Replication as Religious Practice,Temporality as Religious Problem

This article explores how religious communities actualize the virtual problem of temporality. Analysing two case studies from contemporary America, Mormon Trek re-enactment and a creationist theme park re-creating Noah’s ark, I argue that replication is a strategy for constructing a relationship with time in which a strict past–present divide is collapsed through affective means. This work contributes to comparative studies in the anthropology of religion and temporalizing the past.     

Apartheid,Religious Pluralism,and the Evolution of the Right to Religious Freedom in South Africa

The apartheid history of South Africa contains racial and religious discrimination, both running parallel to and supporting each other. South Africa's exodus from a society of forced religious homogeneity to one of celebrating religious pluralism adds valuable and unique patterns of thought to the promotion of religious pluralism and religious freedom. A brief history is presented of religion within the context of racial discrimination and eventual democracy in South Africa. The current plural religious demography of South Africa is presented to create a sense of the extent of diversity in the country and the extent of religious pluralism that should be considered for today. This demographical position necessitates an investigation into the current legal position on dealing with such a religiously plural state as well as the challenges it presents. This is also necessary in order to present the evolution of religious pluralism in an oppressive state to the right to religious freedom in democratic South Africa. This evolution can also serve as an example internationally to countries struggling with the issue of religious pluralism. The article is also of importance to sensitise South Africa to existing and escalating challenges against religious pluralism within the country.     

Abandonment,Authority, and Religious Continuity in Post-Classical Greece

Scholars have frequently invoked the abandonment of Early Christian basilicas in the sixth and seventh centuries as key evidence for the end of antiquity in Greece. The standard narrative treats the archaeological evidence for abandonment as the physical manifestation of decline recorded in textual sources. The neat equivalency between archaeology and text ignores the role that abandonment plays in the narrative strategies of the textual sources. By reexamining the tie between text and archaeology, we can read the life cycle of the Early Christian basilica in Greece more critically and consequently expand our understanding of this dynamic period in Greek history.     

Religious Pluralism

Abstract

This essay aims to lay out standards, personal and communal, for openness about religious diversity, without declining into a patronizing or trivializing relativism and without succumbing to the kindred weakness of skepticism. It is not inconsistent, I argue, to hold fast to one's religious convictions and practices while respecting and learning from other religious (and non-religious) traditions. Critical appropriation is the key here. For states and communities as well, openness and indeed support are warranted. But here too critical scrutiny is called for. Social harmony does not require unanimity or consensus, nor does diversity entail incommensurability, let alone inevitable tragedy. Sharp divisions between faith and practice are often artificial and unnecessary for a wholesome pluralism. The bien pensant reduction of all religious commitments to an imagined common core is unhelpful and often rightfully unwelcome. But equally unhelpful is the romantic if admiring stereotyping of the exotic. What's recommended here, societally, is the even-handed fostering of religious traditions (based on voluntary affiliation and support), on the grounds that, like education and the arts, religious communities promote human flourishing. But the same reasoning cautions against support for those religious trends that thwart or stymie human well-being. Societies do not require the level of coherence that individuals may pursue. But neither can they afford, for their own sake and that of their members, to ignore dangerous and destructive claims upon the human spirit.     

千年佛宗：国清寺谜踪

如果把博大精深的中国佛教比作一片森林,那么天台,就是林子里最高大的那棵菩提树。 苍松古梅、黄墙朱瓦的国清寺是树根,深植于这里厚重的文化土壤。 晨钟暮鼓、梵音渺渺的高明寺是树干,延续着那些久远的历史传奇。     

Religious StreamersIn Tibet

BeligiousstreamersareusedmainlyininsideandoutsideTibetanBuddhistlamaseriesforpeopletoworshipBuddha.Majoronesincludeflyingstreamers,pillarstreamersandsutrastreamers.RW8~.Tailoredwithsilksandsatins,theflyingstreamersarecoloredlongpieceswithnarrowtopandwidebottom.Threepiecestbrmagroup,andthreegroupsformacom-pleteflyingstreamer.FlyingstreamersareusedtogreettheBuddha.Theyaretieduptol.5-2-meter-longpoles,topofwhicharedel-icatelydecoratedwithbronzepatterns.PlLLAR8TREAMER8.Naturally,suchstream…     

Christian Capital: Singapore,Evangelical Flows and Religious Hubs

Recent scholarship has pointed out the ways in which religions are increasingly commodified, primarily through two mechanisms: the monetisation of religious objects and practices, and the materialisation and extension of religious-symbolic power through new technologies and practices. These two mechanisms of monetisation and materialisation provide very concrete ways of understanding religious commodification, but they do not provide a complete picture of how religious capital is created and sustained in the holistic context of society, city and nation considered in relation to international capital flows. “Christian Capital” includes not only the commodity, consumerist and media empires particularly associated with global-reach “megachurches”, but also the less-tangible situational, relational, human-social and influential wealth created between religious agencies and their urban-national contexts. Using the case of Christian agencies in Singapore and their strategic creation of transnational influences, this paper offers a conception of Christian capital that incorporates not only the materialisation of religious influence in terms of finances and commodities, but also its expression in less tangible but significant ways in terms of the creation of an international “brand” of Singapore Christianity.     

宗教观念,犹太艺术的原始规范

在犹太艺术的发展史上,以摩西律法为核心的犹太教的神学观念,对犹太艺术观念及艺术形态发生了十分重要的规范作用。一方面,犹太人的音乐天赋得到了充分的表现,通过音乐犹太人深厚而复杂的宗教神圣寄托及世俗精神生活都找到了表达媒质;另一方面,犹太艺术的抽象精神作为一种重要传统,在犹太文学特别是希伯来《圣经》的文学特质上有突出的表现。在《圣经》中,运用了众多非具象化的修辞方式、技巧,其中最具代表性、最具《圣经》文学特质的修辞手法是象征和意象。这种规范作用往往是经由了从宗教观念到文化观念的转化而发生的,因而这种文化规范的效用是极其隐在、深刻和广泛的。