Damian Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178562
- eISBN:
- 9780199785070
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178564.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book explores how members of one religious group with a strong apocalyptic tradition — Kensington Temple, a large Pentecostal church in London — reconciled doctrines of the end of the world with ...
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This book explores how members of one religious group with a strong apocalyptic tradition — Kensington Temple, a large Pentecostal church in London — reconciled doctrines of the end of the world with the demands of their everyday lives. It is shown that they subjected these doctrines to a process of scrutiny, moderating and marginalizing them in response to a so-called the “Problem of the End”, the tendency of apocalyptic discourse to predict things that do not happen. In doing so, they employed the same subjective rationality that they applied to all manner of risky religious claims, such as those relating to miraculous healing. In effect, they were testing hypotheses not in a scientific fashion, but according to the dictates of common sense. These findings are difficult to reconcile with the notion that there is a single psychological or material cause of millenarianism.Less
This book explores how members of one religious group with a strong apocalyptic tradition — Kensington Temple, a large Pentecostal church in London — reconciled doctrines of the end of the world with the demands of their everyday lives. It is shown that they subjected these doctrines to a process of scrutiny, moderating and marginalizing them in response to a so-called the “Problem of the End”, the tendency of apocalyptic discourse to predict things that do not happen. In doing so, they employed the same subjective rationality that they applied to all manner of risky religious claims, such as those relating to miraculous healing. In effect, they were testing hypotheses not in a scientific fashion, but according to the dictates of common sense. These findings are difficult to reconcile with the notion that there is a single psychological or material cause of millenarianism.
Michael W. Foley and Dean R. Hoge
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195188707
- eISBN:
- 9780199785315
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195188707.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This book assesses the role of local worship communities — churches, mosques, temples, and others — in promoting civic engagement among recent immigrants to the United States. The product of a ...
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This book assesses the role of local worship communities — churches, mosques, temples, and others — in promoting civic engagement among recent immigrants to the United States. The product of a three-year study of immigrant worship communities in the Washington, D.C. area, the study looked at churches, mosques, temples, and other communities of immigrants from Korea, China, India, West Africa, the Muslim world, and El Salvador. The researchers surveyed 200 of these communities and studied twenty in depth. Communities vary widely in how much they build social capital, provide social services to immigrants, develop the civic skills of members, and shape immigrants' identities. Local leadership and group characteristics much more than ethnic origin or religious tradition shape the level and kind of civic engagement that the communities foster. Particularly, where leaders are civically engaged, they provide personal and organizational links to the wider American society and promote civic engagement by members. Homeland causes and a strong sense of religious and ethnic identity, far from alienating immigrants from American society, promote higher levels of civic engagement in immigrant communities.Less
This book assesses the role of local worship communities — churches, mosques, temples, and others — in promoting civic engagement among recent immigrants to the United States. The product of a three-year study of immigrant worship communities in the Washington, D.C. area, the study looked at churches, mosques, temples, and other communities of immigrants from Korea, China, India, West Africa, the Muslim world, and El Salvador. The researchers surveyed 200 of these communities and studied twenty in depth. Communities vary widely in how much they build social capital, provide social services to immigrants, develop the civic skills of members, and shape immigrants' identities. Local leadership and group characteristics much more than ethnic origin or religious tradition shape the level and kind of civic engagement that the communities foster. Particularly, where leaders are civically engaged, they provide personal and organizational links to the wider American society and promote civic engagement by members. Homeland causes and a strong sense of religious and ethnic identity, far from alienating immigrants from American society, promote higher levels of civic engagement in immigrant communities.
Martin S. Jaffee
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195140675
- eISBN:
- 9780199834334
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195140672.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
This book is a study of the relationship of oral tradition to written sources among different Jewish groups that thrived in Palestine from the later Second Temple period into Late Antiquity. Its main ...
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This book is a study of the relationship of oral tradition to written sources among different Jewish groups that thrived in Palestine from the later Second Temple period into Late Antiquity. Its main concern is to track the emerging awareness, within diverse Palestinian scribal groups, of the distinction between written books and the oral traditions upon which they were based or in light of which they were interpreted. The thesis holds that during the Second Temple period in particular, diverse Jewish scribal communities –such as the composers of Jewish pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea community, and the Pharisees – certainly employed oral traditions in their literary and interpretive work. But they did not appeal to oral tradition as an authoritative source of knowledge. This was reserved for written books regarded as prophetic transmissions from antiquity. The emergence of a coherent ideology of oral tradition as a kind of revelation comparable to that of Scripture is associated with the consolidation of third century rabbinic Judaism. The book argues that the rabbinic ideology of Oral Torah – “Torah in the Mouth” – is, in great measure, a legitimation of the institution of rabbinic discipleship, which depended upon the primacy of face‐to‐face relationships, unmediated by the written word.Less
This book is a study of the relationship of oral tradition to written sources among different Jewish groups that thrived in Palestine from the later Second Temple period into Late Antiquity. Its main concern is to track the emerging awareness, within diverse Palestinian scribal groups, of the distinction between written books and the oral traditions upon which they were based or in light of which they were interpreted. The thesis holds that during the Second Temple period in particular, diverse Jewish scribal communities –such as the composers of Jewish pseudepigrapha, the Dead Sea community, and the Pharisees – certainly employed oral traditions in their literary and interpretive work. But they did not appeal to oral tradition as an authoritative source of knowledge. This was reserved for written books regarded as prophetic transmissions from antiquity. The emergence of a coherent ideology of oral tradition as a kind of revelation comparable to that of Scripture is associated with the consolidation of third century rabbinic Judaism. The book argues that the rabbinic ideology of Oral Torah – “Torah in the Mouth” – is, in great measure, a legitimation of the institution of rabbinic discipleship, which depended upon the primacy of face‐to‐face relationships, unmediated by the written word.
Maria‐Zoe Petropoulou
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199218547
- eISBN:
- 9780191711503
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199218547.003.0005
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, European History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter introduces the world of Christians — who came from both the Greek religious environment (Gentile Christians) and Judaism (Jewish Christians) — but also from the group of pagans who were ...
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This chapter introduces the world of Christians — who came from both the Greek religious environment (Gentile Christians) and Judaism (Jewish Christians) — but also from the group of pagans who were ready to convert to Judaism (the so-called ‘God-fearers’). Emphasizing the multiplicity of backgrounds, the chapter aims at warning the reader that conclusions concerning early Christianity and its relation to animal sacrifice cannot be definite, especially as regards the Christians who lived in Jerusalem that is next to the Temple, before AD 70.Less
This chapter introduces the world of Christians — who came from both the Greek religious environment (Gentile Christians) and Judaism (Jewish Christians) — but also from the group of pagans who were ready to convert to Judaism (the so-called ‘God-fearers’). Emphasizing the multiplicity of backgrounds, the chapter aims at warning the reader that conclusions concerning early Christianity and its relation to animal sacrifice cannot be definite, especially as regards the Christians who lived in Jerusalem that is next to the Temple, before AD 70.
Matthew Grimley
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199270897
- eISBN:
- 9780191709494
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270897.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This book traces the influence of Anglican writers on the political thought of inter-war Britain, and argues that religion continued to exert a powerful influence on political ideas and allegiances ...
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This book traces the influence of Anglican writers on the political thought of inter-war Britain, and argues that religion continued to exert a powerful influence on political ideas and allegiances in the 1920s and 1930s. It counters the prevailing assumption of historians that inter-war political thought was primarily secular in content, by showing how Anglicans like Archbishop William Temple made an active contribution to ideas of community and the welfare state (a term which Temple himself invented). Liberal Anglican ideas of citizenship, community, and the nation continued to be central to political thought and debate in the first half of the 20th century. The author traces how Temple and his colleagues developed and changed their ideas on community and the state in response to events like the First World War, the General Strike and the Great Depression. For Temple, and political philosophers like A. D. Lindsay and Ernest Barker, the priority was to find a rhetoric of community which could unite the nation against class consciousness, poverty, and the threat of Hitler. Their idea of a Christian national community was central to the articulation of ideas of ‘Englishness’ in inter-war Britain, but this Anglican contribution has been almost completely overlooked in recent debate on 20th-century national identity. The author also looks at rival Anglican political theories put forward by conservatives such as Bishop Hensley Henson and Ralph Inge, dean of St Paul's. Drawing extensively on Henson's private diaries, it uncovers the debates which went on within the Church at the time of the General Strike and the 1927–28 Prayer Book crisis. The book uncovers an important and neglected seam of popular political thought, and offers a new evaluation of the religious, political, and cultural identity of Britain before the Second World War.Less
This book traces the influence of Anglican writers on the political thought of inter-war Britain, and argues that religion continued to exert a powerful influence on political ideas and allegiances in the 1920s and 1930s. It counters the prevailing assumption of historians that inter-war political thought was primarily secular in content, by showing how Anglicans like Archbishop William Temple made an active contribution to ideas of community and the welfare state (a term which Temple himself invented). Liberal Anglican ideas of citizenship, community, and the nation continued to be central to political thought and debate in the first half of the 20th century. The author traces how Temple and his colleagues developed and changed their ideas on community and the state in response to events like the First World War, the General Strike and the Great Depression. For Temple, and political philosophers like A. D. Lindsay and Ernest Barker, the priority was to find a rhetoric of community which could unite the nation against class consciousness, poverty, and the threat of Hitler. Their idea of a Christian national community was central to the articulation of ideas of ‘Englishness’ in inter-war Britain, but this Anglican contribution has been almost completely overlooked in recent debate on 20th-century national identity. The author also looks at rival Anglican political theories put forward by conservatives such as Bishop Hensley Henson and Ralph Inge, dean of St Paul's. Drawing extensively on Henson's private diaries, it uncovers the debates which went on within the Church at the time of the General Strike and the 1927–28 Prayer Book crisis. The book uncovers an important and neglected seam of popular political thought, and offers a new evaluation of the religious, political, and cultural identity of Britain before the Second World War.
Leslie C. Orr
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195177060
- eISBN:
- 9780199785438
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177060.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period ...
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This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period between the 9th to 13th centuries in the part of India known today as Tamilnadu. The chapter draws on the resources provided by the thousands of inscriptions written in the Tamil language and engraved in stone on the walls of Hindu and Jain temples during this period. These inscriptions record actions, particularly the making of gifts to temples by a wide variety of people. It is argued that although men's and women's activities recorded on temple walls had distinctive colorings, the contexts, roles, and motives for these actions were overlapping and often congruent.Less
This chapter explores whether a domestic religious orientation, engaged with the personal and the particular, can be observed in the context of precolonial South India. It focuses on the period between the 9th to 13th centuries in the part of India known today as Tamilnadu. The chapter draws on the resources provided by the thousands of inscriptions written in the Tamil language and engraved in stone on the walls of Hindu and Jain temples during this period. These inscriptions record actions, particularly the making of gifts to temples by a wide variety of people. It is argued that although men's and women's activities recorded on temple walls had distinctive colorings, the contexts, roles, and motives for these actions were overlapping and often congruent.
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156638
- eISBN:
- 9780199785292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156638.003.0000
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Tourists rarely consider Chennai a “temple city”, yet this major commercial center is experiencing a temple building boom. As active in building the economy as in constructing temple, new donors and ...
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Tourists rarely consider Chennai a “temple city”, yet this major commercial center is experiencing a temple building boom. As active in building the economy as in constructing temple, new donors and devotees, who openly describe themselves as “middle class”, hold responsible positions in Chennai's modern technological, scientific, governmental, and business establishments. This chapter introduces the array of temples surveyed in Chennai and the many rituals of consecration (mahakumbhabhisheka) observed. Highlighting three new temples and their urban donors in detail, the chapter reconsiders “religion in the city”/urban religion (post Max Weber); the interplay of “tradition” and “modernity” (post Milton Singer); and old issues of economic development and Hindu religiosity. The chapter argues that significant cultural-religious changes occur in these temples, where donors and devotees reconstruct “tradition” and establish innovations in the context of space not ideology, thus creating an emerging reconfiguration of Hinduism that both rivals and parallels the much-discussed Hindu nationalism.Less
Tourists rarely consider Chennai a “temple city”, yet this major commercial center is experiencing a temple building boom. As active in building the economy as in constructing temple, new donors and devotees, who openly describe themselves as “middle class”, hold responsible positions in Chennai's modern technological, scientific, governmental, and business establishments. This chapter introduces the array of temples surveyed in Chennai and the many rituals of consecration (mahakumbhabhisheka) observed. Highlighting three new temples and their urban donors in detail, the chapter reconsiders “religion in the city”/urban religion (post Max Weber); the interplay of “tradition” and “modernity” (post Milton Singer); and old issues of economic development and Hindu religiosity. The chapter argues that significant cultural-religious changes occur in these temples, where donors and devotees reconstruct “tradition” and establish innovations in the context of space not ideology, thus creating an emerging reconfiguration of Hinduism that both rivals and parallels the much-discussed Hindu nationalism.
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156638
- eISBN:
- 9780199785292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156638.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
The attention given to the 19th century in contemporary postcolonial studies skews the discussion of modernization and religion toward ideologies not materialities. Refocusing on the late 16th ...
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The attention given to the 19th century in contemporary postcolonial studies skews the discussion of modernization and religion toward ideologies not materialities. Refocusing on the late 16th century during the rise of the new world system shows Hindu temples emerging as key institutions in the resettlement and reorientation of Indian Hindus in the new global economy. The key players were classic bourgeoisie, a multi-caste group of “merchants” in the East India Company. These merchants resembled their British counterparts in their rising status within their respective societies at home and their shared society in “Blacktown”. Through the use of archival maps, a reconfiguration of the Hindus temples becomes visible within this new urban space. The pattern of deities and the basic styles of their new homes — eclectic and duplicated — prefigure contemporary temples built within Chennai but also abroad in this new era of geo-culture and geo-economics (Wallerstein).Less
The attention given to the 19th century in contemporary postcolonial studies skews the discussion of modernization and religion toward ideologies not materialities. Refocusing on the late 16th century during the rise of the new world system shows Hindu temples emerging as key institutions in the resettlement and reorientation of Indian Hindus in the new global economy. The key players were classic bourgeoisie, a multi-caste group of “merchants” in the East India Company. These merchants resembled their British counterparts in their rising status within their respective societies at home and their shared society in “Blacktown”. Through the use of archival maps, a reconfiguration of the Hindus temples becomes visible within this new urban space. The pattern of deities and the basic styles of their new homes — eclectic and duplicated — prefigure contemporary temples built within Chennai but also abroad in this new era of geo-culture and geo-economics (Wallerstein).
Susan Palmer
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199735211
- eISBN:
- 9780199918577
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199735211.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Since the Age of Enlightenment, France has upheld clear constitutional guidelines that protect human rights and religious freedom. Today, however, intolerant attitudes and discriminatory practices ...
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Since the Age of Enlightenment, France has upheld clear constitutional guidelines that protect human rights and religious freedom. Today, however, intolerant attitudes and discriminatory practices towards unconventional faiths have become acceptable and even institutionalized in public life. This book offers an examination of France's most stigmatized new religions, or sects, and the public management of religious and philosophical minorities by the state. The book tracks the mounting government-sponsored anticult movement in the wake of the shocking mass suicides of the Solar Temple in 1994, and the negative impact of this movement on France's most visible religious minorities, whose names appeared on a “blacklist” of 172 sects commissioned by the National Assembly. Drawing on extensive interviews and field research, the book describes the controversial histories of well-known international NRMs (the Church of Scientology, Raelian Movement, and Unificationism) in France, as well as esoteric local groups. The book also reveals the partisanship of Catholic priests, journalists, village mayors, and the passive public who support La Republique's efforts to control minority faiths—all in the name of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.Less
Since the Age of Enlightenment, France has upheld clear constitutional guidelines that protect human rights and religious freedom. Today, however, intolerant attitudes and discriminatory practices towards unconventional faiths have become acceptable and even institutionalized in public life. This book offers an examination of France's most stigmatized new religions, or sects, and the public management of religious and philosophical minorities by the state. The book tracks the mounting government-sponsored anticult movement in the wake of the shocking mass suicides of the Solar Temple in 1994, and the negative impact of this movement on France's most visible religious minorities, whose names appeared on a “blacklist” of 172 sects commissioned by the National Assembly. Drawing on extensive interviews and field research, the book describes the controversial histories of well-known international NRMs (the Church of Scientology, Raelian Movement, and Unificationism) in France, as well as esoteric local groups. The book also reveals the partisanship of Catholic priests, journalists, village mayors, and the passive public who support La Republique's efforts to control minority faiths—all in the name of “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity”.
Martin Goodman
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198263876
- eISBN:
- 9780191682674
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198263876.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion in the Ancient World, Judaism
This book tackles a central problem of Jewish and comparative religious history: proselytization and the origins of mission in the Early Church. Why did some individuals in the first four centuries ...
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This book tackles a central problem of Jewish and comparative religious history: proselytization and the origins of mission in the Early Church. Why did some individuals in the first four centuries of the Christian era believe it desirable to persuade as many outsiders as possible to join their religious group, while others did not? In this book, the author offers a new explanation of the origins of mission in this period, arguing that mission is not an inherent religious instinct, that in antiquity it was found only sporadically among Jews and pagans, and that even Christians rarely stressed its importance in the early centuries. In the first half of the book, he makes a detailed and radical re-evaluation of the evidence for Jewish missionary attitudes in the late Second Temple and Talmudic periods, overturning many commonly held assumptions about the history of Judaism, in particular the view that Jews proselytized energetically in the first century AD. This leads the author on to take issue with the common notion that the early Christian mission to the gentiles imitated or competed with contemporary Jews. Finally, the author puts forward some novel suggestions as to how the Jewish background to Christianity may nonetheless have contributed to the enthusiastic adoption of universal proselytization by some followers of Jesus in the apostolic age.Less
This book tackles a central problem of Jewish and comparative religious history: proselytization and the origins of mission in the Early Church. Why did some individuals in the first four centuries of the Christian era believe it desirable to persuade as many outsiders as possible to join their religious group, while others did not? In this book, the author offers a new explanation of the origins of mission in this period, arguing that mission is not an inherent religious instinct, that in antiquity it was found only sporadically among Jews and pagans, and that even Christians rarely stressed its importance in the early centuries. In the first half of the book, he makes a detailed and radical re-evaluation of the evidence for Jewish missionary attitudes in the late Second Temple and Talmudic periods, overturning many commonly held assumptions about the history of Judaism, in particular the view that Jews proselytized energetically in the first century AD. This leads the author on to take issue with the common notion that the early Christian mission to the gentiles imitated or competed with contemporary Jews. Finally, the author puts forward some novel suggestions as to how the Jewish background to Christianity may nonetheless have contributed to the enthusiastic adoption of universal proselytization by some followers of Jesus in the apostolic age.
Terryl C. Givens
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195167115
- eISBN:
- 9780199785599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195167115.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
The first Mormon structure was the Kirtland Temple, followed by the grander Nauvoo Temple. In Utah, Mormons built ward houses (often called chapels), tabernacles, and more temples. Their architecture ...
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The first Mormon structure was the Kirtland Temple, followed by the grander Nauvoo Temple. In Utah, Mormons built ward houses (often called chapels), tabernacles, and more temples. Their architecture is eclectic and derivative. Functional and pragmatic are the norm. They also pioneered city planning and built a literal Zion.Less
The first Mormon structure was the Kirtland Temple, followed by the grander Nauvoo Temple. In Utah, Mormons built ward houses (often called chapels), tabernacles, and more temples. Their architecture is eclectic and derivative. Functional and pragmatic are the norm. They also pioneered city planning and built a literal Zion.
Steven Heine
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195386202
- eISBN:
- 9780199918362
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386202.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Many observers have commented on what appears to be a fundamental contradiction concerning the ways that traditional religions function in Japan. On the one hand, the presence of temples and shrines ...
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Many observers have commented on what appears to be a fundamental contradiction concerning the ways that traditional religions function in Japan. On the one hand, the presence of temples and shrines is pervasive throughout most countryside and urban areas, which means that there are countless examples of festivals and rituals on display creating a sense of vibrancy and involvement. At the same time, observers often get the impression that neither Buddhism nor Shinto is as spiritually dynamic an institution as might be expected. In reality, however, religion functions as an integral part of daily life from cradle to grave, so much so that it is probably taken for granted by Japanese themselves. Any level of apparent disinterest masks a fundamental commitment to participating regularly in diverse though diffused religious practices. “Sacred High City, Sacred Low City” uses case studies of religious sites at two representative but contrasting Tokyo neighborhoods as a basis for reflecting on this apparently contradictory quality in order to examine a variety of issues regarding how contemporary Japanese society regards the role of traditional religion. In what ways does Japan continue to carry on and adapt tradition, and to what extent has modern secular society lost touch with the traditional elements of religion? Or, does Japanese religiosity reflect another, possibly postmodern alternative beyond the dichotomy of sacred and secular, in which religious differences as well as a seeming indifference to religion are encompassed as part of the contemporary lifestyle? The aim of the book is to use the micro-level of analyzing sacred sites in particular Tokyo neighborhoods as representative case studies that constitute a vehicle for probing and reevaluating the macro-level regarding the overall meaning and significance of religiosity in contemporary Japan. Considering the two conundrums of religious structure and motivation in tandem helps answer the overriding question about sacred space: What makes religiosity “tick” in an increasingly secular environment that would seem to detract from and cause it to deteriorate?Less
Many observers have commented on what appears to be a fundamental contradiction concerning the ways that traditional religions function in Japan. On the one hand, the presence of temples and shrines is pervasive throughout most countryside and urban areas, which means that there are countless examples of festivals and rituals on display creating a sense of vibrancy and involvement. At the same time, observers often get the impression that neither Buddhism nor Shinto is as spiritually dynamic an institution as might be expected. In reality, however, religion functions as an integral part of daily life from cradle to grave, so much so that it is probably taken for granted by Japanese themselves. Any level of apparent disinterest masks a fundamental commitment to participating regularly in diverse though diffused religious practices. “Sacred High City, Sacred Low City” uses case studies of religious sites at two representative but contrasting Tokyo neighborhoods as a basis for reflecting on this apparently contradictory quality in order to examine a variety of issues regarding how contemporary Japanese society regards the role of traditional religion. In what ways does Japan continue to carry on and adapt tradition, and to what extent has modern secular society lost touch with the traditional elements of religion? Or, does Japanese religiosity reflect another, possibly postmodern alternative beyond the dichotomy of sacred and secular, in which religious differences as well as a seeming indifference to religion are encompassed as part of the contemporary lifestyle? The aim of the book is to use the micro-level of analyzing sacred sites in particular Tokyo neighborhoods as representative case studies that constitute a vehicle for probing and reevaluating the macro-level regarding the overall meaning and significance of religiosity in contemporary Japan. Considering the two conundrums of religious structure and motivation in tandem helps answer the overriding question about sacred space: What makes religiosity “tick” in an increasingly secular environment that would seem to detract from and cause it to deteriorate?
Anna Sun
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155579
- eISBN:
- 9781400846085
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155579.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Is Confucianism a religion? If so, why do most Chinese think it isn't? This book traces the birth and growth of the idea of Confucianism as a world religion. The book begins at Oxford, in the late ...
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Is Confucianism a religion? If so, why do most Chinese think it isn't? 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. The book 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. The book 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, this book will engage all those interested in religion and global politics at the beginning of the Chinese century.Less
Is Confucianism a religion? If so, why do most Chinese think it isn't? 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. The book 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. The book 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, this book will engage all those interested in religion and global politics at the beginning of the Chinese century.
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156638
- eISBN:
- 9780199785292
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156638.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
From Chennai (Madras), India to London and Washington D.C., contemporary urban middle-class Hindus invest earnings, often derived from the global economy, into the construction or renovation of ...
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From Chennai (Madras), India to London and Washington D.C., contemporary urban middle-class Hindus invest earnings, often derived from the global economy, into the construction or renovation of temples. South Indians often lead such efforts to re-establish authentic temples that nonetheless become sites for innovative communities, new visions of the Gods, and distinctive middle-class religious sensibilities. Although a part of the much-discussed resurgence of Hinduism, Gods and their ritual worship — not nationalistic ideology — center these enterprises. This book aims to go beyond the more common analytical starting points of identity, multiculturalism, transnationalism, or globalism to understand contemporary Hinduism. In both conversation and contention with current theory, the book highlights the Gods, their shrines, and the middle-class people who re-establish them. Using surveys of modern temples in Chennai, London, and Washington D.C. patronized by South Indians, it focuses on the ubiquity of certain Gods and Goddesses — but not all — their portrayal, the architecture of their new “homes”, and their place in the modern urban commercial and social landscapes. Arguing that this migration of Gods in tandem with people is not new, the book traces current temple architecture to Indian merchants who constructed new temples within a decade of the founding of Madras by the East India Trading Company in the initial era of the current world economic system. In the process, it questions the interrelationships between ritual worship/religious edifices, the rise of the modern world economy, and the ascendancy of the great middle class in this new era of globalization.Less
From Chennai (Madras), India to London and Washington D.C., contemporary urban middle-class Hindus invest earnings, often derived from the global economy, into the construction or renovation of temples. South Indians often lead such efforts to re-establish authentic temples that nonetheless become sites for innovative communities, new visions of the Gods, and distinctive middle-class religious sensibilities. Although a part of the much-discussed resurgence of Hinduism, Gods and their ritual worship — not nationalistic ideology — center these enterprises. This book aims to go beyond the more common analytical starting points of identity, multiculturalism, transnationalism, or globalism to understand contemporary Hinduism. In both conversation and contention with current theory, the book highlights the Gods, their shrines, and the middle-class people who re-establish them. Using surveys of modern temples in Chennai, London, and Washington D.C. patronized by South Indians, it focuses on the ubiquity of certain Gods and Goddesses — but not all — their portrayal, the architecture of their new “homes”, and their place in the modern urban commercial and social landscapes. Arguing that this migration of Gods in tandem with people is not new, the book traces current temple architecture to Indian merchants who constructed new temples within a decade of the founding of Madras by the East India Trading Company in the initial era of the current world economic system. In the process, it questions the interrelationships between ritual worship/religious edifices, the rise of the modern world economy, and the ascendancy of the great middle class in this new era of globalization.
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156638
- eISBN:
- 9780199785292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156638.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Colonial Madras surrounded and transformed ancient Mylapore into an inner-city neighborhood. This chapter traces the complexities of the modern reconstruction of “Tradition” through the Kapaleeswara ...
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Colonial Madras surrounded and transformed ancient Mylapore into an inner-city neighborhood. This chapter traces the complexities of the modern reconstruction of “Tradition” through the Kapaleeswara Temple at Mylapore's center. Rare maps from the 1800s show that a new class of landholder-businessmen (Mudaliars), acting as Company middlemen (Dubash), rebuilt the current temple in the mid 1700s on the model of revered poetic descriptions of its ancient namesake but with its Lord, Shiva, now mirroring rising bourgeois values. Later, with the emergence of the Brahman-dominated bureaucracy and the equally Brahman-centered recreation of classical Sanskritic “Hinduism”, the prestige of temples declined. Soon Brahmans dominated Mylapore, which Milton Singer designated in the 1970s as the epicenter of the “Great Tradition”. Today, ritual life at the Kapaleeswara Temple thrives while neighborhood groups renovate surrounding temples, recreate rituals, and in the process rebuild a common middle-class religiosity, which encompasses but also subverts the Great Tradition with rural modalities.Less
Colonial Madras surrounded and transformed ancient Mylapore into an inner-city neighborhood. This chapter traces the complexities of the modern reconstruction of “Tradition” through the Kapaleeswara Temple at Mylapore's center. Rare maps from the 1800s show that a new class of landholder-businessmen (Mudaliars), acting as Company middlemen (Dubash), rebuilt the current temple in the mid 1700s on the model of revered poetic descriptions of its ancient namesake but with its Lord, Shiva, now mirroring rising bourgeois values. Later, with the emergence of the Brahman-dominated bureaucracy and the equally Brahman-centered recreation of classical Sanskritic “Hinduism”, the prestige of temples declined. Soon Brahmans dominated Mylapore, which Milton Singer designated in the 1970s as the epicenter of the “Great Tradition”. Today, ritual life at the Kapaleeswara Temple thrives while neighborhood groups renovate surrounding temples, recreate rituals, and in the process rebuild a common middle-class religiosity, which encompasses but also subverts the Great Tradition with rural modalities.
Joanne Punzo Waghorne
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195156638
- eISBN:
- 9780199785292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195156638.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Three general reconfigurations of sacred space — sometimes interlocking, sometimes in tension — emerge from the new style and sensibilities of contemporary global Hindu temples with implications for ...
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Three general reconfigurations of sacred space — sometimes interlocking, sometimes in tension — emerge from the new style and sensibilities of contemporary global Hindu temples with implications for the general history of religions. The first is the emergence of a new sense of the sacred sphere, of temple space within an urban environment dominated by the ownership of houses and not land or even natural phenomenon. Second, even the architecture of both space and the polity of new temples reflects democratic models of civic organizations, which leads to new space for lectures and education. Third, complex middle-class religious sensibilities emerge within the temples, which affect the style and polity of the temple and even the faces of the deities, often creating a new visual theology. How will these living sacred spaces of the temple matter for historians of religions? Will this kind of public, and in many ways empirical, sacrality once again challenge the field to reconsider material sacrality?Less
Three general reconfigurations of sacred space — sometimes interlocking, sometimes in tension — emerge from the new style and sensibilities of contemporary global Hindu temples with implications for the general history of religions. The first is the emergence of a new sense of the sacred sphere, of temple space within an urban environment dominated by the ownership of houses and not land or even natural phenomenon. Second, even the architecture of both space and the polity of new temples reflects democratic models of civic organizations, which leads to new space for lectures and education. Third, complex middle-class religious sensibilities emerge within the temples, which affect the style and polity of the temple and even the faces of the deities, often creating a new visual theology. How will these living sacred spaces of the temple matter for historians of religions? Will this kind of public, and in many ways empirical, sacrality once again challenge the field to reconsider material sacrality?
Damian Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178562
- eISBN:
- 9780199785070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178564.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter introduces Kensington Temple and its senior pastor, Colin Dye. It shows how the life of the congregation reflects the religious trends discussed in chapters 2 and 3, such as the ...
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This chapter introduces Kensington Temple and its senior pastor, Colin Dye. It shows how the life of the congregation reflects the religious trends discussed in chapters 2 and 3, such as the increasing role of consumer choice in the everyday spirituality of born-again Christians. Kensington Temple also reproduces the conflicting demands of high- and low-tension religion. The second half of the chapter shows how Dye and his flock attempt to reconcile these demands by engaging in the rational management of charisma.Less
This chapter introduces Kensington Temple and its senior pastor, Colin Dye. It shows how the life of the congregation reflects the religious trends discussed in chapters 2 and 3, such as the increasing role of consumer choice in the everyday spirituality of born-again Christians. Kensington Temple also reproduces the conflicting demands of high- and low-tension religion. The second half of the chapter shows how Dye and his flock attempt to reconcile these demands by engaging in the rational management of charisma.
Damian Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178562
- eISBN:
- 9780199785070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178564.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter explores the different strategies used by leaders and members of Kensington Temple with regard to the subject of the End Times. It examines the “official” treatment of apocalyptic ...
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This chapter explores the different strategies used by leaders and members of Kensington Temple with regard to the subject of the End Times. It examines the “official” treatment of apocalyptic doctrines in sermons and Bible classes, and the “unofficial” material sold in the church bookshop. At both levels, there is evidence that the transmission of millenarian ideas is affected by the personal dispositions of pastors and church employees, many of whom find this a difficult area to manage. Drawing on interviews with ordinary church members and survey data, the different strategies employed by worshippers in dealing with potentially troublesome apocalyptic ideas are examined. These include a policy of ignoring them, a focus on explanatory rather than predictive motifs, and the use of language that reduces millenarianism to the unthreatening proportions of a professional discourse.Less
This chapter explores the different strategies used by leaders and members of Kensington Temple with regard to the subject of the End Times. It examines the “official” treatment of apocalyptic doctrines in sermons and Bible classes, and the “unofficial” material sold in the church bookshop. At both levels, there is evidence that the transmission of millenarian ideas is affected by the personal dispositions of pastors and church employees, many of whom find this a difficult area to manage. Drawing on interviews with ordinary church members and survey data, the different strategies employed by worshippers in dealing with potentially troublesome apocalyptic ideas are examined. These include a policy of ignoring them, a focus on explanatory rather than predictive motifs, and the use of language that reduces millenarianism to the unthreatening proportions of a professional discourse.
Damian Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178562
- eISBN:
- 9780199785070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178564.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines the significance of the year 2000 for Western society, evangelical Christianity, and Kensington Temple. It argues that in all three arenas, the millennium raised hopes that had ...
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This chapter examines the significance of the year 2000 for Western society, evangelical Christianity, and Kensington Temple. It argues that in all three arenas, the millennium raised hopes that had already been disappointed by the time it dawned. At Kensington Temple, a scheme to create a network of 2,000 churches by 2000, heavy with apocalyptic resonances, had to be abandoned in 1999; the theological maneuvering that followed illustrates what can happen when a charismatic strategy fails.Less
This chapter examines the significance of the year 2000 for Western society, evangelical Christianity, and Kensington Temple. It argues that in all three arenas, the millennium raised hopes that had already been disappointed by the time it dawned. At Kensington Temple, a scheme to create a network of 2,000 churches by 2000, heavy with apocalyptic resonances, had to be abandoned in 1999; the theological maneuvering that followed illustrates what can happen when a charismatic strategy fails.
Damian Thompson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195178562
- eISBN:
- 9780199785070
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195178564.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter is divided into two sections. The first examines the wider lessons to be drawn from the study of millenarianism at Kensington Temple. The second section argues that although the Problem ...
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This chapter is divided into two sections. The first examines the wider lessons to be drawn from the study of millenarianism at Kensington Temple. The second section argues that although the Problem of the End has manifested itself throughout the history of millenarianism, it is becoming more acute. It concludes that secularization weakens millenarianism in a more direct way than it weakens other forms of religious consensus.Less
This chapter is divided into two sections. The first examines the wider lessons to be drawn from the study of millenarianism at Kensington Temple. The second section argues that although the Problem of the End has manifested itself throughout the history of millenarianism, it is becoming more acute. It concludes that secularization weakens millenarianism in a more direct way than it weakens other forms of religious consensus.
