Abstract
From the analogous/derivative discussions, a model of Hindu-Inspired Faith-Based Social Transformation (henceforth, the HIFBST model) has been developed. HIFBST model proposes a redeeming intervention of faith through the divine qualities of the charismatic gurus.
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Notes
- 1.
Theory of value is discussed at length by neo-Kantian Heinrich Rickert, whose work influenced Heidegger in philosophy, Weber and Simmel in sociology, and Troeltsch in theology (Crowe, 2010).
- 2.
Todres (2000) has also drawn parallels to the thoughts of Husserl, Heidegger, and Merleau Ponty on the non-dualistic vision in which human beings participate in development and non-development.
- 3.
According to Kierkegaard, faith is the appropriation in passionate inwardness of an objective uncertainty—the inwardness argument (De Nys, 2002).
- 4.
This is derived from theologian Anselm’s proposed ontological argument in his Proslogion, written 1077–1078, wherein the existence of God is a proof demanding nothing other than itself (Simpson, 2003).
- 5.
This is opposed to Nietzschean active forgetfulness and Derrida’s forgetting as a synonym for the disjointedness of time (Abeysekara, 2006).
- 6.
According to MacMillen (2011), virtual pilgrimage is a great example of two cultural phenomena: (a) an increasing individualization and compartmentalization of the notion of place into space and the increasing abstraction (removal of the body) and alienation of religion into the cognitive away from the sensuous experiencing human and (b) the growing profusion of ‘art’ in a mechanical age of reproduction, where ‘reality’ is dispensed into dimensionless visual, spatial forms that do not provide interpretive distance or presence of craft as found in older forms of representation (see also Goldman, 2006).
- 7.
Although it is argued that Durkheim’s work is not applicable to faith in modern societies, in his 1969 article titled ‘Individualism and the Intellectuals’ he has proposed some hypotheses, which can be connected. One postulate is the structural correspondence between social organization and religious beliefs and rituals. That is, sacralization is linked to commonly held societal beliefs. The second postulate is the representational aspects of religion—the symbolic and metaphoric expressions of the individual’s relationship with the society and segments engendered by collective life. The third postulate is functional in terms of the microscopic and macroscopic role of faith in ordering human lives and thereby social lives.
- 8.
Robert Wuthnow has also compared this to the transnational division of labour, but the analysis has been critiqued on account of its excessive focus on economy (Robertson & Chirico, 1985).
- 9.
Paul Ricoeur has described this process of rescuing the meaning of the text from the estrangement of distanciation and placing it in the proximity of ownness as ‘pharmakon’. Reading as pharmakon encompasses the dialectic between understanding and explanation generated by the text–reader encounter. Understanding refers to the process by which the reader, in directing themselves towards the intentional unity of discourse, grasps as a whole its chain of partial meanings. At first, understanding is a naive grasping of the meaning of the text as a whole, an act akin to a guess. But by the next stage, it becomes a sophisticated mode of comprehension supported by explanatory procedures. The two phases of understanding are bridged by the process of explanation, which unfolds the range of propositions and meanings of the discourse by giving analytic attention to the structure of the text. Explanation, in turn, opens the way for appropriation (Cartagenas, 2010).
- 10.
See Repstad (2003) for an analysis of memberships in Norwegian conservative groups in a liberal, anti-authoritarian scenario. The analysis challenges certain aspects of rational-choice theory proposing that strict profiled organizations may tend to have the greatest success..
- 11.
Some inspiration has been derived from Fowler’s (2001) Faith Development Theory developed at the Harvard Divinity School around 1981. In the project examining Identity and Faith, Fowler looked at structural aspects with which to trace faith journeys. Taken together, they give an operational depiction of faith as complex, central, and centring constituent of selfhood. These were forms of logic (derived from Piaget), perspective taking (derived from Selman), form of moral judgment (derived from Kohlberg), bounds of social awareness, locus of authority, form of world coherence, and symbolic function. In his latter developments on the work, Fowler has proposed that faith and development of faith have a triadic structure. There is the self, there are the primal and significant others in the self’s relational matrix, and there is the third centre of relational engagement—the ultimate other, or the centre(s) of value and power in one’s life structure. The study of the self in faith development perspective, therefore, according to him, must attend to the process of the increasingly self-aware construction of that relational matrix and of its change over time. One element has been that Fowler’s theory has mixed the cognitive-developmental and psychodynamic paradigms (McDargh, 2001). Later Streib (2005) has suggested for a revision in the theory to account not only for structural diversity but also for narrative and content diversity. He suggests the inclusion of content-analytical and narrative-analytical procedures into faith development research.
- 12.
See Barker (2006) for a detailed analysis of religious identities and boundaries.
- 13.
Lyon (2010) has proposed that Charles Taylor’s notion of social imaginaries takes us beyond the mere Kantian assertions about the gulf between ‘religion’ and ‘reason’. It allows scholars to stand back and to grasp the significance of emotion and embodiment that lie behind the abstract and the cerebral that too frequently mars social science analyses, including especially those of ‘religion’. Second, Taylor’s emphasis on social practices leads him to lean explicitly not merely towards Catholicism but in particular to Ivan Illich’s understanding of the church as a ‘way of living together’ as opposed to an organizational code of rules. Third, the social imaginary informing his theory and theory assessment is one that cares deeply about relationality and about making space for the other.
- 14.
See also Dorrien’s (2006) work on liberation theology. He organizes the discussions in the forms of spiritual personality, visions of liberation, theology and modern doubt, new metaphysics and divine reality, rethinking traditions, and a renaissance of sorts.
- 15.
Matthews (2007) has, in his book, explained this by using the Augustinian theological argument wherein all transactions and relationships, including pluralism, are God-determined.
- 16.
Paranjape (2009) has used the concept ‘border gnosis’ as knowledge from a subaltern perspective or knowledge conceived from the exterior borders of the modern/colonial world system. Border gnoseology is a discourse about colonial knowledge, which is conceived at the conflictive intersection of the knowledge produced from the perspective of modern colonialisms (rhetoric, philosophy, science) and knowledge produced from the perspective of colonial modernities in Asia, Africa, and the Americas/Caribbean. Border gnoseology is a critical reflection on knowledge production from both the interior borders of the modern/colonial world system (imperial conflicts, hegemonic languages, directionality of translations, etc.) and its external borders (imperial conflicts with cultures being colonized as well as the subsequent stages of independence and decolonization).
- 17.
Consequentialism is a perspective in ethics according to which a fact is good as long as it has good consequences (Narita, 2009).
- 18.
Derived from Barad’s (1986) analysis of Thomas Aquinas’s assent–consent distinction in defining acts of faith and moral conduct.
- 19.
This understanding of dialectics is not Hegelian (Adamut, 2008) but signifies the relationship between the self-understanding of beings which is perceived to be complacent and the radical critique provided by God’s transcendent perspective.
- 20.
This is derived from Wall’s (2001) analysis of Paul Ricoeur’s theological ethics.
- 21.
Kergymatic hermeneutics have been proposed by twentieth-century Anglo-European philosopher Karl Barth, who looks at interpretations as frozen in time-space signified as the ‘strange world of the Bible’.
- 22.
Correlational hermeneutics have been proposed by Paul Tillich, which propose that meanings are shaped by the ultimate questions raised in our particular historical situation.
- 23.
Howell (1997) has undertaken a study of experiences generated through Brahmakumari association in Australia. The theoretical stance adopted has been that of ontological neutrality that allows experience to be construed as encompassing not only the qualia of experience but also the operations (in the broadest sense, inclusive of practices, set, and setting) with which those qualia are associated. Adoption of this position avoids cultural, social, and physiological reductionism as well as subscription to the particular belief system studied. At the same time, its adoption positively directs research towards empirical study of the interrelations of all systems associated with the ‘breaking through’ of ecstatic experiences into everyday life and their impact on organizations.
- 24.
See Nash (2006) for an analysis of fasting; see Wardell and Engebretson (2006) for a taxonomy on understanding the spiritual in health/healing, in terms of circumstances, manifestations, and interpretation. Circumstances included the aspects of setting, situation, and timing. Manifestation incorporated the modes of awareness and the phenomena of the experience. Components of interpretation included personal meaning and congruence with social norms. Hatcher (2007) has discussed the Hindu quest to balance the material and the spiritual.
- 25.
These are parallel to characteristics of the reflexive traditions as discussed by Walliss drawing from Mellor. He has problematized the notion of ‘tradition’ presented in the recent sociological analysis of Anthony Giddens in relation to reflexivity and late modernity. Three broad areas of critique are highlighted and discussed: the view of tradition as simultaneously static and reflexive, the view that within the ‘post-traditional’ world tradition survives and flourishes, and the view that tradition and reflexivity are historically mutually exclusive phenomena. Furthermore, HIFMs provide their associates with cultural artefacts akin to anime/animation (Park, 2005) to which they express their loyalties. See also Clanton and Gunter (2011) for a pragmatic, non-metaphysical, naturalistic understanding of God in the lives of believers, based on the philosophy of Chicago school pragmatist Edward Scribner Ames of the early part of the twentieth century, who was influenced by William James and John Dewey. See also Hodge and Boddie (2007) for a study on links between personal spiritual characteristics and conceptualizations on religion and spirituality.
- 26.
See also Knepper (2003) for a contemporary argument on faith-based interventions in crime prevention. He proposes that if faith ‘works’, then the government should support faith-based initiatives because in doing so it is not endorsing religion but science. Drawing on the ideas of Karl Popper, Michael Polanyi, and others, the essay reviews the argument within the framework of the philosophy of social science. The discussion reviews such concepts of falsification, structural causality, objectivity, and evidence-based policymaking to affirm the place of both faith and science in public life. See also Cnaan, Boddie, and Danzig (2005) for a discussion on inclusion of faith, organized religion, and faith-based social service agencies in social work curriculum. Dave and Sahoo (2006) have considered the linkages between social work, spirituality, and the diaspora through the social service activities of the Sathya Sai Baba movement.
- 27.
Crisp (2011) has proposed interesting views on incorporation of religion in the social work curriculum in the Australian context.
- 28.
According to the critical-realist philosophy of Roy Bhaskar, it is logical and scientific to draw on theories that rely on transcendental arguments. A transcendental argument is one that starts with an agreed description of an event and then goes on to ask what mechanisms might exist for that event to be possible. The mechanisms in question might not be open to empirical observation but are nevertheless real and influential. Moreover, they can be subjected to critical, investigative inquiry. Thus, it is perfectly permissible to hypothesize that the mechanism of attachment is fundamental to human experience even though it is not a physical entity that we can see under a microscope. It is real because we can measure its effects. It follows, therefore, that if we can hypothesize about the presence and nature of these mechanisms and subsequently test their existence, we have the basis of a scientific method, albeit one that differs from the traditional form of positivistic investigation (Houston, 2005).
- 29.
See Howe (1987).
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Pandya, S.P. (2019). Actors in Social Transformation: Deliberating on a Model. In: Faith Movements and Social Transformation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2823-7_8
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