This chapter reviews issues related to research ethics in the study of religion/s. It begins by reviewing types of ethical issues and basic guiding ethical principles (respecting the dignity and integrity of others; communicating honestly and objectively with research participants and audiences; and responsibly exercising judgment). It then notes several dimensions of contingency in ethical frameworks: scope, presuppositions about ethical theories and cross-cultural assumptions and divergent preferences for different types of ethical reasoning. After a brief discussion of ethical implications of online research, it concludes with a discussion of institutional research ethics processes.

The Hindu-derived meditation movement, The Art of Living (AOL), founded in 1981 by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in Bangalore, has grown into a global organization which claims presence in more than 150 countries. Stephen Jacobs presents the first comprehensive study of AOL as an important transnational movement and an alternative global spirituality. Exploring the nature and characteristics of spirituality in the contemporary global context, Jacobs considers whether alternative spiritualities are primarily concerned with individual wellbeing and can simply be regarded as another consumer product. The book concludes that involvement in movements such as AOL is not necessarily narcissistic but can foster a sense of community and inspire altruistic activity.

Many modern forms of yoga can be located in the holistic milieu. Discourses of health and wellbeing for mind, body and soul are central in the holistic milieu. Ideas about food and diet are frequently significant aspects of this therapeutic discourse. This paper focuses on ideas about food and diet in the Art of Living Foundation (AOL), a modern transnational yoga movement. AOL legitimises its beliefs about food through an appeal to concepts found in traditional texts on yoga and āyurveda. In particular, the concept of sattva, which can be translated as balance or harmony—both significant tropes in the holistic milieu—is central to discourses about food choices in AOL and other writers in the holistic milieu.

"Shakti’s New Voice: Guru Devotion in a Woman-led Spiritual Movement." Journal of Contemporary Religion, 33(2), pp. 372–373

Cheruvallil-Contractor, Sariya and Suha Shakkour (eds) 2016. Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion. London: Bloomsbury. xxvi + 227pp. ISBN: 978-1-4725-7116-8 £65.00 (hbk); ISBN: 978-1-4725-7115-1 £21.99 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-4725-7117-5 (ePDF); ISBN: 978-1-4725-7118-2 (ePub). Coats, Curtis D. and Monica M. Emerich (eds) 2016. Practical Spiritualities in a Media Age. London: Bloomsbury. xiv + 275pp. ISBN: 978-1-4742-2316-4 £65.00 (hbk); 978-1-4742-2315-7 £28.99 (pbk).

Yoga Jam are a group of musicians from the United Kingdom who are active members of the Art of Living, a transnational Hindu-derived meditation group. Yoga Jam organize events-also referred to as yoga raves and yoga remixes-that combine Hindu devotional songs (bhajans) and chants (mantras) with modern Western popular musical genres, such as soul, rock, and particularly electronic dance music. This hybrid music is often played in a clublike setting, and dancing is interspersed with yoga and meditation. Yoga jams are creative fusions of what at first sight seem to be two incompatible phenomena-modern electronic dance music culture and ancient yogic traditions. However, yoga jams make sense if the Durkheimian distinction between the sacred and the profane is challenged, and if tradition and modernity are not understood as existing in a sort of inverse relationship. This paper argues that yoga raves are authenticated through the somatic experience of the modern popular cultural phenomenon of clubbing combined with therapeutic yoga practices and validated by identifying this experience with a reimagined Vedic tradition.

Ethics seems to be of increasing concern for researchers in Higher Education Institutes and funding bodies demand ever more transparent and robust ethics procedures. While we agree that an ethical approach to fieldwork in religion is critical, we take issue with the approach that ethics committees and reviews adopt in assessing the ethicality of proposed research projects. We identify that the approach to research ethics is informed by consequentialism – the consequences of actions, and Kantianism – the idea of duty. These two ethical paradigms are amenable to the prevailing audit culture of HE. We argue that these ethical paradigms, while might be apposite for bio-medical research, are not appropriate for fieldwork in religion. However, because ethics should be a crucial consideration for all research, it is necessary to identify a different approach to ethical issues arising in ethnographic research. We suggest that a virtue ethics approach – concerned with character – is much more consistent with the situated, relational and ongoing nature of ethnographic research.

This is a fascinating account of Mata Amritanandamayi—a female guru from Kerala in South India—who is affectionately called ‘Amma’ by her devotees. Amma is most renowned for hugging the thousands o...

his paper explores the discourse in the Art of Living (AOL), a Hindu derived transnational meditation movement, which suggests that solutions to global problems are best addressed at the individual level. Ethnographic fieldwork, qualitative interviews and an analysis of published material suggest that the primary concern of the AOL is the reduction of stress and anxiety for the individual practitioner. This reduction of stress not only means that the individual practitioner develops ‘inner peace’, but also contributes to global harmony. AOL is an exemplar of ‘therapeutic solutions’, which are characterized by disillusionment with established institutions and a quest for inner meaning. AOL articulates this therapeutic solution, not only in terms of narcissistic needs, but links this quest for inner meaning to wider social and global concerns.

New media forms have a range of implications for the way in which the Hindu community is conceived and Hinduism is practiced. Oral modes of communication continue to have a significant role in the communication of Hinduism, however, Hindus have also made effective, and often innovative, use of all media forms. The use of print made by Hindu reformers, such as Rammohun Roy, was an important feature in the conceptualization of Hinduism as a 'world religion'. Print technology also made possible the proliferation of visual images, which have now become incorporated into the devotional practices of many Hindus. Hindus have also developed unique genres in film and television, drawing on the rich narrative traditions of Hindu mythology. Hinduism can also be found in cyberspace. Online darsan, online pauja a services and other uses of the Internet have enabled Hindus, both in India and in diaspora, to maintain a connection with gurus, sacred places and other aspects of tradition. These developments in communication technologies are important in understanding Hinduism today, and the way in which it has evolved in a global context.