scholarly journals The Breadth of the Riches

Open Theology ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jon Paul Sydnor
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Ultimate Reality ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Religiously Affiliated ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Descriptive Term ◽  
Specific Practice

AbstractIs transreligious theology possible? Yes, but only as a very specific practice. If we accept the neologism „transreligious“ then we must understand it in contrast with the more traditional terms „interreligious“ and „comparative“. Interpreted this way, „transreligious theology“ describes religious discourse about ultimate reality between those with no particular religious identity. Their conversation is panreligious, treating all theological resources equally, without preference for any tradition over any other tradition. This conversation will be quite different from interreligious dialogue or comparative theology, in which participants claim a religious identity while remaining open to the insights of other traditions. Hence, „transreligious theology“ is a descriptive term rather than a prescriptive method. It is already practiced by the non-religiously affiliated who hold an interest in the spirituality of all religions. Even though it may be helpful to some, it is not a necessary practice, since effective theological development can still occur between those with specific religious identities, and by those who only study their own religious traditions.

Teaching Interreligious Encounters

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Pluralism ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Religiously Affiliated ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Multidisciplinary Group ◽  
And Migration

Teaching Interreligious Encounters is a volume of essays that explores various issues related to practical and theoretical facets of teaching across multiple religious traditions, including comparative theology and theologies of religious pluralism. This volume brings together an international, multireligious, and multidisciplinary group of scholars who address teaching interreligious encounters in a variety of teaching contexts: undergraduate and graduate, divinity schools and seminaries, secular and religiously affiliated, and traditional and online settings. This volume will be a unique and useful resource for those who encounter religious pluralism in their courses, a topic of pressing importance in our age of globalization and migration.

Latinos/as and Religious Identities in the Twentieth Century

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene M. Sanchez-Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
The United States ◽  
Central American ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Central American Immigrants ◽  
Cuban Americans ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the complex melding of traditions that make up contemporary religious identities among Latinos/as in the United States. Although Latinos/as are largely still Catholic, Protestantism is a growing presence. Examining various Latino/a groups by nationalities (such as Mexican Americans and Cuban Americans), geographic regions (such as Caribbean or Central American immigrants), and religious traditions (Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and Muslims), it becomes evident that transnational links have shaped, maintained, and propelled religious life for over a century. Transnationalism does not alter religious identities evenly. Some Latino/a groups maintain stronger ties for longer times; for others, the rates of acculturation mean that there are generational differences that affect one’s religious identity. The chapter concludes with a look at the impact of the “nones” among American Latinos/as.

scholarly journals Interreligious Dialogue, Comparative Theology and the Alterity of Hindu Thought

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 215-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ankur Barua
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
The Other ◽  
Christian Faith ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
British India ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Crucial Difference ◽  
The One

A key question at the heart of contemporary debates over interreligious dialogue is whether the Christian partner in such conversations should view her interlocutors through the lens of Christian descriptions or whether any such imaging amounts to a form of Christian imperialism. We look at the responses to this question from certain contemporary forms of ‘particularism’ which regard religious universes as densely knit, and sometimes incommensurable, systems of meanings, so that they usually deny the significance, or even the possibility, of modes of bible preaching such as apologetics. While these concerns over the alterity of other religious traditions are often viewed as specifically postmodern, two Scotsmen in British India, J. N. Farquhar (1861–1929) and A. G. Hogg (1875–1954), struggled exactly a hundred years ago with a version of this question vis-à-vis the religious universe of Vedāntic Hinduism and responded to it in a manner that has striking resemblances to ‘particularism’. We shall argue that Hogg can be seen as an early practitioner of a form of ‘comparative theology’ which emerges in his case, on the one hand, through a textual engagement with specific problems thrown up in interreligious spaces but, on the other hand, also seeks to present a reasoned defence of Christian doctrinal statements. We shall note a crucial difference between his comparative theological encounters and contemporary practitioners of the same – while the latter are usually wary of speaking of any ‘common ground’ in interreligious encounters, Hogg regarded the presuppositions of the Christian faith as the basis of such encounters. The writings of both groups of theologians are structured by certain ‘dilemmas of difference’ that we explore.

Assessing Measures of Religion and Secularity with Crowdsourced Data from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph O. Baker ◽  
Jonathan P. Hill ◽  
Nathaniel D. Porter
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Religiously Affiliated ◽  
Question Format ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Crowdsourced Data ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Efficient Option ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk ◽  
Measurement Effects

This chapter examines Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk), a crowdsourcing pool of potential participants for completing online tasks, as a resource for gathering novel data on religiosity and secularity (or other topics). MTurk provides an easily accessible, cost-efficient option for piloting new measures and conducting split-ballot experiments to assess measurement effects. The authors use MTurk data to evaluate measures of religious identity, demonstrating how question format can influence the percentage of respondents classified as religiously affiliated. They also use new measures to provide descriptive and analytical information on the rationales individuals give for being either religious or secular across different religious traditions and types of secularity. They conclude by outlining the opportunities and limitations of crowdsourcing data for exploring issues of measurement—as well as substantive areas of inquiry—in religion and beyond.

Ricoeur on Truth in Religious Discourse: A Reclamation

Horizons ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-52
Author(s):  
Patrick J. Casey
Keyword(s):  
Paul Ricoeur ◽  
Interreligious Dialogue ◽  
Religious Discourse ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Philosophical Hermeneutics ◽  
Religious Truth ◽  
Paul Ricœur ◽  
Philosophical Framework

The fields of comparative theology and interreligious dialogue have largely presupposed the possibility of interreligious learning, but there have been few attempts to provide a philosophical framework for such learning. Utilizing the philosophical hermeneutics of Paul Ricoeur, I argue that evaluations of religious truth should be understood holistically and contextually. In interreligious engagements, tensions are created in and questions are raised for one's own worldview. If one proceeds to imaginatively enter into another's worldview and finds resources there that enable one to alleviate those tensions and answer those questions, as well as make sense of one's reality in a broad way, then one may properly deem such beliefs to be true. Interreligious learning is thus construed as the recognition of truth that enables one to productively orient oneself to reality. The result is a provisional philosophical framework for understanding religious truth and interreligious learning.

Dialogue or Confrontation?

2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ringo Ringvee
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
The State ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Neoliberal Governance ◽  
Religious Associations ◽  
Liberal Attitude

The article focuses on the relations between the state , mainstream religions and new religious movements in Estonia from the early 1990s until today. Estonia has been known as one of highly secular and religiously liberal countries. During the last twenty years Estonian religious scene has become considerably more pluralist, and there are many different religious traditions represented in Estonia. The governmental attitude toward new religious movements has been rather neutral, and the practice of multi-tier recognition of religious associations has not been introduced. As Estonia has been following neoliberal governance also in the field of religion, the idea that the religious market should regulate itself has been considered valid. Despite of the occasional conflicts between the parties in the early 1990s when the religious market was created the tensions did decrease in the following years. The article argues that one of the fundamental reasons for the liberal attitude towards different religious associations by the state and neutral coexistence of different traditions in society is that Estonian national identity does not overlap with any particular religious identity.

Food and Religious Identities in the Venetian Inquisition, ca. 1560–ca. 1640

2021 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 181-214
Author(s):  
Eleanor Barnett
Keyword(s):  
Identity Construction ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Lived Religion ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Access Points ◽  
Counter Reformation ◽  
Eating Practices ◽  
The City ◽  
Insight Into

Through Venetian Inquisition trials relating to Protestantism, witchcraft, and Judaism, this article illuminates the centrality of food and eating practices to religious identity construction. The Holy Office used food to assert its model of post-Tridentine piety and the boundaries between Catholics and the non-Catholic populations in the city. These trial records concurrently act as access points to the experiences and beliefs—to the lived religion—of ordinary people living and working in Venice from 1560 to 1640. The article therefore offers new insight into the workings and impacts of the Counter-Reformation.

After Luther: Visual Culture, Materiality and the Legacy of 1517

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
JENNIFER SPINKS
Keyword(s):  
Visual Culture ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Visual Images ◽  
Important Work ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
Public Activity ◽  
Material Turn ◽  
The Impact

Do historians look at Luther and the Lutheran Reformation differently in the aftermath of the Lutherjahr of 2017, and its frenzy of academic and public activity? As recent publications on Luther demonstrate – notably Lyndal Roper's 2016 biography Martin Luther: renegade and prophet – there is a still a great deal to say about Luther, and how his friendships, passions, prejudices and physical experiences shaped him. But while Luther was the monumental public figure of 2017, some of the most important work coinciding with the anniversary addressed instead Lutheranism as a movement, and the nature of religious identities in Luther's aftermath. It also demonstrated and furthered the impact of the visual and material turn in history and in Reformation studies. Building upon decades of scholarship on Lutheran visual images, recent Reformation scholarship has demonstrated in increasing depth how religious identity can and should be read through both material and visual culture. The three publications examined here – a monograph by Bridget Heal, a website by Brian Cummings, Ceri Law, Bronwyn Wallace and Alexandra Walsham, and the exhibition catalogue Luther! 95 treasures – 95 people – contribute to the material, sensory turn in Reformation and early modern scholarship, and in the latter two cases also reveal the impact of this upon public engagement with Reformation histories.

scholarly journals Religious Identity and National Conflict in the 20th Century Indonesia

2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 303
Author(s):  
Andreas Jonathan
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
National Identities ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Religious Identities ◽  
The Past ◽  
Religious Nation ◽  
Role Of Religion

This study attempts to discuss on how religious identities contribute to or was in conflict with the emerging national identities, with focusing issue on the struggle of Islam in its relation to Indonesian identity as a multi-religious nation and Pancasila state. Based on the critical analysis from the various literature, the result of the study showed that Islam did both contribute and was in conflict with the Indonesian national identity. The Islamist fights for the Islamic state, the nationalist defends Pancasila state. As long as Islam is the majority in Indonesia and as long as there is diversity in Islam, especially in the interpretation of Islam and the state, Indonesian national identity will always be in conflict between Pancasila state and Islamic state. Even though, the role of religion in society and nation change is very significant. The Islamist is always there, although it is not always permanent in certain organizations. In the past, NU and Muhammadiyah were considered as Islamist, but today they are nationalist. At the same time, new Islamist organizations and parties emerge to continue their Islamist spirit. Keywords: Islam, Religious identity, Pancasila, 

scholarly journals Flexible Believers in the Netherlands: A Paradigm Shift toward Transreligious Multiplicity

Open Theology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuela Kalsky
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Paradigm Shift ◽  
Religious Transformation ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Religious Plurality ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Ritual Praxis ◽  
The Church ◽  
Hybrid Forms

AbstractThe Netherlands has undergone a radical religious transformation through secularization, individualization and migration. Expressions of Christian belief are no longer strictly defined by the Church and hybrid forms of religiosity incorporating other religions have emerged. After a brief sketch of Dutch religious plurality, the author focuses on interviews with ‘flexible believers’, people who combine elements from different religious traditions and worldviews. Through interviews, she discovers a number of characteristics of these multiple religious believers (MRB) - interviewees - such as ritual praxis, identity-making processes and belonging - and reflects on their impact for the wider picture of religiosity in today‘s post-Christian Dutch network society. She concludes that hybrid forms of lived religion like mrb, present a challenge to traditional concepts of religious identity and belonging. They require a paradigm shift from an ‘either/or’ to a relational ‘as well as’ approach within a rhizomatic network of meaning.

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