The eleventh commandment fellowship: A new religious movement confronts the ecological crisis

Edward Tiryakian, Thomas Robbins and Phillip Hammond, among others, have highlighted the role of new religious movements (NRMs) as reflectors of larger social trends and innovators of broad cultural change. This paper presents a case study of the Eleventh Commandment Fellowship, a subgroup of the Holy Order of MANS (an American NRM founded in 1968) that attempted to uncover and articulate an ethic of ecology from within the Judeo‐Christian tradition during the late 1970s and 1980s. I contend that these efforts both reflected the broader movement within North American Christian denominations to engage seriously the ecological crisis, and offered innovative theoretical and practical solutions to this crisis. The fellowship is also shown to have been instrumental in the formation of an international coalition of both religious and secular environmental groups.     

Holy piracy: Kopimism,the sacralisation of information,and the legitimating power of religion

Kopimism is a new religious movement predicated on, and revolving around, the assertion and belief that information is inherently sacred and needs to be copied and shared. Adherents to this Swedish-born religious movement have persisted in small pockets of devout communities around the world for almost a decade. This paper outlines a rudimentary and general sketch of the Kopimist worldview, its basic aims and its place within the contemporary religious landscape. In the latter part of this analysis, particular attention is given to the movement’s claim that it is not simply a sacralisation of political ideals – pirate politics, in particular – but that it maintains a distinct worldview and ethical system based on the notion that information – the foundation of everything – is itself divine. ‘Religion’ as a legitimating categorical force and the sociocultural conditions that engender new religious movements are also considered alongside the movement’s history and development.     

‘Interfaith dialogue’ as a form of opposition of ‘minority religions’ to governmental pressure in Russia

Russian governmental policy toward non-traditional religious groups, especially so-called New Religious Movements (NRMs), is discriminatory. Despite Russia’s formal secularity, the government strongly supports the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), a position which results in various limitations on many other religious groups. As a result, legal actions have been initiated against new religious groups, for example the Bhagavad Gita trial in Tomsk, Siberia, and the designation of the literature of the Jehovah’s Witnesses as ‘extremist’. However, pressure by the government can sometimes lead to the development of spontaneous interreligious oppositional associations. One important example is the ‘interfaith dialogue’ in Tomsk, where local leaders or representatives of religious groups, such as the Episcopal, Jewish, and Latter-day Saints (Mormon) churches as well as the Hare Krishna movement, unorthodox Buddhist groups, and local pagan movements, united to oppose governmental and ROC efforts to disband a Hare Krishna group in the Tomsk area. This research note presents results of a case study, which involved participant observation, of the phenomenon of oppositional interfaith dialogue in Tomsk in the period 2011–2014. I discuss factors that influenced its appearance, its relationship with the local government, and the methods of cooperation between the different religious groups within this association and offer some theoretical interpretations of these developments. The results of this case study illustrate new and important modern relationships between minority religions and the government in Russia.     

Cults,Consumerism, and the Construction of Self: Exploring the Religious within Fight Club

This article explores the manner in which the creation of new religious movements is depicted in the Fight Club narrative, not only through sardonic, stereotypical ‘cult’ imagery, but also through an academic lens; the narrative fits perfectly with the psychopathology model of cult recruitment as recapitulated by Stark and Bainbridge. The nature and motivations of new religious groups, even to the most worldly student of religion, can seem alien and mysterious to the rational contemporary mind, making the possibility for an empathetic methodological approach remote indeed. However, the presentation of the new religious movement created within the Fight Club narrative is unique in its familiarity to the modern consumerist West. The article also highlights the fascinating insights of the Fight Club narrative into the power of consumerism in a post-modern world, bringing to light ideas of the ‘religion of the market’ and the resulting fundamentalisms created by unstable belief systems and transient notions of self. Focusing particularly on the prominent demographic of ‘Generation X’, this analysis of the Fight Club narrative offers a detailed portrayal of the potential religious crises facing the consumerist West in its entirety.     

Ethnic identification,religious identity,and psychological well-being among Muslim and Christian Palestinians in Israel

This study examined relationships between ethnic identification, religious identity, and psychological well-being. The participants were 854 indigenous Israeli Palestinians, of whom 520 (36% males and 64% females) were Muslim and 334 (39% males and 61% females) Christian students, respectively. The sample ranged in age between 17 and 38 years, with a mean of 24.31 (SD = 4.43). Measures of Palestinian ethnic identity, religious identity, and psychological well-being were administered to study participants. The analysis revealed that, for each of the Muslim and Christian samples, Palestinian ethnic identity and religious identity were weakly positively correlated, a finding indicating a possible relative independence between these constructs. After partialling out the effect of age and religious identity, increased degrees of Palestinian ethnic identification linked to higher degrees of positive indicators of well-being and to lower degrees of negative indicators of well-being within each of the samples. These findings held, and were even more pronounced, in the case of religious identity, after controlling for age and Palestinian ethnic identity. The study concludes that religious identity may equal or exceed ethnic identity in importance as a feature of minority individuals’ self-concept informing their well-being.     

"Christians! Go home": A Revival of Neo-Paganism between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia (An Overview)

A rapid growth of new religious movements, in terms of both their numbers and variability, was a surprising outcome of the move to democracy in post-Soviet societies. One of the movements is Neo-Paganism whose emergence paradoxically coincided with the celebration of the anniversary of the baptism of Rus 1,000 years ago and the birth of Christianity 2,000 years ago. The Neo-Pagan movements challenge Christian values--with regard to ethics, attitude towards the natural environment, view of the past, and approach towards cultural variability. The Neo-Pagan impact on Christianity in the post-Soviet lands is rooted in ethnic nationalism--a common phenomenon at the turn of the 1990s. Neo-pagans are searching for both a primordial past and a pure ethnic culture, which they view as invaluable resources to overcome the hardship and ideological vacuum of the transitional period. However, they do this in various ways and thus, various forms of Neo-Paganism manifest themselves between the Baltic Sea and Transcaucasia.     

The children of perestroika: Two sociologists on religion and Russian society, 1991 – 2006

Abstract

This paper examines the role of religion in identity formation and political development in postsoviet Armenia. It argues that the equation of Armenian identity with membership in the Armenian Apostolic Church contributes to an atmosphere of intolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities and inhibits the development of pluralism. This underdevelopment of a democratic culture therefore leads to weak opposition movements and delayed democratic consolidation. This paper is based primarily on interviews conducted in Armenia in 2005 with individuals in the religious and civil society sectors, but also draws upon evidence from published materials which demonstrate attitudes toward minorities in Armenian society.     

'Winning Ways': Globalisation and the Impact of the Health and Wealth Gospel

Few contemporary religious movements lend themselves so readily to an analysis of the dynamics of globalising than that strand of neo-Pentecostalism known as the 'Faith' movement. Originating in the USA, the numerous ministries which comprise the movement have come to sustain a wide global influence in many diverse cultural conditions. The Faith gospel is noteworthy, not only because of the scale of its success, but because of its distinctive teaching related to divinely-blessed 'health and wealth' which has enjoyed considerable acceptance in different parts of the world. This paper explores the global significance of the Faith movement and argues that, while it has roots in North American culture, its dogma and practices are considerably modified within local cultural environments.     

Public Support for Religious Education in the Nineteenth-century United States

The purpose of this paper is to examine the three overlapping movements during the nineteenth century that sought to provide public support for religious education. The first movement sought to fund denominational schools directly from public revenues. These publicly supported denominational schools received funds from the state in proportion to the number of students they enrolled. The second movement tried to establish common non-denominational religious schools. These non-denominational religious public schools were supported by the Protestant majority, though opposed by Catholics and Lutherans. In the third movement, the religious public schools, attempted to create schools that were nondenominational during the class hours but were denominational outside class hours.     

“Leaving the Faith of Our Fathers”: Intergenerational Persistence and Class Cleavage of Evangelicals in Chile

Several studies have consistently linked the Evangelical breakdown in Latin America as a mass movement mainly adopted by impoverished working class individuals. However, little is known about how religious inheritance and recruitment of Evangelical movements is affected when status conditions improve along individuals trajectories. Using Bicentenario Survey from 2006 to 2010 we analyze how intergenerational patterns of religious persistence in Chile relate to individuals’ educational attainment and intergenerational mobility. Two mechanisms are evaluated: first, the intergenerational persistence of Evangelicals compared to Catholics and “None’s”; and second, the probability of conversion or reaffiliation to Evangelical Protestantism. Multinomial regression analysis shows that the greater an individual’s educational credentials and upward mobility, the lesser their identification with Evangelical movements, regardless of their religious affiliation or educational attainment of origin. This evidence suggests there are obstacles for Evangelical movements’ vertical mobility, which could be related to Chile’s strong social cleavage in terms of religion.     

Coming to Terms with Modernity: Iranian intellectuals and the emerging public sphere

Almost two decades after the Islamic revolution of 1979, the quest of Iranians for a distinct religious identity produced a new socio-political movement, which incorporated a pluralistic rhetoric in the name of reform. Since the presidential elections of May 1997, an intensifying fascination has emerged with exposing the internal diversities of the Islamic nation via a language of critique. The June 2001 elections confirmed the popular desire for reform. This reform movement has given voice to the needs and desires of so-far peripheral groups (youth, women, intellectuals, artists and ethnic minorities, etc.), who tend to appropriate Islam in order to come into public life as active protagonists. Recent discursive developments in Iran demonstrate the real possibility of the public expression of dissent within the constraints of Islamic politics. This paper is meant to offer an overview of how new intellectual interpretations of Islamic tradition in Iran since 1997 are contributing to cultural, social and political critique, within a public sphere defined by Islam.     

Racial/Ethnic Differences in Religious Involvement in a Multi-Ethnic Cohort of Midlife Women

We examined racial/ethnic differences in five measures of religious involvement (worship attendance, religious social support, importance of faith, comfort from religion, and frequency of prayer or meditation) among 2,690 women, age 42–52 years, participating in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN). The women reported five racial/ethnic identifications: white, African American, Hispanic, Japanese, and Chinese. A large proportion of the Asian and Hispanic women were born outside the United States (Japanese 48 percent, Chinese 69.5 percent, Hispanic 89.1 percent). African-American and Hispanic women reported the highest levels of religious involvement. White and Japanese women reported similar levels of involvement for four measures. Compared to the white women, the Chinese women reported similar levels of worship attendance and religious social support, but lower levels for the other three measures. These racial/ethnic differences were not explained by differences in religious preference, acculturation, or sociodemographic factors. With the exception of worship attendance, in adjusted models, measures of acculturation were not significantly associated with religious involvement .     

少数民族压力应对研究的文化视角

随着社会的急剧变迁与多元文化的相互融合与碰撞, 少数民族的压力应对问题已经变得日益重要。对少数民族压力应对与文化的关系进行全面的审视与探讨, 能够更好地理解多元文化交融下少数民族压力应对的心理机制, 促进民族团结与社会和谐。文章总结了少数民族压力应对研究的4种文化视角, 包括压力应对的跨文化研究、文化适应的压力应对研究、宗教应对研究、中国传统文化的应对思想研究, 并对不同研究视角进行了评述。未来中国少数民族压力应对研究应该综合多学科、多元文化视角的研究思路, 加强量与质的研究范式的整合, 进一步扩展少数民族压力应对的研究领域与研究范围, 从我国民族地区社会变迁的实际情况出发, 加强对少数民族不同社会群体的压力应对研究。     

Religious Environmentalism: Thomas Berry,the Bishnoi,and Satish Kumar

Abstract : This article explores two thinkers and one movement involved with religious environmentalism. Thomas Berry drew from the world's religious traditions and a depth study of science to develop what he refers to as “The New Story,” a narrative that encourages the cultivation of intimacy with nature, leading to an appropriate ethical response. The Bishnoi movement, which originated in fifteenth‐century India, sets forth a pre‐modern paradigm, still widely observed in northern India, for dealing with threats to local eco‐systems. Satish Kumar, a former monk and post‐Gandhian activist, invokes the ideas and practices of Jainism in developing an environmental action plan. These examples demonstrate the interdisciplinary and cross‐cultural aspects of religious environmentalism.     

Decolonizing the Language of Lutheran Theology: Confessions,Mission, Indians,and the Globalization of Hybridity

Abstract : Christianity as we know it in the United States is essentially a european ethnic religious movement, one that has necessitated decolonizing processes as it has spread into the formerly euro‐colonized global world. In many ways, lutheranism has been and continues to be even more discretely ethnocentric, based largely in the thinking, the cultures, and the languages of the germanic north. This essay challenges lutheran theologians to begin a dedicated process of decoding the narrowly ethnic and implicitly colonizing language of lutheran theology.     

Religious Traditions in Local Communities of China

All religions in China are closely linked to the traditional religion based on the patriarchal clan system. This bedrock faith of the Chinese, as it interacts with native religions and foreign religions, has fundamentally influenced the religious psychology of all Chinese people. Following a brief introduction to China’s religions, this article discusses folk religions as the main expression of traditional patriarchal religion, as well as their function and impact in contemporary society. The article then outlines relations between the multiple religions and cultures of ethnic groups in pluralist China to help the reader better understand the interaction between religious and cultural traditions of the Chinese people.     

A Review of: Darwinian Politics: The Evolutionary Origin of Freedom

This article takes a critical look at identity politics and conflict in Jos, a setting once regarded as “the home of peace and tourism in Nigeria.” The study situates the conflict within the relationship between the “indigene-settler” syndrome and the state, with its ugly hydra-headed manifestations. It argues that the conflict with a coloration of ethnic/religious garb was orchestrated under the façade of politics. It is suggested that the commitment of good governance remains the surest means of nipping in the bud the crises in Jos. The findings have important implications for aggregate research on ethnic/religious conflicts in Nigeria.     

An encounter between psychology and religion: humanistic psychology and the Immaculate Heart of Mary nuns

In the 1960s, humanistic psychology changed the relationship between psychology and religion by actively asserting the value of individual experience and self-expression. This was particularly evident in the encounter group movement. Beginning in 1967, Carl Rogers conducted a series of encounter groups, in order to promote "self-directed change in an educational system," for the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a religious order in California running an educational system. William Coulson, one of Rogers's associates in the project, later charged that the encounter groups undermined the religious order and played a major contributing part in the breakup of the order in 1970. The article examines these charges, situating the incident within the context of the changes occurring in religious life and in psychology in the 1960s. The article concludes that an already existing conflict the nuns had with the conservative Cardinal McIntyre of Los Angeles led to the departure of some 300 nuns from the order, who began the Immaculate Heart Community, an organization existing today. Nevertheless, encounter groups proved to be a psychological technology that helped to infuse a modern psychological--specifically, a humanistic psychological--perspective into contemporary religious life.     

Are all Socialists Anti-religious? Anti-religiosity and the Socialist Left in 21 Western European Countries (1990–2008)

The political situation in the Soviet Union during the twentieth century has led some to suggest that socialism is some kind of secular religion as opposed to ‘normal’ religion. In modern Europe, however, there have been vibrant Christian socialist movements. This article looks into the different attitudes of socialists towards religion and answers the question whether it is pressure of religious activity or pressure of religious identity that makes socialists resist religion. The results from a multilevel analysis of three waves of the European Values Study (1990–2008) in 21 Western European countries specifically point to an increase in anti-religiosity by socialists in countries marked by Catholic and Orthodox religious identities.     

Pastoral Counselling

The beginnings of the modern pastoral-care and counselling movement in the 1960s are reviewed, in particular, the attempt to integrate theology with the behavioural sciences, and the theories born of that integration with the practice of pastors and religious leaders. The developments of the last ten years are explored and the tensions of the movement analysed. Pastoral counsellors' contribution to counselling in general in the United Kingdom, and to pastoral ministry both here and overseas, is assessed.