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In early twenty-first-century China, online fantasy is one of the most popular literary genres. This article studies a subgenre of Chinese fantasy named xiuzhen (immortality cultivation), which draws on Daoist alchemy in particular and Chinese religion and culture in general, especially that which was negatively labelled superstitious in the twentieth century, to tell exciting adventure stories. Xiuzhen fantasy is indebted to wuxia xiaoshuo (martial arts novels), the first emergence of Chinese fantasy in the early twentieth century after the translation of the modern Western discourses of science, religion, and superstition. Although martial arts fiction was suppressed by the modernizing nation-state because it contained the unwanted elements of magic and supernaturalism, its reemergence in the late twentieth century paved the way for the rise of its successor, xiuzhen fantasy. As a type of magical arts fiction, xiuzhen reinvents Daoist alchemy and other superstitious practices to build a cultivation world which does not escape but engages with the dazzling reality of digital technology, neoliberal governance, and global capitalism. In this fantastic world, the divide of magic and science breaks down; religion, defined not by faith but embodied practice, serves as the organizing center of society, economy, and politics. Moreover, the subject of martial arts fiction that challenged the sovereignty of the nation-state has evolved into the neoliberal homo economicus and its non-/anti-capitalist alternatives. Reading four exemplary xiuzhen novels, Journeys into the Ephemeral (Piaomiao zhilv ), The Buddha Belongs to the Dao ( Foben shidao ), Spirit Roaming ( Shenyou ), and Immortality Cultivation 40K ( Xiuzhen siwannian ), this article argues that xiuzhen fantasy provides a platform on which the postsocialist generation seek to orient themselves in the labyrinth of contemporary capitalism by rethinking the modernist triad of religion, science, and superstition. ; Published version

School vouchers. The Pledge of Allegiance. The ban on government grants for theology students. The abundance of church and state issues brought before the Supreme Court in recent years underscores an incontrovertible truth in the American legal system: the relationship between the state and religion in this country is still fluid and changing. This, the first of two volumes by historian and legal scholar James Hitchcock, provides the first comprehensive exploration of the Supreme Court's approach to religion, offering a close look at every case, including some that scholars have ignored. Hi

Cet ouvrage porte sur la transnationalisation de religions qui parcourent à l'envers les routes des échanges triangulaires entre l'Afrique, l'Europe et les Amériques. Les entreprises missionnaires des prophétismes africains partent à l'assaut des capitales européennes, les réseaux transnationaux des religions afro-américaines se déploient en retour en Amérique et en Europe, et les religions mexicaines sont "traversées" par la frontière américaine. La transcendance des frontières se nourrit de l'héritage de traditions inventées et de nations imaginées promues au rang de vecteurs d'universalité. Certaines religions voyagent dans les bagages des migrants; d'autres élargissent leur réseau de parenté rituelle par de nouvelles initiations ou par les circuits marchands du monde des objets artistiques, thérapeutiques et touristiques; d'autres effectuent leur envol par les voies missionnaires d'Églises indigènes ou circulent par les réseaux d'individus en quête de spiritualité

Cover -- Half Title -- Series -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of figures -- Notes on contributors -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Introduction: spaces of religion in urban South Asia -- 2 Defining the postcolonial sacred: contested places of worship and urban planning in Delhi after Partition, 1947-1951 -- 3 Inclusivism and its contingencies: following temple-goers in Kanpur -- 4 Conversionary Christian place-making in 19th-century Madurai -- 5 Sikh pilgrimage sites in the city of Nanded in Maharashtra -- 6 The production of Muslim space: Mohalla life and Milad celebrations in Lahore -- 7 The boundary within: demolitions, dream projects and the negotiation of Hinduness in Banaras -- 8 Mantras of the metropole: Chetan Bhagat's millennial Hinduism -- 9 Kālī and the queen: religion and the production of Calcutta's pasts and presents -- 10 Timelines and lifelines: landscape practices and religious refabulations from South Asia -- 11 Land-grabbing deities: the politics of public space in a multireligious neighbourhood -- 12 Making the "smart heritage city": banal Hinduism, beautification and belonging in "New India" -- 13 Hindutva 2.0 as information ecology -- 14 Purpose built: Islamabad, the Cold War, and non-Muslim minorities in Pakistan -- 15 "We stand, but we do not pray": religious plurality in a Mumbai chawl -- Index.

My comments on ethnic Americans stem from a particular and specific frame of reference. First, I am a Catholic priest. Indeed, as another sociologist remarked (not intending a compliment): "He's nothing but a loudmouthed Irish priest." (May it be etched on my tombstonel) Still, these are my views, not the or even a "Catholic position." I very much doubt that there is a Catholic position on anything at this stage of the disorganization of the Roman Church. Secondly, I assay a tentative model, subject to empirical testing sometime in the future, about the "civil religion" of the Catholic ethnic. (I take it, by the way, that "ethnic" is merely a euphemism for "Catholic" when most people use it. Such does seem to me unfair to Scandinavians, German Protestants and even Anglo-Saxons, who, if The Christian Century is to be believed, are now ethnics too.)

The emergence of the new states of Africa into world politics not only influenced the traditional balance of power in the international system, but also created a response among the older African states to restore the equilibrium of order maintained on the continent and fill the vacuum created by the departure of the colonial powers without clashing with the new nationalist movements. Henceforth, the search for influence had to take an ideological overtone. The activities of Egypt in Africa are a reflection of this. Since the mid-fifties, her African policy has aimed at creating a sense of community, cultural loyalty, and political integration. An attempt was made to reinforce the existing culture created by Islam and to transform it into what Pye and Verba call 'political culture'.1 Thus, Egypt turned gradually toward the employment of religion on the African continent as an instrument of its foreign policy.

The decline in support for religion among the populace and the intelligentsia which marked the opening decades of the twentieth century has been reversed during the years since World War II. On the one hand, swelling church memberships have been accompanied by a bland popular piety. On the other hand, intellectuals have undertaken a challenging new era of revisionist theology. The supply of clergymen has not kept pace either with the increasing memberships or with the expanding functions of the churches. One result is the enhanced importance of the laity. The financial needs of the churches have induced them to approach ever more closely the methods and structures of business. The divisions between the various denominations on doctrinal and ethnic points have lost much of their relevance, and efforts at merger and unification have been productive. The splintering and growth of sects and cults continues.

In July 1999, a mere seven years after the founding of the spiritual movement known as Falun Gong, the Chinese government banned it. Falun Gong is still active in other countries, and its suppression has become a primary concern of human rights activists and is regularly discussed in dealings between the Chinese government and its Western counterparts. But while much has been written on Falun Gong's relation to political issues, no one has analyzed in depth what its practitioners actually believe and do. The Religion of Falun Gong remedies that omission, providing the first serious examination of Falun Gong teachings and how those teachings relate to earlier Chinese religious ideas and contemporary society.

In July 1999, a mere seven years after the founding of the spiritual movement known as Falun Gong, the Chinese government banned it. Falun Gong is still active in other countries, and its suppression has become a primary concern of human rights activists and is regularly discussed in dealings between the Chinese government and its Western counterparts. But while much has been written on Falun Gong's relation to political issues, no one has analyzed in depth what its practitioners actually believe and do. The Religion of Falun Gong remedies that omission, providing the first serious examination of Falun Gong teachings and how those teachings relate to earlier Chinese religious ideas and contemporary society.

Thomas Hobbes is one of the most important figures in the history of political philosophy. Yet a great deal of his political thought was motivated by the need to address distinctively religious problems. This collection of essays is dedicated to the complex and rich intersections between Hobbes's political and religious thought

Temples and local communities -- Deities, speech groups, and temples -- Temple services, mediums, and temple promotion -- Localization and Chinese religion -- Pudu: the hungry ghosts festival -- Religious organizations and philanthropy -- Taoist religion in Malaysia

"Post-Conflict Processes and Religion: Lebanon" published on by Oxford University Press.