ISSN 0967-8948 x> xxx> xxxxx> xxxxxxx> xxxxx> D I S K U S xxx> x> The on-disk journal of international Religious Studies Vol. 2 No. 2 Autumn 1994 If you know how to use DISKUS, please go to CONTENTS/2#2. If you are new to DISKUS, please read on... ===========================================================* HELP FOR READERS OF DISKUS Welcome to Vol.2, no.2 of DISKUS. We hope you enjoy it. You can print out the contents of DISKUS or read DISKUS on-screen. If you haven't already looked at the file called !WHAT_TO.DO, please read that file before proceeding any further. It may save you a lot of time! In a conventional printed journal, page numbers are used to find items. There are no page numbers in DISKUS. Instead, each item in DISKUS - an article, an announcement, etc. - is given a simple code to help you find it immediately using your wordprocessor's 'FIND' or 'SEARCH' function. 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Contents of Vol. 2 No. 2 EDITORIAL ............................................EDIT/2#2 ARTICLES .........................................ARTICLES/2#2 J R FREEMAN Possession Rites and the Tantric Temple: A Case-Study from Northern Kerala..............FREEMAN/2#2 Sandra BELL Practice Makes Perfect - Symbolic Behaviour and Experience in Western Buddhism................BELL/2#2 Seva Singh KALSI Sacred Symbols in British Sikhism..................KALSI/2#2 Denise CUSH and Catherine ROBINSON The Contemporary Construction of Hindu Identity: Hindu Universalism and Hindu Nationalism......CUSH&ROB/2#2 George D CHRYSSIDES New Religious Movements: Some Problems of definition...................CHRYSSID/2#2 ===========================================================* CONFERENCES (use the search codes to find fuller details) CONTEMPORARY & NEW AGE RELIGIONS IN THE BRITISH ISLES - Bath, 13 May 1995..............NEW AGE/2#2 BASR (British Association for the Study of Religions) 41st ANNUAL CONFERENCE Wolverhampton, 18-20 Sept 1995.................... XVIII Denton Conference on Implicit Religion: 12-14 May 1995................................... DENTON95/2#2 BHAGAVAD GITA CONFERENCE, Cambridge 30 June - 1 July 1995................................ GITA/2#2 International Association for the History of Religions XVII Congress Mexico City, 5-12 August 1995.......................IAHR95/2#2 Publications JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RELIGION -Relaunch of RELIGION TODAY............................JCR/2#2 BASR OCCASIONAL PAPERS................................BOPS/2#2 Other Information Sources Information Sources BASR (British Association for the Study of Religions)......BASR/2#2 INFORM - Information Network Focus on Religious Movements........................INFORM/2#2 ABOUT DISKUS..........................................INFO/2#2 DISKUS SUBSCRIPTION FORM...........................SUBFORM/2#2 GUIDELINES FOR CONTRIBUTORS..........................GUIDE/2#2 COPYRIGHT NOTICE.................................COPYRIGHT/2#2 ===========================================================* Editorial A warm welcome to the fourth issue of DISKUS. The DISKUS readership continues to grow, suggesting that those interested in Religious Studies have taken the revolutionary concept of an on-disk journal in their stride! If you do encounter technical problems in either reading or printing DISKUS the editors are always willing to help. There are five papers in this issue dealing with aspects of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and New Religions and embracing a variety of methods and approaches in Religious Studies. Immediately following this editorial are the abstracts of these articles. If you are interested in reading the full papers they are as usual held in separate files on the DISKUS disk and may be read on-screen or printed out using any wordprocessor programme. The first two papers are by anthropologists of religion and they should perhaps be read together, since both develop the theme of religiously effective performance, though in markedly different social contexts. J R Freeman's paper deals with Hindu tantric possession rites in Northern Kerala, while Sandra Bell's article is based on her study of the English Sangha Trust's practice of Theravada Buddhism at Amaravati, just outside London. While Amaravati is home to mainly European 'converted' British Buddhists, the Sikh community in Britain while increasingly UK-born still maintains strong links with its Punjabi and East African history and culture. Seva Singh Kalsi's research among Sikhs in Leeds and elsewhere lends authority to his account of sacred symbols in Sikhism, which is interwoven with pages from the story of the continuing development of British Sikhism from the 1950's to the present day. Denise Cush and Catherine Robinson have collaborated on an article which deals with the interaction between Hinduism as it is and Hinduism as it is often perceived to be. Disturbances at Ayodhya have challenged the widely-taught view that Hinduism is a religion marked by tolerance of other faiths. Distinguishing two main strands - of Hindu nationalism and Hindu universalism - the authors are able to explain how an image of tolerance has emerged from only one side of the complex modern religious and political history of Hinduism. Last but not least, George Chryssides takes a step back from studying new religions to ask the basic methodological question, 'what is a new religious movement?'. Chryssides' aim is to bring into the open some unacknowledged assumptions which appear to be shared by both academics and 'anti-cultists', and to distil a definition of 'New Religious Movement' which will be helpful and acceptable to all parties including the religions themselves. We hope that you enjoy this issue of DISKUS. THE EDITORS Note: Contributions for DISKUS should be sent to Dr. Gavin Flood at Lampeter. The full address and contributors' guidelines can be found at the end of this DISKUS file at GUIDE/2#2. ===========================================================* ARTICLES Reminder for new readers: In this file (2#2__DIS.KUS) you will find only abstracts of the main articles below. The full versions are held in separate files on the disk - details are given with each abstract. This system helps to avoid any DISKUS file becoming unmanageably long. Please refer to the Contents page above (CONTENTS/2#2) to see a full list of items to be found in this issue of the journal. ===========================================================* J R FREEMAN Possession Rites and the Tantric Temple: A Case-Study from Northern Kerala..............FREEMAN/2#2 ABSTRACT The paper argues on the basis of textual and ethnographic study that "formalized possession" (the belief that formally stipulated and ritually prepared "bodies", whether of animate or inanimate matter, can routinely become receptacles for the consciousness and person of deities) is a central locus of religious experience in south India. Possession phenomena are: 1) culturally constructed and codified at the conceptual level; 2) socially stipulated and regulated at the level of organization and recruitment; and 3) ritually effected through the process of performative enactment. The thesis suggests the need to dismantle the distinction between image-worship or puja as "classically Hindu", versus "possession cults" as "folk" or "tribal" practices. The full paper is found in DISKUS file FREEMAN.2#2 ===========================================================* Seva Singh KALSI Sacred Symbols in British Sikhism..................KALSI/2#2 ABSTRACT This paper examine the evolution of Sikh sacred symbols and the development of Sikh tradition in Britain with reference to sacred knowledge, sacred space, sacred time and sacred persons. Major symbols in Sikhism are the Guru Granth Sahib, the gurdwara, amrit-vela (ambrosial morning), the holy men (the Sikh Gurus and others) and the five K's. The postwar development of British Sikhism is traced in discussion of caste, marriage patterns and the teaching of Punjabi with a view to maintaining Sikh identity in the diaspora. The full paper is found in DISKUS file KALSI.2#2 ===========================================================* Denise CUSH and Catherine ROBINSON The Contemporary Construction of Hindu Identity: Hindu Universalism and Hindu Nationalism......CUSH&ROB/2#2 ABSTRACT There are currently two diametrically opposed images of Hinduism: one of tolerance and respect for all religions deriving from Hindu universalism, the other of anti-Muslim propaganda and practice deriving from Hindu nationalism. Historical and ideological developments are examined to show how Hindu universalism has come to be equated with Hinduism, to the extent that Hindu nationalism has been regarded as somehow 'un-Hindu' or even 'anti-Hindu'. The full paper is found in DISKUS file CUSH&ROB.2#2 ===========================================================* Sandra BELL Practice Makes Perfect - Symbolic Behaviour and Experience in Western Buddhism................BELL/2#2 ABSTRACT This paper is concerned with the development of Theravada monasticism in Britain and in particular with the role of the monastery as a centre for the transmission of Theravada Buddhism to a Western context. It develops the idea that the stylised and ritual character of life at the British monastery is the chief means by which ideological content is shaped, transmitted and absorbed, and that this takes place within a continuous performance involving actors with distinct parts to play as monks, nuns and lay people. (Author) The full paper is found in DISKUS file BELL.2#2 ===========================================================* George D CHRYSSIDES New Religious Movements: Some Problems of definition...................CHRYSSID/2#2 ABSTRACT The paper sets out to develop a more appropriate and more widely acceptable definition of new religious movements than the different and often implicit ones used by scholars, by 'anti-cultists' and by religious movements themselves. Seeking to make explicit criteria which are already intuitively applied by both academics and anti-cultists the author proposes three criteria for a New Religious Movement: it is recent, it is 'outside the mainstream' and it attracts converts from the indigenous culture. The full paper is found in DISKUS file CHRYSSID.2#2 ===========================================================* ************************************************************* ******* ******** ****** CONTEMPORARY & NEW AGE ******* ***** RELIGIONS IN THE BRITISH ISLES ****** **** ***** *** THIRD ANNUAL ONE-DAY CONFERENCE **** ** *** * hosted by ** * STUDY OF RELIGIONS DEPT. * * BATH COLLEGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION * * * * SATURDAY 13 MAY 1995 * * * * CONFERENCE THEME: "HEALING" * ** ** *** *** ************************************************************* Programme 9.30 Registration 10.00 Stuart Rose (Lancaster) Healing and its Use in the New Age 10.40 Martyn Percy (Cambridge) Sociological and Theoretical Perspectives on Christian Charismatic Healing Ministries with Reference to the Toronto Blessing 11.20 Coffee 11.40 George Chryssides (Wolverhampton) Healing and Curing: Spiritual Healing, Old and New 12.20 Stephen Hunt (Reading) Spiritual Healing in the Charismatic Movement: The Boundary Maintenance 1.00 Lunch 2.00 Nancy Schaefer Mummery (Liverpool) Making the Rulers of this World Tremble! The 1994 MCWE Mission to London 2.40 Matthew Wood (Nottingham) Holistic Health Therapies in Comparative Analysis 3.20 Tea 3.40 Marion Bowman (Bath) Healing Currents in Bath 4.15 Concluding Session (Close 4.45pm) Contact: Brian Bocking or Marion Bowman, Bath College of Higher Education, Newton Park, BATH BA2 9BN. 01225-873701 x404/368. [exxbb@bath.ac.uk or exxmib@bath.ac.uk] **************************** NOTE: Papers from the 1994 Conference on 'International Connections' will be published in Vol.10,2 of the Journal of Contemporary Religion (see below). Papers from the first Bath conference were published in a special issue of Religion Today, obtainable from Marion Bowman at the above address, price 3 pounds. ===========================================================* BASR (British Association for the Study of Religions) *****************41st ANNUAL CONFERENCE***************** >>>>>>>> Theme: AUTHORITY and RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS<<<<<<<<< 18-20 September 1995 at the University of Wolverhampton Conference Organiser: Peggy Morgan, Westminster College, Oxford OX2 9AT From whom details of the conference may be obtained. PAPERS Offers of papers on the conference theme should be sent immediately to Peggy Morgan (address above). The subject of authority can be interpreted by those who wish to present papers in the widest possible sense. Papers not related to the theme will be considered for inclusion but will not have priority. The 1995 BASR Annual Lecture will be given by Professor Margaret Chatterjee, Emeritus Professor of Philosophy, University of Delhi, author of Gandhi's Religious Thought, Gandhi and his Jewish Friends, The Concept of Spirituality. APPLICATIONS To register for the conference write to: Alan Rogers, 4 Fossett Way, Wyke Regis, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 9HD. Conference Fee (non-returnable) 15 pounds (students 5 pounds) Cost of full board is 100 pounds. Deposit of 15 pounds is needed at application, returnable if cancellation is necessary before the end of June. Balance payable at registration. There is a reduction on the cost of residence for 5 doctoral students towards the end of their work. They should submit a paragraph on their work with the recommendation and signature of their supervisor by end of June to Alan Rogers (address above) BOOKING FORM BASR Wolverhampton Conference 1995 Name & Title of Applicant................................ Institution.............................................. Indicate here if applicant is a doctoral student......... Contact Address:......................................... ......................................................... I enclose the non-returnable conference fee of 15 pounds.[ ] I require accommodation and enclose deposit of 15 pounds.[ ] Signed:.............................. Date................ [Cheques payable to "British Association for the Study of Religions"] ===========================================================* DENTON95/2#2 XVIII Denton Conference on Implicit Religion: 12-14 May 1995. There are papers this year on Frank Capra, ancient Rome, popular devotion to saints and heroes, Victorian women and religion and Appalachian implicit religion. Contact: Edward Bailey, Winterbourne Rectory, 58 High Street, Winterbourne, Bristol BS17 1JQ Tel: 0454-772131 for further details. ===========================================================* GITA/2#2 BHAGAVAD GITA CONFERENCE "The Fruits of our Desiring": An Inquiry into the Ethics of the Bhagavada Gita for our Times" Dharam Hinduja Institute of Indic research (DHIIR), Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge Inaugural Conference. 30 June - 1 July 1995 This conference will be in two parts: Day 1 (30 June) is weighted to the academic side with speakers including Nicholas Lash, John Brockington, Gavin Flood, Dermot Killingley, Jackie Hirst and Will Johnson. Day 2 will inquire into the relevance of the Gita for everyday living. There will be panel discussions with the previous day's speakers, a slide lecture on the Gita with Ursual King, and three presentations on the Gita by a Ramakrishna monk, a representative from ISKCON and a Hindu layman. The session will be chaired by Kim Knott. Attendance costs 7 pounds/day or 12 pounds for 2 days. Further information from: Dr J Lipner, Director DHIIR Divinity School St John's Street Cambridge CB2 1TW Tel: 01223-332590, Fax 01223-332582 ===========================================================* IAHR95/2#2 International Association for the History of Religions XVII Congress, Mexico City, 5-12 August 1995. The second circular containing booking and hotel information may be obtained from Dr Kim Knott, secretary of BASR at the Dept of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT. The preliminary programme contains proposals for 90 symposia. ===========================================================* JCR/2#2 JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RELIGION RELIGION TODAY is being relaunched in a new and more substantial format as the JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RELIGION, by Carfax Publishing Company, from Volume 10, 1995. The Editorship remains with Peter Clarke and Elisabeth Arweck (Assistant Editor). The journal will continue to provide a forum for discussion and analysis of new religions and recent developments in the major religions and will provide more space for articles and reviews. For details contact Ms. Elisabeth Arweck, Centre for New Religions, King's College, University of London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS. ===========================================================* BASR OCCASIONAL PAPERS................................BOPS/2#2 The following BASR short papers are available, price 1 pound per single copy including postage or 4 pounds for 5 papers from: Dr Terry Thomas, The Open University in Wales, 24 Cathedral Road, Cardiff CF1 9SA 1. Miranda Green 'Women and Goddesses in the Celtic World' (1991) 2. Christine Trevett 'The Quaker Margaret Fell: Religion and Gender in a Seveneteenth- Century Dissenting Group' (1991) 3. Ann Bancroft 'Hildegard of Bingen to Meinrad Craighead: A Continuation of the Truly Feminine in Conceptions of Divinity' (1991) 4. Julia Leslie 'Religion, Gender and Dharma: The Case of the Widow-Ascetic' (1991) 5. Peter Antes 'How to Study Religious Experience in the Traditions' (1992) 6. Marion Bowman 'Phenomenology, Fieldwork and Folk Religion' (1992) 7. George Chryssides 'Unificationism: A Study in Religious Syncretism' (1993) 8. Michael Pye 'Syncretism versus Synthesis' (1993) ===========================================================* Information Sources BASR (British Association for the Study of Religions)......BASR/2#2 The British Association for the Study of Religions is a registered charity (no.801567) affiliated to the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) whose object is the promotion of the academic study of religions through the international collaboration of all scholars whose research has a bearing on the subject. The BASR pursues these aims within the United Kingdom through conferences, publications and an Annual General Meeting. Membership of the BASR is open to scholars whose work has a bearing on the academic study of religions and who are normally resident in the U.K. Those interested in membership should write to the Hon. Secretary, Dr Kim Knott, Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT. Annual subscription to BASR is 12 pounds. For postgraduates etc. the subscription is 6 pounds. Overseas scholars may receive the BASR Bulletin (4 per year) for 10 pounds. ===========================================================* INFORM - INFORMATION NETWORK FOCUS ON RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS INFORM is a non-sectarian Charity which was started in 1988 in order to conduct research into new religious movements and to help enquirers by providing information about the movement that is as objective, balanced and up-to-date as possible. Honorary Director: Prof. Eileen Barker (LSE) Further information available from: INFORM Houghton Street London WC2 2AE Tel: 0171-955-7654 Fax: 0171-242-0392 (mark for INFORM) ===========================================================* ABOUT DISKUS..... DISKUS subscription: 1 year (2 issues) œ5 pounds (UK) or $15 dollars/ œ10 pounds overseas (airmail) Cheques/orders payable to "Bath College of Higher Education" Please specify disk size/type when ordering (PC 3.5" or Apple Mac 3.5") For a subscription form go to SUBFORM below. -------------------------------------------------------------   ISSN 0967-8948   D I S K U S   The on-disk journal of international Religious Studies DISKUS is the first disk-based journal of Religious Studies. Each issue is published and distributed on computer disk only, in a simple format easily accessible by your word-processing program. DISKUS features: - an emphasis on contemporary religions, and contemporary issues in Religious Studies. - a mix of religious traditions in each issue of the journal - a broadly phenomenological approach, by which we mean articles about religion rather than articles written from a religious standpoint. - articles written in a lucid style, accessible to an international readership of researchers, students and educators in Religious Studies. DISKUS is cheaper than standard printed journals. You can study, scan and even index the contents of DISKUS in your own wordprocessing program, and print off part or whole as required. Academic papers (of any reasonable length), notices, reports, letters, books for review, and other short contributions submitted for publication in DISKUS should be addressed to: Dr Gavin Flood DISKUS, Dept. of Theology & Religious Studies University of Wales, Lampeter Lampeter, SA48 7ED, UK Tel: 01570-422351 x 315 e-mail floodg@lampeter.ac.uk - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - SUBFORM/2#2 Subscription Form: Please send me DISKUS (tick issues required): Vol 1, 1993 (2 issues, Spring & Autumn). Vol 2, 1994 (2 issues, Spring & Autumn). Vol 3, 1995 (2 issues, Spring & Autumn). UK & Europe: I enclose 5 pounds per volume (2 issues) (UK Cheques payable to 'Bath College of H.E.) Overseas (Airmail) subscriptions or payment by Eurocheque: I enclose 15 USdollars, or 10 UKpounds. Name: (PRINT)...................................Prof/Dr/Ms/Mr Address:...................................................... Country: ................... Tel:............. Fax:............ e-mail ................ Please send DISKUS on IBM compatible 3.5 Disk [ ] Apple Mac 3.5 Disk [ ] Please return the subscription form and your payment to: Prof. Brian Bocking DISKUS, Study of Religions Dept. Bath College of Higher Education Newton Park, Bath, BA2 9BN, UK - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ===========================================================* GUIDE/2#2 DISKUS: Guidelines for Contributors Version 4 Autumn 1995 PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE SENDING IN YOUR CONTRIBUTION 'DISKUS: Guidelines for Contributors' will be included in each issue of DISKUS and amended in the light of experience. If you plan to submit an item to DISKUS, please look in your most recent issue of DISKUS for updated Guidelines. CONTENTS GUIDELINES DISKUS features:  an emphasis on contemporary religions, and contemporary issues in Religious Studies.  a mix of religious traditions in each issue of the journal  a broadly phenomenological approach, by which we mean articles about religion rather than articles written from a religious standpoint.  articles written in a lucid style, accessible to an international readership of researchers, students and educators in Religious Studies. Style Guide: Papers intended for publication in DISKUS should be submitted initially IN PRINTED FORM ONLY, double spaced and page-numbered. Short announcements, letters etc. may be submitted on paper, or on paper and disk. Referencing: Referencing may be done with numbered endnotes e.g. <3> or in the author-date style e.g. (BROOKS, 1979:23). Some writers may wish to number paragraphs in order to refer backwards and forwards in their paper. Sub-headings are often useful. Bear in mind that that readers don't like scrolling backwards and forwards looking for endnotes, so incorporate as much as possible in the main text. Special characters: Remember that DISKUS cannot handle bold text, italics, diacritics, underlining etc.. If diacritics are necessary a special list suitable for DISKUS may be useful. See file FREEMAN.2#2 for an example. Authors may wish to use the diacritical conventions used for e-mail but remember that many DISKUS readers may not be familiar with those conventions. Bibliography: use single quote marks for title of articles, e.g: Brown, A. 'Religion and Reason Reconsidered', CORPUS. Vol.5, no.1, 1993, pp.3-25. For book titles, separate the title from preceding text and place a full stop at the end, before the publisher information, e.g: Smith, J. (1990) The Nature of Nature. London, Common Press. Joint Editors of DISKUS: Prof. Brian Bocking Dr Gavin Flood Study of Religions Dept. Dept. of Theology Bath College of Higher Education & Religious Studies Newton Park Univ. of Wales, Lampeter Bath BA2 9BN Lampeter, Dyfed SA48 7AR Tel: 0225-873701 x 368 Tel: 0570-422351 x 315 Fax: 0225-874082 Fax: 0570-423641 e-mail: exxbb@bath.ac.uk floodg@lampeter.ac.uk ===========================================================*