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

Verma, Shudhanshu Kumar

Ranchi University, India

Impact of Various Religious Cults on the Origin of War(13R)

Religion is the highest plane of human thought. It is a process through implementation of which the man brings out all the possibilities and marches ahead on the road of fulfilment. The surface of our earth to-day is full of religions variously and diversely prevalent among different groups of people and yet the whole world is suffering variously and diversely and sees no way out. If we look into its history, religion has been the basic cause of war on many occasion. For example in Hindu religion Vishwamitra fought with Brahmarshi Vashistha. The Christians had to fight war for hundred years. Islam could grow and develop only because it had sword force with it. Residents of Macca had to bow down and accept Islam because they could not resist the attack of Hazrat Mahammad and his followers. In short, there are so many examples of war due to religion. But still we have the solution.

Organized panel, English
Vermander, Benoit

Taipei Ricci Institute, Taiwan

Blessed are the Peacemakers: The Seearch for an East Asian Reading(02E)

The Sermon on the Mount tells us that making peace is a creative process, and that engaging in such a process is to continue and to accomplish God's work. Each creative process is unique and must be analyzed in context. What are the peacemakers expected to do in East Asia today? This paper will confront what we see and we hear in East Asia to some of the interpretative resources that the Biblical tradition offers to us. Drawing lessons from this confrontation, we will try to discern the kind of contribution that Christians are called to offer in Asian societies. Thus, taking inspiration from a set of life experiences and biblical readings, and with special reference to Chinese context and theologians, this paper will try ultimately to give an account of what peace building is to be in East Asia.

Organized panel, English
Vibha, Chaturvedi

Delhi University, India

In Defense of Religious Pluralism(13B)

The paper discusses the issue of religious pluralism. This issue is of immense importance in the contemporary world. An exclusivist approach to other religions is not acceptable to the modern mind. Therefore ways to accommodate religious diversity need to be seriously explored. The Indian philosophical tradition provides some interesting ways to approach religious pluralism. We find the vedas stating that truth is one but it is presented differently by different learned people. Several Indian thinkers argue that different religions should not be seen as competing interpretations of reality. These are either seen as different paths to the same goal or different interpretations of the same truth. Jain philosophy argues that different points of view present different aspects of the reality. The paper will discuss these and some western perspectives on religious pluralism critically and outline a proposal, which can accommodate religious diversity in a truly pluralistic way.

Organized panel, English
Viola, Kalman (Coloman)

Former Fellow of CNRS, France

Saint Anselm of Canterbury: a Peaceful Defender of Religious Freedom(06N)

The main champion of religious freedom in the early 2nd millennium of Europe was Anselm of Aosta, archbishop of Canterbury and first Baron of the Kingdom. The purpose of this paper is to show the importance of dialogue in the peaceful solution of political tensions which engaged both the freedom of the Church and the freedom of citizens. Analysing the historical events of Saint Anselm's life, some doctrinal implications of the dialogue have to be considered: the conception of God; the conception of man (human being) who is supposed to live in a perfect harmony with the 'universitas rerum', a conditio sine qua non of any pacific trend; the conception of the Church and its freedom; the conception of right; the conception of obedience; all these leading to a fundamental critic of royal absolutism and of the feudalistic system of that time.

Organized panel, English
Volokhine, Youri

University of Geneva, Switzerland

Manetho: Hellenic Ideology vs. Egyptian Tradition(17C)

Manetho, an Egyptian priest, is famous for his Aegyptiaka, a huge history of Egypt (unfortunately known only by fragments). This book in Greek language is generally mentioned as a perfect example of collaboration between the Egyptian elite and the Greek rulers of Egypt. Some scholars have recently expressed controversial opinions on the roots of this historiographical work: is it really an essay intended to flatter the Ptolemaic court, or is it a veiled Egyptian ideological manifesto? At the heart of this paper, we will examine the problematic Manetho's account of Moses' exodus, a perfect illustration of mnemohistory, and also one of the first manifestation of judeophobia in Antiquity. This paper presents one aspect of a research project on "Moses between Athens and Jerusalem" in which the presenter is involved together with Ph. Borgeaud and Th. Roemer.

Organized panel, English
Von Stuckrad, Kocku

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Western Esotericism and Polemics: General Scope of the Symposium(10G)

From late antiquity trough today, Western Esotericism played an important role in inter- and intrareligious debates. Repeatedly, esoteric claims have provided alternatives to common religious belief-systems and worldviews. The symposium engages the multi-facetted dialogue and confrontation between these 'esoteric' claims and the claims of the major scriptural religions. Questions to be discussed comprise the following: Is Western Esotericism the 'Other' of scriptural religions (mainly Christianity) or maybe a pluralistic part of it? Is the demarcation line between these systems something to be addressed as an alternative that really existed or as a polemical construct of 'orthodox' religious thought? What impact has a paradigm of European history of religion as a pluralistic history on the study of Western Esotericism? The four panels focus particularly on the polemical construction of identities-both 'esoteric' and 'non-esoteric'-in a pluralistic religious framework, on the Jewish and Christian Kabbalah as a significant example of this discourse, and on the role of modern scholars in the formation of polemical positions in and against esotericism.

Symposium, * Session Abstract, English
Von Stuckrad, Kocku

University of Amsterdam, Netherlands

Christian Kabbalah and Anti-Jewish Polemics: Pico's Theses Revisited(11G)

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola has been the subject of much scholarly debate. On the one hand, it has been noted that this Renaissance intellectual, who became acquainted with Jewish mysticism through personal and friendly contact with Jews, was one of the most influential mediators between Jewish Kabbalah and its reception in Christian circles. On the other hand, it has been argued that Pico used the tradition of Jewish Kabbalah as a weapon against the Jews, thus participating in an anti-Jewish campaign of Renaissance Christianity and pathing the way to anti-semitic currents in modern culture. Since both approaches to Pico's Kabbalistic theses are basically correct, it must be asked how we can explain this contradiction. The paper argues that we have to apply a discursive approach to the pluralistic situation of European history of religion to see the hidden rationalities, the construction of the Other, and the ambivalence of identities in order to contextualize Pico's reception of Jewish Kabbalah. In addition, the applicability of Steven Wasserstrom's notion of 'interconfessional circles' in medieval times for Renaissance and Reformation discourses will be explored.

Symposium, English
Vorobjova, Marina Vladimirovna

Religious Studies Research Center "Ethna", Russia

New Religious Movements and Secular World: Social Interrelation Development Dynamics(06T)

The relationship between New Religious Movements (NRMs) and the secular world is not always smooth. Not all NRM can testify to a healthy relationship with the external non-religious environment. However, relationships between NRM and the non-religious world often look much better then those between NRM and other religions. Conflicts between NRM and the secular world happen much less often than conflicts within the religious world itself - the world of traditional and non-traditional religions. Our aim is to analyze evaluation of NRM by secular and religious worlds and discover reasons of conflict in these different spheres.

Organized panel, English
Voyé, Liliane

Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium

Nationalistic Aspects of Policies of Some European Governments Concerning Religious Matters(11I)

Historically, Europe's background has been unquestionably Christian, and the actual policies of various governments regularly express the cultural and ideological affinities that they share with this family of religions. Many examples might be cited to illustrate how, as a consequence, other religions either receive less favourable treatment or are suspected of being potentially dangerous not only for individuals, but also for the state itself. New Religious Movements, especially those that are branches of or are derived from other religious traditions, are usually considered to be dangerous. In some cases, such as former communist countries, even Christian religions other than the one which is favoured by the state are considered with suspicion. In this paper I will provide illustrations of these kinds of situations before suggesting some interpretations of them, among others the quest for a (re)affirmation of the country's identity, the support of secular institutions which were originally inspired by the values promoted by a specific religion, the foundation among the population of a relatively shared ethic, and of common spatial and temporal, cognitive and artistic references.

Organized panel, English
Waardenburg, Jacques

University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Islam and Western Secularism : Just an Ideological Conflict?(05O)

Quite a few Muslim publications by Arabs and others describe the Western world as secular and dominated by secularism. In contrast to a West without religion, the Muslim world is held to possess Islam with its transcendent truth, norms, and values. This view is the reverse of that found in certain Western publications which extolls the West as a civilization superior to Islam in terms of enlightenment and rationality. These two conflictuous ideologies result from the experience of differences and tensions; they have been interpreted, for instance, in terms of a historical process, a clash of civilizations, Western (neo)colonialism, Muslim violence. The present-day scheme of "Islam versus the West" is analogous to that of "Islam versus Christianity". In both cases, cultural and religious differences are subsumed under dualistic schemes that preach battle and serve absolutized causes and interests. Because the other party is designed as a vital threat, collective defense mechanisms are mobilized among people lacking adequate knowledge. Such mechanisms hamper self-criticism and prevent a realistic view and knowledge of life in Western and Muslim contexts being acquired. They reinforce defamatory stereotypes about those on the other side.

Organized panel, English
Wachi, Yukei

University of Tokyo, Japan

Fiction and Reality --The Interpretation of Literary Text and "the Relationship"(10S)

The modern criticism recognizes the value of the literary text. In this practice, it is not the author's innerness, emotion or subjectivity but the recognitive framework of the criticism that holds the interpretative authority over the decision of the fictionality and reality of the text. Thus a modern interpretation of a text can strip off its reality to read it as a fiction, even if it describes something real and religious and is approved as such by some people. Dealing with some texts of Friedrich Schlegel, this paper is to show an interpretational ground on which we can read what the "literary text" narrates as a reality in its original condition.

Organized panel, English
Wachowski, Markus

University Bremen, Germany

Societal Implications in Isma'ili Teaching(04O)

The paper will present a contemporary empirical study on Isma'ili communities in Yemen in combination with a historical analysis of societal implications in selected Yemeni isma'ili texts. Claiming that textual production, reception and interpretation is related to the multifold setting of the believers' community in its environment, I will scrutinize in both approaches the underlying structure of boarders drawn a) between the inner and the outer sphere, I.e. "common people" and "believers" and b) within the community between the disciple and the master. These boarders frame the image of humans, their relation to god, the world and salvation as a model for self-positioning. Furthermore they set ground and limits for the interaction of a persecuted group with its hostile surrounding and supply religiously legitimated rules to save the group's existence. Accordingly, the community's inner hierarchy, based on the teaching's inexpressible core, provides a stable but flexible pattern for a durable self-identification of a community awaiting the end.

Organized panel, English
Wakabayashi, Haruko

University of Tokyo, Japan

"Ask of Purple Clouds to the Purple Clouds": Defining Sacred Space in Ippen Hijiri-e(03P)

This paper will focus on purple clouds and the representation of sacred space in Ippen hijiri-e, a pictorial biography of Ippen, the founder of Jishu, dated 1299. Although purple clouds are generally known as signs of rebirth into the Pure Land (ojo) in the Heian and medieval periods, not all scenes with these clouds in Ippen hijiri-e can be associated with ojo. They are seen above the many religious sites that Ippen visited during his life as a traveling preacher of Pure Land Buddhism. The text and painting also claim that they appeared during Ippen's nenbutsu activities, notably the dancing nenbutsu, suggesting the miraculous effect of his practices. Why are purple clouds depicted at certain locations or times? Rather than attempting to determine the meaning of purple clouds, the paper will investigate how the motif was used to represent "sacred spaces" that were considered momentous in Ippen's life.

Symposium, English
Walsh, Michael J.

Vassar College, USA

The Construction of Religion(12K)

*chairperson

Organized panel
Walsh, Michael J.

Vassar College, USA

Violent Frontiers: Religion and Conflict in Nineteenth-Century China and Southern Africa(12K)

During the nineteenth century the concept of religion was imagined and applied in different ways around the globe. When colonialists undertook to civilize a people, specific understandings of religion were at the core of their engagements. By the mid-nineteenth century Europe's territorial energy was focused on Asia and Africa, two vast regions where religious and colonial practices collided and often colluded in fascinating ways. My paper will explore some of the ways religion was construed in the nineteenth century (and how this impacted the way in which we think with and use the term today) as well as look at specific case studies of religio-colonial interactions in China and Southern Africa. My paper will also discuss the relationship between economic and capitalist ideologies in local contexts, and the notion of frontier religion, a space where religious identity comes to shape and be shaped by cultural and political identity.

Organized panel, English
Wamue, Grace

Kenyatta University, Kenya

Rebuilding the Cracked Pot: Religion and Social Transformation in Africa(10T)

Africa has continuously experienced ugly struggles in political, social, economic and religious spheres. Social injustices have become the order of the day, resulting into brutal wars and civil strife that have become the norm. In most of these cases, tension is fanned and fuelled by ethnic and religious hatred. Resolving ethnic tension is a complex phenomenon that points to the difficulty and lack of accuracy in assuming the universality of the impact and role of religion. The dominant perception remains one where religion is manipulated or perceived in a negative light. This paper highlights the fact that religion can be a positive tool for empowerment of the oppressed. Stakeholders addressing the problem of reconstruction have with time invented several ways of managing, resolving and living beyond conflict. Notwithstanding their success, these also have their own limitations.

Organized panel
Wang, Ching-ling

Aletheia University, Taiwan

A Renaissance of Religious Symbolism? --Huang Chin-ho's Visual Art in 21st Century Taiwan(16G)

This article raises the issue of how traditional Taiwanese religious symbolisms may find new significations in the 21st century. Specifically I will illuminate how the Taiwanese artist Huang Chin-ho exposes a new esthetics and spirituality in contemporary Taiwanese visual art. Huang presents the uncertainty and ambiguity of the Taiwanese state of mind: coincidentia oppositorum in fin de siecle Taiwan. By effecting a visual symbolic exchange between traditional folk religious symbolisms, "migrant" and "colonized" political ideologies, and the modern capitalist consumer value system, Huang expresses an excess of untrammeled psychological and spiritual desire on this island. In his flamboyant and colorful world, Huang shows his eschatological concern for the passion and mortality of the many hybrids of a crossover society: one has carnival monsters with the faces of dictators, transsexual, hermaphrodite beings with no place to go, cabbages and sugarcanes jostling with karaoke bars and strip clubs, etc. Life and death, the divine and the demonic, hell and paradise are swirling into one. Through Huang's contemporary work I would like to explore how Taiwanese folk religious symbolisms may find a 21st century renaissance through challenging visual taboos in various controversial social realms: the currently contested moral, political, and spiritual lives of the people of Taiwan.

Organized panel, English
Wang, Ka

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

Taoist Ethics and Modern Society(14D)

Organized panel, Chinese

Ward, Ryan

University of Tokyo, Japan

The Politics of Unification: Murakami Sensho's Sectarian Critics(02B)

The study of the doctrinal modernization of Japanese Buddhism has, not surprisingly, focused on what can loosely be referred to as "modernists." Unfortunately, such an emphasis tends to tell only one side of the story. Through focusing on reactions to Murakami Sensho's seminal Bukkyo toitsu ron , I will argue for the necessity of considering how conservative and anti-modernist scholars also played an active role in the formation of Japanese Buddhist modernity. I first examine doctrinal criticisms of Murakami's project as found in the writings of Higashi Honganji scholars (i.e, Takakura Gakuryo , Kanren-kai ). In doing so, I will show how much of this criticism focused on Murakami's understanding of the reward body (/sambhogakaya), his depiction of Nirvana, and his affirmation of the Daijo hibussetsuron. Having examined these doctrinal criticisms, I will further show how Murakami's support of the reformist Shirakawa Party, which was attempting to modernize the Higashi Honganji institution, was also a major factor in conservative attacks against him.

Organized panel, English
Wasim, Alef Theria

State Isramic University, Indonesia

Psychologocal Aspects of Religious Plurality at the Grassroots, with Special Reference(04I)

This paper seeks to disclose the phenomenon of religious plurality at the grassroots in terms of its psychological aspects. The grassroots are prone to social, political, and economic stress that may lead to various psychological problems. The focus of this paper is on how to explain such problems in the context of the study of religions. There is a plurality of religions in Indonesia, originating from different countries and consisting of different sects, each expressing and manifesting religious comprehension in various ways. This situation has come about in a long historical sequence of religious development. The interaction of the various religions and sects with local cultures have resulted in the emergence of either old or new identities through the adaptation of religious life in order to survive. Therefore, the explanation of this paper will be focused on a cross-cultural psychological approach. Since the thirteenth century CE, Indonesia has known the slogan "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" (Unity in Diversity) implying that "every religion is good". At the same time, political and religious élites sometimes have their own vested interests. Therefore, the question of existence and identity sometimes threatens the security and composure of religious life. Several factors can make it even worse; these are prejudice, social and economical gaps, discrimination and marginalization, and threats to the right of life. Both the mobility of the people through transmigration and emigration and the mobility of capital will have effects on the psychological aspects of religious plurality.

Organized panel, English
Watanabe, Akiko

Taisho University, Japan

(09C)

Organized panel, Japanese

Watanabe, Futoshi

Kansai University, Japan

Ritual Arrangement of Hina-Nagashi: A Case Study of Awashima Shrine(16I)

This report examines the complex of harai (a notion of purification) and kuyo (a notion of memorial service) represented in the ritual of Hina-Nagashi in Awashima Shrine. Hina-Nagashi means to float hina dolls into the sea as a ritual of Hina-Matsuri (the girl's festival on March 3). The origin of Hina-Nagashi is an ancient magic of purification to transfer one's own evil to a sacrifice. However, modern style of Hina-Nagashi is oriented to hold a memorial service of hina dolls. In the ritual of Hina-Nagashi, the concept of hina is ambiguous. It signifies both hitogata (a doll as a sacrifice) and ningyo (a doll as a toy). Contemporary ritual superposes these double meanings. Hina-Nagashi blends the notion of purification and memorial service. This style of Hina-Nagashi was established in 1950s. I will try to describe the transition and the religious significance of Hina-Nagashi.

Organized panel, English
Watanabe, Hibi

University of Tokyo, Japan

Fragmented Publicness: The Social Dimension of Religion, Ethnicity and the Discourse in Post-Socialist Siberia(05E)

It is usually argued that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, religion has been revitalized and restored. In fact, many churches, mosques and temples were rebuild, and a number of new religious groups were created. In questionnaires, so many people answer that they now believe a religion. In what sense, however, was religion revitalized? If so, in what social structure was it? The problematic here is to what extent and in what social sense religion emerged in contemporary Russia. The author describes and analyses the example in the Republic of Buriatiia, based on his fieldwork data and comparing another case in post-socialist countries. Especially, the ethnicity concerning and the discourse on the religion are focused. Finally, the author re-examines the theoretical studies of publicness in the post-socialist scene.

Organized panel