Secular Cosmopolitanism, Hospitality, and Religious Pluralism

Secular Cosmopolitanism, Hospitality, and Religious Pluralism

Author: Andrew Fiala

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2016-10-04

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 1134849265

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This book explores the idea of religious pluralism while defending the norms of secular cosmopolitanism, which include liberty, tolerance, civility, and hospitality. The secular cosmopolitan ideal requires us to be more tolerant and more hospitable toward religious believers and non-believers from diverse traditions in our religiously pluralistic world. Some have argued that the world’s religions can be united around a common core. This book argues that it is both impossible and inadvisable either to reduce religion to one thing or to deny religion. Instead, the book affirms non reductive pluralism and seeks to understand how we should live in a pluralistic world. Building on work in the sociology of religion and philosophy of religion, the book examines the grown of religious diversity (and the spread of nonreligion) in the contemporary world. It argues that religious toleration, hospitality, and compassion must be extended in a global direction. Secular cosmopolitanism recognizes that each person has a right to his or her deepest beliefs and that the diversity of the world’s religious and non-religious traditions cannot be reduced or eliminated.


Religious Soft Diplomacy and the United Nations

Religious Soft Diplomacy and the United Nations

Author: Sherrie M. Steiner

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2021-04-21

Total Pages: 373

ISBN-13: 149859736X

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The engagement of religious diplomacy within the United Nations systems has become increasingly important for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The editors argue that effective religious diplomacy must reflect the great diversity of religious and spiritual expressions within human communities. The editors argue that this can best be achieved through a worldview shift within the United Nations systems. Religious engagement in the United Nations systems has been understandably constrained by limited and formal organizational structures and conventions. However, the existing patterns of engagement mitigate against the very goals they seek to achieve. The editors argue that expanded, yet measured, religious inclusion will strengthen social cohesion in the global community. Contributors demonstrate how communities become stronger when marginalized minority voices are included in public discourse. The editors further argue that governance has a responsibility to ensure a safe environment for this interaction. The editors propose that the United Nations adopt the posture of "loyal opposition", that is inherent in parliamentary democracies, to serve as a guideline for expanded religious engagement. The contributors advance this proposal with illustrations from multiple contexts that address a diverse array of social problems from perspectives rooted in theory and practice.


Authenticity and Religion in the Pluralistic Age

Authenticity and Religion in the Pluralistic Age

Author: Francesca E.S. Montemaggi

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-03-19

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1498557430

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This book provides an original concept of authenticity to illuminate the transformation of Christian consciousness in the increasingly more secular and pluralistic culture of Western societies. The present work is unique in offering an in-depth study of Simmel’s sociology and philosophy in dialogue with an ethnographic account of contemporary Christians. It develops original concepts drawing on Simmel’s writings on individuality and religion and connecting them with classical and contemporary scholarship in sociology and philosophy. The theoretical framework is illustrated through an analysis of the narratives and practices of Christians in an evangelical church in the UK and several New Monastic communities in the UK, US, and Canada. The book proposes an understanding of belief as relational and experiential and a concept of authenticity, as self-transcendence articulated in dialogue with religious tradition and the Other. Religious tradition is developed through an on-going process of interpretation and sacralization of what is considered within and without the tradition’s boundaries. The book also proposes an innovative approach to the study of morality by distinguishing between a people-centered ethic (ethic of compassion) and a norm-centered ethic (ethic of purity) to account for the the different ways in which Christians engage with the Other. This allows an exploration of the relationship between ethics and the making and breaking of boundaries in a given community. The case studies in this book show that committed Christians attempt to reconcile commitment to their tradition with the value of inclusiveness and to affirm their moral and religious identity as a distinctive moral lifestyle, not superior, but of equal worth to those of non-Christians.


Transformative Pacifism

Transformative Pacifism

Author: Andrew Fiala

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2018-08-23

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 1350039195

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Defending pacifism against the charge that it is naïvely utopian, Transformative Pacifism offers a critical theory of the existing world order, and points in the direction of concrete ethical and political action. Pacifism is a transformative philosophy with wide ranging implications. It aims to transform political, social, and psychological structures. Its focus is deep and wide. It is similar to other transformative social theories: feminism, ecology, animal welfare, cosmopolitanism, human rights theory. Indeed, behind those theories is often the pacifist idea that violence, power, and domination are wrong. Pacifist theory raises consciousness about unjustifiable violence. This in turn leads to transformations in practical life. Many other books defend nonviolence and pacifism by focusing on failed justifications of war, as well as on the strategic value of nonviolence. This book begins by reviewing and accepting those sort of arguments. It then focuses on what a commitment to pacifism and nonviolence means in terms of a variety of practical issues. Pacifists reject the violent presuppositions of a society based upon power, strength, nationalism, and the system of militarized nation-states. Pacifism transforms psychological, social, political, and economic life. This book will be of interest to those who are disenchanted with ongoing violence, violent rhetoric, terrorism, wars, and the war industry. It gives anyone with pacifist sympathies reassurance: pacifists are not wrong to think that violence and war are immoral, irrational, and insane and that there is always an alternative.


Christian and Islamic Theology of Religions

Christian and Islamic Theology of Religions

Author: Esra Akay Dag

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-04-21

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1351785745

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Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1 Christian theology of religions -- 2 Rowan Williams's theology of religions -- 3 Islamic theology of religions -- 4 Jerusha Lamptey's theology of religions -- 5 Theology of religions reassessed -- Conclusion -- Index


Religion, Migration, and Mobility

Religion, Migration, and Mobility

Author: Cristina Maria de Castro

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13: 1317409272

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Focusing on migration and mobility, this edited collection examines the religious landscape of Brazil as populated and shaped by transnational flows and domestic migratory movements. Bringing together interdisciplinary perspectives on migration and religion, this book argues that Brazil’s diverse religious landscape must be understood within a dynamic global context. From southern to northern Europe, through Africa, Japan and the Middle East, to a host of Latin American countries, Brazilian society has been influenced by immigrant communities accompanied by a range of beliefs and rituals drawn from established ‘world’ religions as well as alternative religio-spiritual movements. Consequently, the formation and profile of ‘homegrown’ religious communities such as Santo Daime, the Dawn Valley and Umbanda can only be fully understood against the broader backdrop of migration. Contributors draw on the case of Brazil to develop frameworks for understanding the interface of religion and migration, asking questions that include: How do the processes and forces of re-territorialization play out among post-migratory communities? In what ways are the post-transitional dynamics of migration enacted and reframed by different generations of migrants? How are the religious symbols and ritual practices of particular worldviews and traditions appropriated and re-interpreted by migrant communities? What role does religion play in facilitating or impeding post-migratory settlement? Religion, Migration and Mobility engages these questions by drawing on a range of different traditions and research methods. As such, this book will be of keen interest to scholars working across the fields of religious studies, anthropology, cultural studies and sociology.


Hans Mol and the Sociology of Religion

Hans Mol and the Sociology of Religion

Author: Adam J. Powell

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-01-27

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 1351854860

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Hans Mol's imprisonment by the Gestapo during World War II began a long intellectual journey, exploring the role of religion in society. Part One of this book includes a brief outline of Mol’s most influential theory, explicated in Identity and the Sacred (1976). Part Two is comprised of four previously-unpublished essays written by Mol during the 70s and 80s, covering topics from evolution to evangelicalism. This volume concludes with transcripts of interviews conducted with Hans Mol during 2012. This volume of Mol’s work will be of keen interest to academics and students with an interest in the sociology of religion post-World War II and the development of contemporary Christian theology.


Religion, Culture and Spirituality in Africa and the African Diaspora

Religion, Culture and Spirituality in Africa and the African Diaspora

Author: William Ackah

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-05

Total Pages: 302

ISBN-13: 1315466198

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Religion, Culture and Spirituality in Africa and the African Diaspora explores the ways in which religious ideas and beliefs continue to play a crucial role in the lives of people of African descent. The chapters in this volume use historical and contemporary examples to show how people of African descent develop and engage with spiritual rituals, organizations and practices to make sense of their lives, challenge injustices and creatively express their spiritual imaginings. This book poses and answers the following critical questions: To what extent are ideas of spirituality emanating from Africa and the diaspora still influenced by an African aesthetic? What impact has globalisation had on spiritual and cultural identities of peoples on African descendant peoples? And what is the utility of the practices and social organizations that house African spiritual expression in tackling social, political cultural and economic inequities? The essays in this volume reveal how spirituality weaves and intersects with issues of gender, class, sexuality and race across Africa and the diaspora. It will appeal to researchers and postgraduate students interested in the study of African religions, race and religion, sociology of religion and anthropology.


Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood

Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood

Author: Ashvin Immanuel Devasundaram

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-10-25

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1351254243

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This is the first edited volume on new independent Indian cinema. It aims to be a comprehensive compendium of diverse theoretical, philosophical, epistemological and practice-based perspectives, featuring contributions from multidisciplinary scholars and practitioners across the world. This edited collection features analyses of cutting-edge new independent films and is conceived to serve as a beacon to guide future explorations into the burgeoning field of new Indian Cinema studies.


Theology and Civil Society

Theology and Civil Society

Author: Charles Pemberton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-10-23

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1351806696

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From food banks to migrant welcome committees, and community organisers to internet based campaigners, civil society is central to the North Atlantic social landscape. Theology and Civil Society advances our understanding of what civil society is and offers a theologically informed re-imagining of our shared social life. Prefaced by a foreword by the Rev. Dr Rowan Williams, this book explores contemporary manifestations of the kind of collective action observed in civil society since the 1800s. It then examines civil society as the sum of modern associations which mediate our relationships to the market and the state, but which cannot be identified fully with either the market or the state. Finally, three different perspectives on civil society are presented using insights from theologians such as John Milbank and Georg Hegel. This is a pertinent topic for contemporary society, and it is explored expertly here by an international panel of contributors. As such, it is an important volume for any scholar of Theology and Religious Studies and their interactions with Sociology and Politics.