Researching Global Religious Landscapes
A Methodology between Universalism and Particularism
Edited by
Peter Nynäs [+–]
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
Ruth Illman [+–]
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
View Website
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
Nurit Novis-Deutsch [+–]
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch’s research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.
Rafael Fernández-Hart [+–]
Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru
Rafael Fernández-Hart, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Facultad de Filosofía, Educación y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on issues related to the philosophy of religion with a special emphasis on the development of the sacred in contexts of secularization and the links between philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Fernández functioned as local investigator for the YARG project in Peru. Recent publications include “Revelación y religion en Levinas” in Estudios de Filosofía (Vol 57, 2018) and “The Internet, social media, and the critical interrogation of traditional religion among young adults in Peru” with Sidney Castillo Cardenas and Marcus Moberg in Moberg, M. & Sjö, S. 2020. Digital media, young adults, and religion: An international perspective. Abingdon, NY: Routledge.
How should researchers navigate in a global landscape of religious and secular worldviews? This volume contributes with an interdisciplinary perspective to the study of contemporary religion in a cross-cultural or global perspective. The chapters in the volume highlight quite different themes – from translation to sexuality and secularity, critically dismantling conceptions of e.g., the “sacred individual”, “Eastern religions” and multiple belongings. Yet, they are united in their search for signs that help us contest categorical cultural, religious, and secular boundaries, methodologically, theoretically, and epistemologically. The debate on universalism vs. particularism can simply not be put aside and hence, the implications of this dichotomy needs to be further investigated.
The volume explores current challenges pertinent to cross-cultural research on religion in today’s world. It reflects important aspects of global cultural and religious diversity. All articles stem from the international research project “Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective”. The project implemented a mixed methods study in twelve different countries across the world. The chapters univocally stress the importance of using a sensitive analytical toolbox when investigating values and worldviews in an increasingly interconnected world. Nevertheless, such sensitivity needs to entail a capacity to move across boundaries and positions, giving voice to novel existential positions that do not fit within the traditional patterns of set religious and secular boundaries.
Table of Contents
Prelims
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch’s research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.
Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru
Rafael Fernández-Hart, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Facultad de Filosofía, Educación y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on issues related to the philosophy of religion with a special emphasis on the development of the sacred in contexts of secularization and the links between philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Fernández functioned as local investigator for the YARG project in Peru. Recent publications include “Revelación y religion en Levinas” in Estudios de Filosofía (Vol 57, 2018) and “The Internet, social media, and the critical interrogation of traditional religion among young adults in Peru” with Sidney Castillo Cardenas and Marcus Moberg in Moberg, M. & Sjö, S. 2020. Digital media, young adults, and religion: An international perspective. Abingdon, NY: Routledge.
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch’s research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.
Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru
Rafael Fernández-Hart, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Facultad de Filosofía, Educación y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on issues related to the philosophy of religion with a special emphasis on the development of the sacred in contexts of secularization and the links between philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Fernández functioned as local investigator for the YARG project in Peru. Recent publications include “Revelación y religion en Levinas” in Estudios de Filosofía (Vol 57, 2018) and “The Internet, social media, and the critical interrogation of traditional religion among young adults in Peru” with Sidney Castillo Cardenas and Marcus Moberg in Moberg, M. & Sjö, S. 2020. Digital media, young adults, and religion: An international perspective. Abingdon, NY: Routledge.
Foreword
Foreword xii-xvi
University of Chester
Alana M. Vincent is Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies at the University of Chester.
Preface
Editorial Preface xvii-xx
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
Chapter 1
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch’s research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.
In this chapter we will introduce and discuss the research project behind this volume, namely the Centre of Excellence in Research project “Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective” (YARG). This project implemented a cross-cultural, comparative and mixed-method study of religious subjectivities and values in their context. In addition to providing a background to the volume, it is essential to the volume as a whole to describe the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of YARG, including the mixed method, the research process and the data we have collected. In addition to clarifying the epistemological claims of the research project, we also bring up some elementary observations stemming from the Faith Q-study in the project and provide a framework for understanding the separate chapters.
Chapter 2
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Måns Broo is lecturer in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University, Finland, and
an associate research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His research interests include historical and contemporary forms of yoga, Gaudiya Vaishnavism and globalised Hinduism. His most recent monograph is a Finnish translation of the Shandilya- and Narada-bhakti-sutra (Gaudeamus 2021).
an associate research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His research interests include historical and contemporary forms of yoga, Gaudiya Vaishnavism and globalised Hinduism. His most recent monograph is a Finnish translation of the Shandilya- and Narada-bhakti-sutra (Gaudeamus 2021).
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Marcus Moberg is Professor in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University. His
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
University of Calcutta
Dr Mallarika Sarkar Das is the Assistant Professor and M. Phil Coordinator of the Department of Sociology, University of Calcutta. She served as research assistant for the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) in India. Her area of specialization is Social gerontology and her main research interests include Sociology of ageing, Urban Sociology and Social exclusion. Dr Sarkar Developed 36 modules (e-content) on Religion and Healing under UGC-MHRD e-PG Pathshala project entitled “ Comparative Study of Religions” and acted as Co-I in a UGC-UPE Project titled, ‘Situating Look East: the Cultural Politics of Connected History.’
Indian Institute of Management, Joka
Sohini Ray has been a Teaching Associate in Indian Institute of Management, Joka. She has received her Master’s degree and MPhil in Sociology from Jadavpur University and Graduation from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. She served as research assistant for the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) in India.
The translation of research instruments presents a window to the many difficult conceptual problems related to commensurability or incommensurability. We often face them in cross-cultural studies involving different cultures and languages. Hence, a translation process may gain a methodological value in itself and produce significant data. In this chapter we examine the process of translating the Faith Q-set into Bengali. This case study reflects many of the issues that we came across in working with translations of the Faith Q-set from English to eleven different target languages. The impact of linguistic, conceptual and cultural differences become evident in this study, and we question the ideal that one can overcome cross-cultural boundaries, and modestly prefer to refer to the quality of a translation process with respect to target groups. Yet, in contrast to the impact of cultural differences, and supported by a translingual-practice approach, we emphasise that comprehensibility and understanding still emerge through different forms of linguistic contact, interaction and interpretation. This happens on a historical and societal level as well as on a micro-level within the interviews.
Chapter 3
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
Sławomir Sztajer holds a PhD in philosophy from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań,
Poland, where he is University Professor at the Center of Religious and Comparative Studies. He has published books and articles on religious language, religious cognition, and religious change. Recent publications include Changing Trajectories of Religion and Popular Culture: Cognitive and Anthropological Dimensions (LIT Verlag 2018, co-authored with Jarema Drozdowicz) and Religion and Religiosity in the Processes of Modernization and Globalization (WN UAM 2016, coedited with Zbigniew Drozdowicz).
Poland, where he is University Professor at the Center of Religious and Comparative Studies. He has published books and articles on religious language, religious cognition, and religious change. Recent publications include Changing Trajectories of Religion and Popular Culture: Cognitive and Anthropological Dimensions (LIT Verlag 2018, co-authored with Jarema Drozdowicz) and Religion and Religiosity in the Processes of Modernization and Globalization (WN UAM 2016, coedited with Zbigniew Drozdowicz).
Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru
Rafael Fernández-Hart, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Facultad de Filosofía, Educación y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on issues related to the philosophy of religion with a special emphasis on the development of the sacred in contexts of secularization and the links between philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Fernández functioned as local investigator for the YARG project in Peru. Recent publications include “Revelación y religion en Levinas” in Estudios de Filosofía (Vol 57, 2018) and “The Internet, social media, and the critical interrogation of traditional religion among young adults in Peru” with Sidney Castillo Cardenas and Marcus Moberg in Moberg, M. & Sjö, S. 2020. Digital media, young adults, and religion: An international perspective. Abingdon, NY: Routledge.
University of Ghana
Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Ghana, Legon. He teaches in the areas of theological studies, religion and society, and ecological theology/ethics. Some of his recent publications are “Religious Environmental Stewardship, the Sabbath and Sustainable Futures in Africa: Implications for Sustainability Discourse,” Consensus: A Canadian Journal of Public Theology Vol. 41: Issue 1, Article 4. (2020), and “The Contents and Discontents of Internet and Social Media Use in the Religious Lives of Ghanaian Young Adults.” In Marcus Moberg and Sofia Sjo (eds.) Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective. London: Routledge (2020). Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo was the Local Investigator (LI) for the international research project Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Turku, Finland (2014–18).
University of Helsinki
Sidney Castillo is a Ph.D. Candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. He has a Master of Arts in Sociology and Social Anthropology from Central European University, Budapest, Hungary (2018); and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Perú (2014). He served as research assistant for the Åbo Akademi Universit Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) in Peru. Currently, he is working on his dissertation as a member of the research group “Religion, Self, and the Ethical Life” (2021-2023), University of Helsinki, unit of Social and Cultural Anthropology. He focuses on the relationship between ayahuasca rituals and ethical self-making among indigenous contexts in the Peruvian Amazon. He is also an associate editor, writer, and interviewer for The Religious Studies Project. His research interests encompass youth and religion, ritual and religion, indigenous religions, new religious movements, western esotericism, religion and conflict, and secular identities.
Within cognitive scholarship of religion, a strong case has been made for the idea that religion can be explained from a perspective of human evolution and cognition. This often relies on observations of universals across time and space, and linguistic and cultural boundaries. In this chapter, we focus on lived religion in Peru, Ghana and China; countries with a distinct history of traditional forms of religion that furthermore are present in various and complex ways. In these cultures, traditional forms of religiosity may still be present and surface in the form of emerging new or revitalised aspects of religiosities within the framework of more recent religious or secular positions. In light of such complex forms of lived religion it becomes relevant to explore the relevance of a cognitive approach to religion. To what extent can it be applied within a framework of the complexity of lived religion? This chapter on the one hand sheds light on the extent and way traditional forms of religion surface in contemporary religiosities and, on the other hand, moves on to explore the extent to which such complex configurations allow for the adaptation of observations from a cognitive study of religion. We propose a model of interpretative complementarity that differentiates between two key ways of understanding current concepts, beliefs and practices. The first points to universal cognitive mechanisms and the second to cultural and contextual factors in light of contemporary forms of lived religion.
Chapter 4
Heteronormative Religion? Attitudes to Abortion and Same-Sex Relationships on a Global Scale [+–] 79-111
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Dr. Ariela Keysar, a demographer, is a recipient of the 2021 Marshall Sklare Award, given by the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry to “”a senior scholar who has made a significant scholarly contribution to the social scientific study of Jewry.” Keysar is Senior Fellow, Program on Public Values, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. She is Co-Principal Investigator, The Class of 1995/5755 Longitudinal Study of Young American and Canadian Jews, 1995-2019; and U.S. Principal Investigator, Young adults and religion in a global perspective, YARG, 2015-2018. She was Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College, 2005-19. Keysar is co-author of Religion in a Free Market and The Next Generation: Jewish Children and Adolescents. She co-edited volumes on secularism in relation to women, science, and secularity. She holds a Ph.D. in demography from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
Åbo Akademi University
Clara Marlijn Meijer is a doctoral candidate at the department Study of Religions at Åbo
Akademi University in Finland. Her study explores how Ghanaian young adults identifying as
sexual minorities negotiate their sexuality and religious identity in everyday life. Her research
is part of the Doctoral Training Network for Minority Research and the international research
project Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective led by professor Peter Nynäs.
Akademi University in Finland. Her study explores how Ghanaian young adults identifying as
sexual minorities negotiate their sexuality and religious identity in everyday life. Her research
is part of the Doctoral Training Network for Minority Research and the international research
project Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective led by professor Peter Nynäs.
Donner Institute, Turku
Dr. Theol. Sofia Sjö works as research librarian at the Donner Institute, Turku, Finland. Her
research focuses on religion, popular culture, media and gender and has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes. She was a senior researcher in the YARG project and has co-edited three volumes within the project: a thematic issue on socialization published in Religion 49/2, “Digital Media, Young Adults, and Religion: An International Perspective” (Routledge 2020) and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (Springer Forthcoming).
research focuses on religion, popular culture, media and gender and has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes. She was a senior researcher in the YARG project and has co-edited three volumes within the project: a thematic issue on socialization published in Religion 49/2, “Digital Media, Young Adults, and Religion: An International Perspective” (Routledge 2020) and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (Springer Forthcoming).
In this chapter we explore the association between religion and heteronormativity in data from our mixed-method study with young adults globally. We present some descriptive quantitative results, results from a cluster analysis and a multi-variate CHAID analysis. In addition, interview data help us to further nuance our understanding. On the one hand, our findings are consistent with many previous studies confirming the association between religion and heteronormativity, and on the other, they also indicate for example that tradition as a value is also an independent and relevant factor. In this there are considerable variations between countries and contexts. How LGBTQI persons living in a heteronormative context themselves reproduce, manage or resist negative attitudes also varies significantly. The explorative approach in this chapter does not necessarily present new or surprising results. Rather, our use of a form of triangulation as an approach to our data underscores the value of systematic reflexivity – viewing things from different perspectives and in different lights. This is especially important when it comes to complex phenomena like religion, gender and sexuality, and in cross-cultural studies.
Chapter 5
The Multiplicity of Chinese and Indian Religions: A Critical Reappraisal of the Notion of “Eastern Religion” [+–] 113-139
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Måns Broo is lecturer in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University, Finland, and
an associate research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His research interests include historical and contemporary forms of yoga, Gaudiya Vaishnavism and globalised Hinduism. His most recent monograph is a Finnish translation of the Shandilya- and Narada-bhakti-sutra (Gaudeamus 2021).
an associate research fellow at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. His research interests include historical and contemporary forms of yoga, Gaudiya Vaishnavism and globalised Hinduism. His most recent monograph is a Finnish translation of the Shandilya- and Narada-bhakti-sutra (Gaudeamus 2021).
Jadavpur University / Adamamas University
Having completed her studies from University of Kalyani (B.A.,M.A., Ph.D.), professor Ruby Sain has been serving the profession of Sociology for over 30 years at Jadavpur University and then joined at Adamamas University as Emeritus Professor. She established the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society at Jadavpur University and founded the Jadavpur University Journal of Sociology. In addition she has served as Guest Faculty at University of Manitoba, Lund University , Gothenborg University, University of California , Grand Valley State University, and been Visiting Fellow in Oxford University and developed research collaborations with many of these and other universities. She has published several articles and book chapters and among her many edited or authored books we find titles such as “Sociology of Religion: Past, Present and Future”, “Contemporary Social Problems in India”, “Religious Pluralism in Contemporary Society and “The Future of Religious Studies in India“.
Despite devastating criticism from post-colonial scholars over recent decades, the distinction between “Eastern” and “Western” religion is still used as a generic model for comprehending basic distinctions in the study of religion as well as in relation to debates on religious change in the West. Colin Campbell discussed the Western understanding of “Eastern religions” as marking a watershed in contemporary religious change. But what really are these “Eastern” religions, outside the desk of scholars? This chapter explores Campbell’s basic model and in particular questions the inherent stereotypical assumption of “Eastern” or “Asian” religion still powerfully resonant in the West. Embedded in the rich mixed-methods material, the chapter points to the inherent and neglected diversity in the Asian countries of the People’s Republic of China and India. Our results show that while categories such as “Muslim”, “Buddhist” and “Taoist” are naturally useful in many ways, they tell us little about the types of worldviews that the young university students studied here hold as additional and relevant crossings of the lines of religious affiliation are significant.
Chapter 6
Conceptualizations of the “Sacred Individual”: A Comparative Study of Russian and Finnish Young Adults [+–] 141-165
St. Tikhon’s University, Moscow
Polina Vrublevskaya is a research fellow of the sociological laboratory “Sociology of Religion” at St. Tikhon’s University in Moscow, Russia. She holds a joined Master Degree in Sociology at Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences and University of Manchester (2014). Her main research interests include community policies, sociological theory of sacred and field studies of Russian Orthodox Church. Vrublevskaya served as research assistant for the Åbo Akademi Universit Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) in Russia and is currently working on a doctoral dissertation in Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) (2018 – ). Her main publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/polina-vrublevskaya/publications/”
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Marcus Moberg is Professor in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University. His
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
Åbo Akademi University
Karoliina Dahl, MA, is a doctoral student at the Department of the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Turku, Finland. Dahl worked as a research assistant in Finland and member of the core team of the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18), and she gathered the data in Finland. Her dissertation project focuses on continuities and changes in Finnish young adults’ religious, nonreligious and spiritual views of life.
This chapter explores data gathered among young adults in Russia and Finland in light of the Durkheimian notion of the “sacred individual”. This notion is grounded in the contention that accelerating modern-day processes of individualisation and pluralisation have given rise to a situation where the personal autonomy, rights and self-determination of the individual have accrued non-contingent, “sacred” status. By identifying and exploring Russian and Finnish respondents’ scores on a smaller set of Faith Q-Sort (FQS) statements – referred to as the “sacred individual subset” – the chapter explores the extent to which the FQS data can be used to empirically test and elaborate on broader theoretical perspectives. In so doing, it also aims to demonstrate how the mixed-methods data can usefully be approached and analysed from multiple theoretical perspectives. The FQS analyses are further combined with the Finnish and Russian interview data in order to further illustrate how the notion of the sacred individual provides a particular lens for making sense of respondents’ repeated emphasis on the importance of respecting and tolerating the viewpoints and outlooks of others.
Chapter 7
Åbo Akademi University
Janne Kontala, Ph.D., has worked as a researcher in Turku, Finland, in the Department Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research: Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–19). He specialises in the field of studies of non-religion and is the author of Emerging Non-religious Worldview Prototypes: A Faith Q-sort-Study on Finnish Group-Affiliates (Åbo Akademi University, 2016). He previously worked as a researcher in a project entitled “Viewpoints to the World: Prototypes of Worldview and their Relation to Motivational Values in Different Social Movements”, funded by the Academy of Finland (2011–15).
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Dr. Ariela Keysar, a demographer, is a recipient of the 2021 Marshall Sklare Award, given by the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry to “”a senior scholar who has made a significant scholarly contribution to the social scientific study of Jewry.” Keysar is Senior Fellow, Program on Public Values, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. She is Co-Principal Investigator, The Class of 1995/5755 Longitudinal Study of Young American and Canadian Jews, 1995-2019; and U.S. Principal Investigator, Young adults and religion in a global perspective, YARG, 2015-2018. She was Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College, 2005-19. Keysar is co-author of Religion in a Free Market and The Next Generation: Jewish Children and Adolescents. She co-edited volumes on secularism in relation to women, science, and secularity. She holds a Ph.D. in demography from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
Åbo Akademi University
Sawsan Kheir, MA, is a double-degree doctoral candidate at the School of Psychological
Sciences at the University of Haifa, Israel, and the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi
University, Finland. She served as research assistant for the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) in Israel. Her dissertation research focuses on contemporary negotiations of modernization in the value profiles and religiosities among Muslim and Druze students in Israel. She has co-authored recent publications on religious socialization processes and internet use among minority students in Israel. Currently, she acts as a Co-PI for the international research project “Meaning-Making, agency and worldviews during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A comparative study”, that is being conducted in Israel, Finland and Turkey.
Sciences at the University of Haifa, Israel, and the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi
University, Finland. She served as research assistant for the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) in Israel. Her dissertation research focuses on contemporary negotiations of modernization in the value profiles and religiosities among Muslim and Druze students in Israel. She has co-authored recent publications on religious socialization processes and internet use among minority students in Israel. Currently, she acts as a Co-PI for the international research project “Meaning-Making, agency and worldviews during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A comparative study”, that is being conducted in Israel, Finland and Turkey.
The number of “nones”, people who do not identify with a religion, is increasing in many countries. Many are forming new worldviews. While “nones” are estimated to account for between 16 and 33 per cent of the global population, and are most common among young adults, we still lack a coherent perspective on non-religious identities. In this chapter, we uncover a spectrum of these identities. Utilising a mixed-methods approach in several diverse cultures, we rely on surveys and interviews with young adults to shed light on the complexity of their non-religious choices. This global research delves into critical research questions: What are the emerging non-religious prototypes among contemporary young adults? Do they form a single global identity or are they influenced by their specific national contexts, and if so, how? What is the role of their religious/non-religious upbringing? We found that the major non-religious outlook is fairly secular, but we also unveiled notable openness towards religion. Somewhat surprisingly, one-third of the respondents that define the prototypes were associated with outlooks that in various ways indicated some engagement with religion or spirituality. The quotations sprinkled through this chapter illuminate this seeming contradiction with personal narratives.
Chapter 8
Multiple Identifications: Growing Diversity and Complexity in Religious and Secular Worldviews [+–] 197-224
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch’s research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.
Many young adults today seem to express multiple religious identifications as part of their life-views. Yet it remains unclear how we should comprehend and conceptualise this phenomenon. Observations about multiple religious identifications offer an impetus to better capture the heterogeneity, complexity and fluidity with regard to how religion is currently reconfigured and structured owing, for example, to religious change and globalisation. It also implies a need to further investigate the diversification of secular and religious identities. The aim of this chapter is to explore forms of multiple identifications as part of a larger discussion on contemporary diversity and pluralism. We assess several recent contributions to understanding multiple identifications from a cross-disciplinary perspective, including how diversity as a social process of change has been contested in more general terms. Analyses of diverse mixed-method data from thirteen countries contribute empirical observations regarding both overarching patterns of identifications and individual life narratives.
Chapter 9
Towards a New Methodological Perspective: Concluding Reflections on Cross-cultural Research in the Study of Religions [+–] 225-241
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru
Rafael Fernández-Hart, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Facultad de Filosofía, Educación y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on issues related to the philosophy of religion with a special emphasis on the development of the sacred in contexts of secularization and the links between philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Fernández functioned as local investigator for the YARG project in Peru. Recent publications include “Revelación y religion en Levinas” in Estudios de Filosofía (Vol 57, 2018) and “The Internet, social media, and the critical interrogation of traditional religion among young adults in Peru” with Sidney Castillo Cardenas and Marcus Moberg in Moberg, M. & Sjö, S. 2020. Digital media, young adults, and religion: An international perspective. Abingdon, NY: Routledge.
This concluding chapter brings together the main findings, discussions and perspectives developed over the preceding chapters. From a variety of theoretical starting points, these chapters have addressed the worldviews of young adults around the globe, elucidating what diversity means in practice on the overarching societal level, on the locally embedded cultural level, and for the individual. The chapter also discusses questions of methodology and research ethics. How should we as researchers navigate conceptually in a global landscape of complex religious and secular worldviews? Furthermore, the goal of dismantling dichotomies and illuminating the multiple identifications and diversity prevalent on all levels of analysis in our research lies not only in the descriptions that have been presented, but also in what they suggest. Can we meet the challenge of taking other and alternative voices seriously?
End Matter
Index 243-246
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch’s research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.
Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru
Rafael Fernández-Hart, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Facultad de Filosofía, Educación y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on issues related to the philosophy of religion with a special emphasis on the development of the sacred in contexts of secularization and the links between philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Fernández functioned as local investigator for the YARG project in Peru. Recent publications include “Revelación y religion en Levinas” in Estudios de Filosofía (Vol 57, 2018) and “The Internet, social media, and the critical interrogation of traditional religion among young adults in Peru” with Sidney Castillo Cardenas and Marcus Moberg in Moberg, M. & Sjö, S. 2020. Digital media, young adults, and religion: An international perspective. Abingdon, NY: Routledge.
Appendices
Peter Nynäs,David Wulff,Mika Lassander,Ruth Illman,Rafael Fernández-Hart,Ariela Keysar,Maria Klingenberg,Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo,Nurit Novis-Deutsch,Ruby Sain,Marat Shterin,Slawomir Sztajer FREE
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
Wheaton College
David Wulff is Professor Emeritus at Wheaton College (Massachusetts, United States). He is in particular known for his contribution to the field of religion and psychology. His highly influential handbook on Psychology of Religion. Classic and Contemporary, gives a substantial overview of the many different approaches to the psychology of religion since the inception of the discipline around 1900. It has been used for decades across the world. He also developed the Faith Q-sort for the assessment of religiosity. With the article “Prototypes of Faith: Findings with the Faith Q-Sort” in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 2019, 58(3): 643-665 he introduced the Faith Q-sort based on Q-methodology that he had developed for assessing religiosity.
Statistics Finland
Dr. Mika Lassander, the author of Post-Materialist Religion: Pagan Identities and Value Change in Modern Europe (Bloomsbury, 2014) and co-editor of Post-Secular Society (Transaction, 2012), has specialised in methodology in the study of religions, particularly pragmatism, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches, and Actor-Network Theory. His general research interest is in the social-psychological study of the effects of long-term social changes on individuals’ worldviews and values. He worked as a senior researcher for the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (2015–2018). He is currently working as a Head of
Development for Statistics Finland.
Development for Statistics Finland.
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru
Rafael Fernández-Hart, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Facultad de Filosofía, Educación y Ciencias Humanas, Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru. His research focuses on issues related to the philosophy of religion with a special emphasis on the development of the sacred in contexts of secularization and the links between philosophy, theology, and spirituality. Fernández functioned as local investigator for the YARG project in Peru. Recent publications include “Revelación y religion en Levinas” in Estudios de Filosofía (Vol 57, 2018) and “The Internet, social media, and the critical interrogation of traditional religion among young adults in Peru” with Sidney Castillo Cardenas and Marcus Moberg in Moberg, M. & Sjö, S. 2020. Digital media, young adults, and religion: An international perspective. Abingdon, NY: Routledge.
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut
Dr. Ariela Keysar, a demographer, is a recipient of the 2021 Marshall Sklare Award, given by the Association for the Social Scientific Study of Jewry to “”a senior scholar who has made a significant scholarly contribution to the social scientific study of Jewry.” Keysar is Senior Fellow, Program on Public Values, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. She is Co-Principal Investigator, The Class of 1995/5755 Longitudinal Study of Young American and Canadian Jews, 1995-2019; and U.S. Principal Investigator, Young adults and religion in a global perspective, YARG, 2015-2018. She was Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College, 2005-19. Keysar is co-author of Religion in a Free Market and The Next Generation: Jewish Children and Adolescents. She co-edited volumes on secularism in relation to women, science, and secularity. She holds a Ph.D. in demography from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
Uppsala University
Dr. Maria Klingenberg is associate professor in Sociology of Religion and holds a position as senior lecturer in Social Sciences of Religion and Didactics at Uppsala University (Sweden). Within her primary field of research, religion and youth, she has experience from conducting both in-depth case studies and large-scale quantitative surveys, touching upon theories such as religious socialization and majority-minority perspectives. Her research engagements include research within the research project Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (YARG) at Åbo Akademi University, Finland (2015-2018) as well as research within the research program Impact of Religion: Challenges for
Society, Law and Democracy at Uppsala University, Sweden (2008-2018). Klingenberg is also an editor of YOUNG: Nordic Journal of Youth Research.
Society, Law and Democracy at Uppsala University, Sweden (2008-2018). Klingenberg is also an editor of YOUNG: Nordic Journal of Youth Research.
University of Ghana
Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo (PhD) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department for the Study of Religion, University of Ghana, Legon. He teaches in the areas of theological studies, religion and society, and ecological theology/ethics. Some of his recent publications are “Religious Environmental Stewardship, the Sabbath and Sustainable Futures in Africa: Implications for Sustainability Discourse,” Consensus: A Canadian Journal of Public Theology Vol. 41: Issue 1, Article 4. (2020), and “The Contents and Discontents of Internet and Social Media Use in the Religious Lives of Ghanaian Young Adults.” In Marcus Moberg and Sofia Sjo (eds.) Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective. London: Routledge (2020). Ben-Willie Kwaku Golo was the Local Investigator (LI) for the international research project Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Turku, Finland (2014–18).
University of Haifa
Dr. Nurit Novis-Deutsch is a social psychologist researching values and moral development in the department of Learning and Instructional Sciences at the University of Haifa in Israel. Her research concerns the ways in which people create and manage contradictory frames of meaning and values and how they organize their identities and relate to others in social contexts. Other aspects of her research apply these topics to the field of education. Recent and current research projects include: Pluralistic reasoning; outgroup dehumanization; the challenges of ultra-religious college students; religious meaning-making during the COVID-19 crisis, prejudice and religiosity, religious subjectivities of young adults globally (the YARG project), interdisciplinary education, and Holocaust education and memory. Dr. Novis-Deutsch’s research has been published in various psychological and educational journals and books. She also heads the MA program for Pedagogical Development in Educational Systems at the University of Haifa.
Jadavpur University / Adamamas University
Having completed her studies from University of Kalyani (B.A.,M.A., Ph.D.), professor Ruby Sain has been serving the profession of Sociology for over 30 years at Jadavpur University and then joined at Adamamas University as Emeritus Professor. She established the Centre for the Study of Religion and Society at Jadavpur University and founded the Jadavpur University Journal of Sociology. In addition she has served as Guest Faculty at University of Manitoba, Lund University , Gothenborg University, University of California , Grand Valley State University, and been Visiting Fellow in Oxford University and developed research collaborations with many of these and other universities. She has published several articles and book chapters and among her many edited or authored books we find titles such as “Sociology of Religion: Past, Present and Future”, “Contemporary Social Problems in India”, “Religious Pluralism in Contemporary Society and “The Future of Religious Studies in India“.
King’s College London
Marat Shterin is Professor of the Sociology of Religion at King’s College London (UK). He is also Co-Editor of the journal Religion, State & Society. Trained as a sociologist of religion, he has published edited volumes and articles on New Religious Movements, religiously motivated radicalism, and religion and law in Russia.
Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań
Sławomir Sztajer holds a PhD in philosophy from Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań,
Poland, where he is University Professor at the Center of Religious and Comparative Studies. He has published books and articles on religious language, religious cognition, and religious change. Recent publications include Changing Trajectories of Religion and Popular Culture: Cognitive and Anthropological Dimensions (LIT Verlag 2018, co-authored with Jarema Drozdowicz) and Religion and Religiosity in the Processes of Modernization and Globalization (WN UAM 2016, coedited with Zbigniew Drozdowicz).
Poland, where he is University Professor at the Center of Religious and Comparative Studies. He has published books and articles on religious language, religious cognition, and religious change. Recent publications include Changing Trajectories of Religion and Popular Culture: Cognitive and Anthropological Dimensions (LIT Verlag 2018, co-authored with Jarema Drozdowicz) and Religion and Religiosity in the Processes of Modernization and Globalization (WN UAM 2016, coedited with Zbigniew Drozdowicz).
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
Åbo Akademi University
Janne Kontala, Ph.D., has worked as a researcher in Turku, Finland, in the Department Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research: Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–19). He specialises in the field of studies of non-religion and is the author of Emerging Non-religious Worldview Prototypes: A Faith Q-sort-Study on Finnish Group-Affiliates (Åbo Akademi University, 2016). He previously worked as a researcher in a project entitled “Viewpoints to the World: Prototypes of Worldview and their Relation to Motivational Values in Different Social Movements”, funded by the Academy of Finland (2011–15).
Statistics Finland
Dr. Mika Lassander, the author of Post-Materialist Religion: Pagan Identities and Value Change in Modern Europe (Bloomsbury, 2014) and co-editor of Post-Secular Society (Transaction, 2012), has specialised in methodology in the study of religions, particularly pragmatism, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches, and Actor-Network Theory. His general research interest is in the social-psychological study of the effects of long-term social changes on individuals’ worldviews and values. He worked as a senior researcher for the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (2015–2018). He is currently working as a Head of
Development for Statistics Finland.
Development for Statistics Finland.
Donner Institute, Turku
Dr. Theol. Sofia Sjö works as research librarian at the Donner Institute, Turku, Finland. Her
research focuses on religion, popular culture, media and gender and has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes. She was a senior researcher in the YARG project and has co-edited three volumes within the project: a thematic issue on socialization published in Religion 49/2, “Digital Media, Young Adults, and Religion: An International Perspective” (Routledge 2020) and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (Springer Forthcoming).
research focuses on religion, popular culture, media and gender and has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes. She was a senior researcher in the YARG project and has co-edited three volumes within the project: a thematic issue on socialization published in Religion 49/2, “Digital Media, Young Adults, and Religion: An International Perspective” (Routledge 2020) and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (Springer Forthcoming).
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
Statistics Finland
Dr. Mika Lassander, the author of Post-Materialist Religion: Pagan Identities and Value Change in Modern Europe (Bloomsbury, 2014) and co-editor of Post-Secular Society (Transaction, 2012), has specialised in methodology in the study of religions, particularly pragmatism, quantitative and mixed-methods approaches, and Actor-Network Theory. His general research interest is in the social-psychological study of the effects of long-term social changes on individuals’ worldviews and values. He worked as a senior researcher for the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective (2015–2018). He is currently working as a Head of
Development for Statistics Finland.
Development for Statistics Finland.
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Marcus Moberg is Professor in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University. His
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Theol. Peter Nynäs is Professor of Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU), Finland and Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Psychology and Theology. He is Director and PI of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective Project (2015–2019) and earlier the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland Project (2010–2014). Among the books he has edited are On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities, and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman and T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender, and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate, 2012), and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (with A. Keysar, J. Kontala, B.-W. Kwaku Golo, M. Lassander, M. Shterin, S. Sjö, and P. Stenner, Springer, 2021).
The Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture
Dr Ruth Illman is the Director of the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture in Turku, Finland. She holds the title of Docent in the study or religions at Åbo Akademi University (ÅAU) and in the history of religions at Uppsala University, as well as doctoral degrees in the study of religions (2004) and Jewish studies (2018). Her main research interests include cultural encounters and diversity, contemporary Judaism, religion and the arts (especially music) and ethnographic research, primarily by developing the analytical approach of vernacular religion. Illman acted as Co-PI for the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Currently, she leads the research project Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland and acts as Editor-in-Chief of the open access peer-review journal Nordisk judaistik / Scandinavian Jewish Studies with Svante Lundgren. Recent publications are found at: https://research.abo.fi/en/persons/ruth-illman
Åbo Akademi University
Dr. Marcus Moberg is Professor in the Study of Religions at Åbo Akademi University. His
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
main research interests include the sociology of religion, religion and media, and discourse theory and analysis in the Study of Religion. Moberg acted as Senior Researcher in the Centre of Excellence Young Adults and Religion in a Global Perspective at ÅAU (2014–18). Recent publications include Religion, Discourse, and Society (Routledge 2021) and Digital Media, Young Adults and Religion: An International Perspective (co-edited with Sofia Sjö, Routledge 2020).
Donner Institute, Turku
Dr. Theol. Sofia Sjö works as research librarian at the Donner Institute, Turku, Finland. Her
research focuses on religion, popular culture, media and gender and has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes. She was a senior researcher in the YARG project and has co-edited three volumes within the project: a thematic issue on socialization published in Religion 49/2, “Digital Media, Young Adults, and Religion: An International Perspective” (Routledge 2020) and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (Springer Forthcoming).
research focuses on religion, popular culture, media and gender and has been published in a number of journals and edited volumes. She was a senior researcher in the YARG project and has co-edited three volumes within the project: a thematic issue on socialization published in Religion 49/2, “Digital Media, Young Adults, and Religion: An International Perspective” (Routledge 2020) and The Diversity of Worldviews among Young Adults: Contemporary (Non)Religiosity and Spirituality through the Lens of an International Mixed Method Study (Springer Forthcoming).
ISBN-13 (Hardback)
9781800503908
Price (Hardback)
£75.00 / $100.00
ISBN-13 (Paperback)
9781800503915
Price (Paperback)
£24.95 / $32.00
ISBN (eBook)
9781800503922
Price (eBook)
Individual
£24.95 / $32.00
Institutional
£75.00 / $100.00
£24.95 / $32.00
Institutional
£75.00 / $100.00
Publication
16/04/2024
Pages
268
Size
234 x 156mm
Readership
scholars
Illustration
12 figures
