Theology & Religious Studies

These ‘notes from the field’ report upon an ongoing comparative research project into the Yezidis, both in their traditional heartlands and in western Europe. The author reports that intensive fieldwork yields a much higher degree of flexibility and variety in Yezidi traditions than has often been acknowledged, whereby political events as much as diverse religious currents have influenced the shape of Yezidi thought. The project is still on-going but even the preliminary ethnographic findings described here lead him to doubt the adequacy of much that is hitherto accepted as reliable in the current literature.

In this paper, I explore some approaches in the contemporary Alevi Movement to semi-official discourses on religion, citizenship and belonging in Turkey. I study the revival activities of an Alevi group from Erzincan called the Dervis Cemal Ocak, which I find to be characterized by an emphasis on its Turkish ethno-cultural roots and Islamic religious identity. The group is following the national Cem Vakfi’s definition of Alevilik according to these terms, and reflects an openness to negotiation with both official institutions of state authority as well as semi-official public discourses that other Alevi groups do not. I analyze this conciliatory approach within the Alevi Movement in light of hegemonic majority discourses on national and religious identity; I explore post-migration geographies, ethnicity and the Kurdish issue as well as internal factors within the Alevi community regarding religious legitimization and the sanctity of its leaders (dede).

This paper explores the teaching of natural science subjects in high schools associated with the Gülen-Hizmet movement in Turkey. It focuses on the apparent reconciliation of scientific learning in a pervasive, albeit unofficial, Sunni Islamic religious culture. The framework for such an accommodation is found in the teachings of Fethullah Gülen and his predecessor, Said Nursi. Following Nursi, Gülen encourages scientific pursuit, and intellectual knowledge in general, as a pious and spiritually meritorious act. Drawing on fieldwork conducted at two Hizmet-affiliated high schools in Turkey, this article explores the “sanctification” of science and learning in the Gülen Movement by highlighting the principle of fedakarlık (self-sacrifice), as the primary motivation of the teaching staff. Focusing also on the schools’ highly disciplined and competitive learning environments (as exemplified in preparations for the prestigious International Science Olympiads), the article suggests that although teacher commitment and prestigious competitive awards bolster the Hizmet schools’ market competitiveness, they fail in actually producing students who pursue careers in natural science fields. By contrast, this article concludes that the movement’s engagement with science, at least at present, is less interested in furthering scientific inquiry than it is in equipping what Gülen has called a ‘Golden Generation’ with the tools it needs to compete with secularist rivals in Turkey.

What is the Gülen Movement and why is Turkey's President Erdoğan so convinced that the organisation and its charismatic leader were behind the failed military coup of 15th July 2016? The Gülen, or Hizmet, movement in Turkey was until recently the country's most powerful and affluent religious organisation. At its head is the exiled Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen, who leads from a gated compound in the Pocono Mountains of the USA.The movement's central tenet is that Muslims should engage positively with modernity, especially through mastering the sciences. At hundreds of Gülen-run schools and universities, not only in Turkey but also worldwide and particularly in the United States, instructors have cultivated the next generation of Muslim bankers, biologists, software engineers and entrepreneurs. In this groundbreaking study, Caroline Tee, an expert on the Gülen Movement, analyses the complex attitudes of Gülen and his followers towards secular modernity. Considered against the backdrop of Turkish politics, Gülenist engagement with modern science is revealed as a key source of the influence the movement has exerted.

Since the failed coup of 15 July 2016, for which it is held responsible,
the Gülen Movement (GM) has been in crisis. With no foreseeable
future in its homeland, the GM is now tasked with regrouping
abroad. This article investigates the GM in London, a city that,
for various reasons, is likely to become a significant centre for
Gülenist activity in the post-coup era. Taking the Dialogue Society
(DS) as its focus, it investigates the prospects of the GM’s survival
by analyzing its activities, both before and after the coup, in light
of Mamdani’s discussion of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ Muslims in the post-
9/11 world. The article shows how the GM has established itself as
a voice of ‘good’ Islam in the context of British debates on Islam
and radicalization. It suggests that the public presence the GM
has established for itself through its public engagement activities
in the UK could constitute a central part of its fight back against
President Erdoğan, and be catalytic to its creation of a dynamic
future in exile.

It has been said that the Bible is the Word of God, not the words of God.  The English Bibles in use today are translations, and as such cannot contain the exact words used in the original language, for the very good reason that they are in another language.  Not only are our English Bibles translations, but they are translations which are separated by a large gap of time from those of the originals.  The task of translation is an attempt to best represent the text of the original language into one which can be used today, regardless of whether the focus is on a literal, dynamic, or a free translation.  In part due to the great length of time between the two versions, there are a number of things which can have an impact on the way in which the translation occurs, and one such example of this is theological preconceptions.  This paper shall discuss one instance of this as seen in the way in which the Hebrew term nepeš hayyah found in Genesis 1-2 is translated differently in a variety of English Bible’s dependent on whether the subject is a human or a non-human.  This will be done in a number of ways.  First, the meaning of nepeš hayyah will be examined, both within the Bible as a whole, and within Genesis 1-2 specifically.  Second, the way in which a number of English translations have chosen to render it will be examined.  Third, theological issues with the way in which these various translations have chosen to render nepeš hayyah will be examined and addressed by looking at the theological preconceptions which have influenced translations. Finally, this paper will suggest that given that these theological preconceptions are ones absent from the original text, a return to an equal translation for nepeš hayyah for both humans and non-humans is theologically appropriate.

In our modern culture, we can find many such colourful characterizations of animals, many of whom occasionally engage in what might be thought of as, ‘morally questionable’ actions. But do such comic presentations bespeak a reality where animals may in fact be able to act morally (or immorally)? Within a Christian context, does it make any sense to speak of animals as having the potential to not only be moral, but having the capacity to sin. Neither the Christian tradition nor the Bible is as clear in answering this as one might wish. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether animals have the capacity to sin, as well as, whether we can understand them to be moral creatures of any sort. To do so, I will first examine and define what I mean by the word sin, and then look at a couple of scriptural examples that have been put forward in support of the idea that animals could potentially be understood to sin alike to humans. I will suggest that though nonhuman animals can be affected by sin, and so become sinful, they likely cannot properly be understood to active engage in sin. Next I will turn to some ethographic work and show that though animals may not be able to actively sin, they can be understood to be moral creatures, capable of acting in ways which, within their individual communities, are ‘good’ or ‘bad’.

In attempts to provide theological weight to the concern for non-human creatures, there are a variety of ways, and a number of biblical texts chosen which modern Christians have utilized.  This essay has chosen Genesis 9 and Hosea 2 to use in making a case for the value of non-human creatures.  Gen. 9 may at first glance seem an odd choice to use in making a case for animals as valued as subjects, rather than objects.  Genesis 9 is after all, the very place where God gives an allowance (and not a command) for humans to consume animal flesh.  However, this is also the first time in scripture where God explicitly covenants with His creatures, and does so with both humans and non-humans .  The same action of God covenanting with non-human creatures can also be found in Hosea 2.  This paper will make the case that because God covenants with the non-human, they can be understood to have independent value as subjects in their own right.  In making this case, this paper will first examine Genesis 9 and Hosea 2 as two scriptural cases where God covenants with non-human creatures.  In doing so, a number of biblical commentators and theologians will be shown to have recognized the fact that God does indeed covenant with non-human animals.  From here, this paper will then proceed to examine a number of understandings of what it means to covenant, and suggest that to engage in covenant with something is to be in relationship with, and value them.  Finally, this paper will suggest that given that God cares for non-human animals enough to covenant with them, this necessarily has implications as to how humans should understand and relate to non-human creatures.

The fellowship of believers who make up the Church proper, has since its beginning attempted to live up to the moral standards put forward through the life of Christ and the teachings found within Scripture.  While such attempts have never been full-proof, the desire to serve God and to live a moral life is found throughout the history of the Church, from the rejection of gladiatorial games to the opposition of slavery.  In its efforts, the Church, faults notwithstanding, has worked for the betterment of humanity in its attempts to live morally.  Thus when new moral issues arise, such as reactions to animal suffering, the question is not so much how one is to act, but whether it is a moral issue at all.  If it is, then a response is necessarily required.  If it is not, then morally, one is no more required to respond than one is to the falling of a leaf on a windy day.  It is the position of this essay, that animal suffering is a moral issue, and thus, that moral indifference to it is necessarily a challenge the Church has to address if the Church means to live morally.  This position will be maintained by examining three theological reasons why animal suffering is of moral significance, and will then end by examining the places where indifference needs to be addressed, and potential effects of such action.

In this paper I will argue that Maximus’ theology makes three claims which have significant bearing on how we can understand nonhuman animals, and demonstrate how these create direct implications for how Christians might respond to intensive industrial farming of nonhuman animals. The three claims are that (1) all creatures made by God are valued by God to the extent that, (2) that these same creatures are included in God’s redemptive concerns, and (3) that humans have a unique calling in helping to achieve such redemption and that this sanctifying role constitutes a necessary part of what it means to be human. Given such a state, the presence of factory farming is an institution which the theology of Maximus suggests is highly problematic and stands in need of serious ethical reflection.

For the past two years Pope Francis has enchanted and bewildered the world in equal measure with his compassion and his contradictions. Expanding greatly on his acclaimed earlier book Pope Francis: Untying the Knots, Paul Vallely reexamines the complex past of Jorge Mario Bertoglio and adds nine new chapters, revealing many untold, behind-the-scenes stories from his first years in office that explain this Pope of paradoxes.

Vallely lays bare the intrigue and in-fighting surrounding Francis's attempt to cleanse the scandal-ridden Vatican Bank. He unveils the ambition and arrogance of top bureaucrats resisting the Pope's reform of the Roman Curia, as well as the hidden opposition at the highest levels that is preventing the Church from tackling the sex abuse crisis. He explains the ambivalence of Pope Francis towards the role of women in the Church, which has frustrated American Catholic women in particular. And Vallely charts the battle lines that are being drawn between Francis and conservatives and traditionalists talking of schism in this struggle for the soul of the Catholic Church. Consistently Francis has show a willingness to discuss issues previously considered taboo, such as the ban on those who divorce and remarry receiving Communion, his liberal instincts outraging traditionalists in the Vatican and especially in the Church hierarchy in the United States. At the same time, many of his statements have reassured conservative elements that he is not, in fact, as radical as he might appear.

Behind the icon of simplicity that Pope Francis projects is a steely and sophisticated politician who has learned from the many mistakes of his past. The Pope with the winning smile was previously a bitterly divisive figure. In his decade as leader of Argentina's Jesuits left that religious order deeply split. His behavior during Argentina's Dirty War, when military death squads snatched innocent people from the streets, raised serious questions. Yet after a period of exile and what he has revealed as 'a time of great interior crisis' he underwent an extraordinary transformation - on which Vallely sheds new and fascinating light. The man who had been a strict conservative authoritarian was radically converted into a listening participative leader who became Bishop of the Slums, making enemies among Argentina's political classes in the process.

Charting Francis's remarkable journey to the Vatican and his first years at work there, Paul Vallely has produced a deeply nuanced and insightful portrait of perhaps the most influential person in the world today. 'Pope Francis,' he writes, 'has not just demonstrated a different way of being a pope. He has shown the world a different way of being a Catholic.'

From his first appearance on a Vatican balcony Pope Francis proved himself a Pope of Surprises. With a series of potent gestures, historys first Jesuit pope declared a mission to restore authenticity and integrity to a Catholic Church bedevilled by sex abuse and secrecy, intrigue and in-fighting, ambition and arrogance. He declared it should be 'a poor Church, for the poor'. But there is a hidden past to this modest man with the winning smile. Jorge Mario Bergoglio was previously a bitterly divisive figure. His decade as leader of Argentinas Jesuits left the religious order deeply split. And his behaviour during Argentinas Dirty War, when military death squads snatched innocent people from the streets, raised serious questions on which this book casts new light. Yet something dramatic then happened to Jorge Mario Bergoglio. He underwent an extraordinary transformation. After a time of exile he re-emerged having turned from a conservative authoritarian into a humble friend of the poor and became Bishop of the Slums, making enemies among Argentinas political classes in the process. For Pope Francis, Untying the Knots, Paul Vallely travelled to Argentina and Rome to meet Bergoglios intimates over the last four decades. His book charts a remarkable journey. It reveals what changed the man who was to become Pope Francis from a reactionary into the revolutionary who is unnerving Romes clerical careerists with the extent of his behind-the-scenes changes. In this perceptive portrait Paul Vallely offers both new evidence and penetrating insights into the kind of pope Francis could become.

For more than a century the Catholic Church has closely scrutinized the economic certainties of capitalism and communism. As a result, it has slowly developed an entirely new position from which today to survey the capitalist leviathan. What this book sets out to do is to chronicle that development and highlight the insights it has formed which have a particular resonance for the world as it enters the . twenty-first century. Michael Walsh describes developments from Rerum Novarum to Vatican II, and Brian Davies the work of John XXIII and Vatican II itself. Julian Filochowski looks at the early social doctrine of Paul VI, and the encyclicals of John Paul II are discussed by Ian Linden, Clifford Langley and Julie Clague. Finally, Paul Vallely looks into the new millennium beyond John Paul II. The book is an important contribution to political and social thought at the beginning of the new millennium. Authoritative, positive and open, its appeal is far from restricted to Catholics or even Christians. Its distinguished contributors offer suggestions for a thought which might combine economic efficiency with social concerns to create a more compassionate community. The tools are there for those with the foresight and courage to take them up. Paul Vallely writes on current social, ethical and political issues for The Independent. He is also the Chair of the Catholic Institute for International Relations and of Traidcraft Exchange.