Suchergebnisse

Welcome back to the first century -- The experiential core of primal religions -- Encountering African traditional religions -- Africa's forgotten Christian heritage -- The essence of Yogic religions -- The way of the Buddha -- The nothingness of Buddhism -- The bewildering complexity of Hinduism -- The enigma of Hinduism -- The Abramic tradition -- The travails of Judaism -- Christians and Jews after the Holocaust -- The mission of Islam -- Responding to Islam.

This article questions Richard Steigmann-Gall's claim that leading National Socialists were essentially 'Christian' and that neo-pagan ideas played an insignificant role in the ideology of nazism. This is done by examining the argument of Dr Goebbels' novel Michael. Ein deutsches Schicksal in Tagebuchblättern (1929) to reveal its anti-Christian structure. Speeches and other statements by and about Goebbels are then looked at to show that his work is consistent with German neo-pagan thought. The role of Alfred Rosenberg is then re-examined, demonstrating that, contrary to the claims of Steigmann-Gall and many other writers, his work was highly regarded by Hitler and other nazi leaders and played a prominent role in promoting the National Socialist Weltanschauung. Finally, the argument is reviewed in terms of historical method, the problem of using literature to illustrate an author's ideas, and the researcher's encounter with a totally alien outlook.

Hexham reviews CULTS, Religion and Violence edited by David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton.

Whether or not Indology contributed to Nazism and the Shoah from the eighteenth century onward should be a straightforward empirical question examined with historical methods based on archival documents,1 original publications, insights, judgments of truth, and awareness of moral or existential bias of both the researcher and the researched. In the "Indologiestreit" between Vishwa P. Adluri (2011) and Reinhold Grünendahl (2012) published in this Journal, however, the question about the Nazification of Indology is overshadowed by Edward W. Said's political-literary narrative.2 Why? What is Said's mesmeric reproach of British and French depictions of the "Orient" all about? And why does it haunt the arguments of Adluri and Grünendahl? More curiously, why does Said omit German Indologists from his indictment of Western imperial power, sexual, and biblical fantasies of the "Orient"?3

"Although the Great Anti-Cult Crusade links new religious movements to dangerous cults, brainwashing, and the need for deprogramming, Karla Poewe and Irving Hexham argue that many cults are the product of a dynamic interaction between folk religions and the teachings of traditional world religions. Drawing on examples from Africa, the United States, Asia, and Europe, they suggest that few new religions are really new. Most draw on rich, if localized, cultural traditions that are shaped anew by the influence of technological change and international linkages."--BOOK JACKET