New Spirituality Culture and Religious Tradition

2017 ◽  
pp. 155-169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susumu Shimazono
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
New Spirituality

scholarly journals Conformity visa-vi transformational conversion in mission: Towards a self-transcendental mission agenda

2017 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Selaelo T. Kgatla
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Alternative Solution ◽  
Free Society ◽  
Ruling Class ◽  
New Spirituality

In this article, the author discusses the concept of conversion as opposed to conformity to  a  religious tradition without internal self-assertiveness. A transcendental mission understanding as opposed to an immanent agenda for liberation is proposed as an alternative solution. He analyses the role played and the contributions made by missionary enterprise and the liberation theologies in South Africa as they shaped the path for liberation. The white churches and state theologies sought to produce black conformists to the system; liberation theologies resisted the conformity mentality and fought for an egalitarian and free society. Both movements failed to embrace a transcendental methodology that would go beyond the secular boundaries and bring about transformational and empowering spirituality. This article suggests new spirituality for life and affirmation that would work against self-hate among the previously oppressed and self-guilt among the previously oppressing ruling class. It seeks ways to heal broken relationships through authentic empowerment and transformation.

Imaginings

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-30
Author(s):  
Kelly James Clark
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Intellectual Humility ◽  
First Order ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Empirically Supported ◽  
Group Violence ◽  
The World ◽  
The Universe

In Branden Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican’s challenging and provocative essay, we hear a considerably longer, more scholarly and less melodic rendition of John Lennon’s catchy tune—without religion, or at least without first-order supernaturalisms (the kinds of religion we find in the world), there’d be significantly less intra-group violence. First-order supernaturalist beliefs, as defined by Thornhill-Miller and Peter Millican (hereafter M&M), are “beliefs that claim unique authority for some particular religious tradition in preference to all others” (3). According to M&M, first-order supernaturalist beliefs are exclusivist, dogmatic, empirically unsupported, and irrational. Moreover, again according to M&M, we have perfectly natural explanations of the causes that underlie such beliefs (they seem to conceive of such natural explanations as debunking explanations). They then make a case for second-order supernaturalism, “which maintains that the universe in general, and the religious sensitivities of humanity in particular, have been formed by supernatural powers working through natural processes” (3). Second-order supernaturalism is a kind of theism, more closely akin to deism than, say, Christianity or Buddhism. It is, as such, universal (according to contemporary psychology of religion), empirically supported (according to philosophy in the form of the Fine-Tuning Argument), and beneficial (and so justified pragmatically). With respect to its pragmatic value, second-order supernaturalism, according to M&M, gets the good(s) of religion (cooperation, trust, etc) without its bad(s) (conflict and violence). Second-order supernaturalism is thus rational (and possibly true) and inconducive to violence. In this paper, I will examine just one small but important part of M&M’s argument: the claim that (first-order) religion is a primary motivator of violence and that its elimination would eliminate or curtail a great deal of violence in the world. Imagine, they say, no religion, too.Janusz Salamon offers a friendly extension or clarification of M&M’s second-order theism, one that I think, with emendations, has promise. He argues that the core of first-order religions, the belief that Ultimate Reality is the Ultimate Good (agatheism), is rational (agreeing that their particular claims are not) and, if widely conceded and endorsed by adherents of first-order religions, would reduce conflict in the world.While I favor the virtue of intellectual humility endorsed in both papers, I will argue contra M&M that (a) belief in first-order religion is not a primary motivator of conflict and violence (and so eliminating first-order religion won’t reduce violence). Second, partly contra Salamon, who I think is half right (but not half wrong), I will argue that (b) the religious resources for compassion can and should come from within both the particular (often exclusivist) and the universal (agatheistic) aspects of religious beliefs. Finally, I will argue that (c) both are guilty, as I am, of the philosopher’s obsession with belief. 

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Trude Fonneland
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Document Analysis ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Rare Opportunity

In the introduction, the outline of the chapters is presented, and the context for the study of contemporary shamanisms in Norway is drawn. The chapter provides an outline for why I have chosen to examine the field of shamanism in Norway through interviews, participant observation, and document analysis. I argue that the project, although obviously not exhaustive, nor even representative of the contemporary setting, represents a rare opportunity to study a late modern religious tradition in the process of evolution.

Masao Abe and Comparative Theology

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leo D. Lefebure
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Jesus Christ ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Christian Theology ◽  
Western Philosophy ◽  
Comparative Theology ◽  
Graduate Course ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Faith Tradition ◽  
Mahayana Buddhist

A leading form of comparative theology entails commitment to one religious tradition but ventures out to encounter another tradition, with the goal of generating fresh insights into familiar beliefs and practices reliant upon both the tradition of origin and the newly encountered faith tradition. This chapter, based on a graduate course at Georgetown University, examines how Zen Buddhist thinker Masao Abe engages in a dialogue with Western philosophy and Christian theology. Abe interpreted the meaning of the kenosis (emptying) of God in Jesus Christ in Christian theology in light of Mahayana Buddhist perspectives on Sunyata (emptying) and the logic of negation. The chapter includes responses to Abe from various Christian theologians, including Georgetown graduate students.

scholarly journals Intersection of the Religious and the Secular: The Cemetery Festival in Latvia

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 69
Author(s):  
Anita Stasulane
Keyword(s):  
Participant Observation ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Main Research ◽  
Religious Ritual ◽  
Secular Society ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Depth Interviews ◽  
Ritual Practices ◽  
Research Tools

This article addresses the commemoration of the deceased by examining a peculiar Latvian religious tradition—the cemetery festival. Latvian society is moving down the path to secularization. Participation in religious ritual practices could be expected to decrease in a predominately secular society. Nevertheless, the tradition of the cemetery festival practiced in Latvia shows that the relationship between the religious and the secular is much more complex than simply being in opposition to each other. The analysis is based on data obtained by undertaking fieldwork at cemeteries in Latvia. Participant observation and qualitative in-depth interviews were the main research tools used in the fieldwork. Through an analysis of the fieldwork data, this article explains, first, how honoring of the deceased currently takes place in Latvia; second, the factors which have determined the preservation of the cemetery festival tradition despite the forced secularization of the Soviet period and the general secularization encountered today; third, the relationship between religious and secular activities and their transformation at the cemetery festival.

Grassroots spirituality as a holistic expression of the psyche

2011 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-52
Author(s):  
David Tacey
Keyword(s):  
Religious Tradition ◽  
New Age ◽  
Jungian Psychology ◽  
High Culture ◽  
New Age Movement ◽  
Collective Psyche ◽  
Recent Attack

Jung was aware that any new experience of the sacred would not be welcomed as sacred by religious tradition or intellectual high culture. In fact, new experiences of the sacred are often rejected by religions, and regarded with utmost scepticism by critical traditions. I suggest that a grassroots spirituality movement is to be viewed in this context today. I distinguish this movement from the New Age movement with which it is often conflated and confused. I argue that the grassroots movement is an expression of the holistic directions of the collective psyche. Finally, I explore the Vatican's recent attack on Jungian psychology as an example of a senex tradition that seeks to destroy creativity, and suggest that Jung's theory of the religious function of the psyche is being deliberately misread by a besieged and failing tradition.

How to Cite a Sacred Text

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 844-861
Author(s):  
Ron E. Hassner
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Sacred Text ◽  
Sacred Texts ◽  
Appropriate Treatment ◽  
Ancient Texts

AbstractAllusions to holy scriptures and quotes from sacred texts appear in hundreds of political science articles. Yet while we treat other ancient texts with reverence and diligence, we have not extended a similar care to the holy scriptures of the world's religions. Political scientists often refer to biblical events, statements, and turns of phrase but rarely cite them, chapter and verse. They are careless about referencing the precise translation of the holy texts used, tend to cite religious passages out of context, and disregard the role of religious tradition, interpretation, and practice in shaping and reshaping the meaning of holy texts. I offer examples for these trends, provide evidence for their harmful implications and offer guidelines for the appropriate treatment of sacred texts as formal scholarly sources.

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