Building Buddhism in England: The Flourishing of a Minority Faith Heritage

From the earliest days of Buddhism in Britain, individuals and communities have sought out buildings to provide locations where they might practise and teach Buddhism. In this paper, we focus on this neglected area of the study of minority faith traditions in Britain. Our research, which was commissioned by Historic England, examines how Buddhist communities have used buildings and what this tells us about how a minority tradition is initially established and how it subsequently changes and develops. In this context, we suggest that buildings are more than bricks and mortar and provide a richly rewarding analytical lens to tell stories about migration, socio-economic status, religious diversity and integration and the complexity of processes around secularisation and religious change, as well shifting policy agendas in the UK that have begun to take faith seriously. This contributes to deepening the picture of the migration and adaptation of Buddhism and Buddhist practice across the globe.     

THE KHANDA AND THE DHULFIQAR: Sikh–Shi'a parallelisms and crossings in history and text,concept of the Divine Guide and sacred chivalry

This article will look into the unexplored area of relations between Shi'ism and Sikhism. The author first establishes the historical links between both traditions especially during the formative first two centuries of the Sikh tradition. One realises very quickly that the relations between these two traditions have been quite intense. The second part will deal with parallelisms regarding different theological and mystical concepts whilst the third part will deal with sacred chivalry in both traditions. Based on primary and secondary sources this article will focus on pre-reformist Sikhism and mystical Shi'ism. It will help highlight less known aspects of the Sikh tradition and challenge established perceptions about the links between early Sikhism and Shi'a Islam.     

‘Mundus imago Dei est’: The Spirituality of the Emblematist of the French Renaissance

Abstract

This study explores the constitutive principle of Mundus imago Dei est in the work of emblematists representative of both Catholic and Protestant traditions in France in the late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-centuries. Examples selected have been militant (Georgette de Montenay), philosophical (Jean-Baptiste Chassignet), and devotional (Jean de La Ceppède). The aim is to discover common rhetorical strategies of an aesthetic in the service of faith. Qualities and features derived from the Augustinian tradition are demonstrated. Further, apparent disharmony of images is shown to yield to harmony of thought.     

Telic and Mechanistic Explanations of Mind and Meaningfulness: An Empirical Illustration

ABSTRACT Two traditions of personality theorizing, teleology and mechanism, are contrasted on their views of mind and the pivotal cognitive phenomenon of meaningfulness A major, albeit less well known, distinction between these traditions involves the assumption of time The fact that contemporary cognitive models rely on time (e g, temporal sequences or past events) places them firmly in the mechanistic tradition of personality theorizing Telic implications for cognition have been relatively overlooked, and are herein explored theoretically and empirically Cognition without temporality is described and distinguished from modern cognitive models that employ telic terminology An original study is provided to illustrate how these distinctions can be operationalized and addressed empirically     

Fits About Fit

The paper argues that two traditions have dominated research on person–environment fit, the individual differences tradition and the organisational psychology tradition. I briefly review these traditions using the present set of papers as exemplars of these traditions. Then the inclusion of national cultural issues in person–environment fit research, stimulated by two papers in this issue, is introduced and I suggest that this should be the start of a new tradition. Finally, I note that there has been little conceptualisation of, and research on, the environment in person–environment research. This is especially true with regard to the role of people in making environments, and environmental effectiveness outcomes for person–environment fit. I conclude with the thought that fits over fit are healthy because fit is usefully conceptualised and operationalised from so many different interesting perspectives.     

SOME PRAGMATIC TENDENCIES IN THE THOUGHT OF WANG YANG-MING

One of the chief benefits to civilization stemming from comparative studies of different philosophical traditions is the possibility of discovering convergences of opinion which offer evidence of continuity in human experience across cultural boundaries and thus provide some measure of corroboration for these opinions. This, of course, is not to say that important divergences of opinion should either be ignored or politely passed over. On the contrary, the more clearly differences are apprehended, the more likely it is that they can be discussed for the purpose of determining whether they may be complementary rather than contradictory. The convergences, however, insofar as we can discover them, should be given the attention they deserve since they transcend boundaries and point in the direction of a deeper unity pertaining not only to this or that particular tradition but to the cause of humanity itself.     

Dialectic Dialogue: A new method for inter-religious dialogue

Presented in this article is a new method for dialogue between faith traditions. The proposed new method is presented in the form of a theoretical dialogue between Jews and Christians concerning 'salvation'. It is set forth as a 'dialectic dialogue' that shifts the focus from a direct comparison of the traditions to an indirect one. The indirect elements used are three dichotomies experienced by all and how the two traditions' adherents are encouraged to understand them is the object of discussion. This dialogue, which compares how the two traditions teach their adherents to frame these dichotomies, avoids the problems that often bring inter-religious dialogues to a premature end.     

Complementary and supplementary fit: a theoretical and empirical integration

Complementary and supplementary fit represent 2 distinct traditions within the person-environment fit paradigm. However, these traditions have progressed in parallel but separate streams. This article articulates the theoretical underpinnings of the 2 traditions, using psychological need fulfillment and value congruence as prototypes of each tradition. Using a sample of 963 adult employees ranging from laborers to executives, the authors test 3 alternative conceptual models that examine the complementary and supplementary traditions. Results show that an integrative model dominates the other two, such that both traditions simultaneously predict outcomes in different ways.     

Using reflective practice to explore the origins and consequences of cultural and faith perspectives

The intention of the symposium is to allow individual voices to speak for themselves and to display their unmediated autobiographical narratives, albeit within a theoretical framework suggested by Part 2 of the Editorial. However, this snowball sample has thrown up some commonalties. So, the third and final part of the Editorial will attempt to point out some of these similarities. From a variety of viewpoints and positions and expressed in different styles of autobiographical narratives, the voices record a sophisticated awareness of the religious traditions discussed; a questioning of substance and loyalty that in one case resulted in a moving from one faith to another; and a display of religious and social values that travel with the individual to be tried and tested in a number of demanding contexts. Impotantly, it would seem that the individuals themselves selected what they would use in the formation of their own personal and professional identities.     

Spirituality in Counseling: A Faith Development Perspective

This article describes the use of Fowler's (1981) faith development theory (FDT) in counseling. FDT is a stage model of spiritual and religious development that allows counselors to identify both adaptive qualities and potential encumbrances in spiritual or religious expression. FDT offers a nonsectarian model of spiritual growth that permits assessment of spiritual development apart from the specific contents of various faith traditions. This article summarizes Fowler's faith stages and demonstrates their clinical utility through composite vignettes.     

重释“宗教”:史密斯对于宗教概念的消解

史密斯质疑宗教概念的普遍有效性,从词源学和观念史角度对宗教的含义及其变迁作了历史考察,指出它不过是西方近代文明的一个产物,并不适合解释其他文明的生活传统,主张用信仰和累积的传统两个独立的概念取而代之。依据这一概念框架来解释儒家传统会消除一些困难。     

人类基因组计划带给不同文化传统的伦理挑战

分析了人类基因组计划带给四种不同文化传统中的人们的伦理挑战,即南美、印度、西方传统和儒家传统。西方传统又分为天主教道德传统、英美传统和欧洲大陆传统三方面阐述,并指出不同的文化背景对HGP研究的不同导向。最后强调此领域中的跨文化研究有待进一步深入。     

Innovating from Traditions: The Emergence of a Ritual Field of Collective Commemoration in the Netherlands

This article demonstrates that tradition has a more profound effect on religion in liquid modernity than might be expected. The recent emergence in the Netherlands of a new ritual field aimed at collective commemoration of the dead is used as an example to investigate the dynamic relationship between religious tradition and creative ritualising. The comparison between Catholic, Protestant, and non‐ecclesial ritualising shows how Catholic ritual traditions associated with All Souls’ Day, among other traditions, serve as loose templates for ritual innovation in all three of these settings. Finally, on the basis of these findings, it is argued that ‘innovating from traditions’ presents a more adequate approach to future research into the roles traditions play in liquid modernity than Eric Hobsbawm’s ‘invention of tradition’.     

Religion and Organ Donation: The Views of UK Faith Leaders

This article reports the findings from the one-to-one interviews with the main UK faith and belief leaders which were commissioned by the Organ Donation Taskforce as part of its evidence gathering. Interviews were arranged with the main faith and belief organisations within the UK. Interviews covered a range of issues related to organ donation. Although some faith groups had some reservations regarding organ donation, interviews with these leaders demonstrated that none of these faith groups have reached a consensus against organ donation. The interviewees stated that the majority opinion in their faith or belief group is to permit organ donation, with some actively supporting it. Interviewees were keen to stress that there is a broad spectrum of opinion on organ transplantation within each faith and belief group and that consequently it is difficult to speak on behalf of an entire group. One complication mentioned by interviewees is that as organ transplantation is a relatively new medical procedure, there is no explicit reference to it in many original religious texts. Consequently, positions on the receipt and donation of organs are based on interpretation. It was felt that a much greater level of engagement is needed, as organ donation is currently not a priority for many faith and belief groups.     

The Enduring Influence of Religion on Senators’ Legislative Behavior

Does a senator's personal religion influence their legislative behavior in the Senate? To date, empirical research has answered this question only using senators’ religious traditions, while more concurrent work implies that religion should be measured as a multifaceted phenomenon. This study tests this proposition by compiling a unique data set of senators’ religion, conceptualized and measured by three different elements—belonging, beliefs, and behavior. The study estimates the association between these three religious facets and senators’ legislative behavior on economic, social, and foreign policy issues, while controlling for their constituencies’ political and religious preferences. It finds that religious beliefs are a strong predictor of senators’ legislative behavior, while religious tradition and behavior are mostly not. Furthermore, it finds that religious beliefs are associated with legislative behavior across a wide array of policy areas and are not confined to sociocultural issues.     

Tradition and Faith

Abstract: This article explores the relation between tradition and faith, arguing, first, that the issue about reason is an issue about faith and, second, that faith rediscovers itself in the debate with tradition. This debate with tradition ought to be less an appeal to, or an authoritative repetition of tradition, but rather a reworking of tradition in the context of contemporary questions and problems. So the appeal to tradition is not a naive appeal to a source of truth that is not in need of interpretation. Rather, it is the acknowledgement that there is a set of limiting conditions on contemporary theological argument. This position about the role of tradition in theology is illustrated by a discussion of our contemporary problems about language, God and ‘difference’, particularly as dealt with by postmodern philosophers, and the medieval tradition of negative theology.     

To Have Life,and Have It Abundantly! Health and Well-Being in Biblical Perspective

Epidemiological studies researching the impact of participation in religious activities on the overall health and well-being of individuals suggest that having faith and practicing religion is good since they represent expense free, non-medical coping mechanisms accessible to everyone. Faith and religion, thus, can serve for a large number of people as potential reservoirs for cultivating well-being and maintaining health, thereby cutting health-care costs significantly. This begs the question if such pragmatic instrumentalization does do justice to faith and religion in the first place. The article investigates this question taking the Christian biblical tradition as an example by, first, identifying texts speaking of ‘health’ across different Bible versions (I), second, by sketching related concepts of ‘health’ (II) and, finally, by assessing the actual extent to which biblical tradition supports the quest for health and well-being (III).     

Moral Cosmology, Religion, and Adult Values for Children

We hypothesize that the religiously orthodox, who are theologically communitarian/authoritarian in seeing individuals as subsumed by a larger community of believers and as subject to timeless divine law, are more likely to value obedience in children over autonomy than are theological modernists, who are theologically individualistic in seeing individuals, not a deity, as the ultimate arbiters of right and wrong. We hypothesize further that differences in moral cosmology (orthodoxy vs. modernism) within faith traditions are more important for the values adults seek to instile in children than are differences between traditions. Through analyses of national data from the 1998 General Social Survey, we find strong confirmation of both hypotheses. Moral cosmology is the single-most important factor in valuations of obedience and autonomy in children. While evangelical Protestants differ from Catholics, mainline Protestants, and those with no religion in their values for children, moral cosmology is associated with differences in values for children within each of the faith traditions, including evangelical Protestants. We conclude that intra-faith differences in moral cosmology are key in explaining values for children, but have not completely supplanted interfaith differences .     

Relationships Among Spirituality, Religious Practices, Personality Factors, and Health for Five Different Faith Traditions

To determine: (1) differences in spirituality, religiosity, personality, and health for different faith traditions; and (2) the relative degree to which demographic, spiritual, religious, and personality variables simultaneously predict health outcomes for different faith traditions. Cross-sectional analysis of 160 individuals from five different faith traditions including Buddhists (40), Catholics (41), Jews (22), Muslims (26), and Protestants (31). Brief multidimensional measure of religiousness/spirituality (BMMRS; Fetzer in Multidimensional measurement of religiousness/spirituality for use in health research, Fetzer Institute, Kalamazoo, 1999); NEO-five factor inventory (NEO-FFI; in Revised NEO personality inventory (NEO PI-R) and the NEO-five factor inventory (NEO-FFI) professional manual, Psychological Assessment Resources, Odessa, Costa and McCrae 1992); Medical outcomes scale-short form (SF-36; in SF-36 physical and mental health summary scores: A user??s manual, The Health Institute, New England Medical Center, Boston, Ware et al. 1994). (1) ANOVAs indicated that there were no significant group differences in health status, but that there were group differences in spirituality and religiosity. (2) Pearson??s correlations for the entire sample indicated that better mental health is significantly related to increased spirituality, increased positive personality traits (i.e., extraversion) and decreased personality traits (i.e., neuroticism and conscientiousness). In addition, spirituality is positively correlated with positive personality traits (i.e., extraversion) and negatively with negative personality traits (i.e., neuroticism). (3) Hierarchical regressions indicated that personality predicted a greater proportion of unique variance in health outcomes than spiritual variables. Different faith traditions have similar health status, but differ in terms of spiritual, religious, and personality factors. For all faith traditions, the presence of positive and absence of negative personality traits are primary predictors of positive health (and primarily mental health). Spiritual variables, other than forgiveness, add little to the prediction of unique variance in physical or mental health after considering personality. Spirituality can be conceptualized as a characterological aspect of personality or a distinct construct, but spiritual interventions should continue to be used in clinical practice and investigated in health research.     

Modern Maladies of the Self: Borrowed Selves and Collective Faith

Cultures give rise to and support different kinds of self-constructions and types of faith. In this article I argue that particular Western beliefs and values can give rise to modern maladies of self and faith—borrowed selves and collective faith. Borrowed selves reveal a fundamental insecurity or anxiety that comes from a felt lack of possessing or owning the attributions of one's identity, which in turn shapes the very relationships and faith upon which identity is linked. More specifically, I identify two distinct, though related, manifestations of borrowed selves—normotic selves and nomadic selves—and their concomitant types of collective faith—merged faith and eclectic-autonomous faith. Both self-constructions and types of faith manifest persons' specific stance with regard to community and its traditions, and both are fueled by an unconscious anxiety and a belief in what I call relativistic individualism.