Secularism and Religion in Multi-faith Societies

Secularism and Religion in Multi-faith Societies
Author: Ragini Sen
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 92
Release: 2013-09-30
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3319019228
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This Brief looks at the illustrative case of the Hindu-Muslim conflict in India, with the aim of understanding the dynamics of lived secularism as it exists in traditional multi-faith societies such as India. The data analyzed in this Brief comprise many interviews, conducted amidst Hindus and Muslims, with respondents of both sexes living in slum and middle class regions in the city of Mumbai. The volume begins by giving a brief summary of the historical and cultural background to the present situation in India. It then traces complementarities and similarities of opinions across diverse constituencies which cluster around three main anchoring points: communication, re-presentations and operationalizing of a shared dream. The first point explores the need to understand and to be understood, encourages processes of mutual acculturation, and describes the sensitive decoding of cultural symbols such as dress codes. The second point discusses changes in mind sets and mutual perceptions, where Muslims and Islam are portrayed in a balanced way and exploitation of religion for political purposes is stopped. The third main point is the involvement of the common, regular person, and a focus on children, as the unifying hope for the future. Throughout the volume, emphasis is on moral maturation, cultural interpretation in lieu of cultural imposition and creation of a sensitive media policy. The issues raised may help craft interdisciplinary and international frameworks, which address conflict resolution in culturally diverse multi-faith societies. Accordingly, the book concludes with policy recommendations for supporting the peaceful coexistence of secularism and religion in society from a peace psychological perspective.

Religion and Modern Society

Religion and Modern Society
Author: Bryan S. Turner
Publisher:
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2011
Genre: Electronic books
ISBN: 9781139074612
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Religion is now high on the public agenda, with recent events focusing the world's attention on Islam in particular. This book provides a unique historical and comparative analysis of the place of religion in the emergence of modern secular society. Bryan S. Turner considers the problems of multicultural, multi-faith societies and legal pluralism in terms of citizenship and the state, with special emphasis on the problems of defining religion and the sacred in the secularisation debate. He explores a range of issues central to current debates: the secularisation thesis itself, the communications revolution, the rise of youth spirituality, feminism, piety and religious revival. Religion and Modern Society contributes to political and ethical controversies through discussions of cosmopolitanism, religion and globalisation. It concludes with a pessimistic analysis of the erosion of the social in modern society and the inability of new religions to provide 'social repair'.

Multireligious Society

Multireligious Society
Author: Francisco Colom Gonzalez
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 408
Release: 2016-10-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1315407566
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With the theory of secularization increasingly contested as a plausible development at a global scale, this book focuses on the changing significance of the religious element within a context of complex diversity. This concept reflects the rationale behind the deep transformations that have taken place in the dynamics of social change, giving way to a recombination of social, political and cultural cleavages that overlap and compete for legitimacy at a national and supranational level. Far from disappearing with modernization, new forms of religious diversity have emerged that continue to demand specific policies from the state, putting pressure on the established practices of religious governance while creating a series of normative dilemmas. European societies have been a testing ground for many of these changes, but for decades Canada has been viewed as a pioneering country in the management of diversity, thus offering some interesting similarities and contrasts with the former. Accordingly, the book deals with the diverging routes that political secularization has followed in Europe and Canada, the patterns of religious governance that can be recognized in each region, and the practices for accommodating the demands of religious minorities concerning their legal regulation, the management of public institutions, and the provision of social services.

Post-Secular Society

Post-Secular Society
Author: Gustaaf Geeraerts
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 135129606X
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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.

Secular Faith

Secular Faith
Author: Vincent William Lloyd
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 271
Release: 2011-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1608990761
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Is faith a necessary virtue in the contemporary world? May it be, or must it be, detached from religious commitment? What do genealogies of the secular tell us about faith? Does religion need secular faith? Secular Faith brings together leading and emerging scholars to reflect on the apparent paradox of "secular faith." Ranging over anthropology, religious studies, political science, history, and literature, from Muslims in China to Pentecostals in South Africa to a prison chapel in Texas, this collection of essays is as engaging and accessible as it is penetrating and rigorous. Communism was once labeled "the god that failed." Like Christianity, Communism involves faith in a superhuman endeavor, conversion, myth, discipline, and salvation--and, from the perspective of secular liberalism, both are unjustified and false. In recent years, scholars have begun to investigate whether secularism is itself based on faith in a god that failed, or is failing. Nevertheless, many still embrace such a faith, finding in the spirit of democracy an ethos of eternal renewal. Secular Faith enters and broadens this conversation, interrogating secular faith in a global context, tapping new theoretical resources, and grappling provocatively with the tragedies and opportunities of today's profane pantheon of beliefs. LIST OF ESSAYS AND THEIR CONTRIBUTORS 1 Uncool Passion: Nietzsche Meets the Pentecostals--Jean Comaroff / 21 2 The Secular Bad Faith of Harry Theriault, the Bishop of Tellus--Joshua Dubler / 44 3 Darwin's Dogs: Animals, Animism, and the Problem of Religion--David Chidester / 76 4 "IHave Seen Miracles in My Life": W. E. B. Du Bois and the Religious Limits of Secularism--Edward J. Blum / 102 5 Democracy, Piety, and Faith: AReading of Dewey's Religious Naturalism--Melvin Rogers / 126 6 Faith in the Time of Postsocialism--Cindy Huang / 153 7 Literary Enchantment and Literary Opposition from Hume to Scott--Colin Jager / 168 8 Imagined Communities, Holistic Histories, and Secular Faith--Michael Saler / 197 9 Interreligious Dialogue and Cosmopolitan Faith--Adam K. Webb / 226

Contesting Secularism

Contesting Secularism
Author: Anders Berg-Sorensen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2016-05-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 131716024X
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As we enter the twenty-first century, the role of religion within civic society has become an issue of central concern across the world. The complex trends of secularism, multiculturalism and the rise of religiously motivated violence raise fundamental questions about the relationship between political institutions, civic culture and religious groups. Contesting Secularism represents a major intervention into this debate. Drawing together contributions from leading scholars from across the world it analyses how secularism functions as a political doctrine in different national contexts put under pressure by globalisation. In doing so it presents different models for the relationship between political institutions and religious groups, challenging the reader to be more aware of assumptions within their own cultural context, and raises alternative possibilities for the structure of democratic, multi-faith societies. Through its inter-disciplinary and comparative approach, Contesting Secularism sets a new agenda for thinking about the place of religion in the public sphere of twenty-first century societies. It is essential reading for policymakers, as well as for scholars and students in political science, law, sociology and religious studies.

Secularization

Secularization
Author: Karel Dobbelaere
Publisher: Peter Lang
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9789052019857
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In an epoch in which religion has explicitly and sometimes violently returned to the forefront of the global public scene, the process of secularization that has fundamentally marked Western and particularly European societies demands attention and analysis. This book, written from a sociological perspective, takes up that challenge. The author distinguishes three levels of secularization. Societal secularization which is a typical consequence of the processes of modernity, and of programmes of la cisation promoted by political parties. Individual secularization that is manifested in the decline of church commitment; occurring as individuals re-compose their personal beliefs and practices in a religion la carte ; and as the individual's meaning system becomes compartmentalized and religion is separated from other areas of life. A third level, organizational secularization, covers the incidence of the adaptation of religious bodies to secularized society. The entire work is marked by meticulous description and analysis of numerous theoretical and empirical studies, and by due recognition of the intricate relationship between levels of secularization and the impact of various actors in the many conflicts over religion's roles.

British Secularism and Religion

British Secularism and Religion
Author: Yahya Birt
Publisher: Kube Publishing Ltd
Total Pages: 153
Release: 2016-07-04
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1847740987
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This book provides an in-depth deliberation upon the now unsettled relationship between religion and politics in contemporary Britain, with some emphasis upon the case of Islam, which is now at the centre of the debate. Combining theological reflections and academic and policy perspectives, this topical collection includes contributions from Ted Cantle, Sunder Katwala, Maleiha Malik and Tariq Modood, among others.

Sacred and Secular

Sacred and Secular
Author: Pippa Norris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2011-10-17
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1139499661
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This book develops a theory of existential security. It demonstrates that the publics of virtually all advanced industrial societies have been moving toward more secular orientations during the past half century, but also that the world as a whole now has more people with traditional religious views than ever before. This second edition expands the theory and provides new and updated evidence from a broad perspective and in a wide range of countries. This confirms that religiosity persists most strongly among vulnerable populations, especially in poorer nations and in failed states. Conversely, a systematic erosion of religious practices, values and beliefs has occurred among the more prosperous strata in rich nations.