Powers: Religion as a Social and Spiritual Force

Preface

Preface This volume radically undermines the idea that the political relevance of religion is something of the past. It deals with the nexus of religion and power. Power is now seen as a central aspect of religion, not only because of the ingrained conviction of many—in the West as well as the East—that we are currently witnessing a strong revival of religion, but also because of a reassessment of religion in relevant scholarly disciplines, especially the sociology and anthropology of religion. Power and religion are omnipresent and pervade all human (inter)actions. There is no human act that does not include some kind of faith in a positive outcome and no deed in which power does not play some role. This book elaborates the manifold and fascinating interconnections between power and religion. The interrelations of religion and power make religion an important means of exercising power. People use religion as an instrument to enhance their power or improve their status, whether personally or at the level of the nation-state. Religion defines power relations as being self-evident, with a superhuman determination. Those who have power will do everything to boost this function, but will also confront opposition and will discover that religion has an independent dynamic. Thus, religion is in principle ambiguous in its relation to power: it can empower as well as disempower people and can function as a critique of existing power relations. Besides, there is the consolatory function of religion, by which religion helps in expressing feelings , offers ways of compensating and healing, and helps make feelings of powerlessness bearable. In addition to exploring these aspects of religion, the volume also deals in detail with various tools religion can use in order to achieve its goals, including visual imagery, art, film, and music. x i P R E FAC E This book is the first themed volume to emerge from the Future of the Religious Past project of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), in which scholars from various fields and countries research new forms of religion. Apart from Powers, there will be subsequent volumes entitled Things, Gestures, and Words. Most of the contributions to this book were presented during the Future of the Religious Past conference Religion and Power in Amsterdam, on June 26 and 27, 2006, where a number of fascinating and productive ideas about this theme were presented. We make no attempt to deal with the theme of religion and power exhaustively. That would not be possible with so rich a theme. We would like to thank the other members of the Dutch program committee and the distinguished members of the Future’s international advisory board for their suggestions and support during the preparation of both conference and volume. We warmly thank Dr. Marc Linssen and Danielle Vermeer of NWO for their ongoing assistance during the entire project, as well as Charlotte Faber for her generous and highly efficient support with all sorts of practicalities before and during the conference. We also thank the staff of the Amsterdam University Theatre for hosting the conference in a most welcoming way. Special thanks go to Hent de Vries, the chairperson of the program committee and chief editor of the series, who made several important suggestions. We most warmly thank Helen Tartar, Editorial Director of Fordham University Press, who guided the production of this book from the beginning to the very end. She read the entire manuscript in a meticulous way and made many invaluable comments to us as editors as well as to the individual authors. Her unremitting editorial care greatly improved the coherence and readability of this book. Finally, we thank Neil Hertz, who provided the wonderful photographs for the book’s cover and display pages. Meerten B. ter Borg and Jan Willem van Henten Leiden and Amsterdam, Summer 2009 x ii Powers ...