Zeitschrift für junge Religionswissenschaft

Editorial

2025-10-16T12:40:06+00:00

Humanistische und transpersonale Psychologie an der Grenze zu holistischen Formen der Spiritualität

2024-09-26T08:33:21+00:00

In cultural and religious studies discourses, a certain dynamic field of contemporary late-modern religious culture in "Western" societies is often referred to as a "holistic milieu". This term is based on the terminology of Paul Heelas, who primarily identified the emphasis on holism as a common component of the many different practices, ideas, and "new-religious" orientations. It was also Heelas who summarized the actors of the diverse practices as a holistic milieu (Heelas 2007: 63-80). This article focuses on a specific area of holistic-spiritual mindsets: the ideal of personality development or self-realization towards a higher self in the sense of an authentic personality or a higher consciousness. This is based on the hypothesis that what Höllinger and Tripold describe as the ideal of developing an authentic personality and a higher consciousness (human potential ethic) has undergone some far-reaching impulses, influences, reinforcements, semantic changes and expansions in the process of the development of a humanistic and transpersonal psychology in the second half of the 20th century. In order to demonstrate this, the article first describes the ideal of personality development and the idea of realizing the "true self" or an authentic personality, as it circulates in the holistic milieu, according to religious studies research. Subsequently, the concepts of self-realization/personality development as developed in the discourses and interactions of humanistic psychology and transpersonal psychology will be examined to illustrate the semantic range of the diverse concepts and ideas on this topic within the relevant discourses. For this purpose, some representative and particularly prominent representatives and authors of these currents are selected, and some central passages are analyzed.

How to: Religionswissenschaftliche Forschung zu, über und mit KI

2024-11-26T13:17:40+00:00

Artificial Intelligence (AI) impacts society, politics, and debates related to religion, making it a promising field for scholars of religion. This position paper outlines how AI can become a subject of investigation in religious studies, particularly in the fields of utopian/dystopian visions of AI, transhumanist ambitions, analogies to religion, ethical debates around AI and its explainability, and the ways in which field-relevant actors engage with the social implications of AI. It describes the opportunities and challenges of engaging with AI-related topics from a religious studies perspective and identifies promising areas of research. For this, the openness towards interdisciplinary research and sensitivity for the limitations of knowledge are relevant strategies. Finally, we demonstrate how research on, about, and with AI can succeed methodologically within the field of religious studies. The goal is to further establish this research segment, to connect junior scholars, and to facilitate communication about the scope and direction of the contributions of religious studies to public and academic discourse among researchers and other interested parties.

Sanfte Krieger und Hohepriester

2025-06-29T14:05:36+00:00

Chastity balls (Purity Balls) among evangelical Christians in the United States embody the ideals of Purity Culture (PC). At these events, the father-daughter relationship is central. In this paper, I focus on the conceptions of masculinity among evangelical Christians in the U.S. and on the ideals of Purity Culture. The aim of this paper is to investigate which notions of masculinity underlie Purity Balls in order to explain why these events promote a specific representation of masculinity. To address the research question, existing literature on Purity Balls, Purity Culture, and conceptions of masculinity in the United States was analyzed. The literature indicates that Purity Balls offer participating fathers an opportunity to enact a gentle and protective masculinity without relinquishing patriarchal control. Masculinity is affirmed not only through economic factors or aggressive behaviour, but also through spiritual and sexual purity. This dynamic provides important insights into the interplay between religious practices and gender roles and helps to illuminate the mechanisms through which conservative gender ideals are reproduced in modern societies.

Drawing Boundaries in Conversion

2025-06-02T14:35:11+00:00

This article examines Muhammad Asad’s The Road to Mecca, first published in 1954, through the lens of conversion narratives and boundary-drawing discourses. Asad’s autobiography recounts a spiritual journey from a Jewish upbringing in Europe to embracing Islam in the Middle East, presenting religious transformation not as a sudden epiphany but as a gradual, reflective process of learning and enlightenment. The analysis of this specific conversion narrative explores three types of boundary-drawing between the ‘West’ and ‘Islam’ by intertwining personal experiences, collective identities, and stereotypes with broader critiques of Western society. Asad’s depictions of the Islamic world, especially his romanticized view of Bedouin life and his critique of Zionism, modernity, and colonialism, reflect both classic orientalist topics and a reverse-orientalist stance. This article considers the implications of framing conversion as a progressive realization and the ways this rhetoric aligns with academic conversion theories. It further investigates Asad’s presentation of his pre-conversion attitudes as entirely negative and post-conversion as idealistic and salvific, contributing to a discourse of self-othering that embraces his new identity as an Islamic intellectual and diplomat. The findings suggest that Asad’s approach constructs a dichotomy between the West and Islam, offering new insights into the dynamics of conversion narratives and their role in shaping socio-religious identities.

Basel begrüßt den religionswissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs

2025-06-09T18:36:26+00:00

Bericht zum Studierendensymposium 2025 in Basel

Die Denkfigur der Hexe und Enchanted Epistemes: Alternative Wissenssysteme, magische Praktiken und die Wiederverzauberung der Welt

2025-02-13T09:57:59+00:00

This conference report reviews the workshop "WITCHES! Study of Religions Perspectives on Knowledge, Gender, and Magic," which took place from June 1 to 3, 2024, at the University of Basel, bringing together members of the Enchanted Epistemes working group. The participants discussed the religious historical contexts of European imaginations of the witch, as well as their contemporary transformation processes and intersections with discourses on gender, representation, and identity. With a particular focus on empirical research on contemporary contexts, the speakers examined receptions and reconceptualizations of the witch in neopaganism and feminist spirituality, as well as their ongoing revitalization in social media. A visit to the Witch Museum in Switzerland highlighted the connection between historical narratives and contemporary practices. The concluding discussion located the figure of the witch at the intersections and friction points of science, art, and spirituality.