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Dumézil (1898-1986), classified societies and myths based on three principles to explain ancient cultures and drew analogies about the belief systems and social structures of Indo-European societies. He also claimed that societies were organized around three main functional principles: noble class, farmers and artisans, and the warriors. According to Dumézil, the relationship between these three classes can be seen in mythological stories and rituals. Dumézil's Trinity theory attempts to define the Indo-European cultural tradition based on socio-political categories. Experts have argued in parallel that the theory tends to generalize and that not all societies conform to these three class structures. It should also be discussed whether the universal patterns proposed by the theory are applicable to every cultural area within the Indo-European domain. In this article, the function of myths in the analysis of social structure has been evaluated through the lens of certain followers of the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers an overview of the history and current status of the journal Religion (Routledge). Its authors have co-edited the journal since 2008. It reviews aspects of the journal's history and its profile as a generalist, international disciplinary journal in the study of religion/s. It offers bibliometric overview of the journal, in comparison with 49 other SoR journals, followed by a discussion of journals as business venues and of changes brought about by Open Access, including challenges posed by new publishers and new types of (mega)journals. The article concludes with reflection on the peer review process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article engages with utopian studies as an interdisciplinary field, scrutinizing the contested, yet prevailing bifurcated conceptualization of 'utopia' as either an ideal or praxis. Drawing upon Leonard N. Primiano's notion of 'vernacular religion' as a comprehensive approach for overcoming epistemologically problematic models in theorizing religion, I propose the concept of vernacular utopia as a methodological tool for the comparative study of utopian worldmaking beyond conceptual binaries, such as blueprint versus practice, or religious versus secular. My case example is New Harmony, one of the most famous 19th-century emigrant settlements in the US, where pietists and early socialists encountered and implemented their respective blueprints at the same geographical locale. Focusing on the historiographical roots of Primiano's concept, my objective is to substantiate the vernacular perspective within historical methodology by illustrating how the approach fosters alternative perspectives on source materials and integrates new sources into the historical study of religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the changing significance of the Solemn League and Covenant in the century and a half following its negotiation by the parliamentary regimes of England and Scotland in 1643. The Solemn League had three careers. Until the late 1640s, it was the basis for an Anglo-Scottish alliance. But by the 1660s, Scottish Presbyterians conceived of the Solemn League's religious commitments as binding particularly in Scotland, rather than across the three Stuart kingdoms. Well into the eighteenth century, the Solemn League continued to constrain the attitudes and behaviour of large numbers of conscientious Scottish Presbyterians. In its third career, however, Scots understood the Solemn League more historically than constitutionally. They revered its seventeenth-century adherents, even as they criticised the Solemn League's terms and objectives. Though previous scholars have explored each of the Solemn League's three careers, the transitions between them are not well understood. This article reconstructs the ways in which Scots rethought the Solemn League from the late 1640s to the early 1660s, to explain how its first career gave way to its second. The article then analyses a series of mid- and late eighteenth-century debates about the Solemn League. The more historical and critical perspectives on the Solemn League associated with its third career emerged from disputes within the Church of Scotland and rivalry between its ministers and members of new dissenting Presbyterian Churches. By tracing changes in how the Solemn League was understood, therefore, the article comments on the growth of religious diversity in Scotland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the late Ottoman period, a paradigm shift in the information framework considered to be the content of general culture, as well as the substitution of primary reference sources with new European works on numerous topics, served as catalysts for the authors of the time to compose texts on a spectrum of previously unexplored subjects. Moreover, the emergence of the history of religions as an independent scientific discipline, too, played a significant role in the production of literature in this field in the Ottoman sphere. In this article, the efforts of two Ottoman authors, Şemseddin Sâmî and Ahmed Midhat Efendi, contemporaries who experienced the same century and authored works falling within the purview of history of religion, to understand and interpret Buddhism are discussed. Apart from examining the knowledge transmitted from preceding works on the subject to Sâmi and Midhat, the article also delves into the biographies of both authors, given the strong prospect that life stories are highly likely to have shaped their thoughts. The tenet of this study is constituted of a comparative analysis of Sâmî's Esâtîr and Ahmed Midhat's Tedrîsî Târih-i Edyân, in the context of Buddhism. These two books offer valuable insights into the strategies devised by two intellectuals in the 19th century within the Ottoman world to comprehend a religion to which they had no direct exposure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dispensationalism is a significant theological movement in the United States, especially within Evangelical Christianity. Dispensations refer to the periods that adherents of this belief separate in explaining world history. These periods are generally designated as seven eras in which the relationship between God and humanity was established in varying ways. The idea of dispensationalism was developed by John Nelson Darby. His literal and futuristic interpretation led him to distinguish the roles of Israel and the Church in the Bible prophecies. After Darby, C. I. Scofield played a crucial role in popularizing Darby's ideas in the United States with the publication of his Scofield Reference Bible. This article examines the historical process of dispensationalism and focuses on its founder, John Nelson Darby, and his views on dispensationalism from a historical perspective. The article concludes that Darby's dispensationalism is widely accepted by Evangelicals, that the rapture and the separation of the Church and Israel in the God's divine plan have provided the theological basis for Evangelical Christians' sup- port for Israel and have had various effects on American popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern çağda yaşanan değişim ve dönüşümler dinî inanç ve pratiklere de yansımış ve din fenomeninin geleneksel sınırlarını aşarak kurumsal bir otorite olmaktan çıkıp daha ziyade bireysel deneyimleri merkeze alan bir yönde ilerlemesine neden olmuştur. Dinî söylemlerin çeşitlenmesine yol açan bu süreçle birlikte dinin, bireylerin yaşamlarını anlamlandırmada hâlâ önemli bir rol oynadığı, ancak bu rolün giderek daha esnek ve sorgulanabilir bir yapıya büründüğü görülmektedir. Benzer bir değişim sürecinin ateist düşüncede de yaşanması, bireysel inançsızlığı temsil eden klasik ateizm anlayışından uzaklaşılmasına ve geleneksel dinî inançları hedef alan yeni bir ateist akımın doğmasına yol açmıştır. ‘Yeni Ateizm’ olarak adlandırılan bu akım yalnızca tanrı inancını reddetmekle kalmayıp aynı zamanda geleneksel dinî kurumları, öğretileri ve uygulamaları katı bir tutum içerisinde eleştiren, dahası, bilimin ve rasyonalitenin dinin yerine geçmesi gerektiğini savunan bir yaklaşımı temsil etmektedir. Nitekim yeni ateizmin yükselişi, yüzyıllardan beri süregelen din ve ateizm arasındaki karşıtlığa yeni bir boyut kazandırarak bu iki olgu arasındaki geleneksel çatışmanın ötesine geçmiş, dinleri taklitleri aracılığıyla alaya alan ve ‘ateist din’ ya da ‘parodi din’ olarak adlandırılan yeni bir eleştiri biçiminin ortaya çıkmasına zemin hazırlamıştır. Bahsi geçen konu bağlamında bu makale çalışması, ateist düşüncenin mizahî bir yansıması olarak ortaya çıkan ‘parodi din’ kavramını ele almakta ve bu kavramı 2005’te ABD’de doğan Uçan Spagetti Canavarı Kilisesi örnekliğinde incelemektedir. Pastafaryanizm olarak da adlandırılan Uçan Spagetti Canavarı Kilisesi, dünyanın dört bir tarafında edindiği çok sayıdaki üyesi ve bu üyelerin, inançlarının yasal olarak tanınmasına yönelik başlattıkları hukukî girişimler sayesinde giderek popülerlik kazanmaktadır. Ülkemizde de ‘Türkiye Pastafaryan Cemaati’ adı altında toplanan çok sayıda Pastafaryan mevcuttur. Uluslararası literatürde din araştırmaları kapsamında pek çok açıdan incelemeye tabi tutulan Pastafaryanizm’i, kapsamlı bir biçimde ele alan Türkçe bir çalışmaya rastlanmamış olması, bu araştırmanın temel motivasyonunu oluşturmuştur. Literatürdeki eksikliğe katkı sağlayacağına inanılan bu çalışmanın temel tezi, parodi din kavramının oluşumuna ateist bir zemin üzerine inşa edilen kurgusal argümanların kaynaklık ettiği ve Uçan Spagetti Canavarı Kilisesi’ne ait temel öğretilerin bahsi geçen kurgusal argümanlarla benzer bir yapılanmaya sahip olduğudur. Bu bağlamda çalışmada öncelikle parodi din kavramının hangi etmenlere bağlı olarak ne zaman ortaya çıktığı, tam olarak neyi ifade ettiği, Russell, Sagan, Baggini ve Dawkins gibi ünlü ateistler tarafından öne sürülen kurgusal argümanların parodi dinlerin oluşumunda nasıl bir rol oynadığı gibi hususlar ele alınıp değerlendirilmiştir. Ardından günümüzün popüler parodi dinleri arasında yer alan Uçan Spagetti Canavarı Kilisesi’nin tarihî geçmişi, temel öğretileri, kutsal metinleri, ritüelleri ile din özgürlüğü bağlamında yasal bir din olarak kabul görmek için verdikleri hukukî mücadele örnekleri üzerinde durulmuştur. Böylelikle bahsi geçen ateist bilim adamlarına ait kurgusal argümanlarla Uçan Spagetti Canavarı Kilisesi’nin kurgusal öğretisi arasındaki uyum ve benzerliklerin ortaya konulması amaçlanmıştır. Çalışmanın amaçlarından bir diğeri, parodi dinlerin birey ve toplum üzerindeki etkilerinin anlaşılmasını sağlayabilecek saha araştırmalarına teorik bir zemin hazırlamaktır.

The article focuses on the significance of advertisements in historical Jewish press as a window into everyday life and major themes of Jewish history, including nationalism, social and economic situations, and cultural choices. It discusses three readings of advertisements which contribute to understanding various aspects of Jewish history, encompassing consumer identity, occultism, and the economic, cultural, and religious history of Jews in different contexts.

Eschatological beliefs have matured alongside both biblical composition and Christian history. This evolution can be traced using cultural evolutionary studies. The process reflects attempts to adapt to new conditions and challenges—sometimes giving place to more focused views, but also sometimes to failures and dysfunctional forms or fruitless variations. It becomes a theological duty to assess this evolution better. The key element is the reception of these eschatological beliefs, to discern what expressions of them are more helpful in encouraging Christian fidelity, coping with distress, and engaging with individual and societal challenges. In this article, we outline a research programme that links eschatology to anthropology, and that tries to analyse beliefs according to state‐of‐the‐art methods, such as evolutionary cultural studies and research on the believing process. We also contribute a case study based on the concept of hell to test the proposed approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes and transformations experienced in the modern era have been reflected in religious beliefs and practices and have caused the phenomenon of religion to move beyond its traditional boundaries from being an institutional authority to a direction centered on individual experiences. With this process, which has led to the diversification of religious discourses, it is seen that religion still plays an important role in making sense of individuals' lives. Still, this role has become more flexible and questionable. A similar process of change in atheist thought has led to a move away from the classical atheism, which represents individual disbelief, and the emergence of a new atheist movement that targets traditional religious beliefs. This movement, called 'New Atheism', represents an approach that rejects the belief in God, criticizes traditional religious institutions, teachings, and practices in a rigid manner, and argues that science and rationality should replace religion. As a matter of fact, the rise of new atheism has added a new dimension to the centuries-old opposition between religion and atheism, going beyond the traditional conflict between these two phenomena and paving the way for the emergence of a new form of criticism called 'atheist religion' or 'parody religion', which mocks religions through their imitations. In the context of the aforementioned issue, this article deals with the concept of 'parody religion', which emerged as a humorous reflection of atheist thought, and examines this concept in the example of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which was born in the USA in 2005. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, also known as Pastafarianism, is gaining popularity thanks to the large number of members it has gained all over the world and the legal initiatives these members have launched for the legal recognition of their beliefs. In our country, many Pastafarians gather under the name of 'the Pastafarian Community of Turkey'. The main motivation for this study is the fact that there is no Turkish study that comprehensively analyses Pastafarianism, which has been subjected to examination in many aspects within the scope of religious studies in the international literature. The main thesis of this study, which is believed to contribute to the deficiency in the literature, is that fictional arguments built on an atheistic ground are the source of the formation of the concept of parody religion and that the basic teachings of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster have a similar structure with the aforementioned fictional arguments. In this context, the study first analyses and evaluates when the concept of parody religion emerged depending on which factors, what exactly it refers to, and what role the fictional arguments put forward by famous atheists such as Russell, Sagan, Baggini, and Dawkins played in the formation of parody religions. Then, the historical background of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which is one of today's popular parody religions, its basic teachings, sacred texts, rituals, and examples of the legal struggle to be recognized as a legal religion in the context of freedom of religion are discussed. Thus, it is aimed to reveal the harmony and similarities between the fictional arguments of the aforementioned atheist scholars and the fictional doctrine of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Another aim of the study is to prepare a theoretical basis for field research that can provide an understanding of the effects of parody religions on the individual and society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Images and texts in Spanish colonial manuscripts tell us that the Aztecs sacrificed humans. Among these sources, none has received a more iconic documentary status than the Franciscan missionary Bernardino de Sahagún's tlamictiliztli account. This combines graphic depiction with text in Spanish and the Aztec language Nahuatl. Although Sahagún's account is compelling and persuasive, its seeming realism dissipates when the analytical focus turns from the final product to its production. Using a new source-critical narrative approach that privileges methodological reflection, I analyze two versions of Sahagún's composition to examine how the account was elicited, editorialized, and produced. Astonishing inconsistencies stress how Sahagún augmented a 'sacrificial' interpretation of Aztec violence, complicating both the testimonial value attributed to his work and an emic Aztec sense of 'human sacrifice.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the significance of J. G. Herder's analogical thinking in the history of comparative practices. It shows how Herder's comparative method, of positing one phenomenon as another in its own singular and inimitable manner, emerges from his concept of God and nature as informed by Baruch Spinoza, as well as his study of scientific and cultural phenomena, including the active mechanisms of poesis as sensory perception. While Herder's concept of comparison and his analogical practices influenced prominent thinkers contemporary to him such as J.W. Goethe, the specificity of his comparative method has been overlooked by scholars past and present, such as Michel Foucault, as Herder's approach resists assimilation in histories of comparativism centered on nineteenth-century projects of comparison. Yet his outlook on the tension between difference and identity offers fresh insight into relations between distinct cultures and entities without effacing their particularity or placing them in static hierarchies. Herder's comparative method provides new perspectives on contemporary debates on the benefits of and dangers of historical analogies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]