Universal Religion Research Articles

A World of Crisis and Progress: The American YMCA in Japan 1890–1930. By Jon Thares Davidann. Bethlehem, Penn.: Lehigh University Press, 1998. 207 pp. $37.50.

In May 1880, Kanda Naibu, Kozaki Hiromichi, and other young Japanese Christians, inspired by the example of YMCA in the United States, established the Tokyo Kirisutokyo Seinenkai (Young Men's Christian Association). As Jon Thares Davidann points out, Japanese Christians saw "Christianity as a set of precepts and the YMCA as an institution that could save and uplift the entire nation" (p. 63). By 1899, when the first American YMCA missionary arrived at the request of the Tokyo Association, the Seinenkai, together with its journal, Rikuge7zasshi (Cosmos), was already playing a significant role in the development of Meiji Protestantism. The beginning of American YMCA work in the 1890s coincided with a period of retarded growth for most Christian groups (with the notable exception of the Anglican Nippon Seikokai), demands for independence from foreign supervision as witnessed in the crisis over control of Doshisha College in Kyoto, and an impatience among Japanese Christians of liberal theological persuasion with the conservative theology of many missionaries, including YMCA ones. YMCA difficulties eased with the RussoJapanese War during which it gained widespread approval in official Japanese circles because of its program for providing comforts for the troops in the field. Following the war with Russia, the Japanese YMCA, supportive of Japanese imperialism, expanded its work into Korea where, "like the American YMCA moving into Japan in the 1890s, Japanese Christian leaders assumed that Christian progress could take place in Korea only if it was inspired by Japanese Christianity" (p. 131). As for American YMCA missionaries working in Japan or in Korea, they came "to identify themselves with the nations they served. They did not see themselves as representatives of a universal religion that could remain above the competition of nations" (p. 150). However, even in the 1920s, when doubts about their effectiveness in the face of nationalist reactions had led to a serious review of YMCA overseas missions, YMCA supporters in Japan like Yoshino Sakuzo still "returned to the hope of Meiji Christian nationalists that Christianity would become the guiding spirit of Japan" (p. 162). In this short book, Davidann set out "to examine the history of the intercultural interactions between two groups of modern Christians: American YMCA missionaries posted to Japan and Japanese Christians who became interested in YMCA activities and participated in the YMCA from 1890-1930" (p. 111). The cultural relations between the two groups were not without their difficulties. The author divides his book into six major chapters: The American YMCA and the Missionary Revival, Japanese Christians and Cultural Nationalism; The Struggle for Independence; Social Problems and the Russo-Japanese War; YMCA Postwar Imperialism in Korea and Manchuria, and The Crisis of Christian Nationalism. Among other things, Davidann

Short Notices

Books reviewed in this article:Jerome H. Neyrey, Honor and Shame in the Gospel of MatthewA. Le Grys, Preaching to the Nations: The Origins of Mission in the Early ChurchJ. H. Charlesworth, Critical Reflections on the Odes of Solomon, Volume 1: Literary Setting, Textual Studies, Gnosticism, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gospel of JohnDale T. Irvin, Christian Histories, Christian Traditioning: Rendering AccountsArvind Sharma, The Concept of Universal Religion in Modern Hindu ThoughtMartin Forward, A Bag of Needments: Geoffrey Parrinder and the Study of ReligionM. A. Hayes and L. Gearon (eds), Contemporary Catholic Theology: A ReaderA. Nichols, Catholic Thought Since the Enlightenment: A SurveyPaul Badham, The Contemporary Challenge of Modernist TheologyL. Miller and S. E. Grenz (eds), Introduction to Contemporary TheologiesW. E. Conn, The Desiring Self: Rooting Pastoral Counselling and Spiritual Direction in Self‐TranscendenceChris Glaser, Coming Out as SacramentE. Stump and M. J. Murray (eds), Philosophy of Religion: The Big QuestionsM. A. Hayes, W. Porter and D. Tombs (eds), Religion and SexualityH. J. Cargas (ed.), Holocaust Scholars Write to the VaticanGerrie ter Haar (ed.), Strangers and Sojourners: Religious Communities in the DiasporaPhyllis Zagano and Terrence W. Tilley (eds), Things New and Old: Essays on the Theology of Elizabeth A. JohnsonJ. J. DiCensio, The Other Freud: Religion, Culture and PsychoanalysisG. Pattison, Anxious Angels: A Retrospective View of Religious ExistentialismEugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the BibleGeorges Bernanos, The Heroic Face of Innocence: Three Stories by Georges BernanosSteven Croft, Ministry in Three Dimensions: Ordination and Leadership in the Local ChurchBryan D. Spinks and Iain R. Torrance (eds), To Glorify God, Essays in Modern Reformed LiturgyRegina Wentzel Wolfe and Christine E. Gudorf (eds), Ethics and World Religions: Cross‐Cultural Case StudiesWilliam Madges, God and the WorldGillian T. W. Ahlgren, The Human Person and the ChurchMartin Israel,Happiness that LastsGraham Cunningham, Religion and Magic, Approaches and TheoriesRichard S. Hess and Gordon J. Wenham (eds), Zion City of our GodJames A. Wharton, JobTerence E. Fretheim, First and Second KingsEdwin Robertson, The Prison Poems of Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A New Translation with CommentaryGordon S. Wakefield, Methodist SpiritualityJames Thrower, Religion: The Classical TheoriesAlastair G. Hunter, PsalmsOliver Leaman, Key Concepts in Eastern PhilosophyTamila Mgaloblishvili (ed.), Ancient Christianity in the Caucasus (Iberica Caucasica 1)

The Concept of Universal Religion in Modern Hindu Thought

The Concept of Universal Religion in Modern Hindu Thought

The Conceptual Foundation of Missionary Hinduism

This article considers the development of the idea of a universal and missionary Hinduism in the writing of Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda was the most vigorous proponent of ideas which had been taking shape throughout the nineteenth century. It is argued that the idea of Hinduism as a “missionary” religion came about as part of the conceptual evolution of religion and dharma which developed in the wake of contacts with Europeans. The process took place in three stages through which religion in India was first objectified, then individualized, and finally universalized. Bankimchandra Chatterji is the central person in the systematization of the three steps in this development, culminating in his promotion of Hinduism as a universal religion at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893.

The concept of universal religion in modern Hindu thought

Universal Religion: What does it Mean? - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Rammohun Roy (1772/4-1833) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Debendranath Tagore (1817-1905) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Keshub Chunder Sen (1838-1884) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Ramakrsna Paramahamsa (1836-1886) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Svami Dayananda Sarasvati (1824-1883) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Mahatma Gandhi (1868-1948) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) - Universal Religion in the Life and Thought of S. Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) - Universal Religion in Modern Hindu Thought: Some Conclusions - Index

Referências sociais das religiões afro-brasileiras: sincretismo, branqueamento, africanização

Resumo A história das religiões afro-brasileiras pode ser dividida em três momentos: 1) sincretização, durante a formação das modalidades tradicionais, 2) branqueamento, na formação da umbanda e 3) africanização, na transformação do candomblé em religião universal, isto ê, aberta a todos, sem barreiras de cor ou origem racial. O processo de africanização implica negação do sincretismo, adoção de aprendizado não oral e mudança ritual e doutrinária. O presente trabalho trata desses momentos e das condições sociais e culturais em que cada um veio a se constituir.

Studies in The Sermon on the Great War: Investigations of a Manichaean-Coptic Text from the Fourth Century

Mani, the founder of the Manichaean religion, was a Babylonian who lived from AD 216 to 277. His aim was to liberate the human soul from its enslavement in the world of material and secular reality. The way to salvation involved the observation of certain commandments, most of which were concerned with ritual and with abstinence from sensual pleasures. The Manichees also devoted much attention to spreading the true faith, and from their home in Babylon, Manichaen missionaries penetrated as far as Western Europe and China. Though Manichaeism never became a universal religion, it survived for more than 1000 years, and its extreme dualism served as inspiration for other movements on the fringe of the Christian Church. The Coptic text known as the Sermon on the Great War is a primary source for the philosophy and rituals of the Manichees. The narrative describes the great war in which the Manichees will be persecuted, the peaceable kingdom which will follow, the coming of Christ and the end of the world.

Are All Things Really “Selfless”? Searching for a Truly Universal Religion at Once of the Ultimate Substantial Dharma and Dependent Origination

Are All Things Really “Selfless”? Searching for a Truly Universal Religion at Once of the Ultimate Substantial Dharma and Dependent Origination

Toward universal religion: voices of American and Indian spirituality

Introduction Raja Rammohun Roy: Universal Religion Ralph Waldo Emerson: Indian Literary Traditions Keshub Chunder Sen: Prophet of Things Unseen Henry David Thoreau: Eastern Spirituality Annie Besant: Universal Religion as a Common Center Jenkin Lloyd Jones and Swami Vivekananda: Toward East-West Religious Synthesis John Haynes Holmes and Mahatma Gandhi: Toward Universal Religion Rabindranath Tagore: Universal Man, Universal Religion Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan: Religion of the Spirit Preston Bradley: The Religion of Humanity Epilogue Selected Bibliography Index

Thinking of Life through Death: A Question of Life

I would like to present two subjects to you for discussion. The first subject concerns the ethics of life. Medical techniques and research have developed so rapidly that human life is now treated as an object. Thus, the dignity of human life becomes impaired. Modern medicine is now tied up with economics and has essentially developed into big business. As a result, we have ethical problems related to medicine. We can see these problems, for example, in the manipulation of human genes and the buying and selling of human organs in the name of medical therapy. We also see these problems in the manipulation of human existence by means of human growth hormones, surrogate motherhood, sperm banks, human egg donations, the preservation of human eggs in ice storage, and the cloning of human sperm. How much can man invade the sanctity of human life? The second subject I would like to discuss is the acceptance of death and our spiritual support of terminally ill patients. In today's society, there are an increasing number of aged people. How can we accept the reality of growing old? How can we accept death? How can terminally ill patients with cancer and AIDS accept death? How can they find a way to live until their last moments of life in this world? How can they find fulfillment in their lives? And, finally, how do we spiritually support the terminally ill? These problems cannot be solved by medicine or the other sciences. Instead, we have to think about these subjects from the point of view of a universal religion. While modern science doesn't seem to be able to present appropriate answers to these problems, Asian philosophy offers ways to solve these problems. There are a number of crucial problems that we need to confrontincluding environmental issues and nuclear concerns-that fundamentally challenge human life itself. These are subjects that all of us need to be concerned with in our transition from this century to the next.

American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions

1. Introduction: Transcendentalism and the Orient 2. Predecessors: The First Meetings of East and West The German Tradition and the East The English Romantics and the Orient Fair Joseph Priestley: Moses and the Hindoos 3. Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and the Orient Emerson's Mine Thoreau Sauntering Eastward Alcott's Universal Bible 4. The Dissenters: Melville and Brownson Melville as Gnostic Orestes Brownson and Tradition 5. The Ambience: Orientalism in General-Interest American Magazines The Popular Climate West and East Concluding Remarks 6. Ambience and Embodiment of Transcendental Dreams Converting the World Images of America's Golden Age Transcendental Dreams and Earthly Fiction 7. Transcendentalist Periodicals and the Orient Literary Religion and Social Reform: The Western Messenger, The Dial, The Present, The Harbinger, and The Spirit of the Age The Universal and the Particular: The Cincinnati Dial, The Radical, The Index, and the Journal of Speculative Philosophy 8. Patterns in Literary Religion: The Orient and the Second Cycle of Transcendentalism Beginnings: Lydia Maria Child and The Progress of Religious Ideas Unitarian Transcendentalism: James Freeman Clarke and Elizabeth Peabody Universal Religion: John Weiss and Samuel Johnson The Sympathetic Universalism of William Rounseville Alger Octavius Brooks Frothingham's Religion of Humanity and Moncure Conway's Anthropocentrism 9. Conclusion Drawing Conclusions in the Drawing Room Artists and Asia Popular Ramifications The Twentieth Century Bibliography Index

Quests for a Scientific Mythology: F. Creuzer and K. O. Muller on History and Myth

Quests for a Scientific Mythology: F. Creuzer and K. O. Muller on History and Myth

Judaism and Jewishness in the USSR: Ethnicity and Religion

American Jews often treat their religion and ethnicity as coterminous. In the Soviet Union religion and ethnicity are formally more distinct, through in most people's minds the two are closely related. American society generally considers Jews both an ethnic and religious group. There is a strong correlation between religion and ethnicity among other groups—for example between Irish and Polish ethnicity, on the one hand, and Catholicism, on the other. But since Catholicism is a universal religion—to say “Irish” or “Polish” is usually is to say “Catholic”—the converse is not true, since to say “Catholic” may also imply French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian or many other ethnicities.

Impurity/No Danger

Previous articleNext article No AccessImpurity/No DangerA. Kevin ReinhartA. Kevin Reinhart Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by History of Religions Volume 30, Number 1Aug., 1990The Body Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/463212 Views: 26Total views on this site Citations: 23Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1990 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Katrina Daly Thompson Making Space for Embodied Voices, Diverse Bodies, and Multiple Genders in Nonconformist Friday Prayers: A Queer Feminist Ethnography of Progressive Muslims’ Performative Intercorporeality in North American Congregations, American Anthropologist 122, no.44 (Sep 2020): 876–890.https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13478Siad Darwish Flowers in Uncertain Times: Waste, Islam, and the Scent of Revolution in Tunisia, Ethnos 45 (Jun 2020): 1–22.https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2019.1696859Michele Campopiano Zoroastrians, Islam and the Holy Qur’ān. Purity and Danger in Pahlavi Literature in the Early Islamic Period (Seventh–Tenth Centuries), Journal of Transcultural Medieval Studies 5, no.11 (Jul 2018): 75–98.https://doi.org/10.1515/jtms-2018-0004Mahmoud Pargoo Expansion and Contraction of Scripture: The Ritual (Im)purity of Unbelievers According to Shīʿa Jurisprudence, Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations 29, no.22 (Sep 2017): 215–239.https://doi.org/10.1080/09596410.2017.1371439Tiffany Cone Charisma and Ritual: Social Distance and Proximity, (May 2018): 119–139.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74763-7_5Etty Terem , Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 60, no.1-21-2 ( 2017): 115.https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341421Nor Haliza Johari, Rusmadiah Anwar, Muhamad Fairus Kamaruzaman Ablution Tap Design: A Solution for Water Consumption, (Mar 2016): 165–172.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0237-3_17Amy Paris Langenberg Buddhist Blood Taboo: Mary Douglas, Female Impurity, and Classical Indian Buddhism, Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Aug 2015): lfv059.https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfv059Elyse Semerdjian NAKED ANXIETY: BATHHOUSES, NUDITY, AND THE DHIMMĪ WOMAN IN 18TH-CENTURY ALEPPO, International Journal of Middle East Studies 45, no.44 (Oct 2013): 651–676.https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020743813000846 Reinheitsvorstellungen im Islam, (Apr 2013): 427–446.https://doi.org/10.14220/9783737001113.427Susanna Trnka Cleanliness in a Caste-less Context: Collective Negotiations of Purity and Pollution among Indo-Fijian Hindus, Anthropological Forum 22, no.11 (Feb 2012): 25–43.https://doi.org/10.1080/00664677.2012.652586Naheem Jabbar SYMBOLOGY AND SUBALTERN RESISTANCE IN HĪRA MANDI MOHALLA, Interventions 13, no.11 (Mar 2011): 95–119.https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2011.545582Ron E. Hassner Blasphemy and Violence1, International Studies Quarterly 55, no.11 (Mar 2011): 23–45.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2478.2010.00634.xRobbie Duschinsky Slaughtered innocents: child victims in political discourse during the Second Intifada and Gaza conflict, Social Semiotics 21, no.11 (Feb 2011): 33–51.https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2011.535669Maribel Fierro Conversion, ancestry and universal religion: the case of the Almohads in the Islamic West (sixth/twelfth–seventh/thirteenth centuries), Journal of Medieval Iberian Studies 2, no.22 (Jun 2010): 155–173.https://doi.org/10.1080/17546559.2010.495289Shuruq Naguib Horizons and Limitations of Muslim Feminist Hermeneutics: Reflections on the Menstruation Verse, (Nov 2009): 33–49.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6833-1_3Shuruq Naguib And Your Garments Purify: tahāra in the Light of tafsīr, Journal of Qur'anic Studies 9, no.11 (Apr 2007): 59–77.https://doi.org/10.3366/jqs.2007.9.1.59 Brannon Wheeler Touching The Penis in Islamic Law Wheeler, History of Religions 44, no.22 (Jul 2015): 89–119.https://doi.org/10.1086/429229 Janina M. Safran Rules of Purity and Confessional Boundaries: Maliki Debates about the Pollution of the Christian Safran, History of Religions 42, no.33 (Jul 2015): 197–212.https://doi.org/10.1086/375036Janina M. Safran Identity and Differentiation in Ninth-Century al-Andalus, Speculum 76, no.33 (Oct 2015): 573–598.https://doi.org/10.2307/2903880Amreen Jamal The Story of Lot and the Qurvln's Perception of the Morality of Same-Sex Sexuality, Journal of Homosexuality 41, no.11 (Jun 2001): 1–88.https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v41n01_01David Pinault Blood, Rationality, and Ritual in the Shia Tradition, (Jan 2001): 29–55.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-04765-6_3Marion Holmes Katz Canonical prayer (ṣalāt) and supplication (duʿāʾ), (): 10–43.https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139034333.002

Pluralism and the American Mainstream: The View from the World's Parliament of Religions

TheExaminerreported that throughout the day hundreds of would-be spectators and scalpers charging three and four dollars for tickets gathered on Chicago's downtown streets. The evening plenary session was repeated twice; each time “three thousand men and women were on their feet waving handkerchiefs, clapping hands, and cheering.” Julia Ward Howe “kissed her hand in benediction of the Parliament”; the “Jewish rabbi and the Catholic Bishop asked God's blessing upon its work which is now a part of history.” Christian and Hebrew, Buddhist and Moslem, theExaminerannounced, all “spoke for a universal religion, advocated it in fact, and fervently hoped for some such … happy consummation as the outcome of this great and historic gathering.”

Infected Christianity: a study of modern racism

Focusing on five modern Christs, Alan Davies examines how the Christian church has succumbed to the infection of racist ideas. Using an analysis of the writings of representative philosophic and religious figures, Davies shows that the myths of race and nation, innocent in themselves, have evolved into sacred myths and histories which not only infected Christianity but, in the case of Germany and South Africa, served to legitimize ruling racist elites. He traces the course of racism to its roots in the religious, cultural, and intellectual history of western civilization and to its culmination in the formation of the Aryan myth - the great race myth of white Europeans - in the nineteenth century. As Germany played a pivotal role in recent developments of racism, Davies discusses the Germanic Christ first and most extensively. He analyzes French Roman-Catholic racism, particularly its role in the Third Republic, through discussion of the Latin Christ. His study of the Anglo-Saxon Christ covers both English and American expressions of racism and their links to imperialism. This is followed by a discussion of Afrikaner racism, and an exploration of black nationalism in the United States and its advocacy of a black Christ. Davies concludes with a discussion of the theological problems arising from the five racial Christs surveyed and the dilemmas posed by the attempt to cast a universal religion in a particular cultural mould.

Conversion and school at Chikuni, 1905–39

IntroductionReligious conversion, a concept central to missionary activity and to the influence that Christianity has exerted in a variety of fields, embodies a wide range of meanings (Lonergan, 1971: 105–7). In the African context it has generally meant a change from a traditional to a universal religion, entailing a psychological transformation through which the convert's underlying assumptions about the world are reconstructed, accompanied by a socially recognised display of change (Jules-Rosette, 1976: 132–3). Robin Horton, among others, has devoted scholarly attention to the conversion process from the viewpoint of the Africans undergoing conversion but the missionaries, the advocates of conversion, have received no comparable attention (Beidelman, 1974: 235; cf. Beidelman, 1982).

Some Aspects of Malay‑Muslim Ethnicity in Peninsular Malaysia

Islam is a universal religion which transcends ethnic and national boundaries. Recognition of this fact does not, however, preclude the perception of religion as an essential element of ethnic identity. In the context of ethnicity in Malaysia, it is more accurate to attach the hyphenated ethnic label Malay-Muslim to the com munity popularly known as Malay because their ethnic identity is exclusively tied to Islam. This insight leads us to new perceptions of various aspects of socio-cultural, political, ,and economic develop ments in contemporary Malaysia.

Islamic Conversion and Social Change in a Senegalese Village

Religious conversion is a highly varied phenomenon. In American culture one generally thinks of conversion as an awakened personal commitment to one's own (or a similar) religious tradition, as in the case of the rebirth of a nominal Christian. Conversion also may serve as the basis for recruitment to a movement which defines and constitutes one's tradition anew. The prophetic movement among the eighteenth century Seneca Iroquois so richly portrayed in the work of Wallace (I 969) is an example of this latter possibility. Conversion also may facilitate change across cultural boundaries as in the case of conversion from a traditional to a universal religion. At the symbolic level, conversion can be dehned as a change in one's mode of attachment to sacred symbols or a replacement of one set of sacred symbols by another. By change in mode of attachment I mean change in feelings, perception, and communication regarding one's sacred symbols. A nominal Christian does not convert to a new set of religious symbols but rather changes in his or her internal commitment to existing symbols. A West African converting from his ancestral religion to a universal religion such as Christianity or Islam may believe that he is worshipping the same deity before conversion as after, yet through conversion acquires a broader knowledge of this deity and access to new ritual methods for communicating with him. Conversion also may be discontinuous in the sense that traditional symbols are wholly rejected and replaced by new ones. One good example of this comparatively unusual pattern would be the conversion to Puritan Christianity by certain New England Indian groups in the seventeenth century (Salisbury I974; Segal and Stineback I977). Most historical examples of conversion, including the one analyzed in this article, involve a mixture cf symbolic continuity, and the introduction of new modes of attachment as well as new sacred symbols. Conversion does not occur at the symbolic level alone. The sym-

Matriarchy Study Group Papers

The Matriarchy Study Group is a group of women in London who came together in 1976 to examine the basis of assumptions arising from a culture based on patriarchal religion. They are attempting to look beyond patriarchy at different forms of social organization, to indicate still-existing evidence for a previous universal Goddess religion. They hope through their work to influence the present, by encouraging women to take control of our spirits as well as our bodies. They believe that to do so is essential if we are to overcome the oppression that results from male-based conditioning.