ארכיון Methodology and models - Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro (PhD)

Read more about the article Lecture: A Christian site, Jewish sanctification agents, spiritual discourse – The sanctification process of Kursi to the Sea of Galilee

Lecture: A Christian site, Jewish sanctification agents, spiritual discourse – The sanctification process of Kursi to the Sea of Galilee

Kursi is a Christian pilgrimage site to the Sea of Galilee, which has become the subject of contemporary spiritual urban legends - mainly around the "enchanted benches" installed at the site by the Nature and Parks Authority. This site, which has undergone a sanctification process by neo-shaman activists in recent years, is an opportunity to follow in real time the formation of a holy site - as well as to witness the growth of an alternative sacred geography in the Land of Israel.

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April 2, 2024

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Popular culture and mass media / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: The Status of Symbols in Virtual Divinasion – Between Iconography and Arbitrariness

Does the statue represent God? Is the flag sacred? What is the status of the sacred symbols, and what happens to them when they move to the cyberspace? In this lecture, computerized icons in religious/spiritual/magical ceremonies and their status were examined and analyzed. The lecture is part of a research project in which an article was published and lectures were presented in other directions.

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November 3, 2023

Read more about the article Lecture: An Academic Outlook of New Age and Contemporary Religions – Mapping the Research Field and the Challenges it Faces

Disputation or conflict / Education and higher education / Israel / Methodology and models / Science/medicine and technology / State politics and law

Lecture: An Academic Outlook of New Age and Contemporary Religions – Mapping the Research Field and the Challenges it Faces

At the founding conference of the Israeli Association for the Study of Religions, this lecture offered an extensive view of the contemporary religiosity and spirituality space, from an academic angle. Prof. Marianna Ruah-Midbar Shapiro was a member of the founding committee of the association and later - of its executive committee.

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November 2, 2023

Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Methodology and models

Lecture: Hermenuetical Challenges in the Study of the New Israeli Mysticism

An innovative research field sometimes also calls for innovative research approaches. This lecture presented five unique hermenuetical challenges in the study of the new mysticism (New Age), in Israel and in general. Along with their presentation - a corresponding research approach is offered - a network outlook. The lecture - under the title "Hermenetical Challenges in the Study of the New Israeli Mysticism" - was presented at a conference of the Department of Jewish Thought at Ben Gurion University of the Negev on "Research Trends and Methods in the 2000s", in the spring of 2003. The lecture was based on a seminar paper, and formed the basis for the first chapter of Ruah-Midbar's doctorate on New Age culture in Israel.

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November 1, 2023

Read more about the article Article: The Doors of Creativity Shall Never be Barred – The Iconization Process of the Piyyut “Im Nin’alu” in Contemporary Pop Music

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Methodology and models / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Typology and comparative study

Article: The Doors of Creativity Shall Never be Barred – The Iconization Process of the Piyyut “Im Nin’alu” in Contemporary Pop Music

Yes, the liturgical poem (piyyut) “Im Nin'alu” signifies orientality. But what is Orientality? Is this traditional, perhaps even religious, Yemenite Judaism? Is this Yemen similar to exotic India? Is this a symbol of the mystical/spiritual "other" (as we already mentioned India...)? And maybe it is a symbol of Kabbalah, another contemporary "Other" that turns out to be similar to all the other "Others", including the "Other East"... In this article we follow the change process of “Im Nin'alu” as a symbol, which symbolizes different things each time. The peyote has - it turns out - gone a long way, erasing traditional Yemenite Judaism into the contemporary universal and spiritual-alternative space.

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January 10, 2023

Read more about the article Article: Outdoing Authenticity – Three Postmodern Models of Adapting Folklore Materials in Current Spiritual Music

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Identity / Israel / Judaism and Kabbalah / Methodology and models / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Typology and comparative study

Article: Outdoing Authenticity – Three Postmodern Models of Adapting Folklore Materials in Current Spiritual Music

The liturgical poem “Im Nin'alu” got various popular musical adaptations in recent decades. These adaptations raise questions - and provide different answers - regarding authenticity, identity, tradition, and more. Each of them embodies a different way of coping with the postmodern situation. The article presents three different models of relation to traditional materials, which are different ways of dealing with the problems of individuals in relation to these questions.

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January 9, 2023

Critical theory / Disputation or conflict / Feminism gender and sex / Israel / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models

Lecture: Neo-Shamanism in Israel – Authenticity and the Invention of Tradition

This lecture dealt with Neo-Shamanism in Israel, but… actually, how can one describe Neo-Shamanism in Israel when it's unclear what Neo-Shamanism is? And indeed, the tern is unclear. The lecture discussed the term and its problematization, the question of relation between Shamanism and Neo-Shamanism, the search for the common denominator of "Shamanic" phenomena, and more.

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December 6, 2022

Critical theory / Identity / Methodology and models / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: New Age – A Spiritual Secular Religion?

Is New Age a religion? Is it a secular phenomenon? Is a "secular religion" possible? These questions were dealt with in a lecture at a conference than conviened academia spokespersons, thinkers, and various public personalities, to siddcuss the definitions and conceptualizations of hybrid and blurry phenomena. The lecture disscussed the definitions of "religion", the emic and etic discourses, issues of labeling in the New Age field, the question of the essence of "secularism", the feasibility of "secular religion", the definition of "Spiritual But not Religious" (SBNR), and more. Furthermore, the lecture dealt with the blurring between definitions and conceptualizations within the alternative spiritualities, and analysed the motivation of creating this blurring.

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December 5, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Mind and psychology / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Lecture: Versions of Theme Design Reality Creation in New Age Culture

We create our own reality - this is a major idea in the contemporary cultural discourse. But how? From the Matrix to a magic stick, from positive psychology to mind control technics. Various lectures presented the research on this spiritual (or perhaps actually secularized) theme...

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December 5, 2022

Art (music\film\literature etc.) / Critical theory / Magic and paganism / Methodology and models / Mind and psychology / Popular culture and mass media / Postmodernism / Science/medicine and technology / Typology and comparative study

Article: The Creating-Our-Reality Motif in Contemporary Western Popular Spirituality

One of the most prominent themes in the contemporary spiritual discourse, as well as in the general popular discourse, is that we are those who create our own world. This idea has various versions. For instance, the positive psychology version depicts how thoughts and expextations may create a reality through the change of behaviour; the science fiction version sees us as players in a virtual space that choose and shape their enviroment; the magical version teaches us to cast spells of reality; and more. This research analyses the popular spiritual discourse on the creation of reality, and thereby reviels a few insights on the contemporary cultural tendencies, the cultural contradictions, and the emergence of a new ethic.

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December 4, 2022