K. M. University, India Christianity in the Land of Santhals: a study of Resistance and Acceptance in Historical Perspective(03U)

Jozefciakova, Silvia

Institute for State-Church Relations, Slovak Republic

Religious Pluralism and Freedom of Religion in Slovakia(*joint presentation with Moravcikova, Michaela; co-author with Greskova, Lucia)(05E)

Up to 1989, when the political system moved from the totalitarianism of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic towards democracy, religion was, in the spirit of Marxist philosophy, regarded as an enemy of the developing socialist society. The census did not ascertain religious allegiance, and research into religion could be done only by institutes of scientific communism. Slovakia is gradually maturing in the ability to investigate questions of religious behavior and consciousness, along with a return to traditional roots, which were hindered or torn up in the period before 1989. Now, many issues related to religiosity are investigated by research, including membership in religious communities, the search for a spiritual environment, and definitive rejection of a specific church. This paper discusses religious pluralism in Slovakia, and attempts to identify the real problems of religiosity in the Slovak society, and how the law faces them.

Organized panel, English
Junginger, Horst

Eberhard Karls Universität, Germany

Reconsidering German Traditions in the Study of Religion(02K)

*respondent

Organized panel, English
Junginger, Horst

Eberhard Karls Universität, Germany

Religion and Genocide: the Significance of Christian and Anti-Christian Motives for the Holocaust(11C)

Until today we have no adequate answer to the question how several million Jews could be killed by so-called ordinary Germans. Recent research has focused on the inner motives of the culprits and on the fact that they usually originated from the midst of the German society. Most of them received a Christian education. That they were shaped by a centuries-old set of religious prejudices not only contributed to the consolidation of a general anti-Jewish dislike, but generated modern forms of antisemitic resentment too. On the other hand, religious alienation and a declining influence of traditional Christianity became apparent trends in Nazi Germany, even within the churches themselves. Describing the religious development of a selected group of SD-personnel involved in anti-Jewish atrocities, among them Christians as well as Pagans, I will discuss how their similar behavior nevertheless corresponded to conflicting belief systems. To think of Christianity as the only way for a possible solution to the Jew problem or to denounce the Christian faith as Jewish by nature, made, in the end, no difference.

Organized panel
Juschka, Darlene

University of Regina, Canada

THE UNDERLYING TERROR: Religious Studies Perspectives on the War on Terrorism(01C)

*respondent

Symposium, English
Juschka, Darlene

University of Regina, Canada

The Sacrifice of Men: Gendered Discourses of Masculinity and Warfare(17I)

In this paper I will discuss the mythology of war and its ritual and symbolic aspects. To do this I shall pay attention to representations of warfare and not necessarily the actual realities of war. Indeed my argument is that the myths, rituals and symbols are used to mystify the actual messiness, negative (you lose your life or well-being), zero (you survive and return to your life as it was), limited (you gain status in the community or some small economic gain), and abstract (your country is enriched by occupying conquered lands and so your standard of living may be improved because your nation is wealthier) returns of warfare for those who embarked upon it. Some of the questions I seek to address are: Why men? Why war? And why a willingness to enter a relationship with death?

Organized panel, English
Kaadan, Abdul Nasser

Aleppo University, Syria

Human Cloning from Religious and Ethical Perspectives(10J)

Although no real announcements of human cloning have yet been made, the need to preempt that possibility, understand its potential implications and draw up appropriate legal and moral responses to it, has moved several countries to ban or suspend experiments involving humans in order to allow further investigation of the matter. This arises from the limited knowledge that we have about who would be harmed by cloning or whose rights would be violated. In religiously and ethically pluralistic societies, where there is a search for a universal ethical language that can speak to the adherents of different religious and cultural traditions, those religious traditions with experience in dealing with matters central to human interpersonal relations in diverse cultural settings can become an important source for our ethical deliberations dealing with the ideals and realities of human existence. The aim of this paper is to summarize the religious and ethical dimensions of the issues associated with cloning.

Organized panel, English
Kadowaki, Ken

Otani University, Japan

The Significance of the Awareness of one's own "Evil" (aku) in Contemporary :A Focus on Shinran's Thought(05I)

*respondent

Organized panel
Kadowaki, Yukiko

Wayo Women's University, Japan

The Concept of the "Virgin" in the Mysticism of Jane Lead(04Q)

The idea of Divine Wisdom (Sophia) is one of the central concepts in the mysticism of Jane Lead, a 17th century mystic who was greatly influenced by Jacob Boehme. Frequently, the concept of Divine Wisdom is often accompanied by the epithet "Eternal Virgin" when it appears in Lead's works. In this paper, I will examine the usage and significance of the term "Virgin," which Lead uses not only as an attribute of Divine Wisdom but also in a much broader context. For instance, she says that the Divine Wisdom, which is the Eternal Virgin, gives birth to Christ, and also that the human soul is reborn from the womb of the Virgin. In another context, Lead argues that the soul herself must become the Virgin before it can be reborn. The term "Virgin" is closely related to other terms, such as "unity" and "simplicity." By focusing on the term "Virgin," I want to elucidate the issue of gender in Jane Lead's mysticism.

Organized panel, English
Kakegawa, Tomiyasu

Ibaraki Christian University, Japan

Reorientation of the Connection Between "Leben" and "Geschichte" in View of the Problem of the Humanism(17T)

One of the essential aspects of so called Historicism, which had peaked in the first half of the 19th Century, consists of the positively connected relationship between the human existence (Leben) and the historical sense (Geschichte). Looking back, already since the second decade of the 20th century, the positive relationship of the existence and the historical sense has been critically analyzed in the fields of existential philosophy, theology, and the study of history of the human existence in their historical sense has weakened and gone into retreat. In the spiritual situation of the beginning years of the 21th Century, however, this historicism, seen according to the relationship with the traditional Humanism, seems to have entered a state of crisis and has been negated. This has brought us to the task of how the traditionally positive connection between the human existence and the historical sense can become reoriented.

Organized panel, English
Kamada, Shigeru

University of Tokyo, Japan

Imama and Mulla Sadra's Mystical Thought(02O)

The mystical thought of Shi'a philosopher Mulla Sadra (d.1640) is under the massive influence of the mystical thinker Ibn 'Arabi (d.1240). In this study I would like to compare Mulla Sadra's text where he deals with prophecy (nubuwa)/imamate (imama) to that of Ibn 'Arabi, and examine how Mulla Sadra received Ibn 'Arabi's thought and expressed his own ideas based on this preceding great thinker. As is generally held in Islam, Mulla Sadra maintains that the Prophet Muhammad is the last of those who are called prophets or messengers of God, but he further insists that an essential part of prophecy continues to exist even after Muhammad and sees this idea in Ibn 'Arabi's thought. Here we can observe a confluence of Shi'a thought and mysticism.

Organized panel, English
Kamii, Monsho

Bukkyo University, Japan

Spacial Recognition at the Moment of Death(09K)

The space recognition in the back and forth for the last in Japan is considered. That is wants to investigate what should be of the scene in the sickness and the last, and present the relation among the requirement for the space composition when postmortem, the spectacle, and the last concept. It has the side where the soul of the last in a Japanese Buddhism how is actually expressed and understood from the Buddhism theory story drawing etc. are investigated. These are problems connected with the effectiveness of the art treatment to the handling of nature and the dementia character elderly person and the natural conversation treatment in a present palliative care medical treatment, and a new function can be meant in the effect of in the relation to the spectacle method to which all aspects are enforced in 2005 and the religion.

Organized panel, Japanese
Kamiishi, Manabu

University of the Sacred Heart, Japan

La Plénitude de L'Être et le Salut par les Drames de Marcel(12Q)

Gabriel Marcel a écrit beaucoup de livres métaphysiques toute sa vie et a aussi créé environ trente drames. Mais, Marcel a accordé à ses drames plus d'importance qu'à ses oeuvres philosophiques. Ce discours a pour objet de montrer que la raison de cet accord est que ses drames forment l'intersubjectivité et apportent le salut. En ce qui concerne ses drames, la liberté et l'être jouent un rôle important. Nous pouvons les connaître à fond dans l'expérience de création de drames et dans l'expérience au théâtre. En appuyant sur la liberté, ses drames font le nous concret des personnes qui les concernent, auteur, acteurs et spectateurs. Enfin, nous voudrions considérer l'expérience de ce nous comme le modèle de la vie et montrer que le salut est apporté par la plénitude de l'être dans un milieu harmonique qui se produit autour les drames de Marcel malgré beaucoup de désaccords entre leurs personnages.

Organized panel, Japanese
Kamio, Kazutoshi

University of Marketing and Distribution Sciences, Japan

Philosophy and Religion in the Age of Science and Technology - Reconsidering H. Jonas' The Imperative of Responsibility -(08Q)

*respondent

Symposium
Kanai, Shinji

University of Tokyo, Japan

The Study of Religion in Japan (1)(01A)

Japan, which accepted Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism in various ways in the second half of the first millennium, has a long tradition of comparative studies of religions. One of the earliest examples is Sangou-Shiiki ("The Teaching of Three Religions") written by Kukai, the founder of the Shingon sect of the Buddhism, in 798. It was in the Meiji era (1968-2012), however, that the study of religions in the modern sense was introduced into Japan. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first academic institute for studies of religions in Japan and the 75th of the foundation of the Japanese Association for Religious Studies. With these two panels we are going to review the religious studies of the past century in Japan methodologically as well as regionally so that we may open up new horizons of study in the future.

Organized panel, * Session Abstract, English
Kanazu, Hidemi

Silla University College of Education, Japan

Abortion and Infanticide, and the World of Faith(10D)

Traditionally, the problem of abortion and infanticide has seldom been discussed. However, for example, in the 19th century, Bunji Akazawa, founder of Konkokyo, advocated the use of abortion and infanticide in the form of a command from the Gods. Moreover, it was also at this time when a new interpretation by Kokugaku scholars, Buddhists, and Confucians appeared, and the concept of "evil" was explained. In my paper, I will discuss discourse in Japan during the first half of the 19th century on abortion and infanticide.

Symposium, English
Kanda, Hideo

Tenri University, Japan

The Birth of New Religions in 19th Century Japan and the Traditional Religious Cosmology(07D)

During the end of the Edo period and the beginning of the Meiji Era, many new religions, such as Nyorai-kyo, Kurozumi-kyo, Tenri-kyo, Konko-kyo, and Maruyama-kyo were born. Most scholars after WW II have seen these religions as sects that were established prior to the modern Emperor system that provided new spiritual anchors to many people. In the theories of these scholars, such terms as "secular-centered principle" and "anthropocentrism" have been used as important ideas to discuss the characteristics of these movements. However, we have to say that such understandings unconsciously presuppose the postwar international order and are uncritically based on the values of modern rationalism. In this paper, I look at how those new religious sects adopted and modified old religious traditions to cope with the historical current of the day in which the modern family system and the modern nation state were being rapidly formed. In doing so, I present a new perspective by which to evaluate these movements.

Symposium, Japanese
Kanda, Hideo

Tenri University, Japan

Religion, Ethnicity, and Culture in Korea and Japan (1) New Religious movements and Transformation of the Traditional Religions(07D)

The Symposium "Religion, Ethnicity, and Culture in Korea and Japan" is held by the members of "the Korea-Japan Religious Research Forum," which was founded in 1993. The symposium is composed of five sessions, including this session, which focuses on "new religious movements and the transformation of traditional religions." Four presentations, together with a discussion, are to be given as follows: "The Birth of New Religions in the 19th Century Japan and the Traditional Religious Cosmology" (Kanda, Hideo), "Establishment of the Popular Religion and Its Thought in Japan: Tenrikyo seen from Donghak and God Worshippers' Society" (Lim, Taihong), "Characteristics of the New Religious Movements in Korea" (Ro, Kil-Myung), "Thoughts of Three Major Religions in the Modern Korea: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism" (Yang Eun-Yong).

Symposium, * Session Abstract, Japanese
Kaneko, Akira

Tenri University, Japan

On Inter rReligious Cooperation and Social Engagement Activities by Federation of New Religious Organizations of Japan(11V)

The Federation of New Religious Organizations of Japan(Shinshuren), which is founded chiefly by so-called new religious organizations in Japan in 1951, has been acting in various ways, according to the 3 slogans: 1.Protect the freedom of faith, 2.Develop inter religious cooperation, and 3.Contribute towards world peace. Shinshuren, whose members are now 69 religious organizations, are making social engagement activities beyond the bounds of organizations. As Shinshuren is highly interested in the environmental protection and international humanitarian relief, it is proceeding to broad enlightening and practical activities as NGO throughout the world. My purpose in this presentation is to elucidate the possibility of development and problems of inter religious cooperation and social engagement activities by Shinshuren in the future of Japan, tracing its 50 years history.

Organized panel, English
Kangdim, Jatham Maza

University of Jos, Nigeria

Leadership in a Troubled City: The Jos Experience after September 7th 2001(01V)

Violent religious clashes broke out in the city of Jos in northern Nigeria on September 7th 2001. Local human rights workers, and the Red Cross put the number of dead at over two thousand, and goods estimated at about thirty million Naira were destroyed. Three years have passed, and the situation does not seem to have a ready solution. This paper attempts to study the role of political leaders in the crisis. In order to do so, it first defines the geographical, ecology, historical and ethnological composition of the Jos area. This will then lead to a discussion of the nature of the conflict by examining the scope, direction and pattern of destruction, and notably the type of accusations leveled against the State Government and other agencies. The paper also reviews the events that followed after the crisis of Sept. 2001, particularly the role of the State Government, identifying the difficulties and challenges that the Jos crisis has posed to the State machinery. In conclusion, it attempts to offer some suggestions for the way forward.

Organized panel, English
Kanno, Hiroshi

Soka Univercity, Japan

Inclusivism and Religious Tolerance in the Lotus Sutra(01M)

How the basic standpoint of the Lotus Sutra should be understood in relation to problems of religious tolerance will be considered, using a theory of relations between religions as exclusivism, inclusivism, and pluralism. This will enable followers of the Lotus Sutra to deepen their understanding of problems of the religious tolerance and also make it possible for other people to understand the Sutra. First, Shakyamuni Buddha's attitude toward metaphysical theories of his time is considered and features of his view of truth clarified. The view of truth in the Lotus Sutra basically followed from his. Second, I analyze the significance of the "saddharma" of the Lotus Sutra and then consider how the Lotus Sutra understands Buddhism prior to itself by analyzing some characteristic ideas of the Sutra, assuming "integration" to be a key term. Third, I claim that the Lotus Sutra is basically inclusive, even though it can also be said to be exclusive or pluralistic. In conclusion, some proposals about inclusivism and dialogue between religions are presented.

Organized panel
Kanno, Hiroshi

Soka University, Japan

Huisi's Perspective on the Lotus Sutra as seen through the Meaning of the Course of Ease and Bliss in the Lotus Sutra(03M)

It is clear from his Tract on Establishing the Vow that Huisi (515-577) had profound faith in two scriptures, the Wisdom Sutra and Lotus Sutra. It is possible to ascertain Huisi's view of the Lotus Sutra from his Meaning of the Course of Ease and Bliss in the Lotus Sutra, which is centered topically on the distinctive conceptual theme of the course of ease and bliss. Here Huisi (a) described the course of ease and bliss of the Lotus Sutra as the method for spreading the Lotus Sutra in the evil world after the death of Shakyamuni and (b) clarified his peculiar interpretation of "forbearance." His new understanding of Mahayana Buddhism led to his own persecution, and he established an interpretation of forbearance based on the resistance to this. This aspect of his thought was his practical response to his direct experience of the latter days of the law.

Organized panel, English
Kao, Grace Yia-Hei

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA

The Logic of Anti-proselytization Revisited(04H)

Recent scholarship has cast 'proselytization' in a highly pejorative light, while advancing 'example', 'invitation', and 'dialogue' as more palatable replacements. Central to this shift in attitude is a belief that respect for the religiously 'Other' precludes what might be called "evangelistic malpractice." Nevertheless, arguments against proselytization have been animated by at least two different and arguably mutually opposing values: (1) individual 'autonomy', 'conscience', and 'dignity' in the case of discrete persons targeted for religious conversion; and (2) 'collective self-determination' and 'group rights' in the case of entire peoples hoping to safeguard their respective religious identities from the proselytizing efforts of others. This paper provides an analysis of the logic of anti-proselytization, reveals the limitations of bare "rights-talk" to adjudicate between their internally competing claims, and advocates an appeal to a "thicker" moral vocabulary of obligation, civility, and global citizenship to make progress in such discussions.

Symposium, English
Kapranov, Sergiy Vitaliyovich

Institute of Oriental Studies, Ukraine

Religions of the Oriental Tradition in Ukraine in Christian Environment(04T)

In Ukraine, there are many religious groups of Oriental tradition, mostly either of Hindu or Buddhist origin. Beside these, there are small number of Taoists and other Chinese-related groups, such as Falun Gong. The most numerous Hindu-related groups are Vaishnavas (ISCCON, Shri Chaitanya Sarasvati Math etc.), but there are also Sai Baba followers, Sahaja-yogis, and several small Tantra-oriented groups. The Ukrainian Buddhists belong to different Tibetan schools (Karma Kagyu, Ningmapa, Dzogchen etc.), the Japanese Nichiren school (the Nipponzan Myohoji Order), Zen, and Theravada. The number of people in these groups is not very large, but in fact the Oriental teachings are verypopular, especially among the intelligentsia. Though the Ukrainian Hindus claim that Ukraine is the true Motherland of Vedic tradition, and the first Buddhists came to this country as early as in XVIII century, the Oriental religions are still considered new.

Organized panel, Japanese
Karpenko, Anna M.

Kaliningrad State University, Russia

Religion in Public Life in Post-Soviet Russia: Discourse on the National Identity(04E)

The discussion about the place of traditional and non-traditional religions in Russia, where church and state are legally separated, could be seen as a part of the search for a new national identity after the collapse of the Communist ideology. The so-called civilizational approach, where Russia is seen as a local civilization in Euro-Asia, is one of the most popular. The possible interpretations of this approach include: a) Russia as a multi-ethnic, poly-cultural nation; b) Russia as a country with a dominant Russian culture. In mono-ethnic discourse, the place of non-traditional religions is considered inferior to the main religions in shaping the national identity and moral values. This paper will examine some parallels involving the philosophical issues of relativism and absolutism between the discussion of national identity in Russia and the contemporary debates between secular liberals and the new traditionalists in the United States.

Organized panel, English
Kasai, Kenta

Center for Information on Religion, USA

Medicines, Social Welfares and Spirituality in Highly Matured Society: in Reference to Aging and Quality of Life(16J)

The developed medicine enables us to enjoy longer life than ever, especially in the "Western" countries. It also requires us to confront other issues about life, such as to nurture the next generation, to advance in age, and to accept death. To be serious about these issues, we inevitably consider things beyond daily routine, often in a "religious" way, whether we have a particular faith or not. Recent usage of the term "spirituality" is to indicate such religiosity, though it often lacks an examination of contemporary human conditions. Living in a highly matured society we need to be led by an understanding of matters such as mental and physical change with aging, cultural difference regarding the quality of life, and goals of social welfare based on implicit religion. Professionals of these areas will review current issues and confer ways to create a better society, grounded on a contextual understanding of spirituality.

Organized panel, * Session Abstract, English