Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-64
Author(s):  
Ann W. Duncan
Keyword(s):  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Summer Camp ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
New Religions ◽  
Virginia Beach

The recent Pew Forum study, “‘Nones’ on the Rise,” indicates a growing percentage of religiously unaffiliated adults in the United States and suggests that these individuals do not seek new religions or denominations but nontraditional means of exploring spiritual questions, facilitating religious practice and finding community. This article examines Edgar Cayce’s Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) as a case study for the non-traditional religious affiliation and experience of Nones in the twenty-first century. Through staff and participant interviews and attention to the current work of the A.R.E. at its Virginia Beach headquarters and its summer camp in Rural Retreat, Virginia, this article shows how A.R.E. innovation and tradition have allowed this organization to reach Nones and embrace the digital age even as it advocates approaches to religion and spirituality that have deep historical roots in American religious history.

Religion and Spiritual Advice as Surrogate Care Provision for Mental Health Problems in the ESEMED Survey

2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (S1) ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
V. Kovess ◽  
R. de Graaf ◽  
J.M. Haro ◽  
R. Bruffaerts ◽  
F. Gilbert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Sample Survey ◽  
Seeking Help

Objective:To complete missing information on the influence of spiritual and religious advisors as informal providers for mental health problems in Europe.Methods:Recourse to religious practice or belief when coping with mental health problems was evaluated using data from the ESEMED survey. This was a stratified, multistage, clustered-area probability sample survey of mental health carried out in six European countries which included 8796 subjects. Between countries differences in sociodemographic characteristics, religious affiliation, and prevalence of mental disorders and management of mental disorders were evaluated.Results:Religion appears to play a limited role in coping with mental health problems in Europe. Only 7.9% of individuals seeking help for such problems turned to a religious advisor. This proportion differed between countries from 13% in Italy, 12.5% in Germany, 10.5% in the Netherlands, 5.8% in France, 4.7% in Belgium to 4% in Spain. In addition, seeking help exclusively from religion was reported by only 1.3% of subjects. Practicing religion at least once a week and considering religion as important in daily life were predictors of using religion versus conventional health care only. Use of religion was not influenced by gender and age. Non-Christian respondents and individuals with alcohol disorders were more likely to use religion. In Spain, the use of religion is much lower than average.Conclusions:Unlike the situation in the United States, organised religion does not provide alternative informal mental health care in Europe. At best, it could be considered as an adjunct to conventional care.

Evangelical Worship

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie C. Ross
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Religious Right ◽  
First Century ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Liturgical Studies ◽  
Academic Trajectories ◽  
Eyes Closed ◽  
Corporate Worship ◽  
Christian Rock ◽  
American Evangelicalism

Almost invariably, media stories with the word evangelical in their headlines are accompanied by a familiar stock photo: a mass of middle-class worshippers with eyes closed, faces tilted upward, and hands raised to the sky. Yet, despite the fact that worship has become symbolic of evangelicalism’s identity in the twenty-first century, it remains an understudied locus of academic inquiry. Historians of American evangelicalism tend to define the movement by its political entanglements (the “rise of the religious Right”), and academic trajectories (the formation of the “evangelical mind”), not its ecclesial practices. Theological scholars frequently dismiss evangelical worship as a reiteration of nineteenth-century revivalism or a derivative imitation of secular entertainment (three Christian rock songs and a spiritual TED talk). But by failing to engage this worship seriously, we miss vital insights into a form of Protestantism that exerts widespread influence in the United States and around the world. Evangelical Worship: An American Mosaic models a new way forward. Drawing together insights from American religious history and liturgical studies, and putting both in conversation with ethnographic fieldwork in seven congregations, this book argues that corporate worship is not a peripheral “extra” tacked onto a fully formed spiritual/political/cultural movement, but rather the crucible through which congregations forge and negotiate the contours of evangelicalism’s contested theological identity.

Beyond hegemony and sisterhood: transnational Tianhou-Mazu cult in East Asia

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-36
Author(s):  
Chi-cheung Choi
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Popular Religion ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
First Century ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Imperial State

Purpose Studies of Tianhou-Mazu cult have been focused on three themes: studies in Taiwan emphasize hegemonic order; studies in Hong Kong reveal a relationship of “sisterhood” alliances; and studies in Singapore highlight the important role of ethnic groups. The rebuilding of the goddess’s ancestral temple in early 1980s and her acquiring a world intangible cultural heritage status in the early twenty-first century facilitate the redefinition of overseas Chinese’s religious affiliation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss this global development of the cult from the 1980s and its ritual implication in overseas Chinese communities. Design/methodology/approach This paper, by comparing the Tianhou-Mazu cult in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asian Chinese settlements, argues that from sisters to descended replicas, or from local alliances to global hegemony, the cult of Tianhou-Mazu since the 1980s has not only replaced local culture with an emphasis on “high culture,” but also represents a religious strategy regarding local people’s interpretation of correctness and authority. Findings This paper argues that despite the imposition of hegemonic power from various authorities, popular religion is a matter of choice. This reflects how local religious practice is construed according to the interpretation of global cultural languages by the elite Chinese; their decision of when and how to reconnect with the goddess’s ancestral temple or the “imperial state,” or to form alliances with other local communities; and the implementation of the local government’s cultural policy. Originality/value This paper is one of the few attempts comparing development of a folk cult in various communities.

scholarly journals Mixed Marriages in Late Nineteenth to Early Twentieth Century: Comparing Russia and Norway

2020 ◽  
pp. 036319902094521
Author(s):  
Elena Glavatskaya ◽  
Gunnar Thorvaldsen ◽  
Iulia Borovik ◽  
Elizaveta Zabolotnykh
Keyword(s):  
World War I ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Middle Urals ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
World War ◽  
Industrial City ◽  
Mixed Marriages ◽  
New Religions

This article compares interethnic and interreligious marriages in Russia and Norway during the decades around 1900. State churches dominated religious life in both countries with over 90 percent of the population but both were losing influence during the period we focus on—rapidly in Russia after the 1917 Revolution. The part on Norway employs nominative and aggregate census material which from 1865 asked questions about religious affiliation, while the Russian case study utilizes the database of church microdata being built for Ekaterinburg—a railway hub and an industrial city in the Middle Urals, in Asia—in addition to census aggregates. Our main conclusion is that religion was a stronger regulator of intermarriage than ethnicity. Religious intermarriage was unusual in Ekaterinburg, even if official regulations were softened by the State over time—the exception is during World War I, when there was a deficit of young, Russian men at home and influx of refugees and Austro-Hungarian Prisoners of War (mostly Catholics and Lutherans). The situation was also affected by the 1917 Revolution creating equal rights for all religious denominations. The relatively few religious intermarriages in Norway were mostly between members of different Protestant congregations—nonmembers being the only group who often outmarried. We conclude that representatives of ethnic minorities and new religions seldom outmarry when religion was important for maintaining their identity.

Buddhism and Race

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adeana McNicholl
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious History ◽  
American Religious History ◽  
Buddhist Studies ◽  
Race And Racialization ◽  
History Of ◽  
Race Ethnicity

This chapter takes a step toward the theorization of discourses of race and racialization within the American Buddhist context. Far from being neutral observers, Buddhist Studies scholars have participated in the racialization of particular American Buddhisms. After mapping the landscape of key works on race, ethnicity, and American Buddhism, this chapter takes as a case study a collection of black Buddhist publications that reflect on race and ethnicity. Thus far, scholarship has ignored black Buddhists, yet black Buddhist reflections on race challenge dominant paradigms for the interpretation of the history of Buddhism and Buddhist teachings in the United States. This chapter concludes with suggestions for future avenues for research, including ways that we may connect the work of black Buddhists to the wider context of American religious history and American engagements with Asia.

Scientists and Scholars

2020 ◽  
pp. 85-115
Author(s):  
Jeff Levin
Keyword(s):  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Biomedical Sciences ◽  
Services Research ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
Health Studies ◽  
Psychiatric Outcomes ◽  
Extensive Body ◽  
The Impact

Chapter 5 summarizes the extensive body of empirical research studies that identify health impacts of religious practice, identity, and beliefs. These include thousands of epidemiologic, clinical, social, and behavioral studies, as well as investigations from other fields, notably health services research, the biomedical sciences, and psychiatry and clinical psychology. Population-health studies are emphasized, and the latest findings are summarized on the impact of religion, for better or worse, on medical and psychiatric outcomes and rates of morbidity, mortality, and disability, both in the United States and globally, and across religious affiliation. The work of Jeff Levin and his colleagues is highlighted here. Also summarized and critiqued are the controversial clinical trials of healing prayer that have received so much attention since the late 1980s

Mediating Racism

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deepa Kumar
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Structural Analysis ◽  
The United States ◽  
First Century ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Ground Zero ◽  
Concrete Case ◽  
Mainstream Media ◽  
The Media

The far right in the United States has ratcheted up anti-Muslim racism in the twenty-first century. However, they are not alone in creating and circulating the discourses of Islamophobia. In this paper, I set out to situate the far right, who I call the ‘new McCarthyites’, within the broader context in which they operate. I argue that they are part of a larger matrix of Islamophobia which includes the liberal establishment. I start with a concrete case study of the ‘Ground Zero Mosque’ controversy, in order to demonstrate how various discourses of Islamophobia co-exist and fuel one another. I contend that even while the new McCarthyites were responsible for the hysteria generated, their arguments were enabled by liberals/realists. I then unpack the various agents who make up a coalition of the new McCarthyites and outline how they propagate their troglodyte racism. Finally, I offer a matrix that illustrates where Islamophobic ideologies are produced and how they are circulated in the mainstream. Such a structural analysis necessarily decenters the mainstream media since the media are one set of institutions, among others, that serve both as conduit and creator of anti-Muslim racism.

scholarly journals Intimations of Precarity in Twenty-First-Century U.S. Drama: Faltering Voices of the Precariat in Annie Baker’s The Flick

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 119-133
Author(s):  
Ana Fernández-Caparrós
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Hardship ◽  
First Century ◽  
American Drama ◽  
Critical Attention ◽  
Critical Scrutiny ◽  
Twenty First Century

While much critical attention as been devoted to the representation of precarity on the European stages, and in British theatre in particular, dramatic texts produced in the United States that concern, depict and represent the lives of members of the so-called precariat have barely been the object of critical scrutiny. This article traces the emergence of a growing concern with economic hardship in the second decade of the twenty-first century in American drama and presents a case study of Annie Baker’s The Flick (2013). Baker’s play is illustrative of an aesthetics of precarity that refrains from victimizing the members of the precariat and that plays out the paradoxes of scenarios of precarity as being at once troubling and enabling transformation and visions of possibility.  

scholarly journals Strength of Religious Faith: A Comparison of College Athletes

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. p61
Author(s):  
Derek Van Rheenen ◽  
Laura Pryor ◽  
Rachel Roberson ◽  
Ed Wright ◽  
Tarik Glenn
Keyword(s):  
Secondary Students ◽  
College Athletes ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Athletic Competition ◽  
Private And Public

Faith is the foundation of all religions. Sporting practices may be an important site for both private and public expressions or exercises of religious faith. Beyond knowing or construing a deeper meaning to life, the exercise of religious faith may likewise serve as a coping mechanism within the sports context. Specifically, religious practice may help athletes manage the uncertainty of outcome in sport, as well as their fear of sustaining a serious injury. Given the potential psychological benefit of religious faith within this context, researchers have hypothesized that college athletes would demonstrate higher levels of religious faith than other post-secondary students. The current study seeks to expand on this research, examining hypothesized differences among college athletes at a large, public Division I university on the west coast of the United States. Participants completed the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith (SCSRF)—Short Form (Plante, Vallaeys, Sherman, & Wallston, 2002), a five-item self-report measure utilized to assess strength of religious faith regardless of religious affiliation. Findings suggests that both level of athletic competition and racial identification contribute to higher levels of religious faith. That racial identity was a stronger predictor than level of athletic competition is worthy of further exploration from both a social and historical perspective.

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