Alterity is the phenomenological kernel of religion, and insofar as alterity is part of the structure of beingintheworld, religion is an inevitable feature of human existence. This essay elaborates these ideas by juxtaposing traditional phenomenology of religion with contemporary theorizing about alterity. The argument moves from an opening reflection about the origin of religion and the presumed interiority of religious experience to a critique that modifies the phenomenologists understanding of religions object as a majestic and wholly Other with the notion of an intimate alterity grounded in embodiment. The intimate alterity of the gendered self as embodied otherness is illustrated in a series of ethnographic moments that pinpoint the elementary structure of alterity described by the term cart. Applying these insights to contemporary events suggests that there is a sense in which political alterity is also a religious structure.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/381046

La Faiblesse de croire

Asymptote of the Ineffable

The Book of Hours was a 'best-seller' in medieval and early modern Europe, the era's most commonly produced and owned book. This interdisciplinary study explores its increasing popularity and prestige, offering a full account of the Book of Hours as a book - how it was acquired, how it was read to guide prayer and teach literacy and what it meant to its owners as a personal possession. Based on the study of over 500 manuscripts and printed books from France, Virginia Reinburg combines a social history of the Book of Hours with an ethnography of prayer. Approaching the practice of prayer as both speech and ritual, she argues that a central part of the Book of Hours' appeal for lay people was its role as a bridge between the liturgy and the home. Reinburg describes how the Book of Hours shaped religious practice through the ways in which it was used.

French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c.1400–1600

Taking the London-based brass band of a transnational Congolese church (the Kimbanguist church) as a case study, this article explores how the sonic, visible and embodied experience of religion in the public space is linked to the politics and poetics of diasporic belongings. These public performances enable Kimbanguists to claim a place and a space in the city while ‘emploting’ a particular vision of self and others in the pluralised environment of the diaspora. After discussing the literature on urban religious parades and processions, the article addresses the wider implications of the sacralisation of space and public performance of faith in terms of urban but also post-colonial centre/periphery dialectics. Finally, it reflects on the construction of diasporic and ethnic identities as well as the reinterpretation of Kimbanguist religiosity among second-generation Congolese youth in the British context.

background

Marching for God in the global city: Public space, religion and diasporic identities in a transnational African church

Religious agency, identity, and communication: reflections on history and theory of religion

Theology of religions is an area of theological reflection on inter-religious relations which raises fundamental questions for all people of faith in a pluralist, post-modern world. How to practise a religious faith with integrity while respecting other claims to ultimate truth? Must 'the other' always be regarded as a problematic complication on the fringes of a Christianity-centred world? Is there a 'third way' between an all-dominating exclusivism and a vapid relativism? This book contributes to the debate about the place of inter-religious relations in the life of the Church by developing a 'theology of dialogue'. In offering a critique of much current thinking in this area, Michael Barnes SJ proposes instead a theology rooted in the themes of welcome and hospitality. He argues for a vision of Christianity as a 'school of faith', a community called not just to teach others but to learn from them as well.

La Faiblesse de croire

Citations

Asymptote of the Ineffable

French Books of Hours: Making an Archive of Prayer, c.1400–1600

Marching for God in the global city: Public space, religion and diasporic identities in a transnational African church

Religious agency, identity, and communication: reflections on history and theory of religion

Theology And The Dialogue Of Religions

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