Zugl.: Roskilde, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2008

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit dem Entwicklungsprozess der Santeria im Rahmen der Afrikanischen Diaspora. Dabei werden die pluralen Formen der Orisha-Religion der Yoruba in Afrika im Hinblick auf ihre Funktion als religiöses Fundament der Santeria untersucht. Im Folgenden wird die Entstehung der Santeria auf Kuba, bedingt durch die Einfuhr einer Vielzahl von Yoruba Sklaven, analysiert. Dabei spielt die Vermischung des kubanischen Volkskatholizismus mit den Orishas der Yoruba, die in einer neuen synkretischen Religion - die Santeria - mündet, eine hervorgehobene Rolle. Auch der Einfluss von anderen Glaubenssystemen (Spiritismus) wird an dieser Stelle deutlich gemacht. Im Mittelteil der Arbeit stehen die Emigrationen zahlreicher Kubanern nach der Revolution von 1959, welche somit die Santeria in die USA exportierten. Inwiefern sich die Santeria im Kontext der USA weiterentwickelte bzw. welche neuen Religionsvarianten entstanden sind, wird an dieser Stelle untersucht. Auch die zunehmende Kommerzialisierung der Santeria-Varianten wird kritisch analysiert, besonders im Hinblick auf die wachsende Bedeutung von Botanicas. Der letzte Teil der Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den gegenwärtigen Entwicklungstendenzen der Santeria zur Lifestyle-Kultur im Rahmen des spirituellen Shoppings und geht auf die öffentliche Wahrnehmung in den USA ein. Dabei wird auch die ‚breite Massentauglichkeit’ der Santeria im Vergleich zu anderen Immigrantenreligionen herausgestellt und ihr Potential als kulturell-religiöse Identifikationsmöglichkeit für diverse Migrantengemeiden in einer zunehmend globalisierten Welt untersucht. / This paper deals with the development of Santeria within the framework of the African Diaspora – rooting in Africa, emerging in Cuba, advancing in the USA. At first, the plural variants of the Yoruba Orisha religion in Africa are explored with regard to their function as religious basis of Santeria. In the following, the genesis of Santeria in Cuba, caused by the import of many Yoruba slaves, is analysed. In this process the blending of Cuban popular Catholicism with the Orishas of the Yoruba, which led to the emergence of Santeria as a syncretic religion, plays a major role. The influence of differing belief systems, such as Spiritism, on Santeria is highlighted as well. In the middle section of this paper the mass emigrations of Cubans, who brought Santeria to American shores, especially after Castro’s revolution in 1959, are examined in detail. The issues of how Santeria advanced within the American context and what kind of new religious variants emerged out of it are broached at this point. With particular regard to the growing importance of botanicas, the increasing character of commercialisation among different forms of Santeria is critically scrutinised. The final part of this paper deals with contemporary trends in the USA, where Santeria develops from an earlier religious character to a lifestyle-culture, clearly influenced by the process of spiritual shopping. At this point the broad attraction of Santeria, which appeals to multiple social groups in contrast to other immigrant religions, is emphasised. Due to her potential as cultural and religious opportunity for identification among several immigrant communities, Santeria advances to a source of identity among diasporic communities all over an increasingly globalised world.

In diesem Buch geht es um ein Phänomen, das als konstantes Element in der Geschichte des Christentums bezeichnet werden kann: Neuoffenbarungen. Denn der Kanonisierung der Bibel und dem kritischen Blick der kirchlichen Orthodoxie zum Trotz gab und gibt es immer wieder Menschen, die behaupten, dass sich ihnen Gottvater, Christus, der Heilige Geist oder andere Wesenheiten (Maria, Engel, Verstorbene) offenbart haben. Religionswissenschaftler haben das Thema bislang weitgehend ignoriert. Sie haben den Bereich des Christentums den Theologen überlassen und sich allenfalls mit frei flottierender Esoterik befasst. Theologen neigen ihrerseits dazu, Neuoffenbarungen apologetisch zu bekämpfen. Die vorliegende Untersuchung leistet daher einen wichtigen Beitrag zur religionswissenschaftlichen Erforschung des Themas. Im ersten Teil des Buches wird der Begriff „Neuoffenbarung“ aus verschiedenen religionswissenschaftlichen Perspektiven betrachtet. Zunächst wird untersucht, was die christliche Theologie unter „Offenbarung“ versteht. Danach werden die verschiedenen Termini analysiert, die für das Feld der außer- und nachbiblischen Offenbarungen kursieren (Neuoffenbarung, Privatoffenbarung, Channeling, Spiritismus, Prophetie u. v. m.). Anschließend werden jene Argumente referiert, die von Neuoffenbarungsanhängern bzw. kirchlichen Apologeten ins Feld geführt werden, um die Legitimität von Neuoffenbarungen zu behaupten bzw. zu bestreiten. Dass Neuoffenbarungen gar nicht so neu sind, zeigt ein religionshistorischer Überblick. Denn der Anspruch, besondere Offenbarungen empfangen zu haben, lässt sich in jeder Epoche des Christentums nachweisen. Nachdem einige Exponenten des prophetischen Charismas als ideengeschichtliche Vorläufer und Geistesverwandte der modernen Neuoffenbarungen vorgestellt wurden, werden diese schließlich selbst in den Fokus genommen. Das disparate Feld der Neuoffenbarungsträger des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts wird anhand exemplarischer Gestalten in einer Typologie geordnet dargestellt. Um den Zitationszirkel zu durchbrechen, der sich offensichtlich im Diskurs etabliert hat, werden darin auch bislang weniger bekannte Neuoffenbarer vorgestellt. In einer Art Tiefenbohrung werden diese religionsphilosophischen, semantischen, historischen und systematischen Zugänge im zweiten Teil an der mexikanischen Neuoffenbarung „Das Buch des Wahren Lebens“ exemplifiziert. Die analysierende Darstellung beschränkt sich jedoch nicht auf ein isoliertes Objekt, sondern dies wird in einen komparatistischen Kontext gestellt: Zentrale Topoi des „Buches des Wahren Lebens“ (Christologie, Reinkarnationslehre, Kirchenkritik u. v. m.) werden zum einen in einer Synopse mit anderen Neuoffenbarungen dargestellt und zum anderen an der orthodoxen Theologie gespiegelt. Damit wird eine doppelte Differenz gezeigt: die Nähe/Ferne zu ähnlichen Phänomenen und die Nähe/Ferne zum kirchlichen Christentum. / This book deals with a phenonmen that counts as a constant feature in the history of Christianity: New Revelations. Despite the canonization of the Bible and despite the critical look of the Church, there are and always have been people who claim that they have received a revelation by God, Christ, the Holy Spirit or other beings (such as Mary, angels or spirits). Scientists of religion have largely ignored this topic up to now. They have relinquished Christianity to theologians and have at best dealed with free-floating esotericism, while theologians on their part tend to fight New Revelations apologetically. The present study, however, sets out to investigate New Revelations from a Religious Studies perspective and will therefore address this neglect. In the first part of the book, different perspectives common in Religious Studies are applied to the investigation of the notion “revelation“. After first having outlined Christian theology’s understanding of revelation, different terms are being analysed, which are in use for post-Biblical revelations (such as New Revelation, Private Revelation, Channeling, Spiritism, Prophecy and more). This is followed by the presentation of arguments against and in favour of the legitimacy of New Revelations as they are being urged by adherents of New Revelations on the one hand and Clerical apologetics on the other hand. A historical survey then demonstrates that New Revelations are in fact not new at all. The claim of people, who are supposed to have received a special revelation, can be found at all times in Christian history. After having presented some exponents of the prophetic charisma as spiritual soulmates and precedesors of the modern New Revelations, those texts themselves become the focus of attention. With the help of a typology, the disparate array of recipients of revelation in the 19th and 20th century is being outlined based on several exemplary figures. To break through a circle of quotation, which has apparently established in the discourse, the typology also contains some New Revelationists who are yet relatively unknown. Based on the Mexican New Revelation “The Book of the True Life“, the second part of the book exemplifies these religio-philosophical, semantic, historical and systematical approaches. This analysis, however, is not limited to an isolated object but it is put into a comparative context: central topics of “The Book of the True Life“ (Christology, Doctrine of Reincarnation, Church criticism and many more) are presented in a synopsis with other New Revelations, as well as mirrored at orthodox theology. With this, a twofold difference is being demonstrated: the closeness/distance to similar phenomena and the closeness/distance to clerical Christianity.

Zugl.: Roskilde, Univ., Habil.-Schr., 2008.

After 1781 there were established several Protestant congregations in Podkrkonoší (North-East Bohemia). Approximately one hundred years later, the whole region was greatly affected by Spiritualism, a belief in communication with spirits of the dead through mediums. My objective is to describe the attitudes of the Protestant congregations in Podkrkonoší towards Spiritualism and analyse their causes and effects. Understanding these attitudes will yield an insight into the character of the present congregations. For this purpose, I studied the congregations in Libštát, Křížlice, and Jičín. In particular I focused on their parish priests because they had the control over their flock in these questions. I went through the archival materials of the respective congregations as well as personal diaries, and I analysed the memories of several interviewed people. These findings were then compared with the attitudes of some congregations in Great Britain. The results revealed three different approaches of the priests. Some were very radical, which led to excommunication of Spiritualists. Others were rather tolerant, which resulted in integration of Spiritualists. Finally, some priests were quite secretive, so their parishioners may not have seen a clear line between Spiritualism and Christianity.

This theses concern with psychological aspects of dying and death. Its purpose is to comprehend ideas of modern people concerning death and dying (eventually to gain some kind of mental representation of death). Theses consist of two parts, theoretical and empirical. The theoretical part concerns at first with death and dying and areas connected to those. Then it covers two quite new areas related to this topic, namely deaht in psychology and various explanations of death including their psychological explanation. The empirical part uses qualitative research (used methods are half-structured interview, free aassociations and marginally also analysis of a drawing) on people's conception of death, their explanation of death and feelings related to the topic, their fears and wishes. The findings are of qualitative character and they were obtained from 28 respondents. The results of empirical part could provide valuable psychological material in the area, that is even nowadays still concidered to be a taboo. They could deepen research in the area that, due to the overall aging of population, would be more and more valuable. Keywords: death, dying, mourning, burial, death in psychology, spirituality, deaht and religion, afterlife, spiritism, near-death experience