scholarly journals Introduction to the Special Issue: “The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World”, Religions 2016

Religions ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Arthur Keefer ◽  
Katharine Dell
Keyword(s):  
Modern World ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
World Religions

Max Weber oder das Scheitern an der Religion

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Reinhard
Keyword(s):  
Max Weber ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Protestant Christianity ◽  
Other World ◽  
Careful Comparison

Der Weltruhm Max Webers geht langsam, aber deutlich zurück. An seinem Lebensthema, der Bedeutung der Religion für die moderne Welt, ist er langfristig gescheitert. Das gilt nicht nur für seine Protestantismus-These, sondern auch für den aufwändigen Versuch, die These durch Vergleich mit anderen Weltreligionen auszuweiten und abzusichern. Er landet dabei in der kolonialistischen Orientalismus-Falle, indem er beweist, was er zuvor vorausgesetzt hatte. Umgekehrt wussten und wissen Vertreter anderer Religionen das protestantische Christentum zur Modernisierung ihrer eigenen Kulturen ‚auszuschlachten‘. ‚Das Empire hat zurückgeschlagen‘. Auch Karl Jaspers’ post-koloniale Alternative zu weltanschaulicher Kommunikation auf gleicher Augenhöhe im Zeichen einer ‚Achsenzeit‘ ist gescheitert. Der viel berufene Aufschwung der Religionen besteht global gesehen in pluralistischer Beliebigkeit, die den Charakter von Religion überhaupt verändert hat. ‚Transzendenz‘ ist immanent geworden. Unsere Religion ist längst nicht mehr diejenige Max Webers. Obviously Max Weber’s fame is continuously decreasing. In the end, he failed in his self-chosen task to explain the growth of the modern world through religious experience. This statement does not only refer to his world-famous essay on The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. It is also true of his extensive attempt to confirm and extent his thesis through careful comparison with other world religions. But he fell into the circular trap of colonialist orientalism because he simply proved what had been his own preconditions. On the other hand, members of other religious communities used and still use protestant Christianity selectively to modernize their own cultures. The empire hits back! Karl Jaspers’s Axial Age, his post-colonial attempt in cultural communication on equal level, failed as well. Today, from the global point of view the famous renewal of religion consists in arbitrary pluralism. The very character of religion as such has changed. Transcendence turned immanent. The religion of today is no longer the religion of Max Weber.

scholarly journals Introduction: Evidence for entheogen use in prehistory and world religions

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Michael Winkelman
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Serotonergic System ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Serotonergic Receptors ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
The World

This introduction to the special issue reviews research that supports the hypothesis that psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, were central features in the development of religion. The greater response of the human serotonergic system to psychedelics than is the case for chimpanzees’ serotonergic receptors indicates that these substances were environmental factors that affected hominin evolution. These substances also contributed to the evolution of ritual capacities, shamanism, and the associated alterations of consciousness. The role of psilocybin mushrooms in the ancient evolution of human religions is attested to fungiform petroglyphs, rock artifacts, and mythologies from all major regions of the world. This prehistoric mycolatry persisted into the historic era in the major religious traditions of the world, which often left evidence of these practices in sculpture, art, and scriptures. This continuation of entheogenic practices in the historical world is addressed in the articles here. But even through new entheogenic combinations were introduced, complex societies generally removed entheogens from widespread consumption, restricted them in private and exclusive spiritual practices of the leaders, and often carried out repressive punishment of those who engaged in entheogenic practices.

scholarly journals Digging down into the global urban past

Urban History ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Emma Hart ◽  
Mariana Dantas
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Urban History ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Global City ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Modern Cities ◽  
Diverse Communities

Abstract In our introduction to this Special Issue on early modern cities and globalization, we explore the current place of cities before 1850 in global urban history and address the promise of a greater focus on their role. We argue that the interplay between the large scale and the small scale in the imperial global city is an essential dialogical force in the formation of each city's relationship to the wider early modern world. Furthermore, early modern global urban history can help explain the creation of spaces that facilitated connections between distant, global locations, as well as illuminate the emergence of networks of exchange between city communities around the globe. Yet, it also reveals the tense, messy negotiation of the meaning of these urban spaces, as well as the incredibly diverse communities they harboured.

scholarly journals Intervention and the ordering of the modern world

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 1039-1056 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN MACMILLAN
Keyword(s):  
Social Practice ◽  
Great Power ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Evolutionary Context ◽  
Political Communities ◽  
Introductory Discussion ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

AbstractThis introductory discussion establishes the notion of intervention as a ‘social practice’ and carves out the contextual and conceptual space for the Special Issue as a whole. The first move is to recontextualise intervention in terms of ‘modernity’ as distinct from the sovereign states system. This shift enables a better appreciation of the dynamic and evolutionary context that generates variation in the practice of intervention over time and space and which is analytically sensitive to the economic and cultural (as well as Great Power) hierarchies that generate rationales for intervention. The second move is to reconceptualise intervention as a specific modality of coercion relatively well-suited to the regulation or mediation of conflict between territorially bounded political communities and transnational social forces. Third is to ‘historicise’ the practice of intervention through showing how it has changed in relation to a range of international orders that have defined the modern world and which are each characterised by a different notion of the relationship between social and territorial space. Fourth and finally is a brief consideration of the possibility of intervention's demise as a social practice.

scholarly journals Against the Modern World

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-110
Author(s):  
Ali Hassan Zaidi
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
North America ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Modern World ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Perennial Philosophy ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslims In Europe ◽  
Muslim Scholars

One effect of 9/11 has been that Muslim voices, which until then had beenmostly ignored, are increasingly reaching a wider audience of other Muslimsand non-Muslims. In Europe and North America, this has meant that selfidentified“progressive” Muslim scholars who emphasize social justice, aswell as “traditional” Muslims who emphasize Islam’s spiritual or esotericdimension, have been contributing in a much more vocal manner to the contemporaryinterpretation of what it means to be Muslim. Since most of theleading figures presented herein are Sufi Muslims of a particular strand ofesoteric Islam, this book helps fill an important lacuna concerning the developmentof the traditionalist position – a position that has been voiced bysuch Muslim scholars as Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Martin Lings.Sedgwick promotes the book as a biography of René Guénon (1886-1951) and an intellectual history of the traditionalist movement that heinaugurated in the early twentieth century. Guénon’s movement combineselements of perennial philosophy, which holds that certain perennial problemsrecur in humanity’s philosophical concerns, and that this perennialwisdom is now only found in the traditional forms of the world religions ...

scholarly journals Introduction to Special Issue, Music in World Religions: A Response to Isabel Laack

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1044
Author(s):  
Heather MacLachlan
Keyword(s):  
Special Issue ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Music And Religion

This article serves to introduce a special issue of Religions, titled Music in World Religions. A 2015 article by religion scholar Isabel Laack claimed that the study of music and religion has been neglected by Laack’s peers in the field of religions. Responding to Laack, I argue that scholars of music have been making important contributions to the study of music and religion and, indeed, have been addressing the twelve specific topics she highlights for decades. After summarizing academic works which respond to Laack’s twelve categories of inquiry, I introduce each of the articles in this special issue, showing that each of these also address the gap in the literature that Laack perceived. Ultimately, I argue that transdisciplinarity in the study of music and religion is alive and well, and is exemplified both by historic writings and by those contained in Music in World Religions.

Pricing in the modern world: the role of price-related and non-price related cues

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 397-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhruv Grewal ◽  
Anne Roggeveen ◽  
Jens Nordfält
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Review Article ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Behavioral Pricing ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Consumer Ratings ◽  
Pricing Research ◽  
Starting Price

Purpose – This editorial aims to discuss how the modern world is causing pricing practices of both retailers and consumers to evolve. The contributions of seven papers included in this special issue have been highlighted. Design/methodology/approach – The purpose is to explore how different cues impact consumer reactions to prices. Findings – These cues include both cues regarding the price itself (e.g. the level of the discount, how the price is broken into component parts, the starting price in an auction), as well as non-price-related cues (e.g. private labels, brand familiarly, consumer ratings, creativity of an ad). In addition, this special issue includes a review article which provides a comprehensive review of behavioral pricing research. Originality/value – The contributions of seven papers included in this special issue have been highlighted.

scholarly journals The nature and dynamics of world religions: a life-history approach

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1818) ◽  
pp. 20151593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Baumard ◽  
Coralie Chevallier
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life History Theory ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Life Strategy ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Face ◽  
Diffusion Pattern ◽  
History Approach

In contrast with tribal and archaic religions, world religions are characterized by a unique emphasis on extended prosociality, restricted sociosexuality, delayed gratification and the belief that these specific behaviours are sanctioned by some kind of supernatural justice. Here, we draw on recent advances in life history theory to explain this pattern of seemingly unrelated features. Life history theory examines how organisms adaptively allocate resources in the face of trade-offs between different life-goals (e.g. growth versus reproduction, exploitation versus exploration) . In particular, recent studies have shown that individuals, including humans, adjust their life strategy to the environment through phenotypic plasticity: in a harsh environment, organisms tend to adopt a ‘fast' strategy, pursuing smaller but more certain benefits, while in more affluent environments, organisms tend to develop a ‘slow' strategy, aiming for larger but less certain benefits. Reviewing a range of recent research, we show that world religions are associated with a form of ‘slow' strategy. This framework explains both the promotion of ‘slow' behaviours such as altruism, self-regulation and monogamy in modern world religions, and the condemnation of ‘fast' behaviours such as selfishness, conspicuous sexuality and materialism. This ecological approach also explains the diffusion pattern of world religions: why they emerged late in human history (500–300 BCE), why they are currently in decline in the most affluent societies and why they persist in some places despite this overall decline.

scholarly journals Politics and the Pedagogue of Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristi Upson-Saia ◽  
Maria Doerfler
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
World Religions ◽  
Collaborative Project ◽  
Introductory Essay

The introductory essay serves to situate this special issue in its original context: a workshop on "Politics, Pedagogy, and the Profession," hosted in November 2017 at Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of World Religions for graduate students and teachers of pre-modernity. The workshop marked the beginning of a collaborative project, whose products thus far include, inter alia, a shared database of pedagogical resources, conference sessions to extend discussions of teaching politically-charged subjects to a wider audience, and the contributions to the issue at hand. The introductory essay provides readers with background information concerning the project's aims and initial findings, including a discussion of instructors' motivations for addressing contemporary political considerations; the risks and rewards teaching politically-charged topics; and the institutional and disciplinary resources available to instructors. The essay also provides an introductory preview of the articles gathered in this special issue.

New Age in the modern world: typology, some forms of manifestation

1998 ◽  
pp. 115-124
Author(s):  
Yu. M. Skomorovskiy
Keyword(s):  
New Age ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Religious Literature ◽  
World Religions ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Main Mass ◽  
The World

New Age in religious literature is regarded as an integral eclectic concept that refers to a person's search for spirituality outside of known world religions in their confessional terms. Conditionally it includes non-religious groups and trends, Gnostic and metaphysical schools, non-confessional spiritual associations, groups and currents of the "alternative" way of life. From the sociological point of view, it can be attributed to the manifestation of deviations in the form of social anomalies. At the same time, for participants in this direction, their own values, knowledge, activities are seen as a gradual approximation to the norm, a model, in assessing the life of the main mass of society as pathological or nearpathological states that also have the chance to change when they realize their true nature. The description of these public phenomena through the concept of "New Age" is seen as an intermediate or transitional nature due to the presence of serious differences in both the vision of the world and their practical activities.

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