Connecting with Ambivalent Heritage

Connecting with Ambivalent Heritage

Author: Tiina Äikäs

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-09-05

Total Pages: 217

ISBN-13: 1350426768

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Exploring the difficult and contested sites of deindustrialized society on the brink of transformation to either heritage or wasteland, this volume looks at the creative ways that such sites are (re)used and suggests that they are not always merely abject or abandoned. As a result, our understanding of the meanings given to left over spaces is enhanced by an examination of the ways they are used. Ambivalent heritage sites are not always recognized for their potential, although artists and people from different recreational activities, such as industrial sites and parkour, use and experience these places in different ways. The contributors introduce fresh ideas on how to approach these sites and the people invested in them, employing multidisciplinary methodologies from archaeology and heritage studies to ethnography and sociology. Through the use of Northern-European case studies such as a former sanatorium, a prison and the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, the reader gains a new perspective on these sites of contestation, which are cherished despite their problematic status. The conclusion is that due to the rapid societal change we are experiencing in the contemporary world, heritage professionals must start to acknowledge and deal with the difficulties that ambivalent heritage sites pose.


The Christian Countercult Movement

The Christian Countercult Movement

Author: Douglas E. Cowan

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-08-31

Total Pages: 141

ISBN-13: 100906228X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Many seemingly strange questions on yoga, salvation, religious pluralism, and so forth have been actively debated among members of a small but influential group of evangelical apologists known as the Christian countercult movement. This Element explores the history of this movement from its origins in the anti-heresy writings of the early church to its modern development as a reaction to religious pluralism in North America. It contrasts the apologetic Christian countercult movement with its secular anticult counterpart and explains how faith-based opposition both to new religious movements and to non-Christian religions will only deepen as religious pluralism increases. It provides a concise understanding of the two principal goals of Christian countercult apologetics: support for the evangelization of non-Christian believers and maintenance for the perceived superiority of the evangelical Christian worldview.


New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion

New Religious Movements and Comparative Religion

Author: Olav Hammer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2024-02-22

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1009033824

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This Element provides an introduction to a number of less frequently explored approaches based upon the comparative study of religions. The reason for the fundamental similarity between older and newer religions is briefly explored.


New Religious Movements and Communal Societies

New Religious Movements and Communal Societies

Author: Cheryl Coulthard

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-12-31

Total Pages: 110

ISBN-13: 1009357360

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Popular understanding of communal societies tends to focus on the 1960s hippie colonies and ignores the rich and long history of communalism in the United States. This Element corrects that misperception by exploring the synergy between new religious movements and communal living, including the benefits and challenges that grow out of this connection. It introduces definitions of key terms and vocabulary in the fields of new religious movements and communal studies. Discussion of major theories of communal success and the role of religion follows. The Element includes historical examples to demonstrate the ways in which new religious movements used communalism as a safe space to grow and develop their religion. The Element also analyzes why these groups have tended to experience conflicts with mainstream society.


Black Hebrew Israelites

Black Hebrew Israelites

Author: Michael T. Miller

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2024-02-29

Total Pages: 148

ISBN-13: 1009400061

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Black Hebrew Israelite movement claims that African Americans are descendants of the Ancient Israelites and has slowly become a significant force in African American religion. This Element provides a general overview of the BHI movement, its diverse history/ies, ideologies, and practices. The Element shows how different factions and trends have taken the forefront at different periods over its 140-year history, leading to the current situation where diverse iterations of the movement exist alongside each other, sharing some core concepts while differing widely. In particular, the questions of how and why BHI has become a potent and attractive movement in recent years are addressed, arguing that it fulfils a specific religious need to do with identity and teleology, and represents a new and persistent form of Abrahamic religion.


The New Age Movement

The New Age Movement

Author: Margrethe Løøv

Publisher:

Published: 2024-10-02

Total Pages: 72

ISBN-13: 1009079301

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This Element introduces New Age religion. The New Age Movement is a loosely cohesive conglomerate of different spiritual currents with no common founder, leader, institution, dogma, or scripture. Because of its diversity, it may appear amorphous and incoherent at first sight. This Element emphasizes both the unity and diversity of the New Age. It approaches the phenomenon from three main perspectives: 1) the historical development of New Age religion, 2) ideas and practices associated with the New Age, and 3) the social organization of the New Age movement. It thus provides a wide-angle view that sketches out some of the main patterns that emerge from a mosaic of individual currents and actors associated with the New Age. It also highlights some of the differences within the movement by exploring some ideas and practices in depth.


Managing Religion and Religious Changes in Iran

Managing Religion and Religious Changes in Iran

Author: Sajjad Adeliyan Tous

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2024-06-30

Total Pages: 152

ISBN-13: 1009460102

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This Element offers a theoretically informed examination of the manner in which religion, especially alternative and emergent religious and spiritual movements, is managed by law and legal mechanisms in the authoritarian theocracy of Iran. It highlights how these phenomena have been affected by the intersection of law, politics, and Shiʿi theology in recent Iranian history. The growing interest of Iranian citizens in new religious movements and spiritual currents, fostered by the cultural diffusion of Western writings and ideas, is described. The development of religious diversity in Iran and a corresponding loss of commitment toward some Islamic doctrines and practices are of considerable concern to both the Iranian religious and political establishments. This has led to social control efforts over any religious spiritual movement differing from the regime's view of Islam. Those efforts, supported in large part by Western anticult ideas, culminated in the passage of a piece of stringent of legislation in 2021. The Element closes with applications of theorizing from the sociology of law and of religion.


Religious Innovation in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

Religious Innovation in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods

Author: Olav Hammer

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2023-08-10

Total Pages: 136

ISBN-13: 1009035312

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The scholarly study of new religious movements focuses on the contemporary period, but religious innovation is nothing new. This Element explores a historical epoch characterized by a multitude of emergent religious concepts and practices – the Hellenistic and Roman periods. A precondition for the intense degree of religious innovation during this time was a high level of cultural exchange. Religious elements crossed porous cultural borders and were adapted to suit new purposes. The resulting amalgams were presented in a vast corpus of texts, largely produced by a literate elite. Charismatic leaders played a particularly important role in creating new religious options and were described in genres that were infused with ideological agendas. Novel religious developments were accepted by the Roman authorities unless suspected of undermining the social order. The rise of one of the many new religions of the period, Christianity, ultimately changed the religious landscape in profound ways.