Search results for ""Author Arie L. Molendijk""

In the terms of Durheimian sociology, conversion is a "fait social". Although they are rarely treated as a cultural phenomenon, conversions can obviously be examined for the norms, values and presuppositions of the cultures in which they take place. Thus conversion can help us to shed light on a particular culture. At the same time, the term evokes a dramatic appeal that suggests a kind of suddenness, although in most cases conversion implies a more gradual process of establishing and defining a new - religious - identity.From 21-24 May 2003, the University of Groningen hosted an international conference on 'Cultures of Conversion'. The contributions have been edited in two volumes, which pay special attention to the modes of language and idiom in conversion literature, the meaning and sense of religious-ideological discourse, the variety of rhetorical tropes, and the effects of the conversion narrative with allusions to religious or political conventions and idealizations. The present volume contains theoretical contributions on the theory of conversion, with special attention to the rational choice theory, and on the history of research into conversion. It also offers stimulating case studies, ranging from the late Middle Ages to present times and taken from Germany, Great Britain and The Netherlands.The other volume, "Cultures of Conversion", offers in-depth studies of conversion that are mainly taken from the history of India, Islam and Judaism, ranging from the Byzantine period to the new Muslimas of the West.

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Sacred spaces in contemporary Western culture are subject to a dynamics in which the traditional forms of ritual are increasingly marginalised and new forms emerge. In Western Europe churches are growing empty, whereas new rituals - for instance those surrounding the victims of violence - are gaining prominence and are mediatized in a variety of ways. The destruction of churches, the rise of increasingly multi-religious urban ritual spaces, the remarkable vitality of places of pilgrimage and war cemeteries and the growing popularity of lieux de memoire in general show the changing landscapes of ritual spaces in modern Western culture.This book aims at describing and analyzing the profound changes and developments that are presently taking place. In the main part of this volume the broad field of ritual spaces is explored in contributions on various modern 'sacred places'. The case studies range from traditional places of religious worship, to the Rothko Chapel in Houston, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and the Berlin Holocaust Memorial; from the Tor Tre Teste Millenium Church in Rome to the Columbine School Shooting Memorial in Colorado, the memorials for Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh and virtual ritual sites. The dynamics of ritual space is further explored in various in-depth essays on the dynamics of space and ritual, musealisation and memorial culture.

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In the terms of Durkheimian sociology, conversion is a A"fait socialA". Although they are rarely treated as a cultural phenomenon, conversions can obviously be examined for the norms, values and presuppositions of the cultures in which they take place. Thus conversion can help us to shed light on a particular culture. At the same time, the term evokes a dramatic appeal that suggests a kind of suddenness, although in most cases conversion implies a more gradual process of establishing and defining a new - religious - identity. From 21-24 May, 2003, the University of Groningen hosted an international conference on 'Cultures of Conversion'. The contributions have been edited in two volumes, which pay special attention to the modes of language and idiom in conversion literature, the meaning and sense of religious-ideological discourse, the variety of rhetorical tropes, and the effects of the conversion narrative with allusions to religious or political conventions and idealizations. The present volume offers in-depth studies of conversion that are mainly taken from the history of India, Islam and Judaism, ranging from the Byzantine period to the new Muslimas of the West. The other volume, A"Paradigms, Poetics and Politics of ConversionA", in addition to stimulating case studies, contains theoretical contributions on the theory of conversion, with special attention to the rational choice theory and to the history of research into conversion.

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