The current issue of Approaching Religion is based on a summer school and conference arranged in Åbo/Turku, Finland, in June 2023, on the theme of “Religion: Memory and Innovation”. The event was organized jointly by the Polin Institute for Theological Research (Åbo Akademi University), the Centre for the Study of Christian Cultures (University of Turku) and the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture. The aim was to bring together doctoral candidates and researchers from various academic fields that engage (...) with the study of religion, such as theology, religious studies, history, philosophy, the arts, social and political sciences, and so forth. At this seminar, papers were presented that engaged with the theme of religion, memory and innovation from both historical and contemporary perspectives, looking also to the future where possible. In the current issue, therefore, we understand memory and innovation both as dramatic breaking points in history and as slowly evolving transformations, and we address past, present and emerging trends and trajectories within culture, society and the scholarly community. The societal relevance and impact of research in this field have also arisen as central themes in the presentations. (shrink)

This final section presents a literary excerpt and three personal reflections on the theme of Aboagora, as well as on the experience of taking part in Aboagora. It opens with a story written by Ruth Behar, dealing with her personal experience of mastering the English language. Professor Behar read this story as an artistic comment within a workshop entitled ‘Between Art and Research: Rethinking Professional Borderlands’, which dealt with the experiences of people who combine an academic professional career with artistic (...) work. The story is followed by a personal reflection by Bishop Björn Vikström, presented within the context of a session dealing with objectivity and the problem of combining academic research with personal engagement and activism. Finally, two of the organisers of the Aboagora conference, Professor Hannu Salmi and Dr Ruth Illman, reflect on the outcome of the event, evaluating the new insights and perspectives it has facilitated, as well as looking to the future and the potential of Aboagora to develop into a permanent forum for encounters between the arts and sciences. (shrink)

Editorial for the special issue on the theme of art appraoching religion and science.

The editorial introduces the articles of the issue, all pertaining to the arts and sciences event, Aboagora, which gathered artists, academics and a wide range of interested listeners together to discuss the relationship between technology and the human being in Turku/Åbo in August, 2013. Aboagora is arranged as a joint venture between Turku Music Festival and scholars from the University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University and the Donner Institute.

Artikeln undersöker hur frågor om finlandssvenskhet och judiskhet kopplas samman, kontrasteras och diskuteras i intervjuer med personer som – på skiftande vis – identifierar sig med bägge identitetsmarkörer. Artikeln söker svara på frågan hur det svenska i Finland uppfattas av intervjupersonerna: rymmer detta också det judiska och känner de sig hemma i den föreställda finlandssvenskheten? Med vardagsreligiositet (_vernacular religion_) som analytisk ram söker artikeln belysa de svåra val som uppkommer i vardagen för personer som vill leva judiskt på svenska i (...) Finland idag, samt lyfter fram hur finlandssvenska kulturtraditioner värnas och förs vidare i judisk tappning i dagens Finland. (shrink)

Recension av _Jude i Sverige: en antologi, _red. Daniel Pedersen (Stockholm: Föreningen Judisk kultur i Sverige, 2021).

Book review of Kupari, Helena, and Elina Vuola, 2020. Orthodox Christianity and Gender. Dynamics of Tradition, Culture and Lived Practice.Routledge Studies in Religion. Open access publication: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203701188: 214 pp.

This article presents the ethnographically driven multi-method research perspective of vernacular religion and analyses its potential to contribute to the theoretical advancement of Jewish studies. The ongoing discussion on religion and change within the study of religions in gen­eral and Jewish studies in particular is outlined and structured around three ‘turns’ identified in the re­search on vernacular religiosity. To exemplify these theoretical and methodological considerations, a recently initiated research project focusing on vernacular Judaism in Finland is presented. This project seeks (...) to examine central ideas of boundaries as they are negotiated and interpreted among Finnish Jewry, to compare the emerging patterns with Nordic counterparts and thus contribute to a more nuanced perception of Jewish identities in these contexts. The article concludes with a discussion on the advances of such an approach, pointing to the relative novelty of research into vernacular religion within Jewish studies and the exceptionality of the Finnish Jewish context. (shrink)

This is the editorial for the special issue 'Systems Thinking, Spirituality and Wisdom: Perspectives on Ken Wilber'.

This is the editorial for the special issue 'Concord, Conflict and Co-existence: Religion and Society in the Middle East and North Africa'.

Editorial of Approaching Religion, Vol. 11 Issue 1, based on a two-day seminar arranged in Helsinki in August 2020 by the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation under the title ‘Clear-sighted Art – Open Mind? Encounters between Art and Esotericism’.

The current issue of Approaching Religion is based on a summer school and conference arranged in Åbo/Turku, Finland, in June 2021, with the theme ‘Religion and Cultural Change’. The event was organized jointly by the Polin Institute for Theological Research, the Centre for the Study of Christian Cultures, and the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture. The aim was to bring together doctoral candidates and researchers from various academic fields who engage with the study of religion, such as (...) theology, religious studies, history, philosophy, the arts, social and political sciences and so forth. This included presentations that engaged with the theme Religion and Cultural Change from both historical and contemporary perspectives, as well as looking to the future where possible. As conference organizers, we wanted to highlight cultural change both as dramatic breaking points in history and as slowly evolving transformations. Hence, the conference theme allowed us to address past, present and emerging trends and trajectories within culture, society and the scholarly community. The issue is financed and published by the Polin Institute for Theological Research at Åbo Akademi University, Finland: https://www.polininstitute.fi. (shrink)

The current issue of Approaching Religion includes articles based on conference papers presented at the Fifth Finnish Colloquium on the Middle East and North Africa Studies, which was organised by the Finnish Institute in the Middle East, the University of Eastern Finland, Faculty of Theology, and the University of Helsinki, including the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence Changes in Sacred Texts and Trad-itions, in Joensuu, 29–31 May 2017. The theme of the conference was ‘Transformations of Identity and Space in (...) the Middle East and North Africa’, and it explored the construction and transformation of identity in space, whether geographical, mental or virtual. (shrink)

The subject matter of this special issue is anything but new: religious diversity has already been widely discussed in theology, philosophy, history and sociology. many times, however, diversity has been measured against the yardstick of the changing face of monotheistic models of religion. Asian religions have stood at the opposite end of a spectrum of analytical models in religious studies ever since Max Weber’s classic analysis of Asian religions as mixed systems of beliefs per se. This distinction is, nevertheless, rather (...) problematic, and calls for a closer examination of the conceptual status of diversity, and of the forms it assumes in Asian contexts. (shrink)