136—May 2020 contents

EDITORIAL

NEWS,ETC

FEATURES

TRACKINGTHELOSTIRISHBUDDHIST CONFERENCES,POSTLOCKDOWN

CONFERENCES

BASR 2019 STUDYNGGURDJIEFF CESNUR 2019 ASSR 2019

BOOKREVIEWS

RECENT PUBLICATIONS contents editorial

This won't be a typical editorial, and this isn't impact on institutions which rely on foriegn a typical issue of the Bulletin. I'm putting this students, and may well have a dispropor- issue together while eveything is in flux due tionate affect on those on short-term or to the COVID-19 lockdown—this year's IAHR zero-hours contracts. These are not issues has already been cancelled, and I have just specific to Religious Studies departments, announced that our own conference will be of course, but as these departments are an online affair. What will happen with the already vulnerable due to size and perceived REF is still up in the air. Everyone is scram- obsolescence, it is going to be a tough time. bling to adapt to a changing situation, not least in our teaching and examination. Yet it is also clear that, while understanding the virus and its epidemiology are vital to The contents of the Bulletin reflect this un- our long-term well-being, on a global scale, certainty, and are a reminder of how fast this understanding how people react to the virus epoch-making situation has come upon us. may be just as important—how different Indeed, it maywell be the case that we never cultures construct their knowledge of the quite go back to business-as-usual, world, how this drives their behaviour and something which Liam Sutherland's timely how they negotiate this with other groups. piece addresses. This is not necessarily a And while this involves more than just "reli- bad thing, as crisis often drives systemic gion", religious studies scholars are espe- change, and embrasing new technologies in cially trained in how these negotiations teaching, research and other academic unfold. It is more vital than ever that our activities, as well as reconsidering how we unique perspective be heard on the public spend our time and balance our lives, could stage. have significant positive impact. On the oth- David G. Robertson er hand, this is already having a devastating 16/5/2020

www.facebook.com/groups/490163257661189/

twitter.com/TheBASR news, etc

My second year as president of the BASR is (so far) the most challenging one. While we planned our usual one day conference, as 2020 was supposed to be the IAHR Congress, the world came to a still stand. Attention focused on how to help students getting through their degrees, from moving to online teaching (for most universities quite a rushed crash course), organizing PhD viva online, persuading external examiners to examine online material only, and so on. What got missed were the ECRs whose job possibilities flew out of the window and who lost opportunities to network at conferences. The lockdown will come at a cost, not just financially. It even seems that with the closure of religious communities the traditional role of religion to support their members and the wider public in a time of need became insignificant. A sign of the lack of understanding was evident in the comments made in a BBR Radio 4 Todayshow when a Corvid 19 survivor was told his experience which he had described as religious was “because of the drugs” he was given when on a ventilator machine. While just a small incident, it shows the importance of the study of religion and the BASR. Though our conference on campus is cancelled, I hope you will join us online for the AGM and the keynote we will be organising. We need your support to continue ourwork. Bettina Schmidt

PUBLISHERS OFFER DISCOUNTS available again. They have reduced the price of all new ebooks by 10% and are also offering a further Bloomsbury is offering a 35% discount on all books 25% discount for ebooks using the code EQX. Please until the end of the year—including the Advances visit https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/religion/ series. Use the code GLR CB4 at https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/non-fiction/religion/ JOBS

Equinox have made all journal issues published in the Rosalind I. J. Hackett was named a Chancellor’s last 12 months and all new issues freely accessible Professor at the University of Tennessee n August until the crisis abates. Anyone compiling remote 2019. She also received an honorarychieftaincytitle learning material and wishing to incorporate Equinox (“Yeye Meye” – Mother who knows our ways) from the journal or book material can arrange free access to Elerinmo of Erinmoland in Nigeria in August 2019. specific materials for the duration of the course Her term of office (2014-20) as Vice President of the module. International Council of Philosophy and the Human Sciences (CIPSH) ends in December. She has been Equinox are not currently able to supply print books appointed as a delegate of the American Council of ordered from our website. If you order a print book Learned Societies (ACLS) to the Union Academique you will be given access to the ebook and may Internationale (UAI) from July2020-24. request a copy of the print book when these are Series Update: BloomsburyAdvances in Religious Studies news, etc Advances (for short) is a series of original mono- graphs and edited collections in the Study of Reli- gion/s which was co-founded by James Cox at the University of Edinburgh and Peggy Morgan at Mansfield College, Oxford, publishing its first book in early 2008. Over the next twelve years the list has grown to nearly thirty publications, including several items by BASR members. From the begin- ning the series has been targeted at research publications in Religious Studies that combine empirical data from international sites—case stud- ies, ethnographies, interviews, surveys, archival sources—with various theoretical frameworks. The remit of the series has been kept broad, in line with the international and comparative ambitions of Religious Studies, with the overall aim to publish fresh, creative studies which integrate nuanced description with robust theory.

Greg Alles brieflyserved with James Cox and PeggyMorgan as a third edit- or. In January 2012 co-founder Peggy Morgan stepped down. James Cox continued on the editorial board and was joined by Steven Sutcliffe. Craig Martin then joined the board for a spell before Will Sweetman came on board. After twelve years at the helm, co-founder James Cox stepped down in December 2019. Steve and Will were delighted when Bettina Schmidt accepted the invitation to join them to steer the series into a new decade.

We welcome new proposals which fit the series' remit: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/series/bloomsbury-advances-in-reli- gious-studies/

Please contact Lalle Pursglove in the first instance: [email protected]

Series Editors: Bettina Schmidt (University of Wales Trinity Saint David), Steven Sutcliffe (University of Edinburgh), Will Sweetman (University of Otago).

The committee of the BASR invites nominations for the next President. The successful applicant will be sworn in as President Elect at the (online) AGM at the 2020 conference, and will take up the office ofPresident from the 2021 AGM at the conference in Edinburgh.

Nominations (including self-nominations) to the SecretaryStephen Gregg—[email protected]—byAugust 1st, 2020. features Tracking Down the Lost “Irish Buddhist”

Brian Bocking, University College, Cork

A friend of mine, himself a published author, called me part-way through his reading of The Ir- ish Buddhist1 to ask how it was that three people could write a book. This made me think. The best answer I could supply at the time was ‘luck’, but shared academic values, complement- ary strengths and mutual respect were also key. The Irish Buddhist is written in one (collective) voice by Alicia Turner,2 Laurence Cox3 and me, living in different parts of the world and meeting in person on onlyfive occasions over ten years – all the rest of our collaboration was online. Re- search assessment and promotion prospects, as we know, discourage all forms of selfless be- haviour, and many of us might reasonably ask ‘how much did author x actually contribute to this publication?”. In the case of The Irish Buddhist I happen to know that each of us thinks the other two did more work, which is a happy state of affairs, but I wouldn’t know how very different skills and languages was a neces- to engineer it. sity as we unearthed accounts (always crying out to be critically analysed) of Dhammaloka’s The Irish Buddhist is a detective story that remarkable travels and extraordinary activities. draws on much traditional archival and interview The book however could only be researched and research ‘on the ground’ undertaken by its three written because of the massive rise of digitized authors and their sometime research assistants resources over the last decade. In late 2009, in Ireland, UK, USA, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, when I found online a possible indexreference to Burma, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Australia Dhammaloka in a newspaper archive in Singa- and Japan. Collaboration among scholars with pore’s National Library, I had to find a contact in Singapore to go to the library, print from the mi- when steamships, the telegraph, railways and crofilm and airmail to me in Ireland the papers mass printing were making the world smaller and with the full text. Within a year or two, everything enabling not just rulers, but also those who res- features in that archive was fully available online, and isted them, to organise on a global scale. today full-text online searching worldwide is the norm, paywalls permitting. Yet, the information As we know, many of the categories we find in- made searchable so far must be merelythe tip of tellectually disquieting today, such as “religion”, the iceberg.4 took their modern shape in the nineteenth cen- tury. Dhammaloka, an atheist as well as a Digitisation was decisive because most of the Buddhist monk, was no fan of religions, espe- many hundreds of fragments of information we cially those involving God. However, as a working have relied on to bring to life the forgotten figure class migrant labourer and sailor he had travelled of the Burmese-ordained (in 1900) radical monk the world and seen injustice, prejudice and ex- U Dhammaloka (?1856-?1914, a.k.a. Colvin, ploitation at first hand, and as an Irishman he un- O’Rourke, Carroll, Collins, Calvin or Kelly) have derstood how wary the British were of “religion”. been found in places where, in the recent past, Hence for Dhammaloka “religion” was very defin- we couldn’t possibly have known where to look: itelya good thing. It enabled Dhammaloka, on be- tiny small-print references in Colonial-era Asian half of his Asian and Buddhist friends and and Western local newspapers, passing com- supporters, to find a wayto resist colonial rule. ments about ‘Buddhist revival’ in news sent home by Christian missionaries, letters from, or reports of, Dhammaloka published in obscure freethinking (atheist) papers in different European languages, images from short-lived co- (1) AliciaTurner,LaurenceCoxandBrian lonial illustrated magazines. In many cases an Bocking. The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten entire newspaper, published daily over decades, Monkwho Faced Down the British Empire, New might have just one passing mention of Dham- York: Oxford UniversityPress, 2020. maloka, but that obscure fragment might open (2) AliciaTurner; up for us a whole new lost chapter of Dham- https://yfile.news.yorku.ca/2020/04/17/new- maloka’s extraordinary life. biography-reconsiders-how-buddhism-became- a-modern-global-religion/ In tracking down the Irish Buddhist we found that (3) LaurenceCox; https://roarmag.org/es- religious history is capable of being radically re- says/the-forgotten-futures-of-anti-colonial-in- written, as fragments of evidence of a quantity ternationalism/ and variety inaccessible to 20th century schol- (4) Isaymoreaboutthisin“MrsPoundsand ars become discoverable. This may be particu- Mrs Pfoundes” in the JBASR Festschrift for Ur- larly true for the religious history of the late sula King, nineteenth century, a period of high colonialism https://doi.org/10.18792/jbasr.v19i0.19 Bigger Might not be Better: Some Reflections on the Scale ofConferences in a Post-Lockdown Academic World

Liam Sutherland, University of Edinburgh

Academia may well have had an easier time ad- One of the issues which large scale international apting to the urgent need for social distancing conferences bring with them is their environ- dictated by the Covid19 pandemic than some in- mental impact. This is obviously something dustries,1 but the clearest impact on the profes- which should be given serious reflection, but un- sion has been on the conferences which usually fortunately this is not something I can presume dominate the summer months. This is the time to tackle here. I would reiterate how valuable of year usually set aside for the largest confer- such events can be and hope that means of off- ences, drawing in scholars from across the globe setting or mitigating such an impact can be util- and at various stages of their careers. The very ised rather than dispensing with them things that make international conferences so altogether. There are of course increasingly al- stimulating, valuable (to the point of being ca- ternatives to face-to-face conferences which reer forming for many young scholars) and in- we have all had to rely on recently. Videoconfer- deed fun; is what has made them especially encing technology has been incorporated into dangerous in these circumstances. This should academic conferences for a long time and I am give us some pause to reconsider what this and sure that such technologies will be increasingly other aspects of our profession will look like, and integrated into events going forward. The Open how they should be organised when the world University unsurprisingly have been particularly emerges from lockdown. There are many dimen- adept at this, integrating twitter feeds into live sions that will need to be reflected on when con- events to blur the lines between offline and on- sidering the future of academic conferencing in line discussion. I would also like to commend the a post-lockdown world, but I will focus on the is- newly founded Alt-Ac UK for putting together sue ofscale. the online ‘Conference at the End of the World’ due to be hold on July the 14th. Though, it is al- I am sure that I share with other BASR members ways important to be cautious about the impact a sense of disappointment that I will not be able of new technology and avoid fetishizing it. If the to attend and present at the scheduled 22nd experiences of face to face conferencing could World Congress ofthe IAHR due to be held in Du- ever be replicated by online technologies, it will nedin this August. The conference organisers be a long time in the future. Fornow, wewill need must also be commended for making the right to continue to work through our ‘Zoom fatigue’ decision in cancelling the conference as early as as bestwe can. theydid. This cannot have been an easydecision but reflects what appears from the UK at least I would also add that this is a much broader to be characteristic and enviable Kiwi common problem than the most truly global conferences sense. I can onlyimagine the amount of time and such as the IAHR considering that they are held labour sunk into planning it and must also be much less regularly. As someone with next of kin mindful of what the event meant to scholars in in Australia, I think it would be hypocritical of New Zealand and the southern hemisphere. those of us in the northern hemisphere to single out the rare event based in the southern hemi- tempt to establish a confessional, interfaith and sphere as truly indicative of the problem. The ‘religion-friendly’ European Academy of Religion fact that colleagues based in the southern condemned in a joint statement by the Presid- hemisphere are compelled to travel northwards ents of the IAHR and EASR. In his opening so frequently if they want to participate fully in speech at the conference, President of the IAHR the field arguably adds much more to the prob- Tim Jensen referred repeatedly to this state- lem (events like the 22nd World Congress would ment and the need for the various professional be a rare exception and perhaps even part of the associations to cooperate in defending the aca- solution). Instead, I think that the problem might demic, scientific and non-confessional study of be considerably closer to home. The amount of religion. He quoted from the constitution of the flying between Euro-American campuses which IAHR to state in no uncertain terms what was goes on as a matter of course would dwarf oc- and was not welcome at such conferences “the casional long-haul flights to Dunedin. IAHR is not a forum for confessional, apologetic or other similar concerns”. Responding to a re- If the environmental impact were not bad cent publication by Leonardo Ambasciano, he enough, there are several other issues with in- stressed that discussion of the societal value of ternational conferences seeking ever greater the study of religion should not sleepwalk into numbers of attendees. The problem was exem- the “night of pseudo-science.” He forcefully plified recentlyfor me bythe 2019 EASR Confer- stated “I have to take the opportunity to say ence in Tartu, Estonia which included in one slot very loudly, that there is a difference, a big dif- 23 parallel panel sessions2 and was the largest ference” between the work promoted by these conference ever held by the EASR with around organisations and forces like the EAR. 660 participants.3 I certainly do not intend to cause any offence to the organisers of this spe- By and large this is representative of the vast cific conference—it was a thoroughly engaging majority of papers presented at the conference and well-run event. The fact that there were so but unfortunately, I did encounter papers I would many attendees at the conference and that it regard as charging headlong into “the night of was such a roaring success is testament to the pseudo-science” and some of its most extreme hard work and competence of its organisers. and prejudiced forms. In one panel that I atten- However, there are several reasons why this ded on religion and psychiatry, Jensen’s speech event particularly hammered home a need to re- clearly had provoked a particularly visceral reac- flect on whether bigger numbers at events like tion in one of the speakers. She baulked at the this are always better and our current circum- attempt by “the society” to define the paramet- stances provide an ideal opportunity to engage ers of the conference in terms of the scientific in this reflection. and academic study of religion because, to paraphrase, “no one can define science.” The pa- Regardless of how daunting or crowded such a per went on to detail her use of autoethno- large event might be, the biggest issues with graphy to study her own spiritual experiences conferences aiming for greater numbers is a related to the hearing of voices. I do not for a lowering of standards and the inclusion of moment intend to disparage the inclusion of speakers who do not fit into an academic reli- persons who hear voices or their derivation of gious studies conference (which will likelynot be meaning from these experiences. I may have to their benefit either). This can have the unin- some reservations about autoethnography, but tended effect of undermining the work of the its proponents have clearly worked to ensure titular association and the field in general. The that it is a rigorous methodology.4 What I do ob- desire to adhere to strictly academic or scientif- jectto and assume thattheydo nothave in mind ic (in the broad sense) study of religion was cer- by autoethnography is what was in my recollec- tainly expressed forcefully at the conference tion at least, the narrating of her personal ex- but undermined by some of the papers I and periences and the presentation of her some of mypeers attended. interpretation of them uncritically and as finally authoritative. The most galling aspect of this The conference was held not long after the at- was the lack of any discernible inquiry even, a theological one, which the autoethnographic ive and provide of plenty of tolerance or leeway evidence was supposed to inform. for airing out and refining research in the works, but this cannot be at the expense of academic Unfortunately, this was not the only or the most credibility. alarming example of inappropriate content. Though I did not attend another panel, it was re- Conference papers should not only meet basic counted in detail by several attendees as riddled academic standards but must also be relevant with Islamophobic content. Obviously, I cannot to our subject area in some plausible fashion, as personallyverify how fair this critique is in terms broad and contested as it might be. Religious of the events of the panel itself but what I could studies conferences should certainly not be the do and what I did, was read through the ab- places to encounter pseudo-scientific or even stracts. The questionable character of these ab- prejudiced content. I appreciate that this can stracts seemed fairly self-evident. One paper never be completely avoided but when the de- was presented by two speakers from the US, sire to expand the scale of a conference takes one from a medical school and the other from precedence over academic propriety, seemingly the Latter-day Saints affiliated Cumorah Found- obvious red flags can be missed. ation. This may not be much in and of itself but the abstract appeared to endorse a version of the alarmist far right ‘great replacement’ myth, positing that Christians would soon be out- numbered in the west by Muslims because of the growth of the non-religious population. An- other one of the abstracts opined about the es- Notes: sential incompatibility of Muslim minorities in Europe with secular values unlike Christianity, 1. I do not intend to suggest that this is neces- due to their unwavering adherence to an un- sarily anything to celebrate. As someone with a changing and homogenous Sharia. None of this part-time job in a supermarket I appreciate that is remotely deserving of the credibility afforded this is a luxury afforded by the nature of our by having been presented at the annual confer- work. The comparative ease with which our la- ence of a prestigious international association bour can be shifted online comes at the ex- in ourfield. pense of the valuable interactions of conferences, discussions with colleagues on Obviously, annual and general conferences for a campus and for me, most importantly, face to field as broad and varied as religious studies face teaching. This maynot bode well for the fu- cannot be especially exclusive. This is because ture. they serve as fora for the presentation of very 2. I have double checked these numbers, see different forms of research, for debate on the the EASR 2019 Conference Book pp. 44-46 ht- nature and future of our field and must allow tps://easr2019.org/wp challenges to its established norms. It was fairly 3. As mentioned repeatedly at the opening ce- jarring to encounter content such as this in the remony available on youtube https://www.you- midst of stimulating and vital discussions in the tube.com/watch?v=jNgRpRC5dKE&t=2898s field such as the panel reflecting on the 20th an- 4. Exemplified recently by the Religious Studies niversary of Tim Fitzgeralds’ Ideology of Reli- Project podcast with Bradley Onishi on ‘Straight, gious Studies, which prompted important White American Jesus’ https://www.reli- dialogue between more traditional critical-ana- giousstudiesproject.com/podcast/straight- lytical approaches and the Critical Religion ap- white-american-jesus-the-podcast/ and proach pioneered by Fitzgerald. On a less Christine E. Crouse-Dick’s featured response ‘A grandiose but equally important note, such con- Tacit Case for Autoethnography as a Crucial Re- ferences must also be welcoming and nurturing search Method for Befuddling Times’ ht- spaces for postgraduate students, early career tps://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/2019/1 scholars and established scholars alike. In short, 2/21/a-tacit-case-for-autoethnography-as-a- I acknowledge that they need to be fairly inclus- crucial-research-method-for-befuddling-times/ conferences

BASR 2019: A PERSONAL REFLECTION. ciation Sociology of Religion Study Group Annual Conference (SOCREL) 2017, also held in Leeds, at Remember when we could travel to Conferences? the University in the city. I was relieved to find that It seems like a lifetime ago and considering how the BASR Conference was much more compact late this report is it mayas well be. One positive for and much less disorientating than SOCREL. Spread me in this current lockdown is that I have finally over three days, the Conference comprised of fif- managed to organize stacks upon stacks of long- teen panels held over five sessions. This meant overlooked paperwork. In amongst which I found that there was a choice of three panels to choose my notes from the BASR 2019 Conference—Visu- from for each session. Given that the Conference alising Cultures, Media, Religion and Technology, attendance was around sixty delegates this meant held at Leeds Trinity University on 2nd to 4th that the panel were not packed, but the audiences September. were veryattentive and engaging, nonetheless.

I was a very grateful recipient of a bursary from As well, as the panels, there were events after the BASR, and so I set off from Brighton in the wee evening meals. On Monday this was a Religious small hours of the first dayarmed onlywith a note- Studies Project Special called Only 60 Seconds, book, some clothes and an A1 sized spreadsheet unfortunately I had fallen ill just after the keynote for my own presentation. Despite my best efforts lecture that afternoon. All I can say is never eat a at getting lost in Horsforth, I walked in three wrong toasted sandwich at 6am in Kings Cross Station directions from the station to begin with, I arrived that’s probably been sat there all night. That com- at the Conference in good time to collect my room pletely wiped me out not only for the RS Project key, Conference pack and get acquainted with the evening but most of the following day until the campus. BASRAGM.

Leeds Trinity is a relatively small campus set in the This was the first AGM of a society other than a West Yorkshire countryside, I would say that its rel- Quakerone that I had attended in a verylong time, I atively tranquil spot save for the fact that was impressed with how well run and organised the Horsforth sits on the edge of Leeds International AGM was. The Presidential address by Bettina Sch- Airport, so you do get some spectacular views of midt included a rebuke to the British Academy re- aircraft coming in to land. port that had painted a very negative picture of Religious Studies and its place within Humanities This was my first time at a BASR Conference, I had in general. Considering the pressures that have previously attended the British Sociological Asso- been placed on Humanities, higher fees, recon- struction of departments and courses, plus an in- Jonathan O’Donnell (Dublin) on “The Return of the different Government, to have the Academy sound Nephilim” the last post for Religious Studies was pretty dis- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJWs- heartening. However, Bettina rallied everyone with DpA909c “we are not dead, we are alive and kicking”. Stephen Brooks, Universityof Birmingham A fascinating keynote was given on the first day by James Kapaló entitled ‘Performing Clandestinity: The Religious Underground, the Secret Police and the Media in Eastern Europe’. Focussing on Hun- STUDYING G.I. GURDJIEFF: SCHOLARS AND gary, Romania, Moldova and Ukraine the lecture in- PRACTITIONERS IN CONVERSATION. SYMPOSIUM vestigated the relationships between the majority AND WORKSHOP, 3-4 DECEMBER 2019, UNI- and the minority in a politically turbulent space, VERSITYOF SYDNEY both in place and time. Over the past thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet-bloc, many secret A significant two-day gathering of international police archives have been made accessible regard- scholars and practitioners of the teachings and ing the religious practices of individuals. Not only practices of G.I. Gurdjieff (1866?-1949) was held was the content of individual files, some running on Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 December in the up to 8,000 pages, quite astonishing to see, but John Woolley Building at the University of Sydney. also the ethical concerns for the researcher these Organised by Professor Carole Cusack in the Stud- brought up. Much of the information used for the ies in Religion Department and funded by the files was the work of informants, and therefore School of Literature, Art and Media, the event may well contain plenty of misinformation, used at brought together scholars from the UK, the US and the time for personal gains, vendettas or protec- Australia, plus a number of local Gurdjieffian practi- tion from the State, and the researcher has to be tioners, to discuss and debate aspects of aware of this. However, the files, especially the Gurdjieff’s life and teachings. The symposium fea- visual images found do provide a valuable source tured seven papers followed by a demonstration of about community lives. Film and media representa- Gurdjieff’s movements accompanied by live music, tions of religion in Communist Eastern Europe was while the closed workshop focused on the identi- also the title of one of the panels on Wednesday. fication and examination of new sources and ap- Papers by Ágnes Hesz (Cork/Pécs); Dumitru Lisnic proaches to an updated social history and (Cork) and Kinga Povedák (Cork/Szeged) compli- ethnographyof the Gurdjieff movement. mented and added to the themes of the keynote. Analysis of Gurdjieff within the Study of Religion/s Panel sessions were diverse in their make-up and remains an emergent field, although a number of subject matter, which doubled my disappointment studies have recently appeared which have at being unwell and unable to attend as many as I brought new light to bear on what remains in many would have liked. That said, I found the Conference ways a mythologised and somewhat protected very enjoyable, and the BASR extremely welcom- movement. The efforts of the organiser of this ing—I’ve renewed my membership, and look for- event, Carole Cusack—well-known to BASR mem- ward to the next Conference, as and when. bers—have been pivotal in this resurgence of scholarly interest, and build on an earlier wave of In considering how to put reports together, those work by scholars such as James Webb, James of us with bursaries were encouraged to use any Moore and Andrew Rawlinson. Beginning with the style of media. Originally, I had the notion to put to- curating of four new research papers in the Brill gether a playlist of songs that would reflect my Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Produc- visit. I have a weekly online radio show on Radio tion (C. Cusack and A. Norman, editors, 2012), Cu- Lewes called Vapour Trails, incidentally the Confer- sack edited a series of special issues on various ence gave me a new friend, fan and regular contrib- aspects of the Gurdjieff work: for example, the utor in the shape of Graham Roberts (Leeds Journal for the Academic Study of Religion (2014), Trinity). So with that in mind here is a link to a song Fieldwork in Religion (2016) and the International that will ever remind me of Leeds, and a paper byS. Journal for the Study of New Religions (2015), the latter co-edited with Steven Sutcliffe at the Uni- argued that laughter was an important practical versity of Edinburgh. In roughly the same period Cu- tool in Gurdjieff’s work which sought to break down sack and Sutcliffe co-organised panels at European received knowledge and open the way for new in- conferences including IAHR Erfurt in 2015, EASR sight, including deeper appreciation for the every- Helsinki in 2016, and BASR Belfast in 2018. Both day efficacy of Gurdjieff’s erstwhile ‘esoteric’ Cusack and Sutcliffe have also supervised PhD teaching. students, most notably Johanna Petsche whose monograph Gurdjieff and Music (Brill 2015) is a re- After a restorative coffee break, Vrasidas Karalis, vised version of her PhD thesis supervised by Cus- Professor of Modern Greek Studies (Sydney) spoke ack. on the topic ‘Gurdjieff and Jung: Individuation and Life is Real only Then when "I Am"’. Karalis argued The Sydney symposium was therefore the latest that in the episodic collection of texts constituting event in a new wave of Gurdjieff studies in the Life is Real, Gurdjieff sought to model the desired Study of Religion/s. Topics under consideration in- transition from self-consciousness to objective cluded Gurdjieff’s sources and techniques, key knowledge, understood as awareness of self and texts and contexts for communicating the ‘work’, world free form psychological projection and emo- and orthodox and heterodox continuations of the tional transference. Karalis argued that Jung’s prin- Gurdjieff teaching. The Movements, and the music ciple of individuation offered an analogous Gurdjieff composed with Thomas de Hartmann approach, although Gurdjieff’s method was more (1885-1956), were also featured, demonstrating practical and this-wordly. Next, in his talk ‘Space- the importance of exchange and discussion ship Karnak in the Daintree’, Jeremy Johnson between scholars and practitioners. (Sydney) gave a rich account of ‘Fourth Way’ courses run in the 1980s by Australian actress Di- Around forty people were gathered for the opening ane Cilento (1933-2011) at her 200 acre property morning of talks on Tuesday 3 December. The audi- 'Karnak' in Far North Queensland. At this remote ence (and speakers) included Gurdjieffian practi- site, named after the spacecraft in Beelzebub’s tioners, students and academics from the Sydney Tales, Cilento (who starred in 1973 cult film The Studies in Religion department, as well as from Wicker Man and was previously married to the ar- Scotland and the US. Steven Sutcliffe (Edinburgh) chetypal ‘James Bond’, Sean Connery) developed a began with a talk entitled ‘Remembering Gurdjieff: new expression of the ‘work’ via the teachings of The Role of the Memoir in Extending Charismatic Gurdjieff’s eclectic English follower, J.G. Bennett Authority’, which looked at examples of the many (1897-1974). Johnson discussed a number of en- published recollections of Gurdjieff by people who thusiasts and detractors who took from this local knew and/or worked with him in person, and the tropical Australian site new interpretations of the function of this affective genre in summoning Gurdjieffian corpus which were then fed into the through print media the charismatic presence of global mythos of the work. the guru. This was followed by a paper by Joseph Azize (Sydney) under the title ‘Gurdjieff Theologus’ The final two talks of the morning continued to which examined theological influences in trace Gurdjieffian themes and influences within Gurdjieff’s teaching, focused on his notion of inten- popular culture. In ‘Fictional Portraits: Gurdjieff in tional suffering in relation to the ray of creation. the Popular Imagination’, Carole Cusack (Sydney) Azize is the author of a new study of the practical discussed several literary representations of roots of ‘the work’, Gurdjieff: , Contem- Gurdjieff, including in Leonora Carrington’s novel plation and Exercises (Oxford University Press The Hearing Trumpet, Alma de Groen’s play The 2020), and was previously a student of the English Rivers of China, and John Maxwell Taylor’s Crazy Gurdjieffian teacher, George Adie (1901-1989), Wisdom The Musical: The Life and Legend of who knew Gurdjieff before emigrating to Australia Gurdjieff. With the exception of Leonara Carring- in 1966. Michael Pittman (Albany, US) then gave a ton’s portrayal of ‘Dr Gambit’, Cusack argued that presentation called ‘Gurdjieffian Laughter as De- these were well-researched and serious represent- molition and Restoration’ in which he examined the ations which also played a role in attracting new role of laughter and humour in Gurdjieff’s magnum practitioners to the movement. To end the morning opus Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson. Pittman session, David Robertson (The Open University, UK) gave a talk entitled ‘Fripp, Bennett, Gurdjieff: Three titioners. One possibility under discussion was to of a Perfect Pair’ (the oxymoronic subtitle referen- establish an international network of scholars cing ’s 1984 album). Robertson ar- working on the Gurdjieff movement, plus approach- gued that the participation by King Crimson ing one or more Gurdjieffian groups for research guitarist (b. 1946) in a nine month res- collaboration. An initial step is to publish a reader to idential course in Dorset led by J.G. Bennett in the gather together under one cover some of the best early 1970s was a turning point in the musician’s articles stemming from the new wave of Gurdjieff career. Fripp subsequently created a new line up of studies which are currently scattered across nu- King Crimson, with the influence of Bennett—and merous journals and collected volumes. As this through him, Gurdjieff—increasingly becoming ap- symposium and workshop amply demonstrated, parent in Fripp’s approach to music. Through a case there is plenty of life in the old dog yet and the study of the pedagogy of ‘ Craft’, Fripp’s sig- bone, though still firmly in the ground, remains nature teaching programme, Robertson argued tasty. Thanks once more are due to Carole Cusack that Fripp himself became a teacher in the and the School of Literature, Art and Media at the Gurdjieff lineage. University of Sydney for their hard work and finan- cial support for this invaluable gathering. After lunch we walked over to the imposing Mac- Laurin Hall where a public demonstration of Steven Sutcliffe, Gurdjieff’s Movements was held bya small group of University of Edinburgh practitioners, led and introduced by teacher Dorine Tolley and accompanied by her on the University’s Steinway grand piano. This was a fine event before a substantial audience, boosted by friends, family CENTER FOR STUDIES ON NEW RELIGIONS, 5-7 and other interested parties. The Movements per- SEPTEMBER, 2019, UNIVERSITYOF TORINO formed were ‘The 4th Obligatory or Note Values’, ‘Multiplication 18’, ‘The Seven Positions or Prayer of Scholars with an interest in new religious move- 21st October’ and ‘The Men’s Ceremony’. This was ments (NRMs) should consider attending the annu- followed by a short recital of music composed by al conferences organised by CESNUR (Center for Gurdjieff with the Russian-Ukrainian composer Studies in New Religions). Sadly, this year’s event Thomas de Hartmann (1885-1956). Johanna (Religious Pluralism in an Era of Globalization), due Petsche (Sydney) introduced this programme and to take place in Québec in June, is one of the vic- played clarinet to accompany Dorine Tolley. Five tims of the current Covid-19 virus, and has been pieces were performed: ‘Kurd Shepherd Melody’, cancelled. However, it has now been rescheduled ‘Duduki’, ‘No. 40’, ‘Chant from a Holy Book’ and ‘Trin- for 17-19 June 2021, at the same venue, and de- ity’. The combination of movements and recital tails can be found on its website, www.cesnur.org. formed an impressive demonstration of the em- bodied dimension of Gurdjieff’s teaching and a tan- Last year’s event took place at the University of gible example of the work as in part a form of Torino, Italy, and presentations covered a range of ‘cultural production’ with aesthetic impact. We re- themes and traditions, with presenters from the turned to the lecture hall for a final summary and US, Europe, and the Far East. A short report cannot discussion of what had been a very full and rich do justice to over 40 sessions with around 200 day. presentations, but two relatively new topics are worth mentioning. One is Flat Earth belief, which The closed workshop on the morning of Wednes- has been growing in recent times, mainly in the US, day December 4 was attended by Carole Cusack, being seen by some Christian fundamentalists as Joseph Azize, Jeremy Johnson, David Pecotic, an aspect of biblical inerrancy. Another relative Steven Sutcliffe and David Robertson. This gave a newcomer to the NRM scene is the Daesoon Jinri- more leisurely opportunity to exchange news on hoe, established in South Korea in 1967, and which current research and future plans. Access to relev- is now the country’s largest new religion, far ex- ant archives, often in private hands, was a signific- ceeding the better-known Unification Church of ant topic for discussion, as was the possibility of Sun Myung Moon, and which was the subject of collecting oral histories of senior Gurdjieffian prac- several presentations. As usual, presenters in- cluded adherents to NRMs as well as academics, and some presenters fell into both categories.

CESNUR conferences normally end with an op- tional field visit, and we visited the Church Uni- versal Soul—a little-known schismatic Catholic group which has combined traditional Roman Catholicism with elements of Eastern religion. From there we went on to Damahur, which is a New Age community situated in the alps, north of Piedmont, and which has a complex of large highly ornate underground temples, with paint- ings, sculptures, and stained-glass, depicting themes and symbols of a large varietyof spiritual traditions. Their construction began in 1975, and took 16 years of carving into the rocks by hand. Unfortunately photography is not permitted, but pictures can be found on the Internet.

Some of the proceedings can be viewed online at https://www.cesnur.org/2019/turin-cy- berpro.htm. George D. Chryssides York St. John /Birmingham

AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION, UNIVERSITY OF NEWCASTLE, NSW, 5-6 DECEMBER 2019

Newcastle has something of a frontier town feel, after taking a train up the coast from Sydney, a feeling only exacerbated by the occasional smoke and red skies from the fires still raging less than a hundred kilometers away inland. The conference itself took place in the very new, built-for-purpose NewSpace campus building of Newcastle University that sat on the main street, looking out on the Pacific ocean in one direction and at the colonial gardens of New- castle City Park on the other. The theme was “Religion and Violence”, and it officially opened with visiting UON Fellow Professor Naomi Goldenberg of the University of Ottawa, entitled “Reflections on Deuteronomy 20: 16-18: Under- standing “Religion” as both Solution and License for Violence”. This was introduced and chaired by the organiser, Kathleen McPhillips, whose firm but unobtrusive influence was felt throughout the conference. Goldenberg’s presentation was provocative and well-written, as always, develop- ing her arguments about religions as “vestigial tralian Settlement”, aimed at developing a new states”, reading the passages of Deuteronomy not publication. as “religious” texts, but as political texts aimed at establishing patriarchal authority (see also her re- Each session following Goldenberg's keynote had cent paper in Implicit Religion, “There is no Religion four parallel panels. Many had a close focus on the in the Bible” (https://journals.equinox- theme of religion and violence—understandably, pub.com/IR/article/view/39758). perhaps, given the Christchurch shooting in March 2019 and the ongoing investigations into abuse in I say officially because in the days prior there had the Catholic Church in Australia. Violence was con- been two workshops aimed at phd students and sidered in relation to New Religions, online religion, early career scholars—the first a workshop led by literature, Islam, intimate relationships, historical Professor Goldenberg on “‘Critical Religion’ – How pespectives, media, morality, gender and utopian- Theory that Deconstructs the Category of ‘Reli- ism. To judge by the titles, there was some norm- gion’ Can Lead to Better Research”, and the second ativity on display, but this was perhaps inevitable a workshop entitled “Navigating Academia”, led by given the theme. There were also panels devoted University of Sydney staff including Christopher to Christchurch and to the work of René Girard. I Hartney, Zoe Alderton and Dan Towers. These were was not able to attend all of these; happily, there followed by a public discussion panel on 'World- will be two journal issues of proceedings produced. views of Australia's Generation Z: Negotiating Reli- What I did attend was the New Religions and Viol- gion, Sexuality and Diversity”, featuring Andrew ence panel, in which I presented, together with Singleton, Anna Halafoff, Gary Bouma and Dan Steve Sutcliffe and Carole Cusack. I then attended Woodman. Simultaneously, Marion Maddox and the the Publishing panel, again including Sutcliffe and Charles Strong Memorial Trust had organised a Cusack, along with Venetia Robertson (University symposium on “The Australian Church and the Aus- of Sydney). After lunch, I was pleased to be the support act for Naomi Goldenberg and Timothy be, attending the AASR felt very much like being at Fitzgerald (a recent emigreé to Australia) on a panel home at the BASR. on the critical study of religion. Naomi and I were David G. Robertson both happy to let Tim take the majority of the time, The Open University in an off-the-cuff summary of his work to date. The discussion that followed was engaged, if not en- tirely convinced, but it was a rare treat for me nev- ertheless. THEEUROPEANSOCIETYFORTHESTUDYOF WESTERNESOTERICISM(ESSWE)CONFERENCE, Because of the fires, I decided to return to Sydney 2-4 JULY 2019, UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM, that evening in case the trains were delayed the THENETHERLANDS following morning, so I missed Morny Joy’s keynote on “Vulnerability, Violence, Precarity and their Con- The seventh international conference of ESSWE, temporary Modifications”, and the conference din- on the theme “Visions, Voices, Altered States,” ner. If the rest of the food I had during the trip was was organized by a team based at University of anything to go by, this was a shame indeed. The Amsterdam and coincided with the twentieth morning of the 6th began with the Charles Strong anniversary of the establishment of the Center Memorial Lecture, given by Norm Habel, and after for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related two further panels, concluded with the AGM. I was Currents (HHP) at that institution. Delegates disappointed not to be able to attend the second were fortunate that several excellent events ac- day, as I was simply too busy when I was there to companied the main conference; on Monday 1 even spend time with friends, let alone make new Julyat 6 PM there was a guided visit to the Kab- ones. For all I was as far from Scotland as I could balah Exhibition at the Jewish Historical Mu- seum, and the Welcome Reception on Tuesday 1 Spirit Gland &Psychedelic Occulture”). July was held at the “House With the Heads” in Keizersgracht, which houses the Bibliotheca In the afternoon of Tuesday 2 July I chaired “Film Philosophia (Ritman Library) and the and Media,” with papers by Lila Moore and Mari- Embassy of the Free Mind. The Head of the Rit- anna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (“The Emergent Con- man Research Institute is Peter Forshaw, former temporary Movement of Spiritual Cinema and editor of Aries and well-known scholar at Uni- Media: Explorations in Mind/Body Alternations”), versity of Amsterdam. In addition, every deleg- Guido Nerger (“Structures of Social Alterations: ate received an elegant and informative Magic, Media and [Mass] Manipulation”) and Bri- hardback, Hermes Explains: Thirty Questions an Ogren (“ and Film: Cinematic Visions, About , edited by Wouter Hanegraaff, Peter Forshaw and Marco Pasi (Ams- Narrative Voices, and Altered States”. On Wed- terdam UniversityPress 2019). nesday 3 July, the parallel sessions included “Christian Theosophy”, “Psychical Research,” and The opening had speeches from Wouter the panel I attended on “Accessing Contempor- Hanegraaff (on behalf of the organisers), the ary Esoteric Techniques for Altering Conscious- President of ESSWE Andreas Kilcher, and Fred P. ness” (with Susanna crockford, Markus Altena Weerman, the Dean of the Faculty of Humanit- Davidsen, and Jenny Butler). That afternoon I ies. The audience was large and enthusiastic, presented on “Everyday Enlightenment? Physical and the three keynotes addressed diverse and Labour, Food and Drink as Teaching Methods” in fascinating subjects. The historian of psychiatry the “Gurdjieff Plus” session in which Christian and specialist on C. G. Jung, Sonu Shamdasani, Giudice spoke about “The Struggle of the Magi- opened with “A Faint Rumour Left Behind’: Frag- cians: Gurdjieff’s Sacred Dances and Higher ments from a History of Concepts of Conscious- States of Consciousness” and we were in com- ness.” Yulia Ustinova (Ben-Gurion University of pany with Leo Bernard (“Jacques Demarquette the Negev) spoke on “Ecstatic Wisdom in An- [1888-1969]: Mysticism Within the Academy”) cient Greece,” linking the certain Greek philo- and Damien Karbovnik (“How to Rationalise the sophers to contemporary trends in Greek Esoteric: Jacques Bergier and the ‘Telepathy religion. The final keynote, Karl Baier (University with the Infinite’ ”). of Vienna) gave a lecture titled “Early Psy- chonauts: Albert Hofmann’s Occultic Network,” As with the previous conference at the Uni- which situated Albert Hoffman and his early ex- versity of Erfurt in 2017, ESSWE in Amsterdam periments with LSD in a milieu that included was connected to popular media; Baglis TV, a political conservatives and scholars, rather than media organization based in Paris with an online the usual suspects from the counterculture. channel devoted to esotericism, filmed several sessions. The later sessions on the second day Due to the large number of papers (there were covered topics as diverse as “More Than six parallel sessions) this report will be selective. Fantasy) (with an amazing paper by Cavan There were sessions on “Consciousness in Is- McLaughlin on “Tulpamancy: Psychospiritual lamic Esotericism: From Physiognomy to Psy- Technology, ‘Self-Willed Therapeutic Schizo- chology,” “Mesmerism and Somnambulism,” phrenia’, or a ‘Community of Imaginary-Friebnds “Theatre and Music,” “Postwar Psychedelic Cul- Hobbyists’?”), “Magic and Kabbalah in Early Mod- ture,” “The Visionary Renaissance” and “Judaism, ern Italy,” “Anthroposophy,” “Faeries and Pagans,” & Zoroastrianism” and that was only on and “.” ESSWE 2019 was an intellectu- the first day. “Postwar Psychedelic Culture” was ally stimulating and entertaining conference, an especial highlight, with great papers by Erik that despite its large size felt friendly and com- Davis (“The Wizard of High Weirdness: Robert munal. In a 2020 dominated by the absence of Anton Wilson’s Psychedelic Theurgy”), Chris- conferences due to the coronavirus pandemic it topher Partridge (“UFOs and the Psychedelic Ex- is good to have such happy memories to look perience”), Christian Greer (“ ‘Don’t Forget New back on. Age Rhymes With Sewage’: The Lunatic Fringe of Carole M. Cusack 1980s Esotericism”) and Graham St John (“The University of Sydney reviews

RUSSELL T. MCCUTCHEON. “RELIGION” IN THE- category, this reflection aims to outline a funda- ORY AND PRACTICE: DEMYSTIFYING THE FIELD mental duality underlying scientific investigation. FOR BURGEONING ACADEMICS. EQUINOX, The debate over a category, McCutcheon notes, can 2019. take two forms: one might discuss whether particu- lar objects belong to the category, or investigate the “Religion” in Theory and Practice provides an over- category itself, examining the historical and cultural view of the current state of the academic study of circumstances that brought it to existence. The rel- religion by exploring both its theoretical and practical evance of these considerations is not merely theor- dimensions. The book, primarily aimed at early career etical, but linked to a reflection on the desired researchers, contains three sections. Here, Russell pedagogical goals of religious studies modules. For McCutcheon carries on the discussion started in his McCutcheon, these courses should not merely aim previous work Entanglements: Making Place in the at providing students with descriptive knowledge on Field of Religion (2014). a range of religious traditions, but rather seek to equip them with skills that are relevant across dis- The first part, “In Theory”, presents some of Mc- ciplines. In this respect, the study of religion as a Cutcheon’s thoughts on the current state of the category becomes a means to reflect on the pro- field. It consists of a series of essays reflecting on cesses of signification through which social actors the place and role of theory in the contemporary make sense of the world (28-29). study of religion. McCutcheon laments a scarcity of theory within the field, where the tendency to “nat- In general, one of the merits of the book lies in the uralize” particular interests and implications intertwining of theoretical disputations with person- emerges as an enduring problem. Many scholars, Mc- al anecdotes and glimpses into McCutcheon’s own Cutcheon argues, fail to acknowledge the pre-as- professional experience and pedagogical practice. sumptions based on which they operate; they treat Such intersections not only facilitate the digestion theory as a secondary step following the observa- of conceptually rich passages, but also serve the tion of something seen as obviously significant or more practical aims of the book. Most notably, they noticeable (9). The challenge, instead, would be to encourage a revitalisation of the field by proposing historicize what is portrayed as self-evident, i.e. reli- innovative strategies to the study of religion tailored gion as a category. The problem within the field, to the needs of a postmodern world. While instru- however, is that theory rather serves to “[dehistor- mental to the investigation of more recent trends, icize] the very thing that we might instead be scru- these considerations can also provide a fresh per- tinizing as an historical and thus human act” (13). spective on capital works in the field. McCutcheon uses the divide between the concern for classifying This links to a discussion of the utility of the “world religions as opposed to that for the criteria for clas- religions” category as a paradigm for the study of re- sification themselves as a lens to re-think the ligion. Besides questioning the heuristic value of the cornerstones of the sociology of religion. His com- parison between the works of Emile Durkheim and searchers—reflect on the developments occurred in Max Weber provides an insightful reflection on the the years following the publication of the “Theses”. history of social sciences and the emergence of so- This section offers precious insights into the shifting ciology and anthropology as two intellectual tradi- conditions and roles within the field, and the main is- tions marked by different focus and approach to sues faced by new generations of scholars. Among theory (Chapter 3). Through a critical reflection on these, pre-professionalisation, i.e. expectations that Jean Calvin’s theological system, then, McCutcheon job candidates who are not yet in the profession convincingly undermines the current understanding would meet its criteria (in terms of publications, of spirituality as a new, unprecedented phenomena teaching experience and so forth) is given particular that is gradually supplanting religion, and unveils its emphasis. This section has the merit to broaden the nature as yet another social management technique conversation about religious studies as a profes- or rhetoric whereby people signify themselves in sional field, opening up a space where emerging contrast with a dominant mode of organisation scholars can make their voice heard. McCutcheon (Chapter 4). does not discount the complexity of the problems presently affecting academia, which have developed The second section, “In in the course of decades. Practice”, shifts the fo- While stressing that the cus from theory to prac- institutional context in tical issues, examining a which early career schol- range of specific profes- ars presently find them- sional location—such as selves is hardly unique employment conditions, (157-58), he also high- departmental relation- lights how this is also ships and cooperation, different from the one of professional associ- their predecessors. The ations, introductory aim, thus, seems to be to courses—to highlight create a fertile ground some of the areas de- for discussion and co- manding reconsideration operation between early and restructuring. This career researchers and section draws extens- senior scholars, allowing ively from McCutcheon’s them to join forces in the professional experience face of current chal- to highlight pedagogical lenges. As McCutcheon concerns and structural also noted in the previ- problems that require at- ous section, while it tention, and to suggest might be beyond the possible ways to address reach of individual schol- them. The issues ex- ars or departments to amined range from ap- annihilate the structural proaches to introductory issues presently affect- courses in religious stud- ing academia, they can ies, to curriculum design, integration of non-tenure- still act to alleviate problems, and more importantly track staff in departmental life, and knowledge dis- contribute to foster the critical reflection essential semination through online platforms. to the long-term reinvention of the field.

The third and last section of the book, “In Praxis”, Aura Di Febo contains twenty-one responses to McCutcheon’s Universityof Manchester /Universityof Leeds “Theses on Professionalisation” (2007). The re- sponses—originally commissioned by Matt Sheedy for the blog Bulletin for the Study of Religion to a range of doctoral students and early career re- J. LORAND MATORY, THE FETISH REVISITED: endeavor to escape their stigma and its related so- MARX, FREUD, AND THE GODS BLACK PEOPLE cial encumbrances” by attempting to reconstruct MAKE . DUKE UNIVERSITYPRESS, 2018 their identities in the image of the majority popula- tions who torment them (17). Though deeply inter- The influence of Karl Marx (1818–1883) and Sig- esting as a theory, the connection of ethnological mund Freud (1856–1939) on the academic study of Schadenfreude to the broader themes of the book religion has primarily left its mark on the way that seems to come across as rather speculative at scholars have theorized the field by broadening the times, and perhaps even irrelevant to Matory’s en- scope of existing frameworks beyond intuitive ac- tirelypersuasive arguments about the fetish. counts for the global variation in understandings of religion. Much of this process of developing and ana- In part one of the book, Matory notes that Marx’s lyzing the category of religion, and the numerous critique of capitalism makes use of references to theories related to it, has been based on assump- the “negro slave” as a pedestal intended to display tions that are rooted in the dominant normative dis- the greater problem of capitalism, which is charac- course of Euro-American Christianity. In The Fetish terized as “the undeserved suffering and disenfran- Revisited, J. Lorand chisement of European Matory demonstrates workers,” effectively as how the concept of the wage slaves (61). Matory fetish was used inde- shows how Marx contin- pendently in the social ues his critique of capital- theories developed by ist exploitation by Marx and Freud to rein- identifying a central flaw in force Enlightenment the labor theory of value, ideals of Africa and which Marx ties to the Africanness as being a capitalist’s belief in an in- foil to Europe and herent substance of value whiteness. This is first that can be traded when done by appropriately commodities are ex- contextualizing the changed (73). For capital- theories of Marx and ists, this seemingly Freud in the Eurocentric mythological value is ulti- thought that shaped mately what determines them, and then by how much of one thing can identifying false as- be traded for another, res- sumptions about race ulting in what Marx terms and religion that their the fetishism of commod- theories authorized, ities, in relation to the pro- particularly in formula- cess by which Africans tions of the concept of assign value to fetishes the fetish. (73-74). This is to say that for Marx, capitalists arbit- The book is organized rarily assign value to com- into three fairly separate parts with three chapters modities in the same way that Africans arbitrarily each. The first part is dedicated to Marx, the second assign value to fetishes, as part of the presumedly to Freud, and the third to Matory’s argument for how spurious (religious and cultural) practices of Africa. objects of fetish ought to be understood in light of Matory continues to elucidate the significance of the rituals and practice of various Afro-Atlantic reli- Marx’s deployment of the term fetish as a pejorative gions. The awkward pairing of Marx and Freud is part metaphor alongside other remarks that make it ex- of Matory’s attempt at elaborating what he calls his ceedingly difficult to ignore Marx’s lack of alarm at hypothesis of ethnological Schadenfreude (p.16). the implications of his theories for Africans en- This is the term that Matory has developed to de- snared by Europeans and Americans in the transat- scribe a process by which “stigmatized populations lantic slave trade. From Matory’s perspective, it is not simply a matter of Marx disparaging Africans and tion of fetishes as he considers the relationship of African religion, but Marx also gets it wrong by mis- worshippers and the worshiped, not necessarily as characterizing the role of god making for his analogy. individuals but from within a social context. This in- Matory details how deliberate and purposeful as- cludes ample coverage of various religious objects, pects of this process may be later in the book originally intended for use in ritual, from the Sacred (p.265). Arts of the Black Atlantic (SABA) collection at Duke University. In each case, Matory punctuates the in- Next, Matory turns his attention to Freud and psy- tentionality of creating a fetish by fetishists, priests, choanalysis, largely through his reading of Totem and and priestesses across the Afro-Atlantic, which lies Taboo. He explains that key issues in Freudian in sharp contrast to the assumptions and sub- thought revolve around a social, and presumptively sequent characterizations of Marx and Freud about evolutionary, distinction (195) between civilized the gods that blackpeople make. people and savages, which subsequently allows ad- ditional hierarchies to be constructed (135). Freud One common theme recurring consistently thus proceeds to develop a new terminology around throughout the book is that of ambivalence. Matory this hierarchy, beginning with his concept for base sees ambivalence in the theories of Marx and Freud, desires, which he calls the id. The id is then distin- as he sees ambivalence in the production of Afro- guished from other psychological modes of agency, Atlantic gods. According to Matory, the reality of the namely the ego and superego. Matory contends that ethnological Schadenfreude that influenced the de- “Freud’s psychoanalysis is best understood not as velopment of these particular theories of Marx and an ethereal idea or disembodied philosophy but as a Feud was indicative of the ambivalence they felt as historically and culturally specific network of people, assimilated Jewish men of the time trying to get things, idea-images, conventions, and relationships, beyond their marginality. Similarly, in Afro-Atlantic that enhanced some people’s forms of agency and traditions, the ambivalence of the religious com- value production at the expense of others’” (105). munityis present in the creation of gods and objects This allows Matory to return once again to the notion of fetish that embody both the ability to punish and of Freudian objects of fetish, which he elaborates in to protect (300). relation to Freud’s personal collection of Eastern and African artifacts. At the end of the book, Matory Matory’s book forces readers to rethink the social mentions, but leaves unexplored, Freudean fetishes theories of Marx and Freud in unexpected ways and in relation to the phenomenon of BDSM (bondage, shows how some of the assumptions made by both discipline, and sadomasochism), which is the subject influential scholars were self-serving and baseless. of Matory’s subsequent work in progress. In this Although specialists might find Matory’s research work, however, Matory’s interest seems to lie in what uniquely illuminating and his attention to detail im- he considers to be the duality of the master-slave pressive, his overall analysis should still be thought relationship comprising the fetish that has come to provoking for any scholar of religion whose area of characterize certain sexual rituals in (primarily white) focus lies beyond the particulars of Africa or Afro- American subculture, where participants don “black Atlantic religions. It was not necessarily the specific skins” in the form of leather apparel (p.321). Mat- content being discussed, as reflected in the sum- ory’s discussion here is enough to establish a need mary of the text above, that made the book so re- to reconsider the relationship between Freud, fetish- markable, but the treatment and analysis of the ism, and slavery. content that left the most lasting impression. Any reader interested in a highly intellectual critique of The third and final part of Matory’s book is devoted theory and theorizing should find this book reward- to an analysis of real-life objects of fetish from Afro- ing, including (but not limited to) those comprising a Atlantic religious traditions. Here, on occasion, Mat- specialist readership who are more expressly inter- ory’s commentary on the thought of Marx and Freud ested in the way that racial ideologies have affected in conjunction with Hegel draws attention to the mu- how Europeans have thought of themselves in rela- tuality of the processes at play when a specific god tion to Africans. The Fetish Revisited is not just a creates a specific person, or perhaps a specific per- book about the gods that black people make, as the son creates a specific god, as the case may be. This subtitle suggests, but is equally about the theories enables Matory to resume his deliberation on the no- that white people make, in the sense that Matory shines light on the inescapable role of race in shaping (31), Heehs asserts, before taking the reader on the Euro-American imaginary, especially in relation to a journeythrough 3,000 years of time and places Africans, during the 19th and early 20th century. on the Asian continent. Drawing on the Upan- ishads and Vedic literature, Buddhist doctrines, Adil Hussain Khan Jain scriptures, Chinese thinkers, and Roman Loyola University, New Orleans and Greek mythologies, Heehs explores the non- theistic philosophies and portrays the rising sig- nificance of theism and its attached concepts of God, death, and the afterlife. His main argu- ment is that the rejection of or indifference PETER HEEHS. SPIRITUALITY WITHOUT GOD. A about God, while embedded in a spiritual prac- GLOBAL HISTORY OF THOUGHT AND PRACTICE. tice, is not a new phenomenon, but has been BLOOMSBURY, 2018. around since long be- fore the New Age Peter Heehs’s historic- movement, way before al examination, Spir- Nietzsche, and without ituality without God, the terms atheism or comes at a timely mo- agnosticism even be- ment in the discourse ing coined. Although on spiritual practice. some of today’s The idea that one can largest religions (by be ‘spiritual but not re- number of adherents) ligious’ is not quite a emerged on the Asian brand-new thought but continent, Heehs’s has become in vogue historical exploration with the rise of New also shows us that Age religious practices Asia has been the over recent decades. place where nonthe- At the outset, Heehs istic spiritualities were reminds us that, in fact, theorised and prac- those living without ticed as early as 3,000 God—atheists and ag- years ago. Following up nostics—are a growing the history of thought group, according to and practice on spir- data on religious affili- ituality without God, ation. When New Age the book also explores spirituality emerged, the growing semantic some of these new, or gap between the reli- newly synthesised, practices were dropped on gious and the spiritual that has made both terms fertile ground; in many post-industrial societies, a rather conflicting, if not opposite, pair. ‘Spiritu- members of the middle-class bemoan their al but not religious’, as mentioned before, re- mundane and disenchanted lifestyles and are mains an important self-definition of many losing touch with established religions. Claiming practitioners. Heehs goes on to explain how to reject religion, outdated concepts of God, or some spiritualities came to be, in essence, not God as such, these new spiritual movements caring, not needing, or rejecting (belief in) the have become popular approaches to soul- supernatural. searching in which affiliation and external dogma give way to esoteric universalism and the au- Spirituality without God is an interesting, timely, thorityof subjective inner experience. and equally relevant read for the religious schol- ar, practitioner or layperson alike. Not least, it “When disbelief in God met subjective spiritual- benefits from the author’s in-depth understand- ity the outcome was spirituality without God” ing of—especially South Asian—religions and scriptures, which shows while reading and fol- so I bathe in it every day”. Ultimately, Heehs’ ex- lowing his processing of a complex comparison ploration has made me wonder: if considering of thought and history of thought. The many spirituality without God is not new, quite pos- tales recounted from various traditions allow an sible, and does not pose a defect, where does it emic glimpse at the traditions at hand through leave us in terms of belief in the supernatural or the stories and symbols of oral traditions and God in theistic traditions and spiritualities that scriptures, and yet, Heehs writes in a refresh- internalise the abstract supernatural? Is it a giv- ingly unengaged way, meticulously sticking to en, a need, ora choice? his historical method. Jens Augspurger The book’s focus remains on traditions that SOAS Universityof London emerged from Asia, excluding others, for in- stance, from Africa, the Americas, Oceania, as well as Pagan traditions and nature religions. Yet, it provides a good overview and starting HJELM, TITUS (ED.) PETER point to understand L. BERGER AND THE SOCI- spiritual practice bey- OLOGY OF RELIGION: 50 ond the supernatural. It YEARS AFTER THE SACRED would be interesting to CANOPY. BLOOMSBURY, see a follow-up analysis 2018. in the (para-)psycholo- gical understanding of Such is the influence of the supernatural, and Peter Berger—both in the the deification or de- sociology of religion, wider deification of ideas, sociology and in religious stories, and prophets studies and theology—that over time, and espe- this is by no means the first cially since the Enlight- volume of essays to engage enment. More recent with his contribution to spiritual and secular scholarship. It is the first to groups use their own appear following his death in understanding of sanc- 2017, however, and the first tity, out-of-this-world, the focus specifically on the and holiness that have intellectual legacy of The even been adopted by Sacred Canopy, the ground- secular market logics. Has the idea of the super- breaking monograph Berger published over 50 natural or of God disappeared and become ob- years ago. The cross-disciplinary breadth of Ber- solete, or is it changing according to rapidly ger’s influence will ensure this volume attracts developing social needs and conditions? How considerable interest, although it has a special does the supernatural connect with the natural? significance for the sociology of religion. The es- And will the supernatural eventually need to re- says all fall within this subfield, written by a main a distant, mystical, beyond-grasp entity to range of authors based in the UK, continental remain adore-able? In a documentary on India Europe and North America, with each probing as- that I watched recently, the filmmakers por- pects of the conceptual apparatus that Berger trayed Ganga worship and interviewed an envir- outlined in The Sacred Canopy backin 1967. onmental scientist who was working on a study on the Ganges river: “As a scientist”, the man Titus Hjelm has drawn together a collection that said, “I believe nobody should ever come in con- is coherent and compelling, covering a range of tact with the water of Ganga, it is dirtyand infec- issues while maintaining a focus on Berger’s tious. But as a Hindu, I believe in its holy quality, landmark volume. Essays revisit the theoretical context of Berger’s intellectual development Several essays address Berger’s legacy in terms (e.g. Bryan Turner on the links with Arnold of social constructionism, including the curious Gehlen’s work on institutions) and the capacity fact that, while The Social Construction of of Berger’s thought in advancing live debates in Reality (co-authored with Thomas Luckmann in the sociology of religion (e.g. David Feltmate and 1966) offered a programmatic account of this Titus Hjelm on social constructionism and what approach which was applied and developed in it can learn from The Sacred Canopy). Feltmate’s The Sacred Canopy, the development of a dis- essay is especially instructive both for its ex- tinct sociology of religion built on constructivist egesis of Berger’s theoretical paradigm and for foundations was not followed up by Berger after its identification of various possibilities for con- this point. Hjelm explores this in detail in his ceptual development, lucidly drawn out from a second contribution to the book, arguing that discussion of recent Durkheimian studies of the the influence of The Sacred Canopy can pre- sacred. Other contributions retrieve aspects of dominantly be found within debates about secu- Berger’s thought for application to contempor- larisation and plausibility structures, to the ary phenomena, underlining its enduring relev- detriment of social constructionism as an ap- ance. Especially thought-provoking is Riyaz proach in the sociology of religion, which has re- Timol’s chapter on Islamic Revivalism in the ceived far less attention. Hjelm presents a European context, which considers how a domin- number of possible explanations, including Ber- ant secularism within continental Europe might ger’s emergent preoccupation with order as a be theorised as a form of ‘sacred canopy’, a ‘sec- central sociological concern and his scepticism ular discourse religious believers are obliged to about the revolutionary politics of the late navigate’ (121). 1960s, both of which might suggest a disinclin- ation to retain a focus on construction and con- For this reviewer, the stand-out essay is by tingency as a conceptual interest. But if Berger Nancy Ammerman, who revisits Berger’s idea of changed his emphases to reflect his politics, he ‘plausibility structures’ within the context of re- did not avert the tendency of sociologists of re- cent developments in the sociology of religion. ligion to take the social construction of religion Ammerman’s work on ‘lived religion’ has under- for granted in the decades since The Sacred lined the significance of conversation as a Canopy was published. As Hjelm states, ‘con- means of binding together members of religious structionism did emerge as an implicit frame- communities. Summarising her argument, she work for the sociology of religion, but its suggests ‘Congregations gain their potency as theoretical refinement has been waiting in the producers of sacred consciousness not through wings for a surprisingly long time’ ( 174). Those their exclusivity or high boundaries, but as they wishing to take this project further will find a create spaces for and encourage opportunities valuable guide in this edited volume. to imagine and speak about everyday realities among spiritual compatriots’ (33). Ammerman Mathew Guest calls attention to the need for the concept of Durham University ‘plausibility structures’ to be both more clearly defined, but also more expansively understood. Alluding to the capacity of practices and experi- ences to embody meaning, she argues that the ‘conversational plausibility structures we inhabit are made up of more than just words’ (38). Such an orientation builds critically on Berger’s legacy while also developing his insights in conversa- tion with thinkers such as Talal Asad, effectively enlarging the scope of sociology of religion in capturing the nuanced ways in which religious identities (and our conversations about them) are constructed and maintained. Brian Bocking

George D. Chryssides

Christopher Cotter Rosalind Hackett

Paul Hedges Michael Miller

Eleanor Nesbitt

Moojan Momen

Susanne Owen

Robert Segal Bettina E. Schmidt

Steven J. Sutcliffe

Paul Weller