22AR27-41

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AR 27:41 - From institutional religion to intuitional religion

In this issue:

ANIMISM - "seeking to secure personhood rights for nonhuman beings through legal means"

ISLAM - "We know more than you ever could regarding the dark things in Islam"

ORTHODOXY - "lift up the beauty of orthodoxy and authentic Christianity"

Apologia Report 27:41 (1,594)

December 1, 2022

ANIMISM

"'Animism' recognizes how animals, places and plants have power over humans – and it's finding renewed interest around the world" by Justine Buck Quijada (Associate Professor, Department of Religion, Wesleyan University) <www.bit.ly/3ElhVKE> -- begins: "A movement known as 'new animism,' which seeks to secure personhood rights for nonhuman beings through legal means, is gaining a following around the globe. ...

"The renewed interest in animism stems from the hope that people will behave in more ecologically sustainable ways if they believe that the natural world around them is alive. ...

"Animism is not a religion or even a set of beliefs about nature having a soul. It's a term used by scholars to classify religious practices through which human beings cultivate relationships with more powerful beings that reside in the world around us. ...

"The term animism was coined by an early anthropologist, Edward Burnett Tylor, in 1870. Tylor argued that Darwin's ideas of evolution could be applied to human societies; he classified religions according to their level of development.

"He defined animism as a belief in souls: the existence of human souls after death, but also the belief that ... mountains, rivers and trees, had souls." In Tylor’s view, animism was the first stage in the evolution of religion, which "developed from animism to polytheism and then to monotheism, which was the most 'civilized' form of religion. From this perspective, animism was the most primitive kind of religion....

"Scottish philosopher David Hume ... made a very similar argument <www.bit.ly/3ACue4f> in the Natural History of Religion, in 1757. Tylor was, however, the first to use the term animism and the classification scheme as part of what was then the nascent field of anthropology, the scientific study of human society. ...

"In 1967, historian Lynn White Jr., himself a devout Christian, argued that the world's environmental problems came from Christian dominion theology. ...

"White's argument was that this idea of dominion is what makes environmental exploitation under capitalism possible, and that argument was compelling to many environmentalists, who began to develop an interest in Indigenous belief systems as a way to fix environmental problems. ...

"Animism describes practices that establish a relationship between places and people, usually one that recognizes places, animals and plants have power over people. ...

"These practices can be religious rituals, but they can also be forms of environmental care, farming practices or protests, such as those conducted by the water protectors at Standing Rock, known as the No Dakota Access Pipeline...." The Conversation, 13 Oct '22, <www.bit.ly/3iuikmW>

Of possible interest:

* - Quijada's 2020 book <wwww.bit.ly/3EGLkAk> Buddhists, Shamans, and Soviets. Rituals of History in Post-Soviet Buryatia, reviewed in Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (16:2 - 2021), <www.bit.ly/3Oeoy6e>

* - "Bizarre rituals to summon spirits across Russia to back Vladimir Putin" by Shawaz Ahmad (Mirror, Oct 13 '22), <www.bit.ly/3TPFYai>

* - The general topic of "personhood rights" has been covered in AR multiple times over the past decade <www.bit.ly/3iz61pa>

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ISLAM

Ever wonder where someone fits on this continuum: "Too young for patient empathy, or too old for vibrant zeal?"

A.W. Workman begins with a Muslim's defensive accusation: "You don't have to point out what's wrong with our religion. Deep down, we know more than you ever could regarding the dark things in Islam."

The context is found in Islam's honor-shame cultures and the spiritual war which is always going on in the background when Truth confronts a lie. Workman uses John 4 to show how our Master "doesn't take the bait" in worldview confrontation because the bait is so often "meant to deflect from the real heart issues going on."

The bait in this case? Beating-a-dead-horse topics like "child brides, slavery, wife-beating, the killing of Jews and infidels, the hypocrisy of the religious establishment, and the jihad-gained wealth of Muhammad and his companions...."

The moment? Noticing how "our conversation can keep on going since no open attacks on honor have yet taken place." Workman explains how "the respectful long approach to these topics and the relational credibility established by that point often mean a very different kind of conversation."

Workman has "found that local believers are able to engage in helpful polemics much more quickly than we are, because they are not viewed as outsiders. This seems to mean that the honor-shame defense mechanism doesn't trigger in quite the same way for them as it does for us...."

He has learned that there is wisdom in "giving a man some roast lamb before we try to take his poorly-cooked rice away." First, "set the lamb down, let him smell and taste it, and then attempt the rice."

Workman fills in the gaps we've intentionally left above, and the account is well worth reading. The underlying idea of this piece is found in its title: "Why We Go Light on Polemics." Entrusted to the Dirt, Oct 4 '22, <www.bit.ly/3GqJOUi>

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ORTHODOXY

"Why Orthodoxy Matters in a Day of Intuitional Spiritualities" by Trevin Wax (VP, research and resource development, North American Mission Board) in The Gospel Coalition, Oct 13 ,22 -- reflects on new research <www.bit.ly/3Nz18YL> showing rapidly rising numbers of the religiously unaffiliated in the United States....

He cautions: "Don't assume the rise of the unaffiliated means the rise of secularism, as if atheists and agnostics will now become the norm in the United States."

Instead, "It's a shift from institutional religion to intuitional religion:

"A religion of emotive intuition ... that still seeks - in various and varying ways - to provide us with the pillars of what religion always has: meaning, purpose, community, ritual.

"You may not realize it yet, but this description of the religiously unaffiliated is also true of many people in established religious communities.

"Christianity's 'competition' is not primarily other religions or cults - not institutions, but pseudoreligions of the intuitional variety. ...

"The battle isn't about good and evil in the world as much as it's about pursuing what's good for you and avoiding what's bad for you.

"We could also point to the resurgence of New Age thought, Wiccan spirituality, and even the pseudoreligious communities adopted by people who base their identity in their sexuality...." Add to this "the 'religion of social justice' that replicates the cornerstones of traditional religion (meaning, purpose, and community) in a narrative of good versus evil. ...

"What we need are heralds focused more on a different kind of authenticity: the authentic Christian gospel. And authentic Christianity isn't something we invent; it's something we discover.

"This is the adventure I describe <www.bit.ly/3TTAWd6> in The Thrill of Orthodoxy. [I]f our tendency is to adorn 'truth' with adjectives like my and your, and never the, we're fundamentally violating the very definition of 'truth' to begin with. ...

"The greater adventure comes when you find something beyond the realm of my perspective and your experience - truths we didn't invent or adapt to suit ourselves but truths we discovered, to which we adapt. We must lift up the beauty of orthodoxy and authentic Christianity in a world of intuitional, personalized spiritualities." <www.bit.ly/3hVDOc1>

To get a foretaste of Wax's book, check out twenty selected quotes here: <www.bit.ly/3FhzuNA>

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