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It is attested, historically, that in the first centuries of the Common Era, Enochian literature was widely used among Christians, mainly the book of I Enoch, but also, in a more discreet way, the writings of II Enoch and III Enoch (this the least exercised influence). The official position in Western Christianity, which decoded I Enoch's writing from the list of useful literature to Christian religiosity, was given at the Council of Laodicea (4th century) which stated that the only names of angels recognized as sacred would be that of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, removing I Enoque (who quotes several names of angels) from the West Christian exegetical scenario for centuries. Among the Jews literature was quite influential until the end of the first century Council of Jamnia, which considered only as sacred writings for religion those produced on the borders of the Holy Land in the Hebrew language, marginalizing I Enoque originally written in Aramaic. However, the same did not happen in some regions of the East where Christianity continued to use the book of I Enoque. Starting from the prism that Islam is a monotheistic religion that in its birth exchanged intensely with Judeo-Christian literatures, the article points to a plausible influence of the book of I Enoque in the construction of the Islamic apocalyptic taking as comparative basis the book The Scale of Mohammed. The article is bibliographic in nature and is structured on the comparative method, aiming to present narratological confluences between the writings.

Praying with a string of beads is not exclusive to Catholicism. Various Asian religions have had a similar tradition since before the advent of Christ. This paper addresses the parallels between different religious traditions, as well as the origin, formation and spread of the Holy Rosary and its variants called “crowns.” It also analyzes the intersections between Buddhist and Catholic prayer traditions during the period of the evangelization of Japan (1549-1639). To this end, it draws on a theoretical framework aimed at interpreting the acceptance of Christianity from the point of view of ordinary people, by comparing the similarities and differences between the beliefs, practices, and organizational structure of popular Buddhism (in particular, Jōdo-shū and Jōdo-Shinshū, branches of Pure Land Buddhism) and those of Catholicism.

In this paper I look at a specific Hebrew religious term, Tikkun Olam, to examine the manner in which it signifies differently in two specific cases. While we understand that meaning is carried in both denotation and connotation, and while a genealogy of meaning is often useful to understand the manner in which meaning has changed across time, this paper recounts the manner in which a single word may signify differently synchronically, at a single point in history.

This essay explores the possibility of a narrative theology of culture by drawing on the trinitarian metaphysics of Robert W. Jenson. Postliberal or narrative theologies have often been said to hinder the intercultural translation of the gospel by promoting the cultural forms of Western Christianity as the ideal, but I argue here that Jenson’s theology (enlisting some distinctively postliberal themes) creates a critical distance between the church and Christian civilization, while also enabling the free creation and expression of diverse cultural expressions of the gospel. The first section of the paper is a critical project, using a trinitarian metaphysics to rule out any reduction of Christian culture to its Western expressions. Since the community of the Trinity is the one cultural form to which God’s people strive, and because the church’s full participation in this community is eschatological, Christian cultural expression cannot be reduced to one particular cultural form. This creates distance between the church and the world, preventing a strict identification of Christianity with Western culture. The second part of the paper then offers a constructive project, demonstrating how a trinitarian understanding of creaturely freedom enables the development of human culture. By grounding creation’s freedom in the freedom of the triune persons, a trinitarian metaphysics enables the free and loving development of creation in an infinite number of ways. In doing so, Jenson’s metaphysics does not compromise the diversity of human cultures, but instead allows human cultures to flourish in their endless variety.

The writings of German missionary Hans Haas (1868–1934) were seminal texts which greatly influenced how many Europeans came to understand Japanese Buddhism. Haas became a significant actor in this early reception of Japanese Buddhism after he began working as an editor for the journal Zeitschrift für Missionskunde und Religionswissenschaft while stationed in Japan from 1898–1909. Haas covered all areas and aspects of Japanese Buddhism, from editing and translating texts such as Sukhavati Buddhism (1910a) into German to cross-religious comparisons of Buddhist songs and legends. This paper seeks to identify various elements which contributed to the development of Japanese Buddhism in Europe, paying special attention to the role of Haas’s work. In particular, it seeks to reconstruct his understanding of Pure Land Buddhism by demonstrating how a Protestant interpretative scheme, particularly that of Lutheran Protestantism, dominated much of the early reception of Japanese Buddhism in Europe.

This article focuses on the recovery of censored Jewish texts in contemporary Orthodox rabbinic literature. I show that contemporary Orthodox scholars make use of critical methods which are close to those of the historical, philological, and biblical sciences, in order to reconstruct those portions of the Jewish tradition which were omitted or transformed in the early-modern period by Christian censorship or by Jews with an “eye” to the censor. As the censored texts were mostly omitted or changed because they were recognized as offensive to Christian sensitivities, their current recovery entails also a renewed discussion of Judaism’s attitude to Christianity. I argue that the “uncensoring” of Jewish traditions is closely connected with expressions of animosity towards Christianity. The combination of this animosity with the use of modern scientific methods brings the common cultural assumptions which relate resistance to inter-faith rapprochement with “traditionalism,” and a reactionary approach to modernism, into question.

Analizar las narrativas de las publicaciones sobre racismos y discriminación racial en el número 2/2017 de la Revista El Mar y la Montaña de Guantánamo desvenda la pertinencia y actualidad de estos debates en Cuba. De igual manera, las publicaciones en la revista nos aproximan a las brechas ocultas y/o poco exploradas del tema racial en la realidad social cubana, a través de los temas: la subversión anticubana; el pensamiento y discurso afrofeminista; el debate en torno al término afrocubano/a; la presencia africana; las cuestiones raciales en la cultura Rastafari y los avances y retrocesos en la lucha antirracista. El tema racial, en Cuba, aún causa inconvenientes y provoca posicionamiento acalorados, como consecuencia de la invisibilidad que se creó, por décadas, alrededor de este. Esto se debe, entre otras razones, a un idealismo revolucionario que dio por resuelto “el problema racial”, al concebirse una política de igualdad social que desde el punto de vista clasista otorgaba los mismo derechos y deberes sin distinción de raza o género a todas las personas. Partiendo de estas cuestiones se indaga en las categorías racismo y discriminación racial, a través, del análisis de las publicaciones del número 2/2017 de la Revista El Mar y la Montaña. Para ello se utilizó el método Análisis de Contenidos.

Purpose: The advent and spread of Baptist Mission Christianity in Mbumland from 1927 constituted one of the major determinants of cultural transformation in the area. The process was catalysed by the multifaceted nature of the Baptist Mission’s approach at Proselytization – evangelism, education and health. As a consequence, knowledge of Baptist Mission activities in Mbumland and beyond was commonplace. Like most write-ups with ethnocentric slant, incipient literature on Christianity in Mbumland, emphasized the debilitating effects of the impinging culture on indigenous cultural life ways. Methodology: This article employs primary and authoritative secondary data to argue that the spread of the Baptist faith in Mbumland between 1927 and 2008 rather led to culture sharing as the contemporary practice of the faith exuded a blend of both cultures. Results: The study therefore demonstrates that while Mbumland was being Christianised, Christianity itself imbibed Wimbum values and adopted an indigenous complexion specially to suit the practical circumstances. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study positions itself within a peculiar academic niche which emphasizes that the advent of the Baptist Mission in Mbumland led to indigenous culture simultaneously affecting and being affected by Christian values. While extant works in this thematic specialisation have often either emphasized the effects of one of the variables on the other, the peculiarity of this work is its midway position which spotlights the sharing mechanisms wherein, indigenous culture affected and was being affected by Christian values since the advent of the Baptist Mission in Mbumland. Keywords: Indigenous Culture, Western Christianity, Wimbum, Baptist Mission, Syncretism

Translation of: Scheler, M. 1986. “Über östliches und westliches Christentum” [in German]. In Schriften zur Soziologie und Weltanschauungslehre, vol. 6 of Gesammelte Werke, ed. by M.S. Frings, 99–115. 15 vols. Bonn: Bouvier Verlag Herbert Grundmann.

In this article, I compare two forms of Christian temproality in the Faroe Islands. In so doing, I problematize some of the ways in which the idea of history has been applied theoretically to studies of churches and congregations in the country. As a remedy to what I see as the shortcomings of social theory when applied to Pentecostal temporality, I propose seeing the latter as a form of extended present. This is set in contrast to dispensationalism, which sees historical and theological time as occuring in a sequential manner. Dispensationalism in this context refers more than anything to the Plymouth Brethren, who make up the biggest group of non-Lutheran Christians in the Faroe Islands. Finally, I reflect on how temporality is shaped by operational goals that differ between similar, yet subtly different Christian practitioners. Keywords: Faroe Islands, Pentecostalism, temporality, history, theology, presence, dispensationalism, orthodoxy

This research speaks about a felling/thinking education in knowledge and practices of popular education present in the community Hare Krishna called Ecovillage Vraja Dhama, located in the rural area of Caruaru - PE. The object of study is the knowledge and pedagogical practices woven by its residents in Ecovillage, field in which popular education takes place, understanding that it takes place on a concrete floor. As methodology, we serve the bibliographic review and the participant observation. As categories of analysis we use “Ecovillages”, “Popular Education” and “Education and the Hare Krishna Movement”. In the results, we emphasize that it is important to broaden our vision so that we can perceive and experience other knowledge. This knowledge generates a strangeness of the look and, therefore, other practices of feeling. It is a way of decolonizing the patriarchal, dualistic, oppressive and vertical gaze in the production of knowledge and, thus, perceiving other gazes in a construction and experience of a felling/thinking education.

Attitudes towards the fourth way differ from incredulity and embarrassment to seeing it as a profound demonstration of God’s existence. Aside from general treatments on all the five ways, the fourth way has received little by way of direct commentary in comparison to the other better known (and arguably better appreciated) ways. In this article I seek to present Aquinas’s fourth way as a way to God which makes use of his general and more familiar metaphysical reasoning. This serves to give the reading of the fourth way as a profound argument for God’s existence, and also to integrate it with the other four ways given the common metaphysical backdrop.

Jewish communities often do not endorse the idea of intermarriage, and Orthodox Judaism opposes the idea of marrying out. Intermarriage is often perceived as a threat that may jeopardise Jewish continuity as children of such a relationship may not identify as Jews. When a Jewish woman marries out, her children will in any case become Jewish by halakhah – the Jewish law – by which Judaism is inherited from mother to child – and thus usually faces less difficulties over acceptance in Jewish communities. Even though the Torah speaks of patrilineal descent, in post-biblical times, the policy was reversed in favour of the matrilineal principle, and children of Jewish men and non-Jewish women must therefore go through the conversion process if they wish to join a Jewish congregation according to most Jewish denominational requirements. The aim of this article is to analyse what happens when Jewish men, who belong to Finland’s Orthodox communities, marry out. Do they ensure Jewish continuity, and raise their children Jewish, and how do they act as Yidishe tates – Jewish fathers? If yes, how do they do so, and what problems do they face? These questions are answered through an analysis of thirteen semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with male members of the Jewish Community of Helsinki and Turku in 2019–20.

As a minority within a minority, the Dublin Jewish Progressive Congregation (DJPC) barely features in the history of either Irish Jewry or Britain’s Liberal Judaism (LJ) movement. Any discussions of the congregation have been superficial; it is dismissed as religiously lax in the orthodox-led, largely anecdotal Irish Jewish historiography, but as conservative in the LJ context. This article critically examines the DJPC in its own right and “from within” for the first time, drawing on local memory and a range of material, personal and archival. I begin by querying exactly what the synagogue’s founders were seeking to achieve in establishing an Irish outpost of Jewish reform. The incremental development of a distinctive Irish brand of progressive Judaism is then investigated through the formative influence of the DJPC’s primary institutional relationships: that with the local orthodox community, and that with the Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues (ULPS) in London.

Much of Western Christianity continues to follow late medieval translation practices in translating yahweh and kurios. Since then, mainstream usage of “Lord” has slumped and evolved, with the little remaining usage often carrying a distinctly sinister connotation. The deep attachment to “Lord” within Christianity constitutes a second problem: although it creates methodological inconsistency, its historical super-sanctified status is likely the reason the terminology seems so impervious to change. Septuagint data highlight a further problem for sustaining “the LORD/Lord,” since doing so creates a grammatical mismatch with kurios (with regard to the definite article). These three problems call for reassessment of the ongoing suitability of “Lord” in English Bible translation and for a more context-driven methodology. This is defined and applied in a range of New Testament contexts for the purposes of demonstrating feasibility (rather than finality).

The purpose of this study was to establish effects of Western Christianity and African Traditional Religion on moral and cultural development of the people of Trans Nzoia County. Morals and core values play a very important role in the upbringing of the youth in any given community in any given Geographical part on this planet. The study will be guided by the following objectives: Establish effects of Christianity on moral development, Determine effects of African Traditional Religion on moral development, Compare and contrast effects of moral development of Western Christianity and African Traditional Religion and to determine the role played by morals and core values in both Christianity and African Traditional Religion. Mixed Research method combined both qualitative and quantitative was employed in the study to unearth the hidden truth underlying in the study. The target population was 500 people which gave a sample size of 50Bishops and Pastors of 50 Churches. The researcher employed purposive and simple random sampling techniques. The researcher used two guiding theories in the study: the theory of Atonement on the Christian part and the theory of dual allegiance on the part of African Traditional Religion. Data was collected by use of Questionnaires and Interview schedules. The raw data was analyzed and descriptively availed for facilitation of research objectives and research questions. Computer program SPSS was employed to give the final accurate and precise results of Research findings. The findings indicate that the intrusion of foreign cultures in Trans Nzoia County has helped water down the quality of African morals on one part and the other part there is improvement on cultural and core values of the people of Trans Nzoia County. The conclusion on the same is that since communication and mobility has been so much developed in these resent times, it is easy for people from different parts of the world to meet and interact at any time at any given Geographical zone on the planet. The study recommends that the citizens of Trans Nzoia should be careful enough in considering the kind of morals to be applied in this county since the county is an Agricultural hub where people from different parts of the Earth converge either for commercial purposes or for learning Agri-business techniques.

In Central Europe, medieval rotundas are found in great numbers, with the subject strongly connected to the spread of Christianity amongst peoples living in the area. The aesthetics of pagan religions is still present, but they adapted to Christian functions. Thus, on the border of Eastern and Western Christianity, a new design was created.This study introduces the features of round churches in the former Kingdom of Hungary from the 10th to 14th century and places them in the context of the Central European rotundas.To examine the buildings, we considered aspects such as location, periods of construction, possible layout variations, functions and patron saints. The database we created regarding the rotundas in Central Europe was the foundation for the investigations. Using this analysis, the goal is to find underlying patterns, identify different groups of rotundas and provide an overview of the monuments, which could be used for further investigations in the topic.

Understanding how different religions are integrated into social work practice is important to enhancing diversity and inclusion within the profession. This article focuses on Orthodox Judaism, and...

Данная статья посвящена современным медитативным практикам, которые применяются западными христианами: как католиками, так и протестантами. Целью исследования является попытка определить, являются ли они нововведениями или это возврат к древней христианской практике. Выполненные в работе анализ различных практики их классификация демонстрируют их существенное разнообразие. Для понимания, являются ли они новыми или это возврат к древней традиции, используется сравнение с практикой Иисусовой молитвы. При ответе на данный вопрос помогает проведённая классификация, которая позволяет отнести каждый вид практик к определённому религиозному опыту. В конце определяются темы дальнейшего более глубокого исследования. This article is devoted to modern meditative practices used by Western Christians, both Catholics and Protestants. The purpose of the study is to try to determine if these practices are innovations or a return to ancient Christian traditions. Analysis and classification of various practices demonstrate their substantial diversity. To understand whether they are new or a return to an ancient tradition, a comparison with the practice of Jesus prayer is performed. To help answering this question, a classification was developed allowing to refer each type of practice to a specific religious experience. In the conclusion the author determines directions for further research.

The article maintains that the theological perspectives of RastafarI continue to be under-researched in the Caribbean context with perhaps more attention being paid to their contributions to the racial, musical and linguistic traditions of the region. In particular, Rasta theodicies are not as clearly articulated as other elements of its belief system even as it is recognised that RastafarI mansions and individual members do not hold homogenous beliefs about many things. The discussion takes as its starting point two prior reflections, “Just Desert or Just Deserts?: God and Suffering in these Perilous Days” (Perkins 2016) and “The Wages of (Sin) is Babylon: Rasta Versus Christian Religious Perspectives of Sin” (Perkins 2012); the former reflection highlights the insufficiency of traditional theodicy to answer the question: “if God is good, why does evil exist?” No one answer can sufficiently do justice to the many dimensions of the question. In that regard, Perkins (2016) argues for attention to the important “answer” that the radical suffering perspective offers to the discussion (Sarah Anderson Rajarigam (2004) too emphasises divine suffering or theopathos, as the response to radical suffering. She frames theopathos not just as an option within theodicy but as an alternative to theodicy, which she derides as “the spoilt child of enlightenment that self-destructively craves for theoretical and philosophical remedies for radical human suffering” (27).). Perkins (2012) explicates a particular Rasta understanding of sin and evil, which are important elements of any theodicy. For Rasta, sin is tri-dimensional – personal, inherited and corporate. Sin in its corporate or social dimension is the most salient as it is moral evil – a rejection of Jah’s will – which leads to the oppression of Jah’s people.

The topic of this paper is the complex and ambivalent relationship between the Reformed Churches and Judaism, moving from a kind of Philo-Semitism to Christian Zionism and support for the State of Israel on the one hand, to missionary movements among Jews to anti-Judaism, and the contribution to the horrors of the Holocaust on the other hand. In between the two extremes stands the respect for the Old Testament and the neglect of the Apocrypha and other early Jewish writings. The initial focus of this article will be on what Martin Luther and Jean Calvin wrote about Judaism at the beginning of the Reformation over 500 years ago. Secondly, the article will deal with the influence of mission activity toward Jews and the emergence of Liberal Judaism as both scholarship and theology in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. Lastly, the article will address the question of how the Holocaust and subsequent Jewish-Christian dialogue have changed the course of this relationship.

The paper discusses the 觀無量壽經 Guanwuliangshoujing (T. 365) in Old Uyghur. It is an important text of the Pure Land Buddhism known only in its original Chinese text. Several separated fragments in Old Uyghur are known. One fragment of the Turfan Collection in Berlin (U 1499) can be joined with a leaf of the Serindia Collection of the IOM (SI 1748). The result is presented here. One of its interesting differences is the list of 15 Bodhisattvas of which only Majuśrī is given by name in the Chinese original.

A significant body of empirical research has demonstrated associations connecting Jungian psychological type theory with a variety of religious preferences and practices among both Christian indivi...

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) correlates with disruptions in core beliefs, which within Orthodox Judaism may be linked to God. We hypothesise that CSA may negatively alter attitudes towards God for ...

Conservative Judaism claimed to be in the middle position between Orthodox and Reform Judaism attempting to maintain basic traditions while adapting to modern life. In its approach to reconstruction of religious thought, this position argued that to meet the challenges of the modern world, the key concepts of faith have to be redefined and reinterpreted in the light of modern science and knowledge. This paper highlights selected issues advocated by Conservative Judaism for reconstruction of religious thought, and provides an objective analysis on its position. It was found that despite of claiming themselves as belong to mediating position, Conservative Judaism seemed to ignore their scriptures and depended much on human interpretations. This is obviously contradicted to an Islamic approach which upholds that the fundamental sources of the Qur’an and Sunnah should always be referred to as primary references despite our reliance on modern knowledge and rational inquiries.

PurposeThis paper is based on several years of ethnographic and desk-based research studying the Hare Krishna movement. The work is the first in a series exploring how segments of specific faith communities embrace dietary veganism and how this relates to the concept of transformational learning/change in the context of sustainability transitions. The focus is on how these communities embrace a plant-based diet representing different rationales and attitudes of learning in the process of organisational change.Design/methodology/approachI investigated Krishna practices extensively by visiting and volunteering in several of its farm communities in Europe. I used the mixed method of qualitative observations, participation, in-depth interviews and email interviews during a period of ten weeks spent in the communities altogether. I had not been in contact with Hare Krishna believers before the fieldwork.FindingsKrishna veganism is analysed in the context of sustainability transitions by drawing on the concept of transformative (third-order) learning/change. Findings reveal an unexpected tendency to veganism despite the movement's worldview and radical commitment to dairy consumption. By calling into question their own collective dietary paradigm, the Hare Krishna community provides an exemplary case of third-order learning and change in an organisational context.Originality/valueThe paper invites scholars to include third-order learning into sustainability transitions frameworks while aiming to address the shortcomings of theorising levels of learning. The connection between Krishna veganism, third-order learning and sustainability transitions has not been put forward before.

Does the moral badness of pain depend on who feels it? A common, but generally only implicitly stated view, is that it does not. This view, ‘unitarianism’, maintains that the same interests of different beings should count equally in our moral calculus. Shelly Kagan’s project in How to Count Animals, more or less (2019) is to reject this common view, and develop an alternative to it: a hierarchical view of moral status, on which the badness of pain does depend on who feels it. In this review essay, we critically examine Kagan’s argument for status hierarchy. In particular, we reject two of the central premises in his argument: that (1) moral standing is ultimately grounded in agency and (2) that unitarianism is overdemanding. We conclude that moral status may, despite Kagan’s compelling argument to the contrary, not be hierarchical.

In this article we argue that the open and clear presence of the regulation of sexuality for women in Orthodox Judaism allows for a remarkably conscious choice of sexual conduct. We listened to you...

Agudat Yisrael and the religious Zionist movement (Mizrachi) were the two largest and most influential political organizations of Orthodox Jewry during the first half of the twentieth century. Competing for the support of observant Jews, the two movements were enmeshed in bitter ideological and political struggles. Nevertheless, due to the dire situation of European and Palestine Jewries their political representatives met during the late 1930s in Paris and London in order to negotiate possible avenues of cooperation. While these endeavors were unprecedented in the history of the two movements, they eventually failed. Due to their failure, earlier scholarship has dismissed these efforts as a “lost opportunity” for Orthodox Judaism and blamed Agudists for their unwillingness to overcome long-standing rivalries and ideological reservations. This article, in contrast, perceives the negotiations of 1938–1939 as an important window into intra-Orthodox dynamics during the first half of the twentieth century. Rather than stressing the difficulties of overcoming ideological barriers and the failures of non-Zionist Orthodoxy to adapt to the challenges of the modern age, the article argues that it was a careful weighing of political gains and risks on both sides that dominated the negotiations and determined their outcome. The insights gained from this close analysis of intra-Orthodox relations are of significance beyond the question of party politics, as the two rivals were not only influential political movements, but ultimately came to shape the social, cultural, and political realities of traditionalist Jewry in the State of Israel during its early years and well beyond.

For the first time in the Belarusian liturgical musicology analysis of the attitude of domestic composers to Christian sources: themes, images, style, church singing culture in general is carried out. It is proved that the interest of the Belarusian musicians of the period of state sovereignty focuses on two Christian denominations – the Western and Eastern European; that the compositions of composers in their essence are representatives of musical art, and not of liturgical singing practice, and also, that the basis of the composer’s work is the phenomenon of interpretation. Three types of composer interpretation of church tradition are distinguished: «leverage» (transposition, re-establishment), author’s transcription and conventionality. The main conclusion of the work: the spiritual stratum of the national musical culture of modern times, presented by composer creativity, is a peculiar aesthetic euphemism between Eastern and Western Christianity, which manifests itself in various aspects.

Social scientists who study the minds of gods claim that the omniscient gods of monotheistic religions are aware of the intent of their followers, unlike gods who are not omniscient. For this reaso...

This article examines the recent engagement with media by the closed Christian sect, the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (pbcc). Historically the pbcc have been reluctant to engage with mainstream media, preferring instead to keep their own council. However, the rejection by the Charity Commission for England and Wales of an application by a pbcc trust for charitable status proved to be a catalyst for significant and sustained media engagement. The concept of mediatization is utilised as a meta-process to frame the way the pbcc engaged with media in order to demonstrate how they provide ‘public benefit’ to the wider community, which was crucial to the successful gaining of charitable status.

British punk in the 1970s gave young women in the subculture the opportunity to play rock instruments that had previously been played by young men. They often learned to play through using reggae records, because the defined production made it easy to hear individual instruments. Much of 1970s reggae underlined Rastafarian principles regarding women’s behaviour, but these women ignored this aspect of the music and listened out for the sonic qualities of reggae. This article examines this apparent anomaly, noting a common purpose in the resistant musical activities of (especially women) punks and Rastas despite differences in culture and privilege between the two communities. New interviews by the author with Gina Birch from the Raincoats, and Tessa Pollitt from the Slits, are included to provide a retrospective viewpoint on this phenomenon.

The essay examines the relationship between Conservative Judaism and the neo-Hasidic movement that has come about in the 1960 s-1970 s in American Judaism. It analyzes moments of interaction and mu...

The article examines Orikuchi Shinobu’s novella, Shisha no sho [The Book of the Dead] (1939), as a discursively constructed amalgamation of multiple cultural and historical sources. Whereas Orikuchi tends to be considered the exponent of cultural nativism, the novella resists a nationalist impulse of extolling the legend of Taima Mandala and Princess Chūjō (Chūjōhime) as a paragon of the Japanese reception of Buddhism. According to the widely-known legend, Princess Chūjō, a member of the politically powerful Fujiwara clan in the Nara period, had woven in a day the mandala out of lotus threads shortly after completing one thousand copies of Shōsanjyōdo Busshōjukyō (the Amida sutra). Further the legend tells that she was welcomed to the Pure Land by Amida Buddha upon her death at the age of twenty nine. In The Book of the Dead her legendary labor opts out of simple appraisal for her devotional response to Buddhism, as though implicitly refuting the Yamato state’s political advocacy of the religion. In turn, Orikuchi’s modernist revisionism reanimates a spectacle of the antiquity, contextualizing the legend in the socio-political periphery of the Taima village. To this end, the novella calls forth a number of historical episodes, topographical images of the locality, and the transculturation of Buddhism in ancient Japan. Concretely, the narrative interweaves the tragedy of Prince Ōtsu who was executed for the treason plotted against the imperial government, a cult of Mount Futakami (today’s Nijōzan in Nara Prefecture), pre-Buddhist practice of worshipping the Sun, and the formation of Nissōkan in Japan’s early Buddhism. Through the dialogic unity of these motifs, Orikuchi deconstructs the legend of Princess Chūjō and the Taima Mandala, transforming it into a visionary narrative devoid of a single cultural and religious root.

The conceptual problems of the formation of the national doctrine of unitarism are covered. Recognizing the fact that the most multifaceted and complex problem is the establishment of the optimal form of government in Ukraine, it is proposed to introduce a separate vector in national constitutional science and education — unitaristics. In spite of the fact that in the field of political and legal science in general and modern constitutionalism, the issue of unitarism is quite actively discussed by scholars, scientists, politicians and public figures, the scientific knowledge in this field remains extremely controversial and fragmentary. Analyzing the complex of essential and substantive characteristics of unitarism as a phenomenon of modern constitutional law, outlines perspective directions of development of the unitarian doctrine. The synergistic connection between the theory of modern unitarism, the principles of unitarity of the state territory and the fundamental institutions of political-legal and state-administrative life of modern unitary states is shown. It proves that the unitary system is not only one of the important components of the process of achieving the tasks, goals and functions of most modern states, but also an immanent feature and strategic element of the mechanism of exercising their sovereign rights. Considering that unitarism is a multidimensional socio-political and constitutional phenomenon: it is an idea, a theory, a scientific direction, and a global social and constitutional practice, and a constitutional form of the existence and functioning of territorial communities, and the historical state of national statehood and Ukrainian regional civilization, and the form of realization of national identity and citizenship, etc., concludes the relevance and necessity of forming a unitarianist discourse in modern constitutional law science and education. In the opinion of the author, consistent conceptualization and institutionalization of the unitarianist will allow us to understand the deep processes that determine the emergence of the phenomenon of national unitarism, testify to the enormous civilizational role and axiological, ontological, epistemological, functional and psycho-logical features in the course of its political structuring, formation of market economy relations, implementation of eco-humanistic national security and defense. Keywords: unitaristics, unitarism, unitarian, territory, state, state system, unitary system, administrative and territorial system.

This chapter surveys the history, operation in coalition, support base, and key policies of Kōmeitō (the Clean Government Party). It begins with an overview of party typologies and argues that Kōmeitō is not easily placed in any comparative political science category. The chapter then delves into the party’s history, detailing its origins in 1964 as an outgrowth from Sōka Gakkai, an influential Japanese lay Buddhist organization. It discusses Kōmeitō’s increasing institutional disaggregation from Sōka Gakkai after its formal separation in 1970, its role in changing Japan’s political system in the 1990s, and its entrée into governmental coalition with the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from 1999. The analysis extends to the present and draws on elections data, party publications, interviews with Kōmeitō politicians, ethnography within Sōka Gakkai, and other sources to track ways the party has relied on Gakkai vote-gatherers to secure a pivotal position within Japanese politics, even as its adherent supporters have become increasingly diverse and liable to critique the party their religion founded. It concludes by considering challenges Kōmeitō faces from within Sōka Gakkai, from the LDP, and from Japan’s demographic, political, and societal shifts.

One of the reasons for the spread of the Western Hare Krishna movement is that it offers several alternatives for the practice of religion: devotees can be full-fledged members of the church in congregations located in complex urban or in simple rural contexts. An example of the latter is Krishna Valley, where approximately 130 Krishna-devotees live austere lives. My paper presents the interpretations of this settlement concentrating on (multiple) internal (emic) views: On the one hand, I will show how the leadership of the church contextualizes and interprets Krishna Valley and how they wish the inhabitants to conceptualize it. On the other hand, I will also show what Krishna Valley means for its ordinary inhabitants and what interpretations those living there attach to it. When I was gathering material for the current paper, Krishna Valley was in flux. The settlement has always favored following a sustainable lifestyle but—due in part to the strengthening of the Hungarian eco-village movement—it was at this time that the conceptualization of Krishna Valley as an eco-village gained momentum. This was the heyday of the Eco Valley Foundation, which was to strengthen the eco-village aspect of the Valley, and in the communication of Krishna Valley the ecological aspect became paramount, drowning out all other interpretations. Not all inhabitants of the village welcomed this change and in response some began to emphasize the interpretation of Krishna Valley as a sacred place. In the current paper, I will present these two processes and the relationship between them through the lens of the interpretations of the members of the community.

Kirtan is a musical worship practice from India that involves the congregational performance of sacred chants and mantras in call-and-response format. The style of kirtan performed within Gaudiya Vaishnava Hinduism is an expression of Bhakti Yoga, “the yoga of love and devotion”, and focuses on creating a personal, playful, and emotionally intense connection between the worshipper and their god—specifically, through words and sounds whose vibration is believed to carry the literal presence of Krishna. Kirtan is one of many Indian genres that uses musical techniques to move participants through a progression of spiritual states from meditation to ecstasy. Kirtan-singing has become internationally popular in recent decades, largely thanks to the efforts of the Hare Krishna movement, which has led to extensive hybridization of musical styles and cultural approaches to kirtan adapted to the needs of a diasporic, globalized community of worshippers. This essay explores the practice of kirtan in the United States through interviews, fieldwork, and analysis of recordings made at several Krishna temples and festivals that demonstrate the musical techniques that can be spontaneously deployed in acts of collective worship in order to create intense feelings of deep, focused meditation and uninhibited, expressive bliss.