The Treatment of Religious Minorities in South-Eastern Europe: Greece and Bulgaria Compared

Abstract

The politics of efficiency characterised by economic growth alone cannot help to strengthen the legitimacy of the Chinese authorities, because people demand justice, equality and rights. The authorities have therefore introduced the politics of equity, in the form of exchange politics, and the ideology of a harmonious society. Under the new political order characterised by exchange relationships it is not an adequate understanding of Chinese religious policy to see it just as a matter of curbing the growth and influence of religion. In fact, the churches have relatively greater freedom and a greater public role than in the 1980s and 1990s. As the more dependent actor, the churches are still subjected to an authoritarian government. Nevertheless, the more dependent actor is not completely passive, for exchange relationships are always dynamic rather than static. In this paper I focus on Protestantism, and I suggest that the churches should seize this opportunity to work with the government for the common good, on condition that the churches are engaged in reframing the question of the legitimisation of the government by an involvement with the concerns of the people. The churches will need to use soft power rather than hard power, not only because exchange politics in China does not allow challenges to the authority of the government, but also because, unlike the churches in some former Eastern European socialist countries, the churches in China do not have much bargaining power.     

论宗教对话的可行性及其在当代的意义

通过对话来消除因宗教信仰不同而引发的社会矛盾和意见分歧,维护社会和谐,已成为当今社会各界的普遍共识.肯定以往学者探寻各宗教间共性方面所取得的积极成果的同时,人们更应该看到作为宗教对话主体的人所具备的生存智慧在宗教对话中可以起到的重要作用,只有这样才能使宗教对话不至于流于形式,而显得积极富有成效.     

Critical Psychologies of Religious Matters: A Late Modern Enterprise

Drawing upon illustrations of research in psychology and religion, this essay sketches a historical account of twentieth century scholarship in terms of three phases. In the early modern phase research was problem-centered: scholars customarily drew upon expertise in cognate areas of inquiry in solving a problem. In the modern phase research is specialization-based: scholars develop competence in the perspectives, concepts, and methods peculiar to their subfield. In the late modern phase research is interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary: scholars achieve proficiency in cognate subfields and acquire fluency in coordinating the assumptions, concepts, and methods of those subfields. This historical account provides the context and warrant for formulating an enterprise expressing the spirit of the late modern phase: critical psychologies of religious matters.     

论中国古代宗教道德在当代的现实价值

长期以来，人们对于宗教的社会作用，常常囿于“左”的偏见，只看到它的消极面，而否定或忽略它的积极面。本文以宗教道德为视角，说明在特定条件下，宗教的道德观念也有不可忽视的社会作用。例如，佛、道二教道德观念中所包含的奉献意识、行善意识、制欲意识、宽容意识，等等，不仅在历史上产生过积极效应，即使到了今天，仍有其值得重视的价值，只要我们善于提炼和引导，就可以化腐朽为神奇，在当今社会的精神文明建设中作出贡献。     

湘西少数民族原始宗教伦理的现代审视

湘西少数民族原始宗教作为文化原型,已化为民风民俗,进入当代民族民间文化生活。对湘西少数民族原始宗教伦理的文化特性、道德选择及其精神内核的现代审视,必须坚持中国化马克思主义宗教观,批判地发掘其当代价值。     

Selfhood and Self-government in Women’s Religious Writings of the Early Modern Period

ABSTRACT

Some scholars have identified a puzzle in the writings of Mary Astell (1666–1731), a deeply religious feminist thinker of the early modern period. On the one hand, Astell strongly urges her fellow women to preserve their independence of judgement from men; yet, on the other, she insists upon those same women maintaining a submissive deference to the Anglican church. These two positions appear to be incompatible. In this paper, I propose a historical-contextualist solution to the puzzle: I argue that the seeming inconsistency can be dispelled through a close examination of (i) the concepts of selfhood and self-government in Anglican women’s devotional texts of the period, and of (ii) the role that these concepts play in Astell’s feminist arguments.     

Merold Westphal,Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Uses of Modern Atheism

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

宗教伦理在当代中国社会发挥作用的机制——必然的困境与可能的机遇

宗教伦理的神圣性来源于宗教自身的神圣性,宗教伦理的合理性根源于宗教世界观的合理性,然而进入现代社会之后,传统宗教自身丧失了对政治、经济乃至日常生活的社会法权,并日益趋于多元化和私人化,这样一来,宗教伦理的社会整合功能也面临了危机.而在当代中国,由于对意识形态所作的统一宣传教育,社会伦理状况则更为特殊,在这种情况下,宗教伦理既面临着丧失作用力的危机,也面对着以新模式发挥作用的机遇.     

The Cult of Doctors: Harvey Cushing and the Religious Culture of Modern Medicine

Harvey Cushing had an extraordinary life in medicine as an innovative brain surgeon and a pivotal figure in the biomedical revolutions taking place at the turn of the twentieth century. Expressions of sincere devotion from Cushing’s patients often rely on distinctly religious language to capture the meaning and impact of the doctor in their lives. If these devotional sentiments from former patients were the only traces of religious meaning associated with the life of Cushing, they could easily be discounted as an all-too-common, and some might say particularly confused, infusion of personal spirituality into the realm of medicine and health. But these expressions of adoration and veneration may be only the proverbial tip of a deep, wide, and largely unseen religious iceberg. Cushing’s extraordinary accomplishments did inspire both patients and the public in this era, but it is proposed that his life is embedded in a much larger and more significant religious movement driving the cultural success and power of biomedical science: the cult of doctors. Gary Laderman, Ph.D., is a cultural historian who has written two books on death in America, Rest in Peace: A Cultural History of Death and the Funeral Home in Twentieth-Century America (Oxford UP, 2003) and The Sacred Remains: American Attitudes Toward Death, 1799–1883 (Yale UP, 1996). His PhD is in Religious Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is working on a new book project that explores the intersections of religion and medicine in the twentieth century. This is the first article from that project.     

Modern Psychology and Ancient Wisdom: Psychological Healing Practices From the World's Religious Traditions

Book reviewed in this article: Sharon G. Mijares, Ed. (2003). Modern Psychology and Ancient Wisdom: Psychological Healing Practices From the World's Religious Traditions.     

Counseling in Greece

There is rapid growth in Greece's professional and research activity in counseling, despite the lack of a clear professional identity for the field. It is hoped this will be overcome through the newly started graduate programs. Opportunities, objectives, and strategies for counseling's advancement should be directed toward close and essential collaboration at a European and at an international level, which will blend elements of original and host cultures with academic knowledge and professional counseling experience.     

Religious Ethics, History, and the Rise of Modern Moral Philosophy: Focus Introduction

In this introduction to a cluster of three articles on eighteenth-century ethics written by Mark Larrimore, John Bowlin, and Mark Cladis, the author maintains that although the broad narrative tracing the emergence of a religiously neutral or naturalistic moral language in the eighteenth century is a familiar one, many central questions concerning this development remain unanswered and require further historical study. Against those who contend that historical study is antecedent to, but not part of, the proper substance of religious ethics, the author argues that historical and normative studies are interdependent, each helping to define the questions central to the other. The introduction concludes with an overview of the three articles and suggests ways in which religious ethicists can, in the future, make a distinctive contribution to the history of ethics.     

近现代神秘主义研究状况

神秘主义是一重要研究领域。本文以西方近现代思想文化为背景,以宗教学的发展为线索,概述一百多年来西方神秘主义研究状况。纵观近现代历史,神秘主义研究与神秘主义热和非理性思潮的兴起存在着密切的关系,大致上可以分为四个有特征的阶段,一是19世纪中下叶,在欧洲,由于印度文化和异邦文化的发现,刺激起西方的寻根热,出现了一股非理性神秘思潮;二是19世纪末20世纪初,伴随着新浪漫主义,西方思想文化界兴起了一股反资产阶级文明、反理性、反科学的思潮;三是20世纪60年代到70年代初,西方社会矛盾加剧,在反异化、反文化思潮中,东方宗教十分流行;四是20世纪80年代到90年代,社会、经济、生态危机,在世界范围内出现了反现代化、反科学、回归传统文化、本土文化的热潮。     

Profiling Religious Maturity: The Relationship of Religious Attitude Components to Religious Orientations

This study examined the relationships between religious orientation and components of religious attitudes. Religious orientation was measured using Batson, Schoenrade, and Ventis' (1993) Religious Life Inventory. Affective, cognitive, and conative components of attitudes toward religious beliefs and practices were measured using an instrument constructed for the study. Participants were undergraduate students from four educational institutions in the United States. Systematic relationships were found among the dimensions of religious orientation and the components of religious attitudes. Means and Quest orientations had very similar profiles, characterized by high Cognition scores and relatively low Affect and Conation scores. By contrast, modestly low Cognition scores and significantly high Affect and Conation scores characterized the profile of the Ends orientation. Results are discussed in terms of the concept of mature religiosity.