Political Ponderings (Asynchronous Session)
Weaponizing Orthodox Christianity: Religion as a Weapon of the Past and Present Cold War
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Aleksei V. Andreev
From the very beginning of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR, both sides of the conflict tried to use religion as an instrument of ideological confrontation. Joseph Stalin tried to hold the Pan-Orthodox Council in Moscow, wishing to make the capital of the USSR the center of the entire Orthodox world. The US President, Harry Truman, however, supported the Ecumenical Patriarch, Athenagoras, who had taken a sharply anti-communist position. Therefore, from the middle of the 20th century, both the United States and the Soviet Union used their influence on the Orthodox Church to achieve their political goals. Once the USSR collapsed, independent states, including Russia and Ukraine, emerged from its ruins. In connection with Ukraine, some time ago, the confrontation in the religious sphere between the two powers resumed once again. The US supported the initiative of Kiev to create an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which, by the Russian side, was perceived as a resumption of the confrontation between the two powers in the religious sphere. Using political influence in the Middle East and the Balkans, Moscow tried to organize its own coalition of Orthodox churches which would oppose the US influence. With the continuation of the Cold War between the US and Russia, the religious conflict in Ukraine and tensions in the global Orthodox community emerged once again. This paper examines the history of the religious factor in relations between the USSR and the USA as well as the current state of affairs.
Burying the Other: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of the Impact of Colonialism on Burial Practices in Africa View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Milo Rhys Teplin
Comparing the treatment of the dead across different strata of societies before and after colonial influence changed societal structures shows an interesting pattern in African societies. By looking at the Kikuyu in Kenya, the Igbo in Nigeria, the Ga in Ghana, and the Ndembu in Zambia, this much is clear: having separate burial areas for different members of society is a common practice that creates unnecessary and dangerous social anxieties when the European structure of a universal burial ground is forced onto those people. This is true even if several generations exist over which the change has been happening. Further illustrative evidence of both these anxieties are shown by examining the Wari’ of the Amazon basin, as well as evidence of these practices having worldwide universality in medieval writings on revenants from Serbia and Russia.
Christ the King and the Vision of the Catholic Church : Quas Primas and the Impact of Pius IX Encyclical on World Politics (1925-1939) View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alfonso Gómez-Rossi
This paper considers how Christ the King’s feast can be understood as a rejection of the political regimes that were instituted after the Great War (1914-18) in Europe and the Americas. To counter them, Pope Pius XI enunciated that Christ was king of this world and the universe and that for peace to succeed this fact needed to be recognized. Pius XI’s encyclical attempted to institute a political project in which the realm of God was found on this earth, a vision that competed with the new regimes that were established during the interwar period. Christ the King became a political symbol for Catholics to refute political regimes that dogged Catholicism. A year after the institution of "Quas Primas" Mexico became the first country to start a civil war with the symbol of Christ the King as a political project inspired by the Pope’s Encyclical. By the time of Pius XI’s passing in 1939 at the dawn of the Second World War, Catholics in Spain and Belgium would have also attempted to use the image of Christ the King as a symbol of their particular political agenda, which symbolized the kingship of Christ over a world gone awry politically.
Empirically Understanding Community Responses to Sexual Abuse in the Church to Inform Reconciliatory Procedures View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rebecca Wong
Abuse in the church is something that cannot be ignored, yet responses to this kind of abuse have been inconsistent and harmful. The division between church and state poses challenges in reconciling this type of abuse because the primary interest protected by tort law is personal bodily security, while the primary interest of constitutional law protects First Amendment rights, including freedom of religion. The purpose of this research is to understand how the priorities of the congregation can inform proceedings after sexual assault in the church according to the nuanced relationship between the church and state. This research will focus on the community impact of abuse outside the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim/survivor. Participants in this study took a survey indicating their responses to a hypothetical scenario regarding the sexual assault of a non-minor in the congregation by a leader of the church. I found that the victim’s healing is the primary priority of the congregation and that most participants wanted the legal system to be more involved after a sexual assault. There was dissonance in participants’ definitions of grace and accountability, which may be a primary reason why there is disunity among congregational responses to nuanced and harmful circumstances such as sexual assault in the church. The relationship between church and state is something that needs to be scrutinized when it comes to sexual assault in the church because religious exemptions give organizations a loophole from accountability to standards that the general public must adhere to.
The Umayyad Caliphate: A Legacy of Byzantium or a Product of the Seventh Century Arabia? View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Rafiq Rayani
The first political dynasty of Islam, the Umayyads (661-750 CE), adopted some of the previous structures and practices of the Byzantine Empire after assuming power. This paper contests, by taking the example of the Umayyad architecture and administrative structures, that it was only in the nascent stage of the dynasty that elements of the Byzantium civilization were starkly present. The Umayyad dynasty eventually introduced their own innovations, building upon their predecessors. These new developments gave the Umayyads a unique identity since it was an ‘appropriation’ of the previous ways rather than an upright reception. This paper also highlights the political undertones and signs of political legitimacy that were evident from some of the changes brought about by the Umayyad dynasty. In addition to the critical analysis of primary and secondary literature, historical sources such as coins, inscriptions, and poetic fragments from both of the dynasties are also utilized for the purpose of this research.
Religious Censuses and the Academic Field in Brazil: Articulations and Tensions Between Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics and Religion Experts Regarding the Classification of Religions View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Henrique Fernandes Antunes
This work focuses on the collaborations between researchers of religion and the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) regarding Religious Censuses. We analyze how the problem of categorizing religions became the central axis of the debate among scholars and also a reason for tension between scholars and IBGE. Our aim is to demonstrate that the criticism of the Census by specialists in religion is not only technical and institutional but also has an epistemological dimension. While researchers were concerned about capturing the phenomenon of religious diversification and the emergence of new “cults” in Brazil, IBGE was focusing on enumerating “churches.” As a result, the notion of religious affiliation, implicit in the operation, ended up reiterating, paradoxically, the synonymy religion/church that the academic debate was distinguishing and the qualitative research seeking to overcome.
A Servant of Two Masters? Tunisia’s Claim to Both Secularism and State Islam View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Keiko Cooper Hohn
This study investigates how and why Tunisia’s 2014 Constitution describes the nation as both an Islamic and civil state, and what effect this duality has on the philosophies and practicalities of Tunisian governance. When interviewed, former state officials (employees of government ministries or national companies) firmly defend Tunisia’s secular nature and equal treatment of all religions, while also recognizing the influence and favor of Islam in Tunisian public life and policy. In an effort to reconcile the discrepancy between Tunisia’s proclamations of secularism and the prevalence of Islam in its public sphere, this thesis considers three key explanations: the entrenchment of compromise in Tunisian culture, the benefit of secular and religious titles to Tunisian trade and diplomacy, and the power of word association.
