131: November 2017

EDITORIAL

NEWS, ETC

AGM MINUTES

FEATURES

GREGG, RS AS MUTED VOICEFROM OUR CORRESPONDENTRE:THINKING FORT

CONFERENCES

BASR 2017EASR 2017SEMINAR ON AMERICAN

RELIGIONWARWICK SUMMER SCHOOLCESNUR

BOOK REVIEWS

SURIMANBUGGELN, PAINE & PLATEPARTRIDGE & MOBERGCHRYSSIDES

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

OBITUARY

2

3

8

132022

2528

333537

38394042

44

47

contents

editorial

A regular attendee atthe BASR conferencetold me that they sawmore energy thisyear’s conference, andthat this had been a trend for a few years. This is ex-citing; but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.Our field is in a state, and a good deal of this energywas being generated by this situation. Ronald Hut-ton’s keynote was an impassioned and eloquent cal lfor less discrimination and broader representationwithin the field, and without; but Honourary Secret-ary Stephen Gregg’s no less impassioned presenta-tion the fol lowing day perhaps more accuratelycaptured the frustration that many of us feel aboutthe lack of influence that Rel igious Studies has in thepubl ic sphere, and is publ ished here, in ful l . The emer-gence of the European Academy of Rel igion (EuARe)suggests that this function is being usurped bytheologians and other parties whose interest is morecaretaker than critic, more Rel igious Scholar thanScholar of Rel igion. We were reminded of the role ofthe BASR in representing and fighting for a non-con-

fessional , academicstudy of rel igion dur-ing Secretary Chris-topher Cotter’s initialreport on the BASR’s

History Project, and I am sure that we al l look forwardto reading the ful l fruits of his archival research inthe ful lness of time.

On a more personal level , I was quite humbled duringthe presentation to be reminded of the long l ine ofremarkable scholars who preceded me as Editor ofthe Bul letin. One of those, Dominic Corrywright, hasdecided to resign after a long tenure in the commit-tee, most recently as Teaching and Learning Officer.His last action was to conceive of and launch our an-nual Teaching Award, of which Stefanie Sinclair of theOpen University was this year the inaugural recipient.Also resigning from the committee was Web OfficerClaire Wanless, to concentrate on completion of herdoctoral studies. We thank them both, and wishthem every success.

David G. Robertson, 14/11/17

www.facebook.com/groups/490163257661189/

twitter.com/TheBASR

contents

New Developments in Theology & Religious Studiesat the University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Since I joined UWTSD in 2010 the School of Theology,Rel igious Studies and Islamic Studies at UWTSD hasundergone significant changes in terms of staffingand curriculum provision. I am now pleased to be ableto report some very positive developments for thesubject. Over the last few years the Faculty ofHumanities and Performing Arts, to which Theologyand Rel igious Studies belongs, has developed a closerelationship to several external bodies, including ChinKung Multi-Cultural Education Foundation with whomit has launched the joint venture of an Academy ofSinology. A more recent initiative has been theval idation of a Professional Doctorate in InterfaithStudies, a programme which has both taught andresearch components. Through the generous supportof the Ching Kung Foundation, the University is ableto offer several ful l scholarships (the second round iscurrently being advertised on jobs.ac.uk) and the firstgroup of students has now started their studies onthe Lampeter campus. As a result the Faculty hasbeen able to hire two new lecturers: Dr Jessica Keadyand Dr Angus Slater. Jessica’s research area is theHebrew Bible and Jewish Studies, with particularemphasis on gender issues, while Angus works in thearea of comparative theology (Christianity and Islam)and inter-rel igious dialogue. Earl ier in the summer DrBrenda Llewel lyn Ihssen joined the Faculty, ahistorian whose research interests include rel igion inlate antiquity. And in January we wil l welcome Dr TimBaylor, a new lecturer in Christian Theology. We aredel ighted about the arrival of these new col leagueswhich wil l enable us to strengthen research andteaching in Rel igious Studies and Theology and todevelop new initiatives related to our subject.

Bettina Schmidt, UWTSD

Jobs

Douglas Davies, a member and former Chairman ofthe BASR has this year, 2017, been elected a Fel lowof the British Academy. Douglas is Professor in theStudy of Rel igion at Durham’s Department ofTheology and Rel igion and has spearheadedsignificant developments in rel igious studies thereover the last 20 years, as he previously did atNottingham University. He is also Director ofDurham’s Centre for Death and Life Studies and hasled and shared in numerous AHRC, ESRC, andLeverhulme funded projects. He sees it as valuableto be a further voice, one alert to rel igious studiesand rel igions-focused interests, amongst membersof the Academy’s section on Theology and Rel igiousStudies. His original training in the anthropology andsociology of rel igion as wel l as in theology led to anextensive array of empirical studies of Mormonism,Angl icanism, British bel iefs and death rites, and alsoof the theology of death. Further monographs haveaddressed issues of the sociology of meaning andsalvation, the interplay of anthropology and theology,and the l ife and work of F. B. Jevons, one of the UK’skey Victorian scholars of rel igion. Some of his death-l inked books have been translated into Czech, Greek,Ital ian, and Japanese, while a Chinese version of oneof his Mormon studies is awaited. His work has beenacknowledged not only through an honorarydoctorate from Sweden’s Uppsala University (1998)and an ‘earned’ D. Litt. , Oxford’s higher doctorate,(2004) but also in elections to Fel lowships in boththe UK Academy of Social Sciences (2009) and TheLearned Society of Wales (2012). Friends and formercol leagues recently publ ished Death, Life andLaughter: Essays on religion in honour of DouglasDavies (Routledge, 2017), edited by Mathew Guestand Martha Middlemiss Lé Mon.

news, etc

Dr Chris Cotter has begun a three-year LeverhulmeEarly Career Fel lowship at the School of Divinity,University of Edinburgh, working (with Dr SteveSutcl iffe as mentor) on a project titled "AComparative Study of Unbel ief in Northern Irelandand Scotland.'

Robert Jackson’s book, written for the Council ofEurope, Signposts: policy and practice for teaching

about religions and non-religious worldviews inIntercultural Education, has so far been translatedinto 12 languages. In March 2017 the NorwegianUniversity of Science and Technology, Trondheim,awarded him an honorary doctorate (Doc h.c.)(https://www.fl ickr.com/photos/ntnu-trondheim/sets/72157679314939491) and, inOctober 2017, the Norwegian School of Theology(MF) also awarded him an honorary doctorate. Bothwere for his contributions to rel igious andintercultural education international ly.

Library of the Centre for Applied Buddhism

THE BASR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ARE VERY HAPPYTO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST RECIPIENT OF THE BASRANNUAL TEACHING FELLOWSHIP, STEFANIE SINCLAIR

Stefanie has been working in HE for a number of years – her first teaching experience was back inthe 20th century, in 1996. She has worked in a number of departments as an associate or visitinglecturer, including Chester, Lancaster, Turin and the Open University.

Stefanie has been working part, then full time as lecturer at the Open University since 2009 andshe became senior lecturer there in 2016, where she is module chair for ‘Why is Religion Contro-versial?’ and ‘The Arts, Past and Present’. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy,and has been a member of our association since 2011

Steffi has written, presented and delivered seminars and workshops on a wide range of topics re-lated to pedagogy. Her specialist areas are in distance learning, assessment, digital learning andtechnologies, and, increasingly recently in creativity in learning and teaching. She has publishedwidely on pedagogical practice, including a paper for the 2013 DISKUS Special Edition for Teach-ing and Learning on ‘Digital Literacy in Religious Studies’. Her latest publication - due this autumn– is with a collection to be published by Palgrave MacMillan will be titled ‘Creativity, criticality andengaging the senses: Creating online opportunities for multisensory approaches to learning andassessment in higher education’ [in Jacqueline Baxter, George Callaghan and Jean McAvoy (eds.)Creativity and Critique in Online Learning: Exploring and Examining Innovations in Online Pedaagogy.]

So, once again, I am very pleased, on behalf of the BASR, to welcome Stefanie Sinclair to receivethe award of Teaching Fellow of the British Association for the Study of Religions.

Dominic Corrywright, Sept. 2017

THE BASR EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ARE VERY HAPPYTO ANNOUNCE THE FIRST RECIPIENT OF THE BASRANNUAL TEACHING FELLOWSHIP, STEFANIE SINCLAIR

Stefanie has been working in HE for a number of years – her first teaching experience was back inthe 20th century, in 1996. She has worked in a number of departments as an associate or visitinglecturer, including Chester, Lancaster, Turin and the Open University.

Stefanie has been working part, then full time as lecturer at the Open University since 2009 andshe became senior lecturer there in 2016, where she is module chair for ‘Why is Religion Contro-versial?’ and ‘The Arts, Past and Present’. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy,and has been a member of our association since 2011

Steffi has written, presented and delivered seminars and workshops on a wide range of topics re-lated to pedagogy. Her specialist areas are in distance learning, assessment, digital learning andtechnologies, and, increasingly recently in creativity in learning and teaching. She has publishedwidely on pedagogical practice, including a paper for the 2013 DISKUS Special Edition for Teach-ing and Learning on ‘Digital Literacy in Religious Studies’. Her latest publication - due this autumn– is with a collection to be published by Palgrave MacMillan will be titled ‘Creativity, criticality andengaging the senses: Creating online opportunities for multisensory approaches to learning andassessment in higher education’ [in Jacqueline Baxter, George Callaghan and Jean McAvoy (eds.)Creativity and Critique in Online Learning: Exploring and Examining Innovations in Online Pedaagogy.]

So, once again, I am very pleased, on behalf of the BASR, to welcome Stefanie Sinclair to receivethe award of Teaching Fellow of the British Association for the Study of Religions.

Dominic Corrywright, Sept. 2017

Joint conference with the ISASR - Queen’s University Belfast, 3–5 September 2018

Borders and Boundaries: ‘Religion’ on the Periphery

Keynote Speakers

Gladys Ganiel (Queen’s University, Belfast) | Naomi Goldenberg (University of Ottawa)

Borders and boundaries define l imits and margins, centres and peripheries. They demarcate territories, and separate en-

tities and bodies and, as such, they function to guard space, l imit action and exclude. They are, however, also contact

zones and places of exchange, the ‘l imen’ or threshold, the in-between, and the places of temptation and transgression

(Szakolczai 2009). In the current pol itical context when Ireland and the UK are faced with the dilemmas, paradoxes and

impl ications of Brexit, this special joint conference of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Rel igions (ISASR) and

the British Association for the Study of Rel igions (BASR) invites paper, research slam, panel and roundtable proposals on

the theme of Borders and Boundaries. Scholars based outside the Republ ic of Ireland or the UK are invited to submit pro-

posals related to this theme regardless of whether their work relates to these islands. Scholars who are based in the UK

or the Republ ic of Ireland and are working on rel igion and related categories are welcome to submit proposals on any topic

whether or not it relates to the conference theme.

Borders and boundaries of states, rel igions and identities have played a defining role in relations between Northern Ire-

land, the Republ ic of Ireland, and Great Britain, perhaps most significantly the boundaries between rel igious communities.

The negotiation between different rel igious l ifeworlds, worldviews, constructs and dogmas takes place across perceived

borders, whether real or imagined. Of concern amongst these for scholars of rel igions are the distinctions drawn between

‘rel igion’ and related categories, and between the ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, which require the scholar to engage with the

complexity of symbol ic divides associated with identity, bel ief and belonging. In anthropological studies of rel igions, the

crossing of borders or the ‘l imen’ constitutes a transformational experience. Participation in ritual , pi lgrimage and ecstat-

ic practices often requires the crossing of thresholds between different states, between human and divine, human and

animal , between different realms, of the l iving and the dead, material and spirit or otherworlds. Things that are normal ly

kept separate, physical ly, conceptual ly and symbol ical ly, meet at crossing points in the landscape, in ritual and in spiritual

journeys.

These topics and more wil l provide the substantive content for this first-ever joint conference between these two mem-

ber associations of the International Association for the History of Rel igions (IAHR).

Please note that papers should contribute to the aims of both societies, ISASR and BASR, specifical ly to advance re-

search and education through the academic study of rel igions by providing a forum for the critical , analytical and cross-

cultural study of rel igions, past and present. The conference wil l not be a forum for confessional , apologetical , interfaith

or other similar concerns.

Proposals to be submitted to isasrbasr2018@gmail .com by 27 April 2018 (please include name, title, affi l iation, and

email address). Paper Proposals: please submit title and abstract of 200 words.

Research Slam: A research “slam” is a quick succession of presentations of max. 7 mins per presenter that gives a l ively

impression of a project, a programme, a network, or a col laboration Please submit research slam proposals in the form of

a title and brief (max. 150 wds) abstract. It is possible to submit a research slam proposal as wel l as a paper proposal .

Panel proposals: please submit abstracts of 200 words for panel proposals. Al l panel proposals should include the name,

title, affi l iation, and email address of each presenter plus the chair and discussant (if appl icable) plus abstracts for each

of the papers on the panel .

Confirmation of acceptance on the conference programme wil l be sent by 15 June 2018.

Kents Hil l , Milton Keynes, February 19-21, 2018

#OURS2018tinyurl .com/ours2018

At a time when the publ ic role of the University is under increasing scrutiny, how can we ensurethat research and teaching about rel igions reaches new publ ics? What can we do to enhance rel i-gious l iteracy both within and beyond rel igious and non-rel igious communities? How is ritual andperformance involved in communication between rel igious communities, the academy, pol icy

makers and the broader publ ic?

Bringing historical perspective to the contemporary role of rel igion in the publ ic sphere, this con-ference wil l include contributions from practitioners and third-sector organisations, who bring

their perspectives to the academy to consider the publ ic impact of Rel igious Studies.

Keynote Speakers

Bettina Schmidt | The Contentious Field of the Study of Rel igious Experience: The chal lenginginfluence of Rudolf Otto, Andrew Lang and other founding fathers

Stephen Sutcl iffe | Playing the Long Game: The Predicament of the Scholar of Rel igion/s betweenAcademic Researcher and Publ ic Intel lectual

Phil ip Wil l iamson | Remembrance Day: the British churches and national commemoration of thewar dead since 1914

Online registration for conference at tinyurl.com/ours2018

For any enquiries, please contact Paul-François Tremlett and David G. Robertson atours@open.ac.uk.

BASR Annual General Meeting

13.30-15.00 - 05/09/17 - University of Chester

British Association for the Study of Rel igionsRegistered Charity Number 801567(Affi l iated to the IAHR and EASR)

1. Welcome. Steven Sutcl iffe welcomed everyone and advertised next year and EASR.

2. Apologies – Richard Savil le-Smith, Marion Bowman, Douglas Davies, Ursula King.

3. Minutes of the previous AGM. Eileen Barker proposed and Graham Harvey seconded and theminutes were passed as an accurate record of the meeting.

4. Matters arising. None not covered by the agenda of this meeting.

5. Presidential Address (Steven Sutcl iffe). Very proud to be face of BASR. Very happy with newwebsite and start of History Project, already wel l underway. Aiming for at least two publ ications, onein house (glossy) and at least one, or two, journal articles in peer-reviewed historiographical featuresof the history of the association. First Teaching & Learning Fel lowship – good to see new projects go-ing ahead. Submitted formal response to HEFCE on REF2021 in March 2017, fol lowing on from SternRecommendations. Thanks to Bettina Schmidt & David Robertson for their input on that draft re-sponse. Now need to nominate panel members for REF2021. Also responded to EASR publ icationsofficer on UK publ ications of wider interest, helping to col late a resource of materials at a Europeanlevel . Responded to creation of European Academy of Rel igion in December 2016 – provided state-ments of ful l support to EASR and IAHR oppositions. SS noted that IAHR President and EASR exec at-tended first conference as observers, but await feedback in Leuven at this year’s EASR. SS notedDolmen exchange on EASR role, and his personal response (on behalf of BASR) to Perry Schmidt-Leuk-el . This correspondence was al l shared on Dolmen mail ing l ist. SS noted this year is 50th anniversaryof the founding of the Lancaster RS department – SS handed over to Peggy Morgan, Hon. Life Memberof BASR, to speak a few words. PM noted Lancaster had a Quaker VC who wanted to study Rel igion‘differently’. Advert for first post said candidate could be ‘any rel igion or none’ which was groundbreaking. PM did Post-Grad work with Smart, converting from theology to RS. PM noted influence ofNorthern Powerhouse on Rel igious Studies in Leeds, Manchester, Lancaster and Scotland. SS fin-ished report thanking Chester, inviting people to Belfast in 2018 and invited col leagues to host 2019.

6. Secretary’s Report (Stephen Gregg). Since the last AGM, the executive committee met inJanuary at Chester, and again yesterday prior to the start of the conference. As in recent years, wehave tried to have only one regular meeting outside the conference to save costs. Meetings have fo-cused upon Conference organisation, website, Bul letin and JBSR development, and exciting new de-velopments in T&L. SG has held meetings this year at the BA Subject Association, includingconversation with Nick Stern in his only publ ic discussion post publ ication of his report, and at theAHA. This, too, focused on REF, but also included wider interdiscipl inary issues such as the fightagainst A-Level cancel lations in associated subjects, and on funding cuts to British Academy schools,Brexit, TEF and Open Access Monographs. The dynamic was very much on peer-support discussion,rather than dissemination of new pol icy, but as ever the Executive wil l trickle down to members keypol icy information affecting us, whenever we hear this, through the Bul letin, or via the email l ist. SGworked with EASR to update l ist on grants (in pol itical context of new European Academy) and that

EASR responded saying how impressive BASR’s l ist was. Much focus this year has been on the con-tinuing evolution of the role of BASR in the wider scholarly and publ ic community regarding engage-ment with rel igion. The new website, and the new digital platforms for the Bul letin and the revampedJBASR wil l al l help with this, we hope. There are continuing discussions regarding more publ ic-facingactivities, and media-facing profi le enhancement, and we propose producing a publ icly available dir-ectory of expertise of members – with their permission, of course – and SG wil l email out in due coursewith suggested details. There have been over 40 appl ications for membership, which may be a record,certainly in my time. Not al l have paid up their subs yet, however, so the figure remains to be con-firmed by the Treasurer in our ongoing discussions regarding the membership l ist. SG confirmed thathe and the Treasurer had met and removed redundant entries – people who had not paid or attendedfor more than two years. Bursaries for the conference continue to be keenly appl ied for – very strongset of appl ications this year, and such is the popularity of them in our times of austerity, that thecommittee has formulated a new pol icy: bursary awards wil l normal ly be given to individuals once as astudent and once as an early career scholar. Papers wil l be ranked on subject, qual ity and relevance tothe aims of the BASR. The committee may, at their discretion, give an award outside this remit if ex-tenuating circumstances apply in their opinion. SG finished by stating that it continues to be a verybusy time for the Exec – everyone in the room is facing more pressure from their home departmentsand institutions to undertake more duties with less support, and this often makes committee workeven more chal lenging. SG thanked the committee for their continued hard work and commitment tothe aims of the BASR

7. Treasurer’s Report (Chris Cotter). Ful l accounts and notes are provided, fol lowing theseminutes. When asked for any questions: Bettina Schmidt suggested PhD award (£1,000 every otheryear) to help young scholars and enhance their CV. PM asked if there could be a fol low-up project tothe History project, if possible. SG noted it needed to be managed within the existing project, accord-ing to the agreed budget. SS suggested the Ninian Smart Archive could be the focus of a new project.

8. Teaching and Learning (Dominic Corrywright). DC noted that the Exec responded to the cal lfrom the Commission for Rel igious Education (part of REC). Wendy Dossett confirmed interim reportwas due any time, with a final report in the later autumn, which seeks to affect government pol icy.T&L provides content for Bul letin including pedagogy matters. DC to stand down from BSR exec, afterten years. DC thanked col leagues present and past. SS thanked DC for al l his hard work and for pion-eering TF Award, and in previous roles on committee.

9. BASR Teaching Fel lowship (Dominic Corrywright) DC Announced Dr Steffanie Sinclair as thefirst recipient of the BASR Teaching and Learning Fel lowship. A copy of DC’s introductory speech forDr Sinclair precedes these minutes.

10. JBASR Co-ordinating Editor’s Report (Suzanne Owen). The digital journal has now moved ontoa new host onl ine platform with a new look and user-friendly interface. Some technical issues havebeen faced, with l inks and archival site, which are being addressed. Next issue to be edited by BS &DC. SO outl ined a new approach, to include open cal ls for papers. SO noted that the quick turnaroundtime (March-Aug) wil l be attractive to people in the REF cycle. Book reviews are to stay in both bul letinand journal .

11. Bul letin Editor’s Report (David Robertson). Happy with bul letin changes and updates, includingmodernisation, with both qual ity and quantity up. DR noted that new columns and ideas always wel-come – we rely on members, so please contribute. Conference Reports can be co-authored, and pho-tos are always welcome. ‘From Our Correspondent’ series very popular and raising BASR profi le aroundthe world. Also, ReThinking series – scholars to be suggested grateful ly received. The News section

getting better, but al l news welcome. DR humbled to be doing the bul letin having seen the archive,and reported that publ isher noted to him that conference continues to grow year on year in vibrancy.

12. Website and Social Media (Claire Wanless). CW was happy to report that the new logo andbranding is complete, and is fresher and more modern. There is a need to get us higher on search en-gines – CW asked col leagues and members to please l ink from departmental websites, as that helpsraise our ‘web reputation’. CW announced that, with her last year of doctoral studies coming up, shewas stepping down from the role to focus on her studies. CW noted that it is an important role forbranding and publ ic facing nature of BASR, and wished for the role to continue in some form. SSthanked CW for her work over the last two years.

13. Rel igious Studies Project (David Robertson & Chris Cotter) – RSP continues apace, and aregrateful for the headl ine sponsorship from the BASR. Currently applying to be a Scottish Charitable In-corporated Organisation. 5,000 fol lowers on FaceBook.

14. BASR Conference 2018 (Steven Sutcl iffe & Chris Cotter) James Kapalo and Jenny Butler havebeen contacted by SS. CC to be BASR conference l iaison person, with Crawford Gribben as local QUBorganiser. Dates were confirmed as 3-5th September 2018, QUB.

15. President Elect (Stephen Gregg). Prof. Bettina Schmidt was nominated by Dr. Steve Sutcl iffeand seconded by Prof. Graham Harvey. BS accepted nomination, which was approved by the member-ship, and gave thanks for invitation and confirmed acceptance of the role.

16. Exec Committee Constitution (Stephen Gregg) – it was noted that the Exec Committee wil lneed to review the membership of the committee in the next twelve months to reconfigure rolesafter resignations and to comply with the requirements of the Constitution. It was approved by themembership that DR and SO would continue to serve as members of the committee for the next year.

17. Any Other Business – George Chryssides suggested that a code of Ethics should be put onthe BASR website, to include onl ine ethics. SS noted this would be discussed at the January 2018 Ex-ec meeting.

18. Date, time and location of next AGM. Queen’s University Belfast, 4th September 2018.

BASR TREASURER’S REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 15th AUGUST 2017

Dr C.R. Cotter, BASR Honorary TreasurerUniversity of Chester, 5th September 2017

General income for the year was £5,604.

Bank Interest: Even more negl igible than previous years due to historical ly low base rates. Treasurer toinvestigate options going forward.

Subscriptions: Sl ight increase on last year to £3,362, explained in part by greater retention of membersdue to move away from one-off payments. Currently 142 paying members. Treasurer and Secretary tocontact non-paying members on l ist and encourage payment (approximately 150 individuals), then ra-tional ize the membership l ist.

General expenditure for the year: £8,995, increase of approx. £1700 on last year. However, this is largelyexplained by two large planned expenses – the history project and teaching fel lowship – and also by thepayment of 4 of 5 bursaries for 2017 pre-emptively (due to the University of Chester’s system).

Committee expenses are lower than recent years at £1,846. The President and Secretary continue torepresent the Association at the EASR, AHA and BA. This year we had one less face-to-face committeemeeting, and no additional IAHR travel to support.

Insurance remains in place. Two years’ premiums appear in this accounting period.

The BASR continued to sponsor the Rel igious Studies Project at £500 per year.

The University of Wolverhampton-hosted 2016 BASR Conference was a financial success, bringing in aprofit of £375.

Closure of CAF Cash: CAF changed their practice this year and, as such, were going to charge £5 permonth for the maintenance of the CAF Cash account. To avoid this expenditure, the Executive Commit-tee opted to close the CAF Cash account, and maintain CAF Gold.

Bank Accounts: As of August 15th Bank Accounts total led £23,565, a decrease of £3,391. This is ex-plained by point 4 above. Treasurer to look into fi l ing a Gift Aid return this academic year.

Dispersal of ‘excess’ funds: As noted last year, the Executive Committee agree that, as a charity, it isnot appropriate that we accumulate financial assets ‘for the sake of it’. As such, we have enacted ourplans to spend £5,000 producing a history of the BASR (£3,500 honorarium, and up to £1,500 in ex-penses), and £300 per year plus a free conference place for a minimum of three years for an annualteaching fel lowship. Further suggestions from the membership are always welcome.

Summary of Financial Position: Overal l , the finances of the BASR are very good with adequate reservesto ensure our successful continuation. Our healthy bank balance has al lowed the Executive Committee,with the support of the membership body, to continue investment in postgraduate bursaries, col laborat-ive research, conference-support and inter-association networking, and to launch a teaching fel lowshipand history project.

features

Setting the Scene

The academic discipl ine of the Study of Rel igionstands at a juncture in its relationship with publ ic dis-course on the phenomena variously label led rel igious.Whilst on the one hand, the cutting edge of academ-ic scholarship on rel igion in the past twenty years hasfocused upon embodied, relational , everyday rel i-gious l ives of actors and communities, publ ic dis-course on rel igion continues to be dominated byessential ised and privi leged paradigms of rel igionthat stem largely from theological frameworks longsince discarded within our subject area. Perhapsmore worryingly, interdiscipl inary approaches to rel i-gion, rel igious actors and rel igious communities alsodemonstrate a wide variance from new approachesand methodologies in the Study of Lived Rel igion.

Specifical ly, this variance risks becoming not just adissonance, but a jarring divergence, both within andwithout the Academy when we reflect upon interdis-cipl inary approaches to both the categories of ‘rel i-gious’ and ‘rel igion’. Primiano’s seminal work onvernacular rel igion remains foundational to new ap-proaches, and yet, over 20 years after this publ ica-tion (Primiano, 1995), the study of l ived, vernacularor everyday rel igion remains at the edge of muchscholarly debate, and almost al l publ ic discourse, onrel igion. Whilst Primiano reminds us that al l rel igion is

vernacular rel igion, it is clear that large tranches ofscholarship sti l l infer authority in paradigms of top-down institutional , monoglotic authority. By under-standing rel igion as everyday (Ammerman 2007), re-lational (Harvey 2013) and, above al l , embodied(Gregg & Scholefield 2015) and social ly contextual-ised (Bowman & Valk 2012), we change what wemean by rel igion. A result of this is an increasing dis-sonance between academic discipl ines and publ icactors regarding the term 'rel igion' . Different aca-demic discipl ines talk of 'rel igion' and yet focus uponradical ly different phenomena. Publ ic discourse onrel igion continues to privi lege essential isedparadigms of rel igion, often with a focus on bel iefand 'rel igion' as a unilateral category of participationseparate from culture (Sharma, 2008).

The reasons for this are wel l known – a thousand-year theological inheritance in our universities whichhas created a World Rel igions Paradigm that woeful lymisrepresents our subjects of study, useful ly cri-tiqued by Owen (2011) and others (Gregg & Schole-field (2015)). The colonial inheritance of monol ithicrel igious identity boundaries from the British admin-istration’s censuses in the Punjab (Barrier, 1981),through to the invention of ‘World Rel igions’ via theChicago Platforms of 1893 (Masuzawa, 2005) rightup to contemporary xenophobic anti-migrationparties in Europe. Al l of these approaches formulate

Religious Studies as a Muted Voice:Purposefully Rocking the Boat in Interdisciplinary

Approaches to Religion

Stephen E. Gregg, University of Wolverhampton

a category of rel igion and a view of rel igious particip-ation that mislocates authority in rel igion.

Of course, there has been much response to this inrecent years. Works by Ammermann (2007), McGuire(2008), Orsi (2003 & 1997), Bowman & Valk (2010)Harvey (2009 &2013), Barker (1984) and Hal l (1997)al l question top-down authority and prioritise theeveryday, relational , embodied and l iving nature of re-l igion as a category and of the identity constructionof rel igious actors and rel igious communities.However, publ ic discourse and interdiscipl inaryscholarship on rel igion continues to adopt outdatedparadigms and approaches and, whether we l ike it ornot, this has a greater influence on how our subject isviewed in the world beyond the Academy.

I raise this issue, not simply to highl ight variance anddifference of approach to rel igion, but to provide acal l to those operating at the cutting edge of our dis-cipl ine to re-position our focus beyond our own dis-cipl ine and sub-discipl ines. Indeed, as far back as2002, Robert Orsi asked the question ‘Is the Studyof Lived Rel igion Irrelevant to the World We Live in?’in his address and article of the same name (Orsi,2003). In this work, Orsi responds to the chal lenge inthe title by arguing, l ike Primiano, that “Rel igion is al-ways rel igion-in-action, rel igion in-relationshipsbetween people, between the ways the world is andthe way people imagine or want it to be” (Orsi, 2003,172). He goes on to state that: “The interpretivechal lenge of the study of l ived rel igion is to developthe practice of discipl ined attention to people'ssigns and practices as they describe, understand,and use them, in the circumstances of their experi-ences, and to the structures and conditions withinwhich these signs and practices emerge” (Orsi,2003, 172). It is this emergence within extra-discip-l inary and extra-academy contexts to which our dis-cipl ine needs to respond. If we do not, we riskbecoming, to use Charlotte Hardman’s famousphrase, a “muted voice” in discourse on rel igion. If, in-deed, we are not already so – as Hardman’s definitionof a ‘muted group’ as “groups whose medium of artic-ulation is not easily grasped by other sectors of thepopulation; groups who are marginal or submissive tothe dominant power group” (Hardman, 2017) seemsto me a description of RS’ role in publ ic discourse onrel igion that is too close to home for comfort.

Extra-Academy use of terms – The Example of UKPolitics and Education

I t should come as no surprise that extra-academyapproaches to rel igions operate within outdated ordiscredited paradigms. Indeed, how else could it be?The cultural capital that has built up in WesternEuropean universities over a thousand years of theo-logical discourse has led to the widespread accept-ance of essential ised and reified forms of discourseabout, and understandings of, the very category of‘rel igion’. Invariably, these are hierarchical and mono-glotic, and provide daily reminders of the differentconversations which occur within publ ic and aca-demic discourse on the category of rel igion. Perhapsthe highest profi le contemporary version of this isthe current UK Parl iament’s handl ing of the languageused to describe ISIS.

This short piece is not the place to investigate thecomplicated social , pol itical and rel igious dynamicsthat have given rise to the Islamic State, but what isof interest to the current discussion is the languageused within Parl iamentary debate, and the assump-tions about the category of rel igion that have beenmade by pol itical actors of al l sides. Prime amongstthis is the conversation started by Conservative MPRehman Chisti , who has consistently cal led for ISISto be label led as Daesh, the Arabic acronym for thegroup that sounds similar to the word daas, meaningone who is humil iated or lacks dignity (Chisti , 2015).After months of campaigning to Parl iament, Chistiwon a concession from the then Prime Minister, whounequivocal ly stated “This evil death cult is neither atrue representation of Islam nor a state“ (Hansard,2015). Of course, this crass essential ism of ‘whatIslam is’ , and by correlation ‘what rel igion is’ can beexpected in a pol itical ly expedient, perhaps evenlaudable attempt to ease troubled community rela-tions, but the claim that ISIS is not a State is l ittleshort of absurd, when documents leaked through Ay-menn al-Tamimi (Guardian 2015b) clearly show theestabl ishment of taxation, health, education, trans-port, civi l service and law and order systems –however much such systems may jar with westernEuropean ideals of civic society. However, the simplefact is that this is a high profi le example of the es-sential ism of a rel igious tradition – or even what ‘rel i-gion’ itself is – from which the everyday l ives ofrel igious actors, have been removed, as if they havesomehow fal len short of an expected standardprovided by the said rel igion. Such top-down ap-proaches to rel igion are not just academical ly naïve,but are demonstrative of the gap between publ icdiscourse on rel igion and the cutting edge of rel i-

gious studies scholarship on rel igion. In a discoursestil l dominated by world rel igions, texts, bel iefs andmonoglotic top-down categories of rel igion, there isno room for the dark, complex, contradictory and of-ten unsettl ing real ities of l ived rel igion. In so doing,our publ ic discourse is not just missing the point, butmissing the very subject of study when they essen-tial ise rel igion away from its l ived real ity.

Crucial ly, however, this approach to rel igion is notisolated within the rhetoric of the pol itical classes,but has become enacted and embodied within every-day discourse and action in communities around thecountry. In 2011 the UK government introduced Pre-vent, a counter-radical isation strategy aimed at re-ducing the risk of exposure of young people andchildren to radical ised worldviews (HM Gov, 2015).The strategy has been much criticised within the UK,particularly by the United Nations’ Special Rappor-teur on the Right to Freedom of Assembly (Guardian,2016a), The National Association of Musl im Pol ice(Guardian 2015a), and The National Union of Teach-ers (Guardian 2016b). It has also been frequently ri-diculed in the press, for example on the occasion of aLancashire schoolboy who was interviewed by Pol icefor writing that he l ived in a terrorist house, when itwas thought he meant a terraced house and couldnot spel l it. Such incidents, in their publ ic projectionthrough the media, mask serious misunderstandingsof rel igion as-l ived with their discourse of otheringand essential ism.

Furthermore, the Prevent Strategy has now becomeembedded within school curriculae around the coun-try, even down to primary-school level (and indeed,extended to individual childminders and hol iday playschemes); every School Governor in England is re-quired to undertake training in the Prevent Strategy,and schools must have an appointed Prevent officer,and embed the strategy into their risk assessments,staff training, Personal , Social & Health Educationcurriculum, and even into their End user AgreementLicences on al l computer equipment. So far, sobeaurocratic. However, it is not the tedious adminis-tration of this pol icy that I wish to highl ight, but theoutdated way in which ‘rel igion’ is treated within theStrategy.

Now, let me be clear – the UK Government insiststhat Prevent is not about rel igion, but about extrem-ism, both non-violent and violent. Now let me beequal ly clear – Prevent is about rel igion, or at least,

rel igion-as l ived, which Primiano reminds us is rel i-gion.

The UK Government’s separation of extreme world-views or acts from a notional category of ‘rel igion’ isunderpinned by an essential ism of ‘rel igion’, and inparticular of ‘Islam’ (as if such a community or world-view existed to meaningful ly describe and relateSufis in Sevil le with Wahabis in Warsaw). Such publ icessential isms of rel igion, highl ighted by our earl ierdiscussion of the Isis/Daesh parl iamentary debates,locate authority within rel igion in what I have previ-ously label led ‘reported rel igion’; textbook accountswhich util ise the outdated World Rel igions Paradigm,and which preference institutional , top-down and of-ten monoglotic, patriarchal , heteronormative viewsof rel igion. Crucial ly, such views also separate ‘rel i-gion’ and ‘rel igions’ from darker aspects of humanbehaviour – a crass essential ism which is pol itical lyexpedient, but which woeful ly misunderstands thecomplicated, contradictory and multi-voiced and ac-ted real ities of everyday embodied rel igious l iving.

I bring this issue to this discussion, not just to relateto abstracted pol itical discourse, but to highl ight theconcrete ways in which the Prevent Strategy is sol id-ifying the hold that outdated approaches to ‘rel igion’have over Government Pol icy and the subsequent‘trickl ing down’ of this to everyday engagement withrel igion in school communities across the UK. Indeed,as a Governor of my local Community Primary School(the only non-Church school in the area in which I l ive)I undertook an onl ine Prevent Training Programme,the tone and content of which could only be de-scribed as a direct facsimile of the anti-Cult wars ofthe 1970s and 1980s (indeed into the 1990s inFrance) that so ‘othered’ and dehumanised membersof minority rel igions, who were seen as ‘brainwashed’individuals. No academic audience needs remindingthat the scholarship of Richardson (1994), Robbins(1984) and, above al l , Barker (1984), deconstructedthese pol itical ly and rel igiously motivated attacks aswel l and truly discredited understandings of the pro-cess of communal belonging and l iving. However, myrecent experience of sitting through training videosand completing onl ine tests of my knowledge of thedangers of extremism (al l examples of which werebased on Musl im children, without the words Islam orMusl im ever appearing in the text) suggest that pub-l ic discourse has not caught up; there was clear sep-aration between ‘rel igion’ and the l ived real ity ofrel igious actors.

I t is clear from these simple examples that national-level discourse on ‘rel igion’, rel igious actors and rel i-gious communities, continues to strongly differenti-ate between an essential ised textbook account ofan ideal of rel igion, and the l ived real ity as somehownot ‘l iving up’ to this essential ism. Whereas this pub-l ic discourse concludes that radical extremists are‘not real Musl ims’ or ‘not real Christians’, scholars ofl ived rel igion are left examining the l ived real ity, andunderstanding this phenomena, with al l its complex-ity, as the real fabric of rel igion. In so doing, we aresimply highl ighting what Mal inowksi argued so manydecades ago on the Trobriand Islands, when he sep-arated out the ‘norms’ and the ‘activities’ of a socialgroup (Parsons, 2002). I want to continue to arguethat it is only by looking at Mal inowski’s category of‘activities’ that we can begin to understand bottom-up everyday rel igion.

Interdisciplinary use of terms – The Example ofHeritage & History

Whilst we may expect publ ic discourse to divergefrom academic discourse, perhaps the most press-ing issue for our discipl ine is the dissonancebetween our understandings of rel igion, and the un-derstanding of related discipl ines, when we look atsimilar or overlapping phenomena. By definition, adiscussion on interdiscipl inary scholarship could leadus down a myriad of avenues, so I wil l keep this shortand simply give an example or two from the heritageindustries.

An issue that has been exercising me for some timeis the very simple notion that – if we, as scholars ofl ived rel igion, in our rejection of monoglotic and top-down categories of rel igion, effectively change whatwe mean when we use the term rel igion, what then,for col leagues in related discipl ines who’s workclosely relates to notions of rel igion or rel igiosity?Are we having overlapping, convergent, or divergentconversations? In short, I worry that it is the latter.

The use of terminology here is interesting, particu-larly Lived or Living Rel igion. I have used this in thetitle of a recent publ ication (Gregg & Scholefield,2015), and the term is used by, amongst others,Meredith McGuire. One other scholar who has usedthis phrase is Jorge Rupke, director of the Lived An-cient Rel igion Project at Erfurt – our IAHR/EASR hostsin 2015. The project is fascinating – using a Lived Re-l igion approach based largely on McGuire’s work

which aims to contest the previously dominant pol isrel igion paradigm which was top-down and anti-indi-vidual ized in previous studies of the Rel igions of theAncient Mediterranean. Much important work hastranspired – particularly the focus upon everyday ac-tion, embodied rel igious experience and a focus onthe roles of actors of al l genders. There remains,however, a key difference in approach to some otherscholars in the field of everyday rel igion in that,whilst Primiano reminds us that al l rel igion is ver-nacular rel igion (Primiano, 1995, 44), and Harvey ob-serves that “real l ife and l ived rel igion … might turnout to be the same thing” (Harvey, 2013, 9), Rupkewrites that “’ l ived ancient rel igion’ focuses on theactual everyday experience, on practices, expres-sions, and interactions that could be related to “rel i-gion”.’ (Rupke, 2012, 6). This last statement iscrucial , as it sti l l ensures a construction of ‘rel igion;within a binary paradigm – everyday acts as relatedto rel igion, rather than everyday acts as rel igion perse.

Similar discussions can be found in the work of otherhistorians and archaeologists. Thomas’ classic workReligion and the Decline of Magic (Thomas, 1971)creates a binary notion of embodied ritual in opposi-tion to ‘rel igion’. Platt’s King Death , examining the im-pact of the Black Death and its aftermath in latemedieval England, provides interesting insight intothe change of diet in Glastonbury Abbey’s Abbot’sKitchen (Platt, 1996, 91) demonstrating the increas-ing importance placed on diet in a post-Plague world,but at no point l inks this to negotiated everyday rel i-gious practice – for Platt, it is a social custom linkedwith rel igion, rather than a rel igious act itself. On oth-er occasions, interaction with rel igion and rel igiousl ife is notable by its absence – Parker Pearson’sdefinitive Stonehenge: A New Understanding sum-marises the results of the Stonehenge RiversideProject, the largest dig to take place at the UNESCOWorld Heritage Site for a generation, which radical lyre-dated and reorientated our understanding of boththe purpose of the monument, and the relationshipof Stonehenge to its landscape. At the heart of al l ofthis is the possibi l ity to read new insights into ritual-ised heal ing spaces l inked to the role of the BlueStones, imported from The Presel i Hi l ls in Wales, andthe quite remarkable discoveries at Durrington, a fewshort miles North-East of the Stonehenge site.Parker Pearson’s theory is that Durrington Walls wasthe vil lage-site (the land of the l iving) and Stone-henge was used as the land of the dead; a portal for

ancestors. This is based upon the discovery of justthree human bones at Durrington, amongst 80,000animal bones, compared with Stonehenge, where hu-man remains far outnumber other finds (Parker Pear-son, 2013, 342-3). This understanding creates aseparation between the l iving and the dead, withclear suggestions of a binary notion of otherworldl i-ness – however, this is far removed from the embod-ied everyday experience of Yoruba conversationswith ancestors, Cathol ic conversations with Saints,Spiritual ist experiences of people who have passedover, and what Harvey has described as the “relation-al ity” or negotiated etiquette between rel igious act-ors and other-than-human persons (Harvey, 2013,125) in contemporary rel igious communities in NewZealand, Nigeria and Hawaii .

Again, we find dissonance between scholars of LivedRel igion and our interdiscipl inary col leagues – we areobserving the same phenomena, and performing re-markably different acts of eisegesis. It should benoted that interesting work is being undertaken inthis area – particularly Hukantaival ’s ‘Finding Folk rel i-gion: An Archaeology of ‘strange’ behaviour’(Hukantaival , 2013) - however it remains a minorityarea of scholarship. Closer interdiscipl inary work onsuch projects within the mainstream could yield im-portant results for understanding l ived, relational rel i-gion in a diversity of historical contexts.

Religious Studies’ and the Politics of Subject Re-cognition

This discourse of dissonance in inter-discipl inary andpubl ic pol itical contexts, also repl icates itself on mi-cro and macro levels of internal academic discourse,and publ ic projections of rel igion through the media. Ifind it very noteworthy that, and I am trying very hardnot to be ad hominen or disrespectful at this point,the UK’s only Reader in the Publ ic Understanding ofRel igion (there is no Professor as yet) is a New testa-ment Theologian, the coordinator of the AAR Com-mittee on the Publ ic Understanding of Rel igion is anEthical Theologian, and the director of a recent Rel i-gious Literacy project in the UK, at a recent publ icevent reverted to the Theologian David Ford, whendefining Rel igious Studies. I wonder if you can see apattern emerging?

Such imbalanced discourse is also happening at asubject-level , when we consider the recent instiga-tion of the European Academy of Rel igion. Recent

updates from Steve Sutcl iffe and myself to theBASR mail ing l ist and Bul letin wil l , I hope, have keptpeople in the loop, but in a nutshel l , this is a new initi-ative to repl icate the mode of the AAR in Europe, or-ganised by theologians, largely Cathol ic, wishing toinform publ ic pol icy through the lens of their world-views. Of course, the methodological issues here aremanifold, and the IAHR and EASR have objectedstrongly, supported by the BASR. We are whistl ing tothe wind. The 2016 pre-conference conference at-tracted hundreds of delegates, and NGOs, socialpol icy units and governmental representatives werealso in attendance. Despite the protestations of theIAHR, EASR and BASR, the event was a resoundingsuccess for the organisers. The academic study ofrel igion, as defined in the aims of the BASR, EASR andour sister association in Ireland, were, to paraphraseCharlotte Hardman again, a “group whose medium ofarticulation is not easily grasped by other sectors ofthe population; a group who is marginal or submissiveto the dominant power group”.

And as the focus of this piece has been on l ived in-terpretations of everyday rel igion, I thought I wouldend this section with an anecdotal reflection on myown recent experience with publ ic discourse on rel i-gion.

A couple of months ago, I was contacted by a produ-cer from LBC radio. I assumed they wanted to employme as their new shock-jock, as Katie Hopkins andNigel Farrage were not right wing enough for them,but apparently it was my knowledge of Scientologythat they were after. Two schools in London bor-oughs had recently invited in drug-prevention youthworkers to talk to their pupils and, upon real ising thatthe speakers were members of the CoS, had de-clared their extreme unhappiness to the world. Theproducer wanted to know what I thought about Sci-entologists being al lowed into schools. Now, besidesthe obvious question of why the schools did not dotheir homework – the Narconon website hardly hidesthe fact it is based on Hubbard’s worldview – I askedthe producer if she would ask this question if thespeakers had been from a Jewish or Christian organ-isation. After a deafening silence, the reply cameback … ‘erm … I suppose not.’ The conversation con-tinued with the producer arranging to cal l me afterthe 9.30am news to be wired in l ive to the airwaveswith the beautiful ly buffoned Andrew Castle. At9.28am, I was texted by the producer to say that,due to a breaking news story, they had dropped the

item. Having not been born yesterday, I tuned in tothe broadcast to hear Jon Attack, a professionalapostate from Scientology who has made a financialcareer out of attacking the Church since the early1980s describe the Scientologists as both ‘demonic’and ‘a death cult’. I should point out that none of thisis about my bruised ego – there are others withinBASR better experienced than I in fieldwork with Sci-entology organisations – but I ask the simple ques-tion; would LBC news drop Brian Cox for an astrologerwhen talking about astronomy? Rel igion is, Sciento-logy pun intended, Fair Game. The sensational istarms of the media do not need to talk to ‘experts’ onrel igion, as they already know what rel igion is. Eventhe more respectable wings of the media fal l intothis trap of essential ising and approaching rel igion asthey expect to find it, rather than as it is l ived andperformed in everyday l ives. Whether we l ike it or not,this continues to inform even respectable and wel l-intentioned publ ic pol icy and discourse on rel igion.

Conclusion

In this short discussion, I have sought to highl ightwhat I bel ieve to be the problem of dissonancebetween the cutting edge of Rel igious Studiesscholarship and the approach taken to both the cat-egory and practice of rel igion in publ ic discourse andrelated fields of scholarship. I am not the first to dothis, of course, but I press the point now, as we riskbecoming a muted voice in wider discourse. For mostrelated scholars, rel igion sti l l exists within thestraight-jacket of the World Rel igions Paradigm – thedomain of texts, doctrines, monol ithic identities andbinary separation between humans and other-than-human persons, between sacred and profane,between self and society. Even when the samesources and terms are used, there is huge varianceabout what rel igion is as new terms are often usedwithin these outdated paradigms. Those scholars en-gaged with bottom-up, embodied, sensual , relationaland contextual ised rel igion must widen the conver-sation beyond our sub-discipl inary networks tomeaningful ly engage with wider discourse on rel igion,to better understand the dynamics of rel igious parti-cipation and engagement in everyday l ives.

So… why does this matter, and why raise the pointnow? Well , despite the evidence of the paucity ofjobs within the Academy, our subject has never beenmore relevant to the pol itical and publ ic debate in ourcontemporary cultures and societies. Now, it may

wel l be obvious that publ ic discourse on rel igion wil llag behind scholarly trends, but the pressing need forbridging discourse is due to the unique dynamic ofour subject in everyday l ives – not every publ ic com-mentator has an opinion on marine biology or ac-countancy methodologies, but publ ic andinterdiscipl inary discourse on rel igion is al l around us.We need to take control of the wider conversation,beyond our sub-discipl ines and be leaders in a newdiscourse on rel igion, which preferences the every-day, the embodied and the relational . That is thechal lenge, and we are best placed to respond to it,both inside and outside the Academy.

Bibliography

Ammerman, N.T. Everyday Religion: observing modern reli-

gious lives (New York: Oxford University Press USA, 2007)

Barker, The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainswashing?

(1984: Oxford, Basil Blackwel l)

Barrier, The British Census in India: New Perspectives (New

Delhi: Manohar, 1981)

Bowman, & Valk (eds.) Vernacular Religion in Everyday Life:

Expressions of Belief (Durham: Acumen Publ ishing Ltd.

2012)

Chisti , 2015.

http://www.rehmanchishti.com/sites/www.rehmanchishti.

com/fi les/25.6.15_letter_to_pm_re_daes h.pdf

Gregg & Scholefield, Engaging with Living Religion: A Guide

to Fieldwork in the Study of Religion (London & New York:

Routledge, 2015)

Guardian, 2016a, 21/04/16

http://www.theguardian.com/pol itics/2016/apr/21/gover

nmentprevent-strategy-promoting-extremism-maina-kiai

Guardian 2016b, 28/03/16

http://www.theguardian.com/pol itics/2016/mar/28/teach

ers-nut-backmotion-cal l ing-prevent-strategy-

radical isation-scrapped

Guardian, 2015a, 09/03/15 https://www.theguardian.-

com/uk-news/2015/mar/09/antiradical isation-prevent-

strategy-a-toxic-brand Guardian, 2015b, 07/12/15

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/07/leaked

-isisdocument-reveals-plan-building-state-syria

Hal l (ed.), Lived Rel igion in America: Toward a History of

Practice (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997)

Hansard, 02/12/15

http://www.publ ications.parl iament.uk/pa/cm201516/cm

hansrd/cm151202/debtext/1512020001.htm

Hardman, https://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.rel igion/staff

/profi le/?id=2013

Harvey, Food, Sex & Strangers (Durham: Acumen, 2013)

Harvey (ed.), Religions in Focus (London; Equinox, 2009)

HM Gov, 2015

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2015/97801111333

09/pdfs/ukdsiod_9780111133309_en.pdf

Hukantaival , ‘Finding Folk rel igion: An Archaeology of

‘strange’ behaviour’ in Folklore.EE: Electronic Journal of

Folklore, 2013, 55, 99-124.

Independent, 21/01/16

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-

news/lancashire-pol ice-sayterrorist-house-incident-not-

about-spel l ing-mistake-a6824481.html

Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions (Chicago: Uni-

versity of Chicago Press, 2005)

McGuire, ‘Toward a Sociology of Spiritual ity: Individual Rel i-

gion in Social/Historical Context’ in Barker (ed) The cent-

rality of Religion in Social Life: Essays in Honour of James

A. Beckford (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010)

McGuire, Lived Religion: Faith and Practice in Everyday Life

(Oxford: OUP, 2008)

Orsi, ‘Everyday Miracles’ in Hal l (ed.) Lived Religion in Amer-

ica: Toward a History of Practice (Princeton: Princeton,

1997)

Orsi, ‘Is the Study of Lived Rel igion Irrelevant to the World

We Live in? Special Presidential Plenary Address, Society

for the Scientific Study of Rel igion, Salt Lake City, Novem-

ber 2, 2002’ in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion ,

Vol . 42, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), pp. 169-174

Owen, S. 2011, ‘The World Rel igions Paradigm: Time for a

Change’ in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 10 (3)

253-268.

Parsons, T. (2002 [1957]) ‘Mal inowski and the Theory of

Social Systems’ in Firth, R. (ed.) Man and Culture: An Evalu-

ation of the Work of Bronislaw Malinowski (Abingdon:

Routledge.

Parker Pearson, Stonehenge: A New Understanding (New

York: The Experiment Publ ishing, 2013)

Platt, King Death: The Black Death and its aftermath in

late-medieval England (London: UCL Press, 1996)

Primiano, L.N. 1995, ‘Vernacular Rel igion and the Search

for Method in Rel igious Folkl ife’ in Western Folklore, 54(1),

p37-56.

Richardson, ‘A Critique of “Brainwashing” Claims About

New Religious Movements’ in Australian Religious Studies

Review, 7, 1994: 48-56.

Robbins, ‘Constructing Cultist Mind Control ’ in Sociological

Analysis 45, 1984: 241-56.

Rupke, 2012 https://www.uni-erfurt.de/fi leadmin/publ ic-

docs/Max-Weber-Kol leg/6-pdfs/projekte/2012-Ruep-

ke_Lived_anc_rel .pdf

Sharma, A. ‘The Hermeneutics of the Word “Rel igion” and

Its Impl ications’ in Sherma, R.D. & Sharma, A. (eds) Her-

meneutics and Hindu Thought: Toward a Fusion of Horia

zons , (London: Springe, 2008r)

Thomas, K. Religion and the Decline of Magic (London:

Penguin, 1971)

Rafael Fernández Hart, SJUniversidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima

The philosophy of rel igion is a relatively young discip-l ine. It appears that the first scholar to use the termwas the German Jesuit Segismund von Storchenau(1731-1797), a Wolff-inspired philosopher who op-posed deism.1 In this sense, his philosophy of rel igionis presented as a preamble to the faith (preambulafidei).2 From this first use, the philosophy of rel igionhas evolved to become a domain of its own, but withmethods shared with philosophy. Rel igion is con-ceived as a fact, and philosophy of rel igion seeks toanswer several questions, including: what is the con-dition of possibi l ity of this fact? What is its own ra-tional ity? How is it articulated with our emotions?

The methodology of philosophy of rel igion has alsovaried over time, and this has caused its borders withtheology, rel igious philosophy or philosophical theo-logy to be somewhat tenuous. If we consider the po-sitions of authors l ike Cicero or Xenophanes, it couldbe argued that there was always a critique of rel igion.Criticism—though not yet in Kant's sense— has thusbeen a kind of philosophy of rel igion before its emer-gence in the Eighteenth entury. Theology is consti-tuted as a discourse on God and the revelation ofGod. For its part, rel igious philosophy tends to takean apologetic tone given that it seeks to account forthe internal logic of a specific rel igious confession.Final ly, philosophical theology has gathered some in-terests of theology and has deepened in them, buthas special ized in the proofs of the existence of God,that is, in how to understand the question of Godtoday. However, the method which in the present ismost used among philosophers of rel igion is phe-nomenology; a method that makes it possible to in-corporate the question of the interpreterthemselves; it means that he is not a pure observer.In this methodology, rel igious experience, both inpersonal space and in the community, wil l be of par-ticular relevance. More recently, hermeneutics has

increasingly been incorporated, by virtue of which thequestion of the meaning of rel igion and of al l its prac-tices, worship or moral ity, are placed at the centre ofreflection. These methods have helped to distinguishthe philosophy of rel igion from other discipl ines.

In Peru, the philosophy of rel igion has not developedindependently, for a number of reasons. The first isthat the philosophy of European rel igion is sti l l incipi-ent. Since Peruvian and Latin American philosophicaldiscourse has basical ly been European, more timewil l be needed to produce a distinct philosophical ap-proach to rel igion. It should be noted that the need tothink with indigenous categories has been seen asimportant in Latin American since the Twentieth Cen-tury. Precisely because of this, the main academicfocus has been on subjects l ike identity or the socialand pol itical organization of the country, rather thanrel igion. Nevertheless, since the 1980s, a group ofLatin American philosophers under the aegis of JuanCarlos Scannone (Argentina), Vicente Santuc (Peru)and Gerardo Remolina (Colombia) has produced agreat deal of philosophy from Latin America. In 2003,this group publ ished two volumes of Philosophy ofReligion from Latin America , which takes a unique ap-proach to local rel igions. Although there is a LatinAmerican approach, however, there is no contributionon rel igion in Peru as yet.

The second reason is due to the complex constitu-tion of the Peruvian nation. Although there has beena decrease in numbers, most of its population sti l lidentifies as Christian—specifical ly, Cathol ic. Thisdoes not mean, however, that rel igious practices andstories of ancestral character that distinguished theinhabitants of Peru before the colonization fromEurope have been altogether abandoned. In somecases, it can be observed that these practices andstories are articulated to constitute a unique under-

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT. . . IN PERU

ground narrative that survives until today. This con-text is complex and enormously difficult to system-atize. Thus, the academy in Peru has developed thestudy of rel igion primari ly through the social sci-ences such as anthropology and sociology. In this re-spect, we may recal l the Jesuit anthropologistManuel Marzal , whose field work establ ished a tradi-tion of study which has successors until today.

Philosophy has been developed as a reflexive discip-l ine. Even if they deal with day-to-day matters, manycontemporary philosophers wil l claim this reflectivecharacter as distinctive of philosophy. But in truththere is more; in addition to being reflective, it hassought to be rigorous—that is to say, it has tried notto defend anything that cannot be argued in a ration-al way. This should not mean that it has become adark and abstract exercise understandable only with-in circles of initiates. It is true that the effort to ex-press the real , to be honest with the description ofthe world, wil l always be faced with a Luciferiantemptation that would be satisfied with the artificeof words or with the construction of montages thatdo not speak the real , but represent representationsin a world whose background is unfathomable—apure narcissism which is perhaps one of the dangerspar excel lence of philosophical work. In this regard,many contemporary philosophical discourses havetried not only to say how things are, but have contrib-uted positively to making things different.

And with respect to what typifies contemporaryphilosophical discourse, it can be said that today it isunthinkable to make a rigorous philosophical invest-igation which is not interdiscipl inary. Of course, thisposes other chal lenges: what kind of instruments touse and up to what l imits without making philosophylose its own way of working or points of reference? Inany case, it is not methodological puritanism that wil lbe able to solve this question. Just as philosophyserves other discipl ines for their research projects,nothing should prevent philosophy from using the hu-man, social or hard sciences.

In a rel igious real ity so complex—and so differentfrom the European—as the Peruvian and Latin Amer-ican, fieldwork is indispensable to get in touch withthe way of l ife of people. Phenomenology and her-meneutics have taught us how relevant their experi-ences are, and how they constitute meaning, andthat is what we have developed in two recent invest-igations. The first concerns atheism in Peru and its

repercussion on the constitution of the individualsubject, and the second on the relationship betweenthe practice of rel igion and values among youngadults in Peru.

We certainly l ive in a secularized world, but it wouldbe too much to say that Peru is secular; con-sequently, the category of post-secularity is perhapsinappl icable in our case. Peru is sti l l among the coun-tries with the largest number of bel ievers in theworld—some figures place it among the ten most re-l igious countries in the world—but it is clear that theprocess of secularization has accelerated andseems unl ikely to stop. This is visible in the numberof practitioners which is far fewer than the numberof bel ievers. Many of those who recognize them-selves as bel ievers lack personal or communal prac-tice. In fact, we could say that they are bel ievers witha practical atheism.

It is also quite clear that there is a close relationshipbetween the academic world and the growth and ac-celeration of secularity, by which I mean that thegreatest number of agnostics or non-bel ievers is inthe academic world. Although a more careful study ofthe reasons for this must be undertaken, some mayassume that the development of academic l ife hasled to question many naive bel iefs—the incipienttheological formation of the Peruvian bel ievers hasprevented many naive convictions from being re-placed by more elaborate ones. Indeed, the discoveryof the logic inherent in mythical narratives has oftenled scholars to conclude that there is an incompatib-i l ity between being enl ightened and being a bel iever.It could be said that academics have an al lergy to re-l igious faith. This is one of the dangers of academiabecause human beings and cultures appear to bedevoid of their dimension of depth. A Peruvian philo-sophy of rel igion is yet to be done, and it wil l un-doubtedly have to examine the diversity of rel igiousnarratives.

1. Christian Wolff (1679-1754) is a German philosopher,

theologian, mathematician and jurist. He taught in Hal le and

Marburg, publ ished more than 200 works and had great influence

in the field of metaphysics.

2. Preambula fidei is the expression used by Saint Thomas

Aquinas to refer to prel iminary truths that can be discovered by

reason. The typical example of preambula fidei is the existence

of God.

RREE::TTHHIINNKKIINNGGCHARLES FORT

Charles Fort (1874-1932) is not a name that wewould automatical ly associate with the scholarlystudy of rel igion, though in recent years writers suchas Jeffrey J. Kripal (2010; 2014) have sought to en-courage an engagement with Fortean materials andapproaches in the academy. Charles Fort was a col-lector of bizarre stories and strange accounts thathe found documented in newspapers and scientificjournals at the New York Publ ic Library and the BritishLibrary in London. Over the course of four extraordin-ary books publ ished between 1919-1932 (Fort,

2008), Fort presented thousands of accounts ofstrange and anomalous events—from fish fal l ingfrom the sky, to poltergeist outbreaks and UFO flaps(even before the advent of the modern UFOcraze)—which he interpreted through the lens of hisintermediatist philosophy. It is Fort's intermediatistperspective in particular that might offer fruitful newapproaches to the academic study of rel igion(Hunter, 2016). Jeffrey Kripal writes of intermediat-ism:

Jack Hunter, University of Bristol

With this term Fort meant to refer to a philosophicalposition. . . that involves the refusal of all easy, polariz-ing answers to the problems of the paranormal andthe related insistence that, whatever such phenom-ena are (or are not), they cannot be mapped onto thecognitive grids of the pairs mental/material, real/un-real, subjective/objective, and so on (Kripal , 2014,259)

In essence, what Fort is cal l ing for with his philosophyof intermediatism is a whole new approach to invest-igating the paranormal , or rel igion, or anything—'Onemeasures a circle, beginning anywhere' (Fort, 2008,554). It is an approach that actively seeks to moveaway from the traditional assumptions that havedominated Western academic thinking since at leastthe Enl ightenment, specifical ly by incorporating the'damned facts' that science has for so long neg-lected—'Battal ions of the accursed, captained bypal l id data that I have exhumed, wil l march' (Fort,2008, 3). He is cal l ing for a new paradigm of criticalthinking—a complete overhaul of our conceptual andanalytical frameworks—to open up a space for dis-course about new possibil ities that extend beyondmaterial ism, or any other widely accepted theory.Fort's biographer, Jim Steinmeyer, writes: 'CharlesFort took on the establ ishment—science, philosophyand theology' (Fort, 2008, v).

To the intermediatist, al l phenomena—from the mostmundane to the most extraordinary—provide gate-ways through which we can approach the structuresand processes of what Fort cal led the 'underlyingoneness' (Fort, 2008, 544). The impl ication is thatthe extraordinary phenomena and experiences repor-ted across humankind, throughout history, acrosscontinents and between rel igious traditions mightprove ferti le ground for investigating the nature ofrel igion, culture and human consciousness. In JeffreyKripal 's terms, Fort's approach encourages us to re-engage with Super Rel igion, specifical ly those 'rarebut real ' aspects of rel igion that 'defy [and] tran-scend, our ordinary (Western secular) conceptions ofthe world and human nature' (Kripal , 2016, xv).

It is encouraging that a new open-mindedness to-wards Fort's 'damned facts' and Kripal 's 'super rel i-gion' is beginning to emerge in Rel igious Studies andrelated discipl ines, that open up new avenues forscholarly inquiry. Take, for example, Michael Grosso'swonderful recent book about the the levitating monk,St. Joseph of Copertino (Grosso, 2015), which places

Joseph's at first glance wildly outlandish paranormalphenomena (levitation, bi-location, material isation) inthe wider comparative context of parapsychologicalphenomena, placebo and nocebo effects, the role ofculture and bel ief, and other remarkable mind-bodyabil ities. Once this context is taken into account, St.Joseph's spontaneous levitations do not seem quiteso 'impossible'—indeed they begin to look more l ikeextensions of other less extreme mind-body phe-nomena.

The question becomes, then: If Joseph real ly wasable to levitate, what impl ications would this know-ledge have for theory formation in academic Rel i-gious Studies? Certainly, the classical material istunderpinnings (the ontology) of social scientific the-ory would have to be re-evaluated. Furthermore, aFortean approach would shift our attention awayfrom rel igious bel iefs towards rel igious phenomenaand experiences, which in itself might lead to newtheroetical and methodological innovations. In cer-tain respects this emphasis on phenomena (things)and experiences moves us in a similar direction toanthropology's recent so-cal led 'ontological turn'(Hobraad & Pedersen, 2017). Martin Holbraad andMorten Pedersen write:

[the ontological turn] is meant as a call to keep openthe question of what phenomena might comprise agiven ethnographic field and how anthropologicalconcepts have to be modulated or transformed. . . toarticulate them (Hobraad & Pedersen, 2017, 11)

A Fortean approach to Rel igious Studies, then, wouldnot shy away from the damned facts of phenomenasuch as levitation, spirit possession, psychokinesis,after-death communication, telepathy, apparitions,amongst numerous others, as real ontological pos-sibi l ities in the field. It would embrace and entertainthem as essential components of a 'given ethno-graphic field, ' and might make use of new emic cat-egories, concepts and phenomena in theoryconstruction. After al l , if spirits are real then a classicsocial-functional account of spirit possession prac-tices fundamental ly misses the point, or if levitationis possible then standard debunking accounts of in-dividuals l ike St. Joseph of Copertino must also bereconsidered. Fort encourages us to be sceptical ofeven our most cherished establ ished theories.

To briefly conclude, I would l ike to turn to Edith Turn-er's famous encouragement for anthropologists of

rel igion to engage with the experiences, bel iefs andpractices of ethnographic informants on their ownterms in order to gain a richer, more complete per-spective, without seeking to 'explain them away' interms that have no relevance to the informant. Shewrites:

Again and again anthropologists witness spiritrituals, and again and again some indigenous exegetetries to explain that the spirits are present, and fur-thermore that rituals are the central events of theirsociety. And the anthropologist proceeds to inter-pret them differently. There seems to be a kind offorce field between the anthropologist and her or hissubject matter making it impossible for her or him tocome close to it, a kind of religious frigidity. We an-thropologists need training to see what the Nativessee (Turner, 1993, p 11)

Charles Fort's philosophy of intermediatismseems to offer one possible a route towardsachieving the kind of perspective Edie Turnercal led for in her groundbreaking articles. It is anon-dogmatic approach that seeks to movebeyond the concepts and categories of West-ern academic thinking to push forward to-wards something new and inclusive (a termthat Fort expl icity associated with his newparadigm of thinking). As we have seen withMichael Grosso's work, a fresh perspectivemight also shed new light on historical casesthat we no longer have direct access to, en-couraging us to reconsider mainstream ac-counts. These are just a few of the reasonsthat I would l ike to encourage al l who read thisto re-think Charles Fort and his potential con-tributions to our discipl ine. Fort's is a cal l to becreative and brave in exploring new theoreticaland ontological territories in our writing andresearch on rel igion.

References

Fort, C. (2008). The Books of the Damned: The Col lected

Woks of Charles Fort. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher.

Grosso, M. (2015). The Man Who Could Fly: St. Joseph of

Copertino and the Mystery of Levitation. Lanham: Row-

man & Littlefield.

Holbraad, M. & Pedersen, M.A. (2017). The Ontological

Turn: An Anthropological Exposition. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni-

versity Press.

Hunter, J. (ed.) (2016). Damned Facts: Fortean Essays on Rel i-

gion, Folklore and the Paranormal . Paphos: Aporetic Press.

Kripal , J.J. (2010). Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and

the Sacred. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kripal , J.J. (2014). Comparing Rel igions: Coming to Terms.

Chichester: Wiley Blackwel l .

Kripal , J.J. (ed.) (2014). Super Rel igion. Farmington Mil ls: Macmil-

lan Reference.

Turner, E. (1993). 'The Real ity of Spirits: A Tabooed or Permitted

Field of Study?' Anthropology of Consciousness, Vol . 4, No. 1, pp.

9-12.

BASR, 4-6 SEPT, 2017, UNIVERSITY OF CHESTER

The theme of the BASR 2017 Annual Conference,Narratives of Rel igion, was reflected in the richnessand diversity of papers and panels that BASR mem-bers have come to expect from the three-day event.Narratives of travel , pedagogy, history and wel l-beingwere investigated, with the underlying theme of en-gagement with researcher positional ity emergingthroughout the discussions.

The opening session, Autoethnography, introducedthe concepts of reflexivity, storytel l ing and identity.Daniel Nield’s personal explorations of his autoeth-nographic work on HIV testing presented self-reflec-tion as a positive form of ‘confession’, whilst AnnaFisk’s research on fibrecraft practice as impl icit rel i-gion showcased her innovative methodology ofpresenting her autobiographical narrative alongsidefeminist theological interpretations of women’s fic-tion. Lynne Scholefield, meanwhile, interpreted herown autoethnography as a ‘creative non-fiction’, ad-vocating a story-tel l ing approach to researcher posi-tional ity. The speakers’ commitment to reflexive,innovative interpretations of their fieldwork set a re-flective tone for the conference delegates, whichcontinued through the fol lowing papers and panels.

Monday afternoon’s Rel igion, Perception and Identitypapers session was opened by Paul Ful ler with apresentation on ethnocentrism in Buddhism, in whichhe chal lenged the preconception that Buddhism isnot connected to ethnic identity or preservation.Katarzyna Kowalska then reflected on the perceptionthat members of the Progressive Movements in theUnited Kingdom have of the Havdalah ritual in Ortho-dox Judaism; a ritual that is firmly related to Jewishidentity. Through participant observation, Katarzynauncovered a revival of Havdalah and addressed theways in which its underlying ideology is adapting tointerfaith situations. Angela Puca closed the sessionwith a paper on the Theory-Fieldwork dynamic in An-thropological Research. Based on a 12-month casestudy in Italy, she found that a metamorphosis fromoriginal theory to new theory mirrored her fieldwork,suggesting that there is a tension between the the-oretical starting point of a research and researcherexperiences. These papers fostered discussion as tohow rel igious studies practitioners label themselvesand the effect that label has on their identity, as wel las critical reflection on the insider/outsider ap-proach and the implementation of ‘onl ine fieldwork’.

Tuesday morning saw the theme take a different dir-ection, in the panel Shapeshifting and shadow

conferences

selves: Indigenous narratives and western culture,chaired by Susanne Owen. Dr Owen opened the panelwith an investigation of two accounts of shapeshift-ing in Canadian indigenous tradition. Both storiesthat were examined looked at the role of the narrat-ives in negotiating concepts of kinship within the hu-man tribe and with the ‘other than human persons’with which it was in a relationship. In contrast, LouiseChild presented an investigation into the relationshipbetween indigenous rel igions and Native Americanfi lms by giving a fascinating perspective on the pop-ular 1990’s mystery drama, Twin Peaks . The serieswas set in rural Canada, and the paper examined pos-sible l inks with an indigenous animistic world view asa way of making sense of some of the themes andimagery from the series. While the first two papersprovided a fascinating insight into the ways in whichindigenous narratives have been reinterpreted, rep-resented and reimagined in a western context, JackHunter presented his investigation into a group prac-tising physical mediumship—a topic that has fal lenout of fashion with researchers. He suggested thatresearch should move away from a consideration ofwhether such experiences are veridical , and considerinstead the role that such narratives play in identityformation and in the wider context of meaning-mak-ing.

Professor Ronald Hutton’s keynote speech, Narrat-ives of Pagan Rel igion, drew the second day to aclose with a reflection on the history of the scholar-ship of modern Wicca. Professor Hutton comparedand contrasted Wiccan narratives regarding identity

and value construction with changing scholarly nar-ratives regarding Wicca, i l lustrating that Wicca is en-gaged in a reciprocal relationship with scholarlyopinion and that Wiccan ideas have reacted to chan-ging scholarly notions within academia. Hutton ex-panded on the point that, whilst there remain anumber of outlying individuals and groups withinWicca that posit an unbroken relationship with a pre-Christian Goddess rel igion and claim that ‘witches’executed during the Middle Ages were fol lowers ofthis rel igion, this view point is rare, and hostile inter-actions with Wiccans are unusual . By contrast, theacademic narrative of what is a val id and ‘respect-able’ topic for academic research was often at oddswith what Professor Hutton was attempting to do,leading to significant institutional hostil ity.

Two topics of discussion arose from the address.Firstly, the importance of what Professor Hutton re-ferred to as ‘reactivity’. That is, the phenomenon bywhich what academics publ ish about a tradition af-fects the way in which that tradition sees itself anddevelops. This is particularly relevant to the study ofcontemporary Paganisms, which are stil l young tradi-tions that are continuing to develop. The other issuewas the continuing prejudice that is experienced byPagans engaged in academic research, or in any oth-er positions of publ ic responsibi l ity. This was metwith shock from the audience, and generated a pas-sionate discussion on the potential for scholars ofrel igion to change the ways in which Pagans are per-ceived.

Ronald Hutton, Narrativesof Pagan Religion

The final day of the conference saw a series of ‘l ight-ning talks’ presented by six Masters and PhD stu-dents from institutions across the UK. For most ofthese speakers, this was their first experience ofpresenting at a national conference, and it waspromising to see how postgraduates and early ca-reer researchers are continuing to del iver strong re-search in the field of Rel igious Studies. The sessionopened and closed with papers on gender; Bex Ger-rard’s critical reflection on the binaries of rel igion andfeminism provided a useful backdrop against whichShona Hayes presented her research on the l ived ex-periences of evangel ical Christian women. Otherthemes covered in this session ranged from the riseof Mormonism in nineteenth century County Durhamto the emergence of a ‘non-rel igious Buddhism’. Thepresenters drew upon various resources to engagetheir audience, from Lucy Peacock’s demonstrationof creative methods used to facil itate interfaith dia-logue in London’s faith schools, to StephanieRobert’s use of music to bring to l ife her examinationof the relationship between Jesus and Judas in An-drew Lloyd Weber’s Jesus Christ Superstar. The con-ference was made richer by these contributions andBASR hopes to continue to encourage postgradu-ates and early career researchers to contribute inthis way next year.

The atmosphere throughout the conference was oneof hospital ity and community, from the warm wel-come by the University of Chester conference team,to the social time, including breaks and meals, whichwas relaxed and encouraged conversation and net-

working. As the conference drew to a close we werefortunate enough to be welcomed to ChesterCathedral .

Located in the heart of the city centre, the cathedralis a stunning building that combines Romanesqueand Gothic architectural styles. A doctoral studentfrom the University of Chester acted as our guide tothe building and its history, and we made our en-trance through the west door. The first thing we sawwas the nave, subtly enl ightened by the stained-glass windows, and somewhat ‘out of context’ withthe rest of the building. An exhibition of modern artwas in fact being displayed throughout al l the areasof the Cathedral ; the contrast between medieval artand architecture and the contemporary instal lations,including stuffed animals, gave visitors a visualshock. An area of particular interest was the LadyChapel dating back to the thirteenth century that, aswith the majority of the building, has artistic ele-ments adjunct through different Centuries and astone shrine that used to contain the rel ics of SaintWerburgh. The remarkable l ighting and resonancederiving from the Cloisters struck us as we departed,leaving a lasting impression of our time at Chester.

We would l ike to thank the BASR Executive Commit-tee for the bursary awards which enabled us to at-tend and present at the conference.

Lucy Peacock, Coventry UniversityAngela Puca, Leeds Trinity University

Jennifer Uzzel l , Durham University

Intersections of religion and fictionpanel. (i-r): Alanna Vincent,

Francesca Haig, Zen Cho.

EASR, 18-21 SEPT, 2017, LEUVEN, BELGIUM

The European Association for the Study of Rel igion’s2017 conference took place between the 18th and21st of September in Leuven, Belgium. The primarytheme for the conference was “Communicating Rel i-gion”, a vague theme which al lowed for a multipl icityof differing approaches, themes, and considerationsfor papers. Three reporters attended for theBASR/RSP, and the three reports reflect this di-versity.

Hans Van Eyghen’s Report

Visiting your Alma Mater is always accompanied bymixed emotions. On the one hand you see famil iarthings you missed but on the other hand you’re con-fronted with downsides you hoped were a thing ofthe past. My visit to the KULeuven for the EASR con-ference had both, although the positives far out-weighed the downsides.

One downside al l former KUL students are famil iarwith is the constant renovation works. The confer-ence venue was only partly finished and the coffeebreaks were frequently interrupted by noise. Luckilythis was soon forgotten when one of the majorstrong points of the KUL manifested; its abil ity to at-tract a lot of renowned international speakers. Thefirst keynote speaker was Guy Stroumsa who talkedabout rel igious evolution in late antiquity. His talkcovered developments in pagan Roman rel igion,Zoroastrianism, Christianity, Judaism and Maniche-ism during that era. The keynote was fol lowed by thefirst paral lel session. Each slot offered a choice of noless than 12 sessions. I mostly chose sessions on

minority rel igions or esoteric traditions. During thefirst session, titled New Religious Movements, Suz-anne Owen discussed a wel l-known problem in mod-ern paganism—the difficulty in lumping ratherdiffuse groups together. She discussed it from alegal perspective and noted that some pagan groupshad difficulty in gaining official recognition in theUnited Kingdom. Vladlena Fedianina’s talk was on aremarkable Japanese movement cal led Kofuku-noKagaka, also known as ‘happy science’. Its leaderclaims to be able to channel messages from al l sortsof (l iving) people. Fedianina focused on the move-ment’s efforts in Russia, for example by means ofpubl ishing channeled messages from Russian pres-ident Vladimir Putin. The third speaker, Matous Ven-calek, talked about his field work among Czechpagan groups.

The first session I attended on the second day un-fortunately had only one speaker. Isabel CanzobreMartinez discussed indications of people identifyingwith various gods in the Greek magical papyri . Shecompared the practice with Jesus identifying withthe God of Israel in the New Testament. The keynoteof the day, Jan Bremmer took the theme of the con-ference to heart and talked about rel igious educa-tion and communication in antiquity. He argued thateducation into antique pagan rel igion mainlyhappened by having children seeing and partaking inrituals. It was a bit unfortunate that Bremmer didn’ttake recent cognitive research about ritual compet-ence and the role of rituals in community-building in-to account.

Cognitive science was not missing from the thirdday, however. Early in the morning three speakershad a panel titled Esotericism and the Cognitive Sci-

ence of Rel igion. Egil Asprem started off and dis-cussed how recent theories of predictive codingcould shed more l ight on kataphatic practices. Pre-dictive coding models suggest that the human mindis constantly making hypotheses about the outsideworld and updating them when needed. Asprem dis-cussed how these models could shed l ight on kata-phatic practices where people try to gain contact orknowledge about higher realms or divine beings.Gusmundur Markusson appl ied cognitive semioticsto how Aleister Crowley’s ‘Book of the Law’ is used insome forms of western esotericism. He argued thatthe opaqueness of the book al lows readers to finddivergent meanings in it. This (among other things)makes the book intriguing. To end the panel , JesperSorensen made some general comments how cog-nitive science of rel igion can aid the study of esoter-icism and how the study of esotericism can also helpto move cognitive science of rel igion forward.

The afternoon started with a keynote lecture by AnnTaves. She argued for replacing the world rel igionparadigm with a worldview paradigm. Researchingworldviews rather than the five world rel igions wouldbe more inclusive and could help tackle current prob-lems l ike partisanship and popul ism in her view.However, when discussing the course she teachesat the University of Cal ifornia at Santa Barbara, Taveshad to admit she stil l used the world rel igionsparadigm, and was criticized for this during the Q&A. Ispend the rest of the afternoon in sessions onShinto. Michael Pye introduced the first session witha talk on diversity within Shinto. Dunja Jelesijevicdiscussed interactions between Shinto and Japan-ese Noh theatre. Tomoko Iwasawa touched on thetopic that would be the main point of discussion inthe second session on Shinto; namely whether it ispossible to use the term ‘Shinto’ for medieval andancient Japanese rel igion or whether these are verydifferent things. During the second session, YeonjooPark talked about influences of Tendai Buddhism inmedieval Shinto. The last speaker, Mart Teeuwen,voiced his doubt that Shinto can be traced back tomedieval times, let alone to ancient times.

The fourth day, I attended a session on modernshamanism. Tiina Mahlmäki drew an interesting paral-lel between shamanistic practices and ethnography.Shamans attribute an important role to the imagina-tion and try to develop ‘inner senses’ to tap into oth-er forms of knowledge. Mahlmäki claimed thatethnographers often have to rely on imagination to

capture what their subjects are doing as wel l . In herview some methods used by researchers are alsosimilar to shamanistic practices. Her example wasthe ‘creative writing’ many ethnographers do whentaking notes. Jaana Kouri (who is a shamanistic prac-titioner herself) discussed how shamans are able toshift consciousness. She argued that shamanisticknowledge is best construed as a joint production ofboth human and non-human actors. She also claimedthat many western shamanistic practitioners havean academic background. I did not attend more ses-sions on the fourth day apart from the keynote lec-ture. In it, Jenny Berglund compared various forms of(Islamic) rel igious education in Europe.

The EASR conference showed how diverse and inter-esting rel igious studies is. A downside is that it alsoshowed how the diversity does not always lead to in-teraction. Few presenters showed an active interestin what scholars who study other rel igions or ap-proaches do. The keynote lectures were also largelyconfined to a subclass of rel igious studies. I couldnot help but thinking that scholars could make agreater effort to learn from each other. For example,the speakers on modern shamanism could arguablylearn from the speakers on Siberian shamanism.Large conferences, l ike the EASR conference, areprobably not the best venue to serve as a bridgebetween scholars.

Hanna Lehtinen’s Report

The theme chosen for this year’s conference is aclever one. As Einar Thomassen mentioned in hiswelcoming words in the conference book, commu-nication is a topical theme in rel igious studies. Lookfrom a certain perspective and it is present every-where in human l ife, so it real ly is a theme underwhich a wide range of different research topics canbe grouped. The conference organizers themselvesseemed to have had something specific in mind,since most of the keynotes addressed rel igious edu-cation from one view or another. However, the con-ference papers offered many different views on thistheme. Communication about rel igion happens inmany contexts; in academia, in media, in classrooms,in pol itical debates, in museums. Similarly, rel igion iscommunicated about by many actors and for manyreasons. Al l of these contexts and actors (and muchmore) were discussed during the four-day confer-ence.

One arena of ‘communicating rel igion’ that I person-al ly am very interested in was addressed on Tuesdaymorning, in a session titled Rel igious Authority andthe Internet – Towards a New Framework. Frederik El-wert, Giul ia Evolvi, Anna Neumaier, and Samira Tabtifrom University of Bochum, Germany, had built an ex-cel lent panel in which al l four papers elegantly con-tributed to a coherent whole. First, Elwert introduceda paper on the theoretical framework developed to-gether by the group of researchers. After this, Evolvi,Neumaier, and Tabti al l presented their own work as acase study, drawing from the theoretical model intro-duced in the first paper. This panel was easy to fol-low and gave me plenty to think about.

Different forms or onl ine communication offer newways to form communities and, consequently, newways of negotiating power relations—and rel igiousauthority. In this dynamic process, more traditionalrel igious authorities, such as texts and rel igiousleaders representing mainstream rel igious institu-

tions may need to compete with emerging newforms of authority. It is no surprise then that theseresearchers considered Weber’s traditional concep-tual ization of rel igious authority l imited when study-ing rel igious authority onl ine. The new model ofauthority they were developing was enriched by in-cluding elements from Popitz, Simmel, Bourdieu, andFoucault. As described in the abstract, this newmodel aims at being a more inclusive, networkedmodel of authority more suited for the onl ine envir-onment. Important theoretical elements includedBourdieu’s concept of symbol ic capital and expert-ise, which help to grasp an important source of au-thority on onl ine forums. Similarly, Foucault’stheorizing on the connection between power rela-tions and production of knowledge seems like a goodperspective for examining the onl ine environments inquestion. The case studies examined in this sessionalso showed how different forms and sources of au-thority would be used in combination. Rel igious textsand traditional rel igious authorities were referred to

Kim Knott presenting on her

work in security settings.

as authorities, but selectively—and this selectionprocess was also done on the forums. In some casesonl ine communities also offered a place for resist-ance, where participants could seek different kind ofauthority that they recognized as more legitimate.

The presenters were asked whether their modelwould be suitable for onl ine environments other thandiscussion forums. The commenter remarked thatsuch discussion forums are on the decl ine, and dif-ferent emerging forms of onl ine communities fol lowa different logic. I do agree that the variety of differ-ent onl ine environment does require sensitive appl ic-ation of theoretical models. Sti l l , I personal ly thinkthat the model presented by these four scholarsmay wel l serve there as wel l . After al l , as Frederik El-wert pointed out, this model is meant to be a usefultool for examining authority in such environment. Assuch, it can probably be adapted to many differentonl ine environments.

One take on communicating rel igion is, of course, theacademic discourse on rel igion and the way re-searchers communicate about rel igion with variouspubl ics. This theme often brings with it the discus-sion about how do (and how should) scholars of rel i-gion engage with said publ ics and be of use in oneway or another. I bel ieve the term ‘ivory tower’ wasmentioned in this session as wel l , although just inpassing. As someone who has received their highereducation and professional training in this field, I amalways happy to hear about different ways to applythe expertise of a researcher of rel igion. The panel ,Communicating Knowledge about Rel igion in the “Ex-tended Classroom”, was chaired by Tim Jensen, andconsisted of an introduction and two presentations.Kim Knott described her work as a scholar of rel igionin “security and intel l igence settings”, and LeniFranken discussed the possibi l ity of “worldview edu-cation for al l the university”. In a sense, both of thepapers presented dealt with rel igious l iteracy andhow scholars of rel igion can contribute to such athing.

Knott has plenty of experience in settings whichcross the boundaries of academia and engages withvarious publ ics and partners. Her discussion on thetopic at hand was based on examples from the UK;Partnership on Confl ict, Crime and Security Researchand the national hub for research and evidence onsecurity threats (CREST). Although the topic of KimKnott’s paper was intriguing, Knott was quick to dis-

pel any expectations of glamour: cooperating withsecurity and intel l igence professionals is hardly thejob of a secret agent. Researchers involved in theseprojects do not, for instance, deal with classifieddocuments. Sti l l , the setting she describes is inter-esting and controversial . It sure comes as no sur-prise to anyone that in today’s world matters ofrel igion are of interest to different security institu-tions, but how should academics relate to them?Knott makes a good case that in order to affect im-portant publ ic pol icies, simple general ‘rel igious l iter-acy’ is not enough. Researchers should also be ableto contribute with their expertise in cooperation witha wide range of publ ic authorities and officials.

There are special features to working together withsecurity and intel l igence professionals. Trust is a keyissue, there are l imits to what kind of information canbe shared, and apparently sometimes the press of-fice of the university needs to be kept on a shortleash. On a more general note, Knott emphasizes theabil ity and wil l ingness to cross discipl inary boundar-ies and work together with professionals in fieldsother than one’s own. It is also important to be ableto focus on the problem someone else has givenyou. Rel igion as the topic of the research may needto be ‘de-centered’ and the focus shifted forsomething else, such as a security issue. It is alsoimportant to provide evidence-based assessment,and not simply remain in the sphere of ‘commentingon security matters’. However, there is no need to‘suspend one’s critical faculties’ as Knott put it.

From the security setting, the panel then moved toanother sphere: university education. This was thetopic of Leni Franken, who gave a paper on worldvieweducation, a course offered to al l university studentsat University of Antwerp. According to Franken, theneed for such a course arises from the increasinglymulticultural society. Furthermore, the educationsystem in Belgium fol lows the pil larised structure ofthe society in more general . This means that differ-ent rel igious communities have traditional ly had sep-arate institutions, and across-the-board, generalteaching about rel igions and worldviews has notbeen available. Franken discussed this historicalcontext, outl ined the aim and features of this courseon worldviews, and offered some questions for fur-ther discussion.

From these two examples alone it is clear that re-searchers of this field can contribute in many set-

tings to different types of rel igious l iteracy. As Knottmentioned at the end of her presentation, we asscholars of rel igion have plenty to offer; the relevantsubject matter, and a nuanced understanding of rel i-gion (and why not worldviews more general ly) situ-ated in different contexts.

One interesting space for communicating (about) re-l igion is, of course, the museum—and the State Mu-seum of History of Rel igions in Saint-Petersburg iscertainly an interesting one. Deputy Director of Re-search Affairs, Professor Ekaterina Terioukova wasgiving an interesting example in her paper on her re-search into the col lection on Evenk people shaman-ism and, simultaneously, the col lector A.F. Anisimov,Russian ethnographer who studied the Evenk andtheir rel igion. As Terioukova told me in our discussionlater, these two aspects are always intertwined:studying a col lection always requires studying thecontext—the people and ideas behind the items.

Veronika Khorina from Saint-Petersburg State Uni-versity also discussed Russian ethnographers andtheir work. The focus of her paper was two ethno-graphers, sibl ings V.N. Kharusina and N.N. Kharusin.Kharusina is a noted figure for being the first femaleethnographer in Russia. She also edited her brother’swork and developed her own theoretical views on thehistory of rel igions and shamanism. Approaching thetopic from a different viewpoint, Renata Schiavoproblematized the use of the term “shamanism” inEgyptology, especial ly in relation to one ceremonytitled the “opening of mouth ceremony”. Schiavo alsoargued that it is possible to trace a kind of an evolu-tionistic undertone in the way this ritual has beendefined as shamanistic. However, she stated thatthe rel igious figure referred to—the sem-priest—was not, in fact, acting in the way shamanictraditions typical ly have been defined. For instance,no trance state has been described as part of theritual in question.

An obvious example of communicating rel igion is, ofcourse, rel igious education, and this topic was dis-cussed in many panel sessions and several key-notes. Jenny Berglund’s keynote lecture onThursday—"Islamic Education, a Litmus Test onState Relations to Musl im Minorities"—also ad-dressed this topic in an interesting way. The lecturewas wel l structured, and the framework Berglundpresented was simple and effective. She introducedexamples of various countries in which the state has

organized the teaching (and funding) of rel igiouseducation differently, and examined the ways inwhich Islamic education has been included in thesestructures. This is Berglund’s l itmus test: examiningthe position of Islamic education can revealsomething about state–minority community rela-tions. On one hand it is a matter of equal ity and in-tegration; on the other it has to do with state controlof rel igious education.

I personal ly found examining this l ink very interest-ing. Education is an important interface betweenstate authority and various rel igious e.g. communit-ies. And often the structures that have become al-most invisible in their apparent obviousness can bemore clearly pointed out when they are il luminatedand perhaps questioned by the need to incorporate anew element into the system.

Vivian Asimos’s Report

One of the first aspects of the conference whichcaught my attention was the amount of recognitionof the digital and rel igion. Media, digital ap-proaches/considerations, and rel igion are seldomrepresented largely at mainstream rel igion confer-ences, and to see at least one panel a day, andsometimes three panels a day, on the digital is awonderful sight to see. Two of these panels on thevery first day of the conference focused on rel igionand video games, a much needed representation inmainstream rel igious studies conferences which islong overdue. Other digital approaches were on digit-al pi lgrimages, featuring Tim Hutchings’ (StockholmUniversity / Durham University) talk about dark pil-grimages and Chernobyl , and two general panels onrel igion and media, including an intriguing talk byAshley Campbel l (University of Colorado—Boulder)on podcasting non-rel igion.

There were also a plethora of panels regardinggender, again at least one, but more often more thanone, a day. Fredrik Gregorious (University of Linkop-ing) detailed the expl icit and impl icit ways mascul in-ity is communicated in American Evangel icalChristianity, and Terhi Utriainen (University of Hel-sinki) discussed ways spiritual women deal with is-sues of secularity in Finland. There were also varyingamount of papers and themes presenting other ap-proaches. One panel ran two sessions on Imagina-tion, Knowledge and Rel igious Traditions, in whichnew approaches in anthropology, such as the ontolo-

gical turn, was util ized in a way to improve ethno-graphic fieldwork. There were also panels on Seeker-ship, including Claire Wanless (Open University) whoproposed a theoretical framework for seekership.

The open theme al lowed for a great deal of differencein papers, though it did have the downside of diffi-culty of l inking papers across panels, and even some-times within the same panel . Though this did notdiminish the interest of the speakers present inLeuven. It is unfortunate that so many great academ-ic papers, approaches, and themes were overshad-owed by a negative hospitable experience. Theconference venue was far from the main city, butalso far from any location for coffee, food, and even aseat outside a panel room. There was an overbearinglack of attention to special diets, even as simple asvegetarian, making me real ize that those who wouldneed halal , kosher, vegan, or other special diets werewoeful ly forgotten. In fact, vegetarians and otherswere made to feel at fault for putting the venue towork to feed them differently. For an international re-l igion conference, it was sad to see l ittle attention tospecial diets. As is the case with many conferences,there were changes to the schedule, though thesewere not communicated. We were told to check ouremails for these changes, though never received anyof these.

The EASR 2017 conference was a successful confer-ence on the side of the papers presented, though amissable one on account for the al l the experiencessurrounding these papers. Hopeful ly the next confer-ence venue wil l be more prepared for caring for theirattendees. EASR 2018 wil l take place 17-21 of Juneat the University of Bern, on the theme “Multiple Rel i-gious Identities: Individuals, Communities, Traditions”.

SEMINAR IN AMERICAN RELIGION: AMERICAN JE-SUITS AND THE WORLD. APRIL 1, 2017, CUSHWACENTER FOR THE STUDY OF AMERICAN CATHOLI-CISM. UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME, INDIANA

The biannual Seminar in American Rel igion, hosted byNotre Dame’s Cushwa Center for the Study of Amer-ican Cathol icism, organizes a day of activities arounda recent monograph of note. On 1 April 2017, seminarparticipants from across the United States, as wel las the United Kingdom, met in the university’s Morris

Inn to discuss John McGreevy’s American Jesuitsand the World: How an Embattled Religious OrderMade Modern Catholicism Global. Noted historiansThomas Bender (NYU) and Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp(Washington University in St. Louis) del ivered re-marks on the book, after which McGreevy, a NotreDame faculty member, responded. The seminar wasintended as part of a larger conference honoringMark A. Nol l , the National Humanities Medal ist andrecently retired professor of church history, but afamily emergency necessitated the cancel lation ofthe Nol l panels. Nonetheless, many of the confer-ence participants made the trip to South Bend, Indi-ana, resulting in a large and l ively Q&A session forAmerican Jesuits.

McGreevy’s book concerns the activities of Americ-an Jesuits who used the United States as a launch-ing pad for international missionary efforts. The initialgenerations of Jesuits in America were Europeanswho sought to maintain a European rel igious andpol itical sensibi l ity, even as the Cathol ic Churchsparred with the Society of Jesus. As the US pro-duced its own Jesuits, however, these new priestsexpressed a stronger identification with Americanexceptional ism and the country’s imperial ambitionsin the Pacific. American Jesuits sometimes contra-dicted the Protestant mainstream, as when they op-posed the Spanish-American War’s attack on asovereign Cathol ic country. Nonetheless, AmericanJesuits missionaries brought their Old World rel igionas wel l as New World democratic ideas with them asthey worked in the Pacific.

Thomas Bender compared the sl im volume to rel i-gious microhistories, such as Emmanuel Le RoyLadurie’s celebrated Montail lou, that use case stud-ies to explore larger rel igious themes. Each chapterof American Jesuits profi les a different Jesuit figure,creating a cluster of thematical ly l inked microhistor-ies. Bender also argued for the American Jesuits as acosmopol itan group, devoted to robust educationeven as they criticized aspects of Protestant Amer-ica. Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp wanted the book to givegreater context about the Jesuit community; one ofthe drawbacks of microhistory is the genre’s use ofnarrow subjects. She found connections betweenthe growing national ism of American Jesuits andMormons in the late nineteenth century: Both groupssought legitimation in U.S. society, as AmericanCathol ics grew distanced from Europe, and Mormonsproxy-baptized the Founding Fathers. Drawing from

economic terminology, Maffly-Kipp spoke of thebook’s attention to ‘cultural flows’—the EuropeanCathol ic Church initial ly funded North American mis-sions, but over time American Jesuits began theirown fundraising for international missionary activit-ies.

McGreevy’s response combined a summary of hiswork with gentle engagement of Maffly-Kipp andBender’s claims. The Jesuits were indeed cosmopol-itan, but they were also il l iberal in the nineteenthcentury, distanced from American values of demo-cracy and free speech. Paradoxical ly, the Jesuitswere devoted to education, creating schools acrossthe country. The demographic shift from European-born Jesuits to American-born Jesuits was matchedby a cultural shift from European to American mores.As the Q&A progressed, McGreevy argued thatAmerican Jesuits grew more l iberal by World War I I ,but a good book on that topic has not been writtenyet. McGreevy views the Jesuits’ anti-fascist stanceas evidence that it was not enough to form separatecultural institutions; Cathol ics had to engage withthe modern world. American Jesuits also came tosupport decolonization, despite their earl ier particip-ation in the United States’ imperial ist initiatives.

The tensions between l iberal ism and il l iberal ism (aswel l as the difficulties of defining those terms) cameup often during the discussion. McGreevy discussedhow Jesuits tended to support slavery and opposedwhat they saw as the runaway Bibl ical interpretationsof Protestants and Mormons. Yet Jesuits rejectedthe idea of black and white Americans as differentspecies, and acknowledged that slavery as practicedwas not a benevolent institution. Cathol ic histori-ography until the 1950s celebrated how the Churchdid not divide over slavery, as did so many Protestantdenominations, but this consensus view omitted theless savory aspects of American Cathol ic heritage. Itwould appear that McGreevy, Bender, Maffly-Kipp,and most, if not al l , of the seminar participants wantto complicate the narrative of Cathol ic history.

The conversation turned from pol itics to Cathol icworship. McGreevy and Maffly-Kipp agreed that therewere more similarities in nineteenth-century Cathol icand Protestant devotional culture, especial ly the im-ages circulated in Christian media, than people at thetime acknowledged. Sti l l , leading Protestants wererevolted by what they saw as unmanly Cathol ic prac-tices, as wel l as miracle traditions and gory images

such as the Sacred Hearts of Mary and Jesus, orbloody crucifixes. Comments from the audience in-dicated a desire for more information about Jesuitspiritual exercises and spiritual ity writ broadly. Howdid these concepts evolve in the rel igious environ-ment of the United States? In particular, audiencemembers wished McGreevy had addressed thenature of Jesuit spiritual ity the way Robert Orsi ofNorthwestern University studied spiritual ity in hisrecent, highly theoretical monograph, History andPresence (which the Cushwa Seminar tackled inNovember 2016). McGreevy countered that he wasinterested not in the nature of rel igion (Orsi’s con-cern), but rather where Jesuits fit into the larger nar-rative of American history.

Late in the conversation, the topic of Jesuit nation-al ism came up again. The gradual development of anAmerican Jesuit identity caused a complicated rela-tionship with the Old World countries from which Je-suits original ly came. How devoted to America wereJesuits when they praised Irish and German Cathol-ics for their rel igiosity, but mocked the French? Mc-Greevy noted an additional tension—Jesuits wantedto appreciate the American nation, but wanted to up-hold and preserve the Cathol ic Church and Cathol icfamily values. As the twentieth century began,American Jesuits were more openly national ist anddevoted to ideas of American exceptional ism, so itwas difficult for them to reconcile their patriotismwith their sympathy for Spanish Cathol ics during theSpanish-American War. Bender added that, in con-trast to the Jesuits and their divided loyalties toWashington and Rome, American Protestants of thelate 1800s–early 1900s were more openly national-ist and individual ist, viewing the Cathol ic Church asan oddity.

The session came to something of an abrupt end,with these questions of l iberal ism versus il l iberal ism,national versus rel igious loyalty, and evolving devo-tional l ife unresolved. But that is the nature of schol-arship. The conversation is always ongoing.Participants left the Cushwa Seminar with a greaterappreciation for the transnational history of the Je-suit order, and with a deepened interest in Jesuits’relationship to the American state. One suspectsthat Dr. Nol l , had he been able to attend, would haveapproved of this enl ightening discussion of Christianhistory.

Daniel Gorman Jr.University of Rochester Dept. of History

SECOND ISLAMIC EDUCATION SUMMER SCHOOL,UNIVERSITY OFWARWICK, SEPT 2017

In September, the second Islamic Education SummerSchool took place at the University of Warwick, fo-cusing on the theme of “Divine Word in a SecularWorld: Developing Contextual Pedagogies of theQur’an within the European Musl im Diaspora”. TheSummer School was organised and led Dr Abdul lahSahin of the Warwick Rel igions and Education Unit(WRERU) at the University of Warwick.

This year’s Summer School attracted twenty-fiveparticipants from a range of countries, includingMalaysia, Canada, Austria, Turkey, Germany, the ArabGulf, and the UK, thus making for an international for-um for study and debate. A series of presentations(some by guest speakers), sessions, and workshopsserved as stimulants for Summer School attendeesto discuss best practice in teaching the Qur’an to di-verse communities of learners. This was supplemen-ted by an impressive performance by the KhayaalTheatre Group, whose dramatic tel l ing of the story of

Mosa demonstrated another pedagogic tool forteaching the contents of the Qur’an to differentaudiences.

The underlying thought of the Summer School wasthat learners without classical Arabic can find it diffi-cult to engage with traditional teaching methods andthat the absence of up-to-date pedagogical re-sources can leave young people struggl ing with re-lating their faith to the contemporary chal lengeswhich they face.

This Summer School fol lowed the first inauguralSummer School , which had been held in September2016, also at the University of Warwick and also at-tracting an international group of participants. Thefirst Summer School marked the formation of alearning community consisting of practitioners andresearchers from diverse discipl inary backgrounds.The aim was, and remains, to establ ish a col legialacademic space within which research-based re-flective practice in Islamic Education would be en-couraged.

During the first gathering, the main issues and chal-lenges facing the subject were outl ined and dis-cussed. The meeting initiated a reflexive process ofrethinking Islamic Education within the context ofmainly secular and cultural ly and rel igiously diverseWestern Europe as wel l as the wider Musl im world.Themes were identified to be explored in subsequentmeetings. By facil itating dialogue and the exchangeof experiences among practitioners and researchers,this learning community aims to contribute to theemergence of Islamic Education as an interdiscipl in-ary field of research, teaching, and professional de-velopment.

Islamic Education seeks to facil itate the achieve-ment of a competent Islamic l iteracy among the di-verse groups of learners so that they can developcontextual understandings of Islam and show confid-ence in articulating and interpreting Islam within thecontext of their l ived real ity. Appreciating diversityand engaging with inter-faith/inter-cultural dialogueand contributing to the publ ic understanding of Islamare other significant aims of the subject. However,the presence of a reflexive culture of teaching andlearning remains crucial in real ising these education-al goals of personal empowerment and social andcommunity development.

The University of Warwick is one of the first UK uni-versities to recognize Islamic Education as an aca-demic field of research and teaching. The WarwickIslamic Education Project is thus a pioneering initiat-ive that seeks to: establ ish Islamic Education as anacademic field of research and teaching; open upprofessional development pathways for practition-ers; encourage research-based, reflexive practice inIslamic educational settings. This project is locatedwithin the Warwick Rel igions and Education ResearchUnit (WRERU) in the Centre for Education Studiesand is led by Abdul lah Sahin. The project is generouslysupported by the DCD Family Trust.

The Launch of a New Research Network

In the course of the Second Islamic Education Sum-mer School , the researchers, practitioners, andscholars present launched a new interdiscipl inaryand international research network whose aim is toshare ideas and to develop best practice in Islamicpedagogy. Col leagues in this field wil l be invited tojoin this new network, with members to work on col-

laborative research projects and to encourage re-search-based practice in Islamic Education. Networkmembers wil l also focus on equipping young Musl ims,whether they are l iving in Musl im-minority or Musl im-majority societies, with the reflexive pedagogic toolsthat al low them to engage with and understand theQur’an in a way which helps them relate it to theirown everyday experience and practice of their faith.The network wil l also contribute to inter-cultural andinter-faith dialogue and understanding.

Dr Sahin whose research has been a catalyst in thedevelopment of the new network commented: “It isreal ly exciting to see the formation of a new learningcommunity, coming together as practitioners and re-searchers to found the new Islamic Education Re-search Network. There is a huge appetite and needfor this kind of scholarly network, supporting the de-velopment of rigorous, research-based, reflectiveteaching practice, enabl ing the flow of ideas, andperhaps developing teaching resources to meet theneeds of the new generation of learners who aren’tproficient in classical Arabic and so can’t engage withthe Qur’an in traditional ways.”

Further details of the Second Warwick Islamic Edu-cation Summer School can be found at:https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/ces/news/is-lamiceducationsummerschool2017/

El izabeth ArweckUniversity of Warwick

CESNUR 2017: HOLY LANDS AND SACRED HISTOR-IES IN NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS, THE VAN LEERJERUSALEM INSTITUTE, ISRAEL, 2-6 JULY 2017

The conference theme was of course suggested bythe venue, since there can be few places more sac-red than Jerusalem. Although Jerusalem and its sur-roundings were the obvious sacred spaces fordiscussion, presentations also discussed sacredspaces in Korea, China, Glastonbury, Mormon sacredlocations, and L. Ron Hubbard’s “Freewinds”—a mo-bile sacred space, perhaps. Jerusalem has alsometaphorical connotations, which a number ofpresentations discussed. Perhaps surprisingly, out of

nearly eighty presentations, only two were on Islamicthemes, despite the sacredness of Jerusalem toMusl ims. The constantly changing venue of CESNURconferences enables new participants to come onboard, and it was good to have a number of scholarsbased in Israel speak on new forms of spiritual itywithin the country.

These conferences are normal ly fol lowed by optionalfield visits, and this year participants were able tovisit the ancient Jewish city of Safed, Sufi shrines inAcre, and final ly the Baha’i World Center and Gardensat Haifa, Mount Carmel.

The ful l programme can be located at ht-tp://www.cesnur.org/2017/jerusalem-program.htm.In the past it has been customary for CESNUR topubl ish the proceedings onl ine, but this year only cy-ber-abstracts and some PowerPoints have been up-loaded at

http://www.cesnur.org/2017/jerusalem-cyberab-stracts.htm. This change of practice marks thelaunch of a new journal—The Journal of CESaNUR—which is open access, accessible from CES-NUR’s home page, www.cesnur.org

Next year’s annual conference returns to Taiwan, atWeixin Col lege, Taichung (part of the University ofTaiwan). The conference dates are 17-23 June 2018,and the event begins on the 18th with a major rel i-gious festival marking the unveil ing of a statue ofGuiguzi, an ancient Chinese sage whom many havedivinised. Conference presentations wil l end on the21st, and wil l be fol lowed by a further two and a halfdays of visits. More details can be found at the CES-NUR website.

George D. ChryssidesYork St John University

YUKI SIRIMANNE, 2016. ENTERING THE STREAM

TO ENLIGHTENMENT: EXPERIENCES OF THE

STAGES OF THE BUDDHIST PATH IN CONTEMPOR-

ARY SRI LANKA. SHEFFIELD: EQUINOX. ISBN

9781781792049

Yuki Sirimanne, in this excel lent study, aims to exam-ine the experience of becom-ing a stream enterer inTheravāda Buddhism, asotāpanna, the first of foursupramundane stages of en-l ightenment or real ization,fol lowed by the once-returner(sakadāgami), the non-re-turner (anāgāmi) and the ara-hant. Each, according to thePāl i tradition, is characterizedby the destruction of some,or in the case of the arahant,al l , of the fetters (samojana).Her method is to movebetween the Pāl i texts andfieldwork, in the form of in-terviews with seven lay andordained Buddhists in SriLanka who were practisingmeditation intensively, one ofwho claimed to be an arahant.In doing this, she demonstrates that experiencesdescribed in the texts are stil l present in contempor-ary Buddhism. She quotes extensively from her in-terviewees and gives a detailed synopsis of eachinterview in an appendix. Towards the end of herstudy, she offers a detailed account of her interviewwith the self-proclaimed arahant, in which she askswhether his description of his state of mind accords

with the texts. She concludes that it does. The monkexpresses no craving for anything whatsoever, hasno possessions, claims freedom from fear and doesnot seek human company, a stage very differentfrom that of the sotāpanna, who is ‘endowed withthe qual ity of giving (dāna) to an exceptional degree’(147). At this level , the book is a significant contri-

bution to the study of con-temporary meditativeexperience.

The study also has a sub-text, in that it addresses twoquestions that have arisen inBuddhist-Christian, Buddhist-Hindu and Buddhist-Musl imstudies: whether the goal ofthe Buddhist path, nibbāna, isa transcendent real ity andwhether the four supra-mundane stages are uniqueto Buddhism.

With reference to the first,Sirimanne argues, on theevidence of the texts and herfieldwork, that attaining anyof the four stages of enl ight-enment involves a specific

and identifiable fetter-breaking experience, which isbeyond the senses—signless, wishless and empty.She then distinguishes between this and the fruit(phala), namely the state of mind, the knowledge offetters destroyed, which fol lows the experience. Thefetters are destroyed, she suggests, not by the ex-perience but only by correctly understanding it (99),within a Buddhist framework. Those who argue that

reviews

nibbāna is a transcendent real ity wrongly concen-trate on the experience and not on the knowledgethat is born from the experience. Nibbāna, she in-sists, is not independent of the person who experi-ences it (75) and is not, therefore, a transcendentreal ity.

In l ine with this, Sirimanne argues that the experi-ences and the knowledge connected with the stagesof enl ightenment/real ization are unique to Buddhism,qual itatively different from that which is described inother rel igious traditions. And she has textual back-ing. According to the texts, a sotāpanna wil l only looktowards the Buddha for teaching. Two of the author’sinterview questions, therefore, were: Wil l you look foranother teacher other than the Buddha for salvationfrom suffering? Could this experience be the experi-ence of the supposed Creator God or the soul? (Ap-pendix 1). She receives a ‘No’ to both from herinterviewees and argues that the non-Buddhist goalof union with God is incompat-ible with ‘right view’ and re-lease from samsāra (104-5)and is replaced in Buddhism bypaticcasamuppāda (dependentorigination) and the experienceof a non-defiled mind. Briefmentions of Hindu and Sufitraditions support this. Thisaspect of her study rightlywarns against superficial as-sumptions of similaritybetween rel igious traditionsbut does not do justice to thecomplexity within, for instance,Hindu and Sufi traditions.

The strength of this study isthe author’s abil ity to movebetween text and practice.Some might criticize her forfail ing to identify a methodolo-gical problem in her use oftexts to evaluate fieldwork interviews. I would not. Itemerges out of the author’s training at the Post-graduate Institute of Pal i and Buddhist Studies in SriLanka, where she did her doctorate, and results in theimportant insight that there is more continuity thandissonance between text and contemporary experi-ence, in spite of contextual differences. And thefieldwork is fascinating and was carried out with dif-ficulty, since monks are al l but prohibited from shar-

ing their rel igious practice with others, let alone a laywoman. This alone should give this study an hon-oured place in courses on Buddhism and rel igious ex-perience.

El izabeth HarrisUniversity of Birmingham

GRETCHEN BUGGELN, CRISPIN PAINE, AND S.

BRENT PLATE (EDS), RELIGION IN MUSEUMS:

GLOBAL & MULTIDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES.

LONDON: BLOOSMBURY, 2017. ISBN:

9781474255523

Gretchen Buggeln, Crispin Paine, and S. Brent Plate’sedited volume Religion in Museums: Global and Mul-

tidisciplinary Perspectives(2017) brings together rel i-gious studies scholars, curat-ors, architects, sociologists,freelance writers, and art his-torians in order to considerthe intersection of rel igion andmuseums from multiple view-points. The success of Reli-gion in Museums can beattributed to its multidiscip-l ined approach to this under-studied area. This volumepresents broad considerationof the intersection betweenrel igion and museums, thereader being presented withsundry viewpoints on the mul-tifaceted relationship. In orderto provide focus to these mul-tiple perspectives, the work isseparated into six sections;(1) Museum Buildings, (2) Ob-

jects, Museums, Rel igions, (3) Responses to Ob-jects, Museums and Rel igion, (4) Museum Col lectingand Research, (5) Museum Interpretation of Rel igionand Rel igious Objects, and (6) Presenting Rel igion ina Variety of Museums. Within these sections severalmajor themes arise, including visitor experience,conservation, curation, ethical display, repatriation,and architecture.

In section one, Museum Buildings, Religion in Mu-seums investigates the potential ity for the museumvisitor experience to be one that could be con-sidered ‘rel igious.’ Of particular interest is GretchenBuggeln’s chapter ‘Museum Architecture and theSacred: Modes of Engagement’ (11-20). Buggelntheorises four modes of engagement with museumspaces; associative, magisterial , therapeutic, and re-demptive (19) suggesting that there is no ‘single, un-changing mode of engagement’ (19). Thismethodological chapter is key; its place at the open-ing of the volume leaves it sitting in the forefront ofthe reader’s mind. Hence, Buggeln’s theory echoesthroughout the chapters that fol low. Furthermore,this four-pronged theory of engagement could beeasily appl icable beyond the study of museums toother publ ic and sacred spaces.

Worthy of further note is Mary Nooter Roberts’ sec-tion 2 chapter ‘Altar as Museum, Museum as Altar:Ethnography, Devotion, and Display’ (49-56). In thischapter, Roberts highl ights the importance of the‘extremely complex contextual isation, negotiation,implementation, and interpretation’ required in thecuration of rel igious temples and altars (55). ForRoberts, as displays of faith-based material can be‘cultural ly affirming and paradigm-shifting’ (49), at-tention must be drawn to the importance of both thevisitor and the curator in bringing ‘displays to l ife’.While Roberts highl ights the visitor/curator focus re-quired when displaying objects of rel igious signific-ance, this argument sits in some contrast to StephBerns and her chapter ‘Devotional Baggage’ (83-91).Berns’ chapter highl ights the elements that are‘brought-in’ to a museum, Bern referring to the ‘cul-tural baggage’ that wil l ultimately influence the mu-seum experience (83). The inabil ity for either thevisitor or the curator to leave their baggage outsidethe museum leads Berns to argue, perhaps contro-versial ly, that focus should remain on the function ofwhat is being displayed (90). The opposing view ofthese chapters, and other chapters in Religion in Mu-seums is to commendation of the editor as the con-trasting arguments present in this volume create agreat opportunity for further discussion and debate.

While Buggeln, Paine, and Plate provide readers witha diverse plethora of material , there are some im-portant points to make in relation to this volume.While Religion in Museums it to be applauded interms of its discipl inary variety, the volume stems

primari ly from American, Canadian, Austral ian, andEuropean authors. It is important to note that theeditors have openly acknowledge this and make noattempt to hide this from the reader, however, thereremains room for expansion here. This is most not-able in relation to the museum representatives in-cluded within the volume. The majority of includedmuseum representatives are from museums in theUnited States of America, Canada, and Europe. Whileexamples from other parts of the world are includedin the chapters of academics (most notably DenisByrne’s chapter ‘Museums, Rel igious Objects, andthe Flourishing Realm of the Supernatural in ModernAsia’) there is room for a greater inclusion of mu-seum representatives from non-western contexts.

The success of Religion in Museums: Global and Mul-tidisciplinary Perspectives can be attributed into itsmultidiscipl ined approach to this area of study. Thisvolume presents a diverse and wide-ranging consid-eration of the intersection between rel igion and mu-seums, and readers wil l enjoy the freedom ofdiscussion that is created via the combination ofboth academic and professional voices. Furthermore,the variety of opinions and discipl ines representedopens up the reader to numerous areas of furtherdiscussion and debate. Critical ly, each individualchapter works at a stand-alone piece, yet there areclear through-l ines present in the work as a whole. Assuch, while cohesive in total ity, this text is also valu-able for teaching academics that wil l find the indi-vidual chapters useful for a variety of courses,particularly rel igious studies, museum studies, andart history. Religion in Museums is a successfulvolume in that it provides a comprehensive, complex,and exuberant discussion of the numerous formsthrough which museums and rel igion come together.

Breann Fal lonThe University of Sydney

CHRISTOPHER PARTRIDGE AND MARCUS MOBERG

(ED (2017)S) THE BLOOMSBURY HANDBOOK OF

RELIGION AND POPULAR CULTURE. LONDON

BLOOMSBU17. ISBN 978-1-4742-3733-8.

The Handbook is a very welcome addition to the

growing l iterature on the complex interactionsbetween rel igion and popular culture. As the editorsindicate in their introduction: ‘The relationshipbetween popular music and rel igion is an emerging,but sti l l neglected area of study’ (7). However, thisvolume gives an extensive overview of the field. Theauthors of the various chapters come from a widerange of academic discipl ines including eth-nomusicology, rel igious studies, music and culturalstudies. While there are diverse approaches to theanalysis of rel igion and popular culture, al l thechapters in this excel lent volume are accessible toreaders without being a special ist in any of theseparticular academic discipl ines. The Handbook is di-vided into three useful sections: theoretical per-spectives andmethodologies, rel igiousperspectives and musicalgenres.

The section on rel igious per-spectives includes a goodrange of different traditionssuch as: Judaism, Christian-ity, Hinduism as wel l as pa-ganism and the occult. Insome traditions, such asCaribbean rel igions, the rela-tionship with popular musicis clear. For example, DavidMoskwotitz identifies thel inks between Vodou and rarabands in Haiti (210–211).However, in other traditionsthe association between re-l igion and popular music isnot so obvious. JenniferMatsue notes that ‘in the case of Japan … there is alack of rel igious connection to contemporary popularmusic’ (162). Christianity is rather over representedin this section, with four chapters in comparison toonly one chapter on other traditions, with the pos-sible exception of Buddhism, which is referred to inthe chapters on Chinese and Japanese rel igions aswel l as having a dedicated chapter. My major criti-cism of The Handbook is that there is not a chapteron Sikhism, nor is it referred to in any of the chapters.This is a major oversight by the editors. Sikhism is animportant world tradition, in which music plays a sig-nificant role.

A good range of musical genres of are covered in TheHandbook from country to jazz, and from hardcore toambient. Some musical genres are expl icitly associ-ated with a particular rel igious tradition. For example,Chris Partridge provides an overview of the articula-tion of reggae music with Rastafari , pointing out thatnot only are Rasta motifs, such as the fal l of Babylon(255), apparent in the lyrics of reggae artists such asBob Marley and Max Romeo, but they are also identi-fiable on the cover art of the albums. Other popularmusical genres, which are not so expl icitly rel igious,can be said to be functional ly equivalent to rel igion.For example, Graham St John discusses the shaman-ic l ike nature of electronic dance music events(EDME), which can be considered as ritual events

that have the potential to en-able ‘transcendent experi-ence’ (282).

The Handbook addresses anumber of major and interre-lated questions and debates.Perhaps the most significantof these questions is a con-sideration of where rel igious-ness is located, if anywhere,in popular music. Is it the mu-sic itself or the lyrics thatmakes music rel igious? Linkedto this question is the debateabout whether rel igiousnessshould be located in authorialintent, the music itself or inaudience reception. As theeditors, citing the work ofGordon Lynch, indicate ‘thedistinction between “authori-

al-focused”, “text-based” and “ethnographic/audi-ence reception” approaches’ wil l bring ‘a differentset of questions and methods to the study of popu-lar culture’ (3).

A significant theme addressed by some of the au-thors is the ambivalent attitudes that rel igious tradi-tions have towards music in general and popularmusic in particular. Music can have the potential tobe both a catalyst for rel igious experiences and animportant aspect of rel igious rituals, but popular mu-sic may also be perceived as antithetical to the rel i-gious l ife. Michael Drewett in his chapter oncensorship observes that, particularly within Islam

and Christianity, certain forms of popular music ap-pear as not only ‘the antithesis of rel igion’, but alsocan be perceived as ‘blasphemous, sacri legious, andanti-rel igious’ (42). However, other chapters considerthe use of popular music as a means of expressingrel igious convictions. Even the most unl ikely genresof music l ike heavy metal and punk can be appropri-ated to articulate rel igious convictions. Ibrahim Abra-ham and Francis Stewart in their chapter on Punk andHardcore refer to Christian, Hindu, Jewish and Musl imhardcore bands. For example, they observe thatHindu hardcore—known generical ly as Krish-nacore—can be considered as ‘a form of Hindu devo-tional practice’. However as they point out, ‘l istenersunacquainted with bhakti-yoga might not recognize itas departing from the aggressive norms of hardcorepunk’ (246). In other words, as many of the authorsrecognize, audiences can decode specific popularmusical texts in a variety of ways.

Global ization is another important theme addressed,albeit not necessari ly expl icitly, in a number ofchapters. Christopher Partridge in his chapter on‘Emotion, Meaning and Popular Culture’ observesthat in late 1960s and early 1970s the music, man-tras and instruments of India were frequently uti l izedto signify mysticism and spiritual ity (26). Hybridity isone aspect of global ization, and this is noted by Dav-id Cheetham in the example of the 1994 album Offi-cium which combines the freeform jazz of theNorwegian saxophone player Jan Garbarek weaving inand out of the Gregorian chant of the Hil l iard En-semble. Much of what is now referred to as ‘worldmusic’ has a rel igious dimension. Perhaps most no-ticeably with such as the Qawwali singer NusratFateh Al i Khan who achieved success on the worldmusic circuit (see 116 & 332).

Overal l , the Handbook is an excel lent introduction towhat is gradual ly being recognized as an importantarea of study. Like al l handbooks, there are a numberof lacunae—particularly the neglect of the Sikhism.Also inevitably at times the authors skate over is-sues that require a more in-depth analysis. However,this is an accessible overview of the complex andfascinating interactions between rel igion and popularmusic, and the chapters contribute to understandingthe impl ications of popular culture for l ived rel igion.The Handbook wil l be of interest to musicologists,who are curious about the rel igious aspects of popu-lar music; rel igious studies scholars and students

who wish to know more about the importance of mu-sic for rel igions; and for anyone in cultural studies. Iwil l certainly be using this Handbook for a number ofmy modules.

Stephen JacobsThe University of Wolverhampton

JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES: CONTINUITY AND

CHANGE, GEORGE D. CHRYSSIDES. SURREY, ENG-

LAND AND BURLINGTON, VT: ASHGATE, 2016.ISBN: 9781409456087

This work has as its focus one of the most prominentof the minor rel igious movements, the Jehovah’sWitnesses. Specifical ly, it seeks to explore how theWitnesses have developed and changed since theirfounding in the late 1870’s. Rather than a pure chro-nological approach, Chryssides uses a mixture of his-torical and thematic approaches, both as an overal lchapter outl ine and within the chapters themselves.After the opening chapter, which Chryssides uses todiscuss his rationale for the work, this style essen-tial ly spl its the book into two parts, with the first sixchapters discussing the history of the movement.The remainder of the book is broken into specificareas that are commonly misunderstood about theWitnesses, with chapters on the Bible, ethics andl ifestyle, worship and rites of passage, and prophecy.While this approach is effective overal l , it necessit-ates a “restarting” of the chronology to show howthe topic being discussed has continued andchanged, returning to the organization’s founder,Charles Taze Russel l , and moving through its differ-ent leaders. This at times could be difficult to fol lowfor someone not wel l versed in Witness history, al-though it is about as smooth as a work of this typecould be.

Chryssides is at his best when he breaks down theWitnesses’ rather complex rationales for their be-l iefs. Nowhere is this clearer than in Chapter 10(Prophecy), particularly the section on Russel l ’s end-time calculations. To understand them a knowledgeof the Adventist ideas from which Russel l drew hisown is helpful , and Chryssides provides these in an

earl ier chapter (Chapter 2: Origins). One minor quibbleregarding how Chryssides arranges his chaptersarises here, as Chapter 2 would be a more relevantlead-in to the prophecy chapter and would help thereader to better understand Russel l ’s exegesiswithout having to recal l concepts from eightchapters previous. This aside, Chryssides handlesthe array of ‘jubilee’ calculations, ‘weeks’ prophecies,and ‘time and times’ dating in one of the most coher-ent ways that has yet been publ ished. It is no lessconvoluted, but far less complicated, and while nowork not dedicated solely to the topic of Witnessend-time calculations can encompass everything,Chryssides manages to hitthe high-points remarkablywel l and in a comprehensiblemanner.

Chryssides is nearly as deftwith his handl ing of the his-tory of the Witnesses. Hischapters on Russel l and theWitnesses’ second leader,Joseph F. Rutherford, espe-cial ly manage to encapsu-late each man’s personal ityand leadership styles, fo-cusing on key events in theirrespective histories leadingthe movement without get-ting overly complicated withminute details. Discussionson Russel l ’s acrimonious re-lationship with his wife andRutherford’s power strugglewithin the movement, bothtopics that Witness criticsoften mention when decrying the organization, arehandled swiftly and fairly. Chryssides does howevermake an odd mistake in his recounting of Ruther-ford’s struggle, claiming that A.H. Macmil lan waselected vice-president and A.N. Pierson was chosenas a member of the board in 1918 when, in fact, Pier-son didn’t make the board and C. H. Anderson waselected vice-president, not Macmil lan, as shown inthe January 15th, 1918 Watchtower. While a relat-ively smal l error, it is an obvious one that is notice-able amongst what is otherwise a succinct andwel l-written account of the events.

Chryssides states in his introduction that this bookis not intended to be a critical study of the organiza-tion but rather an “empathetic” one, and he accom-pl ishes this objective. However, there are areas ofthe book where he takes this arguably a step too far,and consequently his work can be at times apologet-ic. His handl ing of the 1975 prediction of Christ’s re-turn is the most obvious example of this. Thissection in Chapter 10 gives the impression that theWitness leadership wrote only one thing about 1975,in the August 15th, 1968 Watchtower, and from thatmany Witnesses “expected some decisive event”(239) and were disappointed when nothing occurred.

While he is correct that noexpl icit statement regarding1975 was made, Chryssidesignores other importantevidence, such as formerWitness Raymond Franz’sbook Crisis of Conscience(Commentary Press, 4th Ed.,2007), that clearly show thatthe Witness leadership builtup hope about 1975 in itspubl ications over nearly adecade, not just one article.Indeed, the idea of 1975 be-ing the year of Christ’s returnwas first made in the 1966Witness publ ication LifeEverlasting in Freedom of theSons of God, two years be-fore the only article cited. Inattempting to avoid beingoverly critical , Chryssides attimes does his work a dis-service by not mentioning

relevant information that would present a more bal-anced account of events.

Overal l , Chryssides has written an interesting andvery successful book. He has managed to condenseover a century’s worth of information on the Wit-nesses into an easily read and highly informativework. Scholars, students and the interested readerwil l find much to learn about this wel l-known, thoughl ittle understood, rel igion and its practices. It wil l bea staple in the field for years to come.

Donald P. Al lenUniversity of East Angl ia

Members' Recent Publications

obituaryDr. T. Jack Thompson

1943 – 2017

The Contribution of Jack Thompson to the Aca-demic Study of Religions

Dr T. Jack Thompson, who served as Director of theCentre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-West-ern World in the University of Edinburgh from 2005until 2008, and was Senior Lecturer in African Chris-tianity until his retirement in December 2008, died on10 August 2017. From the time we both arrived atthe University of Edinburgh in 1993 to take appoint-

ments in the Centre for the Study of Christianity inthe Non-Western World, we worked closely togetherunder its then Director, Professor Andrew Walls. Al-though Jack was noted as a historian of Christianmissions in Africa, primari ly Malawi, his contributionsto the academic study of African rel igions was not-able. It is for this reason that Steve Sutcl iffe, currentPresident of the British Association for the Study ofRel igions, asked me to write an article for the BASRBul letin outl ining those key areas where JackThompson’s detailed historical studies have made

obituarysubstantial contributions to Rel igious Studies, par-ticularly the study of African Christianity.

Jack first went to Malawi in 1970 under the auspicesof the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. On one of mylast visits to him before he died, I commented to himthat he had started out his career as a missionary. Heprotested vigorously, saying that he was not a mis-sionary and did not want to be remembered as such,but, after some reflection, he repl ied that he wantedto be thought of ‘simply as a Christian teacher’. Whenin Malawi at Livingstonia Mission in the far north ofthe country, that was indeed what he was. He taughthis pupils a wide range of subjects, but was always asmuch interested in their personal development astheir academic performance. As a keen runner, heserved also as a field and track coach at the school .Many years later, after his retirement from the Uni-versity of Edinburgh, and in recognition of his long de-votion to education in Malawi, he was appointedVice-Chancel lor of the University of Livingstonia andwas made an honorary chief of the Ngoni peopleamong whom he had worked. Jack’s personal experi-ence in Malawi formed the foundation for his expert-ise on the history of African rel igions.

An early example of how Jack used methods consist-ent with those employed in Rel igious Studies can befound in an article he contributed to a book, whichwas publ ished in 1998 under the title, Rites of Pas-sage in Contemporary Africa . This volume was de-veloped out of a conference that Jack and I attendedin 1994 in Zimbabwe that examined the ritual rela-tionships between African Indigenous Rel igions andChristianity. Jack’s article focused on the adaptationof Scottish sacramental conventions to the Malawicontext. The conventions that originated in the nine-teenth century in Scotland were annual gatheringsconsisting of teaching and preaching, the aim ofwhich was to prepare participants to receive the sac-rament of holy communion. Similar gatherings wereinstituted by Presbyterian missionaries in the latenineteenth century as evangel istic tools, and theyproved tremendously popular among the IndigenousNgoni peoples in Malawi, attracting many thousandsannual ly. They were cited by missionaries as evidenceof the huge inroads they were making in convertingthe Indigenous population to Christian faith. Jack’sview was quite different. He careful ly constructedthe relationship of the Scottish sacramental conven-tions to Indigenous first fruit ceremonies, noting theparal lels with the agricultural cycle and the fact that

they coincided, according to ancient Ngoni traditions,with the appearance of the ful l moon. Jack concludedhis analysis by commenting that the ‘export and ad-aptation of the traditional Scottish highland commu-nion season to Malawi, became for the Ngoni aconscious rel igious interaction which al lowed themto enter the new rel igion without abandoning theirdeeply held awareness of … Ngoni identity’ (1998,12). For me, this insight emphasises Indigenousagency, where the Ngoni were ful ly aware of whatthey were doing when they transformed a culturalevent from far-off Scotland into a longstanding localcustomary ritual .

One of Jack’s most important academic contribu-tions from the viewpoint of Rel igious Studies was hisintensive research, conducted over many years, onmissionary photography, which resulted in his 2012publ ication, Light on Darkness? Missionary Photo-graphy of Africa in the Nineteenth and Early Twenti-eth Centuries . What makes this work so important isits emphasis on the various perspectives adopted bythose taking photographs and those being photo-graphed. Commonly, we think of photographs as ob-jective images reveal ing a moment in time capturedon the camera. Jack indicates that he first becameinterested in missionary photography in the early1970s, when he discovered archival photographic re-cords that provided ‘a new window on the texts I hadbeen researching’ (2012, 3). As he began to studysuch photographic records in more detail , he soondiscovered that many of the photographs had beenstage-managed to convey a point of view. He ex-plains:

My real fascination with missionary photographsbegan … when I came across an example of the mis-sionary manipulation of a photograph, to place a Biblein the otherwise empty hand of an African evangelist.It was when I discovered this by accident, and wasable to prove it by comparing the original and manip-ulated versions, that I began seriously to considerthat the whole area of missionary photography mightbe worth further academic study. What did mission-aries think they were doing when they took photo-graphs of Africans – both traditionalist and Christian?What were they hoping to achieve when they usedthese photographs in various formats back “athome”? And, much more difficult to answer, how didthe African subjects of such photographs react tobeing photographed in general, and to being por-trayed in a particular way? (2012, 5)

The remainder of this fascinating study explores justthese questions from different angles and in differ-ent historical contexts. Jack used his training in his-torical methods to analyse quite contemporaryissues focusing on the role of outsiders who de-scribe and interpret the rel igious practices of thepeople they are researching. By drawing our attentionto the most blatant attempts to manipulate photo-graphic evidence, Jack unveiled the more hiddenways that academics use their research data to drivehome pre-conceived conclusions. This, of course,raises issues surrounding scholarly reflexivity, and,from my own perspective, draws us back to the phe-nomenological principle that researchers need tobracket out (at least temporari ly) their prior, poten-tial ly distorting, assumptions so that practitioners’voices can be heard and fairly reflected in academicanalyses of their own rel igious communities.

Jack’s commitment to privi leging Indigenous per-spectives was reflected in his historical analysis ofXhosa missionaries to Malawi during the late nine-teenth century in a book which was publ ished in2000 under the title, Touching the Heart: Xhosa Mis-sionaries to Malawi, 1876-1888. This careful ly docu-mented volume attempts to counter the prejudice ofearl ier studies of Christian missions, which, as notedby the Martinus Daneel and Dana Robert in their pre-face to the book, ‘has been biased toward the activ-ity of Western-oriented mission’. They add by way ofexplanation: ‘White missionaries, Western missionpol icies and the relationship of mission to Europeanimperial ism have dominated the discussion of Afric-an missions’ (2000, xi). By highl ighting the funda-mental role of African missionaries from South Africato African peoples situated in northern Malawi, Jackturned the tables on this Western bias and demon-strated the key role played by Africans in makingChristianity truly an African rel igion. This is anotherexample of how Jack’s work chal lenged academics tore-think their starting-positions, or to put it in meth-odological terms, how he employed the technique Ihave cal led empathetic interpolation to enter intothe perspectives of those that otherwise would be

regarded merely as the ‘objects’ of academic re-search.

Although he was known primari ly as a historian whofocused on the study of Christian missions in Africa,Jack Thompson made a substantial contribution tothe field of Rel igious Studies, which included high-l ighting the relationships of the academic study ofrel igions to historical , post-colonial , phenomenolo-gical and reflexive methodologies. I discovered hisclose affinity with our field through the many yearswe worked together at the University of Edinburgh,co-teaching sections of several courses and con-ducting post-graduate research methods sessions,but his work has not been recognised sufficiently forits significant contribution to the study of the historyof African Christianity as a rel igion, and hence as apart of Rel igious Studies, rather than as a branch oftheology. Perhaps, this short article may help to cor-rect this important oversight.

James L. Cox, University of Edinburgh

Bibliography

T. Jack Thompson. 1998. ‘The Sacramental Conven-tions of the Ngoni of Northern Malawi: Conscious In-teraction or Happy Coincidence?’, in James L. Cox(ed.). Rites of Passage in Contemporary Africa. Inter-action between Christian and African Traditional Reli-gions. Cardiff: Cardiff Academic Press, 1-14.

T. Jack Thompson. 2000. Touching the Heart. XhosaMissionaries to Malawi, 1876-1888. Pretoria: Uni-versity of South Africa Press.

T. Jack Thompson. 2012. Light on Darkness? Mis-sionary Photography of Africa in the Nineteenth andEarly Twentieth Centuries. Grand Rapids, Michigan:Wil l iam B. Eerdmans Publ ishing Company.

"Ethnographic objectsare made, not found.Posited meaning de-rives not from originalcontext, but fromtheir juxtaposition in anew context."

(Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimb-lett, Destination Culture;Tourism, Museums, and Her-itage, 1998.)