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Abstract
The English writer John Michell (1933–2009) occupied a significant position within British alternative religion. Michell’s manifold books revolve around his life-long aim to re-enchant the English landscape and launch a new golden age. Michell was a devoted Traditionalist and is widely considered the founding father of the vast field of British Earth Mysteries. Associated groups embrace speculative theories of the earth, claiming the existence of telluric (dragon) energies. As Michell’s impact on such groups is widely acknowledged, within the context of Earth Mysteries, this article centers on cerealogy and the Dragon Environmental Network as examples in exploring Michell’s discursive and enduring influence.
Abstract
In feminist research on religion, women and gender, the concepts of “lived religion” as well as “agency as doing religion” take a prominent place. Both include an intersubjective and mostly partial perspective. However, against the background of current developments concerning a global religious right, the paper argues for the inclusion of a critical perspective through the methodology of a double critique that includes both an analysis of power relations that marginalize women in religious groups and an analysis of women’s reproduction of gendered as well as racialized power relations. This argument is embedded in the complexity of post-secular feminist research including research on women, gender and religion, feminist critiques of secularism (and of anti-Muslim discourses), feminist, queer and trans theologies, and research on the religious right and their anti-feminist politics. The paper suggests to take feminist theologies and feminist spiritualities/religious practices as reference point for such an analysis.
Abstract
This article explores Asalatu, a form of Islamic music among Yoruba Muslims in Nigeria, against the backdrop of globalization and the impact of Western music. The article points to observed changes in the music and musical possibilities within increasing secularization. Drawing on ethnographic data, the article illuminates tangential issues such as the use of the mother tongue for Islamic music as opposed to Arabic, and the introduction of dance to Islamic music to account for the changes. The article is a major contribution to knowledge in the fields of religion in Africa, Islamic studies, and popular/material culture. Globalization has closely knit nations together such that there is an acceleration of the integration of nations into the global system. Accounting for changes in Islamic music as a result of globalization helps provide insights into the nature of society, whether increasingly religious or secular.
Abstract
During European colonial times in Africa and elsewhere, missionary education was an integral part of the colonial instruments for political domination, economic exploitation, and cultural assimilation. This paper aims to investigate the process of making colonial subjects through missionary education that was mainly provided by Catholic and Evangelical mission schools during the Italian colonial period in Eritrea. The paper argues that the Catholic and Evangelical mission schools distinctively worked to achieve their separate objectives that can be explained as employment versus salvation, teaching versus preaching, flag versus Bible, and hands versus soul, respectively. While the Catholic mission school focused on training the hand in order to supply labour, the Evangelical mission school stressed harvesting the soul to cultivate a docile labour force. Despite their differences, the works of the Catholic and Evangelical mission schools placed much emphasis on and exerted much effort to producing a class of colonial subjects that could serve as brokers of power.
Abstract
Since the 2000s there has been a group of prominent scholars in China embracing the political views of Carl Schmitt. They are aware of the dangerous side of his thought but have provided reasonable analysis in relation to the Chinese social situation. Outlining their discussions, this article will depict the phenomenon with a focus on Schmitt’s controversial political theology. That will be compared with the thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Although their political alignments were opposed to each other, the theoretical structure of their thinking reveals striking similarities. This article will thus articulate the theological reasons that allow for the differences between their ideas and actions and will produce a reflection on the contemporary situation in China. It is not due to the theoretical structure, but to the image of the sovereign embraced, that the stances of the two thinkers differed. From this we may draw implications from a public theological discussion for constructing a democratic society in the context of China.
Abstract
The Kenyan post-election violence of 2007 deepened the ethnic differences that have been growing for the past decades after independence. While the August 2022 elections revealed political maturity, the October 2017 re-elections indicated that the hostility was not a settled issue. Kenyan churches in the post-democratic space have courted with political alliances along ethnic blocs. Additionally, some of the protestant churches in Kenya such as Presbyterian, Methodist and Friends, are largely monoethnic despite their long history. To what extent can these churches follow the biblical vision of a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic church? This topic has generated theological interest yet few have assessed the role of the youth in ethnic reconciliation. This article will 1) survey the issue of ethnicity and the church; 2) offer a biblical-theological reflection on ethnicity, and 3) suggest how an inclusive-congregational youth ministry model can revitalize ethnic reconciliation in the church and by extension, society.
Abstract
Ever since the Declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation in 1991, the Bible has become foundational in the public of life, and often cited in public debates. This article employs symbolic power as an analytical tool to examine Sumaili’s state theology of the Bible which politicized and reduced the Bible in the public into a state apparatus for defining, shaping, and determining the meaning and content for governing Zambia. It proposes a Pentecostal public theology of the people’s Bible as a site of struggle against politics of dehumanization, oppression, exploitation, and systematic inequalities.