From Neither/Nor to Both/And: Reconfiguring the Life and Legacy of Shirdi Sai Baba in Hagiography

The paper focuses on two hagiographic texts about the Indian saint Shirdi Sai Baba: G. R. Dabholkar’s ?rī Sāī Satcarita (1930) in Marathi and B. V. Narasimhaswami’s four-volume Life of Sai Baba (1955–69) in English. A comparative study of these texts highlights a notable shift in the saint’s life story. Whereas Dabholkar describes a saint who is “neither Hindu nor Muslim,” Narasimhaswami emphasizes particular devotional testimonies to reconstruct Shirdi Sai Baba as a syncretistic figure who is “both Hindu and Muslim.” Narasimhaswami’s reconstruction also reveals a politics of compositeness, in which a dominant Hindu embrace contains a domesticated Muslim-ness.     

Avatar for Our Age: Sathya Sai Baba and the Cultural Contradictions of Late Capitalism

Life itself is a market. Giving and taking, bargaining and speculating, is part of the game. Life has its … profits and losses appreciation and balance sheets. But the giving of Bhakti [devotion] in exchange for Mukti [liberation] is the most powerful business of all.—Sathya Sai Baba (Gokak, V.K. 1975. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, an Interpretation. Krishna Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, p. 237)It is your imperative duty to strive for the preservation of dharma. Today some people are trying to uproot Bharatiya Dharma (Indian Religion). We must resist all such attempts.… There are some people who are blindly enamored of Modern Western Civilization.… These so-called spurious and self-styled social reformers are trying to pollute society by depriving it of dharma.—Sathya Sai Baba (Gokak, V.K. 1975. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, an Interpretation. Krishna Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, p. 246)     

Paradigm shift in religious education: a reply to Jackson,or why religious education goes to war

This article provides a defence of my theoretical analysis of paradigm shift in contemporary religious education, particularly in light of Robert Jackson’s (2015) article published in this journal: ‘Misrepresenting religious education’s past and present in looking forward: Gearon using Kuhn’s concepts of paradigm, paradigm shift and incommensurability’. The core of Jackson’s concerns is my adaptation of Kuhn’s concepts of paradigm, paradigm shift and incommensurability to religious education. Defending in turn my use of these concepts – of paradigm, paradigm shift and incommensurability – I conclude that Jackson’s critique is in and of itself an apt demonstration of the position he seeks to attack. Drawing wider parallels with the methodological ‘paradigm wars’ in the social sciences I argue that the paradigms are why religious education too goes to ‘war’.     

Religious youth cults: Alternative healing social networks

The motivation of youth to join esoteric religious cults considered as psychopathology is a limited and reductionistic interpretation. Youthful devotees do demonstrate symptoms of psychic distress, which appear to be significantly ameliorated through participation in religious youth cults. Two major trends in social history reveal the sources of youth cults: loss of faith in the rationalistic Western cosmology and loss of the extended family system. The religious youth cult possesses many of the properties of the normal psychosocial system, which is a critical social structure for healthful coping in the world. As a normative social system, the religious youth cult is an alternative healing system for the existential crises of contemporary youth.     

Theory as a Tool in the Social Scientific Study of Religion and Martin Riesebrodt's The Promise of Salvation

No single paradigm or debate currently orients the social scientific study of religion. Because of this, those engaged in the multidisciplinary study of religion find that a public conversation is often difficult. In this article and the Forum it introduces, we explore Martin Riesebrodt's recently published book, The Promise of Salvation: A Theory of Religion. Responding to the inadequacies of secularization paradigms, rational choice models, and postmodern criticism, Riesebrodt proposes an approach that ideal‐typically reconstructs the subjective meanings of institutionalized religious practices (liturgies). These subjective meanings center on the prevention and management of crises—social, natural, and bodily—through appeal and access to superhuman powers. This pragmatic emphasis on the superhuman defines religion as a distinct sphere of social action transhistorically and transculturally. Riesebrodt's theory creates new analytical possibilities, especially for understanding the modern resurgence of religion under conditions of secularization.     

Religion and the Acceptability of White‐Collar Crime: A Cross‐National Analysis

This article examines whether shared religious beliefs and religious social relationships (Durkheim) and belief in a personal, moral God (Stark) negatively affect attitudes toward the acceptability of white‐collar crime. In addition, using a large cross‐national sample and estimating multilevel models, we test whether effects are conditional on modernization and religious contexts characterized by belief in an impersonal or amoral God. Shared religious beliefs and the importance of God in one's life are negatively related to the acceptability of white‐collar crime. These effects, however, weaken in religious contexts characterized by belief in an impersonal or amoral God as do the effects of religious social relationships and belonging to a religious organization; modernization, on the other hand, does not have a moderating effect. In short, religious belief is associated with lower acceptance of white‐collar crime and certain types of religious contexts condition this relationship.     

Creating Divine Unity: Chinese Recruitment in the Sathya Sai Baba Movement of Malaysia

This paper examines Chinese participation in a neo-Hindu movement in Malaysia. The data, gathered in Kuala Lumpur 1995-1997, are examined with regard to their ethnic and political implications and in relation to the historical as well as the contemporary social features of Malaysia. The paper explores the way in which the Indian-dominated leadership of the Malaysian Sai Baba organisation attempts to include Chinese worshippers: while aiming to overcome ethnic boundaries, there is a tendency to reproduce them. Chinese inclusion plays a significant role in the organisation's attempt to establish a multi-ethnic and non-sectarian profile for the movement. Such a profile is relevant for the leadership's pursuit of moral legitimacy in a country where ethnicity and religion are inextricably linked to politics.     

Reassessing Conventional Approaches to Conversion: Toward a New Synthesis

What are the crucial factors that may cause people to become religiously active at a certain point of their lives? I give an overview of key analytic elements of the conventional approaches to conversion: Lofland and Stark's (1965) social networks model; (spoiled) identity and religious seekership; socialization; religious markets; recruitment; cultural factors; and convert role monitoring and mastering. Subsequent sections present a critique of the conventional approaches, with their biases and emphasis on the crisis factor, and a synthesis of their best elements in the conversion career approach (currently in development). The latter distinguishes five levels of religious participation: preaffiliation, affiliation, conversion, confession, and disaffiliation. These levels are, in turn, influenced by personality factors, social factors, institutional factors, cultural factors, and contingency factors. The conversion careers approach offers directions for future research by distinguishing five levels of religious participation, systematically listing the factors in religious participation, avoiding “crisis determinism,” developing a conceptualization of the individual with active and passive elements, being gender sensitive, and including a life‐cycle approach to avoid the “adolescent bias” of earlier literature.     

CONTEMPORARY EVOLUTIONARY THEORY AS A NEW HEURISTIC MODEL FOR THE SOCIOSCIENTIFIC METHOD IN BIBLICAL STUDIES

Abstract. Notions of uniform and gradual evolution have been replaced in some circles by biological and paleontological models that postulate that periods of rapid change punctuate long periods of evolutionary stasis. This new theory, called punctuated equilibria (or PE for short), may have implications for paradigms in scholarly disciplines other than the sciences. Whereas old evolutionary models exerted great influence upon historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and students of religion for more than a century, the new model may provide heuristic paradigms for research that correlate more adequately with the current observations of scholars. We therefore provide suggestions for deployment of this new scientific paradigm in history and anthropology. In particular, this model can explain the rise of the Israelite state and the religious ethos in the Hebrew Bible, two major concerns of today's socioscientific study of biblical materials. Thus the possibility of an overarching paradigm for the social sciences is entertained.     

Mass suicide by members of the Japanese Friend of the Truth Church

This paper reports an instance of mass suicide committed by seven members of a local religious cult following the leader's death in Japan in November 1986. The case is discussed from the following viewpoints: (1) a Japanese feudal form of suicide called Junshi; (2) religion and current social changes in Japanese society; and (3) the destructive aspects of a cult.     

Vernacularizing Jñāndev: Hagiography and the Process of Vernacularization

The process of vernacularization involves more than literary language, but also invokes social ethics and an investment in the idioms of everyday life. Vernacularization can reach beyond texts to enact its force upon biographies as well, altering the ethics and quotidian memory of sacred figures. The paper examines how texts and biographical memory identified with the medieval Marathi “saint” (sant) Jñāndev (about thirteenth century) underwent a process of vernacularization that altered the social ethics of texts associated with Jñāndev and with the public memory of the saint himself. In particular, issues of caste and gender as subjects of the process of vernacularization are discussed, and especially in the context of producing bhakti publics—social spheres of devotion—that merge with the Vārkarī religious tradition in Maharashtra.     

Teaching in contexts: Designing a competency‐based religious studies program

Over the last decade, the discipline of religious studies has promoted religious literacy as both an invaluable contribution to curriculum and an indispensable social good. While much has been written on the importance of the study of religion for the development of religious literacy, little attention has been given to the identification of the disciplinary skills and content knowledge (or what we refer to as religious studies competencies) a student develops through extended study of religion. In this essay, we present an example of how to integrate a religious studies competency‐based model into program design and implementation. We argue that the transition to a competency‐based religious studies program has two potential benefits. First, competency program design provides an opportunity to redesign and update religious studies programs in a more responsible manner that aligns with our students, institution, discipline, and profession. Second, competency program design facilitates the conditions where we can better avoid duplicating the much criticized world religions paradigm.     

“Start Together and Finish Together”: Shifts in the Premises and Paradigms Underlying the Scientific Study of Religion

The main theme of this article is that the scientific study of religion passed through three stages in its development in the twentieth century. It was well integrated into the mainstream of early social science but by 1950 it had drifted into a more marginal position. The 1980s marked the beginning of a return to a more central position—not only because social scientists specializing in the study of religion were increasingly willing to adopt mainstream premises and paradigms but also because religion was becoming more interesting to other social scientists. Selected illustrations of this pattern of evolution focus on the sociology of knowledge, Marxism, new religious movements, post‐modernity, feminism, globalization, and rational choice theory. The conclusion is that the social scientific study of religion is now taking up themes of much broader interest to many social scientists. It has become less defensive, more expansive, more contentious, and perhaps more interesting than it ever was.     

Identification Reduces Stigma of Mental Ill‐Health: A Community‐Based Study

The stigma surrounding mental ill‐health is an important issue that affects likelihood of diagnosis and uptake of services, as those affected may work to avoid exposure, judgment, or any perceived loss in status associated with their mental ill‐health. In this study, we drew upon social identity theory to examine how social group membership might influence the stigma surrounding mental ill‐health. Participants from two urban centers in Ireland (N = 626) completed a survey measuring stigma of mental health, perceived social support as well as identification with two different social groups (community and religion). Mediation analysis showed that subjective identification with religious and community groups led to greater perceived social support and consequently lower perceived stigma of mental ill‐health. Furthermore, findings indicated that high identification with more than one social group can lead to enhanced social resources, and that identification with a religious group was associated with greater community identification. This study thus extends the evidence base of group identification by demonstrating its relationship with stigma of mental ill‐health, while also reinforcing how multiple identities can interact to enhance social resources crucial for well‐being.     

WHY WE NEED RELIGION TO SOLVE THE WORLD FOOD CRISIS

Scholars and practitioners addressing the global food crisis have rarely incorporated perspectives from the world's religious traditions. This lacuna appears in multiple dimensions: until recently, environmentalists have tended to ignore food and agriculture; food justice advocates have focused on food quantities, rather than its method of production; and few scholars of religion have considered agriculture. Faith‐based perspectives typically emphasize the dignity and sanctity of creation and offer holistic frameworks that integrate equity, economic, and environmental concerns, often called the three legs of sustainability. Faith‐based perspectives can provide new paradigms through which to assess food, consumption, and production and the attendant social relations; assess our scientific, economic, and social approaches; and acknowledge the moral and religious dimensions of the world food crisis.     

New Directions in Catholic Historical Research: Saints in Social Work

For over half a century now, the profession of social work has ignored calls to develop critical infrastructures for strengthening and expanding historical research in schools of social work. Since World War II, for example, doctoral dissertations involving significant historical research in schools of social work have become virtually extinct. The vanishing of these dissertations represents a simultaneous vanishing of social work's capacity to detect historical figures who are indigenous to and yet have remained undetected in social work history. As a result, and unintentionally, social work scholars have been seemingly unable to detect Louise de Marillac as the patron saint of social workers or Ellen Gates Starr as a popular folk saint among social workers in Catholic religious orders. The study includes the rare, post-mortem photograph of Ellen Gates Starr, dressed in the full habit of a Catholic Benedictine nun.     

A Dyadic Perspective on Speech Accommodation and Social Connection: Both Partners' Rejection Sensitivity Matters

Findings from confederate paradigms predict that mimicry is an adaptive route to social connection for rejection‐sensitive individuals (Lakin, Chartrand, & Arkin, 2008). However, dyadic perspectives predict that whether mimicry leads to perceived connection depends on the rejection sensitivity (RS) of both partners in an interaction. We investigated these predictions in 50 college women who completed a dyadic cooperative task in which members were matched or mismatched in being dispositionally high or low in RS. We used a psycholinguistics paradigm to assess, through independent listeners' judgments (N = 162), how much interacting individuals accommodate phonetic aspects of their speech toward each other. Results confirmed predictions from confederate paradigms in matched RS dyads. However, mismatched dyads showed an asymmetry in levels of accommodation and perceived connection: Those high in RS accommodated more than their low‐RS partner but emerged feeling less connected. Mediational analyses indicated that low‐RS individuals' nonaccommodation in mismatched dyads helped explain their high‐RS partners' relatively low perceived connection to them. Establishing whether mimicry is an adaptive route to social connection requires analyzing mimicry as a dyadic process influenced by the needs of each dyad member.     

Measurement,Classification, and Prediction of Paradigm Adherence of Marriage and Family Therapists

This study assessed the theoretical perspectives of marriage and family practitioners using the Paradigm Adherence Scale (PAS), which measures practitioner adherence to the psychological, systems, and social constructionist paradigms associated with marriage and family therapy. Results from a survey of clinical members of AAMFT ( N = 204) indicated that a majority of therapists were primarily adhering to the systems paradigm (43.6%) or practicing from a combination of paradigms (42.2%), while the social constructionism approach was used by a smaller but significant percentage of therapists (13.7%). Factors predicting membership in paradigm adherence groups included the current or most recent supervisor's preferred paradigm (most predictive), therapist gender, and years of clinical experience. While only 16.5% of the variance in paradigm adherence was accounted for by the set of predictor variables, this was viewed as having some practical significance in the difficult task of explaining choice and utilization of theoretical framework.     

Developing a new post‐liberal paradigm for British religious education 1

The aim of this paper is to articulate a new ‘post‐liberal’ paradigm for religious education in Britain. As criticisms of British religious education have mounted over the last few decades, it is becoming increasingly obvious that familiar inherited ways of conceptualising the nature and practice of religious education in schools are inappropriate to contemporary educational needs. A new model is required to structure, justify and direct learning and teaching in religious education. This paper reviews the commitments, assumptions and beliefs that together constitute the current ruling ‘liberal’ paradigm, identifies and exposes its weakness and concludes by providing a tentative first draft of a new ‘post‐liberal’ paradigm for religious education, which holds more promise of realising socially positive educational aims than the current paradigm.     

Attentional biases in social anxiety: an investigation using the inattentional blindness paradigm

One line of research has examined attentional bias as a potential maintenance factor in social anxiety using cognitive experiment paradigms. The present study sought to examine the utility of the inattentional blindness (IB) paradigm for assessing attentional bias in social anxiety. Unlike other existing paradigms such as the emotional Stroop or dot-probe tasks, the IB paradigm has the advantage of eliminating the individual's expectation and intention to search for social cues, which would reduce strategic or effortful responses. Two independent experiments were conducted using college students scoring high or low on the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. In both Experiments 1 and 2, participants were randomized to one of three IB experiment conditions, in which a positive face, a negative face, or a neutral item was unexpectedly presented, in the presence/absence of a bogus-speech threat. The overall pattern of our data suggests the presence of hypervigilant attentional processing in social anxiety. The IB paradigm appears to be a useful addition to existing experiment paradigms for investigating attentional bias in social anxiety and perhaps other psychopathology.