Pub Date : 2022-07-27DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n1a6
Leslie Nthoi
The difference between esotericism and exoterism is unlike the difference between circles and rectangles. It is also not the difference between the size and relevance of a specific body of knowledge in circulation. It is rather the extent of the circulation, acceptance, understanding, and meaning of a particular body of knowledge, philosophy, or worldview, over the spiritual and socio-political life of diverse categories of people in society. The infancy of the academic study of esotericism, as well as its interdisciplinary nature, militate against the crystallization of a universally accepted definition of the term 'esotericism'. The various definitions of the term by researchers consistently relate to their research interests. In line with Faivre's concern with the forms of thought of esoteric movements (Faivre 1996), as well as the preoccupation that Versluis has with gnosis generation in esoteric movements (Versluis n.d), our study of Kereke ya Sephiri in Botswana and South Africa examines a) the cultural and religious contexts in which Frederick Modise, a gnostic in his own right, generated the underlying gnosis of his secret society, and b) the import of the content of this visionary mystical revelation in the spiritual and social lives of members of this secret society1. The study of the Setswana term, Kereke ya Sephiri (church of a secret, referring to a Christian-based secret society), is a study of African esotericism in South Africa and Botswana. The principal academic interest in the study of esotericism lies in our quest to identify the fundamental tenets of the worldviews of the specific esoteric society, the eclectic nature of its philosophy, and how this philosophy relates to the orthodoxy of the day (Christianity in this instance). We do so by concentrating on the form of thinking, engendered by esoteric practices. Esoteric groups do not appear or exist within cultural voids. For this reason, by identifying the eclectic or syncretic nature of the fundamental philosophy (gnosis) of these groups, we trace the cultural influences involved in the emergence and consolidation of these worldviews and philosophies. This study shows that African esotericism is not always antithetic or subversive of dominant or institutionalized Christianity.
神秘主义和外显主义之间的区别不同于圆形和矩形之间的区别。它也不是流通中的特定知识体系的规模和相关性之间的差异。它是一种特定的知识、哲学或世界观在社会上不同类别的人的精神和社会政治生活中的流通、接受、理解和意义的程度。对神秘主义的学术研究尚处于起步阶段,其跨学科性质阻碍了对“神秘主义”一词普遍接受的定义的形成。研究人员对该术语的各种定义始终与他们的研究兴趣相关。根据Faivre对深奥运动思想形式的关注(Faivre 1996),以及Versluis对深奥运动中灵知产生的关注(Versluis n.d),我们对博茨瓦纳和南非的Kereke ya Sephiri的研究考察了a)文化和宗教背景,其中Frederick Modise本身就是一个灵知主义者,产生了他的秘密社会的潜在灵知;(2)这种有远见的神秘启示的内容在这个秘密社团成员的精神和社会生活中的重要性。对塞茨瓦纳语的研究,Kereke ya Sephiri(秘密教堂,指的是一个以基督教为基础的秘密社会),是对南非和博茨瓦纳的非洲神秘主义的研究。研究密传主义的主要学术兴趣在于我们寻求确定特定密传社会世界观的基本原则,其哲学的折衷性质,以及这种哲学如何与当时的正统(在这种情况下是基督教)相关联。我们通过专注于由深奥修行所产生的思维形式来做到这一点。神秘团体不会出现或存在于文化空洞中。因此,通过确定这些团体的基本哲学(灵知)的折衷或融合性质,我们追溯了涉及这些世界观和哲学的出现和巩固的文化影响。这项研究表明,非洲的神秘主义并不总是与主流或制度化的基督教对立或颠覆。
{"title":"Kereke Ya Sephiri: A Study of a Secret Society in Botswana and South Africa","authors":"Leslie Nthoi","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n1a6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n1a6","url":null,"abstract":"The difference between esotericism and exoterism is unlike the difference between circles and rectangles. It is also not the difference between the size and relevance of a specific body of knowledge in circulation. It is rather the extent of the circulation, acceptance, understanding, and meaning of a particular body of knowledge, philosophy, or worldview, over the spiritual and socio-political life of diverse categories of people in society. The infancy of the academic study of esotericism, as well as its interdisciplinary nature, militate against the crystallization of a universally accepted definition of the term 'esotericism'. The various definitions of the term by researchers consistently relate to their research interests. In line with Faivre's concern with the forms of thought of esoteric movements (Faivre 1996), as well as the preoccupation that Versluis has with gnosis generation in esoteric movements (Versluis n.d), our study of Kereke ya Sephiri in Botswana and South Africa examines a) the cultural and religious contexts in which Frederick Modise, a gnostic in his own right, generated the underlying gnosis of his secret society, and b) the import of the content of this visionary mystical revelation in the spiritual and social lives of members of this secret society1. The study of the Setswana term, Kereke ya Sephiri (church of a secret, referring to a Christian-based secret society), is a study of African esotericism in South Africa and Botswana. The principal academic interest in the study of esotericism lies in our quest to identify the fundamental tenets of the worldviews of the specific esoteric society, the eclectic nature of its philosophy, and how this philosophy relates to the orthodoxy of the day (Christianity in this instance). We do so by concentrating on the form of thinking, engendered by esoteric practices. Esoteric groups do not appear or exist within cultural voids. For this reason, by identifying the eclectic or syncretic nature of the fundamental philosophy (gnosis) of these groups, we trace the cultural influences involved in the emergence and consolidation of these worldviews and philosophies. This study shows that African esotericism is not always antithetic or subversive of dominant or institutionalized Christianity.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43146454","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 : 2022-07-27DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a1
S. Peck
Do Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have anything to contribute to theological conversations about the nature of God? The article explores this question through the lens of Latter-day Saint conceptions of matter and agential embodiment that may be useful in generalizing material theologies and provide a resource for other material-based views of deity. The argument will examine the question by first exploring the nature of agency articulated from three perspectives: 1) Process thinking in the life sciences; 2) materialist feminism; and 3) evolutionary biology. The article then suggests that the materialism of Mormonism, while in the first stages of theological engagement, is likely to provide possible dialogues with other religious traditions, looking at mattered and embodied conceptions of deity, including trinitarian ones.
{"title":"Latter-Day Saint Theology of a Material, Embodied Deity vis-ä-vis Evolutionary Conceptions of Embodiment, Agency, and Matter","authors":"S. Peck","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a1","url":null,"abstract":"Do Latter-day Saints (Mormons) have anything to contribute to theological conversations about the nature of God? The article explores this question through the lens of Latter-day Saint conceptions of matter and agential embodiment that may be useful in generalizing material theologies and provide a resource for other material-based views of deity. The argument will examine the question by first exploring the nature of agency articulated from three perspectives: 1) Process thinking in the life sciences; 2) materialist feminism; and 3) evolutionary biology. The article then suggests that the materialism of Mormonism, while in the first stages of theological engagement, is likely to provide possible dialogues with other religious traditions, looking at mattered and embodied conceptions of deity, including trinitarian ones.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43441600","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 : 2022-07-27DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n1a5
Ashraf Kunnummal
This article argues that the post-secular turn is the new social analysis that shapes the politics of the impoverized2 in Islamic liberation theology. In this article, I suggest that, given the essentialism and determinism characterizing much of the contemporary studies of religion and secularism, a direct articulation of a post-secular approach from an Islamic liberation theology perspective is both inevitable and necessary. Such an approach can offer new meaning for both religion and secularism by engaging with the hegemony of secularism in relation to the state and society to envision a politics of the impoverized.
{"title":"Mapping Post-Secular Islamic Liberation Theology","authors":"Ashraf Kunnummal","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n1a5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2022/v35n1a5","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues that the post-secular turn is the new social analysis that shapes the politics of the impoverized2 in Islamic liberation theology. In this article, I suggest that, given the essentialism and determinism characterizing much of the contemporary studies of religion and secularism, a direct articulation of a post-secular approach from an Islamic liberation theology perspective is both inevitable and necessary. Such an approach can offer new meaning for both religion and secularism by engaging with the hegemony of secularism in relation to the state and society to envision a politics of the impoverized.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43019196","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 : 2022-07-27DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a2
Alexander Paul Isiko
The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) has been a trending academic research topic since 2020. Globally, numerous treatises on the relation between religion and Covid-19 exist with scholars inclined on religious explanatory models of the disease and its impact on religious practices. This has been counterfactual for Uganda, with immense scholarly attention devoted to analyzing the impact of the pandemic on socio-economic variables. Uganda, being a highly religious nation, provides an ideal case study as classical theoretical postulations stand firm on a positive sustained correlation between religiosity and natural disasters. Using the postmodernist innovative qualitative approach and unconventional 'remote' research methods of data collection due to the bitingly restrictive Covid-19 measures, the study established that this virus variably impacted religiosity. Those hitherto religious became stauncher and more stalwart. The former religiously unenthusiastically forsook religious routines. The pandemic containment measures revolutionized the long-standing religious practices and traditions, which necessitated the adoption of and adapting to fresh forms of religious expression.
{"title":"Covid-19 and its Impact on Religiosity: Reflections on Religious Life and Practice in Uganda","authors":"Alexander Paul Isiko","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a2","url":null,"abstract":"The Coronavirus Disease of 2019 (Covid-19) has been a trending academic research topic since 2020. Globally, numerous treatises on the relation between religion and Covid-19 exist with scholars inclined on religious explanatory models of the disease and its impact on religious practices. This has been counterfactual for Uganda, with immense scholarly attention devoted to analyzing the impact of the pandemic on socio-economic variables. Uganda, being a highly religious nation, provides an ideal case study as classical theoretical postulations stand firm on a positive sustained correlation between religiosity and natural disasters. Using the postmodernist innovative qualitative approach and unconventional 'remote' research methods of data collection due to the bitingly restrictive Covid-19 measures, the study established that this virus variably impacted religiosity. Those hitherto religious became stauncher and more stalwart. The former religiously unenthusiastically forsook religious routines. The pandemic containment measures revolutionized the long-standing religious practices and traditions, which necessitated the adoption of and adapting to fresh forms of religious expression.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41557056","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 : 2022-07-27DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a3
G. Meyer
The critical study of religion is enchanted by modern problematics, and this limits the feasibility of the project. Both secularity and modernity have been deconstructed in recent decades, but the primacy of the modern and secular agentic human remains largely unchallenged. Tracing this trend back in European history shows that a definitive collapsing of agency was necessary for the development of modern political and social structures. Modern prescriptions on agency limit the study of religion - a domain which is largely constituted by narratives involving non-human agents. A remedy for the impasse may be found in looking to a nonmodern conceptual apparatus for new avenues in theory-making and applying these concepts to the critical study of religion in the 21st century.
{"title":"Agency and the Critical Study of Religion","authors":"G. Meyer","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v35n1a3","url":null,"abstract":"The critical study of religion is enchanted by modern problematics, and this limits the feasibility of the project. Both secularity and modernity have been deconstructed in recent decades, but the primacy of the modern and secular agentic human remains largely unchallenged. Tracing this trend back in European history shows that a definitive collapsing of agency was necessary for the development of modern political and social structures. Modern prescriptions on agency limit the study of religion - a domain which is largely constituted by narratives involving non-human agents. A remedy for the impasse may be found in looking to a nonmodern conceptual apparatus for new avenues in theory-making and applying these concepts to the critical study of religion in the 21st century.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45919755","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 : 2021-12-31DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n2a0
M. Frahm-Arp
The Pentecostal movement has since its inception been a dynamic movement in which the theology, practice, and expressions of faith have shifted. This is primarily, but not solely, due to four central factors. First, it is a movement and not a centralized organization, meaning that there is no central authority that governs how it develops, when and how new congregations or churches are formed, and how these evolve. As a movement, it is a loose collection of churches and groups, some of which do not specifically self-identify as Pentecostal, but are categorized by academics as Pentecostal due to their theology and/or practices. The article by Podolecka and Cheyeka explores this reality in Zambia where some churches consider themselves Pentecostal while other Pentecostals do not recognize these churches as part of the movement. In a different vein, Aidoo examines the phenomena of cursing prayers in which pastors criticize each other and claim other pastors as not being Christians in their prayers. Second, there is no centralized canonical theology determined by a particular body or group with authority to establish and enforce rules or regulations, meaning that the groups and churches in the movement are free to development their own theologies. The article by Resane explores this idea as he examines the impact of the Shepherding Movement within Pentecostalism and how a group of five men in the USA established a model for how churches should be run, but the movement was problematic and fell apart in the 1990s.
{"title":"Editorial","authors":"M. Frahm-Arp","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n2a0","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n2a0","url":null,"abstract":"The Pentecostal movement has since its inception been a dynamic movement in which the theology, practice, and expressions of faith have shifted. This is primarily, but not solely, due to four central factors. First, it is a movement and not a centralized organization, meaning that there is no central authority that governs how it develops, when and how new congregations or churches are formed, and how these evolve. As a movement, it is a loose collection of churches and groups, some of which do not specifically self-identify as Pentecostal, but are categorized by academics as Pentecostal due to their theology and/or practices. The article by Podolecka and Cheyeka explores this reality in Zambia where some churches consider themselves Pentecostal while other Pentecostals do not recognize these churches as part of the movement. In a different vein, Aidoo examines the phenomena of cursing prayers in which pastors criticize each other and claim other pastors as not being Christians in their prayers. Second, there is no centralized canonical theology determined by a particular body or group with authority to establish and enforce rules or regulations, meaning that the groups and churches in the movement are free to development their own theologies. The article by Resane explores this idea as he examines the impact of the Shepherding Movement within Pentecostalism and how a group of five men in the USA established a model for how churches should be run, but the movement was problematic and fell apart in the 1990s.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45350694","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 : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a3
Sepetla Molapo
This essay takes interest in a dialectical relationship between writing as affirmation and writing as a system of codification. It explores this dialectic as it relates to the interaction between Sotho-speaking communities and Protestant Christian missionaries in the 19th-century Southern Africa. It shows that this dialectical relationship dissolves truth as a construct of writing as affirmation because it is informed by an ontology of force that conceives of truth (Christian truth in this case) as an outcome of victory over an adversary. This ontology of force, in which Christianity participates, is a consequence of a modern metaphysics that splits individual and divine will. Cut off from participation in divine will, the autonomous will of Protestant Christian missionaries became the basis for organizing the world of the 19th-century Sotho speakers. This opened doors for Christianity to participate in the broader imperial project of the racial subordination of colonized people that Sotho speakers resemble. The consequence of this was not only the delegitimization of personhood as a construct of indigenous African religion, but also the introduction of conceptions of personhood that partook of race and racism.
{"title":"Lost to Presence: The Entanglements of Writing, Protestant Christianity, and Empire in the 19th-Century Southern Africa","authors":"Sepetla Molapo","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a3","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a3","url":null,"abstract":"This essay takes interest in a dialectical relationship between writing as affirmation and writing as a system of codification. It explores this dialectic as it relates to the interaction between Sotho-speaking communities and Protestant Christian missionaries in the 19th-century Southern Africa. It shows that this dialectical relationship dissolves truth as a construct of writing as affirmation because it is informed by an ontology of force that conceives of truth (Christian truth in this case) as an outcome of victory over an adversary. This ontology of force, in which Christianity participates, is a consequence of a modern metaphysics that splits individual and divine will. Cut off from participation in divine will, the autonomous will of Protestant Christian missionaries became the basis for organizing the world of the 19th-century Sotho speakers. This opened doors for Christianity to participate in the broader imperial project of the racial subordination of colonized people that Sotho speakers resemble. The consequence of this was not only the delegitimization of personhood as a construct of indigenous African religion, but also the introduction of conceptions of personhood that partook of race and racism.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46361532","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 : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a5
M. Frahm-Arp
This essay examines the concerns expressed by students when studying a second-year module on Asian religions and how they thought the facilitation of their learning could be most effective. Following research done with three cohorts of second-year students studying Asian religions from 2015 to 2017, this essay argues that both changes in pedagogy and course content are needed to create spaces where learning about these religions can address the concerns raised by students. Students were particularly concerned about how studying Asian religions would prepare them for the world of work and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The research for this essay is located in a social constructivist pedagogy that forefronts social justice and is grounded in an engaged learning practice. The essay examines why in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, studying Asian religions is important and valuable to students studying for a degree in preparation for entry into the workplace. The essay shows that engagement with different technologies in teaching and learning enables a pedagogy of co-knowledge production and co-sharing of knowledge where students learn technological skills, critical thinking skills, and a deepening awareness of their worldviews and those of other people. In so doing, this module addressed student concerns about their studies and the skills they considered valuable in preparing them for future careers.
{"title":"Rethinking the Course Content and Pedagogies used in Learning about 'Asian Religions'","authors":"M. Frahm-Arp","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a5","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a5","url":null,"abstract":"This essay examines the concerns expressed by students when studying a second-year module on Asian religions and how they thought the facilitation of their learning could be most effective. Following research done with three cohorts of second-year students studying Asian religions from 2015 to 2017, this essay argues that both changes in pedagogy and course content are needed to create spaces where learning about these religions can address the concerns raised by students. Students were particularly concerned about how studying Asian religions would prepare them for the world of work and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The research for this essay is located in a social constructivist pedagogy that forefronts social justice and is grounded in an engaged learning practice. The essay examines why in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, studying Asian religions is important and valuable to students studying for a degree in preparation for entry into the workplace. The essay shows that engagement with different technologies in teaching and learning enables a pedagogy of co-knowledge production and co-sharing of knowledge where students learn technological skills, critical thinking skills, and a deepening awareness of their worldviews and those of other people. In so doing, this module addressed student concerns about their studies and the skills they considered valuable in preparing them for future careers.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45140686","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 : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a1
J. Hilton
The discovery of DNA in the 20th century and recent biomedical research into the human genome in Southern Africa have shed much light on the diagnostic, epidemiological, and sociological aspects of albinism. Less attention has been given to the historical evidence for the condition and its religious context, especially in the ancient Mediterranean World. This article assembles the meagre evidence for albinism in antiquity and investigates to what extent it was treated as 'sacred'.
{"title":"Albinism in the Ancient Mediterranean World","authors":"J. Hilton","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a1","url":null,"abstract":"The discovery of DNA in the 20th century and recent biomedical research into the human genome in Southern Africa have shed much light on the diagnostic, epidemiological, and sociological aspects of albinism. Less attention has been given to the historical evidence for the condition and its religious context, especially in the ancient Mediterranean World. This article assembles the meagre evidence for albinism in antiquity and investigates to what extent it was treated as 'sacred'.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43308186","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 : 2021-07-01DOI: 10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a2
Ashraf Kunnummal, F. Esack
Malala Yousafzai (1997-) became an international icon after Pakistan-based Tehrik-i-Taliban militants attacked her on her way to school on October 9, 2012. In the following days, the global media gave extensive coverage to the attack from multiple narrative positions. This article argues that the traveling of Yousafzai as an image of a Muslim girl's right to education was instru-mentalized in the context of Kerala, South India, to deny Muslims the right to political agency. By analyzing the traveling of Islamophobia in the Global South, this article shows how the gender-based stereotypes of Islamic political subjectivity were reproduced through the figure of Yousafzai. By looking into the particularities within the Global South, this article argues that Islamo-phobia as a discourse is now part of a global economy within which the threat of Muslim subjectivity is applied in unique ways.
{"title":"Traveling Islamophobia in the Global South: Thinking Through the Consumption of Malala Yousafzai in India","authors":"Ashraf Kunnummal, F. Esack","doi":"10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2021/v34n1a2","url":null,"abstract":"Malala Yousafzai (1997-) became an international icon after Pakistan-based Tehrik-i-Taliban militants attacked her on her way to school on October 9, 2012. In the following days, the global media gave extensive coverage to the attack from multiple narrative positions. This article argues that the traveling of Yousafzai as an image of a Muslim girl's right to education was instru-mentalized in the context of Kerala, South India, to deny Muslims the right to political agency. By analyzing the traveling of Islamophobia in the Global South, this article shows how the gender-based stereotypes of Islamic political subjectivity were reproduced through the figure of Yousafzai. By looking into the particularities within the Global South, this article argues that Islamo-phobia as a discourse is now part of a global economy within which the threat of Muslim subjectivity is applied in unique ways.","PeriodicalId":42808,"journal":{"name":"Journal for the Study of Religion","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45813081","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}