From Academic Anthropology to Esoteric Religion

Aries ◽

10.1163/15700593-20211005 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-27

Author(s):

Zuzana Marie Kostićová

Keyword(s):

Personal Life ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Charismatic Leader ◽

Religious Texts ◽

Religious System ◽

Late Works ◽

Academic Ambition

Abstract Carlos Castaneda has been studied mostly as a fraud anthropologist, novelist/philosopher and a contributor to the emerging phenomenon of neo-shamanism. Instead, this article focuses on Castaneda’s individual philosophy and religious system as developed in his written works. A threefold classification is proposed—early, transitional, and late works, complete with chief characteristics of each. The analysis shows how Castaneda slowly drifted from the scholarly style through stress on the narrative to full-fledged religious texts. These changes also reflect on Castaneda’s personal life; from academic ambition through public scandal ‘debunking’ his counterfeit works to the formation of a little new religious movement, of which Castaneda was a charismatic leader. Unlike most scholarly analyses of Castaneda that focus mainly on the early writings, this article takes into serious consideration his late works and shows that it was here that the author fully developed as a religious thinker and guru.

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Geliat Puritanisme Islam di Indonesia: Menyibak Tabir di Balik Gerakan Majelis Tafsir Al-Qur’an (MTA) dalam Perspektif Sosiologis

INFERENSI ◽

10.18326/infsl3.v12i1.213-238 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 213-238

Author(s):

Ilyya Muhsin ◽

Muhammad Ghufon

Keyword(s):

Social Movement ◽

Economic Resources ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Cultural Resources ◽

Sociological Perspective ◽

Charismatic Leader ◽

Sunday Morning ◽

Social Pathology ◽

Movement Theory ◽

Political Opportunities

Islamic purification movement which run by MTA (Majelis Tafsir Al-Qur'an; Quranic interpretation council) is an interesting one to be discussed. MTA, an institution with the charismatic leader, is preaching Islam puritanically like other Islamic organizations which have active branches with organized structure in every level. Therefore, this article will discuss MTA movement in sociological perspective, particularly using social movement theory. The results can be seen in three social movement types. The first type is to use political opportunities through a national gathering forum (Silatnas) and Sunday Morning Preaching (Pengajian Ahad Pagi). The second type is to mobilize all capitals; moral resources include Quran-Sunnah as well as charisma of the leader; cultural resources includes all MTA's religious business; human resources with structured cadre system, well-organized social-organization resources; and excessive economic resources. The last type is to frame its religious movement to resolve every Islamic-social pathology through the best method on MTA perspective

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History of Protest Literature in India: Trails from the Bhakti Literature

International Journal of Interreligious and Intercultural Studies ◽

10.32795/ijiis.vol3.iss2.2020.711 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 38-49

Author(s):

Preeti Oza

Keyword(s):

Common Ground ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Religious Texts ◽

Protest Literature ◽

Vernacular Language ◽

Sanskrit Word ◽

History Of ◽

To Come ◽

And Gender ◽

The Buddha

Abstract: “Better is to live one day virtuous and meditative than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled” (The Buddha) Bhakti movement in India has been a path-breaking phenomenon that provided a solid shape and an identifiable face to the abstractions with the help of vernacular language. As a religious movement, it emphasized a strong personal and emotional bond between devotees and a personal God. It has come from the Sanskrit word Bhaj- ‘to share’. It began as a tradition of devotional songs, hagiographical or philosophical – religious texts which have generated a common ground for people of all the sects in the society to come together. As counterculture, it embraced into its fold all sections of people breaking the barriers of caste, class, community, and gender. It added an inclusive dimension to the hitherto privileged, exclusivist, Upanishadic tradition. It has provided a very critical outlook on contemporary Brahminical orthodoxy and played a crucial role in the emergence of modern poetry in India. This paper elaborates on the positioning of the Bhakti Movement in the context of Protest narratives in India.

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Colonial Encounter and Inculturation

Nova Religio The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions ◽

10.1525/nr.2016.19.3.78 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 19 (3) ◽

pp. 78-103

Author(s):

Yueh-po Huang

Keyword(s):

Historical Development ◽

Religious Community ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Post Colonial ◽

Local Religion ◽

Religious System ◽

Japanese Religion ◽

Colonial Encounter

Tenrikyo is a Japanese new religious movement that, like others, has tried to expand overseas and which has achieved this expansion most successfully in Taiwan. The article will focus on Tenrikyo in Taiwan and ask why it has done comparatively well. The Tenrikyo religious community has endured, and continues to survive, both a colonial and post-colonial environment in Taiwan. I contextualize Tenrikyo’s development within the framework of Japan’s relations with Taiwan, arguing that the issue of Tenrikyo’s missionary activities in Taiwan is not only inextricably linked to the historical development of Japanese religion itself, but also to colonialism. In addition, I argue that certain aspects of Tenrikyo’s doctrine, idioms and practice are compatible with the religious system in Taiwan, thus enabling Tenrikyo to make inroads into local religion through the process of inculturation. Based on my ethnography, I show that practicing Tenrikyo’s rituals such as Mikagura-uta played a prominent part in the propagation of Tenrikyo in Taiwan.

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The Hallucinations of Mahomet and Others

Journal of Mental Science ◽

10.1192/s0368315x00229332 ◽

1875 ◽

Vol 20 (92) ◽

pp. 561-572

Author(s):

William W. Ireland

Keyword(s):

Religious Faith ◽

Great Difficulty ◽

Good Faith ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Historical Inquiry ◽

Religious System

To one who does not admit the divine mission of Mahomet it is very difficult to explain the pretensions of that remarkable man, and at the same time to uphold his sincerity. There have undoubtedly been instances where mere politicians have resorted to religious impostures as temporary expedients to advance their ends; for example, the woman whom Pisistratus got dressed up in the traditional costume of Pallas, and who conducted him back to Athens from exile, or the milk-white hind which followed Sertorius in Spain, and by means of which he was reputed to hold converse with the Gods. But a contrivance of this kind is a very different thing from the foundation of a religion which now numbers about a hundred and forty millions of votaries, and which possesses to this day a very singular power over the minds of its followers. By the persistent claim of being a messenger from God, after a struggle of twenty-one years Mahomet made himself master of the greater part of Arabia, and roused a mighty religious movement which continued after his death. In a few years more a number of wandering tribes, who had previously no more cohesion than the sands of their deserts, had run a mighty career of conquest, which bore them to the banks of the Loire and of the Oxus. It is generally admitted that men cannot excite in others feelings which are wanting in their own breasts. A man without honesty and destitute of religious faith could no more found a religious system like that of Islam than a man without an ear for music could compose an opera. The old notion that Mahomet was a mere impostor appears so difficult of belief that no one of any recognised skill in historical inquiry now upholds it. But it has always been a great difficulty to explain how Mahomet could in good faith say that he had seen the angel Gabriel, and heard voices from heaven calling him the Messenger of God, and revealing chapter after chapter of the Koran. It had long seemed to me that the question was beyond human solution, and that it might have been a very difficult one, even had the inquirer lived in Mecca or Medina during the time of Mahomet's mission.

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Erweckung und Aufklärung. P. O. Enquists Roman Lewis resa

European Journal of Scandinavian Studies ◽

10.1515/ejss-2013-0004 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Karin Hoff

Keyword(s):

Significant Role ◽

The Other ◽

Personal Life ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Relationship With God ◽

Structural Element ◽

Personal Level ◽

Internal Struggle ◽

The One ◽

The Individual

Abstract Religion has recently regained a prominent role in contemporary discussions. Even though secularisation has a strong foothold in Scandinavia, religion is not only an important topic of public debate but also plays a strong part in contemporary Scandinavian literature. The article takes a closer look at P. O. Enquist’s novel Lewis resa and at his autobiography Ett annat liv, which both examine the dialectic structure of pietism and enlightenment. Pietism as a religious movement was important in forming modern day scandinavian societies but also plays a significant role in Enquist’s personal life. The internal struggle of the pietistic movement with its focus on education and the individual relationship with god on the one hand and the strong collective moral pressure on the other hand, translates on a personal level into the conflict between individuality and the collective. The article argues that this conflict is an essential structural element of the analysed texts by Enquist.

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Moral Value in Lyrics of Dangdut Compesed by Rhoma Irama

Analisa Journal of Social Science and Religion ◽

10.18784/analisa.v19i2.167 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 213

Author(s):

Mustolehudin Mustolehudin

Keyword(s):

Old Testament ◽

Human Life ◽

Religious Life ◽

Moral Values ◽

Personal Life ◽

Primary Sources ◽

Moral Value ◽

Religious Texts ◽

The Past ◽

Library Research

Moral values undoubtedly play a significant role in human life. These values are not only in religious texts (such as Qur’an, Hadits, Old Testament, Bible, Book of Psalms) but also in literatures. One of the examples is lyrics of Rhoma Irama’s song from 1970s to 1980s. This is a library research using a content analysis approach. Meanwhile, this research utilizes semiotic and hermeneutic methods. The findings show that the lyrics of Rhoma Irama’s song during 1970-1980 contained some moral values which could be implemented in personal life, family, society and religious life. The important values contained in such songs are amanah (trustful), as-siddiq (truth, honesty), al-‘adl (justice), al-rahmah (love), al-ukhuwah (brotherhood) and tasamuh (tolerance). The aforementioned values refer to two Islamic primary sources that are relevant to all times, in the past, present and future.

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Approaching the WorldGod

10.5406/illinois/9780252041013.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Paul Kincaid

Keyword(s):

Personal Life ◽

Late Period ◽

Religious Texts ◽

Religious Issues ◽

Space Opera

Changes in his personal life, in particular separation from his first wife and the death of his trusted editor James Hale, brought a change in Banks’s fiction. The Algebraist ran directly counter to the innovations he had introduced to space opera. The chapter shows how his best late-period novel, Transition, was written in dialogue with The Steep Approach to Garbadale. It then examines the religious issues underlying the last Culture trilogy, in which the Culture is often peripheral to the action, while ideas about the nature of God, the afterlife and religious texts are central to the novels.

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The Criterion of Coherence and the Randomness of Charisma: Poring Through Some Aporias in The Jesus Tradition

New Testament Studies ◽

10.1017/s0028688500016325 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 1-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jack T. Sanders

Keyword(s):

Charismatic Leadership ◽

Religious Movement ◽

Charismatic Leader ◽

Charismatic Authority ◽

Sayings Of Jesus

Many scholars employ a different kind of criterion of coherence from the standard, i.e., the criterion that Jesus’ authentic sayings hold together in a coherent whole; yet Jesus scholars differ regarding the nature of this coherence. When we then understand that Jesus was a charismatic leader of a new religious movement, and when we examine how such persons in general behave, we see the importance of randomness for charismatic leadership, and we understand that we cannot expect systematic coherence among the sayings of Jesus. Jesus may have said things that appear contradictory, but they will have enhanced his charismatic authority.

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