Group
C: 13.30-15.45 Town House 113
Kristin
Aune, King's College London
Marginalised, Feminist or Called by God? Postfeminist Female Singleness
in a British Evangelical Congregation
Women's singleness
has, at least since the Reformation, been a marginalised, disparaged
state within a dominant ideology of women as wives and mothers. Within
evangelical Protestantism, which set itself in conscious opposition
to clerical celibacy, this has been particularly true. Yet the extent
to which singleness constitutes marginality is today less clear. While
singleness remains in some ways a marginalised position, the number
of non-married people (either never married, divorced, widowed or
separated) has been steadily rising and is forecast to exceed that
of married people by 2010. Alongside this shift away from numerical
marginality, feminists have proposed an alternative ideology: of singleness
as a legitimate and liberating state for women. This view has, in
turn, been countered by 'backlash' commentators who urge women to
return to marriage and thus re-marginalise single women. This paper
outlines these changes and then examines, through ethnographic research
in an evangelical congregation, how evangelical Christians today negotiate
women's singleness in this 'postfeminist' social context.
Sandra
M. Baillie, The Queen's University of Belfast
Irish Presbyterians and the Jewish Mission in Hitler's Germany
The struggles
and compliance of the German churches is a story that has often been
told in church history. It is the aim of this paper to bring into
focus three main themes. Firstly, the role of biography within the
church history following the career of Arnold Frank, a Jewish convert
to Christianity, who ministered in the Irish Presbyterian Jewish Mission,
Hamburg for thirty five years. I shall use the powerful story of Frank
to illustrate the influence and the limitations of the individual
within their historical context. Secondly I shall examine the spectre
of nationalism and identity within a modern theological framework,
and thirdly I will discuss the tensions which arise within Christianity
in relation to the Jews which are examined in a theological consideration
of an anti-Semitism. In addition the sociological marginalisation
and scapegoating as a tool of repression and murder in Hitler's Germany
are also discussed. Here I question how a religion that is meant to
liberate and give dignity to all human beings can be perverted to
seemingly support evil.
Sharon
Smith, Goldsmiths' College, University of London
Buddhism and Diversity - Multiculturalism and Western Buddhist
Convert Sanghas in Inner London
Of the participants
in those Western Buddhist movements where the majority have converted
to Buddhism (Western Buddhist convert sanghas), only a small minority
are black people/people of colour apart from the Nichiren Daishonin
group Soka Gakkai International (SGI) that is significant for its
ethnic and cultural diversity.
This presentation
of work in progress considers possible factors involved first by looking
at approaches Buddhist movements have taken to diversity issues within
the societies where they are based, particularly looking at the histories
of Western Buddhist movements and black communities of the US and
UK. It also outlines initial findings from two case studies of Western
Buddhist convert sanghas being developed through observation, interviews,
and examination of their literature.
The case study
of the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (FWBO) centre in East
London notes that it has had a longstanding programme of activities
for black people/ people of colour. Although this programme has attracted
many black people, only a small minority have gone on to become mainstream
participants in the FWBO. This may be on account of various ways in
which both racism and classism have become institutionalised within
the FWBO. Also, a general reluctance to address these issues at a
mainstream level mitigates against fuller participation of the non-white
and non-middle class people who form a significant proportion of the
locality in which the centre is based.
The second case
study of a district in East London of SGI notes that its membership
better reflects its locality in ethnic and class terms than other
sanghas. It is suggested that this is in part due to the explicit
relationship made between the potential benefits of practice for those
experiencing various forms of discrimination and disadvantage as well
as the active missionary stance of SGI with marginalised communities.
It discusses various measures taken to encourage dialogue within SGI
around diversity issues, in particular through the encouragement of
its President.
James
Sweeney, Heythrop College, University of London and Von Hugel Institute,
St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge
How Values are changing
Within the processes
which shape our times the historical production of values is a key
dynamic. This paper will use empirical research (Values and Participation
project, Von Hugel Institute, Cambridge) to question assumptions that
religion has lost its purchase in value formation and that traditional
authority influences have been radically undermined by the 'turn to
the self' and the bias in favour of personal experience. It will propose
instead that 'objective' value influences (traditional ones, such
as family, community, locality, tradition, religion, and new ones
of the media and popular culture) continue to shape people's values,
but that today these objective factors are more decidedly mediated
through the prism of personal experience. The paper will explore the
contribution of virtue ethics to the analysis of the objective and
subjective dimensions of values formation and change.
