Religious Responses to Modernity Current IoE Survey published in an 2015 9000 respondents 25 of Britons think religion is a force for good in society some believers included in this category ID: 801451
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Slide1
Faith and Modernity
Lecture 2
Religious Responses to Modernity
Slide2Current IoE Survey – published in an 2015 (9000
respondents
)
25% of Britons think religion is a force for good in society (some believers included in this
category)
60% of women and 35% of men believed there
i
s
a life after death
54% of men and 34% of women claimed to be agnostic or atheist
No doubts experienced – 16% Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterian and URC; 33% Roman Catholics; 71% Evangelicals; 88% Muslims
Slide3ITN Poll
24% think religion is a force for good in the world
39% think Christianity is a force for good in the world.
Slide4Religion and Reason
Salman
Rushdie – ‘Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weapons, becomes a real threat to our freedoms’
John
McDade
(theologian) – ‘I stand with Rushdie in disbelief at what is done in the name of belief, but if there is a way forward it can only be by strengthening the bond between religion and reason, not by consigning religion to the category of unreason and locking religious believers inside an imaginary castle of nonsense’
The Tablet 24/1/15
Slide5Slide6Religious Responses to Modernity
1 Religious
ferment since the Enlightenment; some
examples
2 Religious
resistance to modernity (Fundamentalism)
3 Religious
adaptation to modernity
4 Some
thoughts on Coventry Cathedral
Slide71 Religious ferment since the Enlightenment; some examples
John Wesley; Joanna Southcott;
Muggletonians
Joseph Smith; Mormons
Miracles and apparitions
Lourdes (1858);
Bernadette
Soubirous
[www.lourdes-france.org]
Fatima, Portugal (1917)
Medjugorje
, Bosnia (1981- present)
[
www.medjugorje.org
]
Slide8Sites of Pilgrimage
Taizé
, France [www.taize.fr]
Mecca –
Haj
Kumbh
Mela
Festival [
www.hindu.org
]
http://news.sky.com/story/1043420/kumbh-mela-millions-gather-for-hindu-festival
Slide9Slide10Slide11Slide12Slide13Slide14Recent Cultic Activity
:
A Challenge to Enlightenment Values
1960s
‘New Age’ of Aquarius – hippy inspiration
Beatles – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Transcendental Meditation
1968/9 Charles Manson – ‘Manson Family’ – Pacific Palisades –
Spahn
Movie Ranch – Murders at 10050
Cielo
Drive – Film star Sharon Tate (wife of Roman
Polanskii
) and others
1978 Jim Jones – People’s Temple, San Francisco – mass suicide of 900 members in Jonestown, Guyana 18/11/1978
1997 Heaven’s Gate Cult San Diego
March 24/5/6 39 suicides (18 men 21 women) to release their souls to join a UFO concealed behind Hale-Bopp
comet
Among first to utilize web for cultic ends, based on astrology.
Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh (
Osho
) 1931-90
1970s based in
Pune
, India
Eventually 300,000 visitors per year to stay in the ashram.
Mixture of therapy, encounter groups, violence and sex
1981-5 moves to Oregon, takes over town of Antelope renames it
Rajneeshpuram
, home to thousands of, mostly Anglo-Saxon, western followers known as
Sanyassin
. Explosion between local community and the newcomers – shootings, bioterrorism (contaminating local salad bars with salmonella, 750 reported ill)
Movement of escapism, immediacy of living life to the full. (quotes)
Bhagwan
blessed by his grateful followers with no less than 93 Rolls
Royces
Slide15Slide16Slide17Recent Cultic Activity
:
A Challenge to Enlightenment Values
1960s
‘New Age’ of Aquarius – hippy inspiration
Beatles – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Transcendental Meditation
1968/9 Charles Manson – ‘Manson Family’ – Pacific Palisades –
Spahn
Movie Ranch – Murders at 10050
Cielo
Drive – Film star Sharon Tate (wife of Roman
Polanskii
) and others
1978 Jim Jones – People’s Temple, San Francisco – mass suicide of 900 members in Jonestown, Guyana 18/11/1978
1997 Heaven’s Gate Cult San Diego
March 24/5/6 39 suicides (18 men 21 women) to release their souls to join a UFO concealed behind Hale-Bopp
comet
Among first to utilize web for cultic ends, based on astrology.
Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh (
Osho
) 1931-90
1970s based in
Pune
, India
Eventually 300,000 visitors per year to stay in the ashram.
Mixture of therapy, encounter groups, violence and sex
1981-5 moves to Oregon, takes over town of Antelope renames it
Rajneeshpuram
, home to thousands of, mostly Anglo-Saxon, western followers known as
Sanyassin
. Explosion between local community and the newcomers – shootings, bioterrorism (contaminating local salad bars with salmonella, 750 reported ill)
Movement of escapism, immediacy of living life to the full. (quotes)
Bhagwan
blessed by his grateful followers with no less than 93 Rolls
Royces
Slide18Slide19Slide20Slide21Recent Cultic Activity
:
A Challenge to Enlightenment Values
1960s
‘New Age’ of Aquarius – hippy inspiration
Beatles – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – Transcendental Meditation
1968/9 Charles Manson – ‘Manson Family’ – Pacific Palisades –
Spahn
Movie Ranch – Murders at 10050
Cielo
Drive – Film star Sharon Tate (wife of Roman
Polanskii
) and others
1978 Jim Jones – People’s Temple, San Francisco – mass suicide of 900 members in Jonestown, Guyana 18/11/1978
1997 Heaven’s Gate Cult San Diego
March 24/5/6 39 suicides (18 men 21 women) to release their souls to join a UFO concealed behind Hale-Bopp
comet
Among first to utilize web for cultic ends, based on astrology.
Bhagwan
Shree Rajneesh (
Osho
) 1931-90
1970s based in
Pune
, India
Eventually 300,000 visitors per year to stay in the ashram.
Mixture of therapy, encounter groups, violence and sex
1981-5 moves to Oregon, takes over town of Antelope renames it
Rajneeshpuram
, home to thousands of, mostly Anglo-Saxon, western followers known as
Sanyassin. Explosion between local community and the newcomers – shootings, bioterrorism (contaminating local salad bars with salmonella, 750 reported ill) Movement of escapism, immediacy of living life to the full. (quotes) Bhagwan blessed by his grateful followers with no less than 93 Rolls Royces
Slide22Slide23Religious resistance to modernity (Fundamentalism)
Pope
Pius IX Syllabus of Errors (1864)
Doctrine of Papal Infallibility (1871) Vatican Council
Action
Française
Le Pen
Archbishop
Lefebre
Lateran Accords (1929)
Kulturkampf
(Prussia 1871-1878)
Pope Leo XIII
Rerum
Novarum
(1891)
Christian Democracy
primacy of the spiritual
opposition to all materialisms (capitalism/liberalism/socialism/ communism/rationalism)
concern for material welfare of poor and oppressed
responsibilities of property holding (stewardship) as well as rights
Slide24Protestant Fundamentalism
Protestant resistance
more tied up with anti-Darwinism
Scopes trial 1925 – Clarence Darrow; William Jennings Bryan (later U.S. Secretary of State) to contemporary creationists and ‘Intelligent Design’
1920 ‘those ready to do battle for the Fundamentals of Protestantism’ – Baptist newspaper.
1910 Presbyterian Definition of Fundamentalism
Biblical inerrancy
Virgin Birth of Jesus
Jesus died to redeem humanity from sin
Bodily resurrection of Jesus
Authenticity of miracles
Slide25Fundamentalism in the Middle East
Shari’a
law
Fatwas
Jihad
1977 Fall of Israeli Labour Party
1979 overthrow of Shah of
Iran replaced by Ayatollah
Khomeini
1979 election of President
Reagan
1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan - US funds militants in Peshawar including one Osama bin Laden
Islamic modernisers
Kemal
Ataturk (Turkey 1920s)
Nasser (Egypt 1950s)
Anti-imperialist religious rebellions
Shamil
(Caucasus 1850s
)
Mahdi
(Sudan 1890s
)
Indian Mutiny (1857)
Tai’ping
(1860s) and Boxer (1900-1) rebellions in China
Amritsar massacre
(1919)
Slide26Two Further Points
1. Anti-imperialist religious rebellions
Shamil
(Caucasus 1850s)
Mahdi
(Sudan 1890s)
Indian Mutiny (1857)
Tai’ping
(1860s) and Boxer (1900-1) rebellions in China
Amritsar massacre (1919)
2. [Adam Curtis – The Power of Nightmares (3 parts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg&index=1&list=PLtPP_-rkrT3CmuUxjezhbewL5C8fcI1Fv
A politics of fear is shared across the fundamentalist spectrum.]
Slide27Fundamentalists Converge
Slide28Adaptation
From
Biblical literalism to Bible
analysis
Teilhard
de
Chardin
(1881-1955
)
Christian Palaeontology
Pope John XXIII and Vatican II (early 1960s
)
Death of God theology – from transcendence to immanence
Liberation
Theology
Slide29Some thoughts on Coventry Cathedral
Finally
a few points about Coventry Cathedral notably
1. Its inconspicuous location; (argument over its reconstruction)
2. Its iconic status, along with the ruins, as a centre of peace and reconciliation
3. Its modernity of materials –glass screen; the tapestry design; light and airy interior; the Epstein bronze of St Michael and the Dragon combined with
4. A very traditional, neo-gothic feel – long, high nave, traditional shape.
Who lives in a house like this?
Slide30+
Slide31Slide32Slide33Slide34Slide35