DOCSLIB.ORG

Muslim Piety of Over 6000 Respondents from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Kazakhstan

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Muslim Piety of Over 6000 Respondents from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Kazakhstan No. 80 ON BEING RELIGIOUS: PATTERNS OF RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES Riaz Hassan Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies Singapore JUNE 2005 With Compliments This Working Paper series presents papers in a preliminary form and serves to stimulate comment and discussion. The views expressed are entirely the author’s own and not that of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS) was established in July 1996 as an autonomous research institute within the Nanyang Technological University. Its objectives are to: • Conduct research on security, strategic and international issues. • Provide general and graduate education in strategic studies, international relations, defence management and defence technology. • romote joint and exchange programmes with similar regional and international institutions; organise seminars/conferences on topics salient to the strategic and policy communities of the Asia-Pacific. Constituents of IDSS include the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research (ICPVTR) and the Asian Programme for Negotiation and Conflict Management (APNCM). Research Through its Working Paper Series, IDSS Commentaries and other publications, the Institute seeks to share its research findings with the strategic studies and defence policy communities. The Institute’s researchers are also encouraged to publish their writings in refereed journals. The focus of research is on issues relating to the security and stability of the Asia-Pacific region and their implications for Singapore and other countries in the region. The Institute has also established the S. Rajaratnam Professorship in Strategic Studies (named after Singapore’s first Foreign Minister), to bring distinguished scholars to participate in the work of the Institute. Previous holders of the Chair include Professors Stephen Walt (Harvard University), Jack Snyder (Columbia University), Wang Jisi (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Alastair Iain Johnston (Harvard University) and John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago). A Visiting Research Fellow Programme also enables overseas scholars to carry out related research in the Institute. Teaching The Institute provides educational opportunities at an advanced level to professionals from both the private and public sectors in Singapore as well as overseas through graduate programmes, namely, the Master of Science in Strategic Studies, the Master of Science in International Relations and the Master of Science in International Political Economy. These programmes are conducted full-time and part-time by an international faculty. The Institute also has a Doctoral programme for research in these fields of study. In addition to these graduate programmes, the Institute also teaches various modules in courses conducted by the SAFTI Military Institute, SAF Warrant Officers’ School, Civil Defence Academy, Singapore Technologies College, and the Defence and Home Affairs Ministries. The Institute also runs a one-semester course on ‘The International Relations of the Asia Pacific’ for undergraduates in NTU. Networking The Institute convenes workshops, seminars and colloquia on aspects of international relations and security development that are of contemporary and historical significance. Highlights of the Institute’s activities include a regular Colloquium on Strategic Trends in the 21st Century, the annual Asia Pacific Programme for Senior Military Officers (APPSMO) and the biennial Asia Pacific Security Conference (held in conjunction with Asian Aerospace). IDSS staff participate in Track II security dialogues and scholarly conferences in the Asia-Pacific. IDSS has contacts and collaborations with many international think tanks and research institutes throughout Asia, Europe and the United States. The Institute has also participated in research projects funded by the Ford Foundation and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation. It also serves as the Secretariat for the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia-Pacific (CSCAP), Singapore. Through these activities, the Institute aims to develop and nurture a network of researchers whose collaborative efforts will yield new insights into security issues of interest to Singapore and the region i ABSTRACT∗ Using the analytical framework developed by the Berkley research programme in religion and society, this paper will report findings from a comparative study of Muslim piety of over 6000 respondents from Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Kazakhstan. The findings show similarities as well as significant differences in patterns of religious commitments among the respondents in the study. This is probably the first attempt to compare and ‘map out’ Muslim religiosity in Muslim countries. The first part pf the paper will report the findings and the analysis by gender, life cycle, education and social position. The second part of the paper will discuss the findings using analytical insights from Emile Durkheim and Mary Douglas’ sociology of religion. In this section, the paper will also compare selected aspects of Christian and Muslim piety and offer sociological explanations of the significant differences in ‘experiential religiosity’ between Christians and Muslins. The Christian piety data will be drawn from primary and secondary sources. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the sociological implications of these findings for social political and religious trajectories of Muslim countries. ************* Riaz Hassan is a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia. Until the end of last year Riaz Hassan was Professor of Sociology at the Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He is now Professorial Fellow of the Australian Research Council. His research interests include the sociology of Muslim societies, urban housing and the sociology of suicide. His recent publications include Faithlines : Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society (Oxford University Press 2002), and Suicide Explained : The Australian Experience (Melbourne University Press 1995). He is the co-editor of The Cambridge Handbook of Social Sciences in Australia (Cambridge University Press 2003) and editor of Local and Global : Social Transformation in Southeast Asia : Essays in Honour of Professor Syed Hussein Alatas (Brill 2005). He has published many research papers in professional journals. ∗ This paper includes some material included in my book, Faithlines: Muslim Conceptions of Islam and Society, Oxford University Press, 2003. ii 3 ON BEING RELIGIOUS: PATTERNS OF RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT IN MUSLIM SOCIETIES Introduction: Religion and Muslim Identity Religion is the essence of Muslim identity. This applies to all Muslims whether they are devoutly religious and belong to religious organizations such as Mohammadyiah in Indonesia, Jamaat-i-Islami in Pakistan, or al-Ikhwan al-Muslimin in Egypt or live in largely secular societies such as Kazakhstan and Turkey. It applies to Muslims living in Muslim- majority countries as well as to Muslims in non-Muslim countries such as India, Thailand, Germany, Australia or the United States. Consequently, religious commitment is both the evidence and the expression of Muslim identity. There is considerable debate among Muslims about the nature as well as the contents of religious commitment (religiosity) which a Muslim must display and adhere to in order to be a Muslim or true believer. One of the key claims in this debate is that, in order to be a Muslim, there must be evidence of religious piety at behavioural, ethical and cognitive levels. Islamic philosophy and theology contain a large body of expository literature dealing with this issue (Rahman 1989; Muslim 1980; Maududi 1973; Kotb (Qutb) 1953; Watt 1979; Esposito 1991; Ali 1950). There are, however, no good studies which explore the nature and contents of Muslim piety sociologically. Two plausible reasons account for the absence of such studies. Firstly, sociological scholarship in Muslim societies, especially in the field of sociology of Islam, is relatively underdeveloped, which makes such studies difficult to undertake, and, secondly, Islamic sectarianism means such studies are often fraught with intense controversy bordering on hostility. This, however, does not mean that Muslims shy away from making such judgements. At the level of common everyday experience, many Muslims make judgements about the religious piety of their fellow Muslims. Sociology and commonsense indicate that being ‘religious’ can mean different things to different people. This was evident in the reactions and comments evoked by the title of my study—Religiosity of the Elite—among the selected (Muslim) respondents who were interviewed in different research sites as part of the process of developing and pre-testing the survey questionnaire used in the fieldwork. In these comments, the meanings given to 1 the words ‘religious’ and ‘religiosity’ by different, mostly highly educated, interviewees covered a broad spectrum of activities. Many people in Muslim countries are very sceptical and sometimes disparaging of the ‘religiosity’ or religiousness of their fellow Muslims, particularly those who faithfully observe the mandatory Islamic rituals. In Pakistan, some respondents interviewed as part of my research on Muslim religiosity described them as ‘Muslah Muslim’ (prayer mat Muslim). For many ‘religiosity’ was essentially a spiritual experience of very intimate nature not amenable to objective empirical study. The only way to appreciate or
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Orthodox Icon and Religious Image. an Inter-Religious Analysis
    ORTHODOX ICON AND RELIGIOUS IMAGE. AN INTER-RELIGIOUS ANALYSIS Ioan Emil JURCAN Abstract: This paper is a comparison between different religious icons, images or symbols. Such an approach is necessary in order to highlight the iconic depth of an authentic Christian theology. Every religion has, as a symbolic element, the idea of struggle and spiritual power, but Orthodoxy implies love and the anastasic meeting with God, rather than the force. I will present several symbols from Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, etc. In these symbols we will seek the common elements that can create a connection between these religions and the Christian world. The orthodox Icon has a line that exceeds any other non-Christian religious symbols. It is about the epectatic dimension that turns art into a ladder of Bethel, an ascent to the infinite Divine, which is not force, fecundity, or abundance, but primarily Love. Keywords: Christianity, Islam, icon, image, Shinto, Hinduism Introduction The terms image and icon need a key element in their mutual relationship, namely the term man. It does not necessarily mean man as an individual, but especially man in his connection with God. Man becomes an image, but he can also achieve the tendency towards the icon. He is an image through creation, but his purpose is to become an icon. The world is therefore based on images, but these images have as a result the path towards the iconic state, towards the state of holiness. The equation icon-image mainly applies to the man with transcendental tendencies, the man in search of the sacred and of holiness.
    [Show full text]
  • JAMAL J. ELIAS Department of Religious Studies
    JAMAL J. ELIAS Department of Religious Studies Tel: 1.215.898.5838 University of Pennsylvania Fax: 1.215.898.6568 201 Claudia Cohen Hall [email protected] 249 South 36th Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 CURRENT POSITION ____________________________________________________________ Walter H. Annenberg Professor of the Humanities, Professor of Islamic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, and Director of the Penn Forum for Global Islamic Studies, University of Pennsylvania EMPLOYMENT HISTORY ____________________________________________________________ University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Walter H. Annenberg Professor of the Humanities, 2012 to present. Class of 1965 Endowed Term Professor, 2007 to 2012. Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Religious Studies, 2006 to present. Secondary appointment in the Department of South Asia Studies, 2007 to 2019. Member of the Graduate Groups in Ancient History, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and South Asia Regional Studies. Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. Professor of Religion, Religion Department, 2002 to 2006. Associate Professor, Religion Department, 1996 to 2002. Assistant Professor, Religion Department, 1989 to 1996. Secondary appointment in the Department of Asian Languages and Civilizations, 1996 to 2006. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. Visiting Professor, Department of Religious Studies, 2002 to 2003. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. Instructor, Department of Religious Studies, 1987 to 1989. EDUCATION ____________________________________________________________
    [Show full text]
  • The Lutheran Reform and the Transformation of the Religious Image in the Arts
    Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación. March 15, 2019 / June 15, 2019, nº 146, 1-20 ISSN: 1575-2844 http://doi.org/10.15178/va.2019.146.1-20 RESEARCH Received: 06/11/2017 --- Accepted: 11/10/2018 --- Published: 15/03/2019 THE LUTHERAN REFORM AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE RELIGIOUS IMAGE IN THE ARTS La Reforma Luterana y la transformación de la imagen religiosa en las artes María Magdalena Ziegler1: Se habla arte. Venezuela. [email protected] ABSTRACT After 500 years of the emblematic gesture of Martin Luther in Wittenberg that would start the Protestant Reformation, it is necessary to study the place that religious images had in the new vision of Christianity from the Lutheran ideas. The significant proposal of two German artists, Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach, the Elder is analyzed. From the first, a unique work, The Four Apostles, which recomposes and reconfigures the religious image from the devotional to the declarative, emphasizing the importance of the Gospel and the word in religious artistic expression. And, of the second, two works that finish sealing the new place that will occupy the religious images in the Lutheran Church, Law and Gospel and Christ blessing the children, with which Cranach approaches the Lutheran preaching and a vision of the religious set of images most linked to the Scriptures. However, in both cases, the demystification of the religious image is remarkable, as long as it takes the place of support for the preaching, avoiding acting as its substitute. The reconfiguration of the religious image that places it in a sphere different from that of the Christian tradition initiated with the official stipulations of the Second Council of Nicaea is analyzed.
    [Show full text]
  • Images of the Church in I Corinthians and I Timothy
    IMAGES OF THE CHURCH IN 1 CORINTHIANS AND 1 TIMOTHY AN EXERCISE IN CANONICAL HERMENEUTICS EUGENE E. LEMCIO I. INTRODUCTION It is my great pleasure to offer this essay in tribute to Professor Robert W. Lyon, my first teacher of New Testament exegesis and criticism at Asbury Theological Seminary. Although he set rigorous academic standards, our honoree always stressed the need for scholarly endeavor to serve the people of God within whose faith and life the documents originated. Therefore, churchman that he is, it is fitting that my subject should deal with some aspect of the Church's life and thought which are to be found in the NT. But Bob is a certain kind of churchman, believing that the people of God need to know how to hear and accommodate the loyal (might we say "loving"?) opposition within it. At its best, a conversation among mul- tiple and diverse voices on the grand theme(s) of Scripture can move us closer to the ideal of the Church as semper reformanda. It is in this spirit that I offer this two- part thesis in commemoration of his retirement: (I) By approaching I Corinthians and I Timothy via their dominating images of the Church as body and house(hold), one is thereby able to integrate (and not merely treat in no particular order or con- figuration) their primary themes or motifs, respectively. (2) These two distinct images (and the internally-integrated themes which they "control") are in "opposi- tion" to each other in the sense that they resist the objectifying and absolutizing of one over the other: i.e., they protest the confusing of these or any other image with the single reality to which they join us.
    [Show full text]
  • 5~-~¥3 GOD 1 Confirmaatlon REVIEW SHEET :6-- There Is One God, the Supreme Being, Wh
    th 8 GRADE REVIEW SHEET 2018 - 2019 GOD and REVELATION There is one God, the Supreme Being, who is infinitely loving, powerful, perfect and eternal. Holy Trinity - Three divine persons in one God (Blessed Trinity): 1. First Person – God the Father or Creator. 2. Second Person - Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Savior, and Redeemer. 3. Third Person - Holy Spirit, Comforter or Paraclete, who dwells within us. Revelation - everything God has told us about Himself and how He wants us to live. Scripture (the Bible) and Tradition - two sources of Revelation. Jesus is the ultimate Revelation of God - He is fully divine and fully human. Incarnation - God becoming man. Christmas (The Feast of the Nativity) celebrates the Incarnation. Paschal Mystery - the Suffering, Death and Resurrection of Jesus; Celebrated over the Easter Triduum. Jesus Christ has saved us from our sins by sacrificing Himself and dying on the Cross. By His Redemption He has made us worthy to become children of God and live with him eternally in Heaven. CHURCH - founded by Jesus Christ. Also known as People of God, the Mystical Body of Christ or the Bride of Christ. There are Four Marks of the Church: 1. one - we are all united under its head and founder, Jesus Christ. 2. holy - Jesus is the Head of the Church and makes it holy by His love for it. 3. catholic, or universal, - it exists throughout the world, even in smallest, poorest or remote places. 4. apostolic because it faithfully hands down the teaching of the Apostles. The Church consists of clergy, religious and laity.
    [Show full text]
  • The Religious Identity of Young Muslim Women in Berlin Muslim Minorities
    The Religious Identity of Young Muslim Women in Berlin Muslim Minorities Editors Jørgen S. Nielsen, University of Copenhagen Felice Dassetto, University of Louvain-la-Neuve Aminah McCloud, DePaul University, Chicago VOLUME 14 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/mumi The Religious Identity of Young Muslim Women in Berlin An Ethnographic Study By Synnøve K.N. Bendixsen LEIDEN • BOSTON 2013 This is an open access title distributed under the terms of the prevailing CC-BY-NC License at the time of publication, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited. An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched (KU). KU is a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality content Open Access for the public good. More information about the initiative and links to the Open Access version can be found at www.knowledgeunlatched.org. Financial support was received from The Research Council of Norway (NFR) and from Uni, Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies, Norway. Cover illustration: Graffiti on wall, Lausitzer Strasse, Kreuzberg. Photo provided by Synnøve Bendixsen. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bendixsen, Synnøve K.N. The religious identity of young Muslim women in Berlin : an ethnographic study / by Synnøve K.N. Bendixsen. p. cm. -- (Muslim minorities ; v. 14) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-22116-1 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-25131-1 (e-book) 1. Muslim women--Relgious life--Germany--Berlin.
    [Show full text]
  • The Identities of Dutch Protestants and Dutch Catholics in Religious Emblematics
    Volume 3, Issue 2 (Summer 2011) Never to Coincide: the Identities of Dutch Protestants and Dutch Catholics in Religious Emblematics Els Stronks Recommended Citation: Els Stronks, “Never to Coincide: the Identities of Dutch Protestants and Dutch Catholics in Religious Emblematics,” JHNA 3:2 (Winter 2011), DOI: 10.5092/jhna.2011.3.2.1 Available at https://jhna.org/articles/never-to-coincide-identities-dutch-protestants-dutch-catho- lics-religious-emblematics/ Published by Historians of Netherlandish Art: https://hnanews.org/ Republication Guidelines: https://jhna.org/republication-guidelines/ Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. This is a revised PDF that may contain different page numbers from the previous version. Use electronic searching to locate passages. This PDF provides paragraph numbers as well as page numbers for citation purposes. ISSN: 1949-9833 JHNA 3:2 (Summer 2011) 1 NEVER TO COINCIDE: THE IDENTITIES OF DUTCH PROTESTANTS AND DUTCH CATHOLICS IN RELIGIOUS EMBLEMATICS Els Stronks This essay presents observations on the distinctiveness of Protestant and Catholic literary practices and identities in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Inspired by Catholic emblematists from the Southern Netherlands, Dutch Catholics as well as Protestants employed the religious emblem as a means of bolstering their faith and shaping their identity – but never at the same time, and never in the same manner. The religious emblem was at first claimed by Protestants such as Jacob Cats. After 1635, it was appropriated by Catholic authors such as Jan Harmensz. Krul and Everard Meyster. As the genre was reappropriated by Protestants such as Jan Luyken in the 1680s, Dutch Catholics moved away from the emblem to express their identity in new and exclusively Catholic genres such as soberly illustrated prayer books.
    [Show full text]
  • Art for God Or to God Through Art?
    The University of Notre Dame Australia ResearchOnline@ND Theology Book Chapters School of Theology 2010 Art for God or to God through Art? Angela McCarthy University of Notre Dame Australia, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/theo_chapters Recommended Citation McCarthy, A. (2010). Art for God or to God through art? In D. J. Cohen & M. Parsons (Eds.), In praise of worship: An exploration of text and practice. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publisher. This Book Chapter is brought to you by the School of Theology at ResearchOnline@ND. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theology Book Chapters by an authorized administrator of ResearchOnline@ND. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Art for God or to God through Art? “Images open the heart and awake the intellect, and, in a marvellous and indescribable manner, engage us to imitate the persons they represent.” St John Damascenus 1 Introduction Christian art has been an integral part of faith and worship for almost two millennia. Is that because the human need to express mystery is captured most fully through our creative processes, or is it because the presence of God within us can surface into the conscious realm most effectively through the creation of beauty? While this might be an impossible question to answer, it also could be the vehicle for examining an understanding of the importance of the connection between God and all that is beautiful. ‘Art demonstrates spiritual facts such as peace, depth, intensity, and so on. Thus art lends form, colour, tension and proportion to the invisible.
    [Show full text]
  • Themes of Eastern Orthodox Art by John Kohan
    Soundings June 2017 Themes of Eastern Orthodox Art This article is the At first glance, the art of the first in a two-part Eastern Orthodox Church might series submitted seem strange to Western viewers as a companion whose notion of an “iconic” piece to the summer art exhibit in The religious image is Leonardo da Gallery. Vinci’s painting of The Last Supper with its lifelike figures in the Italian Renaissance style. John Kohan The holy faces on true icons 15th century Russian iconographer, Andrei Rublev, Art Historian stare out at us like alien visitors created an image in this style of such beauty and and Collector from a realm outside of time and theological depth it has become the prototype for space as we know it. modern icons of The Holy Trinity like the one in this Icons have been called “windows into heaven” show. to describe the role they play in Orthodox worship. Icons of Christ Whether they are used for personal devotion or celebrate his divinity. assembled in a church icon screen for the liturgy, they As Church Father are considered to be paint-on-wood “stand-ins” for the Athanasius of holy beings they represent, functioning like outposts of Alexandria wrote in heaven on earth. the 4th century: “He The Orthodox see painting an icon as comparable was made human that to writing a work of theology, so, this sacred art form we might be made is often described as “icon-writing.” To discourage the God.” The images faithful from focusing on what is human and transient on display of Christ in sacred portraits, icon-makers developed simplified, and Christ in Glory Yatskiv standardized images of their sacred subjects, called offer a glimpse of the prototypes, which have remained largely unchanged eternal realm where he is adored by angels and down the centuries.
    [Show full text]
  • UNIVERSITY of CENTRAL OKLAHOMA Edmond
    UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL OKLAHOMA Edmond, Oklahoma GRADUATE COLLEGE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS PERCEPTION: A Q METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF RELGIOUS BELIEFS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN PSYCHOLOGY By Patrick Kubier Edmond, Oklahoma 2010 VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS PERCEPTION: A Q METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF RELGIOUS BELIEFS Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................................................5 Introduction ..........................................................................................................................6 Method for Experiment 1 ...................................................................................................19 Results for Experiment 1 ...................................................................................................23 Discussion for Experiment 1 ..............................................................................................26 Method for Experiment 2 ..................................................................................................32 Results for Experiment 2 ..................................................................................................35 Discussion for Experiment 2 ..............................................................................................42 General Discussion ............................................................................................................45
    [Show full text]
  • Spanish and English Ideas About Religious Images 1550-1660
    SPANISH AND ENGLISH IDEAS ABOUT RELIGIOUS IMAGES 1550-1660 By MARIA ELOINA VILLEGAS TENORIO B.A. Universidad Cuauhtemoc, 1994 A thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Colorado in partial fulfillment Of the requirement for the degree of Doctor in Philosophy Department of History 2010 This thesis entitled: Spanish and English Ideas about Religious Images 1550-1660 written by Maria Eloina Villegas Tenorio has been approved for the Department of History ______________________________ Dr. Marjorie Keniston McIntosh, Committee Chair ______________________________ Dr. Robert Ferry, Committee Member ___________________ Date The final copy of this thesis has been examined by the signatories and we find that the content and form meet acceptable standards of scholarly work in the above mentioned discipline iii Villegas Tenorio, Maria Eloina (Ph.D. History) Spanish and English Ideas About Religious Images 1550-1650 Thesis directed by Professor Marjorie Keniston McIntosh This transnational study compares Catholic Spain and Protestant England as two countries that adopted opposing views on religious images in the early modern period. The Reformation questioned the value of and justification for the use of representations of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints found in medieval Catholic churches. This investigation focuses on how and why ideas about images written mostly by clergymen played themselves out differently in each country. The interaction of doctrine, official policy, audience, and practice is central to this analysis as it reveals the character of the religious culture of each country. This analysis argues that unlike Trent that considered the doctrine of images as non- essential, the Church of England viewed images as a key component of their fight against Catholicism because images symbolized all the external and ceremonial aspects that had to be reformed.
    [Show full text]
  • Healing Chains, Relationships of Power and Competing Religious Imageries in the Monastery of Saints Kosmas and Damian in Kuklen (Bulgaria)
    Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics 10 (1): 71–99 DOI: 10.1515/jef-2016-0004 HEALING CHAINS, RELATIONSHIPS OF POWER AND COMPETING RELIGIOUS IMAGERIES IN THE MONASTERY OF SAINTS KOSMAS AND DAMIAN IN KUKLEN (BULGARIA) MAGDALENA LUBANSKA Assistant Professor Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology University of Warsaw Ul. Żurawia 4, 00-503 Warsaw, Poland e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT This article* offers an anthropological analysis of a conflict over the use of a set of ‘healing chains’ and other focal objects kept in the Orthodox Christian monastery of Saints Kosmas and Damian in Kuklen, Bulgaria. In a nutshell, the conflict cap- tures the leading religious imageries propagated by the custodians of the mon- astery on the one hand, and the spiritual leaders of a new religious movement, so-called Deunovians, on the other. The analysis helps situate some of the sig- nificant changes currently affecting the religious culture of Orthodox Christians in Bulgaria within a broader social and cultural context. KEYWORDS: healing chain • Orthodox Christians • Deunovians • religious image- ries • Bulgaria • ekstrasensi INTRODUCTION They have a chain there, you may have seen it, in the big church. People place the chain against an ailing body part, the head, a leg, a body part that’s in pain, and sleep next to the chain, they have faith and conviction that the problem will go away.1 (Parking attendant, Plovdiv, June 25, 2014) On a warm summer day on June 30, 2013 pilgrims are filing through a narrow door leading from the narthex into the monastery church of SS Kosmas and Damian, in Kuk- len.2 They buy candles at a stand, and leave prayer requests for their loved ones, living and dead.
    [Show full text]