Articles

This article examines the relationship between two contemporary perspectives on conceptualizing a global history of religion. The first is anchored in an entangled conceptual history, reconstructing the genealogy of “religion” back to the colonial nineteenth century. The second favours a multicentred perspective in studying knowledge systems and general concepts independent of the West and predating global modernity. By analysing Japanese religious history, the article illustrates both the potential for and the necessity of integrating these two approaches.

Kleine, Christoph."From the History of Religions in Asia to a Global History of Religion." In Towards a Global History of Religion: Reflections on Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz's 'Lamas and Shamans', edited by Anja Kirsch and Andrea Rota, 56-63. Fribourg: AЯGOS, 2024.

This Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe was prompted by the convergence of two recent developments. In the realm of scholarship, heritage has now advanced to become a core concept in the study of religion. At the same time, national and international cultural agencies increasingly take into account the religious dimensions of heritage. By illuminating the space of convergence that lies between scholarship and practice, this handbook makes its specific contribution. Our starting point for this volume is the interaction we see taking place between university scholars and those in museums, government agencies, and church and heritage foundations who actively contribute to the making of heritage. Scholars and heritage professionals are not working in separate worlds but have jointly developed ethical and normative concerns and share many of the same intellectual curiosities.

The handbook is organized around three central areas of inquiry. The first is Heritage and Diversity and investigates how scholars and professionals are responding to the diversity of religion and culture in European societies. The second part examines Heritage between Religion and the Secular and asks how developments in religious heritage relate to the declining participation in traditional religions in many parts of Europe, but also to new secular-religious configurations. The third part investigates Heritage and Creativity and enquires how artistic means and curatorial practices are contributing to a new understanding of heritage as meaning making.

Weir Todd H., and Lieke Wijnia. “Religious Heritage between Scholarship and Practice” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe, edited by Todd H. Weir, and Lieke Wijinia, 3-14. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

Todd H. Weir and Lieke Wijnia interview Emile Schrijver on the work of the Jewish Cultural Quarter and it's importance to the European Jewish Heritage.

Weir, Todd H., and Lieke Wijnia. “European Jewish Heritage Today: An Interview with Emile Schrijver, General Director Jewish Cultural Quarter, Amsterdam” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe, edited by Todd H. Weir, and Lieke Wijinia, 63-68. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

Centering on the debates about the House of One, this chapter explores iconic multireligious architecture as a form of imagining, producing, and enacting religious pluralism and the way it challenges our understanding of how religious heritage is framed in public discussions and materially manifested in European cityscapes. Chiefly, much of the debate on the links among religion and heritage in Europe pivots on questions of how the secularization and religious pluralization of European societies potentially diminish the hitherto dominant role of Christian material patrimony in anchoring national identities and as collective points of reference.

The House of One may also be construed as writing forth a hegemonic heritage as it fosters state ideologies and governmentalities of diversity and multiculturalism and deprivileges the fluid and contingent identifications that weave the textures of culture in people’s encounters in everyday life. This seeming contradiction is the result of numerous paradoxes on which the House of One is premised: as a religious building that is erected in a highly secularized city; as a project that has emerged from interreligious dialogues but is largely funded by the state; as an interreligious endeavor that seeks to showcase diversity, but willy-nilly enshrines a monotheistic notion of heritage. It is this set of paradoxes that turns the House of One into an instance of hegemonic counterhegemony and that is at the bottom of the complex politics of heritage in our multicultural societies.

Burchardt, Marian. “Counterhegemonic Heritage and Diversity in Berlin’s House of One: Designing Abraham’s Legacy” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe, edited by Todd H. Weir, and Lieke Wijinia, 124-33. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

This essay investigates religious diversification along three axes: secularization, pluralization, and spiritualization. Taking each in turn, it charts the complex ways that religious heritage has appeared in polemics on religion and politics, as well as in the normative stances regarding heritage practice that scholars, 23church organizations, museums, and government agencies have adopted. It offers evidence that in some regions of Europe, the divide between secular cultural heritage and religious tradition is eroding and meaning making around heritage is moving in a postsecular direction, parallel to certain developments in the religious field. Finally, it asks whether heritage itself is becoming a laboratory in which religious and spiritual movements are developing new resources and theologies.

Weir, Todd H. “Heritage Discourse and Religious Change in Contemporary Europe” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe, edited by Todd H. Weir, and Lieke Wijinia, 22-32. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

To what extent does the heritage regime into which religious objects are transposed neutralize their religious value (and power) or, conversely, revitalize it in a new manner? In other words, how resilient is the religious dimension—enshrined in the “cult value”—in the frame of heritage? In the following I will address these questions by turning, first, to the move of religious objects into the domain of heritage and, second, to the accommodation of heritage in the domain of religion. While I find it illuminating to distinguish between religion and heritage as regimes that value and handle the very same thing differently, my aim is not to insist on their separateness, but to explore how they fold into and possibly mess up each other. In this way, I hope to spell out some of the challenges ensued by the category of religious heritage, which this volume is all about.

In all these investigations, the pursual of the question what is religious—about—heritage will lead us into the complex entanglement of religion and heritage, in which neither the regime of religion nor of heritage is able to fully contain the material things they protect and display

Meyer, Birgit. “What is Religious —about— Heritage?” In The Bloomsbury Handbook of Religion and Heritage in Contemporary Europe, edited by Todd H. Weir, and Lieke Wijinia, 15-21. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023.

This chapter connects Axial Age theory and the concept of Multiple Secularities by investigating the emergence of conceptual distinctions akin to the religious–secular divide and the related forms of institutional differentiation. It also considers the configurations and forms of agency from which these developed. It is argued that such distinctions and differentiations emerged in various civilizations, becoming resources for distinctions between the religious and the non-religious, and for secular developments in the modern era. In contrast to others, the authors highlight the early emergence of such distinctions and differentiations as a commonality between various civilizations, without questioning their diversity resulting from different prior cultural conditions and different forms of encounter with Western modernity. They aim to thereby historicize the concept of an original transcendence/immanence divide in civilizational analysis, and to give it a stronger empirical turn. The historical focus is on premodern Japan.

Kleine, Christoph, and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr. “A Secularity Sui Generis? On the Historical Development of Conceptual Distinctions and Institutional Differentiations in Japan”In Civilization, Modernity, and Critique: Engaging Johann P. Árnason's Macro-Social Theory, edited by Ľubomír Dunaj, Jeremy C. A. Smith and Kurt C. Mertel, 162–77. London & New York: Routledge, 2023.

Cultural encounters, entanglements, and comparisons were the driving force behind the formation of a global history of religion. Such encounters require the formation of comparative concepts; for Europeans, the most important of these was ‘religion’ . With European expansion, and especially its forays into Asia starting in the late fifteenth century, ‘religion’ gradually became a general term to describe a distinct subset of human culture, with encounters between European missionaries and the Japanese people playing a decisive role in this regard. Arguably, the ultimately failed attempts of the Christian mission led to the emergence of analogous comparative concepts on the Japanese side, too. As a side effect, the encounter with Christianity brought about an individualisation and confessionalisation of Buddhism. From here, it was only a small step to the ‘religionisation’ of Buddhism in the nineteenth century – and, thus, to its integration into a global religious system.

Kleine, Christoph. “When Christianity Became a Shūshi 宗旨: Cultural Encounters and Comparisons Between Europe and Japan and the Origins of a Global History of Religion” Interdisciplinary Journal for Religion and Transformation in Contemporary Society (JRAT) 10, 2 (special issue) (2023): 1–25.

Does the distinction between the religious and the secular, known as secularity, truly only exist in Western modernity as is often claimed? Or are there comparable distinctions in pre-modern Asian societies? This volume examines this question through ten examples and reveals that analogous binary distinctions, in various culture-specific forms, can also be found in Asian religious history. These continue to have an impact today and give rise to a global diversity of secularities that cannot be regarded as mere variants of a European model.

Kleine, Christoph."Über Säkularität Als Spezialtaxonomie Und Die Kontextabhängigkeit Von Klassifikationssystemen: Eine Rekonstruktion Vormoderner Wissensordnungen Anhand Japanischer Enzyklopädien Und Wörterbücher" In Grenzen der Religion: Säkularität in der Asiatischen Religionsgeschichte, edited by Max Deeg, Oliver Freiberger, Christoph Kleine and Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz , 237-79. Criticial Studies in Religion/Religionswissenschaft (CSRRW) 17. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2023.

Neeti Nair’s Hurt Sentiments compares the trajectories of the state ideologies of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to evaluate how far each has accommodated minority concerns. It also aims to explore how debates around hurt sentiments shaped and were shaped by rival ideologies of secular or religious nationalism. Hurt Sentiments is a contribution sure to provoke much discussion on the chequered trajectories of state ideologies in South Asia. It must be engaged with by anyone interested in the post-colonial trajectory, successes and failures of secularism in India and the evolving religion-state relationship in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

 Bhargav, Vanya Vaidehi. Review of Hurt Sentiments: Secularism and Belonging in South Asia, by Neeti Nair. H-Soz-Kult, 12 December 2023. www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-134525

Sadiq Jalal al-Azm, a notable Arab secularist, had undergone a significant evolution in his understanding of secularity/secularism over his extensive intellectual journey. This paper delves into the transformations within al-Azm’s perception of secularity/secularism, analyzing its nuanced progression from an initial phase of hard or rigid secularism resembling the French Laicité and “Turkish Ataturk” approach to a later phase characterized by a softer or more flexible form of secularism akin to the American and “Erdogan Turkish” styles. The study refrains from presenting a conventional narrative of secularity/secularism and, instead, employs the three fundamental theses of traditional secularization theories to elucidate the meaning of secularism and emphasize their normative implications concerning religion, modernity, and modernization. Additionally, the paper explores the critiques levelled at these theories and acknowledges the paradigmatic shift that has transpired over the past five decades in their understanding. The investigation into al-Azm’s evolving perspectives on secularity/secularism sheds light on the silent transformation he underwent, unaccompanied by explicit acknowledgments or self-criticism, and devoid of references to the evolving landscape of secularization theories within the social sciences.

Darwish, Housamedden. “Sadiq Jalal Al-Azm: From Hard Secularism to Soft Secularism [in arabic].”  Rowaq Maysaloon 10–11 (2023): 286–302.

This critical review delves into Kevin Mazur’s latest publication, Revolution in Syria: Identity, Networks, and Repression (2021), which scrutinizes the transformation of a peaceful civil movement into a civil war characterized by ethnic divisions. The review offers a comprehensive assessment of Mazur’s approach to answering the pivotal question: How did the Syrian conflict evolve along ethnic lines? Spanning 306 pages, the book’s central premise revolves around the notion that the Syrian uprising’s evolution into an ethnicized conflict can be attributed to a confluence of factors, with the predominant catalyst being the ethnically exclusive nature of the incumbent political regime. Of particular interest in this review is the emphasis on the sectarian or ethnic perspective – a prominent lens used to analyse the political and societal landscapes of the Islamicate Arab world. Mazur’s ethno-sectarian perspective, commendably, avoids succumbing to primordial essentialism. However, this review contends that a critical appraisal is warranted regarding Mazur’s conceptualization of Syrians’ identities solely through religious, ethnic, or sectarian affiliations. Similarly, the presumption that these affiliations inherently explain attitudes towards both the ruling regime and the uprising against it raises valid concerns. One notable critique lies in the characterization of Syrians within Mazur’s narrative. Strikingly, absent are depictions of Syrians as a unified populace, individual actors or civic entities. This stems from the book’s classification framework, which hinges on two primary criteria: an ethnic-sectarian criterion and a local or regional one. This duality, while serving analytical purposes, potentially undermines the complexity and diversity inherent within Syrian society. In conclusion, this review acknowledges the significant contributions of Mazur’s book, recognizing its role in shedding light on the ethnicized trajectory of the Syrian conflict. Nonetheless, it urges cautious contemplation of the assumptions underpinning the ethnic-sectarian perspective. The book’s dual classification approach warrants critical consideration for its potential to oversimplify the multifaceted nature of Syrian identities. Thus, while appreciating the book’s value, this review underscores the need to acknowledge its limitations in fostering a comprehensive understanding of the Syrian conflict’s intricate dynamics.

Darwish, Housamedden. “From Peaceful Civil Movement to Civil War and Sectarian Polarization: A Critical Review of Kevin Mazur’s Revolution in Syria: Identity, Networks, and Repression.” International Sociology 14, no. 5 (2023): 552-561.

People in South Asia who neither believe in god(s) nor engage in religious practices nevertheless often self-identify as Muslims or Hindus rather than—or in addition to identifying as atheists. The situational and contextual dynamics generating such positionings have implications for the conceptualization of nonreligion and secular lives. Based on ethnographic research in India and Bangladesh and focusing on two individuals, we attend to embodied and more ambivalent modes of nonreligiosity. This enables us to understand nonreligion as situated social practices and beyond what is typically captured with the term ‘religion’. Studying nonreligion also where it is not visible as articulated conviction or identity not only contributes to accounting for the diversity of nonreligious configurations but also offers significant complementary insights.

Schulz, Mascha, and Johannes Quack "Who Counts as ‘None’? Ambivalent, Embodied, and Situational Modes of Nonreligiosity in Contemporary South Asia" Religion and Society 14 (2023).

This introduction engages with recent scholarship on what has been dubbed ‘lived’ forms of nonreligion. It aims to profile the anthropology of the secular and non-religion, no longer treating it as a subdiscipline or ‘emerging trend’ but as a substantial contribution to general debates in anthropology. Drawing on the ethnographic contributions to this special issue, we explore how novel approaches to embodiment, materiality, moral sensibilities, conceptual distinctions, and everyday practices signal new pathways for an anthropology of nonreligion that can lead beyond hitherto dominant concerns with the political governance of religion(s). Critically engaging with the notion of ‘lived’ nonreligion, we highlight the potential of ethnographic approaches to provide a uniquely anthropological perspective on secularism, irreligion, atheism, skepticism, and related phenomena.

Schulz, Mascha, and Stefan Binder. "Introduction: An Anthropology of Nonreligion?" Religion and Society 14 (2023).