In de Ban van Tolkien: Geloof en Geloven in Tolkien-spiritualiteit

This article discusses how ‘believing’ works in Tolkien spirituality, a fiction-based religious milieu that uses J. R. R. Tolkien’s narratives, in particular The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, as authoritative texts. Members of this milieu engage in rituals communication with the supernatural beings from Tolkien’s universe, including the elves and the Valar (gods). After presenting the history of Tolkien spirituality and describing the main groups, I develop a model for analysing religious rationalisation. By this term I refer to the process through which theology is developed within religious traditions as a second-order reflection on ritual practices and authoritative narratives. I demonstrate that contrary to what one might expect the strategies of religious rationalisation in Tolkien spirituality are not that different from what we see in other new religions. While one might think that members of fiction-based religions (can) believe only in a cautious and playful manner, practitioners of Tolkien spirituality in fact tend to believe literally and to legitimise their beliefs with supposed proof. It is striking, however, that they tend to believe in a ‘cosmological’ rather than in a ‘historical’ mode, i.e. they believe in the existence of the Valar as spiritual beings, but not in the historical factuality of Tolkien’s narratives. In this sense, Tolkien spirituality may be a good illustration of a broader ‘dehistoricising turn’ in contemporary religion. The development of reflective beliefs in Tolkien spirituality is further shown to be governed by three principles that together seek to reduce tension between conflicting ideas within the tradition and to strike a balance between fabulousness and plausibility. It is suggested that these three principles of belief elaboration govern religious rationalisation also in other religious traditions, at least in traditions with a low level of institutionalisation.Religious Studie

What is wrong with pagan studies?

Modernity (Religion and Modernity

Religionsvidenskabsstudiet er en gymnasielæreruddannelse: om den lundagerske fagforståelse og religionsundervisningen i Holland

The article discusses Hans Jørgen Lundager Jensen’s view of the relationship between the study of religion as an academic discipline and religious education in Danish high schools. For Hans Jørgen, the societal relevance of our discipline lies in the education of high school teachers who can communicate solid knowledge of the world’s religions and challenge stereotypes and prejudices. Hans Jørgen’s ideas on the study of religion as academic teacher training were formed during his own studies in the 1970s of what was then called the Study of Christianity (kristendomskundskab), but they are equally relevant today. His views have inspired the author of the present article in his work on improving religious education in the Netherlands.Religious Studie

Religie gebaseerd op Tolkiens boeken

Religious Studie

De perspectiefgerichte benadering: Rationale voor het landelijk kerncurriculum levensbeschouwing en religie van Expertisecentrum LERVO

In late 2019, the Dutch Expert Centre Worldview and Religion in Secondary Education (Expertisecentrum Levensbeschouwing en Religie in het Voortgezet Onderwijs; LERVO) tasked a group of teachers and teacher trainers to work out a national curriculum for the subject area ‘worldview and religion’ (levensbeschouwing en religie). In this article, I outline the progress made so far. In the first section of the article, I discuss the general educational vision of LERVO that we have developed in dialogue with Gert Biesta’s theoretical pedagogy, Wolfgang Klafki’s theory of Bildung, and Fred Janssen’s ‘perspectives approach’ (perspectiefgerichte benadering). The second part of the article presents a new framework for the national curriculum, consisting of nine perspectives on worldview and religion (e.g., the meaning-making and phenomenological perspectives), and three additional learning lines focused, respectively, on dimensions of worldviews and religions, important traditions, and societal challenges.Religious Studie

Future directions in the sociology of non-institutional religion

Modernity (Religion and Modernity

From Star Wars to Jediism: The Emergence of Fiction-based Religion

Religious Studie

Jediriddaren – från fiktion till religion

47/48Modernity (Religion and Modernity

Fantasy som religion: Star Wars og jediisme

Modernity (Religion and Modernity

The spiritual Tolkien milieu : a study of fiction‐based religion

For most, J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy books are just fiction, but for a small group of people, they are much more than that. Across the world, individuals and small groups have created religious rituals and traditions based on Tolkien's works. These practitioners of ‘Tolkien religion' invoke the supernatural beings from Tolkien's stories in rituals inspired by modern witchcraft, or they make shamanic journeys to Middle-earth to visit those beings there. Some believe that they are ‘awakened elves': they have discovered that their ancestors were elves, or believe to be elven souls trapped in human bodies. Tolkien religion can be identified as an example of fiction-based religion, for it is religion based on fiction rather than on texts that claim to be true history. There are more fiction-based religion besides Tolkien religion - Star Wars-based Jediism is one - and in the book, a theoretical apparatus is developed for the study fiction-based religion in general. I first formulate a theory of the ‘religious affordances' of texts, on basis of which it is possible to predict whether a given piece of fiction is usable as an authoritative text for religion. Tolkien's stories have religious affordances, partly because Tolkien suggests that the supernatural entities in his stories might exist, both in the prologue to The Lord of the Rings and in many of his letters. Second, a theory is developed of the dynamics of belief in religious tradition. I argue that the core of all religions, including Tolkien religion, consists of rituals in which contact is sought with supernatural agents. Personal beliefs and doctrinal systems must be seen as second-order phenomena that explain and justify ritual practice. In the case of fiction-based religion, a key function of these beliefs is to legitimise the very use of fiction as a source of religious inspiration. The spiritual Tolkien milieu is tiny, but it makes visible three important trends in contemporary religion: the individualisation of religious authority, the psychologisation of religious practice, and the increasing use of fiction as a source of religious inspiration.The Danish Council for Independent Research (Humanities).Religious Studie