Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Context Matters: Studying Indigenous Religions in North America’ by Dr. Sarah King – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: Context is critically important to the study of indigenous religions in North America. This paper argues that the significance of context to indigenous (native, Indian, tribal or aboriginal) religions is unique and particular. In studying … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘The Jewish presence in Arabic writings on medicine and pharmacology during the medieval period’ by Dr. Leigh Chipman – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: The Jewish connection to medicine is longstanding and ongoing, as has been the interest in the history of medicine among Jews. This paper will attempt to go beyond the … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘The Concern for Sovereignty in the Politics of Anti Conversion’ by Dr. Goldie Osuri – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: Anti-conversion campaigns and laws have been linked to the mainstreaming of Hindu nationalism in the Indian context since the 1990s. Taking account of the historical and legal genealogies of anti-conversion, this essay makes … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Religious Environmentalism and Environmental Religion in America’ by Prof. Evan Berry – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: This essay aims to offer a rudimentary map of the subfield of religion and ecology by describing three distinct scholarly responses to the challenge leveled by Lynn White’s influential 1967 article. It articulates an organizational view … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Ideology and the Study of Religion: Marx, Althusser, and Foucault’ by Prof. Craig Martin – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: Karl Marx famously argued that ideology advances the interests of the ruling class. As a means of challenging the mystification of social relations he initiated a project of ideology critique, a project that … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Buddhist Visual Worlds II: Practices of Visualization and Vision’ by Prof. Chris Hatchell – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: This article discusses Buddhist meditative practices that make use of visual worlds. First among these are practices of “visualization,” which involve visual scenes created in the mind’s eye. Buddhist traditions contain a variety of … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Buddhist Visual Worlds I: The Eyes and Ways of Seeing’ by Prof. Chris Hatchell – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: Buddhist traditions contain a wealth of visual elements, from the “four sights” that inspired the Buddha’s renunciation, to their well developed visual arts, their detailed epistemologies that investigate the act of seeing, their … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Curses, Truth and the Coming of Maitreya – Lanna Inscriptions as Objects of Power’ by Miss Maria Kekki – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: The Lanna inscriptions (ca. 15th-18th century) have generally been studied only for their textual and factual content, which has often been seen as being restricted to merit making and … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘What Have Religious Groups Done After 3.11? Part 2: From Religious Mobilization to “Spiritual Care”’ by Prof. Levi McLaughlin – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: Religious responses to devastation in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters in northeast Japan have included a great deal more than providing material … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘“The Cure of Souls is the Art of Arts:” Preaching, Confession, and Catechesis in the Middle Ages’ by Prof. Andrew Reeves – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: In the European Middle Ages, the area in which the majority of lay Christians came into contact with the so called institutional Church was pastoral care. … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘What Have Religious Groups Done After 3.11? Part 1: A Brief Survey of Religious Mobilization after the Great East Japan Earthquake Disasters’ by Prof. Levi McLaughlin – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: This article serves two principal purposes: 1) to survey the many rescue, relief, and reconstruction initiatives undertaken by Buddhist, Shinto, Christian, … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Religion and Politics in Heian-Period Japan’ by Prof. Heather Blair – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: The religious culture of Japan’s Heian period (794-1185), like that of other times and places, was structured by power differentials; it can therefore fruitfully be understood as political. Combining kami worship (popularly known as Shinto), esoteric and … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Charles Taylor and Political Religion: Overlapping Concerns and Irresolvable Tensions’ by Dr. Stefan Fisher-Høyrem – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: This article introduces some key aspects of the revised secularization narrative presented by Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age (2007), with a particular view to how these might illuminate and/or complicate the study of … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Women’s Religious Affiliation in the Jodo Shinshu’ by Prof. Jessica Starling – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: How can we talk about female religious professionals in a non-celibate Buddhist tradition with no formal ordination or convents for nuns? Is there any distinction between laywomen and nuns? In this survey essay, I summarize the … Continue reading »

Coming soon to Religion Compass: ‘Developments in Hindu law from the colonial to the present.’ by Prof. Deepa Das Acevedo – PROVISIONAL ABSTRACT: Hinduism and law have often been understood as Hindu law: a body of fixed positive law and legal hermeneutics that can be used to govern the lives of Hindus. Marriage, adoption, inheritance, … Continue reading »