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

Satou, Migaku

Rikkyo University, Japan

Conflict and Peace in the New Testament and Early Christianity(11N)

*chairperson

Organized panel
Sawada, Janine T. A.

University of Iowa, USA

Physical Disciplines in Late Tokugawa Religion(12P)

During the late Edo era people from a wide range of social classes created new religious systems that promised greater control over one's personal and social life. Especially in the middle sectors of society, ideas about how to regulate the functions of the body as well as the mind (or heart) multiplied. While the learning of the elite classes tended to emphasize the importance of disciplining the inner person in the light of the values recorded in the Chinese classics, representatives of less-educated groups generated a broader variety of proposals, many of which gave priority to bodily disciplines. The concern with physical control centered on concrete processes, such as eating, breathing, and sexual reproduction. My presentation will identify this trend in the teachings of such early nineteenth-century figures as Mizuno Nanboku, Inoue Masakane, and Kotani Sanshi.

Organized panel, English
Sawai, Yoshitsugu

Tenri University, Japan

Constructing a New Bio-Ethics from the Perspective of Toshihiko Izutsu's "Oriental Philosophy"(02J)

With the rapid development of medical technology, we face the challenge of having to construct a new bio-ethics. To guide us in this task, I would like to propose an "Oriental perspective." In this context, the word "Oriental" is not meant to highlight the traditionally assumed contrast between "East" and "West," but rather to denote a perspective which includes not just East Asian thought but also the thought of Semitic religions, namely Islam and Judaism. My paper discusses the issue of the "Oriental Philosophy" raised by Toshihiko Izutsu, a leading Japanese scholar of Islamic Studies and Oriental thought. By taking into consideration the thought not only of East Asia, but also that of Islam and Judaism, Izutsu attempted a "synchronistic structuralization" of Oriental thought.

Organized panel, English
Sawai, Yoshitsugu

Tenri University, Japan

The Scriptural Hermeneutics in Hindu Religious Tradition(04L)

The main theme of this panel is to clarify the characteristics of Hindu thought with special focus on scriptural hermeneutics in the Hindu religious tradition. A notable aspect of Hindu thought is that it is mostly expressed through commentaries on sacred texts. For example, Vedic thought developed as the hermeneutics of the Veda, especially of the Upanisads. This panel seeks to elucidate the fundamental nature of Hindu thought from the perspective of the religious commentaries.

Organized panel, * Session Abstract, English
Sawai, Yoshitsugu

Tenri University, Japan

Texts and Their Creative Interpretations: Reflections on the Vedanta Philosophy as the Hermeneutics of Upanisads(04L)

In their search to find a system in the diverse and heterogeneous teachings of the Upanisads, Vedantic philosophers developed a system of "creative readings," which they expounded in their commentaries on these texts. The most prominent of these commentators were Sankara, who took a wholly non-dual position, and his critic Ramanuja, who writes from a theistic and limited non-dual standpoint. This paper, which will focus on Ramanuja's philosophy, especially as contrasted with Sankara's, is a hermeneutical attempt to convey the essentials of Vedanta philosophy. I argue that Ramanuja's interpretion of the Upanisads, which was based on his own intuitive experience of reality, developed a unique Vedantic theory of the structure of reality and must be recognized as creative philosophical thinking.

Organized panel, English
Sawai, Yoshitsugu

Tenri University, Japan

Discourse on Violence and War in the Islamic and Christian World(12B)

*respondent

Organized panel, English
Schalk, Peter

Uppsala University, Sweden

(03S)

Organized panel

Schalk, Peter

Uppsala University, Sweden

On the Road to Unity(10R)

In Sweden three Hindu orgnisations try ways and means to co-ordinate their activities motivated by religious, but also by financial reasons. The Tamil Saivas form a separate group from the Krishna devotees and the devotees of Vaishno devi. The Swedish state finances religious activities of organisations that appear united. The VHP has come forward to represent all three organisations, but some feel that this is problematic. My presentation will describe the discussions in the process of formation of an umbrella organisation.

Organized panel, English
Schattschneider, Ellen

Brandeis University, USA

Doll Dedication and the Japanese War Dead: Memorialization, Repression and Shamanic Practice(11R)

Across contemporary Japan, at sites as diverse as Yasukuni Shrine and small regional temples and shrines in northern rural Japan, mothers and sisters have dedicated hanayome ningyô (bride dolls) to the souls of their deceased sons and brothers to serve as spiritual companions in the other world. Such "spirit spouses" are often generally dedicated with the help of local female spirit mediums who through spirit possession "speak" with the deceased and determine that they are lonely and in need of a "wife." This paper traces the dedication of one such doll by a local spirit medium herself, who explained that although she had helped many people to dedicate dolls to their deceased relatives she had "forgotten" to "marry" her own relative, killed while he served in the Imperial Navy. Although most of the deceased memorialized in this fashion in Tohoku are not war dead, this paper will argue that the image of tragic death in wartime, in a place far from home, and under conditions where the family received no human remains, continues to inform the contemporary practice of "hanayome ningyô." I explore in turn the migration of this practice to Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in spite of initial resistance by the shrine establishment; and attempt to explicate the repositioning of this previously shamanic-based practice within a neo-nationalist stage. In a manner somewhat akin to early shamanic figures, who often underwent great suffering and ritual sacrifice in the interest of the larger community, war bereaved women in these new contexts appear to have been cast in the role of exemplary mourners, embodying the entire Japanese body politic in all of its contradictory relations to the military war dead.

Organized panel
Schleicher, Marianne

The University of Aarhus, Denmark

Canonical, Sacred and Holy Aspects of Scripture: on the Function of the Psalms in Jewish Tradition(04R)

The paper argues that 'scripture' comprises three aspects: the canonical, the sacred, and the holy. Interpretation brings the canonical aspect to fruition as an in- and excluding means to delineate society's boundaries. The sacred aspect comes to the fore through belief and conviction. It enables individuals to interact with the divine sender and, if they engage in interpretation, to receive a proposal of a new, religious worldview. The holy aspect inhibits interpretation, but conveys a divine power in ritual that adds to the efficacy of ritual to strengthen the community feeling, the meaning system, and the absolute values of society. Thus, the paper aims at explaining the implicit or explicit use of the biblical psalms in Jewish tradition and at outlining the dynamic processes of legitimisation and identification, presenting religious texts as efficient means of ethnic survival and of power to revolutionise religion from above and from within.

Organized panel, English
Schmidt, Gilya Gerda

University of Tennessee, USA

Medinat Schwaben or the Localization of Judaism in Southern Germany(03G)

With minor exceptions, the basics of the Jewish religion are a constant no matter the geographic location. Jewish culture, on the other hand, adapts itself to the culture and customs of the host nation, be it India, Germany, or the U.S. However, a group could and can only become indigenous over a period of time. This paper will explore the 19th-century 'localization' of Judaism in rural areas of southern Germany, including customs such as lifecycle events, language, names, culinary particularities, worship service, and holiday customs. Until 1806, rural Jews in German lands lived in small principalities under the protection of a local lord. Their period of residence was often short so that their indigenization could not occur. After 1806, with the creation of kingdoms in German lands and until the creation of the Second German Empire in 1871, they achieved greater stability and longevity and th

Organized panel, English
Schoener, Gustav-Adolf

Hannover University, Germany

Astrological Pamphlets and Martin Luther as the Reformer(17T)

As a result of the invention of printing, the pamphlets of early modern times changed the function of literature, including religious literature. Unlike the hand-written literature of the Middle Ages, the large print-runs and graphic content of the pamphlets made it possible to address and motivate a far wider audience. Luther's consistent monotheism (Christocentrism) is challenged by the astrological prognosis of the coming of a "little prophet" for the year 1484. This notion, which had been in circulation since the 15th century, first of all in Italy, then in Germany, forced Luther to recognize this "heathen" art (foreword to Johann Lichtenberger's Prognisticon of 1527). This prognosis led to disagreement between Catholic and Reformatory astrologers and theologians interested in astrology, over Luther's meaning for contemporary Christianity (reformer or heretic). Both sides use different variations of Luther's birth horoscope to depict him as a "little prophet" from one or other perspective. Thus Christianity as a whole finds itself in the grip of perspectives that emerged from Arabic-astrological practices. In this paper I examine how these developments generate questions about Christian identity.

Organized panel, English
Schwaetzer, Harald

Institut fuer Cusanus-Forschung, Germany

Toleranz als Wahrheit im Spiegel. Zu "De filiatione Dei" und "De pace fidei"(04N)

Die Schrift „De pace fidei" gilt in der Forschung zu Recht als Kronzeuge des Toleranzgedankens bei Nikolaus von Kues. Vor allem von Helmut Meinhardt (in Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft 16) wurde die Bedeutung des konjekutralen Denkens für dieses Konzept hervorgehoben. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt, daß man zum Verständnis des Konzeptes von „De pace fidei" nicht nur auf „De coniecturis" zurückblicken muß, sondern daß es einen weiteren, bislang in der Forschung übersehenen Subtext gibt: das Spiegelgleichnis aus „De filiatione Dei". Im Spiegelgleichnis operiert Cusanus mit einem zentralen Mittelspiegel (Jesus Christus) und im Kreise um ihn herum stehenden anderen Spiegeln (Geschöpfe), unter denen es „lebendige Spiegel" (Menschen) gibt, die sich selbst begradigen und reinigen können. Diese Szenario übernimmt auch die Schrift „De pace fidei". Um den einen Jesus Christus sind die Vertreter der Religionen im Kreise angeordnet. Mit Hilfe dieses Gleichnis erst erklärt sich, wie im cusanischen Entwurf der Wahrheitsanspruch des Christentums und seine Vorrangstellung zusammenbestehen können mit der der Gefahr des Relativismus ausgesetzten Anerkennung der Gleichheit aller Religionen, indem jeder Spiegel sich zur Gleichheit mit dem zentralen, perfekten Spiegel entwickeln kann. Daß es aber einen perfekten Spiegel gibt, erfährt der christliche Glauben; denn da der Mittelspiegel perfekt ist, kann er nicht gesehen werden, so daß die nichtchristlichen Religionen zu Recht zunächst Christus nicht kennen; ihr Anspruch ist also durchaus gerechtfertigt, aber methodologisch nur unter Einführung des Zentralspiegels begründbar. Auf diese Weise erweist sich das Spiegelgleichnis, mit dem Cusanus seine Anthropologie („viva imago Dei") erstmals formuliert auch als konstitutiv für seine Toleranzidee.

Organized panel
Se, Yin

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

Modern Urban Civilization and Changing Mongolian Shamanism(01F)

Shamanistic bone-setting in Mongolia was developed as a village folk remedy but began to enter into cities in the late 20th century. By analyzing recent data, this paper will examine the significance of such folk knowledge in the social context of the urban space at the center of state power. Our discussion includes: 1) the shamanistic origin of Mongolian bone-setting, 2) the strategy for social adaptation in the urban environment, 3) the religious significance of an esoteric technique accepted in urban society, and 4) comparison between cases in the cities of Nei Mongol and Ulan Bator. Looking at how these shamans handle and survive within an antagonistic modern rationalist ethos and politics and at how Shamanism is viewed in the recent nationalistic, cultural revival movement in Mongolia, we will also discuss the changing process of Mongolian shamanism in terms of modern binary oppositions such as urban/rural, center/periphery, and religion/superstition.

Organized panel, Japanese
Segal, Robert Alan

University of Lancaster, UK

A Response to THE UNDERLYING TERROR:(01C)

René Girard and Walter Burkert are the most influential contemporary theorists on religion and violence. While Girard scorns J. G. Frazer's theory of religion for supposedly missing the violence endemic in religion, in actuality, he is no less beholden to Frazer than is Burkert, who graciously acknowledges his indebtedness. Frazer's very nineteenth-century theory (The Golden Bough, 1st ed. 1890) makes the physical world the subject of religion. The function of religion is to control the world in order to secure food. The securing of food requires the killing of the king--at least according to one of Frazer's two theories. For Frazer, religion is not quite about the Golden Rule. As twentieth-century theorists, Girard and Burkert switch the subject of religion from the physical world to the human world. Now the function of religion is to control human aggression. Yet both Girard and Burkert are still beholden to Frazer for their focus on ritualized, sanctioned killing as the heart of religion. Where Girard, like Frazer, derives religion from actual acts of killing humans, Burkert derives religion from actual acts of hunting animals but eventually from merely symbolic dramatizations of those acts. Still, the violence dramatized is, as for Girard and Frazer, that of the sacrifice of one living thing for the sake of others.

Symposium, English
Segal, Robert Alan

University of Lancaster, UK

Does Contemporary Philosophy of Science Make the World Safe for Religious Studies?(11K)

Ever since the challenge to the "received" view of the philosophy of science--a view epitomized by Karl Popper and Carl Hempel--the status of science has been questioned. If radical critics of the received view--critics include Kuhn, Laudan, Feyerabend, the Edinburgh Strong Programme, and Latour--are right, can science, which means natural science, still be considered objectiv? Can it still be deemed the model of objectivity to be emulated by the social sciences and even by the humanities? Because religious studies is commonly assumed to fall short of the standards of objectivity of the natural sciences and even of the social sciences, what bearing does criticism of conventional philosophy of science have on it? Specifically, can the religionist appraoch to religion, the approach that purports to be the sole appropriate one for religious studies, be defended? Does radical philosophy of science, by challenging the objectivity of scientific claims, make the world safe for religious ones? This paper will focus on the philosophy of Thomas Kuhn and will seek to determine what use defenders of religious studies can make of it.

Organized panel
Segota, Durdica

Universidad Autónoma de México, Mexico

Violence as a Daily Ethic and Aesthetic Expression amongst Ancient Mexican Cultures(03I)

The discourse regarding political and social violence of ancient Mexican cultures from the highlands materializes in painting, sculpture and in urban spatial concepts. The themes explicitly expressed as cosmogonic violence (the aspect most researched), also reveal a society where concepts of prohibition, punishment and sacrifice transformed violence into an ethic and aesthetic feature of daily life. As art history makes these material manifestations its object of study, it analyses them by its own methodology and hypothesis. The visual language of space line and colour tenses in order to produce violent formal and iconographic encounters, always in search of discursive equilibrium and harmony.

Organized panel, English
Seiwert, Hubert

The Elimination of Heresy and the Dynamics of Religions(15P)

Organized panel

Seki, Atsuhiro

Aichi Gakuin University, Japan

The Development and Present Condition of Ontake Belief in the Chubu Region - Focusing on the Owari Area(08C)

Ko groups were formed in the Kanto region and subsequently spread to other regions. In the Owari area, a large number of ko groups from several schools were established and later developed in complex patterns. One of these schools belonged to Gikaku, an ascetic in the Owari area who succeeded Fukan's disciple, Kozan. There was also a school that regarded Kakumei, who was the other patriarch of Ontake belief in the Chubu region, as its founder. Ko groups of Kakumei's school were formed around his birthplace by his relatives. Later, from the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji period, Gigu and Kumyo revived the ko groups of Kakumei's school in the Owari area. Research on these two ko groups reveals two patterns: "the local adhesion type" in farming areas, and "the dispersed type" in urban areas. Today, these two types have become inter-mixed.

Organized panel, Japanese
Seki, Kazutoshi

Kyusyu University, Japan

The Study of Religion in Japan (2)(02A)

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
Sekido, Gyokai

Rissho University, Japan

About the Reason why the Religion of Nichiren Filtered into the Society(02M)

Buddhism was considered the culture of nobles in the Heian Period. However, in the Kamakura Period Buddhism's role was changed to provide everyday people with a source of relief from their worries and pains. Honen (1133-1212) thought that the doctrine of existing Buddhism was too difficult, so he presented the faith of "Buddhist Invocation." Nichiren (1222-1282) thought that a sacred text was the best salvation for bonbu (foolish ordinary people), and proposed a method of faith -the "Daimoku" - that was easy for the people to accept. Calamities such as earthquakes, heavy rains, and famines appeared continuously during the Kamakura Period. Nichiren sought to deal with such social problems based on religious faith, and he exhorted the Shogunate to do so in his treatise, Rissho-ankoku-ron. His warnings in that text became reality in the form of a Mongolian invasion and a civil war, and the people paid great attention to it.

Organized panel, English
Sekimori, Gaynor

Tokyo University, Japan

The Effect of Meiji Religious Policy on Shugendo(07C)

During 1868 and 1869 in particular, the new Meiji government enacted legislation to "clarify" the relationship between Buddhism and kami beliefs and worship. This, rather than the ban on Shugendo promulgated in 1872, sounded its death-knell, since it undermined the very premises of kami-buddha combination on which Shugendo was built. The effects of what has become known as "kami-buddha separation," however, were neither immediate nor uniform among Shugendo centres. This paper examines how the policy was carried out at the three major centres of Shugendo in early-modern Japan: Yoshino, Hagurosan, and Hikosan. Crucial factors in the variety of response include distance from the capital (Kyoto rather than Edo/Tokyo), the social and hierarchical structure of personnel (in particular the relative strength of shrine priests), the pattern of authority (particularly the relative power of the temple and its confraternities), the concern of the local authority (whether the survival of Shugendo was regarded as serving local interest), the economic importance of the shrine-temple complex to the government (Jingikan/Kyobusho), and the degree of compromise that would satisfy the local personnel.

Organized panel, Japanese
Sekimori, Gaynor

Tokyo University, Japan

Japanese Religious Practice in Social and Historical Context(13P)

*chairperson

Organized panel
Sekimori, Gaynor

Tokyo University, Japan

Wooden Fowl and Paper Fish: The Separation of Kami and Buddha Worship in Haguro Shugendo, 1868-1875(13P)

In 1868 the Meiji government enacted a series of laws, often called the "Separation Orders," to raise "Shinto" to the status of a state cult that embodied the ideals of the new order. This Shinto did not reflect even the practices of local communities, let alone the contemporary religious matrix of kami-buddha combination. Thus it was necessary to "clarify" what was and was not Shinto. Shugendo shrine-temple complexes in particular were targeted for reform, since Shugendo was predicated on kami-buddha combination. This paper looks at how the "Separation Orders" affected the Shugendo of Hagurosan institutionally, ritually, ideologically and socially. Using insights gained from recent "revisionist" scholarship concerning the English Reformation(s), it examines how change that was not demanded or welcomed locally was able to occur. An important source for evidence is the unpublished Diary of the first head of the reconstructed shrine, Nishikawa Sugao.

Organized panel, English
Sekine, Yasumasa

Japan Women's University, Japan

Sacralisation of the Urban Footpath, with Special Reference to Footpath Temples in Chennai City, South India(14F)

With regard to urban footpaths there are two extreme actors: the municipal authorities who, in theory, pursue town planning and maintain footpaths for the convenience of pedestrians, and the poor homeless living illegally on footpaths with the constant fear of being forced to move on. There exists a clear difference in standpoint between authorities and pavement dwellers on the use of footpaths: the former has the power to keep the public space free from encroachment, but the latter find the footpaths an advantageous space for living. The discussion focuses on footpath temples that have prevailed since the 1990s in Chennai City, South India that are mostly built and maintained by the lower section of the population. Footpath temples contain and represent the power of resistance against authorities in the name of the sacred, and are thus a weapon of the weak in their tactics for survival in the city.

Organized panel, English