14AR19-26

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Apologia Report 19:26 (1,209)

August 15, 2014

Subject: The growth of "yogaphobia"

In this issue:

SPIRITUALITY - What's next, "The philosophy of non-religious spirituality?"

STATISTICS - "one of the first important bricks in the wall of studies about international religious demography"

TOLERANCE - an argument rejecting claims of conscience for religious exemption

YOGA - defending "contemporary popularized forms of modern yoga"

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SPIRITUALITY

As goes the philosophy of religion, so goes "A Systems Model of Spirituality" by David Rousseau (director of the Centre for Systems Philosophy in Surrey, UK), who proposes "the development of a 'philosophy of spirituality' that can clarify the conceptual terrain, identify important research directions, and facilitate a comprehensive and interdisciplinary investigation into the nature, validity, and implications of spirituality’s conceptual and practical entailments." Zygon, 49:2 - 2014, n.p. <www.ow.ly/A9sHh>

(Now there's a challenge. Talk about having to deal with an extreme noise-to-signal ratio! - RP)

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STATISTICS

The World's Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography, by Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim [1] -- in this review Anne Goujon (Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital) reports that international religious demography is an "emerging discipline [that] aims to scientifically and objectively understand and forecast changes in religions. Hence, this book is one of the first important bricks in the wall of studies about international religious demography. ...

"In Part I (Chapters 1-4), the book analyzes the state of religion across the world in 2010 and adds an historical perspective by comparing how the shares and counts of religious populations have evolved since 1910. One merit of Part I is its truly global nature....

"Chapter 3 ... looks at religious diversification from the viewpoint of the two main determinants of religious population change, namely, migration and secularization. ...

"Part II of the book (Chapters 5-9) is specifically written for researchers and all those who want to know which data and methods are relevant for studies in the field of religious demography. It is an excellent source of information as it offers a wealth of details on the religious situation in each country and points out the limitations inherent in the data on population, births, deaths, migration by religion, and religious mobility. ...

"Part III (Chapters 10-14) presents some fascinating case studies on Muslims, religions in China, the Sudans, and the religious diasporas." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 53:2 - 2014, pp446-447.

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TOLERANCE

Why Tolerate Religion? by Brian Leiter [2] -- according to this review by Chad Flanders (St. Louis University School of Law), this is a "short, elegantly written book [about] questions of religious toleration. When should we 'put up' with religion and religious believers, and when should religion be bound by neutral, generally applicable rules, such as the rule 'no daggers in the classroom'? ...

"Leiter wants an argument for the principled toleration of religion, by which he means an argument that there is a good reason for one group to put up with the religious beliefs or practices of another group even when it deems those beliefs or practices false or offensive or both. Thus, Leiter wants 'an argument that would explain why, as a matter of moral principle, we ought to accord special legal and moral treatment to religious practices.' ...

"Leiter in the end defines religion as having two major aspects: 1) that it issues categorical demands and 2) that is does not answer ultimately to evidence or reasons, but relies on faith. He also considers two other aspects that religion *qua* religion might have: 3) it endorses a 'metaphysics of ultimate reality' and 4) it 'render[s] intelligible the basic existential facts about human life, such as suffering and death,' but he tends to downplay the third as reducible to the second, and adds the fourth mainly as a means to distinguish religion from morality. ...

"Should religious believers get legal exemptions from facially neutral laws? Leiter's answer is, no, and he presses the even broader claim that 'claims of conscience' in general should not be given exemptions. But Leiter adds nuance to his position.

"Even though claims of conscience may not be entitled to exemptions to facially neutral laws, the state nevertheless cannot 'directly target or coercively burden' such claims (including religious ones) 'unless they run afoul of the Harm Principle.' ...

"Leiter ... concludes that some religious *establishment* by the state - even an establishment of Catholicism! - could be compatible with principled toleration. ...

"Leiter writes late in his book, '[a]ny plausible conception of which regulations impermissibly *coerce or burden* claims of conscience must be ... attuned to local cultural norms and the factual context.'" Journal of Church and State, 56:2 - 2014, pp372-374.

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YOGA

"Who Is to Say Modern Yoga Practitioners Have It All Wrong? On Hindu Origins and Yogaphobia" by Andrea R. Jain (Department of Religious Studies, Purdue University) -- the abstract reads: "A growing movement courts fear of contemporary popularized forms of modern yoga is essentially Hindu. Christian protesters, whose position is identified as the Christian yogaphobic position, warn about the dangers of yoga given the perceived incompatibility between its Hindu essence and Christianity. Some add that yoga's popularization threatens the Christian essence of American culture. Hindu protesters, whose position is identified as the Hindu origins position, criticize popularized forms of yoga for failing to recognize yoga's Hindu origins and illegitimately co-opting yoga for the sake of profit. This article demonstrates that these positions are strikingly similar insofar as they are polemical, prescriptive, and share Orientalist and reformist strategies, and suggests that the two protesting positons emerge as much from the cultural context - that is, consumer culture - that they share with popularized forms of modern yoga as from a desire to erect boundaries between themselves and modern yogis." Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 82:2 - 2014, pp427-471.

(So now it's yogaphobia, eh? More and more of us are beginning to wonder how long it will take before we ALL get back to being theophobic in the biblical sense. - RP)

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SOURCES: Monographs

1 - The World's Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography, by Todd M. Johnson and Brian J. Grim (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013, hardcover, 400 pages) <www.ow.ly/A9tgB>

2 - Why Tolerate Religion? by Brian Leiter (Princeton Univ Prs, 2014, paperback, 216 pages) <www.ow.ly/A9tbK>

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