Austrian MEPs: between privatisation and politicisation of religion

This contribution investigates the role of religion in the work and attitudes of Austrian members of the European Parliament (MEPs). It is based on the Austrian results of a large-scale survey of MEPs, RelEP, and on the analysis of parliamentary questions. The study argues that the attitudes of Austrian MEPs to religion are characterised by two seemingly contradictory phenomena: the privatisation and the politicisation of religion. The privatisation of religion expresses itself in the MEPs’ refusal to disclose information about their religiosity and in the absence from the political agenda of topics related to the role of churches and majority religions within European societies. By contrast, human rights abuses against Christian minorities abroad, the religious dimension of Turkey’s candidacy to the European Union and the difficulties of integrating Islam in Europe are all highly politicised topics. In short, the religion of the Other is politicised, while the religion of the majority is privatised. In this context, it is the attribution of religious belonging to the Other which serves the symbolic function of drawing identity boundaries, whereas the Self is envisaged as secular.     

The Politics of Religious Heritage: Framing Claims to Religion as Culture in Spain

This article contributes to sociological theorizations of religion as heritage through analyzing the politics of religious heritage in Spain since its transition to democracy during the late 1970s. Our analysis is organized around three historical sequences of critical importance for understanding the political and legal significance of discourses that frame religion as cultural heritage in Spain: (1) negotiations that took place during Spain's democratic transition between 1977 and 1980; (2) discussions that surfaced in the context of the state's decision to recognize Islam, Protestantism, and Judaism in 1992; and (3) more recent debates regarding the incorporation of religious minorities in the context of increasing religious diversity, especially concerning places of worship. We show how framing “religion” using the language of cultural heritage has provided religious actors with a means of defending the connection between religion and national identity—and of protecting the privileges of majoritarian religious institutions without violating core tenets of secularism or pluralism. This scenario has created space for certain religious minorities to claim a place within Spain's evolving socioreligious landscape by invoking alternative heritages from Spain's multicultural past.     

Identity,politics, and the future(s) of religion in the UK: the case of the religion questions in the 2001 decennial census1>

With the publication of the results of the United Kingdom's decennial Census questions on religion it is important to situate this data within the wider social and religious contexts that led to the inclusion of these questions in the Census. This includes engagement with some of the issues likely to affect both the data itself and the uses to which it might be put. The varied forms of the questions on religion as asked in different parts of the UK are outlined within the context of a discussion of the scholarly taxonomy of religions. The questions are also explored in the light of the interplay between the varied categories of religions and the official ‘recognition’ implied by their use within the Census. Finally, the place of religious statistics within the ‘politics of identity’ as well as their potential contribution to the development of a communalist ‘identity politics’ are critically explored.     

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 Medieval Feminist Critique of the Chinese World Order: The Case of Wu Zhao (r. 690–705)

Medieval Chinese held that the circumscribed social space women might inhabit in life was encoded in the nature of their bodies. Gender conceptions common to China's three religions—Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism—confirmed that women were allied to the passive and inner. Accounts of the only woman in Chinese history to occupy the throne in her own name, Wu Zhao, follow Chinese historians in portraying her as contravening this cosmology. Drawing on recent studies of the religious history of the body, I argue instead that Wu Zhao constructed a legitimizing strategy that took seriously, in ways not contemplated before, these fundamental tenets of Chinese religion.     

Bounded by Disbelief: How Atheists in the United States Differentiate themselves from Religious Believers

Recent empirical studies have revealed that religious believers tend to hold atheists and other religious doubters in low regard. This article examines how atheists in turn negotiate and construct the social and symbolic boundaries between atheists and religious believers. I draw on ethnographic and interview data to explore the lenses through which atheists view religion, religious believers, and the boundary between religious believers and non-believers. I find that atheists participate in boundary work to construct difference between religious believers and non-believers. However, atheists see greater social distance between themselves and some groups of religious believers than they do in relation to other groups, constructing religious leaders and devout adherents of particular religions as especially different. Atheists’ constructions of religious believers also vary in response to their individual experiences with religious people. The analysis illuminates the complexity of boundary work among members of a minority group.     

Posttraumatic growth and religion in Rwanda: individual well-being vs. collective false consciousness

Some scholars include changes in spirituality, such as a greater commitment to their religious beliefs or an enhanced understanding of spiritual matters, in the definition of posttraumatic growth; others conclude that questions of spirituality should be excluded from this definition. This article highlights the fundamental difference of religion to other domains of posttraumatic growth because religions are ideologies (and other domains of growth are not). As ideologies, it is argued that religions can affect different levels of identity in different ways. Based on testimonial evidence from Rwandan genocide survivors, the article demonstrates that although religious beliefs can bring existential comfort at the individual level, they can also lead to a state of false consciousness at the collective level. In Rwanda, the dominant religious ideology facilitated the spiritual and moral climate in which genocide became possible. Today, religious interpretations of the Rwandan Patriotic Front's (RPF) leadership provide spiritual backing to a government which has become increasingly authoritarian.     

Identification with Religion: Cross‐National Evidence from a Social Psychological Perspective

Why is religion a more central social identity for some people than for others? Previous studies focus on explaining individual differences in religious affiliation and religiosity, often using the term “identification” in reference to these concepts. Yet, few scholars operationalize—let alone attempt to explain—identification with religion in social psychological terms, i.e., as a construct that captures the subjective psychological centrality of one's religious identity. After underscoring the benefits of exploring religious identification using cross‐national data, we employ an original data set composed of nationally representative surveys in three European countries to model religious identification in two ways: importance (independent strength of attachment) and prominence (prioritization of one's religious identity relative to the others one holds). We document substantial variation in the degree to which individuals define themselves on the basis of their religious identity. We then test predictions drawn from existing theories to model these two measures. Our results extend current understandings of what shapes psychological attachment to religion and raise new questions for future theorization and analysis.     

Religions in Europe

The breakdown of European society is changing rapidly, particularly in the field of religion. Culture is of vital importance to the presence of religion in all nations. Religions also have exerted a certain degree of political power, thus influencing the economy and other related spheres of life.The different religions in Europe exhibit a variety of attitudes towards religious pluralism. The religious differences between Western and Eastern Europe depend mainly on issues of national identity related to religious adherence.This essay provides an overview of religion and politics, or Church and state, in Europe. It will conclude with some reflections about possible future developments within religious traditions in Europe. New religious communities and religious organisations are reaching different parts of Europe, sometimes very far from their place of origin. Christianity (Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism) is the most widespread religion in contemporary Europe. Catholic religion is well diffused in Europe, but there are substantial differences in belief, behaviour and practice within different Catholic communities. There are various branches of Orthodoxy in Europe, such as the distinct autocephalous churches. In general Orthodox religion is closely aligned with national culture. Islam is also present in Western countries, and its impact is evident.     

Religion,ethnicity, and citizenship: the role of Jain institutions in the social incorporation of young Jains in Britain and the United States

The on-going importance of religion as a marker of identity among young South Asians has provoked reflection on the relationship between religion and citizenship in the aftermath of events such as 9/11 and 7/7. In general, European and American scholarship highlights different perspectives on the role of religion in the social incorporation of immigrants and their children. In this article I explore how religion shapes identity and citizenship among young Jains, a group that experiences successful socio-economic integration and material success in Britain and the United States. This qualitative comparative analysis of Jain institutions which are oriented towards young Jains reveals the ways in which the intersection of transnational circulation of religious ideas and actors, national integration regimes, migration histories, and the place of religion in specific contexts shapes religious identities, religious group boundaries, and religious discourses in different ways. Different Jain religious assemblages affirm views of religion in the United States as having a positive role in the social incorporation of immigrants and their children, but point to a more neutral role for religion in the incorporation of middle-class young Jains in Britain.     

Exploring Spirituality and Unchurched Religions in America,Sweden, and Japan

A typology of churched and unchurched religions is developed and then used to analyse the status of unchurched spirituality in the United States, Sweden, and Japan. In the United States, churched religions remain strong, while most of those who say they have no religious preference are quite religious, merely unchurched. In Sweden, the lack of participation in the state church seems to be more than offset by a rapid rise in unchurched religion, especially among the young. Japan's celebrated lack of religion is found to be merely a lack of churched religions, as the Japanese are devoted followers of unchurched faiths. In conclusion, the relative lack of authority of unchurched religions is examined.     

Religion as Dialogical Resource: A Socio-cultural Approach

William James proposed a psychological study of religion examining people’s religious experiences, and to see in what sense these were good for them. The recent developments of psychology of religion moved far from that initial proposition. In this paper, we propose a sociocultural perspective to religion that renews with that initial stance. After recalling Vygtotsky’s core ideas, we suggest that religion, as cultural and symbolic system, participates to the orchestration of human activities and sense-making. Such orchestration works both from within the person, through internalized values and ideas, and from without, through the person’s interactions with others, discourses, cultural objects etc. This leads us to consider religions as supporting various forms of dialogical dynamics—intra-psychological dialogues, interpersonal with present, absent or imaginary others, as well as inter-group dialogues—which we illustrate with empirical vignettes. The example of religious tensions in the Balkans in the 90’s highlights how much the historical-cultural embeddedness of these dynamics can also lead to the end of dialogicality, and therefore, sense-making     

The Catholic Church and Croatia's Two Transitions1

Abstract

In this article we examine the religious situation in postsoviet Estonia. Traditionally a Christian country, Estonia today is strongly influenced by its Soviet past. Only one third of the population belongs to a particular religion, while nearly half the population say that religion plays no role in their lives. The state's attitude towards the various religions is remarkably positive and the legislation concerning religious organisations is very liberal. Most believers in Estonia belong to Lutheran and Orthodox churches. The biggest non-Christian religion is Estonian Native Religion, and there are also Buddhist, Jewish and Muslim communities. In the late 1990s several problems arose concerning legislation and religious studies at schools. Discussion of these topics found the Christian denominations on one side and non-Christian religions on the other. Although the question whether Religious Studies should be a compulsory subject in schools is still fervently disputed, this now happens in the secular media, while discussion has more or less ceased amongst the various religions. The dialogue between Christian and non-Christian religions is nearly non-existent and there seems to be no will to intensify interrelations. If problems emerge, the representatives of the various religions turn to the state rather than discuss them among themselves.     

Lutheran and Russian Orthodox Church Buildings as Symbols of Cultural Identity in the Estonian Parliamentary Elections of 20111

In the 2011 parliamentary election campaign in Estonia, two church buildings fulfilled the function of inclusion by integrating the sentiments and identity of the members of cultural constituencies, and the function of exclusion by drawing symbolic boundaries between the current national government and the opposition and between the Estonian cultural mainstream and the Russophone minority, which cannot be drawn legally. For the parties of the national government St John’s Lutheran Church in St Petersburg was a symbol of Estonian nationalism. For their main political opponents the Orthodox church in the Lasnamäe district of Tallinn symbolised the cultural identity of Estonian Russian-speaking residents and electorate. While this development exemplifies ‘desecularisation’ in the dimension of collective cultural identities, I argue against a too simplistic interpretation of ‘desecularisation’ and for a more nuanced understanding of how religion may play a role even in a very secularised society and polity like Estonia. I theorise ‘desecularisation’ in Estonian politics by distinguishing the types of religion and nationalism that were involved and critically analysing the relationship between religion and nationalism in this process. I argue that the electoral campaign of 2011 testifies to a small shift towards a more religious definition of social identities, which may not re-occur with the same passions and intensity in future. After the accession to the European Union in 2004, the pre-electoral symbolic sacralisation of ethnic identities, however, has become an established practice during the Estonian parliamentary elections.     

Hoping for a Godly (White) Family: How Desire for Religious Heritage Affects Whites’ Attitudes Toward Interracial Marriage

This study examines how a desire to pass on religious heritage shapes whites’ attitudes toward interracial marriage for their children. Utilizing national survey data (Baylor Religion Survey 2007), I estimate ordered logit regression models to examine the extent to which whites’ desire to have their children and children's spouses share their religion affects attitudes toward their hypothetical daughters marrying blacks, Latinos, or Asians, net of other factors. Analyses reveal that whites who consider it more important that their children and children's spouses share their religion are less comfortable with their daughters marrying blacks, Latinos, or Asians. These effects are robust to the inclusion of measures for religiosity, political ideology, intimate interracial experiences, and other sociodemographic correlates. These findings suggest that, for whites, religious heritage has a clear ethno‐racial component. The greater their desire for descendants to share the same religious views, the more whites would prefer that these descendants themselves be white, indicating that, for many white Americans, religious heritage is equated with whiteness. I conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for research on religion and interracial families.     

THE BURNING FUSE: THE UNACCEPTABLE FACE OF RELIGION

Abstract. For pragmatic reasons more attention should be devoted to the serious study of religion. Although religions inspire great achievements of human creativity, it is important to understand them because they also promote violence and warfare. One can understand the unacceptable face of religion when one sees why religions matter to those who belong to them; why they are bound to be conservative, especially in times of stress; and why, therefore, believers become very passionate about defending the boundaries of their particular religious systems. Such understanding provides a realistic basis for working toward the peaceful coexistence of conflicting religious systems.     

Religious Belonging,Religious Agency,and Women's Autonomy in Mozambique

Women's autonomy has frequently been linked with women's opportunities and investments, such as education, employment, and reproductive control. The association between women's autonomy and religion in the developing world, however, has received less attention, and the few existing studies make comparisons across major religious traditions. In this study, we focus on variations in levels of female decision‐making autonomy within a single religious tradition—Christianity. Using unique survey data from a predominantly Christian area in Mozambique, we devise an autonomy scale and apply it to compare women affiliated with different Christian denominations as well as unaffiliated women. In addition to affiliation, we examine the relationship between autonomy and women's religious agency both within and outside their churches. Multivariate analyses show that women belonging to more liberal religious traditions (such as Catholicism and mainline Protestantism) tend to have higher autonomy levels, regardless of other factors. These results are situated within the cross‐national scholarship on religion and women's empowerment and are interpreted in the context of gendered religious dynamics in Mozambique and similar developing settings.     

Analogous activities: Tools for thinking comparatively in religious studies courses

This article discusses an experiential teaching method that uses secular activities that are simple, accessible, and analogous to religious practice in order to facilitate comparative religious study. These “analogous activities” – for example, social rituals, stillness, yoga, a social media fast, singing, nonviolent communication, and mindfulness meditation – provide a third point of reference that allows students to pivot between their understanding of religion and those of practitioners and scholars of religion. Experiential learning can be quite successful if deliberately sequenced to allow students to encounter a series of interpretive frameworks and structured with prompts and parameters that encourage reflection and critical analysis of their experience. In my course engaging in analogous activities not only impacted students' understanding of Asian religions, but also led them to question two previous assumptions: first, that religious beliefs were more important than religious practices, which is particularly problematic in regards to Asian religious traditions that place more emphasis on orthopraxy than orthodoxy, and second, that religion was something separate from one's everyday or lived reality.     

“We’re a walking picket sign”: Management of a Stigmatized Religious Identity

This study analyzes qualitative data from interviews with 18 members of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) focusing on the group’s religious identity and relationships with “mainstream” society. Two primary themes emerged. First, the WBC religious identity appears to hinge on external conflict with society which is promoted by their core religious ideology and negotiated through various stigma management strategies. Second, members of the church enjoy strong internal group cohesion promoted by their religious ideology and symbolic boundaries that separate them from outside institutions. This study therefore suggests stigmatization offers social benefits to members of the WBC in addition to social consequences.     

Christian Identification and Self‐Reported Depression: Evidence from China

The nexus between religion and mental health in the East has been understudied, where the coexistence of multiple religions calls for scholarly attention to religious identification. This article investigates the impact on self‐reported depression of an individual's identification with Christianity in a non‐Judeo‐Christian and religion‐regulating social setting. Taking advantage of the Chinese General Social Survey 2010, our empirical analyses suggest that people who explicitly identify with Christianity report a significantly higher level of depression compared with both religious nones and self‐claimed Buddhists. In contrast, there is no significant difference in self‐reported depression between religious nones and self‐identified Buddhists. This study supplements current literature on the connection between religious affiliation and mental health with a particular interest in East Asia, suggesting that the consequence on mental health of religious identification is contingent on a religion's social status, and a religion's marginal position may turn religious identification into a detrimental psychological burden.