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articles

1. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Sean Remz, Dilmurat Mahmut, Orcid-ID Abdulmuqtedir Udun, Susan J. Palmer Orcid-ID

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This study explores the new strands of an emerging theodicy among Uyghurs living in diaspora. This study is based on material collected from recorded discussions generated during online introductory classes on the Qur’an, and from interviews with Uyghur Imams residing in Canada and Turkey. The ongoing persecution of Muslims in the Uyghur Homeland by the Chinese government (recently recognized as a “genocide” by the governments of eight countries) has led many Uyghurs to attempt to explain these atrocities through an Islamic religious lens. Similar strategies have been noted in the Jewish theodicy that emerged in the wake of the Holocaust—where the suffering of victims of genocide were interpreted as either a divine test or punishment. Using to these new examples of theodical thinking found among Uyghurs living in the diaspora, we have crafted a typology of four different approaches to the problem of evil and suffering. These include the gnostic argument, the mythic argument, the apocalyptic argument, and the mystery argument. Special attention will be given to the mystery argument because it appears to be an incipient pastoral theodicy that poses a challenge to the test-or-punishment paradigm by valorizing political activism and emphasizes the intergenerational transmission of Uyghur identity. Affinities between Uyghur theodicy and certain Jewish Holocaust theodicies are explored, with a focus on covenantal paradigmatic thinking, the political quietism of Hasidic Hungarian borderland Grand Rabbis in the early 1940s, and the dynamic “broken theodicy” of Rabbi Kalonimus Kalman Shapiro.
2. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Felix Parker

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This article explores the role of evolved pattern recognition in the development and divergence of mental frameworks underlying creative and metaphysical thought in Hominid species. It examines the emergence of figurative artistic expression through the lenses of Darwinian evolutionary theory and Gaboran honing theory, testing the limits and overlap of these methodologies when applied to humanity’s archaic relatives. This is contrasted with complex philosophical and artistic traditions of a relatively recent human society, Early Modern Persia. There is something of a taboo around the application of evolutionary psychology in some sociological circles due to its frequent misuse in pop science to dismiss societal change: an appeal to antiquity rebranded as biological determinism. This article will expand the use of evolutionary psychological methodologies in moderation as an additional tool in the study of archaic humanity and its relatives. It finds there is an evolutionary substratum to the development of creative thought, but that its recognisable features for a modern human were unlikely to have initially been selected traits themselves: this evolutionary substratum is a basis of sensory and conceptual pattern recognition traits, generating a mental atmosphere conducive to the development of collective strata of conceptual association, and is traceable to prehistory.
3. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Joseph Azize

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When P. D. Ouspensky (1878–1947) is noted today, it is generally as a quondam pupil of G. I. Gurdjieff (c.1866–1949), and the author of In Search of the Miraculous, an account of his time with Gurdjieff. Ouspensky had a considerable reputation in Russian esoteric circles before he had met Gurdjieff, and it is sometimes asserted that Ouspensky’s standing as an independent thinker has been underestimated. The English translation of his book Tertium Organum has been cited as evidence that Ouspensky had already anticipated some of Gurdjieff’s leading ideas. However, a comparison of the 1911 Russian-language edition with the 1920 English translation of the 1916 Russian revision of Tertium Organum establishes that the 1911 original lacked key ideas found in later editions, most of which are distinctively Gurdjieff’s. This shows the extent of Ouspensky’s debt to Gurdjieff, and casts a different light on the relationship between Gurdjieff and Ouspensky; namely, that there was more collaboration than previously known, and that Ouspensky’s account of his agreement with Gurdjieff about committing Gurdjieff’s ideas to writing, was tendentious, if not misleading.
4. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Kayode Joseph Onipede

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This article discusses Orara, a religious festival in Oye-Ekiti which is lacking in scholarly attention. Orara was conceived to appease the spirits and pray to Olodumare through rituals and public performances. The study used sociology, ethnography, anthropology, and historical research methodologies to elicit data. These include primary and secondary sources. The primary data included oral tradition, participant observation, in-situ field notes (i.e., record­ing immediately after observations of events), conversations and interviews, and photographs of the embodied experience of the festival and survey. Secondary sources comprised journal articles, textbooks, and other relevant documents. Using qualitatively analysis, the study engaged Victor Turner’s theory of per­formance in explaining the functionality of Orara in enabling social order in Oye-Ekiti society.
5. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Dawn H. Collins

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This article explores aspects of visualisation and healing practices found within Tibetan Tantric traditions of deity yoga, with particular focus on the deities Avalokiteśvara, Parṇaśavarī and Tārā. The article looks at some innovations and continuities between contemporary developments of these practices and their more ancient counterparts, through the lens of their use for healing. It explores the relationship of Tantric visualisation practices to waking life, dreamtime, and death processes, identifying some ways in which they were employed in response to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
6. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Raymond Radford Orcid-ID

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Concepts from memory studies and place/ space studies are here used to explore how narratives and history are interpreted, particularly locations with mythic dimensions. These locations are of importance to distinct communities, from treasure seekers to those who claim Indigenous belonging to the land. Sites have memories and stories attached to them, but in some cases recent interpretations have superseded older meanings. New narratives and stories have overlaid traditional understandings. From sites of ancient importance and Indigenous ownership, through veneration of the dead, to locations of conspiracy ideology, multiple narratives are created and adopted by differing groups. Where one person might only see the historical, another with a different view will see other aspects of the same site. I situate these locations and narratives within a dual framework of memory studies and place/ space studies to analyse how narratives are created and developed to facilitate new identity formation. New narratives are adopted or made prominent, and in some cases are claimed to be the only acceptable history of a location, even sites with multiple contested histories. Such claims are crucial for those whose identity is entangled with the new story, and whose goals may be communal, individual, political, or religious.
7. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Chris M. Hansen

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This article serves to expand several points in the recently published “The Many Gods of Deuteronomy,” including noting a number of potential readings of Deuteronomy 32:1–43 which overtly indicate a polytheistic origin for the hymn. This includes several references to both named and unnamed deities, which have gone neglected in the discussions on whether or not the passage indicates Israel’s earlier phases of polytheism. Further, the works attempting to reread Deuteronomy 32 as non-polytheistic are critiqued for a number of other failings in their methods and specific data points.

book reviews

8. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Carole M. Cusack Orcid-ID

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9. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 14 > Issue: 1
Stefano Bigliardi Orcid-ID

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articles

10. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
Lee-Shae Salma Scharnick-Udemans Orcid-ID

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This article explores the historical and contemporary entanglements of race, religion and media as it plays out through a four-part documentary series about deviant, dangerous and criminal Christian group Electus Per Deus, who were responsible for a spate of murders known collectively as the Krugersdorp Killings. Headed by a self-proclaimed powerful ex-Satanist witch, who was actively involved in on-going spiritual warfare, the group’s primary religious activity was to help educate about and assist with escape from the ‘Occult’ in general and Satanism in particular. A curious element of Electus Per Deus’ modus operandi was that the group’s members often masqueraded as Satanists, in order to advance their cause and secure the legitimacy of their claims. The community in which they were positioned vehemently rejected the Christian status of the group despite members claims to the contrary. This article argues that within the historical and contemporary political economies of race, religion and media, White Afrikaans Christian communities, such as those featured in Devilsdorp were inordinately favoured through the policies and practices of the apartheid regime and more recently the Afrikaner capture of commercial media. This re­ligious and racial privilege is reproduced by the series and serves as a reminder of the importance of intersectional, contextually informed approaches to the study of religious diversity, deviance, and danger.
11. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
Márk Nemes, András Máté-Tóth Orcid-ID

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Contemporary new religious movements—originating from early in the 1960s—gained substantial following in the past half century. Rooted in an era characterised by accelerated social and technological advancements, as well as major historical events, these movements incorporated meanings and qualities anchored in Cold War internal and external tensions. Effects of globalization and rapid urbanization, alongside novel—and in large part still unsolved—challenges posed by individual and collective alienation and the decline of conventional micro, meso, and macrosocial structures affirmed a gradual depletion of inherited collective identity, which was even more apparent in highly urbanized settings. Early societal reactions towards these new constellations—emerging from said turbulent and transitory times—varied greatly by regional and cultural contexts. While in the United States, an initial, generally inclusive, and pluralistic attitude was detectable—overshadowed by a short lived, yet intense cult and moral panics period—in the ‘future post-Soviet’ countries of Central and Eastern Europe the opportunities to deal with the challenges and congested social arrears by history were not available until the early 1990s. After the demise of the Soviet Union, simultaneously with the immediate and pressing challenges of regaining—and retaining—national identity, the opening towards an often-idealized Western world and the appearance of new religious movements brought about even more complex issues. This article provides a brief interpretation of the contexts of new religious emergence, and their receptions in United States around from 1960s. Through outlining region-specific traits of Central and Eastern Europe after 1989, the authors contribute to a parallel understanding of new religious attitudes and of the inherent differences between the two regions.
12. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
Ann Hardy, Orcid-ID Arezou Zalipour Orcid-ID

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This article surveys intersections between art, religion, and society in three periods of the history of Aotearoa New Zealand: 1) Polynesian settlement, 2) British colonization and 3) a contemporary multicultural society built on a bicultural base. Using a material culture framework which traces changes in the uses and significance of artistic objects as they pass through the hands of members of various religious and secular communities, it illustrates, through a variety of examples from the fields of popular art, fine arts and architecture, that art has, and can, play a large part in negotiations between religious traditions, particularly when they encounter one another in conflict, reconciliation and hybridization.
13. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
Christopher M. Hansen

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Due to the inauguration of the Next Quest of the Historical Jesus and renewed interest in historical materialist approaches to early Christianity (such as the forthcoming volume from Myles and Crossley), the present paper seeks to elucidate the history of one of the most contentious debates in early Christian studies among Marxists: that of the historicity of Jesus of Nazareth. The article goes through the early debates and discussions on the subject and seeks to correct a number of misunderstandings about the history of this debate and also evaluate some of the present contributions on the matter, to see where Marxist historians generally stand. It starts with the earliest discussions of Jesus’ historicity among figures such as Albert Kalthoff and Karl Kautsky, then discuss­ing where Marxist mythicists gained majority positions in the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China, until reaching the present day and briefly discussing the contemporary interlocutors in this debate.
14. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
Marzia A. Coltri Orcid-ID

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Historically women’s achievements have been obscured, sexually, socially, culturally, and spiritually. However, with the rise of global and social media, women have been empowered, having a greater impact on society; women are more receptive to discussions related to ethical and social issues - such as racial, national, and sexual discrimination, elimination of violence, religious control, free movement, modern slavery, psychological submission, and poverty/ economic marginalization – and are at the forefront of international movements, such as #MeToo and #SheDecides, which promote freedom of speech, thought and belief, and how to speak out publicly. Issues related to ethnic, religious, and sexual persecution and violence are part of women’s history. A critical thinking approach to the struggle of women in modern society is essential; it is important to understand female leaders as part of a multi-ethnic, multi-faith, and multi-gendered society. Women in postcolonial movements construct their self-identity in real, concrete, and existential sociocultural contexts. This article discusses violence against women, women contributing to a diverse global society, and women’s ideas of beauty and sexuality. I employ the lens of autocoscienza (self-awareness) with a view to embracing diversity and vindicating contribution of women in religious and secular contexts, and its value for the future.
15. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
John Paul Healy

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This article is a personal reflection on Swami Shankarananda’s se­cretive sexual behaviour with female devotees within his Mount Eliza Ashram, and the Guru-disciple relationship. Shankarananda developed his own Shiva Yoga in Melbourne after being a senior disciple in Muktananda’s Siddha Yoga. As his Ashram grew, so did his notoriety, and eventually he was accused by some of the female devotees of sexual abuse; a situation reminiscent of his own guru. Shankarananda admitted the harm he had caused; however, he rationalised it with his notion of secret Tantra initiation within Kashmir Shaivism. At the time, in 2015, Mount Eliza was a successful meditation centre and residential retreat. When the news broke, the Ashram was reported to have lost two thirds of its followers and was described in the media as a ‘Guru sex scandal.’ Today the Ashram is flourishing as Shankarananda seems to have moved on, continually attracting new followers; however, allegations persist.

book reviews

16. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
Carole M. Cusack Orcid-ID

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17. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 2
Michael Strmiska

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articles

18. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 1
Bettina E. Schmidt, Kate Stockly

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The article presents new research about spiritual experiences during COVID-19. It starts with a wider discussion about the relationship between spirituality and wellbeing, based on research carried out in Brazil and the United Kingdom before the pandemic. The research showed a strict division between personal faith and medical treatment, reflecting a professional distance when treating patients that results in patients’ unwillingness to speak about their experience to anyone in the medical profession, even when these experiences impact their mental health. The article then explores findings of a new research project about spiritual experience during COVID-19 and reflects on three themes that emerged from the data: 1) changes in patients’ relationships with their religious communities, 2) seeing spiritual figures and near death experiences, and 3) interpretations of COVID-19 as a spiritual contagion. These themes contribute to a nuanced understanding of how spiritual experiences that arise in moments of crisis are interpreted by the people who have them, potentially contributing to resiliance and coping. The last section discusses the reluctance to speak about non-ordinary experiences and reflects on the importance of integrating non-ordinary experiences for mental health.
19. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 1
Stefano Bigliardi Orcid-ID

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The French author Robert Charroux (1909–1978) contributed to the popular discourse about alien visits to earth in the remote past, that he advanced in voluminous books replete with narratives of anomalous “facts.” According to Charroux, humanity is divided in “races” whose existence is explained in reference to greater or lesser “genetic” similarity to the “ancient aliens,” as well as to radiation that genetically modified humans on the occasions of major catastrophes (natural as well as human-induced). Additionally, he was convinced that a factor in humanity’s decadence was its attachment to technology, that he regarded as detrimental in various ways; science, in his opinion, was overrated, a case in point being the theory of evolution. Extending the analysis of Charroux’s work offered by scholars like Wiktor Stoczkowski and Damien Karbovnik, I scrutinize Charroux’s books, reconstructing his ambiguous attitude towards science, his criticism of evolution, his racist theories, and his xenophobic worldview.
20. Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review: Volume > 13 > Issue: 1
Zoe Alderton

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Appearing on the food landscape in the 2010s, “Buddha bowls” are a meal consisting of healthy food elements artfully arranged. This name carries with it a notable spiritual significance, allowing buyers to feel as though they are consuming something more elevated than an average meal. The kind of Buddhism that is consumed here is related to exotic choices and health secrets from the Orient. Discourse around Buddha bowls shows a limited grasp of the religion’s actual history or practices, including frequent confusion between Gautama Buddha and the Chan figure Budai. What is more important in the spiritual dimension of this meal is the sense of elevation and the power of the ascetic choice in an obesogenic consumer environment. Buddha bowls also feed into a “healthist” society where neoliberal self-governance places responsibility for health on the individual and their own choices. By making a healthy choice, a person can feel safe and protect against harm and pollution to the body. In this way, Buddha bowls also perform a common religious role by warding off danger like a talisman. While they offer little towards an exploration of Buddhist history and global praxis, the Buddha bowl has much to reveal about neoliberal spiritual landscapes.