The use of oral data on life and thought in independent Latvia: A proposal for research

This article provides both historical and ethnographic views of Eastern religion in Lithuania. The historical component is an examination of the evolution of Lithuanian interest in Eastern religions from nineteenth-century studies of Indo-European comparative linguistics and mythology, which linked pre-Christian Lithuanian religion with India and Hinduism, to increasing literary, scholarly and popular interest in India and Asia in the twentieth century, before, during and after Soviet occupation. The ethnographic aspect utilizes fieldwork and interviews to examine three Eastern-inspired religious movements, (Pagan) Romuva, (Hindu) Krishna Consciousness, and (Buddhist) Diamond Way, demonstrating three different adaptations of Eastern religion in Lithuania.     

试论缅甸佛教青年协会

通过对缅甸佛教青年协会产生的背景、诞生及其活动的论述和分析,本文认为:缅甸佛教青年协会在缅甸近代历史上具有特殊的历史意义,即它是缅甸历史上第一个具有近代民族主义性质的组织;它对缅甸人民民族主义意识的普遍形成起了重要作用;通过它缅甸人了解和认识了缅甸以外的世界,使缅甸近代民族主义运动在发展之初就与世界的近代民族主义运动,尤其是与亚洲的近代民族主义运动产生了密切的联系.另外,佛教青年协会的性质及其活动使得缅甸近代民族主义运动从诞生的那一刻起就打上了宗教的深深印痕,该会的领导策略和方法也为以后的缅甸近代民族主义运动提供了有益的借鉴.     

Parties,political decay,and democratic regression in Sri Lanka

Among states that gained independence following World War II, Sri Lanka was widely considered to have a good chance of succeeding democratically. This promise was sundered when successive leaders embraced ethnocentric policies that were geared towards empowering the majority Sinhalese Buddhists at the expense of minorities. This ethnocentrism contributed to civil war and adversely affected the country's institutions – including the island's political parties. The attendant political decay has not only led to malgovernance and democratic regression, it has pushed the country in an authoritarian direction. Sri Lanka thus represents a classic case of how ethnocentrism can undermine democratic institutions and of the long-term negative consequences.     

中、印、尼佛教文化交流的特点及影响——来自三国学者的观点

中国学界过去对印度佛教研究较多,对尼泊尔佛教研究不多;对中印、中尼佛教交流研究较多,而对中、印、尼三国之间的佛教文化交流的研究则不多。2019年11月25日,由中国友谊促进会和教育部人文社科重点研究基地四川大学南亚研究所共同举办的"加强佛教文化交流,促进民心相融相通——中印尼佛教文化研讨会"在成都召开。来自印度德里大学、和平与冲突研究所、贝纳勒斯印度教大学、新那烂陀佛教大学、加尔各答城市学院和尼泊尔的特里布文大学、莲花学院、蓝毗尼佛教大学以及中国的中国藏语系高级佛学院、中国藏学研究中心、四川大学、上海大学、西南民族大学等三个国家18个单位的50名代表参加了会议。此次会议围绕中、印、尼三国"佛教源流与影响"、"佛教传承与艺术"以及"佛教融合与发展"三个议题展开交流,讨论的内容丰富、信息量大,为三国的友好交流作出了积极贡献。三国学者的观点主要集中在中、印、尼佛教交流的历史起源、特点、影响、问题和建议五个方面。     

日本古写经文献的编辑出版实践与策略 ——以《日本古写经善本丛刊》为例

日本古写经主要指奈良、平安、镰仓时期,即刊本大藏经之前在日本书写或转写的佛经资料。目前,日本古写经的现代化编辑与数据库建设主要是由日本国际佛教学大学院大学日本古写经研究所主持开展的,自2006年以来,该单位陆续出版《日本古写经善本丛刊》九辑。丛刊编校精善,是研究日本古写经文本特征、流传情况、宗教机能的重要学术资料。丛刊编辑出版的成功实践归功于其编辑策略,即贯彻系统综合的编辑方针、偏重学术研究的编辑倾向和整合数字资源的编辑意识。对《日本古写经善本丛刊》的出版状况进行梳理,对其编辑策略进行探讨,这项工作可以为新时代古籍文献的整理出版提供新思路,有助于日本古写经这一宝贵的域外汉籍文献的挖掘、回归、传播与研究。     

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE: THE NARRATIVES OF SECULARISM AND ISLAM IN BANGLADESH

This paper challenges the popular perception that Bangladesh has become the latest battleground between secularism and Islam and problematizes the simplified understanding and the binarization of religion and secularism in Bangladesh. It argues that extant discussions on the one hand overlooks the historical background of the interactions of religion and while on the other hand, it ignores the extant multiplicity of both Islamic practices and the understanding of secularism. The author calls for a nuanced understanding of the complex historical and contemporaneous developments regarding relationships between religion and politics.     

Ethnic Conflict and State Building in Burma

Commentaries on contemporary Bangladesh give increasing attention to the role of religion, particularly its more “fundamentalist” forms, in public politics. Here we offer an alternative analysis that explores the significance of religion in people's everyday lives, concentrating on its articulation in community politics. We draw on an important local distinction between dharma understood as a moral foundation for life and dharma understood more narrowly as “religion.” Our empirical analysis suggests that it is the former sense of dharma which has greater relevance for the moral order of the community, and is used to evaluate and structure its social and political institutions, including those identified as “religious.” This perspective furnishes fresh insights into the dynamic relationship between religion, politics and social change in modern Bangladesh.     

Social Change and Demographic Response in Iran (1956–2006)

This article considers the association between religion, family formation and social trends in Iran from a socio-demographic perspective. Iran has experienced one of the most spectacular falls in birth rate ever experienced in human history. The fundamental socio-cultural changes over the past few decades have made it a unique ‘social laboratory’ for the analysis of determinants of changes in marriage and fertility patterns. While emphasising the distinctiveness of the country case study, the article also provides evidence relating to the long-standing debate as to whether religion or factors other than religion explain such characteristics as early marriage, high incidence of marriage and high fertility in so-called Islamic contexts.     

Contesting Landscapes in Thailand: Tree Ordination as Counter-territorialization

Recently, authors Vandergeest and Peluso have discussed the process of territorialization in Siam/Thailand, where the state has gradually expanded its control over natural resources through its legal machinery and associated classifications of the natural environment. While Vandergeest and Peluso focus on the process of territorialization from the perspective of the Thai State, this article examines the same process from the perspective of nongovernmental organizations and forest--dwelling farmers. Of particular interest is a project launched by the Northern Farmer's Network to “ordain” 50 million trees in community forests throughout Northern Thailand in 1996 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the king's accession to the throne. This essentially Buddhist ceremony has since been conducted in numerous Buddhist as well as non-Buddhist rural communities. The authors argue that these communities apply the tree ordination ceremony as a tool to counter the territorialization of the Thai state by reasserting local identities and environmental responsibilities. By invoking Buddhist symbols and the honor of the king, the rural groups–many of which fear eviction from forested areas classified as national parks–identify themselves positively with modern Thai society in order to contest their public depiction as “enemies of the nation.” This article analyzes the process of territorialization and counter-territorialization in Thai society by discussing classifications and associated landscapes in the environmental debate in Thailand. Furthermore, the tree ordination project undertaken by the Northern Farmers' Network is analyzed based on cases from the Mae Chaem district in Chiang Mai Province.     

Constitutional Contestation of Religion in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

Sri Lanka’s constitutional policy regarding religion affords the ‘foremost place’ to Buddhism and obligates the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, whilst assuring the rights and freedoms of the other religions. By explicitly creating a special status for Buddhism, the constitution has produced the category of the ‘Other’ that has the potential to discriminate against minorities in a pluralistic society and to undermine the fundamental principle of equality. The creation of this distinction generated contestation during constitutional reforms. By examining reform proposals on religion, interview material and comparing the debates of the Constitutional Assembly (October/November 2017) with the Constituent Assembly debates (1970–71), this study retraces the evolution of the Buddhism Chapter and identifies the present contestations and their role in deciding a constitutional arrangement for religion.     

Responding to Western Critiques of the Muslim World: Deconstructing the Cliché of Islamophobia and the Genealogies of Islamic Extremism

This paper is premised on the questions of whether Islam as a religion, spiritual domain, cultural practice and philosophy should be held responsible for whatever activities the Muslims choose to do in their personal capacity. Does the ascribed status of individuals being Muslims and their choice of declaring themselves as terrorists in the name of Islam entail that they are true followers of the religion and have been theologically and spiritually inspired by it? These questions have sprung up because Islam as a religion has constituted the fundamental component of western interpretation of the reasons for the rise of violent extremism involving Muslim radicals. In this context, the objective of this paper is to examine how the contemporary western interpretations, linking the actions of Muslim extremist groups with those of the ontology and epistemology of Islam, are predicated on a faulty cognition of the nature and the guiding principles of that religion itself. To accomplish this, the paper critiques Samuel Huntington's ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis and Bernard Lewis's version of the roots of Muslim extremism.     

缅甸蒲甘王朝政权与教权(上座部佛教)的关系

缅甸已被公认是上座部佛教在东南亚传播的最早和最重要的基地,上座部佛教在缅甸社会和国家政治生活中起着举足轻重的作用。在古代,上座部佛教一直同王权保持着紧密的联系。政、教关系作为一种重要的政治关系,很大程度上反映着缅甸封建国家的政治发展状况。本文试对缅甸蒲甘王朝时期政权与教权(上座部佛教)之间的关系进行一番分析和探讨,理清其沿革发展的脉络,揭示缅甸蒲甘王朝时期政教关系的特点,为进一步探究缅甸整个封建社会时期的政教关系作些铺垫。     

Ist Durkheims Religionsverständnis mit dem Glauben vereinbar?

Does Emile Durkheim’s sociology of religion pose a challenge to the faithful? Durkheim said no in debate with contemporary non-believers and believers, portraying religion not as mere illusion but as consisting in moral forces that command, comfort and strengthen the faithful, forces generated and regenerated within them by the collective effervescence of rituals. Thus empowered, the faithful imagine in symbolic form “the society of which they are members and the obscure yet intimate relations they have with it”. Durkheim’s answer is shown to have three components: a critique of naturist and animist “error theories” of religion; a method of “deep interpretation”, uncovering the reality beneath the symbolism; and an explanation of why the meaning of religion thus interpreted should have been for so long unacknowledged by the faithful. It is argued that, in principle, they can, on certain assumptions, accommodate his sociology of religion. But this, in turn, makes key assumptions and claims that have been seriously questioned: notably, that “religion” names a unified phenomenon and that Durkheim’s definition captures it. Recent revised “Durkheimian” accounts of religious thought and practice are considered, accounts that abandon these assumptions and also his “social realism”, while seeking to preserve his insights. It is argued that these too need not directly challenge religious belief in the way that the cognitive science of religion does.     

A Hard Culture? Religion and Politics in Turn-of-the-Century Australian History

The idea that Australia developed a uniquely "hard" political culture after 1788 — a culture that prized the rational and made short shift of religion — has had plenty of currency over the years. This idea has been challenged in recent scholarship, along with the broader notion that Western society became secularised during the twentieth century. Set against the backdrop of a wider challenge to the "secularisation narrative", this article explores the work of several historians dealing with the relationship between religion and Australian politics at the turn of the twentieth century. These historians, who include Al Gabay, Frank Bongiorno, Bruce Scates, and Judith Brett, are creating "softer" understandings of Australian political history. As a consequence, I suggest, their work has implications for the way we think about the relationship between the religious and secular Left, as well as for the way we think about Australian masculinities and culture more generally.     

The Prospects and Pitfalls of the Religious Nationalist Movement in Turkey: The Case of the Gülen Movement

This article examines the interplay of religion and nationalism in Turkey in the post-1990 period and discusses the prospects and pitfalls of religious nationalist movement by focusing on Gülen's Turkish Muslimhood. It is believed that the instrumental relationship between Islam and nationalism in Turkey as exemplified in the modernist religious nationalism of Gülen will help reveal that Islam has always been an indispensable element of the discourse of nationalism in Turkey and will force us to rethink the role or religion in Turkish society and politics.     

日本佛教题材文学的演变及当代转型

始于明治元年的"废佛毁释"运动彻底改变了日本佛教的命运,由此产生的新文化语境与思想生态对日本佛教题材文学的创作产生了重大影响。纵观近代以来约150年间的日本佛教题材文学,其中的佛教思想接受模式呈现了从信仰、怀疑、理性主义到多元宗教观的变迁,实践了与佛教地位转型相呼应的文学创作转型。而多元信仰的必然结果是人们无暇顾及自我磨砺,急功近利的宗教心理使得"他力思想"和"恶人正机"等方便法门取代了注重修行的正统佛教思想。新生代僧侣作家的登场则将传统僧侣文学和现代文学融于一体,既让人们了解到神秘的僧界,亦使佛教更多地介入了现代世俗生活,他们作品中呈现的多元宗教观亦符合当下日本民众的多元信仰形态。     

Religion and Secularism in Turkey: The Dilemma of the Directorate of Religious Affairs

The current study aims to examine the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) from its formation in 1924 through to the present day, and attempts to place the Diyanet appropriately in the context of the prevailing perplexity over state–religion relations in Turkey. It questions Turkish-style secularism and examines the responsibilities, power, and limits of the Diyanet. The Diyanet has undertaken responsibility for making the state's control over religion visible through sermons and publications, helping the state gain legitimacy among religious people. Meanwhile, it has been the Achilles' heel of the republican regime in the sense that religious people found employment in it and some considered this as a way to influence the laicist state from inside.     

Turkish secularism and Islam under the reign of Erdoğan

ABSTRACT

This article introduces a collection of articles that explore the role of religion (Sunni Islam) in the transformation of Turkey under the reign of President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and his Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi, AKP). This special issue argues that the Turkish understanding of secularism was also one of the building blocks or/and constitutive elements of Turkey’s modernisation until the rise of the AKP. Currently, however, it seems that religion has become a new or re-born element of the new Turkey and has been transforming many areas such as: the media, the Kurdish issue, implementation of the rule of law, foreign policy and gender issues. This special issue aims to scrutinise the question: how does a religion-based transformation in Turkey influence the raison d’etat of the state?     

An alternative reading of religion and authoritarianism: the new logic between religion and state in the AKP’s New Turkey

ABSTRACT

Since roughly 2011, the Turkish state and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been going through a process of mutual transformation. Some of the historical apprehensions, biases and frustrations exhibited by Turkey as a middle power have been absorbed by the relatively reformist AKP. Conversely, the AKP and its undisputed leader Erdo?an have seen their socio-political fears, power based conflicts and ethno-religious desires become dominant in all areas, including religion. As a consequence of this bilateral transformation, Turkey has become both an inclusionary and a hegemonic-authoritarian state, and at the same time a weak one. Within this new identity and structure of the state, Sunni Islam has become one of the regime’s key focal points, with a new logic. This article seeks to explain the transformation of the relations between the AKP’s Turkish state, religion and religious groups, by scrutinising Karrie Koesel’s logic of state-religion interaction in authoritarian regimes.