Charting the map metaphor in theories of religion

The idea that scholars of religion produce ‘maps’ that represent the ‘territories’ of religion(s) is common and influential. This paper first discusses the role of the metaphor, with special reference to the work of J.Z. Smith, and some of the problems raised by the map metaphor (above all, its implicit reliance on a naive correspondence view of truth). It then draws two important distinctions: between different levels of representation; and between the representing and guiding function of maps (truth and use). It ends by comparing issues in the philosophy of science and the theory of religion in order to highlight some promising directions for more defensible semantic and epistemological groundwork in theory of religion.     

Anthropology of religion: Disasters and the representations of tradition and modernity

Based on ethnographic research, this article explores local explanations for and interpretations of the earthquake which occurred on the island of Java, Indonesia in May 2006, costing 6000 lives and leaving about 1 million people homeless. Although everybody knows that the disaster was the result of tectonic activity, this knowledge co-exists with religious beliefs in manifold ways. The most widespread accounts of the earthquake referred to local myths connected to the landscape. The spirits are said to have sent the disaster in order to remind the Javanese - and most importantly the Sultan and other people in power - of their traditions. Several rituals were invented to prevent more misery, and certain experts thereby gained considerable importance. The various ways in which people shaped, interpreted and negotiated the meaning of the disaster are interconnected with their understanding of tradition and modernity. This article argues that - whereas Javanese culture was based on an image of the reconciliation of these spheres before - the discourse on the earthquake reveals a new tendency to polarise: on the one hand modernity is associated with secularisation, materialism, moral decay and ecological exploitation, while on the other hand tradition is idealised according to a global model of spirituality and harmony. Thus, the main argument of this paper is that the culturalisation of a natural event brings both cultural and transcultural dynamics to light.     

Orientalism, representation and religion: the reality behind the myth

Said's Orientalism has been called an ‘epoch-making’ and ‘paradigm constitutive’ book. While it undoubtedly caused a stir on its appearance and proved an important influence upon post-colonial studies and other developments in literary and cultural theory, a careful re-reading of it reveals a deeply flawed work that offers a confused analysis of human representations and realities, a highly selective and partial engagement with Western and Middle Eastern history and scholarship, and a particularly unhelpful approach to religion. The argument offered here is that Said's claims about ‘Orientalism’ are actually incoherent, veering between Foucauldian social constructionism and references to trans-cultural human realities; that the theoretical approaches to religion are inconsistent and highly selective; that the account of human agency is entirely inadequate; and that, although Said condemns entire generations of Orientalist scholars as racist, imperialist and ethnocentric, he is insufficiently reflective about his own scholarly position and the implications of its inconsistencies. Although Orientalism has been hailed as a book that ‘breathed insurgency’, it actually offers a vision of human beings as remarkably powerless in the face of arbitrary and abstract discourses that define their lives as oppressors or oppressed. Said sought to demonstrate that the reality behind the myth of scholarly impartiality was a racist and ethnocentric exercise of control and authority over the Orient, but the reality behind the myth of Orientalism is a theoretically flawed work offering a reductive account of religion and an impoverished view of human beings.     

Marketing the goods of salvation: Bourdieu on religion

Pierre Bourdieu's work has had a resounding impact on disciplines ranging from linguistics to anthropology to art history to literary criticism. Scholars of religion have, however, been relatively slow to catch on to the theoretical gold mine that academics in other fields have discovered in Bourdieu's work, doubtless in part because Bourdieu himself pays only limited attention to religion. The present article is intended to serve as an introduction to Bourdieu's theory of practice as it applies to his sociological theory of religion, which is especially serviceable for the analysis of the relationship among religion, class and power. Haitian religion and culture are used as a case study in the spirit of Bourdieu's own insistence that theory always be confronted with the substantive and never be exercised in a vacuum.     

Religious studies in Scotland: A persistent tension with divinity

This article treats the history of the study of religions in Scotland as a chapter in the history of the academic study of religions in the UK and Continental Europe. After sketching traditions of ‘Scottish comparative religion’ from the late nineteenth century to the interwar period, the authors map out an institutional history of ‘Religious Studies’ as a distinctive disciplinary formation in Scotland since 1970. The emergence, consolidation and in some cases decline of this relatively new academic field are charted at the five main contemporary university sites in Scotland where religion, as a distinct subject, is taught: Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and the Open University. In the cases of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh, the authors argue that ‘Religious Studies’ has had to fashion its niche in the context of the ecclesiastical authority enjoyed by Scottish Divinity faculties, resulting in an ongoing ‘tension’ between Religious Studies and Theology. The development of the subject at Stirling and the Open University underscores the historical alignment of Religious Studies with non-Presbyterian educational values in Scotland, whereas the persistence of Religious Studies in Schools of Divinity at the other Scottish universities may veil the traditionally ‘religionist’ stance of most scholars of religion working in these institutions.     

中学生人格特点和发展现状的研究

本研究以《中学生个性测验》为研究工具,以广东省五所不同类型中学的2816名初高中学生为被试,考察了中学生人格发展的状况和特点。研究发现：中学生人格发展状况不甚乐观,检出率较高;中学生人格发展状况在男女生之间、初高中之间和各类型学校之间都存在明显的差异;建议要有针对性的加强中学生的健康人格教育。     

Numbers in Nirvana: How the 1872-1921 Indian censuses helped operationalise ‘Hinduism’

A debate has recently re-emerged about whether Hinduism in India is a colonial invention or antedates European colonialism. Drawing on the Indian censuses of 1872-1921, I argue that Hinduism is both. It has complex linkages both to European colonialism and to indigenous Indian culture. Traditions like Hinduism are better conceived of as a negotiated territory between factions instead of solely being the creation of one dominant group.