After the Fall

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-165
Author(s):  
James Mark Shields
Keyword(s):  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
National History ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
General Conception ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Sacred History

AbstractTsuji Zennosuke 辻善之助 (1877–1955), the dominant figure in Buddhist historical scholarship in Japan from the 1930s until the mid-1950s, is known to have employed a broad range of sources in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of his subject. This essay examines Tsuji’s conception of Buddhist history in relation to the emergence of both National Historical Studies (kokushigaku 国史学) and so-called State Shintō (kokka shintō 国家神道) and argues against the image of Tsuji as an “objective historian” resistant to nationalist trends in historical scholarship. In fact, Tsuji was involved in the creation of an alternative, “Buddhistic” national history, or bukkyōshugi kokushi 仏教主義国史的. In particular, comparisons are drawn between Tsuji’s conception of Buddhism and the earlier arguments of New Buddhism (shin bukkyō 新仏教) and the Daijō hi-bussetsuron 大乗非仏説論, in addition to his more general conception of the contributions of Buddhism to the humanitarian spirit of Japanese leaders—both emperors and military warlords. Can there be—should there be—an objective history of religion? What is the significance of sacred history—and the history of Buddhism more particularly—to the still-emerging “modern” nation of Japan? How does Buddhism, a pan-Asian and “borrowed religion,” fit with the “Japanist” ideology of national uniqueness? These are some of the questions posed by Tsuji in his writings.

The Future of the Past

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoine Borrut
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Eighth Century ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Methodological Problems ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Sacred History

Writing the history of the first centuries of Islam poses thorny methodological problems, because our knowledge rests upon narrative sources produced later in Abbasid Iraq. The creation of an “official” version of the early Islamic past (i.e., a vulgate), composed contemporarily with the consolidation of Abbasid authority in the Middle East, was not the first attempt by Muslims to write about their origins. This Abbasid-era version succeeded when previous efforts vanished, or were reshaped, in rewritings and enshrined as the “official” version of Islamic sacred history. Attempts to impose different historical orthodoxies affected the making of this version, as history was rewritten with available materials, partly determined by earlier generations of Islamic historians. This essay intends to discuss a robust culture of historical writing in eighth-century Syria and to suggest approaches to access these now-lost historiographical layers torn between memory and oblivion, through Muslim and non-Muslim sources.

Women and the History of Religion in Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Nourse
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Spiritual Practices ◽  
African Continent ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Experiences Of Women ◽  
Intimate Encounters

In the history of religion in Africa, women have contributed richly to the diversity of indigenous, Christian, and Islamic spiritual practices prevalent within their communities. As mediums, healer-diviners, ministers, mystics, prophets, poets, priestesses, theologians, and spiritual advisors, they are integral to the creation and maintenance of possession cults and other indigenous religious societies, Islamic Sufi orders, mainline and African-initiated churches, as well as new and emerging Christian and Islamic movements. Often inhabiting pluralistic worlds, women weave together creative and dynamic spiritual tapestries that give their lives coherence. An investigation into the experiences of women reveals spaces of agency and constraint, portraits of women’s intimate encounters with the divine, accounts of women’s indigenization of Christianity and reform of Islam, stories of discrimination and of healing, struggles to create more liberating theologies, and stories of extraordinary women shaping religious life and practice on the African continent in irrepressible ways.

Generational, Biographical and Life-Course Approaches to the History of the German Labour Movement in the Nineteenth Century*

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-313
Author(s):  
Jürgen Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Work Experiences ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
Labour Movement ◽  
Life Phase ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Course Experiences

Abstract While generational and biographical approaches are well-established methods in historical scholarship, life-course approaches are less prominent. This article seeks to bridge that gap by applying all these methods to an examination of the early membership of the German labour movement in the 1860s and 1870s. It considers whether we can interpret the rise of the labour movement in the nineteenth century as a generational phenomenon and explain it in light of (work) experiences that were life-phase specific. We see that while life-course experiences were more decisive than generational factors for the making of the movement, the retrospective identification of a founding generation was significant for the creation of the identity of a united labour movement in the years of the Kaiserreich.

scholarly journals Sacred Calendars: Calculation of the Hegira as a Historiographical Problem in Early Modern Spain

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-265
Author(s):  
Fernando Rodríguez Mediano
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
General Problem ◽  
Early Modern Spain ◽  
National History ◽  
Spanish History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Technical Issues ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Sacred History

This paper studies how Early Modern Spanish historians confronted the problem of calculating the equivalence between the Christian Era and the Hegira. Chronological polemics concerning the Hegira were deeply embedded in a major historiographical problem, namely the role Islam and al-Andalus played in the history of Spain. Besides the technical issues, chronology is one of the most important ways by which an Islamic Iberian past was integrated in a narrative about national history. Once Islam became a historical actor for Spanish and European historians, rather than just a religion to confront, very important questions were raised: were Arabic sources necessary for the writing of Spanish history? What were these sources, and what was their value? Since al-Andalus was connected with the more general problem of the relationship of ancient Spain with the Orient (and, specifically, with the Biblical Orient), the chronological argument became a major issue in reflections on the limits and possibilities of writing the sacred history of Spain.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Donna T. Haverty-Stacke
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Women's History ◽  
Class Identity ◽  
Historical Scholarship ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
History Of ◽  
Radical History ◽  
Feminist Movements ◽  
Second Wave ◽  
Women’S History

The introduction provides an overview of the study, situates its place within the relevant historiography of biography, working-class and radical history, women’s history, and the history of religion, and articulates its main contributions to these fields. It explains how Carlson’s life illuminates the workings of class identity within the context of various influences over the course of a lifespan, contributes to recent historical scholarship exploring the importance of faith in workers’ lives and politics, and uncovers both the possibilities and limitations for working-class and revolutionary Marxist women in the period between the first- and second-wave feminist movements. It also lays out how the main themes will be covered in the chapters that follow.

Religious Space and Place in Modern China

1969 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Harvey
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Sacred Space ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Modern China ◽  
Tourist Industry ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
Modern Chinese ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation

This article looks at the intersection of modern Chinese and traditional Chinese sacred spaces through the analysis of two case studies: Yuyuan Garden and Tourist Area and Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area. The article lays out a brief history of religion in China, the effects of modernization and globalization in China, the creation of sacred space within China, and the role tourism has played in preserving sacred spaces. Furthermore, this article examines how both sites dealt with and continue to deal with the question of religion in China, and how each has been worked into the tourist industry of China, either through choice or design. By becoming a part of the tourist industry, these sites have gained renown and interest because of what they offer, and thus illustrate that the blending of the sacred with the secular can be positive, especially within the context of modern China.

Religion, Ethics and the History of Religion School

1993 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Chapman
Keyword(s):  
New Testament ◽  
Mystical Experience ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
History Of Religion ◽  
Special Character ◽  
Religious Liberalism ◽  
History Of ◽  
Sacred History

The Göttingen New Testament Professor, Wilhelm Bousset observed that historical research was in ‘danger of placing Christianity in the flux of development’, of ‘failing to give due worth to its special character and unique meaning, and thereby neutralising and relativising everything’. ‘The halo of the supernatural which had clung around “sacred history” was destroyed,’ and history had become a ‘labyrinth for modern religious liberalism’, where it threatened ‘to betray itself’. In their attempts to avoid such a relativisation of the Christian faith, most of the members of the History of Religion School sought refuge in a primordial mystical experience expressive of non-rational feelings, of emotions, moods and fantasies.

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