Challenges to a Secular Society
Author: Whitall N. Perry
Publisher:
Published: 1996
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780962998430
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The Challenges of Religious Literacy
Author: Tuula Sakaranaho
Publisher: Springer Nature
Published: 2020-07-24
Total Pages: 93
ISBN-13: 303047576X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis open access book presents religious literacy as the main explanatory factor when dealing with certain ethnic groups that attract stereotypes which gloss over other personal factors such as age, class, gender and cultural differences. It discusses freedom of religion, and the Christian revival movement. It examines religious literacy and religious diversity in multi-faith schools. It looks into the role of Mosques and Islamic divorce. Finally, it discusses the prevention of violent radicalization and extremism in Finland. Using recent data on Finnish secular society, the book promotes a new understanding which is needed with respect to popular and media portrayal of religion, or with respect to public discussion about religion. It addresses actors in civic society, public servants and higher education.
Religious Difference in a Secular Age
Author: Saba Mahmood
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2015-11-03
Total Pages: 254
ISBN-13: 0691153280
DOWNLOAD EBOOKHow secular governance in the Middle East is making life worse—not better—for religious minorities The plight of religious minorities in the Middle East is often attributed to the failure of secularism to take root in the region. Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges this assessment by examining four cornerstones of secularism—political and civil equality, minority rights, religious freedom, and the legal separation of private and public domains. Drawing on her extensive fieldwork in Egypt with Coptic Orthodox Christians and Bahais—religious minorities in a predominantly Muslim country—Saba Mahmood shows how modern secular governance has exacerbated religious tensions and inequalities rather than reduced them. Tracing the historical career of secular legal concepts in the colonial and postcolonial Middle East, she explores how contradictions at the very heart of political secularism have aggravated and amplified existing forms of Islamic hierarchy, bringing minority relations in Egypt to a new historical impasse. Through a close examination of Egyptian court cases and constitutional debates about minority rights, conflicts around family law, and controversies over freedom of expression, Mahmood invites us to reflect on the entwined histories of secularism in the Middle East and Europe. A provocative work of scholarship, Religious Difference in a Secular Age challenges us to rethink the promise and limits of the secular ideal of religious equality.
A Secular Age
Author: Charles Taylor
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2018-09-17
Total Pages: 889
ISBN-13: 0674986911
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe place of religion in society has changed profoundly in the last few centuries, particularly in the West. In what will be a defining book for our time, Taylor takes up the question of what these changes mean, and what, precisely, happens when a society becomes one in which faith is only one human possibility among others.
Islam in a Post-Secular Society
Author: Dustin J. Byrd
Publisher: Studies in Critical Social Science
Published: 2017-11-14
Total Pages: 334
ISBN-13: 9781608468416
DOWNLOAD EBOOKByrd uses Critical Theory to reject the 'clash-of-civilizations' thesis, and compellingly argue for the compatibility of Islam and secularism.
Multi-Secularism
Author: Paul Kurtz
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
Published: 2014-01-10
Total Pages: 273
ISBN-13: 1412852773
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe contemporary world is witness to an intense controversy about secularism. This controversy has intensified due to the presence of fundamentalism, which challenges secular society and the secularization of philosophical ideas and ethical values. Secularists maintain that the state should not impose a religious creed upon citizens and should respect freedom of conscience, the right to believe or disbelieve in the prevailing orthodoxy. This right is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the US Constitution and the Rights of Man enunciated in the French Revolution. Yet many powerful religious institutions do not accept this principle. Paul Kurtz argues that secularism needs to be allied to the emergence of democratic institutions that respect individual freedom and the pluralistic society. He argues that a defense of secularism entails a defense of the civic virtues of democracy, which include the toleration of dissent and alternative lifestyles and the willingness to negotiate differences. Consequently, secularism will take different forms in different societies; the term multi-secularism best describes that. Many people believe that it is impossible to maintain a moral order without the support of religion. Kurtz vigorously denies that, and this volume attempts to explicate the values and principles of secular morality, which he sees as the cornerstone of the open democratic society. Kurtz was involved in the campaign for secularism throughout his career as a philosopher. This book reflects his participation in this battle and extends his thinking to new areas.
Humanism: A Very Short Introduction
Author: Stephen Law
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2011-01-27
Total Pages: 169
ISBN-13: 0191614009
DOWNLOAD EBOOKReligion is currently gaining a much higher profile. The number of faith schools is increasingly, and religious points of view are being aired more frequently in the media. As religion's profile rises, those who reject religion, including humanists, often find themselves misunderstood, and occasionally misrepresented. Stephen Law explores how humanism uses science and reason to make sense of the world, looking at how it encourages individual moral responsibility and shows that life can have meaning without religion. Challenging some of the common misconceptions, he seeks to dispute the claims that atheism and humanism are 'faith positions' and that without God there can be no morality and our lives are left without purpose. Looking at the history of humanism and its development as a philosophical alternative, he examines the arguments for and against the existence of God, and explores the role humanism plays in moral and secular societies, as well as in moral and religious education. Using humanism to determine the meaning of life, he shows that there is a positive alternative to traditional religious belief. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
The Post-secular in Question
Author: Philip Gorski
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2012-03-12
Total Pages: 381
ISBN-13: 0814738729
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"This collection of original essays by leading academics represents an interdisciplinary intervention in the continuing and ever-transforming discussion of the role of religion and secularism in today's world. Foregrounding the most urgent and compelling questions raised by the place of religion in the social sciences, past and present, The Post-Secular in Question restores religion to a more central place in social scientific thinking about the world, helping to move scholarship 'beyond unbelief.'"--book jacket.
Challenges for Religious Education
Author: Richard Pring
Publisher:
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 0
ISBN-13: 9780367279073
DOWNLOAD EBOOKChallenges for Religious Education addresses and critically examines where religious education and faith schools fit within a secular society and whether there is still a place for them at all.
Middle Way Philosophy
Author: Robert M. Ellis
Publisher: Lulu.com
Published: 2015-07-06
Total Pages: 710
ISBN-13: 1326343793
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"A departure at right angles to thinking in the modern Western world. An important, original work, that should get the widest possible hearing" (Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary) Middle Way Philosophy is not about compromise, but about the avoidance of dogma and the integration of conflicting assumptions. To rely on experience as our guide, we need to avoid the interpretation of experience through unnecessary dogmas. Drawing on a range of influences in Buddhist practice, Western philosophy and psychology, Middle Way Philosophy questions alike the assumptions of scientific naturalism, religious revelation and political absolutism, trying to separate what addresses experience in these doctrines from what is merely assumed. This Omnibus edition of Middle Way Philosophy includes all four of the volumes previously published separately: 1. The Path of Objectivity, 2. The Integration of Desire, 3. The Integration of Meaning, and 4. The Integration of Belief.
