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Love, responsibility, otherness: Finnish church leaders and interreligious dialogue
No full textIn this article, the author will focus on the subject matter addressed in this appeal, i.e. peace and dialogue. The aim is to analyse how these Christian leaders view the role of religions, and especially interreligious dialogue, in creating and promoting peace. The author will begin by presenting the Peace Appeal and the interviews which form the empirical material upon which the research is based. The author will then concentrate on five issues which emerge from the analysis of this material as being especially important: the question of peace, love and reconciliation in a religious perspective; the question of otherness in interfaith dialogue; the relationship between dialogue and mission; the question of God’s presence in other religions; and personal responsibility and action. Emphasis is placed on presenting and analysing the empirical material, but the topics are also tied to a theoretical framework based on current thoughts within moral philosophy and the dialogue philosophy of Martin Buber. The discussion is, in conclusion, summarised with the help of the three notions which form the topic of this article: love, responsibility and otherness
On beliefs in non-shamanic guardian spirits among Saamis
No full textOften the saiva (or saivo) spirits have been defined as the guardian and helping spirits of the shaman. In this way, Saami shamanism appears as a counterpart to shamanism in Siberia and North America where guardian-spirit beliefs have similarly played a distinctive role. These beliefs should be considered as one of the constituent elements of shamanism. However, the concept of guardian spirits is not necessarily limited to shamans. The intention of this paper is to try to prove the occurrence of a non-shamanic guardian-spirit belief among the Saamis, and to discuss its religio-historical import. Apparently not only shamans but also other Saamis formerly owned guardian spirits that were handed down in the family. Among the western Saamis these spirits were anthropomorphic (if we may believe the sources), among the eastern Skolt Saamis they were zoomorphic. There is also some information on the purchase of guardian spirits. It seems, furthermore, that some persons—not just the shamans—could achieve guardian spirits through their own efforts. The reasons why the occurrence of this non-shamanic guardian-spirit belief has been so slightly dealt with by research are in particular the following. Firstly, scholarly interest has been directed towards shamanism and the role of the guardian spirits within the shamanic complex. Secondly, the early source writers turned primarily to the shamans in order to secure information on Saami religion, and the shamans of course described saivo from their own points of interest. Seen from a comprehensive circumpolar and circumboreal perspective, the Saami saivo complex may be interpreted as a European counterpart to the North American Indian belief in guardian spirits
Contesting spiritual dimensions of health: salutogenic approaches to post-secular quests for quality of life
No full textThis article dwells on three key concepts: spirituality (religion, meaning making), health (being well, wellness) and the contemporary post-secular individual search for significance. Within a classic salutogenic and health promotional frame of reference, dimensions of health are usually referred to in terms of the physical, mental, social and spiritual. Following development of the classical approaches, cultural, ecological and existential subcategories have been added to the concepts in order to clarify the contents. Scholars in the field of health promotion argue that these dimensions of health and well-being are, in a general way, closely interrelated. This article explores the ways in which spirituality and well-being interact. It is influenced by the author’s previous research in religious studies and current experiences of health promotion work. This article is divided into five sections: salutogenesis and health promotion; quality of life and spirituality; previous research on religion and health; indifference and fundamentalism, and some final remarks
Embracing the lash: pain and ritual as spiritual tools
No full textWhilst the use of flagellation for the purposes of purification, punishment or redemptive salvific activity has long been accepted in Christianity, its use in newly emergent religions such as Wicca, where the religious use of pain cannot be sidelined as an historical aberration but must instead be understood within the context of (post)modern spirituality, has elicited little debate. Whilst purification and, to a far lesser extent, punishment still have their place, in Wicca submission to pain must also be explored in terms of initiatory ordeal, as well as an opportunity for transcendence and as arousal, sensation, and energy generation. However, voluntary submission to the infliction of pain, especially in order to enable religious/spiritual experience, tends to be regarded as anathema and as such, remains largely hidden, concealed behind a veil of categorisations of sexuality and psychopathology. Whilst acknowledging that BDSM remains taboo amongst most practitioners of Wicca, this 60 year old religion contains within its practices elements of techniques often associated with BDSM, techniques which, though having an established history in the world’s religions, are now being pioneered by a small cohort of priests and priestesses within the ritual framework of a twentieth/twenty-first century religion. This article concentrates on those elements now more or less stripped of their association with medieval Christianity, and more commonly framed within the context/s of BDSM.
"What shall I do? The more I kill the greater becomes their number!": the suppression of Anabaptism in early sixteenth century
No full textThe Anabaptist movement was a ‘common man’s reform movement’ in Luther’s Europe. The Anabaptists wanted to reform the church according to New Testament guidelines more radically than either Luther or Zwingli were ready to do. For example, they baptised adults instead of infants, because they had observed that only adults were baptised in the Gospels, including the baptism of Jesus. In reformation Europe any adults baptised by these reformers would have already received baptism as infants. It was this practise of re-baptising members of the Catholic Church that gave them the name ‘Anabaptists’. ‘Re-baptism’ was a heresy deserving death, and to classify these radical reformers thus made them legally subject to execution. In this article the author first explains what she means by the ‘Anabaptist movement’. This includes an introduction to early Swiss Anabaptism and to the way in which it was speedily persecuted by the religious authorities. This persecution caused flight and that in turn caused the movement to spread. As the number of Anabaptists increased to thousands, so did the persecution by torture and death. Stories of some Anabaptist martyrs are recounted during the course of this article. The author also looks at the various justifications for the burning of heretics, as well as at the corresponding theological understanding by those who were burned
A Swedish female folk healer from the beginning of the 18th century
No full textCatharina Fagerberg was a tailor's daughter from Marbäck in Småland, South-Sweden, where she was born in 1700. For a period of seven years she was afflicted with severe vexations of spirit, and was visited by blasphemous and murderous thoughts. In January, 1727, physical weakness set in; she had a stitch in her side and other troubles that kept her sleepless for eleven weeks. For a while they stopped, but on Easter Monday while in church Catharina experienced great difficulty in breathing and mental agony. On the 5th of August, 1727, as Catharina was sitting at her loom she had an attack of yawning and convulsions felt in an unusual state, and then was addressed by a 'good spirit', but from inside her and without her perceiving any voice: "You are puzzled by this yawning. I want now to tell you what is the matter with you, namely, that several unclean spirits dwell in your body and cause your illness and your pains”. She devoted herself to steady prayer and Bible-reading
'Are you content with being just ordinary? Or do you wish to make progress and be outstanding?' New ritual practices in contemporary Sweden
No full textThis article examines the emergence and features of new practices in contemporary Sweden, which are being sold to individuals as therapy or coaching in order for them find their ‘inner potential’ as a means to achieve health, self-realisation and prosperity in life as well as in work. The focus on the inner self and the formation of a new personhood demands new ritual creativity, responding to the individual’s longing for intense experiences of transformation and the authentic self. The development of a new outlook on the self is thus the focus of these practices, that is to say, individuals are encouraged to stage new ways to perform themselves. In this construction of a new self, or the image of an ideal self, the layman therapist or coach is very much in demand. In order to discuss these new practices, the Health Academy Europe (Hälsoakademin Europa) is chosen. One reason for a closer study of this enterprise is that it was one of the coaching enterprises chosen in 2009 by the Swedish public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) to give employment coaching, when the Swedish government allocated 300 million euros to buy the services of 1,500 coaches to help approximately 250,000 unemployed Swedes to get work.These new practices could be classified as new rituals, adapted to late modern society with a focus on the individual, the inner self and prosperity. The ambition is to encourage the participant to design a new, empowered self in order to turn dreams into reality and to find hope for better circumstances in life
Art, Music and Religious Experience in Libation Pouring of Akan Religion
No full textThe Akans of Ghana are traditionally accustomed to celebrating different rituals which are enshrined in their cultural life. Libation pouring, which accompanies the celebration of great rituals, amidst the subsidence of the sound of music and dance, can display a special art in religion. The primary objective of this paper is to examine libation as a ritual experience, and in so doing to draw attention to its art forms and relevance as regards the psychological significance for the Akan society which practises it. What beliefs connect the pouring of libation in Akan society? What are the occasions for practising this ritual? Are there some distinctions in the artistic prayer of libation? These questions lead directly to the proposition which states that libation is able to generate some forms of religious experience. It is then argued that libation ritual has psychological consequences beneficial to the group and the individual who privately engages in it.