Publikationsserver der UB Marburg
Not a member yet
601 research outputs found
Sort by
Hector Avalos (ed.): Introduction to the U.S. Latina and Latino Religious Experience
No full textThe editor of this work is concious of opening up a new field of study with this collection of twelve articles by various authors. For this rather special reason it is defined in the title as an "introduction", but the reality is that it is an extremely interesting multi-authored survey with two points of entry. First there are contributions focused on particular ethnic groups: Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican, Salvadoran and Guatemalan. In a second group come essays on the "U.S. Latina and Latino" religious experience as related to specific themes: art, film, health care, literature, music and politics. A final theme, "women", is only explored in the "Latina" variant, as if men and women can be treated in isolation when the gender question is raised. It is quite impossible to review the individual essays here, but the overall concept is imaginative and the editor has done extremely well to bring the contributions together from various quarters. In both groups of essays there is a wonderful liveliness, produced by the excitement of opening up this field over a broad range, and inspired by the vitality of the currently observable religious phenomena themselves
John Howard Yoder: The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited. (Radical Traditions. Theology in a Postcritical Key)
No full textThe Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited contains ten essays by the Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder. They have been posthumously edited by the Methodist theologian and Dean for Ecumenical & Interfaith Programs at the University of Indianapolis, Michael G. Cartwright, and the Jewish philosopher and theologian Peter Ochs, Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at the University of Virginia. Yoder’s articles are predominantly based on lectures which he gave between 1970 and 1995 at conferences or universities in the United States. The pacifist theologian had already revised the partially unpublished texts to prepare their publication, and collected them in the “Shalom Desktop Packet” before he died unexpectedly on the 30th December 1997
Scientology: Religion or racket?
No full textThe name Scientology (a copyrighted and registered trademark) brings to mind a wide array of claims, observations, impressions, findings, and documents, reflecting a complex and controversial history. The religion/not religion debate over various groups and organizations, prominent in the Western media over the past thirty years, has usually presented the public and politicians with a religion versus "sect" or "cult" dichotomy. The classification issue in this article is framed differently.Hopkins (1969) offered us the terms of the debate in the bluntest and most direct way when he asked in the title of an article in Christianity Today more than thirty years ago "Scientology: Religion or racket?" Read today, the Hopkins article sounds naive and charitable, but this question still stands before us, and yet deserves an answe
Religion und Recht in Japan: Pluralismus, Toleranz und Konkurrenz
No full texty Legal issues relating to religion have been a matter of dispute in Japan from the nineteenth century up to the present day, and the Japanese experience in this regard continues to be relevant to international discussions in this area. The article provides a convenient introduction to the subject for readers who are not specialised in the study of Japanese religions. At the same time it contains new materials based on personal observation, particularly in connection with the imperial enthronement ceremonies (daijôsai) which took place in 1990 and which have previously been little documented. Also considered, against this political and legal background, is the underlying question as to how the plurality of religions is currently regarded in Japan. Attention is drawn to the markedly factional character of social institutions in this as in other fields. At the same time it is widely recognised in Japan today that the freedom of religions to exist in their plurality, and in some cases to cooperate with each other, can only be secured on the basis of equitable legal provisions which are respected by all concerned. The section headings may be translated as follows: developmental and secularisation processes in the history of Japanese religions, the plurality of religions as understood in East Asian thought patterns; Japan\u27s current constitution - separation and freedom; borderline problems in the separation of religion and the state; the law on religious corporations; conclusions - tolerance, columnarization (verzuiling) and competition
Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile
No full textIn order to test conventional wisdom about modern Satanists, an online questionnaire was used to gather data from 140 respondents. Based on this data, a demographic and ideological profile was constructed which indicated that the statistically-average Satanist is an unmarried, white male in his mid-twenties with a few years of college. He became involved in Satanism through something he read in high school, and has been a self-identified Satanist for more than seven years. Raised Christian, he explored one non-Satanist religious group beyond the one in which he was raised before settling into Satanism. His view of Satan is some variety of non-theistic humanism and he practices magic. The length of average involvement and the often reflective responses to openended questions indicates that, far from being confined to adolescent rebels, many Satanists are reflective individuals who--despite the fact that youthful rebellion was usually a factor in the beginning--have come to appropriate Satanism as a mature religious option
Rüdiger Schott: Orakel und Opferkulte bei Völkern der westafrikanischen Savanne Nordrhein-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Geisteswissenschaften. Vorträge G 348.
No full textThe title of this published lecture barely does justice to its contents. On the one hand the publication gives a detailed account of its subject, namely oracles and sacrifices among peoples of the west African savanna, in particular among the Bulsa in northern Ghana and the Lyela in Burkina Faso. On the other hand the account is a mature reflection relating to research spread over many years and makes significant methodological points concerning participant observation
The Earth is a Dangerous Place - The World View of the Aetherius Society
No full textCurrent UFO accounts display many of the themes that have been central in most, if not all, of the world\u27s religions (Saliba 1995). The widespread belief in flying saucers and the religious connotations ascribed to their presence have contributed to the emergence of several religious organizations based on the existence and activities of extraterrestrial intelligences who are believed to communicate with select human beings. Moreover, many UFO experiences have been frightening and foreboding. Reports of abductions (cf. Jacobs 1993; Mack 1994) are noted also for stressing the dangers that aliens present to a scientifically inferior human race and for the imminent apocalyptic scenario they so often graphically depict (Whitmore 1993). The drastic demise of the members of Heaven\u27s Gate has lent support to the popular view that UFO religions are dangerous apocalyptic cults and may lead their members to commit suicide or other forms of violence
Joe Nickell: Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions and Healing Cures
No full textDer Beschäftigung mit Wundern, mutmaßlich paranormalen oder übernatürlichen Phänomenen, haftete für lange Zeit der Ruch des Unseriösen an. Die meisten, um ihre akademische Seriosität bemühten Historiker und Religionsforscher, ja selbst Theologen drückten sich um das "Schmuddelthema" herum, ignorierten die zahllosen Wunderberichte in den Quellen und taten sie mit dem Hinweis auf den Aberglauben des ungebildeten vormodernen Menschen ab, den zu bedienen die Kirche vielleicht allzu leichtfertig oder gar berechnend nachgekommen sei. Auf der anderen Seite erlebte der Glaube an das Übernatürliche in den Kreisen des gebildeten Bürgertums mit dem Okkultismus-Boom des 19. Jahrhunderts eine ungeahnte Renaissance. Schließlich entwickelte sich hiervon angeregt vor allem in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts eine eigene akademische Disziplin, die sich ganz der wissenschaftlichen Erforschung angeblich paranormaler Erscheinungen widmete; die Parapsychologie. Während die Mehrheit der Parapsychologen seither vehement die Existenz paranormaler Phänomene und Fähigkeiten behauptet, ohne bislang eine konsensfähige und kohärente Theorie vorlegen zu können, weisen die meisten Vertreter der wissenschaftlichen Orthodoxie ebenso beharrlich darauf hin, daß die empirische Basis der parapsychologischen Exploration ungenügend, ihre Experimente in der Regel nicht beliebig wiederholbar, und ihre Erklärungsmodelle inkonsistent und spekulativ seien. Die Fronten scheinen verhärtet, und es erhebt sich die Frage, welchen Gewinn die Beschäftigung mit den behaupteten Phänomenen für einen bringen kann, wenn man nicht gerade als betroffener Parapsychologe an der Weiterexistenz und finanziellen Förderung seiner eigenen Forschungseinrichtung interessiert ist. Allerdings sollte man auch nicht die Emotionen unterschätzen, die bei der weitgehend fruchtlosen Diskussion im Spiel sind. In der Wissenschaft geht es eben nicht nur um Geld und Posten, sondern auch und insbesondere um die Propagierung und Durchsetzung eigener Welt- und Wissenschaftsbilder
»When we enter into my Father\u27s spacecraft«. Cargoistic hopes and millenarian cosmologies in new religious UFO movements
No full textMillenarian movements await an imminent, collective and ultimate liberation, usually (but not exclusively)within this world. This liberation implies the founding of a perfect age or pure country or kingdom, and the construction of a Homo Novus. In a similar way, the so-called "Cargo-Cults" of Melanesia or New Guinea relate to a dawning state of material, organisational and spiritual well-being, and the expected abundance of supernaturally acquired supplies can be turned into the central characteristic of the "manifestation of the Millennium" (Trompf). In many contemporary New Religious Movements, apocalyptic interventions by "space aliens" and UFOs form a central belief. Amidst hopes for a restitution of the lost paradise, one can also find expectations of the cargoist type: alien "supplies" and supernatural "technologies", together with paranormal spiritual faculties like telepathy and bilocation, can exercise a strong exotic charm. The different expressions of such cargoistic hopes shed light on the underlying cosmological framework, which often incorporates basic patterns of the apocalyptic (pre-millennial or post-millennial) traditions of Christianity. On the one hand, there are UFO believers who expect an imminentsalvation within this world by means of an extraterrestrial transfer of technology and spirituality: millions of space ships "will descend", and "Earth is to be transformed, quickly, into a paradise beyond compare ... Heaven on Earth" (The Ground Crew Project; cf. Ashtar Command, etc.). Only a short rapture or Big Beam into the flying saucers will be necessary to secure the earthly humans during the metamorphosis of "Mother Earth". But finally, there will be an overwhelming physical and spiritual abundance on this precious intergalactic "showcase"
CONTESTED POSITIONS: MODERNITY, POSTMODERNITY, AND THE FEMINIST CRITIQUE OF SAINTLY ETHICS
No full textSeveral years ago, feminist theorist Nancy Hartsock illuminated the central weakness of postmodernist theory with a simple question: ""Why is it, exactly at the moment when so many of us who have been silenced begin to demand the right to name ourselves, to act as subjects rather than objects of history, that just then the concept of subjecthood becomes \u27problematic\u27?"1 Although posed from a specifically feminist perspective, Hartsock\u27s question touches the underlying regressive political tendencies of postmodernism which come to light most vividly in its treatment of Enlightenment conceptualizations of subjectivity, or human agency, and its role in the production of history. The repudiation of the subject and autonomous moral agency occupies a central place in postmodern thought. Its firm insistence on the \u27death of the subject\u27 has disturbing political and ethical implications not only for women and their struggles for freedom, but for any subjugated group. Rosi Braidotti\u27s description of postmodernism\u27s regressive and oppressive tendencies is valid beyond the concerns of an emancipatory feminist theory: "contemporary philosophical discussions on the death of the knowing subject...have the immediate effect of concealing and undermining the attempts of women to find a theoretical voice of their own...in order to deconstruct the subject one must first have gained the right to speak as one.