撒哈拉南部非洲的若干新兴宗教运动

近几年来 ,非洲大陆新兴宗教运动的增多 ,以及个人在信仰中寻求新的意义 ,引起宗教专家们关注。但是 ,对于“宗教热”的意义的这种种解释产生了许多疑问 ,特别是在宗教“创新”的意义和影响问题上。其实大可不必咬文嚼字 ,这种宗教“创新”应该主要从横向的和纵向的两种信仰融合形式来解读 :首先 ,就其横向的形式而言 ,这种宗教创新一方面应看做是非洲各种传统宗教通过同起源于西方或者亚洲的宗教的和平的或者暴力的冲撞 ,所产生的不断革新 ;正是这样的冲撞导致了形形色色的新传统主义、先知主义和独立教会的诞生。我们将从一些先知派宗教的…     

宗教狂热是孳生邪教的温床

如今的宗教虽然名目众多,宗派繁杂,但不外乎两大类。一是历史悠久、信徒广众的传统宗教, 如基督教、伊斯兰教、佛教、道教、印度教、犹太教等,这些宗教的教义、教理和教规大都与传统的价值观相吻合,故而已成为社会上层建筑的一部分,有的甚至被一些国家定为国教;二是19世纪中期以后出现的各种新兴宗教,如伊朗的巴哈伊教、美国的摩门教、日本的天理教、金光教等,它们虽然在许多方面不符合传统的价值观,但不一定     

New Religious Movements in Global Perspective: Views from the Mainstream

Books reviewed in this article:
John A. Saliba, Geoffrey Chapman, Christian Responses to the New Age Movement: A Critical Assessment
Bryan Wilson and Jamie Cresswell (eds), New Religious Movements: Challenge and Response     

The New Norwegian "KRL" Subject and Religious Freedom: A Report

The topic of this essay is the literary style of the words of Jesus in the gospels. My concern is the relevance of this issue for our conception of the teaching of the historical Jesus.     

Eye Movements and Visual Encoding During Scene Perception

ABSTRACT— The amount of time viewers could process a scene during eye fixations was varied by a mask that appeared at a certain point in each eye fixation. The scene did not reappear until the viewer made an eye movement. The main finding in the studies was that in order to normally process a scene, viewers needed to see the scene for at least 150 ms during each eye fixation. This result is surprising because viewers can extract the gist of a scene from a brief 40- to 100-ms exposure. It also stands in marked contrast to reading, as readers need only to view the words in the text for 50 to 60 ms to read normally. Thus, although the same neural mechanisms control eye movements in scene perception and reading, the cognitive processes associated with each task drive processing in different ways.     

A symbolic interactionist understanding of the selves of former members of New Religious Movements

The current study investigates the construction of self in New Religious Movement (NRM) membership and argues that there is significant variation in the way in which members construct their sense of self. While the majority of the literature suggests that differences in the way in which former members describe and experience NRM membership can be attributed to gender and the nature of the group, analysis of the life histories of 23 former members identified variations in the way in which these participants construct their sense of self as significant to understanding NRM membership. While some participants describe selves that are high in conformity or social connectedness, and depict NRM membership as motivated by a need for guidance and direction, others describe selves that appear high in individuality and personal autonomy and depict membership as motivated by a desire to overcome isolation and develop social connectedness. Even though these two narratives are conceptualised as distinct, they are not viewed as dichotomous but understood as on a continuum. To make sense of the selves of the participants in this study symbolic interactionist understandings of the self as to varying degrees informed by both “self” and “others” are applied.     

德国法院裁定：“法轮功”可被称为“心理邪教”

[美联社莱比锡1月20日电]题:“法轮功”可以被称为“心理邪教”根据德国莱比锡地方法院作出的一项裁定,中国的修炼运动“法轮功”——它在德国也有信徒——可以被称为“心理邪教”。这项裁决已于1月20日在沙克森的博览会城市莱比锡公布。莱比锡地方法院的判决驳回了对科堡报纸《新闻报》一名记者提出的停止侵害起诉。这家报纸在一篇关于巴伐利亚城市克洛纳赫建城1000年的游行庆祝活动的文章中对“法轮功”信徒参加游行活动发表了看法。作者在文章中称“法轮功”是“新的宗教性心理邪教,具有等级森严的信徒结构”。代表“法轮功”练习者利益…     

Angels and the Dragon King's Daughter: Gender,Sexuality in Western Buddhist New Religious Movements

Abstract

Through colonialism and globalization, Buddhism has developed an increasing profile in the West. This can be observed within popular culture as well as the presence of Buddhist practitioners from a range of ethnicities of whom a significant number are converts. This presence has led to the development of Buddhist new religious movements (NRMs). We first outline interpretations of gender and sexuality that have arisen within Buddhist traditions. Then, using Linda Woodhead's (2007) model that theorises religion's positioning with respect to gender, we discuss gender norms that have developed for two of the largest Buddhist NRMs in the UK: the Triratna Buddhist Community (TBC, formerly the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order, FWBO) and the Nichiren group Sōka-Gakkai International-UK (SGI-UK). Through examining new empirical data, we explore how their gender norms are negotiated by members. We note that within these movements, women, queer people and people of colour are creating provisional spaces that challenge attempts to hegemonize hetero-patriarchal perspectives.     

Doing Field Studies of Religious Movements: An Agenda

Although the social scientific study of religion has seen the accumulation of numerous case studies, comparative work involving substantial numbers of cases is rare. In the absence of an accepted agenda for field research, field studies contain information relevant to the study at hand, but do not add systematically to a cumulative database. By contrast, field studies in anthropology may contain idiosyncratic information relevant to the author's interests, but an existing research agenda defines information researchers are expected to include, which has produced an expanding cross-cultural database. In this paper, we propose elements of a research agenda for the study of religious movements, including information related to movements' organizational history and context, mobilization, organization, governance, and outcomes. While this preliminary agenda is subject to refinement by others, it provides a starting point for the accumulation of comparable cases, and a basis for the comparative study of religious movements.     

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.     

"宗教渗透"概念辨析

宗教不仅是一种社会意识形态,也是一种传统文化模式,更是一种社会物质力量。鉴于此,笔者提出宗教渗透经历了文化意义上的广义宗教渗透、政治意义上的一般宗教渗透、资本主义针对社会主义的狭义宗教渗透(现代宗教渗透)三种历史形态。对其概念进行深入辨析,消除人为赋予该词的模糊性、神秘性、敏感性,是将其作为一个真正的学术问题而实事求是的开展研究的重要理论前提。     

Feeling Good,but Lacking Autonomy: Closed-Mindedness on Social and Moral Issues in New Religious Movements

According to previous research, New Religious Movements (NRMs) seem to have a positive effect on the mental health of members who join NRMs with some previous affective, cognitive or other vulnerabilities. The present study investigates the other, less positive, side of the psychology of NRMs, i.e. elements that may be an obstacle to optimal development, such as rigidity and low autonomy. In comparison to non-NRM members, members of various NRMs in Belgium (N = 120) were found to be low in quest religious orientation (Altemeyer and Hunsberger, Int J Psychol Religion 2:113–133, 1992), to privilege conservation values to the detriment of openness to change values (Schwartz, Advances in experimental social psychology (vol 25, pp. 1–65). Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1992), to show submissiveness to authority in hypothetical situations (projective measure), and to highly moralize judgments of transgression relative to conventional domains (Turiel, The development of social knowledge: Morality and social convention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). Discussion points out the idea that rigidity and restriction of autonomy may be the price to be paid for the structuring role NRMs play with regard to previous vulnerabilities.

The Question of Conscientiousness and Religious Engagement in Public Schools

In this paper, I examine the question of how to nurture and develop conscientiousness thinkers and future citizens of diverse liberal-democratic societies from the perspective of virtue epistemology (VE). More specifically, I examine this question in terms of how public schools might frame engagement with religious perspectives in the classroom. I begin by distinguishing between good and bad conscientiousness through an exploration of current work in the field of virtue epistemology. I then follow Kenneth Strike in his defense of the need for a more robust engagement with religious perspectives as a liberal educational imperative. I argue that basing a framework for engagement on VE, particularly the notion of subjective justification, has significant benefits. My main interest in developing a framework for what I deem to be a necessary supplemental dimension of citizenship education focused on religious engagement is in underlining the responsibility that liberal educators have in regulating what is often a highly contentious and unfortunately caddish debate surrounding religion and the religious. I conclude that by eschewing this responsibility educators are potentially missing out on significant resources for supporting the liberal-democratic educational agenda.     

"Brainwashing" Theories in European Parliamentary and Administrative Reports on "Cults" and "Sects"

This study examines the recent rash of official reports done by governmental agencies in Western Europe to guide policy development in those societies. Particular attention is given to reports in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and Italy, and to the changes in such reports that have occurred, perhaps because of the influence of scholarly critiques offered for some of the earlier reports. The reports are divided into "Type I" and "Type II" reports, with the former being thorough-going in their anti-cult orientation, and the latter reports being more moderate in tone, with some attention paid to scholarship on new religions. However, the major thesis of the study is supported, as an examination of both types of reports reveals that they incorporate "brainwashing" and "mind control" imagery imported from the United States, even though such theories have been largely discounted within the United States. Use of such theories leads directly to some questionable policy recommendations, as demonstrated in the reports. Reasons for the spread of "brainwashing" ideas to Europe are discussed.