David Chidester
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780520297654
- eISBN:
- 9780520969933
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520297654.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Religion: Material Dynamics is a lively resource for thinking about religious materiality and the material study of religion. Deconstructing and reconstructing religion as material categories, social ...
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Religion: Material Dynamics is a lively resource for thinking about religious materiality and the material study of religion. Deconstructing and reconstructing religion as material categories, social formations, and mobile circulations, the book explores the making, ordering, and circulating of religious things. Part 1 revitalizes basic categories—animism and sacred, space and time—by situating them in their material production and testing their analytical viability. Part 2 examines religious formations as configurations of power that operate in material cultures and cultural economies and are most clearly shown in the power relations of colonialism and imperialism. Part 3 explores the material dynamics of circulation through case studies of religious mobility, change, and diffusion as intimate as the body and as vast as the oceans. Each chapter offers insightful orientations and surprising possibilities for studying material religion. Exploring the material dynamics of religion from poetics to politics, the book provides an entry into the study of material religion that speaks to the interests of both students and specialists in religious studies, anthropology, history, and other fields that have made the material turn.Less
Religion: Material Dynamics is a lively resource for thinking about religious materiality and the material study of religion. Deconstructing and reconstructing religion as material categories, social formations, and mobile circulations, the book explores the making, ordering, and circulating of religious things. Part 1 revitalizes basic categories—animism and sacred, space and time—by situating them in their material production and testing their analytical viability. Part 2 examines religious formations as configurations of power that operate in material cultures and cultural economies and are most clearly shown in the power relations of colonialism and imperialism. Part 3 explores the material dynamics of circulation through case studies of religious mobility, change, and diffusion as intimate as the body and as vast as the oceans. Each chapter offers insightful orientations and surprising possibilities for studying material religion. Exploring the material dynamics of religion from poetics to politics, the book provides an entry into the study of material religion that speaks to the interests of both students and specialists in religious studies, anthropology, history, and other fields that have made the material turn.
Pamela Klassen
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520244283
- eISBN:
- 9780520950443
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520244283.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book reveals how liberal Protestants went from being early-twentieth-century medical missionaries seeking to convert others through science and scripture, to becoming vocal critics of missionary ...
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This book reveals how liberal Protestants went from being early-twentieth-century medical missionaries seeking to convert others through science and scripture, to becoming vocal critics of missionary arrogance who experimented with non-western healing modes such as Yoga and Reiki. Drawing on archival and ethnographic sources, the book shows how and why the very notion of healing within North America has been infused with a Protestant “supernatural liberalism”. In the course of coming to their changing vision of healing, liberal Protestants became pioneers three times over: in the struggle against the cultural and medical pathologizing of homosexuality; in the critique of Christian missionary triumphalism; and in the diffusion of an ever-more ubiquitous anthropology of “body, mind, and spirit”. At a time when the political and anthropological significance of Christianity is being hotly debated, the book forcefully argues for a reconsideration of the historical legacies and cultural effects of liberal Protestantism, even for the anthropology of religion itself.Less
This book reveals how liberal Protestants went from being early-twentieth-century medical missionaries seeking to convert others through science and scripture, to becoming vocal critics of missionary arrogance who experimented with non-western healing modes such as Yoga and Reiki. Drawing on archival and ethnographic sources, the book shows how and why the very notion of healing within North America has been infused with a Protestant “supernatural liberalism”. In the course of coming to their changing vision of healing, liberal Protestants became pioneers three times over: in the struggle against the cultural and medical pathologizing of homosexuality; in the critique of Christian missionary triumphalism; and in the diffusion of an ever-more ubiquitous anthropology of “body, mind, and spirit”. At a time when the political and anthropological significance of Christianity is being hotly debated, the book forcefully argues for a reconsideration of the historical legacies and cultural effects of liberal Protestantism, even for the anthropology of religion itself.
Allan Anderson, Michael Bergunder, and Andre Droogers (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520266612
- eISBN:
- 9780520947504
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520266612.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
With its remarkable ability to adapt to different cultures, Pentecostalism has become the world's fastest growing religious movement. More than five hundred million adherents worldwide have reshaped ...
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With its remarkable ability to adapt to different cultures, Pentecostalism has become the world's fastest growing religious movement. More than five hundred million adherents worldwide have reshaped Christianity itself. Yet some fundamental questions in the study of global Pentecostalism, and even in what we call “Pentecostalism,” remain largely unaddressed. Bringing together leading scholars in the social sciences, history, and theology, this unique volume explores these questions for this rapidly growing, multidisciplinary field of study, offering insights and guidance on both theoretical and methodological issues. The first section of the book examines such topics as definitions, essentialism, post colonialism, gender, conversion, and globalization. The second section features contributions from those working in psychology, anthropology, sociology, and history. The third section traces the boundaries of theology from the perspectives of pneumatology, ecumenical studies, inter-religious relations, and empirical theology.Less
With its remarkable ability to adapt to different cultures, Pentecostalism has become the world's fastest growing religious movement. More than five hundred million adherents worldwide have reshaped Christianity itself. Yet some fundamental questions in the study of global Pentecostalism, and even in what we call “Pentecostalism,” remain largely unaddressed. Bringing together leading scholars in the social sciences, history, and theology, this unique volume explores these questions for this rapidly growing, multidisciplinary field of study, offering insights and guidance on both theoretical and methodological issues. The first section of the book examines such topics as definitions, essentialism, post colonialism, gender, conversion, and globalization. The second section features contributions from those working in psychology, anthropology, sociology, and history. The third section traces the boundaries of theology from the perspectives of pneumatology, ecumenical studies, inter-religious relations, and empirical theology.
Robert Wuthnow
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520259157
- eISBN:
- 9780520943063
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520259157.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book looks systematically at American Christianity in relation to globalization. It shows that American Christianity is increasingly influenced by globalization and is, in turn, playing a larger ...
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This book looks systematically at American Christianity in relation to globalization. It shows that American Christianity is increasingly influenced by globalization and is, in turn, playing a larger role in other countries and in U.S. policies and programs abroad. These changes, it argues, can be seen in the growth of support at home for missionaries and churches in other countries and in the large number of Americans who participate in short-term volunteer efforts abroad. These outreaches include building orphanages, starting microbusinesses, and setting up computer networks. Drawing on a comprehensive survey carried out for the writing of this book, as well as several hundred in-depth interviews with church leaders, the text refutes several prevailing stereotypes: that U.S. churches have turned away from the global church and overseas missions, that congregations only look inward, and that the growing voice of religion in areas of foreign policy is primarily evangelical. The book encourages Americans to pay attention to the grass-roots mechanisms by which global ties are created and sustained.Less
This book looks systematically at American Christianity in relation to globalization. It shows that American Christianity is increasingly influenced by globalization and is, in turn, playing a larger role in other countries and in U.S. policies and programs abroad. These changes, it argues, can be seen in the growth of support at home for missionaries and churches in other countries and in the large number of Americans who participate in short-term volunteer efforts abroad. These outreaches include building orphanages, starting microbusinesses, and setting up computer networks. Drawing on a comprehensive survey carried out for the writing of this book, as well as several hundred in-depth interviews with church leaders, the text refutes several prevailing stereotypes: that U.S. churches have turned away from the global church and overseas missions, that congregations only look inward, and that the growing voice of religion in areas of foreign policy is primarily evangelical. The book encourages Americans to pay attention to the grass-roots mechanisms by which global ties are created and sustained.
Christopher White
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520256798
- eISBN:
- 9780520942721
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520256798.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book examines how nineteenth- and twentieth-century American believers rejected older, often evangelical, theological traditions and turned to scientific psychologies to formulate new ideas ...
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This book examines how nineteenth- and twentieth-century American believers rejected older, often evangelical, theological traditions and turned to scientific psychologies to formulate new ideas about mind and spirit and new practices for spiritual growth. The book looks in particular at how a group of liberal believers—including William James and G. Stanley Hall—turned away from traditional Christian orthodoxies and built a revised religious identity based on new psychological motifs and therapies. This is the first book to explain the dramatic rise of new spiritualties of the mind, spiritualties that, by the early twenty-first century, were turning eagerly to scientific and clinical psychological studies to reimagine religion and the problems of religious uncertainty.Less
This book examines how nineteenth- and twentieth-century American believers rejected older, often evangelical, theological traditions and turned to scientific psychologies to formulate new ideas about mind and spirit and new practices for spiritual growth. The book looks in particular at how a group of liberal believers—including William James and G. Stanley Hall—turned away from traditional Christian orthodoxies and built a revised religious identity based on new psychological motifs and therapies. This is the first book to explain the dramatic rise of new spiritualties of the mind, spiritualties that, by the early twenty-first century, were turning eagerly to scientific and clinical psychological studies to reimagine religion and the problems of religious uncertainty.
Ralph Hood, Jr. and W. Paul Williamson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520231474
- eISBN:
- 9780520942714
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520231474.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Although outlawed in many states, serpent handling remains an active religious practice—and one that is far more stereotyped than understood. The authors of this volume have spent fifteen years ...
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Although outlawed in many states, serpent handling remains an active religious practice—and one that is far more stereotyped than understood. The authors of this volume have spent fifteen years touring serpent-handling churches in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, conducting scores of interviews with serpent handlers, and witnessing hundreds of serpent-handling services. In this book chapters present in-depth, comprehensive study of serpent handling. They not only explore facets of this religious practice—including handling, preaching, and the near-death experiences of individuals who were bitten but survived—but also provide an analysis of this phenomenon from historical, social, religious, and psychological perspectives.Less
Although outlawed in many states, serpent handling remains an active religious practice—and one that is far more stereotyped than understood. The authors of this volume have spent fifteen years touring serpent-handling churches in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia, conducting scores of interviews with serpent handlers, and witnessing hundreds of serpent-handling services. In this book chapters present in-depth, comprehensive study of serpent handling. They not only explore facets of this religious practice—including handling, preaching, and the near-death experiences of individuals who were bitten but survived—but also provide an analysis of this phenomenon from historical, social, religious, and psychological perspectives.
Paul Froese
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520255289
- eISBN:
- 9780520942738
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520255289.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book explores the nature of religious faith in a provocative examination of the most massive atheism campaign in human history. That campaign occurred after the 1917 Russian Revolution, when ...
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This book explores the nature of religious faith in a provocative examination of the most massive atheism campaign in human history. That campaign occurred after the 1917 Russian Revolution, when Soviet plans for a new Marxist utopia included the total eradication of all religion. Even though the Soviet Union's attempt to secularize its society was quite successful at crushing the institutional and ritual manifestations of religion, its leaders were surprised at the persistence of religious belief. This account reveals how atheism, when taken to its extreme, can become as dogmatic and oppressive as any religious faith and illuminates the struggle for individual expression in the face of social repression.Less
This book explores the nature of religious faith in a provocative examination of the most massive atheism campaign in human history. That campaign occurred after the 1917 Russian Revolution, when Soviet plans for a new Marxist utopia included the total eradication of all religion. Even though the Soviet Union's attempt to secularize its society was quite successful at crushing the institutional and ritual manifestations of religion, its leaders were surprised at the persistence of religious belief. This account reveals how atheism, when taken to its extreme, can become as dogmatic and oppressive as any religious faith and illuminates the struggle for individual expression in the face of social repression.
Richard Madsen
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520252271
- eISBN:
- 9780520941038
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520252271.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book explores the remarkable religious renaissance that has reformed, revitalized, and renewed the practices of Buddhism and Daoism in Taiwan. The author connects these noteworthy developments ...
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This book explores the remarkable religious renaissance that has reformed, revitalized, and renewed the practices of Buddhism and Daoism in Taiwan. The author connects these noteworthy developments to Taiwan's transition to democracy and the burgeoning needs of its new middle classes. He offers fresh thinking on Asian religions and shows that the public religious revival was not only encouraged by the early phases of the democratic transition but has helped to make that transition successful and sustainable. The author makes his argument through vivid case studies of four groups—Tzu Chi (the Buddhist Compassion Relief Association), Buddha's Light Mountain, Dharma Drum Mountain, and the Enacting Heaven Temple—and his analysis demonstrates that the Taiwan religious renaissance embraces a democratic modernity.Less
This book explores the remarkable religious renaissance that has reformed, revitalized, and renewed the practices of Buddhism and Daoism in Taiwan. The author connects these noteworthy developments to Taiwan's transition to democracy and the burgeoning needs of its new middle classes. He offers fresh thinking on Asian religions and shows that the public religious revival was not only encouraged by the early phases of the democratic transition but has helped to make that transition successful and sustainable. The author makes his argument through vivid case studies of four groups—Tzu Chi (the Buddhist Compassion Relief Association), Buddha's Light Mountain, Dharma Drum Mountain, and the Enacting Heaven Temple—and his analysis demonstrates that the Taiwan religious renaissance embraces a democratic modernity.
David Biale
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520253049
- eISBN:
- 9780520934238
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520253049.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Blood contains extraordinary symbolic power in both Judaism and Christianity — as the blood of sacrifice, of Jesus, of the Jewish martyrs, of menstruation, and more. Yet, though they share the same ...
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Blood contains extraordinary symbolic power in both Judaism and Christianity — as the blood of sacrifice, of Jesus, of the Jewish martyrs, of menstruation, and more. Yet, though they share the same literary, cultural, and religious origins, on the question of blood the two religions have followed quite different trajectories. For instance, while Judaism rejects the eating or drinking of blood, Christianity mandates its symbolic consumption as a central sacrament. How did these two traditions, both originating in the Hebrew Bible's cult of blood sacrifices, veer off in such different directions? The book traces the continuing, changing, and often clashing roles of blood as both symbol and substance through the entire sweep of Jewish and Christian history from Biblical times to the present.Less
Blood contains extraordinary symbolic power in both Judaism and Christianity — as the blood of sacrifice, of Jesus, of the Jewish martyrs, of menstruation, and more. Yet, though they share the same literary, cultural, and religious origins, on the question of blood the two religions have followed quite different trajectories. For instance, while Judaism rejects the eating or drinking of blood, Christianity mandates its symbolic consumption as a central sacrament. How did these two traditions, both originating in the Hebrew Bible's cult of blood sacrifices, veer off in such different directions? The book traces the continuing, changing, and often clashing roles of blood as both symbol and substance through the entire sweep of Jewish and Christian history from Biblical times to the present.
Michele Dillon and Paul Wink
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520249004
- eISBN:
- 9780520940031
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520249004.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
This book provides an unprecedented portrait of the dynamic role religion plays in the everyday experiences of Americans over the course of their lives. The book draws from a unique sixty-year-long ...
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This book provides an unprecedented portrait of the dynamic role religion plays in the everyday experiences of Americans over the course of their lives. The book draws from a unique sixty-year-long study of close to 200 mostly Protestant and Catholic men and women who were born in the 1920s and interviewed in adolescence, and again in the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, and late 1990s. Woven throughout with intimate life stories, the chapters present and analyze a wide range of data from this study on the participants' religious and spiritual journeys. A testament to the vibrancy of religion in the United States, the book provides an illuminating and sometimes surprising perspective on how individual lives have intersected with cultural change throughout the decades of the twentieth century.Less
This book provides an unprecedented portrait of the dynamic role religion plays in the everyday experiences of Americans over the course of their lives. The book draws from a unique sixty-year-long study of close to 200 mostly Protestant and Catholic men and women who were born in the 1920s and interviewed in adolescence, and again in the 1950s, 1970s, 1980s, and late 1990s. Woven throughout with intimate life stories, the chapters present and analyze a wide range of data from this study on the participants' religious and spiritual journeys. A testament to the vibrancy of religion in the United States, the book provides an illuminating and sometimes surprising perspective on how individual lives have intersected with cultural change throughout the decades of the twentieth century.