Thoreau's Religion

American Religion 2, no. 1 (Fall 2020), pp. 10–13 Copyright © 2020, The Trustees of Indiana University • doi: 10.2979/amerreli.2.1.03 Reconfiguring the Boundaries of American Religious Studies Abtsam Saleh Harvard University, Cambridge, USA Why is American Islam is so Rarely Framed as an “American Religion” in the Field of Religious Studies? Despite existing in America long before the establishment of the United States, Muslims have been largely left out of discussions on American religion within the field of religious studies. In order to answer the question of why, one has to ask what scholars of religious studies have understood “American religion” to be. According to most surveys of American religious history, the term has been used to denote the history of Christianity in America, white Protestantism more specifically, some dating the origins of American religion back to the Protestant Reformation.1 Narratives surrounding American religion were constructed to center Protestantism and the ways it has dominated public religious life in the United States, reified by legal and political actors.2 Considerations of what fell under the category of American religion were largely based on proximity to mainline Protestant churches, casting all other denominations and/or religions outside of the category. Over time, however, 1 For more recent work on this topic see John Modern, “Marshall McLuhan, Playful Prophet” in “Forum: The Religious Situation, 1968 (Part 2),” Religion and American Culture 29, no. 2 (2019): 153–162. 2 See Marie A. Failinger, “Islam in the Mind of American Courts: 1800 to 1960,” Boston College Journal of Law and Social Justice 32, no.1 (2012): 1–29. Abtsam Saleh 11 historians of American religion have begun to expand on this narrow definition. R. Laurence Moore’s Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans,3 although working with this mainline definition of American religion, expands on the category by examining its relationship with denominations and/or religions deemed as religious outsiders on the basis of dissenting from mainline Protestantism. Moore concludes that this categorization based on consensus-dissent is inadequate in expressing the plurality of American religious life in-so-much as it continues to center mainline Christianity as the religion of the US as a nation. In the more recent “The Study of American Religions: Critical Reflections on a Specialization,” Finbarr Curtis critically examines the category of American religion as a specialization within the discipline of religious studies, including its history of Protestant bias. Curtis highlights how despite attempts at expanding American religion to include narratives of underrepresented religious groups, these inclusions remain peripheral despite being recognized.4 This precise centering of Protestantism as the American religion and the locating of those not in proximity to it in its periphery is a reason why American Islam is so rarely framed as an “American religion” in the field of religious studies. Narratives of American religious history place American Islam in the periphery, dismissing its influence on American culture and American culture ’s influence on it. American religionists reify this categorization both in their scholarship and institutionally when American Islam is positioned as peripheral to the construction of the American nation and religion. Can Islam be “American religion”? If we move away from an understanding of American religion that centers white Protestantism and expand the category to mean religions who have both shaped and been shaped by this nation, whose understandings are put in conversation with the legal, social, political, economic, and cultural life of the United States, then Islam is certainly an American religion. American Muslims are part of the patchwork of American social-religious life, preceding the formation of the United States. Enslaved African Muslims were brought to the Americas centuries prior to the American Revolution, bringing with them their religious traditions, many maintaining them in conversation with their new surroundings, and some preserving them over generations.5 Over centuries, Islam lived and grew within 3 R. Laurence Moore, Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). 4 Finbarr Curtis, “The Study of American Religions: Critical Reflections on a Specialization ,” Religion 42, no. 3 (2012): 365. 5 See Sylviane A. Diouf, Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas, (New York: New...

This book explores the interface of bodies and religion by investigating the impacts human-induced global warming will have on the embodied and performed practices of religion in ecologies of place. By utilizing analytical insights from religion and nature theory, posthumanism, queer ecologies, ecological animisms, indigenous knowledges, material feminisms, and performance studies the book advocates for a need to update how religious studies theorizes bodies and religion. It does so by in the first half of the book advocating for religious studies as a field, and the academy as a whole, to take the ongoing and deleterious future impacts of climate change seriously--to re-member that those laboring as scholars in religious studies, and the communities they study, have always been bodies in material bio-ecological places--and to let this inform the questions religious studies scholars ask. The book argues that this will lead to very different forms of engaged, liberatory scholarship that demands a different type of scholarship and public advocacy for resilience in the face of climate change. The second half of the book offers case study examples of how scholars may better engage religious bodies within petrocultures, while attending to new, emerging materialist posthuman assemblages of religious bodies. This book will be of interest to those in religious studies, the environmental humanities, and those working at the interface of the body and the natural world.

The paper examines John Samuel Mbiti’s legacy in teaching, research, and publication in African Traditional to Religion (ATR) at Makerere University. It documents his contribution Religious Studies’ scholarship. The crux of the paper is to interrogate his contribution towards teaching, research, and publication in ATR, with an interest in how this has continued to influence scholarship in religious studies. By examining his legacy, we aim at documenting knowledge production in ATR. This paper utilises data obtained through in- depth interviews with Mbiti’s contemporaries and other scholars, including alumni and current students of Religious Studies, and those that have read his publications. Besides, archival records of Mbiti’s works and online articles were reviewed to provide data that will enhance the discourse on his legacy. The paper contributes to the existing knowledge on Mbiti’s legacy in the teaching, research, and publication of ATR literature.

Analyzing social wrongs

Buddhism is often represented as an inherently environmental religion. Contemporary Buddhist organizations and conservation activists alike draw on Buddhist concepts such as interdependence, compassion, and nonviolence as inspirations for environmental movements throughout Asia and in other parts of the world. However, historians such as Johan Elverskog have demonstrated that this representation is ahistorical and that in the past, Buddhist institutions exploited their environments to fuel their expansion. Elverskog tempered his argument by pointing out that Buddhism is varied and flexible enough that it can change, and this is demonstrated in many contemporary societies where Buddhist teachers and groups inspire and enact state policy and promote local conservation initiatives. This chapter will engage with case studies from throughout Asia – India, Taiwan, and Thailand – to explore how Buddhist communities understand and approach human-environment relations in the era of climate change. The chapter will explore multiple understandings of environmental cosmologies and forms of care (inspired by anthropologist Karine Gagné's work) beyond canonical or state narratives through an interdisciplinary lens, incorporating scholarship by anthropologists, historians, geographers, Indigenous Studies scholars, and religious studies scholars. Ultimately, just as Buddhism is varied and diverse, so too are Buddhist approaches to the changing climate and global issues that result from it.

ABSTRACTIn this article I introduce a self-taught Chicana artist, Caroline Martinez, and highlight her work's religious significance. I offer a brief account of her life and a preliminary interpretation of her art. The art that adorns her Texas home and yard, I argue, is a visual testimony to the intercessory power of Jesus and Mary to heal the sick, feed the body, and protect the vulnerable. I then consider the implications of this case study for scholars in religious studies, Chicana studies, Catholic studies, and art history. Martinez's art evokes three important themes—religion, identity, and modernity—and offers reminders about three concomitant issues that face everyone who thinks about religion and art, especially self-taught artists and Chicana art: (1) What is the function of religion—and religious visual culture? (2) How do we talk about artists' religious identity, especially when there are multiple converging influences? (3) To what extent and in which sense can the work of self-taught artists like Martinez be understood as “modern” and to what extent are the artist and her work shaped by the social forces of “modernity”?

This chapter presents an overview of how Confucianism has been classified as a world religion in both popular and academic texts over the past century, suggesting that this classification has had a lasting impact on both the popular imagination and academic institutions. It argues that the notion of world religions has become the universally recognized “achievement” that provides model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners. In this case, this community consists of scholars in religious studies, as well as scholars who study Chinese religions in other fields, such as sociology, history, philosophy, and Asian studies. The chapter focuses on the acceptance and implementation of this paradigm in American academia, instead of comparing it to that of another country, such as Great Britain.

This article illustrates the value of computer modeling and simulation (CMS) for linking theory and data in the academic study of religion, focusing on ways in which scholars in religious studies and the humanities can benefit by collaboratively engaging in this relatively new and radically transdisciplinary methodology. I begin by briefly introducing CMS and describing some of its recent uses in analyses of religious phenomena. The second part provides a case study – an agent-based model (ABM) designed to simulate and forecast changes in religiosity and existential security in Europe (Gore et al. 2018). The main research question guiding the construction and validation of this model was: What are some of the conditions under which – and mechanisms by which – religiosity declines in contemporary European populations? I highlight one of the main research findings from the simulation experiments on the model. Finally, I briefly explore some of the material and methodological implications of the development and deployment of such models for the academic study of religion.

This three-part article traces the use of the word “prophet” to describe Native actors such as Neolin and Handsome Lake in colonial North America and the early United States; details the category's perpetuation and effects in work by ethnologists, anthropologists, historians, and scholars of religious studies; and, finally, proposes a focus on visionary media, including wampum and maps, as articulations of Native peoplehood—a concept borrowed from Native American and Indigenous Studies. The goal is to show how “prophet” classifications emerged within a context of colonization and religious dispute. Continued use reinforces narratives of Native disappearance, if not excuses anti-Native violence, in American religious studies. In response, I call on scholars to decolonize their writing and teaching about Native visionaries by focusing on their media as evidence of the futures they projected for their people.

Homo Ritualis: Hindu Ritual and Its Significance for Ritual Theory

International audience

The topic of this essay is the perennial problem of the relationship between religion and economics. However, many scholars in religious studies often fail to properly connect religious values and economics. In addition, modern sociological and economic theories that focus on particular abstract aspects of human society exaggerate these abstractions as critical or central features of human existence, but ignore other equally important features. In this context, many communities and groups have been formed to promote grassroots economic interaction and to protect people from an asymmetrical global economy. Among them, the Mondragón Cooperative Corporations in Spain has sought to provide an alternative economic community. The primary purpose of this study is to articulate and analyze the economic ethics underlying the practice of the Mondragón Corporacion Cooperativa, which is owned and governed by workers. Cooperatives such as Mondragón are governed by “Cooperative Principles” that differentiate them from traditional capitalist enterprises. This article examines the worker-owned cooperative movement as an alternative to both monopolistic capitalism and socialism for economic democracy. It examines how Mondragón’s workers and their leader can and should develop their own ways of coping with, confronting, and potentially resisting capitalism in their own local community. It attempts to demystify the dominant, global capitalist economy. This study aims to develop a set of practical strategies for achieving alternative economic ethics.

Death in Chinese culture is a multifaceted phenomenon shaped by centuries of philosophical and religious thought. This study explores the complementary conceptions of death in Chinese tradition through the lenses of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, highlighting their unique contributions and interconnected perspectives. Taoism views death as a natural part of the cosmic cycle, emphasizing harmony with nature, the flow of life energy (Qi), and the continuity of existence beyond physical life. Confucianism, in contrast, frames death within ethical, social, and familial dimensions, stressing filial piety, ancestral reverence, and the cultivation of moral relationships that extend beyond the individual. Buddhism adds a spiritual and soteriological dimension, interpreting death as a transition in the cycle of samsara, governed by karma, impermanence, and the potential for liberation (nirvana). Together, these traditions provide a holistic framework in which death is not merely an end but a transformation that balances natural, moral, and spiritual concerns. Historical examples, such as the philosophy of Wang Yangming, illustrate the integration of these traditions, showing how Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist ideas were synthesized to guide ethical living, spiritual cultivation, and the understanding of mortality. In repetition, Chinese funeral rites and ancestral rituals reflect this synthesis, blending ethical duties, cosmological awareness, and spiritual aspirations. Understanding these complementary conceptions provides valuable insights for scholars in religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, and cross-cultural healthcare, particularly in contexts where death intersects with ethical decision-making, bereavement practices, and cultural sensitivity.

When Frantz Fanon's critiques of racism, sexism, colonialism, capitalism, and humanism are brought into the ever-widening orbit of Africana critical theory something unprecedented in the annals of Africana intellectual history happens: five distinct forms of Fanonism emerge. Forms of Fanonism: Frantz Fanon's Critical Theory and the Dialectics of Decolonization is discursively distinguished from other engagements of Fanon's thought and texts insofar as it is the first study to consciously examine his contributions to Africana Studies and critical theory or, rather, the Africana tradition of critical theory. Forms of Fanonism identifies and intensely analyzes Fanon's contributions to the deconstruction and reconstruction of Africana Studies, radical politics, and critical social theory. In highlighting his unique 'solutions' to the 'problems' of racism, sexism, colonialism, capitalism, and humanism, five distinct forms of Fanonism materialize. These five forms of Fanonism allow contemporary critical theorists to innovatively explore the ways in which his thought and texts can be dialectically put to use in relieving the wretched experience of this generation's wretched of the earth. Critics can also apply these forms to deconstruct and reconstruct Africana Studies, radical politics, and critical social theory using their anti-imperialist interests. Throughout Forms of Fanonism, Reiland Rabaka critically dialogues with Fanon, incessantly asking his corpus critical questions and seeking from it crucial answers. This book, in short, solemnly keeps with Fanon's own predilection for connecting critical theory to revolutionary praxis by utilizing his thought and texts as paradigms and points of departure to deepen and develop the Africana tradition of critical theory.

Thinking about Feminist Leadership Stephanie Y. Mitchem (bio) Because women's biblical studies have focused for too long on the canonical authority of the Bible, a feminist political interpretation for transformation must become canonically transgressive. . . . Because the ethos of a feminist critical interpretation is inclusive, ecumenical, and multicultural, it may not limit its scope to canonical writings, accept the [End Page 197] authority claims of the canon, or focus exclusively on the teachings of the Bible.1 —Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza was a presence throughout my theological education. I did not choose biblical scholarship as the focus of my studies, but theology. But that choice did not matter: Elisabeth would be a presence for any religious scholar with feminist leanings. I focus here not on Elisabeth's scholarship as such or even her impact on incoming, developing feminist scholarship in religious studies. Instead, I want to talk about something that is often neglected and more often misrepresented: feminist leadership. Feminist leadership is to be informed, first, by indisputable commitment to women. Of course, more than just a verbal commitment to women is needed; practical issues are involved. As contrast, we in the United States just experienced a presidential election. One of the vice presidential candidates was a woman, a governor, who some called a feminist. The candidate's legislative record did not demonstrate any of the usual leanings toward feminism, such as equality, protection of women, or justice. In fact, her record tracked her setting up policies that are antiwoman and pro-patriarch. In other words, in the end, feminism is demonstrated in leadership—through action, not in labels, not in words. I began this essay with a quotation from Elisabeth that succinctly outlines a shape and direction for feminist biblical scholarship. I use the points from this brief excerpt to map out a direction and methodology for those who want to lead as feminists. Let me clarify. In the excerpt, Elisabeth is writing about feminist interpretation of the Bible. Yet it must be understood that this interpretive process is inherently political. Established Western canonical structures—whatever the discipline—have been locked into white male frameworks. Elisabeth coined the term kyriarchal to underline the wedding of male power in society with religious thought. This marriage enforces Western imperialist canonical structures in which the middle class, specifically property-owning white males, receive preferred citizenship. Men charged themselves to begin seeking some of the authentic Truth that further supported its vision of itself. This is the structure of empire. As Joerg Rieger has explained, "empire seeks to extend its control as far as possible, beyond the commonly recognized geographical, political, and economic spheres, to include the intellectual, emotional, psychological, spiritual, cultural, and religious arenas. The problem with empire is, therefore, [End Page 198] that no one can escape its force field completely."2 Organized religions, then, do not escape the burden of empire but become partners in its maintenance. Deconstruction of established canons is never neutral because the status quo is challenged. Every person or group involved in liberation work must find ways to work over, under, around, and through the constructions that have fed oppressions. This is transgressive of the canons. Yet to make changes for justice is slow, tedious, thoughtful work. Change cannot be achieved by violence or by opting out of the system. More important, we cannot take incremental advances for granted, despite the fact that many scholars are quick to believe that since they themselves did not experience injustices, oppression must have ended. Ultimately, to take this route is to remove oneself from struggle for justice and to accept the status quo. This is not transgression but compliance. So what are those who lead as feminists, womanists, or mujeristas to do? Elisabeth's quote lays out at least two methods to deal with the political realities of biblical studies. Because of the political aspects of feminist biblical studies, I also apply these methods to feminist leadership. 1. Feminist leadership aims for transformation. As the previous discussion of political and imperial dimensions of the status quo indicates, to achieve transformation, transgressing canons is imperative. It follows that feminist leadership needs to be canonically transgressive. For...