Download or read book Contemporary Religiosities written by Bruce Kapferer and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2010-08-01 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The last decade has seen an unexpected return of the religious, and with it the creation of new kinds of social forms alongside new fusions of political and religious realms that high modernity kept distinct. For a fuller understanding of what this means for society in the context of globalization, it is necessary to rethink the relationship between the religious and the secular; the contributors - all leading scholars in anthropology - do just that, some even arguing that secularization itself now takes a religious form. Combining theoretical reflection with vivid ethnographic explorations, this essential collection is designed to advance a critical understanding of social and personal religious experience in today's world.
Download or read book A Need for Religion Insecurity and Religiosity in the Contemporary World written by Francesco Molteni and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-12-07 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Need for Religion: Insecurity and Religiosity in the Contemporary World Francesco Molteni analyses the decline in religiosity observed in developed countries in relation to the diminished need for reassurance and support that religion provides.
Download or read book Multi religiosity in Contemporary Sri Lanka written by Mark P. Whitaker and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-09-26 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a collection of original research about every day, innovative, interactive, and multiple religiosities among Sri Lankan Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and devotees of New Religious Movements in post-war Sri Lanka. The contributors examine the unique and innovative religiosity that can be observed in Sri Lanka, which reveals a complex reality of mingled, and even simultaneous, cooperation and conflict. The book shows that innovative religious practices and institutions have achieved a new prominence in public life since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war in 2009. Using the analytic framework of ‘innovative religiosity’ to allow researchers to look at this question between and across Sri Lanka’s plural religious landscape in order to escape both the epistemological and ethnographic isolation of studies that limit themselves to one form of religious practice, the chapters also investigate the extent to which inter-religious tolerance is still possible in the wake of Sri Lanka’s religion-involving civil war, and the continuing influence of populist Buddhist nationalism, globalization and geopolitics on Sri Lanka’s post-war governance. The book offers a novel approach to the study of post-conflict societies and furthers the understanding of the status of tolerance between religious practitioners in contexts where both ethnic conflict and multi-religious sites are prominent. This book is an important resource for researchers studying Anthropology, Asian Religion, Religion in Context and South Asian Studies.
Download or read book Queer Religiosities written by Melissa M. Wilcox and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-02-17 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Queer Religiosities is the first comprehensive, comparative, and globally focused introduction to queer and transgender studies in religion. Addressing sophisticated topics in clear and accessible language, award-winning teacher and scholar Melissa M. Wilcox brings her engaging lecture style into conversation with the work of scholars around the globe to welcome students into these rapidly growing fields. Following an introduction to key concepts in religious studies, queer studies, and transgender studies and an overview of the history of transgender and queer studies in religion, thematic chapters address the topics of stories, conversations, practices, identities, communities, and politics and power. This inherently comparative organization helps readers to understand the details and complexities of religions, genders, and sexualities as they are lived out around the world. Additional resources include study questions, discussion questions, suggestions for further reading, a glossary, an annotated filmography, and a selected bibliography to encourage further study.
Download or read book New Religiosity in Contemporary Sweden written by Liselotte Frisk and published by Equinox Publishing (UK). This book was released on 2017-08 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book is based on a local study of contemporary popular or new religiosity in the area of Dalarna, Sweden. One of the book's purposes is to explore how religion is perceived in our time and how Christianity has shaped our view of what belongs to the "religion" and what is seen as "superstition".
Download or read book Chinese Religiosities written by Mayfair Mei-hui Yang and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2008-11-04 with total page 472 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Extraordinarily timely and useful. As China emerges as an economic and political world power that seems to have done away with religion, in fact it is witnessing a religious revival. The thoughtful essays in this book show both the historical conflicts between state authorities and religious movements and the contemporary encounters that are shaping China's future. I am aware of no other book that covers so much ground and can be used so well as an introduction to this important field." —Peter van der Veer, University of Utrecht
Download or read book New Religiosities Modern Capitalism and Moral Complexities in Southeast Asia written by Juliette Koning and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-01-05 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Southeast Asia experiences unprecedented economic modernization, religious and moral practices are being challenged as never before. From Thai casinos to Singaporean megachurches, from the practitioners of Islamic Finance in Jakarta to Pentecostal Christians in rural Cambodia, this volume discusses the moral complexities that arise when religious and economic developments converge. In the past few decades, Southeast Asia has seen growing religious pluralism and antagonisms as well as the penetration of a market economy and economic liberalism. Providing a multidisciplinary, cross-regional snapshot of a region in the midst of profound change, this text is a key read for scholars of religion, economists, non-governmental organization workers, and think-tankers across the region.
Download or read book Encounters of Body and Soul in Contemporary Religious Practices written by Anna Fedele and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2011-09-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Social scientists and philosophers confronted with religious phenomena have always been challenged to find a proper way to describe the spiritual experiences of the social group they were studying. The influence of the Cartesian dualism of body and mind (or soul) led to a distinction between non-material, spiritual experiences (i.e., related to the soul) and physical, mechanical experiences (i.e., related to the body). However, recent developments in medical science on the one hand and challenges to universalist conceptions of belief and spirituality on the other have resulted in “body” and “soul” losing the reassuring solid contours they had in the past. Yet, in “Western culture,” the body–soul duality is alive, not least in academic and media discourses. This volume pursues the ongoing debates and discusses the importance of the body and how it is perceived in contemporary religious faith: what happens when “body” and “soul” are un-separated entities? Is it possible, even for anthropologists and ethnographers, to escape from “natural dualism”? The contributors here present research in novel empirical contexts, the benefits and limits of the old dichotomy are discussed, and new theoretical strategies proposed.
Download or read book Power and Religiosity in a Post Colonial Setting written by R. L. Stirrat and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-06-01 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study of religious change and cultural fragmentation in contemporary Sri Lanka focuses on a series of new Catholic shrines that attract hundreds of pilgrims. Their fame is based, among other things, on their efficacy as centers for demonic exorcism, alleviating suffering and helping people to find jobs. The author looks at the rise of these shrines in relation to the historical experience of the Catholic community in Sri Lanka, rather than in terms of narrowly defined religious criteria. Central to this broader nonreligious context is the role of power and especially the impact of post colonialism on the small Roman Catholic population.
Download or read book Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christianity written by Ina Merdjanova and published by Fordham University Press. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Women and Religiosity in Orthodox Christianity fills a significant gap in the sociology of religious practice: Studies focused on women’s religiosity have overlooked Orthodox populations, while studies of Orthodox practice (operating within the dominant theological, historical, and sociological framework) have remained gender-blind. The essays in this collection shed new light on the women who make up a considerable majority of the Orthodox population by engaging women’s lifeworlds, practices, and experiences in relation to their religion in multiple, varied localities, discussing both contemporary and pre-1989 developments. These contributions critically engage the pluralist and changing character of Orthodox institutional and social life by using feminist epistemologies and drawing on original ethnographic research to account for Orthodox women’s previously ignored perspectives, knowledges, and experiences. Combining the depth of ethnographic analysis with geographical breadth and employing a variety of research methodologies, this book expands our understanding of Orthodox Christianity by examining Orthodox women of diverse backgrounds in different settings: parishes, monasteries, and the secular spaces of everyday life, and under shifting historical conditions and political regimes. In defiance of claims that Orthodox Christianity is immutable and fixed in time, these essays argue that continuity and transformation can be found harmoniously in social practices, demographic trends, and larger material contexts at the intersection between gender, Orthodoxy, and locality. Contributors: Kristin Aune, Milica Bakić-Hayden, Maria Bucur, Ketevan Gurchiani, James Kapaló, Helena Kupari, Ina Merdjanova, Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, Eleni Sotiriou, Tatiana Tiaynen-Qadir, Detelina Tocheva
Download or read book The Revival of Islam in the Balkans written by Olivier Roy and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-07-28 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book shifts analytical focus from macro-politicization and securitization of Islam to Muslims' choices, practices and public expressions of faith. An empirically rich analysis, the book provides rich cross-country evidence on the emergence of autonomous faith communities as well as the evolution of Islam in the broader European context.
Download or read book Confucianism as a World Religion written by Anna Sun and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-11 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is Confucianism a religion? If so, why do most Chinese think it isn't? From ancient Confucian temples, to nineteenth-century archives, to the testimony of people interviewed by the author throughout China over a period of more than a decade, this book traces the birth and growth of the idea of Confucianism as a world religion. The book begins at Oxford, in the late nineteenth century, when Friedrich Max Müller and James Legge classified Confucianism as a world religion in the new discourse of "world religions" and the emerging discipline of comparative religion. Anna Sun shows how that decisive moment continues to influence the understanding of Confucianism in the contemporary world, not only in the West but also in China, where the politics of Confucianism has become important to the present regime in a time of transition. Contested histories of Confucianism are vital signs of social and political change. Sun also examines the revival of Confucianism in contemporary China and the social significance of the ritual practice of Confucian temples. While the Chinese government turns to Confucianism to justify its political agenda, Confucian activists have started a movement to turn Confucianism into a religion. Confucianism as a world religion might have begun as a scholarly construction, but are we witnessing its transformation into a social and political reality? With historical analysis, extensive research, and thoughtful reflection, Confucianism as a World Religion will engage all those interested in religion and global politics at the beginning of the Chinese century.
Download or read book Contemporary Pagan and Native Faith Movements in Europe written by Kathryn Rountree and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2015-06-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pagan and Native Faith movements have sprung up across Europe in recent decades, yet little has been published about them compared with their British and American counterparts. Though all such movements valorize human relationships with nature and embrace polytheistic cosmologies, practitioners’ beliefs, practices, goals, and agendas are diverse. Often side by side are groups trying to reconstruct ancient religions motivated by ethnonationalism—especially in post-Soviet societies—and others attracted by imported traditions, such as Wicca, Druidry, Goddess Spirituality, and Core Shamanism. Drawing on ethnographic cases, contributors explore the interplay of neo-nationalistic and neo-colonialist impulses in contemporary Paganism, showing how these impulses play out, intersect, collide, and transform.
Download or read book Contemporary Indigenous Cosmologies and Pragmatics written by Françoise Dussart and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2022-03-07 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this timely collection, the authors examine Indigenous peoples’ negotiations with different cosmologies in a globalized world. Dussart and Poirier outline a sophisticated theory of change that accounts for the complexity of Indigenous peoples’ engagement with Christianity and other cosmologies, their own colonial experiences, as well as their ongoing relationships to place and kin. The contributors offer fine-grained ethnographic studies that highlight the complex and pragmatic ways in which Indigenous peoples enact their cosmologies and articulate their identity as forms of affirmation. This collection is a major contribution to the anthropology of religion, religious studies, and Indigenous studies worldwide. Contributors: Anne-Marie Colpron, Robert R. Crépeau, Françoise Dussart, Ingrid Hall, Laurent Jérôme, Frédéric Laugrand, C. James MacKenzie, Caroline Nepton Hotte, Ksenia Pimenova, Sylvie Poirier, Kathryn Rountree, Antonella Tassinari, Petronella Vaarzon-Morel
Download or read book The Fundamentalist City written by Nezar AlSayyad and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-09-13 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between urbanism and fundamentalism is a very complex one. This book explores how the dynamics of different forms of religious fundamentalisms are produced, represented, and practiced in the city. It attempts to establish a relationship between two important phenomena: the historic transition of the majority of the world’s population from a rural to an urban existence; and the robust resurgence of religion as a major force in the shaping of contemporary life in many parts of the world. Employing a transnational interrogation anchored in specific geographic regions, the contributors to this volume explore the intellectual and practical challenges posed by fundamentalist groups, movements, and organizations. They focus on how certain ultra religious practices of Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism have contributed to the remaking of global urban space. Their work suggests that it is a grave oversimplification to view religious orthodoxies or doctrines as the main cause of urban terrorism or violence. Instead they argue that such phenomena should be understood as a particular manifestation of modernity’s struggles. Nezar AlSayyad and Mejgan Massoumi’s book provides fascinating reading for those interested in religion and the city, with thought provoking pieces from experts in anthropology, geography sociology, religious studies, and urban studies.
Download or read book Being Viking written by Jefferson F. Calico and published by Equinox Publishing (UK). This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Being Viking provides a rigorous ethnographic account of the Asatru religion in America, also known as Heathenry or Heathenism. Arising from five years of original ethnographic fieldwork among American Asatru adherents, the book expands our understanding of this religious movement as part of the American religious context.
Download or read book A New God in the Diaspora written by Vineeta Sinha and published by NUS Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New God examines the worship of a Hindu deity known as Muneeswaran in contemporary Singapore. Sinha's exploration provides an ethnographic documentation of urban-based Hindu religiosity in contemporary Singapore and makes an important contribution to the global study of religion in the diasporas.
