The power of poverty: queer religious agency past and present

ABSTRACT

As a form of resistance against heteronormativity, queer theology has often also been very critical towards colonialism and capitalism. The queer perspective thus became a privileged standpoint of critique of these three levels of oppression. However, it seems that today, capitalism itself has been “queered”: the hierarchy of the heterosexual “core family” has been replaced by a global hymn of diversity and flexibility centred around consumerism. Within the context of neoliberal capitalism, queer theology seems to have lost its queerness. This contribution is inspired by Giorgio Agamben’s book The Highest Poverty (2011), in which he presents the evolution of the Franciscan rule from a “form of life” (forma vitae) to a “rule” that is a form of proto-capitalism. The Franciscan ideal of poverty is corrupted as soon as the hierarchical Church (the instance of power) affirms this rule, thereby taking it up within a discourse of the law: poverty is no longer a theological concept, but an economical one. Following Agamben’s strategy, I will ask how another spiritual movement of around the thirteenth century, the Beguines, attempted to live an alternative life, a vita apostolica, and understand this as a form of queerness. The Beguine model, I will argue, can help us imagine a deepened queer theology today that cannot be captured and rigidified by the logic of capitalism, but continues to be able to critique it.     

台湾道教的历史、现状及其宗教特征

我国台湾与大陆一衣带水,隔海相望,海峡两岸的文化传统一脉相承,历史悠久.道教作为中国本土产生的宗教形态,经历了一个产生、形成、传播、衍变的整体历史过程,大约迟至中古以后才经由南方的福建传入台湾.明代以后,随着两岸交流逐渐增多,移民人数的激增与规模的扩大,仅在两百多年的时间之内,道教的传播就迅速扩及台湾全岛.当今的台湾道教,信众广泛,庙堂林立,约有社会各阶层的信众数百万,宫观庙堂数千座,形成台湾规模最大的宗教形态,对台湾地区的社会生活、文化思想、民间信仰、风俗习惯、道德伦理,乃至经济生活、政治取向等方面均产生了不容忽视的重要影响.台湾道教在长期衍变发展的过程之中,由于其特殊的社会历史背景,逐渐形成了移民性、宗族性、地域性、民族性、融合性的特征,而此诸多特征对于台湾道教的未来走向与发展趋势皆有决定性的影响.     

武汉市宗教的现状与世俗化特点--当前城市宗教工作田野调查之一

本文对武汉市目前的宗教现状进行了深入的调查 ,并对其特点进行了探讨和评价。     

The religious physician

In order to understand what it means to be a physician, we must, according to Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, analyze four words that capture the essence of the medical enterprise: profession, patient, compassion, and consent. The resultant model provides a rational and secular basis upon which the Jewish or Christian physician can then build an understanding of medicine in its peculiarly religious form. This religious form is likewise characterized by four words: vocation, neighbor, love, and covenant. An analysis of these words provides a model of and for the religious physician.     

台湾地区宗教的历史与现状及其对策研究

论文简要分析了台湾主要宗教的历史和现状及其四大特点,从中华文化的统一性角度,着力探讨台湾宗教与社会、政治、经济、文化之间的复杂关系,结合作者本职工作实践,研究高校台湾工作和两岸学术交流中的宗教问题和有关法规,并提出了三条具体的对策建议.     

The changing dynamics of religious authority on Pakistani religious television

This paper analyses the production, ownership and control of Pakistani religious talk shows, which have emerged as a popular genre of religious programming, subsequent to the liberalisation of Pakistani media in 2002. Much scholarship has implicated the nexus between Islam and televisual media in enabling the fragmentation of religious authority, by altering ‘lay’ engagements with Islam and thereby eliciting wider participation in religious discourse. In contrast, this paper focuses on the changing terms of asserting religious authority in the newly liberalised media context. Based on an analysis of the innovative formats and modes of editorial control characterising contemporary religious shows, I posit the significance of religious talk shows in both altering the nature of scholarly participation in religious public debate, and subjecting featured scholars to non-scholarly interests and agendas. I argue that the latter two insights into the nature of religious authority on television are only accessible from a production-based perspective, which is crucial for evaluating the wider implications of broadcast media for religious authority.     

荆州市荆州区宗教的现状与管理——当前城市宗教工作田野调查之四

本文对湖北荆州市荆州区的宗教界现状以及宗教管理的现状作了介绍 ,并特别对铁女寺主持弘法法师和荆州区宗教局长康世美作了介绍 ,由此考察当前城市宗教工作的一些特点。