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

Beckford, James A.

University of Warwick, UK

The Balance between Difference and Equality: the Case of Muslim Prisoners Britain and France(06W)

This paper analyzes many of the philosophical, sociological and policy-oriented debates that concern the growth of religious and ethnic diversity in Britain and France. Particular attention is given to the major differences between these two countries' respective responses to their Muslim minorities. The paper's main argument is that discourses of difference and equality have followed different trajectories for reasons that can be traced back to the religious and political history of each country. The articulation between ideas of difference and equality is thrown into especially sharp relief by distinctively British and French strategies for managing religious and ethnic diversity in prison populations. This will be illustrated by evidence drawn from my recently completed study of Muslim prisoners in Britain and from Farhad Khosrokhavar's L'Islam dans les Prisons (2004).

Organized panel, English
Beckford, James A.

University of Warwick, UK

Dialogue between Sociologists of Religion in Japan and Europe(12I)

This paper will analyse some aspects of the many interchanges that have taken place since the 1970s between Japanese and European sociologists of religion. Without trying to be an exhaustive account of all exchanges, my argument will identify some specific features of the dialogues that have - and have not - occurred. Emphasis will be placed on the central role of ABE Yoshiya in guiding, facilitating and animating the interchanges.

Organized panel, English
Beckford, James A.

University of Warwick, UK

Rethinking the Concepts of Religion, Sacred, and Secular(17J)

*chairperson

Organized panel
Behrend, Heike

Institute of African Studies, 50923 Cologne, Germany

Satan Crucified: Crusades of the Catholic Church in Western Uganda, Africa(05H)

The concept of "crusade" and "holy war" has gained new importance in some regions of Africa (and not only there). Around 1995 in Western Uganda, a charismatic lay organization of the Catholic Church started to organize violent "crusades" to recreate moral order, establish a Christian modernity and fight an internal enemy that was identified as "pagan", "witch" and "cannibal". Discussing the connection between religion and violence I attempt to show that in the crusades local rituals of regeneration and cleansing merge with the (absolute) claims of Christian monotheism to form a new radicalized structure of rejection and exclusion.

Symposium, English
Belayche, Nicole

Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes, France

Images de Paiens et Ideologie Chretienne a Trazers une Etude de Cas(15T)

The true image of pagan practices in Late Antiquity is overshadowed and distorted by the range of literary documentation available. Christian authors, and later legislation as well, have referred to ritualistic practices as a whole as "magic". The picture they drew fitted with their conception of polytheism as a gloomy world of impure demons. It tended therefore to portray Christian identity as built over an opposition of vera religio vs superstitio and forgery. Close examination of various attestations does not support this ideological presentation. Bringing together the Life of Severus Antiochenus by Zachariah scholastikos (in Syriac, circa 515) and contemporary documents (mainly curse tablets) from Syria and Egypt, we may demonstrate 1) that the variety of pagan rituals remained as broad as before and 2) that pagans and Christians alike called for "magical" practices in competitive situations (e.g. festive concours and trials), I.e. as a means of regulation in social relationships.

Organized panel, French
Beldi de Alcântara, Maria de Lourdes

University of Saõ Paulo, Brazil

The Dialogue among Religious Discourses in Brazil(14O)

The purpose of this panel is to perform an interdisciplinary analysis of the various religious discourses co-existing within the Brazilian setting. Using case studies, we will be able to observe the result of religious dialogue and the symbolic migrations that occur among religions. Taking as a starting point the presumption that the phenomenon of religion cannot be entirely explained by isolated analyses, we propose as a theoretical reference point the concept of hybridism applied by Nestor Canclini and later by Homi Bhabha, in conjunction with the historical notion of Walter Benjamim. The latter of these will refer us directly to the question of local religions and their cultural dynamics. To paraphrase Marc-Augé: culture is not all about religion, but religion is all about culture. Using this theoretical framework, we will attempt to reveal the dynamic of religious discourse and its representation in Brazil.

Organized panel, * Session Abstract, English
Beldi de Alcântara, Maria de Lourdes

University of Saõ Paulo, Brazil

The Construction of Pentecostal Discourse among the Kaiowá(14O)

In this paper I shall conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of the concepts of ethnicity, tradition and hybridism through a case study: Pentecostal Discourse on the Dourados Reserve in the Brazilian State of Mato Grosso do Sul. The Dourados reserve has a strong connection with the Presbyterian mission which has been there since 1928 and continues to play a dominant role in the education of indigenous children, educating generations of Indians, and as the main centralizer of celebrations on the reserve. Its influence weakened when the Pentecostal churches began to appear at the end of the 1970s, competing in the symbolic universe market. The main difference between them lies in the fact that the pastor is no longer a non-Indian; the Kaiowá have regained the word. It is important to focus on which symbols migrate and how they construct this cultural dialogue. It is only through an analysis of this symbolic circulation that we will be able to understand the influence of the religion.

Organized panel, English
Ben Hadj Salem, Hajer

faculty of letters , sousse, Tunisia

Beyond Herberg: The Abrahamic Model and the Islamic Foundations of Religious Pluralism in the United States(13O)

"The greatest contribution made by the United States to global religious life is its demonstrating that, however vast the pluralism, a vital religious culture can flourish." The US has a culture of pluralism because it has been the setting for a multitude of responses to religious diversity. Most of these responses have been in deference to the need for genuine pluralism. With special emphasis on the American-Muslim experience after 9/11, the paper will attempt to study the major stages through which the pluralistic state of mind has evolved in the US. By focusing on how world religious groups have interpreted and reinterpreted common and distinctive myths and symbols to give meaning to diversity at different stages of US history, the paper attempts to answer the following question: has the post 9/11 atmosphere generated a more positive kind of advocacy for pluralism as a necessary element in democratic ideology and theistic religion?

Organized panel, English
Benavides, Gustavo

Villanova University, USA

Agency, Magical and Mystical(01K)

The exploration of what constitutes agency is to be found at the heart of divine representations on the one hand and of impersonal mystical principles, on the other. In the first case, agency appears at its most active, involving ultimately omnipotence, whereas in the second, partly as the result of the paradoxes present in the concept of omnipotence, agency must be left behind. Intermediate forms are found in magical agency, whether magical action is attributed to gods or to humans. The presentation will explore the extreme as well as the intermediate forms in which agency is imagined. Using magical agency as point of reference, it will be discussed whether purely sociological explanations of the magic/religion opposition are justified.

Organized panel, English
Bernard, Rosemarie

Waseda University, Japan

Imperial Jingu: Or Why Ise Jingu Matters to the Tenno(05P)

Ise Jingu is known as Japan's premier Shinto shrine. Home to the mythological mirror of the imperial line, the shrine has been a key center of ritual activity since the late seventh century AD. Although no emperor visited Ise between then and 1869, nonetheless Ise has remained through the present day a pivotal symbolic point in the cosmology of emperorship. In this paper I explore the historical construction of Ise Jingu's value to Japanese emperorship according to Shinto and imperial circles, with special attention to the ceremonial cycle, officiants, and offerings. I also examine the 'memory practices' that are involved in competing discourses about the nature of continuity and discontinuity in the tenno-Ise relationship.

Organized panel, English
Bernard, Rosemarie

Waseda University, Japan

Ise Jingu and the Postwar Imagination of Emperorship(09P)

Meiji period modernization had profound effects on ceremonial practice, at Ise Jingu and elsewhere. In Ise, one of these seminal changes was the relationship of the person of the emperor to the shrines: on the one hand, imperial pilgrimage to the shrines was implemented, and on the other the ritual responsibilities of imperial envoys and the upper echelons of the priesthood were systematized. In this paper I consider how the Meiji period tenno-Ise relationship was altered again in the postwar period. In particular, I focus on the position of the "saishu" (master of the ceremonies) and how the redefinition of its ceremonial role is related to the creation of a new image for emperorship in the postwar period.

Organized panel, Japanese
Bernardin, Maria John

Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, India

Decline of Buddhism in the Tamil Country(13E)

This paper analyses the specific causes of the decline of Buddhism in the Tamil Country and sets this within the broader context of the history of Buddhism in the region.

Organized panel, English
Berner, Ulrich

Universität Bayreuth, Germany

The Galileo-Affair – a Conflict between Science and Religion?(03T)

Historians of science and historians of Christianity often have presented the trial of Galileo (1632) as a conflict between science and religion. Thus it has become a paradigm for describing the relationship between religion and science – emphasizing either the basic theoretical principles of the conflict or the specific politico-historical circumstances of the trial. Historians of religion have very rarely participated in this debate. Therefore, the Galileo-Affair will be analyzed from this very point of view of the History of Religions, taking as the starting point the fact that Galileo had not only opponents but also supporters among contemporary theologians from various Christian denominations. The interpretation based on this observation leads to a basic differentiation in the concept of religion and to a more differentiated description of the complex relationship between science and religion.

Organized panel, English
Berner, Ulrich

Universität Bayreuth, Germany

The Imagistic Tradition of Dionysos in the Graeco-Roman World(13T)

The paper deals with the cult of Dionysos in different respects and on different levels, refering to the religious movement that was suppressed in Italy by the famous senate decree (186 B.C.E.), to the image of the god in the famous Greek novel by Longos, and to the significance of the mystery cult in the life of a Greek philosopher (Plutarch). The central question to be discussed will be whether Whitehouse's Modes of Religiosity Theory provide's useful tools for the interpretation of the tradition of Dionysos.

Organized panel, English
Beyer, Peter

University of Ottawa, Canada

Shukyo, Zongjiao and Other Neologisms: Constructing Religion in the East Asian Region of Global Society(04K)

A rather longstanding and influential discussion within the study of religion has it that the idea of "religion" is problematic from several perspectives, not the least of which is that it is supposedly a fundamentally Western and even Christian concept that is of little use for understanding the non-Western societies, whether today or in the past. The more severe of these critiques goes further to claim that religion is a conceptual tool in the service of modern Western imperialism and colonialism. This paper argues substantially against such a restricted understanding through a comparative examination of how a relatively consistent, but highly contested, modern model of religion has become institutionalized in most countries around the world, including in East Asia. The argument of the paper extends the author's previous work by analysing this development not only in China, Japan, and Indonesia, but also in other countries such as Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. The paper concludes by pointing to the necessity of keeping different institutional perspectives on what counts as religion clearly separate from one another if we are to understand that complex reality in today's world.

Organized panel, English
Beyer, Peter

Joint Session with SISR in Honor of Dr.Abe, Dr. Anzai and Dr. Wilson: "The Dialogue among Civilizations through the Sociology of Religion"(12I)

*respondent

Organized panel
Beyer, Peter

University of Ottawa, Canada

Religion and Modernity in North-East Asia(16V)

*chairperson

Organized panel
Bhatia, Manohar Lal

University of Delhi, India

Religious Grants to Non-Muslims during the Mughals: Conflict and Conciliation(06O)

In pre-colonial India the 'Ulama occupied a prestigious position as the guardian, transmitters and interpreters of Islamic religious knowledge. Some of them possessed expertise on legal issues and advised the rulers whenever the need arose. The 'Ulama also held religious and judicial offices of the Sadr, Qazi, Mufti, Muhtasib and in lieu of it they were given subsistence grant in the form of revenue-free land or cash stipend. Under the Mughals the state patronage to the religious people including the Sufis and their institutions had become an established tradition based on Turko-Mongol theory of distribution, partly influenced by indigenous ancient Indian practice of Devdaya grants. The recipients of such grants have been classified into different categories at different times. However classification of recipients defined in historical literature reflects the practice prevailing under Akbar and that it had very much continued under Aurangzeb also. The scope of grants was not only limited to those possessing racial superiority and piety among Muslims viz. traditional. Sayyids and Shaikhs but it also included. Dargahs, Khanqahs and Hindu Sanyasis, Jogis and Brahmans of the temples. The purpose of this paper is to explore the scope of Mughal revenue-free land grants as also socio-economic status of the grantees. The aim of the paper is to explore whether such a religious measure could result in 'distinct identities' or a 'class war' and how conciliation is attempted for peaceful coexistence of the communities.

Organized panel, English
Binet, Ana Maria

University Michel de Montaigne-Bordeaux III, France

Between Apology and Criticism : The Treaty of Kabbalistic Science (1652) by D. Francisco Manuel de Melo (1608-1666)(11G)

First published in 1724, this treaty by a Portuguese baroque writer deserves to be subjected to a close analysis in order to disclose its fundamental ambiguity: under the cover of a critical view of Kabbalah, this document, which was submitted to religious censorship, seems to us to hide a very pronounced interest in this "forbidden" religious field. We propose to examine to what extent this esoteric approach, very much influenced by Pic de la Mirandola and Reuchelin, is in fact considered by its author, who was brought up in a Jesuit college, as a partial alternative to Christian doctrines. Moreover, in a country where any sympathy towards Jewish religion might mean death, this issue is of particular importance.

Symposium, English
Bingemer, Maria Clara

Pontificia Universidade Catolica do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Edith Stein and the Struggle against Violence(06Q)

Edith Stein's life and mysticism is of interest to both Jews and Christians. This Jewish woman who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite nun without ever ceasing to be Jewish vindicates the common ground of both religious traditions. Edith Stein's mystical experience and her identification with the Crucified Christ helped her confront Nazi violence and offer her life for her people, whom she understood as the people of Israel. This paper attempts to consider her mysticism as a fight with interior and exterior violence: the interior violence prompted by the conflict of being a Jew attracted by Christianity, and the exterior violence of a Christ-centered life carried out in the historical situation of her Jewishness. I will suggest that the interreligious dialogue that took place in her life – as reflected in her writings and spiritual process – is a dramatic symbol of her way of overcoming violence.

Organized panel, English
Biswas, Subhasis

Jadavpur University, India

The Complexities of Buddism in North Indian Society - Decline or a New Form of Existence: A Historical Analysis(13E)

The presentation is to examine from the historical context how Buddhism which was an official state religion in the time of Maurya rule in India became marginalized in the later period of history of India, particularly in the medieval decades. It also examines how it existed as a different cultural entity in the mainstream of India society. The presentation ends with a critical review of a question --"Is Buddhism marginalized in the country where it took it's birth or it took a rebirth in contemporary Indian society?" After reviewing different new forms of existence of Buddhism in India, we can answer this critical questions and the presentation aims to do that.

Organized panel, English
Blanes, Ruy Llera

Social Sciences Institute - University of Lisbon, Portugal

Music as Discourse: On Gypsy Pentecostal Music and its Configurations(14S)

The study of musical practice in religious contexts presents a good opportunity to understand the communicative, propagandistic and interactive power of music through its "discursive" capacity, not only through the textual dimension within but also through the experiential and performance aspects. Through ethnographic fieldwork developed within a transnational Gypsy Pentecostal movement in Portugal (The Philadelphia Church), and applying textual and contextual analysis, I will examine the politics involved in the creation and distribution of contemporary Pentecostal music within this specific religious group, as well as the religious and ethnic categories involved and the place of music within the overall religious and collective practice. By this analysis, I will seek to understand how music can affect or be affected by ideological and religious conceptualizations. Furthermore, I will specifically address the role of music in the construction of narratives of suffering and salvation, and how a sense of religious community can create forms of expression that defy traditional categories of "gypsy music" and "religious music".

Organized panel, English
Blum, Mark L.

University at Albany - SUNY, USA

Biography as Scripture: The Role of Ojoden in Legitimizing the Pure Land Teaching(15M)

The genre of Pure Land biography called wangsheng zhuan in China began in the seventh century as a biographical record of people aspiring for or people achieving the Pure Lands of Amitabha Buddha, Maitreya Buddha, and Avalokitesvara. Under influence of Song period collections of such compilations dedicated to Amitabha's Pure Land and Genshin's Ojoyoshu, the Japanese also began to compose their own ojoden, creating eight new texts in the Heian period. The genre was interrupted after Honen, but revived in the Edo period, when six new ojoden were compiled. One of the anomalies of this genre is an ojoden text extant in Japan appearing in the early 16th century that purports to tell the biographies of Buddhist in India who similarly aspired to and/or reached the Pure Land of this buddha. This paper will examine this text, the Tenjiku ojo kenki, against the background of the genre as a whole both for the purpose of clarifying the role of this genre for the establishment of the Pure Land school in Japan, and as a source for discerning how Indian Buddhism was understood in medieval Japan.

Organized panel, English
Bocken, Inigo

(05N)

Organized panel

Bocking, Brian

SOAS, University of London, UK

Underlying Religiosity in East Asia(01P)

*chairperson

Organized panel
Bocking, Brian

SOAS, University of London, UK

Buddhism in West/West in Buddhism(02S)

*respondent

Organized panel
Bocking, Brian

SOAS, University of London, UK

'Mysticism' Revisited in the Light of 'Experience'(15K)

This paper reflects on the categories of 'mysticism' and '[mystical] experience' in the academic study of religions. In a short paper entitled 'If You Meet the Buddha on the Map: The Notion of Mapping Spiritual Paths' (published in Gavin Flood, Mapping Invisible Worlds, Edinburgh: Traditional Cosmology Society, 1994) I differentiated between, on the one hand, a 'map' or teaching of a spiritual or mystical path and, on the other hand, the path itself. In light of current academic emphases on the foundational status of narrative or discourse, and in particular Robert Sharf's provocative claim (in Mark Taylor (ed.), Critical Terms for Religious Studies, Chicago, 1998) that the category of 'experience' in the modern study of religions is 'a mere placeholder … for the relentless deferral of meaning', this paper considers what, if anything, can or should be salvaged from Sharf's deconstruction of the notion of 'experience', especially mystical experience, within the academic study of religions.

Organized panel, English
Bogdan, Carl Henrik George

Gothenborg University, Sweden

Occultism - Provocation and Appeasement(14G)

Occultism, understood as a specific esoteric current formed in the middle of the 19th century, has often been viewed with suspicion and, to a certain extent, fear by the western society at large. The contributors to the panel are encouraged to investigate the complex relationship of 19th and 20th century Occultism with specific aspects of western society. Controversial subjects such as violence, sex and drugs have often been laid at the door of occultist movements, often with little or no understanding of the movements themselves. What consequences have the polemics had for the self-understanding and the strategies of identity of occultist movements? Furthermore, occultist organisations are quite often characterised by internal strife as well as protracted disharmony with other groups claiming to "map" the same occult "territory". To what extent are these conflicts related to Occultism as such, and what are their relevance for a broader discussion on methodology and definitions of Occultism?

Organized panel, * Session Abstract, English