The focus in this article is on the developments in the study of religion in Norway during the last fifty years, reflecting over continuities and breaks with the past, over changes in themes, theories and methods as well as over relations to the surrounding world.
{"title":"From the History of Religions to the Science of Religion in Norway","authors":"I. S. Gilhus, K. Jacobsen","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.46250","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.46250","url":null,"abstract":"The focus in this article is on the developments in the study of religion in Norway during the last fifty years, reflecting over continuities and breaks with the past, over changes in themes, theories and methods as well as over relations to the surrounding world.","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":"69642320","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 use the experience of a Czech doctoral student to discuss why religion education in Sweden can be understood as both deeply Lutheran and at the same time neutral and objective. In doing this, I look at the present syllabus in religion education, point to some of the changes that have been made in relation to the previous syllabus, and highlight some of the controversies that arose when it was written in 2010. I also put Swedish religion education and Swedish educational system in a historical context, pointing to its relation to liberal theology and cultural Protestantism. In addition, I present how teacher education is organized for religion education teachers and how the academic Study of Religions has been an important part of this during recent decades. At the end of the article I reflect upon the protestant taste of Sweden’s ‘non-denominational and neutral’ religion education.
{"title":"Swedish religion education : Objective but Marinated in Lutheran Protestantism?","authors":"Jenny Berglund","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.9545","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.9545","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I use the experience of a Czech doctoral student to discuss why religion education in Sweden can be understood as both deeply Lutheran and at the same time neutral and objective. In doing this, I look at the present syllabus in religion education, point to some of the changes that have been made in relation to the previous syllabus, and highlight some of the controversies that arose when it was written in 2010. I also put Swedish religion education and Swedish educational system in a historical context, pointing to its relation to liberal theology and cultural Protestantism. In addition, I present how teacher education is organized for religion education teachers and how the academic Study of Religions has been an important part of this during recent decades. At the end of the article I reflect upon the protestant taste of Sweden’s ‘non-denominational and neutral’ religion education.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656454","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}
Both research and public and scholarly debate on religious education (RE) in Norway have mostly revolved around the subject in primary and secondary school called Christianity, Religion and Ethics (KRL) (later renamed Religion, Philosophies of Life and Ethics, RLE), not least due to the criticisms raised by the UN’s Human Rights Committee in 2004 and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2007 of the Norwegian model for RE in primary and secondary schools. The RE subject in upper secondary school, however, is hardly ever mentioned. The same applies to teacher education. This article therefore aims at providing some insight into how RE has developed in the Norwegian educational system overall, ranging from primary and secondary to upper secondary and including the different forms of teacher education.
{"title":"Religion Education in Norway: Tension or Harmony between Human Rights and Christian Cultural Heritage?","authors":"Bengt-Ove Andreassen","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.9544","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.9544","url":null,"abstract":"Both research and public and scholarly debate on religious education (RE) in Norway have mostly revolved around the subject in primary and secondary school called Christianity, Religion and Ethics (KRL) (later renamed Religion, Philosophies of Life and Ethics, RLE), not least due to the criticisms raised by the UN’s Human Rights Committee in 2004 and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2007 of the Norwegian model for RE in primary and secondary schools. The RE subject in upper secondary school, however, is hardly ever mentioned. The same applies to teacher education. This article therefore aims at providing some insight into how RE has developed in the Norwegian educational system overall, ranging from primary and secondary to upper secondary and including the different forms of teacher education.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656405","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 recent decades, the Finnish state has developed multicultural policies that aim at fostering the cultural identity of people coming to Finland from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. This aim has had clear practical consequences in the Finnish state-supported schools, where, along with the Finnish and Swedish languages, pupils with different linguistic backgrounds now have the right to learn their native tongue within the frame of the school curriculum. In similar fashion, the state favours a multiple solution as regards religious education, so that pupils belonging to different religious communities have the right to “education in accordance with their own religion”. In addition, Ethics is taught to those pupils who are not members of any religious community. Consequently, several religions are today taught in Finnish schools, as well as secular Ethics. Nevertheless, the current system of religious education in Finland is ridden with contradictions. This article first offers an overview of the most recent developments, legal provisions and contents of religious education in state-supported schools in Finland. Next, it identifies some of the sore issues in the current system, and, finally, it reflects on the possible role of the Study of Religions in the field of religious education.
{"title":"Religious Education in Finland","authors":"Tuula Sakaranaho","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.9547","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.9547","url":null,"abstract":"In recent decades, the Finnish state has developed multicultural policies that aim at fostering the cultural identity of people coming to Finland from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. This aim has had clear practical consequences in the Finnish state-supported schools, where, along with the Finnish and Swedish languages, pupils with different linguistic backgrounds now have the right to learn their native tongue within the frame of the school curriculum. In similar fashion, the state favours a multiple solution as regards religious education, so that pupils belonging to different religious communities have the right to “education in accordance with their own religion”. In addition, Ethics is taught to those pupils who are not members of any religious community. Consequently, several religions are today taught in Finnish schools, as well as secular Ethics. Nevertheless, the current system of religious education in Finland is ridden with contradictions. This article first offers an overview of the most recent developments, legal provisions and contents of religious education in state-supported schools in Finland. Next, it identifies some of the sore issues in the current system, and, finally, it reflects on the possible role of the Study of Religions in the field of religious education.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656754","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}
Religion education (RE) in the public school in Denmark, as in many countries, is often subject to political, public and professional debate, relating not only to different ideas about RE’s potential contribution to Allgemeinbildung , religious and/or moral formation and citizenship education, but also to reactions or responses to what is perceived as challenges posed by supranational processes such as globalization, individualization, and migration, including a new and growing Muslim presence. Based on an academic Study of Religions approach, defined in contrast to confessional RE, the article outlines relevant political processes and political, public and professional debates on RE, and analyzes the way they have set their mark in past and present Danish education legislation, national curricula and guidelines issued by the state for RE and for the training of RE teachers. Whereas a study-of-religions approach has long been seen as a ‘natural’ framework for RE in the upper-secondary school, RE in the compulsory school (as well as in teacher education for these schools) has traditionally been linked to theology, and is often seen as an instrument in political and ideological efforts to promote and secure a social and national-cultural identity, an identity defined with reference to the majority religion. RE is thus thrust into a key role in on-going ‘culture wars’.
{"title":"RE in Denmark - Political and Professional Discourses and Debates, Past and Present","authors":"Tim Jensen, Karna Kjeldsen","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.9546","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.9546","url":null,"abstract":"Religion education (RE) in the public school in Denmark, as in many countries, is often subject to political, public and professional debate, relating not only to different ideas about RE’s potential contribution to Allgemeinbildung , religious and/or moral formation and citizenship education, but also to reactions or responses to what is perceived as challenges posed by supranational processes such as globalization, individualization, and migration, including a new and growing Muslim presence. Based on an academic Study of Religions approach, defined in contrast to confessional RE, the article outlines relevant political processes and political, public and professional debates on RE, and analyzes the way they have set their mark in past and present Danish education legislation, national curricula and guidelines issued by the state for RE and for the training of RE teachers. Whereas a study-of-religions approach has long been seen as a ‘natural’ framework for RE in the upper-secondary school, RE in the compulsory school (as well as in teacher education for these schools) has traditionally been linked to theology, and is often seen as an instrument in political and ideological efforts to promote and secure a social and national-cultural identity, an identity defined with reference to the majority religion. RE is thus thrust into a key role in on-going ‘culture wars’.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656658","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}
Free Zone refers to the subculture constituted by people and organizations that adhere to the beliefs and practices of Scientology but who do so outside of – and without the sanction of – the Church of Scientology. The analysis in the present article uses the Free Zone plus a selection of comparable subcultures associated with other religious groups as case studies to explore the nature and structure of movement milieus . The notion of a movement milieu is derived from Colin Campbell’s influential formulation, though certain significant features of movement milieus serve to distinguish them from – and to make them more than simply subsets of – the cultic milieu .
{"title":"Free Zone Scientology and Other Movement Milieus: A Preliminary Characterization","authors":"James R. Lewis","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.8203","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.8203","url":null,"abstract":"Free Zone refers to the subculture constituted by people and organizations that adhere to the beliefs and practices of Scientology but who do so outside of – and without the sanction of – the Church of Scientology. The analysis in the present article uses the Free Zone plus a selection of comparable subcultures associated with other religious groups as case studies to explore the nature and structure of movement milieus . The notion of a movement milieu is derived from Colin Campbell’s influential formulation, though certain significant features of movement milieus serve to distinguish them from – and to make them more than simply subsets of – the cultic milieu .","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2014-01-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656159","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 humanities suggests that no scholarly discipline or theory can function without the models and categories it generates and relies on. Since they are necessarily conditioned by the cultural and ideological context in which they are developed, however, they readily become distorting stereotypes. During its academic history, the academic study of religions has been formed by philosophical perspectives and worldviews drawn from Evolutionism, Positivism, Historicism, Scientific Atheism, Theology, and other schools of think ing. This article explores this use of stereotypes through the example of shifting perceptions of a different culture in the history of Czech understandings of Indian religions during the 20th century, on the basis of a critical analysis of Czech discourse about Indian religions in several academic disciplines: theology, philosophy, history, study of religions, sociology, etc. We see that the religions of India were repeatedly evaluated through stereotypes and a European colonial mindset of cultural values, such as the Western search for doctrinal order in the ‘Oriental chaos’, an emphasis on Western ‘activity’ as opposed to perceived Oriental ‘passivity’, or seeing Catholic hierar chy reflected in the Indian caste system. These stereotypes were also deeply entrenched in Czech popular understandings of Indian culture, despite the low levels of contact between Czech and Indian society. Both in academic and in popularized discourse, we can recognize the uncritical and mechanical adoption of models, categories and values from a Western European cultural framework rather than as a result of scholars’ empirical experience and scholarly evidence. Keywords: Czech Study of Religions, Indian Religions and Culture, Orientalism, Stereotypes
{"title":"West Sees East: Cultural Stereotypes in Twentieth-Century Czech Discourse about Indian Religions","authors":"Tomáš Bubík","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.8615","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.8615","url":null,"abstract":"The history of the humanities suggests that no scholarly discipline or theory can function without the models and categories it generates and relies on. Since they are necessarily conditioned by the cultural and ideological context in which they are developed, however, they readily become distorting stereotypes. During its academic history, the academic study of religions has been formed by philosophical perspectives and worldviews drawn from Evolutionism, Positivism, Historicism, Scientific Atheism, Theology, and other schools of think ing. This article explores this use of stereotypes through the example of shifting perceptions of a different culture in the history of Czech understandings of Indian religions during the 20th century, on the basis of a critical analysis of Czech discourse about Indian religions in several academic disciplines: theology, philosophy, history, study of religions, sociology, etc. We see that the religions of India were repeatedly evaluated through stereotypes and a European colonial mindset of cultural values, such as the Western search for doctrinal order in the ‘Oriental chaos’, an emphasis on Western ‘activity’ as opposed to perceived Oriental ‘passivity’, or seeing Catholic hierar chy reflected in the Indian caste system. These stereotypes were also deeply entrenched in Czech popular understandings of Indian culture, despite the low levels of contact between Czech and Indian society. Both in academic and in popularized discourse, we can recognize the uncritical and mechanical adoption of models, categories and values from a Western European cultural framework rather than as a result of scholars’ empirical experience and scholarly evidence. Keywords: Czech Study of Religions, Indian Religions and Culture, Orientalism, Stereotypes","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2013-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656178","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 American televangelist and healer Benny Hinn was invited to host three meetings at a Christian conference in Uppsala 2010. The hosting institution was the Swedish charismatic Christian denomina ...
{"title":"A Healer and Televangelist Reaching out to the Secular Swedish Public Sphere","authors":"S. Gelfgren","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.8618","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.8618","url":null,"abstract":"The American televangelist and healer Benny Hinn was invited to host three meetings at a Christian conference in Uppsala 2010. The hosting institution was the Swedish charismatic Christian denomina ...","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2013-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656298","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 development and public prominence of the ‘New Atheism’ in the West, particularly the UK and USA, since the millennium has occasioned considerable growth in the study of ‘non-religion and secularity’. Such work is uncovering the variety and complexity of associated categories, different public figures, arguments and organizations involved. There has been a concomitant increase in research on youth and religion. As yet, however, little is known about young people who self-identify as atheist, though the statistics indicate that in Britain they are the cohort most likely to select ‘No religion’ in surveys. This article addresses this gap with presentation of data gathered with young British people who describe themselves as atheists. Atheism is a multifaceted identity for these young people developed over time and through experience. Disbelief in God and other non-empirical propositions such as in an afterlife and the efficacy of homeopathy and belief in progress through science, equality and freedom are central to their narratives. Hence belief is taken as central to the sociological study of atheism, but understood as formed and performed in relationships in which emotions play a key role. In the late modern context of contemporary Britain, these young people are far from amoral individualists. We employ current theorizing about the sacred to help understand respondents’ belief and value-oriented non-religious identities in context.
{"title":"(Dis)Believing and Belonging: Investigating the Narratives of Young British Atheists","authors":"R. Catto, J. Eccles","doi":"10.33356/TEMENOS.8616","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33356/TEMENOS.8616","url":null,"abstract":"The development and public prominence of the ‘New Atheism’ in the West, particularly the UK and USA, since the millennium has occasioned considerable growth in the study of ‘non-religion and secularity’. Such work is uncovering the variety and complexity of associated categories, different public figures, arguments and organizations involved. There has been a concomitant increase in research on youth and religion. As yet, however, little is known about young people who self-identify as atheist, though the statistics indicate that in Britain they are the cohort most likely to select ‘No religion’ in surveys. This article addresses this gap with presentation of data gathered with young British people who describe themselves as atheists. Atheism is a multifaceted identity for these young people developed over time and through experience. Disbelief in God and other non-empirical propositions such as in an afterlife and the efficacy of homeopathy and belief in progress through science, equality and freedom are central to their narratives. Hence belief is taken as central to the sociological study of atheism, but understood as formed and performed in relationships in which emotions play a key role. In the late modern context of contemporary Britain, these young people are far from amoral individualists. We employ current theorizing about the sacred to help understand respondents’ belief and value-oriented non-religious identities in context.","PeriodicalId":43012,"journal":{"name":"TEMENOS","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2013-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69656234","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}