American Christianity, Islam, and the Public Square

Franklin Graham recently made controversial statements concerning Islam that are the focus of much discussion on the Internet and in the media. The controversy arises in large measure because of the inaccuracies in Graham's portrayal of the religion. In the video clip above you can hear Stephen Prothero's response to Graham's characterization of Islam. (See my previous interview with Prothero on religious illiteracy here.)

In a related story, the media is now reporting on the Dove World Outreach Center in Florida that is planning to burn as many copies of the Qu'ran as it can find on September 11, which the church has dubbed "International Burn a Koran Day," even though the city has denied them the appropriate permit for a fire. A review of the church's website reveals a penchant for inflammatory confrontation with Islam through the phrase "Islam is of the Devil," which can be found in Pastor Terry Jones' book title, a sign in front of the church, and t-shirts with the slogan that the church is making available to others who want to support their efforts.

These episodes demonstrate at least two things. First, we need more reflexivity in the failures of those in our own religious community historically who have not lived up to the teachings of Jesus. For a sobering reminder of some of our shortcomings see Gary Laderman's recent opinion piece in Religion Dispatches, "Dangerous Religion."

Second, Evangelicals still have a long way to go in their understanding and portrayal of other religions, particularly Islam. The events of 9/11 had a traumatic effect on the national conscience, and that these events were connected to Islam makes it easy to understand how sensitivities could be heightened in regards to Islamic religion, but the misunderstanding, misrepresentation, and grotesque confrontation with Islam through the burning of its scriptures merely exacerbates negative perceptions of Christianity in the United States (not to mention the Muslim world), and further deepens our problems in the public square.

Patheos on The Future of Mormonism

Patheos has a great series of articles on "The Future of Mormonism":

The Colorful LDS Future
The Future of Mormons on the Internet
Mormonism in the Academy
The Future of "Mormon Fundamentalism"
Mormon Democrats at a Crossroads
Europe and Mormon Growth
Mormon-Evangelical Dialogue: Changing for the Better
The Future of Mormon Motherhood
Mormonism in the New Century
The Next Generation of Mormon Feminism
Partnering with Our Friends from Other Faiths
Mormon Publishing, the Internet, and the Democratization of Information
The Church's Reputation: Progress, Challenges, and Opportunity
Mormons and the Bible in the 21st Century
The Challenges of (Non-existent?) Mormon Theology
Mormon Publishing: Four Trends to Watch
Mormon Studies: Catching the New Wave
The Future of Mormon Missionary Work
A World Religion (Eventually)

Inter-Disciplinary.net: Magic and the Supernatural

I recently found a great network that includes a series of fascinating conferences and research topics. The network is Inter-Disciplinary.net, and following is an upcoming conference:

Magic and the Supernatural
March 17-19, 2011
Prague, Czech Republic

Bewitched. I Dream of Jeannie. The Exorcist. Charmed. Buffy. Dr. Who. Dracula. Dark Shadows. Twilight and The Twilight Zone. Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton. Dresden Files. Harry Potter. The fascination and appeal of magic and supernatural entities pervades societies and cultures. The continuing appeal of these characters is a testimony to how they shape our daydreams and our nightmares, as well as how we yearn for something that is “more” or “beyond” what we can see-touch-taste-feel. Children still avoid stepping on cracks, lovers pluck petals from a daisy, cards are dealt and tea leaves read.

A belief in magic as a means of influencing the world seems to have been common in all cultures. Some of these beliefs crossed over into nascent religions, influencing rites and religious celebrations. Over time, religiously-based supernatural events (”miracles”) acquired their own flavour, separating themselves from standard magic. Some modern religions such as the Neopaganisms embrace connections to magic, while others retain only echoes of their distant origins.

This inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary project seeks to examine issues surrounding the role and use of magic in a wide variety of societies and cultures over the course of human history. People with access to magic or knowledge of the supernatural will also be examined.

Papers, presentations, reports and workshops are invited on issues on or broadly related to any of the following themes:

~ Magic as “paranormal,” anything alleged to exist that is not explainable by any present laws of science
~ the distinctions between “magic” and “religion” and “science”
~ Magical thinking and the equation of coincidence with causality
~ Folk magic and “traditional” systems of magic
~ “Magick” and “Wicca” as religious systems in modern society
~ Witchcraft in the European context
~ “Witchcraft” and animism in African or Asian contexts
~ Magic as illusion, stagecraft, sleight-of-hand
~ Magic in modern literature (ex. Harry Potter, Harry Dresden, the saga of Middle Earth, the Chronicles of Narnia, etc.) and in traditional literatures (folk or fairy tales, legends, mythologies, etc.)
~ Magic in art and the depiction of magical creatures, practices or practitioners
~ the associations of magic with the “monstrous” or “evil;” does one imply the presence of the other?
~ the portrayal of magic, magical creatures, and magical practices or practitioners on television and in film
~ the roles or uses of magic in video games, on-line communities, role-playing games, subcultural formations and identities
~ the similarities and differences of magical creatures across societies and time periods
~ the interplay of “magic” and “religion” as well as “science”
~ the “sciences” of demonology and angelology
~ the role of divination or prophecy in societies or religions
~ the use of “natural” vs. “supernatural” explanations for world events
~ Magic and the supernatural as coping mechanisms for individuals and societies

The Steering Group also welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 1st October 2010. All submissions are minimally double blind peer reviewed where appropriate. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 4th February 2011. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:

a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract

Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

You can learn more about the conference and submission information here.

Proselytism and religious identity theft: a key topic for interreligious dialogue

Is sharing your religious faith with another in an attempt to persuade a form of identity theft? Some certainly think so. If this is not the specific objection, some in various religious or spiritual traditions certainly see proselytism as an unethical and disrespectful of the other (as my Pagan contacts have shared with me).

This important issue that needs to be part of interreligious dialogue is taken up in an article by Thomas Farr titled "Proselytism and religious identity theft" that appeared in The Washington Post. The biographical material for Farr that accompanies this article describes him as follows:

Thomas F. Farr, a former American diplomat, is Visiting Associate Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown's Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is also Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, where he directs the Religion and US Foreign Policy Program.

As the article begins, Farr frames the issues and lists a number of significant questions related to the topic. He then writes:

The way these and related questions are addressed and answered will have enormous implications for American interests, justice, and world peace in the 21st century.

Farr then discusses how proselytism has gone back and forth between Christianity and Islam and eventually comes to the following conclusion:

On balance, it seems reasonable to conclude that both religion and democracy can benefit if the activity of sharing one's faith is both permitted and conducted with respect. But there is much work to do before such a conclusion is broadly accepted.

You can watch Farr discuss this topic at YouTube at this link.

I think this is a very important topic that must be addressed by adherents of various religious traditions as they come together in dialogue and consider the place that proclamation and persuasion plays in the overall dialogue process, and especially how this relates to perceptions of religious traditions of proselytism in connection with identity.

Sacred Tribes Journal, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Spring 2010)

The latest edition of Sacred Tribes Journal, Volume 5, Number 1 (Spring 2010), is now available online. As the Table of Contents indicates below, this issue features an interesting article by Paul Markham on religious conversion in light of neuroscience, and a review of The Kingdom of the Occult by Douglas Cowan for those interested in new religions and Western esotericism, as well as previews of electronic books available at Sacred Tribes Press.

Table of Contents

Editor's Introduction

Featured Article

Practicing Religious Conversion: Lessons from Neuroscience - Paul N. Markham

Special Features from Sacred Tribes Press

What Mormons Believe About God - John L. Bracht
Introduction to Apologetics, Mission and New Religious Movements - Philip Johnson
From the Occult to Western Esotericism - J. Gordon Melton

Book Reviews

The Kingdom of the Occult - Douglas E. Cowan

Call for Future Articles

International Journal of Mormon Studies Vol. 3, No. 1 (2010)

The new issue of the International Journal of Mormon Studies Vol 3, No. 1 (2010) is now available online. Articles include:

Father, Jesus and Lucifer in Pre–Mortal Council by Douglas J. Davies

Meaning and Authority in Mormon Ritual by Walter E. A. van Beek

The Religious “Other”: Reflecting upon Mormon Perceptions by Mauro Properzi

The Rise of the Nazi Dictatorship and its Relationship with the Mormon Church in Germany, 1933–1939 by Steve Carter

Religious Freedom in Belgium: A Limited Study of Challenges as experienced by LDS Children and Youth in Flemish Classrooms from the 1970’s until Today by Ingrid Sherlock-Taselaar

Utah and All These Cherries: Mormonism in Fallaci’s Un cappello pieno di ciliege by Massimo Introvigne

Oriana Fallaci, the Mormons and Me: A Personal Recollection by Michael W. Homer

Poles Apart? A Look at Mormon Doctrine in Light of Historic Christianity by Johnnie Glad

Are Jesus and Satan Brothers? A Short Exploration in Mormon Christology by John Walsh

This issue also includes Front Matter, an Editorial, and Book Reviews.

James Henderson: Christian self-diagnostics

A great article by kindred spirit Jim Henderson pursuing alternative ways of engaging others, in this case by interacting with atheists for their perspective on church! I especially like these two segments in the piece which need to be asked by Christians about those of all stripes in their lives:

"Atheists are also wary of being seen as "projects." Does continued contact and eventual friendship with the Christian in their life depend on them converting?"

"If you want to have influence, I said, you have to be willing to be influenced. If not, I asked, would anyone want to have a conversation with you?"

Douglas Davies' Forthcoming Book on Mormonism: Jesus, Satan and Joseph Smith

Ashgate has its new catalog out in Religious Studies and Theology promoting its new titles for 2010. One that caught my eye as a forthcoming volume is Jesus, Satan and Joseph Smith: The Mormon Cosmic Triad, but listed as Joseph Smith, Jesus, and Satanic Opposition: Atonement, Evil and the Mormon Vision on Ashgate's website. The book is by Douglas Davies of the University of Durham who has written two previous volumes on Mormonism, including The Mormon Culture of Salvation (Ashgate, 2000), and An Introduction to Mormonism (Cambridge University Press, 2002):

This book explores Mormon theology in new ways from a scholarly non-Mormon perspective. Bringing Jesus and Satan into relationship with Joseph Smith the founding prophet, Douglas Davies shows how the Mormon 'Plan of Salvation' can be equated with mainstream Christianity's doctrine of the Trinity as a driving force of the faith. Exploring how Jesus has been understood by Mormons, his many Mormon identities are described in this book: he is the Jehovah of the Bible, our Elder Brother and Father, probably also a husband, he visited the dead and is also the antagonist of Satan-Lucifer.

This book offers a way into the Mormon 'problem of evil' understood as apostasy, from pre-mortal times to today. Three images reveal the wider problem of evil in Mormonism: Jesus' pre-mortal encounter with Lucifer in a heavenly council deciding on the Plan of Salvation, Jesus Christ's great suffering-engagement with evil in Gethsemane, and Joseph Smith's First Vision of the divine when he was almost destroyed by an evil force.

Douglas Davies, well-known for his previous accounts of Mormon life and thought, shows how renewed Mormon interest in theological questions of belief can be understood against the background of Mormon church-organization and its growing presence on the world-stage of Christianity.

Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion

I just received a review copy of a new release by New York University Press, Transcendent in America: Hindu-Inspired Meditation Movements as New Religion by Lola Williamson. From the Preface:

This book is about Walter, Aaron, Jennifer, and others like them who have practiced meditation under the auspices of a Hindu guru for twenty or more years. It is also about the meditation movements in which they participate: Self-Realization Fellowship, Transcendental Meditation, and Siddha Yoga. These are three of many such movements that, taken together, comprise a new hybrid form of religion. This new religion combines aspects of Hinduism with Western values, institutional forms, modes of teaching, and religious sensibilities. Lying at the conjunction of two worldviews, this phenomenon could be called "Hindu-inspired meditation movements," or HIMMs. Through personal, historical, and cultural lenses, this book explores the contours of Hindu-inspired meditation movements and their implications for American culture.

Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy Conference: Mormon Engagement with the World Religions

Last week I had the privilege of attending the 2010 inaugural conference sponsored by the Mormon Chapter of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy titled "Mormon Engagement with the World Religions: Perspectives and Possibilities with the Abrahamic Traditions." The event was held June 11-12 on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, an appropriate place for a conference on interreligious dialogue in that this location is the most religiously diverse area of the world as documented by Diana Eck of Harvard University in her Pluralism Project research.

When I first received the invitation to attend in May I was unsure if I would be able to participate. The recession has impacted my non-profit organization to the extent that no travel funds are available this year. If I was going to attend something dramatic would have to happen, and fairly quickly from the time of the invitation to the time of the event. After making my invitation known a few people came forward to assist. One colleague provided the airfare, and two individuals affiliated with the event donated my hotel room. My heartfelt thanks goes to these individuals who made my attendance and participation possible.

To provide context for the conference some background information is needed related to the founding organization, and the chapter that sponsored the conference. The Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy (FID) was founded by Charles Randall Paul. The organization's website describes it as follows:

The Foundation is organized to promote and facilitate communication between people experiencing conflicts inspired by religious differences. It seeks to enroll and train religiously bi-lingual “interreligious diplomats” who can engage in deep dialogue encounters to decrease ill will and build trust even while in the midst of difficult conflicts.

Foundation membership affiliation is open to all persons who are willing to engage in respectful interreligious diplomatic exchanges and receive training from the Foundation. Members of the same religious or ideological persuasion are encouraged to inquire about forming chapters of the Foundation, guided by FID principles and methods but directed by local members working to achieve their goals for interreligious communication.

The Mormon Chapter was one of the first to be formed by FID, brought together under the leadership of Brian Birch who teaches at Utah Valley University. This inaugural conference by the Mormon Chapter was, as the conference invitation stated, "designed to explore various perspectives and methods for thinking about Latter-day Saints among the great traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It's aim will be to connect theology with practice in allowing space for Mormons to think more carefully about the activity of interreligious exchange and the possibility of mutual transformation."

The conference involved eight sessions over the course of two days. On Friday this included "The Latter-day Saint Approach to Interreligious Relations" with a presentation by Elder Bruce D. Porter of the First Quorum of the Seventy, "Latter-day Saints and Interreligious Engagement," a session on "Judaism," and concluding the day's events with "The Grand Fundamental Principle: The Theological Question of Religious Diversity." Saturday's presentations included "The Mormon Voice in a Pluralistic Society," "Catholic and Orthodox Christianity," "Protestant Christianity," and a session on "Islam." Each session involved a panel of presenters including representatives of the religious tradition under consideration, and LDS respondents. Each presenter spoke for twenty minutes, and ten minutes were provided for audience questions and answers with the panel.

Given that I am part of the Protestant Christianity tradition I was most interested in this panel where my colleague and WIIS affiliated scholar Terry Muck of Asbury Theological Seminary was speaking. David McAllister-Wilson of Wesley Theological Seminary was another representative of this tradition, with Deidre Green from Claremont Graduate University and J. Spencer Fluhman of Brigham Young University responding. Unfortunately, the previous session went long and pushed the lunch hour back, and when this was coupled with my departure flight time I was unable to hear much of this session beyond a few minutes of Fluhman's opening remarks. Since the event's proceedings were videotaped I look forward to them being made available in the near future on the FID Mormon Chapter's website.

As to my thoughts on the conference, I believe that interreligious dialogue is an important task for representatives of all religious traditions to be able to engage in faithfully in regards to their own traditions, and effectively in terms of appropriate means of communication. In my view FID sets forth the right approach which they describe as respectful contestation. This approach avoids the two problematic extremes of liberalism and some forms of ecumenism on the one hand that dismiss the importance of truth claims (person over truth), and the other extreme of disrespectful forms of proclamation and dialogue (truth over person).

A few observations:

I was surprised and pleased to learn of Latter-day Saint efforts and successes in developing relationships and dialogue with representatives of other religious traditions that have been going on for several years. The work with Judaism and Roman Catholicism were especially interesting.

Elder Porter made a few statements that struck me as curious. At one point in the question and answer period he stated that dialogue and proselytizing were two different hats that were worn at different times. This can surely be the case, but not necessarily so, as the position of FID makes clear. Elder Porter also spoke of a uniformity of beliefs among LDS, and while the LDS Church has done a good job at providing teachings to be used throughout the Church with the aim toward this uniformity, what little scientific research I have come across in this area indicates some level of diversity, which is to be expected in a diverse population, even if there is an official and popular "center of gravity" for beliefs.

At several points during the conference I felt like a fly on the wall, and an uncomfortable one at that, as I watched and listened to another religious tradition wrestle with issues both intra- and inter- in regards to other religions. I found it refreshing that a group of Latter-day Saints was active in moving beyond its own religious community to understand and relate in the public square. Such interests compliment a faith very much interested in the process of proselytization.

If I were to offer a critique of the conference, I would like to have seen fewer people on the panel, and/or less time given to presentations so as to allow greater time with panel participants interacting with each other and the audience. In addition, I would like to have seen some incorporation of "practical" and grassroots examples of dialogue that moves beyond the institutional and academic levels to our neighborhoods.

One of the benefits of attending a conference like this is not only the event itself, but the ability to meet people, network, and develop relationships. As one example, Terry Muck and I were able to spend some time together, and we will be working with an initial group of charter members to form the Evangelical Chapter of FID. This chapter will put together an inaugural conference in the near future, and will work to equip Evangelicals to become effective participants in respectful contestation, and in the training of bi-lingual diplomats fluent in multiple religions who can engage in interreligious dialogue.

In a separate but related item, the Spring 2010 issue of Evangelical Interfaith Dialogue is available for download. This issue focuses on theologies of religions, and it features an article on the subject by Matti Kärkkäinen of Fuller Theological Seminary with a number of respondents including myself in a piece simply titled "Supplemental Reflections." Readers may enjoy this discussion of a timely theological and cultural issue as it relates to interreligious dialogue.

Christian Research Journal on Avatar: Wishing For Greater Breadth in Pop Cultural Engagement

Given my interactions with the religious and cultural implications of Avatar in numerous postings on the Internet in various forums, I was intrigued to find that Christian Research Journal has an article on the subject in the latest issue of the publication, Vol. 33, No. 2 (2010). The article is titled "Avatar: A Postmodern Pagan Myth," and the piece is written by Brian Godawa. Godawa is a Christian screenwriter and author who frequently provides commentary on contemporary cinema for evangelical publications.

Given that Godawa's article appears in a publication written for an evangelical audience, and one interested in apologetic and theological forms of cultural engagement, the author's approach to his subject matter is not surprising. After summarizing the film's story Godawa moves to analysis from an evangelical apologetic perspective wherein he frames Avatar as "a postmodern pagan myth of nature worship," which includes elements of animism, polytheism, pantheism, and panentheism. Godawa concludes his article with discussion of James Cameron's abilities as a mythmaker for our time.

In my opinion Godawa's article is fine as far as it goes, and as stated above, it is not surprising to see this kind of treatment given the journal's perspective and the intended audience. However, there is a place for broadening the approach in interacting with popular culture in an effort to assist evangelicals in a broader and deeper understanding and engagement with the issues of the day. I think that Godawa's analysis falls short in the area of empathetic consideration, Christian reflexivity, and awareness of (or at least discussion of) Avatar's connection to broader cultural phenomena.

In terms of empathetic consideration, like many apologetic writings by evangelicals, Godawa's article demonstrates little by way of an attempt to sympathetically enter into the thought processes and affective dimensions of those who produced and consumed Avatar as a powerful piece of mythmaking. Numerous stories can be found of individuals who have had a deep connection with various facets of this film, from viewing the moon Pandoria as a utopia to which they wish they could escape, to those who have identified with the Na'vi as an oppressed people, to those who find a resonance with the eco-spiritual aspects of the film. Evangelicals will benefit in many ways from attempts at entering into the perspective of others as we form our understanding and critique.

An attempt at reflexivity is also absent in Godawa's analysis. Reflexivity is a process whereby the study of another culture provides the opportunity to step outside of one’s usual conceptions of cultural normality in order to not only understand another culture, but also to critically reassess one’s own culture and social location in light of the encounter with the cultural other. This stance is crucial as Gordon Lynch has stated:

"Judging popular culture on the basis of our own preformed religious and cultural assumptions, without allowing the possibility for these to be challenged or changed in some way by our study of popular culture, will not help us become better cultural critics or more thoughtful theologians."

Had Godawa adopted a reflexive stance in regards to Avatar, he and his readers might have a greater appreciation for the the claim that Christianity has played a significant role in the West's exploitation of indigenous peoples and the environment. Although this claim is often overstated in popular discussions of the subject matter, the church's failures in these areas must be acknowledged if we are to engage the post-Christendom West with credibility in the twenty-first century.

Finally, Godawa's analysis would have benefited from some discussion of the connection of the film to broader cultural phenomena. Specifically, as I have discussed elsewhere, Avatar taps into our dissatisfaction with our failed technological paradise and finds solace in a mythic narrative of indigenous peoples. Beyond this, Avatar also taps into the growing and increasingly popular eco-spirituality that Bron Taylor has called "Dark Green Religion." As discussed in a previous post, this nature religion “considers nature to be sacred, imbued with intrinsic value, and worthy of reverent care..” The reference to “dark” in connection to the green is a dual referent, with application both to the depth of commitment of those to nature religion, and also to the possibility of a “shadow side” to the religion that “could even precipitate or exacerbate violence.” By connecting Avatar's portrayal of sacred nature not only to the Gaia Hypothesis, but also to Dark Green Religion, Godawa would have helped his readers not only understand Avatar's appeal better, but also made them aware of a significant new expression of the sacred, the religious, and the spiritual.

I am pleased to see an evangelical publication interact with contemporary film, and even more so that it engages one of the most popular films of all time, but it seems to me that we evangelicals have a way to go in providing a broader consideration of this topic. Only a broader approach will help us speak beyond the evangelical tribe.

Off to a Conference on Dialogue

Thursday evening I leave for a conference on interreligious dialogue to be held Friday and Saturday on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. The event is sponsored by the Mormon chapter of the Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy and it brings together Protestant evangelicals, Roman Catholics, Jews and Muslims for the perspectives of the Abrahamic religions on dialogue with Latter-day Saints. I'll post my follow up comments on the conference next week.

New Book on Psytrance

During my research on Burning Man Festival for my master of arts thesis, one of the more helpful research sources was Graham St. John. In a recent email he announced a new book he edited, The Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance (Routledge, 2010):

This lively textual symposium offers a rich harvest of formative research on the culture of global psytrance (psychedelic trance). As the first book to address the diverse transnationalism of this contemporary electronic dance music phenomenon, the collection hosts interdisciplinary research attending to psytrance as a product of intersecting local and global trajectories. With coverage of scenes in Goa, the UK, Israel, Japan, Italy, the US, Portugal, The Czech Republic and Australia, the collection features a dozen chapters from scholars researching psytrance in worldwide locations, employing various methods, within multiple disciplines. With chapters offering significant contributions to our understanding of globalization and music cultures, scene demise and transformation, ephemeral and cosmopolitan assemblages, counterculture and paradox, psychedelicization and genre, virtual tribes and the Internet, the carnivalesque and the aesthetics of nonsense, festivals and the logics of sacrifice, and other topics, Psytrance will strike interest across anthropology, sociology and studies in popular music, culture, media, history and religion.

Contents

Psytrance: An Introduction. Graham St John

I Goa Trance

1. Goa is a State of Mind: On the Ephemerality of Psychedelic Social Emplacements. Luther Elliott

2. The Decline of Electronic Dance Scenes: The Case of Psytrance in Goa. Anthony D'Andrea

3. The Ghost of Goa Trance: A Retrospective. Arun Saldanha

II Global Psytrance

4. Infinite Noise Spirals: Psytrance as Cosmopolitan Emotion. Hillegonda Rietveld
5. Psychedelic Trance Music Making in the UK: Rhizomatic Craftsmanship and the Global Market Place. Charles de Ledesma
6. Re-evaluating Musical Genre in UK Psytrance. Robin Lindop
7. (En)Countering the Beat: Paradox in Israeli Psytrance. Joshua I. Schmidt

III Liminal Culture

8. DemenCZe: Psychedelic Madhouse in the Czech Republic. Botond Vitos

9. Dionysus Returns: Tuscan Trancers and Euripides' The Bacchae. Chiara Baldini
10. Weaving the Underground Web: Neotribalism and Psytrance on Tribe.net. Jenny Ryan
11. Narratives in Noise: Reflexivity, Migration and Liminality in the Australian Psytrance Scene. Alex Lambert
12. Liminal Culture and Global Movement: The Transitional World of Psytrance. Graham St John

Reviews

"Psytrance is an intriguing transnational phenomenon for anyone interested in popular music, subcultures, and alternative spiritualities and lifestyles. Although still relatively unexplored, it is an increasingly significant area of study in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Popular Music Studies and Religious Studies. A dynamic feature of a multi-faceted, global, psychedelic occulture, psytrance presents the scholar with a fascinating, if bewildering array of musicological, cultural, and spiritual confluences. Edited by Graham St John, the foremost EDMC theorist, this stimulating collection of essays by some of the key researchers in the field provides a genuinely insightful and engaging contribution to the study of psytrance, which students, tutors, and researchers will be turning to for many years to come. I warmly and enthusiastically welcome it." Christopher Partridge, Lancaster University

"The Local Scenes and Global Culture of Psytrance is a rich collection, full of pieces that combine the results of detailed fieldwork with up-to-date theorizing. I particularly like the way this volume goes beyond the longstanding preoccupation of popular music scholars with subcultural expression, and into a whole set of other, interdisciplinary issues. This book is very much about music, but it also tackles such phenomena as the global "festivalization" of culture, emerging forms of music-based religiosity, transformations in the nature of cultural labour, and shifts in the social meaning of travel. Psytrance comes across here as much more than just one more interesting musical niche. Interweaving technologies and bodies, the archaic and the contemporary, the local and the cosmopolitan, psytrance condenses within itself many of the key cultural dynamics of our time. The articles gathered here delve into those dynamics with skill and commitment, and the result is a book that should interest any scholar of present-day cultural expression." --Will Straw, McGill University

Teen Wolf: For Real

I came across an interesting item at the science fiction website io9 with a post titled "Teens pretending to be werewolves." You will see the news report out of San Antonio, Texas accompanying this post that describes a group of teens who identify with werewolves and gather in groups they call packs. When I came across this item I wondered whether this had any relationship to the Otherkin, those individuals who consider themselves to be something other than human. Perhaps, or it may be something that overlaps with it without being a part of this interesting pop culture phenomenon. At any rate, it is an indication of the power of fantastic mythic creatures in identity formation in late modernity.

Related posts:

"Rethinking the Sacred and Profane"

"Joseph Laycock: Vampires Today"

Announcing Sacred Tribes Press

I am pleased to announce that the website for Sacred Tribes Press is now ready for review as we continue to develop and add titles for electronic publication. As the website description states:

"Welcome to Sacred Tribes Press, an evangelical, economical and environmentally friendly academic publisher. Sacred Tribes Press is a partnership between Sacred Tribes Journal and the Western Institute for Intercultural Studies. Out of a desire to make quality academic resources available to students and academics, Sacred Tribes Press utilizes innovative technology to provide electronic books at affordable prices without impacting the environment. Powered by Amazon.com's Kindle, our books are available for download to a Kindle reader, PC, iPhone, or iPad. Whether in the classroom, airplane, beach or mountains you can take a Sacred Tribes Press book easily wherever you go.

"Not only are we concerned with quality economical texts that do not leave a footprint on the environment, we are also committed to giving back to society. Ten percent of our book sales go to various non-profit organizations whose focus is on sustainable development in the poorest of places. So, buy our books, help the environment and meet the needs of the marginalized. Please tell others about us as well."

The site can be viewed at www.sacredtribespress.com. Here you will find our initial listing of books with others in process and on the way. Please let others know about this website and publishing venue, and also if you have written projects of your own that you would like to see published in the new and growing venue of electronic publishing please consider submitting your text to us.

Earth Day and Special Theme Issue of Sacred Tribes Journal: Dark Green Religion Dialogue

Since today is Earth Day is seems fitting to announce that I am working as project coordinator and editor for a special theme issue of Sacred Tribes Journal. This issue brings together a handful of Christian scholars, including Loren Wilkinson, who will interact with Bron Taylor and his important book Dark Green Religion. The interaction will involve a level of dialogue as the participants discuss issues related to this significant eco-spirituality. This special theme issue is scheduled for publication by the end of 2010. My hope is that this issue makes an important contribution to spirituality and the environment, and that it might be but the first such dialogue for these individuals with an additional goal of widening the conversation partners.

Bodily Perfection as New Religion?

Religion Dispatches includes an interesting article by Jeremy Biles titled "I Want a Perfect Body: Is Plastic Surgery a Religious Rite of Passage?". With America's obsession over the body in a never ending quest for "beauty" this article raises interesting food for thought:

"Though it may be a global phenomenon, the roots of this fixation on the body may lie partly in American religion. We need only think of America's many corporeal obsessions, from dieting, to fitness crazes, to cosmetic surgery, to begin to suspect that beliefs and commitments at the very heart of American culture are at work here. Harvard's R. Marie Griffith argues that religion, specifically Protestant forms of Christianity, has been a key influence on the conception and creation of American bodies. Protestant ascetic expressions of Christianity, Griffith argues, promote what she calls "corporeal acts of devotion." Griffith traces shifting Christian conceptions of embodiment from these early modern Protestant roots through Christian Scientism and the New Thought Movement. The emphasis on manifesting the inner, spiritual self through disciplines shaping the outer, physical self has thrust the body to the forefront of the American imagination."

Easter and the Resurrection Mythic Archetype

At the conclusion of Holy Week for Christians comes Easter and the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. With this post I share a post that brings together reflections on the Resurrection as it intersects with aspects of contemporary Western culture. In this instance it is a summary of Leon McKenzie's thesis from his very helpful book Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus. It is presented for readers from a variety of religious traditions and perspectives to reflect on:

Following publication of several recent books characterizing Jesus' resurrection as just another myth - the most prominent written by A.N. Wilson (1992), Barbara Thiering (1992), and Episcopal bishop John Spong (1994) - it was bound to happen that disavowals of the resurrection would make it to the Internet. "If you believe in the resurrection," barked one message, "have I got a bridge to sell you!"

Most who deny Jesus' resurrection base their speculations, consciously or inadvertently, on the assumptions of a philosophical naturalism that rejects any supernatural dimension of reality. Any interpretation admitting the possibility of the actual resurrection of Jesus from the dead is ruled out before speculation begins. How explain, then, the New Testament accounts? Those who deny the resurrection fall back on the "nothing but" fallacy in their arguments.

We are instructed the resurrected Jesus is "nothing but" another dying and rising god in a long line of mythic gods. This "nothing but" reductionism is noted very briefly here to enable readers to evaluate anti-resurrection writings more critically. More importantly in this electronic essay, the origin of pagan resurrection myths is clarified with some interesting results.

The characterization of Jesus' resurrection as a myth must be evaluated only after a thorough consideration of the genesis of myths of so-called dying and reviving gods. The fruitfulness of such a study, of course, is dismissed a priori by those who reject the resurrection because of their ideological presuppositions.

The modern secular imagination in this instance is prejudiced to such a degree that the analysis of the origin of fabled deaths and risings is considered a waste of time. The origins of the myths has already been "discovered" by rationalist-secularist scholars. Nothing more needs to be added. The resurrection of Jesus is a myth, they say. Case closed.

It is my thesis that the resurrection of Jesus is not explainable by mythic fables of dying and reviving gods. On the contrary, mythic resurrection stories make sense only in the light of the resurrection of Jesus. To develop this proposal, it is necessary to begin with the notion of the resurrection archetype.

The Resurrection Archetype

Carl Jung wrote of a resurrection archetype. I do not use the concept precisely in a Jungian sense. For me, the resurrection archetype is a meaning structure in the human psyche based on universal human experience. It is not something innate as Jung averred. Nor is the resurrection archetype limited to psychological applications.

The archetype is associated principally with the Christian imagination in that it supports and energizes the Christian imagination. (This is something Jung would never have admitted). This meaning structure, furthermore, is the primary model for the death-revival myths of antiquity. The resurrection archetype began developing in the memory of the human race, I suggest, from ancient times. Resurrection myths also began emerging early on out of this archetypal matrix.

Experience of the resurrection theme in the natural world led to the formation of a resurrection archetype in the collective unconscious of the human race. This archetype is the source of myths of dying and reviving pagan gods. All in all, in God's providence the resurrection archetype prepared human beings for God's decisive action within human history: the bodily resurrection of Jesus from death. This thesis requires further elaboration.

The Resurrection Theme in the Created World

Out of what frequently repeated human experiences did the resurrection archetype originate? There are at least seven major and often-occurring phenomena that shaped our collective unconscious. "Death and resurrection" themes were associated by the ancients with: 1) vegetation; 2) the sun and climate on an annual basis; 3) the sun on a daily basis; 4) constellations in the night skies; 5) awakened states from sleep; 6) tribal fortunes; and 7) human moods.

Many other resurrection motifs manifest themselves in the created world. It is relatively easy to identify these motifs when someone begins looking for them. The seven listed here seem to be the most significant.

Seven Resurrection Themes

Vegetation

Concern for the success of the harvest in ancient times was suffused with a powerful sense of wonder. Not much was known about why things died and grew again. All that was known was that the planting - the burial - of seeds in the Spring conduced later to a harvest, if other conditions such as weather were congenial. For the pagans (our ancestors who were also God's children), if the gods took care to "resurrect" mere buried seeds, might the gods not also be solicitous for dead members of the tribe who were buried? One of the effects of this focus on the mysteries of the decay and growth of vegetation was the construction of the resurrection archetype.

Climate

It did not take long for our ancient ancestors to associate agricultural cycles with climatic cycles. When the sun seemed to die at the end of the year, vegetation also died. The death and resurrection of the crops had something to do with the annual death and resurrection of the sun god. Did the death and rising again of the sun god on a yearly basis have anything to do with the genesis of the resurrection archetype? I think this repeated universal human experience helped fashion the meaning structure we call the resurrection archetype.

The Daily Death and Rising of the Sun

The sun god died and lived again, on an annual basis. The sun god also died every evening and arose again every morning, according to the perceptions of ancient peoples. The demise of the solar disk and its reappearance each day must have had a tremendous impact in the unconscious realms of the human psyche. This daily reminder of the death and resurrection of the powerful sun etched the resurrection archetype in the collective unconscious of the human race.

Stellar Phenomena

One of the great pastimes of the ancient world was the study of the night skies. Navigators, shepherds and sages marveled at the starry vault. They took particular interest in the constellations. A constellation is a configuration of relatively bright stars based on imaginary figures. These constellations, at particular seasons and from particular perspectives on the earth, died each night but were born again on the following night. The wonders of the night skies disclosed - as so many other experiences revealed - the resurrection motif in the cosmos. The resurrection archetype that came into being was based on our ancient ancestors' reflective experience of repeated resurrection patterns in nature.

Sleep and Wakefulness

Sleep has been compared to death in many literary works. We lose our consciousness in sleep and regain it when we wake. During thousands of years this pattern of losing oneself in sleep and gaining a new, refreshed self in the morning, has been an essential component of shared human experience. Sleep and the awakening from sleep reinforced the emergence of the resurrection archetype. This experience of the death and resurrection motif each night and morning was a powerful occasion for the development of the resurrection archetype.

Tribal Fortunes

For untold years every tribe and/or local community experienced the wane and wax of good fortune. Durations of drought or defeat in battle could mean the death of an entire community. A fruitful harvest or victory in tribal combat could mean literally the continuation of the life of the community. The community was especially important in the ancient world. Without a community a person could not live physically or emotionally. Rugged individualism was unthinkable. The making of the resurrection archetype was something that affected everyone.

Mood Changes

The world each of us sees each day depends to a certain extent on our moods. Our moods, Martin Heidegger claimed, affect our very being-in-the-world. If I have a dark mood, the world appears to be a melancholy place. When my mood changes from sad to glad, the world becomes a joyful place. The taste of renewal that comes from a sad to glad mood change may well be compared to a sense of deliverance from the belly of the beast. This taste of "death" and "resurrection" in respect to moods may be likened to a foretaste of one's own resurrection. Even mood changes, then, contributed to the formation of the resurrection archetype.

Pagan Myths as Proleptic

The resurrection archetype has been operative for unnumbered ages in the psyche of the race. This archetype exerted a great influence over tribal myth makers and story tellers. This fact is central to any informed understanding of the origin of myths of death and revival. Sometimes such myths were constructed around the deeds of a local hero who brought great boons to the community after undergoing severe tests. That is, years after the death of a local hero, myth makers embellished his legend with stories of some kind of revival from the dead.

This, according to the late Joseph Campbell, is the great monomyth, the myth that sums up the lesson of all myths. Later, the myths were redacted and retold regionally. Some of the myths of so-called dying and rising gods became accepted by entire peoples in larger geographical areas.

Pagan revival myths, in their own ways, prepared the way for the message of Jesus' resurrection from the dead. The word prolepsis is attributed to anything that represents a future event as if it had already taken place. Myths of dying and reviving pagan gods (which are essentially different from the announcement of Jesus' resurrection in crucial ways), were products of the common human experience of the death and resurrection themes manifested in the natural world.

The death and rebirth myths about the gods, it was noted, are essentially different from the heralding of Jesus' resurrection. First, the resurrection of Jesus occurred at a particular time and place in history; stories of gods are ahistorical, they happened "once upon a time." Secondly, there is a "fairy tale" character identifiable in all revival myths, i.e., these myths are saturated with elements of the fantastic. The resurrection of Jesus may be construed legitimately as wondrous, but is certainly not certifiably ridiculous as are the myths. Those who state Jesus is "nothing but" a mythic hero certainly have not studied hero myths critically.

Finally, the effects of the heralding of Jesus' resurrection are well known after two millennia. The Good News has had staying power and produced powerfully good consequences for humankind. The myths of Attis, Adonis, Osiris, Dionysus, and others are hardly known and the fruits of these myths are nonexistent. One would be hard put to identify a hospital dedicated to the memory of Attis.

Yet something good can be said about the myths that grew out of the thematic resurrectional structure of the natural world via the resurrection archetype. Pagan myths, always enormously ambiguous and often morally disreputable, nonetheless pointed the way obscurely - by way of hint and insinuation - to the key event of history, the resurrection of Jesus.

The Credibility of the Kerygma

When people heard the Good News heralded for the first time, many were moved by the ideas and images of the resurrection archetype - under the prompting of the Holy Spirit - to affirm the message they heard. They might well have said to themselves, "Yes, the announcement of the resurrection of Jesus is in accord with what I have sensed deep down in my heart all of my life. Also, the resurrection of the Son of God seems very real because of the intimations contained in ancient myths that preceded Jesus' resurrection. These myths were faint and garbled whispers of what was to occur at a central point in history. The resurrection of Jesus is worthy of belief because of the truthfulness of those who bear the message and because the message itself has about it the ring of truth. The Good News finds resonance in my soul. The resurrection of Jesus validates my lifelong experience of the world and the seeming 'messages' the world has often spoken to me."

A young man once stated at a conference that he accepted God and morality, but could not accept the resurrection of Jesus since it was redolent of ancient structures of imagination and thinking. The resurrection of Jesus may be unacceptable to some because it evokes ancient meaning structures at a time when only the newest ideas are assumed to be correct. The resurrection of Jesus, however, would be unacceptable to many of us, if it was not redolent of ancient meaning structures.

The same God who raised Jesus from the dead is the God who created the ancient structures of imagining and thinking. He is the same God who filled the cosmos with images of death and resurrection and enabled us to interpret these images in terms of Jesus' resurrection.

Why Resurrection Motifs in Nature?

There remains one more interesting question raised by this brief summary. Why was the world created containing, as it were, the death-resurrection motifs that appear everywhere in nature? Here is an answer worth pondering: The very act by which God created the world was an act referable to the death-resurrection theme. He created the world out of a nothingness similar to death and brought it into a dynamic being comparable to life.

The very act of resurrecting cosmos out of chaos is the fundamental pattern of death-resurrection that is repeated everywhere in the workings of the cosmos. The eternal Word in whom all things were created is the same eternal Word incarnate in Jesus who was raised from the dead, and the same eternal Word who will come again. Not only is this Word the Alpha and Omega, but also everything in between that makes reality intelligible.

Conclusion

To explain Jesus as "nothing but" another dying and rising god is an explanation that satisfies only those who lack a religious imagination and an appreciation for the magnificent complexity of reality. Overtaken by the regnant cultural paradigm of a naturalism that assumes only the raw world exists, the religious imagination of some writers is stifled to the point of exhaustion. The complex world goes unrecognized and everything is reduced to easy cliches. Mere ideology displaces wisdom. Only the most novel ideas are acceptable to the supposedly sophisticated. What is modish and daring finds many promoters because there is a large market for fads and novelties. Yet it is only through the lens of the apostolic faith and authentic Christian imagination, I believe, that the world is ultimately intelligible.

Leon McKenzie is the author of Pagan Resurrection Myths and the Resurrection of Jesus, 176pp, cloth, $24.95 (includes Priority Mail shipping).Send check or money order. The book is published by Bookwrights Press, 2255 Westover Drive, Suite 108, Charlottesville, VA 22901.

Mormon Culture and the Evil Beard

As readers of this blog are aware, I am fascinated by the intersection of religion and culture. Of particular interest are those cultural aspects and influences on religion, whether recognized or not, but those in various religions and spiritualities.

I was reminded of this today while reading the Patheos electronic newsletter, with this issue focusing on Mormonism. One article caught my attention with the title "Beauty and the Beard: Facial Hair, Film, and Mormon Culture." As the title indicates, the article looks at the depiction of a character in a recent film for Mormons as evil through the inclusion of the symbolism and cultural coding of a beard. I had heard that facial hair is frowned upon in Mormonism, but never really took this seriously until this article. Brigham Young had a beard, as did many early Mormons, although you don't see many men today sporting them. Beyond this, as Eric Thompson, the author of the article notes, "LDS artwork from Arnold Freiberg and others (which, despite one's opinion for or against, is undeniably prevalent in LDS houses of worship), has given us bearded Nephis, Almas, Abinadis, Helamans, and Captain Moronis. (See here for background and examples.)"

But even with these precedents for beards in Mormonism, Thompson continues:

To what, therefore, could Holt be referring when he claims that giving Woodhouse a beard was an "unconscious" and "stereotypical" choice? The answer is almost certainly Mormon culture. Somewhere along the line, Mormonism began to identify facial hair as evil on an "unconscious" and "stereotypical" level, at least cinematically. Surely, every Mormon can reference a benevolent mustachioed role model from their own Mormon life, but can they do so from Mormon cinema?

I'm intrigued by this and would love to hear from Mormons on this. Do you agree with this portrayal of Mormon culture in regards to facial hair? If so, is it something conscious or unconscious? And what is the "cultural logic" for this?

As a bearded evangelical I'm curious.

Christian and Voodou Tensions Heightened in Haiti

For Christians still reflecting on the earthquake tragedy that struck Haiti two recent and troubling aspects of a news story need to be carefully reflected upon in terms of our attitudes and actions toward those of other religions, particularly those that make Christians uncomfortable.

The Associated Press reports that a group of Evangelical Christians attacked a group of voodou practitioners.

"Voodooists gathered in Cite Soleil where thousands of quake survivors live in tents and depend on food aid. Praying and singing, the group was trying to conjure spirits to guide lost souls when a crowd of Evangelicals started shouting. Some threw rocks while others urinated on Voodoo symbols. When police left, the crowd destroyed the altars and Voodoo offerings of food and rum."

Some of this violence might be understood in relation to the escalating tensions that are running high, including religious ones, as a result of the devastation and deteriorating conditions in the country. But even so, this event is troubling to say the least, particularly in light of the second aspect of the story. This comes from comments made by a representative of a Christian ministry cited in the AP story:

"We would give food to the needy in the short term but if they refused to give up Voodoo, I'm not sure we would continue to support them in the long term because we wouldn't want to perpetuate that practice. We equate it with witchcraft, which is contrary to the Gospel."

The Christianity Today liveblog pursued the circumstances surrounding this quote and contacted the individual who made them. He is claiming that his comments were taken out of context and misrepresented. The reader can click here to read the blog post with the broader comments in order to assess the situation.

My hope is that these comments were not made, in any context. It seems difficult to think of any kind of more favorable context in which to find the comments more palatable. But regardless, this raises issues that Christians need to reflect upon, both in international situations where humanitarian need is met for those who are members of other religions, as well as in local neighborhoods where we rub shoulders with practitioners of other spiritual pathways.

First, we have got to figure out ways in which to seek a better understanding of the religions of others, especially with those religions that are often equated with "witchcraft." The association of voodou with the "witchcraft" of the Bible demonstrates a misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the beliefs of others, and when this is combined with the fears of "dark spiritual forces" found among Evangelicals, particularly in charismatic traditions, it is only natural that friction will result.

Second, Evangelicals need to move beyond viewing people in other religious traditions as objects for evangelism wherein the meeting of need is the means to the end of conversion. My thinking in this was stimulated most recently in reading a book that combined considerations from brain sciences with ideas related to religious conversion. Due to his perspective on human nature, as informed both by brain research and fresh biblical reflection, the author took exception to the common fundamentalist and Evangelical emphasis on "saving souls" and called for a more holistic approach that emphasized meeting human need as the Jesus story is lived out in different cultural contexts. Human beings, regardless of their religion or irreligion, are fellow image bearers of God and we come alongside of them to meet their needs as an outworking of our love for them and God regardless of whether they decide to embrace the pathway of Jesus.

I throw my thoughts into the mix for readers here, as well as for those who may weigh in at the Christianity Today liveblog site.

FRONTLINE: digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier

Last night I caught a great episode of FRONTLINE with a focus on "digital_nation: life on the virtual frontier." From the program's website and its summary introduction:

Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? And is our 24/7 wired world causing us to lose as much as we've gained?

In Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, FRONTLINE presents an in-depth exploration of what it means to be human in a 21st-century digital world. Continuing a line of investigation she began with the 2008 FRONTLINE report Growing Up Online, award-winning producer Rachel Dretzin embarks on a journey to understand the implications of living in a world consumed by technology and the impact that this constant connectivity may have on future generations. "I'm amazed at the things my kids are able to do online, but I'm also a little bit panicked when I realize that no one seems to know where all this technology is taking us, or its long-term effects," says Dretzin.

The FRONTLINE website for this episode includes a wealth of information, and the episode can be watched there online as well.

New Journal: Evangelical Interfaith Dialogue

I was pleased to learn of a new evangelical journal addressing the important topic of interreligious dialogue. It is called, appropriately enough, Evangelical Interfaith Dialogue. The first issue can be downloaded at this link. I'm still working my way through this first issue, but it appropriately begins within the evangelical fold in addressing the why of dialogue. The question on the lead article is "Mission and Dialogue? Is it possible to be an evangelical and engage in dialogue?". I would answer a hearty "yes" to these questions, that it is indeed possible to have evangelical commitments and yet also be supportive of a broad and robust form of dialogue that cannot be reduced to little more than a subtle form of evangelism. I wish this new journal well and hope that I can work with them in collaborative and cooperative ventures.

Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future

An article in Religion Dispatches made me aware of a book that should be on the reading list for those interested in contemporary religious movements. The article involves responses by Bron Taylor to questions on his book Dark Green Religion: Nature Spirituality and the Planetary Future (University of California Press, 2009). The book's description:

"In this innovative and deeply felt work, Bron Taylor examines the evolution of "green religions" in North America and beyond: spiritual practices that hold nature as sacred and have in many cases replaced traditional religions. Tracing a wide range of groups--radical environmental activists, lifestyle-focused bioregionalists, surfers, new-agers involved in "ecopsychology," and groups that hold scientific narratives as sacred--Taylor addresses a central theoretical question: How can environmentally oriented, spiritually motivated individuals and movements be understood as religious when many of them reject religious and supernatural worldviews? The "dark" of the title further expands this idea by emphasizing the depth of believers' passion and also suggesting a potential shadow side: besides uplifting and inspiring, such religion might mislead, deceive, or in some cases precipitate violence. This book provides a fascinating global tour of the green religious phenomenon, enabling readers to evaluate its worldwide emergence and to assess its role in a critically important religious revolution."

In answering the question in the interview as to what sparked his interest in the topic for this book Taylor writes:

"I have long been interested in grassroots social and environmental movements, and whether and to what extent religious perceptions and moral values motivates their participants. When working on an earlier book, Ecological Resistance Movements, I began to see that ideas that found fertile ground within grassroots environmental movements around the world were becoming increasingly influential. As I traveled around the world in the subsequent years, I encountered a fascinating and diverse set of examples that convinced me that something new and critically important was emerging that could decisively reshape the political, environmental, and religious landscape. I called this phenomena Dark Green Religion, and by this I mean religious (or religion-resembling) beliefs and practices that consider nature to be sacred and worthy of reverent care, and non-human organisms to be kin and as having intrinsic value."

When Taylor is asked what he wants his readers to take away from the book, in part he says:

"Religion and environmental ethics were transformed forever when on November 24, 1859, Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species was published. It shattered traditional religious explanations for the fecundity and diversity of the biosphere. Where this cognitive shift has been made, traditional religions with their beliefs in non-material divine beings are in decline. The desire for a spiritually meaningful understanding of the cosmos, however, did not wither away, and new forms of spirituality have been filling the cultural niches previously occupied by conventional religions. I argue that the forms I document in Dark Green Religion are much more likely to survive than longstanding religions, which involved beliefs in invisible, non-material beings. This is because most contemporary nature spiritualities are sensory (based on what we perceive with our senses, sometimes enhanced by clever gadgets), and thus sensible. They also tend to promote ecologically adaptive behaviors, which enhances the survival prospects of their carriers, and thus their own long-term survival prospects."

A few observations are in order for contemporary students of religion.

First, as Taylor reminds us, religion is not always defined by belief in a divine being.

Second, this Dark Green Religion dovetails with Gordon Lynch's discussion about progressive spirituality in his book The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first Century (I.B. Tauris, 2007).

Third, the discussion of this religious nature spirituality lends credibility to conservatives who have argued there is often a religious dimension to many facets of the environmental movement.

Fourth, in terms of popular culture, such sentiments may also be seen underlying the science fiction/fantasy film Avatar, which has resonated with audiences for this and other reasons.

Dark Green Religion will help readers understand such sentiments, and gain a greater sense of a movement that will likely continue to exert broad influence. Chapter one can be read here as a preview.

Interview at Sacred Tribes Journal: Miguel De La Torre on Haiti, It's People and Religion

A new interview is now available at Sacred Tribes Journal with Miguel De La Torre, Associate Professor of Social Ethics at Iliff School of Theology. Dr. De La Torre has researched, written, and lectured on a number of topics, including the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria, as well as social ethics and biblical interpretation from the perspective of marginalized peoples. I interview him at Sacred Tribes Journal on the topic of Haiti, it's people and its religious expressions. Here is an excerpt:

John Morehead: Although America has invested a lot of money in Haiti over the years and through various presidential administrations, they know very little about the nation. Many assume it is largely a nation which practices voodoo when in fact it has a large Christian population. Can you paint a portrait of Haitian religious expression?

Miguel De La Torre: Before I address the religious aspects I’d like to discuss America’s investment in Haiti. We need to be aware that America from very early on never really wanted to see Haiti succeed. When the Haitian slaves overthrew their slave owner masters, this was really the first democracy in the Caribbean that was established. The democracy in the United States was leery of having a Haitian democracy. People like Thomas Jefferson were very concerned that a nation of free black people, run by free black people might be a bad inspiration for his personal black slaves and those in the South. There has always been this desire to make sure the Haitian people did not succeed because if they were to succeed as a country then that would begin to undermine the mythology of white supremacy. This was active in the time of Jefferson, up to the Civil War, and after the Civil War. So there has always been this relationship with Haiti where we did not want to see it be successful. Saying that, the other thing we need to keep in mind is that the United States has throughout the last century had Haiti as part of its gunboat diplomacy as well as a good neighbor policy. Both tend to appropriate the resources of Haiti for the economic benefit of the United States. I want to emphasize this relationship between the two countries for the last couple of centuries that has not always been positive for the Haitian people.

As to the religiosity of Haiti, it’s naïve to say that all Haitians are practitioners of voodoo. It would be the same as saying all Americans are Protestants. It’s a very simplistic, naïve understanding. There is a strong presence of the Catholic Church, of Protestants and evangelicals including missionaries, of Pentecostals, also of African traditions, and a hybridity of all these traditions. Those in most Caribbean nations do not necessarily conform to just one religion. It is common to be a member of more than one tradition. So when I was growing up in New York City I went to Catholic school and at night we practiced Santeria, and there didn’t seem to be a disconnect in my mind or that of the other practitioners.

Read the entire interview here.

Pat Robertson and Haitian 'Devil Pact': Insert Foot in Mouth, Rinse, and Repeat

Various media outlets are reporting the statement of Pat Robertson that the horrific earthquake that has devastated Haiti is the alleged result of a pact with the devil by the island nation. One wonders how Haiti's large Christian population figures into this equation, or if Robertson is aware of that factor.

This is but the latest statement by Robertson and other television evangelists who claim to know the mind of the divine on natural disasters and acts of terror, including claims that Hurricane Katrina, South Asian tsunamis, and the 9/11 attacks were the result of God's judgment. Robertson's latest statement may be something of self-fulfilling prophecy in that earlier this month he predicted divine judgment, but in this case the object of God's wrath was to be America.

As a Christian I am embarrassed by such statements that are associated with my faith and Christians. I repudiate them and am thankful that there is a new generation of evangelicals who do not share such sentiments, and a new group of Christian scholars pursuing more profitable and productive understandings of cultures and religions.

Publishers Weekly mentions Halos & Avatars

Halos & Avatars has come to the attention of Publishers Weekly, and they like it. The reference to virtual communities may refer to my chapter. Here's the mention:

Halos and Avatars: Playing Video Games with God Edited by Craig Detweiler. Westminster John Knox, $19.95 paper (241p) ISBN 978-0-664-23277-1

Rather than write off as childish one of the most influential popular culture phenomena ever, Detweiler (Into the Dark: Seeing the Sacred in the Top Films of the 21st Century) assembles a savvy group of experts to explore the spiritual and theological implications of video gaming. Those not familiar with the contemporary scene will be amazed to discover how far video games have evolved since the days of Pac Man and Space Invaders. Video games, as a number of these scholars point out, have integrated a narrative aspect that is fascinating and complex—the characters have literally become three-dimensional. Some of the other important issues raised include the power of gaming to build virtual communities, the ways games can help children develop virtues, and the myriad ways religion is portrayed. Especially compelling is an examination of how Muslims are characterized in games. These essayists are fans who lovingly approach and reproach video games, and they earnestly hope that all who pick up a joystick will reflect on the spiritual possibilities. (Feb.)