Setting the Scene: The Jewish Landscape

This chapter examines the historical and sociological context of Orthodox Jewish women in London, and applies concepts of community to analyse the religious geography of Orthodox Jews in Britain. The term 'community' is used by British Jews, generally in one of two distinct senses: the first, refers to all Jews who identify as Jews and participate in Jewish activities, the second, indicates a particular subgroup, the members of a particular synagogue. Most Jews who identify as belonging to the Jewish community also belong to several of these 'subcommunities,' all of which overlap with family and social circles within the Jewish and wider communities, and most of which are not mutually exclusive. Community affiliation thus exists at several levels and in several modes, with an individual's particular combination of networks and community memberships providing basic parameters of his or her individual Jewish identity. This complex, layered character of modern Jewish identity complicates the definition of the term 'Orthodox'. Current denominations include Liberal Judaism and Reform Judaism; Masorti Judaism; and Orthodox Judaism. Earlier tensions between traditional expectations for women and new ideas about their role in the wider society were reflected in developments within the British Jewish community: the foundation of Liberal Judaism. Orthodoxy has been slow to respond. The very word 'feminist' carries negative connotations in most Orthodox communities, even among women who profess strongly feminist views in economic and political matters.

Faith Borders, Healing Territories & Interconnective Frontier? Wellness & Its Ecumenical Construct in African Shrines, Christian Prayerhouses & Hospitals

The religious geography of most health-seekers in modern Africa easily transverses the faith worlds of other religious traditions, thus building inevitably a lively-network of ecumenical spaces that surprisingly create an interpenetrating dialogue between African traditional shrines, Christian prayerhouses and western hospitals. The open-border policy of healing sites in Nigeria and Ghana in particular provides ecumenical directions and enriches interfaith conversations among different religious traditions. Consequently, the present study underscores the subversion of the dogmatic rhetoric of the different faith traditions in the quest of health and wholeness at healing sites. This ecumenical triangulation of the faith-borders projects a new religious landscape where the hostile rhetoric of faith traditions are clearly suspended, and a new appreciation of other faiths in definition of health and wellness is popularly entrenched. The existential blurring of dogmatic and traditional faith-borders raises new questions—and interesting perspectives in the modern study of religions, health and inter-faith/ecumenism in Africa.

Tao Hongjing and the Reading of Daoist Geography

This article studies ways in which Daoist writers in early medieval China represented sacred lands. It goes beyond the descriptions of Daoist sacred geography to analyze ways in which these texts were tools to disseminate new revelations about the ancient history and ownership of temple lands. It begins by looking at Han dynasty conceptions of mountains, in particular the role of individuals who were privy to the hidden, esoteric knowledge of land formations. The second part of the article focuses on the writings of the fifth century polymath Tao Hongjing. These commentaries provide valuable insight into the kinds of social exchanges that underpin the writing of Daoist geography. These writings about religious geography reflect the interests of a new clerical class of individuals who developed and recreated sacred sites on behalf of royal benefactors.