Embedded Files
( - previous issue - / - next issue - )
AR 25:27 - Catching up on Nova Religio
In this issue:
GURDJIEF, GEORGE IVANOVICH - the Enneagram was his alone?
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - academia finally "examines the issue of pedophiles within the Church"
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH - "a reflection of widely held anti-gay views espoused ... by sizable swaths of the American population"
Apologia Report 25:27 (1,484)
July 9, 2020
It's been a long time since we've scanned Nova Religio, "The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions" - only recently discovering that access to it has become free (at least for the present). It appears that the available breadth of field is resulting in a shift of focus more toward the overwhelming arcane minutiae common to the new religions arena. Still, topics of greater interest to our readers remain, such as the following:
GURDJIEF, GEORGE IVANOVICH
The Enneagram of G. I. Gurdjieff: Mathematics, Metaphysics, Music, and Meaning, by Christian Wertenbaker [1] -- Constance A. Jones (California Institute of Integral Studies) begins her review: "Introduced to the modern world by G.I. Gurdjieff (1866?–1949), the enneagram is a schematic diagram that the Greek-Armenian esoteric teacher believed was preserved in secret for a very long time and could be understood only with the tutelage of one who knew its meaning. [T]he complex relationships denoted in the diagram are central to the main ideas in Gurdjieff’s teaching and were delineated in his oral discourse and subsequently published.
"Christian Wertenbaker, a physician ... combines his scientific expertise with considerable understanding of esoteric teachings to examine this little-understood esoteric symbol. He cites Gurdjieff’s explanation of the enneagram [which is] used to discern and interpret knowledge at all levels of reality. [T]he enneagram addresses both consciousness and time, two aspects of reality not as easily understood by the science of our era." It describes "the possible evolution of human consciousness, as well as the evolution of the universe. ...
"Wertenbaker explores how Gurdjieff, much as Pythagoras, used numbers as tools for calculation, but also ... as symbols, which constitute entities unto themselves, can initiate expansion of consciousness and opening to higher states of awareness and knowledge. ...
"Wertenbaker argues that discovery of meaning within the structure and movement of the enneagram leads to understanding humanity’s role in the universe and the human responsibility to combine the inner worlds of awareness and sensation with the outside world. Combination of the inner and outer worlds creates a third world, which is a promise of full consciousness. Is this Gurdjieff or Wertenbaker’s analysis? It is unclear whose voice we are hearing at times." Nova Religio, 23:3 - 2019, pp117-8, <www.bit.ly/2BC9pKO>
For more on Gurdjieff from our past issues, visit <www.bit.ly/2Z9qnrY>
---
JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
In spite of mostly covering just the basics, Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change, by George D. Chryssides [2], is lauded by reviewer James T. Richardson (University of Nevada, Reno), who predicts it will "stand the test of time and become a much-cited source for future scholars."
Described as a "much needed update on developments within and surrounding the Jehovah's Witnesses by one of the leading scholars who has done serious research [it begins with] a thorough assessment of previous scholarship of various types about the Witnesses. ... The first chapter also reveals much about sources used and has a useful discussion of ethical dilemmas faced by researchers dealing with religious groups with which they become well integrated. ...
"Chapter 5 focuses on opposition to the Witnesses, which has always been a major factor in the group's history" such as condemnation of their refusal to salute the flag, sing national anthems, serve in the armed forces, observe birthdays or holidays, or accept blood transfusions.
"Several substantial chapters then describe in detail the cultural life of Jehovah's Witnesses and the changes that have occurred in the beliefs and in the everyday life of Witnesses. ... It is obvious that the author has developed excellent rapport with the Witnesses over the years....
"Another chapter offers great specifics on the worship ceremonies, meetings, conventions, and other rituals of the Witnesses. ... The chapter on prophecy outlines the many predictions of the end times that have not been borne out.... have been successfully reinterpreted by the Witnesses in a manner that has not been destructive of the organization.
"In the final chapter, 'Problems and Prospects,' Chryssides delves into various issues that have arisen as the Witnesses have grappled with value changes associated with growing modernity of the greater society. ... The author also examines the issue of pedophiles within the Church [sic], a controversy that has occurred not only among the Witnesses but among a number of other religious groups. Finally, he notes the discussions occurring within the Church [sic] to modify certain doctrines, such as its position on blood transfusion." Nova Religio, 21:2 - 2017, pp118-9, <www.bit.ly/2A2XW6n>
For more about JW sexual abuse from our past issues, visit <www.bit.ly/31jPrzg>
---
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH
God Hates: Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right, by Rebecca Barrett-Fox [3] -- reviewer Philip Deslippe (University of California–Santa Barbara) reports that this is "the first full-length study" of WBC by someone from the social-science camp. "God Hates provides not just an excellent overview and history of the church, but also endeavors to place it within a wider religious and political context.
"The first three chapters of the book focus on the history, theology, and actions of the Westboro Baptist Church respectively. ... The reader can see how Phelps' antagonistic legal background and local disputes between the church and Topeka, Kansas authorities over homosexual activity in a public park nearly three decades ago could develop into the current group of international notoriety. Much of what makes the church seem so incomprehensible to outsiders is rooted in its 'hyper-Calvinist' doctrinal concerns, including double predestination and total depravity. [T]he third chapter highlights just how deliberate and media savvy the church has been in delivering its message to the public. Its members have adopted new forms of technology....
"If Barrett-Fox makes the apparent strangeness of the Westboro Baptist Church more familiar in the first three chapters of her book, the fourth and fifth chapters render the familiar opposition to the church strange. ... It is noteworthy that even fellow Primitive Baptists make efforts to publicly stand apart from the group and their pickets. But as Barret-Fox notes, although nobody 'claims kin' to the Westboro Baptist Church, many of those who try to distance themselves from the group are clearly related to them. As the author details in her fourth chapter, the Religious Right and the Westboro Baptist Church not only share many of the same political goals and theological reasoning on gay rights, gay marriage, and LGBT members in the military, but the offensive delivery of the church allows its mainstream 'cobelligerents in antigay activism' (the title of her fourth chapter) to appear more palatable and reasonable to the public in comparison.
"The final chapter focuses on the Westboro Baptist Church's protests at military funerals—sites where the solemnity of mourning merges with the symbolic power of the armed forces, the family, and the nation. ... The most infamous practice of the church is also the one that most separates it from their allies in the Religious Right. These protests also strain the tolerance of those who would otherwise believe in unimpeded free speech. The contested boundaries of free speech thus put the Westboro Baptist Church in the position of relying on the rights given to them by the same America whose damnation they applaud. ...
"[T]he members of the Westboro Baptist Church see animosity against LGBT people among those who want to join them as a clear sign that would-be members do not share the church's godly motivations. Further complicating the narrative of a simple hate group, Barret-Fox notes that all of the second-generation members she interviewed described their families in the church as loving, and confessed that abandoning such a caring environment was often the most difficult part of leaving the Westboro Baptist Church. ...
"Counter-protesters and impassioned opposition to the church do little more than reinforce members' view of the outside world as depraved and their sense of themselves as an isolated and prophetic 'lone remnant.' Those who attempt to use the Bible to undercut or persuade church members are ignorant of not only the familiarity that adherents have with scripture, but also how easily the particular hermeneutical methods of the church can withstand the interpretations of outsiders. Likewise, appeals to imagined universal sentiments such as decency and kindness ignore the fact that the Westboro Baptist Church dismisses those sentiments or understands itself as already acting upon them."
Barrett-Fox "shows not only how the religious margins and center can inform one another, but how relevant work on small and marginal groups can be. In her conclusion she offers the Westboro Baptist Church not as an aberration of several dozen people, but a reflection of widely held anti-gay views espoused in public and in private by sizable swaths of the American population." Nova Religio, 23:2 - 2019, pp131-2, <www.bit.ly/2A2XW6n>
-------
SOURCES: Monographs
1 - The Enneagram of G. I. Gurdjieff: Mathematics, Metaphysics, Music, and Meaning, by Christian Wertenbaker (Codhill, 2017, paperback, 144 pages) <www.amzn.to/2ZoWHHB>
2 - Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change, by George D. Chryssides (Routledge, 2018, paperback, 320 pages) <www.amzn.to/31fsayk>
3 - God Hates: Westboro Baptist Church, American Nationalism, and the Religious Right, by Rebecca Barrett-Fox (Univ Prs Kansas, 2016, hardcover, 256 pages) <www.https://amzn.to/2VjpICZ>
------
( - previous issue - / - next issue - )
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse