Search Results (49)

Born the seventh son of a Louisiana preacher in 1942 and becoming the co-founder of the Black Panther Party in 1966, Huey P. Newton evidenced a complex, changing, and contradictory synthesis of faith and facts until his death in 1989. Focusing on 1960s’ U.S. Black Nationalism as materialist, Maoist, and Marxist in its appeals to objectivity, rationality, and positivist science, some scholars have presented Black Nationalist contempt for religion as pacifying and counter-revolutionary. Conversely, others have focused on the religious-like nature of formally secular 1960s’ Black Nationalism, even framing it as a “form of piety” and a “politics of transcendence”. Between these bookends, the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton have simultaneously been characterized as both “anti-religious” and as possessing an “innate spirituality”. I attempt to reconcile these divergent interpretations through an analysis of Newton’s worldviews (culled from his graduate school papers, published articles and books, and speeches and interviews). Newton frequently described aspects of the human condition as partially spiritual and in so doing, regularly married dialectical materialist variants of anti-capitalism, Black Nationalism, and ethno-racial self-determinism with “mystical” and theological aesthetics, concepts, stories, and styles from a variety of religious and philosophic traditions. These “paradoxical pieties” included, but were not limited to, the embrace and critique of spiritual existentialism and transcendentalism; deism and theosis; Christian hermeneutics; Zen Buddhism; and Vedic and Pranic Hinduism. Full article

This paper explores the material culture of religious life on the Greek island of Anafi during the peak tourism season of summer 2023. Through ethnographic fieldwork, the paper examines the public celebration of a number of feasts coinciding with the summer high season: the Transfiguration of Christ, one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on the sixth of August; the Dormition of the Theotokos (Mary the “Birthgiver of God”) on the fifteenth, with evening Supplications to the Theotokos in church on every August weekday leading up to the feast; the feast and commemoration of the immensely popular Saint Fanourios on the twenty-seventh of August, with the main celebration centering on the preceding day’s vespers; and, in September, the major feast of the island: the Nativity of the Theotokos (8 September), which unfolds into four-days-long festivities, due to the main shrine of the island being dedicated to the protectress of Anafi, Panayia Kalamiotissa. This paper focuses especially on the role of commensality and shared meals in maintaining kinship ties and social communion. Ritualized festive eating emerges as a way of consolidating the community of permanent island residents and diasporic islanders returning for summer. The continuity of these embodied practices provides insight into Anafiot identity and lived religion. Ultimately, this paper reflects on how contemporary Orthodox theologians have re-discovered the priority of materiality and the senses in ecclesial life. Full article

Much of the literature on digital religious authority has focused on spiritual “influencers” and the challenges they pose to traditional religious hierarchies and structures of authority. Less attention has been dedicated to religious websites, social media pages, and digital feeds whose popularity and influence do not hinge on the personalistic qualities of their creators. There is a wide assortment of generic religious reference sites that, although developed and managed by largely anonymous webmasters and administrators, command significant audiences and exert substantial influence on religious interpretations and practices. We argue that anonymity affords certain advantages for bolstering visibility and influence that have hitherto received insufficient attention in the literature on religion, authority, and cyberspace. In contrast to spiritual influencers, who draw attention to their personal biographies, credentials, appearances, and connections to enhance their legitimacy and authority, individuals or groups who administer religious reference sites commonly employ alternative strategies that involve concealing personal identities, experiences, and affiliations. Their aim is to come off as neutral, impartial, and free of ideological baggage that might bias their interpretations. This facilitates their efforts to frame the content they share as a form of universal religious truth that transcends ideological and sectarian differences. Our analysis centers on websites and social media pages that provide guidance to Spanish speakers on Islamic theology, jurisprudence, and piety. Full article

This article examines a single figure from Christian history, the reformed sinner known as Musa of Rome (d.c. 593). Tracing the evolution of Musa from Gregory the Great’s Dialogues to early modern pastoral texts, this study explores processes of condemnation, recalibration, and negotiation regarding dance in premodern Christianity. The first section analyzes medieval portrayals of Musa as expressions of “choreophobia,” a term borrowed from dance studies scholar Anthony Shay that denotes cultural anxiety surrounding dance. Here, I argue that choreophobic renditions of Musa sedimented medieval misogyny and conceptualized sin. The second section turns to late medieval sources that assess dance differently vis-à-vis dance studies scholar André Lepecki’s concept of “choreopolice” or “choreopolicing”. For this study, choreopolicing highlights how ecclesiastical authorities refashioned Musa as a moralizing vehicle to articulate and implement clerical agendas. The third and final section explores Musa’s inspiring aura as a sacred muse. In this vein, her kinesthetic afterlives helped Christian laity apprehend Marian piety, visualize the resurrected body, and communicate hope for redemption. Methodologically, this study embraces the frameworks of religious studies, medieval studies, and dance studies. However fictional and embellished retellings of the Musa story were, this article—the first in-depth scholarly study dedicated to Musa of Rome—demonstrates how the medieval dancing body manifested a site of political contestation, ecclesiastical control, and individual redemption. Full article

This study deals with the forms and expressions of the Christian piety of the Hungarian aristocracy in the early modern period on the example of Anton Erdődy (1714–1769), a representative of one of the most influential and most ancient Hungarian–Croatian noble families. The personal piety of this socially high-ranking aristocrat was shaped by familial, social, and spiritual traditions, which determined the nature of his artistic patronage. The unique Baroque organ preserved in the chapel of his no longer existing mansion in Trenčianske Bohuslavice, Slovakia (former Bohuslavice, Upper Hungary) is a magnificent manifestation of this patronage. The reconstruction of Anton Erdődy’s idea of the spiritual world and of his piety enables us to formulate a hypothesis that the atypical architectural and structural design of this organ did not result only from the aesthetic requirements of its commissioner, but also had a theological foundation and religious essence in addition to its visual effect. This study is the result of extensive heuristic research and analysis of sources and extant artefacts using the methods of music historiography. Full article

Friedrich Schleiermacher is often credited with playing a foundational role in the development of the modern concept of religion. His epoch-making Speeches on religion, published in 1799 amidst the widespread social and intellectual upheaval of the Sattelzeit, present a novel description of religious feeling and religious communication, which mark a turning away from the rationalistic treatments of religion in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and which served as both inspiration and foil for scholars of religion throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This essay suggests a reading of Schleiermacher’s Speeches that is organized around two interrelated claims. First, the text does not proceed as speculative philosophical treatise aiming to establish an overarching theory of religion but as a critical dialogue that inquires into the distinctive particularity of religion and religious expression. Second, religious piety, as depicted in the Speeches, is not found in the isolated inwardness of individual experience but in coordinated tension with sociality, in communications of religious feeling that are bound together with a living apprehension of the world. On this account, religion for Schleiermacher, though rooted in feeling and self-consciousness, is nonetheless no private affair; it is realized within the developing complex of social and historical living. Full article

As a classic of Zen Buddhism, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, starting from the core concept of “self-nature and self-determination”, fully demonstrates the “Self” dimension and the “self-mastery” and “self-bearing” spiritual temperament of Master Huineng, who put forward the idea that “Buddhahood is realized within the essential-nature; do not seek for it outside yourself.” 佛向性中作，莫向身外求, and the spiritual temperament of “self-mastery” and “self-responsibility”. In contrast, Schleiermacher, as “the father of modern Protestant theology”, in his philosophical reflection on religion, grasped the notion of piety centered on “the feeling of absolute dependence” and enriched it with the substance of religious self-consciousness to establish and reveal the essence of religious faith and Christianity. This sharp contrast fully demonstrates the important difference of Buddhism and Christianity in dealing with the relationship between the “Self” and the “Other”. This essential difference reflects the fact that the Zen Buddhist classics represented by The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch are both rooted in the Buddhist tradition and based on the traditional Chinese philosophical theory of mind and nature, based on which is the faith model of seeking liberation from the nature of the “Self”. In contrast, The Christian faith, as typified by Schleiermacher’s Christian philosophy, attempts to establish a model of faith that seeks salvation through devout faith in the Absolute Supreme, and to take this point as the essence and basis of religious faith and Christian faith. Full article

After a difficult conquest under the Umayyads, the eastern Maghreb or Ifrîqiya region was turned into the western borderland of the Abbasid Empire in the second half of the 8th century, and its governance was soon delegated to the Aghlabid Emirate (800–909). In this context, the Sahel (or Ifriqîyan coastline) quickly became a major centre of asceticism and pious collective retreat in places dedicated to ribât activities. This practice provided a framework for the life of devout people who kept a watchful eye on the Byzantine enemy while zealously performing their devotions. A genuine frontier society of religious men and devotees, ascetics and traditionalists arose in this burgeoning coastal fringe. Over the last two decades, this topic has given rise to a very rich historiography, notably produced by Tunisian researchers who have profoundly renewed our understanding. Based on these considerable achievements, the present contribution proposes to broaden the analysis in order to show how the rise of this movement of warrior piety, advocating an ideal of jihâd, must be related to a more global phenomenon, considered at the scale of the Abbasid Empire. Remaining in a comparative dimension, this article also proposes several approaches to the specific architecture of ribât sites, especially the place devoted to the community mosque. Full article

The past few decades have witnessed significant increases in levels of education among women members of conservative religions. Contrary to the expectations of both researchers and policymakers, this trend has not been accompanied by decreases in levels of piety. The purpose of this article is to explore what it means to educated religious women to belong to conservative religious communities that embody values and practices that do not conform to the values of modernity associated with exposure to higher education. On the basis of a series of group interviews with educated Jewish Haredi women in Israel, we examined this very question. We found that the women we interviewed demonstrated a deep pride in their religious identity and an ongoing and strong commitment to their community. At the same time, they regarded membership in their community as a form of social capital enabling them to secure a wide array of benefits, which provided compensation for the demand to conform to conservative practices. We conclude that through a process of exchange (social capital against the price of conforming), the women challenge existing norms while maintaining strong religious identities, taking part in democratic processes, and, together, forging articulated bonds of membership and belonging. Full article

Thomas Aquinas emerges as a remarkable figure whose significant literary contributions have had a profound impact on our understanding of religion. Drawing inspiration from both the Greco-Roman philosophical and legal traditions, particularly the influential works of Cicero and the rich Christian tradition, notably Augustine, Aquinas presents a comprehensive and nuanced approach to the multifaceted concept of ‘religion’. While his analysis often situates ‘religion’ within the moral framework of justice, highlighting its inherent concern with the relationship between humanity and the divine, Aquinas goes beyond mere moral principles in his exploration. His aim is to establish a universal understanding of ‘religion’, offering a well-defined definition and presenting a philosophical and theological doctrine. In this paper, we shall first delve into the foundations and underlying principles that shaped Aquinas’s interpretation of religion. Next, we will undertake a thorough examination of religion as a virtue, highlighting Aquinas’s emphasis on its intrinsic connection to justice rather than confining it to the realm of religious sentiment, piety, or devotion. Finally, our research will explore the specific terminologies employed by Aquinas to elucidate the concept of religion, providing a comprehensive and nuanced approach to the ongoing discourse on this topic. Aquinas’s contribution rests in his defence of religion’s inherent public nature, grounded in its anthropological foundation and its virtuous essence. Full article

The fiction “Quanxiang Pinghua”, published by Jianyang 建陽 Yushi 虞氏 in the Yuan Dynasty, depicts public religious concepts using a set of organized illustrations of etiquette. As a popular cultural reading material of the Yuan Dynasty, the fiction’s illustrations are a mixture of mainstream religious ideas, such as Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, reflecting the Jianyang people’s compromised identification of the three religions and their value of faith. The illustrations shape the religious view of “the impermanence of destiny”. With the help of the spatial narrative of the political and religious order of Confucianism and the public construction of the ritualistic landscapes of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, these images reflect the ethical enlightenment and religious beliefs of the three religions in social life. From the perspective of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, this article adopted interdisciplinary methods to analyze inherent religious ethics in the illustrations of the fiction and explore religious beliefs among the people in the Yuan Dynasty. This article suggested that, by depicting religious rituals, the illustrations in the fiction reflect the comprehensive acceptance of the benevolence and righteousness, filial piety, loyalty, and kindness of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism by the public of the Yuan Dynasty. The illustrations in the fiction manifest Confucian order and moral ethics, of which the extension is interconnected with the concepts of Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and living ethics, manifesting the inner interpretation of Confucian ethics in Jianyang popular literature and art and the collective regulation of folk religious beliefs. Full article

Miracle tales are didactic stories related to Buddhist figures, objects, and places that describe supernormal occurrences brought about by acts of great piety and fervent devotion. They present the audience with concrete examples of the workings of karma, while simultaneously setting verifiable historical precedents in a bid to prove the religious efficacy of Buddhism in China. These were also historiographical works, providing a wealth of detail regarding not only religious life and belief in China, but also local lore, politics, architectural trends, and much more. This paper will focus on a text called the Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu 集神州三寶感通錄 (T2106), a collection of miracle tales compiled by the seventh-century scholar-monk, Daoxuan 道宣 (596–667 CE). This text is a collection of narratives drawn from literary and epigraphy sources, as well as orally transmitted stories. As a Buddhist figurehead and as the author of many seminal historiographical works, Daoxuan played a central role in the overall localization of this tradition in China. Bearing this in mind, this paper seeks to interpret the “collective images” presented in Daoxuan’s collection of miracle tales, those representations of the miraculous and the supernormal. Full article

The article answers the question of how the custom of religious singing was created in Kashubia and constitutes an integral part of the worship of the Church and local piety/religiosity until modern times. Nowadays, musical worship is manifested both in family and rural life (religious singing at home, May devotions, Rosary prayer services, vigil for the dead) as well as in ecclesial sphere (church services, Calvary celebrations, feasts, processions, and pilgrimages). It integrates local communities and simultaneously “broadens” their relationship with the sacred (God). It is important to present the process of selecting leaders of folk singing, as there is no institutional support in this matter such as music schools, organ courses or choirs. It can be assumed that, as was the case in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the family tradition plays a decisive role in leading and animating collective singing. The changes which are taking place in this respect now require further research and may be the result of the transformations in the field of folk religious singing in Kashubia, which are the consequence of the dynamic social transformation in this region. This study is based on ethnographic field research conducted by the author in 2016–2021 and the literature on the subject. Full article

The use of images in intimate piety in the XIV–XV centuries responded to the need to create a mental reality that would be complemented by the imitation of Jesus’, Mary’s and the saints’ lives turned into models of permanent emulation. The faithful were expected to show the same qualities as these divine characters, so spiritual practices acquired ethical and public implications. Devotional objects played a central role in meditation, affecting the senses and the soul directly. The religious effigy provoked an empathy with what was viewed and helped by jogging the memory and feelings about the holy figures in all stages of their lives, varying the emotions to the detriment of each event. If one thought, for example, of the risen Christ, one would experience joy, but if one meditated on His Passion, one would become afflicted by sorrow. The dissemination of these habits of contemplating the images and the numerous treatises concerned with directing evocation are sufficient evidence to confirm the triumph of visuality for the excitement of piety. Full article

Members of the Catholic Church express their faith in a variety of manners, in general with a focus on liturgical and popular forms of piety. This article provided construction and initial validation for a brief questionnaire to measure Catholic religious practices. The authors used Sample 1 (n = 219) for exploratory factor analysis and Sample 2 (n = 181) for confirmatory factor analysis and to test the validity of a new scale. A model with two factors with five items each provided a good fit. The Catholic Religious Practices Questionnaire (CRPQ) consists of two subscales: official religiosity and folk practices. Both exhibit positive though varying correlations with the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS) and Multidimensional Prayer Inventory (MPI). The new questionnaire has been confirmed as a reliable and valid measure that takes into account the distinctive features of the Catholic religious tradition. Full article