https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/gateway/plugin/WebFeedGatewayPlugin/atomJournal for the Academic Study of Religion2023-07-26T22:56:00+00:00Rosemary Hancockrosemary.hancock@nd.edu.auOpen Journal Systems<p>The <em>Journal for the Academic Study of Religion </em>is a fully refereed and interdisciplinary academic journal. The journal reflects the wide variety of research dealing with all aspects of the academic study of religion, but the journal does not publish purely confessional articles.</p>https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/26719W. Y. Alice Chan, Teaching Religious Literacy to Combat Religious Bullying: Insights from North American Secondary Schools2023-11-02T19:32:58+00:00Neville Buch
<p>W. Y. Alice Chan, Teaching Religious Literacy to Combat Religious Bullying: Insights from North American Secondary Schools, New York: Routledge, 2021, pp. 254, ISBN 9780367640415 (hbk). $77.99.</p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/26617Respect on Social Media:2023-11-02T19:33:00+00:00Cheah Shu XuLim Soo Jin
<p style="font-weight: 400;">The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the world to a halt with lockdowns and restricted public gatherings. This has resulted in religious organizations relying on social media to reach out to and stay in touch with their members. The current gauge of success of a social media community is based on the engagement and participation of its members—in liking, sharing, and generating content for the group. This article examines the online behaviour, through the use of online intensive interviews, of twenty-one young adults aged between 18–30 who were members of an online Buddhist Facebook group (BLIA YAD) during the pandemic. This article attempts to provide insight into the role of respect and effect on the online participation and engagement of its members. Respect being a crucial part of the belief system of the faithful has led to low levels of engagement and participation on the organization’s social media. This study examines the role that respect plays amongst the participants in the context of Malaysia where religion conservatism is at odds with the freedom of expression that is prevalent on most social media platforms.</p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/26174Anne F. Elvey, Reading the Magnificat in Australia: Unsettling Engagements2023-11-02T19:33:02+00:00Dianne Rayson
<p>Anne F. Elvey, Reading the Magnificat in Australia: Unsettling Engagements. Bible in the Modern World, 75. Sheffield: Phoenix Press, 2020, pp. 214, ISBN: 978-1-910928-79-0 (hbk). £70.00.</p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/26169Adam Possamai and David Tittensor, Religion and Change in Australia2023-11-02T19:33:04+00:00Rosie Clare Shorter
<p>Adam Possamai and David Tittensor, Religion and Change in Australia. London and New York: Routledge, 2022, pp. 213, ISBN: 9781032186030 (pbk). AUS$73.99/£34.99.</p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/25740Complementarianism, Heteronormativity and the Future of the Anglican Church2023-03-24T21:10:01+00:00Rosie Clare Shorter
<p>Within the Anglican communion tensions surrounding different approaches to sexuality and orthodoxy are not new. Among evangelical Sydney Anglicans, maintaining heteronormativity appears necessary for Christian living, maintaining orthodoxy and doing evangelism. I suggest that orthodoxy, sexuality and evangelism are held together by complementarian discourse. I explore this by focusing on the Sydney Anglican Diocese, reading former Archbishop Davies’ 2019 presidential address as an example of complementarian discourse. My reading primarily follows Sara Ahmed’s work on use and wilfulness. Drawing on interview and survey data collected between July 2019 and December 2020, I listen to the responses of parishioners and staff to the presidential address and the diocesan call to complementarianism, evangelism and heteronormativity. I suggest that complementarian models of ministry, and a concomitant refusal to affirm non-heterosexual intimacies, may actually be a barrier to living and doing Christianity in contemporary Australia.</p>
2023-03-24T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/25661Hans Mol and the Empirical Study of Australian Religion2023-11-02T19:33:06+00:00Andrew Singleton
<p>This article examines the Religion in Australia survey (RIA) that was conducted in 1966. Led by sociologist Hans Mol, this was the first major survey of religion in Australia. Mol’s findings were published in his landmark monograph, Religion in Australia (1971), which is arguably the most comprehensive work ever written on the religious lives of Australians. To reveal the varieties of Christian belief and practice, Mol developed a typology that categorised Australians into different kinds of believers (not unbelievers). However, Mol’s efforts were circumscribed by the computational, statistical and practical limitations of the time, and he barely engaged with the secularisation literature or other social developments. Using cutting-edge statistical procedures (latent class analysis), this article re-examines Mol’s empirical study of Australian religion and offers deeper and more complex insights into the ‘religious patterns of the Australian population’ in the 1960s. The article highlights Mol’s pioneering empirical sociology of religion and the contribution that he made to the understanding of post-war religion in Australia.</p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/25652Sarah Shortall, Soldiers of God in a Secular World: Catholic Theology and Twentieth-Century French Politics2023-11-02T19:33:09+00:00Andrew Clark-Howard
<p>Sarah Shortall, Soldiers of God in a Secular World: Catholic Theology and Twentieth-Century French Politics. Cambridge/London: Harvard University Press, 2021, pp. 338, $49.95/£43.95/€45.95, ISBN: 9780674980105 (hbk). </p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/25571The Circumplex of Faith Modes2023-11-14T16:37:47+00:00Piotr SzydłowskiJan Cieciuch
<p style="font-weight: 400;">This article presents the Circumplex of Faith Modes (CFM), a model that integrates and organizes the existing body of knowledge about the types of religiousness in the Allportian approach and related strands of research. The model was developed from the emic perspective, describing the various forms of Christian religiousness understood as the relationship between man and God within the community of the Church. Here, faith plays out in two domains: the relationship with Transcendence (God) and the relationship with the community of the Church (the psychosocial domain). In both domains, the various faith modes are described using two orthogonal dimensions: in the former domain these are (1) one’s attitude to God/relationship with God and (2) one’s attitude to the doctrine/rites/prescriptions/law; and in the latter domain the dimensions are (1) the significance/role of the religious community and (2) the role/strength of self in one’s personal attitude to God and the doctrine. The circumplex was created by superimposing the orthogonal dimensions of the two domains rotated by 45 degrees with respect to one another, with the four dimensions forming its main axes. The resulting model distinguishes and describes eight modes of faith (poles of the four dimensions), which are related to one another in specific ways and which comprise the Circumplex of Faith Modes. </p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/24439For God, Queen, Country and Israel2023-11-02T19:33:10+00:00Timothy Lynch
<p>The Christian Democratic Party was formed in 1977 with the aim of ensuring that Australian laws, institutions and mass media were consistent with Christian values. This article considers whether the strong support and practical aid that the party provided to the state of Israel from 2002 were relevant to its stated concerns. It is argued that the immediate cause of its enthusiasm for Israel was hostility towards Islam, which it came to see as a threat to Australian ‘Christian Nationhood’. The party subsequently adopted, but also adapted, Christian Zionist ideas and language, and incorporated support for Israel into its longstanding beliefs about and conduct of ‘spiritual warfare’.</p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23946Marion Maddox (ed.), Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism 1885–19172023-11-02T19:33:11+00:00Rosemary Hancock
<p>Marion Maddox (ed.), Charles Strong’s Australian Church: Christian Social Activism 1885–1917. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2021, pp. 208, ISBN: 9780522877892 (hbk).</p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23913Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Thoreau’s Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism2023-11-02T19:33:12+00:00Rebecca Banham
<p>Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Thoreau’s Religion: Walden Woods, Social Justice, and the Politics of Asceticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021, pp. 308, ISBN: 978-1-108-83510-7 (hbk). </p>
2023-11-02T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23622Charles McCrary, Sincerely Held: American Secularism and Its Believers2023-03-24T21:10:19+00:00Elenie Poulos
<p>Charles McCrary, Sincerely Held: American Secularism and Its Believers. Class 200: New Studies in Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021, pp. 296, ISBN: 9780226817958 (pbk). US$30.00.</p>
2022-09-20T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23529Introduction to the Special Issue2022-07-22T00:38:16+00:00Anna HalafoffEnqi WengAlexandra RoginskiCristina Rocha
<p>.</p>
2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23466Trish Griffin, Dancing on the Head of a Pin: Reflections on the Camino2023-03-24T21:10:21+00:00Jamie S Scott
<p>Trish Griffin, Dancing on the Head of a Pin: Reflections on the Camino. Kiama, NSW: AIA Publishing, 2020, pp. 158. Colour photographs. ISBN: 9781922329059 (pbk). AU$29.70; US$28.43.</p>
2022-09-28T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23297Dianne Rayson, Bonhoeffer and Climate Change: Theology and Ethics for the Anthropocene2023-03-24T21:10:23+00:00Eve Mayes
<p>Dianne Rayson, Bonhoeffer and Climate Change: Theology and Ethics for the Anthropocene. London: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021, pp. 283, ISBN: 978-1-9787-0183-0 (hbk). US$110.</p>
2022-09-28T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23265David Rankin, Film and the Afterlife2022-12-06T00:24:26+00:00Anton Karl Kozlovic
<p>David Rankin, Film and the Afterlife. London: Routledge, 2020, pp. viii + 193, ISBN: 978-0-367-78548-2 (pbk). £36.99.</p>
2022-09-20T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/23030David J. Shepherd (ed.), The Silents of Jesus in the Cinema (1897–1927)2022-12-06T00:24:29+00:00Anton Karl Kozlovic
<p>David J. Shepherd (ed.), The Silents of Jesus in the Cinema (1897–1927). London: Routledge, 2019, pp. xii + 292, ISBN: 978-0-367-86944-1 (pbk). $77.99.</p>
2022-07-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22964David Newheiser, Hope in a Secular Age: Deconstruction, Negative Theology, and the Future of Faith2022-12-06T00:24:32+00:00Petra Brown
<p>David Newheiser, Hope in a Secular Age: Deconstruction, Negative Theology, and the Future of Faith, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019, pp. 177, ISBN: 9781108498661 (hbk). $156.95 AUD.</p>
2022-07-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22882Andrew R. Polk, Faith in Freedom: Propaganda, Presidential Politics and the Making of an American Religion2022-12-06T00:24:36+00:00Manas Pandey
<p>Andrew R. Polk, Faith in Freedom: Propaganda, Presidential Politics and the Making of an American Religion. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2021, pp. 230, ISBN: 9781501759222 (hbk). $63.69 AUD.</p>
2022-07-13T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22810Selling (Con)spirituality and COVID-19 in Australia2022-10-04T14:18:23+00:00Anna HalafoffEmily MarriottRuth FitzpatrickEnqi Weng
<p>Conspirituality—the merger of conspiracy theories and spirituality—has attracted significant global media and scholarly attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article expands upon the ‘two core’ conspiritual convictions proposed by Ward and Voas that ‘1) a secret group covertly controls, or is trying to control, the political and social order, and 2) humanity is undergoing a “paradigm shift” in consciousness’. We identify an additional ten key convictions central to (con)spirituality, including those that result in vaccine hesitancy and/or refusal. We chose to bracket the ‘con’ to problematize the term, and to encompass a wider spectrum of spiritual beliefs and practices, including those that are non-controversial, those that may be deceptive cons, and/or those that draw on conspiracy theories. The article presents an analysis of these twelve (con)spiritual convictions, focusing on a sample of ‘Aussie Warriors’ selling (con)spirituality, and also on influencers attempting to counter the spread of dis/misinformation within wellness circles. In so doing, the article provides a more nuanced understanding of (con) spirituality and vaccine hesitancy, and a greater knowledge of the benefits and risks of spiritual practices and ideas during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.</p>
2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22674Doing the Lord’s Work or Taking His Name in Vain2023-03-24T21:10:25+00:00Juliet Chevalier-Watts
<p>This article considers the relationship between the law, charity and religion, and specifically, the charitable doctrines of the advancement of religion and public benefit. In doing so, it addresses a number of matters, including controversy and morality, from the perspective of some key religious charity law cases. The discussions consider whether or not the Lord’s name may be taken in vain through the works of these charities, and thus require legal reform, or whether charity law is indeed doing the Lord’s work within the constructs of charity law such that the law remains fit for purpose.</p>
2023-03-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22510Representations of Jesus in Australian Poetry in the 1950s2022-05-10T23:17:31+00:00Paul Watt
<p>Studies of Australian poetry in the 1950s are preoccupied with the form, function and style of the genre. Poetry was regarded as high art cultivated by learned men and women, and published by international publishers such as Oxford University Press. Religious poetry is occasionally represented in these anthologies, but poems of or about Jesus are noticeable by their absence. By contrast, poems about Jesus can be found in newspapers and in self-published or boutique anthologies of religious verse. These personal expressions of faith, outside the sphere of high art, often show both European and Australian imaginings of Jesus. A study of religious verse of the period outside of the canonical literature illustrates the variety of the genre in the 1950s and the significance it held for Australian Christians.</p>
2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22420On Splitting Wood and Lifting Stones2022-05-10T23:17:45+00:00Sean Winter
<p>One early Christian gospel attributes the following saying to Jesus: ‘I am the light who is above all things… Split a piece of wood—I am there. Lift the stone, and you will find me there’ (Gospel of Thomas 77). The aphorism suggests both the possibility of finding Jesus in ordinary, and therefore surprising, places, and the human labour that might lead to revelation. As such, it stands as a suggestive metaphor for the scholarly industry and instincts of this issue’s articles that chart the Christ-figure in Australian imagination. Drawing on biblical reception history and the arguments and strategies of these articles, I suggest that while Christian theology traditionally affirms Christ as universal redeemer (‘the light who is above all things’), these articles are a reminder that it is only inside and under the highly particular trees and rocks of locality, land and culture that Jesus will be found.</p>
2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22486Adiaphora2023-03-24T21:10:38+00:00Mark Jennings
<p>In April 2019, athlete Isileli ‘Israel’ Folau was sacked for posting anti-LGBTQ+ social media messages. The ‘Israel Folau case’ was contentious in Australia and internationally. Although Folau claimed to be expressing genuinely held Christian beliefs, he has previously articulated heterodox anti-Trinitarian ideas. Throughout Christian history, orthodox beliefs concerning the Trinity have been central. Conversely, same-sex desire has been variously tolerated or censured, but has mostly been regarded as adiaphora: a matter of marginal importance. I argue that the support Folau received from two conservative Christian bodies—the Australian Christian Lobby and the Anglican Diocese of Sydney—suggests that in Australian conservative Christianity, ‘orthodox’ sexuality is now regarded as central, with orthodox belief now de facto consigned to adiaphora.</p>
2023-03-03T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2023 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22476Religion, Trust, and Vaccine Hesitancy in Australia2022-07-22T00:38:52+00:00Thomas AechtnerJeremy Farr
<p>Religion has been identified as a potential driver of vaccine hesitancy. Nevertheless, the connections between religion and immunisation refusal can be complex, while there is a deficit of research exploring religion and vaccination doubts in Australia. With that in mind, this study considers Australian vaccine hesitancy with respect to religion and trust by analysing the 2018 Australian Survey of Social Attitudes and the Australian dataset of the 2018 Wellcome Global Monitor. Statistical analyses reveal no significant correlations between religion and vaccine hesitancy, while participants with negative vaccine attitudes identify that they do not have religious reasons for being vaccine hesitant. Nonetheless, a higher proportion of respondents with negative vaccine attitudes self-identify as religious or spiritual and maintain pro-religious views. It was also found that negative vaccine attitudes are correlated with unfavourable perceptions of both Jews and Muslims. Notably, religious self-identification divides two main groups of vaccine hesitant participants, described as Religious Conservatives and Nonreligious Progressives. These groups diverge on sexual ethics and social concerns, as well as around whether they trust in science as opposed to religion, while differing in their perceptions of Jews. What unites these vaccine hesitant participants, however, is a mutual lack of trust in government and scientists. </p>
2022-07-22T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22400Art and the Power to Save2022-05-10T23:17:55+00:00Kerrie Handasyde
<p>When churches protested the testing of atomic weapons, the rhetoric of power reigned. William Ricketts and Mary Packer Harris responded with religiously-informed artworks that protested humanity’s violence and subverted conventional representations of divine power. Harris, a Quaker, saw Christ crucified in every tree lost to Adelaide’s urban development and each atomic test. Ricketts, potter and founder of the William Ricketts Sanctuary, Mount Dandenong, produced sculptures protesting society’s violence toward First Nations peoples and the environment. While Harris remained resolutely Christian in her art and protest, Ricketts modelled Christ-like figures on himself. With clay-sculpted arms outstretched, he was Aboriginal Australia’s suffering saviour. Focusing on the years following atomic testing at Maralinga, this article examines the relationship between Harris and Ricketts and their representations of Christ in places of suffering that were ‘new’ to mid-century Australian consciousness, each hoping their art (if not Jesus) had the power to save.</p>
2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22399Introduction to the Special Issue2022-05-10T23:18:18+00:00Kerrie HandasydeKatharine Massam
<p>.</p>
2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22397Religiosity and Entrepreneurship in Post-Soviet Russia2022-12-06T00:24:39+00:00Edgar Demetrio Tovar-García
<p>This article empirically studies the associations between religion (Orthodox Christianity, Islam, and non-religion), religiosity (to be a believer or not, and to what extent), religious participation (attending divine services, meetings or other religious events) and the probabilities of being an entrepreneur in post-Soviet Russia. Using logistic regressions and data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey, the findings suggest lower likelihoods of being an entrepreneur in the case of Orthodox Christians, religiosity shows mixed results, and religious participation presents positive links (increasing the probabilities of becoming an entrepreneur). Nevertheless, the negative association between Orthodoxy and entrepreneurship lacks statistical significance in several specifications. Indeed, only religious participation shows robust results, particularly for men. Note that religious participation is linked to social capital, namely, networking, facilitating resources for entrepreneurship. Therefore, in Russia, the religion-entrepreneurship nexus is associated with participation, and not precisely with religious affiliations or beliefs.</p>
2022-09-22T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22396‘All Our Time’2022-05-10T23:18:21+00:00Katharine Massam
<p>Taking a cue from recent scholarship in Britain, this article explores the role of women as agents for religious change in Catholic classrooms in the mid-twentieth century. It takes examples from Melbourne, Australia where teachers had been influenced by the Young Christian Workers (YCW) Jocist method of ‘see, reflect, act’ and Cardijn’s inductive, Incarnational theology that challenged the traditional dualism between private faith and public life. In a democratisation of faith commitment, their method of theological reflection invigorated young people with a sense of their responsibility as disciples. Classroom teachers influenced by Jocist formation moved first through strategies designed to communicate relationship with Jesus, then an understanding of salvation history and then through approaches that enabled and encouraged engagement with reflection on experience. The everyday reality of Jesus not as an otherworldly friend but as a potential agent of social transformation is a significant shift from devotional styles of Catholic spirituality.</p>
2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.https://journal.equinoxpub.com/JASR/article/view/22394Jesus in Schools2022-05-10T23:18:42+00:00Amanda Burritt
<p>The 1872 Education Act stated that education in the state of Victoria would be ‘free, compulsory and secular’. In the years following World War II there was a broadly endorsed imperative to maintain British cultural identity as an essential component of the national character of Australia as a Commonwealth nation. Associated Protestant moral values were believed to be a crucial underpinning of good citizenship and democracy. In 1946 the Council for Christian Education in Schools (CCES) published an Agreed Syllabus for religious instruction in government state schools. In 1950 compulsory religious instruction was introduced into these schools. The representation in associated teaching material reflected a particular understanding of Jesus. A close contextualised reading of CCES curriculum documents from the 1950s reveals distinctive ways in which a ‘British’ Jesus was represented in Victorian classrooms and the extent to which this representation aligned with the interests of the state.</p>
2022-05-10T00:00:00+00:00Copyright (c) 2022 Equinox Publishing Ltd.