Manufacturing Shintō as a “World Religion”

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 171-207
Author(s):  
Mark MacWilliams
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
World Religion ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Survey Courses

Abstract How is Shintō presented in Anglo-American world religions textbooks? While not included in the earliest of such survey courses, it regularly appears in such texts from the early 20th century to the present. Why is Shintō included as one of “great” or “world” religions given how greatly it differs from the likes of Christianity and Islam? Textbook authors include Shintō by constructing an image of it that reflects their own model of world religions, an image that is also based on the “Shintō” that Meiji Japanese officials and scholars invented for their own political-ideological purposes. The standard portrayal of Shintō in Western textbooks has remained more or less the same for a century: It is described as (1) an archaic religion; (2) centered on Japanese imperial mythology; (3) nature worship; (4) apolitical, emphasizing personal piety at shrines. While the most recent editions have tried to incorporate new scholarship in their portrayal, they still rely a world religions model of Shintō that is seriously misleading, failing to adequately present Shintō’s complexities as a tradition.

Revisiting Authoritarianism

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-341
Author(s):  
James Aho
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Frankfurt School ◽  
Herbert Marcuse ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Erich Fromm ◽  
Authoritarian Personality ◽  
Theodor Adorno ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Class Youth

This article traces the roots of the Authoritarian Personality (AP) project in the neo-Freudian/phenomenological tradition of the Frankfurt School (FS). It focuses on three of its major proponents (Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse) and examines the construction of the F-scale. It outlines how, according to FS-influenced scholars, the AP arose from the disciplinary measures inflicted on late 19th and early 20th century German middle-class youth, and details the sado-masochistic political style of the prototypical AP. It covers the critical reception of this characterization and explanation of authoritarianism by Bob Altemeyer and Anglo-American positivism. It concludes by arguing that in overlooking the inner life of the AP, positivism blinds us to compelling truths, about authoritarianism, and also about ourselves.

On the ‘Topographical Turn’: Concepts of Space in Cultural Studies and Kulturwissenschaften. A Cartographic Feud

2009 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigrid Weigel
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Studies ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Whole Language ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Historical Narratives ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Culture Studies ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Historical Origin ◽  
Anglo American

Addressing the ‘topographical turn’ in cultural theory which emphasizes spatial constellations and sites, the article discusses concepts of space both in Anglo-American Cultural Theory and in European Culture Studies in order to develop their differences. Within Cultural Studies the program to ‘spatialize’ historical narratives has created a whole language of symbolic topographical figures which function as a counter-discourse for minorities. To argue against the tendency of translating theories in order to transform them into ‘neutral tools’, independent of their historical origin, the article discusses various space-discourses in European cultural theories; it refers to studies from the current cultural reorientation of the humanities but also to those from the early 20th century to illuminate different relationships between philosophy, historiography and cultural techniques.

Anna and Ahmad

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 116-149
Author(s):  
Omar Foda
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Early 20Th Century ◽  
Historical Society ◽  
Temperance Movement ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Missionary Movement ◽  
National Archives ◽  
Muslim Majority ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
American Evangelicalism

This study looks to explain, using archival material from the Presbyterian Historical Society and the Egyptian National Archives, the fascinating presence of a temperance movement in late 19th and early 20th century Egypt, a Muslim-majority country. It looks at how the Egyptian temperance movement grew out of two separate traditions, Anglo-American and Islamic temperance. These traditions were divided by demographics and ideology, but came to be united in their goals, structures, and efficaciousness. Although both failed to enact meaningful legislation, they are excellent examples of the interaction between Anglo-American evangelicalism and the modern Muslim missionary movement.

World Christianity, ‘World Religions’ and the Challenge of Insider Movements

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-103
Author(s):  
Christian J. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Religious Studies ◽  
World Religion ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Historical Series ◽  
Enlightenment Project ◽  
World Christianity ◽  
Other World ◽  
Religious Systems ◽  
The One ◽  
Insider Movements

While studies in World Christianity have frequently referred to Christianity as a ‘world religion’, this article argues that such a category is problematic. Insider movements directly challenge the category, since they are movements of faith in Jesus that fall within another ‘world religion’ altogether – usually Islam or Hinduism. Rather than being an oddity of the mission frontier, insider movements expose ambiguities already present in World Christianity studies concerning the concept of ‘religion’ and how we understand the unity of the World Christian movement. The article first examines distortions that occur when religion is referred to on the one hand as localised practices which can be reoriented and taken up into World Christianity and, on the other hand, as ‘world religion’, where Christianity is sharply discontinuous with other world systems. Second, the article draws from the field of religious studies, where several writers have argued that the scholarly ‘world religion’ category originates from a European Enlightenment project whose modernist assumptions are now questionable. Third, the particular challenge of insider movements is expanded on – their use of non-Christian cultural-religious systems as spaces for Christ worship, and their redrawing of assumed Christian boundaries. Finally, the article sketches out two principles for understanding Christianity's unity in a way that takes into account the religious (1) as a historical series of cultural-religious transmissions and receptions of the Christian message, which emanates from margins like those being crossed by insider movements, and (2) as a religiously syncretic process of change that occurs with Christ as the prime authority.

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