Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses

En partant de la thèse de Michel Foucault sur la relation entre le savoir et le pouvoir (qui sera présentée ici comme une relation entre représentation et autorité), cet article cherche à mettre en évidence les conditions d'émergence du savoir sur les arts martiaux chinois (en particulier de l'art du taiji quan) dans la littérature populaire publiée en Occident. Ce savoir émerge de la convergence de différents champs disciplinaires (ou champs épistémiques) qui concourent à former un cadre propice (une épistémè) à la mise en place de représentations particulière du taiji quan. L'analyse montre ici que le savoir sur le taiji quan émerge en effet de la rencontre de deux champs disciplinaires particuliers : le contexte religieux contemporain et le discours orientaliste contemporain. De cette épistémè émerge donc une représentation particulière du taiji quan qui fait autorité dans les milieux d'arts martiaux, un savoir qui peut être divisé en sept principaux énoncés.

Two interrelated communications play before the reader of the deuteronomic narrative: Moses' promulgation of the written book of the law to Israel, and the narrator's mediation of it to the external reader (Sonnet 1997). After Moses' death, the embedded "book of the law" awaits hermeneutical engagement by characters populating the Primary Narrative (Genesis-Kings). This paper analyzes narratologically Solomon's temple prayer of dedication in 1 Kings 8, which obviously confirms Solomon's conformity to his father's advice (1 Kings 2: 3-4). Solomon's discourse also reveals an aptitude for innovative appropriation as he transforms the house of God into a mechanism for normalizing problematic divine-human relations. In making the temple pivotal to Israel's relationship with God, Solomon substitutes his cult for Moses' law.

Historians of ancient Christianity routinely describe its social and religious environment by relying on certain common-sense academic terms. In this essay, the author argues that four of these termis—conversion, nationalism, religio licita ("legit cult") and monotheism—in fact import anachronism and distortion into historical descriptions of the cultural context of Christianity and its origins, in the end obscuring precisely the evidence that they are mobilized to illumine. In making the argument that these terms be dropped, the author also presents a synthetic reconstruction of the ways that Jews, Christians and pagans interacted during the formative centuries of the new movement.

L'évolution de l'influence des religions et des Églises dans les sphères politique, économique et sociale constitue l'une des caractéristiques sociales majeures de l'ère contemporaine. Bien que le syndicalisme soit un phénomène plus récent que la croyance, la religion et/ou les Églises ne sont pas restées extérieures à sa montée. Parfois même des syndicats ont une référence directe à une religion. Indépendamment de l'existence ou non de positions religieuses (explicites et/ou implicites) à l'égard du syndicalisme, les croyances peuvent ainsi influencer le choix d'adhésion individuelle au syndicat. Dans cet article nous nous servons de la théorie économique pour étudier l'impact des religions et des Églises sur le syndicalisme. Nous tenterons de mettre en relief cet impact à travers des estimations empiriques sur une base de données individuelles collectées en 2004 sur 23 pays industrialisés.

Roger Williams (1603-1683) and Louis Nicolas (1634-1682?) discuss the native people and religions of North America in different ways. Each wrote a book about an indigenous language; both describe Native customs and religious practices. Both of them believe that any non-Christian is lost, but their references to indigenous religions are different in tone, and reflect their positions in 17th-century controversies. In an apparent paradox based on theological grounds, the man who found New England Puritans not pure enough speaks more tolerantly of non-Christian religions than does the more broadly educated Jesuit.

Building on the claim that sport functions as a popular religion, I develop the argument that sport can but does not always offer its followers something consonant with religiously espoused values. These values are often more attractive and meaningful for many than what is offered by institutional religions. Hockey in Canada will be examined as a case study through which the question of what is religious about hockey and why it appeals to so many will be considered. The example of Christianity, the largest religion in Canada, will be used to help illumine some of the religious-like attraction hockey holds for many. In particular the following topics will be discussed: embodiment and justice; pleasure, play and sport; community; and hope, heroic figures and transcendence.

Marie Barbier (1663-1739) was a Congrégation de Notre-Dame of Montreal nun, superior and mystic. The story of her life remains in the form of two biographies. The first biography was written by Charles de Glandelet, her confessor and spiritual advisor, some time before his death in 1725. The second biography is an edited version of the Glandelet manuscript, almost 40 years after Marie Barbier's death. This article examines the many challenges faced in the attempt to construct a biography of this woman. It will explore not only the physical difficulties involved in interpreting these hand-written manuscripts, the obstacles presented by their hagiographical and 18th-century scholarly tradition, but also the barriers presented by post-modern scholarship with respect to the accession of "truth" and "voice."