Illumine Archive

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https://hdl.handle.net/1828/23150

Publication Lifespan: 2002-2013

History of the Journal:

Illumine was an online, peer‑reviewed, open-access scholarly journal produced by graduate students, research fellows, and staff of the University of Victoria’s Centre for Studies in Religion and Society (CSRS). During its years of operation, the journal served as a platform for emerging scholars to explore the complex interplay between religion and society across both historical and contemporary contexts.

Focus & Scope:

Illumine published scholarly work from graduate students and recent graduates whose research engaged the relationship between religion, culture, and society. Its scope included topics such as religious diversity, religion and public policy, health, science, ethics, globalization, and the arts. The journal also welcomed creative textual and visual works aligned with the CSRS’s areas of inquiry.

ISSN: 1705-2947, EISSN: 1712-5634

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 95

Illumine: Vol. 1 No. 1 (2002)
(Illumine, 2002)
This is the full issue of Illumine, Vol. 1, No.1 (2002).
The Origins of the Jingzong Xuehui 淨宗學會, or the Pure Land Learning Center
(Illumine, 2002) Ngai, May Ying Mary
It is because of the popularity of Lianshe, the Lotus Society, that Pure Land Buddhism became the most prevalent and influential Buddhist school among ordinary Chinese people. However, since the downfall of the Qing Empire in 1911, Chinese society has experienced drastic social and cultural changes, particularly after 1949, when two governments, one Mainland Chinese and the other Taiwanese, came to confront one another from across the Taiwan Strait. Nevertheless, a modernized Lotus Society, the Pure Land Learning Center, has emerged as the times require. These new, individually established Centers carry on the tradition into the age of globalization and computerization by developing an internationally based network that is well–equipped with updated information technology. In order to better understand the underlying reasons behind the success of these transformations, this pilot study intends to focus on the traces of the historical link and Dharma lineage of the Learning Center and its leader, Jingkong (1927–), a Buddhist master. Those who have influenced Jingkong include another Buddhist master, Yinguang (1860–1940), and two lay Buddhists, Li Bingnan (1888–1986), and Xia Lianju (1882–1965)
From Christianity in China to Chinese Christianity: Missing history since 1583 and recent academic debates in English
(Illumine, 2003) Li, Hua
The history of Christianity in China can be roughly divided into four periods of growth, decline, revival, and indigenisation. After briefly reviewing each period of the history of Christianity in China, I will examine a variety of influential books written by western scholars of different perspectives, reveal their disparate or even contradictory points of view, and evaluate their effectiveness in examining the three phases of the Christian presence in China: accommodation, inculturation, and indigenisation. As the historical evidence presented by these authors develops from a discussion of the introduced presence of Christianity in China to a look at indigenised Chinese Christianity, I will try to find the voids, biases and omissions, and conclude by indicating the possible directions which, I believe, scholarship should take to provide a more complete picture of the history of Christianity in China.
The virgin’s peculiar breast: Negotiating nudity in devotional paintings
(Illumine, 2002) Yakimoski, Nancy
According to hermeneutics scholar Margaret Miles, during Tuscany’s early Renaissance nudity in devotional art produced a tension between sexual (erotic) attraction and religious meaning. Specifically, glimpses of the Holy Mother’s exposed breast as she nursed the Christ child could encourage the ‘wrong’ kind of looking; this disrupted the sacred status of her image and destabilized religious meaning. To manage potential erotic readings while attempting to foster ‘proper’ (devotional) gazes, painters made specific artistic choices when representing the Virgin’s bare breast. Obliging artists turned to the art of an earlier era – art that emphasized the symbolic rather than the naturalistic. This paper argues that employing a pictorial program and style that consciously represented the breast as denaturalized and disembodied transformed it to a symbol which relieved the tension between religious meaning and voyeuristic looking while still communicating religious message(s).
Overcoming metaphysics: George Grant and the good beyond being
(Illumine, 2002) Peters, R. ‘Peg.’
Heidegger that Western metaphysics had led to a hegemony of scientific rationality or calculative thinking. In light of the controlling nature of this paradigm of thought, Grant articulated a meditative or contemplative way of thinking that was grounded in Plato’s notion of the ‘Good beyond Being’.1 This paper critiques modern calculative thinking and argues that an overcoming of metaphysical language is necessary if we want to talk about reason, ethics, and God. Grant believes that only a knowing–in–love rooted in the Good beyond Being can provide a way of thinking and acting justly in the modern world.
Dastafshani (Ecstasy): The art of S. Mohammad Ehsaey
(Illumine, 2002) Stanick, Leslie
A review of an exhibition of contemporary Islamic calligraphy as abstract painting by S. Mohammad Ehsaey at the Ziba Art Gallery, Vancouver, February 9 – March 7, 2002.
Illumine: Vol. 2 No. 1 (2003)
(Illumine, 2003)
This is the full issue of Illumine, Vol. 2, No.1 (2003).
The Mukaekō ritual at Taimadera: A living tradition of medieval Japanese pure land Buddhism
(Illumine, 2003) Dix, Monika
This article examines the religious significance of the mukaek?, an annual performance ritual held at Taimadera, which commemorates Ch?j?hime’s attainment of rebirth in Amida’s Pure Land. Focusing on the artistic, religious, historical, and social circumstances that contributed to the popularity of Pure Land Buddhism in the Kamakura period (1185-1333), the reasons behind early medieval Japanese society’s aspiration of faith in Amida and the desire to be reborn in his Pure Land are explored. My discussion of the interrelationship of history and art examines how both faith in Amida and pictorial expressions of this faith inspired the creation of the mukaek? ritual. Through this analysis, I will show that the mukaek? is a living tradition of medieval Japanese Pure Land Buddhism and a unique embodiment of mutual influences of art, religion, and history.
Our spiritual nature: An exploration into nature experiences, spirituality and environmental responsibility
(Illumine, 2003) de Witt, Annick
In this autobiographical essay, I reflect on the healing and transformational power of ritual. Here, ritual is perceived as a holistic form of communication that incorporates and unites the material human body, the physical earth, and the non-tangible realms of emotion, intuition, spirit, and thought. The processes of ritual rebalance the flow of energy between and within these diverse elements, and act as a catalyst for change in the participant’s consciousness. Thus, a ritualised act can change the very order of the world itself. The performance of the personal ritual described in this essay was sparked by my grief over the death of someone I loved very much – my mother. The symptoms of my grief were a physical expression of my lack of knowledge about how to live after her death, and did not diminish until I had turned myself over fully to the practice of the ritual. The ritual itself was a simple one: a daily walk up a mountain path to sit in a particular tree. Indeed, at the time, I did not think of this daily act as ritual. Nonetheless, the performance of the ritual honoured and reconnected me to early childhood memories of my mother, and to the earth’s body, and also permitted me to recognise and engage with the anima locus, or place soul, of the mountain tree.
Walter Rauschenbusch and Charles Gore: Divergent paths towards a Christian social ethic
(Illumine, 2003) Vance, Craig
Walter Rauschenbush and Charles Gore were contemporaries who had profound impacts in North America and England respectively in the area of Christian social thought. While they both provided theological justification for a moderate gradualist socialism their theologies are in many ways antithetical. Rauschenbusch’s “social gospel,” which has been predominant in North American liberal protestantism, is contrasted with Gore’s “sacramental socialism,” which is predominant in liberal Anglocatholicism. This essay argues for the revival of the sacramental socialist tradition on the basis of comparison with theorists as varied as Max Horkheimer, George Lindbeck, George Grant and the Radical Orthodoxy project of John Milbank and Catherine Pickstock.
The tree on White Mountain: On ritual, spirit and place
(Illumine, 2003) Pryer, Alison
My research project explores the reciprocal relationships between nature perception, spirituality and environmental responsibility. Based on twenty-eight in-depth interviews with ‘nature-lovers,’ environmentalists and ‘spiritual seekers,’ an insider’s-perspective is sketched of how an immanent spiritual sense is experienced and activated in nature, and what its potential is concerning the pressing issues in the world. Seen from a philosophical perspective, the research explores if and how an integral worldview, incorporating an inner or spiritual dimension, interacts with and is supported by concrete experiences in the (natural) world, as well as how it finds expression in the world. This research project gives insight into the possible potential of spirituality in terms of the environmental crisis, and attempts to demystify the concept of spirituality and presents it from a ‘this- worldly’ perspective.
Notes on contributors
(Illumine, 2003) Warrington, Seanine; Li, Hua; Dix, Monika; Pryer, Alison; De Witt, Annick; Carr, Geoff; Vance, Craig
Notes on contributors
(Illumine, 2002) Yakimoski, Nancy; Ngai, May Ying Mary; Peters, R. ‘Peg.’; Amos, Patrick; Bentheim, Steve; Stanick, Leslie
Illumine: Vol. 3 No. 1 (2004)
(Illumine, 2004)
Eastern Buddhism and Western ethics: An interview with Robert Florida
(Illumine, 2002) Bentheim, Steve
The differing Western ethical frameworks of Lawrence Kohlberg and Carol Gilligan may reflect similar differences within Eastern Buddhism during the last 150 years, particularly on social concerns. Gilligan’s position to care for others first is more closely akin with the truth of Buddhism, according to Dr. Florida. In addition, the very sense of self is a different conception in Buddhism, contrasted with the more Western ideal of individualism. The interview describes how early Buddhism focused on its monastic society and showed little interest in direct social action, although it did offer ethical guidance to rulers and suggested Buddhist principles for bringing the social world more in line with the dharma. However, from roughly the 1850’s onward, Buddhists in Asia began to play a more active role in trying to change society. Robert E. Florida is Emeritus Fellow at the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He was Professor of Religion and Dean of Arts at Brandon University. He researched at Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, the East–West Centre at the University of Hawaii in Honolulun and Mahidol University in Bangkok.
After ground zero: Problems of memory and memorialisation
(Illumine, 2003) Carr, Geoff
According to French historian Pierre Nora, the twin economic and political revolutions of the eighteenth century ruptured lived traditions of memory as new social orders sought to create “new” pasts through establishing official “sites of memory.” It is against this formal tide that the anti-monument movement struggles, to return the act of social retrospection back to everyday life, to place the responsibility of retaining the past not on a site specific object, such as an obelisk, but upon each individual. In light of this current epistemological shift, it is curious that the Memory Foundations plan produced by architect Daniel Libeskind for the site of New York’s razed World Trade Center (WTC) ignores this avant-garde turn, and favours instead the creation of a conservative site of memory. Especially troubling is the vaguely defined process, used by Libeskind and other officials, to invest this place with an aura of sacredness. In this paper, I will discuss why constructing public memory at such sites is generally flawed, and suggest how the proposed “sacred memorial space” at Ground Zero attempts to manage and harness the range of possible recollections to be drawn from the horror of the collapse of the WTC, selectively forgetting the contradictory and complex, in favour of a spiritualised homogeneity.
Coming to our senses: Rediscovering rites of passage for contemporary youth
(Illumine, 2002) Amos, Patrick
Cross–cultural research on the initiatory rituals and education of youth suggest that initiatory processes are archetypal and intrinsic processes of the human psyche, and will occur regardless of whether or not they are legitimized by any particular, official adult culture. However, in our secularized (modern, Western) society, a youth’s transition from one life–stage to the next, while acknowledged, may not involve a profound transformation of his or her identity. As a contextual framework for this discussion, I will examine adolescent issues in light of the initiatory processes conceptualized by French anthropologist Arnold Van Gennep. Following is my presentation of a recently developed and implemented wilderness–based rites of passage experience, influenced by traditional Aboriginal cultures. It is designed to expand the initiate’s self–concept from one that is egocentric, to include a more eco–centric supra–personal (larger–than–individuated–self) identity with human and more than human relations. Finally, I will consider reasons for resistance to such practices in our contemporary society, including paradigmatic constraints, incomprehension, and the perceived dangers of engaging initiatory processes.
The struggle for Protestant identity in seventeenth-century England: ‘Catholic’ pictures and Protestant buyers
(Illumine, 2003) Warrington, Seanine
Religious art was proudly supported by Anglicans after the Glorious Revolution of 1688 for its ability to connect both the early and Medieval churches with the Church of England, and, more importantly, to demonstrate the Anglican’s rejection of the increasingly powerful dissenting perspective. Because nonconformist challenges to the Church’s authority were often framed around the issue of religious imagery, art became a focal point for a power struggle between two Protestant groups: the Anglicans and the Puritans. Taking a defensive stance on the use of religious imagery, the late seventeenth-century Anglican Church promoted religious art on a large scale, both for church and household worship. As a symbol of their loyalty to the Church of England, Anglican laity brought pictures featuring Biblical and hagiographic imagery into their homes for both instructional and devotional purposes. These images, purchased at London auction houses, reflect how the middle levels of lay society enthusiastically embraced religious iconography and indicate the self-conscious identity of Anglicanism in the midst of Protestant conflict and division. The question of the presence of ‘Catholic’ images in Protestant English homes goes beyond simple decoration—religious imagery became a symbol of one’s religious sentiments.
Introduction
(Illumine, 2004) Munro, Jenny; Lee, Jennifer
Introduction
(Illumine, 2003) Andersen, Angela; Millar, Eve

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