The sanctity of goddesses: an insight into the worship of Bà Tổ Cô in Northern Vietnam

In Vietnam, a country where religious expression is widespread, many gods and goddesses are commonly worshipped. Among those, Bà Tổ Cô (Family Goddess) is widely worshipped in the North of Vietnam due to her exceptional background as unmarried, young, and having spiritual roots, unlike other national and heroic figures. This article examines the sanctity of the Family Goddess by decoding the terms, worshippers, beliefs and practices, sacred encounters and supports. The research is a final result of decade-long field trips, archival study, and in-depth interviews with various stakeholders. The research findings show that the veneration of the Family Goddess in Northern Vietnam is a continuity of a long-standing tradition of worshipping female deities in Asia and thus emphasising the need to maintain this unique intangible heritage as a crucial part of Vietnamese cultural diversity.

Rethinking the Constitutionality of Indonesia’s Flawed Anti-Blasphemy Law

This study examines the constitutionality of Indonesia’s Anti-Blasphemy Law, which has been challenged unsuccessfully at the Constitutional Court on three occasions, in 2009, 2012, and 2018. While the Court has acknowledged the law’s provisions are open to multiple interpretations, it insists on maintaining the law as it is, on the grounds that the right to religious expression is not absolute, as freedom and rights are restricted under Article 28J of the 1945 Constitution. The Court believes that canceling the law would create a dangerous legal vacuum. The ambiguity of the Court’s decisions on the constitutionality of the Anti-Blasphemy Law is illustrated in recent blasphemy cases that have not been explored in previous studies. This study uses a doctrinal legal approach to examine why the Anti-Blasphemy Law is flawed and to analyze to what extent the ‘particular constitutionalism’ approach influenced the Court’s decisions when declaring the constitutionality of the law. As such, the Court’s misinterpretation of the core principles of the competing rights – the right to religious freedom and the right to freedom of expression – and its standard limitation, have been ignored. The findings of this study show that in dealing with the Anti-Blasphemy Law, the Court has a narrow and limited recognition of human rights law. The Court’s fear of revoking the Anti-Blasphemy Law is based only on assumptions and is less supported by facts. The Court has failed to realize that the implementation of the flawed Anti-Blasphemy Law in various cases has triggered public disorder, with people taking justice into their own hands.

Tradisi Keislaman Masyarakat Sunda pada Abad ke-19

This paper analyzes the religiosity of the Sundanese people in a historical approach, to be precise around the 19th century. The method used is the Historical Method which consists of heuristics, criticism, interpretation, and historiography stages. The results of the study show that the Sundanese people are known as religious people. Islam as a religion adopted by most of the Sundanese Tatar population has been acculturated with the local culture and with the noble values inherited by the Karuhun. In Sundanese society, Islamic teachings are often expressed with the taste of local traditions. Instead, local traditions are often given the breath of Islam, which further strengthens the religiosity of its adherents. In addition to carrying out the basic religious shari'ah, the religious expression of the Sundanese people is present in the form of religious holidays which are commemorated lively. Likewise, the stages of a person's life, such as birth, childhood, marriage, until death, have religious and cultural instruments attached to them.

Managing religion at work: a necessary distinction between words and deeds. A multiple case study of the postures facing religious expression in French organizations

PurposeReligious expression at work (REW) has a unique place in France. The authors studied the perception of the postures of four organizations in the face of this phenomenon, focusing on the gap between official posture and the posture applied by managers.Design/methodology/approachUsing a qualitative approach, the authors conducted semi-structured interviews (40), observation periods and documentary analysis within four organizations. This multiple embedded case study was undertaken in four different firms in France: an international private firm, a public organization, and two small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with original models of REW management.FindingsA distinction between aligned and non-aligned postures emerged. There was a lack of alignment in only two of the four organizations, and this alignment concerned only two units of analysis: prayer on break and wearing religious symbols. Several extrinsic factors were identified in this lack of alignment between the official posture and the posture actually applied by managers: the form of REW, the religion concerned and whether it had minority status in the country, the degree of clarity of the official posture, the degree of formalization of the official posture, the size and scope of the company, the degree of awareness of managers and their teams, the degree of involvement of leaders in the definition and implementation of the posture, and the purpose of the official posture.Research limitations/implicationsThis research provides a sensitive understanding of religious expression at work and shows that alignment is sought specifically for each form of REW. The distinction between official posture and applied posture is highlighted through the study of perceptions. In addition, this study enables the identification of factors that influence the alignment of official and operational postures.Practical implicationsThese results call for clarity of the official posture and for it to be defended by leaders, provision of meaning to postures by raising awareness among intermediate hierarchical lines, understanding of the applicable legal framework to transpose it to the local level, and analysis of unaligned forms of REW to build a strong, shared posture.Originality/valueThis study, which was carried out within a specific French context, concerns areas that have received little attention or have not been studied at all to date, such as REW in SMEs or in the public sector, and demonstrates for the first time the distinction between official postures and effective postures.

Cultural Metallurgy—A Key Factor in the Transition from the Chalcolithic to Bronze Age in the Southern Levant

The causes of the disappearance of Late Chalcolithic society (Ghassulian) in the early fourth millennium bc remain obscure. This study identifies the collapse as the consequence of a change in the approach to metallurgy from cosmological fundament (Late Chalcolithic) to a practical craft (EB1). This endogenous transition accounts for the cultural recession characterizing the transitional period (EB1A) and the discontinuity in ritual practices. The new practical approach in metallurgy is firstly observed in the southern margin of the Ghassulian culture, which produced copper for distribution in the Nile valley rather than the southern Levant. Nevertheless, the Ghassulian cultural markers visible in the newly emerging areas of copper working (southern coastal plain, Nile valley) denote the survival of the old cosmological traditions among metalworkers of the EB1 culture. Their religious expression unveils the extension of the Ghassulian beliefs attached to metallurgy and their metamorphosis into the esoteric fundaments of the Bronze Age religions.

Contextual Theology as Heritage Formation: Moluccan Culture, Christianity, and Identity

This article uses the case of Moluccan Protestantism to argue that contextual theology is not merely a postcolonial theological movement, but in some cases also can be understood as part of a larger post-independence political nation-building project of heritage formation. I show how in two key political periods the interests of the Moluccan Protestant church (GPM) and the Indonesian government coalesced. The word ‘heritage’ is central to the Moluccan contextual discourse, and the development of contextual theology resembles practices of heritage formation, being a controlled political process of careful selection of cultural forms, aimed at a sense of ‘authentic’ local identity. The development of a Moluccan contextual theology partakes in the socio-political effort of preservation of Moluccan cultural heritage. At the same time, and paradoxically, the heritage frame in which Moluccan contextual theology is embedded, also hinders the theological goal of contextualization. This article is based on anthropological research into Moluccan theology. Its innovative contribution and relevance lies in the interdisciplinary postcolonial perspective, that understands Moluccan contextual theology as both a theological exercise of inculturation and as a religious expression of Indonesia’s heritage politics.

Speaking of Mysteries: Atonement in Teenage Fantasy Books

<p>The question of how we can speak of a transcendent God and God’s relationship with creation has been pondered for millennia. Today particular difficulties arise when communicating Christian atonement theories to a generation for whom the world of the Bible is increasingly foreign, and in a time when theologians and philosophers are questioning both the violence of some atonement theories and the existence of “superior transcendence.” This study explores the presence of biblical motifs in the stories of atonement in young adult fantasy works. It suggests that the use of these motifs to make sense of atonement within fantasy worlds may assist readers to make sense of the same motifs when they are used to portray the Christian story of atonement. The investigation begins by discussing the place of imagination, reason and transcendence in religious language and argues for the centrality of metaphor and myth in religious expression. It suggests that young people today still seek intermediaries—“priests and prophets”—between themselves and the unknown, but they now find them in the fantasy authors who continue to use imaginative language to communicate transcendence. A central trope in contemporary fantasy fiction is that of a death that saves the world. Contrary to the expectations raised by René Girard’s work, these are not the violent deaths of a helpless scapegoat. The biblical mythologems incorporated in these works allow the authors to explore instead ideas of divine and human self-giving. This is demonstrated by tracing how mythological understandings of blood, victory and covenant in the Bible are incorporated into the atonement process of three fantasy series: the Old Kingdom Chronicles by Garth Nix (1995-2003), the Mortal Instruments trilogy by Cassandra Clare (2007-2009), and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (1997-2007). The thesis proposes that the presence of biblical mythologems in contemporary fantasy stories of atonement means that a better understanding of their use in each domain can both enrich our appreciation of this kind of literature and provide teenagers with an imaginative language with which to consider aspects of Christian atonement. The prevalence of atonement ideas within recent fantasy books suggests that, by attending to the mythologems of atonement drawn from the Bible, the church might both rediscover the imaginative power of her own story and convey it meaningfully to young readers of fantasy literature today.</p>

Speaking of Mysteries: Atonement in Teenage Fantasy Books

<p>The question of how we can speak of a transcendent God and God’s relationship with creation has been pondered for millennia. Today particular difficulties arise when communicating Christian atonement theories to a generation for whom the world of the Bible is increasingly foreign, and in a time when theologians and philosophers are questioning both the violence of some atonement theories and the existence of “superior transcendence.” This study explores the presence of biblical motifs in the stories of atonement in young adult fantasy works. It suggests that the use of these motifs to make sense of atonement within fantasy worlds may assist readers to make sense of the same motifs when they are used to portray the Christian story of atonement. The investigation begins by discussing the place of imagination, reason and transcendence in religious language and argues for the centrality of metaphor and myth in religious expression. It suggests that young people today still seek intermediaries—“priests and prophets”—between themselves and the unknown, but they now find them in the fantasy authors who continue to use imaginative language to communicate transcendence. A central trope in contemporary fantasy fiction is that of a death that saves the world. Contrary to the expectations raised by René Girard’s work, these are not the violent deaths of a helpless scapegoat. The biblical mythologems incorporated in these works allow the authors to explore instead ideas of divine and human self-giving. This is demonstrated by tracing how mythological understandings of blood, victory and covenant in the Bible are incorporated into the atonement process of three fantasy series: the Old Kingdom Chronicles by Garth Nix (1995-2003), the Mortal Instruments trilogy by Cassandra Clare (2007-2009), and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (1997-2007). The thesis proposes that the presence of biblical mythologems in contemporary fantasy stories of atonement means that a better understanding of their use in each domain can both enrich our appreciation of this kind of literature and provide teenagers with an imaginative language with which to consider aspects of Christian atonement. The prevalence of atonement ideas within recent fantasy books suggests that, by attending to the mythologems of atonement drawn from the Bible, the church might both rediscover the imaginative power of her own story and convey it meaningfully to young readers of fantasy literature today.</p>

Gods, Games, and the Socioecological Landscape

The social sciences have long recognized a relationship between religion and social ecology. Upon closer inspection, religious systems not only correspond to important features of a society’s social ecology, but also appear to directly address these features. In this article, we examine the prospect that these salient features may be framed as game theoretical dilemmas and argue that contemporary approaches that emphasize cognition and/or social learning at the expense of social ecology are inadequate in accounting for cross-cultural variation in religious expression. Using ethnographic examples, we show that religions alleviate the costs of such dilemmas in a variety of ways by: 1) fostering beliefs that motivate and sustain beneficial practices; 2) incentivizing cooperative ventures; 3) encouraging ritual performances that minimize costly conflicts and bolster territorial conventions; 4) providing institutional forums to coordinate resource distributions; and 5) maintaining important resource and species diversity.

"The Beauty of Human Life Against Which Injustice is a Blasphemy": An Exploration of Representations of Religious Expression and Their Critical Engagement With Modernity in Elizabeth Knox's The Dreamhunter Duet

<p>Elizabeth Knox's Dreamhunter and Dreamquake show a variety of ways in which expressions of religion both critique modernity and suggest alternatives to it. I approach these texts through a religious rather than a literary lens, using the work of theorists such as Kierkegaard, Levinas, and Ricoeur in order to demonstrate how, in spite of its subjectivity and unobservable source, religious expression may be necessary in and to a deeply rational modernity. My argument looks at the relationship between church, culture, and state, examining how the criticism levelled by both institutional and secular expressions of religion can be seen to challenge the dehumanising objectivity of the will to power, profit, and progress. This notion of a religious challenge is then developed through the figure of the prophet, using a variety of tropes from the Jewish and Christian traditions to tease out the texts' enactment of redemptive social critique.</p>