At Home in Renaissance Bruges

How did citizens in Bruges create a home? What did an ordinary domestic interior look like in the sixteenth century? And more importantly: how does one study the domestic culture of bygone times by analysing documents such as probate inventories? These questions seem straightforward, yet few endeavours are more challenging than reconstructing a sixteenth-century domestic reality from written sources. This book takes full advantage of the inventory and convincingly frames household objects in their original context of use. Meticulously connecting objects, people and domestic spaces, the book introduces the reader to the rich material world of Bruges citizens in the Renaissance, their sensory engagement, their religious practice, the role of women, and other social factors. By weaving insights from material culture studies with urban history, At Home in Renaissance Bruges offers an appealing and holistic mixture of in-depth socio-economic, cultural and material analysis. In its approach the book goes beyond heavy-handed theories and stereotypes about the exquisite taste of aristocratic elites, focusing instead on the domestic materiality of Bruges’ middling groups. Evocatively illustrated with contemporary paintings from Bruges and beyond, this monograph shows a nuanced picture of domestic materiality in a remarkable European city.

REVISITING JAVANESE ISLAM

This article tends to revisiting Javanese Islamic studies. This study began from the European travelers’ period who noted some aspects of society such as the religious life. Those notes show the negative label that is addressed to the Javanese religious practices. These negative labels are often reproduced in Javanese Islam studies to this day. This article argues that the negative labels in Javanese Islamic studies tend to be misrepresentative. These kinds of results cannot be separated from certain paradigms in religious studies. There are two paradigms in the study of religion which are discussed in this article. First, the world religion paradigm. This paradigm, consciously or not, is often used in Javanese Islamic studies. The implication is Javanese religious practices are often portrayed as animist, syncretic, and so on. Second, the indigenous religion paradigm. This article elaborates this paradigm because of its potential in understanding Javanese Islamic religious practice more properly. The basis of this paradigm is intersubjective relation with ethical commitment, responsibility, and reciprocity.

Factors Predicting Spiritual Well-Being among Dependent Older People

Spiritual well-being is a deep feeling within the mind that represents peacefulness and the inner strength of individuals, resulting from an understanding of the nature of life and acceptance of changes occurring to themselves. Spiritual well-being is; therefore, very important to dependent older people. The objectives of this study were to identify the levels of spiritual well-being of dependent older people, to examine the relationships between religious belief, religious practice, self-esteem, social support, depression, and spiritual well-being, and to examine the ability of those factors to predict spiritual well-being among dependent older people. The study sample were 395 of people aged 60 years and above who are dependent and live in three provinces in southern Thailand. Data were collected using questionnaires, including the Spiritual Well-Being Scale for Dependent Older People, Thai version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Thai version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Thai Geriatric Depression Scale, the Religious Practices Questionnaire, and the Buddhist Belief Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis. The study results were as follows: 1) The spiritual well-being among dependent older people was at a moderate level (x̅ = 46.97, SD = 7.22). 2) Religious belief, religious practice, self-esteem, and social support significantly related positively to spiritual well-being (p < 0.01), while depression significantly related negatively to spiritual well-being (p < 0.01). 3) Religious belief, self-esteem, and social support together could explain 46.00 % of the variance in spiritual well-being. The results of this study can be used by nurses and health care providers to determine interventions for enhancing spiritual well-being in this particular group of older people. HIGHLIGHTS Spiritual well-being is one of the important dimensions of holistic care. Spiritual well-being has a positive effect on physical, mental and social health The conceptual framework is guided by the Buddhism Principles Religious belief, self-esteem, and social support together could explain 46.00 % of the variance in spiritual well-being

Reconnecting Religion and Community in a Small City: How Urban Amenities Afford Religious Amenities

Recently, sociologists of religion have argued that rather than treating geographical location as a mere backdrop against which religion happens, scholars ought to theorize how place characteristics influence, and are shaped by, religion. In particular, they focus on urbanicity, a key variable in the secularization debate. Drawing on interviews with 50 Catholic and non-Catholic residents of a small city just outside of Washington, D.C. along with participant observation data, I argue that one way to examine how urbanicity—and space and place more generally—matters for religion is to identify its affordances, or features of an environment that allow for certain lines of action. Specifically, I show how urban amenities can afford the creation of religious amenities that support religious practice. I also demonstrate how the concepts of affordances and amenities can be used to theorize place characteristics, and their relationship with religion, more systematically.

Further to the Pre-Muḥammadan Allāh

This article is concerned with the divinity of Allāh before Muḥammad. It is focussed on narrow and broad issues of method, and particularly on inferential evidence for the incidence and nature of this divinity on the evidence of Arabic poetry. It casts a critical look on retrojection Islamic theological concepts to the interpretation of earlier Arabic poetry, and proposes that the now common notion of “pagan monotheism” refers to no actually existing form of religious practice among pre-Muḥammadan Arabs. It reaffirms the salience of polytheism among the Arabs, and the pertinence of concrete historical evidence and of an anthropological sensibility in this domain. La présente étude porte sur une divinité nommée Allāh avant Muḥammad. Elle se concentre sur la question méthodologique des témoignages poétiques, sur l’envergure et la nature de cette divinité, et sur le contexte plus général des questions de méthode. Elle jette un regard critique sur la projection a posteriori des notions théologiques islamiques dans le cadre des analyses déductives fondées sur la matière poétique. Elle propose que l’idée, bien répandue dans des milieux universitaires, des « monothéistes païens » parmi les Arabes ne fait pas référence à la réalité historique des pratiques religieuses des Arabes avant Muḥammad. Elle souligne l’importance du polythéisme chez les Arabes et la pertinence décisive des données historiques concrètes et d’une sensibilité anthropologique dans ce domaine.

Social Practices and Cultural Contexts

This chapter builds on the assertion that spirituality is best understood as one dimension of the larger phenomenon of lived religious practice, rather than as a phenomenon separate from or opposed to religion. Spirituality is situated in a multidimensional analysis that also includes embodiment, materiality, emotion, aesthetics, morality, and narrative. By analyzing spirituality as a distinct dimension of religious practice, we can see the internal dynamics among all the dimensions. Understanding spirituality and religion at this micro level is incomplete, however, without attention to the distinct legal and cultural contexts around the world. This chapter elaborates on four ideal-typical macrosocial contexts that each shape quite differently the practice of religion and its spiritual dimensions: entangled, established, institutionalized, and interstitial contexts. These contexts identify differences in modal expectations for the fields within which religious practices will be found and the modes of regulation that will constrain religious action.

The time–space tactics of Chinese Buddhist and Taoist believers under state–religion tension

This study explores the experience of elderly rural Buddhist and Taoist believers in communist China where the ruling party has maintained decades-long regulatory control over religion. Based on ethnographic observation and oral histories, the analysis begins with how the actors made sense of and coped in their relationship with the state during the fieldwork period (May–June 2020) when state regulations restricted public religious practice because of COVID-19. The analysis then looks back on how practitioners experienced tightening state ideological control from the early 2010s to before COVID-19; further back at the religious revival during the opening and reform (1980s–2010s); and finally, the Cultural Revolution period (1960s–70s) when strict atheistic measures were imposed. Their narratives reveal the practical logic (habitus) which practitioners used to mediate their resistance against and compromise with the authoritarian state. Specifically, four logical modes that involve actors’ different time–space tactics were identified, namely state–religion disengagement, state–religion enhancement, religious (dis)enlightenment, and karma. The implications of these ostensibly conflicting modes of thinking in mediating the actors’ resistance–compliance interface in contemporary China are discussed.

Strength of Religious Faith: A Comparison of College Athletes

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.

Negotiating Christian Cultural Heritage

This article shows how Christmas in schools and public service media for children (PSM) involves negotiation and renewal of Christian cultural heritage. Across the studied cases from Norway and Denmark, we find that the institutions involved seek to realize community. However, community is approached differently in different settings. It is either understood restoratively as a process in which children, including immigrant children, become part of an existing societal community, or constructively as establishing an inclusive community across cultural and religious divides. A major finding is that activities associated with Christianity such as school services are framed in a language of ‘museumification’ and not as part of a living religious practice with the capacity to change and transform. Whereas Islam is positioned as a ‘religious other’, Christianity understood as culture facilitates creative heritage making, establishing community across religious divides. Contrary to political rhetoric, Christian cultural heritage in schools and PSM is by and large not dominated by a safeguarding nationalistic discourse. Rather, traditions and activities related to Christianity are negotiated and appropriated for the benefit of an inclusive community. A premise for making this succeed in schools and PSM is to negotiate Christian cultural heritage as culture, not as religion.