PVM63 - Folk Religions

  • 0 Standard Tuition Fee
  • 4
    Credit Points
  • 0.125 EFT 
  • 8
    AQF level
  • evangelism missiolUnit Discipline

Prerequisites

16 credit points of core foundation level units.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, students will

A. Know and understand

  1. The basic theory and concept of religious study
  2. The major theory of folk religions from cultural anthropological perspective
  3. The worldview theory and form and meaning theory
  4. The major difference between Christianity and folk religions

B. Be able to

  1. Identify the main characteristics, issues and problems of folk religions
  2. Evaluate the major folk religious phenomenon in Australian Context
  3. Formulate the significant biblical teaching about folk religions
  4. Discuss the folk religious practice(s) of contemporary Australian Churches

C. Be in a position to

  1. Critique folk religions and its religious meaning using worldview theory and form and meaning theory
  2. Evaluate the effects of folk religious practices in Church
  3. Formulate a missional strategy to evangelize the folk religions followers from theological, biblical and anthropological perspectives

Content

Introduction:

Approaches of the study of religions

Part A: Folk religions as systems of beliefs and meaning: The problems and solutions

  1. The phenomena of folk religions
  • Great Traditions and Little Traditions
  • Nature of folk religion
  • Mechanistic and organic religious phenomena
  • The “Excluded Middle”
  1. Worldviews as systems of explanation
  • Theories and examples of worldviews
  • Modern and tribal worldviews
  • Post-modern worldviews
  1. The meaning of life and death
  • Ghosts, souls and ancestors
  1. Avoiding adversity and gaining success
  • Calamities and misfortune
  • Sin, sacrifice, spirit possession, soul, loss demons, exorcism
  • Witchcraft, sorcery, magic, taboo, and other forces of evil
  1. Guidance and supernatural knowledge
  • Inspiration, possession, glossalia

Part B: Folk religions as systems of behavior: Symbols, rituals, myths, religious institutions and movements

  1. Symbolism, rituals, myths and sense of the sacred
  2. The relationship between beliefs and behavior
  3. Religious leaders: Shamans, prophets, and priests
  • Ethnomedicine: religion and healing
  1. The Occult
  2. Cults, sects, denominations and ecclesia
  • Religious institutions, institutionalization and renewal
  1. Religious movements
  • New religions movements
  • Old and new religions: the search for salvation

Set Readings

Prescribed:

Paul G Hiebert, Understanding Folk Religion: A Christian Response to Popular Beliefs and Practices (Grand Rapids: Baker 1999).

David Baker, ed., Biblical Faith & Other Religions: An Evangelical Assessment (Grand Rapids: Kregel Pub., 2004).

*J.H. Bavinck, The Impact of Christianity on the Non-Christian World (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1948).

Recommended (those marked with a * is classic for this unit, those in bold font is for 600 level only)

*J. Yutaka Amano and Norman Geisler. The Infiltration of the New Age  (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale,1989).

John Ankerberg & John Weldon, eds,  Encyclopaedia of Cults and New Religions

(Eugene; Oregon: Harvest House Pub, 1999).

*J.H.Bavinck, ‘General Revelation and the Non-Christian Religions’. Free University Quarterly 4 (1955): 43-55.

________, The Church Between the Temple and Mosque (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1966).

David Burnett, World of the Spirits: A Christian Perspective on traditional and Folk

Religions (London: Monarch , 2000).

Mac Charlesworth, Francoise Dussart, Howard Morphy, eds., Aboriginal Religions in Australia: An Anthology of Recent Writings (Aldershot; England: Ashgate Pub Ltd., 2005).

Adam Yuet Chau,  Miraculous Response: Doing Popular Religion in Contemporary

China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005.

Sue Fawn Chung & Priscilla Wegers, eds. Chinese American Death Rituals. Lanham:

AltaMira Press, 2005. Pp.19-45. 

*Harold Coward, Life After Death in World Religions (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1997).

Lorne L. Dawson, Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader (Oxford:

Blackwell, 2003).

________, Comprehending Cults: The Sociology of New Religious Movement, 2nd ed

(Canada: OUP, 2006).

Ronald Enroth, A Guide to New Religions Movements (Downers Grove: IVP, 2005).

Bruce David Forbes, Jeffrey H Mahan, Religions & Popular Culture in America (Left Behind) (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006).

*Norman Geisler and David K. Clark. Apologetics in the New Age: A Christian Critique of Pantheism (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1990).

*Charles Y. Glock, “The role of deprivation in the origin and evolution of religious groups”, in R. Lee and ME Marty, eds, Religion and Social Conflict (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964).

Christoffer H Grundmann, “Inviting the Spirit to Fight the Sprits? Pneumatological Challenges for Missions in Healing and Exorcism”  International Review of Mission, 94 no. 372 (2005):51-73.

Barend J Haar, Telling Stories: Witchcraft and Scapegoating in Chinese History (Leiden: Brill, 2006)

Jim Harries, ‘The Magical Worldview in the African Church: What is Going On?’  Missiology 24, No 4(2000): 487-502

Graham Harvey, Readings in Indigenous Religions (London: Continuum, 2002).

Jean Holm, & John Bowker, eds., Human Nature and Destiny (London: Printer Publishing, 1994).

Stephen J Hunt, Alternative Religion: A Sociological Introduction (Aldershot: Ashgate Pub Ltd, 2003).

FPM Jespers and Carla Vermeulen (Translator), “The Paranormal market in the Netherlands: New Age and Folk Religion” Fieldwork in Religion, 5 no.1 (2010):58-77

Michael Keene, World Religions (Oxford; UK: Lion Pub., 2002).

*Hendrik Kraemer, The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World (Grand Rapids: Kregel Pub., 1938).

Charles Kraft, Christianity in Culture (Maryknoll: Obris, 1979).

Lester R Kurtz, Gods in the Global Village (Thousand Oaks; Calif.: SAGE, 2007).

Arthur Lehmann, James Myers & Pamela A Moro, eds.,  Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion: An Anthropological Study of the Supernatural, 6th ed. (New York: The McGrow-Hill Company, 2000).

Brian Levack, ed., Anthropological Studies of Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion (New York: Garland Publishing, 1992).

Martin Lindhardt, “More than Just Money: The Faith Gospel and Occult Economies in Contemporary Tanzania” Nova Relgio, 13 no.1 (2009): 41-67.

Arthur J Magida, Opening the Doors of Wonder: Reflections on Religious Rites of Passage (Berkeley & Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2006).

Allan S Maller, “Folk Religion can Grow Piety” Dialogue & Alliance, 29, no.1

(2015): 101-106.

Brian McLaren, Church on the Other Side (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000).

Armson Morandir, “The Search for Meaning: Occult Redefinitions and the Internet” The Pomegranate, 16 no. 1 (2014):55-79.

Terry Muck, Christianity Encountering World Religions: The Practice of Mission in the Twenty-first Century (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009).

Kenneth Nehrbass, “Dealing with Disaster: Critical Contextualization of Misfortune in an Animistic Setting: Dealing with Disaster”. Missiology: An International Review, vol. 39, (4 October 2011):  459-471.

Jordan D Paper, The Deities are Many: A Polytheistic Theology (Albany: State University of New York, 2005).

Adam Possamai, In Search of New Age Spiritualties (UK: Ashgate, 2005).

Adam Possamai, John Bellamy and Keith Castle, “The Diffusion of New Age beliefs and Practices among Australian Church Attenders” Fieldwork in Religion, 2 No.1 (2006): 9-12.

Stephen Prothero, The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World: God is not One (New York: Harper One, 2010).

*Bong Rin Ro, Christian Alternatives to Ancestor Practices (Taiwan: Asia Theological

Association, 1985).

Thomas A Robinsn & H. Rodrigues, World Religions (UK SCM Press, 2006).

Carl E Rockrohr, Are Lutherans Ready for 21st Century Ministry and Mission? Understanding Folk Religion” Missio Apostolica, 8 no.2 (2000):88-93.

*Edward Rommen & Harold Netland, Christian and the Religions: A Biblical Theology of World Religions (Pasadena: William Carey, 1995).

Catherine Sanders, Wicca’s Charm: Understanding the Spiritual Hunger Behind the Rise of Modern Witchcraft and Pagan Spirituality (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook Press, 2005).

Henry N. Smith, “Chinese Ancestor Practices and Christianity : Toward a Viable

Contextualization of Christian Ethics in Hong Kong Setting”. Missiology

17, vol 1 (1989):27-38.

Ivab Strenski, Thinking about Religion: An Historical Introduction to Theories of Religion (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006).

Richard Warms, James Garber, Jon McGee, eds., Sacred Realms: Essays in Religion, Belief & Society (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).

Matthew Wood, Possession, Power and the New Age (UK: Ashgate, 2007).

John Wolffe, ed., Global Religious Movement in Regional Context (Milton Keynes; UK: Ashgate, 2002).

Nigel Scotland, Sectarian Religion in Contemporary Britain (UK: Paternoster, 2000).

James N. Sire, The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, 4th edition (Downers Grove: IVP, 2004).

Richard Valantasis, Centuries of Holiness Ancient Spirituality Refracted for a Postmodern Age (New York: Continuum, 2005).

Far East religions Resources:

Ching, Julia. "The Falun Gong: Religious and Political Implications." In: Tun-Jen

Cheng & Deborah A. Brown [eds.], Religious Organizations and Democratization: Case Studies from Contemporary Asia. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2006. Pp. 41-54. 

Julia Ching, Chinese Religions (London: MacMillan, 1993).

Feucht Wang, Stephan; Shih Fang-Long; Paul-François Tremlett. "The Formation and

Function of the Category 'Religion' in Anthropological Studies of Taiwan." Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 18(2006)1: 37-66.

Haar, Barend J. ter. Telling Stories: Witchcraft and Scapegoating in Chinese History.

Leiden: Brill, 2006.

James Miller [ed.], Chinese Religions in Contemporary Societies. Santa Barbara, CA:

ABC-CLIO, 2006. Pp.123-145.

Aijmer, Göran. "A Family Reunion: The Anthropology of Life, Death and New Year

in Soochow." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 15(2005)2: 199-218.

Betty, Stafford. "The Growing Evidence for "Demonic Possession": What should

Psychiatry's Response Be?" Journal of Religion and Health 44(2005)1: 13-30. [Note: Author draws (among other sources) on a description of an exorcistic ritual observed by Peter Goullart in the 1920s.]

Jonathan Y Tan, “Rethinking the Relationship between Christianity and World

Religions, and Exploring Its Implications for Doing Christian Mission in Asia”

Missiology: An International Review,  vol. 39, 4 (October 2011): 497-509.

Anthony F.C. Wallace, “Revitalization Movements”, in Arthur C Lehmann, James

Myers & Pamela A Moro, eds., Magic , Witchcraft, and Religion:

Anthropological Study of the Supernatural, 6th ed. (New York: The McGrow-

Hill Company, 2000), pp.361-66.

Geoffrey Walker, “Folk Religion: Is Churchmanship Really an Attitude Predictor?”

Modern Believing , 43 no 2 (2002):22-31.

 

* Web Resources:

Internet copy of Articles of Cult and Alternate Religions; New Ages Movement and

Occult. The Watchman Expositor Magazine,  Watchman Fellowship.  http://www.watchman.org/articles/. Accessed in 2016.

Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries, The Jesus and the New Ages Movement. Downloadable Articles. Part one and two.  http://home.earthlink.net/~ronrhodes/JesusNAM.html. Accessed in May, 2016. 

PEW Research Center (2012, Dec. 18). “Folk Religionists.” The Global Religious

Landscape. Source: http://www.pewforum.org/2012/12/18/global-religious-landscape-folk/. Accessed on 22nd April, 2016.

Lausanne movement Occasional Papers 16-18 and other online papers.  Face to face

Intercultural website.  http://www.facetofaceintercultural.com.au/resources-for-studying-folk-religion/. Accessed on 22nd April, 2016.