This book challenges the modern myth that tolerance grows as societies become less religious. The myth inseparably links the progress of toleration to the secularization of modern society. This volume scrutinizes this grand narrative theoretically and empirically, and proposes alternative accounts of the varied relationships between diverse interpretations of religion and secularity and multiple secularizations, desecularizations, and forms of toleration. The authors show how both secular and religious orthodoxies inform toleration and persecution, and how secularizations and desecularizations engender repressive or pluralistic regimes. Ultimately, the book offers an agency-focused perspective which links the variation in toleration and persecution to the actors of secularization and desecularization and their cultural programs.
Why does secularization proceed differently in otherwise similar countries? Secular Conversions demonstrates that the institutional structure of the state is a key factor shaping the course of secularization. Drawing upon detailed historical analysis of religious education policy in the United States and Australia, Damon Mayrl details how administrative structures, legal procedures, and electoral systems have shaped political opportunities and even helped create constituencies for secular policies. In so doing, he also shows how a decentralized, readily accessible American state acts as an engine for religious conflict, encouraging religious differences to spill into law and politics at every turn. This book provides a vivid picture of how political conflicts interacted with the state over the long span of American and Australian history to shape religion's role in public life. Ultimately, it reveals that taken-for-granted political structures have powerfully shaped the fate of religion in modern societies.
All Hail to the Archpriest is a study of public politics and polemical dispute in late Elizabethan England. It focuses on the debate among Catholic clergy about the appropriate mode of ecclesiastical government to be exercised over them, which allowed them to make a series of interventions in very major political issues of the day.
Across three centuries, AJYB has provided insight into major trends. Part I of the current volume contains two chapters on Jewish Americans in 2020 by the Pew Research Center, including reactions from 16 prominent social scientists. Subsequent chapters analyze the development of Holocaust consciousness in America, recent domestic and international events as they affect the American Jewish community, and the demography and geography of the US, Canada, and world Jewish populations. Part II provides lists of Jewish institutions, including federations, community centers, social service agencies, national organizations, camps, museums, and Israeli consulates. The final chapters present lists of Jewish periodicals and broadcast media, Jewish Studies programs, books, journals, articles, websites, research libraries, and academic conferences and lists of major events in the past year, Jewish honorees, and obituaries. This volume employs an accessible style, making it of interest to public officials, Jewish professional and lay leaders, as well as the general public and academic researchers. For more than 120 years the American Jewish Year Book has served as an indispensable resource for scholars, clergy, and lay leaders, providing crucial, detailed insights into demographic shifts and sociological trends in the North American Jewish community. The latest edition continues to fulfill these important needs with essential articles on the landmark Pew Report and the impact of the Holocaust in the American Jewish community and American in general. This is a must-have volume for any serious student of the contemporary Jewish world. Jeffrey Shoulson, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Professor of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages, and English, Director Emeritus Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life, University of Connecticut The American Jewish Year Book is a critical snapshot of Jews and Jewish Studies in the United States in a particular year, and a valuable resource for scholars studying the changes in Jewish communities and Jewish Studies in the United States (and beyond!) over time. The AJYB highlights major publications and data that are consistently used in research, and its scholarly essays contextualize the information in an easily readable context. The lists of important institutions and organizations are invaluable for someone interested in the broader Jewish experience (or, at the most practical, a Jewish organization in their neighborhood!). Michelle Margolis Chesner, Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies, Columbia University
What is the relationship between secularization and tolerance? Critically analyzing the empirical and theoretical foundations of a putatively linear relationship between the two, this volume argues for moving past both romanticised readings of pre-modern tolerance and the unthinking belief that secularization will inevitably lead to tolerance. The essays collected in this volume include contributions from across South Asia that suggest that democratic politics have added a layer of complexity to questions of peaceful co-existence. Modern transformations in religious thought and practice have had contradictory implications for tolerance, which offer rich insights into contemporary debates in the region. This multi-disciplinary volume, which spans history, sociology, anthropology and political theory, questions the uncritical acceptance of tolerance as the best framework for engaging with difference, and probes the complications created by and through democratic politics.
Evaluating the writings of one of the most significant religious figures in early modern England, this volume summarizes Owen's life, explores his various intellectual, literary and political contexts, and considers his roles as a preacher, administrator, polemicist and theologian. It explores the importance of Owen, reviews the state of scholarship and suggests new avenues for research. The first part of the volume offers brand-new assessments of Owen's intellectual formation, pastoral ministry, educational reform at Oxford, political connections in the Cromwellian revolution, support of nonconformity during the Restoration, interaction with the scientific revolution and understanding of philosophy. The second part of the volume considers Owen's prolific literary output. A cross-section of well-known and frequently neglected works are reviewed and situated in their historical and theological contexts. The volume concludes by evaluating ways that Owen scholarship can benefit historians, theologians, biblical scholars, ministers and Christian readers.
Post-Secular Society argues for several characteristics of the secular: the experience of living in a secular age and the experience of living without religion as a normal condition. Religion in the West is often seen as marked by both innovation and disarray. In spite of differing approaches and perspectives of secularization, rational choice and de-secularization, many scholars agree that the West is experiencing a general "resurgence" of religion across most Western societies. Post-Secular Society discusses the changes in religion related to globalization and New Age forms of popular religion. The contributors review religion that is rooted in the globalized political economy and the relationship of post-secularism to popular consumer culture. Also reviewed is innovative discourse as a religious belief system, theories of the post-secular, religious, and spiritual well-being, and healing practices in Finland and environmentalism. This paperback edition includes a new preface by Peter Nynas.
The role of religion in foreign policy debates, while never absent, has often been sidelined by popular prejudices and secular demands. The religious resurgence in America and the threat of extremist terrorism abroad have paved the way for a renewed recognition of the necessity of careful and candid dialogue about religion's place in international affairs. In recent years, scholars, practitioners, and policymakers have consistently reflected upon the role of religion in foreign policy, resulting in a vast, rich array of resources important for moving forward in an increasingly pluralistic world. Dennis Hoover and Douglas Johnston here present the writings of leading scholars, revealing distinctive approaches to religion and global politics. Religion and Foreign Affairs offers readers a broad selection of essays, ranging across cultures and worldviews. From the ethics of force and peacemaking to globalization and American foreign policy, this compendium provides a solid introduction to the field of religion and foreign affairs that will stimulate discussion and encourage intelligent practice.
A distinctive and unrivaled examination of North American Eastern Orthodox Christians and their encounter with the rights revolution in a pluralistic American society. From the civil rights movement of the 1950s to the “culture wars” of North America, commentators have identified the partisans bent on pursuing different “rights” claims. When religious identity surfaces as a key determinant in how the pursuit of rights occurs, both “the religious right” and “liberal” believers remain the focus of how each contributes to making rights demands. How Orthodox Christians in North America have navigated the “rights revolution,” however, remains largely unknown. From the disagreements over the rights of the First Peoples of Alaska to arguments about the rights of transgender persons, Orthodox Christians have engaged an anglo-American legal and constitutional rights tradition. But they see rights claims through the lens of an inherited focus on the dignity of the human person. In a pluralistic society and culture, Orthodox Christians, both converts and those with family roots in Orthodox countries, share with non-Orthodox fellow citizens the challenge of reconciling conflicting rights claims. Those claims do pit “religious liberty” rights claims against perceived dangers from outside the Orthodox Church. But internal disagreements about the rights of clergy and people within the Church accompany the Orthodox Christian engagement with debates over gender, sex, and marriage as well as expanding political, legal, and human rights claims. Despite their small numbers, North American Orthodox remain highly visible and their struggles influential among the more than 280 million Orthodox worldwide. Orthodox Christians and the Rights Revolution in America offers an historical analysis of this unfolding story.
A bestselling historian uncovers the surprising roots of America’s long alliance with Israel and its troubling consequences Fights about the fate of the state of Israel, and the Zionist movement that gave birth to it, have long been a staple of both Jewish and American political culture. But despite these arguments’ significance to American politics, American Jewish life, and to Israel itself, no one has ever systematically examined their history and explained why they matter. In We Are Not One, historian Eric Alterman traces this debate from its nineteenth-century origins. Following Israel’s 1948–1949 War of Independence (called the “nakba” or “catastrophe” by Palestinians), few Americans, including few Jews, paid much attention to Israel or the challenges it faced. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, however, almost overnight support for Israel became the primary component of American Jews’ collective identity. Over time, Jewish organizations joined forces with conservative Christians and neoconservative pundits and politicos to wage a tenacious fight to define Israel’s image in the US media, popular culture, Congress, and college campuses. Deeply researched, We Are Not One reveals how our consensus on Israel and Palestine emerged and why, today, it is fracturing.
