the Zwinglian-influenced city of Augsburg. Heal points out that Lutherans rejected the traditional theology that emphasized the role of Mary as a divine intercessor, yet Luther was typically moderate in his condemnation of traditional Marian piety. Luther was particularly tolerant of images, stating that he was concerned about the attitude of the viewers of images, not the images themselves. Most Marian paintings and statues remained in the churches in Nuremberg, often because they had been donated by members of elite families. But, Heal argues, Protestant writers and preachers also worked to transform the image of Mary from that of a powerful intercessor to a model of faith, obedience, and humility. The situation in Augsburg was quite different. Not only was the Protestant movement there strongly influenced by Zwinglian theology, including a strong element of iconoclasm, but the city was also confessionally divided through much of the period. Protestant churches in Augsburg were cleansed of Marian images, and by the 1530s Mary had almost completely disappeared from Protestant religious and public life. At the same time, after about 1550, Catholic ritual life was restored in Augsburg, and under Jesuit leadership Marian processions and feast days came to be markers of Catholic identity. There was a diversity of Marian practices in Catholic Germany as well. The Catholic Church had a somewhat mixed attitude toward the cult of the Virgin. On the one hand, the Council of Trent and official theology affirmed all aspects of traditional Marian piety. On the other hand, Catholic theologians were critical of popular “abuses” and “superstitions,” most of which were local or regional, and sought universal liturgical reform. Other Catholic reformers, especially the Jesuits, believed that the cult of the Virgin had broad popular appeal and should be promoted, as they did with their Marian sodalities and promotion of pilgrimages and processions. [End Page 382] Heal contrasts the “Counter-Reformation cult,” promoted by the Jesuits and strong in Bavaria and Austria, with the more traditional Marian piety found in Cologne. Here she follows the arguments of scholars such as Gerald Chaix and Rebekka von Mallinckrodt and shows how the traditional religious culture of Cologne survived, and even thrived, during the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. For example, both the elites and popular classes continued to venerate Marian Gnadenbilder (holy images) from the Middle Ages. The Jesuits certainly promoted new religious forms in Cologne through their sodalities and their preaching, but these forms only supplemented traditional piety. The result was pluralism within Catholic practice, as there was within Protestant practice. In the last chapter, Heal tackles the difficult question of Marian devotion and gender. Here again, she emphasizes the diversity of practices. Mary’s gender presented multiple meanings to early-modern people, particularly women—mother, powerful intercessor, symbol of domesticity, a “woman like no other.” Heal cautiously suggests that, at least in Germany, the Protestant reformulation of Mary tended to demystify her, perhaps for Catholics as well. In any case, she insists on the diversity of meanings within a gender analysis. The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany provides a valuable overview of an important issue in religious history. The book is in one way difficult to categorize. On...