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Papers by Jennifer Guyver
Reactions to the Law by Minority Religions, 2021
This chapter examines key differences in the responses of the Christian Essene Church to the law ... more This chapter examines key differences in the responses of the Christian Essene Church to the law in France and Canada. We argue that both context and collective history matter when trying to make sense of a religious minority’s attitudes towards the law and the strategies they adopt to deal with the state’s regulation of religion. Drawing on an original typology that classifies the reactions of NRMs into four distinct of responses – ‘adaptive,’ ‘defensive,’ ‘avoidant,’ and ‘confrontational’ – we trace changes in the response patterns of the Essenes in both countries. Our analysis exposes how past experiences and current perceptions of the state jointly inform the decision-making process of NRMs regarding the law.
Religion and Violence in Western Traditions, 2021
This chapter examines secular construction of religious violence; in this instance within the con... more This chapter examines secular construction of religious violence; in this instance within the context of Quebec, Canada. Looking at recent debates over the place of religion in the public sphere, Guyver’s chapter explores how the secular state employs the threat of religious violence as a narrative device to defend their exclusive monopoly of legitimate violence.
Intersections of Religion and Astronomy, 2021
The claim that the Earth is flat (Flat Earth theory, or FET) has recently become a popular, Inter... more The claim that the Earth is flat (Flat Earth theory, or FET) has recently
become a popular, Internet-based conspiracy theory. In addition to creating digital content in the form of websites, social media accounts, podcasts, and YouTube videos, FET supporters (or Flat Earthers) have also organized international conferences and even launched an FET-oriented dating site. While it is difficult to determine how many people sincerely believe FET, its very existence—at a time when probes have been sent to every planet of our solar system—is perplexing. Is FET a nostalgic attempt to revive the religious cosmology of our ancestors? Or is it simply the product of scientific illiteracy? Due to the absurdity of FET’s central propositions, serious scholarship on the topic is lacking. Most explanations focus on the psychology of the theory’s proponents. Supporters of FET are often likened to Creationists, and the theory itself is often equated with religious claims about the natural world. However, it is far from clear that FET is necessarily linked to any one religious doctrine or religious epistemological approach. In this study, I argue that current explanations of FET are not based on an adequate understanding of the differences between religious and scientific
epistemology; as such, they fail to grasp the epistemic shifts that have
made it possible for this belief to thrive today.
ARC-The Journal of the School of Religious Studies, 2017
In the struggle to establish an operative model of secularism in Quebec, the meaning and purpose ... more In the struggle to establish an operative model of secularism in Quebec, the meaning and purpose of religious symbols has become a subject of an intense and divisive debate. Quebec's uneasy relationship with its Catholic heritage, coupled with increasing concerns over religious extremism and transnational terrorism have contributed to widespread mistrust of overt religious symbols and religious minorities. This paper reveals how political discourse in Quebec is further exacerbating this mistrust by privileging particular interpretations of religious symbols through an examination of the General Consultation and Public Hearings on Bill 60 (the Charter of Secularism) in 2014. Through an analysis of the transcripts from the hearings, I highlight how politicians have framed the conversation on religious symbols in the Quebec public sphere in a manner that obscures their relationship to personal piety and concretizes their diverse and ambivalent meanings into dogmatic messages.
In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor presents a narrative interpretation of modernity that dispels co... more In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor presents a narrative interpretation of modernity that dispels common myths about the decline or regression of religion in the modern age propagated by anti-religious negative narratives popular within the social sciences. An important part of Taylor’s critique centres on the terminology employed by these narratives and their lack of substantive definitions. This paper examines the substantive and functional definitions of ‘secularisation,’ ‘secularity’ and ‘religion’ which Taylor presents in A Secular Age, and demonstrates how Taylor attacks the anti-religious negative narratives of modernity through his analysis of the meaning of these terms.
Presentations by Jennifer Guyver
REA Annual Meeting 2019 Proceedings, 2019
In Quebec, attitudes to public religion range from cautious to overtly hostile. This paper docume... more In Quebec, attitudes to public religion range from cautious to overtly hostile. This paper documents La Presence-Qi’s effort to engage religion in the public sphere by creating a multidisciplinary site for practice, research, and learning in a Montreal neighbourhood. Researchers formed circle conversations to create a space for dialogue across religious, spiritual, and cultural diversity. The results of our analysis reveal the difficulty of creating such space in the context of Quebec, the potential efficacy of our process for creating meaningful dialogue, and the ways narrative and artistic practice helped move the participants into deep encounter, mutual understanding, and meaning making across diversity.
Canadian Society for the Study of Religion Annual Meeting, 2017
Following an inclusivist and pluralist model of secularism, religious activities are sanctioned a... more Following an inclusivist and pluralist model of secularism, religious activities are sanctioned and supported provided they align with institutional values and mission. Religion becomes measured through the lens of public policy, ‘universal’ human rights, and quantitative analysis for salutary physical and mental outcomes. Many Canadian Universities’ Multi-Faith and Interreligious activities fall under the guiding policies and structures student wellness; while the rubric of “spiritual wellness” elides diverse emic cultural and theological understandings of what constitutes health and wellbeing. Collaboration with community members and religious professionals must also be tempered with secular values in mind. This paper will survey the academic literature in the areas of counselling, mental health research, student development studies from the perspective of a scholar of religious studies, questioning the positive and negative aspects of this process of quantification, and interrogating it for implicit assumptions about the nature of religious identity, practice, and experience.
Edited, translated, or transcribed publications by Jennifer Guyver
Journal for the Council for Research on Religion, 2020
The following is a transcript of a lecture delivered by Charles Taylor during the colloquium “500... more The following is a transcript of a lecture delivered by Charles Taylor during the colloquium “500 years of Reformation and the World Religions” at McGill University’s School of Religious Studies on October 30, 2017. The central concepts and ideas discussed by Dr. Taylor in this lecture were originally proposed in his critically acclaimed book, A Secular Age (2007). This text was transcribed, edited and annotated by Jennifer Guyver with the permission of Charles Taylor. Footnotes have been added to provide additional clarity
and context.
Reactions to the Law by Minority Religions, 2021
This chapter examines key differences in the responses of the Christian Essene Church to the law ... more This chapter examines key differences in the responses of the Christian Essene Church to the law in France and Canada. We argue that both context and collective history matter when trying to make sense of a religious minority’s attitudes towards the law and the strategies they adopt to deal with the state’s regulation of religion. Drawing on an original typology that classifies the reactions of NRMs into four distinct of responses – ‘adaptive,’ ‘defensive,’ ‘avoidant,’ and ‘confrontational’ – we trace changes in the response patterns of the Essenes in both countries. Our analysis exposes how past experiences and current perceptions of the state jointly inform the decision-making process of NRMs regarding the law.
Religion and Violence in Western Traditions, 2021
This chapter examines secular construction of religious violence; in this instance within the con... more This chapter examines secular construction of religious violence; in this instance within the context of Quebec, Canada. Looking at recent debates over the place of religion in the public sphere, Guyver’s chapter explores how the secular state employs the threat of religious violence as a narrative device to defend their exclusive monopoly of legitimate violence.
Intersections of Religion and Astronomy, 2021
The claim that the Earth is flat (Flat Earth theory, or FET) has recently become a popular, Inter... more The claim that the Earth is flat (Flat Earth theory, or FET) has recently
become a popular, Internet-based conspiracy theory. In addition to creating digital content in the form of websites, social media accounts, podcasts, and YouTube videos, FET supporters (or Flat Earthers) have also organized international conferences and even launched an FET-oriented dating site. While it is difficult to determine how many people sincerely believe FET, its very existence—at a time when probes have been sent to every planet of our solar system—is perplexing. Is FET a nostalgic attempt to revive the religious cosmology of our ancestors? Or is it simply the product of scientific illiteracy? Due to the absurdity of FET’s central propositions, serious scholarship on the topic is lacking. Most explanations focus on the psychology of the theory’s proponents. Supporters of FET are often likened to Creationists, and the theory itself is often equated with religious claims about the natural world. However, it is far from clear that FET is necessarily linked to any one religious doctrine or religious epistemological approach. In this study, I argue that current explanations of FET are not based on an adequate understanding of the differences between religious and scientific
epistemology; as such, they fail to grasp the epistemic shifts that have
made it possible for this belief to thrive today.
ARC-The Journal of the School of Religious Studies, 2017
In the struggle to establish an operative model of secularism in Quebec, the meaning and purpose ... more In the struggle to establish an operative model of secularism in Quebec, the meaning and purpose of religious symbols has become a subject of an intense and divisive debate. Quebec's uneasy relationship with its Catholic heritage, coupled with increasing concerns over religious extremism and transnational terrorism have contributed to widespread mistrust of overt religious symbols and religious minorities. This paper reveals how political discourse in Quebec is further exacerbating this mistrust by privileging particular interpretations of religious symbols through an examination of the General Consultation and Public Hearings on Bill 60 (the Charter of Secularism) in 2014. Through an analysis of the transcripts from the hearings, I highlight how politicians have framed the conversation on religious symbols in the Quebec public sphere in a manner that obscures their relationship to personal piety and concretizes their diverse and ambivalent meanings into dogmatic messages.
In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor presents a narrative interpretation of modernity that dispels co... more In A Secular Age, Charles Taylor presents a narrative interpretation of modernity that dispels common myths about the decline or regression of religion in the modern age propagated by anti-religious negative narratives popular within the social sciences. An important part of Taylor’s critique centres on the terminology employed by these narratives and their lack of substantive definitions. This paper examines the substantive and functional definitions of ‘secularisation,’ ‘secularity’ and ‘religion’ which Taylor presents in A Secular Age, and demonstrates how Taylor attacks the anti-religious negative narratives of modernity through his analysis of the meaning of these terms.
REA Annual Meeting 2019 Proceedings, 2019
In Quebec, attitudes to public religion range from cautious to overtly hostile. This paper docume... more In Quebec, attitudes to public religion range from cautious to overtly hostile. This paper documents La Presence-Qi’s effort to engage religion in the public sphere by creating a multidisciplinary site for practice, research, and learning in a Montreal neighbourhood. Researchers formed circle conversations to create a space for dialogue across religious, spiritual, and cultural diversity. The results of our analysis reveal the difficulty of creating such space in the context of Quebec, the potential efficacy of our process for creating meaningful dialogue, and the ways narrative and artistic practice helped move the participants into deep encounter, mutual understanding, and meaning making across diversity.
Canadian Society for the Study of Religion Annual Meeting, 2017
Following an inclusivist and pluralist model of secularism, religious activities are sanctioned a... more Following an inclusivist and pluralist model of secularism, religious activities are sanctioned and supported provided they align with institutional values and mission. Religion becomes measured through the lens of public policy, ‘universal’ human rights, and quantitative analysis for salutary physical and mental outcomes. Many Canadian Universities’ Multi-Faith and Interreligious activities fall under the guiding policies and structures student wellness; while the rubric of “spiritual wellness” elides diverse emic cultural and theological understandings of what constitutes health and wellbeing. Collaboration with community members and religious professionals must also be tempered with secular values in mind. This paper will survey the academic literature in the areas of counselling, mental health research, student development studies from the perspective of a scholar of religious studies, questioning the positive and negative aspects of this process of quantification, and interrogating it for implicit assumptions about the nature of religious identity, practice, and experience.
Journal for the Council for Research on Religion, 2020
The following is a transcript of a lecture delivered by Charles Taylor during the colloquium “500... more The following is a transcript of a lecture delivered by Charles Taylor during the colloquium “500 years of Reformation and the World Religions” at McGill University’s School of Religious Studies on October 30, 2017. The central concepts and ideas discussed by Dr. Taylor in this lecture were originally proposed in his critically acclaimed book, A Secular Age (2007). This text was transcribed, edited and annotated by Jennifer Guyver with the permission of Charles Taylor. Footnotes have been added to provide additional clarity
and context.