Western Esotericism——宗教学领域新兴研究学科

上世纪90年代开始,西方学术界兴趣了一门新的研究学科即西方灵知主义,并把它视为西方另一种宗教传统。本文试图探讨西方灵知主义研究学科的产生、研究范式及研究意义。     

撒哈拉南部非洲的若干新兴宗教运动

近几年来 ,非洲大陆新兴宗教运动的增多 ,以及个人在信仰中寻求新的意义 ,引起宗教专家们关注。但是 ,对于“宗教热”的意义的这种种解释产生了许多疑问 ,特别是在宗教“创新”的意义和影响问题上。其实大可不必咬文嚼字 ,这种宗教“创新”应该主要从横向的和纵向的两种信仰融合形式来解读 :首先 ,就其横向的形式而言 ,这种宗教创新一方面应看做是非洲各种传统宗教通过同起源于西方或者亚洲的宗教的和平的或者暴力的冲撞 ,所产生的不断革新 ;正是这样的冲撞导致了形形色色的新传统主义、先知主义和独立教会的诞生。我们将从一些先知派宗教的…     

Theology and Religious Studies at the Turn of the Millenium: Reconceiving the Field

This article originated as a lecture at the celebration of 150 years of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies in King's College of the University of London. Professor Ford argues that our good practice as teachers has outstripped any available paradigm of the field, so it is necessary to reconceive it. He proposes four dimensions that unite theological and religious studies: how to study the phenomena of religions; how to establish norms and responsibilities; how to cope with radical, self-involving particularity; and how to involve the divine in academic studies.     

New Religious Movements in Global Perspective: Views from the Mainstream

Books reviewed in this article:
John A. Saliba, Geoffrey Chapman, Christian Responses to the New Age Movement: A Critical Assessment
Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell (eds), New Religious Movements: Challenge and Response     

Exercising Research Skills: An Information Literacy Boot Camp for Religious Studies Graduate Assistants

Instructional librarians at the University of Dayton collaborated with a religious studies graduate program to offer a three-day information literacy workshop, or “boot camp,” to the program's graduate research assistants. The graduate program had found that the assistants' research skills did not meet the expectations of their faculty mentors, and the workshop sought to address these deficiencies. With input from the religious studies faculty, the workshop focused on catalog and database searching, Boolean logic, primary sources, and the Chicago citation style. The librarians incorporated active learning exercises into each workshop session. Assessment of the workshop suggested that the assistants gained confidence in these information literacy skills. Feedback from faculty also indicated that the assistants' research skills had improved.     

Caring about More: An Integrative Capstone Course Connecting Religious Studies with General Education

This paper describes and analyzes an “Integrating Seminar” capstone course for undergraduate religious studies majors, which has the following goals for student learning: (1) to reflect on the cumulative achievement of their studies of religion; (2) to take stock of their learning in liberal studies coursework; and (3) to explore the connections between these specialized and general learning experiences. Readings provided by the instructor and the students and discussions around them lead toward a final paper on this question: “In the context of becoming an educated person, what is religion, how do you know, and why do you care?” The paper concludes with some reflections on ways to better prepare students for this kind of integrated thinking through advising and ongoing colloquia.     

Religious Studies at Berkeley

The University of California at Berkeley has had a Group Major in Religious Studies since 1970, but there is no core faculty for the program. Efforts on the part of distinguished Berkeley faculty members over the years to create a viable department have met with no success. Now (in 1999), as a result of actions taken by the administration, the group major is in serious jeopardy.