Exceptionalism or Chinamerica: Measuring Religious Change in the Globalizing World Today

Religion is changing fast in this era of globalization. Major global trends include the growth of Muslims, the shrinking percentage of unaffiliated, and the rapid rise of Christianity in global China. By 2030, China is likely to become the largest Christian country in the world while retaining large numbers of Buddhists, Muslims, and folk religious believers. To capture religious changes more accurately, social scientists of religion must sharpen their measurement tools regarding religiosity; pay more attention to the reality of nonalignment among religious identity, belief, and practice; and acknowledge the reality of nonexclusive/multiple religious beliefs, practices, and identities. Scholars must also take responsibility for developing a clear and nuanced definition of religion, abandon exceptionalist thinking, and seek to discover common patterns of religious change across societies. Conceptual and measurement tools at the disposal of social scientists of religion should enable us to perceive and understand the converging changes of religion in China, the United States, and other societies, without ignoring their historical differences and contemporary particularities.     

Measuring Religion in War: A Response

We respond to Isak Svensson's reaction to our article titled “Shrouded: Islam, War, and Holy War in Southeast Asia,” which was published in Volume 53 of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.     

The Space Between: Exploring How Religious Leaders Reconcile Religion and Politics

Religious leaders, across religious traditions and demographic backgrounds, engage in politics in America. However, making sense of this is not an easy task, especially when their religious and political positions do not align. In these instances, they must somehow reconcile their incongruous positions. This article draws upon interview conversations with black religious leaders to explore how this is achieved. It is revealed that respondents bridge the space between their religious and political positions mainly by deploying three mechanisms: religious sequestration, issue minimization, and selective denial. This study contributes to our understanding of how religious leaders make sense of privileging civic and political positions over religious orthodoxy. It outlines the implications of this for black religious leaders specifically and the role of religious leaders in civic and political spheres more broadly.     

Shoppers in the Spiritual Supermarket: A Quantitative Study of Visitors to Scandinavia’s Largest Alternative Fair

Presenting data from a quantitative survey (N=362) at ‘The Great Alternative Fair’ in Lillestrøm, Norway, this article explores the demographic and religious profiles of the ‘customers’ in the ‘spiritual marketplace’. Many adhere to ideas that are historically associated with different religious traditions. At the same time, there are strong positive statistical correlations between belief in alternative ideas, such as healing, reincarnation, channelling, and clairvoyance. This indicates that such ideas constitute a clustered and shared set of beliefs. Against this background, the article questions the widely held assumption that people who are oriented towards alternative spiritualities are independent of institutions and authorities and it argues that they are informed to a large extent by a set of collective resources. It is suggested that the marketplace, which constitutes a common framework of interaction, plays a key role in connecting various ideas and actors and in creating a common ideological profile.     

Harry Potter and Contemporary Magic: Fantasy Literature,Popular Culture,and the Representation of Religion

This article discusses the reasons for the religious reactions to the Harry Potter novels, arguing that the books contribute to, and reflect, the reconfiguration of religion in contemporary society. The article analyses the media qualities of fantasy literature and the specific representation of magic in the novels and argues that these aspects form an important part of the reasons for the religious reactions. Fantasy literature and other popular culture that represents and mediates religious expressions and phenomena actively contribute to the reconfiguration of, and communication about, religion in contemporary society and are thus of consequence for what we understand ‘religion’ to be in the study of religions.     

Cross-sex versus same-sex experience and relationship satisfaction: addressing diverse social networks among Orthodox Jews

Romantic experiences in adolescence often predict relationship stability and marital status in adulthood. Religious practice and belief also have been linked to increased marital satisfaction and overall wellbeing. However, certain religions limit cross-sex interaction in areas of education, social and romantic relationships. Although gender segregation has been studied in educational and occupational contexts, no previous research has addressed religious gender segregation and its impact on relationship development, marital satisfaction, and overall wellbeing. The present study addressed the generalisability of data on cross-sex experience derived from normative populations to a religious subculture, outlining predictors for marital satisfaction and wellbeing in an Orthodox Jewish sample. Results showed some similarities between the general population and the Orthodox Jews represented by the study sample. However, some factors illustrated divergent paths and outcomes for this sample. This study demonstrates the influence of societal norms and the importance of addressing cultural context when evaluating marital satisfaction.     

An exploration of health-seeking behaviours among Nigerian Christians in the UK: towards enhanced health services utilisation

Migration from different cultures carries with it some acclimatisation challenges. This study explored various health-seeking behaviours and potential barriers to healthcare utilisation among Nigerian Christians in the UK. This qualitative study involved 10 adult male and female participants, with both interviews and focus group discussion (FG) for data collection (Interviews: n?=?4, FG: n?=?6). Thematic analysis revealed that religious and cultural beliefs were barriers to healthcare utilisation. The implication is that further research on cultural matching between care providers and service users is needed; where religious leaders and health providers from Nigeria can influence health decisions among this migrant community. Limitations of the current study are discussed, with directions for further research identified.     

She writes in many-coloured headscarves! A conversation with Shelina Zahra Janmohamed

Shelina Janmohamed, the British Muslim writer and commentator, feels impatient with the stereotypic labels attributed by the West to Asian Muslim women. Through her memoir, Love in a Headscarf, she breaks out all the miserable images of what it is to be a British Asian Muslim woman, addressing issues that range from Asian marriages to Islamic terrorism and the question of the veil.     

Reverse-engineering ‘esotericism': how to prepare a complex cultural concept for the cognitive science of religion

The article introduces a framework for preparing complex cultural concepts for the cognitive science of religion (CSR) and applies it to the field of Western esotericism. The research process (‘reverse engineering') rests on a building block approach that, after problematic categories have been deconstructed, seeks to reconstruct new scholarly objects in generic terms that can be operationalized in interdisciplinary contexts like CSR. A four-step research process is delineated, illustrated by a short discussion of previous work on ‘Gnosticism,' ‘magic,' and ‘religion,' before applying it to ‘esotericism.' It is suggested that the implicit scholarly objects of esotericism scholarship can be reconstituted in generic terms as concerned with processes of creating and disseminating ‘special knowledge.' Five definitional clusters are identified in the literature; these provide a basis for formulating research programs on the psychological and cognitive level, drawing on metarepresentational processes, event cognition, and psychological dispositions for altering experience.