Pub Date : 2023-01-18DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10073
Marcus Harmes, Meredith A. Harmes, Barbara A. H. Harmes
The exorcism of Michael Taylor in 1974, which led to murder, pushed Anglican exorcisms into the public gaze. This article proposes a particular trajectory of Anglicanism and the preternatural into popular culture and popular awareness of religion. The Taylor case was one of the catalysts for private anxiety among clergy about the preternatural in the Church of England. By the early 1970s, some clergy ignited public debate including open letters and television appearances to declare the Church of England should not exorcise and complete belief in the accounts of the Gospels was not necessary. Their debate moved to television, some clergy declaring on talk shows the Church should not exorcise, others consenting to be filmed exorcising. Clergy exorcising on screen gave visual cues and content to fictional drama that traversed different genres and channels. This article identifies a common element to drama showcasing the Church and the preternatural, showing the institution and its clergy as weak or absent in the face of evil. Drama brought to the fore clerical concerns that engaging publicly with the preternatural made the Church seem theologically confused and denuded of spiritual authority, a point reinforced by the tragic real-world consequences of the Anglican exorcism of Michael Taylor.
{"title":"The Church Sinister","authors":"Marcus Harmes, Meredith A. Harmes, Barbara A. H. Harmes","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10073","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The exorcism of Michael Taylor in 1974, which led to murder, pushed Anglican exorcisms into the public gaze. This article proposes a particular trajectory of Anglicanism and the preternatural into popular culture and popular awareness of religion. The Taylor case was one of the catalysts for private anxiety among clergy about the preternatural in the Church of England. By the early 1970s, some clergy ignited public debate including open letters and television appearances to declare the Church of England should not exorcise and complete belief in the accounts of the Gospels was not necessary. Their debate moved to television, some clergy declaring on talk shows the Church should not exorcise, others consenting to be filmed exorcising. Clergy exorcising on screen gave visual cues and content to fictional drama that traversed different genres and channels. This article identifies a common element to drama showcasing the Church and the preternatural, showing the institution and its clergy as weak or absent in the face of evil. Drama brought to the fore clerical concerns that engaging publicly with the preternatural made the Church seem theologically confused and denuded of spiritual authority, a point reinforced by the tragic real-world consequences of the Anglican exorcism of Michael Taylor.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41314199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-25DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10019
Anna Clot-Garrell, Víctor Albert-Blanco, Rosa Martínez-Cuadros, Carolina Esteso
This article examines how religious diversity is manifested and represented in contexts undergoing intense urban pressures. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the Raval quarter of Barcelona, we analyse the open-air festivities of religious minorities and the emergence of new neighbourhood associations’ mobilizations. Specifically, we focus on the role of food in these events as a way to explore how diversification and urban transformation interrelate. Whilst food becomes the means through which religious and secular actors interact and articulate forms of place-making, it also becomes a resource to present religion in forms deemed ‘acceptable’ to the general public.
{"title":"Religious Tastes in a Gentrified Neighbourhood","authors":"Anna Clot-Garrell, Víctor Albert-Blanco, Rosa Martínez-Cuadros, Carolina Esteso","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article examines how religious diversity is manifested and represented in contexts undergoing intense urban pressures. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in the Raval quarter of Barcelona, we analyse the open-air festivities of religious minorities and the emergence of new neighbourhood associations’ mobilizations. Specifically, we focus on the role of food in these events as a way to explore how diversification and urban transformation interrelate. Whilst food becomes the means through which religious and secular actors interact and articulate forms of place-making, it also becomes a resource to present religion in forms deemed ‘acceptable’ to the general public.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42143774","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-30DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10052
Rita Marchetti, Nicola Righetti, Susanna Pagiotti, Anna Stanziano
The study investigates the online debate sparked by the political instrumentalization of religious symbols by right-wing populist leaders, taking as a case study the campaign communication of Matteo Salvini—leader of the Italian “Lega” party—in the run-up to the 2018 and 2019 general and European elections. Against the backdrop of theories on populism, religious publicization and politicization in a social media context, the research analyzes over 2,000 Facebook posts referring to Salvini and religion by using a mixed computational and qualitative method including semi-automated frame analysis and correspondence analysis. Results show that right-wing populism is capable of successfully appropriating religious symbols and setting the agenda for religious topics on social media, even challenging the authority of traditional religious authorities on their own ground. By attacking the Church, defending the religious sentiment of the people, and opposing Christian identity to Islam, religion is effectively integrated into the populist worldview.
{"title":"Right-Wing Populism and Political Instrumentalization of Religion","authors":"Rita Marchetti, Nicola Righetti, Susanna Pagiotti, Anna Stanziano","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10052","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The study investigates the online debate sparked by the political instrumentalization of religious symbols by right-wing populist leaders, taking as a case study the campaign communication of Matteo Salvini—leader of the Italian “Lega” party—in the run-up to the 2018 and 2019 general and European elections. Against the backdrop of theories on populism, religious publicization and politicization in a social media context, the research analyzes over 2,000 Facebook posts referring to Salvini and religion by using a mixed computational and qualitative method including semi-automated frame analysis and correspondence analysis. Results show that right-wing populism is capable of successfully appropriating religious symbols and setting the agenda for religious topics on social media, even challenging the authority of traditional religious authorities on their own ground. By attacking the Church, defending the religious sentiment of the people, and opposing Christian identity to Islam, religion is effectively integrated into the populist worldview.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42279969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-18DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10068
Philipp Rückheim
This study looks at a cultural component of Scottish nationalism and presents a novel understanding of state-church relations concerning nationalism in the twenty-first century. It offers an in-depth analysis of decisions and strategies employed by religious actors in dealing with the Scottish independence referendum of 2014. In contrast to the nationalist polarisation fuelled by exclusionary claims of national religion in contemporary democracies such as India, Poland or the USA, religion in Scotland depolarised nationalism. Most churches were willing to risk the existing state-church hierarchy of a national church for the religious autonomy inherent in ecumenism. The study discusses religious pluralism and equality as mechanisms through which religion depolarises nationalism and enables democracy.
{"title":"Depolarising Nationalism","authors":"Philipp Rückheim","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10068","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This study looks at a cultural component of Scottish nationalism and presents a novel understanding of state-church relations concerning nationalism in the twenty-first century. It offers an in-depth analysis of decisions and strategies employed by religious actors in dealing with the Scottish independence referendum of 2014. In contrast to the nationalist polarisation fuelled by exclusionary claims of national religion in contemporary democracies such as India, Poland or the USA, religion in Scotland depolarised nationalism. Most churches were willing to risk the existing state-church hierarchy of a national church for the religious autonomy inherent in ecumenism. The study discusses religious pluralism and equality as mechanisms through which religion depolarises nationalism and enables democracy.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43594062","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-18DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10069
Marco Alviz Fernández
With this article I propose a new methodological approach in the field of pagan divine men studies in late antiquity. The “Divine Men” were the last representatives of ancient παιδεία (education) in a context where religion, education, and philosophy were inextricably intertwined. Decades of scholarly claims bring the research path towards a multidisciplinary focus in which I suggest applying the Weberian concept of charisma from a social history perspective. Thus, this preliminary research puts forward a new heuristic and hermeneutical method to better understand the social processes that those communities influenced.
{"title":"Prolegomena to a New Methodological Approach to the Pagan Divine Man (θεῖος ἀνήρ) in Late Antiquity","authors":"Marco Alviz Fernández","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10069","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 With this article I propose a new methodological approach in the field of pagan divine men studies in late antiquity. The “Divine Men” were the last representatives of ancient παιδεία (education) in a context where religion, education, and philosophy were inextricably intertwined. Decades of scholarly claims bring the research path towards a multidisciplinary focus in which I suggest applying the Weberian concept of charisma from a social history perspective. Thus, this preliminary research puts forward a new heuristic and hermeneutical method to better understand the social processes that those communities influenced.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41555380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-18DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10070
Oleh Melnychenko
The discourse of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) abundantly adopted religious themes. In my article, I show how the theme of Christmas, with its specific images and vocabulary, has been used in the rhetoric of the participants of the Revolution. In three sections, I demonstrate the three lines in which the protesters, speakers, and commenters drew parallels between the course of the Revolution and the Nativity story. These lines are the birth of Christ, the persecutions of Herod, and the Bethlehem infanticide. Finally, I show how the protesters killed at the end of the Revolution are represented in the post-Maidan discourse as national saints. I devote special attention to the Christmas play called Vertep, performed on the Maidan scene in the winter of 2013–2014, because it most fully embraces the link between these lines and the Revolution. The results of the study are intended to contribute to a better understanding of both phenomena: the Revolution of Dignity as an event, influenced by religion, and the Ukrainian Christmas tradition as a flexible and ever-renewable source for the conceptualization of social reality.
{"title":"Christmas and Revolution","authors":"Oleh Melnychenko","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10070","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10070","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The discourse of the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (2013–2014) abundantly adopted religious themes. In my article, I show how the theme of Christmas, with its specific images and vocabulary, has been used in the rhetoric of the participants of the Revolution. In three sections, I demonstrate the three lines in which the protesters, speakers, and commenters drew parallels between the course of the Revolution and the Nativity story. These lines are the birth of Christ, the persecutions of Herod, and the Bethlehem infanticide. Finally, I show how the protesters killed at the end of the Revolution are represented in the post-Maidan discourse as national saints. I devote special attention to the Christmas play called Vertep, performed on the Maidan scene in the winter of 2013–2014, because it most fully embraces the link between these lines and the Revolution. The results of the study are intended to contribute to a better understanding of both phenomena: the Revolution of Dignity as an event, influenced by religion, and the Ukrainian Christmas tradition as a flexible and ever-renewable source for the conceptualization of social reality.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43926206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-07DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10065
Richard Schaefer
This article investigates an episode of anti-Catholic polemic in the late eighteenth century in Germany. It shows how fear over the influence of “crypto-Catholics” masquerading as Protestants and exponents of Enlightenment triggered the conceptualization of “Catholicism” as a social and cultural force beyond Church membership. It shows how Friedrich Nicolai played a leading role in suggesting that Catholics posed a distinct threat to the Enlightenment and the progressive achievements of the last few decades. Guided by Reinhart Koselleck’s insights into the temporalization of fundamental concepts, this article shows how the conceptualization of Catholicism was part of the larger attempt to navigate the dissolution of feudal society. It argues that placing Catholics on the wrong side of history was thus generative of the modern historical regime.
{"title":"On the Wrong Side of History","authors":"Richard Schaefer","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10065","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10065","url":null,"abstract":"This article investigates an episode of anti-Catholic polemic in the late eighteenth century in Germany. It shows how fear over the influence of “crypto-Catholics” masquerading as Protestants and exponents of Enlightenment triggered the conceptualization of “Catholicism” as a social and cultural force beyond Church membership. It shows how Friedrich Nicolai played a leading role in suggesting that Catholics posed a distinct threat to the Enlightenment and the progressive achievements of the last few decades. Guided by Reinhart Koselleck’s insights into the temporalization of fundamental concepts, this article shows how the conceptualization of Catholicism was part of the larger attempt to navigate the dissolution of feudal society. It argues that placing Catholics on the wrong side of history was thus generative of the modern historical regime.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138542421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-07-05DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10053
Judith Roads
This empirical case study provides a new approach to the understanding of discursively constructed Quaker identity in the seventeenth century, from the point of view of those opposed to the dissenting Christian movement. This article asks how others may have viewed adherents to the Quaker communities in England. The findings illustrate a range of negative and denigrating discourses that go beyond abstract religious controversy to sow manufactured fear of the Quaker community. Overt and covert linguistic mechanisms used by anti-Quaker writers reveal expressions of emerging moral panic underlying unsubstantiated accusations attacking the minority Quaker community.
{"title":"Early Quaker Identity from the Perspective of Some Ecclesiastical Anti-Quakers","authors":"Judith Roads","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10053","url":null,"abstract":"This empirical case study provides a new approach to the understanding of discursively constructed Quaker identity in the seventeenth century, from the point of view of those opposed to the dissenting Christian movement. This article asks how others may have viewed adherents to the Quaker communities in England. The findings illustrate a range of negative and denigrating discourses that go beyond abstract religious controversy to sow manufactured fear of the Quaker community. Overt and covert linguistic mechanisms used by anti-Quaker writers reveal expressions of emerging moral panic underlying unsubstantiated accusations attacking the minority Quaker community.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"8 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138520455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10066
M. Penttilä
Understanding of space is central in migrant identity-building and integration to a host society. Identity also relates to time, which is effectuated by memory. This article shows how the interplay between religiosity and space may be central to believers’ identity narratives. Religiosity and memories of the past may affiliate migrants to a specific country. Through narrative analysis, I have shown five different ways Russian speakers from various denominations in Finland affiliate spatially—whether to the past country which does not exist anymore, country of origin, two home countries, host country or the global society. Each narrative has its own way of memorizing. The article shows multiplicity in Russian-speaking believers’ life courses and present-day identity-building in Finland. The article also demonstrates, in a migration situation, the effect on identity narratives of denominational background and recognition as sectarian or necessity of remediation.
{"title":"Post-Soviet Believers in Migration","authors":"M. Penttilä","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10066","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Understanding of space is central in migrant identity-building and integration to a host society. Identity also relates to time, which is effectuated by memory. This article shows how the interplay between religiosity and space may be central to believers’ identity narratives. Religiosity and memories of the past may affiliate migrants to a specific country. Through narrative analysis, I have shown five different ways Russian speakers from various denominations in Finland affiliate spatially—whether to the past country which does not exist anymore, country of origin, two home countries, host country or the global society. Each narrative has its own way of memorizing. The article shows multiplicity in Russian-speaking believers’ life courses and present-day identity-building in Finland. The article also demonstrates, in a migration situation, the effect on identity narratives of denominational background and recognition as sectarian or necessity of remediation.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44099698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-17DOI: 10.1163/18748929-bja10067
A. Shisheliakina
Based on ethnographic materials, the article discusses Muslim women’s narratives as an expression of the process of identity negotiation in the post-Soviet cultural context. Muslim women’s narratives based on Islamic, ethnic, gendered epistemologies are intertwined with each other and hybrid. Muslim-Tatar women’s identity as women, Muslims and Tatars is tied together, while simultaneously being fragmented and peripheral to male identity. Since the Russian state imbues veiling with political meaning, Muslim women identity is politicized, therefore veiling as a part of Muslim-Tatar women’s identity is negotiated not only inside of the Muslim-Tatar community, but outside due to external discourses.
{"title":"Muslim Women’s Narratives of Veiling and Identity in Post-Soviet Contexts","authors":"A. Shisheliakina","doi":"10.1163/18748929-bja10067","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18748929-bja10067","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Based on ethnographic materials, the article discusses Muslim women’s narratives as an expression of the process of identity negotiation in the post-Soviet cultural context. Muslim women’s narratives based on Islamic, ethnic, gendered epistemologies are intertwined with each other and hybrid. Muslim-Tatar women’s identity as women, Muslims and Tatars is tied together, while simultaneously being fragmented and peripheral to male identity. Since the Russian state imbues veiling with political meaning, Muslim women identity is politicized, therefore veiling as a part of Muslim-Tatar women’s identity is negotiated not only inside of the Muslim-Tatar community, but outside due to external discourses.","PeriodicalId":42630,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Religion in Europe","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41451470","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}