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Anne Koch: Das Verstehen des Fremden. Eine Simulationstheorie im Anschluss an W.V.O. Quine
No full textSei es als Verstehen fremder Äußerungen, fremder Kultpraktiken oder fremder Überzeugungssysteme, sei es, dass man sich der Fremdheit bewusst aussetzt, oder ihr ungeplant begegnet: Die Problematik des Verstehens des Fremden ist nicht nur für die Arbeitspraxis der Religionswissenschaftler, sondern auch für religionswissenschaftliche Theoriebildung selbst von unmittelbarer Bedeutung. Doch nicht nur im engeren religionswissenschaftlichen Kontext, auch durch die Globalisierung und Ihre Folgen wird es immer mehr zur ‚xenologischen’ Herausforderung, als fremd erfahrene Überzeugungs- und Glaubenssysteme soweit als möglich zu verstehen: auch unter den erschwerten Bedingungen eines von Misstrauen bestimmten Kontextes. Gibt es aber in der westlichen Theoriebildung ein angemessenes Modell zum Verstehen des Fremden, das sich den Schwierigkeiten stellt, ohne angesichts dieser nur noch die ‚Nicht-Verstehbarkeit’ des Fremden zu konstatieren
Modern Constructions of Islamic Identity. The Case of Second Generation Muslim Women in Germany.
No full textSince the beginning of the nineties several free Islamic Women\u27s associations have been developing and influencing Islamic life in Germany. Particularly the grown-up daughters of the first generation of Turkish foreign workers are engaged in participating in shaping German Islam. The following research based on a qualitative-empirical approach examined the thesis that the Islamic identity constructions of Sunni-Turkish women who have grown-up in Germany are strongly influenced by structures of modern secular-Christian society. I present data for three single cases of second generation Muslim women between the ages of 22 and 24. These cases show various ways of understanding Islamic faith. They are representations of three types of identity construction which I found in a larger study of modern Islamic "Lebensführung" (to use Max Weber\u27s phrase): 1) an exclusivistic type of Islamic identity, aiming at the Islamisation of all spheres of life, 2) a "universalising" type of Islamic identity, aiming at a general ethical and spiritual support for everyday life, and 3) a modern but "traditionalising" type of Islamic identity that maintains the rituals and norms bound to the family. These three types are all full of aspects of a modern way of life, but represent different attitudes towards the normative expectation of Western society that action and thinking should be individualised and rationalised
Reflecting on the plurality of religions
No full textThis article consists of the full text of an opening lecture for a conference organized by the International Interfaith Centre, at Westminster College, Oxford, England UK, on 19th and 2oth April 1995. A shorter version of the text appeared in the journal World Faiths Encounter 14 (July 1996) pp. 3-11 (published by the World Congress of Faiths). The academic study of religions and dialogue between religions or "interfaith" activities are by no means the same thing. Yet they share one rather fundamental perception, namely that religions are plural in number. The article reflects on the tensions and relations between the two perspectives on the basis of this shared presupposition. It also calls for a rewriting of the history of the comparative study of religions, taking account in particular of the political and ideological background
Schisms of Swami Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga
No full textAlthough Swami Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga is a relatively new movement it has had a surprising amount of offshoots and schismatic groups claiming connection to its lineage. This paper discusses two schisms of Swami Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga, Nityananda’s Shanti Mandir and Shankarananda’s Shiva Yoga. These are proposed as important schisms from Siddha Yoga because both swamis held senior positions in Muktananda’s original movement. The paper discusses the main episodes that appeared to cause the schism within Swami Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga and the subsequent growth of Shanti Mandir and Shiva Yoga. Nityananda’s Shanti Mandir and Shankarananda’s Shiva Yoga may be considered as schisms developing from a leadership dispute rather than doctrinal differences. These groups may also present a challenge to Gurumayi’s Siddha Yoga as sole holder of the lineage of Swami Muktananda. Because of movements such as Shanti Mandir and Shiva Yoga, Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga Practice continues and grows, although, it is argued in this paper that it now grows through a variety of organisations
Chris Hann and the "Civil Religion" Group: The Postsocialist Religious Question. Faith and Power in Central Asia and East-Central Europe
No full textAs the editor states in the first sentence of Chapter 1 "The title of this volume is of course a conceit. How could there possibly be a single unified ‘religious question’ in all the countries that, until recently, were socialist?" This reviewer agrees with the editor, for indeed there is only a single question, if it is a question, on the new presupposition of "post-socialism". In fact what we find is that the various regions of the old regime, which have in many cases became independent countries, are quite diverse in their religious culture, as indeed they were before the end of the Soviet Union
Scientology -- Is this a Religion?
No full textAlthough some social scientists insist that Scientology is a religion, the more appropriate position to take is that the organization is a multi-faceted transnational corporation that has religion as only one of its many components. Other components include political aspirations, business ventures, cultural productions, pseudo-medical practices, pseudo-psychiatric claims, and (among its most devoted members who have joined the Sea Organization), an alternative family structure. Sea Organization\u27s job demands appear to allow little time for quality child rearing. Most disturbing, however, about Sea Organization life is that members can be subject to extremely severe and intrusive punishments through security checks, internal hearings called "Committees of Evidence," and a forced labour and re-indoctrination program known as the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) and its harshest companion, the RPF\u27s RPF. Taken together, these harsh and intrusive punishments likely violate a number of human rights clauses as outlined by two United Nations statements. This is a revised and corrected version of a shorter presentation given at the 27th Deutscher Evangelischer Kirchentag, June 20, 1997, Leipzig, Germany
Genuflect to Progress: Islam, Modernity, & Time
No full textThe so-called dilemma confronting “Islam and the West,” however justified, is currently the topic of much debate and speculation. This paper examines “Western” conceptions of time, juxtaposing them with their “Islamic” counterparts as elucidated by several contemporary Muslim theologians and scholars. Through a careful analysis of the contemporary dynamics of modernity and the challenges it poses, this paper seeks to develop an understanding of the framework within which many Muslims have encountered Western thought, with particular emphasis on the difficult reconciliation of past and present, and the varied responses that it engenders
China und der Konfuzianismus - Einige Aspekte ihrer Rezeptionsgeschichte in Deutschland aus Anlass der Ehrenpromotion von Helmut Schmidt durch die Philipps-Universität Marburg
No full textIn February 2007 Helmut Schmidt, the former German Chancellor, received an honorary doctorate at Marburg University. To mark the occasion he gave a lecture entitled "The Responsibility and Conscience of the Politician" in which he emphasized the importance of a system of morals and values based only on rational insights, and not on religious faith. Schmidt argues that Confucianism is a kind of philosophy which is grounded, not in religion, but in rational deliberations, and that it is therefore nowadays of high interest in a world of growing religious conflicts. The present article shows that this reception of Confucianism has a long tradition in the European, and especially the German history of philosophy. It started with Mateo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary to China at the end of the 16 th century, and reached its peak during the early Enlightenment movement with Leibniz and Wolf. After a long period of decreasing interest in Confucianism, the formation of the science of religions, sinology and sociology as academic disciplines led to a new interest in research on Confucianism and its religious roots. Max Weber’s studies on Daoism and Confucianism were more sophisticated, and open to the complexity of Chinese traditions. Schmidt’s interpretation of Confucianism as a practical philosophy represents a tradition which has not come to its end. It is the critical view of religions in general which lies behind the image of Confucianism as a rational philosophy without any religious basis, and taken in this way, it is a very Eurocentric view of an important Asian tradition
David L. Gosling: Science and the Indian Tradition. When Einstein met Tagore
No full textDavid Gosling, Physiker und Theologe, ehemals Direktor der Abteilung „Kirche und Gesellschaft“ des Ökumenischer Rat der Kirchen (ÖRK), der Principal des Edwardes College an der Universität von Peshawar/Pakistan ist und Ökologie an der Universität in Cambridge/England lehrt, hat ein interdisziplinäres, interkulturelles und interreligiöses Buch von höchstem Rang geschrieben. Es handelt in meisterhafter Klarheit von keineswegs einfachen Fragen des Verhältnisses von Wissenschaft und Religion. Sein Ausgangspunkt ist die Wahrnehmung, dass Indien sich anschickt, die nächste „Supermacht des Wissens“ zu werden, führend in vielen Wissenschaften und Technologie. Dies zu verstehen, setzt Gosling im 19. Jh. an: 1835 wurde die englische Sprache als Medium des Erziehungssystems eingeführt, welches eine intensive Begegnung der uralten indischen Kultur mit den westlichen Wissenschaften zu Folge hatte. Die daraus entstanden Reformbewegungen übernahmen nicht einfach die westlichen Ansätze, sondern überboten deren neuzeitlichen Dualismus (Subjekt-Objekt-Spaltung und Spezialistentum) durch integriertere Verstehensweisen. Dazu half vor allem die zentrale hinduistische Tradition der Veden (vedānta von veda, „spirituelles Wissen“ und anta, „Endziel“). Die Einzelphänomene wie Wärme, Licht, Klang, Elektrizität und Magnetismus konnten so in immer allgemeinere Theorien überführt werden – eine Entwicklung, die im Westen in Einsteins brillianten Theorien ihren Höhepunkt fand. Für die vedānta -Tradition konvergieren letztlich alle Phänomene im Einen, Brahman. Dies im Einzelnen zu entfalten und zu interpretieren, gelang ausstrahlungskräftigen Figuren wie Rabindranath Tagore, dessen Wirken für das nationale Selbstwertgefühl der Inder, die damals noch unter britischer Kolonialherrschaft standen, eine zentrale Rolle spielte
Peter Schalk: Religion im Spiegelkabinett. Asiatische Religionsgeschichte im Spannungsfeld zwischen Orientalismus und Okzidentalismus
No full textThis is the most recent publication produced by the members of the Arbeitskreis Asiatische Religionsgeschichte (AKAR, founded in 1998), a study group affiliated to the German Association for the History of Religions. It contains twelve contributions (the blurb mistakenly gives eleven) most of which are based on papers presented at a workshop of the study group in Weikersheim (Germany) in February 2002. The book discusses new and critical approaches to Edward Said’s concept of “orientalism”, drawing attention to the manifold and complex discourses and debates about and within religions of different geographical areas in Asia and presenting case studies from different time periods. The book, whose title Religion im Spiegelkabinett can be literally translated as “religion in a maze of mirrors” is mainly written in German, but a detailed abstract of the entire volume by editor-inchief Peter Schalk, as well as abstracts of the ten German articles in English, are helpfully provided for those who need it. Two contributions are presented in English (Michael Pye and Peter Schalk)