Search Results (611)

Peking opera The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan reinterprets Shakespeare’s Hamlet by integrating supernatural elements and traditional rituals from Chinese folk religion. The religious transformation is revealed through the reworking of lines, incorporation of ritual traditions, and portrayal of supernatural figures. The divine entity that is invoked in Hamlet’s prayers (2.2.169, 5.2.316) and Claudius’s repentance (3.3.36–72) is translated as tian 天 (Heaven) in Revenge, thus introducing the concepts of the worship of tian and tianming 天命 (Mandate of Heaven). Revenge also adapts Claudius’s command of “give me some light” (3.2.261) by associating it with ancient exorcisms, thereby dramatizing his attempts to conceal the guilt for regicide. Ophelia’s “maimed rites” (5.1.208) are depicted as a deviation from Confucian funeral rites in Revenge, reflected in the simplified funeral banners and Hamlet’s transgressive mourning. The “sulphurous and tormenting flames” (1.5.3) and the morning cock’s crow (1.2.217) are reinterpreted through the introduction of the judicial system of the underworld. These changes are not merely transitions in performing conventions but reflect the deep connection between folk religion and traditional Chinese theater through these prayers, rituals, and supernatural elements, thus creating a specific theatrical “field” in which Chinese folk religion interacts with Western classics. Full article

This article explores Jamāl al-Dīn al-Afghānī’s political thought in relation to modern debates on secularism and Islamic reform. While often invoked by Islamist thinkers to support their anti-secular stance, al-Afghānī’s reflections on reason, religion, and constitutional politics show that he engaged with modernity in a more nuanced way than is commonly recognized. This article examines al-Afghānī’s writings and their reception. It argues that his thought was not about choosing a side between religion and secularism. Instead, his thought is better understood as a pragmatic anti-colonial strategy aimed at the revival of Muslim civilization. This reframing challenges the widely cited genealogical narrative that links him to later Islamists. His attempt to reconcile religious traditions with the imperative for reform provides valuable insights into the responses of Muslim reformers to modernity—insights that remain highly relevant today. Full article

New theologies developed in tandem with evolutionary biology during the nineteenth century, which have been called metaphysical evolutionisms and evolutionary theologies. A subset of these theologies analyzed here were developed by thinkers who accepted biological science but rejected both biblical creationism and materialist science. Tools from the cognitive science of religion, including conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) and blending theory, also known as conceptual integration theory (CIT), can help to explain the development of these systems and their transformation between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The analysis focuses on several stable and popular blends of ideas, which have continued with some alteration into the twenty-first century. The three blends evaluated here are Progressive Soul Evolution, Salvation is Evolution, and Evolution is Therapy. Major contributors to these blends are the theosophist and theologian Helena P. Blavatsky and psychologist Frederic W. H. Myers, both influenced by the spiritualist movement, particularly the ideas of the spiritualist and biologist Alfred Russel Wallace. The influence of these blends can be seen in the twentieth-century “Aquarian Frontier,” a group of 145 thinkers and organizations identified in 1975 by counterculture historian Theodore Roszak. Part of the appeal of these blends may be seen in their use of metaphors, including the Great Chain of Being and A Purposeful Life is a Journey. The application of the polysemic term evolution in a sense that does much of the theological work of salvation in Christianity can in part be explained by applying the principles of blending theory, including the vital relation “achieve a human scale,” as well as compressions of time and identity. These blends have been successful because they meet the needs of a population who are friendly towards science but disenchanted with traditional religions. The blends provide a satisfying new theology that extends beyond death for a subset of adherents, particularly in the New Age and spiritual but not religious (SBNR) movements, who combine the agency of self-directed “evolution” with the religious concepts of grace and transcendence. Full article

This article considers the dilemma between advocating for a religion-based environmentalism in the Himalayas and recognising that the different cultural traditions in the region make a uniform religious environmentalism difficult to uphold. Conservationists often attempt to mobilise local communities for environmental protection by building on their religious and cultural beliefs. Yet, such forms of mobilisation tend to homogenise plural traditions by forcing them within a single fold. What is the way out of this dilemma? I offer some reflections, drawing on my empirical work in the Buddhist Himalayas, and focusing on the case studies of the yak and the black-necked crane respectively, two species which hold a special significance in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Examining these multispecies relations in Arunachal Pradesh reveal not only Buddhist values at work, but plural and evolving entanglements. The question, then, is not to see if the value is religious but if the value is more-than-human in its orientation, taking into account the entangled lives of human and non-human habitations. My broad argument is that an ethics of the environment need neither to be removed from religious ethics, nor enclosed by it. Rather than force environmental thought and behaviour into silos of particular religious traditions or conservation science paradigms, how can one see these as the function of plural habitations? Full article

This article examines the religious practices of descendants of Bosnian migrants in Slovenia, a country that stands out as one of the most secular in Europe. While Bosnia and Herzegovina is known for its complex religious pluralism, where religious institutions play a crucial role in nation-building, Slovenia presents a contrasting context of secularization. Applying Peter Berger’s theory of religious pluralism, which suggests that pluralism weakens traditional religious authority, this study explores how descendants of Bosnian migrants navigate their religious identities in a secular environment. Although their identities have been shaped by the Yugoslav wars and the post-war redefinition of ethnicity through religion, younger generations are also influenced by broader social processes in Slovenia, including secularization, integration, and exposure to multiple belief systems. Using a qualitative research approach based on semi-structured interviews, this case study investigates the preservation and transformation of religious traditions among Bosnian migrant descendants and how these practices influence their identity. The findings highlight how migration and adaptation to a different socio-cultural environment shape religious practices across generations, contributing to broader discussions on religious choice, identity, and pluralism in contemporary societies. Full article

Over the last couple of decades, philosophers have been drawing on ideas from Wittgenstein’s late work On Certainty in developing an approach to epistemology known as “hinge epistemology.” Hinge epistemology has been of particular interest to philosophers of religion because it considers the role that deep commitments to particular propositions may have within epistemic life, arguably mirroring what is seen in some religious traditions. The issue that motivates the present article is whether or to what extent it is helpful to think of forms of atheism as being grounded in hinge commitments. After considering various forms of atheism, this article advances the view that there are some forms of atheism that do exhibit core grounding commitments that may be helpfully interpreted as hinges. In developing this argument, the article considers two case studies of apparent atheistic hinges: the “secular faith” of Martin Hägglund and expressions of atheism one may find in contemporary Chinese society. While many atheistic beliefs are contingent upon still more fundamental epistemic commitments, some forms of atheism may be held strongly or with such a sense of import that interpretation by means of the notion of hinge commitment will be illuminating. Full article

Rationalist thought and positivism, as observed in various Eastern societies, led to significant upheavals in Turkish society concerning entrenched beliefs about the relationship between humanity and the world. These upheavals can be traced through the modernization efforts of the Tanzimat (Reorganization) period (between 1839 and 1896, the period of modernization and renewal in the Ottoman Empire). Although the initial generation of writers and poets during this period did not overtly renounce their connections to tradition, by the onset of the 20th century, a critical perspective towards traditional and religious content in both poetry and novels became evident. In its formative stages, Turkish socialist novels, which evolved under the influence of Russian socialism, were shaped by the classical Marxist interpretation of religion. Consequently, the socialist realist Turkish novel developed a more original character and distanced itself from stereotypical judgments. Kemal Tahir, who occupies a significant role in the realm of Turkish socialist novels, offers insights into the position and function of faith within society, as he transitioned from the classical Marxist paradigm towards a more original understanding. This study investigates the alterations in religious approaches during the Westernization process within Turkish literature and assesses the reflections of this transformation in the novels of Kemal Tahir (1910–1973), one of the preeminent figures of the socialist realist Turkish novel. Full article

The aim of the article is to analyze the relationship between the Christian faith and the spiritual traditions of the indigenous peoples of Latin America, seeking to identify elements that make it possible to trace paths of dialogue and mutual cooperation. It shows that historically, there have been tensions and conflicts between these traditions, but today, there is a path towards overcoming this reality through social solidarity, which serves as a basis for dialogue between the ways of believing. The research method is comparative and involves a qualitative analysis of the bibliography dealing with the relationship between the Church and Latin American indigenous spiritualities. The bibliographic base is documental, with emphasis on the conferences of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM), the Synod for the Amazon (2019) and the magisterium of Pope Francis, read from the perspective of the Second Vatican Council and the current theology of religions. The conclusion is that the Church is developing an important social dialogue to promote justice and the rights of indigenous peoples. This dialogue serves as the basis for a dialogue with the beliefs and spiritualities of these peoples. The challenge for this is to review mission objectives and methods in order to overcome the conversionist perspective in the relationship with indigenous peoples, taking paths of mutual respect and acceptance and valuing them beyond being the recipients of evangelization. In this way, indigenous spiritual traditions can be recognized not only as “seeds” of the Word to be developed by evangelization but as an already mature fruit of God’s relationship with these peoples. Full article

This research focuses on the ideological sphere of criminals with the highest status in the Russian Federation. This ideological sphere was studied in literary sources of various kinds on the basis of repeatability (the existence of linguistic facts) and averaging (external and internal confrontation of sources). It is suggested that, in speech, there exist some selective overinterpretations of world religions that neglect basic elements of the traditional law-abiding picture of the world and that are directly based on literary fiction instead of the scientific literature. On the other hand, there can be some search for faith connected with the belief in spiritual knowledge from the dead, divine beings, and God. Full article

This paper explores how the interpretations of the phrase “tian you qi zhong 天誘其衷” in the Zuozhuan 左傳 (The Zuo Commentary) have changed over time. These changes reflect early Confucian perspectives on the relationship between Heaven and humanity. By examining the polysemous terms (you 誘 and zhong 衷) and by comparing transmitted texts with excavated manuscripts (e.g., Guodian 郭店, Shangbo 上博, and Tsinghua corpora), the paper demonstrates a vital dilemma in early Chinese philosophy: whether Heaven endows moral qualities or simply awakens the innate dispositions of human beings. The paper traces the moralization of tian 天 (Heaven) from the Shang 商 dynasty’s theocentric worldview to the Zhou’s 周 focus on ethical responsibility, showing how the Zuozhuan bridges archaic religious beliefs and emerging Confucian humanism. Traditional commentaries read tian you qi zhong as Heaven “bestowing goodness” or “guiding moral intention,” while the manuscript evidence suggests that the phrase actually meant Heaven “descending its heart or will” to attune human affairs to the cosmos. Han exegetes redefined the term you as pedagogical guidance due to Confucianism’s growing emphasis on self-cultivation. By contextualizing the phrase at a larger backdrop of discussions of the Mandate of Heaven (tianming 天命) and moral cultivation, the study contends that early Confucians transformed tian from a deity figure to a moral principle dwelling in the human capacity, integrating religious reverence and ethical emancipation. This interdisciplinary approach studies ongoing scholarly discussions on the interrelationship between religion, ethics, and philosophy in early China. Full article

The “hand-waving sacrifice” is a large-scale sacrificial ceremony with more than 2000 years of history. It was passed down from ancient times by the Tujia ethnic group living in the Wuling Corridor of China, and it integrates religion, sacrifice, dance, drama, and other cultural forms. It primarily consists of two parts: ritual content (inviting gods, offering sacrifices to gods, dancing a hand-waving dance, etc.) and the architectural space that hosts the ritual (hand-waving hall), which together constitute Tujia’s most sacred ritual space and the most representative art and culture symbol. Nonetheless, in existing studies, the hand-waving sacrifice ritual, hand-waving hall architectural space, and hand-waving dance art are often separated as independent research objects, and little attention is paid to the coupling mechanism of the mutual construction of space and ritual in the process of historical development. Moreover, with the acceleration of modernization, the current survival context of the hand-waving sacrifice has undergone drastic changes. On the one hand, the intangible cultural heritage protection policy and the wave of tourism development have pushed it into the public eye and the cultural consumption system. On the other hand, the changes in the social structure of traditional villages have led to the dissolution of the sacredness of ritual space. Therefore, using the interaction of “space-ritual” as a prompt, this research first uses GIS technology to visualize the spatial geographical distribution characteristics and diachronic evolution process of hand-waving halls in six historical periods and then specifically analyzes the sacred construction of hand-waving hall architecture for the hand-waving sacrifice ritual space throughout history, as well as the changing mechanism of the continuous secularization of the hand-waving sacrifice space in contemporary society. Overall, this study reveals a unique path for non-literate ethnic groups to achieve the intergenerational transmission of cultural memory through the collusion of material symbols and physical art practices, as well as the possibility of embedding the hand-waving sacrifice ritual into contemporary spatial practice through symbolic translation and functional extension in the context of social function inheritance and variation. Finally, this study has specific inspirational and reference value for exploring how the traditional culture and art of ethnic minorities can maintain resilience against the tide of modernization. Full article

Through a critical analysis of one section of a 17th century Chinese manuscript, this article examines the formation of pragmatic identity of non-elite Roman Catholic Chinese converts, who simultaneously identified themselves as Confucians and Catholics within the culture of “Three Teachings synthesized into one system” (sanjiao heyi 三教合一) in traditional Chinese society. This investigation explores how these converts formed their pragmatic identity during their adaptation of Catholic beliefs and practices into a complex and dynamic context of interreligious interactions. The texts under examination are two essays in the Bian chizhai (辨持齋, Debating on Fasting) section in the Bingyin huike (丙寅會課, Teaching Sessions in 1686), composed in a Chinese Catholic seminarian community established and administered by Jesuit missionaries in Nanjing (南京). This interdisciplinary study not only provides a critical examination of the manuscript, which has not yet been extensively researched, but also offers a novel understanding of non-elite converts’ identity formation through the lens of pragmatic identity theory, drawing inspiration from American Pragmatism. It contributes to our contemporary understanding of non-elite Chinese Christian converts’ quest for identity amidst intercultural interactions between mainstream and marginal religions in 17th century Qing China. Full article

In this paper, we reflect on difficulties connected with transitioning from one spiritual tradition to another. We consider Western New Animism, sometimes proposed as a remedy to the exploitative and anthropocentric values typical of Western Modernity. New Animism hopes to provide a framework for resilient, pro-environmental attitudes and practices. Referring to Wittgenstein’s reflections on religion, magic and culture, as well as the work of Peter Winch, we argue that the possibility of embracing another form of spirituality depends on one’s ability to see a ‘depth’ in it. However, a conversion always has an element of the unpredictable, as we never know in advance what awaits us on the other side. This creates problems for purely pragmatically oriented suggestions to adopt an animist worldview. Full article

This paper re-examines the story of Lu Xiujing’s 陆修静 (406–477) abandonment of his ailing daughter, as recorded in Daoxue zhuan 道學傳 (Biographies of the Adepts of the Dao, hereafter DXZ), to challenge prevailing scholarly interpretations of this story that emphasize Daoist familial renunciation as a Buddhist-influenced complete rejection of Confucian ethics. Through close analysis of biographies in DXZ, Lu’s own writings, and the compiler Ma Shu’s 馬樞 (522–581) life, the study criticizes the habitual thinking of scholars that overemphasizes the tendency of early medieval Chinese Daoism to leave home, and argues that DXZ takes the protagonists in the biographies as models to convey the ethical concept of striving to reconcile the Daoist concept of leaving home to pursue religion aim with the family harmony advocated by traditional Confucianism, and it offers some feasible ideas for resolving the Confucian–Daoist ethical tensions. Ma Shu’s biographical strategy, reflecting his own Confucian-educated background engaged with Daoist belief, positions Lu as an exemplar of this balance. By contextualizing these accounts within social realities and compiler intentionality, the study advances a revised understanding of early medieval Daoist ethics, that is, an effort to pursue the harmonious coexistence of religious pursuits and family care. Full article

This study examines critical challenges associated with religious literacy in contemporary South Korea and educational approaches to address them. By analyzing data from the Religious Literacy Survey 2023 (n = 2022), we reveal that these paradoxical attitudes stem from a declining religious literacy, manifested as limited knowledge of religious traditions and their teachings. Amid the rise in the number of the religiously unaffiliated, our analysis indicates that this trend reflects not a rejection of religion but rather an urgent need for education to enhance religious literacy. Based on this analysis, we examine religious education curricula at Dongguk and Yonsei Universities as exemplars that not only deepen students’ understanding of specific religious traditions but also help them recognize religion’s enduring relevance in addressing contemporary societal challenges. Building on these cases, while recognizing their limitations as religiously affiliated institutions, we emphasize the need for an integrated educational approach to religious literacy—one that extends beyond specific traditions and incorporates religious studies examining various dimensions of religion itself. We further suggest the broader implementation of religious literacy education across higher education institutions. Such educational approaches provide insights into fostering social cohesion and meaningful interreligious engagement in South Korea and beyond. Full article