This article is a survey of some of the major challenges that have been directed at Comparative Religion during the last forty years. A number of these regard such an orientation as simply a construction that is a product of a scholar’s imagination. Others regard it as exhibiting a distinctly western, specifically Christian influence that is dismissive of other religions. Nonetheless, there have been attempts to redress this imbalance and challenge biased categories and interpretations. In this regard, much can be learnt from postcolonial and women scholars, as well as from other disciplines such as anthropology. Nonetheless in contemporary times, the exploits from globalization threatens to have a disruptive influence on the discipline.
{"title":"Comparative Religion and its Vicissitudes in an Age of Globalization","authors":"Morny Joy","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.48460","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.48460","url":null,"abstract":"This article is a survey of some of the major challenges that have been directed at Comparative Religion during the last forty years. A number of these regard such an orientation as simply a construction that is a product of a scholar’s imagination. Others regard it as exhibiting a distinctly western, specifically Christian influence that is dismissive of other religions. Nonetheless, there have been attempts to redress this imbalance and challenge biased categories and interpretations. In this regard, much can be learnt from postcolonial and women scholars, as well as from other disciplines such as anthropology. Nonetheless in contemporary times, the exploits from globalization threatens to have a disruptive influence on the discipline.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2015-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69645441","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Revival takes on many different forms in Muslim societies. This article explores and identifies a ḥadīth discourse of revival, based on a famous ḥadīth and its commentary that promises renewal at the head of every century. Using an inter-textual analysis, it argues that revival was rooted in the first crisis faced by the early Muslim community when the Prophet died and could no longer personally guide Muslims. Across time and place, the discourse of revival confronts this original crisis by naming and renaming it, and offering a resolution. I also suggest that the first crisis was beyond resolution, as according to Muslim belief the prophetic line of succession ended with Muhammad. The discourse of revival thus became potentially recurrent, as resolution was always prone to disruption.
{"title":"Back to the Roots, the Origins and the Beginning: Reflections on Revival (tajdīd) in Islamic Discourse","authors":"A. Tayob","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.48462","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.48462","url":null,"abstract":"Revival takes on many different forms in Muslim societies. This article explores and identifies a ḥadīth discourse of revival, based on a famous ḥadīth and its commentary that promises renewal at the head of every century. Using an inter-textual analysis, it argues that revival was rooted in the first crisis faced by the early Muslim community when the Prophet died and could no longer personally guide Muslims. Across time and place, the discourse of revival confronts this original crisis by naming and renaming it, and offering a resolution. I also suggest that the first crisis was beyond resolution, as according to Muslim belief the prophetic line of succession ended with Muhammad. The discourse of revival thus became potentially recurrent, as resolution was always prone to disruption.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2015-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69645155","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
New religious movements (NRMs) tend to exhibit certain characteristics that change with the arrival of second and subsequent generations. The paper explores some of the internally motivated revisions that may be due to demographic changes or disappointed expectations, and some of the changes brought about through the economic, political, technological, legal and cultural influences from the wider society. Although there are always exceptions, unqualified boundaries tend to become more porous and negotiable as the movements accommodate to the outside world and ‘denominationalise’. The paper ends with a brief description of some of the more general changes in ‘the cult scene’ over the past 40 years.
{"title":"The Not-So-New Religious Movements: Changes in ‘the Cult Scene’ over the Past Forty Years","authors":"E. Barker","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.48461","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.48461","url":null,"abstract":"New religious movements (NRMs) tend to exhibit certain characteristics that change with the arrival of second and subsequent generations. The paper explores some of the internally motivated revisions that may be due to demographic changes or disappointed expectations, and some of the changes brought about through the economic, political, technological, legal and cultural influences from the wider society. Although there are always exceptions, unqualified boundaries tend to become more porous and negotiable as the movements accommodate to the outside world and ‘denominationalise’. The paper ends with a brief description of some of the more general changes in ‘the cult scene’ over the past 40 years.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2015-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69645138","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The theme of the present article is the quest for origins, founding fathers and the never-ending search for identity in the scientific study of religion. Because the quest for origins and for founding fathers is intertwined with the complex relationship to theology, theology is frequently made into the significant other. The elephant is a metaphor for the preoccupation with theology. The article discusses the longing for origins, and it discusses good fathers and bad fathers, and especially Max Muller’s contribution to the study of religion. It also takes up the new quest for historical origins as well as the quest for generative mechanisms of religion and asks why the study of religion needs the metaphysical boosts of origins. A permanent preoccupation with universal patterns in the study of religion, recent developments in science, contemporary processes of globalization, a renewed general interest in religion, a wish to control the field and the continuous struggle to be different from theology are pointed out as reasons for the never-ending quest for origins. The article suggests that it might be fruitful to let go of the preoccupation with theology, and further that grand-scale comparative studies and universal claims need to be matched by small-scale studies of religion on the ground and by embracing complexity and reflexivity.
{"title":"Founding Fathers, Turtles and the Elephant in the Room: The Quest for Origins in the Scientific Study of Religion","authors":"I. S. Gilhus","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.48457","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.48457","url":null,"abstract":"The theme of the present article is the quest for origins, founding fathers and the never-ending search for identity in the scientific study of religion. Because the quest for origins and for founding fathers is intertwined with the complex relationship to theology, theology is frequently made into the significant other. The elephant is a metaphor for the preoccupation with theology. The article discusses the longing for origins, and it discusses good fathers and bad fathers, and especially Max Muller’s contribution to the study of religion. It also takes up the new quest for historical origins as well as the quest for generative mechanisms of religion and asks why the study of religion needs the metaphysical boosts of origins. A permanent preoccupation with universal patterns in the study of religion, recent developments in science, contemporary processes of globalization, a renewed general interest in religion, a wish to control the field and the continuous struggle to be different from theology are pointed out as reasons for the never-ending quest for origins. The article suggests that it might be fruitful to let go of the preoccupation with theology, and further that grand-scale comparative studies and universal claims need to be matched by small-scale studies of religion on the ground and by embracing complexity and reflexivity.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2015-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69645070","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, I discuss Hjalmar Sunden’s theoretical and methodological contributions to the psychological study of religion in the Nordic countries, including a discussion of role theory and Sunden’s way of conducting (and presenting) his research. Nordic scholars’ use of role theory is analyzed and discussed. My analysis of the state of research reveals that the use of role theory reached its peak during the 1970s. Scholarly interest in the theory declined during the 1980s, and has been virtually abandoned since the mid-1990s. In these earlier studies, the theory was primarily used to elucidate the psychological dynamic of various religious phenomena, rather than to test the theory systematically against data. However, these scholars gave the theory an empirical underpinning, and identified details in the theory that needed to be refined and revised. I propose several possible reasons for the decline in scholarly interest in role theory. Finally, I suggest that Sunden’s methodological contributions may have had a bigger impact on the study of religion than his theoretical contributions.
{"title":"Hjalmar Sundén’s Impact on the Study of Religion in the Nordic Countries","authors":"Tomas Lindgren","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.46249","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.46249","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I discuss Hjalmar Sunden’s theoretical and methodological contributions to the psychological study of religion in the Nordic countries, including a discussion of role theory and Sunden’s way of conducting (and presenting) his research. Nordic scholars’ use of role theory is analyzed and discussed. My analysis of the state of research reveals that the use of role theory reached its peak during the 1970s. Scholarly interest in the theory declined during the 1980s, and has been virtually abandoned since the mid-1990s. In these earlier studies, the theory was primarily used to elucidate the psychological dynamic of various religious phenomena, rather than to test the theory systematically against data. However, these scholars gave the theory an empirical underpinning, and identified details in the theory that needed to be refined and revised. I propose several possible reasons for the decline in scholarly interest in role theory. Finally, I suggest that Sunden’s methodological contributions may have had a bigger impact on the study of religion than his theoretical contributions.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69641907","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The history of the academic study of religion in Denmark resembles developments in other Nordic and European countries as it has moved from a primarily historical-philological and comparative ‘history of religions’ towards a broader ‘study of religion(s)’ that includes history of religions together with theories and methods from a wide variety of the human, social and today also natural sciences. Uppsala University was one of the three main centers of positivism at the end of the 19th century, and its influence was evident and long-lasting also in Denmark. By the end of the 1970s, debates and reflections on methods and theories slowly began to have a greater impact, and from the mid-80s and especially mid-90s, also due to conscious efforts not least in Aarhus, methodological issues gained in importance. A turn towards contemporary religion also became evident. Today it may be claimed that a kind of balance has been achieved whereby historical and empirical studies of religions go hand in hand with theoretical and methodological reflections, and where a balance between, on the one hand, more classical comparative history of religions materials and approaches, and, on the other hand, new and different areas of research, and new and different approaches and theories are of equal importance. With regard to individual research, research programs, and study programs, the history of the history of religions in Denmark cannot be described in detail here. This article presents the broad picture of important developments within and across the three Danish universities that have study of religion departments. Although the early histories are briefly touched upon, the focus will be on the past 50 years, from about 1960 until 2014, thus roughly the same period that Temenos has been in existence.
{"title":"From the History of Religions to the Study of Religion in Denmark: An Essay on the Subject, Organizational History and Research Themes","authors":"Tim Jensen, A. Geertz","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.46252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.46252","url":null,"abstract":"The history of the academic study of religion in Denmark resembles developments in other Nordic and European countries as it has moved from a primarily historical-philological and comparative ‘history of religions’ towards a broader ‘study of religion(s)’ that includes history of religions together with theories and methods from a wide variety of the human, social and today also natural sciences. Uppsala University was one of the three main centers of positivism at the end of the 19th century, and its influence was evident and long-lasting also in Denmark. By the end of the 1970s, debates and reflections on methods and theories slowly began to have a greater impact, and from the mid-80s and especially mid-90s, also due to conscious efforts not least in Aarhus, methodological issues gained in importance. A turn towards contemporary religion also became evident. Today it may be claimed that a kind of balance has been achieved whereby historical and empirical studies of religions go hand in hand with theoretical and methodological reflections, and where a balance between, on the one hand, more classical comparative history of religions materials and approaches, and, on the other hand, new and different areas of research, and new and different approaches and theories are of equal importance. With regard to individual research, research programs, and study programs, the history of the history of religions in Denmark cannot be described in detail here. This article presents the broad picture of important developments within and across the three Danish universities that have study of religion departments. Although the early histories are briefly touched upon, the focus will be on the past 50 years, from about 1960 until 2014, thus roughly the same period that Temenos has been in existence.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69642333","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article I propose to analyze Lauri Honko’s contribution in comparative religion in terms of tradition ecology, the general research framework Honko himself saw – at least in retrospect – as the unifying theme in his work. My aim is to provide an analytical account of his theoretical contribution in the study of religion that started already in his dissertation Krankheitsprojektile (1959) and culminated in his last major work, Textualising the Siri Epic (1998). Lauri Honko’s research topics ranged from folk beliefs, myths and rituals to ethnomedicine, oral epics and cultural identity. Yet religion, understood as culturally mediated interaction with the culturally postulated supernatural entities, remained one of his constant objects of interest. Moreover, I will argue that the fluid nature of contemporary post-secular religiosity is well captured by the tradition-ecology tools developed by Honko. I will end up by discussing the contribution of Honko’s doctoral students in comparative religion and folkloristics.
{"title":"Religion from the Viewpoint of Tradition Ecology – Lauri Honko’s (1932–2002) Contribution to Comparative Religion","authors":"M. Kamppinen","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.46247","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.46247","url":null,"abstract":"In this article I propose to analyze Lauri Honko’s contribution in comparative religion in terms of tradition ecology, the general research framework Honko himself saw – at least in retrospect – as the unifying theme in his work. My aim is to provide an analytical account of his theoretical contribution in the study of religion that started already in his dissertation Krankheitsprojektile (1959) and culminated in his last major work, Textualising the Siri Epic (1998). Lauri Honko’s research topics ranged from folk beliefs, myths and rituals to ethnomedicine, oral epics and cultural identity. Yet religion, understood as culturally mediated interaction with the culturally postulated supernatural entities, remained one of his constant objects of interest. Moreover, I will argue that the fluid nature of contemporary post-secular religiosity is well captured by the tradition-ecology tools developed by Honko. I will end up by discussing the contribution of Honko’s doctoral students in comparative religion and folkloristics.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69641848","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article outlines the historical development of the study of folk religion and mythology in Estonian scholarship. It shows how the changing ideological and political context and formation of folkloristics as an autonomous discipline have shaped the construction of its object – Estonian folk religion. The roots of conceptualizing folk religion as an inherited set of survivals of heathendom lies on the one hand in the systematic work of the Lutheran Church in strengthening the Christian worldview by eradicating superstitions. On the other hand, the ideology of national awakening depicted Estonian folklore as a huge and valuable reservoir of pre-Christian traditions, including the oldest survivals of Finno-Ugric cultural heritage. Later, during the period of Soviet occupation, Marxist evolutionary views contributed towards considering folk religion as an archaic form in human development; in addition, anti-clerical ideology reinforced a stereotype of the people’s adherence to their indigenous religion and contrasting this with Christianity as an alien ideology of oppression. The last part of the article discusses scholarship after the re-establishment of Estonia’s independence in 1991, as the former ideological framework slowly faded away and new conceptual developments emerged.
{"title":"Folkloristic Contributions towards Religious Studies in Estonia: A Historical Outline","authors":"Ü. Valk","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.46254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.46254","url":null,"abstract":"The article outlines the historical development of the study of folk religion and mythology in Estonian scholarship. It shows how the changing ideological and political context and formation of folkloristics as an autonomous discipline have shaped the construction of its object – Estonian folk religion. The roots of conceptualizing folk religion as an inherited set of survivals of heathendom lies on the one hand in the systematic work of the Lutheran Church in strengthening the Christian worldview by eradicating superstitions. On the other hand, the ideology of national awakening depicted Estonian folklore as a huge and valuable reservoir of pre-Christian traditions, including the oldest survivals of Finno-Ugric cultural heritage. Later, during the period of Soviet occupation, Marxist evolutionary views contributed towards considering folk religion as an archaic form in human development; in addition, anti-clerical ideology reinforced a stereotype of the people’s adherence to their indigenous religion and contrasting this with Christianity as an alien ideology of oppression. The last part of the article discusses scholarship after the re-establishment of Estonia’s independence in 1991, as the former ideological framework slowly faded away and new conceptual developments emerged.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69642460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the first issue of Temenos in 1965 Professor Lauri Honko (1932–2002) writes: ‘it may seem foolhardy that the youngest comparative religion society in the Northern countries should undertake to fill this gap’ – that is, to publish a Nordic journal in comparative religion. It was not only the publishing of Temenos that was initiated from Finland, but also quite a few other new things. This is why I have chosen to call my presentation ‘The Small and Daring Society’. In what follows here let us take a look at how it all started, and at the main features of development over the past 50 years – and also at what are the challenges that the current situation presents the Society with.
Lauri Honko教授(1932-2002)在1965年《Temenos》的第一期中写道:“北方国家最年轻的比较宗教学会应该填补这一空白，这似乎是鲁莽的”——也就是说，出版一本北欧比较宗教杂志。芬兰发起的不仅是《Temenos》的出版，还有许多其他的新事物。这就是为什么我选择把我的演讲命名为“小而大胆的社会”。在下面的文章中，让我们看看这一切是如何开始的，以及过去50年来发展的主要特点- -以及目前的局势给社会带来了哪些挑战。
{"title":"The Finnish Society for the Study of Religion 50 Years: Development and Challenges","authors":"N. Holm","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.46245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.46245","url":null,"abstract":"In the first issue of Temenos in 1965 Professor Lauri Honko (1932–2002) writes: ‘it may seem foolhardy that the youngest comparative religion society in the Northern countries should undertake to fill this gap’ – that is, to publish a Nordic journal in comparative religion. It was not only the publishing of Temenos that was initiated from Finland, but also quite a few other new things. This is why I have chosen to call my presentation ‘The Small and Daring Society’. In what follows here let us take a look at how it all started, and at the main features of development over the past 50 years – and also at what are the challenges that the current situation presents the Society with.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69641794","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In a comment on Richard F. Tomasson’s 1980 book about Iceland, the American sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset notes that Tomasson ‘traces the ways in which Icelandic culture developed out of the medieval pre-Christian society – in its language, relations between the sexes, egalitarianism and the high frequency of illegitimate births. He also points out the areas of contradictions and discontinuity, noting that Iceland has been transformed in the twentieth century by modernization of the society and international influences upon the culture.’ The purpose of this essay is to give a more in-depth analysis of some of Tomasson’s observations with regard to the status and role of religion in this society. Iceland appears to be a very secular society, but up to very recent times, the national church had a strong position in Icelandic society, and its participation in the life-rituals of families, in national festivals, and in local rituals and festivities has been considered self-evident by the authorities and a large majority of the people. A very homogeneous culture and strong nationalism have a role here to play, but there were also seeds of individualism and pragmatism which may have led the way to differentiation and secularization. Secularization and modernization went hand in hand with the national liberation movement, but nevertheless the national church also made a major contribution to the nation-state building process. It would seem that the Icelanders have throughout their history been more political than religious – and often they seem to have been tolerant in religious and moral issues but fundamentalists in political matters. At least it seems profitable to analyse the reli- gious history of Iceland – the conversion of Iceland at the Alþingi in the summer of 1000; the Reformation in the mid-16th century, and the rapid process of modernization in Iceland – in the context of the political history. Foreigners have often wondered about the liberal attitude of Icelanders in relation to premarital sex, and often they ask why spiritualism and belief in elves and hidden people seem to have survived modernization and secularization. Other possible paradoxes include the very recent appearance of non-Christian religions, such as the Asa faith (which is supposed to revive the pre-Christian religion in Iceland), Islam and Buddhism. And how are we to understand the general support, even among the clergy, for same-sex marriages? In my essay I will try to contextualize these and related questions into an overall picture of the religious history of the Icelandic people.
美国社会学家西摩·马丁·利普塞特(Seymour Martin Lipset)在评论理查德·f·托马森(Richard F. Tomasson) 1980年出版的关于冰岛的书时指出，托马森“追溯了冰岛文化从中世纪前基督教社会发展出来的方式——包括语言、两性关系、平等主义和高频率的私生子。”他还指出了矛盾和不连续性的领域，指出冰岛在20世纪由于社会现代化和国际对文化的影响而发生了变化。这篇文章的目的是对托马森关于宗教在这个社会中的地位和作用的一些观察进行更深入的分析。冰岛似乎是一个非常世俗的社会，但直到最近，国家教会在冰岛社会中占有强大的地位，它参与家庭生活仪式、国家节日、地方仪式和庆祝活动，这被当局和大多数人认为是不言而喻的。一种非常同质的文化和强烈的民族主义在这里发挥了作用，但也有个人主义和实用主义的种子，这可能导致了分化和世俗化。世俗化和现代化与民族解放运动齐头并进，但尽管如此，民族教会也为民族国家的建设进程作出了重大贡献。冰岛人在整个历史中似乎更倾向于政治而不是宗教——他们在宗教和道德问题上似乎往往是宽容的，但在政治问题上却是原教旨主义者。至少，分析冰岛的宗教历史似乎是有益的——公元1000年夏天，冰岛在阿尔伐林吉海峡皈依宗教;16世纪中期的宗教改革，以及冰岛快速的现代化进程——在政治史的背景下。外国人经常对冰岛人在婚前性行为方面的自由态度感到奇怪，他们经常问为什么通灵论和对精灵和隐身人的信仰似乎在现代化和世俗化中幸存下来。其他可能的矛盾包括最近出现的非基督教宗教，如亚撒信仰(据说它复兴了冰岛的前基督教)、伊斯兰教和佛教。我们该如何理解对同性婚姻的普遍支持，甚至是在神职人员中?在我的文章中，我将尝试将这些和相关的问题置于冰岛人民宗教历史的整体图景中。
{"title":"Religion and Politics – The Icelandic Experiment","authors":"Pétur Pétursson","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.46253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.46253","url":null,"abstract":"In a comment on Richard F. Tomasson’s 1980 book about Iceland, the American sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset notes that Tomasson ‘traces the ways in which Icelandic culture developed out of the medieval pre-Christian society – in its language, relations between the sexes, egalitarianism and the high frequency of illegitimate births. He also points out the areas of contradictions and discontinuity, noting that Iceland has been transformed in the twentieth century by modernization of the society and international influences upon the culture.’ The purpose of this essay is to give a more in-depth analysis of some of Tomasson’s observations with regard to the status and role of religion in this society. Iceland appears to be a very secular society, but up to very recent times, the national church had a strong position in Icelandic society, and its participation in the life-rituals of families, in national festivals, and in local rituals and festivities has been considered self-evident by the authorities and a large majority of the people. A very homogeneous culture and strong nationalism have a role here to play, but there were also seeds of individualism and pragmatism which may have led the way to differentiation and secularization. Secularization and modernization went hand in hand with the national liberation movement, but nevertheless the national church also made a major contribution to the nation-state building process. It would seem that the Icelanders have throughout their history been more political than religious – and often they seem to have been tolerant in religious and moral issues but fundamentalists in political matters. At least it seems profitable to analyse the reli- gious history of Iceland – the conversion of Iceland at the Alþingi in the summer of 1000; the Reformation in the mid-16th century, and the rapid process of modernization in Iceland – in the context of the political history. Foreigners have often wondered about the liberal attitude of Icelanders in relation to premarital sex, and often they ask why spiritualism and belief in elves and hidden people seem to have survived modernization and secularization. Other possible paradoxes include the very recent appearance of non-Christian religions, such as the Asa faith (which is supposed to revive the pre-Christian religion in Iceland), Islam and Buddhism. And how are we to understand the general support, even among the clergy, for same-sex marriages? In my essay I will try to contextualize these and related questions into an overall picture of the religious history of the Icelandic people.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69642379","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"哲学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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