PRACTICING DIFFERENCE: RELIGION AND DIVERSITY IN A SECULAR AGE

Transcription

1 PRACTICING DIFFERENCE: RELIGION AND DIVERSITY IN A SECULAR AGE CONVENORS: Kim Knibbe, University of Groningen Mar Griera Marian Burchardt How is (religious) difference practiced and how are these practices materialized, embodied and spatialized? This panel seeks to extend research and debates on patterns of secularism and secularity that have become a very fruitful area of comparative research in the study of religion 1. We understand secularism as an ideology and secularity as the cultural patterns and institutions associated with secularism as mechanisms that single out and thus differentiate religion from other areas of life. As many authors have already shown, religion is not a stable category, and should be understood in relation to its double (the secular), and vice versa. Religion only becomes visible as an object against the background of a secular frame. This insight has led to the call of Talal Asad to create an anthropology of the secular. Indeed, it seems we can now speak of strong strands in both anthropology and sociology turning away from singling out religion as its object of study to reflexively seek to understand how religion comes to be an object, how it is circumscribed, how it is framed and how it is managed in contemporary societies. However, in both anthropological and sociological approaches, the focus is often limited to the analysis of discourse(s). Therefore, we seek to push this strand of research further and call for contributions that concentrate on how religious difference is practiced, materialized, embodied, and spatialized. How and when do religious identities become visible? What are the contexts and events during which religious markers become significant? Conversely, when are they ignored or decrease in significance? What role do gender and power relationships play in this scenario? 1 Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003); Talal Asad et al., Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury, and Free Speech, 2009, Judith Butler, Sexual Politics, Torture, and Secular Time, The British Journal of Sociology 59, no. 1 (2008): 1 23; Cora Schuh, Marian Burchardt, and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Contested Secularities: Religious Minorities and Secular Progressivism in the Netherlands, Journal of Religion in Europe 5, no. 3 (2012): ; Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Marian Burchardt, Multiple Secularities: Toward a Cultural Sociology of Secular Modernities, Comparative Sociology 11, no. 6 (2012): , doi: /

2 SESSION 1: PRACTISING DIFFERENCE: THE LEGAL DIMENSION CHAIR: MARIA DEL MAR GRIERA MARRIAGE IRANIAN STYLE IN NORWAY: RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCE AND EVERYDAY PRACTICES OF SHARI A Dr. Bøe, Marianne, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway This presentation examines the ways that Shari a is entangled and entwined in the everyday life of individuals of Iranian background residing in Norway. Marriage practices of the Iranian diaspora in Norway provide an interesting lens for studying the practice of religious difference in a western pluralistic context. A large survey enquiring the living conditions of ten immigrant groups in Norway reported that Iranians residing in Norway were those who who claimed that religion had least significance in their lives (Blom og Henriksen 2008). Nonetheless, results from a fresh ethnographic study show that those of Iranian background practice and maintain Shari a when getting married and divorced (Bøe 2017). In this presentation the apparent contradiction between these two findings will be discussed. The presentation is based on extensive ethnographic research on marriage practices of the Iranian diaspora conducted in the interconnected contexts of Norway and Iran. Although individuals of Iranian background residing in Norway tend to relate quite differently to religion, the results of this study show that they practice Shari a in the area of marriage for various reasons and even against themselves. Hence, this presentation will add knowledge on how Shari a is connected to everyday life, contextualised and internationally linked and moreover how religious difference is negotiated and practiced in a western pluralistic context. References: Blom, Svein and Henriksen, Kristin "Levekår blant innvandrere i Norge 2005/2006". Statistics Norway. Available online at: (January 30, 2017). Bøe, Marianne (forthcoming). "Sharia and Everyday Life: Marriage Iranian Style in Western Pluralistic Societies". "RELIGION AS A POST-COLONIAL DILEMMA: HINDUISM AS REPRESENTATION IN THE SASTRI YAGNAPURUSHDAS CASE" Dr. Geetanjali, Srikantan, Tilburg Law School, Tilburg, Nederland The relationship between law and religion in the Indian legal context has been complicated by the inconsistency of the Indian Supreme Court in defining religion. Scholars of law and religion have criticized this inconsistency on grounds such as the failure to understand the relationship between religion and politics, and the acceptance of colonial perceptions on religion. This paper seeks to explore these assumptions by analyzing how religion is communicated in law in the context of the landmark judgement of Muldas Vaishya v Sastri Yagnapurushdas where the followers of the Swaminarayan tradition maintained that they were not Hindus. It examines the diverse voices and narratives of the litigants and their internal engagements with their tradition How does such internal engagement represent itself as religion to an external discourse such as law with its own forms of epistemology. How do other discourses such as history and politics play a role in such communication and the self- perception of the followers of the tradition? How does the development of a tradition

3 rest on factors such as authority or mutual agreement? The paper examines these questions through a wide canvas of materials including court records, colonial narratives and religious texts. It argues that distinctive forms of representation by the Swaminarayan followers contribute to religion being a post-colonial dilemma in legal discourse and that the relationship between religion and the state needs to be analyzed from this framework. It concludes by reflecting on the contours of such a framework. References: Asad, Talal Genealogies of Religion: Discipline and Reasons of Power in Christianity and Islam. Baltimore (The John Hopkins University Press Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity.(Stanford University Press 2003) Said, Edward Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient(Penguin Books 2001) Ronojoy Sen, Articles of Faith: Religion, Secularism and the Indian Supreme Court (Oxford University Press, 2010). Marc Galanter Hinduism, Secularism and the Indian Judiciary in Law and Society in Modern India (Oxford University Press, 1989), "HOW DO CANADIAN RELIGIOUS SCHOOLS GRADUATES FUNCTION IN A SECULAR AND MULTICULTURAL SOCIETY?" Ms. Alekseevskaia, Mariia, The University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada. The liberalization of Canadian immigration policy in the 1960s was followed by the rapid growth of diverse ethnic and religious groups, and the establishment of a robust set of institutions by these groups, including religious schools. While public schools advocates acclaim that keeping religion out of schools indicates the neutrality of these institutions, many representatives of the religious part of the population, on the contrary, consider that secularism in the public schools is involved in the establishment of a new value system (Glendon, 2013, p. 39). Therefore, some ethno-religious communities founded faith-based schools to preserve a particular religious and cultural identity. But how can religious schools graduates, whose religion plays a central role in their life, articulate the functions of a believer and a citizen? Post-9/11 environment has given rise to heightened concerns about the potential of religious schools to breed intolerance in their students, which induces social division. Also, their ability to respond to Western ideals of liberty and equality has also been questioned. Therefore, not only Muslim schools, but religious institutions of old strangers, ones that never were entirely accepted have become a subject of concern (Beyer, 2012, p. 26). My research examines how schools, operated by post-war Dutch Reformed immigrants and their descendants in Canada, influence their graduates socio-political engagement. This study gives a better insight into whether religious schools graduates contribute to the common good of a Canadian multicultural society and how faith-based schooling evolves to adapt to the surrounding world. Also, the current tension between the principle of religious freedom and non-discrimination legislation demands a thorough analysis. My paper will advance scholarship in this field. Interviews with teachers, graduates, members and ex-members of Canadian Reformed communities and a content analysis of media and policy documents are the main sources of this research. References Beyer P. (2012). Religion and immigration in a changing Canada: The reasonable accommodation of reasonable accommodation. In Lori Beaman (ed.), Reasonable Accommodation: Managing Religious Diversity, pp Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press. Glendon, M. (2009). The Naked Public Square Today: A Secular Public Square?, in Christopher Wolfe (ed.), The Naked Public Square Reconsidered: Religion and Politics in the Twenty-First Century, pp Wilmington, DE: ISI Books.

4 "LAW AND LEGIBILITY: PRODUCING RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCE IN URBAN ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICE". Marian Burchardt, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity So far, sociologists and anthropologists interested in religious diversity have mainly focused on the legal frameworks governing religion diversity and on how religious diversity is experienced and negotiated by members of different religious communities. They have been less concerned with how legal frameworks are enacted in the everyday administrative practices through which religious difference is produced. My contribution tackles this lacuna by exploring how such practices have evolved in the Spanish region of Catalonia in a context of intensified migration and subsequent economic crisis. I am particularly interested in the processes whereby urban administrations seek to shape, in collaboration with leaderships of religious minorities, religious practices including rituals, festivals, and the management of communities and places of worship in conformity with Catalan law, eventually leading to some level of standardization of religious life. SESSION 2: PRACTICING DIFFERENCE: THE URBAN DIMENSION CHAIR: KIM KNIBBE "THE BUILDING SPEAKS: CONVERTED CHURCHES AS MARKERS OF POST-CHRISTIAN DISTINCTIVENESS" Author - Dr. Beekers, Daan, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands In this paper I examine when and how material markers of Christianity become significant in a post- Christian context. I focus on the widespread closing down and conversion of church-buildings in the Netherlands, which mark a particularly striking, and contested, transformation of the material presence of religion in Dutch society. Paradoxically, the abandonment of churches results from the large numbers of people moving away from Christian faith, while at the same time evoking strong public anxieties about the perceived loss of Christian culture, identity and heritage. It is striking in this regard that public resistance against the demolition of churches is voiced particularly strongly among secular-oriented citizens. Ordinarily perceived as a taken-for-granted background of cities and villages, church-buildings suddenly become highly noticed when they are being closed down or even face demolition. In such cases, they are often set apart as affectively charged material forms, imbued with multiple layers of meaning. Put differently and to borrow a phrase from architect Afaina de Jong (2015), these buildings speak, but they communicate different things for different people. In this paper I focus on the case of a Catholic church in Amsterdam that has been converted into dance studios. Investigating its long and contentious transformation process, I trace the varied often emotionally argued positions taken toward the church-building. Specifically, I describe a conflict between on the one hand secular neighborhood residents who wanted to preserve the building as an indispensable symbol of local and national history and, on the other hand, the parish and diocese that (initially) aimed at its demolition. I use this case to point to an emerging secular framing of Christian religion as cultural heritage, rather than lived faith, implying a redrawing of the boundaries between the religious and the secular in today s post-christian society. References De Jong, Afaina (2015) 'The Building Speaks', exhibition at Architectuurcentrum

5 Amsterdam, 17 September - 22 November. "SECULARISM AND THE ELCF: A CASE OF ONE MULTI-CULTURAL PROJECT" Haapalainen, Anna, University of Turku, University of Turku, Finland In this paper I will examine how a strong mainline denomination becomes progressively circumscribed and framed by its relationship to secularism. It is important to note, that this delineation process does not arise solely from the secular society or secular institutions, but also inside this denomination. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland (henceforward ELCF) has gradually lost its position as a default religion of the Finnish people. The religious identities in Finland are far more than before, and the increasing number of non-religious or secular identities have been considered as a problem by the ELCF bodies. Secularism and secularity are indeed challenges for the ELCF. Yet somehow secularism and secularity appear to be necessary in order to the ELCF to maintain its visibility and importance. It is a question of managing the religion by paralleling it to something that is understood to counterpart it. In order to answer this problem of rejection and need, I will present examples from one project, where a secular organisation, the state and the ELCF worked together in a multi-cultural project. I will look how religious differences were practiced, materialized, embodied, and spatialized in this power-laden and gendered cooperation. In this co-operation project the different identities, let those be secular or religious, were performed and delineated in variety of ways. The expected secularity of this co-operation collided in some cases with the individual (and also denominational) need to make religion visible. Religious practices and identities became emphasised by the tension built between religious and secular, and thus more visible and meaningful. Finally, I will suggest, that secularism and secularity are sometimes intentionally used as operative tools (concepts) by this mainline denomination to gain a stronger foothold in society. Secularism and discussions linked to it, become a way to communicate religion for this one denomination. "PRACTICES OF DIVERSITY OR DIFFERENCE? RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN THE CITY OF THE HAGUE, THE NETHERLANDS" Dr. Bartelink, Brenda, University of Groningen, Groningen, Nederland In the management of migrant religiosity in the city of The Hague, migrant religiosity seems to be made visible (and manageable) through the problem angle. Over the past decade the interactions between migrants and the local government have centered on particular concerns are such as the integration in Dutch society, the position of women and the management of (potential) health problems. Yet, the ways in which people from African origin position themselves in the city through establishing international churches with the mission to occupy pivotal spiritual and social leadership roles, suggests they understand themselves quite differently from these frames. Certain spatial practices -such as the church that holds its Sunday worship meetings in an expensive city center hotel- are illustrative of this. This paper will explore these differences in positioning and selfunderstanding informed by ethnographic fieldwork in the city of The Hague. Taking an intersectional lens, it will reflect on how practices of diversity focusing on migrant religiosity are given meaning in the context of the city. The paper will conclude with formulating some insights and

6 questions with regard to the broader research project on cultural encounters between African religious organizations and health organizations in the Netherlands of which this paper is part. PERFORMING DIVERSITY: INTERRELIGIOUS EVENTS IN THE PUBLIC SPACE Mar Griera, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Inter-faith initiatives are not a new phenomenon and interreligious dialogue has a long tradition. However, what is a more recent trend is the rise of interreligious events, encounters and networks all over Europe in the last two decades, and their growing relevance for the governance of religious diversity. Interreligious initiatives are increasingly being perceived as having a strategic significance for fostering the politics of cohesion and for generating a public mise-en-scène of religious plurality. Drawing on Alfred Schütz work the aim of this paper is to examine the processes of configuration of socially approved knowledge on the interreligious realm and the role of interfaith experts as carriers of this knowledge. More specifically, the paper focuses on the analysis of stories, gestures, rituals, metaphors and objects that are involved in the construction of interreligious events in the public space. The paper draws on a qualitative fieldwork aimed at unraveling the processes of discussion, negotiation and consensus-building between the Catholic actors, minority religious representatives and secular agents about how to publicly express and represent religious plurality in the context of the city of Barcelona. SESSION 3: PRACTICING DIFFERENCE: THE GENDER DIMENSION CHAIR: MARIAN BURCHARDT "PRODUCING DIFFERENCES: NARRATIVES ABOUT WOMEN S CONVERSION ACROSS WEST-EUROPEAN CONTEXTS" Dr. Van den Brandt, Nella, Universiteit Utrecht, Utrecht, Nederland This paper analyzes and theorizes the production of differences in contemporary cultural representations of women s conversion across West-European contexts. In the Netherlands, we witness what could be called a fascination, or discomfort, with white women who convert to Islam. In 2015, the Dutch real-life TV-show Van Hagelslag naar Halal (VHNH) was broadcasted by the public service broadcaster KRO/NCRV, and portrayed young female converts to Islam and their (troubled) relationships with their mothers. VHNH provides an opportunity to analyze the gendered and ethnicized framing of female converts to Islam in the Dutch contemporary public domain. It moreover provides insights into the ways in which the female converts participating in the TVprogram intervene in the framing by talking back. They narrate religious interpretations, experiences and practices. Downplaying the secular concerns voiced during the TV-show with emancipation and radicalization, they respond to the prominent why-question by positing ontological alterity. This Dutch public narrative can be compared to other contexts (UK, Belgium) and events (theater, novels, documentaries) in which the figure of the convert is constructed and/or constructs herself. Drawing upon these comparisons, the paper theorizes the ways in which multiple religious

7 embodied differences across West-European contexts are produced; and the multiple liberalsecularities that accompany these productions. Finally, the paper conceptualizes the ways in which female converts interfere within power-full framings as conveying context-dependent religious critique and lived religion, resulting in embodying religious difference differently. References: This paper is part of the NWO-project Beyond Religion versus Emancipation. Gender and Sexuality in Women s Conversions to Judaism, Christianity and Islam in Contemporary Western Europe, hosted by the Philosophy and Religious Studies department at Utrecht University. "WHEN RELIGION IS "TOO MUCH": LUTHERAN SECULARITY VS. SPIRITUAL WOMEN IN FINLAND Mrs. Utriainen, Terhi, University of Helsinki, University of Helsinki, Finland Secularities can be very different in different countries and cultural climates and, thus, the notion itself should be put in local context. In Finland, people in general are in favor of a not too strong flavor both in religion and in secularity. Strong and very emotional positions, either religious or secularist, are easily looked upon as suspect and as too much. A milder midway-version is preferred instead, as has been shown in a recent survey. How is this kind of midway-climate experienced by those people, whose worldview, habitus or existential sensitivity does not fit into this mild and low-key model? I will draw on my ethnography with women engaged in new spirituality and angels. This is a religiosity which can be described as everyday, very practical and relatively sentimental. Perhaps not surprisingly, in the eyes of non-participants, it is often regarded as fringe, weird, too alternative and not religious in a good Finnish way. I suggest that these women feel the responses and rejections of others, and that their feeling, and expression of that feeling in interviews, can provide us an interesting epistemic perspective into the particularly forms of Finnish secularity. This is secularity which, perhaps more often than not, goes hand in hand with the contemporary Finnish Lutheran ethos which favors reason over imagination and metaphorical instead of animistic religiosity. Heightened sensitivity to this kind of secular reception makes the women, in their groups and gatherings, communicate practical knowledge for navigating in the midst of complex more and less religious and secular social realities. WOMEN S SPIRITUALITY IN BELGIUM: PRACTISING GENDER DIFFERENCE BEYOND THE SECULAR-RELIGIOUS DIVIDE" Prof. Longman, Chia and Dr. Plancke, Carine, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium This paper focuses on the domain of what is often identified as the third way between institutionalised religion and secular atheism or agnosticism in the West, the new spiritualities. Based on our ethnographic fieldwork among women involved in practices related to the sacred feminine, we question the way gender difference is performed in response to what is perceived as the ideologies of both traditional patriarchal religion, yet also secular modernity and its ideals of liberal gender equality. We look both at discourses on femininity and the proclaimed need to revalue feminine qualities such as receptivity, loving care and intuition and the way these are embodied in loosely directed practices and continuously shaped through sharing experiences. Drawing on interviews with and participant observation among women who regularly participate in women s circles, yogic and tantric workshops and retreats in Belgium, we show how these women are forging new forms of identity/difference through mind-body-spirit practices involving a bricolage of

8 elements from popular psychology to religious syncretism. We also explore, both for coaches/leaders and participants, in which ways and to what extent these gendered identities which are collectively, yet diversely, embraced and rendered visible within the contexts of the spiritual gatherings, are enacted and communicated in daily life. Do these newly experienced and conceived identities remodel women s subjectivities or rather remain incompatible with ordinary social functioning? Which shifts occur when addressing outsiders, for instance with regard to the use of references to the feminine divine and esoteric language coming from other cultural universes? PRACTICING RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AFRICA AND EUROPE: TRANSNATIONAL, INTERSECTIONAL AND SPATIAL APPROACHES. Kim Knibbe, University of Groningen This paper reflects on several years of doing research on Nigerian-initiated Pentecostal (missionary) networks in Europe, and particularly from the position of the Netherlands, a country that did not have a direct colonial relationship with Nigeria. How can we think about the relationship between Nigerian Pentecostalism and the Dutch context, how is religious difference enacted, how does it take shape in relation to other differences? From an academic point of view, there are several ways this topic can be approached. However, each of these approaches is also troubled by the phenomenon itself. In this paper, I will focus in particular on approaches developed within the study of religious transnationalism, spatial approaches and intersectional approaches. Finally, I will argue that an understanding of the ways modernity, and its shadow coloniality, structure differences but are also challenged by the phenomenon of Nigerian-initiated Pentecostalism is crucial.