“Religion” and “Science” within a Global Religious History

Bergunder, Michael

doi:10.1163/15700593-01601004

Cited by 39 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…124 As the category of religion came to exclude science while encompassing Asian traditions, it only then became possible to announce a universal religion of the future that would avoid the "tunnel vision" of materialism and synthesize all knowledge-an attempt "to rebut materialism empirically" and "scientifically substantiate religion." In this "new situation that arose because of scientific materialism," 125 Davis and Spiritualists more broadly revealed a keen awareness of these cultural categories. Thus at Hartford, Davis could proclaim that "the Battle of the Evidences of Christianity is to be fought on the broad field of scientific and positive principles" rather than the "old metaphysical ground of idealistic impossibilities," 126 while still affirming a synthesis of science and religion, properly understood.…”

Section: Nature's Divine Revelationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Andrew Jackson Davis and Spiritualist Constructions of Religion(s)

Messamore

2023

Religion and Am. Culture

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That the concept of religion is of recent construction is well established in the literature. What is less understood is the American contribution to this global discourse, in particular its nineteenth-century popularization below the upper echelons of Unitarians, Transcendentalists, and comparative religion scholars. The small but very influential group of Spiritualists associated with the seer Andrew Jackson Davis offer a fascinating window into popular construals of religion and world religions—here, internally oriented, naturalized, and evolutionary—taking shape amid increasing globalization and the challenge of scientific materialism. The subdiscourse articulated by Davis and his circle provides an interesting case not only for its antiinstitutional and individualized qualities but also for its radical decentering of Christianity and paradoxical relationship to science. Moreover, Davis's efforts to define true religion and frame his system as its purest expression are connected to struggles for legitimacy within the public sphere and contests concerning religious authority.

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Section: Nature's Divine Revelationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Andrew Jackson Davis and Spiritualist Constructions of Religion(s)

Messamore

2023

Religion and Am. Culture

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“…These processes also highlight the transcultural nature and history of religion as a concept that evolved through encounters between Christian missionaries, Western scholars, colonial traders, administrators, and soldiers on the one hand, and their respective local interlocutors, trading partners, informants, and colonial subjects on the other. Religion, as understood today, is the product of these encounters and the subsequent mutual reread-ing, appropriation, and translation of then-contemporary ideas, practices, and artefacts (Bergunder 2016;Nongbri 2013).…”

Section: The Study Of Religionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Transnationalism and Hybridity in Religious Practices during the Migration Process: The Zera Beta Israel in Ethiopia and Israel

Talmi-Cohn

2022

Religions

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This article examines the complexity of religious practices and beliefs among a group of Zera Beta Israel (Falash Mura) members before, during, and a decade after their immigration process to Israel. This community, with roots in Judaism, converted to Christianity in the 19th century, complicating their request to immigrate to Israel along with Beta Israel members (Ethiopian Jews who had not converted to Christianity). Following an average 15-year wait in Ethiopian transit camps, they spent about two years in Israeli absorption centres and underwent conversion to rabbinic Judaism. This study aims to elucidate notions of religious, cultural, and oppositional transnationalism through life experiences described by Zera Beta Israel community members. Drawing on transnational theory and an interpretative qualitative approach, it develops and analyses 25 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and conversations conducted with members of the Zera Beta Israel community in Ethiopia and Israel. The findings challenge conventional binary perceptions and conceptual categories, such as Jewish–Christian or religious–secular and demonstrate the fluidity and complexity—the hybridity—that exists in the contexts of religion and immigration.

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“…Jˆrg Wichmann is one exception to describe the theosophical anthropology regarding its oriental sources. Unfortunately, the author confines his article to later theosophical works and his interpretation of the orient falls prey to (Saidian) orientalism (Said 2003) 5 and grants little insight into the historical debate (Wichmann 1983, 12ñ13). Julie Chajes (then Hall) takes an historical perspective and inquiries into the origin of the sevenfold constitution or saptaparna (Skt.…”

Section: State Of Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theosophical Anthropology, or the Septenary Constitution of Man Reconsidered

Harlass

2022

JCS

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in Northern Germany. After graduating in Religious Studies, South Asian Studies and ìChristianity and Cultureî, he completed his dissertation on ìDie orientalische Wende der Theosophischen Gesellschaftî [The Oriental Shift of the Theosophical Society] at the University of Heidelberg. His research interests comprise the approaches of postcolonial studies and global history to the ìlongî nineteenth century and its repercussions to the present. Particular research interests lie in esotericism, the Orientalist interpretations of Buddhism and the discourses on ìEast and Westî.

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“Religion” and “Science” within a Global Religious History

Cited by 39 publications

References 0 publications

Andrew Jackson Davis and Spiritualist Constructions of Religion(s)

Andrew Jackson Davis and Spiritualist Constructions of Religion(s)

Transnationalism and Hybridity in Religious Practices during the Migration Process: The Zera Beta Israel in Ethiopia and Israel

Theosophical Anthropology, or the Septenary Constitution of Man Reconsidered

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