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While most heavily associated with treatises such as the Kāmasūtra, the notion of kāma (‘sensual desire,’ ‘sensual pleasure’) has deep roots in South Asian intellectual and cultural history. Strongly associated with eroticism, kāma in fact extends far beyond mere sexuality encompassing what may be called sensuality broadly understood. Early Buddhist monasticism in particular displays both recognition of and preoccupation with notions of kāma extant during its formative period. Indeed, the monastic vocation is oftentimes described as entailing the abandonment and ultimately the transcendence of kāma. This basic ideological framework is clearly evinced in the Vinaya literature, the corpus of monastic law intended to govern the daily lives of monks and nuns. 

This study explores the import of kāma as portrayed in the canonical Pali literature, delineates Buddhist doctrinal stances towards kāma, and examines how kāma relates to the program of monastic discipline as reposited in the Pali Vinaya. Drawing on theories of the senses and aesthetics in anthropology and cultural studies, the study gears analytic attention to how kāma relates to affect, corporeality, and materiality. 

This study argues that the Buddhist tradition developed in ambivalent and dialectical relation to notions of kāma. On the one hand antagonistic to it, Buddhist thought in fact sublimates kāma within its larger ethical framework. Therein endowment with the objects of sensual enjoyment (kāmaguṇa), whether on the human plane or in the various Buddhist heavens, is presented as consonant with one’s prior performance of meritorious actions. Although an entirely legitimate ethical domain for householders, the monastic vocation is conversely premised on the renunciation of sensual pleasures. Accordingly, in the Pali Vinaya a plethora of behaviors—covering domains as diverse as sexuality, bodily care, ornamentation, dress and furnishings, consumption of music, and everyday social interactions—are formally prohibited to monastics purportedly due to their associations with sensuality. This study examines in detail the kinds of material practices associated with kāma and how they become restricted in the Pali Vinaya, while also gearing attention to the tensions and ambiguities inherent in this legislative process. The study contributes to existing scholarship by uncovering how one persistently central category of Indic thought, kāma, finds expression in early Buddhism, thereby contributing not only to the study of early Buddhist monasticism but to South Asian cultural history more generally. 

This chapter focuses on the burning of the Quran and the Hebrew Bible and the relation between bibliocaust and holocaust. I will begin with the recent series of Quran burnings in Sweden and then revisit history, from the ceremonial Quran burnings in Granada 1499 via the Nazi bonfires of 1933 back to our time and show how book burnings throughout this history have been used as a way of ridding society of the evil these books were seen as associated with and how this frequently included the people who read and cherished these books.

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 re-search 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.

This position paper argues for an interdisciplinary agenda relating crises to on-going processes of normalization of anti- and post-democratic action. We call for exploring theoretically and empirically the ‘new normal’ logic introduced into public imagination on the back of various crises, including the recent ‘Refugee Crisis’ in Europe, COVID-19 pandemic, or the still ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Gathering researchers of populism, extremism, discrimination, and other formats of anti- and post-democratic action, we propose investigating how, why, and under which conditions, discourses and practices underlying normalization processes re-emerge to challenge the liberal democratic order. We argue exploring the multiple variants of ‘the new normal’ related to crises, historically and more recently. We are interested in how and why these open pathways for politics of exclusion, inequality, xenophobia and other patterns of anti- and post-democratic action while deepening polarization and radicalization of society as well as propelling far-right politics and ideologies.

As the digital age takes root, more and more students use the internet to acquire information for their studies. Common sources in Sweden are online encyclopedias like Wikipedia, SO-rummet and Nationalencyklopedin (NE). Seeing as these online encyclopedias can fill the role of teaching aids it is prudent to examine their contents to evaluate if they hold up to the standards established by the Swedish National Agency for Education (Skolverket). Focusing on the subject “religion” and the topic “Judaism”, this study evaluates the contents and framing used in the main articles about Judaism from both Swedish and English versions of the collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia as well as the Swedish sources NE which is state sponsored and the commercial actor SO-rummet. Additionally this paper discusses how these sources compare with the central contents of the course Religionsvetenskap 1 (Religious Studies 1) for Swedish upper secondary school. The results show that the articles from NE and Swedish Wikipedia mostly state facts without elaborating and are more likely to give the reader a homogeneous picture of Judaism. SO-rummet is the most beginner friendly source while English Wikipedia is the most nuanced but perhaps most difficult source for students to comprehend. Generally, the sources fail to portray diversity within the tradition, with the exception being English Wikipedia. The sources that compare the best with the central contents for Religionsvetenskap 1 were in the following in descending order: English Wikipedia, SO-rummet, Swedish Wikipedia and lastly NE. This is problematic because previous studies show that students have greater faith in NE than they do in Wikipedia. It is worth keeping in mind however, that students are likely to use more than one source, especially if it is a group assignment. It is up to the teacher to recommend good sources, fill in the blanks and to guide the students with their own teaching.

The article addresses the problem of ‘soul’-beliefs in early Vedic texts, and what light comparative religion and ethnology may shed on these beliefs. The most exhaustive work on these matters was carried out long ago by Ernst Arbman, whose dual classification of archaic soul-beliefs has had a widespread influence through the works of, i. a., Å. Hultkrantz and J. Bremmer, while being somewhat neglected by Indologists. The theory posits a distinction between impersonal ‘body-souls’ and the free-soul or psyche, which leaves the body in dreams and at death. Some of the psyche’s characteristics are shown to derive from Tylor’s notion of a ‘primitive’ dream-soul or phantom, which, through its application on Homeric materials by Wundt and Rohde was later given the designation ‘psyche’ (the ancient Greek conception being considered representative of the most archaic form of soul-beliefs). The article discusses early Vedic terms which have been referred to as soul-concepts, and concludes that the categories of Arbman and his followers may be applied to them only with modifications. Something like the Homeric psyche is not found among these rather vague concepts. Finally, a few suggestions for a more encompassing typology of soul-beliefs are given.