Religion and Globalization

Americanasana (review essay on history of yoga in America)

by Jared Farmer

Special attention given to Mark Singleton's YOGA BODY, Stefanie Syman's THE SUBTLE BODY, and Robert Love's THE GREAT OOM.

“Globalizing Tibetan Buddhism: Modernism and Neo-Orthodoxy in Contemporary Karma bKa’ brgyud Organizations ” Contemporary Buddhism 13.1 (2012), pp. 125-137.

by Burkhard Scherer

This article addresses the wider issues of continuity and change in the context of the globalization of Tibetan... more This article addresses the wider issues of continuity and change in the context of the globalization of Tibetan Buddhism. Specifically, it looks at the emergence of lay oriented convert movements within the global Karma bKa’ brgyud school, which are led by ‘crazy wise’ teachers. Firstly, the activities of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche (1939-1987) are interpreted on the background of the tension between tradition and modernity. In dialogue with modernity, Trungpa gradually pushed the borders of Tibetan Buddhist identity to the point of collapse and established a secular teaching lineage and discourse. Trungpa’s case is then compared to the development of one of the fastest growing and largest global lay movements of contemporary Tibetan Buddhism, the Diamond Way of the Danish lay teacher Ole Nydahl. The Diamond Way has transitioned into a late-charismatic stage, in which the traditionalist and modernizing features of Nydahl’s teachings are creating an increasing tension. Post-Buddhist secularization and modernist packaging of neo-orthodoxy emerge as contesting paradigms of the globalization of these Tibetan Buddhist movements, which produce surprising intertextualities and shed light on the negotiation of convert Buddhist identities in a global context.

Believe it or not

by Anthony Gottlieb

Book chapter on global trends in religious belief, with special reference to religion in the USA and the "secularisation" thesis. To be published in March by Profile Books, in "Megachange: The World in 2050", edited by Daniel Franklin and John Andrews.

Migration of Middle Eastern Christians to Western Countries and Protestant Missionary Activities in the Middle East

by Heleen Murre-van den Berg

A Globe of One's Own

by Claire Colebrook

Praktijkboek Geloofwaardige Globalisering

by Louke van Wensveen

"Burning Up a Candle: Religion and the Transformation of the Urban Space in Istanbul" Volkan Aytar & Ayşe Çavdar, Published in Italian as: “Accendendo una candela: Religione e trasformazione dello spazio urbana a Istanbul,” Dialoghi Internazionali-Città nel Mondo, No: 11. Milano: Bruno Mondadori (July 2009).

by Volkan Aytar

"Burning Up a Candle: Religion and the Transformation of the Urban Space in Istanbul" Volkan Aytar & Ayşe Çavdar, Published in Italian as: “Accendendo una candela: Religione e trasformazione dello spazio urbana a Istanbul,” Dialoghi Internazionali-Città nel Mondo, No: 11. Milano: Bruno Mondadori (July 2009).

Allegations of ‘communitarian pressures’ remain to be at the center of social, political and cultural debates in... more Allegations of ‘communitarian pressures’ remain to be at the center of social, political and cultural debates in Turkey. Such debates particularly increased after the rise to power of the AKP in 2002. Seminal sociologist Şerif Mardin argued that such communitarian pressures, dubbed as the “neighborhood pressure” (mahalle baskısı) constitute one of the dominant characteristics of the Turkish social texture whereby social difference is scrutinized by moralistic and watchful eyes of (Islamic) conservatism. While the neo-liberal ‘global city’ passionately promoted by the AKP increasingly strangles the ‘neighborhood,’ this latter at once seem to exert an intolerant oppression on social difference and multiculturalism, thus further eroding the bases of multi-confessional co-existence. As Istanbul gets ready to be the European Capital of Culture in 2010, it remains to be seen whether multiculturalism and multi-confessionality would only serve as rhetorical advertisement slogans to sell the city to a global clientele or could be revitalized as the bases of religious harmony, cross-borrowings and learning from one another. Perhaps, both the "neoliberal global city" and the "intolerant, repressive neighborhood" have a lot to learn from the Muslim women on headscarves visiting the First Tuesday Greek Orthodox Church in Kuzguncuk.

Such a Body We Must Create: New Theses on Integral Micropolitics

by Daniel Gustav Anderson

First published in The Integral Review, 2008.  This is an attempt to think systematically through a rather eccentric archive.  The result is speculative and utopian, but hopefully it points to one way forward for the discourse of Consciousness Studies and Integral Theory.

Race and Religion in Education

by Eleni Vryza

presented in the Race and Religion workshop at The University of Chicago (Divinity School) in October 2008

Globalization and the Religious Production of Space

by Elizabeth McAlister

Published in the Journal for the Social Scientific Study of Religion

The Bible in two keys: Traditionalism and Evangelical Christianity on the Fort Apache reservation

by M. Eleanor Nevins

Language and Communication 2010, in a special issue entitled "Intertextuality and Misunderstanding"

This article examines contrasting entextualizations of the Bible across conflicting Traditionalist and Evangelical... more This article examines contrasting entextualizations of the Bible across conflicting Traditionalist and Evangelical Christian identities on the Fort Apache reservation in Arizona. On the one hand, each makes use of Apache language idioms and genre precedents to underwrite their respective claims to authentic Apache identities. On the other hand, each selects different components of that loosely shared repertoire of discursive precedents in their entextualizations of the Bible in order to articulate contrasting transformative projects for their community as well as to assert the contemporary relevance of their voices
within differently imagined global orders. This analysis constitutes the local speech community as a locus of ethnolinguistic inquiry in which relations to encompassing social
orders are mediated in part by the circulation of texts. In this process conventions and precedents serve as a reservoir of resources mobilized for use in competing strategies advanced by differently affiliated actors in dialogue with one another. In this way multiplicity and dynamism as a characteristic of local communities is defined as a crucial dimension of local–global discursive processes.

Third Wave Evangelism and the Politics of the Global In Papua New Guinea: Spiritual Warfare and the Recreation of Place In Telefolmin

by Dan Jorgensen

Third Wave pentecostalist theology envisages a global struggle against satanic forces as 'spiritual warfare.' Here I... more Third Wave pentecostalist theology envisages a global struggle against satanic forces as 'spiritual warfare.' Here I examine an instance of spiritual warfare that targeted the village of Telefolip as part of a national campaign. Embracing evangelical doctrines of the dependence of 'physical development' on 'spiritual development,' villagers burned ancestral relics and purport to have found 'uranium gas' on the site of a former spirit house. This discovery is held to be full of promise for the future: as a valuable (if imaginary) resource in Israel's struggles, uranium gas offers villagers wealth and a means of asserting local centrality in global terms. I conclude by arguing that an understanding of the conjunction of spiritual warfare's aims with villagers' hopes for a place in the world beyond the village is crucial to analyzing the dynamics of pentecostalist world-breaking and world-making.

Postmodern Anomic Disorder* (PAD): Understanding Gang Behavior and the London Riots

by Daniel Keeran MSW

by Daniel Keeran, MSW

The College of Mental Health Counseling presents an understanding of youth gangs, the London riots, Islamic terrorism, aboriginal suicide and other similar phenomena as possible effects of Postmodern Anomic Disorder* identified here for the first time.

If the paper does not yet appear below, you can download it here http://www.ctihalifax.com/images/Anomic_Disorder4.pdf

If you have any questions, comments, or upload difficulty, please contact collegemhc@gmail.com

The College of Mental Health Counseling presents an understanding of youth gangs, the London riots, Islamic terrorism,... more The College of Mental Health Counseling presents an understanding of youth gangs, the London riots, Islamic terrorism, aboriginal suicide and other similar phenomena as possible effects of Postmodern Anomic Disorder* identified here for the first time.

If you have any questions or comments please contact collegemhc@gmail.com

Editorial: the role of Spatial Practices and Locality in the Constituting of the Christian African Diaspora

by Kim Knibbe

co-authored with Marten van der Meulen. Published in 'African Diaspora' 2, 2009, pages 125-130

Many researchers have pointed out how world religions, in particular evangelical and Pentecostal Christianities,... more Many researchers have pointed out how world religions, in particular evangelical and Pentecostal Christianities, enable individual believers to more successfully navigate the spaces of modernity and translocalities (e.g. Van Dijk 1999). In contrast, we focused this issue on how African Christianities are themselves constituting spaces and become entangled in a particular locality of the African Diaspora, namely the Netherlands and in particular Amsterdam.
How do individual believers relate to the place where they are, the places they want to go and the place they come from through Christianity? How does African Christianity create its own religioscapes (McAlister 1998) or sacroscapes (Tweed 2006)?

Nigerian-initiated Churches as a Social Force in Europe: the Case of the Redeemed Christian Church of God

by Kim Knibbe

co-authored with Richard Burgess and Anna Quaas

This article discusses the spread and impact of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), a successful example of a... more This article discusses the spread and impact of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), a successful example of a Nigerian-initiated Pentecostal church in Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. The church’s capacity as a social force in Europe is assessed with reference to three dimensions: the social impact on the wider society through its missionary and civic activities, the social impact on members’ lives, and the extent to which the church contributes to the “deprivatization” of religion and its visibility in the public sphere (Casanova, 1994; Haynes, 1998). The article concludes that Nigerian-initiated Pentecostal churches such as the RCCG are quite clearly a social force in Europe: they are expanding, finding new ways of being present in public spaces and engaging with society, and are instrumental in constituting the spaces of the African Diaspora and shaping the self-conception of their members as valuable members of their host society. Furthermore, they contribute to the awareness of the European mainline churches that Christianity’s centre of gravity is moving south. All this is visible quite strongly in Britain, to a lesser extent in the Netherlands and least in Germany.

Why space matters: introduction lecture to the Glopent conference 'geographies of conversion' Amsterdam 2010

by Kim Knibbe

Draft only, not to be quoted without the author's permission, comments welcome

This is an outline of some ideas to create a stronger focus on the spatial practices of Pentecostals and how they... more This is an outline of some ideas to create a stronger focus on the spatial practices of Pentecostals and how they intersect with the spatial practices of other social actors. It is argued that academics should not only chart the 'worlds of Pentecostalism' from the inside, but should look at the contours of these worlds, how they intersect with other worlds and how they are built. Only in this way will it be possible to get into focus Pentecostalism as a social force beyond the boundaries of its own faithful.

This means I problematize the 'insider's' view that antrhopology so values, something that I do not go into here but that I would like to explore further.

Geographies of Conversion: Focusing on the Spatial Practices of Nigerian Pentecostalism

by Kim Knibbe

This article describes transnational Nigerian-initiated Pentecostal churches based on multisited fieldwork. Religion... more This article describes transnational Nigerian-initiated Pentecostal churches based on multisited fieldwork. Religion is often described as deterritorialized, due to processes of globalization. In this article, the author argues that territories, localities and places are in fact very important to transnational Nigerian Pentecostalism, and that African Pentecostal churches in general constitute territories and places as well as add new dynamics to cities. Attention to spatial practices of Pentecostals as well as the ways in which these interact with the spatial practices of other social actors can bring into view the ways in which Pentecostalism is, or tries to be, a social force on the local level, transnationally and globally.

Oikonomy : towards the impossible possibility of justice in the context of globalisation

by Johann-Albrecht Meylahn

Dutch Reformed Theological Journal (NGTT) Deel 50 numbers 1&2 March and June 2009, pages 148-159

This article explores the concept of oikos in the context of the oikonomy of globalisation. Oikos is understood within... more This article explores the concept of oikos in the context of the oikonomy of globalisation. Oikos is understood within the norming and naming of ever-greater households, such as the city and the nation state within globalisation. In this norming and naming the impossible possibility of justice is discovered. Can God's household (God's oikos), God's city, be understood as a household that is continuously challenged by the other who is marginal and/or excluded and who knocks on the door of the oikos seeking justice and hospitality? This understanding of God's household, the city to come, would challenge our global cities to ever-greater hospitality, truer cosmopolitanism and continuous forgiveness.

Global Cities as Centers of Cultural Influence:

by Michael McAdams

Michael A. McAdams, "Global cities as centers of cultural influence: a focus on Istanbul" , Transtext(e)s-Transcultures : journal of global cultural studies, Vol. 3, Jan. 2008 .

In different eras, cities such as Babylon, Athens, Rome, London, Madrid and Paris
have been highly influential... more In different eras, cities such as Babylon, Athens, Rome, London, Madrid and Paris
have been highly influential in the development of world culture. In the Fordist and
Post-Fordist periods, the primary global culture transmitters have been centered in
New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo and London. As the world becomes increasing
more connected and different ‘geographies’ develop, it is inevitable that new global
cultural centers will surface to challenge, replace or augment these existing centers.
Some of the driving forces behind the predominance of global cultural transmittal
centers are the existence of a vibrant and substantial cultural economy, the high level
of connection with the global cultural network and the character/level of capital
accumulation within these cities. A possible candidate for one of these new cultural
centers could be Istanbul due to: (1) the recent regional changes in the economic and
geo-political climate; and (2) its unique geographical location, being at the crossroads
of Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. This paper will explore the role of global
cultural centers, the importance of a city’s cultural economy, and the
position/potential of Istanbul within the evolving global culture.

Youssef al-Qardawi : pouvoir médiatique, économique et symbolique

by Ermete Mariani

Franck Mermier (dir), Mondialisation et Nouveaux Médias dans l’Espace Arabe, Maisonneuve & Larose, Paris 2003, pp. 195-204.

Le cheikh Youssef al-Qardawi compte, en tant que savant religieux (‘âlim) et mufti, parmi les personnalités les plus... more Le cheikh Youssef al-Qardawi compte, en tant que savant religieux (‘âlim) et mufti, parmi les personnalités les plus connues et les plus puissantes de la scène islamique internationale. Mais l’originalité de ce personnage est qu’il exerce une forte activité médiatique utilisant tous les médias disponibles et qu’il sert de caution morale à l’investissement pour la finance islamique en tant que superviseur religieux des activités financières des plus grandes banques islamiques. Dans cet article, nous proposons une analyse de ses différents rôles, religieux, économique et politique, à travers l’examen de ses prises de position idéologiques et de ses activités de communication.