Publikationer av forskare affilierade till CRS

Justice may be nearing its end with the advent of artificial intelligence. The ubiquitous penetration of AI, reinforced by its gaining legitimacy in non -obvious ways, is leading to a shift in the way humans perceive and apply the principles of justice. AI is incapable of truly understanding and interpreting the law, properly justifying decisions, or balancing rights and interests, which escapes public attention as people are excessively focused on its perceived perfection. Difficult to control, AI entails significant dependency of public institutions on private actors. Without undermining artificial intelligence as such, the article is calling to seriously rethink how far we are ready to go along this path.

Background

Identifying hate speech (HS) is a central concern within online contexts. Current methods are insufficient for efficient preemptive HS identification. In this study, we present the results of an analysis of automatic HS identification applied to popular alt-right YouTube videos.

Methods

This essay describes methodological challenges of automatic HS detection. The case study concerns data on a formative segment of contemporary radical right discourse. Our purpose is twofold. (1) To outline an interdisciplinary mixed-methods approach for using automated identification of HS. This bridges the gap between technical research on the one hand (such as machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing, NLP) and traditional empirical research on the other. Regarding alt-right discourse and HS, we ask: (2) What are the challenges in identifying HS in popular alt-right YouTube videos?

Results

The results indicate that effective and consistent identification of HS communication necessitates qualitative interventions to avoid arbitrary or misleading applications. Binary approaches of hate/non-hate speech tend to force the rationale for designating content as HS. A context-sensitive qualitative approach can remedy this by bringing into focus the indirect character of these communications. The results should interest researchers within social sciences and the humanities adopting automatic sentiment analysis and for those analysing HS and radical right discourse.

Conclusions

Automatic identification or moderation of HS cannot account for an evolving context of indirect signification. This study exemplifies a process whereby automatic hate speech identification could be utilised effectively. Several methodological steps are needed for a useful outcome, with both technical quantitative processing and qualitative analysis being vital to achieve meaningful results. With regard to the alt-right YouTube material, the main challenge is indirect framing. Identification demands orientation in the broader discursive context and the adaptation towards indirect expressions renders moderation and suppression ethically and legally precarious.

The contribution explores the interrogation of power inherent in the framework of cyberpunk as an aesthetic and cultural movement. In subverting the myth of progress, the reimagining of future megatechnology through an anti-utopian lens pioneered by the literary genre opened significant new spaces for resistance and radical critique yet to be fully explored and utilized.  In particular, cyberpunk conceptually and discursively transformed the subject enmeshed in technology from passive consumer into a potential insurgent, in a sense enabling a liberation from the inexorable march of technological progress, and facilitating new modes of rejecting or subverting the ideologies and institutions of industrial civilization.

Exploring such prospects for resisting technology in terms of ideological and political effects seem particularly relevant today, in the face of rapid and sweeping introductions of disruptive technologies with little in the way of democratic oversight, changes that not only promise far-reaching consequences for the distribution of power, but for the very human condition itself.

Processteism har haft en viktig roll i den religionsfilosofiska debatten. Processteism vill vara ett alternativ till "traditionell" teism. Hur skiljer den sig från den traditionella? Vilka fördelar eller nackdelar medför den? Med utgångspunkt i Alfred North Whiteheads processfilosofi ges i denna bok en introduktion till processteismen. Viktiga särdrag i den processteistiska gudsbilden beskrivs i detalj, däribland Guds föränderlighet och det faktum att processteism är en form av panpsykistisk panenteism. Dessutom behandlas processteismens närhet till naturvetenskapligt tänkande, hur den möjliggör en fruktbar dialog med personer med andra livsåskådningar, dess relation till forskning om mänskligt medvetande, hur den tar sig an lidandets problem och eskatologiska frågor, samt hur skapelseakten förstås inom en processteistisk gudsbild. Författarens förhoppning är att denna bok kommer att utgöra ett värdefullt bidrag till den svenska livsåskådningsfilosofiska debatten. 

Religion is increasingly visible in the contemporary world as a complexphenomenon – requiring multidisciplinary research to do justice to thecomplexity. Multidisciplinary research is however, though lauded bymany, notoriously difficult to bring into fruition.

This volume takes on the challenge to bridge the gap. Contributionsformulate the challenges many have faced, but few yet analysed and putinto the hands of researchers concrete tools with which to set aboutdesigning and executing multidisciplinary research on religions, beliefsand religious behaviour. In an era where research funding increasinglyexpects interdisciplinary collaboration it provides guidance onconstructive pathways and pitfalls to avoid.

Traditionellt har kyrkan utgjort ett tydligt ramverk för hur begravningar genomförts och själavård bedrivits. Men i ett allt mer sekulariserat samhälle har begreppet "kyrkan mitt i byn" gradvis tappat sin betydelse och det är idag inte längre självklart vem eller vad som sätter ramarna för hur en begravning utförs. Därför är de närstående till en avliden idag i högre utsträckning utlämnade åt att göra sina egna val och ta råd från olika aktörer när de planerar en begravning. Det landskap som den närstående möter är således skiftande och består i en ny funktionell och rumslig uppdelning av begravningstjänster. För att förstå den nya framväxande funktionella och rumsliga uppdelningen tar kapitlet sin teoretiska utgångspunkt i begreppen differentiering och professionalisering. Här fokuserar kapitlet på den strukturella differentieringens inverkan på det svenska samhället och ett ökat behov av andra former av begravningstjänster. Samtidigt som kyrkan behåller en särskild roll i denna process på olika nivåer (främst i relation till förvaltningen av gravplatser gentemot svenska staten) håller den på att på andra sätt bli en av många aktörer i ett ständigt föränderligt landskap. Dessa differentieringsprocesser leder således till en ökad professionalisering i förhållande till planerandet och genomförandet av begravningar. Den roll som tidigare huvudsakligen innehafts av en kyrkoherde i den lokala kyrkan har idag separerats i ett antal olika aktörer som kan finnas på olika orter, bland annat specialister inom sitt område som begravningsentreprenörer och officianter. I kapitlet illustrerar vi detta genom ett empiriskt exempel som behandlar hur begravningsbyråer online har etablerats och blivit en integrerad del av utbudet av begravningstjänster i Sverige.

Liv, tro och tolkning. En festskrift till Cristina Grenholm är en hyllning till Cristina Grenholm på hennes 65-årsdag 2024. Bokens artiklar är skrivna av vänner, tidigare doktorander och kolleger i akademi och kyrka, i Sverige och Norden.

Ett genomgående tema i Cristina Grenholms forskning, författarskap och kyrkogärning är tolkning. Tolkning är också den röda tråden genom bokens tre delar: ”Tolkning av människors liv”, ”Text, tradition och tolkning” och ”Kyrkan som tolkande gemenskap”.  

En ansvarsfull teologi behöver tolka och bearbeta både traditionen och samtiden, kritiskt och konstruktivt. I en värld som är mer komplicerad och dessutom farligare än någonsin är Cristina Grenholms arbete viktigare än någonsin. I krigens och de globala spänningarnas tid behöver vi bearbeta de eviga frågorna om gott och ont, mening, ansvar och framtid. Vi behöver resonera om religion, traditionsbruk och tolkning. Här bidrar Cristinas Grenholms författarskap och gärning med väsentliga – ja, oumbärliga – perspektiv.

It is not uncommon to place universal human rights and Sharia against each other and assumethey are inherently different. However, this essay explores the alignment of Sharia anduniversal human rights, with a focus on Saudi Arabia and Iran which are governed by Sharia.A literature review is utilized when examining the theories and thoughts of scholars AbdullahiAhmed An-Na'im and Asma Barlas. These theories are then placed on the context of Sharia inSaudi Arabia and Iran, and the alignment and misalignment with universal human rights willbe examined.The theoretical framework of the essay is based on universalism and open universalism thathave worked as tools in understanding human rights as a universal foundation. The findingsindicate that the compatibility of Sharia with universal human rights standards is heavilydependent on how Sharia is interpreted. To better extract human rights out of Sharia, areinterpretation of Sharia is necessary. This reinterpretation would allow for the reevaluationof the Qur’anic scriptures that are consistent with the values and demands of the present age.This is not to say that Sharia needs to be bended and chipped away at to fit in with modernhuman rights standards, rather Sharia needs to be reinterpreted as the traditionalinterpretations are heavily influenced by the patriarchal social structures of the seventhcentury.

Recent research papers and tests in real life point in the direction that machines in the future may develop some form of possibly rudimentary inner life. Philosophers have warned and emphasized that the possibility of artificial suffering or the possibility of machines as moral patients should not be ruled out. In this paper, I reflect on the consequences for moral development of striving for AGI. In the introduction, I present examples which point into the direction of the future possibility of artificial suffering and highlight the increasing similarity between, for example, machine–human and human–human interaction. Next, I present and discuss responses to the possibility of artificial suffering supporting a cautious attitude for the sake of the machines. From a virtue ethical perspective and the development of human virtues, I subsequently argue that humans should not pursue the path of developing and creating AGI, not merely for the sake of possible suffering in machines, but also due to machine–human interaction becoming more alike to human–human interaction and for the sake of the human’s own moral development. Thus, for several reasons, humanity, as a whole, should be extremely cautious about pursuing the path of developing AGI—Artificial General Intelligence.

Empirical data makes it clear that the morphology and character of language is not arbitrary in relation to its referents. That is, word choice is in some way influenced by the object, the situations, and the abstractions our words refer to. While this seems perfectly sensible at first glance, it is something which is quite difficult to square with the perspectives of contemporary Western metaphysics in which the influence of relativism, constructivism, and other nominalist holdovers still remains.

This paper examines the potential metaphysical implications of this fact of persistent transcultural linguistic associations in relation to a phenomenon known as the Bouba/Kiki-effect, and explores ways to harmonize these findings with both Western and non-Western metaphysics with an eye towards addressing the legacy of ontological divides between these two traditions. A particular focus is indirectly on the problem of the one vs. the many, and how the relational implications of the intimate associations between perception, thought, language, and reality may serve to anchor new solutions to these perennial issues.

Michael T. Stuart (2021 and 2022) has proposed imagination as an intellectual dual-process virtue, consisting of imagination₁ (underwritten by cognitive Type 1 processing) and imagination₂ (supported by Type 2 processing). This paper investigates the consequences of taking such an account seriously. It proposes that the dual-process view of imagination allows us to incorporate recent insights from virtue epistemology, providing a fresh perspective on how imagination can be epistemically reliable. The argument centers on the distinction between General Reliability (GR) and Functional System Reliability (FSR), for example in relation to Kengo Miyazono and Uko Tooming's (2023) argument for epistemic generativity. Furthermore, the paper claims that the dual-process virtue account enables us to integrate a wide range of findings from the literature on epistemology and imagination. Moreover, it suggests a novel way to distinguish the virtues of creativity and imagination and presents a case for viewing imagination as a virtue rather than a skill.

This paper critically examines the process of “religion-making” as it occurs in Japanese courts of law, through an analysis of the recent Naha Confucius Temple case. The case concerned a small Confucius temple built on public land in Naha, the prefectural capital of Okinawa. The mayor of Naha had decided to waver lease for the land, since he considered the temple to be an “educational institution” focused primarily on disseminating knowledge about Okinawan history and local cultural heritage. Although the organization behind the temple was legally registered as a general incorporated foundation, the plaintiff argued that their activities and objectives were clearly religious in nature. In rulings handed down between 2018 and 2021, all three instances of the judiciary ruled in favor of the plaintiff, deciding that despite the organization’s legal status and stated objectives, their connection to Confucianism meant that they should be considered a “religious organization” under law.

In The God Strategy, David Domke and Kevin Coe introduced the concepts of God talk and faith talk to distinguish between explicit and implicit references to religion in American political discourse. Although God talk is perhaps more prevalent in nations where allusions to religion are commonplace in political language, faith talk – speaking to adherents through the use of “cues” that are often imperceptible to outsiders – is more likely to be used by politicians in states such as Japan, where secular legislation restricts the political discourse. In this paper I will illustrate how faith talk is used as a rhetorical strategy in the discourse of politicians representing Japan’s conservative right, with a particular focus on the rhetoric and public image of Abe Shinzō. Abe fostered an image of himself as a self-proclaimed nationalist and devoted “Shintoist,” and he retained close ties to many of the organizations that together form the postwar “Shinto establishment,” including the Association of Shinto Shrines (Jinja Honchō, NASS). Although Abe was rarely as explicit as U.S. presidents tend to be, through his words and actions he disseminated the image of Japan as a “Shinto” nation.

In this article, I argue that given the possibility and prospect of ArtificialGeneral Intelligence (AGI), panentheism, as a form of theism with astronger emphasis on the immanence of God, parallels the anti-anthropocentrism implied by AGI. I discuss some general issues relatedto the categorization of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Next, bothanthropomorphism and anthropocentrism will be discussed as conceptsfor how humans may relate to AI. Subsequently, I argue and concludethat there is an analogy between the anti-anthropocentric implications ofAGI and the anti-anthropocentric element of panentheism, but thatpanentheism points to a stronger form of anti-anthropocentrism.

Religion has become a hot topic in Sweden, often perceived as the most secularized corner of the world. This article analyzes how Islam and Lutheran Christianity come to be used in the construction of national identity, through discourse analysis of an opinion piece by the Christian Democrats in 2021 on banning veils in elementary schools, and the following discussion on Twitter(1). The concept "banal religion" from mediatization of religion theory is used to analyze when implicit understandings of religion and national identity become "heated" into a polarization between Islam and Swedish values. This represents a novel use of the concept that can contribute to previous research on religion and national identity by revealing how this dynamic is played out in hybrid media, where the logics of conventional news media become mixed with those of social media.

Poetry can contribute to theological and philosophical reflection. In this paper, we concentrate our attention on Esaias Tegnér’s poignant depiction of melancholy, or what we call ‘existential suffering’ in his poem Spleen. We argue the poem can be interpreted as showing that the distinction between theoretical and existential problems of suffering is less clear-cut than often presupposed and that theorizing about the meaning of suffering can have a role to play even when people are experiencing great existential suffering and despair. Based on the speaker’s existential struggles in Spleen we also formulate the novel concept of a ‘hopeful theodicy’, a concept we think can be of use more broadly in future research on problems of suffering and theodicy

Panenteism som en speciell form av teism -- en allt i Gud-teism -- har diskuterats bland teologer i många år. Här görs en religionsfilosofisk undersökning av denna gudsbild. Författaren definierar panenteism och tar upp några betydelsefulla exempel på hur panenteistiska tankar kan spåras i den västerländska tanketraditionen. Panenteismens konsekvenser undersöks i relation till ett urval teman: förhållandet mellan naturvetenskap och religion, frågan om religiös mångfald, ett antal traditionella teologiska frågor, samt människans förhållande till världen i sin helhet. Guds starka immanens och ömsesidiga relation till världen inom panenteismen betonas och lyfts fram. Boken utmynnar i slutsatsen att panenteism kan erbjuda ett sätt att känna och uppleva ödmjukhet och vördnad inför naturen, medmänniskorna och skapelsen -- en gudsbild för vår tid.  

The invention of “religion” as a category in Japan coincided with the rapid modernization during the second half of the 19th century, which saw the country transform from an isolated feudal state into an imperial nation-state. Through the Meiji Restoration of 1868, whereby the samurai leadership of the former state was replaced by a civilian government dominated by the wealthy merchant class, the emperor was granted the position as the nation’s supreme political and spiritual leader. According to the mytho-historical narrative of the nation, Japanese emperors ruled by virtue of their status as descendants of the sun goddess Amaterasu Ōmikami, through an unbroken line stretching back to the first emperor, Jimmu. When Japan enacted its first modern constitution in 1890 (the “Meiji Constitution”), this narrative was reflected in the legal text through the preamble, which made clear that the document was a gift from the emperor to his imperial subjects. The constitution established that as the sovereign of the nation, the emperor was “sacred and inviolable,” and through his office he was granted supreme command over the nation’s military and naval forces. Thus, although the reinvented Japanese nation-state of the Meiji period (1868-1912) was established as a bicameral parliamentary democracy, supreme leadership rested with the divinely sanctioned emperor.

Despite the imperial institution’s preeminent role in the nascent nation-state, Japan under the Meiji constitutional system was a secular state. The constitution of 1890 established a distinct sphere of social life designated for religion, and the state was formally separated from this sphere. The new constitution of 1947, introduced during the occupation of Japan after World War II, did not signal a move from “state religion” to “secularism,” so much as it indicated a change in how religion was understood as a legal and social category in Japan. Both constitutional systems contained provisions for distinguishing between the two distinct spheres of “religion” and “not-religion,” with the key difference being how the boundaries of these spheres were understood. This chapter explores how religion has been framed under Japan’s two modern constitutional regimes. The discussion focuses on the central question of whether Shinto is a public expression of nationhood or a private belief of individual citizens; a question widely debated in Meiji era society and of continuing relevance to this day. I use the case of Yasukuni Shrine to illustrate how this question has manifested under both regimes, as well as to show why the definition of religion continues to be a topic of significant political importance in contemporary Japan.

In this paper I identify and discuss a number of features that I argue are necessary for the realization of AGI. As a preliminary step, common definitions of AGI are presented in respect to their understanding of mind, intelligence, and consciousness. I show that, despite the amazing performance of artificial systems, at present they are still far from exhibiting AGI, and I identify some of their central short-comings. Secondly, inspired by research within the philosophy of mind, embodiment and situatedness, I suggest a number of features that I deem necessary for a mind. I then investigate the possible objection against the relevance of these features namely that they are overly anthropocentric or biocentric. I further discuss aspects of these features in relation to their transfer to artificial systems with the goal of creating an artificial mind. I finally conclude that self-reflexivity and the re-creation of the world as an inner world should be strongly focused upon if one wishes to create an artificial mind or artificial consciousness. However, I also issue a warning about some well-known risks when creating AGI.

In this paper I identify and discuss a number of features that I argue are necessary for the realization of AGI. As a preliminary step, common definitions of AGI are presented in respect to their understanding of mind, intelligence, and consciousness. I show that, despite the amazing performance of artificial systems, at present they are still far from exhibiting AGI, and I identify some of their central short-comings. Secondly, inspired by research within the philosophy of mind, embodiment and situatedness, I suggest a number of features that I deem necessary for a mind. I then investigate the possible objection against the relevance of these features namely that they are overly anthropocentric or biocentric. I further discuss aspects of these features in relation to their transfer to artificial systems with the goal of creating an artificial mind. I finally conclude that self-reflexivity and the re-creation of the world as an inner world should be strongly focused upon if one wishes to create an artificial mind or artificial consciousness. However, I also issue a warning about some well-known risks when creating AGI.

Agnostics as well as theists should answer evidential arguments from evil, at least when confronted with them. In this paper, I answer such an argument by appealing to sceptical agnosticism. A sceptical agnostic is not only undecided about the existence of a perfectly good and omnipotent God, but also believes that we cannot make any judgement about whether or not seemingly gratuitous evil probably is gratuitous. I argue that such agnosticism has several advantages compared with sceptical theism.

In this article we discuss themes of artificial subjectivity in Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun. We first present a thematic overview, and some reflections upon subjectivity. The analysis proceeds in four steps pertaining to perspectives on artificial subjectivity and the narrative construction of human dignity: (1) who is human, (2) where does the heart lie, (3) the dialectical creation of the heart, and (4) reflections on subjectivity and personhood. Finally, we summarize the views suggested and emphasize their relevance to society's understanding of humanity and the non-human. We also conclude that relational ontologies are more suitable to understand subjectivity and personhood, in particular in cases of interaction between the human and non-human.

This chapter examines the tradition of alchemy as an example of a cumulative creation of past and present. As an illustration, the text discusses the British revival of alchemy that occurred in the nineteenth- and beginning of the twentieth century. During this period, all branches of science saw major developments and expansions. In response to the crisis of faith that naturalistic science had brought about, alchemical practice became one of the ways in which subjects scientifically and spiritually rethought and repackaged the world. However, this wasn’t so much a static repetition of a fixed set of beliefs and practices as it was a creative reinvention of the tradition itself. By approaching the revival from a hermeneutic perspective, the article argues that this process entailed linguistic-historical contextualism, a fusion of horizons, as well as a continuous dialectic between a scientific and a spiritual conception of alchemy.

As legislators and platforms tackle the challenge of suppressing hate speech online, questions about its definition remain unresolved. In this review we discuss three issues: What are the main challenges encountered when defining hate speech? What alternatives are there for the definition of hate speech? What is the relationship between the nature and scope of the definition and its operationability? By tracing both efforts to regulate and to define hate speech in legal, paralegal, and tech platform contexts, we arrive at four possible modes of definition: teleological, pure consequentialist, formal, and consensus or relativist definitions. We suggest the need for a definition where hate speech encompasses those speech acts that tend towards certain ethically proscribed ends, which are destructive in terms of their consequences, and express certain ideas that are transgressions of specific ethical norms.

This article examines the development of a taxi drivers' transportation network in the "marriage mill" of Elkton, Maryland between 1913 and 1941. It explores how legal conditions for marriage engendered particular forms of spatial organisation meant to accomplish the intensive production of weddings. Social policy impacted how space was organised and connected, but in ways different than authorities expected. The network drivers sought to maintain took direction from the conditions set by political authorities yet simultaneously threatened those conditions' corruption in the eyes of many. Local and state authorities' further attempts at regulation as well as changes in transportation together created a greater need for more durable associations between drivers, clergy, and technologies such as vehicles, trains, and advertising signs that they enlisted in their efforts. The article contends that a full accounting of the social consequences of marriage policies should encompass the networks that those policies facilitated.

This paper takes stock of the emerging literature on the governance and framing of both migration and asylum as 'crises'. This study carries forward this line of thinking by showing how the crisis governance of migration is not just a representation or a discourse but emerges as a mode of governance with specific features. The study focuses on the refugee emergency of 2015-2016, covering however a longer time frame (2011-2018) and a wide set of 11 countries (those neighbouring Syria: Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey; countries that were mainly transit points: Greece, Italy, Poland and Hungary; and countries that were mainly destination points (Austria, Germany, Sweden and the UK). Through the meta-analysis of a broad set of materials arising out of the RESPOND research project, we identified three interacting governance features in times of crisis. These include (1) a multilevel but complex actor landscape (2) complicated and fragmented legal systems and policy provisions that may vary both at the temporal and territorial level; (3) a renationalisation narrative that seeks to bring this multifaceted and fragmented governance landscape together under the promise that the national state can re-establish control and solve the 'crisis.'

Abstract

The essay’s purpose, which is a qualitative study with an inductive approach, is to investigate how the concept of mystagogy is described. The goal of the study is to gain a deeper understanding of the concept of mystagogy. The study also wants to study and investigate whether it is possible to link mystagogics to the theoretical framework of lived religion.

 Based on the purpose of the study and the goals, there are two research questions that will be addressed. The first question is about how mystagogics is described in a Swedish-language context and the second question is about how the seven dimensions of the theoretical framework of lived religion can be discovered in the material.

 The study's results show that mystagogy described as teaching or as a pedagogy to make people believe. Mystagogy about people being led into what is mysterious, into the mystery, through teaching in different ways. But it is also about the fact that it is something that touches the heart, which makes the mystical indistinguishable from life. The mystagogic learning is about community, sharing and belonging, an environment and a context where there is an opportunity for spiritual deepening. A place where you get the opportunity to learn from each other. As for my second research question about whether it is possible to see any connection between mystagogics and Live Religion, the study shows that connection is most evident in four of the dimensions that Ammerman describes - spirituality, materiality, physicality and the story.

This article explores the concept of covenantal pluralism in a context of postwar Japan, with a focus on the legal framework separating the state from religion and guaranteeing the rights of religious minorities. The article argues that while there are relatively few instances of sectarian strife, the lack of agreement on how to interpret the category of religion, in particular in relation to Shrine Shinto, continues to lead to struggles between different camps. The article also questions the feasibility of covenantal pluralism as an ideal in a country where national identity is so closely linked to ideas of social homogeneity.

This paper explores the Naha Confucius Temple case, resolved by the Supreme Court in February 2021, in light of postwar decisions on Articles 20 and 89 of the Japanese constitution. Religion is a contested category in Japanese legislation, appearing both in the constitution and in laws regulating the freedoms and restrictions of legally registered religious organizations. While the organization behind the Confucius Temple in Naha was registered as a general corporate juridical person, the majority opinion sided with the plaintiffs’ argument that the free lease granted to the temple by the municipality of Naha constituted a violence of the ban on public sponsorship of religious institutions and activities. In order to reach their decision, the Supreme Court and the lower courts not only had to decide on whether Confucianism was a religion or not, but also on whether the organization behind the temple—a group dedicated to the history and memory of the Chinese immigrant community in Naha—should in fact be considered a religious organization. The outcome of the case is a good example of religion-making in courts of law, with a central institution of power employing notions of sui generis religion to regulate and define civil actors.