Introduction

The Anthropological Approach
-traditional view of cultures as static and homogenous
-new focus on complex, multidirectional systems
-religion shaped by the global context?
-role of religion in systems of power and inequality
-Arjun Appadurai's contributions: the five scapes
-unbounded cultural systems

New Avenues for Understanding
-culture and global interconnections
-religion as a force for homogenization or heterogenization
-dialectical tension
-"globalization" and worldwide movement of consumer culture
-resistance and conformity to dominant power structures
-Simon Coleman
         --interplay of global and local culture in religious expression

Articles Included

Article: The Veil in Their Minds and on Our Heads: Veiling Practices and Muslim Women by Homa Hoodfar

Muslim Women
-an enduring subject of discussion in Western media
-the issue of the veil as a symbol
-non-Muslim Western response
-a painful and frustrating lived experience
-parallels with other women
-failure to contextualize and ethnocentrism: reactions of the dominant group
-the psychological and socioeconomic consequences

The Veil
-a powerful symbol for both Western and Muslim communities
-full of contradictions and multiple meanings
-man-made images and persistence of racist response
-asserting cultural and political identity
-the failure of Western feminists
-a forced choice between struggles
-the contrast between the image and the lived experience

The Origins of the Veil
-pre-Islamic veiling and seclusion
-history of incorporation into Islam
-dialectic with symbolization of the veil by colonials
-veiling versus seclusion and economic opportunities
-changing socioeconomic conditions
-the static symbol versus the varied practice
-clothing as a social institution

The Making of the Veil in Their Minds
-the emergence and entrenchment of the Western preoccupation
-missed parallels: ideologies of femininity and systems of patriarchy
-envisioning the "other" as prisoner
-cultural domination and depression
-attempts at de-veiling

The Veil on Our Heads: Iran, a Case Study
-de-veiling: an empty measure
-author's grandmother's experience
-outlawing the chador in Iran
-consequences of the de-veiling for various groups of women
-context
-the reality of hajib and the official ideology
-undemocratic exclusion from the government sector
-aspects of the problem: two examples

Questioning the Relevance of Eurocentric Gender Roles
-pre-Iranian revolution
-veiling and de-veiling as political assertions of rights
-official lip service
-political changes and a rise in activism among women
-varied impacts of compulsory veiling
-scholarly disregard for achievements and ethnocentrism: Kate Millett

Veiled Women in the Western Context
-situated within colonial images, chauvinism, and racism
-having to choose a fight
-strategies and three changing dimensions
-socioeconomic and culturally imposed barriers
-extreme discontinuity between the image and the reality
-the folly of western feminists/activists: can't see the women for the veil
-the "bundle of contradictions" impression
-the role of race/ethnicity beyond the veil
-taken up with cultural and religious pride
-mediation and adaptation: a model of resistance based on faith

Conclusion
-persistence of colonial images as a major obstacle to understanding
-de-veiling and re-veiling: the imposition of Eurocentric gender ideals
-complex, dynamic, and changing cultural practice
-veiling as used against and by women
-the occidental woman's response: thwarting feminist goals
-dismissing and ignoring the insider perspective: an oppressive mechanism
-white feminists forcing an either/or choice

Article: South Korea: Modernization with a Vengence, Evangelization with the Modern Edge by Steve Brouwer, Paul Gifford, and Susan D. Rose

Christianity Abroad
-American-inspired
-fervor over non-American evangelists
         --Paul Yonggi Cho
         --Reverend Sun Myung Moon
-increasing Korean prominence
-Pentecostalism and global anti-communism
-100 years of modernization: the context

Japanese Domination, Korean Authoritarianism
-a nearly simultaneous introduction
-1887 the making of a modern Japanese colony: a brutal work ethic
-post-WWII South Korean government: steady repression
-the "economic miracle" and the price paid
-a "planned economy" and chaebols
-public outrage, political expression, and conservative backlash
-an opening for a democratic leader: Kin Young Sam
-"minjung"

A Tradition of Religious Opposition
-other new, non-Christian religious forms
-Tonghak Peasant Rebellion of 1894 and the movement
-common beliefs of new syncretic religions
-pre-WWII Protestant influence
-post-WWII changes in context
-revivals and fundamentalist dispensationalism
-the growth of Protestantism and Pentecostalism
-Korean-centered world faith
-T'ongil-gyo, Unification Church and Rev. Moon
-a national mission of anti-communism

Religious Modernization: The Leading Edge, Cho and Moon
-Christianity in a foreign context
-religious structures and beliefs made over
-fragmentation, atomization, reaggregation in Pentecostalism
-"spiritual enterprise culture"
-parallels with American evangelists

Paul Yonggi Cho
-church builder par excellance
-"cell principle" and megastructure
-details of the faith
-influence on other Korean churches
-targeting "where the people are"
-organizational style
-potential for growth through a "better way to sell Jesus"

The Reverend Moon
-The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity
-origins
-significant use of anti-communist supranationalism
-transnational religious, political, and business web
-grafting Unification theology onto universalizing trends
-vast amounts of wealth and influence
-a right leaning agenda: CAUSA
-doctrines and societal implications
-connection with Christian groups in United States
-scholarship
-strategy and use of Kusadae

Korean Derivatives and the New Fundamentalism
-Christian movements subject to contextual change
-Moon's adaptation of American civil religion
-who used who?
-reflecting the Korean reality and worldview

Article: The Global Rise of Religious Nationalism by Mark Juergensmeyer

Religion's Revenge
-a renewed claim on ideological order
-violent religious activists
-the enemy
-critique of secular culture and politics
-examples: Hamas, Jewish activists
         --a religious duty to act

A Potentially Explosive Mixture
-role in seemingly isolated attacks
-the conspiratorial view
-armed struggle and Armageddon
-in the name of a new social and political order
-exemplifying counter-modernity currents
-understanding what they want and why

The Ideological Dimensions of Religious Nationalism
-ethnic vs. ideological religious nationalism
-divine law and authority and the nation-state
-fusing religious quests with national aspirations
-a host of potential enemies, inside and out
-secular leaders and the global conspiracy
-"ethno-ideological" religious nationalism
-a thin line: drawing on symbols and beliefs
-obvious ethnic vs. covert ideological foes

The Logic of Ideological Religious Nationalism
-shaped by context
-common elements of disaffection

Despair over Secular Nationalism
-global context of shifting power
-public sense of insecurity
-effects in developed and developing nations
-"loss of faith" in ideological form

Seeing Politics in a Religious Way
-"religionizing" politics
-a vision of social reality
-"Christendom"
-fulfillment of prophecy

Identifying the Enemy
-the root of the problem
-the secular state
-satanization

The Inevitable Confrontation
-cosmic war
-instruments of God's fight
-domesticated violence

The Future of Religious Nationalism
-self-conception as peacemakers
-a guarded prognosis
-potential for a global ideological confrontation
-a response to crises
-the global context
-shaky ground and continued attempts

Article: Cyberspace as Sacred Space: Communicating Religion on Computer Networks by Stephen D. O'Leary

The Internet
-new form of sociability
-as a means of fulfilling religious needs and identities
-undergoing transformation: conceptions of spirituality and community
-implications and potentialities
-virtual congregations
-changes in the "postmodern" age
-the theoretical framework and approach for comparison

An Ongian Framework for the Study of Religious Communication
-evolutionary theory of communication and culture
-cultural impacts of technological change
-"sensorium"
-chirographic literacy: from public to private communication
         --religious implications
-dominance of electronic media and "secondary orality"
-accretion and hybrid forms: talking and writing
-comparison: religious communication then and now

Liturgy and Language in the Protestant Reformation
-Catholic versus Protestant ritual
-symbolic functions of language
-illocutionary force and mere analogy
-Enlightenment theories of language
-ritualistic power of symbolic action
-Umberto Eco's conceptualization
-bricolage: the "Cyberpunk's Prayer"
-anticipating change

Religious Ritual on Computer Networks: Problems of Virtual Ethnography
-online collective devotion and virtual gatherings
-the limitations of the conventional ethnographic approach
-what is gained in the virtual environment?
-starting with the texts
-the purpose of the comparison
-Technopagans: embodying contradiction
-the theater of imagination
-virtual neopagan rituals and irrelevance of physical presence
-assertion of difference and sacred space: a Real place in the Virtual
-cultivating the absurd
-the "sincerity condition"

Conclusions
-simulation and sanctification of real space in virtual space
-postmodernist pastiche: reverence and irreverence
-comparison with the Order of the Solar Temple
-self-conscious awareness of arbitrary construction
-effective rituals
-an already out-dated clue to the future
-the freedom of creative construction
-too soon to tell

Article: Homer the Heretic and Charlie Church: Parody, Piety, and Pluralism in The Simpsons, by Lisle Dalton, Eric Michael Mazur, and Monica Siems

The Baptism
-a passing moment of piety

The Simpsons
-lampooning religion and questioning morality
-standing alone in prime-time
-themes and regular characters
-insightful heresy

"Don't Have a Cow, Man!": Reactions to the Simpsons
-success and popularity
-the scrutiny of critics
         --anti-religion and anti-family
-praise
         --clever writing, realism, and humanism

"Gabbin' About God": Scholarly Viewing of Religion and Television
-striking a nerve
-the symbolic elimination of religion on television
-viewing as a ritual
-the "intrinsic double aspect"
-religious satire and insights

"Home Sweet Home-Diddily-Dum-Doodily": Welcome to Springfield
-the family
-the two-way relationship of cartoon depictions
-self-reflexive actions
-religious stereotyping
         --Krusty, Apu, the Flanders family
-undermining religious leadership: the Reverend Lovejoy
-the comic use of Satan and God
-the morality play
-juxtapositions with noble behavior
-Homer the Heretic: bringing it together
-shift from content to context

"Send in the Clowns": Analyzing The Simpsons
-working both sides of the reality mirror: "us" and "not us"
-an outlet for the ludicrous and ridiculous of our existence
-disjunction between the "ought" and reality: the "irony" coin
-Homer's progress (or lack there of) and its implications

"All the World Loves a Clown": The Simpsons as Religious Archetypes
-Homer the sacred clown
-ritual foolishness in Hopi tradition
-targeting "sincere but useless" forms of religion

Conclusion: "A Noble Spirit Embiggens the Smallest Man"
-fulfilling an important function
-Homer the American spiritual wanderer
-making the most of ignorance
-humor and irony in the unending task of meaning making